Atheism for the Masses

One of the truest statements uttered by man must have been, "there needs be opposition in all things." Truer words have never been spoken. Especially now. If there was any time in history for good men to follow the counsel given in Jeremiah 1:17 that time is now. "Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound them before thee." and in the same book and chapter verse 19 reads, "and they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord, to deliver thee." Well that time has now come. The time for all good men of faith (regardless of what that faith may be) to gird up his/her loins and contend with the our enemy...an emboldened Atheist movement that, with evangelic zeal, is openly deriding and ridiculing our God. 3 Atheist books on the New York Times best seller list is only a glimpse of the things to come. That "best seller" title only comes with selling lots of books. The atheist message has appeal. Americans are looking for any reason to allow and excuse themselves to degenerate into the basest form. Being accountable to nobody, not even their God and creator.

The last several months I have been quite active perusing different blog and editorial sites in discussions about religion. Never have I seen or felt such hatred and meanness as I have witnessed in the writings and opinions therein. I stand amazed at the absolute contempt and ridicule these so called "atheists" or "humanists" heap upon our God and in particular, ones belief in Jesus Christ as his son. Such an astonishing amount of scorn and ridicule is directed at his name and those who would follow him and his teachings leads one to wonder....why? Why would a person take something another human being deems as holy and sacred and attack it and laugh it to scorn? Why? Thats a great question and one that is very telling in describing those who focus so much of their attention trying to disprove the existence and belief in a Supreme Creator. Why would one of these, in their most secret recesses of their heart, find so much contempt and hatred for such a one as Jesus Christ when they don't even believe he existed? Can you, the reader, conjure up as much malice toward something or someone you don't believe exists in the first place? I think not. And as these accomplished blasphemers use the existence of the Stalins, Hitlers, Crusaders, or whatever their choice may be as evidence that a God must not exist, I would submit to the contrary. With all things that are good in this world, there is evil also.

As our historical writings we call scripture teaches us....love your fellow man and do good unto them, being full of compassion and service to them, there are those who would adopt these things as their own and call themselves "humanists". Putting off the existence of a God and deriding his teachings and writings as being written by a bunch of "desert nomads". Whom would they prefer to have written anything that we call history? A lawyer? A Dentist perhaps? Or maybe a plumber, stone mason or ??? Amazing! How do we know that Alexander the Great did what he did? It was written. How do we know or suppose that The Shang Dynasty in China which existed from about 1700-1027 B.C was overthrown and supplanted by the frontier tribe called the Zhou and then began the Zhou Dynasty? It was written!! And in those writings was a recorded history of the peoples dealings with their God. But no! We cant have that, so those who would deny a Gods existence reduce these parts of the written history to "myth" status. Take it or leave it. Is it written history or not. Whom among these critics is qualified to separate a written history and proclaim some of it "myth" and the other as factual. None. Whom among these critics can disprove the existence of my God? None. On this existence I take many things upon Faith. While those who would ridicule my belief take their orders from various theories and hypotheses, I find myself privileged to assume that written history is no theory but factual in nature. I will continue to exercise a measure of faith and a belief in our written history and the promises and quality of life these beliefs bring to me. Knowing for a surety that when followed and lived, these principles will make for a better and more cohesive society. Unlike those fellows who would seek to destroy ones faith and live a more base existence. One in which passing on ones genetic material is a measure of their success. Try selling that one as a good to society when almost 50% of our children in America go to bed without a father in their home. Ya thats a good plan. Laughable.

All For Vanity (less is more)

One of the great things in life is what one learns about life itself. The 40+ years of my life have taught me a great deal. The beauty of ones existence lies in ones experiences, the lessons learned therein, and what one yields from those experiences. Granted, the following essay probably wont yield me any kudos from the followers of the "consumer spending" economic model, but I would regard such lack as a great compliment. In stating such, I would submit to you that in life...less is more. Contrary to the belief of the majority of people, all those nice "things" one sees in the plethora of advertisements on your television set are not needed to make your life happy. No...buying that sweet 60" LCD to watch your trashy programming may make your day, week, or maybe even your month but that about as good as it gets. Then you have to pay for the stupid thing. The TV set is only an example. Maybe its your "dream home", or your "dream car" or whatever "dream" you may have. Then inevitably the "dream" ends when the "dream" silently tells you to "get your ass outta bed and go to work to pay for me". Plus interest in most cases. Yea what a great dream....usually one that transforms itself into a nightmare. Been there, done that, never to repeat the same mistake. Many years ago I, I had several conversations with a friend of mine. He proceeded to try to convince me of the validity of his theory that more money, more nice "things" equates to giving your children an "advantage". I couldn't disagree more and actually believe the opposite is true. Yea thats what I want to unleash on society.... another high maintenance little brat. I recently have been privileged the last couple of years to do some finish carpentry on some higher-end homes in an affluent region in Utah. What I gained was a unique perspective on human nature and our tendency to "want" what is unimportant. Hardwood floors, granite countertops, fine stone flooring, expansive "space", expensive doors, expensive windows, expensive trim, expensive stainless appliances. Keyword? Expensive. All for vanity. To look upon it. To feel "better". Sure they have the money to spend. Or at least they hope to. I guess they better...with a 750,000 mortgage to pay for, they must be the most optimistic people in the world. Hard times better not come or there may be hell to pay. Hard times? Pfft! That wont happen. It will always get better. Or at least thats what they believe. They better believe that. They are locked into that lifestyle now. A high maintenance lifestyle. One in which their home, their car, their trips, their insurers, their interest tells them, no.....commands them to get out and pay for them. Thats fine by me. But me... I am so thankful to be me. To live in a modest home, to raise my own food, eggs, milk, to have my older vehicles paid for, to be able to take the day, or week off if I please with no one, or no "thing", to tell me I cant. Am I poor? I have money sufficient for my needs. Yes needs. Needs and a few wants. But I do have the things that make one truly happy. 6 healthy children and my freedom. Freedom from the hassles in life that vanity and worldliness bring. So as I finish up this essay, I look forward to going into my kitchen and cooking a few fresh eggs from my chickens, fresh sausage from my pork, warm homemade wheat bread topped with delicious new butter and an ice cold glass of milk from the goats I milked last night. Ah yes... it doesn't get any better than this. Then I will walk across my bargain basement....do-it-yourself tile floor (it bears my weight up and supports my feet just fine), sit on my stool I got on a closeout for 5$, place my plate upon my laminate countertop (wow....it holds my plate just like granite)! Ahh, that was a tasty and nutritious breakfast. Now I will jump into the shower that has a few old tiles falling down...but wait... it gets me clean! Just as clean as a granite shower! Looks like a nice day outside my 50$ window. Maybe some rain this afternoon. Thankfully I have a roof over my head and a wood burning stove that heats my entire house if needed. Ah yes the freedom of a low maintenance lifestyle. Just like back in the day.....the better days. Sometimes "progress" like the modern day is a grievous burden to be borne. A burden one can choose to set aside if one sets aside Lucifer's favorite human vice, vanity.

Tired of Inflation? Blame the collapse of the Bretton-Woods Monetary System.

Having heard all sorts of reasons and explanations of the "whys and wherefores" of the current inflationary cycle, let me take my own stab at it. Yes I know.... I'm no economist. Just an average American male with a good grasp of history and an interest in economics. Does that make me unqualified to make such an observation as this? I wouldn't think so. After all, who are these economists anyway? Oh yea...they graduated from some University by reading various publications and text books and hold the the contents therein as gospel. Well I have done some reading myself and have come to my own conclusions. Conclusions in which have been borne out by history and therefore makes sound economic theory (in my opinion of course).

To start... let me quote Ludwig Von Mises in his book... Human Action: A treatise on Economics: "There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved."

Theres the culprit...massive credit expansion. No one can deny the massive expansion of credit in the last 30-40 years...especially since the collapse of the Bretton-Woods international monetary system in the early 1970's. The same thing happened with the collapse of the Gold Standard at the beginning of World War I. When WW I started in 1914, the European countries stopped converting their currencies into gold at the rate set and effectively killing the international gold standard at that time. A standard that had been in place since the Napoleonic wars. Since there was no way the warring governments would have been able to get the required war material under a gold standard, a system of trade deficits and governmental debt came into being. After all...if the warring countries would have stuck to the gold standard, so much gold would have left their countries, credit contraction would have been inevitable inside the respective countries since the amount of credit that was available was dictated by the amount of gold one had on reserve. This contraction would have led to economic collapse. Where did these countries get their war material? The USA of course. The US then began to see a huge trade surplus as its European trading partners purchased the needed supply of war material. These capital inflows resulted in a massive doubling of the credit base in the USA between 1915 and the early 1920's. This huge capital influx and credit expansion in turn resulted in a period of economic expansion known as "The roaring 20's". But the expansion, driven by credit creation, created oversupply by the second half of the 1920's. Now companies had created a surplus of industrial capacity, prices began to drop and so did corporate profits. While the stock market was peaking, corporate profits were falling and finally the bubble burst and the rest is history. Our current "credit crunch" differs somewhat. As the destruction of the gold standard resulted in the boom and bust cycle of the early 1900's, The destruction of the Bretton-Woods system in early 1970 and the resulting massive credit expansion soon after has continued to this point and threatens the solvency of our current credit and monetary system. The Bretton-Woods system was formulated around the end of World War II to try to bring about a smooth monetary system. World currencies were pegged at a fixed exchange rate to the dollar and the dollar was pegged to gold at $35.00/ounce. The dollars value was backed by the gold reserves of the U.S government. As we plainly see in todays currency system, exchange rates float freely and a country may devalue its currency to gain advantages in trade. The Bretton-Woods system was created as a close substitute for the gold standard and was put into place to control and prevent excessive credit creation and also to prevent unfair trading practices by the devaluation of a nations currency. It worked great for about 20 years. But in the latter 1960's, with the increase of US corporations overseas, the massive expenditures of the Vietnam war, foreign countries began to see themselves with ever increasing amounts of US dollars. As these countries began to exchange these dollars for gold from the US Treasury at alarming amounts, President Nixon suspended the convertibility of US dollars to gold and everyone agreed to allow a floating currency exchange and the Bretton-Woods system collapsed. Let the massive devaluation of the US dollar begin! As American dollars flew off the printing presses, the US dollar became the world reserve currency. Instead of the creation of credit backed by gold...therefore limiting credit. Credit creation was backed by absolutely nothing...or in other words backed by paper money. The US was now able to pay its debts to its trading partners with currency backed by nothing at all or even with US denominated debt instruments. Worldwide credit expansion began uncontrolled and resulted in the boom and bust cycles in countries like Japan, Indonesia, and now the USA. But the US expansion was different in a few respects. With the US running up trillions of dollars worth of debts worldwide, and the value of the US dollar also decreasing, these foreign countries began to be forced to turn back and invest their US dollars and dollar denominated assets back into the US. Either that or exchange their US dollars for other currencies at an unfavorable exchange rate...therefore losing a substantial amount of money. So in the end it all came back to the US and fueled the massive credit expansion here as foreign governments heavily invested their US dollar denominated assets back into the US. Now everywhere you hear the explanations of the "credit crunch" and see the Federal Reserve injecting "liquidity" into the markets when it was excessive liquidity that caused the problem in the first place. Well see how long the Fed can postpone the inevitable collapse of a monetary system based on nothing but paper. Then and only then will the American people remember why, for thousands of years, gold and silver has been the only real store of value. I'm not looking forward to the results of such a collapse. Back in the great depression, those who went through it were hard-nosed immigrants. These days, having had a silver spoon in our mouths for decades, I fear the worst...chaos.

Thank your local Junkie, Doctor or dentist, and the FDA.

With life experience comes ones opinions. I have recently been privileged to acquire another strong opinion...one in which I strongly believe to be correct. One recent Thursday evening, I was awakened to a severe pain due to an abscessing tooth. What was really perfect was that my dentist wasn't in on Fridays. So there I was.... left to endure the worst pain I have ever experienced for a nice long weekend. Finally Sunday afternoon I had had enough and went to the emergency room of the local hospital for the first time in my 40 year life. I'm no wuss. I figured thats what they are there for....to do their job. After all, we do have the technology to give respite to one with severe pain. So they take my blood pressure and find it to be sky high...not because I am unhealthy, but because the pain elevates ones blood pressure. So there it was.... empirical evidence that I was in a state of suffering. I told the nurse on duty I haven't been to the Doctor in almost 20 years so its not like I come in regularly, making up divers stories of why i need a narcotic to ease my pain. So the Doc comes in and looks in my mouth and proceeds to prescribe me 10 lortab and a shot of heavy duty antibiotic. The lortab were the lowest dose prescribable. 5 mg of hydrocodone. Not really much, considering the height of pain I was in. So in order to give me some relief, I had to take a minimum of 3 lortab. So in other words, the pills given me didn't even give me enough relief to get a good nights rest that night after several sleepless nights lying in agony. So in other words Dr.......thanks for nothing. I understand fully the problems of prescription pain abuse in the here and now. But so what? I go in looking for help and pay the hefty bill and they wont give me what I need? Is it their job to make sure I don't get addicted to the pills or abuse them? In my opinion, no it isn't. Its nobodies business but mine. I go into your Doctors office and pay good money to do so. Then take my blood pressure, poke and prod, and then give me something to ease my suffering if thats what I'm there for. I seriously considered hitting the streets and scoring some heavy duty narcotics to give me some rest and ease my suffering. After all your not my clergy or my therapist. Just give me what I "need". What do I have to do....start my own poppy field and harvest my own narcotics so I can live through life's inevitable bouts of pain? Gimme a break. Quit trying to be my savior and do your job. The job I pay you well for....give me whatever it takes to ease my pain and then mind your other patients. Thats your job. So do it.

Why I quit the Republican Party.

Being what I am, a Christian Conservative, I can no longer support the Republican Party. But I'm not alone. The massive weakening of the Republican Party is coming from its roots....coming from people like me. A drastic change has taken place. What once was mainstream conservative is now considered "radical" or "right wing". Hmmm... thats strange, I don't remember being radicalized in any way, shape, or form. But nevertheless its true, I have been demoted to the status of "independent" voter. One who votes my conscience and not the party line. Oh no! Another wasted vote!? Any vote I make isn't wasted if I vote my conscience. Voting for the lesser of 2 evils just doesn't cut it in my book. So be it if the "conservative" Republican party takes a sound beating and gets trounced in the coming elections. They deserve it. Why? Well lets see...a failed free trade policy, record deficits, raping of the Constitution with undeclared wars, executive orders and historically intrusive laws brought to fruition by the "Patriot Act". Oh but its all for my safety. Pfft... gimme a break. I'll stick with the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin when he stated, " Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". Who are "those" who would give up essential Liberty for a little safety? Are you one of them? Have you contacted your representative (or Senator) to voice your displeasure? Or if you are in the majority of Americans, you probably don't know or care. Your too busy watching "Desperate Housewives" or any assortment of garbage to sooth your your need for "entertainment". Have you educated yourself on what really happened on September 11th? Or do you even care? What are we doing in Iraq? Close to a million civilian deaths along with over 4000 American soldiers killed and for what? Weapons of Mass Destruction? Well, that is why we went in in the first place isn't it. Again...Have you voiced your displeasure to your representative? Probably not. So go ahead...take your pills, look at your porn, watch you stupid TV set as your Constitution and your Liberty is set at naught and trampled underfoot by these "representatives" of yours. Yes yours, you do have them whether you acknowledge it or not. So then, as you sit there on your couch and sooth your senses with divers sources of trash, know this. It's you thats the problem in this country, not them. But sadly I am preaching to the choir....as I suppose you the reader have the interest and wherewithal to search and find this blog, also have been somewhat of an activist yourself. So let us do our part, and find comfort in the fact that at least we as individuals have done what we can do and in doing so give ourselves the right to complain about these very issues we have been trying to change.