THE REAL ENEMY

Surprise!

Exxon and Mobil and their ilk are not the enemy!

Without them, we would have nothing made of plastic.

Without them we would still be in horse drawn buggies.

Without them, several crucial medicines would be non-existent.

Without them tens of thousands of people would be out of jobs.

Yet we treat them as the enemy.

We "investigate" them in Congress, accusing them of making money.

We call 8% "windfall profits."

( What business do you know of that operates on 8% profit?)

Yet the government, which supplies no oil whatsoever, makes 18% on the same oil!

They do that by taxing the oil companies.

Think how much more profit the oil company might make if they didn't have to pay 18% of their income in taxes!

Why, they could even drop the price of oil and still make more than they are making now.

I say that we must take ALL of the shackles off of the oil companies and let them do what they know how to do better than Barack Obama, John McCain or George Bush combined: explore for, drill for and extract oil, thus providing an abundance of a much needed resource.

We used to hear about the "finite" amount of oil left in the ground that we had almost used up.

There is probably at least twice as much oil yet to be extracted from the earth than we have already extracted.

Extracting it would give us time to find viable alternative ways to power our vehicles and to providing energy for our homes.

You may have heard T. Boon Picking's advertisement about wind power.

It is clean...that's for sure.

It is cheap...once windmills are built.

But it is not dependable. Sometimes the air is still.

Windmills don't turn when there is no wind.

Frankly, I think T. Boon is a nut-case. Rich, but a nut-case nonetheless.

Corn and other vegetation certainly won't do us any good.

Cars get fewer miles per gallon on gasoline with ethanol in it, meaning that even lower prices are not as low as they seem on their face.

Besides, I have noticed that the gas station that sells their product with ethanol in it charges the same price as the one without ethanol.

Furthermore, the sudden infusion of corn-sourced fuel has affected the price of corn around the world and has increased food shortages.

Hydrogen is a viable alternative to gasoline, but is way too expensive to produce with today's technology in quantities sufficient to bring down the cost of transportation.

In case you wanted to know, I really like the idea of hydrogen as a fuel, because it is the most abundant element in the universe.

But not yet. We're just not ready for it yet.

No, we must stay with oil for now.

And oil is our friend, not our enemy.

The real enemy is the United States Congress and Senate.

They have placed the shackles on "big oil" and vilified them to the hilt.

That's because congress wants to be in charge.

They think they should be.

But they shouldn't be.

You and I should be.

So, let's take charge.

Let's tell our representatives to unshackle the oil companies and allow them to do what they know how to do best: get oil from the earth to the pumps.

Frankly, I don't know how to do that, and the government doesn't either.

So let's get at it.

Call, write, Email or fax your representatives today!

The Answer to Everything

It is often said, by people who should know, that I and my sister know everything.

Whenever they ask me a question about a subject on which I am not well versed (as unlikely as that seems to you right now), I simply reply, "That's one of those things my sister knows."

At the end of this discourse, I will give you her phone number, address, email address, personal bank account numbers, PIN numbers and whatever else about her I know so that you can ask her.

So many people believe that the answer to conflict in the world lies in education.

The truth is, however, that if you educate a thief, you end up with a smart thief.

Here are some notes of interest:

Question: Who studied economics and business administration at King Abdulaziz University and later spent a summer at Oxford University?

Answer: Osama bin Laden

Question: Who graduated from Hamburg University with a degree in urban planning and the London School of Economics?

Answer: Mohammed Atta, responsible for the beheading of Daniel Pearl and spreading a video of the event on the Internet.

Question: Who has a medical degree?

Answer: Ayman al-Zawahiri, who worked toward a worldwide caliphate (The eventual world-wide rule of a united Islamic government).

Also: Abdel al-Rantissi, former Hamas leader.

And: The seven upper-middle-class jihadi doctors implicated in the 2007 London/Glasgow bombings.

Question: Who studied microbiology at MIT and did graduate work in neurology at Brandeis?

Answer: Aafia Siddiqui, al-Qaeda scientist and manufacturer of suicide bombs and other killing devices.

Question: Who transferred to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where he earned his degree in mechanical engineering along with 30 other Muslims?

Answer: al-Qaeda mastermind and extreme jihadist, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who oversaw the World Trade Center bombing and the attack of the U.S.S. Cole.

What is the point of all of this?

You might think is is some sort of rant against extreme Islamist terrorists.

It is not.

The point is that there are many in this country who believe that education and diplomacy are the answers to terrorism, wars and crime in the world.

Both contenders for the Presidency have made such statements.

Education is the answer to nothing.

Google well known gangsters, serial killers, and other miscreants in American history and see how many had high school and college educations.

In the end, the only universal answer to evil in the world is Jesus.

As for my giving you my sister's phone number, address, email address, personal bank account numbers, PIN numbers and whatever else about her you want to know, that's one of the questions she knows the answers to...you'll have to ask her.

Major Inaction

They don't believe it.

Neither do you.

It is nonetheless true.

The government works for you.

You don't work for the government.

You tell the government what to do.

They don't tell you what to do.

Only, since most citizens don't bother telling the government what to do, they do what they want to do.

For instance, they make laws against "hate-speech," which laws are expressly forbidden by The Constitution of the United States of America.

I hate "hate-speech."

I don't think you and I should engage in it.

But "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

I can abridge your freedom of speech.

Congress can't.

In my house, you have no right to free speech.

You say something I don't like, use vulgar language, espouse a political opinion I disagree with or call someone something I think you shouldn't and I kick you out of my house post-haste.

But you didn't tell them any differently, so Congress thought it would be a good idea to pass a law against "hate-speech."

They pass laws against a myriad of other things, too...like fire-arm ownership.

They can't do that.

The right to bear arms has nothing to do with short-sleeved shirts (bare arms...get it?).

The Constitution of the United States of America recognizes the citizens' right to form a militia when necessary and own weapons in preparation for such a necessity.

But you didn't remind them of that, so they passed laws restricting your right to own weaponry.

These rights are not granted to you by our Constitution, they are recognized by it.

Among the things they have done, without having heard from you on the subject, is to tax businesses and restrict their right to make money from their business.

Businesses exist to make money.

If they don't make money, you (or those of you who work for whatever business happens to be in question at a given moment) don't eat, 'cause you can't earn a living, 'cause they pay you out of the money they make.

"How much should they be allowed to make?" ask some.

Answer: As bloomin' much as they want to.

So what if they are rich?

So what if they make as much as Bill Gates?

So what if they do what they want when they want with the money they make?

One of the beauties of this country is that if you are willing to work like most business owners work, learn what they have learned, sacrifice what they have sacrificed and find a market for what you do, you can make as much as they make.

I don't care where you were born, how poor you were growing up, what obstacles stood in your way, or whatever, you can have what you want to have if you are willing to do what it takes to get it.

That's what the founders of "Big Oil" did.

But now your government, with your permission by default, has told them where they can work, where they can drill, when they can drill, how they can drill, and so-on and so-on, until they are no longer able to conduct business in the United States of America.

So.

Why not start telling your government to BACK OFF!!!

Contact your Senators and Representatives and tell them to unshackle the oil companies, and let them responsibly search for, drill for, refine and produce all the oil they can, and watch our dependence on foreign oil dissolve and gas prices plummet, while the oil companies still make money.

Trust me (for whatever reason you might), they want to make money and will seize the opportunity to do so, hiring thousands of people at good wages to do what needs to be done.

That's good for the economy.

That's good for YOUR PERSONAL economy.

But if you don't tell your government to do it, they will go right on doing whatever they want to do...and hang the consequences, especially the ones that affect you.

More Powerful than a Locomotive

That's what the announcer used to say about Superman.

Remember?

"Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the air. It's a bird...it's a plane...it's Superman!"

Well, if you think that imaginary power was great, think of how powerful the real God of creation is.

Look what Isaiah 48:13 says: "Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together."

And Genesis tells us that God spoke and it happened.

Now, I've tried that.

The other day I said, "Let there be T-bone steak!"

But there was no T-bone steak.

God says, "Let there be light," and the very unifying particle of physics comes into being.

WOW!

Do you remember pictures of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

They got their power from the splitting of an atom.

Atoms are too small to be seen with an optical microscope. They must be "viewed" with an electron microscope.

Yet they possess the power to destroy entire cites.

There are trillions to the trillionth of power of atoms in the universe.

Our God is more powerful than all of them put together.

He is omnipotent.

In our stupid "Bull Sessions," in college (a name whose initials perfectly describe what went on there), we used to ask the question, "Can God make a stone so large that He cannot lift it?"

My smart alecky answer to the "unanswerable" question was, "Yes, and then He would lift it."

What that means is that when the Bible tells us nothing is impossible for Him, it's not just whistlin' Dixie.

God can create, destroy, heal, and greatest of all, change lives.

What He does and when is 100% His business and for His glory.

He is not one to be manipulated or "forced" to do anything.

He is one to be feared, awed, obeyed and yielded to.

And loved.

Love our all-powerful God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.

'Cause He loved you first.

This is the Day of Independence

We were Brits.

We served the King of England.

Only we had no say in our own destiny.

More and more rules and regulations were placed upon us without regard for our needs, only for the King's needs and the England over which he ruled.

And his particular brand of religion.

If a person did not believe as he believed, that person had no opportunity to advance as a citizen.

We were restricted in what we could do and what we could become.

There were some of us who had a vision of freedom.

That freedom centered around our desire to worship when, where and how we pleased, and to have control of our own affairs.

We asked the King to let it be so.

He said, "No deal."

But we strongly believed that God had ordained that people should be free. Else why was there this longing for freedom in the breast of every man?

After much consideration, we decided that being free from the bonds of a government far away, that did not have our interests at heart, was worth even bloodshed.

So we fought for freedom against a nation ten times more powerful than us.

The odds were stacked against us.

During the battles there were countless situations that should have gone bad for our troops.

But through hunger, inclimate weather, and every kind of disadvantage one could imagine, we fought, all the time seeing our leaders, even our generals, on the front lines kneeling in prayer to a mighty and just God.

Guarding the entrance to Baltimore harbor via the Patapsco River Fort McHenry faced almost certain attack by British forces.

On the morning of September 13, 1814, British bomb ships began hurling high-trajectory shells toward Fort McHenry from positions beyond the reach of the fort's guns. The bombardment continued throughout the rainy night.

Awaiting news of the battle's outcome was a Washington, D.C., lawyer named Francis Scott Key, who had visited the enemy's fleet to secure the release of a Maryland doctor, who had been abducted by the British after they left Washington.

During the night, there had been only occasional sounds of the fort's guns returning fire. At dawn, the British bombardment tapered off.

Had the fort been captured?

Key wondered, "O say, can you see, by the dawns early light, what so proudly we hailed a the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight or the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?"

And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting air gave proof through the night that OUR flag was still there.

O say! Does that start spangled banner yet wave o're the land of the free and the home of the brave?

In the end, the war against Britain was won by this rag-tag group of armed citizens calling ourselves "Americans."

Wanting never again to be bound to the laws of a foreign nation, and wishing to live freely, we formed a representative republic...a quasi democracy, laid down a charter by which it was to govern itself, and put specific restrictions on that government, saying, "These things the government must not do."

We called that latter portion of the charter "The Bill of Rights."

Not rights given to the citizens.

Rights the citizens already had, given by their creator, that the government could not take away.

Thus was constituted The United States of America.

And I ask you today, "O say! Does that star spangled banner yet wave o're the land of the free, and the home of the brave?"

PLEASE DO SOMETHING...YES, YOU

The high price of oil, and therefore gasoline at the pump, and all oil-dependent industries, is very likely to crash this country.

Your Senators, Congressmen, President and courts are pointing fingers while doing absolutely nothing to encourage the production of a single drop of oil.

It is time for YOU to exercise your rights as one of the "of the people, by the people and for the people" for whom they work.

Please call, write or Email your representatives and the President today and tell them to do three things immediately:

1. Suspend every hindrance to the responsible exploration, drilling and refining of oil in the U.S., including in Alaska, off shore and in the Dakotas.

2. Release 1/3 of our strategic oil reserves at once, thus increasing the supply suddenly, and showing speculators that you don't bet against the United States of America.

3. Immediately stop trying to blame "big oil" and "speculators," putting people ahead of the environment by taking all necessary steps to relieve the oil problem ASAP.

PLEASE DO IT TODAY.

Your grocery bill is higher, any product made of plastic costs more, your car is more expensive to operate, your roads cost more to build, your taxes are going up (to cover the cost of more expensive roads), the price of new housing will go up... even in this depressed housing market, and almost everything else you touch will be more expensive than it was six months ago.

So, PLEASE DO IT TODAY.

PLEASE.

Test the Consistency

If there is one attribute of Christians that bugs me the most, it is their inconsistency.

Since most people do not understand "straight-line" thinking, they do not see how one philosophy they espouse does not jibe with another.

Computers only think "straight-line"ly. They use the "if-then" approach. If such-and-such happens, then this is the result.

Humans tend to think emotionally; ie: "If I want this, it should happen."

God is the ultimate "straight-liner" (that is, unless my thinking on the subject is wrong).

He has three attributes that are unchangeable: He is omniscient; He is omnipotent; and He is omnipresent. That is: He is all-knowing; He is all-powerful; and He is everywhere at once.

These attributes of God are revealed in Scripture.

Now I will not quote a verse to prove each of these, because I deplore Proof-texting.

If you want to know these attributes, you must read the whole Bible.

Let me illustrate why that is necessary.

Matthew 27:5 says "So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself."

In Luke 10:37 we read, "...go, and do thou likewise."

In John 13:27, Jesus says, "That thou doest, do quickly."

By putting these Scripture verses together, we may conclude that we should throw money at the temple, and quickly hang ourselves, just like Judas did.

That is proof-texting, and it is always wrong, because we are prone to pick-and-choose the verses that fit our particular philosophy.

Even when the scripture seems to be saying a beneficial thing, we must guard against using it to prove a point.

Example: "Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. For the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat. Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good."

That sounds so right!

I mean, it has the words: "wise"; "knowledge"; "judgement" and "choose what is good."

Trouble is, it also has the words: "my"; "me"; "us" and "ourselves".

We might conclude, from those verses, that we are the ones who get to say what is wise, worth knowing, using good judgement and what is good.

But this is a quote from Elihu, Job's "counselor" of whom God said, "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?"

So don't go quoting random Scripture verses to me to illustrate some point or other you may want to prove.

I won't fall for it, and neither should you.

"How do we behave inconsistently," I hear you asking.

Well, have you ever heard, "Oh! I know God is here in this meeting today. I can just feel His presence...?"

If God is omnipresent, OF COURSE He is in the meeting. He is everywhere! All the time.

Or He isn't God.

But wait! Doesn't the Scripture say, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew 18:20)?

Yes it does.

What does it NOT say?

It does not say, "Only where two or three...", or "Where only one is, I am not there."

Consistency demands that because God is omnipresent, He is everywhere all the time.

Period.

If your god is not everywhere all the time, you do not serve the same God I serve, and your god is too small.

The same reasoning can be applied when we tell children, "Don't run in God's House."

I've got news for you.

God does not live at church.

To be sure, it is a building that has, hopefully, been dedicated to gather His people to praise Him worship Him, and to fellowship with Him and with each other, but let's be consistent about the nature of God.

I will develop this thought some more in a later post.

In the meantime, will you, personally, determine to be a bit more consistant in the way you live out your Christian life?

It will go along way toward establishing the credibility of your testimony when you witness to others.

QUALIFICATIONALLY SPEAKING

I keep hearing pundits, reporters and others challenging both Barack Obama and John McCains "qualifications" to be President of The United States.

Have you ever read the rule book for our county, called "The Constitution of the United States of America?"

Do you know what it says are the qualifications for the President?

If you are reading this post, you probably qualify.

All you have to do is to be born on U.S. soil and be of age.

You can be an actor, a lawyer, a preacher, a doctor, a businessman, a laborer, a mechanic, a pilot, a farmer, a radio announcer, a secretary, or any other vocation and still qualify.

Oh.

And in today's society you also need lots and lots of money.

Lots of it.

A Simple Perspective

I was born in 1942, the son of a United States Air Force officer.

He was the Deputy Director of communications for the South Atlantic Corridor during World War II.

He missed my birth, having been assigned to Brazil just weeks before the momentous event.

When he came home, as the war was drawing to a close, he brought with him the sense of both love and respect for God and duty and patriotism to my country that he instilled in me and that lives in me still.

He was not the only one, however, to instill those values in me.

I went to first grade in Puerto Rico, where my father was stationed.

The school was on the military base, within walking distance of our family officer's quarters home.

My teachers reinforced the same sense of pride in God and my country given to me by my father.

What else would you expect? They taught on an Air Force base.

I went to second grade in our home town of Miami, Florida.

Funny thing. My teachers there continued teaching me the same things.

Throughout my school life, yes all the way through high school in Warner Robins, Georgia, that same lesson of "love God and love your country" was pounded into my head and permeated life from dawn to sundown.

In high school my 9th grade home room teacher, Mr. Watson, led us in a verse of Scripture, The Lord's Prayer, and the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

My 9th grade algebra teacher, Mr. Bowman, had a prayer before every lesson.

In tenth grade, my geometry teach would stand at the classroom door and sing the hymn, "Yield Not to Temptation," as we filed out of the room. He was also my Scoutmaster, and taught me respect for God and country.

Mr. Hampton, the chemistry teacher (who was fond of placing a paste laced with hydrogen sulfide under the nose of anyone who fell asleep in class, waking them to the head-jerking smell of rotten eggs), was a deacon in our church and regularly told us how God had organized the universe such that the laws of chemistry would be obeyed, no matter what.

Our choral director, Betty Rose Caldwell, chose to intersperse the Christian anthems of the masters in our repertoire.

In our history class, a frequent reading of The Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States and of the Bill of Rights was required and tested. Had we tried to convince him that we were a secular nation, we would have failed the course.

Of course, they lived closer to the time that our country's founders lived, so they had not yet learned that the founders did not mean what they said...that they really meant what is taught today...that we are a secular nation.

How a person of more than a 1.3 IQ could read, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." and think that our law makers have any right to tell us when, when and how we can conduct ourselves in matters of religion is beyond me.

Interestingly, according to the latest polls, you are about to elect a president who does not believe one single word of this First Amendment.

Our assumed future First Lady has only recently become proud of our country.

I've been proud of it all of my life, and will give whatever it take to ensure that the next occupants of the White House are, too.

LANDSLIDE!

In a recent NBC affiliate poll, 75% of those polled support offshore drilling if it would mean lower prices at the pump.

I hope Governor Charlie Crist, Senators Mel Martinez and Bill Nelson and our Congressmen are paying attention.

If any of them won their elections by that margin, they would consider it a mandate to rule!

That means that only 25% of the people lean toward the stand of the wacko left-wing over-environmentalists.

The poll adds the caveat that "experts" estimate that it would take 7 years for the drilling to affect prices of fuel at the pump.

That's wrong, and they should be ashamed of themselves for trying to slant the poll responses that way.

Oil companies are in business to make money. There is money to be made in extracting crude oil from the earth. The sooner they get it out, the sooner they make money on it.

That provides the oil companies with incentive to get the job done as fast as possible.

As fast as possible is very fast.

They already know where they need to drill, what it would cost for them to drill (for which they would spend some of those so-called "windfall" profits), and how many people they would need to drill responsibly.

Thousands of high paying jobs would be created...good for the economy, as people with money can spend money.

The snowball effect that high fuel prices are having is driving prices up at every level of our society.

I don't know about you, but I do not have an unlimited income.

My groceries have gone from $85.00 per week to $130 per week in less than a year.

My gas expenses have jumped from $30.00 per week to over $50.00 per week.

Already that increases my monthly expenditures on necessities from $440.00 per month to over $720.00 per month.

But my paycheck has not grown, and if this keeps up, the company I work for could very well cease to exist.

That's not good for the economy, 'cause if I have no money, I can spend no money.

What we need to do, we need to do now.

We need to let our lawmakers, our governors and our president know that we, the people, want this matter dealt with and dealt with now.

Seventy-five per cent (75%) of us are willing to put up with the temporary inconvenience to the environment (temporary because we will still be looking for viable alternative energy sources, inconvenience because no significant impact would take place), in order to make our lives financially secure.

Money isn't everything, but you and I live in a country that has given us the opportunity to be as comfortable as we are willing to strive to be.

Our politicians seem to be bent on taking that away from us.

Let them know today that you will not take that lying down.

When you write or call, be respectful, but don't let them direct the conversation. Tell them to take steps now to release the oil companies to do what they need to do to give us some relief.

Join American Solutions and sign their petition to Drill Here, Drill Now and Pay Less.

http://www.americansolutions.com/

Do it today, and keep the landslide going!

REPRESENTING?

OK...I know that you want me to get off this oil thing.

Sorry.

I am so enraged by the disinformation being pushed by people who are supposed to represent the people and their needs that I cannot let it go.

So bear with me or go read some less emotionally charged blog.

I wrote Senator Mel Martinez about gasoline prices.

He responded with a form email...one that thanked me for my concern for the improprieties of the oil companies and how he is supporting an investigation into their behavior.

Only that was not what I said.

It was clear that the "good" Senator either did not read my email or is not able to understand simple concepts.

Frankly, I suspect the latter.

What I said was that I do not think the oil companies bear ANY responsibility for the high cost of gasoline in the U.S.

That responsibility lies directly in the laps of our law makers.

They are the ones who pressure or don't pressure the Middle East, Venezuela and others to increase their production of crude.

They are the ones who refuse to allow oil companies to extract what needs to be extracted to increase the supply of crude oil, thus bringing down or at least stabilizing prices.

They are the ones who won't let oil companies drill where they need to drill.

They are the ones who want to tax oil company profits, even though they average only $.07 per gallon of gasoline sold.

They are the ones who confiscate $.18 on every gallon of gasoline sold in the U.S.

They are the ones who have discouraged the building of new refineries in our country.

Are you smart enough to understand that the fault does not lie with the oil companies, but with the people you elected to unite you, to ensure that you are treated justly, to protect you, to promote YOUR welfare, to ensure your tranquility and to see that your liberties are not infringed upon?

(See the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States of America.)

It is time to cry out against those politicians and tell them, "Enough, already! Enough!"

Write your representatives in the Congress and the Senate.

Do it now.

Join American Solutions and sign their petition.

Do SOMETHING.

This will help ensure that ours remains a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

An Oily Solution

It is unreasonable and unnecessary for us to be paying $4.00 per gallon for gasoline.

"Big Oil" is not to blame for these prices. They profit only about $.07 on a gallon of gas. Yet without them we would have no fuel, for they provide it all.

The government, on the other hand, profits $.18 on each gallon of gas, and they do nothing to provide one single ounce of it.

There is something you can do that is easy and will at least influence politicians to re-think their positions.

Go to http://www.americansolutions.com/actioncenter/petitions/?Guid=54ec6e43-75a8-445b-aa7b-346a1e096659 and sign the petition to drill here, drill now, and pay less.

See, according to the agencies of each country that has proven oil reserves, we have over 800 years of oil available using present day extraction techniques.

Yet our government refuses to let us bring up the portions that lie within our borders and just off-shore.

It is widely said that it would take more than ten years to get to the oil.

That's if there are no additional hires by the oil companies and if they do no growing.

If we would release them to drill where drilling is needed, they would quickly hire thousands of workers to do the work and our issues would be solved, or would be well on the way to being solved, before the end of this year.

But if we don't insist that our government release the oil companies to do what they need to do, we will continue to pay whatever the Middle East and Venezuela want us to pay.

"But the oil companies make obscene profits!" I hear you saying.

That's just false and is only believed by those who have succumbed to the untruths being put forth by Congress, et. al.

Companies exist to make money. Making money is not evil. For a company to make more than you or I do is not evil, either.

Making money is how they stay in business, hire people (and oil workers make considerably more than minimum wage...by the way), search for oil and all the other things they need to do to provide what we need.

Motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, is fond of reminding us that we can get anything we want out of life if we help enough other people get what they want out of life.

That's what "big oil" does. They help you get the fuel you need to go where you want to go. In so doing, they get what they want...profits.

Now, I'm all for alternative energy.

But we are not ready for it. It would cost us even more than we are currently paying for fuel!

We will be ready...and in the not-so-distant future.

In the mean time, we must not ruin our economy by not doing what it takes to provide the resources we know how to get at today.

What about the use of corn to make methanol?

(Place a loud buzzing sound here).

Wrong!

What has already happened as we have tried to exploit this resource is that farmers have stopped growing eating corn and have started growing ethanol corn...not the same, by the way.

The entire world is suffering from this lame attempt to "fill the fuel gap."

If you want the price of your food to stop going up because the cost of fuel to truckers and growers is going up because our government thinks it can and should control every aspect of every person's life, including what he/she does to make a living, I urge you to sign the petition provided at American Solutions (URL above).

Do it now, so we can drill here, drill now, and pay less.

Random Rants

Rant #1

I wrote Governor Charlie Crist and got a response...for which I give him credit, even though the response was from an aide, and not the Gov., himself.

I give him no credit, however, for the content of his response.

Governor Charlie Crist believes that the environment is more important than people.

He has bought into the wacko side of environmentalism.

Gov. Crist is going to save the environment from imaginary disasters and global warming.

He is almost a twin of Barack Obama.

Although standing side-by-side one might be able to tell them apart.


Rant #2

I listened to a major national radio preacher telling us why we must "be specific" when praying (even though there is not a single scriptural reference to that being a requirement for prayer). He went on-and-on, saying that if we don't name names, God won't know who to heal, or help, or prod.

I don't know about his "god," but my God (called variously, "Yahweh" [or more properly YHWH], Elohim, Elah and Tsur), is omniscient.

How about yours?

Rant #3

If I form a non-profit corporation for the purpose of generating a petition requiring the Federal Government to get its hands off of the oil companies and allow them to drill responsibly where they want, when they want and to earn what they want, would you sign it?

Oil companies make about $0.07 on each gallon of gas sold.

Your governments (state and Federal), make about $0.18 per gallon sold.

Which one does more to provide us with this much needed resource?

Rant #4

In general, people are ignorant of the facts of energy...where it comes from and what it costs.

Did you know that according to the reporting agencies of The United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, The United Arab Emerites, Russia and several African nations, there is enough "proved" oil available by extraction methods in general use today to last the world 886 years?

Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves for the informational chart. Documents and links to the original sources are there, too.

Bet you never have been told that.

With 886 years of oil, we would have time to properly develop alternative energy sources (which I strongly support...and I like hydrogen "fuel cells", by the way).

But there is something going on that has our politicians acting in unison to prevent us from taking that course of action.

I wonder why?

Rant #5

Al Gore is either an unmitigated, bald-faced liar who has fooled you into believing his "Convenient Untruth," or else he is totally ignorant and has learned a gimmick that has turned his ignorance into millions of dollars.

His own chart, in his own book, shows that global warming leads to an increase of carbon dioxide, not, as he says, the other way around.

Either he does not know how to read graphs or he deliberately lied about what the graph shows, trusting that you are too stupid to know the difference.

You are not too stupid, are you?

Rant #6

To be a part of the solution to the energy crisis, and to get results fast, sign up at http://www.americansolutions.com/Default.aspx today!

OK...my rants are over.

For now.

This Is Sick, er, Slick, er, Oily

I want to be perfectly clear, so if I am ambiguous, feel free to make it clearer for me.

The reason crude oil will reach $150.00 per barrel very soon, and gas will top $5.00 per gallon at the pump and the United States will enter a full-fledged recession with double-digit inflation (think Jimmie Carter) and double-didgit unemployment as well, is because, and only because, we have self-serving, power hungry idiots in congress and self-centered citizens in our population.

If you are smart enough to do the research, you will find that there are enough oil deposits at levels we can get at using the same technology we are currently using to extract it to last the world 889 years...if we never find another deposit.

The U.S has about 10 world/years worth, Canada has over 180 world/years worth, etc., etc., etc.

"I don't believe that," you say?

Tough.

I did the research and you can, too.

Of course, we cannot get at the bulk of it because we are not allowed to drill where it is.

Why is that?

Why would politicians who all love America and the American Dream allow that to be the case?

Why is there such a cry to develop "new" energy technology by the end of the week instead of tapping the deposits that are there, thus giving us time to properly develop said technology?

Why, indeed.

Why allow the Middle East, Venezuela and other countries hold us hostage?

Why do we not start releasing those deposits for consumption today?

I guarantee you one thing: if we turned the "big oil" companies loose today and said to them "Drill wherever you want, build as many refineries as you want and make as much as you want," it would take less than a year for the world to begin reaping the benefits thereof.

But you short-sighted politicians, you half-witted, power hungry, fear-mongering, self-serving, anti-capitalist, mush-headed politicians would rather see your country struggle and fail than give up one iota of the control you have gained.

And I include liberal poiliticians, Democrats and Republicans, for their hatred of the historical "American Way," as well as conservative politicians, Democrats and Republicans for your cowardace in confronting and standing for the afore-mentioned "American Way."

You should hang your collective heads in shame for what you have allowed to happen.

If you...any of you...have one shred of character in you, you will resign from office effective this afternoon and let the fifth grade class from Neal Armstrong Elementary School, of any city in the USA, take your place, because you are not smarter than a fifth grader.

You are a bunch of bungling, gorbellied, folly-fallen giglets who cannot think your way out of a wet paper sack.

You will allow this country to sink into ruin, without regard for who gets hurt as long as it is not you.

Only your unmitigated arrogance allows you to sleep at night.

I challenge you (since you are not strong enough of character to resign) to meet in special chambers, or whatever you need to do to take charge of this self-made energy crisis, and do what needs to be done for the immediate future so that we can do what needs to be done for the long-term future.

But you don't have the guts.

What Do You Want?

Not long ago The United States of America had an opportunity to shoot down a failing satellite that posed a potential radiation problem to the earth and its inhabitants.

Using a system dubbed by the press, "Star Wars," technology, which had been vilified and rediculed by many politicos, pundits, and scientists, we successfully shot it down.

Impossible. Could not happen. Never in a million years.

But it happened.

The press has chosen to ignore the event as though it either did not happen or was so insignificant that it does not matter.

Today, several countries have nuclear technology, a couple have the ability to put weapons in space and several are working at trying to put them there.

Combine nuclear techonology with the ability to put that technology in space, and you have a formidible potential for the destruction of other nations.

Now, some countries are reasonable and can be negotiated with. Others, however are not so reasonable.

One last point.

Our constitution charges our government with the responsibility of protecting us from an attack from other countries. It reads as follows: "...provide for the common defense..."

So let me ask you...what do you want?

Do you want a leader who will cut research into missile defense systems?

Do you want a leader who will refuse to put weapons in space, even if those who would like to destroy America are doing so?

Do you want a leader who will reduce the development of defensive combat systems?

Do you want a leader who will form a government board charged witht he responsibility of keeping our defense spending at a minimum?

Do you want a leader who will allow other countries to develop nuclear weapons, while dismantling our own and halting its development?

Do you want a leader who will ask untrustworthy nations to please stop producing nuclear devices?

Do you want a leader who will negotiate with people who have historically proven that they always negotiate in bad faith to take their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles off alert?

Do you want a leader who will seek deep cuts in our defensive nuclear arsenal, while other countries continue to seek to increase theirs?

Well I have good news for you.

By his own words, which you can hear at

http://msunderestimated.com/2008/03/01/obamas-plans-for-our-military-video/

the leader you want is:

Barack Obama

GENESIS

The Book of Beginnings – written by Moses

Chapter 1

A. Creation

1. In the beginning

a. The Hebrew word is reshith

b. It assumes that there is an existence outside of time

c. The science of time

1) Time is relative

a) Time slows as the speed of light is approached

b) Sometimes time flies, sometimes it crawls

c) Time is about perception

2) God is not bound by time

a) What seems a long time to us is no time to Him

b) God’s timing is perfect because time does not exist

2. God

a. The Hebrew word is elohim (el means God; ohim is a plural ending)

1) a plural noun (more than one)

2) from the context of the rest of Scripture, we know it refers to only one God…yet as a plural it cannot refer to one God.

a) First hint of the triune God called the Trinity

b) Later we read "Let us make man in our own image…(Gen 1:26)

b. Scripture makes no attempt to prove God, it assumes God

c. Other Hebrew names for God: Yahweh (unpronounceable) ; elah (focus of worship) & tsur (rock)

3. Created

a. The Hebrew word is bara (to prepare, form or fashion)

1) Implies formation from nothing

a) "Big Bang" theory does not explain creation – what existed before the mass that exploded?

b) We can be creative in the sense of reorganizing things, but we can not make anything out of nothing

c) If a scientist "creates" life in the laboratory, that proves the necessity of intelligence (the scientist) to create life

Side Note: The current debate over intelligent design and evolution in our public schools is evidence of how important it has become to our society to keep God out of the equation of education.

4. The Heavens

a. The Hebrew word is shamayim (the heaved up things)

b. There are at least three heavens referred to in Scripture

1) The air we breathe (in the NT Greek: ouranothen [Acts 14:17 & 26: 13])

2) The Mid heaven (in the NT Greek: mesouraxema [Rev8:13; 14:6 & 19:17- referring to space, stars and heavenly bodies])

3) The dwelling place of eternity with God (NT Greek: epouranios [Matt. 18:35; Phil 2:10, etc.)

5. The Earth

a. The Hebrew word is erets (land)

1) This is a reference to the whole planet, but not as it exists now

a) It had no particular shape (without form and void)

b) It had no inhabitants

c) It had no atmosphere

d) It had no light

2) The shape of the earth is yet to come

6. The Spirit of God

a. was hovering over the waters

b. The Hebrew word is ruach (wind; breath)

c. This is what we now know as the Holy Spirit and should remind us of what we just studied in Acts 2 ("as a mighty rushing wind")

It is exciting to realize that the Bible contains 66 books, written over several thousand years by at least 40 different authors, most of whom had no contact
with the other writers or even access to their books, yet is constantly relating each of its parts to each of its other parts.

That’s because it really has only one author:

God.

In Memorium

This weekend we observe Memorial Day.

We remember those who have given their lives so we can:

1. Get up in the morning if we need to.

2. Have running water to bathe and shave in.

3. Have good smelling lotions to wear after we have cleaned up.

4. Have bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast.

5. Or if we prefer some other fare, to have it.

6. O not to eat breakfast at all if we don't want to.

7. To kiss our wives or husbands and drive our cars to work.

8. Or almost anywhere else we want to drive them.

9. To work at jobs we love, hate or just endure.

10. To change jobs if we want to.

11. To know that if we are willing to do what it takes to do what we want to do, we can do whatever we want to do...period.

12. Wanna be a doctor? Study to become a doctor.

13. Wanna be a mechanic? Study to become a mechanic.

14. Wanna be a radio announcer? Study to be a radio announcer.

15. You can be what you want to be, be it physicist or ditch digger, if you are willing to do what it takes to be what you want to be.

(I heard of a famous concert pianist who was approached by an audience member who said, "Oh, if I could play like you, I'd play all day long." To which he replied, "Madam, if you played all day long, you could play like I do.")

16. To stop at McDonalds on the way home and pick up a burger, or a large Coke, or a milk shake.

17. To greet your spouse with a kiss and eat a good dinner and watch the news.

18. To go bowling, or to the beach, or shopping.

19. To worship when, where and how you please.

20. Or not to worship at all, if that's your choice.

21. To own a home, or at least part of one.

22. To rent a home, if you prefer.

23. Any kind of home, any where you want a home.

24. To wear socks and even shoes.

25. To realize that, given world poverty, dictatorships, evil empires and the like, almost half of the world cannot do any of those things, even if they want to.

This country is, even with its faults, the best one in the world.

No?

Well, one of your freedoms is to leave it if you want to.

Or to help change it.

Frankly, I don't want to live like the French, or the Germains, or the Welch, or the Ugandans or the Britts, or the Canadians, or the Mexicans or the Panamanians, or the Chileans.

I love living like an American, a citizen of the United States of America.

Thank you to those who down the years have made it possible. We remember you with pride and gratitude.

Here is living proof that there are still those who make it their business to make it possible: http://www.warriorsthefilm.com/Movie.html

A Secular Government?...Part 1

If you believe that our forefathers set forth on this continent a secular government, you are either stupid, cannot read or are a blatant liar.

That includes, but is not restricted to, the likes of Larry King, Chris Matthews and a host of other "celebs" who espouse the secularity of our country.

You are fools...and that's the best that can be said of you.

Consider these quotes from Inaugural Addresses, farewell addresses and other addresses by our presidents:

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and Citizens." George Washington-in his farewell address.


"As the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion of that morality and piety without which social happiness can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation; and as the United States of America are at present placed in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation and peace, by depredation on our commerce, and the infliction of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged in their lawful business on the seas--under these considerations it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this time a special attention from its inhabitants." John Adams

"Let us, then, with courage and confidence pursue our own Federal and Republican principles, our attachment to union and representative government. Kindly separated by nature and a wide ocean from the exterminating havoc of one quarter of the globe; too high-minded to endure the degradations of the others; possessing a chosen country, with room enough for our descendants to the thousandth and thousandth generation; entertaining a due sense of our equal right to the use of our own faculties, to the acquisitions of our own industry, to honor and confidence from our fellow-citizens, resulting not from birth, but from our actions and their sense of them; enlightened by a benign religion, professed, indeed, and practiced in various forms, yet all of them inculcating honesty, truth, temperance, gratitude, and the love of man; acknowledging and adoring an overruling Providence, which by all its dispensations proves that it delights in the happiness of man here and his greater happiness hereafter -- with all these blessings, what more is necessary to make us a happy and a prosperous people?" Thomas Jefferson

"In these my confidence will under every difficulty be best placed, next to that which we have all been encouraged to feel in the guardianship and guidance of that Almighty Being whose power regulates the destiny of nations, whose blessings have been so conspicuously dispensed to this rising Republic, and to whom we are bound to address our devout gratitude for the past, as well as our fervent supplications and best hopes for the future." James Madison

"Our free Government, founded on the interest and affections of the people, has gained and is daily gaining strength. Local jealousies are rapidly yielding to more generous, enlarged, and enlightened views of national policy. For advantages so numerous and highly important it is our duty to unite in grateful acknowledgements to that Omnipotent Being from whom they are derived, and in unceasing prayer that He will endow us with virtue and strength to maintain and hand them down in their utmost purity to our latest posterity." James Monroe


"Is there a possibility that the government of nations may fall into the hands of men who teach the most disconsolate of all creeds, that men are but fireflies, and that this all is without a father? Is this the way to make man, as man, an object of respect? Or is it to make murder itself as indifferent as shooting a plover, and the extermination of the Rohilla nation as innocent as the swallowing of mites on a morsel of cheese? If such a case should happen, would not one of these, the most credulous of all believers, have reason to pray to his eternal nature or his almighty chance (the more absurdity there is in this address the more in character) give us again the gods of the Greeks; give us again the more intelligible as well as more comfortable systems of Athanasius and Calvin; nay, give us again our popes and hierarchies, Benedictines and Jesuits, with all their superstition and fanaticism, impostures and tyranny." John Quincy Adams

"The same diffidence induces me to hope for instruction and aid from the coordinate branches of the Government, and for the indulgence and support of my fellow-citizens generally. And a firm reliance on the goodness of that Power whose providence mercifully protected our national infancy, and has since upheld our liberties in various vicissitudes, encourages me to offer up my ardent supplications that He will continue to make our beloved country the object of His divine care and gracious benediction." Andrew Jackson

"So sensibly, fellow-citizens, do these circumstances press themselves upon me that I should not dare to enter upon my path of duty did I not look for the generous aid of those who will be associated with me in the various and coordinate branches of the Government; did I not repose with unwavering reliance on the patriotism, the intelligence, and the kindness of a people who never yet deserted a public servant honestly laboring their cause; and, above all, did I not permit myself humbly to hope for the sustaining support of an ever-watchful and beneficent Providence." Martin Van Buren

I will give you them all as future posts are prepared.

Who's First?

As a nation, we have a real problem.

Well, we have a number of them, but here I refer to an issue at the top.

I'm referencing our First Lady and our Potential First Lady (or Man).

The current holder of that position, Laura Bush, just has too many questionable qualities for the tastes of Mr. & Mrs. Average American.

For instance, grace.

Who needs a first lady who responds to hard questions from media with grace?

And poise.

Laura Bush has so much poise, one might consider her "poise-on."

She has a brilliant command of the English language...who needs that?

And she smiles a lot.

My gosh! If you're going to go around smiling all the time, what will those dignified potentates from other lands think?

Speaking of dignified, not since Barbara Bush have we had a First Lady who conducted herself with such dignity and charm.

And there is no mistaking that, whatever you may think about her decision-making, she loves The United States of America from the bottom of her heart.

No, no, no.

See what we need (and sadly missed out on) is a First Lady who can cuss and scream like that Heinz lady could.

We need someone who has only been proud of America since her husband decided to run for her highest office.

Someone who can get caught "off-mike" saying words that are generally banned from family programming would make a great First Lady, don't you think?

The new First Lady should be filled with ambition, so that someday, she, too can run for the world's most powerful position.

Perhaps we should consider a First Man, preferably someone who can point a finger at folks, especially if they are judges, and lie with a straight face.

A man who believes that things are true, not based on whether or not they actually happened, but based on the fact that he said them...and if he said them they become true because he said them...that's what we need.

We need a First Man who knows how to entice young ladies to satisfy his need for control and passion while he is serving in the post.

Whether we get a First Lady or a First Man, we must be sure we get the kind of person we deserve who can stand along side our new President and be his (or her) confidante, advisor and lover (or loverette), properly demonstrating what the First Lady of The United States of America should be.

Isn't that the kind of First Person you want?

UN-REWRITTEN HISTORY

Let's start by making it clear: For the first time in recent history, The United States of America was attacked on its own soil...the Twin Towers on 9/11.

Contrary to what some would have you believe, we were not attacked because we had a greater or lesser presence in some Middle Eastern country.

We were not attacked because we had engaged in some military action on foreign soil.

We were attacked because a large segment of a very vile and hate-filled religious belief system saw us as "The Great Satan," and believed that they were scoring points with the Moon God (whom they call Allah, and whom they try to make us believe is "just another way of expressing the God we all serve.")

We went to battle these vile types in their county (Afghanistan), for the expressed purpose of keeping them from doing it again.

They were driven from their country and given safe-haven in another land, and they were rendered basically ineffective, at least for the time being.

While driving them from their country we got word from what should have been trusted sources, sources that were trusted by former President Clinton, Presidential hopeful, Al Gore, Nancy Pelosi, and many other Democrat leaders as well as many Republican leaders, that Iraq was planning or helping to plan similar attacks against us with WMDs (weapons of mass distruction).

That it turned out not to be the case (according, at least to some) is irrelevant, in that everybody thought it WAS the case.

So we launched a preventive strike.

It, so far, has worked.

Now we are not the bad guys here.

In fact, seven times we Americans have taken arms and sacrificed the blood of our troops, in the defense of Muslims ( Bosnia , Kosovo, Gulf War 1, Kuwait , etc.), who had not really done anything to deserve our defense.

In the course of war, things are sometimes done that should not be done.

A reading of the Bible reveals that sometimes when Israel faught and/or won battles they disobeyed God and took spoils they should not have taken.

When you are dealing with such huge numbers of human beings, things happen.

That does not excuse them, it just recognizes that not everything is perfectly controlled all the time, precicely because we are human.

And so there are sometimes atrocities committed by segments of armies.

Some armies cut off the fingers of prisoners.

Others apply high voltage to inappropriate portions of anatomy.

Women prisoners are routinely raped, beaten and tortured.

But not by our troops.

There are no documented cases of that kind of torture committed by US military personnel.

There is "waterboarding," about which there is political argument as to whether it is an appropriate form of interrogation, but that does not even come close to the horrible things mentioned above.

How does our treatment of prisoners fare overall?

We give them three meals a day, sanitation facilities, exercise time, and time to exercise their religious belief system, by devotional time, prayer time, and even by providing them with free copies of their religion's sacred book.

How terrible of us!

Do we subject them to interrogation?

You betcha!

And well we should.

These are not nice, reasonable people. They are people who will do their best to kill anyone, including you, who subscribes to the American Dream, thinking that by killing us they will gain favor with their God.

Here are some facts to consider:

We were attacked by Islamic Arabs.

Most Arabs and Muslims have to live under savage dictatorships.

The majority of them are poor, because their governments take all they have.

Their governments breed hate for the US in their religious schools, mosques, and government-controlled media.

The U.S.A. is the biggest financial supporter of poverty stricken Arabs, while wealthy Arabs blame the U.S. for all of their problems.

Some Arab governments pay the families of suicide bombers who sacrifice themselves trying to rid the world of "The Great Satan."

The governments that encourage suicide bombers think babies, pregnant mothers, the elderly and a vast aray of citizens are fair game.

Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group, including the U.S.A.

Terrorists take refuge in "holy sites," knowing that Americans respect those sites so much that we are reluctant to persue them there, yet those same terrorists are gleeful when one of our holy sites is damaged or destroyed (think: Sait Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in NYC).

Now we have people who think we should withdraw from our war on terror by withdrawing troops from Iraq.

"We're turning it into another Viet Nam," they say.

They are insane.

They, in fact, would be guilty of turning the war into another Viet Nam by doing what their kind do...quitting before the job is done.

Not one of them is any better on any level than the terrorists.

TYRANT-A-SAURUS-REX

There once was a tyrannical CEO of a small, almost insignificant newspaper in a fast growing metropolitan area.

He had never run a newspaper before he bought this one, but he had read a lot of them and figured, "How hard could it be?"

When he bought the newspaper, it was on a slow, but steady rise in both readership and income.

Over a brief period of time, this CEO made sudden and unusual changes to the newspaper.

There were pictures where most newspapers put text and text where most newspapers put pictures.

"We don't want to be like them," he proclaimed. "We want to give the people a choice."

Whereas most newspapers had discovered over the years that there were certain things they could do to attract readers and certain things they could do that would repel readers, this brilliant CEO figured he could bypass those conventions and do things his own way.

When his employees, some of whom had been in the newspaper business for a quarter of a century, tried to help, he rebuffed them, scolded them and insisted that they let him run his business his way.

The first year of his ownership, the newspaper actually increased in readership and income.

"Just look at me!" shouted the CEO (who really spent a lot of time shouting, as that was his concept of what enthusiasm was). "We're doing OK! We didn't meet all of our expectations, but we're doing OK."

But the second year things did not go so well.

"We have to make more changes so people will buy my newspaper."

So he put the captions for the pictures under different pictures. Some of the captions he just put at the bottom of the page.

"This will give the readers something to do as they read. They'll love it!"

They didn't really love it.

In fact, the next year revenues went down again.

"Those stinking employees of mine have caused this!" He, of course, was yelling as he said it.

"Let me set them straight!"

And so he did.

As he whipped his employees in line, he once again believed that he had fixed the revenue problem, so his enthusiastic yelling increased.

Revenues dipped again.

"We know God won't let this newspaper fail. After all, this is HIS newspaper. I have asked Him to bless us and He, therefore, must do so."

"Let's get rid of some of the features that people love and replace them with features by authors no one has ever heard of."

It was his idea of how to make changes that would bring in more revenue.

Well, the fourth year revenues fell to a new, all-time low.

One of his employees suggested that changing the phone number to the call-in opinion column needed to be reconsidered.

"After all," pointed out the employee, "People know the old number. They're used to calling it."

"We were getting too many calls for things other than opinions!" retorted the wise CEO. "Just be quiet. I know what I am doing."

Yeah. He knew what he was doing.

After all, he was the sole decision maker, having micro-managed every minute detail of the business. No suggestions from any employee, no matter how experienced they might be, were even tolerated, let alone implemented.

One could reasonably conclude that whatever state the newspaper was in was totally, one-hundred percent, absolutely at the feet of the CEO, and nowhere else.

But he was too blind with arrogance and pride to see it.

And one day the newspaper simply ceased to exist.

No one in the fast growing metropolitan area noticed.

B.O.

So now B.O. (you know, the guy running for president), says that he would not want his daughter, if she were to "make a mistake," to be punished with a baby.

Hmmmm.

So having a baby is punishment.

I wonder whether my mother was feeling "punished" when I was born.

How about yours?

How about his?

Frankly, B.O. seems to fit.

THE LEGACY OF SLAVERY

In this land of unequal opportunity, unfair big corporations, social injustices, lack of universal health care, too low taxes and who knows what all that keeps people of color from accomplishing anything other than dependancy on the welfare system...

A BLACK MAN IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT!

Not only that, but his liberation theologist former pastor spewed out inflamatory rhetoric the likes of which would have gotten him tortured and executed in more than half of the other countries in the world.

Talk about a land of opportunity!

A Leader in His Field - NOT

There once was a man named Arnold who had a sort of romantic notion that he would really like to own a food kitchen.

After all, food kitchens are neat! They help people! They feed people!

In fact, he, himself, had eaten in food kitchens on special "open house" occasions, and it gave him a feeling of excitement to think about the setting up, cooking, and all of the other trappings of running a food kitchen.

He convinced himself that God was calling him to own a food kitchen.

"How hard could it be?" he asked. "You just cook food and serve it to needy people."

So, having been blessed with a certain sum of money, he bought a food kitchen.

It was not a very large food kitchen, but it would be a good start.

There was a guy named Sam at the food kitchen who had been serving as its manager, and the new owner decided to keep him on, at least long enough to get started.

Sam had managed the food kitchen for a few years, during which donations to the food kitchen had risen each year.

Right away, Sam told Arnold that there were certain rules and regulations that the Health Department had regarding food kitchens with which he would have to comply.

"But," said Arnold, "I don't really think those rules are all that serious."

"Sir!" answered Sam, "The Health Department can shut you down or fine you if you do not follow their rules."

"Stop!" yelled Arnold. "I don't want to hear it! Especially not from some prideful dolt like you! Why I could fire your butt right now! Don't think you are anything special. This food kitchen can get along without you! So straighten up, do what I say, when I say, how I say 'cause, and get this well, I OWN this food kitchen!"

"Yes, sir," answered Sam meekly.

And he did what he was told.

As time passed, Arnold saw that not as many people were using his food kitchen as he had hoped.

The first year he operated the food kitchen, receipts went up.

But in subsequent years people did not donate as much.

By the fourth year that he owned the food kitchen, receipts had fallen off by over 60%!

"Must be the bad economy." reasoned Arnold.

"We'll just pray that God will bless this food kitchen, even though we don't follow the Health Department's rules and regulations. He has to bless us, 'cause this is HIS food kitchen."

Still, few people came to the food kitchen.

A professional food kitchen promoter came to the food kitchen one day to help Arnold get donations from the community to support the food kitchen.

"Why, your food is not at all what these people are used to or are looking for," he stated. "In fact, it is very poorly prepared and nobody has heard of most of these dishes."

Arnold responded, "Where I come from, people ate this kind of food all the time. I will feed it to these people and they will like it or lump it!"

"You should at least learn to prepare it properly," said the professional food service promoter.

It turns out that Arnold had almost no taste buds and could not tell which of his meals tasted good and which ones could not.

Nevertheless, he pressed on, believing that God HAD to bless the food kitchen, because he had said that it belonged to God.

Now there were expert food kitchen operators right there in his own staff, as well as around the nation.

There were food kitchen publications and online sites that contained a lot of information about how to properly run a Christ oriented food kitchen, but Arnold was not interested in giving the time to them that was needed to learn from them.

"God has shown me a different way to run food kitchens!" he proclaimed. "Just because others have found certain ways that work, is no reason to think that God wants me to run my food kitchen that way."

So, Arnold went on running the food kitchen the way he wanted to.

One day he got a great idea!

He would go to a neighboring community to wash graffiti off of the walls of buildings.

So he contacted the various news media and asked them to cover his graffiti washing efforts.

A couple of them did, and he got a total of almost two minutes coverage.

But still, the people did not support his food kitchen. Nor did they eat his food.

Part of the problem was that they did not understand the connection between washing graffiti off of walls and the operation of the food kitchen.

They reasoned that they did not want to give money to a food kitchen only to have it used to wash walls.

Not that washing walls was a bad thing.

It was, in fact, a good thing...just unrelated to food kitchen operations.

What Arnold was too proud to understand was that turning the food kitchen around was really a matter of learning the real function of a food kitchen and following the lead of those who had experience with successful food kitchens.

He had some right under his nose, in his staff, but he was too dull witted to let them help, even though they wanted to desperately.

He felt threatened by their knowledge and was too insecure to allow them to exercise it.

Arnold really wanted to be in control...to be the "boss" of a lot of people, a lot more than he wanted to really get to know the food kitchen operation.

And so, the food kitchen languished.

Oh, a few people patted him on the back and nibbled at his food, but for the most part the community just ignored his food kitchen.

And God finally just let Arnold have his way.

Thousands of people who could have been fed, starved.

GETTING PERSONAL

As you know, I work as the Production Director of a Christian radio station, WJYO, 91.5 Kingdom FM, heard all over the world online at www.kingdom.fm.

Radio is a unique medium.

With no pictures, radio becomes "theater of the mind."

So many times people have come up to me and said something like, "I have tried to picture you as I listen."

Then they usually say, "You're not at all the way I pictured you."

I never know whether or not that is a compliment.

The point is, radio becomes very personal to listeners.

They like the idea of a person guiding them through the music and programs of Christian radio.

Our afternoon announcer, Steve Gimbert, is one of the best I've ever heard at making you feel like he's in the passenger seat next to you as you drive here and there. (He's on from 3:00 PM to 6:00PM EST)

When radio stations just play one song or program after another, with no personality evident, the listeners are most likely to punch the button for another, more personable, station.

Christian radio should take advantage of this tendency by being sure that the listener has someone with him/her at all times.

Not to do so, thus causing people to tune elsewhere, affects a lot of things, not the least of which is the contribution level.

If your Christian station plays long stretches of music or programs without personality, and then complains because their giving level is low, you might suggest to them this important piece of the listener support puzzle.

IN CONCERT

It had been some 30 years.

Joseph Martin played piano for my Youth Choir at Parkway Baptist Church of Plantation, Florida.

As I said in my former post, I knew him to be an extraordinary musician, who, if he wanted to, would go far.

He wanted to.

Yesterday, after a series of emails and phone calls, we were able to see each other.

He was in concert at the Kirkwood Presbyterian Church in Bradenton, Florida.

We were able to spend the afternoon together, remembering old times and people who had been in our lives.

Joe is one of the most personable people on earth, even more so now than I had remembered him to have been.

And then the concert.

WOW!

Joe has a stage presence that rivals that of any performer I have ever seen. He was witty, well paced and so very talented.

As I had told him earlier, the difference between being a good, or even above average performer is threefold: 1) talent - which is God given; 2) confidence - which comes with knowledge of one's craft; and 3) energy - not to be confused with loudness.

Joe excelled in all three.

The first thing that caused my heart to jump and my attention to be grabbed was his very unique use of the glissando (the sliding of the finger or fingers up or down the keyboard)

Joe's glissando was dynamic, meaning that it could change in volume or speed as it was being played.

For many pianists, the glissando is nothing more than an embellishment for the purpose of showing off. Quite often, the artist does not time it out well enough, and has to either change the rhythmic pattern of the song or simply "jump" to where he is going without finishing the glissando.

For Joe Martin, however, the glissando itself became a part of the structure of the piece.

Once he had my attention, I began to focus on his various other techniques.

Whether he was playing an expressive adagio (slow and emotional) or an il più presto (as fast as possible), he was superlative in its treatment.

Joe's enthusiam for his work was evident on both the traditional "high-church" selections and the gospel and hymn treatment pieces.

In one song, "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho," one could hear the trumpets as the Israelites marched around the city, even though there were no trumpeters hiding in the piano (as far as I could tell). And when the "walls came-a-tumblin down," you could feel them fall, crashing to the earth.

Enough, already!

Suffice to say it was a joyous day.

As I told his lovely wife, Sue, even if nothing else of significance happen this year, it is already the best year of my life.

Thank you, Lord, for having allowed me to have had a part in Joe's life, and for the honor he brings me by having reached for, and acheived his ever expanding potential.

CALM DOWN?

Here is what John McCain said:

"I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there's areas we can agree on," McCain said at a news conference in a Phoenix airport hangar before he flew here.

Johnny, there are undoubtedly areas we can agree on.

That, as you know if you are half a smart as your angry, condescending attitude seems to project you to be, is not the point.

The point is that we DISAGREE on some areas that are supremely important to conservatives.

You do not have permission to redefine what conservatism is, thank you very much.

You are NOT a conservative, no matter what you say or how angrily you say it.

Like most liberals, you believe something is true because you say it is true, whether or not it is really true.

You never have been, are not now and never will be my choice as a republican nominee.

You have stolen the meaning of republicanism in your pompus, inane way, and I don't appreciate it one bit.

Were we to meet face-to-face, I would tell you so, as politely as I know how, that you are a fraud.

You will no doubt retaliate, should that ever come to pass, but so be it.

That you have garnered so many delegates and votes in the primaries is a testament in your unique ability to fake people out, to lie, to cheat and to pretend to be something that your record screams that you are not.

If you go on to win the nomination, as it looks like you will, you will have given us a choice between a very liberal candidate and an extremely liberal candidate.

Some choice.

COMING SOON

TO A USA NEAR YOU!

Unless there is a spectacular come-back, which will only happen if Huckaby drops out of the race, we now know we can look forward to:

1. Higher taxes

2. Continued abortion on demand

3. Everybody paying for everybody else's health care.

4. Further government intrusion into an educational system the government managed to distroy.

5. A greater loss of privacy than even Bush accomplished.

6. Fewer freedoms than we had under England, pre-Revolution.

7. Liberal Supreme Court judges.

8. More "reaching out accross the aisle" to those we conservative don't want to work with, whose ideas we want to defeat.

9. An increase in the number of successful attacks from extremists, including an increase in the loss of American lives ON OUR OWN SOIL!

THE FINAL COUNTDOWN

As time got short, the Giants got going.

In the end, they won, and are now SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONS!

Here's what happened:

The Patriot's offensive line provided the Giant's defense an opportunity to enable the Giants offense to have an opportunity to win.

So it goes.

JOB CONTINUES

GOD ENTERS THE SCENE

Chapter 38

God sets the rules: I will ask the questions; you will answer me.

Don’t mess with God. He’s bigger than you are

Learn the art of listening to Him…you’ll learn from it.

Both Job and Elihu had obscured the truth with their theories and ideas (v2)

There is an air of Holy Sarcasm in His questions and His statements.

Where were you…?; Who…?; Have you…?

You have lived so many years (v21)

Chapter 39

The questions continue

There are some descriptions of how He has designed the world.

The Psalmist and the Apostle, Paul, both tell us that the evidence of God’s handiwork is all around us.

The universe
DNA molecules
The interaction of living cells
Poisonous frogs

Chapter 40

God turns to Job and demands an answer to all of His questions.

Job is awed, humbled and embarrassed before God.

In God’s presence, we are all vile, filthy sinners.

Until we recognize that, we cannot be saved

The wretchedness of sin is beyond our understanding.

If we think our actions can please God, we just don’t understand how great, perfect and mighty
He is.

God again asserts His awesomeness as the Creator of all.

IV. Chapter 41 – The Behemoth and the Leviathan

If anybody tells you what they are, watch out for them...they'll lie to you about other things, too.

I OBJECTives

This is Superbowl weekend.

So, I am going to write about football.

But don't dispair!

This is not so much for the sports enthusiast as it is for you.

Trust me.

(Or not)

Question: What is the object of football?

"Duh!" I hear you say, "To score points."

If you think points are the point, you have missed the point.

The ultimate objective of football is for the team to win the Superbowl trophy and the players to win a ring.

Each team has an owner, a bunch of administrators, a slew of coaches, one head coach and a bevy of players.

There is a rule book and folks whose job it is to help the teams follow the rules (referees).

In the spring, the teams begin the process of planning, coordinating, evaluating and practicing that they hope will gain the prize.

Then, after a few pre-season games, the real season begins.

In order to obtain the objective, teams must play a series of games, culminating, after a series of play-offs, in the all-important Superbowl.

Only two teams make it.

Each game starts with a kick-off by one team, which gives posession of the ball to the other team.

The team with the ball in their posession, receives instructions from the coach through the quarterback about what "play" to run.

This plan of action is communicated to the team members in a group meeting called the "huddle."

The idea is to advance the ball down the field in a series of up to four plays.

Each time the team advances ten yards, it is awarded four more plays.

This continues until the team either does not advance ten yards in four plays or it reaches the goal line and scores.

There are five ways to score points in football:
1. Crossing the goal line with the ball (worth six points);
2. Kicking the ball between the uprights after crossing the goal line (worth 1 point);
3. Carrying or sucessfully passing the ball over the goal line after the initial crossing thereof (worth 2 points-and called, "going for two)";
4. Kicking the ball between the uprights because the team couldn't quite make it to the goal line, (worth 3 points);
and
5. Catching the opponent behind his own goal line (worth 2 points)

At the end, the team with the most points wins the game.

So it works like this:

Make Action Plans: The Pre-Season practices and Game Huddles

Execute the Action Plans: Run the Plays

Reach the Goals: Score Points

Reach the Objective: Win the Superbowl by doing a better job than any of the other teams.

I like all of this because it is somewhat analogos to our mission as The Church.

We need to know our Objective, often articulated as a Mission Statement.

There is a Rule Book/Owner's Manual (The Bible), that also serves to reveal to us truth about the owner, and His plan for us to reach the Objective)

We must set goals to reach the Objective (quantitative values, never philosophical statements).

We must make plans to reach those goals.

We must work the plans.

We must have an assortment of leaders to guide us in making and working the plans (pastors, deacns and committee members, perhaps?).

We have an Owner who really knows it all, and who bought us with a price, His Son, Jesus' death, burial and resurrection.

While this may seem a bit sterile, when it is done under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, and according to the Owner's Manual, it is anything but.

In football, nobody knows how the final game, the Superbowl, will turn out.

But if you read the back of our Rule Book, you discover something really exciting:

WE WIN!!!