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Environment-N

05 Sep

I have always had the impression that the environmentalists operate solely on feelings and ignore facts but saw a recent article confirming it once again. Some time ago I heard they were tearing down some dams in Washington State and didn’t think anything of it because we have a lot of old coffer dams that are aging and getting weak threatening to break and cause floods. Recently I saw an article saying these are hydroelectric dams being torn down to save the salmon. Salmon swim up river to breed and the dams blocked them so they couldn’t breed and their numbers declined. The environmentalists pointed this out in the 1970’s. That is true and so the government built salmon ladders which are a series of pools like a ladder to allow the fish to swim up over the dam. That solved the problem and the salmon returned. Now the environmentalists are again claiming that the dams are threatening the salmon, even though their numbers are increasing. The dams don’t pose any threat. The problem is that these are hydroelectric dams which produce electricity. The environmentalists are pushing for solar panels and wind turbines to replace coal and gas fired generators. Yet they are not dependable because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. While some hydroelectric dams in the west are being threatened by low water levels due to drought, that is a rare occurrence and that is not a problem in Washington State. Water generated electricity is generally dependable and consistent and tearing down hydroelectric dams to solve a problem that doesn’t exist doesn’t make sense. The fish aren’t having a problem so why should we tear down the dams, when we  really need them. The salmon numbers are below what they should be but it isn’t due to the dams. Animal protection activists fought to ban the killing of walruses and seals so they have been multiplying and one of their principle foods is salmon. Hunting used to control the numbers of walruses and seals but when hunting them was banned, they have multiplied out of control. Nature has a delicate balance and when we tinker with one thing, it may effect others. We built dams and it caused a problem so we built salmon ladders and solved the problem. That is the way to approach problems. You don’t just jump on something because it looks like a problem, because it may not really be a problem.

 

 
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Posted in Environment

 

First Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 1

29 Aug

 Time of Growing Deeper-Kingdomtide is a time when the church should be active in helping its members in growing deeper and building spiritual depth. Large numbers of people were suddenly brought into the church following Pentecost. They had not sat under the teaching of Jesus and they had to be taught how to live like Christians. Too many members today are not trained in Christian living and easily fall back into living like the world. The church needs to concentrate on building relationships where younger members learn from older members. They learn how to minister to those needs as they watch more mature Christians ministering to those in need. As they learn to identify needs and how to minister to those in need in the small groups, they begin to see the needs of those outside the church and can begin to minister to them also, demonstrating the love of Christ to unbelievers. As unbelievers see the love of Christ, they begin to desire that love and are attracted to the small group. It should also concentrate on helping members understand the basics of living in community. Where Lent concentrates on building individual faith, Kingdomtide concentrates on building community.

 

 
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Posted in Body Ministry, Kingdomtide

 

Meaning of Kingdomtide-Sept 1-video

29 Aug

 
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Posted in Kingdomtide, Videos

 

Politics-H-E

29 Aug

Under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Social Security Act (1935) was passed to help the elderly, the unemployed, and the disadvantaged. While that seems like a great achievement, the devil is in the details. While the main goals were to help those who are retired by having them pay into a separate fund, it also included a program for unemployment insurance which employers would contribute to, which were good programs. However, they also included health insurance for those in financial distress, assistance for widows with children, and assistance for those who were disabled. Overall, they were good programs in the beginning, however they were not funded by those who benefited and opened the doors to more entitlement programs. They soon began making changes that undermined them. Welfare was originally restricted to widows and only assisted children of needy families. It soon was extended to include women whose husband was no longer in the home. While that sounds good, it opened the door for husbands who were unwilling or unable to support their family to desert their wives so their wife could get help. That led to widespread desertion and divorce, destroying the family structure of many families paving the way for families to continue on welfare from one generation to the next. This hurt Black families the most because Black men were more likely to have low-paying jobs and their wives could make more on welfare. The percentage of Black families with two parents has dropped drastically, resulting in increased crime, alcoholism, drug use, illegitimate babies, and single parent families. That has trapped many families in welfare because they can not make enough in entry level jobs to equal what they make on welfare, so they don’t dare leave it. Democrats found they could get widespread support among Blacks and poor Whites, who were dependent on welfare, by expanding the welfare programs  and telling recipients that Republicans wanted to abolish the programs.

 
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Posted in legislation, Politics

 

Politics-AB-AC

29 Aug

It is interesting to see that Joe Biden suddenly called for closing the borders after fighting it for four years when the election approached, and every poll said immigration would be a big issue. Yet, he continued to fight Texas who tried to secure their borders. Kamala Harris is now calling for closing the borders after being responsible for the border crisis for four years and not doing it. It is also strange that Democrats are silent about her new stand. They fought it for a long time too. At least some of them should be outraged that she would suddenly change her stance. I suspect that the silence is due to the fact the Harris has already assured them that it is just words to deceive unsuspecting voters and will not affect her attempts to keep the border open once she is elected.

 

 

 
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Posted in immigration, Politics

 

Politics-AB-BB

29 Aug

There are calls for an Article V Convention– They want to amend the Constitution to limit federal power, balance the budget, secure the border, and impose term limits. Those are worthy goals but the Constitution already limits federal power and federal law already requires a balanced budget and secure borders. However, voters keep electing representatives that openly violate the Constitution and federal law. Term limits would help by ending career politicians who live off the federal payroll, however voters can easily impose term limits by refusing to re-elect someone who has served over two terms. Unless voters take responsibility for who they vote for, nothing will change. If voters continue to re-elect the present politicians who ignore the Constitution and federal laws, we will get to where they will so corrupt the voting process that the people cannot vote them out, if we haven’t reached that point yet. The law means nothing if the people allow politicians to ignore it.

 

 
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Posted in Politics, Voting

 

Fifteenth Sunday of Pentecost-Aug 25.

22 Aug

Neighborhood Bible Studies-The sad fact is that today, very few churches have Bible Studies. Many have dropped adult Sunday School and have teaching for young children during church. As a result, few adult church members have much knowledge of the Bible or how it applies to their everyday life. There may be families in your neighborhood who attend a church but have no real Bible knowledge. Neighborhood Bible Studies often include people from a variety of denominations united in the common interest of getting to know more about the Bible. While some passages may refer to beliefs held differently by different churches, most of the Bible is not controversial. You either believe it or you don’t. There are good Bible study guides available. It will help if the leader studies the material ahead of time and refers to a good commentary to help understand the study guide. It is also good to ask members how they feel the information will benefit them. Due to busy schedules, the group might feel that once a week is too ambitious and the group may consider twice a month during the school year and once a month in the summer. The church might group its members together that live near each other but live at a distance from the church to form the core group in the beginning but should plan for growth as new members are brought in and the group split when it gets over 12-15. If the group gets too large, members might not feel comfortable sharing and are not likely to invite their friends.

 
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Posted in Church ministry, Faith in practice, Pentecost

 

Politics-AB-BA

22 Aug

It is interesting to watch liberals trip over their own words. The Democrats in their convention have been railing against Republicans who they say are depriving families of having kids by opposing artificial breeding of babies. Yet, they push the murder of over a million unborn babies a year. If they want every family that wants a baby to have one, all they have to do is cut back on aborting them. If abortion was abolished today, there would not be enough families to take all the children. Those who push abortion have created a monster by unleashing sexual freedom. Before, women were afraid to have sex outside marriage because they might get pregnant. Now, they say you can enjoy sex with anyone anytime and not have to worry about carrying a baby to term. If you don’t want the baby that results, you can abort it. Now we are reaping the fruit of that. Then they say if you do want a baby, we can manufacture one for you. It is strangely similar to Hitler’s plan for the master race. You abort all the babies that aren’t wanted because of their race or some disability, then you kill those who are born with disabilities, and finally, you selectively breed the strongest of the race to create a master race.

 

 
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Posted in Politics, Sanctity of life

 

Politics-AB-AZ

21 Aug

Democrats joined Republicans in criticizing Harris for not controlling the border and other tasks assigned to her as Vice-President. All of a sudden, when she became the nominee for President, she is portrayed as competent and confident. She didn’t change overnight, but Democrats realized if she was going to win the election, they would have to change her image.  Voters have to look at her record and realize she isn’t fit to be President. President Biden was not competent to be President and a lot of the work was probably carried out by Harris. President Biden referred to Harris several times as President Harris and to himself as Vice-President. She also referred to herself several times as President. Was it just a slip of the tongue or did they accidently forget and reveal who was really running the  country. She did a poor job then and won’t do any better once she is elected to the Oval Office. It is even worse the fact that she wasn’t selected by the Democrat voters but was appointed by the Democrat party leadership.

 

 
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Posted in Politics

 

Economics-G-A

21 Aug

Kamala Harris claims that she will institute price ceilings to stop the price gouging of big corporations. She refuses to admit that the price raises are the result of out of control government spending which has fueled inflation and increased regulations and taxes on corporations  which have driven up production costs forcing companies to recoup the increased costs from the consumer. Price ceilings have never worked. They limit how much a company can charge for its product but do not limit the costs of producing the product. When companies can no longer charge enough to pay for producing goods, they stop producing them. The result is that the product is no longer available and the workers who produced them are laid off. It sounds good to stick it to corporations but people forget that corporations have to make enough to pay their expenses in order to stay in business. When they can no longer meet expenses, they go out of business. President Trump recognized that. He cut government spending and the rate of inflation dropped. He also cut taxes and regulations and businesses expanded, the economy flourished, and unemployment dropped.  President Obama and President Biden expanded government spending and increased taxes and business regulations. As a result, inflation increased and businesses cut back production and laid off workers. President Biden even went beyond President Obama in wasteful government spending and in expanding welfare benefits which led many people to go on government benefits rather than go to work. The result is less job openings, but far fewer people looking for work so there are a lot of jobs available but people don’t want to work because they can make more in government benefits.

 

 
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Posted in Economics, Politics

 
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