Obama is the Anti-Christ & Dead Jerry Falwell has sent urgent word from Paradise “Vote Gingrich”

Trouble amid the "Jesus told Us All" Texas secret conclave deciding on their chosen one for "holy anointment" for "God's choice" in the 2012 GOP Nomination process.

Needing to have a voice in the GOP in order to save their billion dollar Christian Broadcasting and allied businesses, a secret group of 150 Rad Religious Rightists met in Texas at the ranch home of the man who promoted the tsunamic change in the Southern Baptist Convention from religiously moderate to hard-shell extreme Fundamentalists,one Judge Paul Pressler.

The following monologue from MSNBC News is most enlightening:

"One very specific point of light in the religious right pantheon has made his own endorsement today.

"Do you remember old Tim LaHaye?

"Tim LaHaye - the author of all of those books about the rapture, Mr. Left Behind, the Obama is the anti-Christ guy...Tim LaHaye, Mr. Rapture - today endorsed Newt Gingrich for president. He sent a letter to South Carolina religious leaders urging them to unite behind Newt Gingrich`s candidacy. Mr. LaHaye describing Newt Gingrich as having the best chance of beating President Barack Obama.

(LaHaye's) letter said, quote, 'IF WE DO NOT CHANGE OUR LEADERS IN THE NEXT ELECTION, WE WILL END UP BEING LIKE THE GODLESS SOCIALIST COUNTRIES OF EUROPE THAT WILL SO DESTROY OUR COUNTRY IN FOUR YEARS, THAT MANY EXPERTS BELIEVE WE WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO RECLAIM IT FOR MORAL AND PHYSICAL SANITY.'

(We may ask) "who the experts are who say I agree with him. But, (we) should also note that Tim LaHaye in his letter also says that Jerry Falwell is endorsing Newt Gingrich from beyond the grave.

"Jerry Falwell, of course, is dead.

"But Tim LaHaye says in this letter that before Jerry Falwell died, he told Tim LaHaye that, quote, 'Speaker Newt Gingrich is the most qualified man in America to run as president of the United States.' Mr. Gingrich for his part said today that he was very happy to receive the endorsement of Tim LaHaye.

"Mr. Gingrich did not comment on whether or not he was happy to receive the endorsement of dead Jerry Falwell." 

(Adapted & Emboldened for emphasis)

See Also: "Tim LaHaye, 'Left Behind' Author, Endorses Gingrich, Says Jerry Falwell Backs Newt From Grave" on Huff Post January 13, 2012.


This Endorsement of Gingrich by LaHaye et.al. is Desperate
THE ONE CLEAR MESSAGE in all the falderol is: The Rad Religious Right are far more interested in winning the election by:

1.) Backing their choice of candidates (however flawed) based on "perceived electability",

2.) Keeping an inside track to the hundreds of millions of taxpayer/handout dollars going to their so-called "faith-based" projects and initiatives,

3.) Renewing/having the "inside track" to the Oval Office as the Rad Religious Rightists did under George W. Bush.

These items are more important to the Rad Religious Right than is elevating/protecting moral purity (which Gingrich has not/does not possess) and defending the moral "high ground" so revered and sacred to their faithful followers who regularly vote as "a body of one" at the polls.

One wonders how this all plays in Heaven?


Original.

Hard work will set you free! Or...

We can never have too many inspiring people like all of you. Multi-taskers at work on many projects in many places: home, family, office, church, neighborhood, school, clubs.

(Honors bestowed here today indicate) that you are intelligent or that you are hard-working; maybe that you are both.

What do intelligence and hard work have to do with this? Well, to tell the truth, I am not really sure about intelligence. All of those IQ studies we hear about seem to come to one conclusion: none of us really have much to do with our IQ. Even if we know what intelligence is, and even if we know how to measure it accurately, our intelligence is, according to these studies, not our own doing. Whose doing is it?

Here are eight possibilities:

• Our parents and their genes; and, above all, their refusal to let us watch TV for 10 hours a day; let's give that 20 points on the IQ scale.
• Our brothers and sisters, who argued with us about everything including the TV remote-another 20 points for winning the argument and 10 for crushing the remote.
• Our kindergarten teachers, who made us cooperate with kids we couldn't stand-40 points for learning to get along with others.
• Our high school chemistry teachers, who taught us the recipe for concocting that rotten egg smell (hydrogen sulfide). Ten points for nothing, really, unless you're a chemistry major.
• Then there's the daily two-hour commute or subway ride, which provides time for reading, thinking, i-Podding, and snoozing-20 points. But no text messaging or cell phones; that's minus 30 points and a ticket.
• The multi-vitamin you take every day, 10 points.
• - The fourth cup of coffee you have every morning that tightens your synapses for clearer thinking, 20 points.
• Watching The Daily Show with John Stewart to keep up with the news-30 points, or not watching The Daily Show-40 points.

When you add up the points, you see that all of us are like the kids in Lake Wobegon-a little above average, but not something we've achieved all by ourselves.

But there is one thing we do achieve by ourselves; there's one thing scientific reports can't take away from us: THAT'S HARD WORK-WORK THAT WE HAVE TO DO ON OUR OWN. AND IF YOUR LIFE IS ANYTHING LIKE MINE WAS WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE, THAT MEANS THERE'S A LOT OF HARD WORK, SOMETIMES MORE THAN WE CAN HANDLE. YET SOMEHOW, SOMEHOW IT GETS DONE.

Hard work-not just the idea-but actually doing it requires a form of moral excellence. WE PRACTICE THAT MORAL EXCELLENCE THROUGH VIRTUES THAT GUIDE US AND SUSTAIN US WHEN WE ARE CONSUMED BY HARD WORK-SO MUCH SO THAT WE CAN HARDLY THINK ABOUT WHAT WE'RE DOING, ONLY THAT WE HAVE THE STAMINA TO DO IT.

Three Virtues That Guide & Sustain 'Hard Work'

Virtue Number One: Patience, my American Heritage Dictionary defines it as: bearing or enduring difficulty with calmness; persevering; being constant; capable of calmly awaiting an outcome or result.

How are we patient? Just sitting requires patience and enduring the complexities of calculating a cost-benefit analysis for an economics class; or persevering through the difficulty of gathering our thoughts for a 10-page paper describing the impact of Trieste on the writings of James Joyce; or getting through, as I am trying to do, the 800 pages of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age, and not just reading, but trying to really, really understand what he is talking about (and I'm not getting a grade at the end).

You are constant in showing up for classes, for turning work in on time, and working with other students on joint projects. That is hard work. We cannot do this (and everything else) without patience.

Virtue Number Two: Then, there is courage. Courage is a quality of mind and spirit that enables us to face vicissitudes with self-possession, confidence and resolution (American Heritage Dictionary). Courage is not simply a virtue for the battlefield or for undergoing surgery or for saving a child from a burning building. Courage underlies the everyday willingness to look at a to-do list with self-possession rather than panic, with confidence rather than doubt, with resolution rather than faint-heartedness. The word courage comes from the Latin word for heart. That gives a clue to how it works: courage is the virtue that allows us to throw ourselves with our whole heart into the tasks at hand. Courage helps us to fix on our goal and pursue it until we have achieved it.

Virtue Number Three: Finally, there is hope; it is a virtue with attitude, an attitude of confident expectation (American Heritage Dictionary), that we will achieve what we have patiently and courageously set out to do...we all join with you in hope, in confident expectation that with hard work, patience, and courage you will achieve what you have set out to do and that what you have set out to do is worthy of all your efforts.

Source: Thoughts by Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, Co-Director, Fordham Center on Religion and Culture, excerpted from keynote remarks given at the Alpha Sigma Lambda Honor Society reception and induction ceremony at Fordham University.

Hard work is the key to success.
How much of the above laud and praise to 'hard work' really works? Is the fruit of 'hard work' available to the average school child born into the world of urban Detroit? A place where there are no 'real jobs', little opportunity, little or no optimism? How much of the above is available to a Latino youth hoeing a field of tomatoes-'hard work will set you free?' Or is successful outcome from a more direct route...that other route to fortune and success? Having a rich father and the momentum of class, social approval, a fraternity or sorority membership, a partnership in a hedge fund, a father who was an automotive giant or the founder of a MLM firm. Face up to it: these things will go much farther than "simple hard work."

Hard Work as a Means to an End?
It all comes down to access and politics. How does one gain access? How important is that access and the power of law contained in the momentum of politics and policy making?

"As long as the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting to gain access to the legislature as well as fighting within it."
-- Frederic Bastiat

Or as an anonymous blogger has stated:

"The virtue of hard work went out the door when the profits from increased productivity went to the stockholders before the workers. Thank you. Ronald Reagan and the Republican Revolution."

Original.

Survey Political Speeches in the First Half of the 20th Century for American Values

An early study, based on an investigation into political speeches, was published in 1961 by Edward Steele and Charles Redding that identified a set of archetypical American values.


Archetypical American Values Based on Political Speeches Prior to 1960:

Puritan and pioneer morality
The world is made up of people who are good and bad, foul and fair. You are either one of the good guys or you are one of the bad guys. If you are not with us, you are against us.

Value of the individual
The individual has rights above that of general society and government. Success occurs at the level of the individual. People should not have to fight for their rights. The government should protect the rights of the individual, not the other way around.

Achievement and success
Success is measured by the accumulation of power, status, wealth and property. What you already have is not as important as what you continue to accumulate. A retired wealthy person was successful, but is now less admirable.

Change and progress
Change is inevitable. Progress is good and leads to success. If you do not keep up, you will fall behind. Newer is always better. The next version will be better than the last.

Ethical equality
All people are equal, both spiritually and in the opportunities they deserve. This includes differences in race, gender, disability, age, sexual preference and so on.

Effort and optimism
Hard work and striving is the key to success. The great American Dream of fame and fortune comes to those who work hard and never give up.

Efficiency, practicality and pragmatism
Solution is more important than ideology. Utility is more important than show. A key question to any idea is 'Will it work?'


Original.

LaPlante condemns a Democratic Congress member for the assertion that TeaPublican proposed “reforms” (gutting of Social Security) are “heartless and un-Christian”

In Response to John R. LaPlante in the Michigan View on Dec 9, 2011 in "God is on my side: Democratic Pols".

Reading the LaPlante lament :

"One member of the Democratic caucus in the U.S. House called proposed reforms to Social Security and other entitlements as "'heartless and un-Christian'" 

Let's take a deeper look at John's protest.

When we do, we see that LaPlante follows up that complaint against the Democratic defender of Social Security with his cute qualifier:

"To quote a reader of National Review Online, ' I'M STILL TRYING TO FIND THE PASSAGE WHERE JESUS TELLS HIS FOLLOWERS TO TAKE AS MUCH AS THEY CAN FROM OTHERS, SO THAT THEY CAN HAVE MORE TO GIVE TO THE POOR'"

In using this quote LaPlante opens the door to the New Testament passage concerning Jesus and the Rich Young Ruler. The National Review Maven cited by LaPlante uses hyperbole, as is common to his genre, and seeks to make an extreme interpretation into a truth by qualifying his recollection (or non-recollection) of the intent expressed by Christ in his ministry.

In this New Testiment account a rich young man asked specifically what God expected of him in light of his previous moral life and his accumulated riches, this is what occurred and what Jesus required:

Matthew 19:16-24:

"16 Then someone came to him and said, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" 17 And he said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." 18 He said to him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19 Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself." 20 The young man said to him, "I have kept all these; what do I still lack?" 21 JESUS SAID TO HIM, "IF YOU WISH TO BE PERFECT, GO, SELL YOUR POSSESSIONS, AND GIVE THE MONEY TO THE POOR, AND YOU WILL HAVE TREASURE IN HEAVEN; THEN COME, FOLLOW ME." 22 When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions. 23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

There is the direct answer: Jesus required the young enquirer to give up wealth to achieve eternal life. LaPant's National Review Maven wants to frame the story thus: Did Christ ever tell his followers to "take as much as they can from others?" The Maven may or may not know his Bible.

Jesus set a test. If you want to have "eternal life" rich young person (whom Christ knew had many possessions) then you must sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor.

If the National Review Maven is going to hide behind his exaggerated assertion and miss the true impact of this scriptural account, then the Maven should not make a statement such as this one, where he made an attempt to postulate that Jesus had nothing applicable to say about wealth and poverty, thus coyly feeling himself of all obligations to such as in the lawful benevolence of the American Social Covenant with its citizens to operate and protect poor and others of retirement age via a system of contributions and taxation that require only a small fraction of what Christ demanded of the Rich Young Ruler.

LaPlant may want to refresh and edify himself as to the core of the American Creed by going to: Jim Wallis, "Praying for Peace and Looking for Jesus at #OccupyWallStreet."

And as a chaser John should perhaps contemplate the message of The Rev. J. Carl Gregg, of Broadview Church; Chesapeake Beach, Maryland:

"It is often said that the best way to preach a sermon is with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other hand. This past week, I found myself unable to read these hard sayings from Jesus without thinking about the Occupy Wall Street protests that are cropping up across our nation. As I have read and listened to various commentators and pundits in regard to the protests, two quotes, in particular, have stood out to me. Together these quotes serve as both an interesting juxtaposition and as commentary on one another.

"The first quote is from John Kenneth Galbraith, a well-known economist who died a few years ago. He says that we humans too often 'search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.' This quote is perhaps particularly relevant given the resurgence of interest of late in Ayn Rand's philosophy of selfishness among some prominent politicians. The most bizarre aspect from my perspective is that many of these Ayn Rand-toting politicians are regular church attenders who experience no cognitive dissonance between their politics of selfishness and the way of Jesus.

"The second quote is more ironic, as one would expect from comedic satirist Stephen Colbert, who quips, 'IF THIS IS GOING TO BE A CHRISTIAN NATION THAT DOESN'T HELP THE POOR, EITHER WE HAVE TO PRETEND THAT JESUS WAS JUST AS SELFISH AS WE ARE, OR WE'VE GOT TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT HE COMMANDED US TO LOVE THE POOR AND SERVE THE NEEDY WITHOUT CONDITION AND THEN ADMIT THAT WE JUST DON'T WANT TO DO IT.'

"Although evolutionary biologists and neuroscientists are increasingly finding genetic and evolutionary impulses toward compassion, it is also true that selfishness is, in a sense, "natural" and part of our evolutionary inheritance. We are all born as egocentric infants, but in the face of evolutionary impulses to protect ourselves and those who share the largest number of genes, the way of Jesus calls us to expand our love of selfbeyond merely our immediate tribe to include the love of God and all our neighbors. Indeed, Jesus teaches that The Second Greatest Commandment is to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Leviticus 19:18 / Matthew 22:39-40 and parallels)." 

(emphasis added)

Source: Rev Carl Gregg in his sermon “Jesus, #OccupyWallSt, and the Rich Young Ruler” October 2, 2011.

Original.

The Occupy Wall Street Activists & Grassroots Tea Party Activists Have a Lot in Common

What has become clearly obvious is that much unites the concerns of the Tea Party leaning Americans and Americans of the Occupy Wall Street protest- many of their individual concerns are in many ways shared.

Both Groups are vastly unhappy and uncomfortable with corporations and ineffective and hidebound congressional members in this our time of our ongoing economic and jobs crisis. Change is demanded.

The one and only Independent Member of Congress, the Honorable Bernie Sanders has succinctly listed Six Demands to be made of Wall Street and they are worthy of our attention:

1. If a financial institution is too big to fail, it is too big to exist,
2. Put a cap on credit card interest rates to end usury,
3. The Federal Reserve needs to provide small businesses in America with the same low-interest loans it gave to foreign banks,
4. Stop Wall Street oil speculators from artificially increasing gasoline and heating oil prices,
5. Demand that Wall Street invest in the job-creating productive economy, instead of gambling on worthless derivatives,
6. Establish a Wall Street speculation fee on credit default swaps, derivatives, stock options and futures.

More from Sanders statement:

"Making these reforms will not be easy. After all, Wall Street is clearly the most powerful lobbying force on Capitol Hill. From 1998 through 2008, the financial sector spent over $5 billion in lobbying and campaign contributions to deregulate Wall Street. More recently, they spent hundreds of millions more to make the Dodd-Frank bill as weak as possible, and after its passage, hundreds of millions more to roll back or diluter the stronger provisions in that legislation."

Sanders Summary of the Wall Street Debacle:

"Let us never forget that as a result of the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street, this country was plunged into the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, and life savings as the middle class underwent an unprecedented collapse. Sadly, despite all the suffering caused by Wall Street, there is no reason to believe that the major financial institutions have changed their ways, or that future financial disasters and bailouts will not happen again.

"More than three years ago, Congress rewarded Wall Street with the biggest taxpayer bailout in the history of the world. Simultaneously but unknown to the American people at the time, the Federal Reserve provided an even larger bailout. The details of what the Fed did were kept secret until a provision in the Dodd-Frank Act that I sponsored required the Government Accountability Office to audit the Fed's lending programs during the financial crisis."

There is more in these 6 REFORM PROPOSALS that unite both genuine grassroots, independent Tea Partiers - and those now thousands of The Silent Majority who are intent on seeing real changes, and very soon.

Did you get that? THERE IS MORE THAT UNITES THAN DIVIDES PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TAKE BACK AMERICA TO A CORE SET OF VALUES AND AN HONEST GOVERNMENT - overseeing and enforcing honest and business/finance practices which once again will carry us forward.


Original.

If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed...

"..Virtue, morality, and religion. This is the armor, my friend, and this alone that renders us (America) invincible. These are the tactics we should study. If we lose these, we are conquered, fallen indeed... so long as our manners and principles remain sound, there is no danger."

-- Patrick Henry (1736-1799) US Founding Father in a letter on "American character" to Archibald Blair January 8, 1799 (Tyler, pg 365).

Original in response to comments.

Nolan Finley: Maniacal Warmonger?

Response to Nolan Finley in "Bombs instead of bells on 9/11" on September 11, 2011 in the Detroit / Mackinac News.

Is Nolan Finely a warmonger? Or is he truly a thoughtful , sane person? We would like to think the latter. But, when we are fed his diatribe about bombing 3,000 places to avenge the more than 3,000 lost on 9/11 one is put to wonder. (Finley: Bombs instead of bells on 9/11, 9.11.11).

Let's take a quick review. The 19 hijackers/suicide pilots who mounted the 9/11 attacks were mostly Saudis and a few Egyptians . To follow Finley's logic the United States should have bombed Riyadh or possibly Mecca. There are so few significant targets in Saudi Arabia other than oil wells, pipelines, oil storage tank farms, and such. As for Egypt; should we have bombed Cairo, Alexandria, the Aswan High Dam, or for full effect how about the Sphinx or one or two of the great pyramids.

Just what did the vengeful, let's-get-even, Finley, man of our collective opinion, have in mind?

For an editor with readership amongst a significant Middle Eastern/ American population as large and nearby as greater Dearborn; what is the proper way to state or recite one's personal, decade's-long angst, the kind that Finely is confessing he's feeling? Bomb 3,000 separate targets in the Middle East?

The very thought is irresponsible and unworthy. No great paper should allow itself to project such a terrible proposal, even if it be maniacal fantasy or fantastical. We have been denied photo journalism showing the heinous disfiguring carnage and slaughter of our bombing and white prosperous warfare events on the local populations- so called collateral damage-victims. What we have seen, that which is very limitedly available, is utterly disturbing and repulsive to every human instinct, sense, and emotion. And Finley would have more of the same?

We went to war. Two wars. Two wars we are still engaged in conducting. We did terrible things to prisoners. We lied to the world via the United Nations about Iraq. We have been involved in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in the war zones. We have two men, a former president and a vice-president who dare not travel abroad for fear of being "Pinocheted" arrested and tried in the World Court as war criminals.

Today Associated Press's Paisley Dodds reports:

"Britain's universal jurisdiction law allows British courts to prosecute foreigners accused of crimes against humanity, no matter where the alleged crimes were committed. The principle of the law is rooted in the belief that certain crimes - such as genocide, hostage-taking and torture - are so serious that they must be addressed wherever a suspect can be detained." 

The Brits have just now chosen to amend this jurisdiction. However, other European countries have not relented on prosecution of war crimes and other crimes against humanity.

What Finley would actually do cannot be determined. He will never have the "red football" nor the power to push the button engaging bombing all of those 3,000 places he dreams need death and destruction in-kind for what happened on 9/11. But Nolan is so brazen as to say: Next time we should threaten "we'll flatten your miserable countries and everybody in them." Finley can't possibly mean Egypt and Saudi Arabia, or does he?

Wake up Nolan; the past is now history. The future is ahead. Mistakes were made. Evil was done in the name of all Americans.

Your daydream of bombing 3,000 targets in the lands of the actual hijackers home countries parallels the game plan aired by Talk Radio's fire breathing blowhard Michael Savage, who would have declared Baghdad's Sunni Triangle a kill zone and "bombed it back into the Stone Age."

We know you Nolan, you're no Savage.

Original.

Dan Calabrese’s Scripture of the Day

Dan, we've been praying for you, we thought you would surely want to join this Christian business network:

The U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce. Here's today's helpful scripture from their web site:

"(F)or it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life - in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing."
-- Phil 2:13 - 16

Dan, you will be greatly helped in your troubling journey dealing with worldly shortcuts which can tempt a businessman. By association with others in the USCCC, you will find those who can help you find your way back to basic values and a Christlike model for your business(es).

The USCCC's motto/Mission statement will be a helpful guide:

"To preserve and advance the Judeo-Christian principle-based system of free enterprise in America by elevating Christian-led organizations to a new standard of operating excellence so that we would truly become God-honoring and culturally-impacting."

To jump start your new journey to peace with God in your business dealings, we recommend the following article:

THE DECLINE OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN AMERICAN BUSINESS
By Greg Northrup, contributing writer to USCCC.

"There are signs of problems everywhere. A meltdown in financial markets resulting from a government wanting to make home ownership easier for people, and blackmailing lenders to reduce credit standards. Lenders, seeing a way to make a quick buck, by writing mortgages that misled borrowers, and then reselling the mortgages to investors for a quick profit. Investors, creating incomprehensible mortgage backed securities that avoided regulation, and that were so complicated they could make enormous commissions on them. Borrowers, sometimes lying on loan applications, sometimes taking on way more debt than they could afford to pay, to try to make a buck in the housing market. Politicians turning the backs on their oversight responsibilities and taking campaign contributions from the perpetrators. There were breakdowns in moral and ethical behavior throughout the system.

"This financial meltdown shows us the breadth and depth of this moral crisis, but we see signs of ethical collapse all around us. Credit Card companies misleading borrowers and charging outrageous fees and interest rates. Boards of Directors approving ridiculous compensation levels for senior managers that are unrelated to what other people in the organizations are making, and not based on performance, while receiving high amounts of Directors compensation themselves. Businesses making it so difficult for customers to receive support that they give up trying. Health insurance companies taking advantage of people by dropping them or charging outrageous premiums at times when they are most vulnerable. Businesses laying off some workers while forcing others to work long hours, and having to deal with almost incapacitating levels of stress. Businesses and business organizations spending fortunes lobbying government, and giving campaign contributions to politicians, paying more attention to them than they do their customers or employees. Businesses preparing fraudulent financial statements, and once independent CPAs, looking the other way, and signing off on them, so they can get lucrative consulting contracts from their audit clients.

"This isn't the way things used to be. We used to be able to rely on a certain level of honesty, fairness, and commitment to customers and employees. Why was that? What is different now?

"Chuck Colson, in one his books, wrote about being asked to speak about ethics at an Ivy League business school. After meeting with them, he concluded that it was pointless to talk with most of the instructors and students because they had no basis or foundation for ethics. You see, they do not believe in any source of absolute truth. For them, all truth is relative. Your truth may be different than mine. Truth, or what is right or wrong, depends on the circumstances. Utility, or getting the outcomes you want, becomes the driving factor. GUESS WHERE A LOT OF THESE IVY LEAGUE GRADUATES ENDED UP? WALL STREET AND GOVERNMENT, AND MANY MORE MOVE INTO MANAGEMENT POSITIONS IN BUSINESS.

"IN THE PAST, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN BELIEFS ABOUT WHAT IS RIGHT AND WRONG, WERE THE DEFAULT POSITION IN OUR SOCIETY. EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE WAS NOT CHRISTIAN OR JEWISH, THERE WAS SORT-OF AN UNOFFICIAL UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT THE UNDERLYING BASIS FOR ETHICS AND MORALITY WAS.
[emphasis added]

Today that is gone, and the reality is that there is no underlying basis for ethics and morality, so anything goes. That means that I can do whatever I want, given my own take on morality. We are beginning to see what the consequences of this kind of thinking are. We are still early in this game. Things are going to get much worse.

That is where we come in as Christian business men and women.

"The reality is that we are the last bulwark against a total collapse of business ethics and morality. That is a lot of pressure, but we shouldn't kid ourselves into thinking otherwise. It is important for us to get clear about the role that God wants us to play in this time and place. On the one hand, it is discouraging and scary. On the other, what an opportunity for Christians to make a critical difference in our country and the world."

Let us know if you find the support given by U.S. Christian Chamber of Commerce helpful.


Original Post.

Lord, Melt the Heart of the Stone-Coldhearted

Oh how insensitively Republicans disavow the poor and disadvantaged, including those forced by life-experience circumstances into poverty!

Ask your house of worship, at the next call for "special prayers," to intercede in prayer for a new sense of empathy from 3 heartless legislators who would inflict more pain and suffering on the souls of state's helpless and the distressed. Ask the Almighty to restore to them a renewed sense of human caring and loving empathy.

Just how did neophyte legislators,(the lead: a woman committee chair) TeaPublicans, become shills for mega-Banksters? Talk about bad timing! Who put them up to this and why?

It is hard, if not impossible, to believe that a newly-elected state representative could have the temerity to have just run a campaign that would actively include advocating a cutting down of constituents in her own district; real people, in such financial woe as to be, approaching foreclosure and calculatingly advocate against them in such a cold-hearted and faith-less way. How could she have said, "I hear your distress," The answer to your troubles is to call on your bank and plead with them to cut your foreclosure protection period in half. (That's cut the time you have to rearrange your mortgage or find a way to recover. The collapse of response time will go from 6 months down to a scant 3 months. Expedite she says, not elevate your distress. That kind of action doesn't make for a friendly coffee-stop campaign pitch out on the hustings; especially during this era where Michigan is in the throes of a "one state depression." But the public knows. It's a bill "very inspired by the (finance) industry" reports Karen Merrill Tjapkes with Western Michigan Legal Aid.

But no, stop, listen up! Look at what's happening here.

How heartless and cruel are these newly empowered, self-aggrandized members of the TeaPartisans' current "reckless abandon majority" led by Rick Snyder, the Stonecold Nerd: Michigan's new Corporatist Knothead.

"And no plague shall come neigh your dwellings" cold, imperialist ladies? Many bankruptcies and foreclosures evolve around unemployment and chronic or fatal/terminal illness which has/or is rapidly draining away the resources of many a desperate Michigan family.

One who has experienced, first hand the clammy desperation of such a catastrophic cataclysm of financial ruin will quickly realize that such is the lot of many others. Don't we see the glass canning jar at the local fuel/quickstop that has taped upon it a picture and a plea for small donations to fund a bone morrow donor or give a small hand-up to a family burned out of everything. Foreclosure is a dread bane for far too many of those of us in real life, but not apparently in the lives of these three newly elected TeaPublicans.

But just a moment...one of the three legislators, shills for Banksters, boosting for a legislated, shortened-by-half, foreclosure period is no stranger the kind of terrible distress and financial trouble can cause. She is witness to terminal illness and eventual death within her family circle. She knows the pain and sorrow first hand and has personal knowledge that her family had access to generous insurance coverage given-for-life to a former state legislator and lieutenant governor. It's generous coverage to ease or cover those huge cancer-related and/or other catastrophic medical expenses one may eventually face. She's the daughter of Snyder's current director of legislation; one who is still in a period of mourning himself. And still this grieving legislator would crack down on others far-less fortunate by far?

Pray, how can this be?



Original Post.

Greedy Bros Koch-Bought & Paid for Visi-Galts: The Randian Libertarian Spawn - Gleefully Storm the Gates of the People’s House in Lansing, MI

Commentary on Americans for Prosperity arranged Tea Party Rally in Lansing on April 14, 2011.


Greed mars man's earliest defiant quip was a departure from God's plan for mankind: "Am I my brother's keeper?"

Today, haughty and aggressive mavens and devotees of a "godless" Ayn Rand dain to gather on the Lansing capital lawn to demonstrate, to the bodaciously broadcast to the entire populace the grand scope of their rebellion against paying their rightful share in civic order and loudly lauding their pride in personal irresponsibility.

Tea Party rogues should be contributing citizens and taxpayers-problem solvers not trouble makers! Responsible Citizenship is vitally important to the common good of Michigan, local community and brotherhood.

Dick Morris and the "GOING GALT" - "JUST LEAVE US ALONE" rabble have captured the Michigan Republican Party. 

The threat that Tax Party rabble rousers have engendered is purposeful, it is intended to force a "John Galt" rebellion on Michigan thereby inflicting harm on the institutions of the state, turning away the needy, the poor, the elderly, and further punishing the already unemployed (400,000) with less help. This rally calls for a somber dirge, not a wild-eyed celebration of Know Nothing triumphism by radical tax-haters.

Perchance we ask, why shouldn't some delusional individuals be caught up in the current angst, anger and confusion? We've seen such before. We are now being reminded of other cults that arose in the land, that had in their misshapened mindsets. Cultist ardently belived in revolutionary "good they would do" in compliant submission to the exaggerated perception created by their cunning leaders. Such cult movements have arisen out of a yearning for a "shortcut" to more personal power outside the rules and order of democracy and the rule of law which underpin a just, functional, and caring society. We have recently been reminded of other cults e.g. the Ku Klux Klan which marched, 17,000 strong, on Lansing in the 1920's to express their anger and fear, attempting by doing so to call attention to their regressive agendas. This recollection is not to equate the Koch created and owned Americans for Prosperity, Dick Armey's Teapartisans, and associated groups gathered today with the Klan per se; it is but to warn; extravagant and radical deviation from the personal part we all must play in the welfare of our community and stubborn withholding of our caring attention to our fellowmen are on the slick and selfish path to chaos and ruin.

"Going Galt" is going to godless ruin! 

Be warned. We should not glory in repeating the error of serious destabilizing regression into the annals of dangerous ideologies in the regretful past. Tearing down is much easier than building up. Neglect of civic institutions and proper government is much easier, and less costly than their proper maintenance and enhancement.

Ayn Rand's Visi-Galts, marching on Lansing today, are entirely convinced that they and they alone can make things "better" by cutting down America and Michigan-as we have known it. They are activated because they feel their property and assets are threatened by government and the hated tax. Fixing things civic is not in their toolboxes. They are radical "Taxhaters." This could, and can only, happen because of the Wall Street/Bankster economic crisis (brought on by complete and utter dedication to the worship of Corporate Selfishness and Greed) has undermined our nation's stability and way of life. It is true: There is great turmoil and there are great fears. These Tea Party/Koch Libertarians, political usurpers, all glory in their opportunity created by this great historic economic crisis.

The Visi-Galts, the Teapartisan/civic barbarians, fervently denying personal responsibility to the community, selfish and greedy, thrive on fear and aggression which enhance their campaign. Disaster Capitalism suits Teapartiasns in their delusions.

The Tea Party rally today is a neo-pagan bacchanalia; a bold display worshiping their "godless" goddess, Ayn Rand, creator of the factious John Galt. - It's an UGLY & UNHOLY veneration of SUPER SELFISHNESS drawn across the background of our monument: The Peoples'House.


Original Post.

Just-Leave-Me-Alone Tea Party Hero John Galt Be Praised: The High Hypocrisy of Galt’s Creator, Ayn Rand

Commentary on Michigan Tea Party announcements of showing Ayn Rand movies, and upcoming Rally run by American for Prosperity in Lansing on April 14, 2011.
-----

Just-Leave-Me-Alone Tea Party Hero John Galt Be Praised: The High Hypocrisy of Galt’s Creator, Ayn Rand, Who Died Ignominiously Swaddled in Her U.S. Government Benefits of Social Security & Medicaid

St Ayn didn't die nestled with her fabled John Galt in her imaginary mountain enclave, known as "Galt's Gulch." She took Government subsistence.

Rand took benefits under the name Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor). Thus the harsh, arch-anit-social welfare activist and critic died swaddled in U.S. GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE AND SOCIAL SECUITY!

Tea Party's, "godless" St. Ayn expired bestowed with full government entitlements. This Tea Party false heroine none-the-less will be lauded on Lansing's capitol steps tomorrow. by the nefarious Dick Morris. How bogus is that?

Ayn Rand: 

"The only proper functions of a government are: the police, to protect you from criminals; the army, to protect you from foreign invaders; and the courts, to protect your property and contracts from breaches or fraud by the others, to settle disputes by rational rules, according to objective law. But a government that initiates the employment of force against men who had forced no one, the employment of armed compulsion against disarmed victims, is a nightmare infernal machine designed to annihilate morality: such a government reverses its only moral purpose and switches from the role of protector to the role of man's deadliest enemy, from the role of policeman to the role of a criminal vested with the right to the wielding of violence against the victims deprived of the right of self-defense. Such a government substitutes for morality the following rule of social conduct: you may do whatever you please to your neighbor, provided your gang is bigger than his."

- Ayn Rand (Atlas Shrugged)

In St. Ayn's view accepting government assistance and social programs (paid for by the general public to serve us all in our old age or hour of greatest need and fewest/depleted resources) is the to give into an act of a "gang" that is "bigger" than the individual. It must be the lone man, standing alone, who must to be a true man. That ideal man, Galt, must be the sole source of his own destiny and welfare. The government, in Ayn Rand's eyes, as expressed by her rugged individualistic fictional hero, John Galt. (Now the main character in the new and much ballyhooed Tea Party/Libertarian cult film: Rand's Atlas Shrugged, just released) is "a nightmare machine designed to annihilate morality (a specialized definition by Rand espousing "selfishness as a virtue, and egoism as the highest achievement of her view of "morals.")

In Rand's Atlas Shrugged, the government, when it puts regulations and lawful restraint upon the intense and selfish purposes of man or corporations, takes up the "role of man's deadliest enemy" and most significantly Rand's assertion leads to her false conclusion that by extracting taxes from John Galt, St. Ayn's fictional, rugged entrepreneural individual, government is "welding" coercion and force, via its police powers, to collect taxes.

Washington Independent's David Weigel reported the following from "Ask Dr. Helen" Smith and others the subject of Atlas Shrugged:

"Smith (who is know for resurrecting the Galt Theme) was a little ahead of the curve of what has become an incredibly popular meme. Across the broad conservative movement, from members of Congress to activists to economists, Rand's final, allegorical novel is being looked at with fresh eyes. According to the Atlas Society, a think tank that promotes and analyzes Rand's work, sales of "Atlas Shrugged" have tripled since the presidential election.

"One congressman says that Rand wrote a "rulebook" that can guide conservatives through the age of Obama; another calls Obama's policies something right out of the mind of Rand. One economist says that Rand's fantasies have become reality. "Smith is one of many activists citing Rand to explain their decisions to sell their stocks, or to explain why the president's "demonization" of run-amok CEOs is aggravating the economic slowdown. The popular meme is giving critics of the president's policies a way to explain why, they believe, it's doomed to fail - because Rand predicted all of this.

"'...Rep. John Campbell (R-Calif.)- in an interview with TWI, 'I had a guy come up to me in my district and tell me that he was losing his interest in the business he'd run for years because the president wanted to punish him for his success. I think people are reading 'Atlas Shrugged' again because they're trying to understand what happens to people of accomplishment, and people of talent and energy, when a government turns against them. That's what appears to be happening right now.'

"The plot of Rand's novel is simple, despite its length - 1,088 pages in the current paperback edition. The United States is governed by bureaucrats, 'looters' and 'moochers,' who penalize and demonize creative people. The country is in decline because creative people are disappearing - they have followed the innovative John Galt to a mountain enclave, 'Galt's Gulch,' where they watch society crumble. Creativity has gone on strike (the working title of the novel was 'The Strike'), and the engine of capitalism cannot run without it."
Ayn Rand's Intellectual Dishonesty and Rank Hypocrisy: When the reality of cancer and pending death faced her, she willingly applied for and accepted the U.S. Government social programs: Social Security and Medicare."

Joshua Holland, writes the following in an article "Ayn Rand Railed Against Government Benefits, But Grabbed Social Security and Medicare When She Needed Them THE TEA PARTY AND THE RIGHT":

"'Ayn Rand was not only a schlock novelist, she was also the progenitor of a sweeping 'moral philosophy' that justifies the privilege of the wealthy and demonizes not only the slothful, undeserving poor but the lackluster middle-classes as well.

"Her books provided wide-ranging parables of 'parasites,' 'looters' and 'moochers' using the levers of government to steal the fruits of her heroes' labor. In the real world, however, Rand herself received Social Security payments and Medicare benefits under the name of Ann O'Connor (her husband was Frank O'Connor)."

St. Ayn was a hypocrite, but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest. As Michael Ford of Xavier University's Center for the Study of the American Dream wrote:

'In the end, Miss Rand was a hypocrite but she could never be faulted for failing to act in her own self-interest.'

Her ideas about government intervention in some idealized pristine marketplace serve as the basis for so much of the conservative rhetoric we see today. 'The reason I got involved in public service, by and large, if I had to credit one thinker, one person, it would be Ayn Rand,' said Paul Ryan, the GOP's young budget star at a D.C. event honoring the author. On another occasion, he proclaimed, "Rand makes the best case for the morality of democratic capitalism.'

Wrote Rand in a 1972 newsletter:

"'Morally and economically the welfare state creates an ever accelerating downward pull.'"

------

Journalist Patia Stephens wrote of Rand:

"'[She] called altruism a 'basic evil' and referred to those who perpetuate the system of taxation and redistribution as 'looters' and 'moochers.' She wrote in her book 'The Virtue of Selfishness' that accepting any government controls is 'delivering oneself into gradual enslavement.'"

Rand Capitulated to the Lure of Collectivism

Rand also believed that the scientific consensus on the dangers of tobacco was a hoax. By 1974, the two-pack-a-day smoker, then 69, required surgery for lung cancer. And it was at that moment of vulnerability that she succumbed to the lure of collectivism.

Evva Joan Pryor, who had been a social worker in New York in the 1970s, was interviewed in 1998 by Scott McConnell, who was then the director of communications for the Ayn Rand Institute. In his book, 100 Voices: An Oral History of Ayn Rand, McConnell basically portrays Rand as first standing on principle, but then being mugged by reality. Stephens points to this exchange between McConnell and Pryor:

"'She was coming to a point in her life where she was going to receive the very thing she didn't like, which was Medicare and Social Security,' Pryor told McConnell. 'I remember telling her that this was going to be difficult. For me to do my job she had to recognize that there were exceptions to her theory. So that started our political discussions. From there on " with gusto " we argued all the time.'

"'The initial argument was on greed,' Pryor continued. 'She had to see that there was such a thing as greed in this world. Doctors could cost an awful lot more money than books earn, and she could be totally wiped out by medical bills if she didn't watch it. Since she had worked her entire life, and had paid into Social Security, she had a right to it. She didn't feel that an individual should take help.'"

Rand had paid into the system, so why not take the benefits? It's true, but according to Stephens, some of Rand's fellow travelers remained true to their principles.

"Rand is one of three women the Cato Institute calls founders of American libertarianism. The other two, Rose Wilder Lane and Isabel 'Pat' Paterson, both rejected Social Security benefits on principle. Lane, with whom Rand corresponded for several years, once quit an editorial job in order to avoid paying Social Security taxes. The Cato Institute says Lane considered Social Security a "Ponzi fraud" and 'told friends that it would be immoral of her to take part in a system that would predictably collapse so catastrophically.' Lane died in 1968."

Original Post.

An Advocate for Christian Business Addresses Calabrese’s Admitted Lapse of Integrity

In response to the admission of Dan Calabrese that he is willing to break a binding business contract in order to save money (and your business) in times of economic duress, brought on by acording to his own admission; that he over-estimated his profits and under calculated his actual expenses in a down market. (Union entitlement is unsustainable, 3.11.11, Calabrese)

Note: Dan Calabrese's posting "Union entitlement is unsustainable" posted to the Michigan View (Detroit / Heritage / Mackinac News) on March 11, 2011 was removed from the Detroit News website.

Calabrese admits in his recent column it caused him to admit, "you do things - things you sometimes regret." Dan admits, there were "long-term leases I had foolishly signed." His solution? Dan welched on his contract with a provider, and stated, I "told them they could try to collect more money from me if they thought it was worth the trouble."

To understand Dan's self-described method of cutting costs, I turned to John E. Mitchell Jr., Texas business man and a Christian writer. Mitchell offers a thoughtful insight as to how a self-confessed Christian and businessman, such as Calabrese, is held to a higher standard than the non-professing business entrepreneurial:
"If, as Emerson says, "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man," then obviously the top executives of American business enterprises are very important. They have it in their power to help or to hurt a great many people.

"What are the traits of character do you think should be required, or at least hoped for, in an employer, a manager, the top executives?"

That an Employer Should Be "The head of a business concern should posses certain qualities which set him apart as a leader and clearly indicate his right to the postion he holds. These are qualifications which should be recognized and cultivated.
"A leader should possess real character, the result of a personal relationship to Christ. He leads best who best follows the Saviour. His qualities of leadership will be strengthen and fortified because of personal attention to spiritual realities. A man who sets an unwavering stand as a servant and follower of Christ will able operate from an unshakable foundation in every other area of life.

"It logically follows that, as a man of Christian character, a good leader will also be a man of integrity. He would keep his word. He will be honest in his dealings. He will not shade, hedge, or deviate in word or conduct. He will maintain this personal integrity even though it may involve great cost to himself."

In Michigan's troubling economic times we need moral high ground and integrity. We hope Dan will repent and join the effort to rebuild our state on honesty and integrity as he shares with us the thoughts of his mind.

Original Post.