The Price of Free Land

Today, I got paid for January work from my employer. I was calculating what I could do with it, and then the various claims began to set in. I eared approx. $300:

• %15 manditory, off the top, for Social Security--and the government is cutting me a break. I don't have to pay income tax yet, just Social Security. If I had to give them income tax, it'd be more like %25 or %30. And there's almost no chance I'll get anything back from the SS fund. At best, I'm donating to my parent's retirement. At worst, I'm giving to some person who has no business getting my money. - $45.
  
• %20 tithe and contributions--This is the least grudged of the bunch, since I'm not only depositing to my heavenly account, there are rewards down here, too. - $60.
• %32.5 to my savings account, saving for something in the future. With the amount I'll be putting in, after a year, I might be able to buy some socks, maybe. (I'm kidding, but it wouldn't even be enough to buy a quarter acre of land or a truck that would run. Oh well, I've got to start somewhere) - $97.50
• The remaining %32.5 will be spent sooner saved for later--things on my list include a new chair mat for my computer (the old one was nearly impossible to move around on, but it helps save the carpet.): $25; a new non-stick, 8" sandwich frying pan, which after almost twice a day use for 6 mo. is loosing a major portion of it's non-stick, and possibly killing me (you know about those things, slow, but sure): ~$10; and, a gift for Mom's up coming birthday (the 10th): $20. I can't say what it is because she reads what I write. (Hi Mom!). That leaves about $42.50. My desired next purchase would be a new 1 Terabyte (8,796,093,022,208 bits [a bits is a 0 or a 1], also known as really, really big!) hard drive, which would really help when I go to reinstall my various operating systems. I would also come in handy if and or when I start the media restoration digitization and archival service, and start working with big files (I'll spare you the bit count :)). I'll need to work this much again next month (maybe more, as my employer is re-negotiating my wage) to put with that $42.50, and I'll be able to pay the $95 for the Samsung model that I would like.
  

All of which brings me around to a column that I read on freedom, by Chuck Baldwin. I'm not going to paraphrase, so here's the quote:

"For example, we will work for 30 years or more to purchase our own property. After having done that, however, the property still does not belong to us. We are required to pay the State--for the rest of our lives--a property tax (to support concepts and ideas that many of us find reprehensible and detestable, no less), or armed agents will confiscate our property and throw us on the street. Pray tell me, what is the difference between this and the feudal system of old? In reality, none of us own any property. We are all serfs paying the feudal lord. Beyond that, our feudal masters even dictate to us what we can and cannot do with this property we supposedly own. We do not even have the right to manage and control our own land. And yet, we Americans put up with this illegitimacy and still have the audacity to say, "We are free." Again, we don't know the meaning of the word.

Virtually everything we do and say is monitored by the great Nanny State. Practically every service, every act is regulated by the State. Ask any independent business owner how many regulations, laws, acts, etc., demand fulfillment, and how many fees, taxes, permits, etc., are required by various government agencies and bureaucracies before he can perform a single task. For example, the federal government actually dictates how some restaurants can seat people or serve tables. Farmers are told what and how much to plant--and even to not plant. We cannot buy a gun, drive a car, marry the person we love, or even install a toilet without saying, "Pretty please?" to a dozen despots. And we still wave the flag every Independence Day and brag about how "free" we are. Again, we don't know the meaning of the word."
chuckbaldwinlive.com

"America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation." - Laurence Peter

"They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him." - 2 Peter 2:19

"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.

We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life." - 1 John 5:13-15, 19-20

May God bless you and keep you, and may He make His face shine on you and give you peace.

Jonathan

Piano Results

It's only been two days, which might be a record for a new post. :)

Anyway, Rachel (a local homeschool friend, as well as an accomplished musician) dropped by wondering how the congregational accompanying went, and since the last time I commented, Matthew thought it was long enough for a post, so I figured I'd do as he suggested first off.

Sunday went very well. No major blunders, no major mistakes--what more could a pianist ask? :)

As to whether I've done this before, only the occasional Sunday night when our usual pianist wasn't around, and when the group was reduced to the group of regulars who can almost completely carry a tune piano-less.

I've been putting in some good hours with the tech support job, and plan to put in a few more before the end of the month. And, today is band, so it's definitely been and being a full day, after having my first appointment at 9:00 this morning.

But supper's ready, so I'm going to sign off.

"Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him--to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen." - Romans 16:25-27

May the Lord bless and keep,

Jonathan

Annoucing Weather Quotes

It's been a while. No, it's been quite a while. Actually, it's been 6 months, 4 days, and approximately 4 hours since my last post. Fortunately, Matthew has been keeping the blog somewhat sputtering with life, but most would admit that our writings have been few and far between. Like almost once a month.

I will begin by calling your attention to one of the new features of our sidebar: I installed a 'Cellar' which has some 'Buried, but tasty, morsels.' The first item of business in the cellar is the music player control, of which you can finally see the entire thing (a known problem with our previous setup). To get to the cellar, look for a picture of an underground canning storage center, otherwise known as a 'Cellar.' Some of you may have one of these at home. Anyway, click either on the picture or the text below. At the bottom, there's a link to get back. It's got some other interesting stuff down there too.

So, if you don't want the music to play, and have lost the controller, it's down in the Cellar.

Next order of business: On a contract basis, I've started doing tech support for the company mom tutors with (you remember that from back 3.5 eons ago, right? A homeschool supportive, though not exclusive, company that provides English speaking tutors to Koreans? She teaches them over the internet?). It's kind of challenging work, as the software they use is about 90% broken, as in it doesn't work. However, we're now working on transitioning over to another program, that's much nicer in terms of technical foundation.

And here's the third and final major announcement: I'm going to graduate this year. I've decided that I have spent enough time focusing primarily on academics, and that I'm ready to start focusing on other things, like starting various businesses that I've had ideas for for quite a while, and learning new skills, etc. One might also argue that I'm getting tired of Integrands and Anti-differentials. While I don't plan to go to college, there's still some more things I'd like to get wrapped up on the academic front--we're a little over a third of the way through the calculus book, which I'd like to finish, and we're a little further back in the Adv. Physics book. If I can still add 2 and 2 by the time I get all that done, I think Adv. Chemistry would be interesting, too. But my primary focus will be shifting from stuffing my head with new things that I probably won't use that much, and switching to useful things.

Here ends the first part of the post.

This, if ya'll 'll get my point, is what you'd call the second half. I'm done making those dull, boring, tedious, stuffy things called 'announcements'. Now, I'm (hopefully we're) gonna have some fun. and I just might stop writing in complete sentences. 'Cuz I said so. Now, wasn't that fun! Exciting! and enough to make an English teacher about bust? :)

Sunday, over to the church, I'll be playin' the piano. For congregation singin'.Ya see, our regular pianist has done gone and messed up her shoulder. The right one, I believe. But she went and tricked it by bein' a lefty. :) Anyhow, she can't play the piano, and is goin' to therapy 'n all to prove it, so I (being the next-in-line for the bench [Mom resigned her place in that line a while back{It's really a lot of stress}]) am gonna do if for her. As of now, I'm supposed to be in two places at once. At the piano and At the computer. I still do the projector presentation too (you remember that, right?). It aught to be interesting. :) And it's my week to play the offertory. So, It'll be a downright ball, I'm sure. Then, there's a Solo and Ensemble competition that I'm doing stuff for, that will be on the 21st. So I'm keeping busy with music. :)

I'm afraid I'm running out of apostrophized words, so it's going to be back to the kings English. Two points for my teacher, eh?

In the way of other interesting tidbits, the weather has warmed up some, not tons, but you can at least go out side without having to wear facial protection from the wind, which has really slowed down in the past couple of days. If you came here looking for a story of Michigan weather, since I haven't been outside enough to tell you about it (there have been some pretty pressing things inside), head over to Jonathan Bartlet's place for a harrowing story of heroism in heat-less North Dakota Winter, where a little forethought and some sleep did and could have, respectively, saved the day. I hope that satisfies your taste for snow. :)

Mom and I have also been doing some literary analysis: so far, we've done 'Great Expectations' by Dickens, and are working on 'To Kill a Mocking Bird', by Lee. Other things on the list include 'Paradise Lost' by Milton, 'Macbeth', by Shakespeare, along with some others.

Now, enough of me, and here's someone else:

"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job." - Douglas Adams

"When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President -- I'm beginning to believe it." - Clarence Darrow

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them, will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered" - Thomas Jefferson

You know why there's a Second Amendment? In case the government fails to follow the first one. - Rush Limbaugh

"When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you and have taken possession of it and settled in it, and you say, "Let us set a king over us like all the nations around us," be sure to appoint over you the king the LORD your God chooses. He must be from among your own brothers. Do not place a foreigner over you, one who is not a brother Israelite. The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the priests, who are Levites. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his brothers and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel." - Deuteronomy 17:14-20

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts and established in love, through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." -Ephesians 3:16-20

Ever in his peace,

Jonathan

A Quick Note

The weather here remains a touch on the chilly side: Highs around 5 degrees F for the last few days, although there hasn't been much wind which makes it quite tolerable (for me anyway). To day that's changing. The high is supposed to be 16, but the wind is roaring around at 20 mph (which makes for a slight wind chill...of about -15). It's been a struggle to keep the house even above 65, but our furnace just isn't big enough for this weather. There is also a lot of complaining from people (like at church, or the store) about how cold it is. But (except for the house heating issue) I kinda like it. I like Winter pretty well, about as well as Summer and Fall...Spring is nice too. Some day I'd like to go out west (say to North Dakota) in the winter to see what cold is really like. I look at it as sort of a challenge--to survive (or even thrive) even when the temps are really cold, plus I like the cold and snow; snow isn't nearly as wet as rain, and so is easier to work in, and in the winter there aren't any flies or misquotes!

Yesterday afternoon Dad had a job interview with the Board of Water and Light in Lansing. This is the first door that has seemed to open in six months. We're thanking the Lord for this opportunity and praying His will be done. It is a job that is still related to his field (electrical engineer) and isn't too far away, about 35 min. The interview was conducted by a panel of two engineer type guys and the head HR person, and Dad said that he thought the interview went pretty well. They told Dad that they'll contact him towards the end of next week to let him know whether or not they want to continue the interviewing process (which consists of at least two or three more interviews with different people). We'd definitely appreciate your prayers in this matter.

Well I'd better get out and feed my chickens so I'll sign off for now,

Matthew