Arjay's Weblog

Limbaugh Interviews Bill Gertz

Bill Gertz of The Washington Times has a new book out called Enemies.   Below is a description of the book from Amazon's web site and below that is a link to a Rush Limbaugh interview with Gertz.

Below the interview link is a link to an article by Pat Buchanan, just to provide you with some numbers, showing how bad our trade deficit with the Chinese Communists really is.

I receive a whole lot of computer equipment that gets shipped to my office in Grand Rapids.  Laser printers, computers, copy machines, all manner of computer peripherals - and darn near every bit of it is made in China.  As Gertz states in the interview, the ChiComs have embraced the capitalist system for generating revenue, but they have not abandoned the Marxist-Leninist political system.

The American addiction to things electronic is fueling a military buildup in China that has probably already surpassed anything the Soviets were able to accomplish during their reign as the world's other superpower.  The demise of the Soviet Union proved to everyone that Communism as an economic system just doesn't work.

There simply has to come a day when the pendulum swings and the Chinese are left holding all the marbles - capital, knowledge and a real will to win.  America is quickly becoming another Japan - a net importer of everything it needs to survive.  If we continue to send all our production and capital to China there will come a day when we will be in the very sorry position of being completely unable to do anything about it when the real China shows its fury - the same fury that tortures, imprisons and kills people who do not abide by the Party's dictates.

I have a pessimistic streak that is only tempered by my faith, but that streak makes me able, even willing, to look into the nasty abyss we're quickly heading into as a nation.  We can still avoid it, but we have to first see it and understand it.  Right now, the vast majority of our elected representatives are asleep at the wheel.

R.J.

ENEMIES:  How America's Foes Steal our Vital Secrets - And How We Let it Happen
Book Description  (from Amazon)

"Taking advantage of gaping holes in America's defenses, terrorist organizations and enemy nations like Communist China, North Korea, Russia, and Cuba - not to mention some so-called friends - are infiltrating the U.S. Government to steal our most vital secrets and use them against us.  And most astonishing of all, our leaders are letting it happen."

"In the explosive new book Enemies, acclaimed investigative reporter Bill Gertz uncovers the truth about this grave threat to our national security and America's harrowing failures to address the danger.  Gertz's unrivaled access to the U.S. intelligence and defense communities allows him to tell the whole shocking story, based on previously unpublished classified documents and dozens of exclusive interviews with senior government and intelligence officials.  He takes us deep inside the dark world of intelligence and counterintelligence - a world filled with lies and betrayal, spies sleeping with enemy spies, and moles burrowing within the FBI, the CIA, the Pentagon, and even the White House."

Rush Limbaugh Interview with Bill Gertz

How to Bring Manufacturing Back Home - by Pat Buchanan

TV's Healing Powers

Below is a link to an excellent piece from the Friday, September 15th edition of The Wall Street Journal. 

Why go to a church that is attempting to imitate the culture?  Go right to the real stuff.  The church never could compete when she lost her vision and attempted to become less like Israel and more like Egypt.  God is calling to Himself a peculiar people, and when they've lost their peculiarness - when the salt has lost its ability to season or preserve - it's ready to be thrown out.

Matthew 5:13
"You are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men."

The piece below is one of the more brilliant things I've seen in quite some time.

R.J.

TV's Healing Powers
by Philip Kevin Goff

[excerpt]
If American culture has moved toward evangelicals' practice of making the personal public, so religion has moved in the direction of the broader culture.  The way worship is conducted in growing numbers of evangelical congregations now replicates what once was confined to the TV screen.  Sitting in your living room, you may feel just as close to the pastor as you would at the 5,000-person megachurch down the street.  Unless you join one of the megachurch's cell groups, these institutions can be as impersonal as mass media.  Moreover, a visit to your local megachurch - including Starbuck's coffee, entertaining music and drama, and a short talk that seems less like a sermon than an inspiring self-help lesson - will not seem much different than a trip to the mall.

Rob Bell Preaches from Marx Gospel

In the Saturday, September 9th edition of The Grand Rapids Press, Rev. Rob Bell of Mars Hill Bible Church stated the following, in an article entitled, Religious Leaders Reflect on Impact of Attacks:

"9/11 woke us up to the fact that we live in a global village.  People are waking up to how many people in the world have a problem with America (and) that some of those feelings are legitimate.  We're 6 percent of the world's population and consume 40 to 50 percent of its resources.  The central voice of the prophets all the way through Jesus is that it's not right for some to have so much, horde and build up a surplus at a time when others have so little. 

"The strongest spiritual current I have seen is an awareness that our consumerism is causing our souls to shrivel.  We have too much stuff and we know it.

"If we're really serious about ending terrorsim, we would start with working to end poverty, because that's where it starts.  It's hard to drop a bomb on somebody who just fed you.  If we want to end terrorism we have to ask, 'Who hates us most, and how do we bless them?'
-------------------------------------
Mr. Bell's comments are very interesting considering the fact that Mars Hill Bible Church has been on the receiving end of some really nice blessings from a certain candidate for Governor in the state of Michigan, the son of Amway founder and billionaire Rich DeVos. 

The Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation gave Mars Hill $431,000 between January 2002 and December 2004.  One wonders where Mr. Bell would be today without such gifts from such capitalist pigs.  :-)

And perhaps Rob has forgotten or never knew what an incredible blessing the United States has been to this world since its founding.   Perhaps he's never read of how American soldiers sacrificed, bled and died in places like Omaha Beach, Normandy and Iwo Jima to save the world from German National Socialism (Nazism) and Japanese Imperialism.  And when the fighting was over, it was America who led the effort to rebuild Europe via the Marshall Plan.

We might consume a very good chunk of the world's resources, but perhaps Rob has forgotten or never knew that most of the innovation in technology, medicine, economics, etc. has come from the incredible American system.  We generate so much that we not only have enough for ourselves, but provide more assistance to the nations of the world than any other nation.  According to USAID, the United States taxpayer has given almost $6 billion in the international fight against HIV/AIDS since 1986, more than any other public or private organization.  Yes, Rob, we might have an awful lot here in the United States, but nobody gives more.  Who does the world turn to in times of crisis?  France?  Saudi Arabia? Canada?  No, the world turns to America.

For Rob Bell to state that "People are waking up to how many people in the world have a problem with America (and) that some of those feelings are legitimate." is an absolute outrage and it betrays Rob's ignorance of American history.

And as for this comment:  "The central voice of the prophets all the way through Jesus is that it's not right for some to have so much, horde and build up a surplus at a time when others have so little."  This one betrays his lack of theological understanding.  The central theme of the prophets was their pointing to the coming Messiah who would save men from their sins, not some social gospel that focused primarily on the redistribution of wealth.  Sure, it might be easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for some rich American to inherit the Kingdom of God, but it still happens.  If we had the same standard of living as the Islamic-controlled nations of the world, this world would be a much darker place indeed.

Karl Marx would love Mars Hill and the warped philosophy of Mr. Bell, for it was Marx  who stated:  "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need."  On the other hand, from the Apostle Paul - one who actually had something meaningful to say at Mars Hill - we have this:  "If a man will not work, he shall not eat."  2 Thessalonians 3:10

The American church is crumbling.  Right behind its collapse will be our civil institutions and our standard of living.  We might actually get to see how dark a place this world can be without capitalist pigs like Joe Taxpayer who have been given much, but realize that much is required of them in their giving. 

I'll close with some more from Paul:

"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge:  Preach the Word;  be prepared in season and out of season;  correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.  For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."   2 Timothy 4:1-3

A Chance of Faith

The Wall Street Journal of Friday, September 1, 2006 had a great piece regarding the two Fox journalists, Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig, who were recently forced to convert to Islam while being held by Palestinian terrorists.

The article also touches on the sad state of affairs in American Christianity.  Below are a couple of excerpts and a link to the full article.  [Emphases mine.]

R.J.

P.S.  Below the link ot the WSJ article is some of the text from a postcard I received in the mail from a local "ministry" called Fair Haven Ministries .  They're an offshoot of the Reformed Church in America.  It seems to provide a great example of what this article is talking about.

"Under the sheltering wing of the First Amendment and a core civic belief that religious faith is a private matter and a private choice, religious Americans have overwhelmingly made the selection of their private faith as normal as choosing a breakfast cereal.  Sometimes the selection seems to be as inconsequential as well.  Disouragingly, large numbers of church-going Christians have no idea what their churches claim to believe."

"For Americans, on the other hand, variety of choice in any domain of life is seen as an inherent virtue, the greater it is, the greater the virtue.  Americans like to experiment, to "mix and match," and in religion it's no different than in the department store.  A friend who attended Yale divinity school a few years ago had a classmate who signed herself in as a "Catholic Buddhist."

"That eclecticism was not offered to Messrs. Centanni or Wiig when they faced a choice between death and converstion at the end of a gun barrel.  In Islam, the supermarket of religious choice hasn't opened yet."

A Chance of Faith

Partial text found on a postcard from Fair Haven Ministries in Hudsonville, Michigan:

At Fair Haven Ministries, Fall is for Families!

Cheering your school team at Friday night football.  Shopping for back-to-school supplies.  Raking leaves, then jumping in the pile.  Autumn was made for families.  This fall, is it time to nurture the spiritual dimension of your family life as well?  Join us at Fair Haven for a time of strengthening your family and yourself with inspiring messages, upbeat music and plenty of new friends.  See you this weekend!

DON'T MISS FALL KICK-OFF!  Sunday, September 10  9:00 and 10:45AM

Exciting Worship Celebrations
Kick-Off BBQ @ 11:45 AM
Activities for Kids & Students @ 10:45 AM
Outer Vibe Band
Car Show

A Place for the Whole Family!