Tandem Vincitur

Yesterday’s post reviewed the appointment of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s VP choice and running mate. She is a true leader - and we excerpted from her acceptance speech what she said about leadership and how most politicians nowadays are not willing to take risks.

Today, I was mulling through some old documents, looking for an article, or some thoughts to post. I ran across a letter I wrote to the editor of the Seattle Times. It is from 1998 and is in reference to the state legislature sitting on their hands on Partial Birth Abortion.

A man’s principle goes beyond words, it goes to the core of what he is willing to fight for. It is disquieting to the Republican grassroots to watch their “leaders” melt into a sea of facilitation and administration. We have a majority party that is unwilling to lead. Is it surprising to see an ever-increasing exodus from the Party by principled people? No, it is not. And to the extent the Republican “leadership” is more concerned with self-esteem than leading, the exodus will increase exponentially.

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A couple days ago, a key legislative aid for a local congressman and I were discussing the upcoming Presidential Election. We were both lamenting that if John McCain continued to kick in the teeth of the conservatives, he was going to lose this election for sure. And the two of us were probably not going to vote for a president at all.

It is just amazing that McCain has been given this election on a silver platter and he has done nothing to take advantagage of it. While Obama is strutting around like some love child messiah, McCain could blow the whole facade with just two clear sentences of substance. Instead, he uses his every opportunity to take another swipe at his base. And in fact, that almost appears what he meant to do when he announced Sarah Palin as his running mate. He mentioned all the wrong, polically correct reasons why he chose her - as if to diss the conservatives, once again, and appeal instead to the disenfranchised Hillary groupies.

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This is from our friends at Restore America:

Having watched and re-watched the spectacle at Invesco Field in Denver as Barach Hussein Obama accepted his party’s nomination to become the next President of the United States-and ostensibly the most influential person in the entire world-several observations were unavoidable for thinking Americans.
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This just in - and it goes along with what we have been talking about the last couple days. There is no substance in the public arena, everything is perception and how we feel.

John Edwards was banned from making a speech at the 2008 Democrat convention for having an affair and lying about it. Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy spoke in his place.

We are a nation of fools. But at least we feel like someone cares - and isn’t that the important thing?

This just in from Jackie Juntti: According to today’s Seattle P-I, a Republican fair booth worker was handing out fake three dollar bills with an image of Barak Hussein Obama wearing a turban and an inscription, “IBD14UOK” (I be de one for you, OK).

The reactions to this are a perfect sequel to my post yesterday, The Sin of Cain: Attitude or Action? Once again, the world is horrified if someone finds a little humor in the truth or something like it, at a public person’s expense. What is wrong with a little laugh -especially in politics? There used to be a saying, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

True to their politically correct form, the politicians reacted. “Snohomish County Republican Chairwoman Geri Modrell said she started making phone calls Tuesday morning as soon as she heard the bill was being distributed. And by the time she got down to the booth that afternoon, the bills had already been removed. ‘I sincerely apologize to the Democratic Party for any perceived offense - personally, I find it somewhat offensive myself,’ Modrell said.”

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revised from an article written by Dean Isaacson ©2004

“What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son , go and work today in the vineyard.’
“‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
“Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go. Which of the two did what his father wanted?
“‘The first,’ they answered.
“Jesus said to them, ‘I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.’”  [Mat 21:28-32 NIV]

In 1994, the Republican Revolution turned Washington State politics on its head. They swept the House and increased their seats in the Senate of this formerly Democrat dominated State. However, as the biennium approached its close, it was clear very little of the promised reforms had received ever so much as a committee hearing, and most of the efforts of these newly-powerful Republicans were spent on bad law - even law that was opposed to the laws of the Bible.

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Posted on 20 August at

http://cominus.com/judicial-elections/ .

However, it just occurred to me that blog readers might not be aware of that. So here it is -

Here is how the results shake out:

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This from Marv Chastain (I was going to publish it earlier, but I forgot. Today, Jackie Juntti reminded me).

Have you noticed? One very popular way of “solving” problems is to just change the language? For example: For a long time (about 1940-1970), we were told we were entering a “New Ice Age” and things were going to get unbearably cold.

Then, we were told the earth is heating up. Then, when that sort of stopped selling(especially in severe winters) The whole thing became “CLIMATE CHANGE.” That covers it all, no matter what the earth does (at God’s direction).

In high school chemistry, I learned that everything alive was “organic.” Recently, it has somehow been learned that it’s only “organic” if it is More Expensive vegetables.
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copyright 1996, Dean Isaacson

It was a beautiful morning. I walked out the door and stood on the porch, surveying the landscape and breathing the morning country air. The farmers weren’t spraying the money this morning, so the air was pretty fresh. I was getting ready for my morning jog.

“It is so good to live in the country,” I thought.

Just then, my dog Jenny, no scratch that - our kids’ dog, but that’s another story - came up to get her early morning ear scratch. Now, here comes Spot, the cat. He’s jealous and wants attention too. Actually I didn’t spot (no pun) him in time and I made the wrong move. He’s big on protocol.

“You blew it Mr. Isaacson. Next time stay to form or you will lose again.” I could hear him say in his thoughts.

“Good-bye, your majesty,” I replied.
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During my travels, I have come across many amusing signs. Sometimes I get the photo and sometimes I miss. This photo was taken in Butte, MT. I have tried to understand what this means.

What is “local traffic”? Vehicles near the sign have the right-of-way over vehicles farther away? The area is populated with with motels and the sign is directly across from a truck stop. So the best I can figure is that local plated vehicles have the right-of-way over the out-of-state plated vehicles.

What do you think?

In 1998-1999, I wrote an outline of the book of Isaiah. Later, I condensed the outline to a chapter study. We have posted Isaiah by Chapter. Although the chapter version is lengthy and footnoted, it is not complete. It largely point out things I thought people might miss on a first reading and interesting events and lessons that relate to other portions of Scripture and to our walk. For years, I have thought about expanding the outline into a narrative - but it seemed like an insurmountable job. Then, I ran across a church that is using the outline for their adult Sunday School curriculum - that was amazing to me that God would use me in this way. Now, I have decided to complete the work. You may watch the development of the Isaiah study as it progresses on this website. I hope you find it helpful - most of all, I hope it motivates you to take your walk with Christ very seriously, to understand our purpose is to give glory to Him in everything we do and to excite you into going deeper into your study of the Word of God.

Please feel free to send me any and all feedback as we go. I value your insight and opinion.

by Dean Isaacson ©1998

The other night, on his radio show, Larry asked Billy Graham what he thought of President Clinton. First, he praised him for the amazing work he had accomplished with the economy and foreign relations among other things. Then he compared the President’s lying and cheating ways with the average person’s daily sins. Larry King broke in with a question: maybe the minister was ready to forgive the President. Mr. Graham replied that he already had forgiven him.

While I was pounding on the dashboard, Billy Graham and Larry King discussed their worry that the people of this nation do not appear to be concerned with the blatant immorality and dishonesty in the White House. I hollered back to the radio, “Why should they? The highest minister in the land has forgiven him; we have all forgiven him!”
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Reprinted from Tandem Vincitur, January 1995.

Jesus gave this command in Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV); “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

It is easy to remember the promise of the Lord to provide us with rest. We long for it. In fact, we long for every promise that gives us relief from the pressures of life. We tend to forget His admonitions for spiritual discipline. There are three such requirements listed, for us to find this rest: (more…)

When I sent the announcement about the new blog, I promised there would be at least on new entry per day until the end of the month. Life and interruptions got in the way of that promise and for that I sincerely apologize. I will try to get a few extra posts in the next week to make up the difference and I thank you for your patience with me.

Just got this in an email and thought it was too funny to pass up:

An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States . . . a point to ponder despite your political affiliation:

“We, in Ireland, can’t figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States.

“On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can’t seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn’t even like the country her husband wants to run !

“Now, on the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate ‘Mc’ terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship !!

“What in God’s name are ya lads thinkin’ over in the colonies?!”