Shrimp 'n Grits

Check out this article!! Awesome analogy...

Shrimp 'n Grits

Income Redistribution - A fulfilling experiment when personally applied!

Lee Walton

Last Thursday while walking to lunch on the corner of Market and East Bay, I passed what appeared to be a homeless man standing on the corner of Wentworth and East Bay holding a hand-made sign that read, “Vote Obama, I need the money.”, I laughed to myself and admired the man for his misplaced, albeit blatant honesty.

Once inside one of my favorite restaurants, I noticed that my waiter was wearing a bright blue ,“Obama 08” tie; again I laughed to myself as he boldly and proudly advertised his political preference for all the world, and his customers, to see -- just imagine the odds of encountering two such 1st Amendment harbingers of change in less than 10-minutes.

When the check finally came I decided not to tip my waiter and explained to him that I was going to implement a practical application of Obama's Redistribution of Wealth concept as my own personal socialistic experiment. He stood there in stoic disbelief as I explained to him that I was going to redistribute his rightfully earned $10 tip to someone who I deemed more in need...a homeless fellow standing a few blocks north in front of the Harris Teeter parking lot. The waiter stammered a few "Why practice on me? I’m just a local college student!" retorts and then angrily stormed away from the table in a steaming huff of progressive self-righteous indignation.
Apparently, after experiencing firsthand the application of such socialistic governance from the perspective of the rightful wage earner, my young liberal-minded waiter was quickly convinced that income redistribution was much easier to support as a noble, magnanimous social policy than when his own hard-earned income was about to be redistributed, against his will, to another I deemed more needy.

I went outside, walked back up to Wentworth, gave the homeless guy a $10 bill, and asked him to walk down to the restaurant on the corner and thank the waiter there who was wearing the “Obama 08” tie as I've decided he could use the money more than my waiter who had actually earned the $10. The homeless fellow smiled in grateful disbelief, tossed his sign in the hedge, and promptly bounded for the liquor store across the street.

At the end of this impromptu and rather unscientific income redistribution experiment I realized the homeless fellow was truly grateful for the money that he had not exerted any effort to earn, but my liberal-minded waiter was highly indignant that I would take from him and then give to another the honest wages that he had worked hard to earn even though the homeless recipient needed the money more.

As I walked back to my office, I began thinking about the heavy burden of corporate ownership and the endless frustration from beating my head against the wall of increasing bureaucracy year-after-year. I also thought of the majority of this year’s hard-earned profits that I had planned to reinvest in a few new employees, annual raises to reward loyalty and hard work, Christmas bonuses for extraordinary effort, and year-end corporate donations to the SC Aquarium, Coastal Conservation League, and the Historic Charleston Foundation.

After reconsidering my apparent politically incorrect capitalistic beliefs, the needs of my hard-working, albeit financially struggling, middle-class staff, and the six-figure salaries of the three non-profits’ directors sitting in the big stately, well-maintained buildings that each called home, I decided then and there to give every last penny of this year’s profit directly to Charleston’s Homeless Shelter, layoff all my staff, close our company, retire early, and depend upon the largesse of Obama’s promised Redistribution of Wealth for my every need!
In that brief instance, I too became a practicing socialist!

Original article found here:

Church and Political affiliation...are they related??

So I'm having an ongoing political/religious discussion with a college buddy, an I'll go ahead and post the transcript here and take your comments on the subject. Discussion is welcomed!!

I guess you would need to first view this video to understand what got the subject started...

Or view the website here:

Here are His comments in response to the video clip:

interesting video, but off to the right it says that it's non-partisan. i'm not sure what this group's definition of non-partisan is...it appears to be that you just make sure you talk about issues and not candidates. however, all of the issues in the video are highly politically charged partisan issues, so i can't agree at all with "value voters USA" calling this a "non-partisan" video.

roe v. wade passed 35 years ago....almost 36 years ago now i suppose. people (christians) have been trying to overturn it ever since then, to no avail. the harder we have pushed, the harder we have been pushed against. it has become an issue that elects presidents. but in all of our christian political maneuvering, what have we accomplished? votes for candidates based on one issue? we make our stand on single issues so important when there are so many more issues to think about. we push so hard against pro-choice "liberal" voters without considering that they are our neighbor. we spew hateful rhetoric about people without considering how Jesus might have reacted to these situations (or if he would have reacted at all...i.e. "give to caesar what is caesar's"). did Jesus use politics to push against a political machine? did Jesus come in power, or in love? when those who supported him attempted to usurp authority and place him in a position of power so that he could enact change from the top down, what was his reaction? "no thanks" would be putting it mildly...more like "get behind me, satan!" so why do we as christians then make it so important to ourselves to have this power, to make choices for those people that we do not know? is it that we sometimes feel helpless in our ability to reach out to a world that we do not necessarily understand, and so we instead try to reach out to them in the way that appears most valid or easy? perhaps. is it that we feel so strongly about Jesus but not so strongly about our neighbor that we are content to make our christian political stand, building our church on politics rather than building the church on people, the way that Jesus did? maybe. it is scary to get into people's lives that we don't agree with. it is scary to consider someone who has committed what we might consider an atrocious abomination to be our equal, let alone to consider them our brother. but i guarantee that a church that cares more about people than principles will change the world.

i asked a lot of questions in that paragraph. i know the answers to those questions for me, but i don't know the answers to them for you. and the reason i know the answers for me is because i once voted for candidates based on their stances on abortion and gay rights. i'm not saying that everyone that does so is as uninformed as i was, but i will honestly tell you that i was woefully uninformed for someone who believed as strongly about political candidates as i did. but the thing is, can we really believe that in all of our political maneuverings that we are going to overturn roe v. wade? and if we do believe so, then what next? will we have celebrations in the street, that we finally abolished abortion? abortions were common long before roe v. wade was passed. if we overturn roe v. wade, does abortion become a felony? our prison system is already overly crowded. and how does it show love to our neighbor to take away what they perceive as their "rights" and then throw them in jail when they still don't see it our way?

some would consider it "right" to vote to end abortion. i consider it right to help people and care for people in a way that makes abortion not necessary or desirable. i think we can both agree that abortion is a mountain that the faith of christians across the nation wants to move. i am a part of that faith. however, in the minimal wisdom that my short twenty-four years on this earth has garnered me, i cannot see a time when roe v. wade is overturned, regardless of how many of the 60 million evangelicals of our country vote pro-life. therefore, i vote for things that i believe we can change. i vote for candidates who support education more than war. i vote for candidates who believe that economic and social opportunity is something for everyone, not just those whose birth freely dictates that opportunity. education, economics, and healthcare are three of the top indicators for likelihood of a young mother to have an abortion. i support legislation that encourages equality of those three things across america. for me, my faith in Jesus Christ calls me to support these things. the obvious irony of this is that for a majority of christians in america, faith in Jesus Christ calls them to vote a completely different way from the way that my faith calls me to vote.

is it possible for us to be united under one faith and still be politically divided? i sure hope so. because the conclusion that i have settled upon is that only one of the current candidates for president has a desire to try to answer the questions that i have asked. only one of the candidates has a worldview that allows him to understand that most of the issues facing our world are MUCH more complicated than simply voting yes or no to legislation without reading and understanding the full implications of the bill.

regardless of where we stand politically, the person holding the opposite view (or standing in the varying shades of gray between) is not the enemy. the inaction and counteraction caused by years of worrying more about party lines than productivity is the enemy. demonization and hatred based on differences of opinion is the enemy. when we believe that our neighbor is the enemy, we cripple our country, we cripple our faith, we cripple ourselves.

i apologize if you were not wanting to get a response (much less a response of this magnitude) to a simple mass e-mail. however, i believe that both sides of the argument need to be expressed. also, i have just as much to say (if not more) on the issue of homosexual marriage, but considering the bulk of the video you sent me had to do with abortion, i chose that as the topic. if you are interested in talking about the other side of the story on gay rights, let me know. (section deleted due to personal nature)

grace, peace, love.

So here's my response to him:

Hey man, haven't talked to you in forever! Hope you don't mind a little political discussion in regard to your post, I guess if you did mind you wouldn't have posted, right? After reading your note, in some ways I can really see where you're coming from, but in other ways I'm completely lost, so hopefully you can expand on a few of your points for me, and I'll attempt to put my perspective out there as well.

I guess I'll start out by saying that I think you're right about the video...definitely partisan! Anytime you see something that says "non-partisan" in my experience hasn't really ever been truly neutral, but leaning one way or the other to some extent.

As far as voting is concerned, I don't know anyone who votes based solely on one issue. Sure, some issues may carry more weight than others, so you have to consider "trade-offs" if you will. For instance, you couldn't possibly agree with Obama on 100% of the issues, right? I am voting for McCain, but that doesn't mean I agree with him on everything. One of my biggest concerns is who will lead this country to a more Christian Nation than it is now? Who has more Christian values? I hope you watched the Saddleback Interviews with each candidate, because it was very insightful into some of the basic Christian beliefs of each candidate. Obama couldn't even say when life begins, most likely for fear of losing some of his liberal base. Who knows if he's ever said when life begins...as far as we know, the answer to that is "above his paygrade." Where is the fortitude there of standing up for what you believe in? Still waiting to see that side of him. The way I see it there are only 2 ways of knowing what he truly stands for: 1) Looking at his past voting record (or lack thereof in the state senate); and 2) Elect him into office and pray that all my hunches about him are wrong.

As far as "giving to caesar what is caesar's," let's not forget who comes first in the equation...First fruits go to God, cheerfully. So compare "cheerful giving" on both sides of the equation. Published income tax returns tell us that giving to "Charity" has been not so important on the Obama/Bidden ticket, whereas Charitable contributions have always been a rather large percentage in the McCain family. You could say, "well, the McCains are wealthy, so they have more to give," but that's why I say look at percentage. So when you talk about helping people, I completely agree...it is our responsibility to help, care for the needy, the helpless. It is OUR responsibility, not the government. If you've ever had a chance to deal with church benevolence, then I'm sure you know that sometimes giving money is not always the best help hurting people can get...however, if it's only money they want, then sometimes you have to turn it down. You'll find that most people don't really want help: They want MONEY!! They want a free handout, from someone who makes more than them. I know what you're thinking, not everybody wants a free handout...true, not 100%, but definitely a large percentage of the underprivileged population do. That is exactly what Obama wants to do, by "spreading the wealth around" (The basic definition of Socialism), to give other people the same "opportunity." Opportunity comes from motivation, not money. Look at successful immigrants who have come here legally with nothing and have opened up and run successful businesses...it happens all the time! So what makes the difference in opportunity...was it money?? Or was it motivation? I would say some have the desire, drive and the work ethic to be successful in the business, while others complain about not having the same opportunity because of the lack of money. So, should we help poor people? Absolutely: The question is how. Sometimes giving money is appropriate...but not always! Helping people get jobs, or go to school, become an apprentice in some trade, or get counseling or rehab to deal with problems...these are all ways that we can use money (or time) to help people, without leaving them the temptation of spending this handout on whatever materialistic objects or bad habits they may have.

I would like you to think about the statement you made about "building our church on politics rather than building the church on people." I think our church is built on the principles of Christianity, based on the New-Testament, and helping people is a big part of that. Now, if we compare the 2 main political parties, we would have to go down the line, issue by issue, and decide which party is most aligned with the basic principles of Christianity. So in a lot of cases, I think you find that the church, more often than not, affiliates itself with the GOP, like I said, based on the principles. We do both agree that the Poor need to be taken care of; where we disagree is who takes care of them. I would say the first is we as individuals, and also the church.

As far as someone's perceived "right" to have an abortion, why not consider it from a different perspective...what about a baby's "right" to live? Who gives anyone this authority or "right" to declare that another human life is not worthy to be born into this world? Yes, in a perfect world, it would be nice if we could get to a point where we don't even need to have a law that abolishes abortion, because abortion would be "not necessary or desirable." Now, let's get back to reality here, people will always make "mistakes" and no matter how hard we try to stop it, there will always be "unwanted pregnancies." The question is, what is the "right" thing to do with the living human being. Obama says that he wouldn't ever want his daughters "punished" with a baby if they made such a mistake. Yes, we should love and take care of that young mother...but 2 wrongs don't make a right! You don't solve the problem by letting them "choose" if they want to kill a human life or not, which is exactly what the democratic party stands for!! So if you're going to talk about caring for people, then you have to say that the democratic party would sacrifice one human life for another in order to "care" for the mother (if she so "chooses"). If our body is a holy temple, a LIVING sacrifice, how is supporting a woman's right to choose in line with God's word that every human life is made in His image to love and serve Him? You talk about equal opportunities for people...aborted babies don't get an equal opportunity. OBAMA SUPPORTS ABORTION! Once again, that isn't the only issue here, but it is a big one. Liberals could care less that a human life is being killed, so long as we have "rights." However, as Christians, we should help both the mother AND baby in all circumstances.

I want you to know that I appreciate you, and always have, and I hope I have not been offensive in stating my experiences. You are not my enemy, but satan is, so we must use the Bible as our sword and guide in all things, INCLUDING politics. I am grateful that you shared your opinions, and hope you will respond. Please excuse typo's, it's been a long day!! =) Have a great one!

Rocky

What are your thoughts? This discussion is currently ongoing, will post further results.

Wow...Amazing!

Funny how people are so brainwashed that they don't even think for themselves rationally...watch this satirical clip of a reporter (fake) feeding misinformation (both sides) to Obama supporters, to see if it would sway their vote at all...the ignorance in this video may completely shock you...

I'm not telling anyone who to vote for...but don't just vote for someone because everyone else is, or its the "cool" thing to do, without actually knowing the issues, and what you agree/disagree with. I'll be straight up, I don't agree 100% with the decisions McCain has made, but I can guarantee that he will take our country in a much better direction based on his stances than his competitor will. I love capitalism. I love the idea that anyone can become a self-made millionaire if they work hard enough. Why take his money away from him to give it to some crackhead who will never become a beneficial member of society?

New poll: Should people have to pass a drug test in order to qualify for welfare??

I have to pass one to keep my job. And I actually WORK. Wow.

So much to say/do...so little time...

Have you ever felt this way?? There are so many things you want to accomplish, but something always gets in the way, whether it be a planned or unplanned event that comes up, there's always something! Wow, these past few weeks have been pretty stressful because I'm finally in the midst of my flight training, with about 5 months to go. Everyone always asks how much fun it is, and it really is fun, but there is always a negative side to "training." You know what I'm talking about. Anytime you start a new job--training. Training is never all that fun. Training is the hard part. Training is that point where you feel like a big idiot because you have no clue what you are doing, and the instructor makes you feel like you should know so much more by now. I know many people who have quit at that point, not feeling adequate enough to finish, but it is at that point where the men and the boys are separated, so to speak. Sometimes you have to suck it up and do that which you don't want to do, so that eventually you can begin having fun doing it. And that's where I currently stand...right in the midst of training (by "midst" I actually mean beginning).

Yes, it is fun...the most fun I've ever had! But you have to understand that instructors sometimes know how to ruin a good thing, by pointing out every minor discrepancy in your performance, ESPECIALLY when you think you've almost got it. Thus is life--there is always going to be somebody who knows more than you, or who knows how to do it better than you, so just take their advice and be thankful that they are "offering" it!!

I say all this to point out that I've been rather busy lately, and in turn, haven't kept up with my blog and/or politics as much as I have been. Plus, my talk radio station somehow got taken over or something (probably by the liberals) and got turned into a country station...can you believe that??? Nothing makes me more upset, than my favorite radio station being turned into COUNTRY!! haha...no offense to all you honky-tonk badonkadonks out there, it's just not for me! =)

A new news/talk station did appear out of the blue, thankfully, but with different commentators, or some of the same ones at different times than I'm used to. It's like getting off of a plane from china and having jet lag, not knowing what time it is or just being all turned around. So strange. But I have seen a few things that make me happy, and a few not so happy...

Time for a round of Good news/Bad news...

Good news:
I was a little upset that I couldn't watch the VP debate Thursday night (It was on past my bedtime), but was happily surprised when I finally did get to see it on Friday. Sarah Palin was AWESOME!! And with no teleprompter! She had some really good points, ones that Biden couldn't answer. And while we're on the topic of Biden, can someone please explain why you would go on national TV in this manner and LIE to the American People?? I'm not talking about just a few lies, either...he lied 14 TIMES (in what, like an hour??)...that tells me a lot about what the "Obama Administration" has in store for us...scary. But Sarah Palin tore it up, and boy, was I impressed! Now let's take a look at what actually led to me being plesantly "surprised." I had seen the 2 "interviews" (if you can call them that) that were played on TV from Charlie Gibson and Katie Couric. I was dissappointed with her performance in both, but I didn't just leave it at that, I had to ask myself "why"...how can such a successful woman like her become Gov. of a state and not be able to conduct an interview? Here's what I found out. This is the result of some serious, SERIOUS editing. I hate the fact that the "interviews" in their entirety weren't aired. Instead, ABC got to pick and choose what clips they wanted us Americans to see. Why didn't the McCain camp. insist that they post the entire session, is my question.

If you noticed from the Obama/O'Reilly interview, the ENTIRE INTERVIEW was aired, that's right, the whole thing. Funny how that works...fox news actually was "fair and balanced" by showing America what ACTUALLY WAS SAID in the interview, instead of just picking out the worst parts of the interview. Of course, in reality, the entire interview was terrible for Obama, so I guess, in that regard, Fox News DIDN'T HAVE TO edit anything! haha!!

How about some Bad news:
House Rep. Barney Frank came on Bill O'Reilly to "defend" his honor about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but all he successfully accomplished was looking like an idiot (of course Bill did, too, but I think I might react the same way to somebody who wouldn't take responsibility for their actions). Listen to the exchange...



See what I mean?? Here's the bad news...Frank tried to act like he told people NOT to invest in his little govt' project, when in reality he basically said that they weren't the "best" investment, but there was no way they were going under, and that the future for these banks was "solid"...oh really, sir, and exactly how "solid" are they now? And yes, they did go under, so just admit that you're a big idiot and you made a huge mistake...by "huge" I mean a $700 Billion mistake...and you thought spending $20 Billion a month in Iraq was outrageous! Why is he still allowed to have a job? The left is ruining this country to a point where eventually we'll turn into a socialist, liberal mess, and Barney Frank is living proof of this. Hey, thanks for spending our money wisely, Mr. Frank, your tax-payers appreciate you...we didn't really need it, anyway.