MediScare!

I don't get it!!!  When the last Congress passed the Health Care Reform Act, Republicans whipped Seniors and Tea-Partiers into a frenzy by CLAIMING that President Obama wanted to get rid of Medicare. They  use fear and anger to manipulate voters, because they don't have any plausible, responsible plans.  Part of the point of Health Care Reform was to reduce the deficit. NOW, Republicans are claiming that in order to reduce the deficit, they want to end Medicare as we know it; cut benefits, raise ages, and privatize most of it. Remember when they wanted to privatize Social Security?

Where were their screams about the deficit during the Bush years when he gave away our revenue with massive tax breaks to the richest 2% of Americans and to corporations? Where were their screams about the deficit when he started two massive wars off-the books? Don't let them fool us anymore. They don't care about real people, they only care about the money they get from lobbyists and big insurance and drug companies.

Tell Steve King that you can't believe that he supports the Ryan plan!

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Rep. Paul Ryan's 2012 budget proposal was one of the most brutal attacks on the social safety net in decades. And almost all the Republicans in the House joined in by voting for it.

Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman called Rep. Ryan's budget bill both "ludicrous" and "cruel." "Ludicrous" because the budget projections were pure fantasy, "cruel" because it proposed massive spending cuts for programs that mainly help children, the poor and the elderly, while slashing taxes for corporations and the ultra-rich.

One of the main programs targeted by the Ryan budget was Medicare, which under the proposal would be destroyed in all but name, and replaced by a voucher program for seniors who'd be dumped into the private insurance market. And if the vouchers didn't cover the cost of insurance, too bad.

I just signed a petition to hold my member of Congress accountable for voting for this irresponsible and extremist proposal. I hope you do too.

You can find out more and take action at the link below.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/medicare/?r_by=20144-1369725-HegSyUx&rc=paste1 

Krauthammer seems to be yet another either a victom of or purveyor of fear

The other day a neighbor and former column reader forward me an email they'd received and asked me what I thought about it. What follows is that forwarded email, followed by my reply.

Dr. Krauthammer is on Fox News. He is an M.D. and a lawyer and is paralyzed from the neck down. A friend went to hear Charles Krauthammer. He listened with 25 others in a closed room. What he says here, is NOT 2nd-hand but 1st. The ramifications are staggering for us, our children and their children.

Last Monday was a profound evening, hearing Dr. Charles Krauthammer speak to the Center for the American Experiment. He is brilliant intellectual, seasoned & articulate. He is forthright and careful in his analysis, and never resorts to emotions or personal insults. He is NOT a fear monger nor an extremist in his comments and views. He is a fiscal conservative, and has received a Pulitzer Prize for writing. He is a frequent contributor to Fox News and writes weekly for the Washington Post. The entire room was held spellbound during his talk. I have summarized his comments, as we are living in uncharted waters economically and internationally. Even 2 Dems at my table agreed with everything he said! If you feel like forwarding this to those who are open minded and have not drunk the Kool-Aid, feel free.

Summary of his comments:

1. Mr. Obama is a very intellectual, charming individual. He is not to be underestimated. He is a cool customer who doesn't show his emotions. It's very hard to know what's behind the mask. The taking down of the Clinton dynasty by a political neophyte was an amazing accomplishment. The Clintons still do not understand what hit them. Obama was in the perfect place at the perfect time.

2. Obama has political skills comparable to Reagan and Clinton. He has a way of making you think he's on your side, agreeing with your position, while doing the opposite. Pay no attention to what he SAYS; rather, watch what he DOES!

3. Obama has a ruthless quest for power. He did not come to Washington to make something out of himself, but rather to change everything, including dismantling capitalism. He can't be straightforward on his ambitions, as the public would not go along. He has a heavy hand, and wants to level the playing field with income redistribution and punishment to the achievers of society. He would like to model the USA toGreat Britain or Canada

4. His three main goals are to control ENERGY, PUBLIC EDUCATION, and NATIONAL HEALTHCARE by the Federal government. He doesn't care about the auto or financial services industries, but got them as an early bonus. The cap and trade will add costs to everything and stifle growth. Paying for FREE college education is his goal. Most scary is his healthcare program, because if you make it FREE and add 46,000,000 people to a Medicare-type single-payer system, the costs will go through the roof. The only way to control costs is with massive RATIONING of services, like in Canada. God forbid!

5. He has surrounded himself with mostly far-left academic types. No one around him has ever even run a candy store. But they are going to try and run the auto, financial, banking and other industries. This obviously can't work in the long run. Obama is not a socialist; rather he's a far-left secular progressive bent on nothing short of revolution. He ran as a moderate, but will govern from the hard left. Again, watch what he does, not what he says.

6. Obama doesn't really see himself as President of the United States, but more as a ruler over the world. He sees himself above it all, trying to orchestrate & coordinate various countries and their agendas. He sees moral equivalency in all cultures. His apology tour in Germany and England was a prime example of how he sees America, as an imperialist nation that has been arrogant, rather than a great noble nation that has at times made errors. This is the first President ever who has chastised our allies and appeased our enemies!

7. He is now handing out goodies. He hopes that the bill (and pain) will not come due until after he is reelected in 2012. He would like to blame all problems on Bush from the past, and hopefully his successor in the future. He has a huge ego, and Dr. Krauthammer believes he is a narcissist.

8. Republicans are in the wilderness for a while, but will emerge strong. Republicans are pining for another Reagan, but there will never be another like him. Krauthammer believes Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl (except for his terrible speech in February) are the future of the party. Newt Gingrich is brilliant, but has baggage. Sarah Palin is sincere and intelligent, but needs to really be seriously boning up on facts and info if she is to be a serious candidate in the future. We need to return to the party of lower taxes, smaller government, personal responsibility, strong national defense, and state's rights.

9. The current level of spending is irresponsible and outrageous. We are spending trillions that we don't have. This could lead to hyperinflation, depression or worse. No country has ever spent themselves into prosperity. The media is giving Obama, Reid and Pelosi a pass because they love their agenda. But eventually the bill will come due and people will realize the huge bailouts didn't work, nor will the stimulus package. These were trillion-dollar payoffs to Obama's allies, unions and the Congress to placate the left, so he can get support for #4 above.

10. The election was over in mid-September when Lehman brothers failed, fear and panic swept in, we had an unpopular President, and the war was grinding on indefinitely without a clear outcome. The people are in pain, and the mantra of change caused people to act emotionally. Any Dem would have won this election; it was surprising it was as close as it was.

11. In 2012, if the unemployment rate is over 10%, Republicans will be swept back into power. If it's under 8%, the Dems continue to roll. If it's between 8-10%, it will be a dogfight. It will all be about the economy. I hope this gets you really thinking about what's happening in Washington and Congress. There is a left-wing revolution going on, according to Krauthammer, and he encourages us to keep the faith and join the loyal resistance. The work will be hard, but we're right on most issues and can reclaim our country, before it's far too late.

Do yourself a long term favor, send this to all who will listen to an intelligent assessment of the big picture. All our futures and children's futures depend on our good understanding of what is really going on in DC, and our action pursuant to that understanding!! It really IS up to each of us to take individual action!! Start with educating your friends and neighbors!!!

What I hope to do is share my perspective on a few things. Hopefully you will feel like I’m filling-out your own knowledge, even if you still disagree with me on anything I write here.

First a little bit of background.

Krauthammer may be a Pulitzer prize winning, widely syndicated columnist, however his two main venues are FOX NEWS and the Weekly Standard- both of which are extremely conservative and not exactly balance. Just as many are suspicious of a so-called “liberal media,” one should probably also be leery of any “conservative media” too. Do they really mean to inform, or to persuade?

For the most part, Krauthammer is a neoconservative (meaning he agreed with much of George W. Bush's foreign policy, expansion of American ideology by military means). However, on domestic issues, Krauthammer is a supporter of legalized abortion; an opponent of the death penalty. He describes himself as "not religious," and is a critic of intelligent design, and creationism. So I'm not sure he's your kind of conservative.

Now, what I think about the email.

Considering some of what we know about Krauthammer, one has to wonder if this is really a very accurate summary of his views or if whoever put this together is just using him to try to lend their opinions more credibility. Just a suspicion, but it could be exactly the way he thinks.

My personal reaction to the summarized points 1-3 are that either he, or whoever is reporting this is paranoid and frustrated that the neocons lost power. Obama is a young, charismatic speaker, but I think that it is the ideals in his speeches that are inspiring, and that he actually believes what he says. Krauthammer seems to believe that he is a sinister megalomaniac bent on world domination. At best this is fear, at worst it is propaganda.

Point 4 is false and misleading. Progressives would like the government to initiate programs that would lead to a "green economy" which would 1. create jobs, 2. improve the environment and 3. free us from our dependence on foreign oil (Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, & Russia). That's not the same as total control. I've actually been disappointed that Obama is so far continuing much of the education policies of W. which have created a lot of problems for schools with unfounded regulations and unfunded mandates. And we could obviously go rounds forever about health care reform but essentially Obama is weak on this as far as REAL Liberals are concerned, making too many concessions.

In a nut shell, the public option would've just been an independent (govt. contracted and initiated, but not controlled) non-profit insurance company meant to promote competition among the big insurance corporations. Krauthammer says that adding 46M people would make costs skyrocket, but the way that insurance already works is that the more people contributing to the pool, the lower the average costs for everybody. That's why Denison schools have lower premiums than Charter Oak-Ute, bigger pool, lower costs- not higher. Again, at best FOX and/or Krauthammer are scared, at worst, they're lying in order to scare viewers. Either way, Obama is not George Orwell's 'Big Brother,' he does not want to control everything.

On point 5- so far he's been governing from the corporate middle, just like Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Committee, the pro-business wing of the party. The thing is, since 92 or so we have become more and more polarized not so much by actual policy and/or ideology but by team or camp or tribe. People hate the opposition not because they think differently but just because they're not on the same side. I know nothing about Oklahoma except that I'm a Nebraska fan.

6.What they wrote here is nonsense and probably is meant to evoke anxieties about a one-world government or the antichrist smears some fringe people were emailing around during the campaign. The ironic thing is that neoconservatives like Krauthammer are part of something called the project for a new American Century, which envisioned the U.S. as the leader of the world. The difference is that Bush hoped to do it with momentum created by our victory in Iraq whereas Obama probably received the Nobel Peace Prize today because he appeals to the same kind of values of peaceful cooperation and diplomatic negotiations which Dwight Eisenhower and George Marshall did in the aftermath of WWII.

If with #7 they're talking about TARP and the bailouts, those were started under Bush and probably prevented a much deeper collapse than we had. No one runs for President without a huge ego, but I've observed President Obama being much more humble, self-effacing and understated than almost any of his predecessors except maybe President Carter.

8. Just as someone who watches politics like other people watch sports, I'd say that it would be unwise to count the GOP out, but that Tim Pawlenty & Bobby Jindahl have more of a future than Romney, Gingrich or Palin. She may be sincere, but not intelligent. Gingrich may be a genius, but I think too many people mistrust him as too many people find Romney two-dimensional. I also think that it may be that what the GOP needs is more than just a repackaging or a re-branding. People still share and seek many conservative values, family, country, suspicion of bureaucracy- but I suspect (could be wrong) that more and more people are skeptical of if not fed up with Reaganomics and are ready for something new.

Using "Redistribution of wealth" as an accusation used to work to make people frightened of communism, but with the Goldman Sacs and Lehman Brothers and AIGs out there, I think that maybe voters realize that Reaganomics has redistributed wealth to the people who already had too much of it. The progressive tax structure we had from FDR through Ford really promoted a more sustainable economy and allowed the middle class to grow and flourish. That may or may not be "socialism," but Republican Teddy Roosevelt might call it fair, like his "Square Deal," which the Democrat's Fair Deal was modeled after. And government intervention and regulation of some of those big banks and huge corporations is needed to SAVE capitalism, not destroy it or replace it.

They may be right about how a Republican couldn't win in 2008 and how 2012 will be closer than people think, however Obama had over 50% of the youth vote (18-25 yr old first time voters) in 2008 and that's kind of like being the brand of your first car, first beer, first cigarette, first gum or cola. People tend to build a brand loyalty. Just as Reagan's election in 1980 meant that the pendulum had finally swung back to the right, it might just be that the Republican party will be fighting an uphill battle for the next 12-20 years. Only time will tell. With a 24-hour news cycle thanks to cable/satellite/internet and such short attention spans-anything is possible.

I hope since you know me and know that I love the Lord and the Bible and my family and community- and believe it or not, I also love our country and cherish our history, because you know this about me, I hope that even if you never agree with another “Liberal” on anything or oppose President Obama on most every one of his policies or proposals, I hope that you will at least remember that most Democrats, moderates, progressives, and liberals are not out to destroy America. They genuinely want what they think is best for our country, just as much as you do. And probably, that goes for President Obama too- he’s not an evil maniacal genius bent on world domination, he may even be the servant that God intended to lead us through these times. I’m not saying you have to believe that- but I guess I think that he’s a decent man with good intentions who has one hell of a huge job and needs our prayers- even when he makes us mad.

Sorry this turned into a 3 page epic. I guess I miss writing (especially run-on sentences).

Stay warm this week!

When will the truth finally set us free?

Recently someone forwarded an email to me warning that Barack Obama is the Antichrist because the book of Revelation says that his reign will be 42 months, the same as a U.S. Presidential term. Big mistake. I hit the "reply" button and preached that brother a sermon. Here's what I wrote:

It's not possible for the book of Revelation to claim the anti-christ is of Islamic decent, 1) Islam wasn't invented yet when it was written, 2) it's a religion not an ethnicity so you can't be of Islamic decent.

An anti-Christ is anyone who takes attention away from the true Christ.

I suggest you read the 1 John 4:1-3

"Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world."

Obama publicly acknowledges Jesus as his Lord and savior.

While you're at it, you need to bone up on your both your theology and your eschatology a little bit. Many fundamentalist strains of Christianity believe in a false doctrine called dispensationalism that is not truly found in Scripture, but rather was developed in 19th century America.

You're trying to frighten Christian voters into being afraid of Barak Obama, a devout Christian himself- not a Muslim or the anti-christ. This is NOT a Christ-like behavior.

1 John 4:18 tells us that "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." Besides, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5 and Luke 6 to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us.

What you're doing is "the ends-justifies-the-means." You're so afraid of Obama yourself, that you're willing to spread lies and propaganda about him to insure that McCain/Palin win. That's not Jesus- that's Machiavelli.

Dispensationalists pretend to be friends of Israel because they think that Jerusalem will be some kind of celestial star-gate for Jesus' second coming, when in reality they are anti-semitic, hating Jews and blaming them for killing Jesus. They can't wait for them to be "Left-Behind" and sent to Hell. Whereas, granted, Jesus may be the only way, truth and life (John 14:6) BUT- God does not WANT ANYONE to perish (2 Peter 3:9).

It's so unfortunate that politics makes such strange bedfellows because Catholics that are so adamantly opposed to abortion find quick and fervent allies among fundamentalist and evangelicals in the religious-right movement, yet many of these allies suspect the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church itself of being the Antichrist and/or the Beast!

How do we know that Jerusalem won't be a cosmic star gate for his arrival to usher in some millennial reign? Jesus told the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:22-24 that His true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth, not in physical, geographical or political locations.

As for predictions and prophecies and televangelists who think that the market crash is a sign of the end times or Sarah Palin's prediction that Christians will find refuge from the tribulation in Alaska- Jesus tells us that he will return like a thief in the night in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 and in Matthew 24:36 He assures us that "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father." We need to love and trust Him and not worry about signs or trying to help arrange things for Him politically. He doesn't need any help.
I know you mean well and I'm sure you truly love God and America, I'm sure you're a good person. But be careful not to be corrupted by politics and political messages, whether they're from the right OR the left. Don't be motivated by fear or anger. Be motivated by love and a desire to reconcile everyone to Jesus.

As God tells us in 2 Peter-
" 3His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins."
Thank God, He's granted us liberty and privilege to elect our own leaders in the United States. If you want to vote solely on social issues that are important to you so be it. This is your right. But please, don't be frightened into any choice based on shoddy theological assertions of people who seek to use religion as a means to assert their political agendas.

Remember Galatians 3:28- "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
Guess what- there is neither Republican nor Democrat, Independent nor Libertarian, Black nor White, Asian nor Hispanic, Urban nor Suburban, Metropolitan nor Rural, either. Believe it or not, there ARE Liberal Democrats who LOVE Jesus and America and want what's best for everyone. I'll even bet that when we get to Heaven, we might just find a few Socialists, Communists, and even Anarchists there!

When will we ever live up to our motto? "E Pluribus Unum"- From many, one.

Soon, I pray.

Please forgive me if I've come off as angry or condescending in either of these emails. I happen to love Jesus and to love America and I have been wounded and persecuted and attacked and alienated and ostracized and doubted, slandered and shunned because I disagree with other Christians who watch Fox News more than they read their own Bibles and I feel like I have to either take a stand like Luther or gradually be pushed away from my Savior by His own "sheep."

Please forgive me, but please, please, don't fall prey to fear, lies, or political propaganda, let alone to false prophecies, false doctrines, and foolish heresies. Read the Bible, not political email forwards. Share God's love and His good news of forgiveness, not fear and racism.

Markets low, oil high?

"...the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failures and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

True, they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit, they have proposed only the lending of more money.

Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored conditions. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers.

They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

The money changers have fled their high seats in the temple of our civilization (see Matthew 21:11-13). We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths.

The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money, it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.

The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow-men.

Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be values only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit, and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing.

Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live."

From FDR's first inagural address, 1933- the speech where he declared we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Do you ever feel like our leaders have been trying to use fear to manipulate us?

• Fear of terrorists (trying to link AlQuaeda to Iran, even though Iran is Shi'a and hates Muhabeist Suniis like AlQuaeda)
• Fear of "the other"- blaming our economic and crime problems on immigrants desperate for a better way of life
• Fear of what is different, a black man with an Arab middle name, or homosexuals or anyone who believes differently that the most visible and vocal television preachers.
  

But fear is wrong, even in the most difficult times. "There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love." 1 John 4:18

Just some things to think about.

Culture of FEAR

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Now playing: the Thom Hartman Show on AM950 Air America Minnesota
via FoxyTunes

Don't look down

It’s a hard lesson to learn, but cheerleaders learn it every year, usually in the searing heat and glare of the late summer sun at camp, long before the school year and the football season begin. The lesson is, Don’t look down. Put another way, attitude determines altitude.

Pilots know this. If you raise the aircraft’s nose up, the plane flies up. Cheerleaders have to learn this too; where your eyes go, your body tends to follow. If you look straight ahead at the crowd, you’ll keep your balance, look down, even for an instant, and your body will begin to lean.

Cheer is not the only sport in which this principle applies. A basketball shooter doesn’t watch the ball, to make a basket, they have to focus on the hoop. Golfers can try to follow their ball after they swing, but at that instant they follow through, they’d better be concentrating on where they want the ball to go if they want to avoid a wicked slice.

A few weeks ago PBS host Allan Alda talked to University of Arizona scientists about this on his show, Scientific American. It seems that whether it’s a tennis serve or a volleyball serve or a hunter after a pheasant, the principal is the same- where you look, there you go. Don’t look at the ball, look at where you want it to go, don’t look at the bird, aim at where you expect it to be the moment your shell reaches the same point in space.

If you don’t want to fall, don’t look down. Principles are things that can usually be applied in other areas of life. That’s why sports are good for kids, they learn valuable life lessons without even realizing it- a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.

Seems there have even been studies that suggest that while you’re walking down the street, if you tend to constantly be looking at the ground, your mood sours, whereas if you look up more, you’ll naturally become more upbeat, less tense, even happy. One theory is that when you look ahead or up, more light can make it into your eyes. In the fall and winter when days get short and clouds hide the sun or people stay inside all day, some people begin to suffer symptoms of what doctors call seasonal affective disorder (SAD). So looking up can literally, physiologically keep you “up.”

Let’s use our “don’t look down” principle as an analogy for other things.

Take people. If we expect the worse, they probably won’t disappoint us. If we’re critical of them or defensive toward them, they’ll treat us as we’ve treated them. If we look for even one good thing in them and appreciate it, we may even bring out the best in them.

Take politics. If a candidate focuses only on what’s wrong about his opponent, he or she only turns off the voter. America is fundamentally an optimistic place, voters want to know what the candidate’s hope and plans and qualifications are. Ever notice how when one person is looking up, everyone else starts looking up? We want to see what they see. “What is that? What are they looking at?” It’s compulsive. That’s leadership.

Take work. If you focus on how hard it is or how unpleasant, it only makes it more unpleasant. Time drags on when you watch the clock. If you focus on a goal or your accomplishments, it’s much easier.

Take business. If you focus on your obstacles, expenses or irate customers, you’re dooming yourself. If you focus on trying to build relationships, and on trying to provide your customers with what they want and need, you’re bound to succeed.

Take religion. There’s Law and Gospel, right? The Law shows us that this world is messed up because people are basically selfish and short sighted. What does that get us? It’s meant to humble us and make us realize that we need God. Great, but if we never stop focusing on how bad we are and how bad everybody is, we’ll never get on with living. The Gospel is the good news that God loves us even though we’re selfish and short-sighted. It shows us that He wants to have a relationship with us and He wants to help us be selfless and broaden our vision.

Take any problem we have or all of life for that matter. Take society in general. If we insist on always being critical or negative, where does that get us. Nowhere, stuck, stagnant, digging downward. But if we look forward or look up, guess what- we’ll at least stand firm and tall, at best, we’ll start moving forward.

Many a cheerleader who has the bruises to prove that “don’t look down” is one of the most important lessons anyone can ever learn.