We Have Another Mission

"Besides the preaching of the gospel, we have another mission--that is the perpetuation of the free agency, liberty, freedom and rights of man."

-Pres. John Taylor

A Twelve Year-Old Artist

sb: This is so touching and inspiring!

Satan's Counterfeit For The Gospel Plan

"In distinguishing communism (socialism) from the United Order, Pres. David O. McKay said that communism is Satan's counterfeit for the gospel plan, and that it is an avowed enemy of God. Communism is the greatest anti Christ power in the world today and therefore the greatest menace not only to our peace but to our preservation as a free people. To the extent to which we tolerate it, accommodate ourselves to it, permit ourselves to be encircled by its tentacles and drawn to it, to that extent we forfeit the protection of the God of this land."

-Pres. Marion G. Romney - Ensign Sept 79
sb

First Presidency Message

"We should, in the tradition of the Founding Fathers, learn the principles of the Constitution and abide by its precepts. We encourage Latter-day Saints throughout the nation to familiarize themselves with the Constitution. They should focus attention on it by reading it and studying it. They should recommit themselves to its principles and be prepared to defend it and the freedom it provides. Citizens of this nation are free to participate in efforts designed to WARN of the THREAT of any force or power, theory or principle, that would deprive them of their freedom or the individual liberties vouchsafed by the Constitution. Because some Americans have not kept faith with our Founding Fathers, the Constitution faces severe challenges. Those who do not prize individual freedom are trying to erode its great principles. We, as Latter-Day Saints MUST BE VIGILANT in doing our part to preserve the constitution and safeguard the way of life it makes possible. Learn more about this divinely inspired charter of our liberty, speak in its defense, and preserve and protect it against evil or DESTRUCTION. We encourage your participation and involvement in the this worthy endeavor."

-First Presidency Message
(to be read in sacrament meeting)
Jan. 87

sb

No Excuse

"He who fears criticism is hopeless. Only those who do things are criticized. To hesitate for fear of criticism is cowardly. To be ashamed of patriotism is to be ashamed of God. There is NO EXCUSE that can compensate for the loss of liberty."

Ezra Taft Benson - An Enemy Hath Done This – Preface

sb

The Elect Are Being Deceived

"I have been preaching against Communism for twenty years. I still warn you against it, and I tell you that we are drifting toward it more rapidly than some of us understand, and I tell you that when Communism comes, the ownership of the things which are necessary to feed your families is going to be taken away from us. I tell you freedom of speech will go, freedom of the press will go, and freedom of religion will go. I have warned you against propaganda and hate. We are in the midst of the greatest exhibition of propaganda that the world has ever seen. Just do not believe all you read or hear. THE ELECT ARE BEING DECEIVED."

-Pres. J. Reuben Clark - CR Oct 41
sb

Freedom or Slavery

"The great struggle which now rocks the whole earth more and more takes on the character of a struggle of the individual versus the state. This gigantic world-wide struggle...(is) a war to the death. We shall do well and wisely so to face and so to enter it. And we must all take part. Indeed, we all are taking part in that struggle, whether we will or not. Upon its final issue, liberty lives or dies. The plain and simple issue now facing us in America is freedom or slavery. We have largely lost the conflict so far waged. But there is time to win the final victory, if we sense our danger, and FIGHT!"

-Pres. J. Reuben Clark - Vital Speeches 1938 & Church News 1949
also Ezra Taft Benson CR Apr 65

sb: It is the same battle that God's children fought in the pre-mortal home...the War in Heaven was regarding freedom. I have always believed that Satan marketed his plan as the "compassionate" plan there, as well.

One Nation Under God

This is beautiful. I just wanted to share it.

sb

Communism: The Greatest Satanical Threat To Peace

I have decided to post a quote a day for the next while on what the brethren of our church have said regarding the principles this nation should seek to be governed by.
-sb

"The position of this Church on the subject of Communism has never changed. We consider it the greatest satanical threat to peace, prosperity, and the spread of God's work among men that exists on the face of the earth. In this connection, we are continually being asked to give our opinion concerning various patriotic
groups or individuals who are fighting Communism and speaking up for freedom. Our immediate concern, however, is not with parties, groups, or persons, but with principles. We therefore commend and encourage every person and every group who is sincerely seeking to study Constitutional principles and awaken a sleeping and apathetic people to the alarming conditions that are rapidly advancing about us. We wish all of our citizens throughout the land were participating in some type of organized self-education in order that they could better appreciate what is happening and know what they can do about it...the entire concept and philosophy of Communism is diametrically opposed to everything for which the Church stands -belief in Deity, belief in the dignity and eternal nature of man, and the application of the gospel to efforts for peace in the world. Communism is militantly atheistic and is committed to the destruction of faith wherever it may be found. The Russian Commissar of Education wrote: "We must hate Christians and Christianity. Even the best of them must be considered our worst enemies. Christian love is an obstacle to the development of the revolution. Down with love for one's neighbor. What we want is hate. Only then shall we conquer the universe." On the other hand, the gospel teaches the existence of God as our Eternal and Heavenly Father and declares: "... him only shalt thou serve." (Matt. 4: 10.)

Communism debases the individual and makes him the enslaved tool of the state, to which he must look for sustenance and religion. Communism destroys man’s God-given free agency. No member of this Church can be true to his faith, nor can any American be loyal to his trust, while lending aid, encouragement, or sympathy to any of these false philosophies; for if he does, they will prove snares to his feet."

-David O. McKay

One More Bit Of Evidence Of His Agenda

The name of the book Obama is reading is called:

The Post-American World, and it was written by a fellow Muslim.

"Post" America means the world AFTER America! Please forward this picture to everyone you know, conservative or liberal. It says all you need to know about his agenda.
sb

The Traditional Greek Folk Dances and their Ancient Roots

The Traditional Greek Folk Dances and their Ancient Roots

Posted using ShareThis

SERIOUSLY FUNNY!!!!!

click here

sb

A MUST Watch!!!

sb

What?

Oh, and then there is the one that mysteriously was taken off You Tube today with a group of public school children, at school, singing their praises to Barack Obama to the tune of Jesus Loves the Children.

sb

Joseph of Egypt Coins Discovered

Leading Egyptian Daily 'Al-Ahram' Reports: Coins from Era of Biblical Joseph Found in Egypt

According to a report in the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram, by Wajih Al-Saqqar, archeologists have discovered ancient Egyptian coins bearing the name and image of the Biblical Joseph.

Following are excerpts from the article: [1]

"Koranic Verses Indicate Clearly That Coins Were Used in Egypt in the Time of Joseph"

"In an unprecedented find, a group of Egyptian researchers and archeologists has discovered a cache of coins from the time of the Pharaohs. Its importance lies in the fact that it provides decisive scientific evidence disproving the claim by some historians that the ancient Egyptians were unfamiliar with coins and conducted their trade through barter.

"The researchers discovered the coins when they sifted through thousands of small archeological artifacts stored in [the vaults of] the Museum of Egypt. [Initially] they took them for charms, but a thorough examination revealed that the coins bore the year in which they were minted and their value, or effigies of the pharaohs [who ruled] at the time of their minting. Some of the coins are from the time when Joseph lived in Egypt, and bear his name and portrait.

"There used to be a misconception that trade [in Ancient Egypt] was conducted through barter, and that Egyptian wheat, for example, was traded for other goods. But surprisingly, Koranic verses indicate clearly that coins were used in Egypt in the time of Joseph.

"Research team head Dr. Sa'id Muhammad Thabet said that during his archeological research on the Prophet Joseph, he had discovered in the vaults of the [Egyptian] Antiquities Authority and of the National Museum many charms from various eras before and after the period of Joseph, including one that bore his effigy as the minister of the treasury in the Egyptian pharaoh's court…

"Dr. Sa'id Thabet added that he had examined the sarcophagi of many pharaohs in search of coins used as charms or ornaments, and that he had indeed found such ancient Egyptian coins. This [find] prompted researchers to seek and find Koranic verses that speak of coins used in ancient Egypt, [such as]: 'And they sold him [i.e. Joseph] for a low price, a number of silver coins; and they attached no value to him. [Koran 12:20].' [Also,] Qarun [2] says about his money: 'This has been given to me because of a certain knowledge which I have [Koran 28: 78].'"


"Studies... Have Revealed That What Most Archeologists Took For a Kind of Charm, and Others Took For an Ornament... is Actually a Coin"

"According to Dr. Thabet, his studies are based on publications about the Third Dynasty, one of which states that the Egyptian coin of the time was called a deben and was worth one-fourth of a gram of gold. This coin is mentioned in a letter by a man named Thot-Nehet, a royal inspector of the Nile bridges. In letters to his son, he mentioned leasing lands in return for deben-coins and agricultural produce.

"Other texts from the time of the Third Dynasty, the Sixth Dynasty and the Twelfth Dynasty mention a coin named shati or sat, whose value was equal to that of the deben. There is also a picture of an Egyptian market showing trade being conducted through barter, but one of the vendors puts out his hand, asking the buyer for a deben in return for the goods.

"Studies by Dr. Thabet's team have revealed that what most archeologists took for a kind of charm, and others took for an ornament or adornment, is actually a coin. Several [facts led them to this conclusion]: first, [the fact that] many such coins have been found at various [archeological sites], and also [the fact that] they are round or oval in shape, and have two faces: one with an inscription, called the inscribed face, and one with an image, called the engraved face - just like the coins we use today.

"The archeological finding is also based on the fact that the inscribed face bore the name of Egypt, a date, and a value, while the engraved face bore the name and image of one of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs or gods, or else a symbol connected with these. Another telling fact is that the coins come in different sizes and are made of different materials, including ivory, precious stones, copper, silver, gold, etc."

"500 of These Coins Were [Recently] Discovered in the Museum of Egypt - Where They Were [Originally] Classified as Charms and Stored Carelessly in Closed Boxes"

"The researcher also pointed out that the coins made of precious metals or stones usually had a hole in them, like a woman's ornament, allowing them to be [worn] around the neck or on the chest. Some of them, which bore images of gods and texts from various prayers or incantations, were treasured belongings that were placed into the bindings of mummies or placed [on the chest, close to] the heart. The coins were scarab-shaped. What made the discovery possible was the fact that 500 of these coins were [recently] discovered in the Museum of Egypt, where they were [originally] classified as charms and stored carelessly in closed boxes."

"One Coin... [Had] an Image of a Cow Symbolizing Pharaoh's Dream about the Seven Fat Cows and Seven Lean Cows"

"The researcher identified coins from many different periods, including coins that bore special markings identifying them as being from the era of Joseph. Among these, there was one coin that had an inscription on it, and an image of a cow symbolizing Pharaoh's dream about the seven fat cows and seven lean cows, and the seven green stalks of grain and seven dry stalks of grain. It was found that the inscriptions of this early period were usually simple, since writing was still in its early stages, and consequently there was difficulty in deciphering the writing on these coins. But the research team [managed to] translate [the writing on the coin] by comparing it to the earliest known hieroglyphic texts…

"Joseph's name appears twice on this coin, written in hieroglyphs: once the original name, Joseph, and once his Egyptian name, Saba Sabani, which was given to him by Pharaoh when he became treasurer. There is also an image of Joseph, who was part of the Egyptian administration at the time.

"Dr. Sa'id Thabet called on Egypt's Antiquities Council and on the Minister of Culture to intensify efforts in the fields of Ancient Egyptian history and archeology, and to [promote] the research of these coins that bear the name of Egyptian pharaohs and gods. This, he said, would enable the correction of prevalent misconceptions regarding the history of Ancient Egypt."



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Al-Ahram (Egypt), September 22, 2009.

[2] This is the Koranic name of Biblical Korah.

sb

Appearantly, They Can't Do Math...

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average clunker transaction will reduce U.S.gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that's 224 million gallons / year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels of oil is about ¼ of one day's U.S.consumption. And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $75/bbl. So, we taxpayers contributed $3 billion to save $350 million. How good a deal was that? They'll probably do a great job with health care though.

sb

(Thanks BZ for sending this!)

Professor of Economics At Stanford Says Obama Is Killing The Dow

Article posted on The Wall Street Journal
March 6, 2009

By MICHAEL J. BOSKIN
It's hard not to see the continued sell-off on Wall Street and the growing fear on Main Street as a product, at least in part, of the realization that our new president's policies are designed to radically re-engineer the market-based U.S. economy, not just mitigate the recession and financial crisis.


Martin KozlowskiThe illusion that Barack Obama will lead from the economic center has quickly come to an end. Instead of combining the best policies of past Democratic presidents -- John Kennedy on taxes, Bill Clinton on welfare reform and a balanced budget, for instance -- President Obama is returning to Jimmy Carter's higher taxes and Mr. Clinton's draconian defense drawdown.

Mr. Obama's $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents -- from George Washington to George W. Bush -- combined. It reduces defense spending to a level not sustained since the dangerous days before World War II, while increasing nondefense spending (relative to GDP) to the highest level in U.S. history. And it would raise taxes to historically high levels (again, relative to GDP). And all of this before addressing the impending explosion in Social Security and Medicare costs.

To be fair, specific parts of the president's budget are admirable and deserve support: increased means-testing in agriculture and medical payments; permanent indexing of the alternative minimum tax and other tax reductions; recognizing the need for further financial rescue and likely losses thereon; and bringing spending into the budget that was previously in supplemental appropriations, such as funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The specific problems, however, far outweigh the positives. First are the quite optimistic forecasts, despite the higher taxes and government micromanagement that will harm the economy. The budget projects a much shallower recession and stronger recovery than private forecasters or the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office are projecting. It implies a vast amount of additional spending and higher taxes, above and beyond even these record levels. For example, it calls for a down payment on universal health care, with the additional "resources" needed "TBD" (to be determined).

Mr. Obama has bravely said he will deal with the projected deficits in Medicare and Social Security. While reform of these programs is vital, the president has shown little interest in reining in the growth of real spending per beneficiary, and he has rejected increasing the retirement age. Instead, he's proposed additional taxes on earnings above the current payroll tax cap of $106,800 -- a bad policy that would raise marginal tax rates still further and barely dent the long-run deficit.

Increasing the top tax rates on earnings to 39.6% and on capital gains and dividends to 20% will reduce incentives for our most productive citizens and small businesses to work, save and invest -- with effective rates higher still because of restrictions on itemized deductions and raising the Social Security cap. As every economics student learns, high marginal rates distort economic decisions, the damage from which rises with the square of the rates (doubling the rates quadruples the harm). The president claims he is only hitting 2% of the population, but many more will at some point be in these brackets.

As for energy policy, the president's cap-and-trade plan for CO2 would ensnare a vast network of covered sources, opening up countless opportunities for political manipulation, bureaucracy, or worse. It would likely exacerbate volatility in energy prices, as permit prices soar in booms and collapse in busts. The European emissions trading system has been a dismal failure. A direct, transparent carbon tax would be far better.

Moreover, the president's energy proposals radically underestimate the time frame for bringing alternatives plausibly to scale. His own Energy Department estimates we will need a lot more oil and gas in the meantime, necessitating $11 trillion in capital investment to avoid permanently higher prices.

The president proposes a large defense drawdown to pay for exploding nondefense outlays -- similar to those of Presidents Carter and Clinton -- which were widely perceived by both Republicans and Democrats as having gone too far, leaving large holes in our military. We paid a high price for those mistakes and should not repeat them.

The president's proposed limitations on the value of itemized deductions for those in the top tax brackets would clobber itemized charitable contributions, half of which are by those at the top. This change effectively increases the cost to the donor by roughly 20% (to just over 72 cents from 60 cents per dollar donated). Estimates of the responsiveness of giving to after-tax prices range from a bit above to a little below proportionate, so reductions in giving will be large and permanent, even after the recession ends and the financial markets rebound.

A similar effect will exacerbate tax flight from states like California and New York, which rely on steeply progressive income taxes collecting a large fraction of revenue from a small fraction of their residents. This attack on decentralization permeates the budget -- e.g., killing the private fee-for-service Medicare option -- and will curtail the experimentation, innovation and competition that provide a road map to greater effectiveness.

The pervasive government subsidies and mandates -- in health, pharmaceuticals, energy and the like -- will do a poor job of picking winners and losers (ask the Japanese or Europeans) and will be difficult to unwind as recipients lobby for continuation and expansion. Expanding the scale and scope of government largess means that more and more of our best entrepreneurs, managers and workers will spend their time and talent chasing handouts subject to bureaucratic diktats, not the marketplace needs and wants of consumers.

Our competitors have lower corporate tax rates and tax only domestic earnings, yet the budget seeks to restrict deferral of taxes on overseas earnings, arguing it drives jobs overseas. But the academic research (most notably by Mihir Desai, C. Fritz Foley and James Hines Jr.) reveals the opposite: American firms' overseas investments strengthen their domestic operations and employee compensation.

New and expanded refundable tax credits would raise the fraction of taxpayers paying no income taxes to almost 50% from 38%. This is potentially the most pernicious feature of the president's budget, because it would cement a permanent voting majority with no stake in controlling the cost of general government.

From the poorly designed stimulus bill and vague new financial rescue plan, to the enormous expansion of government spending, taxes and debt somehow permanently strengthening economic growth, the assumptions underlying the president's economic program seem bereft of rigorous analysis and a careful reading of history.

Unfortunately, our history suggests new government programs, however noble the intent, more often wind up delivering less, more slowly, at far higher cost than projected, with potentially damaging unintended consequences. The most recent case, of course, was the government's meddling in the housing market to bring home ownership to low-income families, which became a prime cause of the current economic and financial disaster.

On the growth effects of a large expansion of government, the European social welfare states present a window on our potential future: standards of living permanently 30% lower than ours. Rounding off perceived rough edges of our economic system may well be called for, but a major, perhaps irreversible, step toward a European-style social welfare state with its concomitant long-run economic stagnation is not.

Mr. Boskin is a professor of economics at Stanford University and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.

Promised "CHANGE" is SOOOOO Coming

Intelligence Failure
Obama recruits from China Inc. to fill a critical national-security post.

By the Editors at www.nationalreview.com

Charles Freeman is a career diplomat, a Saudi apologist, and a savage critic of Israel. He also argues that Beijing did not strike down the Tiananmen Square protesters with sufficient swiftness. Barack Obama proposes to make him head of the National Intelligence Council. It’s an abominable appointment.

The National Intelligence Council is, as its website says, “a center of strategic thinking within the U.S. Government, reporting to the Director of National Intelligence . . . and providing the President and senior policymakers with analyses of foreign policy issues that have been reviewed and coordinated throughout the Intelligence Community.” The NIC plays a crucial role in determining what specific intelligence the president consumes from the torrents of information gathered by 16 different agencies. As chairman, Freeman will decide how that intelligence is framed. So how does he view the world?

Freeman is a career foreign-policy savant, with several stints in the State Department and one in the Clinton Defense Department. He has distinguished himself as a rabid Israel-hater who regards the Jewish state’s defensive measures as the primary cause of jihadist terror. He is a shameless apologist for Saudi Arabia (where he once served as U.S. ambassador) despite its well-documented record of exporting terrorists and jihadist ideology. And he is a long-time sycophant of Beijing, where he served as Richard Nixon’s interpreter during the 1971 summit and later ran the U.S. diplomatic mission.

His Chinese associations are alarming. Since 2004, Freeman has sat on the international advisory board of the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, which is owned by the Communist government. Its 2005 attempt to purchase Unocal, the American oil giant, was thwarted by Congress for national-security reasons.

Brutal as his benefactors in Beijing have been, Freeman wished them more brutal still: The Weekly Standard has unearthed a 2006 e-mail in which Freeman faults Chinese authorities for not moving swiftly enough in 1989 to crush democracy demonstrators. “The truly unforgivable mistake of the Chinese authorities,” wrote Freeman, “was the failure to intervene on a timely basis to nip the demonstrations in the bud, rather than — as would have been both wise and efficacious — to intervene with force when all other measures had failed to restore domestic tranquility to Beijing and other major urban centers in China.”

With that in mind, it is unsettling that Freeman will play a key role in determining what intelligence the president sees — and what he doesn’t. As NIC chairman, he will have a strong hand in the production of National Intelligence Estimates, reports that are pivotal in determining the direction of U.S. policy. An errant NIE can be a dangerous thing. Recall the disastrous 2007 NIE that concluded, against the evidence, that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons program in 2003. Though quickly abandoned, that NIE helped soften our national resolve to prevent Iran’s development of nuclear weapons, even as the mullahs ramped up production.

Three of the major foreign-policy challenges the United States faces today involve the survival of Israel, the Saudis’ promotion of radical Islam, and the ambitions of China. To navigate them, Obama has chosen a fierce critic of Israel — our only reliable ally in the region where threats to the United States are most immediate — whose track record is one of kowtowing to our enemies in the Mideast and our rivals in Beijing.

Freeman has an irrepressible instinct for the appalling. In a public forum in 2002, Freeman decried “America’s lack of introspection about September 11.” What commanded Freeman’s attention was not the jihadist ideology that brought about the murder of nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens, but what he described as “an ugly mood of chauvinism” in the United States. Americans, he maintained, “should examine ourselves” as we consider “what might have caused the attack.”

The post of NIC chairman is an executive-staff appointment, meaning that Freeman, though an intimate Obama adviser, is not subject to vetting through Senate confirmation hearings. But what we already know is reason enough for alarm.

Loved This Quote

“Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” -Barbara De Angelis
sb

Quotes From Thomas Jefferson

These were just sent to me. They are VERY interesting quotes from Thomas Jefferson:


1.. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe. Thomas Jefferson


2.. The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. Thomas Jefferson


3.. It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world. Thomas Jefferson


4.. I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them. Thomas Jefferson


5.. My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government. Thomas Jefferson


6.. No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. Thomas Jefferson


7.. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government. Thomas Jefferson


8.. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.


9. To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. Thomas Jefferson



And finally, a Very Interesting Quote :



In light of the present financial crisis, it's interesting to read what Thomas Jefferson said in 1802:



'I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.'

sb

A Powerful Quote From The Prophet Spencer W. Kimball

My brother sent this quote to me today. I loved it and wanted to share it:

"Jesus saw sin as wrong but also was able to see sin as springing from deep and unmet needs on the part of the sinner. This permitted him to condemn the sin without condemning the individual. We can show forth our love for others even when we are called upon to correct them. We need to be able to look deeply enough into the lives of others to see the basic causes for their failures and shortcomings" ("Jesus: The Perfect Leader," Ensign, Aug 1979, 5).
sb

Proposed 'Mileage Tax'

Does proposed 'mileage tax' have hidden agenda?
Pete Chagnon - OneNewsNow - 2/23/2009 7:00:00 AM

A government-spending watchdog says a recently discussed plan for raising tax revenue for America's roads should scare anyone who drives a car.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently stated that he would be willing to implement a plan that will tax motorists on the amount of miles driven. Massachusetts lawmakers have considered such a plan, and pilot programs have been implemented in the Northwest United States.

In order to track the mileage, cars will have to be fitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) units. This has prompted fear of a "big brother state," and some critics are calling it Orwellian intrusion. David Williams, vice-president of policy with Citizens Against Government Waste, has similar concerns.

"[I]t looks like this could be a camel's nose under the tent," Williams offers. "You know, this is the first step -- you put a GPS unit in every car to, quote, 'track mileage.' Well, what else is it going to track? And what else are they going to monitor?"

Yet it is consistent with what he sees government desiring these days. "...[I]t gets with the government's obsession with two things: knowing everything about us, and collecting money from us," he says.

But lawmakers have been talking about replacing the gas tax with the mileage tax. OneNewsNow asked Williams if that was a realistic goal.

"Well, if this were to be like the income tax or the tax system, they probably would not get rid of something -- they would just add onto another layer," he states. "Because every time they talk about reforming the tax system...no one really says to get rid of the current tax system. So [I suspect] we would see it as just another layer."

sb: the full story is found at onenewsnow.com

Alan Keyes on Obama

sb

Pro-marriage Speech Garners Professor's Profane Wrath

Pro-marriage speech garners professor's profane wrath
Charlie Butts and Jody Brown - OneNewsNow - 2/16/2009 10:00:00 AM

After being called a "fascist" by his professor, a Christian California student has filed suit against his college for violations of his free-speech rights.

Less than a month after voters in California decided to amend their state constitution and protect traditional marriage, Jonathan Lopez -- in a public speaking class -- shared his beliefs on faith and marriage. David French of the Alliance Defense Fund picks up the story.

"Jonathan talked about his faith -- and one of the things he talked about in context of his faith was...marriage," says French. "He read from the dictionary definition of marriage. The professor stopped the class, called him a 'fascist b_____d' -- [he] used the expletive -- [and] told the class that anyone who wanted to could leave if they were offended...."

According to an ADF press release, when no one got up to leave, the instructor simply dismissed the class, effectively ending Lopez's speech -- which violated the student's free-speech rights, adds the attorney, especially since other students made speeches on other subjects. Religious speech, notes French, apparently was excluded from the open-ended speech assignment.

"You just cannot shut down student speech like that," states French, who explains that Lopez was well within the confines of his professor's assignment, and that the professor's actions not only constitute viewpoint discrimination but also comprise "retaliation" because he disagreed with Lopez's religious beliefs.

According to the ADF attorney, the professor was not yet finished. "When [Lopez later] complained about what was an obvious act of censorship, he was threatened with expulsion by that same professor," he says.

The speech professor is identified as John Matteson of Los Angeles Community College. ADF reports that after Proposition 8 (the marriage-related constitutional amendment) was approved on November 4, Matteson told his entire class: "If you voted yes on Proposition 8, you are a fascist b_____d."

Ultimately Matteson refused to grade Lopez's November 24 speech, and wrote on the evaluation: "Ask God what your grade is."

sb

Succcess of Iraq's Elections Largely Ignored in U.S.

Success of Iraq's elections largely ignored in U.S.
By Charles Krauthammer

Published: Sunday, Feb. 15, 2009 2:01 a.m. MST

WASHINGTON — Preoccupied as it was poring through Tom Daschle's tax returns, Washington hardly noticed a near-miracle abroad. Iraq held provincial elections. There was no election-day violence. Security was handled by Iraqi forces with little U.S. involvement. A fabulous bazaar of 14,400 candidates representing 400 parties participated, yielding results highly favorable to both Iraq and the United States.
(The remainder of the story is found at desnews.com)

sb

Our Snuggie Stimulus Package

sb

Guess Who Said This:

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work.... We have never made good on our promises.... I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started.... And an enormous debt to boot!"


HENRY MORGENTHAU: FDR's loyal Secretary of the Treasury said this in May of 1939

sb: We don't NEED another New Deal...the first one didn't work.

"A Historic -- and Expensive -- Mistake"

Congress passes $787 billion stimulus
By Sasha Issenberg

The Boston Globe

Published: Saturday, Feb. 14, 2009 12:23 a.m. MST

WASHINGTON — Less than one month after President Obama took office, Congress Friday night passed his flagship proposal, an unprecedented collection of tax cuts and new spending that Democrats say offers the country its best hope to stave off an impending depression.

After a frenzied month of legislating, the House and Senate produced an economic stimulus bill estimated Friday to cost $787 billion, with $281 billion in new tax cuts and the remainder in one-time spending on infrastructure investments, expanded unemployment benefits, and other programs.

It passed both chambers on a largely party-line vote, winning the support of no Republicans in the House and three in the Senate.

The outcome amounted to the first significant fruits of November's Democratic landslide, in which Obama handily won the presidency while his party expanded its congressional majorities. For the first time in 14 years, Democrats have been empowered to legislate without serious Republican interference, and Friday reveled in what many described as a new dawn for liberalism.

Democrats claimed a mandate to beef up the federal government's role in areas including transportation, alternative energy, and school construction - and to take on whopping deficits to do so - citing a shift in popular opinion provoked by some of the most vexing domestic problems the country has encountered in decades.

"The bottom line is: with this downturned economy, there is no place to turn but government," said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat who headed his party's Senate campaign efforts last fall. "Most of the Republicans are resisting that, but they're just out of touch with the times."

The Senate passed the bill after keeping the vote open for hours late into the night, to allow Senator Sherrod Brown to return from his native Ohio, where he had spent the day marking his mother's recent death.

Brown, who was hustled back on a White House-provided plane, represented the Democrats' 60th and decisive vote in favor of the bill at about 10:45 p.m. Sixty votes were required because the bill would increase the federal deficit.

The vote tally was one fewer than the bill received upon first clearing the Senate earlier this week because Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts did not vote Friday, having returned to Florida, where he is resting and being treated for brain cancer.

While Democrats said the bill offered hope to millions of struggling Americans, Republicans called it a historic - and expensive - mistake.

Utah's four Republicans disparaged the bill, while the state's lone Democrat sang its praises......

sb: It will be interesting to see how the passage of the legislation affects the stock market next week.

Bi-partisanship?

Republicans Shut Out of Stimulus Conference Negotiations
by Connie Hair

02/11/2009


Republicans have caught the Democrats in a midnight “stimulus” power play that seeks to cut Republican conferees out of the House-Senate negotiations to resolve a final version of the Obama “stimulus” package. Staff members from the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) met last night to put together the “stimulus” conference report.

They intend to attempt to shove this $1.3 trillion spending bill through in the dead of the night without Republican input so floor action can take place in both chambers on Thursday.

I spoke with House Republican Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.) moments ago about this latest version of Democratic “bipartisanship.” Pence told me, “I think the American people deserve to know that legislation that would comprise an amount equal to the entire discretionary budget of the United States of America is being crafted without a single House Republican in the room.”


Some Republicans reportedly were in the late-night conference. But -- at least from the Senate -- the official Republican conferees were excluded. HUMAN EVENTS has received e-mail confirmations from the staffs of both Sens. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and John Thune (R-S.D.) saying that they had no participation in the conference.

Today, the House-Senate deal was announced in a press conference held by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Reid especially praised Susan Collins for her tireless work in developing the $789 billion deal.

UPDATED: The deal was Snowe's and Collins's, according to a Senate source. Sen. Specter, who had been in Harry Reid's office for an earlier meeting on the compromise, left at about 7 p.m. At 8:45 p.m., there was another meeting at which Sens. Snowe and Collins were the only Republicans present. They made the deal, and Specter signed on to it later. He had given an indication of the deal earlier that evening in an MSNBC interview.

No House Republicans were at either meeting.

sb

The Inheritance

(sb: The following poem is one that I have kept near me for years--as a reminder to me that the inheritance I leave my child has more to do with my actions than my words.)



At the funeral my friend said to me,
"What hurts most is that
Mother was always sad,
I think now
A mother owes it to her children
Just to be happy.
She never was."

Her sad face
Looked at the sad face backed by velvet.

Last time I saw my friend,
Now a year since,
The eyes were dry,
But the face was pinched
As then, hurried and axious hands worked
The buttons of her little girl's coat.

"I can't stay."
(She never did.)
"Jim's working tonight--as always--
But at last he got a raise.
Won't go far with the baby coming, though,
And we'll have to find a bigger place,
So tired and depressed all the time.
I don't know--
Guess we'll manage--
But kids seem to need so much."

We talked a while
Then--
"Have to go--so much to do."
I watched her rise,
And do the buttons of their coats,
And sigh.

A littled wide-eyed girl watched, too.

-Carol Lynn Pearson

Oh So True...

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
-Margaret Thatcher

sb: As I see it....Socialism: a philosophy of economic entitlement. (Entitlement by both those who feel "entitled" to receive it, or "entitlement" by those who feel "entitled" to distribute it.)

Creepy Baby Products

Creepy Baby Products
Erin Stewart
DeseretNews.com blogger | Feb. 5, 2009 at 9:21 a.m.

There are a lot of bizarre baby products out there that I don't really understand and sometimes think are just plain weird. But I saw one the other day that tops them all:

That's right folks — the Zaky baby pillow, which claims that "it's like leaving a part of you with your baby."

Um ... yes, if the piece you want to leave with your sleeping child is a disembodied forearm with sausage-like fingers and felt for skin.

Sure, that baby looks peaceful now, but I can only imagine the conversation with a therapist in 15 years: "Yes, I felt loved and safe as a child, until I woke up one morning and realized they were just hands. JUST HANDS! NO BODY! Don't you understand? JUST HANDS!"

Yea, there's really no way to recover from that.

Maybe I'm just old-school, but isn't this pillow is missing some key elements of maternal comfort like the human touch? A heartbeat? Elbows?

Now I can see how some people could say this would comfort children and help them sleep. But seriously, what is so important in a mother's life that she has to use fake hands instead of using her own? What happened to the good-old fashioned method of actually touching your child, anyway?

sb

Even The Congressional Budget Office (A Non-Partisan Organization) Agrees That Obama's STIMULUS Package Is NOT Good CHANGE.

(AP) President Obama's economic recovery package will actually hurt the economy more in the long run than if he were to do nothing, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.

CBO, the official scorekeepers for legislation, said the House and Senate bills will help in the short term but result in so much government debt that within a few years they would crowd out private investment, actually leading to a lower Gross Domestic Product over the next 10 years than if the government had done nothing.

CBO estimates that by 2019 the Senate legislation would reduce GDP by 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent on net. [The House bill] would have similar long-run effects, CBO said in a letter to Sen. Judd Gregg, New Hampshire Republican, who was tapped by Mr. Obama on Tuesday to be Commerce Secretary.

The House last week passed a bill totaling about $820 billion while the Senate is working on a proposal reaching about $900 billion in spending increases and tax cuts.

But Republicans and some moderate Democrats have balked at the size of the bill and at some of the spending items included in it, arguing they won't produce immediate jobs, which is the stated goal of the bill.

The budget office had previously estimated service the debt due to the new spending could add hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the bill -- forcing the crowd-out.

CBOs basic assumption is that, in the long run, each dollar of additional debt crowds out about a third of a dollars worth of private domestic capital, CBO said in its letter.

CBO said there is no crowding out in the short term, so the plan would succeed in boosting growth in 2009 and 2010.

The agency projected the Senate bill would produce between 1.4 percent and 4.1 percent higher growth in 2009 than if there was no action. For 2010, the plan would boost growth by 1.2 percent to 3.6 percent.

CBO did project the bill would create jobs, though by 2011 the effects would be minuscule.

sb: Yesterday President Obama said that it is impossible to pass a bill this large without PORK.....really, because that doesn't sound like "CHANGE" to me...only business as usual.

And to those in the media who suggest that something is better than nothing, I am baffled. If things COULDN'T get worse, perhaps this might be the case, but in America's case...things CAN get MUCH, MUCH worse.

Principles Of Leadership... As Taught By The Brethren

Elder M. Russell Ballard, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said:

"Before I was called as a General Authority, I was in the automobile business, as was my father before me. Through the years I learned to appreciate the sound and the performance of a well-tuned engine. To me it is almost musical, from the gentle purring of the idling motor to the vibrant roar of a throttle that is fully open. The power that sound represents is even more exciting. Nothing is quite the same as sitting behind the wheel of a fine automobile when the engine is operating at peak performance with the assembled parts working together in perfect harmony."

"On the other hand, nothing is more frustrating than a car engine that is not running properly. No matter how beautiful the paint or comfortable the furnishing inside are, a car with an engine that is not operating as it should is just a shell of unrealized potential. An automobile engine will run on only a part of its cylinders, but it never will go as far or as fast, nor will the ride be as smooth, as when it is tuned properly."

"Unfortunately, some wards in the Church are hitting on only a few cylinders, including some that are trying to make do with just one. The one-cylinder ward is the ward where the bishop handles all of the problems, making all of the decisions, and follows through on all of the assignments. Then, like an overworked cylinder in a car engine, he is soon burned out...God, the Master Organizer, has inspired a creation of a system of committees and councils. If understood and put to proper use, this system will decrease the burden on all individual leaders and will extend the reach and the impact of their ministry through the comined help of others."

Elder Ballard taught that leadership serving over councils should allow for open, honest, and sincere communication. Speaking of "free and open expression," he said, "Such expression is essential if we are to achieve the purpose of councils. Leaders...should establish a climate that is conducive to openness, where every person is important and every opinion valued. The Lord admonished, 'Let one speak at a time, and let all listen unto his sayings, that when all have spoken that all may be edified.' Leaders should provide adequate time for council meetings and should remember that councils are for leaders to listen at least as much as they speak." He explained that in council meetings, it is not the intent for the presiding authority to merely say, "here's the problem, and here's what I think we should do to solve it." This approach, "will not even begin to use the experience of council members to address the problem."

Speaking of the Council of the Twelve he said, "We come from different backgrounds, and we bring to the Council of the Twelve Apostles a diverse assortment of experiences...we counsel openly with each other, and we listen to each other with profound respect for the abilities and experiences our brethren bring to the council...We do not always agree during our discussions. But once a decision is made, we are always both united and determined." He reminded, "when a council leader reaches a decision, the council members should sustain it wholeheartedly."

Elder Ballard has given the promise that, "If you will confer in council as you are expected to do, God will give you solutions to the problems that confront you." He also reminds us to, "be sure you are seeking the vital input of the sisters in your council meetings...In these perilous times, we need the cooperative effort of men and women officers in the Church because absolute vigilance is required on the part of all who have been entrusted to help watch over the kingdom... (and) when we act in a united effort, we create spiritual synergism."

Elder Ballard has reminded leaders of the importance of letting those whom they call to lead do just that! He said, "If youth see a bishop or another leader who runs everything, who doesn't involve others, and who doesn't bring into council all the resources that he has, the youngsters are going to think that's what a leader does. It's a great tragedy when a bishop thinks, 'This is my ward, and we're going to do it my way.'"

Elder Ballard has commented that while it is easy for leaders to over manage those whom they have called to lead under them, it is not the Lord's way. He has said, "this can be a challenge for...leaders because they know that they can probably do it faster or better." He instructs leaders, "let them learn their duty."

While it may seem more convenient for local leadership to Call a president as well as choose counselors for this president, the brethren have instructed that this is not as the Lord intends it. President Gordon B. Hinkley has said, "There are several cardinal principles with reference to counselors. In the first place, the presiding officer selects his own counselors. They are not chosen by others and forced upon him. However, it is necessary in most circumstances that his selections be approved by higher authority." He went on to say, " It is IMPERATIVE that the president...select his counselors because theirs must be a compatible relationship. He must have absolute confidence in them. They must have confidence in him. They must work together in a spirit of mutual trust and respect."

President Hinkley also said, "a counselor is a friend. Presidencies should do more than counsel together. Occasionally, bot not to excess, they and their spouses should socialize together."

This right and responsibility to be allowed to truly lead and receive inspiration for one's stewardship is for those youth called to lead as well. Ruth H. Funk, former General Young Women's President said, "Each class president chooses (their) own counselors and secretary."

I am so grateful for Church leaders who understand and instruct that this is a gospel and Church whose very organization is designed to grow leaders. And, as Elder Ballard has said, "nothing is quite the same as sitting behind the wheel of a fine automobile when the engine is operating at peak performance with the assembled parts working together in perfect harmony."

sb

The Current Political Promises Are That Of CHANGE.......The Promises Of Our Prophets Are That of CHANGE As Well.

sb: The command to watch and wait reminds me to be prepared. Beyond being prepared, I believe that we can find peace and comfort in WHATEVER life may bring by trusting in the strength of the Lord.

It Appears Obama Will Proceed With His Plans for Troop Withdrawal In Iraq

WASHINGTON, Feb 2 (IPS) - CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus, supported by Defence Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to withdraw all U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months at an Oval Office meeting Jan. 21.

But Obama informed Gates, Petraeus and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen that he wasn't convinced and that he wanted Gates and the military leaders to come back quickly with a detailed 16-month plan, according to two sources who have talked with participants in the meeting.

Obama's decision to override Petraeus's recommendation has not ended the conflict between the president and senior military officers over troop withdrawal, however. There are indications that Petraeus and his allies in the military and the Pentagon, including Gen. Ray Odierno, now the top commander in Iraq, have already begun to try to pressure Obama to change his withdrawal policy.

A network of senior military officers is also reported to be preparing to support Petraeus and Odierno by mobilising public opinion against Obama's decision.

Petraeus was visibly unhappy when he left the Oval Office, according to one of the sources. A White House staffer present at the meeting was quoted by the source as saying, "Petraeus made the mistake of thinking he was still dealing with George Bush instead of with Barack Obama."

Petraeus, Gates and Odierno had hoped to sell Obama on a plan that they formulated in the final months of the Bush administration that aimed at getting around a key provision of the U.S.-Iraqi withdrawal agreement signed envisioned re-categorising large numbers of combat troops as support troops. That subterfuge was by the United States last November while ostensibly allowing Obama to deliver on his campaign promise.

Gates and Mullen had discussed the relabeling scheme with Obama as part of the Petraeus-Odierno plan for withdrawal they had presented to him in mid-December, according to a Dec. 18 New York Times story.

Obama decided against making any public reference to his order to the military to draft a detailed 16-month combat troop withdrawal policy, apparently so that he can announce his decision only after consulting with his field commanders and the Pentagon.

The first clear indication of the intention of Petraeus, Odierno and their allies to try to get Obama to amend his decision came on Jan. 29 when the New York Times published an interview with Odierno, ostensibly based on the premise that Obama had indicated that he was "open to alternatives".

The Times reported that Odierno had "developed a plan that would move slower than Mr. Obama's campaign timetable" and had suggested in an interview "it might take the rest of the year to determine exactly when United States forces could be drawn down significantly".

The opening argument by the Petraeus-Odierno faction against Obama's withdrawal policy was revealed the evening of the Jan. 21 meeting when retired Army Gen. Jack Keane, one of the authors of the Bush troop surge policy and a close political ally and mentor of Gen. Petraeus, appeared on the Lehrer News Hour to comment on Obama's pledge on Iraq combat troop withdrawal.

Keane, who had certainly been briefed by Petraeus on the outcome of the Oval Office meeting, argued that implementing such a withdrawal of combat troops would "increase the risk rather dramatically over the 16 months". He asserted that it would jeopardise the "stable political situation in Iraq" and called that risk "not acceptable".

The assertion that Obama's withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush surge and Petraeus's strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning.

Keane, the Army Vice-Chief of Staff from 1999 to 2003, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star Army generals, and since Obama's Jan. 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama's troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow U.S. withdrawal, according to a military source familiar with the network's plans.

The source says the network, which includes senior active duty officers in the Pentagon, will begin making the argument to journalists covering the Pentagon that Obama's withdrawal policy risks an eventual collapse in Iraq. That would raise the political cost to Obama of sticking to his withdrawal policy.

If Obama does not change the policy, according to the source, they hope to have planted the seeds of a future political narrative blaming his withdrawal policy for the "collapse" they expect in an Iraq without U.S. troops.

That line seems likely to appeal to reporters covering the Iraq troop withdrawal issue. Ever since Obama's inauguration, media coverage of the issue has treated Obama' s 16-month withdrawal proposal as a concession to anti-war sentiment which will have to be adjusted to the "realities" as defined by the advice to Obama from Gates, Petreaus and Odierno.

Ever since he began working on the troop surge, Keane has been the central figure manipulating policy in order to keep as many U.S. troops in Iraq as possible. It was Keane who got Vice President Dick Cheney to push for Petraeus as top commander in Iraq in late 2006 when the existing commander, Gen. George W. Casey, did not support the troop surge.

It was Keane who protected Petraeus's interests in ensuring the maximum number of troops in Iraq against the efforts by other military leaders to accelerate troop withdrawal in 2007 and 2008. As Bob Woodward reported in "The War Within", Keane persuaded President George W. Bush to override the concerns of the Joint Chiefs of Staff about the stress of prolonged U.S. occupation of Iraq on the U.S. Army and Marine Corps as well its impact on the worsening situation in Afghanistan.

Bush agreed in September 2007 to guarantee that Petraeus would have as many troops as he needed for as long as wanted, according to Woodward's account.

Keane had also prevailed on Gates in April 2008 to make Petraeus the new commander of CENTCOM. Keane argued that keeping Petraeus in the field was the best insurance against a Democratic administration reversing the Bush policy toward Iraq.

Keane had operated on the assumption that a Democratic president would probably not take the political risk of rejecting Petraeus's recommendation on the pace of troop withdrawal from Iraq. Woodward quotes Keane as telling Gates, "Let's assume we have a Democratic administration and they want to pull this thing out quickly, and now they have to deal with General Petraeus and General Odierno. There will be a price to be paid to override them."

Obama told Petraeus in Baghdad last July that, if elected, he would regard the overall health of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and the situation in Afghanistan as more important than Petraeus's obvious interest in maximising U.S. troop strength in Iraq, according to Time magazine's Joe Klein.

But judging from Petraeus's shock at Obama's Jan. 21 decision, he had not taken Obama's previous rejection of his arguments seriously. That miscalculation suggests that Petraeus had begun to accept Keane's assertion that a newly-elected Democratic president would not dare to override his policy recommendation on troops in Iraq.

*Gareth Porter is an investigative historian and journalist specialising in U.S. national security policy. The paperback edition of his latest book, "Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam", was published in 2006.

Read more from Inter Press Service.

sb

Facebook Warning

KSL.com
January 30th, 2009 @ 7:56am
By Mary Richards
Too much time on Facebook could mean not enough time with the most important relationship of your life.

Matt Townsend, KSL relationship coach, says social networking sites can be a nice way to reconnect with old friends, but you have to be careful not to let it interfere with your marriage.

Townsend joined KSL's Nightside Project last night. He says it's not necessarily Facebook that's the problem; it's that you are not connecting.

"Let's say your wife has 200 friends on Facebook. If your wife went and hung out with 200 friends, there's going to be problems if she's not talking to you ever, not connecting to you, you're not going out on dates, etc." he said.

Townsend has some suggestions for Facebook use. First, make rules together. Second, be transparent.

"The problem with it is, you can do this so freely. You can get on Facebook and kind of dig and keep looking, maybe do some flirty chat. The minute you do something you wouldn't want your partner to see, you've crossed the line," Townsend explained.

Third, no exes on Facebook. Don't even friend someone you once wanted to date. Fourth, create and honor couple time. Fifth, make a schedule and limit your time online.

"(Facebook is) a great new dynamic. It's keeping people together, (but) it's starting to numb you and maybe suck you away from the relationships that really matter most," Townsend said.

Sixth, talk to your partner about what you are finding on Facebook. And seventh, listen to your partner's concerns.

"If your partner is complaining about it, it is a problem," Townsend said. "Even if you don't feel like it's a problem, it's a problem for your partner. And if it's a problem for your partner, it's a problem for your marriage."

sb

What Run, or Snow Couldn't Do

updated 5:05 p.m. MT, Wed., Jan. 28, 2009
WASHINGTON - Massive deficits could force the post office to cut out one day of mail delivery per week, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday.

Postmaster General John E. Potter asked lawmakers to lift the requirement that the agency deliver mail six days a week.

(msn.com)
sb

Stimulus package is politically smart but economically stupid

Deseret News
By Walter Williams
January 28, 2009

Here is what my George Mason University colleague professor Richard Wagner wrote, which was published by Office of the House Republican Leader: "Any so-called stimulus program is a ruse. The government can increase its spending only by reducing private spending equivalently. Whether government finances its added spending by increasing taxes, by borrowing, or by inflating the currency, the added spending will be offset by reduced private spending. Furthermore, private spending is generally more efficient than the government spending that would replace it because people act more carefully when they spend their own money than when they spend other people's money."

A short translation of Wagner's comment is: There is no Santa Claus or tooth fairy. Let's examine the ruse.

Suppose the value of all that we will produce in 2009, our gross domestic product, totals $14 trillion. There cannot be any disagreement that if Congress spends $4 trillion, of necessity there is only $10 trillion left over for us to spend privately. In other words, if Congress is going to spend $4 trillion, it must find a way to get us to spend $4 trillion less. The most open and aboveboard method to force us to spend less privately is to tax us to the tune of $4 trillion.

You might say, "Congress doesn't have to tax us $4 trillion. They could tax us $3 trillion and run a $1 trillion budget deficit." You have that wrong. There is no way for Congress to spend $4 trillion out of our 2009 $14 trillion GDP by getting us to spend only $3 trillion less privately. It has to be $4 trillion less. Another method to force us to spend less privately is to print money and inflate the currency. Rising prices reduce our ability to spend privately since each dollar we hold will not buy as much. Another way is for Congress to borrow, thereby reducing our ability to spend privately. By the way, all of this means that in any real economic sense the federal budget is always balanced. That is, if Congress spends $4 trillion we must privately spend $4 trillion less whether it is accomplished through taxation, inflation or borrowing.

The stimulus package being discussed is politically smart but economically stupid. It's that bedeviling, omnipresent Santa Claus and tooth fairy problem again. Let's say that Congress taxes you $500 to put toward creating construction jobs building our infrastructure. The beneficiaries will be quite visible, namely men employed building a road. The victims of Congress are invisible and are only revealed by asking what you would have done with the $500 if it were not taxed away from you. Whatever you would have spent it on would have contributed to someone's employment. That person is invisible. Politicians love it when the victims of their policies are invisible and the beneficiaries visible. Why? Because the beneficiaries know for whom to vote and the victims do not know who is to blame for their plight.
In stimulus package language, if Congress taxes to hand out money, one person is stimulated at the expense of another, who pays the tax, who is unstimulated. A visual representation of the stimulus package is: Imagine you see a person at work taking buckets of water from the deep end of a swimming pool and dumping them into the shallow end in an attempt to make it deeper. You would deem him stupid. That scenario is equivalent to what Congress and the new president proposes for the economy. A far more important measure that Congress can take toward a healthy economy is to ensure that the 2003 tax cuts don't expire in 2010 as scheduled. If not, there are 15 separate taxes scheduled to rise in 2010, costing Americans $200 billion a year in increased taxes. In the face of a recession, we don't need that.

Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University.

sb

An Excellent Article from Meridian Magazine

Teenage romance is touted on the movie screen, in romance novels, and on the radio. We see young couples in love and we often sigh, “Isn't that sweet?” In fact, teenage romance, although it may epitomize unjaded affection, will usually prove more sour than sweet.

Prophets have long counseled teenagers to avoid steady dating, yet 1/3 of LDS high school students currently have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Walking through a high school corridor can feel a lot like running a gauntlet—trying to dodge the couples embracing or making out in alcoves. Yet rather than discouraging romantic relationships between teenagers, we adults may inadvertently encourage them. Our encouragement may be as innocent as asking, “Do you have a boyfriend?” or as explicit as lining up couples for a date to the senior prom.

We can hardly expect our teenagers to avoid romantic relationships when the adults in their lives think they're so cute. One mother from Maryland said when her son was in high school, women in her ward frequently approached her, “Don't you think our kids would be good together?” A mother from a small town in Utah said the stake president dropped his daughter off at her house at 10:00 one night after returning from vacation, because the young lady couldn't go another minute without seeing her son.

Parents have a tremendous ability to influence their children to abstain from romantic relationships while still in adolescence, if they first, believe in the prophets' counsel themselves. Gordon B. Hinckley said, “When you are young, do not get involved in steady dating. When you reach an age where you think of marriage, then is the time to become so involved. But you boys who are in high school don't need this, and neither do the girls.” (Nov 1997 Ensign, priesthood session of General Conference)

We may think the only reason prophets discourage adolescent romance is because of the risk of immorality. This is certainly a valid concern. Boys and girls who are emotionally intimate with one another are far more likely to become physically intimate with one another. Folks who are “in love” naturally want to “make love.”

However, in addition to exposing high school students to things they shouldn't enjoy like sexual intimacy, adolescent romance also robs high school students of things they rightfully should enjoy.

Family First

Experts reveal that parental influence diminishes to almost nothing when adolescents have a boyfriend or girlfriend. In his book All Grown Up and No Place to Go, author David Elkind explains that to adolescents, love comes in a fixed amount. They believe they only have so much love to go around, and if they love a boyfriend or a girlfriend, then there isn't enough love left for a parent. Consequently, an adolescent may create conflict with a parent in order to justify giving their love to a boyfriend or girlfriend.

In addition, adolescents are far less needy of parental approval when they feel they have a boyfriend or girlfriend who so wholeheartedly approves of them.

One young lady laments that she spent her entire adolescence immersed in her boyfriend's life. She missed out on family outings because she preferred to be with her boyfriend. All the significant events that she experienced during adolescence, she shared with her boyfriend. Now she is an adult, and that boyfriend is no longer part of her life, she has no one in her family she can reminisce with because her family was not a part of her adolescence.

Just Friends

“It is better, my friends, to date a variety of companions until you are ready to marry. Have a wonderful time, but stay away from familiarity…..(Gordon B. Hinckley Ensign, Jan 2001 p. 2)

Casually dating a variety of companions is way more fun for teens then dating the same guy or girl their whole high school career. When I was young, I attended hockey games with one of my male friends. I attended jazz concerts with another, learned to drive a stick shift from another, went hang gliding with another, flew in a private plane with another, went hiking in the mountains with another, learned the history of world religions from another, attended my first wrestling meet, went water skiing, snow skiing, ice skating, scuba diving, camping, played rugby, learned photography, and mountain biking. I would have never had so many learning opportunities had I stayed in a single relationship.

One magazine once ran an article called, “Guys are like electives: You've got to take a bunch before you decide to commit to a major!”

Casually dating lots of people helps adolescents better choose someone to date seriously. Casually dating allows young people to discover traits they admire, and what traits they can't tolerate. It helps them discover what traits they, themselves, possess that people admire, and which ones people can't tolerate. Friendship with a variety of members of the opposite sex protects young people from making a poor marital choice.

Rushing into a serious relationship, without spending sufficient time in casual relationships is like taking a final exam without doing any homework. It leads to failure.

Dennie Hughes, the author of the book Dateworthy says, “The more people you date, the easier it is to keep from getting too involved too soon with the wrong person….. Anyone who expects you to commit in the early stages of dating is a red-flag personality.” (Rodale Press, 2004)

High school students need a variety of experiences that can only be found outside of a steady-dating relationship. Teens who go steady don't have the freedom to make friends with a variety of members of the opposite sex either because the “steady” will get jealous or because they are always with their “steady.”

Not only do exclusive relationships deprive high school students of experiences they sorely need to thrive emotionally, exclusive relationships expose adolescents to harmful experiences that actually cause emotional damage. Exclusive relationships that lead to sex, or that end in a breakup both expose adolescents to trauma they are better off without.

Breaking Up is Hard To Do

Breakups among adolescents are as predictable as the seasons. In previous generations steady dating in high school led to marriage because ½ of all girls married while in their teens. In this generation, the average age for a young woman to marry is 25 years old. Steady dating and falling in love is perfectly appropriate when marriage is an imminent possibility. Pairing off when marriage isn't likely for 9 more years will surely result in a break up.

Breakups are far from easy for high school students. One young lady began her first love affair at age 14, before she was technically old enough to “date.” She met a boy on the Internet who was 15 years old and they communicated constantly. They decided they were destined to be together and committed their undying love to one another. Disaster struck when this young boy turned 16 and felt free to go on real dates. He broke up with his Internet lover and left her devastated. She cried constantly, stopped eating, went to the doctor and was eventually diagnosed with anorexia. Clearly, young people have an amazing ability to love. But they don't have much of an ability to love faithfully.

Breakups, such as the one described, can result in mild depression, where the teenager holes himself up in his room for a few days and mourns. Or the consequences of a break up can be moderate, wherein a jilted lover may blow his grades for a semester, or get arrested for keying his ex's car. The consequences of a break up can also be quite severe, such as the girl from my son's junior class who jumped off a building in downtown Jacksonville .

Regardless of the level of hurt a breakup produces, mild, moderate or severe, breakups in high school are entirely unnecessary. High school students shouldn't even be glued together in the first place, so there should be nothing to break. Granted breakups are a part of life, but they are far less likely when a couple is emotionally mature and when marriage is a realistic possibility.

Risk of Divorce

Statistics show that the number of failed relationships a young person has before marriage corresponds directly with the likelihood of divorce after marriage. Knowing that high school romances more often break up than succeed we can conclude that high school romance can actually compromise the ultimate success of a marriage.

The human heart is extremely resilient, but it still has its limits. It can only get broken so many times before it is unable to mend. Teenagers who enter one painful relationship after another eventually lose their ability to trust. Although breakups are often necessary before finding the relationship that leads to marriage, it is wasteful to enter a relationship knowing full well that it will eventually break up.

Adolescent learn lousy relationship lessons when they go steady, not only because their relationships end in breakups, but because few adolescents possess the maturity necessary to be in a serious relationship. Adolescents are at a developmental stage where they are generally selfish, impulsive, fickle, and idealistic—the opposite traits that lead to successful marriages. Teenagers who learn about intimate relationships from partners, who treat them poorly, may be slow to trust their eventual marriage partners. Rotten romances leave scars.

With all the harms caused from high school romance, and all the healthy learning that eludes those involved in a high school romance, one would wonder why we still see Latter-day Saint youth going steady in high school?

Perhaps the LDS youth may choose to go steady because they have not been taught correct principles, or alternately, they may choose to go steady because parents teach correct principles but are overwhelmed with the difficulty of enforcing them. Steady dating in high school is such an inherent part of our culture, we might wonder if we can ever eradicate it. Young people can hardly wait until they turn 16 so they can have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. Homecoming dances, Sadie Hawkins, Prom, are all designed for high school students to pair off, (to “hook up” in the students' vernacular). High school romance is as deep-rooted in our culture as the Palmetto plants in my Florida back yard.

The traditions of our fathers, just because they are deep-rooted, however, doesn't mean they are healthy. Our task is to improve on each generation, to make this generation better than the last. Traditions that may have worked in generations past, do not fit in the new millennium. Perhaps this generation can create some new traditions.

sb: While certainly our children have their agency, I thought this was an important article. Important enough that I want my own teenager to read it.

I'm Still Here

Yes, I am still here. I am just having difficulty wanting to post lately. I think the turn of events in our country have kind of left me with nothing left to say. Yep, you heard it here--the girl who NEVER runs out of something to talk about--did.

Now, I am sure that given time my opinions will be rampant, but at the moment I am just taking in the changes that are happening in our country.

In the mean time, please feel free to tell me how you feel about things. Are you hopeful, are you frustrated.......what are your thoughts?
sb

Recent Nightline Coverage On Mormon Church

sb

Unexpected Babyhood.

I was just reading a blog I regularly read from a mother who is dealing with some dificult development problems with her little one. She is an amazing woman and is dealing with it with great faith and dignity. I remember when my third baby was born with many problems. I was given this article to comfort me as I found myself mourning the loss of experiencing a normal babyhood with this sweet daughter. While she is now eight and her health issues have been resolved, I still remember the comfort this brought me. I thought I would share it here:


WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.



All my love and support to moms out there visiting Holland instead.

Love,
sb

Draper Temple Openhouse

Don't forget to get tickets while they are still available to tour the Draper, Utah temple. It looks absolutely beautiful!
sb

Let's Pray That The Supreme Court's Interest On January 16th Is To UPHOLD The Rule Of Law.

"What if an impostor from another country ran for the presidency and won? What if the media blocked any news of his birthplace and citizenship? What if the media censorship even blocked paid advertising which tried to expose it?

"What if no one had the courage to challenge or verify it? What if he was inaugurated illegally? What if the military had to answer to a commander in chief who was illegitimate? What if every law he signed was invalid?

"What if it all happened on our watch?"
-Janet Porter, WND Reporter

sb

Dose Of Reality

We have all had friends without kids, or friends who's kids are all older and who seem to have forgotten the amount of work small ones are, or those friends who think having more than three kids is no more work--cause it is all crazy after three......who just don't get our life! I love it when someone can say it like it is!


sb

ON VACATION:

I'm on a blogging vacation so I can enjoy time with my family over the holiday. Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season!
sb

No Suprise Here...Although I Believe It Is A Mistake.

Supreme Court denies citizenship challenge
Justices won't give questions about eligibility full hearing

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: December 08, 2008
10:54 am Eastern

© 2008 WorldNetDaily

The U.S. Supreme Court today announced it has denied bringing Donofrio v. Wells – one of several cases challenging Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president – before a full hearing.


sb: the remaining portion of this article is found on wnd.com

Let's Let Our Voices Be Heard!

I received this letter via email today. I thought I would post it here.

Dear Family and Friends,



As most of you know, last night Obama made a public announcement that he is going to sign the Freedom Of Choice Act, which will allow all types of abortions including partial birth abortions, also allowing babies who are born alive due to botched up late term abortions, to be set aside without any medical care or nourishment and left to die (most of these babies have no medical problems and most of the ones that do, have things like clef pallets, club feet, things that are correctable, still they are murdered in the most cruel and inhuman way. They feel everything that is happening to them. There is more mercy for dogs that are put to sleep) This Bill also will make it mandatory for doctors and nurses to perform this murderous act even if they do not want to do so. This act also allows under age teens to have an abortion, even partial birth abortions, without parental consent.



Catholic Bishops have pleaded with Obama not to go ahead with this horrible murder of innocent babies. They have also told Obama that if he persists in signing this Bill which would require even Catholic Hospitals to perform these acts of murder, they will have no choice but to close all Catholic Hospitals. Please let us join with these courageous Bishops who will go to any length to change Obama's mind. Please take a minute to sign this statement and let our voices be heard.



You can click on the video of Obama's speech to the Planned Parenthood group where he promised that the first thing he would do if elected President would be to sign the Freedom Of Choice Act. He isn't even in the White House yet and he made a statement last night that he will go forward with his plans to sign this outrageous bill. He still can change his mind because the Bill cannot be signed until he is actually the President.



sb: go to fightfoca.com to express your opposition to this Act!

Comforting Words

Marion G. Romney said:

"I am convinced that if we are to have peace in our hearts, we must learn how to preserve it in our hearts in the midst of trouble and trial. I know that if we lived the gospel, we would not have war. We would have peace. I do not, however, expect enough people to repent to spare the world from serious trouble. But I return to the Savior’s words. When he had made the above-quoted statement to his disciples, he saw that they were troubled, and he said unto them:"

“Be not troubled, for, when all these things shall come to pass, ye may know that the promises which have been made unto you shall be fulfilled …

“And it shall come to pass that he that feareth me shall be looking forth for the great day of the Lord to come, even for the signs of the coming of the Son of Man.

“And they shall see signs and wonders, for they shall be shown forth in the heavens above, and in the earth beneath.

“And they shall behold blood, and fire, and vapors of smoke.

“And before the day of the Lord shall come, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon be turned into blood, and the stars fall from heaven.

“And the remnant shall be gathered unto this place—[Jerusalem];

“And then they shall look for me, and behold, I will come; and they shall see me in the clouds of heaven, clothed with power and great glory; with all the holy angels; and he that watches not for me shall be cut off.”

And here is the key.

“And at that day, when I shall come in my glory, shall the parable be fulfilled which I spake concerning the ten virgins.

“For they that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived … shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.” (D&C 45:35, 39–44, 56–57.)

“They that are wise and have received the truth, and have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived.” (Ibid; italics added.) I think we are not safe because we say we intend to do what’s right. I think the people who are safe are those who have taken the Holy Spirit for their guide and have not been deceived. These are they who shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire, but shall abide the day.

“The earth shall be given unto them for an inheritance.” This earth isn’t going to be inherited by our enemies.

“The earth shall be given unto them—“who have ‘taken the Holy Spirit for their guide, and have not been deceived’ ” (D&C 45:57.)—for an inheritance; and they shall multiply and wax strong, and their children shall grow up without sin unto salvation.

“For the Lord shall be in their midst, and his glory shall be upon them, and he will be their king and their lawgiver.” (D&C 45:58–59.)


sb: I am grateful for the understanding the brethren provide us that there are difficult times ahead. The knowledge of this need not cause fear, but can help us to strengthen our resolve to face what may be uncertain times ahead.