Glenn Beck on his show tonight predicted that if Brown won, the progressives will “put the petal to the metal” in their effort to re-make America into the latest progressive paradise.  I think he’s right: they will not go quietly, and one Republican victory will not dissuade them from their goals.  Expect Pelosi and company to try to make good on today’s statement:

“Our eye is on the ball of passing legislation.  In order to do that, we have to resolve some differences, establish some priorities, make some decisions.  And that’s what we’re doing.  Whatever happens in Massachusetts, we have to do that.  And whatever happens in Massachusetts, we will pass quality, affordable health care for all Americans, and it will be soon.”

Harry Reid has expressed his willingness in the past to use the “nuclear option”, if necessary, in the Senate to pass the final health care bill with 51 votes.  And the Dems certainly still hold a commanding majority in the House.  And you can be sure that there will be an effort to block Brown from voting on any bill until he is seated, which could take as much as a month.

But tonight is time to celebrate.  We the People have spoken.  Scott Brown’s victory is a people’s victory, a populist victory.  Donations poured into Brown’s campaign at the rate of over $1,000,000 a day in the last week.  The American people are starting to get it, they are waking up.  The only question is:  Is it soon enough?

We are coming for you. Who do you represent? What do you represent? Listen. Because we are coming. We the people are coming.

This election, in all likelihood, will decide the fate of Obamacare.  Brown has stated categorically that he will vote against the bill, thus being the 41st senator to vote against it and effectively killing it.  Barney Frank today announced:  “If Scott Brown wins, it’ll kill the health bill.”

The election is next Tuesday, Feb. 19th.  If you live in Massachusetts, I urge you to vote for Senator Brown.  If you don’t, please consider donating to his campaign (even at this late date).  If you don’t donate, please pray!  (Even if you do donate!)  This is our last, best chance to defeat the health care bill.  It’s up to you, Massachusetts.  Don’t let us down!

STAGE 1: You might begin with a series of statements to yourself, such as, “No way can this be true.  There must be alternative explanations.  This simply can’t be; I would have heard about it.”  To help speed you through this stage of denial, I offer you access to the source data so that you can check it for yourself.  Further, I only draw upon sources that I believe most reasonable people would consider to be highly credible.  If you can view all of the data that I will present and find some alternative set of explanations as to why and how all of these things will not matter, I need you to share this with me, pronto.

STAGE 2: Next, you might find yourself full of anger, saying to yourself (and possibly your loved ones and anybody else who will listen), “Aaaaarghh!!! Those bastards at the Fed, in the government, in media, have been hiding things from me, lying, and serving their own interests at my expense. How dare they!!!“  While anger is a perfectly normal and even healthy stage to pass though, it is also counterproductive, in the sense that anger often serves to inhibit action…and as you’ll see later, we don’t really have a lot of time to spend in the non-solution stage. So for everybody’s sake, you need to move through this phase as rapidly as possible.  This is also why you will not find me assigning blame and pointing fingers.   Blame leads to anger and often a sense of victimization – both of which serve to inhibit taking action.  Further, the “blame game” only serves to polarize people into opposing teams – and we’re all on the same team in the end.

STAGE 3: The next stage is bargaining. Here you might find yourself thinking such thoughts as, “If I simply change a few things in my life, perhaps that will be sufficient and I won’t have to really change.  I’ll use efficient light bulbs, buy a Prius, and save more each year.” You will find yourself bargaining with the data for more time, a different outcome, perhaps for a miracle to emerge.  Perhaps some new technology will arise that will give us abundant and limitless energy, or we’ll elect a new president capable of speaking the truth and marshaling the considerable talents and energy of this country.  This, too, is a stage, and I’ve assembled a framework for understanding in such a way as to help you understand the critical difference between wishful thinking and realistic solutions.  Please understand that I am not going to purposely step on your hopes – I am as hopeful as anybody you will ever meet – it’s just that I want our collective hopes to be placed in the right places, where they can do us some good.  My hopes center on the tremendous reservoirs of talent, energy, and problem-solving that reside in this country, this community, and this room.  I am confident that we will pull through all of the problems that we are about to discuss and that we can do it with joy, verve, and excitement.  Misplaced hopes and defective strategies, on the other hand, will only let us down in the future, as they fail to deliver.

STAGE 4: The next stage is fear, and it can take many shapes. “I’m going to die broke.  People will come out of the cities and eat all my food and harm my family.  The future is going to be unbearably bleak.   I might die.  I might starve.   I’m not built for a world that mirrors the dystopian nightmare of Mad Max.” It is important to name these fears and confront them directly.  Trying to ignore or stuff them away is simply a recipe to assure that they linger deep down, infecting your dreams and fostering paralysis.  Fears are debilitating.  They will prevent you from acting and they will ultimately erode your physical well-being.  Most of these fears are grounded in the knowledge that our social, energy, and food networks are, for the most part, unnecessarily complicated and often wafer-thin.  How will they operate in a more challenging environment?   We don’t really know, and it’s that uncertainty which creates a deep sense of unease.  Our food supply is both robust and fragile.  If the continuous parade of trucks ever stopped rolling, for any reason, nearly all communities would find their store shelves stripped bare within 2-3 days.  In fact, when we peel back the covers and examine each aspect of our various support systems, we find that they are nearly all built upon the implicit assumption that the future will be pretty much exactly like today.  But what if it’s not?   For myself, the only answer was to actively take steps to address each of my most basic fears.  Imagine that you live in a maze made out of some flammable material and you have a fear of being caught in a fire in the maze.   How could you reduce your fear?  One way would be to familiarize yourself with the way out.  Another might be to leave the maze and live somewhere else.  Attempting to ignore the fear is not a strategy, because you would still know, on some level, that even though you are ignoring the fear, the risk remains…and so will the fear.   The easiest way to reduce fear is to take concrete actions to reduce risk.

STAGE 5: The most critical stage to navigate is depression.  With a realistic assessment of our predicament, it is extremely common for people to begin to harbor such thoughts as, “Crap, we’re screwed. What’s the point?  I am powerless to do anything about this.  There’s nothing that any of us can do, anyway.” At this stage, dark fantasies of the future begin to creep into our thoughts, and fear paralyzes our ability to think, let alone act. It is my goal to help you limit this stage to the absolute shortest possible time – perhaps we can find a way to bypass it altogether.

STAGE 6: The final stage is acceptance.  You will know you are here when you begin to think, “However we got here is unimportant – it is what it is.  Let’s figure out how to navigate the future with the tools and advantages we’ve got, not what we wish we had.” With acceptance comes peace, a sense of calm, and the ability to think clearly and take actions.  However, acceptance and urgency can co-exist, and I do not mean to imply otherwise.

I recognize these stages from my own experience, but would not have been able to express them.  Personally, I’m still in stage 5.  I know that I need to move on to acceptance, but I have found myself lethargic, unable to get myself to do what I need to do.  The fact that it hasn’t been above freezing since the beginning of the year doesn’t help any either.  But just knowing that what I’m going through is “normal” and that others have gone through it before helps a great deal.  Why is it we always feel like we’re the only ones?  Even when we know there are millions more like us out there?  I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure the progressives are counting on using it against us.  That’s why it’s so important to stay connected, to stay in touch with each other.  We are NOT a minority!  And we (you) are not alone.

Even if things go really well, rough times are coming.  And if things don’t go well, it will probably get really ugly.  Educate yourself.  Learn how to get along with less or without.  Learn how to grow some of your own food, if possible.  Check out some the following websites for more information:  Survivalblog.com, Captain Dave’s Survival Guide, and the Sufficient Self Forum.

Carry on fellow patriots, and God bless.

“One thing I’d like to point out is that the system worked,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Sunday morning on CNN.

“This was one individual, literally, of thousands that fly and thousands of flights every year,” Napolitano said. “And he was stopped before any damage could be done.”

Are you kidding me?  The system worked?  If the fact that an individual on a suspected terrorist watchlist and carrying flammable substances could board a plane in Amsterdam bound for Detroit is an example of the system working then I would hate to see what an example of the system failing would be!

Except that now Ms. Napolitano says that her words were taken out of context.

A day after saying the system worked, Napolitano said her words had been taken out of context. She said Monday on NBC’s “Today” show that “our system did not work in this instance.”

The fact of the matter is that the only reason Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab failed in his attempt to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 is due to the grace of God and the actions of some of the passengers:

Both lines of defense were breached in an improbable series of events Christmas Day that spanned three continents and culminated in a struggle and fire aboard a Northwest jet shortly before its safe landing in Detroit. Law enforcement officials believed the suspect tried to ignite a two-part concoction of the high explosive PETN and possibly a glycol-based liquid explosive, setting off popping, smoke and some fire but no deadly detonation.

An apparent malfunction in a device designed to detonate the PETN may have been all that saved the 278 passengers and the crew aboard Northwest Flight 253. No undercover air marshal was on board and passengers and crew subdued the suspect when he tried to set off the explosion. He succeeded only in starting a fire on himself.

Add to that the fact that President Obama has not interrupted his vacation in Hawaii even long enough to make a comment on the matter and we have yet more examples of the ineptitude of DHS and the indifference of the President to the American people.  Wake up people!  Your freedoms are slipping away, your government is grabbing ever more power for itself, and our enemies are finding new ways to exploit our weaknesses while those charged with ensuring our safety crow about how well “the system worked”.  I just hope we can turn it around before it is truly too late.

We hear a lot about “the reason for the season”, but it’s worth reapeating:  Jesus IS the reason for the season.  Yeah, you can argue about December not really being His birthday, and you can argue how Christmas was created when the Catholic church merged the celebration of Christ’s birth with pagan winter solstice celebrations, but in the end the point is this:  a child was born to a Jewish girl in Bethlehem about 2000 years ago that changed forever the way the world would function.

I started to write a little dissertation about Jesus and his life when I realized that when it comes to talking about Jesus and Christmas, simpler is usually better.  And the best, simplest explanation about the true meaning of Christmas I know was given by a little kid with a blanket 44 years ago.  Here it is:

That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.  God Bless and Merry Christmas!

I said and I repeat this is set and ready for our revolution. He knows he has trouble depending on US citizens turning on US citizens. That is why the UN is still here and it is why he is negotiating with Canada.

Welcome to the Obamanation people. A military made up of people with no real loyalty to America and a government filled with people who are avowed Marxists and Socialists with the stated aim of destroying this country from within. Perhaps next will be Obama’s “civilian force bigger than our entire military combined and better funded.”

According to an obscure report in the European Union Times (EUTimes.net), “Russian Military Analysts are reporting to Prime Minister Putin that US President Barack Obama has issued an order to his Northern Command’s (USNORTHCOM) top leader, US Air Force General Gene Renuart, to ‘begin immediately’ increasing his military forces to 1 million troops by January 30, 2010, in what these reports warn is an expected outbreak of civil war within the United States before the end of winter.

That last one in particular enjoyed widespread popularity on the internet the first couple of weeks in December.  As far as the revolution and blood in the streets theory goes, part of me thinks they’re right and part of me thinks maybe not so much.  Here’s why.

I don’t believe that Obama is or will be a dictator in the style of Hitler or Lenin.  Anything is possible I suppose, but I really don’t consider it to be likely.  It’s much more practical to subjugate a nation through the process of Socialism.  Socialism, according to Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary, is “any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods”, and “a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distribution of goods and pay according to work done”.  There are aspects of the current government of the United States that fit both of these definitions.  Why go through all the trouble of a civil war with all of its resultant destruction (not to mention general unpopularity) to enslave a society when you can simply legislate your way to the same point with the support of the people?

This is exactly what has been happening in the America for roughly the last 100 years.  From the inception of the Federal Reserve, through the New Deal, the expansion of federal power through the use of undeclared wars, and up to the institution of entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the United States has been slowly but inexorably transformed from a republic into a – what?  A socialist state?  Not quite, but close.  A communist state?  No.  A dictatorship?  Nope.  The closest description of the current United States government is oligarchy.  You can read the Wikipedia definition here, as well as a paper, “The Emerging U.S. Oligarchy“.

This is why Socialism is so insidious.  Barack Obama promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America” five days before his election.  He was elected with 53% of the popular vote.  He told us what he was going to do and nobody caught it.  Yet he himself is only the latest in a long string of progressive leaders.

The only good thing I can say about Obama is this:  he may have jumped the gun.  It seems that the American people were not as anesthetized as the libs thought, and the pain of the initial socialist incision has brought many of us out or our stupor.  If the libs had waited one or maybe two more terms before unleashing their full agenda (and maybe they haven’t yet), it may have been too late.  The economic crisis at the end of last year may have been a blessing in disguise.  Without it, we may have elected a much more palatable progressive named John McCain and remained in our consumer driven coma.  The only thing that remains to be seen is this:  how many will respond to the passing of the health care bill like this? If there are many, then the predicted civil war/revolution may become a reality and the socialists will have the excuse they need to completely “transform America” into something none of us recognize.

The Grinch and Harry Reid: Separated at birth?

As the rest of the country has been preparing to celebrate Christmas with their families and friends, The Grinch (aka Harry Reid) has been busy planning a Christmas Eve spoiler.  Just like the title character in the beloved Dr. Suess story, Mr. Reid seems to hate Christmas.  Why else would he have insisted on forcing the Senate into voting on the health care bill at 1:00 a.m. four days before Christmas?  Congress should be preparing to recess in order to spend time with loved ones like the rest of us.  Instead Mr. Reid is insisting on having all of us contribute to his “gift” to President Obama:  a 2733 page health care package that cuts Medicare by over $150 billion and increases taxes on anyone making over $88,200.

The latest version of the Senate bill is very similar to the rationing bill passed by the House in November.  However, the Grinch has added some other presents to the package for all of us Who’s down in Whoville, the first of which is to “allow” everyone in Medicare to pay for a larger percentage of the cost of the massive program.  Merry Christmas to you!  The Senate bill cuts Medicare by $500 billion over ten years to pay for the reform deal just as millions of baby boomers become eligible.  In ten years, according to the Census Bureau, 22 million more Americans will be eligible for Medicare with $500 billion in cuts.  No rationing here!

The second “present” is the ability to participate in the Government Insurance Exchange.  This is modeled on the federal employee health benefit program.  Here are some highlights of this outstanding example of government efficiency:

• The Government Accounting Office (GAO) found the cost-benefit ratio was 51% higher than non-federal programs
• The GAO found the cost-benefit ratio was 89% higher than large self-insured businesses
• The GAO concluded that the program “is highly vulnerable to fraud and abuse”
• The GAO revealed, “The misappropriation of carrier funds included embezzlement, using plan funds to finance UNION or employee organization activities and improperly charging the plan for expenses not incurred.”

This plan is not about creating affordable health care.  It is about control of all the Who’s down in Whoville’s lives through their health.  Once the Grinch controls the Who’s health, he controls every aspect of the Who’s life.

As you can see, our Senators and Representatives are busy spending our children’s and grand-children’s (and possibly great-grand-children’s) income.  Which brings me to the subject that has been consuming much of my thought for the last week or so:  the Federal debt.

The Federal Debt as of this writing stands at just over $12.1 trillion.  It is increasing at the approximate rate of just over $2 million per minute.  In 1990, the debt stood at $3.2 trillion, or 55.7% of the GDP.  In 2001, it was $5.8 trillion or 57%.  By last year it has soared to over 70% of the GDP, and this year will top 90%.  The debt is projected to exceed 100% of the GDP in 2011.  The only other time in the history of the U.S. the debt exceeded the GDP was from 1945-1947, at the end of the Second World War.

How much is a trillion dollars?  The best analogy I could find is this:  If you were locked in a vault and could keep every dollar bill you initialed, assuming you could initial one dollar every second (without needing to eat, sleep, or take breaks), here’s how long it would take to reach some milestones:

• Twelve days of non-stop effort would earn you a million dollars
• 120 days would give you 10 million
• 1200 days = 100 million.  That’s over three years for a paltry 100 million
• After 31.7 years you’d be a billionaire
• After initialing one dollar every second without stopping it would take you 31,709.8 years to get to your first trillion
• So to reach the national debt of just over 12 trillion would take:  383,688.6 years!

You can find some very eye-opening numbers at www.usdebtclock.org.  Don’t watch for too long, it gets kind of depressing!

Obama and Congress' "Deep Impact" on the federal debt

President Obama has promised to halve the deficit by the end of his first term.  Regardless of what you think of Obama’s promises, the problem with that is this:  it’s still a deficit!  That means that even if he is successful in keeping this promise, the debt will continue to grow each year.  You can argue all day long about whether or not the U.S. should engage in deficit spending at all.  Personally, I realize there are times when deficit spending is necessary (such as during war time) and possibly even beneficial.  After all, not many of us would have homes or cars if we never borrowed any money.  The difference between us and the government of course, is that we cannot continue to borrow money beyond our ability to repay it.  If we did attempt to do that, we would soon find our property repossessed by our creditors.

As most people realize, the real problem with debt is the interest.  As you borrow more and more money, you pay more and more interest, to the point where eventually all of your payments are going towards interest and not principle.  It is the interest on the national debt that makes our future uncertain and the economy unstable.  The interest on the national debt for this year is $383 billion according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt.  That amounts to more than 40% of the revenue collected from income taxes, and just over 19% of all revenue.

The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) projects deficits of about $9 trillion over the next 10 years.  That would take the national debt to $21 trillion by 2019.  The interest rate on the debt in 2009 averaged 3.2%.  During the Carter administration, interest on the debt rose to 15%.  It is doubtful that our current low interest rate will continue for another 10 years.  Even allowing for these optimistic figures and no increase in the interest rate, by 2019 the interest on the debt would be approximately $672 billion/year.  Given that it is becoming increasingly difficult to persuade countries like China and Japan to finance our debt, it is not unreasonable to assume that interest rates on new and refinanced debt could double or triple in the near future.  At 10% interest, the annual interest payment would climb to $2.1 trillion, or roughly half of projected total revenue.

To put it bluntly, if our government does not change its fiscal policy and reduce the national debt to “manageable” levels, we face an economic event that will make the events of last year look like a rainy day.  Left unchecked this deficit-debt cycle will leave the administration and Congress with either having to default on the national debt or instruct the Treasury to run the printing presses into a policy of hyperinflation.  There are those out there who believe that that is exactly what the government is doing, that all of this is intentional.  Some see driving the economy into hyperinflation as the only way the debt can ever be paid off.  I don’t know if I’m ready to believe that our own government is that evil, but I do know that I’m going to pray for the best, and prepare for the worst.  I suggest you do the same.

The event was the rejection of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s administration’s proposal for a Cap-and-Trade system by the Australian Senate.  The Senate rejected the measure 41-33, with the new leader of the opposition party Tony Abbott referring to the argument for climate-change as “absolute crap”.  This is the second time this year that Australia has dumped plans for climate-change legislation.

This overturning of key climate legislation in a major developed country should send a message to Washington and should give those of us opposed to similar legislation in this country a measure of hope.  It is proof that not everyone involved in government is full of dreams of a global socialist paradise where the profits of the evil polluting industrialized nations (i.e., the US) are sold off by their government to be redistributed to the poor, helpless, underdeveloped countries (i.e., the rest of the world).  It is proof that at least some members of a representative government listen to their constituents.

As the world leaders meet in Copenhagen this week leaving a carbon footprint greater than that of three Canadian cities combined, we need to remind our own Senators that the climate-change science is anything but settled.  Strapping the American people with billions of dollars in new taxes in the midst of the greatest recession since the 1930′s, all in the name of some fudged “scientific” studies, is just ludicrous.

Lord, my prayer this year most concerns this country. We have strayed so far from the path that you would have us walk. We have forgotten you and put up electronic idols in your place. We call evil good and sin “personal choice”. Your word says that if we who are called by your name humble ourselves and pray, then you will hear and heal our land. Forgive us for our sins, and pour out your spirit on this country and on your people that they would find a new fervor in their souls to cry out to you for the salvation of this land. Give us eyes to see and ears to hear and tongues to speak the truth with boldness. Help us to defend this country from those who would seek to destroy it.

Father, I ask especially that you would protect and preserve those who are far from home and family this year, our military. They sacrifice so much so that the rest of us can live free and gather in peace and safety. Put a shield of your protection around them and keep them safe. Give them comfort and peace so that they may know you are there. Bring them home safe and whole to their families and loved ones. Grant them victory over those who seek to do us harm.

Finally Lord I ask that you would work in the hearts of those who lead our country. Give them wisdom to make decisions that would restore this country to the shining city on a hill that you intended it to be. Raise up for us Godly leaders who know you and your will and will lead us in the direction you would have us go. Give us wisdom to choose those leaders. Restore this country to the beacon of liberty and hope that it once was.

Thank you for all that you have given us and all that you are. You are the Lord God Almighty. Your are Holy. You are awesome. Thank you. Amen.