Philosophy

Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Don’t Say We Didn’t Tell You So

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The fallout from Michigan's prop 2 is clear as milk.

Prop 2 was a disaster in the making.

Controlling the process was never going to be neutral, and clearly the control would be in the hands of whichever party controls the elections, the questionable Jocelyn Benson.

We have pointed this out in the past with a series of videos, and now the outcome draws near.  The Michigan Republican Party in trying to ascertain the nature of the process being designed by our current Secretary of State for the NEW Gerrymandering schemes is being stonewalled with ridiculous FOIA fees. From the Detroit News:

The Secretary of State’s office estimated it would cost $45,904 to process an initial Freedom of Information Act request that sought “a vast amount of information” from the department, Chief Legal Director Michael Brady told the Michigan GOP in a June 7 letter.

The state used a “conservative” labor estimate to calculate a $10,049 fee for a “narrowed, but still very broad” second request, Brady said in a separate letter denying a Republican Party appeal.

All they want is an unadulterated explanation from documents addressing the process being formulated from the Sec of State.

Real transparency.

And as many who are familiar with FOIA might know, the cost is supposed to be premised on the labor rates of the lowest paid clerical workers who can perform the task.  This suggests one of two possibilities; that the clerical workers in the state are grossly overpaid, OR that Benson’s office isattempting to keeps it’s motivations and early planning from the people of the satet for political reasons.

One or the OTHER.

 

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Guilty?

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Inman likely no more guilty than many others in the legislature.

I was driving through St. Louis when I got the news that Larry Inman had been indicted.

It was pretty big news.  Disappointing, yet it didn’t surprise me.  In fact, there has been so much ‘questionable’ activity going on in Lansing for decades that it was not surprising that a representative with a record of poor instincts would be the victim of a sting operation.

At least that is my assessment of what happened.  Clearly there is pay for play in our state politics.  The existence of the MEDC, and by extension any organization that profits from doing business with the state would have incentive to fill campaign coffers.  Ask any one who still raises money after they have been term limited why they do so.  If they don’t tell you directly, then look at their campaign statements on the debt side.

It’s not for charity.

Mistakenly express the the wrong sentiment, in a way that is contextually vulnerable, to the wrong people, in the wrong format. Then whammo!  You get a Representative Larry Inman indictment.

But the GOP led house, wishing to remain unscathed in a (heavens forbid) scandal of such magnitude would prefer to let Larry off the bus, ask him to inspect the rear brake lights, and …well as one might see by now, the bus does have reverse.

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2020 Presidential Election, All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Economy, Education, Elections, Firearms, Immigration, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Religious Freedom, Roads, Taxes

SE Michigan Tea Party Meeting – May 21st (Utica)

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It’s not on the website yet, but the next meeting of the SE Michigan Tea Party will be featuring former Michigan State Senator Pat Colbeck who will be discussing the Michigan Grassroots Alliance which is an organization to coordinate interactions with elected officials, community leaders and candidates for public office with vendors and PACs.

The event will be held on Tuesday, May 21st at the Dave and Busters in Utica at the corner of Hall Road & the M-53 expressway. Doors open at 6:00pm and the meeting starts at 7:00pm.

If anyone is interested in learning more about the Michigan Grassroots Alliance, you can read more about them at their website or on Facebook.

 

 

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Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Hating Evil

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Do some churches willfully ignore their mission to fill seats?

A few days ago, I wrote a prayer.

My suggestion that hate is addictive does not mean we cannot oppose the ideas of those who mislead us.

Clearly, there are areas in which the Christian can focus negative energies battling the subversion of our cultural norms.  The further away we get from traditional family and positive standards of behavior, the easier it becomes to allow others to become our life surrogate. Government easily fills the vacuum left with an absence of the standard core of mother and father.

We know how well that works.

But where is the Christian at risk?  We attend our churches, express our faith in Christ, and depending on which congregation it is, may find ourselves listening to nonsense.  The pastors and church leaders too often overlook or misrepresent the teachings of Christ so as not to offend those who fill the seats for each service.

Many speak to the desired message instead of that which is clearly laid out in the bible, often offering excuse for what is clearly sin and an offense to God. Why? Because we are to love.  The implication that we be permissive and forgiving of acts that are biblically abominable.

A friend puts it this way: “The Heart is the door in which the devil steals our souls.”

On April 27, 2019 the MICPAC hosted several pastors and conservative thought leaders as part of it’s event.  Pastor Christopher Thoma speaks to this topic.  With conviction.

Enjoy.

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Michigan, Philosophy

Headlee History

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One of the most impactful tax limitations in Michigan history.

For decades, or rather for FOUR decades, we have enjoyed protections from over taxation.

At the April 27, 2019 MiCPAC event, Patrick Anderson & Norm Hughes discuss Richard Headlee, the history of Headlee legislative efforts, and the impact on Michigan’s ability to abuse the taxpayers.

Enjoy, and plan on attending the MiCPAC next year.

Or  check out the 2019 UPCPAC event June 14

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All the Other Stuff, Michigan, Opinion, Philosophy, Religious Freedom

National Day Of Prayer.

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John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

We can all be redeemed.

It is a decision one has to make.  We can accept the grace of God, or we can wallow in bitterness and hatred for others.  Hatred poisons the soul.  It physically manifests as addiction, and it binds us negatively to those with whom we find disagreeable.  Hatred is a trap, and is spiritually incompatible with the professing Christian.

The worst of us are made worthy already in the eyes of God through Christ our Lord.  And surprisingly, some of those who profess this belief cannot get beyond hatred of the man  who is our president.  He lives in their thoughts to be permanently scorned, abhorred, rejected outright. No matter the results of his efforts to secure for us a more prosperous, and healthy nation.

To which I offer this prayer.

Oh Lord, Father, Creator, giver of life, hear the cries of this nation.  Hear the despair that manifests itself as antipathy for the President, a man you have sent to lead our nation.  Right the hearts oh God, of those who cannot separate themselves from the hate to which they hold so tightly in their hearts.  Heal their wounded souls so they might know the difference between disagreement and willful revulsion.

Cure the poison within us Lord, so that we may find the path to you in righteous posture. Cast out our addiction to hatred and indignant pride. Reveal to all the love in Your holy word. Make a way for us to open our hearts and expel that which binds us to continued pain through obsession.

Oh Father hear our pleas.

Show those who seek you, how to love as you instruct. Put us in the paths of those who do not, we your willing servants, so they might know the way to you oh God.  Give us the strength to guide them to you Father in the name of your son Jesus who bore the weight of our sins and offered us eternal life.

Amen.

 

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Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

Site Prep

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When the MEDC says "hold my beer.."

Turnkey operations are clearly the next step.

It’s true, why not turn our government bureaucracies into full blown business incubators? Buy a number of corner buildings, land, ready spaces, and turn em into a new 7-11 chain, tux shop conglomerate, or CBD syndicate. Then, turn em over to someone willing to fill out the paperwork, stand on a stage with a governor,  and swear allegiance to the bureaucracy and our sacred Eco-Dev Central!

the MEDC is having a birthday.  In fact it is apparently ready to graduate from simple cronyism, to full blown Fascism.  Government determining which component of the economy it will promote with taxpayer money is certainly bad, but when it actually does the site work?  From Crains:

Are there are some areas outside of your control and domain that you think we ought to be focused on as a state in order to improve our chances to land the next company from San Jose?

The one that’s in our domain that we have started doing some work on — working with our local partners — and that’s having ready sites. Whether it’s just raw acreage that has the right infrastructure available in terms of electrical capacity, water and sewer. …

We are not a state that has a lot of available spec buildings — the 180,000-square-foot size buildings that have been built speculatively by developers that we can immediately turn to a prospect and say here’s a building you can move into in 60 days. We’re doing some work in that space both on the spec building side … as well as on the raw land site improvement to help get us better prepared or ahead of the curve to take advantage of some of the opportunities that are out there.

In other words “if we build, they will come”

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Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

The New Stasi

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Michigan's new thought police effort violates the 1st and 14th Amendments according to lawsuit by AFLC

Some of Michigan’s new administration’s nonsense goes beyond ‘virtue signalling’ or shaming.

We’ve had a few minutes for it to settle in.  But the bottom line is that Michigan’s newest Attorney General Dana Nessel is clearly using the power of the state to persecute those who would disagree with her worldview.  To the level legally possible, she is using public monies to pressure those who have something to say to either shut up or be pilloried in the court of public opinion.

And this publicly funded defamation, riding under the guise of fighting ‘hate speech’ is being done indiscriminately, and lazily.  Nessel’s new thought police unit is using a map to target, and developed by the SPLC, a private, ideologically driven legal services cult that frequently identifies churches or family organizations as hate groups.

One of those groups is having none of it.

In a lawsuit naming (the new hate crimes unit) DANA NESSEL, and AGUSTIN V. ARBULU (Michigan dept of civil rights director), the American Freedom Law Center has charged that Nessel has officially sanctioned the SPLC’s opinions as those of the state, putting groups like the AFLC officially under the umbrella of hate as described by a private entity.  Officially sanctioning the partisan opinions with the use of taxpayer dollars and the authority of the office to punish free speech and educational activities engaged in by the AFLC.

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Michigan, Philosophy

Sunday Sermon – Render Unto Caesar

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Who owns the vineyard.

Luke 20:1-24

One of the questions I get, as a pastor, is how I go about writing a sermon. For me, it begins with a review of the scriptures we have been given for the week. I think all of you know that we are a tradition that uses the common lectionary, which is a three year cycle of readings, that includes an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament Reading and a Gospel reading. I start by searching for one of the readings that might have a relevant message within in it.

When I read through the Gospel lesson, however, which was only verses 9-20, I was a little confused because the parable by itself made no sense at all. So, I pulled out one of my bibles and began reading from the beginning of the chapter and continued on a few verses beyond the parable. This is what I just read to you, and when I had the context of the situation it made much more sense to me. It was then that I could see that Jesus was begging the question, “who owns the vineyard?”

The chief priests, the scribes and the elders knew they had been bested by this question so they plotted further to trip Jesus up. So they send spies who pose the question of taxes. I am going to actually begin with that question, because it offers us a little context of the day.

The Jews of Jesus’ day were vexed at living under a foreign, pagan government, whose rule was enforced by an army of occupation. The Jews paid a land tax, an income tax, a poll tax, an import tax, and a tax on grain, wine, and oil. We may think we are heavily taxed today, but things were far worse in first century Israel. Well that is unless, of course, our current governor gets her way.

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