I’ve been enjoying Doug Wilson’s reviews of Twilight.  This morning I also discovered a book I’d never heard of, Elsie Dinsmore.  It is available online.

Here’s a sample, after a spoiled brat of a boy gets her in trouble (and escapes all punishment himself):

In the meantime the little Elsie sat at her desk, striving to conquer the feelings of anger and indignation that were swelling in her breast; for Elsie, though she possessed much of “the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,” was not yet perfect, and often had a fierce contest with her naturally quick temper.  Yet it was seldom, very seldom that word or tone or look betrayed the existence of such feelings; and it was a common remark in the family that Elsie had no spirit.

So, Edward basically is all of society and Elsie’s objective is to be dead, not sanctified in heaven, but a lifeless corpse that can never feel or be anything but utterly passive?  As a dad, I have plenty of frustrations teaching children to control their tempers.  But it is good to remember to be thankful that they do have spirit.

Among young men in Britain, 1 in 8 were killed in WWI. However, among those going to Oxford, Cambridge and their feeder schools, the number rises to 1 in 5. The leadership class, for all its flaws, took a lead in the risks of war.

One might wonder what would happen in a society when its more educated class virtually never went to war and never took the riskier tasks in any war. What sort of foreign policy decisions would such leaders make?

EMBED-Tricked On Halloween – Watch more free videos

Every year on this night I witness the unholy abomination of little children choosing green plastic candy over good chocolate.  The spirit groans within me.

If you immediately condemn anyone who doesn’t quite believe the same as you do as forsaken by Christ’s Spirit, and consider anyone to be the enemy of truth who holds something false to be true, who, pray tell, can you still consider a brother? I for one have never met two people who believed exactly the same thing. This holds true in theology as well.

Be sure to compare the linked story in the image to this one.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ.’

“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

Remember Clinton? Remember “bimbo eruptions”?

Now look at Obama. Do you see what a great family he has? Wouldn’t it be easier to oppose and obstruct Obama’s agenda if he were a philanderer?  A one-woman man makes a great leader for good or ill.

A personal life of integrity is a powerful political weapon. I wish more “conservative” politicians would put it in their arsenal.

YouTube – The Day ObamaCare Died – Sung by Barack Obama.

Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands far away;
for truth has stumbled in the public squares,
and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

–Isaiah 59.14, 15