Support the REINS Act
Whatever happened to all the “transparency in government” that we were promised? The answer is that there’s been even less of it and even more back room deals going on than ever.
It’s taken almost a year, but this week, the House will vote on H.R. 10 (a.k.a the REINS Act). This piece of legislation will make it clear that Congress alone makes the laws in this country. Currently federal agencies and their bureaucrats have sidestepped the traditional Congressional role of lawmaking on numerous occasions to foist their agendas on the land. This law would return common sense, accountability and transparency into federal agency rule-making process.
In my opinion, no matter how screwed up Congress may be, nobody in the federal government should be allowed to make a law that does not have congressional and presidential support. At the very least, there’d be accountability for the voters to deal with. Opencongress.org has a great summary of this proposed law.
Please take a moment now to urge your Congressperson to support this legislation. The link above at opencongress.org has a form to do that or you can click this link at the AFP Action Center for another.
545 people
There seems to be a lot of attention given these days to the 2012 Republican Presidential candidates and the effort to unseat President Obama. While I’m the first to want a new Chief Executive, it bothers me that the election of a new president is treated as the single most important thing facing us this coming year. We Americans are not very bright when it comes to our own legislative process.
It is true that the President proposes things that ultimately make their way into the law of the land and that may seem tremendously significant. But at the end of the day, nobody in the White House has the power to turn propsals into legislation. Does the average American understand that? The citizens of this great country are in fact ignorant of where the power really resides in Washington. I believe the John Q. Public gives far too much credit and places way to much focus on the office of the President, almost as if he were King and could wave his scepter and either implement any law he wants or abolish one that he doesn’t.
AMERICA, please WAKE UP to reality.
I’m all for getting rid of Obama and will vote for virtually anyone else that runs against him. But, if you think you can really effect CHANGE to the mess that this country is in by electing a different President and letting him operate on your behalf, you my friend, are totally clueless!!
So rather than me try to explain our political process I’d like to use an excerpt from someone more proficient at writing than I, a real professional journalist. Mr Charley Reese is a former columnist for the Orlando Sentinel and is very well known for several related columns that he wrote during his time there between 1985 and 2001. It is the last of these, and also his very last column for the Sentinel penned on July 29, 2001, that is quoted below.
545 PEOPLE–By Charlie Reese
Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them..
Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have deficits?
Have you ever wondered, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, WHY do we have inflation and high taxes?
You and I don’t propose a federal budget. The President does.
You and I don’t have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.
You and I don’t write the tax code, Congress does.
You and I don’t set fiscal policy, Congress does.
You and I don’t control monetary policy, the Federal Reserve Bank does.
100 senators, 435 in the House, 1 President, and 9 Supreme Court justices equates to 545 human beings out of the 300 million are directly, legally, morally, and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.
I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress. In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered, but PRIVATE, central bank.
I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority. They have no ability to coerce a senator, a congressman, or a President to do one cotton-picking thing. I don’t care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it. No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator’s responsibility to determine how he votes.
Those 543 human beings spend much of their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con regardless of party.
What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall. No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits….. The President can only propose a budget. He cannot force the Congress to accept it.
The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes. Who is the speaker of the House? John Boehner. He is the leader of the majority party. He and fellow House members, not the President, can approve any budget they want. If the President vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.
It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted — by present facts — of incompetence and irresponsibility. I can’t think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people. When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.
If the tax code is unfair, it’s because they want it unfair.
If the budget is in the red, it’s because they want it in the red ..
If the Army & Marines are in Iraq and Afghanistan it’s because they want them in Iraq and Afghanistan …
If they do not receive social security but are on an elite retirement plan not available to the people, it’s because they want it that way.
There are no insoluble government problems.
Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power. Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like “the economy,” “inflation,” or “politics” that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.
Those 545 people, and they alone, are responsible.
They, and they alone, have the power..
They, and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses.
Provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees…
We should vote all of them out of office and clean up their mess!
Which by the way is what the founding fathers had in mind for us to be able to do. So please, JUST DO IT!
Take the “Made in America” Pledge
I’ve been waiting for one of the big national TV news organizations to take on the subject of manufacturing in the U.S. for quite some time. Well the topic has finally been broached by ABC in a week long series on “World News with Diane Sawyer” and I’m excited to suggest it for your reading/watching consumption. Here’s a link to their “Made in America” web page with lots of resources and video broadcasts.
The “Made in America” topic certainly isn’t new and why our national media hasn’t given it lots of coverage like ABC finally decided to do isn’t clear to me. U.S. manufacturing jobs have been a critical source of income to people in this country and with the jobless rate is so high right now it makes sense I guess to feature this important topic. Personally, I have a selfish interest in the success of U.S. manufacturing as my career has and does depend on it. So I guess I should be cheering that it has been given some national attention. Let’s call it way overdue but very welcome.
One of those resources at the ABC World News site is a page on the “Made in America” pledge. Now I don’t know how effective “pledge” type campaigns are in our culture today, but I certainly agree and encourage people to make a conscious decision to consider the companies, corporations and countries that they ultimately are supporting when purchasing. If the pledge or one of these stories is what gets that ball rolling in your family and causes purchasing changes, then way to go ABC.
The U.S. economy, manufacturing and jobs are pretty complex subjects and you can be sure there will be plenty more discussion to come about them all.
Do you treasure America
This post comes from my heart. I’ve struggled in the past to find a regular topic to blog about that I’m also passionate about. But I think that I now may have found that elusive topic: America. Please indulge me and read on, but I warn you that there’s no PC fluff here.
Do you treasure this great country of ours? If you have never before considered that America is headed down a path towards total erosion of our precious Constitution and all its associated freedoms then you must educate yourselves now. If you have watched at points during the past 50 years in utter awe at the blatent substitution of the Judeo-Christian ethic that this blessed country was built upon with some morally-corrupt, humanistic and socialistic mush, then please it is time to stand up. Because I fear that we may have slid so far down the proverbial “slippery slope” that we may not be able to stop the slide to destruction.
Yes, that’s my opinion, but I’m not the only one in this country concerned. Check out this video from former Idaho legislator Curtis Bowers. He was the fellow who wrote an editorial published in the Idaho Press-Tribune on January 9, 2008, entitled “Communist agenda makes its way to our mainstream.” He took a lot of hits for his view.
OK, that was pretty heavy. But even if you can’t buy in to a communist conspiracy theory (it’s hard for me to) you can’t ignore the events of the past and where we are at today. So I ask you again, do you treasure this wonderful land of ours? Then for yourself and your family please do two things every day. Pray for this country and its leaders, read the Bible and the Constitution and share these truths with others. If we work together, and with God’s grace, we can reverse this path of destruction.
I’ve just been violated
Last night I was in the middle of watching the Survivor Season 22 Finale and witnessed a commercial that totally left me without words. And that doesn’t happen very often. The commercial in question looked like it was a Google Chrome commercial that somehow morphed itself into a promotion of something called the “It Gets Better Project” that seemed to be endorsing the gay and lesbian lifestyle. At least that was what I came away with in the 90 seconds. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7skPnJOZYdA
“What did I just see,” I thought to myself? Was this a full-throttle promotion of the gay and lesbian lifestyle I wondered? My mind was perplexed as I sat there for the next few minutes completely aghast at the thought of the mighty Google promoting something so completely against my moral compass. I actually began to feel like I had just been “violated” by this ad. How could they so boldly throw this into my face and all within the comforts of my own room? My next thoughts were of anger as my brain started to process it all. I soon became so incensed that I was ready to remove everything from my computer and BlackBerry having any association to Google.
Next the rational part of my brain kicked in and I had to get on the web and to try and piece together the whole story. I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions too fast. Of course, I googled the term and what I found was a link on YouTube to the 90 second video that I had just seen but also a link to a YouTube channel called the, “itgetsbetterproject.” There is a lengthy video (7 minutes) going into what the project is about. The link to it is here (http://www.youtube.com/user/itgetsbetterproject) although I must say that I am not endorsing the content. I was able figure out that this project was created by a number of Google employees compassionate to the plight of young gay people trying to grow up in an anti-gay world (likely gay themselves too).
The video is certainly heart-warming and the mission to inspire teenagers is admirable. No Christ-follower would ever want a young person to take their own life or even consider it. But as a fully devoted Christian, I would certainly approach the problem differently. The simple truth is that we are all born into this world with a sin problem and we all need Jesus. That may be the subject of another blog.
But I’m still sitting there wondering, “why has Google associated itself with this cause?” And you know what? I still don’t have a clue. My mind has settled down a little bit, and it’s now the following day and I’m wondering what’s next? Stay tuned.
Easter morning gratitude
As I sit here Easter morning reflecting on the awesome miracle of Jesus’ death, burial and ressurection, I can’t help but also get a little distracted by the sobering weather events in our area on Good Friday.
Natural forces were on display two evening’s ago to remind us of that in spite of society’s “enlightenment” and continuing deception that we are somehow in control of events here on earth, we, simply, are not.
The gift of earthly life that we’ve been given and God’s wonderful grace that allows us to fulfill our days is certainly unmeasurable. But the priceless gift of eternal life that was freely provided to us by our heavenly Father that first Easter morning lasts forever.
Happy Easter to all.
There’s always time for golf
Time and distance may separate families when it comes to reunions and gatherings, but one thing that seems to be able to unite the male family members is a friendly game of golf.
And so it was on Monday afternoon that a few of my uncles and cousins got together at Meadowbrook Country Club in Ballwin to see one another and find out just how much damage we can afflict to an otherwise lovely course. Things were a bit wet due to recent rains, but we managed to get in a round under overcast and cool-ish conditions.
Our gracious host and resident family golf pro, Mike Carron, laid out a lovely time for us to renew relationships and rivalries mixed in with the distraction of advancing a little white ball around in as few a strokes as possible. A good time was enjoyed by all, and it was great to see my elders actually putting the “hurt” on the ball a number of times.
Yes, we may look like a motley crew, but there’s a lot of love in this group. I can’t wait to get together again sometime real soon.
Theres photos from the day in a gallery on my Photos page so you can see them. Click the thumbnail, click the “Photo” page link at the top or here’s a link that takes you right to it.
Back in the saddle again
No, this post isn’t about Aerosmith or Gene Autry, but about me and one of my good diversions.
After a six-month hiatus, I’m back serving at church, one weekend a month, in the video department. Perhaps the term “serving” is a bit strong because it’s actually lots of fun, is quite different than what I normally do and is something I enjoy.
God is good that way. He doesn’t just call us to do things that are drudgery. (Although we’ve been taught that by mainstream religion.) The Bible says in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Let that sink in a little.
Serving doesn’t have to be hard, it can be easy and is always very rewarding. I hope that is encouragement to you to get into “the game.” Don’t let those gifts and talents stay bottled up. He gave them to you for a reason.
I currently serve in the position of technical director in the video area, or “TD” for short. As you can see below it is quite dark in there with lots of switchers, equipment, computers, video monitors and electronic gear. It can be quite hectic at times. My spot is the furthermost upper left in the photo. (Unoccupied of course since I am the one taking the picture.)
Video booth at Grace Church St. Louis
When will winter give it up
Do you believe this? Yes it is officially Spring here in these parts of Missouri, even if it doesn’t look like it. It was 80°F just three days ago.
Enough of this already, we’re supposed to be playing golf by now.
The man in the coffee beans
Does your day start like this? My lovely wife had forwarded me an email with this headline and image. It had to do with coffee so I was instantly curious.
“FIND THE MAN IN THE COFFEE BEANS”
The email states at the beginning that it is the “Brain Exercise for the Day.” I like brain teasers, so this is worth doing.
The email challenges you to look at the image and find the man somewhere in the image. Seems simple enough. So I look and look and look and about ten seconds later I spot the guy. Sweet, found him. So far so good. Below the image the email stated the following:
OK, that’s cool, my right brain is normal, I think to myself. Thanks Honey for the interersting little brain teaser and ego booster to start the day. That should have been the end of it, I should have taken it for what is was meant to be and moved on to the next email. But you know what happened. I couldn’t just leave it at that. Curiosity and skepticism got to me.
I checked snopes.com and truthorfiction.com to see if this scientific claim was true. Snopes had nothing on it and TruthorFiction stated that it was unproven. Ah ha I say, I had good reason to be skeptical of it. Did I stop there though? No, I was still curious.
I went to Google. Put this exact phrase, “man in the coffee beans” into the search box and boom, 511,000 hits. Amazing! And even more surprising there were 9,490 hits on images with that exact phrase. And in blogs, Google reported “about 9,990 results.” Are you kidding me? (So much for thinking that my blog had original content.)
No wonder I can’t ever get through my email.
