Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Glen Beck is giving them hell

We left Subic Bay years ago. As our tech capabilies improve we don't need bases where we're not wanted.....if asked, we leave. But, being near trouble spots on the planet is good for our security.

And yes, I miss Isaac.

You actually believe Jesus was a communist? Do you think he intended to reverse the commandments against 1) stealing, and 2) coveting thy neighbor's goods?

I'm not as well versed in history as a lot of you . Except the parts that involved me .

This is one of the things that forward bases do for you in " peacetime " when the generals in the pentagon ain't got enough to keep themselves occupied and some defense contracts are nearing completion :

In 1961 on Okinawa we put on a big demonstration/war game for some bigwigs from a pissant country that the State Department wanted to join the SEATO alliance .I was with a 155 howitzer battery , and we were supposed to show them how quickly we could respond to bail them out if they were attacked .

I won't go into all the details about how we " fudged " on the rapid response deal except that our guns were laid in and dropping rounds exactly on target a couple days ahead . Then the aiming stakes were left in place and the wheel positions were marked .

We rapidly responded before daylight the morning of the day of the exercise and the bigwigs were in helicopters observing all this .

What I remember most was dropping off my howitzer and hooking it to the staging area for the trucks where we already had camoflouge netting stretched . We almost hid too good 'cause a bunch of planes shooting napalm came screaming over the horizon right behind us .We probably were not in real danger 'cause they probably - I'm guessing they fudged ,too, since it's the military way - just happened to have flown the area prior to that morning and spotted our netting as being out of the ordinary .

Yep , that SEATO deal really worked out good for us didn't it . Couldn't have done it without that forward base .

No, financial reality. We either admit it and do something about it, or risk being unable to recover our assets and get our troops and equipment home when our currency collapses. Kind of hard to pay for stuff when no one wants your paper and you have nothing else to offer.

Jesus didn't put any caveats because the context is very clear - He was talking about the choices people make.

The proper way to understand and apply Scripture precludes jumping straight to application, or even interpretation, from just reading a passage or part of a passage. The first step is Observation, then Interpretation, and finally Application. Observation is the step where context is observed and understood. Only when the context is understood can a passage be competently interpreted, and only when the passage is competently intepreted can it be correctly applied.

I heard a story that all of our embassies used to keep many millions of dollars in US currency in their safes just in case they needed it for something like that, but that recently they've been hustling to transition into other more solvent currencies.

The Messiah wasn't saying that it was a holy practice to pay taxes when he instructed his followers to "render unto Ceasar".

He was simply pointing out the insignificance of money as it compares to spiritual matters.

People wanted to ask him tax advice.

He showed them the coin,...told them it had Ceasars pic on it,..so it must be his,...so give the damn thing to him and quit worrying about it.

It was a buncha earthly crap.

The Messiah wasn't sent to earth to waste his time being a tax consultant.

True dat, as they say in the almost White House. They have been instructed to keep relatively large quantities of both local currencies and other major currencies except the pound. Source was the Schultz Letter. Here's a link from Marketwatch. It is an 8 month old link, but I can see its validity, as our embassies have numerous local that they must pay, and they wouldn't be able to operate should we have a currency crisis. Right now the FRN$ is getting some love because of the Greek debt debacle, but when the CDS crowd turns its attention to the greenback, look out.

www.marketwatch.com/story/schultz-paints-bleak-picture-of-future

Alla this trying to tie money in with Christianity makes about as much sense as saying that what you eat says something about your spiritual development.

Sorry,...but it just doesn't wash with me that somebody is going to be condemned to eternal damnation because they didn't report $37 of income to the IRS and later in the day ate a pork product.

I just can't see St. Peter saying,..

"Well, guy, you had it going on there for a while,...but then you succumed to an Al Purnell's Old Folks Country Sausage biscuit, and didn't pay the IRS that $1.79 you owed back in '92,.... so it's off to hell with ya!"

TFF! Glad I don't have to buy a new keyboard.

Well,...it's kinda funny, but it's kinda *not*.

Some people who consider themselves well versed in biblical matters are spreading the word that you risk the fires of Gehenna if ya shortchange Ben Bernanke.

I mean,...you know,...*fug* Ben Bernanke.

He got his own damn money printing press,...and he wants my money too?!!

He could work 30 minutes of overtime running the damn thing and print up more money than I'll *ever* see.

Now I got ta listen to some Jimmy Swaggart wannabee tellin' me that I'll go to hell for keepin' my own damn money away from him?

That's too much, man,....too much.

I gotta call bullshit.

No. Jesus was compassionate. A concept obviously lost on you.

Exactly.

That might be fine when dealing with what boneheads like me and you write, RR, but God's meanings are a little more encompassing than your little process allows. Very few things in scripture are as limited as you suggest. Read it one day and yeah, so what. Then read it another and it jumps off the page and into your life situation.

Let's just let this slide. You and I don't see eye to eye on the tax thing or the biblical analogy, and that's fine. No sense beating it into the mud and cluttering up a thread. My bad for introducing what I did. But I can be unpredictable when called names by arrogant spoiled brats(not you).

Have a blessed day!

So robbing someone at the point of a gun so you can keep 90% for yourself and your jackal buddies, and then give 10% to the poor (while telling them you did it all for them, so please support me in the next election) is an exercise in compassion??? Seems to me to be a violation of a couple of commandments.

Compassion is when one gives of their own accord, out of their own pocket, and to please God alone, not to secure their future position as a politician.

I've heard it said the bible has more references about money and what to do with it than any other topic including love. So maybe the Lord was not so much a tax guy as a financial consultant.

Never really saw it as all that fair, or encouragingly instructive, that the Lord didn't have to pay His taxes, either. A fish did. Maybe I just need more faith.

Did someone rob you? I hope they were apprehended. Apart from that, this makes little to no sense to me in the context of the post you reference. Have a nice day.

The tax man doesn't ask you kindly for a donation.

I think you mean well and won't be disrespectful. But I will call it like I see it.

Christ didn't advocate coercion either, a fact lost on many Christians. Forcing others to give as you would give is just that. That's what charity is for. Charity is a beautiful thing. It is a gift of generosity of one's own free will. Taxing others as you deem fit to be taxed for charity, is coercion. You have a skewed interpretation of the scripture. Everything about the gospel is joined at the hip of personal choice. You think it's OK to vote taking away that choice from someone else. The quote,"to whom much has been given, much will be required," does not mean you have the right to decide what is required, above and beyond the norm for everyone, of anyone other than yourself. When you vote to support progressive tax rates, you take away others choices to do with that which they earned. That is a vote for theft, and no amount of rationalization will change that fact. How those who are blessed make use of their blessings is up to them, and it is between them and God how it is to be judged.

Now, IF you believe that the wealthy use more infrastructure, and so justifies a higher income tax, I'd sure like you to elaborate on this greater use. Furthermore, given that use of infrastructure can be tied DIRECTLY to usage, why does it make any sense to bundle that cost into income taxes?

Government and compassion should be kept separate. When making law, FAIR and JUST is what matters. One's morality and religion are personal. The founding fathers understood this and they were Christians.

Good post, but I would take exception to the "fair" word IRT making laws. That is the road that liberals and progressives have used to implement a progressive income tax, as well as other social equalization legislation. Is it fair that someone is smarter or more productive than his neighbor? No, but the libs think that laws can make it so. It extends to other areas too, especially economics. I think equality before the law is a much better yardstick, where no man is given either advantage or disadvantage because of his circumstance or connections.