Government Debt

So one of the huge issues for me in politics is the debt.  I see it as robbing from future generations in order to live beyond our means in the present.  Not only that, it's against Christian values as you can read in so many Bible verses.  In fact many people don't know that the Bible talks about money that almost any other topic!

I was really impacted by Andy Stanley's Recovery Road series.  You can watch/listen to the great messages from it at http://recoveryroad.org/.  In the series Andy encouraged us to let our faith determine what we support politically and be sure what/who we support is aligned with Biblical principles.  It was amazing how much the Bible had to say about today's problems as things weren't much different back then as the quote shows below:

"The budget should be balanced, the Treasury should be refilled, public
debt should be reduced, the arrogance of officialdom should be tempered
and controlled, and the assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed
lest Rome become bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of
living on public assistance." Cicero , 55 BC

Things didn't end well for Cicero.  According to Plutarch, a Roman Centurian slew him, then cut off his head. On Marc Antony's instructions his hands were cut off as well; these were nailed and displayed along with his head in the Forum. Antony's wife Fulvia took Cicero's head, pulled out his tongue, and jabbed it repeatedly with her hairpin in final revenge against Cicero's power of speech.  Guess some things never change, people never want to hear the difficult truth, even if it leads to the downfall of their society like the Romans.

I was really impacted by the graph below.  Some people say things like "cut welfare" or "tax this group or that group", but you can see by the charts below that if you cut EVERYTHING other than defense, medicare and social security we're still way in the hole.  Also, if you DOUBLE the amount of taxes everyone pays we're still in the red.  It let me know just how dire things were.

So I guess this year I hope the public will be realistic.  If someone promises you lower taxes AND higher spending, no matter the party, beware.  Let's be good Christians and good stewards for both our benefit and future generations.

Learn more about 

us debt.

Running for a good cause

So on Saturday I ran the Roswell 13.1 "alien themed" half marathon.  I missed a critical component of the marathon experience however.......training.  I hadn't run in about 4 weeks with the wedding and honeymoon. It was rough, but I survived.

On September 8th I'll be running for a different reason up in Wisconsin.  The Fox Valley Brain Tumor Coalition (FVBTC) will be holding their annual race.  The race benefits their work to support the patients of brain tumors and their caregivers.  It's a really cool race in that the patients themselves are encouraged to participate!  Some may only make it 50 feet and others just a step or two, but that's not the point, it's all about support and encouragement for what can be a very depressing disease.  My dad's goal is to make one lap, about a half mile.  I have no clue how far I'll go, but all that matters to me is being there to support my dad.  If you're interested in learning more about the great work of the FVBTC or donating, my dad has setup a race page below:

http://www.fvbtc.org/participant/home.php?pid=137

Dad at home!

Dad is improving and is now home! Hope to restart more aggressive tumor treatment (almost forgot about that part) this week. In other news Port Douglas Australia is beautiful! Awesome honeymoon trip.

Good news on Dad

Hi from Sydney! Awesome day yesterday at opera house and zoo! What's more awesome is that dad's white blood cell count is up to 1.3 and he should go home tomorrow and start Cyberknife treatment next week. Although we're already having an awesome time, this lifts some weight and let's us enjoy ourselves just a bit more down here. Well at a McDonalds on free wifi in Sydney on my iPhone, time to go back to being a tourist, but wanted to share the good news!