Parable of the Chickens and the Fox's

Their once lived a bunch of chickens out in the far yonder who were in need of security to keep them safe and secure. So, one day the head chicken went into town and went to a contractor who dealt with security work. Mr. Chicken walked all proud into the contractor's office, and said, "We need some security guards to protect us and keep us safe. Do you have any who would be willing to protect our residence and keep us safe? We will pay them with some of the eggs we produce." The Security Contractor said to Mr. Chicken, "We do have some who would be willing to do this for you, but you will need to give up some of your liberties for us to do this." Mr. Chicken thought this was kind of odd, but a deal was worked out and a security contract signed wherein the Chickens would have security around the clock.

The security contractor happened to be friends with some in town who did security work and who did it at a reasonable price. Since he needed security guards for this new contract, he went to this group and asked if they would be willing to protect the chickens. This group, who happened to be foxes, told the Security Contractor, "Why yes we would be more than willing to protect the chickens because they live right in the same vicinity as our favorite fast food restaurant." The Security Contractor thought that to be an ideal situation so a deal was struck wherein the Foxes would guard the Chickens.

The work started and the Foxes started guarding the chickens. There were some stipulations on the agreement though; one of these was that the Chickens could never see who it was that was really guarding them.

Well some time went by, and the Chickens lives starting CHANGING for the worse. Chickens started disappearing, and the Foxes started placing heavy restrictions on the chickens’ lives. Foxes started breaking in through the supposed Fox security presence and wreaking havoc. To compensate for this, the Security team decided they needed more eggs from the chickens to continue to keep them safe. The Chickens gladly agreed and they began to pay more and more, but the only problem is that it seemed their problems only seemed to get worse. Their were more and more attacks and with each attack, the Security team would come back and tell the chickens they were going to have to give up more and more of their rights and pay more so that they would be protected. Each time the Chickens reluctantly agreed to do so and yet their problems continued to get worse and the restrictions placed on the chickens began to make less and less sense.

A year later, after the contract was signed, there were no more Chickens left at the farm. They had "mysteriously" all disappeared. The fast food restaurant frequented by the foxes however was doing very well with lots of food for all.

(By the way, we are not the foxes, we are the chickens)

Daddy's In Charge

A few weeks ago Forrest was so nice to take care of the kids while I had a girls day out at the spa with some work friends! I was able to get a massage, manicure and pedicure. Then we finished up by having dinner. Needless to say it was very refreshing to have a small break in my week and be able to treat myself to something I wouldn’t normally do. The best part was returning home to my kids who were so happy to see me. The time to recharge was even worth the hours following where I got to put my house back in order and clean up the tornado that always hits when Dad's in charge!

Trip to San Diego

After a long summer of being apart, we broke down and decided to go on vacation to San Diego. We have to thank Holley’s parents for allowing us to stay in their time share for a few days. Holley’s parents had a time share that they had reserved for a full week and found out that Holley’s dad would not be able to come down until the middle of the week. Because of this, Holley’s mom invited us to come down and spend some time with her, kiddos and all!. We lengthened our stay by getting a hotel room on Coronado Island just outside of San Diego on the Navy base for a very reasonable price.

It was so nice to be able to get away to see the beech, the ocean, and just to be on vacation as a family. We had great weather and everything went well for us. An added bonus was that my sister Heather and her son Ryan were able to come down half way through the vacation and spend some time with us. We also through in a trip to Sea World in the mix of adventure, which was definitely interesting from our days of not having any children. Holley and I used to live down in San Diego during the summers so that we could earn more money for school. It is definitely one of our favorite places to go and visit.

It was really funny to see Zackary in the ocean since it was the first time that he has ever been their. It was also cool to see Brooklyn playing in the water and making sand castles. She has been to the beach on several occasions since coming into this world, but she was always so young that I don’t think she really understood the waves etc.

We all got our customary sun burns which is almost a given after coming from virtually no sun to being on the beach all day. Fortunately with some moisturizer cream, it was all good.

We want to make it a yearly tradition, but we will see what next year will bring. I told Holley that we could go even more than once a year if we actually lived in the west rather than the pretend west of Colorado, but that’s another story. It was nice to be a beech bum, surfer bum, and tourist; A great end to the summer’s many interesting adventures.

LET’S GET BACK TO THE BASICS

If you were to choose the most important trait in a candidate, what would it be? To many it would be the look of the candidate, or in other words how well his hair dresser and make-up person made him look. Another trait is how well he is able to give a speech, in other words how well he is able to read the speech that is already given to him in advance usually by someone else. Another trait that is often spoken of is how well he portrays himself. That I would give the candidates does take some talent.

It seems to me that the most important trait we should look for in a candidate is really basic in today’s age. It is simply this, will you Mr. candidate truthfully put the best interests of America before your own and before other self interests? I have little doubt that John Doe from a tiny little town in Idaho or some other way off place could run our country far better than the leaders we have in power today even with little or no knowledge of politics.

It is easy to see why such stupid things can happen in foreign policy and in other matters of the Presidency when you take into consideration that the candidate really didn’t care about the county at all, rather how it would affect his own self interests. How many times can deals be made against the best interests of the United States and we as Americans continue to believe it was a mistake or based on bad information? Last time I checked, coincidence multiplied by a million was no longer coincidence.

It is not coincidence that we are in the situation we are in politically and economically. When we Americans will set down at a TV set and talk for hours and hours on how we thought a certain candidate lied to us on television, how well his make-up person did his make-up (Last time I checked you could put make up on a pig, but it was still just a pig), or how he said just what we wanted to hear, is it any wonder we get such bad candidates. Last time I checked, a real leader was one who was willing to say what needed to be said, not what the people wanted to hear. Unfortunately that type of candidate is too old fashioned and outdated for our country, kind of like what they say about The Constitution.

Maybe if we actually want to live in a peaceful and prosperous country, we should start looking at some of those old fashioned things that used to make this country so great. It seems to me that a people that are so concerned with the trivial to overlook the factual, deserve what they get, not individually but as a whole.

The best candidate plain and simple is the one who will be a God fearing man who will put this country and its citizens first and foremost. Until you have met those criteria, don’t go worrying about makeup, speeches, or even presentation because it does not matter, the pig still wins and we the American people suffer!

You can tell far more about a candidate by looking at his past than by looking at him in a debate on the television screen. Unless you believe in last minute conversions of politicians who have every thing to gain by changing their story when it is convenient, vote for the candidate who has remained true to his office throughout his entire career rather than the one who looks good on television. If we as Americans would simply look at these criteria, miracles could happen; Miracles we desperately need at this time in our countries history!

Plan Accordingly and Carefully

Although no one can say for certain what will come of this huge mess we are in with the economy, some things are certain. We as a nation are in a world of hurt because we have allowed our leaders to build a huge debt load that we are now unable to pay. Politically there are many forces involved, but I am not going to get into those in this blog. This blog is only to give some perspective so that we can plan accordingly.

As tough as the truth may be sometimes, it is the truth that will make us free and give us options to plan in advance before we have to react to a situation. The whole reason for prophecy from the prophets is to give us some warning so we will not be so surprised when things happen and so that if we will head their warnings we can be prepared. This is a huge blessing we have as members of the LDS faith. We also have good reminders available to the general public through the bible, but these sources can never take the place of modern day revelation through modern day Prophets.

It does not take a genius with any kind of college education to understand that if you live off of borrowed income long enough, eventually there is going to be a day of reckoning. That day has come for us as Americans. It is sad that we as Americans may not be responsible for the situation individually, but as a whole we are because we have allowed our elected officials to carry on in a very reckless manner for way too many years. Because of this, we as Americans have some very very tough days before us.

We have two choices. We can prepare now so that those times will not be so difficult, or we can keep on pretending all is well in Zion, and find out all too late that things are really not all well is Zion. Our Prophets have told us to remain optimistic and to be hopeful, but to do this we need to know the truth.

Take this quote for what it is worth, but I would recommend anyone reading this to pray thoroughly about the counsel that is given and prepare accordingly. Take note of how current his statements are even though they are probably 3 decades old.

From the Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson we read:

"The pending economic crisis that now faces American is painfully obvious. If even a fraction of potential foreign claims against our gold supply were presented to the Treasury, we would have to renege on our promise. We would be forced to repudiate our own currency on the world market. Foreign investors, who would be left holding the bag with American dollars, would dump them at tremendous discounts in return for more stable currencies, or for gold itself. The American dollar both abroad and at home would suffer the loss of public confidence. If the government can renege on its international monetary promises, what is to prevent it from doing the same on its domestic promises? How really secure would be government guarantees behind Federal Housing Administration loans, Savings and Loan Insurance, government bonds, or even social security?

"Even though American citizens would still be forced by law to honor the same pieces of paper as though they were real money, instinctively they would rush and convert their paper currency into tangible material goods which could be used as barter. As in Germany and other nations that have previously traveled this road, the rush to get rid of dollars and acquire tangibles would rapidly accelerate the visible effects of inflation to where it might cost one hundred dollars or more for a single loaf of bread. Hoarded silver coins would begin to reappear as a separate monetary system which, since they have intrinsic value would remain firm, while printed paper money finally would become worth exactly it's proper value--the paper it is printed on! Everyone's savings would be wiped out totally. No one could escape.

"One can only imagine what such conditions would do to the stock market and to industry. Uncertainty over the future would cause the consumer to halt all spending except for the barest necessities. Market for such items as television sets, automobiles, furniture, new homes, and entertainment would dry up almost overnight. With no one buying, firms would have to close down and lay off their employees. Unemployment would further aggravate the buying freeze, and the nation would plunge into a depression that would make the 1930s look like prosperity. At least the dollar was sound in those days. In fact, since it was a firm currency, its value actually went up as related to the amount of goods, which declined through reduced production. Next time around, however, the problems of unemployment and low production will be compounded by a monetary system that will be utterly worthless. All the government controls and so-called guarantees in the world will not be able to prevent it, because every one of them is based on the assumption that the people will continue to honor printing press money. But once the government itself openly refuses to honor it--as it must if foreign demands for gold continue--it is likely that the American people will soon follow suit. This in a nutshell is the so-called 'gold problem.' (An Enemy Hath Done This, p. 218.)" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson p 639-640.)

Ezra Taft Benson, speaking of the upcoming economic crisis quotes Hamilton, but then also gives us hope to move forward and rebuild a monetary system and healthy economy which shall be a model once again for all the world. Benson states:
". . .it is even possible that some of the government manipulators who have brought us into this economic crisis are hoping that, in panic, we, the American people, literally will plead with them to take our liberties in exchange for the false promise of 'security.' As Alexander Hamilton warned about two hundred years ago: 'Nothing is more common than for a free people, in times of heat and violence, to gratify momentary passions by letting into the government principles and precedents which afterward prove fatal to themselves' (Alexander Hamilton and the Founding of the Nation, p. 21.) Let us heed this warning. Let us prepare ourselves for the trying time ahead and resolve that, with the grace of God and through our own self-reliance, we shall rebuild a monetary system and a healthy economy which, once again, will become the model for all the world. (An Enemy Hath Done This, pp. 220-21.)" (The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson p 640.)

Unfortunately, many of the American Sheeple will plead with Washington for extreme measures, including the new monitory system that is prepared for us, without which no man will be able to "buy or sell." Hence, you had better be prepared to have perhaps a year supply of food, clothing, and fuel where possible to get you through a years duration, and to stand independent of these atheistic murderers who have brought us to this situation.
Remember, the Wall Street Backed Communists (Bolsheveks were financed by Wall Street, David Rockefeller being a great ally to these wicked Murderers) have been planning our destruction. When Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson met with USSR Nikkita Cruschev who stated:
“I have talked face to face with the godless communist leaders. It may surprise you to learn that I was host to Mr. Kruschev for a half day when he visited the United States, not that I’m proud of it. I opposed his coming then, and I still feel it was a mistake to welcome this atheistic murderer as a state visitor. But, according to President Eisenhower, Kruschev had expressed a desire to learn something of American Agriculture — and after seeing Russian agriculture I can understand why. As we talked face to face, he indicated that my grandchildren would live under communism. After assuring him that I expected to do all in my power to assure that his and all other grandchildren will live under freedom he arrogantly declaired in substance:
“ ‘You Americans are so gullible. No, you won’t accept communism outright, but we’ll keep feeding you small doses of socialism until you’ll finally wake up and find you already have communism. We won’t have to fight you. We’ll so weaken your economy until you’ll fall like overripe fruit into our hands.’

“And they’re ahead of schedule in their devilish scheme.” (Ezra Taft Benson “Our Immediate Responsibility.” Devotional Address at Brigham Young University. circa 1968.”) [access the audio file on this page.]
Be it remembered this statement attributed to Vladimir Lenon:
“The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency”

Home at last!

After 5 months of being separated as a family because of military school, we are finally back together again. I had to go to military school to become certified in my new career field and after doing the research, we found that it would not work to bring the family down. Unfortunately that made it 2.5 years that we have been apart in our marriage of 6 years. I was so glad to get home to Holley, Brooklyn, and Zachary. It was good to see their faces again.

I spent 2 months in Biloxi Mississippi. I was glad to spend time their since I had always dreamed of being in Mississippi since it was one of my favorite words to spell growing up. I know that does not sound like a very good reason, but it was reason enough for me, and when it worked out, that was kind of cool. Isn’t that every child’s dream to go to Mississippi after going through a spelling bee? OK so maybe not. It was good to spend some time down there. I was able to see some of the ruins from Hurricane Katrina since Biloxi was one of the worst hit areas. That was one of the sadder parts of the trip. Biloxi is a good community and overall I was very impressed with it. I was able to get trained in Electronic Principles which is kind of a crash course in Electronics, a very exciting class. I was able to live about a mile from the Gulf of Mexico since my hotel I was staying in was right off of the beach. Too bad the water was not really clean enough to go swimming in. I was able to go fishing for a day which was really fun. We had a really cool couple missionary down there that really made the stay a lot of fun. They were Elder and Sister Thompson. They made sure we were well taken care of on Sunday and we had a cool Home Evening each Tuesday since most of us were away from our families. I was so glad they served their mission since it had a large impact on a lot of people. I was actually kind of sad to leave their after my two month stay was over and I graduated from EP.

My next trip was to Augusta Georgia where they are huge into golfing. Unfortunately I was not able to golf while I was down their, but I was able to have a lot of fun. Holley and the kids were able to come down twice and they stayed for a week and a half both time. That worked out very well since I was able to concentrate on my class work and do quite well, and still see the family a couple of times. Fortunately it worked out really well because the times they came down were the times that I had the most time off of school. I was very lucky because the air force works on a compressed work schedule which means that I had every other Friday off while I was at school. They kept us plenty busy thought so I never got bored.

While in Augusta, I was attending the SWATS (Satellite Wideband and Telemetry Systems) course for the Air Force which is actually on Fort Gordon which is an Army base. I can honestly say I was not all that excited to go back to an Army base, but it all worked out very well. I lived in off base housing and stayed in a hotel about 3 miles from the base. It was a little crowded for me and the family, but when it was just me, it was not all that bad. I was so glad to have good AC since the temperatures down there were almost constantly in the high 90’s or low 100’s with very high humidity. Air Conditioning made my stay pleasant.

I was able to attend the South Carolina Temple on several occasions which was definitely an added bonus. I actually had a very unique experience of meeting my cousin in the Temple who consequently had moved down into the same Stake I was living in and I had lost contact with him. I wrote about it in one of my other blogs. It was a very unique miracle how it happened. I was very impressed with the faith of the members of the church in that area. They definitely lived overall as you would expect Latter Day Saints to live.

While in Augusta, I was in charge of 12 other non prior service students which means they were just joining the military. I was prior service since I was doing this for my second go round. They were a good bunch of kids and overall we did very well as a class graduating with no failures and a very high class average.

On August 12, I graduated and I started my trek home; a long trip covering over half of the country. I decided to make the best of it since I was going to be driving for so long and see some of the sights along the way. I was able to stop in Nashville, Tennessee and see that city. Unfortunately that was not my favorite stop. It was nothing like I had expected since I was expecting this small town with a large number of places to go visit to hear your favorite country singers. To show how naive I was, I was hoping to be able to stop in and see some friends from Kooskia near where I was raised who sing there. Well, when I actually got their, I realized that was kind of naive considering the actual size of the town.

My next stop was at the St. Louis Missouri arch. Now that was an awesome spectacle. It had a much larger base than I had expected. It also has a large museum that is free to the public in the middle of the arch. It is definitely a place well worth visiting. I regretted not being able to go up in the arch since I discovered it is actually hollow in the middle and you can take a ride to the top. I would have ridden to the top, but I was parked on the street and it said to secure all your belongings. Since my trunk was completely full and the rest of my belongings were in plain sight, I figured I had better get back on the road before my transportation became a part of St. Louis. I was glad I stopped though.

I saved the best stop for last. This was the bread of butter of the trip and the part I was so excited to go and see. I have always wanted to go back to Zion in Independence Missouri just to reminisce about the past in that area and the future that area will hold in both church history and world history. What an exciting place. I was willing to go out of my way to go see it and when I map quested my route, it just so happened that it was right along my route. I was able to go and see Liberty Jail, Far West, Adam-Ondi-Ahman, and all the sights in Independence Missouri including the Community of Christ Temple, Conference Center, Church of Christ building, (The place where the Temple was originally to be built) and last but not least the LDS visitors center. That was well worth the stop and one of my favorite experiences ever to be on such hollowed ground. I could definitely tell how that was once the Garden of Eden since it is one of the greenest places I have ever seen. It is a very beautiful place. I can’t wait to hopefully move there with the Saints someday to settle that area. What an awesome time that will be.

This is a list of all the states I went through on the trip:

Colorado Kansas Oklahoma Texas
Louisiana Mississippi Alabama Georgia
South Carolina Tennessee Kentucky Illinois
Missouri Iowa Nebraska Back to Colorado

Total Miles for the Honda: 3,600 miles + driving around town
Total days spent in a hotel: 146 Days
Days without a maid: 0
Total days Holley took care of kids: 122
Fingers lost during time away: 1 (Zachary's Right Index finger)
Getting your hotel taken out by a military truck! (Priceless)

The Political Game

Now to begin this blog, I would like to pose a question. Which is more evil, the Devil or his Angels? If you were to ask me that question, I would tell you that it does not matter. They are both evil, and if a person were to allow either in to their hearts completely, it would lead to their ultimate destruction.

Now what does this have to do with the Political Game and what is the Political Game I am referring to? What is a common phrase we are used to hearing at the time of the National election? I know the one I hear all too often is something like this, “This vote is kind of like choosing the lesser of two evils, I don’t like either candidate but I have to vote for one of them.” So the game continues, as it has for many years in the past. We are given a choice of one bad candidate or an alternative of another bad candidate to vote for; neither candidate at all being worthy of the office when you take their morals and lives into consideration.
For a good laugh or to be humbly offended, see the following link:

http://www.republicmagazine.com/magazines/Republic-Magazine8.pdf

Why do we play this game? Most people tell you they vote for either the candidate from the Democratic Party or the candidate from the Republican Party because they feel they are the only ones who have a chance to win the vote. That is not a vote when you have to choose between the lesser of two evils. One of the unfortunate realizations of having only a two party system is that it is possible for an entity to gain control of both parties through a number of compromises etc. Once this has been done, they can gain control of the American political system. We as Americans allow this to happen when we decide that we will choose only from these two parties even when the candidates from those two parties are not worth the paper the vote is cast on (That is if you are lucky enough to be voting by paper which thus leaves a paper trail rather than digitally which means you put your entire trust of your vote in the machine you are voting on. Anyone interested should do some research on the validity of the new digital voting machines. Information can be found at: http://www.awakeandarise.org/article/Diabold.htm.) All that has to be done in this type of environment by those who would try to manipulate the system is get a candidate on both the Republican and Democratic ticket who will continue to push the same agenda as the previous administration. If they are successful in doing this, then they are guaranteed that either candidate #1 or candidate #2 will get elected and they can continue down the same path as before with few changes other than the lies that come out of the candidates mouths at a particular time.

I must admit that I have been guilty of doing this very thing at times. I have voted for what I thought was the better of two evils not really knowing what else to do. Unfortunately I was led into playing the same game I am talking about because of so many people telling me that if I voted for anyone else other than the mainstream candidates, my vote would not count.

I had to ask myself awhile back, why would my vote not count? Those who were telling me this line believed that my vote would not count because not enough votes would be given to someone outside of the two main parties and because of this, that candidate would not get elected. Now if I had to paraphrase that argument, it would basically be this, I will not vote for that candidate because others will not vote for that candidate. If you really break that down, does that really go along with what we have been taught by both our church leaders and by the founding fathers of this nation? I have tried to find the quote attributed to Joseph Smith when he stated that it is our obligation as citizens of this nation to vote for the candidate that we feel will best serve the interests of the people regardless of whether we think they will be elected or not. I wish I could find that quote, but even if I do not, I still believe wholeheartedly that that is a true statement.

Imagine yourself at the Day of Judgment and imagine being asked why you voted for a certain candidate even though his record clearly stated he had little or no integrity in him. Are we going to say, “I voted for this candidate because I thought he was a little bit better than his opponent who was completely evil?” Hopefully that will not be our response and yet it seems that year after year we as Americans continue to do the same thing over and over. Why does it matter that other people will not vote for a certain candidate even if his credentials are good? It makes no difference. It is our obligation to vote for the best person we feel can run our country regardless of which party he is affiliated with and regardless of the way the mainstream media portrays that person. If we are to stand clean at the Day of Judgment, It is our obligation to vote for the best candidate (after doing research and praying for guidance) even if we are the only ones voting for that person. Only after doing this can we really expect our Heavenly Father to make up for any weakness we may have in the voting process.