Remember the guy who got on a plane with a bomb built into his shoe and tried to light it?

Did you know his trial is over?

Did you know he was sentenced?

Did you see/hear any of the judge’s comments on TV or radio?

Didn’t think so.

Everyone should hear what the judge had to say;

Ruling by Judge William Young, US District Court.

Prior to sentencing, the Judge asked the defendant, Richard Reid, if he had anything to say. His response: After admitting his guilt to the court for the record, Reid also admitted his “allegiance to Osama bin Laden, to Islam, and to the religion of Allah,” defiantly stating, “I think I will not apologize for my actions,” and told the court “I am at war with your country.”

On counts 1, 5 and 6 the Court sentences you to life in prison in the custody of the United States Attorney General.. On counts 2, 3, 4 and 7, the Court sentences you to 20 years in prison on each count, the sentence on each count to run consecutively. (That’s 80 years.)

On count 8 the Court sentences you to the mandatory 30 years again, to be served consecutively to the 80 years just imposed. The Court imposes upon you for each of the eight counts a fine of $250,000 that’s an aggregate fine of $2 million. The Court accepts the government’s recommendation with respect to restitution and orders restitution in the amount of $298.17 to Andre Bousquet and $5,784 to American Airlines..

The Court imposes upon you an $800 special assessment.

The Court imposes upon you five years supervised release simply because the law requires it. But the life sentences are real life sentence s so I need go no further.

This is the sentence that is provided for by our statutes. It is a fair and just sentence. It is a righteous sentence.

Now, let me explain this to you. We are not afraid of you or any of your terrorist co-conspirators, Mr. Reid. We are Americans. We have been through the fire before. There is too much war talk here and I say that to everyone with the utmost respect. Here in this court, we deal with individuals as individuals and care for individuals as individuals. As human beings, we reach out for justice.

You are not an enemy combatant.. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier, gives you far too much stature.. Whether the officers of government do it or your attorney does it, or if you think you are a soldier. You are not—– you are a terrorist.. And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not meet with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice..

So war talk is way out of line in this court. You are a big fellow. But you are not that big. You’re no warrior. I’ve known warriors. You are a terrorist—a species of criminal that is guilty of multiple attempted murders. In a very real sense, State Trooper Santiago had it right when you first were taken off that plane and into custody and you wondered where the press and the TV crews were, and he said: ‘You’re no big deal.’

You are no big deal.

What your able counsel and what the equally able United States attorneys have grappled with and what I have, as honestly as I know how, tried to grapple with is why you did something so horrific. What was it that led you here to this courtroom today?

I have listened respectfully to what you have to say. And I ask you to search your heart and ask yourself what sort of unfathomable hate led you to do what you are guilty and admit you are guilty of doing? And, I have an answer for you. It may not satisfy you, but as I search this entire record, it comes as close to understanding as I know.

It seems to me you hate the one thing that to us is most precious. You hate our freedom. Our individual freedom. Our individual freedom to live as we choose, to come and go as we choose, to believe or not believe as we individually choose. Here, in this society, the very wind carries freedom. It carries it everywhere from sea to shining sea. It is because we prize individual freedom so much that you are here in this beautiful courtroom. So that everyone can see, truly see, that justice is administered fairly, individually, and discreetly. It is for freedom’s sake that your lawyers are striving so vigorously on your behalf, have filed appeals, will go on in their representation of you before other judges.

We Americans are all about freedom. Because we all know that the way we treat you, Mr. Reid, is the measure of our own liberties. Make no mistake though. It is yet true that we will bear any burden; pay any price, to preserve our freedoms. Look around this courtroom. Mark it well. The world is not going to long remember what you or I say here. The day after tomorrow, it will be forgotten, but this, however, will long endure.

Here in this courtroom and courtrooms all across America , the American people will gather to see that justice, individual justice, justice, not war, individual justice is in fact being done.. The very President of the United States through his officers will have to come into courtrooms and lay out evidence on which specific matters can be judged and juries of citizens will gather to sit and judge that evidence democratically, to mold and shape and refine our sense of justice.

See that flag, Mr. Reid? That’s the flag of the United States of America . That flag will fly there long after this is all forgotten. That flag stands for freedom. And it always will.
Mr. Custody Officer. Stand him down.”

So, how much of this Judge’s comments did we hear on our TV sets? We need more judges like Judge Young, but that’s another subject. Pass this around. Everyone needs to hear what this fine judge had to say.

Powerful words that strike home.

God bless America

Posted under RANTS & RAVES

To be honest, I’m not quite sure where to start with this rant.

It seems there has been a need for prayer automation since we Americans are so busy these days! “No time to pray? NO PROBLEM” is the tagline of http://www.informationageprayer.com/ who, for a monthly subscription fee of $5.00 will translate your uploaded text prayers into speech so you don’t actually have to speak your prayers anymore!

I remember a former friend who gave me one of the few gifts I found almost completely useless. It was a book of prayers. He had gotten one for himself a while before and had given his book the power of prayer in his life. He would record prayers he read from the book and publish them online as if they were going to achieve some great connection with the spiritual realm because they were so well worded. He would even have his children read the prayers while he recorded them. To me that was just creepy. Now, here I was with my own bright red book of prayers and I didn’t know if I should offend this guy and decline it or just accept it with a thank you. I chose the latter.

I confess, I would sometimes thumb through the book to see what was in it. I suppose someone sat down and wrote out a prayer for just about any situation a person might face. The motive of course was to sell a book but I think the outcome proved much more dangerous.

As with my former friend, I would wager that many immature believers have put their faith into that or a similar book hoping their great sounding prayers will reach the throne of God and their needs would be met.

What I actually have witnessed in this person’s life is a rapid decline. From the outside looking in it would seem that the power of prayer had completely left his life. Where God would move, provide, and prove himself was now a place of loss. Today he is still fighting the same old battles wondering why things aren’t changing in his life. Where there used to be a blossoming heart of service and a strong witness is now just a shell – a facade that he has created to project an image of what could have been but it is all man-made. All power and credibility is gone.

I can’t say that the book of prayers in completely to blame but I am convinced it was the point where the wrong path was chosen in his life. The sad part is that now he is unteachable and unwilling to listen to reason. Once we get to that point, no one but God can fix what’s broken.

With all that said, why is it people have so much trouble realizing that prayer is not a ritual? Is it that we do not believe Jesus lives? If we believe Jesus lives, we should believe that we can have a relationship with him. We should believe that we can sit and talk with him, confide in him, love him, praise him, and even share our troubles and needs with him. THAT IS PRAYER!

Think about this;

Let’s say I sat one of my sons down and just talked to him for a few minutes about stuff. You know, just talking. Maybe I would tell him how proud I am of him or how he makes my life better by being my son. I know we would both love and cherish that time spent together.

Now think of the same situation except we did not actually sit down together. I’m in the living room and my son is in the kitchen. I pull out a book and read to him a letter that another man wrote to his son. How would that effect our lives? Would either of us find the experience of any benefit? Not likely.

So, do you think God would prefer that you devote a little personal time to him engaged in meaningful conversation or would he equally appreciate that you had a computer speak your prayers because you did not have the time? Would the words someone wrote in a book be sweet music to God’s ears because you read him the book instead of praying from your heart?

I just want us to think about this for a little while. God does not require much from us. Just 10% of our best. That begins with time. Is a couple hours a day so much to give consider what has been given us? 6 minutes per hour meditating of God is pretty easy to do and God loves that time with you. While we work we can take just a few minutes now and then and just praise God for all he is. No rituals, just words spoken from your heart wherever you may be is the sweetest sound to God’s ears. Just give it a test and see for yourself. Ask God to show you and you will know.

Thanks for listening & I hope no one signs up for informationageprayer.com. If you need to let go of $5 per month, We sure could use it for the ministry!

John

 

Posted under RANTS & RAVES

I’ve held off voicing my opinion reagrding recent news but I just can’t stand it any longer. I have the right to complain and I am going to because what is being imposed on we the people is utterly disgusting and outrageous.

I believe God is in control and always takes care of his children. However, we are caught up in the wake created by a government who is driven by greed and selfishness at the cost of those of us who work and keep the wheels turning.

We have leaders planning our health care systems who do not use the systems because they have a better plan for themselves.

These leaders decide Social Security but will never themselves have to make ends meet on that plan because they have a sweet retirement plan for themselves.

As long as we pay our taxes and business owners cover two or three positions ourselves to be able to afford all the payroll expenses, we can continue to keep our doors open. Meanwhile, our leaders have the option of not paying their taxes and hiring illegal immigrants with no payroll expenses. 

As Banks, Corporate Giants and big Insurance firms go broke burning through money throwing multi-million-dollar parties and Corporate retreats or making foolish investments that even a novice investor would shun, WE THE PEOPLE are forced to work harder to bail out these fools. THEN when we bail them out, they waste half the money on more parties and huge bonuses for their executives! What fantasy land is this? In my world, when I fail to do my job so miserably that the company goes bankrupt, I GET FIRED. WHY WOULD I EVER GET A 3 MILLION DOLLAR BONUS FOR THAT PERFORMANCE?

With the state of our economy something needs to happen to turn it around and FAST! The current plan being offered by OBAMAPALOSI is insane! Hey, I like pork as much as anyone but give me a break. The word STIMULUS should not even be allowed in the same book as this blan. It is just more spending, bonuses, paybacks, and palm-greasing for the friends of these leaders. Almost nothing in the plan will help our economy and what would is more than cancelled by all the fat that is in it.

I sincerely hoped for the best that OBAMA would stand up and be the Patriot he claimed to be during the election. The great man of the people who pulled himself up from nothing to be President. I have never been so disappointed in a person. It just proves that Obama did not pull himself up by his bootstraps, he got where he is like the rest of them, by taking from the people and rubbing shoulders with those that had the power to move him ahead. That is how they all get where they are in my opinion. SOME POLITICIAN PLEASE PROVE ME WRONG AND SHOW ME WHAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR THE PEOPLE LATELY.

OBAMA has a new name in my house and it is OBAMAPALOSI. He hasn’t got the stones to stand up to that crooked-faced tycoon and his priorities are totally messed-up. With the state of the economy and jobs being eliminated by the thousands OBAMAPALOSI dug right in on things that matter and did not waste a day doing it. On his first day in office he signed 2 orders. The first was to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay that holds terrorist and enemy combatants. Very nice. Forget the fact that we will now have to move these terrorists onto our soil, That order eliminated many military jobs! What a fool. The second most important thing on the Obama to-do list was to sign an order that would re-establish that our tax dollars would be available for any entity that promotes or performs abortions. There you go champ, more spending to promote your agenda. Maybe Obama is working on population control angle to help the economy? Less jobs so less people will fix it.

I could go on forever on this. I am very angry at how irresponsible our leadership is right now. We are the people and we need to be heard. I’m getting real tired of being asked to pay more and more to support this type of waste. I know the small business community is suffering terribly. Pray hard and don’t continue being quiet about it. If our leaders won’t lead, let’s make them follow.

Posted under RANTS & RAVES