Spoiling a child or creating a giver

When I was much younger I was of the opinion that you shouldn't give too much to your kids because you will create a brat and an adult that is selfish, self-centered and impossible to please.

Through the years my opinion has changed.

I have cousins who didn't get much as children. Ironically they were very giving children. They always gave away whatever they did have. But as adults they without a doubt totally self-centered. They only live for what makes them happy, damn their kids. Most of them have multiple children out of wedlock and seem totally focused on serving themselves and filling a void in their own lives that was not filled as children.

I have other cousins who we viewed as spoiled rotten children. Their parents gave them tons of presents at Christmas. Every birthday party was a major event. Their parents never missed any of their activities. The kids never went without an abundance of love and attention and gifts. They are entering adulthood and I have observed that they are some of the least self-centered people I know. They are very giving young adults, especially to their parents and grandparents.

It appears that when we are kids and our parents give to us freely and abundantly, it causes two things to happen. First of all it teaches us to give. Kids with giving parents tend to be more charitable and less focused on getting stuff when they become adults. Secondly, Kids with self-centered parents tend to be self-centered when they reach adulthood. They seem to use people throughout their adult lives in a vain attempt to fill a void. They feel entitled to only be served since they were cheated at kids.

Personally in my own life, my parents gave us everything we needed; we never went without. I went through a long self-centered phase in my teens and 20s. But since finding and building a relationship with Christ I have moved away from that to what I feel is my true self, I feel a desire to serve and give to others which is how my parents were with my sister and I.

No matter how much we received or did not recieve from our parents we all have some level of a void to fill, that can only be filled by Jesus Christ. A willingness to follow his teachings and to live for HIS glory will heal any wounds.

The Bewilderment that is Buffet

Warren Buffet bewilders me. OK, He's a liberal. By definition liberals are not right upstairs. By every time he opens his mouth and discusses economics he makes me wonder how in the world he is a billionaire. His words repeatedly display utter ignorance about economics.

I will focus today on his recent comments about Barak Obama. The headline on Bloomberg.com stated "Obama Can Spread Prosperity, Fairness, Buffett Says". Huh?

OK. I am an engineer. I have an engineering degree. I do not have a finance degree nor any experience in the market except for losing money. Buffet is a billionaire earned through his skills in the market. How can anyone who is smart enough to build a fortune like his actually believe that a president can spread prosperity and fairness? The closest thing to that ever happening was Ronald Reagan's tax cuts. Our nation is still prospering from those bold moves 25+ years ago. But fairness? A free market is the closest thing to bringing about fairness but Obama is a liberal and sides with socialism before capitalism. A socialist "pie in the sky" goal is fairness, usually sought by force since the free market does not guarantee prosperity to those who don't work.

Does Buffet like Obama and his ilk because they favor government taxing high incomes and redistributing the money? Well I can see why Buffet would be bothered with that. He already has his money. He doesn't need an income. Like many liberal millionaires and billionaires, they always favor high income taxes on other people trying to get rich but frown on "wealth" taxes on the fortunes of those who have already made it financially.

To add to this bewilderment he has done some things that are tremendous. The biggest one to me is when he announced that a significant portion of his wealth will not go to his children. He said, "I want to give my kids just enough so that they would feel that they could do anything, but not so much that they would feel like doing nothing". This is wisdom on the level of Solomon.

How can a man be so wise but then routinely say something so ignorant?

The vacuum that could end the USA

I just wanted to quickly comment on the kind of a human nature understanding of the consequences of pulling out of Iraq.

If the Dems were in charge, they had their way, and they chose to give a date of withdrawal and they followed threw with withdrawing that day. Here is what would happen:

1. Those responsible for the violence in Iraq, like Iran and Syria would stop the bombings. Why sacrifice more of your people???

2. After the date has passed and the US presence is gone then Iran will move in and the Sunni's better beware. Iran will not go in alone. They will be fully financed and backed by Russia and/or China. These nations will immediately control the oil fields and in essense have the US and the west by the balls.

3. The US will either

A. Have to fight Russia/China/Iran to get the oil fields back in order to bring the prices down.
B. Force a different form of energy on the west so as not to be slaves of Rus/Chi/Iran.
C. Negotiate with the Rus/Chi/Iran and pray that they are nice to us.

There WILL be a vacuum in Iraq if we leave too soon and more powerful enemies will ally to take over the oil rich nation. Iraq must be able to defend itself before we can leave. Otherwise a Rus/Chi/Iran powergrab will bring the USA to its knees - without a single bullet shot.

However if we hold fast until Iraq is strong then we will have a powerful ally in that volitile region and an indirect say in the price of world oil.

God bless the USA

NH public television and the myth they voluntarily propagandize

I watched a program on NH Public Television over the weekend called NH Outlook. They did a p program on global warming and it was deeply troubling. The program's entire premise was that Global warming and climate change is occurring and we are causing it. This premise was purported by one person after another who "felt" that it was happening - usually based on Al Gore's movie and really nothing else.

There was no science (because none exists) investigated and more importantly there was no (none, nada) look at the other side of the issue, like the lack of a consensus among scientists. No one who believes it is not happening was interviewed whether it was a person on the street or a historian that is armed with reams of evidence to show the ebbs and flows of climate change.

Is this how public television does things (rhetorical)? They take a myth and report it as fact and refuse to talk to anyone who has evidence that their belief is actually a myth? This appears to be propaganda financed by the taxpayers to get people to ultimately believe that they need to allow government to control their personal lives and choices in order to be in the good graces of the religion known as global warming.