$2.99 a gallon without buying a new car

Thought the title might catch your eye. Not as well as Rat's posts do, but at least enough to get y'all to look a little further.

Ran across an interesting op-ed that says the way to reduce gas prices is through a lawsuit. By the state AG's against OPEC for anti-trust activity. If we had followed this essay's advice 10 or 15 years ago it might have made a difference. Even 5 years ago. But I don't think it would work at all now. The oil producing states have gained a degree of global economic power, and the weakened dollar along with American oil dependency have so eroded our ability to dictate terms in global economics, that even if successful, they all could tell us to go suck a lemon. And we'd have no recourse.

Of course, that would not be the case if the Fortune 500 corporations headquartered in the US were American companies with an allegiance to the nation and not the dollar. But the true reality is that whether it is Microsoft or ExxonMobil, RJR or KFC, the big dogs in our economy are multi-national corporations, not American. And most, in one way or another, are strongly influenced by sovereign investment funds wholly owned by various governments (Dubai, Russia, China, and other governments flush with cash). Whether or not this is morally right or wrong is best left for another post on the merits of free trade and global capitalism.

So friends, get ready for an onslaught of "solutions" proposed to bring us back to a world that never was and never again will be. The silly season has begun.

What is True Patriotism?

I figured that would probably catch some people's attention for a title of a post. It will also likely get "filtered" by the new (?) security measures in place, monitoring the Internet and all the subversive stuff that gets posted. But in reality, this post has nothing to do with any of that, and is likely a result of my resistance to the learning processes that Ray Smith and Granby Memorial High School attempted (with more success than I admit to, probably) to instill into our reading and thought methodology.
So, I was reading this morning and this part jumped out -
"Ultimately, it was the allegiance which he owed to God and his master which forced upon him the terrible decision, not merely to make a stand against National Socialism (all the underground movements in the German-occupied countries did that), but also - and this in contradistinction to the underground movements which appealed to nationalism - to work for the defeat of his own country, since only thus could Germany as a Christian and European country be saved from extinction. For this very reason, Bonhoeffer and his friends were tortured, hanged and murdered. It was Bonhoeffer and his friends who proved by their resistance unto death that even in the age of the nation-state there are loyalties which transcend those to state and nation. They proved that even in this age nationalism stands under God and that it is a sin against him and his call for fellowship with other nations if it degenerates into national egotism and greed. This message, which implies the virtual death sentence of the still prevailing materialistic concept of nationalism, belongs to the the spiritual inheritence of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's and his friends' martyrdom. Only from this point of view can it be proved that Hitler and his gang were not only the destroyers of Europe but also traitors to their own country; and further, that men can lose their country if is represented by an anti-Christian regime." - written by G. Liebholz and quoted from the memoir section at the beginning of the First Touchstone Edition of The Cost of Discipleship byDietrich Bonhoeffer (1995 publish date; originally published 1945)

As I read that, I was drawn to consider the parallels between those days in Germany and these days in the United States. For although the magnitude of Holocast and the terrible tragedy that has been inflicted on the people of Iraq cannot be considered comparable, the need for persons of faith to question the actions of a nation are equal. No longer can people who consider themselves Christian acquiesce to military action simply because the voice from the Oval Office calls for it, or even that coming from the pulpit where we sit. We cannot rely on the notion of our national leaders being "good people" who will have our best interests at heart. Instead, it is time for us to weigh our personal actions and whether or not they reflect the sort of world our God would have us be contributing to the creation of.
I had a discussion tonight with a man who feels that "the church is just dying away" because the world is no longer interested in it. Funny, but I can't share that point of view. If indeed the Church catholic is dying away, it is doing so because it cannot accurately portray that to which it purports to believe, that being the redemption of men through the Grace of God in the person of Jesus Christ; the purpose of that redemption being the eternal sharing of the presence of God with each soul called to Him. In other words, Christ (the Son) lived, died and rose from the dead so that I can experience the presence of this mysterious God in my life.
This dying may be a manner of cleansing; it may represent the failure of The Gospel of Man; it may be a wake-up call to believers; it may be all these things. It may be none. I don't pretend to understand this mysterious God, nor speak for Him. But I think it pretty weird that Bonhoeffer and his friends were martyred for speaking out against the leaders of their country and the same thing happens here, figuratively speaking. For if anyone speaks out against the GOP, the mechanisms of the Neo Conservatives will immediately cast them as a threat against the nation and the God they claim to be following.

The passage also spoke to me on a very personal level and makes it far less comfortable to simply have a tattoo and a header on my blog that would indicate "I am a Christian" to anyone already in the know but are vague and ambiguous to anyone that isn't.

I know most of the people that stop by my blog on a (somewhat) regular basis are not classically "Christian". Some will say they just can't believe in God. Others will have nothing to do with God, in the belief that He is unjust or cruel for the iniquities of this existence on Earth. It isn't my job to convince, coerce or cajole anyone into changing their minds. But it is my job to say that I believe in God, who created and is creating everything, I believe God desires me to be with Him in eternity and worked this out through Christ. I believe God/Spirit is present in my life to assist me in knowing right from wrong, in knowing that God is in control (ultimately) and that one day His creation will be joined with Him to celebrate the Life His calls us into.