Happy 8th Birthday, Kobe!
A special birthday for a special boy. We love you!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Really?
The following was taken from
Chuck Muth's
Nevada
News & Views
June 29, 2010
3:52 p.m.
From the Department of You’ve Gotta Be Freaking Kidding Me:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports this afternoon that in the middle of this Great Recession – with bankruptcies and foreclosures through the roof; with unemployment higher in Nevada than anywhere else in the free world; with an Energizer Bunny state budget deficit that seems to just keep growing and growing and growing; with public schools sucking and health care costs skyrocketing – some of our lame-brained legislators, led by our Nanny-Stater-in-Chief, Sen. Mike Schneider (Democrat - Uranus), “agreed Tuesday to draw up a bill to require auto repair shops, smog stations and oil change businesses to check the air pressure in their customers' tires.”
That’s right. As Rome burns, the Subcommittee on the Production and Use of Energy is contemplating a stupid bill mandating that Nevada businesses check your stinking tire pressure!
And some people still think we ought to let these idiots meet EVERY YEAR?
3:52 p.m.
From the Department of You’ve Gotta Be Freaking Kidding Me:
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports this afternoon that in the middle of this Great Recession – with bankruptcies and foreclosures through the roof; with unemployment higher in Nevada than anywhere else in the free world; with an Energizer Bunny state budget deficit that seems to just keep growing and growing and growing; with public schools sucking and health care costs skyrocketing – some of our lame-brained legislators, led by our Nanny-Stater-in-Chief, Sen. Mike Schneider (Democrat - Uranus), “agreed Tuesday to draw up a bill to require auto repair shops, smog stations and oil change businesses to check the air pressure in their customers' tires.”
That’s right. As Rome burns, the Subcommittee on the Production and Use of Energy is contemplating a stupid bill mandating that Nevada businesses check your stinking tire pressure!
And some people still think we ought to let these idiots meet EVERY YEAR?
Monday, June 28, 2010
Ripening in Inequity
In an address to LDS youth in June 1940, J. Reuben Clark spoke of a civilization called Jaredites who had lived on the American continent about 2000 years before Christ. President Clark said:
"We are not given the step-by-step backsliding of this Jareditic civilization till it reached the social and governmental chaos the record sets out, but those steps seem wholly clear from the results. Put into modern terms, we can understand them. First, there was a forsaking of the righteous life, and the working of wickedness; then must have come the extortion and oppression of the poor by the rich; then retaliation and reprisal by the poor against the rich; then would come a cry to share the wealth which should belong to all; then the easy belief that society owed every man a living whether he worked or not; then the keeping of a great body of idlers...
"When community revenues failed to do this, as they always have failed and always will fail, a self-helping by one to the goods of his neighbor; and finally when the neighbor resisted, as resist he must, or starve with his family, then death to the neighbor and all that belonged to him. This was the decreed 'fulness of iniquity.'
"Then came the end; the Jaredites were wiped out in accordance with 'the everlasting decree of God.'"
"And now, we can behold the decrees of God, concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity." (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:9)
"We are not given the step-by-step backsliding of this Jareditic civilization till it reached the social and governmental chaos the record sets out, but those steps seem wholly clear from the results. Put into modern terms, we can understand them. First, there was a forsaking of the righteous life, and the working of wickedness; then must have come the extortion and oppression of the poor by the rich; then retaliation and reprisal by the poor against the rich; then would come a cry to share the wealth which should belong to all; then the easy belief that society owed every man a living whether he worked or not; then the keeping of a great body of idlers...
"When community revenues failed to do this, as they always have failed and always will fail, a self-helping by one to the goods of his neighbor; and finally when the neighbor resisted, as resist he must, or starve with his family, then death to the neighbor and all that belonged to him. This was the decreed 'fulness of iniquity.'
"Then came the end; the Jaredites were wiped out in accordance with 'the everlasting decree of God.'"
"And now, we can behold the decrees of God, concerning this land, that it is a land of promise; and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall serve God, or they shall be swept off when the fulness of his wrath shall come upon them. And the fulness of his wrath cometh upon them when they are ripened in iniquity." (Book of Mormon, Ether 2:9)
Friday, June 18, 2010
God Condemns Socialism
'Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men's goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands!" - D&C 56:17
'They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."
- Isaiah 65:22
What greater condemnation of Socialism could there be than from God himself?
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1831, among other things the following principles were announced:
“Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and the judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!
“Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands!”
In another revelation given in 1842, the Lord said:
“Let every man be diligent in all things. And the idler shall not have place in the church, except he repent and mend his ways.”
At another time Joseph Smith received a revelation (1831) which said:
“Now, I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness.
“These things ought not to be, and must be done away from among them.”
Brigham Young in the early days said:
“My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never of any benefit to give out and out to man or woman money, food, clothing, or anything else if they are able-bodied and can work and earn what they need when there is anything on earth for them to do. This is my principle and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers.
“To give to the idler is as wicked as anything else. Never give anything to the idler.”
'They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."
- Isaiah 65:22
What greater condemnation of Socialism could there be than from God himself?
In a revelation given to Joseph Smith in 1831, among other things the following principles were announced:
“Wo unto you rich men, that will not give your substance to the poor, for your riches will canker your souls; and this shall be your lamentation in the day of visitation, and the judgment, and of indignation: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!
“Wo unto you poor men, whose hearts are not broken, whose spirits are not contrite, and whose bellies are not satisfied, and whose hands are not stayed from laying hold upon other men’s goods, whose eyes are full of greediness, and who will not labor with your own hands!”
In another revelation given in 1842, the Lord said:
“Let every man be diligent in all things. And the idler shall not have place in the church, except he repent and mend his ways.”
At another time Joseph Smith received a revelation (1831) which said:
“Now, I, the Lord, am not well pleased with the inhabitants of Zion, for there are idlers among them; and their children are also growing up in wickedness; they also seek not earnestly the riches of eternity, but their eyes are full of greediness.
“These things ought not to be, and must be done away from among them.”
Brigham Young in the early days said:
“My experience has taught me, and it has become a principle with me, that it is never of any benefit to give out and out to man or woman money, food, clothing, or anything else if they are able-bodied and can work and earn what they need when there is anything on earth for them to do. This is my principle and I try to act upon it. To pursue a contrary course would ruin any community in the world and make them idlers.
“To give to the idler is as wicked as anything else. Never give anything to the idler.”
Friday, June 11, 2010
Christ Gave Us the Constitution
The following is an excerpt of an article by Ezra Taft Benson:
The Lord said, "I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up" (D&C 101:80). Among the opening words of his dedicatory prayer at the Washington Temple, President Kimball referred to our inspired Constitution.
The elders of this Church have a prophetic mission yet to perform so far as the Constitution is concerned. In a discourse on July 19, 1840, Joseph Smith said, "Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction" (M8d 155, Bx4, Joseph Smith, Church Historian's Library).
Now, how are the elders going to prepare for that mission? How are they going to know what the Constitution is, so they will know when it is on the brink of ruin? In many of the law schools of today you will hear that the Constitution is whatever the Supreme Court says it is. Could it be that the Supreme Court, which President McKay said is leading this nation down the road to atheism, is the agency to tell us what this divine document is (David O. McKay, Church News, 22 June 1963; Jerreld Newquist, comp., Prophets, Principles, and National Survival, pp. 187–88)? Can we learn best how to preserve it by studying what it is at the hands of some of those who are seeking to destroy it?
But President McKay had a better approach when he encouraged us to support good and conscientious candidates who are truly dedicated to the Constitution in the tradition of our founding fathers. They are the ones the Lord referred to as wise men. It is to them, the Lord, and his prophets that we should go to determine what the Constitution is. There must have been a tradition of our founding fathers, or President McKay would not have referred to it. (One of the best books on this subject was written by Clarence Carson, entitled The American Tradition, distributed by The Foundation for Economic Education at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
President J. Reuben Clark served on their board of trustees for some time. I now have the honor of so serving.) To the Lord, his prophets, and the founding fathers we must go to learn of this divine document so that our efforts will be to preserve and not to destroy the Constitution.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said in a great discourse in Nauvoo on February 7, 1844, "Were I the president of the United States . . . I would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers of freedom; I would walk in the tracks of the illustrious patriots who carried the ark of the Government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the people" (History of the Church, 6:208).
Said President George Albert Smith, "I am saying to you that to me the Constitution of the United States of America is just as much from my Heavenly Father as the Ten Commandments. When that is my feeling I am not going to go very far away from the Constitution and I am going to try to keep it where the Lord started it, and not let anti-Christ come into this country" (Conference Report, April 1948, p. 182).
And speaking of anti-Christ, I would like to tell you, if you want to get some idea of how we are flaunting the Constitution, see how the Constitution defines treason. Then observe what we are doing to build up the enemy in this totally anti-Christ conspiracy. If we continue on this tragic course of aid and trade to the enemy, then the Lord has warned us of the consequences which will follow in chapter eight of Ether in the Book of Mormon.
Thank God for the Constitution, which made it possible for the Lord to establish his church and base of operations here in the United States for these last days. And may God bless the elders of Israel so that when, as President John Taylor said, "the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States the Elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of earth and proclaiming liberty" (Journal of Discourses, 21:8).
Ezra Taft Benson was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 10 December 1974.
© Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Lord said, "I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up" (D&C 101:80). Among the opening words of his dedicatory prayer at the Washington Temple, President Kimball referred to our inspired Constitution.
The elders of this Church have a prophetic mission yet to perform so far as the Constitution is concerned. In a discourse on July 19, 1840, Joseph Smith said, "Even this nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to pieces and tumbling to the ground, and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin, this people will be the staff upon which the nation shall lean, and they shall bear the Constitution away from the very verge of destruction" (M8d 155, Bx4, Joseph Smith, Church Historian's Library).
Now, how are the elders going to prepare for that mission? How are they going to know what the Constitution is, so they will know when it is on the brink of ruin? In many of the law schools of today you will hear that the Constitution is whatever the Supreme Court says it is. Could it be that the Supreme Court, which President McKay said is leading this nation down the road to atheism, is the agency to tell us what this divine document is (David O. McKay, Church News, 22 June 1963; Jerreld Newquist, comp., Prophets, Principles, and National Survival, pp. 187–88)? Can we learn best how to preserve it by studying what it is at the hands of some of those who are seeking to destroy it?
But President McKay had a better approach when he encouraged us to support good and conscientious candidates who are truly dedicated to the Constitution in the tradition of our founding fathers. They are the ones the Lord referred to as wise men. It is to them, the Lord, and his prophets that we should go to determine what the Constitution is. There must have been a tradition of our founding fathers, or President McKay would not have referred to it. (One of the best books on this subject was written by Clarence Carson, entitled The American Tradition, distributed by The Foundation for Economic Education at Irvington-on-Hudson, New York.
President J. Reuben Clark served on their board of trustees for some time. I now have the honor of so serving.) To the Lord, his prophets, and the founding fathers we must go to learn of this divine document so that our efforts will be to preserve and not to destroy the Constitution.
The Prophet Joseph Smith said in a great discourse in Nauvoo on February 7, 1844, "Were I the president of the United States . . . I would honor the old paths of the venerated fathers of freedom; I would walk in the tracks of the illustrious patriots who carried the ark of the Government upon their shoulders with an eye single to the glory of the people" (History of the Church, 6:208).
Said President George Albert Smith, "I am saying to you that to me the Constitution of the United States of America is just as much from my Heavenly Father as the Ten Commandments. When that is my feeling I am not going to go very far away from the Constitution and I am going to try to keep it where the Lord started it, and not let anti-Christ come into this country" (Conference Report, April 1948, p. 182).
And speaking of anti-Christ, I would like to tell you, if you want to get some idea of how we are flaunting the Constitution, see how the Constitution defines treason. Then observe what we are doing to build up the enemy in this totally anti-Christ conspiracy. If we continue on this tragic course of aid and trade to the enemy, then the Lord has warned us of the consequences which will follow in chapter eight of Ether in the Book of Mormon.
Thank God for the Constitution, which made it possible for the Lord to establish his church and base of operations here in the United States for these last days. And may God bless the elders of Israel so that when, as President John Taylor said, "the people shall have torn to shreds the Constitution of the United States the Elders of Israel will be found holding it up to the nations of earth and proclaiming liberty" (Journal of Discourses, 21:8).
Ezra Taft Benson was a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ofThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when this devotional address was given at Brigham Young University on 10 December 1974.
© Intellectual Reserve, Inc. All rights reserved.
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