The Gospel According to Donald Trump

Quick post while Josh is at the Chiropractor… I may elaborate another time…

Donald Trump understands what Jesus meant in John 8:1-12. Mr. Trump gave this young lady unimaginable opportunity, she broke the agreement, and he is going through public criticism to redeem her sin. Certainly not what Jesus went through to redeem us, but a modern example of God’s love, none the less.

God bless Donald Trump and grant him a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Well, tomorrow evening, my husband will be home, grounded to his room. What did he do, you might ask? Well, I'm the creative sort. I can think of lots of good reasons to ground him. Every service member should have a spouse willing to ground them when they come home. Nine months is a really long time not to have seen Josh.

So, have yourselves a Merry Christmas! I won't be bloging for the next two weeks.

Remember, this Christmas, to "Praise God from whom all blessings flow" and give "Glory to God in the Highest" for He has sent "His Son into the world so that it might be saved."

Catch you in the New Year!

(I am so very excited!)

And today’s phone call

Waiting for Josh to call me. It’s probably the last time I’ll talk to him before he calls from the states telling me when to pick him up at the airport. I can’t wait to see him!

You know, there’s been so much going on in the news. I would comment on Democrat persons who go off and try to negotiate foreign policy. However, I’ll let wonks do that. In my opinion, people who do not jump on Rick Warren for the same should not jump on Dems for it.

I could comment on the Duke case, and probably will a little more extensively. My big deal is this: you find other men’s fluid in the rape kit, better present them as suspects too. She could have mistaken the identity of her rapist, or wanted to defend someone, or what have you. You don’t prosecute all, don’t prosecute any. Only exception is if she were married.

I could also comment on other war related issues. But won’t. My husband prefers his welcome home to be cute, perky, and absolutely dying to see him. Thinking of bad news distracts from the perky part. Oh, and on a self centered note, guess what I put on yesterday? (Actually two things, but both equally exciting.) Yup, size 8 Dockers! I have reduced from a size 16 to a size 8 since June. Also, I tried on this bridesmaids dress I wore the week before I was put on prednisone. Slightly snug at the waist, but nothing some good shape wear won’t hide. Perfect on top. (Pictures to follow once I figure out how to post them, and once I find a picture of me at Vanessa’s wedding. Oh, and once my husband is back on the road. I have better things to do then post while he is here.) Which means I am back to “two sized” Liz. It also means that I have three other bridesmaid dresses that are too big, and my wedding dress is too big!

Anyway, yeah, my husband is coming home to a cute and perky wife who has reduced to a size 8, smaller then when she married him, who is just dying to see him! Any day now!

Hugh Hewitt is now one of my favorites

Previously, I could give or take Hugh Hewitt. But, this column serves as a very eloquent approach to why I disdain Ben Shapiro and other pro-war men under the age of 30, and it is the spanking they deserve. As I cannot really say it better, I am going to post substantial excerpts from this column, and re-link to my favorite Doonesbury strips from the past month. This column should be required reading for every male college Republican.

And now, excerpts from “The elections of 2028: What did you do when America was attacked?”

“Biola University hosted GodBlogCom 2.0 this past October, and it featured a panel discussion that became a genuine conversation with the audience…. As I recall, one question from the floor concerned the rules a young, politically ambitions blogger might want to follow on his or her blog. I responded as I always do that question by cautioning the young writers that blogs are forever, cached away in google or some other server somewhere, and almost certain to return if not in your first job interview, then certainly in the context of any serious campaign for any serious office…. But then I paused and raised the question of a much more serious nature for the young, ambitious undergrad: Had you considered military service?

“Though the anti-military left has thrown around the term ‘chickenhawk’ in an attempt to damage the political careers of many Vietnam-era politicians who did not serve in the military, it has never had traction outside of the fever swamp, and even within that narrow slice of American politics, the charge marks the user as one of the nutters, given that the premise of the American republic is civilian control of the military, and especially as veterans rarely --and active duty men and women never-- make that charge, understanding it to be both typically duplicitous in that it is offered by many who do not esteem the military, and deeply at odds with the basic structure of the country. Responsible Americans generally honor and admire military service, and value it in candidates, but the lack of military service has never disqualified a candidate, not even one who went very far out of his way to avoid the Vietnam era draft, as Bill Clinton did.

“Even given that history, I argued somewhat off-the-cuff to the Biola audience, it seemed to me that this was a different time than the Vietnam era, and certainly very different from the long years of peace that followed the abandonment of Saigon to the communists and Cambodia to the genocidal Pol Pot.

“My guess, I told them, was that in the not so distant future senior elected offices --in the Congress, statehouses, and certainly the presidency-- would be very difficult to obtain for the young men of today who did not volunteered to come to the defense of their country after it had been attacked on 9/11.

“Not impossible, but very difficult. Very, very difficult.

“This came as a genuine surprise to many in the audience, and provoked quite a lot of argument. I explained that the failure to serve would not be a bar to a successful life in many other fields, but that politics was unique in that it requires the consent of voters, and voters generally look for leadership. I don’t think it is a stretch to conclude that young men who declined the opportunity to serve in uniform during this war will find themselves being asked “Why didn’t you come to the defense of your country after it was attacked?” I asked the young men who were objecting to my proposition to consider the answers they would be giving in a few years.

“’Different gifts,’ or ‘not my calling’ were a couple of the –very—tentative responses, but of course those are not responsive to the idea that indeed the military service is a sacrifice of self to country, and that the question would not be satisfactorily replied to by reference to personal inconvenience.

“’I want to serve a different way,’ was a better response, but the specifics of that service would matter a great deal –intelligence gathering or law enforcement are not inconsistent with military service, for example.

“’It is a volunteer army,’ is another non-responsive dodge: Of course it is. The question is why didn’t you volunteer?

“’I wouldn’t be any good at it,’ was my favorite. The answer is of course that the military could be the judge of that if you give them the opportunity to conduct an assessment.

“Physical infirmity would be a sufficient answer if the disability was serious enough, but family circumstances, probably not in most instances. As David McCullough recounts in his biography of Harry Truman, Truman had served in the Missouri National Guard and had been discharged, his father had died and he was the key to the operation of his family’s large and difficult to operate farm on which his mother and sister depended. He was also engaged.

“But when America went to war in 1917, Truman immediately signed up and was off to Europe.

“It was what you did then, and again in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor. You served. And had Truman, JFK or Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan or Bush not done so, it is impossible to imagine them rising as they did. Only when the ‘war’ in question became discredited did the value attached to service in it diminish, and then not entirely, and not at all for some.

“’Wasn’t this war like Vietnam,’ was another objection that came from the audience. Though some on the left might see it as such, 9/11 makes that a very hard case to make, and even the political controversy around Iraq cannot diminish the fact that the enemy is real and relentless.

“The conversation carried on for some time and included all of the panel participants and many of the other older participants in the conference. It continued even afterwards at a reception. It had disturbed many of the young men. I have had similar conversations since with many other young men (and I do think it will be an issue only for young men –the subject of another column.) It is usually disturbing to them too, unless they have already felt the call of duty and acted upon it or resolved to do so at the conclusion of college.

“The reason it discomforts so many is that it is a conversation about duty, and also a conversation about courage. The former idea is alien to a lot of young Americans, and no one enjoys even an implied rebuke to their own courage.

“Yesterday I received an e-mail from one of the young men in that Biola audience. He is off to a very fine graduate school of business –and into the Naval Reserve as an officer candidate. He told me that good arguments have consequences, and that the discussion that night had changed his life’s course.”

Thank you Mr. Hewitt, for the column. During the middle of my college career, I came to the realization of a couple of things. First, women should not be in combat. Second, people who are of military age during a time of war and do not serve their country in the military do not belong in public office. I went against this principle by voting for Bush the younger (no, Vietnam Era National Guard or Reserve service doesn’t count unless you served in Vietnam). I will not do it again.

And BD verses College Conservatives:
11/20/2006
11/21/2006
11/22/2006
11/23/2006
11/24/2006
11/25/2006

Follow up…
If you are one of those Evangelical Christian College Republican Males who also believe we should be defending Israel and are STILL not in the Military… go to Canada where you belong and don’t bring your sorry ass back home. (By the way, I’m not saying we shouldn’t be defending Israel, but my point is, don’t go sending my husband somewhere you wouldn’t want to go yourself, able bodied CR Male.)

Prayer Request Update.

Update on my friend and his child custody situation...

Well, the criminal charges stand, and it doesn't sound like there is any evidence. So, it will end up being expert witness vs. expert witness.

News is that they do get to see the boy for Christmas Eve, which is great. However, there have been no changes to the custody situation overall.

The family is very discouraged, so keep praying.

So, am I excited for Josh’s leave?

Um… what do you think?

In adult Bible hour yesterday, Pastor was talking about how to have devotions. He likened it to spending time with your spouse. Like that analogy kept my attention. Nope. When I get excited about something, I start to fidget and bounce, much to the annoyance of my family. (Thanks, HG, for being a sport and letting me fidget.) So, I sad in the pew smiling and thinking of all the neat things Josh and I are going to do during leave and I couldn’t sit still to save my life.

So, picture a 5-year-old, with ADD, mid-night on Christmas Eve, and the Ritalin has long wore off. I am probably 100 times more excited then that!

And I fidget probably 100 times more.

Good thing I have the Sunday School lesson on CD… perhaps I will get something out of it the second time.

Prayer Request…

You know, I don’t do this often because I feel my friends’ personal lives are, well, personal. But, here goes.

A good friend of mine from high-school is in a bitter custody battle for his son. Of course, he and his ex-girlfriend live in Hennepin County, which means she can accuse him of anything and her word is gospel.

December 12th is a very important hearing. So, please pray for JH, his fiancée, and his son.

You're a mean one

Mr. Garrison.

I tend to find Garrison Keillor amusing. However, today's column went too far. Because it does not appear online, here's the summary. Scrooge makes Bob Cratchet his partner and the Cratchet family goes to capitalist hell in a handbasket, corruption ensues, and they end up in Chapter 11.

Why can't a happy ending be left well enough alone during Christmas? The Old Coot might as well just go out and say, "Tight wad Republican Bosses out there, don't be charitable because those poor people are going to be corrupt, ungrateful, and you will ruin them forever and ever." It is not a bad thing when people emerge from the lower class to the middle class, as The Grump insists. A better life is the foundation of the American dream.

Go ahead, your Grouchiness, and sit on your elitist mountain, bemoaning how terrible Republicans and Capitalists are. Maintain your self righteous warnings on how people who receive charity will just become corrupt pigs. Do not question the motives of others any longer because you are mean, rotten, and you ruined a perfectly good story on the kindness and charity of others.

Next, I suppose you will re-write the ending to "The Gift of the Magi" where some rich sugar daddy buys the now former Mrs. Magi a wig and Mr. Magi marries Paris Hilton who buys him all the Rolexes he wants.

Now is a time for celebration, the celebration of a New Life who came into this world to give mankind forgiveness, hope that there is a better future waiting, freedom from corruption, and healing from the wounds of sin. "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

The Old Scout is, indeed, a Prairie Home Companion, like a windchill of 40 below! But, I sincerely hope that his heart will change and he will learn to expect the best out of people.

Thoughts on numbers…

I like thinking about numbers. If I have trouble sleeping at night, I start listing off prime numbers, or performing prime factorizations on numbers or some such mental activity. Once upon a time when I was taking Economics Senior Seminar, I sat in a room with 9 men in their early 20’s and King Banaian . King was leading a discussion on how to break through a forecasting slump. He offered that he played some solitaire on his computer. The others shared their computer game of choice in turn. And, I was then asked, “So, Liz, what computer game do you play when you are stuck?” I didn’t play computer games at the time, having spent the ages of 8 to 21 without a computer in my house, and never having owned a Nintendo or the like. I thought this would be enough of an explanation, but I was to share how I broke through my slumps. There are certain things one does not fess up to in front of adults… coloring… and I was not only going to have to explain that I colored, but that I colored squares in graph paper (and still do on occasion).

Since my coloring habit was not interesting enough for further elaboration, I did not have to explain what it is I color… I color patterns around function lines. I am particularly fascinated by sine functions and cubic functions, but I find most patterns comforting and mind clearing. (By the way, the position my wedding band is welded to my engagement ring has the stones in what is pretty darned close to the function f(x) = x^(1/-3) where my center piece stone is the origin. This was not intentional on the part of the jeweler, rather a fascinating little discovery I made about two months after the wedding.)

My dad, sister, and I were talking about number theory on the drive down to Thanksgiving dinner. I am certainly not advanced enough in math to fully appreciate the beauty of integers, but I like really neat patterns and I know enough to ask questions that will clarify things enough for me.

Anyway, why am I typing about numbers today? Well, I’m waiting to see if Josh will show up on-line, and I’ve been having trouble breathing the last couple of days, so I’m trying to calm that down before I start my chores. But it’s that time of year when I put on Handel’s “Messiah,” and listen through it. Handel gets me thinking about other Baroque pieces. My sister, Becky, has no idea why it is I like Baroque music so much. Her saying is, “If it’s Baroque, don’t play it.” I can listen to any Baroque piece for hours on end and never hear the same thing twice. Numbers are beautiful.

To other military wives…

Should your husband not need to replace anything on his uniform, here is a good place to spend the uniform allowance. Or here . On second thought, he won't mind if you spend his money at the above regardless of designation. Really, he won't mind.

But I’m not such a big fan of this store anymore.

(I love you Joshy!)

Thank you Spc. Rystad

Corey Rystad , “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen.”

Rex Montis.

Thank you Spc. McDonough

Bryan McDonough , “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen.”

Rex Montis.

What does it mean…

To be a European American? My dad asked this of my sisters and me many years ago. After spouting off the patriotism engrained in our fragile minds, he said, “Actually, it means you’ve been kicked out of every civilized country there is.” Sure, let’s suppose that some people came here for a better life. But not my family! Oh, no! We have a LONG history of being anti-papist and anti-monarchy. Well, not so much anti-monarchy. We preferred a Protestant bastard assume the throne over the Papist heir. So, we left in the Bloody Assizes, and we were among those who (bribed) were taken advantage of by government officials.

Anyway, why do I bring all of this up? Well, there I was at my church’s Christmas pageant, and they gave a brief history of Christmas. In England, apparently, Christmas was banned, it was implied, by Charles Stuart, also known as Charles II of England.

I thought, “Interesting,” and the name rang a bell. I decided to Google the event, and it turns out the PURITIANS banned Christmas, not the Papists! So, Charles II of England is absolved. Certainly not an ideal monarch, by any means, but it was my relatives who banned Christmas and persecuted those who celebrated it!

I suppose there was a good reason we were expelled…
Anyway, Catholics take tradition and history and twist it to their own desires, but Protestants need not be so self-righteous about being “clean.” Nope, Protestants did their own persecuting along the way.

A Decent Career

It shouldn’t be news, what Charles Rangel said regarding military service. I don’t necessarily find his mere ignorance intolerable; rather I consider his prejudice despicable. Bright kids would rather have a decent career then join the military. How insulting.

What, please inform us Rep. Rangel, is a decent career? One where you don’t work with your hands? One that doesn’t involve self-sacrifice? Members of the military do not perform pretty jobs. Granted, Soldiers and Marines have pretty uniforms, but they only take the pretty ones out for special occasions. Service members shoot guns, blow up stuff, eat crappy food, and get little gratitude for their jobs. They don’t ask that you join their brotherhood; they just ask you don’t insult it.

The man down the hall from me is a retired Army medical officer. One of the pastors on staff at my church is a retired Navy Chaplain. When I was seeing Josh off, I met a retired Marine General (he was cool). Josh and I went to a church down in Florida where the vast majority of the men over 18 are or have been Marines or Seamen. I would bet that not one of these men would say they had an indecent career in the military. The same goes for women, as well.

The military is a fine and honorable establishment with a proud tradition. It is currently a place where selfless men and women work hard to defend the Constitution and our way of life. No one can love a country more then those willing to die for her.

Rep. Rangel did serve in the military. Just because his preferred career is politics, does not make the preference of another individual less valid. Many of our service men and women have it both ways; a civilian career and a National Guard Career. And in some aspects, reservists have it rough because they often put their civilian career on hold for deployment.

Rep. Rangel would rather people not be selfless. He would rather people not desire to serve in the military of their own free will so he could force people to do so. He wants a draft so he can play God with the lives of our country’s young men and women. I don’t want to live in Chuck Rangel’s world.

A Brunette Moment

I am the first to admit to being a little bit of a ditz. But here you go. I was out at Yankee Candle blowing off some steam and a few dollars. I waited nicely in line behind a brunette who was telling blonde jokes. (That is soooooo ‘90’s.) When it was my turn in line, the previous customer, who was so amusing, was still putting away her wallet. The cashier and I were having a nice conversation about whether or not I was buying for myself or for gifts. Josh has done most of my Christmas Shopping from Iraq. The afore mentioned comedienne asked, “Where’s Iraq?”

I said, “Perhaps we should read the newspaper a little more often then joke books?”

“Well, I’m not ignorant or anything.”

Um, yes, yes you are.

And to celebrate, I went and got highlights, blonde ones. So, I have my regular blonde tone accented by a nice light blonde hair. Yes, I feel the brain cells multiplying.

*My profuse apologies to brunettes, my husband being one of them. I certainly know that this wanna be comedienne is not representative of all brunettes, and I know that you aren’t all ignorant. But before you tell a blonde joke, make sure the blonde in the room is really less globally aware then you. And keep in mind, those who tell blonde jokes are just jealous because blondes are the prized minority.