George Offerman
This is the time of the year that one gets a chance to contemplate their relationships with the Lord, if they understand the nature of this time. Unfortunately, there are too many distractions and concerns getting in the way of remembering that God, through His infinite love, manifested Himself in human form for the sake of our salvation. This message is so lost in our times and it seems it is only remembered when one goes to Church on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. What a sad testimony towards our faith and our creator.
As Christians first and Americans second, what do we want to accomplish in the upcoming year? Will we be too focused on the economy and our pocketbooks, or will it focus more on the fundamentals of our faith, such as guaranteeing life for all, bringing the Word of God to a lost world, or simply just being loving and caring towards our fellow man? Unfortunately, this season tends to bring out good will, only to end when the tree is put away, and the Visa bills come in, because the true meaning of Christmas is misunderstood and cast aside like some used electronic gizmo that has outlived its usefulness.
Without question, this past year has brought many challenges to our country and way of life. How many have thought that it was brought on by our way of life? Many want to complain about what has happened, but want to do little about it, and will even do less when considering we all have a part to play in this. We have such a sense of entitlement in this country, and are very quick to blame others when things don’t go the way we want them to. This is the antithesis of Christmas, in which the Son of God took the form of a human, and ultimately died a brutal death for sins he did not commit in order to save those who don’t deserve it.
The sense of giving and charity should not revolve around a certain part of the year when people dress up in red suits ringing bells, and nice music is played on the radio, and all sorts of things are advertised for half price. What if God gave to us in the same fashion that we show giving and charity? We would only have a few weeks at the most each year that we could count on blessings, and it would be during the times of the rest of the year we would find out how helpless we really are. We would find that God’s protection and blessings are not a part time endeavor, and we would be really upset if we ended up with less than a full time God.
I am grateful there is a God out there who can deliver much more than I can ever imagine, and that it is not dependent upon my efforts to make it happen. We just have to be willing to accept this free gift and then carry it to the world. It definitely requires us to be open to discomfort and inconvenience, but this is such a small price to pay when considering eternity and what awaits us there. That is what the real message of Christmas is. Without the birth of the God man, all would be lost, and the amount of agony and suffering would be magnitudes higher than what we see today. This is the lesson we need to take from this Christmas. And no matter what happens next year concerning our country and world, we have a God that loves us to the point of death and will not abandon us in our hour of need.
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Friday, December 24, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID
George Offerman
The above phrase ushered Bill Clinton into office in 1992, as it resonated with the general public. No matter what one thinks about Bill Clinton, he definitely is a master at reading the ‘tea leaves’ and exploiting the situation to his advantage. Bill Clinton is also the master at ‘redefining reality’ or in terms of antiquity, lying. But the only way to consistently lie and sell this to most people, is to first understand the truth of the reality one is in, and twist it enough, to sound credible. Unfortunately, too many of the pro life organizations have lost the ability to see the truth of the current reality, and are thus ‘fooled’ by this group that was elected, and who supposedly made promises to them pertaining to pro life issues.
This point has been brought up in many previous postings on this site, as well as by others, but it has largely fallen on deaf ears. The mainstream pro life movement, lead by many of the 501 c 3 organizations, has sold many on the idea that it was actually them, and not the tea party, that swung the elections the way that they went. If this were true, the pro life issue would be front and center, instead of something that is being cast aside without much thought or fanfare by the ‘new’ congress and its leaders. What is front and center is the economy. For anyone to argue against this would look very foolish and would be outside of the current reality by miles.
That is why it is so disheartening to see many of these organizations now ‘whining’ about many of the politicians making bold statements about keeping the ‘social issues’ in the background, and focusing on the economic realities. I truly have to wonder if these organizations witnessed what I saw, and what seemed to be so obvious to the average American. The tea party arose from the out of control nature of the government spending way too much money, running up debt that has no chance in hell of ever being repaid, taking over too much of the economy, and taking away too many rights, while giving many of the criminals in white collars and nice suits, free passes on our dime.
This is what was on the average American’s mind during the run up and subsequent election. Many in the pro life movement have been too busy hob knobbing with the enemy, and playing by their rules to have had much effect in stirring up the much needed passion to make legalized child killing front and center. Those who did have the courage to ‘stir the pot’ such as Missy Smith, were labeled ‘extremists’ and disregarded by the majority of the pro life groups. The problem is, legalized child killing is out of sight of the average American and as such, is normally a non issue when it is time to cast a ballot. The economy was, and still is, front and center, and affects the common man deeply. The common man will respond to what is in front of him, and truth be told, outside of Missy Smith and a few others, legalized child killing as an issue was MIA in this election cycle. No amount of revision of recent history by many of these pro life organizations will change this reality.
So, while these various pro life organizations continue to peddle the idea that they were the ones responsible for the outcomes of the elections, the reality surrounding these claims will continue to fall apart. Of course, these organizations will be the first to gripe, or worse yet be ‘surprised’ when those in office ignore the ‘social’ issues these groups claimed to have elected them for. The truth of the matter is that the politicians will stay true to those who got them in, and it is those whose pocket books were hurt the most. It is the poor economic conditions of this country that ‘pissed’ people off and motivated them into action.
The recklessness of the Demovamps and the Republicants has hit home, and has affected the average American personally. So, they mobilized into the tea party movement and basically cleaned house. The pro life issue was nowhere to be seen and as such, played little into this election. Because the pro lifers were stifled enough by the muzzle of the IRS, this issue was nearly invisible and did not get the attention of the average American. The vilification of the tea party movement by the mainstream press and the establishment proved they were a threat and a force to be reckoned with. The pro life movement, outside of Missy Smith, made no such waves and was not seen as any threat by the MSM or the establishment. So the fruits are being borne as we watch, and we are seeing how barren the front is.
Yet, too many of the pro life organizations are trying to paint a different picture than this. They are trying to convince the pro life community that they were something they were not, and will have to find some incredible explanations for themselves when failure occurs legislatively, as it must for the pro life agenda. As sad as it is, the law of sowing and reaping is in effect. We sanitized our message for the sake of ‘getting along’ and now those elected will ‘sanitize’ their efforts in the pro life arena. We ‘toned down’ the rhetoric in order to get many elected, now they are ‘scaling back’ the social issues in order to deal with the economic issues. We got what we deserved in these candidates.
So, regardless of what the various pro life organizations want to claim, they need to take a good hard look at the reality of the situation and admit that they did not come with their ‘A’ game. Mediocre efforts never result in spectacular outcomes, and this most recent election is no exception to this rule. For those of you who still do not get it, Bill Clinton has the answer for you: it’s the economy, stupid.
The above phrase ushered Bill Clinton into office in 1992, as it resonated with the general public. No matter what one thinks about Bill Clinton, he definitely is a master at reading the ‘tea leaves’ and exploiting the situation to his advantage. Bill Clinton is also the master at ‘redefining reality’ or in terms of antiquity, lying. But the only way to consistently lie and sell this to most people, is to first understand the truth of the reality one is in, and twist it enough, to sound credible. Unfortunately, too many of the pro life organizations have lost the ability to see the truth of the current reality, and are thus ‘fooled’ by this group that was elected, and who supposedly made promises to them pertaining to pro life issues.
This point has been brought up in many previous postings on this site, as well as by others, but it has largely fallen on deaf ears. The mainstream pro life movement, lead by many of the 501 c 3 organizations, has sold many on the idea that it was actually them, and not the tea party, that swung the elections the way that they went. If this were true, the pro life issue would be front and center, instead of something that is being cast aside without much thought or fanfare by the ‘new’ congress and its leaders. What is front and center is the economy. For anyone to argue against this would look very foolish and would be outside of the current reality by miles.
That is why it is so disheartening to see many of these organizations now ‘whining’ about many of the politicians making bold statements about keeping the ‘social issues’ in the background, and focusing on the economic realities. I truly have to wonder if these organizations witnessed what I saw, and what seemed to be so obvious to the average American. The tea party arose from the out of control nature of the government spending way too much money, running up debt that has no chance in hell of ever being repaid, taking over too much of the economy, and taking away too many rights, while giving many of the criminals in white collars and nice suits, free passes on our dime.
This is what was on the average American’s mind during the run up and subsequent election. Many in the pro life movement have been too busy hob knobbing with the enemy, and playing by their rules to have had much effect in stirring up the much needed passion to make legalized child killing front and center. Those who did have the courage to ‘stir the pot’ such as Missy Smith, were labeled ‘extremists’ and disregarded by the majority of the pro life groups. The problem is, legalized child killing is out of sight of the average American and as such, is normally a non issue when it is time to cast a ballot. The economy was, and still is, front and center, and affects the common man deeply. The common man will respond to what is in front of him, and truth be told, outside of Missy Smith and a few others, legalized child killing as an issue was MIA in this election cycle. No amount of revision of recent history by many of these pro life organizations will change this reality.
So, while these various pro life organizations continue to peddle the idea that they were the ones responsible for the outcomes of the elections, the reality surrounding these claims will continue to fall apart. Of course, these organizations will be the first to gripe, or worse yet be ‘surprised’ when those in office ignore the ‘social’ issues these groups claimed to have elected them for. The truth of the matter is that the politicians will stay true to those who got them in, and it is those whose pocket books were hurt the most. It is the poor economic conditions of this country that ‘pissed’ people off and motivated them into action.
The recklessness of the Demovamps and the Republicants has hit home, and has affected the average American personally. So, they mobilized into the tea party movement and basically cleaned house. The pro life issue was nowhere to be seen and as such, played little into this election. Because the pro lifers were stifled enough by the muzzle of the IRS, this issue was nearly invisible and did not get the attention of the average American. The vilification of the tea party movement by the mainstream press and the establishment proved they were a threat and a force to be reckoned with. The pro life movement, outside of Missy Smith, made no such waves and was not seen as any threat by the MSM or the establishment. So the fruits are being borne as we watch, and we are seeing how barren the front is.
Yet, too many of the pro life organizations are trying to paint a different picture than this. They are trying to convince the pro life community that they were something they were not, and will have to find some incredible explanations for themselves when failure occurs legislatively, as it must for the pro life agenda. As sad as it is, the law of sowing and reaping is in effect. We sanitized our message for the sake of ‘getting along’ and now those elected will ‘sanitize’ their efforts in the pro life arena. We ‘toned down’ the rhetoric in order to get many elected, now they are ‘scaling back’ the social issues in order to deal with the economic issues. We got what we deserved in these candidates.
So, regardless of what the various pro life organizations want to claim, they need to take a good hard look at the reality of the situation and admit that they did not come with their ‘A’ game. Mediocre efforts never result in spectacular outcomes, and this most recent election is no exception to this rule. For those of you who still do not get it, Bill Clinton has the answer for you: it’s the economy, stupid.
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