Memorial Day for Lost Freedom

Listening to David Barton yesterday at Highlands made me feel like Sunday was Memorial Day.  After that good dose of Godly American history, I feel sad today.  Today’s sadness, on Memorial Day proper, isn’t for all the fallen heroes, it’s for all us Americans that have been left behind.

It is so ironic that men and women, in so many military campaigns, have lost their lives defending our freedom, and the rest of us let our politicians take it away after 9/11.  Our Constitution has been so watered down it barely exists.  The Patriot Act, along with other legislation, have taken away many of the rights we all hold dear!

• Freedom from unreasonable searches… gone!
• Right to a speedy and public trial… gone!
• Freedom of association… gone!
• Right to legal representation… gone!
• Freedom of speech… gone!
• Right to liberty… gone!

This is the way it now is – video!  You thought the “God-given rights” still existed?  No, not in today’s America.  If you don’t believe me, Judge Andrew Napolitano will tell you about it in this video.

There is a great quote from Benjamin Franklin that applies here, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”  Let’s face it, we were suckered on 9/11.  You can’t look at all that happened  and NOT think it was wasn’t preplanned.  Why would anyone have to give up any “God-given right” to keep a foreigner from coming in and attacking anything in this country.  All we ever had to do was increase security!  A police state should have been out of question by even our lawmakers.  They claim there just wasn’t time to read the entire 315 pages before voting on it.  Fine, don’t vote for it then.  If you voted for it, repeal it!  There has been time to fix it and it has not been fixed.  Our freedoms are still gone!

I read the news article this weekend listing the “words not to use” to avoid Homeland Security from listing someone as a terrorist.  I think I’ve used most of them in this blog.  I’m a Christian though, so I harbor no violence against anyone.  As a United States citizen though, I feel I must urge repeal of the Patriot Act and a return to the constitutional rights I was blessed by my Creator with!  Our founding fathers said it better than I…

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long-established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.     Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776

This year I’ve encouraged everyone to support Ron Paul for President.  The powers that be have opposed him strongly and positioned others ahead of him via propaganda in the media.  If you listen to any Paul supporter, it is liberty that is our main theme.  Fix the liberty issue and many other problems resolve themselves.  It is obvious that neither party is moving toward that end.  The same old way of governing isn’t going to be acceptable by Americans much longer.  Our future depends on new leaders who represent the citizens. Washington has proven it is more interested in appeasing foreign governments and corporations and forgetting about the average citizen and all the soldiers that died, fighting for freedom!

Maybe the word “terrorist” needs to be redefined.  After that, we just need to vote them out of Washington and put some real statesmen back in government.  We can fix all this, but it’s going to take a few election cycles!  This “Orwellian” society has to go!

One God and Soap

“Absolute cleanliness is Godliness”.  That is the first line on Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soap bottle.  Just reading the label could keep you occupied for maybe twenty minutes.  I was drawn to it while shopping at Whole Foods recently.  I must have stood in the isle long enough reading, to realize I’d been standing there too long… reading.  I put the bottle in the buggy and thought, “I’ll finish this at home”.

At home, I again picked up the bottle and started reading.  I was perplexed because the statements didn’t flow well.  I believed I understood what it said, but my curiosity needed more.  I got on the internet and googled the product and was overwhelmed with information and accolades.  I even watched a documentary entitled, “Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soapbox” on Netflix.  It was well produced and made me understand how Dr. Bronner came to America and began his work.

He was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers.  He emigrated to the United States in 1929 and dropped the “Heil” from his name.  His parents stayed in Germany and were victims of Nazi persecution.

Dr. Bronner began making products by hand in his home.  His father was Jewish, so it is obvious that belief in God was important to Dr. Bronner and he wanted everyone to believe and be part of the “one faith”.  He used references from both Jewish and Christian sources on the labels of his soaps.

The documentary goes into detail about the strange events which occurred in 1947.  Dr. Bronner was speaking at the University of Chicago and promoting his “Moral ABC”.  There were objections and Dr. Bronner was arrested and committed to a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois, on just a phone call from his sister.  Obviously, it was easier to have someone committed then.  At the hospital, Dr. Bronner had to endure “shock treatments”.  He escaped the hospital and eventually ended up in Escondido, California.  There, his soap making grew into a large operation which continues today.  Dr. Bronner died in 1997, but the business is still making soap and preaching about God!

Their business is pretty amazing.  You should click on this link to visit their website.  It has more info than I can possibly cover.  I will tell you that their soap is organic with a vegetable oil base.  Their products are completely environmentally safe and not harmful.  The soaps are concentrated, so just simply mix with water to dilute.  The “peppermint” is my favorite but they are all good.  They may be purchased at Whole Foods, Target, or almost any health food store.  I believe in bragging on good companies, because there are so many who shouldn’t be in business.  Good companies need encouragement and our business!

Getting back to their business model, executive compensation is capped at 5 to 1 to the lowest paid warehouse position.  All profits, not needed for business, go to worthwhile causes and charities worldwide.  From watching the documentary, their employees are extremely happy and receive big bonuses each year.  The website shares that one of Dr. Bronner’s “truths” was that constructive capitalism is where you share the profit with the workers and the earth from which you made it!
If you can do a little preaching along with it, that’s even better!

“Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”   Psalm 19:4

Christians Make A Difference

The hatred that spews from the network television shows, the internet, & politicians toward Christians, hurts everyone.  They try to stir up public opinion against Christians, that we are the bad guys and need to be run out-of-town.  Why?  Because we’re against most of the issues driving corporate America these days like greed and gay rights.  We are opposed to making families jobless just to make the stockholders & CEO’s more wealthy.  We are opposed to the murder of children by clinics who lie about women’s health, making profits of over a billion/year.  We are opposed to the unnatural union of gays and lesbians in legal marriage, creating a cultural abnormality.  We are opposed to polygamy and those who would declare the Bible corrupt.  In general, I guess we opposed everything that would make the cultural left happy!

Christians have made a distinct mark on civilization and America in particular.  Our founding fathers used the general principles of Christianity for our independence, our legal rights, and system of government.  The development of higher education, science, and medicine, all were from Christianity.  Art and music were inestimably benefited by believers in Christ.  It was the Christians that opposed slavery first and it is the Christian that is generally a better citizen in any government.

Why would a Christian be a better citizen or employee you ask?  Because Jesus taught that it is wrong to steal and kill.  He taught that government is  empowered by God, therefore we should respect and submit to it.  We are taught to love our fellow-man and reach out to help those in need.  Even today, it is Christians who are quickly on the scene when disaster strikes.  Christian relief has assisted Haiti, Sudan, Somalia, Belize, Japan, and every other location where humans were hurting or in need.  So we’re the bad guys… right, you just keep believing that lie.  We still love you, but our actions speak for themselves.

The reason you really hate us is the problem you have with God.  He is the one who doesn’t approve of your sin.  If every Christian in the world signed over a letter saying you have our approval for whatever sin you want to commit, it wouldn’t carry any legal weight with God.  He is the judge and jury.  And even if we approved of your actions, you wouldn’t quit your hate filled racist attitude toward us until we actually participated in sin with you.  You want us to be like you, a guilt ridden, unhappy human whose hatred for Christianity blinds one from the truth.

Listen, our side is better… come on over!  Being a traitor to your cause has never been easier or had so many benefits.  You get to hang out with the best people in the world!  Medical plans don’t matter, it’s better on the other side for us, anyway!  We live in the light of the Son and know that God loves us!  It just doesn’t get any better.  We’ll even pay your way to the third world country of your choice and let you dig wells for clean water or teach kids to read.  Not only that, but faith in Jesus… get ready for this… guarantees you a mansion in Heaven.  Is that awesome or what?

Now, you’re going to have to read the Bible some.  I’ll give you a heads up, it isn’t what you’ve been told.  The truths contained in that book are amazing and historically accurate at the same time.  It really isn’t just a children’s book, but the “inspired” Word of God!

At least consider it!  You don’t even have to carry around a Bible these days, look at it online!  You can do it when no one is around, until you feel like you are ready to commit.  I’d recommend downloading the app “YouVersion“.  And just to make you feel better, that you’re not alone… YouVersion has been downloaded over 50 million times.  The world is full of Christians. Estimates vary, but the number is close to 2 billion!  Christianity rocks, come on over!  Join us, we’re the ones who make a difference!

Originally published May 14, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Pepper Place in Birmingham

Today’s blog is about a visit to Pepper Place in Birmingham, Alabama.  They are located at 2829 2nd Avenue South, about three blocks north of Highway 78 and three blocks east of the Red Mountain Expressway.  It is an odd place for a farmer’s market, right in the center of a mostly industrial area.  Parking isn’t a problem since most of the businesses are closed on Saturday.

Since we are trying to eat better foods, we decided to check it out.   Organic, local flavor is now my favorite, without all the industrial additives.  The organic part was somewhat of a disappointment, only seeing one vendor.  There was plenty of local grown produce and vendors with various wares, from jewelry to plants and even a car dealer showing off a Scion.

It was crowded at times with plenty of dogs and babies in the mix as well.  We saw a cooking demonstration and even wandered through a furniture store nearby.  A large restaurant is open, plus outdoor sellers have many different foods.

We purchased strawberries, peaches, squash, and earrings. Please visit their website for more info.  I would have to say it’s a nice Saturday morning outing!

Realizing that pictures are worth a thousand words, here you go…


      

    

     
     

Originally published on May 12, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com
More pics available here.

The Unrelenting Pharoah

Un-re-lent-ing – Not giving way to kindness or compassion.

Hi, I’m an employee of AT&T and today’s blog is of course, my opinion. 

That disclaimer came from an intracompany post concerning social media.  The company requested it be understood by all that anything placed by an employee online should be considered “just an opinion”.  I post it, because they asked…

I’ve been drawn to the story of Pharoah for the last couple of days.  A short outline of the whole story is from Exodus 7: 1-5,  The Lord said:  I am going to let your brother Aaron speak for you. He will tell your message to the king, just as a prophet speaks my message to the people. ² Tell Aaron everything I say to you, and he will order the king to let my people leave his country. ^3-4 But I will make the king so stubborn that he won’t listen to you. He won’t listen even when I do many terrible things to him and his nation. Then I will bring a final punishment on Egypt, and the king will let Israel’s families and tribes go. ⁵ When this happens, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.

Moses found things just as God had said, especially the hard-hearted leader, who held in his hands the power to allow the Israelites to be free.  I’ve noticed that power and authority, in the hands of men, is always abused!  Pharoah is no different when it comes to a good thing.  He has cheap labor and for higher production, a rod to beat them with!

In the movie, the Ten Commandments, each scene, where a plague was about to take place, was so clean and sanitized.  I will give them credit for not adding too much to the Biblical narrative.  But you know, at first, there had to be some serious reasoning by Moses.  I can just imagine him telling the story of how the Israelites were faithful neighbors living in the land of Goshen, honored by the memory of Joseph, and the work he did to save Egypt during the famine.  In that historical narrative, we know from Exodus 1:8 that “a new king came to power.  He did not know what Joseph had done for Egypt, and he told the Egyptians, There are too many of those Israelites in our country… “  God still blessed the Israelites, even as slaves, and “because of this, the Egyptians hated them worse than before and made them work so hard that their lives were miserable.  The Egyptians were cruel to the people of Israel…“  It even reached the point where the King decreed that all male, slave babies were to be thrown into the Nile River.

I’m sure that Moses reminded the King about the good work the Israelites had done for him, and pointed out the marvelous monuments which dotted the landscape.  Being a man in authority, the King weighed the reasonings put forth by Moses and Aaron, and sadly chose a course of action which would ruin his life and seriously harm his own country.  The Bible says that God “hardened his heart”.  We don’t know exactly when that took place.  It may have been while reading his daily reports or “the numbers” produced by the slaves.  Much like the MSOC numbers that AT&T employees receive at work each day.  The numbers that are constantly changed and modified like a carrot moved further and further from an animal’s hungry mouth.  I believe the Israelite slaves were beaten and killed to achieve the goal of raising monuments to a short sighted, greedy, King.  Moses found his “let my people go” plea falling on deaf ears.

Today, a lot of cosmetics have been applied, but the goal is still the same.  Work hard and raise money for the corporate world leaders and the minions, who live off the crumbs from their table!  The 1% rule and the 99% drool.   CEO salaries have skyrocketed, even during the hard times that we’ve experienced lately.  Add to that the layer upon layer of management salaries, bonuses, retirement payouts, and stockholder dividends, and it is no wonder that everything we buy, costs so much.  Just like today, I imagine all of Pharoah’s minions shouting NO, NO, No, don’t let them go!  They probably imagined the hard times ahead if Pharoah relented and showed some compassion.  They might actually have to work for a living…  Of course, we know the story don’t we.  It cost Egypt dearly for their greed and stubbornness.

Compassion doesn’t cost much!  Not showing compassion, can cost everthing!  Hopefully, God wasn’t the one who hardened your heart…  that would mean He is going to get your attention!  He definitely got Pharoah’s attention!  It might be better to show Him some attention first, in the form of worship and showing a little compassion to your fellow-man.

Changing the topic, but not really changing the topic… our MSOC numbers did change in January, or early February.  I am now alloted .83 of an hour for most troubles and .61 for others.  Put your surgeon on that plan and see how it works out for you.  Sorry, doc, you’ve only got 30 minutes to figure out what’s wrong and fix it!  In January, the company placed the first, ever, entry in my file, for not doing my job correctly.  The entry is still there, and I mention it daily to someone!  To me, it is character assassination and an attack on my work ethic.  It has brought unnecessary stress and even fitful sleep at times.  They don’t understand that you should not beat an older employee with a rod to work harder and faster…  I am relentless in wanting that entry out and this should never have gotten this far in the public arena!  In my opinion, management is entirely to blame for this debacle.  I was told this week that I’m the only one in the crew getting a new truck… I never asked for a new truck.  I have asked over and over, to have the entry, which was unnecessary, taken out!

Mr. Stephenson, could you “let that piece of paper go”?  Your guys around here are unrelenting!

Originally published on May 4, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

Earth Day 2012

God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them
      reflecting our nature
   So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea,
      the birds in the air, the cattle,
   And, yes, Earth itself,
      and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.”
   God created human beings;
      he created them godlike,
   Reflecting God’s nature.
      He created them male and female.
   God blessed them:
      ”Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge!
   Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air,
      for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
  Then God said, “I’ve given you
      every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
   And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
      given them to you for food.
   To all animals and all birds,
      everything that moves and breathes,
   I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
      And there it was.

That passage is Genesis 1:27-29 from The Message version of the Bible.   The shortened version would say that God created earth and placed us here to take care of it, till He comes back.  If you consider Jesus parable of the talents in Matthew 25, then it is very possible we may have to answer for our poor stewardship.  Let’s face it, humans have been brutal to our home planet!

If the earth itself brought us up on charges of misconduct with God as judge, there isn’t a lawyer in the cosmos that could even get us leniency.  Our list of abuse is long and sorrowful, and the worst is that we don’t even show remorse or repentance.  Repentance being that point where we say “ok, enough is enough,” and we begin to allow our planet to heal, that concept is completely anathema to us!

I’m old enough to remember the anti-litter commercials where an American Indian is standing beside the highway when a car passes and throws out a bag of garbage.  The camera panned back to a closeup of the man’s face to see a tear running down.  That commercial concept could be repeated in every nation and country on the planet, just pick a race and we can all cry a bucket of tears.  There is still little change.

Litter is the cosmetic problem.  It’s ugly and unsightly, like plastic bags hanging in the trees.  Fast food restaurant debris is still tossed out of cars, but we’ve evolved way beyond that.  Last week, the Bureau of Land Management announced their approval of “fracking” in the pristine Talladega National Forrest, here in Alabama.  Fracking is where the most toxic chemicals known to man are pumped underground to fracture rock, allowing natural gas and other minerals to be mined.  Fracking always poisons ground water!  Let’s all thank government bureaucracy for allowing enormous profits to be made at the expense of our planet’s health!

The British Petroleum oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, was another ecological disaster whose full effects won’t be known for years.  On the local news this morning, there was a report that some shrimp were being born without eyes and that fish were being found with odd lesions.  Should we even allow a process such as “deep water drilling” to occur when the risk of disaster is so high?  Politicians of course say “yes, because the oil companies need more profits.”  Obviously, a gazillion dollars per CEO means a little graft and corruption flows to the re-election fund.

HAARP antenna array (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My favorite waste of money and planet abuse culprit is the military establishment.  They cause everything from bombs being dropped to depleted uranium bullets.  There are forgotten buried mines and IEDs just waiting for any non-combatant to be injured or killed.  Military planes spew a toxic mix of chemicals in our sky and bombard it with microwave energy from HAARP to control the weather.  I won’t blame President Obama for starting it all, but he has done nothing to stop it either!  It’s been a long time since the natural weather cycles were allowed to take place.  But I remember, it all worked ok without dollars and health being spent to manipulate.  We just experienced the warmest month of March on record, so the new system isn’t working very well.  Yes, global warming is real and we caused it!  We can stop it by turning off the atmospheric heater called HAARP!  Propagandist will claim that all this is just myth spewed by angry conspiracist.  Some conspiracy, you can see it on the weather radar!

Planet abuse couldn’t be discussed without touching on our food supply a little.  It used to be natural, organic, but NOT ANY MORE!  We are inundated with hybrid foods created in the laboratory.  They have less in the way of what our bodies need to survive and more of what causes our bodies to deteriorate.  However, the flip side of that is that mega-farm owners and corporations have increased profits.  Our FDA is of course on top of things by approving profits over healthy consumers.  Corporations even create hybrid plants, put them out in the wild, and the cross-pollination causes an organic farmer to lose his crop or even worse, the entire farm through law suits filed by companies.  I hate to mention names but Monsanto is one of the worst culprits!

We have huge mono-farms raising everything from trees to pigs and chickens.  You won’t find anything like it in nature.  Nature has a variety of plants because it is a complete eco-system.  Everything needs each other and the waste is taken care of naturally and not in abundance, say like a chicken house!  If you were to visit a modern chicken house where the birds are given a chemical mix to make them grow faster and heavier while living on top of their own excrement, I’m sure chicken wouldn’t be on the menu!  The chemicals/antibiotics that all food animals receive flow directly to us.  Have you noticed larger people around you lately?

If you would like to wash down that hybrid food with a glass of water… better think again.  Fertilizers, fluoride, and pharmaceuticals are all found in that glass of unhealthy liquid.  I mentioned earlier that fracking poisons ground water for profits.  We poison it as well by flushing the toilet.  Most sewage treatment plants do a poor job cleaning up what we messed up!  I know indoor toilets are nice, but they really aren’t natural either.  Our bodies are 70% water so we need good clean water to survive.

It doesn’t make sense to me that we’ll go to war over religion, but won’t over environmental disasters.  Terrorists blow themselves up to kill infidels, but obviously consider killing the planet to make a buck, okay.

Looking at the body of evidence, we should have done a better job!

Camera pans to your face

tear running down…

Guilty, as charged!

Originally published April 22, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com

When Kids make you Proud

I’ll have to admit that I’m proud of our children.  The youngest, Stephen, a nineteen year old, is still at home and attending junior college.  Recently he was squeezing into a parking place at Jim & Nick’s Bar-B-Q and bumped a 2004 Volvo side mirror with the mirror on his Tacoma.  Naturally, there wasn’t even a scratch on the Tacoma while the Volvo had some cosmetic damage.  He had a friend with him and they waited till the owner came out, to confess about the damage.

The Volvo owner was a Vestavia Hills fireman and was very impressed that the boys didn’t just leave like most people might.  They swapped info and the guy called me the next day with the damage report, almost nine hundred dollars worth.  He said it was obvious Stephen was a good kid who handled himself well.  Sadly, it just so happened that $900 was the exact amount in Stephen’s savings account for his next semester.  Stephen met him at the downtown fire station the next day and they swapped the money for the local dealer’s estimate, verifying the damage amount.

It was an expensive lesson and one that won’t be soon forgotten.  It’s funny that I was the one who was the angriest, and I’ll explain that.  My wife and I had been trying to encourage Stephen to attend the college Bible class at Westwood Baptist church for quite some time.  That week he met a new friend at college, in one of his classes, who attends Westwood and agreed to visit with him.  The whole Bible class decided to go to Jim and Nicks for lunch, after church.  Turns out, the restaurant was so busy, that the only available space was the one he had tried to squeeze into, everyone else had already arrived and were waiting outside.

So why was I angry?  It wasn’t at Stephen for trying to squeeze into a parking place where the other car was over the line…  it was at God, for allowing it to happen in the first place.  I apologized to the Lord for that, but it was just one of those “life isn’t fair” moments.  On a day when Stephen finally attends Bible class (we always attended worship), he scratches a mirror and does the right thing by owning up to his mistake and it wipes out his bank account!

Working for AT&T,  I’m very familiar with those “life isn’t fair” moments.  I do hate it though, when it happens to someone so young.  Those are the times when many would say, why did I go to church this morning?  Or worse, I’m never going back again.  Stephen did neither! He went back the next Sunday and has been faithful ever since.  The “good guys” are hard to find, glad we’ve got one!
“A wise son brings joy to his father”  Proverbs 10:1

Originally published April 20, 2012 at Thechestnutburr.com