Wake Up, America

There are some people who suffer from a rare sleeping disorder called Kleine-Levin Syndrome.  For whatever reason, they need excessive amounts of sleep, maybe up to twenty hours a day.  These people would be sleeping 140 hours a week and their wakeful hours would only total 28 hours.  It’s hard to imagine sleeping away 80% of your life unaware of what was happening around you.

Americans seem to be suffering from some sort of disorder.  We are either asleep or we just are not paying attention to what is going on around us.  Perhaps attention deficit is not the problem.   We are just not being attentive to the more important things.  We know who is still competing on American Idol.  We know that Kim Kardashian was only married for 72 days and we know the final score in the Super Bowl.  But do we know what is happening in Congress?  Do we know what kind of hope and change is being planned for the American people?

While America has been sleeping, or entertained by television, Facebook and the latest technology, their history is being rewritten by cultural rebels who have their own agenda to promote.  George W. Bush referred to them as ‘revisionists’.  These new authors of history will not let a few facts get in the way of their radical opinions regarding global warming, same sex marriage, promotion of socialism, etc.  It is now necessary for the student of history to learn to decipher the truth from a set of lies agreed upon.

While Americans satisfy their addictions by sitting bug eyed in front their televisions and computers, the wonks in Washington have been rewriting our constitution.  In some twisted way they have made it to say that the killing of the unborn is lawful.  They want to rewrite it so that the greatest government document ever authored by man approves a marriage between Bill and Bob, Jill and Pam.  The founding fathers clearly designated the Congress as the branch of government responsible for writing the law.  Now we have federal court lawyers and Supreme Court justices determined to write law rather than simply interpret it as the constitutional authors intended. Nine of the first ten amendments have been twisted almost beyond recognition while some Americans are still fighting tooth and toe-nail for the 2^nd amendment right to bear arms.

We allowed them to write abortion into the constitution.  Now, forty years later we’ve killed fifty million of our own.  Auschwitz and Dachua pale in comparison.  God’s plan was that we would multiply and replenish the earth.  God’s earth is big and plush with enough resources to satisfy the needs of the masses.  But we ignored this truth and murdered our babies.  Replacement numbers were reduced dramatically.  The U.S. level for population replenishment is now a meager .9.  That means for every ten people who die 9 are born.  God’s plan provides for the care of the elderly by providing a multitude of able bodied laborers who care for the young as well as the old.  To sustain America’s social security system beyond 2050 we need a population replenishment rate of 120 births for every 10 deaths.  Our refusal to overturn Roe vs. Wade makes it necessary for us to open our borders and allow immigrants to shore up our dilapidated workforce.  (World Bank Development Report)

While Americans have been enthralled by the gladiators at the coliseum the American government has grown like Jack’s beanstalk.  Thomas Jefferson warned us of the dangers of behemoth government:  “Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases.”  Big government erupted from Washington, D.C. like an explosive vomit under the presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Roosevelt’s government was like a bull in a china shop, leaving nothing untouched and nearly everything overturned.  Few seemed to foresee the results of allowing the socialist camel to get its nose under the tent.  The gradual transformation of a democratic government to a socialist government was manipulated by Roosevelt’s economic cohorts, the ‘gods of the market place’, John P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller.

Our modern presidents are far more efficient than those of previous eras.  President Obama has been able to do in four years what it took FDR twelve years to do.  While Americans lulled into passivity by excessive entertainment the Obama government has been snatching away the liberties Jefferson warned we would lose.  When they awaken they will discover that their healthcare has been taken over by a panel of unknown physicians just like the corporative board of General Motors was taken over by a panel of bureaucrats who know nothing of how to make a car.   Socialism a la Obama is provided and funded by George Soros and David Rockefeller.  One is obsessed by the prospect of a New World Order while the other rants an illusion of an overpopulated earth.  When Americans awaken they will discover these men were not contributing their millions because they were patriotic or because they were overwhelmed by a deep compassion for humanity, these ‘gods of the market place’ expect a kickback, a big kickback in the form of wealth and power.

Americans may finally be stirred to wakefulness when they feel the master’s whip slash their backs.  The hollow-minded will discover the truth about socialism.  It’s not really about equality after all.  The powerful elite have no intentions of giving away their power and wealth to satisfy an ideology that demands a level playing field.   Socialism is a power grab intent on proving the truth in the old cliché, “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  The Lords of the middle ages would never think of sharing their power with the serfs.  The southern Planters of America’s 19^th century would never have considered sharing their power with their slaves.  The modern elite have no intentions of sharing power with American serfs.  It’s not about enabling the serfs by giving them more, it’s about neutering the serfs by taking what they have.  If equality for the masses is the goal it won’t be attained by redistributing the wealth of the elite, it will be attained by stripping rights away from individuals.

Substituting God’s plan with the frail plan of man is never a good idea.  God warned us many times over about going our own way rather than his way.  The tower of Babel proved the incompetence and foolishness of man.  Little has changed.  We are still trying to build the tower.  God reveals his transcendence to mankind when he says, “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”  (Isaiah 55:9)  Unfortunately, sleeping ears don’t hear.  Jeremiah’s description fits modern America well:  “Hear this, you foolish and senseless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear.” (Jeremiah 5:21)

Sleeping serfs are no threat to the global elite determined to strip us of our liberties and possessions.  They have no fear until they see the peasants awake from their slumber and pick up their pitchforks.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.

How Facebook Can Get You Fired

           

             Facebook has taken over the world.  It now has over 500 million users.  One of every thirteen people on earth now post to the network.  50% of its users check Facebook as soon as they get up in the morning.  Over 700 billion minutes per month are spent on Facebook.   It has so suddenly become a dominating factor in our culture that leaders in the workplace are panicky to develop policies to control the beast.  It is a trick to apply policy while policy is still evolving.

            Many are seeking direction from the National Labor Relations Board to help them fight the Facebook battle.  A labor law passed in 1935 known as the Wagner Act allows workers to gather and discuss conditions in their workplace.  This law protects them if they want to complain and organize others for the purpose of improving the working environment. 

            If it is evident that the intent is constructive and there is dialogue regarding the issues at the workplace then the workers are likely covered by law and they can take liberties granted by the freedom of speech provision of the first amendment. If they are not dialoguing and they simply go on a rant about their boss or their workplace they may find themselves jobless.  Verbal threats against the boss or coworkers can earn you a pink slip.  Employers may have great difficulty determining the variations in the meaning of the word 'jerk' and just how harmful that word is.  Most employers are not going to give a critical employee the benefit of the doubt.

            The employer must take great care in making a judgment about the activity the employee is participating in.  If the employee is discussing wages and working conditions with other employees on-line then this behavior is covered by the Wagner Act.  If the employee is expressing his own personal gripe and revealing a chip on his shoulder his employer may be within his rights to ask for his termination.  It is hard to draw the line regarding how much and what kind of negativity is protected by law.  If an employee used a work-place computer to voice his complaints is he still protected? 

            Many social network users don't seem to grasp just what the public domain really is.  Some think the information they submit goes only to a select group of friends and any other who reads their posts are really not interested.  High school students need to be aware that it is a common practice of college registrars to check Facebook activity and personal profiles before sending out acceptance letters.  If you are applying for a job it is likely that the organization will dig up any digital dirt you've left lying around on your social networks.

            Carelessness can leave you in the unemployment line.  A local man who worked at Bruster's Ice Cream was angered by his boss.  He texted his frustrations to another employee using some language to describe his boss that is  unsuitable for print.  His boss called him shortly after and fired him.  He had accidently sent the message to his boss rather than his co-worker.

            Nucleas Research, an IT research company, conducted a survey that showed that 77% of workers access Facebook from work.  Activity on social networks results in an average reduction in productivity of 1.5%.  (Computer World, July, 2009)  If a company exists on a 2 % margin of profit, blocking Facebook may make or break the company. A study at Ohio State University found that students who use Facebook get lower grades than those who do not.

            Several years ago Horace Mann, a private high school for many of New York's elite, was the focus of a social networking scandal.  A student had sent an inappropriate picture of herself to her boyfriend who in turn eagerly forwarded the picture to his friends.  The female student seemed to be ignorant of just how trustworthy her boyfriend was and how quickly something like that could go viral on the internet.  She suffered greatly for her indiscretion.

            Employees, students and other Facebook participants must continually remind themselves that posting on Facebook is not like writing in your private diary, its more like posting on a billboard located on an interstate highway.

Kevin Probst - Teaches History, Government and Apologetics at the high school level in Columbus Georgia.