Have a Happy and Blessed Easter!

It's Easter weekend. I know we get caught up in the Easter Bunny and the eggs and what have you. But something very significant happened. It's a day when we remember what happened more than 2,000 yrs. ago, when Jesus Christ was arrested, beaten, and hung on a cross to die. He did that of His own free will. He sacrificed Himself for us. He died so that we may live. You can read a brief summary of what lead to His arrest and crucifixion here.


Isaiah 53 in the King James Bible says-
¹Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the LORD revealed?
²For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
³He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
⁴Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
⁵But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
⁶All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
⁷He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
⁸He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
⁹And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
¹⁰Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
¹¹He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
¹²Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors

Here are some medical aspects of what He went through while He was on that cross.

PHYSICAL SUFFERING ON THE CROSS

Psalm 22:14-15: "I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death." Having suffered from the beatings and flogging, Jesus suffered from severe hypovolemia from the loss of blood. The verses above describe His dehydrated state and loss of His strength.
When the cross was erected upright, there was tremendous strain put on the wrists, arms and shoulders, resulting in a dislocation of the shoulder and elbow joints.(Metherall) The arms, being held up and outward, held the rib cage in a fixed end inspiratory position which made it extremely difficult to exhale, and impossible to take a full breath. The victim would only be able to take very shallow breaths.(This may explain why Jesus made very short statements while on the cross). As time passed, the muscles, from the loss of blood, last of oxygen and the fixed position of the body, would undergo severe cramps and spasmodic contractions

DEATH BY CRUCIFIXION : SLOW SUFFOCATION

1. Shallowness of breathing causes small areas of lung collapse.


2. Decreased oxygen and increased carbon dioxide causes acidic conditions in the tissues.


3. Fluid builds up in the lungs. Makes situation in step 2 worse.


4. Heart is stressed and eventually fails.

The slow process of suffering and resulting death during a crucifixion may be summarized as follows:
"...it appears likely that the mechanism of death in crucifixion was suffocation. The chain of events which ultimately led to suffocation are as follows: With the weight of the body being supported by the sedulum, the arms were pulled upward. This caused the intercostal and pectoral muscles to be stretched. Furthermore, movement of these muscles was opposed by the weight of the body. With the muscles of respiration thus stretched, the respiratory bellows became relatively fixed. As dyspnea developed and pain in the wrists and arms increased, the victim was forced to raise the body off the sedulum, thereby transferring the weight of the body to the feet. Respirations became easier, but with the weight of the body being exerted on the feet, pain in the feet and legs mounted. When the pain became unbearable, the victim again slumped down on the sedulum with the weight of the body pulling on the wrists and again stretching the intercostal muscles. Thus, the victim alternated between lifting his body off the sedulum in order to breathe and slumping down on the sedulum to relieve pain in the feet. Eventually , he became exhausted or lapsed into unconsciousness so that he could no longer lift his body off the sedulum. In this position, with the respiratory muscles essentially paralyzed, the victim suffocated and died. (DePasquale and Burch)
Due to the shallow breathing, the victim's lungs begin to collapse in small areas. causing hypoxia and hypercarbia. A respiratory acidosis, with lack of compensation by the kidneys due to the loss of blood from the numerous beatings, resulted in an increased strain on the heart, which beats faster to compensate. Fluid builds up in the lungs. . Under the stress of hypoxia and acidosis the heart eventually fails. There are several different theories on the actual cause of death. One theory states that there was a filling of the pericardium with fluid, which put a fatal strain on the ability of the heart to pump blood (Lumpkin). Another theory states that Jesus died of cardiac rupture." (Bergsma) The actual cause of Jesus' death, however, "may have been multifactorial and related primarily to hypovolemic shock, exhaustion asphyxia and perhaps acute heart failure."(Edwards) A fatal cardiac arrhythmia may have caused the final terminal event. (Johnson, Edwards)

Just imagine the kind of love He must have had for us that He went through all of that for us. He laid down His life so that we may have life, eternal life.

John 3:16, probably the most well known verse of the whole Bible.
¹⁶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
We should all take time out sometime today and think about what the Saviour went through for us. How many of us would be willing to go through what He did?

Have any of you saw the Mel Gibson movie of a few years ago, "The Passion of the Christ?" If you haven't I suggest you do, it depicts what happened very closely to the Biblical depiction and it's quite realistic.

OOPs, Liberals Have Been Found Out Too!

All week the Liberals have been calling for Helena Guergis's head on a platter.  It was found out that staff members of hers were caught in a letter writing campaign to praise Helena after she had a bad time since the airport temper tantrum episode.
It appears Liberals have been involved in the same sort shenanigans. 
 I don't condone what Helena's staff did, I think what her staff members have done is just plain wrong so are the Liberal staffers too.  No party should be doing this sort of stuff. If its wrong for Conservatives, it's wrong for Liberals as well.  There should be no double standard. in the behavior of MPs or their staff in any party. When they engage in this  that is unbecoming, they are all equally guilty.

OTTAWA — Helena Guergis is not the only politician to be praised in letters to the editor by her own staff members masquerading as ordinary Canadians.
Indeed, as reported during the 2005 federal election, Liberal Party operatives, mainly from the youth wing, initiated a letter-writing campaign to media outlets across the country praising Paul Martin’s national child-care proposal and bashing Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
One of the many letters was reportedly written by a former speech writer for Jean Chretien and another by a once national director of the Young Liberals.
In those instances none of the authors identified their ties to the party.

Oh and not to leave the Dippers out we find this gem thanks to BC Blue
and Small Dead Animals
 NDP MP Pat Martin's assistant, Ellen Ocran was involved in leading the protest  at the UofO last week against Anne Coulter.   Where oh where are you Bob Fife and Terry Mileskwi on this one? Oh ya, right,  this one doesn't involve Conservative staff.  Another example of a double standard.

 Hypocrites, all of them!  You know what they say.  "Those Who Live In Glass Houses"

Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc Whining Again

Well, Gille Duceppe and the French Resistance are bawling and squalling again. What's there problem this time? They are not happy about new seat distribution that the Conservative government just introduced. There would be 30 new seats added bringing the total to 338 seats in the House of Commons. BC would get 7, Alberta 5 and Ontario 18. The Bloc says that the new seats are against Quebec. Cry me a river!


The Bloc Quebecois plans to vehemently oppose a government plan to add 30 new seats to the House of Commons -- none of which are slated for Quebec.
The proposed legislation, which was put before MPs on Thursday, would expand Parliament to 338 seats from the current number of 308.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bloc immediately pounced on the bill and said it was an attempt to kneecap their province's political clout.
"After recognizing the Quebec nation, the government is now invoking representation by population in order to reduce the political weight of Quebec," said Bloc MP Claude Debellefeuille in the House on Thursday.
Quebec currently has 24 per cent of the total seats in the House. Under the new guidelines, that representation would drop to 22 per cent.
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe is currently preparing a cross-country tour in which he will build a case for Quebec's sovereignty. It's expected he could use the new House numbers to bolster his argument that Quebec is under attack.
However, CTV's Chief Political Correspondent Craig Oliver said the new seats simply reflect demographic shift
"Overall I think it's a pretty fair re-distribution," he said Thursday
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Political battles

While the Bloc were the first to complain about the plan, the other major parties could also be impacted by the changes.
In particular, many of Ontario's 18 new seats will be placed in and around Toronto, making the area even more politically valuable for the major parties.
This could change the way parties campaign in future election contests.
"That's where the big battles will be," said Oliver.
He noted that many of the seats will come in ethnically diverse neighbourhoods around the Greater Toronto Area, which historically favoured the Liberals.
However, considering the inroads which the Tories have made into many ethnic communities, the Conservatives may also reap benefits.
"More and more, we're seeing that new Canadians tend to be more conservative than people used to think they were," noted Oliver. CTV

Gilles and the French Resistance should put a sock in it. They don't care about Canada. They are separatists hell bent on breaking up the country.

They're whining because they won't as much influence on Canada anymore and that makes them angry. . Less political influence from Quebec? Bring it on.

Now eliminate the $1.95 per vote party subsidies, that should do damage to the Bloc once and for all. I am sick and tired of Quebec's temper tantrums. They need to be treated like everyone else in confederation.
Hopefully if the seat distribution is approved by parliament, maybe the major parties won't have to pander to Quebec anymore to get votes. as they won't need those votes as quite as much and it will be easier for the two major parties to get majority governments. Depending on the boundaries, these new seats will probably favour the CPC more so than the Liberals.

Hey, MPs What Have You Got To Hide?

MPs are reluctant to give the OK to Auditor General, Sheila Fraser who wanted to a year ago after UK MP expense scandal. examine their expenses. So far she hasn't had much luck in getting the MPs to consent.

Apparently there has not been such an audit since 1991. Even then MPs expenses weren't scrutinized very closely. That's almost twenty years ago now. I say it's about time they opened their books for the auditor general to see.

They're using our money so we have a right to know how they're spending it. A year ago a major MP spending scandal in the UK was exposed and it got international press. When that scandal broke, it forced the Speaker of the House, Michael Martin to resign. That hasn't happened in 300yrs. Heck this scandal is still being talked about on the eve of an election campaign.

Are our MPs afraid of something? Are they are afraid they have been spending our money a little to frivolously and don't want to be found out?


The National Post editorial today emphasizes the MPs hesitation.

Shining the bright light of truth may be all the rage in politics, but getting caught in the glare can be very uncomfortable. At least that seems to be the concern of federal Members of Parliament, who are hemming and hawing about a proposal to have Auditor-General Sheila Fraser turn her eagle eyes to the issue of MP spending.
This isn’t just spending by elected members themselves, but “an audit of the administrative systems in the House and Senate, such as procurement, human resource management, and financial management and controls, including systems to manage expenses.” In other words, the whole ball of wax, some of it bound to be very sticky.

As the NP states as long as the MPs are stalling opening their books for Ms. Fraser to see, there will be a suspicion that something is not quite right. So MPs, what's hindering thee? Ms. Fraser's not gonna bite, she just wants to make sure nothing is adrift unless maybe it is.

At this stage, it is impossible to predict what will crawl out from under the rocks of our own Parliament if Ms. Fraser is allowed her audit. One thing is certain; if the audit is not granted, speculation will linger that MPs had something to hide. Ms. Fraser should get the go-ahead to examine these expenses. The public has a right to know how its money is being spent, and elected officials have the obligation to account for it.

It will be interesting to see what becomes of this. We need to watch this closely. Maybe we as voters should use a little encouragement (pressure) on our MPs to comply.

Senate Free Speech Inquiry

As I stated in my previous post that Senator Doug Finley has started an inquiry into the current state of free speech in our country. It is long over due. I applaud our Conservative Senators for tackling this very important issue that is the the basic root foundation of all freedoms. Freedom of speech is something that should be cherished and protected.

Ezra Levant has a link on his site where you can find the transcript of yesterdays debate in the Senate. I encourage everyone to go over there and have a look.

All Canadians take an interest in this issue because it affects everyone, young and old. It should be the top issue above everything else. Forget the staff members writing good things to media about their employer, temper tantrums at airports etc. The erosion of free speech is what the media should be focused on right now nevermind this other insignificant stuff. Thanks to David Akin, and Canada Free Press, they are about the only ones in the media so far has reported on the Senate Inquiry that started yesterday. I haven't noticed it anywhere else in the news media.

I sincerely hope more of the media will get on board and pay attention and report accurately on this Inquiry and pressure Minister Nicholson and all the parliamentarians to take action on the fight for free speech.

Let's take our freedom back. Let's rid the country of the censorship that has prevented Canadians to truly exercise their free speech and freedom of expression. It's up to us. Get behind our Conservative Senators who are taking up that mantle. Tell the other Senators where you stand on free speech and encourage them to take a stand against the censorship that's plaguing our nation. Contact your MP and encourage him or her to take action. Contact every news media source and encourage them to get on board.

It's in everyone's best interest!