"Don't Underestimate"

The democratic talking points for those in Senator Clinton's court must be "don't underestimate".

The only problem is that these two words continue to be used to argue that Hillary should not be underestimated as a serious candidate for president in 2008.

While I believe she is certainly a formidable candidate and capable of such an office, I also think that we must all remember that we shouldn't underestimate the average American voter either.

If short term memory serves us correctly, the 2006 election cycle proved that when pushed over the edge, most swing voters will turn on a dime and surprise even those who really meant well in their districts, such as former Congressman Jim Ryun of Kansas who lost his election in the shocking aftermath of Election day 2006.

Don't underestimate the spent patience of Americans when it comes to the "dynasty" mentality that our politics have been suffering of late. We are barely out of the woods of being under the Bush dynasty, how do you think we can even attempt to endure that of a Clinton dynasty--and trust our first woman President to be a Clinton no less?

State Of The Union Address Hangover

Reflections Since 2000

Another SOTU has come and gone, the consensus is that many republicans went into this one weary and many democrats had already made up their minds prior to the President's speech.

I watched the address twice thanks to Fox News Channel who showed it again in the same night (helpful for souls like me without the beloved TiVo).

President Bush was gracious and he was steadfast. Now those who disagree with him admit that he did right by the Madame Speaker Pelosi, but they call him a fool for sticking to the same ideas--especially in regards to Iraq.

What angers me about this constant barrage by naysayers is that they expect to be bowed down to each and every time there is a disagreement on policy. I just don't know what anti-Iraq people want anymore. Do they really think that pulling out of Iraq or Afghanistan is really going to help our global image. Heck, many nations and tribal leaders as we debate could care less about whether we are in Iraq or not--their biggest obsessions are how can they exploit us or destroy us economically.

The US dollar continues to struggle in the global market exchanges. No surprise to me when we are so busy eating our Executive branch away like depraved cannibalistic tribes.

Do I think the Bush administration has made all the right choices? OF COURSE NOT. But neither has any other administration since the birth of our nation. The expectation that this administration should just halt itself completely and hand over the reins to another political party is nonsense.

The reality is, as I reflect on the speech last night, that Bush never had a fighting chance as our President in this nation. He was hated before he was sworn in. Mr. Gore harmed us more than even the disgraced Nixon decades ago, because he couldn't just concede and abide by our Constitution. Instead, our Supreme Court had to get involved and once again we looked like blubbering fools in the global stage. What a great time to strike, when we are most weak and decisive.

That's why I pray everyday that we continue to make head way into this War On Terror, because whether or not folks want to believe it--we are under attack and most weak when we trash our own government beyond just disagreements and healthy debates.

St. Clement: A Man of Many Tortures

Tortures Untold

No matter how many times I read about various past Orthodox saints and the tortures they endured, I find myself feeling shocked and in utter disbelief--for a moment.

In the 21st century, our western society has a public outcry when various convicted and tried criminals are put to death. For instance, lethal injection use as one of the modes of capital punishment in our nation. Earlier this month, Saddam Hussein was put to death in Iraq by one of their standard methods: hanging. With both I have heard again and again how "inhumane" it is to practice these barbaric methods.

Meanwhile, our Orthodox saints endured not just death for the sake of their belief in Christ, but untold tortures wherein they survived many times until ultimate beheadings.

St. Clement was born in 258 in the Galatian city of Ancyra, by age twelve he was an orphan. Sophia was a kind woman who not only took him in and adopted him but also ended up taking in other abandoned children whose parents did not believe in Christ. Clement became a priest early on at 18 and later was made bishop of Ancyra. As fate had it for many Christians during that time, he was taken in by the governor of Galatia and ordered to worship other idols and gods. He refused, upon which his tortures promptly began.

My source is http://www.oca.org/: They suspended him on a tree, and raked his body with sharp iron instruments so that his entrails could be seen. They smashed his mouth with stones, and they turned him on a wheel and burned him over a low fire. The Lord preserved His sufferer and healed his lacerated body. Then Dometian sent the saint to Rome to the emperor Diocletian himself, with a report that Bishop Clement had been fiercely tortured, but had proven unyielding. Diocletian, seeing the martyr completely healthy, did not believe the report and subjected him to even crueler tortures, and then had him locked up in prison.

Many of the pagans, seeing the bravery of the saint and the miraculous healing of his wounds, believed in Christ. People flocked to St Clement in prison for guidance, healing and Baptism, so that the prison was literally transformed into a church. When word of this reached the emperor, many of these new Christians were executed. Diocletian, struck by the amazing endurance of St Clement, sent him to Nicomedia to his co-emperor Maximian. On the ship, the saint was joined by his disciple Agathangelus, who had avoided being executed with the other confessors, and who now wanted to suffer and die for Christ with Bishop Clement. The emperor Maximian in turn sent Sts Clement and Agathangelus to the governor Agrippina, who subjected them to such inhuman torments, that even the pagan on-lookers felt pity for the martyrs and they began to pelt the torturers with stones. Having been set free, the saints healed an inhabitant of the city through the laying on of hands and they baptized and instructed people, thronging to them in multitudes. Arrested again on orders of Maximian, they were sent home to Ancyra, where the ruler Cyrenius had them tortured.

Then they were sent to the city of Amasea to the proconsul Dometius, known for his great cruelty. In Amasea, the martyrs were thrown into hot lime. They spent a whole day in it and remained unharmed. They flayed them, beat them with iron rods, set them on red-hot beds, and poured sulfur on their bodies. All this failed to harm the saints, and they were sent to Tarsus for new tortures. In the wilderness along the way St Clement had a revelation that he would suffer a total of twenty-eight years for Christ. Then having endured a multitude of tortures, the saints were locked up in prison. St Agathangelus was beheaded with the sword on November 5. The Christians of Ancyra freed St Clement from prison and took him to a cave church. There, after celebrating Liturgy, the saint announced to the faithful the impending end of the persecution and his own martyrdom. On January 23, the holy hierarch was killed by soldiers from the city, who stormed the church. The saint was beheaded as he stood before the altar and offered the Bloodless Sacrifice. Two deacons, Christopher and Chariton, were beheaded with him, but no one else was harmed.

The "Preaction" To State Of The Union Address (SOTU)

President George W. Bush: Once Again Pre-Judged

Already the buzz about what the POTUS (President of the United States) will say during his SOTU address next week has been around the Capitol block several times in the past couple of weeks. It could be argued that President Bush already gave a preview by his announcement earlier this month on his new direction for Iraq.

Needless to say, the American public, the media and the Washington politicians have been offering their two-bits in response to his Iraq speech ever since.

What troubles me most, however, is how we take for granted that we can voice our opposition to the President's plan as we do. If this were Russia or Venezuela, the media almost immediately would have been canned. Then any politicians would have been "removed" or "resigned" for other undisclosed reasons. Let us not even entertain what would happen to any citizens in the general public who dissented.

I don't bring this up as just a guilt trip on my fellow Americans, only as a reminder that the global community is not as easy-going when it comes to expressing opinions as in our own country. I also bring this reminder up because I am concerned that when we so openly display our stark divisions to the world, we also expose our weaknesses to other nations and groups who are very strongly (even if wrongly or fanatically) united in their respective beliefs or causes.

Already there are politicians in Washington proclaiming that the POTUS "had better say something about" this or that, "or else". How unfortunate, we are already prone to judging a man before he has yet to make a formal address. Since when do politicians show their playing cards before the dealer has yet to finishing dealing?