As the title say's "Just thinking it out"

It is the nature of man to try and understand the world around him. If we don’t have God in our life then we would invent him. Why because there are so much we don’t understand. To God we give those things we cannot comprehend.

But if there is one thing I have come to understand by surviving these 61 years is that if I am patient it will be revealed to me.

I have often wondered how I was to feel about the visceral feeling of knowing a bad guy is dead when as a Christian I am supposed to turn the other cheek. How as a Christian my faith said it was ok to go to war at the direction of my nation. Then I understood.

First Give unto God what is God and unto Cesar what is Cesar. Though we are Christian and follow the teachings of Christ and call ourselves a child of God. We also live under the law of man and as such our subject to those laws.

Then a evangelist who I have a lot of respect for his teachings and where I go to Church told us we have the responsibility to remove the presence of evil from us. To protect our own life as well as the life of our love ones. That it is mandated by God to do so. 

Now I have not had an opportunity to speak to him about this as of yet and I will. I want to know if I kill someone as a situation ramps up to the point it is kill or be killed am I doing what God would expect of me?

In the past  and right now my response would be: I will do what I must to protect my family and answer to God for my actions. As we all will do at sometime.

Now Sunday we hear Bin Laden is dead. Killed by an elite team of our military trained to battle the bad guys wherever they are in short to take the fight to them. One part of me cheer’s the death of individual who planned the death of thousand  and took great pleasure and pride in that accomplishment.

This is a man who hated us the western world because we did not believe as he did.  Simple as that. I found though that it reminded me of the Puritans of our own  history and to some extent those individuals who feel this way now. If you doubt me read a little of the Puritans’ history. People who ran from persecution in Europe but who did the same here in the America.

If we are to take the high road we must do so without the excuses for our actions. One of the reasons Bin Laden was finally found and killed was beause they followed a courier. This man had been a prisoner at one time of ours and let go. Go figure. But instead of seeing it as a opportunity to treat him respectfully as a human being we practice enhanced interrogation techniques. Techniques that were designed to break him down as a human being.

The military reported that Mohammed al-Qahtanl  received the following treatment

Among the enhanced interrogation techniques used on him were  being forced to wear a woman’s bra, being led around on a leash and forced to perform dog tricks and being subjected to cold temperatures that twice required his hospitalization, according to a later U.S. military report.

Look at what we are doing right now. We are bombing Libya supposedly because of crimes against humanity. The fact that they have oil in demand in Europe and our Allies want a more favorable or stable government has absolutely nothing to do with our actions.

But wait. What about Syria? Isn’t that requiem doing the same thing to it’s people.  Yet we do nothing but say shame on you.  Oh wait I forgot they don’t have oil.

We are indeed a nation of hypocrisy.  No wonder the Arab world view us with a distrust. No wonder their people want to destroy us.

Perhaps before we try to get other’s house in order we had better get ours in order.

Other Things

Well I haven't had an opportunity to get into the shop. Took a fall and damaged my shoulder keeps me from stretching my arm out. But I expect it to go away in a few more days and then I will back in the shop. 

I have glued up some pieces of red oak and a thin piece of mesquite and will try to turn my first bowl. If it turns out it should give me a base of light color red oak with a thin line of dark mesquite just below the rim.  Hopefully by next post i will have a photo of it.

TV history channel "Inspection America" has been dramatizing a serious issue of our crumbling infrastructure. The third in a series last Sunday focus with issues of sea walls and roadways in Seattle Washington. While the  inspector has been a little dramatic in his presentation I understand why. Watching a inspection is actually quite boring . The series is well worth watching.

N