Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the farmer's house.

I hope you took time today to celebrate the birth of the Saviour of the World.

The Saviour of the World

W.Y. Fullerton, 1857-1932 sung to an old Irish melody

I cannot tell why He whom angels worship,
Should set His love upon the sons of men,
Or, why, as Shepherd, He should seek the wand-'rers,
To bring them back, they know not how or when:
but this I know, that Christ was born of Mary,
when Bethl'hems manger was His only home,
And that He lived at Nazareth and labored,
And so the Saviour, Saviour of the world, is come.


We had a rather different Christmas this year.

In case you were unaware the mid-west is engulfed by a large and lingering winter storm. It has been precipitating in one form of another since late Monday/early Tuesday, and probably won't quit until afternoon tomorrow. I'm sure we've had at least 8 to 10 inches of snow and it is snowing now. It rained all afternoon on Thursday. Now the temp has dropped into the middle teens, and the slushy snow and ice have frozen hard.

So we did not travel to either side of the families homes, rather we stayed here by the fire, where it's warm and cozy, just the immediate family. We had ham and baked potatoes for dinner with green bean casserole and frozen sweet corn. I spent some time out in my shop working on the project I am supposed to be giving my dad for Christmas. It's not quite done, but I have started the painting phase. But some primer on this afternoon.

Again Merry Christmas, God bless all of you.

A friend set me an email entitled: Democrat with a Rifle

The Return of the Great Depression

Return of the Great Depression by Vox Day


In case you were unaware, the financial/economic world has been going through a period of profound distress in the last 18 to 24 months. My two years of college with a series of general requirement classes did not include any economic classes. In the years since, the subject has always been one I never took the time to include in my attempts at expanding my knowledge base. In an effort to better understand these events, I have read all or part of several books related to this topic. Over a year ago while the TARP bailout was being debated, the stock market was falling and the country was throwing George W. Bush and his political cronies under the bus. I read some of Murray Rothbard's "America's Great Depression" with a group of people at Vox Popoli blog. Each week we would read a chapter, then take a quiz and discuss that weeks reading. The latter part of fall harvest and the holidays interfered with my plan to finish that book.

This spring I bought Thomas Wood's book, "Meltdown" and got it read just before planting started. I have Ron Paul's "End the Fed" laying in my stack of books to read.

Being a regular reader at Vox Popoli blog, when Vox announced that he was writing "Return of the Great Depression" I quickly acquired a copy as soon as it was available. Of course it came during harvest this fall, so I've just now completed reading it.

As I've already mentioned, until the last year I had very little knowledge of economics. "Return of the Great Depression" is a very effective tool for expanding one's knowledge base on this topic. The book addresses all of the various economic theories, while at the same time, pointing out some of the flaws/failures in those theories. It seemed to me that as an overview of economics, the book is useful in laying a groundwork upon which to do further study.

We've all heard of Keynes in the recent months, yet I did not understand the extent to which all of the economic actions taken by the government and the "Fed" have been influenced by Keynes in one way or another. I did not know anything about the monetarist theory nor the "Chicago School", even though I had heard of Milton Friedman. BTW, for those of you who still listen to Limbaugh, this is one reason he so despises Ron Paul and those who want to return to a gold standard. Limbaugh is a proponent of the Chicago School, and Friedman.

I had never heard of David Ricardo and his Vice. And I have long since concluded that the "Beast from the Sea" is an apt description of the fourth bank of North America. The subchapter on that topic includes an excellent short history of the "central bank" concept in the United States, leading to the obvious conclusion that we should rightfully "End the Fed".

The style of the book is different than I expected. Imagine listening in on a lecture in which the topic is the history of economics and finance. Since most effective speakers make the topic personal, the lecturer starts with an account of his own experience during the Japanese boom and it's following bust. The lecturer then begins to lay out the history of economic theories while at the same time interspersing comments and ideas on current events into the lecture. The conclusion of the lecture is a summation of the reasons to believe that we are about to experience a "Return of the Great Depression", This is followed by a list of six possible scenarios which will unfold either refuting or confirming that idea.

Vox concludes with a list of practical policies which would help, in the long term, to fix the coming distress. They are interesting, if almost completely impossible to see happening, since all of them require political and financial leaders with integrity and conviction who would be willing to do some serious amputation in order to save the patients life. Instead they will keep applying more leeches while promising another blood transfusion.

I can also say I never expected to see a poem in a book on economics, and I'm sure I did not understand it, but it certainly was different.

Get "Return of the Great Depression" for yourself. You will learn some facts about economic theory, you will certainly learn some history, and depending on which scenario you chose to accept, you can prepare for the economic future with a better understanding of the coming events.

Something Very Unusual

I've worked for the same farming operation since 1997. We typically start the day at 7:00 am. For only the second time since I worked there, I got a phone call this morning telling me not to come to work.

In these days of AGW, (Anthropogenic Global Warming) we are having a major snow storm. Seems that all of Iowa is shut down for the day.

The boss was out on the tractor with the snow blower, trying to make a path so that we could get to the farm. And he could not see the road ditch on either side from the tractor seat.

So I'm currently sitting at the computer at 7:30 in the morning, with a nice warm fire in the fireplace.


What's your weather like?

Update: The boss called about 3:00 pm and said he was coming out with the snow blower, to clear the 4 to five foot drifts out of my yard. I could not even drive the 4 wheel drive pickup out of the shed. After he blew the snow out I went and did the evening chores. Put fresh bedding in for the cattle, and moved some more snow out at the main farm, so that we can wean pigs in the morning. Got home about 6:30, and the county still had not plowed any of the roads. Had to drive through someones yard to get around one pickup stuck in a drift that must have been 6 feet deep and twenty or thirty yards long.

More Video

So, you think things are improving, the economic crisis is easing and we are on the road back to normal. I'm sure this little video will make your day.

Listen carefully at 1:30 into the speech by the new President of the European Union (I can't spell the name) on the 19th November, 2009.









Here is the most important part of the speech.

"We're living through exceptionally difficult times – the financial crisis and its dramatic impact on employment and budgets, the climate crisis which threatens our very survival, a period of anxiety, uncertainty and lack of confidence," he said in his maiden press conference. "Yet these problems can be overcome through a joint effort between our countries. 2009 is also the first year of global governance with the establishment of the G20 in the middle of the financial crisis. The climate conference in Copenhagen is another step toward the global management of our planet."

I think any further comments are unnecessary.

Viewer Warning

Before you view this video from SNL, beware that it is borderline , no, it is crass, and tasteless.

It is however very indicative of the position we as a nation find ourselves in. Our president is a laughing stock, deservedly so. We are in genuine economic peril, we have sold ourselves into slavery, and the man who represents our nation to the world, seems to believe that he can lie with abandon to everyone he meets. And even his liberal cohorts are beginning to make jokes about his complete and utter incompetence.

Again, you have been warned. This is not child friendly. And if you would rather not see reference to immoral activities, please refrain from watching.

Video Recaps | Full Episodes | Webisodes

Soybean Harvest is finally over.

Chopping Earlage

Each year we chop earlage to fill the silos here on the farm.

from Greg Lardy, a North Dakota State University Extension Service beef specialist,

Earlage, which is ensiled corn grain, cobs, and in some cases husks, is higher in energy than corn silage with similar protein content. It’s lower in energy than corn grain because it includes the husk and cob, but it works well in a variety of cattle diets, including growing and finishing diets for beef cattle and feed for lactating dairy cows,

The chopper is a John Deere 5820. I think the hp rating is in the 325 range, I'm not certain. This particular chopper was sold new in Germany. A business in Minnesota imported the used machine, (came over on a ship). My understanding was the shipping costs were less than 2500 dollars.


In the first video if you look closely you can see the speed hitch system we use. It automatically hitches the forage wagon to the pulling implement.



Next we drive alongside the chopper and the forage box it is pulling. The chopper has a regular corn head which strips the ears of corn off of the plants, then the ears flow back to a drum with 48 knives on it, (about 3 inches long, razor sharp,) which cut the ears of corn into pieces which must pass through the holes in a 3/4 inch screen. The chopped ear corn then passes into a blower, (literally a giant fan with paddles on it) which throw the corn out of the machine into the wagon.



After the corn is chopped into the wagon it is hauled to the silo. There it is fed into another blower which blows it all the way to the top of a seventy foot silo. The blower spins at 1000 rpm. Laying horizontal to the ground at the bottom of the blower is a spinning disk with small paddles on it, which throws the earlage into the moving paddles of the blower.(Think throwing something into the moving blades of a fan.)










We completed chopping corn, almost exactly a month later than normal, blame it on global climate change or something, the crop was simply far behind normal in maturing. The rest of harvest is going just as slow or worse. The crop is not drying down naturally, we have had abnormal amounts of rain, and cold weather.

Many years the entire harvest is done by the second week of November. At the rate it's going now, we will not be done till some time in December.

NICE!!

The Billboard I'd Like to Have at the End of My Lane

Mental Gymnastics

Dict.com

gymnastics

(used with a pl. verb)

(used with a pl. verb)

a.

Complex intellectual or artistic exercises: mental gymnastics.


An intellectual challenge!

Last Saturday, I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon at the ordination counsel of a good friend.He had served as an intern pastor at our church while attending Bible college and seminary. He is currently an assistant pastor of a church in our fellowship.

So I participated in a three and a half hour session of questioning him on his understanding of the Word of God, his ability to use Scripture to defend those answers and I hope challenging him to study some areas where his answers were "weak".

Since I am a fundamentalist, I believe in the inspiration of Scripture, and that Scripture should be our final authority for faith and practice. I find it a stimulating exercise to watch and participate in this process. I derive as much enjoyment from the mental challenge of attempting to answer the questions as I do from hearing a good man do well in defending his beliefs.

Questions about the God/man Jesus Christ, His ability to sin or not, His relationship to the Father, etc, and then backing those answers with Scripture is a real intellectual challenge. He got questions regarding the Canon of Scripture, inspiration, etc.

Practical questions about ministry, such as the role of music in the church, his understanding of the divorce and remarriage issue,

He was challenged on his personal prayer life, his personal witness, what he was currently reading, .............

Anyway, I had a great time. Because he handled the Word of God effectively in answering the questioners, because he clearly has a solid grasp of Biblical knowledge, and probably the most fun was forcing myself to mentally answer every question he faced, that was a real challenge and one I throughly enjoyed.



And yes the counsel did recommend to the church that they proceed with the ordination.

A summary of the last few weeks.

Our CO vacation started on a Monday afternoon. We drove to southern Iowa, picked up the stuff we were hauling west for a friend. Stayed at my folks place Monday night. Left bright and early 6:08 AM headed west. Stopped several times going across that wasteland which is Nebraska so that the driver could stretch his legs and the rest of the crew didn't kill each other.

When we got into CO we took 71 south to Limon, drove through a thunderstorm with some light hail, and then took 24 on the angle into CO Springs. Arrived at the friends home around 7:00 had a bite of supper and were done unloading about 24 hours after we loaded the stuff in Iowa.

Stayed at a very nice hotel courtesy of my brother who works for one of the major hotel chains. He got us a very nice room for about 40 dollars, regularly $120? Did lots of touristy stuff on Wednesday, and Thursday, drove up Pike's Peak on Thursday. Did not enjoy that experience. I'm a flat lander folks. When I look out of the truck and can't see anything but blue sky beside, below and above me, I get just a little shaky in my boots. My kids were laughing at me. They've seen me drive in a blizzard with one hand on the steering wheel and a MT. Dew in the other. I was steering with both hands and white knuckles on Pike's Peak.

After we survived that experience, WB a friend I've met through some of the blogs I frequent, invited us to his home for buffalo burgers. We had some home raised hamburgers so we gave them to him to try. We throughly enjoyed the evening.He and his lovely wife were very gracious hosts. The view of the mountains from their deck is gorgeous.

On Friday morning, we started back east. We meandered north and east somewhat cross country, winding up in Ogallala and camped at a county park below the damn at Lake McConaughy. Forgot to calculate the loss of one hour of time, and arriving at a cousins home right at noon. She was gracious enough to serve us lunch. We then drove across central Nebraska on a state hiway, instead of the interstate, since my brother lives north of the interstate, and going south to go north makes no sense to me, beside I hate traveling that stretch of interstate anyway. Arrived at my brothers house about 6:00 pm, in fact we stopped in a nearby town and brought the pizza with us, out to the farm.

Went to church with them on Sunday, got home about 7:00pm Sunday night.

Now, since arriving home the level of activity has actually increased.

On Monday morning at 5:00am we loaded two semi-loads of hogs, then hauled corn to the ethanol plant all week. On Friday I went in at 6:00 so that I could leave by 3:00. Our church was hosting the men's retreat at the camp we support. I got to the camp at 4:00 and helped cook 450 pork chops till 6:30, ate quickly, then got to the 7:00 service. The music was great, nothing like 450 guys singing "It is Well With MY Soul", sounded awesome. The speaker was an old friend who "quotes" Scripture. Although he calls it saying Scripture. It's is amazing. He says entire passages. I've heard him do the entire book of Revelation, straight up, 1:10 minutes worth.

I got home about 11:00pm, We loaded two more loads of hogs at 5:00am. Did the rest of my chores by 8:30. Hurried back to camp by 9:30 practiced with the pianist at 10:00, sang "His Eye is On the Sparrow" at 10:30 in front of about 300 guys, then went out to the grill and helped do 300 hamburgers and about 250 brats. As soon as lunch was over I hurried home, hooked the pickup up to a friends trailer, and went out hunting picnic tables. Got 9 of them back to my place, ran out to the main farm for chores, got back home at 5:15 to a yard full of homeschool families. Helped get the grill going for a cook your own meat evening meal. Went and took a very necessary shower because I smelled like hogs. And then fellowshipped with the fellow homeschoolers till they left.

Chores on Sunday morning, church with our speaker saying Scripture (Galatians), then a noon fellowship dinner followed by another session with him saying the book of Philippians.

Didn't sell hogs on Monday, but had a meeting about trying to stop the sodomy lobbys push of sodomy permission certificates in Iowa, got home late.

Skip to the end of the week, went in at 6:00 again, left about 3:30 drove about an hour and ten minutes away for a family reunion on my fathers side of the tree. The lovely Mrs. farmer had taken the truck, trailer, kids and a ton of stuff right after noon. She and I were in charge of not only the whole reunion, but six meals for about 50.

We served Mrs. farmer's killer chili and sandwiches for supper Friday night. Got up early and made Swedish pancakes, bacon (cooked ahead of time in the oven) and an egg bake casserole and plenty of fruit.

For the noon meal I cooked yard fowl (chicken breast) on the grill with garlic bread, with fresh garden vegetables and salad.

For Saturday night supper we had pork chops on the grill with my mother's famous potato salad, fresh corn on the cob, angel food cake, and home made ice cream with one of the cousins providing a special treat of Guarana (Antarctica) a Brazilian pop, for all the Brazilian transplants and missionaries.

Sunday morning my mother made some of her world renowned coffee cake.

And the piece de resistance for Sunday noon, two 16 lb chuck roasts, with baked potatoes.

In between the eating we had a great reunion, with someone from each branch of the family tree opening the Scripture for us, sweet fellowship and some very good special music by family members. I'm already being questioned about the next one.

We loaded hogs again at 5:00 on Wednesday. And I've been mowing every evening in my off hours getting ready for this weekend. Our annual church cook out, trap shoot and fellowship is tomorrow night.

Other than that, nothing new around here.

Long time no post.

As anyone who has been here lately knows, I've not posted since the first of July.

I could use the same old excuses, but, fact is I've just not taken the time to do something about it.

I have been doing lots of different things in the intervening time.

I finished reading "Meltdown by Thomas Woods, "A Free-Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed, the Economy Tanked, and Government Bailouts Will Make Things Worse". A cogent and concise explanation of why we are in the financial mess we are in.

I've been participating in an on-line study of Liberal Fascism by Jonah Goldberg editor at National Review. Each week we read a chapter of the book, then Vox Day at Vox Popoli has a ten question quiz over that weeks reading. I've done well, 10/10 and not so well 5/10 (read the wrong chapter) and average about 8/10 over the first 8 weeks. Goldberg traces the roots of communism, socialism, fascism and American progressive liberals back to the same basic tree of evil. I've developed an even greater dislike for Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt than I already had. And although Goldberg hasn't touched the subject so far, my disdain for Jorge the Younger Shrub has also grown. Near as I can tell he is basically a progressive liberal who dislikes abortion like Margaret Sanger did. Of course Sanger was also in favor of eliminating "human weeds" like black people as well, so I wouldn't say he's in real good company.

Today we spent most of the morning processing fresh sweet corn to put in the freezer. Shuck it, boil it, then cut the corn off using a "Lee's Corn Cutter and Creamer".






I we froze 35 bags of corn, each with 3 cups of corn in them. Ought to last for a while don't ya think. Might go good with chicken!




I spent the afternoon, prepping for our family vacation. We will be leaving on Monday, stopping to load up a friends possessions which did not fit in the moving van. Staying Monday night at my folks, then leaving bright and early Tuesday morning for Colorado Springs. We'll deliver the things for the friend, then do the tourist thing for a couple of days in and around Colorado Springs before coming home.

I've put off posting pictures of our new purchase. In late March we bought a 1995 Dodge Ram 2500 4x4 with a Cummins diesel engine. It was almost exactly what I was looking for, except for the fact that, (and I'm ashamed to admit) it has an automatic transmission. All those nasty things I said about wimps who drive automatics are going to haunt me forever. We felt like we got an excellent deal on the truck, it was a repo out of Arkansas, never been on salted roads. It has more miles than I wanted, but the price was acceptable.



We will be driving the truck, pulling a small trailer to CO.

Enough about our life for now. Thanks for hanging around my blog.

Yard Fowl

I think I told this earlier, I did not go back and read the previous posts, so if not, now you know.
Anyway, we decided to raise some chickens this spring. The main and most important reason being that my children needed some chores. As a side benefit, home raised chicken always tastes better than something from a store. But, mainly, it was so that the kids had some chores. Ever child/young adult needs chores. Makes 'em responsible, if they don't do their job, something dies. Makes it a serious thing.

So on April 28th we got sixty baby chicks in the mail. United States Postal Service. Chicks were hatched on Monday, arrived at our local post office Tuesday morning before 9 am.

And last Saturday, 8 weeks and 4 days later, we butchered them. And when we weighed a couple of them on the scale. Ten pounds, that's right, ten pound chickens !!! Last turkey we bought weighed 11 pounds.

Now those pounds were not cheap. After all the costs were figured, they came to about .93 cents a pound.

That cost included having a family do the butchering for us. They killed, scalded, plucked and butchered 44 chickens in 30 minutes, It was amazing.

They travel with a homemade water boiler, chicken plucker, and several plastic barrels, which they fill with fresh water. All of this is set up with in a disassembly line, where the various stages of chicken processing take place. Fast, efficient and worth every cent.

Yes, I could do it my self. But, it would take me hours, I hate plucking chickens, and my family was less than keen on the whole butchering thing anyway.

If I can get the camera to cooperate, maybe I can post a few pictures.

Very Funny Video

Just watched this at Lew Rockwell.com??

It is very funny. After 2:05 is an advertisement, and I'm not endorsing them or their products.

I especially enjoyed those rather large listening devices attached to our "hero" gorgeous mug.

My Thoughts on Tiller the Killer's Untimely Demise

I asked what y'all thought about Tiller's passing from this life to the next. Now I'll give you a summary of what I said other places. Some of it will be straight cut and paste from comments I made earlier in the week, so they may be a bit disjointed.

Before I do that, I want to thank each and every one of you who posted in the last few days. You have produced a lively discussion. Funny how one side of the argument seems to produce quotes, documentation and evidence, while the other side resorts to an endless potpourri of vituperation.

My thoughts,

Sunday afternoon,

I wonder what the reaction from our new Sec of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebalius? will be?? She was this piece of sh*ts lap dog. Kept him out of jail several times, and gave mucho bucks to her campaign.

Will BHO come out and condemn the culture of death that caused a radical right wing nutball to commit such a heinous act?

Will they outlaw powder blue Ford Taurus's, since only abortion provider euthanizers drive powder blue Ford Taurus's?

The list of questions boggle the mind.

Sunday evening,

What do you mean that "the law doesn't work"?

"For by the law is the knowledge of sin"

"the wages of sin is death"

Seems from a cursory reading about the law that Tiller the Killer deserves death, right?

Furthermore, what law are you referring to? The law that allows a woman to kill her unborn child?

When the law is no longer just, then lawlessness prevails. Someone decided to obey the "natural law" (whoso sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed") and do justice.

Response from another person,

"Sure, we all do."

So you admit that you know Tiller the Killer was worthy of death, but you refuse to admit that his death is justice?

What is justice then?

You're hiding behind the community, while at the same time allowing injustice to prevail.

The facts are, as someone previously stated, that Tiller the serial Killer " operated publicly and famously for decades." The current legal system had failed to uphold justice,

and Tiller the Killer continued to murder unborn children every day,

therefore the very first Biblical admonition to do justice, the first mandate for mankind to rule over mankind, the first duty of and most important role of mankind's self government,

was necessary,

Genesis 9 is the very foundation of the natural law principle. Mankind is to hold himself and all other men accountable for human life. Tiller the Killer violated the first principle of natural law, he shed innocent human blood. By the decree of God himself, Tiller was worthy of death.

From Monday,

Frankly, I am very underwhelmed by the response to Tiller the Killer's death. The man was a serial killer. He was a paid baby killer. By his own admission, he claimed to have done more than 60,000 abortions. That's the entire population of places like Carson City, Nevada or Bismark, North Dakota.

Genesis 9:6:

"Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man."

Seems to me that God looks with great disfavor on someone who sheds the blood of innocent children!!

Look what Jesus said in Luke 17:2:

It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

Tiller the Killer was worthy of death. Why should we feel anything but relief that justice has been done.

Justice:

is rendering to every one that which is his due. (Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary )

By God's standard, justice was done to Tiller the Killer, period, end of discussion. The epithet on Tiller the Killer's tombstone should be,

Galatians 6:

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption;

Today and tomorrow, less babies will have their lives snuffed out because this piece of human debris has now gone to his eternal reward.

BTW, you think I'm harsh, I simply stated the Biblical case. God is the ultimate judge. If Tiller the Killer is not worthy of eternal damnation in the lake of fire, God is fully capable of determining his just reward.

Maybe Tiller really was a christian, then you can see him in heaven some day and he can brag that he got there sooner than you did. We're all gonna die folks. That's a guarantee, this discussion is over whether Tiller the Killer got his ticket punched early? And since I believe God is sovereign, I figure he knew that Tiller the Killer was cashing his chips on Sunday morning.

God is a righteous judge, he will judge based on the facts. No empathy, just the truth. Justice will prevail.

There is a summary of my comments on the death of Tiller the Killer.

What do you say now?

Your Comments Please?

Tiller the Killer


I'm curious to see your comments.

Should we mourn Mr. Tiller?

Should we rejoice that he is now facing the ultimate judge?

Or, is this simply a yawner, similar to "dog bites man" story?

Without the Shedding of Blood, There is no Remission of Sin

I don't often do this, because, number one, I don't assume most of my readers are wimps.
Second, I am not all touchy feely about anything, so I have very little concern if you are, and thirdly, to be honest I deal with this on a regular basis, so it does not affect me nearly as much as it will some people.

But what takes place in this video is graphic in nature,
it will bother some of you, in fact some of you will not be able to watch it all,

but on this day, I believe it is a powerful reminder of what our faith in Jesus Christ is all about,

again, be warned, this is graphic stuff,


Sacrifice of a Lamb

I immediately thought of this passage of Scripture,

Hebrews 9

19For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,

20Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.

21Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.

22And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

23It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

24For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

25Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;

26For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:

28So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

And then John chapter 1

29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

36 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

Today we remember the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who took upon Himself the sin of the world.

I was recently castigated at another blog, which for the moment will remain nameless, for describing the policies of the Oprompter administration as fascist. Here is my reply. At the bottom of the page will be a link with another man suggesting the same thing.

Also, Farmer Tom, is it really necessary to name-call just because you don't agree with someone? It's just common courtesy, and calling someone a fascist is hardly likely to result in a productive discussion.

Lia,

Sadly, I'm afraid your comment demonstrates a symptom of the collapse of our intellectual culture. Let me attempt to demonstrate.

water

wa⋅ter
   
[waw-ter, wot-er]
–noun
1. a transparent, odorless, tasteless liquid, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen, H2O, freezing at 32°F or 0°C and boiling at 212°F or 100°C, that in a more or less impure state constitutes rain, oceans, lakes, rivers, etc.: it contains 11.188 percent hydrogen and 88.812 percent oxygen, by weight.

marriage

mar⋅riage

   [mar-ij]
–noun
1. the social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.
2. the state, condition, or relationship of being married; wedlock: a happy marriage.
3. the legal or religious ceremony that formalizes the decision of a man and woman to live as husband and wife, including the accompanying social festivities: to officiate at a marriage.

fascism

fas⋅cism

[fash-iz-uhm]
–noun
1. (sometimes initial capital letter) a governmental system led by a dictator having complete power, forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism, regimenting all industry, commerce, etc., and emphasizing an aggressive nationalism and often racism.

"A form of political behavior marked by obsessive preoccupation with community decline, humiliation or victimhood and by compensatory cults of unity, energy and purity, in which a mass-based party of committed nationalist militants, working in uneasy but effective collaboration with traditional elites, abandons democratic liberties and pursues with redemptive violence and without ethical or legal restraints goals of internal cleansing and external expansion." [Robert O. Paxton, "The Anatomy of Fascism," 2004]

Now Lia, the culture can try mightily to change the meaning of words. They try to claim that marriage is not the union of one man and one woman for life, but instead the union of two perverts (sodomites). Water is water, marriage is marriage, and the policies of our current administration are fascist in their nature.

The president of the United States has fired the Chairman of an automobile company, since when is it the job of government to tell an automobile company how to run their business? The government is taking your and my money and giving it to business and banks. Since when is that the role of government? The government is demanding that doctors and nurses do the bidding of the government when it comes to health care. Since when is it the role of the government to tell anyone what is acceptable or preferable for their personal health care?

See, the meaning of policies and practices of a political leader and his party are not determined by what the latest spin or analysis coming from a media sympathetic to the very same political party and its leader are telling us . Facts are facts, and the policies this administration are pursing can not be accurately described by any other term than fascism.

Going back to your comment about name calling, you assume that speaking the truth about the policies of this administration is name calling. What pray tell would you call their policies? Since when is using obtuse language and/or failing to call water water useful in helping people understand the facts about anything?

If I had said that the policies of this administration were freedom loving and lead to personal liberty would you have objected?? Those would be blatant lies, since nothing this administration has done so far has expanded individual liberty and personal freedom, nothing.

You may not like that facts, and you may wish that I had not mentioned them either, but the facts are the facts and while many people would like to ignore the facts (or even more likely) cover up the facts, they remain what they are, and the facts are that the policies of this administration are best described by the term fascism.

Oh, and one more thing, you and several others lately have talked about convincing others, productive discussion, or an open dialog. That is unmitigated male bovine effluvia. One can not have a productive discussion, an open dialog or a convincing argument if the two parties have not defined their terms and/are speaking in finite, mutually understood terminology. Water is water. Marriage is marriage, and fascism is fascism. Now we can have a discussion, because we have established the boundaries of the discussion and the meaning of the terms we will use.

Are you on their list?

Militias and Domestic Terrorists


Looks like those of use who believe in the right to life, liberty and property are now the suspects rather than patriots.

Would they arrest Patrick Henry, for inciting violence by saying, "Give me liberty or give me death!!"?

So what have you got on your vehicle?

An NRA sticker?

A sign saying "Protected by Smith & Wesson"!

Shoot all the ragheads!

Shoot first, ask questions later?

Gun control is hitting what you aim at!

Ron Paul

Any of the above and I'm sure you're considered a nut ball radical.

New Planter

Looking through the latest farm magazine, I saw that Deere is starting production on their new planter. Before I link to any pictures, let me illustrate how big this thing is.

When I was helping my dad as a kid he had a 4 row planter. When I started farming for myself I bought a 6 row planter. Several of my neighbors had 8 row rigs, both 8 wide (38") and my father-in-law had 8 narrow (30").

The farm where I work now had a 16 row (30") when I started, now they have a 24 (30").

This video is something I found on YouTube which shows a 24 row planter, turn the volume down, this guy has the stereo cranked up.




That's 24 30" rows, 60 feet wide.

We have at least two neighbors who are trading DB90s for one of the new DB120s 48 30" rows, they were among the first to have the 36 row 30" spaced DB90s so they get first shot at the new rig.

Does This Bother You? It Makes the Hair on the Back of My Neck Stand Up

House to House Search for weapons dealer

Arcadia, IA

Try this one, look like a terrorist haven to you?

Why not do this in a real urban area, like the NE part of Des Moines?

Why aren't they searching for rag-head terrorists, instead of "a weapons dealer"?

What happens if you don't want to participate in this little charade, does your name get put on a list of those who are "uncooperative"?

Since when is it necessary for the "National Guard" to be searching American citizens homes?

I have more questions, but I'm afraid that I probably won't like the answers.

What do you think?

Black is in....

From the UK Telegraph, via Drudge

CNN's orange-haired septuagenarian chatterbox Larry King has been bowled over by the new Age of Obama, enthusing that his youngest offspring (from his seventh marriage) wants to be black. I guess it's a case of black being, er, the new black.

Interviewing a visibly uncomfortable Bob Woodward on his eponymous CNN show last night, Larry, 75, gushed: "My younger son Cannon, he is eight. And he now says that he would like to be black. I'm not kidding. He said there's a lot of advantages. Black is in. Is this a turning of the tide?"

Ok, that is strange, whatever trips your trigger I guess. But wait there's more,

My wife said, "Have you checked the e-mail?"

Me. "No."

She. "Check out the offer for the new credit card!"





And here it is,





and now the fine print,

Annual Fee $495



The question?

How many who want to be "black" will pay $495 per year for the privilege?

A New President

We now have a new President.


The Dow Jones and NASDQA are both down. The world is at peace, war has forever ended, abortion is now morally acceptable, sodomy is now normal human behavior, and everything you own is the property of the government.

Hope and change. Hope and change.

For those of you who did not punish yourself by watching the tragedy/usurpation unfold, a brief reminder of the most important point.


Today Barak Hussein Obama stood on the podium in front of not only the nation but the world, and said the following,

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

That is the oath of office in it's entirety. Nothing about government bailouts, nothing about expanding the Right to Kill, nothing about negotiating peace in Israel, nothing about expanding education. Just one simple task.

Seems to me that the oath of office suggests that the overarching/mandatory requirement for the President of the United States is very simple. Follow the Constitution as it is written.

Adam and Eve were given one simple command in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 2:

16And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

One simple command, just one, and they failed.

As BHO takes office, he has one simple task. To follow the Constitution of the United States of America. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less. BHO has just made a vow, while placing his hand on the very Word of God, that he would follow and protect the Constitution.

What about you? Do you follow the Constitution as written, according to the original meaning when written by the founders, or do you accept as normal and legitimate "laws" which directly violate the Constitution. Do you or did you vote for politicians who ignore the Constitution?

I am suggesting that those who claim to Love God, followers of Jesus Christ, should treat the Constitution in a manner similar to how we treat the written Law of God. ( I'm not saying they are the same, rather, the Law of God should be our guide for faith and practice, and in the secular realm, the Constitution should be our standard for how we relate to our government.)

What is the test we will use to determine whether BHO and any other President have been good Presidents?

Did he do the following?

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."