Ain't Complicated

Martial Law and Clergy

Could martial law ever become a reality in America? Some fear any nuclear, biological or chemical attack on U.S. soil might trigger just that. KSLA News 12 has discovered that the clergy would help the government with potentially their biggest problem: Us.

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If martial law were enacted here at home, like depicted in the movie “The Siege”, easing public fears and quelling dissent would be critical. And that’s exactly what the ‘Clergy Response Team’ helped accomplish in the wake of Katrina.

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For the clergy team, one of the biggest tools that they will have in helping calm the public down or to obey the law is the bible itself, specifically Romans 13. Dr. Tuberville elaborated, “because the government’s established by the Lord, you know. And, that’s what we believe in the Christian faith. That’s what’s stated in the scripture.”

Romans 13:1,2 is definitely applicable to Christians:

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

So unless the government requires you to do something contrary to God’s Word and ways, submit.

That said, I think Christian ministers working hand-in-glove with the State like that is contrary to the Scriptures.

Mennonites and Government Schools

Mennonites may flee Quebec town:

Members of Quebec’s only Mennonite community say they may move to Ontario or New Brunswick so they can keep their children in a private school that suits their religious beliefs.

Fifteen English-speaking Mennonite families in this small community in the Monteregie region say they won’t send their children to government-approved schools, balking at the teaching of evolution, the acceptance of gays and lesbians and low “morality standards.”

They say they are considering relocation out of fear that child-protection officials will seize their children.

Other townspeople here — mostly francophone Catholics — support the primarily English school, deemed illegal by Quebec’s Education Department.

The story continues:

He said about 30 members of the community — young couples and their school-aged children — will have to move before school starts. The others will follow.

News reports last year about unsanctioned schools led to a complaint to the Education Department about the Mennonite school.

Parents were warned they would face legal proceedings if their children aren’t enrolled in sanctioned schools this fall. That could lead to children being taken from families

And this:

In Roxton Falls, the vast majority of non-Mennonites strongly support the school, said the town’s Mayor, Jean-Marie Laplante. This week, he wrote letters to the education department and Education Minister Michelle Courchesne in an effort to save the school.

We’ll see how it all shakes out.

I empathize (or at least sympathize) with my fellow-Mennonites and fellow-parents, but I wonder if Mr. Goosen didn’t overstate his case with this comment:

“It boils down to intolerance to our religion” by education officials, said Ronald Goossen, who in the early 1990s was among the first Mennonites from Manitoba to move to Roxton Falls, a sleepy town on the Riviere Noire, about 100 kilometres east of Montreal.

If they truly fail to meet whatever standards the state has, then change or move or appeal, but please don’t play the intolerance card.

Thanks.

🙂

Russia Widens Its Carbon Footprint

Alternate title over at Yahoo! News: Russia revives Soviet-era strategic bomber patrols

Russia is immediately to resume the Soviet-era practice of sending strategic bombers on long-range flights well beyond its borders, President Vladimir Putin announced here on Friday.

My take: The revival continues.

The United States played down the Russian announcement.

“We have very good working relations with the Russians, with the Russian military,” US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said

Well, good deal.

The announcement came days after Moscow said its strategic bombers had begun exercises over the North Pole and just a week after Russian planes flew within a few hundred kilometres (miles) of a US military base on the island of Guam.

On Wednesday a top US commander said that Russian bombers had been making increasingly frequent flights approaching US territory for several months.

Both Britain and Norway’s air forces have taken to the skies in recent months to monitor the renewed Russian air force activity, at a time when relations with Britain are in crisis over the poisoning in London of a former Russian agent, Alexander Litvinenko.

Shortly before Putin’s announcement, a Russian air force official said long-range bombers were carrying out patrol flights on Friday in various parts of the world, including the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and the Black Sea.

Thankfully, they’re partners, eh?

Amero: Never Mind Gold

Has the time come?

A currency union, similar to the European Union “Euro” has been proposed for North America. The name of the new currency is the “Amero”. The Wikipedia encyclopedia article has additional details about the “Amero”. This has been the source for many conspiracy theories tied in with other proposals such as the “Canamex Corridor”.

These private-issue fantasy pattern coins will be struck as an annual series (until such time as it is no longer legal to do so), starting in the latter part of 2007.

Some pieces are available for immediate delivery . . . .

Final mintages will be determined by sales. The 2007 issues will be available for order until no later than December 31, 2007, and none will ever be minted or available after that.

The 2007 designs feature various Seated Liberty obverses and a similar Eagle & Globe reverse (except for the Jamestown 400th Anniversary commemorative issue which features Pocahontas).

WikiWatch: Good Deal

There’s a lotta censorin’ going’ out there:

Editing your own entry on Wikipedia is usually the province of vain celebrities keen for some good PR. But a new website has uncovered dozens of companies that have been editing the site in order to improve their public image.

I’m glad the Wikipedia Scanner came along. I hope they help clean up Wikipedia.

Meanwhile, I wonder what it has to say about Mark Roth. Excuse me while I exercise my vanity enough to go check . . . .

I might have guessed.

With so many Mark Roths out there, how come he’s got that WikiCorner all to himself?

Maybe I’ll try my hand at improving the information at Wikipedia. 😉

Oh, let me see what comes up for James Roth (since Mark is my middle name) . . . .

Ha! Nothing there yet! Maybe . . . .

😀

Lured Kids?

This is amazing:

It matters to the security of people here at home if we don’t work to change the conditions that cause 19 kids to be lured onto airplanes to come and murder our citizens.

Kids, Mr. President?

Lured?

That is stunning to me.

And when it comes to causal conditions, were none of those fellows educated and such?

And what about those other “kids” more recently in trouble in the UK? You know, those doctors?

Amazing.

I really do think Mr. Bush or Tony Snow or somebody at the White House needs to clarify that. (But it probably can’t be done.)

Preparing for the MoAB

As in Mother of All Battles — to use an old SaddamH expression.

The Reds Are Getting Together as Sri Lanka’s Daily News reports under their own headline:

The leaders of China, Russia and four Central Asian countries meet in Kyrgyzstan this week to pursue what is widely seen as an anti-US agenda, before attending large-scale war games in Russia to underline their group’s rising clout.

Presidents Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin will join the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek on Thursday for the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Founded six years ago, the SCO covers a vast territory including increasingly important gas and oil fields in Russia and Central Asia, as well as the emerging economic giant of China.

The six countries deny forming an anti-Western alliance. According to the Chinese ambassador to Moscow, Liu Guchang, the Bishkek summit will discuss “longterm good-neighbourliness, friendship and cooperation.”

But many analysts see the SCO as a growing bastion against US expansion into Central Asia and against Western pressure for free elections and open media.

Even if the organisation remains loosely integrated and modestly funded, military exercises held last week in China and this week in Russia’s Ural Mountains — with SCO presidents due to attend the final day on Friday — show that intentions are serious.

Under the innocuous sounding title “Peace Mission 2007” about 6,500 soldiers backed by planes, heavy weapons, and paratroopers are training to seize a fictional settlement.

Most of the troops are Chinese or Russian, but for the first time all SCO member states will contribute personnel.

While advertised as “anti-terrorism” exercises, the manoeuvres more closely resemble full-scale military assaults in built-up areas.

The International Herald Tribune adds this tidbit:

Representatives from the SCO’s four observer states, Iran, India, Mongolia and Pakistan, will attend the Aug. 16 summit but not the war games, Li said.

Iran, whose President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be attending his second SCO summit, is among those reportedly interested in joining the SCO as a full member.

Some Islamic states are interested in playing MoAB with the “Commies”?

Half of those observer states have nukes and Iran is hot on the trail.

Speaking of nukes, will Libya eventually want to be another MoABite player?

Then how about this piece from “America’s Newspaper”?

Libya is sitting on a stockpile of almost 200 barrels of uranium despite agreeing in 2003 to dismantle its nuclear program, the Daily Telegraph has learned.