First let me state that I am hoping that massive anti-DEM turn out in November will be enough to overturn the monstrosity being voted on today. If that can happen then much of the terrible consequences of govt run healthcare can be avoided. But if not...well, will this be the end of self-reliance?

Of course our country has been heading this direction in so many ways. I am not operating under a delusion that a majority of Americans strive for self-reliance. Like Jeshurun, we have grown fat in our luxury; although a sizeable majority of Americans did not want this legislation the fact remains it was an entitlement mindset that put the tyrants in power in the first place.

In any case what I am disappointed in the most is that govt has once again sliced off a huge chunk of personal responsibility that is well within reach. Simply put I refuse to believe that there are 30 million Americans in addition to the large number already classified as poor who CANNOT provide for themselves. There may be 30 million who WILL not or who are not content with what they can provide for themselves, but that is a significantly different issue; one that govt entitlement programs will not only not solve, but historically and economically will surely only make worse. (Did anyone catch the story that Food Stamps are connected with Obesity? Another govt pogram making people worse off!)

Of course the typical liberal response is to trot out sob stories. Everybody knows there are people dealing with financial difficulties (please remember this isn't about the poor - they are already covered by Medicaid). But here is something that is whitewashed with the sob story mentality. How many of those people are there because of their own choices? Don't we all know people who have made one dumb decision after another against the advice family and friends, but somehow now we are all to blame for being such a harsh society that doesn't take care of them. That's ridiculous. A society of 300 million people cannot survive while guaranteeing success for people no matter how persistent they are in making bad choices. But to get back to this legislation, how many of the supposed 30 million could have turned their lives around by working 5-10 hours more a week and tightening their budget. Certainly not all of them. But out of 30 million - maybe 20, maybe 25. So now we will discourage 300 million people from living responsibly (in actuality making harder for them to do so) because there are 5 million who honestly can't help themselves and there are 25 million who won't. What a great plan. That is sure to be a blessing to this country.

Well, even in the vacuum of pure policy, it is economically predictable what will happen - we are dealing with 300 million people and that size group responds extremely predictably to various incentives. But nothing happens in a vacuum and the present context is toxic. When a massive social policy is built upon lies and demonizations, what will the result be for society? When the President and other DEM party leaders can openly attack those who produce the wealth and pay the taxes consumed by non-working entitlement class (all the while confiscating those taxes to bribe other congressman for votes) will the result be more production and more sacrifices made on behalf of the entitlement class?

Well much more could be said. But you probably don't want to read it and it serves little profit for me to write it.

This morning I began my reading while sitting on the couch. I came across a verse that caught my attention because I had been thinking about that topic recently. So I paused to reflect for a moment about it. As it was still somewhat early in the morning, I naturally closed my eyes. Probably in less than 10 seconds my reflecting began to drift into a less conscious activity. Probably 1 or 2 minutes passed and I realized that I was in danger of drifting off to a deeper sleep. So I sat up straighter and looked to read the next verse which happened to be I Thess. 4:13:

"Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep..."

So what would you think if a person attempted to gain your partnership in a business opportunity and presented numbers that showed a substantial profit. But then you discovered that they only showed you 6 years worth of costs versus 10 years of revenue.

This is just one of many examples of how there is a fundamental dishonesty taking place in the political arena with respect to health care. The more Obama talks he leaves with only one of two options: either he is dumb or he is dishonest. On the one hand it would be easier to stomach that the former is true, but his life story would seem to mitigate against that. But it is not easy to accept the idea that he and others are purposely doing certain things to this country knowing what the results will be: higher unemployment, greater govt dependency, more poverty, etc. What kind of social vision relishes those things? Only one that believes that such pain is necessary in order to reach some goal viewed as a greater good. So what is the greater good that Obama truly hopes to accomplish? Are the people his true concern or is it simply a total reworking of govt and society regardless of the actual effects on the common man? If the people are the true concern then why does the fundamental dishonesty persist?

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In other news, Gambling has once again been an issue here in Alabama. Citizens defeated an initiative for a lottery a few years ago. However, gambling proponents keep demanding that the people get to vote. This time the issue was electronic bingo. Of course all sorts of promises about education revenue are promised if we just legalize various forms of gambling.

The only real argument for legalizing gambling is that states around us have it therefore we are losing money from those who drive across state lines to buy lottery tickets or gamble in other ways. But the obvious response to this is that it is to our benefit to keep all the trouble that comes with gambling in those states. The other issue is that we are also compromised because of Indian Casinos in our state, so there are some forms of legal gambling - thus if you have one why not the other.

The end result for now is no lottery and no electronic bingo in Alabama. Unless other states (TN and GA especially) eliminate their lotteries I assume it is just a matter of time before we have it too. Although most countries have lotteries, wouldn't it be great if the USA were a leading light in the world and refused to rob poor people and erode principles of stewardship for the short term goal of fattening political pocketbooks. But it seems political processes breed such policies rather than withstand them.

I returned this week from a successful 2.5 week trip to Norway and Portugal. The primary intention of the trip was to meet with Christians; however I was able to share the gospel with a Lithuanian in Norway and also do some studies with non-Christians in Portugal.

We celebrated my return with lunch at Chuck E. Cheese. Annalise particularly liked the Barney train.

The last lesson in our Christianity 101 series will be on Materialism. Unfortunately I will be out of the country so I have had to turn the reins over to my good friend Ben for that lesson. Spending just 40 minutes on the topic is a daunting task - however like the other lessons in this series it is meant to be an introduction not exhaustive treatment.

So I googled "Bible verses about money" to see if anyone had collected all the verses related to money and the following url is the first one I opened:

http://www.christianpf.com/money-in-the-bible/

It seems pretty comprehensive. And it is easy to use as the site operator has it broken down into categories.