The Occupation of Occupying

Mrs. Clinton, whose appointment as Secretary of State showed just how hopey and changey our glorious ass-kicking president really is, shows herself to be without any trace of a sense of irony:

TBILISI, GEORGIA -- Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton wrapped up a tour of former Soviet bloc countries Monday by assuring Georgia's pro-American leaders that they will not be abandoned as the Obama administration improves relations with Russia.

That "reset" of relations has unnerved this small country, especially as Russian troops have become entrenched in two breakaway regions where a brief war broke out in 2008.

During her six-hour stop in Georgia, Clinton defended the administration's policy, saying partnership with Russia is producing important results such as a nuclear arms-control accord. But she reiterated longtime U.S. support for Georgia.

"We continue to object to, and criticize, actions by Russia which we believe are wrong. At the top of the list is the invasion and occupation of Georgia," she said.

One could ask, of course, why Russia is wrong to occupy Georgia (which isn't quite the case, but never mind) while it's perfectly okay -- necessary, even -- for the U.S. to invade and occupy Iraq, Afghanistan, and bits of Pakistan. So far, that is; the armada is being assembled even now against Iran. Maybe the new rule is that it's good to make it your business how people live and die half the world away, but very bad to do so next door. See, the Russians should probably have invaded and occupied Quebec. That would be much more American of them.

Today's Contribution to the Blogging Industry

I just love the contemporary use of the term "industry." The word calls to mind smokestacks, molten steel pouring out of the giant crane-operated ladle in a shower of sparks, lathes and vertical mills with coolant washing chips off the workpiece, people assembling machinery ... in short, the production of tangible goods. But in this story, we're told what's going on in the "leisure and hospitality" industry, as well as in the "temporary-help industry." Yeah, well, at the moment I'm in the blogging industry, I guess. If I were a good-looking harlot, I could be in the sex industry. Whatever.

Meanwhile, this economic "recovery" we've been told about continues in robust fashion:

Washington — Private employers added a smaller-than-expected 83,000 jobs in June, but the unemployment rate edged down to 9.5% as many workers dropped out of a labor market that remains very sluggish.

The Labor Department reported Friday that total payroll employment, including government workers, was down 125,000 in June, reflecting the loss of 225,000 census workers who finished their assignments.

The decrease in Census Bureau staffing was expected, but most analysts were looking for stronger job growth in the private sector, which has yet to generate momentum and looms as a major threat to the overall economic recovery. In May, private employers added just 33,000 jobs. What's more, the average hours worked in manufacturing and other industries in June declined, as did average hourly earnings.

Job gains last month were largely in low-paying industries -- leisure and hospitality, and the temporary-help industry. Manufacturing payrolls grew by 9,000, but that was much smaller than the average of 25,400 in the prior five months. And the construction industry shed another 22,000 jobs in June.

Although the jobless rate in June fell from 9.7% in May, that reflected a big drop of 652,000 people in the labor force over the month. The labor force is made up of workers and those actively looking for jobs. With the economic recovery weakening and many employers reluctant to hire, many more unemployed people may have quit looking for work, which would push down the jobless rate.

In fact, the percentage of the overall working-age population that is in the labor force fell last month to 64.7% -- near a 25-year low.

News stories like this put me in mind of those super-slow-motion videos we've all seen, showing collision tests in which SUVs populated with instrumented dummies are crashed into barriers. Each such story is like a freeze frame, showing crumpling sheet metal, bits of shattered glass suspended in mid-flight, the driver dummy burying his face in the airbag. The long-awaited crash of the American corporate empire is in progress, and has been for some time. Recovery? I rather think not -- not if, by "recovery," we mean Americans living as they did even in 2000, to say nothing of the idyllic 1960s.

But away with all of that. I just want to know -- at last! -- where Mr. LeBron James will be plying his trade, occasionally sending a basketball through the twine, and how many tens of millions he'll be compensated each year for his heroic contributions to the sports industry. And, of course, to see the death industry continue and even improve its amazing productivity in the Middle East.

"An' I'm Proud to Be an American, Where ..."

Ah, ye free Americans! Ye lucky inhabitants of the Free-est Nation in History! And getting free-er all the time!

You know, if you were really free -- even approximately so -- maybe it wouldn't matter so much when one of your Nine Judicial Masters required replacement. The meaningless "confirmation hearings" probably wouldn't be a national obsession. But, you know ... they sure are, no?

The Word for Wednesday, June 30

Continuing in 2 Corinthians, chapter 3:

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. But if the ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, how shall the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? For if the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ministry of righteousness abound in glory. For indeed what had glory, in this case has no glory on account of the glory that surpasses it. For if that which fades away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.

Having therefore such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not as Moses, who used to put a veil over his face that the sons of Israel might not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.

This is similar to what Paul wrote to the church at Rome: that death and the awareness and imputation of sin come through the Law. Here, he calls the Law the "ministry of death, in letters engraved on stones" and also the "ministry of condemnation." The contrasting ministry is the ministry of the Spirit, who gives life, while the letters of the law kill. The Spirit's ministry is also called the "ministry of righteousness." To my plodding, mechanical way of thinking, that last term is a little surprising; I might have expected a more direct opposite to death and condemnation, such as "life" or "mercy." After a little more reflection, though, it does seem plain that to give life, or to refrain from condemning that which deserves condemnation, are high or profound expressions of righteousness ... righteousness with the volume cranked up high, so to speak.

Good stuff.

And, as always, just click here for more Words for Wednesday.

Non-Complaint

I was just over at my blogging buddy Jean's place, reading a post that pretty much hit my nail right on the head. I've been feeling sorry for myself since I found out yesterday that the day job's going to be sending me out of town enough this fall that I have to give up my physics-teaching duties at IPFW. Now, I can complain with the best of 'em (or maybe that should be "the worst"), but I think I'll skip it this time. I'll drink the cup that's come to me, and be grateful for it. A lot of people -- some that I know, and many that I don't -- have problems that I wouldn't want to trade them for. 'Nuf said.

The Word for Thursday, June 24

Second Corinthians, chapter 2:

But I determined this for my own sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again. For if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? And this is the very thing I wrote you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy would be the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you.

But if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree -- in order not to say too much -- to all of you. Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority, so that on the contrary you should rather forgive and comfort him, lest somehow such a one be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. Wherefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. For to this end also I wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient in all things. But whom you forgive anything, I forgive also; for indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes in the presence of Christ, in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his schemes.

Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went on to Macedonia.

But thanks be to God, who also leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

This chapter seems to mostly concern a church discipline matter that Paul first addressed in his previous letter (1 Corinthians 5). In that chapter, Paul lays down that the church is responsible to rebuke immorality within itself, excluding the strayed believer from all fellowship if need be, although the church is also explicitly told not to concern itself with immorality among unbelievers. (Contrast that with the church today.) Then, in the chapter above, Paul teaches that love and forgiveness are to limit discipline, and that the church is to work to bring discipline to its ideal conclusion: reconciliation. I don't suppose it always happens, but it is always to be the goal.

The last paragraph: poetry, on which I have no comment worthy to be made. Who, indeed, is adequate for these things? Not me. Not this year, at least.

Click here for more Words for Wednesday.