Dover Citizen

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:21:00 +0000

Reverend Oral Roberts went to be with our Lord today. Few people have affected Christianity in their generation as did he. The healing revivial, the charismatic movement, the mainstreaming of the Pentacostal movement, seed faith, the prayer language, emphasis on the goodness of GOD, and the restoration idea of each person communing with GOD as a two way experience were all areas in which he was a leader globally. He transformed not only the Penatcostal movement, but impacted modern Christianity.

Just bringing to the world's attention that "GOD is a good GOD" is worthy of a life's work. He was a modern apostle. While he will be missed, he will not be forgotten.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:52:00 +0000

Blastoff will be the new wave on the Net.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:47:00 +0000

Virginia McDonnell surges to a new lead in the polls going over 50% with a solid lead among independents. DNC chairman and part time governor Kaine is still on the road.

New Jersey Jersey City and other towns have passed pay to play bans in a great statement against corruption even those currently under indictment favored the bill. And Democrats wonder why they are losing.

New York Both Republicans and Democrats held their annual conventions this past week. The Republicans have a new leader, Mr. Cox, which was a minor defeat for the Giuliani hardliners. The two parties are geering up for next year's election. People are starting to position themselves for an anticipated Democrat primary between Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Governor David Patterson.

The Club for Growth is the war path against big spending Democrats and Republicans.

Maryland The State is knocking around drivers for more money. Speed Cameras and and a Texting while driving ban are the news along with new restrictions on teens.

Maryland insists on impoverishing some of its citizens with a mandatory 25% cut in "Greenhouse emissions" by 2020. The bill at least makes more sense than the overall energy cut demanded by Markell. At least other ways of finding energy will be entertained whether or not the goal is realistic. Where is the Maryland GOP when you need a loyal opposition? Speed cameras and energy rationing seem like winning issues even for such a moribund organization.

Pennsylvania is no longer Obama friendly territory. Not only is Gov. Rendell in trouble but the President's numbers have sunk to a new low. Senator Specter may have picked the wrong couple to help him.

The budget deal that was struck still hasn't passed due to rebellious Democrats who hate oil drilling and want the people to suffer with higher taxes and energy prices.

Delaware H1N1 is running through the state, including my home just like Maryland, but most cases are never tested for and therefore are unreported. You have to ask for testing like we did. What is the agenda? I am finding a lot of cases of something like it but most were never tested even though they went to the doctor. Is there a wink not to report the disease? What is the public health effect? Why does it take a week or longer to get results? No significant upgrades in testing have occurred since last year. Is the state failing the public?

U. S. Senate Candidate Christine O'Donnell is up there with the big boys pulling 40% in the latest poll. Is it time for HuckPac and Sarah Pac to pay attention?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:28:00 +0000

The Democrats are losing ground according to the polls and evidenced by the disquiet at town halls from Oregon to New York to Texas to Delaware. They have decided not to address the issues the people have passionately brought up. They have decided to characterize people who differ with them as a staged mob. This is so outrageous that it is beyond the pail.

Since when are people not suppose to express their agreement with a speaker by cheering? Are they not allowed to express their collective disagreement with a proposal with a collective response to a question by saying just say no? When did peaceful seated people giving support to one another become a mob? Funny Democrats did the same thing back in the Civil Rights Movement and they did the same thing in the 1990's to the peaceful rescue movement.

If we let them get away with declaring legitimate reasoned petitioning of the government as as a mob, our liberty will go down the proverbial toilet. They are attacking our freedom of assembly, right to petition government for redress of our grievances, and our freedom of speech, while mocking religion in the same ad (poking fun of the person who was quietly holding a Bible while standing outside of a meeting). Let's just shred the first amendment completely. Oh, and they attacked freedom of the press by tossing in Rush Limbaugh as an inciter. I never complained about their expressing disagreement with him, but I will say enough when they want to accuse him of inciting mobs that never existed. This is the same tactic used by a President in South America whose name rhymes with Chavez.

Here is my email to the DNC. I encourage you to contact them.

What are you guys doing? This latest ad sends chills down my spine. The idea that peaceful seated people cheering a speaker is now a mob in your eyes is an affront to freedom of speech and the right of the people to assemble and seek redress from their government of grievences. I protest your attack on the First Amendment and respectfully request that you stand down.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:28:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:39:00 +0000

Delaware Civil Rights Icon, Littleton Mitchell passed away in an auto accident Monday. The AP had this as an obituary.

Littleton Mitchell, 90, a Delaware civil rights activist, died Monday.

Mr. Mitchell, who was killed in a crash near his Delaware City home, was pronounced dead during surgery at an area hospital, state police said.

The crash occurred around 3 p.m. Monday when Mitchell's Toyota Prius crossed the centerline and collided with a GMC Savana. The driver of the Savana was treated and released.

Mr. Mitchell, who served as a Tuskegee Airman, led the state NAACP chapter for more than 30 years and, along with his late wife, Jane, was a key figure in eliminating segregation in Delaware hospitals.

The Milford, Del., native was the first African American to teach white students in Delaware and labored to get the state police force to hire its first black trooper.

The AP obituary does not tell what made him special. Instead of merely being happy with being first, he wanted to ensure that he wasn't the last. Instead of allowing injustice to to embitter him, he led the way to marginalize the voices of anger and embrace the call of hope. Instead of trying to be a celebrity, he brought together a team and mentored others.

He served our country in War. He worked to advance it in peace. He is a true testament to the dignity that God allows the human spirit to reach. Sir, one final thank you for your service.

This interview says more about him than I ever could, please read it.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:26:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:19:00 +0000

Lessons from Japan's Lost Decade
What are the policy do's and don't's of which we need an awareness. I want to put a particular emphasis on lesson 5 of the Japanese scholars, "Until the focus of disease is removed by surgery, no macroeconomic medicine will be effective."

Do work with other nations to allow an increase in money supply without panicking them. Japan only came out of the "Lost Decade" by an aggressive monetary policy.

Only a comprehensive monetary policy which allows the market to clean up the bad assets and provides enough liquidity to do so will achieve it. The financial institutions need to be able to borrow at near zero rates from the Fed not at the rates in the TARP. Instead of merely tossing money at the banks, we need to reform the valuations of assets. Mark to market needs to be permanently buried and replaced with a more objective income based evaluation for income producing assets. Even though Americans hate to admit it, South Korea showed that aggressively dealing with troubled assets is vital. It had a rough couple of years, but it returned to strong growth while Japan remained mired in difficulty.

Keynes is dead. Lesson 4 of the Japanese scholars was that fiscal stimulus does not work in these circumstances. We have to make economic policy based first upon if it helps business to flourish not based upon some left wing social engineering. The Great Depression became long because "Others say government did not do enough to restore business confidence, or did too much to damage it, piling on taxes, regulation and labor unions," as Howard Jenkins put it. I believe that a good fiscal policy helps to blunt the trauma and is desirable. I believe that tax cuts, aid to states to prevent more unemployment, accelerating existing projects, increasing food stamps, unemployment, medicaid, tax credits for purchases like fuel efficient cars and first time home buyers, and other safety net programs are desirable. They help keep the economy from collapsing while we allow a couple of years for the monetary policy and the markets to work their magic. Otherwise the public panics. When that happens the sanity of the market could be endangered. What I do not believe is that we can spend our way into prosperity. The stimulus money should have been closer to the GOP version and less like the Democrat version. It could have been a little more than half what it was and the rest of the money should have addressed foreclosures which goes back to lesson 4.

We need to address foreclosures. We should have a window where no doc modifications of ARM's (adjustable rate mortgages) convert to fixed rates. Then we could give banks tax credits to compensate for the opportunity loss. Trying to deal with the bank balance sheets first without dealing with the problem which caused the balance sheets to be in trouble is backward. The second step seems to be bankruptcy reform. We have to allow bankruptcy judges to modify mortgages in Chapter 13. It used to be allowed until the Carter Administration as a trade off for the Community Investment Act and other bills. It also protected the banks when they were forced to give out 21% mortgages. The only way to save the banking industry is to allow real value to set the assets and income to start flowing on half of the non performing loans. That is by loan modification inside and outside the bankruptcy court. Those who won't take the second and third chances will just be foreclosed upon. We can allow big government to intervene and try to redo the balance sheets of 80 million people all of whom are different, or we can allow people to do it themselves. Not taking the former approach will lead to a decade's long reliance on the government by millions at a staggering cost.

A final difference between today’s bust and most other big banking crises is the importance of household debt. Historically, serious banking busts have mainly involved overborrowing by firms. In Japan, for instance, corporate borrowing soared in the 1980s against the collateral of rising share and property prices.

Today, however, household profligacy, which underpins much of the other debt, has been the problem. After the dotcom bust, American firms held back. Virtually all the rise in non-financial debt since 2000 was among households, as Americans tapped into the rising equity in their homes. Although troubled business debts, such as commercial property, are rising, households are the worst hit.

That has important implications. Household balance-sheets are more difficult to restructure than corporate ones, which involve far fewer people. Politically, the process raises questions of fairness. How far, for instance, should taxpayers bail out reckless homeowners who bought mortgages they could not afford? On the other hand, the economic dislocation from unwinding a household-debt binge may be less disruptive than restructuring swathes of firms. As Anil Kashyap of the University of Chicago points out, one reason Japan was so loth to acknowledge the depths of its banking problems was the knowledge that a banking clean-up would require a large-scale restructuring of Japanese firms which, in turn, would throw many people out of work. Restructuring household debts may be political dynamite, but it would not require a wholesale remaking of corporate America.
Nonetheless, the rebuilding of American households’ balance-sheets is likely to force a reliance on government demand that is bigger and longer-lasting than many now imagine.

The don't's are simple. Don't raise taxes as the Democrats plan to do when the Bush tax cuts expire. Instead let's have comprehensive tax reform (pt 3). The Japanese tried raising taxes twice and each time triggered real recessions. Don't keep Zombie businesses on the public dole. Don't pile up public debt in the vain hope of spending your way to prosperity. Don't discourage the markets from reshuffling resources to the efficient. Don't engage in anti-growth energy policies like Kyoto.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 04:38:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:16:00 +0000

No matter where we are, the GOD of creation (Nature's God) gave humans the ability to dream. No government, business, or any other person can steal your ability to dream In America, we are free to live our dreams.

The question that I have is will it be harder to live our dreams in post modern America. The President gave a well spoken address today. He spoke of remembering the indomitable spirit of our founders. The fact that throughout our history we have been able to face down any trial and live up to any challenges. Then he started rattling off a host of government programs that we needed. All of a sudden we are not up to meeting the challenges that face us by unleashing our dreams rather by unleashing our government.

I have a great deal of respect for our President. He is living the dream. I am concerned that the very policies that he advocates such as energy rationing and putting on the hook for 99 trillion dollars of unfunded liabilities risks discouraging Americans from reaching their dreams by undermining their ability to take risk.

The more failure regulators have, the more regulation we are told that we need. The truth is regulators rarely have the ability to keep up with the targets of their regulation. When they are pressured to prevent failures instead of catch criminals, they act as if everyone is a criminal. The result is that they preemptively punish everyone. Innovation becomes something to be feared instead something to be honored. Risk becomes a proverbial four letter word instead of a literal one. America ceases to be unique.

I don't believe this is the time to give up on liberty. Setbacks are opportunities for comebacks. If your child takes a spill on a bike, do you ban bikes? We do not need a nanny state rushing to take our bikes away. We need to understand that price of greatness is temporary pain. Your child doesn't give up bike riding because it will take him/her to more places in a faster and more efficient way. It is about fulfilling the dream of the wind in your face as you and your friends expand your world.

America, this Independence Day one little citizen says, let's cast aside the voices of doom which tell us that our best days are behind us. We need to reach down within ourselves and understand that the greatness of America is not found in expenditures of our government. It is found within our souls. When we allow each other to turn our dreams into reality, then we shall be better than our dreams.

Happy Independence Day.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 04:10:00 +0000

It is almost Independence Day. Our Founders sought to give us a free nation rooted in Christian Principles. They succeeded. Now the secular mindset is undermining our heritage and threatening our freedoms. When a people no longer trust GOD, they look in vain to some other organizing force. The leftist fringe has made that an out of control, extra constitutional government.

It is why the Government is proposing to take over everything including our lives (health care), our liberty (CAFE, FACE, gun control, PC hate crimes restrictions, radical education, and more), and even our pursuit of happiness with its war on prosperity through higher taxes, energy restrictions, and neo-corporatism.

Rejecting this trend is vital. That is why I am intrigued with the 9/12 project. I am watching it to see if it goes in the right direction, but it sure has started with the right principles and values.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:45:00 +0000

What insanity would possess a person in a small state to support DE HB 198? It is The abolishes Federalism and insures Delawareans don't matter Act or at least that is what it would be called if we applied truth to labeling.

The Act would disenfranchise Delaware Voters by insuring that regardless who they vote to support in a Presidential election, their electoral votes would go to whomever has the plurality vote in the country not even the majority is required to over ride the wishes of the people of the state. Recounts are not required to be complete in the legislation; it takes a snapshot 6 days before the appointment of the electors.

One has to wonder about the Constitutionality of the measure. It would not allow voters to select the electors, but institute a plebiscite on election day. It allows the voters of other states to bind the voters of our state. It binds the electors to vote a certain way (which has been challenged in other settings) regardless of the intentions of the people who voted in the state.

Imagine if 60% of this state voted for Joe Biden and President Obama but the electors had to vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. The right of the people to vote for their own Senator to be VP would be gone. Your voice as a state would be eliminated.

In a practical sense, it would be the states handing over their identity and the concept of federalism. We would no longer have the 50 states and D.C. voting as the United States of America. We would have the Republic of America. The states would no longer matter in the Presidential election. This continues the assault which we already see on state primaries. Instead of having to campaign in the states, we now have huge Super Tuesday votes. This has decreased voter contact with the candidates and outrageously increased the cost of the Presidential election. Public financing reform is dead in the primaries and special interests are more influential (this by the very people who promised the opposite.) The two Bushes campaigned in Delaware and so did the Obama-Biden ticket. Do you think that would happen in a national plebiscite? State issues would matter a lot less. The elections would further fall into national media ads and manipulation.

Even more objectionable to me is the fact that it would not take a majority vote to over ride our voice. The vote of the people could be divided into the smallest of factions and their would be no mechanism to have a run off. The current system blunts a divided vote by requiring support all across the country. This would risk minority factionalism. 60% of our state could vote one way and be forced to support a 25% candidate. It would make us Britain. Even most parliamentary governments do not undermine legitimacy by tossing the vote to a small plurality candidate with no input to build a coalition. The current toss into the House of Representatives does that. Such a scenario would lead to unbelievable gridlock and disunity.

This bill is unAmerican in the sense that it is contrary to our traditions and structure. It needs to die in committee today.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 28 May 2009 02:14:00 +0000

My Testimony to the Dover Human Relations Commission
Mr. Chairman and Commissioners,
Thank you, for the opportunity to address this body since I was mentioned by name in a letter to the editor by a member, I decided to personally make my case.
I am concerned that the resolution before you though well intentioned is based upon a flawed premise. It is based upon the belief that love is something to be legislated and in the absence of legislation there is some sort of injury. I am sympathetic to the historic proscriptions often found in law against homosexual couples. However the recognition of marriage as a mixed sex institution which ensures the stable continuation of humanity, is not one such proscription. We did not recognize marriage even before written history because it was the only way people could love one another. We did it because a married family takes on a unique responsibility for all of us by committing to form a stable family. That family unit continues to be the basis of civilization in societies of all different religions, ethnic groups, and geographic locations. Marriage unites humanity. In spite of some differences, it is a mixed gender institution recognizable around the world.
The reason certain “benefits” are given is not to reward one group of people over all others. It is not to idealize love. It is to compensate for the high cost and sacrifice realized by families. Since society benefits to the degree of its very survival in its current form based upon the family, recognizing the contribution of people who make a lifelong commitment to children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren is not unreasonable. Since humanity is dependent upon the procreation celebrated by marriage, enshrining its unique and noble status into law is only natural.
People should be free to choose their relationships, and they are. I believe there is a difference between demanding legal recognition of a relationship and allowing people to choose with whom they have relationships. Recognizing a person’s right to choose does not mandate a right to recognition. The Supreme Court of the United States already addressed this issue in Lawrence v, Texas.

“The statutes do seek to control a personal relationship that,
whether or not entitled to formal recognition in the law, is
within the liberty of persons to choose without being punished
as criminals.
This, as a general rule, should counsel against attempts
by the State, or a court, to define the meaning of the relationship
or to set its boundaries absent injury to a person
or abuse of an institution the law protects. It suffices for
us to acknowledge that adults may choose to enter upon
this relationship in the confines of their homes and their
own private lives and still retain their dignity as free
persons.
Another issue is does homophobia enter into a person’s position on marriage? It can. If someone has an intense distrust of homosexuals, then obviously that person would not favor same sex marriage. My personal view is that the mere holding of that view does not make a person “homophobic”.
Margaret Sommerville who is known to be for laws favoring gay rights, wrote the following in a court brief in Canada:”Recognizing that a fundamental purpose of marriage is to engender respect for the transmission of human life provides a corollary insight: Excluding same-sex couples from marriage is not related to those people’s homosexual orientation, or to them as individuals, or to the worth of their relationships. Rather, the exclusion of their relationship is related to the fact that it is not inherently procreative, and, therefore, if it is encompassed within marriage, marriage cannot institutionalize and symbolize respect for the transmission of life. To recognize same-sex marriage (which is to be distinguished from same-sex partnerships that do not raise this problem) would unavoidably change and eliminate this function of marriage. ”
She further stated:”Being against same-sex marriage is frequently alleged by proponents of same-sex marriage to be proof of homophobia (See “Same-sex hearings rife with ‘gay- bashing,’ critic says”, Globe and Mail, 11 March, 2003, A6). A useful comparison can be made with people who take the view that being against infant male circumcision (IMC) is proof of anti-Semitism. (I, personally, have been subject to both sets of allegations in the public square.)
The strategy adopted in both cases is to shame those who are against same-sex marriage or IMC into silence. The choice of language and framing of the issues is carefully crafted to achieve this result. (See William Eskridge, who has articulated important insights in this respect, through his analysis of the techniques used by identity-based social movements to place courts in the position that they see their only alternatives in reaching a decision as being either to find discrimination or to believe that in not doing so they would be approving of discrimination and themselves engaging in it. In the same vein, see Halpern et al v. Canada and arguments considered by the judges.) “
Respectfully Submitted

David Anderson

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 22 May 2009 13:22:00 +0000

Dear editor:

My concerns about the spending spree of local and state governments have come to fruition. Since 2001, I have been steadily showing how this problem would one day cost us. It has cost us the last couple of years in increased electric rates and fees in the City along with this year’s painful furloughs which will ensure elimination of some policing programs downtown. Even so the city is better managed than most governments in this state.

At the county level, we are going to have a tax increase as if on cue after the election. Proposed reforms by Commissioner Eric Buckson were not adopted even though they would have avoided a tax increase on an already hurting population.

At the state level, we have a crisis. While most of the attention has gone to huge proposed pay cuts, senior centers are facing a loss of a third of their funding, and taxpayers are facing significant increases.

As Sussex County showed, not going wild in the good times means that you can not panic in the bad.

With governments at all levels raising taxes in the next couple of years, the state has a responsibility to use our money wisely. It is not.

The Delaware Financial Management System has been shown to be highly inefficient to say the least. It may very well be siphoning 10% of our tax money through its inefficiencies. Its inability to pay vendors in a timely, but quick system is costing us more in fees. Its incomprehensibility is costing us unnecessary paperwork. Learning the system is like learning a foreign language. Its bulky nature is forcing workers to do expensive work arounds. Its inefficient structure is so burdensome that the cost of writing a check is estimated to be $50 by comparison it is $6 or less in the private sector. The dealings with vendors alone have been documented to cost $200,000,000.00 a year by the Wilmington News Journal. A patch on the vendor portion was suggested in 2004 and it will not go live until 2010. That is 1.2 billion dollars tossed away.

A financial management system is designed to save money not cost more money.
This system has literally cost us Billions of dollars. DFMS is Bernie Madoff of financial accounting.

The best budget reform legislation that anyone could introduce would be a joint resolution to establish a commission to find a new financial management system. Whenever I hear a hybrid approach being discussed, I get concerned. Let’s study this and see if we can go world class instead of poverty class.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:13:00 +0000

I wish I were wrong, but right after the election Kent County Democrats proved themselves to be tax raisers as I predicted. They balked at spending reforms and raided the surplus. They join their Democrat counter parts in New Castle and likely in the Capitol. The good news is that every (all one of him) Republican (Hi Eric Buckson) stood strongly against this and he was joined by two Democrats who thought of the people.

Elections have consequences. Welcome to one party rule. May it soon expire.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 08 May 2009 04:10:00 +0000

First the man proposes tripling our taxes with a single payer/player health scheme and now he thinks that taxpayers need to sacrifice more because it is unfair that state employees have to give back to balance the budget.javascript:void(0)

Rep. John Kowalko proposes massive tax increase in the gas tax, personal income tax, and just so that you don't have a job to pay those business and corporate taxes. The man is a walking job killer and a threat to the economic well being of Delawareans. At least he didn't buy into the temporary sales tax proposed by one of the unions just to insure we are ruined for years. These types of protect government at all costs proposals ignore the fact that State spending increased under Democrat rule with few checks. Efficiency and prioritization were not important factors. We ignored reforms in medicaid, education, employee benefits, corrections, and other areas. Now the Blue Hens have come home to roost.

Rep. John the taxpayer mugger Kowalko solution is to feather their roost with what little money you have left.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:29:00 +0000

Do you want real answers to the economic turmoil? Financial expert Dave Ramsey is hosting a nationwide town hall on April 23rd. Go to http://www.townhallforhope.com For site locations follow the link. I have been to other Dave Ramsey events. They worth your time. The Dover Location is The Pentecostals of Dover on West Denny's Road.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 05:33:00 +0000

Do you believe in power to the people not the plutocracy? You have plenty of company. Attend a tea party to show your support for fiscal sanity. This event is non partisan. Of course I think that after you get educated you should make it count and be partisan for those who stand up for you. Have a great tax day. I hope that you had no unpleasant surprises.

Dover
Legislative Mall on the Green
4:00 - 6:00 PM

Georgetown
The Circle
12:00 - 2:00 PM

Laurel
Janosik Park
4:00 - 7:00 PM

Wilmington
The Riverfront
4:00 - 6:30 PM

Middletown
Middletown Town Square
4:00 - 6:00 PM

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:56:00 +0000

America is still a Christian Nation. A certain news magazine (the name of which is not worthy of my mention) had a sensational cover declaring the Decline and fall of Christian America. As usual the secular left can't understand the rest of America. It was timed to coincide with Holy Week while 70% of America is honoring Christ. It was typical liberal nonsense. The actual article seemed measured and worthy of discussion. The author is serious scholar who is grappling with societal changes. He points out that the near universal Christian consensus this country had is no longer universal. Of course most of us knew that for 40 years. Just turn on MTV and you can see that is true. When porn fills our society like an open sewer, when we push games and entertainment which celebrates killing, when babies are aborted, when giving out Bibles in school causes fear in the hearts of administrators, but condoms are dispensed daily, when public prayer is controversial in school but blasphemy is common place, when people think that marriage is about any two people getting together, then it seems obvious that a Christian consensus no longer exists.

Where I completely disagree with the author of that survey (see its link here) and certainly the headline writers is that Christian America is on the rise. Church attendance is not down. The fervor of the faithful has increased. Evangelical Christianity is sweeping America. The Catholic Church likewise is finding a resurgence in people wanting to learn about the faith they took for granted. The conversion rate is higher than the birth rate. While some of those who are not serious have finally stopped misusing the label, I find that a positive. The worst thing that can happen to a faith is when it is defined by the outliers and not the faithful. I would rather have the Ten Commandments in posted in every home of the faithful than be unread in every courthouse (I do favor keeping the Ten Commandments in public displays.) I would rather have meaningful prayers than symbolic emptiness. It is only by allowing the Living Lord to be shown that meaningful change will occur. That doesn't come from a casual affiliation.

For the fun of it; let's refute those numbers. How do you look at a nation in which half of the people attend church regularly and 44 to 46% attend church weekly to be in religious decline? Those numbers have been consistent for 3 decades. The rise in secular identification stopped 8 years ago after the 9/11 attacks. The article should have been written in the late nineties. The survey showed a marked increase in a fundamental view of Christianity. As for political involvement, exit polls show no evidence of a lack of will among the faithful in public policy. In fact one political party wouldn't even be a major party without the votes of the faithful and the other had to pretend to have found faith.

Other surveys bear out my contention from Gallup to Rasmussen to Pew. We even had one published in our own News Journal. As found in previous years 92% of Americans believe in God. What is even more interesting to me is that half of self proclaimed agnostics and a fifth of atheists believe in a God as well. What has changed is that more and more people are increasingly finding a belief in the supernatural, miracles 80%, demons, and angels.

Pentecostalism, which hearkens back to an Apostolic experience is not only on a rise globally, but in the U. S. as well. It is one of the reasons traditional values are becoming a profound issue. Americans who pray tend to be more conservative as defined in American terms. As a side note Christian conservatism is also the engine of the resurgent Canadian Conservative movement. PM Stephen Harper is an evangelical Christian. This is also true in Latin America, Nigeria, and other areas of the world.

While there is no question that the worldview of the faithful is under its greatest assault, the faith is meeting the challenge. Christianity is more vibrant today than it has been in a long time. All of the wishful thinking of the secular progressives in the world cannot change that fact.Thanks to Watermark Productions for the Video.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:43:00 +0000

Happy Resurrection Day! Because He lives, We shall live also.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:54:00 +0000

Yes, there are pants of panic from a new UN study which says that the global population will soar to 9 billion by 2050. I say great. That's more people we can teach the Gospel to. (I had to toss that in so a couple of liberal heads would explode.) I welcome the change. We have become more prosperous globally with fewer incidents of starvation and famine since our population has increased. Why, we have developed new technology especially in medicine and food production. Population is not a problem, it is just a challenge.

Still there is way too much poverty in the world. A billion people live on less than 2 dollars a day and may never take a shower in their life times. There is too much suffering in the world which is needless. Why is it needless? We have the ability to end run most of it.

The Korean peninsula was a place that was torn by decades of war, starvation, and poverty. Half of it had godless socailism imposed upon it. The other half was allowed to experience free markets, religious freedom, Christianity, and sensible tax policy. Which half is starving and which half is one of the wealthiest nations in the world?

I believe the great enemy of the poor is secular progressive socialism. Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on earth. Why? It has long had some of the highest marginal tax rates on earth. When you look at all of the world's poorest economies, you see that they impose some the highest tax rates at very low incomes. One African nation has the 35% rate kick in around $430 a year. Bangladesh had the 60% rate around $7000. When ever someone tries to get ahead and save so they can start a business or birth an invention, they are slammed by the government. That is why so many of the people come to America and become successful.

I believe one of the keys to solving the third world issues is a flat tax or progressive national sales tax like the Fair Tax. People would become free to save, invest, and trade without excessive restrictions. That is the only way new technology will transform their lives. It has worked for us. Then again maybe we will abandon what made us successful while they transform themselves. That would be a sad irony.

The next key is the adoption of certain values. These nations are being held back by certain customs that the Christian nations have escaped. Many of them do not have as stable of a family situation as they could. Many young men are not focused toward productive paths. They do not have women and fathers to civilize them. As a result those nations often end up in civil wars and unrest. The AIDS and other epidemics are destroying their society because monogamy is not valued. The talents of the women are under utilized by depriving them of education which puts them at an even greater disadvantage to the West. Social structures lock some in to being privileged and others into being forgotten. Culture matters. You can not have a strong society without a strong culture.

It seems the solutions to the most difficult problems of the world can begin with tax cuts and Christian Principles.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 04:37:00 +0000

Trillions for symptoms, but not one dime for root causes. Back in the early 1800's there was a saying "millions for defense but not one cent for tribute". It spoke of America's determination to stand strong in the face of terror and extortion. Unfortunately today, we are seeing that we would rather throw money at the economic problems we are facing than address the root causes of these problems. Some of the solutions do not even cost money to implement. It was a fool hardy approach taken by the Bush administration and it seems like the Obama administration is willing to continue it. I guess it is more of the same instead of the change we need.

There are many myths about the economy including that the last stimulus bill and its payments didn't work. They did. They worked in 2002 and they worked in 2008. They helped delay the downturn by several months and should be part of a new package. The problem is that unlike 2002 this downturn was more than cyclical. It had some stubborn root causes which went unaddressed.

This writer called for us to address the housing crisis back in February 2008. It is still not done. We don't need to buy toxic assets. We need to give the banks compensation for modifying mortgages and entice them to mass modify ARM's and troubled mortgages of people who are not literally on the block. Economists estimate that federally guaranteed 4% mortgages done this way would cost us 300 billion dollars. Yet it would save the average family several hundreds of dollars a month for as long as they keep that mortgage. That would do more than any one time check. Let's do it. We could use the second half of the TARP or use it in the stimulus bill. We should also extend the temporary credit to first time homebuyers. It would cost 20 billion but as an interest free loan paid back over 15 years it would really cost us nothing but the interest we pay.

We should give aid to the states so they don't raise taxes and layoff workers which would worsen the economy. I would say pick up 95% of Medicaid for two years and give block grants for "shovel ready projects". We should also pick up unemployment, federally mandated student testing, at 100% for two years federally.

Energy policy should be in the stimulus because it will help create a long term recovery. It is also a national emergency.

Cut the corporate tax rate and give accelerated depreciation to small and medium size businesses. Give a $1000 a person rebate this summer and cut the payroll tax for two years in half so businesses are rewarded for each person they keep and people have more money every week.

Taken together these steps would save and create millions of jobs without socializing and regulating the economy beyond recognition.

Tell me, would that type of policy work better than putting down new sod, giving out contraceptives, and funding starving artists?

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:28:00 +0000

America is the greatest nation in two thousand years. No one nation has advanced the cause of human dignity more in that time. It is the place where human rights such as life, liberty, and universal right to own property emerged as central governing principles. It has served as a beacon to the world. Unfortunately, there have been times where we have allowed some portion of our government to undermine our core principles. One such time was the Roe v. Wade ruling.

It is bad enough that Roe pretended not to know what is self obvious in science, logic, and religion, that life begins at conception. The ruling pretended not to know when life began at all. The ruling violated legal reasoning, precedent, constitutional restraints on the federal government, the 5th and 14th amendments, and the laws of all 50 states. Even the 5 states which disgracefully declared they would close their ears to the cries of the most vulnerable of citizens, did not go as far as the runaway Burger Court.

Since Roe became case law, new technology has put a virtual window on the womb. We can see in real time and in living color the children we denied. It is time for us to come to grips with the fact that we have created an environment of callous disregard for the weakest of humans. Even worse we have opened the floodgates for human cloning and genetic engineering. We have a federal government which denies sick people marijuana to get well, but allow others fatal prescriptions to be offed in the renewed Eugenetics movement.

I disagree with the Obama Administration. There is not a specter of man made global warming hanging over America. There is the specter of abortion haunting what is left of the soul of America. There is a culture of death which is robbing us of our heritage of human dignity. There is a lawless judiciary, which is undermining the Federal Constitutional Process and amassing dangerous power unto itself. It took the greatest of global wars by launched by mad men to equal what our court accomplished January 22, 1973.

Any administration which supports the slaughter of 48 million innocents, is unworthy of the executive office. It is refusing to faithfully execute the Constitution of the United States for over a million citizens a year. Thankfully, under Republican rule, the number of abortions dropped from a high of 1.6 million to a little over a million. Unfortunately, this administration seems hell bent on reversing what little good has been done not only domestically, but globally. President Obama said he would support unconstitutional federal legislation, which would overturn the few protections the states have been allowed to establish for women such as informed consent and parental involvement laws. It seems that the administration will bend over backwards to give new rights to terrorists caught on the battlefields yet rush to spit on the graves of the unborn.

All responsible Americans must raise their voices at this crucial time. No issue defines us more as a people. No issue is more important to our national culture.

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 21:44:00 +0000

I believe that local government is a vital but often overlooked factor in our daily lives. It will be even more important in the troubled times we now face. I don't believe our county government is serving our needs today. It has failed us in managing our money, emergency/disaster management, providing a positive business environment, and even failed in following its own procedures.

Unemployment has soared even faster than the national average, up by a third. We have lost 40% of our manufacturing jobs over the last decade. The banks are suffering, yet we have slashed the economic development outlays from $1.6 million to $73,000 in the last two years since Mr. Angel and company have taken over Levy Court.

I propose an entire agenda laid out on my websites, which include tax credits to new and expanding businesses. I want to use the unique position of the county to allow local businesses to access federal grants to help them with exports and other activities (businesses cannot apply directly—a local government has to participate). I want us to coordinate with existing business development programs better so people will have a one stop information resource. I would like to follow also some of the recommendations of the study we paid to get.

Now is not the time for tax reassessment. It would slam our seniors when they can least afford it. Everything else is going up. Can't Kent County look out for us? I also oppose a property tax increase. My opponent has a record of raising taxes 43% while on the Capitol school board and stated at a Levy Court budget hearing that we may need to raise taxes.

I believe we need to manage our money better. We need to partner with the municipalities throughout the county to expand libraries accessible to all citizens of the county. We don't need to go it alone. It makes no sense to duplicate the expenditures when we can be partners. The same is true of parks. I was glad to be part of helping save taxpayers 10 million dollars by opposing the original 13 million dollar Schutte Park facility. I was a vocal advocate of a metal building which fit in the budget. As part of the parks and recreation committee, I participated in the change. I see the same spendthrift instincts with the county. It is seen in the spending of 12,500 on trips by Mr. Angel to Hawaii and elsewhere when everyone else did it for a fraction of the cost. We need to reform our thinking.

Disaster response is a disaster. We remember the Rico spill debacle, and the poor flood responses. The untold story is that Mr. Angel approved County Emergency Management Agency goals which said that It would strife to notify us 90% of the time and respond 80% of the time. I think 100% is the only goal when it comes to my family's safety.

Please allow me to make Levy Court work for you.

Go to my new website http://www.andersonforlevycourt.com

noreply@blogger.com (David) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 14:44:00 +0000

Noontime, September 11th 7 years ago, found almost all of us praying. There is a movement to pray in all 50 State Capitols and D. C. called Cry Out America. The gathering for Delaware is on the Green. Those so inclined are hereby invited.