a mote in God's eye

rozk's and Avedon Carol's thoughts

Jesus' thoughts

31 And, according as you are wanting that men may be doing to you, you also be doing to them likewise.
32 "And if you are loving those loving you, what thanks is it to you? For sinners also are loving those loving them.
33 And if you should be doing good to those doing good to you, what thanks is it to you? For sinners also are doing the same.
34 And if you should ever be lending to those from whom you are expecting to get back, what thanks is it to you? For sinners also are lending to sinners, that they may get back the equivalent.
35 Moreover, be loving your enemies, and be doing good, and be lending, expecting nothing from them, and your wages will be vast in the heavens, and you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
36 "Become, then, pitiful, according as your Father also is pitiful.
37 And be not judging, and under no circumstances may you be judged; and be not convicting, and under no circumstances may you be convicted; be releasing, and you shall be released;
38 be giving, and it shall be given to you: a measure ideal, squeezed down and shaken together and running over, shall they be giving into your bosom. For the same measure with which you are measuring will be measured to you again."
39 Now He told them a parable also: "The blind can not guide the blind. Will not both be falling into a pit?
40 A disciple is not above his teacher, yet everyone who is adjusted will be as his teacher.
41 "Now why are you observing the mote in your brother's eye, yet the beam in your own eye you are not considering?
42 Or how can you be saying to your brother, 'Brother, let me extract the mote in your eye,' observing not, yourself, the beam in your eye? Hypocrite! Extract first the beam out of your eye, and then you will be keen-sighted to be extracting the mote in your brother's eye.
43 For an ideal tree is not producing rotten fruit; again, neither is a rotten tree producing ideal fruit.
44 For each tree is known by its own fruit. For not from thorns are they culling figs, neither from a thorn bush are they picking grapes.
45 "The good man out of the good treasure of his heart is bringing forth that which is good, and the wicked man out of the wicked treasure of his heart is bringing forth that which is wicked, for out of the superabundance of the heart his mouth is speaking.
46 "Now why are you calling Me 'Lord,' and are not doing what I am saying?
47 Everyone coming to Me and hearing My words and doing them-I shall be intimating to you whom he is like.
48 Like is he to a man building a house, who digs and deepens, and places the foundation on a rock. Now, at an inundation occurring, the river bursts through to that house, and it is not strong enough to shake it, because it is ideally built.
49 "Now he who hears, and does not, is like a man building a house on the earth without a foundation, to which the river bursts through, and straightway it collapses; and the crash of that house came to be great."

Whose thoughts, exactly?

I know you smoke, I know you drink that brew
I just can't abide a sinner like you
God can't either, that's why I know it to be true that
Jesus loves me--but he can't stand you

I'm going to heaven, boys, when I die
'Cause I've crossed every "t" and I've dotted every "i'
My preacher tell me that I'm God's kind of guy; that's why
Jesus loves me--but you're gonna fry

God loves all his children, by gum
That don't mean he won't incinerate some
Can't you feel those hot flames licking you
Woo woo woo

I'm raising my kids in a righteous way
So don't be sending your kids over to my house to play
Yours'll grow up stoned, left-leaning, and gay; I know
Jesus told me on the phone today

Jesus loves me, this I know
And he told me where you're gonna go
There's lots of room for your kind down below
Whoa whoa whoa

Jesus loves me but he can't stand you . . .


Here's a radical idea - maybe if God is all-powerful and all-knowing, he can figure out for himself who to smite.

It's an ineffable thing. You wouldn't understand.

because let's face it, The Media has been _far_ too likely to call Bush on things up to this point.

I think we can all agree that it's pretty damn unamerican to report about eight-figure cost overruns and thousands of people dying when there are soldiers out there signing form letters.


Yesterday, Bush granted exclusive interviews to five regional broadcasting companies -- an unprecedented effort to reach news organizations that do not regularly cover the White House.

The effort by Bush to reach out to about 10 million Americans through the regional broadcasters -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer had similar sessions previously -- came two days after it emerged that soldiers in Iraq have sent form letters home to local newspapers asserting that the U.S. troops had been welcomed "with open arms" in Iraq.

Identical letters to the editor from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Infantry Regiment appeared in 11 newspapers across the country, Gannett News Service reported on Saturday. The news service reached six soldiers who said they agreed with the letter but had not written it, one who had not signed the letter, and one who didn't even know about the letter.

Lt. Col. Cindy Scott-Johnson, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said that the form letter was similar to the "hometown news release program" and that the Pentagon had raised no objection "that I know of" to the letter, apparently written by 2nd Battalion staff and distributed to soldiers.

The form letter from the troops, like the Bush interviews with local media outlets, stems from a frustration with the national media and a desire to circumvent what the administration views as unfairly negative coverage of the Iraq conflict.

...

Bush aides make no apologies for targeting local media -- which, they say, tend to be less cynical. "We believe local media and regional broadcasters are more interested in letting viewers or readers see or hear what the president has to say," said Dan Bartlett, White House communications director. "It's less analytical and more reporting."

Bartlett said that as "we move to an instant news cycle" dominated by cable news, more Americans are turning to the Internet, radio or local broadcasts and papers for their news. "That's forcing national newspapers, weekly magazines and national broadcasters to become more analytical and provide commentary," he said.

...

But some in the national media say the White House strategy amounts to shopping for softer questioning. "It's much more often the case in doing local or regional interviews that reporters come to the interview at least a bit star-struck, at least a bit less prepared for how to focus the interview on questions and answers in the public interest and a bit more willing to accept what the White House position is on matters of controversy," said Mark Halperin, ABC News political director. Halperin said he intends no slight to regional reporters but that Bush is "more sophisticated" about avoiding the national media "than anybody who has ever held the job."

...

A White House spokesman said the transcript of Bush's remarks would not be released, following its policy of treating such interviews as the property of the questioners. The matter has not been controversial because regional newspapers often publish the transcripts themselves.

Martha Kumar, a Towson University professor who has studied White House relations with the media, said reaching out to regional media "can give you a temporary lift." But, she added, "I don't know in the long run what it really buys you. The president's problems now are policy problems, not communications problems."

The report yesterday on WBAL in Baltimore, owned by Hearst-Argyle, mixed Bush's words with reminders of the violence in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction. "The president is trying to paint a brighter picture of Iraq despite the deaths of more U.S. soldiers today and another deadly car bombing over the weekend," the report began.

ain't it the truth, princey boy

Saad bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda operatives were in contact with an al Qaeda cell in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the days immediately prior to the May 12 suicide bombing there that left 35 people dead, including eight Americans, European and U.S. intelligence sources say. The sources would not divulge the nature or contents of the communications, but the contacts have led them to conclude that the Riyadh attacks were planned in Iran and ordered from there.

...

Intelligence officials believe that although the State Department is eager to renew talks with Iran on a variety of issues, primarily its nuclear program, it is not clear whether that nation's civilian government could deliver its end of any bargain, especially if it entailed turning over al Qaeda leaders.

"Iran will continue to pursue an asymmetric strategy in which they court Western acceptance, while maintaining their surrogate leadership roles within the Islamic extremist community," a U.S. intelligence analysis says.

...

"Those people are in Iran and somebody must be helping them. The question is who?" Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi ambassador, told the San Francisco Chronicle last month. "This is the problem with Iran. The people who we can deal with can't deliver, they can't lead eight ducks across the street. And the guys who can deliver, they're not interested."


You know, I'm reasonably certain that muslims are discouraged from smoking crack.

I'm sure that there's some other explanation for the fact that the ambassador to our proud nation from the country which lovingly hand-raised and funded almost all of the terror (some of it through his own wife and some of it through the man who has since been put in charge of charitable spending) thinks that the whole problem stems from a Saudi expatriate in Iran sending messages to the kingdom's very own home-grown terrorists.

Perhaps some nice soldier can write a letter to the editor and explain it to us.

edit: It's Iran, of course, as it says above.

Honestly, I do know the difference. Iraq is the one we wanted to invade during the last election cycle.

silver lining watch

There are perils for Bush if he brushes too close to Schwarzenegger, said Roderick Hart, professor of communications and government at the University of Texas at Austin. Schwarzenegger's moderate-to-liberal social views could raise eyebrows among core conservatives, he said.

"The good news is there's a Republican governor of California. The bad news is it's the wrong kind of Republican," said Hart. "The tragic news is it's the really, really wrong kind of Republican."

Hart discounted the effect of California's political uprising and Schwarzenegger's victory on the '04 presidential race, saying Bush will win or lose on the economy and the toll from the war in Iraq.

"It seems to me this election will be determined by who's dying and who's working," he said.

State Democratic party officials, meanwhile, figure to lump Bush and Schwarzenegger together at every turn.

"Those two are now responsible for the nation's economic mess," said Bob Mulholland, the state party's political director. "We want to see a lot of photos of Bush and Schwarzenegger together."

condolences

The estimable Editor of blah3 has lost one of his sisters.

Please stop by and drop him a note. It sounds as if he could use some friendly voices just now.

what they will do - what they won't.

Our 'conservative' friends in Washington have decided to save money by spending more to discourage less-expensive home care for seniors and by pushing mentally challenged but productive government employees onto unemployment and reliance on social services.

They have decided not to save money by spending less money.

This seems remarkably consistent to me, given what I think their premises are.

If you wish to think well of them, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find the principles involved.

i hab a code.

This was clear to me when I got up from a nap.

Conversation after school:

me

I think maybe we should shake hands good night

hm

Why?

me

Because I have a cold.

hm

I have a cold too

me

Aha! I have your cold!

hm

We don't know that for sure.

me

Hey, I know. Maybe we both have daddy's cold.

hm

That works.

me

It must be his cold. He's not here.

if there were a sound associated with a seven year old whacking a fairly sizeable butt, this is where it would go

me

OK, two questions. Why for you have whacked my butt?

hm

Because you're silly.

me

Ah. Why for if you are whacking me you have whacked the most heavily padded place on my body?

hm

I didn't want to hurt you. You have a cold.