MISTAKEN

You are mistaken, President Obama, when you choose GUTTER WORDS in a public discourse.  Some can remember when you called for civility.

It's bad enough that you have to resort to only interviews with pop culture outlets like Rolling Stone.  Your profane appeal must be directed toward an audience outside the mainstream...as though someone might be "cool" if they speak like a cretin.  Shame on you.

You are mistaken, President Obama, when you choose to appeal to women based on the premise they vote because they are SEXUAL CREATURES.

Haven't women long fought against such a stereotype?  Surely women would choose to be insulted rather than persuaded to vote based on that disgusting analogy. You used Sandra Fluke and whoever this poor young woman is...and they used you right back for notoriety.  A pox on all your houses.

You are completely mistaken, President Obama, to choose to use CHILDREN.  That is creepy to have children recite words like this:

imagine an America where strip mines are fun and free

where gays can be fixed and sick people just die and oil fills the sea

we haven't killed all the polar bears but it's not for lack of trying

Big Bird is sacked, the Earth is cracked and the atmosphere is frying

something happened to our country and Mom and Dad...

and we're kinda blaming you

We're to blame?  Was Dubya unavailable?  At the risk of being a scold, Sir, I have not been elected President.  Nor have I served for the last four years.  But even I can see polar bears and dirty oceans are NOT the problem.  The problem is your spending and our looming debt.  The problem is your lack of decision-making in our war on terrorism.  And it's a problem that you would use anything to be re-elected.

Surely you are mistaken in making your appeal to our darker, vulgar nature.  Is that America?  It is stunning to think that these desperate appeals reach for the dregs of society who might actually turn the future of our nation.  

God, help us because we can't help ourselves.

HOT POTATO

Posting a Mark Steyn article today.

BENGHAZI BUNGLE REQUIRES 

 ACT OF URGENT POLITICAL HYGIENE

"We're going to have that person arrested and prosecuted that did the video," said Hillary Clinton. No, not the person who made the video saying that voting for Barack Obama is like losing your virginity to a really cool guy. I'll get to that in a moment. But Secretary Clinton was talking about the fellow who made the supposedly Islamophobic video that supposedly set off the sacking of the Benghazi consulate. And, indeed, she did "have that person arrested." By happy coincidence, his bail hearing has been set for three days after the election, by which time he will have served his purpose. These two videos – the Islamophobic one and the Obamosexual one – bookend the remarkable but wholly deserved collapse of the president's re-election campaign.

You'll recall that a near month-long attempt to blame an obscure YouTube video for the murder of four Americans and the destruction of U.S. sovereign territory climaxed in the vice-presidential debate with Joe Biden's bald assertion that the administration had been going on the best intelligence it had at the time. By then, it had been confirmed that there never had been any protest against the video, and that the Obama line that Benghazi had been a spontaneous movie review that just got a little out of hand was utterly false. The only remaining question was whether the administration had knowingly lied or was merely innocently stupid. The innocent-stupidity line became harder to maintain this week after Fox News obtained State Department emails revealing that shortly after 4 p.m. Eastern, less than a half-hour after the assault in Benghazi began, the White House situation room knew the exact nature of it.

We also learned that, in those first moments of the attack, a request for military back-up was made by U.S. staff on the ground but was denied by Washington. It had planes and Special Forces less than 500 miles away in southern Italy – or about the same distance as Washington to Boston. They could have been there in less than two hours. Yet the commander-in-chief declined to give the order. So Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods fought all night against overwhelming odds, and died on a rooftop in a benighted jihadist hell hole while Obama retired early to rest up before his big Vegas campaign stop. "Within minutes of the first bullet being fired, the White House knew these heroes would be slaughtered if immediate air support was denied," said Ty Woods' father, Charles. "In less than an hour, the perimeters could have been secured, and American lives could have been saved. After seven hours fighting numerically superior forces, my son's life was sacrificed because of the White House's decision."

Why would Obama and Biden do such a thing? Because to launch a military operation against an al-Qaida affiliate on the anniversary of 9/11 would have exposed the hollowness of their boast through convention week and the days thereafter – that Osama was dead, and al-Qaida was finished. And so Ty Woods, Glen Doherty, Sean Smith and Chris Stevens were left to die, and a decision taken to blame an entirely irrelevant video and, as Secretary Clinton threatened, "have that person arrested." And, in the weeks that followed, the government of the United States lied to its own citizens as thoroughly and energetically as any totalitarian state, complete with the midnight knock-on-the-door from not-so-secret policemen sent to haul the designated fall guy into custody.

This goes far beyond the instinctive secretiveness to which even democratic governments are prone. The Obama administration created a wholly fictional storyline, and devoted its full resources to maintaining it. I understand why Mitt Romney chose not to pursue this line of argument in the final debate. The voters who will determine this election are those who voted for Obama four years ago and this time round either switch to the other fellow or sit on their hands. In electoral terms, it's probably prudent of Mitt not to rub their faces in their 2008 votes. Nevertheless, when the president and other prominent officials stand by as four Americans die and then abuse their sacrifice as contemptuously as this administration did, decency requires that they be voted out of office as an act of urgent political hygiene.

At the photo-op staged for the returning caskets, Obama et al seem to have been too focused on their campaign needs to observe even the minimal courtesies. Charles Woods says that, at the ceremony, Joe Biden strolled over to him and by way of condolence said in a "loud and boisterous" voice, "Did your son always have balls the size of cue balls?" One assumes charitably that the vice president is acknowledging in his own inept and blundering way the remarkable courage of a man called upon to die for his country on some worthless sod halfway across the planet. But the near-parodic locker-room coarseness is grotesque both in its inaptness and in its lack of basic human feeling for a bereaved family forced to grieve in public and as crowd-scene extras to the political big shot. Just about the only formal responsibility a vice president has is to attend funerals without embarrassing his country. And this preening buffoon of pseudo-blue-collar faux-machismo couldn't even manage that.

But a funny thing happened over the next six weeks: Obama's own cue balls shriveled. Biden had offered up a deft campaign slogan encompassing both domestic and foreign policy: "Osama's dead, and General Motors is alive." But, as the al-Qaida connections to Benghazi dribbled out, leak by leak, the "Osama's dead" became a problematic boast and, left to stand alone, the General Motors line was even less credible. Avoiding the economy and foreign affairs, Obama fell back on Big Bird, and binders and bayonets, just to name the B's in his bonnet. At the second presidential debate, he name-checked Planned Parenthood, the General Motors of the American abortion industry, half-a-dozen times, desperate to preserve his so-called gender gap. Yet, oddly enough, the more furiously Obama and Biden have waved their binders and talked up Sandra Fluke, the more his supposed lead among women has withered away. So now he needs to enthuse the young, who turned out in such numbers for him last time. Hence, the official campaign video (plagiarized from Vladimir Putin, of all people) explaining that voting for Obama is like having sex. The saddest thing about that claim is that, for liberals, it may well be true.

Both videos – the one faking Obamagasm and the one faking a Benghazi pretext – exemplify the wretched shrinkage that befalls those unable to conceive of anything except in the most self-servingly political terms. Both, in different ways, exemplify why Obama and Biden are unfit for office. One video testifies to a horrible murderous lie at the heart of a head of state's most solemn responsibility, the other to the glib shallow narcissism of a pop-culture presidency, right down to the numbing relentless peer-pressure: C'mon, all the cool kids are doing it; why be the last holdout?

If voting for Obama is like the first time you have sex, it's very difficult to lose your virginity twice. A flailing, pitiful campaign has now adopted Queen Victoria's supposed wedding advice to her daughter: "Lie back and think of England." Lie back and think of America. And then get up and get dressed. Who wants to sleep twice with a $16 trillion broke loser?"

©MARK STEYN

BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE

(Note: the last post called "Two Trees" gives context for this piece.)


Eve eyed that delightful fruit and reasoned... "wellll, it looks good to me".  Then she grew bolder as she decided she had a RIGHT to eat...before concluding "God must not have my highest welfare in mind... yes... that's it...God can't be trusted.  I don't care what He said; He's such a killjoy."

Oh, EVE!  Listen to yourself, Honey!  When Eve and her husband fell, they chose their wisdom over God's.

Today we face an election with polarized sides.  The positions couldn't be more clearly spelled out.

1.  One side wants abortion rights.  John Piper draws a bridge from abortion to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in this amazing POST.   If there is intellectual curiosity about this issue, the link makes either text or video available.

2.  One side wants the redefinition of marriage.  There are high and holy reasons to protect marriage as set out by God...and surely the highest reason is that it represents an earthly picture of Christ and His church.  Is it our place to redefine what God has planned?

3. One side has already demonstrated corruption in regard to religious liberty.

Liberty is a spiritual desire born in every heart.  As we taste America's political freedom (unique among the nations because we're a country based on an idea of God's principles) we get a thirst for spiritual freedom.  If the Son sets your spirit free, you are really free.

In a country where our law as come to allow abortion (and in a few states, same sex marriage)... people of faith have worked within the system to change hearts about the issues.

Now enter this administration.  Week One saw initiation of the export of abortion funds around the globe.  Next came the HHS mandate spending the faith community's dollars for something that breaks God's heart.  Now the church has unwilling compliance in unrighteousness both at home and around the world.  And American institutions which hold to God's word have had to sue their own country to get religious liberty.

SO WHAT?
There are some well-intentioned people who align themselves with redefining marriage...and believe it is right to pay for abortion services.  But as Grandmother used to say "you don't do wrong to do right".

Demanding rights, redefinition, and restriction-free living are all from an ancient story.  We're barking up the wrong tree again.  Do we not see that we will get what we've asked for?  Can we expect God to turn His head when these issues are so stark?  Don't reason like Eve and demand your rights.  You have a gracious heavenly Father who set out a plan to cause you to flourish.  Life goes better when we do it His way.

America needs God's blessing desperately, but we have to be in a place that allows Him to bless us.  It's time to choose God's wisdom.  Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness...

TWO TREES

Isn't that "free will/choice" thing tricky?  If you ask a kiddo if they want a king-sized Snickers NOW or a trip to DisneyWorld tomorrow... well, you get the drift.  Kids have a delayed-gratification deficit.

Of course adults are different, right?  Well, maybe not.  If you ask adults if they would rather have their way or please God...

This year's study of Genesis has brought about some big thoughts into my peabrain.  That's encouraging since the book says that what we think about affects what we are becoming.

Remember the two trees out in the middle of Eden's orchard?  Until now, I don't think I could verbalize exactly what the trees were about.  Remember one was the "Tree of Life" and the other was the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil".

TREE OF LIFE.  Of all the trees made available to Adam and Eve, the Bible doesn't mention them ever trying to eat from this tree.  They had permission to eat there; the prohibition was against eating from the other tree.  But that's like people today.  Your future is your choice.  There's no prohibition against choosing to live forever with God, but there's no big line forming.

TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL.  This tree is the one marked "Off Limits".  Why?  The short answer is God wants to protect us from heartache, but here's the longer answer:

When the hissssser-serpent came promoting his five "D's" (doubt, deception, desire, defiance, and division), he slithered up to the couple and cleverly asked..."Has God really said that?".  "Oh, you won't die!"  "Such knowledge would make you wise like God and God just doesn't want you to be like Him."  Satan carefully tweaks truth and fans desire as he divides to conquer.

Adam and Eve could have turned away from temptation, but they turned away from God.  We do like that feeling of dethroning God and stepping up to declare what is best for us.  Adam and Eve knew better than God and I've been there.

John Piper says "The modern secular world—the world which tries to remove God from his all-creating, all-sustaining, all-defining, all-governing place—has no choice but to make itself god and to create its own morality. In other words, when man abandons God and his self-revelation as the source of what is objectively true and right and beautiful, the next highest court of appeal is man himself."

Proverbs speaks truth when it says "there's a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death".  Rather than be god-pretenders, we need to see what the Almighty has to say.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts and His ways are higher than our ways.  I'm old enough to remember Frank Sinatra singing the serpent's theme song "I Did It My Way".  But we don't get to define truth or say what is good or evil; that is God's place.  When we eat of this tree, we stamp our foot and take charge.  

Scripture says when the woman saw the fruit was desirable for making wise, she took and ate and then gave to Adam, who also ate.  Then THEIR EYES WERE OPENED and they knew they were naked.  John Piper says a "Grand Canyon" opened up for Adam and Eve "between appearance and pretension".  Their first consequence was to see themselves accurately and realize they WEREN'T like God and they needed to cover themselves.  

I'm not loving like God or wise like God.  I'm a sinner and so were they and so is the modern world.  We all like to put on covering, too.  We do bodybuilding and go to tanning booths and wear skinny jeans and fine jewelry and drive shiny cars in order to enhance our image.  But we're puny and we're certainly not the Fountain of all beauty.  Piper says we want to be God, but we don't want to see God.  In order to see God, we need a miracle of new birth.

God knows what we need.  So when the first couple fell, did God send the snake after them, saying "sic 'em"?  No.  There was punishment, but there was grace.  

God the Father gave grace in a Genesis 3:15 promise to send a Rescuer for man.  "In the beginning" God explained how the story would end.  The Rescuer would be the offspring of a woman who would come to CRUSH Satan's head, while the serpent would bruise His heel (a picture of Christ on the cross).  The cross would make possible full redemption for man and give grace the last word.

All through the Old Testament, the Rescuer is promised and defined.  Then the New Testament explains His arrival in fulfillment of all the prophecies.  Now we are all on our way to you, Jesus.  Remind us that You are the Almighty and we are not.  

POST-DEBATE

The mainstream media has gone from frothing over Debate 1 to doing the happy dance after Debate 2.  They now say that Barack is back and he won the debate.

But in a bizarre twist, a Gallop poll (a large sampling of 2,700 people polled before the debate) reports numbers of Obama 45/Romney 52.

Americans seem to say "I trusted you but now your words mean nothing to me because your actions speak louder."  Here are a few groups who might feel betrayed:

THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT THE ECONOMY

 We have a 7/11 president.  For every $7 we have, we spend $11.  People intrinsically know this pattern will destroy us.  And what is the president's proposal for his next term?  More of the same.  He just needs more time.

If the president were here, he would smoothly tell you he cut the deficit.  And he did cut the tiniest sliver, but his other hand was throwing sacks of dollars off the back of the truck.  That's his pattern.  Say a little of one side and then the other.  That way when caught...there's cover to run under.  There is no way to deny that this president loaded the deficit after promising to cut the deficit in half.

Here's another astounding economic fact to click on:  welfare spending in the last four years jumped 32%.

The president would have us believe that he is concerned about the economy.  We're not buying it.

THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT NATURAL RESOURCES 

All of a sudden, oil and coal and natural gas are nasty and we need to get rid of those bad boys and embrace green.  So the administration picked these 36 green companies that you and I funded (click to see how much you spent).   You will note an asterisk out beside 18 of them; that means those companies have already filed for bankruptcy.  

The 2009 stimulus set aside $80 BILLION to subsidize politically preferred energy projects (that means guys who bundled the president's money).  Since that time 1,900 investigations (not all limited to green companies) have been opened to look into stimulus waste, fraud, and abuse.  Nearly 600 already have convictions.  This is rotten cronyism.

Our president said in the debate that he is FOR all energy sources.  But his oil and coal and fracking hostility is speaking louder than his words.

THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT HISPANICS

Consider the differences between a program during the Bush administration called "Wide Receiver" and the Obama program called "Fast and Furious".

Wide Receiver was an effort to join forces with Mexican law enforcement in order to get a handle on gun smuggling and drug cartels.  It began in 2005 and involved 400 guns which had a GPS within them to track/keep law enforcement aware of their whereabouts.  The plan was to see where the guns ended so they could make their case against the cartels.  The Bush administration notified the Mexican governments when the arms and smugglers crossed the border.  They made 1,400 arrests.  When ATF realized the bad guys were disabling the tracking devices, RFID tracking devices were installed to destroy guns when they attempted to disarm them.  The program was shut down in 2007 when the smugglers got wise.

THE PURPOSE OF 'WIDE RECEIVER' WAS TO WORK WITH MEXICAN LAW ENFORCEMENT IN ORDER TO TRACK AND BUILD A CASE AGAINST VIOLENT DRUG SMUGGLERS.

What about Fast and Furious?  It began in October of 2009 (AFTER Wide Receiver had been shut down in 2007) and involved 2,000 guns with NO tracking devices and no effort to track them.  The guns were sold and walked across the border.  The Mexican government was not notified the program existed.  Federal agents werre not allowed to interdict the guns and they even ran interference for the smugglers with local law enforcement on multiple occasions to make sure those guns made it across the border.  No effort was ever made to arrest the "purchasers" or the smugglers or anyone.  NONE were arrested.  It was closed down only after the deaths of at least 200 Mexican citizens and two federal agents, Border Agent Brian Terry and ICE Agent, Jaime Zapata.

THE PURPOSE OF FAST AND FURIOUS IS UNKNOWN.

This picture is of the brave ATF whistleblowers who testified to Congress about Fast and Furious.

It is hard to get to the bottom of this case because the president has invoked executive privilege and our Attorney General denies knowing about it.  We have "outrage deficit" because there are so many issues flying in our face daily.  But we know that Fast and Furious bore no resemblance to Wide Receiver.

The bottom line is...if Fast and Furious was our law enforcement program, it did not play out in OUR country, but in Mexico where over 200 innocent citizens died.

THOSE CONCERNED ABOUT BENGHAZI/TERRORISM

The trouble with inventing stories is that everyone is telling their story just a little bit differently.  

The VP says neither he nor the president knew anything.  If so, is it too much to ask that they SHOULD know something?  The embassy was bombed both in April and June and would have been ripe for another hit on 9/11.  It surely was not the time to send security home.  The President refused to answer the question "why" or "who sent them home?".  Then he acted insulted that someone would question his voracity.

The Ambassador's diary tells one story...the State Department tells a story...and Intelligence tells their side.   Everyone's headed for the tall grass. Then Hillary mans up and takes responsibility.  Trouble is, no one really believes she was the final arbiter for something this big.  And we don't believe that the Rose Garden statement was true, either, but instead was the president's CAREFUL parsing of words to stretch a tent over himself.   

We know he got on that plane to a Las Vegas campaign event when he should have been minding the country's business after a terror attack killed four Americans.  We know that the State Department had a live line in real time (and the battle lasted five hours).  They knew there was no crowd in front of that embassy...until the killers arrived.  So why did we have to put up with a phony video outrage story for two weeks?  We're just not buying what he's selling.

We are afraid that same ideology which tries to elevate Muslims' esteem was responsible for a reluctance to even call terrorism TERRORISM (but instead "Overseas Contingency Operation").  And the same ideology called the Ft. Hood shooter..."workplace violence".  We are shocked to learn of their ineptitude in the past when intelligence inadvertantly "outed" a source by leaking the information that the underwear bomber was a double agent.  And we wonder if re-election is prioritized above our security by bragging about Osama bin Laden at the convention.  What a tangled mess.  The American people want the truth.

Americans have more questions than answers about this president.  And that is what the polls reflect.

SIX STINKERS

Think how you feel when someone has told you an obvious lie.  You're angry, of course.  But it's also demeaning and insulting to realize someone thinks you can be fooled so easily.  #the VP debate

I guess it's a given that no one takes "Uncle Joe" very seriously.  We seem to collectively like his affability and joviality and he's been around forever.  In the past, when the gaffe-o-meter goes off, they just smile and say "oh, that's just Joe"...foul mouth and all.

But I'd love a little more substance for the office that's a heartbeat away from the presidency.

There were several things Tuesday night that didn't meet the smell test.  In fact, they were so blatantly inaccurate...it was unsettling when accompanied by a huge grin.

Here are six examples of some whoppers from the debate:

#1.  BIDEN on HHS mandate:  "No religious institution - Catholic or otherwise, including Catholic social services, Georgetown hospital, Mercy hospital, any hospital - none has to either refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide.  That is a fact.  That is a fact."

Congressman Ryan responds "then why are they suing you?"  And the next day, the Catholic bishops say:  "that is NOT a fact".

#2.  BIDEN on his voting record:  "I was there.  I voted against the wars.  I said 'no, we can't afford that'."

In fact, the Vice President voted for the use of force in BOTH wars... in Afghanistan on September 14, 2001....and in Iraq on October 11, 2002.

#3.  BIDEN on nuclear Iran:  "No, Iran is not four years closer to a nuclear program."

Well, THAT'S scary if he really thinks that.

#4.  BIDEN on our ally, Israel:  "Oh, the president has met with Bibi (Prime Minister Netanyahu) a dozen times."

To be exact, it was less than half that number, including the times the President had the Prime Minister brought in from the back entrance, left him waiting without a meal while he ate supper, and refused to have his picture made with him.

#5.  BIDEN on security @Libyan embassy:  "Well, WE didn't know they wanted more security!"

Ouch.  The Congressional hearings painted a different picture.  State Department officials admitted they had turned down requests from the embassy begging for security personnel.  Security who had left in August made a jolting statement when they said they felt like they were dealing with the Taliban inside the State Department.  Finally, Press Secretary Jay Carney says Biden speaks for himself and the president on this issue.

So let's assume they didn't know. WHY didn't they know?  Did ANYONE know?  Was everyone on the fund-raising plane to Las Vegas the day after a terrorist attack?  Could that info have been in the Presidential Daily Briefs?  Could anyone have observed the calendar was September 11th?  Or taken note of the increasing number of violent acts against the embassy?

#6.  BIDEN on who told them the incident was video-inspired:  "Intelligence told us."

Ohhh, bet that was a pleaser over at Intelligence.  Here is what intelligence testified under oath:  "U.S. intelligence agencies had strong indications al-Qaeda affiliated operatives were behind the attack, and even had pinpointed the location of one of those attackers within 24 hours of the Benghazi attacks."

Within 24 hours?  And we were told for weeks that it was the video?  Does the Vice President think he can get away with telling tall tales?  Those are big stinkers.  The first one was domestic policy, but the other five are SERIOUS foreign policy blasts of hot air.  Wasn't that why Biden was added to the ticket in the first place...to lend gravitas to a presidential candidate who was inexperienced in foreign policy?  Our Vice President was the former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee.  Why is he saying what he is saying?

His party wanted a strong "get 'em, Joe" performance.  They got it, if you count 83 interruptions and incalculable smirks with mocking gestures and words like "my friend" (15 times) and "it's a fact" (28 times).  The Vice President is the champion of disrespectful debate demeanor.

And sadly, truth took a back seat to Joe Biden's private reality.

SEE HIM FACE TO FACE

There is a little song I wish I could sing for you.  It's simple...only four lines.  I wish you could hear the tune.  It goes like this:

one day Jesus is gonna call my name

as days go by, hope I don't stay the same

I wanna get so close to Him that it's no big change

on that day when Jesus...calls my name

That's a true song for me and for you.  Scripture says one day all men will look into these eyes.  His gaze goes to the very depths of my soul because He knows my every thought and the intent of each of my actions.  How's that for transparency?  It's terrifying and comforting all at once.

In that day, I will be covered.  Such assurance doesn't come from who I am, but solely because of what He promised.  In 1978, my heart's cry was to ask for forgiveness and He took my wrongs away.  His grace floored me then and it still floors me now.  That's because I know how crooked I can be...and how much it cost Him to take my place.  

Yesterday I was reading about how a presidential candidate stopped in to see Billy Graham.  Mr. Graham's body is frail now; he is close to seeing Jesus face to face.  I was thinking how over the years, Billy seems to have made choices according to those song lyrics (above).  He seems so close to the Lord that it will be no big change.  

I smile to think of Dr. Graham's confidence and excitement about hearing his name called.  He can't wait to see his dear wife Ruth.

This fall in the study of Genesis, I've moved from high thought to high thought.  It is good to look up and remember that our world exists according to the plan of God the Father...by the power of God the Holy Spirit...and through God the Son, who spoke it into existence (John 1:1-3).  

Jesus made all that we see and it came together in creativity and riotous color.  This fellow lives in the rainforest of an island off Indonesia and is known as "Wilson's Bird of Paradise".  I would never have thought to paint his legs blue or crown him with that bald head that is so vibrant, it can be seen at night.  (The dark violet double curls for a tail are a nice touch, too.)

Our earth is just as unique.  There is no other place in the universe with conditions that allow man to flourish.  After the Lord completed creation, the perfect place was ready for the crowning touch that came in Day Six.  MAN!

Although the animals/fish/creeping creatures were all made "after their own kind", man was unique.  Adam was made in God's likeness from the dust of the ground.  Then the Lord breathed into Adam's nostrils and he became a living being.  Later Eve was created from Adam's rib before the couple was given their assignment as orchard-tenders. 

In that creative process, God demonstrated His personhood by displaying emotion on each day.  When the sun, moon, and stars were flung into the skies, God stepped back and was moved to exclaim "it's GOOD!"  When the mountains rose up and the sea was given containment, and the living creatures were added...God said "it's GOOD!"  But when He made man, God said "it is VERY GOOD".  God puts stock in the life He made.

One day when we hear our name called and appear before this Creator of the universe,  all else will pale.  Even our contentious 2012 election?  Yes, the importance of the election pales even though it is critical now.  

Roughly half of our country is aligned behind a party whose stated platform scrubs God's name and calls for the right to destroy life.  Since there is no definitive science for when life begins, that is a huge gamble....and especially when we think of standing before the Maker of heaven and earth.  

Life is a gift from the Giver of all good gifts.  Man is on sinking sand to think he can steal from God.  Isaiah reminds us of the Lord's desire to draw us close in order to listen to His wisdom and think deeply.  "Come, let us reason together...says the Lord."  

RETHINK

Americans, we must RETHINK the way we spend money or the history books will record our country fondly from the rearview mirror.

We are being eaten alive by what we owe and yet when you google "national debt" you will find articles that mock concern.  That just doesn't make sense.  The borrower DOES becomes the lender's slave.

We collectively gasp to think the yellow bird would be cut.  Let's set the knee-jerk reaction aside and think deeper about our economic issues.

Big Bird is unquestionably a force for good and no one is trying to deny people a good thing.  But there are other ways to be creative and let private enterprise step up to put on the show.  Our government shouldn't have to ask another country for money to fund a TV show, no matter HOW good it is.  And the same is true for Jim Lehrer.  Don't we already have news outlets?  Why do we need government-run news?  Iran has a government-run news, but why would our government pay for such a thing?  The answer is...because once money was funded.  But now times are different.  Rethink!

Things like female circumcision and honor killings and wife beatings  TRULY wage a war on women.

Just as with Big Bird, no one is trying to deny rights (and in this case, the reproductive rights of women).  It's not as if birth control pills were not available in the past, or available now, or will be available later.  They were/are/will be.

The question is posed...is it the government's place to begin funding birth control and abortions?  Even setting aside the moral aggrievement and staying with the economic point...shall we go hat in hand to the Chinese so this can be funded?  That's pretty ironic since we regard our would-be "benefactor" as uncivilized when they implement their one-child policy.

What about the economics of oil production?

When the president says oil production is up in the country, it's because of private production.  Any land under the president's control does not enjoy increased production; he has shut down offshore production as well as drilling in the Gulf.

We need that Keystone pipeline for jobs and for oil.  We need to open up the lands that the president shut down.

Americans don't want to depend on the Middle East for oil.  We do not need to send billions to South America to pay for Brazillian drilling so that we can then turn around and buy the oil back from them.  Isn't that convoluted economics?  Besides, they promptly took our money and signed a contract with China for the oil (another popularity shaft for the president).

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What about the fix for the overall economy?  'How's that workin' for ya?'

Last month the president flooded the economy with 23 billion in paper money.  That's something even HE originally said was the worst thing you could do in a down economy.  They called that Hail Mary "quantitative easing" or QE3 (since it was the third time they had tried it).  Others called it dangerous.

The president is cool and can sing like Al Green and pal around with celebs.  But he has not even run a kiosk at the mall and his ideology keeps him from understanding the economy.  Let's be more careful who we let tinker under our hood.

Is terrorism an economic issue?  How do we rethink terrorism?

We accept it for what it is.  We call it what it is.  We act against it.

The Obama foreign policy is what Charles Krauthammer calls "accommodation, apology, and appeasement".  Such policy is perceived as weakness in the Muslim world...as evidenced by the flames throughout the Middle East and the assassination of Ambassador Stevens and three other men in Libya.

Yes, terrorism is an economic issue, but our expenditure cuts stop at the military's door.  The future plans to slash our military are ill-advised and make us more vulnerable.

America seems to be at a crossroads as we survey the future.  We can continue to be consumers living large, or we can live within our means. Our country's grand opportunity to bless the world is waning.

Please, America...let's think reasonably about spending our money.  Let's create new avenues to keep the things worth keeping (think yellow bird)...and jettison the things that might have worked in the past, but just don't meet today's criteria of lighter/leaner.  And no new fat.

To save the government, send it to Jenny Craig.