Wednesday, November 25, 2020

The Great Reset

"Now's Our Chance...to Change Your World!"
 If you haven't about The Great Reset  yet, you will.

 Soon.

 Joe Biden’s “Build Back Better” slogan, of which no   one knew the meaning or purpose, is a direct lift  from The Great Reset Manifesto, let’s call it, concocted by the dreamy-eyed elites of the world   who attend annual ritzy, star-studded winter retreats  in Davos, Switzerland under the auspices of the  World Economic Forum.

“In short” the wealthy elites of the world proclaim to the rest of the world, “we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

To save the world, these elites demand “the world must act ... to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions; ...every country... must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed”.

In other words, these elites demand that the entire world embrace socialism; impose much higher wealth taxes, which they will avoid paying, that’s a given; promulgate onerous regulations on banking and industry; and pass massive Green New Deals, which would “only” cost U.S. taxpayers and consumers $93 trillion to implement.

Liberal socialists never say anything about cutting government spending, lowering government regulatory burdens on business and people, getting rid of archaic government programs that have been proven ineffective, or removing legal barriers for people who want to start a business and provide a better life for their family.

Liberal socialists simply believe a lot more government is good. Conservatives don’t. It is pretty much that simple.

Every command issued by Great Reset/One World Government proponents strikes at the core of American individualism. American individualism and self- initiative led to the creation of such ground-breaking innovations as the IPhone, Amazon and Google, nothing close to which has ever been invented under socialist or communist regimes. Wait until the Great Reset dries up American innovation; Millennials and liberals will then see the adverse side of too much governmental control of our economy, then they will be ready for more free
market capitalism.

Americans should understandably feel a little queasy when they hear Prince Charles or Canadian PM Justin Trudeau gush about how the COVID pandemic provides the “perfect opportunity” to change everything. Only totalitarians at heart think a pandemic or crisis is “a great time to impose their will on the world.”
 
Hitler took power during the post-WWI economic depression in Germany to “restore the Fatherland,” to name perhaps the worst case in recent history.

Capitalism and free markets survived 50 million worldwide deaths of the Spanish Flu in 1918 and 100 million+ deaths in World War II. There were no "Great Resets” then. According to the World Bank, the rate of extreme poverty in the world was cut in half from 1990 to 2013, mainly because of the explosion of free markets and capitalism around the globe.

Capitalism doesn’t need to be “reset;” it needs to be unleashed and allowed to flourish without excessive government intervention.

When evangelicals hear about The Great Reset elites governing everything, their hearts will skip a beat. Worldwide universal contact tracing of individuals, massive centralized computer record-keeping for infection and vaccination and quarantining may sound like, and actually be, solid public health policy to
bureaucrats and elites.

However, if it starts to move into the realm of ideas such as implanting computer chips into every individual, evangelicals the world over will be triggered unlike any triggered community we have seen to date. There is too much symbolism and apocalyptic end times imagery that would accompany such a
policy from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament.

Great Resetters: Please don’t go there. We don’t need that right now. Everyone’s nerves are too frayed as it is.

Theologian Karl Barth used to urge his fellow Christian colleagues and students to read the Bible in one hand with the newspaper in the other. We agree, just don’t read the Book of Revelation while reading about the Great Reset.

It might get too scary.

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Tiger Woods, The Masters and Life Lessons






















Dustin Johnson won the 2020 Masters in record-breaking fashion with a dominating five-stroke victory at Augusta National.

Tiger Woods did something many golfers consider to be even more impossible, and it was hardly even reported or covered during the broadcast or the media reports the next day.

Defending champion and five-time Masters green jacket winner Tiger Woods trailed Dustin Johnson by 11 shots heading into the final round Sunday — not a totally impossible lead to overcome, given Tiger’s history of playing extremely well in the last round of the 15 majors he has won and Johnson’s history of not finishing well in three other majors he led heading into Sunday, but difficult nonetheless.

Tiger got off to a solid start, parring the first hole and putting for eagle on the par 5 second hole, before settling for a birdie. He stumbled with bogeys on three of the next eight holes, taking him out of any serious contention to win his 16th major.

He had eight holes to play. Real golfers know they can’t give up when they know they can’t win. They have to finish the round they started barring severe injury and do the best they can.

He parred the 11th hole before stepping up to the most treacherous, and shortest, hole at Augusta National, the 155-yard par 3 12th hole, called Golden Bell after a bright yellow forsythia shrub.

The tee shot at the 12th hole at Augusta is one of the most terrifying shots in all golf. There is a landing area about 15 feet in diameter on the green where you have to hit your shot in order to have any chance at a par, much less a birdie. The green is usually slick as ice and any ball that lands short of the green almost always rolls back into Rae’s Creek.

Tiger hit his first shot on the front fringe of the green and, sure enough, it rolled back into the creek for a one-shot penalty. He hit his next shot, his third due to the penalty, and it, too, hit the green but had enough backspin that it rolled back into Rae’s Creek for another one stroke penalty.

He pulled out another ball to hit from the fairway side of the creek, his sixth shot. Remember: this is Tiger Woods, five-time Masters champion and one of the two greatest golfers in history, Jack Nicklaus being the other, making these mistakes, not some weekend hacker.

It hit the green hard and landed in the back bunker often described as treacherous. From a very awkward stance, he hit his sand shot too low and too hard and it skittered across the green and back into Rae’s Creek once again for a third penalty stroke. He pulled out another ball; pitched it onto the green lying eight and then two-putted for a 10.

There is no label for seven strokes over par on a single hole as there is for a double, triple or quadruple bogey. There are no words for the humiliation and dejection any golfer experiences who makes a 10 on a par 3, especially with 13 million people watching on television.

Somehow in some other-worldly way, Tiger Woods maintained his composure as he walked to the 13th tee. He birdied the par 5 and then parred No. 14 before doing what really is impossible for other mortal golfers: he birdied the next four holes in succession, the par 5 15th hole, the par 3 16th hole, the par 4 17th hole and the par 4 18th hole, to finish with a closing round 76 to finish the tournament tied for 38th.

Tiger Woods went from experiencing the worst hole of his long and storied career to his best score ever over the final six holes at the Masters in less than 90 minutes. How can anyone recover mentally and emotionally from such a disaster in such a short period of time to produce such extraordinary results?

Golf is just a game but sometimes it teaches life lessons we never forget. The main lesson is sportsmanship; golfers are the only athletes who call penalties on themselves to honor the rules of the game. Imagine such an ethic existing in every other aspect of life from business to politics to friends and family.

But in this almost unreported example, Tiger Woods teaches us to be resilient, to never give up, to take what life deals us and try to be excellent in whatever we do each time we do it.

There are some life lessons for us as a nation in that as well.

(first published in North State Journal 11/18/20)

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Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The Weight of Representative Self-Governance

At the time this piece was being written, the outcome of the national presidential election, and any other federal, state or local election, was unknown.

What we do know is that sometime, hopefully election night or Wednesday morning, or by the end of this week at the latest, we will know who is going to make decisions for us from the White House over the next four years on huge public policy issues for this great country of ours.

The great thing about representative democracy in a free nation is that each of us who votes has a vested interest, a stake in the outcome of each election. Our side may win or lose, but we still had a say as long as we exercised our right to vote.

America is not like the monarchies of Europe that many fled in the 17th and 18th centuries. No political primogeniture exists in America where the first-born son of the king takes over control of the kingdom to make decisions without consulting us.

Hillary Clinton was quoted recently as saying she “was born to be president” in a recent New York Times Opinion podcast, “Sway.”

Uhhhh, sorry Senator/Secretary Clinton, but obviously you were not born to be president. The Kennedys and the Bushes have had a good run in public service, but they have no divine right in America to the White House or any other political office, nor does anyone else, including the Clintons.

Every candidate has to earn enough votes to win. They compete on a merit basis for your vote, each and every last one of them.

With that vote comes an awesome responsibility for every citizen. Whomever you have voted for in the election, you own a piece of what they do in office. If you voted for more freedom, less government regulation, law and order and a strong foreign policy, you most likely voted for President Trump.

If you voted for former VP Joe Biden, you most likely voted for him because you 1) hated Donald Trump with a passion, 2) did not like his leadership or perceived lack thereof on COVID, 3) wanted more action on climate change and 4) wanted health care coverage for everyone.

If you voted for President Trump, you own a piece of his Twitter comments and somewhat outlandish comments in public on a wide variety of things. You might like most of his policies but his behavior and demeanor come as part of his package as well.

If you voted for Joe Biden because you tired of President Trump’s character and personality, you may get a more Caspar Milquetoast persona. However, in addition to getting a blander president, just know you probably will get the following as well: The $93 trillion Green New Deal, massive new tax increases, massive new regulations, the $32 trillion Medicare For All national insurance program and Elizabeth Warren as Treasury secretary for four years. Maybe eight.

To every #NeverTrumper Republican and Unaffiliated voter who voted for Biden because you thought you were getting a “moderate” president: if he wins, you will soon own all of the policies that the far-left socialist wing of the Democratic Party will foist upon him. He will not be able to veto everything they want to do. Given his advanced age, it is also fathomable that his running mate, Kamala Harris, will become president before 2024, and then you will have guaranteed the most socialist government America has ever had.

You can’t not own the results of your vote. You freely gave it to the man through which these policies will be introduced and passed and signed into law. Embrace every aspect of the Biden/Harris New World of American Socialism, because you will have helped make it happen.

Unfortunately for all of us, we all “own” the massive $26 trillion, soon-to-be $30 trillion national debt, regardless of who wins the White House. We can’t seem to vote for people who will balance the budget and reduce this threat to our future prosperity, so we are all guilty in this regard.

Rejoice in your victory, whichever side wins. Because you will get everything that is coming to you, the good and the bad and the very ugly.

(first published in North State Journal 11/4/20)

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