THIS and THAT

2020 Presidential Election INDIFFERENCE

On November 3, 2020 Americans will once again decide the fact of the United States and while some people on both side feel that this election is DIRE AND CRITICAL...  the outcome of this election is really inconsequential...

WHY DO I SAY THIS?

>>>the BIG ISSUES with this election<<<

• Packing the Supreme Court
• gun control
• abortion
• Medicare for All
• Global Warming/Climate Control
• Increase in Taxes
• Open Borders for Immigration
• Defunding Police Departments
• Free Education
• Growing the Economy
• Global Issues

Who really cares about abortion or even late term abortion other than those people who need or want to have an abortion.  According to the data, there are 186 abortions for every 1,000 births which is about 19%.  Unless you are a female, abortions have very little influence over the male population.  And, it would seem logical that a female has the right to decide what to do with her body.  My personal religious belief doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

As far as gun control is concerned...  why do we even have a second amendment these days since we have law enforcement, a military, and a national guard.  Besides, if the Democrats find a way to have EXTREME GUN CONTROL...  gun violence will increase and the illegal sell of guns will increase just like it did during PROHIBITION...  Americans always want what they cannot have.

OUR NATIONAL DEBT is so high right now that it is going to be damn near impossible to pay it off in such a way that it could benefit the American People.  Therefore, what difference does it matter to borrow more money...  and, if we cannot borrow more money, then we should print more money...   I think the Democrats should be given the opportunity to have everything they want because they only people that will be able to fund these efforts are the WEALTHY PEOPLE...

Since I am not WEALTHY, I don't give a rat's ass if you take money away from them or not; in fact, I would like it, if you took money away from them...  maybe they will stop acting so cocky and arrogant.

OUR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IS NO BIG DEAL...

THE IMPACT OF THIS ELECTION WILL POSSIBLY HURT THOSE WHO ARE NOT RETIRED...  BUT RETIRED TRUST FUNDS ARE SACRED COWS AND WILL NOT BE REDUCED...  IF ANYTHING THEY WILL INCREASE...

My Cat and I

Throughout the summer months when the temps were high and the humidity strong, my cat and I would sit on the back porch which is also screened in and spend a little time together although it was not clear how much interaction between us there was since my cat would sleep and I would write, but we were out there together nonetheless.

Now that these mornings have turned cool, we still are outside in the morning but while I am on the porch, my cat is downstairs, curled up in the corner of the couch on the deck that is covered with blankets to keep to sun from bleaching out the colors.

My cat looks up at me, sitting in my chair on the porch with the understanding I believe that I should walk down the stairs and join him on the couch like my wife always does unless it is raining or the bugs are too pronounced.  I am comfortable in my seat and remain where I am.

My cat and I spend time together in this same way almost everyday, even when my toes are cold and my upper body is wrapped inside a sweatshirt with a hood that is getting dangerously close to being pulled over my head for warmth...  of course, I suppose I could put socks on my feet to keep them a tad warmer but would require more initiative than I am willing to put forth this morning.

Fall and its cold stepchildren are in the air playing with our souls and telling us that we should stay inside and leave the outside to them and their playmates.  But, being outside is comforting especially after being inside for so long and not being able to travel.

Storm clouds approach from all sides, reducing visibility but also eliminating the depth-of-field that is typically seen on normal days up in the sky with various shades of blue.  Gray is such an ugly color that it offers no consolation unless it is juxtaposed with other colors that are more often than not found in nature before the seasons take them all away and we are left with only the harsh tones of winter and the isolated months inside.

My cat and I are enjoying these last few days together...  in a relative way...

All Creatures Great and Small

Communities of COLOR

When I was growing up in the 1950's and 1960's, we were told to refer to black people as negroes and colored people respectively.  In the 1970's and 1980's, we were told to refer to them as African Americans and all kinds of African American cultural centers opened up all over the US.  In the late 1990's and 2000's, we were told to refer to them as either African Americans or as Blacks but today we are told that they are PEOPLE OF COLOR and that they live in COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.

What I also find interesting is that early in my life I was referred to as WHITE, then later in life I was a CAUCASIAN, and nowadays I am a NON HISPANIC WHITE...

But, what is going on with our BLACK/PEOPLE OF COLOR/AFRICAN AMERICANS especially since they only represent 13% of our US POPULATION?

Why are they getting so much attention?

BUT, going back to our Communities of Color...  why do we have Communities of Color in the first place?

• Do Blacks not want to live with whites?
• Do Whites not want to live with blacks?

AND...  here is another interesting question...

SHOULD OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FORCE STATES AND COMMUNITIES TO BE 

REPRESENTATIVE OF US DEMOCRAPHICS?

    Churches

Drug Addicts

Drug Sellers
Schools
Communities
Restaurants
Resorts
Airline Travel
Law Enforcement
Professional Athletes
Employees
Fire Protection Personnel
Doctors
Lawyers
Dentists
Airline Pilots
CEO's
Millionaires/Billionaires
Elected Officials
College Professors
Astronauts
Taxi Cab Drivers
Professional Musicians
Professional Dancers
Financial Bankers & Brokers
Professional Golfers
Professional Tennis Players

For instance,

I live in a community in East TN where there are at least 150 homes and the people who live in those homes are ALL WHITE...

Should our community BE FORCED to have:

• 13% of our homes be owned by BLACKS/AFRICAN AMERICANS/PEOPLE OF COLOR
• 18% of our homes be owned by Hispanics/Latinos
• 6% of our homes be owned by Asians

Why are PEOPLE OF COLOR more important than Hispanics/Latinos?

The fact remains that we have COMMUNITIES OF COLOR in the US because the PEOPLE OF COLOR do not want to live with the CAUCASIANS or NON HISPANIC WHITES...  otherwise, they would be bitching and doing exactly that...

1. BLACK PEOPLE want their exclusive AFRICAN AMERICAN CULTURAL CENTERS
2. BLACK PEOPLE want their exclusive WHITES ARE TO BLAME FOR SLAVERY COLLEGE CLASSES
3. BLACK PEOPLE want their beliefs that OUR CONSTITUTION SHOULD BE REWRITTEN TO REFLECT ONLY THEIR INTERESTS and that our Amendments are not enough for them
4. BLACK PEOPLE want the WEALTH taken away from WHITES and given to BLACKS
5. BLACK PEOPLE want the WHITE MILITARY to protect them while they are destroying American rights and liberties

OUR National Debt

                                                  

Understanding the Debt

When the federal government runs a deficit, Treasury borrows money to make up the difference between spending and revenue. Then, if special funds like the Medicare trust fund have surpluses, the “extra” revenue is lent to the rest of the federal government.

The federal debt is the total amount of money that the federal government owes, either to its investors or to itself. At the end of fiscal year 2019, the total federal debt was $22.8 trillion dollars.

How the Federal Government Borrows Money

The federal government borrows money from the public by issuing securities—bills, notes, and bonds—through the Treasury. Treasury securities are attractive to investors because they are:

1. Backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government
2. Offered in a wide range of maturities
3. Exempt from state and local taxes
4. Mostly marketable, meaning they can be resold in the financial market (a small portion are nonmarketable and can’t be resold, like U.S. Savings Bonds).

Investors can easily trade Treasury securities because there are many people interested in buying and selling them at any given time. Investors are willing to pay more for this safety and liquidity—leading to lower borrowing costs (interest on the debt) for the government.

More than 75 percent of foreign holdings of Treasury securities can be attributed to 14 countries. China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) and Japan have the largest holdings. However, this does not mean that residents of these countries are the ultimate owners. The data only identify where the securities are held. Obtaining accurate information on the actual foreign owners is often not possible, because chains of foreign financial intermediaries are often involved in the custody or management of these securities.

Time As A Dimension

Time is the indefinite continued progress of existence and events that occur in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to compare the duration of events or the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change of quantities in material reality or in the conscious experience. Time is often referred to as a fourth dimension, along with three spatial dimensions.  SOURCE:  WIKIPEDIA

Time is just as good a dimension as space is, as no matter how you boost yourself through space, you must always move forward through time.  If time weren't a dimension with the exact properties it possesses, special relativity would be invalid, and we could not construct spacetime to describe our Universe.

So, do you think time is a dimension?

In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a mathematical space is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it – for example, the point at 5 on a number line.

But is time a number that denotes movement or does time have its own dimensional qualities like:  depth, height, and width?

We refer to space-time but only because we see space as moving forward not backward and that movement forward is measured by the passing of time.  

But, is there time before it happens?

Tomorrow has not happened yet and because there was a yesterday and a today, we can assume that there will be a tomorrow but what about time...  has tomorrow's time already taken place?  And, if it has how can we guarantee that it is moving forward and not backward to accommodate our moving forward?

We cannot...   all we can do is imagine and speculate based upon historical data.

WOMB to TOMB

 ALL OF US WILL AGE FROM YOUNG TO OLD THEN DIE...

**********

Some of us will be poor

Some of us will be wealthy but a

Vast majority of us will be middle class...

whatever the hell that means financially.

}}}}}}}}{{{{{{{{

The average annual income in America is about $50,000/individual so  a married couple or two people combing their incomes would be looking at $100,000...  almost of which is spent not saved for a RAINY DAY or for RETIREMENT...

<<<<<<<<<<<:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::>>>>>>>>>>>

As we age from youth to middle age to becoming a senior citizen, our values and sometimes our morals change as we develop different civil and religious perspectives.  These perspectives change what we perceive as being right ort wrong and how we live our lives and treat our fellow citizens; unfortunately, as we age we move into a minority even if we are a majority because we are no longer either trying to build or end our careers...

What is interesting here is the fact that time moves FORWARD not BACKWARD so all of us will eventually become older and older and older until we die...  and, no matter whether we were wealthy, poor, or in between will matter to anyone let alone to ourselves...

Some of us will try and build and name buildings after our name in the hopes of preserving our legacy but gradually over the years, family members will forget and not remember and if there are young grandchildren at the time of one's death, once they reach middle age they will not remember at all, even after looking at photographs...

So, why do we spend so much time trying to make a name for ourselves or try to convince the rest of the world that our life had meaning and/or purpose...

How many people really care about former President Thomas Jefferson?

Not many at all outside of our History Books.

But, what about the fact that Jefferson OWNED SLAVES...

Most every Black Person in America knows that...

HOWEVER, what does it matter now that he is DEAD?

It matters to the black folks and those who are descendants of SLAVES but outside of that connection, it really does not matter and it will not change what I decide to do with my life nor does it stop the passing of time or prevent me from becoming OLD.

AGING is not a mystery is it a FACT of life with which we all must contend regardless of how our lives are led and what we accomplished or do not accomplish...

INTERMISSION

ARTIST_Catrin Welz Stein

ARTIST_Douglas Aagard

ARTIST_Duy Huynh

ARTIST_Herr Muell

ARTIST_Max Albert

ARTIST_Michael Z Tyree

ARTIST_Pavel Shmarov

ARTIST_Scott Prior

ARTIST_Slava Fokk

ARTIST_Yury Lomkov

 

Perhaps Decades or More...

The Republican controlled SENATE will confirm the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court and the court will begin to lean in the direction of a strict interpretation of the US Constitution regarding how our Founding Fathers intended it to be rather than interpreting the US Constitution based upon the changes among the people to reflect a more progressive nature...

What's wrong with having a progressive nature?

Nothing...  other than it could be just temporary...  today, we may think that the LGBTQ community needs to be protected and in decades from now we may think otherwise...  why change the Constitution just because our feels towards LGBTQ's has changed.

It is possible that if the 2020 election or some future election gives the Democrats a President and a simple majority in the House and in the Senate, the size of the Supreme Court could be changed...  in this increased...  and then those vacancies could be filled with Liberal Justices which would then possibly favor a re-writing of the US Constitution to reflect a more progressive country.

How would a senior citizen be impacted by a Liberal or a Conservative Supreme Court?

To my knowledge, the only issues for Senior Citizens might be the FIRST and SECOND Amendments which could curtail freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and the right to own a firearm...

Of course, it is highly unlikely that this will happened...   and right now, most of the key decisions to be made by the Supreme Court deal with:

• abortion
• late term abortion
• LGBTQ rights
• discrimination
• taxation
• states rights

Most, if not all of these issues, have very little impact on senior citizens...

In fact, most of the cases that travel through the court system and reach the Supreme Court are reflective of 1 or only a few people...  and have nothing to do with the whole of society...  like reading a person his rights after being arrested...

Personally, none of this really concerns me nor should it concern you unless you think your rights have been violated or you believe that someone has violated your rights...  but, even if that were true, what frigging difference does it make...

Say a person gets kicked off of a social media forum because the person broke the rules

That person can start a blog

Now, let's assume that person violates the blog rules and the blog is taken down

That person can write a book

Now, let's assume that that person cannot get their book published

That person can self publish or that person can just forget about it

What Did Our Founding Fathers Believe?

According to Nicholas Rathod who wrote an article published by the Center For American Progress stated the following:  "In recent years, we have been told by a variety of conservatives that America’s founding fathers established the country under Christian doctrine—that we are a “Christian nation” and should operate accordingly.

This notion—that our country’s roots are explicitly Christian—is both foolish and wrong, for it devalues the Christian faith and disrespects the genius of the founding fathers. Christianity does not need to be endorsed by law or some fantasized re-interpretation of the Constitution in order to have meaning in people’s lives."

And while this is his personal opinion, he went on to write that:  The genius of the founding fathers is they understood that Christianity could not only stand on its own but would thrive without being written into the laws and founding documents of the country. 

Many of the founding fathers—Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and Monroe—practiced a faith called Deism. Deism is a philosophical belief in human reason as a reliable means of solving social and political problems. Deists believe in a supreme being who created the universe to operate solely by natural laws—and after creation, is absent from the world. 

And because of this absence our Founding Fathers adopted SLAVERY and created a Constitution and Bill of Rights that did not include the African Americans that had been stolen and sold to the wealthy in a NEW LAND as SLAVES...

One could construe that it was the SLAVES that built America not the white man...

It is true that our Founding Fathers created a UNIQUE EXPERIMENT of Democracy and drafted documents around which a great nation was built, but they did so by not treated everyone as equals under MAN'S Law or under GOD'S Law...

In What Do I Believe?

Spiritual/Religious

1. that there is a Creator of the Universe
2. that creation of the Universe was of Intelligent Design
3. that there are multiple dimension in our universe
4. that there are other intelligent forms of life in our universe
5. that all beliefs were given to us by our Creator
6. that mankind will ultimately destroy itself
7. that wealth creation is not the intended purpose of life

Governmental

1. that there must be some form of regulatory government
1. 
   to protect and negotiate
2. to educate
3. to feed, clothe, and house
4. to cure when sick
5. to care for when old
2. that governmental power be divided into thirds
1. make the laws
2. enforce the laws
3. judge and interpret the laws
3. that there must be a rule of law
4. that the population cannot properly govern itself
5. that the government must be small and well defined
6. that the people have well defined rights and guarantees
7. that debt to provide services should be avoided or made illegal
8. that wars should be fought to protect homeland only
9. that nations have a fundamental right to conquer 
10. that all individuals will never be financially equal

As far as the US Constitution and Bill of Rights is concerned:

1. Our government is not responsible for our happiness
2. Speech should never be censored
3. Beliefs should never be denied or used against an individual or group
4. Individuals have a right to defend themselves
5. Females have a right to do whatever they want to regarding their bodies
6. Males and Females will never be equal physically, mentally, or in their skills and abilities
7. Ethnicities will never be equal physically, mentally, or in their skills and abilities
8. Manipulation of the people should be prevented

Americans For Tax Reform

"I would be going about eliminating Donald Trump's tax cut for the wealthy," Biden said on the debate stage.

This is at least the ninth time that Biden has threatened to repeal the TCJA.

Biden’s promise to repeal the tax cuts is a promise to raise taxes. If the tax cuts were repealed:

1. A family of four earning the median income of $73,000 would see a $2,000 tax increase.

2. A single parent (with one child) making $41,000 would see a $1,300 tax increase.

3. Millions of low and middle-income households would be stuck paying the Obamacare individual mandate tax.

4. Utility bills would go up in all 50 states as a direct result of the corporate income tax increase.

5. Small employers will face a tax increase due to the repeal of the 20% deduction for small business income.

6. The USA would have the highest corporate income tax rate in the developed world.

7. Taxes would rise in every state and every congressional district.

8. The Death Tax would ensnare more families and businesses.

9. The AMT would snap back to hit millions of households.

10. Millions of households would see their child tax credit cut in half.

11. Millions of households would see their standard deduction cut in half, adding to their tax complexity as they are forced to itemize their deductions and deal with the shoebox full of receipts on top of the refrigerator.

At some point-in-time, Americans are going to have to pay down the National Debt or tell CHINA who owns ONE THIRD of our debt to go SCREW THEMSELVES...

As any family knows who has debt like a mortgage, education, vehicle, or medical, increasing that debt is HARMFUL to the family...

America cannot expect nor can they FORCE the WEALTHY to pay off America's Debt...  however, there will be some wealthy individuals and families who feel an obligation to pay off America's Debts but a vast majority of the wealthy will not just refuse to do this but will shelter their money in such a way that they will be unable to help.

The stimulus monies that the government paid out are only the beginning of our debt profile as we anticipate a BIDEN victory in November...  and, when that is confirmed, America will gradually but consistently pay out more and more money and try to increase taxes to the point that BUSINESS will begin to push back...

In some areas of the US, we will resemble a THIRD WORLD COUNTRY in the way our residents will be living...  but, the rest of us will not care...  because we are not living like that yet...

Hot Tub Revelations

Tonight, I decided to spend some time in my hot tub after it got dark and sitting in the warm 101 degree temperature water and after turning on the jets, looked up at the stars in the sky...  and noticed that there really wasn't many of them that I could see.

The black sky above my head was loaded with millions perhaps billions of stars even though I could only see  less than 00.00000001% of 99.9999999% of them around our planet earth which is located in our solar system...  and, to expand your mental horizons imagine millions/billions of solar systems in our galaxy and millions/billions of galaxies in our quadrant of our universe.

Now, let's imagine our universe is a dinner plate and our quadrant in this universe represents 1 degree of the 360 degrees that completes the full circle of the universe.  Of course, it is also possible that our quadrant is not 1 degree but 1/10 or 1/100 or 1/1,000 or 1/10,000 of 1 degree.

In short, our universe is incredible vast and in each quadrant there are literally billions of billions of billions of solar systems and galaxies...  so, you can just imagine how many stars there are.

AND, as I look at these stars, I begin to wonder:

1. why am I here?
2. what's my purpose here?

BUT, before we answer those two questions, one must come to terms with the creation of the universe...

• was it created by the BIG BANG?
• was it created by CREATION?

Interestingly, NEITHER BELIEF CAN BE PROVED ABSOLUTELY...  one must have elements of faith that support their belief(s).

If God created the universe...  the big question here is WHY?

And, why did God create Jesus to die for our SINS when it was GOD who gave us those sins in the first place?

The BIG BANG direction does not take us any closer to the truth because we still have to answer the questions:

1. how?
2. why?
3. where did the stuff that created the BIG BANG come from?

BUT...  and more importantly...  why am I thinking about this in the Hot Tub when the whole purpose of the hot tub is to RELAX and not think of anything?

One thing is for sure, mankind on earth relative to the size of the universe is literally INSIGNIFICANT to say the least.  Does belief and faith make mankind on earth more SIGNIFICANT, especially when a member of mankind DIES?

My big question is this:  Does each SOLAR SYSTEM have a God and a HEAVEN?

On The Hour

There are over 175 CHURCHES in a 15 mile radius of where I live in East TN...  however, there are only about 30 of them that have large congregations.  They basically include the following denominations: 

Baptist, 

Catholic, 

Methodist, 

Episcopal, 

Lutheran, 

Church of Christ, 

Presbyterian, 

Assemblies of God, 

AME Zion, 

Church of the Brethren, 

Church of God, 

and Nondenominational.  

Most of their leaders are paid salaries or stipends but many are simply volunteering their time...

This seems hard to believe but it is true...  I can just imagine how many Churches there would be once one finds oneself in the actual BIBLE BELT of the South...

And, each one of these Churches has a slightly different take on their interpretation of what the BIBLE actually states and means...  INTERPRETATION...

Interpretation is the action of explaining the meaning of something...

I wonder how many of these Church Leaders know the meaning of METAPHOR

I wonder how many of the Church Congregation know the meaning of METAPHOR

BUT, the most important questions is this:

SHOULD THE BIBLE BE TAKEN LITERALLY OR METAPHORICALLY?

Has our earth been in existence only 6000 years or has it been in existence for Millions of Years?

JESUS SAID:  My Kingdom is not of this world...

What does that statement really mean?

Is HEAVEN in another DIMENSION?

Each day when the weather is nice and I am able to sit on my screened-in back porch and write, every hour on the hour, a church less than 1/2 mile away rings a bell...

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen

Cheddar's Scratch Kitchen, formerly known as Cheddar's Casual Cafe, is an American restaurant brand based in Irving, Texas. Founded in 1979, the company has more than 170 locations in 28 states as of 2018.

Cheddar's was founded in 1979 by Aubrey Good and Doug Rogers. The first location was in Arlington, Texas, and the chain reached 10 locations by 1995.

By 2003, Cheddar's generated $150 million in revenue from 42 restaurants in 13 states and Brazos Private Equity Partners made an initial investment to grow the company that year. In August 2006, when the company generated $245 million in revenue from 55 restaurants in 15 states, Oak Investment Partners and L Catterton Partners jointly purchased Cheddar's.

There is a Cheddars in Knoxville about a 45 minute drive from the house and my wife and I usually go there about every other week.  She gets a salad of some sort and I get grilled salmon...  My salmon is 8 oz. plus there is a cup of wild rice, a good size baked potato with sour cream and no butter and two cups of steamed broccoli...  for $13.95...

Additionally, we are brought 2 croissants with some kind of sauce on top and two drinks usually a soft drink or unsweetened tea and our glasses are always filled twice and they provide us with a third refill to go...

My wife and I leave a 20% tip and our bill is always under $40.00 

In another city in this  State or another State, our bill would have been $40 each or $80.00 at least...  and we would not have gotten all the refills.

Buffalo Tails and Gossip

On every mental intersection there is a corner that must be navigated to get to the next intersection, hoping that one of these intersections will lead to a bridge that takes me to the other side of my thoughts that will eventually allow me to escape the realities of my Sunday afternoon daydreams...  but, the bridge is never found and the intersections continue and turns are taken to the right and left in a desperate effort to escape my own mental limitations of time and space that dwell in the bullet-time memories of The Matrix even though there are no opposing droids from which I must escape.

Nonetheless, there is an ever present need to cope with the Sunday Afternoon Doldrums in which I find myself today as I sit on the back porch listening to the rain pop on the leaves of the trees that guard my Southern Country Chalet in such a way that neighbors cannot see me if I were to decide to go skinny dipping in my hot tub...  

An early evening rain closes the day as it increases the humidity and tests the sensitivities of an older body whose past times are spent on the back porch remembering the family gossip that so often passed from mouth-to-mouth in the days before the television and all the worthless channels provided by cable for a ridiculous price so that employment can be offered to dead beats...

We had the generation of World War II and then the generation of The Korean War that seemed to overlap a tad, and then The Vietnam War that was a National Disgrace followed by TWENTY YEARS of wars in the Middle East...  and now, I am not sure which generation or generations are out there except that they all seem to think that THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING simply because their mother's made mistakes and got pregnant and never considered a government funded abortion...

My generation has been abandoned...  left out on the ice to die which was the Eskimo Tradition in Alaska.  My retired status keeps my footprints out of the marketplace and my SOCIAL SECURITY is paid by those who don't give a shit if I live or die.  By the time these youngsters realize that they have had their heads up their asses most of their lives, I'll be dead and living in an afterlife somewhere in the universe.

The only things that seem to be growing these days are the stupidity of the DEMOCRATIC Party and the ECONOMY and MILITARY of CHINA...

EVERY TIME

Every time something negative or financial happens to my wife and I, something positive always takes place to offset what happened...

For example, when our hot tub died, and we had to get a technician out here 3 times to install parts and fix the new damage, that expense was offset by receiving a STIMULUS CHECK from our Federal Government which we did not need financially to pay our monthly expenses...

When my melanoma migrated very aggressively to my groin and my doctors were extremely concerned that my time had time, the treatment of immunotherapy and radiation worked PERFECTLY on my body, successful killing the progression...

When my investment stopped producing income, I realized that my cancer insurance payments would  cut those reductions from our savings in half...

I am not financially well off, in fact my greatest annual salary was $50,000 and that only last 9 months because I left my job prematurely....  but throughout my life, downsides have always been followed with upsides as I have managed to skate through life relatively unharmed...

So today...   I am retired...  and, been retired for over 5 years and while my retirement income is modest, my wife and I continue to live a productive life in that we do pretty much what we want to do...  at least we did until COVID arrived...  now, our lives have been severely curtailed as we for the most part remain at home...

She reads and I write and we both allow each other their space as we live just as comfortably as we did when we both were working...  In that, we are, have been, and continue to be blessed...

God's Forgotten People

                                

This morning while I was watching FOX NEWS, one of the commercials was about starving Jews all over the world but especially in Russia and the former Soviet Union...  and, for just $25, these people could receive a box of food that would last a month.  This commercial plays on the fact that these people are:

• old and starving
• elderly Jews
• God's people

AND, while I am empathetic to their plight, my first concern is the fact that if they are God's People, then why has God allowed this to happen?

God's Will on Earth as it is in Heaven...  is what THE LORD's PRAYER states...

BUT, equally important is the fact that there are MILLIONS of African children who are starving as well and are also malnourished and ONE WOULD THINK that these children are God's People as well...  so, why are we not concerned about their well being???

OR...  do you just want to SAVE one group of people and let all the others DIE?

Our FAITH is CORRECT but WRONG: Trinity Part III of III

 As you recall from Part II,

1.     From Hinduism - “The concept that the world (& man) reincarnates in life after life.” Similar to the physics theory of energy.

2.     From Judaism - “The existence of ‘free will’ and in using that ‘will’ to accept the sacredness of life as the good creation of Yahweh (God).”

3.     From Buddhism - “Through the practice of meditation (a philosophy of hope), one can acquire the Insight Knowledges and attain Nibbana (awareness).”

4.     From Jainism - “Have a respect and an appreciation for all life.”

5.     From Confucianism - “Development of the human character (duty and moral obligation); an inward quality is created from which all actions take place without ulterior motives.”

6.     From Taoism - “An assertion of truth, a way of life, a moral force that should be present in those who govern and in all governments.”

7.     From Zoroastrianism - “The concept that God would send messages to mankind through messengers.”

8.     From Christianity - “The idea that God sent His son Jesus so that man will find God through Jesus and his resurrection.”

9.     From Shinto - “The physical act of ritual purification in water.”

10.  From Islam - “The idea that the Koran supports the notion that all things (both good and evil) are the direct result of God’s will.”

11.    From  Sikhism - “A new way of looking at self, creation, and the creator and merging the three together.”

12.  From  Bahai - “Humanity is one single race and that they day has come for its unification into one global society.”

Now here's the idea...

God or some kind of CREATOR, created this VAST UNIVERSE for whatever reason...

God or some kind of CREATOR, created the HUMAN RACE...

God or some kind of CREATOR, created ALL 4,300 Religions/Philosophies...

According to SCIENTISTS, there was a BIG BANG (explosion of a black hole) that created the universe...  but, where did all the matter come from that created the black hole in the first place?  Scientists will tell you that this matter came out of nowhere or the void that existed...  but, where then did this void come from?  ANSWER:  It was always there...  

Logically, that does not make any sense at all...   something from nothing...

Creation is the only thing that makes sense from a logical standpoint...   but, where did this creator come from?  

Let's imagine that GOD is the last person alive before the end of the universe...   and, from the end of the universe, we have the beginning of a new universe...

In both cases, we have something from nothing...

So, you either believe in SCIENCE or in a GOD or CREATOR...

I choose to believe in a God or CREATOR...

WHY?

Because, it was HIS WILL...

DOES ANYONE THINK THAT GOD CREATED MANKIND AND THESE VARIOUS RELIGIONS BECAUSE GOD WANTED TO DIVIDE PEOPLE OR UNITE PEOPLE?

It would be my contention that God created mankind and all these religions to UNITE PEOPLE into a belief in GOD or some kind of a CREATOR.

All these religions point to a God or some kind of a CREATOR...

Think about that for a minute...

If they all point to a God or some kind of a Creator, then they are all SIMILIAR not different...  we are so close to the forest that all we see are our individual trees of belief rather than the FOREST OF A BELIEF IN GOD.

Mankind in general believes in God or some kind of a Creator, even those that say they don't believe have a belief that was given to them by God just as their birth was given to them by God.

The mere fact of birth of mankind is proof there is a God or some kind of a Creator.

The mere fact of the creation of our universe is proof that there is a God or some kind of a Creator.

There mere fact of 4,300 religions of a God is proof that there is a God or some kind of a Creator.

UNITED WE STAND AND DIVIDED WE FALL