Afghanistan

I think it is a mistake for so many people to comment on America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan while Americans, our Afghan allies, and the citizens of other countries are still in harm’s way. There will be time enough for that when the dust settles, and we all can see more clearly.

Further, it is a mistake to turn on each other right now, blaming, attacking, and otherwise devouring one another.  At a time when the other side is claiming a great victory, our quarreling only enhances their status in the eyes of other potential opponents.  Rather than blaming each other, our leaders ought to be trying to work together to find a way to salvage something from this mess.

Where Do You Fit In?

God knows everything.  He knew His people from eternity before the heavens and Earth were created. He predestined them to become like His Son, Jesus Christ.  He prepares the hearts of people to receive His call to be saved, and He saves them through faith in Jesus.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30 ESV)

https://biblehub.com/esv/romans/8.htm

God gives us salvation freely.  We cannot be good enough on our own to earn it, but when we are saved, He changes us so that we want to think and act in ways that please Him.  The Holy Spirit can give us the skills and abilities we need to fulfill the role that has been prepared for us in the Body of Christ. 

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. (1Corinthians 12:1-28 ESV)

https://biblehub.com/esv/1_corinthians/12.htm

Would you like to take your place in God’s plan for the ages?  Would you like to see where you fit in?  Do you want the assurance that everything is going to work out for your good in the end?  Would you like to share in God’s glory forever?

Then give yourself to Jesus today.  Become one of His own.  Find out what he has planned for you.  Be part of His Body with your own special function that allows you to live in service to Him and to the other members of His Body.  He loves you, and He is calling you to come home.

 

 

God's Children

See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God; and in fact we are. For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.  And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1John 3:12-3 NASB)

This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments remains in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He remains in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us. (1John 3:23-24 NASB) *

 * https://biblehub.com/nasb_/1_john/3.htm

 Do you want God to call you His child?  Accept the salvation provided for you by Jesus Christ and follow Him.  The Holy Spirit will live in you, and if you surrender to the Spirit He will give you the ability to follow Jesus.  Jesus made it clear what we are to do:

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord Your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Upon these two commandments hang the whole Law and the Prophets.”  (Matthew 22:34-40 NASB) *

 

* https://biblehub.com/nasb_/matthew/22.htm

 

 

 

A Bad Day for the USA

Today, the US Senate approved “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act,” commonly referred to as the Infrastructure Bill.  Early reporting indicates that it will allow the federal government to spend approximately $1 trillion dollars on “infrastructure” projects provided for in the bill. CNN.com put the figure at $1.2 trillion.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/10/politics/bipartisan-plan-infrastructure-vote-congress/index.html

NPR.org provided a short list of the spending approved in the bill:

Transportation

·         Roads, bridges, major projects: $110 billion

·         Passenger and freight rail: $66 billion

·         Public transit: $39 billion

·         Airports: $25 billion

·         Port infrastructure: $17 billion

·         Transportation safety programs: $11 billion

·         Electric vehicles: $7.5 billion

·         Zero and low-emission buses and ferries: $7.5 billion

·         Revitalization of communities: $1 billion

 

Other infrastructure

·         Broadband: $65 billion

·         Power infrastructure: $73 billion

·         Clean drinking water: $55 billion

·         Resilience and Western water storage: $50 billion

·         Removal of pollution from water and soil: $21 billion

 https://www.npr.org/1009923468

 Please note that the list only accounts for about $548 billion. The npr.org article goes on to inform us of how the Senate thinks the Infrastructure Bill will be paid for:

          How would they pay for it?

The package would be financed through a combination of funds, including repurposing unspent emergency relief funds from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening tax enforcement for cryptocurrencies. While negotiators said that the cost of the plan would be offset entirely, the Congressional Budget Office predicted it would add about $256 billion to projected deficits over 10 years.

 The White House gives us a similar picture of how the bill would be funded:

Offsets

In the years ahead, the deal will generate significant economic benefits. It is financed through a combination of redirecting unspent emergency relief funds, targeted corporate user fees, strengthening tax enforcement when it comes to crypto currencies, and other bipartisan measures, in addition to the revenue generated from higher economic growth as a result of the investments.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/07/28/fact-sheet-historic-bipartisan-infrastructure-deal/

The Infrastructure Bill is not law yet. Now, it must go back to the House of Representatives. The more radical Democratic members of the House may oppose it because they think it does not provide for enough spending. Unbelievable!

I respectfully submit that the US Government would need a revenue surplus of $120 billion a year for 10 years to pay off the principal only on the $1.2 trillion in spending provided for in this bill.

Can you remember the last time the US Government had a revenue surplus? Was it applied to the national debt, or was it given back to the taxpayers as a tax refund to buy votes? Look it up.

Can a reasonable person look at the plans provided to pay for the Infrastructure Bill with any degree of certainty that they will work?  Do you think the government will stop spending and garner a revenue surplus? Look at what they are planning next for your answer. They want to spend $3.5 trillion more!  That is the spending they want for the so-called Budget Reconciliation Act.

The Democrats needed 10 Republicans to vote with them on this bill. Sadly, 19 Republicans voted for it.  They are:

Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

Richard Burr, R-N.C.

Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

Bill Cassidy, R-La.

Susan Collins, R-Maine

Kevin Cramer, R-N.D.

Mike Crapo, R-Idaho

Deb Fischer, R-Neb.

Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa

John Hoeven, R-N.D.

Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska

Rob Portman, R-Ohio

James E. Risch, R-Idaho

Mitt Romney, R-Utah

Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska

Thom Tillis, R-N.C.

Roger F. Wicker, R-Miss.

 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/10/infrastructure-bill-vote-count-19-republicans-voted-for-bill/5550287001/

To be fair, these Republicans may have felt that they could limit the spending provided for by “reaching across the aisle.” Perhaps they got greater influence over what the money is to be spent on. Further, I have often asked that our elected officials learn to work together. There may be other reasons for “bipartisanship.”  They are beyond the scope of this post. The point is … spending is not an issue that may be negotiated.

CONCLUSION:

It is our position that the government’s excessive spending poses a threat to the very existence of the United States of America as we know it. Our Senators and Representatives just do not seem to get it. We the People must let our elected representatives, Democrat and Republican, know that we are opposed to deficit spending of any kind, and that we will show our displeasure in the 2022 and 2024 elections.

 

 

Man and Wife

The Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write:

This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made earth and heaven. Now no shrub of the field was yet on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the LORD God had not sent rain upon the earth, and there was no man to cultivate the ground. But a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground. Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living person. The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the LORD God caused every tree to grow that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is Pishon; it flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there as well. The name of the second river is Gihon; it flows around the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Tigris; it flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.

Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it and tend it. The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for on the day that you eat from it you will certainly die.”

Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” And out of the ground the LORD God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And the LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

"At last this is bone of my bones,

And flesh of my flesh;

She shall be called ‘woman,’

Because she was taken out of man.” For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, but they were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:4-24 NASB) *

May the Lord bless the reading and the hearing of His Word.

 * https://biblehub.com/nasb_/genesis/2.htm

So Wrong

It is wrong to create a debt unless you have a reasonable and viable plan to repay it. Wouldn’t you agree?

It is difficult to discuss the US national debt in set terms because it is growing so rapidly. Internet sources put it at about $28 trillion, and the US Treasury Department says the debt was about $28.5 trillion as of June 2021.[1] In an article dated 3 May 2021, Forbes Senior Investment Contributor Mike Patton referred to an estimate by US DebtClock.org that the national debt may be as much as $89 trillion by 2029.[2] Deficit spending by the federal government for 2021 alone is projected to be around $3 trillion.[3] These figures do not include public debt held by state and local governments.

According to the “short scale” used in the United States, a trillion equals one million million. Stated differently, a trillion is one thousand billion.

Mathematics is not my strongest skill, especially when dealing with numbers this big. Does it not mean, however, that if the federal government made the necessary adjustments to achieve a three-billion-dollar budget surplus every year, it would take 1,000 years to pay off (only the principal on) the federal deficit spending for 2021 alone?

People have said that the only way the United States can pay off its national debt is to “grow our way out of it.” That is, increased revenue from economic growth is the only way we can successfully reduce or eliminate the national debt. Sorry, but I just cannot imagine how the US economy can grow enough generate the kind of revenue needed to satisfy a $28 trillion dollar debt in a reasonable amount of time.

In my opinion, if the debt continues to grow, eventually deficit spending will be necessary just to pay the interest. Does that mean that the debt will become impossible to pay off?

As if the current debt was not bad enough, the Democrats in Congress and the White House are fighting for legislation commonly referred to as the Infrastructure and Reconciliation Bills. If approved, the result could be as much as $4.5 trillion in additional deficit spending. The Republican minority seems to be unable to stop it.

The Democrats say that increasing the taxes paid by the “rich” (including business and industry) will fund the new spending they are proposing. Their opponents say that if the rich were taxed at 95 percent of their income, it still would not be enough to pay for the new spending the Democrats are asking for, let alone reduce the national debt.

What kind of people have we elected? What kind of people would saddle future generations with this kind of debt?* It is absolutely monstrous.

Further, the US dollar is the currency on which the value of the world’s other currencies are based. What happens if the value of the dollar plummets or is “revalued?” What happens if the American government defaults on the public debt? Could these precipitate a world-wide economic crisis? As Sarah Palin would say, “You betcha!”

Over the last 40 years, both political parties have engaged in policies that have created public debt. Both parties are responsible for the current national debt. Therefore, We the People must insist that the federal government use any and all legal means available to right this terrible wrong.

 

* Note: For all who have been the recipient of a free, compulsory American public education, future generations means our children, their children, and so on for the predictable future.

---

[1] https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/2021/opds062021.prn

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2021/05/03/us-national-debt-expected-to-approach-89-trillion-by-2029/?sh=7f66129a5f13

[3] https://www.cbo.gov/publication/57339

What's for Dinner?

Be advised younger readers, when you get to be a senior citizen all the bad things that you put in your body along the way start to catch up with you, and what doesn’t get you will get your spouse.  All the bacon cheeseburgers, chili dogs, French fries, potato chips, ice cream, beer, cigarettes, and pizza you ingested with such gusto will start showing up on the labs and ‘echowhateverograms’ the doctor orders during your annual “wellness visit.”  Or - you may end up in the emergency room with some misery or another.

Then, the diet restrictions start.  No salt, no sugar, no alcohol, no fat, no carbohydrates, no spicy, and no fun.  In short, what you are left with to eat are skinned chicken breast, fish, and vegetables.  All the stuff you like will be off the table … for good.  So, then you ask yourself, “Why did I take care of my teeth, since I’m not allowed to use them?”

When you are seventy-something, if you want to live a while longer, you will pay attention.  If you don’t listen-up … you will pay for it.  A few days in the hospital with something like acute pancreatitis will get you back on the wagon.

Now, I am doing my best to eat healthy, and I don’t want to lead anyone astray by sharing this bit of doggerel.  However, as a ‘last, great act of defiance’ I am posting the following for your enjoyment:

Methuselah

(Anonymous)

Methuselah ate what he found on his plate,
And never as people do now,
Did he note the amount of the calorie count:
He ate it because it was chow.
He wasn’t disturbed as at dinner he sat,
Devouring a roast or a pie,
To think it was lacking in granular fat
Or a couple of vitamins shy.
He cheerfully chewed on each species of food,
Unmindful of troubles or fears
Lest his health might be hurt
By some fancy dessert;
And he lived over nine hundred years.[1]


[1] Richard Charlton MacKenzie, editor. The New Home Book of Best Loved Poems. Garden City Books, 1949.