Remember Hope for Homeowners? We didn’t think so. In July, Congress passes the only housing rescue to date: a plan to guarantee up to $300 billion worth of mortgages and prevent more than 300,000 foreclosures.

But to participate, banks must take steep losses — and doing so is voluntary. The anti-climactic upshot: A piddling 321 applications have been filed since the program’s Oct. 1 launch - and not one loan workout has been completed.

A year from now I’d like to see a report on how much of that $700 billion ends up in campaign coffers.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

When we demand separation of church and state, it seems like a good thing inasmuch as YOU don’t want ME telling YOU how to worship That-Which-Created-Us, and I’m none too keen on having YOU tell ME how it should be done, or NOT done…

And yet I can’t help observing these last 4 decades of Godless drift, and viewing with some shock and revulsion the latest presidential elections atop the previous two years of corrupt malfeasance in Congress…

And so I am led to ask whether the removal of formal, rational acknowledgment of Our Creator, and the consequent removal of formal, rational methods and character traits normally associated with conscious, rational and compassionate humans might have something to do with today’s informal, irrational election of an ‘Ice-Cream’ candidate whose only real convictions have come from the study of and at the feet of dedicated Marxist, anti-American racists and terrorists…

There seems to be an irrational component therein, something which is working AGAINST the goodness, rational intent and practical outcomes of the One Whose birth is celebrated in this season.

The rational, emotional choice to follow and exemplify the teachings of The Christ, knowable in Jesus of Nazareth, led millions out of the darkness of ignorance and hatred, into the light of love and knowledge.

Is it possible that, by turning away from the regular investigation of the truth and practical application of the Spirit of Holiness (Wholeness, Righteousness) Americans have turned toward their own ignorance, willful blindness and disgruntled self-pity?

As we’re giving gifts to That Which Created Us, (by giving gifts to the That-Which-Created-Us that is knowable and lovable in the creatures around us) let us pause to reflect for a moment or two on the Goodness of Godness.

Have a safe, grateful Christmas everyone!

Smiley

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…it does:

Being a good Samaritan in California just got a little riskier.

The California Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a young woman who pulled a co-worker from a crashed vehicle isn’t immune from civil liability because the care she rendered wasn’t medical.

The divided high court appeared to signal that rescue efforts are the responsibility of trained professionals. It was also thought to be the first ruling by the court that someone who intervened in an accident in good faith could be sued.

Lisa Torti of Northridge allegedly worsened the injuries suffered by Alexandra Van Horn by yanking her “like a rag doll” from the wrecked car on Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

Torti now faces possible liability for injuries suffered by Van Horn, a fellow department store cosmetician who was rendered a paraplegic in the accident that ended a night of Halloween revelry in 2004.

In 1980, the Legislature enacted the Health and Safety Code, which provides that “no person who in good faith, and not for compensation, renders emergency care at the scene of an emergency shall be liable for any civil damages resulting from any act or omission.”

Although that passage does not use the word “medical” in describing the protected emergency care, it was included in the section of the code that deals with emergency medical services. By placing it there, lawmakers intended to shield “only those persons who in good faith render emergency medical care at the scene of a medical emergency,” Justice Carlos R. Moreno wrote for the majority.

The high court cited no previous cases involving good Samaritan actions deemed unprotected by the state code, suggesting the challenge of Torti’s rescue effort was the first to narrow the scope of the law.

The three dissenting justices argued, however, that the aim of the legislation was clearly “to encourage persons not to pass by those in need of emergency help, but to show compassion and render the necessary aid.”

Justice Marvin R. Baxter said the ruling was “illogical” because it recognizes legal immunity for nonprofessionals administering medical care while denying it for potentially life-saving actions like saving a person from drowning or carrying an injured hiker to safety.

“One who dives into swirling waters to retrieve a drowning swimmer can be sued for incidental injury he or she causes while bringing the victim to shore, but is immune for harm he or she produces while thereafter trying to revive the victim,” Baxter wrote for the dissenters. “Here, the result is that defendant Torti has no immunity for her bravery in pulling her injured friend from a crashed vehicle, even if she reasonably believed it might be about to explode.” [emphasis added]

Not only do I agree with the opinion of the dissenting justices, but I see here another example of a badly written law. It is the responsibility of the Legislature to ensure that the laws it passes are clear and unambiguous. Where this law is concerned, it was just another failure on their part.