Rogstad’s Neighborhood

Remember the reason for the season . . .

The opposition is not interested in curing global warming, universal national health care insurance, or any other massive program except in how they help their underlying agenda. Whatever you want to call it, the net effect is statism or centralizing power to a government. Any government. If not the United States Congress or the Supreme Court or the presidency then to the United Nations. Someone who will take all personal responsibility off of the individual. Someone to blame for everything. This is why the conservative arguments are not making headway. This is why the conservative agenda is not capable of getting traction in our society.

The KISS Principle "Economics"

From the HotAir blog;

[We’ll never be foolish enough to allow a band of fanatics to use “peer review” to rule all dissenting opinion out-of-bounds, then declare themselves the proud owners of a mighty consensus. You global-warming fanatics underestimate how much youneeded those tactics to gain power. You’ll never have that kind of unchallenged authority again, because we will never stop demanding the raw data, and we’ll drown you in laughter when you mutter something about deleting it by accident. We will never forget that you began with a conclusion and sought to harvest data that supported it – the exact opposite of the scientific method.]

The majority of people everywhere now, do not want to be responsible and certainly do not want to be held responsible for the problems we face. Like little children they don't want to make sacrifices by their own will but would rather be told what they have to do or not do. Appealing to their reason simply will not have any effect on these desires unless and until you first address their emotionalism. They have no shame for the political tactics, the violence they instigate, the outright made up data they use to write studies and reports which support their arguments to get this agenda in place. The kiss of death to a conservative talking point is to base it on reason alone. You have to link it to the real and personal consequence involved for the individual you are trying to reach with your concerns. You don't even have to explain the reasons why you are concerned. Like a parent saying to a child, "Because I said so!" with its implied "-or else I'll spank you!" we simply have to rain consequences on the children for their own benefit. You have to be the grown-up to their irresponsible attitude and behavior the same way you'd be the grown up in the park when one unruly kid is behaving in a way that is dangerous to anyone else. You don't just tell 'em to knock it off, you ensure they knock it off. So must we be vigilant in correcting the childish agenda and liberal behavior. No longer can we afford to allow them to continue until the consequences of their arguments and policy fall on them because like children, they will continue until the damage is irreparable. "Stop swinging that stick, you're going to put someone's eye out!" "Stop increasing government and government spending, our economy is going to collapse. If you feel bad about the poor now, just imagine how you'll feel about the poor when you ARE homeless and hungry. If you feel bad about the uninsured now, just imagine how you'll feel when you can't get a needed operation because the waiting list is too long or they simply won't do it for you. If you feel bad about the damage done to the environment now, just imagine how you'll feel when there isn't any fuel to keep warm so your cherished trees are chopped down for firewood. If you're going to cause me to lose my job by your cap and trade bill, I'm coming to your house to find wood for my fire and food for my kids."

On the voter battleground, not usually in the halls of Congress, (though quite often this liberal disease is employed there as well especially with regard to the banking regulations) as evidenced by liberal talking points on Climategate, ACORN support, war support, and a slew of other damnable evidences, the liberal is not accountable to truth or shame. Regardless of climategate the peer reviewed studies are respected, regardless of ACORN's abuses they were a force for good in national policy, regardless of Democrat's congressional voter support for the war in Iraq it was an unnecessary war.

Some of the best conservative institutions are great at providing statistics and data we need for reason, but on the ground, out here in the battle for hearts and minds, reason is not the most effective weapon. Real or implied, immediate, and personal consequences are. Never leave a discussion on policy with anyone thinking a liberal policy is not immediately and personally consequential.

On the lighter side;

cid:1.2014998702@web82304.mail.mud.yahoo.com

Smoke and mirrors matter to the magician. With them he can make you believe what is not.

Speech and horrors matter to the politician. With them he can make you feel what is not.

Facts and data matter to the scientician. With them he can learn what is true and what is rot.

If he muddies the information, a magician certainly, a politician perhaps, a scientician he is not.

Smoke put in your eyes, Oh the discomfort and disabling of sight.

Smoke put in your arse, Oh the discomfort and disabling ensuing fight.

He who put smoke in my eyes has made me the fool.

He who put smoke in my arse is a fool to think I am fooled.

When I was in trouble, did he think to take advantage.

Now I'm awake, it would be no adage

my anger is unmeasured to recompense disadvantage

Oh look!, he's unconcious. We'd better employ his tobacco enema and resuscitate him.

Soft Hearted vs. Soft Headed

JudgeBob
Dec 13, 2009
37 comments

This post is dedicated to Emmi.

Government and the poor

My friend over at Liberty Pen has posted another great video on his YouTube channel. Milton Friedman is one of his major subjects and this video is an interview on TV from back in the early 60's. Friedman gives one of the best arguments against modern liberalism. Topics covered include Social Security, Minimum Wage, and The Great Depression. But the key statement was his comment on the adjectives we use as titles. He says, "I consider myself a liberal in the truest sense of the word, while those who call themselves liberal today are actually conservative. They are conservative in the truest sense of the word because they want to preserve the course this nation is on which is bigger government and moving toward socialism. They think of themselves as soft hearted but the softness has moved into their heads. You know, I want the poor to be helped and for the underemployed to make a living wage, but the laws and policies they want to implement don't get the results they are seeking. A worker with low skills doesn't get higher wages because the law forces the employer to avoid hiring him at all. People I would trust personally actively lie to the American public because they believe these policies are best for the public. For instance, with the Social Security program, the law states that the employee pays half and the employer pays half but the truth is the employee pays all of it. If the employer is able to afford (adjusting for the times) $15.00 per hour he subtracts the amount going out for taxes and benefits so that the employee is actually taking home $8.50 for each hour he works. The rest goes to the government to manage for him." Considering that is nearly half the employee's earning power, you've yet to figure in sales, property, estate, and a slew of other taxes. So if we figured the government's true cost, we can only conclude that the government's take is nearly 60% of our earning power with some 15% coming back in very limited benefits they should have no authority to purchase and dole out.

Today we are seeing how well the government has been managing our money and still many of the American people want the government to take even more for our health care management while countries that have been employing that system are working to get out of these obligations they cannot meet.

BFC Newsletter

Trailblazer
Dec 12, 2009
2 comments

BFC Nov 09 BikersforChrist.org

BFC Nov 09

The god of "WRONG!"

JudgeBob
Dec 10, 2009
19 comments

Please forgive any sloppiness in this post, I've only got an hour to punch this one out but I felt it too important to let pass unaddressed.

Huggable and unholy god

Judging gods.

Ruth sent me an e-mail that warned of a book being promoted in our state run schools through the Scholastic Readership Program and pushed by Oprah and a slew of other celebs who 'feel' their spirituality rather than "Know" their God. So this one is dangerous because it promotes Oprah's feel good, real good form of spirituality. Conversations with God, Book 1

by Neale Donald Walsch
(Hampton Roads Publishing Company, Inc., 1997)

Book 2 has been on the best seller lists for 120 weeks and the secular and 'spiritual' people are loving it because it promotes all the anti-wisdom crap the unlearned in spiritual matters, love. Examples follow:

1.
"On a blank sheet of paper, I would merely write a question. . . and no sooner was the question written than the answer would form in my head, as if Someone were whispering in my ear. I was taking dictation!"

Walsch has employed a couple of really bad spiritual practices to write this book. The first is known as auto writing. The second is known as channeling. Look them up, these are practices which allow any dirty ol' spirit to 'inform' you.

2. ORIGINAL SIN

This alleged state of imperfection in which you are said to come into this world is what your religionists have the gall to call original sin. . . Some of your religions have built up whole theologies around this misconception. . . Yet, in order to justify the idea of a punitive God, your religions needed to create something for me to be angry about.. . . Sop you’d better do something about all of this… or you’ll go straight to hell. This, in the end, may do nothing to mollify a weird, vindictive, angry God, but it does give life to weird, vindictive, angry religions. (119-120. See also 136)

Only humans are judgmental, and because you are, you assume that I must be. Yet I am not…. (183)

The ability to discern truth is not our natural state. We are a fallen people, ie. programmed to love self destruction. a.k.a. sin. It is only through the study of truth, especially in spiritual matters, that we can overcome this love of self destruction. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ." (Colossians 2:6-8)

Walsch's sole authority is a blank piece of paper and his imagination. Oh yeah, and your willingness to accept what you want to believe about God.

3REINCARNATION

NDW: Is there such a thing as reincarnation?

God: You have had 647 past lives, since you insist on being exact. This is your 648th. You were everything in them. A king, a queen, a serf…. No, there is not such thing as karmic debt – not in the sense that you mean… You are not obligated to do anything. (204)

PSYCHIC POWER
Using psychic ability is nothing more than using your sixth sense. Obviously, this is not "trafficking with the devil," or I would not have given this sense to you. And, of course, there is no devil with whom to traffic. (205)

SEX
NDW: Is sex okay?

God: Of course sex is "okay." … Play with sex. Play with it! It’s wonderful fun. (205)

Sex is sacred, too… But joy and sacredness do mix (they are in fact the same thing)… You have repressed sex, even as you have repressed life, rather than fully Self expressing with abandon and joy. You have shamed sex, even as you have shamed life, calling it evil and wicked, rather than the highest gift and the greatest pleasure. 207

The energy that which underscores sex is the energy which underscores life… 207

Walsch bought and sells the idea that there is no limitation on your behavior or desires. There is no devil, there is no harm, there is no cost or consequence. If the physical realm teaches us anything, it teaches us that there is danger in ignorance and undisciplined living. The same is true in the spiritual realm. There are dangers that God is constantly telling us about, has given us oracles and the Bible to inform us about.

Please watch what your kids are being given to read and encouraged to follow. Don't allow the state run schools to be your kids' spiritual guides. Don't allow Walsch and Oprah and Tom Cruz to be your spiritual guides. Test every spirit and know whether they are your enemy or your friend. Be wise in the knowledge of what makes an enemy an enemy and a friend a friend. Teaching you to follow habits and practices that will lead to your own destruction or reinforcing the beliefs you want to hold is the work of an enemy. A friend will tell you when you are heading into a fun self destruction and will tell you off loudly and persistently until you straighten up and walk the way of real life and benefit.

Sign of the times?

Trailblazer
Nov 29, 2009
8 comments

Two days after the feast, the turkey soup is simmering and the shoppers are giving the retailers a little light at the end of the tunnel. While the rain storm of yesterday is past and people are scurrying about, I was in the parking lot of our neighborhood VONS grocery store. My camera bag was in the back seat and I had to decide whether to shoot out the window or actually get out of the car and try for a capture. I'm used to being around the homeless, but I didn't know this trio or how they might react to the camera. So, I took my best shots to remember what we all have to be thankful for, not just at Thanksgiving . . ..

A walker and a sleeping bag . . .

Campground zero

1 comment

The trio tucked in behind the carts

Thanks

JudgeBob
Nov 26, 2009
6 comments

I'm thankful President Obama's ideals are being exposed for the damaging policies they entail.

I'm thankful ACORN is relegated to the trash heap of insignificance which it so richly deserves.

I'm thankful the 'Global Warming Hoax' has been exposed for the money soaking big business scam it is.

I'm thankful most of all that God almighty is still willing to talk to me.

I'm thankful God concerns Himself with me.

I'm thankful that even the youth are waking to the facts of political ramifications to 'feel good' voting habits.

I'm thankful I still have a job in these hard economic times.

I'm thankful for our company's new managing consultant.

I'm thankful for a sound mind and a still mobile, agile body.

I'm thankful for the relative peace I experience everyday.

I'm thankful for the friends, neighbors, family and the team of co-workers I relate with every day.

I'm thankful for the sources of information at my hands now.

I'm thankful for the discovery of, and ability to recognize vessels of rich wisdom through those sources.

I'm thankful I'll be with my family this holiday.

I'm thankful opportunities are open to me.

I'm thankful God is always calling to each one of us to come into relationship with Him.

I'm thankful God is God and I'm not and you're not.

I'm thankful God's plan and behavior is perfectly consistent and constant.

I'm thankful happiness is attainable.

I'm thankful for the knowledge that "Thanksgiving" is the most important key to happiness. That's what makes this holiday one of the most important in our culture.

In the beginning . . .

Trailblazer
Nov 20, 2009
1 comment

Grunge up your photos . . . maybe

Trailblazer
Nov 15, 2009
2 comments

I came across a photoshop tutorial on adding 'grunge' to your photos, It was pretty easy and it took me away from Farmville on Facebook while my crops were maturing. Here's the link if you want to try it:

http://www.tutorial9.net/photoshop/easy-photo-grunge-effect/#