I'm a Christian, I'm a Mormon

In light of recent news items where people who don't know anything about my faith are telling me what I believe, I would like to clarify my belief in and love for Jesus Christ.

I am a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I believe in Jesus Christ; He is my Lord and my Saviour.  He is the Only Begotten Son of God, who is the Heavenly Father of us all.

At times I call myself a 'Mormon', which is a nickname given me by those not of my faith.  I am a Christian.  I follow the teachings of the same Jesus Christ those who call me 'Mormon' do.

I revere but do not worship the prophet Mormon; the same is true for other Christian prophets such as Peter, James and John of the New Testament; Adam, Moses, Abraham, Isaiah of the Old Testament; Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and the current prophet and mouthpiece of the Lord: Thomas S. Monson.

For more information on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, please visit www.mormon.org or www.lds.org.  The more information you have, the better you are able to make your own decision instead of relying on the words of those who know little about my faith.

Fosyth County Health Care Benefits

Forsyth County, GA residents:

what are you doing at 6pm today?

Here's one to get the blood pressure up on a beautiful autumn morning:  Today at 6pm the Forsyth County Commission is going to vote on health care benefits for ex-employees.  Big deal, you say?  Then don't worry about reading any further, don't concern yourself with how much it's going to cost you (the taxpayer) and certainly don't wonder why government workers should get a free ride when the rest of us have to pay.

According to the Forsyth News, today's the day for the vote on health care benefits for officials.  Keep in mind that we are talking about "Elected officials [including] the commissioners, sheriff, clerk of court, tax commissioner, coroner, solicitor general, probate judge, chief magistrate and two state court judges."

If this vote passes, these employees will, once they are out of office, receive coverage for a year or more, depending on how long they were in office.  Well, okay... I can cope with that, maybe.  But that's not where it ends.  They would then be eligible for coverage until they turn 65, which is when Medicare kicks in.

Now, it's one thing to cover some guy who's in his late 50s to early 60s until he reaches retirement age.  But what about, let's say, a 28 year old sheriff who serves one year?  Are we really expected to foot the bill for his medical coverage for the next 37 years?

When someone in the private sector finds him-or-herself out of work, we have to buy coverage through COBRA, at prices which could be seen as akin to extracting a pound of flesh.  And in the majority of cases, after 18 months you're on your own.  But not these folks - apparently they feel we should keep on paying their bills, even after they've been voted out.

Think about it - what's the difference between being fired from the private sector and voted out of a public sector position?  As far as I can see, it's the amount of people who say "You're outta here!"  George Orwell hit the nail on the head when he wrote: "All animals are equal.  But some animals are more equal than others." 

So again I ask Forsyth County, GA residents - what are you doing at 6pm today? Hopefully I'll see you at the Board of Commissioners meeting.

General Conference October 2011

It's General Conference time again!   A semi-annual event in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, when for two days we receive spiritual and temporal counsel from the prophet, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and other leaders of the Church.

Here are some of the things that stood out for me during the first two Saturday sessions:

• We are entitled to personal revelation (i.e. guidance for ourselves as individuals), but we need to desire to receive it.  Don't harden your heart and refuse to believe that the Lord wants you to learn about who He is, who you are and who you can become with His help.  Ask with the faith that He will respond and seek Him diligently.
• Helping others does not require costly or time consuming programmes.  Just do the right thing at the right time - without delay.  The Lord expects our thoughts, action, labour and testimony.
• Be careful about how you use your time.  The poor use of time is a close cousin to idleness.  Let us be as quick to kneel [in prayer] as to text.  Don't become a slave to things that rob your precious time.
• Most of what we worry about is not of eternal consequence.  And if it is, the Lord will help us handle it.

Boyd K. Packer spoke to the youth and recognising that they may wonder how someone of his age might have words of use for them, he quoted the following poem:

~~~
About Crows (by John Ciardi)

The old crow is getting slow;
the young crow is not.
Of what the young crow does not know,
the old crow knows a lot.

At knowing thins, the old crow is still
the young crow's master.
What does the old crow not know?
How to go faster.

The young crow flies above, below and rings
around the slow old crow.
What does the fast young crow not know?
WHERE TO GO.
~~~

How can you not like a poem like that?!!

Insurance Scam

This caught my eye today on a medical insurance company's website:

Have a look at the Exclusions.  In case you can't read it, here's what it says:

'Exclusions: Any Pre-existing Condition, AIDS, HIV, Suicide, Under the influence of drugs or alcohol and more'

I'm not sure which part amuses me most - the 'and more', which could extend to pretty much anything they felt like, or the 'Suicide'.

C'mon, really - suicide?  'Cause, you know, I'd want to make sure I collect insurance after I'd topped myself...

Easy to Rationalise

I don't know where this originated but my brother emailed it to me.  Makes perfect sense in my book.

History in the Making

An email came in from my cousin this morning; well worthy of sharing...

Little Hodiaki

The teacher said, "Let's begin by reviewing some American history.   Who said 'Give me Liberty , or give me Death'?"

She saw a sea of blank faces, except for Little Hodiaki  a bright foreign exchange student from Japan, who had his hand up:  "Patrick Henry, 1775", he said.

 "Very good!  Who said, 'Government of the People, by the People, for the People, shall not perish from the Earth’?”

Again, no response except from Little Hodiaki, “Abraham Lincoln, 1863.”

“Excellent!”, said the teacher, continuing “let's try one a bit more difficult...  Who said, 'Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country’?”

Once again, Hodiaki's was the only hand in the air and he said: “John F. Kennedy, 1961.”

The teacher snapped at the class,  “Class, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Little Hodiaki isn't from this country and he knows more about our history than you do.'

She heard a loud whisper:  “[Screw] the Japs.”

“Who said that? I want to know right now!” she angrily demanded.

Little Hodiaki put his hand up, “General MacArthur, 1945.”

At that point, a student in the back said, “I'm gonna puke.”

The teacher glared around and asked,  “All right! Now who said that?”

Again, Little Hodiaki said, “George Bush to the Japanese Prime Minister, 1991.”

Now furious, another student yelled, “Oh yeah? Suck this!”

Little Hodiaki jumped out of his chair waving his hand and shouted to the teacher, “Bill Clinton, to Monica Lewinsky, 1997!”

Now with almost mob hysteria someone said, “You little [brat]!  If you say anything else, I'll kill you!”

Little Hodiaki frantically yelled at the top of his voice, “Michael Jackson to the child witness testifying against him, 2004.”  The teacher fainted.

As the class gathered around the teacher on the floor, someone said, “Oh [heck], we're screwed!”

Little Hodiaki said quietly, “The Australian Rugby Team, 2011...”

Quit Wasting My Money!

One of the many things Mum taught me was to save up for things I wanted to buy.  It's served me well and likely has something to do with a credit rating of 800+.  Now, I'm not a top mathematician by any stretch of the imagination, but it seems to me that the cash inflow needs to be greater than the outflow if you're going to survive for very long.

So it kind of irks me - well no, let me put that more honestly; it ticks me off no end to see governments violating this basic principle.  Did the leaders' mamas not teach them anything?  It frustrates me badly enough that I'm finally giving in to the urge to write a post on politics.  Oh the horror. You can thank this AP article for getting my goat.

It seems to me that here in the US we have a pretty low tax rate.  And while I don't like seeing how much gets yanked out of the pay cheque, there is a need for it.  (Actually, I once heard Glenn Beck make an amusing comparison of government to Bernie Madoff, explaining that Madoff had to convince people to give him their money, whereas the government forces you.)  But the US is currently running a national debt of $14.7 trillion - that's a lot of 0s, folks.  If you really want an eye-opener, check out the US National Debt Clock.  Have a look at the top left, then the bottom left.  Social Security Liability is even greater than the National Debt.

The government clearly needs to pull more money out of the taxpayer if we're ever going to turn this around.  But it's going to take a long time to undo this damage.  Our children's children are still going to pay for the mistakes of our - and previous - generations.  But - and this is a BIG BUT - if they're going to screw things down tighter, then they also need to be responsible with what we're giving them.  Who's working for who anyhow?  The last I knew, we (in theory) put them in office so they can represent us.  There's a reason they're called civil servants or public servants.  They're supposed to serve us, not the other way around.

I don't mind paying higher taxes IF government stops spending my money recklessly.  I might as well get a pile of cash and burn it myself if they're not going to do their job properly.  At least I would get a little warmth out of it this winter.  And don't even get me started on those bogus incentive bonuses right now.  I'm going to have to save that for another post.