September 15, 2011 journal, who wrote rules for Congress retirement different than us. "Why shouldn't Congressional representatives and senators receive retirement benefits at the same age of eligibility for Social Security? That is a good question, particularly since the Congressional pensions are lavish in comparison to Social Security. Sen. Sherrod Brown criticized this inequity earlier this year: Currently, Members of Congress can begin collecting pensions as early as age 50, while working Americans cannot collect full Social Security benefits until age 66. According to the Congressional Research Service (CRS), retirement with an immediate, full pension is available to Members of Congress covered under FERS at age 62 or older with at least five years of federal service; at age 50 or older with at least 20 years of service; and at any age to Members with at least 25 years of service. For Members covered by CSRS, retirement with an immediate, full pension is available to Members age 60 or older with 10 years of service in Congress, or age 62 with five years of civilian federal service, including service in Congress. Brown strongly opposes raising the retirement age for Social Security due to the high number of Ohioans who are engaged in physically demanding work - on a shop floor, production line, or farmland. Brown has long been active in efforts to protect Social Security from privatization, and has worked to ensure that seniors can continue to afford necessities like prescriptio n drugs despite the lack of cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) that Social Security recipients have faced for the past two years. This week, Brown introduced legislation to ensure that any increase in Social Security retirement age is matched by the same age of eligibility being applied to the generous taxpayer-funded pension plans for those serving in Congress. Given that the "White House" has been sending out trial balloons for weeks that President Obama inexplicably supports raising the eligibility age for Social Security to 68, it is of some comfort that at least one member of Congress is holding our elected officials accountable for "walking in our shoes." Yet, if Brown's bill is unlikely to pass, he considers legislation that would make deficit reduction begin on Capitol Hill - through reducing Congressional salaries by 10 percent - even a longer shot. "I think some might [take the cut]," Brown said. "But I would guess probably a bill like that won't pass." That is because as far as most of DC is concerned, including the White House, what's good for the goose (cuts in pensions, salaries, and health care for the working class) is not good for the gander (the elected elites who enact those cuts on everyone but themselves and the wealthy.)" Mark Karlin This is why, one reason why Washington must be resolved. Washington's days are numbered by God Almighty. I hope to see a day soon when the U.S. Treasury nor the Fed can pay for the wars or Congressional retirement. And how about them cashing checks at the federal canteen? It is reported publicly that the capital canteen holes millions in bad checks on Congress. If Congressman don't obey the law can they expect the general public to obey the law? It is reported that foreclosures have now gone into overdrive with the banks rushing it up. The song we sang in Congress is meaningless as the help provided is worthless to anyone. Bad mortgages cannot be refinanced because they do not have the original paper work. They say a trap is set for the Republicans in the jobs bill and certainly a trap is set for the workers in the abomination health care bill. We're going to see a major meltdown of this economy. This empire is history but imitation power people will continue in make belief. The Fed has extended the life of banks but no way can they keep them afloat any longer. Banks are not going broke because of delinquent mortgages but their losses in derivatives trading and banks are broke, just look at Bank America, one of the most deserving ever. With Bank America laying off 40,000 & the Post Office 150,000, employment is history. Major malls all reporting 50% vacancy and I am sure the hotels are more than that figure. We are about to see an industrial wasteland in this country with goon squads such as tsa. It is so obvious that when they quit borrowing & spending it will create doomsday in this country. The U.S. Treasury can write worthless checks and nothing will have changed. Authorization from the foreign Federal Reserve Communist banking institution is phony. States will all be forced to create their own real solid currency in gold and silver as is required by the Constitution. The most powerful country on earth militarily has no money because Congress and Woodrow Wilson gave it away to the red German shield in 1913. Congress must reverse that scam if America is to survive and I do believe the spandrels are scattering. The obscure Illuminati owners of our money are Khazar Zionist Russian Communist. We are occupied by a foreign power, by a shadow Communist government. The time may be very short in which they will be all revealed and driven out once again as they were in all of Europe in the last 500 years. It is going to be the second nine double one when the people do finally take back their currency from the Israelite impersonators. Robbery ain't no name for what these people have done to America and the blind Church. "Prayer is my passion. Although I am not good at it and don't fully understand it, I am growing in that discipline. So is Larry Crabb. From the first page of his latest book The PAPA Prayer, the reader connects with Crabb's personal struggle with prayer over the years. As a self-proclaimed "relentless realist", Crabb shares his journey from lifeless praying to a new way of relating to God. Reading his book is like talking to a safe friend who, without condemnation, shares where he came from, the journey, and how God has and is changing him. The PAPA Prayer is centered on knowing God and building a relationship with Him. The goal is not praise nor thanksgiving, and certainly not petition, for which we evangelicals are famous. Many of our personal and corporate prayer times are often a list of wants and needs as if we are sitting on Santa's lap as a child before Christmas. Sure there are a few sentences praising God and thanking Him, but the majority of time is spent listing off requests. However good and needed these requests may be, Crabb suggests that prayer is not about that at all. It is not about making our life on earth as comfortable as possible, nor praying for everything to go right; it is about us coming to God as we are and relating to Him. Relational Prayer is us communicating in a real way with the God of the universe where we speak and we also listen. Not only that, but we learn to hear, not in a mystical way, but in a practical way The first step in the Papa prayer is presenting yourself to God, not in how you think that you should be, but in how you really are, authentically. Crabb suggests that you make a pattern of looking at where you are, to your very core, and telling God just that without holding anything back. You are to find your "red dot" -- the exact point that you are at that very moment. Once you have presented the real you, then you attend to your present picture of God. Many of us grow up picturing God in an inaccurate manner, perhaps as a buddy or a stern father. It is important to unpack how you are thinking of God and then correct it with Scripture. "When we see Yesu don't casually pray ... Instead, we're silenced."