Happy New Year---I Hope!

Sorry for my absence, but over the Christmas Holiday, my wife and I went to our son's house and got to spend a fantastic Christmas with two sons and their families

Now back to business!

The late British diplomat Sir John Glubb wrote a book called "The Fate of Empires and Search For Survival." Glubb noted the average age of empires since the time of ancient Assyria (859-612 B.C.) is 250 years. Only the Mameluke Empire in Egypt and the Levant (1250-1517) made it as far as 267 years. America is 238 years old and is exhibiting signs of decline.

All empires begin, writes Glubb, with the age of pioneers, followed by ages of conquest, commerce, affluence, intellect and decadence. America appears to have reached the age of decadence, which Glubb defines as marked by "defensiveness, pessimism, materialism, frivolity, an influx of foreigners, the welfare state, (and) a weakening of religion."

Decadence, he writes, "is due to: Too long a period of wealth and power, selfishness, love of money (and) the loss of a sense of duty."

Tell me now does this picture the condition of our country now? Unfortunately, I have to say in my view yes it does we as a nation have foregone most if not all of our values that we grew up with. There are those of us who still hold to those values and are proud of it. Every time I hear someone say those values are outdated and need to be brought up to today's standards, I am put in mind of an old but true saying, “If you don't stand for something you'll fall for anything!” And look at what we've fallen for so far. We have dropped the standards in the area of education to the point of now being at right around the level of “D” a you know around the 60% level in comparison to other countries on this planet, used to be within 5% of the top in the world, now how did that happen, look at our economic standings in the world, from the #1 position to now around 30^th on the world stage, WOW! Bet that took a whole lot of smarts to do right? Let's not forget our position as friend to those in need, that has now deteriorated to “the bumbling clown,” and you know, we used to hold the position of the world's “#1 Super Power” Though now thanks to our august leadership, (or lack of it) we are now dependent on others to give us what we need in order to survive.

Yep! I think that Sir John Glubb hit it directly in the center when it comes to where we are at now on the world stage, the last stage before failure of a nation is decadence and we are currently in it, (Decadence, he writes, "is due to: Too long a period of wealth and power, selfishness, love of money (and) the loss of a sense of duty (and) the weakening of the religious ethic.)

Now you probably are saying something like “I knew this would come up” well you're right, and here's why. In any religion there is a “Supreme Being” when we are involved in that particular belief system, we are cognizant of the fact of the reality of that “Supreme Being” and the requirements of fulfilling our portion of the mandates of that particular belief system, this along with the idea that we as humans are not the top of the order, acts to keep our feet firmly attached to “Terra Firma.” And, it keeps us from becoming tangential in our thinking.

You see, the main part of the problem with our current situation is the paradigm we have of being “All You Can Be”, of being An Army of One, of the best the is is the Individual, nice words, good for advertising, but lousy in real life. You see, there is no such thing as an Army of One, spent a long time in the Military and over the years came ot a conclusion that the Army of One causes more problems than it's worth. Never have I seen any one individual stop a whole army in the course of a war, and if you believe that's how it works, “LORD HAVE I GOT A DEAL FOR YOU” I have some prime beach front property to sell you in far west Texas.”

Now you're probably chuckling, but if you believed all that other crap that has been pushed on you, why wouldn't you believe the “Deal I Got For You?

As a nation of people we are not stupid and I don't care what Jonathan Gruber says, that man is the biggest idiot of all.

Today I looked at FoxNews.com and see how the Speaker of the House has again aligned himself against the wishes of the citizenry in favor of the “Good Ole Boy” mentality, you know, I think a good project to start the new year right is to call your Representative and wish him/her a Happy New Year and highly suggest that they elect a new Speaker, one who is more focused on the people of the United States. If I might suggest, offer them the choice of someone say like Trey Gowdy, to me he seems like a properly focused representative as opposed to egocentric representatives, it would fer sure screw up the plans of some of the people in D.C., Think about it the target date is the 6^th of January, so just give that rep of yours a call, after all he/she does work for you, right?