CARRIE FISHER

Carrie Fisher suffered a heart attack on a flight from London to L. A. Later, in a hospital, Carrie Fisher, who shot to fame as Princess Leia of "Star Wars" fame, was gone, never regaining consciousness.

An outpouring from the rich and famous was forthcoming, Harrison Ford called her, "brilliant," somebody you and I never heard of said she was"the brightest," while George Lucas pronounced her "extremely smart." Maybe we ought to reexamine those adjectives, just for the record. Let's take a look at the summary of her life and, having done that, you decide if the above nomenclature fits.

HER EARLY YEARS

She smoked marijuana at age 17, used LSD at 21. While filming "The Empire Strikes Back" (1980) and "Return of the Jedi," (1983), she was into cocaine. (We note a drug progression--from marijuana to LSD to cocaine.)

AT HOME WITH CARRIE

On the home front, her husband would daily wonder, "What powder and pills will be sizzling inside her feverish skull today?" Not only that, but also she was subject to wild mood swings accompanied by just as wild indulgences.

By 1981, she was writing, "I was completely crazy . . . I was on drugs, . . losing a lot of weight . . . not sleeping, and I had a seizure on the movie set."

INTO THE AMAZON!

As an evidence of the "I-was-completely-crazy-description," Carrie Fisher visited a spiritual healer in the Amazon and drank a psychic tea to cleanse her spirits. As you would expect, it failed to do the needed cleansing. (Do the brightest, the extremely smart, and brilliant people betake themselves to the Amazon to drink psychic tea,whatever that is, to cleanse themselves of spirits?)

ONE WILD NIGHT AMONG MANY

Then there was the time in 2005, after a night of debauchery, when lobbyist Gregory Stevens died of an overdose in Carrie's home. Regarding all of the above (there's more to come) is this it the behavior of smart, brilliant, and the brightest people to host or even attend a such a night and, as a result someone dies of an overdose?

THE PARTY, THE POLICE

Then, on October 21, 2016, in Italy, came the birthday celebration of Carrie Fisher. It was unusual--it began at 2 AM. (Do the birthday parties of smart, bright, and brilliant people begin at that time?) The party got so loud that neighbors called the police which led Carrie to describe their coming as, "Always the sign of a successful party." (Do smart, brilliant, and bright people describe a successful party that way? Who do you know anyone who's proud the police showed up to quell a disturbance in their home?)

THE REGRETS

Carrie said that she lived with regrets, big-time: she regretted that her daughter had to visit her in a mental hospital and see, firsthand, what she had become. Then, she wrote, "I regret seeing the hurts and disappointments these [drug-fueled] forays put in the eyes of my loved ones."

COME THANKSGIVING

Then, around Thanksgiving time this year, a friend described Carrie as "high as a kite." A month later, she had the heart attack on that airplane headed to L. A. She was 60; her self-induced misery demanded payback.

TRIPLE TRAGEDIES

There is a triple tragedy in this: a life wasted; celebrity friends calling her brilliant, smart, and the brightest; a gullible public believing them. The Bible says different:

"Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool . . ." Proverbs 10:23
". . . it is an abomination to fools to turn away from evil." Proverbs 13:19
 "Fools mock at sin . . ." Proverbs 14:9

The Bible doesn't call Carrie "brilliant," "bright," or "smart." The repeated word in bold type in the above sentences says it all.

But the Bible also says something else: if Carrie Fisher departed this world without Christ, God wept.

FUN AND UNFUN

We, some of us, remember. We remember the fun of school days as Christmas slowly crept closer. We remember teachers who asked us to bring an ornament from home to put on the Christmas tree in the classroom and we brought the best we could find from the old homestead. Everybody did and each of us  pointed with pride to our special decoration we'd put on the tree. It was exciting; it was fun.

Our teacher would decorate the classroom door and inside the room, she would show her creative expertise by making the bulletin boards festive. They were good at it, very good. That was exciting; that was fun.

We remember drawing names in class and keeping the name we'd drawn a secret until the last day of school before the holidays hit. The teacher would instruct us to buy a gift (we weren't exceed a specified monetary limit) for the classmate whose name we'd drawn, bring it to school, and put it under the decorated tree.

In a quirk of Christmas fate, in the third grade, I drew Sue's name and she drew mine. When the last day before the Christmas vacation came (that's what we all called it back then, the "Christmas vacation," we didn't call it, "The Winter Break," or, "The Holidays," nor did we know anything about a "Winter Solstice."), we had the Christmas party, with a Christmas tree right before the Christmas vacation, the party was in class, and we exchanged gifts. It was then we learned the identity of the person who drew our name. It was exiting; it was fun.

And, in class, leading up to the most fun day of the year, we sang Christmas songs. When we got older, our choirs did too. I was excluded from all choirs back then because of a lack of talent which lingers to this day; but it was most enjoyable to go to our high school assembly and hear the choir sing those carols. It was exciting; it was fun.

Then, being at home for the Christmas holidays, that was something else! The traditions, the fudge, the divinity, the pralines, the family friends who would drop by, and everyone of them would be served a special hot, spiced tea my father would have at the ready for one and all. It was Christmas time, and family friends were welcome to come over unannounced. It was exciting; it was fun.

Every family has their own favorite memories of a Christmas past. Some child, now an adult, remembers hearing reindeer on the roof on Christmas Eve night. Another remembers how his parents let him read Luke 2 to the family, maybe by candlelight. It was exciting; it was fun.

During the Christmas holidays, families would get in their cars at night and start the traditional  "seeing the lights." We'd drive around the residential areas and see all the yards and houses decorated for the season--the lights, the manger scenes, the snowmen. Some homes would have music tastefully broadcasting from among the decorations. Things were lively then, exciting, and fun.

Radio programs and then television programs would have their special "Christmas Shows," not "Happy Holiday Shows," and even dramas would have a Christmas theme to them. "Specials" would feature Christmas music as talented celebrities would sing and sing some more. Many would end on a serious Christmas note. It was exciting; it was fun.

Back then, there was a Christian consensus that permeated our culture, a culture that grew out of the Bible and Christian doctrine. That didn't mean that everybody was a Christian, but it did mean that there was a Christian agreement back then. And it was that consensus that made those days exciting and fun.

THAT WAS THEN

But today, cultural commentator Dennis Prager asks, where have all the decorations gone?  He notes that not nearly as many yards are decorated for the season. He's right. Today, the commercials on television don't wish us, "Merry Christmas;" they tell us to have "Happy Holidays" instead. Schools get sued over a tree, a carol, or even a classroom door decorated with a Charlie Brown Christmas theme. University administrators instruct students on how to have a diverse, inclusive holiday party, with diverse, inclusive decorations and themes, lest the season be found offensive to some.

Speaking of "offensive," an elementary school in Pennsylvania (whose state motto is, "Virtue, Liberty, and Independence") recently destroyed its 40-year tradition of the children;s performing Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol because of a few parents who decided that they were hurt and offended by the famous last four words in the play.

For four decades, back to when Gerald Ford was President, the children had practiced and produced the play with excitement and enjoying the thrill of acting out the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, Jacob Morley, and Tiny Tim. But no, the thrill, the joy, and the excitement must stop.

Over the years, secularism has done its work, chipping here, chipping there, until individuals, business, and corporations think twice before daring to say or advertise the words, "Merry Christmas."

What's happening is unfun. Secularism makes everything bland, grey, and dull. Take God out of the society and things turn brown. The color drains. The excitement fades into blah. We see this is any atheistic country you want to name. The secularists are draining excitement and fun from  this time of year that was there.

REMEMBER THE ANNOUNCEMENT?

What did the angel announce 2,000 years ago?

"I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people." 

For those of us who remember, it was and still is "good news of great joy." 

Let's live it up. Let's  it out.

THE POWER OF A TINY HAND

A doctor is performing what will become one of the most riveting surgeries of modern history. He's in surgery at Nashville‘s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. It's August 19, 1999. The surgery that's about to enter history is unique in and of itself: the doctor is operating from an opened womb on Samuel Armas, an unborn baby. If the doctor fails, both the mother and the baby are likely to die.

It is a revolutionary surgery: the doctor will remove the uterus from the mother, open it, perform the surgery on the baby, and return the child to the womb.The diagnostician has recommended an abortion; the mother has steadfastly refused.

But it's not the skill of the doctor nor the drama of the surgery alone that will make this operation the historic one it will become. What will make it famous is the drama that occurred while the surgery was in progress.

As the surgery continues, the yet to be born child reaches out of the uterus and grasps the doctor's finger with his tiny hand. It becomes an iconic moment for the ages because it shows the earliest human interaction ever recorded. (Michael Clancy took the picture of the baby's hand grasping the doctor's finger.)

HOUSE

Later, that famous moment will be recreated on television on a program called "House." The series gets its name from the brilliant but drug addicted and nihilistic Dr. Gregory House. He's sardonic, jaded and cynical, not necessarily the physician you're looking for if you're in the market for a good bedside manner.

In the re-enactment for television, when the baby grasps the finger of Dr. House, the normally unemotional surgeon who recommended abortion in the first place, stands transfixed; he's looking at the human nature of the unborn.

TODAY

Samuel Armas is now 17; he lives in Villa Rica, Georgia. Once Clancy snapped that photo, the photographer who was all for abortion wasn't any longer.

THE POWER UNLEASHED

What a story that is! And that's the point--the power of story. Pro-life advocates have rightly advanced their position by argumentation, reams and reams of it. Debate after debate, demonstration after demonstration, book after book have streamed forth from the pro-life position.

I wonder how many mothers-to-be the pro-life books and debates have convinced. I hope a lot. And then I wonder how many the story of that tiny hand reaching out from the womb has convinced. We have no way of knowing, but that story is indeed a powerful one.

And that's the way it is with the Bible which is the story of God's becoming man in a stable in Bethlehem, born into the human race to seek and to save those who are lost. It's a story told and re-told which never loses its power. It's a story so powerful that the human race around the world celebrates it, even though most don't really understand what they're celebrating.

The Christmas story is so powerful that the mighty forces arrayed against it with their lawsuits, lawyers, and judges have yet to shut it down, even though every year, they get an "A" for effort. It's like they're trying to keep a beach ball underwater; the story keeps bobbing back to the surface every year, year upon year, world without end. Amen.

Churches reenact the story in elaborate and admittedly, sometimes in all too costly settings and detail, movies portray it, and television  depicts it. The creche decorates yard after yard across the land. Families gather on Christmas Eve to re-read Luke's story. For 2,000 years no group, no government has stopped the story.

There's power in that story!

THE TEN THOUSAND DOLLAR WORD

It happened on November 16, 2016, in public, and in a court of law. But let's back up and take a look at the person involved.

Christine Boutin is Christine is a French politician and former housing minister. She's a public official who's on trial and the stakes are high, over $10,000 worth, to be exact. The trial takes place in Paris, France. She's on trial for her language, for using one word in in an interview with the high-brow political magazine Charles in March 2014.

During the interview, she pulled that one word out of the Bible and that's why the firestorm erupted. Her case drew comments from the rank and file, comments like "She hates people," "The Bible has no place in government," and "The Bible is a 2,000 year-old fantasy book." But she made it crystal clear that she hated sin, not sinners because she was one of them. And, it was an interview for a magazine and had nothing to do with passing a law and making something an official government policy. The interviewer had asked for her opinion, and she gave it, but she used THAT word.

It's interesting, isn't it, to think of the offensive words we hear coming into our dens from a TV set and into our hearing from movies, words we'd never let a guest use at our dinner table. It's interesting, isn't it, the words we read on the sports pages of our newspapers, words we'd never let our kids use without correction, but the force of the French government comes down on Christine Boutin for taking a word from the Bible, of all books, and using it during an interview.

So this is where Western Civilization is in Europe and where it's headed in America. Where is Europe, France in particular? A person isn't free to tell people what they don't want to hear. We're seeing this phenomenon on our college campuses--uproars over speakers whose viewpoint students and faculty don't want to hear have their invitations revoked. The students and teachers want only speakers who will preach to the choir and they will disrupt the entire campus to make sure they get such speakers at their graduation ceremonies.

George Orwell said it best: "If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they don't want to hear." A lot of people didn't want to hear that their candidate lost the election so they formed mobs, went on a rampage, destroyed private property, blocked roads, and attacked the police.

But back to Christine Boutin. She's standing in court of law and on trial because of what? Because, in essence, she quoted the Bible and in the Bible verse she quoted, was THAT word.

RESULT

The result of her trial was that she was found guilty and heavy fines, as stated above were assessed. That will teach her--you don't use that word, and if you do, it better be in private or you'd better whisper it so no on will hear.

I was recently taking a ride with family and a friend we hadn't seen in a while, a young adult who was relating to us an incident which occurred in a nearby town. As she was reporting the incident, she came to a word, not a swear word, not a racially degrading word, but a word. When she said the word in our car, guess what? She lowered her voice. She actually lowered her voice even though she was among long-time friends. It was a word we hear from newscasters, a word we read in books, and in newspapers, yet she lowered her voice.

Then, two weeks later we were eating with a very new acquaintance and having a great time in a public place. During the conversation, this new found-friend was waxing eloquent about some subject (I don't remember what it was) and all of a sudden he used the same word we heard in the car. That perfectly acceptable word used by professors, governors, and senators alike, the same word our other friend had lowered her voice to say. He, too, lowered his voice to a whisper.

What is this? What's going on? It's self-censorship, and this is the lesson of the trial of Christine Boutin: you either censor yourself or we'll do it for you and make you pay.

WHAT WAS THE WORD?

What was the word that landed Boutin in court, found her guilty and imposed the heavy fines? You can look it up. She took the word from Leviticus 18:22. 

CASTRO AND THE WORLD AT WORK

On Saturday November 26, 2016, we awoke to learn that Fidel Castro, age 90, had died during the night.

Castro exploded on the scene in 1959, leading a revolution that would put the Cuban people in his clutches for 49 years. I remember that time; I remember how many of our politicians, journalists, and celebrities praised both him and his cause to the hilt. They were oblivious to the fact that his was a revolution built on deceit and lies, with Castro claiming that he wasn't a communist. But within a year of his becoming Cuba's Prime Minister, he went on television to declare, "I am a Marxist-Leninist."

During the next 49 years, until his retirement in 2008, here's an eye-witness account of what he did to Cuba:

THE TRIALS

"They had started televising trials of counter-revolutionaries. And so we had in Cuba something we'd never seen before -- mass executions of counter-revolutionaries who'd been found guilty in these kangaroo courts. It was right out of the French revolution. People were pulled in, abused, found guilty, and from the court marched out to a firing squad."

THE TELEVISION

"There were some famous newscasters and commentators who were removed from the airwaves ... and some of them ended up in prison camps. The second thing to go was television programs not Cuban in origin; we had a lot of U.S. television dubbed into Spanish. Those disappeared and were replaced with revolutionary content . . . a lot of revolutionary songs being sung, a lot of preaching. Television ceased to be fun."

THE CHILDREN

"After Castro's goons did a similar sweep through the newspapers, it was time to launch their propaganda missiles at the minds of Cuba's children. Vivian said, "One of their favorite ways to find out what people thought about Fidel was to ask kindergartners. My younger sister was a kindergartner."

"One day, my sister came home and exclaimed, 'Fidel is better than Jesus!' In school they had asked the kindergartners to close their eyes and pray to Jesus for ice cream. When they opened their eyes -- nothing. Then they closed their eyes again and prayed to Fidel for ice cream, and ... surprise! Ice cream cups on their desks! I remember my mother's reaction: 'Helado! Que rico!' ['Ice cream! Delicious!'] She totally avoided any other comment for fear of whatever she said making it back to my sister's teacher."

THE CONFISCATIONS

"Our family were business owners; my grandfather had a grocery business. ... One day a commissioner came into my grandfather's building and said, 'This is now property of the revolution.' So my father, uncles, and grandfather just walked away . . . There was no point in any kind of resistance."

THE HEALTHCARE

"Foreigners who visit Cuba, are fed the official line from Castro’s propaganda machine: 'All Cubans are now able to receive excellent healthcare, which is also free.' But the truth is very different. Castro has built excellent health facilities for the use of foreigners, who pay with hard currency for those services.

"Argentinean soccer star Maradona, for example, has traveled several times to Cuba to receive treatment to combat his drug addiction. But Cubans are not even allowed to visit those facilities. Cubans who require medical attention must go to other hospitals, that lack the most minimum requirements needed to take care of their patients.

"In addition, most of these facilities are filthy and patients have to bring their own towels, bed sheets, pillows, or they would have to lay down on dirty bare mattresses stained with blood and other body fluids."

One man, visiting his father in Cuba, needed surgery, and upon entering the hospital for a preparatory exam, found that the surgeon had no paper towels and the examining room was "like Grand Central Station." He beat a hasty retreat, flew out of the country, and had the surgery in America.

Being a physician in Cuba isn't the ticket to driving a BMW: doctors are paid $30-$50 a month.

VAMPIRE

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights reported in 1966 that 166 Cuban prisoners were executed on a single day in May of that year. But before they were killed, they were forced to undergo the forced extraction of an average of seven pints of blood from their bodies. This blood was sold to Communist Vietnam at a rate of $50 per pint. Those who underwent the bloodletting suffered cerebral anemia and a state of unconsciousness and paralysis. But that didn’t stop the executions; the victims were carried on a stretcher to the killing field where they were then shot.

HOW BAD?

When HIV made its appearance in Cuba, those infected were imprisoned in sanitaria; incredibly, life for ordinary Cubans grew so miserable and dire that some young Cubans intentionally contracted HIV, because they had heard that sanitarium prisoners were fed three times a day.

THE BIG PICTURE

  
 In a much too brief summation, we'd say that for 49 years under Castro, people suddenly disappeared, wound up in prison, or were executed for expressing their opinions. Their public schools (like Hitler, Castro outlawed home schooling), so highly praised in America, produced parents who were willing to split their families if it would mean they could get their children out of the country and into America. The money Castro spent on public education came from confiscating all the money people had.

Under Castro, deep poverty persisted — teen prostitution, crumbling houses, food rations. Yet, he lived in splendor while people starved. Political opponents were executed by the thousands by firing squad, or sentenced to decades of hard labor. His own daughter fled the country, wearing a wig and bearing a false passport. She said her father wasn't a dictator: "He's a tyrant."

The president of the Cuba Archive Project claims that Castro killed as many as 78,000 people who were trying to flee Cuba.

BEHOLD THE WORLD AT WORK

The reaction of some world leaders to the death of Castro makes one wonder who they're talking about:

"Today, we offer condolences to Fidel Castro's family, and our thoughts and prayers are with the Cuban people. . . During my presidency, we have worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by the many things that we share as neighbors and friends — bonds of family, culture, commerce, and common humanity." President Obama

"Fidel Castro was a symbol of a whole era of modern world history. He was a wise and strong person who was an inspiring example for all countries and peoples, a sincere and reliable friend of Russia. Vladimir Putin, President of Russia

"Upon receiving the sad news of the passing of your beloved brother, the honorable Fidel Castro, former president of the state council and the government of the Republic of Cuba, I express my sadness to your excellency and all family members of the deceased dignitary, as well as the government and the people in that beloved nation. I offer my prayers for his eternal rest, and I entrust the Cuban people to the maternal intercession of Our Lady of La Caridad del Cobre, patroness of that country." Pope Francis

 "Also at this time of national mourning, I offer the support of the United Nations to work alongside the people of the island. Under Castro, Cuba made advances in the fields of education, literacy and health, also noting that he hopes "Cuba will continue to advance on a path of reform and greater prosperity." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon

"On behalf of all Canadians, Sophie and I offer our deepest condolences to the family, friends and many, many supporters of Mr. Castro. We join the people of Cuba today in mourning the loss of this remarkable leader. I know my father was very proud to call him a friend. Castro made significant improvements to the education and healthcare of the island nation, although he was a controversial figure.” Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

[The above remark is similar to saying, "Although John Wilkes Booth was a controversial figure, he will be remembered for his love of the theater."]

 WORLD LEADERS ASIDE, READ THESE COMMENTS

"In many ways, after 1959, the oppressed the world over joined Castro's cause of fighting for freedom & liberation-he changed the world. RIP." Jesse Jackson

“Fidel Castro was a symbol of the struggle for justice in the shadow of empire." Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President

"Rosalynn and I share our sympathies with the Castro family and the Cuban people on the death of Fidel Castro. We remember fondly our visits with him in Cuba and his love of his country. We wish the Cuban citizens peace and prosperity in the years ahead." Former President Jimmy Carter

"He gave his people better health care and education and will be revered for education and social services and medical care to all of his people.” MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell

"Fidel Castro was a romantic figure when he came into power. We rooted like mad for the guy who was almost like a folk hero to most of us.” MSNBC's Chris Mattews

"Castro was considered, even to this day, the George Washington of his country among those who remain in Cuba.” ABC’s Jim Avila

GEORGE WASHINGTON

In all of my American history classes, I don't remember George Washington's imprisoning and executing a single person who disagreed with him. In my reading of American history, I never ran across to any references where Washington decreed that children pray to him for ice cream or for anything else. Whereas Castro ruthlessly held on to power for 49 years, Washington left the office of President after two terms and became a private citizen, a gentleman farmer.

"During the Revolutionary War, Congress had granted Washington powers equivalent to those of a dictator and he could have easily taken solitary control of the new nation. Indeed, some political factions wanted Washington to become the new nation’s king. His modesty in declining the offer and resigning his military post at the end of the war fortified the republican foundations of the new nation." (From "History") He asked nothing for himself. He did ask Congress for grants of land for his officers.

David Boaz of the Cato Institute wrote of Washington, "He gave up power not once but twice – at the end of the revolutionary war, when he resigned his military commission and returned to Mount Vernon, and again at the end of his second term as president, when he refused entreaties to seek a third term. In doing so, he set a standard for American presidents that lasted until the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose taste for power was stronger than the 150 years of precedent set by Washington.

"Give the last word to Washington’s great adversary, King George III. The king asked his American painter, Benjamin West, what Washington would do after winning independence. West replied, 'They say he will return to his farm.'

“If he does that,” the incredulous monarch said, 'he will be the greatest man in the world.'”

It makes one wonder, "What history of what planet are these people who are praising Castro reading?" But yet, this is the world at work, just another day at the office of a fallen planet which calls evil good and good evil.

Debra Tate, the sister of Sharon Tate who was viciously murdered by the Manson family, said, "There are those who are dark and those who are light. If we fail to identify those who are dark, society collapses."

Fidel Castro was dark and should be identified as such.