There is a posting going around Facebook which lists the twenty-one people of the mass group killed by ISIS or ISIL terrorists. The names are given for twenty of them (one is listed as worker), so that we can pray for them by name. I have done this, though I'm sure I mangled their names. But nice thing about it, God, as the trinity, will recognize them anyway.
I would like to add an extra element to that prayer which I hope Christian after Christian will add to their petitions to the Almighty.
I pray that each of the individual twenty-one people who participated in the deaths of these Christians be caught and brought to justice for this. May any individual who kills Christians anywhere be brought to this same kind of justice.
Father, I thank you in advance for your help in this matter.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
The Law and Vaccines
The handful of Americans who read my blogs are aware that I frequently write about basic human rights (Yes, I have a better audience in other countries than I have here). Remember how I explain them? Don't I always say that as long as I don't infringe on the rights of others, you don't have the right to tell me what to do? Implied in this definition of basic human rights is that I have no right to harm my neighbors and they have no right to bring harm to me and my family. Well, on what planet is it okay to expose others to killer diseases and viruses if there is a way to prevent those illnesses?
Enters the modern parent, the one who heard of a research project that suggested that the MMR vaccine might be the cause of autism. In comes the paranoid fear of all vaccines. The parent becomes so fearful that he/she/they refuse all vaccines for the children.
As in many, many situations, it would behoove all such parents to consult their elders. Take me, for example. I had measles -- two kinds, apparently. I had mumps. I had chicken pox. A friend and neighbor lived out his years in an iron lung because he contracted polio as a child. A relative had mumps as an adult and was unable to sire children afterward.
There are/were doctors who have dedicated their lives to developing vaccines to keep us from harm. They have stopped endless itching, threats to our vision, complications of fallen mumps, weeks of isolation, scars and death. But we won't realize that protection without the vaccines.
It's amazing how many families here refused the vaccines on behalf of their children's health when what they are doing is risking that health. Until recently, our country has seen few victims of these horrendous ailments, but that is changing. Indeed, we even have reason to fear that enemies may deliberately expose us to these and worse contagions.
Parents can be vehement about not wanting their children to be exposed to the risk of autism. But how are they going to feel if it is their child that is the one in a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand that dies from an illness that a vaccine could have prevented?
Each generation becomes better informed, more savvy and more assertive about child care. We take more and more responsibility over what happens to our children. But we are not always right!
So, to our government officials, I say this. It is okay to use the law to protect the country concerning vaccines. If it were only our own lives or our children's lives we were risking, that would be one thing. But it is not okay for people to threaten the general population for any reason except for a child's preexisting medical concerns. No, not even religion should stop you in this cause.
Besides, the results of that first study have been refuted. Researcher after researcher has discovered that he/she could not replicate the results. Whether on purpose, or by accident, that doctor got the wrong results. If it were not so, other researchers would have gotten his results, too. That means MMR vaccines are not what causes autism. That cause still has not been discovered.
Enters the modern parent, the one who heard of a research project that suggested that the MMR vaccine might be the cause of autism. In comes the paranoid fear of all vaccines. The parent becomes so fearful that he/she/they refuse all vaccines for the children.
As in many, many situations, it would behoove all such parents to consult their elders. Take me, for example. I had measles -- two kinds, apparently. I had mumps. I had chicken pox. A friend and neighbor lived out his years in an iron lung because he contracted polio as a child. A relative had mumps as an adult and was unable to sire children afterward.
There are/were doctors who have dedicated their lives to developing vaccines to keep us from harm. They have stopped endless itching, threats to our vision, complications of fallen mumps, weeks of isolation, scars and death. But we won't realize that protection without the vaccines.
It's amazing how many families here refused the vaccines on behalf of their children's health when what they are doing is risking that health. Until recently, our country has seen few victims of these horrendous ailments, but that is changing. Indeed, we even have reason to fear that enemies may deliberately expose us to these and worse contagions.
Parents can be vehement about not wanting their children to be exposed to the risk of autism. But how are they going to feel if it is their child that is the one in a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand that dies from an illness that a vaccine could have prevented?
Each generation becomes better informed, more savvy and more assertive about child care. We take more and more responsibility over what happens to our children. But we are not always right!
So, to our government officials, I say this. It is okay to use the law to protect the country concerning vaccines. If it were only our own lives or our children's lives we were risking, that would be one thing. But it is not okay for people to threaten the general population for any reason except for a child's preexisting medical concerns. No, not even religion should stop you in this cause.
Besides, the results of that first study have been refuted. Researcher after researcher has discovered that he/she could not replicate the results. Whether on purpose, or by accident, that doctor got the wrong results. If it were not so, other researchers would have gotten his results, too. That means MMR vaccines are not what causes autism. That cause still has not been discovered.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
A Cut-Throat Perspective
Deflate-gate, physically hurting our competitors, using steroids and other drugs -- all in the name of winning -- is downright disgusting! "Well, others are doing it, so I will, too." Well, others didn't get caught. You did.
The human soul is becoming totally corrupt. Everywhere we turn, sociopaths prevail. Is it in our DNA now? Has it always been? Or, has people's abuse of alcohol and other drugs spun a mutation of sorts, an error in the human genome?
Whatever the cause, the spin is out of control beginning with what we value and what we respect. However in this world did we get to the point that athletics and sports became centermost in our lives? They override Broadway, movies, television, family, church and home. Today, as "ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths percent" of American citizens stop to view the big game, we find the sociopathic efforts to win hanging a veil of shame over the activities.
It is said that more than half the footballs used by the playoff winners were deflated, which gave them an advantage. Was it an accident? Odds are it was not, considering the number in question. Will we ever know who did it? The why is easy. To win. The how -- yes, how in this world could someone carry out such a thing after the balls were inspected? And why don't the teams use the same balls anyway?
In this never ending age of the "media pounce", it is insane to think such a thing would go unnoticed and unspoken.
Now, the team that won the playoffs will never know for sure that they really earned the right to go to the Super Bowl. Neither will the fans. Odds are they would have won without cheating, but nobody will ever know conclusively. Likewise, if they win the Super Bowl, nobody will ever know if they should have.
But the most basic question of all is, in this day of injuring our opponents to get them out of the game, what has happened to our basic value system that athletics, sports, or anything else should have become so worshipped that we would risk our very moral fiber just to win?
An underlying theme the first Rocky movie portrayed (long past forgotten), second best can sometimes feel very good. So, let's forget this everlasting cut-throat perspective and return sports to their proper place in this world. They are but a source of entertainment. It is not a basic need of mankind to win, win, win. Tainting athletics is not going to put food and water on the table or a roof over the head. It is just going to bring shame to all.
The human soul is becoming totally corrupt. Everywhere we turn, sociopaths prevail. Is it in our DNA now? Has it always been? Or, has people's abuse of alcohol and other drugs spun a mutation of sorts, an error in the human genome?
Whatever the cause, the spin is out of control beginning with what we value and what we respect. However in this world did we get to the point that athletics and sports became centermost in our lives? They override Broadway, movies, television, family, church and home. Today, as "ninety-nine and forty-four one hundredths percent" of American citizens stop to view the big game, we find the sociopathic efforts to win hanging a veil of shame over the activities.
It is said that more than half the footballs used by the playoff winners were deflated, which gave them an advantage. Was it an accident? Odds are it was not, considering the number in question. Will we ever know who did it? The why is easy. To win. The how -- yes, how in this world could someone carry out such a thing after the balls were inspected? And why don't the teams use the same balls anyway?
In this never ending age of the "media pounce", it is insane to think such a thing would go unnoticed and unspoken.
Now, the team that won the playoffs will never know for sure that they really earned the right to go to the Super Bowl. Neither will the fans. Odds are they would have won without cheating, but nobody will ever know conclusively. Likewise, if they win the Super Bowl, nobody will ever know if they should have.
But the most basic question of all is, in this day of injuring our opponents to get them out of the game, what has happened to our basic value system that athletics, sports, or anything else should have become so worshipped that we would risk our very moral fiber just to win?
An underlying theme the first Rocky movie portrayed (long past forgotten), second best can sometimes feel very good. So, let's forget this everlasting cut-throat perspective and return sports to their proper place in this world. They are but a source of entertainment. It is not a basic need of mankind to win, win, win. Tainting athletics is not going to put food and water on the table or a roof over the head. It is just going to bring shame to all.
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