Budget Cuts.

Only a blithering idiot would deny the need for immediate cuts in the Federal budget to save our economy and our nation from economic ruin.  Our State governments are also dealing with the need to cut spending by trimming fat from their budgets too.  However, a variety of idiots, from numerous organizations designed to bleed the profits to benefit a few, are showing themselves as mindless, selfish, whiners.

Let me make this perfectly clear.  Cuts are going to happen whether we like them or not.  If we don't take control of our finances voluntarily, the rules and pressures common to all financial homeostasis will kick in automatically with disastrous results for everyone in this generation and for many generations to come.  The problem with allowing this to happen is the uncontrollable nature of the resulting consequences.

Here is the plan proposed by our president;

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2011/02/visual-analogy-to-obamas-100-million.html


There's an old saying about those who forget history. I don't remember it, but it's good.
  - Stephen Colbert

Unions

I read an article in our paper recently written by someone who was well advanced in age and who came from a part of our country where, in the past,  big industry took advantage of its workers.  I could not argue with his point about the good that labor unions did in these instances.  However, like many well intentioned movements, they can over time become corrupted and fail to serve the ones they originally served.  Once the treasuries of these organizations are fat with union dues, the thieves among us target them for plundering.  The rank and file member becomes a pawn in a game he or she can't get out of.  You either go along with the crowd and continue to support and be a member of a union, or in some places, you don't work.  Our labor unions today are breeding grounds for mediocrity.  Public service unions are particularly heinous because the public is held hostage and refused basic services by those sworn to serve them.  Why?  Because these non- profits are being used by the union leadership to plunder the public treasury (tax dollars) to allegedly benefit the workers while using extortion techniques to force favorable action from State and Federal legislators.  The legislators knuckle under because they take huge donations from the various public service unions.  Our current president worked as a creator of havoc in this milieu before becoming the "Creator of Havoc in Chief."   The oaths taken by public service employees to serve and protect are negated by the bullying tactics of their various unions.  Industry has in recent years been crippled by the increasingly absurd demands made by the various trade unions, and our national production has dropped as a result.  The worker who is allegedly being helped, is now without a job and must be supported by tax dollars while the union officials live off the never ending supply of money from dues and pension plan plundering. 

"A nation can survive its fools, even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves against those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear."   Marcus Tullius Cicero


"The president just weighed in on the Wisconsin budget deadlock, suggesting that Gov. Scott Walker was out to punish public-sector unions more than to figure out a way to close a $3 billion state deficit. But unlike the federal government, Walker cannot print money, and he cannot so easily raise taxes without losing residents who might flee to lower-tax states. That the president wants unions to know he is on their side is clear; that he cares how the people of Wisconsin are going to pay for sky-high public-employee wages, benefits and health care is not so evident."  Victor Davis Hanson  (Excerpt from "After Obama, The Deluge")

The voices in my head may not be real, but they have
some good ideas!
 

Free Health Care

If you can't afford a doctor, go to an airport - you'll get a free x-ray and a breast exam, and; if you mention Al Qaeda, you'll get a free colonoscopy.

Without You.

FINDING PURPLE SEA

On the road I do not sleep,

but rather nap in fitful blocks of time.

I stare through darkness at some plastic box

with glowing luminescence red, or green.

11:47, 1:29, 2:33, 3:08.

Times I would not see if you were here,

or I was home.

I miss my nightly kiss.

Your whispered, “I love you.”

My signal day is done and all is well.

I’m free to sail upon night’s purple sea.

Outward turn my inward mind,

shed reality.

Wake refreshed at break of day.

But on the road,

night goes on and on.

Till groggily I rise,

stumble into day,

yawn, and rub my puffy eyes.

Find the nearest vendor of a caffeinated brew.

Stimulate my fog filled mind,

to imitate the energy

that seems to come so naturally

when I wake next to you.

Dennis Price

Cupid's Aim

Happy Valentines Day

Eros raised his little bow

and let an arrow fly.

It failed to drop as he had planned

so, hit me in the eye.

He notched another quickly,

but, this one too was high.

I’ve always heard that love is blind,

now, sadly, so am I.

Dennis Price

Winter Walk

The horizon shines with a faint glint

of dawn.

Chilly winter wind

wrinkles the gray water.

A rhythmic shush matches

the advance of foamy parallel curls.

Marching bands of gulls

 play in one-note, reed tone symphony.

Strange pink blocks of granite

hold firm to the base of the seawall.

Moist salty air seeps into every crevice,

condensing, drips from cool surfaces.

New construction on battered buildings

marks the passing of hurricane season.

 

More light colors this mural.

I turn to play the scene in reverse.

Dennis Price

Snow

The snow fell

stacking silent flakes

one thin matrix on another

covering winter’s brown and dormant scene.

Fresh cold air,

white kaleidoscope,

changing pickets and tree branches.

Moving texture,

windborne criss-cross swirl.

Soft to touch,

bright to see

against a backdrop, gray.

Dennis Price

Let's call it what it is.

"

For those of you who aren't professing Christians, this discourse might not make much sense.  Christians are told in scripture not to forsake gathering together.  To the non-Christian, it might appear we can't agree on much.  We have many denominations and as many ways of "doing church" as there are churches.  So, what do we agree on.  Well, hopefully we all preach that the only way to re-establish a relationship with God is through the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ, God's son, on the Roman cross over 2000 years ago. We also include His subsequent resurrection from the tomb and ascension into heaven.  After that is settled, the rest  is subjective.  There are tenets that most all Christians agree on that are considered to be basic and unarguable.  Others that deal mostly with the method of worship vary depending on interpretation and tradition.

Is arguing, or thoughtful discussion good?  Is all tradition bad?  Should we go along to get along in spite of what we know or feel?  In the book of Proverbs we are told that men sharpen men as iron sharpens iron.  So, in order to stay sharp, we must try our beliefs by putting them to the test in discussions with others who are studying and trying to gain spiritual insight from the scriptures.  Arguing with non-Christians is not productive because the Bible tells us that unless they believe and receive the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they find our explanations and beliefs nonsensical.  So, we have to discourse with one another.  In times past, the Pastor, or certain mature members known as elders, were good sources when questions arose.  Paul told young Timothy to study the scriptures so that he could rightly divide the Word of Truth.  Today, because of increasing apathy, these sources are harder to find.

Pastors are told to teach the congregation so that they can become better equipped to do the things that God requires of them.  Unfortunately, some pastors are ill equipped to do this.  I researched what others had to say on the subject of "Bad Preaching" and found some interesting quotes in a blog entitled, "Plodblog".  The author, Steve Plodinec, has this to say in the post, "Trying to Fix Bad Preaching":

"Other speechifying offenses are committed regularly on Sunday mornings. Shallow preaching is dished up by those who have not had proper training in doctrine and biblical exposition, or they are lazy and don’t study. They dispense spiritual baby food. Their name is legion."


Underlines are mine.  Plodinec further states,


"There are also those who should have never tried to preach in the first place, but they taught Sunday school once and that old lady in church who tells everyone how much their message touched her said that to this guy too. Unfortunately, he interpreted this to mean, “you are a gifted preacher” so he went to seminary, graduated and is now killing a church trying to be what God never called him to be."


I think we are seeing more of this ilk in today's modern pulpits.


I am of the opinion that not everything traditional should be thrown out to appeal to the masses.  I am convinced that making churches appear like nightclubs or other casual secular venues in format and in music simply to lure in those who are non-believers, is not giving the seekers anything different.  It is a difficult task to make them see the difference in the first place given our bent toward sinning.  Church was always the place where things were different from the world and the atmosphere created inside helped to solidify our purpose for attending.  Church was a place, both in group Bible study, and in sermons, where the word was opened and expounded on.  This was for the scriptural purpose of equipping the saints.  Those who were seeking were invited in every service to make a decision to accept Christ Jesus and become a part of the body of believers.   


Most preachers, who fit the criteria in the quoted sections above, spend most of their time trying to  blame others and avoid contact with those who study and participate.  They appeal to those, who because of youth or lack of maturity, can't or aren't willing to confront bad preaching practices.  These pretenders bend the scriptures and accuse those who challenge them of not being loving or spiritually in tune.  They may speak of elephants in the congregation while ironically ignoring the one in the pulpit.  It is the duty of the elders and mature believers in the congregation to confront these errant practices to prevent further damage to the witness and fellowship of the local congregation.


    

Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
(1742 - 1799)

A Change of Direction.

I am seriously considering a change in my blog.  I know many of you enjoy the current format and usually the subject matter, but I know most of the time I am preaching to the choir.  If you happen to be one of the brave from the other camp, I know you are probably not going to change your mind.  So, I am considering some changes to format and content.  I believe after two years, everything I could tell you about the current administration has been said and proven to be true.  All they can do for the remaining two years is continue with more of the same.

I know Obama is now saying he is just like Reagan, but I don't feel any surge of confidence in his statements.   McCain, the old northern tier, and some west coast Republicrats are acting predictably by folding like cheap pocket knives in the face of an astounding victory in November and proving why we still have a lot of work to do in ridding Washington, D.C. of their ilk.

My big concern now is for a great country in decline.  I hope we elected some decent new representatives who will hold to their moral and common sense principles in the face of less than stirring support.  Our problem in this country is not political, but moral.  I'm not talking about the insipid excuse for morality foisted by the politically correct crowd, but a back to the Bible morality that guided the majority of our populace for many generations.

So, if you arrive one morning in the near future and see a change, don't fret.  I'll try and post something worthwhile.  There are a lot of great sources for political commentary on the net.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is stoned to death.

Joan D. Vinge, Catspaw