The impeachment song: (To the tune of “Please release me, let me go”)
The latest verse now deals with the VA hospital scandal:
VA healthcare, it is said:
Deny, delay until they’re dead.
Be found out, it is my dread
my epitaph will state: You have been had.
The complete song: https://lenbilen.com/2015/02/25/the-complete-obama-impeachment-song/
The earlier verses on this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4HcLMWbrz4&feature=player_detailpage
Is ‘Freedom of Worship’ Religion?
Confusion? Yes, more than a smidgen.
Both Barry and Hillary
make Freedom auxiliary.
The first of five freedoms: Religion.
The First Amendment has two clauses about Freedom of Religion. The first part is known as the Establishment Clause, and the second as the Free Exercise Clause. The Establishment Clause prohibits Government from passing laws that establishes an official religion or preferring one religion over another. The courts have interpreted the establishment clause to mean “separation of church and state”. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits Government from interfering with a person’s practice of his or her religion. However, courts have ruled that religious actions and rituals can be limited by civil and federal laws. Religious freedom is an absolute right, and includes the right to practice any religion of one’s choice, or no religion at all, and to do this without government interference, including the right to change one’s religion.
This President clearly sees religion as a key part of foreign affairs, especially when the Muslim world is involved. He is ultra-careful to not offend followers of Islam. We already know the administration has rejected the term “radical Islam” or any similar language and refuses to admit religion plays a major role in terrorism.
This new terminology of “freedom of worship” might be given as a sign to Muslim nations and places with Christian persecution like China that they are not going to crack down on religious persecution for minority religions in those countries. That could explain why Obama first used the term after a radical Muslim killed Americans at Ft. Hood. And it could also explain why he used the term “freedom of worship in speeches in China and Japan.
In my opinion Obama’s goal is to accommodate some aspects of Sharia law in this country. The State Department’s goal is to make this country sign the UNITED NATIONS Convention on the Rights of the Child. This convention is signed by 194 countries but not US and Somalia. While looking good on paper the effect of this convention is that the State (Remember “separation of Church and State”) has superior claim on the children, not the parents.
Meriam Yehya Ibrahim is in jail, together with her 20 month old son, also in jail with her, since the Sudanese government does not allow her U.S.Citizen husband to have custody of her son. She is also 8 month pregnant and is sentenced to death by hanging as soon as the baby is delivered. Her crime? She is a Christian and refuses to renounce her faith, and for that she has to die according to Sharia law as it is practiced in Sudan. Can’t you be a Christian in Sudan? Yes, but her father was a Muslim and therefore she must be too according to Sharia law. The fact that he abandoned his family when she was six years old and since then has been raised by her Ethiopian Christian mother, the Christian faith being the only faith she knows is beside the point. So now she is in jail awaiting her execution as soon as her baby is delivered. The Sudanese cannot execute her now, that would mean to take the life of an innocent child, and only western decadent progressives would allow such an inhumane act as abortion.
Her husband is a Christian and a U.S. Citizen. He is legally married to her, and is the father of her 20 month old son and her yet to be born child. She is a Sudanese Citizen and subject to Sharia law. If she converts to Islam, her marriage is considered illegal and the children will go to Ibrahim’s father, the one that abandoned her when she was six years old. She cannot marry him again since he is a Christian and Muslim women can only marry Muslim men ( but Muslim men can marry Christian women according to Sharia law).
The Sudanese court ruled Ibrahim is an apostate who left Islam since she considers herself a Christian despite her father’s Islamic faith. She was sentenced to death and was also sentenced to 100 lashes for adultery after the court refused to recognize her marriage with Daniel Wani, an American Citizen. And, her children cannot have the father’s name since he is a Christian, according to Sharia law.
Last week, her attorney Mubarak filed an appeal based on Sudanese adoption of international law. He said he has high hopes for the court of appeals.
“There may be positive results,” he stated.
What has the State Department done so far? Nothing, except a few empty words.
Last week, multiple U.S. lawmakers pressed President Obama to grant Ibrahim asylum. Also last week, a group of bipartisan senators condemned Ibrahim’s sentence and urged Sudan to respect religious freedom.
Amnesty International launched an online petition demanding Ibrahim’s release that has garnered 660,467 signature so far.
Link http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/stopexecution-sudan
Update 5/27: Meriam gave birth to her second child, a daughter five days ago while shackled to the floor inside the filthy Sudan prison. She will be allowed to nurse her child until weaned. Then they will hang her according to Sharia Law.
The cost of a selfie with Obama.
At Nelson Mandela’s memorial service Obama was part of a selfie with the Danish Social Democrat Prime Minister Helle Thorning- Schmidt and the British PM David Cameroun. Their levity seemed out-of-place for the occasion since it occurred early while the eulogies were still going on, boring as they are, but out of respect for the diseased you behave.
Yesterday the European Union held elections to choose a new parliament. It is largely a debating body with no real power, the real power rests with the unelected bureaucrats.
The results for Denmark: The Social Democrat is no longer the largest party represented in EU, they lost out to Dansk Folkeparti, an upstart party critical of EU and the Climate Change program.
David Cameron and the Conservatives in Britain fared even worse, they now have the third largest representation in EU, After UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) and Labour. It is clear the European Peoples are thoroughly fed up with the EU bureaucracy, stifling regulations and insane Climate Change policies. As Barack Obama and John Kerry might say: Europe has now joined the flat earth society.
A selfie with Barry does cost
Now count all the votes that got lost
All his hope and his change
Of no use, It is strange.
The climate change plans? They got tossed.
Is ‘Freedom of Worship’ Religion?
Confusion? Yes, more than a smidgen.
Both Barry and Hillary
make Freedom auxiliary.
The first of five freedoms: Religion.
This country was founded by people of faith. What type of faith depended to some extent on where they settled. Quakers, Mennonites, Amish, Moravians, Swedenborgians, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed, Baptists, Lutherans and Presbyterians to name a few settled in Pennsylvania, the champion province for freedom of Religion. Other provinces, such as Virginia and Maryland were founded by Anglicans and Catholics. And of course the Puritans landed on Cape Cod. Most of them had one thing in common, faith, so when the constitution was formed they agreed that the faith issue should be free from meddling by Congress, both to the establishment of religion, and to prohibit the free exercise thereof.
So, what is the difference between freedom of worship and freedom of religion?
Mark Twain once said: The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Words matter. This is especially true when it comes to the words of our Constitution. Those words are especially cherished. Yet it seems the Obama administration has changed one key word in that foundational document.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2010 report revealed grave concern about both President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton substituting the term “freedom of religion” with the term “freedom of worship” in public pronouncements. Why the change?
The First Amendment has two clauses about Freedom of Religion. The first part is known as the Establishment Clause, and the second as the Free Exercise Clause. The Establishment Clause prohibits Government from passing laws that establishes an official religion or preferring one religion over another. The courts have interpreted the establishment clause to mean “separation of church and state”. The Free Exercise Clause prohibits Government from interfering with a person’s practice of his or her religion. However, courts have ruled that religious actions and rituals can be limited by civil and federal laws. Religious freedom is an absolute right, and includes the right to practice any religion of one’s choice, or no religion at all, and to do this without government interference.
November 2009, President Obama used the term “freedom of worship” at the memorial service for the victims of the Ft. Hood shooting. A few days later he did it again in speeches in both Japan and China. In December former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also used that terminology three times in a speech at Georgetown University and never once used the phrase “freedom of religion”. In January of 2010 Clinton used the “freedom of worship” term four times while addressing senators.
This change in phraseology could well be viewed by human rights defenders and officials in other countries as having concrete policy implications.” – U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2010 report.
That’s not an inconsequential change: Freedom of worship means the ability to have church services, which is crucial, but leaves out protection for Christian schools, publications, and Christian compassionate ministries…’Freedom of religion’ means that ministries designed to help prisoners change their lives, or to help the poor enter the workforce, can teach what the Bible teaches. Under ‘freedom of worship,’ these ministries could become illegal, as they are in many parts of the world. This is a development to watch warily. – World Magazine.
This President clearly sees religion as a key part of foreign affairs, especially when the Muslim world is involved. He is ultra-careful to not offend followers of Islam. We already know the administration has rejected the term “radical Islam” or any similar language and refuses to admit religion plays a major role in terrorism.
This new terminology of “freedom of worship” might be given as a sign to Muslim nations and places with Christian persecution like China that they are not going to crack down on religious persecution for minority religions in those countries. That could explain why Obama first used the term after a radical Muslim killed Americans at Ft. Hood. And it could also explain why he used the term in speeches in China and Japan.
In my opinion Obama’s goal is to accommodate some aspects of Sharia law in this country. The State Department’s goal is to make this country sign the UNITED NATIONS Convention on the Rights of the Child. This convention is signed by 194 countries but not US and Somalia. While looking good on paper the effect of this convention is that the State (Remember “separation of Church and State”) has superior claim on the children, not the parents.
We are talking Freedom of religion versus Freedom of worship. Let me illustrate the difference. Many missionaries and ex-pats live in Muslim countries. They enjoy freedom of worship, but not freedom of religion. One of the tenets of the Christian Faith is the obligation, right and privilege to proclaim the Good News. You can worship without fulfilling the great commission, and missionaries in Muslim countries risk their very lives were they to proclaim the Gospel without first being invited to do so. Even in this country some Christians were arrested for handing out Gospels of John outside a Muslim festival in Dearborn, MI. They exercised freedom of religion. Islam does by its very tenets not tolerate freedom of religion, but it does accept freedom of worship as a rule.
Our freedom of religion is at risk. This is a spiritual battle, and it must be fought with spiritual means. Pray! The future of our nation is at risk. Pray! The future of the world is in jeopardy. Pray!
Environmentalists unite! Bring back the clothesline!
Some time ago we moved up to beautiful State College, PA, happy valley, where the thousand hills keep rolling on. It is said to be the best place for mental health in the nation and people seems to be happy, some driving their Toyota Priuses, some of them still displaying their Obama bumper stickers. But one thing is missing. With all these environmentalists around, where are the clothes lines? It turns out they are deemed unsightly, especially by home owners association by-laws.
In the next valley, in another world, the Amish are proudly displaying their Monday wash, their clotheslines are proudly displayed in the front yard. It is a magnificent sight.
They even have boys and girls clotheslines!
Am I missing something? When the EMP pulse comes, either by a solar flare or a nuclear missile, the Amish never made themselves totally dependent on the electric grid. I fact, they shun getting connected to the “English” as they call it. That doesn’t mean they do not use electricity. Their cell phones are recharged via solar panels, and their buggy headlights are of the LED type, which drain only one seventh of the power on their marine batteries (solar recharged, of course).
So, who are the “flat earthers”? Certainly not the Amish. They are good stewards of the environment and obey all the new regulations (albeit grudgingly) from the Chesapeake Bay Commission.
Corruption? Not even a smidgen.
Obama displays his religion.
For Benghazi and vets,
It’s as bad as it gets.
Men die while he acts the stool pigeon.
The evolution of evolution. An elusive quest for truth.
Ever since Charles Darwin’s book, “The origin of the species” evolution has been used to justify the social bias de jour, from white supremacy to male supremacy, to evolution of thought, evolution of speech, evolution of social behavior. The argument is: “There is no god, therefore all has congealed by chance, we are all animals anyway.”
In my childhood in Sweden our family lived is a small community where grades 3-6 were taught together in one class. This meant that the teacher did allow a lot of freedom to explore on my own books in the school library. They had not thrown away any old books the last forty years, so I had quite a selection of old textbooks to choose from. 
One in particular caught my eye. It was about anthropology and classification of races by skull index (Cephalic index, see fig). It was originally based on the works of the Swede Anders Retzius (1796-1860). His research was to classify old bone fragments, but his findings were now extrapolated to explain the evolution of man. There were pictures of people of all kinds of races, with the Nordic, blond and blue eyed being the most evolved, and the black race, with some exceptions much closer evolutionary to the apes. Not only that, but since men have 40% larger brain volume on the average than women, men are further evolved and that is the reason women should not vote. Being 9 years old I believed everything, since it was in a book. I especially liked being superior to girls.
The next time evolution was taught it was the standard stuff with the horse’s hoof being a nail; fishes grew legs instead of fins and so on. We also have a lot of rudimentary organs, not only the appendix, but tonsils and tailbones too. Since the organs are rudimentary, we can remove them without impunity, especially tonsils. And this time around in evolutionary teaching dogs can evolve to look quite different, but people are all equal, and girls are as smart as boys (especially the blond Lithuanian girl that later emigrated to Canada. I had to admit she was both cute and smart).
.
![gamma-garden-8[5]](https://lenbilen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/gamma-garden-85.jpg)
The third time around, this time in high school biology we tackled some of the hard stuff, mutations being a necessary ingredient for evolution. I read up on radiation gardens, where we can grow superior plants, since we know that at least 10% of mutations are beneficial, just weed out the bad ones and superior plants will emerge.
The radioactive gardens are now but a memory, since it was discovered that nobody could find any positive mutations that way. The closer you got to the source, the worse it got.
It turns out that positive mutations are rare indeed. The ones most commonly found are in viruses, but they are positive only from the virus’s point of view. Survival of the fittest tends to weed out bad mutations, but does nothing to explain the mechanism for speciation creep; it tends to reinforce the speciation boundaries. The genetic code that allows adaptions in species is already there, so when the changed environment occurs, we are changed accordingly. None of the mechanisms we have used to explain evolution holds up to examination. The mathematics is just not there. And a system this complicated and beautiful, where so many parts of it are at a mathematic optimum is not possible to bootstrap. The mathematical probability that this could have occurred by chance is less than the chance of finding the right elementary particle in the known universe. We are left with the humbling fact that we do not know the mechanisms. Yet the textbooks still explain discredited mechanisms as evolutionary facts to yet another generation of kids, thus depriving them of the wonder that there is something beyond themselves, which they can try to grasp. They are left not realizing that there is always one more level of understanding that is beyond them. By not accepting any explanation other than what can be deduced from observation and then presenting them as sufficient facts to explain a mechanism that cannot mathematically have occurred, the scientific community is violating the fundamental rules of scientific exploration. Do not present as fact a mechanism that has no possibility of having occurred by chance.
The last words of Buddha, Krishna, a humanist, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. Who has the right message?
The first person mentioned is Buddha. When he saw his death was near, he addressed all the monks assembled at his side, and these were the 
very last words he spoke:
“Behold, O monks, this is my last advice to you. All component things in the world are changeable. They are not lasting.
Work hard to gain your own salvation.”
After that the Buddha lapsed into the jhana stages, or meditative absorptions. Going from level to level, one after the other, ever deeper and deeper. Then he came out of the meditative absorption for the last time and passed into nirvana, leaving nothing whatever behind that can cause rebirth again in this or any other world.
The passing away, or the final nirvana of the Buddha, occurred in 543 BC on a full-moon day in the month of May, known in the Indian calendar as Vesak.
The second person of interest is Lord Krishna. In his younger days, Sage Durvasa had cursed him saying that would die of a wound in his left 
foot. The sage had been offended for some reason and had cursed young Krishna in a fit of anger.
As his last act in life, Lord Krishna decided that it was time for the curse to take effect and so sat down to meditate while exposing his left foot.
A hunter soon approached and mistook the Lord for a deer. And as was predicted he shot him in his left foot. On realizing his grave error he was filled with remorse and grief. But Lord Krishna consoled him and asked him not to be scared or sorry as these were the ways of destiny. These were the great Lord’s last words on earth. This happened 18th February 3102 BC (the start of Kali Yuga).
As an example of a humanist I have chosen
, founder of Planned Parenthood. While these are not her final words, she faded into obscurity during her last years, but they reflect the thinking of a modern humanist (or feminist if you choose)
“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population….”
To get a glimpse of the differences of the three monotheistic faiths, let us go through the last days of Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and see what a message they delivered to us.
Moses had delivered his people out of Egypt and was now, at the ripe old age of 120 years ready to enter the promised land. But because of Moses disobedience God (YHWH) had told him that he was not allowed to enter into the promised land. He was however permitted to see it. So Moses recited his song and the blessings on the tribes of Israel (Found in chapters 32 and 33 of Deuteronomy) ending with:
Deuteronomy 33:28-29 (King James Version) Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
After that Moses went up Mount Nebo and saw the promised land Deuteronomy 34:4 (King James Version) And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither.
After that Moses died and to this day no one knows the place he was buried. The Bible goes on to record: Deuteronomy 34:10-12 (King James Version) And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face, In all the signs and the wonders, which the LORD sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land, And in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of all Israel.
This indicates there never was another prophet like Moses. But Moses promised another prophet was to come after him. This is found in Deuteronomy 18:14-18 (New International Version, ©2010) 14 The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so. 15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. 16 For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” 17 The LORD said to me: “What they say is good. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him.
We have two candidates: Jesus and Muhammad.
What about Jesus? Was Jesus a prophet?
The first reaction is: Of course, he was a prophet. Look at all he did and predicted. But that totally misses the point. Was He a prophet? Or was he more than a Prophet?
In the Old Testament of the Bible there is an old book called Job. We do not know much about him except he was before Moses and has a reputation of being “patient as Job”, refusing to turn from God when a series of misfortunes happened to him. He was looking forward to a redeemer: Job 19:25-26 (King James Version) For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Was Jesus that redeemer? What does “redemption” mean? Christian belief is that the reason Jesus came to earth was to redeem mankind back to God. Because of sin man is incapable to do it himself, so God had to do it. For this reason Jesus came as God incarnate to die on a cross for our sins. According to prophesies given by Isaiah about 800 B.C. in chapter 53 Jesus rejection and crucifixion was described. The earliest preserved copy of Isaiah dates back to second century B.C. so the prophecy is secure. These are Jesus last words on the cross. They confirm it was Jesus that died on the cross and not someone else.
“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). The word of divine forgiveness.
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46.) Jesus became sin for us.
He said to his mother, “Woman, behold your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!” (John 19:26-27). The word of love.
“I thirst!” (John 19:28) The word of humanness.
“Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43) The word of promise.
“It is finished!” (John 19:30). The word of redemption.
“Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” (Luke 23:46). The word of death.
Many people stop there, as if these were Jesus’ last words. But death was not the end of Jesus. On the third day Jesus rose again and gave instructions to his faithful for forty days.
Jesus last recorded words were: “It is not for you to know times or seasons (of his return) that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” After that Jesus was taken up to heaven.
The last person in the trio was Muhammad. He had received messages from the angel Gabriel, very complimentary about the Jewish people, the people of the Book, but while in Mecca he was not accepted as a Prophet so he moved on to Medina where he was accepted by some followers.
They asked the Jews whether he was the Prophet Moses spoke of, but the Jews said, No, not at all, he is an imposter and not the Prophet.
That changed things and the angel Gabriel told him to change the direction of their prayers from Jerusalem to Mecca, since they are in opposite direction of each other if you are in Medina. This forced people to disclose their true adherence.
From that moment on Gabriel changed his instructions to Muhammad and the feud was on. Muhammad and his team started to attack Jewish villages and force them into subservience. After a raid on a Jewish village a young Jewish girl poisoned Mohammed’s food. He never saw it coming (what a Prophet!), nor did the angel Gabriel warn him, so he ate it. He never recovered from it and died two years later.
Muhammad’s last recorded words before he died was: Volume 2, Book 23, Number 414: Narrated ‘Urwa: Aisha said, “The Prophet in his fatal illness said, ‘Allah cursed the Jews and the Christians because they took the graves of their Prophets as places for praying.”‘ Aisha added, “Had it not been for that the grave of the Prophet (peace be upon him) would have been made prominent but I am afraid it might be taken (as a) place for praying.
So Mohammed chose to curse Christians and Jews and join with his fellow martyrs.
You can judge for yourself which message to believe, which message is peaceful, and which message is the true message from God.
I have decided to follow Jesus. He is the risen Savior, his tomb is empty. All the others are dead, and have their tomb.
The White House has proposed cutting methane emissions from the dairy industry by 25 percent by 2020. Although U.S. agriculture only accounts for about 9 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, it makes up a sizeable portion of methane emissions — which is a very potent greenhouse gas.
Picture left: The cows are coming home to get milked, well nourished from a healthy grass diet
Picture right: Research cow from Argentina fitted with a methane collecting backpack. This cow is fed feedlot style.
You cannot accuse EPA to be lax;
It works very hard to propose a fart tax.
They are running on fumes:
Tax the bovine perfumes!
Throw all the bums out! Let us give them the axe.
JAY CARNEY: I think there’s no question, I’ve covered the previous two administrations, and know a thing or two about ones before that, there has never been a more transparent administration. We provide more information about, for example, the WAVES [the White House “Workers and Visitors Entry System”] records, something that no administration has ever done. The WAVES records are collected by the Secret Service, individuals who are cleared in for White House access. Those have never been released before, no administration has ever released them.
And I think it’s fair to say that the release of that information has made this White House far more transparent than any other [administration]. That doesn’t mean it’s perfectly transparent. It creates headaches for us, and ridiculous stories on Fox News and elsewhere about, for example, saying Hillary Clinton was only in the White House five times, while Secretary so-and-so was there this many times. People like Hillary Clinton, and most cabinet secretaries literally get waved in by the Secret Service. They’re not entered in the logs. Second, Hillary Clinton, as her successor is, was in the White House every week. So it leads to some challenges. The records weren’t designed to be a complete picture because of the way that individuals who are part of the administration enter the White House. But they provide a lot more information about who visits the White House than has ever been provided before. (
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An administration transparent.
Jay Carney, his lies are apparent.
But Obama’s are worse,
For they emptied our purse.
They honest and trustworthy aren’t.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 