If you'd like to read the best article I've seen on the Battle for the Ballot Box, go here.
Or perhaps you'd like to read a little more about the Inauguration. Go here.
Or maybe you want to read about the most contested election of all - not the one coming up on January 31st, the one on April 5th. Go here.
I received this the other day from someone who knows someone in Iraq,
...my unit will be delivering the voting machines and the ballots to villages and cities throughout Iraq during the upcoming elections. (January 30/31) Our convoys are prime targets for the insurgents because they do not want the equipment to arrive at the polling stations nor do they want the local Iraqi citizens to have the chance to vote; timely delivery must occur so that the elections occur. Encourage your friends and family members and those within our churches to pray specifically for the electoral process.Does prayer do any good? Well, there's someone from a unit in Iraq who's about to find out. Let's not disappoint him. He continues,
I will pray with my soldiers before they leave on their convoys and move outside our installation gates. My soldiers are at the nerve center of the logistic operation to deliver the voting machines and election ballots. They will be driving to and entering the arena of the enemy. This is not a game for them, it is a historical mission that is extremely dangerous. No voting machines or ballots...no elections! Your prayer support and God's intervention are needed to give democracy a chance in this war torn country.Remember these guys in your prayers.
Somewhere I read that Psalm 91 was one of the most oft quoted passages in the Iraq theater of operations,
Psalm 91:1-16
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD , "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust." Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked. If you make the Most High your dwelling-even the LORD , who is my refuge-then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
It's a comforting passage regardless of whether the dangers one faces are literal or figurative.
"Because he loves me," says the LORD , "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."
Someone should tell this guy, "With great power comes great responsibility." [Source]
It took me a while to figure it out, but I guess I'm on blog hiatus for a while...
Thanks for stopping by -- come back again in a few weeks and maybe the batteries will be re-charged.
Powerline helps to rip the facade off the UN's hypocrisy in the relief efforts in Indonesia in an article titled, Tsunamai Relief: The Real Story. Powerline gets quite a bit of help from someone on the scene and a blog that is one of my favorites, The Diplomad.
As usual, Belmont Club does a thorough job of examining the UN's relief efforts in Pearls Before Swine
My personal loathing of the incompetence and arrogance at the UN goes way beyond Kofi's little "Money for Oil" Scandal.