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Over the course of many years I’ve accumulated a lot of links to articles. Some of them were post ideas and some of them I found interesting. Over the next few weekends I’m going to attempt to play a little catch up by sharing you some links as food for thought and my quick thoughts on them. Just because they are linked does not mean that I endorse all that the author says—but we shouldn’t just read people we agree with, should we?
Kathleen Spitzer
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made her political name in Kansas, though we wonder if she’s getting special advice from Eliot Spitzer. Her department’s latest attack, on the CEO of Forest Laboratories, is straight out of the former New York Attorney General’s bullying playbook.
HHS this month sent a letter to 83-year-old Forest Labs CEO Howard Solomon, announcing it would henceforth refuse to do business with him. What earned Mr. Solomon the blackball? Well, nothing that he did—as admitted even by HHS.
Government versus companies—big or small—is not good when we want to get out of an economic hole.
Feds Launch A War On Cap’n Crunch
Really, these efforts are just prohibitionism in a different package. The tactics have changed – they’re now trying to manipulate our behavior with taxes and regulations instead of outright bans – but the goal is the same: Free choice isn’t good for you, and must therefore be limited.
The prohibitionists failed because, despite the law, people still wanted to drink alcohol. These efforts to regulate Cap’n Crunch and happy meals out of existence will fail too. Because people like sugary breakfast cereals and happy meals. And where there is demand, some enterprising entrepreneur will find a way to supply it.
Maybe we should just let people make free choices?
There’s a fine line between where government should get involved and where it should not. Government seems to not know where that line is, or hasn’t seen it for a while.
Here’s Why The US Is Screwed
This article is from 2011, and yet here we are in 2015, still looking at the possibility of more financial issues to come:
The presentation shows that we spend a lot on Education and Defense, but that isn’t the real problem. The real problem is Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (especially Medicare and Medicaid). These programs are wildly more expensive than any other budget items, and they’re also growing like weeds.
25 Ways to Save Money
Wise Bread lists 25 ways to save money. I’ve covered all of these one way or another over the years, but I thought I’d list their suggestions along with what I think (and what I do) about each suggestion.
Great ideas here!
Sola Scriptura… really?
Anna Wood challenges those that say they believe Sola Scriptura to stand by what they believe:
The question is: do we really believe God? If we do, we of the Reformed Faith can’t cherry-pick what we believe in and be right with God; after all, that is what we have been accusing our “less enlightened” brethren of, isn’t it? If we believe God is really God then God’s say is all that matters. God and His Word must be honored, and obeyed, in all things, in all ways, at all times. If we love Him, if we honor His Word, we must take it upon ourselves to pick through the rubble of the past 150 years and get back to God’s Word, God’s Truth…as God Himself would have us believe it and live it. We must divorce our beliefs from our culture, we must stop looking at church and at family through the lens of modernity; after all, that’s part of the problem that got us from where we were to where we are.
It’s definitely a challenge because the culture and the Bible are becoming more at odds.
Boehner “optimistic,” demands trillion-dollar cuts
And this was written before we had both the House and Senate. The only reason I included this one is to show just how much talk the Republicans in Congress do for so little action:
U.S. House Speaker John Boehner voiced optimism on Thursday about new deficit-reduction talks led by Vice President Joe Biden, but said Republicans will not vote to raise the U.S. debt limit without trillions of dollars in spending cuts.
“I’m always optimistic that these conversations will lead somewhere,” Boehner said shortly after Biden opened the first meeting of a seven-member, bipartisan congressional group.
“I wish them well. I hope we that we can come to some agreement and as soon as possible,” said Boehner.
The speaker reaffirmed his position that he and his fellow Republicans would not agree to an increase in the U.S. debt limit without budget reforms and “real spending cuts.”
Shutting Off the TV Has Been Good. Really Good.
We’ve done this time to time, and have had good results.
In our home we have 5 kids (1 on the way). They range in age from nearly 2 to nearly 16. Their TV habits and interests vary quite a bit. My wife could care less if she ever watches TV again. However, I am they guy that enjoys sports. I have, in the past, watched concurrent episodes of Sports Center just to do it. I enjoy Red Sox Baseball, Celtics hoops, and all of the NFL. On top of that, I live in Omaha. And part of any successfull[sic] correspondence with the locals is speaking the language of Nebraska Football. (That last sentence was robed in missional talk but it is really me saying that I am a big College Football fan in general and Husker fan in particular).
Needless to say TV had the potential to dominate. And it did. So, we restricted things, starting with me.
What I noticed was interesting.
Have you tried going without TV for a time? What did you notice?
Rabies survivor Jeanna Giese graduates from college
Here’s a heartwarming story about a girl that survived a fight with rabies!
More than six years ago, John and Ann Giese stood at their daughter’s hospital bed as saliva flooded her mouth and the rabies virus progressed toward its end. In every case to that point, if you got the virus without prompt vaccination, you died – usually within seven days of the first symptoms.
All that changed with Jeanna Giese.
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