Bunnies in the pot.This morning I watched an interview with the retired CEO of Shell Oil in which he was asked about the BP mess in the Gulf. His comments carried weight, IMHO, because he has no dog in this fight.
He said when he was with Shell they did not see the govt. regulatory agencies as the opposition, but as a necessary ingredient in the mix. He said BP and the other companies involved have clearly made serious mistakes and bear some culpability. When asked if the Congressional hearings were helpful he said they were helpful for Congress but not for dealing with the problems at hand. That is, they make good politics but little else. He said he'd been a participant in similar hearings where he had to respond to a memo he had never seen before it was read to him, and that it was unfair and unproductive.
The Kia may be demon possessed. Three times I clicked the remote to unlock it and three times it re-locked itself. Two of those times I did not have the remote clicker in my hand; it was back inside in the cabinet where I keep my keys. (I unlocked it from inside the house and then walked out to open the door.) Do cell phones ever activate car door locks? 'cause that's the only explanation I could come up with.
“Government is the problem, not the solution.” - Ronald Reagan
Except that quote is more than a little misleading. What he said was,
“In this present crisis, government is the problem, not the solution.”
The quote comes from his first inaugural address and refers to the condition of the U.S. coming out of the Carter presidency, at least as he perceived it. Reagan campaigned against what he saw as the intrusive and expensive plans of the Democratic party that were counterproductive to prosperity for the average citizen.
It should be pretty obvious that Reagan didn’t think government was a problem or he wouldn’t have run for President, a government position.
If government is the problem then anarchy is the solution. (Somalia is lovely this time of year.) There’s also the issue of biblical passages like Gen. 9 and Rom. 13 where God lays out the necessary role of government and the believer’s submission to governmental authorities.
If I’m ever the victim of a crime I want law enforcement to do what they can to catch the bad guy(s). I want the stop lights to work and the roads to be maintained. I want the military to protect us from international dangers and agencies like the SEC to protect us from lying and crooked bankers. (OK, that one may be a little more than the govt. can pull of at this point.)
I don’t want them telling me where I can or can’t live, invading my privacy (unless they can demonstrate it’s necessary to protect me or others), or restricting my freedom to worship. Drawing and defining these lines is an ongoing challenge, especially in a world changing as rapidly as ours. Vigilance is necessary lest an overreaching government butt in where they don’t belong. (See: Reagan quote above. It’ll happen from time to time.) But identifying government as the enemy is neither accurate nor biblical. It is extremist, polarizing and inflammatory.
Thank you, God, for giving us a very stable government. Give us the wisdom to be good citizens in a democracy where we bear ultimate responsibility for what happens and to be submissive as your Word requires.
He said when he was with Shell they did not see the govt. regulatory agencies as the opposition, but as a necessary ingredient in the mix. He said BP and the other companies involved have clearly made serious mistakes and bear some culpability. When asked if the Congressional hearings were helpful he said they were helpful for Congress but not for dealing with the problems at hand. That is, they make good politics but little else. He said he'd been a participant in similar hearings where he had to respond to a memo he had never seen before it was read to him, and that it was unfair and unproductive.
The Kia may be demon possessed. Three times I clicked the remote to unlock it and three times it re-locked itself. Two of those times I did not have the remote clicker in my hand; it was back inside in the cabinet where I keep my keys. (I unlocked it from inside the house and then walked out to open the door.) Do cell phones ever activate car door locks? 'cause that's the only explanation I could come up with.
“Government is the problem, not the solution.” - Ronald Reagan
Except that quote is more than a little misleading. What he said was,
“In this present crisis, government is the problem, not the solution.”
The quote comes from his first inaugural address and refers to the condition of the U.S. coming out of the Carter presidency, at least as he perceived it. Reagan campaigned against what he saw as the intrusive and expensive plans of the Democratic party that were counterproductive to prosperity for the average citizen.
It should be pretty obvious that Reagan didn’t think government was a problem or he wouldn’t have run for President, a government position.
If government is the problem then anarchy is the solution. (Somalia is lovely this time of year.) There’s also the issue of biblical passages like Gen. 9 and Rom. 13 where God lays out the necessary role of government and the believer’s submission to governmental authorities.
If I’m ever the victim of a crime I want law enforcement to do what they can to catch the bad guy(s). I want the stop lights to work and the roads to be maintained. I want the military to protect us from international dangers and agencies like the SEC to protect us from lying and crooked bankers. (OK, that one may be a little more than the govt. can pull of at this point.)
I don’t want them telling me where I can or can’t live, invading my privacy (unless they can demonstrate it’s necessary to protect me or others), or restricting my freedom to worship. Drawing and defining these lines is an ongoing challenge, especially in a world changing as rapidly as ours. Vigilance is necessary lest an overreaching government butt in where they don’t belong. (See: Reagan quote above. It’ll happen from time to time.) But identifying government as the enemy is neither accurate nor biblical. It is extremist, polarizing and inflammatory.
Thank you, God, for giving us a very stable government. Give us the wisdom to be good citizens in a democracy where we bear ultimate responsibility for what happens and to be submissive as your Word requires.
3 comments:
The Kia doors lock again if you don't get to it within a certain time after clicking unlock. You gotta move faster, old man! :)
Who knew?? Seems a little weird to me, but now that I'm enlightened I'll make sure to sprint out there.
Thank you!
Certain years of Lexus re-lock after a brief period of time if you don't open the driver's door, even if you opened one of the three passenger doors. It is a pain.
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