Even God wants to Shake Up Washington

Apparently even God wants to shake things up in Washington.

Perhaps the earthquake in DC this week should serve as a wake up call, sort of like the one we had at our house last night—no, it wasn’t an earthquake, even though we live in California—our smoke alarm randomly went off, not once, but twice while we were sleeping. That’s enough to get anyone’s heart pumping and throw you into a panic.

I’m guessing most of us are already in panic mode over all that’s happening in Washington, and I don’t mean the earthquake. A few people seem unshaken, though. President Obama appears pretty relaxed—he was playing golf in Martha’s Vineyard at the time of the quake and didn’t really notice it. I’m not sure he’s really noticing much of what’s going on in our nation right now. I know he has long hours and, maybe he’s half-asleep. If an earthquake can’t do it, perhaps a good smoke alarm could wake him up.

Return to Virtue

An Old Testament proverb tells us, “Where there is no vision, the people perish” (Proverbs 29:18).

We see an epidemic of blindness throughout many parts of the world where governments have completely disintegrated and others are in upheaval, unsure of what their future holds. People have lost sight of freedom and hope.

Could it be what Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron calls a “slow-motion moral collapse” that causes societal melt down? In speaking of the recent riots in London, Cameron listed several contributing factors: "Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort. Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control."

Perhaps we have endured, pitied, and now embrace the vice that surrounds us, as Alexander Pope wrote nearly 300 years ago. Moral decay is not a modern problem. And it has a timeless solution—a return to virtue.

The word virtue come from the Latin root virtus meaning “strength.” If we are to remain a strong nation, we must be a virtuous nation. Religious leader, Thomas S. Monson described virtue as “a pattern of thought and behavior based on high moral standards.”

Virtue needs to lead the way on the path back to strength. We must issue a call for virtue. However, you can’t be a leader calling for moral strength and a return to virtue without being moral and virtuous yourself.

Mitt Romney is this kind of leader. We need his vision. Not only is he intelligent and experienced, he has high standards of morality and virtue. This strength is what America needs. This return to virtue will lead to a return to greatness.

Fall of an Empire

So, this is my first guest blogger, my 14 year-old son! He is a HUGE history buff. We talk a lot about politics, especially from an historic viewpoint. He wrote this interesting piece this morning for me. Enjoy!

Rampaging mobs roam the streets, burning and looting at will. The government is powerless to stop them. They have enough troubles on their hands fighting foreign wars and trying, uselessly, to put back together an economy shattered by war and government projects. Currency is loosing it’s value. Rome is at the end of its millennia long reign.

The similarities between the fall of Rome and our own growing problems today are frighteningly similar. Let’s hope our fates are not similar, too. Rome did not collapse overnight. For some time the “Mother of the World” had been slowly decaying. But then in A.D. 476, Rome met an explosive, fiery end.

At it’s height in A.D. 117 the Roman Empire stretched from Portugal in the West to The Persian Gulf in the East, from England in the north down to Egypt in the south. Nothing was more feared than the countless legions of grim, disciplined soldiers marching across the face of the known world. There was no nation as rich or well-educated on the planet. What could cause this immense superpower to fall so violently as to alter the course of history?

Money was diverted from the military to other government programs. Rome’s once massive military was cut to become essentially a peace-keeping force. The government leaders also were constantly fighting amongst themselves. Their economy was falling apart in front of them. The final blow came when the impossible occurred—barbarian invasion. They not only destroyed half of what was left of the Roman military, but they burned Rome to the ground. With no more central power the empire broke up into countless warring kingdoms. Could this happen today? It looks like we’re well on our way.

We need a leader who can get us out of this dire situation we’re in. Again we can look at Rome for an example. Julius Caesar had many qualities of an excellent leader. He was a people person. The people liked him and they knew him. He wasn’t just “what’s his name who lives in that big house up the road.” He did what he said he would do, or at least did absolutely everything in his power to try. Lastly, and possibly most importantly, he wasn’t afraid. Julius Caesar feared nothing. He didn’t fear the enemy, he didn’t fear the government, and he didn’t fear the people. Because of this he wasn’t afraid to do what was right, even if it wasn’t popular. We need someone like that. We need another Julius Caesar.

(Note: Not necessarily saying we need the same government as Caesar, but just a leader with the same leadership qualities)

Mitt Romney is so WEIRD!

When my kids go do something fun, or get a new gift, or see a movie they like, they usually describe it with one of the following adjectives:

Awesome!

Cool!

Beast!

Sick!

Epic!

And the list goes on.

I love words, and I love to see how their meanings evolve. Throughout the last few decades a handsome boy or a nice pair of tennis shoes may both have been referred to as cool, groovy, bad, wicked, gnarly, radical, or maybe dope.

Now, if my daughter wanted to date someone who truly was bad or wicked or even radical, I would not want that. If a pair of shoes were truly cool or gnarly I wouldn’t want that either, especially in winter.

But, of course, words often have more than one meaning, especially when adopted by teen-agers. So, maybe that is what is happening with the Obama campaign’s alleged plan to portray Mitt Romney as “weird.”

Let’s take a look at a few of the “weird” aspects of Romney’s life:

He has been married to the same wife for over 40 years—weird.

He has five boys—weird.

He doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee—weird.

He doesn’t smoke or do drugs—weird.

He goes to church on Sundays—weird.

He is highly educated (JD/MBA from Harvard)—weird.

He does yard work—weird.

He has devoted years of volunteer time to his church—weird.

He donates over 10% of his income to church and other charities--weird.

He has great hair—weird.

He wants to be President—weird (well, maybe).

I think you get the idea.

Here’s my prediction: by the end of next year you will be hearing your kids use the word “weird” in place of “awesome” or “cool,” as in, “Did you see Harry Potter? It was so WEIRD!” or “That last minute winning score was WEIRD!” or maybe “Wow, the cute new kid is amazingly WEIRD!” And, of course, “That new President Romney is totally WEIRD!”

Maybe Obama's person in charge of this whole "weird" attack actually is a plant from the Romney campaign--you know, some Republican teen-ager on the cutting edge of language. Wouldn't that be weird?

Move over crop circles and two-headed snakes--there's a new "weird" in town, and his name is Romney.

Have a really weird day!

As for Me and My House

On our way home from church yesterday we were talking with our children about what makes a good leader.

“Jesus is a good leader,” our 8-year-old said.

“Well, that’s true, but what qualities make Him good and would make someone else a good leader?” I asked.

Then came the list (here are a few of the suggestions):

Kind

Smart

Brave

Experienced

Being willing to do what’s right even if it isn’t popular

Wow. From the mouth of babes. So, if you aren’t sure who to vote for to prepare the road for our children’s America, just ask the children. As for me and my house, we’re going with Romney.

Perry the What?

So wait, what is Rick Perry running for? President of the United States? Or President of Texas?

Maybe Perry's friend, Ted Nugent, can help us figure it out. What do you think, Ted?

(Here's Ted at Rick's gubernatorial inaugural gala. Hmmm.... a little bit wierd--and not in the Mitt Romney sense.)

Some say Perry was kidding when he has suggested Texas secceedes. Maybe so.

Full Disclosure: My husband is a Texan, and I love him!

(I wonder if Perry's related?)

Kick the Can

When I was a kid one of our favorite games to play was “kick-the-can.” When evening came we would gather all the neighborhood kids, choose a seeker, then the rest of us would go hide somewhere in the back yards. If you got found you’d go to the holding spot and stay there until someone was sly and brave enough to sneak over when the seeker wasn’t looking, and kick the can. Its clanging noise signaled that all the captives were free to run off and hide again. We’d play this for hours, either until we decided to go TP someone’s house or until someone’s mom started calling everyone in.

I guess some things never change. I don’t think many of us are out tossing toilet paper rolls across the neighbor’s tree tops (although we may be caught driving a get-away car), but kick-the-can is as popular as ever. Only it’s become “kick-the-can-down-the-road.” The game now consists of taking some small actions in deficit decisions, then requiring someone else to make the bigger decisions later on, like when an election isn’t happening, and a presidency isn’t at stake. The only problem is that no one’s mom is calling everyone to quit the game—it just keeps going on and on. And, frankly, it isn’t fun any more.

Lawmakers have cut the 2012 budget by $21 billion. It sounds like a lot. Until you compare it to the total expenditures of $3.7 trillion. That’s a very tiny drop in a very big bucket. Someone else will have to make bigger cuts—down the road.

And I think we have every reason to expect interest rates to go up, especially after our own credit downgrade recently. If lenders ask for even just a 1% increase in interest rates to lend us money, the budget deficit will rise by $1.3 trillion over ten years. That looks like $1,300,000,000,000. And that would wipe out all of the 10 years of cuts proposed in the debt deal.

It’s sort of like the digging going on in the fields behind our house this summer. Huge earth movers and dump trucks have been working each day at tearing down a big hill. A giant digger shovels up big loads of dirt, and the trucks take them away to dump somewhere else. They nearly had the hill leveled. Until they started bringing in different dirt. The dump trucks now haul a new, different kind of dirt back to the hill site and unload it, building it back up. So, although it’s different, the hill is still there.

We need leaders who will dig away the hill and not keep replacing the dirt. Our country needs leaders who will step up and call everyone in from hiding. Play time’s over. Kick-the-can must end before we kick the bucket.