Post Category → Education

Question & Thought for July 7th, 2016!

Question & Thought for July 7th, 2016!
Good Thursday Morning!!!
1. Question – Just whose ‘watch’ is it?
2. Thought – So whose “watch” is it? Who stands on deck abroad this world-ship, assuming responsibility for the actions that occur during the shift? To us, the answer is clear: the responsibility of the “watch” lies with those who take it up. Neither of us is a president, world leader, general, or captain of a gunboat, but we wish to take up the “watch,” and we know that there are thousands, maybe millions, like us who desire to tell their children and grand children that at a time when there was a terrible thing called genocide, to which those in power turned a deaf ear and blind eye, people like us spoke so loudly, in numbers so great, that we could not be ignored. (NOT ON OUR WATCH, The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast)
“Just as surely as we know that hate-mongering individuals will strike out against the innocent in the future, we must also know that you will be there to sound the alarm, to hold your leaders accountable for their sins of omission, to move us away from slogans to concrete measures to save lives. (Senators Barrack Obama and Sam Brownback)
AND:

” [They] pray for their fellow men one day a week, and on them the other six.”Quakers on New Englanders
​” Certainly no power over religious discipline has been delegated to the general government, It must thus rest with the states as far as it can be in any human authority.”Thomas Jefferson
“What is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” George Mason
“The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch​ of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the Legislature.”Thomas Jefferson
“Nobody was ever more justly hanged.”Nathaniel Hawthorne on John Brown
“If one of the states chose to withdraw its name from the contract, it would be difficult to disprove its right to do so.” Alexis de Tocqueville
“If I thought this war was about slavery, I would resign my commission and offer my sword to the other side.”Ulysses S. Grant
“The federal government is unfit to exorcise minor police and local government, and it will inevitably blunder when it attempts it….”Henry Ward Beecher
“The man who dies thus rich dies disgraced.”Andrew Carnegie
“It takes extraordinary skill to hold more than 50 percent of a large industry’s market in a free economy…The rare company which is able to retain its share of the market year after year and decade after decade does so by means of productive efficiency – and deserves praise, not condemnation.”Alan Greenspan
“The blockade is meant to ‘starve the whole population – men, women, and children, old and young, wounded and sound – into submission.'”Winston Churchill
“Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”Calvin Coolidge
“Listen honey, if it wasn’t for me, your boyfriend wouldn’t even be in the White House.”Mafia godfather Sam Giancana to Judith Campbell
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”Ronald Reagan

​ – the 9 most terrifying words in the English language.​
“Because its not their money.”Bill Clinton
“The era of big government is over.”Bill Clinton
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for July 6th, 2016!!!

Question & Thought for July 6th, 2016!!!
Good Wednesday Morning! [I just gotta wonder how peace and human right activists as well as these authors will vote in the upcoming election. Sometimes – Insanity comes to mind as I see history repeat.]
1. Question – Why didn’t Bill Clinton act during his term as president on the situation in Darfur?
2. Thought – Many of us peace and human rights advocates are rightly reluctant about the use of force. We need to get over it. There is such a thing as evil in the world, and sometimes the only way to confront evil is through the judicious use of military force. As long as the use of force is accountable, multilateral, and focused on stopping the suffering of victims, then we advocates of peace and justice need to be prepared to support the legitimate and discriminate use of force.
Let’s say a normal temperature for any foreign policy issue would be ninety-eight degrees. On Darfur, activists managed to turn the heat up to one hundred degrees, and lots happened, but not enough to immediately stop the genocide. Our goal has to be to develop a committed constituency of American citizens in each congressional district who are willing to dedicate a small portion of their free time to turning the temperature up to 102 degrees, to where the politicians will be unable to ignore their responsibility to protect human life, and the president will be unable to shirk his responsibility to lead the efforts to prevent or confront mass atrocities wherever they are being committed. (NOT ON OUR WATCH, The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond by Don Cheadle and John Prendergast)
“I am a Jew who remembers when my people in German-occupied Europe were condemned to isolation, hunger, humiliation, unspeakable terror, and death. until almost the end of the war, nobody came to our rescue.
​I am member of the human family who remembers that 800,000 human beings were massacred in Rwanda in 1994. They could of been saved, but nobody came to their rescue.” (Elie Wiesel) ​
AND:

Trump: Who’s paying for Obama’s political trips?

By

07/05/16 07:41 AM EDT

Donald Trump on Tuesday ratcheted up his criticism of President Barack Obama’s travel aboard Air Force One to help Hillary Clinton, ripping into the president for his campaign trip to North Carolina at taxpayers’ expense.

“Taxpayers are paying a fortune for the use of Air Force One on the campaign trail by President Obama and Crooked Hillary. A total disgrace!” Trump tweeted Tuesday, hours before Clinton and Obama are scheduled to fly from Joint Base Andrews to Charlotte, North Carolina, for their first joint appearance.

Clinton is scheduled to address the National Education Association’s representative assembly Tuesday morning in Washington before the afternoon event.

Trump first raised the question Monday evening, tweeting, “Why is President Obama allowed to use Air Force One on the campaign trail with Crooked Hillary? She is flying with him tomorrow. Who pays?”

As conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch has uncovered, a typical trip aboard Air Force One costs upwards of $200,000 per hour.

But under guidelines first adopted by the Reagan administration in 1982, and formalized by Congress in 2009, Clinton’s campaign — or the Democratic National Committee — would be obligated to reimburse taxpayers for at least some portion of Obama’s North Carolina trip, under a formula at the discretion of the White House.

The costs for some staff involved in such political trips, such as Secret Service agents who accompany the president wherever he goes, are always paid by the government.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/trump-obama-political-trips-225092#ixzz4DZVpbCC7

AND: Voting on judges is difficult. Two avenues to research: 1) who nominated or placed the judge on the bench will tell you what “party” placed him/her; 2) in our state, we can see data on what lawyers think of or evaluate each judge–favorable or unfavorable. It’s not much, but it’s a starting point.

But you are correct. With activist judges on the bench, the voter now needs to vet each nominee or incumbent….very difficult to do.
 

Questions and Thought for June 26th, 2016!!!

Questions and Thought for June 26th, 2016!!!
Good Sunday Morning as June closes this week!!!
1. Question – Have you asked yourself, ‘How’s my hope glass?’ Full, Dwindling? Empty? Is my future bright with hope? Do you pray without faith?’
2. Thought – from Streams in the Desert, daily devotion for June 26th, by L. B. Cowman.
I suspect that the source of every bit of sorrow in my life can be traced to simple unbelief. If I truly believe the past is totally forgiven, the present is supplied with power, and the future is bright with hope, how could I be anything but completely happy?
Yes, the future is bright, because of God’s faithfulness. His abiding truth does not change with my mood, and He never waivers when I stumble and fall over a promise of His through my unbelief. His faithfulness stands firm and as prominent as mountain peaks of pearl splitting the clouds of eternity. And each base of His hills is rooted in an unfathomable depth on the rock of God.
Mont Blanc does not disappear, become a passing vision or a whimsical mist, simply because a climber grows dizzy on its slopes.
Is it any wonder that we do not receive God’s blessing after stumbling over His promise through unbelief? I’m not saying that faith merits an answer or that we can work to earn it. But God Himself has made believing a condition of receiving, and the Giver has a sovereign right to choose His own terms for His gifts.
Unbelief continually asks, ” How can this be possible?” It is always full of ‘how’s,” yet faith needs only one great answer to even ten thousand “how’s.” That answer is – GOD!
No one accomplishes so much in so little time as when he or she is praying. And the following thought certainly aligns well with all that the Lord Jesus Christ taught on prayer: If only ONE BELIEVER WITH TOTAL FAITH rises up, the history of the world will be changed.
​Will YOU be that one that rises up, submitting yourself to the sovereignty​ and guidance of God our Father?
Prayer without faith quickly degenerates into an aimless routine or heartless hypocrisy. However, prayer with faith brings the omnipotence of God to the support of our petitions. It is better not to pray until your entire being responds to, and understands, the power of prayer. When genuine prayer is even whispered, earth and heaven, and the past and future, say, “Amen!”
This is the kind of prayer Christ prayed. (P.C.M. & A.E. McAdam & James Smetham & Samuel Hart)
“What if some did not have faith? Will their lack of faith nullify God’s faithfulness?” (Romans 3:5)
“Nothing lies beyond the reach of prayer except those things outside the will of God.”
While walking and exercising the other day I was pondering hope. Lewis has a great chapter on hope in Mere Christianity. The question that kept coming back at me was this: ‘Do you think God would of sent His Son here to save us if we didn’t have hope?’   ‘How’s my hope glass?’
Have a great close of June!
 
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.

Question & Thought for June 23rd, 2016!!!

Question & Thought for June 23rd, 2016!!!
Good Thursday Morning!
1. Question – Would the best world to the environmentalists be one in which humans make the least impact?
2. Thought – With responsibility comes blessing. Mankind is permitted and encouraged to use the earth’s resources for God-honoring dominion. This biblical view stands at odd with much of modern environmentalism, which is motivated by a concern to protect the natural environment, especially from harmful human activity. A Christian desires to protect the creation, but contemporary environmentalists often suggest that mankind is an unnatural and dangerous blight on the earth. The best world in their minds is one in which humans make the least impact. This is not a biblical view. God designed the world for mankind, and He designed its resources for man’s good and man’s progress. The emergence of human civilizations that make use of the earth’s resources is a good thing. (Cultural Geography by Dennis Bollinger)
“The enemy is not only ‘us’ but virtually all human activities…What is called for, then, is a strategy for transforming society so that the present rapid acceleration of extinction becomes a deceleration. The transformation must be universal because it is the everyday activities of human beings that most threaten other organisms…Halting the growth of the human population as rapidly as is humanly possible and starting a gradual decline to a permanently sustainable level are obviously essential if the populations of most other organisms are to have a chance of persisting.” (Extinction: The Causes and Consequences of the Disappearance of Species, by Paul and Anne Erlich)
rem – I had no knowledge that I had no knowledge.
Question & Thought & ANDs.