This and That

Have you noticed? There appear to be at least four levels of justice in our country:
1. Federal and State Government level.
2. Celebrity and Wealthy level.
3. Middle Class level.
4. Street level where the poor and the disenfranchised live.

Authorities discovered that Congressman Barney Frank's live-in partner has been growing pot in the back yard of Frank's home. Frank maintains he knew nothing about it. Hello? What's that funny odor in the house? Coincidentally, Frank has since submitted a bill in Congress which would permit homegown pot in his state.
Numerous Federal and State officials have overlooked their past-due income tax statements until it was called to their attention in the press. This is not allowed in levels 3 and 4. In levels 1 and 2 deals are available.
Strangely, in levels 1 and 2 the law, if regarded at all, seems to be very flexible and subject to broad interpretation; in levels 3 and 4 it becomes quite rigid. The drug user in the first two levels is not treated harshly like his/her counterpart in level 4.
Political correctness has assumed much more importance than it is due. In some cases in the legal process it has overcome common sense and sound judgment. Major Hussan was pushed up the ladder of rank and permitted to lecture to his superiors at length about Islam. Why? To do otherwise might make the Army look like they were politically incorrect. The United States Army, the most powerful in the world, did not have the leadership to do what needed to be done in the case of one Muslim officer who was obviously up to no good. After the events at Fort Hood and questions arose the Army and the Government were quick to come up with excuses for the tragedy and the Major's actions. Fortunately a police officer, who did not take orders from the military, was on hand during the shooting and took down Major Husan. Military police, for some unfathomable reason, are not allowed to carry firearms. Go figure.
Well, that's old news. Center stage is now occupied by the "Party Crashers." This is really serious stuff. About as serious as the party itself. Does it serve a good purpose that benefits our country? I'm waiting for some president to say, "While so many of my fellow citizens are in dire need, I don't think it is appropriate for me to sit down to a sumptious meal in a lavish setting paid for by those citizens barely eking out a living."
"All men are created equal;" but as said in the book "Animal Farm," some are more equal than others. Let 'em eat cake.

Al Gore who 'invented' the internet may also have 'invented' global warming. In e-mails hacked from Climate Research Unit, one of the centers of the man-made global warming universe, there is evidence that data may have gone unreported or may have been intentionally rigged to hide the DECLINE in global temperatures. (Lufkin Daily News, "An Inconvenient Truth") Dr. Trenberth, a man-made global warming advocate wrote scientists at Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in England, "The fact is we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't." This scientist is piqued because he cannot adjust data to suit his purpose. He is upset because the world is not going to melt. Is global warming a reality? Stay tuned.
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Statements Gleaned From College and University Student Tests and Papers:

Hitler's instrument of terror was the Gespacho.
Plato invented reality. He was teacher to Harris Tottle who wrote The Republicans. Lust was a must for the Epicureans. Others were the Vegetarians and the Synthetics.
The Boston Tea Party was held at Pearl Harbor.
Moses was told by Jesus to lead the people out of Egypt into the Sahaira Desert. The Book of Exodus describes this trip, including the Ten Commandments, various special effects and the building of the Suez Canal.
Zorroastrologism was founded by Zorro. This was a duelist religion.
During the Dark Ages it was mainly dark.

Just think; the men and women who wrote these gems have graduated and are now probably in positions of leadership and responsibility.

My wife and I have just returned from a month stay in Hot Springs Village in Arkansas. The house we rented is situated on a lake and sunrises and sunsets were glorious explosions of color reflected on the still water. In the late evening when the surface of the lake was like a mirror the words,"He leads me beside the still waters" came to mind.
We walked for exercize which was no small feat since the village is built on the sides of steep hills. My technique for overcoming the slopes was to "creep", i.e., to take small slow steps. Each day we were able to press on for longer distances. Later, I mused on my stamina and decided I might be able to walk several miles in that area if a hospital emergency room was at the finish line.

One day while walking and enjoying the fall foliage I was reminded of Paul's conviction that nature itself proclaims the existence of God. Those whose faith is centered on science will disagree saying that no supernatural hand was involved; only time, the laws of physics and evolution were the reasons for our physical world. Okay, I say God created time, the laws of physics and evolution.
Do you ever marvel that God created the world in 'living color?" He could have chosen to make everything in shades of gray or brown. Instead he presented us richness and variety that not only delight the eye but nourish our souls. Paul was right.
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Afterwords

Samuel B., 24, was booked in Solano County, Calif. on suspicion that he stole a car to make a court appearance on a previous auto-theft charge. ( A candidate for the tv program, "Dumbest Criminals.")

I feel somehow that this next blurb is in the same category as the above:
We, that is the taxpayers, have committed more than 4 trillion public dollars to Wall Street.
To put that astounding sum in perspective, consider that the cost of WWII in inflation-adjusted dollars was---you guessed it---$4 trillion. And the entire GDP, the entire wealth generated in the U.S. this year, is $14.1 trillion.
These are mind-numbing figures and they are hard to grasp. But, for an amount we can more easily understand, one doctor said, "For $200 million dollars we can take a walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ himself, curing millions of leprosy." Or, we can give it to Wall Street for the bonus pool.

Truth and Freedom

John 1:17 "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

John 8:32 " And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Isn't it ironic that the words of Jesus recorded in John 8:32 are displayed on a wall of the CIA building in Washington? I doubt that Jesus is credited as the author. Although lies and deception are some of their main tools, the CIA has appropriated this quotation to lend dignity to their work which is to use whatever means necessary to spy out the 'truth' of what the enemies of our country are really up to. Somehow I can't bring myself to believe this is what Jesus had in mind. The CIA should remove this scriptural quotation and install these words instead: "We operate on the principle that the end excuses the means." That would be closer to the truth.

That the public is supplied with "misinformation" from every level of government is all too often the case. Raw truth is sweetened to make it palliative to the masses and served up cooked to the benefit of the party in power. One can only assume that ordinary people (as distinguished from the elite who alone know what is best for us) are considered to not have the intelligence to handle real truth.

Mr. Lincoln disagrees: "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." Are you listening Mr. Obama and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle? We don't need a nanny!
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Little facts of life

If you accidentally drop a prescription pill to the floor, as it falls it gains energy that allows it to run and hide in some dark cranny where you can't find it. After you get up, puffing from searching on your hands and knees, the pill comes out of hiding unnoticed. The more expensive the pill, the more certainty there is that you will step on it or that the dog will eat it..

You Can Take it With You

After my first wife died I had every expectation that I would live out my life as bachelor and began to clean the house of things I wouldn't need. I was amazed at the amount of stuff we had gathered over 60 years of marriage and 52 years of living in the same house. A small part of it had sentimental value and was retained. The rest of it had very little material value as was confirmed in an auction.

I know of a wealthy widow who, according to her relatives, could no longer safely live at home and needed to be in an assisted living facility. She resisted the move until she had no choice The reason for her resistance? She had many fine and valuable possessions and she could not take every single one of them to the facility.

When it comes to the accumulation of wealth and possessions I have observed that there is a point reached of too much but not a point of enough. An outsider might say of the super rich that they have wealth for several lifetimes (too much) but that will not stop the wealthy from seeking to add to their fortunes (not enough).

In the 10th Chapter of Mark Jesus encounters a man who "ran up to him and knelt before him."
Luke says he was a ruler and Matthew that he was young but all 3 writers agree he was rich.
This is the 4th of 4 people so far in Mark who have run up to Jesus seeking something only he could provide; wholeness for a leper, healing for a woman, restoration for a demoniac and now for this rich man, the key to eternal life. The fact that each ran to Jesus portrays their desperation and their belief that, at last, they had found the one who could supply the solution to their problem.

Jesus gives the rich man a short quiz of which Jesus already knew the answers. Jesus was satisfied that the man was devout and sincere. Perhaps the man expected Jesus' blessing,
approval or a few easy to follow instructions and then he could be on his way. It didn't happen.
Jesus did say that in order for the man to achieve his goal there was one obstacle standing in his way, the thing he loved more than God; his wealth.

A sad story and not a popular part of scripture. That may be because we sense that it is not only addressed to the wealthy but to everyone who has erected an idol in place of God. Idols? Who, me? Yes, me.
Consider Matthew 10:37,38: "If you love father and mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if love your son or daughter more than me you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine."

Of course Jesus is not saying we shouldn't have other loves and allegiances. He is saying that every love, allegiance, relationship, ambition, goal or desire we have is secondary to loving and trusting him. He will not accept anything but first place in our lives. Considering what he has done for us, that is a perfectly reasonable position and you can't beat the rewards.

Matthew 10:29-30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "No on who has left home or brothers or sisters or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters,mothers, children and fields- and with them , persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life."

1 Corinthians 2:9 "Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him."

1 Corinthians 13:13 "There are three things that remain, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love."

When we go to heaven we will no longer need faith because we will see Jesus. We will no longer need hope because are hope will be realized. What we will take with us and keep, is Love.

This and That

Rummaging around in the dusty attic of my mind I believe my first new car was a 1956 four door Chevrolet. Price: $1800. I bought it off the lot and it came with several options: heater (an option !), radio, vinyl seat upholstery, two-tone green paint. It had manual steering, manual 3 speed shift, one speed windshield wipers, no air conditioning, no power anything. Air conditioning was described as being "460" which meant 4 windows open and driving 60 miles an hour.


At the time of purchase my wife and I thought the two-tone green paint was unique to our little town. In a few days we began to see cars with the same color scheme everywhere. But to us it was a treasure. No subsequent car purchase brought with it the same level of excitement we felt with the first one.


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I see that "whatever" has been voted the current most annoying expression in the English language. I would have voted for the ubiquitous "you know" without which, you know, some people would be unable to converse. You know?


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Another member of Congress has been caught in a scandal that may have far-reaching and negative effects on the Democratic party. Charles Rangel, (Dem.), N.Y. failed to pay some of his income taxes and to report all sources of income. What is it with members of Congress that makes them think they don't have to pay taxes? The IRS, without mercy or second thoughts, would put a widow out on the street if she did something similar but the rich and the powerful escape punishment.


Five will get you ten that Rangel will get out of this with a mild slap on the wrist. The "Ethics"
Commitee" is "investigating." The facts are known so what's to be investigated? They will stretch out their "investigation" because they depend on the American public's shamefully short attention span. That may not work this time.


The danger to the Democratic Party is that the Public's smoldering wrath may finally get fully vented at election time because of Rangel's blatant disregard of integrity and other Democratic mis-steps.


In the meantime, few if any Republican Congresspersons have halos to polish or unblemished records to crow about.

Pray, pray, pray for our country!
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Our President and First Lady recently made a fruitless trip to Copenhagen. Their intention was to charm the socks off the Olympic Committee and secure the Olympics for the city of Chicago. Alas, the OC proved to be immune to the radiant charm of the First Couple and the prize was handed to Rio. Reading the transcripts of the Obama 'I/Me' speeches it seems they were inviting the world the wonderful opportunity to come visit the Obamas.

The "City of the Broad Shoulders" (Walt Whitman's description of Chicago) may now have sagging shoulders but it will survive. My brother suggests it may all be for the best. If 'Chi' had won, it would have been necessary to add a new Olympic event : "Dodging bullets and 2x4's to the head."


I honestly take no satisfaction from the President's failure. He did what he thought best. And I believe that no matter what he did the OC was determined to grant the Olympics to a country other than the USA.


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Miscellany

Josef Stalin: "The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic." Stalin should know. He was responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people.

Leo Tolstoy: "Love hinders death. Love is life. Anything at all that I understand, I understand only because I love. All is bound up in love alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a tiny particle of love, shall return to the universal and eternal source."

The Good Old Days

Sometime around 1935, at the age of 10, I contracted hepatitis (called "yellow jaundice") and was confined to my bed for awhile. My parents called Dr. Heath and he made a house call.

(This is not to be confused with a telephone call; he actually came to our house). Doctors making house calls was not at all unusual. For some reason the amount of his fee, $3.00, has stuck in my memory.





I was often the one sent to the A & P grocery store 2 1/2 blocks from our home with a list of items to be purchased. I presented the list to a clerk, behind the counter, who then went about the store to retrieve the items. If self-service existed it hadn't made its way to our little town at the end of Long Island, N.Y. The clerk tallied the prices in pencil on one of the paper bags that he loaded the groceries in. The question, "paper or plastic?" never came up since there were no plastic sacks.




At the time:


Bread was 9 cents a loaf


Eggs, 18 cents a dozen


Hamburger meat, 12 cents a pound


A hamburger (bun, meat, ketchup) at the diner was 5 cents as was a cup of coffee or a coke





Gas, 10 cents a gal.


A new Pontiac, $745


Average new home, $3845



Man's broadcloth shirt, $1.00



Woman's wool sweater, $1.00



Washing machine,$23.95



Gas stove, $19.95





Before you think that we were lucky to live in a time when prices were so low consider this:

Worker's wages were 9 cents an hour, ---if you could get a job. Skilled labor managed to get slightly higher wages. To date, inflation has moved prices and wages to their present levels so, everything is relative.



The history of the Federal Government's handling, (mishandling, really) of the depression crisis is both fascinating and depressing (no pun intended). President Herbet Hoover seemed incapable of understanding economics and spent a lot of his time organizing commitees and conferences. The country verged on socialism with both Big Business and Big Labor briefly advocating collectivism based on their individual agendas. For example, Big Labor would have had a Government agency appointed to force businesses to hire the number of workers the agency determined the businesses should have. Big Business leaders had equally unpalatable ideas. A radical left-wing newspaper was lavish with praise for the fascist inclinations.



To say our country during the 1930's was on an extremely slippery slope is no exaggeration. Only the advent of WWll pulled us back from the abyss.

Once again our nation is on a slippery slope; perhaps not as steep as the Great Depression but still dangerous.



I may well be mistaken in my belief that in many ways we are not the nation of my earlier years. After all, greed and corruption in high places is still with us except it is more overt. We still do not have lobbyists for the mass of average citizens. We are a country divided. Often I have the feeling that nobody is in charge.

This is not the nation of my earlier years. Our liberties are slowly being chipped away but each succeeding generation does not realize it, thinking the way things are is the way it's always been.

If you've never had something how would you know if it's gone?



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Miscellany



Charles Dickens slept facing north. He believed it improved his writing (Did I hear one of you saying I ought to try it?)

The house where Thomas Jefferson wrote much of the Declaration of Independence was torn down to make room for a hamburger stand.

The above 2 facts are from "The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"

Lincoln: "A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be." (It's our choice)

Check Your Ammo

In part of my 3 years in the US Navy Air Corps during WWll, I was a top turret gunner on a torpedo bomber. I was no danger to the enemy but I did almost shoot down one of our own nearby planes accidentally and almost cause the death of its 3 man crew. Although entirely unintentional, had I succeeded I would have no doubt spent many years in prison. Memory of the incident pops up ocassionally and even 65 years later it still causes me some distress. I will tell you it was a matter of 1/32 of an inch between incarceration and my life since then. I am firmly convinced that God was involved in the outcome ; there is no other possible explanation.



Those bombers were relatively slow; so slow in flight that birds sometimes rested on the wings. Actually, not so; it just seemed that way. When I was not flying, my other duties involved my training as an aircraft mechanic. I worked on 1700 horsepower radial air-cooled engines. I am mechanically inept around car engines, BUT if they ever start putting 1700 hp air cooled engines in cars I'll be ready.

In my first story above, I was operating with the mistaken belief that there were no more bullets left in my machine gun. Over the target range I had pulled the trigger in bursts until the weapon quit firing. On the way back to base I swung the turret around, pointed my weapon at planes in our formation and pulled the trigger. The closest plane was about 50 feet away. When we got back to base and I got out of the turret and removed the can of spent shell casings I looked up and saw to my horror that there were still 5 fifty caliber live bullets hanging in the belt. I scrambled back up into the turret, opened the lid to the firing chamber and could see that the mechanism that pulled bullets into the chamber had scratched the next bullet in an attempt to pull it into firing position. If that bullet had been somehow moved 1/32 of an inch more it would have fired and carried the next 4 with it.

Operating with insufficient, mistaken, false or unverified beliefs is as dangerous to our spiritual lives as was my similar dangerous actions with live bullets. It is up to each of us individually to do the study required to build on solid scriptural ground; to seek, recognize, listen to and abide by, the teachings of the Holy Spirit delivered through whatever source He may choose.

My second story illustrates that if we are going to stay prepared, we cannot stand still in our learning. To live the abundant life Christ promised us it is not enough to sit on our salvation. My knowledge of the 1700 hp radial engine is useless to me now and it did not prepare me for dealing with the complexities of modern car engines. Too many Christians say to themselves, "I know all I need to know." They stop growing and then resist the gentle prodding of the Spirit to move on to greater and greater joys in Jesus.

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A little boy asked his mother, "Mommy, where do people come from?"
Thinking the boy was too young for the birds and bees story she said, "Well, the Bible says we come from dust and we return to dust.'
That seemed to satisfy him and he went to his room to play.
A short time later he came back to his mother and said, "Mommy, I looked under my bed and someone is either coming or going."