I'm in heaven! No, no, no, this isn't a message from the other side, I'm speaking metaphorically. I'm just reflecting on the last couple of days with my family. On Thursday I arrived in Provo and held my granddaughter Claire for the first time. What a thrill! She is so precious and so beautiful, perfect in every way. And then Friday I was found in the temple, with Lindsay as she received the endowment. It was a time of wonderment for her and I think a great fulfilling. This is heaven on earth for me--an expanding family, and every one of my children worthy to enter the temple and partake of the great blessings which it holds.

A Terrific Read

I came across a book written a couple of years ago, titled "Financial Armageddon, The Corruption of our Currency", by David Draughon. It has brought great clarity to my thinking with regard to the current financial crisis enveloping our nation. Many of the things which are influencing us are described in layman's terms, such as deficit spending, the gold standard, the Federal Reserve, fiat money, and the root cause of inflation. I highly recommend it. Here are a few quotes:

…the housing market is on the cusp of imploding. –David Draughon, 2006

[Ezra Taft Benson] said that if our nation’s current economic crisis is not resolved, our country will enter a depression that makes the one in the twenties and thirties look like prosperity.

By spending more than is in the treasury and then merely printing extra money to make up the difference…technically … is called ‘deficit spending’. Ethically, it is counterfeiting. Morally it is wrong. –Ezra Taft Benson

I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country…no longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and a vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. –President Woodrow Wilson, reminiscing about the manipulations of the Federal Reserve

The very beginning of our troubles can be traced to the day when the federal government overstepped its proper defensive function and began to manipulate the monetary system to accomplish political objectives. The creation of the Federal Reserve Board made it possible for the first time in America for men to arbitrarily change the value of our money. –Ezra Taft Benson

We are completely dependent on the commercial banks. Someone has to borrow every dollar we have in circulation, cash or credit. If the banks create ample synthetic money, we are prosperous; if not, we starve. We are absolutely without a permanent money system. When one gets a complete grasp of the picture, the tragic absurdity of our hopeless situation is almost incredible, but there it is. It is the most important subject intelligent persons can investigate and reflect upon. It is so important that our present civilization may collapse unless it becomes widely understood and the defects remedied very soon. –Robert Hemphill, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank

The Constitution of the United States gives Congress no power to legislate in the matter of a great number of vital problems of government, such as the conduct of public utilities, of banks, of insurance, of business, of agriculture, of education, of social welfare and over a dozen other important features. Washington must never be permitted to interfere in these avenues of our affairs. –Franklin D. Roosevelt, Fireside Chat #1

A Rather Shocking Experience

So, I went to the doctor on Friday to have a stress test performed. As if i didn't have enough stress in my life, now my doc wants to intentionally add some more! But since I'm only a doctor wannabe, I decided to follow his advice and have the testing done. I showed up in my sweats, ready to jump on the treadmill and get this thing over with. But when they told me I would be on the treadmill for up to 15 minutes, I knew that wasn't going to happen. I have been out of breath lately just walking up a couple of flights of stairs.

The test began, and four minutes into it, I was feeling very nauseous and light-headed. The cardiologist was looking at the electrocardiogram, and said he saw something "very abnormal" and ordered the test stopped. He also told the nurse to give me some nitroglycerin. I had never had that before but it did add a little more stress to the test when they couldn't find any. But they scrambled and found some, squirted it under my tongue, and I started to feel better.

The doctor then got me set up for an angiogram, the test where they put a catheter in you and inject dye to see what your blood flow looks like. Not too far into the test, he saw a blockage and pointed it out to me on the screen. It was as clear as could be--full volume up to a certain point, and then a small restriction, with full volume again on the other side. He said it was a 99% restriction. Looked like I got my money's worth out of that little section.

The test proceeded, and then I remember feeling like everything was just "shutting down". That's not a very good description; it was kind of like going to sleep, but I couldn't move and couldn't speak. I was becoming unconscious.

When I woke up, I had an oxygen mask on my face, and people were asking me questions. The doctor came over and told me I had given everyone quite a scare (actually he was a little more crude than that). My heart had gone into cardiac fibrillation, and they had to use the defibrillator three times before it started beating normally again. Sarah says they "paddled me".

As it turns out, the hospital where all this was happening (Anderson) is not an "intervention" facility, so the staff there isn't used to dealing with un-cooperative hearts, and everyone was pretty rattled. As they regained their composure, I was told I needed a "stent" to keep the artery open, but stent procedures weren't performed there and I needed to be transferred to another hospital. But then the doctor called a colleague and got him to come to Anderson, and in very short order the stent was installed and I was all better.

I spent the night in the ICU and was released the next morning on my own recognizance for good behavior. As a punishment, my driving privileges were revoked for three days. I'll be jeep'n again Tuesday morning.

I forgot to say, Lisa was in Utah with Claire, and I had called her to let her know the stress test revealed more testing was required. I told her I would let her know what was going on, but that I was in good hands and not to worry. But she became impatient and called the hospital, and was able to get my doctor who ratted me out. What ever happened to confidential information? Despite my protests, she was on the next plane home. While I really didn't want her to have to leave Claire and Katie, seeing her around midnight that night was a sight for sore eyes (and a few other sore parts).

So, I'm on blood thinners and cholesterol medicine until further notice. Stay tuned and if I don't K-T-B I'll find something more interesting to blog about.

All kidding aside, what a blessing it was to be in the hospital when this happened--with a cardiologist and terrific staff by my side, catheter already installed, all the right equipment and medicines there, etc. This could have had a very different outcome had I been on a plane, or in a hotel, or sleeping, or in Houston, as was the case just a few hours earlier. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father, not only for all the marvelous technology that exists today, but especially for sustaining me until I could be in the right place to benefit from it all. My concerns and prayers were answered with a very real blessing.

The Debut of Claire Elizabeth Brewer

So it's official, I have been honored with perhaps my most prestigious title yet, Grandpa. Thank you, Claire! This sweet little baby took her first breath at 11:28 p.m., November 3, 2008 in Provo. She weighed in at 9 pounds even. Claire and Katie are both doing well. Joe and Lisa are tired. Lindsay and Marshall love their new little niece, and all the rest of us are just plain jealous that we're not there! So many prayers have been answered with a blessing.

I can't help but contemplate what life will hold for children being born at this time. Surely they will witness some incredible things and have so many opportunities to exercise their faith in the Lord. I cling to President Hinckley's counsel to be optimistic. And with a prophet like President Monson we can all take heart that the Church will continue to receive inspired leadership, and our children will be in good hands.

And Another Thing

Do they REALLY have to be playing Christmas music already? I heard it on the radio and I heard it in WalMart tonight. We're all burned out on politics, and now we're going to crash and burn on Christmas music. I love Christmas music, but not two straight months of it. Please!

I Have a Problem With That

A politician who wants to re-distribute wealth may or may not have noble purposes in mind. The stated goal is always the same: to help the poor. Even if their hearts are pure (which I doubt), I have several problems with re-distributionism.

1) The politician places himself in a position of knowing who’s rich and who’s poor, and almost always bases this on income levels. This is clearly no way to measure wealth, especially with all the convoluted tax laws in our society. Income is hidden, protected, re-categorized, and just plain un-reported. Plus, income in a given year doesn’t speak to all the other forms of wealth one may possess.
2) Even if income was fairly reported, it ignores the other side of the equation—demands an income earner may have. Just one example everyone will understand and agree with: ever heard of some good person who cares for an ailing parent? Parents are often not “dependents”, so the income earner gets no credit or discount for that parent, despite large outlays of cash to satisfy heavy demands for medical or other living expenses.
3) What makes someone able to judge what is “fair”? Is it being elected by popular vote? Hardly. My life’s experiences have taught me that only God and his inspired servants can know how to fairly judge a person’s heart. To place oneself in a position of decreeing “fairness” for a large population is quite presumptuous, even pompous.
4) The idea of charity for the poor starts with the heart, not with the pocketbook. A gift given unwillingly is not counted as righteousness. My conviction is that all gifts to those in need should be done by those who are willing to help, not by those who are forced to do so.
5) If the “rich” are going to be forced to give some of their wealth to the “poor”, where does it start and stop? If we could develop a system that re-allocates wealth, and it works perfectly, those who are rich today will be less rich tomorrow. Over time, they will fall below the established threshold the politician decided was “rich”. Then, the politician will have to establish a new threshold, and begin over-taxing a new class of “rich” people, albeit they will be less wealthy than those who were previously over-taxed. This pattern will continue until eventually, everyone is at exactly the same wealth level. What’s wrong with that? Just one thing. People figure out very quickly that there’s no need to work hard, because they will be just as wealthy as their neighbor, without regard to what is done to earn a living. People stop striving for higher levels of education—doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, business professionals all end up with the same amount of wealth as the hamburger flipper—so why bust your brain or break your back? Just sit back and let the wealth flow. But of course it doesn’t work that way. Without wealth-creating innovators, the movers and shakers of our society, industry-based nations don’t exist; natural resources aren’t turned into national wealth. Society as we know it collapses and everyone spends their day foraging for food. Just look around the globe and you’ll see plenty of examples.
6) Without individual judgments as to what “rich” means at the individual level, there are only formulas which must be applied to the masses. Formulas ignore why people are rich or poor, and they also ignore whether rich or poor people are good stewards of whatever they may have. Give two people the exact same amount of money each year, and in similar circumstances, one will squander his money on gambling, drinking, and riotous living, while the other will save, invest, and grow his money. How can any rational person think it makes sense to keep taking away money from the good steward and year after year give it to the squanderer, just to keep one from being rich and the other from being poor, and call this effort “noble”?

I could continue, but hopefully I’ve made the point. Our current tax system is terribly unfair, and there are any number of people who are working vigorously to make it even worse with new re-distribution schemes, all while doing an excellent job of brainwashing the people sucked into this unholy effort. Think you’re not being influenced by the brainwashing? Let me ask you a question. How do you feel about the children’s story of Robin Hood? Good guy? Better think again. You may be that robbing hoodlum’s next victim.