Change

As you can see by the new title of my blog, I have decided to orient it more towards discussing Judeo-Christian values and belief.

The wrath of God is real. Those who ignore His Word and the witness of the Holy Spirit regarding the Savior Jesus Christ will believe on Judgment Day, but there will be no mercy for them.

In the current Presidential campaigns, many see Barak Obama as the Messiah we need for this nation. Make no mistake, he is not a messiah. He is an eloquent speaker, and there is not necessarily anything wrong with that. However, none of the candidates of any party will save this nation from the judgment that God will pour out on it, as well as the rest of the world.

I disavow the Rev. Fred Phelps and his little band of family members who call themselves a church, and make a mockery of Christ in the way they demonstrate at the funerals of our troops, saying it makes them glad to see the suffering of the families, because, according to the Phelps clan, it is just punishment for this nation for tolerating homosexuality.

Homosexual behavior is a sin, as are adultery, child molesting, stealing, and the rest of the name sins, or sins that are covered under the heading of, let's say, fornication. Child molesting isn't specifically named, but it falls under fornication, as well as causing injury to another person.

We need to seriously consider the direction this nation is headed in morally. Sexually transmitted diseases are on the increase among teens, teen pregnancy, after a decade of decline is up sharply, and many of our young people are looking for respect by shooting each other.

I am an absolutist on the Second Amendment. Law abiding citizens are not to be frustrated by government regulations that seek to take the means of self defense from the hands of the citizenry, and place them only in the hands of law enforcement agencies and our military. This is utter foolishness. Criminals will find ways to obtain guns no matter what laws we pass. They already do this. The vast majority of our Federally Licensed Firearms Dealers are operating legally. It is people who buy smuggled and stolen guns and sell them to criminals that are the biggest problem.

On the Presidential Elections:

No matter who wins, we as the voters are responsible to hold them accountable. Whether Obama, McCain, or Clinton; if they don't perform satisfactorily, throw them out in the next cycle.
If Barak wins, I pray that he turns out to be a good President for this nation, but I have doubts.
He has the second most liberal voting record in the Senate. Hillary wants to give us Universal Healthcare; if people don't want insurance, they shouldn't be force to buy it. McCain has his problems, too, but I think is the best candidate of the three to get us through the war in Iraq.

I am a conservative, and I am compassionate. However, we have too many Federal programs sucking the tax payers dry, that are not performing as promised. Head Start is one of those programs. A simple cost/benefit analysis shows that it is a wasteful program that produces little in the way of real results.

Whatever your political affiliation is, learn about the issues that you feel are most important. Research your favorite candidates record on those issues. If you still feel they are qualified, get out and vote. If you decide they aren't, decide who is the best qualified candidate and vote.
Don't skip voting and then complain about who we get.

Become active in your parties district or community level meetings. It is up to We The People to bring the change that everyone wants, but no one agrees exactly on just what needs to be changed. Want to change Washington as Barak Obama suggests, then vote out the scoundrels. I believe that two-thirds of the House and most of the Senate needs to retire, and get fresh blood in those seats. People who know when to work together for our good, and when to take a strong stand against something that is not good for the nation as a whole.

Politics,Politics,Politics

Well, the Primary cycle will soon be over and the endless campaigning will be ratcheted
up.

No matter what party you choose, or if you are an independent, please pay attention to the candidates past record, as it is an indicator of their thinking. Remember also, you don't have to vote a straight party ticket.

Both major parties are in serious need of reform, they have lost touch with reality and no longer represent the people, but represent the party.

Not a registered voter? Get to you local voting registrar's office, or give them a call, some even have e-mail; ask for a registration form and register to vote.

See ya at the polls in November.

Absence and the Second Amendment

Okay, it's been a while since I posted anything here. Long story short, my computer crashed, and after being unable to do a restore, even with a setup disk, I had to take it to the shop.

The young man who restored my system for me was fast in getting the repair from disk started, and I was out of there in less than an hour.

I still don't know what caused the crash, I was looking at gun magazines, trying to find a very hard to find clip for my new pistol, which is not manufactured anymore.

Thanks to zealous gun control advocates, a whole company in Spain went bankrupt when high capacity magazines were banned, along with various weapons that are no more powerful than a good hunting rifle, but "look scary".

People, the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America makes it clear that the people, that is each private citizen, has the right to keep and bear arms.

As originally written, there is only one comma in the amendment: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

As you will currently find it in contemporary print, it has had two extra commas added, thus reading: A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The current version is grammatically awkward, and is used by Gun Control Nuts to argue that the Militia means the State and National Guard units.

At the time the Constitution was written, the Militia consisted of every able bodied man of a particular range in age. Most men owned their own arms, they used them for hunting for food, and protection against those who would rob them and their families or kill them. When the Militia was called up, every man showed up with his rifle in hand. The fledgling nation did not have a budget for arms, and commanders often paid for supplies such as black powder and ball ammunition and later submitted a claim to the government for repayment. During the Revolutionary War, George Washington paid for supplies and wrote notes of promise to suppliers that they would be paid by the new government.

For a good idea or what the original intent of the writers of the Constitution was, we need only read the Federalist Papers: http://www.foundingfathers.info/federalistpapers/

Media Hostility

Why are the media in general so hostile to good news from Iraq?

A recent story headline in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram said "Little Joy In Baghdad", but the story actually was about the positive results of the initiatives in Iraq, in particular the ability of

Iraqi Christians to celebrate Christmas with a great enough sense of security to put up trees in their homes and to go out to attend Christmas services at their churches.

This is not the first news report from the wire services (this one was an AP article), that I have seen that had a negative headline, but a positive story. Why do they do that? Is it that they know that the majority of Americans will read the headline only, conclude that things remain in chaos in Iraq, and decide there is no point in reading the article, thereby missing out on the real story?

Something else to think about; those against the war like to point out that this one has now gone on longer than WWII. Well, that is not exactly true. WWII stared a number of years before the United States entered into it. For Europe, that war had been going on for at least a period of two to three years.

We were also in Viet Nam for a longer time than we have been in Iraq. We had military advisers in Viet Nam before 1960, and didn't leave there until 1974. People check your facts. Stop believing the lies of politicians.

Teen Pregnancy

So, another teen star is in the news for being pregnant. And the point is?

Teen age girls/women in this country are showing an increase in statistical incidence
of teenage pregnancies. You can not tell me that they don't know about birth control
when birth control information is all over the media.

Don't try to tell me that Evangelical Christians are to blame for it because we have
insisted that sex education should emphasize abstinence as the only fool proof method.

I am a firm believer in the Truth of God's Word in the Scriptures, and that includes
the Ten Commandments. That also means that I have sinned, because I have broken every one of the Ten, and I was in need of the Salvation to be found in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

Our children need moral guidance, and most of my generation threw away their moral
compass in the 1960's. Again, I confess, that included me, but I have found forgiveness
and repentance.

For God's sake, literally, Christians need to forgive these young teens while not abandoning
the effort to train up our own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
We can't judge them, and it is God's Word that judges their sin. While we can call sin, sin,
let us not abandon these children who will have children to the work of Satan, but let us be
salt and light; reaching out to them to bring them the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, that hopefully, they might take the remedy that God has offered, and find their
moral compass, and raise their children up in a higher standard than that which many of us
have practiced.

Whose vote is it anyway?

Every election cycle, especially Presidential elections, you hear people
complaining about how some independent candidate "stole" votes from
their preferred candidate.

Take for example the case of Ralph Nader running for President as an
independent, and the subsequent complaining by Democrats that Ralph
"stole" votes from the Democratic candidate.

Let's be very clear about one thing: the vote belongs to the people, each individual
voter having the right to cast their vote for the candidate of their choice. Once they
have cast that vote, you could then say that that vote belongs to the candidate for
whom they voted.

Please, vote your conscience; and if you are not comfortable with voting for a
candidate presented by either major party, feel free to vote for a third, even a
fourth party candidate of your choice.

The Constitution of the United States of America did not establish a two party system
and there is no reason we have to choose from either of the two major parties in "lesser
of two evils" scenario.

Do not feel like your vote has been wasted if your candidate of choice does not win,
you cast your vote as you wished, and it is going to take a lot of us voting for candidates
that may lose to start a tide going out that will sweep business as usual out to "sea".

Why the name?

The name I have chosen for this blog is "The Encyclopedic Blog". Am I saying that my knowledge is encyclopedic ? Not at all.

I have chosen this name, because like the Encyclopedia Britannica that I grew up with,
my blog will include a wide range of subjects.