TheObiBlog

So, it seems like the middle east, in the last day or two, has gone from it's usual state of "Powderkeg waiting to go off", to "Powderkeg in the process of going off". We're now seeing the extent to which it's going off, and trying to predict how long it will be going off.

Israel and Lebannon are trading rocket fire, and Israeli troops pushed 7 miles into Lebannon yesterday. Haifa was hit by a Lebaneese missile - the furthest any missile from Lebanon has gone into Israel. Israel bombed airports, and has established a naval blockade around Lebanon.

All as a result of Hizbollah taking Israeli soldiers captive.

or, to take another step back, Hizbollah acted in the only way it could to force a prisoner exchange.

or, to take another step back, Israel took Hizbollah prisoners because they're terrorists trying to harm Israelis.

or, to take another step back, Hizbollah is still fighting a war over borders, and the "illegal" existence of the state of Israel in the first place.

You can keep taking steps back, to find out who started the whole thing, past the UN mandate, past the Ottoman Empire, past the Roman empire, past the ministry of Jesus, past the babylonian and assyrian and other empires, all the way back to Abraham handing off his birthright to the wrong son (or right son, depending on what side you find yourself on).

Anyone got any realistic ideas on how to solve this mess? I sure don't.

Some of the roadmap on how to be:

Matthew 10:16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.


D&C 111:11 Therefore, be ye as wise as serpents and yet without sin; and I will order all things for your good, as fast as ye are able to receive them. Amen.


"Shall I sit down and read the Bible, the Book of Mormon, and the Book of Covenants all the time?" says one. Yes, if you please, and when you have done, you may be nothing but a sectarian after all. It is your duty to study to know everything upon the face of the earth, in addition to reading those books. We should not only study good, and its effects upon our race, but also evil, and its consequences.

I make these remarks to lay the foundation for principle in the minds of the people; and if you do not yet understand what I would be at, I will try to illustrate it still further. For example, we will take a strict, religious, holy, down country, eastern Yankee, who would whip a beer barrel for working on Sunday, and never suffer a child to go into company of his age—never suffer him to have any associates, or permit him to do any thing or know anything, only what the deacon, priests, or missionaries bring to the house; when that child attains to mature age, say eighteen or twenty years, he is very apt to steal away from his father and mother; and when he has broken his bands, you would think all hell was let loose, and that he would compass the world at once.

Now understand it—when parents whip their children for reading novels, and never let them go to the theatre, or to any place of recreation and amusement, but bind them to the moral law, until duty becomes loathsome to them; when they are freed by age from the rigorous training of their parents, they are more fit for companions to devils, than to be the children of such religious parents.

If I do not learn what is in the world, from first to last, somebody will be wiser than I am. I intend to know the whole of it, both good and bad. Shall I practise evil? No; neither have I told you to practise it, but to learn by the light of truth every principle there is in existence in the world."
- Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 2:34.



"'My son,' says the Christian father, 'you should not attend a theatre, for there the wicked assemble; nor a ball-room, for there the wicked assemble; you should not be found playing a ball, for the sinner does that.' Hundreds of like admonitions are thus given, and so we have been thus traditioned; but it is our privilege and our duty to scan all the works of man from the days of Adam until now, and thereby learn what man was made for, what he is capable of performing, and how far his wisdom can reach into the heavens, and to know the evil and the good.

It is written in the Scriptures, "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" [Amos 3:6 See below.]Is there an evil thing upon the earth that he does not fully understand? There is not.... The Lord understands the evil and the good; why should we not likewise understand them? We should. Why? To know how to choose the good and refuse the evil; which we cannot do, unless we understand the evil as well as the good. I do not wish to convey the idea that it is necessary to commit evil in order to obtain this knowledge.

Upon the stage of a theatre can be represented in character, evil and its consequences, good and its happy results and rewards; the weakness and the follies of man, the magnanimity of virtue and the greatness of truth. The stage can be made to aid the pulpit in impressing upon the minds of a community an enlightened sense of a virtuous life, also a proper horror of the enormity of sin and a just dread of its consequences. The path of sin with its thorns and pitfalls, its gins and snares can be revealed, and how to shun it.

The Lord knows all things; man should know all things pertaining to this life, and to obtain this knowledge it is right that he should use every feasible means; and I do not hesitate to say that the stage can, in a great degree, be made to subserve this end. It is written, "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." Refuse evil, choose good, hate iniquity, love truth. All this our fathers have done before us; I do not particularly mean father Adam, or his Father; I do not particularly mean Abraham, or Moses, the Prophets, or Apostles, but I mean our fathers who have been exalted for millions of years previous to Adam's time. They have all passed through the same ordeals we are now passing through, and have searched all things, even to the depths of hell.

Is there evil in the theatre? in the ball-room? in the place of worship? in the dwelling? in the world? Yes, when men are inclined to do evil in any of those places. There is evil in persons meeting simply for a chit-chat, if they will allow themselves to commit evil while thus engaged."
- Brigham Young, nine years later at the dedication of a new SLC theater in 1862 Journal of Discourses, 9:242-243.

There are folks who are at their happiest when the Bush administration (or any powerful conservative) gets knocked around. They tend to detest having any sort of label applied to them, so for the sake of ease, I’ll just call them “flooglehornists”.

There are many flooglehornists in the media. Many reporters, columnists, newspaper editors, and staff are flooglehornists.

The under-noticed thing: The flooglehornists figure, by exposing an administration tactic of gathering intelligence on terrorists via violating their privacy, they will get the administration knocked around. The flooglehornists are wrong. The relevant national debate isn’t over whether Bush did anything wrong or not, because nobody is really making that case. The relevant debate is about whether the media flooglehornists are treasonous enemy-comforters, or just clueless and dangerous patriotic constitution-supporters.

Now, the debate can only take place when flooglehornist-supporters actually understand concepts like national security and the importance of secrecy in intelligence gathering. Tons of them just can’t for the life of them understand what’s wrong with distributing information on how the government catches terrorists. So, much of the noise you’re hearing is not actually the relevant debate, but a bunch of arguing about why important things are important.

Conclusions:
* The louder the Flooglehornist-supporter, the less likely he is to have a grasp of the relevant realities.

* Flooglehornists can’t be trusted with national security, so for pete’s sake, don’t vote them into federal office.