I Miss These

Obama's Capital Gains Tax

This video goes much deeper than just Obama's desire to raise the capital gains tax. As a side note, this doesn't really effect me as all of my trades are short-term in nature (i.e. less than 1 year) and thus are taxed at my income tax rate. The main points here are twofold: 1) Obama's idea of "fairness" and its socialistic implications, and 2) The punishment of those who are successful within a capitalist society.

Obama is a socialist...some would say Marxist as this video does...plain and simple. He is the embodiment of a liberal pattern that has grown in verocity and gone unquestioned by the left since the hippie movement of the 60s. I wasn't alive then but I wonder how many pot-smoking unemployed individuals were sitting around complaining about fairness? My guess is a lot of them. Yes, part of it was certainly about being anti-Vietnam but it was also about being anti-establishment, meaning I don't want anyone telling me what to do or how to live but I still want my fair share. Obama is just the latest iteration of that.

Collectivism sounds great. It takes a village, right Hillary? Let's all look out for one another. What is wrong with that idea? Nothing...when it is carried out by the will and means of individuals. Even Jesus backed that. But when it is carried out by the government? Ahhh...that's a whole different case. This is where Obama and all the liberals get it wrong. We must use the government to make things better...to level the playing field...to make things more "fair".

This country was economically built on people moving up the socioeconomic ladder by taking risks and taking the initiative to build a business, to provide a good or service, to build wealth. The beauty of America has been that it provides an opportunity for everyone to pursue that dream. It doesn't guarantee success but, for the most part, it allows everyone to try. Obama wants to punish those who have been TOO successful. So, what's the cut-off point Barack? It seems like you want me to be happy and solvent but there is some point where I am TOO happy and TOO successful and then you want to tax me because the assumption is that I have built my success on the misfortune of others. It's the victim mentality. It's what liberals do best. Hate crime legislation is a prime example. Build a constituency by telling them they have been given a raw deal and letting them know that you will give them handouts in order to make things right. The New Deal was never meant to last forever. But it does in the eyes of liberals today. FDR and JFK would not agree.

Maybe the worst part of this video is that when Obama is confronted, not once, but twice, by the facts that increasing the capital gains tax has led to LOWER revenue for the federal government, he can't seem to wrap his one-track mind around the concept. At first, he simply ignores the implication altogether as if he never even heard it. Then he contends that it might be true to some extent but it's not the entire part of the equation. He has ZERO understanding of capital flows in a global economy. You want to raise taxes here? In the stock market and on corporate America? Fine, go ahead. Guess what will happen? Capital will leave our market meaning you will hurt tens of millions of hard-working Americans who have 401k's and pension funds and mutual funds. That money will go elsewhere in a heartbeat. And you say that you will keep more jobs here in America that are being sent overseas??? WRONG!!! You raise corporate taxes and more jobs go bye bye. Obama, and almost every liberal out there, seemingly has no idea how economies and wealth are built. They have one desire...more money for the government...and they don't even know how to do THAT right.

Yep, he can give a good speech. Yep, he can inspire with words. But there is no logical thinking behind the feeling. There is no substance behind the style. There is only the same old talking points...only amplified to such a degree that all clarity and common sense are thrown away.

Cravings

11:40 on Monday evening and I really want Ruffles and French onion dip.

The bad news? I have both on hand.

Could be trouble.

Developing...

Borrowing a Blog from John Piper

Angels are not omniscient. That is, they do not know all that is and will be. We believe this partly because they are finite, created beings and partly because the New Testament portrays them as desiring to look into things. And it speaks of things being “made known” to them.

For example, Peter says that the gospel contains “things into which angels long to look” (1 Peter 1:12). And Paul says that the church exists so that “the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 3:10).

Angels are also sinless and in that sense perfect. Therefore, unfallen angels still learn things. So it is possible to be perfect yet ignorant of some things. It is possible to be perfect and still enjoy learning.

That implies that when Hebrews 12:23 refers to the saints who have died as “the spirits of the righteous made perfect,” we should not conclude that these saints are omniscient. In fact, it would be right to conclude that they do not yet know all they will know, but will go on learning things about God and his universe forever.

At least I cannot think of any reason to think there will ever come a point in eternity when finite minds will have infinite knowledge.

This is very good news to me, because when I was a child one of my greatest fears was that heaven would be boring. There would be no surprises and no growth in knowledge with accompanying increase of joy.

My view of God was too small and my view of myself was too big. I misinterpreted, 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

I thought: Well, we will know everything in a flash. We will know God the way he knows us, and there will be no more discovery after that. Now I see this as philosophically improbable, morally bigheaded, and exegetically mistaken.

What Paul means is not that I will know exhaustively the way God knows me, but rather I will know accurately the way God knows me. The point is not that I won’t have limits to what I know, but rather I won’t have mistakes in what I know.

God is infinite and therefore inexhaustible in the complexity of his glory. His created universe, as the Hubble telescope shows, is big. His thoughts toward us are countless. And his ways are beyond finding out.

Part of what makes “eternal life” satisfying (and not boring) forever is that it will take an eternity for perfect, finite creatures like us to know God fully. He is perfect and infinite. We will be perfect and finite. He will enjoy increasing revelation of himself, and we will enjoy increasing jubilation in him—forever.