A Day At The Office
Monday, October 26th, 2009Five office workers with too much time on their hands.
Archive for October, 2009
Change We Can Believe In?
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009Why is it a bad thing when a ruler listens to corrupt advisers? Proverbs 29:12 says, “If a ruler listens to falsehood, all his officials will become wicked.”
In recent years we’ve seen an ever growing trend of corruption in our governmental leadership. During the second term of the Bush administration Democrat Party leaders appropriated the phrase “culture of corruption” as a political slogan in reference to a series of Republican scandals. California Representative Nancy Pelosi, after being chosen Speaker of the House in the 2006 midterm elections, pledged that she would “drain the swamp” turning this Congress into “the most honest and open Congress in history.” Three years later the swamp still seems pretty murky. President Obama on his first day in office made one of the toughest ethics pledges of any president. Eight months into his administration the so-called “culture of corruption” seems more corrupt than ever. Here are some examples of dishonesty in the Obama White House:
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says the Obama administration “rescued the economy from the worst recession.”
Senior Advisor David Axelrod says, “It is very important that we have the kind of competition and choice that will help consumers,” but getting rid of state barriers, “is not endemic to the kind of reforms we are proposing” (i.e. a public option).
Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett to this day refuses to answer questions about the dilapidated Chicago slum housing complex managed by her company, Habitat, Inc.
Senior Advisor Pete Rouse continues to vote in Alaska while improperly claiming a property tax deduction on his Washington D.C. residence.
Vice President Joe Biden has a laundry list of many gaffs, exaggerations, made-up stories and bald-faced lies that are well documented.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also enjoys a long list of falsehoods that include Travelgate, cattle futures, Whitewater, and a host of other fabrications and exaggeration.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner lied on his income taxes.
Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack lied about nonexistent newly developed life saving treatments as Governor of Iowa to explain his flip-flop on a human cloning ban.
Labor Secretary Hilda Solis claims she and her husband were unaware of 15 outstanding state and county tax liens against her husbands business.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claims there isn’t anything about the public option that would ration healthcare.
Transportation Secretary Raymond LaHood informed the Detroit Economic Club that the dark days of the domestic automobile industry are over thanks to the heroic efforts of the Obama administration.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu insists “there’s very little debate” that a new green energy economy will bring economic prosperity.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan argued that we have an obligation to disregard politics to do whatever is “good for the kids”, then buried the findings of a politically inconvenient study in order to dismantle the D.C. voucher program
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano asserts that “illegal workers crossing the border is not a crime per se.”
Certainly this is not comprehensive and I haven’t even mentioned the Czars or any past Chicago cronies of questionable character outside the White House, but it helps us understand why it is a bad thing when a ruler listens to corrupt advisers. Rulers who listen to falsehoods create an atmosphere in which corruption is acceptable. “All his officials will become wicked.” He invites a standard of corruption that affects the entire administration. It affects the kind of advisors he appoints. It affects their counsel, it affects their behavior, it affects public opinion.
Character does matter. The argument, “We’re not electing a Sunday school teacher, we’re electing a president,” just won’t wash. It’s high time Christians stop casting our votes based on empty promises and bumper sticker slogans like “hope and change” and start taking a stand on the biblical convictions we say we hold so dear. Maybe then we can do something about ending corruption on Capitol Hill.
Why Some People Just Don’t Get It
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Proverbs 28:4-5 says, “Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law strive against them. Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the LORD understand it completely.”
What is the connection between understanding and righteousness, and how does it affect our choices in who we will praise? The wisdom of God is the moral compass that distinguishes right from wrong; those who seek wisdom understand righteousness, while those who seek evil do not understand justice. The obedient uphold justice and stand against the wicked, while those who forsake God’s Word find justification in others who disobey. A couple of glaring illustrations of this played out in the media last week, the arrest of Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski and David Letterman’s shocking revelation on “The Late Show”. In both cases we see some amazing examples of people that just don’t get it.
Believe it or not, I actually saw the very first airing of “The David Letterman Show”, a live weekday morning talk show that debuted the summer of 1980. I thought Letterman was hysterical. Later on when he moved to late night I watched him religiously along with many of my college buddies. Since moving to CBS back in the early 90’s I haven’t cared for him much and in recent years I’ve found him to be more and more distasteful. But I was never more disappointed than at seeing Letterman’s late night bombshell last Thursday night, and in particular the audience reaction to his admission.
Letterman told the audience that he had to testify before a grand jury earlier that day concerning an individual who wanted $2 million or else he would produce a movie about all the terrible things Letterman has done.
“I was worried for myself, I was worried for my family,” he said. “I felt menaced by this, and I had to tell them all of the creepy things that I had done.”
“The creepy stuff was that I have had sex with women who work for me on this show. My response to that is yes, I have. Would it be embarrassing if it were made public? Yes, it would, especially for the women.”
Now for me it wasn’t so much the confession that I found particularly disturbing. As I said I find Letterman more and more distasteful. It was the response of laughter and applause by the studio audience. Now I know some have tried to excuse this by saying that the audience was confused. They just thought it was part of the act. And certainly Letterman did his best to poke fun and make light of the situation. But come on, folks. Is this really a laughing matter? Is it worthy of applause? Apparently for some people it is. If this is what passes for humor these days then what are we really saying about ourselves? So here we have a perfect example of people “praising the wicked”. Why? Because they just don’t get it.
Which brings us to the Roman Polanski case. It seems that Mr. Polanski got himself arrested in Switzerland last weekend on his way to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The 76-year-old film director was taken into custody on a U.S. warrant associated with a 1977 conviction for statutory rape. Someone had apparently tipped off Swiss authorities that he would be landing at the Zurich airport. The British newspaper The Observer reports on the backlash in Hollywood over the arrest. Here’s a brief excerpt:
The list of supporters giving Polanski their impassioned support read like a Who’s Who of the cream of the movie-making world. It included, among many others, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Harvey Weinstein, Pedro Almodóvar and Ethan Coen.
But rather than rallying mass public support for the beleaguered film-maker – director of such undoubted classics as Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist – they have provoked an extraordinary backlash.
Led by a handful of outspoken female voices, a rising tide of opinion has instead applauded Polanski’s arrest for unlawful sex with a 13-year-old back in 1977. They have turned the focus on the crime itself, calling the director an accused rapist who abused a child…
There is little doubt that the case is extremely complex. In many ways both sides are dealing in black and whites and not the shades of grey that too often more accurately describe reality.
For Polanski’s defenders, that has meant ignoring the act that took place in 1977 and instead focusing on judicial wrongdoings that have plagued the case and Polanski’s own tragedy-tinged life.
They point out that the director pleaded guilty only as part of a deal, which he then feared was being reneged upon. That is why he fled, they say. They also refer to his past – as a Holocaust survivor and a man whose wife, Sharon Tate, was brutally murdered by followers of Charles Manson – as evidence that he has already borne much suffering in his life.
Finally, his sterling record as a film director is held up as evidence of why he should be celebrated as a leading artist, not arrested for a crime where even the victim has asked for him not to be pursued after such a long time. Perhaps it is no wonder that many in Hollywood have described his plight in terms that make Polanski himself the martyr. Weinstein said the arrest was a “terrible situation”. Actress Debra Winger said the Swiss had been involved in “Philistine collusion” in allowing the arrest. [Actress Whoopi] Goldberg [on the ABC TV show The View], in now notorious remarks, said: “I don’t believe it was ‘rape-rape’.”
But, as the outrage has grown, especially in the wake of Goldberg’s remarks, the sheer scale of Hollywood’s misjudgment in rallying so enthusiastically to Polanski’s cause has begun to be exposed.
Those pesky Philistines. You gotta watch ‘em like a hawk. And can anyone please tell me what in heaven’s name Whoopi’s even talking about? Because the last time I checked rape is rape. You know what I’m sayin’? Either he did it or he didn’t do it. There’s no “rape” and then there’s “rape-rape”. The man plead guilty to “rape”. Period. End of story.
Sheesh! Solomon was right. Some people just don’t get it. Those who forsake God’s Word have no understanding of justice. They identify with those who seek evil and consequently they praise the wicked. What more can I say?
