DEBT DENIAL or DEBT RELIEF

Budget figures make your brain hurt.  That's a given.  But we can't cover our ears and sing "la la la".  We have to lift our heads and pay attention to our nation.  It's not about whether we think NPR is good programming or whether the unions have a right to bargain.  Our times are about our country careening off a cliff and the moral obligation for a response.

The President SAID "everyone has to do their part".  Right on.  Then when Wisconsin asked their public employees to do a little part by upping their 5% healthcare contribution to 12% (which is half the national average), people hit the pavement.  Please don't miss the irony.  The President said everyone has to sacrifice, but at the same time his inner "community organizer" was mobilizing protestors from inside the White House.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021705494.html

No one is trying to do away with unions; but unions could do away with our country's economy with their high demands.  Union members should be Americans first.  Sarah Palin tweeted the truth as she addressed her "union brothers and sisters"...saying Wisconsin taxpayers shouldn't be asked to pay for benefits "that are not sustainable".  She went on to say "real solidarity means everyone being willing to sacrifice".

They had elections in Wisconsin and Scott Walker was elected governor by a margin of 52-48%.  He was elected on the promise to do just what he is doing - trying to cut spending and balance the WI budget.  Everyone knows why those Democratic state senators ran under an Illinois rock to hide.  The same November election changed the numbers in their workplace and now they're on the losing side of a vote.  Their stunt stymies the democratic process.  If you didn't get a chance to hear the Governor of Wisconsin, he made a great appeal for reason.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DrC0FJIy0E

Everyone agrees that the debt is unsustainable.  Last November, Americans said QUIT SPENDING and REDUCE GOVERNMENT.  If you read the Square Nail's last blog, there was a call for leadership.  After seeing what happened in WI yesterday, I realize our leader IS leading...and that chills me to the bone.  He clearly does not intend to listen to the will of the people who elected him.  The problem is not that he buys time over and over and kicks the debt can down the road.  The problem is that he SAYS the right things, yet does just the opposite.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/17/AR2011021705270.html

So just exactly where IS this port that the President is taking our ship of state?  Here are a couple of safe guesses:

BIGGER GOVERNMENT/HIGHER TAXES
Health and Human Services is hiring 650 new employees to staff the "Medicare/Medicaid Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight".  They are looking for 1.5 MILLION square feet in the Maryland suburbs. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/02/the_obamacare_real_estate_boom.html

The new budget proposes a 9.4% increase in IRS funding to allow them to hire 5,100 more IRS agents to do tax enforcement.  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703703804576144774072723648.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

VERACITY STRAIN
Here is just one link (there are myriad) to things the President has said in the past that...well...didn't exactly prove true.  This author calls his list "Obama Statement Expiration Dates".  http://www.nationalreview.com/campaign-spot/4701/long-post-complete-list-obama-statement-expiration-dates

That was the past.  These days the President says "my budget will cut the deficit in half"...then the budget does no such thing.  What are reasonable people to think?  Here is what Erskine Bowles had to say.  He's the Democratic co-chair of the president's commission chosen to fix the problem.  "The budget is nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare."   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021802485.html 

Here is what Americans for Tax Reform said:  "Rather than focusing on Washington's overspending problem, the budget calls for higher taxes on families and small businesses to pay for even more government spending."

You and I know that it is one thing to say something from a good heart, but then have to flex when circumstances change.  But it is quite another thing to plan doublespeak.  Last month this President's mouth called for civility, but this month he helps to put protestors on the street that looked like this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71gsnLfsbbM

Duplicitous?  Why?  Where is America headed?

UNCLEAR ON THE CONCEPT

We are broke.  America's economic system is unsustainable and needs fixing.  Our designated fixer does not seem to be clear on that concept.  http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/563518/201102171732/Obama-Will-Dare-Republicans-To-Go-Ahead-Make-My-Day.htm


Our President's position is that he inherited debt.  Fine.  Two years ago that was true.  SINCE THEN he has spent his way into more debt than the period from George Washington to George Bush.  It is mind boggling that the total on HIS watch is more than the COMBINED amount of debt from our first to 43rd President.   http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123629969453946717.html  

We have an ATM-in-Chief who theorizes the way out of debt is to whip out the plastic.

Consider the President's confusing comments.  One side of his mouth says his first budget would cut the deficit in half.  Sound familiar?  That is because the second budget rolls around and he promises the EXACT same thing.  Has he cut the deficit?  This week he offers the most ridiculous budget, saying (my words) "ok, let's save by freezing the uber-inflated levels of this year, and in ten years just look how much that will save".  Insulting.  A YEAR ago he said "let's get a blue ribbon panel to come up with a plan for reducing the debt".  They came back with a plan; he gave that plan a royal ignoring.  One year goes down the tubes.

What about his fuzzy numbers?  He projects funding the wars in Afghanistan/Iraq at surge level, then "saves" money by a future drawdown of troops.  Voila, 1.9 trillion of paper savings from a prophet.  Another example is his figure for the savings over next ten years based on an estimate of a yearly 4-5% growth in GDP.  The whole chart is based on that optimistic growth rate estimate.  Take a look at this GDP chart and ask yourself...would you bet the farm on that 5% estimated growth number? http://www.tradingeconomics.com/Economics/GDP-Growth.aspx?Symbol=USD

President Obama has a record of massaging numbers.  Remember his inventive "jobs created or saved"?  How about "shovel ready jobs"?  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019468-503544.html Or "improving jobless numbers" (which do not take into consideration the number of workers who gave up looking).  http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/learn-how-to-invest/The-real-unemployment-rate.aspx


President Obama's numbers are more than supple, they are double-jointed.

Mr. President, your country is out of money.  You are our leader, but you are not out ahead of us, addressing the problem.  Are you waiting for the Republicans to do the dirty work of cutting so you can bring back all the familiar cries of "the Republicans want to starve old people and children"?  My country's dilemma is not a political game.

Can we reason together?  It is 2011 and our house is on fire.  Someone needs to get the hose rather than argue about what color the flames are.  Mr. President, please bow to necessity and get out your scissors.   Don't wax eloquent with words ad infinitum.  Don't dither (as over those Somali pirate kidnappers)...or vote "present".  

LEAD, sir!

YEARNING TO BREATHE FREE?

Why are our eyes glued to the turmoil in Egypt?  Setting aside the political and economic and potential security implications for our country...the country of Egypt represents one out of every three persons in the Middle East.
The seed for the future of the Middle East is in Egypt.

Biblically speaking, Egypt is mentioned in the Bible over 600 times.   Egypt sheltered the Holy Family for a short time.  Under the patriarch Joseph's leadership, Egyptian grain saved Egypt and Israel from a severe famine.  We read in Isaiah 19 that Egypt will be part of the end times.

So our hearts go out to Egyptians as they struggle to breathe free.  They say that they are asking for an open, free, democratic, secular society.  We enjoy freedom and therefore we wish them well.  The outcome of a democratic society in Egypt is not obvious today, but here is the picture trail of her last 18 days...

Protestors gather January 25th in Tahrir (meaning "Liberation") Square to demand freedom.

They pray.

and wait...

and clash...

Anger builds.

On Day 13, Pro-Mubarak forces enter the square on horses/camels.  More clashing.

Finally, President Mubarak speaks.  He is not going.

The crowd responds.

Tahrir Square fills up.

What will the army do?

And then...

Mission accomplished.  Mubarak resigns and leaves.
Freedom's price tag was three hundred lives lost with thousands hurt.

We have felt Egyptian frustration and now their exhilaration.

Now the hard work begins as they build the Egypt that they desire.

Let's hope the"change" they want...is the same "change" that comes to our minds.

Christians, pray for freedom in Egypt.

WHOLEHEARTED VALENTINE

I'm a grandmother and our tribe has a special love language that we use to love on our grandkids.  Guess you could call it "grandshtick".  For instance, Mimi will say "I love you, Nate!"  He grins because he knows what's coming.  Mimi grins, too.

Nate:  "But I love you MORE!"

Mimi:  "No...I loved you first."

Nate:  "But I love you the BEST."

Mimi:  "Yes, but I love you THIS much." (arms)

Nate:  "Oh yeah, but I love you TO THE MOON!"

Ah, the competitive nature of a six-year-old boy.

This Valentine week love is in the air and I am giving thanks for a loving mate.  But love relationships are complicated...and sometimes they swing closer to/farther from the love bug as circumstances change.  Mike and I have some wonderful, godly friends who have not been treated "fairly" in a love relationship.  They understand the devastation of that hurt.  

I will never forget the way a church friend described her hurt back in the 80's.  Helen had grown up around the Black Sea just before WW2.  Although she was not Jewish, her mother had sent her to a tailor shop in the Jewish quarter to pick up some clothing.  On that fateful afternoon, Jews were rounded up and put on a train.  In the confusion, nine-year-old Helen was sent to a concentration camp (despite the tailor's plea that Helen was not Jewish).  Of course, this memory was very painful for Helen to talk about...but her next words surprised me.  She sadly remarked that years later, her husband's adultery and their resulting divorce was completely more hurtful than the concentration camp had ever been.

It is a VERY good thing that every soul on this earth has opportunity to access the real Lover of their soul who never changes.  

I did not write these analogies, but aren't they grand thoughts?   

a Valentine may bring you chocolate, but God provides 
something even sweeter, His Word...

"How sweet are Your words to my taste, 

sweeter than honey to my mouth!"  Psalm 119.103

a Valentine may play a love song for you, but God sings you the sweetest love song in the universe...

"The Lord your God...will rejoice over you with gladness,

He will keep you quiet with His love, 

He will rejoice over you with singing."  Zephaniah 3.17

a Valentine may give you flowers, but God sent you 
the most beautiful rose of all...Jesus

"I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys."  

Song of Solomon 2.1

a Valentine may take you out to dinner, but God has invited you to the most amazing feast ever given...

"Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper 

of the Lamb!"  Revelation 19.9

a Valentine may be far away, but God is always with you...

"I am with you always."  Matthew 28.20

a Valentine may give you a pretty little something, 

but God has given you everything...

"God gives us richly all things to enjoy."  1Timothy 6.17

a Valentine may love you for a lifetime, but God loved you 

before you were born and will love you for all eternity...

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love...

with lovingkindness I have drawn you."  Jeremiah 31.3

Lately there's a song loop that keeps running through my mind, describing this never-ending love relationship.  It is the chorus to a song that Casting Crowns recorded in '09 called "Glorious Day": 

Living...He loved me, dying...He saved me

Buried...He carried my sins far away

Rising...He justified freely forever

One day He's coming...oh, glorious day!

On this Valentine's Day, you might want to check out the Lover of your soul.

NO BOUNCE?

Polls say there was no bounce from the President's SOTU speech.  Henry Kissinger observed that a leader is in trouble if he gets too far out in front of his peeps, but also is in trouble if he gets too close to them.  (Of course, Secretary Kissinger said it with WAAY more flourish due to his grand vocab and his Frankish accent.)  But that made sense to me.  President Obama got hit by the door coming and going.  During his first two years, he got way out front of the country with the social policies; now he casts a stunted "vision" for the next two years.  I was not inspired by Sputnik and I found his prescription for the future insulting, given the recent election.

Mr. President, last November your country said REDUCE (government and debt and spending) and you said "I got it".  Why, then, are we hearing such off-the-mark proposals to "invest"?  Quit spending!  You suggested an education investment.  No.  Give us school choice and competition will help our public schools.  You said high speed rail sounded like a winner.  No.  Pay off debt and slash the budget.

But the most curious investment advice...was for green technology such as wind turbines.  Listen, Mr. President, we can't go backward and forward at the same time.  Have you seen these links?  http://www.energytribune.com/articles.cfm/6310/Britains-Wind-Farms-are-No-Spin-Zones-When-Cold-Hits
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/8261827/Britain-is-becoming-less-windy-raising-doubts-over-Governments-wind-farm-strategy.html

The links say that in the example you love to hold high (the example of Europe), they have experienced a freezing January.  Their electric power surge screamed for help, but the turbines did not deliver. England has lots of coastline and that makes her the most windy country in Europe.  If it didn't work there, where WOULD turbines work?  (And if you are thinking that this year was a fluke, the link says the last 12 years have had the same result.)  So this is not such good news for the United Kingdom of Buyers Remorse, but we can learn from their experience.

Mr. President, your SOTU didn't address our problems, it proposed MORE problems.  The speech bought five minutes of distraction from the biggest economy killer...healthcare.  You and your administration continue to say that opposition to your plan for healthcare is fringe and right wing.  Yesterday when the Florida federal judge's ruling came down that healthcare was unconstitutional, I found it ironic that they used your own words against you.   http://politisite.com/2011/01/31/judge-uses-obamas-own-words-against-him-on-health-care-individual-mandate/    Then a deputy senior advisor within the bully pulpit of the White House responded.  She called the judge "an outlier...a judicial activist, well out of the mainstream of judicial opinion".  


Well, I would call it VERY NOTEWORTHY that the majority of the sovereign states (26) have banded together to challenge healthcare.  Adding Virginia and Oklahoma. who filed separately, now we are at 28.  When was the last time you can recall 28 states linking arms against a policy?  It must be more than just "right wing".  


Besides, if healthcare were so wonderful, why have 700+ waivers already been given FOR JUST ONE of the provisions?  Those who have begged the President for permission to opt-out of the provision (and there are tons more provisions to be unveiled)...40% of the number are unions.  Because unions represent only 7% of the work force, this all looks untoward.   


Mr. President, your speech included support for your troops and thank you for that.  You saluted American exceptionalism (for what must have been the first time) and welcome aboard on that one.  You said now you were thumbs down on earmarks.  Those words all sounded presidential.  Please, then...Mr. President.  Befriend the future of your country and point us toward solvency.

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."