Utahs Republic

John 8:31-36
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
33 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?
34 Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
35 And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

The ultimate purpose of Christ’s mission was to make us free through his sacrifice and resurrection. Free from sin and ultimately free from power and control of others. Through him, those in bonds (spiritual and temporal) may become free.

The U.S. Constitution was divinely established by Him to assist in fulfilling this purpose. Fourth President of the LDS church Wilford Woodruff said of those that framed the Constitution, they “were the best spirits the God of heaven could find on the face of the earth. They were choice spirits. . . .” (Wilford Woodruff, CR, April 1898, p. 89). Today we face a great challenge in defending these noble and moral men. There are those who would tear down Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and others, calling them immoral and trying to expose some type of filth that they never engaged in. If they had, they would not have been selected for such a work. The false notion that so many of them were deists also propagates through our education system. A brilliant new book called “Walking in Darkness at Noon-Day | The Cunning Plan to Destroy the Agency of Man” by John C. Greene addresses some of these points. The book has a lengthy chapter on addressing the Deist issue and contains some fantastic information about our founders that I had never before seen. I encourage you to get a copy because you and your children won’t be getting this in public schools. It is an LDS oriented book, but this particular chapter (which is about 60 pages) contains so much good information on debunking the falsehoods that you may want to pick up a copy even if you’re not LDS.

Do we really value freedom? I wonder sometimes when I see the number of people who claim such, but only want it for themselves and not for others. The LDS church members in particular will someday have to account for what they did in the fight for freedom since they have a greater light and knowledge concerning the true nature of the fight. Our beliefs in a pre-mortal war in heaven that continues on earth today should serve as a clear warning of the nature of this conflict and yet far too many are willing to take the wrong side in the battle today. Clear warnings from prophets of God have served as preparation for this fight and yet they are dismissed by some as irrelevant or in the past as if that somehow erases the fact that those things were ever said.

We would never go to our neighbors and tell them when to fill their gas tank up, what to teach their children tonight, what time to turn their lights off, what occupation they should prepare for, etc… Yet far too many are willing to let government overstep the powers WE GAVE IT and tell people how to do these very things. If we can’t tell people how to do these things, we cannot allow government to do them. We delegated powers to the government so it cannot do something we cannot do.

In the beginning when Satan sought to destroy our agency (our gift from God to choose how to live), there was only a simple choice we had to make. Would we let others risk losing their eternal salvation by giving them their choice, or would we force everyone to make the right choices, destroy agency, and deny everyone the opportunity for personal growth through opposition? That same battle is raging today in the form of communism and socialism. Those who embrace those principles are in reality, listening to the wrong spirit and fighting the spirit of God. They would rather try and prevent a failure through force, than encourage success through true freedom.

I have shared this quote elsewhere but it is particularly relevant to this post. In the April 1965 General Conference of the LDS church, Elder Ezra Taft Benson, an apostle of God, quoted President David O. McKay, God’s mouthpiece and prophet on the earth at that time.

Hear his words: “No greater immediate responsibility rests upon members of the Church, upon all citizens of this Republic and of neighboring Republics than to protect the freedom vouchsafed by the Constitution of the United States.” (Cited in Jerreld L. Newquist, Prophets, Principles and National Survival [SLC: Publishers Press, 1964], p. 157.) As important as are all other principles of the gospel, it was the freedom issue which determined whether you received a body. To have been on the wrong side of the freedom issue during the war in heaven meant eternal damnation. How then can Latter-day Saints expect to be on the wrong side in this life and escape the eternal consequences? The war in heaven is raging on earth today. The issues are the same: “Shall men be compelled to do what others claim is for their best welfare” or will they heed the counsel of the prophet and preserve their freedom?

In the Book of Mormon, a letter from Pahoran, the ousted/exiled governor of the Nephites, to Captain Moroni, the general of the armies conducting a war and dealing with both external and internal threats, expresses the truth that the Spirit of God is the spirit of freedom.

Alma 61:15 Therefore, come unto me speedily with a few of your men, and leave the remainder in the charge of Lehi and Teancum; give unto them power to conduct the war in that part of the land, according to the Spirit of God, which is also the spirit of freedom which is in them.

It may not surprise anyone that my favorite song has always been “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Even as a young child I always loved patriotic holidays because sometimes we would sing that hymn. The lyrics are particularly poignant and this third verse is the summation of my Easter message.

“In the beauty of the lilies,
Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in his bosom
That transfigures you and me.
As he died to make men holy,
let us live to make men free,
While God is marching on.”
-Julia Ward Howe (modern lyrics differ from Julia’s original wording, most particularly in this verse is her phrase “let us die to make men free”)

I’ll close with a rendition of this song I found this which contains a touching gallery of images set to this wonderful song, as well as my testimony that God lives and is returning. It is our solemn obligation to demonstrate our faithfulness to God by defending the truth and freedom he has given us, both spiritually and temporally, according to our capacity and opportunities the Lord sets before us.

This video is encouraging…NOT. Does anyone really think we’ll last 10 more years? How’s your food storage? A few months ago I sent an email out to my email list but I guess I should have posted it here. I watched the segment on Glenn Beck last year that showed food prices skyrocketing as a result of inflationary forces that would affect our nation. Glenn was advertising for Daily Bread on his radio show so I called them up and a local rep came by to let me sample some food. They sell freeze dried meals that you just add hot water to and in a few minutes they’re ready to eat as if you’d made them fresh. The food was really good so we ordered a 3 month supply to supplement our current food storage which is mostly comprised of individual foods that you would have to prepare in a meal. Now we have meals that you just add water to, and regular food items which is a relief to know we’ll have some meals ready to go without a ton of preparation. In an emergency that can put your mind at ease. Anyway, I spoke with the rep that sold us our food storage and if you call him directly, he will give you a 15% discount on any package deal you purchase directly through him (you have to mention Oak Norton). He’ll also give you 1/2 off any shipping charges. You can reach him, Rex Willis, at 480-444-6429 or Rwillis26@hotmail.com. If you want to check out the packages, you can do so at Daily Bread’s website, but don’t contact them if you want the discount, contact Rex directly. He will email you a current price sheet (prices are going up, in case anyone was in doubt about the economy and inflation…) and if you want to sample the food before buying, just ask him for a sample meal to try out.

Someone just emailed me this article that last May, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran an article entitled, “New system to track student data from preschool to career.”

From the article:

“More than 15 years ago, Pennsylvania students taking state tests didn’t even have to put their names on them.

Now the state is in the midst of developing a sophisticated data system that will track students from preschool to elementary and secondary education to postsecondary education to the work force.”

…

“Tracking student progress from birth through college helps teachers in the classroom, helps principals manage and improve their schools, and helps parents better understand the unique educational needs of their child,” Mr. [Arne] Duncan stated in a news release.”

Yep, tracking as much data as possible is sooooo helpful, especially when you want to know how many decayed teeth children have so you know which are the healthy and sick ones in classrooms. Move along, nothing to see here. The Department of Education can be fully trusted to only have our children’s best welfare in mind. It’s not like they’re working with Obama’s healthcare system that will give priority support to healthy people and move the elderly sick ones into end of life planning.

Socialism is all about control and centralized planning.

 

 

In the old world, all roads led to Rome. In our modern world, one might also say all roads lead to the U.N.  Roads of corruption that is.  The United Nations is one of the world’s most corrupt organizations bent on global communism. Their “Agenda 21” plan affects us all the way down to Alpine School District. Please watch this video which someone sent me that summarizes elements from “Agenda 21.” Then please pass it on. Starting at the 5:43 mark you’ll learn about the plan to deliberately dumb down America (even showcasing one of the worst constructivist programs in existence, “Connected math,” used by Alpine in 6-9th grades, and many other school districts around the country. It was removed by the Utah State Office as an approved primary program but Alpine continues to use it full bore in classrooms and not as a supplement to a real math program). Those who have said there isn’t a deliberate effort to dumb us down will find an answer here as well with a special nod to Charlotte Iserbyt’s book, The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.

 

I don’t know if this will be a regular column, but I feel the need to examine all of my preparedness categories and make sure I’m covered. I’m sure everyone has noticed the inflationary hill we’re chugging up right now as food, clothing, and fuel are all getting more expensive. I feel like our time to ensure we are prepared for coming events is being shortened at a faster pace. I hope this information might help some to take similar considerations toward your own state of preparedness.

Most of the readers here are LDS and may remember the council to store a year’s supply of fuel where possible in addition to the counsel to have a year’s supply of food. I used to think this was just something I’d never be able to do because of living in a town and I couldn’t store that much gas for our vehicles. I recently realized that this wasn’t just about gas for our cars, but fuel also includes being able to cook and have power.

Now I’m not saying go out and suddenly buy all this stuff, but I found a couple of products that I think are cool and I bought a couple of them. We already had a small charcoal grill which anyone can pick up at the store pretty cheap. They aren’t big propane grills, but they are handy in a pinch and you can store bags of charcoal to give you a near years’ supply of daily heat.

One of the cool products someone pointed out to me is this solar oven.

It’s a good sized basin with a floating table inside it. Plexiglass or something locks into place on the front panel around a rubber seal. Extending the 4 reflectors and pointing it at the sun generates over 300 degrees in the box. Pretty awesome for doing basic cooking. There is a thermometer in the upper corner so you can tell how warm it is in the box. A friend of mine wanted to get a “lazy-Susan” type of spinner to set it on so you could rotate it with the sun if needed, but I don’t know that you’d be cooking for hours with the sun moving that much. Anyway, pretty cool device.

The second one which looks really cool is the Rocket stove here.

The design of this is really neat. You have 2 cylinders that are welded together so the heat inside the center cylinder is insulated from direct contact with the outer temperature. It takes very little fuel to generate cooking temperatures. You can use twigs and small pieces of wood and even reuse unused wood. Check out this video.

Then you just need a supply of wood and an axe or hatchet to break wood up into long splinters and you have a great source of heating.

Of course there are Dutch ovens and other things, but these are very efficient tools. One other super efficient fire starter is the Spark Lite. My dad actually invented this one and sells it to the U.S. Military as their official fire starter. It’s a highly efficient, one handed, flint and steel method for lighting small tinder. It comes with 8 waterproof cotton tabs that you can peel open and ignite even after being wet. You can also use other small substances to ignite. Every backpack and emergency kit ought to have one of these.


www.FourSeasonsSurvival.com…

Now I have a question for you. Have any of you used solar power equipment you can recommend? I’ve bought a couple of solar battery chargers and was pretty unimpressed. I would love something that would give a decent rate of charge to a regular battery charger or a laptop. Any other cool ideas on efficient power needs?

Brilliant explanation of why socialism doesn’t, can’t, won’t, ain’t gonna work. I heard the audio of this on Glenn Beck’s show this morning and thought this was one of the best explanations ever. It’s a graphic depiction of the saying, “socialism always fails because sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.”

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=661pi6K-8WQ[/youtube]

Check out this stunning video of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn in Lebanon telling people that everyone around the world should have the right to vote for the American president if we have a military base in their country. There’s “democracy” at work for you! One world government, coming your way. I’m sure John Goodlad picked Ayers as his NNER conference keynote speaker last fall for purely educational reasons. :)

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5NqxmwG8U4[/youtube]

On Glenn Beck’s 3/25 show he invited Ed Griffin in to help explain the history of the Federal Reserve. Ed Griffin is the author of the book, “The Creature from Jekyll Island” and he’s also the man who interviewed Yuri Bezmenov back in the 70’s to help Americans understand how the KGB works within countries to subvert them away from freedom and toward communism. This is an excellent overview of the Fed’s ponzi scheme, especially if you don’t know anything about it.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2roews2_1c[/youtube]

I attended the meeting at Vineyard the other night along with about 50-60 other citizens. I will start out by giving the mayor props for how he handled the meeting. He seems like a really genuine individual and I think everyone appreciated his openness. The rest of the council looked like whupped puppies for most of the meeting, never looking up unless someone spoke in favor of the RDA. I think they were stunned by the recent reaction to what’s been happening and the mayor asked several times why people are just now getting excited about this when it’s been posted on public notice websites and the press for a long time. I didn’t even know there was a public notice website but Wendy Hart sent me a link and I guess we’ll have to start frequenting it to know what’s going on.

https://www.utah.gov/pmn/index.html

Mr. Anderson, one of the developers, was there and said the property could be sold right now for $100 million to a toilet paper manufacturer but he had spoken with an economist from the University of Utah (I think) who said the property would be worth $3 billion if it was planned out properly. Dave Duncan then replied he ought to sell to the toilet paper manufacturer if he could make that much money and that if the property was really potentially worth $3 billion when built out properly, the developer should put together private money interested in doing it and not put this RDA on taxpayers. (Hope my memory is right on that Dave :))

One thing about the meeting that was very evident, is that there is a lot of misinformation that has been put out there. Whether by the press or the “telephone game,” I think everyone was wishing they had more facts about what’s been going on and how this all works. I strongly suggest everyone read Thomas Sowell’s article on RDA’s as it fully supports what Dave said above.

Larry Ellertson was there from the Utah County Commission and said his vote to pass the RDA was a conditional yes, wanting to make sure Alpine School District was satisfied with the deal. Since they weren’t, and ASD’s attorney was there to let them know they weren’t, then he implied his vote wasn’t really a yes till they worked it out with ASD.

I don’t know what can be done at this point. I wish I understood more about this type of stuff, but I think the complexity hurts citizens because we’re so unfamiliar with it. On principle I think RDA’s should be banned. I agree with Dave’s comment that the market can decide how land gets used. If someone wants to seize an economic opportunity, let them. I think we may have some responsibility to clean up the site, but not to fund infrastructure and development. Let an enterprising developer do that with private money.

Here is Fox-13’s news report.

 

DO YOU LIVE IN UTAH COUNTY? BE AT THE VINEYARD TOWN HALL AT 7 PM WEDNESDAY NIGHT UNLESS YOU WANT A 35 YEAR PROPERTY TAX INCREASE TO ENRICH SOME DEVELOPERS. (Vineyard meeting moved tonight due to expected size. Go to Vineyard Elementary School ; 620 East Holdaway Road (400 South) at 7 PM)

Last week at work, a co-worker handed me a few interesting news articles. There’s been some odd happenings with the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) in the past which triggered requests for an audit last year. A number things don’t make sense to me right now but some people are looking into this in the hopes of making sense of it.

Over a month ago there was a vote to approve a redevelopment agency in Vineyard. There were 2 parts: one to clean up Geneva’s site, and another for massive tax breaks for the developers over 35-40 years which would prevent (depending on who you talk to) perhaps $200 million from flowing into Alpine School District to cover costs of dealing with many students moving into Vineyard. As I previously blogged, I agree that the cleanup is probably appropriate, but tax breaks for developers after that is absolutely wrong. Let the market decide how that land gets developed.

Utah county commissioner Larry Ellertson was one of the members of this committee who voted in favor of giving huge tax breaks to the developers of the Vineyard RDA. I mention him in particular since he’s mentioned below in the news articles I’ve posted snips from below.

Vineyard is to receive a TRAX or FrontRunner station through UTA as part of this deal. Why UTA and these RDA’s are popping up together is something that I haven’t put the dots together on but I think it’s something we should all be interested in.

If any of you don’t really know what a “redevelopment” project is, Thomas Sowell recently wrote an article which the Deseret News carried explaining the problem with redevelopments which was really enlightening for me. I highly recommend you read this article and then look at the pictures below from the Sandy TRAX station redevelopment agency which is now just an eyesore. Based on Sandy’s TRAX project, and the fact below that some of the Geneva/Vineyard principals have defaulted on a loan in Vineyard and are trying to escape the personal guarantee’s of $36 million, and then in the next article saying if the project is approved they’ll put $600 million into the project, it all seems a bit fishy to me and not at all worth the risk. (not to mention the tax breaks)

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700119125/The-redevelopment-hoax.html?pg=1

Sandy TRAX RDA pics

 

Here are the articles:

April 29, 2010

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=10577086

UTA facing big cuts. Already made $11 million in budget cuts. However…

“UTA board chairman Larry Ellertson tells the Salt Lake Tribune the new CEO position being created for general manager John Inglish — for which he will be paid close to $300,000 a year — is in fact his severance after 32 years with the agency.”

That’s interesting…someone gets longevity severance??? How much does the Governor make? We can’t find a “public servant” for less than this?

 

May 19, 2010 (VIDEO NEWS CLIP)

https://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=10842333

This is interesting. Bruce Jones, UTA’s lawyer, is a member of the Cottonwood Heights city council. Jones lobbied on behalf of Terry Diehl for a TRAX stop next to a development owned by Diehl. Diehl is on the UTA board and determines Jone’s pay. Jones received an $80,000 raise in one year though I can’t tell from the article if it was before or after Jones’ lobbying efforts.

 

Jan 20, 2011

https://www.utahpulse.com/featured_article/geneva-redevelopment-project-gets-green-light

Anderson Geneva Development purchased the Geneva land in 2005 after Geneva closed in 2001. Anderson has spent $20 million to clean it up and another $4 million on improvements. A $300 million plan was approved for this site and is planned to have a UTA FrontRunner and TRAX transit hub located there.

 

Feb. 22, 2011

https://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/money/51271396-79/anderson-credit-america-union.html.csp

Anderson Development is walking away from a $36.4 million loan from America First Credit Union. AFCU isn’t happy about it and is suing Gerald Anderson and Michael Hutchings who personally guaranteed the loan. Anderson has a $10 million commitment to Vineyard to build an overpass, fire station and water tank.

 

Mar. 17, 2011 (VIDEO NEWS CLIP)

https://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=14773138&s_cid=rss-148

Hutchings says his company will pledge $600 million on the project if the URA deal goes through to raise taxes on Utah county residents.

My question is, if they’re walking away from a $36 million commitment, how do we have any proof they will follow through on a $600 million pledge? Just to be sure no one ties this into the Sandy TRAX RDA above, I have no idea if these people were involved on that project.

 

Mar. 17, 2011

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/705368921/Geneva-redevelopment-project-meets-opposition.html

“The Alpine School District and Utah Taxpayers Association don’t want to see public money used to fund part of the $900 million-plus makeover planned for the former Geneva Steel property.

And they may take legal action to keep it from happening.

…If the project is approved next week by the town RDA, homeowners living within the Alpine School District boundaries would see a property tax increase of between $14 and $17 per year — based on the average home price of $230,000 — for 35 years.

School district officials also are worried about the 400-plus acres of residential construction in Anderson Development’s plans. Property taxes on the homes, Bromley says, would not pay for the full cost of educating the number of students such growth would bring.”

I would support ASD doing this.

 

***AMEN*** Mar. 19, 2011 (Editorial)

https://www.deseretnews.com/article/700119756/A-troubling-tax-subsidy.html

“[Vineyard] City leaders ought to reject this, at least at the amount proposed, for a variety of reasons. While it may be legitimate to use tax money to clean the blighted site of the old steel mill, or to attract businesses that bring new people to the state, the free market, not tax subsidies, ought to determine most of what goes on that site.

Instead, the proposal would leave the Alpine School District shortchanged. That is because part of the subsidy would come from money that normally goes to schools. It would be tied up for 35 years while new housing adds to the burden of students who need to be taught.

…If Utah County has a demand for housing, shopping or businesses, the market should decide where they go, and they should contribute taxes to the programs and agencies that serve them. For Vineyard to give any more than what it would take to clean the Geneva Steel site would be wrong.”

 

In summary, there are a lot of odd things happening here and although I don’t have the connections crystal clear, it’s troubling enough that some investigations ought to happen and at a minimum, the previous vote needs overturned Wednesday night.