They mocked him and called him "Treebeard"

It was a fine chuckle among the GOP frat boys. in 2004. Kerry as Treebeard who took an age to get out a sentence or make a point.

So, what would you give now to have a President who not only takes the time to think before he speaks (Bring 'em on!) or issues proclamations (Dead or Alive!) but who actually reads books rather than carries them along on vacation as ostentatious props?

Ah, if only ...

I don’t know what Bush stood for, except I’m a cool guy and Gore isn’t, and that was our problem. We elected the guy because he was a little cooler than the other guy, and, I hope the next election, it isn’t a problem of who goes to bed with their wife at 9:30 at night, or who knows how to tell a joke on a stage. But it’s who had the sense of strength that comes from having read books, most of their life, tried to understand history. -- Chris Matthews (Hardball) to Don Imus

He "didn't know what Bush stood for ... " And yet he pontificated, bloviated night after night on Hardball about how Bush was the man.

Okay, there's got to be some record somewhere of Matthews going off on Kerry for being an elitist, or boring or something to facilitate the snide suggestion that if one reads a book, one is incapable of leading Our Great Nation as a Real Man should. But you know, I'm not even going to go looking for it. This, this right here, is gold.

I doubt Kerry would ever get my vote again, but (please, all gods!) let the next Dem candidate rejoice in the books he reads, revel in the education he's had and do everything in his power to convince the voters that Smart is Good and Faux Cowboy ain't nuthin' but lyin', cheatin' and stealin'. *

* With apologies to Senator Clinton. The reality is that the time to run a woman for president hasn't come yet. The neocons have terrified half the nation into screaming for Daddy. So we have to run a man, at least one more time. But you'll be great when your time finally does come, Senator.

What Do We See In the Mirror?

Pride, as all believers know, is the deadliest of sins - it really is the worst, because it leads a person to do all manner of evil in defense of pride. The other day I linked to an IM conversation between a Moslem in the middle east and an American Moslem and one of the reasons the middle eastern person gave for fighting is pride - they are wounded, deeply, in their pride because the Moslem world is such a complete basket case, even though - allegedly - God has granted Moslems the authority to rule the entire world. It is easy to slip from this pride to a desire to believe that the only reason you are miserable is because others have worked with Satan to thwart you and destroy your life.

The only eventual cure for all this is for the Moslem world to humble themselves and realise (sic) that they have much to learn - and much work to do - in order to make their society the equal of others'. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to get to this point until the Moslem world - or, at least that part of it which most determinedly fights - suffers some rather intense military humiliaton at the hands of western civilization. -- Victor Davis Hanson, getting down with the real reason for this war. Find the rest at Blogs for Bush

Or, we might look at it this way:

Pride, as all believers know, is the deadliest of sins - it really is the worst, because it leads a person to do all manner of evil in defense of pride. One of the reasons many Americans in favor of the war the American President thrust upon us is pride. We are wounded, deeply, in our pride because Usama bin Laden took down the Word Trade Center, hit the Pentagon and planned who knows what other horrors -- even though - allegedly - God has granted the United States the authority to bring democracy to entire world. It is easy to slip from this pride to a desire to believe that the only reason you are miserable is because others have worked with Satan to thwart you and destroy your life.

The only eventual cure for all this is for the United States to humble itself and realize that we have much to learn - and much work to do - in order to make our society the equal of others'. Unfortunately, I don't think we'll be able to get to this point until the United States - or, at least that part of it which most determinedly fights - suffers some rather intense military humiliaton at the hands of the Moslem world.

Boy, I'd hate to think so. Wouldn't you?

Who cares who started it? NO ONE is right.

It's been going on all weekend in my life – friends trying to talk to friends about the latest firestorm in the Middle East. Who is at fault, Lebanon or Israel? Passions run high, and passion kills the ability to think.

It's time now to think.

Applying the "who started what, who is right and who is wrong" argument to this current conflict is going to get us all killed.

So what if Hezbollah is toying with CNN? Who cares if Israel has a better publicity machine? I'm used to being lied to by the media and by governments. It isn't in the interest of the former to tell the truth. With notable exceptions -- Robert W. Fisk, for one -- the latter are too damn lazy.

But that's no matter. What we need to know is that it isn't going to be possible to convince people who have been holding the banner for one side or the other to change their minds.

I hold no banner, unless it Gaia's, and this is what I see:

Everyone is wrong. Period. Israel is, Lebanon is, the US is; the End Timers are, for sure for trying to get their bloody mythology to come true by manipulating Israel and the American President.

It's been said that the End Timers are the American Taliban. That could be so, but so what? It isn't the issue. Or at least not right now. It's time will come, but now this is the issue:

Anyone who isn't looking at this conflict between Israel and Lebanon as two madmen with matches dancing around a fuse to the biggest bomb ever, is not looking at reality.

Reality is that Pakistan very likely has nukes.

If this conflict draws Pakistan in -- either because she feels she needs to take a side, or she needs to protect herself, or both -- the nukes are loose. Same for India, but Pakistan is the real danger because she's right there. Pakistan can't protect herself from terrorists any more than the rest of us can.

If Afghanistan is still holding on to it's purple-finger government, it's a miracle because the American President took his eye off that ball years ago. The Taliban is back. They could take down the Afghan government in a month and then go for Pakistan. And if that government falls, the nukes are loose.

Do you know what the Taliban is? A bunch of illiterate mullahs trying to force the Muslim world back to the Prophet's 7th century. Literally. It is their stated goal. They go into bookstores and burn all the books with pictures. Why? Because they can't read, but they know it's a sin to make images of living creatures. Smart booksellers paste their business cards over the pictures to save the books – no images, no sin, no matter what the words are telling those who know how to read. Now, think about it: Do you want these geniuses in charge of a nuclear device or two?

The other scenario is as scary: the nukes end up in the caves on the Pakistan/Afghanistan border.

Either way, we are all facing the kind of end our own American Taliban, the End Timers, are not envisioning as they play puppet master to the American President.

This thing has to stop. I don't care about Israel, I don't care about Lebanon. Not as far as who is right and who is wrong. I care deeply about both nations and the region in that I'd hate to see their children nuked out of existence the same as I'd hate to see ours blasted to hell. Right now, each horror or both is a possibility.

If they are to survive, if we are to survive, Israel, Lebanon and their supporters must detach from their insane prejudices and their killing pride.

If we are to survive, everyone must step back and see that Israel, Lebanon and their masters are about to commit suicide.

When they do, they will take the rest of us with them.

All the warning lights are flashing!

From Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing, 08/04/06

The End Times?

And here's another data point: Joel C. Rosenberg, who writes Christian apocalyptic fiction, told me in an interview this week that he was invited to a White House Bible study group last year to talk about current events and biblical prophecy.

Rosenberg said that on February 10, 2005, he came to speak to a "couple dozen" White House aides in the Old Executive Office Building -- and has stayed in touch with several of them since.

Rosenberg wouldn't say exactly what was discussed. "The meeting itself was off the record, as you could imagine," he said. He declined to name the staffer he said invited him or describe the attendees in any way other than to say that the president was not among them. "I can't imagine they'd want to talk about it," he said.

"I can't tell you that the people that I spoke with agree with me, or believe that prophecy can really help you understand what will happen next in the Middle East, but I'm not surprised that they're intrigued."

The White House press office wasn't able to confirm the visit for me, but there have been previous reports about White House Bible study groups inviting Christian authors to come speak.

Rosenberg -- like Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, the authors of the phenomenally popular "Left Behind" series -- writes fiction inspired by biblical prophecy about the apocalypse. The consistent theme is that certain current events presage the end times, the Rapture, and the return of Jesus Christ. Rosenberg's particular pitch to journalists is that his books come true.

Here he is in a recent interview with Christian talk-show host Pat Robertson , talking about what he thinks is going to happen next: "Now I have to say, Pat, I believe that Ezekiel 38 and 39 -- the prophecies that we're talking about -- I think this is about the end of radical Islam as we know it. God says He's going to supernaturally judge Iran, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, these other countries. We're talking about fire from heaven, a massive earthquake. It's going to be devastating and tragic. But I believe that afterwards there's going to be a great spiritual awakening. We're seeing more Muslims coming to Christ right now than at any other time in history. But I think that's just the beginning. We've got dark days ahead of us. But I believe there's a light at the end of that tunnel."

Rosenberg says he got a call last year from a White House staffer. "He said 'A lot of people over here are reading your novels, and they're intrigued that these things keep on happening. . . . Your novels keep foreshadowing actual coming events. . . . And so we're curious, how are you doing it? What's the secret? Why don't you come over and walk us through the story behind these novels?' So I did."

Judy Keen first wrote back in October 2002, in USA Today, that "some White House staffers have been meeting weekly at hour-long prayer and Bible study sessions."

Elisabeth Bumiller wrote in the New York Times last year that "intelligent design was the subject of a weekly Bible study class several years ago when Charles W. Colson, the founder and chairman of Prison Fellowship Ministries, spoke to the group."

Ann Banks wrote about apocalyptic fiction in The Washington Post's Book World section in 2004: "The White House won't disclose whether the president has read the 'Left Behind' books. . . . Whatever his personal theology, however, many of the policies of the Bush administration 'strike prophecy believers as perfectly in harmony with God's prophetic plan,' according to Paul S. Boyer, a scholar at the University of Wisconsin, writing in the Chronicle of Higher Education."

Somebody finally asked Bush for his views on the subject in March, during a visit to the City Club of Cleveland :

"My question is that author and former Nixon administration official Kevin Phillips, in his latest book, American Theocracy, discusses what has been called radical Christianity and its growing involvement into government and politics. He makes the point that members of your administration have reached out to prophetic Christians who see the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism as signs of the apocalypse. Do you believe this, that the war in Iraq and the rise of terrorism are signs of the apocalypse? And if not, why not?"

Bush stammered and laughed nervously as he responded: "The answer is -- I haven't really thought of it that way. . . . The first I've heard of that, by the way. I guess I'm more of a practical fellow."

As Sabrina Eaton wrote at the time for Newhouse News Service: "Bush critics, including [author Kevin] Phillips, contend the president feigned confusion. Had the president embraced the controversial views of his religious backers, the critics say, he would have alienated moderates."

Is this what you want?

Time to start thinking, people!