National Press Club - Hmmm

On Monday 27 September 2010, the National Press Club in Washington, DC was the venue for a news conference on the subject of UFOs. The NPC website makes no mention of the event in its news section and various search attempts proved futile. The only conclusion to draw regarding the lack of NPC publicity is that the event was of the "non-sponsored" variety. It must have cost the former Air Force fellows a small fortune to secure the podium and pay for the cookies.

While the conspiracy clubs are all a-tremble with discussions of "disclosure", the media and government took the opportunity to mock or trivialize the event. Gannett/USA Today reporter Ledyard King was assigned to attend but his report was piped to local outlets rather than appearing in the flagship newspaper. Instead, USA Today noted the conference with a stub leading to the trivia piece by Mitch Marconi, staff writer for the Post Chronicle, which in turn linked to King's report. (Culpable reliability?)

As for government acknowledgment and interest in what the former airmen had to say, the cookie monster from the Washington Post reported that "a "John Bailey" from the House Armed Services Committee" attended. The outsourced USA Today reporter offered that . . . "an Air Force spokeswoman cited a 2005 fact sheet that said: "Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations."" Topic dismissed.

When it comes to supporting individuals and issues, The National Press Club favors the pompous over the purposeful and the cliches over the questions. Why bother with investigations, reports or findings by serious inquirers, when fact sheets, top-ten lists and analyses by very important impotents will do for national public consumption? May that be the information we glean from yesterday's NPC event news coverage.

The Seven Sages Of Greece

1) Solon of Athens:
"Nothing in excess"

2) Thales of Miletus:
"Caution attracts ruin"

3) Bias of Priene:
"Most men are bad"

4) Gleobulus of Rhodes:
"Moderation is the chief good"

5) Priander of Corinth:
"Work is hastened by thought"

6) Pittacus of Mitylene:
"Catch the opportunity"

7) Chilon of Sparta:
"Man know thyself - and thou shall know the universe"

Copied from the website of The Golden Age Project.

For The Love Of God Story

Once upon a time in the late twentieth century there was a middle-aged divorcee who lived in the bible belt of America. Her name was Laura.

Laura had three children who were all just about out on their own when she met a man named Daniel. He was also a divorcee and had one grown child. At the time, Laura worked as a bookkeeper for a department store. Daniel was a self-employed landscaper. They had met one day, quite by accident, and fell in love at first sight.

For the next couple of years, Laura and Daniel lived apart because neither one was prepared to remarry (they both had unhappy first marriages), and Laura still had one child not quite out of the nest. Once the last child was off on his own, Daniel moved in with Laura. They began to make plans for their future together.

Laura and Daniel counted their pennies, measured their savings and reviewed their retirement plans. They determined how much they could spend on a home of their own and began making plans to buy one. They were very, very happy, and very much in love.

By the time both of them reached retirement age, they had found their home. Hardly ever are there two people so in love as they were. Hardly ever is there such a warm and happy home as theirs was.

Some years into their retirement, Laura suddenly became ill one day and was rushed to the hospital. Daniel was frantic for all the days it took the doctors to find out what was wrong. Laura remained unconscious the whole time. Daniel never left Laura's side except for when she went for tests. When the tests were finally completed, the doctors told Daniel that Laura might never talk or walk again. Daniel's heart broke into pieces.

It was a week later when Daniel went back to their home for the first time since Laura was sick. For hours, he cried and he prayed and he begged God to make Laura well again. Then, without sleeping, he returned to the hospital. He sat beside her bed and he whispered in her ear: "Laura I love you. Do not leave me, please. I can not live without you and I don't want to. You can heal, Laura, I know you can and I will carry you every step of the way. I promise."

Later that day, Laura came out of her coma. One month later, she was back in her beloved home with Daniel. Together, they began doing everything they could think of to make Laura well. In three months, she was starting to talk in a whisper. In six months, she began to use a walker. Within a year, Laura's voice was strong and she could sometimes walk without assistance. Laura and Daniel felt like they had experienced a miracle.

Laura so believed that she had been blessed with a miracle that she decided to go to church. Daniel was not very interested in attending church. Both of them believed in the Christian God and the Good Book but neither of them had been to church for many years (except for special occasions). At first, Daniel was willing to go to church for Laura's sake. Daniel told Laura just that. Laura was not surprised to hear this. She knew Daniel very well. She had begun to make new friends at the church and soon he was off the hook and did not have to go.

About a year after she had been going to church, Laura announced to Daniel that she was moving into the guest room of their home. He was shocked. "Why?!" he asked her. "We live in sin," she replied.

Daniel went to see the church pastor. He told the pastor of his love for Laura. He explained that they would jeopardize their medical insurance, their pensions and even their home if they were to legally wed. Daniel pleaded for help from the pastor. The pastor responded, "I can not change the Laws of God". Daniel's heart broke into pieces.

Two years after Laura started going to church, which was one year after Daniel spoke with the pastor, Laura's health began to weaken. At first the doctors gave her stronger pain medication. Then they prescribed medicine to correct her mental and emotional balance. The medicines did not help. She began having slips and falls and slurring of speech.

Laura and Daniel spent their last years living under the same roof. Laura could not get to church anymore but she read her Bible every day (mostly the Book of Job). Daniel kept his eyes glued to a flat screen wall television (a birthday present to himself).

Laura was assured of one thing: She might qualify for heaven. She was nearly as certain of another: Daniel might too.

And they lived eternally happy ever after.

What Happened To Pastor Manning?

This blog had nothing but praise for Pastor James David Manning in May of this year when he organized and conducted a citizens' trial to determine the citizenship of #44, Barack Hussein Obama.

Pastor Manning is back in the headlines with a video clip entitled "Pastor James Manning on Burning the Quran on 9/11". It was a shock to behold.

James David Manning is a new man. He's shed a few pounds and gives the impression of being fit, healthy and energized. His face is smooth, toned and polished. His haircut wasn't done by the local barber, that's for sure. He appears to be wearing a fine new suit of clothes. He looks ten years younger.

The stage where he records his sermons is completely renovated. The draperies that formerly served as the background have been replaced by a dark gray screen (or wall) and garnished with a $2500 floor globe. He has two new monitors behind his shoulders - where once there were none. He has a new microphone and a new chair. (Can't tell about the desk just yet, but really, unless it was of sentimental value. . .). There's a new camera with zoom feature and apparently a cameraman. The icing on the cake is a colorful crawler on the screen.

So it seems the pastor has recovered from the exhausting work of the tenth amendment trial and that his ministry has since entered a new era of prosperity. Revived and revitalized, Manning calls on Americans to recognize "the Muslim threat".

Manning opened his remarks by citing the great Qur'an burning we've been hearing so much about in the news. Manning defends Terry Jones' first-amendment right to burn 200 books (mail ordered?) but cautions the Floridian pastor that such an act might incite trouble from the Muslims.

According to Manning, "all religions want world domination" and therefore Muslims want world domination. He said that Jesus said to go out and baptise and bring the gospel to all world, implying that Christianity was an exception to the world domination statement. Manning stated that the idea of a one-world religion is a near-impossible one to accomplish. However, if such must be the order of things he thinks it should be Christianity.

As God's representative, the pastor was compelled to refer us to The Bible to increase our knowledge regarding "Islam, Muslims and all Arabic-tongue people". He said that God said that they were "wild" people from their beginning, with the birth of Ishmael, and would remain so until Jesus returns to straighten them out. He told us that Muslims kill each other more frequently than any other people on earth. (In fact, an adulteress will be stoned next week in Iran, he reported.) Manning cited (and had beamed on the crawler), Genesis 16: 10-14 to explain why these people are the way the are. In order to get a clearer understanding of who's who and what's what, we tell the whole story, beginning at Verse 1 from the King James Version:

Hagar and Ishmael

¹ Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, "The LORD has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her."
Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived.
When she knew she was pregnant, she began to despise her mistress. ⁵ Then Sarai said to Abram, "You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the LORD judge between you and me."

⁶ "Your servant is in your hands," Abram said. "Do with her whatever you think best." Then Sarai mistreated Hagar; so she fled from her.

⁷ The angel of the LORD found Hagar near a spring in the desert; it was the spring that is beside the road to Shur. ⁸ And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from, and where are you going?"
"I'm running away from my mistress Sarai," she answered.

⁹ Then the angel of the LORD told her, "Go back to your mistress and submit to her." ¹⁰ The angel added, "I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count."

¹¹ The angel of the LORD also said to her:
"You are now with child
and you will have a son.
You shall name him Ishmael,
for the LORD has heard of your misery.

¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man;
his hand will be against everyone
and everyone's hand against him,
and he will live in hostility
toward all his brothers."

¹³ She gave this name to the LORD who spoke to her: "You are the God who sees me," for she said, "I have now seen the One who sees me." ¹⁴ That is why the well was called Beer Lahai Roi; it is still there, between Kadesh and Bered.

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne.

¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael.

The pastor was off the mark when he said that God said. It was an angel speaking, not God. As for the pastor's inference that this included "all" Muslims, that is not what the text states. Like most pastors, he exaggerated and pontificated beyond reason. Since Manning's technician did not put up any other biblical text references, it will be assumed that the part about "all Islam, Muslims and Arabic-tongued people" are and always will be "wild" is a lie. Ishmael was the only one pronounced 'wild" in the story. Ishmael's conduct was certainly no surprise given that his mother was forced to have sex with her employer's husband, mistreated for being miserably pregnant, forced to leave, then ordered to return by an angel who prophesied her child would be nothing but trouble.

(As an aside, Christians need to make up their bible-believing minds about whether or not the sins of the fathers are passed on, forgiven when Jesus arrived, or ongoing curses.)

Also, Manning made a point of identifying Ishmael as a "bastard". Rather amusing accusation given the circumstances of the pregnancy and seen in the light of present day socio-familial arrangements. The law no longer permits slave pregnancies, however one can buy a baby, a womb or a cup of sperm at reasonable prices. (Attorney's Fees Not Included.) These days when a wife brings another woman to the marital bed it's for fun and games. (See the Friends episode, the one where Ross' first wife arranges a menage-a-trois.)

Manning tries to convince his audience that the United States of America is under threat by Muslims. With a coward's bluster, he plants an idea in the minds of his own community, saying "some people have suggested" that pigs blood be collected and thrown at mosques in America. He explicitly pointed to the nine-eleven anniversary and the site of the "mosque at ground zero". No mosque will be built AT ground zero. The proposed construction is a Muslim-American community center to be located on the grounds of the old Burlington Coat Factory, 45-51 Park Place. It includes a prayer room, just like any other religious community might include in their community center building plans.

Christian Pastor James David Manning believes that America should have a zero tolerance for Muslims. He advocates a "complete stamping out of all Muslims." Such an attitude is neither American nor Christian. Perhaps there is a reasonable explanation for the pastor's vicious intolerance and complete lack of charity: He's one of those pod people now.