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Economeeeooo 2!

     It has been 8 1/2 years since I posted my parable about the US economy. I still like it, but now I think I need to tell "the rest of the story," to quote one of the finest radio personalities I've ever had the pleasure of hearing, Paul Harvey. I need to do more than just state the problem; I need to offer a solution. Please understand that I am highly educated in economics; I took a semester or two of Economics back in college, nearly 40 years ago.      Back on the island, the situation began to get out of control. No one trusted that the leaves represented actual shiny rocks anymore. They demanded to see the shiny rocks, and even to make one-for-one trades. When the actual rock supply ran dry, we could not spend our leaves anymore, even if we offered double and triple the amount for the same item or service. The economy ground to a halt.      Then a funny thing happened. Someone came to me with a need for the one service I was really good at providing - stand-up c
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The party of the poor

I was watching an old debate between John Edwards and Dick Cheney this evening and they played a clip of Edwards speaking to the poor and the working class of America. It occurred to me that he did this from a wealthy position. Most, if not all, politicians who campaign on a platform of being "for the working man," never give up their wealth to do so. In fact, they charge $50,000 to talk to people about the plight of the poor, while never feeling it themselves. Do you want to know the difference between Jesus and a politician? Jesus, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!" Jesus left the splendor of heaven and even gave up equality with God to become a servant among men, oftentimes not even having a comfortable plac
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Economeeeooo!

   Let's pretend we're on an island. There are 20 of us. We only have access to what is on our island, so there are no import worries. We don't have a money system because everyone is just finding a place to live and helping each other when needed. I love carrots but can't grow them for squat. You hate carrots but are a world class carrot farmer, so I offer to trade you some of my crops for your carrots.     After awhile, we figure out that we have enough of each other's produce, so we start offering other things in return for what we need. I offer you a day's labor in exchange for help building a bridge between my bedroom treehouse and my bathroom treehouse. This bridge is especially necessary in the mornings. We can continue on like this forever without ever knowing we were supposed to be storing up stuff we don't need.     One day you come to me and say, "Can you help me build a radio out of a coconut? I'll give you some veggies!" I don'
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About my list of Links

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As with almost all blogs and personal websites, I have a list of my favorite links, now in its very early stages. Please do not take this to be an endorsement of all that is on any one of these links. I generally like each of them, but have some issues with some of them as well. Such is life among other humans. I love the ChristmasTalk website. Not So Quiet Moments is written by an old friend and is straightforward and insiteful, but he and I had our moments of disagreement. Fox News is, in my view, a great news source and is more fair than other news sites, but is obviously a conservative website. Biblos is a really good Bible study website. I think you'll like it. There are a lot of tools available there and I hope to add more sites later on. If you have a favorite Bible study website, feel free to let me know.
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Ah, choice!

I was watching the tail end of a PBS talk show the other evening and heard a lady, possibly a politician, tell a gentleman politician that Republicans should consider the idea that women have the right to choose. If Republicans did so, they would fare better in the next election. First, let me say that it seems that Republicans have fared fairly well lately without being pro-choice, which tells me that there are at least millions of people who agree with them. Second, it does look like the Republican party might be swinging toward the pro-choice view in the next few years. The people most often mentioned to run in 2008 are generally pro-choice to at least some degree. Third, I have asked but never received a good answer to this question, "What two (or more) things do you want to choose between?" I'm sure the answer would come back, "We wish to have the choice to do what we want with our own bodies." Sounds reasonable on the outside. I could possibly agree with y
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Intro to Sheepsnot

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I have been told that my username is a bit unusual, perhaps even mildly disgusting. I found that so many usernames had been taken so I decided to come up with one that no one else would want. Tada! Sheepsnot it is. Now, about this blog: Over time this will evolve into a collection of my thoughts as well as a verbal and pictorial history of my life as I remember it. No one remembers his childhood accurately. We all see what we want to see. Just bounce your memories off your parents and neighbors and see how the discrepancies start piling up. So, what you will read and see is just a version of the actual events of August 27th, 1960 through today.
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