Michael Bresciani
Obama: Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies
By Michael Bresciani
Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies, is a phrase attributed to Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774). If Goldsmith were alive today he would probably want to meet President Obama and most of his cabinet and appointees so he could see those who have brought his coined phrase into a daily standard of practice.
Who would guess that less than one year after being elected that someone would find over 160 lies to start a website named "Obama Lies" with, and now the number has grown to several hundred.
Like most Americans who hold the office of the President in high regard it must never be forgotten that respecting the office of the president does not necessasarily result in respect for the president. Like anyone else in this world, that respect must be earned. How is Mr. Obama doing?
Several times a week someone is asking the question about the President that Eric Bolling host of Follow the Money asked Fox News anchor Megan Kelly on March 29, 2011. After watching a clip in which the president compared petroleum production in 2000 with what it should be if his energy policies are followed for the next ten years, with obvious exasperation, Bolling asked, "Is the President lying or is he just misinformed."
Questions like this are now so commonplace that it seems reasonable to ask if the president himself knows what the truth is. Is it possible that he has fallen victim to his own rhetorical hyperbole, ersatz and fairy dust. Does the narcissistic flower cave in on itself eventually and return to crumpled ugly and unattractive?
Bolling's question leads to other questions that Americans are now asking with alarming frequency. If the president lies, what kind of a president do we have? That leads to the second question. If he is misinformed, what kind of a president do we have? This is obviously a two for one but it is no special, it is a sad commentary about a man whose initial popularity has far outshined his record of accomplishments and his ability to lead and any reasonable claim to basic honesty.
A third but no less important question is birthed as an outgrowth of the first two. Who elected this man to office and why? Who were those twenty million voters who trumped the McCain voters and brought this obscure, golden champion of an unknown mystery land to the Oval Office? Did they think they were voting for the latest American Idol or reality show icon? My answer is both simple and understood. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.
I'll leave the list of lies to the website that compiles and publishes them even though most of us don't need the site as much anymore, because the regular news cycle has made it all more apparent than we all may want to admit.
If we are threatened with the outbreak of a disease we expect our health officials to warn us of a possible pandemic. If someone is border line pathologically dangerous we expect someone in counseling or psychiatry to take notice and head off any potentially dangerous bad behavior. But we rarely recognize that if we have a societal sickness or a spiritual malady there are people who are qualified and prepared to warn us of that as well.
After forty years of concerning myself with eschatological doctrine (The Second Coming of Christ) I have discovered that what most people want to know is who is the antichrist or when will Armageddon take place. They care less about the signs leading up to these people or events and thereby are often found in the middle of the very fulfillment of prophetic utterance but remain totally aloof. A sick or spiritually ailing society is harder to see if you can't question your own place in it.
Since Hal Lindsey wrote his best seller "The Late Great Planet Earth" in 1970 the general awareness of second coming prophecies has increased exponentially. Right alongside this heightened awareness of prophecy is a growing abyss of darkness in which those who refuse to recognize the times we are in; seem to be sinking into a place the Bible refers to as a state of complete and utter reprobation.
We can only shake our heads in disbelief when we hear that while in Muslim countries around the globe women are still being brutally stoned for minor infractions and young and old men and women have their hands or feet lobbed off for misdemeanors. Then we turn to read in The St. Petersburg Times that a judge in Florida has decided that it would be expedient for Muslim Sharia law to be used to adjudicate at least one of the cases now on his docket.
In a perfect case of "none is so blind as he who will not see" Bill O'Reilly quotes the Quran, on The Factor, March 29, 2011, to Portland based Harris Zafar, National Spokesperson for the Ahmadiya Muslims nationwide and after reading from the place in the book that clearly states that it is OK to beat a wife who is perceived to be acting badly, Mr. Zafar answers with among other things this reply. "Nowhere does it say, beat your wife." If O'Reilly had not just read the passage we might think it was just a matter of opinion. Here is where lying can fix just about any truth you just don't happen to like.
We have a president who sails off to Brazil with offers of help with drilling offshore in the huge Brazilian oilfields at the same time he is severely restricting drilling anywhere in the continental United States or offshore. Then he tells us in glowing terms what a wonderful result is going to emerge from this policy in only ten short years. Is this a lie, misinformation or could it be the onset of the much more serious aforementioned state of reprobation? I will go with the latter but you will have to decide for yourself.
The better part of news today is spent on assessing the economy, and then the political climate. This is invariably followed by the news of the latest global upheavals which today, are all but taking over our attention. Muslim countries are in a flux, rebellion and confusion even as the world watches and wonders what could possibly replace the kinds of governments and dictators that already exist in those states. Separation of church and state (or religion in Muslim countries) is out of the question and the only possible result is going to be more of the same.
Then along comes the old preachers and prophets much like myself with a warning that not only are we going in the wrong direction but it is prophetic in nature. Put simply, that means that we are going exactly the way it has been predicted. It would be easy to say "so what" until the outcome or the fruit of these trends is taken into account. It does not end well.
I find myself reiterating one teaching or theme of prophecy lately much more than all else. In the great demise of nations the one thing that is sadder than all else is the promise that when we don't care if we are hearing truth or lies we will ultimately lose the ability to discern between either one.
Who would dare to say that an entire nation is becoming delusionary? With a President who tells lies on a daily basis, judges who think seventh century draconian law is good right here in the good old USA, I would be forced to say, just about anyone could say it, if they have fairly good eyesight and hearing.
I will, however, both say it and take responsibility for saying it, because I trust the source from which it is derived. Bible messages are all good but those whose nature is prophetic will have more bearing on our everyday life and our near future than anyone is aware.
Is this us? "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" (2 Thess 2: 11)
© Michael Bresciani
April 2, 2011
Ask me no questions I'll tell you no lies, is a phrase attributed to Irish playwright Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774). If Goldsmith were alive today he would probably want to meet President Obama and most of his cabinet and appointees so he could see those who have brought his coined phrase into a daily standard of practice.
Who would guess that less than one year after being elected that someone would find over 160 lies to start a website named "Obama Lies" with, and now the number has grown to several hundred.
Like most Americans who hold the office of the President in high regard it must never be forgotten that respecting the office of the president does not necessasarily result in respect for the president. Like anyone else in this world, that respect must be earned. How is Mr. Obama doing?
Several times a week someone is asking the question about the President that Eric Bolling host of Follow the Money asked Fox News anchor Megan Kelly on March 29, 2011. After watching a clip in which the president compared petroleum production in 2000 with what it should be if his energy policies are followed for the next ten years, with obvious exasperation, Bolling asked, "Is the President lying or is he just misinformed."
Questions like this are now so commonplace that it seems reasonable to ask if the president himself knows what the truth is. Is it possible that he has fallen victim to his own rhetorical hyperbole, ersatz and fairy dust. Does the narcissistic flower cave in on itself eventually and return to crumpled ugly and unattractive?
Bolling's question leads to other questions that Americans are now asking with alarming frequency. If the president lies, what kind of a president do we have? That leads to the second question. If he is misinformed, what kind of a president do we have? This is obviously a two for one but it is no special, it is a sad commentary about a man whose initial popularity has far outshined his record of accomplishments and his ability to lead and any reasonable claim to basic honesty.
A third but no less important question is birthed as an outgrowth of the first two. Who elected this man to office and why? Who were those twenty million voters who trumped the McCain voters and brought this obscure, golden champion of an unknown mystery land to the Oval Office? Did they think they were voting for the latest American Idol or reality show icon? My answer is both simple and understood. Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies.
I'll leave the list of lies to the website that compiles and publishes them even though most of us don't need the site as much anymore, because the regular news cycle has made it all more apparent than we all may want to admit.
If we are threatened with the outbreak of a disease we expect our health officials to warn us of a possible pandemic. If someone is border line pathologically dangerous we expect someone in counseling or psychiatry to take notice and head off any potentially dangerous bad behavior. But we rarely recognize that if we have a societal sickness or a spiritual malady there are people who are qualified and prepared to warn us of that as well.
After forty years of concerning myself with eschatological doctrine (The Second Coming of Christ) I have discovered that what most people want to know is who is the antichrist or when will Armageddon take place. They care less about the signs leading up to these people or events and thereby are often found in the middle of the very fulfillment of prophetic utterance but remain totally aloof. A sick or spiritually ailing society is harder to see if you can't question your own place in it.
Since Hal Lindsey wrote his best seller "The Late Great Planet Earth" in 1970 the general awareness of second coming prophecies has increased exponentially. Right alongside this heightened awareness of prophecy is a growing abyss of darkness in which those who refuse to recognize the times we are in; seem to be sinking into a place the Bible refers to as a state of complete and utter reprobation.
We can only shake our heads in disbelief when we hear that while in Muslim countries around the globe women are still being brutally stoned for minor infractions and young and old men and women have their hands or feet lobbed off for misdemeanors. Then we turn to read in The St. Petersburg Times that a judge in Florida has decided that it would be expedient for Muslim Sharia law to be used to adjudicate at least one of the cases now on his docket.
In a perfect case of "none is so blind as he who will not see" Bill O'Reilly quotes the Quran, on The Factor, March 29, 2011, to Portland based Harris Zafar, National Spokesperson for the Ahmadiya Muslims nationwide and after reading from the place in the book that clearly states that it is OK to beat a wife who is perceived to be acting badly, Mr. Zafar answers with among other things this reply. "Nowhere does it say, beat your wife." If O'Reilly had not just read the passage we might think it was just a matter of opinion. Here is where lying can fix just about any truth you just don't happen to like.
We have a president who sails off to Brazil with offers of help with drilling offshore in the huge Brazilian oilfields at the same time he is severely restricting drilling anywhere in the continental United States or offshore. Then he tells us in glowing terms what a wonderful result is going to emerge from this policy in only ten short years. Is this a lie, misinformation or could it be the onset of the much more serious aforementioned state of reprobation? I will go with the latter but you will have to decide for yourself.
The better part of news today is spent on assessing the economy, and then the political climate. This is invariably followed by the news of the latest global upheavals which today, are all but taking over our attention. Muslim countries are in a flux, rebellion and confusion even as the world watches and wonders what could possibly replace the kinds of governments and dictators that already exist in those states. Separation of church and state (or religion in Muslim countries) is out of the question and the only possible result is going to be more of the same.
Then along comes the old preachers and prophets much like myself with a warning that not only are we going in the wrong direction but it is prophetic in nature. Put simply, that means that we are going exactly the way it has been predicted. It would be easy to say "so what" until the outcome or the fruit of these trends is taken into account. It does not end well.
I find myself reiterating one teaching or theme of prophecy lately much more than all else. In the great demise of nations the one thing that is sadder than all else is the promise that when we don't care if we are hearing truth or lies we will ultimately lose the ability to discern between either one.
Who would dare to say that an entire nation is becoming delusionary? With a President who tells lies on a daily basis, judges who think seventh century draconian law is good right here in the good old USA, I would be forced to say, just about anyone could say it, if they have fairly good eyesight and hearing.
I will, however, both say it and take responsibility for saying it, because I trust the source from which it is derived. Bible messages are all good but those whose nature is prophetic will have more bearing on our everyday life and our near future than anyone is aware.
Is this us? "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:" (2 Thess 2: 11)
© Michael Bresciani
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
