Defend the Constitution... by stifling freedom of speech!

One can only appreciate the irony of a group calling itself the Campaign to Defend the Constitution fighting to silence the free speech of Christians:

Fight back against ignorance. Sign the petition.

Next week, the religious right will take a bold new step in its campaign against science education in America. The creationist organization, Answers in Genesis, will open its $27 million "Creation Museum" in northern Kentucky. The Disney-like museum is dedicated to promoting the falsehood that science supports the notion of men and women cavorting with dinosaurs on a 6,000-year-old Earth.

From denying the facts of evolution to lying about the known age of the universe, the "museum" represents an assault on our children's basic understanding of fundamental scientific principles.

Please sign the petition at right to voice your opposition to the religious right's campaign of ignorance.

Oh, dear. Christians with an opposing viewpoint regarding an unobservable, unrepeatable, unfalsifiable "scientific" theory? Can't have that, can we? Especially when children are involved. Can't have children come to question the "facts" of evolution. Why, they might not grow up to become mindlessly devoted to evolution.

Of course, this sort of thing is nothing new to DefCon.

Grim milestone: 50,000 hits on Shock & Blog

Reached May 22, 2007, at 3:48:52 pm.

Approaching 50k hits (officially)

My Sitemeter is creeping up on 50k. Unlike some bloggers, I'm not a blog "ho" who spams his blog and/or posts everywhere he can to up his traffic count. I prefer to live or die by the quality of my material. Additionally, this is just a pastime of mine and not a major focus in my life, so my posting frequency varies greatly. I've had a good number of posts highlighted by famous and infamous bloggers. All in all, I'm happy I've made it this far.

Truer words were never spoken

"Calling an illegal alien an 'undocumented worker' is like calling a drug dealer an 'unlicensed pharmacist.'" - Anon.

LB:EF - Tutorial

LB:EF's tutorial is divided into three parts:

Part 1: First Steps

This part is very quick and teaches the player how to use the game interface.

Part 2: Getting Friends

This part covers recruiting neutrals to your side (and not killing them), training builders, upgrading builders and acquiring, converting and upgrading buildings.

Part 3: Almost There

The final part of the tutorial covers training soldiers (but not using them to kill anyone), building clinics and training medics, creating housing, building chapels and training disciples and musicians, conducting spiritual warfare (i.e. having your musician sing near a hostile unit to turn him neutral), the various unit types' special abilities, and how to group units of the same type.

Totals after the tutorial is completed:

VE: 0
CK: 0
PS: 14

No change to the first two. Imagine that!

Up next: the first mission.

Previous posts:
LB:EF - the manual
New S&B; series: "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in detail
The left's lies about "Left Behind: Eternal Forces"

Jon Voight: head and shoulders above most of his Hollywood colleagues

Courtesy of Newsbusters:

My heart is very heavy, and I‘m really terrified by what is happening to our great nation. Our country is being divided by extremists who really believe all the propaganda that they are being fed on a daily basis by very cunning professionals.

I mean, here we have American people in this country, in this city, in D.C., defacing our president, calling him unthinkable names. And what is the agenda for which they are doing this? And I find it‘s just to bring their party to power.

And these people that—and I‘m stepping way into something now—but these people who are wanting to rule with this aspect of technique have no real answer as to how they‘re going to do it, as witnessed by Nancy Pelosi‘s trip recently. And the real sad part is that they don‘t realize that they‘re feeding the enemy all the nutrients that they need to destroy us.

We‘re engaged with a serious enemy here. And we seem to have forgotten about 9/11. I‘m sure the families haven‘t forgotten. So it‘s a very serious—you know, it‘s a very serious time. And maybe it‘s this film that‘s brought me into real research about what the enemy really is, the face of the enemy that we‘re facing today, and it‘s stirring many things in me.

Well said, Mr. Voight. Well said!

Heartbreaking pic of the day (and probably the year)

Greensburg, Kansas:


(Click to enlarge.)

Found at Reasonable Kansans.

Please pray for all those who have lost their homes and especially for those who have lost loved ones.

LB:EF - the manual

The LB:EF manual not only shows you how to play the game, but it also states the goal of the game. On page 26, a shaded box states:

YOUR GOAL

Save as many people from the clutches of the antichrist as possible.

Your purpose is absolutely NOT to wipe out enemy forces!
Remember, those are PEOPLE he has deceived and can be recruited.

I don't know how much more explicit the game's creators could've been. You win the game by converting, not killing.

Here's more under the description for soldier units:

Soldiers have made themselves available to defend your forces from bodily harm or death.

...

They are performing their roles as physical defenders, but their #1 goal is still to save as many people from the antichrist as possible.

Additionally, any Soldier who personally inflicts a casualty is individually affected. With each life he ends, his Spirit level will immediately drop substantially. Killing a Neutral should be avoided at all costs - and the spiritual penalty for doing so is especially harsh.

Your duty and moral obligation is to use soldiers as little as humanly possible. Use everything at your disposal to avoid casualties.

...

If the antichrist's forces physically attack one of your people, your Soldiers will defend the teammate, but will not engage the enemy otherwise.

In extremely rare situations, you might find your Soldiers in a life & death situation where they simply cannot afford to fight defensively- such as if they are trapped, with overwhelming odds against them.

Purely at your discretion, you have the option to give them direct orders to fight aggressively until ordered otherwise. Your soldiers are highly disciplined - they will not fight aggressively without your express orders. However, in this aggressive state, they will actively engage any armed combatant enemy units within their sight. They will not attack unarmed non-combatants, including Neutrals.

Remember - your soldiers will always receive spiritual damage when inflicting any casualty. Leaving your soldiers in aggressive mode will be disasterous for your & your forces.

Your soldiers - even if in aggressive mode - will still ignore noncombatants. This puts your troops at a SEVERE disadvantage fighting against enemy spiritual warfare.

And if that isn't enough, the descriptions of each type of soldier unit go further:

...their orders are NOT to shoot unless their teammates are attacked themselves. [Soldier - Level 1 Soldier]

...

He is more deadly than the relatively junior soldiers, and must be used with more caution because of this. [Special Forces - Level 2 Soldier]

...

...his exceptional skill is a clear danger to winning the spiritual war he is also fighting. Command him with extreme care. [Elite Forces - Level 3 Soldier]

...

Be careful with this unit - his skills are deadly at a longer range, which could easily result in greater casualties, which is something you absolutely don't want. [Sniper - Level 3 Soldier]

Now, show me in any other game - especially games with weapons and soldiers - where the goal of the game is explicitly stated to avoid killing. Good luck with that because you simply won't find even one. Since the days of games like Mario Bros., killing - whether portrayed as stomping enemies flat, hitting them with a sword, or shooting them with weapons - has been encouraged. LB:EF is the only game in the past 30 years that I can think of with any sort of explicit admonition against killing, particularly in regards to soldier characters in the game. In fact, you can't win many of those other games without killing.

Also, at no point in the manual does it state anything about "convert or kill." It's true that some enemy forces are very spiritually powerful and difficult to convert, but nowhere in the manual is the player encouraged to kill them instead of trying to converting them. Absolutely nowhere. The people who are claiming that the game encourages "convert or kill" are either ignorant and haven't even read the game manual or they are lying. I would hope that most of them are the former, as that can be easily remedied. The people who are lying about the game, however, are those with an agenda against evangelical Christianity and no amount of undeniable facts will dissuade their lies. That is a profound shame. In either case, though, such people need our love and our prayers.

So as I explained before, here are the scores for the manual:

VE: 0
CK: 0
PS: 13 (at least!)

Up next: the game tutorial.

Previous posts:
New S&B; series: "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in detail
The left's lies about "Left Behind: Eternal Forces"

Complete vindication for Christian students in Washington

School District Reverses Suspensions Against Students Who Were Praying

Twelve Heritage High School students, who were suspended in March for praying together in the large commons area of their cafeteria, have been vindicated. Liberty Counsel represented several of the students in an appeal of the suspensions to the Evergreen School District. As a result, the suspensions will be purged from their files and there will be no negative impact on their academic records.

The District has also agreed to recognize the students' right to pray in the cafeteria when other students are gathered there before school. The cafeteria commons area is a large area that will easily accommodate groups as large as 20 students without blocking access for other students. In addition, the students will be provided a room to start a club.

Yes! Praise God!

National Day of Prayer, 2007

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

A prayerful spirit has always been an important part of our national character, and it is a force that has guided the American people, given us strength, and sustained us in moments of joy and in times of challenge. On this National Day of Prayer, we acknowledge God's grace and ask for His continued guidance in the life of our Nation.

Americans of many faiths and traditions share a common belief that God hears the prayers of His children and shows grace to those who seek Him. Following the tragedy at Virginia Tech, in towns all across America, in houses of worship from every faith, Americans have joined together to pray for the lives that were lost and for their families, friends, and loved ones. We hold the victims in our hearts and pray for those who suffer and grieve. There is a power in these prayers, and we can find comfort in the grace and guidance of a loving God.

At this important time in our history, we also pray for the brave members of our Armed Forces and their families. We pray for their safety, for the recovery of the wounded, and for the peace we all seek.

The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, as amended, has called on our Nation to reaffirm the role of prayer in our society and to respect the freedom of religion by recognizing each year a "National Day of Prayer."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 3, 2007, as a National Day of Prayer. I ask the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, each according to his or her own faith, for the freedoms and blessings we have received and for God's continued guidance, comfort, and protection. I invite all Americans to join in observing this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.

GEORGE W. BUSH