The Golden Ratio

Matt Andersen

2011-04-16T20:40:00.001-07:00

Hallelujah Chorus

2010-12-24T14:24:00.001-08:00

Stephen Harper

2010-12-08T20:49:00.000-08:00

sings

Mid-term Elections

2010-11-03T16:12:00.000-07:00

Beyond the soaring debt, health care, earmarks and bail outs, what motivated the American electorate on Tuesday, November 2, 2010:

Theodore Dalrymple

2010-06-10T17:23:00.000-07:00

Anti-Semitism, it has often been said, is the socialism of fools. I would put things another way: socialism is the anti-Semitism of intellectuals.

Bob Dylan

2010-06-09T16:07:00.000-07:00

Vezi mai multe video din Muzica

Rand Paul

2010-05-18T11:57:00.000-07:00

Rand Paul wants to abolish the Fed. That's simply outlandish. But wanting to spend trillions upon trillions of dollars that no one will get around to actually earning until about a century and a half from now, what's that? Why, that's mainstream economics! Sure it is, but sometimes the mainstream goes straight over the falls, and that's your great, great grandkids, folks, there in the canoe.

Douglas Wilson

2010-05-12T13:51:00.000-07:00

Once we decide that there is no God above the king, the king becomes God. Once we decide there is no "highest authority" above the state, the state becomes the highest authority.

This is why it is the natural impulse for secularists to grow the state.

Ludwig von Mises

2010-05-04T18:11:00.000-07:00

The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office.

Carl Foreman

2010-04-20T10:40:00.000-07:00

Beware

of the Defenders of the safely contentious.

Johann Heermann

2010-04-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Night at Golgotha, Vasili Vasilyevich Vereshchagin

"O Dearest Jesus, What Law Hast Thou Broken"

1. O dearest Jesus, what law hast thou broken
That such sharp sentence should on Thee be spoken?
Of what great crime hast Thou to make confession, --
What dark transgression?

2. They crown Thy head with thorns, they smite, they scourge Thee;
With cruel mockings to the cross they urge Thee;
They give Thee gall to drink, they still decry Thee;
They crucify Thee.

3. Whence come these sorrows, whence this mortal anguish?
It is my sins for which Thou, Lord, must languish;
Yea, all the wrath, the woe, Thou dost inherit,
This I do merit.

4. What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!
The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;
The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him,
Who would not know Him.

5. The sinless Son of God must die in sadness;
The sinful child of man may live in gladness;
Man forfeited his life and is acquitted, --
God is committed.

6. There was no spot in me by sin untainted;
Sick with sin's poison, all my heart had fainted;
My heavy guilt to hell had well-nigh brought me,
Such woe it wrought me.

7. O wondrous love, whose depth no heart hath sounded,
That brought Thee here, by foes and thieves surrounded!
All worldly pleasures, heedless, I was trying
While Thou wert dying.

8. O mighty King, no time can dim Thy glory!
How shall I spread abroad Thy wondrous story?
How shall I find some worthy gifts to proffer?
What dare I offer?

9. For vainly doth our human wisdom ponder, --
Thy woes, Thy mercy, still transcend our wonder.
Oh, how should I do aught that could delight Thee!
Can I requite Thee?

10. Yet unrequited, Lord, I would not leave Thee;
I will renounce whate'er doth vex or grieve Thee
And quench with thoughts of Thee and prayers most lowly
All fires unholy.

11. But since my strength will nevermore suffice me
To crucify desires that still entice me,
To all good deeds, oh, let Thy Spirit win me
And reign within me!

12. I'll think upon Thy mercy without ceasing,
That earth's vain joys to me no more be pleasing;
To do Thy will shall be my sole endeavor
Henceforth forever.

13. Whate'er of earthly good this life may grant me,
I'll risk for Thee; no shame, no cross, shall daunt me;
I shall not fear what man can do to harm me
Nor death alarm me.

14. But worthless is my sacrifice, I own it;
Yet, Lord, for love's sake Thou wilt not disown it;
Thou wilt accept my gift in Thy great meekness
Nor shame my weakness.

15. And when, dear Lord, before Thy throne in heaven
To me the crown of joy at last is given,
Where sweetest hymns Thy saints forever raise Thee,
I, too, shall praise Thee.

h/t L P

St. Augustine

2010-04-02T10:56:00.000-07:00

1. Error first demands a hearing.
2. Error next demands equal standing.
3. Finally, error dominates and excludes those who disagree.

RC Sproul/Stephen Meyer

2010-03-05T16:01:00.000-08:00

and here, here, here and here.

Mark Driscoll

2010-03-05T10:58:00.000-08:00

The truth is, you can become so familiar with Jesus that you don’t even know who he is. You can grow up in church, be around Bible...college professor that gives you some weird, funky new liberal insight on Jesus and all of a sudden, you feel like you got it all nailed down and covered, and you reject him and move on and...

You worship convenience instead of Christ.

Dennis Prager

2010-02-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

Every change for good must be constantly renewed, but changes for the worse are often permanent.

Canadian Cincinnatus

2010-02-05T08:20:00.000-08:00

...the worst aspects of today’s political scene is the stifling effect that political correctness has over issues that the left does not what to talk about.

Temporary Home

2010-02-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Wendy Francisco

2010-01-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Daniel Gavra

2010-01-12T16:37:00.000-08:00

“Oh, Pastor,” he said softly. “I don’t mind so much the loss of a leg. After all, it was I who lit the first candle.”

h/t MTM

Empire of Lies

2010-01-12T12:31:00.000-08:00

"These powerful people believe things like: One culture is as good as another. Or, there's no such thing as good and evil. Therefore, if America is at odds or at war with someone, it must be America's fault. You only have to think about those statements for two minutes to see that they can't possibly be true. But these people think they should be true and they think they'll seem to be true if no one is allowed to say that they're not true. So they attack anyone who says that they're not true. They call him names. Racist, sexist, phobic, offensive, whatever. They demand apologies from him. They make his life a misery, so no one wants to speak up."
"So it's like the emperor's new clothes."
"Right. Except instead of clothes, it's all the emperor's lies. And in an Empire of Lies, only a crazy man would speak the truth."

Andrew Klavan

Andrew Klavan

2009-12-10T20:55:00.000-08:00

Shame and guilt and self-hatred are universal. Whether you chalk it up to original sin or to Oedipus or call it Jewish guilt or Catholic guilt or white guilt or black guilt, every single one of us knows he is not the person he was made to be. There are honest ways to confront that. You can kneel before God and pray for forgiveness and live in the joy of his love. Or you can drink heavily and make sardonic remarks until you destroy everyone you care about and then keel over dead – that’s honest too. But what a lot of people do is try to escape their sense of shame dishonestly by constructing elaborate moral frameworks that allow them to parade their virtue and their lavish repentance without any real inconvenience to themselves while simultaneously indulging in self-righteousness by condemning others for their impenitent evil. That’s the bad version of religion – the sort of religion Jesus came to dismantle. And that’s exactly the sort of religion leftism is: an elaborate system for hiding shame behind a cheap mask of virtue. That’s why they demonize any opposition. To them, we’re not just disagreeing with them, we’re threatening to tear off the mask of their virtue and reveal them to themselves. Which, without God or sufficient whiskey, would be unbearable.

B.H. Obama

2009-07-16T10:40:00.000-07:00

...President and Congress provide not a savings and payment plan, but rather an orgy of additional spending that historians will look back on as the equivalent of a drunken orgy. Desperately terrified, gutless libertines in the backroom of a ship sinking into icy and dark waters.
Bill Whittle

Stand firm, ye boys from Maine for not once in a century are men permitted to bear such responsibility for freedom and justice, for God and humanity, as are now placed upon you."
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain

Jude Christodal

2009-07-16T10:30:00.000-07:00

Jude Christodal writes.

Susan Boyle

2009-04-14T17:31:00.000-07:00

I Dreamed a Dream. The least are greatest, the weak are strong...fishermen are leaders, Nazareth is important, life comes through death, and victory through sacrifice.

h/t Charles Adler 4/13/2009

Kathy Ireland

2009-04-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

On abortion.

h/t Greg Koukl

The Passion Reconsidered

2009-04-12T17:29:00.000-07:00

...produced quivering ribbons of bleeding flesh. Pain and blood loss set the stage for circulatory shock.

The robe had already become adherent to the clots of blood and serum in the wounds, and its removal...causes excruciating pain, almost as though he were being whipped again.

...the median nerves...the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the metatarsal bones of the feet.

C. Truman Davis

Warren Buffet

2008-10-03T21:01:00.000-07:00

chairman, bershire hathaway, inc.

GK Chesterton

2008-09-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

When a man believes that any stick will do, he at once picks up a boomerang,

...it is not a politician's enemies who lose elections, but his friends.

Arthur Brooks

2008-09-06T10:27:00.000-07:00

Life is complicated, and everybody outside of the elites understands that. The people who understand this the least paint these people as Bible-thumping fundamentalists...but the most fundamental moralists...are the elite left.

Sarah Palin

2008-09-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin Pictures
...has used her political capital at every stage to fight corruption and bad policy. It’s hard to find anyone in politics who does that; pols “save” their capital instead, ...by voting “present” on numerous occasions, lest spending it cost them something somewhere down the road. ...of those who merely hold positions and whose lives have been led in the service of their résumés.

...a compelling and mold-breaking example for lots of Americans who are told every day that to be even a bit conservative or Christian or old-fashioned is bad form. In this respect, Palin can become an inspirational figure and powerful symbol.

Christopher Price

2008-08-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

“Some people think that if you believe in God’s judgment, it may lead to violence because you might try to act it out yourself, as some have done. But I want to say clearly that believing in the doctrine [or having a proper understanding] of God’s judgment does not lead to violence; not believing in it enough is what leads to violence. Because if I do not believe that God has it under control and that he will make all things right in the end, I will be tempted to take matters into my own hand, to seek vengeance, to repay crime for crime. But if I believe that God will judge in the end–He will make all things right–it takes the sword out of my hands and puts it in the hands of God where it rightfully belongs. For He alone can judge with complete justice. The NT picks up on this theme. Paul in Rom 12:19 says, ‘Do not repay evil with evil, but leave room for the wrath of God; vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.’”

W.B. Yeats

2008-08-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

In dreams begins responsibility,

David Warren

2008-07-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

...there is a way to measure Canadian complacency with statistical precision.

James Patrick Holding

2008-07-16T14:42:00.000-07:00

This is an excellent questionnaire produced by J.P. Holding for the average surfing apologist or sincere skeptic.

h/t Rick

Modern Chauvinism

2008-07-15T11:44:00.000-07:00

Under the tutelage of these once-confident ideologies still touted by secularizing elites, sex has been reduced to orgasm, persons to bodies, psychology to stimuli, economics to planning mechanisms, and politics to machinery. All these premature certitudes....

Stephen Harper

2008-07-08T00:09:00.000-07:00

The trouble is that - partly because of the surging commodity prices that have made all incumbent regimes unpopular - G8 is led by politicians who lack authority.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown are disliked at home; George Bush is a lame duck; Silvio Berlusconi is changing the law to indemnify himself; Dmitri Medvedev is regarded as Vladimir Putin's creature and, in any case, Russia does not merit inclusion in the G8 by virtue either of its democratic structures or the size of its economy; Yasuo Fukuda, the host, has just become the first ever Japanese leader to have a censure vote passed against him in parliament.

Of all the leaders, only Stephen Harper - the talented but curiously neglected Canadian prime minister - is able to point to a popular and successful record in office.

Some will regard it as alarming that, in current times, world leadership should rest with Canada. But the Canadian Tories are a model of how to behave during a downturn.

They have kept spending in check and reduced taxes. They are playing their full role in world affairs, notably in Afghanistan.

Rather than canting about saving the world (Mr Harper, in his quiet and courteous way, is a Kyoto-sceptic) they have addressed themselves to curing remediable ills and, above all, to putting their own affairs in order.

If the rest of the world had comported itself with similar modesty and prudence, we might not be in this mess.

h/t Hunter

The Waterboy

2008-07-07T17:23:00.000-07:00

Bob Ackles
R.I.P.
September 16, 1938 – July 6, 2008
were that all power rested so blithely on others shoulders

Bishop Ben Kwashi

2008-07-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

A faith worth living for is a faith worth dying for. Brothers and Sisters in the west, please do not attempt to change or water down or secularize that faith for which some of us will lay down our lives.

One Dominion under the Name of Canada

2008-07-01T11:00:00.000-07:00

May he have dominion from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth!
Psalm 72:8

Os Guinness

2008-06-28T08:57:00.001-07:00

Never under-estimate the profound anti-Christian assumptions of secularity; Never have evangelicals had higher, sharper views of the authority of scripture, but never has evangelical behavior been more chaotic and permissive than it is today…

Ian Hunter

2008-06-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

But when a Church deliberately marries itself to the spirit of the age, when it sets itself the task not of redeeming but mirroring its time, it has nothing left to say that anyone needs to hear. Throw in the towel.

Donald Arthur Carson

2008-06-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

A friend in Slovakia once told me that only three weeks after the Berlin wall came down, for the first time in his life he saw pornography sold in the street. Was the enhanced freedom an unmitigated "good" thing? I'm not denying it was good in many ways, but some of us have given "freedom" such an iconic value that we fail to see how, in the name of freedom, we may become slaves to sin. Most of us are thankful to God that we live in a democracy. But I have met Christians who live in parts of the world under one form or another of tyranny who are much less daunted by the violent "beast out of the sea" that they face than by the "beast out of the earth," the danger of deceptive teaching and materialism, that we face in the West: they pray for us that we will escape the tyranny of the seduction of easy, triumphalism, and materialism.

Peter Schweizer

2008-06-02T16:10:00.000-07:00

Modern liberalism is infused with idea that truth is relative. ...And if truth is relative, it also must follow that honesty is subjective.

R.C.Sproul

2008-05-31T20:01:00.000-07:00

My favourite young-earth creationist.

Liberal Fascism

2008-05-31T08:31:00.000-07:00

The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning

by Jonah Goldberg

T. S. Eliot

2008-05-22T19:55:00.000-07:00

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

The Four Quartets - East Coker V

George Will

2008-05-20T13:40:00.001-07:00

Everyone is entitled to his own opinion but not his own facts.

George Will

necessary evils?

2008-05-17T17:57:00.000-07:00

My son loves baseball, specifically the Blue Jays. He used to like the Mariners, but I guess his time on the east coast, converted him. I asked him this pointed question, specifically about umpiring, i.e., whether it bothered him that commentators never question a call. I believe it has everything to do with the fact that baseball of all sports could get rid of umpires altogether, if they chose. However, they've been deemed part of the game, therefore whatever call, right or wrong, is THE CALL and THE MAN (Bud Selig) says, "So, There"! Talk about a pressure free job. When I was a child umpires were considered a necessary evil and a call would be replayed to see if it was blown. Admittedly, it's not as bad as basketball, which has phantom calls, phantom clocks or in the case of a Jordanesque player no call, but still...

Jack Lewis

2008-05-13T11:30:00.000-07:00

The important thing about it to me is the great moral and ethical moral values of the 19th century which we foolish people threw away in the 20th century are expounded and exemplified; such things as chivalry, courage, honour, duty, commitment, responsibility. All of those great values that mankind need so much in order for our societies to work. And that the 20th century cast to one side as being outmoded, outdated and being old-fashioned. We are now groping around blindly trying to find them again, because we need to get them back. I mean our society is crumbling around us because we have lost them. ...many of the things our society so desperately needs to get back.

Douglas Gresham

Mensch Shortfall

2008-05-11T18:20:00.000-07:00

It looks like Josh Boden is about to be cut.

Update: as of May 14.

D.A.Carson

2008-04-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

One of the challenges we face today is the redefinition of tolerance and intolerance. Over the last 200 years or so, but up until about 25 years ago, we were shaped by an principle attributed to Voltaire, that though he may detest what someone said, he would defend to the death his right to say it. But today, increasingly, tolerance is being described as the refusal to say that anyone is wrong.

Watergate North

2008-04-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm quite concerned about the ramifications of the police raid on the Conservative Party headquarters as it's ultimately an attack against democracy. I understand Elections Canada were unable to obtain a search warrant in Ottawa, so they did so through Toronto.

...copying everything from payroll information to the strategy for a coming election.

"All of our financials ... payroll records, strategy for the campaign ... obviously there are discussion papers on that.

I'm dubious whether it's standard operating procedure to be able to obtain such a broad based warrant, nevertheless it's unseemly and in the need to protect democracy the judge should have erred on the side of democracy by appearing to be very much seemly:

the official insists that material taken from the headquarters did not pertain to the case being investigated by the watchdog organization.

The United States had Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein while we in Canada are treated to the spectacle of the raiding of party offices in broad daylight (as a tendentious media applauds); which to my mind can only be for partisan purposes as all parties engage in the same 'in-and-out scheme', however only the Tories are investigated? The Tories

communications plan...turned into a communications debacle

I know these bylines write themselves but wouldn't you be paranoid too if the media were outside cheerleading as the raid is executed. I listened to John Geddes of Macleans deny the possibility of partisanship, as EC is supposed to be non-partisan and the ramifications are unthinkable. Indeed! Not to mention that they're stealing from Conservative Party members when they take election strategy minutes. Thankfully:

the police, who executed the search for the Election Commissioner, did not get membership or donation lists that were housed on a different system.

Steve Janke has posted extensively on this topic.

Mushy Middle

2008-04-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

A healthily-working civilization,generates its standards and values at its centres and they are then lived and modified into commonsense by all its people. At present the situation often seems to have been reversed, with the centres restrained from utter madness and breakdown only by commonsense.

Ian Robinson

The Survival of English

2008-04-22T14:10:00.000-07:00

Decline of language is the decline of the life of the people who use it.

Ian Robinson

Untied Kingdom

2008-04-21T09:29:00.000-07:00

There is no need to accept that the word modernize as used by [political] leaders … has any meaning beyond drifting with the stream.

Ian Robinson

modernization (read: vulgarization)

Lionel Chetwynd contextualizes

2008-03-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

That is the teaching opportunity I hoped you would evoke: not explaining Wright’s outrage to me, but explaining his outrageousness to him. That’s how we’ll reach the postracial era: by no longer justifying...

You can help bring him back to Christ.
Be Presidential.

Typical White Person

2008-03-25T17:50:00.000-07:00

An interesting read by Chritopher Hitchens:

You often hear it said, of some political or other opportunist, that he would sell his own grandmother if it would suit his interests. But you seldom, if ever, see this notorious transaction actually being performed,...

...an 85-year-old lady named Madelyn Dunham, who spent a good deal of her youth helping to raise him and who now lives alone and unwell in a condo in Honolulu.

why are you weeping?

2008-03-23T10:01:00.000-07:00

He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see...

Matt 28:6

this is your hour

2008-03-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

for a hanged man is cursed by God

Deut 21:23

Victimless Crime

2008-03-21T04:09:00.000-07:00

I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me...

John 10:17,18

Kakou at Easter

2008-03-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

Jesus was 'tried' for blasphemy, but executed for sedition, but the irony is that anyone in the mob could be more legitimately charged rather than the accused. And the double irony is they had released a prisoner who was guilty of sedition. They may have had leave to have a guilty man released at the feast, but no such leave to have an innocent man tried. And so the substitution begins. “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, and saying that he himself is Christ, a king.” Lies! Lies! Lies!

1. Capital cases were to be tried during the daytime, and the verdict had to also be reached during the day. The Gospels are clear that Jesus was taken from the Garden of Gesthemane, tried and sentenced during the night.

2. Trials were not to be held on the day before a Sabbath or the day before a Holy Day or Festival. We also know from the Gospels that Jesus was tried during the Passover.

3. ...the Jewish system of law required that a trial begin with reasons why the accused was innocent, not reasons why the accused was guilty. There is no record of Jesus' innocence ever being discussed. Instead, His trial was full of false-witnesses. No effort was ever made to find witnesses to testify for the defense.

4. Innocent verdicts could be reached on the same day a trial began. However, guilty verdicts had to be rendered after a "night's sleep". You could not simply do a quick trial, sentence the accused to death and then carry out the sentence. There had to be time to think through the evidence.

5. A guilty verdict could only be reached if two witnesses' testimony agreed. The Bible is clear that when the false witnesses came, no two testimonies matched up. According to Jewish law (stated in the Old Testament) if two reliable witnesses could not be found, the case must be thrown out.

6. The Sanhedrin (Jewish court system) was to meet in an inner court of the temple to try cases. Not so with Jesus. His trial took place in the high priest's home.

Deborah Meredith

2008-03-18T10:21:00.000-07:00

Last night Art asked me how I thought the CPC would do in yesterday's four by-elections. Although I predicted the results, I'm pleasantly surprised how close Deborah Meredith came in Vancouver Quadra. It says alot for a candidate that is willing to put the effort needed in going door to door as well as the fact that Conservative support is alot stronger than any poll is able to forecast. Meredith might have won this riding if she had received more support from the national office. PMSH was here recently and didn't visit the riding. That little show of support might have swung the 76 votes needed to win. I apperceive that headquarters were backing the 'star candidate' Mary McNeil for the nomination which might explain their lack of support.