Easter Weekend, Military Warriors, Politics, and Freedom

Part of a note I wrote to some friends of mine today...

My buddy just sent me a note today. He came home from Afghanistan with the Army Special Forces. One of his teammates (John Masson) came home a few months earlier than he did after stepping on a land mine and losing both of his legs and an arm. I can't imagine his kids or my kids not being FREE.
WE MUST NOT SACRIFICE LIBERTY FOR TEMPORARY FEELINGS OF SECURITY. We must not do it.

Now, in my rambling, in between changing poopy diapers and setting the trampoline up for the kids after having it up for the winter, I could go on and on about other (things), but I won't.

May I just say this: I know God lives. One evidence of this is the wise and God-fearing men He raised up to pronounce a Declaration of Independence, to create a beloved U.S. Constitution, and establish this blessed land which we call America, for their children and ours. America's Founding Fathers were not simply men who got together at a critical and pivotal time on this continent; they were led and inspired by God to grant us freedom and liberty by law.

I've stood atop Pike's Peak in Colorado where the words for "America the beautiful" were inspired.

I've stood in the melancholy fields of Gettysburg and have wept at man's inhumanity to man.

I've walked by the dark iron gates at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave and have pondered what will come of the United States.

I've walked in the garden, the beautiful garden of Gethsemane, made sacred two millennia ago. I've stood at the empty tomb and pondered the impossible. It seems right to mention such a thing today, given it's Easter weekend.



This much I know, and doubt not: Nothing is impossible with God.

We are at a great and terrible place in history. The tide of immorality wages and the land is being crushed from the inside by diabolical politicians and lovers of their own selves rather than lovers of God, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul.

We are facing a crippling debt so enormous in scale and so horrific in size that nothing seems possible to fix that ailing balloon ready to pop and turn into a second great depression. I worry for my children and for the financial interests of all Americans.

I worry about tyranny in the government as the government grows larger, seeking more control; I worry about the people's voices as well as their votes, particularly those who seek a permanent dole and who don't care about liberty, thrift or hard work.

Yet, I am optimistic in that the good and honorable men like you will help -- and have helped -- do your part in keeping America great and free.

God bless you all. I'm glad to call you my friends and brothers.

Jeffrey Denning
http://mormon.org/me/2GXB/Jeffrey

Foreign Energy Reliance - Our Broke Government - More Taxes, Ugh.

This C-span report by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) is an interesting approach to someone's crazy idea of an energy solution!

After reviewing House Bill 909, Roadmap for America's Energy Future, which the aforementioned Congressman, and 70 others have supported, it looks positive. I found this disturbing figure on the Bill sponsor's website:

Roughly half of the U.S. trade deficit is energy related. Preventing fossils fuel development at home has made us dependent on foreign oil for 70% of our supply.

My fellow American's we cannot afford to be dependent upon foreign commodities, especially oil. If the oil magnates and regulators decide to switch to a foreign currency, going away from the ever-declining US Dollar, prices would soar. But that's not all! Prices are going to soar anyway. They have been and they will yet go heavenward...but that, my friends, would not be heaven on earth at all. The recession seems be spiraling.

I'm an optimist by nature, and I still have hope for America's future, but a depression, or at least a quasi-depression seems to be rearing its ugly head on the horizon. This is especially true given the fact that Congress and government leaders continue to spend money we don't have. Like a balloon inflated too much, if we continue on this path the explosion will make the Hindenburg disaster look like a tea party -- and I'm not talking about being Taxed Enough Already!

Speaking of taxes...my wife and I voted yesterday in a local city election. We voted "No" to another lame tax. Why did so many people vote "Yes"? Yet another burdensome tax law passed. We're already in one of the highest tax areas in the entire country! There's even talk of the state filing for bankruptcy!

I do not believe for one minute that raising taxes will help our local or state government spend less. If anyone thinks raising taxes will help us (meaning any local, state or federal government entity) get out of debt, don't believe it. If they get our money, they'll just spend more. The writing's on the wall -- government cannot manage money. That's my money, and your money. It should be sacred and used with care. More of it should be in our pockets.

There are giant US corporations now headquartered in Ireland. Why? Because Ireland has one of the lowest tax mandates in the English-speaking world, if not the lowest. There are literally billions of dollars worth or revenue going back into that country because the taxes are LOW. Why can't Congress collectively get a clue? Why must we outsource and rely on other countries for goods and consumer products? Because it's cheaper to hire foreigners in foreign lands, that's why! Yet by lowering taxes we could create more jobs for the thousands of good and wise and honest American's out of work. We could pour money into the US treasury and, especially into the American households.

My friends and fellow countrymen, it is far past time to raise a hue and a cry. We MUST become patriots for the American cause or we will one day not have or enjoy the liberties and the freedom our citizen ancestors have for the last two centuries!

Finally, I recently purchased a great book of Ronald Reagan speeches, and I found this treasure in a speech he gave in Arizona years prior to his tenure in the Whitehouse. He said,

"Here is the main battleground! We must reduce the government's supply of money and deny it the right to borrow. ...

"If your Congressman should say we must cut costs first and then reduce taxes—don't stand for it. Remind him that no government in history has ever voluntarily reduced itself in size. Governments will always find a need for the money they get." (A Time for Choosing: The Speeches of Ronald Reagan, 1961-1982 (eds. A.M. Balitzer & G.M. Bonetto; Chicago: Regnery Gateway in cooperation with Americans for the Reagan Agenda, 1983) 35, italics original, 37-38.


P.S. For a good read on politics, terrorism and the future of American economy if we continue to rely on foreign oil, see retired CIA officer Robert Baer's Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude.