Common Sense Commentary:

"Occupy Till I Come" Part #2: Do Business

2012-03-02T20:19:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Jesus said, "Occupy till I come" (Lk.19:13) but later He said, "It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power." (Acts 1:7).

Why would Jesus tell us, "When you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh".... and then say, "no man knoweth the day nor the hour".... and, "Occupy till I come"? The first sentence is a warning, the second is a caution to those who would set dates, and the third is a command not to be distracted from continuing to do His work till the trumpet sounds and we are caught up. I think He said those things because He knows our human tendency to doubt ourselves, be distracted by date setters and false teachers, and to cease doing our major calling, witnessing to the lost. We tend to get side-tracked on the minors and neglect the majors. "Till I come" could possibly be a lifetime away. I don't think so, but I do not know and neither does anyone else. Jesus said, "... at an hour you think not". Lk.12:40. In the mean time, we must continue, aggressively reaching out for lost souls and teaching our children God's Word and how to live, serve Him, get an education, choose a mate and be good stewards and save for their retirement .... LIVE! Otherwise, they will be at a huge disadvantage if, in fact, Jesus tarries His Coming. The word "Occupy", there in Lk.19:13, is the Greek word "pragmateuomai" and means, "do business" till I come". In other words, be pragmatic , be practical, don't just stand gazing into heaven or quiting your job, selling the house and moving into a tent on a mountain like some crazies have done, but concentrate on giving out God's Word and doing His work. What advantage is there in quiting, selling and moving anyway? He knows where to find us and you won't need your home equity money in heaven either.

So, let us be fruitful not foolish ... let us "do business" for Jesus and occupy our calling, fill our place of service and exercise our spiritual gifts. As bad as things look in America and the world, we should be ready for the Rapture or Revival or Revolution or Retirement if we live that long.

There are some very positive signs, just ahead in America, in spite of the forces of evil in our government, wall Street and greedy CEO "Bonus Addicts" and 10,000 other negatives undermining our country and our freedoms.

WHAT ARE THE POSITIVES besides the Coming of Christ?

1. Technology is developing so rapidly, especially in the U.S., that if we don't surpass all other nations, in any other field, we can and are, in Hi-Tech. God has given us this huge opportunity to restore our country to its former leadership role and dig our way out of this awful pit dug for us by idiots in government . But, it will not happen without a spiritual awakening and voting out those big spenders and big government Socialists. God will help us, only if we turn to Him.

2. Because of new technology with horizontal drilling and in fracturing rock and shale, holding billions of barrels of oil and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, right here in the USA, it is now possible, and increasingly economic, to supply all of our energy needs and soon export it around the world. That doesn't include new tech which can retrieve the 40% to 50% of oil in all old, shut down, oil fields, or solar and wind and algae oil production and a thousand other hi-tech discoveries.

3. While nearly the whole world is becoming desperately short of water resources, not just for home use but for a larger use of water... manufacturing, the U.S. has potential water supplies which will last indefinitely. Water is becoming the biggest problem for most other nations, including China and India.

4. Because of rising wages in China, India, and the Pacific rim, and the diminishing power of unions and need for jobs in the U.S., as well as anticipating reduced taxes if Liberal Socialists are voted out of office here ... Manufacturers are reconsidering the possible advantages of returning to our, and their country, and some already have. If we can restore common sense, unbind our producers and cease to bleed them to death with 10,000 rules and requirements .... they will return. As our country is today, with big government socialism, if I were a young, ambitious, talented, entrepreneur, I would already have relocated to Central or South America. Tens of thousands of our brightest and most talented are already doing just that. "For a dream cometh (true) through the multitude of business..." Ecc.5:3.

But, while we are "occupying" and "doing business" let us remember our primary purpose in this world is to win souls and do God's work ... faithfully.
So ...be ready for the Rapture, but be busy ... here and now for the Lord. Our opportunity to win souls will cease with the Rapture.

Pass it on. RB

"Occupy Till I Come" Part #1

2012-03-01T15:44:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run; yours is the earth and everything that's in it, and
which is more, you'll be a man, my son." Rudyard Kipling, a Christian, on time.
The enormous and radical "changes" which are occurring in our country and the world today seem to be exactly what Biblical Prophets forecast 2000 to 3000 years ago. My purpose in this commentary today, is not to list all those prophecies, but their impact upon Bible students, scholars, and Christians in general.

The Old Testament prophecies of a coming Messiah were plainly and completely fulfilled in the birth, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. But the Old Testament and New Testament prophecies of the "end times", Rapture, Tribulation and Millennial Kingdom have yet to be fulfilled except for the "signs" which precede those events.

The world has never before, in human history, seen the likes of the accumulative, compounded storage of knowledge as we have seen, in the last 70 years, up to today's high tech everything .... medicine, food production, communications, transportation, information technology, war weaponry, nano-tech, and energy tech, to name a few.
And it is doubling every few months at higher and higher speed.
I, as have many Christians, spent my entire life, since I was nineteen, 62 years, studying God's Word, the Bible. The prophecy that really awakened my interest, by its fulfillment, was the re-establishment of the new nation of Israel in May of 1948 followed by millions of Jews returning to their God given homeland after 2000 years of dispersion. Since that historic, prophetic event, we have witnessed a continuous and increasing variety and volume of fulfilled prophecy, especially as relates to the diminishing morals and integrity in business, society, and even among Christians and within churches. This is, without doubt, the sixth dispensation, of human kind, preceded by five others from Genesis 1 to Jesus' crucifixion. This sixth dispensation began with Jesus and ends at His second coming. It is identified in The Revelation as being the dispensation of the Church Age which has Jesus as its foundation ... "Upon this rock I will build my church ...." Matt.16:18. It is all too clear that we are now living in the sixth, major, human dispensation and in the last of seven Church periods (Laodicean) within the Dispensation of The Church Age. Jesus spoke prophetically to this seventh and last of the last in Rev.3:14-22, concerning events just prior to the Rapture. He said, 2000 years ago, to the vast majority of churches and denominations of today .... "And unto ... the church of the Laodiceans write ... I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot ... So then because thou art lukewarm ... I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich ... and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable and poor and blind and naked." The very next verse, Rev.4:1, near the end of the church age, records the Rapture and final mention of the church which has then become the bride of Christ. But the remaining church buildings will still continue with unsaved church members and become part of a one world church of religious, but lost souls.

Christians have been expecting Christ to establish His Millennial Kingdom on earth ever since He walked among us in Luke 19:10-13. He told those around Him there that He had come, "to seek and save that which was lost ... and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear ...." Jesus gave them a parable which illustrated His Great Commission, His going away and coming again to call us into account, and then said to them, "Occupy till I come." Don't stand around waiting and fearful; Stay busy witnessing, worshiping and teaching until you hear the trumpet of God and I return.

Then later, in Luke 21:7-28, they asked Jesus what signs would precede the end times and He gave them a long list of signs that would occur near the end. Then He concluded the signs with v.28, "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."

All of these and other end time signs, preceding the rapture, have motivated some of us to be so focused on their fulfillment and the growing hardships, wickedness and soon coming of Christ that we sometimes just stand gazing off into space like the Apostles and His disciples in Acts 1:7-11. The last thing Jesus told them, before He ascended back into heaven, was "It is not for you to know the times or seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power... be witnesses unto me ... unto the uttermost part of the earth." Then, Jesus ascended up and up till He was out of their sight. There they stood, amazed, motionless, gazing up into heaven when two angels standing by them asked, "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven ...." In other words, get busy doing what He called you to do.... "Occupy till I come." And the very last words Jesus left us, in Rev.22:20 were, "Surely I come quickly". Not soon but quick.

Part #2 of "Occupy till I come" will follow soon and quick....
Pass it on. RB

You Can't Set Your Goals Higher Than "God's Will For You"

2012-02-28T15:14:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Generally speaking, most men want to be rich, most rich men want to be rulers, most rulers want to be human gods and all human gods want to be the one true God. That was Lucifer's ambition and eternal downfall. Set your goals high, but within the context of God's will for your life .... not your own will. Even Jesus said, "Not my will but thine, be done." Lk.22:42. Jesus well knew that there is no higher goal, in anybodies life, than God's perfect, unique, and personal will for each one of us. His purpose for coming to the world was to die for us.

Someone might ask, "If Jesus was God in the flesh, why would He ask His heavenly Father, 'Let this cup pass from me', referring to his sacrificial death?" That question answers itself. He was God in a human body of flesh. Mary did not give birth to God but the fleshly body He lived in, among us, and which was nailed to the cross, as God's sacrificial Lamb, to pay our sin's "death debt". "The wages of sin is death." Rom.6:23. Jesus, of course, knew that was why He came to this world and spoke of it several times to His disciples. Even knowing He was to be crucified when He next went up to Jerusalem, He didn't turn back, but went on to that prophesied destiny. There, at Gethsemane, when He prayed, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done", it was that fleshly human part of Jesus which was about to be beaten, spit upon, and nailed to a wooden cross, that prayed for relief. But much worse than the zenith of physical and mental suffering He would endure, was something far far more difficult, and unimaginably contradictory to His sinless nature, antagonistic to all He represented and stood for in His holy soul and totally repugnant to God Himself.  All the depraved, vile, filthy, vulgar, obnoxious sins of all humanity were about to be put upon his holy form, and not only put upon Him but, He would become our sins that our sins might die with him in that awful agony.
2 Cor.5:21.  "For he (God) hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, him who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."   This is the most contradictory thing imaginable in the minds of men, angels or devils... but with God, it was the only way to redeem you and me ... to Himself take the "wages of sin" which we earned and deserve upon Himself.  For He had decreed that... "The wages of sin is death" and God's Word cannot be undone, unsaid, undecreed or revoked. It had to be... and Jesus came here in that body of flesh to draw the wages of our evil work ....
"death" upon himself.   Jesus stepped up to the the pay window and drew the wages of your sins and mine into his hand and then paid our sin debt. We cannot repay Him for what He did for us, but we can show our appreciation and love by accepting His free gift of forgiveness and eternal life ... all paid for and offered to us, without charge, in His outstretched hand ..."For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Rom.6:23.

We all have one choice between two options ... Accept Him or Reject Him. The price is paid, the choice is yours. To neglect Him is to reject Him.

Pass it on. RB

Looking Beyond The Flesh ... To The Soul

2012-02-25T22:08:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam.16:7. Dottie Rambo wrote a song ... "He looked beyond my faults and saw my need." My friends, only love can do that and only God can know our hearts .... "For God so loved the world (us) that He gave His only begotten Son..." to answer our need. The best parents not only love their children but must also learn to "look beyond their faults and see their needs". Look beyond the "outward appearances" of selfishness, disobedience, anger and lying and see the root cause of their fault. In some cases their fault may be my fault. That is to say, I am too impatient with them, too busy to spend time with them, to teach them, to help them, to pray with them, to share God's Word with them. In other cases, those same faults are their very own, fleshly, human faults. Still, a parent must look beyond the fault and see them ..., and everyone else for that matter, as an eternal soul created by God in His own image, but with an inborn sin nature dating back to Adam and Eve. A person cannot help being born with a sin nature but, we can help neglecting to deal with it. We are all, children and adults, responsible to God to deal with our fleshly faults. Now, let us shift gears. Fleshly faults, whether physical, mental, emotional or spiritual are usually, simply ... SIN.   A parent must deal, not only with their own sins but teach their children to deal with theirs. There are several methods of doing that, but just one remedy. Let us first deal with parental "methods". A parent must be patient but not so patient as to be tolerant of the seeds of evil in themselves or their children. A parent must be loving but not mistake love for their lack of painful discipline applied to their child.... "Chasten thy son while there is hope ..." Prov.19:18. Another admonition is,
"Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him." Prov.22:15.

A good way to gauge the seriousness of your "little angel's" transgression is to imagine it being done by the "little devil" next door. The "methods" a parent has of dealing with the sin nature in their children's flesh are, first... by example, prayer, and Holy Scripture. Secondly... teaching, talking, listening, correcting, practice, encouragement and praise for doing well. Third ... punishment. Disciplinary punishment is an absolutely, indispensable necessity in raising children. Though it is a "last resort", in the training of a child, if it is not part of the program, all else, though correctly applied, is without authority and powerless. There must always be, in the child's mind, the likelihood of painful punishment for disobedience and bad behaviour. Otherwise their little individuality and self will rise up in rebellion and chaos. A parent must put this need, in their child's life ahead of the parent's need for love and appreciation from the child. The greater need of the parent is for their child to grow up a mature and balanced adult who is honest, diligent, dependable, successful and who respects authority and loves their parents too. Parental discipline should include stern warning, withdrawal of privilege, and an effective (painful) spanking to enforce their God given authority and responsibility.

Finally, the remedy which lasts a lifetime. The one remedy for sin is spiritual conversion and redemption from our sins by the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord, Saviour and sin bearer. I neither believe that a little child is accountable to God for his/her actions in infantsy and early childhood, nor that they are on an equal basis of accountability to God, as are teenagers and adults. I believe that accountability to God begins at the "age of accountability", which varies with each child, but is usually at puberty between ages 9 and 13. I have known retarded people who, after being in church all their lives, suddenly realized they were a lost sinner and needed to be saved. One was 40 years old but had a little child's mind. It took 40 years for him to reach the age of accountability. His name was Gene Brown and I had the honor of showing him the way of salvation. That was over 50 years ago. He is in heaven now.

I believe that if a child is not old enough to go to hell, he/she is not old enough to be saved. A child is "safe" for heaven until they reach a point of suddenly being convicted by the Holy Spirit that they are now sinners and need God's forgiveness. No one can be saved unless and until they realize they are guilty of sin before God ... not
because Mommy or Daddy said so but because they felt guilt in their own heart when the Holy Spirit told them so. True repentance must be a spiritual response to conscious guilt, regret and desire for forgiveness from God, a higher power than Mom or Dad. As I said, I believe that personal guilt, before God, probably happens during puberty, usually somewhere between 8 or 9 and 13 years of age. However, if a child asks to be saved or baptized at a younger age, there is no real harm in "leading them to the Lord".
You can't take the chance of not responding to their request and even if they are too young, it may at least keep them in church until they are convicted by the Holy spirit that they are really not saved and they, with good foundation, accept Christ. This has happened hundreds of times under my own ministry.

God's law, in the Old Testament required that young boys accompany their parents to the Passover HolyDay Feast at age 12. It was at this age that Jesus first attended the Jerusalem Passover and then remained in Jerusalem, instead of following Mary and Joseph in the crowd of worshipers traveling back to Nazareth and home. When they realized Jesus was not with them, they finally found him in the Temple, back in Jerusalem, "in the midst" of the greatest Old Testament Scholars in the world ... both listening to their expositions of Scripture and himself answering some of their theological questions which astounded them. It was at this time that Jesus, during the average time of puberty in boys, was asked by Mary, "Son, why have you thus dealt with us? Your father and I have sought you sorrowing." Lk.2:48. At twelve years old, Jesus gave an astonishing answer to Mary .... in effect, "Have you forgotten who I am? Don't you know that "I must be about my Father's business?"  Luke 2:49   In these words, Jesus made a clear distinction between His step father (little f) and His Heavenly Father (cap F) and between Himself as Mary's son and as the Son of God. So, the age of twelve is shown to be very significant in the development of a child's mind and body. It did not, however, change the fact that Jesus was still a child and remained an obedient child to his mother and Joseph. Lk.2:51 says that Jesus continued to be, "subject unto them."

I must add, here, that we, as Christians, must grow in grace to a level of spiritual maturity that we are able to see everybody as more than young or old, good looking or bad looking, skinny or fat, black or white, well dressed or in rags. We must, as did Jesus, look beyond their flesh and "appearance" and see them as eternal souls created in God's own "image and likeness",  but in need of a Saviour ...God's Son, Jesus. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam.16:7.

Pass it on. RB

Agnostic: A Nearly Honest Atheist

2012-02-24T12:47:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

Here we have "The world's most famous Atheist" confessing that he is not absolutely sure there is no God. Though he only gives God a .9 % (less than 1.%) chance of a reality existence, at least he admits that he really doesn't know .... for certain. Truth be told, no one can have "faith" in a lie because God gives faith and He does not give faith to believe a lie. "Faith comes by hearing...the word of God." Rom.10:17. It has been said, "There are no true atheists", which may be true because a person cannot be absolutely certain sure of something they have not personally witnessed. They may "say" they are certain or even give it a 99.1% doubt (.9% chance) when their actual doubt is much greater. How does one witness that "there is no God"? There are, however, those who are agnostics, which means (a=no + gnostic=know or no know) I don't know. Actually, everyone, who is not a true believer in Jesus Christ, having received faith through hearing the gospel truth recorded in the Bible, is an agnostic in some degree. There is always that seed of doubt, that crack in their armour, that secret fear that ... maybe they are wrong. THAT is God's opening for us to be a witness to them. They are not sure !

Strangely, Lucifer, himself, is neither atheist (a=no + theist=god or "no god") nor is he an agnostic. He is, "a liar and the father of it" Jn.8:44 ...but he knows Jehovah God is real and has seen and talked with Him. One must know the truth to lie about it. Otherwise a falsehood is ignorance. Heb.11:1 says, "Faith is... the evidence of things not seen." Having seen God, Satan's knowledge of Him is not based on faith but sight. Also see Job1:7 & Jm.2:19. There are many cases of agnosticism in the Bible and not "knowing" is not a sin unless you are also not seeking the truth of God. I believe God's Spirit whispers to every soul to seek Him. Jesus said that He is "the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." Jn.1:9. Even so, each person, as a free will agent, may accept that light or reject that light, but forever after knows, though he may lie to himself and shout it to the world, yet there is that "still small voice" of 1K.19:12, whispering to his soul ... "I AM...I AM" ... Ex.3:14.

For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that
they are without excuse." Rom.1:20.

So here is a video of the world's most famous atheist saying, I'm not quite sure. "Then King Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Acts 26:28.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102740/Richard-Dawkins-I-cant-be-sure-God-does-not-exist.html

Pass it on. RB

Choosing A President Or Candidate

2012-02-23T21:42:00.001-06:00

***********Seven************
Thoughts For Thinking Americans

I... Vote for the unquestioned, strongest, most
        long term defender and believer in
        preserving and precisely following the
        Constitution Of The United States.

II.. Vote for the candidate who has a proven
         record of success in business, balancing
         budgets, standing on principle and leading
          and caring about people.

III. Vote for the candidate who feels no great
         compunction to control everybody's life
          including congress, all fifty states, other
          nations, the whole world, outer space and
          Jehovah too.

IV.. Vote for the candidate who has proven by
           his past history, speeches, writings and
           actions that he loves this country more
           than himself, our Constitution more than
           his ideology and Americans more than 17
           vacations per year.

V.... Vote for the most honest, intelligent, most
            experienced leader, most non-partisan,
            tender hearted, hard headed, patriot and
            member of the NRA who has red, white
             and blue eyes and carries a 45 cal.

VI... If there is a truly, born again, redeemed,
            washed in the blood, real Bible believing
            Christian who fits that description, vote
            him. But if he is a "political" counterfeit
             Christian, like unto Jimmy Carter,
             Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama,
              skip on down to that repentant sinner
              and all American Patriot described in
             I. through V.

VII.  Most importantly, if you pray regularly,
             ask for God's advice and then vote for
             the candidate He puts on your mind as
             best to lead the greatest nation on earth,
             not the loudest professing "Christian".
             I know a Muslim who insists he is a
             Christian.

Pass it on. RB

Excessive, Inordinate, Exaggerated, Extravagant, Magnification: Hyperbole?

2012-02-16T23:01:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to the thousands of his lords, and ... commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which his father... had taken out of the temple... in Jerusalem; that the king , and his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein.... They drank wine, and praised the gods of gold, and of silver ...." Daniel 5:1-4

Politically, I am a conservative, constitutional, free market Capitalist. But as a Christian, I am compelled to do all in my power to help people who are handicaped, sick, too old or too young to help themselves. That is the Church's and Christian's responsibility not the Government's, whose only resource is compulsory taxation from income earners and job creators.

As the founder of a large Christian Church Ministry including the city Rescue Mission and city Food Bank, three Christian Schools, a Children's Home and other outreach ministries, no one who knew me well in Tallahassee, Florida had any doubt of my love and compassion for the helpless, hungry and homeless. However, your possessions and bank account are your own not the government's, the church's or the down and outer's. You are God's Steward to use those things wisely.... But, lavishly excessive banquiting in the midst of starvation poverty and suffering innocence, is not just inappropriate, it is outrageous surfeiting. Nevertheless, unless it is tax payers or tither's money, you are gluttonizing, you may do as you please with what is yours and answer only to God. Even Tithing must be willingly, voluntary given not extracted by human agency. Unless your "giving" is voluntary, it is not charity but theft. "The Lord loveth a cheerful giver" (2Cor.9:7) ... but hates the sin of theft, from one, to give to another. Heb.1:9 says God loves righteousness and hates iniquity.... including theft.

Our political leaders, Wall Street Bankers, and even many corporate tycoons have destroyed the confidence and respect of American tax payers, in our government, in the stock market and even in those multi-million dollar, bonas gluttons of Commerce. When I see the superlative extravagance of the Queen of England, Corporate CEO's, Hollywood, the President's wife, the Pope and even some famous preachers, I am disgusted at their calousness in the face of jobless families and tax payers who are struggling to survive.

I have seen the impressive changing of the guard at London's Buckingham Palace, and at Lenin's Tomb in Red Square, Moscow but they are nothing compared to the one I will show you to "physically" illustrate the excessive waste and spiritually corrupted soul of world leaders. Those who, supposedly, "serve" the people but instead expect applause for their own inordinate extravagance and exagerated magnification of themselves. So I offer this physical comparisen of their spiritual definiency. Did I mention hyperbole ... or did I use it?

This video is the "Closing Of The Gates Guard" at the border of India and Pakistan, two of the poorest nations on earth, both of which have nuclear weapons. Entertaining but excessively extravagant.... like our government and Wall Street, which are fiscally and morally bankrupt.

Click here> http://www.wimp.com/indiapakistan

Pass it on. RB

Global Tax Advocate: Guess Who

2012-02-16T17:45:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Jesus, Jn.8:32. But if you do not know the truth, you become subject to bondage.

Obama Pushes Global Tax

posted on February 16, 2012 by Gary DeMar

Filed under 2012 Election, Business, Economics, Finances, Government, Politics, Socialism, Taxes

When taxes are high in one state, businesses and individual tax payers have the freedom to move to another state. The number of millionaires who have left New York is getting to Red Sea proportions. Rush Limbaugh moved his operation to Florida, a state that doesn’t have a state income tax. Lebron James was considering joining the New York Knicks until he found out how much he would be paying in New York state and city taxes. Like Limbaugh, he chose Florida. He plays for the Miami Heat.
It’s not just the politicians who want to stick it to the rich. A Siena College poll reported that 72% of New York voters support the tax to avoid further budget cuts. The union-backed “99 New York” rally supported extending the “millionaire’s tax” on New Yorkers with incomes over $200,000. It was due to expire December 31, 2011.
Some people in New York understand the long-term consequences of taxing the rich. Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo says taxing high income New Yorkers would send them to the low-tax states of Connecticut and New Jersey, taking their income-tax revenue, job skills, and businesses with them.
The people of New York, like the people in Greece, want their handouts, and they want other people to pay for them. Greece doesn’t have low tax and no-tax states like we have in America. There’s no place to flee. So what remedies do companies have when they can’t compete globally because of Federal taxing policies? They move their operations overseas.
Who will ultimately pay this tax? Consumers. Companies will consider the new tax a cost of doing business and tack on the additional costs to the products they sell. A similar thing happens when people call for tariffs on foreign goods. Tariffs make foreign goods more expensive and push up the price of American products. Again, consumers are the losers.
Instead of overhauling our nation’s tax system, the Obama Administration wants to set up what they are calling a “global minimum tax” or in the language of Newspeak, “a basic minimum tax”:

Earlier this week, White House economic adviser Gene Sperling announced his support for changes in the tax structure. “[W]e need a global minimum tax so that people have the assurance that nobody is escaping doing their fair share as part of a race to the bottom or having our tax code actually subsidized and facilitate people moving their funds to tax havens,” Sperling said at an official White House meeting. He even indicated that President Obama “supports” this change.

Technically, it would not be a “Global Tax” but a punitive tax , an unnamed White House “official” told Politico, on American companies “that ship jobs overseas.”
The reason these companies ship jobs overseas is that they can’t compete globally because costs are too high in the United States. The way to remedy the problem is to lower taxes here. Instead, the Obama Administration has resorted to class warfare rhetoric. No wonder. He’s seen the polls. If 72% of New Yorkers want rich people to pay more in taxes, it’s quite obvious that slapping a minimum tax on oversea corporations is an easy sell.
These same people will bellyache that everything they buy will be more expensive and blame the corporations. The corporations aren’t the problem; it’s the taxing structure, and I might add, the unions. The unions killed the American textile industry in the United States. It’s nearly killed the automobile industry.
Maybe the President should push a “basic minimum” tax on the 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay a dime in Federal income taxes but who vote for more taxes on their more productive and job-creating neighbors.

http://godfatherpolitics.com/3723/obama-pushes-global-tax/

What Caused The Fall Of Whitney Houston & Rome

2012-02-15T17:43:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Yes, mustard seed faith will move mountains ... but, mustard seed sin, without forgiveness, will father a forest of evil.

Sacrificing principle to satisfy the demands of lust, addiction, fear, friends or a depraved government, is like sowing evil seed because it is creeper or the easy way right now, but without considering the crop of thorny, poisonous vines which will spring up in our lives and and take control of our soul later.

Weak character will always take the easy, convenient way today, which simply breeds still weaker character and a harvest of failure, regret and self loathing slavery later.

Some seed sown take months or years to germinate and produce a progeny of its own kind; but be sure the seed will come up with multiples of itself flourishing and choking the life out of all else, to control and subjugate our will to itself.

However unimportant and small, an immoral compromise or decision may seem, it will spawn much larger consequences in time. "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." Gal.5:9. Like a contagious virus or germ, so small it is invisible to the eye, spreads and has the power to blind, sicken or kill its host and become a plague which may sweep across a continent and even the whole world, and yet is invisibly tiny. Sin is contagious and terminal without God's remedy, The Great Physician, Jesus Christ.

The fall of all world Empires and addicts began in a small, seemingly unimportant digressions from truth, wisdom, reason and right. Tiny seed which, when sown, grew slowly into final, all consuming ruin and rotted them to their foundations. Every villain, addict and serial killer had a first time which made the second easier and the third a habit. If a person never takes the first drink, joint, hit or taste of fantasy, they will never be addicted to it.

What happened to Whitney Houston and Rome has happened to every person and every empire which lightly esteemed truth, wisdom, reason and right. What happened to Whitney Houston with her beauty, wealth, fame and talent, and to Rome in all its glory and power is also happening to millions of Americans and to America itself.

You see, Satan is the "ruler of the darkness of this world" ... of sin, failure, regret and self loathing slavery, but God is the Father of light, truth, wisdom, reason and right.
"Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these these things shall be added unto you." Matt.6:33.

"Global Warming" to "Climate Change" to "Global Cooling"

2012-02-12T18:43:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "While the earth remaineth ... summer and winter ... shall not cease" Genesis 8:22.

Forget global warming - if NASA scientists are right we may even get another mini ice age as in the 17th Century

Met Office releases new figures which show no warming in 15 years

The supposed ‘consensus’ on man-made global warming is facing an inconvenient challenge after the release of new temperature data showing the planet has not warmed for the past 15 years.

The figures suggest that we could even be heading for a mini ice age to rival the 70-year temperature drop that saw frost fairs held on the Thames in the 17th Century.

Based on readings from more than 30,000 measuring stations, the data was issued last week without fanfare by the Met Office and the University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit. It confirms that the rising trend in world temperatures ended in 1997.

I've said from Day One that this Global Warming scare was a complete fabrication...and from my past work in meteorology and climate, I'm in a position to know. And the data to debunk it all came from the most unlikely source...the University of East Anglia, where they originally 'cooked the books' on behalf of the global warming theory.

New Bible Version For Muslim Worship

2012-02-11T17:52:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:
For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Rev.21:18-20

From Gary North's Godfather Politics (Mafia term suggests its likeness to our Gov. RB)

Now, another new Bible version is soon to be on the market and from what I have read and seen so far, may be one of the worst Bible versions to be printed yet. And the thing that shocks me the most is that it is being produced by what I thought were respectable groups including Wycliffe Bible Translations, the Summer Institute of Linguistics and Frontiers.
This new Bible is being promoted as a Muslim friendly Bible where the translators, or should I say butchers, have removed all words and wording that might be offensive to Muslims. They have eliminated any references to God as ‘Father’ or Jesus as the ‘Son of God’. One example I saw was Matthew 28:19 which reads,

“Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

And changing it to this:
“Cleanse them by water in the name of Allah, his Messiah and his Holy Spirit.”
(Baptism reflects Christ's death, burial & resurrection not a bath. RB)
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.”

Read more: Wycliffe Bible Translators Producing Muslim Friendly Bible http://godfatherpolitics.com/3484/wycliffe-bible-translators-producing-muslim-friendly-bible/#ixzz1lFYTxZdY

First Audit Exposes Federal Reserve's Perfidious Treachery

2012-02-11T16:45:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

Audit Exposes Federal Reserve Secret
Give Away Of Incomprehensible amount

16 Trillion U.S. Dollars

No matter your political preferences, Democrat, Republican, independent, Liberal, Conservative, Tea Party or "Occupier", this should get your blood boiling! What in the world is going on?!!!!!

Click the link below for a real eye opener. Like the Titanic, this is probably only the tip of the iceberg.

If you were not ticked off at the Federal Reserve before, see how you feel after reading this:

http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/10.11/gaoaudit.html

It’s Not about Contraceptives....

2012-02-11T12:58:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed ..." Rev.12:17.
It’s Not about Contraceptives
........its about POWER
By Dr. Gary North

“POWER, POWER, POWER, POWER — never forget that it is from a fascination of the limits and manipulations of Power that keep people interested in this book.”[1] These are words from Francis Ford Coppola’s notebook that he used in preparation for filming of The Godfather.
If you want to see a microcosm of modern-day politics, The Godfather is the place to start. It has all the characteristics of a government; it only lacks legitimacy. American politics has gone the way of The Godfather. The oath that our representatives took to uphold the Constitution means nothing.
The President’s latest attack on the American people by mandating that employers cover contraception is a blatant attack on the Constitution and the freedom of ALL Americans, not just those who hold a particular religious view on contraception. His so-called compromise that insurance companies pay for birth control pills is one of the most audacious power grabs in the history of government. What’s next?
Will grocery store owners be required to give milk and bread away free to people who claim a need? Will contractors have to give one home in ten away free to families that can’t afford to purchase one? We’re already doing a lot of this through wealth confiscation.

The following is from Dr. Kevin Clauson, Professor of Politics & Government and Director of the William Jennings Bryan Center for Law and Public Policy.

Have I missed something regarding this controversy over free contraceptive coverage in employee health care insurance policies ? Now the President has said those employers who object on religious grounds don’t have to but the insurance companies still have to provide it. I’m still mystified. WHY HAS NO ONE (THAT I’VE HEARD) POINTED OUT WHAT I THINK IS OBVIOUS: WHY SHOULD THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BE ABLE TO REQUIRE EITHER AN EMPLOYER OR AN INSURER TO COVER ANYTHING, ESPECIALLY FOR “FREE” (AND REMEMBER “THERE AIN’T NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH” — ALL INSURED FOLKS WILL HAVE TO ABSORB THE COST) ? It is blatantly unconstitutional! Why should any “group” get special favors by government? (And by the way, what do contraceptives have to do with “women’s health”? When I think of health I think of cancer or heart disease or diabetes. NOT a contraceptive provision.) There is no law prohibiting the provision and purchase of contraceptives. Indeed why should any government be involved in health care provision at all ? The “religious liberty/conscience” argument is not illegitimate; but it does obscure the BIGGER issue. The federal government has no Constitutional authority to mandate any kind of insurance or insurance coverage, let alone at no cost (supposedly).

The only good that can come out of free contraceptives is that enough liberals will buy and use them. I would be willing to pay for that myself. Is there a fund I can contribute to?

Read more: It’s Not about Contraceptives – It’s About Power! http://godfatherpolitics.com/3643/its-not-about-contraceptives-its-about-power/#ixzz1m6Ehde00

Magic...Now It Is... Now It Ain't Good For You

2012-02-11T12:13:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." Isa.5:20. This verse doesn't apply here but its the closest I could get.

The headline I just read said:

Coconut Oil Now Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy

Now they tell me!!!

So much of what is good for our health was once thought to be bad

and much of what was thought to be bad is now .......... good for us.

With high cholesterol, I was warned, after heart bypass surgery, to

avoid eggs, butter and coconut oil.... Now its all good for me... So now,

after 20 years avoiding that good stuff, I will probably die of Alzheimers,

malnourishment or excessive lettuce, soy, yogurt and aspartame poisoning.

I can't even remember which is good or bad cholesterol for 3 seconds.

I knew an old guy who died, the doctor said, of drinking and smoking,

at 98. He previously had succeeded a series of teetotaler wives.

Life does get complicated but fortunately there are millions of such

wives who out-live their husbands. "Fortunately"??? Sorry guys. RB

Click link below:

http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/mp4/LJO190v1_WS

The Bible Truth About Money

2012-02-09T20:42:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:"For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." 1Tim.6:10. There are four bad things in that verse and none of them is "money".

First, it is the "love" of money that is the root of all evil, not "money" itself.
Second, it is, "coveting" after money that is bad, not "having" money.
Third, the bad thing about "loving" and "coveting" money is, it causes those particular people to "err from the faith" pursuing wealth, and not the giver of wealth, God.
Fourth, having given themselves to the "love of money", they have "pierced themselves through with many sorrows" and are out of God's will and protection.
In a word, the love and coveting of money is simply "GREED". Judas was greedy.

The Attributes of Money:

Money for which you have not expended your time, talents and effort, is not equal in value to you as money for which you personally have labored. We are, however, equally responsible to God to be good stewards in its use because its use is of equal importance to Him. Whether it is a gift, an inheritance or a grant, it equally represents someone else's stewardship of time, talent, effort and life. A free meal is not free, someone, somewhere paid for it. They worked and gave it, you ate it without work.

Money, for which you have invested your own time, talent and effort, is nothing less than that part of yourself which you invested to earn it. It is, therefore, a composite representation of that much of your life itself . That is why it is so important to abide by God's Word in reference to "good stewardship" of our time, talent, effort and then their offspring, our treasure which incorporates, in convenient form, the above three aspects of our lives.

When we waste our money or possessions, we waste that part of our lives required to earn them.(poor stewardship). When we spend this "currency" of our time, talent and effort on the ungodly, un-Christlike satisfying of fleshly lusts, we literally abuse ourselves. As the Apostle Paul spoke of certain ones who, "oppose themselves" in 2Tim.2:25.

Wealth, in whatever form, cannot be bad because Jesus and His Apostles had a bag of it, which greedy Judas carried to pay for their needs. God's Word also promises, "Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give unto your bosom." Jesus said it in Luke 6:38. The one word, "Give" part of that equation, or formula, is incidental to the subject, getting. Everything after the word "Give" is "Getting" for which the verse is primarily intended ..."and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over..." The entire verse has to do with "receiving" more that giving. Receiving food, clothing, housing, transportation, income, life sustaining resources ... but in proportion to our giving. The result of giving of ourselves, then receiving back much more than we gave, is the key to honest, purposeful, scriptural wealth. Cases in point: Abraham, Job, Boaz, King David, King Solomon, Nicodemus and Cornelius.

Conclusion: So, if a person gives abundantly and then reaps even more abundantly, from God, how is that a bad thing? If you give generously, and "reap what you sow", as the Scripture says (Gal.6-7), and become wealthy in the process, receiving back far more from God, through men's hands, than you gave, God is simply living up to His promise. It is, therefore, contradictory to feel guilty or apologetic about what God has done in your life ....Cornelius. However, the more you receive, the more you are responsible to give. "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required ..." Jesus said it in Lk.12:48. This includes all aspects of good stewardship, not just wealth. We who have been given, by God, wealth, power, position or fame are responsible to Him, as good stewards, to use those things for His glory not ours. Also, the word "give" implies, in both Hebrew and Greek, our willful bestowal or use of those gifts as God leads us. Our "giving" must be voluntary or gains no approval, reward or return from God. Exorbitant, government taxation is not only demanded but forced and not volunteered, except in the since of fearing the consequences of not doing it. Unlike voluntary scriptural obedience, Taxation is not "giving", it is forceful extraction. That is not how God wants us to obey Him or to "give"; but, misuse of His gifts to us has its consequences. God does not force us to do right.

A "good steward" of God's business is always aware of where his wealth, power or position came from and to whom it truly belongs ... our Master, our Lord. The steward is answerable to Him and nobody else, but is also responsible to Him for deciding how these things are to be spent and used. Not the Pastor, not the church deacons, neither a friend nor Uncle Sam .... but you, the steward.

There are hundreds of verses in the Bible referencing wealth, riches, money, gold, silver, material and animal offerings, sacrifice, giving, receiving, wages and tithing. Far too many for possessions and wealth to be evil or an offence to God, when He gave it for our use. No, it is not "money" which is the "root of all evil" but the "love of money", the "coveting" of it, the greed of it which is that poisonous root of destruction.

Pass it on. RB

Spendthrift AbamaNation Is Evil Stuff

2012-02-08T18:17:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Be not deceived;
God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." Gal.6:7. Are we reaping yet?

America's Politicians have spent our nation into undeclared bankruptsy. But, besides Power, Fame, and Wealth for themselves, they have done it because the majority of Americans wanted more than they earned or a living without earning it and voted in the politicians who promised to give them the most "free stuff" without earning it. Now, our country is about one hundred trillion dollars in debt. This includes 15 trillion dollars in actual borrowed money, 90 trillion dollars in debt obligations promised or contracted such as Social Security and Medicare (trust fund was spent) plus Free Medicaid, Gov. Retirement Plans, Welfare, Food Stamps, Free Medical Care, Housing Subsidies and on and on and on.

So how much is one trillion dollars?
Not even considering the above mentioned debt, our government squanders another one and a half trillion dollars, over its budget, annually. Looking at the above, a single trillion doesn't sound like much ... but just how much is it? It is a figure so incomprehensible that most people cannot even grasp its enormity.
($1,000 X 1,000 = $1,000,000)
Thousand...............Million

($1,000,000 X 1,000 = $1,000,000,000)
Million .............................Billion

($1,000,000,000 X 1,000 = $1,000,000,000,000
Billion.....................................Trillion

Again, we lose track, mentally, of just how much $1,000,000,000,000 really is. Here is
an example of how much one trillion dollars is: If our government doubled everyone's taxes and then could pay $1000 dollars per second or $60,000 dollars per minute, or
$360,000 dollars per hour or $8,640,000 per day, they could keep the 3% interest paid up but not $1.00 paid against the principle of one trillion dollars...ever. Plus, they
would continue going into additional debt on top of debt at the rate of two million dollars, over budget, every minute of every day. Who do you think is on the hook for that debt? The politicians who spent it? No, the tax payer... you and me. So what can you do about it? Vote the rascals out and be careful for whom you vote to take their places. A good rule of thumb is to vote for whomever the news-media and Hollywood
are against and against whomever they are for. Very simple.

The only reasonable conclusion we can come to is that the Politicians and President
never intend to pay it off. However, the unreasonable conclusion is, they could easily, in one minute, print up 1500 Billion dollar bills and pay this year's budget deficite. Then they could print up another 15,000 Billion dollar bills in about ten minutes and pay off all of our 15 trillion dollar, borrowed government T- bonds debt. Then it would take about another hour to print up enough $1000 dollar bills to pay off everybody's empty government promises, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid etc. etc. ahead of time for this entire year. And while the presses are smoking hot, just run off a warehouse full of Million dollar bills to keep everybody all paid up on all those things for the next few years when it will take $5, then $10, then $50, $100 to buy a loaf of bread. And, hey, within four or five years we will all be getting million dollar weekly checks. We will all be millionaires but can't afford a tank of gas. You call that, "inflation" or 'hyper inflation". That is the dream world Liberals live in which will become a nightmare before they awaken. That exact scenario has happened many times, in the past, in other countries. At the rate we are now going..... it will happen here too. So what's so wicked about it, Preacher? Old people loose the buying power of their savings but can't get a job; Baby boomers have to keep working through retirement time; Welfare recipients either starve or find a job; Children have to grow up and pay off the national debt their parents spent, as bribe money, to keep voting for the political squanderers. And, yes, my friends, the words wicked, evil and sin still have an appropriate application and fit the evil which has been done to our people. It is evil because these kind of stresses reap divorces, child abuse, alcoholism, drug addiction, prostitution, robbery and even murder.

"For they have sown the wind and
shall reap the whirlwind...." Hosea 8:7.
Pass it on. RB

Power In The Blood

2012-02-07T20:47:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "In Christ we have redemption through His blood,
even the forgiveness of sins." Col.1:14

THE BLOOD

One night in a church service a young woman felt the tug of God at her heart.

She responded to God's call and accepted Jesus as her Lord and Savior.

The young woman had a very rough past, involving alcohol, drugs, and prostitution.

But, the change in her was evident. As time went on

she became a faithful member of the church.

She eventually became involved in the ministry,
teaching young children.

It was not very long until this faithful young woman

had caught the eye and heart of the pastor's son.

The relationship grew and they began to make wedding plans.

This is when the problems began.

You see, about one half of the church did not think that a woman

with a past such as hers was suitable for a pastor's son.

The church began to argue and fight about the matter.

So they decided to have a meeting.

As the people made their arguments and tensions increased,

the meeting was getting completely out of hand.

The young woman became very upset about all the things

being brought up about her past.

As she began to cry the pastor's son stood to speak.

He could not bear the pain it was causing his wife to be.

He began to speak and his statement was this:

"My fiancee's past is not what is on trial here.

What you are questioning is the ability of the blood of Jesus

to wash away sin.

Today you have put the blood of Jesus on trial.

So, does it wash away sin or not?"

The whole church began to weep as they realized that they had been slandering the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Too often, even as Christians, we bring up the past

and use it as a weapon against our brothers and sisters.

Forgiveness is a very foundational part of the Gospel

of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If the blood of Jesus does not cleanse the other person completely

then it cannot cleanse us completely.

If that is the case, then we are all in a lot of trouble.

What can wash away my sins?

Nothing but the blood of Jesus! End of case!!!!

Would you be free from your burden of sin?
There's POWER in the BLOOD.
Would you o'er evil a victory win?
There's POWER in the BLOOD.
There's wonderful POWER in the BLOOD!

Courage Is Being Scared To Death But...

2012-02-05T22:26:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."--- John Wayne

Yes, I know .... John Wayne was just an actor but knowing some things about him I won't share, he was not a counterfeit man. He had "True Grit" and was a real man not an imitation. He lived up to his definition of courage.... He just kept on saddling up to the end and, like Charlton Heston, was a Conservative in a sea of Hollywood Liberals.

I use the above quote from John Wayne to challenge you and myself to saddle up this wild, mean bronc we face in today's world and especially in our own country. Things are happening in America that are truly endangering the very existence of our country. The remedy is a lot like the importance of voting. Some say one vote doesn't amount to much but I'm asking you, that if one vote didn't win elections, exactly what does? If everyone felt that way, nobody would vote except the politician's friends, kin and greedy ginks who love his promised free stuff. That's about what has been happening.
So here come those savages over " The Hill" ... Muslim terrorists, Corrupt Politicians, Wall Street Crooks, Federal Reserve Banksters and Hoards of Giant Fat Rats to devour the humble, quiet, hard working tax payers and drain their retirement savings with price inflation and money deflation. So stop holding your temper and your tongue waiting for some miracle to deliver us from the rulers of darkness and the wicked in high places who council you to, "Don't just do something, sit there". NO! Saddle UP!
Then read the commentary below:

A German View of Islam

Dr. Emanuel Tanya

A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories.

We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.

The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history. It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.

The hard, quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority, the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.

Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.

The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.

And who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?

History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason, we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points:

Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence.

Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.

Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late. As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to the only group that counts--the fanatics who threaten our way of life.

Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world-wide, read this and think about it, and send it on - before it's too late.

"Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway."--- John Wayne

"Hit the deck, saddle up and move out Marines... we have Gooks on our north, east, south and west. We are surrounded

so they can't get away from us now." Quote Col. Chesty Puller, my Regimental Commander at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea. Out numbered ten to one by Chinese Communist Armies ... we fought our way 70 miles to the sea and left nearly 40,000 dead enemy behind us in a three week battle. Rayburn Blair, Marine til I die... Saddle Up!

Pass it on. RB

Dyslexia Is A Useful God Given Gift

2012-02-05T13:59:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

I have long thought that such unusual, pseudo "defects", as dyslexia and autism, if inborn in the child, had to be a God given trait of benefit and usefulness to the affected person and to society in general. My theory was based on reasoned conclusion and personal observation. My conclusion derived from knowing that if God created and allowed to be born, a child with dyslexia or autism, it had to mean that He had a special purpose and place for that person and that trait, which is needed by the tribe, village or society's good. My personal observation of many such "gifted" individuals, with a so-called "handicap", led me to believe that every human being born has something special to offer or to be received by those around them. As you too have surely witnessed... Here is a child with autism who is plainly limited in some areas of ability but is also plainly gifted in other areas which are related to his condition. But such gifts must be accepted and cultivated. God does not make mistakes. "...All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Rom.8:28.

Since I first learned about dyslexia, I realized that I had a bit of it myself. I've always
had trouble with reading and though I have read a library full of books, I am still a slow reader and a terrible speller. I failed the third grade because I could not read. However, I have also, since childhood, been able to mentally see the "big picture" of a thing or situation. Another gift I have, which is mentioned in the article on dyslexia, linked below, is peripheral vision and an ability to see in the dark. In the Korean War I was always appointed to lead the way at night because I could see in darkness and my periphery vision often picked up movement which neither I nor my comrades could see straight on.

Our educational system sorely needs a restructuring to deal with the differences in children ... and every child is different. Everybody is dumb in some areas and adept in others.

"For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why doest thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" 1 Cor.4:7.

I must disagree with the author of the article below, who says calling dyslexia a "gift" is patronizing. Actually, to call it a "gift" infers a "Giver" and therefore a "Creator". Scientists often have that "handicap". RB

The article on dyslexia:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/05/opinion/sunday/the-upside-of-dyslexia.html

Pass it on. RB

U.N. World Tax To Supply All Needs Of Poor Nations

2012-02-04T19:55:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

UN Wants World Tax

Global levy needed to aid “needy people” get free housing,
education and healthcare

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
Friday, February 3, 2012

The United Nations wants a world tax imposed on all financial

transactions to fund a global model of social services that will

provide “needy people” with a basic income,

free healthcare, education and housing.

“The money to fund these services may come from a new world tax,” reports the Deseret News, quoting Jens Wandel, Deputy Directr of the United Nations Development Program, who said that a long term funding plan for the project would center around “a minimal financial transaction tax (of .005 percent). This will create $40 billion in revenue.”

“No one should live below a certain income level,” stated Milos Koterec, President of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. “Everyone should be able to access at least basic health services, primary education, housing, water, sanitation and other essential services.”

According to the report, the new global tax is designed to be a progressive scale, with higher earners paying more to help provide “all needy people with a basic income, healthcare, education and housing.”

This represents the UN’s latest attempt to fleece western taxpayers under the utopian rhetoric of global socialism.

While invoking the plight of the world’s poor as a justification to create a slush fund under its control, the UN is also invoking the discredited pseudo-science of man-made global warming in an effort to shake down the developed world through the imposition of carbon taxes.

_____________________________________

So there you have it dear friends ... a world U.N. taxing of the citizens of countries with free enterprise, democracy, and economic success to support all the rest of the world's population which have failed governments, a state religion or no religion. This is exactly what we in the U.S.A. have been doing here at home for fifty years.... rewarding and subsidizing several generations of the same families .... not to be responsible for themselves. Has it lifted any of them out of poverty? Has it motivated any of them to get a job and get off the public dole?

Again, I reference my previous comments ... All of this globilization and one world government talk, which will supposedly solve all of our worlds problems is leading us to the Anti-Christ's Kingdom. RB

True Words Out Of The Devil's Mouth

2012-02-03T21:07:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Jesus encountered demons possessing people through whom they spoke and said things like, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God" and, "I know who thou art, the Holy One of God". Mt.8:29, Mk.1:23-25, Lk. 4:34-35. The Apostle Paul also dealt with a demon who cried out to the people through a young woman, "These men are the servants of the most high God which show unto us the way of salvation." Acts 16:16-18. It is not uncommon for Satan to speak an isolated truth in order to open people's hearts to hear his volume of lies.

Yesterday, 2/2/2012, Thane Rosenbaum interviewed Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary, Larry Summers, who also worked for Obama until a few months ago and is a Keynesian Economist. The interview took place at the 92nd Street Y in New York. When asked about re-establishing a gold standard again to back our currency and stabilize our economy, Summers recoiled and shrieked, "A gold standard is the creationism of economics!"

Strangely, Summers is exactly right. A gold standard, which stops spendthrift politicians from recklessly spending money we do not now have backed by gold and silver, is indeed similar, in Keynesian terms, to what Evolution is to Christian Doctrine. As evolution is heresy, and Creationism is truth, to the Christian; a gold standard (honest money backed by gold and silver) is heresy, and Keynesian economics is truth, to the Keynesians. They invented the phrase, "Gold is an outdated relic" and convinced Nixon of their economic heresy, who took us off the gold standard and the unbrideled printing of more and more dollars by both parties continues to this day. Herein lies the root of most of our national economic problems.

Honest money, weights and measures in Bible days (a gold standard in today's terms), is explicit and demanded in Scripture whereas unstable, depreciating currency and inflation are an "abomination" in God's Word. Prov.20:10 &23, Lev.19:36, Prov.25:13, Mic.6:11

Larry Summers' exclamation demeaning the gold standard and Creationism, tells me several things about him". (1) As a Keynesian, he hates the debt limiting gold standard
which Keynesians successfully did away with in the 1970s here in the U.S and around the world. (2) He hates Creationism which puts him in the evolutionary camp, and which denies the Bible record and thereby eliminates him as a Christian and probably means he is an atheist. (3) His highly emotional reaction to a "gold standard", equating it with creationism, reveals their opposites to be his true religion... unsound paper money with no intrinsic value backing it and Evolution which also is unsound and of no value. It is "the love of money" that is "the root of all evil" not money itself. 1 Tim.6:10. And what we love .... we serve.

U.N.Making Rules For The World

2012-02-02T11:33:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

World 'must redefine the very concept of

national wealth'...Says United Nations Leaders

The world can no longer afford to ignore the environmental cost of economic growth and must redefine the very concept of national wealth, a UN panel of heads of state and environment ministers said Monday.

"We need to chart a new, more sustainable course for the future, one that strengthens equality and economic growth while protecting our planet," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Addis Ababa to mark the release of the panel's report, which outlines more than 50 policy recommendations.

_______________________________________

Imagine a world of absolute "equals". Add up all the people of the world including each one's living conditions, possessions, health and wealth. Draw a bottom line and add it all up into one total sum. Now divide that sum by the population of all the world to get the average "equal" living conditions, possessions, health and wealth of each person on earth. The result would, of course, raise, somewhat, the living standard of the hundreds of millions of poor people in China, India, Africa, Mexico and all other third world countries. Hey, that is wonderful.

Now, how does it change the living standard of the U.S., Canada, and Western Europe?
Well, that isn't so wonderful. It lowers the standard of living for us to about ten times the level of increase in those third world countries ... because there are ten times more of them than us. Their lives wouldn't be a lot better but ours would be a lot worse.
Another word for a system like that is "World Communism" or "World Socialism".

If you think that is the way to go, fair and just, then you are a Liberal Socialist and should vote for Obama because he, his parents, grandparents and the friends he chose to associate with in the past are Marxists ... of the same persuasion. And that is exactly what is happening in our country today with an added quotient of Fascism. It is a perfect set-up for the Anti-Christ's Kingdom.

The ironic thing is that, if Jesus tarried his coming, within twenty years the third world would still be in poverty, but under a restored free enterprise, Constitutional Government, and spiritual renewal, our country would be thriving again. Such a thing has never happened before .... but it is possible.

Pass it on. RB

Newt Should Be Thankful !

2012-02-01T14:28:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Hope deferred maketh the heart sick..." Pr.13:12
But winning, often destines the winner to a fate far worse than losing....

Mitt Romney's millions may have just bought him, as old timers observed, "a pig in a poke" or at least, "a sow's ear in a silk purse". Newt Gingrich may have just dodged the bullet and missed the fiery furnace. He could have actually won by losing ... Time will tell. In Ron Paul's case, I don't think he really wants the job but is trying to stop the insane race to the bottom in Washington. Santorum may be the one who gets the Republican nomination as a "compromise" candidate. I don't think Newt's supporters will ever switch to Romney after the barrage of defamation artillery he has thrown at Newt. And Ron Paul's supporters certainly won't either unless they can write Romney's platform on most issues and maybe not even then. Neither do I believe either Paul or Newt will accept a vice-presidential offer. Santorum probably would, but Newt and Paul supporters will see Romney as not much better than Obama. The first is a strategic liar and the latter a habitual liar. So without Newt's and Paul's voters, Romney can't win against Obama's solid brick wall of blind, deaf and truly dumb Obama supporters.

All of this adds up to the probable bottom line ....(1) Nobody but God can pay off the Federal debt and I doubt the FED will let it go into a default. (2) So they will just keep on with the "digital" printing of trillions of dollars and drive up inflation so they can pay off good dollars with bad and "appear" to be worthy of re-election. (3) Most Americans cannot comprehend why their salaries won't cover their expenses any more.
Most simply blame those "greedy crooks" who own the grocery stores and gas pumps.
The fact is, increased prices are not being caused by greedy profits but by a weakening buying power of our dollars (inflation) caused by all that new money being printed.

This brings me to my conclusion. Whoever is elected our next President will be voted out of office, with his party, after one term and the opposition party which follows will also last just one term as well. The reason? Neither party and no President can solve the mammoth difficulties coming to this nation and the world because of the insane spending of money we do not have. It was borrowed in the trillions and cannot be repaid, in sound money, nor can anyone stop the fall-out of it in one or two terms in office. That is why I say, "Newt should be thankful" if he is not nominated. He would get the blame when an impossible task ... is not accomplished.

Pass it on. RB

"The Reality Of Heaven" by Betty Rychlik

2012-01-30T18:36:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: When I was about five, my older sister, Betty, was six or seven and couldn't really read but was very attached to the Bible and was unusually God conscious. After the lights were turned out at night, Mom and Dad were in bed and all was quiet, Betty would get up for her Bible and an extension cord with a light bulb at the end of it. She would pull the covers over our heads, make a tent, turn on the light and read our younger sister, Alta, and I Bible stories. She wasn't actually reading but just telling a Bible story as she remembered it and pretend to be reading it. She has been a Christian since early childhood and at 82, still teaches a ladies Sunday School Class. Her husband, Bill, died a few months back and her focus on heaven has captured her interest and passion more than anything in this life. It is her longed for home.

The Reality Of Heaven
Betty Rychlik

I. "In the beginning God created..."The Creator (Gen.1:1-2).

Almighty God, the Heavenly Father, Creator of all things in heaven and earth is pure Spirit of infinite perfection (Jn.4:24). He is not limited to a body, and is not like any created being; yet He has personality. He is spoken of as a Person, and possesses all the attributes of a personality, such as life, intelligence with self-consciousness, self-determination, and sovereignty (1 Cor.2:10-12). God's love for man is beyond knowing or comprehending (Eph.3:7-21). His abundant grace surpasses our finite knowledge ... abundant to all who call on Him for the saving of their souls. God is not an impersonal force or power, but a Spirit. As a moral being, He is intelligent, and the scripture says, "His eyes are in every place beholding the good and bad." Pr.15:3.

God is the Beginning and the End, Alpha and Omega, the great "I AM", Jehovah, Yahweh. There is absolutely no one like Him! Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises and wonders!

The created world in all its magnificence, magnifies His works. Therefore, to harden ones heart against His existence and His creation, is to be "without excuse". Rom.1:19-21.

II. The Heaven of heavens - God's Dwelling Place.

The Jews of old recognized three heavens. (1) Where the birds fly, airplanes fly and where the clouds float. (2) The region of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, where the astronauts went to walk on the moon and where rocks and bits of soil have been taken from other outer space places. (3) The Heaven of heavens, the region spoken of as the dwelling place of God, angels, and all the other heavenly creatures God created. It's the place God has prepared for His people, the saints of all ages who have put their trust in His Son, Jesus, for eternal salvation; It is a the place of unimaginable Divine Glory ... in the immediate presence of God Almighty! The third Heaven is the habitation of His Holiness; the place where "His Honor dwelleth" (Psm.26:8). This sacred place of mansions of light, where joy and glory are and the place to which Paul, the Apostle, was caught up (2Cor.12:2).

There is ample scripture about the location and character of Heaven's real, prepared Abode. It's a definite place where departed believers are abiding ... Elijah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, the Prophets and Saints are all there.

Scriptures pertaining to: (Matt.17:3, Acts 1:3, Zech.4:3,11-14, Rev.11:3-6).

God's Abode is UP. Jesus lifted his eyes upward to heaven, to the Mount of God's throne. (Isa.14:12-14, Rev.14:1, 21:10, Psm.97:9, 11:4). It's a place prepared and reserved for a prepared people; where the saints of God from all the ages are waiting (1Pet.1:4)... a guaranteed place for our eternal abode. Jesus promised and He cannot lie (Heb.6:17-19).

This dwelling place of God is referred to in four different concepts:

(A) As Paradise, God's Heavenly Garden, the Garden of Eden restored, a Paradise where the pure river water of life flows from the glorious, brilliant Throne of God and the Lamb. On both sides of the crystal clear river there are trees of life which bare twelve manner of fruit every month. The leaves of the trees are for the "healing of the nations". The original Garden of Eden that God planted for Adam and Eve has been restored to perfection in the city of New Jerusalem in Heaven. A garden of Paradise for all God's redeemed people to enjoy.

(B) The Father's House, God's Heavenly Housing in the New Jerusalem. The Father's House is a palatial abode of heaven possessing a blaze of such glory ... so radiant and of such celestial splendor it will overwhelm all who enter in! Once we reach the realm of eternal bliss, we shall discover that it's glories far surpass the most magnificent descriptions ever given by man here below. The Father's House (John 14:2) is adorned with illustrious beams of glory. The palace is rich and sumptuous, containing many rooms (mansions) of such beauty one cannot describe it. The joys of heaven are without example; above any experience we've had, and beyond imagination.

(C) New Jerusalem, God's Heavenly City (Rev.21:2) ... John saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, coming down from God's heaven prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. Within this city is the Father's House of many mansions, The Garden of Paradise, and Zion, the ruling and reigning area of the Heavenly City.

(D) Zion - God's Heavenly Governmental Place. The Place originally known as the "City of David", Zion was situated in the lower eastern hill of Jerusalem, and was the first "Temple Hill". Later, the Ark of the covenant was moved out of the City of David to Mt. Moriah where the Temple was built. The name "Zion" was transferred there. This "Zion" became the most significant of all sacred places to the prophets and others of those centuries of old. (Isa.4:5, Jer.31:6, Zech. 8:2,3). "Zion" became/was the equivalent of Jerusalem, as the religious capital of the people of God. (Isa.28:16, Rom. 9:33, Psm.48:1-14). God's Dwelling Place is referred to in the four different concepts as, Garden, Father's House (mansions), the City of New Jerusalem, and Zion, the religious governing center. Heaven is, in a way, similar to the organized system with which we are familiar. If we could take the most beautiful portions of this earth and make them completely perfect with no imperfections, no aging, no insects, it might be somewhat similar to what God, the Father, has created for the children of His Kingdom. (1 Cor.2:9) "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love Him."

III. Why God Created Man - The scripture states in Rev.4:11, "God created man for His pleasure and for fellowship." When God created man, forming him out of the dust of the earth, He said, "Let us make him in our image" (Gen.1:26-27).

God breathed into the body of man the breath of eternal life and man became a living soul. As a triune being like God, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, man is body, soul and spirit. (2 Thess. 5:23). Justin Martyr spoke of man's trinity this way, "As the body is the house of the soul, so the soul is the house of the spirit."

(A) The Body of Man. Man's body of flesh, bone and blood is the visible and temporal part of man. The body is made up of physical functions and senses, such as, hunger, hearing, taste, sight, sex, will to live, smell, touch etc. The body's inheritance of man's genetic background contains his race, talents, looks, bone structure, height, eye color, all body parts and physical appearance are the genetic combinations.

(B) The Spirit of Man. The spirit of man is the part that is eternal and invisible. It's the part of man that God has made known the knowledge of His existence. (Rom.1:19-25). The spirit is the deepest eternal part of man. With our spirit we serve God. God is spoken of as the Father of spirits. (Heb. 12:9). Within the spirit there is the capacity for worship, communion, adoration and praise. It contains our conscience, values, beliefs, attitude. Fellowship with God is possible through the spirit and can be said to stand for being God-conscious. The spirit is the essential part of man's nature, the heart of all human life. God is Spirit and eternal. Man, made in His likeness, has an eternal spirit too ... that is invisible to the eye.

God intended the body of man to be the servant of the soul, and the soul the servant of the spirit. All three were to be servants of His and channels through which He could reach the spiritually lost world.

(C) The Soul of man - Another part of man that is eternal and invisible is the soul. The soul is the personality of the man. All of God's creatures have a flesh of some kind, but man is the only creature with an eternal soul. The soul is the central part of man, the hub of his little universe. Within the soul there are all the powers that go to make up what is called the personality. The soul is the... 1. heart, 2. the mind, and 3. the will of a person. Your soul is the real you, and represents self-consciousness.

1. The heart is our source of love, affection, conscience and consciousness (Heb.10:22). Man can harden his heart or keep it soft and pliable by obedience, and a close walk with God. When God operates on our heart, cleanses the heart of evil deeds and desires, we become "a new creature" through the work of the Holy Spirit of God. This "new creature" is called a "saint", a child of God's Kingdom (Col.26-12).

2. The will of man gives him the power to choose, act, and decide. Man makes choices and has the will and means to strive to obtain (Matt.16:24-26, Heb.10:39, 1 Pet.4:19, Psm.66:16).

IV. After Death, What Happens to the Soul and Spirit of a Saint? (The child of God or an unbeliever).

The Bible scripture states, "Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints" (Psm. 116:15). If a man is not a saint before death, he/she will never be one in the hereafter. At death the body dies, but the spirit/soul of man neither dies, nor falls asleep, or goes into a state of unconsciousness. No one ceases to be! A conscious survival after death is clearly taught in the scriptures. The human soul is transferred to the afterlife abode, whether it's Heaven or Hell ... like the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-23). At the physical death, the saint's soul and spirit leave the house (body) in which they lived and are immediately in the presence of Christ (Phil.1:23). Christ Jesus told the thief on the cross, "today you will be with me in paradise". (Luke 23:43, Heb.12:22-23, 2 Cor.5:8, Psm. 15:1).

A soul purged by Christ's blood needs no fire of purgatory, but goes immediately from the death bed into a "glorified state". That person still possesses his personality (soul) and his spirit, but he is now in a perfected form. The saint still retains his memory, has many of the same attributes as before; thinks, feels, has emotions, talks, asks questions, can see, eat, drink and function (Rev. 6:9-10).

V. Rapture - At the blast of the angel's trumpet, all the Old Testament saints and all the dead New Testament, Church Age saints of Grace will come with our Lord God Almighty in the clouds ... first ... "In the twinkling of an eye" those N.T. saint's dead bodies will be caught up ... changed into their celestial bodies. Then the saints who are still alive will be instantly changed into a new glorified body too (1 Thess.4:13-18, 1 Cor.15:39-40, 42-44, 50-58).

The saints will have bodies like Jesus' resurrected body. In Luke 24: 36-43, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples saying, "Behold my hands and feet, it is I myself; touch me and see; I'm not a spirit, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones like I do". Jesus then took honeycomb and broiled fish and did eat before them (John 20:26-27, John 21:10-15). The resurrected, celestial body is flesh and bone, it can be seen, touched and can eat. Jesus dined on fish and drank water. Even the angels can eat. In the Old Testament the three angels who came to Sarah and Abraham's tent ate Sarah's cakes, and Abraham dressed and cooked a calf for them. Abraham served them water, butter, milk, and the meat and the angels did eat (Gen.18:1-8).

VI. Judgment Seat of Christ and Tribulation....

Immediately after the rapture of saints, they stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ, not the Great White Throne of God, to be judged for reward. At the same time, the tribulation is taking place on earth. In Rev.2, Apostle John wrote to the seven churches what God revealed to him on "The Lord's Day", in the spirit, he was told to write the things which are (present) and things which shall be hereafter (future Rev.1:19). In the second and third chapters of The Revelations, John wrote about the different spiritual conditions of the churches during the church age of grace. In the fourth chapter, the Church Age has ended. The rapture has taken place, and the "hereafter" has begun (Rev.4:1). John's spirit was immediately caught up to heaven to see and hear about the tribulation time to come upon those who were left behind, on the earth, after the saint's were caught up. He sees the saints in white raiment, wearing crowns of gold, sitting around the throne of God. The saints join the other heavenly creatures in worshiping the Lamb of God who has redeemed them. He has made the saints Kings and Priests to rule and reign with Him (Rev.4:4-5, 5:9-10).

In most of the book of Revelation, John records the events taking place in the world during the tribulation time. Israel will realize the promised Messiah had already come and

they will become the evangelists.

Which Republican Candidate Is A Liberal?

2012-01-27T13:33:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: If he walks like a duck, talks like a duck and looks like a duck ..... He may be a chicken in drag. Duck=Conservative & Chicken=Liberal. RB

Jesus said, "The tree is known by his fruit"... not his appearance.

January 26, 2012 by Steven F. Hotze, M.D.

http://www.hotzehwc.com/

Is Mitt Romney a fiscal and social Liberal?

Unilaterally, illegally and unconstitutionally instituted same-sex “marriage” falsely claiming the “court ordered him to.” Proof here and here.

• Signed the forerunner to Obamacare (Romneycare) into law which includes $50 tax-subsidized elective surgical abortions including late-term abortions into law (3 years AFTER his fake “pro-life conversion”). Proof here.

• Boosted funding for homosexual “education” starting in kindergarten. Proof here.

• Opposes a ban on homosexual scoutmasters. Proof here.

• Promised the homosexual Republican “Log Cabin Republicans” he wouldn’t oppose “gay marriage” in return for their endorsement. Proof here.

• Instituted a quasi-socialist healthcare plan endorsed by Hillary Clinton, Teddy Kennedy and Planned Parenthood that destroyed the Massachusetts’ economy. Proof here and here.

• Forced Catholic Charities, the nation’s #1 adoption and foster care service to place children with same sex couples even though he was under no legal obligation to do so as even former Governor Michael Dukakis has acknowledged.

• Increased taxes and fees by close to a billion dollars which destroyed the Massachusetts’ economy and opposed the Bush Tax Cuts. The proof is here.

• Voted # 8 RINO by Human Events. Proof here.

• Passed over Republican lawyers for three quarters of the 36 judicial vacancies he faced and nominated 2 open homosexuals. Proof here.

• Criticized Joint Chiefs of Staff, Peter Pace for saying that homosexual acts were “immoral.” Proof here.

• Supports passage at the state level of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would force churches and other religious organizations to hire homosexuals and transvestites or face criminal fines and prosecution. Proof here.

• Romney supported McCain-Feingold “campaign finance reform”, McCain-Kennedy “comprehensive immigration reform” (i.e. amnesty), and parts of the McCain-Lieberman “carbon cap and trade” bill and opposed the Bush Tax Cuts. Proof here.

My question is, why is the entire Republican Establishment and News Media supporting him and destroying all the other candidates in the process? RB

See The Earth As GOD Sees it

2012-01-26T11:52:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:"In the beginning God..."
Gen.1

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of
the waters..."

"And God called the firmament Heaven... And the dry
land Earth..."

"And God said, Let us make man in out image, after our
likeness..."

"And God saw everything that he had made, and... it was
very good."

And now... you can see it ...as God saw it. Just click link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001/in/photostream/#/

How did we get here? Only two choices: Evolved or Created...

which? RB

You Could Have Guessed This ... IF

2012-01-25T10:32:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear and hear not: for they are a rebellious house." Ezek.12:2

One eye and half sense could have guessed this....

CNN Video: Newt was cleared of ethics violations by IRS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxYucZPzvkw&feature=youtu.be.

Seen Throughout The "Peaceful" Muslim World

2012-01-24T11:20:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Little signs of Muslim love
for Americans, Jews and Christians, and a desire for peace,
are being demonstrated all over the Muslim World. The
truth is, millions of them want to leave their birthplace of
disastrous poverty, reign of terror, and inferior women
and bring these national birthrights to America where those
Islamic blessings are in short supply. Others, of their more
ambitious brethren, volunteer to come over here and seek
opportunity to enter their Muslim, heavenly paradise where
fifty four virgins await them. This being Allah's reward for
their faithful service in reducing the population explosion in
America with a more holy, much more personal explosion.
Below you see a recent winner of the coveted Mohammad
Terminal Volunteer Award (All expense paid trip to USA).
His happy smile reflects the Islamic joy and anticipation of
a new experience in America and then on to those 54 virgins.
Your Humble Scribe, RB

The picture has been removed but I will leave the above
comment. The picture was of a poverty stricken Muslim
in a poverty stricken neighborhood with a poverty stricken
blue shirt down to his knees depicting the 9/11 crash of
terrorist flown airliners into the twin towers in NY City.
He had a big, expectant smile, but if his absence here
means he has gone on to his reward, he has probably
awakened in a different paradise than he had expected
where those fifty four maidens awaiting him were not
virgins but a mob of hairy, old, ugly, transsexual men
....... with horns..... and warts. RB

Maturity Thinks ... Immaturity Feels

2012-01-23T15:08:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Think your way to survival before you feel your way to destruction. "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting."

Maturity thinks it is unfair to rob diligent workers in order to give to lazy slugs.

Maturity does not think he/she knows what is best for everybody else.

Maturity does not think he/she should be someone else's responsibility.

Maturity thinks that if a person is not retarded, crippled or bedridden, they should be responsible for themselves.

Maturity does not think it unfair that some people are successful and some are not.

Maturity doesn't think of blaming someone else for his/her mistakes.

Maturity wouldn't think of believing a new acquaintance or first date who says, "I'm in love with you".

Maturity wouldn't think of eating his/her seed corn or spending his emergency fund before the fact.

Maturity would'nt think of jumping to conclusions before he/she knows all the facts.

Maturity wouldn't think of automatically believing everything their leader or candidate says without question.

Maturity thinks that whatsoever a person sows, they will eventually reap.

Immaturity FEELS all of the above is uncaring, unfair or "mean spirited".
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Do You usually THINK or FEEL ?

"I just FEEL like something bad is going to happen."
"I THINK something bad is going to happen if you keep driving 75 in this 50 zone."

"I FEEL we should vote for candidates who will do the most for the world's poor."
"I THINK we should vote for candidates who will balance our national budget."

"I FEEL we should be willing to pay higher taxes to answer everybodie's needs."
"I THOUGHT you said you didn't pay any income taxes. I pay 30% of my income and I THINK you should pay something."

"Well I FEEL you rich people should be willing to pay your fair share."
"I THINK you are nuts; those you call rich already pay 80% of all income taxes."

Do you THINK or FEEL ?

REALITY COMPETES WITH FANTASY

TRUTH COMPETES WITH FALSE

CONSERVATIVE COMPETES WITH LIBERAL

Pass it on. RB

Occupy Party vs. Tea Party: The Same?

2012-01-19T18:36:00.003-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: The following is not my work. I do not know its origin but the information is true. RB

Occupy Party vs Tea Party Comparison

The Democrats and the liberal media have said that the Occupy Party was a civic group "just like" the Tea Party.

I report......you decide.......

REPORTED	OCCUPY PARTY	TEA PARTY
ARRESTS	4149+	0

RAPES	12	0
DAMAGE	$10,000,000.00	$0
PUBLIC DEFECATION	YES	NO
ANTISEMITIC RANTS	12	0
COST TO TAXPAYERS ( by 11/9)	$19,327,487.00+	$0
PUBLIC MASTURBATION	3	0
MOLOTOV COCKTAILS THROWN	10	0
FIGHTS STARTED	YES	NO
CHILDREN EXPLOITED	YES	NO
POLICE CARS DAMAGED	2	0
PUBLIC DRUNKENNESS	YES	NO
DRUG POSSESSION ARREST	YES	NO
CONCEALED WEAPON ARREST	YES	NO
DRUG OVERDOSE	YES	NO
THEFTS	YES	NO
BURGLARIES	YES	NO
VANDALISM ARREST	YES	NO
TRESPASSING ARREST	YES	NO
NON FATAL SHOOTINGS	1	0
PUBLIC URINATION	YES	NO
URINATION ON OTHERS	YES	NO
ISRAELI FLAGS BURNED	2	0
AMERICAN FLAGS BURNED	1	0
AMERICAN FLAGS DANCED ON	1	0
AMERICAN FLAG DESECRATION	25	0
FELONY ASSAULT ON AN EMT	1	0
HEAD/BODY LICE OUTBREAKS	1	0
TUBERCULOSIS OUTBREAKS	1	0
MURDER	1	0
SUICIDE	1	0

SHOTS FIRED AT WHITE HOUSE	1	0
SCABIES OUTBREAKS	1	0
OBAMA ENDORSED IT	YES	NO
PELOSI ENDORSED IT	YES	NO
CAIR ENDORSED IT	YES	NO
SOCIALIST PARTY ENDORSED	YES	NO
NAZI PARTY ENDORSED	YES	NO
MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ENDORSED	YES	NO
COMMUNIST PARTY ENDORSED	YES	NO
BIDEN ENDORSED	YES	NO
HUGO CHAVEZ ENDORSED	YES	NO
BLACK PANTHERS ENDORSED	YES	NO
HEZBOLLAH ENDORSED	YES	NO
MARXIST UNION ENDORSED	YES	NO
9/11 TRUTHER ENDORSED	YES	NO
BOLSHEVIK ENDORSED	YES	NO
IRAN GOVERNMENT ENDORSED	YES	NO
AYATOLLAH ENDORSED	YES	NO
NORTH KOREA ENDORSED	YES	NO
FARRAKHAN ENDORSED	YES	NO
NATION OF ISLAM ENDORSED	YES	NO

Oh yes, I see the similarities now……..

Blasphemy Of The Holy Spirit. The Big Lie !

2012-01-16T22:20:00.002-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone...." Rev.21:8.

Whatever kind of "liar" God was referring to in this verse, is eternally doomed. That kind of "liar" is therefore exceptional to other kinds of lesser liars. This is the BIG LIE and is unforgivable. The Scripture teaches that the only unforgivable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. All lesser lies are forgivable. Every human being, with the possible exception of infants, has lied. Oh yes we have. A "little white lie"
and a "big black lie" are both lies. Even an intentional exaggeration is simply a lie. Everything which is not absolutely true is a lie (intentional deception) or a falsehood told in ignorance (unintentional). The good news is, "If we confess our sins, (to God) HE is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleans us from all unrighteousness." 1Jn.1:9. There is just one unforgivable sin and that is the BIG LIE
which is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit which Jesus explained in Matt.12:31-32.
"All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy of the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of man (Jesus), it shall be forgiven him, but whoso speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Eternally unforgivable. Why would God forgive blasphemy against Jesus but not the Holy Spirit? The first is done in ignorance and unbelief. The second is done intentionally, fully knowing the truth of the Gospel and lying about it. The world hears about Jesus in print, preaching, teaching or witnessing ... all done by other human beings and those lost souls don't know if what they hear is true or not. But when the Holy Spirit of God speaks to their soul ... internally, they know God is dealing with them and they need to respond .... but some resist, rebel, reject and often attack Him with Blasphemies. Jesus said, in Jn.15:26, "When the Comforter is come ... the Spirit of truth ...he will testify of ME." To reject and blaspheme that is the unpardonable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the sin of rejecting the Holy Spirit's clear and certain, convincing of the unsaved sinner's heart and mind that he/she is a sinner and that Jesus Christ is, in fact, the only Saviour/ Son of God ... and they KNOW IT IS TRUE but reject it anyway and hate it. Not to accept Christ as Saviour is forgivable until His Holy Spirit convinces the sinner beyond any doubt of his/her need for Christ and they still reject Him and speak against Him. That is rejecting the certainty of the Holy Spirit's convincing power and is not the same as hearing it from a preacher or witness who uses only human words and may or may not know what they are talking about or how to say it. That is excusable. But when the Holy Spirit works through that Christian, who delivers His Word, and convinces that lost soul of Christ, but he still rejects Him and stands against Him, that is not forgivable because he/she rejects, not the witness or a Jesus they are uncertain about, but the witness of the "HOLY GHOST" in their hearts, and know it is true but do not want Christ and become apostate ... "speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron." 1Tim:4:2.---- "Who being past feeling, (sociopaths) have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness and greediness. Eph.4:19. This is, indeed, the BIG LIE and the BIG LIAR ... as the Scripture reveals in 1Jn.2:22, "Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he is ANTI-Christ, that denieth the Father and the Son." Those are the liars who will "have their part in the lake of fire", who are "past feeling" because they rejected what the Holy spirit convinced them of and cursed Him for it.

Examples of this worst of all sins are seen in King Agrippa and the Religious Pharisees and Sadducees: When Apostle Paul was brought before King Agrippa, he asked, "King
Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest." Then Agrippa said unto Paul, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Acts 26:27-28. Agrippa had been convinced by the Holy Spirit that the Old Testament prophecies of Messiah/Christ were true but refused to yield his pride and accept Christ as Saviour. What would the people think of him as their King ... becoming a follower of Jesus? This was also true of the Pharisees and Sadducees. They were constantly reading the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah/Christ and knew that Jesus had fulfilled all those prophecies but rejected the convincing, conviction of the Holy Spirit and hated and persecuted Him. They were so steeped in "Religion" that they had no room for their Christ.

Apostle Paul said of them, "What if some did not believe? shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar
(if they reject the "oracles" of God's Word). Read it in Rom.3:3-4.

Very few people, if any but little children, are exactly what they appear to be ... totally transparent. One lie does not make a habitual liar .... else would all be "ish kazab" as King Solomon referred to some in Prov.19:22 ..."A poor man is better that a liar." This word, "liar" is the Hebrew word "ish kazab" and means, "a man of lies" (plural) which means, a habitual liar. Jesus said, "The devil is a liar and the father of it." Jn.8:44. This Greek word, (pseustes), in conjunction with "father of it", means the devil is a habitual liar and the inspiration of all lies and liars. His first appearance on earth in Genesis, to Adam and Eve, he was lying to them about God and calling God a liar. This explains people who lie and exaggerate habitually but are quick to point out other people's lies and exaggerations.

The Apostle John wrote, in 1 Jn.2:4, of those who make false professions of "accepting" Christ, when in truth, they do not ... "He is a liar and the truth is not in him." Blasphemy ! Later in this chapter (1 Jn.2:22), the Apostle defined the kind of liar he was referring to... "Who is a liar... but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ/Messiah." Remember, a liar is one who "KNOWINGLY, INTENTIONALLY" tells an untruth. They have to Know the thing is not true or else it is simply ignorance... unintentionally telling a falsehood not a lie. So those of whom John speaks Knew that Jesus was their Messiah/Christ but denied He was Messiah.

Blasphemy done in ignorance and unbelief is forgivable. Done with knowledge, it is a lie and unforgivable. Here is proof in this key verse of Apostle Paul's testimony: "I was a BLASPHEMER but I obtained mercy .... (why)... because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." 1 Tim.1:15. Paul thought his persecuting of Christians was doing God a favor. Jn.16:2.

In the final three and a half years of Great Tribulation, the lost, left behind, unsaved sinners, after the Rapture, who by that time will know that God, Jesus, and His Bible are all true, and they were wrong, will not then be able to repent and accept Christ... "They gnawed their tongues for pain and BLASPHEMED the God of heaven because of their pain and their sores, and they REPENTED NOT of their deeds." Rev.16:11. How terrible and unnecessary ... when they could have been saved.

Even the devils recognized Jesus for who He was and cried out, "Thou art the Christ the Son of God." Lk.4:41.

Jn.1 tells us the Jesus "was the Light" .... and that he was "the true Light, which lighteth every man (human) that cometh into the world."

One of the most powerful, transforming and fearful 7 verses in the Bible (Rom.1:16-21) concludes with, "...When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened."

Pass it on. RB

2000 A.D. Generation Of Babel Builders

2012-01-13T19:46:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:"Except the LORD build the house, they labour in
vain thet build it." Psalms 127:1

"...We have been assured, Sir, in the Sacred Writings that except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid, we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel..."--BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (Founding Father of USA)

"Those who will not be ruled by GOD will be ruled by TYRANTS ." ... William Penn (Founder Pennsylvania)

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty. Thomas Jefferson (Founding Father of USA)

Are we now another generation of "Babel Builders" 4000 plus years after they who built that original United World Tower in the land of Shinar, which God destroyed? Gen.11:4-6

Are we so foolish as to have built our National house upon the sand as Jesus warned against in Matt.7:26 ? "And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand." RB

When It Comes To Politics...Who Can We Trust With Our Vote?

2012-01-10T13:26:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." Isa.55:9.

When it comes to Politics and Power, who can we trust with our vote? Nobody? Where they have stood in the past, what they have written and how they have voted is all that means anything. We can't read their minds, go by their looks, or believe what they say or promise, to get elected. The surest test of who they really are is, what they have done and how they have voted in the past. This includes every one of the candidates. I have changed my choice several times and now, I have no preferred candidate but several I do not prefer ... and have just changed my mind again. My #1 NO NOT HIM ... UN- Preferred is the one in the Oval Office now.

The more I read of the Candidates' histories, words, actions and votes, the less I trust any of them. I am weary of voting for the lesser of two evils. If they are right on social issues, they are wrong of political issues. If they are right on National Security, they are wrong on social issues. If they are right on all issues, they are weak on some moral area. Is any one of them MOST qualified? I am sure this is true, but how can we KNOW that? It is obvious to me that after I have thoroughly studied all of the candidates and know as much as I can possibly learn about who they truly are, I must seeks GOD's Will in the matter.
By "GOD's WILL", I do not mean my emotions or some random thought which pops into my head. I have heard far too many Christians tell me they were going to do a particular thing because God "told me to do it", but which the Word of God, the Bible, clearly forbids.
When I remember that President Obama is a member of a pseudo Baptist Church, Jimmy Carter was a Baptist Sunday School teacher, and Bill Clinton claimed to be a Baptist, I somehow don't think that is a qualification... and I am a Baptist Preacher. Choosing a President or Congressman or whatever, to vote for, seems to fall under the "Political" advice Jesus gave the Pharisees in Matt.22:16-22 . The Pharisees asked Jesus if it was scripturally lawful for them to pay taxes to the Roman Government (Caesar) or not. Jesus asked, "Whose image is on your money?" They said, "Caesar's". Jesus then made a Political Judgement.... "Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and to God the things which are God's."
There are other pragmatic decisions and choices we must make every day based somewhat on this same verse. For instance, when I am looking for a doctor, mechanic or electrician, I want one who is qualified by his education, aptitude and experience to do the job right and not kill me, blow my engine, or burn my house down in the process. My first requirement for those things is "qualification" not if they are religious, a Baptist or even a true, Bible believing Christian. I had a wonderful Christian brother and member of our Fundamental, Bible Believing Church who said to me, his pastor, "Pastor, I can fix our church air conditioning system and save us some money." He succeeded in destroying the entire system. We had expert air conditioning specialists replace it. Were they Christians? I don't remember, though I always asked repair men after the work was done ... not before.

           I would be so thankful to have a real, truly Christian President of our country ... if he
           is qualified to do the most powerful, difficult political job on earth. If I say, "But God
           would guide and help the Christian do the job", .... maybe not, if it was not His perfect will.
            I have known many fine, dedicated Christian Pastors who could never seem to successfully
           pastor after trying in a half dozen or so different locations. Other pastors I have known, who
           were fantastic soul winners and church builders, couldn't preach a lick. We must remember
           that God has a will, a plan, and an agenda which may not be known or even understandable
           to us. God has placed some unlikely men and women in positions of leadership. Deborah
           for instance. Judges 4.   Who knows what God may do... or allow in the next Presidential
           election. If we get what we deserve, it may not be the most holy choice. God give us grace
           insight, wisdom and leadership in our personal, one lonely vote. Study it and pray about it.

            "The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heartof kings is unsearchable."
              Prov.25:3.

            Pass it on. RB

Betsy's Conversation with our 3yr.old Great Granddaughter, Libby

2012-01-09T21:05:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Jesus loved little children ... and showed it. Mk.10:14..."Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child shall in no wise enter therein." Lk.18:17.

The following is an email Mrs. Blair and I received today from one of our many wonderful grand daughters, Betsy Hathaway, Ron and Cindy's daughter. RB

As I got ready to pray with Libby before bed she struck up a conversation. For you that know her…hahaha, this is nothing out of the ordinary, however rarely does her conversations have anything else to do with anything other than baby dolls, stuffed animals or princesses. This night…I had to leave the room immediately afterwards so that I could write our conversation down because I NEVER wanted to forget it. I want to share it with you…. I am so blessed.

Libby 3 years old: "Mommy what do you dream about?"

Me: "I dream about my children, what do you dream about?"

Libby: "I dream about Jesus. "

Me: "Oh, that’s really nice. What does Jesus do in your dreams?"

Libby: "He tells me that HE loves me. And Mommy!... HE took away my madness and put it on Him. Yep, that’s what He did to me."

Me: "Libby, you are very right."

Libby: "Mommy, what does Daddy dream about?"

Me: "I don’t know…"

Libby: "I think he dreams about tooting."

I knew the deepness of that conversation would be short lived...she's only 3...BUT OH MY GOODNESS SHE'S ONLY THREE!!! HOW EXCITED I AM FOR GOD TO SHOW ME THROUGH MY 3 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER THAT OUR PRAYERS ARE BEING ANSWERED AND THAT EVEN NOW...AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE, MY SWEET PRECIOUS ANGEL IS BEING PURSUED BY HER HEAVENLY FATHER...THANK YOU JESUS!!!! I am a flawed Mommy...but thankfully my Saviour makes up for my flaws and speaks to our daughter in her dreams giving her the message that He wants her to know...the same message that I may fail at times to teach through my own selfish actions and failures as a mother. Thank you Jesus for allowing me to be used in my children's lives and picking up the slack when I fall. I love you. You truly amaze me...

Betsy, you too are amazing because He is amazing and you know it. And one amazing great granddaughter named Libby, coming up. RB

Quietly, Obliviously Hearlding In Anti-Christ's Kingdom

2012-01-09T11:39:00.002-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: The promise and prediction of Jesus:"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Lk.21:28.

Who Controls The World's Financies Controls The World
The present World Financial crisis is an open door excuse for the "One Worlders" to bring in their dream of a single World Government. They are doing it under the banner of "A more civilized world" for the benefit of the Human Race. They envision World Laws, World Courts, World digital currency, a World Health System, World Food distribution, World Police, a World Social Security System and, of course, a World Leader. They claim, and probably believe their vision is for justice, peace, equality and safety for all people. That includes free health care, elimination of crime, an end to wars, control of drugs, and Universal Equality.
Even now, World Central Banks and most World Leaders are leaning in that direction. Even the Pope recently called for a World Currency.

All of this will be done in the name of "Civilization" but is, in fact, the preparation and heralding in of the Anti-Christ. But, dear friends, do not look for the soon coming of the Anti-Christ .... but lift up your heads and look to the soon coming of Jesus Christ. RB "When ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the Kingdom of God is nigh at hand." Lk.21:31

The following article, from Reuters Breaking Views, is secular not religious.RB
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/idUKL6E8C53OQ20120109

Financial Repression Is Here And May Be Helpful

By Edward Hadas
LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - “The existence of civilisation presupposes the repression of powerful instinctual urges”. The words are from Sigmund Freud’s "Civilisation and its Discontents". The father of psychoanalysis was not concerned with the discontents of investors, but his insight might be applicable to the instinctive urge to maximise profits. Sometimes a little financial repression can help make the economy more civilised.
Financial repression is the name economists give to the various ways that governments encourage or force investors to buy sovereign debt at unattractive prices. Economists Carmen Reinhart and M. Belen Sbrancia have identified three varieties: First, caps on interest rates keep down government borrowing costs. Second, rules that encourage the purchase of government bonds artificially increase demand. These include limits on cross-border capital flows and requirements that banks and insurers hold large quantities of supposedly risk-free government paper. Finally, governments can take direct control of investment by financial intermediaries. Hungary’s recently-nationalised pension funds are increasing their investment in government debt.
All these techniques allow governments to borrow at a lower cost and in larger quantities than they could in a totally free market. With a little help from inflation, governments can even pay back less than they borrow in real terms. Reinhart and Sbrancia calculate that the average real short-term interest rate paid by U.S. government between 1945 and 1980 was -3.5 percent.
In economic terms, such negative rates are the equivalent of a default. But while absolute non-payment wreaks havoc on the financial system -- the great lesson of the Great Depression --banks and other leveraged institutions have less trouble dealing with the erosion of value through financial repression. And at least in some countries, many citizens seem to prefer to pay the government through hard-to-calculate losses in the financial system than through quite visible taxes.
The modern history of financial repression has three chapters. The first lasted as long as the Bretton Woods agreements, which were signed at the end of the Second World War and finally collapsed in the early 1970s. Capital controls were the norm and repression was rife. So was civilisation -- many nations enjoyed two decades of low inflation, low unemployment and rapid GDP growth. But in some countries financial repression brought more pain than gain. Argentines, for example, were unhappy about the government’s real interest rate, which Reinhart and Sbrancia calculate at -16 percent.
The second chapter began when the 1960s spirit of individual freedom hit the financial world. It took a while, but from 1980 onwards, government controls on rates and investment strategies were considered suspect. A financial Freud could have predicted the result. The instinct of blind greed triumphed over reason. It all ended in a global financial crisis.
The third chapter, which is just beginning, promises more repression. The renewal is hidden by the legacy of the years of financial freedom. Central banks and regulators are reluctant to follow politicians’ orders. Capital controls are still considered anathema in most countries. When the president ofFrance recently recommended that euro zone banks use cheap funds from the European Central Bank to buy government bonds, he was slammed.
But governments still call most of the shots. So repression is blooming, just under new names and with some interesting excuses. The central bankers who set negative real overnight rates in Europe and the United States may believe they are promoting growth, but the effect is to lower government borrowing costs. Investors cannot escape. Real rates are low almost everywhere and regulators will not allow too many bets on higher-yielding alternatives.
Similarly, when central banks buy government debt with newly printed money or when prudential regulators require banks to hold larger buffers of liquid government debt, they artificially increase demand -- and depress yields. More traditional direct techniques of repression may also be making a comeback. Italyhas recently seen a campaign for patriotic bond-buying.
Such artifices may appal devotees of totally free financial markets, but they are less damaging than more natural alternatives. Government defaults are disastrous and more fiscal austerity might spark another recession. Investors should hesitate before complaining about meagre yields in the new era. Financial repression could even have a civilising influence.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12.

A MASK of Sanity ... The Face Of The Psychopath

2012-01-07T20:28:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:
"... men... full of evil, and madness is in their heart..."Ecc.9:3.

Noah Webster's definition of a psychopath: "A disorder of behavior toward other individuals or toward society in which reality is usually clearly perceived except for the individual's social and moral obligations and which often seeks immediate personal gratification in criminal acts, drug addiction, or sexual perversion."

Psychopaths often have an uncanny ability, through years of practice, to leave the impression of mental stability, charm, and charisma. They may also demonstrate great talent, intelligence and leadership ability. But, like Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Charles Manson and Jim Jones, they often, usually in private, suddenly jump the "normal track" and commit cold, emotionless acts of cruelty, verbal abuse or even calm, apathetic murder.

We have seen these characteristics in practically every walk of life including corporate CEOs, Bankers, Attorneys, Politicians, Law Officers ... and, yes, the Ministry too. A great percentage of those in jails and prisons are also psychopaths.... and most psychopaths will be sooner or later unless they are very rich, famous or in positions of influence.

We all saw and heard the mother of a convicted murderer, on television news, say calmly to the victim's family, coming out of the court room, "The man was sixty years old ... did you think he was going to live forever?" That is a psychopathic personality obviously passed on to the son by Mama.

I witnessed a young black thug being asked in court, "Why did you kill that man if you had no reason and didn't even know him?" His answer .... "That old man ain't never done nothin for me." That, my friends, is a psychopath.

We have all seen serial killers describe to investigators how they killed, dismembered, and disposed of dozens of bodies with the matter of fact calmness and absence of feeling as if they were explaining what they had for lunch. No feeling, no remorse, no guilt.

It is not surprising that many psychopaths fight and intimidate their way to the top of the corporate ladder and even into elected office and other positions of power. In my opinion they are driven by the same evil spirit which drove Lucifer in his lust for the throne of God. RB RB
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


          THE PSYCHOPATH - The Mask of Sanity


             Special Research Project of the Quantum Future School

Imagine - if you can - not having a conscience, none at all, no feelings of guilt or remorse no matter what you do, no limiting sense of concern for the well-being of strangers, friends, or even family members. Imagine no struggles with shame, not a single one in your whole life, no matter what kind of selfish, lazy, harmful, or immoral action you had taken.

And pretend that the concept of responsibility is unknown to you, except as a burden others seem to accept without question, like gullible fools.
Now add to this strange fantasy the ability to conceal from other people that your psychological makeup is radically different from theirs. Since everyone simply assumes that conscience is universal among human beings, hiding the fact that you are conscience-free is nearly effortless.
You are not held back from any of your desires by guilt or shame, and you are never confronted by others for your cold-bloodedness. The ice water in your veins is so bizarre, so completely outside of their personal experience, that they seldom even guess at your condition.
In other words, you are completely free of internal restraints, and your unhampered liberty to do just as you please, with no pangs of conscience, is conveniently invisible to the world.
You can do anything at all, and still your strange advantage over the majority of people, who are kept in line by their consciences will most likely remain undiscovered.
How will you live your life?
What will you do with your huge and secret advantage, and with the corresponding handicap of other people.... (conscience)?

Pass it on. RB

Beware: Corporate and Political Psychopaths

2012-01-07T13:38:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "For the LOVE of money is the ROOT of all evil; which while some
COVETED after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through ...." 1Tim.6:10.

Why does the psychopath "LOVE" and "COVET" money?
What does this "root of all evil" buy him that is so desirable?

1. Personal POWER. 2. Personal FAME. 3. Personal Control.
4. Personal LUXURY. 5. Personal SAFETY. 6. Fuel for LUST.
7. Exagerated SELF IMAGE. 8. Illusion of FREEDOM.

Note:
It is not "money" that is the "root of all evil" but the "love"
and "coveting" of it, for evil use, that is psychopathic & evil.
Beware: Corporate Psychopaths
Still Occupy Positions of Power

By Brian Basham, The Independent UK

utlook: Over the years I've met my fair share of monsters – rogue individuals, for the most part. But as regulation in the UK and the US has loosened its restraints, the monsters have proliferated.

In a paper recently published in the Journal of Business Ethics entitled "The Corporate Psychopaths: Theory of the Global Financial Crisis", Clive R Boddy identifies these people as psychopaths.

"They are," he says, "simply the 1 per cent of people who have no conscience or empathy." And he argues: "Psychopaths, rising to key senior positions within modern financial corporations, where they are able to influence the moral climate of the whole organisation and yield considerable power, have largely caused the [banking] crisis'.

And Mr Boddy is not alone. In Jon Ronson's widely acclaimed book The Psychopath Test, Professor Robert Hare told the author: "I should have spent some time inside the Stock Exchange as well. Serial killer psychopaths ruin families. Corporate and political and religious psychopaths ruin economies. They ruin societies."

Cut to a pleasantly warm evening in Bahrain. My companion, a senior UK investment banker and I, are discussing the most successful banking types we know and what makes them tick. I argue that they often conform to the characteristics displayed by social psychopaths. To my surprise, my friend agrees.

He then makes an astonishing confession: "At one major investment bank for which I worked, we used psychometric testing to recruit social psychopaths because their characteristics exactly suited them to senior corporate finance roles."

Here was one of the biggest investment banks in the world seeking psychopaths as recruits.

Mr Ronson spoke to scores of psychologists about their understanding of the damage that psychopaths could do to society. None of those psychologists could have imagined, I'm sure, the existence of a bank that used the science of spotting them as a recruiting mechanism.

I've never met Dick Fuld, the former CEO of Lehman Brothers and the architect of its downfall, but I've seen him on video and it's terrifying. He snarled to Lehman staff that he wanted to "rip out their [his competitors] hearts and eat them before they died". So how did someone like Mr Fuld get to the top of Lehman? You don't need to see the video to conclude he was weird; you could take a little more time and read a 2,200-page report by Anton Valukas, the Chicago-based lawyer hired by a US court to investigate Lehman's failure. Mr Valukas revealed systemic chicanery within the bank; he described management failures and a destructive, internal culture of reckless risk-taking worthy of any psychopath.

So why wasn't Mr Fuld spotted and stopped? I've concluded it's the good old question of nature and nurture but with a new interpretation. As I see it, in its search for never-ending growth, the financial services sector has actively sought out monsters with natures like Mr Fuld and nurtured them with bonuses and praise.

We all understand that sometimes businesses have to be cut back to ensure their survival, and where those cuts should fall is as relevant to a company as it is, today, to the UK economy; should it bear down upon the rich or the poor?

Making those cuts doesn't make psychopaths of the cutters, but the financial sector's lack of remorse for the pain it encourages people to inflict is purely psychopathic. Surely the action of cutting should be a matter for sorrow and regret? People's lives are damaged, even destroyed. However, that's not how the financial sector sees it.

Take Sir Fred Goodwin of RBS, for example. Before he racked up a corporate loss of £24.1bn, the highest in UK history, he was idolised by the City. In recognition of his work in ruthlessly cutting costs at Clydesdale Bank he got the nickname "Fred the Shred", and he played that for all it was worth. He was later described as "a corporate Attila", a title of which any psychopath would be proud.

Mr Ronson reports: "Justice departments and parole boards all over the world have accepted Hare's contention that psychopaths are quite simply incurable and everyone should concentrate their energies instead on learning how to root them out."

But, far from being rooted out, they are still in place and often in positions of even greater power.

As Mr Boddy warns: "The very same corporate psychopaths, who probably caused the crisis by their self-seeking greed and avarice, are now advising governments on how to get out of the crisis. Further, if the corporate psychopaths theory of the global financial crisis is correct, then we are now far from the end of the crisis. Indeed, it is only the end of the beginning."

I became familiar with psychopaths early in life. They were the hard men who terrorised south-east London when I was growing up. People like "Mad" Frankie Fraser and the Richardson brothers. They were what we used to call "red haze" men, and they were frightening because they attacked with neither fear, mercy nor remorse.

Regarding Messrs Hare, Ronson, Boddy and others, I've realised that some psychopaths "forge careers in corporations. The group is called Corporate Psychopaths". They are polished and plausible, but that doesn't make them any less dangerous.

In attempting to understand the complexities of what went wrong in the years leading to 2008, I've developed a rule: "In an unregulated world, the least-principled people rise to the top." And there are none who are less principled than corporate psychopaths.

Brian Basham is a veteran City PR man, entrepreneur and journalist.

"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places." Eph.6:12.

Pass it on. RB

Ant and Grasshopper UPDATE 2012

2012-01-06T13:47:00.002-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard (grasshopper);
consider her ways and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer or ruler,
provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.
How long wilt thou sleep oh sluggard? .... So shall thy poverty come...."
Proverbs 6:6-11

The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different .... Two Versions ...
Two Different Morals

OLD VERSION

The ant works
hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his house
and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs and
dances, drinks beer and
smokes dope, and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the ant is warm
and well fed.

The grasshopper has
no food or shelter, so he
dies out in the cold.
MORAL OF THE OLD STORY:
Be responsible for yourself!

UPDATED 2012 VERSION

The ant works hard
in the withering heat and the rain all summer long,
building his house and
laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool and laughs
and dances, drinks beer
and smokes dope, and plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls
a press conference and demands
to know why the ant should be
allowed to be warm and well fed while he is
cold and starving.
CBS, NBC, PBS, MSNBC, CNN, and ABC
show up to
provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper
next to a video of the
ant in his
comfortable home with a table filled with food.

America is stunned
by the sharp contrast.

How can this be, that in a country of such wealth,
this poor grasshopper
is allowed to suffer so?

Kermit the Frog appears
on Oprah with the grasshopperand everybody
cries when they sing,
'It's Not Easy Being Green'

ACORN stages a demonstration in front of
the ant's house, where the
news stations film the SEIU group singing,
'We shall overcome.'
Then Rev. Jeremiah Wright
has the group kneel down to pray for the
grasshopper's life and safety,
while he damns the ants.

President Obama

condemns the ant and blames
President Bush 43,

President Bush 41,
President Reagan, capitalism, and the Pope
for the grasshopper's plight.

Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid
exclaim in an interview with Larry King
that the ant hasgotten rich off the back
of the grasshopper, and both call for
an immediate tax hike on the ant
to make him pay his 'fair share'.

Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity &
Pro-Grasshopper, Anti-Ant Act
retroactive to the beginning of
the summer.

The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate
number of green bugs
and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes,
his home is confiscated
by the Government Green Czar
and given to the grasshopper.
The story ends as we see the grasshopper
and his free-loading friends
finishing up the last bits of the ant's food,
while the government
house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be
the ant's old house, crumbles around them because
the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.

The ant has disappeared in the snow,
never to be seen again.

The grasshopper is found dead
in a drug related incident, and the house,
now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders

who terrorize the ramshackle,
once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.

The entire Nation collapses
bringing down the rest of the free world with it.

MORAL of the Story

Vote with the ANTS in November

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"Science Falsely So Called" Leads To A Dead-End

2012-01-04T19:36:00.003-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: The word "science" comes from the Latin word, scientia, meaning "to have knowledge" as opposed to ignorance, its opposite, which means simply uninformed. To tell or teach "false knowledge" knowingly is another matter. It is lying ... not "uninformed ignorance".

The Apostle Paul cautioned his young friend, "O Timothy, keep that (knowledge of truth) which has been committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called." 1Tim.6:20.

The Apostle was a highly educated man, who had studied under the leading scholar of his time, Gamaliel. So he was not putting down Science, Knowledge or Education. He was doing the opposite. He was putting down Ignorance and "False Knowledge" of any kind especially False Religion. He was warning the young Timothy not to be taken in or influenced by "False Science". Every word, thought, theory, profession or religion which is not true to the Bible ... is "false". He did not tell Timothy to expose or debate or argue every error, lie or heresy but to "keep the truth" and "avoid" its opposite. The world is overflowing with error, lies, heresy and false religions and confronting them would consume all your time and energy. Preaching the truth is what will "make people free" of all the such bondage. Jn.8:32 "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Jesus said it. At least six times Paul challenged various churches, "I would not have you to be ignorant .... (uninformed) of the truth."

To deny God is to deny "creation" for creation requires a Creator. Therefore, the unbelieving world must devise some other, "pseudo-scientific" explanation for the existence of life, the Earth and the Universe. Since no kind of "creator" is acceptable to them ... for he, she or it would be God, the only other explanation atheism could postulate was that it all just "popped into existence" with a "Big Bang" and somehow a tiny bit of "life" evolved from one cell into an amoeba into a tadpole, frog, monkey and finally man. Never mind the 9,999,999 zillion impossibilities of that hypothesized theory, it was all they had.... a "Big Bang". One cannot fully comprehend Atheism's Evolution theory without understanding that Evolution is not just a theory but their A-theist (No God) religion in answer to the Faith God established through Christ.

I. The Big Bang Theory: This pseudo- scient if ical theory, is probably based on the fact that all the planets in the universe are supposedly moving outward, in all directions from some strangely central beginning point as in a single humongous, explosion in mid air. That is the nearest they can come to a "beginning" ... but how it happened, when and where, off there in a vast, dark, empty nothingness, has no explanation... like "who lit the fuse or pulled the trigger or spoke the WORD". Actually, they have blindly, ignorantly alluded to God without knowing it. When He said, "Let there be...", as He did in Genesis when He renovated the earth, but before that, when He created the Universe, His power went out within his WORD commanded and Created it. From wherever God was, and whenever it was, when He Created this universe with His omnipotent power, in a WORD, there had to be a huge noise or explosion flinging the stars, meteors and planets into existence. You could call that a BIG BANG but without God commanding ... "Let there be...", it could never have happened.

II. The E=MC2 Theory: Albert Einstein's theory of E equals MC squared or Energy equals Mass, though a scientific equation, does not mean it is "false or true science". It was arrived at in the brain of a man who, though not a Christian, strongly believed in a Creator God. Einstein firmly believed in a planned and created universe and often referred to "God" as its Creator. It was just too perfect. When a theory is established upon that premise, and harmonizes with the fact that GOD IS, the theorist cannot go too far astray with his theory. I will quote just four of Einstein's comments on God and creation. "The human mind is not capable of grasping the Universe. We are like a little child entering a huge library. The walls are covered to the ceilings with books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. But the child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books - a mysterious order which it does not comprehend, but only dimly suspects." "Before God we all are equally wise and equally foolish." "God does not play dice." "God always takes the simplest way." E=MC2 begins with a Creator God. "E" represents "Energy". The energy he is referring to is the energy of the Creator God, in Einstein's mind. Jesus said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." Matt.28:18. In Genesis, God spoke things into existence... by commanding it to be... "Let there be..." and... Bang ...it was so. His WORD did it.

Jesus said, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God... All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, as of the only begotten (Son) of God...." Jn.1:1,3,14. Jesus is here revealed to be the Living Word of God accomplishing the Will of God. When God spoke the Living Word, backed up by His omnipotent energy, the Word went forth in that power and created "Mass" ... the stars, planets, worlds. "...the worlds were framed by the WORD of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." Heb.11:3. Everything was made from nothing but the power (energy) in the WORD of God. E=MC2.

III. Evolution's Theory: As you can see, the Big Bang, E=MC2 and Evolution are all claimed as true science. The first two may indeed have an element of scientific truth in them, as I have pointed out. But evolution is contrary to all scientific truth as well as to the record of God's Word, the Bible.

Evolutionists have searched the archaeological world over from surface and subsurface, mountain top and ocean floor to find a creditable half monkey, half human skull, skeleton, tooth or bone. Many times they have claimed a find but not a single bone has yet proven to be a link between animal/human out of the millions they have dug up with a religious hope it will prove evolution. Not one!

When I was young, my words were much quicker than my brain. As a maturing adult, my brain became much quicker than my words. At 81, I now write thoughts much easier than I can speak them. That is not evolution. It is accumulation of years... a slow tongue, knowledge and maturity replacing the quickness and agility of youth. I am not more or less human. Human progress is not evolution it is several thousand years of accumulated knowledge compounded. Educational sophistication began at ground zero in Eden and each generation built upon the knowledge and progress of the previous generations. Adam and Eve had as much natural, inborn intelligence as we have but without the benefit of accumulated experiential knowledge passed down through the centuries.

Now, in this second millennium AD, we basically have the same innate, natural intelligence potential as did human beings 2000 or 5000 years ago. The difference is accumulated, and recorded knowledge which gives us an advantaged beginning mark from which to start and progress in our education and accomplishments.

People today have the same sins, make the same mistakes and have similar infant IQ as did Cain and Able when they were born to the first man and woman ...but no books or Google to learn from.

I have a certain suspicion that, on an individual level, it is more likely that some people are devolving rather than evolving. I've seen a few folks who appeared to be in evolutionary reverse, going down the evolutionary ladder not up it. I call that scientific devilution ... the effects of evil upon the soul.

Pass it on ... if you dare. RB

Investing Should Never Be A Gamble

2012-01-02T17:59:00.003-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Investing should never be a gamble ... but that is exactly what the stock and bond markets have become in our country today. They are rigged roulette wheels and loaded dice.

The honorable Prescient Due Diligence does not work here anymore. He is out of a job.
Well informed, experienced advice and due diligence have been very helpful in the past but the same advice and in depth analysis can no longer be depended upon because the markets are totally broken and that not by accident. Though it may have been unintentional, it was still criminal. Not only are many major corporations being run by dishonest executives who break all the rules to help themselves, but the entire system, including governmental regulating agencies are either fully corrupted or unbelievably negligent. I think, by now, all market specialists know it but many still successfully invest by shorting the market (betting against it) or by trading the volatile currency markets or by other, limited means. Only the poor, retail investors and blind leaders of the blind are still trying to play the markets by the wise old rules. There are no more sound investing rules which can win in a perverted degenerated, market system. The past principles, of smart stock and bond investing, which used trends, fundamentals, momentum and other due diligence methods and tools to make sound investments ... do not produce good results as they once did. The system is broken.

The internal rigging of the markets finally reached its maximum, counterbalanced stabilization point like a seesaw with a heavy weight of success, functionality and honesty on one end and an equal weight of dishonest, dysfunctional greed on the other end and when one more pound of greasy greed was added, the seesaw broke in the middle. This heavy preponderance of corruption broke the system and millions of savers and retirees lost their years of diligent work and savings. Who is responsible? Like every automobile collision, some one is at fault.

In this case, the first fault is due the majority voting public who elected the unethical politicians who promised the most free stuff and had the most pull with the bureaucrats, special interests, reactionary recipients and fellow crooks. They were so busy with dishing out free stuff, vacationing, gloating in their own glory, and getting re-elected that the bureaucratic, regulating agency, guard dogs were letting their foxy cousins guard the hen-house. Come sun-up the hen-house is full of feathers and the fat foxes are waddling around looking for cover while pointing their index toe at heavy work-loads and too few staff.

If the primary fault belongs to the majority voters, the remedy, if there is one, is also their moral responsibility. In the name of integrity and survival, vote the Liberals rascals out and old fashioned, honest, conservative Constitutionalists in. Even the best candidates cannot work miracles but if they do the right thing, the medicine will burn like... fire and the surgery will hurt like...heck. So don't vote the good guys out in four years before they can medicate the idiot infections in this country and undo what took years to do.

If you need a Socialism Failure and Wages of Sin "object lessons", look at Europe and the USA.
God help us to get back to Free Enterprise Business and Constitutional Government. But... that also means a return to God.

Pass it on. RB

Rednecks Keep The Country In Working Order

2011-12-31T23:09:00.006-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep." Ecc.5:12. Could the sleep of the rich have been disturbed by worry over business, investments, competition, taxes, employee salaries, government agencies harassing them and over indulging of food and drink? Probably.

Some spoiled, mommy's boy, heir to wealth, first used the term "redneck" referring to
the class of Americans who work hard, out in the sun, six days a week and go to church on the seventh day. Rednecks are those red blooded Americans who make the country work and fix it when its broken. They aren't ashamed to sweat and put on no uppity airs. They are who they are and if you don't like common, ordinary, honest people ... go find some like yourself. When you are in a bind or need help or dial 911, its a redneck who usually shows up to save your hide or fix your problem. One of the biggest mistakes snobbish people make is judging a redneck by his less than smooth, sugar-coated way of talking. I've known many a redneck farmer, electrician, or plumber who didn't use good English but had more horse-sense and wisdom than those who like to use the word disparragingly. If you made a big deal out of my using two r's in "disparaging".... you don't qualify to be a redneck but do qualify to be a stiff necked critic of us rednecks. Why am I claiming to qualify? I have redneck ancestry and I worked all this week in the Texas sunshine helping build a barn to house goat and chicken feed, tools, and garden equipment. Now I have a deep red neck to wear to church in the morning with all "them" other rednecks who sing loud, shake hands hard love the lord and fixed or built a lot of useful stuff this week and made all your utilities work. RB

IN GOD WE TRUST!

God's Answers To Human Questions

2011-12-26T21:11:00.003-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: "Then there arose a question ...." John 3:25.

God is not offended at us when we have doubts and questions. Ask the questions, but do not doubt His answers.

I..... How did all this intricate, miraculous life, on this finite planet, in this vast and infinite universe get here, on its own? Answer: It didn't; it was Created! "...God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1.

II.... Who is this Creator God? Answer: The LORD alone! "Thou, even thou, art LORD (YHVH-Yehovah) alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts; the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all there is therein, and thou preservest them all..." Ne.9:6.

III... When did He Create it? Answer: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."Gen.1:1.---- "And, thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands." Heb.1:10.

IV... How did He create it? Answer: He spoke it into existence by the power/energy of His WORD! Einstein put the tip of his finger on "How God did it" with his theory of e=mc2 ... energy equals mass and therefore mass equals energy (think a burning branch releasing light and heat with which God created it). God spoke the Word, ""And God said, let there be...." throughout Genesis 1, and God's "energy" or power went out upon His Word, and created as He commanded it. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.... All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten (Son) of the Father).... Jn.1:1,3,14. The Word here is capitalized meaning it is a proper name. The 14th verse reveals the "Word" to be Jesus Christ, "the only begotten Son of God". Jn.3:16.
Also, in Heb.11:3, "Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the WORD of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear." They were made out of nothing visible but by the energy/power of God's Word. e=mc2.

V..... Why did God create us? Answer: For His own will, purpose, and pleasure. Rev.4:11 "...O Lord... thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created."

VI.... Where is God now? He is Omnipresent ... everywhere. "...For the LORD your God, he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath." Josh.2:11. The Psalmist said, "If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." Psm.139:8.

VII... Will Jesus Christ ever come again? Answer: "I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." Jn.14:2-3.

VIII.. What must I do to be saved? Answer: The Philippian Jailer asked Paul and Silas that very question in Acts 16:30 ..."Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved...."

IX..... Can I Know that I have eternal life? Answer: "These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God ; that ye may KNOW that ye HAVE eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1Jn.5:13.

X...... Is there any other way to be saved? Answer: "Neither is there salvation in ANY other: for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12.

Most of the world is looking to other ways, other names of other gods to bless and save them.
There are many such false gods worshiped by millions of lost souls. But those little gods .... the vain pride and lust for beauty, sex, wealth, power, fame, food , drugs, stuff, and a little god they can see and touch, cannot forgive or cleanse or save themselves and surely not you or me.

Pass it on. RB

"Providence?" To What or Whom Did Our Founding Fathers Refer?

2011-12-25T20:14:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

The word "provide" comes from the Latin "pro" (ahead) plus "vider" (to see). So to "provide" means, "to see ahead" .... "foresight", which is what the word "providential" means. Another related word is "provident" which means, "making provisions for the future" or "provide forward". This is what Joseph, son of Israel, did in Egypt. God revealed to him that, for the next seven years, there would be plentiful harvests followed by seven years of desperate famine; and then God promoted him to a position of power, next to the Pharoah, to store up grain for the first seven years to "provide" food for Egypt and for God's people, Joseph's family, for the seven years of famine. That, my friends is what our God does for his people. That kind of "foreknowledge/foresight" can be passed along to chosen men of God from his own foreknowledge of, or even determination of, future events. That is what the word prophecy often, not always, means. More often it means, "forth telling" or "speaking forth" truth. From the prophets of God even to the created creatures of God, he gives foresight. In animals, it is ingrained in their nature to store up food for the future winter months. To certain people he gives" foresight" to forecast, by knowledge or revelation, future events. Read the prophetic, signs of the latter times and a certain foresight will be yours. In some tiny but marvelous way, God even gives "foresight" to the ants. "Go to the ant thou sluggard ... which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in harvest." Pr.6:6-8.
According to that verse, those who neglect to "provide" for their future needs are "sluggards". The Hebrew word for sluggard is "astel" and means "slothful" ... (lazy, negligent sloth). See verses at end.

So what did our founding fathers mean by "Providence"?   The word, when capitalized, means, "Divine guidance" and was used by them, in reference to God, in many of their letters and documents.
It is referenced in the climactic, last sentence of our nation's Declaration Of Independence from the mighiest empire on earth and its King, George III. They "declared" in the last sentence of it, "And for
the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor".

Why would they ALL dare to embrace and sign their names to such a pledge of absolute and final commitment, .... even their very lives? Simply because of their "firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence".... God!   They simply believed that it was God's divine will, as reflected in God's word, that all men had a right to freedom and equality, having been created in His own image and likeness. Their's was an act of OBEDIENCE TO GOD as also revealed in their equally powerful words, "Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD" are self-evident "that all men are created equal" with "certain unalienable rights."

How utterly foolish can be the folly of those, who in the face of incontravertible facts, deny, debate and hate the clear and certain truth that our country was founded by Christian believers upon the foundational principles of God's Word?  Denial of that is a fool's errand... for "The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God". Psm.14:1. The word "A theist" litterally means, "No God". If you, as an American Atheist, have gone astray from these facts, God has not. "If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself." 2Tim.2:13. And, dear Atheist and Agnostic, the day shall come, at the Judgement Seat of God, that, "...As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God." Rom.14:11. So if you will one day confess what you cannot, then, deny, but too late ... why not confess Him now and accept His remedy for sins ... Jesus Christ as your Saviour? ........(Verses on slothfulness = Prov.6:6-9, 10:26, 13:4, 20:4, 26:16, 1Tim.5:8.)

Would to God we all ... Americans, had the commitment to make the pledge of our Fore-Fathers, to fight, if necessary, for equality for all citizens of the United States and to preserve our God given right to freedom from overbearing government.  I, personally, have little to give at 81 but a few years at most, so I offer that which is left of my life and posessions to the cause our forefathers lived and died for. RB

Pass it on. RB

Easy To Please Old Marine Lookin....

2011-12-22T19:32:00.003-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Is "nation"divorce an option or is it "til death do us part"?

Dear Friend,
At 81, I have seen everything from the southwestern dust bowl and great depression of the 1930's to
World War II, several other wars and fought in one, saw the first Atomic bomb, first television, visited most nations on earth, lived out in 115 degree and minus -30 degree temps, flood, tornado, and hurricane. I have 6 children and 65 or 66 grand and great grands and miraculously ... one wife and never broke either of my little fingers in the process. But I've never seen, been told, read in history or had a nightmare compared to the world situation today. It makes an old man's head spin around like a top. Its downright unbelievable confusin. I've always been a faithful flag-wavin patriot and love my America still, but she's startin to smell like an unfaithful wife comin in at 4:00 AM with whiskey on her breath and whisker burns on her cheeks. I still love her but she ain't gittin any sweeter only meaner. That makes a man feel like movin out cause SHE don't love ME anymore. I must confess ... my rovin eye has been rovin ... lookin at other beauties like ... Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Belize, Dominica and even old Nicaragua ... down the street. My sweet America must be goin through the change of life or maybe demon possession. I mean, I saw her the other night with that Trojan Donkey in D.C. So, bottom line, I'm lookin for a new place to jump. My classified ad sums it up this away: "Easy to please old Marine, Bible believin, Texas preacher looking to buy a ranch of good farm land in a green valley on a high mountain in the desert overlooking the ocean on one side and a rain forest on the other, near a major hospital ... in Texas, South America." I'm just waitin by the phone. Your Friend, Rayburn

Socialism: Its Root and Fruit Are Common Non-Sense

2011-12-21T11:19:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: Socialism is the politicized reaction and lowest common denominator of fleshly lust, laziness, greed and envy... In three words ... "me, my, mine" or "something for nothing". R.B.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that Obama's socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

The professor then said, "OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Obama's plan" ...All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A.... (substituting grades for dollars - something closer to home and more readily understood by all).

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little.

The second test average was a D! No one was happy.
When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else.

To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
Could not be any simpler than that. (Please pass this on).
Remember, there IS a test coming up. The 2012 elections.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you'll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.

2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.

3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.

4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!

5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

How is it possible for a fallacy to be so simple and yet embraced by the multitudes??? RB
Pass it on. RB

What Kind Of Picture... Is Worth A Thousand Words?

2011-12-20T13:24:00.000-06:00

Common Sense Commentary:

If a picture is worth a thousand words, two pictures, with few words, is worth a million pages of words whatever your politics.

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." Pr.25:11

Think for yourself.

Pass it on ... if you agree.

The Pivot Point Of Crisis

2011-12-17T19:43:00.001-06:00

Common Sense Commentary: In every human crisis there are various, related phases which lead up to, accompany and follow in its wake. I will call them Pivot Points. There were pivot points preceding this impending crisis when we, as a nation, could have avoided it. There will be other pivot points within it which will direct its course. Then, there will be pivot points during our recovery ... if there is to be a recovery.

At this point, everyone in America who has any intelligence at all has heard enough facts, concerning the State of our Union, to be convinced of imminent, national, financial disaster and its extended repercussions. That being the case, it is now high time for the informed to prepare themselves financially, mentally, physically and most importantly, spiritually, to endure whatever the future holds and to be good "ambassadors" (2Cor.5:20) for Christ in the difficult times ahead. That would include sharing His words of hope, introducing the lost to Him, praying for and with them, good stewardship, and rock solid faithfulness. True Christians must be the curing salt and illuminating light in this darkening world of spiritual conflict.

We in America are indeed fortunate that we live in the one nation on earth where there are probably more truly born again Christians than in the rest of the world combined, but with some of the most wicked as well. If the former is true, it is also true that we who have received Christ are also more accountable to God for reaching the unsaved around us.

We must not overlook the fact that our very creation in Eden followed the greatest conflict of the ages ever enjoined. It was the beginning of rebellion against our Creator God by Archangel Lucifer and his angels... evil against good, Lucifer against Jehovah God. We must also remember that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ founded and has built His church during the most difficult times of human history ... not the times of ease. It is "tribulation that works patience (endurance/perseverance)" Rom.5:3. Growing in God's grace, faith, strength and character always takes place during "the times that try men's souls." It is our souls that will be tried ... more than any other human attribute. The quote above is the first sentence and declaration of the historical forefather, Christian patriot ... and co-founder of our nation, Thomas Paine. The following is his famous, God honoring speech entitled "The Crisis" 235 years ago this week, Dec.23, 1776.

The CRISIS

By Thomas Paine

December 23, 1776

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God. (How appropriate for today's crisis.RB)
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.
I have as little superstition in me as any man living, but my secret opinion has ever been, and still is, that God Almighty will not give up a people to military destruction, or leave them unsupportedly to perish, who have so earnestly and so repeatedly sought to avoid the calamities of war, by every decent method which wisdom could invent. Neither have I so much of the infidel in me, as to suppose that He has relinquished the government of the world, and given us up to the care of devils; and as I do not, I cannot see on what grounds the king of Britain can look up to heaven for help against us: a common murderer, a highwayman, or a house-breaker, has as good a pretence as he.
'Tis surprising to see how rapidly a panic will sometimes run through a country. All nations and ages have been subject to them. Britain has trembled like an ague at the report of a French fleet of flat-bottomed boats; and But their peculiar advantage is, that they are the touchstones of sincerity and hypocrisy, and bring things and men to light, which might otherwise have lain forever undiscovered. In fact, they have the same effect on secret traitors, which an imaginary apparition would have upon a private murderer. They sift out the hidden thoughts of man, and hold them up in public to the world. Many a disguised Tory has lately shown his head, that shall penitentially solemnize with curses the day on which Howe arrived upon the Delaware.
As I was with the troops at Fort Lee, and marched with them to the edge of Pennsylvania, I am well acquainted with many circumstances, which those who live at a distance know but little or nothing of. Our situation there was exceedingly cramped, the place being a narrow neck of land between the North River and the Hackensack. Our force was inconsiderable, being not one-fourth so great as Howe could bring against us. We had no army at hand to have relieved the garrison, had we shut ourselves up and stood on our defence. Our ammunition, light artillery, and the best part of our stores, had been removed, on the apprehension that Howe would endeavor to penetrate the Jerseys, in which case Fort Lee could be of no use to us; for it must occur to every thinking man, whether in the army or not, that these kind of field forts are only for temporary purposes, and last in use no longer than the enemy directs his force against the particular object which such forts are raised to defend. Such was our situation and condition at Fort Lee on the morning of the 20th of November, when an officer arrived with information that the enemy with 200 boats had landed about seven miles above; Major General [Nathaniel] Green, who commanded the garrison, immediately ordered them under arms, and sent express to General Washington at the town of Hackensack, distant by the way of the ferry = six miles. Our first object was to secure the bridge over the Hackensack, which laid up the river between the enemy and us, about six miles from us, and three from them. General Washington arrived in about three-quarters of an hour, and marched at the head of the troops towards the bridge, which place I expected we should have a brush for; however, they did not choose to dispute it with us, and the greatest part of our troops went over the bridge, the rest over the ferry, except some which passed at a mill on a small creek, between the bridge and the ferry, and made their way through some marshy grounds up to the town of Hackensack, and there passed the river. We brought off as much baggage as the wagons could contain, the rest was lost. The simple object was to bring off the garrison, and march them on till they could be strengthened by the Jersey or Pennsylvania militia, so as to be enabled to make a stand. We staid four days at Newark, collected our out-posts with some of the Jersey militia, and marched out twice to meet the enemy, on being informed that they were advancing, though our numbers were greatly inferior to theirs. Howe, in my little opinion, committed a great error in generalship in not throwing a body of forces off from Staten Island through Amboy, by which means he might have seized all our stores at Brunswick, and intercepted our march into Pennsylvania; but if we believe the power of hell to be limited, we must likewise believe that their agents are under some providential control. ("The gates of hell shall not prevail" Mt.16:18 RB)
I shall not now attempt to give all the particulars of our retreat to the Delaware; suffice it for the present to say, that both officers and men, though greatly harassed and fatigued, frequently without rest, covering, or provision, the inevitable consequences of a long retreat, bore it with a manly and martial spirit. All their wishes centred in one, which was, that the country would turn out and help them to drive the enemy back. Voltaire has remarked that King William never appeared to full advantage but in difficulties and in action; the same remark may be made on General Washington, for the character fits him. There is a natural firmness in some minds which cannot be unlocked by trifles, but which, when unlocked, discovers a cabinet of fortitude; and I reckon it among those kind of public blessings, which we do not immediately see, that God hath blessed him with uninterrupted health, and given him a mind that can even flourish upon care.
I shall conclude this paper with some miscellaneous remarks on the state of our affairs; and shall begin with asking the following question, Why is it that the enemy have left the New England provinces, and made these middle ones the seat of war? The answer is easy: New England is not infested with Tories, and we are. I have been tender in raising the cry against these men, and used numberless arguments to show them their danger, but it will not do to sacrifice a world either to their folly or their baseness. The period is now arrived, in which either they or we must change our sentiments, or one or both must fall. And what is a Tory? Good God! What is he? I should not be afraid to go with a hundred Whigs against a thousand Tories, were they to attempt to get into arms. Every Tory is a coward; for servile, slavish, self-interested fear is the foundation of Toryism; and a man under such influence, though he may be cruel, never can be brave.
But, before the line of irrecoverable separation be drawn between us, let us reason the matter together: Your conduct is an invitation to the enemy, yet not one in a thousand of you has heart enough to join him. Howe is as much deceived by you as the American cause is injured by you. He expects you will all take up arms, and flock to his standard, with muskets on your shoulders. Your opinions are of no use to him, unless you support him personally, for 'tis soldiers, and not Tories, that he wants.
I once felt all that kind of anger, which a man ought to feel, against the mean principles that are held by the Tories: a noted one, who kept a tavern at Amboy, was standing at his door, with as pretty a child in his hand, about eight or nine years old, as I ever saw, and after speaking his mind as freely as he thought was prudent, finished with this unfatherly expression, "Well! give me peace in my day." Not a man lives on the continent but fully believes that a separation must some time or other finally take place, and a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace;" and this single reflection, well applied, is sufficient to awaken every man to duty. Not a place upon earth might be so happy as America. Her situation is remote from all the wrangling world, and she has nothing to do but to trade with them. A man can distinguish himself between temper and principle, and I am as confident, as I am that God governs the world, that America will never be happy till she gets clear of foreign dominion. Wars, without ceasing, will break out till that period arrives, and the continent must in the end be conqueror; for though the flame of liberty may sometimes cease to shine, the coal can never expire.
America did not, nor does not want force; but she wanted a proper application of that force. Wisdom is not the purchase of a day, and it is no wonder that we should err at the first setting off. From an excess of tenderness, we were unwilling to raise an army, and trusted our cause to the temporary defence of a well-meaning militia. A summer's experience has now taught us better; yet with those troops, while they were collected, we were able to set bounds to the progress of the enemy, and, thank God! they are again assembling. I always considered militia as the best troops in the world for a sudden exertion, but they will not do for a long campaign. Howe, it is probable, will make an attempt on this city [Philadelphia]; should he fail on this side the Delaware, he is ruined. If he succeeds, our cause is not ruined. He stakes all on his side against a part on ours; admitting he succeeds, the consequence will be, that armies from both ends of the continent will march to assist their suffering friends in the middle states; for he cannot go everywhere, it is impossible. I consider Howe as the greatest enemy the Tories have; he is bringing a war into their country, which, had it not been for him and partly for themselves, they had been clear of. Should he now be expelled, I wish with all the devotion of a Christian, that the names of Whig and Tory may never more be mentioned; but should the Tories give him encouragement to come, or assistance if he come, I as sincerely wish that our next year's arms may expel them from the continent, and the Congress appropriate their possessions to the relief of those who have suffered in well-doing. A single successful battle next year will settle the whole. America could carry on a two years' war by the confiscation of the property of disaffected persons, and be made happy by their expulsion. Say not that this is revenge, call it rather the soft resentment of a suffering people, who, having no object in view but the good of all, have staked their own all upon a seemingly doubtful event. Yet it is folly to argue against determined hardness; eloquence may strike the ear, and the language of sorrow draw forth the tear of compassion, but nothing can reach the heart that is steeled with prejudice.
Quitting this class of men, I turn with the warm ardor of a friend to those who have nobly stood, and are yet determined to stand the matter out: I call not upon a few, but upon all: not on this state or that state, but on every state: up and help us; lay your shoulders to the wheel; better have too much force than too little, when so great an object is at stake. Let it be told to the future world, that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet and to repulse it. Say not that thousands are gone, turn out your tens of thousands; throw not the burden of the day upon Providence, but "show your faith by your works," that God may bless you. It matters not where you live, or what rank of life you hold, the evil or the blessing will reach you all. The far and the near, the home counties and the back, the rich and the poor, will suffer or rejoice alike. The heart that feels not now is dead; the blood of his children will curse his cowardice, who shrinks back at a time when a little might have saved the whole, and made them happy. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. 'Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. My own line of reasoning is to myself as straight and clear as a ray of light. Not all the treasures of the world, so far as I believe, could have induced me to support an offensive war, for I think it murder; but if a thief breaks into my house, burns and destroys my property, and kills or threatens to kill me, or those that are in it, and to "bind me in all cases whatsoever" to his absolute will, am I to suffer it? What signifies it to me, whether he who does it is a king or a common man; my countryman or not my countryman; whether it be done by an individual villain, or an army of them? If we reason to the root of things we shall find no difference; neither can any just cause be assigned why we should punish in the one case and pardon in the other. Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul by swearing allegiance to one whose character is that of a sottish, stupid, stubborn, worthless, brutish man. I conceive likewise a horrid idea in receiving mercy from a being, who at the last day shall be shrieking to the rocks and mountains to cover him, and fleeing with terror from the orphan, the widow, and the slain of America.
There are cases which cannot be overdone by language, and this is one. There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice; and even mercy, where conquest is the object, is only a trick of war; the cunning of the fox is as murderous as the violence of the wolf, and we ought to guard equally against both. Howe's first object is, partly by threats and partly by promises, to terrify or seduce the people to deliver up their arms and receive mercy. The ministry recommended the same plan to Gage, and this is what the Tories call making their peace, "a peace which passeth all understanding" indeed! A peace which would be the immediate forerunner of a worse ruin than any we have yet thought of. Ye men of Pennsylvania, do reason upon these things! Were the back counties to give up their arms, they would fall an easy prey to the Indians, who are all armed: this perhaps is what some Tories would not be sorry for. Were the home counties to deliver up their arms, they would be exposed to the resentment of the back counties who would then have it in their power to chastise their defection at pleasure. And were any one state to give up its arms, that state must be garrisoned by all Howe's army of Britons and Hessians to preserve it from the anger of the rest. Mutual fear is the principal link in the chain of mutual love, and woe be to that state that breaks the compact. Howe is mercifully inviting you to barbarous destruction, and men must be either rogues or fools that will not see it. I dwell not upon the vapors of imagination; I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as A, B, C, hold up truth to your eyes.
I thank God, that I fear not. I see no real cause for fear. I know our situation well, and can see the way out of it. While our army was collected, Howe dared not risk a battle; and it is no credit to him that he decamped from the White Plains, and waited a mean opportunity to ravage the defenceless Jerseys; but it is great credit to us, that, with a handful of men, we sustained an orderly retreat for near an hundred miles, brought off our ammunition, all our field pieces, the greatest part of our stores, and had four rivers to pass. None can say that our retreat was precipitate, for we were near three weeks in performing it, that the country might have time to come in. Twice we marched back to meet the enemy, and remained out till dark. The sign of fear was not seen in our camp, and had not some of the cowardly and disaffected inhabitants spread false alarms through the country, the Jerseys had never been ravaged. Once more we are again collected and collecting; our new army at both ends of the continent is recruiting fast, and we shall be able to open the next campaign with sixty thousand men, well armed and clothed. This is our situation, and who will may know it. By perseverance and fortitude we have the prospect of a glorious issue; by cowardice and submission, the sad choice of a variety of evils — a ravaged country — a depopulated city — habitations without safety, and slavery without hope — our homes turned into barracks and bawdy-houses for Hessians, and a future race to provide for, whose fathers we shall doubt of. Look on this picture and weep over it! and if there yet remains one thoughtless wretch who believes it not, let him suffer it unlamented.
December 23, 1776

Thus was the cause of our CHRISTIAN founding fathers