Foundations revisited

I didn't want to polish off that last peanut butter cookie, but I couldn't help tossin this back at ya to make up for it...

Notice anything interesting at the bottom left of this "Foundation Document"?

Hint: ..."Just put your 'John Hancock' here real quick... ...and here... ...and here." Then click this link to go to the National Archives and risk your virtual assets, family and future to be a virtual Patriot...

The virtual signing helps in that one might be able to personalize the original history.  When we look at such things through the eyes of a teacher or the window of an author, we may gloss over the gravity of the situation the men on the original document faced.  To say that they risked life and limb mean more to me when I imagine myself in that same situation facing those circumstances and realizing the risk to myself and my family - my cares in this world. 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

I am glad that they realized how much they needed Divine Providence.  They had drawn a line in the sand against the largest military adversary in the world and any mercenaries that it could afford.  At the time of this signing, were I one of them, I would have reckoned my life "signed away."
 
Thank God for His Divine Providence, His Provision in the face of impossible odds...

"The Duty of all Nations..." A Thanksgiving - Presidential Style

Washington's Thanksgiving Proclamation
Preamble
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."



Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
Excerpt
To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.


1777 - Continental Congress Proclamation
Preamble
Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received, and to implore such farther blessings as they stand in need of; and it having pleased him in his abundant mercy not only to continue to us the innumerable bounties of his common providence, but also smile upon us in the prosecution of a just and necessary war, for the defense and establishment of our unalienable rights and liberties; particularly in that he hath been pleased in so great a measure to prosper the means used for the support of our troops and to crown our arms with most signal success...

Oh to think in the lofty and reverent term with which these great men of our nation commonly conveyed their ambitions...! 

I hate to comment after having read so many examples of such Thanksgiving Proclamations - Solemn each and every bit as reverent as would befit a prayerful church service...  ...I am thrilled to read them one after the other...

I think it might be fitting to finish with an excerpt from the 1777 Continental Congress Proclamation of Thanksgiving (see above):

"And it is further recommended, that servile labor, and such recreation as, though at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment, be omitted on so solemn an occasion."


There was too much to add - I had to stop...  ...our heritage is rich, repleat with seemingly endless and astounding accounts of the faith of our fathers.  I have been blessed to puruse these things and I hope that you will take a few minutes to consider the depth of our history.
Oh God! Thank You for this our heritage!  How blessed and privileged we have been.  Forgive us in our ignorance and thanklessness.  If You will, bestow upon us the courage of our forefathers to combat evil, to enforce and protect good.  Provide to us the means to prosper Your kingdom... ...may we not forget You in our ease, nor shame You in our want.  I pray that this day forward that we will often recall the dedication of those before us to Your will and Your kingdom.  May we take full advantage of the freedoms we enjoy - not merely to our own benefit, instead to our neighbor for the benfit of Your kingdom.

WallBuilders - Historical Documents - Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1863

WallBuilders - Historical Documents - Proclamation - Thanksgiving Day - 1863

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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.