He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

A Nation that worships idols instead of God Part II

Along similar lines of what I wrote about some time ago, here is a secular perspective that I think completes the picture of what is wrong with our society.

This from  the Arctic Patriot:

Thoughts for Consideration

Here are some thoughts of mine.  They will offend some people.  That is not my concern; I cannot control others' reactions to what I say.  I hope people are able/willing to look through offense, and my clumsy words that cause it, in order to see what I am saying here.  Here goes-

It has been said that the Constitution would only work in a moral society.

We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion ...Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."  John Adams

Benjamin Franklin, Signer of the Declaration of Independence - "[O]nly a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."

" Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society."  - Washington

I think there's a little more to it than that, but let's assume that the statement is true at face value, and look at some things.

What do you think a "moral" and "religious" people looked like to Mr. Adams, Washington, Franklin, and their contemporaries?

No, I mean it.  Really.

Walk through the nearest clothing store and look at the people.  Look at the trash and filth polluting our children's (and our) minds at the grocer's checkout line.  Look at almost everything that comes from Hollywood and earns millions of dollars.  Look at the people who make the news, that slice of degenerate America.

Moral?  Religious? 


Those of you who know me well enough know that I am not pushing a certain religious worldview here; I have more than enough doubts and concerns with religion for five men.

What I am saying here is that taken in context, John Adams said that the Constitution cannot work in anything other than a moral and religious setting such as that in which he lived.

Think about this.  Please.  Really.


No, I mean it.  Really.  Think about it.

If John Adams is to be believed, even a complete, as-ratified, Constitutional restoration will utterly and completely fail in the society in which we live.

Think about that.

Consider what Washington or Jefferson might have had to say about that new Hunger Games movie.  Consider what Adams or any "moral and religious" person from that time period would say about the filth Americans pipe into their homes, the trash Americans allow to invade their children's brains, or the garbage that is known as "entertainment" today.

Think about it.

Would they accept it, or would they recognize it for danger and trash that it is, and drive it from their communities?

You may disagree with me on this, and that is (obviously) fine.

Just keep in mind that perhaps the problems in this nation go far, far beyond mere politics and economic interests.

Decadence and immorality often go hand in hand with tyranny.  Failure to self-regulate results in harsh government oversight.  I have learned this over and over again in the business world. 

A "moral and religious people" self-regulates. 

Bastiat once said that for a law to be respected, it has to first be respectable.

I will go further.  It works both ways.  For a people to be respected by the law (and government), they have to first be respectable.

Can you really see Washington and Adams taking their wives out for a lovely evening to watch Hunger Games?  Can you see any lady from 18th century America allowing her children to be exposed to the filth on display in nearly everygrocery checkout line?  It is utterly amazing to me that I cannot find clothes for my twelve and thirteen year old daughters that are not, by design, tight or revealing.

Moral and religious.  Without it, we as a people might as well forget any restoration of the Constitution.

I am not calling for a return of long dresses and breeches, or mandatory church services.  What I am saying is needed is a sense of modesty, respect, and basic consideration of others.  I think we can all agree these things are vanishing, if not altogether missing from American society.  What I am saying is that the American infatuation with materialism, instant gratification, and hedonism is dragging this nation to its death.

So there it is.  This is why I believe any restoration of American Constitution / Liberty as the founders understood it is bound to fail in this society.  If one accepts Mr. Adams', Mr. Washington's, and Mr. Franklin's words, and applies the proper historical context to them, I cannot see how any other conclusion is possible.

Think about it, and what we, what you can do to reverse this trend. 

Let me tell you, it doesn't make you a popular guy.

Outlaw Capitalists

Its official: my simple head cold wasn’t;  more of a sinus / lung infection requiring heavy doses of antibiotics and some really cool pain meds.  Suffice to say that this past week I had noting but time on my hands to feel miserable.

Starting to crawl out of it now, but the older I get the slower the healing process becomes. 

Some of that time on my hands was spent reading a small book (small because that is all I could concentrate on with the stuffy head – took me a week to read a 90 page tome!!).  This book, “Classic Harley-Davidson 1903-1941,”  just made me realize once again why our country is headed to the dustbin of history.

The first chapters of the book concentrated on how William Harley and Arthur Davidson, two boyhood pals, got started building motorcycles.  This was truly a family endeavor.  The boys utilized Art’s dad’s woodshed, the advice of good friend Ole Evinrude, and the help of family members who worked in the railroad machine shop and foundry, all unofficial of course, as well as many other friends and neighbors.  In the small time frame of five years they went from a very small operation to a mindboggling big operation.  I had no idea but these guys were the Apple Computer of their day.

Why did this reinforce my belief as to why we are slipping away as a strong country?  Easy, innovation and entrepreneurship of this kind cannot legally exist today.  Regulations and codes simply will not allow it.

Imagine that you wanted to build some kind of cool widget.  You are a young man or woman that is blessed with mechanical abilities.  You are also blessed with a dad who has some really neat tools in his garage.

You start making these widgets and advertising them in a local widget magazine.  Sales take off.  Enough for neighbors to notice that a lot is going on in your dad’s garage.   Next thing you know you are being visited by the code enforcement officer, who tells you that you must get a business permit, tax number, and you must build your widgets someplace else, as your parents home is zoned residential only. 

You quickly do the math in your head and realize that all of a sudden the money you were making is not enough for you to become “legit.”  Frustrated, you simply give up or go “underground.”

Can’t happen?  Oh but it does, all the time.  I know several people who operate businesses out of their garage on the side.  They all fly under the radar of existing codes and regulations – they simple can’t afford to do otherwise.  They have become “outlaw” capitalists.  Don’t think this stifles innovation?  Is it any wonder we are a nation of consumers and not producers?

I look at my Harley Davidson and lift a glass of homemade brew to salute all the backyard innovating “outlaw” capitalists out there in the heartland.  May your spirit and ingenuity never die – your fortunes and the fortunes of our country go with you.

Typing under the influence....

 Spring just wouldn't be spring without a nasty head cold.  I've already missed two days of work which is eating on me just imagining how far behind I am, and what a pain in the keester it is going to be trying to get caught up.  As soon as I find the guy who pumped all of this air and snot into my head there will be h eeh double toothpicks to pay.....

Nothing is easy.

Nothing is ever easy as it looks.  You know what I am talking about.  You watch those do-it-yourself TV shows and it looks so easy that after a trip to Lowes or Home Depot you are set to tackle whatever task is before you with confidence, except it is never easy and usually involves 2 or 3 more trips to the hardware store. 

So it has been this weekend.  I am not going to go on a rant, I actually like working on things.  I like the challenge.  When something brakes or doesn’t go like it should I take it as a challenge.  The machinery has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged my manhood.

I remember years ago working on my Sportster 883.  I noticed that the exhaust coming off of one of the cylinders was cold, meaning that the fuel/air mixture wasn’t firing.  I took the bike apart trying to figure out what was wrong.  After about two hours of extreme irritation, my Dad walked out and asked me if I had checked the spark plug.

There I was, sitting amidst a bunch of parts and my voltmeter, and I hadn’t bothered to check the spark plug.  That was what was wrong and my Dad taught me a very important lesson that day;  when attempting to diagnose a problem start with the simple and work towards the complex.   Genius right?  This simple lesson has since saved me countless hours of grief.  Looking back I should have paid more attention to my Dad when he was working on things……

Except this past weekend I discovered another truth; if something you are doing is easy, you are probably doing it wrong or you have missed something.  I know I’m not the first to come up with this, as nothing is new under the sun.  I simply “learned” it the hard way.

The silver lining in the cloud is that repairing whatever usually involves the purchase of some new tool to fix what I have messed up.  Hence, I have a LOT of tools.

Kind of like our lives, which are never easy – and if we are currently living on easy street this is simply a warning from God to be VERY vigilante.  Something is wrong; we just haven’t figured it out what it is yet.

God does not intend for us to live easy lives.  It is part of the challenge He has given us.  Luckily for us He has  provided a fantastic tool and a counselor to help us muddle through.

Spring is almost here.

The sun rises a little earlier and sets a little later each day.  There is a certain smell in the morning air – maybe just a hint of fresh vegetation instead of the old dead rotting leaf smell.  All signs that spring is almost here, and what better way to get ready for spring than to get the motorcycle ready?

Not the old mid-life crisis Ninja I have had for the few years and sold last fall, but my new Harley Davidson XL1200 Sportster Custom.  This bike will be my 4^th Harley and my 3^rd Sportster.  Why a Harley?  They are visceral.  They are noisy.  They require constant attention and care, and the smell from a Harley exhaust takes me back to my Dad’s shop and the smell of oil, grease, and arcing welding rods.  Unlike the Ninja, the engine is exposed for all to see its nakedness.  No cheap plastic here.  Kind of the meat and potatoes of motorcycles that harkens back to a better  simpler time.

Many years ago I used to make fun of people who rode Harleys.  That was in my Honda days.  There was a Yamaha in there too.  All very nice bikes.  Very predictable, reliable, and also very boring.  Nothing ever went wrong and no tweaking or adjusting was ever needed.  For a guy who likes to turn a wrench this is simply unacceptable.  The Harleys are pretty reliable too, but every now and then you need to get your torque wrench out and re-torque all the things that get shook loose.  I didn’t understand the value of a bike that required this kind of TLC 30 years ago.  I certainly do now.

With literally a gazillion aftermarket parts, you can make your bike very much your own – the tinkering is endless.

I think that this is why when you look at many used HD bikes you find that they have very few miles on them.  People see them more as a work of art in progress than something you actually ride.  Happily, I like to ride them too.

When I sold my Fatboy and purchased the Ninja I realized too late that it had to be the dumbest thing I have ever done (or at least way up there on a very long list of dumb things I have done).  The Ninja was just too fast.  Ridiculously fast – explains why the insurance was also ridiculous.

The Harley, while no slouch, is basically a tractor motor.  You can do all kinds of things to the engine, but its still a tractor motor – in a strange way the sound it makes sounds like an old Allison Chalmers tractor put putting in a field somewhere.  Again, a simpler time.

And of course, put putting around the lake on a beautiful spring day is a great way to experience God’s creation up close.   Yes, spring is almost here.

What Christians could learn from Act of Valor movie

Worth the time to read......

What Christians could learn from the movie Act of Valor