Gary

 

 

"Even though we don't believe in God, he always believes in us" 

 

I have often thought as we travel life’s journey, we will meet many different people that will effect out lives in different ways. One of those people was a young man named Gary that I met while stationed in Okinawa in 1970.

Gary was from Nebraska and graduated from the University of Nebraska (Big Red). He graduated with a degree in Chemistry, and after graduation knew the draft board has hot on his trail. Rather than going to Viet Nam, he decided to enlist in the Navy and serve four years as a Cryptology Specialist. Gary was sent to Okinawa and that is where our paths crossed.

Gary was a great guy. He was tall, athletic, good looking and smart. Looking at him, talking to him, one would think that Gary was the type of guy that would be suitable to marry your daughter. Gary did have one major flaw however – he was a rock hard atheist.

Gary and I would have many discussions about politics, history, science and yes, faith. Even though my faith was young and immature at that time, I was very uncomfortable talking about the nihilistic version of God that Gary embraced. I never did figure out if Gary was raised with faith and then lost it in the halls of academia, or if he never had it from the start. I do know that Gary had developed many good arguments on why God did not exist.

Gary use to tell me one thing over and over again that I would try to argue with. He would say “Believing in God just makes it easier for us to die”. Using my immature theology, I would argue with him. “That’s not true Gary”, I would say. “It is much more than that”. And that is as far as I could take it. I did not want Gary to be an atheist, but I did not have the words to share that would have dissuaded him from that path. Also, I never asked God to touch his heart. In short, I did not do much at all.

If I were to have the same discussion with Gary today, I would have responded differently. When he told me that believing just made it easier for us to die, I would agree with him. Believing in, and following God does make it easier for us to die as we know what is waiting. But there is another side to the story. I would also tell Gary that having a relationship with Christ makes it easier to live. Not that we will escape the trials and tribulations while on Earth – we just won’t have to face them alone. We will know a peace and a joy that we did not know before Christ came into our lives.

I have thought many times about Gary and his atheism since that time in Okinawa. I could not imagine what life would be like to say to God, “Sorry, I don’t need you, I don’t want you, and I don’t even know if you exist”. To me, being an atheist would bring a spiritual loneliness that would make life seem empty and pointless. I hope and I pray that Gary has found our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Even though Gary was not looking for God at that point in time, God knew exactly where Gary was. Gary may have given up on God, but God never give up on Gary.

ACA - the new Sword of Damocles

 

 

 

"...with great fortune and power come also great peril and anxiety"

 

Damocles

Relax - this is not going to be a refresher lesson on Greek mythology or legend. I am however, going to briefly use it to make a point. In the Greek legend, Damocles begged Dionysius to be able to sit at his throne. Dionysius finally agreed, but with a condition. Dionysius hung a sword over the throne, held in place by only one hair from a horses tail. All the grandeur and glory of sitting on the throne was soon replaced by the fear that single horse hair would snap and the sword would end the life of Damocles. The story ends up with Damocles begging to be relieved of his wish to sit on the throne of Dionysius.

Our young President, who in 2008 was elected due to many factors except experience and qualifications, had one main goal in mind - obtain the Progressive Holy Grail. As we know, for over a half century the Progressive Holy Grail was the last piece of the entitlement throne - nationalized health care. He was going to get it passed by hook or by crook. Damn the torpedoes! If the Republicans don't help, the President would use only his party; if Congress did not do it his way, he would use actual or perceived Executive Authority; if the bill got too big, who cares - nobody ever reads this stuff anyway. Yes, this was finally going to happen, and it will cement his place in history. It WILL be his signature accomplishment!

As our young President has found out, sweet dreams can sometimes turn into terrifying nightmares. In his wildest dreams, he could not have imagined this thing turning out so bad. Both Governor Dean and Steve Ratner confessed this week - "This thing is an interdependent house of cards. If you move one card, the entire law will start to unravel."
Whoops! I think a few cards got moved. In fact, because nobody read the bill before it was signed into law, I think a few cards were left out.

This is where the Sword of Damocles analogy comes into play. EVERYTHING from now on, that the President says or does, will be influenced by the ACA mess he has laid on the country. The debt ceiling, the budget talks, immigration reform, everything. The ACA is literally on life support right now - in other words, it is hanging by a single hair from a horses tail. If the ACA totally fails (which more and more are thinking is likely right now), the single hair will snap, the sword will come down and finish off any remaining credibility the President will have for the rest of his term.

The advice I would give to our President is simply this - learn from this Greek legend. Like Damocles came to understand, ruling under a dangling sword is not good for anyone. Release yourself from that burden. Call a stop in the proceedings. Start over on the troublesome aspects of the law. Engage the Republicans this time - they had some good ideas in 2008 that you left in the ditch. Be the uniter, the agent of positive change, that you promised us you would be.

However until that happens, we sit and wait. The sword continues to dangle. The horse hair  wears thin. The country is in peril. Those who do not learn from history (or Greek legend) are doomed to repeat it. And that will be bad for all of us.
 

 

There is Bon Marché, and then there is just CHEAP!

 

 

"Do as I say, not as I do!"

When my wife and I were dating, I did not have much money. Okay - I was stone cold broke. Once in a while on a very cheap or free date, she would talk French to me. It was great! After all, what young man would not like an attractive young female speaking French to him! One day, I asked her what this term Bon Marché meant that she kept calling me. She looked at me and said "It is a common word the French use when someone is cheap." Ouch!

Yesterday, the news story came out about the present Democratic Governor of this state as well as one of the Republican hopefuls who is running to unseat him. They had both just released their last year tax returns. Now, our Governor is a very rich man - his is a heir to the largest department store chain in Minnesota history. He has money, investments, trusts and so on. In true Democratic form, his charitable contributions after making over $300k in salary as well as investment returns was.......$1,000.

There was a loud gasp from many. The Governor was embarrassed that this "oversight" was disclosed. Some, including me, were not surprised at all. Why? As the saying goes, "This was not my first rodeo!"

The first time I noticed this discrepancy between (not all, but many) Democrats and Republicans, was when Al Gore was running for President against George Bush. Al Gore, who also came from a rich family, had investments as well as his salary as the Vice President. When both Gore and Bush released their income tax forms,
a startling fact was revealed. The Vice President had donated less than a whopping $400 to charity. That would include monies to church, mission work, cancer research, you name it. Less than four hundred bucks. George Bush on the other hand, gave well over 10% of what he earned.

Oh, it goes on and on. In 1995, John Kerry (who ran for President in 1994) gave $0. Kerry married into the Heinz family and has vast resources. With all that opulence, all that wealth beyond imagine - $0 for charity. I would love to hear what his pastor has to say about that! And lets not forget our current Vice President. He is married to a doctor, been in Congress since Moses was a boy, and yet he still gives way less than 1% to charity. Mitt Romney on the other hand, gave over 15%.

So the next time one of our elected Democrats wags his or her finger and scolds you for not paying more in taxes to help those who need it, just say this - "Back at ya!" There is Bon Marché, and then there is just CHEAP! The only thing worse that CHEAP is to add the word "hypocrite" behind it.

Meanwhile, back on the farm....

 

 

 

"Future shock is the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time"

 

Alvin Toffler

 

 

If I was in charge of the world, I would have the book Future Shock by Alvin Toffler be required reading for everyone in the public school system. In fact, I would have it read by every high school student once a year. Why? Unlike other excellent books that were written during that time period, this one is not only poignant, but also timeless. Although not related, it ties in nicely with Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky. When the system is overwhelmed, often times so are our senses.

As most of us know, the news cycle since the beginning of October has been "all Obamacare, all of the time". That is good and bad and the same time. It is good, because as I wrote about yesterday, the man behind the curtain is now exposed for all to see. The magic elixir has been shown to truly be snake oil. The ACA is a slow motion train wreck; a house of cards, starting to fall because more and more are drifting out of place. However on the other hand, it is bad because it has taken all the focus off of some very important, and unresolved issues in our country.

Yesterday, Rand Paul said in public that because of Benghazi, Hillary Clinton should be excluded from ever running for a higher office. True, part of that is politics as Dr. Paul might want to throw his hat in that ring. However, the other part is far more important - Benghazi is an open wound - a bleeding sore for our country. There is so much more to this story than what has been reported. Most of it will prove to very ugly. Benghazi should have been the scandal which tied up this Administration in knots for the rest of this term. But no - with all the other things that have happened since then, it has become ancient history to many of us. Future Shock.

Also yesterday, our junior senator Al Franken, is still trying to get some closure on how to reign in the NSA. Remember the NSA mess? Not only the fact they are collecting gobs of information on all of us, but it is suspected that most of that personal information it is being stored in that behemoth facility in Utah. And lets not forget the damage the Agency has done to with spying on our allies. With Mr. Snowden continuing to spill his guts from Mother Russia, I don't thing the damage is quite yet over. Again, for many of us, we have moved on to other things right now. Future Shock, redux.

How about the IRS? What is happening with that scandal? As General Mills say with their breakfast cereal, Nut n' Honey. Nope, that was a "who cares" moment. After all, they were just going after those "right wing nuts jobs". People seem to forget that BY STATUE, this is the organization that will the enforcement arm of Obamacare. And it is a corrupt organization. Does that bother anyone? It should bother us all - but it does not. Future Shock, once again.

Just like the Little Dutch Boy did not have enough fingers to put in all the holes in the dyke, we don't have enough "watchdogs" in Congress to chase down all of these open items. It is nice to go into town, but back on the farm the cows need milking and the hay needs to be baled. In other words, as hard as it is right now, we need to shake off the cobwebs and become multi-takers with our focus. Obamacare is very important, but so are so many of these other dangling participles. We cannot allow Future Shock to rule the day and thereby ruin the country.

The Leaning Tower is Falling....

 

 

 

"Lookout below! This thing is dying under its own weight!"

Man O' Man! Has this been a season of discontent for the Obama Administration! The "right wing nut jobs" who have been shouting from the rooftops that the ACA is a lemon and going to wreck our heath care system, are all of a sudden looking like rocket scientists. This thing is bad and getting worse every day. The web site is still a mess, but more and more people are starting to notice the problem(s) with the ACA transcend the web portal.

How bad is it? Yesterday, the former President from the "blue dress" affair, actually lectured the current President on staying true to his word. Yes, the President who went through an impeachment trial due to lying under oath, lectured our young President on being truthful. In addition, many Senators, some of which voted for this mess, are running for the hills prior to the 2014 elections. Hiding from this vote is going to be harder than getting a large tattoo removed from your forehead .

Everyday in the news media, more stories are coming out about any one of the following:

• Due to the ACA, more people are getting "Dear John" letters from their insurance companies.
• Due to the ACA, people are getting "more for more", even if they don't want or need it. Net result - higher premiums, higher co-pays and higher deductibles.
• The numbers of people signed up for the ACA are only a fraction of what is needed.
• Most of the people signing up are older, poorer folks who will get subsidies. The healthy, young folks, who are needed to make this work, are still not signing up.
• The web portal is sicker than most people realized, and might take a complete re-launch to fix (at a cost of untold millions).
• Besides all the other problems with the web portal, the security protocols are very suspect. In other words, it leaks like a sieve.

Someone posted on Facebook this morning that his insurance policy has gone from affordable to such a degree of  unaffordability, it is useless to him. His comment was "I am not political, but what part of the "Affordable Care Act" is affordable?" Good question sir. That seems to be the questions which is cascading across the country right now. The question asked right behind that one is simply this - "How in the world could we have been so STUPID to fall for this snake oil?"

Friends, if you have been duped by the Administration, please don't kick yourself. Remember, many did vote for the President and the empty promises he brought with him. What we can do is demand change now before this thing gets any further down the tracks. Demand from our elected representatives that WE WILL HOLD THEM RESPONSIBLE TO STOP THIS THING! It is killing us right now, and will only get worse.

That is all I can say on this matter right now. I am so upset, it is making me sick - and I can't afford to be sick anymore.

The Northern Lights Express Rides Again!

 

 

 

"On the road again -
Just can't wait to get on the road again"

 

On the Road Again

Willie Nelson

 

 

This is an update from a post I did last March. I really thought this thing was dead, dead, dead. However, last week I heard there may be some life left in this turkey. This one defies logic. If you think LRT or the Northstar is a boon doggle, those are minor league compared to this monster. Yes, this is truly the "train to nowhere". It is an express line from Minneapolis to the casino then on to Duluth with a viable purpose yet to be defined.

 

Last spring I went on the Northern Lights Express (NLX) propaganda website and pulled these wonderful factoids. It will:

 

• Spur approximately $2 billion in development along the 155 mile corridor
• Encourage about 13,800 jobs
• Provide an environmental sound alternative to automobiles that can be used for business and tourism
• Offer 2 1/4 hour service between Minneapolis and Duluth with top speeds of 110 mph

What is not to love? This sounds like a great deal to me. My wife and I are frequent visitors to Duluth and the North Shore and always crab about the fact we have our car with us. It would be much better to take a train, get off at Duluth, and then walk up to Two Harbors, Split Rock or Grand Marais. I mean the car, it just gets in the way (sarcasm included for free).

When we venture to the North Shore anytime of the year, we are always amazed at the number of rigs pulling impressive toys. In the summertime, because Superior is really an inland sea, many of the boats going up there are huge. Also, because it is a gateway to the BWCA, many are towing camping stuff and canoes. People are also pulling their fishing boats, trailers, fifth wheels, ATVs, and so on. Basically, all kinds of things you could not put on a train.
 
In 2009, a study was done to ascertain the true cost impact of construction. That was four years ago, and the costs then were expected to be $1B. I can't imagine what they are in 2013. No worries mate - the powers to be also estimate there will be 3,000 daily riders on this train. Really? I would like to meet some of these 3,000 and ask them the purpose of going up to Duluth in early November with no car. That is, unless the majority of the 3,000 will just travel as far as Hinckley. By the way, most of the people going to Hinckley are not just going to Tobie's to get a messy caramel roll - they are going to the casino using a train paid for by the rest of us. When summer stuff is over and the leaves have fallen, and the ski areas are not yet in their season, then who would go to Duluth?. Anyway, even if you were going up to Duluth to ski, how in the world would you get from Duluth to Lutsen? Duh!

Being an old business guy, I always look at TCO (total cost of ownership). What are the annual operating costs? The annual maintenance costs? The costs to service the debt to build it? To make this line profitable and not to soak the taxpayers, I wonder how much a ticket would cost. Maybe $1,000? In the world of bad ideas, this is a whopper. Aside from the fact they are huge financial losers, I can see some logic in LRT, and some in Northstar. I can see no logic in NLX. The truly unfortunate part of this story is the Federal Government has already sunk millions into the study of this mess. Oh well, like many of the financial gurus who run the state like to say - "Its free money - it comes from the Feds!" 

Secluded thoughts from Gitche Gumee...

 

 

 

"Even in retirement, every once in a while it is good to get away, and check your cares at the front door..."

Our time of late fall/early winter retreat is coming in an end. It has been a good few days with a chance to talk, reflect, and write. Because the weather on the North Shore is about as fickle as a teenager going through adolescence, we did not do as much exploring as we have in years past. Besides, it is deer hunting season and even though I trust most people, I don't trust that everyone is as careful or good of a shot as I am.

On our first day here, as we were sitting and watching this magnificent lake pound the shoreline. My wife asked me what it is about watching water that relaxes. I told her I heard a long time ago it was the natural rhythm - and humans are attracted to it. As much as oceans, lakes and rivers look chaotic at times, there is still a natural rhythm. Most surfers will tell you about the "sets". Every seventh wave in a set is the best; every seventh set is the best set; the seventh wave of the seventh set is the one to look forward to.

It is that lure of this rhythmatic relaxation that draws us back to the lake the Indians once called Gitche Gumee ("big water"). Regardless of the season, we are drawn here like moths to a flame. Is it cold up on the North Shore in the wintertime? Yes, sometimes brutally so. However, there is also a peace and tranquility with seeing how nature has put much of the flora and fauna to bed for a season. The snow often times looks nothing less than pristine - inviting those who snow shoe, cross country or downhill ski to join in. Or, for those who just like to build a fire and curl up with a good book, there is not a finer place to do it.

Our pastor comes up to Lake Superior to reflect and to write. He has been inspired for sermon series up here, he has written parts of his books up here. However, more than anything else, when he comes up here, he reconnects with God. Yes, the maker of all things great and small did some of His finest work on this lake, on this shore. Most every morning, we are treated to a sunrise that people who develop CGI in Hollywood, would love to duplicate. However, they never will. It was created for us to watch and enjoy, free of charge. It just does not get any better than a sunrise on Lake Superior.

Regardless of the season, anytime we spend up here is more for introspection and reflection than worldly thoughts. At home, reading the paper, watching the news, surfing the internet - it is very easy to get caught up in the world. And by the way, for most who pay attention already know this - the world is a mess and seems to be getting messier all the time. Worldly thoughts will be with me once again as soon as I get settled back into the day to day routine. There will be things to do, stuff to do, places to go and yes, more worries about the barrage of "worldly things".

But for our few remaining hours here, I will enjoy the rhythm of the lake; one more sunrise which has been painted by God Himself. I will enjoy the slumber of the North country as it now relaxes after showing its magnificent greenery since May. Most of all, I will enjoy the time away I can spend with my wife, my best friend. It is a time to talk and share, away from the chaos and confusion that stalk most of our lives. It is a time to think and share, listening only to each other, and the natural rhythm of this, the greatest of all lakes.