For years the financial services industry has instructed us to salt away 10% of our income and watch it grow. They send us brochures showing sweater-clad retirees hanging around a golf cart. Yes, friends, through the miracle of compounding, even a man of modest means can become a millionaire.

They don’t tell you that while your money may compound, the government is stealing your savings through the “miracle” of inflation. At best, you’ll stay even. The question is this: What will a million buy you in a few decades? It’s not the amount of money in your pocket that matters, it’s what that money can purchase. All other things being equal, a man with $1 in an economy where candy bars cost $.05 is wealthier than a man with $5 in an economy where a candy bar costs $.80.

A financial advisor may can show you that saving pre-tax money can save you a lot of money over the years. Consider their assumptions, however. First, most 401Ks have limited investment options. They are heavily geared toward investing in U.S. bonds, U.S. stocks, and the U.S. dollar. What if inflation effectively wipes out the value of the dollar? Most 401Ks allow no means of hedging in foreign currencies or hard assets such as commodities, real estate, etc. Second, you have to pay taxes on the money once you withdraw it, and when you don’t know what tax rates will be then. They could be much higher. Third, there are penalties that come from withdrawing early, which means that you have less control of your assets. (One hook financial companies give young people is this idea that if they just set up the automatic investing every paycheck, they don’t have to think about it. Well, you can do that with individual accounts. You can set up online bill pay to “pay yourself” by sending a check somewhere automatically each month. There’s nothing magical about a 401K or IRA. People still can and do withdraw money from them. It just costs a lot more.)

I think the biggest issue with 401Ks and IRAs is that they are a sitting duck for a financially-strapped government. Consider the ready-made government pitch if we have another major downturn: “Look at how your mutual funds have fallen! You trusted Wall Street (it’s their fault!) and look what happened! This is why we are graciously stepping in. Your monies will now be safe and secure, transferred to government securities with a guarantee to pay.” This will entice people who, for good reason, distrust the advice of their financial adviser and yet don’t know what else to do with their money. A lot of people are in this boat.

This is how the government works. What Gary North calls “kicking the can” i.e. pushing the day of reckoning downstream, is often accomplished by pulling panicked people out of a small pool and dumping them into a large pool with promises of government security. “Don’t worry, you won’t drown! We have lifeguards on duty.” Because the government is a studiously irresponsible, however, it just sets up the the risk of a wider-ranging disaster (witness the U.S. financial system).

If private retirement accounts are nationalized by forcing people into government securities, we’ll be witnessing Social Security redux. In effect, all of the money you save will be borrowed and spent by the government. They will leave you with an IOU. All entitlements hinge on a promise to pay. In true Ponzi fashion, the government is promising you that it will find future suckers to pay you when your time comes. Remember, it has already spent all of the money you’ve paid into FICA.

Financially, it isn’t going to work. The government will forfeit on its obligations mainly through inflation since it’s the sneakiest way to do it, but it will also use means testing (i.e. penalizing responsible savers), and raising the retirement age. This means that your effective return is going to be a lot less.

What can one say in favor of 401Ks and IRAs? Well, the government could legislate in favor of retirement plans and at the expense of individual accounts. Also, in certain legal actions, your retirement money may be exempt. In other words, it may be a form of risk mitigation to have some money in retirement vehicles. However, you have to balance that against the risk of confiscation.

When I was younger, I was suckered in by the employer matching on a 401K, but many employers are no longer matching. If I was starting out today, I wouldn’t bother with a 401K. I’d save my money on my own. You don’t need a quasi-government program like a 401K or IRA. Save it in individual stock accounts, real estate, commodities, or use it to build your ability to produce income (Gary North is big on pushing people to focus on producing income as much or more than than protecting their assets; I’m coming around to his view.) Save your money in things a desperate government will find harder to get its hands on. I’m not going to give investment advice here, except to say that Peter Schiff’s Little Book of Bull Moves in Bear Markets is a better place to start than Kiplinger or Money magazine.

Gary North wittily discusses Jim Wallis’ cheap shot against Glenn Beck. Wallis is Barack Obama’s friend and “spiritual advisor.”

Beck’s turrets are now rotating toward Jim Wallis.

The Mormon could provide a useful service here.

It never fails. A pastor writes an article defending Scripture against the latest piece of bad theology (in this case, The Shack). Angry people respond with the charge: “Pharisee!”

“Pharisee” is the evangelical version of the word “racist.” It’s usually just a cheap way to attempt to end debate. The words “Pharisee” or “judgmental” in a letter or popular article have become likely indicators of a lousy argument.

If doctrine doesn’t matter, why would Paul warn of the false teachers with tears (Acts 20), or to equip the saints so they are no longer tossed about by every wind of doctrine (Eph 4:14)? He warned the Roman church against those who cause divisions and obstacles contrary to the doctrine they had been taught (Rom 16:17). He discussed “warning and teaching everyone” (Col 1:28). Paul told them to see to it that people are not taken captive by human philosophies (Col 2:8). He tells Timothy and the church to rebuke those who teach false doctrine (1 Tim 1:3), to keep a close watch on his teaching (1 Tim 4:16), to guard the good deposit (1 Tim 6:20, 2 Tim 1:14), and to preach the word and rebuke falsehood (2 Tim 4:2). Why? “To save himself and his hearers.” (1 Tim 4:16). Doctrine is a matter of life and death.

If the accusers are non-Christian, the “Pharisee” argument usually shows a poor, grab bag understanding of Scripture and their hatred of God’s law and authority. If the accuser is Christian, ask him if one should judge Mormons by their piety or their doctrine. He’ll usually say the latter. So, doctrine does matter. He’s really saying that you’re getting caught up in areas of Christian liberty and focusing on inessentials. The more the person has an affinity for the book, the more the person protests.

I have several responses for these folks. First, The Shack’s perversions of the Trinity and promotion of feminism are both attacks on the Godhead. This is heresy, not inessentials. It is deadly error. Second, Paul did not tell pastors to limit their teaching to the facts of salvation, but to preach all the Word and do so rightly. Third, you seem to think that something that is sweet to your eyes, your ears, and your feelings is “spiritual.” In such cases, perhaps we should be most willing to say to ourselves: Is this really Biblical? Compare it to the Word. Remember, Satan poses as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14) and Paul warns us away from teachers who tell us what we want to hear rather than the truth (2 Tim 4:3). Fourth, don’t buy the “it’s only a work of fiction” line used by every popular author who writes books filled with bad theology (see Brown, Dan). This is a lame cop out. You can bet that the same author will proudly and pretentiously talk up how he is constantly told that the book “helped expand my understanding of Jesus/God/my faith.” The reviews on Amazon will verify this.

I am in the best shape of my life.

I don’t diet. I don’t count calories. When I’m hungry, I eat. When I’m full, I usually stop. If my scale is to be believed, I currently have 11% body fat.

I’ve written before about exercise. What follows are my theories on eating, based on reading and personal experience, in hopes that it will help someone, somewhere. I don’t claim to be an authority on nutrition. A lot of people do. There are doctors recommending low-fat diets, internet experts recommending high-fat diets, low carb and high carb camps, vegans and primals. Organic devotees. On it goes.

My philosophy: eat a balanced diet of mostly whole foods. Few people get fat eating steak, chicken, apples, sweet potatoes, brown rice, whole wheat, carrots, peas, and so on. They get fat eating chips, frozen pizza, Pillsbury biscuits, juice drinks, Frosted Flakes, Hamburger Helper, french fries, soda, white bread, and lots of condiments. When they get the urge to “eat healthy,” they’ll buy a processed food with Omega 3 or vitamin additives instead of eating whole (i.e. real) food.

The problem with these highly processed foods is that they are expertly engineered to taste good by adding lots of sugar, sodium, and 15 other mysterious and unpronounceable ingredients. My wife theorizes that people eat more bad food than they need to because their bodies are grasping for nutrients (we learn more every year about the good things in the fruits and vegetables God has made for us). My wife may be right. After a baked potato and two eggs, I’m satisfied. After a few Double Stuff Oreos, which is about the same number of calories, I’m just getting started. I eat cookies by the row. I used to eat chips by the bag, and mac and cheese by the box. Does anyone actually eat the serving size listed on a package of processed food? You’re better than me if you do.

Some people are addicted to caffeine. I still need to conquer a love of sugary junk food. By “conquer,” I don’t mean “avoid completely,” but instead to desire it with self-control instead of as an enslaved addict seeking a fix. Gluttony is still a sin.

The key with eating is simply to see diet as a noun, not a verb. Dieting ends, usually with a return to bad eating habits, but a good diet is for a lifetime. When I started eating whole foods, I honestly didn’t know if I liked enough of them. I created a list of foods that I do like and split the list into categories like carbs, meats/proteins, fats, fruits, and vegetables. I’m trying new things and adding the stuff I like to the list. Slowly, I’m finding that I don’t desire processed stuff as much. I don’t really miss most of it. I just ate it because it was easy and because I’d always eaten it.

Here’s the kicker to this “exercise and eat mostly whole foods” lifestyle: I can eat my fill without my clothes getting tighter. I am not forever hungry as I was on Weight Watchers. No more Lean Cuisine or counting out how many pretzels I eat. If I like a certain condiment, I use a bit of it without fretting that it’s adding a point or two. Sometimes I find a replacement food that I like just as much (e.g. a spritzer or apple cider vinegar instead of salad dressing). If I want some pizza on occasion, I have some pizza. When you eat mostly whole foods, you can “cheat” occasionally. My concern is more with eating too little rather than too much.

(One last thing: I’m not a big believer in the organic movement. Take some of the tired myths about conventional farming with a grain of salt. While Michael Pollan has useful insights — his larger theories on whole foods have influenced me — farmers and nutritionists often contradict his details. Farming industry reps may be biased, but the people who push organic foods, free range chickens, veganism, and all that rot have their own agenda. Also, your whole foods don’t need to come from the expensive, good-on-health-care, bad-on-Planned-Parenthood grocery chain that goes by that name and actually sells its share of highly processed stuff.)

Is anyone else tired of hearing that we have a “right” to health care? Judge Andrew Napolitano explains the difference between a right and a good.

Health care is a good. This is a key concept to understand, because if you concede the premise of a “right” to health care or education or anything else that others have to pay for, then you have lost the argument.

I don’t wish to gross anyone out here, but I post this article to note how perversions tend to cascade and to note how their proponents tend to seek acceptance through similar political movements using euphemisms and the language of the victim.

Being a “zoophile” [what a euphemism!] in modern American society, Beck says, is “like being gay in the 1950s. You feel like you have to hide, that if you say it out loud, people will look at you like a freak.” Now Beck believes he and other members of this minority sexual orientation, who often call themselves “zoos,” can follow the same path as the gay rights movement.

Our first instinct might be to laugh at the prospects of gaining cultural acceptance of something as degraded as bestiality, but given the success of the sodomy lobby over the last 40-50 years… Why?

Homosexuality is the next exit down the highway of perversion from feminism. Is bestiality the next exit down the highway from sodomy?

For many years, Robert Novak was one of my favorite columnists. There are certain media figures you just know you’d like if you knew them. Lyn Nofziger was like that. Pat Buchanan is too. Robert Novak, who died August 18, always seemed that way to me, too, and this has been happily confirmed by the remembrances of those who knew him. He was principled and decent.

Novak’s autobiography, The Prince of Darkness, is a good read. The anecdote I most remember from it was his time as a Unitarian. However, several remembrances of him noted how he was about to speak one night at Syracuse University in the 1990s. A female student asked him if he had joined the Catholic Church. He said he had been going to mass for a few years, but he hadn’t joined. The young woman responded: “Life is short, but eternity is forever.” This moment hit like a stake in Novak’s heart. He could barely finish his speech that night. He was baptized soon afterward. We never know when God may use something we say in a life-changing way.

Although it doesn’t change my orthodox protestant view that Rome (sadly) pushes “another Gospel” (Gal. 1:8-9), what a statement for all to consider: “Life is short, but eternity is forever.”

It’s something we’ve always suspected: politicians share personality traits with serial killers. Let’s see here:

Interpersonal traits include glibness, superficial charm, a grandiose sense of self-worth, pathological lying, and the manipulation of others.

Yes, check.

a lack of remorse and/or guilt

Check.

parasitic orientation

Check. Bigtime.

They also lack what most consider a “shame” mechanism.

OK, well, I’m convinced.

This is a good, short interview with Thomas Woods. Along with Peter Schiff, Tom Woods is the clearest economist out there. He’s always funny and lively as an interview, with well-aimed blows.

This is a good talk by Phil Johnson. One of the oddities of church culture over the past decade or two is a rising acceptance of vulgarity. It’s this idea that we need to “keep it real” because that’s what people relate to. How we get them beyond it when we’re sitting there cussing with them is never explained. Nor is how we avoid being corrupted by corrupt speech, as if our flesh is somehow above such considerations.

I wonder if all this faddish evangelicalism is yet another relic of the economic boom years. Now that our phony wealth is melting away, perhaps the pretentious hipster nonsense and titillation will follow it out the door in favor of a mature Christianity.

The means of grace as the Bible spells it out: that’s what we need. All of us. And there’s no need to arrogantly pretend otherwise.

Pastors: This will add some real power to your next sermon. So much for Romans 10:17.

Its hard to imagine that the popular culture in American once embraced elegant, adult (in the good sense of the word) entertainment like this. Imagine people going out for an evening in a suit and tie. I’m not sure if I even have a suit that fits.

This isn’t a call to return to the 1940s, but just to note that we have become a society that venerates youth. Instead of young singers singing adult songs to adult audiences, we have classic rock geezers still making futile attempts to hit notes they haven’t hit since 1974. Compare that to a Tony Bennett who is singing the same standards he sang 50 years ago. Bennett’s arrangements may be in a different key, but it still sounds “right” because it’s timelessly clever pop music instead of youthful fantasies about a scarred old slaver whipping his “brown sugar” around midnight. An old man just can’t do a credible version of, say, Black Dog.

Have you heard this? Surreal satire like this must make even rock music fans admit that pulling a rock vocal from its context generally reveals the essential ridiculousness of it all.

What’s the most popular post in the illustrious history of Jack’s Pipe?

“Who cares?” you say. Now you be nice!

The most popular post in the history of Jack’s Pipe is this one. Two years after it was originally posted, it received 280 hits last month. Who woulda thunk it?

The credit for the post goes to the man whose writing I simply rearranged. Bill Mouser, take a bow. Your scribblings have undoubtedly blessed many, including me.

It’s kind of exciting because I like Anglicans very much. I love the music and the 1928 prayer book. I prefer the Thirty Nine Articles, J.C. Ryle and Church Society variety of Anglican to the Rowan Williams variety. I think Anglicans should’ve adopted the Westminster standards, but it’s probably time to let that go. I have a good friend who is Anglican. He sometimes laughs at me instead of with me, but I won’t hold that against the rest of you.

Psalm chanting (and no, this isn’t New Age chanting) is something all of God’s church could learn from our Anglican brethren. I don’t know of a better way to memorize the Psalms. I much prefer chants to the metrical Psalter because you read them right out of Scripture.

As expected, Barack Obama lifted the so-called “gag rule” today, which basically allows the U.S. government to fund overseas clinics that provide abortion. (Liberals are never shy about making the rest of us pay for abortions).

Tonight the moderate messiah will go to sleep, presumably in good conscience.

I came across this video last night. It’s easy to write it off as another piece of dopey Hollywood agitprop, but this sort of thing seems to appeal to younger generations.

The idea here is to think up stuff to do and then do it. The celebrities suggest a motley blend of personal preferences, gibberish, patronizing little things (“use less plastic”), and, of course — always — more ways to expand the government and spend our neighbors’ money. Confused, they haughtily ask us to join them in their confusion. Implicitly, the only things off-limits are those that contradict the spirit of liberalism. For example, orthodox Christianity and freedom. Note how none of these wealthy celebrities pledged to invest their ample resources to create businesses that will employ others and benefit society.

Note also how all of this enthusiasm springs from, and goes back to, the benevolent god Obama. Apparently he would approve. If everyone does what’s right in their own eyes (Judges 17:6) enough, the country will be transformed. Sure.

Does anyone else find all this stuff a little creepy? Check out the end of the clip in particular. Given my longtime study of early Soviet history, I’ve wondered what what it is like to witness a cult of personality firsthand. Some of what we’ve seen would make Stalin blush. I’ve never experienced anything close to this.

Our media hasn’t yet descended to the level of 1930s Pravda, but it’s well on its way (see here for just a small sampling of the glorification… I say “small sampling” because I’ve seen a dozen blatant examples of cheerleading in an hour of TV watching on 5-6 channels over the past few days). Meanwhile, establishment Republicans are going to find their tiresome calls to support the country “in a time of war and national distress” used against them… reminding us once again of Dr. Johnson’s famous comment about patriotism.

[He] delivered his speech, self-consciously Kennedyesque, full of words like sacrifice, challenges, bold, vision, summon, change, determination, resolve, renew, rebuild, revitalize, rededicate, and the trendy reinvent. … Though short, it was longwinded. [He] was careful to be brief. But in this case brevity wasn’t the soul of wit. He was straining for grand effects he didn’t know how to hit off, and he fell back on a vocabulary he deemed inspirational.

That sounds like it was written today, but it’s from a 1993 article by the great writer Joe Sobran on the occasion of Bill Clinton’s inaugural. Rereading it this weekend, and having transitioned from a twenty-something to a forty-something, I think I understand Sobran’s weariness a little better.

When it comes to pop culture phenomenons, the man on the street is often, as Robert Mitchum put it, “like a leaf that the wind blows from one gutter to another.” His interest is temporary because it’s based in “reality TV” amusement, not reflection. It’s about excitements and new things instead of sober thoughts and ancient things. And right now, Michelle and Barack are the new thing. I note in passing that MTV is running its own inaugural special. The theme: “Be the change.” Any questions?

Meanwhile, the mainstream media continues to engage in its reflexive worship of left-wing power. The state to them isn’t a punisher of evildoers, it’s god and church and daddy and mommy. Liberals like to fantasize about an inspired citizenry that joyfully unites behind a progressive leader, but this will never be the case because when you force people to fund stuff they wouldn’t voluntarily pay for, you create resentments and factions. Muggers can’t be leaders. At least they can’t be leaders of those being robbed. I doubt us rubes will ever learn to be cheerful givers when it comes to funding other people’s abortions, their banks, their welfare checks, their unions, or their government jobs. I, for one, don’t want pay for state-funded educations, retirement, or health care either, because none of those functions belong to the state.

Liberals prefer not to be reminded that they achieve their goals by the threat of force (namely, imprisonment), but that’s the fist behind any government action. There’s nothing pleasant about it, no matter how pretty it looks and sounds on TV. It’s just a “boot stamping on a human face– forever,” to use Orwell’s memorable phrase. In other words, it’s a raw exercise of power by the Frankensteins in Washington. Render unto Caesar– or else.

Anyway, read Sobran’s witty article. It’ll do you good and maybe repair some brain cells if you’ve spent any time witnessing the endless fawning on TV this weekend.

As an addendum to my last post, check out the helpful comments responding to this Baylyblog post. An excellent comment by a certain “Gary” caught my eye:

Keller here places himself above the rest of us who oppose abortion by accusing us of something we are not even doing so that he might appear to be more gracious and forgiving than the rest of us. I am leery of men who seem intent on making sure that they seem more gracious and nicer than others who are concerned about righteousness. [my emphasis] “If there were only just more people as gracious and merciful as I am.”

Was John wrong to call people vipers (Matt. 3:7)? Was Jesus wrong to call us evil (Matt. 7:11)? Apparently we can no longer refer to people as murderers, thieves, liars or adulterers either because certainly these are stronger terms than “scum”. The temptation perpetually is to coat ourselves with Teflon so that nothing that makes us “appear” to be harsh would stick to us. In the eyes of the world Jesus, the Prophets and Apostles were harsh men. May we be willing to be counted amongst them.

Well said, Gary. Why do I sometimes feel guilty and feel “like scum?” Because I am guilty and I am scum. Why do those who’ve murdered their children feel guilty and like scum? Because they are. What they’ve done is a big deal.

As fallen creatures, we sometimes feel improper guilt (e.g. about eating certain things). However, most of the time, isn’t guilt just our conscience’s response to our own sin? The world tells us to not feel guilty when we sin, but this is how one sears his own conscience. The denial of guilt is a denial of sin. Until we understand the depth of our sin and our guilt, how we can understand the magnitude of what Christ has done and the grace that He offers?

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. -Proverbs 27:6

My sister informed me that someone said this on Oprah today: “Being gay is a gift from God.”

Says who? Not the Bible.

American culture has imbibed this phony gospel of tolerance, which is really nothing but universalism in new packaging. It’s the belief that God will eventually save everyone and our responsibility to others is to be nice to them. Many evangelicals are influenced by this, telling us that God is love. True, but incomplete. They may go so far as to say sodomy isn’t natural, but we all have our struggles, and really, who are we to judge?

The answer is that we judge no one. God does. He has judged sodomy in His word. We just proclaim that judgment.

Our culture equates love with softness and hugs. Bluntness and solemn warnings are seen as hard and hurtful, and thus expressions of hatred. Love is soft, hate is hard. Even those who admit that sodomy is sin will often say that it just bothers them how “hateful” so many act. Press them and they’ll mutter about the late Jerry Falwell and those nutty folks from that tiny, uninfluential Kansas church who carry the “God hates fags” signs.

Certainly we should humbly acknowledge that we are foul sinners, and vary our methods maturely (Jude 1:24), but you simply can’t square with Scripture this idea that love is nothing but softness. When David says “Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me,” is the shepherd using the rod to scratch the sheep’s back? Are the “faithful wounds” of a friend caresses? Much of the Old Testament involves God warning people of judgment. Jesus warns people over and over again, in quite brutal terms, of what will come of the unrepentant. The common pattern of preaching episodes in the Gospels and the Epistles was a warning of the judgment to come and a call for repentance, and then the hearers responding with shouts, stones, and clubs. The Apostles weren’t doing group hug seminars, but were they loving people by warning them? Of course they were!

Some Christians tell us that the Gospel needs to be our offense. That is, we shouldn’t offend people over “side issues.” Well, a more Biblical stance is to offend the world specifically in those areas (if they are indeed sins). That’s what Christ did. He didn’t talk about homosexuality with the Pharisees, but he did spend a lot of time attacking self-righteousness. Why? Because the Pharisees were guilty of that sin. Peter and Paul warned the Gentiles often against fornication. Why? Because that’s what they were tempted to do.

When we speak against sins the culture doesn’t get too upset about (bestiality and theft for example), but avoid cherished sins like sodomy, abortion, feminism, and unbiblical divorce, aren’t we just being fearful? Don’t we need to act like men and stop pretending like fearfulness is love?

Either we’re going to follow God’s way or we aren’t. As Ryle put it:

Holiness is the habit of agreeing with the mind with God, in accordance as we find His mind described in Scripture. It is the habit of agreeing with God’s judgment – hating what He hates, loving what He loves- and measuring everything in this world by the standard of His Word. The person who most completely agrees with God is the one who is the most holy person.

The New Years Eve celebration at Times Square featured songs that you would expect such as “What a Wonderful World” and “New York, New York.” One song stood out, peculiarly played just before midnight. Perhaps they do so every year and I didn’t notice it. It’s a song you all know.

Imagine there’s no Heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one

Faith is the opinion that some person will do something for you. If that person will really do that thing for you, then the faith is true. If he will not do it, then the faith is false. -J Greshem Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

A recent piece by Gary North got me to thinking: When federal politicians sit at home after a long day’s work, do they ever reflect and ask themselves how the country will pay for their spending? My wife thinks not. She thinks they’re content to kick the can down the road (when it will be someone else’s problem).

It’s been estimated that we have almost 100 trillion in Social Security and Medicare liabilities. Maybe, like Mr. Micawber, politicians are hopeful that something will turn up. I doubt 100 trillion will turn up, though, and Congress would find a way to spend it if it did.

North makes the germane point: there is no way the “commitments” to provide all these goodies can be met. These commitments are nothing but broken promises. They’ll either default on them altogether or dilute them to the point where those expecting the equivalent of steak or even hamburger will be fortunate to get roadkill.

You used to hear people falsely say: “Who cares about the national debt, we just owe ourselves.” The truth was that the government owed some people, namely American bondholders. Now, however, foreigners are the creditors. We’ll just keep running the printing presses until these foreigners tire of providing us with products in exchange for freshly-printed green paper. Then the problems will really start.

We not only have enough unpayable liabilities as it is, but the world’s ramshackle savior, Barack Obama, wants to spend even more. More broken promises to come. The solution is to eliminate the messianic nanny state and return to the limited government suited to man’s finite capabilities.

Do politicians ever question the morality of borrowing money they have no plan and no ability to repay? North closes with Psalm 37:21, an apt Scripture:

The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again: but the righteous sheweth mercy, and giveth.

There’s quite a difference between the promise-breakers in Washington and and the covenant God!

Yesterday, I returned home from a 15hr work day to learn this. It might not surprise you to learn that judge Edmund A. Sargus was appointed by president William J. Clinton.

Amazing (ht: Riddleblog).

This nugget from the last paragraph, spoken by a pastor, about says it all:

My competition is Cracker Barrel restaurant down the street. If they go in there and are treated more like family than when they come to CrossPoint Church, then it’s lights out for me.

Maybe his church should be publicly listed on the NASDAQ.

I’m proud to say that my own church would fail the mystery shopper’s test miserably — red light on those sidewalk weeds — but people come anyway. The power of the Word may have a little to do with it…

I must admit a bitter grudge against the SEC. I hate their arrogance, especially since the Buckeyes have a notorious problem beating anyone from the SEC (the other Big 10 teams don’t seem to have as much trouble). However, this wonderful story about Georgia Bulldogs football coach Mark Richt makes me a fan of one SEC team… except when he plays a Big 10 team, of course.

Christian contemporary music has long seemed a wasteland for if you’re looking for Biblical lyrics. Word and sacrament are out, feelings-based mysticism is in. The most annoying feature of much of this music is that it’s all about me: how I feel, what will I do, etc. That’s one reason — along with snarling guitars — why this is one of the best recordings of the last 10 years. It speaks to the first and truest words in Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven Life: “It’s not about you” (alas, if only Warren had stopped writing right there…).

The Lord’s kingdom rolls ever on. He owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Ps. 50:10). All authority on heaven and earth is His (Matt 28:18).

I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her. -Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

I’m in the midst of a long business trip, and it reminds me yet again how I hate partings. I have always hated them, but moreso as I age. I long to be home and see my wife and family, as Paul longed to see Timothy. Amid such melancholy, what a joy it is to consider that one day these “former things” will pass away. (Rev 21:4)