About rameumptom

Gerald (Rameumptom) Smith is a student of the gospel. Joining the Church of Jesus Christ when he was 16, he served a mission in Santa Cruz Bolivia (1978=1980). He is married to Ramona, has 3 stepchildren and 7 grandchildren. Retired Air Force (Aim High!). He has been on the Internet since 1986 when only colleges and military were online. Gerald has defended the gospel since the 1980s, and was on the first Latter-Day Saint email lists, including the late Bill Hamblin's Morm-Ant. Gerald has worked with FairMormon, More Good Foundation, LDS.Net and other pro-LDS online groups. He has blogged on the scriptures for over a decade at his site: Joel's Monastery (joelsmonastery.blogspot.com). He has the following degrees: AAS Computer Management, BS Resource Mgmt, MA Teaching/History. Gerald was the leader for the Tuskegee Alabama group, prior to it becoming a branch. He opened the door for missionary work to African Americans in Montgomery Alabama in the 1980s. He's served in two bishoprics, stake clerk, high council, HP group leader and several other callings over the years. While on his mission, he served as a counselor in a branch Relief Society presidency.

Rating the Candidates

My current views on the candidates (Republican and Democrat):

Rick Perry:  Paul Begala recently noted that the people who want Rick Perry for president are those that think George W. Bush is too cerebral.  Wednesday night’s debate again proved his theory correct.  For his extremism and inability to put two sentences together, he fails miserably.  I would not want him to sit in meetings with foreign leaders.  He would not have the respect of a Congress that would think him an illiterate buffoon.  Being a conservative is meaningless if you cannot express it intelligently.  Grade: F

Mitt Romney:  What some people call “flip flopping”, I consider as being pragmatic.  To effectively manage a liberal state with a liberal legislature would require a different pragmatism than to run as a national leader.  I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not want a leader who runs the nation exactly like he runs a state, as they are different.  Reagan was also pragmatic, and made some decisions that would seem liberal today.  Meanwhile, Romney exhibits oratory skill in the debates. He appears presidential.  He focuses on the economy and middle class, where he ought to.  While he is for bigger government than libertarians would like, he could and probably would get our economy back on target.  Grade: B+ Continue reading

End Federal Student Loan program?

In Wednesday night’s Republican debate, one question asked was regarding student loans.  This is one of the big complaints coming out of Occupy Everywhere: students wanting their loans paid off/forgiven.

Yet, we see how the loan program has poisoned the education system. It has allowed extreme increases in tuition, allowed students to study less (13 hours/week now versus 25 hours/week in 1960s),  allowed students to party more, and to extend their programs from a 4 year program to 6 or more years.  Or they borrow tens of thousands for a program that cannot provide them with a future job that can easily repay the loan (are you listening Harvard University Elizabethan Literature students?).

Not only that, but they obviously have time to rampage in the streets anytime their college sports team wins, loses, or has the coach fired (Penn St firing Paterno after the child molestation scandal).  We are raising a bunch of spoiled, rotten kids, who want everything handed to them on a silver platter – for free!

Neal McCluskey at CATO gives us his take on why we should end the federal student loan program. And I agree.

New Testament Gospel Doctrine lesson 44, 1-3 John

Lesson 44 is now online, covering the first epistle of John.  I discuss in detail some of the Gnostic and docetic heresies of the day, of which John was warning the congregations.  I also speak of a major heresy of Christianity today that relates to these ancient ones.

http://joelsmonastery.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-testament-gospel-doctrine-lesson-44.html

Read it there / Comment here!

 

Returning to American principles or collapse?

In the current Newsweek (Nov 7), Niall Ferguson denotes that Empires do not “decline” but rather crash precipitously.  The Roman Empire, Mongol Empire, Alexander the Great’s Empire, and the Soviet crashes did not occur over centuries, but within just a few years.  Often a combination of internal and external forces were involved, but invariably it almost always was caused by key flaws that turned the once robust empires into delicate dandelions to be blown away with the slightest of zephyrs.

We see the West in this situation today.  But Niall Ferguson maintains that the key components that formed a strong Western tradition since 1500 AD can again bring us back to the previous power we held.

Those key components, which he calls killer apps are:

  1. Competition. Europe was politically fragmented into multiple monarchies and republics, which were in turn internally divided into competing corporate entities, among them the ancestors of modern business corporations.
  2. The Scientific Revolution. All the major 17th-century breakthroughs in mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology happened in Western Europe.
  3. The Rule of Law and Representative Government. An optimal system of social and political order emerged in the English-speaking world, based on private-property rights and the representation of property owners in elected legislatures
  4. Modern Medicine. Nearly all the major 19th- and 20th-century breakthroughs in health care were made by Western Europeans and North Americans.
  5. The Consumer Society. The Industrial Revolution took place where there was both a supply of productivity-enhancing technologies and a demand for more, better, and cheaper goods, beginning with cotton garments.
  6. The Work Ethic. Westerners were the first people in the world to combine more extensive and intensive labor with higher savings rates, permitting sustained capital accumulation. Continue reading

The Holy Bible – White House edition

Press Secretary Jay Carney quotes the Bible, except that it isn’t in any standard Bibles….

Well, I believe the phrase from the Bible* is, “The Lord helps those who help themselves.” And I think the point the President is making is that we should — we have it within our capacity to do the things to help the American people.

http://www.politico.com/politico44/perm/1111/oh_lord_f5028e26-955c-48c3-9038-bab764ba97b4.html

 

Yeah, it is a gotcha, but he got himself in this instance.  Any other funny political statements that just are totally wrong?