You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it

"You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy
out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another
person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to
anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody
else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to
work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the
other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody
else is going to get what they work for, that my dear friend, is about
the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."


~~ The late Dr. Adrian Rogers

Once upon a time

In a beautifully written post, Mark Batterson makes you stop and ponder the realities of a life lived with God.

"It's hard to put into words, but I live my life with a profound sense of destiny. God orders my footsteps. If I believe anything, I believe that. And that fills me with holy anticipation. At any given moment, God can invade the reality of our lives and change everything."

Read it all here:

Evotional.com - Originality, Authenticity, Creativity

Even AP said it

What does it mean when the Associated Press has the following quote in it's story about the Obama budget proposal?

"Denouncing what he called the "dishonest accounting" of recent federal budgets, Obama unveiled his own $3.6 trillion blueprint for next year, a bold proposal that would transfer wealth from rich taxpayers to the middle class and the poor."

Even AP says he's transferring wealth. Wow.

And I'm interested to see the proof of "dishonest accounting."

Make an inventory and clean up your home

Timely suggestion for me and it just might be for you too!

Apartment Therapy Chicago | How To: Make an Inventory of Your Home ... And Use It to Declutter

Pre-World War III, or IV or V?

In this chilling comparison between today's world and that of the run up to World War II, Bret Stephens Says We Can't Allow Barack Obama's Optimism to Lull Us into a Weakened Foreign Policy - WSJ.com.

"As in the 1920s, we have emerged (if only partially), from several years of war -- scarcely anticipated, earnestly begun, bravely fought, often badly waged and, at least in the case of Iraq, ambiguously won. It was an emotionally exhausting war justified first on grounds of national survival, then for spreading democracy. The moral clarity and political unity that went with the war's beginning collapsed into political division and disillusion.

"From this there has emerged under the Obama administration a new kind of moral clarity. It is founded on conciliatory tendencies, a preference for multilateral solutions, a powerful desire to be on the right side of global public opinion, and an instinct for looking away from that which we'd rather not to see. This has put some political stress on our residual post-9/11 commitments, particularly in the case of Afghanistan, while creating an overwhelming aversion to possible confrontations, particularly against revanchist Russia and millenarian Iran."

I hope he's wrong.

My heart on the matter

My thanks to Dr. Neil Nielson, President of Covenant College for this brilliant post on Business for God's Glory.

I am sharing it here because he has captured my heart's deepest passion far better than I can express. It's a long piece, but well worth every word.

Here are my highlights:

"My burden this morning is simply (1) to remind you that business is also a holy and godly calling, fraught with dangers and temptations and slippery slopes like every other calling; and then (2) to encourage those of you who sense God’s call into business to relish that call and pursue it wholeheartedly."

"...I have been convinced beyond any doubt that it’s a worthy and noble calling, and that Christians belong in business. And I’d like you to think so too."

And my absolute FAVORITE:
"This gain in wealth, and the resulting improvement in quality of life, is one important reason why I get so excited about an increasingly globalized marketplace, with information and access getting into places and corners of the globe where they’ve never gotten before."

Exactly. We are living in the most exciting economic, business and technological time in over 400 year!

Read the whole post.
And be excited.

Moving Beyond the Fake Stimulus

Great stuff teaching what's going on:

Understand This Or Perish ... | Brazen Careerist

Government Service?

This isn't the right time in my life, but this post sparked something in that's been brewing for a while: the thought of getting involved in government.

This Is Smyrna, TN: March 3rd deadline

Hmmmm...

Mashable gives us 60+ How To sites

Check out this comprehensive list of the best help sites on the web.

Nice!

Links Feb. 13 (and comments)

• Yahoo News tells us Why This Recession Seems Worse Than '70s and '80s 

It's not of course, as this opening sentence suggests: "If you think this recession is the worst since World War II, chances are you weren't born or working during the downturns of the 1970s and '80s, you're listening to President Obama too much or you're a white-collar worker in financial services." And then there's "The economy is very psychological. There's a herd instinct."

My take? We're feeling the economical affects of the transition from the industrial to information ages. For those that get on board, things will be fine. Ignore this at your peril.

• In Exactly How Does Stimulus Work? from the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger tells us that "The theory beneath the $800 billion of spending is called the Keynesian multiplier, first posited around 1931." Um. Yeah. 

There's also this quote from CBO director Douglas Elmendorf: ""Even without any stimulus, market forces would eventually bring about a recovery from the recession," albeit with more unemployment and loss of output."

• Finally, as an example of my point about the information age comes Digital Firms for the Net from Bank of America's "Future Banking Blog" - yes, they have a blog.
  

"With the support of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, The Law Lab at the Berkman Center at Harvard University is undertaking a project to provide a hosting service for the registration and governance of a digital LLC within Vermont, and to form experimental LLCs to explore new types of operating agreements and models of management and governance. We are actively seeking partners in the form of entrepreneurs, banks, legal scholars and researchers."

In other words, completely net based businesses.
Sweet.