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CanoeingLynx and PartridgeWalleye Rising

Honoring the pride of the Northland!  We serve to highlight our communities with honest reporting as progress is dependent on facts.  The Northland 

is rich with outdoor activities and beautiful landscapes found in few places around the world.  We respect the need to preserve our environment while 

also allowing for the sustainable incomes and livelihoods of our residents.  Both are needed and possible. . .

 

 

(Pictures by John Peyton, late Duluth artist)

 

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Strategic Insights - Managing by the Book

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This book shares the experiences of a manager of 30 years who has worked firsthand with employees at every step of the way.  It explains the many ways and processes needed to maximize performance with varying types of people, opposing unions, and boundless bureaucracy.

 

This manager has always maintained firsthand communication with employees, learning what motivates and demotivates him or her. 

 


Table of Contents

Political Ambitions Based on Money and Power

Political Ambitions Based on Money and Power

by Marvin Pirila

 

Our great country has now evolved from one of virtue to one of selfish interests.  Presidential races are won and lost by the vast sums of money the person possesses.  When is the last time a common person of great virtue won the presidency?  Reagan, Lincoln,..?  When was the last time a poor person won the presidency?

 

“…thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness [unjust gain]: and place such over them, to be rulers…” – Exodus 18:21.

 

President Obama promotes unjust gain by his policies of income redistribution.  TARP was just one of the ways the Obama administration filtered money to his supporters, leaving all taxpayers on the hook for their enormous failures.  One could also argue that Mr. Obama was not among the most able men to take the White House.

 

“The Utopian schemes of leveling [re-distribution of the wealth] and a community of goods [central ownership of the means of production and distribution], are as visionary and impractical as those which vest all property in the Crown.  [These ideas] are arbitrary, despotic, and, in our government, unconstitutional.  (William V. Wells, The Life and Public Services of Samuel Adams, 3 vols.  [Boston:  Little, Brown and Company, 1865], 1:154.)

 

Chosen Leaders must have Special Qualities

 

Samuel Adams said that “public officials should NOT be chosen if they are lacking in experience, training, proven virtue, and demonstrated wisdom.”  That being said, how did a junior legislator, who missed countless sessions, having only community organization experience, and questionable influences (Reverend Wright, William Ayers, ACORN, etc.) get elected?

 

“Politics are the divine science, after all.  How is it possible that any man should ever think of making it subservient to his own little passions and mean private interests?” (Quoted in Koch, The American Enlightenment, p. 189.)

 

President Obama’s healthcare plan was his own passion as shown by the numerous polls showing dissatisfaction with it.  This universal health care plan was just another device of income redistribution.  Remember the famous line by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, on March 10, 2010, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”  Is this acting responsibly as a politician?  The more people find out about it, and its costs, the less they like about it.

 

Obama’s private interests are obviously to seek green energies while restricting oil and gas drilling, as well as coal use.  The EPA is used to delay or kill all projects not involving green energy. 

 

Obama also believes the United States has played an unjustified role in policing the world playing it up as American aggression.  No president before him bowed or apologized to ruthless dictators around the world, for standing for democracy and human rights, against genocide, nuclear proliferation, and terrorism.  Like Syria, he would have us just sit still while thousands of people are ruthlessly murdered.

 

Israel no longer trusts our administration, and does not believe that the United States is with them as one Christian ally to another.  President Obama has mocked their stances, spoken out on behalf of their pronounced threats (Palestine), and has given the world no impression that we are with them in the event of war.  Abandoning Israel is tantamount to abandoning Christianity.

 

Natural Law

 

The U.S. Constitution is built on “natural law” and founded upon the principles of the bible.  Any legislation in violation of God’s Natural Law is at the serious detriment of society.  Obama is pro-choice rather than pro-life.  This stance is not Christian like and violates natural law.

 

All laws must be measured against God’s law to determine good from evil laws.  As Cicero described, “Therefore Law [of the Creator] is the distinction between things just and unjust, made in agreement with that primal and most ancient of all things, Nature; and in conformity to Nature’s standard are framed those human laws which inflict punishment upon the wicked and protect the good.  (Great Political Thinkers, p. 135).

 

The Founders believed in the necessity of building a highly moral and virtuous society.  The Founders wanted to lift mankind from the common depravity and chicanery of past civilizations, and to lay the foundation for a new kind of civilization built on the freedom for the individual and prosperity for the whole commonwealth.  For these reasons, the Founders built the Constitution on Natural Law.  Some of these Natural Laws include:

 

• Unalienable Rights
• Unalienable Duties
• Habeas Corpus
• Limited Government
• Separation of Powers
• Checks and Balances
• Self-Preservation
• Right to Contract
• Laws protecting the Family and the institution of Marriage
• Justice by Reparation
• Right to Bear Arms
• No Taxation without Representation

 

The American Constitution is firmly entrenched in Natural Law.  This is what Thomas Jefferson wrote about in the Declaration of Independence:  “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  The ACLU and atheists continue a successful campaign of wiping out religion from visibility and in speech, unwittingly leading everyone to a country of limited freedom.

 

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.  As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.  (Smyth, Writings of Benjamin Franklin, 9:569.)  George Washington said the American Constitution could survive only “so long there shall remain any virtue in the body of the people.”  (Saul K. Padover, ed., The Washington Papers, [New York:  Harper & Brothers, 1955], p. 244.)

 

Morality is identified with the Ten Commandments and obedience to the Creator’s mandate for “right conduct.”  “Public virtue” was identified by early Americans as a quality of human maturation of character and service closely tied to the Golden Rule.

 

“In a Republic, however, each man must somehow be persuaded to submerge his personal wants into the greater good of the whole.  This willingness of the individual to sacrifice his private interest for the good of the community – such patriotism or love of country – the eighteenth century termed public virtue…The eighteenth century mind was thoroughly convinced that a popularly based government “cannot be supported without virtue.”  (Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1176-1787 [Chapel Hill:  The University of North Carolina Press, 1969], p. 68.)

 

What has President Obama done to “submerge” his own personal wants in the name of the United States?  Rather than give in to his own desires, he is trying to move the masses to his line of thought [Socialism].

 

“…To suppose that any form of government will secure liberty or happiness without any virtue in the people, is a chimerical idea.  If there be sufficient virtue and intelligence in the community, it will be exercised in the selection of these men; so that we do not depend upon their virtue, or put confidence in our rulers, but in the people who are to choose them.  (Quoted in Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 5 vols.  [Philadelphia:  J.B. Lippincott Company, 1901], 3:536-27; emphasis added.)

 

The greatest question an American should ask themselves is not why Obama is president, but why did you vote for him or any other president?  If the voter is not taking the time to learn about every candidate, regardless of party, they have failed their duty as an American citizen.  They should be trying to match their values with that of our Founders, or of the Christian faith with strong moral values.  If you don’t require your leaders to be of good virtue, you have to ask yourself if you are yourself of good virtue.  Virtue is not magically found, it has to be earned and it has to be learned.  Virtue is not a permanent quality found in human nature.  To become virtuous one must continually exercise its traits from moment to moment and day to day.  The Founders looked to the home, the school, and the churches to fuel the fires of virtue from generation to generation.  Do your really think that Reverend Jeremiah Wright fueled virtue in Obama?  William Ayers?  George Soros?  ACORN?  Who are you learning virtue from and how are you maintaining it?

 

In his Farewell Address, George Washington declared:  “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensible supports…Let it simply be asked, where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?  And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion.  Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”  (Padover, The Washington Papers, pp. 318-19.)

 

Bill Maher, the ACLU, and atheists would have us throw out the religious principles upon which our great country was found, leading us to the left (Tyranny) or the right (Anarchy).  The famous in this country, particularly actors, actresses, singers, politicians, etc, with their most liberal beliefs, endanger our freedom when individuals do not research the facts themselves.  They [the famous] live life in vain with lots of money, partners, drugs, alcohol, and sinful self-indulgence.  What do they give back to the society they denounce and strip of its moral core?

 

While Bill Maher mocks Tebow and other Christians, outright claiming he is an atheist he donated $1 million dollars to Obama’s re-election fund.  Do you think Mr. Maher thinks Obama is a Christian?  A million dollars says otherwise.  John Locke (author of Essay Concerning Human Understanding) believed that a person who calls himself an “atheist” is merely confessing that he has never dealt with the issue of the Creator’s existence.  Locke felt that an atheist to that extent is “irrational,” and out of touch with reality; in fact, out of touch with the most important and fundamental reality.

 

Every now and then, we get a breath of fresh air, and the left and right cannot leave it alone.  I am talking about courageous followers of Christ like Tim Tebow (Denver Bronco’s Quarterback) and Jeremy Lin (New York Knicks guard).  It suddenly reminds the masses of their shortcomings, their need to do more to maintain and safeguard their virtue, and the enemies of virtue [Liberals].  Individuals need to do more than become momentary guards of virtue, and seek it at every instance.  Soon enough they are bombarded with the liberal media, political propaganda, reality television, Howard Stern wannabees, rag magazines (People, U.S. News, Time, Star, Enquirer), and the outlandish speeches of celebrities.  Celebrities, like Samuel Jackson, who says he only voted for Obama because he was black.  He did not vote for him because of his experience, his moral character, or his business experience – nope, that was all second to his skin color.  One celebrity after another has spoken of their ultra-liberal views, trying desperately to justify their own actions and unfounded belief system.

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