Thursday, November 18, 2010
Sources
I haven't done the citing of my sources yet either just so you all aren't like "dude, cite your sources".
Abortion From a Biblical Perspective
The destroying of a human life, particularly that of a weak and helpless child, is an act of blatant disregard for what God’s word says about the sanctity of life. Yet every year there are over 1 million of these horrific acts committed in the United States alone.
Actually, in the years of 2005, 2002, and 2000 there were 1.21, 1.29, and 1.31 million abortions respectively and there have been over 45 million legal abortions in the U.S. from 1973 to 2005 (which was the last year with reliable data) (Abort73).
With such staggering statistics and huge numbers, we have become desensitized to what those numbers really mean. We are so used to the idea of abortion and the astronomical numbers of abortions every year that we see the numbers and don’t think twice. Because we only see numbers, nothing more. We translate the killing of millions of innocent babies into numerical data instead of seeing the millions of potential lives that were snuffed out before they could enter this world.
What does this say about our country and how much we value human life? How does the country that emphasizes “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” throw away so many young lives every year without batting an eye? Well, here’s the answer: we have removed God from everything we possibly could and forsaken the truth of His word. Because of this, our views of children, parenting, and our views of God Himself have changed dramatically, and not for the better.
When we forsake the truths of God’s word we cease to apply them to our lives and when we cease to apply them to our lives we see the effects manifested in statistics like the ones shared above.
If we were still firmly grounded in the truths of God’s word we would see a passage like Genesis 1:26 that says “So god created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him…” and we would know that destroying the life of something created in the image of God Almighty is something that should never be done.
Then we would see a passage like Psalm 127:3 that says “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” and our thinking that children are an inconvenience would be totally changed. If we were reading and believing God’s word we would know that children are a blessing from God and that they should be cherished.
Also our view of parenting has become one that is more of an obligation than what it really is; a privilege given to us from God. We don’t realize what we have been given. When God blesses you with a child He is entrusting you with the care and upbringing of His most precious creation. If we were to really think about that, and get our heads around it, we would never see raising and parenting a child as an obligation again.
We can come up with many reasons why we see life, children, and the concept of parenting the way that we do, but the fact of the matter is that we don’t trust God. We don’t trust that He is big enough, that He loves us enough, that He cares enough, that He knows enough, or a thousand other reasons why He just isn’t enough. And when you’re going to be a mother or a father and you know you aren’t ready and you don’t have anything else to draw on for strength but yourself, then it’s very easy to see how abortion would be a favorable option. This is where our view of God has changed and must change again if we are ever going to see an end to abortion.
The top two reasons women give for wanting an abortion are that “having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities”, and that “they can’t afford a child” (Abort73). These may seem like legitimate reasons, but in light of what God’s word says, all they really convey is a lack of trust.
Jeremiah 29:11 reads “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” If God has a plan for each and every one of us and that plan is for “wholeness” to give us a “future and a hope” why would we think that He wouldn’t work out the details for us having a baby when we think it might interfere with our work or schooling?
In Matthew 6:25-26 Jesus says “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more that food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” So are we as human beings more valuable than birds? Or course we are! That was Jesus’ whole point in saying this. God provides food and shelter for even the birds of the air and we think that He is going to forget about us? The ones created in His own Image? Not a chance.
God does not forget about us. He doesn’t just set us here and then stand back and watch. He is immensely intimate and all compassionate toward us. The only thing we need to do is seek Him out. James 4:8 says “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you”. That’s a promise from God in His word and when God promises something, you can bank on it.
Now I’m not so naïve as to think that everyone in the world believes like I do in the truth of God’s word. I know there are people who totally reject it so to them none of this will have any effect on them. But as a nation this is where I see that the U.S. has taken a turn for the worst. In removing God from our lives and ceasing to recognize His word as truth we have allowed our views on the sanctity of life, children, parenting, and God himself to be severely perverted.
Until we recognize once again the truth of God’s word and start applying it to our lives we will continue to see the effects of our godless moral views manifested in statistics portraying the millions of abortions that take place every year.
Pastor and author John Piper sums up the whole point of this paper so eloquently. He says “Submit yourselves to God. Draw near to him. Live by the power of his grace. Let him shape your desires rather than the world and the feisty, self-centered temperament of our culture. Let your life and your mouth bear witness to the real delights of knowing and trusting and obeying and being shaped and guided by the Creator of all things who loved us and gave himself for us.”
I haven't submitted this yet so if you all have critiques or corrections let me know! Thanks for reading!
Actually, in the years of 2005, 2002, and 2000 there were 1.21, 1.29, and 1.31 million abortions respectively and there have been over 45 million legal abortions in the U.S. from 1973 to 2005 (which was the last year with reliable data) (Abort73).
With such staggering statistics and huge numbers, we have become desensitized to what those numbers really mean. We are so used to the idea of abortion and the astronomical numbers of abortions every year that we see the numbers and don’t think twice. Because we only see numbers, nothing more. We translate the killing of millions of innocent babies into numerical data instead of seeing the millions of potential lives that were snuffed out before they could enter this world.
What does this say about our country and how much we value human life? How does the country that emphasizes “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” throw away so many young lives every year without batting an eye? Well, here’s the answer: we have removed God from everything we possibly could and forsaken the truth of His word. Because of this, our views of children, parenting, and our views of God Himself have changed dramatically, and not for the better.
When we forsake the truths of God’s word we cease to apply them to our lives and when we cease to apply them to our lives we see the effects manifested in statistics like the ones shared above.
If we were still firmly grounded in the truths of God’s word we would see a passage like Genesis 1:26 that says “So god created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him…” and we would know that destroying the life of something created in the image of God Almighty is something that should never be done.
Then we would see a passage like Psalm 127:3 that says “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” and our thinking that children are an inconvenience would be totally changed. If we were reading and believing God’s word we would know that children are a blessing from God and that they should be cherished.
Also our view of parenting has become one that is more of an obligation than what it really is; a privilege given to us from God. We don’t realize what we have been given. When God blesses you with a child He is entrusting you with the care and upbringing of His most precious creation. If we were to really think about that, and get our heads around it, we would never see raising and parenting a child as an obligation again.
We can come up with many reasons why we see life, children, and the concept of parenting the way that we do, but the fact of the matter is that we don’t trust God. We don’t trust that He is big enough, that He loves us enough, that He cares enough, that He knows enough, or a thousand other reasons why He just isn’t enough. And when you’re going to be a mother or a father and you know you aren’t ready and you don’t have anything else to draw on for strength but yourself, then it’s very easy to see how abortion would be a favorable option. This is where our view of God has changed and must change again if we are ever going to see an end to abortion.
The top two reasons women give for wanting an abortion are that “having a baby would interfere with work, school or other responsibilities”, and that “they can’t afford a child” (Abort73). These may seem like legitimate reasons, but in light of what God’s word says, all they really convey is a lack of trust.
Jeremiah 29:11 reads “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” If God has a plan for each and every one of us and that plan is for “wholeness” to give us a “future and a hope” why would we think that He wouldn’t work out the details for us having a baby when we think it might interfere with our work or schooling?
In Matthew 6:25-26 Jesus says “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more that food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” So are we as human beings more valuable than birds? Or course we are! That was Jesus’ whole point in saying this. God provides food and shelter for even the birds of the air and we think that He is going to forget about us? The ones created in His own Image? Not a chance.
God does not forget about us. He doesn’t just set us here and then stand back and watch. He is immensely intimate and all compassionate toward us. The only thing we need to do is seek Him out. James 4:8 says “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you”. That’s a promise from God in His word and when God promises something, you can bank on it.
Now I’m not so naïve as to think that everyone in the world believes like I do in the truth of God’s word. I know there are people who totally reject it so to them none of this will have any effect on them. But as a nation this is where I see that the U.S. has taken a turn for the worst. In removing God from our lives and ceasing to recognize His word as truth we have allowed our views on the sanctity of life, children, parenting, and God himself to be severely perverted.
Until we recognize once again the truth of God’s word and start applying it to our lives we will continue to see the effects of our godless moral views manifested in statistics portraying the millions of abortions that take place every year.
Pastor and author John Piper sums up the whole point of this paper so eloquently. He says “Submit yourselves to God. Draw near to him. Live by the power of his grace. Let him shape your desires rather than the world and the feisty, self-centered temperament of our culture. Let your life and your mouth bear witness to the real delights of knowing and trusting and obeying and being shaped and guided by the Creator of all things who loved us and gave himself for us.”
I haven't submitted this yet so if you all have critiques or corrections let me know! Thanks for reading!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Paper on Abortion
Ok I have to write a paper for my Ethics class so I am doing it on Abortion. I haven't written it yet, but as soon as it is written I will post up here for you all to read if you'd like. And I am going to get around to posting about the discussions in my Ethics class too....someday.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Apologies
I am REALLY sorry about not posting, everyone. I have a bunch of interesting topics to cover (mostly from my Ethics class), but I can't ever seem to find enough time to write them out. I will try to post soon though. I hope you all haven't given up on me :). Oh this is random, but I am playing a tournament right now over this weekend and we won both our games today and we have two more tomorrow and I am starting the first one tomorrow. Yeah just thought I'd let you all know. I'll let you know how it goes. Posts coming soon. Peace.
Friday, September 17, 2010
1 Peter 2:19-20 says....
"For this is a gracious thing, when, mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. 20 For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure? But if when you do good and suffer for it you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God."
This scripture was one that I had read numerous times over the years, but had forgotten about until my wonderful mother, mindful of how I was struggling, referred me to it just a few weeks ago. I have been contemplating it, pondering it, and just letting it resonate in my mind for these past few weeks and I have found it very encouraging.
I'm sure all of us can relate to this verse on one level or another so I thought I'd post it as a reminder that God isn't missing anything. He isn't sitting back and watching as we are beaten down and suffering. He sees it all and He's right there with us. We may not see the reasoning behind our suffering, but God never does anything that isn't for our good. So I think we can all take heart in the knowledge that although our circumstances may look like the worst ever, God works everything out for good and he WILL work everything out for good. All we have to do is trust Him and endure.
I know from my own experience that saying this and living it are two totally different things. This all sounds good and it is encouraging, but what happens tomorrow when this isn't the only things going through your mind and the troubles and anxieties of life are weighing on you?..... "Well, thanks Taylor for letting us know it's hopeless...." It's not hopeless. Not with God at least. By ourselves? Yeah, then it's hopeless. But we aren't by ourselves. We have the Holy Spirit living within us 24/7, we have a God who we can pray to 24/7, and we have God's word available for us to read 24/7. I'd say we're good to go.
I think God sets things up like this so we HAVE to depend on Him. Cause when we aren't looking to Him for our strength then we will be overwhelmed by the troubles of this world and we can read all the encouraging things in the world, but it won't make a difference. We need God, every day, every minute.
So that was the encouragement now here is the challenge, and this is to myself too. Be aware of God. Throughout your day be aware of His presence and His promptings. Really be drawing on Him for power and strength and see what happens.
This post is really just for me. This is what God has been telling me lately and I just have to write it out to try and wrap my head around it so I figured I'd write it on here and hope it was encouraging to y'all. So yeah I hope it was encouraging. Thanks for reading!
This scripture was one that I had read numerous times over the years, but had forgotten about until my wonderful mother, mindful of how I was struggling, referred me to it just a few weeks ago. I have been contemplating it, pondering it, and just letting it resonate in my mind for these past few weeks and I have found it very encouraging.
I'm sure all of us can relate to this verse on one level or another so I thought I'd post it as a reminder that God isn't missing anything. He isn't sitting back and watching as we are beaten down and suffering. He sees it all and He's right there with us. We may not see the reasoning behind our suffering, but God never does anything that isn't for our good. So I think we can all take heart in the knowledge that although our circumstances may look like the worst ever, God works everything out for good and he WILL work everything out for good. All we have to do is trust Him and endure.
I know from my own experience that saying this and living it are two totally different things. This all sounds good and it is encouraging, but what happens tomorrow when this isn't the only things going through your mind and the troubles and anxieties of life are weighing on you?..... "Well, thanks Taylor for letting us know it's hopeless...." It's not hopeless. Not with God at least. By ourselves? Yeah, then it's hopeless. But we aren't by ourselves. We have the Holy Spirit living within us 24/7, we have a God who we can pray to 24/7, and we have God's word available for us to read 24/7. I'd say we're good to go.
I think God sets things up like this so we HAVE to depend on Him. Cause when we aren't looking to Him for our strength then we will be overwhelmed by the troubles of this world and we can read all the encouraging things in the world, but it won't make a difference. We need God, every day, every minute.
So that was the encouragement now here is the challenge, and this is to myself too. Be aware of God. Throughout your day be aware of His presence and His promptings. Really be drawing on Him for power and strength and see what happens.
This post is really just for me. This is what God has been telling me lately and I just have to write it out to try and wrap my head around it so I figured I'd write it on here and hope it was encouraging to y'all. So yeah I hope it was encouraging. Thanks for reading!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sidetracking a little bit
Sorry for not posting in a while y'all. College has been pretty crazy as I have been playing "catch up" from missed classes. College has provided me with a couple interesting topics though so I am sidetracking from my progressive posts for a little bit to talk about some of the things we have discussed in my Ethics class (fun fun fun).
I have only been to one class so far, but it was quite the experience I must say. It was really fun actually, and I mean that. We talked about numerous topics, but the main thought and topic through the whole class was the topic of Hedonism vs. Deontology. Hedonism, when it's broken down really simply, is the belief that the purpose of life is to be happy and the happier you are the better your life is. Deontology is the belief that a good life is about doing the right thing even if it doesn't always make you happy. So you have hedonism: Pursue pleasure and avoid pain. And Deontology: your moral duty supersedes your selfish desires.
Most of our discussion was on whether or not someone could do something kind, caring, or loving without it being selfishly motivated. People argued that yes you could and then others said no you couldn't and it got all kinds of crazy. It got to the point where people were saying even if you do something to help someone else and it gains you nothing or even hurts you in some way that you still did it because not doing it would have made you feel guilty and that wouldn't have made you happy so that would have been painful so you did it even though you didn't want to and it caused you pain because.....you didn't want to cause yourself pain.
Does that sound conflicting to you?
Anyway the debate continued and for the most part I was listening and trying to gather my thoughts before I said anything, but it got to a point where I just had to speak up. I got my chance to speak and explained that I was a christian. Then I offered the suggestion that there could be a different motivation than just trying to make yourself happy or trying to avoid pain and that was simply grace motivation. Well that threw a lot of people for a loop. Then I brought up Jesus Christ and how I believe, as a christian, that he lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross to redeem everyone that would call on him, and then rose again so that we might live with him forever. I asked if they thought that His act of dying on the cross could be motivated by selfish motive or that he could have done it just to make himself feel good. One guy chimed in and said "Dude, you said he died for the whole world. If I was gonna die for the whole world, I would be feeling pretty good about myself..."
I was about to bring up the fact that Jesus SWEAT BLOOD in the garden of Gethsemane because he knew he would soon be delivered up to die on the cross, but I never got my chance to speak again. Do you think though, that someone who was sweating blood because of the stress of knowing he was going to die soon was dying because he wanted to make himself feel good?
It was a great debate really. I really enjoyed it and I think God is really going to use me in this class. People without Jesus as their savior are lost y'all and for the hour and twenty minutes I spent with those people it was plain to see that although they like to think they know what they believe, they really don't. Their beliefs about God, ethics, and moral standards are vague at best and they contradict themselves so often. It's understandable though, they don't have The Truth so they don't know what to believe or what to trust. How can they? They have nothing to measure against or look to for actual truth.
This is what I'm getting at here guys, especially any of you who are going to college or are going to public school: you have a great opportunity to show people truth! Along with love, care, and a true passion for Christ if you are able to share with someone, whether it's person to person or in your classroom or whatever, the truth of Jesus Christ and what that means in your life it WILL amaze people! Trust me, the people in my class were like "This kid is what? 17? 18? and he's talking like he really knows something I don't....what is that?" They didn't say that in words exactly, but I could tell by their faces that they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea of grace motivation and the concept of living your life for something more than yourself. And it's not like I am some kind of amazing speaker or that I have any special gift for persuading people, any of you who know me know I am not real smooth when it comes to speaking, but God will work through you. The Holy Spirit empowers and will give you words to speak.
So, if you get the chance to share the Truth with someone or a lot of someones then DO IT! You will be amazed at what God will do through you. That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
I have only been to one class so far, but it was quite the experience I must say. It was really fun actually, and I mean that. We talked about numerous topics, but the main thought and topic through the whole class was the topic of Hedonism vs. Deontology. Hedonism, when it's broken down really simply, is the belief that the purpose of life is to be happy and the happier you are the better your life is. Deontology is the belief that a good life is about doing the right thing even if it doesn't always make you happy. So you have hedonism: Pursue pleasure and avoid pain. And Deontology: your moral duty supersedes your selfish desires.
Most of our discussion was on whether or not someone could do something kind, caring, or loving without it being selfishly motivated. People argued that yes you could and then others said no you couldn't and it got all kinds of crazy. It got to the point where people were saying even if you do something to help someone else and it gains you nothing or even hurts you in some way that you still did it because not doing it would have made you feel guilty and that wouldn't have made you happy so that would have been painful so you did it even though you didn't want to and it caused you pain because.....you didn't want to cause yourself pain.
Does that sound conflicting to you?
Anyway the debate continued and for the most part I was listening and trying to gather my thoughts before I said anything, but it got to a point where I just had to speak up. I got my chance to speak and explained that I was a christian. Then I offered the suggestion that there could be a different motivation than just trying to make yourself happy or trying to avoid pain and that was simply grace motivation. Well that threw a lot of people for a loop. Then I brought up Jesus Christ and how I believe, as a christian, that he lived a perfect sinless life, died on the cross to redeem everyone that would call on him, and then rose again so that we might live with him forever. I asked if they thought that His act of dying on the cross could be motivated by selfish motive or that he could have done it just to make himself feel good. One guy chimed in and said "Dude, you said he died for the whole world. If I was gonna die for the whole world, I would be feeling pretty good about myself..."
I was about to bring up the fact that Jesus SWEAT BLOOD in the garden of Gethsemane because he knew he would soon be delivered up to die on the cross, but I never got my chance to speak again. Do you think though, that someone who was sweating blood because of the stress of knowing he was going to die soon was dying because he wanted to make himself feel good?
It was a great debate really. I really enjoyed it and I think God is really going to use me in this class. People without Jesus as their savior are lost y'all and for the hour and twenty minutes I spent with those people it was plain to see that although they like to think they know what they believe, they really don't. Their beliefs about God, ethics, and moral standards are vague at best and they contradict themselves so often. It's understandable though, they don't have The Truth so they don't know what to believe or what to trust. How can they? They have nothing to measure against or look to for actual truth.
This is what I'm getting at here guys, especially any of you who are going to college or are going to public school: you have a great opportunity to show people truth! Along with love, care, and a true passion for Christ if you are able to share with someone, whether it's person to person or in your classroom or whatever, the truth of Jesus Christ and what that means in your life it WILL amaze people! Trust me, the people in my class were like "This kid is what? 17? 18? and he's talking like he really knows something I don't....what is that?" They didn't say that in words exactly, but I could tell by their faces that they were having a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea of grace motivation and the concept of living your life for something more than yourself. And it's not like I am some kind of amazing speaker or that I have any special gift for persuading people, any of you who know me know I am not real smooth when it comes to speaking, but God will work through you. The Holy Spirit empowers and will give you words to speak.
So, if you get the chance to share the Truth with someone or a lot of someones then DO IT! You will be amazed at what God will do through you. That's all folks! Thanks for reading.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Leaving for Vacation
Just letting you all know that I am going on vacation with EVERY member of my immediate family for the next week. For those of you who don't know my immediate family consists of 24 people =D. We are all going to a beach house that we rented out for a week in North Carolina and it is going to be massively fun! I can not even tell you how much I am looking forward to having all my brothers, their wives, and my sister and her husband together along with all their kids! I can not wait to get up there!
Anyway just letting you all know that I won't be posting for a week or so. Peace out my people!
Anyway just letting you all know that I won't be posting for a week or so. Peace out my people!
Friday, August 20, 2010
Progressive Education Cont.
Ok, I left off explaining how John Dewey and his disciples were spreading their progressive agenda and ideals to thousands of college students. Now let me get into how that has effected our education system in the last hundred years.
Progressives have been continually assaulting education as we know it traditionally. Dewey said that the "traditional scheme...imposes adult standards, subject matter, and methods upon those who are only growing slowly toward maturity." So you see guys if we were all a little fester on the up-take then they wouldn't feel the need to change our education....yeah that's BS. No, the real reason they want to change education from the traditional order is because they want to keep us DUMB! If we are ignorant to how our government works, what kind of economic systems actually work and what ones don't, what our country stands for, what our country was founded on, and what our rights and duties as citizens are then they will have power over us. That is the only way that they can stay in power. The moment we get our heads on straight and understand that WE THE PEOPLE have the power; that is when the progressives lose. Now back to what I was saying.
"Dewey's pragmatism left little room for the education as it had been conceived over the centuries. Aside from the most basic fundamentals- reading, writing, and arithmetic say- education, or at least formal education has been premised on the belief that philosophers, historians, essayists, scientists, and theologians have discovered and learned much. But pragmatists would have none of that. They wanted to cast aside the religious and humane learning, experience, and revelations and to launch out into uncharted sea of the future, armed only with the determination to experiment and find out what would work in transforming man in his world."
That is a quote from the book and yes it is very lengthy, but I wanted you to see just how amazing this man's writing is. He wrote this 25 years ago and it sounds like he is describing August 20th, 2010! I mean think about it. People in our education system are predominantly telling us that we don't need to listen to our fathers, our grandfathers, or anyone who is older and wiser. No, no, no they're all old fashioned and they don't know about how the world is changing, they can't keep up with the times. You need to go out, find yourself (yeah that's a joke), and find your own way in this world. I'll tell you what. You go and do that and you will make history repeat itself. That's all you'll do. Instead of learning from your parents, humbly recognizing that they have valuable wisdom to impart to you, you will go out and make the same mistakes they did when you could avoid them just by stopping, listening, and learning. Why do you think we are in the worst economic times since the great depression (or so they say)? Because our politicians didn't learn from history! They forced their progressive agendas at us and we all plunged headlong right into them!
Ok, again, back to education. It's still happening today just to let you know. Progressive education may be at it's strongest right now actually. Progressives want to, in their own words, "socialize" the young. "To foster this, they emphasized the importance of what they called 'child-centered' education, that is, focusing on the values and desires of children rather using the schools to inculcate what adults wanted." So again it's all about the children, remember. We are doing it for the kids. Yeah...that's BS too. No the only thing they are doing is getting smart and realizing that without parents input they can focus on what the children want which is, because or our fallen sin nature, going to be selfish sinful values and desires. You have to give it to them, they are very smart. They are able to "change schooling, change the child, and send him forth to change his world." It's ingenious really.
This next part is something I want to you think about though because this was one thing that really sent me for a loop cause I had NEVER thought about this before. "Spontaneous participation by the students in the classes was one of the progressive ideals." What? You're saying that getting kids to participate is progressive? That's what I thought at first, but listen to this now. "By participation the children would learn to adjust to one another, would be socialized, and be fitted to conformity to the wishes of the group." Now which one of you has ever thought that? It sounds absurd at first, but really think about it. If you don't have Jesus as your Lord and savior and you can't stand on your convictions with confidence, then participation in class would do exactly THAT to you! Now think of all the kids out there that are not christian and in a classroom setting everyday. They don't even realize it, but if they are not strong in their convictions and beliefs then they are going to be socialized and fitted to CONFORMITY. Think about that! I am totally serious here, I really want you all to think about this because this is the kind of stuff that has got to change in our country. It's small and it's unbelievably subtle, but it's changing us, and not for the better.
"The term that tied all this together for John Dewey, and for his followers generally, was "democracy". Dewey took this term, which americans were coming to accept as describing their political system, and used it as a word to conjure with. Democracy, for him, was the ultimate good...the thing to be striven for above all else,and that which his educational system was bent on achieving. What did it mean? It meant whatever Dewey would have it mean, at least for him; it meant equality, freedom, concern for others, participation in the 'formation of the values that regulate the living of men together...'" "Above all, though, 'democracy' was a word to be used to change schooling in the direction he wanted. What he wanted to do was build a new social order along what is generally known as socialistic lines. As he wrote, on one occasion: 'the schools will surely...share in the building of the social order of the future...they will of necessity...take an active part in determining the social order.'"
Again, another lengthy quote, but I just can't say it like Mr. Carson does so there it is. Also, again, it sounds like he is writing about right now! People all over the U.S., politicians especially, are abusing the word and concept of democracy to get whatever they want done accomplished. At the beginning of that quote he says that Americans are beginning to think that their political system is a democracy.....what did I JUST post about? How people today think that we are a democracy! Is that not a little crazy?! Please, please, please! Think about this and let it provoke you. Educate yourself, cause God knows you are not going to get far listening to me rant, and start preparing for when you can vote, whether it's in November or in a couple Novembers from now. Start getting equipped right now!
Wow, my eyes are about to explode. Going to bed y'all. Peace out, have a good night, hope you enjoy the post. Thanks for reading!
Progressives have been continually assaulting education as we know it traditionally. Dewey said that the "traditional scheme...imposes adult standards, subject matter, and methods upon those who are only growing slowly toward maturity." So you see guys if we were all a little fester on the up-take then they wouldn't feel the need to change our education....yeah that's BS. No, the real reason they want to change education from the traditional order is because they want to keep us DUMB! If we are ignorant to how our government works, what kind of economic systems actually work and what ones don't, what our country stands for, what our country was founded on, and what our rights and duties as citizens are then they will have power over us. That is the only way that they can stay in power. The moment we get our heads on straight and understand that WE THE PEOPLE have the power; that is when the progressives lose. Now back to what I was saying.
"Dewey's pragmatism left little room for the education as it had been conceived over the centuries. Aside from the most basic fundamentals- reading, writing, and arithmetic say- education, or at least formal education has been premised on the belief that philosophers, historians, essayists, scientists, and theologians have discovered and learned much. But pragmatists would have none of that. They wanted to cast aside the religious and humane learning, experience, and revelations and to launch out into uncharted sea of the future, armed only with the determination to experiment and find out what would work in transforming man in his world."
That is a quote from the book and yes it is very lengthy, but I wanted you to see just how amazing this man's writing is. He wrote this 25 years ago and it sounds like he is describing August 20th, 2010! I mean think about it. People in our education system are predominantly telling us that we don't need to listen to our fathers, our grandfathers, or anyone who is older and wiser. No, no, no they're all old fashioned and they don't know about how the world is changing, they can't keep up with the times. You need to go out, find yourself (yeah that's a joke), and find your own way in this world. I'll tell you what. You go and do that and you will make history repeat itself. That's all you'll do. Instead of learning from your parents, humbly recognizing that they have valuable wisdom to impart to you, you will go out and make the same mistakes they did when you could avoid them just by stopping, listening, and learning. Why do you think we are in the worst economic times since the great depression (or so they say)? Because our politicians didn't learn from history! They forced their progressive agendas at us and we all plunged headlong right into them!
Ok, again, back to education. It's still happening today just to let you know. Progressive education may be at it's strongest right now actually. Progressives want to, in their own words, "socialize" the young. "To foster this, they emphasized the importance of what they called 'child-centered' education, that is, focusing on the values and desires of children rather using the schools to inculcate what adults wanted." So again it's all about the children, remember. We are doing it for the kids. Yeah...that's BS too. No the only thing they are doing is getting smart and realizing that without parents input they can focus on what the children want which is, because or our fallen sin nature, going to be selfish sinful values and desires. You have to give it to them, they are very smart. They are able to "change schooling, change the child, and send him forth to change his world." It's ingenious really.
This next part is something I want to you think about though because this was one thing that really sent me for a loop cause I had NEVER thought about this before. "Spontaneous participation by the students in the classes was one of the progressive ideals." What? You're saying that getting kids to participate is progressive? That's what I thought at first, but listen to this now. "By participation the children would learn to adjust to one another, would be socialized, and be fitted to conformity to the wishes of the group." Now which one of you has ever thought that? It sounds absurd at first, but really think about it. If you don't have Jesus as your Lord and savior and you can't stand on your convictions with confidence, then participation in class would do exactly THAT to you! Now think of all the kids out there that are not christian and in a classroom setting everyday. They don't even realize it, but if they are not strong in their convictions and beliefs then they are going to be socialized and fitted to CONFORMITY. Think about that! I am totally serious here, I really want you all to think about this because this is the kind of stuff that has got to change in our country. It's small and it's unbelievably subtle, but it's changing us, and not for the better.
"The term that tied all this together for John Dewey, and for his followers generally, was "democracy". Dewey took this term, which americans were coming to accept as describing their political system, and used it as a word to conjure with. Democracy, for him, was the ultimate good...the thing to be striven for above all else,and that which his educational system was bent on achieving. What did it mean? It meant whatever Dewey would have it mean, at least for him; it meant equality, freedom, concern for others, participation in the 'formation of the values that regulate the living of men together...'" "Above all, though, 'democracy' was a word to be used to change schooling in the direction he wanted. What he wanted to do was build a new social order along what is generally known as socialistic lines. As he wrote, on one occasion: 'the schools will surely...share in the building of the social order of the future...they will of necessity...take an active part in determining the social order.'"
Again, another lengthy quote, but I just can't say it like Mr. Carson does so there it is. Also, again, it sounds like he is writing about right now! People all over the U.S., politicians especially, are abusing the word and concept of democracy to get whatever they want done accomplished. At the beginning of that quote he says that Americans are beginning to think that their political system is a democracy.....what did I JUST post about? How people today think that we are a democracy! Is that not a little crazy?! Please, please, please! Think about this and let it provoke you. Educate yourself, cause God knows you are not going to get far listening to me rant, and start preparing for when you can vote, whether it's in November or in a couple Novembers from now. Start getting equipped right now!
Wow, my eyes are about to explode. Going to bed y'all. Peace out, have a good night, hope you enjoy the post. Thanks for reading!
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Pragmatism, John Dewey, and Progressive Education
Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow I am being totally blown away by what I am reading in this book guys. It is truly incredible the amount of foresight this man had when he was writing this. As I promised, this post will be about Progressive Education and the Progressive Education Movement, but I have to tell you a little bit about a man named John Dewey and a philosophy called Pragmatism before I go into that. So here it goes, I am going to start with Pragmatism.
"Pragmatism is not so much a philosophy as a way of doing without philosophy." That is a quote from the book The Growth of America and it goes on to explain that "pragmatism as a philosophy is a philosophy of process, of change, in a word, of flux. Pragmatists held that everything is continually changing, growing, altering, and becoming." In simple terms it means that they believe that there is nothing that is absolute, nothing that is unchanging, nothing that is eternally the same. A pragmatist named Charles Sanders Pierce said this about pragmatism: "[pragmatism will] serve to show that almost every proposition of ontological metaphysics is either meaningless gibberish...or else downright absurd." Now if you are like me you need a little help on those two words "Ontological" and "Metaphysics". So I looked them up to make it clear for you what he is saying here. Both of those words have to do with the explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. So what he is saying is that there is no point in learning about why we exist or how we got here because he thinks that it doesn't matter at all. So you can see what this philosophy (or lack thereof) looks like.
A little while later in the book the author says that "the central concept of pragmatism...is that the truth of any thought, so far as it contains any, consists in the effects or results of believing and acting on it." What?!? Do you know what this means? It means that truth is relative! There is a quote from John Dewey where he says of "ideas, meanings, conceptions, theories, systems....." that if they are "instrumental to an active reorganization of the given environment..., then the test of their validity and value lies in accomplishing this work. If they succeed in their office they are reliable, sound, valid, good, true." So basically what he is saying is that if something works for you then it is truth to you. There is no room for morality or any kind of ethical standards in these men's minds! They are saying that you can create your own truth! This is what John Dewey believed. Now why am I going into this crazy philosophy lesson when I was going to be talking about education? Well because like I said, John Dewey believed in pragmatism, he was a pragmatist. You just read that quote from him that basically sums up his beliefs in one sentence. Now this may seem irrelevant to education, but it's not because the Progressive Education Movement was John Dewey's "brainchild" as Mr. Carson put it. So now that you know a little bit about pragmatism and John Dewey let me get into the education part of all this.
John Dewey along with many other "reformers" wanted to use education as means to transform society. Lestor Frank Ward said that "education was the 'great panacea'-for political as well as all other evils." The "Great Panacea" is like the great cure or solution. Albion Small, a disciple of Ward, said that "Sociology knows no means for the... reform of society more radical than those of which the teachers hold the leverage." So it's obvious that these guys saw how huge of a piece education was to their progressive puzzle they were trying to construct. They made quick on trying to spread their fever to others too. In 1904 John Dewey went to Columbia University and as a result Teachers College there became the center for the diffusion of the ideas of progressive education over the country. A man named William H. Kilpatrick, who was a student of Dewey's, "taught some 35,000 students from every state in the Union at a time when Teachers College was training a substantial percentage of the...leaders of American education....In the hands of the dedicated, compelling Kilpatrick, the chair became an extraordinary strategic rostrum for the dissemination of a particular version of progressive education....." I am up way to late right now so I can't put up all the definitions of those crazy big words, but if you don't quite get what he's saying then look up some of those words and it will make more sense. Basically it just means that they were influencing thousands of young students with their progressive ideals and agendas. Not a good thing.
I have to finish this tomorrow y'all cause I am working tomorrow and I need sleep. Peace out and thanks for reading.
"Pragmatism is not so much a philosophy as a way of doing without philosophy." That is a quote from the book The Growth of America and it goes on to explain that "pragmatism as a philosophy is a philosophy of process, of change, in a word, of flux. Pragmatists held that everything is continually changing, growing, altering, and becoming." In simple terms it means that they believe that there is nothing that is absolute, nothing that is unchanging, nothing that is eternally the same. A pragmatist named Charles Sanders Pierce said this about pragmatism: "[pragmatism will] serve to show that almost every proposition of ontological metaphysics is either meaningless gibberish...or else downright absurd." Now if you are like me you need a little help on those two words "Ontological" and "Metaphysics". So I looked them up to make it clear for you what he is saying here. Both of those words have to do with the explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world. So what he is saying is that there is no point in learning about why we exist or how we got here because he thinks that it doesn't matter at all. So you can see what this philosophy (or lack thereof) looks like.
A little while later in the book the author says that "the central concept of pragmatism...is that the truth of any thought, so far as it contains any, consists in the effects or results of believing and acting on it." What?!? Do you know what this means? It means that truth is relative! There is a quote from John Dewey where he says of "ideas, meanings, conceptions, theories, systems....." that if they are "instrumental to an active reorganization of the given environment..., then the test of their validity and value lies in accomplishing this work. If they succeed in their office they are reliable, sound, valid, good, true." So basically what he is saying is that if something works for you then it is truth to you. There is no room for morality or any kind of ethical standards in these men's minds! They are saying that you can create your own truth! This is what John Dewey believed. Now why am I going into this crazy philosophy lesson when I was going to be talking about education? Well because like I said, John Dewey believed in pragmatism, he was a pragmatist. You just read that quote from him that basically sums up his beliefs in one sentence. Now this may seem irrelevant to education, but it's not because the Progressive Education Movement was John Dewey's "brainchild" as Mr. Carson put it. So now that you know a little bit about pragmatism and John Dewey let me get into the education part of all this.
John Dewey along with many other "reformers" wanted to use education as means to transform society. Lestor Frank Ward said that "education was the 'great panacea'-for political as well as all other evils." The "Great Panacea" is like the great cure or solution. Albion Small, a disciple of Ward, said that "Sociology knows no means for the... reform of society more radical than those of which the teachers hold the leverage." So it's obvious that these guys saw how huge of a piece education was to their progressive puzzle they were trying to construct. They made quick on trying to spread their fever to others too. In 1904 John Dewey went to Columbia University and as a result Teachers College there became the center for the diffusion of the ideas of progressive education over the country. A man named William H. Kilpatrick, who was a student of Dewey's, "taught some 35,000 students from every state in the Union at a time when Teachers College was training a substantial percentage of the...leaders of American education....In the hands of the dedicated, compelling Kilpatrick, the chair became an extraordinary strategic rostrum for the dissemination of a particular version of progressive education....." I am up way to late right now so I can't put up all the definitions of those crazy big words, but if you don't quite get what he's saying then look up some of those words and it will make more sense. Basically it just means that they were influencing thousands of young students with their progressive ideals and agendas. Not a good thing.
I have to finish this tomorrow y'all cause I am working tomorrow and I need sleep. Peace out and thanks for reading.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
History Lesson (for you and for me)
Oh guys, where do I start? I have no clue, honestly. After my last post my genius of a friend Kayla suggested that I write more about history and what has happened in the past so as to better understand what is going on right now and I thought "Duh! Why didn't I think of that?!" Well, after she made that brilliant suggestion I went and found a book that I had used as a reference in one of my papers and started reading it more in depth. The book is called The Growth of America by Clarence B. Carson and I encourage you ALL to read it. It will open up your eyes!
I started reading in the middle of the book (I'm weird like that) because I saw that the chapter name was "Progressivism". Progressivism is an ideology that links progress to reform and believes that progress can be achieved through the use of government power. I am trying to explain this as best I can, but it is really kind of hard because it's a very complicated thing to explain and I still have a lot to learn about it myself. I hope that above definition, however rough it may be, will help you though.
Progressivism started to show it's face about a hundred years ago or so in the early 1900's and one of the biggest things it did was link government instituted reforms to the idea of progress. What this did (and does) is gives people the feeling that progress is being made because the signs of progress are all around, or at least what people think the signs of progress are. Wouldn't you say that sounds like what's happening right now? I mean there is progress being made isn't there? We have computers that fit in the palm of our hand, we are going to have cars that are run off electricity pretty soon (or so we hope), and I could go on and on with things that are being made better every day. So yeah, there is progress happening, but is it the right kind of progress? You may want to be careful how you answer that question if you are out in the world somewhere like a classroom or a meeting or even just talking with friends. Why? Well because by linking government instituted reforms to the idea of progress it makes anyone who is opposed to reform look like they are opposed to progress. Again, I know this may be hard to follow, I had to read this chapter twice over just to get my head a little bit around it and I am still basically just telling you what I read in the book only in a little bit simpler terms. So, I hope you are able to get this from my scrambled way of explaining it.
Here is the thing though. This book I am reading and referencing was written in 1985! 25 years ago! And this guy who wrote it is saying the exact same stuff about progressives and big government that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'reilly, and any other true conservative right now is saying. Isn't that a little crazy? Well not really, cause here's the other thing: The guy who wrote this book has his doctorate in history. He knows that by learning about the past you can predict the future and by learning from the mistakes of the past you can try to change the future by not making those same mistakes again! Knowing our history is important guys! Now, you don't have to go crazy and all go major in history, but I think it would be a really good idea to educate yourself a little more thoroughly on history in general, but U.S. History especially. Thank you Kayla again for the suggestion! I really need to do some homework on history =).
You doing your homework and learning history is something that progressives are scared of though. Progressives are trying to change how we are educated so that we don't know about history or they make it so we don't care or they color it their way. Because they know that if we are dumb to history then we will never learn from it and as a result just go on repeating the mistakes of our fathers. Guys (and girls), lets be the first generation to prove that old saying that "History repeats itself" wrong. What do you say?
My next post is going to be about Progressive Education, where it all started, and how it has effected our country in the last 100 years. Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like this post, whether you want me to keep going on this track, or whether you want me to do something else.
I started reading in the middle of the book (I'm weird like that) because I saw that the chapter name was "Progressivism". Progressivism is an ideology that links progress to reform and believes that progress can be achieved through the use of government power. I am trying to explain this as best I can, but it is really kind of hard because it's a very complicated thing to explain and I still have a lot to learn about it myself. I hope that above definition, however rough it may be, will help you though.
Progressivism started to show it's face about a hundred years ago or so in the early 1900's and one of the biggest things it did was link government instituted reforms to the idea of progress. What this did (and does) is gives people the feeling that progress is being made because the signs of progress are all around, or at least what people think the signs of progress are. Wouldn't you say that sounds like what's happening right now? I mean there is progress being made isn't there? We have computers that fit in the palm of our hand, we are going to have cars that are run off electricity pretty soon (or so we hope), and I could go on and on with things that are being made better every day. So yeah, there is progress happening, but is it the right kind of progress? You may want to be careful how you answer that question if you are out in the world somewhere like a classroom or a meeting or even just talking with friends. Why? Well because by linking government instituted reforms to the idea of progress it makes anyone who is opposed to reform look like they are opposed to progress. Again, I know this may be hard to follow, I had to read this chapter twice over just to get my head a little bit around it and I am still basically just telling you what I read in the book only in a little bit simpler terms. So, I hope you are able to get this from my scrambled way of explaining it.
Here is the thing though. This book I am reading and referencing was written in 1985! 25 years ago! And this guy who wrote it is saying the exact same stuff about progressives and big government that Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Bill O'reilly, and any other true conservative right now is saying. Isn't that a little crazy? Well not really, cause here's the other thing: The guy who wrote this book has his doctorate in history. He knows that by learning about the past you can predict the future and by learning from the mistakes of the past you can try to change the future by not making those same mistakes again! Knowing our history is important guys! Now, you don't have to go crazy and all go major in history, but I think it would be a really good idea to educate yourself a little more thoroughly on history in general, but U.S. History especially. Thank you Kayla again for the suggestion! I really need to do some homework on history =).
You doing your homework and learning history is something that progressives are scared of though. Progressives are trying to change how we are educated so that we don't know about history or they make it so we don't care or they color it their way. Because they know that if we are dumb to history then we will never learn from it and as a result just go on repeating the mistakes of our fathers. Guys (and girls), lets be the first generation to prove that old saying that "History repeats itself" wrong. What do you say?
My next post is going to be about Progressive Education, where it all started, and how it has effected our country in the last 100 years. Thanks for reading. Let me know if you like this post, whether you want me to keep going on this track, or whether you want me to do something else.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
What do you want to hear about?
I need you all to let me know what you want to hear about on my blog. I have been really out of the loop these past few months with politics mainly because I got sick of them, but also cause it was Summer and I was just chillin out. So anyway I am a little behind on things and I need to catch up so I want you all to tell me what you want to hear about and then I will start doing some research and try to inform you and maybe entertain you a little bit ;).
So tell me, what do you want to hear?
Comment below =)
So tell me, what do you want to hear?
Comment below =)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Pop quiz! Who's been listening in school?
I was listening to my good friend Glenn Beck today and it was a video that he had done with a bunch of teenagers asking them about the United States, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. It was a great video and I was really encouraged to see that there actually are other teenagers out there that have a good head on their shoulders when it comes to politics. One of the questions Beck posed to the group of teenagers was "What is the difference between a Democracy and a Republic?" The reason I am highlighting this particular question is because it's a good thing to know the difference, but I wanna ask you all a question on top of this one. First I wanna ask you what the difference is, and don't look it up. If you don't know then just say that you don't. Second, though, I want to ask you what you think of how we are set up here in America as a Democratic Republic (emphasis on republic). What do you think are some pros and cons of a democracy or a republic or both?
I take that part back about not looking it up. If you don't know then look it up cause it's kinda important to know that before you answer the second question.
So if you want to do this, then please do, because I would really like to see the responses and see what you all think.
Thanks for reading.
I take that part back about not looking it up. If you don't know then look it up cause it's kinda important to know that before you answer the second question.
So if you want to do this, then please do, because I would really like to see the responses and see what you all think.
Thanks for reading.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
So sorry guys, but I am back
I'm sorry everyone. I have neglected my blog and it has just sat here....so sad, and I'm sorry for that. Today though I read something that thoroughly enraged me. I apologize for the picture you all may have gotten in your head when I said that, like "whoa! Taylor, enraged?.....SCARY!!", but I that is how I feel right now and so I am back on my blog to let it all out and hopefully get you all just a bit fired up and maybe even a little ticked off? Maybe. It depends on how you are feeling, but anyway here it is.
I got home from church and I was eating lunch at the table with my dad when he showed me an article about Daytona State College and how they are airing a program call Al-Jazeera (English version). This program is, as I said, the English version of an Arabic program that airs in the Middle East. The program contains anti-American sentiments to say the least and it is being broadcasted using taxpayer dollars! It is, in my opinion, completely outrageous! You are going to see a lot more exclamation points and a lot more intense writing in my future blog posts so I hope you all stick with me and don't get too scared.
The defense of this program is coming from very highly educated individuals who say that it's important for us to see things from different perspectives and be more open to opposing views, even if we don't agree with them (don't you love having super smart people to shed light on what us simpletons are too slow to comprehend?). Got that? Us hate-filled, gun loving, war mongering, Americans need to become more openminded to the viewpoints and beliefs of other countries and cultures. Because you know, it's not like we have been the first ones to respond to any major disaster that has happened anywhere in the world in the past 100 years (Haiti). It's not like we have been the guys who come in and settle conflicts between nations and bring peace back (WWI, WWII, Viet Nam, Dessert Storm, Iraq and Israel). And it's not like we are the only country in the WORLD that is completely free in allowing any person from anywhere to come live, speak, work, worship, and prosper as they see fit. No, that's not America.....is it? Wait a minute! Yes it is!! in case you all have ever doubted this or have been deceived by the public media, we are the good guys! Remember! "On Nation UNDER GOD (whether you like it or not), indivisible, with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL" Hello!! That's America! That is US!
So here it is. This is all you need to really take away from this: There is a program that Daytona State College is airing on their school televisions that is anti-American and it is being broadcasted using taxpayer dollars. I have a problem with that and I hope you all do to. I don't care who says what about America, it could be the flippen Pope for all I care, I DO NOT CARE. America is the greatest nation in the history of the world. There has never been one like it and in all probability never will be again. That is all I need to know, and I do know it. More than that I believe it and no one is going to change my mind. We have screwed up, we have caused our share of problems, we still do and are going to continue to mess up, but we are still America and that is what this is really all about. Anti-American sentiments being broadcasted on public airwaves for all of the young people in the Daytona area as well as 10 other counties to hear. We don't need that! We have enough idiots in our own government that are trying to take us down as a nation, we don't need to be hearing other countries talk about how much they hate us and how evil we are (when we aren't).
You can believe whatever you want to believe, you can say whatever you want to say, and you can hold your own point of view, those are rights we have. But when you start tearing down the country that has given you those rights, then this is what I say: "Get out! Adios! See you later! We don't need you, and we don't want you!" I don't care who you are or what you believe. If you abuse the rights given to you by this great nation and use them to tear it down, then you welcome, no, more than welcome to leave!
We don't need to "hear from different people what they think of us (Americans)" and we don't need to see things form other viewpoints. I don't know when this started, but that seems to be the new thing in politics; "Be more open, more accepting, more compassionate". You can perceive, analyze, and see very clearly what a point of view is all about just by looking at it and seeing what kind of fruit comes from it. You don't need to look from that point of view yourself. You can be compassionate to people without agreeing with them or even liking them too. That's a command in the bible. And you can accept someone for who they are and still not agree with them and not like what they believe. It's unbelievable that we have come to a place where we think we all need to get a little slice of every religion, every political system, and every culture just so we can "understand" someone.
So there you go. DSC is in the wrong trying to air this program and so is anyone else who airs in on public stations. If they pay to have their own private channel then there is nothing we can do to stop them, that is their right to free speech, but on public channels, not happening!
I got home from church and I was eating lunch at the table with my dad when he showed me an article about Daytona State College and how they are airing a program call Al-Jazeera (English version). This program is, as I said, the English version of an Arabic program that airs in the Middle East. The program contains anti-American sentiments to say the least and it is being broadcasted using taxpayer dollars! It is, in my opinion, completely outrageous! You are going to see a lot more exclamation points and a lot more intense writing in my future blog posts so I hope you all stick with me and don't get too scared.
The defense of this program is coming from very highly educated individuals who say that it's important for us to see things from different perspectives and be more open to opposing views, even if we don't agree with them (don't you love having super smart people to shed light on what us simpletons are too slow to comprehend?). Got that? Us hate-filled, gun loving, war mongering, Americans need to become more openminded to the viewpoints and beliefs of other countries and cultures. Because you know, it's not like we have been the first ones to respond to any major disaster that has happened anywhere in the world in the past 100 years (Haiti). It's not like we have been the guys who come in and settle conflicts between nations and bring peace back (WWI, WWII, Viet Nam, Dessert Storm, Iraq and Israel). And it's not like we are the only country in the WORLD that is completely free in allowing any person from anywhere to come live, speak, work, worship, and prosper as they see fit. No, that's not America.....is it? Wait a minute! Yes it is!! in case you all have ever doubted this or have been deceived by the public media, we are the good guys! Remember! "On Nation UNDER GOD (whether you like it or not), indivisible, with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL" Hello!! That's America! That is US!
So here it is. This is all you need to really take away from this: There is a program that Daytona State College is airing on their school televisions that is anti-American and it is being broadcasted using taxpayer dollars. I have a problem with that and I hope you all do to. I don't care who says what about America, it could be the flippen Pope for all I care, I DO NOT CARE. America is the greatest nation in the history of the world. There has never been one like it and in all probability never will be again. That is all I need to know, and I do know it. More than that I believe it and no one is going to change my mind. We have screwed up, we have caused our share of problems, we still do and are going to continue to mess up, but we are still America and that is what this is really all about. Anti-American sentiments being broadcasted on public airwaves for all of the young people in the Daytona area as well as 10 other counties to hear. We don't need that! We have enough idiots in our own government that are trying to take us down as a nation, we don't need to be hearing other countries talk about how much they hate us and how evil we are (when we aren't).
You can believe whatever you want to believe, you can say whatever you want to say, and you can hold your own point of view, those are rights we have. But when you start tearing down the country that has given you those rights, then this is what I say: "Get out! Adios! See you later! We don't need you, and we don't want you!" I don't care who you are or what you believe. If you abuse the rights given to you by this great nation and use them to tear it down, then you welcome, no, more than welcome to leave!
We don't need to "hear from different people what they think of us (Americans)" and we don't need to see things form other viewpoints. I don't know when this started, but that seems to be the new thing in politics; "Be more open, more accepting, more compassionate". You can perceive, analyze, and see very clearly what a point of view is all about just by looking at it and seeing what kind of fruit comes from it. You don't need to look from that point of view yourself. You can be compassionate to people without agreeing with them or even liking them too. That's a command in the bible. And you can accept someone for who they are and still not agree with them and not like what they believe. It's unbelievable that we have come to a place where we think we all need to get a little slice of every religion, every political system, and every culture just so we can "understand" someone.
So there you go. DSC is in the wrong trying to air this program and so is anyone else who airs in on public stations. If they pay to have their own private channel then there is nothing we can do to stop them, that is their right to free speech, but on public channels, not happening!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Cut Spending and Lower Taxes
Ok so since I haven't posted in FOR-EV-ER I am posting a paper I wrote for government. You can read it, critique it (it has some grammar and spelling problems), tell me what you think, and yell at me for not posting for the past decade or so. So yeah, if you want to read it, it is probably ridiculously long and boring to you all, but I felt really bad about not posting so here it is. Also, the format is messed up because it doesn't carry over from my Word document so that will make the long boring paper even harder to read, so sorry about that. Thanks for reading.
With the economy the way it is and with government solutions proving over and over that they are inadequate there are just two things the government can do to get us out of this recession: cut spending and lower taxes. Cutting spending would obviously save the country money because the government wouldn’t be spending it. Lowering taxes would increase federal revenue, so we would be making more money.
Cutting spending is the first thing the government needs to do. Last year our government spent hundreds of billions of dollars on health care, TARP, and the federal stimulus all while our national debt was over 12 Trillion dollars. It doesn’t take a genius to know that that is not fiscally responsible. Our debt is growing every day, our dollar is losing its value, our economy is still in a recession, and yet our politicians keep spending. A little common sense would tell you that when you are in debt and when you are struggling financially you don’t keep spending; you cut down your spending. That is what our politicians need to realize and then they need to stop the irresponsible spending trends that have developed in Washington.
Cutting spending is something that comes with a price though. It would be ignorant to think that cutting spending wouldn’t mean cut backs on certain things that we as Americans have gotten used to. It would mean cutting certain government programs to save money and stabilize our dollar, but the important thing to realize is that if we continue with this reckless spending, our dollar is going to become worthless and our economy is headed for collapse. If that happens then we will lose those government programs that we were going to cut anyway. So cutting spending is not going to be an easy thing to do, but it is the only thing that is going to stop us from spending ourselves into oblivion.
We need our politicians to start being honest with us and to start making decisions based on what the people want and not on their own personal interests. President Obama’s spending freeze was something that appeared to be a good thing. At first it seemed like “yes, freeze the spending”, but “freeze” doesn’t mean “cut”. The thing that many people didn’t understand was that freeze didn’t mean cut and, that the part of the budget they were freezing was only a tiny piece of the whole budget. What that means is that they aren’t cutting spending. Freezing spending is just the government saying “we won’t spend more than we spent last year”. They aren’t stopping spending; they are just not going to go over what they spent last year. So really there is no reason to be overjoyed with the spending freeze Obama enacted. It is only going to reduce the federal budget by “less than one percent” (Spending Freeze).
The total amount of savings this spending freeze is supposed to bring is 250 Billion over the next ten years. The thing is the freeze only lasts for 3 years so I would not be expecting those kinds of savings. Fox News’ Major Garrett said this in an article he wrote about Obama’s Spending freeze: “Next year, a "non-security" spending freeze would save between $10 billion to $15 billion -- a fraction of the current $3.5 trillion budget” (Spending Freeze). So we are saving 10 to 15 Billion dollars when our budget is 3.5 Trillion. Not exactly what I would call fiscally responsible, but it sounds good and that’s really all that matters to most of our politicians.
The worst part about all of this spending that is going on in our government is that our politicians are still pushing for more. Even after the stimulus’ glaring failure to do anything except add to our debt Congress is trying to pass a second stimulus pack that is even bigger saying that the first one didn’t work because we didn’t spend enough. It is total madness and it is crippling our economy.
Then there is always Obama’s baby: healthcare. Obama’s healthcare plan will cost our government one Trillion dollars that they don’t have to give the American people something that more than half of them don’t want. Now if our politicians were making decisions based on what the people wanted and what they truly thought was good for our country is there any way they would even consider passing such a thing? No! Absolutely not, because it is unsustainable and it will plunge our economy even further into recession.
This is the kind of spending that must be stopped. It is the only way that we will ever really pull out of this recession.
The other thing that needs to happen is tax reduction. Just one look at the U.S. tax code is enough to convince anyone that our tax system needs to be seriously rethought. And not just rethought in terms of lowering or raising taxes. We need to be thinking of reforming our current system and implementing a flat, consumption based tax. Using a flat, consumption based tax would increase federal tax revenue, help small business, allow the free market system to really work, and it would be fair to all.
The Fair Tax is the one that is being pushed the most right now and it is a flat, consumption based tax. The Fair Tax:
• Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
• Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
• Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Abolishes the IRS (Fairtax.org)
This tax would ensure all these things without the IRS and with only one simple tax. It would simplify our tax system dramatically and create a fair, high revenue tax system. As the Fair Tax website puts it: “The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system” (Fairtax.org).
Many people have criticized the Fair Tax saying that the use of it is not realistic and there have been many very good issues that people have brought up against it, but there has been a provision for every one of the arguments I have seen so far and that is what has led me to believe so strongly in this tax. To see some of the arguments and challenges to the Fair Tax you can go to: http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main and read the Fair Tax’s defenses on many of the issues brought up against it.
One of the biggest arguments against the Fair Tax is that its rate is not high enough to generate enough federal revenue. This is a very interesting argument because of a concept that very few people know or understand. The concept is that by lowering taxes you actually increase federal revenue. Now that may seem impossible, but if you look at history it is very clearly seen that increasing taxes does not necessarily lead to higher federal revenue.
Art Laffer, a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s Administration and very well known economist, came up with what is now called the “Laffer Curve”. It is a graph used to show the relationship between tax rates and federal revenue. When explaining the “Laffer Curve” Art Laffer said this:
The basic idea behind the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues is that changes in tax rates have two effects on revenues: the arithmetic effect and the economic effect. The arithmetic effect is simply that if tax rates are lowered, tax revenues (per dollar of tax base) will be lowered by the amount of the decrease in the rate. The reverse is true for an increase in tax rates. The economic effect, however, recognizes the positive impact that lower tax rates have on work, output, and employment--and thereby the tax base--by providing incentives to increase these activities. Raising tax rates has the opposite economic effect by penalizing participation in the taxed activities (The Laffer Curve paragraph 6).
Basically what he is saying is that even though lowering taxes may cause an initial drop in federal revenue the long term effects will have a positive impact on things like “work, output and employment” which will lead to increased federal revenue. To help my point a little bit I have included a picture of the “Laffer Curve” below.
As you can see there is a point of optimum tax revenue, but it is not at 100% tax or at 0% obviously. It is somewhere in between 0% and 100% and here is the thinking behind this: If there are no taxes then obviously there will be no revenue, but if there is a 100% tax then there will also be no revenue because people will not work for an after-tax wage of zero dollars (The Laffer Curve Paragraph 6). So there is a point of maximum revenue, a happy medium if you will, in between 0% and 100% and that is what the Fair Tax is trying to attain.
When taxes are raised taxpayers are not able to keep as much of what they are earning and many ordinary citizens who are tax payers are also small business owners. So when taxes go up it handicaps small businesses by not being able to keep as much of the money as they used to. As a result small businesses are not able to expand because they don’t have the money to pay more employees. Since they are not able to expand their business, they are not able to produce efficiently, which leads to smaller revenue for the business, which then leads to smaller tax revenue for the federal government.
This is why lowering taxes is so important to helping small businesses function and grow. Our economy is based on a free market system that runs on small businesses. So when we impair small businesses with high taxes we impair our entire economic system.
If we ever want to truly pull out of this recession and get our economy back on its feet then I think it’s time our government starts cutting spending and lowering taxes.
With the economy the way it is and with government solutions proving over and over that they are inadequate there are just two things the government can do to get us out of this recession: cut spending and lower taxes. Cutting spending would obviously save the country money because the government wouldn’t be spending it. Lowering taxes would increase federal revenue, so we would be making more money.
Cutting spending is the first thing the government needs to do. Last year our government spent hundreds of billions of dollars on health care, TARP, and the federal stimulus all while our national debt was over 12 Trillion dollars. It doesn’t take a genius to know that that is not fiscally responsible. Our debt is growing every day, our dollar is losing its value, our economy is still in a recession, and yet our politicians keep spending. A little common sense would tell you that when you are in debt and when you are struggling financially you don’t keep spending; you cut down your spending. That is what our politicians need to realize and then they need to stop the irresponsible spending trends that have developed in Washington.
Cutting spending is something that comes with a price though. It would be ignorant to think that cutting spending wouldn’t mean cut backs on certain things that we as Americans have gotten used to. It would mean cutting certain government programs to save money and stabilize our dollar, but the important thing to realize is that if we continue with this reckless spending, our dollar is going to become worthless and our economy is headed for collapse. If that happens then we will lose those government programs that we were going to cut anyway. So cutting spending is not going to be an easy thing to do, but it is the only thing that is going to stop us from spending ourselves into oblivion.
We need our politicians to start being honest with us and to start making decisions based on what the people want and not on their own personal interests. President Obama’s spending freeze was something that appeared to be a good thing. At first it seemed like “yes, freeze the spending”, but “freeze” doesn’t mean “cut”. The thing that many people didn’t understand was that freeze didn’t mean cut and, that the part of the budget they were freezing was only a tiny piece of the whole budget. What that means is that they aren’t cutting spending. Freezing spending is just the government saying “we won’t spend more than we spent last year”. They aren’t stopping spending; they are just not going to go over what they spent last year. So really there is no reason to be overjoyed with the spending freeze Obama enacted. It is only going to reduce the federal budget by “less than one percent” (Spending Freeze).
The total amount of savings this spending freeze is supposed to bring is 250 Billion over the next ten years. The thing is the freeze only lasts for 3 years so I would not be expecting those kinds of savings. Fox News’ Major Garrett said this in an article he wrote about Obama’s Spending freeze: “Next year, a "non-security" spending freeze would save between $10 billion to $15 billion -- a fraction of the current $3.5 trillion budget” (Spending Freeze). So we are saving 10 to 15 Billion dollars when our budget is 3.5 Trillion. Not exactly what I would call fiscally responsible, but it sounds good and that’s really all that matters to most of our politicians.
The worst part about all of this spending that is going on in our government is that our politicians are still pushing for more. Even after the stimulus’ glaring failure to do anything except add to our debt Congress is trying to pass a second stimulus pack that is even bigger saying that the first one didn’t work because we didn’t spend enough. It is total madness and it is crippling our economy.
Then there is always Obama’s baby: healthcare. Obama’s healthcare plan will cost our government one Trillion dollars that they don’t have to give the American people something that more than half of them don’t want. Now if our politicians were making decisions based on what the people wanted and what they truly thought was good for our country is there any way they would even consider passing such a thing? No! Absolutely not, because it is unsustainable and it will plunge our economy even further into recession.
This is the kind of spending that must be stopped. It is the only way that we will ever really pull out of this recession.
The other thing that needs to happen is tax reduction. Just one look at the U.S. tax code is enough to convince anyone that our tax system needs to be seriously rethought. And not just rethought in terms of lowering or raising taxes. We need to be thinking of reforming our current system and implementing a flat, consumption based tax. Using a flat, consumption based tax would increase federal tax revenue, help small business, allow the free market system to really work, and it would be fair to all.
The Fair Tax is the one that is being pushed the most right now and it is a flat, consumption based tax. The Fair Tax:
• Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
• Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
• Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Abolishes the IRS (Fairtax.org)
This tax would ensure all these things without the IRS and with only one simple tax. It would simplify our tax system dramatically and create a fair, high revenue tax system. As the Fair Tax website puts it: “The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system” (Fairtax.org).
Many people have criticized the Fair Tax saying that the use of it is not realistic and there have been many very good issues that people have brought up against it, but there has been a provision for every one of the arguments I have seen so far and that is what has led me to believe so strongly in this tax. To see some of the arguments and challenges to the Fair Tax you can go to: http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer?pagename=about_main and read the Fair Tax’s defenses on many of the issues brought up against it.
One of the biggest arguments against the Fair Tax is that its rate is not high enough to generate enough federal revenue. This is a very interesting argument because of a concept that very few people know or understand. The concept is that by lowering taxes you actually increase federal revenue. Now that may seem impossible, but if you look at history it is very clearly seen that increasing taxes does not necessarily lead to higher federal revenue.
Art Laffer, a former member of President Ronald Reagan’s Administration and very well known economist, came up with what is now called the “Laffer Curve”. It is a graph used to show the relationship between tax rates and federal revenue. When explaining the “Laffer Curve” Art Laffer said this:
The basic idea behind the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues is that changes in tax rates have two effects on revenues: the arithmetic effect and the economic effect. The arithmetic effect is simply that if tax rates are lowered, tax revenues (per dollar of tax base) will be lowered by the amount of the decrease in the rate. The reverse is true for an increase in tax rates. The economic effect, however, recognizes the positive impact that lower tax rates have on work, output, and employment--and thereby the tax base--by providing incentives to increase these activities. Raising tax rates has the opposite economic effect by penalizing participation in the taxed activities (The Laffer Curve paragraph 6).
Basically what he is saying is that even though lowering taxes may cause an initial drop in federal revenue the long term effects will have a positive impact on things like “work, output and employment” which will lead to increased federal revenue. To help my point a little bit I have included a picture of the “Laffer Curve” below.
As you can see there is a point of optimum tax revenue, but it is not at 100% tax or at 0% obviously. It is somewhere in between 0% and 100% and here is the thinking behind this: If there are no taxes then obviously there will be no revenue, but if there is a 100% tax then there will also be no revenue because people will not work for an after-tax wage of zero dollars (The Laffer Curve Paragraph 6). So there is a point of maximum revenue, a happy medium if you will, in between 0% and 100% and that is what the Fair Tax is trying to attain.
When taxes are raised taxpayers are not able to keep as much of what they are earning and many ordinary citizens who are tax payers are also small business owners. So when taxes go up it handicaps small businesses by not being able to keep as much of the money as they used to. As a result small businesses are not able to expand because they don’t have the money to pay more employees. Since they are not able to expand their business, they are not able to produce efficiently, which leads to smaller revenue for the business, which then leads to smaller tax revenue for the federal government.
This is why lowering taxes is so important to helping small businesses function and grow. Our economy is based on a free market system that runs on small businesses. So when we impair small businesses with high taxes we impair our entire economic system.
If we ever want to truly pull out of this recession and get our economy back on its feet then I think it’s time our government starts cutting spending and lowering taxes.
Saturday, January 23, 2010
This is a Right, Right?
So, I am very disturbed. I have been observing and hearing things in these last few weeks that have really got me a little irked. Oh by the way, these past couple of weeks have been really crazy for me, because I have started my college classes, my baseball season is in full swing, and I just took the SAT last Saturday (1/23/10). So sorry for not posting, but I really had no time. Anyway, back to what is disturbing me.
It seems like people have an extremely warped perception of what a "right" is. So let me start by telling you what a right is. A right is something the you are entitled to. Something that you deserve to have just by living. Ok, now that we have that, allow me to read you all your rights.(no you are not under arrest)
You have the right to: life, meaning you have the right to live. Liberty, you are free to live your life, work, and worship however you wish. The Pursuit Of Happiness, you are free to pursue what you believe will make you happy. Those are your rights as Americans. These rights can be taken away though. If you break the laws that were put in place to ensure justice, then you forfeit your rights, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently.
So you got all that? Those are your rights. That is all there is in the world that you have a "right" to have. Not a house, not a phone, not a car, nothing else. Everything else is a privilege and a gift. For some reason though, people think that they have a right to a lot more than Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness. And they are wanting the government to give it to them. People want the government to give them health care, pay for their college, and even help them pay their electric bills.( Those are all things that people in my American Federal Government class said they wanted the government to do for them.) It's pretty sad isn't it? How did we get from Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness to Health care, college, electric bills and everything in between?
Let me add though that I am not against the acquiring of wealth and property. I am TOTALLY for it! I just don't want the government giving it to me or doing it for me. And you shouldn't either. Hard work, ingenuity, and self-reliance are things that should define us as Americans.
People thinking that they are entitled to all of these things and wanting the government to provide it for them only creates one thing: dependence. If you rely on the government to do everything for you, then you give them the authority to rule you. You can't call them dictators, because it's you who put them there in the first place. That's what we are doing as country.
Let me illustrate with something that is closer to home for most of you. Your parents provide for you, they shelter you, they clothe you and therefor they make the rules and they have authority for you. Right now, the government is acting as our parents and although I would not encourage this for teenagers under their parents authority I think it's about time we started being a little bit rebellious. It's time to take back our country and put the power back where it belongs: in our hands.
We can't do that though if we are trusting in politicians to save us. It's "In God We Trust" not "In congress we trust". We need to get back to our Christian roots, put God in his rightful place at the center of our country, and start working to better ourselves and our country. It's the only way out.
I know most of you reading this are Christians and this is nothing new to you, but you affect a lot of people you interact with, so start sharing these things with those people. Help them see the truth and show them how they can change. I think if we all did that we would see the America we used to know emerge from under the veil of corruption that is choking it.
It seems like people have an extremely warped perception of what a "right" is. So let me start by telling you what a right is. A right is something the you are entitled to. Something that you deserve to have just by living. Ok, now that we have that, allow me to read you all your rights.(no you are not under arrest)
You have the right to: life, meaning you have the right to live. Liberty, you are free to live your life, work, and worship however you wish. The Pursuit Of Happiness, you are free to pursue what you believe will make you happy. Those are your rights as Americans. These rights can be taken away though. If you break the laws that were put in place to ensure justice, then you forfeit your rights, sometimes temporarily and sometimes permanently.
So you got all that? Those are your rights. That is all there is in the world that you have a "right" to have. Not a house, not a phone, not a car, nothing else. Everything else is a privilege and a gift. For some reason though, people think that they have a right to a lot more than Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness. And they are wanting the government to give it to them. People want the government to give them health care, pay for their college, and even help them pay their electric bills.( Those are all things that people in my American Federal Government class said they wanted the government to do for them.) It's pretty sad isn't it? How did we get from Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit of Happiness to Health care, college, electric bills and everything in between?
Let me add though that I am not against the acquiring of wealth and property. I am TOTALLY for it! I just don't want the government giving it to me or doing it for me. And you shouldn't either. Hard work, ingenuity, and self-reliance are things that should define us as Americans.
People thinking that they are entitled to all of these things and wanting the government to provide it for them only creates one thing: dependence. If you rely on the government to do everything for you, then you give them the authority to rule you. You can't call them dictators, because it's you who put them there in the first place. That's what we are doing as country.
Let me illustrate with something that is closer to home for most of you. Your parents provide for you, they shelter you, they clothe you and therefor they make the rules and they have authority for you. Right now, the government is acting as our parents and although I would not encourage this for teenagers under their parents authority I think it's about time we started being a little bit rebellious. It's time to take back our country and put the power back where it belongs: in our hands.
We can't do that though if we are trusting in politicians to save us. It's "In God We Trust" not "In congress we trust". We need to get back to our Christian roots, put God in his rightful place at the center of our country, and start working to better ourselves and our country. It's the only way out.
I know most of you reading this are Christians and this is nothing new to you, but you affect a lot of people you interact with, so start sharing these things with those people. Help them see the truth and show them how they can change. I think if we all did that we would see the America we used to know emerge from under the veil of corruption that is choking it.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Political Correctness
Political correctness, you gotta love it. If for nothing more than to laugh your head off at the absurdity of it all.
Political correctness is why the media calls Osama Bin Laden a "freedom fighter". Yeah, the man who is responsible for the deaths of over 2000 American citizens is a "freedom fighter". I'm sorry, wait no I'm not, but Osama Bin Laden is a radical Muslim terrorist. There is no other way to say it. He is a radical Muslim terrorist! How can the media even think of calling someone like that a "freedom fighter"?!?
Political correctness is also why the media calls the maniac that shot and killed 4 cops in Washington state "morally challenged" or an "unsavory character" instead of what he really is; a cold blooded murderer. But wait, think of how he would feel about being called a murderer. He has feelings too you know? I do not care. He is a murderer and there is no way that I would call anyone who kills 4 other people anything but a murderer! But God forbid we offend the man that killed 4 cops or the man responsible for the deaths of over 2000 Americans by calling them what they really are. No, no, we can't let that happen now can we? It's ridiculous!
Political correctness goes beyond these two examples. Oh yeah, these are just two of the millions of examples I could have used (they are also two of the ones that I find to be the most ridiculous and infuriating).
Let me talk about how political correctness is killing our country. There may have been one before I knew anything about politics, but for what I know, president Obama is the most politically correct president we have ever had. Have you noticed that he spent most of 2009 on a world apology tour? He went to something like 30 countries to apologize for the U.S. and how greedy and oppressing we are. Yes, we are all just a bunch of greedy, rich, oppressing warmongers and we are so sorry! No! We are the United States of America! The greatest country in the world and the greatest country the world has ever known! We are also the only truly free country in the world! No other country in the world enjoys the freedoms that we do! And you wanna know something else? Not a SINGLE natural disaster, war, or other kind of catastrophe happens ANYWHERE in the world that the U.S. is not there to help the country that is suffering out! Heck! we even help our enemies! So president Obama, stop apologizing! There is nothing we need to apologize for as a country and I sure never will apologize for being an American citizen!
There is nothing anyone can say or do to me that will ever make me be anything but proud to be an American. I hope it's the same for you. If you feel the same or even if you don't then let me ask you this: why is our president so obviously ashamed of being an American? This is the man who's wife said on the campaign trail that "for the first time in my life I feel proud to be an American". I have a problem with that statement. I don't know how you feel, but to me it doesn't matter who you are, what you do for a living, who your family is, or where you live in this country, if you are an American citizen then you should be proud of it! I don't care if you are a homeless person! The homeless in our country live better than 80 percent of the rest of the world anyway!
So why is our president going around the world apologizing for us? The answer is political correctness. Keep everyone happy, keep everyone appeased, and don't offend anyone. You can't call a spade a spade anymore! We have made it so that no matter what a person has done we can't bring ourselves to call them what they are and all because we do not want to offend them! It's the same thing with other countries, religions, and political systems. It doesn't matter what the country has done or what they stand for, we can't say anything about them that may be offensive, even if it's the truth! Religions are the same way. It doesn't matter if a religion's whole purpose is to exterminate another religion and rule the world *cough Radical Islam cough*, we can't say anything, whether it's true or not doesn't matter, that will offend them! Political systems; same old story. Even if a political system is completely un-biblical and proven to be a failure, we can't protest against it, because it would offend the people who believe in it.
So there you are, political correctness in a nutshell. Don't you love it? (That's a joke guys). I am about sick of it. How about you? Thanks for reading.
Political correctness is why the media calls Osama Bin Laden a "freedom fighter". Yeah, the man who is responsible for the deaths of over 2000 American citizens is a "freedom fighter". I'm sorry, wait no I'm not, but Osama Bin Laden is a radical Muslim terrorist. There is no other way to say it. He is a radical Muslim terrorist! How can the media even think of calling someone like that a "freedom fighter"?!?
Political correctness is also why the media calls the maniac that shot and killed 4 cops in Washington state "morally challenged" or an "unsavory character" instead of what he really is; a cold blooded murderer. But wait, think of how he would feel about being called a murderer. He has feelings too you know? I do not care. He is a murderer and there is no way that I would call anyone who kills 4 other people anything but a murderer! But God forbid we offend the man that killed 4 cops or the man responsible for the deaths of over 2000 Americans by calling them what they really are. No, no, we can't let that happen now can we? It's ridiculous!
Political correctness goes beyond these two examples. Oh yeah, these are just two of the millions of examples I could have used (they are also two of the ones that I find to be the most ridiculous and infuriating).
Let me talk about how political correctness is killing our country. There may have been one before I knew anything about politics, but for what I know, president Obama is the most politically correct president we have ever had. Have you noticed that he spent most of 2009 on a world apology tour? He went to something like 30 countries to apologize for the U.S. and how greedy and oppressing we are. Yes, we are all just a bunch of greedy, rich, oppressing warmongers and we are so sorry! No! We are the United States of America! The greatest country in the world and the greatest country the world has ever known! We are also the only truly free country in the world! No other country in the world enjoys the freedoms that we do! And you wanna know something else? Not a SINGLE natural disaster, war, or other kind of catastrophe happens ANYWHERE in the world that the U.S. is not there to help the country that is suffering out! Heck! we even help our enemies! So president Obama, stop apologizing! There is nothing we need to apologize for as a country and I sure never will apologize for being an American citizen!
There is nothing anyone can say or do to me that will ever make me be anything but proud to be an American. I hope it's the same for you. If you feel the same or even if you don't then let me ask you this: why is our president so obviously ashamed of being an American? This is the man who's wife said on the campaign trail that "for the first time in my life I feel proud to be an American". I have a problem with that statement. I don't know how you feel, but to me it doesn't matter who you are, what you do for a living, who your family is, or where you live in this country, if you are an American citizen then you should be proud of it! I don't care if you are a homeless person! The homeless in our country live better than 80 percent of the rest of the world anyway!
So why is our president going around the world apologizing for us? The answer is political correctness. Keep everyone happy, keep everyone appeased, and don't offend anyone. You can't call a spade a spade anymore! We have made it so that no matter what a person has done we can't bring ourselves to call them what they are and all because we do not want to offend them! It's the same thing with other countries, religions, and political systems. It doesn't matter what the country has done or what they stand for, we can't say anything about them that may be offensive, even if it's the truth! Religions are the same way. It doesn't matter if a religion's whole purpose is to exterminate another religion and rule the world *cough Radical Islam cough*, we can't say anything, whether it's true or not doesn't matter, that will offend them! Political systems; same old story. Even if a political system is completely un-biblical and proven to be a failure, we can't protest against it, because it would offend the people who believe in it.
So there you are, political correctness in a nutshell. Don't you love it? (That's a joke guys). I am about sick of it. How about you? Thanks for reading.
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