It has been a while since we have discussed national security issues. I walked away from the topic so that all parties concerned might have a chance to calm down. But Bradley Manning was just sentenced to thirty years plus, and his big announcement right afterwards was that he wanted to start the Chelsea hormone shots immediately. Edward Snowden, geek extraordinaire, was living with a pole dancer, and leaked NSA secrets to Glenn Greenwald of the Guardian, whose boyfriend was recently detained at Heathrow for nine hours where authorities took a bunch of his stuff. Snowden, searching for an open and free society that wouldn’t extradite him, settled on Russia, for now. Our president went on a charm offensive, explaining to all us hypers that the NSA wasn’t listening in on our phone calls, and then whoops, it turns out that the NSA was accidentally on purpose doing exactly that. Other than that, everything’s normal, and so I think I can come back to the discussion without any fear of anything worsening.
Of course, never underestimate the power of politicians when it comes to their particular field of expertise, which is that of making things worse. So I make this statement with all due qualifications.
So I have just a couple modest proposals. Others might come to me.
The first is this: we need legislation right now that requires all congressmen to carry smart phones at all times, and they would have to be hackable. This would enable concerned taxpayers to set off alarms periodically, depending on how their guy just voted. We could have coded alarms depending on how many trillion it was.
The second is the creation of C-SPAN 3, or whatever number we are up to now. This would be a network dedicated entirely to drone surveillance of congressmen. If the constituency so desired, they could subscribe to special features that would give them close-ups of their delegation.
If sarcastic humor is substantive, good work! Otherwise, I fail to see much more than a political rant, which is fine at a diner having tea. But I am sure the bible has something of value to add here. Maybe…I am sure Rome had some corrupt pols. How did Jesus deal with them? I can’t find any political rants in the gospels. As a fellow post-mill guy and equally cynical about pols, I would love to see more than axe-grinding, no matter how well-written.
BJ, this isn’t church. Chill out.
Darrell, I suppose I need to find a diner and some hot chamomile. I have just grown to appreciate Doug’s incursions into politics and was let down when I got nothing but sardonic sass. Moreover, I am a post-miller who is surrounded by decidedly not-post-millers whose political insights all end up somehow ending with, “I just wish Jesus would come back, soon. This place is a mess.” Maybe next time. Have a nice evening.
“Otherwise, I fail to see much more than a political rant, which is fine at a diner having tea.”
And a blog is substantively different from a diner booth how? :-)
I agree that if all we ever got here was this kind of rant, there would be something important lacking. But stick around, the main course will get here eventually.
I’m still befuddled over that line about not being able to find any political rants in the Bible.
Charlie, you make my point for me. What I actually said was there were no political rants, by Jesus, in the gospels. But this was my original point, there are many substantive political interactions (not sarcastic rants), mostly in the OT (not so much in the gospels), by the prophets and apostles who were being shut down, beat, and imprisoned by the local governments. As someone who cares very deeply about Christianity on this side of Heaven, I was looking for some good ole post-mill tinted enlightenment. I suppose at this point I should apologize for being so impatient and… Read more »
BJ,
Yeah, Doug will get there. He has already, for that matter.
FWIW, the first biblical political rants that came to my mind were in fact from Jesus, in the gospels. Whether exposing political corruption, moral duplicity, unconscionable presumptuousness, or plain ole selfish ambition, Jesus was doing eviscerating political satire way before it was cool.
BJ, I am not saying this in a sarcastic fashion, but what I would tell non-post-millers is to grow up and grow a s…..pine. In a previous post Pastor Wilson mentioned Hugh Latimer’s “play the man” quote. There are so many men, over so many years of whom the “world is not worthy” that had to stand tall with little to no chance of ever seeing anything but a “messy place”. Less whine, more bread and wine, Charlie Mike.
Maybe BJ doesn’t realize that the Pharisees, Saducees, & Scribes were the political & religious machinery of the day.
Mr. Clark, Actually the Romans were the political machine of the day. This is why the Jews after their conviction of Jesus deferred to Pontius Pilate for the actual execution. It is true that they used their religious influence in a political way to amass power and control over the people (including the Romans), and it was this perversion of the biblical truth that Jesus hammered them on over and over. So I guess if one wants to argue, one could claim that Jesus was a political reformer, and his relentless criticism of them was political, but I think spiritual/religious… Read more »
BJ, check out Doug’s book Serrated Edge. He claims the Bible is full of satire. While I don’t agree with all the examples, he makes many good points. //
Concerning political leaders, you are right about the Romans having more power as an occupying power, but there were political Jewish leaders, or which the Sadducees and Pharisees were prominent. They exercised various degrees of power during the Roman occupation, but I believe were not sentence capital crimes. I think Annas may have been removed as highpriest for sentencing someone to death.
Gonna speedy right quick send this to my Congressman ;)