Tepid

#1198

My driver often says to me, “Doc, I think many times it is good that you cannot see, because you would not believe what is on the streets.”

This particular day he was talking about a middle aged man, dressed in women's clothes, about to go into McDonalds. Some days before, he had described teenagers, followers of Emo or Goth, all three dressed in black, fingernails painted black.

At this time in history, would it not be advisable to do a critique of the last 200 years in history and, looking forward 200 years?

It is much like the old movie trailers, Perils of Pauline, Pauline on the front of the locomotive and the locomotive going over the hill... no stopping the disaster. Have we become so tepid, so politically-correct, so dumbed down by mind controlling television that we cannot face the facts? It is known that the medical officers and others at Walter Reed Army hospital knew the mental condition of Muslim psychiatrist, Major Hasan. They did not want to be politically-incorrect, to tepid to warn officials at Fort Hood.

In the name of diversity, influx of Muslims and gays into the military services. Real soldiers face more danger on the home front than the battlefield.

There is no one to blame for today’s problems but ourselves. Academia-Atheism, God erased from their agenda on their mantra of “who created the Creator”? If No God, where do you get a foundation for morality? Believers in God are blamed for the world’s violence. Non-believers never discuss the history of violence by non-believers. They even blame Jesus and His followers for violence. Even Pilate exonerated Jesus (I find no fault in him (John 19:6)) Atheism has a horrendous record, evolving things and people are supposed to improve.

Bertrand Russell, when asked why he did not believe in God said, “There is not enough evidence.” In a day when global newspapers compete for the worst news headlines, knowing that these horrendous end times have been prophesied, how much evidence do you need about sin's ruin and the redemption of Jesus Christ?

Until the end of WWII, God had His hand of blessing on America. Since then, we have not been able to win a war. (Korea, Vietnam, Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan)

The chosen, the church, has become faithless... neither hot or cold, tepid. Mosques are built in increasing numbers throughout the world. In Europe and Australia Muslims are pushing for polygamy (multiple wives) and Sharia Law... forcing producers of chickens and turkeys to have them blessed by a Muslim Imam. (spiritual leader)

Humiliation is a lost word in many vocabularies. Dumbed down by public schools, television slop, only 5% of the population is aware of what goes on in the world. Even when screened-stripped at the airport, they do not understand, thinking that TSA means SS Troops, and this was Hitler's start. The last year of the 3^rd Reich, Hitler promoted 40,000 abortions, the same number as in America last year. A Swiss bank president said this week, “People around the world should prepare for a world depression by buying canned goods and small firearms.” It should be humiliating that the schools, colleges, even the secular media are not preparing the public for times of need. Spiritual leaders should be humiliated that they do not recognize, as well as advise, congregations about physical as well as spiritual preparation. Scientists, sociologists, and even pastors, are very tepid about fetal (murdered babies), tissue used for vaccinations and experimentations.

As in New Orleans, Katrina, caretakers fled, leaving old people to drown in nursing homes. So, this week, caretakers fled, leaving patients to die in a hospital fire in Calcutta, India.

The Apostle Peter did not have a Bible, never attended a seminary or Bible College, but on the day of Pentecost (50 days after Christ's resurrection), he was not tepid, as he preached, the only thing he knew to preach, Jesus Christ (Acts 2) This was the beginning of the Christian church, believers who have changed the world. It is not tepid believers then, now, or in the future, who make the difference.

Sense of the Invisible

Only a blind person can really talk about the invisible. In meeting people, even though I cannot see anything, I have a mental picture of their appearance.  I’m often disappointed when a sighted person corrects me on my mental impressions.  For instance, governor Palin from Alaska seemed blonde to me when I heard her speak.  It is rare, even for people who I pay to work for me, for anyone to mention activity of sight which they just take for granted.  One day, a taxi driver was driving me somewhere and he said, “Doc I wish you could see the azaleas and Dogwood, all is in full bloom now”  This was the very first time that I knew the color of spring had arrived. No one had mentioned it and, so it is with everything. 

The entire world would have already been converted to Christ if Christians lived their faith and convictions before the world, so that the world could see that Christians are different, and everyone would want what they have.  The greatest roadblock to Christianity is “Christians”.  Mohandas Gandhi said, “I would have been a Christian if I had not known so many Christians”.  Those he had known were counterfeit.  There is a sense of the invisible when someone knows God.  Like the proverbial candle, you do not put it under a bushel.  One unbelieving male, when leaving my house recently said, “Tom, don’t change. You are the only hope I have”,, he had a need to believe in someone. 

The Red Cross was founded in this country by Clara Barton (1821- 1912) in the19th  century. Previously, since 1550, a red cross had been worn on medical workers with Christian influence, even the crusaders. But, in 1863, the red cross was formerly organized in Europe.  This follows the 1859 book of Henri Durant, A memory of Solferino .  He had seen the need for medical workers in the Italian army.  The red cross, in the beginning, was mostly an organization supporting the military.  Even in my time, red crosses were displayed on army field hospitals, on army ambulances.  It was in fighting the communist, we found that their most effective targets were the red crosses on hospitals and ambulances.  Medical officers, such as myself, other medical officers and workers, learned early to turn our collars showing our rank and the medical emblem (serpent on staff) inside our shirt because snipers loved to kill doctors and those treating the wounded.

Doctors and nurses have a remarkable sense of the invisible. Nurses, male and female, are more sensitive to the invisible then doctors, male and female. Female workers are always more sensitive to other females. 80% of all healthcare is psychological.  The successful practitioner realizes early, that the invisible fears experienced by all of us and our attempt at trying to control these fears, must be considered in treatment. 

The Bible is not a very sensitive book, sensitivity is not particularly evident in the laws of God.  We live in a generation now of being sensitive to everything, every word we say, every action we take.  My life has been too busy to spend very much time with sensitivity towards other people or worrying about their sensitivity to me.  I believe my first experience with social sensitivity, was in the state of Alabama, I stopped by to see a professional friend in his office. I believe he wanted to impress me by sharing with me not only his beautiful offices but his remarkable home, up on a mountain with a magnificent view.  He called his wife and told her he was bringing a college friend home to lunch.  It was evident, from the start, even though we went through the motions, that she resented him bringing someone home unexpectedly.  She was very cold towards both of us.  Now I have eaten enough tomato soup to recognize Campbell’s tomato soup.  She had opened a can of soup which she served to the two of us in the magnificent dining room with some crackers. Of course, I was magnanimous, but I was sensitive to the fact that she was mad and he was embarrassed. Even though we ate the soup by a window with a magnificent view, and I relished in his success.

In direct contrast, another friend in a small southern town, a man of discipline and integrity, was called by a farm family, long time patients, that a visitor had fallen and cut her leg. He told him to bring her to his office (a typical small town office which was closed down at night with no employees), he stitched the cut, but could not have imagined that the girl would accuse him of making a sexual advance.  It was an ugly charge, an ugly trial (a man of well known wealth), the jury always believes the female, he lost his license, he and his family left town, the doctor-less town bewildered by a young female using the invisible. Because of this litigious society in which a male is afraid to be in the same room with a women (doctor, minister, teacher) where anyone can make a charge and many will believe it.

Many years ago, I was engaged in a legal action and I know the exact cocktail party where an opposing couple made a charge against me. As difficult as it is to believe, I was accused with being caught with a women of ill repute in the political headquarters of NC (Sir Walter Hotel Raleigh NC).  I know what it is like to hear people whispering when I walk into a public place.  Since one newspaper editor, knowing my sight condition, realized the improbability of such activity, wrote an entire editorial, “How do these vicious rumors get started”. But, even though everything is totally invisible to some , they want to believe the worst. I was stunned when one of my relatives called and told me that another relative, who should have known better, had called her about the rumor.  It is best, as the great preacher and founder of the Methodist church, John Wesley, said, “if I do not know something to be true, if I do not know if it will do some good, I ignore all rumors and put them out of my mind”.

The invisible, sensitivity, must be shown by teachers toward children. All are very different, they come into a classroom carrying different baggage. Hitler put 275,000 disabled German citizens to death because he felt they were of no use to the state, that they were a burden, and that their “life value” was not great enough. In 1936, Hitler called euthanasia of the disabled, a charitable organization.

In 50 years, euthanasia will be a common place in this country.  As was seen with Terry Chavo, as has already been voted in the states of Oregon and Washington, as is the case with Dr. Tiller in Kansas, as is the case of euthanasia in Holland and the Scandinavian countries, money is more important than life, political correctness more important than principles.

In most killings, from autopsies or other analysis, most things are visible. Even the famous rat poison murders are detected. 95% of rat poison is just innocent cornmeal but the chemist can find the arsenic. In anatomy, we discovered that the only safe murder was with a “hat pin”. Run a hat pin through the pupil of the eye penetrating the ocular bone, causing a brain hemorrhage, and you have an immediate stroke. Unless the Coroner is very perceptive about the cornea of the eye, he will never see where the hat pin penetrated. Is this any worse than the penetration of the expectant mothers womb to destroy the unborn? It is reassuring to know that, if not on earth, the invisible will be made visible eventually.

Moral Hazards

#480

David Murdock is the 183rd richest man in the world, a billionaire, who came away from WWII homeless, living on the street. At a restaurant where he could get his meals free he had a chance meeting with a good samaritan who loaned him $450 dollars to buy a $1200 dollar restaurant. The owner, wanting to get rid of the restaurant allowed him to pay the rest in payments.

One thing lead to another, and very much like this writer, he bought one house, then bought a second house and now, at age 87, owns Dole Foods, owns one Island in Hawaii and is one of the worlds leading philanthropists. He has just given 1.5 billion to build a research center at Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He said it was a matter of having the desire, the ethic of hard work and a healthy lifestyle. He is a vegetarian, never touches meat and attributes his long life and success to the opportunity afforded to him by being an American and learning to adjust his eating habits and his conservatism in acquiring and investing money.

This is just one example of the opportunity afforded anyone blessed to be born an American, willing to make the sacrifices necessary in lifestyle and financial exuberance. When I heard him interviewed, he kept referring to Napoleon Hill's book, “Think and Grow Rich”. He told about the books he had given out to young people. I remember the impression the book made on my own life and how many times I had told the young men who I met that I would give him ten dollars to read the book. Never once have I ever had anyone come back and tell me he read the book to collect the ten dollars, including my own brother. We have a country filled with young people who just want everything boxed up, tied with a pretty ribbon, and handed to them.

I once told one young man who worked for me that I would help him by teaching him everything I know about real estate and securities. I said, however, like me, you must read everything you can find about these markets. He said, “I would just like to get a check every month”.

Wake up, this is where we are heading. The time is rapidly approaching when the government is going to give you a check for subsistence each month, but that is all you will ever be able to accumulate. It seems that the thrill of accomplishment is gone. Your government wants you completely dependent. The schools are no longer teaching self development. The forerunners of our great American industrial empire who through their own efforts thrived with success. I have traveled through every Marxist country. The clowns in Washington, Raleigh, and even locally who control your life through their political power are generally n'er-do-wells whose only accomplishment was obtaining political influence by tail kissing or something similar to get elected to their jobs or, as is the case with John Edwards, John Kerry, George W. Bush etc. married a rich or smart wife or family money purchased their political office. In my lifetime, I have known people of several skin colors, particularly immigrants from other countries, who thrived on the American system. I knew a Greek couple who saved every dime possible to get to this country and then operated a small restaurant until they owned the entire block in which the restaurant was located. They both worked long hours and so did their children, all of whom were very successful in this country.

Yesterday, when we learned that the country of Greece is bankrupt, that the interest on their debt exceeds their GNP...the exact direction in which America is heading, I thought of the movie America America produced by Elia Kazan. In this movie, we have a Greek boy whose family saved their money and sent him to Turkey where he could work and have a better life. Selling in the markets of Istanbul (I have been in this market several times) he made money but still had a dream of going to America. He saved his money, came to America, and became the success story portrayed in America America.

Three of the richest men in the world were aboard the Titanic almost 100 years ago (April 15, 1912) when it at the owners directions, plowed through the North Atlantic icebergs because the owner said the ship was unsinkable. (Isa Strauss, Benjamin Guggenheim,and John Jacob Astor) These three men did not realize they were on their death trip, they were not a flash in the pan type. Each knew the value of hard work, intelligent investing, but still, the unsinkable ship, “too large to fail” is on the bottom of the Atlantic. We have heard this about America and American Industry, “too great to fail”.

When I walked down the streets of Athens, I thought of Plato and Socrates who had walked before me. Near Pella, Macedonia where Alexander The Great was born, a field was pointed out to me where a farmer was plowing and uncovered the great statue of Nike (which means victory), in 1863, a statue which was probably sculpted in 190 B.C. It is hard to imagine a culture as great and historic as the Greek's culture which was fearless and victorious being conquered by a system of socialism which has taken over the country where these ambitious people are now satisfied with a small government subsistence.

Incompetent workers arise from an incompetent education system. Parents, teachers, principals, school board officials, should hide in shame for an education system where almost 50% of their students cannot perform at grade level, where 1/3rd quit school before graduation, where even those who go to college spend much time in remedial catch-up. America should hide in shame, knowing that 50% of the American population pay no income taxes at all, but rather depend on the tax paying ability of the other 50%. Of course, it is the 50% who do not pay taxes who vote, in lock step, for Democrats, who put in these welfare programs.

Even in the military services (volunteer) the stranglehold of incompetence, lack of work ethic, inability to speak or understand the language are just some of the reasons we cannot win a war. All failures of young people are not just addictive (drugs, sex, family genes).

The greatest society of the Western world was the Greek civilization. Next to the Greeks was the Roman empire. Both failed because of Paganism and their withdrawal from the strengths found in Republicanism and patriotism.

No society has given more to the civilized word than the intelligencer of Germany. A small man with a 25” waistline, a glowing persona and ability to speak articulately lead this culture down the road of destruction. At Birches Garden, Hitler's retreat, speaking before large crowds, he would say, “Mr. Churchill, we are coming for you”, then, he would go to the back of his stadium, run forward and say again, “Mr. Churchill, we are coming for you”, then he would go back and run forward again and shout to the top of his voice, “Mr. Churchill, we are coming for you!” How many times must the American people be reminded that the disease of corruption and Paganism of Communism is coming for us...because we are blinded to it's symptoms. The state controlled news media, the umbra of political correctness has so distorted our thinking that we are unable to recognize entrapment. Even a non religious person recognizes hypocrisy and knows the value of conviction. The heathen want no part of deceptive immorality. I may not be right but I want my church to be right. I may not be right but I want my country to be right. The hazard of morality is becoming immune to immorality.

Shelf Life

All of my life I have been an antiquarian book collector. In recent years, mostly because of online selling, I have become an antiquarian book seller, selling the many thousands of first edition books I have collected over my life. Along with the photograph in the description of the book, we usually note shelf wear; because, like all antiques, it does not matter how long you have had an item and how well you describe it as being old, etc. Everyone expects an antique to have the appearance of just coming out of Wal-Mart.

Mr. Obama will never suffer from shelf wear. On a national radio talk show, right after he was inaugurated, when everyone was lamenting about what these liberals had done to our country, I said, “Like the television program, Mission Impossible, he will self destruct.”

The honeymoon is over; and he is self-destructing more rapidly than anyone thought possible. He has failed with his bailouts of the automobile industry, banks, insurance and even old clunker, and he has failed with his efforts to change the American health care system. This narcissistic, ambulance chasing, Harvard schister lawyer is totally lost amid the drama and drums of Washington politics. He has already found that his Rules for Radicals which kept him in good standing in the mafioso political squalor of Chicago-land is not working in the slime pits of Wall Street and sorcery of the Potomac schism. Like the retarded George W. he needs a real emergency to establish himself as a leader. He should not have run from the Pentagon when the gun shots started on September 11^th from the uninformed Coast Guard Ships. Like the messiah that he thinks he is, he could have lifted up his cigarette like Moses lifted up his rod in the wilderness, and stopped the firing, becoming a hero to the onlooking liberals in the dog patch of the Pentagon. Legitimate or illegitimate, he and his beleaguered wife and her voodoo mother, Mrs. Robinson, are ensconced in the White House. He has reportedly spent between $1.6 and $2 million in legal fees to keep legal proceedings coming before judges about his birth certificate. His friends on Wall Street, Mr. Paulson, et al, are squirreling away all the bailout money and bonuses they can possibly pocket before heading for the nation's capital where the Wall Streeters along with the “K” Streeters will join forces with the other corrupters to solve the country's tax problems, because the slaves will not have taxes to pay.

Even the blind and ignorant will learn you cannot get “blood out of a turnip”.

The same news people who cannot count money or debt could not count millions in Washington last weekend. It started out on the liberal, state-controlled networks that there were tens of thousands in Washington; but when London sources and even Capital Police stated that there were at least 2 million, their eyes and computers came alive.

Those involved in the Boston Tea Party were not there because of the insignificant tea tax charge. But, starting in 1628, King George had directed that the colonists were not to make contracts, that they were to have no say in their business activities. It took many decades; but finally our forefathers decided that enough was enough. FREE MEN could make contracts. FREE MEN could determine their own destiny, And these FREE MEN exercised the great God given-gift of free will (John 8:32) and started the great American Revolution which lead to the Constitution of our nation.

The Constitution was written by men who had experienced the Constitution. The Constitution is not a “living” document anymore than God's precious Word is a “living” Bible.

Obama is a self proclaimed socialist. He has described himself as a socialist in his books. Norman Thomas, who ran 6 times as a Socialist candidate for president said, “Americans will never accept socialism all at once, but little by little they will accept everything that socialism offers.

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Germany had been the site of an increasing number of measures taken in the name of "racial purity" since the Nazis assumed power in 1933, including forced sterilization of those with physical and/or mental handicaps, and the murder of infants with similar handicaps (in both cases, the primary targets were not Jews, but so called "Aryans," or non-Jewish Germans). Now in 1939, under the cover of war, the program was to be expanded to include murdering handicapped adults. Since Hitler would issue no law legalizing such forced "euthanasia," and since physicians would hesitate or refuse to take part in the killing unless they had written protection from later prosecution, Hitler was persuaded to sign this document on his PERSONAL STATIONERY instructing his assistants Philipp Bouhler and Dr. Karl Brandt to initiate the program.

Pat Dollard, a radio talk show host, author of 15 books in 6 languages has written an article about the parallelism in the rise of Adolf Hitler and Barack Obama.

The parallels between Obama's and Hitler's rise to power should make people worry:

- self-promoting books used as Bibles for converts to the Obama faith

- highly choreographed mass rallies

- intimidation of opponents in the press by thugs and crooked lawyers

- local law enforcement abusing their power to suppress dissent from Obama's message. In one case, a group naming itself "Barack Obama's Truth Squad,"

- divisive rhetoric and demonization of opponents

- cover-up of independent source information about the candidate's past

- covert support of rich industrialists (hoping for sway with a totalitarian "boss"?) $430 MILLION, much of it collected against election laws!

- and worst of all, systematic election fraud and other criminal acts committed by Democratic party supporter ACORN, another group with which Obama has had ties early in his political career, and which has endorsed him directly.

ACORN fills much the same role for the Obama campaign as the Sturmabteilung, or "SA" did for Hitler - they supply shock troops at demonstrations, they commit voter fraud on contract to the Democrats, and in general are the vanguard of Obama's army of thugs willing to do his dirty tricks for him (the unions have day jobs, so they don't have the scope that ACORN "volunteers" do).

The German people were against Hitler's policies involving the extermination of the disabled; but when they learned of the money they were saving in not keeping alive old people, (In this country, one half of all Medicare funds are spent on those 85 years or older and the population of 85 is the fastest growing population in the country.) they were content to allow the extermination of old people, prostitutes, vagrants, gypsies, homosexuals and others whom they considered least desirable and who were taking up too much of the wealth of the country. ARE WE HEADING IN THE SAME DIRECTION? Planned parenthood and other eugenics promoters are advocating the depopulation of the earth to 2 billion. This means the elimination of 5 billion people by war or disease or some method known only to Satan and his minions. The world is in a great dilemma as far as debt. It is impossible for this country to pay it's debt, an estimated $75 trillion when you consider Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. Paper assets are worth nothing at all, whether fiat dollars, titles to your car or your deed to your house. One man's debt is another man's asset. The assets of debt are worthless. Private debt has reached the place that many countries do not accept American credit cards anymore. The people who change money on the streets of Asia, just laugh at American dollars. Those of you who wanted change, need to change your eye glasses from rose-colored to the more realistic clear glass.