Christian Real Estate Professionals : Fran 'The Title Man' Gaspari Title Insurance-PA & NJ (Patriot Land Transfer, Inc.)

I listened carefully to The State of The Union Address on Tuesday evening...And before commenting on it I let some time for reflection pass by...

What a clever ‘PEP RALLY’ led by a clever orator...!!!

Missing from the speech, however, were many important items on the minds of many like minded citizens...Among which were decreasing the size of government, curtailing government spending, putting unemployed and under-employed people back to work soon, de-funding Planned Parenthood, lowering corporate taxes, freeing the US from dependence on foreign oil, reducing gas prices at the pump (they’ve actually doubled since he took office), the whole topic of RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, and failure to comply with campaign promises...i.e. reducing unemployment to below 8%, reducing the deficit (which actually increased by 5 trillion dollars), utilizing high speed rail, closing Guantanamo (though I’m in favor of keeping it as is), etc...to name a few...

In fact, the speech made more promises which would insure the continued growth of government and which provided additional assurances that we are certainly on the wrong track...

Not understood is the simple fact that ‘government’ offers more problems and virtually no solutions...

SOLUTIONS...SOLUTIONS...SOLUTIONS...!!!

Most intelligent leaders surround themselves with capable advisors...then implement their wisdom...

The promises made were of the ‘pie in the sky’ variety, and even if possible to accomplish, would take at least another full term to implement...FIVE MORE YEARS...???

If those who drink the ‘KOOL AID’ of this administration insist on more of the same...THEY JUST DON’T GET IT...

Yes, President Bush left in a poor economy...but in three years of this administration, two of which controlled every branch of government except the Judiciary, things HAVE GOTTEN WORSE...

OH, don’t misunderstand what I’m saying...The United States is still the greatest country on earth...BUT MUCH NEEDS YET TO BE DONE...

So why don’t some get it...???.......THEY CAN”T HANDLE THE TRUTH, especially the acknowledgement that they may have cast a wrong vote in the last election...!!!

A truly intelligent person realizes how limited one person is to solve the problems of a nation, and surrounds him/herself with other wise leaders, the sum of whose capability to solve our problems exceeds the wisdom of each.......THEN ACTS UPON THAT WISDOM...!!!

Have a great weekend...and as The President closed his ‘PEP RALLY’...God Bless The United States...!!!

P.S. STAY TUNED: NEXT WEEK.......HOW OBAMA'S BILLION WILL BE SPENT...!!!

Most of you probably are unaware that for around 3 years now, since I have been ‘semi-retired’, I have taken on driving two ‘special ed’ students to school and back home each day...

This doesn’t conflict with my ‘consulting’ duties at Patriot Land Transfer, Inc., since I am able to squeeze in most of the midday hours at My Title Insurance agency and still accomplish getting the students to and from school in a timely manner...

Of course, I couldn’t do this without the assistance of my very competent and compassionate staff, who constantly cover my back...Special thanks to my Son In Law, Gil, who juggles the whole project adroitly...!!!

BTW, I refer to my two students as ‘PRECIOUS CARGO’...and I take these duties very seriously...!!!

The vehicle I drive is owned by a local ‘Transportation Company’ that is contracted by our local school district...

Recently, the keys to the van were lost, and I had to use the only spare set that the company owned...and because of the unique design of the key, (a remote with a built in flip key), replacement would have been quite expensive...like around $250.00...

Now THE PLOT THICKENS...For 3 days these are some of the things I engaged in :

      ***My special prayers to Saint Anthony, patron Saint of lost articles...PERSISTENTLY

      ***Using my extremely amateur investigating experience...REPLACE ‘EXTREMELY’ WITH ‘RANK’

      ***Coaxing my almost 69 year old memory to recall bit by bit my last run with the van before the weekend...I THINK

      ***Retracing my steps based on that recollection...FRAME BY FRAME      

      ***Poring over and through multiple times...clothing, personal vehicles, The School Van itself, the garage and area where the keys are kept between runs, my entire house and garage...and every square inch of space in between...FOUND NOTHING

      ***Making phone calls to other coworkers who might know the WHEREABOUTS of THE MISSING KEYS...ALL DEAD ENDS

      ***Inviting the suggestions of other rank amateur ‘PI’ friends and family members...TO NO AVAIL           

Then, all of a sudden, without warning and like magic, in silence and mysteriously...VOILA !!!...THE KEYS APPEARED...NEATLY HUNG ON THEIR DEDICATED HOOK...as if they were never missing...

Borrowing the once used military policy of ‘DON’T ASK...DON’T TELL’...I was thankful enough that they ‘showed up’ not to play the blame game...BUT...

Isn’t it a shame that coworkers can’t be open and honest and trusted...???

Have a great weekend...!!!

That’s right, old Ambassadors never die, they just fade away into RAINMAKING...!!!

In case you haven’t noticed I’ve lost my ‘Ambassador’s Badge’ here at Active Rain...That’s right again, I’ve been relegated to be a plain old ‘RAINMAKER’.......once again...

Oh, don’t be concerned that I was involuntarily ‘IMPEACHED’ by the wonderful staff at AR...

My return to RAINMAKING was very mutually agreed upon...

You see, I’m from Douglassville, Pennsylvania, and I have sometimes been referred to as the ‘ASS’ in the center of DouglASSville...

I recently became aware that AmbASSador also had an ‘ASS’ in its center...AND...

Since I felt there were already too many ‘ASSES’ to go around in this great Country of ours...

Well, let’s just say I agreed to lose my ‘ASS’ at Active Rain in favor of returning to my very familiar role as ‘RAINMAKER’...

What with so many droughts in our Country these days...geographically, politically, and spiritually...

We can certainly use a breath of fresh air and A GOOD CLEANSING RAIN...!!!

Not to worry.......FRAN'S FRIDAY FORUM and Fran's Blog will still go on, and, who knows, I may still have time to post between FORUMS...

Have a great weekend...!!!

2012...A Leap Of Faith Year...???

It will take a ‘LEAP OF FAITH’ on behalf of many potential voters to bring about a successful 2012...!!!

Even though our current President has failed on just about every front, there are millions of deluded liberals who still have their heads in the sand.......(or perhaps the liberal heads are somewhere else)...who are still in denial...Actually, in fairness to liberals and conservatives alike, the people of whom I speak don’t deserve to be labelled either liberal or anything else because they wouldn’t be able to enunciate the ‘typical’ liberal mentality...no...these people, for the most part, are simply IGNORANT...!!!

WELL, this is a leap year, and we have one extra day to get educated...or one extra day to moan and groan about or wallow in our dissatisfactions...

Perhaps it was no coincidence that the year 2012 began on a Sunday...perhaps The Lord is reminding us to get our priorities straight...and He’s giving us one extra day to practice those priorities...for any ‘non-believers’, you have an extra day of grace to ‘catch the Spirit’...

Of course it would be much easier if potential voters would get a head start on their New Year’s resolutions by turning to the Lord first when faced with a problem situation...but, of course this would only happen if they trust THE LORD...some don’t even believe He exists...YET...

Someday ALL will know HE DOES...!!!

I pray that enough will take that LEAP of FAITH BEFORE the elections...!!!

Have a Happy & Blessed New Year...!!!

There are some very educated people who are saying, right now, that they will vote for President Obama in 2012...!!! And this in the face of an economy racked by foreclosures, bankruptcies, short sales, jobless, underemployed, debt ridden, near hopeless mentalities, etc..And all this...before Obama dips into his near billion dollar reelection stash...!!!

Of course, these ‘ostrich types’, are some of the same people who referred to President Bush as ‘STUPID’ or ‘DUMB’, and do the same when referring to any of the present opposition to Obama’s reelection...attacking the messengers instead of focusing on the message...

They simply cannot face reality...even though if they were to get into their cars and drive down any stretch of commercial real estate where business after business and building after building show signs of an economy that has put them out of business and caused them to go ‘belly up’...evidence in abundance...

WELL, if they attribute these signs to a Republican controlled House of Congress or yet the workings of President Bush now 3 years removed from office, rather than the failed policies of a destined-to-fail administration...What will their thinking be when President Obama begins spending some of his billion dollar ‘war chest’...

When even ‘some of the elect’ will be deceived...!!!

May I suggest, during this next week of Christmas Holiday, that each of us take that ride down the sickening evidence of a depressed economy, praying for The God of Peace to restore that which has become broken, and impress upon our minds an indelible vision of ‘where we really are’, so that when it comes time to vote, and we are bombarded by Obama’s Billion, our minds will see clearly to vote for a change in the presidency and the Senate as well...and show once and for all who the really smart ones are...!!!

Some see the ‘OCCUPIERS’ as prophets...but the true prophets are ‘THE TEA PARTIERS’, who, early on, saw what was happening to our dear Nation, and decided to do something about it...Diverse.....consisting of Republicans, Democrats, independents, conservatives, young and old alike, black, white, and every hue in between, Christian, Jew, and Atheist...determined by one motive only...To restore our Nation to the prosperity which it once enjoyed so that our posterity, children and grand children alike may enjoy God’s Blessings as we did...!!!

This is the Season which reminds us that Christ came to bring Peace To Men Of Good Will...

Wise Men still seek Him...!!! The unwise...???

Merry Christmas to ALL this Christmas Season...!!!

A recent article on MSN HOME explained how SOLAR ENERGY was empowering ‘DEVELOPING NATIONS’ to develop more quickly and efficiently...BTW, I keep MSN as my home page just to see what ‘the enemy’ is up to...!!!

If I thought the article had any merit I would have established a hot link on this blog for quick and handy reference to the piece...

However, like THE MEDIA, MSNBC, CNN, THE THREE MAJOR TV NETWORKS, THE NEW YORK TIMES, etc...Their hidden agendas are easily recognized and remain no longer hidden...

The only advantage provided by SOLAR ENERGY to the developing nations was to possibly move them out of the STONE AGE a few years sooner...giving them light bulb power for their tents, powering their radios and other low power appliances...

If God intended SOLAR POWER to be the ‘END ALL’ He would have made the sun shine day AND night...Instead He has, in His Wisdom, placed sufficient natural resources to power THE ENTIRE EARTH...right beneath our very soil...GEOTHERMAL...NATURAL GAS...CLEAN COAL...CRUDE OIL...and even those natural resources yet to be discovered by us...

The liberals must be getting desperate or concerned that their time of influence is rapidly about to come to an end...So they’re pulling out all stops before WE THE PEOPLE take back our Country and restore it to the prominence that God and Nature intended...!!!

While they’re looking out 93 million miles for salvation, it lies right beneath our feet...Perhaps even closer...!!!

Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS by keeping CHRIST at the center of your families...!!!

Last night’s Republican debate hosted by FOX NEWS was an eye opening and interesting exchange of important ideas...IF YOU WANT TO FIX OUR COUNTRY...!!!

I’ll give my liberal friends an opportunity to bow out gracefully from this post ‘right now’ if they still think that the Obama approach of ‘left now’ is still working...!!!

What I heard last night was promising inasmuch as the Republican candidates debating seemed to identify most, if not many, of the present political and societal ills plaguing us...

No new taxes, severe spending cuts, reducing the size of our government, strengthening our military, revising our tax codes, eliminating unnecessary and counterproductive government regulations, re-balancing our three branches of government, letting free markets decide our future growth, and the value of PROVEN LEADERSHIP AT THE HELM...

These are SOME of the ideas discussed and offered...THE PROBLEM...???

Finding ONE PERSON who embodies all of the ideas needed to pull our Country out of the dregs of recession and stagnancy and extreme debt...IMPOSSIBLE...???

EMPHATICALLY...NO, NO, NO...!!!

Nothing is impossible with God...!!! If we keep God at the center of our lives and our Country He will lead us to the RIGHT CANDIDATE...

A PRO LIFE mentality and a restoration of FAMILY VALUES are two of the areas which I omitted from my litany of ideas discussed last night...

Fresh from a weekend SPIRITUAL RETREAT, I am still motivated to ‘STORM THE THRONE’ with prayers for our future, and I encourage my readers to join with me...!!!

Heavenly Father, protect our nation as we seek to improve our political and economic system. Help us to focus on YOU, YOUR GOODNESS AND GENEROSITY, and seek YOUR WISDOM in these matters. Show us the RIGHT WAY and give us the COURAGE we need to make tough decisions...We pray in Jesus’ NAME...!!!

Have a great weekend...!!!

Is it ironic that the MEDIA...SECULAR, ANTI RELIGIOUS, and DEATH CULTURAL...when spelled backwards is A..I..D..E..M..

AND 'AID EM' will be revealed in this post...

If you’re like me, you’ve become tired of repeated character assassinations, especially on openly religious celebrities, focusing attention on distractions to solving our nation’s problems rather than issues that promise to address and eradicate those problems...

If you would like examples...how about just in the last two weeks the coverage given to former republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and now repeated media attempts to discredit and demonize rising presidential aspirant, Newt Gingrich.......

All the while ignoring coverage of Jon Corzine, former New Jersey politician who cannot account for 1.2 billion dollars of funds lost by a company while he was CEO, Eric Holder, Attorney General who perjured himself while being questioned by Congress on ‘Fast and Furious’...and our own President Obama who repeatedly and daily ‘executes’ orders that continually attack our American system of government and Christian values...

AND LIKE THE THREE MONKEYS...'THE MEDIA' HEAR no evil, SPEAK no evil, and SEE no evil...

Now, FAITH comes by HEARING...so it is not a coincidence that the FIRST MONKEY HEARS no evil...then, if you’re not hearing THE TRUTH, you can’t SPEAK it...ala, the SECOND MONKEY...AND FINALLY...

THE THIRD MONKEY SEES no Evil...which is the MO for all that is EVIL...TURN YOUR HEAD when you see injustice, dwell on the distraction rather than THE CAUSE, ignore SIN as if it doesn’t exist, reject GOOD and TRUTH while opting for lies and mistruths...

ALL ‘works’ of THE EVIL ONE...whose reality THE MEDIA won’t even acknowledge...

Reminds me of a message seen recently by my sister on a billboard along an interstate highway...THE BILLBOARD said something like this.......

OH HELL.....I FORGOT ABOUT THAT...!!!

There IS a HEAVEN...There IS a HELL...AND There IS DEATH...The Three Last Things...

BE NOT AFRAID, however...THERE IS ALSO A SAVIOUR...we celebrate HIS COMING in history some 2000 years ago, we continue to commemorate HIS KINGDOM during ADVENT and CHRISTMAS each year with longing and great expectation, and HE HIMSELF IS THE TRUTH who WILL SET US FREE...

HIS NAME IS JESUS...!!!

Wise Men still Worship Him, and So Do I...

Have a great weekend...!!!

Have you ever heard of THEA BOWMAN...???

Sister Thea Bowman died in 1990 at the young age of 52...!!!

At one time the only BLACK Sister of the Franciscan Sisters Of Perpetual Adoration, Thea spent most of her life fighting against racism and discrimination, and fighting for Christian transparency and the spread of Jesus’ authentic Christian message...and all of this within as well as outside The Church and all of its collateral institutions...

Influenced by the witness of Catholic Nuns in her hometown in Mississippi, Sister Thea became a Catholic at the age of ten with the permission of her Protestant parents, and before she turned 18, she decided to become a member of the Franciscan Sisters, where she served until her death at age 52...eventually succumbing to the cancer that overtook her physically...HOWEVER...

Not before she could give a discourse in 1989 to The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops which for me serves as Her signature Christian witness and testimony...!!!

Her legacy is the ‘preaching’ she accomplished both during and after her lifetime...using basic skills and gifts of song, education, wisdom, culture, heritage, public speaking, etc...

This little blog cannot begin to contain or adequately describe the effect she has had on the lives of everyone around her as well as the lives of The Universal Church...

I regret that I myself only recently discovered her and her saintly demeanor and lifestyle...I invite and encourage you to do your own research and study of her life and works...!!!

The one attribute I want to focus in on with this post is her adamant disgust for ‘back room dealing’, ‘good ole boy’ networking, and her bringing attention to the lack of transparency in life altering situations...again, both within the church and in the world of the average American...!!!

Unfortunately, sleazy back room deals still exist despite the many laws and regulations that have been enacted since the civil rights movement of the sixties...!!!

Sister Thea Bowman realized that real changes wouldn’t occur until they were begun in the heart...and these changes come about only through prayer, hard work, and spiritual conversion...!!!

To honor her memory and legacy, I rededicate this Blog to her vision of eradicating isms wherever they exist, and making the world a better place to live...And doing it through Love, Song, and Education...!!!

Have a great weekend...!!!

THE AMERICAN DREAM concept on which I was raised and to which I dedicated most of my working life...has surely become distorted...if not altogether obliterated...

The American Dream needs to be resurrected and redefined...

In fact, maybe it’s best that we do away with the term altogether inasmuch as I heard recently that political factions intend to use the term fallaciously to achieve even more misdirected political clout...!!!

In any case, bear with me as I attempt to explore and explain the concept as I see it.......

THEN:

The ideal or ‘dream’ as it previously existed simply stated that our American society should do all in its means to see that each and every American that desires it shall be able to acquire HOME OWNERSHIP...

On its surface this ideal appears quite admirable and just...Of course it is mute when it comes to those who neither seek to own their own home nor those for whom home ownership may be either impractical or financially inadvisable...

Nevertheless, THE AMERICAN DREAM as I just outlined it seemed for most to be a great ideal upon which to ‘grow our economy’ while at the same time to demonstrate the strength and social justice of capitalism...!!!

Like many ideals, however, once political power and greed and excessive egotism take hold, free market conditions don’t apply and things get askew...!!!

NOW:

The American Dream has not only been put on the back burner, while millions upon millions of Americans scramble to find jobs, pay bills, provide for future needs and ponder what went wrong, but The American Dream has become a NIGHTMARE for many...

Before we can reposition THE AMERICAN DREAM to its rightful place (I still believe in it in its original form), we must see to the other basic needs of our society and economy...

At least we know now and have learned over the past six or so years that THE AMERICAN DREAM cannot be forced upon anyone...nor must EVERYONE buy into it...!!! I know many successful and financially capable people who choose for any number of good reasons not to acquire their own homes...For some, singles or couples, it may even be financially unwise...!!!

So what is needed to restore sanity to our political system and our economy, and restore THE AMERICAN DREAM to its former majesty...???

I don’t have concrete answers, but I am willing to offer some suggestions which I think are sound and practical...

***We don’t need a lot of new legislation...the laws we currently have aren’t even being enforced...

***Like fine wine, many dreams need to ‘age’...we cant ‘rush’ a dream or ‘force’ it upon anyone...even if it seems politically expedient...we can only remove any impediments that may be in our power to eliminate...e.g. racism, sexism, back room cronyism, greed, egotism, selfishness, etc.

***If something doesn’t make sense...don’t do it...

***Taxation doesn’t create Social Justice, it merely sustains governments...

***CAPITALISM isn’t a dirty word...even the worst totalitarian states must use CAPITALISM if they desire to trade internationally...for my friends who can’t see past this, substitute ‘ASSETS’ for ‘CAPITAL’...

***If it’s true that we have beneath our American soil all the oil, natural gas, and other natural resources necessary to sustain life, we have a moral duty and obligation to become enablers so that these God given BLESSINGS aren’t misused or ignored...

There are many more suggestions that may be appropriate at this time in our Nation’s history, but this is only a blog, not a complete analysis of the situation...There is plenty here to ‘chew on’ while we get about the task of restoring sanity and common sense to our beloved Nation...!!!

God Bless America and The Real American Dream...!!!