Arjay's Weblog

Electromagnetic Pulse / Iran

All those good old Cold War stockpiles of thousands of nukes on each side.  And since at least 1999 it has been public knowledge that it only takes one small nuke to CRUSH a nation.

There is a pretty good solar storm going on now that is messing with electric grids and high-frequency communications.  EMP attack is like bringing that storm really, really close to the earth's atmosphere.

It ain't all that hard to do.

Iran and al-Qaeda understand how this works.

I need more bottled water!  :-0   Knowledge is power and the proverbial cat is outta the bag.

R.J.

Iran Jubilant About Katrina
"Iran, which has experimented with missile detonations that can create nuclear electromagnetic pulse attacks capable of crippling U.S. electrical grids and computer technology, is taking notice of the devastation wrought by hurricane Katrina."

= = = = =

Testimony from hearings in 1999.  Has been in public domain at least 6 years.

Hearing before the Military Research and Development Subcommittee of the Committee on Armed Services

House of Representatives
One Hundred Sixth Congress
First Session
Hearing Held October 7, 1999

Electromagnetic Pulse Threats to U.S. Military and Civilian Infrastructure

Steve Camp on Katrina

Excellent post, as usual, by Steve Camp on the Katrina disaster.

"Mother Nature's" got a Father

Atheist Samples Liberal Christian Kool-Aid

At least from the perspective of logic, I can appreciate what the atheist in this piece says more than I can appreciate what the liberal Christians have to say. 

Jesus, addressing the church at Laodicea, said that He would prefer people be either hot or cold, but lukewarmness (or fence-sitting) he could not tolerate.  In James chapter one, we see that a double-minded man is unstable in all he does.

Liberals are classicly double-minded.  They want to be somehow associated with orthodox Christianity, but they also want to reserve the right to critique and deny those things they somehow can't believe.

Russell D. Moore of the Carl F.H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement shows us in this piece why an atheist position makes more sense than the positions many liberal Christians take.

R.J.

Spurgeon Addresses Katrina

Note:  This was originally e-mailed to family and friends on Thursday, September 1, 2005. 

Family and Friends,

Last night before bed I grabbed my copy of Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening devotional.  It has a devotion for each morning and evening of the year.  I have been through this book at least once and last night was the first night in at least 2 months that I had read from it. 

As I did, I found the topic and one word in particular very fitting for what has befallen those in the gulf coast region of the United States.  Check it out, I think you'll find it interesting as well.

Below that is a link to a sermon by Spurgeon that I sent out just after the 9/11 disaster.  It speaks of accidents but also addresses calamaties of any kind.

I found both of these works comforting and hope you will as well.  If you find them beneficial, pass this along.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Grace and peace,

R.J.

Morning and Evening - Morning, August 31
from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library @ Calvin College

Accidents, Not Punishments
from Phil Johnson's Spurgeon Archive

Two Good Columns on Katrina

The following is the text of an e-mail I sent around last Friday, September 2.  Following that are two very good columns by Thomas Sowell and Rebecca Hagelin with much the same subject matter.

For many years I've believed that the United States could never again survive something like the Great Depression of the 1930's.  Simply put, people today just aren't as nice as they used to be.  I do not want to sound racist here, but most of the folks I see on the television in New Orleans are black folks.  We all know the statistics on how many black households lack a father.  I don't remember the number right now, but it's quite high.  Every problem in the black community can be traced back to this lack of fathers, I believe.  Snoop Dogg and rap/hip-hop are very poor surrogates.

Is it any surprise then that instead of trying to care for the women and children stuck in this situation, we see men looting useless electronics items, firing weapons upon those trying to help, and complaining that the Great Nanny, Uncle Sam, isn't doing enough to help them out?

And it's not just blacks.  I see a microcosm of this behavior every Christmas shopping season, when the rudeness factor increases logarithmically as people put their own selfish interests above those of their neighbor.  There's nothing worse than driving in metro Detroit during Christmas.  (It's not a whole lot better here in Grand Rapids)

It's quite scary how quickly things can devolve when "Love your neighbor as yourself" is a long-forgotten way of living.  Americans especially can make it through anything if we pull together.  When we pull apart, it's really scary.  I still remember breaking down crying at the site of Reginald Denny being pulled from his truck and beaten by a violent mob during the Los Angeles riots. 

The day after the disaster, the governor of Louisiana called for a day of prayer.  Every year at Mardi Gras, a sin tsunami engulfs New Orleans and we've heard little from the governor about that disaster.  It's funny - whether one believes it or not, God's Word is true:

"Be not deceived; God is not mocked.  For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."  Galatians 6:7 KJV

"For they have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind."  Hosea 8:7 KJV

R.J.

Rebuilding New Orleans - And America   by Thomas Sowell

Throwing Out the Thugs    by Rebecca Hagelin

Ah, That's Better!

I figured out how to turn off the Comments part of my weblog and I deleted all previous comments both positive and negative. 

My original intent here was to simply use this as a place to archive my thoughts and be able to share them easily with family and friends.  When comments first came in it was kind of interesting, but if any of you are old enough to remember Citizens Band radio, you realize the noise that can be generated when everyone starts talking. 

My post on Rob Bell of Mars Hill generated more static, positive and negative, than anything that had been posted here previously.  And what I realized after reading some of the folks who support Bell and the Emergent movement is that I really have no desire to engage these folks in back-and-forth debate.  This is my place on the web to place those things that I feel are important.  I care not what others think - either supporters or detractors.

Now to all my family and friends, I am gonna make a new effort to stop sending out the e-mails and using this blog much more often.  I've probably sent out some 30 or 40 things to you since I last posted on this blog.  It takes discipline for me because I am so used to using e-mail for this kinda stuff.  I've been doing it that way for about 10 years now. 

So if you wanna check out what I'm writing about, check here.  And if you don't, that's cool too.  I'm not part of the blog-growth movement and will remain quite happy if it's only ever used by me.

Grace and peace,

R.J.