Our Christian Founding

I have seen and heard with increasingly frequent accounts from some of my left-wing friends of how our great nation was NOT necessarily founded as a Christian nation. Now that absolutely astounds me, as there is gargantuan amounts of documentation that positively supports the inarguable fact that America was indeed founded as a Christian nation. See one of my previous posts that helps to make this point: http://savingcommonsense.blogspot.com/2009/09/in-god-we-trust.html .

The funny thing is that if the people espousing this nonsense would actually look at history and the incontrovertible evidence, they would not continue on this ridiculous debate. Heck, if anthropogenic global warming had that much evidence, then Gore would finally be right and the debate would indeed be over.

That aside, I read another interesting quotation from Alexis de Tocqueville acknowledging our Christian founding as a nation. I thought I would share part of the text, including his quote, that comes from the CEO of the Presidential Prayer Team. (Yes, I have been a member for years and pray often for Obama. He seems to need prayers even more than President Bush and Clinton did.)

Anyway, the text:

One of my favorite things to do is read what the Founding Fathers and their contemporaries thought and had to say when our nation was being born.

A French dignitary, Alexis de Tocqueville, is one such figure. His tour of America in 1831-1833 to research our prisons and justice system had a lasting effect on him, causing him to write his hallmark Democracy in America. For a child raised in the politically tumultuous country of revolutionary France, this expansive volume was the result of his fascination with our government and its founding.

His research and observations uncovered many things about our young country, not the least of which was his realization that a belief in God played a very critical role in its birth. "The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and of liberty so intimately in their minds," he wrote, "that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other."

Yet Alexis also had a warning:

"Despotism may govern without faith, but liberty cannot. How is it possible that society should escape destruction if the moral tie is not strengthened in proportion as the political tie is relaxed? And what can be done with a people who are their own masters if they are not submissive to the Deity? "

As you read more about Our Nation's Godly Heritage , will you consider what focus should be made as we continue to move through history as a nation?

Will you, indeed?

Don't You Dare, Congressman Jim Matheson!

I heard reported on the news last night and then again this morning that my congressman, Jim Matheson (D) of Utah's second district has been invited by the president, along with some of his blue dog Democrat colleagues to the White House this evening. Purportedly this is so President Obama can use his charm and charisma to persuade these blue dogs into supporting the un-Constitutional radical health care bill.

Now this is fine, and well within the purview of the president to do so. The problem is that it was further announced that Scott Matheson, brother of my congressman Jim Matheson, was just chosen by the Obama administration to sit on the 10th circuit court of appeals in Denver. This, of course, is a lifetime appointment to the bench. The fact that Obama chose to announce this at exactly the same time that they have invited Congressman Matheson to the White House certainly provides the appearance of impropriety, whether there is any or not.

The radio commentator this morning made the comment that Blue Dog Democrats are supposedly the ones that proclaim to be conservative when back in their home districts and then they go to Washington D.C. and vote like the commie-libs that they truly are. In other words, they got the name Blue Dogs because they act like dogs that blew off their constituents' wishes.

Now as far as Democrats go, Matheson is far better than most and I do respect some of the stands he has taken in the past. My biggest problem is that the very first vote of each new congress being seated, he has voted for Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House. THAT is a huge problem considering she then sets the legislative agenda and wields incredible power in the government. That power is used in ways that are decidedly not even close to being in our nation's best interest.

I certainly hope that this latest "coincidence" of a seemingly quid pro quo is just that... a coincidence and nothing more. Congressman Matheson, you can continue to show your sense of integrity and independence by voting NO on the upcoming health care bill. A vote in the affirmative will likely confirm that you are indeed for sale, whether that was the case or not.

Utahans in your district will be watching closely, as will the rest of the nation, I suspect, sir.

Tony Melendez performs for Pope John Paul II

I had the rare privilege of seeing this incredibly inspirational man perform for me and a lot of my fellow parishioners at our church last fall. The spirit this man exudes and his talent displayed in his music that he so willingly shares with others is truly amazing and a testament to his faith.

He could easily have played the victim in his life. Instead he chose to overcome his disabilities and be an inspiration to others because of his perseverance to live a normal life. By doing so, he seems to be living a blessed life in many ways. I know I felt blessed that I was able to see this man perform live. It was indeed an uplifting experience.

You can learn more about Tony Melendez from his web site:

http://www.tonymelendez.com/English/Welcome.html

O'Reilly - Louis Farrakhan (3.2.10)

Sometimes Bill O'Reilly annoys me. Sometimes he is rather insightful. I think he nails it just right on this one.

Farrakhan, Wright, etc have a Constitutional right to their freedom of speech, but why don't we hear more people denouncing this racism from them? Racism is an ugly thing regardless of the source and it is sad to see 20,000 people of any color gathering to listen to this vitriol and hate.

Although I vehmently disagree with President Obama on many issues, I do not want anything bad to befall him. Often I do pray for him. (Particularly for a conversion in his heart to our founding principles of freedom and capitalism!)

I have to assume that most people, including those not of color feel the same way.

As O'Reilly stated, this must be so as President Obama won office with 53% of the vote. My not voting for Obama had nothing to do with his skin color and everything to do with his stances on issues and his philosophies of governing. That being said I sincerely hope he is safe and able to do good in his remaining three years in office.

Bad Parents and a Great Joke

Now this is bad, and yet I couldn't stop laughing. Considering my youngest daughter, who just turned 18, loves scary movies, I wonder if my doing somthing like this would make her switch to a different genre of movie at the top of her favorite list! :)

On the Precipice of Bankruptcy

I realize that for generations now, we Americans have not really paid attention as our elected officials have gone and spent literally trillions of dollars of our taxpayer money on everything from pork-barrel projects, to pay-backs for special interest groups, to even occasionally legitimate government business needs.

With that being said, it is good to see that millions of Americans are now waking up to the fact that if we don’t do something to rein in spending RIGHT NOW, we may very well doom our country to complete fiscal insolvency. Bankruptcy!

It is bad enough when a family is forced to go into bankruptcy for whatever reason. It will be exceptionally painful for the United States and the entire world if we allow our nation to also continue down this path ultimately leading to this destination. The world will not easily recover from its greatest producer and consumer going into bankruptcy.

We the people must insist that the government refrain from all but the most absolutely necessary Constitutionally-authorized spending for the indefinite future. It will likely take generations to fix the hole we have dug; however, this is only logical considering that it has taken a like amount of generations to have placed us in this desperate spot we currently find ourselves.

We MUST stop growing government and allow private enterprise to grow again and thus to return to the robust engine of our economy. Government does far more to siphon money from productive means and services and often times ends up exacerbating the problems it is presumably trying to fix. I give you the Department of Education and the Department of Energy as two prime examples of government largess that has taken vitally important issues, concocted federalized solutions with untold billions of tax payer dollars, and then ended up with poor educational results and an even greater dependency upon foreign sources of energy respectively.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the growth in state and local government employees since 1946 has increased from 3.3 million then to 19.8 million today. This is a 492 percent increase as the country’s population increased by only 115 percent. Since 1999 the number of state and local government employees has increased by 13 percent, compared to a 9 percent increase in the population.

The United States had 2.3 state and local government employees per 100 citizens in 1946 and has 6.5 state and local government employees per 100 citizens now. In 1947, 78 percent of the national income went to the private sector, 16 percent to the federal sector, and 6 percent to the state and local government sector. Now 54 percent of the economy is private, 28 percent goes to the feds, and 18 percent goes to state and local governments. The trend lines are ominous and absolutely unsustainable. We cannot continue to grow government jobs as our primary source of employment for Americans.

I heard Congressman Jeb Hensarling of Texas’ 5th district say this morning on the news that as of today it would take a 60% increase in taxes to just balance the current Obama budget so that expenditures equal income. This does NOTHING to pay off the $74 TRILLION in debt we currently hold as a nation right now. This simply means that we are paying for what we are buying with this 60% tax increase. How in the world do we fix this problem?

First, we do NOT continue to spend money we do not have. Second, we make painful and drastic cuts across the board in all government departments and agencies, say anywhere from 10 to 20% cuts. Further, we eliminate those departments that are not necessary and are actually counter-productive to their intended goals, like the Department of Education and the Department of Energy. These are issues that are typically better handled on the state and local level anyway, particularly when it comes to education.

The bottom line is that if we don’t stop this spending now, our children for generations on down the line will suffer for our reluctance to address the problem. Adding socialized health care, cap & spend energy policies, and bailouts & nationalization of private industry will only get us to the edge of that cliff sooner.

Sunsets

We have been blessed as of late with some spectacular sunsets over the past several evenings.


I was doing some chores in the garage and happened to notice the beauty of this one the other day. Rather than to try and run inside and find the digital camera and a memory card with space on it, I just used my cell phone camera. What you see is the blurry results.


Hopefully you can still get a sense of the beauty and magnificence of the colors. The picture is taken at the end of my driveway looking west (duh!) down the cul de sac and towards the snow-capped Ochre Mountain range. This one was indeed incredible.


My home state of Oregon always used to have some beautiful sunsets too. As a matter of fact, it used to be called the sunset state until they decided to change it a long time ago to the beaver state. Oh well... I guess it could have been worse and been changed to the "duck" state.


Anyway, forgive my stream of consciousness writing as I just wanted to share this blurry picture and say that I hope all of you have had similarly beautiful endings to your days lately!