Responsibility & Effectiveness of Government

The care of human life and happiness, not their destruction, is the legitimate responsibility of a good government.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned – this is the sum of good government.

That government is best which governs the least, because its people discipline themselves.

To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.

Yes, we did produce a near-perfect republic. But will they keep it? Or will they, in the enjoyment of plenty, lose the memory of freedom? Material abundance without character is the path of destruction.

When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.

My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government

Right to Bare Arms

The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Laws that forbid the carrying of arms disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes… Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man. (quoting Cesare Beccaria)

Those who hammer their guns into plows, will plow for those who do not.

No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

Banks

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.

Courts

One single object … [will merit] the endless gratitude of the society: that of restraining the judges from usurping legislation.

Press

The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.

Liberty

When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

What county can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time that its people preserve the spirit of resistance.

I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.

I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.

Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add “within the limits of the law,” because law is often but the tyrant’s will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.

Prosperity

Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when to reap, we should soon want bread.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.

Religion

No nation has ever existed or been governed without religion. Nor can be. The Christian religion is the best religion that has been given to man and I, as Chief Magistrate of this nation, am bound to give it the sanction of my example.

However, when we see that killing unborn babies is socially acceptable and prayer is not… when we see that it is acceptable to our country’s ivory tower elites for people to sneak into our country and take jobs from out of work Americans and inflate our welfare rolls, while those trying to protect our country and culture are condemned as narrow minded racists… one wonders why anyone with any principles would concern themselves with being “socially acceptable”, or “politically correct” as it is known in academic and media circles.

This striving for social acceptance has even infected many churches as they attempt to appeal to those in the outside world. Some have removed cross from their buildings, adopted secular appearing logos and… worst of all, toned down the gospel of truth and grace so as not to offend the outside world.

My own church has taken some heat for a television ad where the pastor makes the proclamation that we won’t blend with society and quietly fit into place. Romans 12:2 tells us “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (NIV). There are just some people who believe that churches, like children in the old saying, should be seen and not heard.

We have permitted society to tell us what ideas are acceptable and which ones are not. We are told some thoughts should not be expressed in polite company. We are told that some people should not be offended… that offending someone is worse than speaking the truth. Unless one is a Muslim, we are told that we should keep our religious practices to ourselves. This should come as no surprise as the Bible tells us that the Gospel is an offense to those who are perishing… and we are afraid of hurting someone’s feelings when there is so much more at stake!

Last September, the Chaplain for the Richmond (VA) Fire Department gave the invocation before the Sprint Cup race. He had the audacity to pray in the name of Jesus, and mentioned Him at least one more time during the prayer. This year at the fall race, a local pastor did the same thing. Had this be done within the hallowed halls of academia or at a progressive political function thunderbolts of anger would have sprung forth from the eyes of the audience while tar and feathers would be prepared for the offender. As it was, the man was in the presence of flag loving, patriotic Americans who understood good things come from the Father, not the government. The earth did not open up and swallow him up and the earth kept on turning.

We can take instruction from this. We do not need to conform to the wishes and expectations of the world around us. In fact, we are told not to conform, but to be transformed. (Romans 12:2) This is particularly true when society is pushing us to in directions that we know are clearly wrong. It becomes, not just an option, but our duty. Glenn Beck tells us to “question with boldness”. When faced with questions of right and wrong, we need to act with boldness as well.

The leftist, liberals, progressives, or whatever we wish to call them, are attempting to shackle us with their false reality and their vision of the world by restricting how we describe this world and express our values. They understand that by controlling terminology, they can control the discourse and the outcome. We have already seen that in playing along with their system, we are trying to gain the blessing of those who will never agree with us or even accept our right to be heard in public. The choice is ours… do we live with their chains, or do we throw them off and pursue truth and justice?

Young people have burdened themselves with debts that they cannot repay in a declining economy. But can they bear total responsibility? Parents, looking for “only the best” for the little darlings, and living in an instant gratification society, see nothing wrong with borrowing to get the things they want. And they want the “best” education for their kids, even if it buries these same beloved kids in economic servitude for most of their lives.

It seems that young people, and their parents in many cases, think little or nothing of spending outrageous sums of money for and “education” that will “guarantee” their well being in life. The inflated price is of minor consequence as no one has to pay it now. The supposed benefits are immediate and the payments are just a shadow off in some distant future.

The degree is the thing. Often it doesn’t matter if it is in some useful field, like nuclear medicine, or some feel good area like women’s or ethnic studies. Universities, in the political correctness, are willing acomplises as the offer more and more courses outside the realm of useful knowledge, and charging major dollars for them. It is the lack of immediate consequences when spending this money for a product of questionable value that keeps the value from being questioned.

According to the College Board, in-state tuition and fees at four year state colleges have increased 8.3 percent in the past ten years. The price of a private school education has doubled in that same period, to the point where the average year costs around $42,224. This is pretty close to the median family income… which is not what it was just a few years ago.

Sensitive to the plight of the spend thrift students, the administration has come up with a plan to have the taxpayers pick up the tab for this academic indoctrination, while protecting the progressive liberal academia that fills there heads with socialistic propaganda.

In an effort to ease the burden of education costs on students President Obama, after moving to bring student loans under federal control, has come up with a plan. As with most things coming from the prevaricating president, we are told it will will cost us nothing, yet logic, common sense and simple math show this cannot be. The plan involves reducing the required payment to be based on 10 percent of discretionary income rather than 15 percent. Then he proposes to write off unpaid balances after twenty years instead of twenty five.

This must be a revised form of the new math the educational community foisted on us many years ago. Traditional and accurate math tells us that collecting smaller payments for a shorter time period yields less money than the current system. Newt Gingrich sees it as a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions leading to a bubble in education – by increasing the demand by limiting the consumer liability at public expense. Michelle Bachmann calls it an abuse of power. This is the same kind of insulation from price/value sensitivity we see in the medical field that makes the free market economy work.

So, on one hand, we have a narcissistic educational community that may actually believe they are providing a valuable service, and on the other writing the next thing to a blank check to keep the entire enterprise going. The students struggle with their loans, but, ultimately, the taxpayers are on the hook for the tab.

All things considered, it may be that by trying to fix student loans, we are missing the problem. We are only looking at a symptom of the problem, which is really the cost of higher education. This problem will, most likely, never be addressed as long as we have easy payment plans obscuring the real cost of this foolishness.

This video of Professor Abdullah Al-Nafisi reveals several problems we are currently facing. He is talking about the ease of using biological weapons against any populated area. It gives us a chilling reminder of how ineffective our defenses are along the border where such weapons would likely be smuggled in. The diminutive size of the weapon means in would fit in an automobile glove box or a business man’s briefcase.

It also means that it would not be difficult to smuggle into the United States in the backpack of a Mexican or Iranian slipping across the Rio Grande or in a fishing boat across one of the Great Lakes. Unfortunately the regime in Washington is more interested in keeping tabs on tea party members than keeping out potential Democrat voters.

Even with the threat of mass devastation, our government is more concerned with the devastation of their re-election prospects. Then we have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that would rather pursue the supposed health hazards of civilian possession of guns than the prevention of death on such a massive scale.

Unfortunately, the operations of so many parts of our government have become so politicized that they couldn’t fulfill their intended functions if our lives depended on it… and they may well.

Just recently the CDC recommended an expansion of their intrusion into our lives and further destruction of parental rights to raise their children as they see fit, by recommending that boys receive Gardasil in addition to the girls who have already been forced to submit to the state while Merck & Company laughs all the way to the bank.

Usually, required drugs guard against diseases that are spread by casual contact. Gardasil works to prevent the human papillomavirus (HPV) that is most often spread through sexual contact. Again, our government is taking a broad brush approach to avoid dealing with the real issue.

A few years ago, it was found that 95% of HIV infected homosexual men in a San Francisco study had anal HPV infection as well. Half of these had precancerous HPV caused lesions. To protect the feelings of these people who have taken another path to satisfaction, and to obscure the real problem, once again we are all expected to put our children at risk. We are just to accept the decision of our betters that the drug that, as of the beginning of 2011, has caused the deaths of at least 103 young women. Beyond this, it has a history of producing seizures, strokes and a whole host of other ailments, with no know cure.

In either case, political correctness in our government prevents it from dealing with the real issues threatening our land. Our leaders are chasing one red herring after another, never willing to pursue the real danger. They are always more concerned with the danger to their political power.

Whether they are doing this purposely, or through ignorance of the real danger, the people running the show are a clear and present danger to every last one of us. We permit them to remain in power at our own risk. It’s fine to support your favorite candidate. Let’s just not do it to the point that splinters the opposition that will drive these liberal progressive academic theorists far from the levers of power.

Sure we need to deal with the Federal Reserve, EPA overreach, ObamaCare… but the first thing we have to do is pry the deranged Marxists from the city on the Potomac. That has got to be our first priority. We stop the hemorrhaging of our freedoms before the repairs can begin.

It’s easy for those trained in theological pursuits to draw up lines of distinctions between various groups and philosophies. For myself, who you may call a Bapticostal, I must treat everyone who will proclaim “Jesus Christ is Lord” and shows the fruit of the Spirit in his or her daily life, as a brother. It is God’s heaven and He is the one who decides admission criteria.

This is not to mean that I don’t see differences, and that I don’t evaluate those differences. Not being a member of his church, it is obvious that I am not in agreement with all of it’s teachings. I have the same to say about my Catholic friends. Yet, I am not going to take it upon myself to comment on their ultimate destination, as I heard many do during my youth. Such calls are far above my pay grade and my Bible tells me I should not judge another man’s servant. I have found myself standing side by side the my Catholic and Mormon brothers and sisters in opposing such abominations on our land as the killing of innocent babies or the destruction of marriages. I will look at the fruit they produce and God will judge the heart.

Even within the traditional Christianity, we can tie ourselves up with disputes between Calvinists and Armenians or between purveyors replacement theology and those supporting the Jewish people and their homeland. The Christian church is a fragmented, yet still functioning, body that, fortunately worships the one and only God. He is the unifying factor that gives direction and power to our imperfect efforts. Our country is based on the principles of religious freedom and tolerance. We need to hang together on the things we can agree on, respect our differences and pray for those we believe are going astray.

If we are to reject Mitt Romney because the name of his church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and accept the idea, as some do, that Barack Hussein Obama is a Christian, because that is what his America hating pastor calls his form of religion, we have some major blind spots and need for wisdom. Now, most of us, in looking at the fruit produced by the President’s life and administration, will see major conflicts between his actions and fruit of the Spirit as defined in Galatians 5, and we cannot be content with a leader simply because he has the right “religion”.

As I said at the beginning, there are many reasons to reject the candidate with really nice hair, but his Mormon religion is not one of them. His faith leads him to be a good family oriented man with a fine concept of morality. It does not, however, give him a political philosophy that will lead our country out of the financial and moral abyss we find ourselves engulfed in.

Fort Worth, TX — On Tuesday, high school freshman Dakota Ary was given in-school suspension for stating in class that he believes homosexuality is wrong because of his Christian faith. Liberty Counsel is representing Dakota in this case, demanding full vindication and a full retraction of the suspension. If the school board does not comply, a lawsuit will be filed for violation of Dakota’s First Amendment rights.

Dakota was in a German language class at Western Hills High School on Tuesday when the topic of homosexuality arose. “I’m a Christian and, to me, being homosexual is wrong,” Dakota said to one of his classmates. His teacher overheard the comment, wrote Dakota an infraction, and sent him to the principal’s office. The class topic was religious beliefs in Germany. During the discussion, one student asked what Germans thought about homosexuality in relation to religion. Another student then asked to hear some translated terms such as “lesbian.” These questions provoked the conversation about Christianity and Dakota’s expression of his opinion to one classmate.

The discipline referral form says the comment was out of context, even though the lesson for the day was on religious beliefs. The teacher charged Dakota with “possible bullying” and indicated, “It is wrong to make such a statement in public school.” Last week, the teacher displayed a picture of two men kissing on a “World Wall” and told the students that homosexuality is becoming more prevalent in the world and that they should just accept it. Many of the students were offended by the teacher’s actions and his continually bringing up the topic of homosexuality in a German language class.

Matthew Krause, Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, along with Dakota’s mom, Holly Pope, met with school administrators Wednesday morning. Krause states: “Just because you walk through the schoolhouse doors doesn’t mean you shed your First Amendment rights. Dakota wasn’t disrupting class. He wasn’t bullying or harassing anybody. He was just stating his personal opinion on a topic somebody else brought up and in a civil and respectful manner.”

Liberty Counsel recently defended Florida Teacher of the Year Jerry Buell, after he was suspended for a comment he made outside of class on his personal Facebook page, expressing his disapproval of legalized homosexual marriage in New York. After a week-long “investigation,” the Lake County School Board fully exonerated and reinstated Buell.

Harry Mihet, Senior Litigation Counsel for Liberty Counsel, commented: “The double standard advocated by homosexual activists is mind boggling. Jerry Buell was suspended for opposing same-sex “marriage” outside of class. This teacher in Texas is actually bullying his students into accepting the homosexual lifestyle inside the class, and yet it is his student, not him, that gets suspended. We will vigorously defend and restore Dakota’s constitutional rights.”

It was long understood that boys growing up without a strong male presence, particularly those with a dominating female presence, would be more inclined toward homosexual behavior Much of the behavior was attributed to environmental factors, which led to the belief that it could be corrected.

Then came the politically correctness revolution. Springing to life in academia, this political correctness sought to minimize social and institutional offense in gender, racial, cultural, sexual orientation, certain other religions, beliefs or ideologies, disability, and age-related contexts by declaring certain ideas, language, ideas and behavior to be inappropriate and off limits in the supposedly open and tolerant world then envisioned.

With the leftist, anti-Christian inclination – outright hostility even – of these self appointed opinion makers who considered followers of Christ to be the primary offenders and obstacles to their desired secular society, we see how they reflexively support most anything Bible believing citizens stand against. It can be the killing of innocent babies, the expectation that those who can, must work for what they get… or it can be the homosexuality.

It is in this context that so many supposedly free thinkers embrace the normalcy of behavior that the Creator calls an abomination. The King James Version of Leviticus 18:12 puts it this way, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” The NIV uses these words, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” What better way to express one’s independence and rejection of the prevailing religious orthodoxy than to stand up and defend such behavior.

The sad thing is that the defenders of this perversion do so with much more enthusiasm and confidence than most followers of Christ display with the gospel itself. Most stand quietly by, afraid of making waves or being called intolerant. It’s as if most of have accepted the message of our time that tolerance is the primary virtue required to get along in this life. While being unnecessarily argumentative is no virtue either, permitting godlessness to go unchallenged is a far worse thing for those of us charged with representing the Creator on earth… and that is everyone who claims the name of Christ, not just the professional clergy.

So it is this decision to take the side of the secular society that has caused contemporary psychology to abandon the honest search for the relative impacts of nature and nurture in setting the course of the individual’s life. They had to come down on the side of nature, because, if the learned academic practitioners would have even considered the impact of family and environment, it would indicate that there was some sort choice or reactive behavior involved in the creation of a homosexual. This would never do as they attempted to desinify the behavior by calling it natural and the way people were created, if indeed there was a creator. Following their logic, if someone was created that way, and the creator is always right, so is the behavior.

To keep in step with the secular humanist elites, the APA had to change it’s long standing evaluation of this condition. If it was natural, it did not need to be cured, in fact it would be wrong to even attempt such a thing. Yet, even to the casual, but honest observer, it is obvious not all choices made in this area are rational and produce good results. At a recent anti-Semitic demonstration, a young woman was observed holding a sign that read, “Queers for Palestine”. Sure it was an attempted poke in the eye of our Judeo-Christian heritage, but more than that, it showed a complete lack of understanding of what the people she was supporting did to those of her persuasion. She apparently did not know why the Iranian president told the world that they do not have homosexuals in his country. It seems that throwing them off high buildings or lopping off their heads has the effect of diminishing their numbers – and here is the key – it discourages others from joining in the practice. Apparently some choice is involved, at least in the Muslim world.

We see then, that the broad support this very small minority of our population is enjoying is more than an admiration for the things two people of the same gender do to each other. It is, in reality, one more front in an attempt to purge the values that made our country great from the public consciousness.

They see a problem, and whether anyone else does or not, they seek to impose a “solution” that expands the depth of their intrusion into our lives, whether anyone wants that solution or not. It is when we tell them to check to see if their “solution” is permissible under the rules (constitution) our government is supposed function under, we get a paraphrased replay of the banditos in the Treasure of Sierra Madre, “Rules, we don’t need no stinkin’ rules.”

These “rules” were the result of weeks of intense effort by some of the best minds our country had to offer in the 1780s. They discussed. They argued. They prayed. Then they came up with the best plan for governing a country that has ever been devised by man… with the help of divine providence.

It was a good plan that served us well for two hundred years. It worked well when we had a common set of values. Our country recognized it’s Christian heritage. We did not have organized attempts to turn our nation on it’s head from within. George Washington warned, “Let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

While this turning away from religion and morality is the root of our problem, the desire to restore the virtues that led us to success as a nation is hardly extreme. Is it extreme to want to steer our country away from the tried and proven path that made the United States the gold standard of the world? To my thinking, it is extreme to want to throw away the legacy our forefathers fought and died to leave us.

There are those in positions of power who would spit on their graves, who would dishonor their memories and tell us the benefits of being an American are nothing more than the results of international thievery and domestic abuse of the “less fortunate”. They tell us we are extreme when we try to stop them from driving us all off the cliff.

While it is understandable that the secular progressives who have a different vision for our country have an inborn hostility to the godly traditions that made our country great, we are only being true to our calling by standing firm on the principles that made our country great. Second Corinthians 2:15 and 16 warns us, “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life.”

We are called extreme when we don’t want to follow the current administration, and some remnants of the one before, when we attempt to stop them from following ideas that have never worked in the past and never will. We are called intolerant when we refuse to reject the basis of our nation’s prosperity. We are called bigots when we refuse to throw off the restraints that kept us safe throughout the centuries. We are deemed to be old fashioned when we believe in personal responsibility and self-control.

They do not understand (or perhaps they do) that if we do not control ourselves, we will have some kind of control imposed upon us from outside. Of course those who would be our masters are just the ones to determine and inflict that control. Such control is never pleasant. We would do well to remember the words of Lord Acton who told us, “Liberty is the prevention of control by others. This requires self-control and, therefore, religious and spiritual influences; education, knowledge, well-being.”

So, we believe in doing what has proven to work in the past. We believe in recognizing our Creator and the rights He has given us. We believe in pursuing that which is good and shunning that which is evil. None of this is extreme. We are the ones who give guidance and stability to this great nation. Do not accept the charge of extremism, racism or any other ism the radicals running our government throw at you. Hang in there and keep up the good fight.

NBC stirred a firestorm of criticism when they thought they were putting together what was, to them, a patriotic segment for their golf coverage. The fact that they told us that it was not done to offend anyone indicates what they think about the average American. This may be more disturbing than if they had done it just to create controversy.

Once NBC was called on leaving out “under God” and “indivisible” they issued a limp-wristed apology.

“We began our coverage of this final round just about three hours ago, and when we did it was our intent to begin the coverage of this U.S. Open championship with a feature that captured the patriotism of our national championship being held in our nation’s capital for the third time, regrettably, a portion of the Pledge of Allegiance that was in that feature was edited out. It was not done to upset anyone, and we’d like to apologize to those of you who were offended by it.”

They knew what they were doing, and just thought no one would notice or care. The people at the network, like most of us, think everyone is like them. What they found out is that not everyone thinks like these network elites. After all, they see us as just simple schleps living in flyover country… slack jawed, knuckle dragging neanderthals who need their betters to select what news we see and then tell us what to think about it.

The president doesn’t recognize or consider divine guidance, so leaving out these “non-critical” words as they did is just falling into line with administration thinking by this once respected member of the formerly mainstream media. Then, they ran it during a golf broadcast.

Now, if I used their everyone-is-like-me thinking, I would say no one watches golf, it doesn’t matter. I mean, it’s not like they pulled this stunt on a NASCAR or NFL broadcast… or even a baseball game. But some people do actually watch these guys smack a ball around a beautifully manicured field. My apologies to those who like to watch golf, but to me, it’s like watching fishing or bowling. These are things you do, not watch, but that’s another story entirely.

Surprising to NBC was that within minutes word was flashing around the internet, and not much longer the segment was up on YouTube for all the world to see. The criticism rose to the level that just three hours after the airing, announcer Dan Hicks read the statement shown above.

The apology was just meant to get viewers to not be upset with them. There was no remorse for the blatant display of the gap between the northeastern elites and the average Americans. This is even more distressing than the editing error itself. It shows we cannot put confidence in much of anything they tell us because they see events through totally different eyes.

The other problem with this whole affair is that the network took this special occasion to create their version of a patriotic segment simply because they were playing near the nations’ capitol. It is ironic that they see this town as the center of national virtue and pride, when the reality is somewhat different. They just don’t understand that the real center is all throughout the heartland… stretching from coast to coast, where ever the spirit of America beats in the hearts of the citizens.

The good news is that the people spoke up and let NBC know about the error of their ways. The bad news is that there were not more people raising a fuss about this insult to our country and our Creator. We are, too often, wrapped up in our own little worlds. We are anesthetized by our sports and entertainment. Our couch potato lifestyle leads us to let the world pass us by, leaving the heavy lifting to others we hope will respond. It can be a pleasant euphoria… but a fatal one.

Who can we believe? Are we happy about this? Do we believe that the administration is really trying to create private sector jobs? Do we really believe the administration is concerned about the welfare of all Americans and not just the special interests that supplied the votes to put them in power? Our eyes and ears tell us that the unions are being supported and protected… especially the public sector unions. We see the administration saying there is nowhere to cut the budget. The say we can poke around the edges of what they call “discretionary spending”, but can go no further.

Entitlements, they say, cannot be touched. Let’s think about this a moment. Beltway insiders have another term for these payouts of tax dollars. The call them “transfer payments”, meaning they are transferring money from those who worked for it and earned it to those who did not. If they actually used this term and people understood it, how many of our friends and neighbors would be cheering wildly for for them to continue… except for those on the receiving end. The separation of entitlements and discretionary spending is, in itself a lie. The truth is, IT’S ALL DISCRETIONARY! We cannot permit those in control to control the discussion by using deceptive terminology, no matter which party they say they belong to.

We are dealing with the same mentality as the old Soviet Union. They believed that the the truth was that which benefited the party and had nothing to do with its relationship to reality. When Barack Hussein Obama steps before the presidential teleprompters, he never tells us anything he doesn’t want us to believe.

The problem is, it appears that he may actually believe the stories he is telling us. He is definitely is working off a different rules and understanding than most Americans. So, in the presidents case, he may not actually be lying. This may let him off the hook on the moral front, but is the far worse on the mental health front. The inability to distinguish fantasy from reality is not a sign of good mental health.

The point is we hear so much that is not true – whether by design or ignorance. How do we make decisions if we don’t have good information to base them on? It’s an easy question with no easy answer. As Glenn Beck tells us, do your own research as much as you can. Don’t just take any one’s word for anything.

Here is where we get back to the question that came up during the Clinton administration – “Yes, character does matter.” With public figures, especially those with a carefully maintained public persona, it’s easy to be misled. Then we need to look at what they actually do. Most politicians have mastered the art of saying the right things. Unfortunately, most have not mastered the art of doing the right things. Those that have, however, deserve our support.

We hear all sorts of reasons to lower or overlook our standards. They range from the lesser of two evils argument or the party loyalty argument. We have succumbed to the tendency to to settle for second or third best, rather than demand better from those who would lead. We cannot control what we see on the news or hear from the politicians, but we can be careful who we believe and who we follow.

For those of us who talk to the Father and hear from Him, we need to ask for wisdom and discernment. After doing our best to arrive at the truth, and we are comfortable we have found it, there is only one thing to do… ask for the courage and boldness to act on it.