A Mind ArousedFurther cultivating a life that requires my presence... Paying attention... Attempting to wed simplicity and clarity with chaos while resisting the mischief of the powers and principalities.Quote of the Day- April 30, 2008 "The Bible says that Herod is a fox, but we don't think that means he had pointy ears and a bushy tail. It also mentions that Jesus is a door -which does not mean that he is flat, wooden and swings on hinges."From an essay, Postmodern Challenges to the Bible by Amy Orr-Ewing, in the book Beyond Opinion, edited by Ravi Zacharias.http:rpc.technorati.comrpcpinghttp://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/quote-of-day_30.html The Peter Pan Organization- April 30, 2008 I have no idea if this is right but The Peace Corps gets some criticism in a recent foreign Policy article. Don Surber has questions:Question: Has the Peace Corp worked Answer: After 47 years, no. Indeed, if the Peace Corps were as successful at development as its literature and many volunteers and staff members attest, one would expect other organizations and scholars to cite it as a model. Yet pick up any of the recently popular books on development by Paul Collier, William Easterly, or...http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/peter-pan-organization.html A Balanced Budget - The Fiscal Reality- April 26, 2008 From economist Arnold Kling:Message to Republicans: if you cut spending on "worthy causes" to zero, you still would not balance the budget. You will have to raise personal income taxes. Message to Democrats: if you increased personal income tax receipts by 25 percent (a ginormous tax increase), you still would not balance the budget. You will have to cut back on "worthy causes." Message to the AARP: if Social Security and Medicare continue to be "untouchable," then y'all had better buy guns,..http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/balanced-budget-fiscal-reality.html One reason poverty in the U. S. will never be eradicated- April 24, 2008 We're growing a nation of dummies - See Bob Herbert's New York Times' column on the state of our educational system:An American kid drops out of high school every 26 seconds. Thats more than a million every year, a sign of big trouble for these largely clueless youngsters in an era in which a college education is crucial to maintaining a middle-class quality of life and for the country as a whole in a world that is becoming more hotly competitive every day.Ignorance in the United States is not.http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/one-reason-poverty-in-u-s-will-never-be.html Another example of the right hand attempting to correct problems created by the left hand (at no cost to oneself)- April 24, 2008 See Don Surber's article, To fix health care, first fix Medicaid:... let us look at health care, where both Democratic candidates are promising to give it to everyone while reducing the price. Apparently they believe the president can veto the law of supply and demand....saving money" by politicians is a good reason why St. Francis Hospital in Joliet, Ill., may close... The Chicago Sun-Times reported: "Half of its emergency room patients and one of every four patients admitted to the...http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-example-of-right-hand.html Another Bailout- April 24, 2008 Here is a perfect example of the right hand attempting to correct problems created by the left hand (at no cost to oneself) - the bailout of the year:We're referring to the "student loan crisis" now appearing in a media outlet near you...What's now clear is that Congress didn't merely wring the profits out of student lending. It's blown up the entire student loan market. Market leader Sallie Mae says it now loses money on every new federal education loan. Sallie continues to lend in hopes of a..http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/another-bailout.html Guns- April 21, 2008 Dr. Helen asks, are gun owners really trigger happyAnswer No, although gun control advocates think they are; she says:I think the point about gun owners being less outraged than non gun owners is an important one. If you listen to many people who are adamant gun control supporters, they often (mistakenly) believe that people simply shoot others because they are impulsive and angry, and a gun is nearby. My guess is that this is projection. This is what they feel they would do because they do not.http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/guns.html Quote of the Day- April 21, 2008 "It is not for judges to decide, based on some personal revelation, when societal norms flower into constitutional imperatives."The subject of that particular sentence involved a Wall Street Journal editorial regarding Justice John Paul Stevens' opinion - he agreed with the majority - on a recent ruling about the death penalty. Clearly, the author of that line sees it much broader than this one case; he or she is pointing out the occasional (or is it frequent) lack of "deference to the people...http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/quote-of-day_20.html Sin- April 19, 2008 While lurking at The Anchoress site, looking for her opinion on the Pope's visit, I found this old post from 2006 called, a great definition of sin. Read her entire post to get the context but I loved this little conversation excerpted from Carpe Jugulum:Theres no grays, only white thats got grubby. Im surprised you dont know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. Thats what sin is. Its a lot more complicated than that No. It aint. When people...http://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/sin.html Tax Law- April 18, 2008 Via Carp Diem - "From Don't Mess With Taxes: Above is a graphic showing the number of pages in the tax code from its inception in 1913, when the code contained 400 pages. That number held pretty steady until 1945, when it ballooned to 8,200 pages. The code hit 14,000 pages by 1954 and there was no stopping it. So far this year, we're up to 67,506 pages of tax law."Well, it makes the lawyers happy.http:rpc.technorati.comrpcpinghttp://jrament.blogspot.com/2008/04/tax-law.html |