This Week's 66/40 Radio Broadcast

Articles and Commentary

• Europe's Socialist Parties Are Ailing - (Read)
• The Shifting Drug War In Latin America - (Read)
• The Degenerating Human Race - (Read)

Important News Headlines

EUROPE'S SOCIALIST PARTIES ARE AILING - (Print)

Socialism isn't popular anywhere these days, and not only in America. The world may be going through a major recession, and unemployment might be high, but across Europe the socialists are still struggling to keep any place in the voters' affections.

Germany:
Chancellor Angela Merkel looks set for reelection in Germany on September 27 as her opposition, the Social Democrats, make a weak protest. Merkel's Christian Democrats are likely to drop their cooperation with the Social Democrats altogether and join hands with the Free Democrats, who support libertarian ideals and policies that favor business. "The main problem is that people think the Social Democrats have no economic competence," said Manfred Guellner, the chief pollster for Forsa, a leading German survey firm. "They have this impression that they cannot rule, cannot govern."

France:
Conservative Nicolas Sarkozy has little opposition to face from the country's weak Socialist Party since he and his Union For A Popular Movement took power after elections in 2007. The Socialist Party is torn by internal bickering, and the only unity is found in their opposition to Sarkozy. But, as the party's leader Martine Aubry noted, "anti-Sarkozyism can't be a political platform."

United Kingdom:
British voters seem fed up with the Labour Party after 12 years. A conservative prime minister hasn't been seen in Britain since John Major's' Conservative party was trounced by Labour under Tony Blair in 1997. Now, the pendulum has returned on its swinging course the other way. While Labour has nine months to turn things around before elections, things don't look good right now. "Unfortunately for Gordon Brown, the story seems to be set ... Everything is seen in terms of the expected Labour defeat and the probable Conservative landslide," said Steven Fielding, director of Nottingham University's Centre for British Politics.

Greece and Italy:
The socialists are actually doing well in the polls in Greece as they approach October elections. The conservative party is in trouble after scandals weakened public support, but even then, twenty percent of those polled said they were still undecided. In Italy, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has survived a series of scandals because the socialists in his country are so weak.

It would seem that a time of recession would be a great opportunity for the politics of big government, a time of popularity for those who would hand out financial help from the government coffers. Instead, Europeans seem largely skeptical of the socialists' abilities to get along among themselves, let alone implement policies that will speed the return of prosperity to their lands.

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THE SHIFTING DRUG WAR IN LATIN AMERICA - (Print)

Long seen as a nation full of violence, drugs, crime, and kidnappings, Colombia has started a campaign to improve its international public image through an exhibit of heart sculptures. The 47 heart-shaped statues will be displayed in Washington DC until September 15th, when they will move on to New York and then Shanghai. The purpose of these cardio-art works is to plaster a new picture of Colombia in the heads of the people who see them. Representatives of the Colombian ad campaign also passed out 25,000 flowers in Union Station in DC on Tuesday as part of the effort. Colombia may produce 80 percent of the world's cocaine, but the Colombian government presents a much friendlier face to America than many of its neighbors in South America where the drug war continues to rage.

On Friday, the Colombian Coastguard seized 86 bags of cocaine weighing close to 1.9 tons, buried underground by a local drug band near the northern Morrosquillo Gulf. The Colombian Navy seized about 3.5 tons of cocaine the week before that. The drug business remains extremely busy in Latin America, and one of the primary markets for those drugs is the United States. The Colombian government has faced a constant battle against drug lords within its borders and, unlike its neighbor Venezuela, continues to cooperate with the US government.

Thousands of Colombian protestors took to the streets on Friday to display their low opinion of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and his meddling in Colombian affairs. Chavez had criticized Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's plan to allow US troops more access to its bases, saying the presence of US troops would endanger Venezuela. Uribe and the US insist the US troops are there for anti-drug and counter-guerilla missions and not to stage attacks on nations like Venezuela.

Chavez kicked the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) out of his country some time ago and has recently accused the US of having used the DEA to "conduct intelligence operations against the [Venezuelan] government." Venezuela claims that its interdiction of drug traffickers has increased since the DEA left. In the meanwhile, Bogota has accused Chavez of supporting FARC rebels.

The bloody Latin American war on drugs may continue against the big cartels, with different attitudes toward US involvement, but there has been a noticeable shift across Latin America in attitudes about laws against personal use. Many Latin American countries have been moving to decriminalize drug use itself and reduce penalties for small-time drug transporters and dealers.

On August 25, Argentina's Supreme Court voted to decriminalize personal use of marijuana. Article 19 of Argentina's Constitution states: "private actions that in no way offend public order or morality, nor are detrimental to a third party, are reserved for God and are beyond the authority of legislators." The court ruled to put personal use of marijuana in that category. Argentina's Congress is expected to alter the laws to comply with the Court and to clarify what exactly is meant by "personal use." The hope is that legalizing possession of small doses of marijuana will free the state to focus on those who deal and traffic in drugs.

Argentina is not alone. Mexico recently decriminalized the use of not only marijuana, but of cocaine, heroine and methamphetamine. Simple possession of marijuana and cocaine is legal in Venezuela, and Ecuador's President Rafael Correa wants a review of the nation's drug policy. Ecuador and Brazil both are considering decriminalizing the personal use of drugs and lowering penalties for "mules" - people who carry small amounts of drugs on their bodies for the drug cartels. Many who work as mules are simply poor people looking for a way to pay the bills.

There are a few reasons given for decriminalization. For one, it eliminates a source of bribes for corrupt cops. It also keeps the state from having to prosecute every addict that officers come across, and frees resources for fighting the major drug dealers. There are also complaints that petty drug dealers are getting the same sentences as the heads of cartels, which is seen as unbalanced justice. At the same time, decriminalizing drugs sends the wrong message to millions about the dangers of drug use, even while drug cartels are slaughtering people.

Latin America has a serious drug-power problem that is affecting the rest of the world as drug lords make millions selling products that destroy lives. Right now it looks like a losing battle. Yet, God is greater than drug lords and cocaine. Please pray for Latin America and for those people caught in the terrible trap of drug use.

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THE DEGENERATING HUMAN RACE - (Print)

Many people have a view of evolution as a progressive, upward movement toward perfection. Evolution, they feel, means that everything is getting better over time. Serious evolutionists would disagree with that interpretation. Instead, they see evolution as simply the process by which organisms become better adapted to their environments, whether or not that adaption looks like a step upward. An organism can be considered improved in the sense that it is more fit to live in a specific environment, but evolution isn't really about getting better; it's about surviving.

Even using that stricter understanding of evolution, though, it can be argued that life on earth, and especially the human race, is not evolving at all. In fact, some people argue that the human race is devolving, that we're degenerating in a variety of ways and are consequently losing the ability to survive. More to the point, we can argue that our physical bodies, beautiful though they are, are mere shadows of the excellent bodies God gave our ancestors when He created the world, and the disease and physical suffering we see around us is a result of a fallen world and thousands of years of degeneration.

It's easy to see that despite our fantastic technology, there's a shameful lot of disease and weakness in our world. We can blame a variety of factors for the downward spiral; poor eating habits, diets of highly processed foods, less physical work and play, a lack of sunshine and fresh air as we spend our days indoors, a dependence on synthetic drugs for medicine – the list can go on and on.

The problem isn't only physical. Intellectually, the average child in America and the rest of the West is not challenged the way they could be. Sponge-like brains sop up detailed information on digital games and sports figures and television stars and spend much less time studying science or literature or art or the great mysteries of the universe. Students can't write down their thoughts in organized, well-developed paragraphs. They can't offer basic information about politics or geography or history. Compared to the past, it's a lazy, fat Western world we live in.

The developing world isn't much better. Malnutrition, famine, disease, war, all contribute to low life expectancies in developing nations. Children may not even have the opportunity to go to school at all, and poverty and ignorance are serious problems.

Does that really mean we're "devolving" though? After all, we're a lot better off than the folks who lived during the Middle Ages when the average life expectancy was 35. We're not completely lost intellectually; if a good education were a more desperate necessity for survival, we'd certainly pull our kids away from their Game Cubes and make them study. Humans are not all falling apart. We still have men who can run a mile in less than 4 minutes and others who can swim the English channel. We still build rockets and skyscrapers. We're not too bad off.

Granted. However, if we compare ourselves to history, we cannot choose the Dark Ages as our yardstick.  We have to go back to the Beginning, and compared to the Beginning, we're pretty sad. 

God created Adam perfect, with the ability to live forever. His genetic code was error free, and even without the Tree of Life he lived to be 930.  Onward down to Noah, humans consistently lived over 900 years each.  The genetic code hadn't been affected by thousands of years of deterioration.  Despite some excellent DNA preservation mechanisms built-in, errors still took their toll on our genes over time.

In the beginning, our DNA was perfect.  Where did Cain get his wife? He certainly married his sister, and there was no problem in doing so because her genetic code was just as perfect as his. That rubs us wrong these days because we've learned we cannot marry our close relatives. But, don't forget, we're all related to each other, and when the genetic code was more error-free, close relatives could marry because they weren't doubling up on the same genetic glitches. Abraham was able to marry his half sister without a problem. It wasn't until Moses that the Law finally nixed the practice of marrying a sibling, and marriage between cousins was acceptable practice until relatively recently.

We have fantastic technology these days, yet genetically-related diseases consume us. We have achieved great civilization, yet many of us can hardly do one chinup.  We look at the suffering of the world, we take poor care of our minds and bodies, and we constantly disobey God, and then wonder why He allows human suffering. 

Yet, in His great mercy, God hasn't abandoned us to these faulty bodies, these earthen vessels forever. He's got new bodies planned for us, new bodies that will last forever free of all disease and weakness and pain. They will be bodies better than we can imagine, bodies that are not only perfect, but ones we won't mess up.    As John says:

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." -1 John 3:2

The human race is not improving physically, but this world is not the end. Even as we use the great minds and talents that God has given us to fight the diseases of Earth, it is good to know that this world is not the end of our existence.   Not only will we not be prone to degeneration anymore, but we will be like Jesus.

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Russia and China Say No On Iran Sanctions - September 08, 2009
Russia and China have rejected a proposal by the United States, Britain, France and Germany to impose more sanctions on Iran should a dialogue over its nuclear program fail, a senior official in Jerusalem said. The two nations refused to discuss the possibility of further pressuring the Islamic Republic, according to the official, during high-level six power talks held last week in Germany. Haaretz

Gold Leaps Over $1000 per oz - September 08, 2009
Gold powered through the $1,000 per ounce psychological barrier on Tuesday, carried by a wave of pent-up technical momentum and dollar weakness. Spot gold rose to $1,007.45 an ounce, its highest since March 2008, when bullion touched a record high at $1,030.80. Reuters

President Obama's Remarks To School Children September 8 - September 08, 2009
Before President Obama spoke to America's school children on Tuesday, speculations about the content of his speech caused controversy. The White House has posted a transcript of the speech encouraging children to take school seriously on its site so that the US people can judge the speech for themselves. The White House

North Korea Announces Its Uranium Weapons Power - September 04, 2009
Suddenly, North Korea's peace offensive has exploded in a mushroom cloud with word from Pyongyang that the North's nuclear wizards are about to enter "the completion stage" of their program to develop nuclear warheads with highly enriched uranium. Pyongyang said on Friday it was in the final stage of enriching uranium, a process that would give it a path to making nuclear weapons other than plutonium-based devices.

Forget Roundup, Just Rent Goats - September 04, 2009
With their four-chambered stomachs and insatiable desire to nibble on anything even resembling a plant, goats are gaining credibility as land clearers. As a result, the U.S. environmental movement has come up with a novel way to destroy large extensions of invasive weeds and grasses: Rent a Goat. So far, the results look like a win-win situation for all. Voice Of America

Replacing God With The Universe - September 04, 2009
"Universal" is the "it" word, as in universal health care or "The Universe will guide me," or "Leave it to the Universe." There was a different word for it back in the day, more imposing but less confusing: God. But God is not a trendy word anymore. God is not popular, just like the Republicans. You are guilty by association with both... Big Hollywood

"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32

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