There are three computer game series that I really enjoy playing. Two are by Blizzard Entertainment: Starcraft and Diablo. The others are the Command and Conquer games by EA (originated by Westwood Studios).

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is designed to run on high-end computers. (There is also an Xbox 360 version available.) My oldest son has 256 MB of RAM on his machine and the demo (1.1 GB) won’t even install on his computer. It needs at least a gig of RAM on XP and more on Vista.

Officially the program is only supported on 32-bit operating systems of Windows XP or Vista but it works great on my 64-bit Vista Home Premium. The only catch is that I needed to download the newest game patch to get it to run. When I start the game, it seems to have trouble finding the game DVD but once I click on Retry it runs great. The program never has crashed. Some gaming websites have indicated that the game has trouble with its AutoSave feature so saving the game is a good idea.

My only complaint is that some missions are difficult because they must be approached in a certain way or you meet with a quick and untimely death at higher levels. The walkthrough has been very valuable in this regard.

After you play all GDI (Global Defense Initiative) and NOD missions then you get to play the Scrin. The Scrin are aliens that are drawn to the Tiberium and fight all humans to control this resource. They appear in the middle of each storyline that you battle. There are about 15 missions for GDI and NOD and four as the Scrin. It seems that you are being setup for one or more expansion packs at the end of the game.

Each mission has both core objectives and optional ones as well. Many of the optional portions of the mission are designed to make life easier the get through that level. After playing the game for a while, read the guide that can with the game DVD and you might find more information to help you through the game.

The graphics in the game are great. The units and texture of the maps is highly detailed. If you have a mouse with scroll capability, you can zoom in and out on the action. The cut scenes have some familiar faces from Star Wars, House, and Battlestar Galactica just to name a few.

The weapons consist of air and ground forces. The navy is poorly represented in this game. As NOD, I have destroyed two aircraft carriers tied to the pier. The troops, tanks and other weapons are fun to use. Some you have seen in previous C & C games and some are new. The NOD Avatars are fun. They are killer robots the size of buildings that can acquire technology from other NOD vehicles and shoot lasers. The Scrin have a similar weapon and some wicked flying aircraft carriers. The carriers remind me of the Protoss carriers in Starcraft.

I give the game high marks and recommend that you buy it.

 

“We’ll always have Paris”, was a great line from Casablanca but seems to be the curse of contemporary pop-culture. That Paris is another spoiled trust fund baby that never had to grow-up is tragic. She is a role model for my children of what not to be when you grow-up. Like Cher, Madonna, Brittany and many others before her, we get to watch her slowly and publicly ruin her life in a repeat of King Solomon’s lament that “all is vanity” and “there is nothing new under the sun”. Glen Kaiser put it more bluntly when speaking of the culture of drugs, sex and rock-n-roll stated, “there are a lot of people in hell because of these things.”

Most of our ills in life are self-inflicted and every once in a while we can clearly see this in others. It is a lesson and a warning.

Since her incarceration, Paris says she has found god. She seemed vague on which god and how she found this deity. Base on previous celebrity conversions like Bob Dylan and Jane Fonda, I’m skeptical. Changed lives start with changed hearts. Jesus talked about seeds that sprout and wither in the heat of the sun. Celebrity conversions remind me of that parable.

 

I have been listening to the debate over the proposed immigration bill for several weeks. The bottom line is that supporters say they must do something about immigration. Their basic argument in support of this law is that the current system is broken. Supporters argue that this bill will fix the problem. They say trust us, we will replace the laws that aren’t enforced now with more laws that have no enforcement mechanisms. We make all illegals legal and then there is no problem.

I have heard members of Congress, administration officials, staff from The Wall Street Journal and others claiming to support the bill try to argue in favor of this legislation but they cannot cite why this bill is better than current law and more importantly how this law will fix the problem of illegal immigration once and for all.

The bill’s supporters are utilizing emotional arguments both in favor of the bill and also to attack its opponents. Anyone that opposes this bill is a racist, bigot, Nazi, xenophobe. Facts are not relevant to this discussion. I have not heard a single person who says that they favor the bill try to argue the merits of the legislation by citing chapter and verse from this wonderful compromise worked out in secret. Ultimately supporters claim that President Bush will sign it so it must be ok.

What a joke! President Bush will sign anything that Congress gives to him no matter how bad, unconstitutional or fiscally irresponsible. He holds the all-time record for the fewest vetoes of any President in history. He has vetoed only one bill and that was after almost six years in office!

I am in favor of immigration by legal means. I wish the numbers allowed were at least doubled if not tripled from what they are now. Let folks in legally; lots of them.

The bill’s approach of granting blanket amnesty to all illegals is a national security nightmare. There is no agency assigned to do background checks, no money to hire manpower for the checks and no responsible agency assigned by the legislation. 24 hours for a background check and then a visa that will be good for the rest of your life is just stupid. What database will be used for the check? If we can’t even stop the Virginia Tech shooter from buying firearms through legal means including a background check, why do we think we will catch some terrorist from Jordan before he is given legitimate papers when twenty million people try simultaneously to get their background checks?

We have had a check-in/check-out law on the books for eleven years for legal visitors and it still does not work. The FBI and Department of Homeland Security have had major computer issues since the 9/11 attacks. Now the same people who created and funded these notable computer failures think we can create a nationwide system from scratch in 18 month that will screen people from every corner of the globe!

There needs to be as much time as necessary to do the background checks. The visas much have expiration dates and renewal requirements.

We need to secure the borders before any regularization program for illegals is adopted.

The cornerstone of making the system work needs to be employer verification. Only one or two forms of identification should be allowed for employment. These identification documents must be verified by the government prior to employment. If employee information is suspect either at hire or due to errors later found by the Internal Revenue or Social Security Administration, the employer needs both the legal right to terminate and the legal protection not to be sued by some ACLU type if they do.

If the borders are secured and the employer is empowered to check-up on new hires, the economic draw for illegal immigration will be drastically reduced.

This article was posted on my other blog two years ago but is timely in light of the current immigration debate.

One of the hottest political issues among grassroots people is immigration. A common refrain among people I hear--on conservative talk radio and elsewhere—is that the solution to illegal immigration is to strengthen the borders and stop employers from hiring undocumented workers. This all sounds good but existing law doesn’t allow this to happen; at least not from the employer’s perspective.

The stereotype is that employers will seek-out illegals to work for them and then pay them three bucks an hour in cash and send them on their way. While this probably does happen, my experience doing payroll in the construction industry is quite different. I would like to interject my experience into the public record.

Employers are extremely hampered in dealing with job applicants. This is because both state and federal laws prohibit employers from any discretion in evaluating documents of job applicants. If you agree to hire someone and they can provide you with the necessary documents required for the I-9 form required by the INS and a social security number then the job applicant has met the requirements for being hired. It is illegal to reject an applicant that provides you with these documents. (There is no requirement to see the social security card just that the employee gives you a number.)

At the company where I work, we pay most of our employees that work in the field $20 per hour. They are covered by both worker compensation and liability insurance. They are even eligible for medical, dental and other insurances. All taxes are paid to the appropriate state and federal agencies. This is hardly the slave wages alleged in most horror stories about exploiting illegals.

There are two instances when potentially fraudulent documents are ever brought to the attention of employers. One is when an employer gets a wage garnishment for an employee that they have never heard of before. The problem is that the names don’t match but the social security numbers are identical. Conclusion, our employee is probably not legit. When notified, there are two responses that you will get. Usually the questionable employee suddenly quits. Occasionally, the employee pays the garnishment and continues on at his present job.

The second time that an employer has an idea that an employee has questionable documentation is when once a year, they get a letter from the Social Security Administration that informs them that some of the names submitted on the previous years’ W-2s don’t match the names in their records. At my current employer this is over thirty people on 2004 W-2s (76 on 2005). I have tried verifying names and social security numbers in our records (we keep copies of all documents submitted for employment) and submitting them per the instructions provided by SSA but not one name that I submitted was accepted by the SSA.

Supposedly, the SSA has the ability to verify names and social security numbers on a pass/fail basis but this system is worthless. Some of our employees have six or seven names on their I-9 documents. In a computer system that only accepts first name, middle initial and last name how do you enter a name like JOSE DE JESUS CONTRERAS DE LA GUADALUPE?

How will the entry on my employee’s W-2 ever match a social security card with a name like that? Answer: it can’t. Ever. This renders the verification system of the Social Security Administration totally useless. Due to privacy laws and worries of identity theft, they will not help you if a name does not match. It is clear that our government is not setup to deal with Hispanic names and neither is my ten thousand dollar accounting program.

The Social Security Administration could easily give their list of questionable employees to the immigration people for verification but they don’t. In addition, the SSA instructions specifically state that it is illegal to terminate any employee whose name appears in the letter.

I have never known any employer who has been checked by any government agency to verify their I-9 forms or any other employee documents. In fact, employers are not required to keep copies of the documents used for the I-9s; they simply have to see them and sign the appropriate form verifying that they saw the necessary documents. There are two categories of documents that can be used; the usual combination of documents are a social security card and drivers license but others are also acceptable.

The bottom line is that if a prospective hire has the proper documents then they must be treated the same as any other employee. Only the government has the right to challenge their validity. Going after employers as a means of solving illegal immigration is a straw-man argument. If the employer gets the documents at time of hire, then the person is hired. Citizenship or immigration status has no effect on the hiring process. That is the law.  Only Congress can change it and they are very reluctant to do their job.

 

Blizzard Entertainment has unveiled a preview of Starcraft II. For those with the patience and bandwidth to download their 449 megabyte video, you can see their preliminary vision of the improved Starcraft universe. The narrated demo is about 20 minutes long. The graphics are much improved and the capabilities of the various forces in the game are much improved.

Following the aborted attempt by Blizzard to enter the game console market with their never released Ghost game, Blizzard has decided to stick with the PC gaming market. Their website has indicated that there are no plans for a game console version.

No release date has been set yet but there is a good chance that Starcraft II will be under millions of Christmas trees this year.

Blizzard is also not confirming whether the story thread hinted at in the Brood War Expansion Pack will be the basis of the next story. In the expansion pack there was a bonus level that hinted that someone was experimenting with crossbreeding Zerg and Protoss races. Also there is no word what part Sarah Kerrigan will play is the sequel.

The official website is www.starcraft2.com

As I approach the issue of why I have a gripe about the Recording Industry, let me say that I do agree to the concept of intellectual property and copyrights. The Good Book says a laborer is worth his hire; in other words, you should get paid for your hard work. However, the current system does not do that for most recording artists.

Most recording artists (groups, bands or whatever they call themselves) would sign with a label. Between the booking agency and the recording label, they would handle recording, production, marketing, distribution and publicity. This would free-up the musicians and performers to do what they do best and let others with more resources handle the business end of things. Everybody got a share of the success of the group. Sometimes the label would make lots of money and often they would not. In exchange for the risk involved the recording companies ended up owning the rights to the intellectual property of the artists that they represented.

My complaint is not with this initial arrangement but what happens in subsequent years. Because the recording companies own the songs, only they can control what is released and what is withheld from the public. In my case, I have many recordings on vinyl that were never released on compact disk. You can no longer buy them. Not in a brick and mortar store and not on the Internet. Even the recording companies don’t offer them for sale. I know they exist but nothing is happening with them. It is as if they never existed. If you are really lucky, a few tracks might end-up on a “best of” CD.

This system is stupid. Recording companies are sitting on literally millions of songs that they have no intention of ever releasing again. They won’t ever do anything with them. To me this is criminal.

The intent of copy protection enjoyed by the recording companies should not give them an automatic moratorium on all recorded works for 99 years or even longer. The recordings were intended to be enjoyed by the public and also to earn money for the recording artist. Neither of these interests is served by the current system.

I think that the recording companies should be required to release the complete works of any artist that they own every fifteen years. No not a “best of” but everything originally done on the LP or CD. If they fail to do this, then all rights revert to the artist or their estate. Should they fail to release the material at some regular interval then the recording becomes public domain.

The bottom line is that the recordings be made available and the copyright is only in force as long as the recording is making income for the recording company and/or the artist.

The availability of the recording should also be in a format that is technologically relevant. I have an example that I wish to offer on this point.

One of my favorite groups is DeGarmo and Key Band. They did a double album of a live concert during the era when vinyl was being replaced by CDs. The album was later released on a double CD set. So far, so good. However, it was discovered many years later that millions of CDs released during that period were defective. The film in the CDs was known to decay in just a matter of years. My disk two is so bad that it will not play.

About two years ago, I found the recording on a download site owned by Sony. I thought to myself, this is great; a large corporation bought the music company and is making all their stuff available for download on the Internet. What a visionary and enlightened view of corporate management. I signed-up for their service and gleefully downloaded a digital version of the album. Finally I could replace my defective disk 2 of the set. I pressed play and was shocked. They had simply ripped the CD and put it for sale online. No remastering or ripping from a master. Their CDs were defective also! There were gaps in the recording and the quality in some spots was terrible. It was better than my defective disk but it was still wrong. I sent them an email to complain and instead of fixing the problem, they gave me a credit for another download. I just want a clean copy of what they were selling. I went back to the site about a year later and the download is no longer offered. They too have slipped into digital oblivion.

There needs to be changes in the current system. It is broken. The recording companies are hurting. They need a 21st Century business model instead of one from the 1960s.

 

With all the publicity about the Mitt Romney candidacy, you might be wondering what are the differences between historic Christianity and the LDS church. Does it matter?  Hear one of the best experts on the subject. Walter Martin’s classic lectures on the Maze of Mormonism Part 1 & Maze of Mormonism Part 2 are now on the web.

Many of Walter Martin’s lectures and other material are available at Walter Martin’s Religious InfoNet This site is run by one of his daughters and her husband. Many of his teachings can be found in the Listening Library in RealAudio format. All are from cassette tapes that were converted to digital. The audio quality is not the best but it is worth a listen. Additional teachings can be found at the page for Kingdom of the Cults page The audio teachings on this page are not the same as the book but go along with some material presented in the book.

 

Laura Ingraham’s acting debut on the ½ Hour News Hour is really funny. See our Dr. Laura as she helps Liberals deal with Hillary anxiety by using OxyClinton. Play the video at the link below.

http://hotair.com/archives/2007/05/13/12-hour-news-hour-open-thread/

 

Bill Keller has posted a scathing attack on Mormons and Mitt Romney. I do not know Mr. Keller but I was intrigued by this situation following as it does on the recent comments by Al Sharpton.

I read about this article on WorldNetDaily. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55642

Note: Since Townhall’s block quote command does not work in their web editor, I am using my comments in black. Any text in blue ink in the post is quoted from the original.

If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for satan!

Was my vote for Arnold Schwarzenegger v Phil Angelides for California Governor a vote for Satan? Arnold cannot be a “good” Roman Catholic if he is for abortion and Phil is worse on the life issue. I believe abortion is murder but I also believe that God gave me the right to vote. Did Jesus say to support Caesar was to support Satan? No. The Bible teaches us that God appoints leaders and is the ruler of all nations; even those without a vote. I believe our job as Christians is to pick the best guy we can get. Character matters. Like I have said before, as Republicans we have a choice of a “good” Mormon and a lapsed Catholic. We are not electing a pastor but a president.

This message today is not about Mitt Romney. Romney is an unashamed and proud member of the Mormon cult founded by a murdering polygamist pedophile named Joseph Smith nearly 200 years ago.

I missed the part where Joseph Smith killed anyone. Was Joseph a pedophile? He might have married women under the age of 18, but in his day that was common. I think he had 35 wives. (see http://www.wivesofjosephsmith.org/ )

The teachings of the Mormon cult are doctrinally and theologically in complete opposition to the Absolute Truth of God's Word. There is no common ground. If Mormonism is true, then the Christian faith is a complete lie.

Joseph Smith makes this same claim.

There has never been any question from the moment Smith's cult began that it was a work of satan and those who follow their false teachings will die and spend eternity in hell. This message is about the top Christian leaders in our nation who are supporting this cult members quest to become the next President of the United States.

I have watched in horror over the past weeks as one evangelical Christian leader after another has either endorsed, supported, or just as bad, refused to denounce Romney's run for the White House and those Christian leaders who support him. Last weekend Pat Robertson, founder of CBN and Regents University, had Romney deliver the keynote address to the graduates of Regents. Regents is one of the great Christian colleges in this nation and Robertson allowed this cult member to deliver the commencement address. Is he out of his mind?

Would Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox New Channel be better? He is in hot water from some about pornography. http://www.apprising.org/archives/2007/05/purpose_driven.html

Do you think there would ever be a true Gospel preacher giving the commencement address at Brigham Young?

No

I have been warning you for years now about this cult born out of the pits of hell and responsible for sending millions of souls to eternal damnation.

People are in hell for rejecting Jesus Christ. False religion, homosexuality, drugs, gangs, sex and rock ’n roll are just things that people do to try and fill the spiritual vacuum in their lives.

For the nearly 200 years this cult has been in existence they have strived for mainstream acceptance. They are the most devious of all the cults since they have always tried to portray themselves as "just another Christian group" when in fact, they are no more Christian than a Muslim is! Their deception starts with their name, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Sounds like a Christian church doesn't it? Some Mormons have recently changed their name to simply Community of Christ (Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) to disguise even better who they are in an attempt to lure people in.

Many cults try to wrap themselves in biblical and Christian terminology. Define what Mormons believe and you will find a rejection of virtually every core doctrine. They are polytheistic, deny that Christ paid for our sins by his death and their version of the Virgin Birth (Adam having sex with Mary) are just a few whoppers that they tell.

The Mormon cult talks of God and Jesus, but again, don't be deceived since the god and jesus of Mormon theology are NOT the one true God and Jesus of the Bible.

They teach God the Father has a physical body and that Adam, from the Garden of Eden, is “our father and our god and the only god with whom we have to do.” Thanks Brigham Young! Each planet has their own god. Also to them Jesus and Lucifer are brothers!

This cult also uses the Bible, but like in all cults it is NOT their final authority. The Bible is superceded by the writings of Smith in the Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenants.

Mormons teach that the Bible is correct “in so far as it is translated correctly.” Any contradiction with the Bible is the fault of man, only they have the restored gospel.

These books form the perverted teachings of Mormonism and is what their false theology is based on. There are many great ministries who work to bring those lost in the Mormon cult out of that deception to true faith in the Jesus of the Bible. You can visit any Christian bookstore and find many books that will detail in great depth the bizarre theology of Mormonism which is not based on anything but the imagination of Smith.

Classic Texts to Read. Who Really Wrote the Book of Mormon?, Kingdom of the Cults, Maze of Mormonism.

I am not even going to deal with the tons of documentation that exists on the Mormons strategy to gain mainstream acceptance in the American culture. Obviously a big part of this strategy is to wield political power, with the Presidency being the ultimate political prize.

When I last checked, fifteen percent of the military is Mormon. This is because military service is an acceptable alternative to riding bicycles around your neighborhood and knocking on doors.

There are reportedly 12 million Mormons worldwide, half of those in the United States. The worldwide holdings of the Mormon cult are in the tens of billions of dollars. Mitt Romney is the first member of this cult who has had the legitimate opportunity to help them achieve their goal of mainstream acceptance while holding the most powerful office in the world. Romney will have the full resources of this cult behind him in his bid for the White House.

Ok so how can Harry Reid, Orrin Hatch and Mitt Romney all be on the same team? That is like saying Ted Kennedy and Laura Ingram are political soulmates. Mormons are PEOPLE not some monolithic enemy out to destroy us.

As I have told you often, despite what some polls say, the better percentage of two full generations living right now have never even been to church.

Or at least a church where the Bible is taken seriously.

Everyone has a spiritual side to their life, and the cults and false religions, the new Age movements, have been having a field day attracting people to their false beliefs because of the overwhelming number of people who have no faith coupled with the fact Christians have quit evangelizing and virtually removed themselves from the culture leaving these lost souls to satan.

Perhaps because the Church and our country are under the judgment of God for our rejection of Him. We have forgotten where our blessing have come from.

It is against this backdrop that I tell you without any hesitation or equivocation that to support and vote for Mitt Romney is to support and vote for satan!

We are back to this again. Mr. Keller we need revival in the Church first. Salvation is not at the ballot box. God is in charge. Maybe Mr. Romney and his fellow Mormons needs our prayers.

If Romney gets elected as the next President of the United States, the Mormon cult will finally have the mainstream acceptance they have been striving for these past 200 years.

Mormons are a uniquely American phenomenon. I think their acceptance will happen without a Romney victory. We are slowing moving toward the Roman view of religious pluralism where you can have any god as long as Caesar is supreme. Christians are being marginalized and even persecuted in our country. If the church continues its apostasy then the situation for us will continue to deteriorate. The religion of Environmentalism and its neo-pagan ideals is more of a danger than the folks in Salt Lake City.

Romney winning the White House will lead millions of people into the Mormon cult.

Did JFK’s victory lead millions into the Roman Church?

Those who follow the false teachings of this cult, believe in the false jesus of the Mormon cult and reject faith in the one true Jesus of the Bible, will die and spend eternity in hell.

True. We need to work harder and pray for them.

*ROMNEY GETTING ELECTED PRESIDENT WILL ULTIMATELY LEAD MILLIONS OF SOULS TO THE ETERNAL FLAMES OF HELL!!!

Isn’t that just a little harsh?

Knowing all we do about this satanic cult leading people's souls to hell, knowing that a Romney presidency would give mainstream acceptance to this cult, why are most of the top evangelical leaders of our day falling over themselves to support this man?

Find me a better candidate and I’m there! Hey Fred where are you?

How can any Christian in good conscience have anything to do with Romney?

Do we just stay home and let the country go to hell? Oh, wait we are anyway.

I submit to you there are only 2 possible reasons, money and power.

Let me first discredit immediately the reason many are publicly giving for supporting Romney, and that is his stand on family issues and life. Romney has distinguished himself as the leading Republican candidate to be pro life. It is important to note this has only happened recently since Romney used to support women killing their babies. His wife even donated money to the leading baby killing organization in he world, Planned Parenthood. But even giving Romney the benefit of the doubt that he will take a stand for life, the chances of him being responsible for moving that issue are minimal even if he went on record that his number one objective of his presidency is to overturn Roe vs. Wade, which of course he has not done and never will do. Supporting and voting for Romney because of his position on life is NOT a reason to elect a man who will ultimately be used to lead millions of souls to hell.

Would Hillary or Rudy be better for the Life issue than Romney? Would their judicial appointments be better?

No my friend, as sad as it is, this is about what most things in life boil down to, money and power. Is it any wonder why the Christian faith is so weak and ineffective, has such little influence in our culture when those who are recognized as leaders aren't really interested in God's Truth or in seeing souls saved, only in money and power.

Are the politicians responsible for my soul? Did the early Church convert the Roman Empire by living their lives for Jesus or seeking political office?

It was just a few decades ago that another cult member bought the evangelical leadership of this nation. His name was Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification cult. To gain mainstream acceptance for his cult, he set up a myriad of conservative organizations and through them funneled literally millions of dollars to people like Billy Graham, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tim and Beverly LaHaye, Robert Schuller, Paul Crouch, James Dobson, Jay Sekulow. D. James Kennedy, and many others.

Ok. How many of these folks converted to the Unification Church? Where is the Unification Church anyway. It has disappeared from the public eye for decades. Rev Moon is living the high life in Korea and I doubt his group will live much beyond him.

Fast forward to the year 2007 and you now have many of these same names involved in Romney's bid to become the next President. Romney had a very clear gameplan to court the evangelical leaders of this nation to support him. There is nobody who will dispute that it was the Christian vote which was responsible for President Bush being elected twice.

Without the evangelicals no Republican can win the primary. Only John McCain is trying. If Romney is so good at this strategy then why is he so far down in the polls? I think the rank and file Evangelicals are not comfortable with him. Unfortunately, attacks like this one will have Christian defending Romney while disagreeing with his religion.

Knowing the satanic nature of the Mormon cult and the fact they have worldwide resources in the tens of billions, literally thousands of non profit and for profit corporations they control, it would be pocket change for them to funnel money and/or services to those Christian leaders who support Romney for President.

Romney has lots of friend in the business world but he hasn’t passed Hillary in fundraising. If what you claim (or fear) is true then she should be far behind in the money hunt.

Having been embarrassed when their ties to Moon's cult became public, I have no doubt that those who are in bed with Romney have been very careful to insure that however they are being rewarded for their support, it will be virtually impossible to discover.

Now you sound like a moonbat. I think the Evangelicals are hedging their support for Romney and Fred Thompson could easily strip much from Romney if he gets in the race soon.

Of course, the other component to those who are supporting Romney is power. Sadly, many evangelical leaders are also smitten with being "near the throne." Many of these men and women are willing to compromise the Truth in exchange for political power. They are willing to ignore the fact this hideous cult is leading millions to hell in order to be part of Romney's team. These leaders are nor driven by the Gospel but by political power!

What did Billy Graham get from hanging-out with Richard Nixon?

FOX News, that likes to portray itself as being friendly to the Christian faith, might as well be renamed the Mitt Romney for President network.

Fox is not hostile to Christians. There is a difference.

Sean Hannity, who wears his Romney cheerleading dress to the program every night, has stated numerous times that those who dare question Romney's faith are hate mongers. It is clear that Hannity could care less about the spiritual implications of a Romney presidency, only that he will be on the inside as one of Romney's biggest advocates. Of course there is radio and TV host Glenn Beck who rarely lets people know he is a Mormon, often stating he is "born again."

Hannity is Roman Catholic and sees this in terms of the JFK campaign. All Mormons claim to be “born again” but like other terms they have a different definition to Mormons.

Beck is either like most Mormons and hasn't got a clue what his cult really believes, or he is simply trying to reinforce the lie from hell that a Mormon is a Christian.

This is an outgrowth of their belief that we are all wrong and they are the only true church.

I love you and care about you so much. Keller is referring to his readers not the LDS members. It is no wonder why the church is so weak and ineffective when you have those in leadership willing to compromise the Gospel for a few shekels and some political clout. I remember last year being excited about a wonderful deal we had put together with Larry Jones' Feed the Children organization that would have meant millions of dollars a year to Liveprayer and been a big part of the answer to giving us all the resources we needed to do what God has called us to do in reaching the lost through secular television. I'll never forget getting the phone call that Jones was bought and used by the Mormon cult as part of their overall strategy to appear as "just another Christian church." I had no choice but to sever the ties we had established with Jones. All the money and power in the world is not worth selling out Jesus!

Please take some time today and pray for Mitt Romney and all those who have been deceived by the lies of the Mormon cult. The fact is that unless they renounce those lies and turn to faith in the one true Jesus of the Bible, they will die and spend eternity in hell. Pray also for these Christian leaders who have for whatever reason, foolishly aligned themselves with Romney. Pray the Holy Spirit will convict them and that they will renounce Romney and find a candidate to support who will hold to Biblical values. There is no excuse, no justification for supporting and voting for a man who will be used by satan to lead the souls of millions into the eternal flames of hell!

Does he want us to holdout for Fred or just holdout? Who is God’s Anointed in this race?

I refuse to sit back and be silent while those who people look up to, who lead them in spiritual matters, are selling out the faith for whatever money and power they might be able to get in return. I challenge any of them to come on my TV program, or I'll appear on theirs, and answer one simple question, "Knowing that Mormonism is a cult and those who follow this cult will die and go to hell, what possible justification can you give for supporting Romney?"

We need to win the election to keep millions from dying at the hands of Islamists and going to hell. Many of these are your fellow Christians that you are asking to pray for the Mormons. I’m glad you finally got to that part of the discussion.

Having Romney as President is no different than having a Muslim or Scientologist as President.

What about Deists and Catholics?

Please, don't tell me that Mitt Romney is the best option. I'll stay home and not vote before I will vote for satan, since if you vote for Romney you are voting for satan!

So there you have it. Stay home and vote for Hillary. Isn’t she Satan’s handmaiden? Damned if you do …

In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ, Bill Keller

Today seems like stupidity in journalism day. First I read that the Minneapolis Star Tribune has dumped the James Lileks as a regular columnist. Lileks is probably the only thing worth reading in that paper. Listening to him each week on Hugh Hewitt is consistently one of the best segments on his program. Lileks is always laugh-out-loud funny.

 

Next I turn on Rush Limbaugh, and find out the television station that I watch each evening is all up in arms about the Rush Limbaugh parody “Barack the Magic Negro.” First, this parody is two months old. Second, Barack has been asked about the parody and did not take offense. Third the reporters never bothered to get the context about the song. They act like Limbaugh made the whole song up just so he could say “negro” on the air and bash Obama.

 

Any regular listener to Limbaugh knows that Rush took a series of articles written by Liberals who were dumping on Obama because of his race and strung them altogether to point out that these allegedly enlightened Liberals are just a bunch of racists who look at skin color and not qualifications. For Liberals it’s all about categories, groups and quotas. Dr. King wanted folks evaluated by “the content of their character” but his alleged successors are exactly the opposite. This is the classic definition of hypocrisy and low hanging fruit for Limbaugh to use to bash them as they so richly deserve.

 

Walter Martin often stated “a text without a context is a pretext, usually for error.” Local television station KOVR has proved once again the truth of that axiom.

Yet another movie based on a story by Phillip K. Dick. Nicolas Cage stars as a man that can see into the future. The catch, he can only see up to two minutes ahead. The movie is fast paced and action filled. Cage’s character, Cris Johnson, is sought by the FBI to assist them finding a nuclear bomb in southern California. This is a chase movie. If you liked the Fugitive then this movie is worth a look.

The movie is rated PG-13. I think it could have qualified for an R with a little less editing. Because Johnson (Cage) can see into the future, there are lots of “what if” scenes. Many of these are explosions and people getting shot. ** Spoiler alert ** One scene involves his love interest being strapped into a wheelchair wearing a bomb that is exploded by terrorists. This scene is very disturbing. My wife cried. Much of the movie is devoted to preventing this possible future.

Cage is better in this film than in Ghost Rider. He is likable and the opening scenes in the movie create believability in his power that makes the whole premise work. Unlike the television show Heroes, the directors are not trying to misdirect you as each possible future is explored. They simply show you the possible choices and consequences of each. While you are waiting for the lines to Spiderman to get shorter, consider this film to be your Next.

 Gene Robinson, the homosexual Episcopal minister whose elevation to Bishop has been the fulcrum of the irreconcilable split in the worldwide Anglican Communion, has found yet another way to throw more fuel on the ecclesiastical pyre of the American church. Robinson is the bishop of New Hampshire. New Hampshire is in the final stages of enacting a civil union law and Robinson wants to be first in line.

What I find curious is the quotes used from Robinson in the news stories about this issue. Robinson equates this civil union law with state recognition of gay marriage. He views this as a step toward forcing the federal government into recognizing gay marriage.

“I think this is a huge leap forward, but it is not full equality until we have equality. The biggest piece missing, of course, is federal recognition. I don’t think it will happen until we get several more states. It doesn’t have to be a majority, but it has to be a significant number embracing full marriage rights until we can expect that at the federal level. We are only arguing over a timetable. “

According to my understanding of this issue—and a cursory review of the issue on the Internet seems to confirm —civil unions and domestic partnership laws are two roughly equivalent ways used by states to create a legal means of granting the same rights to homosexuals that married couples enjoy. This is done on a state-by-state basis without federal recognition. The above quote from Robinson seems to support this interpretation.

My question then is this; if civil unions and domestic partner recognition grant the same rights that states confer on married couples why is there such a push here in California to allow homosexuals to call themselves “married”? Marriage is defined in state law as the union of one man and one woman. This has been the definition of the term for the last two thousand years here in the West. Why must it be redefined now?

Marriage is one of three institutions created by God. The three are: government, church and family (marriage). The first miracle of Jesus was at a marriage. The relationship of Christ to the church is explained as the relationship of a groom to his bride. I submit that the assault on marriage by the state and some in the church is nothing short of an attack on God. It is a form of open rebellion by sinful men. No one can harm God so they take out their hatred of him by harming those that bear his image. Murder, abortion, homosexuality are all examples of this evil.

Anything that diminishes marriage undermines those institutions established by God for our benefit. The fact that a leader charged with defending Christ’s Church is a leading advocate for the destruction of both the institution of marriage and the Church charged with protecting it just heaps greater judgment upon him.

Originally posted Feb 9, 2006

When can you tell that government is out of control? When government makes law abiding citizens into criminals just for going about their daily lives, the government has overstepped its rightful boundaries.

If you are a gun owner, smoker, motorcycle rider or other persecuted minority in California for doing something that is legal, you now have company. Every citizen in California has been made a criminal today. That's right! Effective today, if you throw a dead AAA battery into the trash you are criminal. If you put a burned-out light bulb into a dumpster you are an evil doer. If you toss a disposable cell phone you are scum. So says the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (also called CalEPA).

Other banned items include some tennis shoes made before1997, greeting cards that play music, freezers, washing machines, space heaters, radios and disposable lighters.

The real lessons to take from these Liberals are these: 

• We cannot listen to terrorists talking on disposable cell phones but we can imprison them for tossing the phones into the trash when their calling minutes are expired.
• Our State legislature is more fearful of the batteries in my baby's electronic toys than the possibility that thermonuclear weapons might be detonated in San Francisco or Los Angeles.
  

Originally posted Feb 2, 2006

Occasionally. I have to be the first kid on the block with the new techie toy. In that spirit, I purchased the new Computer Associates eTrust Antivirus program, Release 8. I wanted a program that was certified to work with my 64-bit version of Windows XP.

The installation went ok. I was prompted to agree to three different licenses and had to fill out a full-page registration form before I even got to the screen to select the product that I wanted to install.

When selecting the program to install, there is a one-sentence summary of each product choice; there are five or six from which to choose. I selected eTrust Antivirus Release 8. The next screen lets you choose Client, Server or Custom installation. I made my choice and then presses finish to install.

Partway through the installation, I got an error that the license would not register so I was being given a 30-day trial version of the program. After installation finished, the system prompted for a reboot.

After rebooting my computer, I tried to find where the license could be entered again to get the product registered. I could not find any screen to enter the information. There is a license button on one of the screens but it doesn’t work like you would expect. It doesn’t ask you to enter a registration number or verify the information that you had previously typed in case you typed one instead of “I” or zero instead of “O” or something lame like that; instead, it asks you for a path to the license file. I even tried cutting and pasting the license key code from the order confirmation e-mail that they sent me but it would not work.

The license button gave you a screen that had three buttons. A fill-in box next to the Browse button seemed the logical place to find a license file. Once you click on Browse you are presented with a search window similar to Word or Excel when you select File-Open. The choices for file type are the default “*.*” (the dreaded search wildcard), .gif or .htm.

What and where this mysterious license file is remained a mystery for several hours. It seems like this interface is intended for a client installation to find the license file of the server installation. (See number Five below for more info.)

There is no Help option. I looked because often licensing is buried in the Help-About button on the program.

After several hours of frustration on the CA website and uninstalling and reinstalling the program four more times, this is what I discovered.

First, all of the user name, address and other neat mandatory fields that you are prompted for in the installation, are not memorized by the setup program and must be reentered each time you run setup.

Second, there is no help option available from the setup menu.

Third, there is no help available for Release 8 at the CA website.

Fourth, HP and Microsoft have much better Knowledge Bases than Computer Associates. I even went through the registration at their website, for the third time in a month to try to login to some support options. CA does not seem to have integrated login data so I had to register once to download a trial copy, which I could never get to install. Then I had to enter all the same info to buy the program on their store website, and third, I had to register to get a look at portions of the support website.

Fifth, I did find out that there is a registration file in the Shared Components directory that this is an .xml file but it only shows enough information to see that I have a thirty day trial version currently installed.

Sixth, the licensing scheme and file locations have been completely revised for Release 8 when compared to Release 7.

In light of all that had happened, I sent an e-mail to CA in hopes of getting some help to get the program licensed properly. I may have to hack the xml file but I would like to get the program working properly.

***
Six Hours After My Original Post

Amazingly, when I got home today there were two e-mails waiting for me in response to my request for help, the e-mails were due to the fact that I was not there to answer the phone call from Computer Associates. That’s service!

Anyway here is the text of the e-mail.

This is with regards to your Licensing Issue# XXXXXX91.

I understand that you have installed the product on a 64 bit machine.

Kindly note that the agent will work fine on a 64 bit machine, however, kindly install the (ITM server) Console on a different machine which does not have a 64 bit processor.

The licenses will get updated only when a console machine connects to CA site and get it refreshed. Otherwise, the license.xml file will be holding the trial info only.

Hence, you can install the Console on a different machine and have the 64 bit machine as an agent. Kindly let me know if you have any questions.

Regards,
Cheryl
CA
License Support Representative

As Paul Harvey says, “and now the rest of the story.”

I took my handy eTrust R8 disk to my wife’s 32-bit Windows XP computer and started the install process again. I agreed to three licenses and filled-out the same full page form again, selected eTrust R8 and then surprise! There were four menu choices instead of the three that were on my 64-bit computer.

As instructed, I installed the ITM Server.

This was a good first step but is not the end of the computing adventures that I experienced.

When I rebooted the computer and tried to go into the ITM Server, I was prompted for a Username and Password. I figure no sweat, I will enter what? My registration stuff asked me to create a password but not a username. What now?

Thankfully there was a help button on this screen. After mousing around I found out that the eTrust ITM Console uses the default Administrator account of the computer as the Username and Password. This was simple enough, I entered the username and there was no password on the Administrator account on my wife’s XP machine so I just hit Enter and . . . nothing. Program error, I must enter a password. But there is no password! The only choice I had was to go to Users in the Control Panel and enter a password for the Administrator account on the XP machine.

I then went back to the ITM Console and tried the Administrator account with my newly created password and like magic, I was able to login.

The console could see my computer had eTrust but there was nowhere that I could find to register the license which was the whole purpose of this exercise in the first place.

Based on my experiences the night before, I though why not just share the directory with the license in it and see what happens. I shared the SubscriptionLicense directory and then went to my 64-bit computer.

I opened the License Tab and browsed to the SubscriptionLicense directory on my wife’s computer and selected the License.xml file and my computer accepted the choice. Now I am running a fully licensed copy of ETrust Antivirus Release 8 for my 64-bit Windows XP system.

 Rosie O'Donnell is leaving "The View." She has been unable to come to terms with ABC. Rumor has it that she will be moving to CBS to take the slot currently held by Katie Couric.

Veteran CBS reporter and former news anchor Dan Rather praised the move, “Rosie is like a bulldog. She will follow a story wherever it takes her and leave no Bush unwatered. She has good instincts and knows that the Catholics and Republicans are the cause of all our country’s ills. Her pursuit of the truth will put CBS on the cutting edge of journalism and bring a dignity to CBS News that it has been lacking since my retirement. She will be an excellent replacement as news anchor.”

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