Thursday, March 6, 2003

Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy QUOTE OF THE DAY "To fly, we have to have resistance." - -Maya Lin RHINO HERE: MoveOn is movin' on, big time. Their "No Link" ad is running in over 100 newspapers across the nation, their "Inspections Work. War Won't." billboards are up in Detroit, S.F. & L.A., and the same  message is on a quarter of  the busses in Washington D.C. A PDF file of the "No link" ad is at: http://www.moveon.org/localads/localad.pdf A PDF of their billboard & bus layout is at: http://www.moveon.org/billboards/ Also on Tuesday they initiated an emergency petition to the U.N. Security Council.  Rhino doesn't believe in the petitions that circulate around the net instructing that if you're number 500 or whatever, you should email it to...  Those are bogus, but this is the type you sign at a web page, they compile the hard copies & deliver them to where they'll make the difference. Today, just  2 days after it was launched, over 550,000 people have signed, from over 200 countries.  It's a strong message from the peoples of the world that the Security Council should support tough inspections in Iraq, not war.  It's gotta be the fastest-growing online petition ever &  the largest in history.  MoveOn will deliver the petition to the U.N. Security Council on Monday. If you haven't already, I urge you to join me in signing it at: http://www.moveon.org/emergency To donate tothe efforts of MoveOn.org, go to: http://www.moveon.org/support.html Give Peace A Chance & Go To Jail D'ya hear the one about the guy who bought a "Give Peace A Chance" T-shirt at a mall  & sat down in the food court with his son, only to be confronted by 2 security guards who ordered him to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall. No really. This actually happened. So when  he refused, police from the town of Guilderland [near Albany NY] were called, arrested him & off he went in handcuffs, charged with trespassing. As it turns out, the guy is the director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges.  Keystone Kops at work? ...or shades of the Nazi Youth Corps? http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20030304_651.html Viet-Nam Memorial Wrapped At 6:30 last Sunday morning, as the sun was about to rise, Park Rangers discovered the Viet-Nam Memorial was covered end to end with a layering of white tarps. "NO WAR IN IRAQ" was spelled out in large, lavender colored, block letters.  In front, the tarps were sealed together with re-enforced duct tape. On the backside, the riveted edges of the tarps were pulled back over the grass with white ropes & tied & staked to the ground, making it impossible to see the names of any of the dead. White House mouth man, Ari Fleisher commented, "This is one more example of the lies and deception practiced by those who are against this war."  Rangers were ordered to get rid of the tarps ASAP before the media could show & get any photos.  No one has yet to claim responsibility for the Memorial wrapping. The Christos, infamous artistos known for wrapping public sites were unavailable for comment. 12:21:00 PM    comment

THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE today is going to be a bit unorthodox. Instead of my normal singled out article, I'm offering a smorgasbord  of articles making similar points from a variety of perspectives.  The theme is the insanity of those who think George W. Bush is some kind of prophetic entity sent by God to either fix the ills of the world, or worse yet, believe he will be the catalyst for Armageddon. Not a happy topic, but with these crazies out & about, we just better be keeping our guard up. First off, get a load of "The Presidential Prayer Team". Then prepare yourself for a few journeys through history and back to the "real time" real weird world. http://presidentialprayerteam.org/ When U.S. Foreign Policy Meets Biblical Prophecy "Does the Bible foretell regime change in Iraq? Did God establish Israel's boundaries millennia ago? Is the United Nations a forerunner of a satanic world order? For millions of Americans, the answer to all those questions is a resounding yes..." http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=15221 Bush is the Political Messiah of Triumphalist 'Joyous Secularists' Rev. Fritz Ritsch writes, "Bush's religious supporters are his greatest cheerleaders... He is the leader of the America they think God has ordained. Contrary to popular opinion, the religion that this group espouses is Triumphalism, not Christianity. Theirs is a zealous form of nationalism, baptized with Christian language. The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was martyred by the Nazis, foresaw the rise of a similar view in his country, which he labeled 'joyous secularism.' Joyous secularists, said Bonhoeffer, are Christians who view the role of government as helping God to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth. He viewed this as human arrogance and a denial of God's sovereignty; but joyous secularism has an appeal that crosses religious boundaries, and now has added force in the US because it has found its political messiah... In a nuclear age, American triumphalism is not only spiritually bereft, it is, quite possibly, apocalyptic in its implications." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19122-2003Feb28.html Crusader Babbitt Gene Lyons writes: "So have we really been transported back to the 12th century A.D. with Bush as Richard the Lionhearted and Osama/Saddam as Saladin, in a replay of the Third Holy Crusade? We'd better hope not, because although medieval prophets convinced Richard that recapturing Jerusalem from the Muslims would bring about the Second Coming and usher in the millennium, he dragged back to England defeated in 1192...The origins of Bush's flirtation with End Times rhetoric, however, are no more remote than the New York Times Best Seller List, specifically the prophetic  novels of Hal Lindsey ('Blood Moon') and Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins'  'Left Behind' series. Selling in the millions, these books are a florid updating of a 19th century school of bible-based soothsaying called 'premillenial dispensationalism.' Radio and TV evangelists, including the ubiquitous  Jerry Falwell peddle this gibberish to millions." http://www.bartcop.com/022603lyons.htm Baptist Leaders Embrace Bush's Crusade The Baptist Standard writes, "Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, argued Bush's sense of divine oversight is part of why he has become such a good wartime leader--he brings a moral clarity and self-confidence that inspires Americans and scares enemies. 'We don't inhabit that relativist universe' of European leaders, Land said. 'We really believe some things are good and some things bad.' It's even possible that Bush's belief in America's moral rightness makes the country's military threats seem more genuine because the world thinks Bush is 'on a mission'... http://www.baptiststandard.com/2003/2_17/pages/bush_preacher.html War out of compassion "By attacking Baghdad, US president George W. Bush wants to fulfill a divine order. In the highly religious United States, there has rarely been such a deep connection between national power interests and fundamentalist false piety. Christian fanatics are calling for a crusade against Islam..." http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/english/0,1518,236692,00.html Bush talking more about religion & faith to solve the nation's deepest problems Tuesday, February 18, 2003 WASHINGTON (AP) -- "I welcome faith to help solve the nation's deepest problems," President Bush told a convention of religious broadcasters last week. Earlier, in his State of the Union address, he said, "The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world, it is God's gift to humanity." The president, often portrayed as using a strict good-and-evil compass to navigate national issues, has always peppered his speeches with exhortations to moral and civic duty. And with war, tragedy and terrorism confronting him all at once, Bush's allusions to spirituality and morality seem to be increasing. Speaking to the broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee, last week about the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Bush said, "We carried our grief to the Lord Almighty in prayer." Hours after the shuttle Columbia disintegrated, Bush turned to religion and a quote from the book of Isaiah to help console the nation. "The same Creator who names the stars also knows the names of the seven souls we mourn today. The crew of the shuttle Columbia did not return safely to Earth; yet we can pray that all are safely home," the president said. Expressions of faith and values are familiar ground for American presidents, and this one, who became a born-again Christian in the 1980s after concluding he was drinking too much, is no exception. Yet lately, Bush has gone beyond his usual broad remarks on the power of faith in general to use language and ideas specific to Christianity. It is a welcome message for some, particularly the evangelical Christian conservatives whom Bush is courting as he seeks a second term. Some others are uncomfortable.... http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/18/bush.faith/index.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. 11:57:57 AM    comment

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