SAYING and DOING

The theme of the 2011 State of the Union speech was "win the future".  What is the President's plan for our future?

The President tried to encourage us by saying we are the nation that put cars in driveways and computers in offices and we're the nation of Edison and Facebook and Google and the Wright brothers.  Unfortunately, the government was not the father of any of those examples...and the President's plan is for government (not the private sector) to lead the way.  As Coulter says... "And then the government outlawed Edison's great invention, made the Wright brothers' air travel insufferable, filed anti-trust charges against Microsoft and made cars too expensive to drive by prohibiting oil exploration, and right now -- at this very minute -- is desperately trying to regulate the Internet."


The President said the economy/job crisis were his highest priority.  Unfortunately those words were IDENTICAL to the ones he spoke in the 2010 SOTU right before he spent the year on healthcare.


The President repeated again our need to reduce the debt.  Unfortunately, instead of doing that he appointed a bipartisan debt commission last February to come up with a plan.  Their report ("Moment of Truth", December, 2010) said "we cannot afford to continue spending more than we take in, and we cannot continue to make promises we know full well we cannot keep."  Then did he begin implementing their plan?  Notsomuch.  His plan is to cut the deficit by freezing spending at the current uber-bloated rate.


The President called Congress to cut spending, and then said we should invest in things like green technology/high speed rail/education.  Unfortunately, we know spending and investing mean the same thing.  When we hear "rail" we think Amtrak (lost 13B)...when we hear "solar panels/wind turbines", we know government loans and tax credits don't even help those guys break even...and when we hear shoveling more money down education, we think of the documentary  "Looking for Superman".  http://www.waitingforsuperman.com/


Our President and rhetoric are the best of friends.  Unfortunately, we have to watch what he does and not what he says.


If Visa and your mortgage were breathing down YOUR neck...would you spend or slash?  Or roll over and go belly up?

WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO LIFE?

 It was a biting cold January day in 1981.  Mike and I were new Christians, having both prayed within months of one another.  So together we were considering big chunks of truth with new eyes.  It was the "Sanctity of Life" week and we were seeing what Scripture had to say about the question "is it a fetus or a baby?".

Our church challenged us to defend the unborn by marching in something called the March for Life.  It was a way to highlight a moral (not political) issue by marching down Capitol Avenue to the steps of our state capitol.  That seemed like a small way to help the helpless.

But for some reason, as we drove downtown that day, our mustard-seed faith shriveled.  We had not done such a thing before and we didn't know what it would be like.  What had we gotten into?  We did not see any traffic...but of course it WAS Sunday and it WAS spitting snow with a howling wind.  We began to think "Great.  We came all the way down here for nothing when we could be home by the fireplace."  I can remember Mike parking and us buttoning up to get out of the car, thinking how crazy it was because common sense wouldn't let our kids come out in weather like that.  We walked a couple of blocks and turned the corner to where the march was to start.  All of a sudden, we heard people and laughing and saw a huge crowd!  It was like we went from seeing no one (and feeling like fools) to being in the midst of thousands of people.  Many were friends.  Our faith soared!

That day was one of my favorite memories as the Lord built our confidence in Him.  Even though we had shifted our feet about going, it was another step for us as we learned to walk our talk.  Over the years we lived in Little Rock, we marched several times and after that first time, we took Beth and Brad with us.  It was a caravan of families pushing strollers and people carrying signs and bagpipes playing "Amazing Grace" and speeches and prayers.  Back in the 80's the march was new (having begun in '78) and there were camera crews with microphones and large turnouts (even 40K) and a few unpleasant hecklers with their signs along the way.  But two days ago, the 2011 march had 5K and was heckler-free and the press gave it a one picture article.  I guess after covering it 33 times, the angles had all been used. 

God knows the answer to the key question of this emotional issue.  He has not granted to science conclusive proof one way or the other.  One side says FETUS and approaches the controversy as an issue of rights.  One side says BABY and (speaking for myself) came to that conclusion out of Scripture study and the resulting moral conviction.  Considering the stakes, if I were teetering on which way to side, it might seem logical to err on the side of caution.  If you would like to check out this link, it is to a beautiful presentation called "The Miracle of Life".   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APkV40vUhWs

In the last few years, photography has just taken our breath away as we are able now to see into the dark depths of the womb.  You have probably seen this shot that was taken after a surgeon completed repairs inside a uterus and this little hand flopped back out.

And isn't this belly sweet?

This child's picture was made at 20 weeks after conception.  Amazing!

And 11 weeks after conception...

And after only 8 weeks from conception...

Last week an abortion doctor was arrested in Philadelphia and charged with murder.  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/01/19/philly-doctor-facing-8-counts-of-murder/     Police found sickening things in the office, including a floor covered with blood and cat urine.  The inspection for licensing his gruesome business had not happened in years...even after many complaints.  It would be speculative to guess why, but it is true that many patients of Dr. Kermit Gosnell were poor and immigrant women.  No wonder we read over and over of God's heart for the poor as He calls us to come to the defense of those who cannot help themselves.  Surely the Lord must have been thinking about just such a hell hole.

There is another thing that the Bible makes clear.  It speaks of the end times when people will love only themselves and their money...they will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God...considering nothing as sacred (2 Timothy 3.2).  That verse came to mind as I watched this doctor's smiling face as his mouth mocked the charges against him.

In both Genesis and Revelation we read of spilled blood CRYING OUT from the ground for retribution.  Surely the innocents who died in Dr. Gosnell's "office" are deaths that the Lord will avenge.  Unfortunately, the judgment on our country for the many lives lost will be a judgment on the nation as a whole.  We are in this together, and together especially now that our taxpayer money is funding abortions.  We need to be begging the Lord for mercy.

"Your mercy, O Lord, extends to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.  Your justice is like the highest mountains, your fairness like the deepest sea...how precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings...for You are the One who gives and sustains life."

THE STRONGMAN

God, bless the Haitian people.  They have suffered death and destruction and cholera and the lack of basic needs.  Who possibly would have guessed it could get any worse for them?  But last week former dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier showed up from exile.  His dreaded Tonton Macoute "enforcers" used to terrorize Haiti before he was chased out.  Baby Doc says he has come to help, but strongmen usually have an agenda.

Sometimes persuaders are not brutal, but are just bullies.  Are you familiar with the SEIU?   The Service Employees International Union is the fastest-growing union in America, representing 2M workers in 100 different occupations.  SEIU members are in fields such as healthcare, food service, janitorial, and security.  They backed the President's election to the tune of $61M; the President required the TARP money to go solely to union workers.  And there are ACORN connections to the SEIU.  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35696

It might be fair to say that the SEIU and the White House are simpatico.  White House records for 2009 show the president of the SEIU topped the visitor's list with the most visits (22).   http://www.workerfreedom.org/seiu-president-andy-stern-visits-white-a3717

Apparently the SEIU also has a bus ministry.  The news has been full of these buses in the last couple of years.  When the Rally to Restore Sanity was held in D.C., SEIU buses brought folks in.  They also transported people 900 miles across the country to St. Louis to protest a company called Scripts.  And the purple buses brought busloads to town hall meetings and Tea Party rallies that resulted in some clashes.

Last May, news accounts described "thugs" that were bused in to protest in front of the PRIVATE HOME of the Deputy Counsel of Bank of America.   http://money.cnn.com/2010/05/19/news/companies/SEIU_Bank_of_America_protest.fortune/index.htm   A journalist named Nina Easton lived next door.  She wrote a piece about the incident after she got a call from the lawyer's anxious teen who was home alone when 14 busloads of protesters arrived.  If the SEIU had a beef with Bank of America, shouldn't they go to the business?


A bus caravan of 11 buses was sent in June from Los Angeles to Phoenix to protest the immigration bill. How exactly does that union/immigration connection work?  Workers' union funds go to transport SEIU people from CA to AZ to protest for immigrant rights...and that helps the unions how?  Don't unions want the work?

Now we are hearing that in Washington, D.C., the above pamphlet was distributed by the SEIU in protest of a Wal Mart to be built there.  Again, they call for protest at the developer's HOME.  But what's even worse, you can see the pamphlet has a bullseye beside the developer's home address.  It's troubling to put the home address...and the bullseye has recently been declared off limits for civility.

Nina Easton called the protesters in her neighborhood "the politics of personal intimidation".  That would be in keeping with a quote from Andy Stern on his Wiki page.  Mr. Stern was the SEIU president from 1996-2010 and he is unapologetic about targeting private firms and shaming business leaders.  Here is his quote:  "We use the power of persuasion first.  If it doesn't work, we try the persuasion of power."  

Persuasion by power, Mr. Stern?  Strongmen persuade as brutes or bullies, but no one likes being strong-armed.  Mr. President, if you have influence with these guys, please tell them their ways are not the American way.

I find it ironic that the One who COULD have displayed more power than all of us corporately combined...the same Mighty One who spoke the world into existence...DOES NOT stoop to strong-arm.  He chooses to deal with us gently; His agenda is to leave our future up to us.  He was truly the humble Savior at His first visit.  But when He returns, it will be as THE STRONGMAN who stands on the neck of iniquity...yet is a Friend to those who experience His grace.

I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day.

LEARNING TO HATE

Don't you think it's easier to hate than to love?  Each side in a standoff thinks the other hates the most.  Lefty thinks Righty needs to tone down and be more civil.  Righty thinks Lefty just wants them to hush and go away.

But a case could be made for the way Americans were taught to hate George Bush.  Daily demeaned in the press, Bush was characterized as a cowboy, mocked because he was said to be unintelligent/couldn't pronounce words correctly, incessantly accused of stealing an election or starting a war (either over a weapons lie or to distract us from the high unemployment figures...of 4%).  President Bush never answered the bashing; he never gave what he got.  And that made the opposition foam at the mouth and ratchet up the animosity all the more...

Hate is a hard thing to curb once given it's head.  The casualty of such passion is REASON.  Bush haters spilled out into the streets.  Can you just IMAGINE if these same things were done in the streets

about our present president?

                                                            

Or, how about the cottage industriess that sprang up in t-shirt manufacturing and bumper sticker businesses?

Remember the movie that was made called "Assassination of the President"?  Could that be considered hateful?

We now know that the AZ shooter had great animosity toward President Bush.  That was not widely reported, but the shooter's problem was not the president.  The problem was his mental disease which ran headlong into "authority".  Authority (particularly the authority of the government) was the shooter's target until 2007, when his attention fell on his local Congresswoman.

Hating is particularly dangerous because it becomes like an adrenaline addiction.  Now we are called to also hate the filthy rich.  Wall Street.  Business.  Some even have contempt for their own country.  They say America is full of racism, sexism, immigrant phobes, homophobes, and on and on.  When did we begin to hate groups of people?  I can remember political disagreement all my life, but only in the last 20 years do I remember opposition-hating.  WHY are we hating?

Lately there is one big Kahuna that daily receives loathing.  Sarah Palin is an unannounced candidate for president who is a catch-basin for hateful rants.  I can't figure out why.  If she is all they say she is...what's to worry?  If all she wants is to serve her country, why would we despise/verbally assault her?  Where is justification for personal remarks about her intelligence, the pitch of her voice, her expressions, her hair, her clothing, and the way she raises her children?  Comedians joke about the intent of a baseball's team toward her 14 year old daughter, they disparage an out-of-wedlock daughter, they call her innocent baby a "retard", and imply incest regarding the father of Bristol's baby.  That is OUTRAGEOUS!  Now tell me who wants to lay their family down to run for office anymore?

Yesterday as I waited in the doctor's office for a "nose hose" checkup, I was looking at a magazine article about the Palin's.  I mentioned it to the doc as I went in...and got an eyeroll.  I'm interested in knowing how people arrive at their assumptions and this particular person was educated and a woman.  So I asked what was most objectionable to her about Sarah.  The doctor's response was that she disagreed with her policies.  When asked about which, she said "well, I thought the bullseye on the map was over the top".  Here is an identical map from the DNC.

Since Palin's map was not the first political campaign to regularly pinpoint "soft" districts with a bullseye, I have to assume that there must be other issues with which the doctor disagreed.  I like this woman and would like to believe the best of her that she doesn't just swallow the media blitz, but examines news for truth.  But let's face it.  This doc leads a busy life like many people.  News is caught here and there.  And if the news is caught from the mainstream, there is verifiable bias.   http://www.mrc.org/biasbasics/biasbasics1.asp

Civil discourse has always been our heritage.  As society has pockmarked civility and coarsened the way we interact, our discourse struggles.  It brings to mind how Thomas Jefferson and John Adams disagreed on matters of policy.  Their letters reveal their heartfelt strife which ended in complete alienation of their close friendship.  Jefferson (the libertarian) and Adams (the conservative) had high stakes looming over them for the country's survival.  If their frail newbie didn't "get it right", the United States was sunk.  Good reason to be politically passionate.  Well, well.  Things change and things stay the same.  Now it is China that is looming over us, while Islamofascism is like a deadly, constant drip, drip.  Again, we need to get things right.

Do you know the ending for the Jefferson/Adams conflict?  In their later years, a peacemaker and physician named Dr. Benjamin Rush (a mutual friend and also a signer of the Declaration) stepped in to help them begin to reconcile.   http://pavellas.com/2010/02/03/john-adams-thomas-jefferson-from-friendship-to-antagonism-to-reconciliation/    The men did resolve their conflict.  And as morning dawned on July 4, 1826, Jefferson and Adams had thoughts of each other as each friend drew his last breath only hours apart.  It was 50 years after the two had signed the Declaration of Independence. 


Our President called the nation to a moratorium on rancor only seven days ago.  Still, a peacemaker on call in the House today would have been handy.  The reaction to the vote to repeal Obamacare...raised the threat level for civility to RED.  (To understand, google remarks by Steve Cohen/Sheila Jackson Lee.)  


Where is a Benjamin Rush when you need him?

PLAYING DRESS UP

Look at these precious faces.  These kids were part of the "cast" of the Christmas play last month at our little church.  I guess they were "first at the lick log" for the afterparty.  Thanks to Sharna for thinking of the cake/providing it.  From left to right, of course you will recognize Jesus' mother Mary, the lead Shepherd, and Joseph.  They did such a good job.  Yesterday at church one of the dads told Mike that his kids were wanting to come to church that morning because they hoped they would get to dress up again.  They like that dress up stuff.

More precious faces...of our nephew/wife who ALSO got to do the dress up stuff last night at the Golden Globes.  David was nominated for a song he co-wrote called "There's A Place For Us".  The song was used when the credits rolled on the movie Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdSw2kGnOQ   Unfortunately the Best Song award went to music from the movie "Burlesque".  Waaa.


Did you happen to catch those fancy dresses at the Golden Globes?  Kate put on Facebook some fun things...like who she saw and who was standing in the bathroom line with her.  I've heard it is impolite to stare, but I don't know how they kept from doing just that as they rubbed elbows with Hollywood royalty.


Listen to these lyrics from David's nominated song:

There's a place out there for us

more than just a prayer or anything you've ever dreamed of.

So if you feel like giving up cause you don't fit in down here,

fear is crashing in, close your eyes and take my hand.

We can be the kings and queens of anything if we believe.

It's written in the stars that shine above, 

a world where you and I belong,

where faith and love will keep us strong,

exactly who we are is just enough...

there's a place for us, there's a place for us.

When the water meets the sky,

where your heart is free and hope comes back to life,

when these broken hands are whole again,

we will find what we've been waiting for...

we were made for so much more.

So hold on, now hold on,

there's a place for us.

I don't know about you, but those words call me up.  We WERE made for so much more.

Scripture says a time is coming when the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of our God.  Life as we know it becomes life as He knows it.  In fact, Handel wrote "The Messiah" about just such a moment.  And in THAT moment, all the price tags change.  The things prized today (like beauty and money and power and prestige) dissolve.  Then...only what counts with the Lord counts.  All our attempts to dress ourselves up won't change what He sees.

I like the words from the song "if you feel like you don't fit in down here".  Everyone has felt that at one time or another.  So CELEBRATE!  Those are stirrings of a desire for another place.

And there is a Place tailor-made for those who choose to go.  Isn't that an amazing thought about being "kings and queens"?  God promises that our preparation in THIS place determines our job description in the next.  Read Revelation 5.10 and 2 Timothy 2.12.

All those "with a ticket" can get in.  Beyond that, those who pursue Him on this side...and demonstrate their willingness to be "retrofitted" for the next kingdom...are rewarded in kind.  Just like in the parable of the talents, Jesus says to the faithful:

"Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master's happiness!"  Matthew 25.23

GIVE US FREE!

Do you remember this 1997 powerful performance by the actor Dijmon Hounsou in the movie Amistad?  Mike and I watched the movie again last night and I had forgotten that it was a true story...and I'd forgotten what a good movie it is.  Spielberg's production also stars Anthony Hopkins (nominated for Best Actor) and Morgan Freeman and Matthew McConaughey.

If you saw Amistad, you remember that the story begins with a mutiny on a slave ship whose name literally means "friendship".  That hardly describes the horrors for the captives aboard the boat as it crossed the ocean.  This story happened in 1839 when slavery was already a divisive issue in our new country.  My mind's eye remembers the African Cinque standing at his trial and extending his wrist irons as he fiercely pleads "give us free!".

After Roger Baldwin represented the Africans successfully in two trials, the case went to the Supreme Court and was argued by John Quincy Adams, our former President.  Mike remembered that it was his father, John Adams, who took the case of the British soldiers who fired into the crowd at the Boston Massacre in 1770.  The Adams' men were lawyers of conviction.

Mike and I were surprised to recognize the courtroom in the movie.  Earlier last night, FOX News had covered the freshman class of the House being sworn in.  And in that coverage they showed different parts of the Capitol, including the first floor (which was the original Capitol until the present Capitol was built above it).  Bret Baier had the camera pan around the room as he explained that years ago, the Supreme Court met there.  And that was the setting for the Supreme Court scene in Amistad.

Anthony Hopkins' presentation to the high court on behalf of Cinque was magnificent http://www.historycentral.com/amistad/amistad.html.  It called his audience of judges (five of which were Southerners) to consider the power and privilege of freedom.  And as he recounted the African's spiritist dependance on ancestors for courage, John Quincy Adams (our 6th President) walked by the marble busts of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and his own father John Adams (our 2nd President)...and considered the wisdom of those founders.  In the picture below, John Quincy Adams (Hopkins) is reading the Declaration of Independence and quoting the phrase "all men are created equal".

It took courage from both of these lawyers to defend a very unpopular cause upon which many livelihoods hinged.  Roger Baldwin (McConaughey) suffered death threats.  He was a man with impressive credentials...his father was a lawyer/Congressman and his mother was the daughter of one of the signers of the Declaration.  But Roger Baldwin's legacy is his fight against slavery and his defense of the less fortunate.  He went on after the Amistad case to become Governor of Connecticut and also a U.S. Senator.  John Quincy Adams was ridiculed and lampooned as a old man who snoozed through sessions of Congress (after President Adams left office, he was elected to Congress...only one of two presidents to do such a thing).  And in fact, he WAS toward the end of his life.  He died only seven years after winning the Amistad case.  Our country owes a deep debt of gratitude to John Quincy Adams.  He never took one dime for his work on the Amistad case.  But I was thrilled to read this huge piece of gratitude that went to JQA in the form of a Mendi Bible, presented to him with a letter which read:

"We are about to go home to Africa. We go to Sierra Leone first, and then we reach Mendi very quick. When we get to Mendi we will tell the people of your great kindness. Good missionary will go with us. We shall take the Bible with us. It has been a precious book in prison, and we love to read it now we are free! Mr. Adams, we want to make you a present of a beautiful Bible! Will you please to accept it, and when you look at it or read it, remember your poor and grateful clients?... For the Mendi people. CINQUE, KINNA, KALE. Boston, Nov. 6, 1841"


Today his Mendi Bible and the letter can be seen at the Adams National Historic Park in Quincy, MA.  In response to their gift, Mr. Adams wrote..."it was from that book that I learnt to espouse your cause when you were in trouble."


I have been thinking a lot about our times and their times.  Things change, but things stay the same.  Our country's course was steered by men who held fast to God and wrote the Declaration of Independence.  Here we are 169 years later and the issue before the American people is whether to trust the founders' wisdom that has served our country well, or regard their words as dusty and inapplicable.  


The Amistad case went to the Supreme Court because President Van Buren was concerned about his own re-election and so injected himself into the contest.  JQA rightly pointed out to the Supremes the division between the executive and judicial branches of our government.  Today things are whomper-jawed again.   The executive branch overreaches...the judicial branch overrules the will of the people...and the legislative branch abdicates their contribution.  We flatter ourselves if we think we have outgrown our founding documents.  The delicate balance of power that they carefully laid out is the fertile ground of liberty.


"If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed."  John 8.36

TRANSITION

This woman is Aasia Bibi.  Last fall she and a group of women were picking berries in the fields of Pakistan.  Aasia was sent for water; another woman refused the water because Aasia (a Christian) had touched it.  Words flew and Mrs. Bibi was arrested for blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed.  The Pakistani minister for minority affairs investigated the case and found her innocent.  Although Aasia Bibi was originally set to hang, she was pardoned in November, 2010.

This is Aasia's husband (who makes bricks at a kiln) and her two daughters.  The Taliban threatened retribution if their wife/mother were spared.  Within 24 hours of the warning, the Bibi family fled their home and remain in hiding.

These fundamentalist Pakistani men are in the streets protesting blasphemy reform.  They have pledged to "protect the dignity" of the Prophet and "sacrifice our lives for Muhammad".  An automatic death sentence awaits anyone convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan.  It is not uncommon for those declared innocent to still fall victim to street violence (even pulling innocents from a hospital bed) and the law has been used to attack minorities.  On New Year's Eve there was a strike by Islamist parties supporting the blasphemy law that brought Pakistan to a standstill.

This man is Salmaan Taseer.  Born into poverty, he became successful in business and lived a Western lifestyle.  Appointed Governor of the Punjab (Pakistan's most important province), Governor Taseer was a voice for moderation.  Against political advice, he went to see Aasia in jail, was photographed with her (on his right), and made public comments in favor of reforming the blasphemy laws.  This Tuesday, 01/4/11, he was killed.

This man is Mumtaz Zadri, bodyguard to Governor Taseer.  He turned and fired nine bullets at close range into the governor as they left an Islamabad restaurant.  None of the other guards moved to help their employer.  Zadri arrived at his arraignment confident in his standing with Allah and his followers, who strew rose petals in his path.

Can we thank the Lord together for stability in government and for laws 
derived from Judeo-Christian values...that are structured to protect life?  
This afternoon the gavel of the House of Representative was handed over 
in an ORDERLY passage of power.  God, you have blessed the U.S.A!

GOT GROUPON?

Heard of "Groupon"?  It's a new venture that is part group, part coupon.  Groupon is one of those great ideas that we hear about and go..."Hey, I could have thought of that!"  Each day Groupon posts an offer online for a huge deal in your city.  And if enough people sign up to buy the coupon, it makes the coupon active.

Why is this catching on?  Cuz it's a great idea!  An online business was created with no need of storefront or warehouse.  Groupon hires salesmen to locate the business customers.  If a small business is chosen to offer the Groupon "deal-of-the-day", their numbers (which can be anticipated and planned for) cover the profit.  What's the cherry on top?  Say a local nail salon is chosen to offer a Groupon discount.  They are a small business and unable to afford mass advertising.  This opportunity doesn't cost one advertising dollar, but they get tons of exposure.  Brilliant.

Groupon is so brilliant, in fact, that it's inventor reportedly turned Google down on their cool 6BIL offer.  http://mashable.com/2010/12/03/groupon-google-no/  Going from zero to 6 billion in two years?  That's not bad...

Is this the free market?  YES.  Is money flowing to both parties involved...and jobs are created...and people are saving money?  YES!  Are people creative?  YES.  Groupon is win-win business.

And the amazing thing is that government didn't have to create a program to make it happen.  Think of all the unintended consequence that "contrived" business has caused.  Did Cash for Clunkers work?  For five minutes it worked, and then it hurt more than it helped.  Did the gush of stimulus money "work" to create jobs?  No.  Did the money paid out the nose to jumpstart the Gulf after the oil spill...or post-Katrina New Orleans work?  It funded the clean-up crew briefly.  But did it stimulate real jobs?  No.  It is individuals who come in and devise solutions who stimulate the job market.  You saw the reports of those guys who had all sorts of inventions to remove the oil.  Even Kevin Costner had an idea.  So why DIDN'T they help?  Government was in the way.

OK, now I'm preachin' like the libertarian John Stossel.  I watched his special on the unintended consequences of government "help".  Maybe you did, too.  http://www.samadamsalliance.org/blog/index.php/2010/12/28/unintended-consequences-irreverent-messenger-of-the-week-john-stossel-reports-on-his-top-10-politicians-good-intentions-gone-wrong/

Let's begin at the concession that there IS a place for some government regulations because of greed.  Then where is the balanced approach?

The   <   (the side to your left) seem to think government solves all problems and to not give yourself wholly to the righteousness of government's "intention".. is morally abject.  But the   >   (the other side of the aisle) would have a STRONG moral objection to the way government uses taxpayer money.  This is not a reluctance to give money to the less fortunate.  Studies prove that conservatives give much more to charity.  http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/03/conservatives_more_liberal_giv.html  While one side believes taxes are to support the disadvantaged, conservatives get to contribute to the IRS AND to charity.

Furthermore, the   >   would say government is unrighteous with their expenditures...both in the specific choices that are made, and extending the wasteful historic evidence that the programs are failures.  What specific choices?  Examples might include the abhorrent healthcare policy toward the unborn/aged...the fact that poverty is unchanged after billions are shoveled into government programs that have taken the place of men/destroyed black households...education spending that increases while education declines...the crazy regulations that broke the housing market...and on and on.

There are many examples of moral disagreements about government spending, but if tied into one neat bundle, the bundle might be labeled LIBERTIES.  The   >   sees government as trying to remove God-given liberties.

Lately, government has twice repeated the Declaration of Independence and left out the part about our liberty being "God given".  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yR61uTGTFoM   Omit once (with a flurry of eye motion) and it's a "whoops"; read a teleprompter seven days later and the repeat is suspect.  The Declaration says "we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are ENDOWED BY THEIR CREATOR with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  What's the big deal about that?

When "endowed by their Creator" is left out, our country over time will come to think men are just born with rights.  In the clip above, our leader begins a speech by the words "long before America was an idea".  Sir, God has dibs on that idea, and the plans He has are from eternity.  Then the leader goes on to say our shared value in those rights...makes us unique and binds us together.  No sir.  The Binder is God who has created this unique place where liberty may flourish so that men may taste freedom and know that spiritual freedom is a thing to be desired.  Our common bond in His providence is what Americans value.

So now, how do we make consensus happen when the high ground is AWOL?  Should the  >  acquiesce and allow a lower percentage of what they perceive as harmful policies...thereby compromising their conscience?  Or should the  <   acquiesce and allow less governmental control?

What was that Thomas Paine wrote in his famous pamphlet..."these are the times that try men's souls".  Lord, find us faithful.