November 2008 - Posts
For the past couple of weeks I've been really wanting to watch Braveheart again. For a couple of reasons, a) it is a great movie and b) because of the message William Wallace shares with his "troops". I'll include it at the bottom of this post.
How important is freedom and liberty to you? What is your definition of freedom, of liberty? What role does government have in determining those freedoms and liberties? Which of those liberties or freedoms are you willing to forfeit to the government and for what reason?
Is it acceptable to give away a reasonable expectation of privacy if you are calling a known terrorist overseas?
Is it acceptable to give away a reasonable expectation of privacy if you are calling your cousin Faid (not a terrorist) in Lebanon?
I accept that we have a line here that is very blurry. I am at heart a libertarian (not the Libertarian Party). I want very few things from my government. I want them to protect me from enemies, foreign and domestic. I want clean water and good streets. I want a fire department to help me if my house is on fire. The question here is, is listening in on phone conversations with known terrorists protecting the nation (me) from enemies foreign and domestic? I believe that yes it is, and therefore I am willing to waive that liberty, with certain checks and balances in place. I am not naive enough to believe that my government does everything perfectly and never abuses its power, more directly that the men and women of the government abuse their power, but I do believe that with the right oversight we can strike the proper balances.
I am concerned about how we as a nation have been gradually giving more and more of our liberties to the government since the 20's and in greater speed since the 60's. We provide social security, assuming that our citizens are too dumb to provide for their own retirement. We provide welfare with very little if any incentive to get off of it. We have a drug prescription entitlement. Our government has agreed to spend over 3 trillion dollars of our money to float companies that have made bad business decisions. That's $3,000,000,000,000. TWELVE zeros!!! We now have a president-elect that has stated that he wants a citizens defense force similar in size, funding and stature to our military. I'm not sure what that means yet, but I do know it is worth watching. He speaks of "spreading the wealth". Unfortunately our government is already way too good at that, but he doesn't think it is good enough.
I love my country, I love being from the United States of America. In the past we were looked down upon because we didn't meet the standards of Europe, even after WWI. After WWII that seemed to change, and the world at large began to respect and even fear us (as formidable advisories). Now, due to poor foreign policies we are not only not feared, but not respected except by a few. Why is that? I think that is because as a nation we have a short memory. We cannot remember the effort and blood that has been required in the past to preserve the freedom and liberties that so many of us willingly hand over to our government. We have people in our country that feel we must cave in to external pressures and be like everyone else in order to regain that international respect. I strongly disagree. We, as a nation, must continue to preserve and defend freedom around the globe. We must stand strong to our own internal politics of defeat and socialism. We must act as though we are worthy of being respected as a formidable foe or we are doomed to be attacked again and again both from outside and from within.
Pray for our country, pray for our leaders. Pray that we will have leaders that are willing to do what is needed to keep our country free and maintain our liberties.
A co-worker just reminded me of a cartoon I used to love watching. Here is the intro song.
The video disappeared, so just linked to a different one.
As the title suggests, today is election day, 2008. I know there are Christians in both parties. I know there are may people praying today that "their" candidate will win. I have seen arguments, which I agree with, stating the horrible policies that Senator Obama supports. These arguments state that due to these policies as a Christian, one should not vote for him. I also know that Senator McCain is no angel. He has his flaws and is not the true conservative that I would like him to be.
The point of this post, however, is about tomorrow.
We all have to remember that God is sovereign. We must remember two important parts of scripture, Isaiah 55:8-9 and Romans 13:1-7.
Isaiah 55:8-9
8 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,"
declares the LORD.
9 "As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
God is letting us know, through Isaiah that He is in control. He knows everything that has happened, is happening and will happen. He is infinitely more aware and IN CONTROL of what is going on than we will ever be capable of understanding.
Romans 13:1-7
1 Everyone must submit
himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except
that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been
established by God. 2 Consequently,
he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has
instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For
rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do
wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then
do what is right and he will commend you. 4 For
he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for
he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent
of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore,
it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of
possible punishment but also because of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God's servants, who give their full time to governing. 7 Give
everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue,
then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
He will put in place the ruler that He needs to direct our country to fulfill His purposes. As a Christian, my assumption is that God, would put in place a leader that would most conform to the beliefs Christ put in place. However, I can also see where God turned the nation of Isreal over to the Babylonians because of their, the Isrealites, sin. Am I saying that if Senator Obama wins this election it is a mandate from God, for us to turn away from our evil deeds? NO! That isn't what I am saying. I am saying that we as humans cannot understand His purposes.
It is our responsibility to pray for and support our leaders whether we agree with them or not. If we do not agree with them we must pray for them even more. Pray that God works on their hearts.
If you haven't voted yet, make sure you do so today.
If you're like me and watch all of your TV online then you might be looking for a way to watch the election coverage tomorrow night. Silicon Alley just published this post showing links to a variety of sources depending upon your political bent.
Go vote, then watch the results.
The IIS Team released a new version of the URLScan tool this weekend
to help mitigate against SQL Injection attacks, and a few other
issues. You can see the info and get the download here.
In addition to that, I wanted to point out an important additional page
that gives out info on how to configure the .ini file. That page,
Common URLScan Scenarios, is located here.
The documentation on the download page indicates that you need to
uninstall any previous versions of URLScan, however the FAQ indicates
that if version 3.0 beta is installed the 3.1 version .dll will be
installed, but the .ini file will not be updated. You can get the new
.ini file from here.
Many thanks to the IIS team for the constant series of updates they've been providing.