Sleeping Longer Than Needful

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This weekend, I slept in one of the most uncomfortable hotel beds I’ve ever had. It wasn’t as bad as the one in the hotel the military put us up in just before I weighed in at the MEPS, but my back was sore and I was in a bad mood all day.

The bed at the hotel in Salt Lake City was one of those sleep number beds. I think primarily my lack of knowledge about my supposed sleep number accounted for the bad night, that and the other USAF officer candidate with whom I shared a room stayed up watching TV all night.

Many manufacturers make beds meant to help you sleep better, but they all have one major flaw in that they depend on gravity for the goodness of fit. These beds, whether foam or sleep number or water or air or whatever assume you are fit and healthy already in order to meet their promise of a good night’s sleep. They compensate for stress points which are not necessarily the points at which stress needs to be most mitigated.

Consider if you will that if you carry extra weight around your midsection the bed will interpret that as a curvature to maintain. Yet, as you lay in bed, gravity pulls that weight down, throwing off the curvature of the spine and actually exacerbating the aggravation of your back, shoulders, etc. The beds fight gravity and are designed assuming a healthy individual with normal spine curvature.

Your spine naturally curves inward towards your pelvis at the point where it connects to your tailbone. The bed ignores that and assumes a cupping shape under your body, since the soft organs of your gut press down at night. Uninformed but well-intended though they may be, these engineers have tried to tackle a problem that may not have a solution. Is it possible to make a bed that properly supports you, or would it be best to follow the admonition of Ben Franklin: Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. People often sleep far longer than is needful.

All of these posture-pedic accessories assume you are healthy. According to the media, most of us aren’t, ergo these beds may make it seem in a psychosomatic way that you’re resting well when you really aren’t.

Projection

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At the advice of a friend, I read The Adjusted American. While I disagreed with much of their premise, one theory in particular continues to resonate in my mind. The authors argue that in relationships the problem lies in the fact that we project how we view a person onto the person, obfuscating the way that person really is. As a result, as we learn and grow and get to know them better, we often meet with disappointment. In my last relationship, the woman with whom I was with complained that I wasn’t the person she thought I was. Other friends, and family especially, disagreed- I was still the same person. I just wasn’t the person she convinced herself I was, which meant I could never please her in any way.

Knowing that over time the articles fade and vanish, I want to copy down some of the points made by a recent article I read. The authors make some salient points that I may have mentioned before but that I wish to reiterate this new year as I embark on new adventures in my new surroundings. According to the dope of my horoscope, this is my year, and although so far it’s been pretty lousy, I’m inclined to believe. Last year wasn’t too shabby either.

1. You will look at the person lying next to you and wonder, Is this it? Forever?

Marriage often breeds disappointment. CS Lewis wrote about how once the romance is gone and people settle down to make a home together they realize that without the rose colored glasses their partner isn’t as saintly as they supposed. This is the major theme I mentioned from the Adjusted American. The knee-jerk reaction at this point has become in my lifetime that people get divorced or give up (if they’re not married) instead of trying to resolve conflicts. One of the only complaints I have about growing up military is that I never learned how to forge long-term relationships; we moved every 3-4 years, and so if things went south, I was never able or even inclined really to salvage them. I don’t have any old friends, and I have even fewer old female friends with whom to forge a meaningful and lasting relationship leading to marriage.

2. You'll work harder than you ever imagined.

The author says: getting married doesn't mean you're done -- it just means you've advanced to graduate-level studies. That's because every time you think you've mastered the material, he'll change a bit. And so will you.

That’s the true irony of marriage or relationships in general really. We all change. Just because you get on today doesn’t mean you always will and just because you don’t today doesn’t mean you won’t tomorrow. It’s funny how many women just write me off, only to admit they were wrong later. If your relationship is long enough, you have things on which to fall back and remember the good times when things went well, but so many people just rush in. One of them I knew well once admitted to me that he and his wife got lucky. Many people don’t.

3. You will sometimes go to bed mad (and maybe even wake up madder).

Wow, interesting. I had always heard to never go to bed mad, but if the other person is tired, unwieldy, etc., then you’re just bound to exacerbate the problem. Making peace for the sake of making peace masks the problem. I have always tried not to be goaded into arguments or discussions when I’m not ready to have them. When emotions are on high binge, it’s hard to have a rational and logical discussion of issues. Like the author says: You need to calm down. You need to gain perspective. You need to just give it a rest. I've found that an argument of any quality, like a fine wine, needs to breathe. A break in the action will help you figure out whether you're angry, hurt, or both, and then pinpoint the exact source.

4. Getting your way is usually not as important as finding a way to work together.

If you really care about someone else, then you want to do things together. If you insist on getting your way, pretty soon you will be going your way- alone. I picture C3PO walking in the desert on his own after he refuses to follow R2-D2… Eventually, they both ended up being captured and sold. There really is no right and wrong in most decisions; there is simply a difference in valuation (von Mises). Yes, you may be more right, but just because a joint decision may not be the most right thing possible doesn’t make it wrong.

5. A great marriage doesn't mean no conflict; it simply means a couple keeps trying to get it right.

Anyone who claims they never made an enemy never did anything, and any person who claims they never fought with a loved one never honestly spoke his mind. When people of differing backgrounds and beliefs and values and norms come together, there is bound to be conflict. Lasting and strong relationships are not those without conflict but rather those in which conflict is truly resolved.

6. You'll realize that you can only change yourself.

This is one of the most fundamental things I’ve had to learn and relearn in life. As I made an appraisal of last year, I realized that my disappointment and disillusion largely stemmed from things exigent to my control. Everything I control is splendid, and every part of everything I don’t control is fine. My disappointment lies with the exercise of agency on the part of other people with whom I interact who act sometimes to my detriment. You don’t control the agency of any other person.

In my last relationship, when I had problems, instead of listing off a litany of complaints about her I sought advice from family and clergy about how to fix myself. I figured that if I became the best I could be, I would be at peace with myself and God and then I could rest easy if things fell apart. I also really like this quote: Transforming a full-grown man -- stripping him of decades-old habits, beliefs, and idiosyncrasies -- is truly an impossible task.

7. As you face your fears and insecurities, you will find out what you're really made of.

People come to expect things in relationships based on preconceived valuations of things the other person does. If you set a precedence for always beginning the day with a text, some girls who like that come to think that if you forgot to send it you no longer care. Likewise, a lot of people are disappointed when they find their partner reverting to his/her natural state once they no longer need to woo their mate. There is a story told of a newlywed who looked at the woman in bed after she’d stripped off her makeup, fancy dress, etc., and asked, “What have you done with my wife?” My sister said that if a guy likes her at her worst, he will like her at her best. Expectations set people up for the fall. In the end, we’re all just human.

Relationships are hard. Communication is hard. That’s why I like teaching labs- they’re not about lecturing, they deal more in interaction and discussion. So, other people hate them because they’re hard, but I have ironically forged friendships with students- some of them have brought me cookies, invited me to their weddings, etc. Granted I wouldn’t date them even if I liked them, but we connect in a real way. I wish I could transmigrate those relationships to a greater degree of permanency like other teachers I know, but I take solace in knowing I have made a difference in the lives of people I know.

Picture a Christmas

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Every year at Christmas I think about historical Christmases and feel inclined to compare. While you and I may believe that we’ve experienced odd Christmases, I ask you to consider a Christmas day 232 years ago on the banks of the Delaware River in northern Pennsylvania.

On Christmas Day 1776 after having received orders to keep their blankets close and carry three days’ worth of rations, General Washington’s troops assembled at the ferry landing and were given the password for the day, “Victory or Death”. Under cover of a hail and sleet storm alternating with snow, the men arrived by 3PM and waited on the bank for boats to arrive in the ice-choked river, beginning the crossing at nightfall. Washington and a party of Virginia troops crossed over first to secure a landing site. Delays in crossing due to weather put Washington 3 hours behind his goal of establishing an order of battle by midnight in New Jersey, and both Generals Ewing and Cadwalader remained in Pennsylvania, leaving Washington bereft of all artillery support and without an entire brigade of continentals for the attack.

As soon as the army was ready, Washington ordered it split into two columns, one under the command of himself and General Greene, the second under General Sullivan. In that two pronged attack, they surprised the Hessian mercenaries despite alarms from the pickets. Only three Americans were killed and six wounded, while 22 Hessians were killed with 98 wounded. The Americans were able to capture 1,000 prisoners and seize muskets, powder, and artillery.

Whatever else I say about Christmases of the past in my life, I realize that I have never spent such a solemnly holy day in like manner. After months of privations under adverse weather conditions, starvation and unbroken defeat thus far in the revolution, Washington’s men moved out and went to battle on the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior. Three Americans slept forever because of the duties of that day. It was not a silent night, or even a holy night in and of itself, but Washington gave us a great gift that day- courage and a different kind of Faith.

I bought myself a present this year because I’ve wanted to own this for years but never had the money to do so until now, which is highly ironic given the “economic crisis”. Years ago, I actually met the people who own the original and saw it with my own eyes, and I have never forgotten it.

“May God grant us an early peace and victory found in injustice and instill in the hearts and minds of men everywhere a firm purpose to live in peace with goodwill toward all.” –Bing Crosby

In this time of our great need, may God gift us another paragon to show us the way to peace through Christ like he did Christmas Day 1776.

Lives, Fortunes and Sacred Honor

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If Carter Braxton (signer of the Declaration of Independence from Virginia) had invested the $10,000 he loaned to the country for the revolution, that in and of itself, at 8% interest compounded annually would be worth a whopping $567,951,528,886.04 today. That's a half trillion dollars worth of today's money that he was willing to spend on the cause of freedom. Additionally, this shipping magnet dedicated his fleet to the cause of liberty and lost every ship either sunk or captured by the British Navy. British Army units also razed all but one of his plantations, leaving him basically bereft at the end of the war. The US Government never repaid the loan.

A friend of mine newly conscripted into the USMC tells me that the Department of Defense doesn't get enough money. From what he tells me, they still make due with leftovers from Vietnam. He also says that by the time you factor in all the hours that enlisted men work, the average private earns about $2/hour. For all the hubbub about the minimum wage being so important, I don't know how our elected officials allow this travesty.

If I were a Senator, the first thing I'd lobby for is a 10% increase in funding for expenses and a 10% pay increase for active duty personnel. It's a crime that our fighting men earn so little for their sacrifice while senators and judges vote themselves pay raises, even in the midst of an economic crisis. Shoot, I know some members of Congress opposed the GM bailout bill on the auspices that it contained an unrelated pay raise for the judiciary. How does that make sense and why are we paying for such a non value-added event? Granted, you don't necessarily join the military for the pay...you join it because you love your country, but if we're going to have a minimum wage, by gum it ought to apply to E-1s just as much to the fry guy at McDonald's.

Godspeed to our fighting men and women. May they know how much we love and appreciate them. If only we had a Carter Braxton today willing to pledge his life, his fortune and his sacred honor for such a valuable gift as freedom. That's after all what Christmas is all about- freedom from the woes of sin, the sting of death, and the chains of the past. That's why Marley came to Scrooge, and it's why Christ came for all of us.

Keep faith with our fighting men. No aid and comfort for the enemy.

Stories that Irk Me

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As the economy sours and we head into recession depression, many people misunderstand the truth about declining gas prices. While prices fall, that fall comes coupled to a fall in demand with zero change in supply. At the same time, OPEC plans to cut production, which, if we return to the same level of demand we saw in summer, we will have higher prices given a surge in demand because they are further cutting supply. The thing to do now is to EXPAND supply- increase access to more commodities. That’s the Wal-Mart theorem of business- sell in volume regardless of price and by so doing bring in more money. Instead, politicians avail themselves of this reprieve in gas prices to further restrict the energy market. As soon as the eye of this storm passes over, just like hurricane winds, the shear on the other side of the eye will be worse than it was before the storm broke above us, and prices will go over $5/gal, mark my words.

During the campaign, Senator Joe Biden proclaimed that it was a patriotic duty to pay taxes. Now I read a story that if you pay fewer taxes you are somehow cheating. That’s the problem with politicians. Said Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin, politicians regard everything as THEIR money- they “let” us keep some of it for ourselves, but if they can they will take everything we have. That’s why anyone who gets more money back because he knows the nuances of the system, the laws, and the loopholes finds himself labeled a cheater- he’s cheating the government out of what it “deserves”. Why does government deserve any of our money? The only thing they spend it on that I really endorse is the military.

South For the Winter

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I left Cedar City last night to avoid the storm coming in this morning, knowing that after the 6-8" of snow that accumulated in UT it would only get more difficult to get back to Vegas and go to work. When I got up this morning to exercise, to my surprise and dismay, I found that it was snowing outside and briskly windy. It makes it really hard to ride a bike under those conditions.

According to the news, the snow level drops today to 2000 ft, which means snow could fall anywhere in this city. I think I'll take my time getting home. Everyone knows how bad the first storms can be in places where people are USED to driving in snow. It can only be worse here, and I commute 21 miles one way...

This just goes to show that the term "desert" has nothing whatsoever to do with temperature...it's all about rainfall, and although odd and impressive, I think we're tracking near average for annual precipitation. Usually it comes as rain.

Shoes and Shots

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On the way home from Cedar City last night, I heard talk about how someone threw a shoe at President Bush while he visited the nation of Iraq. As people remarked about this for other reasons, I considered how powerful an indicator of progress this makes.

While living in Innsbruck, my missionary companion and I performed service at a place that gave people with mental and physical disabilities something productive to do. One week, we worked with Hans (*name has been changed*) who ran the woodworking section of the facility, which was sort of an Austrian version of Opportunity Village. As he and I helped the patients paint the displays Hans cut for them to paint and assemble, he told me a story.

Shortly after the Anschluess, when Austria came under control of the Third Reich, Hitler paid a visit to Innsbruck to do some skiing. Hans' grandfather, at the time the mayor of Innsbruck, showed up as obliged to meet the Nazi leader, but instead of returning the Nazi salute as Hitler arrived on the stage, this man instead flipped him the middle finger (or the Austrian equivalent). The SS shot him down where he stood.

All of Hans' uncles were sent to the Russian front as well as his father, and his aunts were sent to work outside Mathausen in support of the concentration camp being set up there. Only Hans' father survived the war, but he changed his name to protect his family.

If any man had thrown a shoe at Hitler, the SS would have shot him down where he stood. It just goes to show how much bigger America and her current president, the great George W Bush, are compared to tyrants, dictators, and terrorists around the world.

Imaginary Numbers

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Weighing all the platitudes, pandering, and what-ifs among the promises of politicians, I realized that Liberal Democrats deal completely in imaginary numbers. In a previous post, I spoke about how Obama’s economic plan, while creating a quarter million green jobs and the like will result in a net job loss. These Democrats do not live in the real world.

Of late, in discussions with a friend reading The Screwtape Letters as part of a philosophy/religion course, I reread lots of Clive Staples Lewis. In that same volume, Lewis argues that many people feel tempted to live in the future and dabble in eventualities. Although it is well and good to plan for the future, to live there defies all reason, for the real world is the one we have, not the one we want to have. If you do not know where you really are, how can you possibly chart a clear course to where you want to be?

Liberals, like the Patient in Lewis’ allegory, live in a world they imagine up unto themselves. For the Patient, Wormwood enflamed his rage against a neighbor for slights and offenses while encouraging a benign accommodation towards the Nazis. Thus, his magnanimity towards the Nazis whom he never met becomes largely imaginary while his disdain for his neighbor remains wholly real. By the same rhetoric, Liberals want us to reach out to people in Botswana, Darfur, and the Belgian Congo (do you even know where those places are?), who are not real people to us while they ignore the plight of coal miners, auto assembly line workers, military support personnel, etc., who as a result of their policies find themselves less able to care for their families, either through confiscatory taxes or through loss of livelihood and hearth. They villainize people who are wholly real and extend gestures of good will towards people largely imaginary.

Regardless of what we do, Adam Smith writes in Moral Sentiments, the way to best change the world remains to focus on our sphere of influence. The further your efforts and money must travel to affect the life of someone distal, the less of it arrives at its destination (think about power lost in electric transmission lines over great distance or icebergs melting as they move south). It has been said that through six degrees of separation, we know everyone on the planet. If that’s the case, through a mere six iterations, we can reach the people who need our help by touching people who touch other people who are in a direct position to touch the people we want to help. We help people who need it most by encouraging a system that pays it forward. Jesus taught that we will always have the poor among us, and poverty is not simply a matter of economics, as he also taught.

Policies of the Liberal mindset ignore two basic phenomenon associated with risk. Whenever you reach out, you risk the chance that people will either refuse the offering or waste it. As such, it makes sense to invest where you can maximize the returns of an investment and in such a fashion that provides the best management of limited resources towards arriving at aims. General contractors generally work on site because they cannot effectively and efficiently manage activity on a job site from an office distal in space and time.

Liberals also misunderstand two basic mathematical principles in investment. First, the Law of Probability teaches that the odds remain the same regardless of the frequency of an event. For example, on a six-sided die, there is always a 1/6 chance that a particular number will come up, one chance for each face. That someone rolls a “3” ten times in a row does not mean that the odds are higher (or lower) that it will come up as a “3” on the next roll. Each event occurs independently of the others. Liberals continue to try the same projects, the same solutions as a means to fix problems. Someone once said that insanity defined means trying the same thig twice and expecting different results. Secondly, the Law of Diminishing Returns teaches that continuing the same thing does not increase the return on your investment. People mistakenly believe that buying more lottery tickets increases their chances of winning. If only one ticket is drawn, they still have the same chance of winning- only one ticket will win, regardless of how many you bought. The only thing you guarantee by buying more tickets is the total amount vested in a risky venture. Liberals expand the number of people working on problems and the amount of money spent on them. Throwing more money and personnel into a faulty program will not make the program more effective, only more expensive.

With distance, the effect of effort dilutes. We need to start learning to deal with real numbers, with the things we actually control. Liberals need to stop trying to make heaven which is fallen the utopia that heaven alone can sustain. Start by telling your boss, your wife, your neighbor, your friends, your grocer, whatever, and then encourage them to pass it on and pay the favor forward. Only when we learn to stop dealing with eventualities and chance will there be a return on our investment that actually pays off.

Truth About Turnout

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A recent article detailing the defeat of Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) throws into sharp relief the truth about turnout for the Democrat party. You probably don't remember, but Congressman Jefferson detoured a national guard unit to evacuate his personal property during Hurricane Katrina, only to have the armored vehicle get stuck. When other personnel arrived to extricate the vehicle and the beleaguered congressman, they discovered $90K in cash stored in his freezer.

The article blames Jefferson's defeat on low turnout by blacks in the district. Despite the allegedly phenomenal turnout on behalf of Barack Obama for president, apparently the blacks could not be bothered to turn out to vote for Jefferson, who is himself black. There were no buses organized for this special election, no free coffee and donuts, and no cash incentives to vote, and so the poor of New Orleans' ninth ward didn't show up to vote. It wasn't worth it to the Democrat party to repeat the expenditures of the general election for a single congressional seat.

Democrats routinely rely on matters of dubious legality to encourage voter turnout. You may recall that one of the observers at my polling place on election day was wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt, in flagrant violation of the nonpartisan rules governing his attendance. He kept it concealed from us for most of the day, and I suspect that among the poll workers I was probably the only anti-Obaman. Dead people, convicted felons, the homeless, people from other districts, etc., all file in on election day to help spur Democrat party victory. Although I've never seen these things in action, we know that in MN Al Franken (the failed comedian) is relying on tons of votes that suddenly appeared out of the ether to challenge the incumbent. Up in Reno, during the 2004 election, I remember seeing a bus pull up and unload tons of people at the high school where I voted in front of a man who then gave them a speech before they got in line.

So many people despise their franchise. They do not take advantage of it unless incentivized to vote. When you give people an extra incentive, they denigrate it's value, and you commit a crime, having in essence bought a vote. That which we obtain too easily we esteem too lightly. This is one reason why I oppose early voting. If they cannot be bothered to show up on election day and do what is necessary, maybe they don't deserve the right to vote.

History Made Real

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It's almost exactly to the minute now as I finish up this post that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. Although it seems so far away both in space and in time, Pearl Harbor will always mean something more to me because it has been made real, even more so given that it's Sunday morning just before 8AM, and if I'd been there that day, this is when I would have seen the world forever changed.

My family has had much cause to cross paths with the strips of sand and soil on which this battle was protracted. We met my father there when he finished his tour of duty in Korea. I stayed in the bellows barracks, not far from where the submarines surfaced just prior to the attack. We saw the gun emplacements. My grandfather served a mission there at the end of the war. I've been at the memorial and looked down onto that massive rusting hulk that was once the USS Arizona and wondered about the men whose bodies may still be trapped inside.

People, like Lincoln said at Gettysburg, little note or long remember things like this. I thank God that he gave me parents who made this type of experience real for me- who took me to Gettysburg and Williamsburg, Yellowstone and Hanauma Bay, The Golden Spike and Hoover Dam. History has been made real to me.

My best friend paid me interesting tribute as regards my opinion of Americana. When I asked him if he thought it was weird that I bedeck my room with patriotic symbols and the like, especially since they made such a big deal about the fact that Obama veritably refused to, he flatly denied it. With me, he said, he knew it was real. I really love my country. When I hear fighter jets course overhead from Nellis AFB, others complain that they suddenly can't hear each other speak. For me, it's the sound of freedom. On election day, I met a man who was 18 and stormed Omaha beach in the 3rd wave on June 4th, 1944. When I thanked him for his service and sacrifice, he cried. So did I.

Whatever else you may think of America, remember that she is comprised of people- good and bad- whose decisions amalgamate into her personae. I know a few bad Americans, but by and large, they are people who honestly act in ways they truly think will better their lives and the lives of their posterity. Before you launch an attack of your own on her, look into your own soul and ask if there's a hero waiting inside of you. Each of the men at Pearl Harbor that morning had to ask that. Hundreds died valiantly trying to fight back at an unexpected and unprovoked attack. None of them had ever done anything to the Japanese, and fewer still even knew where exactly Japan was.

Thus I consent sir, because I know no better and because I am not sure that it is not the best. --Benjamin Franklin

On this historic and infamous Sunday, I thank God to be an American. I have lived overseas for four years of my life. I thought it ironic that when I returned from Europe I flew on Austrian Airlines to Chicago and then on American Airlines from there home. It was so good to be home.

Gross and Net

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Before the election Barack Obama made many promises. Even now as he backpedals them, very few people ever bothered to look into the truth of the matter, but I did some preliminary investigating that I want to pass on.

I told my boss what happened when I ran the numbers on Obama’s alleged tax cuts. Since I don’t own my own home or a “fuel efficient car” (despite the 41mpg my 1995 Saturn SL1 routinely delivers), in the end, under Obama’s plan I saw, assuming all other tax laws remain the same, an increase in my refund of $300. Remembering that in 2010 the Bush tax cuts expire and that capital gains rates revert to Clinton-era tax levels, for tax year 2010, I will actually OWE money, even after his proposed changes, all other things remaining equal. That constitutes a NET tax increase, despite an initial Gross tax decrease for FY2009.

He also spoke about creating some 250000 green jobs, investing in building projects, and a myriad of other things. What that doesn’t tell you is how many people will lose their jobs in order for those programs to go into effect. When Obama puts through his New Deal Deux and Green agenda, many industries will lose jobs- oil, coal, the auto industry, etc. Compound that on top of the hundreds of thousands of jobs lost this last quarter alone, and Obama won’t even break even in job creation. Notice he never talks about NET job creation.

Yes, he will reduce taxes and increase jobs, but if and only if you belong to a particular narrow slivered constituency that is already rather rich. Al Gore holds the greatest single financial stake in the green revolution, not average people; many green companies are not publicly traded, meaning that average Americans cannot buy a stake in them unless they get hired, and relatively few Americans actually intend to enter that career path. As aforementioned, at least 33% of Americans don’t pay taxes, yet if they buy a “fuel efficient car” they can qualify for a tax credit under Obama’s plan. Call me crazy, but you should never be able to get back in taxes more than you paid. That’s criminal.

Obama comes from Chicago politics. Would it be fair to say that the mob has taken over the government? Mobsters fill the judgment seats, congress, the bureaucracy, and now the presidency. May God help all those who love the law.

Alternative Fuels; Same Cost (at best)

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I mentioned a while back, maybe not in this blog, that alternative fuels cost more per mile than conventional ones. This is one reason why they never became mainstream as a fuel for real purposes. Wind and solar power cannot generate enough torque to run a lathe, a semi-truck laden with 40000lbs of goods, or move an M1-A1 Abrams across the desert. We need fossil fuels to generate enough power to turn those motors, because very few alternatives exist that can do that, and they're not as safe (i.e. uranium).

When they came out with E85, I know I saw math from AAA showing that a gallon of E85, though cheaper, didn't give the same fuel economy as 2-2-4-trimethyl pentane (regular octane fuel). So, although you spend less per fillup, you fill up your car more frequently using flex fuel. If you don't believe me, compare your fuel economy now to that a few months ago. During winter, a lot of filling stations (at least in NV) use E10 to cut down on pollution. It's often marked on the pumps that fuel is oxygenated during the winter (OCT-JAN), and I usually see a 15% reduction in fuel performance (down to 37mpg from 41mpg this last week with no changes in driving habits). At that calculation, E85 must be SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper in order to break even, not to mention flex fuel cars cost more, because manufacturers must build them differently to accommodate a new fuel, which cost they pass on to you.

These facts make this picture all the more telling:



I shot this picture on the way to work this morning. It's really bad because it's from my cell phone, but it shows that E85 (top) and regular unleaded (bottom) BOTH COST $1.79/gal. Apparently E85 has a price floor. Sucks to be using that.

Hybrid and flex fuel cars are nothing more than vanity purchases for purpose of appearance's sake. It's like putting on Versace or Georgio Armani: it's fashionable, and it enables you to point to your peers and say, "look what I'm doing to save the country". I love passing those crappy cars that don't make a dime's worth of difference more than my 1995 Saturn SL1.

Think About It

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This week, some short profundities of thought kept coming to mind, one in particular about which I wish to speak. Some time ago, I attended some meetings on the subject of statesmanship and leadership where the presenter and speaker asked the audience to list off people who showed those qualities. As I listened to some of them, I realized that among the crowd I seemed to be the only person not enamored with Ron Paul and Ayn Rand. Not that I have any problems with these two individuals, but unlike at least a verbal majority of the attendees, I consider other people of paramount importance before I ever think of those two names. However, open as I am to the opinions of others, I listened to see first where the activity was headed and then to how he used the names proffered.

As I was working on my thoughts for this entry, one of my readers came onto messenger to respond to my having previously thanked him for a comment. He told me that he enjoyed reading what I wrote, even if he didn't always agree with me, but that the salient point was that it got him to think about things. That's my real goal here, not that all men should agree with me per se but to get readers to consider the issues I bring up. I want people to think about things that ought to be thought about, knowing full well that many of my views are not shared by anyone. After all, how many of your neighbors and friends between them can't put together an original thought, instead reciting the views of other people that they heard.

Someone asked me about a year ago why, given my fervent views and ardent patriotism, I don't move to Utah and avail myself of the Mormon influence there to get myself elected to public office. I explained to them that I differ greatly in my views from many people of my own faith. Like Obi Wan told Luke, much of what he hold true depends upon our point of view, and despite commonality of religious affirmation, we come from different places. Other people believe what they believe and feel how they feel based on an amalgamation of their education and experience. That they have not experienced things as I have or learned that to which I've had access doesn't make their opinions and attitudes wrong. They make perfect logical sense in context of their lives.

Von Mises, who I've been reading in Human Behavior of late, talks about how things make logic sense based upon the point of view. Smith in Moral Sentiments however points out that it's impossible for us to completely understand and empathize because we cannot really put ourselves in anyone else's shoes. However, to seek to understand and be understood, to think upon why people do what they do, believe what they believe and say what they say is necessary for communication and cooperation. Think about it.

Another friend of mine discovered that he and I are not so different after all. Although we disagree in the means to the ends we seek, we agree on the ends. In truth, I think most people want the same things and simply disagree on how best to reach those ends. Where their means are driven by wickedness, they need to be corrected. Where their means are birthed in ignorance, they need to be educated. Where their means are buoyed up by righteousness they need to be endorsed. I maintain as heretofore that I believe it is uncommon for the majority to desire that which is not right unless irredeemably wicked or woefully ignorant. Sometimes they may not choose the best thing, but that doesn't mean it isn't a right thing.

When you read these things, if it be wisdom in God that you read them, I would that you should ponder it in your hearts. Then make a choice where you stand and stop leaning on the opinions, experiences, attitudes, and biases of others. Think about it. That's why you have a brain.

Not Bad Doesn't Make it Good

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The story is told of a man with four daughters who one Friday night all went out on dates with different guys, with the codicil that they return his daughters by midnight. At 10:45, the first daughter returns home, and the father welcomes her back. She tells him she's tired, so she'll tell him about it in the morning after a nice sleep. Fine, fine. At 11:20, the second daughter returns, followed by a similar exchange. Just as the deadline is about to expire, at 11:58, the third daughter walks in and greets her parents who themselves are tired that they are disinclined to talk about the date until morning, so the third daughter goes up to bed. The father locks the front door, turns off the porch light and heads upstairs to bed. His wife asks what he's doing, and he turns and asks her, "What's wrong? Three out of four is not bad."

Our politicians would have us believe that the ideas they promulgate are "not bad" or that to quote Senator John Ensign (R-NV) "to do nothing would be worse than doing the wrong thing". Ludwig von Mises, Austrian economist, would argue that in that attitude they "want to be free from the law of the market". He asserts that there is no means in the market of acquiring wealth and preserving it than successful service to the consumers. As consumers of government, are we really satisfied carrying the burdens of past failed policies?

After a litany of empty promises, Obama should listen to von Mises who says:

What an arrogant presumption to borrow and to lend money for ever and ever, to make contracts for eternity, to stipulate for all times to come!

Making a bad decision for right reasons is still a bad decision. Making a good decision for the wrong reasons is still a bad decision.

If you bought a chess set and got 3/4 of the pieces, would you consider that a good deal? Heck no, you'd head right back to the store for a refund. Demand more of your government. They are the only part of society that believes it can continue to operate without responding to the consumers.

Sawing Logs

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This morning marks the second time I've been awake to hear someone using a saw before 6AM. Yes, I wake up just after 5AM, but I don't immediately open up with the lawn mower, power tools, the radio, or my guitar. I do things that are quiet in the quiet hours of the morning because I realize that in a metaphorical sense most of my neighbors are sawing logs of their own.

I suppose that whoever it is who insists on making sawdust that early does so for a good reason, but he's not the only person who makes decisions for reasons that escape logic. As I left for work yesterday, at one of about a half dozen stop signs I go through enroute to work, a person on the cross street which does not have a stop sign came to a stop and waved me across. The cars behind her didn't think that was very kind, and neither truth be told did I, since I was held up by her gesture.

The proper flow of society demands that people follow the law, not just as written in statutes but also the law of reason and logic. If you have the right of way, it does not make sense to yield it, because other people probably made decisions according to the law, and you inconvenience everyone when you defy the law, even if in an effort to make some magnanimous gesture.

The odd thing about the sawing is that the landscape crews that frequent the neighborhood do not start work until some time between 6:30 and 6:45. I know; I jog by them while they wait and then again later while they are at work. I guess it just boils down to common courtesy- to try as much as possible to put yourself in the shoes of other people and not do things that would disturb their peace when there are plenty of perfect opportunities to do it at times or places where we expect people to make noise.

There is No Secret Ingredient

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Years ago, my parents first recited the story of stone soup. It originally comes from Grimm's Fairy Tales. According to the story, a traveler arrives in a village carrying nothing more than an empty pot. Upon his arrival, the villagers are unwilling to share any of their food stores with the hungry traveler. The traveler fills the pot with water, drops a large stone in it, and places it over a fire in the village square. One of the villagers becomes curious and asks what he is doing. The traveler answers that he is making "stone soup" which tastes absolutely wonderful although it still needs garnish to improve it. The villager doesn't mind parting with some garnish so it gets added. Another villager walks by, inquiring about the traveler who again mentions stone soup which still hasn't reached its full potential. The villager hands him a little bit of seasoning to help. More villagers walk by, each adding another ingredient until a delicious, nourishing, pot of stone soup is enjoyed by all who comment on the fact that this is the finest soup they ever tasted.

Against my better judgment, last night I went over to my cousin's house to see "Kung Fu Panda" as part of my attempt to go out and be sociable (which is contrary to my default nature). The panda's father near the end of the movie tells his son that the secret ingredient in his special soup is nothing. In fact, there is no secret ingredient. The only thing that matters is that you believe.

While serving as a missionary in Austria, the leadership invited me to Zone Leader Conference in Vienna to teach them the secret to speaking German as fluently as I did. After I told them how I study and the things I did to learn the language, I told them that there's really no secret to what I do that makes it special other than the fact that I studied. Whereas other people got up late and skipped German study or spoke English with one another at every opportunity, by the 11th month in country I stopped speaking English altogether. Eventually, the people recognized my competence so much that a Stake President himself fluent in English did me the great honor of making me the first foreign missionary to whom he actually spoke in German

Sometimes people wonder why I can do what I do. That's the true secret- there is no secret. It's a choice. Long ago, I decided to walk like a believer, turn my back on the Deceiver and live what I believe. I decided that being good is not a fable, that sometimes when I falter with God I'm able, and so I make an effort. Nike popularized the slogan, "Just do it". That's the secret. If the end brings me out all right, what is said about me won't amount to much, and if the end brings me out all wrong, ten angels swearing I was right will make no difference (Abraham Lincoln).