The Electoral Shake Up

By Paul Abbott II

Last week bills were introduced in several state legislatures to change the allocation of the electoral votes in the election of the president in their respective states.  These bills are being authored by Republicans from states with republican led government that tend to vote democratic in the National election in hope of giving their presidential candidate a better chance to win.

Currently, the way it works in most states is that the winner of the popular vote in that state receives all of the electoral votes of that state. Maine and Nebraska are the only ones to do it differently. In those two states the winner of the popular vote in a congressional district wins that district’s electoral vote. The two “at-large district’s”(senators run for election statewide) electoral votes are both given to the candidate that won the statewide popular vote.

Because of the "winner-take-all" system in place in most of the states this means that candidates who win a majority of congressional districts in some states get no electoral votes because they lost the popular vote.  This makes it very hard for third party or independent candidates for president to gain votes in an election.

Many are saying that this is "unfair" and that the republicans are trying to "rig the system." However, notice what it says in article II section1 of the Constitution:“Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof shall direct, a number of electors..."(emphases added).  So we see that it is completely within their constitutional rights to change the way electors are chosen.  As to it being unfair it  would actually give rural areas more of a voice in the election.  Take Ohio for example.  Although Republicans won 12 of 16 congressional districts Obama took all of the states 18 electoral votes because he won the popular vote.  Cuyahoga county alone (Cleveland) gave him the votes he needed to surpass Romney. Now to make it clear I did not support either Romney or Obama. But if the votes were allocated by congressional district a conservative third-party candidate would not have to contend in large liberal cities that can turn the tide of the state but rather focus on more conservative rural districts.

Unfortunately, it looks as if the opposition is too strong at this time for this legislation to pass, but hopefully in the future this issue will again be raised and the so called "winner-take-all" system ended.

Economic Socialism and Communism

Communism is dead. Well, maybe not. Although only about eleven people attended Karl Marx's funeral, we won world war II, the Castro regime is falling apart, and the Berlin Wall is down, Communism is not dead. It is alive, it is well, and it is a very real threat in America.

Communism seeks to gain control over the nations which it inhabits, through step by step processes, the end of which is to have everyone own everything, with all the people being on an equal status. In the United States Senate there is already one self-styled socialist. Socialism and Communism are words used interchangeably in the Communist Manifesto.

Free Market Economics are those which say that all people have a right to try, to buy, to sell, to fail. The government’s job is not to run around putting up safety nets to keep the investors from breaking their fiscal necks. The Capitalistic system demands that we allow people to invest in new companies, and if the public does not want the service or product that the company provides, then the company fails, the money is lost, capitalistic cleansing has taken place, and the public has let it be known that the market does not, at this time, need that sort of company.

Socialism, the social planners, would not allow such things to happen. They institute such things as the minimum wage. The minimum wage acts as a wall to those outside of the jobs market. If the wage is five dollars, then to be hired I have to make the company five dollars. Whereas without it, if I could only make them three dollars the company could still be able to hire me at two.

One of the great complaints of the Communist Manifesto of 1848 was that the poor laborers had to work too hard and did not get paid enough. He says that the capitalists exploit the poor laborer, suppress him under big business. So “they (the workers) destroy imported wares that compete with their labor, they smash to pieces machinery, they set factories ablaze, they seek to restore by force the vanished status of the workman of the Middle Ages.” (Communist Manifesto 1848, part one, spelling modernized.) Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wanted this to happen.

“Here and there, the contest breaks out into riots. Now and then the workers are victorious, but only for a time. The real fruit of their battles lies, not in the immediate result, but in the ever expanding union of the workers…Law, morality, religion, are to him (the working man) so many bourgeois (capitalist) prejudices, behind which lurk in ambush just as many bourgeois interests…They (the working revolutionaries) have nothing of their own to secure and to fortify; their mission is to destroy all previous securities for, and insurances of, individual property.” (ibid.)

However, explains the Social Planner, all of this is “in the interest of the immense majority.”

“The immediate aim of the Communists is the same as that of all other proletarian parties: formation of the proletariat into a class, overthrow of the bourgeois supremacy, conquest of political power by the proletariat.” (Communist Manifesto 1948 part two.)

“In this sense, the theory of the Communists may be summed up in the single sentence: Abolition of private property…In one word, you reproach us with intending to do away with your property. Precisely so; that is just what we intend.”

Abolish private property. Let us think about that for a moment. If we abolish property, then all fields will be owned be everyone, so that any farmer who works them will have most of his fruits taken away. So, to his mind, why should he work, when, with everyone owning everything, he will eat whether he works or not. The free market punishes those that are lazy, communism rewards them. In a free market society a bad metal worker will have to shut down. In a communistic one, he will be propped up. Even the good metal workers do not need to work well, because they will eat and sleep the same whether they work well or not.

The manifesto goes on to say we should essentially abolish the family, the institution of marriage, and the borders of countries. However, the revolutions did not work. Guns in the hands of the populace were knocked out by the guns of the government, so the Communists decided that, instead of fighting the government they should become the government. And so they changed their names, became progressives, moderates and liberals, and attempted to enact their ten planks. The following are the ten planks which, when the manifesto was written, were not yet in fashion or favor.

1.Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal liability of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’s factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c, &c. (Spelling modernized.)

While people may howl about worker’s being unable to make more money, if the company does not pay you for your labor the amount you want, you do not have to work for them, big business is only as big as the amount of money you want to pay to it.

A communistic system is a system of unjust control. The Scriptures set up three realms of government: family, church, and state. unless there is gross negligence and crime in one sector the others are not to interfere, and when they do only the proper sphere is to do so. The Communists would advocate giving all control to the state. Karl Marx said of religion "It is the opium of the people."

As can be seen by the above list, the communists have accomplished many of their goals here in America. They did not do it by firing guns and blowing up armies. They did it by words, they did it by organization, they did it by planning. There is an old saying that the conservatives get rhetoric, the liberals get action. The system is gigantic, with hundreds of thousands of government workers, millions on their doll, and trillions of dollars of debt, and we will not turn the ship around by sitting by and giving a few more sound bites or by getting them to pass a watered-down version of their bills. These groups such as the Fabian Socialists sat down and wrote this out. They planned and they acted, the Christians have, mostly, thrown back their heads and howled. The Communist manifesto ends with the call to unite and to set to work. So if we are going to fight them, we need to unite and set to work. We need to plan, we need to act.

 

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Note: While I would suggest reading Adam Smith’s classic work Wealth of Nations, on the capitalistic system, it is rather ponderous and not easy reading. For those that want something easier and less time consuming, I would suggest F. A. Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom, as well as The Communist Manifesto to receive the other side of the controversy. I would also recommend the film Agenda, sold by Vision Forum. (www.visionforum.com)

The American Rebellion

Before

 

Twas not while England's sword unsheathed
          Put half a world to flight,
       Nor while their new-built cities breathed
          Secure behind her might;
       Not while she poured from Pole to Line
          Treasure and ships and men--
       These worshippers at Freedoms shrine
          They did not quit her then!

       Not till their foes were driven forth
          By England o'er the main--
       Not till the Frenchman from the North
         Had gone with shattered Spain;
       Not till the clean-swept oceans showed
          No hostile flag unrolled,
       Did they remember that they owed
          To Freedom--and were bold!

After

The  snow lies thick on Valley Forge,
  The ice on the Delaware,  
But the poor dead soldiers of King George
  They neither know nor care.

Not though the earliest primrose break
  On the sunny side of the lane,
And scuffling rookeries awake
  Their England' s spring again.

They will not stir when the drifts are gone,
  Or the ice melts out of the bay:
And the men that served with Washington
  Lie all as still as they.

They will  not  stir  though  the mayflower blows
  In the moist dark woods of pine,
And every rock-strewn pasture shows
  Mullein and columbine.

Each for his land, in a fair fight,
  Encountered strove, and died,
And the kindly earth that knows no spite
  Covers them side by side.

She is too busy to think of war;
  She has all the world to make gay;
And,  behold, the yearly flowers are
  Where they were in our fathers' day!

Golden-rod by the pasture-wall
  When the columbine is dead,
And sumach leaves that turn, in fall,
  Bright as the blood they shed.

Rudyard Kipling

Why there should be Field Experience in Education

The following is a modified version I will soon be presenting for a contest with "collegeplus."

In the middle ages, and for some time thereafter, it was the custom for burghers and shop keepers to keep apprentices for a number of years, during which time the youngsters would learn the trade of the person they were apprenticed to. This gave them a better education than they would have had had they sat in a classroom with books reading about the trade rather than actually working it. This applies to more things than shop keeping.

When we teach math, after giving the formulas we give real problems. After teaching theory of addition, we give the problem of 9+9=? If the child was never presented with real arithmetic problems we will never know until they leave the class if they learned math right. Math can be learned when one is older- character, decision making, clarity of thought and critical thinking cannot be. If we are to see if children have the skill they must someday use, we must give them problems with which to test those skills.

The question could be asked then, “Why not give them theoretical problems as we do in math? We do not send them to the field to multiply peaches. We have them multiply abstract numbers in the class.” While this is true, there are certain things that cannot be measured in training. Thinking critically at a table with a coke beside your right hand and an eraser on your left has little pressure, and the eraser will cover your mistakes. In the field there are no erasers, make a mistake, and there will be more consequences than a red mark on your paper. If the purpose of “schooling” is to prepare children for life, it is imperative that we prepare them now for real life.

Classrooms tend to close off the bounds of learning to only a few facts, those which are needed to pass the upcoming test. Even in homeschool, with whole books, no or few tests, and a much better system, there is still a limit to what can be learned theoretically. That is why there must be real life experience.

So what does life experience look like? It can encompass a wide variety of things. Anything from interviewing people for a local poll to discover if the town’s economy could support another floral shop to going to the Sudan to watch in the field cataract surgery. It could be anything that is better learned in the field than in the classroom, anything for which reality is a better teacher than Miss Smith.

In the field, students can study live animals for biology, instead of drawings. They can look at the actual place where Washington stood, and see where the lines of battle were actually placed. They can study fishing with the sailors, and learn about human nature in the process.

John Taylor Gatto, a famed educator said “After a long life, and thirty years in the public school trenches, I’ve concluded that genius is as common as dirt. We suppress genius because we haven’t yet figured out how to manage a population of educated men and women. The solution, I think, is simple and glorious. Let them manage themselves.” (emphases added)

Let them manage themselves because they know better than the teachers as to how their minds work. Let them manage themselves because self-educated people are some of the most brilliant in history. Schooling is in the class, education is in the field.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

An old Song

The Lord, our God, is clothed with might,

The winds and waves obey his will;

He speaks, and in the shining height

The sun and rolling worlds stand still.

 

Rebel ye waves, and o'er the land

With threatening aspect foam and roar,

The Lord hath spoken his command,

That breaks your rage upon the shore.

 

Ye winds of night, your force combine-

Without his Holy High behest

You shall not in a mountain pine

Disturb the little swallows nest.

 

His voice sublime is heard afar;

In distant peals it fades and dies;

He binds the cyclone to his car

And sweeps the howling murky skies.

 

Great God! how infinite art Thou,

What weak and worthless worms are we,

Let all the race of creatures bow

And seek salvation now from Thee.

 

Eternity, with all its years,

Stands ever-present to Thy view,

To Thee there's nothing old appears

Great God! there can be nothing new.

 

Our lives through varied scenes are drawn,

And vexed with mean and trifling cares;

While Thine eternal thought moves on

Thy fixed and undisturbed affairs.

 

Henry Kirk White.



Sir Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott lived between 1771 and 1832 in Scotland. At a time when the Jacobites had given up the struggle for the English throne and the highland image seems to have been disappearing from memory, Scott came on the scene. He became a somewhat widely acclaimed author of poetry when it occurred to him he might try his hand at writing historical fiction. However, so as not to endanger his good name as a poet with bad fame as an author, he wrote anonymously. His first book, Waverly, so well received that he continued writing under the title “Author of Waverly” for some years, until he finally let himself be toasted at a large banquet as “The Author of Waverly.”

Scott was, according to some, the one who gave us the Scottish enthusiasm. He gives us scenes of great battles, soft lays of love, highland hunts, highway robberies and duels between “gentlemen,” while at the same time giving us a great deal of history and historical incite, both in the novels as well as the notes, introductions and dialogue of the characters. Sir Walter Scott had a very good way with words, capturing their beauty, and turning out phrases and dramatic prose almost worthy of poetry. Scott became so famous that, in his book Woodstock, he says that pictures of his dog were sold on snuff boxes in Germany.

While Scott did have theological discrepancies at times, he gives us the love of national image in a country that is fast disappearing in America. I would recommend reading a few of the works of Scott, (Waverly, Ivanhoe and Rob Roy probably being the first). So take up a chair, pour yourself a warm drink, (it is cold where I am), and enjoy the works of Sir Walter Scott.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Shackles on the Mind

Elephants are often tied with a single rope to a small post. The elephant could break free, yet it does not. This is because when the elephant is very young, it is tied to a large deep rooted post with a chain. When the young elephant kicks, its leg is cut, yet he cannot free himself. He soon learns that to kick is to cut, and he will soon stop. To him, kicking brings pain, he will never kick again. A shackle is placed on the mind, so that soon, only a rope is needed to be tied around his leg, and he will not free himself.
I heard recently that if you catch a flea and put him in a container with a lid on top of it, he will try to jump out. However, after a few times of hitting his head he will pace himself so that he jumps lower, so that he he will not hit his head.
Shackles on the mind. Many modern Americans live with shackles on their minds. They think in the way they were taught to think. They think in the way the social programmers planned for them to think. The shackles tell us we need a college education to get a good job. The shackles remind us not to attempt to expect the young to accomplish or the old to be respected. I would like to ask you to do something exciting. To throw off the shackles of secular humanism, the tyranny over the masses the socialist agenda would like to foist on us. There is liberty in Christ-to turn the world on its head with the law of God.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

The Calf Path

One day, through the primeval wood,
A calf walked home, as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew,
A crooked trail, as all calves do.

Since then three hundred years have fled,
And, I infer, the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail,
And thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day
By a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep
Pursued the trail o’er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too,
As good bellwethers always do.

And from that day, o’er hill and glade,
Through those old woods a path was made,
And many men wound in and out,
And dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath
Because ’twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed — do not laugh —
The first migrations of that calf,
And through this winding wood-way stalked
Because he wobbled when he walked.

This forest path became a lane,
That bent, and turned, and turned again.
This crooked lane became a road,
Where many a poor horse with his load
Toiled on beneath the burning sun,
And traveled some three miles in one.
And thus a century and a half
They trod the footsteps of that calf.

The years passed on in swiftness fleet.
The road became a village street,
And this, before men were aware,
A city’s crowded thoroughfare,
And soon the central street was this
Of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half
Trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand rout
Followed that zigzag calf about,
And o’er his crooked journey went
The traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led
By one calf near three centuries dead.
They follow still his crooked way,
And lose one hundred years a day,
For thus such reverence is lent
To well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach
Were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind
Along the calf-paths of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun
To do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track,
And out and in, and forth and back,
And still their devious course pursue,
To keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove,
Along which all their lives they move;
But how the wise old wood-gods laugh,
Who saw the first primeval calf!
Ah, many things this tale might teach —
But I am not ordained to preach.

By S. Walter Foster

Life Before

There is, I believe, a common misconception about life with many young men and women. This is that an event in their life is going to happen, that will either set them free from their home to allow them to finally do great things; or will make everything better. If it is marriage you are waiting for, remember that, after marriage, you will still be a sinner, after marriage you will still have responsibility, after marriage there will still be temptations, you will still have to eat you will still have to sleep. In short, you will still be you. Sitting around waiting for an event, marriage or anything else, and thinking that that event will solve all of your problems is somewhat like a soldier sitting around in basic training, waiting to become a soldier, while not doing anything. Even if he passes, not only will he have the same difficulties as when in basic, he will now find that he has more difficulties because he was lazy when he could have been doing things before.

Marriage is not salvation, it is simply another phase of sanctification. The old nature is not slain at the marriage alter. If you are lazy or disrespectful to your parents or siblings now, you will be lazy and disrespectful when you get married.

The secret is not to find some position (i.e. marriage, fame, prestige) from which you can look down upon all of life's troubles. If you go around looking for that, you will look forever. You must realize that every moment from the time you are born until the time you die is going to be a battle, a battle against self, against sin, against the temptations of this present life. So instead wondering around waiting, begin doing. There is nothing in the scripture that says God only be glorified if you are at a certain stage in your life. We need to glorify God now. If you are under the authority of a father, ask him what his vision is, ask him what you can do to help him accomplish it. (A note on this: when you are under Godly authority, your vision for your entire life may not be the same as that of your authority, for instance your passion may be film making and his speaking to homeschooled audiences on math. If you are unable to make these two visions coincide, surrender yours for the present and remember that the ultimate purpose, to Glorify God, is still the same.)

There are wondrous things to be done now. If you wait for a time in which to do them, or if you wait for a time when everything will be easy, you will wait forever. Perhaps the hard things you need to do are obeying the fifth commandment, or being a faithful son. Perhaps your hard things, the things you need to accomplish are things such as starting a business or writing a book. Perhaps it is something else. In any event, instead of waiting for an event, begin glorifying God now with your time, your resources, and your energy. In the parable of the unfaithful servant who hid his coin, The Master tells the faithful servant "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,
Andrew C. Abbott

Forgiveness

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.”-Mark Twain

I would like to make an observation on forgiveness. Forgiveness means it is over. If you tell me you forgive me, and then the next time something like this happens you bring it up again, you just proved you lied to me last time, and did not forgive me.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

The Patriarch

More noble than the valiant deeds of shining knights of yore,
More powerful than earthly plights that make the rich man poor,
More kingly than a royal throne or a lion with his pride,
Is he whose babes sleep well at night sure Daddy will provide.
There is a spirit in this land and Jezebel’s her name.
She’s calling you to leave your home for power, fun, and fame.
She wants your wife, your children too — she’ll never compromise,
Until your house is torn in two by listening to her lies.
But though a hundred thousand million men may fall prey to her lures,
And wives en masse leave home in search of “more fulfilling” chores,
Though preachers praise, and friends embrace, her pagan plan of death,
Stand strong and quit you like a man with every blessed breath.
Stand strong and rise, O man of God, to meet this noble call,
The battle is not new you see, it’s been here since the Fall.
Your wife is your helpmeet, my friend, and not another man’s,
So care for her and keep her far from Mistress Jezi’s plans.
Protect, provide, and give to her your undivided life,
This is the dear one of your youth, your precious bride, your wife.
And rally to those tiny ones who trust you for their care —
A lifetime spent discipling them’s a lifetime pure and rare.
For when they put their hand in yours and know a Daddy’s love,
You’re showing them a picture of the Father from above.
Look not toward worldly goal or gain, or for your liberty,
Look only into their sweet eyes to find your ministry.
Devote your heart and sacrifice and make your manly mark —
There is none so great as he who finds his call as patriarch.

On Secrets

I Samuel 16:7  “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

What you are in secret is who you are. You can pretend, hide, and do a great deal in private, but that is who you truly are, who you are in private. The man who thinks murder in his heart is a murderer. The man who thinks adultery in his heart, he is an adulterer. If a young man or woman is, in public, perfectly presentable, perfectly respectful, and theologically apt; and yet, at home, although not openly rebellious, he rolls his eyes, shakes his head or stamps his foot when his parent’s backs are turned, we know what type he really is.

However, remember this, a dead man can only be hidden for a small time before he is found that he is dead. Nothing can, in the end, stop the decomposing. It may be hidden from man forever, but it cannot be hidden from God for a moment. If not found out on earth, it will be found out in Heaven. What you are in secret is who you are.

Through His Strength We Will Conquer,

Andrew C. Abbott

Self

"There once was a great big man called self,
Who thought he deserved the top shelf,
But the more self pursued,
The smaller he grew,
And now he's a sad little elf"