On September 11th of last year I engaged in some rather reckless speculations concerning possible candidates for the position of his satanic "majesty", the Antichrist. Speculations, because I never accused anyone of actually being the Antichrist, but nonetheless reckless, because I referred to some people whose actions and characteristics resembled (in part) some of the characteristics stated in Biblical prophecy that would be associated with him. But since none of these attributes were enough to actually identify the final Dictator of the world, I would never be stupid, or reckless enough to actually designate the candidate as the one. I also made clear apologies, in advance, to any family members for stating my suspicions, which I believe were founded upon very relevant, and Biblically logical issues, especially concerning one person who subsequently made my speculations completely foolish by dying some 4 months later. As I stated then, my intent was not to slander anyone, but since these people had been very public figures for decades, and some of their suspicious actions had also been done with obviously very public intentions, and been well documented, I felt it was instructive to discuss them, especially for anyone who was uncertain of the characteristics to look for, should the Antichrist even be alive today, and should he actually come to power before the body of Christ (His believers) is "Raptured" "to meet Him in the clouds".
As part of the discussion, I referred to Revelation 17 (especially verse 9) where it seems that the Lord is explaining to the Apostle John that He considers an institution on Earth to be a counterfeit of His true Church (again, His entire collective body of believers, worldwide; He is not otherwise concerned with denominational differences). He refers to this institution as, "the Great Whore", which is in obvious contrast to the term, "the Bride of Christ" which is another reference to His Church, as a whole. Verse 9 states clearly that He is pointedly referring to the Vatican as that institution when it says that the "Great Whore" "sits upon seven mountains". There is only one place in the world that is famous for being a city that is built upon seven hills, namely Rome. The Bible frequently refers to hills as "Mountains", especially when talking about the "mountains" of Zion, Moriah, and Olivet, in Jerusalem.
Now, as I stated on September 11th, I am not trying to stir up any ancient, and irrelevant anti-Catholic bigotry. It is clear that the Lord is not condemning the individual Catholic, here, but the hierarchy that runs the church. Just as He came to earth to save the lost among the poor, especially, and realized that there would be few among the ruling-class Pharisees who would come to believe in Him, as they had heavy financial and other interests invested in maintaining their reputations as the heads of religious authority in Israel, in that day. As Jesus clearly threatened their authority, it behooved them to reject Him as the Messiah of Israel, and they eventually had him killed in order to protect their earthly status. I wonder if their status impressed God when they died, when He decided if they should go to Heaven, or elsewhere!
Similarly, Jesus knows who are the individual Catholics who have actually prayed to receive Him as their Lord and Savior, asking Him to forgive them of all their sins, and come into their hearts, to live forever, and guide them daily through God's Holy Spirit. These are not responsible for today's corruption within the Vatican, and many of them have actually been the victims of the child abuse that has scandalized the church, worldwide. I was personally unaware of the charges of child abuse, and in-house homosexual behavior that extended even as far as the College of Cardinals, in the Vatican itself, until I saw the P.B.S. special report on "Frontlines", last night. If you missed it you can watch it online at www.pbs.org/frontline.
That's scandalous enough, but the report also went on to make charges of financial impropriety, even suggesting that those officials entrusted with managing the Vatican Bank had been complicit in money-laundering activities for the Sicilian Mafia! It implied that the whole sum of these scandalous revelations may have been the actual reasons for the resignation of Pope Benedict (an act which hadn't happened for 600 years). No wonder that Jesus left off His condemnation of "the Great Whore" with the commandment to, "come out of her, my people"! And certainly, Jesus would not have told his believers to do so if there was any truth to the concept of Papal excommunication, with its condemnation to Hell! The Lord doesn't trick His people into doing something that will condemn them to Hell!
This is not to suggest that the Protestant denominations are "Holier that thou" by any means. There have been plenty of scandals to go around for them to repent of as well. But as each of these denominations, as well as independent churches are considerably smaller than the worldwide Catholic Church, and considerably less autonomous in dealing with moral and legal impropriety, and since Jesus is implying that the Antichrist will someday have some connection with the Vatican, if not actually sit on the throne as Pope, it carries considerably more relevance for its overwhelming corruption. I pity Pope Francis, who has committed himself to the task of cleaning up the corruption. The Frontline show described a condition of corruption that was so entrenched that the Pope was actually meeting belligerent resistance from the parties who were being investigated. It also stated that the Pope himself might be in some danger of Mob retaliation as well!
While this is clearly the most scandalous period in the history of the Vatican, due to all the publicity, and the secular legal investigations, it is not entirely without precedent. As I recounted last September, the Papal thrown had itself a history of being up for the highest bidder, when one of the Bourgia family's relatives is said to have bribed his way into being elected Pope, in medieval times. He later was reputed to have been quoted as saying that the concept of Salvation through faith in Jesus, and the Pope's accepted authority for the absolution of sins was a "very convenient" concept that he found useful. That doesn't strike me as the statement of a man who personally has any faith in Jesus himself! One has to wonder how many Popes were of like faithlessness, throughout history!
In conclusion, there is no greater point from all this that I can gather other than to repeat Christ's admonition to all Catholic believers in Jesus as their Lord and Savior to "come out of her my people", rather than risk being tempted someday into believing the smooth-talking blasphemies of the Antichrist, when he tries to establish himself as being greater than God. There will be no forgiveness for those who follow that line!
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Our Government Just Doesn't Get It
We Just Don't Get It!!! Wealthy, insensitive politicians, from both parties, insensitive and mindless bureaucrats, unscrupulous single-issue corporate lobbyists, Lawyers who write our laws in thousands of pages, when a couple of paragraphs will do, simply to obfuscate the issue so that no one can know what it means without hiring them to explain it all, greedy corporate managers, and board members, whose amoral values only extend as far as the bottom line; WE are cannibalizing our society from the inside out, and most of us are too blind, and self-serving to realize it. And the single most powerful man on the planet, President Obama certainly doesn't get it, and he never will until WE as a society collectively "get it"! And then as Ronald Reagan would put it, if we can't get him to see the light, we can at least get him to, "feel the heat". I seriously tremble for our future ( should Jesus tarry), without the regeneration of a Holy Spirit breathed spiritual revival across this whole nation!
Our economy is on the verge of total collapse. We probably should have experienced a massive deflationary depression about seven years ago, that would have made the "Great Depression of the 1930's look like a party, and we may not have accomplished anything more with all our hyper-inflationary "Quantitative Easing" than to temporarily postpone the pain of uncontrollable Deflation, once the final bubble bursts, and the dollar becomes so worthless that no one will accept it as currency. And by postponing it, we have probably made the inevitable pain much worse when we are finally forced to deal with it.
Yesterday, President Obama decided that his administration was setting a goal of reducing the size of the military to 450,000 troops, from a previous 525,000, as a way of reducing the defense budget. God only knows what he and the Democrats in Congress will do with the savings, but we can rest assured that it will not be used to reduce the deficit, or even balance the budget. I'm sure that the Senate is already salivating over many completely useless and unnecessary projects that they want to fund with that money, in order to give money to union-run companies who will kick-back a large portion of it into their own re-election campaigns. The capacity of our troops to defend our nation is not nearly as important to them as getting re-elected, and preserving their undeserved salaries. This new goal of 450,000 troops is fewer than our pre-World War II levels, which were so horribly inadequate that we came dangerously close to losing that war! Now with an aggressive Russia probably on the verge of invading the middle-east, to try and take over the majority of the world's oil supplies, and an equally aggressive China, boasting an army of roughly 200,000,000, how are we supposed to scare them into self-restraint with a military of a paltry 450,000 troops! Sure our technology makes a big difference, but both Russian and Chinese technology is not so far behind that we can rest in our capacity to overwhelm an all-out confrontation with either.
Republicans, who are correctly outraged at these developments, in turn want to shut down all so-called government entitlements, which are the largest drain upon the economy as a whole. That's a great idea, in a perfect world, with something approaching full employment, and sufficient jobs available to hire those who will need them. But that world doesn't exist today. And what about those who can't work, due to old age, illnesses, or mothers who need to take care of their children? Their short-sighted solution would leave millions of innocent people on the streets, penniless, and soon facing starvation as a Republican Congress would simply dissolve all benefits to people who would mostly be unable to replace them with paychecks. I can't think of a better way to guarantee that a Republican Presidency, and/or Congress would be more speedily ousted, with the promise that no one from their party would ever be elected to office again!
And thanks to our belligerently Leftist system of public education, and their massive job of brainwashing our children into embracing Socialism as the only hope for mankind, we can likely expect that the next generation would probably prefer to accept Russian, or Chinese domination of the world, while they sit around all day, smoking their legal supply of marijuana, or shooting-up their government-supplied dose of heroin, rather than submit to an emergency draft into the military, to defend against any threat of invasion.
People, we are in desperate trouble! And most of us probably won't believe it until it's too late to avoid it. Thank God we have Jesus to call upon to save us from ourselves, but the material consequences of our foolish and profligate living over the last 70 odd years will be unnecessarily painful for all of us. And I expect that we have at least a number of years yet to go before He comes back to deliver us from the world, and establish His Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Our economy is on the verge of total collapse. We probably should have experienced a massive deflationary depression about seven years ago, that would have made the "Great Depression of the 1930's look like a party, and we may not have accomplished anything more with all our hyper-inflationary "Quantitative Easing" than to temporarily postpone the pain of uncontrollable Deflation, once the final bubble bursts, and the dollar becomes so worthless that no one will accept it as currency. And by postponing it, we have probably made the inevitable pain much worse when we are finally forced to deal with it.
Yesterday, President Obama decided that his administration was setting a goal of reducing the size of the military to 450,000 troops, from a previous 525,000, as a way of reducing the defense budget. God only knows what he and the Democrats in Congress will do with the savings, but we can rest assured that it will not be used to reduce the deficit, or even balance the budget. I'm sure that the Senate is already salivating over many completely useless and unnecessary projects that they want to fund with that money, in order to give money to union-run companies who will kick-back a large portion of it into their own re-election campaigns. The capacity of our troops to defend our nation is not nearly as important to them as getting re-elected, and preserving their undeserved salaries. This new goal of 450,000 troops is fewer than our pre-World War II levels, which were so horribly inadequate that we came dangerously close to losing that war! Now with an aggressive Russia probably on the verge of invading the middle-east, to try and take over the majority of the world's oil supplies, and an equally aggressive China, boasting an army of roughly 200,000,000, how are we supposed to scare them into self-restraint with a military of a paltry 450,000 troops! Sure our technology makes a big difference, but both Russian and Chinese technology is not so far behind that we can rest in our capacity to overwhelm an all-out confrontation with either.
Republicans, who are correctly outraged at these developments, in turn want to shut down all so-called government entitlements, which are the largest drain upon the economy as a whole. That's a great idea, in a perfect world, with something approaching full employment, and sufficient jobs available to hire those who will need them. But that world doesn't exist today. And what about those who can't work, due to old age, illnesses, or mothers who need to take care of their children? Their short-sighted solution would leave millions of innocent people on the streets, penniless, and soon facing starvation as a Republican Congress would simply dissolve all benefits to people who would mostly be unable to replace them with paychecks. I can't think of a better way to guarantee that a Republican Presidency, and/or Congress would be more speedily ousted, with the promise that no one from their party would ever be elected to office again!
And thanks to our belligerently Leftist system of public education, and their massive job of brainwashing our children into embracing Socialism as the only hope for mankind, we can likely expect that the next generation would probably prefer to accept Russian, or Chinese domination of the world, while they sit around all day, smoking their legal supply of marijuana, or shooting-up their government-supplied dose of heroin, rather than submit to an emergency draft into the military, to defend against any threat of invasion.
People, we are in desperate trouble! And most of us probably won't believe it until it's too late to avoid it. Thank God we have Jesus to call upon to save us from ourselves, but the material consequences of our foolish and profligate living over the last 70 odd years will be unnecessarily painful for all of us. And I expect that we have at least a number of years yet to go before He comes back to deliver us from the world, and establish His Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
Friday, February 21, 2014
Ukraine's Migraine
It seems too early to know exactly how to view the developing crisis in the Ukraine, as yet. But it certainly seems to be precipitated mostly by a dogmatically totalitarian President, who rules a predominantly corrupt government that cares more about enriching their own pockets with Russian graft then it does about representing the interests of their supposedly democratic populace. Rather than acquiesce to the wishes of the people who wanted to strengthen ties with western Europe, President Yanukovich accepted 2 billion dollars from Russia, which was rightly seen as a bribe from Putin to forgo the European interests, and to retain their more Soviet-style relations with Russia. As a consequence, he fomented the popular revolt that has brought about rioting in the streets, which he answered with military sniper fire that has killed 80 some demonstrators, and injured hundreds more. Not surprisingly, the demonstrators are fighting back with their few guns, and have shot some of the military's troops as well. If this isn't the prelude to an all-out civil war in the not too distant future, I don't know what it is.
This seems to be playing right into Putin's greedy little hands. He has been expected to be waiting for any excuse to start re-absorbing the former Soviet satellite nations back into Russia's control for some time now, and a bloody civil war by their next door neighbor seems to be just the ticket to allow him to move his armed forces into the Ukraine, in order to "stabilize the situation". Afterwards, Russia's military will simply decide to stay.
The Ukraine's close proximity to the middle-east has not escaped my interest either. With all I've written lately about my expectation that Putin may soon find some excuse to invade Israel, whether he is the Russian leader that God refers to as Gog, or not, I suspect that bringing the Ukraine back under Russian dominance should have some significant part to play in that prophicied invasion. I just can't guess exactly what that might be, as yet. But it certainly would not be desirable for him to send a military force into Israel, by way of Syria, while leaving an independent country like Ukraine with a measure of hostility towards their former Soviet dictators directly in their rear. If Ukrainian forces were not a threat to come to the aid of Israel, they could be perceived as possibly serving as a sympathetic base of operations for a N.A.T.O. force that might. Remember, whomever this "Gog" commander will be, it's certain he will not place any credence in the Ezekiel 38, &39 prophecy that tells of the western nations' collective limp-wristed response to his hedgemonistic invasion. So we can see at least that Putin would not want the Ukrainian people to develop closer ties with the western N.A.T.O nations.
UPDATE: 2/23/'14-
Things seem to be going the way that the Ukrainian protesters want them to go, but hold on a second; Putin still carries the trump card here. Can he sit still and watch perhaps his most valued former Soviet member force their dictatorial Soviet-leaning government to resign in favor of a new western-democratic government right next door to Russia? Not only that, but to have it brought about by a largely unarmed popular revolt, against an oppressive Soviet-style military crack-down by their government, must be causing Putin ( Russia's former head of the dreaded K.G.B.) to just about gag over his lack of "diplomatic control" over the situation. But remember, when diplomacy fails, Russia's trump card has always been to invade the country that has the gall to try and force democratic principles on their government, rather than maintain close relations to Russia's own totalitarian demands. Remember the Soviet invasion of Checkoslavakia in the 1970's? Well maybe we're about to find out just how much Russia has changed from the old Soviet era. How a Russian invasion of the Ukraine could possibly be connected to Russia's apparent maneuvering in preparation for their prophecied invasion of Israel, I can't guess, beyond my speculation above. But, I strongly suspect that there is a connection, and that Putin knows what it is. So don't be surprised if Russian tanks begin crossing the border into the Ukraine soon, and perhaps this expectation may be causing the present Yanukovich government to seem to be acquiescing to the protesters' demands, knowing that any changes they agree to will be very short-lived.
UPDATE #2: 2/24/'14
I have always acknowledged upfront that I'm not vain enough to imagine myself to be some form of modern-day prophet, if there is such a thing. I just try to connect the dots between what God has already revealed to us in Biblical prophecy, and what we see unfolding in the news around us, today. Hopefully, God helps me to see things clearly enough to alert others who may not be paying attention to world developments enough to recognize what's going on.
Yesterday's Update stated that I wouldn't be surprised to see Putin order his Russian Tanks into the Ukraine to "stabilize the situation", meaning rather to conquer the nation that is unwilling to maintain a dependent relationship with Russia, later deciding that the Tanks should simply stay permanently. This was my own opinion, based upon a longstanding distrust of Putin's governing style, which seems to differ from his Soviet predecessors only slightly. I had heard no one speculating similarly, until after I had published my opinion.
But shortly afterwards, I heard Washington Post commentator George Will express a very similar concern on T.V.'s Fox News Sunday, followed later by an interview of National Security Adviser Susan Rice voicing the same concern ( I think it was on N.B.C.), along with what seemed to be an official White House warning that Putin would be well advised not to do so, because doing so would bring about, "serious consequences"! After I managed to stop quaking in my shoes from the sheer terror that that threat implied, I was gratified to realize that I had recognized the potential threat of Putin's next move before either of these highly esteemed prognosticators had pronounced similar concerns. Now, granted this doesn't mean squat about predicting what will happen, but merely what might reasonably happen. Still, it is gratifying to realize that I'm on the right track, and that well-known pundits ( one on the Right, and one from the Left) reached the same conclusion, after I published mine. Not exactly on the scale of being one of God's prophets, but it will do for me!
Hmmm...! I wonder if these two pundits read my blog before they appeared on T.V.? Well, so much for keeping my vanity in check.
UPDATE: 2/27/'14
What a "Koinkydink"!!! My swollen vanity is now telling me that Vladimir Putin is also reading my blog! I apparently gave him the idea about invading the Ukraine, and yesterday he sent his troops on "Maneuvers", (surprise!...)right along the border between Russia, and the Ukraine. Not very imaginative of him, either. I guess he can't make up his mind what to do, so he has to borrow his ideas from my blog. What a dilemma! I've been telling President Obama what he should do for a long time now, and when he doesn't do it, I've been implying that I could easily tell him what he can do with himself, as well! So now I guess I'm advising the other side as well. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two sides that I can see, between the White House and the Kremlin. Putin wants to invade everyone else's country, and Obama wants to watch him do it while making lame threats like, "there will be consequences, if you do." Oooh! That sends shivers down my spine just to think of all those "consequences"! I'll bet Obama is ready to stamp his foot, and say, "I'm so mad I could just spit!" And then 10 minutes later he'll rip off a searing "Diplomatic Protest", before crying himself to sleep.
All sarcasm aside, the very real "consequences" will be dire for the people of the Ukraine. The country seems to be split right down the middle, geographically, as well as ideologically; the eastern half of the country seems to be more sympathetic to Russia, while the western half seems to want closer ties with the western European nations. There has been speculation that Putin, if he does invade, might try to annex the eastern side, only, claiming that they are mostly Russian descendants anyway. Hmmm! That sounds familiar...Oh! I've got it! That was the same excuse that Hitler used to rationalize his invasion of the Sudetenland, and annex it from Checkoslavakia, I believe. That was the first stage of his precipitating World War II. Not to be out done, I suppose Putin intends to use this as the first step in starting World War III, followed by his invasion of Israel. In the mean time, Obama probably plans to sit on his hands, and maybe spit once in a while, if he gets angry enough!
This seems to be playing right into Putin's greedy little hands. He has been expected to be waiting for any excuse to start re-absorbing the former Soviet satellite nations back into Russia's control for some time now, and a bloody civil war by their next door neighbor seems to be just the ticket to allow him to move his armed forces into the Ukraine, in order to "stabilize the situation". Afterwards, Russia's military will simply decide to stay.
The Ukraine's close proximity to the middle-east has not escaped my interest either. With all I've written lately about my expectation that Putin may soon find some excuse to invade Israel, whether he is the Russian leader that God refers to as Gog, or not, I suspect that bringing the Ukraine back under Russian dominance should have some significant part to play in that prophicied invasion. I just can't guess exactly what that might be, as yet. But it certainly would not be desirable for him to send a military force into Israel, by way of Syria, while leaving an independent country like Ukraine with a measure of hostility towards their former Soviet dictators directly in their rear. If Ukrainian forces were not a threat to come to the aid of Israel, they could be perceived as possibly serving as a sympathetic base of operations for a N.A.T.O. force that might. Remember, whomever this "Gog" commander will be, it's certain he will not place any credence in the Ezekiel 38, &39 prophecy that tells of the western nations' collective limp-wristed response to his hedgemonistic invasion. So we can see at least that Putin would not want the Ukrainian people to develop closer ties with the western N.A.T.O nations.
UPDATE: 2/23/'14-
Things seem to be going the way that the Ukrainian protesters want them to go, but hold on a second; Putin still carries the trump card here. Can he sit still and watch perhaps his most valued former Soviet member force their dictatorial Soviet-leaning government to resign in favor of a new western-democratic government right next door to Russia? Not only that, but to have it brought about by a largely unarmed popular revolt, against an oppressive Soviet-style military crack-down by their government, must be causing Putin ( Russia's former head of the dreaded K.G.B.) to just about gag over his lack of "diplomatic control" over the situation. But remember, when diplomacy fails, Russia's trump card has always been to invade the country that has the gall to try and force democratic principles on their government, rather than maintain close relations to Russia's own totalitarian demands. Remember the Soviet invasion of Checkoslavakia in the 1970's? Well maybe we're about to find out just how much Russia has changed from the old Soviet era. How a Russian invasion of the Ukraine could possibly be connected to Russia's apparent maneuvering in preparation for their prophecied invasion of Israel, I can't guess, beyond my speculation above. But, I strongly suspect that there is a connection, and that Putin knows what it is. So don't be surprised if Russian tanks begin crossing the border into the Ukraine soon, and perhaps this expectation may be causing the present Yanukovich government to seem to be acquiescing to the protesters' demands, knowing that any changes they agree to will be very short-lived.
UPDATE #2: 2/24/'14
I have always acknowledged upfront that I'm not vain enough to imagine myself to be some form of modern-day prophet, if there is such a thing. I just try to connect the dots between what God has already revealed to us in Biblical prophecy, and what we see unfolding in the news around us, today. Hopefully, God helps me to see things clearly enough to alert others who may not be paying attention to world developments enough to recognize what's going on.
Yesterday's Update stated that I wouldn't be surprised to see Putin order his Russian Tanks into the Ukraine to "stabilize the situation", meaning rather to conquer the nation that is unwilling to maintain a dependent relationship with Russia, later deciding that the Tanks should simply stay permanently. This was my own opinion, based upon a longstanding distrust of Putin's governing style, which seems to differ from his Soviet predecessors only slightly. I had heard no one speculating similarly, until after I had published my opinion.
But shortly afterwards, I heard Washington Post commentator George Will express a very similar concern on T.V.'s Fox News Sunday, followed later by an interview of National Security Adviser Susan Rice voicing the same concern ( I think it was on N.B.C.), along with what seemed to be an official White House warning that Putin would be well advised not to do so, because doing so would bring about, "serious consequences"! After I managed to stop quaking in my shoes from the sheer terror that that threat implied, I was gratified to realize that I had recognized the potential threat of Putin's next move before either of these highly esteemed prognosticators had pronounced similar concerns. Now, granted this doesn't mean squat about predicting what will happen, but merely what might reasonably happen. Still, it is gratifying to realize that I'm on the right track, and that well-known pundits ( one on the Right, and one from the Left) reached the same conclusion, after I published mine. Not exactly on the scale of being one of God's prophets, but it will do for me!
Hmmm...! I wonder if these two pundits read my blog before they appeared on T.V.? Well, so much for keeping my vanity in check.
UPDATE: 2/27/'14
What a "Koinkydink"!!! My swollen vanity is now telling me that Vladimir Putin is also reading my blog! I apparently gave him the idea about invading the Ukraine, and yesterday he sent his troops on "Maneuvers", (surprise!...)right along the border between Russia, and the Ukraine. Not very imaginative of him, either. I guess he can't make up his mind what to do, so he has to borrow his ideas from my blog. What a dilemma! I've been telling President Obama what he should do for a long time now, and when he doesn't do it, I've been implying that I could easily tell him what he can do with himself, as well! So now I guess I'm advising the other side as well. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much difference between the two sides that I can see, between the White House and the Kremlin. Putin wants to invade everyone else's country, and Obama wants to watch him do it while making lame threats like, "there will be consequences, if you do." Oooh! That sends shivers down my spine just to think of all those "consequences"! I'll bet Obama is ready to stamp his foot, and say, "I'm so mad I could just spit!" And then 10 minutes later he'll rip off a searing "Diplomatic Protest", before crying himself to sleep.
All sarcasm aside, the very real "consequences" will be dire for the people of the Ukraine. The country seems to be split right down the middle, geographically, as well as ideologically; the eastern half of the country seems to be more sympathetic to Russia, while the western half seems to want closer ties with the western European nations. There has been speculation that Putin, if he does invade, might try to annex the eastern side, only, claiming that they are mostly Russian descendants anyway. Hmmm! That sounds familiar...Oh! I've got it! That was the same excuse that Hitler used to rationalize his invasion of the Sudetenland, and annex it from Checkoslavakia, I believe. That was the first stage of his precipitating World War II. Not to be out done, I suppose Putin intends to use this as the first step in starting World War III, followed by his invasion of Israel. In the mean time, Obama probably plans to sit on his hands, and maybe spit once in a while, if he gets angry enough!
Thursday, February 20, 2014
Is Obama Trying To Force Impeachment?
One has to wonder; as much as I dislike the Obama administration, and as little respect as I have for him as President, I'm not stupid enough to call him an idiot. Yet the obvious facts are pointing to that conclusion. Either he is ( which I don't think anyone really believes), or there is some maniacal logic behind his continual efforts to flaunt the sacred principles of the Constitution that he took a solemn oath ( twice) "to protect, and defend." Counting his Senate confirmation, he took the oath three times. What does it take for him to get it??? Since he is certainly not stupid, the only other logical conclusion one can draw is that he has no respect for the Constitution, and that he intends to trample on it's principles as much as he can possibly get away with. That, to me, is a highly impeachable attitude that is only awaiting the final act where his attitude forces him to cross over the line and violate the law to the point where Congress will be forced to impeach him. I guess he figures that a Democratic Senate would never convict him no matter how tyrannical his administration becomes. Unfortunately, he may be right! Fortunately, he may not have a Democratic majority in the Senate for much longer, and he may be forced to abandon his apparently intended movement of the country towards totalitarianism simply by sensing the Congressional intent to impeach. Let's hope so, lest we be faced with the prospect of a Joe Biden presidency, which may be worse; not so much by intent as by incompetence!
Today, Fox news is reporting that the F.C.C. is notifying various agencies of the News Media that they must submit to an investigation to determine the ideological perspective of their news reporting. This is a clear and blatant violation of the, "freedom of the press, and free speech" clauses of the first amendment to the Constitution! As Obama certainly knows this, and his White House staff knows it even better, it is clearly an attempt to harass these organizations ( which I'm sure must all be of conservative perspective) into recognizing that they believe conservative ideology is not protected by the first amendment, but liberal, socialistic ideology is protected. There can be no clearer demonstration of totalitarian intent than this. Of course they recognize that the Supreme Court would never allow this to survive a court challenge, so they will simply find some excuse to back off, and "re-evaluate their request". Then, after the media outrage dies down, they will find some other way to harass conservative institutions, as with the I.R.S. making unreasonable, and repeated costly investigations of Tea Party organizations that applied for non-profit status. People, you and I are the idiots here! We were stupid enough not to see through this man's good looks, and genial manner, and his articulate speech enough to elect him. And not only that, but we compounded our stupidity by re-electing him!
Is his brand of intended totalitarian government really any better than that of King George III's, or is it actually worse? See if you can guess where I stand on this issue!
Today, Fox news is reporting that the F.C.C. is notifying various agencies of the News Media that they must submit to an investigation to determine the ideological perspective of their news reporting. This is a clear and blatant violation of the, "freedom of the press, and free speech" clauses of the first amendment to the Constitution! As Obama certainly knows this, and his White House staff knows it even better, it is clearly an attempt to harass these organizations ( which I'm sure must all be of conservative perspective) into recognizing that they believe conservative ideology is not protected by the first amendment, but liberal, socialistic ideology is protected. There can be no clearer demonstration of totalitarian intent than this. Of course they recognize that the Supreme Court would never allow this to survive a court challenge, so they will simply find some excuse to back off, and "re-evaluate their request". Then, after the media outrage dies down, they will find some other way to harass conservative institutions, as with the I.R.S. making unreasonable, and repeated costly investigations of Tea Party organizations that applied for non-profit status. People, you and I are the idiots here! We were stupid enough not to see through this man's good looks, and genial manner, and his articulate speech enough to elect him. And not only that, but we compounded our stupidity by re-electing him!
Is his brand of intended totalitarian government really any better than that of King George III's, or is it actually worse? See if you can guess where I stand on this issue!
Tuesday, February 18, 2014
Student Debt: The Next Economic Bubble???
It's becoming clearer that the next crash-precipitating economic bubble may well be the hyper-inflating rate of accumulated student debt that today's college students are being saddled with in their decreasingly successful bid to prepare themselves for high paying jobs, and a future of living what we used to call the typical "American Dream". An article in today's Washington Post recounted the difficulties of recent college graduates in saving enough money for down-payment for a first-time purchase of a home, or of even qualifying for a mortgage because of their large student loan payments tipping the scales against their eligibility, verses their disappointingly small entry-level jobs' salaries. This has dire consequences for all of us since first-time buyers are a significant driving factor in the over-all rise in home buying statistics, which is traditionally the major driving factor in the statistics that indicate any rebound from the previous recession.
Our present rather anemic recovery has been substantially driven by a resurgence in home-buying. But this has been largely attributed to investors who are driven by the considerably deflated prices of homes in most regions across the country, and who foolishly believe that the recent history of deflated markets rebounding to previous levels, and even more, once a recession ends, must happen once again. So their "smart money" investments in housing is merely a stock-piling of houses that they feel are about to rise dramatically in value, which they intend to dump as soon as they find a buyer who'll pay the new higher price. There's only one catch; what if that buyer never shows up?
This Washington Post article indicated that the student debt crisis may be severe enough to largely eliminate the first-time buyer market that the housing market as a whole depends upon, leaving many of these speculative investors holding onto these houses for quite a while, without buyers. And if these speculative investors have borrowed heavily to buy them, counting on quick sales to fund their own debt payments, they may be forced to dump some of their houses on the market at prices below their original purchase price, in order to raise the cash to pay the loans for their remaining investment homes. If enough speculators find that this is necessary, it could precipitate another housing price collapse, deflating prices even more than they were before this recent upturn. This whole process would create more deflationary pressure on the economy as a whole, either "requiring" the government to create more inflationary "stimulus", or risk allowing us to descend into an all out deflationary depression, which they have been desperately trying to avoid since the last housing bust in 2006. Either they are too ignorant, or too foolish to realize that a deflationary depression is inevitable once the conditions are ripe for it, as in the late 1920's, and again in 2007. All they're accomplishing with all this inflationary spending on these stimuli is to postpone the inevitable, and the longer we wait to face up to it all, the exponentially worse it will all be.
So, it seems that our very anemic economic recovery could be on life-support again sooner
than we expected.
Our present rather anemic recovery has been substantially driven by a resurgence in home-buying. But this has been largely attributed to investors who are driven by the considerably deflated prices of homes in most regions across the country, and who foolishly believe that the recent history of deflated markets rebounding to previous levels, and even more, once a recession ends, must happen once again. So their "smart money" investments in housing is merely a stock-piling of houses that they feel are about to rise dramatically in value, which they intend to dump as soon as they find a buyer who'll pay the new higher price. There's only one catch; what if that buyer never shows up?
This Washington Post article indicated that the student debt crisis may be severe enough to largely eliminate the first-time buyer market that the housing market as a whole depends upon, leaving many of these speculative investors holding onto these houses for quite a while, without buyers. And if these speculative investors have borrowed heavily to buy them, counting on quick sales to fund their own debt payments, they may be forced to dump some of their houses on the market at prices below their original purchase price, in order to raise the cash to pay the loans for their remaining investment homes. If enough speculators find that this is necessary, it could precipitate another housing price collapse, deflating prices even more than they were before this recent upturn. This whole process would create more deflationary pressure on the economy as a whole, either "requiring" the government to create more inflationary "stimulus", or risk allowing us to descend into an all out deflationary depression, which they have been desperately trying to avoid since the last housing bust in 2006. Either they are too ignorant, or too foolish to realize that a deflationary depression is inevitable once the conditions are ripe for it, as in the late 1920's, and again in 2007. All they're accomplishing with all this inflationary spending on these stimuli is to postpone the inevitable, and the longer we wait to face up to it all, the exponentially worse it will all be.
So, it seems that our very anemic economic recovery could be on life-support again sooner
than we expected.
Monday, February 17, 2014
Copernicus Turns
Yikes! What was that! Sounded like someone turning over in his grave. Why, I think it was Nicolaus Copernicus, the renowned 16th century astronomer who came up with that outlandish theory that the earth actually revolves around the sun. I don't know what would be upsetting him so much. After all we in our infinite wisdom have finally thrown off his absurd teachings which have befuddled humanity for over 400 years. Now we know the truth; that the sun actually revolves around the earth, just as Pope Paul III tried unsuccessfully to convince Copernicus back then.
George Will in his column in the Washington Post referred to the Gallup Poll that determined that 20% of Americans today believe that the sun revolves around the earth, and that the rest of us idiots still cling to the foolish concept of the earth actually revolving around the sun. What does it take to get through to us? Why anyone can see the sun crossing the sky each day, in an obvious circular revolution around the earth. And since the moon rotates around the earth also, at roughly 250,000 miles from the earth, and the sun is only a bit larger than the moon we can extrapolate that the sun must only be around a million miles away from the earth.
As you can tell by now, I am the proud product of a public education, secularly controlled by all those brilliant bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who have succeeded in sanitizing our schools from any reference to God, or ( Humanism forbid!) that there should be any discussion of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and the only hope for the salvation of mankind. We're doing just fine without all that religious stuff. After all, I figured out that the sun revolves around the earth all by myself. What do I need God for; He's just going to tell me not to steal, when I know the only reason not to is whether or not I think I'll get caught. The same for, "Thou shalt not kill"; if someone makes me angry, they better watch out! The next time no ones looking, bam!!! Of course I'll scream, "Bloody murder!" if someone else thinks they have the right to hold me to the same standard. That goes for the husband of the woman I was dallying with last night, too. Where does he come off accusing me of "Adultery", when I just denied it with one of the best lies I made up in a long time. What, does he think we live in a society where our laws should be based upon the Ten Commandments? How impractical would that be. It's so much easier living in our society, where, "Every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". That's in the Bible, too. I'll give it credit for that much. And it works well too. At least until you run into someone whose concept of what, "seemed right" was in direct conflict with your concept. Then you'd better be carrying a bigger gun than he is!
Ahh! The joys of living in a world where everything revolves around me, including the concept of right, and wrong! Now you can see how I managed to come up with the completely egocentric concept of the sun revolving around the earth. The sun and moon revolve around the earth, and the whole world revolves around me! And I decide what's right and wrong, and if anybody doesn't like it...BAM!!! So who needs God in life, when I've got all the wisdom of a secular public education!
George Will in his column in the Washington Post referred to the Gallup Poll that determined that 20% of Americans today believe that the sun revolves around the earth, and that the rest of us idiots still cling to the foolish concept of the earth actually revolving around the sun. What does it take to get through to us? Why anyone can see the sun crossing the sky each day, in an obvious circular revolution around the earth. And since the moon rotates around the earth also, at roughly 250,000 miles from the earth, and the sun is only a bit larger than the moon we can extrapolate that the sun must only be around a million miles away from the earth.
As you can tell by now, I am the proud product of a public education, secularly controlled by all those brilliant bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. who have succeeded in sanitizing our schools from any reference to God, or ( Humanism forbid!) that there should be any discussion of Jesus Christ being the Son of God, and the only hope for the salvation of mankind. We're doing just fine without all that religious stuff. After all, I figured out that the sun revolves around the earth all by myself. What do I need God for; He's just going to tell me not to steal, when I know the only reason not to is whether or not I think I'll get caught. The same for, "Thou shalt not kill"; if someone makes me angry, they better watch out! The next time no ones looking, bam!!! Of course I'll scream, "Bloody murder!" if someone else thinks they have the right to hold me to the same standard. That goes for the husband of the woman I was dallying with last night, too. Where does he come off accusing me of "Adultery", when I just denied it with one of the best lies I made up in a long time. What, does he think we live in a society where our laws should be based upon the Ten Commandments? How impractical would that be. It's so much easier living in our society, where, "Every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes". That's in the Bible, too. I'll give it credit for that much. And it works well too. At least until you run into someone whose concept of what, "seemed right" was in direct conflict with your concept. Then you'd better be carrying a bigger gun than he is!
Ahh! The joys of living in a world where everything revolves around me, including the concept of right, and wrong! Now you can see how I managed to come up with the completely egocentric concept of the sun revolving around the earth. The sun and moon revolve around the earth, and the whole world revolves around me! And I decide what's right and wrong, and if anybody doesn't like it...BAM!!! So who needs God in life, when I've got all the wisdom of a secular public education!
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Rosh-Shee-Yah!
Just an interesting tidbit that occurred to me today while watching the Sochi Olympics, from Russia. Specifically, I was watching the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team take on the Russian Hockey Team, in the first of what is to be at least two contests that may well play a significant role in deciding the team medals. Since these games are being played in Russia, you would correctly presume that the crowd for this game was overwhelmingly biased in favor of the Russian Team.
At one point the television play-by-play announcer remarked concerning the chanting that was going on almost continuously in the background. He said that Russian crowds tended to chant in such a manner, rather than shout out individual encouragements such as one might expect in American sporting events. He said that he didn't speak Russian but that they had a translator on stand-by, and that he would try to find out what the crowd was chanting. Later, he said that one chant was..., and he named the Russian word, adding that it translated into the urge to, "let's get going" ( roughly). Then he said the second chant was their pronunciation of their country's name which he stated was phonetically pronounced, "Rosh-Shee-Yah!". Immediately, we could easily hear the crowd take up that chant, in three beats, making the pronunciation absolutely unmistakable.
This immediately reminded me that the country that the Bible claims will be the lead country of the prophecied Gog/Magog invasion of Israel will be from the country of Rosh, which has prominent cities that it referred to as Mes
chesch, and Tubal ( commonly believed to be ancient pronunciations of the present-day cities of Moscow, and Tobolsk). I claim no great prophetic insight in all this, but I thought it was interesting that a crowd of Russian fans would all pronounce the name of their country exactly the way God pronounced it more than 1500 years ago, even though most other countries today pronounce it significantly different, including our own.
Just another small revelation of the relevance of God's ancient prophecies to the readers of the Bible today. By the way, the American Team won the game, in over-time, by the score of 3 to 2! Hmm... I wonder if God is a Hockey fan???
At one point the television play-by-play announcer remarked concerning the chanting that was going on almost continuously in the background. He said that Russian crowds tended to chant in such a manner, rather than shout out individual encouragements such as one might expect in American sporting events. He said that he didn't speak Russian but that they had a translator on stand-by, and that he would try to find out what the crowd was chanting. Later, he said that one chant was..., and he named the Russian word, adding that it translated into the urge to, "let's get going" ( roughly). Then he said the second chant was their pronunciation of their country's name which he stated was phonetically pronounced, "Rosh-Shee-Yah!". Immediately, we could easily hear the crowd take up that chant, in three beats, making the pronunciation absolutely unmistakable.
This immediately reminded me that the country that the Bible claims will be the lead country of the prophecied Gog/Magog invasion of Israel will be from the country of Rosh, which has prominent cities that it referred to as Mes
chesch, and Tubal ( commonly believed to be ancient pronunciations of the present-day cities of Moscow, and Tobolsk). I claim no great prophetic insight in all this, but I thought it was interesting that a crowd of Russian fans would all pronounce the name of their country exactly the way God pronounced it more than 1500 years ago, even though most other countries today pronounce it significantly different, including our own.
Just another small revelation of the relevance of God's ancient prophecies to the readers of the Bible today. By the way, the American Team won the game, in over-time, by the score of 3 to 2! Hmm... I wonder if God is a Hockey fan???
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