Despite president Obama’s sales pitch that the worst is behind us, many Americans are buying the snake oil that the Obama administration is peddling. With the United States congress on the brink of passing a financial reform package, that no one fully understands (2000 pages), loaded with false promises, hidden costs, liabilities, that does not fix the home loan “BUBBLE” fiasco, the American public is about to have a second financial disaster dropped on them. Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac the government run and secured financial institutions that are broke and responsible for driving the economic car into the ditch, are primarily run by the progressives, liberals and people known as democrats. Under their direction, the two institutions pushed for,  and backed risky home loans to people who could not afford them. A secondary result of their interference in the free market, was the out of control escalation of home values due to speculators who could sell houses to unwitting dupes. All those bad loans were packaged together and hidden on Wall street, while political hacks, like Barney Frank told us there was no problem. These same people, like senator Chris Dodd, are the ones who have created the new financial reform package that ignores the cause of the debacle, liberals and president Obama. Now the cycle is set to repeat with the administration pushing educational loans (college) through both Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac. The loans are given out to pretty much anybody, regardless of their ability to pay the loan back. Even with good intentions, the Americans trying to better themselves by getting an education, will be graduating into an economy that has no jobs to pay them ! It’s already happening, and it’s only going to get worse. Right now with the current U.S. national debt rising to 14 billion, and our government spending money like there is no tomorrow, the debt per citizen is projected at about 50K. The average 4 year college loan is 50K. Many college loans are even bigger going to 200K and more. The jobs to employ these people coming out of college, do not exist. To make the situation even worse is, the president is an academic egg head, who has never earned a buck in the free market, and his liberal elite buddies in the white house are all from the same backgrounds of academia. It is a known fact that the educational system is laden with huge costs for classes and books to pay for outrageous salaries and benefit packages of compensation for the egg head professors who teach “fantasy economics” rather than real economics as Mr Melon said. Now with the government institutions of FM & FM take over of educational financing and pushing as many loans as possible with false promises, it’s like deja vue all over again.Owning a home sounds good, and so does a college education. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to get where you want to go. The government messing with the free markets is not the right way.

President Obama has been telling us that the rebuplicans are the ones who drove the economy into the ditch and that why would we give them back the keys ? What he is not telling us is that he doesn’t need the keys, because he and all his liberal buddies, like Pelosi and Reid are all pushing the economy down a dirt road off the right path toward a cliff that they are committed to going over. To them, it’s only money “YOUR MONEY”, and even if your broke and owing money you can’t pay on your bills, your mortgage, your college loan, etc…you can still always pay more taxes to help fix the problems they create. It’s time to join our president in the blame game and to lay “THE BLAME” for the current mess and the disaster that is on the horizon on the president. This is Obama’s fault, this is the ObamaCon, this is Obamanomics in action, this is the snake oil. Wake up America before it’s too late.

This last Friday (11/30/2007), one of Americas icons and true heroes passed on to the great motorcycle jump in the sky. Robert Craig aka ” Evel Knievel ” made his mark, as the greatest daredevil this country has ever known. His legacy as a true american hero will live on !

Unfortunately, in todays modern society, men and women such as Evel are few and far between. Heroes in our society are becoming a truely rare breed. In our 24/7 news world, with nonstop coverage of peoples dirty laundry, it is becoming increasingly harder to become iconic in true hero form. Heroes are not saints. Saints are individuals who have been blessed with a superior moral fortitude and good character to have lived their lives in a self righteous fashion. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but that, in itself is not what makes a hero.

A hero is a person who displays courage, or great strength or ability, who accomplishes great achievements, who is admired and reaches legendary status, despite his or her flaws. Evel Knievel did this. Some say he was an alcoholic, or an anti-semite, or at least an asshole with an ego to match. None of this matters when it comes down to it. All we remember was that this guy had balls, BIG BALLS and he made some of the most spectacular motorcycle jumps ever. Hell he even missed a couple and got seriously injured. You see, true heroes are not perfect either. What makes them special, is that they overcome whatever hurdles and obstacles life puts in their paths to achieve greatness.

The sad fact is, that in todays world, with satelites and the internet, where gossip and inuendo travels faster than sound, a person’s reputation is the first thing that gets destroyed. Sure we have people who are famous for their indiscretions. Paris Hilton, OJ Simpson, Rodney King, to name a few. These people have their 15 seconds of fame, or are washed up and now are back in the news because of their foibles, but they are not heroes ! Unlike our heroes of the past, who reached imortality despite their flaws, todays heroes can never reach that plateau because of them. Looking back at our heroes, people like Babe Ruth, Ray Charles, J.F. Kennedy, George Patton, etc… we can dig up tawdry bits of information that prove they were human and had issues. Alcoholism, drugs, affairs, discrimination, you name it, but it doesn’t matter. These people have been put up on a pedistal as a hero and no information on their personal lives is gonna change that.

Todays potential heroes, can’t climb the mountain of greatness, because thanks to our destructive natures, they are saddled with their own inadequacies that tarnish their reputations and halt their legacies. Now we talk about asterisks, with disclamers. There’s no such thing as a hero with an asterisk. Barry Bonds, Micheal Vick, Bill Clinton, James Brown, all individuals who have achieved greatness, but all people with skeletons in the closet. Will they ever achieve hero status ?  Will anyone in todays modern microscope of publicity ever pass the qualifications of being perfect. Our will they be known more as sinners and for their weaknesses ? The world needs heroes. America needs heroes.

We will miss E.K.

-i2iGUY   

Is there a heaven ? Is there a hell ? Do both need the other to exist ?
In answer to the first question, there are several answers. If there is a God, then the place or dimension in which he exists, outside of our plane our existance known as reality, or ” Earth “, that place might be considered Heaven. As in Our Father (if God were a man), who Art (if God’s name was Art) in Heaven.
Fram a biblical perspective, Genisis mentions “the heavens” in plural form. A belief is that there are 3 levels or planes of heaven. The first level being the plane where God exists “Heaven”, the second level being the celestial plane of heaven “the stars and planets”, and the third level being the earthly heaven (the sky, clouds, air). The heaven that most of us think about is not one of these, but rather a combination of them, with some extra stuff thrown in to make us happy.
When we think of heaven, we think of this beautiful place, where time doesn’t exist, were we live forever, where everything is perfect, and life is good. A place where we go, or our spirits go after we die on earth as a reward. Who actually gets into Heaven and how to go about getting in, is constantly argued, and disagreed upon. Working you way in, sacrifice, beleiving in Jesus, believeing in (fill in name:______), are all methods for getting to Heaven. The suicide bombers in the mideast are told they will go straight to heaven after they blow themselves up. Part of determining who doesn’t get to get in, is who your God actualy is. Most people think God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and universal, but then, say that God’s name is Jehova, Jesus, God, or Allah, or that he or her has a race, like black or white (like God would have a sex or race)! These are the reasons people determine that their god is not your god. The biggest reason people have that their God, is not your God, is to restrict you from getting into Heaven. Kinda like spritual racism and discrimination in Heaven. The crazyiest thing is that this heaven, the Heaven everyone is so eager to get into, probably doesn’t exist. Of course, as great as the Heaven is, that we all think about, nobody is in too much of a hurry to get there, except those suicide bombers.
Now let’s just back up one minute and refer to the bible. Rather than retread alot of biblical vereses, let me just tell you to go to any of the many websites that ask about whether Heaven exists. What you will find it that the bible references the 3 levels of heaven that are first mentioned in Genisis, but not much or any of the Heaven we all think about. The First heaven, God’s place, is talked about alot. It is a completely different dimension from ours. Whether you are in Revelations, Daniel, Eziekiel, Genisis, or any of the books where the Heaven of God is described, you will think you are on an acid trip. From angels, to thrones, to all sorts of creatures and things, God’s place is God’s place. No where will you find the bible telling us we will be spending eternity in Gods Heaven. We might visit, and even hang out, but it’s not the heaven we are all thinking about. Jesus said it best ” The kingdom of heaven is here on earth”. It’s right in front of us. So if the kingdom of heaven is here, what does that mean ? Jesus is telling us that we need to focus on what we do, right here, right now, and how we live here on earth needs to be aligned with God’s will. Everytime we stray from his will, we remove a little bit of heaven from our own existance. The heaven we are looking for is not in another life.
If this is true, then what is all this stuff that we are carrying around in our heads regarding heaven, and for that matter hell. Heaven and Hell are most likely what ever you make it. Hell kinda fals into the same category as heaven as a place. The images and concepts of who lives there, who’s going there, and what will happen to them once they are there are all either fed to us, or created by us in our minds based on opposing diometrics of the conceptual polar opposites of good and eveil. Once again, if we look to the Bible for help, one will find scant information on the place. A huge part of the images and beliefs we have of heaven and hell are fes to us through religion. Our churches have done a fine job of filling in the missing pieces and telling us excactly what these two places are. It may be of no coincidence that heaven and hell are two of the most heavily used concepts for motivation, adherance, brainwashing, and the like. We have all heard the phrases, ” you will burn in hell for that” and “You’re going to hell”. Pretty harsh, and yet even Christians have no problem if it means billions of people going to hell if they don’t believe they’re way. Pretty powerful stuff. Of course we have already mentioned what the promise of heaven will do to someone. Whether it is promises of paradise, or threats of punishment, the churches have always found the concepts of heaven and hell to be benificial to their operations (financialy and attendance). All this, with barely a mention of them in the Bible.

If this wasn’t bad enough, we add to the crap that is put in our brains, our own vises, likes, needs, perceptions, fears, and the like and our brain neatly sorts them all into the knowledge of good and evil. Unless your crazy, we all have the ability to tell good versus evil. Unless your a psycopath, your conscience and your heart will guide your actions based on that knowledge. But still, deep within our minds, our subconciusness, we have our knowledge broken down into good and evil, heaven and hell. In life, this knowledge and our interaction with life determine our perspective on wether we are living a good life, or a bad life, whether we are living in heaven or hell. We’ve all heard these phrases used in everyday life. “He must be going through hell”, or “I was in heaven”, or “It must have been hell”, or “It was heavenely”. All of these are used by us to describe real life in terms of what we are projecting life to be like at a later point. The afterlife. The crazy thing is we are living here and now, heaven and hell are right here on earth, they are what we make them. We can make the earth either a paradise or a desolation. Deja Vu ? Think Eden vs after Eden. Applying the heaven and hell critiria to our actual lifes is the correct thing to do, because that is where we are experiencing them. Applying them to the afterlife, which we know almost nothing about is kinda crazy and pointless. Allowing others to control us, manipulate us, or supress us with visions and promises of the afterlife is even more desturbing.

Does this mean, I am ruling out an afterlife for myself or humankind. No. Does this mean I don’t believe in heaven ? No. I just believe that heaven is an actual place and it actually has three levels. I don’t believe there is anything I can find saying we will be joining God in his Heaven. I am totaly a believer in the celestial heaven, the universe and all its mystries, and I believe there are the earthly heaven. Our own planet and the air we breath and the dirt we grow our food in. I just think we have our ideas and intentions misplaced when we focus any energy on the thought of us being in a heaven in the afterlife. I believe that in the next life, if I am acceptable to be a part of it, that it will be pretty much like the life I know now. Heaven will still be, what I make it and my feet, will still be touching the ground and looking up to the heavens. The key to life is not to get too caught up in the battle between good vs evil in your mind. It will drive you crazy. That is also why there needs to be a heaven and a hell in our minds. The only way one can visualize a coin is to see both sides of it. Eating a so called apple gave us that ability. Now we need to focus on the reality infront of us and follow our hearts. If we need to pray, it should be that we are not pscycopaths, or insane. I believe humans are good and kind. Call me a sucker. Jesus may have been a sucker. The first time. If there is a second time, I can gaurantee you, Jesus will not be a sucker again. That is for another discussion. One Love, Peace out !