books I've read in the past month

Here's my list of books I read in November. I put a * buy the ones I recommend.

"A Lesson in Secrets (Maisie Dobbs, #8)" by Jacqueline Winspear

**"Tuesdays at the Castle" by Jessica Day George

"Sullivan's Woman" by Nora Roberts

"Breaking Night: A Memoir" by Liz Murray

"Irish Hearts #3" by Nora Roberts

"The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise" by Julia Stuart

books I've read in the past month

Here's the list of books I've read in the past month. I've * the ones I recommend.

Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston
*The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe
Bound South by Susan Rebecca White
*The Hidden Christ: Beneath the Surface of the Old Testament by James L. Ferrell
The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim
The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The Compound by S.A. Bodeen

I've loved Little Women since I was a girl and have lost track of how many times I've read it. The Hidden Christ took me forever to read because I had to do some heavy-duty thinking.

The biggest disappointment was Between a Rock and a Hard Place. It has been on my to-read list for over a year. It's the memoir of a trapped hiker in Southern Utah who had to cut off his arm to free himself and survive. It sounded like my type of book but the book is mostly about Aron's outdoor adventures in the years leading up to his canyon entrapment and escape.

books I've read in the past month

Here's the books I've read in the past month. I've ** the ones I recommend.

**The Bricklayer by Noah Boyd
Hannah's List by Debbie Macomber
Bad Things Happen by Harry Dolan
Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter by Lisa Patton
Goddess of the Hunt (Goddess Trilogy, #1) by Tessa Dare
Untraceable (Tracers, #1) by Laura Griffin
**The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan
A False Dawn by Tom Lowe
**Mockingjay (Hunger Games #3) by Suzanne Collins
**Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham

The 5000 Year Leap

I recently finished reading "The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World" by W. Cleon Skousen. It's an educational book about America's founding fathers and the principles they applied to write the Constitution and form our government.

I learned so much from this book but what struck me the most was how far our current government has strayed from the founding father's original plans. It is actually scary!

For instance, it was considered essential that the government not go into debt. If forced into debt, it was to pay off the debt as quickly as possible. With the budget Pres. Obama has submitted for 2010-2019 the national debt would stand at an annual deficit of $7.3 to $9.1 trillion. This is an amount I fear we will never be able to repay.

Other principles include that written laws should not be so voluminous or incoherent that they can not be easily read and understood. Tax code anyone? (I had to take tax courses in college and they made me insane!)

Another principle is that a free people in a civilized society always tend towards prosperity. Only as the federal government has usurped authority and intermeddled with the free-market economy has this surge of prosperity been inhibited. That is a truly scary thought in today's economic climate especially as we watch the federal government institute bail-outs.

One other principle our founding fathers believed is that the government of a free people cannot be maintained without religion. They even thought it was essential that religion be taught in schools. There were five points that were to be taught in schools:

1)There exists a Creator who made all things, and mankind should recognize and worship him.

2) The Creator has revealed a moral code of behavior for happy living which distinguishes right from wrong.

3) The Creator holds mankind responsible for the way they treat each other.

4) All mankind live beyond this life.

5) In the next life mankind are judged for their conduct in this one.

The whole Constitutional framework was built on these five points. (For example, the sanctity of civil rights and property rights.)

These are just a few of the principles that our founding fathers intended. How have we gotten so far off track? Is it better today? Have the changes that have been made been for the best? I don't believe so. I would love to go back to a strict interpretation of the Constitution and a limited Federal government.