What Happened To Friendly Debates?

Good afternoon, this article discusses the long gone friendly debates and focuses on the new "hate debates". And this article will also clarify what Conservatives and Christians, alike, believe in.

Do you remember a few years ago when a conservative and a liberal would have a debate? It wouldn't be heated and covered with hatred like it is today. No one plays by the rules anymore. People used to accept people's own opinions and would just discuss their opinions with each other. Yes, sometimes it would get defensive, but that was only because people really believed in what they believed in. 

Today, things are much different. A liberal will use anything they can to bash a conservative. I'm not saying all conservatives are angels either, but it's usually the liberals who take the cheap shots. Like if a conservative doesn't vote or like President Obama, the liberals call us "racists", but that isn't true. It's not that we don't like him because of his skin color, we don't like him because of his policies. He could be any skin color, and conservatives still wouldn't like him. It's not a matter of skin color. If it were, conservatives wouldn't support strong African-American men and woman like, Allen West, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, etc.. Conservatives are not "racist".

Another cheap shot liberals will take at conservatives, especially conservative Christians is that they will call us "bigots". Everyone has their own beliefs. Just because we don't believe in the same things as liberals or that we are against some things they stand for, doesn't mean we don't have the right to stand for those things. 

Conservatives are pro-life, meaning we don't support abortion. We believe that abortion is murder. There are many, many accounts of abortion doctors who stopped performing abortions because they couldn't stand killing little innocent babies anymore, don't believe me, Google it. We are against same-sex relationships, because of our religious beliefs and I can't make this more clear, it doesn't mean we hate homosexuals. We just don't agree with it and since we don't agree with it, we will not support it. 

We have so many more beliefs, but I wanted to focus this article more on the debates between the two parties. We, as in both parties, need to stop all this hate bashing. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. We have the freedom of speech, but people tend to abuse it when they start spilling out things that are hurtful. 

Recently, liberals have been comparing conservatives to terrorists because of our beliefs. First off, we are NOTHING like terrorists. And the fact that someone can even say that about another American just because they have different views is childish. A perfect example: Say you are a big Star Trek fan and your friend is a big Star Wars fan. And your friend tells you that you're stupid because you like Star Trek and that would be uncalled for, right? In your opinion you like Star Trek better. It's your opinion.

We need to go back to the civilized discussions/debates instead of these hateful bashing of each other, everyone in this country is equal. No matter what they believe in. Everyone has a right to voice their opinion, but what these liberals are doing to the conservatives is considered hate speech in my book and that needs to stop. And that goes for conservatives as well, this article isn't just about liberals, but conservatives as well. Especially if you're a Christian, you should know better than to bash people for what they believe. That isn't Christ-like and you know that Christ wouldn't want you to be doing that either. 

So before you bash someone for not believing in the same thing you believe, stop and ask yourself, "Would I like it if someone were to bash me for my beliefs?" And if you're answer is no, then stop yourself and don't bash the other person for what they believe in. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my article! Please leave your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading! 

Why You Should Stand With Israel

Good afternoon, this article discusses the current war in Israel and why you should stand with them. After reading this article, I hope you will the understand the importance of standing with Israel.

I'm sure everyone has heard about the war in Israel these last few weeks. Israel is a lonely Jewish nation surrounded by Arab countries. All they want is peace and to live in their country, but the Arab nations surrounding Israel will not allow that to happen. The Arab nations continually try to barrage Israel to destroy it, but since Israel's Iron Dome is impregnable that will never happen.

                                          Photograph by Jack Guez. www.businessweek.com.

Do you want to know why Israel will never fall? Because God is protecting His chosen people. God promises that He will protect Israel many, many times in the Bible. Don't believe me, just Google "God promises to protect Israel." You'll find many verses where God promises to protect them and you'll also find verses that God says, He will bless those who bless them.

If you don't want to believe that God is protecting them, just look at the facts. Israel has been under siege for centuries and they have never once fallen. Think about that. Israel has NEVER fallen. Not once. What else could it be, besides the power of God protecting them?

                                          1389blog.com.

Why should we stand with Israel? It's simple, Israel are God's chosen people. And God says in Genesis 12:3, "And I will bless those who bless you (Israel), and the one who curses you I will curse." Makes sense to me, doesn't it to you? The United States is currently not supporting Israel as a nation and look where we are. Our country is in ruin, but I'll go more into that in a later article.

Whether you are a Christian or an unbeliever, you have to admit that there is a greater power at work in Israel. That power is God. How else has Israel been able to withstand war after war and never falling?

                                          Headline of the British Telegraph on July 18, 2014.

Why can't Israel and the surrounding Arab nations just get along? Because they never have and they never will. Arabs hate Jews, it's as simple as that. If the Jews were to surrender, they would be slaughtered by the Arabs, but if the Arabs were to surrender. There would be peace.

Why can't the Jews defend themselves? Ever noticed the liberal newspaper/media headlines saying things like "Israel kills innocent children in missile strike"? It's more like Hamas purposefully placed children with their soldiers so they could die and blame Israel for attacking them.

Each time Israel defends itself, they get blamed for killing people. So the Arabs can kill Jews at will without retaliation, but as soon as the Jews defend themselves, they're the bad guys? Does that make any sense to you? It doesn't make any sense to me.

I stand with Israel, do you? I hope this video sheds some light on the subject, it pretty much explains the facts in a nutshell.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article! Please leave your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

Healthier Ways To Consume Calcium

Good afternoon, this article discusses healthier ways to consume calcium. In a recent article I did, "Healthier Ways To Consume Protein", this article will be much like that one and I hope it will be helpful to all you readers out there.

When people think of calcium, the number one thought is milk. Milk has a lot of calcium, which is very true. But is the milk you're drinking healthy? It may be hard to believe, but the go-to dairy source of calcium isn't as healthy as you might think.

Most people will say their go-to source will be cow milk, cheese, and yogurt. An eight ounce glass of cow milk contains 300 mg of calcium, which is a lot. But what people don't know is that soy milk contains the exact same amount! That's right, 300 mg in a glass of soy milk. So do you want to continue drinking your cow milk filled with bleach and other ingredients or do you want to drink something healthy like soy milk?

There are actually other ways to consume calcium other than the typical dairy and other milk substitutes. Take spinach for example, not only is it a green vegetable that's good for you. It also has 245mg of calcium. That's almost as much as a glass of milk. There are other foods that are good sources of calcium too, such as:

Almonds - 1 cup = 378 mg of calcium. (That's more than a glass of milk!)
Tofu - 1/2 cup = 350 mg of calcium. (Also more than glass of milk.)
Chia Seeds - 1.5 ounces = 300 mg of calcium. (Same as a glass of milk.)
Kale - 1 cup = 205 mg of calcium.
Bok Choy - 1/2 cup = 190 mg of calcium.
Figs - 5 figs = 135 mg of calcium.
White Beans - 1/2 cup = 120 mg of calcium.

There are many, many more sources. If you want to find more, just Google "Good sources of calcium besides dairy."

If you want to start eating healthy and have a healthier body, start eating the right foods. Start one step at a time, just by switching from dairy milk to soy milk would be a great improvement for you. So what are you waiting for, make the switch!

I hope you enjoyed reading my article! Please leave your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

Why A Minimum Wage Increase Is A Bad Thing

Good afternoon, this article discusses why raising the minimum wage is would be a step in the wrong direction for our country and what troubles we will have if it is raised.

I know everyone's first reaction to the minimum raise increase was probably, "Hallelujah!", but when you stop and really think about it. It isn't a good thing. Would I like to earn more money at my job, of course I would, but that isn't the issue here.

The government wants to raise the minimum wage from $8.25 to $11.00. That is one drastic step up. Now if it was a slight raise like $8.25 to $8.50, it wouldn't be a problem. Minimum wage jobs are NOT career jobs. Jobs like McDonalds, Wal-Mart, etc.. these jobs are mostly taken my high schoolers and college kids, for the most part. These jobs are not meant to live off of. There is a reason there are degrees and hundreds of career jobs out there in the world, where you CAN make a living.

An big issue with raising the minimum wage is this, if the minimum wage is increased to $11 an hour. Yes, you will get your $11 an hour, but I guarantee your hours will be cut way down. So no more 8 hour shifts, you'll start seeing a lot more of 5 hour shifts. So in reality, you'll be making the same amount of money as you were before with your $8.25 an hour rate.

Why will this happen? Because companies pay you and if a company cannot reach their annual income, they cannot pay you all that money. A few things will happen: 1, your hours will get cut like I mentioned earlier. 2, you'll get laid off because the company will no longer be able to afford you. Or 3, the company all together will shut down and everyone will lose their jobs.

If you don't believe me with this, put your thinking caps on. Imagine this, say you run a lemonade stand with your friend. You split the profit with him that you make everyday. Say you make $50 a day and each of you receive $25 a piece. Then you decide you want more money, so you decide, "Lets raise our wages." Except, you can't because you still only receive $50 a day. The only way you will get more money is if you fire your friend and take the $50 all to yourself. Understand it now?

Another issue with raising the wage, besides getting your hours cut or loosing your job all together, is all the striking that will happen with the higher paying jobs. Think about it, if you start making $11 an hour at your McDonalds job and a full-time employee at McDonalds makes $11 an hour too, don't you think they will want a wage increase? Yes, they most certainly will. This is will put a lot of pressure on the company, thus "releasing" a lot of it's minimum wage employees. Do you see the cycle?

If the minimum wage increases, it will NOT be a good thing. Everyone will start loosing their jobs or getting their hours cut, one way or another. It will happen, I promise you that.

So if you want to keep your job, don't support the wage increase. Especially, if you work at the minimum wage. You really don't want the increase. Instead go to college, get a degree, and make a living at a CAREER job. Trust me, you'll live a much happier life if you do that. I mean, honestly, do you really want to work at McDonalds for the rest of your life? I didn't think so.

I hope you enjoyed reading my article and I hope this has made you aware of the consequences of raising the minimum wage. Please leave your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

America IS A Christian Nation

Good afternoon, this article discusses the importance of standing up for our religious freedom. In this article, I hope to be able to show you why protecting our freedom of religion is so much more important than you might already think.

I am a Christian and as a Christian, I face many difficult obstacles everyday of my life. Whether it is the many temptations or the criticism of the people around me. My faith is very important to me and it is something I will NEVER give up, but I didn't write this article to talk about my faith.

No matter what denomination you are, all Christians face criticism every day of their life. I remember it didn't use to be quite as bad as it is now. People wouldn't get kicked out of school for reading a Bible or praying, but they were respected for their faith even if they didn't agree with it. Or if you said, "Praise God." in public, you wouldn't get shunned. People would just accept it or they would either just ignore you or say something nice in return. Not until a few years ago, did it start to crumble the most.

We are loosing our freedom of religion little by little every day and we need to put an end to it. The media doesn't help us at all nor do these radical groups like Westboro Baptist Church. We Christians are peaceful, loving people, but when movies, TV, and churches like Westboro display us as something we are not. The world sees us as people who hate everyone and that just isn't true.

Have you ever noticed whenever Christians are portrayed on TV, we are always the crazy, mean, bad characters? They portray us as these characters, but it just isn't true.

Then Westboro, those people really need to tone it down. With all of their "God Hates Gays" signs, disrupting military funerals, rioting at concerts, etc.. That needs to stop. They are hurting themselves and every other Christian in America.

Yes, we do not agree with same-sex relationships, but that is our opinion. Last time I checked, we still had the freedom of speech in this country. But the media portrays us as "gay haters" or "anti-gay". Well, this is the thing. We don't care what you do, it's your life, we cannot control you. But don't shove your way of life that we don't agree with down our throats and make us accept it. Our opinions are just as valuable as everyone else's. If we don't agree with you, it doesn't mean we hate you. But because of the "tolerant" liberals don't like us, they hate and bash us. Then they make us into these most wanted criminals. So much for being, tolerant, huh?

Our country was built on Christian faith and IS a Christian nation. I don't care what anyone politician says to disregard that. America was founded by Christians and it will always remain a Christian nation in my opinion.

If our government decides to rip away our freedom of religion, we might as well become just like China. In China, their government will kill you for being a Christian. Do you really want that here? I didn't think so. Do you really want our country to have another revolution? Because if this continues, that will happen.

We need to stand up for our faith and help keep our country a Christian nation. We need to stop the media from bashing us and we need to stop the government from taking away our freedoms. If you cherish your faith and your love for God as much as I do, I know you will do the right thing.

God Bless America!

I hope you enjoyed reading my article and I hope this had made you become more aware of what is actually going on here. Please leave your comments below. Thanks for reading!

Healthier Ways To Consume Protein

Good afternoon, this article is sort of a sub-category of my previous article, "Farms Don't Look Like They Used To". In this article, it discusses healthier ways to consuming protein.

Have you ever wondered, "How do vegetarians consume protein without eating meat?" It's simple, you see a lot of people don't realize there are other ways to get protein. Yes, there are protein shakes, but that isn't what I'm going to be talking about.

There are a few way to get protein without eating meat or drinking protein shakes or eating protein bars. A popular way for vegetarians to get a lot of protein is by eating beans. Yes, beans. Beans are a very high source of protein, in fact one-half cup of beans contains as much protein as an ounce of broiled steak. Don't believe me, Google it.

There are also a lot of other ways to consume protein without eating meat, such as:
Quinoa - 1 cup = 8 grams of protein (Plus it's good to add to salads.)
Buckwheat - 1 cup = 6 grams of protein (Good substitute for flour.)
Hempseed - 2 tbsp = 10 grams of protein (Good to top off yogurt, just make sure it's Greek yogurt.)
Soy Beans - 1/2 cup = 10 grams of protein (Good substitute for meat in Asian dishes.)
Rice And Beans - 1 cup = 7 grams of protein (Good side dish.)
Ezekiel Bread - 2 slices = 8 grams of protein (Good substitute for your go-to bread.)
Hummas and Pita - 1 whole wheat pita and 2 tbsp hummas = 15 grams of protein (Good snack.)
Peanut Butter Sandwich - 2 slices of bread with 2 tbsp of peanut butter = 15 grams of protein (Good pre or post workout snack.)

There are many other great sources of protein besides eating meat, just Google "Great sources of protein besides meat." Yes, meat is a great source of protein, but after my last article I hope you now see the dangers of eating meat. Especially when it comes from those horrible warehouse farms.

How you can eat more protein and stay healthier: A great way to top off the morning, is to eat some Greek yogurt. Just make sure it's low on sugar. And why not top it off with some hempseed? Sounds good to me. Or perhaps you're in a rush in the morning and don't have time for breakfast, then grab a protein bar on the go. Remember check the labels, make sure it's low on sugar.

There are so many little things you can do to change your eating lifestyle into a healthy lifestyle. Switching from dairy milk to soy or almond is a great improvement for your health. Not consuming as much meat or no meat at all, is also a great way to improve your health.

A lot of people don't realize how important certain foods are until you get sick. So act now, change your eating lifestyle one step at a time. You'll be healthier because of it, I promise you that!

I hope you enjoyed reading my article! Please leave your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading!

Farms Don't Look Like They Used To

Good afternoon, this article discusses the importance of checking the labels on the food you purchase from the grocery stores where you shop and what you are actually consuming when you eat them.

I'm sure everyone has seen something whether it was a commercial, an old movie, or perhaps even a new movie featuring a location on a farm. A farm where cows, pigs, and chicken are peacefully grazing in the fields. The environment looks like something out of a children's book, the animals look happy and at ease, the farm workers look kind and happy. BUT these illusions are NOT true. 

Yes, there are a few farms like this left in the world, but oh so very few of them. You see, most farms nowadays are not the peaceful Old Macdonald type farms you remember from your childhood. Farms today are giant warehouses with hundreds of thousands of tiny little cells for the animals. The animals cannot move around, all they can do is stand in these tightly enclosed spaces. The workers use a pumping system to drain the milk from a cow. Yep, a pumping system. No longer done by hand. 

Pigs, goats, and chicken are treated the same way. All the animals are fed with steroids in their food, making the animals grow faster into their primed adulthood. The quicker they become full grown, the quicker the workers can chop them up and make them into food. Not only does the food you buy come from these disgusting places, the food you buy also has those same exact genetically enhanced ingredients in them. Yes, the same ones the animals had to eat to grow faster, yes you are eating those too. 

Am I against eating meat, no. Am I against eating meat from farms like this, yes. I believe God put these animals on earth for us to eat or else he wouldn't have given us teeth called canines. Canines: ripping or taring teeth. Last time I checked, I didn't need to rip lettuce with my teeth to eat it. But back to the point, God wouldn't want us to treat these animals like this. Farms like these need to be put to an end. We need to bring back the old classic farms and we need to shut down these warehouse farms. 

If you are still not convinced, let me share a few stats with you. The United States of America is the only country who uses genetically enhanced ingredients in their food. The U.S. also has the highest food allergy and asthma rate than any other country. If you stop and think, "Why am I allergic to food like peanuts? Peanuts are made of the earth." The reasons behind it are there are GMOs in your food. (Genetically Modified Organisms) 

The U.S. also has a higher risk of getting diseases like cancer, diabetes, strokes, Alzheimers, Parkinsons, and food allergies/asthma. Would you like to know why all these diseases are higher here than in any other country around the world? It's because every other country doesn't use GMOs in their foods. Also the obesity rate is much higher here than any other country as well.    

The increase of food allergies has sky rocketed since more and more companies have been using GMOs in their foods. You may be asking, "Why doesn't the government stop this?" Because the government is running it. They get millions of more dollars from these genetically enhanced foods than they would off of farm foods. Think about it. Places like McDonalds. McDonalds is a huge chain fast food restaurant. Places like McDonalds have become extremely popular, everywhere you turn there's a McDonalds. Imagine if McDonalds started randomly selling healthy food. Oh and don't be fooled by their "Healthy Foods", because they are just as unhealthy as their fattening foods. Would people still go there? Probably not.

There are a few places that are serving only healthy foods and don't have any GMOs in their foods at all. Restaurants like Chipotle for example. Chipotle doesn't serve their food with GMOs. Have you ever wondered why their food tastes so good? It is because of that reason. 

Step away from the greasy burgers from McDonalds and eat at places like Chipotle. To find more places like Chipotle, Google "Restaurants that support non-GMO" You're not going to find any cow milk with a "Non-GMO" sticker on it, but no worries. Try out SILK's almond or soy milk. At first you're going to think it tastes weird, but after you start drinking it more and more often you'll start to really enjoy the tastes of them. And when you do decide to drink cow milk again, you'll realize how gross it tastes. 

Fact: Did you know industries add bleach into cow milk to make it more white. Its true, Google it.   

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog, please share your thoughts below in the comment section. Thanks for reading!