Walking around on Resurrection ground
May 28, 2014 Leave a comment
No comments required from me other than to say that at the end of the speech Reagan signs a bill to promote Women’s Businesses.
President Reagan’s Remarks at the National Conference of the National Federation of Independent Business on June 22, 1983
October 26, 2013 Leave a comment
Over the past several months I have been reading several of the Apostle Paul’s letters. He wrote to churches he had planted and to those he intended to visit such as the one in Rome.
His two letters to the Christians in Thessalonica struck me, especially in light of the terms “social justice” and “fair share” being pandered today by so~called Christian groups (Sojourners & Jim Wallis, etc.) under the guise of helping others.
What struck me within these particular letters is that Paul, without healthcare, without government subsidies, without insurance of any kind went about the business of the Kingdom of God, working with his own hands, as he states, making tents, paying his own way.
Paul said that he could have “entitled” himself to share in their “wealth” because he was a hard-working minister of the good news. Instead, he chose to not become a burden to the people he was talking to and therefore not a burden or an impedance to the freely offered Good News of the Kingdom of God.
“Here is a command we have for you, my dear family, in the name of our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Keep away from any member of the family who is stepping out of line, and not behaving according to the tradition that you received from us.
You yourselves know, after all, how you should copy us. We didn’t step out of line, nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. We worked night and day, with labor and struggle, so as to not place a burden on any of you. It wasn’t that we don’t have a right; it was so that we could give you an example, for you to copy us. And indeed, when we were with you, we gave you this command: those who won’t work shouldn’t eat!” II Thess. 3:6-10
From a provocative post by R.J. Moeller: “Hayek on Socialism,” American Spectator
“For my fellow Christians who are skeptical of free-market capitalism, I’m all in favor of having those internal discussions about the most God-honoring, effective ways to help the least among us. But if you’re a believer who takes the Bible seriously and you actively (or even passively) endorse government~enforced and funded “social justice,” you’re wrong. You may mean well, but you’re wrong.”
Today I see many young people wanting to help others “socially.” Social media impacts and drives a lot of this desire and also a lot of misinformation about Capitalism and the Free-market. One only has to look at the Occupy Wall Street “movement” to see that there are some who have angst and anger about Capitalism, angst and anger revved up by the main stream media pushing Progressivism’s socialist agenda.
But we need Capitalism more than ever to restore human flourishing to our country. More importantly, we need Capitalism to help us Christians increase the Kingdom of God here on planet earth. Think fishermen, disciples, non-union community and fellowship, image-of-God creativity, Jerusalem~Christian-like charity, sparrow~like dependence on God ~ agape love feasts and more.
Capitalism combined with a knowledge of God and the freedom to act, can enable an individual to freely share the Kingdom of God with others and to do this without the middleman of government and apart from the propaganda of the main stream media. Why else would the Evil One so push for a centralized government where he can consolidate his power?
Here are some authoritative thoughts about capitalism’s creativity and information sharing that could have a positive impact on the Kingdom of God:
In a recent book by George Gilder “Knowledge and Power: Information Theory of Capitalism and How It Is Revolutionizing Our World,” he writes,
“In order for the entrepreneur to succeed, he must know that, if his creation generates an upside surprise, the related profits will not be confiscated or taxed away. If they may be confiscated, his entire project will not be able to attract the necessary resources to bring it to market.”
“The successful entrepreneur has found a creative way to serve his fellow-man, and his profits are the measure of the extent to which he has been of service. He needs to be able to keep those profits in order to be able to use what he has learned to bring other creative ideas to market to further serve his fellow-man. When a government takes away the entrepreneur’s profits, it essentially takes away his creative lifeblood.”
Also,
“A leftward administration can destroy the value of the 1 percent’s property, but cannot seize it or pass it on….Under capitalism, wealth is less a stock of goods than a flow of ideas and entropy….Capitalism is a system that begins not with taking but with giving to others.”
And,
“All economic growth ultimately stems from innovations. …Innovation is always a product of individual innovators, a rare and dynamic breed not always appealing to the millions who depend on their creativity for their own comfort, health, and security.”
“In capitalism, “the givers or investors must be willing to focus on others’ needs more than on their own. The difference between the value of an item to the giver and its value to the recipient is the profit. Profit is thus an index of the altruism of an investment.”
“Capitalism is the most effective way of expanding wealth, not because it offers the most powerful incentives…but because it links knowledge with power. It gives control over resources and over the future flow of investment not to political bureaucracies of certified experts or to the most avidly self-loving pursuers of leisure and luxury, but to the particular entrepreneurs who manage successful experiments of enterprise. It grants riches to those very individuals who have proved their ability to forgo immediate gratification in pursuit of larger goals, and who refuse to waste or to hedonistically consume their incomes. …Under capitalism, economic power flows not to the intellectual, who manipulates ideas and basks in their light, but to the man who gives himself to his ideas and tests them with his own wealth and work…The greatest damage inflicted by state systems of redistribution and industrial policy is not the ‘distortion of markets,’ the ‘misallocation of resources’, or the ‘discoordination’ of producer and consumers, but the deflation of capitalist energy, the repression of new entrepreneurial ideas, and the stultification of wealth.” (emphasis mine)
And remember, there are those who seek to profit by selling the Kingdom of God message in exchange for “social justice:”
Judas held the disciples’ money bag. The other disciples suspected that Judas stole coins from the purse. Judas likely decided that his “fair share” should come out of the donations received. And then, horrifically, Judas decides that he would sell out the Kingdom of God for the “good” of his nation ~ for his take on “social justice.”
Judas received thirty pieces of silver for his socially “conscientious” efforts. He then hanged himself (because you can’t invest blood money in good conscience). And finally like all revolutionaries, a public site ~ Akeldama ~ was named after Judas to memorialize his “social work.” Now that is “social justice.”
********
Recommended reading for those who need help understanding capitalism and the free- market:
Defending The Free Market: The Moral Case For a Free Economy
Books by George Gilder:
Knowledge and Power: Information Theory of Capitalism and How It Is Revolutionizing Our World, copyright 2013 (see above reference)
Wealth and Poverty, 21st century edition
Recommended website:
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“Play is the exultation of the possible.” theologian Martin Buber
October 25, 2013 Leave a comment
fe·ral (fîr l, f r -)
adj.
1. a. Existing in a wild or untamed state.
b. Having returned to an untamed state from domestication.
2. Of or suggestive of a wild animal; savage:
September 2, 2013 Leave a comment
Labor Day. I decide to go to one of my favorite breakfast places to indulge in some eggs over easy with ham.
The Nosh staff knows me by name except for Erika. Erika waited on me once before and things didn’t work out too well.
Now I tend to order one of two different items. The waitresses who have waited on me before come over with the coffee pot – ready to pour and take my order
My food and more coffee arrive in minutes. They make sure that my coffee cup stays full. They ask me several times if I’m doing OK. But that is not what happened with Erika the first time she served me.
Erika asked if I wanted coffee and I smiled and gave the nod “yes.” She came back with coffee and took my order. The restaurant manager brought my breakfast and some Cholula hot sauce. He knows me.
I drank me coffee until there was none. And there was no Erika either.
Now the restaurant wasn’t completely full and there were several waitresses but Erika was no where in sight. Lots of time passed before she arrived in view across the way. She stood at the computer tallying some orders and then went and checked on every new table she was given. This happened several times over and now I was a little upset. This wasn’t a hard job. She just didn’t seem to be aware of her surroundings or her customer’s needs.
Getting out of my seat I finally waved her down as she about to walk right past me. She asked, “More coffee?” I said “Yes!”
Once again I had a few sips of warm coffee and finished my breakfast. But again no Erika in sight to ask me if I wanted a warm up on the coffee. I gave up. I flagged her down again.
After several minutes and detours she brought the bill. She gave me the bill and said nothing – at all.
I paid the bill and gave her a 10% tip (I usually give the other waitresses up to a 30% tip because the bill is small and they worked hard for my benefit). I wanted to tell Erika that she wasn’t very good as a waitress but I let the small tip do the talking.
Labor Day. I decide to go to one of my favorite breakfast places to indulge in some eggs over easy with ham. Erika is my waitress.
She may have gotten my tip message or she may have decided that I’m not worth her effort. She behaved the same way as the first time. And this, even though the restaurant was almost empty and there were four other waitress waiting for customers.
Next time I will make sure I have a different waitress and I will tell the manager why.
****************
Are there really people so unaware of customers that they can’t do their job? And, in this economy? Or is it that some young people think that they have done their job by bringing you coffee once, taking your order and then your money when you are done. In other words, are there young people who feel they are entitled and don’t need to do any extra effort? I have encountered this before: there are the zealous customer service people and there are the “do I have to people?” I give great tips to the former.
I fear Obama and the Progressives are creating the latter class of worker aka the “Entitled.”
February 4, 2013 Leave a comment
Zerohedge has the article: Subsidy Addiction: Job vs. Foodstamps
August 23, 2012 Leave a comment
Hyperboleconomics: the promotion of the Keynesian fallacy that increasing the national debt by spending trillions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to create a handful of “not-so shovel ready jobs” is money well spent. Keynesian economics can easily be described as the economic stimulus theory whereby your wife tries to spend her way out of her depression. Sound familiar? It’s deny side economics.
Cronyeconomics: The channeling of billions of dollars to fund green projects and then rerouting the money to the pockets of those who know how to spend your money. Bailouts for supporters of the Obama regime: big unions, big auto manufacturers, big banks, etc.. No bailouts for the little guys – the small businessmen and women struggling to make payroll.
Feareconomics: “Republicans will push granny over the cliff. We must live for today. We promise that there will be no death panel for Medicare. (That’s reserved only for Obamacare patients.) Medicare will die soon of natural causes anyway. Besides, your grandkids are young. They can fend for themselves.”
Hopeychangeyeconomics: year one – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year two – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year three – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes; year four – pass no budget, spend, demand higher taxes
Fairshareconomics: the proposition that even though half the nation pays taxes and the other half who does not pay taxes benefits from the revenue is considered not fair enough. The proposition that those who pay taxes pay 100% more in taxes than those who do not is considered not fair enough. The proposition that even though there is a progressive tax structure in place which rises in percentage as you earn more, this is not fair enough. “Fair share” economics ultimately is where you pay until there is no more to pay and then its still not fair because you don’t have even more to pay. Adam Corolla on taxes and fairness (caution: language).
BlameBusheconomics: “It’s not my fault.” “We were handed a raw deal – the Presidency and the Senate. We will need more time and all your money to throw at this. Just look how much has been accomplished since we came into office. We need four more years to pass no budget, spend your money and demand higher taxes.”
Nocarbonfuelseconomics: wind turbines and solar are the best energy sources to transmit renewable campaign money through companies like GE, Solyndra and others. Besides, with EPA regulations we will make it impossible to generate fossil fuels in this country because we want the world to like us. Government regulations are key to snuffing out any enterprise which uses natural resources. “The loss of jobs and homes along the way is collateral damage in our socially conscious war against big oil, big coal and big gas. Remember we hate Imperialistic America abroad but it is OK, though, to be thoroughly imperialistic about green energy here at home. Our righteous ends demand it. Buy the light bulb we tell you to buy or else.”
Chomskyesquesconomics: The Industrial-military complex is evil. America is Satan. America is a terrorist. Capitalism is colonialism. Helping poor nations flourish increases Americanism around the world. America is to blame for the problems in the world. America should be like Mahatmas Noam, the swami of “universal grammer” and peaceful denial.
“Youdidntbuilthat”economics: : the presumptuous economic theory that says that because the government has taxing authority over you this same government can take credit for your hard work. This economic theory assumes that roads and bridges were all it took to create Apple – no human initiative whatsoever is necessary either to create tax revenue or to create products for consumption. The machinery of government “allowed” Apple to create the iPods, iPads, the Mac Book Pros. In other words, government is the kid next to you in class, the kid who didn’t study for his finals and who now looks over your shoulder for the answers that will eventually propel him on to greater opportunities to take credit for other’s hard work.
Nannystateconomics: government is to be your provider, your parent, your priest and your panacea. You should be thankful to be another brick in the wall. “Trust me.”
Obamacare: receiving political “clap” from Big Brother. “The time has changed for come.” (at 2:58)
Antidotes: Romney-Ryan Tea – great taste, less filing
Click here for the The Broke Party
July 30, 2012 Leave a comment
Milton Friedman : July 31, 1912 – November 16, 2006
Several years ago I watched Milton and Rose Friedman present the “Free to Choose” Series on public TV. Their simple and forthright presentation made economics and the free-market easy to understand. I recommend that you watch the whole set of videos as an Econ 101 lesson, a lesson that will open your eyes to how the free market works. I have no doubt that after watching these videos you’ll never want big government messing with you or the economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milton_Friedman
July 14, 2012 Leave a comment
The 2012 Presidential and congressional elections will be reflections of who you are. You will be deciding whether you want to be represented as a slave under a bigger more intrusive government with its plantation inducing mentality or whether self-government and self-determination will best speak for you. The former is easy – show up and do nothing except what the master tells you to do. The latter requires blood, sweat and tears.
Let me ask you straight up: what would provide you with more self-esteem? A government welfare check for subsistence or a check handed to you by your accountant after your company succeeded and made a profit? Or equally, a check handed to you by your employer because the company you work for succeeded to make payroll for another week because of your input? The former just pays the bills (and likely buys several lottery tickets). The latter provides for yourself, your family, your grandchildren and much more.
Another question: With those same checks in hand would the person with the government welfare check be more willing to give to charity or would the person who was handed the profit-sharing dividend or a paycheck be more willing to give to charity? (A Christian would have to be the second kind of person. King David once said, “I will not offer to the Lord something that costs me nothing?”)
You don’t have to think hard about this. The answer is obvious to most right thinking people, the vision is clear, but it is hidden from those who vote for Obama and the Democrats.
Progressives and their “Lean Forward” campaign (funded with monies from foreigner George Soros) want the U.S. government to dole out cradle-to-grave entitlements thereby making Americans utterly reliant on the political ruling class and their condescending “we-the-government-know-what’s-good-for-you” pseudo-altruism. In reality, these two-armed bandits want more gambling revenue to throw at money laundering schemes like Solyndra.
Thomas Sowell in his book of articles and essays The Thomas Sowell Reader describes the Big Government vision promoted by the ruling class “anointed” …
The anointed want to eliminate stress, challenge, striving, and competition. They want the necessities of life to be supplied as “rights” – which is to say, at the taxpayer’s expense, without anyone’s being forced to work for those necessities, except of course the taxpayers.
Nothing is to be earned. “Self-esteem” is to be dispensed to school children as largess from the teacher. Adults are to have their medical care and other necessities dispensed as largess from the government. People are to be mixed by race and sex and whatever else the anointed want to take into account, in order to present whatever kind of picture the anointed think should be presented.
This is the vision of human beings as livestock to be fed by the government and herded and tended by the anointed. All the things that make us human beings are to be removed from our lives and we are to live as denatured creatures and directed by our betters. (emphasis mine)
Those things that help human beings be independent and self-reliant – whether automobiles, guns, the free market, or vouchers – provoke instant hostility from the anointed.
Below are two contrasting videos: one video depicts a life on government programs ala The Life of Julia. The other describes you as a self-governing self-determining free person. I ask you, who is more empowered? You already know the answer. Vote the answer and not what the plantation’s political ruling class is promoting via the main stream media (MSNBC‘s Lean Forward Campaign, Media Matters, etc.).
Is the future of America you holding your DMV issued health-care card and food stamps? Or is the future of America (you and me) dependent on our own self-government and our own self-determination while holding on to our self-esteem and liberty? For a while fascism’s authoritarianism feels safe and secure but that quickly changes. You soon become a slave or an automaton in the system. Liberty on the other hand is scary good. As I have said liberty requires responsibility on your part but liberty is supremely worth it.
Yet, if the Obama plantation feels safe, if you see yourself as dependent on the master for your life then go with that but please don’t vote to take others with you.
Others have made freedom and choice their life:
http://demetriuspeaks.com/2012/07/06/what-it-means-to-be-a-black-conservative/
Thomas Sowell notes in another article, “Entitlement is just a fancy word for dependence.”
The full article here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/267898/dependency-and-votes-thomas-sowell
Who represents you in Washington is a reflection of you. Do you like what you see?
Democrats and the plantation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig2KmRI-S4A
Independence Day:
Cindy Wity 
Quoth the Paradise: Nevermore!
December 30, 2012 2 Comments
Quoth the Paradise: Nevermore!
Please! No more tattoos. Cover up your butterfly, your Mayan symbol of fertility, your undulating butt cheeks covered with spider webs. Cover up your magic marker body. I do not want to see it.
Please! No more women talking endlessly on cell phones while driving an SUV or a mini-van. They are multi-tasking my patience.
Please, no more skinny jeans. If I wanted to look at a blue toothpick then I will go puncture a Smurf.
Please, no more make-your-skin-crawl women: Rachel Maddcow, Ellen, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi.
Please, no more city mayors telling us we can’t drink a biggie size drink or carry a gun or have a Chic-fil-A restaurant in our district.
And please. No more government!
When you voted for Obama you voted to make your life harder. I know I know. You thought life would be better but you were deceived by the “social justice” propaganda.
Voting for tax and spend Democrats (Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi) means that you spend less time with your family and more time working to pay your bills. Sure Barrack and Michelle will continue to get Hawaiian vacations and Barrack will continue to play hundreds of hours of golf but your family will have to put off vacations because of … 1) rising Federal and State taxes, 2) because of government regulations affecting your workplace which affects your pay and 3) because of rising consumer prices due to corporation taxes. And, tax rate increases for the wealthy do not occur in a vacuum. Increasing the tax rates for the wealthy affects everyone negatively.
With Democrats you are placed in what I call a Moronic Squeeze: government through taxation (including the newly tax-mandated Obamacare) demands more of your money. So now you will have to work more hours in order to take care of your family. Then because you are both working so much you can’t spend time with your kids, time the kids desperately need. Instead, a public school takes over your children. Then the public school system demands more money to teach your children and then government will come back for more tax money from you. Phew! You and your children are put in an ever tightening vise by government.
More devastating, government creates fiscal and moral poverty; “social justice” is the scam that is used to take money from your pocket and put it where it best serves a politician and his reelection needs.
When both parents are working who’s with the kids? Are you letting the public school inculcate its “diversity” values into your children because you don’t have the time to spend with them, because you work so many hours to pay government for the first five months of the year?
Social justice, better simply, “justice”, is learned at home. Invest your money there and not in government: spend time with your children, teach them what is good. The returns will be great. Government gives you pennies on the dollar return on your tax payments.
When you keep more of your own money you have more options and more time to spend with family. Voting for more government – more Democrats – does not give you more time with your precious family. Instead you must work all the harder to meet government’s demands. Obamacare is only one of the huge financial demands now placed on the middle class.
2014 & 2016: Think about your family before you vote for more government (and less take home pay) in the form of a Democrat candidate.
Added Dec 31st, 2012: The Best Bumper Stickers of 2012 – the Legal Insurrection edition. Here’s one example:
I have to ask:
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Filed under 2014 election, commentary, Economics, family, Political Commentary, Politics Tagged with bnig government, city mayors, debbie wasserman schultz, Economics, family, government, politics, progressives, progressivism, public schools, socialism, take home pay, taxes, unions