Coming Together

There was a time in my life when I thought I possessed the Midas Touch, that anything I touched would turn to gold. I had had some financial successes earlier in my life and had deluded myself into thinking it would always be that way. Since that time, experience has taught me differently. Nothing stays the same forever, and these days it can be weeks, days, or even hours between radical changes. What works today can fail tomorrow.

I’m facing retirement in about five years and I’m not so sure that I will be as financially prepared for it as I always thought I would be. Actually, I’m not sure I even know what retirement is. No one in my family has ever tried it.

In today’s market my house is probably worth less than I’ve put into it and my 401K has tumbled into the pooper along with everybody else’s. My two major investments, ownership in a printing company and a hunt club, are looking less like a sure thing with each passing day.

I’m not really complaining because there are so many others that are truly struggling to make ends meet. Those I am particularly concerned for are people that are already retired or about to, and have to live on investments that have faltered so badly this last year.

Because my home is close, in proximity to Chrysler HQ, a lot of my neighbors are nervously watching the developing absorption of their employer into the General Motors fold. There are only about a dozen families that live on my street and the incomes of every one of them are directly tied to the auto industry. More than half of these derive their livelihood from Chrysler.

This morning I spoke with someone that is close to the situation at CHQ and if the merger is completed they expect an immediate wholesale slaughter to occur among the white-collar employees. Because GM will probably scratch many or most of the Chrysler and Dodge vehicles, many blue-collar workers will also be cut loose.

My next-door neighbor is manager of a large Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealer here in the Metro area. I haven’t spoken to him yet about how this pending merger will affect his company, but I’m sure he has some major concerns. The neighbor directly across the street from me is an executive at Chrysler and his employment is also at risk.

In the long run, the merger between GM and Chrysler may be necessary for the survival of both, but in the short run a lot of people will be hurt. And I may loose some really great neighbors.

Fleecing The Flock For Fun & Profit

Robert Tilton has a “word” from God,..... just for you. Send money!

Well, I’ve already talked about politics, race relations, hedonism, narcissism, the economy, gun control, hotrods, employee relations, bad drivers, education, confusion, dogs, and decapitation. BUT, have you noticed how skillfully I have (so far) avoided any discussion about RELIGION? Even at the risk of being tarred and feathered and run out of town, I shall press bravely forward on this mercurial subject.

Church life and spirituality have always been a big part of my life. My great-grandfather, my grandfather, and my uncle were all ministers. My father was an elder in the church and chairman of the board of a Christian college for many years. They were all fine men who did much for many, and asked for nothing in return. I know I’ve been a disappointment to my family for not pursuing such lofty endeavors. I am probably considered by some to be the family reprobate.

One definition of a reprobate is: A morally unprincipled person. Shameless. One who is predestined to damnation? OUCH! Come on now, I must possess SOME redeeming qualities. After all, my business partners tolerate me. My mother kinda likes me. And my wife, kids, grandkids, and dog love me. And even if they don’t, I know that Jesus does.

I confess that I haven’t been the most devoted sheep in the flock (a gray sheep?), but my basic beliefs in the Trinity are alive and well. I attend services at least three out of every four Sundays, I try not to drink, smoke, or cuss too much, and I tithe a lot more than Joe Biden does. Surely all this puts me at least one notch higher on the salvation ladder than most politicians.

It’s a well-established fact that I have the attention span of a small child on a caffeine diet. I don’t actually watch TV. I just surf the channels. If a channel can hold my attention more that 3 seconds, I may watch it for several minutes before moving on.

One thing that always gets my attention (and my ire) is the fraudulent televangelist. And, there is a plethora of them about. It seems that you can’t go more than a few channels without landing on one of these broadcasts. I’m not talking about the preachers that actually preach about salvation and ask for little or nothing at all. I’m talking about the hustlers that are in it for the (your) bucks. These are the purveyors of “health & wealth” religion. (Name it and claim it.)

These guys absolutely fascinate me. They have commercialized Jesus to the Nth degree. They’ve become the masters of shakedown. Their performances are slicker than KY Gel. Ponzi schemers and ambulance chasers pale in comparison to this new breed of shyster. They wear arrogance like a uniform as they strut across the stage waving the bible in the air. Oh, they may have read the words in that book, but somehow they completely missed the Word.

Most of these guys are very wealthy thanks to all those folks that are looking to purchase a miracle or two. They live in mansions, own expensive beach homes, drive expensive cars, stay in luxury hotels, dine at the best restaurants, wear custom made clothes, wear $20k watches, and make sure that all their relatives live well too. It seems like they all have their own multi-million dollar private jets. Some even have a fleet of jets at their disposal. Is life good for them or what?

So where are they getting all this money to live so well? Unfortunately, they target the poor, the gullible, the uneducated, the sick, the lonely, and people that are desperate for any improvement in their life. But, they also prey on people’s greed. They flaunt their wealth and convince people that they too can live the good life.

They really work the greed angle. All you have to do is send them a “faith seed” (send money) or “partner with them” (send money) and God will begin to work miracles in your life. I’ve actually heard some of them claim you will get back ten times what you send. You may even get more if you have enough faith. Frequently they name specific amounts of money that God wants you to send them. It might be $77.00 this month and $1000.00 next month (depending on their avaricious lifestyle). Occasionally they will trot someone out who sent Rev. (put name here) $2000.00 and the following month their mortgage was just magically paid off.

They treat God like He’s just a big lottery pool in the sky. And since they have “been anointed”, they can get you connected to the jackpot. I’m not sure who anointed them, but I don’t think it was God.

If they even had a cursory knowledge of the Bible, they would know that the One who’s name they cast about so freely, lived as a simple carpenter and had none or very few possessions. They would know that the Apostle Paul, even though he was a highly educated Roman citizen with political connections, sewed tents to support himself while spreading the word to the Gentiles. They would know that Jesus told the wealthy young ruler, “Sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and THEN follow me”. Luke 18:18-30 NIV. You’ll notice He didn’t say, “Take from the poor and get even richer”!


Kickin’ Butt and Takin’ Names!

There are far too many of these scalawags to name them all, so I’ll just mention a few of my favorites.

Mike Murdock struts across the stage at his Wisdom Center giving Wisdom Keys to all us dimwits, cause (Duh!) we’re too stupid to understand simple scripture. He will say something completely meaningless, then put his hands on his hips and bob his head up and down as he scans the audience with a smirk on his face. But, do not fear, he will get around to asking for that seed money.
Entertainment Rating: 2

Benny Hinn may very well be the scariest guy on earth. He is fabulously wealthy and arrives in a Roll Royce when he comes to speak down to the multitudes. He is surrounded by bodyguards and is completely unapproachable. On stage he rants and raves and speaks in tongues. When he asks for money he suggests that you be “obedient” and fork it over. If you should publicly disagree with his eminence, he’ll send demons against you. Hmmm,…I wonder whom he’s really working for???
Entertainment Rating: 0

Jesse Duplantis is fun to watch. Jesse is high energy. He runs up and down the stage screeching, laughing, singing, and telling tall tales. He openly brags about his wealth and insinuates that if you’re living in poverty, it’s your fault for choosing to do so. Wow!
Entertainment Rating: 3

Robert Tilton is the undisputed champion in this game. No one holds a candle to Bob. He exudes such passion and sincerity. He almost sweats blood when he prays (that you’ll send him money). His preaching (pointless drivel) is highly animated and he can twist his face into contortions I didn’t know were humanly possible. He can find the most obscure scriptures in the Bible to change into whatever he wants it to say.

Frequently, during one of his impassioned sermonettes, he will break into the speaking of tongues. If you listen closely to this jibber you’ll hear the same dozen sounds over and over again. Frequently he’ll stop preaching to say that God just gave him a “word”. “There’s someone out there that’s been suffering with back pain and if you plant (with him) a seed of $1000.00 today, God will remove your pain forever”.

Well now, old Bob could charm the scales off a cobra. And if the FTC or the IRS should ever shut him down, he will quickly make a new fortune selling ice to the Eskimos.
Entertainment Rating: 4

There are many passages in scripture that foretell the fate of these flock-fleecers and false prophets. If they truly knew the Word they would know what’s in store for them.

WWJD? Well, on Judgment Day Jesus will probably just forgive these scoundrels. WWJD? What Would John Do? On Judgment Day I would give ‘em a choice. “OK boys, what would you prefer, being barbequed, fried, roasted, skewered and shish kabobed, impaled on a flaming sword, or returned to earth as a grindingly poor, blind, homeless person with leprosy?” Knowing how greedy these maggots are, they would probably want it all.

And, I would gladly give it to them.

Can I get an Amen?

Been Totin’ Your Roscoe Lately?

July 18, 1984, San Ysidro, San Diego, California. At 3:40 p.m. 41 year old James Oliver Huberty walked into a McDonalds armed with two semi-auto pistols and a 12 gauge shotgun. He opened fire on the unsuspecting patrons and staff and continued firing and reloading for one hour and seventeen minutes. When he was finally taken down by the SWAT team, 22 people lay dead on the floor and 19 lay wounded.

During this massacre not a single police officer nor a trained, licensed civilian with a gun was present to stop the carnage.

October 16, 1991, Killeen, Texas. George Jo Hennard drove his pickup truck through the front window of a Luby’s Cafateria. He got out of the truck and yelled "This is what Bell County has done to me!" He then opened fire on the restaurant's patrons and staff with a Glock 17 pistol and later a Ruger P89.

About 80 people were in the restaurant at the time. He stalked, shot, and killed 23 people and wounded another 20 before committing suicide. He reloaded several times and still had ammunition remaining when he committed suicide by shooting himself in the head after the police finally arrived.

During this massacre not a single police officer nor a trained, licensed civilian with a gun was present to stop the carnage.

April 20, 1999, Columbine High School, Columbine, Colorado. Two students, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, embarked on a massacre, killing 12 students and a teacher, as well as wounding 23 others, before committing suicide.At 11:19 a.m. the shooting started. The SWAT teams entered the school at 1:09 p.m.

During this massacre not a single police officer nor a trained, licensed civilian with a gun was present to stop the carnage.

April 16, 2007, Virginia Tech University, Blacksburg, Virginia. There were actually two separate attacks approximately two hours apart committed by undergraduate student 23-year-old Seung-Hui Cho, a South Korean citizen with U.S. permanent resident status living in Virginia.

During the two attacks, Cho killed 5 faculty members and 27 students before committing suicide. The Virginia Tech review panel reported that Cho's gunshots wounded 17 other people; 6 more were injured when they jumped from second-story windows to escape the slaughter. Again, the police did not arrive until long after the shootings had taken place.

During these massacres (and others) not a single police officer nor a trained, licensed civilian with a gun was present to stop the carnage.

I could go on and on, but I think the point has been made. The police are not your bodyguards and can’t anticipate when the next wacko is going to lash out at innocent civilians. The police don’t know when or where you will be robbed, raped, car-jackted, kidnapped, or murdered by someone with a weapon. But, they will investigate after the crime has been commited.

There are a few stories where someone that was legally armed with a gun was present to keep another would-be butcher from doing his worst. Unfortunately, these success stories are in the minority.

The Three Amigos

Several months ago I had lunch with a couple of friends at a local restaurant. These other guys are both well respected men in our community. They are both highly educated with doctoral degrees in their separate fields of endeavor. So, you might ask, why in the world were they hanging with me? Must be my boyish charm.

To the casual observer, we were just three harmless old guys havin’ lunch and talking about sports or politics. What was not apparent is that we are all highly skilled shooters and amongst the three of us we were carrying enough firepower to take down a small army of deranged miscreants.

We are not cops. We are not vigilantes. We are citizens with concealed pistol permits that carry our registered handguns within the confines of the law. The Michigan State Legislature has given us permission to do this. The Michigan State Police and the FBI have scrutinized our pasts and determined that we are not a threat to society. We have taken the prescribed firearms class and passed our range tests for gun knowledge, safety, and marksmanship. We have practiced, trained, and become proficient with our guns.

We are not “gunshop commandos” seeking glory. We do not belong to any para-military groups. We are not suffering from paranoia, expecting an attack at any moment. However, we are people who refuse to be the victims of other people that don’t abide by any laws or codes of conduct, except their own. We do not accept the “victim mentality” that has permeated our society for so long. We are alert. We are ready to defend ourselves and our loved ones if necessary. God forbid that this should ever happen.

The object of defending yourself with a gun is not about killing your attacker. It’s about stopping the attack. If you have to shoot, shoot until the attacker has stopped. If the would-be attacker sees the muzzle of your gun pointing directly at him or notices the laser beam dancing between his eyes, he may just drop his weapon and start crying like a little girl. This would be the best case scenario. “No shots fired!” The worst case scenario is being attacked and having NO way to defend yourself.

Carrying a gun is not for everybody. Some people are afraid of guns. No amount of education about guns will change their mind. They believe all guns should be banned. In a perfect world, this would work nicely. Unfortunately, in the world we live in, if guns are banned we law-abiding folks would turn our guns in to be destroyed. Can you guess who would NOT be turning their guns in? Duh! Could it be the people who use guns to commit crimes? You know, those guys that don’t get themselves licensed or their stolen guns registered. I know some very well-meaning people who just can’t seem to process this reality.

Because women (in general) are ususally smaller and lighter in stature than men, they are considered an easier target for crime. It doesn’t have to be that way. I would especially encourage women to get licensed and carry a gun for self defense.

I think many women who would like to carry a gun are intimidated at the thought of going to a gun store/range because they think it’s “man country”. Both of the places that we patronize have women working behind the counter. They are openly packing some serious hardware and they know their stuff. It’s common to see women in the store or on the range when my wife and I are there. Good instruction is available and affordable.

My wife has her own Smith & Wesson, Air-Lite snubnose revolver with a Crimson Trace Laser Sight. She chose the gun herself and enjoys shooting it. She handles the gun with ease and is a very good shot. She keeps it loaded with some very nasty jacketed hollow point ammo and keeps it close to her whenever she’s home alone. I pitty anyone that breaks into our house when I’m not there to protect them from her. She’s ready.

So far, there has only been one time when I thought I might have to draw my weapon in self defense. July 5th, 2005 at around 5:00 a.m., David Lee Bingham, 38, was pumping gas into his truck at a Sunoco station in Pontiac, Michigan when 2 young men approached him. One of the men stuck a gun in Bingham’s face and demanded his truck keys and his wallet. Bingham complied and the two men started to drive off in his truck. Bingham ran into the station and told the attendant he had just been robbed at gunpoint.

As Bingham was talking to the 911 operator, the robber came into the station and shot him 4 times in the chest at point-blank range. Bingham was dead before he hit the floor. He had done everything he was “supposed” to do. Why did the punk have to gun him down after the fact? When David was brutally murdered, two children lost their father.

Because I usually leave for work about 5:00 a.m. and usually stop for gas on the way in, this incident really disturbed me. Even though I had been shooting guns most of my life and already had a permit to carry, I had not been doing so. The next morning I strapped on my .38 ultra-lite snubby before leaving the house. I stopped at the my usual gas station and began fueling my truck. I was the only one there, or so I thought.

While I was standing beside the truck I noticed an older car parked in the shadows beside the station. I could see movement in the car and some rather heavy looking smoke drifting out of an open window. A lone car turned the corner and it’s headlights swept across the parked car just long enough for me to see four scruffy looking young men sitting in the car, all staring directly at me. I was not alarmed, but I was on high alert.

A rear passenger door opened and one of the men stepped out and began walking straight for me while the others looked on. He was holding his right hand behind his back. I pretended that I didn’t notice and turned to look at the pump. As I turned, I casually brought my right hand up pushing my jacket back slightly and placed my hand on my hip in a relaxed stance. Directly below my hand, the gun shown brightly in the light from the canopy above me.

In my peripheral vision, I saw the guy stop dead in his tracks. He stood there for a moment, then spun and walked quickly back to his friends. He wasted no time getting back into the car. The car started and with the headlights off they quickly left the station.

They may have just been looking for directions, but the situation was just way too suspicious for me to have done anything else. It bothered me that I had been put in situation where I felt forced to let my weapon be seen. On the other hand, I probably looked like an easy mark for a robbery until they saw that it wasn’t going to be so easy after all. I’ve since upgraded my carry weapon to a semi-auto with a high capacity magazine and I practice with it frequently.

I’ll discuss home defense in a future post. In the meantime, if I’m in a restaurant with my wife and grandchildren and a guy comes in wearing a long trenchcoat on a warm day, my level of alertness may rise. If he’s having a heated conversation with himself and his gaze is bouncing all over the room, I may become alarmed. If he begins nervously fidgeting with something under his coat I’ll begin positioning myself for whatever may happen next.

If I’m NOT packin’ that day, I just hope there will be some lady sipping coffee in her booth with one eye on the weirdo and one eye on her newspaper as her hand is casually moving into her purse for that S&W LadySmith .357 Magnum that she’s become such great friends with.