What If...?

What if, eight years ago, President Bush had announced, on one week's notice, that he wanted to give a major speech to Congress on the long-established date of the other party's presidential primary debate?

And what if he hadn't followed protocol and formally asked the House speaker to do so in advance?

And then, when he realized what an idiotic move that was, he asked to reschedule it opposite the kickoff of the opening NFL football game of the year?

Remember These Votes!

The debt bill that our president signed today is not now, nor will be, good for our economy. In about 15 months, most of the people who voted Yea or Nay on this bill will be up for election.

You should know how they voted.

And as a service to all the blog readers, you can click below to find out how your representatives and senators voted. And of course, the president signed it.

How the House of Representatives voted

How the Senate voted

Barack Obama Birth Certificate Jokes

Here is a small collection of humor on the above theme:

Q: What is the difference between President Obama and his dog Bo?
A: Bo has papers.

Q: Where does the CIA keep their most tightly guarded secrets?
A: Right next to President Obama's birth certificate.

Q: Why isn't the Obama administration taking a harder stand against the Wikileaks releases?
A: Rumor has it they found President Obama's birth certificate.

Got any more good ones? Please leave a comment with the humor below.

So Is He Muslim or Not?

Much has been written this week in the news that one-in-five Americans surveyed believe President Obama is Muslim. He, as he has always done, denies this and claims to be a Christian.

I am really curious to know how many Americans think he is a Christian.

Thankfully, as always, we have the Bible to give us insight about things like this. Let us begin with a passage from Matthew 7:

15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

The whole context is provided, but focus on verse 20: A man is known by his "fruits," the evidences that his life provides to the world. So let's summarize some of our president's "fruits."

• He shows great reverence and friendliness to Arab and Muslim leaders, not wishing to offend them or their beliefs. Meanwhile, Israel is snubbed (ask Mr. Netanyahu) and other nations with historically Christian backgrounds (think: England) are treated in a second-tier way diplomatically.
• He shows deference to Islamic practices and participates in their events. Meanwhile, the National Day of Prayer events at the White House are canceled.
• He has no problem with a mosque being built in lower Manhattan.
• Church attendance: Obama has hardly been to church since becoming President. Prior to 2008, he attended a church that was supposedly Protestant (in a very stretched-out definition of that term) and had a pastor whose anti-American rants became legendary...yet he stayed there until political expediency drove him out. This "pastor" (again, the definition—a biblical one—must be stretched) married him and his wife and was referred to in high praise by our president before his reputation became national.
• On the other hand, our president does not openly participate in Islamic worship, either.

My assessment of this: Our president seems to be un-religious, but prefers Islam to Christianity. He is clearly not devout to either one. But my deeper question: Is he a Christian?

Let us look at 1 John 2 for further guidance:

3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Verse 4 is very troubling. The context, and centuries of consistent exegesis, tell us that "keepeth not his commandments" refers more to a pattern of life than to individual, moment-by-moment decisions; all of us "keep not" God's commandments from time to time. The "keepeth his word" in verse 5 holds a similar idea, as does "also so to walk" in verse 6. Is the pattern of our president's life that he strives to keep God's commandments and to walk as Christ walked? Or does he not consistently strive to keep the commandments of God? Again, a look at the fruits:

• Our president is openly pro-abortion, and has a voting record to back it up (the blogprof blog has done a great job documenting this over the past two years, with this as a recent example).
• Unlike Jesus Christ, who regularly spoke out against sin, Obama seems perfectly OK with homosexuality, immorality, and other sins in our society.
• Has he spent his free time with Christians, or with former terrorists and others who are openly hostile to the Bible?
  

Unfortunately, aside from his own weak proclamations and White House statements of his Christian faith, I cannot see any evidence from the Bible that our president is a Christian. We need to pray for him to repent, accept Jesus Christ as his Savior, and do what is right.

Interesting Reading for Today

I encountered all three of these articles at various times today. Each is interesting in its own way.

1. Obama excoriates Wall Street, then attends expensive Wall Street political fundraiser. From the Huffington Post, no less.

2. Yes, it really is that bad in New Jersey's budget; and yes, Gov. Christie has some good ideas to handle it. From RealClearPolitics.

3. An Earth Day article on how more e-mail and internet news means less recycled paper which means lower-quality, scratchier recycled toilet paper. From FoxNews.com. The environmentalists just can't win. :-)

Who Was Obama's 2nd Biggest Donor in the Presidential Campaign?

The politically naive may be surprised, but when we realize all the favors the Obama administration has done for this company, it does make a lot of sense.

Some may say, "But his administration is threatening to fine them a lot of money!" Whatever. I think it was mostly hot air and PR for the financial "reform" Obama wants. The fine wouldn't hurt them all that much anyway.

Who is this donor? Click here to learn.

Obama's 2011 Proposed Budget: An Interactive Look

I'm not a big fan of the New York Times, but someone there did a fabulous job with this interactive display that shows the 2011 budget proposed by the President, along with a neat comparison with 2010. It also allows you to distinguish mandatory from non-mandatory spending (a distinction which would surprise nearly every American citizen—and not necessarily in a good way) in each year.

The total numbers of dollars is still overwhelmingly bloated, but this gives us a better "picture" of where the budget is and how large its parts are relative to one another.

I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to look and learn.

2010 Nobel Prize Nominees

President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace Prize today, and gave a speech that essentially defended his role in war. I can agree with that...but he didn't exactly pick the most appropriate time to say what he said.

In the spirit of today's event, I was running through my mind some possible nominees for the 2010 Nobel prizes.

Physics: To the guy who was able to use the dinky car jack to successfully change a flat tire on his car in under 30 minutes, and was able to replace everything in the trunk as it was originally found.

Economics: To Dave Ramsey, who could teach a lot of world leaders a lot about such important topics as debt.

Medicine: To the mom who successfully and simultaneously treated three sick kids on the same weekend.

Peace: Me. Just because I'm a nice guy. And I like peace.

Literature: My wife. She writes great poetry about such things as turning 40 and healing after a bout with diverticulitis.

Comparison of Obama v. Bush

A friend of ours e-mailed this to our computer.

If George W. Bush had been the first President to need a teleprompter installed to be able to get through a press conference, would you have laughed and said this is more proof of how he inept he is on his own and is really controlled by smarter men behind the scenes? If George W. Bush had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to take Laura Bush to a play in NYC, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had reduced your retirement plan's holdings of GM stock by 90% and given the unions a majority stake in GM, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had made a joke at the expense of the Special Olympics, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive and incorrectly formatted DVDs, when Gordon Brown had given him a thoughtful and historically significant gift, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had given the Queen of England an iPod containing videos of his speeches, would you have thought this embarrassingly narcissistic and tacky? If George W. Bush had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia would you have approved? If George W. Bush had visited Austria and made reference to the non-existent "Austrian language," would you have brushed it off as a minor slip? If George W. Bush had filled his cabinet and circle of advisers with people who cannot seem to keep current in their income taxes, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to "Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican ambassador when it was the 5th of May (Cinco de Mayo), and continued to flub it when he tried again, would you have winced in embarrassment? If George W. Bush had mis-spelled the word "advice" would you have hammered him for it for years like Dan Quayle and potatoe as proof of what a dunce he is? If George W. Bush had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel to go plant a single tree on Earth Day, would you have concluded he's a hypocrite? If George W. Bush's administration had okayed Air Force One flying low over millions of people followed by a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing widespread panic, would you have wondered whether they actually get what happened on 9-11? If George W. Bush had failed to send relief aid to flood victims throughout the Midwest with more people killed or made homeless than in New Orleans, would you want it made into a major ongoing political issue with claims of racism and incompetence? If George W. Bush had created the position of 32 Czars who report directly to him, bypassing the House and Senate on much of what is happening in America, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had ordered the firing of the CEO of a major corporation, even though he had no constitutional authority to do so, would you have approved? If George W Bush had proposed to double the national debt, which had taken more than two centuries to accumulate, in one year, would you have approved? If George W. Bush had then proposed to double the debt again within 10 years, would you have approved? So, tell me again, what is it about Obama that makes him so brilliant and impressive? Can't think of anything?

Fox News Polls: Some Interesting Statistics!

Fox News Poll: 43 Percent Would Vote To Re-Elect President Obama - Political News - FOXNews.com

The headline-grabber from this batch of statistics is above: Only 43% of voters would vote to re-elect the president today. Considering that he won about 53% of the popular vote eleven months ago, this tells us that he would receive approximately 19% fewer votes. Considering that his vote total was about 69.5 million in 2008, a 19% drop would shrink that to about 56.3 million—about 3.6 million fewer than John McCain actually received.

Perhaps we can conclude that at least 13.2 million Americans have awakened. That's a good start.

On the other hand, 60% of voters think the president is "a strong and decisive leader." So there's still work to do.

Did Obama deserve the Nobel Prize? 38% of democrats, 74% of independents, and 91% of republicans did not think so. Overall, that's 65% of Americans who think he did not deserve it.

Then there's this closing paragraph from the article:

Finally, in a rare example of bipartisan agreement, majorities of Democrats, 53 percent, Republicans, 78 percent, and Independents, 61 percent, agree the country is more divided these days. All in all, 64 percent of Americans think the country is more politically divided today -- that's more than twice the number who say it is not more divided, 31 percent.

"Bipartisan" refers to two parties. Three groups are mentioned. Hmmm....

Doonesbury: Equal Opportunity Slamming?

Doonesbury, the well-known cartoon by G. B. Trudeau, annoyed me often during the past eight years with its sometimes-vicious insults of President Bush.

Apparently Mr. Trudeau, unlike most of the MSM, does not give the current president the cult-like obeisance they do, as evidenced by this cartoon from Sept. 27 (click on it to view it at full size):

Drawing parallels between Nazis and Obama? I guess this gives him credibility when he claims he slams both political parties.

Singing the Praises of the President

By now most of us have heard about the video of the elementary kids singing the praises of President Obama. I find it repugnant, and, like so many other things, I am severely disappointed that the media isn't pouncing on school administrators for this. You know, like they would have if two years ago children were singing the praises of the last president.

Now we learn more about the principal of the school. Dr. Denise King (someone please tell me who granted her a doctoral degree) is an Obama fan, and attended Obama's inauguration last January. Consider the following:

• Pictures she took at the inauguration made it into the school yearbook...despite the fact this was not a school field trip.
• Pictures of the president adorned the halls and various classrooms of the school. I have no problem with hanging a picture or two of the president on the wall (students, after all, should know who the president is and be able to identify him), but it sounds like this school went a bit overboard.
• Photos of "Obama-themed activities" were in the yearbook. I wonder what exactly those were....?

However, there were two facts about the principal that I found particularly troubling:

• According to parents who spoke with Dr. Denise King, "The principal of a New Jersey elementary school where young students were videotaped singing the praises of President Obama is making no apologies for the videotape and says she would allow the performance again if she could" [Emphasis mine].
  
• According to public records, Dr. Denise King hasn't voted since 2004! The article states, "A search of public records revealed that King, 46, of Cinnaminson, N.J., last voted in 2004 and had not declared any political affiliation. No records of political contributions could be found."

On the upside, the article made me feel better that my children are not in public schools.

Thoughts on President Obama's "School Speech"

Today, President Obama went to a high school in Arlington, Virginia, and gave a televised address to school children across the nation (video is available at whitehouse.gov). His remarks were controversial in advance of their release on Monday, but as it turned out, the bulk of the speech was a very acceptable encouragement to students to work hard and do their best and complete their education. Any president—or governor, or school board member—could have delivered most of this without any controversy whatsoever.

There were a few lines of the speech which he could have done without ["I'm working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn."], but the quotes below are actually quite accurate and worth the time required to speak them:

"But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world - and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education."


"And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You're going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can't drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You've got to work for it and train for it and learn for it."

[Personal Note: In my professional employment, I meet a lot of school dropouts who would have done much better had they heeded those last two sentences.]


"Maybe you don't have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there's not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don't feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren't right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life - what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you've got going on at home - that's no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That's no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That's no excuse for not trying."

"But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject you study. You won't click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute."

[Personal Note #2: I am a math teacher. That last sentence is unalterably true. Focus on the word "seem."]


"So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you."

There comes a time when it is appropriate to agree with something your political opponent says, simply because it's right. As a parent and a teacher, I have no problem agreeing with the President on the quotations above. Student do need to recognize that education is important, that it sometimes requires a lot of effort, and that some things are more desirable or easier than others; and they must remember that perseverance is a desirable and important quality. As teachers and parents, we need to expect great things and great efforts from our students.

If the President had given me the responsibility of delivering the speech, aside from a handful of edits, I could have done so in good conscience with a smile on my face.

The only other issue was whether schools should have showed the speech to their students. As with many other public school things, I think this is an issue best left to local consideration. The local superintendent, principal, or appropriate authority figure should have been able to make the call.

As it turned out, public pressure probably forced the President to shift his focus to the above, less controversial topics. That's a good thing. There is nothing wrong with the President of the United States delivering a non-political encouragement to school students to give their best efforts. Indeed, it's a good idea!

Should We Pray for President Obama to Die?

The biblical answer, of course, is No.

But that doesn't seem to seem to be stopping a certain Baptist pastor (and I use "Baptist" loosely here, as nearly every Baptist I know would condemn this fellow) in Phoenix from not only praying to this end, but telling his congregation they should, too. Here's the relevant part of the news article:

A Phoenix-area pastor has started to draw protesters to his congregation after he delivered a sermon titled, "Why I Hate Barack Obama," and told his parishioners that he prays for President Obama's death.

Pastor Steven Anderson stood by his sermon in an interview with MyFOXPhoenix, which reports that the pastor continues to encourage his parishioners to join him in praying for the president's death.

"I hope that God strikes Barack Obama with brain cancer so he can die like Ted Kennedy and I hope it happens today," he told MyFOXPhoenix on Sunday. He called his message "spiritual warfare" and said he does not condone killing.

Compare that with the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 5:43-45:

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Even if you find it hard to think of our president as "your enemy," it is clear that the Bible teaches us to love everyone, regardless of what we think of their actions toward us or anyone else. The Bible also teaches us very clearly in Romans 13:1-2 that God ordains all earthly "powers"—in fact, we know that God Himself allowed Barack Obama to win last year's election [Neither I nor any man can explain why this happened, but it is not ours to know the mind of God].

I could write on this at length, but my brother wrote a fine piece on this very topic first, so I will encourage you to read what he has to say.

Is the Obama Presidency Going to Implode?

Why the Obama Administration Will Implode in Weeks

The article linked above gives an encouraging yet serious perspective on the prospect of the Obama administration going down in flames due to Americans' long-delayed rendezvous with the realities now being proposed in Washington. Consider what Obama has been doing just in the past few months:

• The pushing of a healthcare "reform" that Americans neither want nor care to pay for;
• Support of a cap-and-trade bill that amounts to nothing less than the largest tax increase in the history of our country;
• Beginning to hem and haw about whether or not there will be higher taxes, when nearly everyone paying attention knows it must happen;
  
• Making disingenuous comments about the above; and
  
• Standing at the helm of a record-shattering budget deficit, with no apparent concern for the ramifications.

Americans are waking up. Some of us never fell asleep, but we weren't in the majority of voters last November. The Tea Party movement and the fantastic responses at the various "town hall" meetings across the country are illustrating this.

May God give our country grace and our leaders wisdom!

Great Quote heard on Rush Limbaugh!

I heard this myself on the radio yesterday, and saw a tweet from Katie Favazza @KatieFavazza that pointed me toward it. It has also made the e-mail rounds:

Obama’s health care plan will be written by a committee whose head, John Conyers, says he doesn’t understand it. It’ll be passed by Congress that has not read it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a Treasury chief who didn’t pay his taxes, overseen by a Surgeon General who is obese, and financed by a country that’s nearly broke. What could possibly go wrong?

Obama and Healthcare: Another Hit to the Michigan Economy!

My wife knows a few people who work at the Jasper Clinic in Kalamazoo, "an independent phase 1-2a clincal pharmacology service provider." [Essentially, they do drug tests on human subjects before those drugs reach the market. Fascinating stuff, really.] Conversing with one of them this week, she learned that about eleven people recently lost their jobs. Why? My wife said the explanation went something like this:

New president...drug companies don't know what he wants to do...drug companies are hesitant to put money into research

If I were the person in charge of Jasper Clinic, I would be cautious, too. The healthcare system overhaul the president proposes will almost certainly cause spending on R&D to diminish substantially. Here in the greater Kalamazoo area, unlike much of Michigan, the healthcare industry is a big deal: Pfizer, Stryker (yes, the stalwart supporter of democrat causes...but a lot of good people work there), and a host of smaller pharmacological companies call this their home. If R&D spending in the healthcare industry drops, as it almost certainly will if the President gets his way, the Kalamazoo area will feel the hits.

And if you're keeping track of the "jobs created or saved" that the President promised several months ago, that takes him to -11.

Medical Care and Cars: A Brief Comparison

In the free market system, some people drive nicer cars than other people. Some people drive Hummers, Cadillacs, and BMW's; others of us drive used vehicles made during the Clinton administration. In any case, nearly everyone is able to meet their transportation needs.

In the free market system, some people are able to afford more/better medical care than other people. Some people go to the doctor frequently and/or have great insurance coverage; others go less frequently and may have to pay out of pocket. In any case, nearly everyone is able to meet their medical needs.

In the Obama system, all people should drive cars of equal value. They must trade in their "clunkers" [to be destroyed] and obtain new cars—which will supposedly save them money in the long run, due to government rules on fuel economy and such. However, car production capacity is finite, and new cars must be rationed. Not everyone gets a new car.

In the Obama system, everyone [in theory] gets equal access to health care. In order to accomplish this, various taxes are instituted and government controls and rules are put in place. Healthcare becomes a limited asset which must be rationed; not everyone will obtain what they need.

Just hope that your body isn't a "clunker"....you know what the Obama system does with those, don't you?!?

The Obama healthcare system, by the way, promises that all of us will be able to have "Cadillac healthcare." By the time our healthcare system is ravaged, though, we'll all be getting "clunker healthcare."

Time to Apply the Pressure!

Congress is embarking upon its summer recess. When your Congressman or Senator comes to your area, you need to introduce yourself and politely make a few things known to him or her. For your convenience, here are some talking points:

• Under no circumstances whatsoever is a government takeover of heathcare acceptable. None. No compromises are acceptable, either. Government simply needs to get out of the way.
• Government spending is ridiculously out-of-control and must be severely curtailed. Pork projects, bailouts, "stimuli," and presidential date nights to far-off locales need to stop (OK, maybe your congressman can't do much about that last one).
• Taxes must not go up. Welfare, including such forms as the EIC, needs to shrink.

[Commentary on that last point: Given the ludicrous complexity of the U.S. Tax Code, it has become nearly impossible to change it in any way without affecting someone with higher taxes. I really don't have a problem with people who pay no taxes now, due to the EIC or other similar targeted tax credits, paying something more equitable if those tax credits are removed.]

If your Congressman hasn't extricated himself from the discussion by this point, select your favorites from this list below:

• Illegal immigration, since it is illegal, needs to be stopped. With vigor.
• Guantanamo is the ideal place for terrorist enemies of our country.
• The Second Amendment is every bit as much a part of our Constitution as the First Amendment.
• Abortion is murder, and since murder is illegal, it needs to be stopped. With vigor. The Supreme Court was supremely wrong on that one.
• Car manufacturing should be in the hands of the private sector.

The point here is to impress upon your Congressman that there are many voters who have strong feelings on these issues, and that these people will vote in the next election. We want them to return to Washington next month with the strong feeling that many voters are watching and taking notes, and that if they support the Obama/socialist agenda, they do so at their own electoral peril.

Manners, Beers, and Obama

What do those three things have in common? Observe the picture below:


Obama is evidently thinking about beer (or photographers, or who knows what else). Crowley, the much-maligned-as-a-racist yet diligent police officer, is helping Dr. Gates down the steps. Honoring his elder fellow citizen. It appears the president, um, overlooked this opportunity.

Update: Furthermore, did you wonder where this picture can be found? On the White House's own blog! Could it be that even the president's staff is oblivious to the appearances of the men in the photo??