USDA Did Right

Read Article Here:  USDA Meatless Monday Posting Retracted After Beef Industry Calls Foul





The USDA last week gave its support for "Meatless Monday".  A least for a few moments.  The department retracted its support following outcry from American livestock farmers, and rightly so.

Meatless Mondays are an international initiative by environmental extremists looking to force their religion on the general public.  They claim it will help the environment my reducing grain consumption and by limiting methane in the atmosphere from "cow farts"

For the USDA to take a position on such an obviously controversial issue was irresponsible.  There is no peer reviewed data to support this type of initiative to improve our environment.  It's a feel-good measure designed to push an agenda.  The government should never participate in this type of debate.  It should certainly never take sides.

As for "cow farts"...

Methane in cow flatulence is caused by the breakdown of vegetable material.  If the grass and grain fed to cows breaks down in the cow digestive tract, or on the ground through the normal process of biodegradation, the same amount of gas is formed.  Cows may concentrate greenhouse gasses into a smaller area, but they do not cause a higher volume of gasses to be formed.

Cow farts do not affect the ozone and do not contribute to global warming, or climate change, or whatever the green wackos want to call it.

I Blame the Media

In the wake of the recent Colorado massacre in a crowded movie theater, we are again hearing the clamor of the uninformed.

A criminally insane young man used gas bombs and firearms to kill and injure over a hundred people.  He chose his venue well.  He carefully timed the crime to delay police intervention.  News reports aside, he appears to have had an accomplice.

Immediately, the "disarm America" crowd, both foreign and domestic, started calling for more gun control.  We have heard the term "semi-automatic" bandied about as if the reporters understand the term.  We see pictures of military style firearms posted with every report of the incident.  We are carefully led to believe that guns are the cause of this crime, not the atrocious acts of one, or possibly two young men.

Personally, I blame the media.

These types of public killings are not about killing people.  They're about getting attention.  When a deranged individual, or group of individuals, kills in public, they become famous.  Their names and faces are plastered across every newspaper and TV screen.  Their family, friends, and neighbors are interviewed.  Their manifestos are read to the public.  They get a message out.  They get attention.  They get notoriety.  That's why terrorist groups will claim responsibility for crimes they didn't commit.

I say take the fame away.  When these events occur, report the news.  Cover the story.  But keep the killer's name and identity a secret.  Never report on what was found at his apartment, on his computer, or written in a diary.  Don't tell how the crime was carried out, how many guns or explosives were in the criminal's possession, or what organizations he was associated with.  Leave relatives and associates alone.

When referring to the killer, use derogatory language.  Call him a coward, a lunatic, a fool.  Use the media for a campaign to destroy his image.  Never use his name, but make sure that anyone who does discover his identity will have for him only a feeling of disdain.

Let's stop making heroes of murderers.

Eddie Van Halen is the Greatest Guitar Player of all Time

How the solid-body guitar came to be is of some dispute.  Most will agree, though, that Les Paul helped to make it successful.  Chuck Berry and Buddy Guy both influenced Rock n Roll.  The Beatles changed the perception of guitar music forever.  Jimmy Hendrix found new and interesting sounds.  Eric Clapton and Carlos Santana both demonstrate some of the greatest technical skill in the industry.  Laurence Juber has a unique style that is simply amazing.  But as talented and important as these guitarists are, none have contributed more than Eddie Van Halen.

Eddie took the skills, talents, and discoveries of his predecessors and raised them to new heights.  He helped develop the "Super Strat" to create new sounds that would have made Hendrix smile.  His speed, skill and precision compare with the guitar greats, both then and now.  He plays Rock, Blues, Classical, and Finger Style with incredible skill and his own unique flavor.  He made "tapping" and "shredding" mainstream guitar concepts, influencing the next two generations of guitar players.  Today, he continues to astound guitar fans with his skill and innovation.

2007 Eddie Van Halen solo

God Doesn't Use Scales

Egyptian mythology talked about the judgement of Osiris, who would weigh a dead person's heart against a feather to determine its final fate.  The Muslim faith teaches that human souls are punished or rewarded according to the shape of the soul as determined by how they lived their lives.  Hindu and Buddhism teach of a path for approaching perfection through enlightenment.

God doesn't do any of these things.

God is perfect.  The incarnation of absolute good.  God defines good and is entirely devoid of evil.  Being mostly good is not good enough for God.  Even a minute trace of evil will alienate us from God.  Weighing our souls will not determine if we're good enough to go to heaven.  It will simply tell us how far we are separated from God.

Imagine a glass of filtered water.  It's pure, clean, cool, and clear, completely without contaminant.

Would you drink it?  Of course.  It's pure.

Now take a drop of blood from a person with a disease.  Mix the drop of blood into the water until it's completely dissolved.

Will you drink it now?

Why not?  It's still clear and cool.  The contaminant is so small it can't be seen.  The water is almost completely clean.  Isn't it clean enough?

Of course not.

And neither are we.

Christianity is unique in that it teaches that we are all unclean.  Some more than others, but all of us fall short of God's requirement of purity.  If we were to join with Him, we would contaminate Him and he would no longer be pure.

There are no scales.  There is no need to judge.  We are simply not good enough for Him.

Except we are.

God loves us, so He gave us a way.  Christ is the bridge to God.  He assumes our imperfections, cleansing us, and allowing us to approach God.

Because of Christ, we can all be good enough.  But we do have to choose Christ.

The choice is ours.

There are no scales.

Sunday is National Ice Cream Day

Article: Top 10 places to get ice cream in the US



Sunday is National Ice Cream Day.  It's our patriotic duty to eat ice cream this weekend!

In 1984, Ronald Regan declared July to be National Ice Cream Month, with the 3rd Sunday (Sundae?) of the month being National Ice Cream Day.

To celebrate, there are special offers available at ice cream stores across the country.

Carvel Ice Cream is offering kids free cones on Sunday.

Dippin Dots has free dots with a coupon on July 14th.

Sonic is offering half priced ice cream shakes all summer long.

Lots of other ice cream freebies and deals are out there if you look.  Be American.  Celebrate Sunday with a scoop or two!

This is NOT a Bible study

Read article here:  Phoenix preacher jailed in zoning dispute

See Michael Salman's vidoe here: Pastor Goes To Jail For Home Worship




Michael Salman would have us believe a lie.

On July 9th, Salman was sentenced to 60 days in jail and a $12,000 fine for holding Bible studies in his home.  At first this sounds outrageous, especially in America, but there's more to the story.

Salman wants us to believe he is simply having friends and family over for a private study.  This is far from the truth.  On his property, Salman has erected a 2000 square foot structure in which he holds regular scheduled services complete with seating for as many as 40 people at a time.  Frequently, attendees are not known to the Salmans.  There is signage in the front yard designating the property as a church.  Services are held routinely, with additional meetings for prayer and baptisms.  In 2008, Salman applied for, and received tax exempt status for the property, designating it as church property.

This is not a simple Bible study being held in a private residence.  This is an established church attempting to misrepresent itself for the purpose of avoiding state and local building ordinances.

Salman should be held accountable by his government.  And by his fellow Christians.  Deception is the Devil's tool, not God's.

Does God Exist?

Does God exist?

I've always believed He does.  As a young child, I realized there was an intelligent presence too great for me to understand.  He was good and I could talk to him whenever I wanted.  He cared about me.  I liked having Him around.

I wasn't raised in a religious home.  I attended church occasionally, but more as a novelty than a habit.  My father is agnostic and my mother ambivalent.  The choice of whether to believe in God was completely mine.  Except it wasn't.  God chose me.  How could I not believe?

René Descartes used a priori reasoning to prove the existence of God.  His argument said that God has to exist because we conceive imperfection, implying perfection.  God is that perfection.  It's like our concept of light.  We would not have a word for darkness if there was no such thing as light.  A blind person doesn't perceive darkness.  They have no word for it, just as we have no word for what we see when we look out the back of our heads.  Without the contrast, there is no reason to create a label.  We label imperfection because we perceive perfection, which is God.

Science tends to avoid the question of God's existence.  Discovery science is a method of disproving theory.  You create a rational theory, then try to prove it's wrong.  If you can't disprove it, you assume it's true (until someone else disproves it later...).  God, as a theory, doesn't seem rational to many scientists, and He can't be disproved using available tools. 

Maybe scientists just haven't found their way to God yet.  Maybe someday they will find the mathematical equation that rationalizes a God theory.

Until then, I will continue to believe on faith.

Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

This should alarm you...

Read the Forbes Magazine article here: 
U.N. Agreement Should Have All Gun Owners Up In Arms



The United Nations, as a body, is not fond of gun ownership.  They have been trying for years to restrict or eliminate the ownership of firearms by private citizens.  This month, UN representatives are meeting to discuss small-arms treaties to combat terrorism and international crime.  There is not much new about the proposed treaties.  They seem to be discussing the same gun ownership restrictions proposed in the past: gun registration and the criminalization of certain types of guns.

For this treaty to be ratified by the US, it would have to be negotiated by the White House, then passed by a 2/3 majority of the Senate.  Senators are generally opposed to the bill because of its threat to the US Constitution and our national sovereignty.  As a result, it is unlikely that the US will enter into this kind of treaty.

We currently have a law on the books preventing the federal government from spending tax dollars to promote a UN gun treaty.  Apparently, George Soros has decided to front the money for advertising to promote whatever treaty the UN comes up with.

If this treaty were to ratified, it would do two things.  First, it would relinquish a piece of US sovereignty to a foreign government.  This is a dangerous precedent, but not nearly as dangerous as the second point.  Ratifying this treaty would challenge the authority of the US Constitution.  If the President and the Senate can bypass the constitutional amendment process through a simple treaty ratification, the document will become far less effective.  Since modification of the Constitution is supposed to require consent of the states, this would be a serious blow to state rights and the 10th Amendment.

This treaty must be opposed, regardless of anyone's opinions on gun ownership.

Best Amusement Park

Cedar Point is the best amusement park in the US, possibly the world.

I've been to Edgewater and Boblo Island back in the day.  I've visited the Disney parks, Busch Gardens, Universal Studios, Adventure Land, and a variety of others, both permanent and temporary while growing up.

Cedar Point beats them all.

For me, it's all about the roller coasters.  Nothing beats the thrill of a speeding train barreling down a curvy track while passengers scream in delight.  The sun in your eyes, the wind in your hair, the hint of primal fear in the pit of your gut as a small part of your brain becomes convinced you are about to die.  There's nothing like it.

Cedar Point has the most and the best roller coasters around.  Occasionally, another park will come out with a better coaster, but none of them can challenge Cedar Point's claim for the greatest number of quality roller coasters on the planet.

Win.

Say 'No' to Sin-Tax

Article:   Roll-your-own cigarette stores going up in smoke


Sin-taxes place a tax penalty on vices.  Vices are easy targets.  They tend to be uniformly accepted as unnecessary and, sometimes, destructive.  Not everyone participates in a particular vice.  Of those who do participate, many will lie about the extent of their participation, even to themselves.  There is often guilt accosiated with participation.

The most common vices include smoking tobacco, consuming alcohol, patronizing the sex industry, and gambling.

All of the common vices are subject to special taxes.  The public accepts this, since most people don't consider themselves to be subject to those taxes, or don't wish to admit that they are.  They see it as a tax-on-others.  They also see the tax as a deterrent to what is commonly seen as deviant behavior.

In the above article, the government has teamed up with big-tobacco to penalize smokers while eliminating a competitor.  Government gets to manipulate behavior while increasing the corporate profits of major campaign contributors.  It's a win-win... Unless you're a smoker or a small business owner.

Sin-taxes are are a form of bad government.  They fail the role-of-government test in several ways.  They threaten personal liberty by allowing the government to penalize legal, but socially unacceptable behavior.  They discriminate by selecting a segment of society for higher taxation, the revenue of which benefits another segment, or society at large.  They distort the market, affecting businesses and jobs.  They often increase crime by creating black markets, or by driving the activity underground where it is likely to be less regulated.

The recent Supreme Court decision on healthcare has allowed for a sin-tax on healthcare -- or, more precisely, the failure to purchase healthcare.  There have been proposals for sin-taxes on sweets, salt, and fast foods by the self-appointed food police.

Taxation should always be fair and blind.  It should not be used to target a segment of society.  It should never be used to control societal behavior.  Taxes that promote criminal activity should be quickly eliminated.

Sin-taxes are an absolute fail.

Strip Searching Children

Read article here: Assistant Principal Strip-Searches Third Grader Over Missing $20


This above article is about poor judgement and the abuse of authority.

A 10 year old boy was falsely accused of stealing $20 from a fellow student.  After he was strip-searched by the assistant principal, the money was discovered by another teacher.

The boy's mother was never called.  The administrator considered $20 to be a valid excuse to humiliate this child.  Reasonable doubt and the cost of liberty were never considered.  The school board is supporting the search.

I can understand this kind of action if there is a potential for injury to a student or a teacher.  If there is a reasonable suspicion that a student possesses a weapon or drugs, a search may be necessary, possibly before a parent can be found.

But for $20?  Are our children's rights worth so little?

Another reason to homeschool our kids next year.

It's Time for Another Revolution

Text of the Declaration of Independence


Thomas Jefferson was a legal and historical scholar with an ideal.  He, along with the founding fathers, believed that history could be used as a predictor of the future.  His dream was to break away from history's cycles of oppression by creating a system of government that would limit government power.

Government is important.  Our original system, under the Articles of Confederation, showed us that a strong central government is essential for a nation to succeed.  To help keep the strength of the central government from leading to oppression of the people, the framers studied history and political philosophy to discover a method of checks and balances to limit the power of government.

In 1788, the US Constitution was ratified, going into effect in 1789.  Since then, the members of government have tried to break from the original intent of limiting government power.

Today, we are failing our history test.  History clearly tells us not to trust government.  It tells us not to become dependent on government to provide for us.  It warns against deficit spending, except during times of war.  It informs us of the danger of generational debt.  History clearly shows us the pain and suffering caused by government oppression and the subjugation of the people.

We are warned, but we are ignoring the warning.  Most Americans are remarkably ignorant of history and political philosophy.  As a result, we are making the exact mistakes history warns us against.  We cherry-pick history to support our pet ideologies.  We quote fools to push selfish agendas.  We give up personal liberty to promote our own laziness and irresponsibility in the name of compassion and generosity.

Pure capitalism works best in an environment of anarchy.  Non-government allows the greed of capitalism to flourish in a Darwinistic manner.  Pure communism also works best in anarchy, but only when practiced by non-humans, since it requires the complete absence of greed and laziness.  Government is necessary, in part, to regulate the economic system.  It's a necessary evil used to counter the evil of an unregulated economy.

Government and economic systems are like the balance of microbes in the the human body.  Bacteria and yeast, for instance, both live in the human host.  They both serve their individual purposes, keeping the host healthy.  They keep each other in balance by constantly competing.  If one microbe gains an advantage over the other, the host will become ill.  It's only through balance that health is maintained.

In the 19th century, our government was a bit too weak, allowing capitalism to cause economic oppression of certain segments of society.  As government increased in strength, the resulting balance made our nation healthier, eventually resulting in the greatest nation the world had ever seen.  In the latter half of the 20th century, however, we allowed the government to become too strong.  By the mid 1970's, we started to see that imbalance affect the health of the host.  Now our nation is beginning to suffer the oppression of a government that has become too strong.

As it gains strength, our government will continue to grab more power for itself.  The recent Supreme Court decision has opened the door to remarkable oppression.  To get a real feel for the slow change occurring in our country, imagine bringing someone from 1920 forward in time.  Think of their likely reaction to airport security, smoking laws, DUI checkpoints, modern social security, gun regulation, drug regulation, modern tax laws, the Patriot Act, etc.  Yes there are changes that have improved society (i.e. racism and child abuse), but the changes in government power are alarming.

It may not be too late.  It's time for another revolution.  A bloodless one this time, working within the system, but a revolution none the less.

Is Global Warming So Bad?

It's still open to debate whether the Earth is really increasing in average temperature.  To trend average temperatures, we need to accurately track them for a pretty long period of time.  Some of the records we have a suspect.  Of those deemed reliable, the trend may not suggest a real change.

Most people do believe there has been an increase in average temperature, however.  The Northern ice caps have receded somewhat.  The Antarctic Peninsula has retreated significantly, even if the continents other glaciers are increasing in size.  The Earth's oceans have been increasing their levels since 1950, with an increase in the rate since the late 1990s.

Some believe this is caused by CO2.  Others claim it's a natural cycle due, in part, to the Earth's current orbit around the sun, which is less elliptical than in the past.

But does it matter?

What does global warming really mean for us?

It means longer growing seasons, more farm land, more room for expansion, and, possibly, more beach front.  It will cost less to heat our houses and less to feed our people.  Summers will be longer.  Winters will be shorter.

Will the land change?  Sure.  Death Valley could become a sea again.  Northern Africa and the Middle East could see rain again, allowing for cultivation of the land.  Deserts may move.  beaches may recede.  Loss of glaciers could reduce available fresh water.

But we'll adjust.

Winter is hard on humans.  We have to take some extreme measures to live in cold climates.  Global warming could allow us to spend less time fighting to survive and more time advancing civilization.

Global warming could be a really good thing.  Until the next ice age...

Salaries Are Not Too High

See White House salaries here: 2012 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff

The White House staffing budget has increased this year.  Every time this happens, critics complain that our fiscal reform should start with the White House and Congressional salaries.  I disagree.

The above link lists the salaries for the various positions in the White House.  The President makes $400K per year, significantly less than LBJ made in the 1960's when adjusted for inflation.  Members of Congress make $174K (leaders get a bit more).  This is about the same as the 1960's compensation when adjusted.  Members are eligible for pensions after 5 years, but can't receive those pensions until age 55-62 (depending on years served) unless they serve a total of 25 years at which point they can start receiving their pension immediately.

I don't have a problem with these compensations plans.  They are all completely in line with industry standards.  The entire congressional and presidential budgets combined total around $6 billion.  That seems like a lot, but it's extremely insignificant when we consider the nation's total budget is over $6 Trillion.  To put it in perspective, if our family makes $60,000/year, the cost of running the household would be about $60.  I frequently have that much in my wallet...

Our money problems in this country are not a result of operations spending.  Our problems are a direct result of entitlement spending.  As a nation, we seem to be "Penny wise and pound foolish".  We need to take on some much bigger cuts than Congressional and White House salaries.