* Editor's Commentaries - #74 Birthday Celebrations and Despots, e.g., King Herod, Vladimir Putin.... 

What's the Question?  Stay 'tuned,' for the editor's answer.

. Once upon a time, a couple thousand years ago, a certain immoral, wicked, petty monarch (King Herod, or Herod II, or Herod Jr. if you please) had a birthday anniversary.  The young desirable daughter of the woman whom King Herod had taken to himself, danced before him and the VIPs assembled to honour him on his birthday.  The wicked king made a stunning offer to the young woman, to impress all the terribly important guests of what a stupendous king and man he was; as a gift to the young woman for dancing for him and his guests at his birthday, the king promised to give her whatever she asked for, all the way up to the half of his kingdom!!!  What a great man, what a wise king, to offer to give anything all the way up to half of his kingdom to a teenage girl as a gift to thank her for having danced for him and his guests at his birthday celebration!  The tender young woman, sweet young thing that she was, immediately requested the head of John the Baptist be given her in a charger!  Yes, the girl's mother Herodias (who was the wife of King Herod's brother Philip), had instructed her daughter beforehand to request John Baptist's head!  Herodias, who had thus far failed to cause king Herod to murder John Baptist by execution, knew that the terribly vain Herod would make such a ridiculous offer to her daughter (the better to display his greatness before all the important guests, and thus to be admired thereby).

The king was supposedly sorry about executing John Baptist; you know like former President Clinton, when he turned on the crocodile tears at Ron Brown's funeral in the moment that he noticed the cameras were taping him.  King Herod had wanted to murder John Baptist previously via execution after having imprisoned him, but had deferred to do so for he feared the backlash from the multitude who rightly counted John Baptist to be a prophet of God. [Matthew 14:3-5]  This king Herod is the one who instead of releasing Jesus Christ, sent him bound back to Roman Governor Pontius Pilate to be murdered. [Luke 23:5-12]  This king Herod is the one who had the apostle James murdered, and who attempted to have the apostle Peter murdered; this king Herod had Peter's guards executed when Peter was discovered to have escaped. [Acts 12:1-19]  This king Herod's father is the one who attempted to murder Jesus Christ while he was yet a babe, but failed to accomplish this despite having ordered that all of the babes and toddlers from the approximate age of two years post-birth and younger be slaughtered in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof! [Matthew 2:1-18]  Like father, like son....

Stop and think of it if you will: a king murders a wholly righteous, honest, honourable, innocent man, a faithful, mighty prophet of God on the king's birthday, this to keep his oath which he has just arrogantly made to the tender teenage daughter of his brother Philip's wife (she whom he has taken to be his lover).  And the overriding reason that the king orders John Baptist murdered: to save face before all his important guests, whom he was trying to impress by making the ridiculous oath to the daughter of his brother's wife in the first place.  And the crime that John Baptist was imprisoned by king Herod for: telling king Herod that it was not lawful for him to take his brother's wife. [Matthew 14:3-4]  [A bit on the order of what would transpire a millennia and a half later when Sir Thomas More refused to do the bidding of King Henry VIII with respect to dissolving one of king Henry's "marriages."]

Ah, what a magnificent means of displaying and demonstrating before all the assembled "good people" what a good, virtuous, righteous, just, merciful, wise, honourable, deserving king he was: ordering the murderous execution of the man whom Jesus Christ testified was the greatest prophet ever born of woman; and this was done at the bidding of Herod's brother's wife who was living with Herod as his "wife," via her teenage daughter, at the mighty king's birthday party!  Talk about a spectacle sure to please all of the most important VIPs and celebrities and beautiful people of the day; having a charger delivered to the birthday boy in front of all the royally attired guests at the resplendent celebration feast, and in the charger - why, the freshly decapitated head of John Baptist!  What more fitting gift to bestow upon a tender young teenage girl, and on such a joyful occasion too?! [Matthew 14:3-12]

.  Fast forward to the year referred to currently as 2006.

President Vladimir Putin's birthday is due to be celebrated.  What better way to honour such an occasion than to murder a person or persons who have been especially annoying to the mighty king, aka President?  Ah, but it might appear a little too suspicious if more than one of the great man's enemies were to be murdered on the King's, i.e., President's birthday; so only one is murdered on the actual birthday celebration day; but others are murdered in close time proximity.

Saturday, October 7, 2006 - Anna Politkovskaya, gunned down in the elevator of her apartment as she returned home with bags of groceries in her arms.  She was murdered on the 54th birthday of Vladimir Putin.

.  Alexander Litvinenko

.  President Vladimir Putin announces that he does not believe in conspiracies, and he wants the killers of Litvinenko...to be captured.  Well but of course, who would dream that the man the KGB's successor reports to and takes orders from would believe in conspiracies.  Who would imagine that the former number two man in the KGB (and at a very tender age at that time) would believe in conspiracies.  Who would imagine that the former number one man in the successor organization to the KGB would believe in conspiracies.  No, Putin does not believe in conspiracies; Vladimir is a man after Dr. James Dobson's own heart; as I've written before in these pages, the application for Focus on the Family forbids conspiratorial thinking, i.e., it bars people from employment that realize that conspiracies have been committed on this earth since Satan the father of conspiracies has been around.

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Occasionally I think while standing up, walking, or even chewing gum, though I can't say I necessarily do my best thinking while exerting myself in these ways - Editor/Ed.

Boys are so silly, I prefer to do my deep thinking, reflection, ruminating, and meditation, while I am reclining at length in the tub, preferably with several servants to attend to my every whim and need.  [One must be careful to only think in moderation while soaking, though, lest one should turn into a prune!]  Umm, I wonder if those silly hunky stone-age boys are thinking about me?  If they think they can use me like I'm some worthless disposable thing, they've got another thing coming! 

{No, bathing beauty.  If I had a lady like you to think about (but a little less "hard-bodied"), I wouldn't manage to think of anything else.  It is true, God does work in mysterious ways.}

Editor's PostScript Page & Editor's Commentaries hyperlink list

Editor's PostScript Page - theme

Al's secret to his superior thinking - sitting down.

 Ah yes, now I see the resemblance between Albert Einstein and CBM's Editor, they are both hard-bodied hunks (almost as if chiseled out of stone) and undeniably dreamers.

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what's a hunk, am i a hunk too?  boy, i think that lady has the right idea, a relaxing soak in the tub home (toc)

ok you little feller, but while you are splashing around, pretend you are winston churchill, and not a seal.

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