16 Trillion Dollar Debt

I have watched in my lifetime the national debt increase.  I am not going to cast all the blame on one political party, as both parties are complicit in the matter.  Each president since Ronald Reagan has been signing into law spending bills that could not be covered by incoming revenue. 

Now as many know, debt carries with it interest.  If interest rates are low, then debt is easier to carry.  But when interest rates rise, even a small amount of debt can become quite burdensome on one's budget.  So now after 30+ years of borrowing money to fund the federal budget, the U.S.A. finds itself in debt to the tune of 16 trillion dollars.  If interest rates climb, there won't be enough incoming revenue (taxes) to cover the interest on the debt. 

There isn't any other topic more important than this one to be discussed by presidential candidates.  How much have you heard discussed concerning this topic during the campaign? 

But maybe if the U.S. government was not involved in housing, feeding, educating, insuring, and providing medical care for its citizens, there would not be a debt problem.  So which candidate wishes to address the real issue.  That is, How can we get this nation back to following the constitution and return to operating within our financial means?

If they don't, it won't matter what their position on the middle east, abortion, obamacare, equality in the workforce, or what they are going to do to "create more jobs".  (Just to help out the ignorant, presidents don't create jobs.  Businesses do. Or better said, working people do.) 

Something to consider as you prepare to vote this November.

I Like Chicken

I like chicken.  I'm not chicken to say so.
I'm also not chicken to say that marriage is only between one man and one woman. 

Nope, it is not between two men, nor between two women. 
That's an abomination.

Leviticus 18
22   Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Romans 1
18   For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;
19   Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.
20   For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:
21   Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
22   Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23   And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
24   Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
25   Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
26   For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27   And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28   And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;


And it is not between a man and a woman that have been previously married to another.
That's adultery.

Where do we get the authority to say these things?  We get them from the scriptures.  The scriptures define marriage.
Mark 10
6   But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
7   For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
8   And they twain shall be one flesh: so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.
9   What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Do you see that in verse 8.  Once two are married, they will never be two, until death, as the next portion of scripture below will show.

Romans 7
2   For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
3   So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Are you still with me?  This is a lot of spiritual light for many that are are accustomed to being in the dark spiritually.  But this is simply giving you scripture to read and learn from.  We are not talking about what a church or college teaches.  We are not dealing with the tradition of men.  Simply what the Lord recorded in the holy scriptures for anyone that is interested to learn. 

Its not about chicken, its about "Thus saith the Lord."  Many are showing that they are "professing themselves to be wise" while really foolish.
They have been given over to a reprobate mind, as something so honorable, and right, as one man and one woman being joined for life is considered hateful to them.  Yet they are standing for what God has already condemned in the scripture, homosexuality.  And sadly, many are hypocrites, condemning "gay marriage", but allowing divorced persons to remarry. 

So Preacher, before you stand behind your pulpit and deliver your Chick-fil-A  message on marriage, make sure your doctrine is scriptural concerning all marriages.

Race is over

Sadly the race has come to an end.  Due to an injury that my Dad sustained, the race has been cancelled.  He was the winner in the points category, and I was ahead in the miles.  So it was a good contest, not to be repeated again by mutual consent.

June Race Totals

Dad                  1100 miles
Monocogman      900 miles
The lead for Monocogman has been cut to 318 miles. Finally in July the two contestants will see each other, and even ride together. Also, Dad has some traveling days as he comes to Minnesota for awhile. Should be interesting to see how the month plays out.

May Race Totals

Now that we are in May, the race miles are even against each other. But May had some down time for both of the racers. My Dad attended a funeral in Wisconsin, and then came across to MN for a short visit. Our family was out of town for a week at family camp in Joplin, MO. So this affected mileage totals. Dad 811 miles. Me 600 miles. My lead is now down to 518 miles.

April race results

Well April was an interesting month.  A lot of rain came through our area, and a busy schedule kept me from the bicycle.  Thus my total was 523.5, multiplied by 2 came out to 1047.  Dad fought strongly, and finished with 1063 miles.  So Dad won his first month, and closed the gap to 729 miles.  But he is to be congratulated the most for his final day of the month.  He started out around 6:00am and rode 177 miles by midnight, then kept riding as the new month started for another 28 miles, giving a total of 205 miles for a 24 hour period.  Remember the point system, there is 500 points to be awarded for the man who rides the most miles in a 24 hour period.  His total will be tough to beat.

Now that May has begun, the miles are even until October 1st.  Will that lead hold up for Monocogman?

Race update

The late figures for the month of March are here.

Dad 883 miles
Monocogman 441.2 miles, multiplied by 2.5 = 1103.

The lead is now 745 miles for Monocogman. April miles are multiplied by 2 in favor of Monocogman. Then May arrives, when for 5 months it is even miles. Look out, the race will tighten up.

Good Friday?

Jesus Christ said, "For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." Jesus Christ said of himself that he is the way, the truth, and the life. All that he said is truth. He also said that the devil is the father of lies.

I John 2:21, "I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth."

Now if I were to ask a child if there were three nights between Friday evening and Sunday morning, they would answer of course not. No wonder Jesus said, " Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." Because children would simply believe what their maker said. I don't know what the vast majority of pastors in this country are taught, but how they continue to follow this Good Friday tradition is beyond me. Simple math of counting to three shows that it is not so. Jesus Christ did not die on Friday, but rather Wednesday, as a simple Bible study shows.

Now if they lie to you on this subject, how many other lies do they tell?

Gaza, a lost cause

The prophet Zephaniah wrote, " For Gaza shall be forsaken". We learn from our reading in the Old Testament that Gaza was one of the areas that the Philistines inhabited. Judges 16:21 reads concerning Samson, "But the Philistines took him, and put out his eyes, and brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass; and he did grind in the prison house." The Philistines were the enemies of Israel. There never was peace between Israel and the Philistines. The only thing the Philistines understood was force. Either they used it against Israel to take land and spoil, or Israel used force in return to stop their attacks.

Move ahead to 2012. Nothing has changed. The Palestinians are the descendants of the Biblical Philistines. They are still attacking Israel as their one purpose in life. They still only understand force. There will be no peace with them, and our text shows that one day they will be forsaken as a people and utterly wiped out as another of the Lord's prophets wrote.

Zechariah 12:
8 In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

February Race Totals

Race totals for the month of February

Dad - 1559 miles

Me - 559 x 3 = 1677

That gives a 525 mile lead going into March. In March my miles are multiplied by 2.5. We received 11 inches of snow the last two days of February. So some time off the bicycle as the plowing and melting brings the roads and trails back to ridable conditions. So Dad has the advantage as the month begins.

The Race continues

For all those paying attention, or if any even care. Here is the latest update on the goofy race.

Totals as of Feb 16. 2012 at 7:30 CST -

Dad 692 miles

Me 270, multiplied by three (see rules) thus 810

So now for the year, I have a 525 mile lead. But don't forget, in March the mile multiplication rate drops to 2.5. But March is the snowiest month in MN so it will remain a tough competition for the month as Virginia Beach is warming up.

January Race Totals

So January is in the books, the first month is over in the goofy race that no one call really understand. Well at least understand how we came up with the rules and points.

First, points

Dad - 900
Me - 500

Miles

Dad 1150
Me 519 which are multiplied by 3 in January, thus the grand total of 1557.

One might ask, How do you ride so many miles in MN in January?

Dr. Seuss would reply -
You ride in the dark, you ride in a park
You ride at night, you ride with a light...

But seriously, the weather was rather balmy by MN standards for the winter. We have some walking/bicycling paths that are kept plowed in town. They are about 300 feet from our house. The lakes are good for riding, if you have studded tires. (which I do) And yes, you do need some lights to ride after supper in the winter.

How will February turn out? Stay tuned....

Really, that is the best you can do?

So the Republican Party is in the midst of the process of nominating a candidate to run against President Obama. It was evident what kind of leader Mr. Obama was going to be early in his presidency. There would be great opportunity to show the difference between a fiscal conservative that adheres to the constitution and Mr. Obama. There was adequate time to find someone who could articulate a position that would easily defeat Mr. Obama. But instead we now watch the three stooges put on their silly show at these so called debates. While I appreciate the position being taken by Ron Paul concerning fiscal conservatism, the fact of the matter is that at age 76, I don't have confidence in his ability to serve out a four year term. The office of the president is very demanding and stressful. It takes a man in his 40's and 50's and makes him look 20 years older when he leaves office.

So I ask, is that the best there is to offer? Or were those that could have been elected told to "sit down and shut up".

Sorry, I don't see any of these four that are currently in the limelight as having any chance of defeating Mr. Obama.

(And, no, I don't want to see Mr. Obama serve another term)

One

Keeping with the theme of this blog, today we had one. One what you might ask. One degree. One lonely degree on the thermometer. We had a high temp of one degree above O.

This was the coldest day in my life going back to January of 1998. The morning started out at -17, and just warmed right up to one.

So, I did not ride even one mile.

Half way update

I left out one rule when giving the breakdown of this year's race with my Dad. We can not ask each other for a mileage total until the 15th of the month, and then only 3 requests are allowed during that last half of the month. So yesterday my Dad called with his mileage request. The totals as of 3pm CST on the 15th were -

Dad - 595 miles
Monocogman - 292.7, which multiplied by 3 gives me 878.1

Thus my lead as of 3pm CST on the 15th was 283.1 miles.

When we planned this race in August, and thus agreed to the rules, we had no idea there would be such warm weather conditions in MN for January. Four of the first ten days had record highs here, so with no snow on the roads, it made for some almost too easy to get miles. But I will take them, winter could show up and slow things down any day now.

Vote results

I came across this quote attributed to Joseph Stalin -

“It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything.”

In Iowa, the GOP decided to count the votes at an undisclosed location. Shame on you folks that are involved in those kind of actions. Please don't give us another candidate like you did 4 years ago. He was afraid to have some give Mr. Obama's complete name, and he certainly didn't want to deal with the fact Mr. Obama is a Marxist and a Muslim. I know many of you will disagree telling me that is not what Mr. Obama says. I am not interested in what he says, rather I have been watching what he has been doing.

Ride Report

So due to this goofy race, I am riding in temps that would cause most sane people stay inside and read a good book.  Late yesterday afternoon I had a flat tire, so I changed the tube, which normally is an easy job, but when it is 10 degrees out with a little breeze, the fun factor increases.  I rode another three miles after that and the tire went flat again.  Now it is dark, due to lost time on the previous flat.  Should have been home by now.  No chance to figure out where the flats are and patch them due to the darkness. (wasn't planning to be out late, so did not bring a light)  But adding to the fun was the fact I forgot my cell phone.  So now I had a 2.5 mile walk home.

So upon checking out the two tubes for flats at home, I find that they both have cracked at the stem. Both on the same day, within 3 miles of each other.  Hmmm, does my day have someone here in MN sabotaging my bicycles?

It could be an interesting year.