The Beginning of the End is Here…

Tonight, President Barack Obama has secured his reelection as our failed and miserable leader.  Apparently the qualification for President of the United States is on par with running the cash register at McDonald’s.  As I sat in my living room obliquely staring at the multiple exit polls and faintly hearing the glare of liberal media broadcasting, I began to realize that our country may not survive the next four years.  How could we survive four more years with a Baby Killing, Inexperienced, Anti-Colonial, Anti-Free Market, Marxist Fascist who has continued to shove our economy into the ground?  How can we survive his spending?  How can we survive him killing our own ambassadors?  How can we survive his lies, his wasting of millions of our tax dollars on failed energy resource options and apathetic attitude towards being an American???
My heart hurts not just because Obamacare will take 18% of the profit I make from selling my house to pay for healthcare for people like this:

But my heat aches because I know that Obama will destroy the very fiber and strength of our nation and I don’t make enough to be able to survive that.  My 401K is losing money everyday, the value of my home becomes less and less all of the time and my family is growing but I can’t sell my home for even 3/4 of what I paid for it.  We are now subject to a man with no direction, no leadership, no understanding of a free market economy and no vision for yet another four years.  Let’s just pray we can last four more years.

The Moral Decay of my Children’s Future

Perhaps my title might seem a little extreme at first glance but once you’ve allowed me the opportunity to qualify my thinking I’m sure you’ll understand or perhaps even agree with my point of view. When I finally decided to start blogging my rants on Faith, Politics and Matters of the Heart I wanted to stay away from being 100% political in everything that I wrote. What I’ve discovered is that you cannot avoid discussing politics when you’re appealing to one’s faith or matters of the heart. Politics are very central to our lives even if you don’t consider yourself to be political you are still communicating a political view or priority. This is why. We all have a view of who God is, what God is or if God even exist. That view, referred to as our Worldview from here on out, is what shapes the way we respond to injustice, to tragedy, to selfishness and ultimately it shapes how we respond to our sin and the sin of others.

President Obama has continued to fail in delivering anything that he ran his campaign on, although he has delivered on things he promised like “Revising regulations for export of aerospace technology and Capping interest rates on payday loans and improving disclosures”…seriously? How in the world does this have anything to do with our national deficit and the lack of jobs available in our country? That’s like telling my son that I promise to provide his meals for him and I promise that he’ll have to wear sunscreen when he goes out to play but I never provide the meals though I make sure he has on sunscreen every time he walks out of the door. What good is the sunscreen if he’s starving? Likewise, who gives a crap about rates on payday loans when people don’t even have jobs to get the loans anyway? But I digress. My point is that Obama has continued to fail as a leader and empathetic president, as it pertains to the American people, but he never fails to push his extremely immoral and socialist influenced philosophy that continues to creep into every little tweet and tongue and cheek remark he throws our way.

The most recent of examples would include a tweet he posted yesterday pertaining to Mitt Romney’s running mate: Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.

Obama’s tweet said this: FACT: Paul Ryan supports writing discrimination into the Constitution with an amendment banning gay marriage.

That is not a fact, that’s Obama’s worldview getting in the way of the truth. What is fact is that Ryan does believe in defining marriage as one man and one woman because of his view of who God is. What is also a fact is that Ryan does not want to rewrite the constitution but he believes that we should amend it. It’s been done several times in our nation’s history and it’s never been done without some sort of fight or uproar.

Perhaps we should tweet about Obama’s view on abortion: Fact: The US President supports killing defenseless innocent babies with no sound logic to back up his thinking.

I know that’s more than 140 characters so maybe we could abbreviate it but my point is, that yes Obama does support abortion but he would NEVER phrase it that way because it’s the truth and we don’t want to hear the truth, what we want is to continue living life as if we’re the only person who matters.

Obama has taken the position that many Gay Marriage supporters take: Gay Marriage is a civil rights issue.

If that premiss is true than we must infer that everyone who is gay is born gay because civil rights have to do with allowing an individual to have certain rights that come along with being a rational human being that has real needs and a soul. So if all homosexuals are born gay then there should be no accountability for their acts of homosexuality. The apostle Paul should have never written Romans 1:27, 28, God should have never destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, the Levitical Law should have never included any laws discouraging same sex relationships and more importantly God should have designed us to be A-Sexual beings so that the act of heterosexual sex would be unnecessary for procreation.

Do you see how ridiculous this is? Let’s take Dan Kathy’s, CEO Of Chic-fil-a, situation for example. This is what he actually said:

“We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that…we know that it might not be popular with everyone, but thank the Lord, we live in a country where we can share our values and operate on biblical principles.”

I may have gone to public school but I’m pretty sure that I can read. Kathy didn’t even use the words, “Same sex marriage or Gay marriage” and he never said that he wouldn’t hire someone or refuse to serve someone on the basis of their sexual orientation. He never said those things but what does the liberal media, like CNN and MSNDC, do? They say that Dan Kathy is a Bible thumping bigot who hates gays and he’s just another one of those hateful Christians who is trying to oppress the LGBT community. It’s my blog so I’ll call out CNN, MSNBC and Obama on their crap! It’s garbage! You’re all full of it! Kathy never said anything so hateful. He said that he believes in one man and one woman being married and that he runs a family-led business and that that they give thanks to God for their success and that they operate on Biblical principles! What is so bad about any of that? Have you ever even read the Bible? Do you know that the “Golden Rule” is in the beatitudes and was spoken from the lips of Jesus Christ to “love your neighbor” and to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” It wasn’t Gandhi, Muhammed, Buddha or Obama that encouraged us to love others better than we love ourselves. Heck, Obama is spending billions to tell you why you should pick him to make all your political decisions for the next four years! BILLIONS!!! What would you do with billions?

So for Obama to come at gay marriage as a civil rights issue and to bash Ryan is not only bad taste but it shows a lack of leadership and self-control. These are the men who are running our country and deciding our national morality. You might say they’re not deciding that for us!!! Sure they are. In California they’re already teaching Kindergartners about gay marriage. They’re teaching them that gender doesn’t matter. They’re destroying the God defined roles for a man and a woman based on a liberal political agenda to make homosexuality the new normal. There’s even a new show called “The New Normal” that is all about a gay male couple who wants to have a baby and guess what…they can’t! So they look to a surrogate. Our culture is pushing tolerance for the gay community so hard that they have no tolerance for God! Dan Kathy should be allowed to believe whatever it is he would like to believe…we extend that right to the LGBT community and yet once we open our mouths about the conservative nature of our beliefs we are not only bashed for it but our words become twisted. Even our president…all hail the incompetent chief and commander…has a knack for twisting the truth to make it be what he wants people to think it is rather than understanding the view and the truth behind the morality.

So while this has been one of my more political and yes angered post I do believe that the Moral Decay of my Children’s Future is just over the horizon. I’m not asking to avoid persecution for my beliefs. I’m not saying I wouldn’t die for the cross. I’m not not trying to change the whole world with what I know to be true but I am writing in hopes that people will actually think about why it is that they believe what they believe. We are all led by something: either God or our own sin. There is no greater struggle than evil’s (sin) campaign to destroy good (God). But the fight has already been won. Christ has abolished sin and we do not have to live with these chains of unbelief and sin. But as long as we choose for men like Obama to run our country we will be forced to endure the pride of man over and over again while our country continues to deny God for who He is and what He has done.

Why America is not the Greatest Country in the World…and…go…

I will begin with this short clip from HBO’s “Newsroom.” Be warned, there is explicit language used in the dialogue so double check the sound level on your speakers

I consider myself to be very patriotic. I believe that’s part of the reason why I am so discouraged by Obama; I don’t view him as patriotic. But I’m not concerned with debating about how patriotic the president is or isn’t, at least not today, I’m concerned with discussing how I wish someone who isn’t a paid actor and who has some real clout and power in our country would stand up and make the same observation that has been made by the above clip. I do believe that at one point in time The United States of America probably was the greatest country in the world. Other countries have had their go at it: Egypt, Rome (when it was consider an empire and not a tourist attraction), China, England, Germany and the list goes on and on. My point is that it’s not necessarily bad to be consider the best country in the world. But what Americans fail to understand is that we’re not the greatest country in the world. Don’t get me wrong, we are a great country. We have fast cars, paved roads, AC, cable TV, iPhones, interstates, Sheetz gas stations, the list goes on and on. There are a lot of wonderful things that make America a great place to live but I would argue that they don’t qualify us as the greatest country in the world.

So how do I explain myself? I could start with politics and talk about how congress is run by Lobbyist who work for companies with their own interests at heart and those companies win based on who has the most money. I could talk about how we elect men like President Obama who suck so much at being president that they go back to campaigning because they look better in that light. I could talk about how there’s no accountability in our political system. Elected officials are manipulating the system on an hourly basis every day and we choose not to pay attention.

I could talk about the lack of moral conviction that exist in country today. Why do we have the highest ranking for individuals incarcerated per capita? It’s not because we have the greatest population in the world…India does! It’s not because we don’t have enough to do because we do! The real reason is more complicated than just a few words but I believe it leads back to Godlessness. We could also discuss men like Senator John Edwards who is the very definition of a snake. Who cheats on their wife, who happens to be dying of breast cancer while he’s cheating, and he does this while running for president of our country. Oh and it wasn’t enough for him to just cheat on his wife but then he gets the woman pregnant! Seriously?! You’re running for president and you’re not smart enough to know that you should probably use some sort of contraceptive to prevent an unwed pregnancy??? I’m not advocating that men should cheat on their wives I’m just merely pointing out the stupidity in his sinful actions. The list really goes on and on with this guy but no need to divert because his ship is pretty much sunk at this point.

Our country is Godless. Yes there are evangelicals here who are desperately reaching out to the lost for the glory of the Gospel of Christ but that number is no where near the number it should be for a country that has religious freedom and a million different ways to reach people with the Gospel. I believe that there are a few reasons why our country has drifted.

1. We don’t agree on the morals and principles that our country was founded on.
Whether you agree with me or not this is true. The left wing liberal won’t agree that men and women were piling up on boats to make the trip to the “new country” in order to escape religious persecution. Do they even know what an Ana-Baptist is? Do they have any idea what the Ana-Baptist went through for their faith? As Hannity says so often, “Let me educate you.” The Ana-Baptist were a group of people who served God whole heartedly. At a time in history when infant baptism was being taught by the Catholic church and indulgences were being sold to anyone with a pulse, the Ana-Baptist held strong to their belief in a “believer’s baptism.” This means you only got dunked if you really had converted to Christianity. I’m not the baby whisperer but I do have two children and neither were easy babies. I can tell you, from experience, that a baby has no clue what baptism means, who Jesus is or what all God has done. Furthermore, and more importantly, there’s absolutely no Biblical grounds for baptizing infants. But the Catholic church was a force to be reckoned with and the Ana-Baptist were being killed because of their beliefs. Women and children were tied to logs, the logs were floated out into the middle of a body of water and then the logs were turned upside down so that the women and children would drown. It was the church’s way of mocking the “believer’s baptism.” Men were often hung or beat to death but occasionally they too were drowned. My point is that people wanted to escape religious persecution and have some freedom in how they chose to worship God. There were no muslims, mormons, wiccans, hindus or jehovah’s witnesses involved in this process. It was God fearing people who desired to worship Christ without the fear of being killed or persecuted. Additionally, people were trying to escape ridiculous taxation. They were taxed on everything regardless of their financial position and it was ridiculous. My how history has repeated itself. We have a HUGE tax problem in our country. Meaning, the IRS is Inc., makes a profit, which non-profits are supposed to put back into the company but they often do not, bends the rules to fit it’s ever pervasive will and our President has the nerve to impose a now 2.12 trillion dollar healthcare tax on us!

2. We have little regard for the miracle of life.
In 2008 there were approximately 1.21 million abortions performed. There are exactly 31,536,000 seconds in a year. In 2008 an abortion was performed every 26 seconds. Less than every 30 seconds a woman was making the decision to end a life and she was never incarcerated for here actions. I do believe that the very experience of going through with the abortion is enough to weigh so heavily on the woman’s heart that prison would actually be a relief. I don’t think the women who have abortions are all unicorns and rainbows on their way to the clinics. But I do believe that they are making a huge mistake. Our worldview about who God is, is what shapes our actions. Our country has a very absent understanding of who God is therefore we glorify things like abortion and tell teenage women, who make up close to 35% of the demographic getting abortions, that it’s okay to have sex with any guy that you love! Feel free to express your love! We tell our teenage boys that having sex is natural and normal and if you love a girl it’s okay to have sex. Sex is not love it’s lust. Love is patient and kind, it does not envy it does not brag, it is not arrogant or inappropriate and it does not rejoice in unrighteousness but only in righteousness. There is nothing righteous about abortion. There is nothing righteous about teaching our kids it’s okay to have sex before marriage just because they’re in “love.” There is nothing patient about not waiting to have sex. There is nothing selfless about abortion. In fact the action of abortion is often begat with thoughts like, “I can’t have this baby on my own.” or “What will people think of me?” We should be teaching out youths to wait for sex because it honors God. It’s what He’s commanded and it’s that way for a reason. A 16 year old girl can’t raise a baby by herself. And 16 year old girls in our country often know very little about being a responsible adult anyway! I’m not preaching from my soap box I’m speaking from experience. I have sisters who have made some horrible decisions and I’ve watched as I’ve offered them help and they always reverted back to their sin. As a country we do not regard life as something that is sacred.

3. We have little regard for heterosexual marriage.
I live in a state that is a combination of “educated liberals” and “ignorant conservatives.” Despite having a college degree in philosophy and biblical studies, running a small business for eight years and constantly pushing myself to become more educated about the world around me, I would fall into the “ignorant conservatives” category. Recently our state had the opportunity to vote either for heterosexual marriage or against it. Overwhelmingly our state voted for it with the exception of 5 counties. One of those counties is home to a liberal state university and the other four counties are also home to several liberal state and private universities. We have told ourselves that the more we “know” the more “educated” we become the less we need ideas like “God” and “Jesus” and truth is relative to who you are anyway. This argument is one of the most uneducated arguments on the planet. You can’t say that all truth is relative because in doing so you’re asserting an absolute. Therefore, you have just denied the argument being made for all truth being relative. The honest answer is that we want to do what we want to do because we’re sinful and we don’t like accountability. Homosexuals have tried to equate their plight with same sex marriage to that of the civil rights movement among minorities in the 60s. I could debate this all day long but I’ll choose to be brief. The two are not the same. You can’t change the color of your skin and furthermore it’s not your skin that determines whether or not you should have the right to life. I do believe that some people are born with a greater propensity for homosexuality than others because of sin. I believe that original sin has marred God’s perfect creation and this in one of the signs of such sin. However, being born with a propensity toward a sin does not mean that you have to act upon that sin. We are all tempted in sinful ways but we don’t have to choose that sin. God has given us Christ so that we could be forgiven and have the power to resist the devil and sin. James 4:7 says that if we do so the devil will flee from us! I’m not about to put the struggle of homosexuality into some “easy fix” formula because I believe it’s a heart issue not a behavior issue. If your heart is not turned toward God then you will not choose to serve God with your life. Let me be even more specific, if you do not receive Christ as your Savior then you will not desire to refuse your sin. It’s in our nature to practice sin. I did not have to teach my son to disobey me. He was more than happy to do that one on his own. I do however, many times a day, have to teach him to obey my authority. I do this for a lot of reasons but mostly because I believe that in him learning to submit to my authority, and his mother’s authority, that we are priming his heart to submit to God’s authority so that he would receive Christ as his Savior. Our country’s disregard for heterosexual marriage, also shown by the number of divorces that occur every year, says that we don’t regard the sacred institute that God ordained since the beginning of time with the respect that God intended for us.

We are a Godless nation and though there are Christians in our country who are serving God everyday by submitting to the Gospel over and over again, our country is desperately trying to live life on our own. We don’t pursue God. We don’t pray. We don’t make Scripture a part of our daily lives. We don’t try to serve others. We don’t see God as important and because of that our country is on the decline both morally and economically. Is there anyone alive who feels that the 5 big banks and Goldman and Sachs made good moral decisions with our money? Of course not because it has thwarted our economy into a never ending spiral of joblessness and unpaid debt. I love my country and I will choose to remain here no matter what happens but I do not think we are the greatest country in the world. God is what makes things great and we are Godless.

Debt & Obama’s Lack of Leadership

I’m sure there are those who do not remember much of what President Obama said as a Senator.  The truth is that I can’t blame you.  Most of what he said was condemning, condescending and borderline uneducated so even if you did remember it why would you want to?  I like to look back on things our president said before taking on the role as commander and chief.  I find great value in the level of hypocrisy that he chooses to live out.  Why am I being so “judgmental” about such a great man?  Here is a quote from Obama back in 2006 when he was serving as a Senator for the state of Illinois.  Context: Our Federal Government was discussing whether or not to raise our current debt spending limit.  In short, Uncle Sam wanted a credit line increase on his credit card and no one asked you or me if that was acceptable.  Quote:

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills. It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America’s debt weakens us domestically and internationally. Leadership means that, “the buck stops here.’ Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.“
~ Senator Barack H. Obama, March 2006.

I agree!  I believe that Obama makes some very valid and concerning points in his statement.  So let’s apply those to his current administration and see what 2006 Obama would have to say about 2012 President Obama.

“The fact that we are here today to debate raising America’s debt limit is a sign of leadership failure. it is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills.“

Yes it is a sign of a lack of leadership and a lack or responsibility and accountability.  In 8 years of serving as our country’s president, George Bush Jr. spent almost three trillion dollars and that included paying for 5 years of a war that would lead to the capture and death of Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden.  In the 3.5 years that Obama has served as president he has spent almost $6,000,000,000,000.00 trillion dollars.  In less than half the time that Bush was president, Obama has spent twice as much!!!  Let me put 6 trillion dollars into perspective for you since none of us will ever have that kind of money.

It cost $4,000 to build a church in India.  If you took the 6 trillion that Obama spent and gave it to missionaries to build churches in India you could build 1.5 billion churches!  There are currently 1.22 billion people in India.  With the money Obama spent you could build a church for more than each person in India which means every person in India would hear the Gospel at least once!

Perhaps that’s too “religious” for you and you need a more secular example of how much Obama has spent.  Let’s bring it home.  There are currently 313,000,000 people who live in the US, legally.  If you took the 6 trillion that Obama spent and decided to give every legal citizen a check, you know in order to stimulate the economy, each person, even children, would receive a check for $19,169.33.  The average American household takes in just under $60,000.00 a year.  So your check would be for one third of what the average American household earns in a year!  Now let’s be clear, one American household is not the same as one income.  Most fulltime working americans average between $28,000.00 and $42,000.00 according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics .  If we look at it that way you could have a check that is almost half of what one American would make in a year.  That is what Obama has spent in less than 4 years.  That is what he has borrowed from China.  That is what our children and grandchildren have to pay back.

I believe 2006 Obama would say that 2012 Obama is a poor leader who is, at best, financially irresponsible.

Another observation, “It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government’s reckless fiscal policies. Increasing America ‘s debt weakens us domestically and internationally.“Yes, Obama’s policies are reckless and ultimately a failure.  But you say, “He caught Bin Laden, he gave the middle class a tax cut and he hasn’t raised or added any taxes to anyone who isn’t rich!”

Where’s my buzzer, I need a buzzer because this is just plain INCORRECT!!!  Obama finding and killing Bin Laden had nothing to do with Obama.  It was the result of policies that Bush had implemented from 2003-2008.  Obama actually voted against those policies twice as Senator of IL.  It was those policies and a team of extremely wise and brave Navy Seals that resulted in the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden.

Obama did not give the struggling middle class a tax cut.  That tax cut we’ve all been enjoying is called the “Bush Tax Cut.”  Guess why…because President Bush made it happen.  Obama also voted against the tax cut as Senator of IL.  And finally, Obama’s greatest contradiction to saying that he hasn’t raised taxes:  OBAMACARE

Care to guess how much ObamaCare will cost?  $1.76 trillion.  That’s $5,623.00 per American Citizen.  Do you know what the Supreme Court ruled about ObamaCare?  They ruled that it was to be a TAX!  It is a TAX!!!  A $1.76 trillion tax!!!  If it sounds like Obama has raised taxes it’s because he has.  All the while our nation’s unemployment rate is at 8.2% and the underemployment rate is at 14.4%.  Guess what the unemployment rate is among African-Americans (who usually vote democrat and who strongly support Obama.)….it’s a staggering 14.4% unemployment.  Not underemployment, meaning they might have a part time job, but UNEMPLOYMENT meaning if you want to eat you need a cardboard sign and a busy intersection.  Why are African-Americans supporting a president who hasn’t helped to reduce their unemployment rate among their own people?  What that means is that out of 100 African-Americans at least 14 don’t have jobs while the unemployment rate among White American’s is at 7.2% which is half of what’s found in the African-American community.  All of this is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  What that means is that for every 1 White American who doesn’t have a job there are 2 African-Americans who don’t have a job yet African-Americans are supporting Obama.  Why????

2006 Obama would say that 2012 Obama is weakening our economy and his policies have failed.

Finally, “America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.“

I could not agree more, 2006 Obama.  We do deserve better.  We deserve a president who understands capitalism and a free market economy.  We deserve a president who doesn’t run a campaign on lies and champion to be “the first black president” when he doesn’t even identify with the African-American community of voters who are jobless 2 to 1 when compared to White Americans.  In short, Obama has prepared the boat for financial death, he’s hoisted the main sail and waived goodbye to the American dream.  He’s sold our country to the philosophies of Marxism and he’s removed himself from an understanding of the average Joe and his plight, but that’s assuming that he ever understood the average Joe to begin with.  We are all a man without a country and we are forced to submit to the authority of one man who has very little accountability and even less conviction.  It is a reminder to me that this is not my eternal home.

“President Obama you didn’t build that!”

Just over a week ago our Commander and Chief made a comment in the direction of successful business owners.  His comment did not target the big banks that seek and destroy all those looking to make a way for themselves.  His comment did not target those who receive their EBT cards, that we pay for, and then slide into their 2012 Cadilac Escalades appropriately fitted with 22″ rims that each cost more than what I make in a month.  His comment did not target those who blindly follow his failed policies off the edge of the political cliff.  No, his comment was directed at the “successful” business owner who has “made a way” for them self.  His comment was “You didn’t build that!”  Now it would be easy for me to take the Fox News approach and only discuss those four words without any context but let’s not do that, let’s discuss context and see what’s really at the heart of what our fearless leader was really saying.  Here’s the context in which those four little words were spoken.

“Look, if you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own. You didn’t get there on your own. I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something – there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.”

“If you’ve got a business – you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.”

President Obama has obviously confused hard work and dedication for welfare.  In my short time on this earth I have encountered many people who have barely held a job and have managed to pull a steady draw of welfare money and have their rent paid for by our government…I mean the money you paid in taxes and the money that I paid in taxes from that business that I didn’t build

On the surface it seems like Obama is just merely trying to identify with the little guy.  For all of you who are hard working and feel like you just can’t get ahead of the game, here’s a guy that understands your plight and who can identify with feeling unappreciated.  Actually he can’t.  Obama’s spent most of his life with a silver spoon in his mouth and up his butt.  He spent most of his youth in Hawaii taking it easy, getting high with his friends and having all of his financial worries at the furthest corner of the earth.  His words…in his autobiography.  Yes our president has gloated just a smidgen about his glory days in the clouds of burning mary jane.

After he decided to get serious about life he made his way into an Ivy league school where I’m sure he did work hard academically.  Then off to a big law firm in Chicago where he played the game to get to the top, then Senate then Presidency…yada yada yada…the point is he never really “had it bad.”  I can remember many times growing up in a single parent home, because my father died when I was young, having our power cut off because we couldn’t afford the bill.  I remember my mom working two jobs.  I remember having an empty refrigerator and wearing dirty clothes to school because we couldn’t afford the water bill either.  I remember being so scared that someone would find out I was poor.  Yet my mother never took welfare or any other handout from the government and we somehow managed to get by.

What Obama is doing is speaking to the poor, the down trodden, the bankrupt middle class who are upset with the state of our economy, who have suffered at the hand of our broken economy.  He’s creating class warfare.  Why?  What purpose could it possibly serve for him to create class warfare?  Here’s a few thoughts on that.

1. He can’t help it.  He’s a Marxist at heart so class warfare is a natural resolve for him.  His Marxist worldview demands that he oppress the rich in order to create a level playing ground.  He says things like “the rich just need to pay their fair share.”  Guess what?  They do!  They pay what the IRS says they should pay.  They make the sacrifices to create businesses that provide jobs for you and me.  They make the risky investments that put our country out in front of other countries and stimulates our economy.  I’m talking about FREE MARKET!!!  But I’ll get to that in moment.

2. Obama is campaigning.  Obama is trying to paint Romney as a corporate rich guy who can’t relate to Americans.  He’s trying to make Romney out to be the rich guy who would burn you out in a NY minute just to make a buck!  The truth is, Romney may have done some questionable things in the past, but I can’t be certain that they were things that he hasn’t repented from.  We’ve all done horrible things at some point in our lives we just choose to forget about it because we are the exception to the rule.  Let’s be honest about Romeny, he’s a Mormon.  I don’t agree with Mormon Doctrine at all but I do know a lot of Mormons and I do know that they live according to a moral code that is more convicting than Marxism.  I’d rather have a Mormon with moral conviction in office than a Marxist with no real understanding of a free market economy.

3.  Finally, I believe that Obama said what he said because he sees the government, federal government, as the end all.  If it were up to him he would have the federal government be in control of everything we do!  Just look at the bill he signed into law on July 6.  It gives him power over your cell phone, your home internet, your home phone, your TV and any other communication device in your home should he declare a national state of emergency.  Really?  You mean to tell me that out of that 5 trillion dollars he just spent, which he said he wouldn’t spend, he can’t afford cell phones for government forces?

The point is, President Barack Hussein Obama doesn’t really care about the little guy, he only cares about himself.  I believe that his misplaced words were spoken out of his push to campaign against Romney but more importantly they were spoken because he is so detached from what will actually save our economy.  He has no working understanding of a Free Market Economy.  If you eliminate the rich then you eliminate the opportunity for those who aren’t rich to have opportunity.

When you start a business there are a lot of people who contribute to your business being built.  The new client who takes a chance on you, the bank that issued you a $2000 limit on that new business credit card, the wife who puts up with you working 70 hours a week until the business turns a profit, the contributions are endless.  But at the end of the day a successful business begins with a great idea, a talent and the determination to see it through.  Those three things are usually found in one person who is willing to take all of the risk to make it happen.  Even though he’s our president, even though he has a law degree and even though he warmed a seat in the senate, Obama has no right to say that the business you built isn’t yours.  It belongs to the one who is willing to take the risk for whatever happens to it.  I’m obviously not an Obama supporter and this little slap in the face to the small businesses in our country has put this small business owner even further from Obama’s misaligned perspective.

Just the Beginning…

Tickle the Air is just the beginning.  To be honest I’m not even sure if I’ll keep that name.  I was brainstorming ideas for URL names and apparently every good idea I had was taken or reserved.  So there I was with my first “blog related” dilemma.  I could continue to try more names in hopes of winning the domain lottery or I could just throw together a few random elements that would sound catchy.  Believe it or not I accomplished neither and Tickle the Air just sort of happened.  While I sat at my desk listening to Mumford & Sons I realized something…people so often surround themselves with others who will “tickle their ears” with words that either justify their immoral and disobedient behavior or they’ll opt for the pleasing voice just to consistently reassure themselves that life is mostly about them.  At some point I just felt like those kinds of words are just as well off disappearing into thin air.  Thus, Tickle the Air went from random URLs to something that actually makes sense.

My purpose in writing here is not to pollute the internet with yet another soapbox preaching opinionated thirty something’s idea of what faith, politics and matters of the heart should be, or aren’t for that matter.  No, my intention is to communicate educated thoughts about the things that drive me, inspire me and provoke me to dig deeper.  I’ll express my ideas about everything from being frugal and saving a little more by being patient in finances to same sex marriage and the fallen state of our current federal government.

You should know that I am educated.  I did actually pay for my college while I was going through college and no, I did not take out some ridiculously HUGE loan and no, my parent’s didn’t pay my way through college.  I managed through college the way most poor people who want to be educated do; I worked for it.  I worked three jobs and took 15 hours a semester and in 5 years I finally finished.  That’s not to say that my journey didn’t have it’s fair share of “How am I going to make rent this month?” or “Which pack of Roman Noodles shall it be today?!” but my point is that I worked for it because it was important to me.  I believe that we strive to pursue those things which are most important to us.

You should also know that I am a family man.  I have a beautiful wife and two beautiful children.  We’d like to have more children if the Lord chooses to bless us.  I am a creative which means I get paid to doodle, brainstorm and execute vision on a daily basis.  I love it.  I absolutely believe that it’s what I was created for.  I am strong in my views and I love Jesus.  I do believe He’s the Christ and that he died and resurrected to provide every soul the opportunity for grace and eternal life with His Father in Heaven.  I do not ascribe to a social Gospel of Jesus, I do not believe that everyone goes to Heaven when they die and I am currently more frustrated with our current government/political system, than I have ever been in my entire life.  Although I’ve asserted a number of negatives I would now like to say that I am someone who loves hard and openly.  I am willing to listen, even when it’s hard, and I desire to see God glorified in everything that I do; including this blog.  Most of my readers will probably not agree with my views and that’s okay.  I don’t expect to have a huge fan club because a lot of what I believe isn’t convenient especially if you’re someone who doesn’t like confrontation.  But in every idea, opinion and assertion that I’ll have or make please know that I have pursued the Lord in my struggle over it no matter what the issue.

I will only ever delete comments if they are physically threatening, sexually inappropriate or completely out of place.  I believe in the freedom of thought and the right to express those thoughts.  But more importantly I hold to one single truth more than any opinion I’ve ever heard: Christ was born a sinless baby who lived to serve His Father as a sinless man, died on the cross for my sin, in obedience to His Father, and was raised from the dead so that I might have new spiritual life in spite of my sin.  I am of the least of these and do not account myself as better than anyone else.  Please never mistake my confidence in my faith for conceit, rudeness or bigotry.  Truth is only truth and in that it is unchanging.  I believe the presentation of that truth is what distinguishes the heart of the speaker.  Thank you for taking time to meet me where I’m at and to understand that life is about more than the moment we’re in.

Bound in Grace and Truth,
Daniel