Politics and Religion

I was a Romney supporter early. He has a proven track record as a BIG problem solver. The guy exemplifies success. Put his Resume against any other candidate and the contest is over.

But, the political machine chewed Mitt Romney up and spit him back out. He was too perfect for some, his full head of hair neatly combed, his chiseled jaw line, his ideal physical shape for his age, the guy had movie star looks and literally a wealth of experience at solving big problems. But he saw the writing on the wall and bowed out gracefully.

The mainstream pounded Romney on his mormon faith. Asking questions about polygamy of his great grandfathers from a century ago, blacks holding the priesthood and any other skeleton they could dig up on the church. He answered with grace, and never faltered in his faith. They wanted him to deny his faith, to force him into distancing himself from the church so that they could create weakness in his principles.

Why?

If a man turns his back on his faith, then couldn't he just as likely turn his back on his country?

It amazes me to see the parallels that Romney and Obama face. Obama's father was married to 3 women at one time. Not so much as a polygamist, he just never bothered to divorce the previous woman. Now Obama faces the same challenges Romney faced regarding his affiliation with his church.......

Only, the hate that you hear from Obama's pastors doesn't seem to be the message of the Mormon Elders. And now Obama finds himself having to resign himself from his church affiliation for political expediency.

IS that really the kind of person we want leading our country? What are his principles? What foundation does Obama place himself? He offers a message of hope and change, but what changes is he proposing? What changes and what big problems has he proven that he can solve?

My 1st Motorcycle

As many may know I grew up fascinated with motorcycles. As a kid, I would find it so exciting just to find the tracks of off-road motorcycles that our neighbors left.

Just like many kids, we'd put cards in the spokes of our wheels and follow the paths and trails that the neighbors dirtbikes would leave.

The jumps were just never the same on a bicycle as they would have been on a motorcycle.

Early in the career of my father he used to ride a moped to work. It was exactly like the one pictured above. It's called a Honda Hobbit. His was a 1978 model.

The moped sat in our barn for years. We'd get it out and push ourselves down the hill and enjoy the bounce of the suspension as we'd lug the big heavy bicycle around. Pedaling back up the hill was a chore so we limited our use of the dormant machine.

I got to an age where I really wanted that moped to run. So I bothered my father enough to work on it and try and get it to run again. It had sat so long that the gas was old, and the carb was clogged with dirt.

We worked on it and took it all apart.

When we finally got it back together, the only thing that prevented it from running was not having the key. I guess that as us children would play with it, we didn't do a good job of not losing the key.

We tried to get a replacement key from the dealer. No luck. We searched the dirt floor of the barn with no luck. I spent hours on end looking for that key.

Finally, one day, as I was walking down to the barn to search for that key, I paused for a moment and remembered something from Sunday School and rattled off a quick prayer to find that key.

To my surprise, I then proceeded to walk directly to that key behind the snowplow for the tractor. A place that I would have sworn I'd gone over with a fine toothed comb previously.

It's a memory that will never leave me. I could show you almost the exact spot I said that prayer in my parents back yard nearly twenty years ago.

SO of course I immediately took the key to the moped and to my utter disappointment, it wouldn't start! I started praying again.

After another carb job, we finally got it running.

I'll never forget that first ride either, and I could tell show you the exact spot I twisted the grip and experienced my first powered two wheel flight! The two spots couldn't be more than a hundred yards from each other.

Inspiration

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=3398915

I like it when people don't dwell on their disadvantages and focus on what they can achieve.

Our Dream HOUSE!

With our number 4 kid soon to arrive late this summer, Missy and I are really working towards upgrading to our dream home. Hopefully after next tax season it will become financially prudent to make the required monthly payment.

Until then, we can stay focused on our dream home by making this photo of our dream house our desktop photo.

"Missyboo, I luv you. We gonna wurk real hard to git us dis har home!"

Fair LDS.org

One of my favorite websites.

www.fairlds.org

It's not a church website, but the articles are by defenders of the faith. I find the best and most updated, and most logical arguments for and against the Book of Mormon.

One of my favorites is:

http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2001_Boomerang_Hits_and_the_Book_of_Mormon.html


Today I read through this one and I very much enjoyed it.

http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2005_Debating_the_Foundations_of_Mormonism.html

The best point made is the framing of how to look at the archeology/science and how it matches with the Book of Mormon. When I was very young, I remember doing some research, and I was disappointed to find that much of the science didn't support the details of the Book of Mormon. It didn't deter my faith, but it deterred my ambition to continue my research in finding the historical evidence supporting the Book of Mormon.

Now that I'm older, and understand science much better, and understand how we acquire knowledge, I do know and understand that science is a moving target. History is a challenge, just the author points out, even in modern times, we can not definitively say who killed JFK, or whether or not O.J. did it. That goes to show you how it's foolish to make blanketed and absolute statements about events that occurred 2,000 years ago.

The origins of the Book of Mormon are scientifically unprovable. It's authorship is miraculous no matter which angle you look at it from the side of a believer, or from the the side of a critic. As a believer it's a claim that an angel gave the ancient record to Joseph Smith and he translated it by the power of God. As a critic or non-believer, it's miraculous because Joseph Smith didn't have the knowledge or the skill to conjure up such a vivid and detailed account of an area so unknown and familiar to anyone at the time.

People often fail to comprehend that at the time of Joseph Smith, the perception was that Indians were a very primitive people that knew nothing more than to be nomads and live in tepees and roam the plains in chase of game. They certainly incapable of having ever built great civilizations and cities, with roads and houses made of concrete, let alone large temples. The idea was preposterous when it was written by the young uneducated farm boy in the 1820's.

Again, impossible no matter which angle you look at it.

And so it goes, science can no sooner prove the Book of Mormon than it can DISprove it. The best way to analyze it is to look at the trend as mentioned in the latter article. The question to ask if you're a critic is:

Over time, does the Book of Mormon become more believable with regards to scientific discovery and evidence? Or does it become more preposterous?

If it's true, evidence should support it's claims. If it's a hoax, it should become more and more preposterous.

Do your ears hang low?

A quick blurb about some inspiration from the WalMart cashier this morning.

She had clear inserts in her ears about as big as a half-dollar coin and it was all I could do to not bust out into a chorus of:

Do you ears hang low?
Do they wobble to and fro?
Can you tie 'em in knot?
Can you tie 'em in a bow?

Do your ears, hang, low?

She was a very nice young lady and I did ask her how long it had taken to stretch her ears to fit the half-dollar sized jewelery and she excitedly responded with:

"It's taken about 3 years and I'm getting some bigger ones this week!"


It was a positive exchange but it still perplexes me a bit. I now find myself on the other side of that coin where I don't completely understand teenage culture.

God bless me to have easy teenagers that choose not to mutilate their bodies!

Watch out for the RICE SHORTAGE!

As the globe adjusts to the spike in oil prices we're now seeing the affects it's having on our supply and demand on other commodities.

I've learned one simple thing as I've become good friends with the Lassens. (Erika is half filipino.) Never get between a filipino and their rice. They take their rice pretty serious:

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Economics/2008/04/02/why_a_rice_shortage_in_the_philippines/6495/

"The Philippines is one of the top importers of rice in the world. Rice is a politically sensitive commodity in this country. It is not surprising that reports of a rice shortage have energized political debate and public concern regarding the economic policies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. "



Seriously,

I'm starting to see why it's imperative to admonish the counsels we've been given and have a two year food supply. Some serious ammo for my talk on Sunday about preparing for the Second Coming. I don't remember the verse that said that a nation will rise up and buy all of the worlds rice, but it's probably in there somewhere.

We know that one way to prepare is to buy lots of Rice....but it looks like you're gonna have to fight Erika for it.

(You have to understand that I taught Erika how to embrace her Filipino heritage. She's now passing on her filipino traditions to her 5 children and teaching them how to fish, make rice, and properly raise kittens.)