True Christians??

Conservative "Old Pol" Republican who has been around too long, try to convey an air of superiority (I've always wondered what that smell was), and believes that they have the answers to everything. They believe if an idea didn't originate with a Republican, it's not worth considering. If religious at all, they have set themselves up as the gatekeepers of Christianity, their state Religion, which is not open anyone except Conservatives. No one except white Caucasians need apply, either to the Republican Party or their State Religion.
Their State Religion is not true Christianity! True Christians believe in and follow the teachings of Christ, and is a Religion of love, salvation, compassion and concern. True Christians believe in helping their fellow humans regardless of their status or position, and without regard for race, or national origin.
Christianity is an all inclusive belief and philosophy. Conservatism is a cult of the philosophy of men. The two cannot be combined. You cannot be a conservative and also a Christian.

Consider this:

Christianity teaches to love your neighbor as yourself. Conservative says, you have to be kidding, I'm number one.
Christianity; If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn your other cheek to him also.
Conservative, "The hell you say". A person has to defend himself.
Christianity teaches to help those less fortunate than ourselves. Conservative says I look out for number one. It's his fault he is poor. He was too lazy to work like I did, and yes, I lied, cheated, and stole. That's the only way to get ahead in this dog eat dog world. Why should I GIVE someone like that anything. I worked hard to get what I have, and I'm going to keep it.

Christ's teachings were unconditional. There was no test to see who deserved it. As a matter of fact, He said no one deserved anything, but was given what they have by the Grace of His Father, God. Such gifts as we have received should be shared with others. What good are these things or "stuff" going to do you when you are dead? I've never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse to the cemetery. All you accumulated and so selfishly kept for yourself is now someone else's.
I read every day where someone is referring to "those godless liberals", and first, I would remind them that the founder of Christianity, Christ, was a liberal. He was executed for his beliefs and teachings.
Conservatives, who is this Christ you claim to be following? Certainly not the Christ of the Bible. And just like the early Christians were persecuted, you are persecuting those true believers today.
You have tried to take Christ away from true believers, and have made Him your own creation while denying the True Christ to the true Believers.

Who is The True Christ???

Qualifications for President

Why is so much being made out of experience or lack of it a factor in being President of the United States? That has no importance at all.
Hold on now, before you scramble for your computer to bawl me out for ignorance or worse!
First, let me ask a question:

What experience and qualifications is needed to run for the office of President?

If you answered anything but be a Natural born citizen of the United States, and over 35 years of age, you got it wrong. According to the Constitution, this is all that is required.
There's probably more qualifications required to be a greeter at Wal-Mart.

Think about it. We can elect a person to be the leader of over 300 million people who doesn't have to have any experience at anything at all. That's pretty sobering, isn't it? I hope you sleep well tonight.

They don't have to prove emotional or mental stability at all. Illiteracy or being a high school dropout doesn't disqualify a person either.

Is this some cruel trick that the framers of the Constitution have pulled on us? I don't think so. More likely it was their belief in people that they would all do the right thing.
It's possible that doing the right thing is enough, but even that must be by consensus. And perhaps those founding Fathers planned it that way so that one person wouldn't try to force himself or someone else on all the people.
Not much more was needed then in an agriculture and trading society. The question is do we need more today?

Let's look at the Constitution: Except for the first ten amendments, which were included in the original document, there have only been 17 amendments to the Constitution, one of which was repealed. So in 232 years, we have only had a net of 16 amendments, for an average of one amendment every 14.5 years.

That's a pretty good indication the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing, and had great faith in humankind. Occasionally, we get a clinker, and most of them have known their limitations, and the electorate takes steps at the next election to set this right.

This says that we should all do whatever is necessary to assure the Constitution is not neglected or something else offered as a substitute.

Do you Remember When?

This is for you mature adults here. Mature like old, ripe, and maybe rotten (too mature).
Take a trip with me back to the 1950's and 1960's when life was less complicated than now. TV was in its early beginnings, black and white, that is, color was just a dream. We had only gotten color movies just before World War II. There were no computers, and jet planes were still military planes. Bell Labs had just announced the transistor, which they claimed would replace the vacuum tubes in radios, and change the radio and television industries.
Remington Rand, I believe it was, had just announced the world’s first computing machine, UniVac, and claimed blinding speed calculating great quantities of numbers.
Hard drive meant heavy traffic and rough roads getting to grandmother's house on Sundays. If someone had mentioned software, you might have thought it was a frilly nightgown.
When we drove up to a service station, we bought gasoline for our car, but got lots more than that. The words "service station" meant that an attendant would come out, pump our gas, raise the hood and check the oil, and water (radiator fluid wasn't called coolant then. We put water in the radiator in the summer, and added anti-freeze in the winter. The attendant also checked the air pressure in our tires, and added more air to them if needed. He would also wash your windshield if it needed it. All of this and more for a 30¢ gallon of gas. Actually, no one bought just a gallon of gas unless it was for their speedboat, and the gas was usually mixed with oil because many boats used two-cycle engines. This was the era of big, high powered, fast, gas guzzling cars. Why not? Gas was cheap, and the supply unlimited.
Even though the end of WWII did not bring an end to conflicts, and the Korean war, things were a lot different in the '50's. We did not have to commit all our domestic production to the war effort. We were having our cake and eating it, too, and letting the good times roll. Our economy was booming, with no end in sight.
But the end did come. In the LBJ Administration, we began to see rising inflation, coupled with higher prices and increasing wages. This was not leveling out, as wages and prices kept spiraling upward. Then, in the 70's during the Carter administration, all of a sudden we began hearing reports of a gas shortage. Yep, here it came big time. I won't bore you with the details of waiting in line for hours for 5 gallons of gas, and the price had increased to over 40¢ per gallon!

Since then, gas has been generally available, but with ever increasing prices. One thing however, did disappear. The Service Station. Yes, gone was the owner-operator neighborhood station. The oil companies had been quietly closing them down, and replacing them with gas stations and food marts. The old 7-11 food marts were among the forerunners of this. The pumps were still out front, but no smiling, pimply-faced youngster came out and asked, "fill 'er up, mister?" You drove up to the pump, got out of your car, and pumped your own gas. Even members of the fairer sex who once would never have dreamed of doing so, have learned how to use a gas pump. It has now narrowed down to two methods of paying for your gas; either you pay before you pump, or pay with a debit or credit card. If you're filling up and pay cash, you may have to make more than one trip inside because you have over or under estimated the amount of gas you need.
This is the classic case of pay more and get less. You got a real bonus if your full service station also had someone available that knew a little more than average about cars. If you drove in with a broken fan belt, or busted radiator hose, someone could repair or replace it for you. Fixing flat tires was routine. To get most of this kind of service done now, you will have to go to a garage, or maybe learn to do it yourself.
Over the years, cars have become more complicated, and it's sometimes difficult to locate even fan belts. I'm sure those who grew up with these nightmarish machines have no more problems with them than many of us did with the simpler cars of the 50's and 60's.
In some ways, I miss these earlier times, but I still contend that "The Good Old Days" are right now.
Consider these things:
Who ever heard of a lifetime warranty on an automobile? Used to be 90 days, tops. Tires that would last 50,000 miles or longer? 6,000 miles or longer between oil changes? Coolant (anti-freeze) good for 5 years? Engines running over 200,000 miles with no major problems. Many vehicles to choose from that get 30 miles to a gallon of gas. Safety features unheard of such as shoulder harness, air bags, better crash resistance, anti-lock brakes. If we had a seat belt, chances are we installed it ourselves, and felt like we were ready for the race track. Bodies that don't rust out in two or three years. GPS equipment so we know where we are at all times, and CD stereo music that rivals home theater systems, and with changers that will provide several hours of continuous music. TV or DVD for rear seat passengers, most common in vans and SUV's.
One thing more and I'll quit.
If you read "the funnies" as I did, you will likely remember the comic strip, Dick Tracy. He was a police detective who had all kinds of neat things. The one I remember the best was his two-way wrist radio, a cumbersome looking box that he wore on his wrist which gave him communications with headquarters. Real Buck Rogers stuff! Now what do we have?
The bane of many drivers. The Cell Phone! Instant communications with nearly anyone around the globe that we carry in our shirt pocket. The bane of many drivers? Yes, the person using his phone in high speed traffic and not concentrating on his driving. Some states are attempting to address this problem, and are requiring either hands free equipment, a speaker phone, or banning cell phone calls while driving altogether. Kind of interesting, but there is a need for some uniformity throughout the country, or the knowledge of what different states require.
Ok, take and read this, and reply if you are so inclined, or ignore it, whatever you wish to do, but have a go0od day, and may your next gas purchase be at a discounted price.

Drilling for Oil and other harmful practices

Electrical Power plants do not have to be hydrocarbon consuming monsters that belch great clouds of pollutants into the atmosphere. The majority of our power generation comes from burning hydrocarbons such as coal, natural gas, and fuel oil.
Two sources of electrical energy which have thus far proven to have a low level of pollutants, and nearly zero hydrocarbon emissions are wind power and solar power. Another that seemed to have possibilities was using ocean currents and coastal rise and fall of tides to generate electricity.
In the U.S, it takes 10 years or better to bring a nuclear power plant on line. Why can't we take a cue from the French, which generates the greater part of their electricity from nuclear power plants? Their success comes from the fact that they have a standard design for all plants, so that they are not starting over every time they construct a power plant. We Americans tend to re-invent the wheel and all our nuclear power plants are developed and built from scratch. Surely we have learned enough about their construction that we shouldn't have to start over each time one is built. But then that's the American way with anything that requires government approval. Everyone that possibly can be involved is involved.
Look at schools and jails; the ones I am aware of are completely new from concept to design to construction. Is it any wonder that we are raising generations of lock step citizens that all think and act alike. If we have a future, where is our future leadership coming from?
Buildings that are made for the same purpose could be made with one design that is basically fixed although with some latitude for minor changes. I can envision a modular design of single units or classrooms. If you needed a school with 12 classrooms, you used twelve modules, 20 classrooms, 20 modules. These modules could be built at one site and transported to their final location and assembled there like building blocks. You might have the option of putting a different facade on the building so they didn't all look alike, but the basic engineering would be the same, and not require new approval every time a new school or jail was built. This could significantly cut costs, and get new buildings that are needed quicker. Instead of three to five years to build a new school or jail, it could be done in a third of the time for conventional construction, possibly less.
Politics and patronage builds more schools and jails than anything else. We need to change this. I have always maintained that schools and roads are not necessarily built where they are needed most, but where politicians want them. I think the same can be said for our power generating and oil refining businesses.
A recent catch phrase has been "think outside the box." I think to this we can add, yes, think outside the box, but think box - modular box(s).
One more question: How is it that a multi-million shopping center can be built from scratch, from preparing the land to occupancy and grand opening in several months instead of several years?
If drilling for oil is approved for these forbidden areas, take note of how long it takes to start pumping oil.

An Empty Life

Anyone who has ever served in any branch of the military has a feeling that those who have not served will never have. We're not super patriots, and damn few of us are bona fide heroes. I don't believe any of us draftees or enlistees, entered service with the idea of becoming a hero, and at the same time would not shirk from their duty, and if part of that was to be a hero, it was something expected from him as part of his job.

Before I get too far into this, let me give you my qualifications and credibility for writing this.:

I enlisted and served eight years in the United States Army from June, 1955 to May 1963, The first three years active duty, and the remaining five in the reserves. I spent over two years of my active duty in the Federal Republic of Germany, not with occupation forces, since the occupation was ended a few months before I was assigned to Germany. We were part of the NATO Peacekeeping forces, which at this time was quite large, because of a still divided Germany, and the Cold War under so much tension it could have snapped at any time.

During this eight years, I saw Soviet forces go into Hungary to try to crush the Hungarian Revolt, British and French planes bombing the Suez Canal, and the construction of the Berlin Wall. Any of these events could have triggered another conflict, and possibly World War III Fortunately, (or maybe because we were there?), none of these events escalated to major conflict, and some twenty years later, the Berlin Wall came down, Germany was reunited, and the Soviet Union broke up. Truly, we who served during that period were eyewitnesses to a major part of world history.

Recently, I have been looking back and asking myself what my life would have been like had I not served in the military.. I really think that there would have been something missing from it. Maybe a hollow place.

I've never talked about this to anyone that I served with, but I feel reasonably sure they feel the same way. It's something that is to me priceless. It is not something that took those years out of my life, but something that added much more to living and enhancement to my life. I have a much better appreciation for and a strengthening of my love for my country, family, and friends. It still is so rewarding, and like learning and knowledge, it's something no one can take away from me.

The Army I served in was like nothing you can imagine. Hollywood makes good movies, but they have not yet captured the essence of what the Army (or any branch of the military) is like. It is not as portrayed in a John Wayne movie, or a Rogers and Hammerstein Musical, i.e., "South Pacific". As good as these movies and Musicals are, they do not capture the full essence of Military service. There is no intent to put down any of these attempts to capture the real military, but truly it has to be experienced before you really know.

OPPORTUNITY MISSED!

I have been less than excited about the choice the Democratic Party has made for their Presidential candidate.. Make no mistake, the decision for Obama to run for President came from the (Chauvinist) powers that be.
Ted Kennedy and that bunch will not allow a woman, any woman to run for President. It was OK for Geraldine Ferraro to run for vice President with Walter Mondale, when the Party knew they were just the sacrificial lambs, because it was a foregone conclusioon that Republicans would win that year. It says something about the flaws in Democratic leadership that they have embraced blacks, but still consider women inferior. Even Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi is just a token, and the real power of the Democratic Party still belongs to a handful of the "Good Old Boys", such as Teddy Kennedy and Howard Dean
This must be some kind of rebellion, because all their lives men and boys have been dominated by women, their, mother, girlfriends, wives, daughters, and Mistresses, and until they (we) have the maturity to admit it, it will be the same old, same old.
Hillary's speech last night clinched it! THAT was a real President talking! Too bad that opportunity has been lost, and I can see nothing but confusion and chaos in the future.
There is, however, a higher power dominating all of this, and it may be that He is letting all this happen (is this theologically correct?) and has chosen not to intervene. There are some that will say that we are living in the last days according to the book of Revelation, because men's minds and actions have become confused.
I fear thisa action has cost the Democratic Party the chance to regain the Presidency. There may never be another opportunity as good as this one.

Product Recalls

See complete article at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/02/AR2007080202216.html

Is this the legacy of "Outsourcing", the practice of setting up or engaging manufacturers in other countries which have large labor bases, working for wages considerably lower than those paid in the United States. Some of the reasons for outsourcing are, tax incentives from the United States Government, the above mentioned lower pay, and a resulting increase in profits.
I'm not against profits, but has the pursuit of profits placed our safety and that of our families in jeopardy? The cases of lead containing paints raises the question. Lead paints have not been used in the United States for several years now, although we are cautioned to check older houses for the presence of lead in the paint. There are inexpensive testing kits that can be used by a h0meowner, or potential home buyer to check for the presence of lead.

We sometimes hear people complain that we have too much government regulation, that the governments of other countries do not have so many restrictive laws. Knowing the hazards of lead and lead poisoning, and its long term effects on humans, would you really want to take a chance? This recall by Mattel of several million lead contaminated toys has been estimated to cost them over thirty million dollars, which will mean decreased profits in the short term, and increased toy prices in the long run.
Closer monitoring of their suppliers is needed by Mattel and others, to assure that our standards for imported goods be observed. In the short term, this will mean increases in prices, but in the long term, it should give us more assurance that the products we buy are safe.

A REAL CHOICE?

This year's choices for a President presents a real quandary. I have been saying that we have the worst choice(s) I have ever seen for what will be my twelfth Presidential election.
Up until now, I have been loyal to the Democrat Party, but I'm disappointed that they are acting like Republicans. Voting for either candidate doesn't seem to be an option, and I've never seriously considered voting for a third party candidate, which would seem to be a futile gesture, as would a write in vote.
The average voter does not have a choice of who is picked to run for President. The Democrat Party has embraced blacks and now they are acceptable Presidential Candidates, but they still do not (like the Republicans) accept that a woman is capable of being President. I I think it was the power brokers of the Democratic Party, Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, et.al., that promoted Obama at the expense of the best candidate (Hillary Clinton). They are just like the power brokers of either party; they cannot accept that a woman can do the job from which they have been excluded for over 200 years. Look at other countries throughout the world, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Israel, India, Indonesia, The Philippine Islands, to name some who have had women leaders, and it doesn't seem to have hurt them at all, and may have even enriched them.
I have at times accused the Republican Party of having a mindset that is entrenched in the Nineteenth Century, but I realize that they are not the only ones. Sex is an accident of birth, and doesn't determine a person's capabilities. The little boys of both parties need to grow up!