UnCommon Sense

Doctors More Dangerous Than Guns?

2007-03-06T10:05:00.000-05:00

The other day I received the following attached to one of my emails. I found it both ironic and scary.

According to an article by Nathan Tabor that's been circling in the more conservative corners of the Internet since December of 2004, data compiled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services points to both the relative safety of guns AND the relative hazardousness of conventional medicine.

According to the numbers:
Some 700,000 physicians in the U.S. cause at least 120,000 deaths each year (it's actually closer to 300,000). That's one accidental death per year for every 5.83 doctors, according to the government. Compare this to...

The 80 million U.S. gun owners collectively contribute to just 1,500 accidental firearms-related deaths every year. That's only one deadly shooting for every 53,300 gunslingers.
That means you're 9,142 times (53,300/5.83) more likely to be accidentally put in an early grave by a physician than a marksman!

Even when you heap in the numbers from all 16,000 homicides in a typical year (a surprising number of these are not committed with guns - and an amazingly low number are committed by legally owned guns), you're STILL more than seven times as likely to be killed by a doctor's mistake than by a gunshot wound from any source, even criminals.

Beyond this, Tabor's article cites survey data suggesting that, based on the number of times firearms were used to deter violent or invasive crimes over a five-year span, guns SAVE as many as 400,000 American lives per year.

Could He Be An Alcoholic?

2007-03-02T07:05:00.000-05:00

The other day I was talking with one of my son's friends, a young man in his early thirties. He told me that when he was younger he got involved with drinking alcohol and he really liked it but for the most part he stayed away from drugs. His habit pattern was to go long periods of time without drinking in which he would work very hard to achieve some kind of success and normal lacy in his life. Then for no real reason he would start drinking and he would go off on what he referred to as a binge where he would stay fairly loaded for days at a time. Then he would wake up one morning just plain tired of drinking, feeling very tired, confused and ashamed, wondering what excuse he was going to give his employer. Once back at work he would work very diligently and do all kinds of extra work trying to get back in good graces. Out of feelings of guilt he would become the model husband and father. Having accomplished this in time a restlessness would come over him and along with this restlessness would come the desire to drink again. In the beginning his drinking would be very controlled then before he knew it he would be off on a drinking spree for days again.

He said that this was pretty much the pattern of his drinking for years except the periods between drinking bouts got shorter and shorter. His life was getting messier and messier. He had become unable to hold down a job. His anxiety level was growing. He became increasingly fearful. Driving had become an ordeal. If he drove a long distance he would have to pry his hands from the steering wheel. He stopped reading books because by the time he got to the end of a paragraph he had forgotten what he read. He stopped using coins because he was getting lost counting out change. His tolerance for alcoholic became chaotic. He found himself waking up in the middle of the night to have a beer. He never knew whether it would be the second drink or the tenth that would set him off into a full blown drunk. Worse of all his personality changed the happy go lucky drinker became belligerent and violent.

After some minutes of him being quiet he told me that he really doesn't like the person he sees looking back at him in the mirror.

He told me that years earlier he had gone to counseling. After a few sessions his counselor as him if he ever thought of going to Alcoholics Anonymous. His response was that he didn't need AA he could stop drinking anytime he wanted and has many times. That was the last time he saw this counselor and he even quit drinking completely for six months just to prove to himself that he was not an alcoholic.

He says now he is really worried because suicide is looking very good to him lately. He then asked me what he should do. The only answer that came to mind was the same one his therapist had given him years earlier. “Have you thought of going to A.A.?” I could think of nothing more. What would you have suggested he do?

A Changing Culture

2007-02-28T07:19:00.000-05:00

Our culture is changing at a breakneck pace. Some consider this good, I don't. We have become like a ship that has slipped it's moorings and is being driven by the stormy sea. At this time we don't know where we are going to come aground. We are losing all sense of our history as we are invaded by people from other cultures. They are bringing their ways here and are resisting changing. They are becoming militant in their insistence that we absorb their ways and language into our culture even if it means the death of ours.

There was a time when it was the other way around. When immigrants came to us they worked hard to learn our language and culture making it theirs. The result is that together we built a strong and vibrant nation which we were proud of. Not any more. The new immigrants, the ones that insist that the rest of us must cater to their customs are weakening not strengthening this nation. Instead of being a melting pot we have become a nation divided. Instead of homogeneously working together to better this nation we are now made up of different ethnic groups warring to gain control of segments of our society. We are a house divided and as such we as the most powerful nation on this earth cannot and will not stand. ("Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.” John Adams ) Our divisions are not making us better they are destroying us from within.

I have a question for those who come here and want to keep their culture in tack. If your culture was so good for you why have you left your country to come here? Chance are you came because you want what our culture can give you. You seem to want it both ways. You want what we have and at the same time you don't want to give up any of what you have. This is not immigrating it is invasion and plundering. This melting pot has become a boiling pot of prejudices and hatred's soon to boil over in violence. The end result is that we all lose. The enemies of democracy are seeing the weaknesses this is bringing to our nations and are now preparing help tear this country to pieces. We all are about to go down with it. When this happens we will be forced to accept a new culture. One that we are not going to like.

Political Correctness

2007-02-25T08:04:00.000-05:00

In our society of political correctness one has to be so fearful of offending anyone or any group. This so called political correctness is nothing more than censorship of speech and thought. It is making cowards of us all. Now don't get me wrong I am not advocating anyone be a bigot or intentionally defaming any group or persons. That is unless that group advocates violence and murder against others, for example Islamic Fascists. Now they will be some Islamics that will be offended by that phrase. It makes me wonder just where these people stand on suicide bombers and the killing of innocent men woman and children.

Now if you ask me Suicide Bombings are definitely politically incorrect. I don't care what their reasoning is for doing so. There is no justification for such stupid cruel and cowardly actions. Cowardly! how can I say that dying for a cause is cowardly? Well it is much easier to die for something than to live a life working to benefit a cause. Blowing yourself up is the lazy way out. They show no respect for the life they claim that their god has given them.

A New World Power In The Making

2007-02-21T06:05:00.000-05:00

A new world power coming. While our focus is on the war in Iraq a new world power is in the process of coming together. It is happening in Europe. Already the EU's currency is rapidly becoming favored for world commerce replacing the dollar. Influenced by Germany's dynamic vision they building a strong defense. Their space program is moving out ahead of ours. Their economy is getting robust. In the not too distant future they will out pace us in almost every endeavor. Like it or not we are weakening and they are growing stronger. At this rate soon they will replace us as a world power, economically and militarily.

Our brand of democracy is declining on the world scene. In South America we see nations turning away from democracy. In the Middle East democracy is under attack. It now looks like the democratic government of Lebanon is about to be toppled. We are abandoning our greatest ally in that area as we will no longer supply Israel with the armament needed to protect itself.

Now we are no longer talking in terms of winning the war in Iraq we are no speaking of how we can strategically withdraw. A euphemism for leaving defeated. We are failing as a world power. Europe is poised to fill the vacuum we are leaving. It is destined to be an awsome and terrible power that will plunge the world into a nuclear holocaust. Talk about global warming.

And Now A Word From Our Sponsors

2007-02-19T04:14:00.000-05:00

I hear these radio and television newscasters talking about the declining state of the world. They warn of dangers to our country coming from the Middle East, China and Venezuela. They speak about the dangers of this nation's mounting debt and the weakening of the dollar. Some shake their heads in disbelief while reporting on the antics of our government leadership. Some even warn us of the consequences of global warming. Day in and day out they report and comment on these problems and some even go so far as to hint that we are a nation in decline, then break for a commercial message. After the break they go on some other subject.

Each and every day they report all these problems. I don't hear anything about what is being done to solve them. I'm wondering if that is because other than a lot of rhetoric nothing is being done. Just maybe these problems have grown out of control and beyond our capabilities to solve. Just maybe all we can do is ride them out to the bitter end.

Global Warming - Nuclear Winter, Which

2007-02-15T05:51:00.000-05:00

Are we a nation in rapid decline? I believe so. Why? Because we have lost our way as a people. Our greatness is gone because we tend to focus on the petty. He hurt my feelings because he said this. How dare they say that. We are drowning in a sea of politically correctness that is making cowards of us. We get behind fad causes. The latest is global warming. It's safe, it's popular. We can feel good by supporting it. It gives us something to do besides watching drug commercials on television and it makes for good conversation between totes and or drinks. We can even exercises our voices by shouting down any scientific facts that point to the opposite. This way we can tear our selves apart weakening and wrecking our economy while nations like China and India can pour all the heat causing pollutants into the atmosphere they want.

If global warming is so new how did the ancients make maps of Antarctica without the ice cover? ( The Piri Re'is Map of 1513 www.viewzone.com/pirireis.html) Besides it will only take one of the predicted, major volcanic eruption to pour enough dust into the atmosphere to cool things down. I wonder if protesting volcanoes will prevent this from happening.

I do not have any doubt that mankind is going to suffer from global warming. With this mad rush of nations to develop nuclear weapons it's only a matter of time before they are used. And let's face it, nothing can heat up the atmosphere faster than a series of nuclear explosions and then things will really cool off as we enter a Nuclear Winter. Maybe we should organize protest marches in North Korea, Iran, Egypt, Japan, Germany, Venezuela, just to name a few of the nations moving ahead to build a nuclear arsenal.

Will Lower Oil Prices Stop Iran

2007-02-13T04:17:00.000-05:00

Will the bringing of oil prices down restrain Iran's ambition to dominate the Middle East? Will a failing economy stop their nuclear ambitions? I doubt it. If anything it may encourage them to up their time table to bring chaos to the area in preparation for the return of their Mardi or is it Mardi's. (I'm not sure which)

There are those who want to appease Iran and those who believe that Iran's leadership can be negotiated with. I'm not one of either. History has shown that appeasement doesn't work. And how does one negotiate with someone who is determined to destroy you at all costs? I don't know, can onen negotiate with a suicide bomber or a state who's regime believes that it is their destiny to bring chaos upon the world? What can we possibly offer them that will cause them to abandon this perceived destiny? I don't believe that it will do any good to offer them more wealth. They have dedicated the wealth they have to their goal.

Men of reason believe that all men can be reasoned with but history proves them wrong. Our Western minds do not comprehend the religious fervor of a people that will happily die to bring about their cause. This is beyond reason.

Those who believe that they can negotiate with this adversary in reality have no respect for them. The negotiators believe that Iranians will sell out for something we can give them. They believe we can in effect bribe them out of their beliefs and committment to destroy us. They don't even believe that they mean what they are saying. Now that is disrespect and hypocracy.

Oil Wars?

2007-02-11T05:23:00.000-05:00

Not too long ago I was watching the Glenn Beck show. It seems that he is frustrated with the inaction's of our Congressional representatives. Later in the show he did bring out an interesting hypothesis on why the price of oil is going down. He attributes it to a possible agreement between Vice President Cheney and Saudi Arabia. He believes this lowering of oil prices is a plan to cut deeply into Iran's oil revenues thereby wrecking it's economy. If it is true I would agree with Glenn Beck in that it is a brilliant plan. Will it work? I doubt it. The oil corporations are too greedy to sustain such a plan for one and I see a danger in that it may force Iran to military action against Saudi Arabia. At the same time it will act as incentive to Iran to step up it's development of nuclear weapons to push the world into war.

Then again Iran may very well get together with other oil producing nations that are not friendly towards us and cut off the supply of oil. This move would wreck our economy as well as putting a great deal of pressure upon the rest of the world. This could lead to military action also. I come to this conclusion because Iran's leadership wants to and is planning to plunge the world into chaos in preparation for the return of their Mardi. So the way I see it with or without oil money they will work very hard towards this goal.

It certainly looks like the Atomic Scientists are right in moving to hands of the doomsday clock closer to midnight.

The Sell Off Before The End

2007-02-08T05:55:00.000-05:00

Some of our state governments are selling off our highways to foreign investors. What can they be thinking? Are the people we put in office really that short sighted? Are we the people going to let them get away with it?

At this rate it won't be long before the days of the United States being a great and prosperous nation are over. Our nation cannot survive because we as a people have abandoned the God of our forefathers: the God who established this nation and blessed it for hundreds of years. Because we have done this we have become a cursed nation. We are experiencing disaster upon disaster and they will continue to come upon us until we return to our God or until we are a nation no more.

It doesn't take much foresight to see that we are fighting our last war. Here we are the most powerful nation on this earth and we cannot win a war against small bands of religious gangsters. We have lost our will to fight and win at a time when we are surrounded by enemies. Enemies that we won't be able to buy off much longer.

Will this downhill spiral be reversed? Not with the weak and divided leadership we have. Our gods of science, education, and industry are powerless to stop it. It will take an act of God. The very God we have abandoned, so that we can do our own thing in our own way. Unless we return to this God we are a doomed nation.

Our Online Society

2007-02-06T07:09:00.000-05:00

We live in a time when people are becoming less and less likely to gather together in face to face groups instead they are forming online social groups on the internet. No longer are they socializing in close physical proximity with others instead they are communing with typewritten words on a computer screen. The anonymity of this practice seems to give people the courage to openly share private details of their lives. These computer conversations can become very intimate and in some cases cathartic.

Online social meetings also allows people create fantasy worlds with fantasy identities. Because distance means nothing one can socialize with others from around the globe. Next door or halfway around the world people are kept a safe 18 to 24 inches or so (the distance to the computer monitor) from each other.

While many of these online meetings are casual and friendly there are those relationships that are built on deceit. These become sinister when they lead to a face to face meeting. There is frequent reports in the news of sexual predators seducing children to meet with them.

I don't feel comfortable having a relationship by internet. I need to be able to look another person in the eyes and have them look into my eyes before I can feel any closeness to them. I can find no warmth or any true bonding in a computer screen. So for me Internet social networking is just a form of entertainment and a way to build very casual relationships, nothing deep or lasting.

Evolution an Unscientific Theory

2007-02-04T06:07:00.000-05:00

There are those who have been convinced that the so-called theory of evolution is fact. I am not one of them. Science has yet to come up with the first cause of life. Try as they may they have been unsuccessful in creating life out of nothing in the laboratories. You see they keep coming up against one of the basic laws of bio geneses which states that life can only come from pre-existing life. So those who accept evolution as fact are really doing so on faith not provable scientific findings. Like it or not the theory of evolution is a faith, a religion complete with it's priesthood and gurus.

When presenting the case for evolution they use words and phrases like "could have", maybe, possible, in all probability. Although lately they have dropped the word theory from evolution and simply state that it is a fact and not a theory. That's one way of proving the un-provable.
As evidence for evolution they point to the fossil record. That's all well and good except fossils do not prove evolution they just prove that certain species existed at one time or another. They do not prove that one species came from another.

The evolution scientists have yet to come up with why and how the human mind with it's ability to reason is so superior to any in the animal kingdom. They say it's only a matter of time before they do. Probably given a few million years they will.

If the scientific method is based on observable facts then evolution has to be questioned. Some observable facts are that dogs have puppies, cats have kittens, apes have ape and humans have humans. There is no evidence that throwing a few million years of time into the mix will cause something different. Has anyone ever observed anything left to itself ever evolve up into something superior rather than degenerating?

Life Is Difficult

2007-02-01T08:16:00.000-05:00

One would think that with all the scientific and technological advancement that have been made life would have become easier rather than increasingly difficult.

Why isn't it easier? I'm thinking that it is because we have lost our way. In our rush to get more, we have let the things that make life joyous and pleasant go by the wayside. It seems as though we have lost respect for life. Others are no longer wanted additions to our lives. That is unless they can aid us in getting something we want and only as long as they do. Mostly people are perceived to be a threat or a burden. Our society is rapidly losing the joys of close families and close friendships. Instead we move in superficial circles seeking, always seeking to fill the emptiness that is in us. When we do find someone or something that seems to fill that hole, we are not satisfied for long. The hole comes back and we are again seeking.

Our lives are increasingly fearful as we betray and are betrayed. We erect emotional walls to protect ourselves. Problem is, these walls become our prison, trapping us inside a shrinking world of our own making. We long to trust but find the list of those we can growing smaller and smaller. Then the day comes when we find ourselves feeling lonely even when we are in a crowd. The things that make life a joy are long gone. We replace true human companionship with pets and or objects.

We look for ways to ease our pain. We keep busy entertaining ourself so we don't have to feel the emptiness. We eventually lose our ability to love. Why is this happening? Jesus looking down the passage of time into the present said, Mat 24:12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

iniquity: 1:lawlessness 2:Absence of moral or spiritual values

Life Is Aversion Therapy

2007-01-30T06:34:00.000-05:00

Finally getting tired of just laying in bed with all sorts of thoughts running through my head I decided to get up and just write. Who knows just maybe I can sort through some of these thoughts that ranged from the war in Iraq to my son Richard, why life, the difference between the human brain and that of the animals and some where in all that noise what I planned on doing today.

Let me start with "why life". I have come to believe this present chemical exhistance we call life is basically aversion therapy. As we go through it making a good many mistakes that have painful consequences we are learning what doesn't work. Now according to the theory of evolution or what I refer to as the cosmic joke theory, we come into life knowing practically nothing. As we experience life we learn and gain wisdom then at the time when we have the most knowledge and wisdom we cease to exist, die. A cosmic joke. Some will say that the wisdom we gained during our existences helps our society move forward. I don't buy that for a couple of reasons one is that there has been whole societies that have become extinct leaving very little or nothing to build on. The other is that as the saying goes the only thing mankind learns from history is that man doesn't learn from history. So if we come from nothing and go to nothing as evolution would have us believe then life is a big cosmic joke. Personally, I just can't buy the idea that all I have learned from a lifetime of stupid mistakes and some successes is in the end all for nothing. How about you?

Then there is what religions teach as the purpose for life. One would have us believe that if we murder ourselves and innocent victims we get to spend eternity with ten virgins waiting on us hand and foot. I can't help but wondering what those virgins did so wrong that they are condemned to an eternity of servicing a murderer. Can anyone tell me do they remain virgins? If so then that can't be any more fun that the poet Dante's imaginary version of hell that has been fostered on many of us as the reward for leading a less than perfect life. That is of course unless we leave enough money or friends to get our so called souls prayed out of it. How much time do you spend praying someone out of hell. Oh wait a minute I think that I made a mistake. One cannot be prayed out of hell. We can only be prayed out of the weight station of purgatory. By the way I did some research on the English word "hell" as used in the Bible. Bottom line is, it means a hole in the ground.

In this same Bible we are given the promise of a resurrection with the opportunity to live life under a different world ruling system. This makes our present experiences and wisdom useful and makes more sense to me.

Mankind's Ultimate Insanity

2007-01-28T05:49:00.000-05:00

China has shaken up the free world nations by knocking out one of it's obsolete weather satellites while in orbit. After a couple of failed missile tries it succeeded in blasting it to pieces. This ability to knock out satellites is making the nations that rely on satellite technology and information, nervous. China has succeeded in bringing war into outer space. Many nations, including the US and Canada have filed protests with China. Like that is going to change the fact that China has demonstrated it has the capability to destroy the spy satellites.

The world has entered an unprecedented dangerous period. We have Iran developing nuclear capabilities and just recently North Korea has demonstrated that it has developed the nuclear bomb. Other nations including Japan and Egypt as well as Germany are increasing their efforts to develop nuclear weapon technology. With all this going on I'm beginning to think that global warming will become a mute problem. Human survival will be the problem. The world is becoming unstable. War is inevitable as cultures and religions are preparing to clash. It is only a matter of time before this world is engulfed nuclear battles. Yes, mankind is preparing himself for this ultimate insanity. The Western world has pinned it's hopes to avert this on diplomacy. Problem is, history has shown that you cannot negotiate with nations bent on world dominance. They have set their course and though they might be temporarily delayed they will not stop until they have achieved their goal or have been thoroughly defeated.

Now that the United States is declining from it's world power status a new power block is forming in Europe. A Catholic power that is destined to clash once again with the Muslim world and afterward the Asian world. This clash is prophesied to bring mankind to the brink of extinction. Only God will be able to prevent all life being destroyed from this planet.

Bulletin of Atomic Scientist on January17th announced the clock change at an unprecedented joint news conference held at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C., and the Royal Society in London. In a statement supporting the decision to move the hand of the Doomsday Clock, the bas board focused on two major sources of catastrophe: the perils of 27,000 nuclear weapons, 2,000 of them ready to launch within minutes; and the destruction of human habitats from climate change. In articles by 14 leading scientists and security experts writing in the January-February issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (http://www.thebulletin.org), the potential for catastrophic damage from human-made technologies is explored further.Created in 1947 by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Doomsday Clock has been adjusted only 17 times prior to today, most recently in February 2002 after the events of 9/11.By moving the hand of the clock closer to midnight—the figurative end of civilization—the B.A.S. board of directors is drawing attention to the increasing dangers from the spread of nuclear weapons in a world of violent conflict, and to the catastrophic harm from climate change that is unfolding. The bas statement explains: “We stand at the brink of a Second Nuclear Age. Not since the first atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki has the world faced such perilous choices. North Korea’s recent test of a nuclear weapon, Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a renewed emphasis on the military utility of nuclear weapons, the failure to adequately secure nuclear materials, and the continued presence of some 26,000 nuclear weapons in the United States and Russia are symptomatic of a failure to solve the problems posed by the most destructive technology on Earth.”

A Messy World

2007-01-25T07:32:00.000-05:00

Watching the news has me aware that the world is a messy place. The world's problems are multiplying to beyond the capabilities of our political leaders to solve them. Everything is changing so very rapidly and not for the best. It appears that the world ,as I know it, is on a collision course with destruction. Today we have small nations standing up to the larger and more powerful, saying "we are strong" and are even threatening the more powerful. There is a growing violent religious fervor that seems to be beyond the understanding of the Western World.

The world is changing. The balances of power are shifting. New power blocks of nations are being formed. The world as I know it, where the United States is the major world power, is fading faster than I ever thought possible. It appears that our nation will soon be going through an economic meltdown like that of the former Soviet Union. In Europe and in Asia new world powers are emerging and will soon be flexing their economic and military muscles.
I hope that the nations will take to heart what General Douglas MacArthur said at the end World War II on the battleship Missouri.

quote: "A new era is upon us. Even the lesson of victory itself brings with it profound concern, both for our future security and the survival of civilization. The destructiveness of the war potential, through progressive advances in scientific discovery, has in fact now reached a point which revises the traditional concepts of war.

Men since the beginning of time have sought peace.... Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. We have had our last chance. If we do not now devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all material and cultural development of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh."

Maybe I Shouldn't Watch Television

2007-01-23T06:46:00.000-05:00

Last night I was watching television and a talk show host was speaking out about our elected officials,the leadership we have in congress. They show themselves to be incompetent and out of touch with their constituents. They bicker like children on a play ground making accusations against the opposing party. Nahh! Nahh Nahh, they are not doing this or they have done that. In the mean time our nation and it's economy is in great peril. We have become surrounded by enemies that are chipping away at our power, our way of life. If history is any example we as a nation won't survive this onslaught much longer. The prophets of doom will be proven right.

It has been said that our leaders are a reflection of ourselves. To tell you the truth I don't like what I see in that reflection. I no longer see the type of character that made our nation great. We have become spineless and greedy. Forget the idea of morality. In fact I don't think we even know the definition of that word. And family values has become nothing more than a sound bites for the politicians. Hell we no longer even have a clear definition of what constitutes a family. Take for example the concept of Gay Marriage some are in favor of it and at this point in time many are opposed to it. I'm thinking that with heterosexuals opting to live together outside of marriage the divorce lawyers will need a new source of business. Answer Gay marriage. Let's face it homosexual unions have a greater break up rate. Already the first gay couple to be married in Massachusetts just about two years ago are seeking a divorce.

There are many arguments for and against homosexual marriages. Where did the concept of marriage come from? Did it just evolve? Did some guru up on top of some mountain decide that it was best for man to go against his desire for multiple partners? If marriage is the creation of man then man has a right to define it any way he wants to. It can evolve to take in the latest fads. This is of course assuming that there is no Creator who gave us the concept of marriage and defines it as a union between a man and a woman.

Denial Is Not A River In Egypt

2007-01-21T06:01:00.001-05:00

Lately I have been feeling like we are in some sort of quiet before the storm? A storm that will bring some sort of national disaster. I haven't the slightest idea what form it will take. I hear on the news people saying that another terrorist attack is inevitable. I see major changes is our weather systems. The housing market is down. Gasoline prices are up. The big three auto makers are shutting down some of their factories. The Social Security system is in trouble. There are increasing reports of sickness due to tainted food. It's like the pot is coming to a boil. The problems are not really being solved they are just being replaced in the news by other problems. I don't know about you but after crises receives it's fifteen minutes or is it fifteen hours of exposer and is replaced by a different news event I tend to think the problem has been solved and I forget about it. In most cases that is just not so. Just because a problem is no longer news worthy doesn't mean it has gone away.

Then there is that part of my nature that doesn't want to hear the bad news. I just want it to go away and am happy when it does. Don't tell me any more bad things I just want to hear smooth things. I just want to go through my day, as the saying goes, "fat, dumb and happy", in sort of a perpetual state of denial. After all it's not like I can do much about the problems, they are too big and too many for me to deal with. They are out of my control. Hearing about them only depresses me. I got more important things to deal with. Things like put gas in the car, what new thing am I going to buy, or how can I get a promotion, and do I have enough to make the minimum payments on my credit cards. These are the important things. So what, if the world is falling apart all around me. I can't do anything about it. I'm having enough trouble just getting through my day. So just leave me alone. I don't want to hear it. Besides those things won't happen to me they always happen to someone else.

1984 Arrives Late

2007-01-19T05:30:00.000-05:00

Our educations system is great at teaching how to make a living. It appears to be a dismal failure at teaching us how to live. Our schools are failing to teach morality. They wash their hands of any responsibility to do so by saying that it is something that should be taught in the home. The result is that we are turning out educated barbarians, whose goals in life are to get as much as they can for themselves. They then go forth with this education to pillage society,stepping on any opposition.

Without definite principles of morality to guide our actions we stumble around in life as in darkness. Right and wrong is fluid, based upon time and place becoming a matter if individual interpretation. The vacuum created by the lack of definite moral principles is sucking the life out of our society. With nothing to hold it together it will weaken and disperse into violent anarchy. To prevent this governments are forced to legislate morality and institute an Orwellian society.

Yes, Orwell's 1984 society has arrived late but it has arrived. It as though he looked down into our time of technological advancements and saw that it would eventually be used by governments to control it's citizens. In the name of protection authorities can now track our movements with locators in our phones, listen to our conversations, and know our up to the minute financial transactions. Already there are plans in place, in the name of convenience, to embed chips on our person to act like credit cards. Once they are in place I am sure that they will also be used as locators.

Then there is the change in the language. In his book 1984, Orwell called it "newspeak". Tax increases have become revenue enhancements, war becomes a conflict, etc. etc. In Orwell's book the government is a dark force controlling almost every aspect of it's citizen's life, something that is rapidly approaching with the passing of every law and regulation and the implementation of new surveillance technologies.

Do we need this kind of protection? In the absence of definite moral code to guide our actions I fear that the answer may very well be yes.

The Death Of A World Power

2007-01-18T07:12:00.000-05:00

Who will be the United States last president? At the rate we are in decline it may very well be the person we elect in 2008. Of course no American wants to think that this could be possible but history shows us that all empires eventually collapse. And all the signs are pointing to it being our turn in the not too distant future.

History also shows us that no empire has ever survived immorality and corruption. Empire after empire all go through the same process. They start off on a solid moral foundation, come to power, and then degenerate into immorality and finally collapse. This cycle has been repeated throughout the history of mankind. What makes this time more dangerous than ever before is the weapons of mass destruction that have been developed. The downfall of our nation could very well bring with it the destruction of all life on this planet. Our weakening as a world power has a number of nations forming new power blocks to replace us.

We are presently being invaded and there is no response to the alarm. Our municipal water companies, our power suppliers, and now our very highway infrastructure are being taken over by foreign investors. By the time we wake up to the fact that this is an invasion it will be too late. We are like sheep being fattened up for the slaughter.

All throughout history every great society has had it's prophets of doom and guess what? They were proved right. Today our newscasters are joining the ranks with the religious prophets declaring our nations downfall. I watch some of the more knowledgeable newscasters just shake their heads in disbelief as they report the goings on of our political leaders. Time and time again they warn us and yet none of their warnings are stirring us to action. We see them as nothing more than interesting entertainers. Even if we believe their warnings we diminish them by believing that these will come about is in the distant future or that someone else will do something about it.

Loyalty

2007-01-16T05:51:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I ran into an old friend that I haven't seen in about a year. He was in a lot of emotional pain and confusion. His wife of many years has divorced him. Here he is in his 50s put out on his own and being forced to create a new life for himself. It doesn't take a psychic to see the fear and hurt in his eyes. In our society divorce has become almost a right of passage for a man.

Our education system and our religions have so betrayed us by failing to teach us men how to be a husband and a father. We are expected to learn that from our parents. This is all well and good if one grew up in a household where we were given a good example as a role model. But so many of us do not come from that sort of home. We are left to blunder our way through marriage and family life.

In this anti family environment of a dying society the concept of marriage is no longer till death do you part, it has become more like, until I am no longer getting what I want out of it, we part. Society has come from a place where divorce was a rarity to where the happy marriage is a rarity. There is a lonely restlessness as we seek that illusive prey, the fantasy relationship that will bring us bliss and happiness. We the uncommitted to anything but self-seeking are looking for someone who will be committed to making us happy. The result is our relationships are not much more than temporary dwellings. Partners are discarded when they cease to amuse us and judging from the length of today's average marriage, amusement lasts about three to five years.

It seems that we as a people no longer understand the concept of loyalty. That is loyalty to anything but ourselves. Loyalty is gone from our world of commerce. It is gone from our workplace's and it is almost completely gone from our relationships and our families. In this vacuum of loyalty, life has become dangerous, for our children, our relationships, and ourselves.

I find it curious that we hear a lot about love today and almost nothing of loyalty, because in truth loyalty is love in action and in deed. So is all this love we hear about truly love or is it no more than the lust to have what we want when we want it and for so long as it amuses us. (Loyalty: 1. steadfast in allegiance. 2:faithful to a person , ideal or custom.)

A Changing World

2007-01-14T05:47:00.000-05:00

The world is changing rapidly. In many ways not for the good. In a world with all sorts of mass communication many are struggling with a sense of isolation and feelings of alienation. At a time of information overload I see much confusion around me. It seems to me that the moral guidelines the great achievers of the past have used to guide their decisions have been maligned and abandoned. This leaves our society in the dangerous and sad place where everyone does what is right in their own eyes. The refrain "It's okay as long as you don't harm anyone"is often heard. The problem with this self-centered thinking is that different people define 'harm" differently. And who is the "anyone"? Could it be the child next door who is looking to us adults for examples of behavior that brings pleasant consequences. Let's face it, whether like it or not, there are certain laws that govern the universe and if we break them, in time they will break us.

A Purpose In Life

2007-01-12T06:18:00.000-05:00

What do you want to do this coming year? Do you want to come to the end of it having accomplished exactly what you did in 2006 or do you want more of yourself? As a human being we are much happier when we can fix ourselves on a purpose and work towards it. It give us a sense of power. It relieves us of the feelings of being a victim subject to the whims of the world. The purposes we set out to do gives us energy. Working towards their achievement gives us a sense of fulfillment.

We don't need to set big "save the world" purposes. We can set one small one and then move to fulfill it. After that we can set another and another as we are moved forward by our accomplishments.

Those who have no purpose in their life to drive them on tend to feel like they are victims of society. They get to thinking that their life is worthless. They hide in their own shrinking world becoming increasingly fearful. The only reason they get out of bed is because they have certain obligations that they are afraid to shirk. They grudgingly go through their day performing necessary tasks in robot fashion until they die before their time.

Having a purpose in our life adds years. Studies have shown that those who have pets live a longer happier life. Taking care of the needs of one's pet is a purpose, a reason to get out of bed. Hobbies are purposes. Volunteer work is a purpose. Learning a new skill or increasing one we already have is a purpose. These are the things that add zest to our lives.

So give yourself a gift. Sit down quietly someplace and decide what it is that you would enjoy doing, decide on a starting place and go at it. If it is truly something that you like it won't be long before it takes on a life of it's own driving you on. If after you travel down the road a while and discover that it is not what you really want look to something else. It's your life and it's your purpose you can change your mind if you want. The thing is, don't just quit it, replace it, with another purpose. Next year can be a repeat of 2006 or it can be an adventure, choose.

Dealing With Depression

2007-01-11T05:40:00.000-05:00

I recently read that depression is often the result of our expectations not meeting with reality. This may very well be true but I'm thinking that depression is mainly the result of a combination of unexpressed anger turned inward and guilt.

When it takes hold I found that I cannot think my way out of depression. I can only act my way out by moving muscles. Doing simple things like taking walks, exercising, cleaning a small portion of a room, anything that requires physical movement. The more physical the better. I have to remember to start off with an easy thing because once I am in the grips of depression just breathing can seem to take more energy than I have. Fortunately I can start off doing very simple things like sitting in a different chair than I normally do. This gives me a different view of my environment. Then I can move up to physical movement, rearranging the magazines, dusting the end table, emptying the trash and just maybe taking a walk. These little things can break up the emotional and thinking patterns that go along with depression. While I am doing something physical I bring my thoughts to the here and now, putting my thoughts on what I am doing this moment. This is not the time to dwell on all my life's problems. Doing so will only overwhelm me and drive me deeper into the grips of the depression.

Once I am in motion I may be able to use one of the most powerful weapon I found to combat depression that is the making of a gratitude list. So I actually pick up a pen or pencil and start to make a list of the things that are right in my life. This list puts things in perspective. It show me that everything, including myself, is not all bad. My list will often starts off with putting a positive thing down like I have a roof over my head. I'll immediately think something like, "Big deal, sometimes it leaks" Okay, you have a car. "It's a junk that doesn't start when I need it to." Well, I have my friends, "Yeah where are they when I need them?' Then as I continue making the list gradually the negative comments subside and I begin to see that all is not as dreary as I thought and guess what, somewhere along in this process I realize that I am not the great failure I started off believing I was.

Another valuable tool I found is prayer. When I am depressed I don't feel much like praying but I can muster up enough energy for a one word prayer."HELP".

When I get to where I am ready to reach out and be with other people I think of Ghandi's words “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”. I may still want to die but I usually end up being too busy to do it any time soon.

Notice that I haven't mentioned the taking of drugs to combat depression. That is because I "personally" believe that they cause more problems than they solve. They often just mask the symptoms and not really solving the problem.

What Is Honor?

2007-01-09T04:30:00.000-05:00

American Heritage Dictionary: Honor: 1. Esteem , Respect This concept appears to be a fading relic of the past. It is being replaced by Selfishness and Self-centeredness. As we move increasingly into the get way of life the values that made life pleasant and safe are disappearing. Greed is pervading every level of our society and is making life on this planet very tiresome. We not only have to worry about keeping what we have safe we are also led to believe that we must worry about how to get more.

The desire to get more is making our whole society sick. Just recently it was passed on to me from a car salesman who worked for a auto manufacturer's dealership. He said that the reason that two of it's most popular lines were dropped is because these cars are so well built that they could last for years. They are easy to repair and parts for them are widely available at prices well below what the Auto manufacturer was selling them for. These models have been replace with ones that are designed not to last as long. According to this salesman, if one needs parts for these new models they will have to get them through the dealership. With corporate thinking like this is it any wonder that this company is losing shares of market to foreign companies. Just maybe the consumer is not as stupid as some their executives think. What ever happened to "Quality Is Job One". Now if this what this salesman says is true I would be led to believe that this manufacturer of automobiles has forgotten why they are in business in the first place. I get the impression that they believe that their business is soley to earn money for their stockholders rather than producing automobiles. In my opinion this kind of thinking will bring cheaply made junk to the market. Talk about not treating your customers with honor. The problem for them is one can only get away with fooling the consumer for just so long. Customers cannot be loyal to a company that is not loyal to them.

There is no honor among thieves, so the saying goes and judging from our dealings with others there is little honor among a growing portion of our society.

No Immortal Soul, Science and Bible Agree

2007-01-07T06:59:00.000-05:00

Recently while checking my email I ran across an add of some sort that asked the question, "What happens to the soul when one dies?" This question, not being in the context of religion, got me to thinking about what I have been told. I decided to do some research into the matter. If I understand it correctly most traditional Christian Churches teach that the immortal soul concept comes from the Holy Bible. On the other side, much of the scientific community tells us that there is no evidence of an immortal soul. Who is correct?

Looking at the Bible I discovered that what is referred to as the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the New Testament was written in Greek and not in King James old English. The first thing I discovered is the term "immortal soul" cannot be found in the Bible. Looking into the O.T. I found that the word translated soul was the Hebrew word nephesh and can mean an air breathing creature. I found passages where nephesh was translated as an animal and even a dead body. In the book of Genesis I read where man was formed of the dust of the ground and man became a living soul. The dust of the ground became a soul. So what I get from the O.T. man does not have a soul man is a soul. I could not find anything in the Old Testament that says man soul is immortal. In fact in Ezekiel chapter 18 verse 20 it says that the soul that sins it shall die.

Okay no immortal soul in the Old Testament . It must be in the New Testament. In the NT the Greek word for soul is psuche and has pretty much the same meaning as nephesh. One of the first passages I find in the NT tells us to fear the one who is able to kill the soul. The soul can be killed. Other verses tell us that the soul can be pierced through with a sword and the soul can be destroyed. In my search I could find no immortal soul in the bible.

Where then did Christianity get the concept of an immortal soul? As near as I can find out it came to the Greeks from the Egyptians and to the Christian church mainly from Plato who wrote in his book the Phaedo: "The soul whose inseparable attitude is life will never admit of life's opposite, death. Thus the soul is shown to be immortal, and since immortal indestructible....Do we believe there is such a thing as death? To be sure. And is this anything but the separation of the soul and body?" This appears to be exactly what I was taught in the church I was brought up in.

Putting it all together I am lead to believe that the immortal soul concept came down to Christianity from early paganism and that the Bible and science agree that there is no immortal soul.

Will Christ Return In 2007?

2007-01-05T07:11:00.000-05:00

I am still thinking of that poll I read a few days ago in USA Today. One out of four Americans expect Christ to return in 2007. While I know that there is a religious element in this nation I had not idea that it is such a large contingent. I'm wondering if the respondents feel that things are really that bad in this society. I also wonder what they believe will happen when Christ does return. Do they have an idea of what Christ is like or is He just a name to them? Will His coming solve the problems of this world or will the Christ they are expecting just wafted them away to Never, Never Land? What does he expect of His followers? Are they expected to prepare in some way for His coming? Does 2007 mark the end of the world?

If He is returning in 2007 as 25% of those polled believe these are important questions. In my search for answers I went to the Holy Bible. In the Matthew chapter 24 starting in verse 3 I see where Jesus's disciples came to Him privately and asked, "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" Curiously, the first thing He says is that many Christians will be deceived by false teachers of Christ. After religious deception He goes on to tell them of world conditions. There will be wars and rumors of wars, famines, pestilences and earthquakes in various places. He goes on to say that His follower will be hated and killed. He warns of false prophets and lawlessness. Then he tells them that the gospel (the good news) of the kingdom will be told to the world.

If I understand it correctly these events have been happening in every generation since His first appearance. Why will this time be different? I got my answer in verse 22. He says that unless those days be shortened no flesh would be saved alive or no flesh would survive, depending on which bible translation you are using. It wasn't until some time in the late fifty's that mankind had developed the power to destroy all life from this planet. So that kind of narrows the time frame down to the present generation. So could the 25% of those polled be right? And if not in 2007, when?

Are Hard Times Coming?

2007-01-04T04:50:00.000-05:00

On December 13 the US mint announced that it was putting in place rules banning the melting down of our pennies or nickels. They have also made it a punishable offense to ship more than a hundred dollars in these coins out of the country at one time. These offenses carry a penalty of up to five years in prison and or up to a $10,000 dollar fine. They tell us it is to protect the U.S. tax payer. (I personally think that the American tax payer is in far greater danger from the spending habits of our elected officials.) It seems that some entrepreneurs have been melting these coins down for the metal. There is something dangerously wrong with our monetary system when the base metals that are in these coins are worth more than the face value. I take it as a warning that our dollar is on a downhill slide. Soon to go the way of the British Pound. For those who don't remember there was a time when the Pound was the trusted currency of world commerce. The move away from the US dollar will wreak havoc with our economy because we have become a debtor nation. We owe other countries a great deal as a result of our purchasing more foreign goods than we have sold of our goods and services. Could this collapse of the dollar be what Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be talking about when he says our downfall in near?

The question is, how long can we continue on this path before this whole economic thing comes crashing in on us. If we want to know what this would mean to the average citizen we only have to look to the former Soviet Union. When their economy came crashing down people faced great shortages of everything. Those who relied on the government for an income were no longer paid. For those who think that we cannot go the same route because we are a world power I would like to remind them that the Soviet Union was at one time the other world power second only to the US.

Things don't look good. Hard times are ahead for us as the world of commerce abandons the dollar and turns to the Euro.

2007 Not A Good Year

2007-01-02T05:04:00.000-05:00

This is the time of year when our newscasters become prognosticators making predictions for the coming year. I do hope that what they are seeing is rosier that what I fear is coming. The indicators I am looking at are pointing to difficult times ahead. It appears that the world will move closer to a nuclear war now that there is a mad rush for smaller countries to develop bombs of their own. As we see with Iran there is no international force that will stop them.

Speaking of Iran it is on a campaign to bring down the dollar. At the same time one of the largest holders of the American dollar, China is in the process of getting rid of it's holdings which will further weaken the dollar. I foresee the time when the US dollar will fall from it's lofty state of being the preferred international monetary exchange and go the route of the British Pound.

The US food producing industry is being battered by foreign competition and bad weather. At the rate we are going it won't be all that long before we will be unable to produce enough to feed our people.

Our society is showing signs of tearing itself apart. The political, cultural and religious divisions are growing. Hatred and fear are replacing tolerance. It appears to me that our melting pot is rapidly becoming a boiling pot. For now our anger is focused on the war in Iraq. Once it is over I foresee this anger will be turned inward on other segments of our society.

As I see it all the signs are there for this nation to follow the other world power of our time the Soviet Union into a rapid decline. Who will fill the vacuum? Look to a Germany let European union. Will all this happen in one short year? I could be wrong but I don't think so. It could take two or three years.

Tonight Is Amateur Night

2006-12-31T05:32:00.000-05:00

I have heard New Years Eve referred to as Amateur Night. "Why?" I asked. The reply was, "On this night many people who don't get drunk all year do so while celebrating this occasion. "Well if they are amateurs what constitutes being a professional?" A professional doesn't need a special once a year occasion to drink to excess. They will do it because their dog died, it's someone's birthday, it Labor day, it's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday etc. It is their way of life. Drinking comes before family, friends and work. It becomes their full time job. It is how they deal with life and life's problems. They are blind to the fact that their drinking is adding to their list of troubles. It can't be. Booze is their friend. It's what makes it possible to get past the difficulties. They honestly believe that they wouldn't have most of their problems if people would only leave them alone. Like I said,blind.

For most of the evening revelers waking up New Year's Day with a hangover is about all they will suffer. Some will wake fearing the consequences of what they said. Some will feel embarrassed for what they did last night. A few will wake up in jail and other will wake in hospitals and some won't wake at all. Even amateurs can lose out big time. I wonder, is the changing of a number on the calendar worth the risk of overindulgence?

Happy New Year ?

2006-12-29T05:14:00.000-05:00

New Year's Eve is coming along with the many celebration, parties and events. Every where I go I will be greeted with "Happy New Year". Most will have a joyful celebration as they watch the new year come in. For some the year will start off badly as a result of their excessive partying.

Growing up in my home this occasion was celebrated with revelry and drinking. Come to think of it, every occasion was celebrated with alcohol in my house. This is where I came to my definition of a social drinker as being one who drank, got drunk and if he or she did not cause a fight they were social drinkers. It never dawned on me that a true social drinker maybe has one or one and a half, two drinks at a party.

As a child I was often woken by loud and sometimes violent confrontations because of the excess drinking that took place. I grew up thinking that this was normal. The most often used excuse for the person causing the row was that they are just going through a bad time in their life. It seemed to me that some were having years of bad times. This happened so often that even today if I am woken by raised voices or a loud crash I am terror stuck for a moment of two.
So I guess you will understand it if I am one of those who choose to stay in the peace of my home and not give too much attention to the coming of the New Year. I will treat it just like any other day and hope that I can remember to write 07 and not 06 on my checks. Besides I like waking clear headed and remembering what I did the night before.

He Did The Unthinkable

2006-12-28T06:09:00.000-05:00

Just about three hours after I posted my blog "Twas The Day After Christmas" I received a phone call from a friend. He was really upset with himself. He did the unthinkable. He drank himself into a blackout and in a drunken rage physically abused his wife enough to leave scratches on her neck. He kept repeating how sorry he was that he did that. He had never thought it possible. He called because in his guilt and remorse he was considering suicide. He was feeling physically ill and his thinking was clouded by what he drank the evening before. Most of all he was frightened that he had lost the woman he truly loved. He just wanted to die.

I listened to him and then pointed out that if he had not been drinking he would have never done such a thing. After a moment of silence he responded that it was very true. He just didn't understand what happened. While he had some trouble with drinking in his youth but in the years that followed he was able to have an occasional glass of wine in social situations without any problem what so ever. He could take it or leave it. Now after all these years he found himself drinking to excess two days in a row. He didn't realize it but he was on a drinking binge. I would venture to guess that if this incident with his wife had not happened he would still be on his drinking spree celebrating the holidays.

I'm predicting that with this spree he has crossed some invisible line where he can no longer drink safely. He can no longer guarantee his actions once he starts and if he continues to drink his binges will come at shorter intervals. His drinking will destroy everything he has built and take away all that is of value to him.

Now I am sure that while he is feeling remorseful and fearful he will not have too much if any difficulty in not drinking. The problem is in a relatively short span of time the guilt, remorse and fear will disappear. At the same time his resolve not to drink will weaken and he may even think that he was being too hard on himself. Surely they is no harm in having a glass of wine or two on social occasions. What happened back then was a fluke and would have never happened if his wife had raised her voice in anger to him. He is now in danger. It is almost inevitable that he will in a short time be off on another drinking spree. His life will continue to spiral downward is a series of drinking bouts and if he doesn't seek help his prospects will be either institutions or death.

I wonder if he will be able to get through the New Year celebrations without drinking. For his sake I hope that he can. I'd hate to see his life go down the tubes but only he can stop it.

T'is The Day After Christmas

2006-12-26T05:23:00.000-05:00

There are some out there that will be facing this day after Christmas with shame and guilt because of what they did while under the influence of alcohol. Some will wake this morning not knowing what they said or did yesterday. That's okay, there is always someone more than willing to fill you in on what a fool you were and what a mess you made. If the guilt is too much you can relieve it by drinking more of the "hair of the dog" and of course there is always the often used method of denial and with a few mental gymnastics you can actually make it someone else's fault.

Now if your drunken antics ruined your family's holiday don't be too concerned continue on this course and you won't have a family that much longer. People can only take just so many broken promises and so much abuse before they don't want you around any more. You may believe that you are not hurting anyone but yourself, the thing is, this can only be true if you don't have a family, a job or a pet. Not to worry though, keep on this path and sooner or later it will be true.

Of course you just don't understand why everyone is so upset over the way you drink. You work all week and you do your part to pay the bills. What more do they want? So you are going through a rough period, it won't last, you'll make it up to them. Why can't they understand that you are under a lot of pressure and that if you didn't drink or drug you would go insane? So you acted a little crazy last night . No matter, you will fix the chair or table and replace the dishes you broke. And you really didn't mean to knock over the Christmas tree. You'll get a stronger stand for it next year.

Why can't they just leave you alone? Again I say don't worry it's only a matter of time before they do. When you think about it this might not be that bad an idea. That way you can drink as much as you want as often as you want. You will be free to drink yourself to into some state run facility or to death.

Then again, you can always do the unthinkable. You can accept that you have a problem and seek help.

To Christmas Or Not To Christmas?

2006-12-24T04:32:00.000-05:00

Now what does Christmas mean to me? For one thing I do my best to stay away from the crowded stores. In this supposed season of good will people are often so stressed out that it doesn't take much to push them over the edge. Many are tired from all the running around from store to store looking for gifts and at the same time worried about how much they are spending on these gifts. I've overhead someone make the statement that this is the season of enforced giving. Some are giving but not because they really desire to give but because they are afraid of what others will think or say about them if they don't. They give because they believe everyone else is giving and don't want to risk being different. They give, often to the point of hurt, because they believe that is what they are suppose to do.

One thing is sure the merchants of our society need this season. Many show a loss all year long and depend on Christmas buying to turn a profit. I suspect that this nation's economy would fail without the frenzied buying that accompanies this end of the year holiday.

Then there are those who just don't have what is referred to as the Christmas spirit. They are just going through the motions pretending they do. They don't feel joyful or jolly in spite of all the media hype along with the sounds of the music created for this season. About the only thing they feel is tired. They just want it to be over.

Some believe that Christmas is a the day baby Jesus was born. Others know it is not and that it is just the continuation of Saturnalia an ancient Roman festival celebrated with revelry and gift giving yet still celebrate the day claiming no religious affiliation with it. Quite a few years ago after much research I made the decision that I was no longer going to observe this day. You know, I have not regretted doing so. I have been told that it is my Christian duty to celebrate this day. My response is show me in the Bible where it says to observe Christmas and I will.

Now if like me you were taught that the baby Jesus came to bring peace on earth I leave you with this quote from the adult Jesus: Mat 10:34 Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Twas The Nightmare After Christmas

2006-12-22T06:04:00.000-05:00

Tis the season to be jolly. Now come February it will be the season to panic over how are we going to pay for being so jolly.

Growing up my mother always made a big deal over Christmas. She went all out with the decorations around both the house and yard. The tree couldn't be any tree. It had to be a perfect tree. One that usually had to have the bottom cut off to make room for it's crowning ornament which was a angel that had been in the family for longer than I could remember.

Christmas eve was the longest night of the year for us kids. We had to stay in our room unable to fall asleep because of the excitement brought on by anticipation. Lying on my bed in the dark hoping for sleep I could hear the revelry of the adults. I wished that I could be down there with them. After dozing off I would wake to silent darkness. Not able to get back to sleep I would stealthily make my way downstairs and marvel at all the toys and presents that were under the tree. Working my way back upstairs I would go wake my brothers and sister and together we would as quietly as we could go down and play with the toys that were not wrapped. As much as we may have wished to unwrapping our gifts without our mom being present was a no no. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity we would go up to wake our mom.

In her presence we would tear into our gifts with much excitement and joy. Later that day I would experience a strange phenomenon. I would feel a sense of let down. Some how this morning did not live up to the pre Christmas hype. It was a feeling of "is that all there is?" Every year the same thing. I just figured that there was something uniquely wrong with me. It wasn't until I was a married adult that I discovered others felt the same.

Come February and March our household would face the hidden cost of Christmas. You see, money that was suppose to pay things like fuel oil and electricity was spent on gifts and like clockwork every year one or both of them would be cut off and we would end up spending a couple of weeks by candle light and wearing our winter clothing to bed as we shivered ourselves to sleep in the dark. Ho Ho Ho

Is It or Isn't It A War On Terrorism?

2006-12-21T06:29:00.000-05:00

Do not refer to what is going on in Iraq as a war on terrorism. In fact quit using that term all together. It might offend the Muslims. This is what Tony Blair the prime minister of England has been told. "Political correctness again".

Question: How can a phrase like "War on Terrorism" offend peace loving Muslims or Hindus or Christians? To my way of thinking about the only people it would offend are the terrorist. Because if we are aware that there is a war being carried on by bands of gangsters hiding behind religion we might stay alert enough to actually foil their murderous plots. These power hungry monsters are using religious fervor and fear to stir up hatred and turmoil. They have become very adept at using mass media as a weapon to demoralize our resistant's. They play on our weakness a degenerating sense of morality which is making cowards of us. Lets face it, before we can firmly stand up for what is right we need to know what is right. It appears to me that we as a nation has lost it's way. We as a people are stumbling around in confusion. We are no longer sure what we believe. Our enemies know this is a war of wills and because our values are clouded and our moral code is ill defined we are losing the will to win. Here we are the most powerful nation on earth and we are backing away from groups of terrorists. There is One who has said "I will break the pride of your power."? This appears to be exactly what is happening.

Political Correctness

2006-12-19T04:43:00.000-05:00

Last week I was watching the Glenn Beck show. He attacked the concept of political correctness. He traced it back to the Soviet Union where if one didn't speak in accordance to the party line they were taken away for re-education or worse. This political correct thing has always struck me as out and out censorship. It is the book burning of our society.
I'm not in favor of intentionally speaking derogatory things about any segment of our population. But to live in fear of offending someone unintentionally just can't be healthy. Have we become so thin skinned that we can be crushed with words. Or is it we have become so greedy for power or money that we are looking for reasons to quickly run for an attoney. This political correctness thing is creating secret monsters. People are bottling up resentments over perceived slights and even prejudices so much so that they are walking around with their guts churning and like a volcano they are ready to erupt. Recently on the news there was two incidence where famous people let loose a tirade of bigoted statements. One is known to have done so while under the influence of alcohol. I don't know if it was so for the other. The news media played these up big time. One would think that there was nothing else of importance happening int the world. I have no doubt that these two incedences are just the tip of the iceberg.
Now to those who believe that they are the injured party how come we have given so much power away. How is it we can be crushed by what some jerk says. Before I have the society for jerks beating down my door let me give you my definition of a jerk. One is behaving like a jerk when they open their mouth before engaging their brain. Unfortunately I have been guilty of such on many occasions. Hey, maybe I could start a chapter of The Jerks of America in my area. We could get T-shirts and hold meetings and even have parades. Lets face it if we come out in the open we would probably make the evening news just about every day. Can you picture it? Jerks on both sides of every social issue clashing in the streets. Throwing rocks and bottles and hitting those of the opposite opinion with our signs. Tell me , would that be called political incorrectness?
Now that I think about it I am wondering if it is the fear of being accused of being politically incorrect that has made cowards of our political leaders. Oh, by the way, who is it that decides what is politically correct?

Not Being Liked

2006-12-17T05:27:00.000-05:00

If I am honest with myself I have to admit that I want to be liked by all. My experience in life tells me that just isn't going to happen. Yet it is something I desire. Now at first this desire might seem like a good idea but when I look at it carefully I discovered it is not. One reason it is not is that it makes me fearful of exposing myself. You know, it's the “if I allow you to know me you won't like me", thing. This fear caused me to be shallow in my thinking and my commitment to any moral code. I was nothing more than an actor, or a politician. I became so broad minded that I was shallow. Fear of "What will they think" and "what will they say" caused me to hide any uniqueness I may have had. That is until the day I was asked, exactly who are "they"? As I thought about it I realized that I didn't know. I concluded that the "They” was a metaphor for the unknown. I was afraid of the unknown. Am I just rambling or has anyone out there battled with this problem?

One Election Down Another To Come

2006-12-15T12:09:00.001-05:00

Having recently coming through an election and listening to many speeches and sound bites it seems to me that our politicians are more actors than they are leaders. They have research teams that gather information on what public opinion is on any given issue and then they have speech writers who craft speeches to target the audiences demographics and then they play to the crowd. I believe that is why we often hear one thing at one rally and this very candidate expounding the apposite stance at another. I suspect that they have prepared speeches coming out in favor of both sides of every issue. It seems to me that our politician don't believe in anything other than getting elected. These so called leaders don't come out on what they believe they tell us what their research says we want to hear and we fall for it. They don't give us solutions they just shout accusations against the opposing candidates. They have no qualms about promising us the world because I suspect that in most cases they have no intention of carrying through on any of them. What frightens me is that it is said that our leaders are a reflection of ourselves.