Moving!                Shawn Vint

Today marks my final post at the web address 'Life. Get in It!'.

From now on, you will find me at Bring Your Own Lawnchairs

It has been a terrific 9 months here, but this website has limitations making it frustrating at times, such as not allowing me to embed video,  or highlight text in an easy manner within a post.

I hope you'll follow me over.  Please Bookmark the new site once you arrive, and keep spreading the word as you have been.

                            The Perspective of Tragedy      Shawn Vint

A government official from France, on the ground in Haiti, was quoted stating that approximately 70,000 bodies had already been buried in a mass grave.  The magnitude of that number defies comprehension.  Unfortunately, it is the beginning.

The scope of the tragedy has a way of making the squeemish shy away from thinking about, or discussing it.  Happier thoughts are naturally preferred.

This morning I woke before dawn.  The fire had gone out in the night, and it was cool as I built a fire in the woodstove.  I couldn't help but think of the many thousands at that very hour in Haiti, in the dark, having lost family and friends.  For them, in an instant, the street had become home and the world they had known disappeared.

I suddenly felt very, very blessed

As you go about the mundane chores of the day, pause for a moment and give thanks to God for the many simple things you take for granted this, and every day. 

• Redieson Hausteen...in one captured moment, shows an often cynical world what hope, and joy, look like.

                               Captured in a Moment       Shawn Vint

For several days, and for weeks to come, we will only see glimpses of the horror and devastation that has become the life of those in Haiti.  Pictures, and brief ten or twenty second video clips, will attempt to describe the undescribable. 

We will try to imagine the fear, the hunger and thirst, and the loneliness.  We will fail, for how can devastation and loss on such a scale be imagined.

The common bond between every Haitian, and everyone reading this, is the look in the face of young Redieson Fausteen, above.  Hope, and the joy in finding one's hope satisfied.

Continue to pray. Continue to help. Continue to hope.

                              Tragedy in Haiti           Shawn Vint

There is a lot in the news today regarding the economy, and there are many locations aptly demonstrating man's propensity for killing man.

The tragedy in Haiti overshadows all.

Homeless and hungry, millions have lost all that they have on this earth, including those dearest to them.  Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have lost their lives.  Thousands more are likely to lose their lives in the devastating disease conditions that invariably set in after a disaster of such immensity.

Tragedy strikes suddenly.  Without warning.  With no second chances.

Take heed of that lesson.

Offer assistance in any manner you are able.

Pray.

• Aussie Income...does not support home prices in Australia.  In any market, the average home price historically is approximately 3x household income.  Australian real estate is having a Wile E Coyote moment, and the fall will be a biggie when (not if) they do look down.
• Consumer Confidence...in the U.S drops the most on record, the consumer having just looked down.
• Romania...is the location of a mutated H1N1 cluster.  It could be a random mutation due to genetic 'drift' as the WHO hypothesises, but keep an eye on this.

                      2010...Our Wile E. Coyote Moment    Shawn Vint

The world has run off a cliff.  We haven't quite looked down, but we are noticing for the first time that in looking ahead as we run...we see nothing.  That's never good.

Too afraid to look down, and accustomed to running as we are, we hang here for a moment, suspended. 

What are the signs?  Here's just one:

A tremendous amount of institutional and sovereign money is being parked in U.S Treasury Bills at interest rates below inflation...essentially zero percent interest!  Talk about giving up yield for safety!  But you have to ask yourself...why?  If the economy is roaring back to life as they keep telling you on the TV every night, why would they place their capital in a location that will essentially lose them money?

Don't be fooled.  When you follow the 'smart money', fleeing anything risky and buying gold and Treasuries, it's telling me that something evil this way cometh.

Reduce debt as much as possible, and store away food and water, just in case.

• Joe 6-pack Sinks, Wall Street Soars...I don't have to tell the readers in the U.S that, they already feel it.  The upper middle class, thinking they are a part of the 'protected elite', will be shocked (shocked, I tell you!), when they discover that the way of life they have known has come to an end.
• Eisenhower Was Right...when he said that the corporate military industrial complex was the greatest threat to the constitutional United States.
• Speaking of Eisenhower...the USS Dwight D Eisenhower carrier strike group is scheduled to be situated in the Middle East shortly, giving additional firepower to the U.S/Israeli military industrial complex.

                         The Messy End of Empire       Shawn Vint

Empires are long in the making, and relatively short in the breaking.  That reality usually makes for a messy end.

The end of the Soviet Union is one of the rare examples, historically, of peaceful dissolution of empire.  I've written on this before.  We are fortunate to have such a recent example to guide, but it will not matter.  Why? 

When the weight of the Soviet Empire became too great, the legs of public support holding it up had already given way to a new, and more hopeful era.  En masse, the public within the Soviet System HATED the system, and those who propped it up. 

Compare this with the United States today.  Thanks largely to a corporate owned media that is loyal to no nation, and the banking interests that sponsor the corporate, 'no-nation' direction, we have at least half of a population believing the 'bull'.  And so, with a nation divided, the world will instead watch, and by necessity participate, in the messy end of empire.

Today, wake-up someone you know to the fraudsters and the propogandists that have, literally, co-opted a nation.  By doing so you will bring majority to the side of good, increasing the chances of peace.

You can't do it alone.  None of us can.  But we are able to do all things with the help and strength of our Lord.  Give Him your praise, and ask for His help and strength.  He is altogether deserving of our praise, and because the battle is His, He has promised to give you all the help and strength that you need.

                                                Inventory           Shawn Vint

It's time to take inventory...a detailed accounting of where you find yourself spiritually, physically, emotionally, financially, and logistically.  The process is important, providing us with a 'You Are Here' point on the map of life, a kind of snapshot that we ought to take periodically so we don't wander aimlessly or backtrack across routes already traversed.

In normal times, when to take this periodic inventory of self would be a personal decision based on your circumstances and life situations.  These times are not normal, nor the circumstances entirely of your own making, but sticking our respective heads in the sand as the world devolves around us will not change them.

Taking inventory spiritually is the starting point, because we are created by God as primarily spiritual in nature.  Recognizing and accepting that fact is the first and most important step in the entire inventory process.  It is also the most freeing...spiritual awakening helps us to see that the continuous striving for things material is a futile and senseless path.

If you've been following along, it is understood that we are at a tipping point of epic proportions.   History provides us with very clear clues as to what we can expect to occur on the globe, including further loss of God given freedoms.  Your physical well being is crucial to your withstanding difficult times.  Think of this time as a sort of 'boot camp' for your future.  Make better nutrition choices every day, and begin a progressive training program that will increase your core strength and improve your stamina for when you'll need it.  Begin this step now.

Emotionally, begin to prepare yourself for events you may never have thought possible...job loss or layoff, scarcity of food in stores, societal breakdown either slow or sudden, situations requiring protection of life and property.  These are events that need to be thought about so that IF they happen, you will be able to function emotionally without breakdown.

Financially, try as best you can to remove yourself from debt.  Make hard choices...now.  Look at everything on the budget, and make cuts to everything except what good preparedness folk call 'beans, bullets, and band-aid' items.

Logistically, put aside at least 1 month, better yet 2-6 months or more, of essential supplies.  Think about worse case...what if the water and power are off for a month?  What if store shelves are empty?  What if all communications that we normally rely on are shut down?  Think about items like battery operated shortwave radio sets, which in the event of a 'real emergency', may be your only connection to the outside world, giving you advance notice of any threat, and allowing you to begin communication with other good, freedom loving people.

Don't just think about these things.