Are we ready to listen?

Is the frog feeling the heat? You know what I mean.? Remember the old analogy of the frog who cooks to death while the temperature slowly rises to the point of at which proteins denature and by then a good while beyond its death? Oh, I am sorry to use this again but we are the frogs and the water has been getting hotter for several decades now without so much as a twitch of discomfort from us. It started out so long ago with our first withholding tax enacted temporarily to meet the crisis of the First World War. You can look at your next paystub to see if that was temporary or not. The New Deal. Social Security. The Great Society. The Warren Court, The Chrysler Bailout. It has been a long train coming but it has never stopped rolling. (Yes I am mixing metaphors, now shut up.)The frogs just couldn't put it together. They could not see it. Well, they are frogs after all. Sorry that was so specist of me.
What we need here is a miraculous mutation, a Darwinian intervention to provide a new type of frog that will finally say ouch! We need a new and fitter frog that will leap out of the water. While we are at it let's mutate some teeth, literally, into this amphibian so that when it finally leaps from the pot it will bite the hands of the liberals who have been slowly turning up the heat for all these years. Let's not be squeamish; they deserve it.
OK. Here it is. When will the people start to understand what has happened to them and what is happening to them now? When will the people begin to realize who they are? When will the people begin to see that the very institutions, the very core beliefs (indeed can the people even indentify these principles?), which have made this country the envy of the world and the great hope for all people everywhere, have been in a long process of dismantlment and that the people of the United States and the world are losing it all to a group of people who are very dedicated yet extremely miguided at best and corrupt at worst? Is this the endgame which has already been decided by decades of entitlement indoctrination and insufficient public education? Maybe so.
Conventional thinkers have always been the backbone of this country. You know; law abiders, hardworkers, bill payers, peaceable people who keep the engine of our economy humming and tax coffers, dare I say, full. Conventional thinkers are pulling this wagon that we call America. But conventional thinkers are frogs. They think thatwhile they are doing what they are supposed to do, which is live out the American dream, that their appointed lawmakers will govern to protect their way of life. That is the purpose of government isn't it? To preserve the opportunities of freedom from foreign and domestic attack? Well back a long time ago people understood this. They understood that the government was insituted by them to serve them. Government was the communal tool of the conventional thinkers. Conventional thinking is a good thing... to a point. I do not remember if I have read "Atlas Shrugged." I have read many books. But I get the point. Think of Atlas as the quintessential conventional thinker, holding the world on his shoulders. It is time for all of us conventional thinkers to condider shrugging. Will we?

Christians in a Bad Light

The controversy over the termination of the assistant librarian as posted at Patrick Henry College is a good example of Christians acting as bad examples. Discourse between Christians seeking obedience to God is a good thing. The Ethiopian eunuch consulted Philip about the meaning of prophesies in the Psalms. When a Christian terminates the employment of another Christian over the question of the importance of baptism in salvation and the forgiveness of sins it is sad. Let us consider Jesus exhortation for Christians to be the light of the world. What kind of light shines from this public squabble between Christians? A flashing red light? The president of Patrick Henry College should have considered more the great similarities bettween his employee and himself rather than the one difference between them. I am not saying that their disagreement is insignificant and is not worthy of sincere discussion and discovery. I am saying that because of their common faith in and love for God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. Mr. Michael Farris, president of Patrick Henry College, should have welcomed this young man into his community and encouraged peaceful coexistence with him. Can Mr. Farris not see that there is a far greater enemy to be defeated than one young man who, in my opinion, correctly believes that baptism is integrated into God's plan for man's salvation? The unsaved, unrepentant world looks at arguing Christians and finds it easy to excuse Christianity as something to be avoided. When are Christians going to get this? For centuries we have been at each other's throats while the forces of secularization have captured our culture. "why can't we all just get along" has some real Biblical utility for us. Christians should do better.

Tax code Tramples Freedom

The buzz concerning the need for massive reform if not the virtual annihilation of our crippling tax code is welcome. If our nation was founded on principles regarding individual freedom, serious questions come to mind when we consider the relationship between citizens of the United States and their government, viz-a-viz the tax code and its enforcement arm, The Internal Revenue Service. As free people, we acknowledge that our collective needs require government and that the government needs to be funded by the people, the consumers of government service. So far, so good.
When the people become disconnected from government so that government services and the costs of providing for them are served up to the people without the perception or reality of consent, freedom for the people becomes more illusion than reality.
When the government presents its bill to the people for services rendered, what we commonly refer to as taxation, and that bill cannot be understood by the average citizen because of the intricacies and vagaries of the tax code, freedom becomes more illusion than reality.
How many of us would tolerate an invoice for services rendered that required the hiring of a consultant to make sure that we did not pay more than we than we should? That is what we are forced to do when we are confronted with our tax bill. We have to hire accountants, experts in the tax code, to prepare our returns so that we are sure that we do not pay more than our fair share of tax. This is not freedom. This is not government serving the people. This is a people serving a bloated, all powerful government.
Excessive taxation is strangling our country. The ability of a people to afford the services of their government presupposes the economic vitality of that people to fund government. Taxation imposed by profligate legislators who have no qualms about spending other people's money will finally impede the exercise of sufficient commerce to provide the treasure to fund government.
A formerly free people will find that they now work for the government and not themselves.