Lies and Counter Lies Part III

In Matthew 27:5 these words appear: "(Judas)... went and hanged himself."
In Luke 10:37 we read: "Go, and do thou likewise"
In John 13:27 the Bible says, "...that thou doest, do quickly."

Let's put them together: "Judas went and hanged himself. Go and do thou likewise. That thou doest, do quickly."

Although those are exact quotes from The King James translation of The Bible, they clearly are not what the Bible says.

When we ignore the context of things we can make them say pretty much what we want them to say. Many stupid, mindless cults and sects have done just that with catastrophic results (Think Jim Jones and mass suicides).

When we talk about the war in Iraq, it is imperative that we put the part into the whole in the right place.

In a speech, President Bush said the words, "That man tried to kill my daddy..." (His reference, of course, was Saddam Hussein).

Everybody in the room knew the context of that statement, and almost nothing was made of it until no less of a "political expert," John le Carré (could that possibly be a French name?), a writer of fictional spy novels, wrote an article about it. Do a Google search on the phrase and you will find that over 90% of the references are not original opinions of the statement, rather they are simply cut-and-pastes of his article.

Then the thoughtless parroting began.

There was attributed to President Bush some deep psychological meaning to the phrase. It was made into "the reason for the war," when the fact is it had NOTHING to do with the reason for the war, and if you think it did, you need to go back to third grade and take a reading comprehension course.

If you have an earned degree from Yale University, raise your hand.

John Kerry has a degree from Yale University. So does President George W. Bush. For some reason, the degree counts for something in the minds of some for John Kerry and counts for nothing for President George W. Bush. That's pretty stupid (I'm sorry...was that too blunt? Pitty).

President George W. Bush speaks with a Texas accent (why would that be, I wonder?). He is not a particularly eloquent speaker. He tends to stumble when he speaks. He gets a sort of quizzical expression on his face when he makes a point.

President George W. Bush ran for office on a platform that laid out what he would do if eletced. Guess what: HE WAS ELECTED. He IS the President. He has done what he said he would do. How dare he? His predecessor would not have done that.

Now I am not a William J. Clinton hater. I am a Clinton strong-disliker. I think he believed things were true because he said them, not because they were ACTUALLY true. He and I disagree on things political. He was held in contempt for lying. He lost his license to practice law because of it. He performed immoral acts with an intern while in office. I don't think those things are excusable. Sorry, I just don't like the guy.

As long as he was President William J. Clinton, decisions rested on his shoulders. History will tell whether or not he was a good president (or, you can just ask me).

Here's a surprise for you: I am not a Bush lover. I am an I-like-Bush-better-than-I-liked-the-other-guy-er.

I agree with him about 67.3% of the time. He irritates me about 43.6% of the time.

But the President of the United States of America is George W. Bush.

He has to make the diecisions.

On the day you guys give that responsibility to me, I'm planning to cut and run. I don't want it. In the immortal words of former presidential candidate, Pat Paulson, "If nominated I will not run. If elected I will not serve." So don't get your hopes up.

My job is to be the best citizen of this country I can possibly be. That does not mean I have to walk in lock-step with whoever is President. It does mean that I should do only that which builds up my country. It means that I should be as involved in "the process" as I can be. I should vote regularly.

My daddy served in WWII. I did not like that we had to fight WWII. I did not like that we were fighting the Germans. I did not like that we were fighting the Japanese. I did not like that we dropped an atomic bomb on two Japanese cities. But I was proud of my daddy. I supported my daddy. I would never have under-cut him or the rest of the troups on whom he depended by cutting down my country's leaders.

I do not like that we are in Iraq fighting terrorism. I wish our troups could come home today. But I will support our troups, not by saying "I support the troups, but...," because that is NOT supporting our troups. I will support our troups, period.

When you disagree with President George W. Bush's policies and decisions, that's perfectly acceptable...even expected. Say so. Write your representatives. Whatever. But when you fire your vitrol at him in a way that demoralizes our troups and cuts down my country, do not expect me to EVER think of you as a patriot.

If you do that, you are NOT a patriot. Period. No exceptions. No "wiggle room." You may think you are a patriot, you may wish you were a patriot. But you are NOT a patriot. Why don't you go find a better country to live in? (Bet you won't do that).

It's not "my country, right or wrong," it's "my country...let's work toward righting her wrongs and enjoying her rights."

Pray FOR our country. Pray FOR our President. Pray FOR our troups. Pray FOR our House of Representatives and our Senators and our courts, Supreme and otherwise. Pray FOR each other. If you don't have a God to whom to pray (get in touch, I'll help you find Him), pray anyway. It will help you and help make the country stronger.

This concludes my discourse called "Lies and Counter Lies Parts I, II and III"

We now return to our regularly scheduled blogging. And a great sigh of relief was heard by all.

In His Name,
Joe