No Problem Here!

From: The Pen of Gary North

Look back at the economy in October 2007. The Dow was at 14,000. The banks were booming. Real estate was down a little, but the experts gave no warning. They were wrong. All of them.

The U.S. government is running a $1.8 trillion deficit this year. Federal tax receipts are down 34%, which means that the deficit will go above $2 trillion. No one cares. No one says, “This is the end. The American economy will never again be what it was.”

Think “2007.” Would you have believed that Chrysler and GM were both headed for bankruptcy? In October 2007 GM shares were at $43. Now they are at $1. There was an industry called investment banking. Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs were not part of the commercial banking system. To survive, a few made the transition in September 2008. Some did not make the cut.

Merrill Lynch is gone. Bank of America and Citigroup were bailed out by the government. They would have gone under. They sell for a fraction of what they did in 2007.

And what do most people say. “No problem.”

There is no problem for which their answer is not “no problem.”

Medicare will go bust. Social Security will go bust. “No problem.”

The unemployment rate keeps rising. “No problem.”

When people refuse to face reality, because reality is going to be more painful than anything they have experienced, they look for signs that the problems they cannot avoid without changing are really not that bad. They look for offsetting good news.

They think the status quo ante will return. The U.S. government is about to spend another $30 billion to buy a dead carcass of a company. It has already spent $20 billion. “No problem.”

The government will let the company stiff bondholders for $27 billion in exchange for 10% of the company, 72% owned by the government and 17% by the United Auto Workers medical insurance fund. “No problem.”

Bondholders were originally told that it would take a 90% vote to authorize this. The government has changed the rules. It will determine after the May 30 vote by bondholders what percentage must approve. “No problem.”

The company will never return to what it was. “No problem.” People will not buy as many cars as before from a company run by the government and the United Auto Workers. “No problem.”

Read more. . . .

Overconfidence

Quoting John Calvin:

“There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.”

Elementary Thoughts: Attitude – Part 7

Children are abused in several ways. There is physical abuse, neglect, and emotional abuse. We hear the most about physical abuse. It is the easiest of the three to determine.

The rising number of reported physical incidents of child abuse in this country, including sexual molestation, is depressing evidence that children are increasingly considered less than human and of less worth as each year passes. In the first chapter of this book, I shared with you the story of Teddy. His story of physical abuse is increasingly common. As a public school administrator, my contacts with Protective Services steadily increased over the years. There is a misconception among many people that this is a problem found primarily among the lower socio economic groups of our society. This is not true. It is wide spread throughout all the social layers of our populace.

It is true that many parents who abuse their children do so as a result of the example that their own parents modeled in their childhood experiences. In other words, it is an inherited sin. They saw and experienced their parents’ reaction to them in certain stressful circumstances and then, unconsciously, patterned their own reactions in similar circumstances accordingly. Thus, the sin of the parents is passed on to the next generation.

Most adults living today did not grow up in an environment where they experienced the trauma of physical abuse. They do not have the excuse of those adults who are living out a pattern of sin that was ingrained into the fabric of their lives. Yet, the frequency of physical abuse against children is continuing to increase. Parents who were not physically abused are becoming child abusers. The question is: “Why?”

The young in our society are increasingly neglected. There are many small children in this country who, each day, are expected to wake up in the morning, clothe themselves, and run out to meet the school bus without any adult supervision or help. If they eat breakfast, they are expected to fix it themselves or eat in the school cafeteria. Often they will wear the same clothes, unwashed, day after day. Some must be reminded by their teachers or guidance counselors to take a bath when the odor becomes too offensive because their parents just don’t bother. I have witnessed many teachers use their own meager earnings to buy shoes, underwear, socks, shirts, pants, and other items so that children wearing torn and worn out garments would have something decent to wear. I have also seen the parents of those same children purchase very expensive personal items to satisfy their own whims. It is important to note here that I am not talking about the truly needy. I am talking about adults who have the money but whose children are at the bottom of their priority list.

I have encountered children who could not see well, hear well, and who had fractured limbs or lingering illnesses. Yet, their parents would not bother to take them to the health clinic unless they were threatened by school officials. Why? (Continued tomorrow)

How Can We Encourage Economic Growth?

Quoting Ronald Reagan:

“The choice before us is clear. I strongly feel that the great majority of Americans believe that nothing would better encourage economic growth than leaving more money in the hands of the people who earn it. It’s time to stop stripping bare the productive citizens of America and funneling their hard-earned income into the Federal bureaucracy. … Americans have always been prepared to pay their fair share, but today they should make it clear to all elected officials that government has gone beyond its bounds and that the people will not tolerate [an] ever-increasing tax burden.”

Judge Rules It’s OK To Say “Allah” But Not “Jesus” In Public Prayer

While most of the country paid attention to the Sotomoyor nomination, a surprise vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 4 pushed forward the nomination of Judge David Hamilton who will now face the full US Senate. Judge Hamilton believes that the words “Jesus” or “Christ” are illegal words and cannot be used in public prayers. The use of the name “Allah” in public prayers, however, is just fine.

Judge Hamilton has previously written in one decision that:

“The injunction orders the Speaker…that the prayers should not use Christ’s name or title or any other denominational appeal…If those offering prayers in the Indiana House of Representatives choose to use the Arabic ‘Allah’…the court sees little risk that the choice of language would advance a particular religion or disparage others.”

Hamilton is a former fundraiser for ACORN and former leader of the Indiana chapter of the ACLU. He was nominated to the district court bench by President Clinton even though he had no judicial experience and was rated as ‘not qualified’ by the American Bar Association.

In 2003, Judge Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law that had required abortion clinics to give women information about alternatives to abortion in the presence of a physician or nurse 18 hours before the procedure. If you believe that anti-Christian and anti-life individuals already fill too many judges’ chairs in this country, then go to the following site to help defeat Hamilton in the Senate:

The Pray In Jesus Name Project

John Calvin On Human Nature

John Calvin

We have now to speak of the creation of man, not only because of all the works of God it is the noblest and most admirable specimen of his justice, wisdom, and goodness, but, as we observed at the outset, we cannot clearly and properly know God unless the knowledge of ourselves be added. This knowledge is twofold,—relating, first, to the condition in which we were at first created; and, secondly to our condition such as it began to be immediately after Adam’s fall. For it would little avail us to know how we were created if we remained ignorant of the corruption and degradation of our nature in consequence of the fall. At present, however, we confine ourselves to a consideration of our nature in its original integrity. And, certainly, before we descend to the miserable condition into which man has fallen, it is of importance to consider what he was at first. For there is need of caution, lest we attend only to the natural ills of man, and thereby seem to ascribe them to the Author of nature; impiety deeming it a sufficient defence if it can pretend that everything vicious in it proceeded in some sense from God, and not hesitating, when accused, to plead against God, and throw the blame of its guilt upon Him. Those who would be thought to speak more reverently of the Deity catch at an excuse for their depravity from nature, not considering that they also, though more obscurely, bring a charge against God, on whom the dishonor would fall if anything vicious were proved to exist in nature.

Seeing, therefore, that the flesh is continually on the alert for subterfuges, by which it imagines it can remove the blame of its own wickedness from itself to some other quarter, we must diligently guard against this depraved procedure, and accordingly treat of the calamity of the human race in such a way as may cut off every evasion, and vindicate the justice of God against all who would impugn it. We shall afterwards see, in its own place, (Book 2 chap. 1: sec. 3,) how far mankind now are from the purity originally conferred on Adam. And, first, it is to be observed, that when he was formed out of the dust of the ground (Gen 2:7; 18:27) a curb was laid on his pride—nothing being more absurd than that those should glory in their excellence who not only dwell in tabernacles of clay (Job 4:19), but are themselves in part dust and ashes. But God having not only deigned to animate a vessel of clay, but to make it the habitation of an immortal spirit, Adam might well glory in the great liberality of his Maker.

Continue reading here. . . .