Quick – find me another Ronald Reagan!

Well, tomorrow is “Super Tuesday”, the quadrennial multi-state primary showdown that often leaves just one man (or perhaps this year, one woman) staggering down the path towards the White House after fighting tooth and nail for his/her party’s nomination for President of the United States. When the primary season first began, there were dozens of hopefuls vying for the world’s most powerful position. By tomorrow night there could well be just two.

I’m usually pretty happy with at least one of the candidates (almost always a Republican), and quite often I could “live” with two or three of them. But I must say that this year the field is a little disappointing.

It seems like everyone running on both sides this year has a history of shifting positions on key issues, leaving me to wonder if even one of them really has any core values at all. I do have to omit Barack Obama from that generalization because he alone does seem to have a solid set of core values – all of which are diametrically opposed to mine. But to his credit, at least he does seem to have some.

I’m finding it rather hard to trust the rest of them however because they appear to be saying whatever it takes to get in the good graces of the particular audience they happen to be addressing at the time (Here’s a news flash for ya Rick – they’re politicians!). Oh well…

But the thing that bothers me the most is that there is no true conservative left in race. The ones who are conservative on national security are social liberals while the ones who are social conservatives are as weak as watered-down soda pop on illegal immigration or some other important issue. There really and truly is no one candidate left in the race who can accurately be referred to as a conservative.

Like him or hate him, Ronald Reagan was the kind of man we need to lead this amazing country of ours. Was he “right” on each and every issue? Of course not. That’s way too much to ask of any human being, President or not. But he was right on the ones that really mattered, and he stood his ground when what he believed to be the best course of action for our country went against that of Congress, the pundits, and the polls.

When he needed to, Reagan convincingly took his case directly to the American people, and today the Soviet Union and the Iron curtain are no more thanks to his backbone of steel.

When George W. Bush was running for President for the first time in 2000, I thought he would be a leader in the mold of Reagan, sticking to conservative principles and doing everything within his power to make America the strongest, safest, and freest nation on the globe. For the most part he has lived up to that ideal in regards to judicial appointments and the war on terror, but his performance in the areas of illegal immigration, spending, and trade have left much to be desired.

All in all, I’ve been quite disappointed in President Bush’s performance, and I’m afraid there’s plenty more disappointment ahead regardless of who ends up in the White House among those still in the race – Republican or Democrat.

I suppose a man the caliber of President Ronald Wilson Reagan doesn’t come on the scene all that often, and we were lucky to have him when we did. But with everything that’s going on in the world today, we sure could use another one - and quick.

The wisdom of King Solomon

1 Kings 3:16-28

16 – Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

17 – And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

18 – And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

19 – And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

20 – And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21 – And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

22 – And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

23 – Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

24 – And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

25 – And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

26 – Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27 – Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

28 – And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

King Solomon is famous for his great wisdom, and that wisdom became quite apparent as one of the most well-known events in the Bible played itself out.
 
When these two women came before him, each claiming to be the mother of the same little boy, Solomon could have listened to their stories, asked them a bunch of questions, brought in hordes of witnesses, and then tried to decide who was telling the truth. But he knew that the quickest and most accurate way to determine who the real mother was was to simply let the two women make that determination on their own.
 
Solomon knew that except for the love of God Himself, there is no stronger love than that of a mother for her child. There was no doubt in his mind that the true mother would rather lose custody of her precious little boy to another woman than see it come to harm, and he was right. He actually ended up not having to decide the “case” at all – the “litigants” made the decision for him.
 
We can all apply a bit of Solomon’s wisdom to our own lives. Sometimes we make the process of making a decision a lot harder than it really has to be. Quite often, the answer to a seemingly complex situation is really quite simple, and if we ask the Lord for guidance and use a little common sense we’ll be able to get a lot more done in much less time than if we sit and ponder and stress ourselves out.

2008 to be a banner year for digital cameras

Last year the world of digital photography grew by leaps and bounds with new digital cameras and related equipment being released virtually non-stop, and if January was an accurate indicator, 2008 is shaping up to be even more exciting!
 
 Along with each new technological breakthrough comes smaller, more powerful, and more energy efficient components that just keep raising the bar in terms of quality while keeping prices low – and in many cases dropping rapidly. Compact point-and-shoot models will continue to get thinner and lighter while their image quality gets better and better, and the differences between the latest super-zoom models and their more expensive DSLR brethren are getting smaller and smaller.
 
 On thing that I’ve noticed is that the time span between succeeding camera models is growing shorter by the day. For example, I purchased my Nikon D50 just a month or so after it’s release and it took quite a while for Nikon to follow up with the D40, but it took just a few months for them to release the D40x -and now they’re already preparing to release the D60! The same goes for Canon and their consumer line of Digital SLR’s as well. It’s enough to make your head spin!
 
 One thing is for sure: It makes little sense these days to “wait” for the best deal on the latest camera because the rapid pace of technology is simply going to get faster and faster, and newer, more capable models will always be just on the horizon. If you decide to wait until the market “shakes out”, you’ll most likely be waiting an awful long time.
 
 2008 is definitely shaping up to be a banner year in the world of digital cameras, and there will probably never be a better time to buy. In fact, prices are beginning to settle at a level where even amateur photographers can afford to own two or more “new” cameras, each offering different features and various levels of functionality. What a wonderful time to be in the field of photography!

Bad Behavior has blocked 282 access attempts in the last 7 days.