Did Moses come down from the mountain with an 11th Commandment: “Thou cannot resist thy cravings and thy compulsions so do your thang man?” I don’t think that came from Moses, but it is a widespread myth in today’s world. “Compulsions are uncontrollable,” is Myth Of Our Time #9.

We hear it all the time: “They’re born that way,” ”It’s genetic,” “He can’t help himself,” “That’s just the way I am,” — but are those statements true? Do human beings really have no choice but to meekly obey their desires and impulses? Of course not!

We humans have the ability to resist and to overcome any craving or “genetic tendency” that hits us. We are not irrational animals who have no choice but to obey our instincts.

We humans have a brain — we have the ability to make wise decisions about our behaviors. We have a free will — we have the power to freely choose our behaviors, independent of our manipulative compulsions.

But it is very hard work to use our brain and our free will. It is so much easier (in the short-term) to just go with the flow of desire, to drift off the cliff of self-destructive cravings. So we embrace the denial that comes with Myth Number 9 – “I have no control over this desire. I am not responsible. It’s in my genes.” And we dance to the twisted tunes of our tendencies.

A home grown American terrorist murdered three high school students and three recent high school graduates recently in Crandon, Wisconsin, a small town of 2,000. He also left another young person in critical condition. Home grown terrorism has become so common that the media gave the Crandon terrorism very little notice.

The terrorist was an off-duty, 20 year-old, Forest County deputy sheriff. He walked into a private home and brought death and horror to a pizza and movie party. Richard Peters, Crandon Schools Superintendent, said yesterday morning: “There is probably nobody in Crandon who is not affected by this. They are going to wake up in shock and disbelief and a lot of pain.”

So how is it that we can say we have a good defense against terrorism, when home-grown terrorists are frequently committing mass killings in America? This one didn’t even make the front page.

Isn’t it time we began to put the same kind of effort into ending our home-grown terrorism as we do to fight the foreign terrorist threat? Surely we must at least try to stop the needless violence within our borders. How? Here are a few of my ideas.

Stop depicting violence in the media. Freedom of speech does not include graphic pictures of gore and guts. (Pictures are not speech.) People imitate what they see. That is why advertisers pay millions for TV commercials. If we don’t want a terrorized America we must keep terror and violence out of our living rooms.

We must also remove violence from our music and video games. These things train people to kill others. Why fight terrorism on one hand and train our kids (and many adults) to kill on the other hand?
We must begin to promote non-violence in the media, in our schools, and through out America. Let’s make heroes out of those who give sacrificial love instead of those who kill!

We must address and correct the social justice issues that drive people to desperation. Desperate people will kill — just look at innercity violence! We as individuals need to personally reach out to hurting, marginalized Americans with love and assistance.
So what will America look like in 10 years? It depends on the choices we make today!

Lotsa folk nowaday seem to be ignorin’ the Tin Cumanmints. I reckon they jus’ don’t quite get ‘em. (They can be down rite confusin’.) So jus’ to help yall out a bit, I’m fixin’ to post ‘em rite here in a simple country style.

#Wun — There ain’t but 1 God, yall!

#Tu — Watch yer mouth, specially usin’ God’s name as a bad word.

#Thre — Don’t yall be skippin’ out on Sundie meetin’.

#For — Yall need to be good folks ’round yer Momma and Poppa.

#Fiv — Don’t yall kill nobody.

#Sicks — Don’t yall be foolin’ round or shackin’ up.

#Sevun — Don’t yall be a’ takin’ what ain’t yers.

#Ate — Don’t yall tell no tall tales ’bout nobody.

#Nighn — No wantin’ sum other feller’s woman.

#Tin — Don’t yall be hankerin’ fer other folks’ stuff.

Now aint them Tin Cumanmints down rite simple when ya hear ‘em in hillbilly style? Ain’t it a shame more folks ain’t willin’ to do what they says?

Motivation Quotation: “I believe it will be found in the day of great account, that there have been more blessed enterprises squashed, more leadings of the Holy Ghost disobeyed, more urgings of the Spirit quenched, through the influence of what are called Christian friends than all other influences put together.” –Catherine Booth

Motivational Ideas: Nice, well-intentioned people can hold you back through their fears, insecurities, and desire to influence you.

Have you ever noticed that people frequently act like a bucket of crabs? As one of us tries to climb out of the bucket, one of our friends or associates pulls us right back in.

We often think of the peer pressure to engage in wrongful behaviors, but we seem to forget altogether the peer pressure to avoid doing good, wholesome things. But it is there: Don’t get outside the box. Don’t think outside the bun. Don’t get ahead of the thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors of your friends.

Catherine Booth points out that the losses we humans have suffered through the influence of our friends and associates are incalculable — positive enterprises squashed before they can begin, leadings and urgings of the Spirit stomped out. So how is this a hope quote?

Most of us have been quietly squeezed into society’s mold, swept along by the influence of our friends without even knowing it. Every day our need for the approval of others is robbing us of hundreds of opportunities for a better life. But if we don’t know that we are in a need-for-approval-trap, how will we ever get out?

Here is the hope that Catherine Booth reminds us of. There is an inner voice seeking to lead us into a much better life through promptings, urgings, and warnings. If we will begin to courageously obey that inner voice rather than the voice of our friends, we will begin to experience entirely new levels of hope, encouragement, and personal victory!

What are the most ignorned words on television? I nominate “Viewer Discretion Advised.” The content and attitude of most popular American TV programs prove that Americans use little or no discretion in deciding what programs to watch.

My dictionary defines “discretion: as: “the ability to make responsible decisions; the quality of being discrete, especially: cautious reserve in speech.”

Let me ask, do people use discretion — their “ability to make responsible decisions” — when they passively feed their eyes, ears, and minds on negativity, disrespect, vulgarity, drug use, violence, rudeness, crime, fear, crude humor, war, perversion, and profanity. Those seem to be the primary subjects of our intrusive American TV industry — which could be more accurately described as sickovision. So where is the so-called “viewer discretion?”

And where is any “cautious reserve in speech” when we continually listen to a flood of nasty, jock-shocking, rude, crude, and mean words spoken to us every night in our living room or our bedroom?

At least sickovision is honest as they gleefully poison our minds, our hearts and our society; counting their money all the way home. They warn us with a rating system for their programs: V for “graphic violence,” S for “explicit sexual activity,” and L for “crude or indecent language.” (Those are their words, not mine.)

And then they give us the most ignored words in the world: “Viewer Discretion Advised.”