End Days Near? Or Will We Stand Up To Evil?

Dear Lord, what have we done? I don’t know anymore what to say about the news. It is all of my worst nightmares and warnings. The collapse of Libya, Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Caliphate, Jews being targeted in Europe, the rise of fascism and the Nazi Party. Now the targeting of the west by the caliphate in the heart of Europe. All of this I spoke of. All of this could have been avoided if we weren’t so arrogant. Me included. If we would have all stopped playing politics. Me included. If I would have been a better messenger. I have made so many mistakes. Please forgive me. I beg of you to hear the warnings of what is yet to come. There is so much more yet to come. These are the birth pangs of things yet to come, these are the beginnings of sorrows. I cannot give you any solutions. I have no worldly answers. We must humble ourselves and turn our face to God. I spent a few minutes listening to Winston Churchhill speeches today. Most wanted to appease in late 1940 just as they do now. No one wanted to call Hitler evil. It is normal. No one wants war. No one wants slaughter. We all want to believe that if we all just talked we could find a path for all to journey together. Evil is hard to comprehend. But we must try and call it out by name. There are times when a civilized world must stand for what is right. Now is one of those times. Evil does exist. It has a name and it is ISIS and radical Islam. We face a times when more than our wants and needs are at stake, but the very future of civilized mankind. Our children and grandchildren will thank us or curse us based upon who we choose to be right now. We are fortunate to live at this time for we are given the opportunity that only comes times of great strife, struggle and sacrifice. We have a chance to find out who we really are. I know we are more than what we have allowed ourselves to become. We are more than what our politicians tell us we are. We are a great, kind and generous people. We are not conquerers. We are not a nation of warriors. We are a charitable and Godly people, that when called upon, we hesitate. We wait, debate and at first deny. But when push comes to shove we find something uniquely American calling us and stirring our souls into action. Will we choose to rise up and be greater men and women than we have allowed ourselves to become this time? Or will we continue to eat, drink and be merry? Will we continue to believe the lie we all want to be true? That this too shall pass! It isn’t any of our business! We can ignore the beheadings, spend our way out of debt, deny God and His most basic principles and continue to be blind to what our culture has become. We can continue down that path and everyday the price we must pay will only grow higher. These are extraordinary times. Extraordinary events are on the horizon and moving toward us with great rapidity. But the good news is: WE ARE EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE! Let us all choose to stand shoulder to shoulder and arm in arm ready to bear the burden and pay for our mistakes. Let us free ourselves from the shallowness of our commercialism, apathy, pessimism and petty divisions. Let us be willing to live and die to free our brothers and sisters of all nationalities and religions from the terror of the beasts that have grown in the shadows of ignorance and hate. Let us once again remember the teachings of Christ, Gandhi, and King, that the greatest weapon we can wield is Love. Let us find it once again in ourselves and then in one another as we prepare for the events of the coming days.

– Glenn Beck

Can We Play Fantasy…Politics?

“Deflate-Gate.” Who has heard of it? I’m sure if your head is not buried in the sand you have heard of this by now.

That term alone has led me to ponder why our culture is so infatuated with a GAME. A game in which has NO bearing on life. I mean, if you told me, “Brandon, this is the Hunger Games and people are going to die.” Then maybe it would be something of value or concern. Speaking of that, kind of reminds me of “The Colosseum.” Funny thing, that was a remnant of an empire distracting its citizens to what it was doing through the medium of cheap entertainment. Sound familiar?

It is peculiar that an entire nation would be so apathetic as to let the freest and most amazing country in the course of human history fall by the way side. Or is it that shocking?

Humans are creatures of habit and it seems that one of those habits is to continually let other men rule over them. Instead of learning from its ancestor’s mistakes and having the gumption to be able to rule itself; we continue to fall in to the perpetual trap of tyrannical oppression.

Our culture fantasizes over how my quarterback did and how many points my running back earned me this weekend. We scrutinize the New England Patriots and whether they messed with FOOTBALLS and analyze it to no end. Where is the media and where are the people when it come to real scandals? Benghazi? Fast and Furious? Solyndra? NSA? IRS? Un-equal pay in White House? Etc.?

Can you imagine if people scrutinized and broke down our politicians week in and week out? Wow! We would have amazing accountability. I bet you our country would be light years ahead and we probably wouldn’t be nearing $20,000,000,000,000 in national debt.

Just saying.

Why don’t we play fantasy politics? Put money on it? Make it fun? It’s not like we don’t have money on it anyway, right? I mean by my math we all have somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 in the pot each. That’s just current debt from the government. Doesn’t include your annual personal debt/expenses.

Isn’t the point of the American experiment to see if man can rule himself? Or will he fall in to the habits that his ancestors routinely succumbed to and be overridden by cheap entertainment and “what feels good” at the moment?

If we played fantasy politics we could set up a scoring system…we could track it all and break it down week in and week out, just like football. Maybe that will keep people more engaged? Maybe it’s not enough just saying “hey, these taxes or this healthcare system or this law is going to drastically alter or affect the rest of your life”, maybe that just isn’t enough. So, we will implement a fantasy politics game in place of that. This way people can understand the importance politics, history, and law play in our lives and make it a little bit more fun and engaging. We all know it could use that.

This may sound like fun and games but seriously, if we analyzed the people who lead us and would like to; I think we would be a much more efficient and unified country. The point of the media and an informed electorate is to watch over the government and to make sure that they are staying the course of freedom and liberty.

Our founders knew what they were doing when they separated the branches of government. They purposely did this so things would NOT get done and branches checked one another. The problems we do have are SOLELY because of all the things that DID get done; the implementation of the income tax, the creation of the federal reserve, the Social Security system, Welfare, the department of education, Obamacare, and on and on.

The natural arc of government leads towards “getting things done” and passing laws. The more power you have the more laws you pass and the more laws you pass the more power you have. Do not be mistaken; the people who have power are the elites, the ones in control. Does not matter if you are Republican or Democrat or conservative or liberal. Just ask the millions of poor innocent souls who lived under dictatorships in the 20th century in Russia, China, etc.. There were just two classes: the rich/elite and the poor/peasant. There was no conservative and progressive. They all suffered equally. Just as we will all suffer equally.

Do not get fooled by people who say things need to get done. The government does not get things done, people get things done. The people make the government look good. Government does not make people or a country look good.

Now, I have not said that “no government” is good. I have talked about what makes our government great and that is the way we were founded, the laws that have been set up and put in place during our founding – the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Limited government with many restrictions on what it could do to its people. Not huge massive centralized government or no government at all. But, the government that is limited in its scope and does what it is supposed to do; protect us with the military and provide and manage roads. That is PRECISELY what made us great, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. If you don’t believe me, just ask the millions and millions of immigrants why they came here over the last couple hundred years. They will gladly tell you.

The point of this article is fun and games but also very serious. Anyway to make history and politics more interesting so more people will be informed and engaged will only help our nation. If you want true “PROGRESS” then getting people to pay attention and inform themselves is what we should be talking about. This is a uniting cause that stretches – as I mentioned earlier – across both sides. We both will suffer greatly and equally if we do not come together and band against those who seek and desire constant power. The greatest president we’ve ever had, George Washington, was forced to be the first president of the United States and served honorably for two terms and then resigned voluntarily back to his estate in Mount Vernon. He DID NOT seek power, we FORCED it on him. He was a servant leader and that is something our country is sorely missing.

Leaders eat last, they do not eat first.

Providing Value

I think we lack this trait as a culture right now. No. I KNOW we do. One thing I truly believe humans are lacking this day and age is: providing value. Well, that and God. What are you doing to prove you are worth more? What are you doing to go the extra step? Look at all of the events surrounding police right now and you can’t help but sit back and wonder…why? If we really took ourselves seriously we would promote value and love. When you love someone you want to do things for them. You provide value to them. When you value yourself you are forced to make good decisions and watch out for those around you. We need a cultural paradigm shift. Instead of looking around and asking “what can others do for me” or “the police need to treat me a certain way.” Let’s look at it from a different angle. Let’s ask, “what can I do to comply with this officer and make his job easier?” or “What can I do to provide value to others and help them obtain their goals?” I feel as I grow older this becomes more and more obvious. As a naive young man growing up I thought that I could change the world. I thought that being a “good person” and doing the “right thing” (majority of the time) I could be a leader and an example to my peers. Well, the truth is: people just don’t care. Truth be told, I was actually right. BUT – and this is a big BUT – everyone’s view on what is right and wrong is different. I came from a belief that there is a right and wrong, black or white. Everyone knows what is “right” and what is common sense. What I found as I grew older was that common sense is not common. People are going to do their own thing. You may convince some people but most move on leading delusional lives. We have lost our way and lost our closeness with our Father. People don’t provide value or love like they should because their relationship with Him has steadily diminished. It’s our fault. It started with electing leaders in this country who in the early 20th century who thought THEY were God. We have been led by people who thought they could make your decisions for you better than you. We have come to this point all on our own accord. We don’t make time for Him so we truly believe that we are almighty and the government will take care of things when they are wrong. God will humble those who do not humble themselves. This is something I try to work on as part of my life now and just a piece of advice our nation should heed. Believe me, when he snaps you back to reality it hurts. The farther away you are the harder it is and the more it hurts. Providing value and treating others they way you would like to be treated is taught in the Bible. There is a direct correlation between the lack of faith that exists now and the “me” attitude that is so pervasive in our culture today. God has given us free will. We either choose to provide value to others or we choose not to. Give and you shall receive.

All Can Agree On The Bill Of Rights

I assume most are sick of the partisan bickering politics is giving us these days. Congress’ approval ratings have been in the single digits for as long as you can remember. So, why do these people keep getting elected?

The one thing that WILL unite everyone is the Bill of Rights. Hands down. This is the one thing that all can agree on.

Whoever wishes to win the next Presidential election and every midterm election for that matter, MUST run on uniting principles.

There are many great candidates starting to pop up and we should be grateful for the “calling” people have heard in the last 4-6 years. I truly believe we will see this revival for decades to come.

The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are what gives all of the parties and ALL people the ability to fight and bicker and live their lives how they wish. Don’t you think that whoever embraces this simple truth would be a genius? You would think. Unfortunately, special interests, lobbyists, and career politicians are against this (for the most part). They make it EXTREMELY tough to even see the Founding documents as legitimate items anymore. D.C. doest not talk about the documents, the President doesn’t, and schools teach children the wrong definition of amendments and so forth. REWRITING OF OUR FOUNDING?

Who can be trusted? The one who unites and agrees that the Bill of Rights and Constitution are what will turn this country around.

Technology is making the world smaller and smaller and less private everyday. The ONLY way to put limits on what man can do to you is to embrace the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. They were created by men who studied philosophy, war, politics, and history for years. These documents are Divinely inspired and protect you from men. There is a reason that they are “rights” given to you by your Creator. ITS SO THEY CANNOT BE TAKEN AWAY!

Every human on the planet, especially, every American wants and craves freedom. This is precisely why every American, or at least 80-90% can agree on this simple truth. The only people who don’t wish to see the Constitution last are those who have ideas of grandeur and power and the ability to control people. The citizenry just wishes to be left alone. They want government and men out of their lives and doesn’t want them “snooping” around in their private lives.

Republicans and Democrats may not agree on a lot of things but they can agree on few main platforms. If someone wants to get an abortion or buy a gun or not get health insurance or get married to the same sex they should be able to. Each state is its own entity and they decide their own laws. I don’t believe that some of those things are ok but that is up to God to judge them at the end of their lives. But, to have government come in and say that we should or shouldn’t be able to do those things is asinine. Thats exactly opposite of how we were founded and what made us great.

What made us great is that each state had the power and the Federal government was weak compared to the states. Now the Federal government had usurped all the power and we are now under one big tent of cronyism and corruption. It used to be if one state messed and up and failed then the other states looked and said “oh boy, that didn’t work well, we aren’t going to do that.” Now, the Federal government screws up and were all subject to the failure. This is again what made the Founding Fathers so smart. They designed the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to protect against this. It has taken over 200 years to break those laws down. But, we still have time. Those that believe in freedom and liberty still have time to save this great country if we act now.

We are in quite possibly the most interesting period in our nation’s history. It is up to those who wish to preserve freedom for their children who will make the difference. Act.

Two Different World Views

Two contrasting world views in these two individuals. One has an accountable attitude toward life and self. The other has no accountability to anything. You decide who is who! Enjoy!

 

Mike Rowe Touts Hard Work

 

Hillary Clinton Explaining Benghazi

Wow, Why Our Economy Stinks

Hobby Lobby May Close All 500+ Stores in 41 States

SEPTEMBER 5, 2013

By David Green, the founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

When my family and I started our company 40 years ago, we were working out of a garage on a $600 bank loan, assembling miniature picture frames. Our first retail store wasn’t much bigger than most people’s living rooms, but we had faith that we would succeed if we lived and worked according to God’s word.
From there, Hobby Lobby has become one of the  nation’s largest arts and crafts retailers, with more than 500 locations in 41 states. Our children grew up into fine business leaders, and today we run Hobby Lobby together, as a family.
We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest.
We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at  80% above minimum wage.
But now, our government threatens to change all of that.
A new government healthcare mandate says that our family business MUST provide what I believe are abortion-causing drugs as part of our health insurance. Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs.
It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one.
If we refuse to comply, we could face $1.3 million PER DAY in government fines.
Our government threatens to fine job creators in a bad economy.
Our government threatens to fine a company that’s raised wages four years running.
Our government threatens to fine a family for running its business according to its beliefs.  It’s not right. I know people will say we ought to follow the  rules; that it’s the same for everybody. But that’s not true.
   The government has exempted thousands of companies from this mandate, for reasons of convenience or cost.  But it won’t exempt them for reasons of religious belief.
So, Hobby Lobby and my family are forced to make a choice. With great reluctance, we filed a lawsuit today, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, asking a federal court to stop this mandate before it hurts our business. We don’t like to go running into court, but we no longer have a choice. We believe people are more important than the bottom line and that honoring God is more important than turning a profit.
My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is  going to make that much more difficult.
The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law.  I say that’s a choice no American and no American business should have to make.
The government cannot force you to follow laws that go against your fundamental religious belief. They have exempted thousands of companies but will not except Christian organizations including the Catholic church.
Since you will not see this in the liberal media, please pass this on to all your contacts.

Sincerely,
David Green
CEO and Founder of Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc.

2014 – Best Year Ever

New Year’s has come and gone. Millions, have already lost hope of their new resolutions. Within 7 days, 75% of people have given up on their new goals. Don’t be one of those people.

Make this the best year of your life. Every single year you should get better. Become a better person, get smarter, treat others better, treat yourself better, become stronger mentally, spiritually, and physically, and develop a stronger faith.

Many people look back on “glory days”. Why on Earth would you do something like that? You are going to tell yourself that you are never going to have a better time or be a better person than you were then? That provides no hope and is certainly no way to live. What is there to look forward to in life? The answer is nothing if you are always looking back.

You don’t have to be relegated to mediocrity. It’s all in your mind. You produce your own outcomes. No one else does this. The government doesn’t do it to you, the neighbors didn’t do it, your family didn’t do it. It’s you!

If you are not where you would like to be then you can change it. Simple as that. Start off easy and simple, then work your way up.

Start holding doors open for people. Smile at strangers. Read for 10 mins a day. Pay attention to world events. Tell God what you are grateful for every morning. Tell family you love them everyday. Open car doors for your wife/girlfriend. The list goes on and on.

Positive change is all around you, but you must first be open to it for it to happen.

2014 can be an amazing year for you. Step out of the herd. Keep your New Year’s resolutions whatever they may be. It only takes 20-66 days to start a new habit. Start creating some positive habits that improve your life, not hold you back.

Take care of your health first and foremost. If you don’t focus on this you will not be able to do anything else to your potential. Your body is literally your life blood and your engine. Take care of it and it will get you where you want to go.

Exactly a year ago I set out on a brand new direction of my life. I underwent many changes in the previous year and that was the “growing up” point in my life.

I had to make a decision about what was important in life and stop blaming others for things that went wrong in my life. I had to break out of my rut.

I did just that.

A year after those changes and my life is on a totally different track in many different ways, many positive ways.

I really had to dig down and realize that “if its to be then its up to me”. I had to take responsibility for all I had done, learn from it, and move on.

Taking a more positive approach is hard. Humans tend to be pessimistic animals and by no means am I out of the woods yet. It will be a process, a long one at that. But, isn’t that the point of life? A process of becoming better every single day and learning and growing?

It is scary to think about how different you will be in 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 10 years. But, the change will happen gradually and that will make it doable. It is done in small increments over and over for long periods of time. That is how professionals work and that is how you should be working on yourself.

This can be your best year ever. It is all on you. Become a better man. Become a better woman. It is simple, make a decision.

I have made my decision. This WILL be my best year ever. Then next year will be even better and then the year after that.

Choose wisely.

The Death Of The Career Politician

Republican Senator Ted Cruz was a hit on the Jay Leno Show the other night with a few common sense observations that anyone with half a brain realizes.

Watch them here Ted Cruz

I am going to tackle an issue that I believe is way over due: term limits. We learned our lesson after FDR and added Presidential term limits. I think it’s about time we learn our lesson about Congress and term limit them!

Some pundits and talking heads will make the case for no term limits because “what if our side has a great politician in there?” Sorry, this always ends badly. The longer you stay in Washington and the longer you are away from “real life”, the more you stray from common sense.

This simply means that you have to run more decent human beings.

This will also benefit the country because more “good” people will want to run if they know the MOST they could even be in office is two terms, say.

On the flip side, it will discourage some “misguided” people who want to “get in” just to self-serve and save themselves and their family from all the destruction being driven by the political class. Just in case anyone didn’t know, the elites in Washington (President, Cabinet, Congress, Aides, etc.) don’t have to abide or follow many of the laws passed by THEMSELVES! Like the dreaded Obamacare just to name the most recent and pressing issue.

Who says that politicians are some special class of people? They do! Why are they exempt from laws they passed?

If the laws and regulations they pass are so amazing and will benefit the rest of us so much then why wouldn’t the Congress and the President want to abide by them? Hmmmmmmm……

Americans are sick and tired of the games being played in Washington. You are going to see many changes the rest of this decade. They will come in many shapes and sizes. One that must occur if we are to right the ship is congressional term limits.

NO MORE CAREER POLITICIANS!

Our Founders believed that service was just that, service. Not a place to grow comfortable and secure sweetheart deals and run the country in to the ground.

It is about time the people take back the country from the political elite before it is too late. There is a shrinking window of time where that is still possible.

Ted Cruz, Rand Paul and the like will lead this revolution that will galvanize many Democrats and Republicans, young and old, black and white. The simple reason being FREEDOM is something that both sides of the aisle can agree on. Enough said.

Pro Tips

• Be well educated on many different investment strategies
• Be an expert on my local real estate market
• Watch for changes in that market
• Take ACTION

 

And for the best description on Obamacare yet…..here you go.

Obamacare  

 

These are times that try men’s souls. Incredible opportunity and destruction lie ahead. Prepare wisely and keep grinding.

Thoughts and Prayers

First, I want to say that thoughts and prayers go to all involved and affected by the Navy Yard shooting today in Washington, D.C.. What a horrible tragedy and we hope all of those injured and grieving families are brought relief and peace.

My article today originally was going to be on people’s thoughts on Baltimore Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco missing his child’s birth yesterday for his team’s football game.

I for one was shocked. I come from a hockey background where men routinely miss games for the arrival of their children. I understand that football is 100x more popular, therefore much more of a business, but, come on.

My opinion is that no man within realistic time and warning should ever miss the birth of a child. What message does that send to the child? You weren’t as important as a football game was? In essence, yes, that is exactly what that says to the child, his other children, extended family, and now all who know about it.

This sets a terrible precedent and I believe this shows one of the many reasons we have lost our way in this society. It proves that we have many lessons we haven’t learned from history and civilizations before us that thought they knew better.

I just want the reader to sit and think about one thing: what is the ultimate purpose of life? Just take a minute to think about that.

Me, personally, I believe that the purpose of life is to get to Heaven. You work towards Heaven and help those whom you come in to contact with do the same – namely your wife/husband, then your surrounding family.

I think some might say that the purpose of life is to pro-create and develop the next generation. Another great answer which I believe to be true as well.

I don’t know anywhere in there that says, “watch, play, or think about football”. (Or add in your favorite sport, profession, or activity)

During the homily at mass yesterday, the priest talked about God being more important than food and water. That is a large concept to grasp but extremely important.

Whether you believe in God or not is not the point. The point is realizing there is something bigger out there than all of us. We aren’t here for ourselves. We are here to serve one another and grow bright and promising youth. Whether it is our spouse first, second our kids, then third our extended family and friends.

Why have our priorities gone by the waste-side? What has made us think that a profession or money is somehow more important than our own family?

Family is easy to take for granted, you always feel like they are going to be there for you. And, a lot of times they are no matter what. But, in the end, they are the only thing that you have. Friends come and go, but no one will ever love you like family does or have that special bond with you.

Not to mention this sets a bad precedent for men and women. Men continue to look bad and women are made to deal with life-altering events by themselves. If we were designed to work like this we would be asexual. That’s just science.

Oops, did I just mix religion and science? Yes, yes I did.