Life's Journey

It has been said that life is a jour-ney. But in most cases when we set off on a journey, it is presumed that we have select-ed a destina-tion and plotted a course. Yet man’s fundamental and most critical journey, life’s journey, is often left to luck and happenstance.

All of us, young and old alike, are at some point along a path. The end of that path may be near or far; but whatever the case may be, we need to determine whether our present location is where we truly want to be. And if it isn’t, we need to change course.

At birth each of us was given an allotment of time, energy and natural talent. Our success and happiness in life rests largely upon how we use those finite and precious resources.

Benjamin Franklin once said: “Doest thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that’s the stuff life is made of.”

Most people my age have some regrets, regrets that for the most part are the result of poor choices and an unwise use of time.

If you’re young and single, I have some advice for you. Don’t get old and don’t get married.

But if that advice doesn’t suit you, I will offer this alternative: Prepare yourself--emotionally, mentally, physically and spiritually--so that you may have some hope of dealing successfully with life’s inevitable challenges. And one other thing, choose a mate who has the same destination in mind you have and who fully understands and appreciates the amount of mutual effort it will take to get there.

If you do, you’ll be reasonably happy. If you don’t, I can assure you you’ll live to have some regrets.

Another Look At Global Warming

Perhaps the globe is, as Al Gore insists, warming; but to what degree man is respon-sible for it, and to what extent he can reverse it, is largely unknown.

What is known, however, is that most of the world's politicians are greedy and power-hungry fools. So you can be certain of one thing--they wouldn’t be leaping on the global-warming bandwagon if they didn’t expect to reap some pretty substantial dividends.

And who will be paying those dividends? Who do you think?

The wealth and power that currently resides in our hands gradually, or perhaps speedily, will be shifted over to them, for you can be assured that the politicians will see to it that the job of keeping the world from overheating will be big, expensive and quite possibly endless.

Furthermore, as the global-warming locomotive gathers momentum, expect to see individual freedoms greatly curtailed and government power vastly expanded. In due time, don’t be surprised if you begin hearing more and more talk of the need to establish a global government. (Well you didn’t think an ugly bogeyman like global warming could be subdued by anything less than a global government, did you?)

What Americans have to get through their heads--and quickly--is that the global-warming mania is simply an excuse to steal power away from the people and transfer it to government officials around the world. It’s not about controlling climate, at all. Even selfish and power-grabbing politicians, dumb as they are, know that’s impossible.

Some of you may be asking yourselves, why are scientists on board? Well, a great many aren’t. But those who are see gobs of grant money and possibly a Nobel prize coming their way. Remember, even scientists have egos. They hunger for recognition, just like the rest of us.

But know this, if we allow the world’s politicians to push this scam through, we’re going to find out the hard way that going “green” doesn’t lead to utopia. Instead, it will open the door to the worst and most pervasive tyranny imaginable.

A great American patriot, Patrick Henry, once proclaimed: “Give me liberty or give me death!” And you know, he had a point there. What good is life, after all, if you don’t have the freedom to live it as you wish? Are we going to permit ourselves to be pushed, frightened and stampeded into bondage in order to escape the largely unknown consequences of global warming?

To abandon the best system of government in the world, with its guaranteed rights and freedoms, to pursue a dubious undertaking like climate control is both absurd and dangerous.

Don’t buy into it!

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
--H.L. Mencken

A Competitive and Dangerous Place

Even when the world is experi-encing a period of relative peace, there is restless-ness, tension and discontent among the nations. Countries are jockeying unceasingly to acquire more favorable conditions for themselves. At this very moment, nations that consider themselves disadvantaged, and most do, are doggedly looking for ways and means of getting ahead.

Historically, the primary reason similarly minded people have banded together is to enhance their chances of survival, survival being something that must be attended to constantly. Therefore, there never is a time when a nation can safely set aside the basic and demanding task of surviving.

But it is not enough that a nation possesses a well trained and well equipped military. Each individual within a nation, whatever his or her vocation or station in life, must be steadfastly using all their natural gifts and acquired skills to the fullest extent possible, because that is what the leaders of competitor nations are urging their citizens to do.

Make no mistake about it. If we as a people fail to fully utilize all our talents and resources, a nation that is fully exploiting all of theirs eventually will overtake us.

And why will they overtake us? Because we forgot that the world is inherently a highly competitive and dangerous place, and we foolishly permitted ourselves to become preoccupied and distracted with things that don’t matter.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Today marks the two-hundred and thirty-third anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since those fifty-six brave signers pledged to one another their lives, fortunes and sacred honor.

The Declaration of Independence is, among other things, a proclamation of man’s inherent rights, rights that predate government, rights that our Creator endowed us with and wants us to keep.

Thomas Jefferson called these rights “unalienable rights” because they are an elemental and integral part of man. When he is arbitrarily deprived of them, he is no longer complete, and lacks the capacity to pursue his dreams and aspirations. Therefore, he becomes something less than a man.

A good government, Thomas Jefferson believed, should not only acknowledge these special rights but it should “secure” them as well. To him, that was the prime purpose of government.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence were confident men. They did not lack courage or initiative. They wanted to control their own destinies, but they knew that in order to realistically do that they would need full possession of all their unalienable rights. And that holds true to this day.

Admittedly, not everyone who is granted life and liberty will find true happiness. It may still elude many of us. But without life and liberty, real happiness is virtually unattainable.

The signers knew this, and we need to know it too.