Hooded Progressivism

Very interesting:

Hooded Progressivism - Reason Magazine: In 2005, most people are barely aware that there has been more than one KKK, let alone that the most notable Invisible Empire would have turned 90 years old this weekend. But the second Klan was radically different from both the Klan that emerged after the Civil War and the Klan that battled the civil rights movement in the '60s. It had its greatest strength outside the South, and approximately half its followers lived not in the countryside but in cities. Most of its members eschewed illicit violence, and when it was violent its victims often as not were white. (In some communities, violence was more likely to be wielded against the Klan than by it.) As you'd expect, it was racist, nativist, prohibitionist, anti-Semitic, and anti-Catholic, but its worldview wasn't always consistent or coherent: It may have been a united organization, something that was only barely true of the first Klan and was never true of the third, but it adopted different issues and tactics in different parts of the country, making it much harder to stereotype than its predecessor and its successors.

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns

Wow:

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns - Telegraph: British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

Climategate 2.0: Fresh trove of embarrassing emails

It looks like long range climate trends are as difficult to predict as the 5 day weather forecast:

Climategate 2.0: Fresh trove of embarrassing emails • The Register: There was always an element of tragedy in the first “Climategate” emails, as scientists were under pressure to tell a story that the physical evidence couldn’t support – and that the scientists were reluctant to acknowledge in public. The new email archive, already dubbed “Climategate 2.0”, is much larger than the first, and provides an abundance of context for those earlier changes.

China Economy: China November HSBC Flash PMI Sinks to 32-Month Low

China is much more unstable than most people think:

China Economy: China November HSBC Flash PMI Sinks to 32-Month Low - CNBC: Chinese factories battled with their weakest activity in 32 months in November, a preliminary purchasing managers' survey showed, reviving worries that China may be skidding toward an economic hard landing and compounding global recession fears.

Saudis face waning power in North America

What happened to peak oil?

Saudis face waning power in North America: While the green movement naively harbours hopes it will be able to shut down unconventional oil and gas development, in Saudi Arabia they are already contemplating a time when North American fossil fuel will replace their oil.

Looking past the din of protesters, state-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco is resigned to the fact that its influence will wane because of the massive unconventional fossil-fuel development underway in North America. As such, Saudi Arabia has no plans to raise its production output to 15 million barrels per day from 12 million, said Khalid Al-Falih, the powerful chief executive of Aramco.

Very Little to Debate at ‘Human Rights in Islam’ Discussion

This really is not surprising, those Muslims who really understand Islam are the one's clamoring for shariah:

PJ Media » Very Little to Debate at ‘Human Rights in Islam’ Discussion: It is impossible for me to provide a complete account of the debate on “Human Rights in Islam: Just or Unjust?” that was held under the auspices of IslamNet, Norway’s largest Islamic organization, on November 7, 2011. The “ideas” that were presented were utterly lacking in logic or intelligence, and the whole thing raced by very fast. It was almost impossible to keep up with it all: claims were made at a tempo out of another world, and were absolutely without substance. It was far more a revival meeting than a debate.

They delightedly applauded the chopping off of hands and feet. And they didn’t raise an eyebrow when executions committed by family agreement were defended as a reasonable ”human right in Islam.”

You would be forgiven for thinking that we were in deepest Saudi Arabia, or in a long-ago century. Far from it. We were in an auditorium at Oslo University College, where our future was being hatched onstage. The place was packed, and the great majority of the young students were wearing clothes that identifed themselves as followers of the Prophet.

Why Evangelicals May Win the Nomination for Newt Gingrich

Read the whole thing:

PJ Media » Why Evangelicals May Win the Nomination for Newt Gingrich: When I was on Fox & Friends Sunday morning to analyze the previous night’s debate, host Alisyn Camerota was surprised when I said that I saw evangelicals moving in force to Newt Gingrich. If I’m correct, their support could win him the nomination.

Softly, Softly: Beijing Turns Other Cheek — For Now

Fascinating:

Softly, Softly: Beijing Turns Other Cheek — For Now | Via Meadia: The cascade of statements, deployments, agreements and announcements from the United States and its regional associates in the last week has to be one of the most unpleasant shocks for China’s leadership — ever. The US is moving forces to Australia, Australia is selling uranium to India, Japan is stepping up military actions and coordinating more closely with the Philippines and Vietnam in the South China Sea, Myanmar is slipping out of China’s column and seeking to reintegrate itself into the region, Indonesia and the Philippines are deepening military ties with the the US: and all that in just one week. If that wasn’t enough, a critical mass of the region’s countries have agreed to work out a new trade group that does not include China, while the US, to applause, has proposed that China’s territorial disputes with its neighbors be settled at a forum like the East Asia Summit — rather than in the bilateral talks with its smaller, weaker neighbors that China prefers.

The Christians of Egypt, Part I

Fascinating, read the whole interview.

Michael Totten » The Christians of Egypt, Part I: Egypt’s Christians are second-class citizens. They were second-class citizens during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, and they aren’t remotely likely to acquire new rights after his fall.

Sectarian clashes between Christians and Muslims are rising. The problem is nowhere near as bad as it was in Iraq between Sunnis and Shias after the removal of Saddam Hussein, but it is getting worse. The army is doing only a half-assed job protecting Egypt’s largest minority, and it even participated in the violence itself and killed dozens when the driver of an army truck rammed himself into a crowd of Coptic Christian demonstrators last month.

Professional dental cleanings may reduce risk of heart attack, stroke

Well, this is interesting:

Professional dental cleanings may reduce risk of heart attack, stroke: Among more than 100,000 people, those who had their teeth scraped and cleaned (tooth scaling) by a dentist or dental hygienist had a 24 percent lower risk of heart attack and 13 percent lower risk of stroke compared to those who had never had a dental cleaning. The participants were followed for an average of seven years.

Occupy Wall Street Starts to Crumble

Good synopsis:

Occupy Wall Street Starts to Crumble - Charles C. W. Cooke - National Review Online: Whether or not the Occupy Wall Street movement has a legitimate or coherent purpose and to what extent its ongoing “occupation” of lower Manhattan’s Zuccotti Park represents a violation of the law have been discussed and debated since the first tent was pitched on September 17. But we might put these questions aside for a moment and hope to agree on one thing: that, regardless of one’s views about its message, the camp itself has become a disgrace. If this is utopia, then deliver us from it, for imperfection has a fresh and heady appeal.

Evangelicals Opposing Nukes

Hmm...

Evangelicals Opposing Nukes | The Weekly Standard: The National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) on November 8 released a new policy that falls just short of urging total nuclear disarmament while surmising that reliance on nukes might be idolatrous.

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey

If it's a honey of a buy, it probably isn't:

Tests Show Most Store Honey Isn't Honey: More than three-fourths of the honey sold in U.S. grocery stores isn't exactly what the bees produce, according to testing done exclusively for Food Safety News.

The results show that the pollen frequently has been filtered out of products labeled "honey."
The removal of these microscopic particles from deep within a flower would make the nectar flunk the quality standards set by most of the world's food safety agencies.

The food safety divisions of the World Health Organization, the European Commission and dozens of others also have ruled that without pollen there is no way to determine whether the honey came from legitimate and safe sources.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration says that any product that's been ultra-filtered and no longer contains pollen isn't honey. However, the FDA isn't checking honey sold here to see if it contains pollen.

In Christ

In Christ
Romans 12:1-5

A Living Sacrifice

1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

If there is one magic phrase in the Bible, one open sesame to transformation, it is this one: “In Christ.” “In Christ” stands as one of the Bible’s simplest, yet most profound statements. 

When Karol worked at the Assemblies of God Foundation in Springfield, MO, while I was in school, she had a secretarial position.  She was told that she had to end all letters and correspondence which required a signature with the signatory “In Christ.”

She asked why and was told the entire meaning of living life as a Christian can be found between the little preposition “in” and the name “Christ”.  It also denotes that we are living Christianity out together, we are “in” this together.

“So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new Creation: everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17 

To be “in Christ” means to let the Spirit of Christ so infiltrate our being that our very essence is affected. Every cell in our body becomes permeable to Christ’s spirit, transforming us from the inside out. 

The gospel requires more than cosmetic changes in lives and in lifestyles which have grown comfortable, predictable, and inconspicuous.  It is not enough to merely change outward behavior.

In South Africa, one of the pastors, Ian O’Brien, told me that we Westerners (he was white and English-speaking), need to learn from Africans.  We in the west value people for what they do, but in African culture, people are valued simply because of who they are.  Their value is not dependent on doing, it is dependent on simply being.  

Simply being a Christian is not so simple for the Christian.  We each have to let God in and allow him to change us from the inside out.  This is going to cause a great deal of growth and change;  God will likely tear up those rotten floors inside us on which we walk.

There is a better life

There is a better life…Matthew 7:7-11 

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.  Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Of if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?  If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” 

This morning, I am going to speak on the life God has for us – if we are willing to seek it.

Karol often says to me when people are hurting or angry, “there is a better life for them if they would only reach out to God for it.  God has a better life and can help us find a better life.”

In his book, Let Me Illustrate, by Donald Grey Barnhouse, he writes the following illustration titled, “The Poor Millionaire”:

“Several years ago, I preached in a church in the southwestern United States.  When I went into the pulpit on Sunday morning, the pastor whispered to me, “Notice that woman on the front row who is badly dressed and who wears a broken shoe.”

I saw a miserable, pitiful figure of a woman, probably in her late sixties; one foot stretched out to reveal a large hole in the sole of the shoe, the edge of which was so worn that the leather stood away from the sole. 

Her dress was patched and dowdy, and her old hat looked like something out of a rag barrel.  A wave of pity came over me, and my first thought was to give her a few dollars to help her in her misery.

Later, the pastor told me that this woman and her husband had been sheep ranchers, pasturing a large herd on ground that was almost desert.  Their miserable cabin’s toilet facilities were fifty yards away in one direction, a hand-pumped well fifty yards in the other. 

They drove a jalopy of ancient vintage and lived most simply.  Then oil was discovered on their property, and they became very rich.  After a time, the husband died, leaving everything to the wife. 

She was extremely frightened and refused to sign the papers the lawyers brought her.  Her royalties began to pile up.  Drilling continued until there were a hundred wells on her ranch.  Within a few years, she was worth several million dollars, but she spent hardly a cent. 

She still lived in the old cabin, used outdoor facilities, and pumped water by hand.  She still drove the old jalopy.  Possessing enormous wealth, she lived in abject misery.

I pointed out to my preacher friend that her manner of life exemplified the spiritual life of multitudes of believers.  We have been told that we are heirs and joint heirs with Christ, that all things are ours, that we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ, and that God has given us all things richly to enjoy. 

God tells us that we have not because we ask not, and ask and do not receive because we ask in the wrong spirit.  The riches are there, the supply is unlimited, but many simply do not avail themselves of all that God has promised, or of even a small fraction.”

How many of us can say now, that our lives are so much more, so much better than they were before we became followers of Christ?   God has a better life for each of us planned; we just had to reach out and ask for that better life. 

France cuts frantically as Italy nears debt spiral

In spite of everything, always look on the bright side of life.

France cuts frantically as Italy nears debt spiral - Telegraph: France's move came amid a further blizzard of grim data from Europe, confirming that most of the region is already on the cusp of recession. Growth has reached a "virtual standstill", said EU commissioner Olli Rehn. Eurozone retail sales fell 0.7pc in September from the month before. German industrial output plunged 2.7pc, the steepest drop since the depths of the crisis in January 2009. Factory orders fell 12pc.

The Most Important Story of the Day

This isn't coming out of the blue, China has been having large riots every week for some time now:

The Most Important Story of the Day | Via Meadia: Hold on to your seats; according to The Conference Board, perhaps the most important business oriented forecasting group in the world, revolution is coming to China.

That’s not what the group’s latest global forecast says literally, but this or something like it is the clear meaning of the forecast that China’s growth is likely to slow to 8.7 percent next year, 6.6 percent in each of the four years after that, and then average 3.5 percent per year between 2017 and 2025. It has long been an article of faith inside China and among most China watchers that the country needs 9 percent growth per year to avoid widespread instability.

Traders From Chicago Board Of Trade Dump McDonald’s Applications On Occupy Chicago Protesters

Heh:

Traders From Chicago Board Of Trade Dump McDonald’s Applications On Occupy Chicago Protesters | Mediaite: In the middle of an Occupy Chicago teach-in this week, traders at the Chicago Board of Trade dumped several sheets of paper on top of the heads of protesters below. Demonstrators were angered to find out they were showered with employment applications for McDonald’s.

Income Inequality Rose Most Under President Clinton

Another meme implodes:

Income Inequality Rose Most Under President Clinton - Latest Headlines - Investors.com: In his weekend radio address, President Obama decried that "over the past three decades, the middle class has lost ground while the wealthiest few have become even wealthier." Although he was trying to leverage the Occupy Wall Street movement, the income gap has been a longstanding concern of his.

During the 2008 campaign, Obama said, "The project of the next president is figuring out how do you create bottom-up economic growth, as opposed to the trickle-down economic growth that George Bush has been so enamored with."

But it turns out that the rich actually got poorer under President Bush, and the income gap has been climbing under Obama.

A Marxist take on OWS

This is fascinating:

Rod Dreher » A Marxist take on OWS: This is worth reading. It’s an analysis of the Occupy Wall Street movement not as a truly populist movement, but as a revolt among the elites: an expression of resentment by relatively privileged people who thought they were on the fast track to elite status who accurately sense downward mobility, and who are freaking out because of it. Excerpts: