"The Anchors Hold"

Do The Anchors Still Hold?

Our music minister, Scott Glass, sang one of my favorites last Sunday morning, "The Anchor Holds." I have often thought about the concept of anchors and how they affect our lives.

Among others, two important anchors are our faith in a living God and our allegiance to upholding the precepts of governing as outlined in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We have willingly tethered our culture to these anchors. Anchors are "a reliable or principal support, a mainstay, or something that serves to hold an object firmly" (Webster’s) in place.

Anchors protect families. Without a faith anchor, families are tossed about in a sea of competing ideologies and godless philosophies. For several centuries most Americans held the Bible and its wisdom as a high standard for behavior, and, thus, it served as a cultural anchor. Not all citizens were dedicated church-goers or strict in their observance of Biblical guidelines, but most recognized that the wisdom of the Bible was an anchor in people’s lives; it offered absolutes and values that were necessary for a growing nation to survive. It defined personal integrity, and it inspired our forefathers.

Today, faith in Jesus Christ is still an anchor for many people. The anchor of faith in God and His Word keeps us tethered to truth and helps us ride out the storms of life and throw a life-preserver to others who have no anchor. In addition to our faith, the Constitution and Bill of Rights serve as anchors and a protection against unrelenting winds that pressure us to change the course of our nation. Without the anchor of a national commitment to a strict interpretation of our founding documents, our country is at risk of being washed onto the "rocks of internationalism and globalism"–producing a diluted form of government guided only by the whims of the elite and powerful of any nation.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights documents tether us to a solid foundation of government. Our form of government, though not perfect, is definitely superior to the vast collection of systems around the world. This anchor is being gradually pulled in. There are those among us who no longer see the need for a sovereign America with its own exemplary system. They are willing to pull anchor and allow America to drift into a churning whirlpool of systems, no longer distinct in culture, faith, or vision. We talk of the need for assimilating new immigrants into our culture; they think in terms of assimilating America into the global community where conformity is the ultimate goal. God forbid!

Pray that our anchors hold.

I started this post in Sept. of 2007. I'm still working on it. Please excuse my clumsy attempt at using an analogy.

George Will - Stand-up Comedian at CPAC

The following link is to one of the best and funniest speeches I've heard in a long while. George Will is a longtime Washington insider and journalist. His stoic expressions while delivering hilarious political punch is entertaining and informative.

This video should be shown on the late night talk shows as an example of great stand-up comedy. It won't because the message is too clear and vital to the health of our country. Will's command of innuendo and satire cuts to the heart of the current problems in America's governing class. He presents the differences between conservative and liberal philosophies and goals in a manner you can understand and laugh at. ENJOY!

cut & paste link:
http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/4830692

Obamacare Smells

The Obama administration's urgency to get healthcare reform done ASAP smells of deceit and shenanigans. There is an underlying agenda at stake—grow the federal government.

Drop the current legislation on healthcare reform. It is too lengthy, has too many points that are being challenged by people with no other motive than love of country.  And, it addresses issues of personal healthcare that are not the business of the government. In reality who ever gave the federal government the permission to address my/our healthcare; I agree with those who say that healthcare legislation is unconstitutional.

There are several things that should have been done much prior to this late date: tort/liability reforms that will reduce the necessity of providers carrying expensive liability insurance the cost of which is passed on to patients, hospitals, and other related providers and competition across state lines for less expensive insurance. Some suggest that this administration is beholden or indebted to trial lawyers' groups; that could account for the absence of tort reform in Obama's bill.

Some of the reforms in the Obama plan are punitive against insurance companies and will eventually put them out of business. Obama's insistence of mandating that insurance companies insure everyone, even those with pre-existing catastrophic illnesses, ignores the reality of the actuarial tables designed as a formula to assign premiums based on projected payouts. What a formula for destroying the insurance industry. But then, isn't that his intent. That would certainly move us right into a single payer system. We all agree that the issue of pre-existing conditions and those who cannot afford insurance needs to be addressed. Surely we can do that without destroying the best healthcare system in the world.

The bottom-line is that in addressing the plight of the under or uninsured, Obama has created a panic among the greater population of folks who have taken care of their business and made sure that they have adequate insurance. His plan thrusts the government's fingers deeply into the private affairs of many responsible people. Medicare has effectively desensitized Americans to the movement toward a total welfare state; it set us up to move toward dependency on the government.

The massive amount of language in the bill leaves massive holes of opportunity for undisclosed or unwanted legislation to be attached without the general public's awareness or understanding of long-term consequences.

This attempt at a “comprehensive” bill is really an attempt to slide every left-leaning, socialistic, fatter government piece of legislation past a “dull of understanding” public's eye. I include myself in this category. I looked through the bill and didn't have a clue as to what most of it meant or of its implications. The language is legal and most of us don't know how to sift through anything this massive and decide how it is going to affect the rest of our lives and the lives of our off-springs. When legislation is being debated that will change the nature of how we will experience healthcare and that will affect a huge portion of the economic health of our country, we should be able to understand it. For that reason, and many others, instead of trying to rush this through as Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have been trying to do since the first day of his presidency, the current bill should be scrapped. Much smaller pieces of legislation should be crafted that both sides can debate in front of the public. Timetables to move bills of this import through Congress should not exist.

I repeat: The Obama administration's urgency to get healthcare reform done ASAP smells of deceit and shenanigans.