I was thinking this morning. We all like to debate politics and who's right. I think the bigger issue we face now is division. My state flag says "United we stand, divided we fall". Longer ago and with much more insight , Jesus said that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. America should be concerned about standing. We all act as if what we have, came at no cost and that it is invincible. I have a piece of valuable information to pass on. What we have is awesome and unprecedented in world history. It came at a great cost to many. And it can be lost.
  I heard some guys in a restaurant yesterday still talking about how stupid Sarah Palin is. We sit in our sometimes mediocre situations and judge others. I don't know these guys but she's the governor of a state. That's an accomplishment I would say and I doubt that many stupid  people ever accomplish it. They were citing the incident where she was being interviewed at the turkey farm while turkeys were being slaughtered in the background. I guess they didn't realize what happens at turkey farms. I'm pretty sure that Sarah Palin did,so maybe she's not the stupid one.That's what's wrong with us. We almost all eat turkeys for Thanksgiving. Any turkey that anybody eats has been slaughtered. We want to eat them. Most of us don't want to watch, or even think about the fact that someone , probably with a job that many would find demeaning, had to kill the bird. The same is true with all our meat. And the same principle is at work in our numb above the neck society. The principle that says I want certain things, I insist on having them, but I don't want the responsibility of what they cost.

 Examples of this type mentality;
   
  Just as mentioned above. I want to eat turkey but I don't want turkeys to die. At least I don't want to see them die. And Don't even consider asking me to kill my own.

  I want to drive cars but I don't want to use gas.But ,if I have to use it, I don't want it to cost too much.

  I insist on total comfort everywhere I go,which takes all kinds of power for climate control, but I don't want to use coal, or nuclear energy, or to actually to burn anything to make it. I want it to be green. (Kermit the frog was right about this issue.)
It ain't easy being green.
  I want cheap!!!! products to buy. You know the kind that have to be made by child slaves in places that have no standards of any kind, but I also want us all to have high paying jobs. We don't need to know why prices are cheap.

  I want to consume!!! But I don't want there to be old nasty landfills to put all my trash in. At least not close to where I live. Just put it someplace else. OK?

  If we got pregnant because of a single action that we did . And if that is going to cause us the least bit of discomfort then we want the right to kill the baby. Maybe we should reserve that right to 1 hour after birth. Maybe one day after. What about a year? ...Two?  Maybe 72 is next.

Sometimes it's hard to separate the stupid from the turkeys...Mike..12-03-08

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  We have been hearing the Robin Hood story too long. We've bought into it. It's fundamentally flawed to an extreme and candy coated in a nice , easy to swallow pill. What is the premise of the story? He steals from the rich and gives to the poor. OK let's break it down. He steals. What is stealing? Taking something that is not yours. Which makes you a thief. Giving your booty away makes you no less a thief. So he's a "hood" who robs ("robin"). This is not a good story and should not be a basis for public policy. Mike..Fellow Bitter Clinger..12-03-08

When in the course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed.

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute a new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security......The first 4 paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence.......These were some very intelligent people                    .Roger...Bitterly,Clinging...10-08                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.
Thomas Jefferson                

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.
Thomas Jefferson                                                             

When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.                                                                                      Thomas Jefferson

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Thomas Jefferson

The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground.
Thomas Jefferson

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.
Thomas Jefferson

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.
Thomas Jefferson