I was really disappointed to find out that Rand Paul was trying to get an amendment to the Constitution to balance the budget. Doesn't he talk to his Dad?
Here's a copy of my Mom's short letter on the subject:
Dear (Representative or Senator)
We do not want a Balanced Budget Amendment! What we need is representatives who honor their oath of office and keep their actions constrained within the scope and bounds established by the Constitution. If representatives were to do this, the deficit problem would take care of itself.
We don't want higher taxes in order to Balance the Budget. We don't want reps. buying votes and using loopholes in a B.B. Amendment to allow deficit spending or raising the debt ceiling based on 60 or 67 % approval or in time of war! No compromise! No Cut, Cap and Balance! No Con-con! Stick to the Constitution!
Here's a good article on this subject:
A Balanced Budget Amendment? by Scott N. Bradley, The New American
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Do we need a “Balanced Budget” Amendment? NO! A constitutionally sound, informed electorate could quickly bring about the conditions that would allow the nation to balance the federal budget and end deficit spending.
Thomas Jefferson wrote: “A nation that expects to be ignorant and free … expects what never was and never will be.” The voters must come to understand that it is our responsibility to make certain our Representatives honor their oath of office and keep their actions constrained within the scope and bounds established by the Constitution (no, the Constitution does not say “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need” — that was Karl Marx).
Put simply, if Congressmen were simply to honor their oaths of office to abide by the Constitution, the deficit problem would take care of itself. But were they to fail to do so, the only way the budget would be balanced is through a combination of gimmickry and higher taxes.
Currently, upwards of 80 percent of expenditures authorized by Congress and insisted upon by the executive branch (at the pandering insistence of the voters) violates the U.S. Constitution. Whether it is unconstitutional military “adventurism” around the world, foreign aid, ever-expanding entitlement programs, or redistribution of wealth to States, corporations, communities, or individuals, none of these activities is allowed by the Charter of the Nation. Immediate steps must be taken to curtail these encroachments. “Sunset” clauses must be incorporated into all entitlement programs, and no additional entitlement programs authorized.
No Balanced Budget Amendment is necessary if we insist that our elected Representatives keep their actions (and expenditures) within the bounds established by the United States Constitution!
In November 2010, using the power of the ballot box, we could have removed all of our unfaithful U.S. Congressmen and 1/3 of our Senators. A year from now we again have the opportunity to do the same thing, and also cleanse the executive branch.
There are currently a number of proposed Balanced Budget Amendments that have been introduced in the House and Senate. Each of these potential proposed Balanced Budget Amendments contains a number of fatal flaws: They all allow deficit spending based upon agreement of 60 or 67 percent approval of both houses of Congress (depending upon the amendment being considered).
With this stipulation, 60 Senators and 261 Congressmen, or 67 Senators and 292 Congressmen may approve a deficit budget. Because most Senators and Congressmen support the unconstitutional idea of buying votes back home by delivering largess out of the public treasury to their constituents, it is not hard to see how most budget votes will easily attain the required threshold as pork is added to the budget to buy the vote of a Senator or Congressman so that he can buy the votes for himself back home!
The practice of adding additional expenditures to buy the votes of reluctant Congressmen will continue at an even greater rate than it has in the past. Historically, most budget votes have easily attained a 60 percent approval threshold. So we can see that unless Representatives are willing to keep their actions within constitutional bounds, most budgets will exceed the available funds, and the result will be further deficits in spite of the Balanced Budget Amendment.
And if the Balanced Budget Amendment is in place, and when the required deficit-allowing threshold is not attainable, but the majority still want to spend the money they feel they need to spend (usually for items and issues not constitutionally allowed, but for such items as entitlement programs, stimulus packages, etc., and which they think are “important” for them to get reelected), they will wring their hands in impotent despair and bemoan the fact that the Constitution now requires the budget to be balanced; therefore, they will be required to raise taxes to cover the expenses, which they may do by meeting another vote threshold.
Even those who prefer a tax increase to a budget deficit will at some point reach the breaking point where they will no longer be able to sustain themselves because the government has devoured their entire living (“He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.” -Declaration of Independence).
The proposed amendments also allow the national debt ceiling to be raised with approval of 60 Senators and 261 Congressmen. Additionally, all of these provisions may be set aside with the approval of 51 Senators and 218 Congressmen if the United States is involved in a declared war.
More astounding, however, is the provision that allows continued deficit spending if 60 Senators and 261 Congressmen can be frightened into the belief that there is a serious threat to national security — made fearful enough to vote to suspend the Balanced Budget Amendment. If this provision seems reasonable, consider how rare the moments are in recent decades where the fearmongers have not promoted the idea that we are in a constant state of some kind of threat (à la the TSA’s grope and nude photo-op sessions every time you fly).
Consider the fright-frenzy that led to the passage of the Fourth Amendment-destroying USA PATRIOT Act in 2001 (House vote: 357 yeas, 66 nay; Senate vote: 98 yeas, 1 nays), and its recent renewal (House vote: 250 yeas, 153 nays, 28 not voting — for special favors could 11 more yeas have been bought? — Senate vote: 72 yeas, 23 nays, 5 not voting). The lopsided votes associated with the passage of a host of other freedom-destroying “national security” issues such as the fabricated fear that drove the passage of the 2002 Iraq War Resolution and the Military Commissions Act could also be cited. Food for thought!
In addition, it would be a miracle if the national leadership did not regularly resort to spending “off budget” (which is currently a common practice for “important” expenditures that they do not want to have calculated in the national debt for various reasons).
Today’s politicians have buried the nation in debt. They have done this by ignoring the constitutional limits of their power, acting as though they have power to tax and spend for any whim that strikes them. They tax trillions of hard-earned dollars each year from the citizens of this land, only to spend hundreds of billions (and even trillions) more each year than they collect. Sadly, most of the spending is not authorized by the United States Constitution.
There is an additional extreme danger we must associate with the effort to obtain a Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution: We may be certain that in the current political world a Balanced Budget Amendment will not garner the constitutionally required two-thirds majority of both houses of Congress and ratification of three-quarters of all states to become an amendment.
Consequently, as the call for a Balanced Budget Amendment increases in popularity among the good and caring people of the nation, they will become frustrated with Congress and call for a constitutional convention as provided for in Article V of the Constitution. In 1983, the United States came within two states of calling a constitutional convention, as the popular outcry for a Balanced Budget Amendment pushed the nation dangerously close to a Constitution- destroying constitutional convention.
If that happens, we will lose the entire Constitution, as a new one will be written and brought forth (as happened in 1787 during the only other constitutional convention this nation has experienced). In the current political environment, with the current lack of soundly principled statesmen, and with the current state of ignorance among the electorate, we must not be led into the trap of a con-con!
The solution is a return to the constraints of power on the federal government that exist within the U.S. Constitution. The problem is not with the Constitution. The Constitution is not flawed. It does not need to be changed in order to bring spending under control. The problem is that we have stopped applying the Constitution. We do not have to amend the Constitution to solve this problem, and we do not have to risk a con-con to bring things back into proper order.
The solution is to begin again to abide within the constraints so carefully defined within the plain English words of the U.S. Constitution. James Madison stated that the powers of the national government were “few and well defined.” Perhaps, when the people of the nation again understand that fact, the nation’s leadership will be compelled to abide by their oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States.
Hopefully, the electorate will become soundly grounded “constitutionalists” who will vigorously insist that their Representatives abide by their oath to uphold the Constitution, and that they will not hesitate to remove from office any and all who violate that strict oath.
Scott Bradley, a candidate for the United States Senate in 2006 and 2010, holds a Ph.D. in Constitutional Law. He is the founder and chairman of the Constitution Commemoration Foundation, Inc., and is the author of a book and DVD/CD lecture series entitled To Preserve the Nation.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Monday, July 25, 2011
Nice kitty...
Lately we've been hearing all sorts of stories about a mountain lion in our neighborhood. We've been cautious with our kids, but I wondered how many of these stories were real. It seems that all of them were second hand "I heard someone say" type stories. Oh, and a local news story about our neighborhood.
Well, on Saturday evening Jace was coming home from swimming with Spencer and another friend. They were riding their bikes through a wooded secluded trail. Jace's friend was ahead, and took a different fork to the trail than Jace did. Spencer was coming behind. Jace looked across a field, and thought he saw the mountain lion. So he stopped, backed up, and saw the mountain lion walking away from him into a clump of trees about 100 feet away. It went behind the trees just as Spencer came around the corner. Spencer wanted to go follow it, but luckily Jace had the sense to tell him "no way". They raced home. Jace was pretty full of adrenaline when he walked through the door.
We love living where the deer and moose roam, but we sure wish the lions would stay away.
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Pioneer Day
My kids really look forward to our Stake's annual "Pioneer Day" celebration every year. This year they were talking about it for weeks. On the way there, Abby was talking and singing to herself, as she usually does. She was saying: "a celebration.... We're going to a celebration!..." It was so sweet and innocent and helped to to think of life from her perspective. For me, this was a "make sure everyone is dressed, hair done, and in the car on time" type evening. For her, it was a mysterious, much-anticipated, and exciting event that she had heard her siblings talking about.
Our stake provides hundreds of sack lunches, drinks, watermelons, and fruit for everyone.
Zach and Andrew had talked with much bravado about how they were going to sit in the dunking booth and get soaking wet. When it came down to it, they just watched in awe, only getting brave enough to throw the baseball at the target a few times.
Spencer, however, got dunked multiple times
Jace signed up to participate in the "pie-eating contest". They chose other people, and he didn't get in, so he went and ate three large sub sandwiches, four little bags of chips, three cans of root beer, two pieces of watermelon, and 3 cookies. (That sounds like a page out of "The Very Hungry Caterpillar")
After completely stuffing himself in this manner, he was shocked to hear that they were calling his name out of the audience for the last round of the pie eating contest!!
They had another opening for the "adult" round, and they looked over the list, and just happened to choose his name. Here he is, eyeing his pie, thinking "I am so stuffed, bleah."
Get ready,
get set,
GO!!!
and the winner was....
Jace!!!
And the prize...a boxed pie from Frontier Pies. He didn't touch it that night.
And the next morning, he even willingly shared it with the whole family. I think that for the first time in his life, Jace reached his capacity for food.
Crash!!!
Camping...
In July:
Bob, Aliysa, and Jace went to Cedar Badge. They had fun backpacking, hiking, doing a r.o.p.e.s. course, and lots of leadership training, all while making lots of new friends. They've already had three Cedar badge "reunions". I don't have pictures! I'll try to find some and post them.
Courtney and Aliysa went to Girl's camp. It was Courtney's first year. She bought a camera before going, so most of these pictures are of her camp experience.
Here's all her "stuff".
Keya and Courtney
They had delicious food all week
Slid down the enormous slide.
Went on a hike in the absolutely gorgeous surroundings
Watched skits. This year's theme was "University of Eternity"
I went up one night of camp and got to be a part of the YW leader's cheerleader skit. I also got to slide down the slide, enjoy dinner, have ward campfire time, and work with the girls making these cute lanterns. Aren't they adorable? We had the girls make temple shapes on the ones we did.
Here's Aliysa in her skit. She was a "YCL" (Youth Camp Leader) this year, and she worked with the first year campers, so she and Courtney got to spend some good time together. Fun times.
The next week, Bob and Jace went on a "High Adventure" campout for the Varsity scouts in our ward. No pictures again. I'm going to have to make sure Bob takes "his" camera with him sometimes! They went to Island Park and spent a few days waterskiing, wakeboarding, going to a play at the Playmill theater, etc. Bob was just recently called as first counselor in the YM program. I am serving as the second counselor in the YW program, so mutual nights and Sundays are busy. We both absolutely love our callings though. Spencer is learning to step up and be a good babysitter when we are all gone to mutual.
Mallory went to her first day camp with her activity day group. She had fun doing archery, leatherworking, rope tying, obstacle course, human maze, parachute, etc.
Spencer went to day camp the next week. No pictures. He did leatherworking, bike riding, started fires, science experiments, archery, etc. He loved it. This is his last day camp, next year he'll be an 11-year old scout!
With the exception of a few more scout campouts for Bob and Jace, I think that ends our campouts for the summer.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Our 4th of July 2011
We played in the river
With Anne & Dan & Their Kids
We found out Taycie LOVES watermelon
We roasted hot dogs and ate fruit salad, baked beans, chips, veggies and dip, yummy.
Played in the sand
Had a horseshoe tournament...Bob and I got whipped by the new 2011 horseshoe champions - Anne and Dan. (I didn't notice until I posted this picture, though, that Dan is tripping Bob with a rake. Hmmm, that explains a lot)
Guess what I ATE!??
Yup, s'mores. No - I still am not eating refined sugar. I bought health food whole wheat, sugar free graham crackers, sugar-free all natural chocolate, and made my own marshmallows with honey!
Anne, who is also sugar-free, joined me in downing several marshmallows and chocolate (she's also gluten-free, so no grahams for her).
These marshmallows were pretty soft compared to usual ones, and that is what I am blaming the fact on that I ended up completely covered in marshmallow - I even had to wash it out of my hair that evening! Anne got enough on her pants that when she tried to uncross her legs, they were stuck together. Yes, yes, it is simply because they were softer than normal ones. It couldn't have been that we were so excited to eat marshmallows again that we were completely uncontrolled in the presence of such a sweet treat. Oh, good times. Bob couldn't stop chuckling and making remarks about Anne and Amy Peay...
Thwish is dewishous...
Afterwards, we went out to the tiny town of Menan that puts on an amazing firework show. We absolutely love going there, because we get there about 1/2 hour before the fireworks, and afterwards...we waited in traffic for, no kidding, 10 seconds. I love small towns.
Abby and Taycie watched the fireworks like this. I started worrying that Abby would be so sad when she realized that she didn't see the fireworks, so halfway through the show, I pulled her out of her carseat and tried to wake her up...no luck. 10:00 is just too late.
In my sugar-induced state of mind, I didn't take any pictures of us at the firework show. But here is a picture of the beautiful moon that was in the horizon as the fireworks were exploding. So pretty. If I were a journalist from a big city like Boston, I'd just superimpose some images of fireworks over this one, but being from Rigby, I think I'll keep my integrity and just end with this picture.
I love the 4th of July.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
God, Family, and Country
My Mom recently gave a talk about "God, Family, & Country". I want to share a good portion of her talk here. This will give a great snapshot of the way my siblings and I were raised. These are the quotes, teachings, and thoughts that were infused in our lives as we were growing up. I'm so thankful!
"Do you sometimes feel concerned about your relationship with your Heavenly Father, do you wonder if you are fulfilling your responsibilities as a member of your family? Are you concerned about the economy or how you can help turn things around in our country?
When Brother Hahn and I had a young family, we had some of the same concerns. We decided that we needed to set some goals and decide what our priorities would be for our family. President Benson had a book entitled, “God, Family, and Country, our three great loyalties” He said that each of these areas is important in our lives and counseled that we devote a portion of our time to each subject.
Emil and I decided to adopt the title of his book for our family motto. We each had a testimony that President Benson was truly a prophet of God and we felt like this motto would help us achieve our goal of becoming an eternal family.
We also found that the Lord had given us resources to help us in these three areas. The first resource, The Book of Mormon, helped us in our relationship with God… and with raising our family… and in understanding our duty to our country.
Joseph Smith said that “the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man can get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
In the Ensign, Jan. 1992 in an article titled “The Keystone of our Religion” Pres. Benson said, “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”
President Benson taught that “the book of Mormon brings men to Christ. It also exposes the enemies of Christ, confounds false doctrines and fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. He went on to say that God so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time”.
In a talk given in April of 1986 titled the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, President Benson said that “we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. He said that our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc”.
He went on to state that “our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.”
We learned that secret combinations are the devil’s plan for helping evil men conspire to deprive men of their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property so that they can get gain and feed their lust for power.
As we tried to teach our children the gospel, we were so grateful for the counsel of our prophets to hold family home evening, family prayer, and have regular family scripture study.
We have strong testimonies that these words by Marion G. Romney are indeed true: “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submisssive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity--the pure love of Christ--will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.” (CR April 1960)
The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and has a great power to help us and bless us if we will study it and try to live the teachings that are contained in it.
When we were raising our children, we didn’t have a resource that you have now and that is: “ The Family, A Proclamation to the World”. I believe that it is vital that we study it, understand it, believe it, and teach it to our children so that we, and they, can defend it against the attacks that will surely come because of the Church’s stand against certain sinful practices that are a threat to the family.
Concerning our loyalty to country, Emil and I took that to mean that, “because governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society” that we needed to understand the proper and improper role of government and then join with other freedom-loving people to make our influence felt. We joined a national organization which supported the Constitution in the tradition of the founding fathers and educated people about the threats to our freedom and the U.S. Constitution. We worked with others to warn our neighbors and to write letters to our representatives, etc.
We came to understand that the proper role of government was to PROTECT our God-given rights to life, liberty, and property and that the improper role of government was to forcefully take away those rights and to redistribute people’s wealth. We learned that secret combinations exist in all nations and that the great prophet Moroni warned us, “Wherefore the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you.”
President Benson taught that those who fight for freedom must first and foremost be righteous. He also said that “Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the prophet and hence keep the priesthood off balance, ineffective, and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning.
For example, he will argue, ‘There is no need to get involved in the fight for freedom--all you need to do is live the gospel.’ Of course this is a contradiction, because we cannot fully live the gospel and not be involved in the fight for freedom….How would you have reacted if during the War in Heaven someone had said to you, ‘Look, just do what is right; there is no need to get involved in the fight for free agency.’
The cause of freedom is a most basic part of our religion. Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not.”
Because of these statements and others, we felt that it was important to understand what was happening in our government and to take an active role in influencing current events for good. We also tried to help our children to be informed by studying the Constitution and other good books as part of our morning devotional.
The Lord gave us the Constitution of this nation by the hands of wise men whom he raised up unto this very purpose. President David O. McKay said in Conference in Oct. 1939, “Next to being one in worshipping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.”
President Benson asked: “Have we read the Constitution and pondered it? Are we aware of its principles? Could we defend it? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? The Church will not tell us how to do this, but we are admonished to do it.”
Brothers and sisters, it was a blessing for us to adopt the family motto: “God, family and country…our three great loyalties.” We used the resources that God gave us: The Book of Mormon, the teachings of the prophets, and the inspired Constitution of the United States to help us in our responsibilities. It is our testimony that our Heavenly Father will help us through the challenges that we face in our lives, that he will provide the things that we need to be successful in this life and in the life to come and that he will inspire us and give us answers to our questions and prayers through the Holy Ghost if we will strive to keep the commandments and heed the counsel of our living prophets."
"Do you sometimes feel concerned about your relationship with your Heavenly Father, do you wonder if you are fulfilling your responsibilities as a member of your family? Are you concerned about the economy or how you can help turn things around in our country?
When Brother Hahn and I had a young family, we had some of the same concerns. We decided that we needed to set some goals and decide what our priorities would be for our family. President Benson had a book entitled, “God, Family, and Country, our three great loyalties” He said that each of these areas is important in our lives and counseled that we devote a portion of our time to each subject.
Emil and I decided to adopt the title of his book for our family motto. We each had a testimony that President Benson was truly a prophet of God and we felt like this motto would help us achieve our goal of becoming an eternal family.
We also found that the Lord had given us resources to help us in these three areas. The first resource, The Book of Mormon, helped us in our relationship with God… and with raising our family… and in understanding our duty to our country.
Joseph Smith said that “the Book of Mormon is the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man can get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.”
In the Ensign, Jan. 1992 in an article titled “The Keystone of our Religion” Pres. Benson said, “There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance.”
President Benson taught that “the book of Mormon brings men to Christ. It also exposes the enemies of Christ, confounds false doctrines and fortifies the humble followers of Christ against the evil designs, strategies, and doctrines of the devil in our day. He went on to say that God so molded the Book of Mormon that we might see the error and know how to combat false educational, political, religious, and philosophical concepts of our time”.
In a talk given in April of 1986 titled the Book of Mormon is the Word of God, President Benson said that “we have not been using the Book of Mormon as we should. Our homes are not as strong unless we are using it to bring our children to Christ. He said that our families may be corrupted by worldly trends and teachings unless we know how to use the book to expose and combat the falsehoods in socialism, organic evolution, rationalism, humanism, etc”.
He went on to state that “our nation will continue to degenerate unless we read and heed the words of the God of this land, Jesus Christ, and quit building up and upholding the secret combinations which the Book of Mormon tells us proved the downfall of both previous American civilizations.”
We learned that secret combinations are the devil’s plan for helping evil men conspire to deprive men of their God-given rights to life, liberty, and property so that they can get gain and feed their lust for power.
As we tried to teach our children the gospel, we were so grateful for the counsel of our prophets to hold family home evening, family prayer, and have regular family scripture study.
We have strong testimonies that these words by Marion G. Romney are indeed true: “I feel certain that if, in our homes, parents will read from the Book of Mormon prayerfully and regularly, both by themselves and with their children, the spirit of that great book will come to permeate our homes and all who dwell therein. The spirit of reverence will increase; mutual respect and consideration for each other will grow. The spirit of contention will depart. Parents will counsel their children in greater love and wisdom. Children will be more responsive and submisssive to that counsel. Righteousness will increase. Faith, hope, and charity--the pure love of Christ--will abound in our homes and lives, bringing in their wake peace, joy, and happiness.” (CR April 1960)
The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and has a great power to help us and bless us if we will study it and try to live the teachings that are contained in it.
When we were raising our children, we didn’t have a resource that you have now and that is: “ The Family, A Proclamation to the World”. I believe that it is vital that we study it, understand it, believe it, and teach it to our children so that we, and they, can defend it against the attacks that will surely come because of the Church’s stand against certain sinful practices that are a threat to the family.
Concerning our loyalty to country, Emil and I took that to mean that, “because governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society” that we needed to understand the proper and improper role of government and then join with other freedom-loving people to make our influence felt. We joined a national organization which supported the Constitution in the tradition of the founding fathers and educated people about the threats to our freedom and the U.S. Constitution. We worked with others to warn our neighbors and to write letters to our representatives, etc.
We came to understand that the proper role of government was to PROTECT our God-given rights to life, liberty, and property and that the improper role of government was to forcefully take away those rights and to redistribute people’s wealth. We learned that secret combinations exist in all nations and that the great prophet Moroni warned us, “Wherefore the Lord commandeth you, when ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation, because of this secret combination which shall be among you.”
President Benson taught that those who fight for freedom must first and foremost be righteous. He also said that “Satan is anxious to neutralize the inspired counsel of the prophet and hence keep the priesthood off balance, ineffective, and inert in the fight for freedom. He does this through diverse means, including the use of perverse reasoning.
For example, he will argue, ‘There is no need to get involved in the fight for freedom--all you need to do is live the gospel.’ Of course this is a contradiction, because we cannot fully live the gospel and not be involved in the fight for freedom….How would you have reacted if during the War in Heaven someone had said to you, ‘Look, just do what is right; there is no need to get involved in the fight for free agency.’
The cause of freedom is a most basic part of our religion. Our position on freedom helped get us to this earth and it can make the difference as to whether we get back home or not.”
Because of these statements and others, we felt that it was important to understand what was happening in our government and to take an active role in influencing current events for good. We also tried to help our children to be informed by studying the Constitution and other good books as part of our morning devotional.
The Lord gave us the Constitution of this nation by the hands of wise men whom he raised up unto this very purpose. President David O. McKay said in Conference in Oct. 1939, “Next to being one in worshipping God there is nothing in this world upon which this Church should be more united than in upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States.”
President Benson asked: “Have we read the Constitution and pondered it? Are we aware of its principles? Could we defend it? Can we recognize when a law is constitutionally unsound? The Church will not tell us how to do this, but we are admonished to do it.”
Brothers and sisters, it was a blessing for us to adopt the family motto: “God, family and country…our three great loyalties.” We used the resources that God gave us: The Book of Mormon, the teachings of the prophets, and the inspired Constitution of the United States to help us in our responsibilities. It is our testimony that our Heavenly Father will help us through the challenges that we face in our lives, that he will provide the things that we need to be successful in this life and in the life to come and that he will inspire us and give us answers to our questions and prayers through the Holy Ghost if we will strive to keep the commandments and heed the counsel of our living prophets."
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Vaccine Study about Aborted Embryo Stem Cells.
Former drug company scientist Helen Ratajczak recently created a firestorm of debate from all sides of the vaccine-autism issue when she published her comprehensive review of autism research. This is a massively important study, for more than one reason. One element brought to light that has managed to stay well below the radar is the use of aborted embryonic cells in vaccine production.
CBS News recently reported:
“Ratajczak reports that about the same time vaccine makers took most thimerosal out of most vaccines (with the exception of flu shots which still widely contain thimerosal), they began making some vaccines using human tissue.Former drug company scientist Helen Ratajczak recently created a firestorm of debate from all sides of the vaccine-autism issue when she published her comprehensive review of autism research. However, her 79-page review contains one detail that could easily go unnoticed—five words that reveal one of the most shocking secrets Big Pharma has ever kept from you.
Ratajczak says human tissue is currently used in 23 vaccines. She discusses the increase in autism incidences corresponding with the introduction of human DNA to MMR vaccine, and suggests the two could be linked.”
"…Grown in human fetal tissue."The line reads (page 70):
"An additional increased spike in incidence of autism occurred in 1995 when the chicken pox vaccine was grown in human fetal tissue."If you are struggling to recall how you could have missed this important fact when signing your vaccine consent form, it wasn't your error—because it wasn't disclosed on any consent form. Most people are unaware that human cell cultures derived from aborted human fetuses have been used extensively in vaccine production for decades. And vaccine makers are happy that most of the public has remained ignorant of this fact, as awareness of it could blow up in their faces.
Setting aside, for the moment, unknown long-term health consequences of DNA contamination and religious beliefs about use of aborted fetal tissues—the ethics of nondisclosure are reprehensible. Drug companies and vaccine policy-makers should not be allowed to decide whether or not to share this information with you. This is information you should have received PRIOR to making a choice about whether or not to vaccinate.
Sources:
Dr. Mercola's Article
LifeSiteNews February 7, 2005
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