Category: voting

Thought for the day. Real love on Valentine’s day.

 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

Once at bible study as we studied John 15, a great chapter on love, this verse came up and the leader asked if we really were willing to die for someone we loved. Trying to be spiritual I volunteered I probably could die for my wife. She immediately answered “Oh no, you don’t get away that easy; you have to live for me.” She has a way to put things in perspective. I had forgotten all about that episode until one day I heard Ravi Zacharias speak on the air, and he said: All love is costly.   Suddenly I realized, this is true for all real love.

When we got married we gave our vows, for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health until death do us part. There is no excuse. We have to live for each other. This is God’s plan for our lives.

Looking around at recent trends this seems to be more and more a minority view.

My grandson goes to preschool. As Valentine’s day approached his teachers came up with rules what to do on this very special day to celebrate its core message: Love. So the little ones were encouraged to make Valentine’s cards, but as they did, they had to write identical messages to every other person in the class, something like: Be my Valentine (printed) , make a heart and add the names. To do any less would hurt some student’s feelings, causing envy and strife. Group harmony must be enforced.

This is how far we have come in our understanding of love. We are only important as a part of a collective, no longer equal opportunity, but equal outcome. This seems to be designed to stamp out initiative and the entrepreneurial spirit from preschool on. They get indoctrinated in collective thinking, so by the time they finish high school they are convinced individual responsibility is no longer in, it has been replaced by collective thinking. That is in my opinion why so many of the millennials are ready to campaign for Bernie Sanders, even to the point of giving it all in the campaign.

What I still cannot understand is why so many New Hampshireans agonized over whether they should vote for Trump or Sanders.  All I know is that love has nothing to do with it.

Thought for the day. The Hew Hampshire Primary or whatever.

 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.” (Matthew 21:21-22)

Watching the New Hampshire primary election the thought came to me. How many have prayed for their candidate to win, and if so, how many did it in faith, without doubting? Regardless of how many prayed for their candidate, there can only be so many winners in any election. The rest, having prayed in faith, not doubting will be disappointed. Some will be disappointed in God. Did God fail them?

Some will say yes, God failed them, but even more will question their faith, and acknowledge their doubts that God is capable of doing anything. So they blame themselves, the disappointments mount, and their prayer life takes a hit.  Jesus’ half-brother James put it succinctly: You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:3).  It is enough to forget the whole thing.

Or is it?

Many people are careful to add to their prayers: If it is your will, but even this caveat shows we acknowledge we really do not really know God’s will, and we resign us to the fate that our most sincere prayers are probably useless anyway.

Nothing could be further from the truth. God commands us to “be continually in prayer” and the promise in Matthew is repeated in Mark11:23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. And in John 16:23 the apostle quotes Jesus: “And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. These are words from the Lord Jesus himself, so they must mean something, or God’s word cannot be trusted.

The answer is found in the age old question: What is the purpose of our being here on earth anyway? Does God really care? At first glance with terror, war and lawlessness spreading all over the world, God no longer cares. As one who has been reborn from above I can attest that God cares very much, and He really desires to have fellowship with us. There is nothing that compares to knowing you are loved by God and having fellowship with Him.

But back to whatever. The promise is not as ridiculous at it seems at first glance; all factions cannot get their petitions fulfilled. We must dig deeper: Jesus said in John 14:13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.  And in John 15:14 Jesus states: You are My friends if you do whatever I command you. Jesus doubles downs in verse 16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. And the answer to how we should live is found just above in John 15:9-12:

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. 10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. 11 “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. 12 This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

There it is: The greatest commandment, and if we abide in Him we can ask whatever, because it aligns with His perfect will.

Lest we be puffed up, this is still true: In Isaiah 55:8-9 God states:“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Yet, the Lord Jesus states in John 16:12-13  “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.”

There we have it: The Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth, enough to give us grace and lead us day by day, but not so much that we can go forward all by ourselves.

 


Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Donald Trump worth ten points. He blew it all on skipping the debate in Iowa. A Limerick.

When Palin endorsed, her act bumped Trump up ten.

With Kelley the Trump-killer in it again,

he refused to debate,

lost it all, sealed his fate.

A second place loser, all pain and no gain.

Donald Trump was solidly in second place in Iowa, about 5 points behind Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio was way behind. Then, on Jan 19 Sarah Palin endorsed him, an endorsement worth at least ten percentage points. See graph:Iowa-Republicans-graphThen Donald Trump refused to debate right before the Iowa caucus unless Megyn Kelly was removed as a moderator. Unlike CNN, which caved in to Trump’s demands, Fox News stood their ground and refused to cave in, “on journalistic grounds.” print2The media should never cave in to political pressure. Having skipped the debate, Cruz and Rubio had the leadership fight to themselves, and could shine, all at the expense of Trump. The chart to the left shows the high water mark for Donald Trump.

Between the debate and the Iowa caucus Trump lost all the ground he gained from the Palin endorsement. Ted Cruz held his ground, but the big gainer was Rubio.

It is now a three way race, and this will very likely lead to a brokered convention.

All bets ate off.

I can understand Sarah Palin’s initial endorsement of Donald Trump, with his broad crossover appeal to disenchanted people, then having a chance to win the primaries outright. With his refusal to debate we are almost ensured a brokered convention. Personally I prefer Sarah Palin to enter the race on her own, making it a brokered convention, containing a majority of true conservative delegates.

 

 

 

 

Thought for the day. To vote or not to vote. The height of ignorance.

And he (Kish, a Benjamite) had a son, whose name was Saul, a choice young man, and a goodly: and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people. (1 Samuel 9:2)

The Israelites, after they entered the promised land were told by God not to have any rulers over them except God. But there must be order so they had judges. A few were good, among them Gideon and one woman, Deborah. The country had peace for forty years under their judgeship, but most of the judges were bad. It got so bad they cried out for a king. After a series of events which you can read about in 1 Samuel 8 thru 10 Saul, the tall one was chosen and appointed.

We still tend to elect tall Presidents. To be tall seem to have its advantages, and according to evolutionary thought women tend to be attracted to tall men. Men also respect  other tall men, since they are better at intimidating others. With a larger body comes a larger brain, and according to early evolutionary thought a larger brain means they are further along in evolutionary development than the rest of us.

Evolutionary thought tend to enhance prejudices. One early thought was that since a man’s brain on average is 40% larger than that of a woman, this must be a good reason why women should not be allowed to vote. We now know it to be true, a man’s brain is larger, but a woman’s brain cells are smaller, meaning that the cells communicate faster with each other. While we men take our time to get our threshing machines of brains in gear, a woman’s brain acts like a bolt of lightning, coming up with a plan of action before we even have defined the parameters. They have usually gotten good training dealing with active two or three year olds. An argument could therefore be made a woman would make a better president, having to deal with petulant people like Congress.

Lest this is a praise of women exclusively, they are not without their prejudices. The famous humanist Margaret Sanger, the inspiration to Planned Parenthood, idol of feminists and role model for Hillary Clinton once said:

“We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don’t want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population….”

Choose carefully, look into each candidate’s positions on policy matters, check their character and convictions, then make your decision.

It is the civil duty for every citizen over the age of 18 to cast a vote.

Get involved, get informed!

Only let not height be your choice this year.

The Confederate flag. Hate – or History? A Limerick.

confederate-flag

Confederate flagsI am the Confederate flag

Of me all the South used to brag.

Now the Democrats shame

of their old claim to fame.

Abolish my past – I’m a drag.

.

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How soon we forget:

Clinton-Gore-Confederate-Flag1Confederate flag wavers meet Obama in Oklahoma:

ConfederateflagsgreetObama

Nikki Haley did it again! Snagged the Volvo deal

Haley

Nikki Haley did it again! She had a meteoric rise in the South Carolina Legislature, and her big break came when Governor Mark Sanford had some extramarital incidents and then he and his (ex)wife endorsed her for Governor in 2010. Even with the Sanfords’ endorsements she was mired in fourth place in the polls. Then Governor Sarah Palin endorsed her and it propelled her to first place. She forced a run-off in the GOP primary, which she easily won, and after some planted stories from fellow Republicans Sarah Palin stood by her, and she became Governor, the youngest U.S Governor, female minority to boot. She has done a lot of things right for South Carolina since then, so she won re-election easily in 2014.

Her latest feat is snagging the Volvo assembly plant.

Gov. Nikki Haley and state Commerce officials made the bombshell revelation that Volvo Cars has decided to open its first U.S.-based plant in Berkeley County, bringing millions in investment and 4,000 jobs to the state by 2020

Haley  said the Charleston Port was a deciding factor in snagging the deal.

“And they wanted to see a state that was going to care about the business atmosphere, but more than that, a state that was going to have a relationship. Because they wanted to be made in America, and all credit goes to Volvo Cars for saying we want to make it in America. More importantly, we love that they’re now going to be made in South Carolina,” Haley said.

The $500 million facility at the Berkeley County timber plantation, which is nearly 40 miles northwest of port and export-rich Charleston. At full capacity, 100,000 cars will be built at the factory each year.

Haley credited the state’s workforce for helping land the automaker.

“They saw the fact that this is a state where they build planes,” Haley said. “We now have three car companies, we now have five tire companies. We have carbon fiber, we have TV. What they knew was if we build it, we build it well, we build it with quality, we build it with loyalty, and we build it with pride. And that’s something you can’t just find anywhere.”

Information on jobs at the plant can be found online. Or, if you’re a vendor interested in doing business with the plant, you can find that information on the Commerce Department’s website.

So, what is so good about the South Carolina Workforce? Besides being a right to work state, and a nearby good port in Charleston, what else is there?

South Carolina has a very good Technical College system with Workforce Training with readySC™,  providing well-trained employees to qualifying companies that invest in South Carolina. A comprehensive and customized process, readySC™ includes recruiting, screening and training, tailoring guidelines and curriculum to fit a company’s needs. This is not Crony Capitalism, just concern for a well trained and educated work force.

This is the future of manufacturing. Rather than concentrating of University education, the backbone of manufacturing is through Technical College, and even trade schools.

Good going, Nikki Haley and South Carolina!