Slipping in Sight of the Goal

The Republican Party since being beat in 2008 until it nominated Trump in 2016. https://t.co/0hjLcBrtij

— Thomas C. (@Thomas_Conerty) May 15, 2016

How true.  The Republican Party has struggled since 2008 to regain its footing.  It has been a hard, slow process, but along the way the grass-roots and the voters helped restore a Republican majority in the House and Senate.  Unfortunately most of those that were elected to office squandered both of those opportunities.  Then in 2016, right when we have the perfect opportunity to put a Conservative in the Whitehouse we slipped and fell for a candidate that is anything but a reliable Conservative.  Great will be our fall even if we don't realize it yet.  To our shame this will not just hurt a political party but also a whole nation of people.  Why do we so often snatch defeat from the hands of victory?

Beginning of Sorrows

I don't know where this will go, or if I will expand on it or not but I felt a need to write it down, short though it may be.

Matthew 24:8

The world stands at the threshold leading to “the beginning of sorrows” and flirts with crossing over.  Wickedness will ignite the sorrows, but it is the elect that will influence their duration and impact on humanity.

Matthew 24:22

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Updated version

Matthew 24 Reflections

The world stands at the threshold leading to “the beginning of sorrows” and flirts with crossing over.  Wickedness will ignite the sorrows, but it is the elect that will influence their duration and impact on humanity.  What can we do?  We can take head, we can endure, we can stand in holy places, and we can preach the gospel.  As a matter of fact the best thing we can do to ensure that these sorrows and tribulations do not destroy us is to remove the barriers that block the spreading forth of the gospel and to everything we can to share it to all the world.   These sorrows cannot end until the word of God has been reached the whole world.  

The time is coming when we will see many of the words written in Matthew chapter 24 as memories rather than prophesies of what is yet to come.

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Version 3

Matthew 24 Reflections

The world stands at the threshold leading to “the beginning of sorrows” and flirts with crossing over.  Wickedness will ignite the sorrows, but it is the elect that will influence their duration and impact on humanity.  

There is no historic reference for how great and terrible these sorrows will be.  No civil war, no war between nations, and not even the two World Wars can stand in comparison to the war that is only beginning to be poured out on the earth at this time.  It will impact every nation and every person on both a macro and a micro level.  We have seen natural disasters, famines, and pestilences that have totally ravaged cities, states, and even entire regions of the world, yet what is to come will lay waste to the whole earth.  No plague or disease yet seen on earth has been as wide spread or lethal as the sicknesses that are to come in these last days.  Every tribulation that we survive will reveal another one ready to destroy us, and yet it is the unprecedented individual wickedness that will truly be the greatest devastation on this earth.

What can we do?  We can take heed, we can accept that these things must happen, we can prepare, we can pray, we can endure, we can stand in holy places, and we can preach the gospel.  As a matter of fact the best thing we can do to ensure that these sorrows and tribulations do not destroy us is to remove the barriers that block the spreading forth of the gospel and do everything we can to share it to all the world.   These sorrows cannot end until the word of God has been reached the whole world.  Make sure, that at the very least, they reach your own heart.

The time is soon coming when we will read what written in Matthew chapter 24 as memories rather than prophesies of what is yet to come.  The world has flirted with the last days for several years but I fear the flirting has gone too far this time.  The sorrows have begun, and whether they last months or years I don’t know.  I only know that I must be ready because when they are finally at an end my Savior will be here again.

Iraq Round 3

When it comes to the pending third conflict in Iraq Glenn Beck seems to have done an about face from some of his past positions and suggests that we should not go back in there. We should not attempt to nation build, and past experience shows that we aren’t very successful at it. We should stay out of their growing civil war, and now he even admits that he no longer thinks we should have gone to Iraq under President Bush. This is not our fight; we do not have a right to foist Democracy on them, or even freedom. I think he is right that we don’t have any business there and we don’t have any obligation to Iraq, except for one thing. We released the leader of ISIL, Abu Bakr al-Baghdad from our custody back onto their streets to help mastermind this terror that has been unleashed on them.

We had him in jail and then we released him. The moment we had Al-Baghdadi in our custody, he became our responsibility. And how did we take responsibility for him? We didn’t. We let him go back onto the battlefield of Iraq, with the parting words, “I’ll see you guys in New York.”

Now I don’t think we owe Iraq stability. I don’t even know if that is humanly possible. Nor do I think we owe them to end this civil war. What we do owe them is to take responsibility for Al-Baghdadi and the other terrorists that we decided to release from our custody back into their neighborhoods. That can be done by re-capturing them or by killing them. I say go with whichever option is more feasible. If the insurgents keep coming and the Iraqi government can’t stop them after we have taken Al-Baghdadi out of the picture than that is on Iraq.

Now, in my opinion that is what we owe Iraq, simply to clean up the trash that we littered their streets with. But, is there anything that we owe ourselves in relation to the latest Iraqi crisis? Senator Marco Rubio makes a pretty convincing case that there is. When an Islamic radical says they will harm America I take them at their word, and that is what Al-Baghdadi implied as he left our custody. The end-game is not taking over Iraq. It is a Caliphate. One that will eventually go worldwide, and result in the end of all infidels, either by death or conversion, or at the very least complete submission to the dominant version of Sharia. When do we want to fight that battle, and on what battle ground?

My final thought on Iraq and all of the other conflicts around the world that the United States is involved in is a question posed by a very clever man to a very wise man, “And who is my neighbor?” In today’s globalized world full of options for instant, cheap communication across continents, who is our neighbor? Is the United States treating any other nation like our neighbor at this point? How would that even look? I know that answer is far clearer when it comes to individual relationships than when comes to national ones. Perhaps that is where we should focus our attention. If we can’t figure out how to be a good neighbors to those who cross our path, either online or in person, than we can’t have a realistic expectation of our nation becoming a good neighbor in its community.

Subsidy Transparency

Your utility bill does a lot more than simply pay for your electricity. It also saves the world, at least according to some. How could a utility bill save the world? When you pay for your utilities you also “contribute” to the Green Energy Fund, to expand what the administration considers renewable, non-harmful sources of energy, but that’s not all. Your utility bill also helps the poor. Part of your power bill goes to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to cover the cost for those that can’t afford their own utilities. Wait, there’s more! When you pay for your electric bill you are also helping to subsidize the clever people and companies that had enough money to buy solar panels for their house or business. Someone has to pay for those Renewable Energy Credits and that someone is probably you, unless you happen to be one of the winners on the receiving end. Not to mention, when utilities pay the homes and businesses for any surplus energy produced by their solar panels or wind turbines that money is also coming from your bill. Yet that still isn’t the end of the list of amazing things that your utility bill can do. It could also pay subsidies to massive companies like Bloom Energy that our Governor and Energy Secretary bowed down and begged, or perhaps bribed to set up shop in Delaware to produce fuel cells. That is a lot of work for a simple utility bill, and many people don’t know all the amazing things they are doing every single month with their payment. Currently state law requires that utilities publish an annual insert in your utility bill that outlines all of these things, but how many people actually read that? They are missing out. I have to admit that I tossed it out one time along with the little flyers and ads that are sometimes included. Well there is a new bill, SB 226 that proposes to add some more transparency to your utility bill. That way every time you pay it you will plainly be able to see the many amazing things that are being done with your money. If you agree with the Man Made Global Apocalypse movement than you will be able to see how you are helping to save the world. If you disagree with “solutions” to Man Made Global Warming, like I do, than you will see how much of your money is being taken from you to fund the winners of this con-game. I would say that this is a win/win scenario. This bill does not require utility companies to start tracking how much of your utility bill goes towards things other than your utilities. They already have to do that, as required by current state law, in order to produce the annual disclosure insert. All this bill does is make information more readily accessible and transparent. It may require a little retooling of the utility bill, and that could cost the utility companies a little. However, there is enough white space on my utility bill that it doesn’t even need to require additional paper in order to comply with this Senate Bill. Compliance should not create any undue burden on the companies. I am all for SB 226. Unfortunately, the bill was introduced by Senator Dave Lawson so the chances that it will pass are pretty low. We have one party rule in Delaware and as of yet there are no Democrat sponsors on the bill so unless momentum comes from outside the halls of our Legislature this bill is unlikely to leave the State Energy and Transit Committee. I want to know what I am paying for in my utility bill and how much. If you also want to know where your money is going, than consider contacting your Senator and Representative and asking them to support SB 226.

Persons of Interest

One of my favorite TV shows is Persons of Interest on CBS.  It is a series about a computer program that is constantly spying on us, so it really plays into the concern that many people have with the surveillance state.  Of course the program was installed for a good reason, to track down terrorists and prevent them from carrying out attacks, but since the program tracks everyone it could also be used to prevent murder and crimes on a smaller scale, but that was outside the scope of the governments interest so the programs designer created a backdoor to give him access to the more personal crimes so he could do something about them.  He gets a former military/government operative to help him do the heavy lifting and BAM you have a really intense and engaging story.

Well, rather than science fiction, I think people will look back on this series as a thriller, but also as a historical fiction.  There are real life programs that our government uses to track terrorists, but also other criminals.  One of them is dedicated to tracking the slave trade, particularly child sex trafficking.  Our government has been using it for about eight years, but only to help children within its scope.  Basically they see were child pornography is being shared in real time using this software, and they can see every case around the globe, but unless it is related to a child abducted in the US, or a US citizen abducted abroad they don’t or perhaps can’t take action.

Fortunately the makers of this software have made it available to some private citizens including former Navy Seals and CIA operatives that are able to make use of this program outside the scope our government has defined.  These private groups have acted in the shadows, but they aren't nearly as secretive as Harold and Reese from the CBS series, and now they are starting to go public with their efforts via Glenn Beck on the Blaze network and a documentary that is in the works from producer Gerald Molen called “The Abolitionists.”  They are actually rescuing children that have been sold as sex slaves and anyone can help in the effort as part of a new Underground Railroad. 

Now this blog is called Delaware Politics and this article doesn’t really have a whole lot to do with Delaware, or politics.  Except that when you look at the map of this program that tracks child rape videos that are being shared, it looks like there is a fair amount of activity happening in Delaware.  Now maybe none of those people in Delaware have child sex slaves of their own to rape, then again maybe some do, but that is beside the point.  The people watching this trash in Delaware are helping to fuel child sex slavery wherever it is happening around the world.  Many of these people seem very normal, not menacing or blatantly evil.  However, whether they are the ones online watching real slaves be abused from thousands of miles away, or they are the ones selling, or abusing the children directly they have all made one choice in common.  They have decided that something is more important to them than the freedom, innocence, and virtue of a child.

We each make choices.  Do your unbridled appetites fuel slavery?  Do they enslave you?  Or do your bridled passions help abolish slavery?   Are you a slave, a slaver, or an abolitionist, or do you find yourself wavering between the three?  Tonight I decided to help, in a small way, to build Operation Underground Railroad.  I hope it is never a relative or a child I know that is on the receiving end of this project, but at least I will know it is here if they need it.

Note: This article was originally posted at Delaware Politcs.  Also for much better video and more detailed information please click the links.

Impetus

Most of my Saturday was consumed with watching General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and it has been great so far.  I am sure that I have a lot more to look forward to on Sunday, but today really sparked a lot of ideas inside of me and this is one.  I have blogged off and on throughout my life, and though the desire to write again has been gradually growing in me for a while, the impetus for me to start blogging again in earnest was General Conference.

There were a lot of great messages today.  They were relevant to me and to the times in which I live.  One of the talks by Brother Ridd of the Young Men's General Presidency focused a lot on how we use the internet these days.  He pointed out that everything we do online leaves tracks.  Much like the angels in heaven record our deeds in the Book of Life, the internet records our deeds in a Cyber Book of Life.  As he was talking about this and other things I decided that I want to be more intentional about what is written in my Cyber Book of Life.

The internet records your desires... creating your cyber-book of life. #BroRidd #ldsconf
— Mitchell Harris (@mitchkharris) April 6, 2014

Lately a lot of what I do online has fallen into one of two extremes.  It is either for work and very structured or it falls into a careless collection of videos watched, tweets and re-tweets, facebook likes, and random articles read on various home pages, aggregators, blogs, and news sites.  Basically when I am not using the internet to do work I am vegging out.  Much of what I am doing online during my free time is haphazard and based on whatever shinny thing catches my eye.  Honestly I am not sure how much of it I control and how much my online habits are being shaped by external sources.

This blog is an effort to change that, and to increase the amount of my online activities that are intentional.  For now it is primarily for me, but with time perhaps others will find something useful in my writing as well.

Most likely I will cross post any articles about Delaware events, or politics to Delaware Politics blog where I am still an occasional writer, but this will be the primary hub for what I write online.  Hopefully it will be good.