The Proper Role of Government (sorry, its long)

A strange man that used to be in our ward and somehow got Tom's email address sent this to him and I couldn't help but pass it along. President Ezra Taft Benson (who was an extremely politically active man) gave a talk called, "The Proper Role of Government" when he was the Secretary of Agriculture (or soon thereafter). (he was simultaneously in the Quorum of the Twelve and The United States Cabinet) He brought up quite a few very interesting points which directly apply to the current government and its leader (as well as choices of many in the past too) You should read this talk if you get a chance, but here are a few of the points that stood out to me:

". . .A category of government activity which, today, not only requires the closest scrutiny, but which also poses a grave danger to our continued freedom, is the activity not within the proper sphere of government. No one has the authority to grant such powers, as welfare programs, schemes for redistributing the wealth, and activities which coerce people into acting in accordance with a prescribed code of social planning. There is one simple test. Do I as an individual have a right to use force upon my neighbor to accomplish this goal? If I do have such a right, then I may delegate that power to my government to exercise on my behalf. If I do not have that right as an individual, then I cannot delegate it to government, and I cannot ask my government to perform the act for me.
To be sure, there are times when this principle of the proper role of government is most annoying and inconvenient. If I could only force the ignorant to provide for themselves, or the selfish to be generous with their wealth! But if we permit government to manufacture its own authority out of thin air, and to create self-proclaimed powers not delegated to it by the people, then the creature exceeds the creator and becomes master. Beyond that point, where shall the line be drawn? Who is to say "this far, but no further?" What clear principle will stay the hand of government from reaching farther and yet farther into our daily lives? We shouldn't forget the wise words of President Grover Cleveland that "...though the people support the Government, the Government should not support the people."

Students of history know that no government in the history of mankind has ever created any wealth. People who work create wealth. Neither you nor I, would walk up and ring a man's doorbell, hold out a hand and say, "Give me what you've earned even though I have not." We simply wouldn't do it because we would be facing directly the violation of a moral law, "Thou shalt not steal."

Material gain and economic security simply cannot be guaranteed by any government. They are the result and reward of hard work and industrious production. Unless the people bake one loaf of bread for each citizen, the government cannot guarantee that each will have one loaf to eat. Constitutions can be written, laws can be passed and imperial decrees can be issued, but unless the bread is produced, it can never be distributed.

On the surface this may sound heartless and insensitive to the needs of those less fortunate individuals. . ."What about the lame, the sick and the destitute?" is an often voiced question. Most other countries in the world have attempted to use the power of government to meet this need. Yet, in every case, the improvement has been marginal at best and has resulted in the long run creating more misery, more poverty, and certainly less freedom than when government first stepped in.

I consider it a violation of the Constitution for the Federal Government to levy taxes for the support of state or local government; that no state or local government can accept funds from the Federal and remain independent in performing its functions, nor can the citizens exercise their rights of self-government under such conditions.

America was built upon a firm foundation and created over many years from the bottom up. Other nations, impatient to acquire equal abundance, security and pursuit of happiness, rush headlong into that final phase of construction without building adequate foundations or supporting pillars. Their efforts are futile. And, even in our country, there are those who think that, because we now have the good things in life, we can afford to dispense with the foundations which have made them possible.

AMEN!

EASTER

I have been trying to keep a letter for Porter telling him about each year of his life. (I'm off to a good start, but it isn't that hard with one child who is only one!) As I was working on it last night, I realized that however dull or insignificant my blog posts seem, they are invaluable to me in my record keeping and scrapbooking. So for now, I've decided to keep the blog, but probably just do one giant post a month to keep myself from worrying about posting or spending too much time on the computer. Which I confess, I am extremely guilty of between work, deal finding, and just the unnecessary "surfing". So I'm cutting back, but not stopping for now. Tom thinks I did this for attention, but really I'm just looking back at my New years Resolutions and trying to get perspective back in my life.

Easter was a wonderful holiday and we got some great pictures of Porter. On saturday after Tom got home from 4-wheeling, we decorated eggs. In my family this is quite an event because we each dye at least a dozen eggs for the egg fight. Porter didn't have a clue what was going on and wanted to throw his "ball" in the egg dye. Church was great followed by a crazy egg hunt and a good Easter dinner. I don't eat ham, so my mom also made a turkey which was delicious. Porter got to participate in the hunt this year, although I am not so sure he knew what was even going on. He was just happy to be outside running around. The kid would live outside if he could. Today he was bawling at the door wanting to go out in the pouring rain!

The Reign of Terror

Ok, so I know I said I was going to delete my blog, and I have a post I was working on with that explanation (mainly just easing off my internet usage) and I will post that later, but I couldn't resist sharing my horrible day.

Porter is quite a talented child.  Here are a few of his talents as of late:

Jumping off the bed (not falling, jumping)

Pillow fighting with Miko (which does include falling off the bed)

Climbing on the kitchen table (we have one of those high tables and I have no idea how he does it)

Opening doors (ahh!)

Jumping off the couch

Climbing the entertainment center

and finally. . .

Porter has mastered the stair stepper (yes, we have an old school stair stepper we got at the DI for $30.00.  We couldn't afford a treadmill and thought this might work for some of my workouts for a while)

He has figured out how to switch his weight back and forth to move the steps up and down and when he wants to get off, he puts both his feet onto one step and uses his weight (although there isn't much) to lower it all the way to the bottom and then he steps off.  

I do have some pictures but its getting late and I have to get back to my Gilmore Girls addiction (sick I know, and another addiction to work out but I'm almost done).

Lately. . .

I've been slacking on the pictures lately, but I've promised myself I'll take lots of easter pictures. I don't have much to report, just little tid bits that are of no real importance. I guess as a stay at home mom it is the little things that are exciting. This has been quite a good week.

We got back from a last minute trip to St. George with Joe and Carrie. It was really fun but definitely not long enough. It makes me so excited for summer. Thanks Bobbi for letting us stay at the St. George house!

In a period of 24hrs, Porter went off the bottle cold turkey (yes we found a sippy cup he likes and can use), he went back to sleeping 10-12 hours, and finally mastered the stairs. (which is a very important feat in our house) He is such a big kid now it makes me sad. Where did my little boy go?

I got my Mixbook book in the mail. It is an awesome photo book site that lets you upload digital scrapbooking stuff and then make the book there. (for me it's like taking the photoshop step out of the mix which makes my digital scrapbooking time much more efficient)

I got my Rite Aid and Walgreens rebate checks in the mail. I love it! I got some good deals on some things I acutally needed with some dang good rebates. I am not becoming the crazy coupon person, but I am loving saving money with coupons lately. Tom thinks I have an addiction to buying cereal. I can't help it when I see a deal because cereal gets expensive. I think we have like 12 extra boxes of cereal. Which I must confess, I don't really eat it so it will take him a long time to deplete my inventory.

And finally, I have decided to retire my blog and just keep my own little private one for chronicling purposes. (not sure if that is really a word, but it doesn't have a red line under it so I am going to say yes)

Swimsuits

Just an FYI for anyone who is interested.  A girl who went to highschool with me has started her own custom swimsuit business.  Her site is essentialswimwear.com.  Her suits look great and she is coming to my parent's house next Saturday to do measurements and show the fabrics and suits to anyone who is interested.  If you are, let me know and I'll send you the details.  

Park Playdate with a Little Political Commentary (Sorry, I can't help myself)

On Thursday we went to the park with as many of the LeBaron cousins that could be rounded up. Porter enjoyed every minute of it and following that child around can be quite exhausting. He is always so busy but honestly, the child cracks me up.

We have been working on animal sounds lately. We have cow, sheep, lion and snake down pat, but the others are a little confusing. Somehow, the dog makes the fish sound (as does the actual fish) and I can't for the life of me figure out how to correct that error. My triumph for the week is that Porter has crossed the eating barrier, we think. The other night he ate so much I was worried that he was going to puke.

Here's what we've been up to lately:

Swimming at the Lion's Club!

Porter wearing Gracie's PJ's after a bath at Nanny's

Sad that they are the same size when she is like a year and a half older than him.

In other news, in case you didn't already know, we are moving at the end of May!
Now forgive me for my next part, but I don't get to talk to very many people besides Porter. But this is my blog right? So stop reading now if you don't want my political yet somewhat religious commentary. My brother Justin told me that in priesthood last week the teacher said that there was a talk given in General Conference about 7 years ago concerning Seven Years of Feast and 7 Years of Famine. I started reading through some of the church talks around that time, and President Hinckley gave a talk in November 2001, right after September 11th called "The Times in Which We Live". There are no specific warnings, but he does say, "I do not know what the future holds. I do not wish to sound negative, but I wish to remind you of the warnings of scripture and the teachings of the prophets which we have had constantly before us. I cannot forget the great lesson of Pharaoh’s dream of the fat and lean kine and of the full and withered stalks of corn." Every morning when I turn on the news there is always more bad news. And to me, the most frightening thing of all is the fact that bills are being passed which are slowly turning our country into a socialist state without many people even realizing it.

Now I know that there are a lot of people out there that support the idea of socialism. I don't. It seems ideal to have everyone work for the good of everyone to share the wealth and have the government pay for everything etc., etc. In one of my classes in college, I wrote a paper about the United Order and the Law of Consecration. The attempts to live the law of consecration on this earth failed. And although the United Order is not the same as Socialism because it is a perfect law created by God and Socialism is far from perfect, it has a similar idea. I don't know, but I think if the church couldn't even live like this, certainly I don't think it would work very well in this world. The idea of heavily taxing everyone who makes over a certain amount of money doesn't work for me. I agree that the executives that got those huge bonuses shouldn't have gotten them, but now we are pretty much saying you only get to make as much money as the government wants you to. As my husband and my father both work in a small business, I do not support many of the ideas that are coming out of the government lately. But to me, I think that the President is using everything that is wrong in the United States right now to pass his agenda through. And people must either not realize it or they must support it. We don't want to call it socialism, but that is what our country is becoming. Now don't even get me started on the National Debt! The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of everyone else's money.

A Day at the Park and OCD

First off, I hate this weather. It is almost 60 degrees out but the wind is horrible!!!! It totally tricks you! Yesterday Porter and I decided to brave the wind and headed to the park. I have a feeling we will be spending all summer outside, which, if you take a look at my child, you would agree he definitely needs that sun! Lately I have been noticing that Porter is a little Obsessive Compulsive. He freaks out when anything is on his hands. Even in the tub, he splashed the water and then hated that there was water on his hands! He hates things like cheetos and cries when he realizes what they have left on his hands. He fell down at the park, but it didn't seem to phase him until he realized he had dirt on his hands. When he thinks there is something on his hands, he rubs them and scrapes them and scratches them. What? How does this even happen? I am like the furthest thing from a clean freak and my child is seriously OCD. Any suggestions from you parents out there? Is this at all normal?