The Bible doesn’t clearly express an opinion on the possession of guns, but many evangelicals defend the unlimited distribution of firearms with the same fervor that they defend biblical orthodoxy. According to a recent Public Religion Research Institute survey, 8% of white evangelical Protestants favor tighter gun laws.
http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/28/my-take-its-time-for-evangelicals-to-speak-up-about-guns/
The middle class has quite a gift welcoming them as the calendar flips over to 2013. Their payroll taxes are going to go up, their income taxes are going to go up, and approximately 28 million households are going to be hit with a huge, unexpected AMT tax bill on their 2012 earnings. So happy New Year middle class! You are about to be ripped to shreds. In addition to the tax increases that I just mentioned, approximately two million unemployed Americans will instantly lose their extended unemployment benefits when 2013 begins, and new Obamacare tax hikes which will cost American taxpayers about a trillion dollars over the next decade will start to go into effect. If Congress is not able to come to some sort of a deal, all middle class families in America will be sending thousands more dollars to Uncle Sam next year than they were previously. And considering the fact that the middle class is already steadily shrinking and that the U.S. economy is already in an advanced state of decline, that is not good news. You would think that both major political parties would want to do something to keep the middle class from being hit with this kind of tax sledgehammer. Unfortunately, at this point it appears that our “leaders” in Washington D.C. are incapable of getting anything done. So get ready for much smaller paychecks and much larger tax bills. What is coming is not going to be pleasant. (Read More….)
This article looks at how, unfortunately for real Americans, the priorities of the members of Congress and the President of the United States have nothing to do with the priorities of the people who they claim to represent!
http://politicsandfinance.blogspot.com/2012/12/god-country-family-party-and-partisan.html
Police have not been shy about taking advantage of these data. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), U.S. law enforcement agencies made 1.5 million requests for user data from cellphone companies in 2011. And under current interpretations of the law, you will never find out if they were targeting you.
http://reason.com/archives/2012/12/17/your-cellphone-is-spying-on-you
The Louis E. Carabini Distinguished Lecture, presented at the 2012 Mises Institute Supporters Summit: “The Truth About War: A Revisionist Approach”. Recorded at Callaway Gardens, Georgia, on 26 October 2012. Includes an introduction by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
http://chrisinmaryville.net/reflections-on-the-loss-of-liberty-by-judge-napolitano.html
Andrei Arbashe, a young Syrian Christian, had just gotten married and his wife was about to give birth. He had his life ahead of him. But thanks to the US/Saudi/Qatari/Israeli-supported rebels that was not to be. Instead, as the Australian reports today, he was beheaded by Obama and Hillary’s rebels, cut into pieces, and fed to the dogs.
His “crime” was nothing more than his being a Christian whose brother was overheard complaining of the brutality of the rebels.
President Barack Obama is urging the Illinois General Assembly to legalize gay marriage in his home state as lawmakers are poised to take up the measure as early as this week in Springfield. “While the president does not weigh in on every measure being considered by state legislatures, he believes in treating everyone fairly and equally, with dignity and respect,” White House spokesman Shin Inouye told the Chicago Sun-Times on Saturday.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/12/obama-urges-illinois-to-legalize-gay-marriage/?cat_orig=politics
While Democrats and establishment media contend vote fraud is largely a myth, an abundance of evidence surfaced in the 2012 election to indicate it is flourishing in American politics.
Did it impact the outcome Nov. 6? The fact that any reasonable observer who does his homework can’t give a definitive answer to that question is cause enough for concern.
The reports of vote fraud top WND’s annual list of the 10 most “spiked” or underreported stories of the last year.
At the end of each year, many news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories of the previous 12 months. WND’s editors, however, long have considered it more newsworthy to publicize the most underreported or unreported news events of the year – to shine a spotlight on those issues that the establishment media successfully “spiked.”
WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah has sponsored “Operation Spike” every year since 1988, and since founding WND in May 1997, has continued the annual tradition.
Produced with the help of WND readers, here are the WND editors’ picks for the 10 most underreported or unreported stories of 2012:
As evangelicalism continues to degenerate into contemplative apostasy Apprising Ministries brings you what the great Church Reformer had to say about these traditions of men.
http://apprising.org/2012/12/30/john-calvin-on-monastic-vows-i-e-spiritual-disciplines/
The most common contemporary Hollywood movie theme is revenge. So many movies are driven by the energy of “an eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth.” Helen and I attended the musical film version of Les Miserables. I will let others comment on the actors and the singing, for I wish to comment on how clearly the themes of God’s grace and forgiveness came forth from the screen. Because music is the language of the soul, the songs riveted lyrics to melody, leaving us spellbound and at times in tears—not only at the music, but at the message it conveys!
Life in Deep Ellum is part of a wave of experimentation around the country by evangelicals to reinvent “church” in an increasingly secular culture, and it comes as the megachurch boom of recent decades, with stadium seating for huge crowds, Jumbotrons and smoke machines, faces strong headwinds. A national decline in church attendance, the struggling economy and the challenges of marketing to millennials have all led to the need for new approaches.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 36,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 8 Film Festivals
