The ability to grow will come with purposeful practice!
This not only applies to a positive outcome, it's a truth in the negative context as well. What I think and how I practice my daily routines determines my outcomes. If I choose to laze around the house and become imbedded into the sofa, the results will reflect that purposeful practice. I will grow lazy, ineffective, and a burden on others.
Should I choose to live a purpose driven life, one of significance, the results will also follow. This leads me back to a witty Tim Marks quote, "The harder I work, the luckier I get." God certainly rewards persistence. So as a routine after I wake, I do my Bible study, read my positive affirmation statement, write my blog, and face my day with specific intent aimed at a positive outcome. It's a purposeful practice bound to bring a positive outcome!
I truly think a day needs to begin with a positive affirmation statement. We all need to remind ourselves what our stated goal is, and that we are capable of achieving whatever we set our minds to accomplish. Why not first thing in the morning? What better time than the onset of a new day to review what we wish to accomplish?
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Saturday, June 30, 2012
Friday, June 29, 2012
The Time Has Come!
Usually I'll let a current event stew for a few days to be sure it's all played out before I comment on it, but the Supreme Court's healthcare decision is an exception. It was an extreme disappointment to get the news that the Chief Justice, who usually leans to the conservative side, joined the liberal view of the decision. I think it's important to understand how we got to this point before we point fingers at the way one voted.
Let's face it America, the ultimate responsibility on how this nation is run lies in our hands. We as a people let ourselves down by allowing a sense of complacency to infect our voting block. We didn't do our due diligence and the people allowed to oversee our nation were not vetted properly. As a result their policies and appointments reflect views other than those embraced by the founders in all three branches of government and appointed positions. The blame for the healthcare decision is reflected in our mirror.
Perhaps now we can passionately understand the power of the vote, and how important it is to inform everyone within our circle of influence to not only vote, but to be an informed voter. What we got yesterday is the result of a failure to do that.
Secondly it is important to hold our media to a higher standard. This is the four branch of government and it is totally unacceptable for us as consumers to allow one sided propaganda to infect our electorate. It is our responsibility to bombard every media outlet with dissenting opinion every time they climb into the tank for a political party. They have to be called out! You are their customer and the media has to be reminded they are an income earning business, and you vote with your wallet. We deserve unbiased reporting, and if it's not demanded, expect more of an advertising campaign rather than fair and balanced reporting.
The citizens still run this country, it hasn't been perverted beyond that point yet. But we need to reaffirm our position of responsibility, and reassure both the elected and the media we demand a better result. There is but us to blame for the three ring circus that is now showing in Washington DC. I can insure you without our input it'll only get worse!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Let's face it America, the ultimate responsibility on how this nation is run lies in our hands. We as a people let ourselves down by allowing a sense of complacency to infect our voting block. We didn't do our due diligence and the people allowed to oversee our nation were not vetted properly. As a result their policies and appointments reflect views other than those embraced by the founders in all three branches of government and appointed positions. The blame for the healthcare decision is reflected in our mirror.
Perhaps now we can passionately understand the power of the vote, and how important it is to inform everyone within our circle of influence to not only vote, but to be an informed voter. What we got yesterday is the result of a failure to do that.
Secondly it is important to hold our media to a higher standard. This is the four branch of government and it is totally unacceptable for us as consumers to allow one sided propaganda to infect our electorate. It is our responsibility to bombard every media outlet with dissenting opinion every time they climb into the tank for a political party. They have to be called out! You are their customer and the media has to be reminded they are an income earning business, and you vote with your wallet. We deserve unbiased reporting, and if it's not demanded, expect more of an advertising campaign rather than fair and balanced reporting.
The citizens still run this country, it hasn't been perverted beyond that point yet. But we need to reaffirm our position of responsibility, and reassure both the elected and the media we demand a better result. There is but us to blame for the three ring circus that is now showing in Washington DC. I can insure you without our input it'll only get worse!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Liberty Or Largess?
Today is a crossroad in American history. Will the accounts reflect that the founding principles of this nation were ignored, or will the Supreme court remember the words of Ben Franklin?
" They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Honestly I can't figure out how America got to the point where it's people think it's the government's job to supply them what they are more than capable of supplying to themselves. I love the argument that health care costs are spiraling up out of control and creating more unsustainable debt for the Federal Government. To stand on that statement is absurd. What program did the Federal Government enact (and shouldn't have) that is effected by healthcare costs? Medicaid? Medicare? Social Security? Prescription drug reimbursement? I'm sorry folks but all those fall outside of the frame work of the original mission statement of the founders. If you stuck with the plan of individual liberty, and the government protecting the borders, raising an army and creating a money supply this problem would not exist! The founders knew that anything outside of the scope outlined would create problems, and it did.
All the excuses can be made for these programs to exist, but the truth is apparent, government is incapable of doing anything effectively but what I outlined above. Do we ask physicians to build roads? Nope, there is a reason for that. It's outside their scope of expertise, as is government interference in our healthcare choices. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this is true, history reflects it. All those programs are insolvent. There is no argument, social engineering is best left to charities, and government should stay within it parameters outlined in the Constitution, free of the perversion of it's premise.
Despite the best intentions to keep our Republic pure, government is run by man, and man is imperfect. Let's just pray that five of those judges understand the original mission statement of the founders when they decided the outcome of the affordable healthcare act.
God Bless!
Capt Bill
" They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Honestly I can't figure out how America got to the point where it's people think it's the government's job to supply them what they are more than capable of supplying to themselves. I love the argument that health care costs are spiraling up out of control and creating more unsustainable debt for the Federal Government. To stand on that statement is absurd. What program did the Federal Government enact (and shouldn't have) that is effected by healthcare costs? Medicaid? Medicare? Social Security? Prescription drug reimbursement? I'm sorry folks but all those fall outside of the frame work of the original mission statement of the founders. If you stuck with the plan of individual liberty, and the government protecting the borders, raising an army and creating a money supply this problem would not exist! The founders knew that anything outside of the scope outlined would create problems, and it did.
All the excuses can be made for these programs to exist, but the truth is apparent, government is incapable of doing anything effectively but what I outlined above. Do we ask physicians to build roads? Nope, there is a reason for that. It's outside their scope of expertise, as is government interference in our healthcare choices. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this is true, history reflects it. All those programs are insolvent. There is no argument, social engineering is best left to charities, and government should stay within it parameters outlined in the Constitution, free of the perversion of it's premise.
Despite the best intentions to keep our Republic pure, government is run by man, and man is imperfect. Let's just pray that five of those judges understand the original mission statement of the founders when they decided the outcome of the affordable healthcare act.
God Bless!
Capt Bill
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
A Brief Education!
It's likely that today the congress will address the student loan interest issue that is about to double for loans granted from this day forward. Despite the fact that the individuals this affects are educated in the most prestigious learning institutions this country has to offer, there are misconceptions as to how this might affect students with existing loans. Let me clear that up. It won't! You have an existing contract with the government and they cannot change the interest rates your paying for money already borrowed without your permission. This increase would affect loans granted from the day of increase forward. So I hope that relieves the hysteria created by those who wish to garner your vote by scaring you into thinking loans you already have will become most costly.
Let's examine the ruse America has fallen into involving higher learning.
Federal Student Aid and the Law of Unintended Consequences
FEDERAL STUDENT financial assistance programs are costly, inefficient, byzantine, and fail to serve their desired objectives. In a word, they are dysfunctional, among the worst of many bad federal programs
These programs are commonly rationalized on three grounds: on the grounds that assuring more young people a higher education has positive spillover effects for the country; on the grounds that higher education promotes equal economic opportunity (or, as the politicians say, that it is “a ticket to achieving the American Dream”); or on the grounds that too few students would go to college in the absence of federal loan programs, since private markets for loans to college students are defective.
All three of these arguments are dubious at best. The alleged positive spillover effects of sending more and more Americans to college are very difficult to measure. And as the late Milton Friedman suggested to me shortly before his death, they may be more than offset by negative spillover effects. Consider, for instance, the relationship between spending by state governments on higher education and their rate of economic growth. Controlling for other factors important in growth determination, the relationship between education spending and economic growth is negative or, at best, non-existent.
What about higher education being a vehicle for equal economic opportunity or income equality? Over the last four decades, a period in which the proportion of adults with four-year college degrees tripled, income equality has declined. (As a side note, I do not know the socially optimal level of economic inequality, and the tacit assumption that more such equality is always desirable is suspect; my point here is simply that, in reality, higher education today does not promote income equality.)
Finally, in regards to the argument that capital markets for student loans are defective, if financial institutions can lend to college students on credit cards and make car loans to college students in large numbers—which they do—there is no reason why they can’t also make student educational loans.
Despite the fact that the rationales for federal student financial assistance programs are very weak, these programs are growing rapidly. The Pell Grant program did much more than double in size between 2007 and 2010. Although it was designed to help poor people, it is now becoming a middle class entitlement. Student loans have been growing eight to ten percent a year for at least two decades, and, as is well publicized, now aggregate to one trillion dollars of debt outstanding—roughly $25,000 on average for the 40,000,000 holders of the debt. Astoundingly, student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt.
Nor is it correct to assume that most of this debt is held by young people in their twenties and early thirties. The median age of those with loan obligations today is around 33, and approximately 40 percent of the debt is held by people 40 years of age or older. So when politicians talk about maintaining low interest loans to help kids in college, more often than not the help is going to middle-aged individuals long gone from the halls of academia.
With this as an introduction, let me outline eight problems with federal student grant and loan programs. The list is not exclusive.
(1) Student loan interest rates are not set by the forces of supply and demand, but by the political process. Normally, interest rates are a price used to allocate scarce resources; but when that price is manipulated by politicians, it leads to distortions in the use of resources. Since student loan interest rates are always set at below-market rates, too much money is borrowed for college. Currently those interest rates are extremely low, with a key rate of 3.4 percent—which, after adjusting for inflation, is approximately zero. Moreover, both the president and Governor Romney say they want to continue that low interest rate after July 1, when it is supposed to double. This aggravates an already bad situation, and provides a perfect example of the fundamental problem facing our nation today: politicians pushing programs whose benefits are visible and immediate (even if illusory, as suggested above), while their extraordinarily high costs are less visible and more distant in time.
(2) In the real world, interest rates vary with the prospects that the borrower will repay the loan. In the surreal world of student loans, the brilliant student completing an electrical engineering degree at M.I.T. pays the same interest rate as the student majoring in ethnic studies at a state university who has a GPA below 2.0. The former student will almost certainly graduate and get a job paying $50,000 a year or more, whereas the odds are high the latter student will fail to graduate and will be lucky to make $30,000 a year.
Related to this problem, colleges themselves have no “skin in the game.” They are responsible for allowing loan commitments to occur, but they face no penalties or negative consequences when defaults are extremely high, imposing costs on taxpayers.
(3) Perhaps most importantly, federal student grant and loan programs have contributed to the tuition price explosion. When third parties pay a large part of the bill, at least temporarily, the customer’s demand for the service rises and he is not as sensitive to price as he would be if he were paying himself. Colleges and universities take advantage of that and raise their prices to capture the funds that ostensibly are designed to help students. This is what happened previously in health care, and is what is currently happening in higher education.
(4) The federal government now has a monopoly in providing student loans. Until recently, at least it farmed out the servicing of loans to a variety of private financial service firms, adding an element of competition in terms of quality of service, if not price. But the Obama administration, with its strong hostility to private enterprise, moved to establish a complete monopoly. One would think the example of the U.S. Postal Service today, losing taxpayer money hand over fist and incapable of making even the most obviously needed reforms, would be enough proof against the prudence of such a move. And remember: because of highly irresponsible fiscal policies, the federal government borrows 30 or 40 percent of the money it currently spends, much of that from overseas. Thus we are incurring long-term obligations to foreigners to finance loans to largely middle class Americans to go to college. This is not an appropriate use of public funds at a time of dangerously high federal budget deficits.
(5) Those applying for student loans or Pell Grants are compelled to complete the FAFSA form, which is extremely complex, involves more than 100 questions, and is used by colleges to administer scholarships (or, more accurately, tuition discounts). Thus colleges are given all sorts of highly personal and private information on incomes, wealth, debts, child support, and so forth. A car dealer who demanded such information so that he could see how badly he could gouge you would either be out of business or in jail within days or weeks. But it is commonplace in higher education because of federal student financial assistance programs.
(6) As federal programs have increased the number of students who enroll in college, the number of new college graduates now far exceeds the number of new managerial, technical and professional jobs—positions that college graduates have traditionally taken. A survey by Northeastern University estimates that 54 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed or unemployed. Thus we currently have 107,000 janitors and 16,000 parking lot attendants with bachelor’s degrees, not to mention bartenders, hair dressers, mail carriers, and so on. And many of those in these limited-income occupations are struggling to pay off student loan obligations.
Connected to this is the fact that more and more kids are going to college who lack the cognitive skills, the discipline, the academic preparation, or the ambition to succeed academically. They simply cannot or do not master well much of the rather complex materials that college students are expected to learn. As a result, many students either do not graduate or fail to graduate on time. I have estimated that only 40 percent or less of Pell Grant recipients get degrees within six years—an extremely high dropout or failure rate. No one has seriously questioned that statistic—a number, by the way, that the federal government does not publish, no doubt because it is embarrassingly low.
Also related is the fact that, in an attempt to minimize this problem, colleges have lowered standards, expecting students to read and write less while giving higher grades for lesser amounts of work. Surveys show that students spend on average less than 30 hours per week on academic work—less than they spend on recreation. As Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa show in their book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, critical thinking skills among college seniors on average are little more than among freshmen.
(7) As suggested to me a couple of days ago by a North Carolina judge, based on a case in his courtroom, with so many funds so readily available there is a temptation and opportunity for persons to acquire low interest student loans with the intention of dropping out of school quickly to use the proceeds for other purposes. (In the North Carolina student loan fraud case, it was to start up a t-shirt business.)
(8) Lazy or mediocre students can get greater subsidies than hard-working and industrious ones. Take Pell Grants. A student who works extra hard and graduates with top grades after three years will receive only half as much money as a student who flunks several courses and takes six years to finish or doesn’t obtain a degree at all. In other words, for recipients of federal aid there are disincentives to excel.
* * *
If the Law of Unintended Consequences ever applied, it is in federal student financial assistance. Programs created with the noblest of intentions have failed to serve either their customers or the nation well. In the 1950s and 1960s, before these programs were large, American higher education enjoyed a Golden Age. Enrollments were rising, lower-income student access was growing, and American leadership in higher education was becoming well established. In other words, the system flourished without these programs. Subsequently, massive growth in federal spending and involvement in higher education has proved counterproductive.
With the ratio of debt to GDP rising nationally, and the federal government continuing to spend more and more taxpayer money on higher education at an unsustainable long-term pace, a re-thinking of federal student financial aid policies is a good place to start in meeting America’s economic crisis.-
Richard Vedder
Professor of Economics
Ohio University
Now everyone who has taken the time to read this post is educated in the farce the Federal Government and the institutions of higher learn are running on the college student and the citizens of this great nation. In short the quality of education has dropped and the price has gone up.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Let's examine the ruse America has fallen into involving higher learning.
Federal Student Aid and the Law of Unintended Consequences
FEDERAL STUDENT financial assistance programs are costly, inefficient, byzantine, and fail to serve their desired objectives. In a word, they are dysfunctional, among the worst of many bad federal programs
These programs are commonly rationalized on three grounds: on the grounds that assuring more young people a higher education has positive spillover effects for the country; on the grounds that higher education promotes equal economic opportunity (or, as the politicians say, that it is “a ticket to achieving the American Dream”); or on the grounds that too few students would go to college in the absence of federal loan programs, since private markets for loans to college students are defective.
All three of these arguments are dubious at best. The alleged positive spillover effects of sending more and more Americans to college are very difficult to measure. And as the late Milton Friedman suggested to me shortly before his death, they may be more than offset by negative spillover effects. Consider, for instance, the relationship between spending by state governments on higher education and their rate of economic growth. Controlling for other factors important in growth determination, the relationship between education spending and economic growth is negative or, at best, non-existent.
What about higher education being a vehicle for equal economic opportunity or income equality? Over the last four decades, a period in which the proportion of adults with four-year college degrees tripled, income equality has declined. (As a side note, I do not know the socially optimal level of economic inequality, and the tacit assumption that more such equality is always desirable is suspect; my point here is simply that, in reality, higher education today does not promote income equality.)
Finally, in regards to the argument that capital markets for student loans are defective, if financial institutions can lend to college students on credit cards and make car loans to college students in large numbers—which they do—there is no reason why they can’t also make student educational loans.
Despite the fact that the rationales for federal student financial assistance programs are very weak, these programs are growing rapidly. The Pell Grant program did much more than double in size between 2007 and 2010. Although it was designed to help poor people, it is now becoming a middle class entitlement. Student loans have been growing eight to ten percent a year for at least two decades, and, as is well publicized, now aggregate to one trillion dollars of debt outstanding—roughly $25,000 on average for the 40,000,000 holders of the debt. Astoundingly, student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt.
Nor is it correct to assume that most of this debt is held by young people in their twenties and early thirties. The median age of those with loan obligations today is around 33, and approximately 40 percent of the debt is held by people 40 years of age or older. So when politicians talk about maintaining low interest loans to help kids in college, more often than not the help is going to middle-aged individuals long gone from the halls of academia.
With this as an introduction, let me outline eight problems with federal student grant and loan programs. The list is not exclusive.
(1) Student loan interest rates are not set by the forces of supply and demand, but by the political process. Normally, interest rates are a price used to allocate scarce resources; but when that price is manipulated by politicians, it leads to distortions in the use of resources. Since student loan interest rates are always set at below-market rates, too much money is borrowed for college. Currently those interest rates are extremely low, with a key rate of 3.4 percent—which, after adjusting for inflation, is approximately zero. Moreover, both the president and Governor Romney say they want to continue that low interest rate after July 1, when it is supposed to double. This aggravates an already bad situation, and provides a perfect example of the fundamental problem facing our nation today: politicians pushing programs whose benefits are visible and immediate (even if illusory, as suggested above), while their extraordinarily high costs are less visible and more distant in time.
(2) In the real world, interest rates vary with the prospects that the borrower will repay the loan. In the surreal world of student loans, the brilliant student completing an electrical engineering degree at M.I.T. pays the same interest rate as the student majoring in ethnic studies at a state university who has a GPA below 2.0. The former student will almost certainly graduate and get a job paying $50,000 a year or more, whereas the odds are high the latter student will fail to graduate and will be lucky to make $30,000 a year.
Related to this problem, colleges themselves have no “skin in the game.” They are responsible for allowing loan commitments to occur, but they face no penalties or negative consequences when defaults are extremely high, imposing costs on taxpayers.
(3) Perhaps most importantly, federal student grant and loan programs have contributed to the tuition price explosion. When third parties pay a large part of the bill, at least temporarily, the customer’s demand for the service rises and he is not as sensitive to price as he would be if he were paying himself. Colleges and universities take advantage of that and raise their prices to capture the funds that ostensibly are designed to help students. This is what happened previously in health care, and is what is currently happening in higher education.
(4) The federal government now has a monopoly in providing student loans. Until recently, at least it farmed out the servicing of loans to a variety of private financial service firms, adding an element of competition in terms of quality of service, if not price. But the Obama administration, with its strong hostility to private enterprise, moved to establish a complete monopoly. One would think the example of the U.S. Postal Service today, losing taxpayer money hand over fist and incapable of making even the most obviously needed reforms, would be enough proof against the prudence of such a move. And remember: because of highly irresponsible fiscal policies, the federal government borrows 30 or 40 percent of the money it currently spends, much of that from overseas. Thus we are incurring long-term obligations to foreigners to finance loans to largely middle class Americans to go to college. This is not an appropriate use of public funds at a time of dangerously high federal budget deficits.
(5) Those applying for student loans or Pell Grants are compelled to complete the FAFSA form, which is extremely complex, involves more than 100 questions, and is used by colleges to administer scholarships (or, more accurately, tuition discounts). Thus colleges are given all sorts of highly personal and private information on incomes, wealth, debts, child support, and so forth. A car dealer who demanded such information so that he could see how badly he could gouge you would either be out of business or in jail within days or weeks. But it is commonplace in higher education because of federal student financial assistance programs.
(6) As federal programs have increased the number of students who enroll in college, the number of new college graduates now far exceeds the number of new managerial, technical and professional jobs—positions that college graduates have traditionally taken. A survey by Northeastern University estimates that 54 percent of recent college graduates are underemployed or unemployed. Thus we currently have 107,000 janitors and 16,000 parking lot attendants with bachelor’s degrees, not to mention bartenders, hair dressers, mail carriers, and so on. And many of those in these limited-income occupations are struggling to pay off student loan obligations.
Connected to this is the fact that more and more kids are going to college who lack the cognitive skills, the discipline, the academic preparation, or the ambition to succeed academically. They simply cannot or do not master well much of the rather complex materials that college students are expected to learn. As a result, many students either do not graduate or fail to graduate on time. I have estimated that only 40 percent or less of Pell Grant recipients get degrees within six years—an extremely high dropout or failure rate. No one has seriously questioned that statistic—a number, by the way, that the federal government does not publish, no doubt because it is embarrassingly low.
Also related is the fact that, in an attempt to minimize this problem, colleges have lowered standards, expecting students to read and write less while giving higher grades for lesser amounts of work. Surveys show that students spend on average less than 30 hours per week on academic work—less than they spend on recreation. As Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa show in their book Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, critical thinking skills among college seniors on average are little more than among freshmen.
(7) As suggested to me a couple of days ago by a North Carolina judge, based on a case in his courtroom, with so many funds so readily available there is a temptation and opportunity for persons to acquire low interest student loans with the intention of dropping out of school quickly to use the proceeds for other purposes. (In the North Carolina student loan fraud case, it was to start up a t-shirt business.)
(8) Lazy or mediocre students can get greater subsidies than hard-working and industrious ones. Take Pell Grants. A student who works extra hard and graduates with top grades after three years will receive only half as much money as a student who flunks several courses and takes six years to finish or doesn’t obtain a degree at all. In other words, for recipients of federal aid there are disincentives to excel.
* * *
If the Law of Unintended Consequences ever applied, it is in federal student financial assistance. Programs created with the noblest of intentions have failed to serve either their customers or the nation well. In the 1950s and 1960s, before these programs were large, American higher education enjoyed a Golden Age. Enrollments were rising, lower-income student access was growing, and American leadership in higher education was becoming well established. In other words, the system flourished without these programs. Subsequently, massive growth in federal spending and involvement in higher education has proved counterproductive.
With the ratio of debt to GDP rising nationally, and the federal government continuing to spend more and more taxpayer money on higher education at an unsustainable long-term pace, a re-thinking of federal student financial aid policies is a good place to start in meeting America’s economic crisis.-
Richard Vedder
Professor of Economics
Ohio University
Now everyone who has taken the time to read this post is educated in the farce the Federal Government and the institutions of higher learn are running on the college student and the citizens of this great nation. In short the quality of education has dropped and the price has gone up.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
United We Stand!
"When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn."-Proverbs 29:2
A Fortnight For Freedom has been announced by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, driven by the recent assault on religious freedom perpetrated by our current administration. This demonstration of faith taking a stand for our right to keep government out of our churches and faith based charities will run from June 21st to July 4th. Last night at my church was a Holy Hour for Religious Freedom, and I have to tell you, the turn out was overwhelming. The attendance rivaled midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I might add this was as diverse a crowd as one could imagine. There were women, men, Asians, Hispanics, Afro-Americans, and representatives from every race. This is an issue that ignores racial, economic, and gender boundaries.
Christians understand that a people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong; united under the rule of law. To be "nudged" away from the principles of your religion will cause a push back, as our founders designed this great nation to allow it's citizens to exercise their faith free of government interference! This attempt to discredit Christianity by attacking a Catholic premise and forcing it's church run institutions to provide birth control is contrary to everything our forefathers fought and died for.
" There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. It's least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation."- James Madison (Elliot Debates, Vol. 3,p.330)
Now when we vote as united as we pray, this country will have leaders who remember what was fought and died for. The time spent in the voting booth is equally effective in this matter as time spent on our knees. God can only supply the votes needed to represent you if we actually vote. As Orrin rightly notes, "it's called the book of ACTS for a reason!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
A Fortnight For Freedom has been announced by the Conference of Catholic Bishops, driven by the recent assault on religious freedom perpetrated by our current administration. This demonstration of faith taking a stand for our right to keep government out of our churches and faith based charities will run from June 21st to July 4th. Last night at my church was a Holy Hour for Religious Freedom, and I have to tell you, the turn out was overwhelming. The attendance rivaled midnight mass on Christmas Eve. I might add this was as diverse a crowd as one could imagine. There were women, men, Asians, Hispanics, Afro-Americans, and representatives from every race. This is an issue that ignores racial, economic, and gender boundaries.
Christians understand that a people cannot survive under a republican constitution unless they remain virtuous and morally strong; united under the rule of law. To be "nudged" away from the principles of your religion will cause a push back, as our founders designed this great nation to allow it's citizens to exercise their faith free of government interference! This attempt to discredit Christianity by attacking a Catholic premise and forcing it's church run institutions to provide birth control is contrary to everything our forefathers fought and died for.
" There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion. It's least interference with it would be a most flagrant usurpation."- James Madison (Elliot Debates, Vol. 3,p.330)
Now when we vote as united as we pray, this country will have leaders who remember what was fought and died for. The time spent in the voting booth is equally effective in this matter as time spent on our knees. God can only supply the votes needed to represent you if we actually vote. As Orrin rightly notes, "it's called the book of ACTS for a reason!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Monday, June 25, 2012
Showdown At High Noon!
This week is going to be a tough one on the Obama administration. It seems lately the President and his staff goes out of their way to create a boat load of problems for themselves. Each and everyday it becomes more apparent that our current leadership has forgotten the role of government; the idea that government is there to serve the people, not visa versa. As the conflict they create mounts, the people become confused. Some of the citizens are having difficulty with whom to believe. We'd all love to have faith in what those in Washington are moving forward with, but deep in our hearts we know their actions violate the principles our nation was founded upon.
This week the Catholics are beginning prayer vigils at each and everyone of their churches to promote unity in the effort to keep their freedom of religion. The hierarchy of the church will not come right out and suggest that their faithful vote this administration our of office, but if the prayers don't stop this madness created by the Obama administration you can rest assured it will activate the Catholics to vote their conscience. This will not be good for the democrats who keep pushing their agenda; as a combined force, Christians hold enough of a voting block to seal an election. May I also remind our readers this will have a deep impact on the recent ploy by this administration to subvert the Constitution and give special privileges to illegal immigrants. A great deal of that community is grounded in the Catholic faith. Let me assure you the right to life supercedes a green card, something the Catholic Church is well aware of. Their faith has provided for them a whole lot longer than any government has.
The Obama staff looks upon this as a battle of republican against the democrat philosophy, ignoring how deep faith runs in this country. They wrongly assume that since the secular message has been pounded home for decades this is their opportunity to pounce on religious freedom. It's a shame that the government has lost the morality this nation was grounded in and chooses to use division of the people as a tool to advance an agenda. I believe they would wear this as the crown achievement of their rule, imposing a law that advances the progressive agenda over religious freedom. This would mark a point in history where America move away from it's foundation of principles and into a society of secular progressivism.
It's come time when our nation asks itself which is stronger, faith in God our Creator or the rule of law designed by man? I'm betting on God!
God Bless
Capt. Bill
This week the Catholics are beginning prayer vigils at each and everyone of their churches to promote unity in the effort to keep their freedom of religion. The hierarchy of the church will not come right out and suggest that their faithful vote this administration our of office, but if the prayers don't stop this madness created by the Obama administration you can rest assured it will activate the Catholics to vote their conscience. This will not be good for the democrats who keep pushing their agenda; as a combined force, Christians hold enough of a voting block to seal an election. May I also remind our readers this will have a deep impact on the recent ploy by this administration to subvert the Constitution and give special privileges to illegal immigrants. A great deal of that community is grounded in the Catholic faith. Let me assure you the right to life supercedes a green card, something the Catholic Church is well aware of. Their faith has provided for them a whole lot longer than any government has.
The Obama staff looks upon this as a battle of republican against the democrat philosophy, ignoring how deep faith runs in this country. They wrongly assume that since the secular message has been pounded home for decades this is their opportunity to pounce on religious freedom. It's a shame that the government has lost the morality this nation was grounded in and chooses to use division of the people as a tool to advance an agenda. I believe they would wear this as the crown achievement of their rule, imposing a law that advances the progressive agenda over religious freedom. This would mark a point in history where America move away from it's foundation of principles and into a society of secular progressivism.
It's come time when our nation asks itself which is stronger, faith in God our Creator or the rule of law designed by man? I'm betting on God!
God Bless
Capt. Bill
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Self Deception?
Deception is such an interesting topic. We can be deceived by our senses and arrive at a distorted view of the truth as our bodies are our only link to the outside world, and within our bodies lie our senses. Let's take the analogy of a row boat. When the oar that you use to propel this vessel is lifted above the water our senses tell us it is straight. Place that same straight oar into water that you can see into and the refraction will lead you to believe the oar isn't straight. Without the prior knowledge from the oar being examined while elevated, one could be deceived into assuming the oar is bent. So how do we find certainty?
What a great question! The difference between the two scenarios listed above is our perception of the reality our senses have presented to us. To resolve the issue we have to have faith that the water didn't damage the oar. Our sense of sight is telling us otherwise, but we have to have faith that the laws we've been taught still hold true in this situation. We know an oar dipped in water cannot be bent by that simple act alone, despite what our eyes see. Things are not always as our sense perceive!
Apply this lesson to conflict resolution. The perception of one or both parties could be wrong, causing ill feeling for something that isn't what it seems. Perception is certainly part of reality, but what part do you allow it to play? Have you told yourself all the stories that could have created the conflict? When that driver cuts you off in traffic, is he an inconsiderate boob who is infringing on your driving space. Or perhaps he's a racing to the hospital after finding out his child was in an accident? Extract self from the equation and the world becomes a more peaceful place!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
What a great question! The difference between the two scenarios listed above is our perception of the reality our senses have presented to us. To resolve the issue we have to have faith that the water didn't damage the oar. Our sense of sight is telling us otherwise, but we have to have faith that the laws we've been taught still hold true in this situation. We know an oar dipped in water cannot be bent by that simple act alone, despite what our eyes see. Things are not always as our sense perceive!
Apply this lesson to conflict resolution. The perception of one or both parties could be wrong, causing ill feeling for something that isn't what it seems. Perception is certainly part of reality, but what part do you allow it to play? Have you told yourself all the stories that could have created the conflict? When that driver cuts you off in traffic, is he an inconsiderate boob who is infringing on your driving space. Or perhaps he's a racing to the hospital after finding out his child was in an accident? Extract self from the equation and the world becomes a more peaceful place!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Saturday, June 23, 2012
I'm Glad You Asked!
How do I as a new Christian, get a well balanced view of what the Bible says?
This is an outstanding question, and when you are posed it you need to realize you have a hungry student who wishes to drink deeply from the cup of faith. As a Christian it's our responsibility to lead others to God's word, so with that in mind; are you prepared to supply an understanding to the new believer? We need to be armed with information! Find below a box of bullets supplied by RC Sproul, one of the premier theologians of our time!
Anytime a new Christian reads the Bible for themselves, they risk a distortion. One of the great articles of faith of the Reformation was the principle of private interpretation, that is every Christian was seen to have the right to read the Bible for themselves. The Roman Catholic church resisted that because they recognized that an unschooled and untrained person could very easily come to serious misunderstanding and distortions of the Scripture. They warned, for example, that letting laymen read the Bible could open a floodgate of iniquity. Luther responded to that by saying, yes, a floodgate of iniquity could be opened by unskilled people. That is why God put teachers in the church. But he also said the basic message for every Christian to understand was so clear, so manifest, that a child could understand it. It was so important and so worthwhile that if it risks opening a floodgate of iniquity, Luther said, so be it.
Keep the big picture while reading the Bible! It's like walking through a forest the first time through, all your trying to do is get from one end to the other. After you grow in understanding of the forest, you begin to notice separate groups of trees, the wildlife, different things stand out to you. Maybe you try to climb particular trees, pick the fruits or some of the flowers, or bring home some of the colorful leaves. Bible study isn't really fun until your out there turning over every individual leaf, enjoying and exploring all the possibilities each leaf has to offer.
A great book to guide anyone who is new to the Scripture is titled "Knowing Scripture" -by RC Sproul. It's designed for someone investigating the Bible for the first time and is an invaluable tool for holding their interest and peaking their curiosity.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
This is an outstanding question, and when you are posed it you need to realize you have a hungry student who wishes to drink deeply from the cup of faith. As a Christian it's our responsibility to lead others to God's word, so with that in mind; are you prepared to supply an understanding to the new believer? We need to be armed with information! Find below a box of bullets supplied by RC Sproul, one of the premier theologians of our time!
Anytime a new Christian reads the Bible for themselves, they risk a distortion. One of the great articles of faith of the Reformation was the principle of private interpretation, that is every Christian was seen to have the right to read the Bible for themselves. The Roman Catholic church resisted that because they recognized that an unschooled and untrained person could very easily come to serious misunderstanding and distortions of the Scripture. They warned, for example, that letting laymen read the Bible could open a floodgate of iniquity. Luther responded to that by saying, yes, a floodgate of iniquity could be opened by unskilled people. That is why God put teachers in the church. But he also said the basic message for every Christian to understand was so clear, so manifest, that a child could understand it. It was so important and so worthwhile that if it risks opening a floodgate of iniquity, Luther said, so be it.
Keep the big picture while reading the Bible! It's like walking through a forest the first time through, all your trying to do is get from one end to the other. After you grow in understanding of the forest, you begin to notice separate groups of trees, the wildlife, different things stand out to you. Maybe you try to climb particular trees, pick the fruits or some of the flowers, or bring home some of the colorful leaves. Bible study isn't really fun until your out there turning over every individual leaf, enjoying and exploring all the possibilities each leaf has to offer.
A great book to guide anyone who is new to the Scripture is titled "Knowing Scripture" -by RC Sproul. It's designed for someone investigating the Bible for the first time and is an invaluable tool for holding their interest and peaking their curiosity.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Friday, June 22, 2012
My Fuse Is Lit Today!
I watched a video the other day exposing a report our government has released. Inside this document, (created by the state dept.) the Federal government has accused the Vatican of being a money laundering operation. Not long after I was treated to a post on Facebook where a liberal organization had depicted a large church as a tax drag on society because given the tax exempt status of bona fide religious organizations, this oversized building was infringing on the government's ability to collect taxes on that piece of property, thereby robbing the tax base.
What has our country become?
Somehow we've morphed into a people who believe taxation is the cure for all evil. These cowards depicted a church as they wouldn't dare use a gold domed Mosque because that religion would go jihad on a statement like that. Yet the Christian nation is under attack from all angles. Freedom of religion is a principle that we all cling to. For anything to be truly free it cannot be subject to taxation. Anytime a dollar is extracted from a church or an individual it has fewer choices on how to spend it's earned property. Less choices mean less freedom. Ergo taxation is a loss of freedom.
How do you have the gaul to propose to impose a tax on a charity that provides welfare for the less fortunate of this nation wrapped in a path to becoming self sufficient? Is the government jealous of the service churches efficiently provide society? I think they are! Here we have direct competition for the handouts government uses to buy votes to become reelected. It diminishes their control and power grab! It's absolutely disgusting.
It's time to reclaim our country from these power incensed politicians. We have to get back to the principles that made our nation great. The lemonade stands and paper routes our youth learned entrepreneurial spirit from are even under attack by zoning and health code violations. This is what taught our kids to add value to the market place so someone didn't have to give them a job. We who were brought up in this atmosphere understood if you add value someone would gladly pay you. Today's generation expect a job prior to producing value. Grab a snow shovel and go door to door, rake leaves and do gardening, cut your neighbors lawn and learn how to add value! Then take that value down to your local church and add value to your community by charity. Charity is not limited to the Prince, it avails itself to the pauper as well. It comes in all forms, not just financial. Acts of service work just fine, and your value to the market place will increase!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
What has our country become?
Somehow we've morphed into a people who believe taxation is the cure for all evil. These cowards depicted a church as they wouldn't dare use a gold domed Mosque because that religion would go jihad on a statement like that. Yet the Christian nation is under attack from all angles. Freedom of religion is a principle that we all cling to. For anything to be truly free it cannot be subject to taxation. Anytime a dollar is extracted from a church or an individual it has fewer choices on how to spend it's earned property. Less choices mean less freedom. Ergo taxation is a loss of freedom.
How do you have the gaul to propose to impose a tax on a charity that provides welfare for the less fortunate of this nation wrapped in a path to becoming self sufficient? Is the government jealous of the service churches efficiently provide society? I think they are! Here we have direct competition for the handouts government uses to buy votes to become reelected. It diminishes their control and power grab! It's absolutely disgusting.
It's time to reclaim our country from these power incensed politicians. We have to get back to the principles that made our nation great. The lemonade stands and paper routes our youth learned entrepreneurial spirit from are even under attack by zoning and health code violations. This is what taught our kids to add value to the market place so someone didn't have to give them a job. We who were brought up in this atmosphere understood if you add value someone would gladly pay you. Today's generation expect a job prior to producing value. Grab a snow shovel and go door to door, rake leaves and do gardening, cut your neighbors lawn and learn how to add value! Then take that value down to your local church and add value to your community by charity. Charity is not limited to the Prince, it avails itself to the pauper as well. It comes in all forms, not just financial. Acts of service work just fine, and your value to the market place will increase!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Thursday, June 21, 2012
It's All Greek To Me!
I was dipping into a little ancient Greek philosophy the other day and was introduced to some really great nuggets. I know to some this might sound boring, but honestly it's anything but boring. I believe it also has a great deal to do with the attitude you adopt when you make the decision to let your curiosity run wild and try to understand those deep thinkers. If your really looking to learn, then the hunger drives your passion to understand at a more advanced level. I wanted to know what those men of great fame knew!
One of the outstanding tidbits I learned is that the great thinker Socrates mentored another great thinker, Plato, who mentored another great thinker Aristotle. For those of you familiar with Orrin Woodward and the Team/Life training system, it is almost an exact model for what Orrin has done. Aristotle also mentored another great figure in history, who wasn't as well know for his intellectual property, but I'm sure you'll recognize the name of Alexander The Great! Isn't it interesting that mentoring created some of the most famous minds of history, yet there is so little of it today? What does that say about today's society? Who was the last great thinker that comes to your mind? It's been awhile since we've seen the likes of an Aristotle.
Heraclitus once mused, "you cannot step into the same river twice." What the pre-Socrates philosopher meant by that is that change constantly happens. This is good news for us as it serves as a reminder that we can constantly redirect ourselves to achieve our purpose. If you find a great mentor, change for the better is inevitable. A mentor will help you find your actuality and guide you to reach your potential, not unlike the acorn. While in actuality the acorn is an acorn, it's potential is an oak tree. A mentor will also aid you in that journey as we all have an oak tree inside of us yearning to sprout!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
One of the outstanding tidbits I learned is that the great thinker Socrates mentored another great thinker, Plato, who mentored another great thinker Aristotle. For those of you familiar with Orrin Woodward and the Team/Life training system, it is almost an exact model for what Orrin has done. Aristotle also mentored another great figure in history, who wasn't as well know for his intellectual property, but I'm sure you'll recognize the name of Alexander The Great! Isn't it interesting that mentoring created some of the most famous minds of history, yet there is so little of it today? What does that say about today's society? Who was the last great thinker that comes to your mind? It's been awhile since we've seen the likes of an Aristotle.
Heraclitus once mused, "you cannot step into the same river twice." What the pre-Socrates philosopher meant by that is that change constantly happens. This is good news for us as it serves as a reminder that we can constantly redirect ourselves to achieve our purpose. If you find a great mentor, change for the better is inevitable. A mentor will help you find your actuality and guide you to reach your potential, not unlike the acorn. While in actuality the acorn is an acorn, it's potential is an oak tree. A mentor will also aid you in that journey as we all have an oak tree inside of us yearning to sprout!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Significance!
Are we, as human beings, created in the image of God for a purpose and therefore our lives have meaning and significance; or are we grown up germs, cosmic accidents, who have no significance in the final analysis?
How we understand God determines how we understand the world; and how we understand God and the world determines how we understand our place in the grand scheme of things! If you deny God then you live to a standard set by man, and since there is no such thing as perfect in the human race, you've significantly lowered the bar on yourself.
Your world view determines so much about how you live. Are your "rights" are determined by mankind and therefore subject to the whim of a changing morality; or are they bequeathed to you by a power greater than man and written in stone? For instance we define our liberties in the United States as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness could mean striving for an eternity of heavenly bliss, or a constant path of selfish satisfaction. The path to an eternity of heavenly bliss is well defined. The selfish endeavors pleasing one's whims is subject to whatever distraction give you pleasure at that moment in time, moral or immoral. Which model would you like your neighbor to live by?
It's okay to probe others to uncover their world view. Sometimes helping others to see the value of understanding what they believe and why they believe it, leads them to course correct. Often times people have a stance and just don't have a reason because they just don't understand. Knowledge applied is power and ignorance is bliss. As leaders it's critical we bring the lost to the truth.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
How we understand God determines how we understand the world; and how we understand God and the world determines how we understand our place in the grand scheme of things! If you deny God then you live to a standard set by man, and since there is no such thing as perfect in the human race, you've significantly lowered the bar on yourself.
Your world view determines so much about how you live. Are your "rights" are determined by mankind and therefore subject to the whim of a changing morality; or are they bequeathed to you by a power greater than man and written in stone? For instance we define our liberties in the United States as the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pursuit of happiness could mean striving for an eternity of heavenly bliss, or a constant path of selfish satisfaction. The path to an eternity of heavenly bliss is well defined. The selfish endeavors pleasing one's whims is subject to whatever distraction give you pleasure at that moment in time, moral or immoral. Which model would you like your neighbor to live by?
It's okay to probe others to uncover their world view. Sometimes helping others to see the value of understanding what they believe and why they believe it, leads them to course correct. Often times people have a stance and just don't have a reason because they just don't understand. Knowledge applied is power and ignorance is bliss. As leaders it's critical we bring the lost to the truth.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Our Sacred Trust!
On 9/11 terrorists attacked our financial center, and our military brain trust. While it was a setback, we quickly took steps to secure our financial markets and firm up our pentagon. Within a very short period of time America was up and running making the attacks less effective than the enemy had hoped. The scars of lives lost still ran deep, but the intent was to bring America to it's knees by collapsing our financial center, causing disarray in our military brain trust, and the plane that never completed it's mission was to hit where our political leadership was gathered. The terrorists schemed this as a way to make an insignificant band with a cause to notoriety. It wasn't as effective as they had hoped. What they fail to account for is America's resilience.
They were in fact persistent, and perhaps by accident and born of frustration did make America sit up and take notice. The funny part is that they did it with two failed attempts to cause chaos. The terrorists were able to take away America's ability to trust! Now we frisk little old women in wheelchairs, and molest children because we fear for our safety. We stand in line to be scanned from head to toe because two attempts failed to bring down a passenger jet. One stuffed explosives in their underwear and the other in his shoe. While they failed in the mission, they did succeed in robbing us of our trust. I doubt we will ever be capable of trusting our fellow passengers again to freely walk upon an aircraft with a compliment of strangers, void of a stringent security check.
The terrorists couldn't harm our military, they couldn't destroy our financial markets, and they couldn't kill our leaders, but they could make an impact on one of the foundational blocks of freedom, trust! We are now a less free society because we have lost trust. This highlights how important trust really is. You can't have any relationship worth a hoot without it! This blow the terrorists have scored is possibly the most effective setback to freedom since we ran off the British.
With all that in mind, what is the level of trust in your personal relationships? With this revelation I now understand how important trust is. A lack of trust can bring the mightiest nation on earth to comply with the whims of a few, it most certainly is worth visiting at a personal level. Not being able to trust at any level is a sucking chest wound that puts the relationship in jeopardy of survival. Guard your trustworthiness, it's the cornerstone in the foundations you build!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
They were in fact persistent, and perhaps by accident and born of frustration did make America sit up and take notice. The funny part is that they did it with two failed attempts to cause chaos. The terrorists were able to take away America's ability to trust! Now we frisk little old women in wheelchairs, and molest children because we fear for our safety. We stand in line to be scanned from head to toe because two attempts failed to bring down a passenger jet. One stuffed explosives in their underwear and the other in his shoe. While they failed in the mission, they did succeed in robbing us of our trust. I doubt we will ever be capable of trusting our fellow passengers again to freely walk upon an aircraft with a compliment of strangers, void of a stringent security check.
The terrorists couldn't harm our military, they couldn't destroy our financial markets, and they couldn't kill our leaders, but they could make an impact on one of the foundational blocks of freedom, trust! We are now a less free society because we have lost trust. This highlights how important trust really is. You can't have any relationship worth a hoot without it! This blow the terrorists have scored is possibly the most effective setback to freedom since we ran off the British.
With all that in mind, what is the level of trust in your personal relationships? With this revelation I now understand how important trust is. A lack of trust can bring the mightiest nation on earth to comply with the whims of a few, it most certainly is worth visiting at a personal level. Not being able to trust at any level is a sucking chest wound that puts the relationship in jeopardy of survival. Guard your trustworthiness, it's the cornerstone in the foundations you build!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Monday, June 18, 2012
American Exceptionalism!
The other day, while hosting his show on HBO, Bill Maher made the statement that he wished Americans would get over the exceptionalism thing. As much as I was put off by that unpatriotic blather it didn't stop me from reflecting how self deceived dear Bill is. It's exactly the exceptionalism he puts down that has him as the host of the show over someone else. His paycheck demands that he be heads above the competition, otherwise he wouldn't be the on TV. I can't help but wonder that if someone pointed that out to him and his audience of approvers, if they'd still be of the same opinion? Common sense is an elusive thing!
The exceptionalism issue came to mind after a Father's Day discussion with my youngest son. He's coaching his old high school football team while training for the upcoming football season with the soon to be formed NFL developmental league. Needless to say he's a bit unhappy with the level of performance and the attitude of the players at his old alma mater. Then this morning there was the information supplied on a television program that less than 5% of high school athletes ever play a down, set, or inning at the college level, and less than 1% excel at the college level. Every level of sports culls out the less able and moves the exceptional forward. Those who advance in the sporting arena, just as in life, are the best of the best. So the further back you go in that process the lower the level of talent and dedication.
Just like our own personal journey in self improvement, those who advance down that road are exposing their exceptionalism, and conversely those not as far down that road will not exude the same skill set nor attitude. It's important to remember, as I reminded my son, that someone had the patience with you as you made your journey, and it's critical for others to follow in your footsteps that you cede them that same patience. While not everyone has the same drive or will to succeed as you, your example may inspire them to strive for the next level. Keep that example a exemplarily one!
Life in America, much to Bill Maher's dismay, is all about exceptionalism. We are all called by our Creator to display the gifts He granted us, to do otherwise would be sinful as noted in the "seven deadly sins." If we cease to be exceptional, our income will suffer, our self esteem will diminish, and frankly our country will suffer. So my question to you is. Who does Bill Maher and effort less than exceptional serve? It's surely not honoring your Creator!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
The exceptionalism issue came to mind after a Father's Day discussion with my youngest son. He's coaching his old high school football team while training for the upcoming football season with the soon to be formed NFL developmental league. Needless to say he's a bit unhappy with the level of performance and the attitude of the players at his old alma mater. Then this morning there was the information supplied on a television program that less than 5% of high school athletes ever play a down, set, or inning at the college level, and less than 1% excel at the college level. Every level of sports culls out the less able and moves the exceptional forward. Those who advance in the sporting arena, just as in life, are the best of the best. So the further back you go in that process the lower the level of talent and dedication.
Just like our own personal journey in self improvement, those who advance down that road are exposing their exceptionalism, and conversely those not as far down that road will not exude the same skill set nor attitude. It's important to remember, as I reminded my son, that someone had the patience with you as you made your journey, and it's critical for others to follow in your footsteps that you cede them that same patience. While not everyone has the same drive or will to succeed as you, your example may inspire them to strive for the next level. Keep that example a exemplarily one!
Life in America, much to Bill Maher's dismay, is all about exceptionalism. We are all called by our Creator to display the gifts He granted us, to do otherwise would be sinful as noted in the "seven deadly sins." If we cease to be exceptional, our income will suffer, our self esteem will diminish, and frankly our country will suffer. So my question to you is. Who does Bill Maher and effort less than exceptional serve? It's surely not honoring your Creator!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Our Dad And Our Father!
Today is the day we set aside to honor our sire and our Creator. We all have two fathers, our earthly one and our heavenly one. Our heavenly Father assigns us a purpose, and our earthly one is tasked with guiding us to achieve that purpose.
I don't know if the earthly fathers of today fully understand the importance of their role. With all the absentee sires who simply toss the responsibility of fatherhood aside it seems that the role of male has replaced the role of manhood. It takes little effort be a male, it takes a monumental effort to be a man. This is the sacrifice we celebrate today.
Being a father is walking in the shoes of our heavenly example. Forgiving and understanding when it's warranted, and sometimes even when it's not! Being the disciplinarian as needed, but applied with love, and making the experience a teaching moment. Loving our children through thick and thin, good times and bad. After all, we were blessed with them, we need to lead our blessings to achieve their purpose and honor the gift their heavenly Father bestowed upon them.
For all the achievements and the disappointments, all the special moments and trying times, we who are blessed to be fathers are humbled today because we have such an awesome example of forgiveness and strength to emulate. Thank you Lord for your guidance and example. May the future fathers of this world remember to seek your light to walk them through the journey of fatherhood.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
I don't know if the earthly fathers of today fully understand the importance of their role. With all the absentee sires who simply toss the responsibility of fatherhood aside it seems that the role of male has replaced the role of manhood. It takes little effort be a male, it takes a monumental effort to be a man. This is the sacrifice we celebrate today.
Being a father is walking in the shoes of our heavenly example. Forgiving and understanding when it's warranted, and sometimes even when it's not! Being the disciplinarian as needed, but applied with love, and making the experience a teaching moment. Loving our children through thick and thin, good times and bad. After all, we were blessed with them, we need to lead our blessings to achieve their purpose and honor the gift their heavenly Father bestowed upon them.
For all the achievements and the disappointments, all the special moments and trying times, we who are blessed to be fathers are humbled today because we have such an awesome example of forgiveness and strength to emulate. Thank you Lord for your guidance and example. May the future fathers of this world remember to seek your light to walk them through the journey of fatherhood.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Saturday, June 16, 2012
Backfire!
Our King, er President, decided to give a speech yesterday describing how he planned to subvert the approval of the legislative branch and impose his will on his grateful subjects. All of the pundits are rightfully up in arms at this purely political move designed to attract the votes of a specific group. Well I'm here to tell you this is probably going to backfire.
First of all it's extremely racist to assume all illegal aliens are of the Latino community, and that they are here to pick our crops as the President implied. Undocumented workers come in all races and religions, it's not just the people on our southern borders that break the law. I for one was appalled when the President mouthed the words that this mandate would ensure the farmers would have the necessary labor to harvest their crops. May I point out that not many high school graduates, GED earners, or members of the armed forces are called to the low paying jobs offered in the fields. The President is fond of mentioning that he is doing the best he can to empower the middle class. His actions say otherwise! Creating a imported army of crop harvesters isn't supplying middle class employment; quite the opposite. It's ensuring that a low cost labor force is available; basically another class of poor.
The President narrowed the field that this edict would benefit to a parameter that is all but non existent. First you have to be brought here prior to turning 16. Why not eighteen? This limits the number of qualified applicants. Then you cannot be over the age of 30. Again why? This trims the field of eligibility to yet a smaller bunch. Then you have to have a GED, high school diploma, or enlisted to serve our country, thereby making the pool even shallower. You've taken a huge group and limited them by mandate to a small minority. Will those in favor of this type of legislation really accept the limitations? I'm thinking they are seeking blanket amnesty and would see this as rather restrictive.
If the President did this to seek favor with the Hispanic community come voting time, I'm all but certain it'll fail to achieve the objective. The legal voters who are of Latin heritage already vote with favor to the democrat side. There are some who do have a conservative opinion, but that's not going to be changed by this proclamation. Will it excite them to visit the polls? Probably not, in fact it's more likely to charge the conservatives in this nation to rally at the polls and remove a President who assumes the power of dictator by subverting the Constitutional definition of the three branches of power and their duties to balance power. Let me assure you there are way more of those voters he just disgusted than illegal aliens he pleased.
Finally the President addressed the exuberant reporter who challenged his mandate with this answer to his question of, "What about the American worker?" The President replied, "this is good for all America." Frankly, I'm not feeling the value. So as a legal American just how does this benefit me? Some how the President believes that ensuring a low paid work force to harvest crops, backed with a GED, high school diploma, or military service that creates a new class of working poor, is to our benefit. With the teen unemployment rate where it is perhaps he should reconsider who this benefits.
The President created a stir, but accomplished little. He ticked off the conservative base, which will come back to haunt him. Projected a plan to benefit illegals who don't vote, with very narrow parameters, and basically assaulted the job market for out of work youth. All this has proven that our current President will even subvert the powers granted him in the Constitution to attempt to maintain his position of power. Let me assure you, that'll backfire!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
PS. What illegal would sign on to this program when it's written in pencil? It's like a hit list of illegals to deport if it's over turned!
First of all it's extremely racist to assume all illegal aliens are of the Latino community, and that they are here to pick our crops as the President implied. Undocumented workers come in all races and religions, it's not just the people on our southern borders that break the law. I for one was appalled when the President mouthed the words that this mandate would ensure the farmers would have the necessary labor to harvest their crops. May I point out that not many high school graduates, GED earners, or members of the armed forces are called to the low paying jobs offered in the fields. The President is fond of mentioning that he is doing the best he can to empower the middle class. His actions say otherwise! Creating a imported army of crop harvesters isn't supplying middle class employment; quite the opposite. It's ensuring that a low cost labor force is available; basically another class of poor.
The President narrowed the field that this edict would benefit to a parameter that is all but non existent. First you have to be brought here prior to turning 16. Why not eighteen? This limits the number of qualified applicants. Then you cannot be over the age of 30. Again why? This trims the field of eligibility to yet a smaller bunch. Then you have to have a GED, high school diploma, or enlisted to serve our country, thereby making the pool even shallower. You've taken a huge group and limited them by mandate to a small minority. Will those in favor of this type of legislation really accept the limitations? I'm thinking they are seeking blanket amnesty and would see this as rather restrictive.
If the President did this to seek favor with the Hispanic community come voting time, I'm all but certain it'll fail to achieve the objective. The legal voters who are of Latin heritage already vote with favor to the democrat side. There are some who do have a conservative opinion, but that's not going to be changed by this proclamation. Will it excite them to visit the polls? Probably not, in fact it's more likely to charge the conservatives in this nation to rally at the polls and remove a President who assumes the power of dictator by subverting the Constitutional definition of the three branches of power and their duties to balance power. Let me assure you there are way more of those voters he just disgusted than illegal aliens he pleased.
Finally the President addressed the exuberant reporter who challenged his mandate with this answer to his question of, "What about the American worker?" The President replied, "this is good for all America." Frankly, I'm not feeling the value. So as a legal American just how does this benefit me? Some how the President believes that ensuring a low paid work force to harvest crops, backed with a GED, high school diploma, or military service that creates a new class of working poor, is to our benefit. With the teen unemployment rate where it is perhaps he should reconsider who this benefits.
The President created a stir, but accomplished little. He ticked off the conservative base, which will come back to haunt him. Projected a plan to benefit illegals who don't vote, with very narrow parameters, and basically assaulted the job market for out of work youth. All this has proven that our current President will even subvert the powers granted him in the Constitution to attempt to maintain his position of power. Let me assure you, that'll backfire!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
PS. What illegal would sign on to this program when it's written in pencil? It's like a hit list of illegals to deport if it's over turned!
Friday, June 15, 2012
Justice Must Exist!
"In order for ethical standards to have any absolute meaning, (thereby imposing obligations on us), justice must exist; and, granted that our justice is imperfect on earth, there must be perfect justice in the hereafter; and that perfect justice must be secured by a morally perfect, omniscient, and omnipotent judge."-RC Sproul
What a great argument for a supreme being! But it's also a stepping stone to another discussion. Those who try to tear down what is moral and just in today's society are often of the mind set that a secular society, void of a Creator and His morality, is what the world view should be. No sooner than they are done insisting on a no prayer in school, or separation of church and state, they embark on a tirade of a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy and end life. Of course they don't want people to think there is a judgement after death! That faction has spent all it's efforts imposing man's will over the rule of God. Conceding they have to answer to a higher power strips them of the ability to define their own morality. It makes them cede power to a higher authority, and isn't the lust for power what drives those who seek to define our life?
Boiled down to the irreducible minimum, they refuse to humble themselves to anything. The arrogance it takes to put self over a Creator should be message enough to others that what they are selling is driven by a need to be the authority.
"Hey, over here; I'm more important than God!"
Let me know how that works out for you! They should praise God for His patience with us sinners; all the while looking out for lightening strikes. Those who put themselves in a position to assume power and define morality are simply doing Satan's work. Think about it. Who's agenda does that serve? It's not the one who made you possible, and it certainly isn't the one who died for our sins.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
What a great argument for a supreme being! But it's also a stepping stone to another discussion. Those who try to tear down what is moral and just in today's society are often of the mind set that a secular society, void of a Creator and His morality, is what the world view should be. No sooner than they are done insisting on a no prayer in school, or separation of church and state, they embark on a tirade of a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy and end life. Of course they don't want people to think there is a judgement after death! That faction has spent all it's efforts imposing man's will over the rule of God. Conceding they have to answer to a higher power strips them of the ability to define their own morality. It makes them cede power to a higher authority, and isn't the lust for power what drives those who seek to define our life?
Boiled down to the irreducible minimum, they refuse to humble themselves to anything. The arrogance it takes to put self over a Creator should be message enough to others that what they are selling is driven by a need to be the authority.
"Hey, over here; I'm more important than God!"
Let me know how that works out for you! They should praise God for His patience with us sinners; all the while looking out for lightening strikes. Those who put themselves in a position to assume power and define morality are simply doing Satan's work. Think about it. Who's agenda does that serve? It's not the one who made you possible, and it certainly isn't the one who died for our sins.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Thursday, June 14, 2012
It's Hard To Be Humble!
Occasionally in my travels I'll run across an individual who has become inspired by the Lord and is rightfully excited to give witness to that event. I love that they've found their path to salvation, and have dedicated themselves to walking that line as best we sinners can. I think those events can, and should be shared with others so they too can realize that salvation is simply one decision away.
There are a select few who call themselves into attention by taking this just a little too far. It's by far a minority, but then when you claim God spoke directly to you that is an extremely rare event! When people say to me, "The Lord told me to do something," I want to ask them, "What does the Lord's voice sound like?" I'd also question if they were sure it was God who was speaking to them, because you see, there are only three recorded times in the New Testament that God spoke audibly to his only begotten Son. So that would make any individual who had that kind of interaction pretty darn special!
Now don't get me wrong, being a saved soul is "pretty darn special," but for your testament to have credibility with those who are not, I think it might be beneficial to bring that message down a notch. I'm certain the Lord filled you with the Holy Spirit and brought you to the revelation that Jesus Christ is your Savior, but professing that God spoke audibly to you is akin to having an alien encounter and just as unbelievable to the masses.
The point here is to be a leader and have others follow you to the enlightenment of God's word. For this to occur, you must be relatable. Even if God did speak directly in an audible voice, like He did at Jesus baptism saying,"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," keep it believable for the mere mortals. Instead of saying to people, "God told me this, " the message maybe better received if you say, "I believe God is leading me in this direction." That's a more relatable and humble way to present your message, and the world needs more disciples to spread God's word.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
There are a select few who call themselves into attention by taking this just a little too far. It's by far a minority, but then when you claim God spoke directly to you that is an extremely rare event! When people say to me, "The Lord told me to do something," I want to ask them, "What does the Lord's voice sound like?" I'd also question if they were sure it was God who was speaking to them, because you see, there are only three recorded times in the New Testament that God spoke audibly to his only begotten Son. So that would make any individual who had that kind of interaction pretty darn special!
Now don't get me wrong, being a saved soul is "pretty darn special," but for your testament to have credibility with those who are not, I think it might be beneficial to bring that message down a notch. I'm certain the Lord filled you with the Holy Spirit and brought you to the revelation that Jesus Christ is your Savior, but professing that God spoke audibly to you is akin to having an alien encounter and just as unbelievable to the masses.
The point here is to be a leader and have others follow you to the enlightenment of God's word. For this to occur, you must be relatable. Even if God did speak directly in an audible voice, like He did at Jesus baptism saying,"This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," keep it believable for the mere mortals. Instead of saying to people, "God told me this, " the message maybe better received if you say, "I believe God is leading me in this direction." That's a more relatable and humble way to present your message, and the world needs more disciples to spread God's word.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
I Believe!
It just seems to me that Faith in this country has been under attack more so now than ever. Our founders saw the right to worship as we pleased so very important the listed it as the first priority; the First Amendment to the Constitution. Yet there are those in this nation that persist in trying to abolish one's right to praise their Creator under the guise that it offends their right not to. Which begs this question: Why?
If man had no God, and subsequently no morality from which he could borrow, the last thing there would be is peace. An amoral society, one that believes that action is neither moral nor immoral, appears to be the goal. I mean it's fairly obvious to even the most casual observer that society ignores what we ought to do and focuses almost exclusively on what they want to do. So void of a moral compass this hogwash is nothing more than educated barbarism, aimed at removing all conscience from society. Do we really want that?
It's as if "they" cannot handle their own guilt and in an attempt to resolve it push back at a moral society empowered by faith. If there was no God, then there would be no ultimate grounds for doing what is right. Everything would be permissible and the battleground morality oversees would be diminished to a struggle over preferences. "They" (those same people) are constantly seeking "fairness" and "justice" In the scenario they seek, how could that concept be applied? Without rules that rest on a solid foundation, our own individual "rights" would take precedent over every other individual. Isn't that totally contrary to the mission statement of this nation as perceived by our forefathers?
I really don't think "they" have thought through the consequences of their actions. Or have "they"?
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
If man had no God, and subsequently no morality from which he could borrow, the last thing there would be is peace. An amoral society, one that believes that action is neither moral nor immoral, appears to be the goal. I mean it's fairly obvious to even the most casual observer that society ignores what we ought to do and focuses almost exclusively on what they want to do. So void of a moral compass this hogwash is nothing more than educated barbarism, aimed at removing all conscience from society. Do we really want that?
It's as if "they" cannot handle their own guilt and in an attempt to resolve it push back at a moral society empowered by faith. If there was no God, then there would be no ultimate grounds for doing what is right. Everything would be permissible and the battleground morality oversees would be diminished to a struggle over preferences. "They" (those same people) are constantly seeking "fairness" and "justice" In the scenario they seek, how could that concept be applied? Without rules that rest on a solid foundation, our own individual "rights" would take precedent over every other individual. Isn't that totally contrary to the mission statement of this nation as perceived by our forefathers?
I really don't think "they" have thought through the consequences of their actions. Or have "they"?
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Is There A Chance?
Chance!
How much has chance affected your life? Do you give chance an opportunity to change your circumstances? Many people take chances. Some play the Lotto to give chance a bid at enriching their lives! Sometimes we take chances on people and hope for a positive outcome. Chance seems to be something most of us are willing to bet on.
Here's the scoop! Chance is merely a word we use to describe mathematical possibilities. Chance is not a thing. Chance cannot cause things to happen as it is utterly impossible scientifically, rationally, and theologically for anything to be caused by chance!
Chance has no power to influence anything, because chance is not an entity. For something to have power or influence it first must be, before it can do!
For every event there is a cause! I it's not yet understood it's simply because we don't have enough information. Not because chance influenced the outcome. Chance is merely the odds of it happening.
Do you realize how uneducated it we appear when one says that nothing, (chance), produced an observable affect? So don't live your life counting on chance, odds are not in your favor! Living with chance is simply relying on others to create events in your life. You have the power of influence. You also now understand that chance could not have been the cause of the creation of the Universe. That's some powerful information!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Monday, June 11, 2012
Another Great Dreamer!
In 1936 the Olympic Games were held in Berlin, and the ruthless dictator Hitler wanted to use the contest to prove to the world that the "Aryan" people were the dominate race. Imagine the German leader's ire when Jesse Owens won four gold medals for the 100 meter, the 200 meter, the 4 X 100 meter relay, and the long jump. Jesse Owens summed up the experience with this...
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self discipline, and effort."
A simple statement by a humble man that cut right to the chase. He laid out a four step program for any individual to achieve success. When we look back on the incredible feat accomplished by Owens in the face of adversity, you can't help but wonder what steps we are taking to achieve our goals and dreams? We have but a snapshot of time here on this earth and it's important we don't waste a second on insignificance. Because as a great man once said, "we all have dreams!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
"We all have dreams. But in order to make dreams come into reality, it takes an awful lot of determination, dedication, self discipline, and effort."
A simple statement by a humble man that cut right to the chase. He laid out a four step program for any individual to achieve success. When we look back on the incredible feat accomplished by Owens in the face of adversity, you can't help but wonder what steps we are taking to achieve our goals and dreams? We have but a snapshot of time here on this earth and it's important we don't waste a second on insignificance. Because as a great man once said, "we all have dreams!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Sunday, June 10, 2012
I Have An Idea!
Do ideas shape the culture and events, or do events produce ideas?
Man, if that isn't one of those which came first the chicken or the egg questions! Certainly the culture is influenced by ideas. Culture is malleable, we are currently being transformed by devices that keep us in instant and constant contact with one another. Back in the day, communication between a mother and a child was simply the mother's ability to bellow at the top of her lungs throughout the neighborhood demanding the child's presence. The smart ones had a bell, that was considered the elite of communication devices. Now it seems every child old enough to hold a phone has a cell. Mom simply dials the little angel's communication device and requests an audience. If she really wants their attention, she sends a text!
Another idea that is currently shaping our culture is also a form of communication, Facebook! For some it's a form of therapy as they expose their daily conundrums to the masses; not necessarily looking for answers, but perhaps sympathy or affirmation. It's like when the husband comes home and is blessed with his wife giving a review of her current problem. She's not seeking his input, just a place to vent. Other's use Facebook as a billboard for every turn of their life. We know exactly what they have been doing with frequent updates complete with pictures. I even get pictures of what some have placed before them to eat! Facebook is also a great way to get your child to respond. Just post something that'll embarrass them and you'll be in immediate contact with the offended party. Smart parents have adopted this as great means of leverage for inspiring children to react in a desired manner.
Oh there is so much more, but I think you get the idea. Ideas are the fertilizer of cultural behavior! But an idea needs action to become influence. Cell phones or Facebook could still be trapped inside someone's noggin without an action to bring them to fruition.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Man, if that isn't one of those which came first the chicken or the egg questions! Certainly the culture is influenced by ideas. Culture is malleable, we are currently being transformed by devices that keep us in instant and constant contact with one another. Back in the day, communication between a mother and a child was simply the mother's ability to bellow at the top of her lungs throughout the neighborhood demanding the child's presence. The smart ones had a bell, that was considered the elite of communication devices. Now it seems every child old enough to hold a phone has a cell. Mom simply dials the little angel's communication device and requests an audience. If she really wants their attention, she sends a text!
Another idea that is currently shaping our culture is also a form of communication, Facebook! For some it's a form of therapy as they expose their daily conundrums to the masses; not necessarily looking for answers, but perhaps sympathy or affirmation. It's like when the husband comes home and is blessed with his wife giving a review of her current problem. She's not seeking his input, just a place to vent. Other's use Facebook as a billboard for every turn of their life. We know exactly what they have been doing with frequent updates complete with pictures. I even get pictures of what some have placed before them to eat! Facebook is also a great way to get your child to respond. Just post something that'll embarrass them and you'll be in immediate contact with the offended party. Smart parents have adopted this as great means of leverage for inspiring children to react in a desired manner.
Oh there is so much more, but I think you get the idea. Ideas are the fertilizer of cultural behavior! But an idea needs action to become influence. Cell phones or Facebook could still be trapped inside someone's noggin without an action to bring them to fruition.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Reality Check!
It's not unusual to have our senses assaulted with rhetoric produced in Washington informing us of the lack of cooperation between the two parties. Actually it's not surprising that the difference of opinion causes a major roadblock to accomplishing most anything, they basically act like children. When treated like adults, people tend to act like adults, which satisfies and explains why nothing but bickering is accomplished by our representatives.
In business it's said that if folks are not truly your business partners, they will undermine your strategy. Apparently that applies to government as well. Don't expect cooperation if your not willing to enter a partnership with a goal designed to responsibly move this nation forward. It's even more foolish to go public and complain about the results your not getting when you didn't promote a vision that inspired everyone's unity.
Here's the problem, Washington is not ready to confront reality. The have even less will to expose the facts to the American people. Why are the numbers that define our economy skewed, then adjusted a month or quarter later? Are they too inept to keep track, or are they trying to deceive us? Why are we told the administration created X amount of jobs when it's very apparent they forgot to subtract the Y amount of lost jobs. They tell us the gross number of jobs gained, not the net numbers after jobs lost have been subtracted. Is it a wonder that any politician distances themselves from an alliance with this type of deception? Why are unemployment numbers "seasonally adjusted," and also modified by the number of people who've quite seeking employment? Are those people not out of work? Once again it's an attempt to deceive the public, and avoid accountability. Sign me up for that train going nowhere!
Character and integrity produces relationships that nurture trust. This is how you accomplish goals with the cooperation of others. I can't help but wonder what message this circus is sending to our youth as examples speak louder than words. We have to change the culture in this country, or we'll never change the politics. I don't care which side of the fence your political views reside on, this country is desperate for quality leadership based on principle; and if we don't change the culture, we'll continue to get the same results!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
In business it's said that if folks are not truly your business partners, they will undermine your strategy. Apparently that applies to government as well. Don't expect cooperation if your not willing to enter a partnership with a goal designed to responsibly move this nation forward. It's even more foolish to go public and complain about the results your not getting when you didn't promote a vision that inspired everyone's unity.
Here's the problem, Washington is not ready to confront reality. The have even less will to expose the facts to the American people. Why are the numbers that define our economy skewed, then adjusted a month or quarter later? Are they too inept to keep track, or are they trying to deceive us? Why are we told the administration created X amount of jobs when it's very apparent they forgot to subtract the Y amount of lost jobs. They tell us the gross number of jobs gained, not the net numbers after jobs lost have been subtracted. Is it a wonder that any politician distances themselves from an alliance with this type of deception? Why are unemployment numbers "seasonally adjusted," and also modified by the number of people who've quite seeking employment? Are those people not out of work? Once again it's an attempt to deceive the public, and avoid accountability. Sign me up for that train going nowhere!
Character and integrity produces relationships that nurture trust. This is how you accomplish goals with the cooperation of others. I can't help but wonder what message this circus is sending to our youth as examples speak louder than words. We have to change the culture in this country, or we'll never change the politics. I don't care which side of the fence your political views reside on, this country is desperate for quality leadership based on principle; and if we don't change the culture, we'll continue to get the same results!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Friday, June 8, 2012
I Thought So!
"For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." -Proverbs 23:7
"So whatcha thinkin?" That dreaded question she always asks whenever you pause and reflect quietly. But really it's important to guard what we think.
What the mind focuses on determines what we become as a person.
There are parents out there right now that are thinking my son/daughter is going to become a video game! That is a significant worry, because what you deem as important will control the practical patterns of your living. Personally I deem it important to evolve and become the best me, I can be. We are given the gift of life by our Creator so to honor that gift, we should become the best me we can possibly be. If not aren't we just recycling air? With that desire for personal development comes purpose.
As we grow and learn how to best use the abilities we were gifted, we'll find what our piece of this giant puzzle we were meant to be. With the realization of purpose comes an inner peace. When your why is answered you can then move forward with specific intent. Don't we all function better when the task is defined? It's hard to find deeper gratification than working toward your purpose!
So let's review. Our personal development reveals our purpose. Our personal development is driven by our input, which directly affects our thinking, and as we think, so we are. Sounds like it would be a great idea to carefully guard our inputs!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
"So whatcha thinkin?" That dreaded question she always asks whenever you pause and reflect quietly. But really it's important to guard what we think.
What the mind focuses on determines what we become as a person.
There are parents out there right now that are thinking my son/daughter is going to become a video game! That is a significant worry, because what you deem as important will control the practical patterns of your living. Personally I deem it important to evolve and become the best me, I can be. We are given the gift of life by our Creator so to honor that gift, we should become the best me we can possibly be. If not aren't we just recycling air? With that desire for personal development comes purpose.
As we grow and learn how to best use the abilities we were gifted, we'll find what our piece of this giant puzzle we were meant to be. With the realization of purpose comes an inner peace. When your why is answered you can then move forward with specific intent. Don't we all function better when the task is defined? It's hard to find deeper gratification than working toward your purpose!
So let's review. Our personal development reveals our purpose. Our personal development is driven by our input, which directly affects our thinking, and as we think, so we are. Sounds like it would be a great idea to carefully guard our inputs!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Wait Till Your Father Gets Home!
A story just broke down in the Boynton Beach area that a shooting had occurred. It happened at a lounge called the "First and Ten Grill," as you might guess a bar. Since the story came across the wire at 6:10 AM, we can guess it came after a long night of alcohol abuse. As soon as the story was posted on Facebook there was a comment suggesting the government enact gun law legislation. Let's take a brief moment while I get my blood pressure under control.....
Once again misguided individuals believe it's an inanimate object that causes the problem and it's the government's responsibility to take the object away from us. They look to government as the parent who removes all "sharp objects" from the scene so those who aren't emotionally mature enough to handle the responsibility of having a "sharp object" in the room, don't hurt themselves or others. So the rights of others to be act responsibly is restricted because of irresponsible behavior by a few. People speed in their cars everyday, it's breaking the law, and irresponsible. Where is the outcry to ban cars? As I type this I have made spelling errors, should we ban computers? I was doing laundry the other day and spilled bleach on a colored item, it was ruined. Should I be not allowed to purchase bleach because I abused it's purpose and had a bad outcome?
Our founding fathers defined this thinking as tyranny. Perhaps you remember tyranny from your youth when Dad or Mom played dictator and told you no. It was for your own good, but it didn't take the bad taste out of your mouth any better then than it does now. Once you gained their trust and became responsible, more freedom was granted from the monarchy, and you were treated as an adult, or you defiantly moved away from the overseer.
The proper thinking in this situation is to punish the abusers of the law and not punish everyone in kind. The individual misbehaved, not the weapon. The criminal needs to be rehabilitated and taught the "Golden Rule." That's the answers to society's problems, not restricting everyone's rights with tyrannical law. Freedom has a price, responsibility; and if one cannot live up to that responsibility they need to have their freedom restricted, not the whole of the community. Punish the criminal, not society!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Once again misguided individuals believe it's an inanimate object that causes the problem and it's the government's responsibility to take the object away from us. They look to government as the parent who removes all "sharp objects" from the scene so those who aren't emotionally mature enough to handle the responsibility of having a "sharp object" in the room, don't hurt themselves or others. So the rights of others to be act responsibly is restricted because of irresponsible behavior by a few. People speed in their cars everyday, it's breaking the law, and irresponsible. Where is the outcry to ban cars? As I type this I have made spelling errors, should we ban computers? I was doing laundry the other day and spilled bleach on a colored item, it was ruined. Should I be not allowed to purchase bleach because I abused it's purpose and had a bad outcome?
Our founding fathers defined this thinking as tyranny. Perhaps you remember tyranny from your youth when Dad or Mom played dictator and told you no. It was for your own good, but it didn't take the bad taste out of your mouth any better then than it does now. Once you gained their trust and became responsible, more freedom was granted from the monarchy, and you were treated as an adult, or you defiantly moved away from the overseer.
The proper thinking in this situation is to punish the abusers of the law and not punish everyone in kind. The individual misbehaved, not the weapon. The criminal needs to be rehabilitated and taught the "Golden Rule." That's the answers to society's problems, not restricting everyone's rights with tyrannical law. Freedom has a price, responsibility; and if one cannot live up to that responsibility they need to have their freedom restricted, not the whole of the community. Punish the criminal, not society!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Viva Wisconsin!
The voters have spoken! What did Wisconsin say to the nation in yesterday's recall election?
We want politicians with courage! Grow a spine!
We want fiscal responsibility. Spend within your means.
We want freedom. Workers should have the right to join or not join a labor organization.
We are tired of special interest. Politicians are charged to work for the people!
Fairness is merit for performance, not guaranteed pay increases because you exist!
Exceptionalism is appreciated and rewarded.
We will choose leadership over partisanship every time.
We say no to higher taxes.
We say no to bloated government.
Yesterday Wisconsin sent a loud and clear message to the rest of the country. I pray Washington and the entire nation accepts and takes to heart the message the citizens proclaimed. This is the United States of America where leadership and self sufficiency is supported and appreciated. A leader is an individual that'll make the tough decisions, popular or not, within the principles of the framework upon which this Republic was formed. God Bless you Wisconsin! Your an exceptional example for the rest of the nation. And for those of you who were disappointed with yesterday's results, there is always Cuba! Vote with your feet and live in the environment that suits your world view.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
We want politicians with courage! Grow a spine!
We want fiscal responsibility. Spend within your means.
We want freedom. Workers should have the right to join or not join a labor organization.
We are tired of special interest. Politicians are charged to work for the people!
Fairness is merit for performance, not guaranteed pay increases because you exist!
Exceptionalism is appreciated and rewarded.
We will choose leadership over partisanship every time.
We say no to higher taxes.
We say no to bloated government.
Yesterday Wisconsin sent a loud and clear message to the rest of the country. I pray Washington and the entire nation accepts and takes to heart the message the citizens proclaimed. This is the United States of America where leadership and self sufficiency is supported and appreciated. A leader is an individual that'll make the tough decisions, popular or not, within the principles of the framework upon which this Republic was formed. God Bless you Wisconsin! Your an exceptional example for the rest of the nation. And for those of you who were disappointed with yesterday's results, there is always Cuba! Vote with your feet and live in the environment that suits your world view.
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
We Are Banking On The Cheeseheads!
Go Wisconsin!
Today is a very important day in American history. We've come to a defining moment in our Republic and we've given this responsibility to the voters in Wisconsin. The recall election of Governor Scott Walker is a reflection of the attitude of the citizens of this great country. Are we going to allow a union to define how and what our government employees are paid, or are we going to reward our state employees in a fair and merit based system?
Now don't get me wrong, unions have done great things for the labor force of this country, but they've shifted their focus from labor to politics. The union mission statement has turned it into a funneling organization for donations to political campaigns in return for favoritism. They financially encourage candidates to become elected to do their bidding. Which creates a giant circle of mutual benefit from union dues, to large campaign donations for candidates, back to favorable voting in union negotiations. The union employees are overcharged for their membership and the money that should provide them benefits is funneled into political campaigns. How many of the union retirement funds are under funded? Yet the union political arm is one of the most powerful, well funded, organizations in the campaign cycle. Who's agenda are they serving?
America was founded on the principle of exceptionalism. The union mantra demands the person laboring next to you receive the same pay void of his ability or output. It's a form of Communism! When it comes to state employees, we want the best teachers to be rewarded handsomely, the best police officers paid what they deserve, and the best firemen all the benefits they deserve. The slackers should go find another career. Your educating our children, protecting our communities, and keeping us safe. Don't you want a well rewarded, happy, competent individual doing those tasks? Or would you rather a disgruntled slug who wants to know when their next coffee break is so they can discuss their next incentive less cost of living raise?
Now the current Governor of Wisconsin has taken office, overcome a budget deficit, increased employment numbers, and supplied the state with a tax cut. The unions are dissatisfied with his performance. Why? Because it's exceptional, they can't have that! How's that going to look for all the slackers they are protecting? America has come to a crossroad. Is it common sense that will rule this nation, or a self serving agenda that denies the exceptional their just reward? Remember the best definition of fairness is reward for merit!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Today is a very important day in American history. We've come to a defining moment in our Republic and we've given this responsibility to the voters in Wisconsin. The recall election of Governor Scott Walker is a reflection of the attitude of the citizens of this great country. Are we going to allow a union to define how and what our government employees are paid, or are we going to reward our state employees in a fair and merit based system?
Now don't get me wrong, unions have done great things for the labor force of this country, but they've shifted their focus from labor to politics. The union mission statement has turned it into a funneling organization for donations to political campaigns in return for favoritism. They financially encourage candidates to become elected to do their bidding. Which creates a giant circle of mutual benefit from union dues, to large campaign donations for candidates, back to favorable voting in union negotiations. The union employees are overcharged for their membership and the money that should provide them benefits is funneled into political campaigns. How many of the union retirement funds are under funded? Yet the union political arm is one of the most powerful, well funded, organizations in the campaign cycle. Who's agenda are they serving?
America was founded on the principle of exceptionalism. The union mantra demands the person laboring next to you receive the same pay void of his ability or output. It's a form of Communism! When it comes to state employees, we want the best teachers to be rewarded handsomely, the best police officers paid what they deserve, and the best firemen all the benefits they deserve. The slackers should go find another career. Your educating our children, protecting our communities, and keeping us safe. Don't you want a well rewarded, happy, competent individual doing those tasks? Or would you rather a disgruntled slug who wants to know when their next coffee break is so they can discuss their next incentive less cost of living raise?
Now the current Governor of Wisconsin has taken office, overcome a budget deficit, increased employment numbers, and supplied the state with a tax cut. The unions are dissatisfied with his performance. Why? Because it's exceptional, they can't have that! How's that going to look for all the slackers they are protecting? America has come to a crossroad. Is it common sense that will rule this nation, or a self serving agenda that denies the exceptional their just reward? Remember the best definition of fairness is reward for merit!
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Sunday, June 3, 2012
I Will Survive?
I feel like I need to elaborate on the survivor/conqueror concept. I can remember many times when I felt like I had survived something. Perhaps you just got done surviving the weekend, or maybe you've just survived another day at work. If you really think about those statements, do they sound like the words of one who has achieved mastery in their life? Realistically, to survive something is to just "get by," or you were lucky to have it over with. Is that the posture of a winner? I'd hate to be the team that was defined as having "survived" another round of the playoffs. Why not look at a victory, which is what survival boils down to, as having conquered the opponent? The, "whew I got through that," attitude is adopting a sense that it could have gone either way. Empower yourself with confidence!
Who would you follow; William the Survivor, or William the Conqueror? I'm betting on the conqueror dude! It implies he has control of the situation. His stance mandates overcoming any obstacles between him and the prize. I'm picturing the William the Survivor fellow floating in a life jacket adrift at sea, while William the Conqueror has a whale saddled up and is riding it toward his destiny. The choice is defined by you. Are you ready to overthrow your challenges, or be pushed into action by them?
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Who would you follow; William the Survivor, or William the Conqueror? I'm betting on the conqueror dude! It implies he has control of the situation. His stance mandates overcoming any obstacles between him and the prize. I'm picturing the William the Survivor fellow floating in a life jacket adrift at sea, while William the Conqueror has a whale saddled up and is riding it toward his destiny. The choice is defined by you. Are you ready to overthrow your challenges, or be pushed into action by them?
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Saturday, June 2, 2012
To Survive, Or Conquer?
"You should not be satisfied with being a victim, nor with being a survivor; You should aim to be a conqueror. There is an extraordinary quality of spirit that leads one to aspire to conquering rather than surviving. I hope you discover that spirit in yourself!"-Dr Laura Schlessinger
It's far to prevalent in our society to encounter people with a victim mentality. It's the mind set of not failure, but of a quitter. Once you cede control to whom or whatever your a victim of, you've lost the ability to overcome that challenge. Being a victim means you've empowered your victimizer to own you! Who in their right mind would freely consider themselves a victim? The most depressing of these individuals are those who can be described as victims of their own thinking. What a powerful way to say someone lacks information to take action to improve their situation. Actually anyone who defines themselves as a victim is really a victim of their own thinking. Because once you make the decision to overthrow that thought process, our no longer a victim. Your seized control of your destiny! A victim is but one thought away from the tyranny of victimization.
Now what does it mean to be a survivor? Well your certainly not a victim! But wouldn't it be better to define yourself as a conqueror? For instance a cancer survivor instills a minimal thought of victory. "Whew, dodged that bullet!" Yet when you define that same person as a cancer conqueror, you immediately take away the sympathy of the obstacle and redefine it as empowerment. Would a walk for cancer conquerors attract more people than a walk for cancer survivors? The act of conquering something infers heroism, which I believe anyone who has face a demon like cancer is, heroic! Survivors just don't seem to have the air of heroism, like a conqueror does. Did the American forces conquer Japan, or did they just survive the attack?
Redefine the situation by using a definition that empowers the individual and you change the light upon which it is received. Words and thoughts have greater power than we often realize. You are what you define yourself as. Just call me, "William the Conqueror!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
It's far to prevalent in our society to encounter people with a victim mentality. It's the mind set of not failure, but of a quitter. Once you cede control to whom or whatever your a victim of, you've lost the ability to overcome that challenge. Being a victim means you've empowered your victimizer to own you! Who in their right mind would freely consider themselves a victim? The most depressing of these individuals are those who can be described as victims of their own thinking. What a powerful way to say someone lacks information to take action to improve their situation. Actually anyone who defines themselves as a victim is really a victim of their own thinking. Because once you make the decision to overthrow that thought process, our no longer a victim. Your seized control of your destiny! A victim is but one thought away from the tyranny of victimization.
Now what does it mean to be a survivor? Well your certainly not a victim! But wouldn't it be better to define yourself as a conqueror? For instance a cancer survivor instills a minimal thought of victory. "Whew, dodged that bullet!" Yet when you define that same person as a cancer conqueror, you immediately take away the sympathy of the obstacle and redefine it as empowerment. Would a walk for cancer conquerors attract more people than a walk for cancer survivors? The act of conquering something infers heroism, which I believe anyone who has face a demon like cancer is, heroic! Survivors just don't seem to have the air of heroism, like a conqueror does. Did the American forces conquer Japan, or did they just survive the attack?
Redefine the situation by using a definition that empowers the individual and you change the light upon which it is received. Words and thoughts have greater power than we often realize. You are what you define yourself as. Just call me, "William the Conqueror!"
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
Friday, June 1, 2012
A Little History!
"Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction uleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self destruction.
We dare not temp them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond a doubt can we be certain beyond a doubt that they will never be deployed..."- J.F. Kennedy
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
We dare not temp them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond a doubt can we be certain beyond a doubt that they will never be deployed..."- J.F. Kennedy
God Bless!
Capt. Bill
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