Nightmare at the Ball Park

It was a huge ballpark and the nuttiest game I had ever seen.

The first guy at bat hit a slow roller to shortstop and was thrown out at first.  But he paid no attention and kept on running around the bases.    There was a huge outcry from the defending team, but the player crossed home plate and jogged to the dugout, grinning all the way.

Then the next player struck out, but refused to leave home plate.  He insisted that he have one more chance.  I figured he’d get thrown out of the game.   But no, the umpires (believe it not, there were 9 of them) voted 5-4 that he should get another swing because he had tried so hard.

The pitcher was so mad that he grooved a fast ball, which the batter blooped to short left field.  It looked like an easy out.  But then I noticed the left fielder had his back to the infield.  He was waving at pretty girl in the bleachers.   The other players screamed and shouted,  so he strolled back and picked up the ball.   The runner was rounding third.   The throw to the plate would have nailed him, but the catcher had gone to the water cooler for a drink (it was a very hot day). 

I expected the manager to charge out of the dugout and yank both of those knuckleheads right out of their cleats.    You know what?  He calmly took a lawn chair out to left field so the pretty girl could sit by her friend the left fielder.    Then he set a thermos of cold water by the catcher so he wouldn’t have to go so far for a drink. 

After all this, there was pretty much chaos in the stands, but the game (?) went on.   The next batter popped a high foul behind the plate.   The catcher went for it, but tripped over the thermos and broke his leg.   He was carried off. 

Because of the earlier ruling, all the batters now wanted at least four strikes.    Also, they couldn’t seem to decide on a strike zone.    The umps got together again and decided (5-4)  it should be between the shoelaces and the neck.   The pitcher was pleased, but the batters howled.    Next, one of the umps was carried out.  It appeared he was conked by a beer bottle thrown from the stands.    A new ump was brought in and another vote was held.

The umps finally ruled (7-2) that anyone hitting under .230 would have a strike zone from the belt to the letters; those from .230 to .300 from the knees to shoulders, and those over .300 from the ankles to the chin.

This was not much help.  The next batter sliced a liner to right and ran to third base; diagonally across the diamond to first and then back to home.   The right fielder just threw the ball in the air and jumped up and down in rage. 

Again, the umpires consulted.   They finally ruled it to be an undue restriction of a batter’s rights to make him run to first first.   If he wanted to run to third first, the defensive team would have to throw to third first or to first first to get him out, depending on which way he went.    They figured this would add suspense to the game.   Anyhow, it was a first!

By this time there was chaos on the field and a near riot in the stands.   I thought maybe I had bought a ticket to a lunatic asylum instead of a ball park. 

Then I noticed the only calm guy in the whole place.  He was seated in a plush box in front of me, handsome, impeccably dressed, and wearing a sinister smirk, seeming to enjoy the increasing turmoil.  I thought his ears looked a little pointed.

I leaned over and tapped him on the shoulder:  “Hey, mister, what’s going on here?  I don’t know what this is, but it sure ain’t baseball!  What happened to the Rule Book?”

“Oh, we don’t have a Rule Book,” he said.  We threw it out a long time ago.   It’s inhibiting.   We don’t want to restrict people.  We’ve got a new game called Do Your Own Thing.  Some people get fancy and call it Secular Humanism or maybe Existentialism, or New Ageism.”

He chuckled evilly and went on: “Everyone’s got a perfect right to do whatever he feels like doing.   There’s no responsibility, no rules, just rights, rights, RIGHTS!”  He was almost shouting at me.

I objected.  “But this place has gone crazy.   They’re going nuts exercising their rights.   They need some rules.   It looks like they’ll kill each other before this is over. ”

He just leaned back comfortably and smirked,  “Yeah, sure too bad isn’t it?”

Well, you guessed it.   I woke up.  It was all a dream…or rather, a nightmare.

Or was it?  It all seemed so real!

Getting Israel’s History Right

I recently received a mailing from an individual who seems convinced Israel should be removed and the nation’s land area should be renamed Canaan.   This person has a warped, misinformed view of Israel’s history, apparently shaped by the twisted propaganda repeated, ad infinitum ad nauseam, by the Arab nations and U.S. and foreign news media.

Here is the tiny nation of Israel (7,800 square miles), smaller than the state of New Jersey (8,721 square miles), surrounded by 22 Arab nations with a land area greater than all of Europe.  And yet, there is no space in Arab thinking for the existence of “non-believers” (i.e. non-Muslims) in any part of the Middle East.

The term “Palestinian refugees” has been so beaten into the public consciousness that no one seems to question the authenticity of this designation.  Well, where did these so-called refugrees come from?

In 1948 on the day that the U.N. officially proclaimed the existence of the State of Israel, five Arab armies invaded the  infant nation from all sides.    At the same time, there was a barrage of frightening radio broadcasts from Arab sources.  These broadcasts urged the Arabs living in Israel to flee, so the invading armies could destroy the Israelis.   They were promised that when the “holy war” was over, they could return and get back their property; along with that of the Jews. 

Well, the plan did not work out.  In a miracle of Biblical proportions, the Jews defeated the invaders.   Those Arabs who fled became the so-called “Palestinian refugees.”  There were about 650,000 of them; a number which has, rather amazingly, now risen to 5 million.  The Arabs who stayed where they were are now full-fledged citizens of Israel.   

 Surprisingly, while the Israel has absorbed, welcomed and helped over 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, the Arabs, with all their vast land area, refused to admit any of the 650,000 so-called refugees. They  were made to settle in miserable camps, from 1948 onward, and were supported for years by the U.N.    This created the “cause celebre” of the Palestinian refugees and provides the excuse for demands for an independent Palestinian nation.   In fact, there never was a Palestinian nation.   Most of the so-called refugees had come to Israel after Jews who immigrated there began  developing what had been a very desolate piece of geography;  creating job opportunities which were previously non-existent.

I was in Israel in 1977  with a group of fellow journalists and interviewed Dr. G. Douglas Young, founder of the Instititute of Holy Land Studies on Mt. Zion in Jerusalem, and a widely respected scholar    He confirmed the above account regarding the first days of the nation of Israel, along with other details. 

In fulfillment of Biblical prophecy, the Jews are back in their ancestral homeland.   In fact, in attempting to live at peace with neighbors who refuse to let them live at peace, they have, I believe, given up much more land than they should have.

In a modern miracle, the Jews are where God has placed them and they will not be moved.   Much more could be said, but it would be well for all of us to obey the Biblical command to “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: may they prosper who love you” (Psalm 122:6). 

Don’t Sell Your Beachfront Property!

  As the title suggests, you really don’t need to call your real estate agent if you own property looking out on an ocean–Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico, whatever!

 One website (www.CO2Science) estimates that, according to satellite radar altimetry, sea levels may have risen .05 to .03  millimeters per year in recent years.  At this rate, it would take over 20,000 years to raise global sea levels by one meter.

According to Alarmist-in-Chief Al (“The ocean’s at your door”) Gore, we should be worrying about an ocean rise of around 20 feet in the next few years, due to global warming.

The mantra about “global warming” has been hammered into our heads so much recently that many are beginning to believe it is the gospel truth.  

In this regard, it might be good to refer to some alarmist prophecies of recent years, as quoted in a recent book, “Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming” by Christopher C. Horner, a senior fellow at Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Paul Ehrlich, one of the foremost “prophets” of impending environmental disaster, said, in 1968:  “The battle to feed humanity is over.  In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now.”  In 1969, he had this dire warning to offer:  “Hundreds of millions of people will soon perish in smog disasters in New York and Los Angeles…the oceans will die of DDT poisoning by 1979…the U.S. life expectancy will drop to 42 years by 1980 due to cancer epidemics.”

Undeterred, Ehrlich offered the warning in 1974 that “A situation has been created that could lead to a billion or more people starving to death.   In another bit of “green wisdom” offered in 1978,  Ehrlich opined that “Giving society cheap, abundant energy…would be equivalent of giving an idiot child  a machine gun.”

Horner quotes many other such gems of environmentalist panic in his book.    Actually, there is no way to accurately determine the mean average temperature of the world.  One thing that has apparently skewed recent averages slightly above preceding years is that, following the collapse of the Soviet Union,  thousands of Russian measuring stations closed, many of them in cold regions.   What some declare “the hottest decade” (1992 to 202) coincided with the closing of a huge portion of surface measuring stations.

Media alarmism about climate change has run in cycles, with some overlapping,  as follows: 1895-1932, catastrophic global cooling; 1929-1969, catastrophic global warming; 1954-1976, catastrophic manmade global cooling; 1981-present, catastrophic manmade global warming.

But, on the other hand, a ”Newsweek” feature article in 1992 warned that “The advent of a new ice age, scientists say, appears to be guaranteed.  The devastation will be astonishing.”

Well, the news media thrives on disaster headlines.  And many scientists, vying for grant money, go along with the global warning mantra, even when they know a lot of poor science is involved.   

Al Gore comes across somewhat as a has-been politician desperate to stay in the lime-light and finding the platform of global warming a good way to remain there. 

Whatever the case may be, Horner’s book shatters much of the green gloom hysteria and reminds us we don’t need to quit breathing quite yet (and thus breathing out too much carbon dioxide.)    One environmentalist opined that the world would be a lot better off if about two billion of us would simply die!  He did not offer to be the first to go. 

The Bible tells us there are disastrous events ahead for this troubled world.  However, they will come according to God’s timing, not according to Mr. Gore’s.    Jesus commented on a couple of seemingly random events in Luke chapter 13; events not unlike the Minneapolis bridge collapse, or the Utah mining disaster.  He indicated that such things can happen to any of us.  He did not offer any explanation except to say, that no matter what happens, we need to be prepared now to meet our Lord.

Well, we also need to be excellent conservationists; not alarmist environmentalists.   Glaciers are shrinking in some places, but growing larger in others.   The toughest “glaciers” are often our hardened human hearts.