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What’s next for the US?
I was reading a magazine today that contained the following quote:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependence; from dependence back into bondage.”
The quote was attributed to a Scottish historian named Alexander Fraser Tytler, who supposedly said this in 1787. (Note: Wikipedia says otherwise, and bases it on this guy. But no one is sure.) Here’s the cycle, regardless of who wrote it, in picture form:
So, #1, can you actually see this in history, and #2, where does that put the US at? What does this mean for us? Personally, I blame it on both political parties. The Republicans create fear of more taxes, and the Democrats thrive on a fear of lost entitlement services. This results in lower taxes and more entitlement services… see the issue?
Sarah’s out at a meeting, so I’m just passing the time, stirring the pot a little. I find comfort in knowing that regardless of what happens, there is One who is bigger than all of this, yet knows how many hairs I have on my head. And yours too.
HT: Common Sense Govt for the graphic
4
Today marks four years of wedded bliss for Sarah and me, and the first year of our marriage spent in the country of our births. It’s been a fun ride, and I’m looking forward to many more exciting years to come. We’ve decided to buy each other a house. Not one for each other, mind you – one for the two of us will be fine. And when I say buy, I mean become indebted to someone for the next 30 years who will take lots and lots of money in interest from us. Ah, such is life. Here’s hoping they will actually lend us the money! Tonight we celebrate by having a great dinner together (coupon-inspired, once again) and with then take in some Shakespeare. I’m not sure The Taming of the Shrew is the most apropos selection for our anniversary, but the theater group wouldn’t let me pick another one.
In other news, the weather has been flirting with the triple digits for about a week now, with a break for a day-long downpour that left many in the Dallas area (but fortunately not us) without power and brought up many correlations to Noah and building an ark. The temperatures quickly rose back to pre-storm levels, and faucets now squeal when turned on, as if to thank the user for a respite from the heat. July and August, here we come!
Two Weekends, Two Date Nights
The Dallas summer has arrived, bringing 90-degree temperatures all this week. This is only the beginning…
Sarah and I have taken advantage of the increased free time the summer brings and have gone out the past two weekends. Last weekend we headed to Arlington, which apparently is the entertainment center of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. We headed to the Rangers Stadium for a Saturday evening game against the Oakland A’s, but before the game we took in a concert by Casting Crowns.
The pictures were taken from the top level of the Rangers’ stadium; as you can see, there’s more than enough room in the surrounding area for a concert, a six flags park, a huge water park, and the new cowboys stadium. That’s a lot of parking lots, but the Rangers and the Cowboys can share some parking space: smart.
The Rangers proceeded to walk the first two batters of the game and allow one run in the first inning, but that was the only run they allowed as they hit 3 solo homers and went on to win 14-1.
Fast forward one week. Last night, we went to NorthPark Mall for an evening of coupon-inspired enjoyment. Dinner at TGI Friday’s is much more enjoyable when it’s buy one entree, get one free. Reduced price tickets for the movie Up followed thanks to our Entertainment book (A very fun movie. Another hit for Pixar: enjoyable for kids and adults), and then we splurged on a sundae from Cold Stone Creamery. All in all, a great evening.
With the heat coming, we will be consuming lots of ice cream. If you have any flavors to recommend, let me know!
House Hunting
It’s been a great week for us here in Dallas. The weather has been darn near perfect, and a break to remember sacrifices paid made the week shorter, though bittersweet.
We’ve been busy of late searching for homes. Sarah and I would love to live closer to PBC, which would allow us more convenient access into life-events that build the fellowship. It would cause us to move away from downtown Dallas, but neither of us will miss the nightlife much. We may have even found a great place. All we have to do now is smile big enough to convince the bank that we’re good for the money. I thought a good argument would be that after taking on this loan we would still be in less debt than the federal government is in (per capita, mind you), but maybe that’s not the best idea.
[aside: this past weekend President Obama agreed that the federal government has too much debt. His solution: the government should spend more money for huge new entitlement programs. Does this sound crazy to anyone else?]
In other news, I’m enjoying reading books that aren’t assigned to me. I recently finished Amusing Ourselves to Death and was amazed at 1) how true the book was when written some 25 years ago and 2) how much has changed since first publication that showed how prophetic the book was. John Dyer notes this to some extent in his recent presentation, “Technology is not neutral.” He used this quote:
“I worry that the level of interrupt, the sort of overwhelming rapidity of information – and especially stressful information – is in fact affecting cognition. It is in fact affecting deeper thinking. I still believe that sitting down and reading a book is the best way to really learn something. And I worry that we’re losing that.”
The kicker is who said this quote: Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. Yeah.
That’s all for now, unless you want to loan me money for a house. I’m good for it. Really.
Star Trek
As a self-proclaimed trekker (NOT trekkie), I LOVED the new movie. It was careful to stay true to the original (which I know from the movies, but not much from the original series), yet created a universe from which the franchise can build on again.
I could tell the movie was effective at reaching everyone: I’m walking out of the theater explaining the minutae of Star Trek trivia embedded in the new film to my wife (who doesn’t care that much but is gracious to me), and the girl behind me remarks, “I liked the movie. Captain Kirk’s hot.”
Spring semester is over now, so I’m going to have a little more free time to write on here. Stay tuned!
one year later… we have not forgotten
The relief effort is ongoing. If you would like to give to the cause of rebuilding homes and lives for the sake of Christ, please contact:
Leadership Development Intl
1635 Highway 34 East, Suite B
Newnan, GA 30265-2173
Phone: 770-683-0808
Fax: 770-683-0809
“God is our refuge and strength … so we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea.”
Calvinism
I’ve spent some time over the past few years reading John Calvin, or people who follow in his footsteps, like Jonathan Edwards and John Piper. Even though my name isn’t John as well, I think their theology is on the right track. Apparently, I’m not the only one.