Lately my response to the news is along the lines of, “You’re kidding, right?” I feel as though I’ve tumbled into an alternate universe where Spock has a groovy-looking goatee. (Can we get some agonizers implanted in members of Congress? Pretty please?) Consider these stories:
Couple accused of assault with a deadly snack food. We thought Cheetos were just a tasty snack that clogged your arteries and made you fat. Little did we all know they were useful weapons when committing domestic assault. And if you live in a trailer park, they come with an extra +2 attack bonus and do an extra +2d6 damage.
From the Just Making Stuff Up Department, Obamacare will now cost a mere $1,000,000,000,000 instead of $1,600,000,000,000. Your tax dollars at work! Unfortunately, this is medieval medicine – prepare to be bled.
People just seem insane to me lately. Recently someone I love and respect very seriously informed me that we are in the midst of a depression. Uh… NO. I generally refrain from profanity – not because I’m deeply offended by it but because I recognize that other people are and I choose to be courteous – but honestly, I barely restrained myself from asking what the eff she was thinking, making a wacky statement like that. Are you KIDDING me?? Yes, the economy is trashed at the moment; worthies such as Warren Buffet are saying so plainly and we may yet end up in a depression. But right now is nothing like the depression. See? And what you don’t see – breadlines and other signs of society-wide poverty. A little perspective, people. Please! Words mean things. When people stop buying iPhones and Kindles
Is your town’s gay quotient sufficient? Imagine a government ombudsman investigating to see if your town sufficiently promotes gay culture. Since when is it the duty of government to promote any culture? All I can say is, Canterbury, England must be THE place to live, with all other problems solved so they are at leisure to spend taxpayer money on promoting anybody’s culture. Morons.
First, I don’t see why the President of the United States is required to send condolences for anybody’s death other than another head of state or his own family and friends. But if you’re going to do it, a sense of appropriateness would be nice. As in, recognizing a soldier murdered by a jihadi on American soil more timely than snapping to over the death of, let me be charitable and just say, a really troubled musician. As to the great outpouring of grief over said pop star while the brave protesters in Iran go unlamented, Rachel Lucas said it all.
Imagine what could be accomplished in this world if all those people – who are out there on the streets, gathering at his house and the UCLA hospital, making signs and bringing flowers, crying, hugging each other, talking to the news – imagine if all those @#$holes used that time, energy, and emotion on things that actually matter.
This is a really decadent vacation cruise … And I mean that in the sense of a word whose root is “decay,” as in death, not a really rich chocolate dessert; this is unbelievably degenerate. It’s sort of like those tornado-chasing vacations, only it’s a luxury cruise where the goal is to kill other human beings. It’s a pirate-hunting cruise. I’m not trying to be a drama queen. Honestly. But I could weep over this barbarism. I am ALL FOR killing in self-defense. If someone breaks into my house, all I can say is I hope you’ve got enough insurance to bury you, because you’re leaving feet-first. But to willfully put yourself forward as bait for pirates, with the expectation that you have superior firepower and can kill them; to do this recreationally, not as part of law enforcement or military action intended to protect peaceful travelers, is completely barbaric. Besides, it makes that ridiculous Jean Claude Van Damme movie
Since when is Beyonce an acceptable role model for preteen girls? Namely, the Obama girls. Way to parent, Mr. President! Angels and ministers of grace, defend us.
The powers that actually, you know, ARE – as in, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr.(D-MI), isn’t going to investigate ACORN because of unknown “powers that be.” I can’t imagine why. Certainly he’ll have plenty of free time while his corrupt politician wife is in jail to bring work home.
To the leftists, it’s beginning to look like any sin is normal, morally acceptable, a lifestyle that’s morally equivalent to all others… there IS no sin, and shame on you for being judgmental! Their real problem is the sin of living; of using resources. (Except when they do it, but that’s a post for another day.) I guess this outlook is what makes abortion so palatable. Cap and trade is the punishment for the sin of living.
For a final dose of alt-uni amazement, Sweden has invaded Iran. No, seriously. It actually happened, and I’m not making a joke.
And if you live in a trailer park, they come with an extra +2 attack bonus and do an extra +2d6 damage.
lol, D&D humor never gets old
I couldn’t resist.
AWESOME, that is one sweet cruise! We could use [i]more[/i] people like that roaming around! DANG, that’s like the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
Drew, unless you’re kidding, that’s truly sick. What kind of people are these who take enjoyment in killing another human being? Yes, it’s got to be done sometimes, but it shouldn’t be a pleasure. Especially as a Christian – I want their repentance. Mercy (just as I’ve been given), not justice, as much as possible.
I believe the scriptural dichotomy actually pits mercy against sacrifice. In this case, mercy means killing thugs, whereas sacrifice means letting them roam the waters and murder/kidnap people. If it’s okay for the government to kill them, it’s okay for others to do it in the absence of government.
And I don’t really accept the idea that we should morally do things solely out of duty without joy. If God wants something done, we should (ideally) do it with happiness. That’s what Christian hedonism is all about. Some of the ancient Catholics embraced pagan asceticism, and they would similarly argue, “Yeah, we need to have sex to make children, but…it shouldn’t be FUN!”
If a Christian executes a murderer whom he knows is guilty, he should do it joyfully for the glory of God. That’s why we don’t discipline our sons when they pretend to fight each other with fake guns or enact battles against each other. Killing enemies is a service, and the happier our children are to do it when they’re young, the less money we have to spend recruiting later.
We should happily kill the murderer because he’s getting what’s come to him, with none of this half-hearted advocacy. Unless you’re really strong-willed, the liberals can get their hooks in you once you start thinking that way. They start whining and saying, “What, you want to carry GUNS around? What, are you SICK or something? Guns KILL people! Sure, I believe in POLICE, but you’re BAD if you want to participate in that kind of unspiritual activity.” In reality, emotion should glorify God the same way logic does. So I try not to apologize and thereby give the Left any wiggle room.
These tourists are paying thousands of dollars to perform a noble service for the world community. May God bless them for their efforts.
If it’s okay for the government to kill them, it’s okay for others to do it in the absence of government.
Scriptural backup for this statement? Also, sex and murder are hardly equivalents.
I believe you already admitted that killing and murder aren’t the same (just like sex and fornication aren’t the same), and that individuals sometimes have a right to kill. Modern governments derive their authority from the words of God recorded in Genesis 9:6. Governments, however, are not the only entities with such authority (Genesis 14; Exodus 22:2; 1 Samuel 30:1-20; Luke 22:35-38; See also John 2:12-18).
It now sounds like you’re suggesting that even if these guys were completely stoic and emotionless, or even mournful, that it would still be wrong for them to kill pirates who were trying to overrun their ship. I just don’t understand the logic behind that position. Murderers need to be killed like rabid dogs. It’s better for everyone, including in most cases their own souls. No point in letting them pile on additional crimes and giving encouragement for other young Somalis to do likewise.
No, killing and murder are definitely not the same, we agree on that.
What makes this so reprehensible in my view is that it NOT AT ALL self defense to make yourself look like desirable bait and wait for the weaker force to attack you in the expectation that you will kill them. That is murder, and I don’t see any biblical justification for it. It’s not self-defense, because they’re out there practically begging the pirates to try to overrun their ship, all the while knowing they have the capability and intention to kill the pirates. While it is certainly within the purview of law enforcement to do this sort of thing (as in stings where a cop dresses like a prostitute and the johns get arrested), these people aren’t law enforcement nor do they have the same goals that law enforcement would have – this is a form of recreation. It is not up to individuals to take on themselves the functions of government. If it were, any robber could just call himself an “independent tax collector/welfare recipient.” That’s hardly a defense.
I’m completely in favor for normal shipping traffic or people who have other reasons to be in that area to do what they need to do to protect themselves. But vacationers who insert themselves into a dangerous situation with the goal of killing people – for fun! – is not the same thing. I just don’t find any moral defense for it. And Drew, it is certainly never better for the souls of murderers for them to die, unrepentant. Those people are going to hell. That is always a cause for grief.
I’d rather the government speak honestly and identify itself as a robber.
And my point was that most of them are not going to repent, and that it’s better for one person to go to hell than for two people to go to hell or for one person to go to hell after a longer life and with additional crimes to his name. Sodom and Caanan come to mind.
I don’t get the “additional crimes” concern. Short of God’s saving grace, we’ve all committed sufficient crimes to go to hell. I’ve never read anything in the bible that led me to believe Dante was on the right track and hell had graduated punishment. As to whether or not they’re going to repent… who knows? I don’t think that’s up to us (or more specifically, these vacationers) to decide. I don’t think anyone’s evangelizing that area, and if anyone did, they’d probably be quickly murdered. But then, I bet Nate Saint thinks his death was worth it. You never can tell what God will do…
I think I understand where you’re coming from – you’re focused on justice being done to these criminals. And I’m not against justice being done, in the long term it definitely WILL be done. But I think these vacationers are just as damned as the pirates are.
I laughed out loud at that.
It’s one area we are most definitely in agreement.