Thoughts Before The Alarm Sounds

     I will be offline, or perhaps I should say “unplugged” for the next three weeks. We are leaving Sunday to drive to Georgetown, Texas, where we will visit friends over Thanksgiving. On Black Friday we will drive with our friends to Galveston, where we will see the sights on Saturday, the 27th, and on Sunday we will take a cruise to Cozumel, Belize and Honduras. After the cruise we will drive home.      Check back for more blogging about December 13th. In the meantime, if you get bored, buy the book. ******      The fact that there is a great deal of controversy regarding the physical creation as outlined in the book of Genesis is not new, and the disagreement will probably continue for a long time, perhaps forever. So I will ignore the details of physical creation and concentrate on the spiritual matters related in that wise book.      The Wisdom of Genesis – The Spirit Runs Through It. The book or...

     I guess I am no different from most other men – I like gadgets. I know there are some wonderful toys that I am missing, but if I am sure I have no use for an iPhone, xBox, and the like, I don't buy them. And I decided that even though the ultimate toy, my car, is 10 model years old, it's in good shape, and I don't need a new one. However, we are driving from Pennsylvania to Texas next week, so I did spring for a GPS, and it's really fascinating.      I downloaded the owner's manual and after perusing it, sort of (owners' manuals are to use when you can't figure it out otherwise), I entered my home address into the instrument. I had to test that, so I drove a couple of miles, turned around, and hit the “Home” button.      I was a bit disappointed in the results: it got me home OK, but it didn't take the shortcuts I would have taken. It did keep saying “recalculating” a few times, and when I got within a block or two of t...

     President Obama's bipartisan commission on deficit reduction has released a draft of some of the things the full panel is considering. The final report is due December 1st, but members of the panel are not sure that they will be able to agree on provisions of the magnitude of those in the draft by that time. In any event, if Congress were to vote on the full proposal (which is doubtful), the vote would be non-binding.      The commission is apparently doing a good job, because there is plenty for everyone, regardless of ideology, to hate.      Liberals positively loathe the idea of cutting back on the (usually) annual COLA adjustment for Social Security recipients, raising the retirement age to 69 by the year 2075, and making a larger portion of Social Security benefits subject to Federal Income Tax. For example, the President of the AFL-CIO commented, "The chairmen of the deficit commission just told working Americans t...

     NBC Nightly News is reporting that President Obama will not be visiting the city of Bangalore during his current trip to India. To learn why, a little background information is required.      Joe Pitts (R), our district representative to Congress, submits a weekly column to our local newspaper. A few weeks ago Rep. Pitts was complaining about the uncertain playing field the Obama administration has created for businesses. This uncertainty is a major contributor to the lack of available jobs. According to Representative Pitts, if businesses would know what to expect in the way of taxes, healthcare, environmental costs, etc., they would immediately set about creating jobs galore. In addition, they would invest in more efficient software, equipment, new products and all sorts of wonderful things.       What has not made the news lately is that businesses are already investing heavily in software, automation and efficie...

     I know that deep down, all people who subscribe to either of the two major political ideologies, liberal or conservative, want the same things: prosperity for America and its citizens; they differ only in the means of achieving these ends. What most people do not realize, however, is that either ideology unchecked by the other would result in chaos; the two are complementary.      Those who have read my book, The Spirit Runs Through It , are familiar with the principle that every instant of creation is determined by the immediately preceding one, and becomes the raw material for the creation of the following one.      Two things are necessary: the raw material and the creation. Their operation is both simultaneous and linear – raw material...creation...raw material...creation...etc. Nothing comes from nothing. Can you imagine the chaos that would result if objects suddenly appeared out of thin air and disappeared just as m...