Blogito ergo sum.

In 1930, federal government spending accounted for only 3.4% of our GDP.  Since tax receipts were 4.2% of the GDP, there was a surplus in the federal budget.

That changed under FDR, perhaps forever.

The OMB’s projection for 2009 is that federal spending will amount to about 21% of the GDP.  Since tax receipts are only about 18% of the GDP, the government will have to borrow the other 3%, largely from foreign investors.

Yet we continue to vote for politicians who promise us more government programs, which cost lots and lots of money.

We are being lulled to sleep in the soothing, smothering arms of the nanny state…

Andrew, 13 months old, is toddling around the house, fascinated by his newfound ability to insert a small plastic toy into a bowl and seal it in with the lid, then remove it, then do it all again.  He giggles when it works and whines when it doesn’t.

These are the first rudimentary steps in learning that he is made in the image of God and can take dominion over his environment as God’s steward (Gen. 1:26-28).  He is also learning the frustration that because we are not God but only image-bearers (and sinful ones at that), his environment doesn’t magically yield to his desires and that sometimes it takes hard work (Gen. 3:17-19).

Someday he will understand his finitude and fallenness and his need for a redeemer.

This morning, he took his first baby steps toward the gospel of Christ.

Now that we have a new president-elect, Barack Obama, we have choices to make.

First, I’m adopting the patriotic attitude of Dennis Miller…

1. Let’s not make the mistake the loony liberal left made with their irrational, visceral hatred of George W. Bush.  Instead, let’s say, “I’m an American, and Obama’s my president.  I hope he does so well that four years from now, I’ll be excited to vote him in for a second term.”
2. Let’s hope that President Obama is smart enough (and he clearly is very smart) not to be pushed around by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and the rest of the MoveOn.org crowd.  Let’s hope that after each meeting with them, he turns to Rahm Emanuel and says, “I’m not about to trust my presidency to those dunderheads!”

Second, I’m adopting the spiritual attitude of the apostles Paul and Peter:

1. Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities (Romans 13:1).
2. We should pray, intercede, and give thanks for our leaders (I Timothy 2:1-2).
3. Love the brothers, fear God, and honor the king [president] (I Peter 2:17).

I plan to live in the audacity of submission.

…I’m not that excited about Florida Amendment 2, the one that defines marriage as one man and one woman, excluding all of the sinful alternative lifestyles out there today.

Oh, sure, I voted for it.

No doubt, I’m glad it passed.

Certainly I believe in this definition of marriage as Biblical.

I fear, however, that we’ve won a skirmish in the midst of losing the larger battle.

The fact that President-elect Obama has indicated that he would support judges who (and I’m paraphrasing) “know what it’s like to be poor, or gay, or disabled, or black, or old,” and will now nominate perhaps 2 or 3 Supreme Court justices, means that whatever millions of voters in the 50 states decide can be swept away by 5 like-minded liberals.  (Think Roe v. Wade.)  So our ballot-box victory will in all likelihood be short-lived.

The fact that 38% voted no means that we are already off our Biblical moorings and on the slippery slope and gaining speed.  They’re already 2/3 of the way to the 60% of browbeaten, misguidedly tolerant citizens that they need to get what they want.  Where in the world did we get the idea that we get to define marriage, anyway?

This political victory is, I am convinced, little more than a rearguard action that will allow us to raise our sons and daughters before the militant homosexuals gain a critical mass in society and start pounding on doors and making demands.  (Think Sodom.)

We may already passed the point of no return as a people.  (Think Romans 1.)  What will save us now is not politics or law, but religion.  Revival.  Real revival.  Not the kind that you can plan and announce and advertise and contain in the church building.  The kind in which the same primeval, Pentecostal Spirit who brooded over the creation and slew the Egyptian firstborn and raised Jesus from the dead is poured out in power, so that men fall to their knees and cry out to God to save them.

God have mercy on us all.

When former New York City mayor Ed Koch was asked whether he would run for office again, he replied, “No.  The people of New York threw me out of office, and now they must be punished!”

John McCain was a flawed candidate who bungled his campaign.  He spent most of his adult life in sacrificial service to this country.  He was very probably the only presidential candidate in either party who ran for the office less from personal ambition than from an actual desire to make America better.  He was snubbed by the very people for whose liberty he fought and bled and nearly died.  He deserved an Ed Koch moment, but he didn’t do it.

Sarah Palin was completely mishandled by the McCain handlers from start to finish.  She was geographically and every other way undoubtedly the farthest thing from a Washington insider as we could ever hope to have in national politics.  She and her family were smeared and savaged for the silliest things, not only by the usual far-left flamethrowing bloggers but also by King Obama the Good’s fawning subjects masquerading as the mainstream media.  She deserved an Ed Koch moment, but she didn’t do it.

What Senator McCain and Governor Palin wouldn’t say, I will: Now we must be punished.

God have mercy on us all.

Gun control is hitting your target repeatedly.

When guns are outlawed, I’ll be an outlaw.

Guns don’t kill people; abortion clinics kill people.

If they try to take away my first amendment rights, they’ll find out what the second amendment is all about.