Another week of chasing yard apes around is over. This is exhausting, folks; I'm too old for this, which is why I've asked the powers at be to get me into the adult program. We do have a group of adults this coming week, and I'll be teaching some of those classes (no kids!), but I won't fully get into the adult program for probably at least a month, and maybe not till the first part of next year. I'll just grin and bear it till then; the kids ARE cute, but they can be very aggravating at times and it's their inexhaustible energy that wears me out. But really my main gripe is that it's cutting into my blog-writing time. When I get home in the evenings, I just want to vegitate, not write. Some nights I'm so tired I can't even sleep. I'll see how it goes this coming week; hopefully, I won't be as weary and can publish more posts.
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I don't know if Barak Obama is a Muslim or not, but I do know he's not a Christian. Not only has he not done that which the New Testament teaches a person must do to become a Christian, but he doesn't live like one, either. Playing golf on Sundays is not a terribly representative pasttime of the true followers of Jesus. The fact that more people now think he's a Muslim than a "Christian" is also indicative of his lack of discipleship. A devout Christian in the public eye will not hide his light; no Christian should and, if by some chance Obama has obeyed the gospel plan of salvation and become a Christian (which there is absolutely no evidence of), then he's one of the poorest excuses for a Christian that I've ever known and a total embarrasment to the religion. I wouldn't want to claim him if I were a Muslim, either.
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I'm still not convinced that Islam is the danger that most conservatives seem to think it is. I'm trying to be open-minded on the matter, so I could be persuaded otherwise. I just know there is at least two major factions within Islam--the radical, Osama Bin Laden element of Islam that indeed would like to crush every foe and infiltrate every country, killing anyone who does not become a Muslim. But they are a very, very small minority of the Islamic people. Most Muslims are decent folks, many of whom believe in democracy and freedom and would like to enjoy some of both. Yes, they wish to spread their religion, but then, so do Christians. And the very fact that so many "Christians" are concerned about the spread of Islam tells me that we are doing an awfully poor job of world evangelism. If we have the truth, then why are we afraid of Islam? Too, the Arab/Islamic peoples have been fighting amongst themselves for thousands of years and they will continue to do so. Islam is no more united than "Christendom" is, and it's hard for a divided anything to be a true world threat. But, again, I am willing to be persuaded otherwise. I just haven't been yet.
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The economy seems to be heading south again--if there ever really was economic growth, as the liberal media has been at such pains to convince us of. It is true that pouring a trillion dollars worth of "stimulus" money into the economy will--or at least should--provide some economic growth. The theory behind it is not totally unreasonable. Get the economy going again, and with people working once more, they will be contributing tax dollars that can be used to pay off the stimulus debt. Sort of like a person who borrows money, going in debt, to start a business, trusting that future profits will enable him to pay off that debt. The problem is, it never works that way with government; or at least, I don't know of a case where it ever has. Even if the "stimulus" succeeds in getting the economy going again, government never uses the increased revenues to pay off its debt; politicians just try to buy more votes with more pork. Plus, Obama is stupid to raise taxes; the whole idea is that the increased revenues from the stimulus will be used to pay off the debt. Raising taxes only discourages economic activity which kills the whole purpose of the stimulus in the first place. Tax hikes mean people will have less money to spend on economic activity thus slowing down such activity which, again, was the main reason (ostensibly) for the "stimulus" in the first place. The bottom line is, what benefits--if any--last year's "stimulus" package provided for the American economy are running out and the economy appears to be slowing, with most economic experts predicting a renewed recession next year. Obama is talking about another stimulus package, i.e., more debt. That piper will have to be paid some day, but current politicians are hoping that day will be long after they have retired. Thus, someone else can get the blame for a disaster that was actually caused by previous Congresses and administrations. We play a game with the kids here at English Village called "pass the bomb." They sit in a circle with a "bomb" and pass it around until the timer goes off and the "bomb" explodes. The person holding the "bomb" at that point is out of the game and must wait till the current game is finished. Some of the children will hold the "bomb" for a few seconds, just to rattle the nerves of the other players, and hoping the "bomb" won't explode as they hold it (sometimes it does, which causes great merriment among the other players). "Passing the bomb," in a nutshell, is what Congresses and Presidents have been doing for many years now--hoping it won't explode during the current terms, and often holding on to it for personal pleasure and maximum present gain.
Some day that bomb is going to explode.
