Flips Flops

Indicative of the casual appearance and the unholy attitude exhibited of so many young people towards God's house of worship. I understand that many wear “flip flops” to church services at many of the mega worship centers.  As well as shorts and tank tops, exhibiting more flesh then was seen on the beach in my youth.  I remember my grandfather saying it was rare to see a woman’s ankle when he was a boy.  I have seen my grandmother and great grandmother wearing shoes which went several inches up their leg. 

Years ago, when I had a little vision, I remember going to a church here in the city and a girl walking down the center aisle who was dressed more appropriately for the beach than a worship service. When Moses led the 2 ½ million Jewish slaves out of Egypt toward the Promised Land, but first spending 40 years wondering in the desert.  God’s particular care for these chosen people was shown in the fact their clothing did not wear out nor did their foot wear: “And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot” (Deuteronomy 29:5).

Again in Deuteronomy, he spoke of shoes of iron and brass “Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.” (Deuteronomy 33:25) God knew that it was going to be a rough trip.

In the military, one of the first things a soldier learns to do if he has any intelligence at all is to take care of his feet.  This is the reason we all wear “combat boots” we are ready for a tough exercise of any type.  Rough terrain such as the desert in which the children of Israel wondered for 40 years or even the terrain to which military exercises and combat might be expected.  Do not lend the intelligent person to wear flip flops or bedroom shoes.  In recent years most young people have adapted to athletic footwear and many athletes have made fortunes endorsing such footwear.  More so than any other part of the body. Grey’s anatomy tells us the foot has 26 bones, reason enough for adequate foot care.  As an elderly patient said to me one time, “Doctor. I take good care of my “feets” they got to take me a long way.”

In studying the life of Thomas Jefferson, one of our greatest national leaders, we find he soaked his feet in water daily. My ancestors did the same thing only they added ashes from wood burning stoves to the water. The chemicals from the ash evidently was a great value not only to the skin but to the muscles of the feet.
 
At recent political conventions, flip flops were used to dramatize the way many politicians flip flopped on many questions and political decisions. In most ideologies there are those who say one thing but after election do the exact opposite. The best example of this in modern history is the fact that republican conservatives stressed the need for this country to be financially secure as taught by both conservative Christian religions and every historical document to the president.

Governments like families cannot spend like drunken fools, there is as the great preacher R.G. Lee said in his famous sermon “There is a payday some day.”  Republicans who preached fiscal responsibility while condemning the tax and spending policies of the democrats when they finally were in power in all branches of government, doubled the size of government and spent more foolishly that any democrat had ever dreamed.  It has been the most disgusting episode in recent political history and it will take a long time for the republicans (most of whom still call themselves conservatives) to recover from this financial nightmare of national debt. So it is with individuals who think that a plastic credit card is their ticket to abundance.

Last year, I decided to put in a box every credit card offer that came to me as an individual.  When I finally decided to count them I had 59 of them in 10 months time. Credit card companies of every description were trying to entice me into debt. It’s not easy for me to do anything anymore but, I did take all these credit cards, put them into a plastic bag and sent them to the attorney general of the state of North Carolina, in a letter which I explained the stupidity of government allowing companies to entice citizens into this credit scam, in which they make more money on penalties and late fees than anything else. I did not need a credit card and I do not believe that most of the children and college students who are bombarded by these credit offers. Of course, my efforts in explaining ID theft and the other problems associated with such credit was of little interest to the NCAG, someone from his office, a woman, called and asked if she should “shred the letter and cards I had sent to them.”

A copy of the same letter explaining the ridiculous efforts of companies to enslave citizens to credit was sent to federal officials. The judiciary of this country are the enablers of the credit crunch and recession dilemma in which the entire nation finds itself. With just the scam of credit cards as an example of the financial bailout scandal and banking practices the county has been subjected to in recent years. Since Obama took over, 4.4 trillion dollars has been added to the national debt. This more money than was borrowed by Presidents George Washington through George W. Bush, the national debt is now, since Obama, 14 trillion, this is 14 with twelve zeros (a trillion is one million million dollars). Each man, woman and child is in debt to the government $45,000. There was a time when credit was not only hard to get but the results of not paying on time was a real problem.

In these days of congressional hearings and nauseating variety of excuses from politicians and financial wizards concerning the chaotic dilemma of the entire nation because of the flip flop involving the ambiguity of borrowing money.  We have no one to blame but the senior citizens of this nation who were reared with the responsibility of buying the only things they could pay for and who should have taught their children to do the same and who should have voted for the politicians who had the common sense not to spend this nation into bankruptcy. 

Life is tough and as my wonderful deceased Mother said to me many times , “Money does not grow on trees.” My generation saved, “for a rainy day” my generation, voted for representatives in government who did not bond or borrow to build just anything that constituents desired and spent stupidly in order to buy their votes.  There has been a complete flip flop regarding the responsibility of politicians or pastors who would rather be popular then prudent. Tough times, whether in individual disabilities or catastrophes, family disasters and disputes, or government dilemmas require responsible responses guided by the steady hand of resolute resolve.

Consistent Inconsistencies

Newsweek, Feb 2009, front cover states “We Are All Socialists Now”. This is after the inauguration of our first socialist, Muslim president. How soon before Newsweek will say “We Are Infidels Now”? The 9/11 fiasco was only exceeded by the 9/11 stupidity. The government expected the public to buy their explanation of the killing of President Kennedy. Does the government actually expect us to buy the killing of 13 Americans and the wounding of 30 Americans at Ft. Hood? You can be sure the Army will give an explanation but the Army seldom tells the truth about anything. Can one even imagine that on the largest Army base in the world, a place crowded with combat veterans, one deranged Army officer could get off one hundred shots before being wounded by civilian police who had to come in from off base.

Where were the military police? There are so many questions and we will be fortunate, indeed, to get a truthful answer. The taxpayers who paid for this psychiatrist's education deserve an answer. The Congress, who has oversight over the military and intelligence agencies, deserves an answer. At a time, when supposedly all communication is checked, a time where babies' diapers are inspected at airports, a time when school children are not allowed to look at a book in school pertaining to guns, how is it that a Muslim fanatic is wearing the rank of Major, the medical insignia caduceus, is lecturing at a Mosque while counseling returning warriors not to fight Muslims with whom we are at war? Who is crazy, the psychiatrist or the military, CIA, FBI? It takes time for the truth to show up, but just as the lies about babies being thrown out of incubators in Kuwait, the military finally had to tell the truth. The hardworking, tax paying, sweating, frugal living, God fearing citizens deserve an answer, not lies and deceit, not political correctness.

Off the front burner is the war in Afghanistan where young men and women, wearing the uniform of this country, expect something besides the usual politics. Strange, their commander asked for more troops but their former commander (now ambassador to the country) conveniently leaked that no more troops are needed. Everyone, these days, knows nothing about “chain of command”.

Modern warfare seems to be a matter of civilian contractors and CIA specialists. The family of Ike Atkinson were patients of mine. I always thought it strange that every member of his family owned a Cadillac (his mother, daughter, etc.). From 1968-1975, Sergeant Atkinson was famous for sending heroin back hidden in the bodies of dead soldiers (Vietnam was the first warfare in which the dead were returned to their families for burial). Illegal drugs had become the most profitable corruption of America, Vietnam, Columbia, now Afghanistan. Even children's comic books are depicting corruptions of governments. This week, 120 nations gathered in Qatar to give the United Nations permission to investigate the corruption of their governments. I wonder how large an army of investigators it will take? Along with the establishment of American bases throughout the Middle East (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, etc.) to protect the oil flow, such bases are surely being used to protect drug flow. The direct drug flow from the Middle East to Mexico is now a matter of common knowledge. Juarez is the most dangerous city in the world. Most of the cities along the border have so many murders, so much corruption that there is constant conflict between the police and the military.

Next to illegal people and illegal drugs, the most consistent inconsistency in American life is the corruption of Washington officials; all involving greed. Goldman Sachs, the apex of consistent greed, was putting a Triple A rating on their bonds as they were internally betting against their bonds. Hedging, involving the implosion of the housing market. They knew, ahead of time, that all was about to go underwater while taking over the questionable bonds of Ameriquest and New Century, putting a Triple A rating on them. Henry Paulson, grander than God, was wallowing in the billions made on Wall Street with his bonds while wallowing, as Prince of the White House, in the few fiat dollars left in the American treasury. The state controlled media hung on every word of Alan Greenspan such as “irrational exuberance”. Geithner, Bernanke, Picower, Madoff, all Jews with an appetite for greed and control.

Our blessed Lord thought he had problems with Pharisees but think of what the likes of Henry Paulson and his carefully selected “brightest” boys from the most prestigious universities have done to this country. The enabler, joint conspirator, self serving, supposed Christian-conservative George W. Bush made the financial and economic environment of this nation a playground for Paulson and his ilk. Even this very day, Paulson and Goldman Sachs are making $100 million a day using the bailout funds to push up the stock market. Think of the bonuses paid for these extortioners to rob the public. Think of a complacent SEC who certainly knew the North Pole activities (so much cocaine in the Madoff offices), the Ponzi scheme, and the other activities which should have been regulated.

What if Bishop Sheen or Mother Teresa had asked for money to relieve the suffering of the poor and then just put the money in their pockets? I am totally blind, but my nose and other senses seldom fail me. The Goldman Sachs fiasco is a stinking mess. The Ft. Hood fiasco is a stinking mess. The supposed fight against illegals, whether drugs or people, is a stinking mess. The country cannot just walk away from the consistent inconsistencies like Lou Dobbs, we must continue to fight the battle of faith. Faith in our country to do what is right and faith in almighty God to bring to justice, even here on this Earth, those who will enslave us.

O God, whom I praise, do not remain silent, for wicked and deceitful men have opened their mouths against me; they have spoken against me with lying tongues. With words of hatred they surround me; they attack me without cause. In return for my friendship they accuse me, but I am a man of prayer. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my friendship. Appoint an evil man to oppose him; let an accuser stand at his right hand. When he is tried, let him be found guilty, and may his prayers condemn him. May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership. May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow. May his children be wandering beggars; may they be driven from their ruined homes. May a creditor seize all he has; may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor. May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children. May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation. May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD; may the sin of his mother never be blotted out. May their sins always remain before the LORD, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth. For he never thought of doing a kindness, but hounded to death the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted. He loved to pronounce a curse— may it come on him; he found no pleasure in blessing— may it be far from him. He wore cursing as his garment; it entered into his body like water, into his bones like oil. May it be like a cloak wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him. May this be the LORD's payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil of me. (Psalm 109:1-20)