Nagging Conscience

The Conscience: Also known as our Moral Compass is our personal guide for living. It is what keeps the thumb off the butcher's scales whenever he weighs your meat. Whenever we do mess up, it is what will not let us forget about it. Every culture has a sense of actions that are acceptable and those that are not. Each culture has its own set of rules that reflect their culture, but there is also unanimity throughout most cultures about killing, stealing, cheating, and lying. A trustworthy citizen in any culture is a person who follows the rules of that culture. The conscience lets us know when we are violating a cultural rule.

Willing Obedience: We learn these cultural rules in childhood. The lessons are indelibly committed to our sub-conscience and become the basis for guiding us throughout our life. We normally willingly adhere to these rules because when we obey these rules, we become acceptable to the rest of our culture. Conformity to rules that govern behavior is the rock bed foundation of a society. There are also rewards for conformity. You do not spend time in jail, and you are trusted. Other rewards are peace of mind, and that satisfaction that your culture respects you. An ostracized person is a lonely person.

Rule Changes: Time and progress make it necessary to change cultural rules. Normally, one of our stages in maturing is our raucous years. This is the period between our mid-teens to our mid-twenties. Our late twenties and thirties are a mellowing period, a period when we start paying more attention to our conscience. A cohesive society will only allow those who can look retrospectively at the culture to change any rules, not our rebellious and idealistic young.

The Rules: In the United States, other than conscience, the rules come in the form of laws. All laws seek to curb basic instincts or variations of these instincts, and control the big four: lying, cheating, killing, and stealing. The laws seek retribution from those who violate the rules. Retribution may be in the form of a fine, jail, or prison.

The Incorrigibles: Incorrigibles are those who cannot live within the bounds set forth by the culture or society. The ones who cannot conform by fines and short jail terms must finally be isolated to protect society from them.

Right and Wrong: Right is complying with the rules of the culture. Wrong is activity outside those rules. Our conscience is rooted in faith, while our laws are secular. Faith enforces conscience with the belief in life after death. Living a good life gets you Heaven, living a life outside of the boundaries gets you Hell. Faith is a powerful incentive to live according to its teachings. Most of the religious rules parallel the secular rules they just differ in enforcement. Secular enforcement offers no incentive to obey the rules, but instead offers punishment for their violation. Fear of 'getting caught' may be a deterrent to some, but also provides the incentive to be smarter than the cops. Outsmarting the cops can mean big payoffs as well as bragging rights among peers.

Difference: Getting away with a crime and its potential reward is the real attraction for criminals. But not so for a person of faith, God watches all of our moves, there is no hope of getting away with anything. To help with a nagging conscience, most people try justifying their actions. But in the end, there is no justification that stops the nagging. This is the advantage that faith and conscience have in maintaining our society. Repenting can save a person from damnation (and stop the nagging). As they say, confession is good for the soul. But redemption can only occur if our conscience leads us to repent.

Reservoir of Goodness: More and more, we see shortcuts to riches taken. The moneylenders are greedy, the manufacturers are greedy, and the greed even extends to our healthcare system. No Pollyanna here, because I am aware that we have always had greedy people. It is the scope of increasing greed that I am referring to. The reservoir of goodness once held by the American People is evaporating. White-collar crime is profitable. A shady businessperson can scam millions and receive only a few years in jail. It makes for a successful effort. Those illegal exploits influence our young. Our kids no longer have a business model to admire. All they see is the opportunity to get rich. The incentives for a young person to persevere and succeed with innovation and hard work are disappearing. Bookkeeping gimmicks, cheapening product for more profit, importing cheap labor, and outsourcing to foreign countries is the hallmark of the modern American business.

The Missing Conscience: What has happened to our nagging conscience? The problem started when we decided that we no longer wanted God in the classroom. We banned prayer from the public square and along with it, our ethics. Right and wrong are no longer distinguishable from each other. The consequences of raising a generation without a moral compass, or no definition of right and wrong are at our doorstep. And yet, we want to blame others for the avarice and greed we see today. We justified 'separation of church and state' by defining a morning prayer in school was somehow state sponsored religion. Finding our way back will be a difficult road to follow.

Food Supply at Risk: Tainted peanut butter, diseased animals slaughtered, poisoned pet food, and dirty canneries have all been in the news lately. Not all of the food problems are because of corporate greed. Firms with employees who have no interest in their job, and only wanting that paycheck causes a lot of the careless mistakes in our American businesses. These employees demonstrate the need for a foundation in right and wrong. Their careless actions mean nothing to them without the help of a caring conscience. The Government cannot hire enough inspectors to ensure the safety of our food products. We have to trust these industries or revert to raising and butchering animals at home. Trust is a large part of our society. But if we continue to raise untrustworthy kids, the future does indeed look grim.

Helpless Government: When the population no longer cares about ethics, fielding an army of police is the only response available. Where will our rights be then? Already we have to maintain police in our schools to control the violence. We are searched before we can attend a sporting event. Whatever is on your computer can become public property. Telephone calls are not private. It is laughable to hear the groups protesting the loss of their rights. Those same people do not want God in the classroom.

Preaching? No! We must recognize that faith has a prominent place in our society. I will close with this thought. Whenever I attended school, during the morning invocation everyone shut their mouth. Even the school bad ass had sense enough to recognize that there was something greater than he was. Respect for God and not religious fervor kept our traps shut as we stood in silence during the prayer. Learning respect can be a humbling experience.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Sex Quiz

1) Does it matter to you that we implicitly encourage sex between our young with sex education, passing out condoms, and furnishing birth control pills in our schools?

2) Did you ever wonder who gains with having our kids banging their brains out with each other?

3) How far have you progressed up the sexual experience ladder?

4) Do you need help to get titillated before you can perform with your partner?

5) Does your partner need 'special' titillation before he/she can perform?

6) Have you asked by what logic our post puberty kids can have all the sex with each other that they want, yet sex between one of them and an adult is toxic for the adult?

7) Do you think that society is on the right path when our pretty girls become commodities?

8) Did you know that those with the most sexually permissive rules also make up the third world and lower echelons of modern societies?

9) Did you know that in our rehab centers, sexual addiction is one of the leading reasons for admission?

10) Do you breathlessly await nude pictures of Hanna Montana to appear on the web?

11) If the answer to the above question is yes, do you really expect her to look any different from any other 15 year old?

12) Does Liberalism have any link to this quiz?

My Answers: Yours may differ.

1) It should. Children need to be children without prematurely starting them on their sexual experience ladder. By the time they reach maturity, they run the risk of being too worldly. Remember our sexual experience ladder starts out with simple curiosity, and it spirals upwards from there. Once this curiosity is piqued, it develops a life of its own.

2) Liberalism uses sex to mollify the masses. It is a method of controlling ambition and the will to succeed. Only a rare individual can lead a hyperactive sex life and rise into society's elite. Most of the energies required for success are burned chasing sex.

3) To answer this question, you need to know the parameters. Sex starts out with curiosity -I will show you mine if you show me yours type of innocence. Then we get hand holding, kissing, petting, masturbation, intercourse, oral, and so forth, all the way out to "snuff" sex. I will maintain my privacy on this one but you get the idea. It is all about what really turns you on. That will be your position on the experience ladder.

4) This question is not about cuddling and the usual preludes to intimacy. Do you need to watch others before you feel like performing? It is said that Elvis had to watch two girls making out to get him in the mood. Your thing might be shaved genitals or mechanical instruments.

5) A mirrored question to #4, only it is about your partner instead of you. If your answer to either of these two questions is yes, then you might be a candidate for being a little outside the norm in terms of experience. If you are still young, it means that sex has already become a burden and that you or your partner will not likely enjoy most sexual contacts unless special attention is paid to yours or your partner's 'special' needs.

6) Puberty used to be the age of becoming an adult sexually. As late as the early 1900's a girl who was unmarried at age 16 was considered an oddity and an old maid by the age 20. What has changed? With the advent of women's rights, and the sexual revolution, women in their 30's and 40's knew that men naturally were attracted to the young women. By putting the young girls off limits, they eliminated their most potent competition. Nobody says a word about teenage sex. In fact, it is encouraged by most liberal groups. If you are over 18, do not get caught with one of these young hotties.

7) Beauty is a commodity. Do you think for a moment that one of the networks would use an unattractive woman to face the public? If you are a pretty person and have a modicum of intelligence, you can market yourself with much more success than someone who is unattractive. Beauty sells everything from cars to doughnuts. Because we value beauty so highly, pretty people spend a fortune to keep ahead of father time. Beauty supplies, cosmetic surgery, and Botox are all signs of the times.

8) Question self-answers. The great societies of the past self-destructed because of their acquiescence into self-indulgence. Even in today's world, the evidence is overwhelming. Sexual values define the layers in today's society. The social layers of standing are not defined by race or ethnic origin, but by their acquiescence into self-indulgence and sex.

9) This is a statement more than a question. Sexual addiction is one of the leading causes of admission into the rehab centers.

10) By looking at the number of hits on the web sites that published those innocent pictures of Miley Cyrus, volume so high that some sites had to shut down, it is easy to conclude that we as a nation have a prurient interest in anybody who is famous.

11) With an offer from Playboy and others for Miley to pose nude, it looks like the nation is holding its collective breath in anticipation of seeing this young girl nude. This speaks volumes about where we are as a nation and our values. Do you think that Miley Cyrus looks any different from any other girl her age?

12) Liberalism has everything to do with the condition or our society. It was the Liberal Warren Court that could not define pornography, it is the leftist judges who want to legislate from the bench to mandate same sex marriage, and it is the Liberal left who has been doing everything in their power to disenfranchise God. The Liberal left cannot bear having competition. God must go along with any opposition to their self-indulgent agenda.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Earth's Greenhouse

There is no question that the Earth enjoys the fruits of greenhouse warming. Without it, the Earth would be an ice ball. Thanks to the greenhouse effect, we enjoy a global rise in temperature of approximately 33 degrees C. This warming is attributable to all greenhouse elements in our atmosphere; water, contaminants, and CO2. Any shielding in the atmosphere such as smoke or volcanic debris lessens the amount of radiant energy we receive from the Sun and therefore the Earth's temperature falls.

This discussion will center on CO2. CO2 is a relatively minor greenhouse gas regulated by the oceans. Humans are responsible for about 3% of the CO2 released into the atmosphere, but the oceans account for the majority of its release even when compared with all of the land based biomass.

The release of CO2 from the oceans depends on the ocean temperature. The oceans release more CO2 as ocean temperatures rise and conversely, absorb CO2 in the cold oceans. The phenomenon is not in reverse as punctuated by the global alarmists. CO2 is a product of the oceans warming and not the cause of it.

A number of things regulate Ocean temperatures. The Sun is the largest source of ocean warming. Other contributors are the percolating effects that circulate the ocean water through the many fissures on the ocean floor, and subsea volcanoes. Most people do not realize that there are over 1000 active subsea volcanoes.

From the Sun, we get radiant energy. The Earth is two-thirds water. So the amount of radiant energy that reaches the oceans is critical to ocean temperature. Clouds and contaminants from volcanoes and other sources are all the Earth has to regulate how much of this radiant energy makes it to the oceans. Cloud cover is essential as clouds reflect an enormous amount of the Sun's energy back into space.

According to R. Lindzen, CO2 only accounts for about 5% of the natural 33 deg C greenhouse effect. The total rise in temperature on Earth from all CO2 is only 1.65 deg C. Since humans only account for 3% of that total, humans are responsible for .0495 deg C.

Richard S. Lindzen, Proc. Nat. Acad. of Sciences, 94, 8335-8342 (1997) 8 and (in German) Klima 2000 (Heuseler), 2, 3-8 (1998) 5/6

The global warming alarmists, for the most part are good folks who believe that the U.S. is killing the planet. They believe that our use of fossil fuels, that drive our economy, will cause great calamities unless we reduce our carbon footprint, and of course, it will cost more than a trillion dollars to pay for our largess. The scheme behind the carbon offsets is nothing more than the redistribution of wealth advocated by leftist extremist for years. The CO2 fallacy has given them the ideal tool to strip the U.S. of its prosperity.

In conclusion and for the record, I want to let it be known that we all look forward to the day that fossil fuels become unnecessary. Fossil fuels produce other contaminants that harm this world, but global warming is not one of them. For now, our way of life is dependent on fossil fuels and until we can economically swap to cleaner alternatives, it does no good to trash this country. It is not in the U.S. that our athletes have to wear mask from air-pollution. I also realize that there are higher figures for man's contribution to the CO2 in the atmosphere floating around, but those higher figures are without foundation and are bandied about for pure political purposes.

These following references are for you to peruse at your convenience. They represent the source for some of the points made in this writing.

Gary Novak
Independent Scientist

http://nov55.com/ntyg.html

Carbon dioxide absorbs infrared radiation (IR) in three narrow bands of frequencies, which are 2.7, 4.3 and 15 micrometers (µM). This means that most of the heat producing radiation escapes it. About 8% of the available black body radiation is picked up by these "fingerprint" frequencies of CO2.(A measureable and Replicable figure)
But humans could not double the CO2, because they only put 3% of the CO2 in the air. If they put twice as much in, it would do whatever it does in 9.7m instead of 10m. If humans stopped putting any CO2 in the air, it would do whatever it does in 10.3m instead of 10m. In other words, nothing humans do with CO2 could be of the slightest relevance to global warming, even if oceans were not regulating it.

The Climate Catastrophe
- A Spectroscopic Artifact?

By Dr. Heinz Hug - Heinz Hug, Chemische Rundschau, 20. Febr., p. 9 (1998) and: Klima 2000 (Heuseler), 2, 23-26 (1998) 1/2 and:

http://www.wuerzburg.de/mm-physik/klima/artefact.htm

http://www.john-daly.com/artifact.htm

It is hardly to be expected that for CO2 doubling an increment of IR absorption at the 15 µm edges by 0.17% can cause any significant global warming or even a climate catastrophe.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Billy Graham Prayer

I received this email from a friend and wanted to pass it on. I have no actual knowledge whether this is a Billy Graham prayer or if Paul Harvey recited it on the radio. However, it is an accurate description of what creeping Liberalism is doing to this country. Enjoy!

Billy Graham's prayer aired
by Paul Harvey...........................

THIS GUY SURE HAS A GOOD VIEW OF WHAT'S HAPPENING TO THIS COUNTRY!

PAUL HARVEY'S ON- AIR PRAYER

'Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and To seek your direction and guidance.. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery. We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare. We have killed our unborn and called it choice. We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable. We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem. We have Abused power and called it politics. We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition. We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment. Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Amen!'

Commentator Paul Harvey aired this prayer on his radio program, 'The Rest of the Story,' and received a larger response to this program than any other he has ever aired. With the Lord's help, may this prayer Sweep over our nation and wholeheartedly become our desire so that we
Again can be called 'One nation under God.'

If possible, please pass this prayer on to your friends. 'If you don't Stand for something, you will fall for everything.' Think about this: If you forward this prayer to everyone on your e-mail
List, in less than 30 days it would be heard by the world. (It's worth A try!)

One Nation Under God

Enough said!

Cheers,

-Robert-

More on Global Warming

In conversations with proponents of 'Global Warming', there is a common thread that works its way through all of their opinions on the subject. Few, if any, know anything about the 'greenhouse effect' and just relate opinions from someone they trust or are just going along with the crowd on the subject. I find that ignorance about how CO2 is supposed to be destroying the planet to be appalling. It is a subject that everyone just assumes that his or her trusted source understands the subject.

Global warming has become the darling of the left because it fits their agenda. It gives the left leverage over the engine of America's greatness. This one issue hands to the elite left, total control over the driving energy for our economy. They become the brokers of the Nation's energy supply and in the process diminish the greatness of this country.

But there is a fly in the soup. The CO2 theory does not stand up to scrutiny. It is a fallacious assertion that just happens to fit several political agendas. The left is not the only proponents of the CO2 global warming agenda. The right also embraces the scheme as a wedge to make the U.S. energy independent. Their aim is to stop surrendering rivers of wealth to other countries. The real losers in the process are the American people.

Energy independence alone should be motivation enough to change our infrastructure on energy. But sadly, it is not. There are too many special interest groups with their oars in the water. The farmers want to 'grow' our fuel, the environmentalists see pollution with everything that has any real chance of supplying our energy needs, and the everyday people want affordable fuel for their cars.

There can be no doubt that fossil fuels have their downside, but when put on the scales of balance, the good outweighs the bad. Science has cleaned up much of the pollution caused by fossil fuels and is making strides that will make them even better. As a nation, we have dug ourselves a deep hole when it comes to the supply of our energy needs. We can overcome this deficit in energy if we as a nation take the necessary actions.

For starters, we need to develop the energy sources available to us now. We have only tapped into 3% of the outer continental shelf. We need to explore more of it. Clean coal technology is also a big source of energy. We have enough coal to last for the foreseeable future. Then there is the nuclear option that once held such promise for the nation before the environmentalists scared the crap out of the American people with their campaign against it. That campaign received a big boost with the accident at Three Mile Island. Even in the face of objections from the environmentalists, nuclear power still has to be one of the alternatives for our future energy needs.

For the time being, fossil fuels are still our best bet for maintain our way of life. The so-called alternatives are not available in anything like the quantities we need to maintain our economy. The Democrats need to get off their duffs and approve offshore drilling.

There needs to be a non-political discussion about global warming. There is evidence that the Earth is actually cooling, just the opposite of what the proponents of global warming are contending. CO2 causing any type of global warming is political and not a scientific fact.

Cheers,

-Robert-

Pollution and Global Warming

Like most who grew up in the 50's and 60's, the images of "smog" permeated our conscience. Everyone realized that this was a man made phenomenon. Compounding these images were our daily experiences of man's pollution.

Amoco Oil demonstrated the distasteful stuff coming out of our automobiles utilizing leaded fuel by attaching a large clear balloon to the tailpipe of an automobile. The balloon quickly filled up with black nasty gases. Right beside the leaded fuel-burning car was one burning the Amoco's new lead-free gasoline and there was none of the pollution collecting in the bag attached to that car. These were an eye opening demonstrations and paved the way for the acceptance of unleaded fuel.

Lastly if you ever traveled by bus, it is hard to forget the diesel exhaust that permeated those bus stations. You could hardly get your breath around those places.

Getting the public to accept a theory that blamed the activity of humans for global warming was relatively easy. The public already had experiences with man made pollution, so it was easy to accept that burning fossil fuels was causing global warming with CO2. I also fell for the idea that man was responsible for the problem. I even wrote an article for 'Amazines.com' about the hazards of CO2. I penned another article for my sister website robfg.com.

After a lot of research that included material from a lot of the world's pre-eminent scientists and climatologist, I penned several articles on my websites about CO2, Venus, and Mars. There is only one conclusion a reasonable person can make. Global warming is not from any efforts of humankind. You can read my rewrite of the article of global warming here: robfg.com.

What I want you to understand is that smog and the effects of other pollutants were resolved by real science, not an emotional, nearly hysterical proclamation by those with ulterior motives. So look into the issue for yourself and do not allow this issue to steal your freedom. Be deliberate in your quest to find the truth.

http://www.nov55.com/index.html is a good place to start. Examination of the facts will make room for new ideas with respect to 'global warming'.

Cheers,

-Robert-

A Leap to the Left

With the presumptive nomination of Barack H. Obama, the Democrats take their largest step yet to the left. The Democratic Party has been going left ever so slightly since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt. The changes have been incremental up until now. The nomination of Obama is not another one of those incremental steps, but rather a large leap towards leftist socialism.

Socialism is the antithesis of individualism. Individualism allows an individual to follow his ambition while socialism puts the society on the backs of the successful. In other words, in Socialism, you can only succeed by carrying the load of those who are not motivated to succeed. So if you want to differentiate yourself from the pack in today's America, you have to run the gauntlet that the Democrats have prepared for you.

Such a gauntlet includes businesses having to hire lobbyists to protect thier interest. You must also negotiate the many laws governing a business such as EEOC who mandate certain quotas for the different ethnicities. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) enforces all laws with respect to discrimination in hiring. On its face, anti-discrimination laws seem to be a fair and equitable thing. But these laws have negative consequences that threaten our domestic businesses and send many to operate on foreign shores.

There may be a few businesses with discriminatory hiring practices, but experience has shown that most employers just want to hire the most productive people available to him. The odds are that the less dependable and least productive members of our society also make up the poorest of us. Businesses scour through the bottom dwellers in hopes of finding dependable productive employees because they generally come at a cheaper rate than the proven productive workers do.

It is all in the eye of the beholder, but the poor see everything as an obstacle and generally will not try to overcome it. The producers in our society see things differently. They look at obstacles as challenges and not as an impenetrable brick walls. Hard work and determination are generally the hallmarks of motivated individuals while sloth and retreat generally characterize the person not motivated. Race and ethnicity have nothing to do with it.

The 'feel good' laws put forth by the Democrats have, over time, eroded our nation's ability to lead and compete in today's world. The maze of regulations now present for industry adds significant cost to their operation. It is no wonder that China and India manufacture most of the goods you consume and use. General Motors is on the verge of bankruptcy because of the outrageous demands by congressional demands and Unions. Union demands for more than a good salary and working conditions along with congressional edicts combined to add significantly to the manufacturing cost of the American automobile and undermined the solvency of one of America's great industries.

Unless everybody pulls his or her weight, great and small, this nation cannot exist as it is now. Think of the America economy as being a big feeding trough. The producers (American businesses) fill the trough with a portion of their bounty and the non-producers eat at the trough. As the trough receives more feeders, the producers have to produce more to feed them. The problem with this scenario is that there is little incentive for a feeder to become a producer. As long as the trough stays full, there is no reason to try and produce. But there are unintended consequences with overloading the producers. Some of the producers become feeders because it is easier than producing, or they may start producing for a less demanding trough like the ones of China and India.

Obama's plan will expand the feed trough significantly and drive even more producers to foreign shores. Taking this country farther to the left will have the effect of making conditions worse and chip away at our freedom. The march to the left needs scrutiny by the voters. But unfortunately, the major source of the digestible information comes from very left leaning communications outlets. What is wrong with those guys? Do they really think that a heavy-handed government will be able to solve problems? History is not on their side because Socialism has never been successful. Here is hoping for a better future, go McCain!

Cheers,

-Robert-