Bob Williams (from his Facebook page)

Bob spent the majority of his life in a wheelchair. In my time at Jesus People, I had the privilege to get to know Bob. As a single male at the community, certain of us were tasked with caring for Bob by sleeping in his room at night, bathing & dressing him in the mornings, prepping him for meals as well as getting him ready for bed in the evenings. I’ll never forget the 17 trays it took to get his food up close enough for him to use his fork to eat or the constant adjustments to his comfort in the wheelchair (“thigh to the sky” he would say) or the way Bob would have you place the computer keyboard just so when he wanted to use the word processor.

Bob was a unique man. He had wisdom from the years spent in the wheelchair, but was still curious because he wanted to know more. More of Jesus. More of life. More love. He was a gentle man. Humbled by life and yet he knew the power God gave him to overcome.

I remember going back to the community a few years ago and introducing him to my nephew. He got a chuckle out of meeting another Bob Williams. He had a sense of humor. A wry one sometimes, at that. Overall, Bob was a friend. How could you not love Bob?

Yes, Bob Williams spent much of his life confined in a wheelchair but now he is running and leaping and praising God. Run, Bob, run!

I will miss you, my old friend.

I am an avid reader of the Dialogue section (reader’s letters) although I don’t always read the articles people comment on. Such is the case with this month’s debate question:

“Should you be able to opt out of Social Security?”

To the “Yes” answer, one person’s comment is that he feels like he is giving his money away when he is forced to contribute to Social Security. Another commented that she should have full control over [his or her] own funds for the future.

The one that I’m concerned with is the response to the negative. Mr. Roger Bissett of Reno, Nevada believes that you should not be allowed to opt out because, as he puts it…

“The snake-oil salesmen are poised to come out from under rocks to feast on a vulnerable segment of Americans who can be tempted to rely on themselves and the private sector. This is the same private sector that gave us hustlers who created the derivative bundles of unregulated securities. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, but a little periodic maintenance, lubrication and fine-tuning is required.”

Imagine that. Americans who are tempted to rely on themselves and/or the private sector. I guess Mr. Bissett thinks we should rely on the government to take care of us. Cradle to grave socialism. Obamacare. Romneycare. Pelosi & Reed sucking us out of our hard-earned money to support someone else like Mr. Bissett, who wants to rely on everyone else to take care of him in his old age.

I’m sick of this mentality. Let’s get this straight – If people had their own money to invest, they would be able to make more and do better than what the government gives them. True, the whole reason Social Security began in the first place was that people during the Great Depression made no plans for their future and either wound up in the proverbial poor house or just living out their miserable existence on the streets. Socialism is not the way to fix that. Especially when you involve the government.

Let’s examine what the government takes care of and how they are doing financially:

• Medicare – Medicare’s HI Trust Fund is expected to pay out more in hospital benefits and other expenditures than it receives in income in all future years. In other words, it’s broke and needs bailed out.
• Social Security – Social Security expenditures exceeded the program’s non-interest income in 2010 for the first time since 1983. In other words, it’s broke and needs bailed out.
• Amtrak – The Company has a history of substantial operating losses and is highly dependent upon substantial Federal government subsidies to sustain its operations. In other words, it’s broke and needs bailed out.
• Dept. of Veteran’s Affairs – According to a recent VA Performance Report, the VA had a total of $74,063,000 in assets but $1, 564,361,000 in liabilities. In other words, it’s broke and needs bailed out.
• US Postal Service – The FY2012 (Q1) financial report from the USPS says that “[T]he Postal Service continues to suffer from a severe lack of liquidity caused by over $25 billion of net
  losses over the past five years including $21 billion of statutory payments for prefunding retiree health benefits.”

There are more agencies, but I don’t have the time to list them here. The point is that everything the government puts their hands to goes belly-up so why would I want to hand my hard-earned money over to them and why in the world would I trust Obamacare to manage my healthcare? An old Air Force colleague is dealing with his mother being extremely sick and Medicare not wanting to provide the proper amount of care. In his words…

It’s tough enough dealing with my mom’s decline but to watch social workers, who use a Medicare computer program to determine the level of patient care, try to kick an 84 year old woman with brain cancer out the door is nothing but cruel.

For those proponents of Obamacare who are going to argue that there isn’t going to be healthcare rationing for the elderly or infirm, you are wrong. Dead wrong.

Heaven help us if someone should want to depend on their own wits and invest in their own future.

A federal court ruled the banner is unconstitutional and must be removed. The Cranston School Committee , already facing legal fees of $173,000, decided not to pursue further action to appeal the court’s decision. Little miss atheist said she’s thrilled.

The problem with the appeals court’s decision is that they are wrong. Far be it for me to claim to be a legal scholar, but the Constitution of the United States, including the Bill of Rights, what we call the Amendments to the Constitution aren’t written for legal scholars to have sole access to. They were written for every American to understand.

For the record, here is what the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States says:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Let’s take that first clause and examine the last six words: “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” What that means, in simple, easy to understand English is that if Ms. Jessica Ahlquist, the atheist in question, doesn’t like the banner or it’s contents, she is free to remove herself to another location and/or ignore the banner because those other people in the room have a right to express their religious beliefs as well. Contrary to little miss atheist’s followers and the Anti-Christian Liberal’s Union (ACLU), freedom OF religion doesn’t mean freedom FROM religion.

It’s a sad day when the rights, views and beliefs of the majority are trampled by the vocal minority of the left, the ACLU and the liberal courts.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/16/rhode-island-public-school-committee-votes-not-to-appeal-prayer-banner-case/

Aside from the obvious part of the Urban Vineyard looking to “move” to a new building (it’s a goal, not an announcement), she was concerned that the church (our local church, not the whole Body of Christ) was going to be in a dry place. This concerned her and she asked me my take on this “vision.”

I told her that the natural reaction is to be concerned for the tree (read: our church) and how it would suffer from being uprooted, but what I saw was that the Gardener knows how to care for a tree and make it flourish wherever it is. I saw that He was being more concerned for the people in the dry, barren land and how they would be fed, so he was moving a fruit tree to their location to feed them. I am fully convinced that we should be concerned for the feeding of those in the new community and not how much we would suffer from a move.

Trust in God.

Part of the process involves sticking a CD into my computer’s optical drive. It’s been sticking when I press the button but I don’t give it that much of a thought because that’s what happens to drives when they get a couple of years on them, right?

Well, not only that, the drive doesn’t recognize my CDs. Nor does it recognize the music CD I got for Christmas, which I want to rip to the computer.

ARRRRRRGGGHHHH! Now I have to go out and buy a new CD/DVD drive. Hmmmmmm. Maybe it’s time to upgrade to a blu-ray burner.

Comments??

myworldconnect.com

These clowns claim that their site is “the world’s most powerful social network…” and that they are a “leading social entertainment destination.” PUHLEASE.

Take a look at ranking site alexa.com

Facebook: “Facebook is the second most popular site in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. Search engines refer approximately 5% of visits to it. This site has been online since 1997, and the time spent in a typical visit to Facebook is roughly 25 minutes, with 49 seconds spent on each pageview. Relative to the overall population of internet users, this site’s audience tends to be users who browse from school and home; they are also disproportionately women.”
Alexa reports that nearly 40% of internet users hit Facebook.com in a given 3 month period.

MyWorldConnect.com: “Myworldconnect.com is ranked #763,942 in the world according to the three-month Alexa traffic rankings. Search engines refer roughly 5% of visits to the site. About 57% of this site’s visitors are in the US, where it has attained a traffic rank of 247,294. Myworldconnect.com has a bounce rate of roughly 12% (i.e., 12% of visits consist of only one pageview). The time spent in a typical visit to the site is roughly four minutes, with 30 seconds spent on each pageview.”
Alexa reports that 0.00016% of internet users hit MyWorldConnect.com in a given 3 month period.

What’s even funnier – they post fake reviews on websites trying to bump their ratings up.

Just to keep myself blogging, I’m going to start blogging about my tropical fish and my three cockatiels.

How exciting is that?!?! (In case you didn’t recognize it, that was sarcasm)