Too Much Information

International House of Justice

It's no accident that politicians like Hillary Clinton are seeking to internationalize the upcoming trial of Saddam. A brief look at their worldview helps to understand why this is so important to them.

Those who take a traditional worldview view the concepts of Right and Wrong as objective concepts that transcend human existence. Generally, Right and Wrong are based on the 10 Commandments and "The Golden Rule". But for liberals and "progressives" it's a different story.

For them, Right and Wrong are based more on majority opinion rather than on absolute concepts. Right and wrong are malleable and can be molded depending on the situation. On further clarification, when I say "majority" opinion" I'm not referring to a simple majority of all people but to a majority of the elites. For progressives, someone is elite if they attended the proper ivy league school, if they are from the East Coast, and more importantly, if they are willing to ascribe to the set of values that the other elites espouse.

The "international community" to the liberals, represents the opinion of the majority of elitists around the world and therefore, must be right. Concepts like national sovreignty are anathema to them. That is why liberal media outlets like the Washington Post, insist on internationalizing Saddam's trial.

Yet it is a sense of national pride (and sovreignty) that is so needed by Iraqi's at this point. Just as liberals don't seem to understand that diversity means having a sense of pride in your own heritage (whatever that may be) and instead seek to reduce everyone's heritage to a rough equivalency, so they are seeking to do the same with nationalism.

The Iraqi people were the ones who suffered the greatest under Saddam and they should be the ones to try and, hopefully, execute him. It is necessary for all of Iraq to acknowledge the injustice that was done in order for the country to move beyond this painful event. It is also necessary for the Iraqi people to realize that the future (just as Saddam's future) is in their hands.

George Will has an excellent commentary on why the trial of Saddam should be in Iraq.

Hooray for Heroes

I'm one of those guys who watches the credits after the movie is over. I want to see things like where the movie was shot and who's on the soundtrack. DVD's are even better. I watch all the special features. I like to know what makes a movie tick.

I'm interested in historical events in the same way and that's why I was so pleasantly surprised yesterday to find some additional information.

Since the end of "official hostilities" in the Iraq War I've been on the lookout for accounts that give a closer look at the actions of our soldiers. Books like, Boots on The Ground by Karl Zinsmeister, are good, but I'd have to say the definitive book on battles during the Iraq War has yet to be written.

Yesterday, I came across a link on Blackfive that pointed to an incredible arcticle at the LA Times on The Thunder Run into Baghdad. You may have to register to get to the article but it's worth it. This is the best narrative I've seen yet that seems to capture the essence of that conflict, including the story of heroic actions under fire by US Soldiers.

There are several accounts of the battle. The LA Times' is the best one, but the others help to provide some perspective and as a junkie for this sort of thing, I like getting the extra detail. This article from The Telegraph is excellent. The articles here and here. Finally, there is this article that provides some understanding of the tactics behind The Thunder Run.

Sitting behind my computer all safe and secure in the Midwest, it's sometimes difficult to imagine the bravery of those in uniform. In the stories above, the bravery of the supply units who literally drove gasoline tankers through a hail of bullets, is the most impressive.

Slow News Day

It seems that everyone is writing about the French et al. getting cut out of the Iraq contracts. Unfortunately, I don't see that there is anything new can possibly add except to say that it's about time we did something like this.

I'm not sure I can stand the mainline media howling about how unfair this is, or the liberal hand-wringing about how this is going to make all the countries dislike us, blah blah blah...

So in the absence of anything truly compelling to write for now, I'll leave you with a special treat below...

Missing A Link?

If you've missed the previous four months of this blog, well, then I guess you've missed a lot. The Iraq War, Politics, Religion...see what you've been missing with a helpful guide.

I started this weblog because I felt a desire to write about certain things that came to mind. The idea of someone else being able to read them has always been secondary to meeting that need. I've found that doing the blog has helped me to order my own thoughts and opinions a little better and served as the catharsis I hoped it would for expressing certain things.

Since I've been doing this blog for a little over four months now there are some interesting articles, I think, that are getting buried and might otherwise be of interest. I've grouped them together in categories with some commentary for anyone who might be interested in looking at them.

Politics

My own foray into politics has resulted in some observations described in Democracy is Messy. Several times I've made mention of neoconservatives mostly because I identify myself as such, but that doesn't mean that I give a pass to obnoxious Republicans. In Survey Says I discuss the questionable fundraising and downright sleazy tactics of Congressman Tom Delay. Legislators ought to forget about laws against spam and concentrate instead on eliminating the massive barrage of mail (both electronic and snail) sent to hapless voters leading up to an election year.

Of course, I couldn't get into politics without reflecting my utter disdain for Howard Dean and others of his ilk. Their willingness to tolerate mass murder for political gain is addressed in the unfortunately titled, Modern Neville. Of course, guys who financially back Howard Dean and others like him aren't any better. One person gets mentioned twice in Out of The Woodwork and Billionaire's Bad Day.

Finally, I couldn't ignore one especially eloquent speech given by GWB at Whitehall in Speech at Whitehall with the text of the speech here. Then there was the exploration of the ongoing battle being fought in The Culture Wars which also references Reagan's Evil Empire Speech.

Iraq War

It's no secret that I'm a pro-Bush guy. Heck, I even have a Blogs for Bush link. Even though I'm a supporter there've been a few posts critical of the administration. Between Friends looks at some deficiencies in the course of the Iraq War, especially the lack of a sufficient number of troops which has led to porous borders. Iraq Woes looks at the large number of injuries and fatalities in Iraq and wonders if there isn't something else that should be done.

No blogger these days can ignore the Iraq War. Without it we'd be forced into doing nothing but examining Michael Jackson's allegedly sordid personal life and wondering how long Trista will stay married. Relative to What? examines the cost of this war in a historical context. In Must See TV I even make a little prediction that should net me some royalties. Destiny Manifest isn't really a look at the Iraq War, but it highlights the noble values of many of our soldiers. (Hey this isn't the NY Times - when I say our soldiers I don't mean Al-Qaeda or the Palestinians.)

Religion

The Episcopal church has provided me with plenty of fodder for posts. Brand X and Divide and Prosper address that controversy. I've also focused on the Presbyterian Church and it's doctrinal struggles in Follow The Leader. Exploring the doctrinal issues also lead me to write Why I Believe, a sort of mini-apologetic for my beliefs.

Humor

I've made some attempts at humor too. Every Man has His Price reveals my inner desire for an el-cheapo tote bag and Special Delivery chronicles my recent struggle against pesky sales reps.

Blog-O-Rama

Through the past 4 months or so I've come to depend on a few other bloggers for insight and advice into some crucial issues. Evangelical Outpost has been a great help, even linking to me a few times. Blackfive, Collection of Thoughts, Argghh! and Sgt Hook have provided tons of good information on The Iraq War. For news, World Magazine has been excellent in their recently-started weblog. Mark Byron has been a good source of religious information and comment. By far, the most humorous blog has been The Politburo Diktat.

If you've missed this blog for the previous four months, you can now consider yourself up to speed. I hope you've enjoyed it. I've even considered adding a line to the masthead that says, "Over 4 Readers Served" since that's about how many I have on any given day, but then I remembered that I don't write this blog for anyone but myself. Feel free to send me email if anything you read here resonates with you in a particular way.

Why I Believe

Recently I've noticed a few blog articles that deal with the subject of defining Christianity in various ways. The Evangelical Outpost has an interesting article, Fundies, Holy Rollers, and Born-agains: Defining Religious Labels and there's a hostile article purporting to be A Primer on Fundamentalism.

Ultimately, the whole definition thing gets to be pretty confusing. As a result, I thought I would skip beyond that and just give my own reasoning behind my religious faith and leave the definitions to someone else.

The convincing reasons for my faith aren't necessarily scientific or even meant to be. They may not convince anyone. If you're looking hard enough for holes in them, you're likely to find them. If you're looking for something airtight, you'd be better off reading one of the classic works of aplogetics by someone like CS Lewis or a compendium of arguments like this one, or by just reading the Bible for yourself.

My beliefs can best be summed up by this statement but the reasons why I believe are as follows:

1. The Illogical Nature of Evil
   There are the common criminal acts done every day like murder, stealing, etc. For most of these there's a logical reason behind them. They were either "crimes of passion" or motivated by greed or envy or any number of (more or less) rational reasons. I'm not talking about those types of acts. The illogical acts of evil I'm referring to are ones like the Holocaust where millions of people were killed for no apparent reason. Evolutionary theory can't explain the cause of the holocaust. There is no rational reason to explain such an event aside from acknowledging an Evil Entity that exists outside our normal human experience. The existence of such an entity then argues for the existence of a corresponding Good entity for without one the other would, by definition, not exist.
   
2. The Testimony of The Saints
   
   Many great men and women of faith have preceded me, some of whom I've known and others known only by history. They range from the incredibly intelligent to the most humble. They literally bet their lives on Christianity. I admire them all. Am I so arrogant as to assume that there is some kernel of truth that they missed in considering where to place their faith? They made a calculated risk in choosing to follow a certain path. Am I so different from them? Of course not. Therefore, I choose to follow the same path.
   
3. The Veracity of The Word
   
   The Bible contains some difficult concepts. At times, it seems to contradict itself. There are things that I don't understand and even a few things that I find almost unbelievable. It doesn't fit together perfectly, but as a whole it makes sense. If I were to invent a religion I would make sure everything fit together exactly. I would make it simple. The Bible is none of those things and that's part of what convinces me of it's authenticity. It can be understood within the context of itself but it doesn't fit together perfectly like something invented by man. There are more complex reasons why I believe in the veracity of the Bible but they ultimately boil down to the fact that it seems genuine and convincing to me, not concocted.
   
4. The Lack of Realistic Alternatives
   There is no alternative worldview that satisfies me. All of them require much more faith than Christianity.
   
5. Personal Experience
   I've personally experienced God's love, comfort and blessing in a way that convinces me experientially that he is for real.

There are two further points that I'd like to make.

• Legitimate Christianity is all or nothing
  I'm constantly amused by people that say Jesus was a great prophet but couldn't possibly be God. Judging by the things He said, either he was God or he was evil. If he wasn't God then at the very least he was misleading his followers to their deaths for the sake of a lie. If he wasn't God, then he was a traitor to his people because he failed to use his considerable skill in the fight against the Roman occupation. If he wasn't God, then he must've been hallucinating and/or mentally ill to make statements about rebuilding the temple or being able to cure people. There is no halfway point. Either he is what he claims or he is a lunatic.
  
• Some People Will Never Understand
  Some people seem incapable of believing the Christian faith. There may be many causes for this spiritual blindness but ultimately it makes no difference. They will never see.

I don't know that my reasons for believing convince anyone, but they convince me. They provide comfort and hope for me in the midst of doubt. It ultimately doesn't matter how I'm defined in terms of Christianity; whether I'm considered a fundamentalist or evangelical. The only thing that matters is that I've examined everything and have placed my faith where it is most warranted.