1 Contend, O LORD, with those who contend with me;
fight against those who fight against me.
2 Take up shield and buckler;
arise and come to my aid.
3 Brandish spear and javelin
against those who pursue me.
Say to my soul,
"I am your salvation."
4 May those who seek my life
be disgraced and put to shame;
may those who plot my ruin
be turned back in dismay.
5 May they be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of the LORD driving them away;
6 may their path be dark and slippery,
with the angel of the LORD pursuing them.
7 Since they hid their net for me without cause
and without cause dug a pit for me,
8 may ruin overtake them by surprise--
may the net they hid entangle them,
may they fall into the pit, to their ruin.
9 Then my soul will rejoice in the LORD
and delight in his salvation.
10 My whole being will exclaim,
"Who is like you, O LORD?
You rescue the poor from those too strong for them,
the poor and needy from those who rob them."
11 Ruthless witnesses come forward;
they question me on things I know nothing about.
12 They repay me evil for good
and leave my soul forlorn.
13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth
and humbled myself with fasting.
When my prayers returned to me unanswered,
14 I went about mourning
as though for my friend or brother.
I bowed my head in grief
as though weeping for my mother.
15 But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee;
attackers gathered against me when I was unaware.
They slandered me without ceasing.
16 Like the ungodly they maliciously mocked ;
they gnashed their teeth at me.
17 O Lord, how long will you look on?
Rescue my life from their ravages,
my precious life from these lions.
18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly;
among throngs of people I will praise you.
19 Let not those gloat over me
who are my enemies without cause;
let not those who hate me without reason
maliciously wink the eye.
20 They do not speak peaceably,
but devise false accusations
against those who live quietly in the land.
21 They gape at me and say, "Aha! Aha!
With our own eyes we have seen it."
22 O LORD, you have seen this; be not silent.
Do not be far from me, O Lord.
23 Awake, and rise to my defense!
Contend for me, my God and Lord.
24 Vindicate me in your righteousness, O LORD my God;
do not let them gloat over me.
25 Do not let them think, "Aha, just what we wanted!"
or say, "We have swallowed him up."
26 May all who gloat over my distress
be put to shame and confusion;
may all who exalt themselves over me
be clothed with shame and disgrace.
27 May those who delight in my vindication
shout for joy and gladness;
may they always say, "The LORD be exalted,
who delights in the well-being of his servant."
28 My tongue will speak of your righteousness
and of your praises all day long.

Before I continue, I would explain that I try not to prejudiced in any fashion.  When I was working on my Bachelors in Communication, I had an opportunity to work and live with Mideastern Muslim young men.  For my class  in Intercultural Communication, I even interviewed a young man from Egypt. 

Why would I include the following?  When I went to high school there were many Jewish kids that I used to go to the Jewish Community Center for dances,etc.  I met one young man as a ham radio operator and shared a Sabbath dinner with him and his family.  But, even prior to that when my father had been transferred to Germany in 1949, I had seen the bombed out churches, men looking for food in garbage cans and had learned about the persecution of the Jewish people. 

But, it was on the ship coming back home from Germany to States where I had met a man with a beard.  I had told him that I liked his beard.  But when I asked what the numbers tattooed on him were for, he said tell them what you saw.  The same group of people danced in a circle when the came into New York, Ellis Island and saw the Statue of Liberty.  I later found out that they were Jewish.

My third marriage was to an Israeli woman was was beautiful and very educated.  Her parents were survivors of concentration camps.  My affinity for Israel and the Jewish people remains in spite of the breakup of our marriage.  This is why I include the following:

 
Even those who aren't  particularly sympathetic to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu, could get a  good measure of satisfaction from this interview  with British Television during  the retaliation against Hamas' shelling of  Israel.

The interviewer asked him: "How come so many  more Palestinians have been killed in this conflict than Israelis?" (A  nasty question if there ever was one!)

Netanyahu: "Are you sure that you want to  start asking in that direction?"

Interviewer: (Falling into the trap) Why  not?

Netanyahu: "Because in World War II more  Germans were killed than British and Americans combined, but there is no  doubt in anyone's mind that the war was caused by Germany's aggression. And in  response to the German blitz on London,  the British wiped out the entire city of Dresden, burning to death more German civilians  than the number of people killed in Hiroshima. Moreover, I could remind you  that in 1944, when the R.A.F. tried to bomb the Gestapo Headquarters in Copenhagen, some of the bombs missed  their target and fell on a Danish children's hospital, killing 83 little  children. Perhaps you have another  question?"

Apparently, Benjamin Netanyahu gave another  interview and was asked about Israel's occupation of Arab  lands. His response was, "It's our land". The reporter (CNN or the like)  was stunned - read below "It's our land..." It's important information  since we don't get fair and accurate reporting from the media and facts  tend to get lost in the jumble of daily events.

"Crash Course on the Arab-Israeli  Conflict."
 

Here  are overlooked facts in the current & past Middle East situation. These were compiled by a  Christian university professor:

BRIEF FACTS ON THE ISRAELI CONFLICT TODAY...  (It takes just 1.5 minutes to read!)
It makes sense and it's not slanted. Jew and  non-Jew -- it doesn't matter.

1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in  1312 BC, two thousand (2000) years before the rise of  Islam.

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying  themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after  the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the  Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand (1000) years with  a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300  years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest  in 635 lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been  the Jewish capital.  Jerusalem has never been the capital of  any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they  never sought to make it their capital, and Arab  leaders
did not come to  visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in  Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures.  Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the  Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem.  Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem.   Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab  refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge  the land  of Jews.   Sixty-eight percent left (many in fear of retaliation by their own  brethren, the Arabs), without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The ones  who stayed were afforded the same peace, civility, and citizenship  rights as everyone else.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee  from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and  pogroms.

11.  The number of Arab refugees who left Israel  in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees  from Arab lands is estimated to be about 800,000.

12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not  absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite  the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War  II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been  absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees  were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the  state of New  Jersey.

13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are  represented by twenty two separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five  wars and lost.  Israel defended itself each  time and won.

14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the  destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the  Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and  has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites  were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship.  Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved  and made accessible to people of all  faiths.

16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security  Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against  Israel.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions  voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues  were destroyed by the Jordanians.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians  systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians  enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the  Temple  Mount and the  Western Wall.
These are incredible  times. We have to ask what our role should be.  What will we tell  our grandchildren about what we did when there was a turning point  in Jewish destiny, an  opportunity to make a difference?

I just turned 65. Prior to that my unemployment ran out and I only got $22.  I took my Social Security money and decided to pay bills and buy a little food with it.  Previously I had signed up for a payday loan with my bank with required that I sign an automatic repay on it.  So I went through and paid all of my bills and the ones that I had had my bank pay for me were paid.   So I paid my power bill with Florida Power.

I then bought a little food and a tank of gas.  I kept checking my accounts and watching all of the payments clear except the FPL.  One day I went into my Money and found out that there was a $27 charge on my checking account for a returned and that my bank had paid their payday loan.  I had gone to the bank in person to tell them that I had found out that I run out funds and that I was unable to pay them.  Aren’t computers wonderful.  Their computer had decided that my payment to FPL previously did not count but that my decision for an automatic repay did.  I was on the phone and internet with both Suncoast Coast Federal Credit Union and FPL.  I went in person several times to my bank.  I asked my bank to help me consolidate payments.  They basically told me to take a hike.

So I have 4 days as of today to find a way to pay my power bill or they will cut off my power.  To top that off, my 88 Jeep Cherokee is finally breaking down and leaking steering fluid like crazy, but I cannot afford to get any more or have it repaired.  I cannot even afford to get a bus pass.  I just got $17 worth of food stamps for this month.  I am now trying to figure out what I can live without…is it TV, or the internet?  I need my phone.  I know I like watching wrestling and other things but I can save money by giving it up.

All of the times that I tried to save money for my future, each time I did something would come up and I was unable to keep in savings and I would have to live off that. So here I am 65 dependent of Social Security only and will start to pound the pavements like I did back 11 years ago.  But, the economy has changed, I have aged.

But, perhaps there will be someone out there that needs someone with my talents.  I should have been pounding the pavements before now; but, I am one of these realists who has to be slapped in the face before I get going.

Hopefully I will be able to find something so I can pay off bills and not leave such a legacy to my two sons.

I receive all sorts of articles from GOP and agree with most of them.  But when Obama is blamed for everything, I start to get upset and want to speak out.

I am a Veteran.  I have spent time in and out of Veterans hospitals, from Sturgis, SD, Danville, IL, and Miami, FL.  The last time I was in Miami, FL I was asked to make preparation should I die and sign the appropriate documents.  That was 1997.  I do not believe that Obama was President at that time.  It  was 12 years ago.  That would have been a different Democratic President. 

But,  I really would need to research and find out when the euthanasia was put into affect at with the VA.  So, before someone starts to blame Obama and try to collect money from me to fight it,  I will have to do that!  In the meantime, I will be busy playing games on Facebook.

As a certain group of people decided that the population of this country and the rest of Europe could not support extended birthrates, families of intelligence and means were encouraged to only have 2 children, abortion was supported, if not even encouraged.  Now we have a birthrate of less than 2 and yet our population is still increasing with each year.

The problem is that those who were the ones who encouraged a lower birthrate will be the ones who in the end will suffer.  Before the mid century is out this country will be a majority Muslim.  Come quickly, O Lord.  Contend O Lord with those who contend against me.  I have not much more to offer except my pen.  As I sit here writing to the sounds of smooth Jazz.  I am aged by 40 years and cannot fight as I used to in the jungles or the streets.  Sometimes there is fear that sneaks around me and that is why I keep going to meetings of friends of Bill W.   They keep me sane.