The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, spoke in the U.S. at the National Press Club today. He’s long been in the vanguard of those recognizing the current global warming mass hysteria for what it is, and he also recognizes the underlying agenda of some of its proponents. He’s almost a minority of one when it comes to world leaders; that’s especially easy to say if one is considering just western world leaders (I have problems believing that such as Putin and Hu Jintao believe in any of the global warming nonsense, although they may tactically take positions on it in their chess game with the U.S.) . Talkradionews.com has some notes on what Klaus said today:

The merits of global warming where questioned by President Vaclav Klaus of the Czech Republic at the National Press Club where Klaus likened the environmentalist movement to the communism of his youth. According to Klaus both ideologies promote causes that transcend the individual; environmentalism promotes the planet while communism promotes the proletariat. Klaus asserted that climatologists are only motivated to do research in one direction due to large-scale acceptance of environmentalism and government subsidies that encourage the development of green technology.

Klaus said that both communism and environmentalism are motivating forces that cause people to ignore opposition and live in a world of reduced freedoms. Klaus stated that “global warming alarmism” is a greater threat to the world than socialism and that environmentalists, through government subsidies that favor certain industries, take away from a free market’s ability to provide for the welfare of its citizens.

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Jeffrey Lord has a superb piece in the American Spectator, despite the odd title: Seeing Evil: The Arms of John McCain. It takes both the story of Neville Chamberlain and the story of John McCain’s torture by the North Vietnamese as jumping off points for a consideration of how history reveals that there are always those who fail to recognize evil — and therefore seek appeasement of characters who just appear to be acting out — and then there are those who do recognize it, and who have the will and foresight to act against it.

It is a sad if curious and very, very dangerous fact that not only will there always be evil in the world, there will always be men like Chamberlain or Barack Obama or Jimmy Carter. [...] People who simply, honestly cannot see evil unless they are looking at old newsreels from seventy years ago. People who will, in the current context, watch Iran go busily about building a nuclear capability even as its leader vows to exterminate the “stinking corpse” that is Israel. People who would and did turn a blind eye to the evil of Saddam Hussein just as Chamberlain believed in negotiating with Hitler or Jimmy Carter was convinced peace with the Soviet Union was better than the Reagan policy of simply defeating the “focus of evil in the modern world.”

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David Shushon has a fascinating and lengthy reflection on varied meanings of “Zionism for Christians” in the current issue of First Things.

Israel always matters. Biblical scholars have devoted endless pages to ancient Israel as a religious idea, and pundits have penned endless newspaper columns about modern Israel as a geopolitical entity. The deeper implications, however, have received less attention than they deserve in recent years, overshadowed by the exigencies of Middle Eastern politics. Indeed, real questions remain: What does the sheer ­existence of the modern state of Israel mean for theology—particularly for Christian theology? And what does that theology mean for the continuing existence of Israel?

“Hardly anybody will dispute that the foundation of this state had something to do with the biblical prophecy,” Christoph Cardinal Schönborn said in 1996, “even if that something is hard to define.” At ­present, the major Christian denominations are kindly disposed toward Judaism, and many Christians—­especially American evangelicals—strongly support the State of Israel. And yet not all Christians agree with the mainstream Jewish view that modern Jewish life requires the existence of a Jewish state. Indeed, it seems counterintuitive to expect Christians to support an explicitly Jewish state in an age in which Christians have mostly abandoned the idea of explicitly Christian states.

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Some recent stories of the armed citizen, as compiled by the NRA at this link.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Tucker, GA, 3/20/08
State: GA
American Rifleman Issue: 3/20/2008

When an intruder broke into their Tucker, Georgia, home last Tuesday night, 81-year-old Robert Jenkins heroically protected his wife and property with a handgun. Jenkins grabbed his 78-year-old wife’s handgun after hearing unfamiliar noises late in the night and encountered an intruder in his kitchen. The intruder charged at Jenkins and they struggled over the gun until Jenkins fired, killing the intruder. DeKalb County police spokesman J.T. Ware said, “He defended his home, defended his wife. He did what everybody would hope to do in a situation like that.”

The Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, 3/13/08
State: OK
American Rifleman Issue: 3/12/2008

Don Gibson of Oklahoma and his nephew were closing their restaurant one night when they received unexpected visitors. Gibson’s nephew was just walking out the front door when two armed robbers forced him to the ground. Don Gibson heard his nephew’s cry that the robbers holding him were armed and grabbed his gun to defend his family and his business. As the robbers advanced into the restaurant, Gibson fired two shots, hitting both in the back. Both robbers are in police custody and charged with attempted armed robbery.

The Macon Telegraph, Milledgeville, GA, 3/04/08
State: GA
American Rifleman Issue: 3/4/2008

A week before Christmas, Ken Foshee of Milledgeville, GA was contentedly sitting on the back deck of his new home, his wife and grandson warm inside when two armed assailants surprised Mr. Foshee, forcing him into his home and demanding money. In the struggle, one of the robbers shot Mr. Foshee in the hand. Foshee’s grandson ran next door to alert his uncle, Ronnie, the Foshees’ son, who grabbed his gun and ran to help. Ronnie fired a warning shot, causing the robber who was holding a knife to Mrs. Foshee’s throat to flee. As the remaining assailant was severely beating Mr. Foshee in a bedroom, Ronnie shot and killed him, saving his father’s life. Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee said, “Had it not been for the grandson’s brave action and Ronnie Foshee arriving at his parents’ home, it’s likely the attack would have ended in even more tragedy.”

Each story is a testament to the incalculable value of possessing an equalizer.

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