"If stupidity got us into this mess, why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers

I'm fighting a very bad attitude. I'm fed up with dumb people who seem to be in especially abundant supply lately. I'm a news freak and have all but sworn off checking my list of sites and will not watch the evening news.

I think the President's executive order on immigration was ill conceived and poorly implemented, almost guaranteed to create the antagonism we're now seeing. However, I suspect that 95% of the people screaming in protest haven't bothered to read the order, don't know what's in it, and are more interested in opposing the President than this particular issue.
And the news media clearly isn't presenting the issue of the text of the executive order. To do so would shift the conversation from sound and fury to substance.

The EO is not a ban on Muslims, nor is it permanent. It's a 90-day break in the acceptance of immigrants from seven countries identified by the Obama administration as posing a particular threat to the U.S. because of the prevalence of radical Muslims in those countries. During that time the three govt. agencies charged with overseeing immigration are to prepare a more thorough and comprehensive vetting process to make sure an applicant for entry is who they say they are and pose no threat.

The EO specifically provides for exceptions to the ban on a case-by-case basis. So anyone turned back can appeal that action through the appropriate U.S. agency, as some already have and then been admitted.

But screaming is so much more fun, and might even get you on TV.

Do I think this EO will make a substantive difference to our national safety and security. Nope, not a whit. But it's exactly what President Trump said he was going to do when he was a candidate, so the sudden outrage seems more than a little artificial.

I'm approaching totally fed up with Christians who have wrenched shoulders from patting themselves on the back for all the wonderful things they're doing to lift the poor and struggling people here and around the world, convincing themselves that those efforts epitomize the work of the gospel. The work of the gospel is the presentation of the gospel, the substitutionary death of Christ as the full and only payment for a person's sin. It can be very effective and appropriate to manifest God's love and concern for others my meeting their physical needs. Besides, it's just a good thing to do. We're called to care about others and to be neighbors in the vein of the Good Samaritan. But all those good things don't save people from an eternity in hell, and that is their great overriding need.
The gospel is a big deal for me. That's why I get so upset with the notion that what missions people call lift - improving a person's life situation - is the work of the gospel.

So I think I'm going to have a cup of hot coffee, maybe a brownie or three, and go to bed. 'cause I'll be all better tomorrow. Promise.