The Pendragon's Hall

As we stand here, on the brink of yet another new year, filled with uncertainty, let us reflect on the truth of the following statement:

"Remember, Aidan," he said, leaning forward, "never doubt in the dark that which you have believed in the light. Also, this: unless the pilgrim carries with him the thing that he seeks, he will not find it when he arrives."
--excerpted from "Byzantium" by Stephen R. Lawhead.

Go with God, everyone!

Merry Christmas, everybody! As you celebrate the birth of our Savior, may He be with you in all that you do.

You can say all you want about football not being important and you are probably right, but as an avid football fan, I must say the story that played out in Green Bay this past weekend has to be one of the most heartwarming I have read in sports for a long time. Green Bay quarterback Brett Favre, having suffered the loss of his father on Sunday, took the field on Monday night and threw for 399 yards and 4 TDs en route to a 41-7 rout of the Oakland Raiders. Favre said, "I know he was watching tonight." I'm sure he was, and I am sure he's very proud. You can say what you want about athletes who should have not played in such a situation, and I don't care. I thank Brett Favre for his courage and ability. He certainly did us all proud last night (this coming from a non-Packers fan) and though he will certainly never see this: My prayers and thoughts are with you and your family in this difficult time. May the God who gave you the ability to surpass even yourself last night also give you the ability to rise above the grief and may the peace that passes all understanding guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

And the courts do it again! Now they want to be consulted on how to fight a war. I swear, if these judges know only half the things they claim to be experts in, we could lend them to the Muslim world to run their theocracies for them. That might be good idea, come to think of it--but since they haven't the guts for it, they do their best to help Muslim terrorists from where they are.

Now, they are agitating on behalf of a young militant, an American citizen, who left our country for Egypt and joined Al-Qaeda, returning for the express purpose of committing terrorist actions against this country. But given again that he hasn't actually exploded a "dirty bomb" and killed thousands of people, it is not legal for the Justice Department to detain him as a threat to the country. One is led to wonder what would induce a court populated with enemy-sympathizers to declare that the country was actually in danger. Oh, look, there's a mushroom cloud over there. By a 2-1 decision we have announced that the country can consider itself under attack. Give me a break! The President should do what many Presidents have done before--ignore the court ruling. Or at least send these justices to work in a tall building in a major city for awhile. Perhaps fear would drive them to do what sense should have done a long time ago--take up the cause of their country and not their country's enemies.

There is an excellent article on this here.

Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth? That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets 600 years before.
--John Quincy Adams

This is a good quote from our first president, who was also the son of a president. Merry Christmas, America! (Oh, and incidentally, it is Christmas--not "the holidays", not "the winter solstice", definitely not "Kwanzaa".)

God wants President Bush Re-elected.

LOL...I have to hand it to this guy...and hope he's right.

Once to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of truth and falsehood,
For the good or evil side;
Some great cause, some great decision,
Offering each the bloom or blight
And the choice goes by forever,
'Twixt that darkness and that light.

Then to side with Truth is noble,
When we share her meager crust,
Ere her cause bring fame and fortune,
And 'tis prosperous to be just;
Then it is the brave man chooses
While the coward stands aside,
Till the multitude makes virtue
Of the faith they have denied.

By the light of burning martyrs,
Christ, Thy bleeding feet we track.
Toiling up new Calvaries ever
With the cross that turns not back;
New occasions teach new duties;
Time makes ancient goods uncouth;
They must upwards still and onwards
Who would keep abreast of truth.

Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis Truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold
And upon the throne be Wrong;
Yet that scaffold sways the future
And behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadows,
Keeping watch above His own.

--author unknown.

In the interest of keeping any readers of mine up to date on the president's campaign, which, in case you haven't noticed, I endorse wholeheartedly, I will be adding these to my blog from time to time:

And so Saddam Hussein is captured. In an immediate effort to downplay any heroism of US soldiers and the true cowardice of Hussein, Dan Rather and others in the media are already talking about Saddam's courage in "giving himself up." Rather said in his initial report, "Whatever you can say about Saddm Hussein, he did not take the coward's way out. He did not shoot himself."

Does he think that because Saddam willfully orders the slaughter of millions, he is that nonchalant about his own life? Tyrants rarely are!

That and Osama must be near wetting himself by now. It may take longer than originally thought, but we will prevail. As our President said: "America will never relent until victory is won."

Among cultural elites it has become quite the fashion to hysterically declaim about civil rights and all the "powers" the president supposedly has been granted in this new age of terrorism. I suppose there is some reason, and it is an historic tradition, to worry about "executive tyranny." But there is a tyranny that is more to be feared, because it is not a potential threat, like the president's supposed ability to suspend elections or arrest anyone of Arab descent, but is actually happening now. That threat is judicial tyranny. Ever since Roe v. Wade, America's federal courts are continually abusing their authority by writing laws, which is the express task assigned to Congress. Congress never wrote a law authorizing abortion--the Supreme Court decided this right was in the Constitution, despite the fact the concept never occurs. Somehow, "the benefits of liberty" for "our posterity" means "the right to kill them before they see the light of day." This bizzarre reading, as columnist Ann Coulter has pointed out in several recent columns (www.anncoulter.com), means now that legislatures all over the country must rewrite their laws and their constitutions to reflect the court's will. What if Lincoln had done this with the Dred Scott decision? The people crying the loudest for abortion on demand would still be slaves. And now they are about to do it again with gay marriage in Massachusetts. I can only hope and pray that our "tyrannical" president will refuse to pay any attention to the courts and their loony rulings. Both the president and the Congress, by Constitutional law, are independent of the courts. Does anyone remember the idea of "separation of powers"?

Pearl Habor and 9/11: What will History Say?

Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie (1892 - 1975), Emperor of Ethiopia.

Amen and amen.

Adventat tempus aureum, annis volventibus.
Iam pridem quod praedictum est a sanctis vatibus.
Cum Pacis Princeps praeerit refecto huic orbi.
Omnesque reddent homines quae canunt angeli.

And lo, the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever-circling years
Shall come the age of gold:
When the new heaven and earth shall own
The Prince of Peace their King,
And the whole world give back the song
That now the angels sing.

This is for you LOTR fans, on the edge for the release of movie 3 next week:

In Book 3 of the trilogy, the Fellowship comes to the ancient city of Minas Tirith, headed by Boromir's father, proud Denethor. The steward of Gondor has long believed his city the only bastion of good still standing against the onslaught of Mordor, and this leads him both to heights of pride in the strength of his city and to depths of despair that his city cannot hold out much longer. He cannot conceive of the work Gandalf and Aragorn and the dwarves and elves of the North have put in to keeping Sauron at bay as well. I think in many ways we are like that as the western Church--especially in America. We perceive of ourselves as the last bastion of Christianity in the world and then either fall into pride, or despair at the way we see it shrinking in our own culture. We do this with modernity as well--scholars of bygone years are looked down upon as if they have nothing to contribute to our struggles today. It is the "Christianization" of John F. Kennedy's humanist remark, "Our problems are manmade; therefore they can be solved by man." This is simply untrue.

Denethor needed to recognize that he was not the only one standing against evil. Had he done so, he would have been humble enough to accept the help coming to him and also strong enough to stand, supported by those from distant lands and different races. The church too needs to realize we are not the only people standing against evil either now or in the past, either in this country or in the world at large. This is a very freeing realization--we stand with "a mighty throng" from days of the apostles until today, in this country and around the world, especially in Africa and Latin America. Do not be conceited--God does not depend on you for His work being done. Do not despair--others are with you.

Carter claims second term would have solved Israeli-Palestinian Conflict!

"Among those bearing witness on Monday were three Nobel Peace Prize winners, including former President Jimmy Carter; three American congressmen; and several former French ministers including Simone Veil, who survived a Nazi death camp.

Not even that star-studded roster could divert attention from the fact that the major actors in the Middle East were absent from the process and from the ceremonies on Monday."

::noise of person gagging in the background:: star-studded!? All they needed was Mickey Mouse to complete the roster.

"Had I been elected to a second term, with the prestige and authority and influence and reputation I had in the region, we could have moved to a final solution," (Carter) said.

What a drama queen.

you are mediumspringgreen #00FA9A

Your dominant hues are cyan and green. Although you definately strive to be logical you care about people and know there's a time and place for thinking emotionally. Your head rules most things but your heart rules others, and getting them to meet in the middle takes a lot of your energy some days. Your saturation level is very high - you are all about getting things done. The world may think you work too hard but you have a lot to show for it, and it keeps you going. You shouldn't be afraid to lead people, because if you're doing it, it'll be done right. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Victory in Iraq a Necessity

These fellows really say it all. I'm not going to add to it.

It is easy to get caught up in current events sometimes and forget their transitory nature. Yes, our world is a mess, but after all, that is nothing new. It was just as big a mess 2,000 years ago when Jesus was born. Think on that this Christmas season.

When I'm depressed about the state the world is in, I often like to consider the Christmas poem of my favorite poet: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. You may know this poem for it was also made into a song. He wrote it at the height of the Civil War when so many young men from his community were fighting their own countrymen. I hope it ministers to some of you as it has to me over the years:

I heard the bells on Christmas day,
Their old familiar carols play
And wild and sweet the words repeat,
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And thought how as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along the unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Till, ringing, singing, on its way,
The earth revolved from night to day;
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then from each black, accursed mouth,
The cannon rumbled in the south
And with its sound the carol drowned
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearthstones of a continent
And made forlorn the households born
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Then in despair I bowed my head.
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
"Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep,
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep!
"The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
"With peace on earth, good will to men."