The prudent sees the evil and hides himself,

Proverbs 22:3 (New American Standard Bible)
The prudent sees the evil and hides himself,
But the naive go on, and are punished for it.

Troubles are a part of life. Don't be lulled to complacency by apparent peace. Please prepare.
This is a very interesting allegory:
The Storm.

 Picture source

Argentina - a blue print for the future of the USA?

Interesting article looking at Argentina's economic history and how the USA is heading in a similar direction.

How To Protect Your Hard Earned Money From Financial Meltdown

On this amazing 87 minute DVD for 2009, Don and David McAlvany analyze the financial market chaos and its immediate impact on the real world economy . Order your FREE copy of "Conquering Chaos" today at www.orderdvdtoday.com or call 800 525 9556.

View the trailer.

"Cash for Clunkers" - Destroying valuable items to stimulate the economy?

What is done with your cash for clunker trade-in, many of which are still usable? It is destroyed.
Well that's helping the environment and the economy then, right? Are you paying cash for the new car or are you getting more in debt? And many of the new purchases are for foreign made cars. So much for really helping the fundamentals of the USA economy. As for the environment, what effect does new car production have on the environment? What effect does scrapping a working car have on the environment?
We have to look at the bigger picture. I like this quote:
“In every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations.” The Iroquois Confederacy

Take a look at this tidbit from history:

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans couldn't afford to buy food. With food prices falling and huge surpluses of food building, the government decided to pass the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 which forced farmers to destroy crops and livestock in an attempt to artificially drive up food prices. The plan backfired and led to millions of Americans starving, prolonging the Great Depression for another six years.
From: http://inflation.us/cashforclunkers.html

Could cash for clunkers be just the beginning of more drastic measures to falsely prop up the failing economy but actually worsening the problem?

State of the Economy - a Mess!

Here is an excellent article on the condition of the economy:

Mountain Vision

At the end of the page is a story, in layman's terms describing the derivatives market.

repeal of homestead property tax

A proposal from a couple of years ago to repeal the property tax for homesteads in Indiana:
http://www.munciefreepress.com/node/17712
I wonder where this is now...
Need this in Texas, too!

Insight into God's purposes

I would encourage anyone interested in understanding more of what is happening behind the scenes in current events to these sites:
Scott Webster Ministries
Scott is on the Apostolic Core Leadership Team of the Kingdom Community Network of Congress WBN. He also heads the Atlanta Embassy of Elijah Center. Elijah Center, based in Trinidad, is the creative core of Congress WBN. Scott publishes a newsletter that gives insight of the underlying philosophies and mentalities that drive the events in society and how we must realign our hearts with God's principles to establish His rulership in our lives and the earth as a whole.

ICA is a financial and geo-political consultant company that offers a wealth of resources concerning current events. They have daily news briefings, a weekly audio commentary, and monthly newsletter.

Economy, polity, society

I recently finished a very interesting little book by Blair Adams, published by Colloquium Press. The title is "Severing the Roots of Unsustainability." It is called "A Basic Primer", for it is derived from other much more extensive works. It looks at how culture includes three aspects, economy, polity, and society. What determines the nature of the culture is which of those three is dominant. If economy is dominant then the other two; the public, civil life and inter-personal relationships serve only towards the goal of economic growth. What I would call raw capitalism. If polity is dominant, then the other two are subservient to the expansion of the public/civil life, an authoritarian type of system. In the type of culture where society, meaning personal relationships, is dominant then the basis of relationships is voluntary association with shared principles and values. Thus the civil government springs from the internal self-government of the people. The economy is based on meeting the needs of the individuals and the community, not focused on greater profit.

How we live, impacts people around the world

One aspect of the building of community is living with an understanding that how I live, what I do, who I am, impacts people in other parts of the world.
As the saying goes hindsight is 20/20, here is an article that dramatically illustrates this principle in a sad, negative light. A rare metal, of which I have never heard, coltan, is used in certain electronics components such as some capacitors and the Congo is a major source for this metal. According to Toward Freedom, in the 2000 launch of the Sony PS2, high demand of this metal by Sony helped fuel the astronomical rise in price from $49/pound to $275/pound. And this sharp increase in price helped fuel conflict and slave labor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Involved were players such as Rwandan government sponsored militias to western mining companies, all funded by a debt-based, consumer materialistic mindset in "rich" nations.
The demand for coltan has cooled but if we are shortsighted and motivated by personal gratification then there will always come another point of conflict over the supply of some other resource to meet the demand.
We have got to be aware of how our desire for the latest, greatest, fastest whatever might be affecting people in other parts of the world. Questions such as this come to mind - Can my brother in the Congo afford one of these? Can he afford to buy food for his family to eat while I enjoy my latest luxuries?
How many are giving their lives in conflicts to mine the raw materials necessary to make this thing?
This is why we must increase in our knowledge of the truth and have the wisdom and foresight to be led by internal principles of what is right not what is merely convenient or desirable, so that we can avoid this situation of looking back at what went wrong.

bankruptcy of the US

In 1913 when the Federal Reserve was created, the US began to borrow our national currency from this new corporation of international bankers and so begins to owe interest on our own money. A really bizarre twist!
The following refers to what happened next. I'm not sure how factual it is but it certainly makes sense and would explain a lot. It is an excerpt from http://www.nomoreserfs.com/notice_to_public_servants.htm :
From 1913 until 1933, the United States paid the “interest” with more and more gold. The structured inevitability soon transpired: the Treasury was empty, the debt was greater than ever, and the United States declared bankruptcy. In exchange for using notes belonging to bankers who create them out of nothing on our own credit, we are forced to repay in substance (labor, property, land, businesses, resources - life) in ever-increasing amounts. This may be the greatest heist and fraud of all time.

FIAT EMPIRE - Why the Federal Reserve Violates the U.S. Constitution

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America

Carlos Slim - Richest Man

Carlos Slim, of Mexico, see previous entry, Richest Men, has been promoted to the top spot as the richest man in the world. I continue to find it interesting. Here is one recent article about him. It talks about the conservative financial operations which he has instilled in his companies, borrowing very little, so that their level of business debt is amazingly low. Of their official operating principles, 'one tenet translates into English as follows: "Maintain austerity in prosperous times (in times when the cow is fat with milk); it accelerates corporate development and avoids the need for drastic change in times of crisis."' It also talks about how Mr. Slim has trained his sons to operate the businesses and presents a perspective of the less than positive side such as their operating and maintaining a monopoly. The article concludes with a quote by Carlos Sr, which I thought was insightful, "Many people want to leave a better world for their children," he told the crowd. "I'm trying to leave better children for my world."
It's not about the external arrangement of things, it is the internal character we build, in ourselves and others.

? for president

We as a nation must learn that civil government is not our savior, nor our big brother to "watch" over us. God has ordained us to rule by His principles, the Spirit of Christ within us. So, merely having external, civil, political reform is not the answer. Civil government is only an extension of the internal government within people. The problems seen in civil government are a manifestation of the lack of internal government by God's principles.

I started this blog entry as an endorsement of a candidate but as I wrote the above paragraph last, I decided maybe I should just make you think a little more, at least for right now. Because more important than having a president with these policies for the nation, is having a nation of people with the internal principles upon which these policies must be based. Here is a list of what I would consider a close to ideal list of policies for someone in political office. I'll just say that there is a candidate for president that fits it.
1. is pro-life, understands the value of life created by God
2. believes in limited civil government
3. will abolish the IRS
4. understands fiscal responsibility (watch out Federal Reserve!)
5. understands personal responsibility - and how that is applied on a national level, stop trying to police the world and force our way of life on them but through good will efforts help those who want it, clean up our own internal affairs first before trying to fix others
6. has an immigration policy which seems much more reasonable and workable, seal our borders to criminals and be inviting and consistent with those who want to come work
I could continue about his policies on other personal and national liberties, with respect to health care, privacy, property ownership, and national sovereignty. Having a proven track record of consistently working to implement these values during years of public and private service is also important.

Richest Men

Very interesting news article I saw today. It talks about Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim has surpassed Warren Buffet as the second richest man in the world.
This article is interesting to me on a couple of points. I believe it is a huge, external indication of how God is realigning the great and the lowly in this world. I have heard it said that the USA will soon (10-50 years?) not be the economic leader of the world. Very soon the richest man in the world will not be based in the USA.
The final sentence in the article, Señor Slim talks about a difference in philosophy between himself and Warren Buffet; '"Our concept is more to accomplish and solve things, rather than giving — that is, not going around like Santa Claus," Slim said. "Poverty isn't solved with donations."'
This is so true but the welfare generation in the USA doesn't understand this yet. It makes me wonder what Carlos Slim understands will solve poverty; maybe developing internal principles, such as discipline, diligence, obedience to the voice of God?
I have just read another article in Spanish and it seems his philosophy may be more similar to Buffet's than the English article indicates. He talks about developing programs to solve people's problems, still not addressing internal character issues?