Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Bible Study: Christian Election Guide

Christian Election Guide from Bible Study Old Testament The Proverbs Chapter 29:2, 12, 18 When the wicked rule, the people mourn—The righteous consider the cause of the poor—Where there is no vision, the people perish. 2 When the arighteous are in … Continue reading →

http://dinnertopics.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/bible-study-christian-election-guide/

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Romney and Hurricane Sandy

He was here in Kettering, Ohio, and he was meant to make a campaign stop, but he changed it into more of a rally to help the devastation that has occurred on the East Coast.  “Ye shall know them by … Continue reading →

http://dinnertopics.wordpress.com/2012/10/31/romney-and-hurricane-sandy/

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Stress Management, Classical Music, and Johann Strauss Jr

Johann Strauss Jr: Waltz King

Dinner Topics for Friday

Voces de Primavera
 


Vienna Waltz






Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899), also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son (German: Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.
 

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Christian Election Guide from Bible Study



Study of these passages from the Bible and other scriptures can give us a Christian Election Guide.

Old Testament

The Proverbs

Chapter 29:2, 12, 18

When the wicked rule, the people mourn—The righteous consider the cause of the poor—Where there is no vision, the people perish.
When the arighteous are in bauthority, the people crejoice: but when the dwicked beareth erule, the people fmourn.
12 If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. 
18 Where there is no avision, the people bperish: but he that ckeepeth the dlaw, ehappy is he.

The First Book of Samuel

Chapter 8:4-19

Samuel’s sons take bribes and pervert judgment—The Israelites seek for a king to rule over them—Samuel rehearses the nature and evils of kingly rule—The Lord consents to give them a king.

4-6Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to Samuel unto Ramah, And said unto him, Behold, thou art old, and thy sons awalk not in thy ways: now make us a bking to judge us like all the nations.¶But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the avoice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have brejected meNow therefore hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet aprotest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the bking that shall creign over them.

 10 ¶And Samuel told all the words of the Lord unto the people that asked of him a king.

 11-17 And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you:
·         He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.
·         And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to aear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.
·         And he will take your daughters to be aconfectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.
·         And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.
·         And he will take the atenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.
·         And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, …
·         He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

 18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your aking which ye shall have bchosen you; and the Lord will not chear you in that day.

 19 ¶Nevertheless the people refused to aobey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us;

20 That we also may be like all the anations;

[Who is making our nation like the socialist nations of Europe?]

The Book of Mormon:

Another Testament of Jesus Christ


The Book of Mosiah

Chapter 29:6-7, 16-17, 21-27, 35-38

6 Now I declare unto you that he to whom the kingdom doth rightly belong has declined, and will not take upon him the kingdom.
 7 And now if there should be another appointed in his stead, behold I fear there would rise acontentions among you. And who knoweth but what my son, to whom the kingdom doth belong, should turn to be angry and bdraw away a part of this people after him, which would cause wars and contentions among you, which would be the cause of shedding much blood and perverting the way of the Lord, yea, and destroy the souls of many people.

16-17 Now I say unto you, that because all men are not just it is not expedient that ye should have a aking or kings to rule over you. For behold, how much ainiquity doth one bwicked king cause to be committed, yea, and what great destruction!

21-23 And behold, now I say unto you, ye cannot dethrone an iniquitous aking save it be through much contention, and the shedding of much blood.
·          For behold, he has his afriends in iniquity, and he keepeth his guards about him; and he teareth up the laws of those who have reigned in righteousness before him; and he trampleth under his feet the commandments of God;
·         And he enacteth laws, and sendeth them forth among his people, yea, laws after the manner of his own wickedness; and whosoever doth not obey his laws he acauseth to be destroyed; and whosoever doth rebel against him he will send his armies against them to war, and if he can he will destroy them; and thus an unrighteous bking doth pervert the ways of all righteousness.

24-25 And now behold I say unto you, it is not expedient that such abominations should come upon you. Therefore, choose you by the avoice of this people, judges, that ye may be bjudged according to the claws which have been given you by our fathers, which are correct, and which were given them by the hand of the Lord.

26 Now it is not common that the avoice of the people desireth anything bcontrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the cpeople to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law—to do your business by the voice of the people.
 27 And aif the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.

35 And he also unfolded unto them all the disadvantages they labored under, by having an unrighteous aking to rule over them;
 36 Yea, all ahis iniquities and abominations, and all the wars, and contentions, and bloodshed, and the stealing, and the plundering, and the committing of whoredoms, and all manner of iniquities which cannot be enumerated—telling them that these things ought not to be, that they were expressly repugnant to the commandments of God.

37 And now it came to pass, after king Mosiah had sent these things forth among the people they were aconvinced of the truth of his words.
 38 Therefore they relinquished their desires for a king, and became exceedingly anxious that every man should have an equal achance throughout all the land; yea, and every man expressed a willingness to answer for his own sins.

The Doctrine and Covenants

Section 98

5 And that alaw of the land which is bconstitutional, supporting that principle of freedom in maintaining rights and privileges, belongs to all mankind, and is justifiable before me.
 Therefore, I, the Lord, justify you, and your brethren of my church, in befriending that law which is the aconstitutional law of the land;

 7 And as pertaining to law of man, whatsoever is more or less than this, cometh of evil.
 8 I, the Lord God, make you afree, therefore ye are free indeed; and the law also maketh you free.
 Nevertheless, when the awicked brule the people mourn.
10 Wherefore, ahonest men and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should observe to uphold; otherwise whatsoever is less than these cometh of evil.

Dinner Talk
Christian Election Guide from Bible and Scripture Study

1. What does Doctrine and Covenants 98:5-10 teach us about the Constitution of the United States? What kind of leaders should we support?

2. Edmund Burke said, “Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” How does this usually apply to kings?



Biblical Guide to the Book of Mormon: Learn how the Book of Mormon verifies the Bible. Easy, Dinner- topic style. Non-doctrinal, understandable for all ages. 

A regrettable number of young people are losing their faith during their high school and college education. They are taught that the epic stories from the Bible are myths. Use this Biblical Guide to the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, to prove the Bible is true and bring your children to Christ.

Epic Stories for Character Education


 



Tuesday, October 16, 2012

President Obama, Congress, and Budget Timeline


 American History Timeline: Pay Attention

The day the democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was actually January 3rd 2007 the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, at the very start of the 110th Congress. The Democrat Party controlled a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.
For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault", think about this:

January 3rd, 2007 was the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress.
At the time:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB GROWTH
Remember the day...

 

January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
Unemployment... to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

Bush asked Congress 17 TIMES to stop Fannie & Freddie - starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy.

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA
And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie? BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA and the Democrat Congress

So when someone tries to blame Bush.
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007.... THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"


Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democrat Party.
Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2007 & 2008 as well as 2009 & 2010.


In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.


For 2007 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budgets.


And where was Barack Obama during this time? He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. 


If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2006 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending.  After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Hussein Obama, who voted for the budgets.  If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Barack Hussein Obama is saying is I inherited a deficit that I voted for and then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Paul Ryan, Joe Biden, and Heritage Foundation Facts



Heritage Foundation offers Calm Assessment over Noise of Biden-Ryan Debate


Here are some facts about issues discussed in the debate to help serve as an Election Guide for you 



Vice President Biden and Representative Paul Ryan squared off (Thursday) night for a spirited and intense 90-minute debate at Centre College in Danville, KY. Topics ranged from foreign to domestic, touching on serious issues that Heritage policy experts grapple with every day.
While many commentators were critiquing style, a team of 19 Heritage experts cut through the malarkey and focused on substance. They reacted instantly to the debate last night, providing policy research on the multitude of questions raised by moderator and ABC News correspondent Martha Raddatz. Below are some of the highlights of our experts’ reactions to the major issues addressed.

We will be discussing the debate in our first-ever Google Hangout today at noon ET. Follow us on Google+ to join the conversation.

Don’t Blame Budget Cuts for Libya Embassy Attack

Biden claimed that Ryan’s budget is partly responsible for the failures of security that led to the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans, saying that “The Congressman here cut embassy security in his budget by $300 million below what we asked for.”

As Heritage expert Brett Schaefer pointed out on The Foundry: “Overall funding for those programs has increased sharply over the past decade. Indeed, Worldwide Security Protection is more than double what it was a decade ago. … Moreover, the State Department has considerable latitude in allocating security funds based on current events and intelligence on possible threats. Why that latitude was not applied in Libya deserves further scrutiny.”
It’s also worth noting that the U.S. Senate has not actually adopted a budget in more than three years. So it is hard to see how the appropriations process is the appropriate place to start looking for the failures that led to the death of Stevens and his colleagues. The problems run deeper than that.
–Ted Bromund, Senior Research Fellow in Anglo-American Relations, The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom

A Not-So-Balanced Approach on Spending

Biden echoed the all-too-familiar mantra that a so-called “balanced approach” is necessary to fix our spending and debt issues. Sounds fair, right? Except that the policy prescription he and President Obama advocate consists of more stimulus spending – disguised as critical investments, of course — plus massive tax hikes on high-income earners and small businesses, for starters. That’s a double whammy guaranteed to harm the economy.
Ryan rightly points out the sluggish economic growth the United States has experienced recently. The unemployment rate is still outlandishly high, and GDP has grown at a crawling rate. It is hardly the recovery Americans were assured would result from federal stimulus spending. That’s all the more reason not to double down on tax hikes on Americans or propose even more government spending. The economy needs to be free from the threat of Taxmageddon and other tax hikes, and Washington needs to curb its spending problem.
–Emily Goff, Research Associate, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies

The Transnational Terrorism Threat
The debate took a quick tour over the landscape of transnational terrorism from Libya to Iraq to Afghanistan to Iran. It was so quick that no one bothered to explain where the war against transnational terrorism stands today.

The case in Libya is tragically all too clear. Al-Qaeda affiliates have established a base in the country. In Iraq, the AP recently reported that since the United States “ended” the war, the number of al-Qaeda in the country has doubled. Iran remains one of the world’s most notorious state sponsors of terrorism. The Taliban and other affiliates are threatening the stability of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Whoever holds the Oval office in January is going to have to deal with a significant transnational terrorism threat. The current U.S. strategy is just not up to the task.
–James Jay Carafano, Deputy Director, The Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Studies, and Director, Douglas and Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies

Obama Tax Hike Would Devastate Jobs

Biden discussed President Obama’s plan to raise the top two marginal tax rates. If that were to occur, the economy would create 710,000 fewer jobs, according the accounting firm Ernst & Young. Jobs would suffer badly because, even though the Vice President said only 3 percent would pay those higher rates, those 3 percent are the biggest, most successful small businesses that do all the hiring. The Ernst & Young study found the Obama tax hike would devastate jobs because those businesses that would pay the higher rates employ 54 percent of the private workforce.

On the other hand, tax reform like Governor Mitt Romney and Ryan propose would lower rates to encourage growth and do so without reducing revenue or shifting the tax burden from high income taxpayers to middle income families. Even the Tax Policy Center, which is the group Obama and Biden cite to criticize the Romney tax plan, does not claim the Romney plan would reduce revenue — never mind by $5 trillion.
–Curtis Dubay, Senior Policy Analyst, Tax Policy, Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies

The $6,400 Question on Medicare