I was watching a certain video that made a very good illustration.  Our current government is very much like a father to everyone in the country.  Except, instead of wanting their children to grow up into responsible, free, and mature adults, it wants to keep us all as children!  This way our every want and desire is placidly met and we don't have a care in the world!  Do we need health care?  That's okay, Daddy Gov will give that, too.  Don't have a job?  Daddy Gov will give you one or, just give you a nice check every month for being alive!  What a deal.  Need a good education?  Daddy Gov will send you right where you need to go in one of his very own indoctrination centers... Um...  I mean, 'Higher Education Centers.'

Keeping us as children always reliant upon Daddy Gov for our every need will deprive us of our liberties and responsibilities & will also keep Daddy Gov in power, with our money and hordes of people trusting and reliant upon him.  As a politician is there any other way you'd want things?

How many of you have heard this before?  Throughout my years in church I've heard this type of explanation, yet as I mature more in my faith I see it as inadequate for a healthy holistic view of prayer.  Indeed God will answer our 'yes/no' prayers in this manner, but...  Why would we limit God to 'Yes/No' prayers?  Remember the great prayers of Abraham and Moses, when they conversed with God.  There was no silly 'yes/no' limitation on God!  God was not a cosmic 8-Ball or fortune telling machine, limited to two options (or a third, if you consider 'wait' as different)--I put in prayer and "Voila!" Out comes your answer--limited to a clear yes/no or maybe, of course. 

Seriously, though, what type of friend do you have where your conversations are limited to 'yes/no' questions? 

This whole problem with pirates from Africa is not a new thing.  As a nation we struggled against this in the past.  See some basic information about that HERE.  When Thomas Jefferson was president many nations merely paid tribute to these pirates to avoid conflicts.  Jefferson & the rest of the US was tired of this game and waged war against them.  Several decisive victories were won against these pirates.  In April 1805 we victoriously raided their stronghold of Tripoli (remember the Marine's song line, "From the shores of Tripoli"...).  After a bit the pirates got bold again, thinking we were weakened by the War of 1812, and started their same old nonsense.  We responded as before and with a fleet of 10 ships led by veterans of the first Barbary Wars, we captured many of the pirates' ships and once again had a decisive victory. 

I find it slightly disturbing that in the face of N. Korea launching it's first missile our government is cutting our missile defense budget.  Isn't that a bit counter-productive?  As our enemies produce such technology more and more, shouldn't we produce our own technologies to counter it?  All the more when these enemies are not the type to care for our 'rules of war!'  Just a thought...