22 April, 2007

In response to Still Thinking3's question I don't have the perfect answer but I do have several ideas of what not to do. One of the solutions people offer up is to allow the United Nations to deal with all with the problems in the world. These people think that the solution to the world's problems is U.N. Peacekeepers; the only problem with this solution is that it isn’t a solution. U.N. Peacekeepers are hardly ever deployed and when they are it is always way to late to be effective. Most of the time when Peacekeepers are brought into the equation it means we need containment and the U.N. is tired of people fighting with no change. Many of the civil wars in Africa are seen by the U.N. as an emergency. Whenever the U.N. backed groups need peacekeepers their cause just lost respect from many of their enemies. Brian Bresnahan gave a very strong argument on his blog for not using the U.N. for defeating radical Islam.
I think back to when Greece invaded Egypt, the two countries have different cultures and religions, but the Greeks did not impose their worldview on the Egyptians they embraced the Egyptians' worldview. If I were in charge in Iraq I would be meeting with the religious leaders and then work with them to allocate your construction jobs. In the Middle East the real leaders of the country are not the political leaders as in the west they are the religious leaders.
I have read The Pentagon's New Map and would agree we need to attempt to bring third world countries into the new globalized world described in Thomas L. Friedman's book, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. We need to bring these countries into the new world while still maintaining their origins. To many of these people they would rather die then give up their origins. This may be impossible to do when you look at the United States and where it has been we have definitely sacrificed our Biblical Christian worldview for a post-modern worldview. There is not one set response that will work for each and every country because each country is very different. It varies differently within Iraq, between the different people groups. We need to satisfy the needs of all the different people groups, this means we need to check that the religious leaders are happy; they are the ones to proclaim the jihads.
We need to bring globalization to a country without eliminating the origins of the country. We need to make sure the globalization plan is ok by the religious leaders and tailored to the specific people group in the area.

15 April, 2007

Here it comes again, April 15th, tax day. The history of the U.S. tax code is just as confusing as the code its self. It was first allowed for in the U.S. construction, in Article I Section 8 Clause 1 when congress is given the power "to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises." (Source) Over the years our tax code has changed to adapt to different situations and different debts as well as a lack there of.

One of these times was during The War of 1812 the United Sates needed a tad bit more revenue to pay for the war. Taxes were in existence form 1791 to 1802 on spirits, carriages, sugar, tobacco, and slaves. In 1802 taxes were added on gold, silverware, jewelry, and watches. This also included tariffs which were relied on to run the nation after 1817 when all internal sales taxes were abolished. (Source)

Another was during The Civil War when on August 5, 1861 the United States Congress established the very first income based tax in the nations history. This was attached to the Revenue Act of 1861 this act established a 3% tax on all income above $800 on individuals inside the U.S. This was raised to 5% on individuals outside the U.S. These Taxes were rescinded in 1872, due to the lack of need for them.

The last major jump was when the 16th Amendment was ratified. It was ratified on February 3, 1913, and was not ratified by Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Utah. Just a few years after the amendment was in place the top rate rose to 77% during World War I and then returned to 25% after the war was over. (Source)

Over the many years this great nation has been established an income tax has been a relatively new idea, especially if we aren't paying for a war. The rates have been extremely high compared to where they are now (10%-35% for 2006)(Source). It is very unlikely we will ever see the Federal Income Tax eliminated due to great cost of being a world super-power. There is a direct connection in this country to the amount of taxes and the amount of power we can display. Yes we all hate this day but it is a very necessary check to write if you enjoy your freedom and protection.

14 April, 2007




"Here Rests in Honored Glory A Comrade in Arms Known but to God"

01 April, 2007


I have recently returned form, a twelve day trip to, Europe. This trip kept me and my classmates very busy; in these twelve days we went through seven countries (England, France, Beligum, Lexumburg, The Netherlands, Germany and Austria). My favorite part of the entire trip, is something I can not decide, I have two very amazing experiances. The first was my day in Normandy, France; the second is Bastone, Belgium. In Normandy we went to Point du Hoc, and the American Cementary. This was truealy amazing because it has been kept untuched, while there we had the opertunity to walk and climb throught the intacted and destroyed gun implacements/bunkers.


Bastone was amazining this was due to the weather, and the oppertunity of having Henri Mignon give us a five hour tour of Bastone. We went out to the foxholes of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment-Easy Company.