I’d better link Savenetradio.org. I haven’t found the other side represented yet, so I’m not sure what they’re rationale is at the moment. But, the fact that the ruling is eighteen months retroactive makes me really angry. I don’t buy items with the understanding that the seller can change the price a year and a half later.
audio :
While these declarations draw from the report, I would say they do not encompass the entirety of our report. There are other things in the body of the report that we did not believe rose to the level of being stated as declarations. They were things upon which perhaps many of us would disagree with the report. For example, issues related to merit and the covenant of works–we didn’t think those things rose to the level of a declaration. We tried to focus our declarations on the heart of the matter as the committee saw it.
Thus, my earlier remarks. As I said, this, in one sense, improved the situation. On the other hand, I’m not sure the result is as “focused” as the committee was hoping.
I replay the classic footage:
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I’ve been waiting for my favorite new political blog to mention this, but I guess I will have to do this myself. Other than youtube.com, does Ron Paul have any greater campaigner and promoter that Rudy Giuliani? Giuliani actually heard what Ron Paul said and decided to demonstrate what sort of uber-“patriotic” grandstanding Paul is standing against.
Could not he simply have said, “While we always need to be careful about what we do, I think Mr. Paul’s description of American policy is way to simplistic. In any case, it doesn’t matter. We have been attacked and we have become responsible for Iraq and while many understandably regret this, it is still irresponsible to act like we can simply ignore it and revert to a policy that may or may not have worked at different times.”
If he had said that or something like it in a dismissive but non-rancorous tone, he would have cut Paul off at the knees in terms of public debating. If he had said nothing at all, he would have still prevented a huge swell of interest in Paul.
(In fact, I wonder if the Ron Paul campaign paid off the Republicans who tried to bar him from future debates. What else could possibly explain such behavior guaranteed to garner both coverage and sympathy for Paul?)
What I’m trying to say is that Giuliani’s behavior shows an amazing lack of judgment due to a misreading of the American people or a desire to grandstand. He could be right in policy (which isn’t remotely the case, but save that for others to argue) and still this should mean that he has real problems in leadership.
Well, since I’m posting video, I must do more. Tucker Carlson is so much better than anyone at Foxnews, in my opinion, so here is a double treat.
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Oh, and who can be surprised at this reaction on the part of Giuliani:
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This was interesting to me because I didn’t remember that the initial appointment was temporary:
Among the many things that occupied my attention this week were two days of board meetings at Philadelphia’s Westminster Theological Seminary. This week the board voted to invite Dr. Peter Lillback to continue his presidency of the seminary. Dr. Lillback had initially agreed to serve a three-year term, set to expire in 2008, but has agreed to continue providing leadership for the seminary going forward.
By the way, Peter Lillback wrote an excellent monograph on Calvin’s theology a few years ago. It was entitled, The Binding of God: Calvins Role in the Development of Covenant Theology.
Everyone who cares already knows this, but I feel compelled to report that Doug Wilson and Christopher Hitchens are debating Christianity at the ChristianityToday website.
Enjoy.
If I hadn’t had bloggers on my feed reader, I don’t know when I would have learned about the horror story yesterday regarding Virginia Tech.
What can you say about something like that?
I think if I had lost a son or daughter I would have to use someone else’s words:
“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
“O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
“My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
“Lay down a pledge for me with yourself;
who is there who will put up security for me?
Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
“He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”