Bathroom Remodel

It ALL started out as a whim purchase: 

We love to visit the local estate sales, we get amazing finds like this mirror at great prices. This piece was a whopping $10.  We had a horrendous wall to wall piece of glass in a small half bathroom that I was not fond of and thought this would be an easy update to a bathroom I had no intention of redoing.  We had just finished a large redecorating project on our master bathroom, and had just begun our upstairs bath by placing shiplap on the vanity wall. Taking down the wall paper, texturing and painting the walls, upgrading fixtures and installing chair rail had taken over 6 months in our master bathroom and I wanted a break. 

The half bathroom is just 39 inches wide, not much more than a short hallway with no exit on either end. I didn't hate the wall paper, or the décor, it was okay and I could live with it, it was pretty but not too tacky!  What we didn't know would be the adventure beginning with the removal of the old mirror; AND discovering......the most horrifying fear of every homeowner: BLACK MOLD! So now the room I had no plans to do anything with would become the biggest remodel in our house to date.  We were beginning to wonder if we would ever get the house finished.  Deep Breath and S  I  G  H!  First step was to remove the infected wall board and determine where the mold was coming from, how far it had spread and what damage we were looking at.  I kept telling my husband, after we are done, we will realize a $10 mirror may have saved our lives.

  

At this point I need to add a little back ground. Our home was built in 1998, so at 20 years old it was fairly new, there were no major structural issues when we moved in. It is a story and a half with the upstairs bathroom right above the half bath.  The people who we bought the home from were older, and we think they did not use the upstairs very much so the upstairs bathroom was pretty much unused.  I think you can guess where this is going. We moved in with a family of 3 adults. Our daughter has her room upstairs and the upstairs bath became hers, which began to be used all the time. What started out as a minor issue before we moved in had in a few years matured into a disaster.

The waste line for the upstairs toilet ran right behind the wall in our half bath, and the PVC had been punctured in multiple places by negligent construction workers during the building of the house. The nails you see were left in place and were a minor contributor, but we also found actual holes that were leaking with each flush where the mirror we removed had been attached to the wall. The builders had not cared where the waste line was when putting up the mirror and drilled into the PVC for the mirror brackets.  Both top and bottom. We patched the holes and made sure there were no more leaks. Once we felt confident the damage had been stopped, we had to find out how much we were going to have to do the repair the room.    This lead to the project going to a nearly complete gutting of the room and remodel; new vanity, new faucet, new sink, new wall, new floor. 

The old vanity proved to be quite the quest to get out. The original plan was to rescue and reuse the vanity, so we attempted to carefully remove it in one piece.   After a lot of struggle and some discussion we decided that it would not come out in a single piece, so out came the sledgehammer. It proved to be very easy to remove in multiple pieces, however, that would mean we couldn't reuse it.  Once we got it out, we found the black mold had infected the vanity as well,  making it completely unusable and off to the landfill it went in pieces along with the huge wall mirror.   

In the meantime a concept needed to be devised for the new décor.  We couldn't keep the current wallpaper because the removal of the old moldy vanity had pulled a lot of it off the wall (plus the builder had not wall papered behind it). Now where does one start going from a fully decorated room to newly blank slate with a new décor idea needed. I came up with a few ideas but nothing really set the torch ablaze.  Until my daughter pointed to the Texas flag and said "could you use that as inspiration?"  From that point on the project became a labor of love.  YES, red, white and blue! I could jump on board and run with this inspiration! 

  

The quest for the replacement vanity was something I was actually looking forward to. After spending lots of time on-line getting ideas from Pinterest and trying to find what I saw there on the big box stores websites; I still couldn't find anything I really liked. The big box stores vanities were all cheaply made and overpriced.  After watching for many years lots (and I mean lots) of DIY shows in which a piece of furniture was converted to a vanity; I thought this would be a project I could get excited about, and bonus, our bathroom would be unique.  We found the piece of furniture I was looking for after only a couple of antique markets. I don't know if I was happy to have found the perfect vanity on the first day or if it would have been more exciting to have spent more time looking before I found the piece.  The shop owner didn't even have a price marked on it, we assume she never intended to sell the dry sink, so we got it for a steal after making her an offer.  It was not the correct color though, being a sage green and I wanted something different (red, white or blue). The dry sink needed to be cleaned, sanded, primed, painted and varnished.  This little dry sink needed to undergo a major transformation.

With the whole wall removed, we had another issue to deal with before we could install the new vanity.  

The plumbing didn't fit between the walls. The joint from the floor to the drain was more than 4 inches, which means it was wider than the 2X4's used for the studs.  I don't know why the builders didn't just apply furring strips to add an inch (which is what we did), instead they shaved the back side of the dry wall and cut a hole through it to accommodate the joint and hide it behind the vanity.  We also found the floor was not extended under the vanity, all we had was slab. I went to the local tile store and found the right tile; from the picture as you can see, I only needed about 6 tiles, but the tile shop didn't have any "in stock". Which meant ordering a whole box and paying minimum $100 extra just for shipping. Another plan needed to be devised.  Another issue was the PVC running along the floor behind the vanity; this is our dryer vent. it ran from behind the old vanity and out the wall on the right. This is still my nemesis.

At the same time the tiling and vanity colors and concepts kept floating around my head, My husband was trying to figure out the wall board and the mudding and taping and how to prevent anyone from ever putting holes into the repaired PVC drain. AND he kept saying I was trying to figure out things way ahead of him. I think I spent as much time trying to make the picture in my head a reality, than it took to do the actual work.  I would try to explain the concept to my husband, he still couldn't visualize the finished project; during the project in the master bath, he had learned to trust that I could make it great, so he did the work, while I sweated the details.

After we got the wall board up, he mudded and taped and put up a new light fixture. Then the old wallpaper had to come down. I figured out a pretty smooth technique, it was time consuming, but pretty thorough. I would get an edge or a corner free from the wall and with my fingers pull strips of wall paper down, sometime they were long and large strips, and many times they would be little tiny bits. This method of course left up a lot of wall paper paste, as the paper itself became separated from the paste. We came in after all the wallpaper was down and used water to moisten the paste and pull it down, usually within a matter of minutes a whole wall would be clear, right down to the wall board. There was nothing under the wall paper except the original wall board. If you look at the original mold picture you can see the builders didn't even paper behind the mirror. Then came texture and primer. We primed and painted the whole room white before adding the other colors.

So now we are back to the Texas flag.  The concept took many different profiles before I ended up with the final concept.  We would tile behind the vanity with white 6 inch tiles, and create a border in red 2 X 6 inch tiles, basically creating an alcove affect. This technique filled the empty space left by the missing tile and created a nice back drop for the vanity, which was painted a beautiful blue. The whole concept could have been wrapped up on the one side of the room. with the tile being white and red and the vanity being blue, I really didn't need to go any further.  But OH YES I DID go further.

 

This left the remaining walls to figure out, as you can see in the picture, I decided to leave the upper part of the wall white, and paint the lower half red. So then where do I put the blue color?  Do I paint one wall blue, one white, one red? Do I make a part of the room multi-colored with white and red horizontal stripes?  Conceptualizing the Texas Flag took a unique turn at this point. The Texas state flag is very much akin to the USA flag with a red stripe, a white stripe and a field of blue but with a single star. And the design took its most interesting turn yet.  I would do 3 walls like in the picture and one wall with a field of blue and a single white star.  But which wall?  I didn't really want to obscure the star with the mirror, so the wall above the sink wouldn't work. A long wall would be too much and a small wall not enough for what I wanted to do. This led to what I think was the unique part of the whole design. From the door back, and around the wall with the throne would be blue with a single star IN THE CORNER.

The fun part here was with the wall painted white, all we had to do was paint around the shape to create the star. Making the star would prove to be a far  easier project than my husband anticipated. Because it was in the corner, I only had to make half the outline and then flip it over to the other wall to make the second half identical.  Using some large paper left over from the previous occupant, I took the measurements from several points: from Top point to bottom leg, from top point to bottom crotch, and top point to crossbar. I measured the points from the Texas flag flying from our front porch and transferred them to the paper. It took me a couple of mis-starts to find the perfect place on the paper to make the template; once I got it cut out, I traced around it on the wall and put up the painter's tape.

From a plain white wall emerged the Texas Star.  

Seeing the completed image of the back wall made the whole project look  like it would be coming together just as I had foreseen. And then the holidays happened, and the project got put on hold for a   L   O   N   G   time. It wouldn't be until February that we could get back to it.  And this would prove  to be the most difficult and time consuming part.  The cutting of the vanity and the installation of the plumbing.  I know what you are thinking, tiling was probably not that simple, designing the star and putting in a new light fixture are not easy projects. I had confidence in my capabilities to do those projects, but I was dreading the cutting of the cabinet.  I could see how to do it in my head, but the actual measuring and cutting were a little daunting.

Remember in the beginning I told you we loved to go to estate sales. We were blessed with a lot of other great finds that we needed to do this project for amazing prices. We found a tile saw for $10, we got a table saw for $20, we got a reciprocating saw for $15, and a jigsaw for $8; and we used every single one of them for this bathroom remodel. We could no longer ignore the dryer vent crossing the room. Due to its location, it had to go through the cabinet, there is simply no other place to put the pipe. We couldn't redirect it without making major changes.  The dry sink was meant to be a stand alone piece of furniture, and now we had to cut out a big part of the support structure. 

The PVC pipe would not fit under the bottom shelf, and the water pipes and drain pipe were going to have to go through the middle shelf. Not to mention cutting out the back of the cabinet so it could sit up against the wall and allow the plumbing to be on the interior.  Even though we followed the old adage, measure twice and cut once, we still made some minor measurement errors and had to take the piece in and out to fit and then cut more and then fit and cut more. All in all the adjustments that needed to be made were pretty minor as you can see in this picture. My husband got a lot of exercise, and had some pretty sore muscles the next few days.  But after dozens of trips in with the cabinet and out again to shave off another inch or so, we got it against the wall.

We used the wood that we removed from the cabinet to accommodate the dryer vent to make a shelf to create a chase for it through the back of the cabinet. My husband was so excited to finally hook up the plumbing.  We did have to call in a plumber to make the drain connection water tight, but you can see here how it all came together inside the cabinet without losing a lot of the structure that makes the cabinet sound.  And the vanity is REAL wood, not that fiberboard MDF that the big box store vanities were all made from.  This will be around for a long time.  They just don't make stuff like they used to, we got our bathroom upgraded and it cost us about a third of the cost of the cheapest new model we were looking at.

We still had to finish the project. Getting the bathroom in working order was the first step, but now we had to make sure it looked nice and would disincentivize anyone from putting holes into the PVC drain ever again, even assuming they had no idea where it was in regards to the wall. A coworker asked if we had put up a metal plate behind the wall to prevent that in the future, but we were not aware of such a product until after we had the wall back up. It was not worth tearing it down again. So I placed shelves up against the wall to make it less likely of a repeat of the original mistake that led to the nightmare we found.  I was originally going to put a towel rack on the side of the vanity, but got one that was too big, so I ended up attaching the towel rack to the bottom of a shelf. I think it put the towels in a lot more accessible location for use. 

Adding shelves and decorations made our small bathroom look like I had originally envisioned.  I still have to devise someway of covering up the remaining PVC dryer vent line that is visible in the lower left corner. I think a piece of plywood covered with white tile may do the trick. And of course no bathroom is complete until the curtain is put up.  After the last election, we had to do something with our Trump flag. It became the perfect curtain, and the cherry on top of the cupcake.

The best part is: final touch can be seen from the front door.

 

Proclamation of great news

Ezekiel 33:7 "So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me."

The Lord called me back in 1985 to discern the wicked workings of the Devil and his minions. To call out warnings. To proclaim the preparation for battle. To speak the Word of YHWH. It is not my position to elaborate on or belabor the message given. I will proclaim the Lord's warning and allow the Holy Spirit to work out the meaning in your heart.
 

Justice for life? Maybe not.

"The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behavior, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services a Compensation which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office." US Constitution, Article 3, Section 1. http://www.usconstitution.net/xconst_A3Sec1.html


Now here is a good example of most citizens not knowing what the Constitution says. Justices are not appointed to the Supreme Court for life, nor for any lower court. It is simply not stated thus.

But it brings up a dilemma: because what in the world did our Founding Fathers mean by "good Behavior"? With so much discussion on what the 2nd Amendment means, shouldn't there be even more discussion on what constitutes "good behavior" in a judge?

So if a justice gets drunk and falls asleep during a State of the Union address, is that justice upholding a standard of good behavior befitting a justice of the Supreme Court of the United States?

Or does it mean that if a justice is ruling on how they wish the Constitution was written and not the actual language in the Constitution is that justice acting in "good behavior"? Is judicial activism unconstitutional behavior un-befitting a Supreme Court Justice?

And if the justice has used poor judgement and a President can use said behavior to hold a justice's decision hostage should the justice not be removed?

What is a life worth?

We live in a world that is living in squalor. Hatred and destruction are everywhere we look; from the Middle East where ISIS is destroying monuments, to the Southern United States, where the call is to exhume bodies of the “intolerant”, and erase all signs of our culture because of its perceived history.

We see the awful things happening around us, but don't want to admit that the reason things are so awful is because of us, and yet the simple truth is that we don't NEED to be awful. Human life is so valuable that Almighty God had to experience extreme suffering and torment of soul to show us a better path. Christianity has the solution, but the sinners in the world cannot see the simple truth.

Others religions, such as Islam, do not confer value upon human life. In fact, a video was making its way around the Internet in which a Muslim woman hoped her son would become a suicide bomber and take the very lives of the same Jewish people that had just saved his infant-life through a complicated surgery because the Muslim people do not regard human life.

In our own culture, the cult of abortion is removing the value from human life. By denying its very significance from conception, we are denying the merit of human life throughout the life span.

The current din coming from the homosexual crowd calling Christianity hateful is due to the simple fact that sinful people cannot separate their sin from their identity. It is easy to see when they continue to demand that we accept them as having been “born this way,” while denying that being born homosexual is contrary to their belief in the theory of natural selection.

For Christianity the world is clearly definable, sin is the nature of man, and yet man is redeemable. Man has greater worth and must somehow see that his sin is the monstrosity that is blinding himself to the truth; the Truth that they are truly priceless.

A eye-surgeon knows that removing the cataract will be a painful surgery with a lengthy recuperation, but the end product is worth the process. To leave someone blind and pitiful is cold-blooded, not the other way around. So in essence, despite the hue and cry that Christians are being mean for calling the world out on its sin, they are really trying to clear the mud away from the sinners eyes so he can see how truly valuable he is in the eyes of the Almighty Creator.

Naturally, Humanity is NOT gay!

Here is my take on gay lifestyle:

In the Middle East it is acceptable to screw animals: camels, sheep, goats and donkeys. The Muslim people see nothing wrong with this practice, but we think it is deplorable and not acceptable.

Here in the US, we have a population that thinks it is acceptable to screw a member of the same sex. The Muslims think it is deplorable and, in fact, will stone, or hang, or behead or throw the person from a high building to kill them.

But simply observe how the human body looks. The man has a penis, and the woman a vagina, and these two apparatuses fit together perfectly. This is the natural design of humanity. The design of the human body was naturally meant for the use of these body parts in this fashion, anything else could be considered unnatural.

So for a human to have sex with a member of the same sex is UNNATURAL.  I can see it, and even those who think homosexuality is okay can see it. It is not natural and I should not be made to claim that I do not have a problem with it.

Another take:

Today’s question is: Why does the world say that an unchosen sexual disposition isn’t changeable, but an unchosen gender is? http://www.moorematt.org/qa-series-why-does-the-world-say-that-an-unchosen-sexual-disposition-isnt-changeable-but-an-unchosen-gender-is-day-2/

Here the writer uses the terms unchosen to describe homosexual disposition. I agree it is a choice.... Here's why:

There is nothing natural about desiring a member of the same gender (see above). So when one begins to have those desires a choice is made....... to either accept the desires or to deny them
and choose to accept the natural choice. Only when you make the choice to accept same sex attraction as your predilection do you begin to act on it. The desires may be real or not (nothing has yet been determined psychologically), but the actions that lead to the homosexual lifestyle are clearly a CHOICE.

Homosexuality is not something we are born with....... but your gender is something you are born with.
The hypocrisy of demanding that we accept homosexuality as unchangeable and gender as changeable is laughable. Gender is natural, homosexual inclination is NOT natural.

If I can look at you, another human being, and say you are white, or black, or male or female.....but not say you are gay, then it is NOT NATURAL, it is not something you were born with. Demanding I say otherwise is simply being a bully.

What is tolerance?

WE are told that religion is the scourge of the world, that all conflict and hatred is bound up in man's inability to come to terms with everyone inherent worth and the desire to make others feel less moral than we.  Yet, in the world that we live, many claim the badge of tolerance and therefore they feel that they are morally superior. They accept everyone as they are, they make no judgement, they do not discriminate, they love everyone. EXCEPT.......

They really don't.

There are many examples of this:

• Sarah Palin and her Down's Syndrome son Trig have been attacked mercilessly by the left using terns that they themselves say are hateful (ie. C**t, Retard, Imbecile, Batshit Crazy, Bit*h, etc)
• Rush Limbaugh is a large target because he isn't afraid to tell the truth about what is going on in Washington DC and he must be stopped, even if they need to tell lies about him to get his voice off the air.
• The TEA Party movement is called traitors and terrorists, because they simply want the size of government to shrink, they want American citizens to be responsible citizens, they want illegal aliens to not be given handout that have been paid for by the Americans who are now being told they will never see any benefits from their years of sacrifice.
• The military are ridiculed by those who have never offered a single eyelash to defend our way of life, nor protect another human life (and that includes pre-born life).

One begins to wonder how those so intolerant of so much can call themselves tolerant?

Because the term does not mean what it originally meant.  Dictionary.com defines tolerance as: 

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, beliefs, practices, racial or ethnic origins, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions, beliefs, and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.

But as we are now seeing, there is very little acceptance of opinions that differ from one's own.
Instead the term has been redefined (a well-used tactic of the left) to mean the complete opposite of its original meaning.  The self-righteous left is now using this term to mean ..........................................

The intolerance of intolerance.

Let that sink in............... Instead of demanding that other's be respected for their inherent worth, we are told that some people are to be more respected and many people are to be disrespected because they supposedly are disrespecting others.  The Moral High Ground is to hate others because they hate.


Doesn't this sound a little like two wrongs being used to try to make right?

I, being a self-righteous elitist get to define who the haters are and then I get to hate them, and not simply with hate, but with

HATE!!!  









The world  has become a more dangerous place because Tolerance has reared its ugly head in our world.  When those who like to feel that they love everyone, that they are accepting of others', and non-judgemental become the arbiters of the terminology this is the ugly turn it can take. Now Hating has become okay as long as you are hating those who you believe, even without cause, are hating.

Those who claim to speak for the oppressed have now become the oppressors by trying to remove the voice of those they disagree with. It isn't even about helping the oppressed anymore, it has become about: hurting and destroying anyone who thinks differently than you.


Tolerance = Bigotry    How do we un-weave this tangled web of lies and deceit?

A shout out to Alfonzo Rachel for clarifying this for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hoU1lMxZqU&feature=youtu.be

Hierarchy of Significance

Atheists Borrow from Christian Doctrine

Evolution borrows Christian Dogma

If evolution is the path through which life, and indeed human life, resides on this planet than there are many problems with how humanity is treated.

Evolution teaches that man is nothing more than an animal. It resides at the top of the food chain simply because it has become intelligent by means of natural selection. Evolutionists believe that man is a product of the earth, and a product of the universe, that there is nothing inherently majestic or special about human beings in the cosmos.

If man is no different that the animals, than his access to the resources of the planet should be no more restricted than an ant, or a duck.  As the animals all have equal access to the resources of the planet, than man being nothing more than an animal should also have the same access without restrictions.  There is no evolutionary reason for man to not build whatever he wishes where ever he wishes anytime he wishes. No reason for an animal to restrict  its use of the resources of the planet that spawned its very existence.

Environmentalists want man to be restricted from using some resources because it "harms" the environment. That is not logical, because if man was made from the same materials as the earth was made, than by not allowing him free use of all the resources is the same as genocide, and has potential to lead to extinction of the species.  In theory the planet spawned all life spontaneously, than all life can be said to be a product of the planet, and human use of the planet is no different than a plant using decayed waste as a nutrition source. So where did the idea come from that man is the master of the planet and needs to care for the environment?

The idea that man is higher than the animals, and that he needs to subdue the planet and be its steward comes from the Bible. Many environmentalist and atheists are borrowing from Christianity to make their claim.  The only possible reason for man to be restricted from complete access to Earth in its entirety is because the Bible teaches that man was made higher than all other animals and was commanded to rule over the whole planet and cultivate it.

So there is absolutely zero evolutionary reason for man to not:

Drill oil in the Gulf of Mexico
Cut down forests
Build in wetland areas
Burn coal and fill the skies with smoke
Ignore a minor temperature change
Create chemicals that kill insects
Put animals in cages
Use animals for experimental purposes
Drive massive vehicles
Create antibiotics that kill pathogens
Have intercourse with animals
Fish, hunt, or destroy other species, even to the point of extinction
Clone, or genetically modify any life form
Enslave other races, genders, species



No evolutionary reason at all!


The only argument that man should not do these things is because the earth was created perfect and man was put in charge of taking care of the planet by the Creator of the planet.  Your welcome!

Debt Payback Plan

An equitable and fair solution to the national debt issue.

Currently the National debt per citizen is equal to $56,634 and climbing, www.usdebtclock.org. This includes men, women, and children. Unfortunately is does not include illegal residents.  Every single living, breathing person in this country owes a whole lot of money that eventually must be paid back. But we keep on spending and borrowing to pay for our spending, this is a problem that will not go away. But I do see a solution on how to bring down the national debt.

The first step is, of course, to stop the profligate spending. We need a balanced budget, no more borrowing to pay for things we cannot afford. And I am not talking about cutting the "growth of spending" for the future and calling it a tax cut. We deserve a balanced budget, we demand a government that is responsible with the taxes we give them.  It is estimated that over $850B per year is channeled through the welfare system, this is larger than the GNP of some countries, and unsustainable.  So step #1 is a Balanced Budget, and make in an Amendment to the Constitution, so it will be harder to ignore.

The second step is to devise a fair way of paying off the debt we have already accrued, which stands at $18T, as of this writing.  The only fair way to do it is to make everyone, including non-citizens, pay back their portion of the debt, the $56,634 mentioned earlier.  I know that sounds harsh but here is how we do it.

1. We are not unfair misogynists, we do realize that there are some people who cannot work to pay off their portion, but there will be only a few exemptions. My list includes anyone under 18 (until they turn 18 and then they begin paying back), anyone who is not physically capable of meeting their own basic care needs, elderly, infirmed, those confined to wheel chairs, and the severely mentally handicapped.  I believe everyone else needs to provide some measure of work to pay back their debt.  The majority can do something, even if it is just a couple hours a day washing dishes or greeting people at the door. Even a paraplegic can use a grabber to pick up trash along the roadside or in parks.

All the taxes they pay into the system go to decreasing the debt. This will require many years of hard work and labor for most Americans, including the illegals.

2.  So the second step is to inform all residents, citizens, resident aliens and illegals that they will be required to take part in paying back the national debt. As a condition of living and working here in the United States, you and your family assume responsibility for the debt that has accrued.  I can almost guarantee a mass exodus of people from the country if this would be included in any Amnesty law.  All the Muslims that have found refugee status here will also not be exempt. If our money is good enough to pay for your daily expenses, then you will be required to invest in the future of the country.

3. The fair part comes in now, because everyone will have their previous contributions to the tax base considered as paying their share of the debt.  So the senior citizen that paid into the system their whole life, will have their taxes for their whole life deducted from the debt they owe. This will mean that most will have already paid their portion off, leaving them debt-free to live out the rest of their lives.  For decades the Social Security Trust Fund has been used as a slush fund for increased spending, and not set aside, as it was established, for the funding of the Social Security Program. This means that most of the people who have paid into the fund over the years will see nothing for their contribution to the Trust Fund. Unfair instance #1.

For decades the hard working American laborer has paid their taxes, and taken little, or nothing, in benefits out, and will still be straddled with the huge debt our citizens owe. Unfair Instance #2. And if you were to include as their contributions the taxes they have paid into the system, their debt would be paid off or almost paid off.

Let me lay this out with an example:  A family of 4 will have a debt of  $226,536 ( almost a quarter of a million dollars).  The children under 18 will not have their income included because their debt will be paid off after they turn 18 so $113,268 will be their current obligation.  With a household income at the median income $52,250 (www.deptofnumbers.com/income/us) and a tax rate of approximately 25% (www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/10/31/irs-announces-2014-tax-brackets-standard-deduction-amounts-and-more)  would pay $13,000 into the government per year. Meaning they would have their debt paid off in less than 10 years.

 This does however leave a rather sizable portion of the population that will owe a great deal of taxes and will need to find ways to pay that debt back. Those with a larger family will have more debt to pay back. Those who have not made any contributions to the system will have a larger burden to pay back. 

Before you think the rich are getting off, after all they have paid into the tax base for decades, in exceedingly larger amounts over the years, so their portion of the debt could already be considered to be paid back. But we will still have a government to run, the taxes the rich pay into the system will be used to contribute to the current running of the system. But remember we will have a Balance Budget and the only funding available for the running of the government will be the money the rich will be paying into the system going into the future.  That of course means the budget will be much lower than it is today, because the available tax base will be smaller as the majority will be paying into the system to pay back the national debt.

I know this will mean that the poor will have to find a job and start paying taxes. This is not heartless, as some may contend, this is what is right and fair for the whole population, we have subsidized the poor for decades and the problem has not gotten any better, in fact, we have grown the population that contribute nothing and receive assistance from the government. The time to pay back is upon us, we can no longer afford to borrow against our future.

Chrislam: is it possible? Updated

Many people claim that Christians and Muslims worship the same God. There is even a sect in Africa that merges the 2 great world religions into one, they call it Chrislam, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrislam.
There are many more intelligent and studious ministers that have debunked this religion and who have used lots of outside resources to convey their message.  I wish to use only 1 quote from the Quran and 1 quote from the Bible to ask my question: is it even possible? The common ground that we share is the idea that only one God exists, Allah or the Creator God. From here the religions depart unity.

Here is why:

Christians say that God makes Himself manifest in three distinct personalities. Many people have a problem with this concept, including Muslims. And yet they have no problem seeing themselves as having many different roles to play, for many they are parent, child, and employee all in one person. Much like our Creator, as Father he rules over all, like the son he serves the Father, and like the Holy Spirit he does the work;  we also have different functions to perform for the situation.
As the son Jesus, God tells us:
He (Jesus) is revealing his true nature, He calls Himself the truth. John 4:16 "Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. Nobody comes to the Father except through me." The purpose of Jesus life was to reconcile God with the humanity that He had created by telling humanity the Truth of His nature and show them the way to eternal life.

When Allah spoke through the angel who thus translated the message to Mohammad, the quote is:

He (Allah) is revealing his true nature, he calls himself the "Great Deceiver".  By what means does someone get to call himself the "greatest" of deceivers? Obviously, by deceiving the largest number of people. The Muslim people claim that the Christians have been deceived, but the great deceiver did not speak to the Christians, it is not them that he has deceived.


This is where the two great world religions depart from each other. There simply cannot exist a religion in which the same deity claims to be the "Truth" while claiming to also be the "Great Deceiver." The claims are simply not compatible, and to make the statement that they are the same being is not logical.

So is Chrislam even possible?

Just a simple comparison that a third grader could think up, the idea that Allah and God the Father could ever be considered equivalents becomes a nonsensical statement. One came to bring the Truth, the other to deceive. It is all black and white, so to speak.

Update:

 When Allah says to his people "Allah is the greatest of deceivers" he is saying my words are used to deceive you. But I ask, it is those who do not believe your words, or those who do believe your words who are the people you are deceiving?  Allah is telling his followers that he is lying to them, and yet they still believe him.

Does government aid increase bigotry?

Many people believe that because we claim to live in a Christian nation, then the government should be responsible for tending to the poor.  Is this really what Jesus meant when he said we need to "care for the least of these?"

Lets start by defining the least of these. Who could we classify at the least among us? For many the poor would be considered, and indeed Jesus did speak about the poor much (see Luke 11:41; Mark 14:7; Luke 6:20) but were there others that could be considered "least" among us? (Matthew 11:11; 1 Cor 15:9; Luke 9:48) It would seem to mean anyone who does not have a leadership role, for many that would include more than just the poor, the in-firmed, the down-trodden. Our American definition includes anyone who cannot take care of themselves, the disabled, the mentally handicapped, fatherless, widows, elderly and unemployed.

But is sending these people to a government agency really "caring" for them?  Or did Jesus mean something else when He commanded us to "care" for them?  Caring, by definition includes, "to watch over; be responsible for" http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/caring?s=t. This means that we are to be personally involved in caring for them. We have instead set up a system of cold, sterile, and unfeeling agencies that the "least" among us must traverse; usually without assistance by the people who make a big deal about caring for them. But does sending them to the government release us from our personal responsibility to care for them?

For many people, raising taxes to set up government agencies to assist the poor is the only responsibility they feel to them. "I pay taxes that go to the poor, so I don't have to do anything else," has become an unfortunate reality in our world.  We feel good about ourselves because the fatherless are not hungry, the disabled get health care, the elderly are not left alone, and the unemployed are not starving. But is this really caring for them? Or is this simply removing them from our hearts? Do we feel personally responsible, or do we just want to get rid of them?

Are we telling them, "Here is your money, now get out of my sight." Instead of feeding them from our own table, we send them to the nearest food pantry or shelter. Instead of offering to see to the upbringing of the fatherless children we send them to daycare and let the gangs raise them. Instead of bringing them into our homes, we send them to the overcrowded shelters. Instead of giving them a job, we give them some money and send them out to find something themselves. Removing the personal responsibility of caring for the "least of these" and instead pushing them away into a cold unfeeling government maze only increases our own bigotry.

We feel that because we pay our taxes we have done our good deed for them. But instead the process that has been put in place actually makes them feel unattached from society, entitled to what they did not earn, and ungrateful. And who can blame them for being ungrateful when those who claim to "care" about them are so unempathetic towards them? The unfortunate side effect of our so called "Christian" government aid system is less compassion and actually more bigotry.

The new Overseers

I may be beating a dead horse.....but...... During a debate, the comment came up that empowering of the black people is not something any government program can do, it is something that blacks need to do for themselves; but that every time someone rises up to defend and empower blacks they end up dead. If it is true that every time a black leader rises up to empower the black population that person ends up dead......then what can be said about the Reverands Al and Jesse? These two are very much alive, they have become wealthy influential men in the black community, trusted by most blacks, but are they empowering the black community? Here is what I think of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson:

History, during the time of negro enslavement, leads to the conclusion that some of the worse treatment to black slaves was from black overseers. The white family couldn't be in the fields all the time, so they hired "trusted" blacks to see to it that the work got done, by whatever means necessary, including violent punitive action. The overseers were meant to keep the slaves under the thumb of the plantation owner, to keep them under control; he was meant to keep the slaves busy, never giving them time to foment a rebellion, to realize that they outnumbered the owners, and that the slaves had the power to control their own destiny; which they could have realized through education. In fact when some of the white abolitionists tried to educate blacks, by teaching them to read and/or write, they were turned in by black overseers.

The overseers were not above using whips and starvation to keep the slaves in line, placid, and uneducated. Basically the black overseers were meant to KEEP the slaves enslaved. Al and Jesse are the "trusted" blacks, nothing more than overseers, meant to continue the enslavement of the black community. And any black who doesn't toe the line will be, by force if necessary, brought back into line. This is the reason Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Mia Love, Tim Scott, Alan West, Thomas Sowell, and many other conservative blacks have taken such a beating; the overseers are not doing their job and are letting some blacks become too "uppity" as LBJ said.

Climate Change from a Climate Change Scientist turned Skeptic

The science is not settled on this matter. If the predictions of the climate models was correct, then we would be seeing the obvious effects of global warming already, but still no islands have sunk, and the icecaps have not melted. There is 30 years of data to prove that none of it has happened as predicted.

The Obama's surrender their Law Licenses

About a year ago, the liberal left unionistas made a list of all the supposed lies told by Governor Scott Walker in the course of his campaign for Governor. But their list had no source material. So I am copying this from another blogger to show how a list of lies should be presented, WITH the source material. The following is a small list of the flaws and illegal activities carried out by our president and his wife, not simply made up allegations.

BY David Herold

I am reposting for those who have missed it.
FORMER LAWYERS?
I knew they had both lost their law license, but I didn't know why until I read this.
This is 100% legit. I check it out at https://www.iardc.org/ Stands for Illinois Attorney Registration And Disciplinary Committee. It's the official arm of lawyer discipline in Illinois ; and they are very strict. (Talk about irony.) Even I, at the advanced age of almost 65, maintain (at the cost of approximately $600/year) my law license that I worked so hard and long to earn.
Big surprise.
Former Constitutional Law Lecturer and U.S. President Makes Up Constitutional Quotes During State Of The Union (SOTU) Address.
Consider this:
1. President Barack Obama, former editor of the Harvard Law Review, is no longer a "lawyer". He surrendered his license back in 2008 in order to escape charges he lied on his bar application. A "Voluntary Surrender" is not something where you decide "Gee, a license is not really something I need anymore, is it?" and forget to renew your license. No, a "Voluntary Surrender" is something you do when you've been accused of something, and you 'voluntarily surrender" your license five seconds before the state suspends you.
2 Michelle Obama "voluntarily surrendered" her law license in 1993. after a Federal Judge gave her the choice between surrendering her license or standing trial for Insurance fraud!
3. Facts.Source: http://jdlong.wordpress.com/2009/05/15/pres-barack-obama-editor-of-the-Harvard-law-review-has-no-law-license/
4. A senior lecturer is one thing, a fully ranked law professor is another. Barack Obama was NOT a Constitutional Law Professor at the University of Chicago .
5. The University of Chicago released a statement in March 2008 saying Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) "served as a professor" in the law school-but that is a title Obama, who taught courses there part-time, never held, a spokesman for the school confirmed in 2008.
6. "He did not hold the title of Professor of Law," said Marsha Ferziger Nagorsky, an Assistant Dean for Communications and Lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago School of Law.
Source: http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/03/sweet_obama_did_hold_the_title.html ;
7. The former Constitutional Senior Lecturer (Obama) cited the U.S. Constitution the other night during his State of the Union Address. Unfortunately, the quote he cited was from the Declaration of Independence … not the Constitution.
8. The B-Cast posted the video: http://www.breitbart.tv/did-obama-confuse-the-constitution-with-the-declaration-of-independence/
9. Free Republic : In the State of the Union Address, President Obama said: "We find unity in our incredible diversity, drawing on the promise enshrined in our Constitution: the notion that we are all created equal.
10. Um, wrong citing, wrong founding document there Champ, I mean Mr. President. By the way, the promises are not a notion, our founders named them unalienable rights. The document is our Declaration of Independence and it reads:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
11. And this is the same guy who lectured the Supreme Court moments later in the same speech?
When you are a phony it's hard to keep facts straight. Keep this moving — educate others

IRS doesn't know what income is

Fourth Tri-mester abortion is illegal!

Who knew! Not these young Americans.



So why would anyone think that Fourth Tri-mester abortion should be legalized, can anyone give me a decent explanation?

Natural Born Citizen defined by Barack Obama

This video proves that Obama himself knows that he is not eligible to serve as President. He is illegally occupying the office and We the People need to remove him, forthwith.

High Treason Defined, Take Action!

Borrowed:

1ST AMENDMENT CITIZEN’S LIEN AGAINST TREASON
Consequence of filing under 18 USC § 4

Any Judge, Attorney and/or other court officer using the Court system acting under the Color of Law who violates his/her required Oath to support the Constitution for the United States of America is violating the Soldiers Oath to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and Domestic; thus is committing Rebellion and Insurrection against the Authority of the United States, which Authority is the Constitution, therefore the Judge, Attorney and/or other court officer is committing Treason.

5 USC § 3331. Oath of office

An individual, except the President, elected or appointed to an office of honor or profit in the civil service or uniformed services, shall take the following oath:

“I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

This section does not affect other oaths required by law.

US Supreme Court justices take two oaths of office. The first, a Constitutional Oath mandated by Article VI of the Constitution and 5 USC § 3331 (federal law), is sworn by all federal employees except the President:

"I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God."

The second, the Judicial Oath of Office, originated with the Judiciary Act of 1789 and continues as a requirement under 28 USC § 453, but was amended slightly in 1990:

"I, _________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent upon me as _________ under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.

18 USC § 2381 - Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

18 USC § 2382 - Misprision of treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States and having knowledge of the commission of any treason against them, conceals and does not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President or to some judge of the United States, or to the governor or to some judge or justice of a particular State, is guilty of misprision of treason and shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than seven years, or both.

18 USC § 2383 - Rebellion or insurrection
Whoever incites, sets on foot, assists, or engages in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, or gives aid or comfort thereto, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.

The Constitutional Criminal Complaint process we utilize is the Citizen’s first Amendment right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a Redress of grievances.

Judges and/or US Prosecuting Attorneys in any court system cannot Lawfully attack our LIENS AGAINST TREASON, which any Citizen files against Federal Judges, US Prosecuting Attorneys, Federal Agents, State and Local Public officials because of these Public officials violation of their required Constitutional Oath for the Constitution of the United states of America, without shutting down the Selective Service of the Military.

Our Liens are more specifically called: Consensual Public Commercial Liens against Treason.