Obamacare is symptomatic...

Even if one totally disregards the problems concerning the signing up phase of Obamacare, the numbers of Americans that are signing up via the more functional state run exchanges are by and large signing up as Medicare recipients.   I am not trying to impugn those on government assistance, however this seems to be coming as a surprise to some Obama acolytes, but in reality, is just another confirmation to those of us that have been warning that the 7-8% unemployment rate that is constantly touted by team Obama and the media is totally false,   The true numbers should be derived including the people that have stopped searching for employment and entered the roles of government dependence.  If they were included, a more accurate unemployment rate would be closer to 15-18%, depending on whose figures you use.  Again, the point is not to malign the people dependent on government support, just pointing out that like in free market private insurance companies, healthy, working people must be enrolled in sufficient numbers for the system to work.    It’s not a matter of mean spirited insurance companies charging high rates, it’s simple math.  By asking our government to manage, and dispense healthcare for the entire country not only misses the real problem, but in this particular case where our leaders are less than honest about the amount of subsidized recipients in our country at this time is not only dishonest but very hurtful in the long run. Going forward with such an ill-conceived and shoddy plan just to user in a big government scenario will move us in a backward direction from reforming healthcare.  What it will do is take the focus from the problem of high and unaffordable healthcare costs and add a high price tag and inefficiency to the management and delivery of healthcare that is sure to confound the caregivers as well as its recipients, causing even higher healthcare costs that if we had done nothing. (For the record, I am not advocating doing nothing.)

This is shaping up to be a hard lesson for the American people in the dysfunction of collectivism, when contrasted with the free market, and is as un-American as it gets.  Many of my friends on the left like to claim the current condition of the high cost of healthcare is due to capitalism and the free market, but the true student of the markets today will attest to the evidence of too much government intervention and crony-capitalism as the problem.  Our government’s inability to let anybody make a dollar they can’t tax or regulate is at the root of our economic demise.  Coupled with the corruption and deceitfulness of our leaders, it’s no surprise we are awarded boondoggles like Obamacare.  So long as we elect leaders on likeability instead of principle, we will get what we pay for.  A news media unwilling to report the news as it happens, but instead tries to shape opinion rather than being loyal to journalistic protocol is almost as much to blame as the apathetic citizenry in our land.  The only hope we have against the socializing of our land is heavy pushback from its citizens.  No amount of blame or castigation at whom, or whatever the target of the day will make a bad idea work.  And so it is with Obamacare, it is simply indefensible.   

Like the line in the children’s cartoon “Finding Nemo” when Dory and Marlin come to the dark trench she says “When we come to this trench, we’re supposed to swim through it, not over it ...” in order to avoid the poisonous Jellyfish above. In the case of the US and Obamacare, rather than tackling the problem of costly healthcare itself we are taking the go over it approach and bunny trailing into the realms of socialism and condemning ourselves to re-living what history has already taught our European friends as being a socio-economic disaster.

In terms of awareness, younger, healthier people will be hurt the most by a government takeover of our healthcare system.  As the choices diminish, costs will rise and quality of care will drop.  With the administrative costs rising the moneys must come from somewhere, and the most likely target will be first the ratepayer, and when it’s not enough, the caregiver.  With less and less ability for doctors and nurses to attain a decent living from the medical industry, the incentive for the best young men and women to enter the medical industry will drop and the industry will suffer.  I am not making these statements to hear myself complain, as history in Europe and our neighbors to the north attests.  Of course these countries still have functioning healthcare, but the excellence that has been a hallmark of the United States will disappear.  People from all over the world come to our country to get the best medical care in the world, not because of the government’s involvement in any way, but in spite of it.

I it is my prayer and hope that Obamacare is the catalyst that awakens the American people and brings them to a single voice of reason that will change our leader’s direction.  I learned long ago the truth I heard in a saying from a safety seminar I attended:  “ The highest level of performance you can expect from your employees is the least that you demand…”  In our case the “employees” are our elected leaders, and they must know we are asleep at the wheel, judging by their antics.  Our level of political participation will dictate what they do and how they act.  There will always be forces trying to subvert our traditional values and the Constitution, but they will only succeed if good men and women sit by idly. 

My case for Christianity (in my own words...)

     We all have acquaintances whose company we enjoy, but that doesn't mean we agree with everything the other holds as their beliefs.  Even spouses are subject to disagreement in many areas, that’s what makes marriage interesting and wonderful.  I have many friends close and casual, and of the friends I am blessed with, the closer the bond, the less time we spend discussing the areas we disagree on.  However, with the advent of social media, I have other friends that enjoy discussing almost exclusively the things we don’t have in common.

This has become a source of entertainment and enjoyment as I have always been one to wonder what makes things tick, including other humans and myself as well.  Having discussions of religious and political content can become very heated and frustrating sometimes, but the people I share with are very good about keeping the discussions we have from interfering with our camaraderie’s.

One topic that always piques my interest is the discussion of the existence of God.  My fellow social media-ites and I seem to get into an exchange regarding God’s existence, and their insistence He doesn't.  

The discussion usually goes something like this:

 Me: “Our God is an awesome God and I thank Him for saving a wretch like me.”

My social media buddies: “There is no god, only weak minded people need a crutch like an imaginary deity.”

Me: “Bite me you ungrateful wretches, God created and sustains everything.”

Media buddies: “Oh yeah… prove it.”

Me: “the Bible says… “(And I quote off a bunch of verses that remind us God created and sustains everything)

Them: “The bible is a book of inconsistencies” and then they go on to recite the 3^rd law of thermodynamics, or some such pointy headed information as their proof that we came into existence from navel lint, or whatever their argument entails and the discussion is reduced to a battle of each of us regurgitating the proofs we hold to be evident to us, and the claims that the other won’t listen to the “truth”. 

This is frustrating to me as I am not a very adept debater, but I love to talk about and discuss differences between people.  In my observation, in a battle of words, neither person can successfully convince the other that conclusive evidence exists to either prove God exists to the non-believer, or prove He doesn't to the believer.  So it seems to me if that is the case, it becomes a matter of the next best thing or other evidences that either elevate or reduce the position held by either arguer. 

Being of a pragmatic school of thought, I am always interested in what yields the best outcome for the given purpose something has, or what demonstrates the most compatible outcome when being exercised.  This is where I believe God and Christianity prove to be the most logical, and compatible to human existence, therefore bolstering the fact that God’s Word is in fact from God and not just a collection of human ideas that “just work”. 

If you were to set up an amoral society purposely, one of two things would happen: it would destroy itself, or adopt moral limitations that allow it to survive or even flourish.  God’s Word is chock full of specific moral imperatives that if practiced to a tee, would sufficiently enable any society to flourish.  I don’t think the same can be said for amoralism, or an anarchistic approach to moral behavior. 

And since the evidences either side can present are of knowledge that can only be known within the confines of what man can grasp, by weighing the knowledge God’s Word can impart against the knowledge man can know at the time of the argument, only the knowledge that can produce tangible fruit can be trusted as reliable in my pragmatic way of thinking.  To put one’s faith in another scientist’s theory, or perceived knowledge that may or may not be accurate because of the relative “newness” of claims or limitations of knowledge of the given time could be spiritually and morally disastrous.   In addition, the knowledge man calls truth today will surely change in time to come as he gains greater understanding, and insight, of what he is studying. 

 Consider the absolute worst thing that would happen if we lived in a truly theocratic society using the Biblical guidelines.  People would live a moral and productive life by following all the edicts in the Bible.  On the other hand, the lack of adherence to a specific moral code of conduct and the propensity of man to deceive his fellow man for ill-gotten gain is evident in the world in which we live today.

Who is to say that the scientists of tomorrow won’t be faced with even more concrete evidence that we are living in a world designed and maintained by a Creator?  To me it seems ludicrous to claim to be a scientist and completely rule out an entire avenue of thought held by previous generations, as a matter of convenience and rebellion.  It seems as though a specific outcome of thought is the idea, not scientific truth.

My compatriots always throw the idea that religion has been the impetus for wars and murder over the many years of history.  I take this to be a broad stroked claim that lacks specific definition so that in a casual conversation it tries to lay that claim at the foot of Christianity.  Anyone knows throughout the millennia that historical records have been kept that there have been wars and slaughter in relation to many causes, many of which were perpetrated in the name of religion to lull the masses into a false belief that the warring party was supported in their quest for blood.  Even our leaders of today erect false flags to insight our allegiance to their causes for war, and so I believe it has been with many of the so called “Religious” wars.  The world has known many a tyrant that has invoked the name of God or a reference to the Bible as a means to their end.   However, if anyone cares to heed Jesus Words, you can see a much different and far clearer picture of how God would have us interact with each other. 

I wrote this as a way to try to break the verbal “stalemate” I always seem to find myself in when addressing my atheistic friends.  They like to try to set the tone of the discussion as their knowledge being the ultimate wisdom, and the ownness of proof being on my belief in God  being on trial against the pop-cultural wisdom,  but to me their grasp of knowledge is the least reliable and most prone to change over the course of time.

The pragmatic and time tested results are the tangible evidence that God’s Word is true, and continues to remain unchanged.

What is the real conspiracy...

I've read stories and seen videos of people convinced martial law is eminent in the USA and there are FEMA imprisonment camps just waiting for UN military forces to fill with non-conformists rebelling from the implantation of the upcoming “New World Order”.  As a student of the Bible, I am very aware of the apocalyptic description of the end of the “end times”, and the similarities of the claims of the present day prognosticators of doom.  For the most part, I have assumed the “Infowars” type conspiracy guys were well meaning, but a little nuts, and while history is following the cycle it does, just as it has many times before in strong cultures like ours, I had hoped this cycle would be like Hitler, and have a relatively short shelf life, and in a generation or so get back on track. 

But in recent years of not understanding what has happened to the country I love, with much hand ringing and thought, I have come to believe this country is coming to a point that may make it very unlikely to return to the life style that has been afforded my generation as well as the previous ones.  I will never concede defeat, but being pragmatic, I must admit the likelihood of this present culture that refuses embrace the kind of restraint and economic discipline that would be required to return our nation to a state of operation like we have enjoyed in previous years, leaves a slim hope.  Our leaders of late, both Democrat and Republican have not produced leader that doesn't kick the can a little further down the road.

 I realize there are many like-minded people that feel similarly, and also watch seemingly helplessly, as the country we grew up loving, erodes into a land of apathy, low participation, and low information as each generation progresses, at least in terms of the how’s and why’s our country has become the most desirable place on earth for people to immigrate to.

We sit at home (at least I do…) listening and watching the news media as delivered to us in the main forms and outlets on the radio, TV, print, and on the internet, and form our picture of the world beyond us and how our leaders are running our government and interacting with the rest of the world.  The usual  “news” suspects being the network and cable news services and the newspapers that have mostly all gone to the web.  The word “conspiracy” has become notorious as “kooky” or far-fetched, and is used in conjunction with views not aligned with these news stories associated with the main stream media.  Everybody has their “pet” news source, and is comfortable with the delivery of the information they receive from them, even sympathetic to it.  Most information outlets have become very biased in their delivery of the news stories they share.  The people on the right, say the left leaning news organizations are “biased, and vice versa. 

This is my opinion, but I have come to the idea that we as citizens of this great nation can really know very little in actuality of the accurate events and the goings on outside our areas of travel on our own.  I also can imagine that if there were a great force wanting to change our nation’s position of strength, they most certainly wouldn't want to confront us head on, so how would they do it?  How has it been done before?   Looking at relatively recent (in the last couple of hundred years…) historical evidence, one can point to Nazi Germany, Red China, and the USSR, to name a few that have had such radical change in their countries.  I believe, propaganda, and the control of information dissemination is the foothold tyrannical movements have had in common in creating the climate to transform a country or culture to a completely different way of life.  Unfortunately, the other tell-tale ingredient has been slowed, or absent economic activity in those very same cultures as the change was brought to bear.  I find it very ironic in thinking in those terms to watch as our country has under gone and maintained a stifled, and stagnant economic state, like has never been seen  since the 1930’s, with leaders that do nothing to abate the condition.  In fact, in speaking of those wonderful news sources we have here in the states, our leaders are spending money at a break-neck pace with no sign of slowing.  So much so, our dollar is becoming worthless and our Federal Reserve is printing money and charging 0% interest to our government in order to facilitate the continued spending spree and rest of the world is tiring of American dollars that are becoming less and less valuable.

Meanwhile, we, in our conditioned state, are not only entertaining the idea but, repeating that one political group that has drawn a line in the sand are “extreme” for making a stand to stop the insanity.  I use the word “insanity” heavily as the idea of the amount of debt our country is amassing is rapidly coming to a head, that will not end well, unless…

This is where the conspiracy ideology sometimes makes so much sense to me it is scary.  What if our country has been slated by whomever the evil globalists are to be drastically reduced in economic power, and standing in the world, and the need created to not only be governed by a central world government, but be bank rolled by one too? 

As I have become disillusioned by the political parties of today, I have begun to distrust the Republicans as well as the Democrats.  Being pragmatic, I have of late tried to imagine the motivation in modern politics, as I cannot use the same standard for either party as I did before and have turned to my conspiratorial friends to draw upon now.

I wish I had an epiphany, to share for those of you whom have stayed the course reading this long-winded rant, but all I am going to leave you with is my even stronger conviction that God’s Word is more dependable than I  have the ability to understand, and that the world we live in today is filled with deception, so much so, I am losing my will to argue politics as it seems moot, since it is probably all a production to deceive us into a mental wild goose chase of emotion and division.  So if we don’t have sound information being delivered to us what are we to believe?  I have adopted a quote from a Jewish leader of many, many years ago, giving an ultimatum to his people saying: “if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  In the case of the United States one might well replace “the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites” with the revisionism of our country’s history taught today, or the idea that a collective government of the future is the answer to man’s dilemma.

Beware of Russians Bearing Advice...

Have you read the op-ed in the NY Times labeled as being written by Vlad Putin?  It oozes emotional appeal and socialist underpinnings.  I believe if he indeed wrote this, he is appealing to the globalists and liberals that see the free market and Capitalism as a bad thing. 

There are many points to discuss but at first glance the points that stand out are:

United Nations being of utmost importance.  The UN is a nice formal way to facilitate social events and coordinate operations of countries doing joint operations, but it is in no way superior, or even close to the United States own ability to rule itself and by the UN’s idea of a league of nations opposes nearly everything the USA stands for.  We will and always have made our own decisions.  Our system of government  has proven itself to be the most successful.  Of late the players and corruption have caused our form of government to fail.  The players are corrupted not the system, history clearly shows that.

In his Op-ed piece Putin says “No one doubts the use of nerve gas, but it was the rebels not the Syrian government.”  To me if that were true, how could Assad assure anybody he can turn control of the gas to any global organization if he doesn’t fully control it?  Believe me, this is never going to happen.  They may do something symbolic, but that’s all.  Russia is their ally and could possibly have given the nerve gas to them.

Toward the end of the piece he (Putin) voices his disagreement with Mr. Obama and his speaking of
American exceptionalism.    This echoes his allegiance to the communism of this past leaders and government.  Socialism, and communism’s worst enemy and their Kryptonite are individualism and excellence.  As echoed by modern liberalism promoting competition free outcomes so no one has to lose.  Sameness of outcome in almost all things they control, under the guise of “fairness” and “equality”.  In the United States we already enjoy the utmost freedoms of any place on earth, not because we guarantee the sameness of outcomes for everybody, but our form of government allows for anybody to strike out on their own and seek to excel at anything they want to put their time and resources toward.  I admit it is increasingly tougher to attain success in private industry as no sooner than you announce your plan to become a for profit entity our beloved government becomes a silent partner by force and threat of retaliation.  Their partnership is in your profits and never in the liabilities, but we can overcome even their intrusions.  If we succumb to becoming a part of the rest of the world and their regulation we will continue to have to “dumb down” or economy and our dominance in the economic arena.  I believe the world would be a worse place without our leadership.  Having said that, there are many corrupt aspects of our government that the world wouldn’t miss as well.

Bottom line:  This is not a man or country we should trust.  We have nothing to gain by joining the “We are the world” brigade.  They have the potential to topple the world’s strongest nation.  We are in a little bit of a nose dive, due largely to a leader that isn’t.  But hopefully we can shed ourselves of him and his ilk and get a leader that is decisive and strong and get back on track.  This kind of foreign affairs faux pas is very reminiscent of the presidency of Jimmy Carter and the Iranian hostages.  The hostages had been held and bandied about for months, while an inept Carter tried the same limp wristed diplomacy that Obama is using, but within 5 days of Ronald Reagan’s election, they released the hostages with no complications.  Our enemies watch closely for our weaknesses, and like undisciplined children, push to the limit.  Now our adversary, Russia is sounding more American than our president, which in my opinion is a scam of monumental proportion and demands keen leadership more now than ever.

                                                                                                                                                                          

Don’t let ‘sustainable’ turn political

  Editorial reprinted from The Capital Press 

Occasionally, I come across an article that sums up my same sentiments and says it much better that I can.  This is a reprint of just such an editorial from the September 6th edition.

We like the concept of sustainability, and so does almost everyone.

It is difficult to argue against the concept of farmers, ranchers and others operating in a “sustainable” manner.

But a problem arises in defining the concept.

When it comes to agriculture, the definition of sustainable is in the eye of the beholder. A family that homesteaded 160 acres and has farmed that ground for 150 years need only look in the mirror to see what sustainable is. The farm has supported the family, provided a livelihood for generations and helped feed the world.

That just about says it all. By any measure, that farm should be considered sustainable.

Yet other individuals and groups have gone to great lengths to define and redefine sustainable using the lens they prefer. That can include leanings toward a particular type of production or lifestyle. Or it can include certain political tenets.

Agricultural concerns large and small are taking up the sustainable banner these days. They want to be able to tell their customers that the food they eat is not only good for them but that it is sustainable.

One example of this effort is General Mills, which has gone to farmers that produce some of the commodities that go into the company’s many products. Working with farmers, the company hopes to develop criteria that show those commodities are grown in a way that is sustainable. That makes sense. All companies, including food processors and retailers, need to listen closely to their customers. If customers want a certain type of products, including those produced sustainably, that company’s leadership would be wise to find a way to meet that expectation.

Working with farmers and others, the companies can develop a definition of sustainability that makes sense economically and environmentally.

Our biggest fear is that politicians might try to hijack the term sustainable. Mind you, government is famous for tripping over itself whenever a new buzzword enters the political lexicon. Some years ago, “renewable” was all the rage in state capitals and in Washington, D.C. Legislators wanted to define it according to their political leanings. Wind turbines and photovoltaic panels were “renewable” even though they required subsidies, but hydroelectric dams were not. In the West and the rest of the nation, dams provide flood control and generate massive amounts of low cost electricity, providing a renewable source of energy and bolstering regional economies.

Yet some politicians refuse to acknowledge that they are “renewable.”

Now sustainability has gained currency, and we can only hope that it will not fall to the same political fate as “renewable.”

Our hope is that politicians will resist the temptation to inflict their views on a concept that, to a large degree, is common sense.

Why can't we just be honest...

Why can’t we just be honest…  I have lost any presumptions that I once may have had that GW Bush was an angel… quite the opposite, I am very disappointed in his last four years for sure and I am very skeptical about some of his motives in the first four, but for entirely different reasons than liberals condemn him.  Economically the US did very well even excluding the sub-prime or ultra-low interest times that were strewn throughout his presidency.   

Oh sure you can, and liberals do, attribute the sub-prime mortgage crash to him, which is unfortunate.  They also say the tax rate reductions were for the upper echelon as some sort of payoff or boost to rich people… whatever.  They also say “the eight failed years” of his presidency, when they weren't all a failure… especially compared to our current leader.  Of course, even the lack of performance of our current leader is blamed on Mr. Bush, and that is where I am distraught with today’s up and coming young people.  I believe they check their brains at the door and belly up to the main stream trough and lap up the swill of liberal lies deferring blame from every unsavory thing and hanging it on the Republican’s necks.

The Republican’s are doing a pretty good job of hanging themselves right now, so the libs could probably sit it out for a while and watch them implode, with little or no effort.  I believe young thinking minds must differentiate between the Republicans and Conservatism, or we will all be sunk.   The Republicans, or most of them anyway, aren’t doing a very good job of defending conservative values and free market capitalism today.  They are too busy, it seems, trying to meld with the liberals, who want only to have them on a stick.  It makes no sense to me, as they are only proving who among them has the stones to stay the course, and who should go.

 Following the pop-culture, and mainstream media should be a no brainer to the average thinking person, but I can only believe that the liberal invasion of our public institutions of higher, and intermediate learning have begun to produce fruit.  The evidence is shown in watching nearly anything in the news represented by the younger generation.  (For the record, not ALL of the younger generation, as there is still young people that have been properly inoculated by loving parents that won’t allow the pollution of their progeny’s minds by the liberal onslaught)

A case in point:  As our economy stagnates into its fifth, or sixth year, with high unemployment (much higher than the MSM reports) and the Federal Reserve printing money like there’s no tomorrow (but there will be), there are tell tail signs of distress in the masses.  One such display is the current flurry of protests of big chain employers, like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, etc. not paying high enough wages and the all too willing Federal government setting minimum wages.   The protesting youth are completely missing the point and will never ever reach an average lifestyle such as my generation has had in the past by following the tripe they are being fed.  The market ALWAYS dictates the minimum wage… always.  Nobody can legislate private sector wealth; it doesn’t work that way, it can’t.  The employers aren’t screwing the workers any more now than they did at any other time, they offer the lowest wage that their business can pay and still keep afloat.  The way we increase our wages is one of two ways:  Either get a higher paying job, i.e. get training, our get more experience, or seniority at the job you have to get a higher wage, or, if there are more job opportunities the employer in question will pay a higher rate to attract workers.

The idea that this wage business, is an emotional idea and that compassion is somehow involved is the absolute wrong way to look at the free market and is very disingenuous of the liberal media to skew it in their “reporting”.  Especially when they themselves are engaging in the very free market capitalism they so markedly disdain. (Weird?)  Back to the wage thing:  The people protesting need to look a little deeper for the root of their lack of making ends meet with their current wage. 

There is high unemployment = It’s an employer’s market, sorry, that’s just the way it is.  If we want more money, we need more jobs to make them to compete for our help.

The Fed is printing the buying power of our money away.  They don’t have to raise our taxes, they just print so much money that ours is worthless, this equals inflation.  Things don’t go up in price as much as our money doesn't buy as much as it did before.  (This is keeping the stock market flush too; watch what happens when the Fed threatens interest rate increase or no more QE)

A business is a venture by an average person taking on the risk of losing the money and work they have put into building a business.  It’s their business, and they can run it as they see fit.  If we don’t like the wages they pay, we shouldn't continue to work for them.  If there aren't any other jobs out there to make them compete for our labor it’s not the employer’s fault, so we must look elsewhere for the root of the problem. 

This is where the MSM has bamboozled the youth of today along with liberal indoctrination, and no stand up conservatives explaining how things really work:  As I said before, the real problem with low wages is that they don’t buy what we want, and they don’t get any higher when there’s no competition.  Why?  I’ll tell you.  Our government is too busy trying to do things far, far out of their job description.  Their job is to protect us and keep the infrastructure up, nothing more.  Everything else should be done at a state level.  If it we kept our money here at home, we wouldn't need the Feds for much of anything.  The private sector is much more capable at doing nearly everything the Feds do now and the free market does them exponentially better, mostly because in a business setting there is accountability, government has none.  They try to manipulate the markets by regulating, and prohibiting activities and sometimes on an experimental basis and blame capitalism when it fails.  We haven’t seen true free market capitalism for a long time and I will submit that all we have seen is crony-capitalism from our leaders.  In a true free market the market will choose the winners and cull the losers, and the consumer always wins.  But sadly nobody teaches that today.  We are stuck trying to make a business pay higher wages than the market will allow in a down time and further upset the apple cart by making prices go higher as the business will pass the cost on to the consumers in an endless downward spiral, unless we address the real problem and change leadership to real leaders, not a bunch of liberals trying to institute socialism in the one country it has never ever been allowed.  They are trying in institute a system that has a very obvious history of failure every time it is tried.  So why can’t we open our eyes? 

Oh and for you that point to some obscure little country that claims to be socialist and say its working there…  Socialism is only surviving in those countries as a benefit of the capitalism that is there too, mark my words.  In any place it’s been tried to be fully instituted it has been a disaster.

The United States future rests in the young people of today.  If they don’t use their God given understanding and reason to get past the drab deceit of liberalism, they will be ensuring their generation and the ones to follow for a long time will not be able to see the prosperity that generations of the past were able to have simply by falling prey to the Communists of today and their warped ideology.  I will say I admired the “Occupy” movement and their zeal until they aptly demonstrated they weren't going to draw the correlation between the big business they hated and the relationship the same big business enjoyed with our government, thus making them co-conspirators.

 But alas, there is always hope…

No Hatred Here...

Does this sound familiar?  “Man, I can’t stand those Bible thumpers, always trying to shove their religion down my throat.”  I hear it quite regularly, and wonder why those very same people will sit for hours and hours and peruse the internet media sites, or listen to the mainstream television media, or cable documentary channels that convey perspectives with which they may disagree, but still absorb the entirety of the message being delivered.

What is so objectionable that causes people to act so vehemently negative toward the very hearing of God’s Word?  Why do we get squeamish, angry, or put on guard when the name of Jesus Christ is invoked in average conversation other than being used as a curse?  This has always fascinated me, and as a young man it made me uncomfortable too until I trusted Jesus Christ as my Savior, then those situations weren’t a threat, but still fascinated me nonetheless.

I was recently in a conversation with several people talking about the idea that homosexuality as a predisposition opposed to a moral choice.  I put myself in this situation because I love discussion, (not that I am a good debater, I love to hear other people’s opinions) not thinking I would offend anyone.  The discussion was taking place on a popular social media forum which everybody knows, so people were popping in and out of the conversation.  A dear acquaintance joined in and was put off by the mention of my position, which is God’s position toward homosexuality.  Needless to say, I felt very bad that I had offended a person I care for dearly, so I bowed out; tail tucked firmly between my legs and left the exchange.  I am convinced God’s Word is undisputedly true, so forgoing a discussion for someone’s feelings seemed the better thing to do than continue on and risk alienating a friend.  However, (you knew this was coming…) there is a point where truth must clash with error, and finding an objection-free way to discuss it is becoming more and more difficult.

I will attempt to explain why I think speaking out against homosexuality, abortion, pornography, murder, adultery, promiscuity, or any other sin as defined in God’s Word is not hate speech, but love speech. 

Guilt.  We all feel guilt to some varying degree when we disobey God.  It’s hard-wired into our consciences for a reason, which is to make us accountable to the knowledge God has built into each and every one of us.  So long as we are striving to exalt and please God we will assuage our guilt by confessing our sin and repenting, and in turn, He will impute His righteousness to us.  If we want to disobey God more than guilt will let us, we must make a means of escaping the feelings of guilt, and at some point, we must suppress the truth of God’s Word and convince ourselves the behavior we are involved in is not bad, but good.  We can either say something ludicrous like “truth is subjective and can’t really be known”, or we redefine what sin is to soothe our consciences.

But that’s not enough, we still feel guilt because we are worried what others might think of us, so if we still want to try to escape feelings of guilt, we believe we must get others to agree with our position that God’s Word is not the truth (more suppression).  So, as in almost all sexual sin, and abortion, we have slowly over the years and decades convinced lawmakers, teachers, and some of the populace at large that sin is not bad, just misunderstood, and in some cases undeniably built in to us, so we must embrace and accommodate it, rather than shun and discourage it.

This dynamic is chronicled in the Bible in many places, especially in the book of Romans, where Paul is writing a letter to the church at Rome and explaining how God abandons a society that suppresses the truth and the resulting evidences that it is happening.  In chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is conveying to the church the consequences of unbelief. “18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness…” 

Paul continued explaining what the results would be of rebellion and suppressing the truth:                         “25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

And after enough suppression of the truth, and kidding ourselves that sin really isn’t sin, God allows our minds to become depraved, which is defined as: Morally corrupt, or evil, lacking good judgment:             “28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper…”

But the good part is, in Paul's letter to the Roman church, he reminds them that some of them were just as corrupt, and it’s never too late to turn your face toward God and repent and He will restore you and even the society He has abandoned.  Paul reassures the believers in letter to the church at Corinth:                                ” ⁹ Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

In short, this is why people are angered by the mere mention of God’s Word, and why disagreeing with our nations embracing of open sin has nothing to do with hate, but an act of love, wanting only to save our country and the people in it from ruin.  I will admit there are misguided believers that confuse God’s Word with a personal vendetta on sin, but that is to misconstrue the true intent of God’s relationship toward us.  It is my hope that in an open discussion about any controversial issue, that we can talk about the merits of the issue, rather than painting anyone as having hatred as a motivation for disagreement.

A different Approach

A different Approach

One of my mantras is railing against the forces that are eroding the traditional values that make these United States what they are.  Today after listening to a powerful message by none other than Grace Community’s own Pastor Roger Olson, I was moved to use his sermon as a point of reference to look at our nation in purely patriotic terms, and the effects of patriotism on our country.

American patriotism is what has given our country its own identity uniquely separating it from any other nation ever, and patriotism in the United States is indivisibly linked to the belief in being free to worship our Creator and give Him our full allegiance and acknowledgement of our freedoms here as being fully His work and blessing upon us.  Our rich history recounts our founding with a desire to be free from tyranny and an overbearing, over-reaching government’s rule.  Along with the desire to be free from a tyrant’s rule, was a desire to worship our God in freedom and in an uninhibited way in our daily lives. 

The freedoms we enjoy here are a product of the adherence and practice of keeping the very ideals our early founders fought for in the forefront of our daily existence.  Over the years, many selfless men and women have given their hearts and lives, even unto death to protect and ensure our free and liberty filled life style here by remembering the ideals and sacrifices those brave travelers envisioned when they made the trek from England so many years ago.  These soldiers are of the highest character, and believe God and country come before their lives, and strive to ensure the people back at home remain safe for generations to come.

In today’s age, there is a threat to our way of life, not from a foreign enemy, but one of a domestic nature.  There is, and has been a movement to uproot traditional values and replace them with values of a self-centered, humanistic nature that fly in the face of the ideals that have kept our country separate from the rest of the world.  It has many facets in its attack: It seeks to revise history, contaminate our young by infiltrating our schools; it rejects sound doctrine and applauds deceit and evil.  The movement seeks to strengthen its hold on our society by sleight of hand and deceitfulness.  It goes by many names, progressivism, liberalism, moderation, and “open-mindedness” (though it’s not) to name a few.

The idea bandied about today that true “tolerance” involves accepting all things and rejecting only those that disagree with the popular culture is a mistake of colossal proportion.  The idea of “discriminating” in today’s society has been assigned a negative connotation, and brings ideas of mistreatment, racial prejudice and oppression.  To discriminate is defined as recognizing or making identification between things, good or evil.  We make distinctions every day to try to do the very best we can for ourselves, why can’t we make those same choices for the embetterment of our culture? 

A noted philosopher once said “Those who don’t understand history are bound to repeat it.”  Many others have echoed similar warnings along the way.  These philosophical thinkers weren’t just adding to their repertoire of pithy sayings, some had lived in a time where it was coming true and others could see as students of history how the cycle repeats itself.  We are living in a time where past history is reliving itself as it did in other cultures of old.  The Roman Empire always comes to mind, and ironically our country adopted a lot of our governmental structure from it.  Rome was thought to be invincible at times and in many ways was very similar to our culture today.  It lasted for more than two millennia, depending on who the historian is, and was not weakened by external forces, but by moral decay.  It was eventually overtaken by a foreign enemy.

This same “progressive” movement that seeks to make an emotional plea to embrace all things based on our “feelings”, rather than what history teaches us, is an invitation to destroy the very culture we have grown to be and protected for so many years.  By allowing all things by the emotional sentiment attached to them we ignore the negative effects they may result in, and in some cases are returning our country to the very things our founders fled from.  We need to use what we know to be true rather than riding an emotional high that we are being coerced to believe is freedom.  True freedom must be fought for, and is a disciplined process to keep.

In the last several decades, our country as a whole has begun to take our great freedom for granted.  The biggest change that has come over our land is how our God, our Creator has been removed from our schools, and from our governmental institutions.  By legislating the removal of the very God that has blessed us, is to commit an epic mistake with regard to our future prosperity and freedom.  The United States is the most popular country immigrants flock to for the chance for a better life, and should tell us how truly blessed we are and we should cherish and meditate on the idea daily.  We should be ashamed for allowing our freedom to become something so trivial and assumed.  And shame on us for treating our God and Creator with such reckless abandon in our culture, some of us even railing against Him.  

History teaches that behavior like our culture is exhibiting doesn’t lead to improvement, and if your honest, you can already see the decline in our leadership, morality, lack of patriotism (love of country), and especially the willingness to commiserate one with another, on a personal level. In fact history teaches that the declines we see in our society are products of our abandonment of those ideas our founders pursued so vehemently.

I can’t end without recalling a historical event that is ending well:  From its beginning Israel has had its share of fighting, falling from Grace, and returning to good favor, and falling again, and even complete dissolution, but their favor in God’s eyes has brought them back into existence as a nation, and resurrected the Hebrew language again spoken today.  Though tiny and still plagued by hateful angry neighbors, Israel should be proof that by turning our collective faces to God, He will honor our praise and bless us.  I am using Israel as an example for anybody that would shun the Bible as evidence of historical proof of God’s blessing to those who turn to Him, as Israel is living proof in real time.

There is much more that can be said in reference to God blessing us as a nation, and the Christian influence upon the founding of our nation, but I will save that for another blog.  Suffice it to say, it’s never too late to change course as a nation.  Believer’s in Christ already know the battle has been won, and that is a great comfort in these times, but we want to take as many as possible with us when we go home.

An Atheist's Opinion...

I just finished reading an op-ed piece by a modern day self-proclaimed atheist named Sam Harris expressing his distaste for the appointment of a scientist named Frank Collins to the head of the NIH (National Institutes of Health).  Mr. Harris, like other “new atheists” attacks Dr. Collins because he is a Christian, and tries to draw blood as if he screams loud enough and makes a big enough stir his point will have some validity. 
 Mr. Harris and many other modern day atheists remind me of my then teen-age daughter trying to side step household chores, or facing the consequences of disobedience.  She (who will remain unnamed) would work up such a production over anything other than the task at hand, that if left unchecked would skew the entire point of the confrontation, and I will admit, made me reluctant to engage her unless I was fully ready for the clash. 
I believe the new atheists employ a lot of bluster which include a façade of deep thinking, big words, and yes, eloquence in delivery (as would be associated with a successful used car salesman).  But I also learned a simple trick that my teen age kid taught me that I haphazardly named “table-turning”.  Table turning is obviously where if I as a parent, were to ask my kid why she did not load the dishes into the dishwasher, she, in her defense would ask me when the last time I loaded them, or a variation would be to inform me that I didn’t require my other child to perform the same task as much as I had asked her.
I do not operate on the same level as these new atheists obviously, even though nothing would make me happier than to see them enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ, trusting His atoning death at Calvary for their eternal salvation.  I fully understand they have an agenda, rather than a belief, because it would require faith in their understanding of “science” which they will never cop to.  Their agenda is a little hazy as to the catalyst, but not to the intent.  The intent is to deface and utterly oppose Christianity at every turn.  Not Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Mormons, the Dalai Lama, or the Easter bunny, though they do give lip service to them.  They are 100% dedicated to the promotion of the idea that the only “science” knowable is on their terms, by their definition of standards, and must exclude, and always carry the disclaimer that religion (which in atheist-speak is always Christianity) isn't compatible with true discovery.  This, in their way of looking at things, has to be to perpetuate their agenda, this is clear.
The hazy part, of the agenda is the motivation.  As a Believer, the first explanation for their motivation is Satan, as he clearly is the largest single opposition to God Almighty, not formidable, but in opposition.  But human rebellion is nearly as consistent as well, these self-proclaimed atheists may deep down need a comforter to woo them back to sleep at night when they awaken to the fleeting thought that, maybe there is a God, and the potential for eternal separation from Him in a unspeakable place is really awaiting their disbelief.  So the agenda could be to quash Christianity and, misery loves company.  In any event, for whatever reason that motivates these people to antagonize Christian Believers and society at large,  if their arguments turned are in reverse, yield the same problems for them, again, they will never cop to them, but so is the political realm we live in today of intellectual cat and mouse. 
The clear image I took away from my read of Mr. Harris’s opinion was that outside his sphere of influence, his opinion means exactly squat.  It can only be made sense of by a like-minded thinker, and then I am left with the idea that modern atheism is just another example of societal decay due to abandoning the recognition and worship of our Creator.
When I have time to write more I can help connect the dots that show conclusively the relation of vacating our dependence on God and the moral and societal decay we are experiencing, but I have to leave for work.  God Bless.

OUYA : At First Glance

For those who care, my initial assessment of the OUYA console and entertainment system is positive.  The only reservations I have at this time are in it’s not being an Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii.  Which it isn't trying to be, but when you have the controller in your hand it’s almost by second nature you expect to command the same activity on the TV screen that more expensive consoles offer.

One thing that is unique is the presence of the Android OS.  It is familiar and intuitive to those of us Androidians.  Apple users can play catch-up in no time at all.  The games available to The OUYA are limited to about 150 at this time of which probably 20-30 are decent, but this is an all comers console for developers to show their wares.  I imagine as time goes on a plethora of user sites will spring up guiding the OUYA gamers to the worthwhile games and steering them from the “less desirable” ones. 

I was pleasantly surprised when I installed the XBMC port for OUYA.  It works remarkably well and gives worth to the little console as a media center.  For those of you missing the joy of XBMC, it is an open source development of the old Xbox media center from the first Xbox, which has gained much popularity as an internet based media program.  The OUYA plays and streams video at 720 and 1080p, and can process up to 5.1 Dolby Stereo.  An interesting surprise is the OUYA’s ability to render 3D graphics as well.

One nice thing open source hardware and software can do, such as the OUYA console that their commercial counterparts cannot, is be a little more practical in their wearing of more than one hat for the same price as they don’t have to always be selling you additional services to remunerate their makers.   In terms of saving money, this little gadget is fully customizable, with most all the free android apps that are currently available for your smart phone, though they might not be usable on a game console.  In time I believe the developers will make apps and software for home activities that will make this an even more welcome addition to your home.

It’s implications as a viable media/gaming console are only limited to the media available for it at this time.  But make no mistake, it is a $99 console and has definite limitations.  However, for what it is I believe it will be a great offering for enthusiasts that are on a budget and want a fully functioning media center for their TV on budget pricing.  The accompanying media supply will only get better and better as they have not even been released for public consumption yet.  They are scheduled to be released on June 25.  I heartily recommend them in their own category of competition.  Unless you are expecting them to be an Xbox, you won’t be disappointed.

“One Nation Under God”, or “In God We Trust”, whether or not you like the words, they are a staple of our American plight, and way of life, if now in reference only.  Our leaders invoke God’s blessing when trying to uplift their constituents, mostly at the end of a speech.  Congressional meetings are opened with a prayer, and I’m sure if you looked and care to be honest there are many remnants of a culture more devoted to their Creator. 

This isn’t a rant about all the unrepentant sinners, or a pointless argument whether or not God exists.  This is a rant about the isolation and eviction of the traces of the God that our country has referred to the last 200 plus years.   It signifies more than a “separation between church and state” it is more of a down right disdain for Him, but this expulsion is limited only to the God of the Bible and apparently not any other god.

For instance there are a number of occurrences in the news media where our schools here in the US are teaching some of the tenets of Islam in classrooms in more than just an educational way.  The belief also being taught in our schools that humans have evolved from animals or, even lower organisms, has not been proven conclusively and the idea is less than 200 years old in its present form.  The humanist aspect of this and other related beliefs are a religion unto themselves, though its proponents will argue the idea.

Again, my point is not to argue the validity of any of the ideas presented in our schools.  My point of contention is, why do we have to vacate our public institutions of any trace of the very God our founders spoke so highly of at the inception of our country?  Our founders never discouraged people from worshiping other ideas, they were adamant however, that the Christian message and teachings be present alongside any other belief.  They were confident that God’s Word, if represented equally and unabashedly, alongside anything other than the Gospel, it would stand on its own merits.  I believe that’s the objection that Christians today have to the shut out of God in our society. 

I believe this to be true because the evidence that the inverse is the case with the opponents of God:  If these people that are atheists, agnostics, skeptics, or even Democrats were confident of their beliefs, why would a belief and the display of it be so offensive to them? The political correctness of today embraces and protects a religion whose extreme believers are openly hateful of the west and more personally the United States.  I dare say our current leaders even promote Islam in many cases.  If us Christians are a bunch of quacks, why not study our beliefs and not be afraid to engage in the honest an open discussion why our founders referred to God over and over throughout our country’s founding?

Look Inside Yourself...

Some of the video games I have most anticipated this year and some last year are filled with needless profanity.  And not just random swearing resulting from a fit of anger (not that that is even remotely OK), but the characters talk like loggers in normal conversation.  And these games are targeting kids from grade school to old dudes like me.  In most cases, the swearing is awkward, like the computer nerds that wrote these games had a quota of curse words to use and sprinkled them throughout the games randomly.  Personally, I don't think it adds anything to the games, I think it reduces their likability.

 Most of the heroes from the silver screen I remember from when I was a kid, either didn't swear at all, or only used one or maybe two curse words in an entire movie.  Frankly, I am more troubled that the barrage of gutter talk and sex in these games is far more detrimental to our kids than the use of guns are.  I think kids today are exposed to way too much negative influence than even when I was a kid.  They lose their precious innocence at an early age, and it's my money hungry generation that is all too willing to profit at any cost and using anything to sell their wares to kids through any means they can.

 This obviously isn't anything you can legislate away, it is the essence of why a lot of things that used to be part of every day commerce are now demonized as evil Capitalism, when it's the evil in the hearts and souls of men left unchecked by society, and in some cases defended as free speech that are to blame. To we who believe, a much simpler word for it is "sin".  To me, this kind of a lack of moral restraint is at the root of the free market and our very society's demise today, and OUR lack of fortitude and willingness to identify the culprits and single out the offenses as bad business is just as much to blame.  Instead we let politicians and the willing news media propagandize bad behavior as belonging to an inanimate object that should be taken from the populace, as if evil will stop if one of the tools is prohibited. Or we let them spin a yarn of blaming some external force, or congenital anomaly for evil behavior.  Jesus clears it up in Mark 7:5 by saying "Nothing outside a person can defile them by going into them. Rather, it is what comes out of a person that defiles them".

The Eagles had a song on their "Hell Freezes Over" album called "Get Over It" which I find very appropriate for what is needed for our country.  We need to quit blaming everything but the cause of the evils today and forgo the loss of money, political correctness, propaganda, and the like, and not settle for anything less than the men and women that founded this country settled for.  They left England to escape some of the very things we are trying to embrace as a nation today.  The irony would be laughable if it weren't so sad.

I'm Mad

All the talk of the need for additional tax revenue, and the screams of bloody murder at the idea of reducing spending, are symptomatic of a government that is not acting in our best interest.  They aren’t even using common sense.  In fact, there is nowhere in the world, but in a government setting in which one could get away with what they’re doing.  The latest local “crisis” is the supposed need to increase our fuel costs to fix roads in our state. 

I believe the question that begs to be asked of our elected officials is:  What happened to the monies that were supposed to be used for road maintenance?  Why aren’t you budgeting for this?  The cost of maintaining roads hasn’t increased to the degree that more revenue is necessary.  Our state is not so different from other states, why then can some of them return unused monies to their constituents?  The answer is these three things:  budgeting, budgeting, and budgeting.  You might have to speak slowly to our state officials and spell it out, as this is obviously a foreign concept to them.  It also involves work.

If their answer is wages and benefits are eating the funds up, then again I must ask: Why are you using funds for roads for paying employees?  And where else in the world can you decide to spend less making product to pay more wages?  This isn’t the land of Oz, and the union and government employees won’t melt if this year’s contract is less money than last.  We in the private sector have been doing what we do with less and less for the last 5+ years.  In part, so our government and its employees can keep the lifestyle they’ve grown accustomed to, and then some.

I am sick and tired of the attitudes our elected officials are taking with us.  They seem even more emboldened to act dishonorably after the election of late.  I am even more disappointed that people don’t seem to care how much their own money is wasted and will line up to give even more to the bottomless pit we call our government.  I’m no prophet, but I can say with relative certainty that if we continue to remain apathetic to the way we are treated by the media in our country, and by our government that refuses to work for us, soon we will be oppressed like never before in these United States.  History testifies to it, as this isn’t the first time a government has gone in a tyrannical direction.  Actually, the USA is the exception to the rule, and one of the last truly free countries left in the world.

What’s the answer?  I used to think voting, but I believe our system of election has sadly been corrupted to the point it is untrustworthy.  At this point, I believe bringing the deeds of our elected officials to the light of day and not let them set the narrative for what they are doing is a good start.  Throwing out the Republican and Democrat party lines from one’s thought process is another, as it keeps the masses divided sufficiently so the ruling class can do as they want under the guise of whatever cover story they tell to their devotees.  Don’t let peripheral or social issues take our eyes off the goal of making our leaders act in our behalf.  Don’t be afraid to dialog about it, after all it IS important.  If someone says they hate politics, answer “me too, but I don’t like what our government is doing to my kids future”.  What’s more important than our children’s wellbeing?  At this point there lives will be drastically different than ours, not for the better, unless we do something about it. 

Anymore, when I see a news snippet of a politician talking about the need for revenue or the horrific results of reducing even the rate of increase that they spend money, I immediately see a picture of Peter Finch delivering his “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore” lines from the movie “Network”, in the same way adults sound to the cartoon characters in Charlie Brown.  I can see their lips move, but I only hear “I’m mad as hell…”

The definition of lunacy:

1.       Printing money and spending your way to prosperity.

2.       Taking guns from lawful people and expecting criminals to obey the same edicts.

3.       Throwing billions and billions of taxed dollars at social programs for an endless war on poverty.

4.       Taxing the rich as a way to elevate the middle and lower class.

5.       Thinking you’re all that and hoping for a third term.

6.       Believing the establishment media, and mistaking their propaganda for actual news.

7.       Believing a government that won’t stop spending, says they won’t raise your taxes, borrows or prints over 40 cents of every dollar they spend, can’t even come close to funding Medicare and Social Security, but wants to take over a private industry like , oh ,say medicine.  All the while, letting something small, like a constitutionally mandated budget slide for over 4 years…

I’m not trying to be a downer, but come on, I don’t know any household, or business in the USA that would try any of these ideas and be successful.  And nowhere in history has any nation survived this kind of treachery.  I understand nobody wants to be mired down in political talk, and for the most part, me neither, but this kind of activity taking place in our lands highest office is criminal, and should be called out for what it is and opposed vehemently.

The positive side to this equation being demonstrated as the old saying goes: “There are no atheists in foxholes”.  When the going gets tough, spiritual growth abounds and our cognitive dependence on God increases exponentially.  That part is good.  Unfortunately, it all takes place at the expense of our country we all love.  (Sorry , I sound like Peter…)

The answer?  I always hear my friends on the left asking for alternatives, instead of criticism, I don’t think the conservatives in our land could be any clearer.  I believe it is a matter of what the Bible calls deprivation.  When we lose our way because we fail to teach our children the values that made our country great, we are susceptible to believe anything, the ideology of liberalism and first stage thinking is much easier to fall into if you have nothing to compare it to.  It’s not that we aren’t trying to do right by our children, but the opposition has monopolized the media, schools, universities, and government.  There may have been a time, but I believe we have past the tipping point.  Miracles can always happen, so I am not giving up, however, it appears we are going to have to go through some tougher times rather than avoid them by following the ideas that built this country.

But brothers and sisters, be of good cheer, fight the good fight, don’t back down and be intimidated into whatever the belief of the day is, even if everybody is doing it.  God is in control, and we aren’t the first to walk down this road.  I will leave you with one of my favorite verses:

“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, (or the times we live in) for the LORD your God goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you."

                                                                                                                                                   Deuteronomy 31:6

I can’t help think there are more of us, than there are of the folks that are changing this country’s course, so dividing us is their main weapon.  If we could celebrate our likenesses, and work together, I believe we could defeat the current movement in our land.  Having said that, it is my hope that we can convince our neighbors in a kind manor, that the way things are is NOT how God, or our founders set this country forth.                                                                             

God Bless.