Unfortunately, a 17-Percent Shutdown Might Well Elude Us

   Another opportunity is going to pass us by, I suspect. We have a chance to shut down about 17 percent of our government, but I suspect we are going to pass it by.
   I haven't seen any polls, but it seems obvious Americans are overwhelmingly against the shutdown of a portion of our government. Part of it, might be the spin. It is referred to as a government shutdown, period -- as if the whole government comes to a grinding halt.That is misleading. Last time, only about 17 percent was put on hold.
   Another thing, I suspect some of money that wasn't spent during the shutdown last time, was spent, anyway, once the government reopened. I say that because we were continually told that the shutdown cost us big bucks. Now, if government was really not being financed during the shutdown, there should be a savings, not a loss. I find it clever salesmanship if it is true that they went ahead and after-the-fact paid for things that weren't even being done, then incited the public to indignity that the whole thing unavoidably cost us a lot of money.
   Fiscal fiasco, then, I just wonder: Was it a fiscal fiasco because they made it that way? They arranged, that if they were going to shut down, they would make sure it didn't come at a savings? Clever salesmanship, indeed. And, we fell for it.
   We have an $18 trillion debt. Sooner or later, we should realize we have to scale back our government. When a chance comes to cut it back 17 percent, we should take it. Of course, it will only last a couple weeks, perhaps, but take what opportunity there is, run with it, and push to get a little bit of it to stick.
   Oh, and correct the mistakes made last time. One, was shutting down the national parks. Inasmuch as visitations to the parks brings tourist dollars to restaurants and gas stations and hotels near the parks, leave the parks open.
   But, don't spend a dime on them. Let local law enforcement officers step in to man the national parks.
   And, the people whose jobs are on the line? What about them? Do we simply let them go unemployed a couple weeks without any reimbursement? They have mortgages to pay, the same as the rest of us. Do we say, "Tough luck, buddy. Suck it up"?
   I wonder if we could place them in jobs. I would even like to think there are companies that would step in to employ them simply to be doing a service.
   We need to cut the size of our government. No, it isn't an easy thing. And, if the overwhelming majority of Americans find it horrendously unpalatable that we cut the size of our government by 17 percent for just a couple weeks, what hope have we?
   What hope do we ever have?
   We are addicted to our government. We complain and complain about our national debt, but when it comes time to make just a little inroad against it, then we shout and shout so loud, that I cannot help but wonder if we shouldn't be truer to the notion that something has to be done about the national debt.

What if We Were to Recall Cigarettes?

   Not enough, that warning label on cigarettes. Not enough at all, a friend told me. It is like placing a warning label on Charlie Manson.
   No other product would get away with this. If another product killed, it would be recalled, and wouldn't be returned to the market until it was made safe. So, that instead of merely placing labels on cigarettes 50 years ago, warning that they were dangerous to health, cigarettes should have been recalled.
   Now, there a thought. Recall them. What if we were to recall the current batch of cigarettes?

(Note: blog slightly altered 10/5/15, as I took my friend's first name out.)

50 Years ago, the Warning Labels Went on Cigarette Packages

   Fifty years ago, July 1, 1965, cigarette companies were forced to place labels on their cigarette packages, warning that the surgeon general had determined that cigarette smoking was dangerous to your health.
   Forty-two percent of America's adults smoked at that time. For whatever reason, what a dramatic decline there has been. By 2012, only 18 percent were smoking.

Consider Making Them Well-Dressed, and Well-Coiffed Prisoners

   If the dress of a man, and the hygiene, and the haircut and the looks of a man make a difference in his self esteem . . .
   If those things affect who we are . . .
   Then, this, too, should be used as a principle for correcting the prisoner. If we want to use every tool available to us, in reforming the criminal, then, perhaps, those orange suits should be reconsidered.
   Maybe keep them, maybe not. But, definitely consider going with more professional dress. A prison where everyone wears white shirts and ties? I don't know. Maybe.
   As for hygiene and a well-coiffed hairdo, yes.
   I heard today how a study showed prisoners receive better sentencing when their appearance is good. That shouldn't be. They should be sentenced according to their crime, not according to their looks.
   But, it got me thinking on how the prisoner, himself, might judge his own self by his looks

Tonight's Moon is a Wonder in the Heavens

   There have been a lot of red moons like the one tonight. That doesn't mean it isn't possibly the blood moon referred to in the Bible. Others? One came in 1503 and Columbus, perhaps knowing of it from his almanac, predicted it to the natives of Jamaica to get him out of a pinch.
   Is tonight's moon what was referred to in the Bible when it spoke of the moon turning to blood? Who knows. It is red. That's about all we know, as we consider whether it is the blood moon of the Bible.
   President Gordon B. Hinckley, prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which church I am of, once said the Bible passage that includes the blood moon prophecy has been fulfilled. Was he referring to other things in that passage, and not the blood moon? If he was referring to the blood moon, these red moons are one of the things he possibly could have been referring to, since they were around before he said the verses were fulfilled.
   Either way, though, whether these are the blood moons referred to in the Bible, the scriptures also speak of wonders in the heavens in the last days. Seems to me, this moon at least fits into that category.
    I looked at it at 1 in the morning. It had a red tinge on one side, a yellow hue next to it, and a blue tinge on the far side. I looked again at 4 a.m., and at first found no moon at all, and wondered if the eclipse has it hid. Then, it poked its head out of the clouds -- but was not red at all, but rather just a normal whitish moon.
 

Christopher Columbus and the Lunar Eclipse of 1503

   A lunar eclipse is upon us this night, so I bring you a story of one of the most famous lunar eclipses of all. It is famous because it was foretold by Christopher Columbus. If the Wikipedia historians from whence I got this story judged Columbus fairly, the story won't say much for Columbus' honesty, but it will speak to his cunning. 
   In 1503, Columbus' ships were grounded in Jamaica. The folks there greeted the newcomers, fed them, and treated them well -- only to have Columbus' sailors cheat and steal from them. So, understandably, the Jamaicans cut off the free food.
   Columbus, having an almanac with him, happened to read how a lunar eclipse was about to occur and used it to prophesy. He told the leader of the people his God was not pleased with them for cutting off the food, and that to show it, he would give a clear sign. The God would take the rising full moon and make it appear "inflamed with wrath."
   Apparently, Columbus' almanac told him it would be a red moon. Well, the red moon came out and then disappeared as Columbus prophesied, and the people screamed in horror and fear and ran to Columbus' with their food, begging for him to ask his God to pardon them. So, Columbus, knowing when the eclipse would end, told them they were, indeed, going to be forgiven. And, just as the moon began to come out from the shadow of the earth, Columbus told them his God had forgiven them.

If America is to be Pure, it Must Grieve at the Task of being at War

   When you go to war, you better go to war with a clean heart. If hate is your motive, or hate is in your cause, then it will mold you into a killer of men. Those who go to war, must be careful for their souls. They must not glory in the blood they spill, they must lament it, for, if they spill it any other way, they also spill the blood of Christ.
   So it seems to me.
   Oh, I stop and pause and think of a young Moses, who caught a slavemaster smiting a Hebrew. Moses looked this way, and then that way, and saw no one watching, so he killed the slavemaster, and buried him in the sand. Did Moses have anger in his heart and kill when a killing did not need to take place? Or did his killing of the slavemaster save the Hebrew? I like to think Moses killed the slavemaster as an act of love that saved the Hebrew from death. At any rate, I doubt Moses gloried in the death of the slavemaster.
   I do not know all. I may be wrong. Still, it seems to me hatred and war should not be mixed. They may seem natural companions, but that is the problem. They fit together so easily if you let them. Hatred of those you war with is natural, so guard against it.
   Hatred is the danger you must guard against if you go to war. If America is to be pure, if it is to be rightful in the words from its national anthem  ("When our cause it is just . . . "), then it must not revel in killing. It must grieve at the task of being at war.
   For those of you who are LDS, I think of the scripture in Alma 48, verse 23, saying:
   "Now, they were sorry to take up arms against the Lamanites, because they did not delight in the shedding of blood; yea, and this was not all -- they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God."