Algebra, 1953-54

Also known as atheists

The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to “foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.”  Oh, are they (all 10 of them if that many) upset that there are religions represented in the military. No freedom for the men and women who protect their rights to be atheists.  That's how they are.

2013 fishy version

Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman

“Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman

Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don’t take it all
‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah I’m the taxman. “

Written by George Harrison, Beatles, 1966, when he found out about Britain's progressive tax system (his was 95% so he could support their social welfare system) and wrote a protest song.

This man sets all manner of records—first politician to support killing the born alive aborted babies, the president with the most people on food stamps, administration that has purchased the most ammunition for homeland use. . . and so forth

Church websites

I visit a lot of church web sites. There are two persuasive, inviting messages I seek on the first click before the description of programs, services, and what a great, friendly staff and congregation it has: 1) The timeless message--Jesus and the Gospel--who he is and what he does; and 2) the targeted message--an address, including the city and state (a squished Google map of the streets isn't much help without that).

In the U.S. we have hundreds of different denominations within the “Protestant” family of Christians, and even if they have the same grouping, like ELCA or American Baptist, that doesn’t say anything about what the local congregation stands for.

Just for fun, put your denomination into the Google or Bing search window and add a medium to large city.  Then select a few. What does it say about Jesus; can you find the address easily if it passes the first test?

This one got the address part (first), but no gospel or who is Jesus. The other had the address at the top, right under the name. Is mentioning the Good News the same as proclaiming it?

The Secret Gift by Ted Gup

Book club today--I have a fresh cold, so I will pass and NOT pass it on.  Our March selection is a very interesting and heart warming story that takes place for the most part in Canton, Ohio. The secret gift, by Ted Gup. His grandfather, Sam Stone, had secretly given $5 to needy families in 1933, and Gup follows up on the outcome, plus the dark secrets of his grandfather's past.

I was left with the question of why does Gup know so little about how FDR's programs (aka New Deal), intended to help, extended the Depression for over 10 years. Also, I wondered as I read the inspiring stories of struggle and accomplishment, whether our country today that already has about 50% of the population receiving some sort of government benefit (some of it we paid up front like Social Security and Medicare), could ever rebound or even know how, from such a disaster.  Gup is a college professor, and in that environment where over 98% vote "progressive" or Democrat or liberal, there is little room for peeking under the covers of the accepted wisdom that FDR was a great guy and helped the country recover.

The most brilliant leader in centuries—Benedict XVI

“It will remember him as the greatest and most learned intellect ever to occupy the Chair of Peter. No public official in our time has been anywhere near his intellectual equal. This disparity is itself the cause of much disorder, if we grant, as we must, that truth is the essence of intellect and indeed order. In reading Benedict, I have always been struck by how familiar he is not just with the Old and New Testaments (in their original languages) but with his constant referring to the Fathers of the Church, especially Augustine, and the intellectual popes like Gregory the Great and Leo the Great, and also Irenaeus, Basil, Maximius, Origen, Bonaventure, and I do not know them all.

He knows German philosophy well, and always cites Plato. He is at home with all the Marxist philosophers. Indeed, in Spe Salvi, he cited two of the most famous ones as witness to the logical need of a resurrection of the body. Benedict is a member of one of the French academies. No one has really begun to do his homework on what this pope has thought his way through. The media and most universities are, basically, hopeless. I suspect his final opera omni in a critical German edition will equal in length that of Augustine, Aquinas, and Bonaventure.”

“What Benedict did [in Jesus of Nazareth, 3 vol.] was to state, in brief, his considered opinion and research. He concluded that all the evidence available to us over a 2,000-year period, including the latest scientific evidence, indicates that Jesus Christ is who He said He was.”

Father James Schall, Georgetown University political science professor 

To our free press

The debt limit—this explains it

How to keep people poor and bankrupt the middle class

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in a report on February 11, about one-sixth of federal spending went to “means-tested welfare” in 2011 through 10 major programs.  Medicaid is the biggest chunk, and the second-largest is the food stamp program. 

                

Eligibility for these programs has expanded as has the generosity of the benefits. They are a disincentive both to work harder or smarter or advance, and a disincentive for marriage, so they have probably hurt women and children the most.

Americans required to pledge allegiance to Mexico in Spanish language class in Texas

“RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas - Every day students in Texas public schools pledge allegiance to the flags of the United States and Texas.

But when  teacher  Reyna Santos in a Rio Grande Valley high school assigned students to stand and pledge allegiance to the Mexican flag and sing Mexico's national anthem, one student, Brenda Brinsdon, refused.

The resulting controversy has one East Texas lawmaker wanting changes in the state's curriculum on how culture and patriotism are taught in schools.”

http://www.wfaa.com/news/education/Texas-high-school-students-say-Mexican-pledge-sing-anthem-One-refuses-134287008.html

“As an alternative task to reciting the pledge and anthem, she was assigned an essay on the history of the Mexican revolution — an assignment for which she received a failing grade.

According to a lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday (Feb. 27), Brinsdon was not allowed to return to the Spanish class after her story received media coverage. She was made to sit in the office each day instead of attend class and ultimately failed the course.”

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/02/28/texas-teen-suing-school-district-after-she-was-punished-for-not-reciting-mexican-national-anthem-in-class/

The Obama Fan

A teacher asked her 6th grade class how many of them were  Obama fans.

Not really knowing what an Obama fan is, but wanting to be liked by the teacher, all the kids raised their hands except for Little Johnny.

The teacher asked Little Johnny why he has decided to be different…AGAIN.

Little Johnny said, “Because I’m not an Obama fan.”

The teacher asked, “Why aren’t you a fan of Obama?”

Johnny said, “Because I’m a Republican.”

The teacher asked him why he’s a Republican. Little Johnny answered, “Well, my Mom’s a Republican and my Dad’s a Republican, so I’m a Republican.”

Annoyed by this answer, the teacher asked, “If your mom were a moron and your dad were an idiot, what would that make YOU?”
With a big smile, Little Johnny replied,

“THAT WOULD MAKE ME AN OBAMA FAN.”

Let a fictitious physician from Ayn Rand’s imagination almost 60 years ago explain it

A retired doctor posted this on Facebook today and it is the direction our President is taking us in healthcare faster than even his most loyal supporters could have imagined in 2007.  It is from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand (1957): 

“I quit when medicine was placed under State control some years ago,” said Dr. Hendricks. “Do you know what it takes to perform a brain operation? Do you know the kind of skill it demands, and the years of passionate, merciless, excruciating devotion that go to acquire that skill? That was what I could not place at the disposal of men whose sole qualification to rule me was their capacity to spout the fraudulent generalities that got them elected to the privilege of enforcing their wishes at the point of a gun. I would not let them dictate the purpose for which my years of study had been spent, or the conditions of my work, or my choice of patients, or the amount of my reward. I observed that in all the discussions that preceded the enslavement of medicine, men discussed everything—except the desires of the doctors. Men considered only the ‘welfare’ of the patients, with no thought for those who were to provide it. That a doctor should have any right, desire or choice in the matter, was regarded as irrelevant selfishness; his is not to choose, they said, but ‘to serve.’ That a man’s willing to work under compulsion is too dangerous a brute to entrust with a job in the stockyards—never occurred to those who proposed to help the sick by making life impossible for the healthy. I have often wondered at the smugness at which people assert their right to enslave me, to control my work, to force my will, to violate my conscience, to stifle my mind—yet what is it they expect to depend on, when they lie on an operating table under my hands? Their moral code has taught them to believe that it is safe to rely on the virtue of their victims. Well, that is the virtue I have withdrawn. Let them discover the kind of doctors that their system will now produce. Let them discover, in the operating rooms and hospital wards, that it is not safe to place their lives in the hands of a man they have throttled. It is not safe, if he is the sort of man who resents it—and still less safe, if he is the sort who doesn’t.”

http://blog.aynrandcenter.org/the-forgotten-man-of-socialized-medicine-and-us/

Shakespearean Insults

You’re nothing but a yeasty, milk-livered maggot pie; Oh yeah? Take that, you paunchy, rump-fed pignut.

While Chicken Little squeaks about the sky falling, look what’s going on in DC

While Obama threatens the rest of us with miniscule cuts, look what's going up for Homeland Security employees--a palace--the largest ever--1.3 million square foot complex (phase 1) the largest since they built the Pentagon in WWII. My, what do they have in mind for the little people? And this is just one of the many construction projects in and around Washington. There has been no recession there either for gov't employees or private "partnerships" with construction firms and banks. http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/133423

Ayesha shares her son with you

“I remember my first abortion like it was yesterday. There are times I revisit those days and play back all chaos in my life. I think about some of the words spoken to me: "This is for the best" "Trust me", "You are too young, this will ruin your life." "How will you finish school ; what kind of life will you be able to give this child?" I even remember the moment in the room, when I changed my mind and said, "Hello, is there anyone out there, I want change my mind." and the nurse came by and said it was too late. I remember every moment so clearly sometimes and it always sends me to a place of what if. I wonder what he would have looked like, I wonder how it would have changed my life, I wonder what he would have been today?

Yes, there is great sadness, but it is okay because in the end I have let my children live and the lord says that in letting our children live we can find Joy. John 16:21 - A woman when she is in travail has sorrow, because her hour has come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembers no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.

This is part of why so many woman have such pain and shame. They suffer in silence, never admitting to the sin of killing their child and thus never letting go of the burden or travail of pregnancy. In coming out and letting the child live even in such a small way as this, we allow healing to begin. It is hard to relive such painful memories, but I remember the times when I did not even admit I was in pain. I would rather feel the pain and release the shame than live in darkness and allow the enemy to win.

I get to imagine he would have been a great man of God, whom the Lord is well pleased....”

Shared from her Facebook post, March 1, 2013, with permission.

Could the federal government ever do what Starbucks did?

In January 2009 the stock of Starbucks was about $7, and today it’s in the mid-fifties, down a little from a few months ago.  So how did they turn it around without a government stimulus package?

“The company cut costs when a serious recession hit the economy in 2008. Raises were slashed to a minimal amount, vacation and personal time was cut and the health plan was altered to require more out-of-pocket expenses on the part of employees. The company pushed product sales hard, requiring managers to more aggressively market retail items such as coffee mugs, coffee makers and ground coffee to their walk-in customers.

Recently, the company has made some changes to improve its compensation for management employees. Starbucks has maintained health-care coverage as well as a stock-option program, known as Bean Stock. The company has also increased its contributions to its 401(k) program a retirement savings plan that is available to hourly and salaried employees.”

Read more: The Average Salary of a Starbucks Store Manager | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_7486618_average-salary-starbucks-store-manager.html#ixzz2MIILv2l9

Sadly, no one in this administration and very few in Congress have business experience, and when they get to Washington it’s like having play money to spend.

Just a few more weeks ‘til Spring

Reporting on the Pope by the media

Perhaps this is apocryphal, but apparently there was a reporter assigned to the Holy See by a major news agency who got to Rome and wanted to know where the sea was. It was told as an example of how little the regular media know about spiritual matters.

I wondered about Shepard Smith today on Fox Report, when in the afternoon show he gave a few minutes to today's historic event of the Pope becoming emeritus and instead used his time to mention sex scandals in the church involving boys and priests. Fortunately, there was a guest who set him straight (no pun intended). If he had said gay priests, he could have narrowed it down to a few, but then would have been accused of homophobia. But to be anti-Catholic and condemn a faith of l.2 billion people is OK. 

Shepard Smith needs to open a newspaper and see what’s going on in the schools.

I watched his 7 p.m. show on Fox News to see if he’d actually report just the news of this historic day. He did.  Maybe he got my e-mail.