Videos – Free video downloads and streaming video – CNET TV

via cnettv.cnet.com

I love Buzz Reports…btw Google was just sued (Class Action Law Suit). And don’t wear Old Spice?

Videos – Free video downloads and streaming video – CNET TV

via cnettv.cnet.com

Google Nexus One beats iPhone 3GS in Prize Fight

Idols

From “Counterfeit Gods” by Tim Keller.
“We think that idols are bad things, but that is almost never the
case. The greater the good, the more likely we are to expect that it
can satisfy our deepest needs and hopes. Anything can serve as a
counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.”

Untitled

Let's all pray for Haiti…

JR Smith’s blunder

via sportsillustrated.cnn.com

nice JR

Emmaus Bible Academy

Emmaus Bible Academy kicks off tomorrow.
Morning classes at 10:00am. Evening classes at 7:30pm.
Courses offered: Genesis, English Bible Reading, Bible Culture Explore, The Gospel of John

Global Warming Scam?

As Congress passed Cap and Trade bill, and many environmentalists plan to meet in the near future to discuss the issues of Global Warming…and Al Gore wanting to use a super computer to project the future weather patterns, new reports are coming out that suggest that Global Warming concept has been a scam.

Germany’s Der Spiegel noted this “problem” for global warming alarmists yesterday:

Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

…The Earth’s average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year.

(see full article here. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/p-j-gladnick/2009/11/20/al-gore-proposes-using-supercomputer-projections-scare-people-global-w )

To add to the controversy, it has been found that the Global Warming Advocacy Center in UK had its computers hacked into. And according to hacked emails, the Center’s scientists were discussing how to manipulate temperature data to reach the conclusion they wanted. The Center’s Dr. Phil Jones sent an email discussing a method of overlaying data of temperature declines with repetitive, false data of higher temperatures. In other emails, scientists have also discussed hiding unfavorable data, how they could not find any evidences of global warming, etc. (read here – http://hotair.com/archives/2009/11/20/do-hacked-e-mails-show-global-warming-fraud/ )

So…why all these global warming talk when they don’t even have data? Well, you always have to follow the money in politics. This was supposed to be new income for them and government. New form of taxes are being implemented all over the world because of the fear of Global Warming. If they were genuinely concerned about Global Warming, then they should be the first to change their habits…but they fly their private jets, Al Gore runs more electricity than the entire town he lives in, they buy the biggest cars they can afford…

I believe as Christians we should take care of our planets. We should not pollute our environment. But I can’t stand it when people use manipulative measures to control what we can and cannot do, and take our basic rights away (no taxation without representation, right?).

Another plea for people…please research and weigh the both sides of issues. Do not make your decisions based on what the media tells you or what your government tells you.

Obama lied…

As Christians, we have duty to pray for our leaders, whether you agree wtih his political idealogy or not. But exactly what should we pray for them? Should we pray that he succeeds in implementing his ideas and hopefully the nation will come out ok or should we pray that he fails with his agendas so that the nation will be ok? Or should it be somewhere in between?

Personally, I find it difficult to pray for or support President Obama’s plans. I think it will lengthen our current economic woes and he just doesn’t seem to care all that much. Rush Limbaugh mentions that we have $3 trillion of wealth that disappeared since the Inauguration. But Obama simply refers to it as something like Presidential Tracking Poll. Hmmm…

Furthermore, Obama is very deceptive with his style over substance languages and sadly, not enough people can see through it.

Here’s one column that I came across today. This one excerpt demonstrates who true Obama is.

As he said last week: “As soon as I took office, I asked this Congress to send me a recovery    plan by Presidents Day that would put people back to work and put money in their pockets, not because I believe in bigger government — I don’t.”

This he asserted despite the fact that the budget he proposed the next day asks for federal spending as 28 percent of gross domestic product, higher by at least 6 percent than any time since World War II. Moreover, after 10 years, Obama’s proposed spending as a percentage of GDP still would be 22.6 percent, nearly 2 percentage points higher than any year during the Bush administration despite the full costs of Sept. 11, the Iraq and Afghan wars and the rebuilding of New Orleans after Katrina.”

Full article here: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_tony_blankley/obama_lied_the_economy_died (it’s pretty short but good article.)

Here’s what I see happening. All the market problems we have will not be resolved. Obama’s plans will just prolong the inevitable for some companies. More and more companies will leave US and take jobs with them, due to higher taxes and cap-and-trade program. People will stop working harder, because if they exceed certain amount, they’ll be taxed like crazy. Taxes on EVERYONE will go up, because that’s the only way you can pay for Obama’s programs. And without some extraordinary events, we won’t see this economy turn around under Obama. We have to remember that FDR actually prolonged the Great Depression with his big government. What got us out of it was the World War II.

I just pray that Obama will somehow realize faults in his plans and return to the fundamental ideas that made this nation great!

vp debate and bail-out thoughts

I was out and was little late to the debate, so I missed the first part of it. I did tune in via radio, and at least on radio, Sarah Palin sounded very nervous. I hurried home to catch about 50 minutes of the debate. Sarah Palin sounded much better on TV…

So…my thoughts on who won and some of the things both VP candidates shared last night…

Sarah Palin did what she needed to do. She sounded confident for most part (at least on TV). She held her own against Joe Biden. There were lots of doubts about Palin, especially after her recent interviews. But she silenced those doubts. It probably has to do with the fact that her interviews were edited, and we did not see how she did in its entirety. The liberal media tends to only show what they want us to see. But she did great last night. I believe she proved that she can handle this job well.

She wasn’t perfect by any means. She did not answer some of the questions directly. She also had few opportunities to nail Obama and Biden, but she chose not to. Was that a part of strategy set forth by McCain camp? If it was, then that’s a wrong strategy.

For his part, Joe Biden sounded very smooth and knowledgable. He knew his stuff. Before the debate, I heard that Obama’s camp wanted Biden to stay low and just go through the debate without showing himself off too much. And he did that. He did exactly what his campaign wanted him to do.

I would call this debate even. But I think Republicans came out better off. Sarah Palin’s performance really re-energized the base. Obama has been leading in the polls lately. But much of that is not so much the increases in his support, but decrease in support for McCain. But I think the momentum will shift the other way. I certainly hope so.

Anyways, since so many liberal media outlets decided to take a cheap shot at Palin for not pronouncing the name of the U.S. General in Afghan…here is my cheap shot at Senator Biden. Senator Biden, you should know that the Article 1 of the Constitution talks about Legislative Branch, not Executive Branch, as you have so boldly stated in your answer about the role of VP. I know you want to emphasize the Executive Branch to lay all the blames for poor economic conditions on Pres. Bush, but your party controls both Houses of Congress. The Founding Fathers wanted to emphasize the role of Legislative Branch from where all of our policies are set. That’s why it is talked about in Article 1.

Real shots at Senator Joe Biden:

1)Under Obama’s Tax plan, 95% of the people will get a tax cut – really? That is not simply possible. Because not even 95% of the people in US pay taxes. If you don’t pay tax, you can’t get a cut, right? Bottom 50% of the taxpayers pay 2.8% of all the taxes. Top 10% of taxpayers pay close to 80% of all the U.S. taxes. Who should be getting a tax break? I am probably as close to the bottom as possible (pastor’s salary), but I know what is fair and what is not. Also, while people may get income tax cuts, Obama will raise taxes on Capital Gains, amongst others. If you make a profit for selling your house, expect to fork a big chunk over to the Feds. He will also drive up the small business taxes. While keeping big corporation’s business tax at 35% (still way too high compared to other nations), his plan will set the small business tax as high as 68%. So you run a business, you make $1.00 profit, you get to keep 32 cents under Obama.

2) Biden keeps blaming Bush’s deregulation policies for current problems – well, Democrats are the ones who blocked the bill asking for more oversight for Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae, because they are so closely tied together with them. Look who got paid off most by Freddy and Fanny (Chris Dodd, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden are top 3). Not only that, it is the government that coerced these lending institutions, with the treat of investigation, to approve loans for people who do not qualify for the loan. No income verification needed. In some cases, illegal immigrants got close to $1 million in home loans. All these started under Clinton and have been fueled by Congress who loved getting paid off by them. Oh, ACORN was involved too…are they still getting 20% of the profit from the bail out plan? They are involved in several voter fraud scandals favoring Democrats, in case you didn’t know.

I can go on…but this post is getting long…so real quick thoughts about Bail-out plan.

The House disappointed me with the passage of this bill. All the credit freeze and scare tactics used by banks to get money worked, I guess. So, taxpayers are on the hook for minimum $700 Billion. By the time this folds out, the bill will be over $1 Trillion.

Was there really an emergency to warrant this bill? I don’t think so. If there was real emergency, congress sure didn’t act like one. If it were a real emergency, why so many tax break codes to sweeten the deal? What started out as 3 page bill originally, ended up being over 100 pages on Monday, which the House rejected. But when the Senate passed it on Wednesday, it was over 450 pages long, filled with special interest tax breaks. Harry Reid praised Chris Dodd for working so hard on this bill. Working so hard? What was he working on? Well, for one, you get a excise tax break on a wooden arrow for children imported from a certain country that is certain size. You also get a excise tax break on Puerto Rican Rum (people still drink rum?). If you do a business on Indian Reservation, you get a special tax break. If you hire an American-Indian, and you are in a certain sector, you get a tax break. What do any of these have to do with the Mortgage and Financial Crisis? These were nothing but sweetners to convince lawmakers who voted against it on Monday to vote for it. And it worked, sadly.

Another thing they sneaked in there. Now you are required when you buy health insurance to get mental health coverage. You can’t just get physical health coverage. You have to get mental health coverage. This will, of course, lead to your premium increase. Some people will be forced to drop their health insurance, because of this increase in premium. Then the Democrats will come back and say the number of uninsured has increased and we must do something about it, pushing for Socialized Medicine once again. See how calculating they are in turning US into a socialist country?

If you were an investor, you would never invest in these junk securities and bonds. But you are forced to, at the price of close to $1 Trillion, because our federal government, who got us into this mess, deemed it good for American taxpayers. And they got us going down the road to Socialism…

Too bad no one is really standing up for Americans. And sadly, not that many Americans know about this. They love the fact that their politicians lie to them. They are so ignorant. I echo the sentiments of Rush Limbaugh, who said that the ignorance is the most expensive commodity we have. It costs us so much money. Ignorance is easy people. Let’s learn the issues and root of everything!

Sovereignty vs. Free Will

So, I have to take this class as a part of my CPM (Committee on Preparation for Ministry) requirements. We were discussing Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin in the class and their views on Sovereignty of God and Free Will of man. The professor asked us to discuss if both of these statements can be true:

1) God is all-powerful.

2) Man is free (as in man has free will).

What our professor was suggesting, at least it seems to me, is that if God is all-powerful, man cannot be truly free. If Luther and Calvin’s understanding of Presdestination were to be true, is man truly free?

Well, here is the problem I have with that thought. Free will here is defined as choosing from many choices without any external forces or predisposition. I can do whatever I want to. But if this were to be true, there needs to be an infinite number of options and choices. I can’t be bound by anything. And we know that is not possible at all. I can’t jump off of the Empire State Building and expect to survive. So the discussion went as if man were not truly free.

But that’s not the real definition of Free Will, is it? If that were the defintion, then God can’t be free either. God is bound by something. Obviously not with the things that bound us, but there are certain things God cannot do. God cannot act against His nature or His wants and wills. For example, God cannot sin. God cannot create another god. God cannot make a rock so big that He can’t lift it (or can He?).

Free will is not choosing without any predisposition or limitation. Free will is simply acting in your nature and your wants. We all have free will. But the problem is that our free will leads us to sin, because by our nature, we are sinners. Unless there is an abrupt interruption to our nature, we will always choose to sin. That’s where grace comes in. God, graciously, decided to interrupt and enter into our lives to change our nature. That has to happen first, before we can come to God. God extends this grace to whomever He wants to. “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,” the Bible says.

So, my being a follower of Christ, is not depend on my choice, but God’s sovereign choice to enter into our lives. And isn’t that a good news? Salvation does not depend on my choosing. It is in the hand of God. And I know that it is secure, because, unlike me, He does not make mistakes.