Trading Freedom for Safety

The following comes from NPR:
Senate Approves Extension Of Patriot Act Anti-Terror Provisions

by Eyder Peralta

With a 73-23 vote, the Senate voted to approve a four-year extension of three controversial provisions of the Patriot Act.

The AP reports:

It extends two provisions of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, one allowing roving wiretaps, the other allowing searches of business records in the pursuit of terror threats. A third provision gives the government power to watch non-American "lone wolf" suspects with no certain ties to terrorist groups.

All three provisions are viewed as valuable tools by law enforcement officials but are opposed by some who say they can lead to privacy rights abuses.

One staunch opponent of the extension was Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Bloomberg reports Paul tried to delay the vote and tried to amend the bill.

Read the balance of the article at: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/05/26/136693690/senate-approves-extension-of-patriot-act-anti-terror-provisions

This reminds me of a quote from someone that goes something like this: Those who give up their freedom for safety will have neither.

Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM

Want to know what our wars are costing us? Click on this link.
Cost of War to the United States | COSTOFWAR.COM

Christianity, Hockey, and Good Advice

This is re-posted from The Anchorhold @ St.Laika's ( http://jh002a0382.typepad.com/the_anchorhold/# )I especially like the last paragraph.
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The great hockey player Wayne Gretsky said, 'I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.'

I believe this skating for the puck is about searching for where God is at work dismantling barriers and transforming lives, not where we have already been. I believe it is about discovering fresh ways to embody God's love among the people, in surrounding neighborhoods, across every barrier, trusting the Spirit of Christ to transform lives. This is what it means to be a missional church whose primary purpose is lives being transformed by the Spirit.

The Church did not begin as an institution whose survival its members were enlisted to ensure. It began as a movement of believers, whose lives were being transformed by the Holy Spirit and summoned by God's love into the streets to announce the Good News.

-- Roy Howard

The Daily Show - Poetry

Did you see The Daily Show last night (May 11, 2011)or did you hear about the poetry slam that was at the White House on one of the news programs? I missed The Daily Show but I did hear a portion of one of the poems by a gentleman known as Common. In the poem he was talking about equality and he ended the poem with three lines that simply blew me away. The line was, "One King's dreams was able to Barack us." The line was repeated three times. Now an individual that might have something positive to say AND was invited to the White House by the Obamas is an instant target for Fixed News(aka Fox News). They immediately did what they do best and took one portion of one line from one of Common's poems and quoted it completely out of context. This gave The Daily Show the opportunity to put together a really easy segment. (John Stewart should really send a thank you note to Fox News for making his job so easy.) Listen on this link to what John Stewart had to say about Fox News' commentary. (Be patient the clip starts out by talking about other subjects.)
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-may-11-2011/tone-def-poetry-jam?xrs=share_copy

It is really sad that a show that is designed as comedy is able to broadcast more accurately about the news of the day than a 24 hour news network. But then if we are really honest with ourselves we have to understand that Fox News is not news. The kindest way to characterize it is to call it commentary. The more accurate discription is propaganda.

As Christians Should We Celebrate a Death?

On May 2nd, the morning after we received the news that Bin Laden was killed I realized that what I was thinking would not be accepted by many people. To celebrate the death of any individual is somehow wrong. Was / had he turned into a monster? Yes! But as Christians we are told and are suppose to believe that everyone is a child of God. We would be well served to reflect on how anyone can become what Ben Laden had become. A possible answer to that may be that when anyone or any religion or any faction of a religion decides to hate it is the start down a road that leads to even greater hate and destruction. This is probably what Ben Laden allowed to happen. He took one of the world's great Abrahamic - monotheistic religions and twisted it toward hate. This was embraced by a small faction and we saw the result of this on9/11/01 and since. As Christians, if we are not careful, we too can allow hate to motivate us. Indeed some have. Examples of this can be seen in history as Nazi Shinheads, the KKK,and during the 1930s as isolationists. Caution is called for in our reactions. Caution is called for in our jubilation. We need not go down the same road as Bin Laden.

Having written my thoughts in a notebook, that you see above, I was pleased to see on an NPR post on Facebook the following story. Perhaps my thoughts are not so lonely after all.

Is It Wrong To Celebrate Bin Laden's Death?

by Linton Weeks

A crowd gathers outside the White House early Monday to celebrate President Obama's announcement that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

May 2, 2011

Impromptu celebrations erupted near the White House in Washington and ground zero in New York when news of Osama bin Laden's death was reported and tweeted.

Laura Cunningham, a 22-year-old Manhattan reveler — gripping a Budweiser in her hand and sitting atop the shoulders of a friend — was part of the crowd at ground zero in the wee hours Monday. As people around her chanted "U-S-A," Cunningham was struck by the emotional response. She told New York Observer: "It's weird to celebrate someone's death. It's not exactly what we're here to celebrate, but it's wonderful that people are happy." …To read the balance of this article go to: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/02/135927693/is-it-wrong-to-celebrate-bin-ladens-death