Campaign flattery

I, Will | Campaign for 2016
Originally uploaded by aShadow LLC

A quick political thought from the BoM: in Ether, chapter 8 verse 2 it states:

“And it came to pass that he [Jared, descendent of Jared] did flatter many people, because of his cunning words, until he had gained the half of the kingdom.”

That echoes our current political setup. And it came to pass that Obama did flatter many people, because of his cunning words, until he had gained the half of the kingdom. He gained only 52.9 percent. Barely half, yet enough to win the entire country.

Now, I am not railing on Obama here. McCain flattered people too. His words were just not as cunning as Obama so he lost. And their predecessors? Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan…so on? How did they win our kingdom? Was it through good works? Was it through heroic deeds? No. It was simple flattery. Oh, and don’t forget bribes (I’ll talk about bribes another time.) “Wherefore, by their fruits shall ye know them” (Matt 7:20).

“In our current political system, we often make our political choices based upon sound bites of carefully orchestrated, professionally tweaked video clips that may or may not be representative or the candidate’s life.” This is wrong. We should look at their entire life, personal, professional, political, and “not just the briefest and shallowest propaganda” (p117, Anderson).

In the Constitution of the United States, nowhere does it outline the current campaigning process for the election of a president. In the actual Constitution, nowhere does it mention parties of power. These things sprung up, as weeds among the flowers of the growing nation. What happened to looking at people’s works or their personal lives? What happened to judging and weighing their ‘fruits?’ Instead we listen to their promises and are told to believe them; believe their words though they are people whose personal character is questionable at best. And unfortunately the majority of America is gullible enough to - more than just listen - believe.

I fear it is time to wake up. I agree with Obama, it is time for Change, drastic change. It is time to weed our garden. Now. There are many more parallels with our nation and the Jaredites in the book of Ether…and we all know how the Jaredites ended.

A little Joke

Ok, I have a joke for you. This is dedicated to Craig and Lesley.

So there's this lawyer. He lives in a big mansion in a really expensive suburb. His toilet clogs up. He tries using the plunger. Doesn't do any good. So he calls a plumber. The plumber arrives, fixes the toilet, and writes up the bill. The lawyer takes one look at the bill and protests. "You've put down a charge of $250 for labor," the lawyer says. "But you spent less than half an hour doing that repair. You're charging more than $500 an hour! That's a lot more than I bill my clients and I'm a lawyer!"

The plumber nods sympathetically, "I used to be a lawyer too," he says.

It is funny because it is true. Plumbers can be oh-so expensive. I read this joke in the book, Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax.

New World Era

Citi Bank announced this week that the world will never be the same after what has happened these last few months with the world economy. What Was will never be again. It is a new era. Our government, in an effort to save a few companies, has buried us in a pit that we will never, I repeat, never, climb out of. Let's look at the current numbers. In 2000, the national debt was at $5.27 trillion. As of December 6, 2008, it stands at $10,660,959,208,399. It has doubled. I wrote it out so you can get a feel for how big it is.

On November 24, 2008, the news company Bloomberg stated: "The U.S. government is prepared to provide more than $7.7 trillion on behalf of American taxpayers..." and that "the unprecedented pledge of funds includes $3.2 trillion already tapped by financial institutions in the biggest response to an economic emergency since the New Deal of the 1930s" (Italics added). Since January, our government has already burned through $3.2 trillion. Where is that in the mainstream news?

From Glenn Beck:

"...since September[2008] $7.6 trillion is what you're on the hook for. You didn't approve it, I didn't approve it. Paulson did. Bernanke did. Unelected people. They approved $7.6 trillion in guarantees.

We haven't even begun to fight this battle. We are five minutes into a five-hour journey and we've already spent $7.6 trillion, and Paul says don't worry, we've got up to [$]10[trillion]? Oh, well, Pina Coladas for everybody."

Next year we are looking at a debt of at least $15.2 trillion. That is just under $50,000 for each man, woman, and child. What does that really mean? We have heard repeatedly that these companies, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Citigroup, are "Too big to fail." They made bad decisions and now we are absorbing their bad debt so they don't fall. What about our country's $15.2 trillion of bad debt? Who is going absorb that and save the US when it fails?

New era indeed.

Advertising Highs

For those of you that don't know, I tinker around with advertising and PR. Below are a few ads I came across in the last couple of weeks. They make me smile.

Now, that is a good helmet.

Incredibly simple but effective ad.