Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness...

In case you don’t know, Chuck Colson is what I would call a “big thinker”. He and some other church leaders who understand firsthand the power of the Scriptures to truly transform a life and the authority that the Scriptures hold are standing in unison to protect life – the most fundamental freedom in our Constitution. They have drawn a line in the sand – perhaps to their own detriment in this world. I expect that they fully understand the risk they are taking… …and I want to stand behind them.


We didn’t invent life and we don’t have the authority to dismiss it from those who cannot defend themselves, and have not earned death from the hands of men.

I choose daily to give my life for others that I love– my family, my church – it is apparent to me now that I must make more effort to give my life to helping people that I do not know, but that I am called as a Christian to love. It will become personal to me someday if I do nothing – someday I will have a “choice of life” question decided for me or a loved one, but I would not fight for myself… …my calling is sure.  My thinking needs to grow...

There are links to follow below – If there is a place for me to sign something that fits this ideal, then I am 90% sure that you will find my name on it soon… …I don’t know how yet, but I can’t sit idly while we weigh the costs to the many for the benefit of a few. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is not supposed to be measured – it is supposed to be protected completely.

The Manhattan Declaration (pdf) : Two-minute Colson Video
 
Chuck Colson - Wikipedia
 
Prison Fellowship Ministries

Science [Fiction] Literature...

On the way in this morning I was regretfully reminded that today is the umpteenth anniversery of Darwin's invention...  Well, it wasn't really his invention, but he made it popular...

I don't have time to add much more, but I bought a copy years ago and I noticed something interesting - The full title!  How odd, yet, how logical...  ...favored races.  Hmmm...  I like the human race, thank you very much.

John the Baptist...

I love to get together with my siblings in Christ.  Like the verse in Hebrews says, our gathering together results in spurring one another on to love and good works...  ...and so much more as we see the day approaching.  Not often enough do we engage one another with questions for discussion sometimes.  I can imagine there are a few reasons that we hold back - we don't want to appear foolish or we might be afraid to ignite an arguent, perhaps?  (Nothing like personalizing everything, huh?)

Today, there was a question floating around about John the Baptist, specifically, "Was he really Elijah, the  prophet as Jesus says in Matthew 17: 1-13?" (emphasis on vs. 12)  The NAS version says "but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished." 

Frankly, this was one of those instances where the obvious question had never really arrived in my brain whether by reading or hearing this passage.  The only thing that I could answer (prayerfully, but a little shakily) was that I had never taken this to actually mean that John was literally Elijah returned.

If that verse is a little eyebrow-raising in this context, then check out Matthew 11: 13-15, part of which says (vs. 14), "And if you are willing to accept it, John himself is Elijah who was to come."  OOOO-Kaaayyy then, that looks even more like that, doesn't it?

Health Care

I believe this video is an older one, but I think he is pretty succinct about WHY NOT... 

I understand, firsthand how difficult healthcare risk and management has become; but I still maintain that the cost of it will not exceed the cost of our liberties...  ...let alone the cost taxes it will be to 97% of American business (that is, small businesses that make $200,000 annually, which is reported as personal income of the owner, but from which he may only keep what he does not re-invest into R & D, growth, wage increases and other benefits to employees.)  Keep in mind that somewhere between 75% and 85% of all Americans are employed by small business.  Think it won't cast you and I dearly? 

I am begging that our leaders will realize the peril they are imposing...  Fear is not a good decision basis.  THINK, AMERICA!!!  We are stepping into government mandates in every corner of life!

Mayan - Flood Evidence?

So, no, the Mayans did not say there was a flood. In fact, I am not an expert in Mayan mythology and culture; but the video I am putting here is a huge piece of evidence in my book to verifying the Biblical account of the Flood.

Many Creationists, who believe in a world-wide, catastrophic Flood also propose that there followed a long ice age. I have heard varying theories of this, but just accouting for the non-fossilized evidence (much like that shown in the video) would mean that the Ice Age would have been instantaneous. In fact, I wonder whether the "Flood" was all liquid water, or whether during the calamity, or shortly following it anyway, the "water" bacame solid - ice.

Frozen mammoths, un-decayed and perfectly mummified (not fossilized), are a huge reason that I hold to an instant and VVEEERRRRYYY cold freezing event. I think I need to brush up on this stuff a little more, but enjoy the video for now...

"Check out this great MSN Video": A Climate Event to End Time

Eggs

Tonight, we had a Beck family traditional breakfast dinner. It was wonderful...

I remember having this meal when I was a kid - I really don't know how it started though. I know that Dad loved it. He would get his plate with a whole patty of hamburger and a couple of fried eggs, then he would grab a bottle of Mrs. Butter Worth's syrup and pour that on all of it. After topping off his glass with milk (Sorry Matt), we all stopped our own preparations to pray.

I think my favorite part is the eggs - cooked in the same pan in which you just finished frying the burger. Maybe it's just a Beck thing (sort of like, "You really had to be there.") I don't know.

Mom cooks everything, well almost everything, the way I like it. I still don't care to eat beets all that much. Grandma Ruthi had the same effect on my appetite as well. Great Grandma Ruby too... ...Leave it to me to remember the food. 200 lbs. and holding... (mostly)

But that's what this post is about. Back to tonight. Wait, you need to know this first: My wife and I have "Kitchen Issues."

I don't know how much to divulge before I sleep with the chickens, but you have to know that kitchen issues go back to day... ...let's say day 3. I think that puts us home after the wedding. Immediately, after her arrival my new wife began setting up house. Pots, pans, utensils of all sorts were sorted, cleaned, organized and mostly MOVED! I, the former bachelor, was amused until I found myself lost in the kitchen in which I had become very comfortable!

Being the overly patient and loving sort, I believe I held my tongue for a looonnng time... ...at least 23 1/2 minutes. And that's when the [newlywed] fight started. Just kidding... We didn't have a fight until eight months later, when she cornered me in the kitchen and proceeded to use interrogation methods that they would later use in the manual on "rendering" of "enemy combatants." (Her's were less refined but highly effective…)

Anyway, in the seven years or so that we have been married my wife has re-organized the kitchen 19 times. That does not include the times that we moved, which would make it 20 times even. We have learned to respect and honor each other through the lessons learned in the kitchen - especially eggs.

We have an arrangement that goes something like this: "You get to cook it however you wish to cook it, and I will leave the kitchen and let you do that with as few rude comments as a normal human being with a valid-if-opposite-of-your-opinion can manage." In the interest of full disclosure, I am the primary offender on this one, which explains the way the law reads.

But I have a good reason for it... ...as a long-term bachelor, I had years of cooking under my belt. Of course, that cooking was left to Top Ramen, Steak, Broccolli, Asparagus and Eggs - oh yeah, and toast. So, when my wife decides to treat us to eggs, my big mouth and I are dutifully invited to leave the kitchen.

My egg frying, scrambling perfection has been refined to an art. Eggs are one of the more flexible of foods. Fried, they make breakfast on a plate or between two pieces of toast as a breakfast on the run. Scrambled up, they make a variety of omelet-like delicacies. Serve 'em with bacon in the morning and burger at dinner, or was it supper? Love 'em.

One thing though... ...DON'T BURN 'EM.

I'm serious. The whole house stinks for days and, I have to mention this for your own good, your clothes, your breath, your very pores stink too! I hate that! Er... ...I "strongly dislike" that. Sorry.

Anyway, I have tried to teach my wife the "right way" to cook eggs. She apparently has better things to do than stand over the stove top monitoring the pan temperatures as I do. So, muttering to myself, I have to excuse myself from the kitchen before another chapter gets added to the CIA Rendition Manual.

It takes time to cook eggs the "right way". You have to bring the pan to the correct temperature - just to the point where the butter, I mean the non-stick cooking spray, just starts to bubble lightly. Then, and only then can you gently introduce the eggs to the pan. At this temperature they will not skin up all brown-ly and the yolks will not burst from the sudden spike of heat.

BUT NOOOOO... ...my wife will cook the eggs somewhere between, "you might want the exhaust fan 'ON'" and "Open the windows before the smoke alarms all go off..." OK - it isn't THAT bad.

But I don't understand how she does them so perfectly. If I did them like that it would, well, stink. She does fried eggs in 3 seconds flat - for over easy. Gretta was giving her fits tonight so she missed flipping mine by about 1/2 of a second, so mine were in-between over-easy and over-medium. mmmmmm so good.

So, I guess it's time for me to admit that there is indeed, perhaps, maybe more than one "right way". Well, for eggs anyway.

Health Insurance...

Here's a hot topic that I can hardly believe has taken so long for me to bore you to death about... ...I guess I am still working on it in my head.

I have my ideas about what should happen, but that would be hard (read: impossible) to stomach - that is, the complete, unmerciful abolition of all health insurance, private and public. Rid the world of this legal extortion ("You take care of da family an' da family takes care-a yoos!") along with tort reform (including caps on punitive awards and recompense to successful defendants for all court costs...) and I think you have the makings of a more sustainable system.

Like I said, a nasty little problem in the short term while everyone has to make hard choices and some lose all to medical debt... ...abolition of insurance is just not a political possibility.

However, if you need any evidence that litigation is driving up health care costs, then look up John Edwards', the former Senator's bio sometime; and then add up some of the medical litigation that he alone is responsible for... ...then consider how many other sharks are in the water, mimicking his lawsuits, repeatedly scalping doctors for HUGE awards. Then you start to see why practicing medicine is expensive. I for one would do not want to swim in medical water for that reason alone. Just the mal-practice insurance premiums are enough to scare me into a cave.

Am I CRAZY?!! Maybe so, but we here in America still have the legal "out" of (gasp) bankruptcy if worse comes to worse. Now, I don't advocate running to the nearest bankruptcy layer the first time you can't pay off your credit card, but there is a time and place to shed the collections agancies and get life back on track. I would personally make it a purpose in life to pay those bills back over time as well - that's a Biblical theme.

However, the original purpose of health insurance was not to mitigate risk. It was to provide hospitals with income (see the links below). Then, with a few more little circumstances along the way, it became a fringe benefit, then it became the norm for risk management, then the norm for cheap health care, and now it is the norm for assuring your own financial poverty forever. Premiums in many cases (ours at one time) approaches or exceeds the mortgage payment (I hear another rant coming?).

So, how did we get health insurance (legal extortion)? I heard a story recently aired on Public Radio and thought to look it up today...

You may want to hear it yourself: http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2&prgDate=10-22-2009

Or, since they had no "embed" option, here is the transcript...
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=114045132

It is the facinating story of how we have gotten the best health care in the world, if at the highest cost in the world?

As I see it, health insurance somehow went from steady income to hospitals, to fringe benefit, to personal risk management, then to cheap medical care, and finally to almost none of the above. Now it is more of assured poor house residency. At least before health insurance the poor house wasn't guaranteed!

Now it may become EVEN MORE costly as we sacrifice every ounce of our freedom of choice to health related regulation... ...and you thought it was all just about economics? I wish.

With health care regulation, comes the inevitable, logical regulation in which you are rewarded with penalties for your bad habits like smoking, drinking, avoiding your annual doctor's exam, neglecting your 3 or more annual flu shots, driving an SUV... ...Oh wait, the SUV part goes in the Cap and Trade bill... Silly me.

But I do wonder how stiff the penalty will be for smoking and eating a greasy breakfast sandwhich while driving a dirty, gas-guzzling, smoke-spewing SUV to your job at the carbon producing smog factory... ...at least you were wearing your seat belt, eh?

There is no end to the possibilities... ...think of all the fun those lwyers are gonna have writin' bills about this-and-that bad-for-you-or-the-environment thing... What do you call that? Checks and Balances? Noooooo.... A BLANK CHECK!

Bottom line - lawyers are getting all 'da loot.

So, I guess I did end up boring you with my opinion of all of this so far... ...Silly me.

Now, go check out that story about health insurance - it might help you wake up again. Or not.

In Service...

Twelve years ago I began work for Aerocet, Inc. a tiny company in Priest River, Idaho that makes aircraft floats (pontoons). I have tried to get used to explaining who we are and what we do because there aren't many locals who know that Aerocet even exists... Well, outside of Priest River, anyway. Long story short, I wouldn't have known either, except that somebody who knew me made the introductions.

It's hard to be brief about this, because there have been so many lessons, trials and victories that I have both lived and witnessed - and many more that I know very little about...
Three days into my new job, I was told of a new aircraft design that my boss had rattling around in his head. While I was intrigued, I was skeptical. I grew up living airplanes, dreaming of flying in the military or for missions, and I knew that many designs made little more than paper in a drawer in some empty building somewhere. I knew the mentality of the aviation types - a full head of steam comprised of crazy new concoctions pressurized with more enthusiasm than money.

One fellow stated it best by asking me one day, "Do you know how to make a little money in aviation?"

I thought hard, because I hate being ignorant, but I had no idea. "No."

"Well, you start with a LOT of money..." he laughed...

Now you start to get the picture, but we haven't even scratched the surface of all the challenges involved with producing a new aircraft.

Tom, my boss, owner of Aerocet was at the heart of all of this. Dave Voetman, MAF career missions pilot and Tom met many years ago and though I don't know the specifics, I perceive that this was a pivotal moment, perhaps the actual beginning of what would eventually become the Kodiak. That was around 17 years ago...

Some men dream of doing great things, others of great money, others of great power. Some of us don't even dare dream. Tom is in the first group - but his dreams came in the forms such as, "Wouldn't it be neat to pack everything up in one of these airplanes, and fly into some jungle strip, and hand some missionary the keys? 'It's all yours now...'"

Throughout the Kodiak project, he has kept a picture of Dave Voetman in Africa holding a tiny child with a distended belly - this picture is one of the windows into the heart of these guys and the team who has since built the Kodiak.

The need isn't just the food, supplies and the meds. The need was for replacements for aging aircraft that even when useable, were increasingly maintenence intensive. There are fewer mission pilots now too. Ever-increasing cost in training leaves many would-be-pilots stateside to pay off the debt - among other things, perhaps. Many missions aircraft are dependant on AvGas, which is becoming less available in some places. Where it can be gotten, it can come at a dear price.

From the start the Kodiak was intended to meet needs raised by the mission pilots and mechanics. Design parameters included wingspan, fuel type, maintenance in the field and a host of other considerations - all met in this airplane.

I got some pictures today that help to remind me why I am here. This is a good day. Some days, well, you'd like to hope there were more good days.

There is a struggle hidden in every day. Someone, somewhere finds a "problem" and decides to make it yours; or perhaps you find your own problem and you have to find a way to fix it. Some days, I have a hard time seeing past the count-down to home. The constant barrage of reality wears you down from the inside out.

So, today, I am allowing myself to remember the story of this 17 year effort and I am taking comfort in the notion that God's purposes are bigger than my own. He has some kids out there that need help - my trouble is worth that, isn't it?

I had little to do with the Kodiak, except some rib drawings once upon a time. Those are long gone, I am sure, but I am privileged to have watched and learned first hand how God's ends are met - whatever the challenges or heart-wrending along the way.

The Quest Aircraft Team has all my best wishes and thanks...

Lord, help me to be faithful to you. Lead me not into trials, but victory. I ask You to help me get something useful done for Your kingdom today. Bless the efforts of those who've dedicated their lives for your service...

The above pictures are taken in New Guinea. This Kodiak is in service with JAARS (Jungle Aviation And Radio Service - http://www.jaars.org/.

The Kodiak is designed and built at Quest Aircraft in Sandpoint. http://questaircraft.com/

In [His] service, I hope that this is a "good day" for you as well...

Abba! Father...

"For you have not received a spririt of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, 'Abba! Father!' The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him." (Romans 8:15-17)

I hope that this is a familiar passage to most of you... I know that it was taught thoroughly to me and to those in my church family where I was raised. It had a significance due to the deep teachings we were given back then, but I have lived the example and felt its significance in a personal way that perhaps cannot be relayed to anyone else. I can't help but make the attempt...

This thought struck me with full force yesterday during communion and once again, I tried my best to ignore the tears and try not to be a distraction. As one of the elders spoke of the the Last Supper and the words of Christ I heard the echoes of something familiar to my heart... Christ knew what he was doing. He knew the cost and He knew the prize... ...He knew that at the end of the struggle that He then faced, He would take a bride, the Church, and extend an inheritance, a heritage to a new family. I am unable to speak of these things without tears right now, so writing will have to do.

Having been taught this adoption to the family of God from such an early age, it was almost a natural conclusion for me to extend this into my own life. In the same manner, it was a foregone conclusion for Christ - He knew the cost all too clearly and chose to follow through.

He knew what He was getting into. He knew that I would be imperfect, rebellious, sinful and all the rest, yet His love was fastened to me, to us, to his prize. His affection is as deep as it is firm and is not lessened though hurt by our transgressions.

We once had a slave owner for a father in Satan. He held us captive to our desires, our lusts, leading us to believe that his life is a good life. He leads us astray by telling lies and feigning care for us. When we have fallen, he laughs and he points, he abuses his children with accusations and he confines them in their guilt. He is a terrible father, indeed he is only a father in the most minimal of ways.

But the work of Christ to pay the penalty of our sins has allowed a us to enter the family of God. His adoption is binding. It is legal and it is complete. The Evil One has only the influence that we give him. He can cojole, harass and accuse all that he wants to, but he can do nothing unless we give him the time of day to work.

Satan will have his day in court, and he will try to point out our faults before God the judge, but our Advocate is Christ and His work is final. Our inheritance is sure in the courts of Heaven. Again I am writing in tears - and glad to be...

MY child... MINE and not his... the evil one has no right any longer, so do not live as though he does... Do we get it yet? "Oh how He loves you and me" !!!

Chicken...

I haven't had any time this year to do much blogging. I posted here and there about some of it, but in review I recall trips and visits, work (gratefully, of course), new floors in the house (thanks guys for advice and for the musckles), and then the coop...

I started looking for plans - or at least advice - on the Internet. I honestly underestimated the chicken crowd... I searched the Internet, read through catalogs, talked to people, etc. and "Wow!" I am surprised about the number of people who are cuckoo for chickens.

My experience with chickens was always getting eggs (sometimes with great caution around a grumpy hen), and getting another piece off of the platter on the dinner table...

When our chicks arrived, I was mildly amused that the girls thought they were pretty neat; but even my wife got in on it for a week or so. I got scared when the chicks got names, and got even more scared when the chicks got a photo session. You can imagine the dread I began to feel as I envisioned the fateful night we would be eating "Fluffy." (No, there is no Fluffy in our flock... I don't know their names, and if I did, I would change the names to protect the innocent...)

But all good things must end (mercifully), and my wife has recently issued an eviction notice - the chickens have to go outside, now. Funny, but now I find myself sort of attached, feeling a little scared for them and worried that they might get cold out there. Sure, they are two or three times larger now, and starting to get a stink to them, but still...

So, back to the Internet for a little insomniatic perusing to make sure that they will indeed be OK to move yet - oh, and to find out if it is normal for them to be tearing up bits of the newspaper and chasing each other around to get it. (Think tag, cute little chicken style... ...then think of it in fast-forward. Yes, that fast! Throw a bug in there and its like watching a scale version of Jurassic Park with little veloci-raptors...)

So, it turns out that chickens are indeed animals with God-given instincts and abilities - and apparently boredom too. I guess they need something to do... whoduthunk. Chickens need stuff to "do?"

I grew up in a rural area - but I guess I missed some of the finer points...

For the rest of us who know nothing about chickens, I found this site. http://www.backyardchickens.com/