Why Does Everyone Stay Up Until 2AM?

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It's New Year's Eve, and so most people, including many who don't ordinarily stay up late, will not only stay up late to welcome the new year but also to party long into the night. For me, it seems fairly silly, because I learned about Circadian rhythum and cyclical behavior as a Biochemist.

When you stray from a regular schedule, your body struggles to compensate. It programs activities based on patterns. So, in the morning, nobody will be available to do anything, and most people will not do much because they'll be so exhausted from the night before. It's sad tis true, tis true, tis pity and pity tis, tis true.

Nothing good happens after midnight.

Securities Monetary and Otherwise

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If 2009 taught you anything, it should teach you that financial security is an illusion. A penny saved is subject to government fiscal policy, and that last farthing may be all that you have.

When I was told earlier this semester that I would no longer be teaching, the department chair was apologetic. He asked me if I had depended on that income for financial decisions. I told him that I counted only on what I already had in the account. Even that's not guaranteed.

Vice President Biden made comments during the campaign that cost me money. He criticized WaMu as unsolvent, and that created a run on the bank. I had 50 shares of WaMu that are now worthless, and it locked up about $6000 of money while it was transferred to Chase.

Other people lost everything.

Money for me is just a storage medium. I convert my time into money until I find something for which I consider it worth my while to trade my time. Then, I spend the stored time on whatever that is.

There is a simple secret to wealth- never spend more than you have.

Why I Live a Moral Life

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A long time ago and in a faraway land, the King's favorite coachman passed away. He had known him all of his life, and it pained him to have to select another, but word was noised abroad throughout the kingdom that the King sought a new personal coachman.

The applicants traveled from far and wide to the palace. The king's chamberlain put them through a series of tasks that tested their skills, their mettle, and their loyalty. At length, only three candidates remained. They were told to prepare for a personal interview with the king, after which the king would choose a new coachman.

The first coachman was the finest horseman in all the land. He could command horses with ease, and had broken many in training. The army depended on him for their mounts. He entered the throne room, bowed in a most obsequious manner, and approached the king when bade. "How far," the king asked, "can you drive the coach from the edge of the Cliff of Tyranil without falling off?" The Cliff of Tyranil was renown for the fact that it lay along a major merchant route with a neighboring kingdom. It was carved into a granite ediface and as such had little room for error. The cliffs were hundreds of feet above the surrounding countryside, and at the bottom lay the sharp crags of the granite carved out for the road. Everyone who fell off the cliffs died.

A smile crossed his face. "Why, your majesty," he beamed, "I can get six inches from the edge without falling off." The king thanked him and bade the second applicant enter.

The second man entered. He was one of the most accomplished merchants in the land. He had made the treck along the Cliff of Tyranil many times and brought much wealth to the land. When asked the same question, he too beamed with pride, puffed out his chest and boasted, "Your majesty, I can get within an inch of the edge of the cliff without falling off." The king likewise thanked him and asked for the final applicant.

The last applicant was a farm boy. He came from a regular family. His father had served valiantly in the army but had retired several years before. The boy lacked the keen eye that made his father such a fine archer, but he was unafraid of hard work. Nobody had thought when he made his way to the palace that he would survive to the final accounting, but here he stood. The king stepped off his throne and lifted the boy's head, as he had bowed himself low on the floor. "Dear boy," the king smiled, "If you were my coachman, how close could you get to the edge of the Cliff of Tyrandil without falling off?"

The boy rose. He looked at the floor. "Sire," he paused, "If I were your coachman, I would keep as far away from the edge of the cliff as I could."

All of my life, people have chided me for the "fact" that I have "missed out" on many things that are part of life. Just weeks ago, I was told that I had missed the prime of my life. However, I chose a long time ago to stay as far away from the edge of the cliff as possible. As such, when I take an account of my life this year, I am no worse off than I was a year ago, and that is a good thing indeed. Many dangers have passed by me, and for that I am extremely grateful to my Creator. He is good to me.

Hence many are called but few are chosen, and why are they not chosen? Because they set their hearts on riches and the things of this world so much that they do not learn this one lesson, that true greatness is predicated on righteousness. If you would be truly great, be greatly true.

What Do You Look For?

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So, I asked a friend to provide her own wish list for her partner because it made me think about my own. I will one day provide mine, but I post this for now. Keep in mind that this girl and I vary greatly, yet we seek similar if not identical things. Interesting.

hahaha my equal in brains talent and wit. im not a huge partyier .... maybe like once a week go out tops im more of a snuggler movie night on a rainy monday i like driven men has goals high goals able to obtain them finacially stable ..... not mediocre ..... i want kids adventually .... not a stay at home mom type girl maybe im like 50/50 on it...hed have to be okay with me bring home income too ..... i need someone strong and desisive because im not .... hahah im a pisces look us up were typical female emotional hear ton our sleeve type ppl ....im a dreamer i need a doer ..... best of both worlds .... pphysicaal like taller but not super tall like 5'10 ish to 6 foot average guy height fi tend to like darker hair and darker eyes but my ex has medium hair light eyes so idk .... and like i like built in shape guys not juiced up steroid joes .... haha but tone to built and im a sucker for a coy cunning almost evil smile but its not .... haha just micheif perhaps ....

Courtesy in Communication

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When you come to me to discuss something, it means you have already given it some thought. Please do me the favor and allow me time to rationally and prayerfully consider my own thoughts and feelings on the matter before I respond. If you rudely attempt to force a response, I will simply shut off my phone and ignore you, especially if I am tired or in a bad mood. Phones are a privilege, and instant gratification is the business of fast food companies, not mine.

If you were tired or irate, how would you like me to regard you?
If we have already agreed to discuss it in person, how do you think I will respond if you try to force the conversation earlier?

Cell phones are not a tether by which you can keep me in check, and if you insist on regarding them as such, I will assume you do not trust me. I am one of the best men I know, and if you cannot trust me, you do not deserve me as a friend, let alone anything else.

As of today, I will no longer respond to texts or voicemail or emails immediately, unless you are a blood relative or my wife/child, of which I currently have none. Please make a note for personal reference. If I choose to, I will respond, but that discretion lies as always with me.

Oh, and while we're on the subject, don't drop by uninvited. That's rude too, especially if I am in the middle of something and otherwise engaged. It is not that I don't care or am involved in something bad, it is that I am already involved in something that deserves my attention because it was there before you came. Furthermore, if you force it at work, you in effect rob my employer of my contribution and attention, for which he pays me great sums of money.

If this is an emergency, please hang up and dial 911...

Kill this Bill

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For the second time in American history, the socialists in Congress want to impose by fiat national healthcare on us. Both of the last two Democrat presidents have pushed this, irrespective of the fact that a majority of the citizenry opposes the measure. When it's convenient to their agenda they claim we should follow the will of the people. Otherwise, they tell us, as Senator Reid has told me, that the people don't know what's good for them. They are elitists.



It's only a matter of time. Yes, I made this image myself.

Call your senators. Get them to defeat this bill. It will result in the death of liberty, I promise.

Tiger Woods is Human

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I have a slightly different point of view on this subject than most people I know. The friends I have who have spoken thus far have been excessively critical in light of evidence and allegations of infidelity. I believe in fidelity and chastity, but I also know that man is mortal. Just because you have not yet done after the fashion the media alleges does not mean you never will. Ten years from now if they were to be accused of infidelity, what would they like said of them?

The media likes controversy. Just because something is said doesn't make it true, and just because something is true doesn't mean it ought to be said. Many people have been accused of things they did not do, and many other people have gotten away with things they've done. I am very sensitive to unfounded allegations and accusations. It seems we've forgotten the Duke LaCrosse case. I have not. We do not know all the facts in the case. We don't even know for sure if he had an affair. Sure, there are suspicious circumstances, but that doesn't mean that your worst fears are true.

Tiger Woods, like every person who reads this, is a human. Everyone is subject to and victim of the foibles of youth, which for some to a greater degree than others leads them into error. What matters most is not that you fall but what you do after you have fallen. Get up and finish the race, because life will get hard. There will be bumps and bruises, paths to choose, and times you might lose, but if you do your level best everything will work out for the best.

Finally, the best comment I heard on it comes from my best friend who said:

Whatever he may have done - if it isn't illegal - it's none of my business.

What makes the private lives of rich and powerful people either any of our business or any of our interest? The state troopers were only able to cite Tiger for reckless driving. The story should have died there. Instead, people who once liked him are shocked to discover that he's human and they distance themselves.

Do I like Tiger Woods? Not really. I don't really like golf. I played nine holes once at a reunion in IL, and I shot a 102. Do I like what he has done with himself? Yes. He led the way down a path that few take, and that, the poet Frost wrote, makes all the difference.

Be the first to forgive. Some day the accused might be you.

Mannheim Steamroller

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Since it's December, I switched my Disney mix tape out last night for my Mannheim Steamroller Christmas mix cassette in my car. Car2-D2 blew a speaker last week, so I can't play the songs as loud as I usually do, but I have enjoyed listening to these songs again as part of my Christmas festivity, which usually lasts into the first week of April.

They have some good instrumental pieces. The few songs that have voice are appropriate, but I love this music for the way it makes me feel. Merry Christmas.

Freedom FROM Religion

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Many people I know believe that Jefferson was an opponent of church and state. Since I have read much of what Jefferson wrote, I know that what he actually opposed was a church OF the state. This is why I keep my politics and my religion separate, which is one thing that makes me so different from anyone else I know. I have what I believe, but I do not believe that any power or position gives me the right to impose my views on others.

The Founders wrote about a Creator in the Declaration of Independence. While they opposed interferance by a church in politics, they were never against religious views being held by politicians and statesmen. Most of them were believers in something. Remember that the Catholic church held hegemonic sway over many of the states of Europe, and they had a huge problem with that.

The true problem with this issue is that opponents of religious expression disagree with the amendments. They oppose freedom of religion. They want freedom FROM religion. If you have no law, there is no punishment, and whatsoever a man is becomes no crime. That is however the opposite of civil society. Alexis DeTocqueville wrote that America is great because her people are good, and when Americans cease to be good their nation will cease to be great. In Democracy in America he wrote that our strength was in our houses of worship.

Over the weekend, I saw this article. What bothers me about this is that there is no reason to oppose this. Not like most of the fans can see the writing on his cheeks, and I honestly had to look up the reference to see what it actually said, I am ashamed to admit. Some people propose bans religious things but not the obscene. You have to know what that verse says in order to have it offend you. They don't care what it says, they know it's religious, and they take the truth to be hard.

For my own part, I claim the right to live as I please and allow all men the same right. Let them worship how, when, and what they may, even if they choose to worship nothing at all.

From the US Army Training Division

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A good friend of mine is an army trainer in a Reserve Airborne unit. He was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan recently, and to Panama and other South American destinations previously, in order to train local troops to fight in our stead. Brian's biggest problem with the current administration is that they have unrealistic expectations of the people he has to train, and that the administration's opinion colors that of the populace at large.

The locals in these countries require a lot more effort than our own populace. Many of the people in the middle east are, for example, illiterate. How do they read orders, write reports, and communicate if they cannot read or write to begin with? There are many levels of military readiness, and even after they show a spiritual one, there is much left for our trainers and advisors to do.

Military trainers must build soldiers from the ground up. They educate them, get them physically fit, teach them leadership, customs and courtesies, and then and only then do they get to learn how to fight. Much of our arsenel is far beyond their technological savvy. Even though those countries have some of the amenities of the west, it is far more likely that our poor have access to TVs and Internet than it is for some of their middle class and rich. Explain the internet to a beduin.

Beyond the logistics of training an army that has perhaps no training at all beyond an agrarian level, there are cultural and local considerations as well. Many of these climes are foreign to our trainers, and many of the customs are not part of American military training. We don't usually interrupt our activities for religious or other cultural observance. Other nations, including Great Britain, do.

After all of that effort, the people who are trained take casualties. A great majority of the forces we train are green and inexperienced. When we went into Fallujah in Iraq, Iraqi forces took enormous casualties because they were not used to the guerilla tactics employed by insurgents.

Rebuilding a nation that far away geographically and culturally takes more time than anyone planned. People claim the Bush Administration didn't have an exit strategy or that the effort is wasted. I think it's more a problem of the fact that free people require a concerted education in order to constructively use their new freedom. Even when the USA was a fledgling nation, we had the same problem. That we survived the War of 1812 is little short of a standing miracle, and let's remember that the revolution itself lasted from 1776 to 1789, a span of 13 years. We're good at freedom, but we're not perfect.

Omitted, Deleted or Missing

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In my classes, I spend a significant amount of time on the scientific method. I hope the students leave my course with a comprehension of what separates good science from bad science. Today, I would like to share with you some of that as well as a powerful and current illustration of why this matters to me so much.

When I was in graduate school, I saw a lot of unethical behavior. In fact, I think it bothered my primary investigator when he saw me enrolled for the course Ethics in Scientific Research. For various reasons, some better than others, I saw data omitted, deleted, or missing from reports. Sometimes researchers do this to protect something so that they can study it before other people know about it. More often than not, it reveals weaknesses in their conclusions.

Scientific research is primarily concentrated at the academic level in universities and their affiliated laboratories and in government institutions. All of these are funded at public expense, mostly with taxes and sometimes by philanthropic endeavors backed by regular people who buy the goods and services that provided the capital. Most of the researchers in academia are students without much expertise who are learning how to be scientists. Most of the scientists whose names are on the door spend their time in their offices writing grants, doing paperwork, and reviewing journal articles. Mine was one of the few who got out on the lab bench. As such, research is agenda driven, ALWAYS. They either have to justify money spent on supplies or money spent on personnel, many of whom work with hopes to graduate based on the research they do. Either way you slice it, either in money or in manpower, you pay for bad science, sometimes with your life.

Very little research has real end-user application. I know some researchers who do it for their career, who do it for personal interest, and who do it for money. I know fewer than five who care about how you can use it when they are done. All of those people are researchers in industry/commerce, or, gasp Big Business.

Data is not very reliable. They leave it out, they make it up, they make it fit, or they do without. I made myself quite a nuisance at conferences when I asked about statistical relevance and about poor controls. The take home message is that I could not rely on their data or reproduce it, and as such it was garbage.

On his radio show this morning, Rush Limbaugh reported how the Washington Times raised concerns about a firm at East Anglican University caught deleting information that would harm them and fighting the release. As far as the media is concerned, this did not happen. The scientists will move on to other jobs, other grants, other institutions, and the politicians will force us to conform to the consensus. They just want money. This is what I tell my students:

Science never proves anything. It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains.

Said Rush, "There is no point in endorsing a piece of legislation aimed at reducing something that is not happening." I have seen this firsthand, but never on this scale. Most of the people I saw do it did it for their careers and their degrees. These scientists did so to advance their careers and their names and their pocketbooks. Unlike them, I would never fudge science for my own advancement, and I have paid the price for it. Unlike Senator John Ensign, who told me so in a personal letter, I would never do the wrong thing instead of doing nothing at all, no matter what price I pay for it.

What this means is that we now have reason to doubt anything a scientist says who receives public money. What this tells us about the scientists is that they know they are liars. I don't know where my cousin got this quote, but it's his status today and I agree: "No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar." If they were truly interested in the discovery of truth, they would be glad to be proven wrong. They care instead apparently about their career more than their field and its product- truth. Name names, call them out, just as we would those who have proven unfaithful to marital oaths or oaths of loyalty to the Constitution. Who knew it? When did they know it? What will they do about it? Nothing. The President doesn't care about truth. He cares about his agenda, regardless of the lies.

You cannot be hurt by something you do not do. GK Chesterton said that what's wrong with the world is that we do not ask what is right. I wish that the peer review process worried more about how much of what we publish in science is right and less on whether they happen to agree with it. Every time they ignore facts, people die.

Equated

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I was just equated as a "great guy" with a guy who fornicates. I am appalled. Anyone who knows anything about me at all knows that I have kept the law of chastity and my marriage vows. I will not tell you that it is easy, but I know it can be done. Don't you dare say that men like that are great men and then lump me with that ilk. I have lived all of my life as close to what is good and brave and true as any ordinary man can, and I take offense at that.

Great men do great things. It has never been great to use a woman, to abuse a woman, or to put a woman beneath you. I love the following poem that sums up how I feel about women:

Woman was created from the rib of man

She was not made from his head to top him

Nor from his feet, to be trampled on.

She was made from his side, to be equal to him

From under his arm to be protected by him

From near his heart to be loved by him.

This is my philosophy, but it is also that of Cervantes and Shakespeare. Just because those men are dead and the average male has descended in behavior doesn't mean the standard for manhood and chivalry has changed or should. Why should expectations of behavior change? Their coarse behavior may not make them bad, but it most certainly does not make them great.

I hold myself to a relatively high standard. My best friend regularly tells me to relax because he fears I will burn out. I am a mortal, and as such I am subject to infirmities of mortality. However, I have to live with myself, and I set out each day to be at peace with myself when my head hits the pillow. I hold no other man to my standard. Let them do how and what they may, so long as it is legal and leaves me out of it. If you tell me your standard, I will hold you to your standard, but I do not expect other people to live like me. I of all people know full well how it taxes my willpower and strength.

I have been hurt by women. Every woman I have ever loved has taken what I gave her and rended me. That is no justification to denigrate other women and project onto the many the sins of the few or the one. I am honestly sorry for time and effort wasted on them, for the fact that I may have overestimated their maturity and virtue. I will however continue to treat women as the precious creatures they are, daughters of a God.

Gentlemanly behavior once checked the occurance of coarse behavior. You may count on me for the former as a defense against the latter.

One Man's Trash...

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I couldn't resist it, because this is one of the funniest craigslist ads I've ever seen and it made me laugh.

Gee, I was just telling my friends today how much I could really use some random concrete fragments with which to decorate my yard. How convenient that this man was giving some away at precisely the moment I needed!

It's your trash sir. Dispose of it yourself.

Picks and Shovels

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Back in August, I injured my wrist digging holes for an orchard in Southern Utah. I am probably not the best person in the state, the country, or the world to do this work, but as I have told the project manager, I am the most qualified person who will put boots on the ground and pitch in.

There are many people with great talents and abilities all around us. Good leaders are able both to identify them as well as motivate them to put their talents to use. One of the few lessons I learned from "The Fountainhead" is that sometimes great people hold out for great work and hold back their talents. It is however much more common that greatly talented people hide their talents because of fear or because they are lazy.

All of my life, I have striven to be available for God to use me. He has in fact requested that I so do. As a missionary, I traveled in my "uniform", changed for the activity, and then changed back after it was over. I intended to be ready for whatever he might need. God does not really care about your capability; what matters more to him is your availability. Neal A Maxwell wrote: “God gives the picks and shovels to the ‘chosen’ because they are willing to go to work and get callouses on their hands. They may not be the best or most capable, but they are the most available” ( Deposition of a Disciple [1976], 54).

God's work is hard work. Some people get lucky and cast down their nets and draw in a great harvest. Even in that instance, they must have nets, have nets that work, cast them out, and have strength to draw them back in. Even that is hard work.

For those who have to till a more difficult ground, there is backbreaking work with tools ahead. As I dug those holes in Utah with a pick and shovel, I injured my wrist. There was nobody else to do it. The harvest is great and the laborers are few. I was available, so in that moment, I was the best and most capable person in the universe for the task at hand. If you do today what others won't, tomorrow you will be able to do what others can't. Where more capable or talented individuals might have done so, they hid their talent and therefore they have no increase.

Be not weary of hard work. Sweat equity is one of my favorite things, and I love to work. I like the rewards, but I would rather be anxiously engaged than accidentally.

Aristocracy and Leadership

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Someone once told me that an aristocrat is he who controls more than one vote. Historically, this has been the basis for all forms of representative government, and it is both the boon and the bane of participatory governance.

Aristocrats often governed the land. That meant they governed all that arose therefrom, and we all know that the feudal law rephrased the Golden Rule to "whoever has the gold makes the rules". To a degree that trend continues today, as in order to make money or gain office, you must generally be possessed of large means in order to mount any kind of effective campaign, particularly against an incumbent.

However, I learned at the polls last year and as I went into the election that I have the power of an aristocrat by virtue of riches I possess that no man can take from me. If aristocracy is the seat of power, and if aristocrats were once the only ones to be educated, he who is truly educated has power now, his material status notwithstanding. So, where others read Twilight, Harry Potter, ad infinitum, I read Locke, Montesquie, Smith, von Mises, Jefferson, et al., and possess a wealth of knowledge that counters any specie.

Many people came into the polls completely ignorant. A man of integrity myself, I refrained from the opportunity to sway them at that juncture. Prior to the election, I took the opportunity in my sphere of influence to share my thoughts. One coworker wrote: "Your patriotism is infectious; I have never before fully understood what it means to be an American...You are equally inspiring as the great people in history that you admire." Talk to people about what you believe and why. Get informed. Read. Don't let other people tell you what you think, and tell as many people as you can why you think the way you do.

Become the person to whom your friends, family and associates turn when political, economical, and social topics arise. You may think they are joking when they come to you and seriously ask you what's wrong with socialism. They really don't know. Be that person who can explain it to them.

Aristocrats were believed to be superior. At one point it was for their money. Let it now be for the knowledge we possess that surpasses the average understanding.

That being said, there are two kinds of aristocracy. In the first, by virtue of the truncheon or in promise for pelf, a man exerts power and control via unrighteous dominion over those who know no better. In the latter, a man educates, informs, and expounds, teaching correct principles and lets the people govern themselves. Let it flow without compulsory means and be a true leader.

Apparently Not a Parent

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Last Tuesday night while I waited for the meeting to start that I attend every week, I overheard a conversation that made my blood boil. Although I held my tongue, I came this -- close to speaking my mind to the women immediately adjacent.

I know none of them personally and only one of them by name. Despite being no more than six feet away from me, they made no attempt to hush their comments or keep it to themselves. Immediately prior to the comment, the youngest of the women remarked that she would of course be able to make it to such-and-such because she had no children, to which the eldest among them (and the only one whose name I knew) quipped, "I wish I could say that."

To be fair, this woman was previously married in an abusive relationship. However, I have always been struck by how stern she seems, even when she is "happiest", born apparently of bitterness towards a previous relationship. It also manifests in misogynistic comments she makes denigrating her current husband whom she ostensibly loves. Some people have no interest having children.

Her children are not responsible for the way her husband treated her. A close friend of mine was physically abused by her mother because she reminded her mother of the father who cheated on her mother. When innocents bear the brunt, there is no excuse for that.

How could any woman wish she had not had her children? They are a part of her. She is a part of them. I have about a dozen friends who consider me their surrogate parent because their parents admitted in a moment of weakness that they were accidents. How can you accidentally have a child? I admit abstinence isn't easy, but I am proud to say there are no illegitimate children of mine out there and that any woman who claims I had sex with her or anything like unto it who is not my former wife is a liar.

I would give all that I have for a family. I wish this woman would realize how blessed she is. Any biological can donate a gamete, but it takes a human being to be a parent.

God Bless Our Troops

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Anyone who knows me knows that my patriotism is real. Three generations alive of my family have served in arms.

I know that not all veterans are created equal. However, I know that you went out and made sacrifices for us. Some of you I know intimately and I know that you gave up your life and your livelihood for something greater than yourself. At the polls last year, I met a man who stormed Normandy over 60 years ago. When I thanked him for his sacrifice, he cried.

May God grant unto us an early peace and victory found in injustice and instill into the hearts and minds of men everywhere a firm purpose to live in peace with good will toward all.

For all the Veterans who have, or are now, serving in our military: words really cannot do justice for all that you've sacrificed for the people of our country. As humble as it is, please accept our heartfelt THANKS!! To all the men and women who are out in the fields tonight, please, BE SAFE and GOD BLESS YOU!

God knows I would like to be over there in your stead.

JD Buyright

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My dad and I went out in search of a replacement for my 1995 Saturn SL1 "Car2-D2". After an entire morning on the hunt, the only place with a car I liked refused to sell it to me under the terms I like.

Warned by another dealer, we stopped at JD Buyright anyway. The salesman wasted no time and informed us that he would not sell me a car unless I took their finance terms. I ran the numbers...a 3-year loan at 21% interest for $350/month means that over the life of the loan I will pay $12000 for a car worth less than $4000, or almost sticker price for the car as if it were brand new.

I have a new reason to dislike the NASCAR driver affiliated with this program. Predation on the desparate for cars makes for unethical business practice. I could never bring myself to contract this kind of commerce. That's partly why I became a teacher. Research science resembled practical science which resembles the rest of the corporate world- it focuses too much on self-aggrandizement. I will never patronize this establishment or endorse the driver who owns a major stake in it.

They could have made a sale. The irony is that the particular car I liked has an extremely limited demographic to which it appeals. I seek a manual transmission Saturn with cruise control. How many people do you know who like Saturns? How many people do you know who can drive a stick? Good luck with the sale of that car. It was perfect for me.

The Bottom Line of Life

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My friend came up with this, and I really like it, so I posted it here to remember.

Live with awareness

Opine with caution

Decide with knowledge

Doubt with reason

Judge with empathy

Teach with patience

Guide with compassion

Lead with wisdom

Support with hope

Achieve with humility

Serenity Prayer

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When I first heard about the Ft. Hood shooting, it made me angry. I wanted to do something about it. By that time, however, there was of course nothing I personally could do to change anything about what happened. So, I came to accept the fact that although tragic there was nothing I could do about that particular event and I let it go. I have applied as much as I am able that same principle to other things in my life over which I have no control.

The Year of Our Lord 2009 has challenged me in many ways, and although I have grown the growth has sometimes come at great cost and pain. My one consolation through all of the perterbations and usurpations has been that I did the best I could with what I had and that I acted on promptings from God. I did what I controlled, and then every day I hand the ruins to him and ask him to make something of them.

May God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

I opine missed opportunities this year, but not those that I missed. I seized upon every opportunity to do the things in my life that really mattered to me. That other people elected to stay at the station or board another train entirely is up to them. During some of my darkest days and from some of the most unlikely and unexpected places, God has brought people into my life to buoy up my faith and speak comfort and hope to me. I thank him for those tender mercies. I thank those people that they were the miracle for me.

I know where I am headed. Maybe the route changes from time to time, but I make the connections, hold the conversations, go to the places, do the work, and assimilate the concepts to which I feel inspired, and I have the proud consolation that God approves of what I do with my life. I echo the sentiments of Abraham Lincoln who, of his own literal fight, said:

But if, after all, we shall fall, be it so. We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's freedom, that 'the course approved of our judgments and adored our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, and in death, we never faltered in defending.

It takes a great man to face great obstacles, to run where the brave dare not go. It takes a great man to do what is right even when, at least in a Newtonian way, he sees no fruit of his labors. I will die doing what is right. I know my place. It is time you learned yours.

Part of the Solution

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On the way to work this morning, I was slowed down quickly by a huge wreck just after I entered the freeway. About a half dozen cars were involved, and although it had happened relatively recently, some of the cars still sat in the lanes, despite the fact that they could be moved to allow for the flow of traffic.

I knew that the NHP would clear the road as soon as they arrive. I also know that they don't have to see the scene in order to evaluate the incident. I also knew that hundreds of cars depended on the flow of traffic and that as long as these cars sat here more people ran the risk of accident, delay of arrival at work, and other frustrations. So, I pulled over and helped clear the road.

When I told a friend of mine about this, he praised me. I could either go by and let other people suffer the wait as I had or get out and eliminate the constraint.
Most people would rather sit in their cars honking the horn, but if I help clean it up then some people would never know there had ever been a problem.

You can either be part of the solution or contribute to the continuity of the problem. There is no spectator section.

How I Learned to Love France

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There was a time when I didn't care much for France or the French. I have never actually met a frenchman I liked or with whom I got along well. I've met some French people who are decent and average. I have learned over time that France is full of our Heavenly Father's children who warrant my concern, compassion and charity just as much as those whom I consider to be my closest friends and associates.


Some people I know have lately taken to obscene criticism of the French. I reminded them that without the French America might not have ever come into existence. It was LaFayette who helped Washington train, equip, and lead his army. Without that service, the third of the colonists who supported revolution would scarce been able to even by weight of numbers overturn the Benedict Arnolds, the Torries, and the Redcoats who overran the land.

I have a new French hero. Current French President Sarkozy has impressed me with his rhetoric, his politics, and his stalwart defense of all that is good and brave and true. If all Frenchmen were like him, France might well become our staunchest ally. They have been so before. They may be so again.

There are many good and brave Frenchmen. There are good and brave and true men in every nation and every culture and every clime. There is weakness there too, but if we look for the good in mankind and expect to find it we will. Vive la France!

Join the Navy

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A close friend of mine recently set about a serious effort to join the Navy. He has met with the normal diatribe of accusations about him being a baby-killer, notwithstanding the fact that the people who slander him so know him better than that. When he asked my opinion, he knowing about my affinity for the military, I said, "the Navy, like any other organization, is only as good as the officers and men who people it".

If you find an organization bereft of the kind of people of whom you think it best comprised, the best way to fix it is to fill it with people of that moral fiber. If you are one of them, lead the way.

Our soldiers are great men and women. There are people there true who go for the scholarhips, the training, discipline, or to see thw world, but the large majority of them are willing to give their lives, even if they survive and serve as a career, so that we can live in peace and freedom. As we consider on those rare stories that transcend the media firewalls and make the front pages of the news, remember that millions of nameless, faceless youth have fought and bled and died on soils far from their homes for the idea that man has value and that what man does is valuable.

Always remember them. And if you feel so inclined, join and serve with them.

Tender Mercies

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Over the past few weeks, I have been struck by a particular and favorite verse of mine. At the end of 1 Nephi 1, Nephi tells us the theme for his entire record that he will write, and he says, "I Nephi will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are on all those whom he hath chosen because of their faith to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance." As I think about my own journeys, privations and trials, I think of the times when I have seen the Lord's hand and felt his Love in my own life as I struggle across the wilderness. Although there may not be Labans, brothers who beat us with a stick, broken bows, or storms while we sail on ships, there are plenty of rough seas, adversarial people, and dashed dreams that combine in our minds to hedge up our way and dampen our faith. In those times, I remember Nephi.

There are tender mercies. I cannot tell you how many times I have been spared from what I wanted and discovered that if I had received what i wanted it would have made my happiness harder, if it was in the aftermath even possible. Sometimes, I have been sent help in the nick of time. Sometimes, I have had doors open which I did not expect and miracles happen for which I did not ask and of which I was not worthy. Yet, they came anyway because of faith. What times in your life have you seen the Lord bless you with tender mercy in spite of the choices you have made? Write about them in your journal.

Faith is more than just a declaration of belief. Faith is a lifestyle. Like Nephi, I have often "been led of the Lord, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do". Yet, like Nephi, I went and did, for "I know the Lord God giveth no commandments unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them whereby they may accomplish the thing he commands of them." You show your faith in the choices you make every minute of every hour of every day.

Out of faith comes might and deliverance. I recently read about how Alma and Amulek broke their bonds and the prison tumbled to the ground. Then there's Jericho. This past summer, I had several Courageous Conversations with friends that on the surface seemed to end badly for me. In the end, they flatly rejected my words and concern. I said what I felt led to say anyway, for I considered to do anything else a betrayal of friendship. As I watch where they take their lives, I realize that I was "cursed for my sake", cut off from their lives as a means to spare me from the consequences of their choices until they learn for themselves to know good from evil.

In the end, no matter what storms you may face, the Lord has a land of promise for you. If you remember my last message, Elder Holland promises in his talk that you will inherit your goodly land as you remain true to the truths that your parents have cherished and for which martyrs have perished. May you find strength and comfort in Christ as you cross the wildernesses of life. May you recognize his hand and feel his love always. Godspeed, and all my best wishes.

Responsibility Must Be Taken

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There is a good reason many are called but few are chosen. There is a good reason why there are few real leaders, lots of managers, and many more shrupshire sheep. Responsibility is not something that can be given. Responsibility must be taken and taken seriously.

People want things to be given to them. We live in a your-way-right-away generation. Some of the people I teach or with whom I go to church act as if to say, "I'm an adult. Give me what I deserve as an adult." To which I respond, "Prove you're an adult by taking responsibility".

Young people today just go hang out. They say they are living life to the fullest, but they aren't really living life at all. They exist. Their days may be filled, but they are not full. They may seem to have everything, but they bewail what they lack.

As I seek an eternal companion with whom to make a family, I meet with some odd resistance. From, "I wish I could find a guy like you" to "you intimidate me" to "you're a good guy, but...", ooh that infernal codicle, I find that women want a good guy but won't do what is necessary to deserve one. I know some who refuse to lose weight, want to just have a good time and "hang out", read only when they must, prefer movies to the theater, and think that my 32" waist isn't skinny enough.

I really like this quote from "The Notebook":

I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but in one respect I've succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough.

Choosing to avoid drugs- that isn't an accomplishment. Choosing to drive responsively isn't an accomplishment; staying in school isn't an accomplishment. It's just life. Saving a portion of my income isn't a special action; living within my means isn't noteworthy; it's common sense. I am an ordinary man. Everyone else has surrendered what they want most for what they want at the moment (M. Russell Ballard).

"I am not a hero. I am not an angel. I am just a man, a man who's tried to love her, more than any other, in her eyes I am (Her Eyes by Josh Groban)." I love and I am loved, and love is something I take seriously. It is my highest choice and the righteous desire of my heart. Someday God will lead me to a woman I deserve (or her to me) because I put him and his kingdom first as he asked.

Genuine Idiots

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On the expiry of the Bush Tax cuts:

"It's not a tax increase, it's an elimination of a tax decrease." --Congressman Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

George Orwell would be proud.

Stupor of Thought

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As people around me, well-meaning though they may be, attempt to dissuade me from what I know to be right, I have put a lot of thought to the concept of revelation. In some particular matters of late, I reflected a few weeks ago in my journal, "I have felt burnings in my bosum and never a stupor of thought". Elder Jeffrey Holland said "Beware the temptation to retreat from a good thing. If it was right when you prayed about it and trusted it and lived for it, it is right now."

When God speaks of revelation, he promised us how to tell if it comes from him. If it is true, he will cause that our bosum shall burn within us, and if it is wrong, we shall have no such feeling, but a stupor of thought. It is, in my experience however, much more common that people speak of doubts and fears than genuine stupors of thought. They retreat from good things many times based on these fears, which are founded not in truth but in things that have not happened and may never happen to them at all. Most of the time, your fears don't turn out to be accurate predictors of the future.

In Letter XV of the Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis speaks of this phenomenon. The devil wants us to live in the future. The past is real because it happened, the present is real because it lies before us and the future enflames hope and fear. To quote him on the matter at hand:

He would therefore have them continually concerned either with eternity (which means being concerned with Him) or with the Present—either meditating on their eternal union with, or separation from, Himself, or else obeying the present voice of conscience, bearing the present cross, receiving the present grace, giving thanks for the present pleasure...In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity.

The devil wants us to constantly fret about the future, about things concerning which we generally have no knowledge and thus create misery within us, "a whole race perpetually in pursuit of the rainbow's end, never honest, nor kind, nor happy now". The devil wants you to think about what happens to you; God wants you to think about what you do.

If something is true, then it always was true and always will be. If something is true for you, God will provide you the means to accomplish the thing he commands of you. My cousin told me back in May that God never commands men to do the impossible; some things just take a little longer.

When you come upon a decision that is incorrect, God will lead you away from it. At times when I have pursued something that ran contrary to his will, I found myself easily distracted from it by other things...ooh, look a butterfly...

Elder F Enzio Busche spoke on this matter. He said that God will give you correction and direction. Questions may arise, but "if something is wrong, God will give you clarity, but never doubts". Doubts are not the answer. If something is wrong, God has promised that he will cast the thought from our minds entirely.

Our enemies desire our destruction. They will pull all the tricks they can to keep us from our highest choice, from our mission in life, and from a fulness of happiness. Their opposition intensifies when we approach important crossroads in our lives. By this you may know in part that what you do is right. Opposition and struggle are almost always guaranteed when we stand on the cusp of greatness. To close, with Elder Holland again, "Trust in that eternal truth. If God has told you something is right, if something is indeed true for you, He will provide the way for you to accomplish it."

Stand for truth. Stand for right.

Faith in the American People

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As I watch the Tea Parties, posts on Facebook bewailing Rush and Beck, et al, and the desperate daily demagoguery on the part of the administration and the Democrat party to convince you that their agenda is right and is working, I gain faith in the American people. Over the last few weeks, I have thought about the great opportunity this time affords us, and for the fact that there is a resurgance of political activity in America even in the dark times.

About a week ago, Mark Belling sat in for Mark Levin on his radio program and put this idea in my head. This morning, I read Mosiah 29:26 where Mosiah tells the people why judges in lieu of a king. he says: "Now it is not common that the voice f the people desireth anything contrary to that which is right; but it is common for the lesser part of the people to desire that which is not right; therefore this shall ye observe and make it your law--to do your business by the voice of the people and if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgements of God will come upon you."

The majority of Americans still desire that which is right. They oppose amnesty, universal healthcare, and socialism. They may not know what to do, but they do not agree. It is, as Reagan said, "a little intellectual elite in Washington", those bureaucrats and elected officials who think themselves wiser than we all, who plan our demise. Again to quote Reagan, "the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan".

I don't really like Glenn Beck. I think he talks a lot and acts too little. However, he motivates some other people to act. Think what a difference it would make if you would talk to the people around you, those who just don't know any better, those who vote with their parents, those who listen to posters instead of actually reading what the politicians say, and get them to think for themselves. Most human mistakes are made when we let other people tell us what to do. Nobody has your best interests in mind as much as you. Talk to your neighbors and get them to think for themselves.

Take Danny Tarkanian, candidate for Senate against Harry Reid. I have read his website. He seems like a nice guy, and he is far better than Reid. However, in the words of Daniel Webster, although he means to rule well, he means to rule.

The Constitution was established to free men from bondage. It took almost 100 years to end slavery, but it did end it, and we were the first society to abolish it forever. We went to war with ourselves to do it.

There may be a time when the strength of America fails, but it is not today. Fear has never been our master; doubt has never been our guide. We shall continue to spread freedom's prose until it has crossed every ocean, penetrated every clime, resounded in every ear, and the great Jehovah shall say the work is done.

Godspeed the right.

Rush Limbaugh on God and Government

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I thought this worthy of repeating. I will memorize it.

RUSH: If I may get serious with you for a moment. The left, if you believe them, believes that there's one species on the planet destroying it. Now, all mammals exhale carbon dioxide. But somehow only man, only human beings' carbon dioxide is destroying the planet. It's only man in all of his endeavors, particularly Capitalist Man, Western Culture man. Those are the culprits! We are the real culprits. We are destroying the planet. We are the one species on the planet that's destroying it. Why does the left think this? I'll tell you what I think. We, human beings, are the only species who have the capacity to know and understand the concept of God. No other species has the slightest clue. A fish doesn't even know it's in water. A dog doesn't know it's a dog. And who the hell knows what cockroaches think. I don't even want to contemplate it.

To know God is something unique for all species on the planet. It's us. We're the only ones who know God, who can conceive God and all that that means. Therefore, to the left, to know God is the single most destructive part of the human mind. That's what has to be destroyed. Faith in God, belief in God, that's the real enemy -- and there are many enemies of the left, but that's the first. You go to any communist country and the first thing they do is wipe God and religion out of everybody's mind. The State becomes God and whoever is running it at the time becomes The Messiah. There is no God other than The State. See, God put us here to procreate, to experience his gifts. The left, in order to ultimately succeed, has to end our understanding of God's existence and purpose. Therefore, we're not going to fix this economic mess until we fix or moral mess.

Our country is in a moral shambles, and until we fix the moral destruction that has crept over our culture we're not going to be able to really fix anything else -- and when you start talking about fixing the moral mess, then you really cause the left to rise up and come after you. So the strip all this stuff away and what's at the root of it is: A belief in too many people in something other than The State, something other than the government. If you strip away God... 'Cause a human being has to believe in something, a higher power. Even atheists, they've got something that has a higher power. It's a tree or whatever. It could be another human being. It could be institution that human beings put together but there's gotta be something. If you strip God out it has to be The State. So that's what's happening. That's really at the root of this.

A Week at Sidewalk Level

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The best test of any policy change is to apply it to the sidewalk level. A friend of mine recently pondered the implication of the taxation scheme under discussion by the administration, and more commonly known as Marxism wherein they take from each according to his ability and give to each according to his need.

He said: "While I do understand the concept of wealthier people 'contributing' more to government programs (such as healthcare) - this is precisely the same as saying their cover charge to get into a nightclub or their price for a hamburger should be higher because they make more money. It seems fair when talking about taxation and expressed in percentages but maybe it isn't."

Variable price on a pack of gum depending on your paycheck makes no sense. What would be the point of earning twice as much money as I do now if I then had to pay twice as much for every commodity? That's a null-sum game. It would be nice if those who could do more did so, but that runs expressly contrary to the laws of God.

God asked Israel for the tithe. That means 10% of your increase, regardless of what you earned. He asked from time to time, like when the temple was built, that those who could do so would donate of their increase to furnish and decorate it, but it went out without compulsory means. God makes commandments with promise. Government issues orders on fear of penalty.

The biggest problem with compulsory government policy is that it disinsentivizes people to excel. If you are going to be punished for increase, it dissuades you from the attempt. On the other hand, those who make policy remain largely unaffected by it. The federal government will not suffer from universal healthcare because they have exempted themselves from it. Many people don't actually work for money, and they pay no taxes, yet they benefit from all the social programs into which working and striving individuals contribute under threat of duress. I know that Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) says taxes are voluntary. I dare him to try and not pay.

The president needs to spend a week at sidewalk level. He condescends when he wishes to cheerlead in chief, but the people to whom he promised kitchens, cars, jobs, and "Obama money from his stache" in Michigan still wait.

Anything, But

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Obama says he will do anything to save jobs. That's a lie. He won't cut taxes.

Taxes are going up.

My car registration last year was $42. This year it's $55. I drive a 95 Saturn.

Look at your utility bills, your health care costs, and everything else you pay. When the prices of commodities rise, sometimes it's because the taxes have gone up, and the manufacturers pass that cost on to you. Look at cigarette prices. If they raise taxes on that, it's only a short hop before they raise taxes on something about which you care.

Companies don't pay taxes. People do.

Spiritual Sickness

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My friend Thom posed a good question today. What does it mean to be spiritually ill, and how does one recognize that? Most people, as in the forgoing suggestions, choose to commiserate or ignore the situation entirely, but whether you are "religious" or not, there is a spiritual component that, if deficient, robs man of well-being and the fulness of happiness. Thom and I agree with the Founding Fathers in a Creator, and whether you believe in Him or not, being in tune with the spiritual energies affects your well being just as whether you believe in it or not gravity does too.

As to the issue of spiritual illness, I propose the following interstitial thoughts: Spirituality concerns our connection with the intangible. So, in a sense, spiritual sickness affects the unconscious and unseen world. Spiritually ill people cannot grasp concepts, define them, or stick to them. Things like loyalty, fidelity, and bravery take on opportunistic definitions, situation-specific, and ephemeral as the ether. They are blown about by every wind of doctrine. They know not what they believe let alone believe that anything in which they do not believe affects them. Think of it as an "it can't happen to me" mentality. Light, energy, truth, and power remain out of reach for them, and they are dark, literally and figuratively speaking.

Cheerleader in Chief

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Obama rarely says anything with substance. It's all campaign rhetoric to drum up emotions, much like pep rallies, regardless of how much you believe in your team's ability to win, get the adrenaline rush that brings you out on the field, no matter how unlikely the victory.

This is not the change you were looking for. You should go about your business. Move along.

Obama has a powerful affect on the weak minded.

Hope and Change.

So You Vote...Would You Like a Medal?

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Many of my acquaintences disagree with my politics. Many of them cast blame at other people. We defend those about whom we care, for our care for them, particularly when we do not really know them, is in part care and love for ourselves.

One particular acquaintence showed the level of his commitment. He answered, when I told him to put his money where his mouth was and run for office and prove his way is better, that he votes. Good for you. Would you like a medal?

I worked at the polls in 2008. Many people came in who had never before voted. They came to be part of the "historical election". Some of them asked me for whom they should vote. Out of integrity, I told them that the choice was up to them. Others were not so honest.

Voting is easy. You go in, cast your voice, and then moan and whine when the other guy wins or when the guy for whom you voted changes his mind. None of it is your fault. You did your part.

Another acquaintence had this to say: "[Voting] gives us the ability to pretend we cast an important vote and that our opinions matter, but in the end, regardless of what we write on our ballots its the same corrupt fools being elected, we simply decide if they are elephants or donkeys..." I disagree with his premise that it's a complete waste, but yes, it does seem that some of them share everything except the emblem of their party affiliation.

You know what your state needs. Vote for someone who agrees. Yes, I said that, and now it is my copyright. Voting gives us the ability to pretend we did something, but it takes much more than that.

Write letters, attend meetings, talk to your neighbors, complain, read, learn, get involved, and by gum run for office yourself if you can. I know good men don't run and I know full well why, but if they don't, my friend will be right and the same corrupt fools will be elected. In my opinion, every single Congressman and Senator needs to be kicked out of office as soon as possible as a message that we will not allow that to continue. The trouble is that to accomplish this, we must present the people with real alternatives.

Nobel Peace Prize

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Other presidents who won the Nobel Peace Prize:

Woodrow Wilson

Theodore Roosevelt

Jimmy Carter

If they ever offer me a prize from the Nobel foundation, I will flatly turn them down.

Government is not the Solution

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Years ago, Ronald Reagan said this, and it has stayed with me since I heard it: "Government is not the solution to our problems. Government is the problem". Yet, in our current troubles, the president proposes naught but more government programs, thinking after the Keynesian equation that to raise GDP and elevate society he can simply increase government spending.

The fact of the matter is, that Government programs don't work efficiently if they work at all. When people complain about the facilities at this college, several faculty have boiled it down to "lowest bid" as the excuse. It's a government institution, and much of what happens here doesn't give you good value.

Michigan started this great "green jobs" initiative. In a rare moment of candidness, the Washington Post reports today that Granholm's panacea produced problems. Since 2003, under her watch, the state has lost 630,000 jobs. She claims that "she" has created 163,000 jobs in that time, and she promises 40,000 more in the next 11 years, but that still leaves 400,000 people net out of work, assuming that between now and then NOT A SINGLE ADDITIONAL JOB IS LOST.

Liberal fiscal policy has driven companies out of that state, like it does all around the country. The fastest way to create jobs is to cut taxes, but in Nevada, they just raised our sales tax, our car registration tax, and expenses for state employees like myself. Politicians talk about "unrestrained capitalism", but that has never existed in my lifetime, and I suspect that it hasn't existed in theirs either.

No government official understands or cares about your situation as much as you do. You are not real to them. How can any senator know all of his constituents? It boggles my mind in this state, and yet the californians, with 30 times our population, claim to know the minds of all those people. Wow, they must be so efficient with their time. I've seen "Bruce Almighty", and if I had 2 million emails to answer every day, I am certain I could not answer them all. I am a great man, but I'm not that great.

I believe in Federalism as defined by the Founders. They knew that the concentration of power at the head was the soil in which tyranny takes root and flourishes. They intended the Township, and at worst the State, to be the seat of most power, where the people could influence the policy enacted by people they could actually reach, and if not, they could move to another township or state. By the time of FDR, the Township was dead. By the time FDR died, the States had been emasculated. FDR, if not for his death, might well have been, as was Ceasar, elected Dictator for Life.

There may be great men in office, but remember that they are still men. No man is perfect in his knowledge, his motives, or his actions. That's why the Constitution's firewalls, as Madison said, provided controls on politicians as a means to protect the people. Besides that, most of these men never have to deal with unexpected consequences. They are not in office when the bill comes due. Said Mark Levin: "The government cannot do this- all these phony promises. They never live up to them, and 20 years from now if they institute this crap, where will Obama be? He’ll be retired, living the good life, historic president…while other presidents are struggling with it."

Government is the problem. It always has been. We have too much of it and an insufficient amount of internal self-control.

Proper government begins with proper behavior, and proper behavior is taught in the home.

Wikipedia is Untrustworthy

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You can write anything you want on the internet. Do a search for "founding fathers are terrorists" and in about 0.08 seconds, it will generate over 84000 pages of results. Yes, the Declaration of Independence was high treason, but they were hardly terrorists. Since when is it terrorism to urge British citizens to exercise their franchise and demand representation? Since when is it terrorism to throw tea into the harbor? If thoughts and opinions are treasonous, then we'd all have to turn ourselves in.

That being said, just because someone writes something doesn't make it fact.

Wikipedia may be a good place to start, but it is far from authoritative. For my own part, in lieu of trusting what Wikipedia says Keynes or Smith said about Economics, I read their books. I read Rules for Radicals and the Federalist Papers. I have seen the Declaration, the Constitution, and the Magna Charta. I didn't just watch Kiera Knightly in Pride and Prejudice- I read it. I don't trust what people say just because it's at my fingertips in under a second via whatever search engine you choose.

A few years ago, several Duke Lacrosse players were slandered with accusations of rape. A few years ago, a friend of mine was accused of adultery. Back in grad school, I was accused of cheating, and as an undergrad, I was accused of lifting a paper from another source. Despite unfounded allegations in all of these instances, the accused have been exonerated. DNA evidence has commuted the sentences of people on death row. Sarah Palin, whom I do not know and for whom I am not sure I would vote, was buried in legal challenges as the governor. As Letterman basted her with jokes about situations of illicit physical intimacy involving various members of her family, he until this last week obfuscated his own dirty laundry.

Those who scream the loudest, when they are themselves not paragons of virtue, more often than not proclaim their own sin as sodom. Mark my words- he who smelt it dealt it. If it stinks, look to the source, not the target.

So, wikipedia may be easily accessible, but if you let your education end there, your freedom will end there too. As for paragons of virtue, if you meet one, tell me. I would like to be his friend.

By What it Is, Not By What it is Not

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A friend of mine posted up a video yesterday depicting Albert Einstein's defense as a young boy of the existence of God. It brings to mind a larger issue that I choose to address.

Like Albert says, we define cold, not as a thing itself, but as the absence of heat. We likewise define darkness as the absence of light. We likewise define evil as the absence of good.

People are prone to point out the absentia of certain virtues in people and point at them as truths. The truth however is, that no man is all good or all bad. The evil that men do is simply a lack of good. Said Abraham Lincoln, "If you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will." Fact of the matter is, there is no bad in mankind at all. There is only good, however meager the amount may be.

This is why God can love all men and it is the currency by which he redeems them. There is goodness in every man, an inner nobility. They are what they are. They may not seem to be as much as you consider yourself to be, but as CS Lewis says in the forward to the 1961 edition of Screwtape, if you remove all the good from man, you are not left with evil, you are left with nothing at all. See the diamond within. See the hope. See the light.

Learn from one of earth's wisest thinkers to look for what is instead of for things that by definition do not exist.

Crowded Political Primary

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My mother told me that the newspaper recounts a long list of aspirants for the Republican nomination for Senate. These individuals all hunger to avail themselves of the opportunity to displace Harry Reid as a Senator, as he has the lowest approval rating in history and seems weak. They stand around like wolves waiting for the large Bison to finally run out of energy. Each wants to strike the blow that deals him death.

I agree the same as you that Harry Reid needs to do something else with the rest of his life. For almost my entire life on earth, he has worked as a politician, ostensibly in the interests of Nevadans. Honestly, ask yourself if your life is better than it was before Harry Reid became a senator.

I am not sure however that any of the aspiring Republicans have your interests honestly in heart. I have read Tarkanian's website, and although, like Daniel Webster said, he means to rule well, he means to rule. Each of these individuals wants to be the one to take credit for taking down Reid. Each of them wants his power. Which of them want to return that to you?

Remember that the Conspirators used the same jargon and argument for the assassination of Caesar. Brutus says that Ceasar was ambitious, and Brutus is an honorable man.

Choose the best man you can. Primaries mean so much. Now is not the time to stand behind the person most likely to win the election. Now is the time to stand behind the best person that can be found, no matter what letter adorns his name, no matter how much money is in his coffer, and no matter how likely you think he is to win. Remember that Washington, without trained men, without paid men, and without munitions, somehow managed, by the grace of God, to defeat the British Empire.

Popularity contests belong in high school. Please leave them there and pick the best man you can on 2 November 2010.

Sabbatical Year

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A few months ago, I spoke to another professor at work who I knew to be a practicing Jew, about some things I read in the book of Leviticus. He explained that, although they are not sure exactly, this year was the Sabbatical Year, or the year in which the Jews have been commanded to let things rest. For some reason, these passages had stuck out in my mind this summer as I read the Old Testament anew, for the first time in many years.

I have loaned and gifted much money in the course of my life. A few weeks ago, a man I know to whose wife I once gave money to help them meet their financial obligations pulled me aside to thank me and warn me against continuing the practice. I explained to him that "because I have been given much, I too must give". I have saved and lived as I have for the support and benefit of my own family, but in the absence thereof, I chose to reach out and bless others.

Today, in accordance with the Law of the Sabbath, which I choose to live, I hereby forgive all debts as yet outstanding and owed to me. Regardless of the amount, keep the money. Pay it forward if you like, but I hold you accountable for nothing more. I know that in the Year of Jubilee that begins tomorrow, the Lord will, as with Job, bless me with more than I had at the beginning.

Granted, I may not be correct in the timing. I am not a Jew. Jesus, however, was, and I will follow him as best I know, and he would have us forgive those indebted to us if we wish forgiveness of his father. Let the Lord judge between me and thee.

Thanks to the Little Guys

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It's a little known fact, but since I know a little Tongan and I know a few Tongans who are themselves far from little, I wish to draw attention to the heroic men of Tonga who served in Iraq in support of the coalition. Although they withdrew their last platoon just prior to Christmas in 2008, they still were there.

Psi bay (phonetic). Well done and Godspeed.

Memo From the Dark Side

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I really love Sam Waterston. He's been one of my favorite Law and Order stars of all time. Tonight, I saw him do something amazing. I saw him stand on Lexington Green.

I know as well as any bloke that Law and Order is just a TV show. I know that actors are symbols. Symbols are given power by people, and so I choose to make this symbol a power by sharing it with you.

Tonight's Law and Order season premier, upon which I happened by complete chance, dealt with a lawyer from a previous administration who tried to avoid prosecution by virtue of connections. Even an official from the current administration stepped forward to block Sam Waterston's character, so as to prevent prosecution for their dirty laundry after they leave office.

The DA's office pointed out that they don't want a county prosecutor able to take down a federal official, except that this is EXACTLY what should be possible. The Created is not greater than the Creator. Shall the ax boast itself against him who heweth therewith? Yet, the federal government, which came after the states which came after the people who settled them, claims hegemony over all that gave it life and attempts to hold ours at ransom.

In his closing statement, the ADA says:

it is not disloyal to hold our officials to the highest standards of conduct and
it is not disloyal for you the people to decide what you want done in your name

There are those who do not want you to speak. Harry Reid once wrote me back and basically told me that I'm stupid. Others stopped holding town hall meetings. They don't know you. They don't consider themselves responsible to us or responsible for anything. They should. We pay them. We hire them. We will fire them.

Whatever you feel about torture, feel this about government. No official, servant to the people, has the right to railroad you. No politician or bureaucrat, obstentiously engaged in the "general welfare" has a right to ignore an individual's welfare. They may sit on their thrones and consider themselves safe. King George III made that mistake. When General Gage said, "If you think five thousand men enough, send ten thousand", and the king ignored him, he sowed the seeds for his own loss of empire.

Like Patrick Henry said, "millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us." People should not be afraid of their governments; governments should be afraid of the people.

The Guy's a Keeper

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So how many of these apply to you?

#1. Keeper clue: He has his act together.
This seems like a no-brainer, but it's a good place to start. "It's very important that you two be able to have a lot of fun together, so a party boy or a screw-up will probably not work out for you," says Mira Kirshenbaum, a family and couples therapist and author of Is He Mr. Right? "No matter how charming he is, if he is still struggling to grow up, it will get very old, very fast."

#2. Keeper clue: He puts you first.
Picture a delicious platter of grilled steak. Does your man offer it to you first to pick the best piece? He does if he's a keeper! "When it comes to taking the best piece of meat or offering it to you, that's a metaphor for how he'd always put you first the rest of your life," says Rachel Greenwald, author of "Why He Didn't Call You Back: 1,000 Guys Reveal What They Really Thought of You After Your Date."

#3. Keeper clue: He's not afraid of your germs.
You know a guy is really into you when he can't stay away, even when you're bedridden and snotty. "When you're sick with the flu, he says, 'Let me come over and take care of you,' rather than, 'Oooh, you sound really contagious... call me when you're feeling better,'" Greenwald says.

#4. Keeper clue: He's a family man.
He asks about your family, and he seems to genuinely want to hear about them. "Interest in your family shows that he thinks about you as a whole person, and he knows that being with you means understanding and accepting your relatives too," says Sarah Harrison, senior editor of yourtango.com.

#5. Keeper clue: He makes time for your friends.
In the beginning of your relationship, does your man show an interest in meeting your besties? And does he follow it up with a plan, like hosting a low-key dinner party? "Friends are an important part of your life, and his knowing them makes him more involved with you." Harrison says. "Plus, he'll have to deal with them at some point, so initiating it himself shows maturity."

#6. Keeper clue: He's your biggest cheerleader.
When your guy calls your mom to tell her about your promotion before you do, that should tell you something. A man who is supportive of you and your goals is typically a guy who doesn't "feel threatened by your success," says Kirshenbaum. "He knows who he is and where he's going," which means he can ultimately be there for you.

#7. Keeper clue: He remembers the little things.
Does your man really listen to you? You'll know he's a keeper if you tell him you have a big scary work meeting and the next time you talk, he asks how it went. Or if you tell him you left your sunglasses at his house and he remembers them on your next date. "Following up on things you say to him means he pays attention to you -- always a good sign," Harrison says.

#8. Keeper clue: He's happy when you're happy.
This is the guy who "goes to a chick flick with you on Friday night rather than an action film -- not because he actually wants to, but because it makes you happy," says Greenwald.

#9. Keeper clue: He makes you the best you can be.
A guy who makes you feel like the luckiest woman alive -- like you can (and should!) be your confident, fabulous self -- is worth hanging on to. "It's not just about how you feel about him but more about how he makes you feel about yourself," Kirshenbaum says.

...Apparently Not I

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When I went up to the department office at work yesterday just before noon, I ran across the department chair who bore bad news. Apparently, after this semester, I will no longer be allowed to teach until the furlough program created by the governor to alleviate state expenditures comes to an end. It technically counts as "overtime" and by the governor's mandate, no state employee is allowed to work overtime. They grandfathered me in for this semester since it's already underway, but I will no longer be teaching your children until further notice.

The good news is that Dr. J gave me the impression that once the crisis ends I will return to the opportunity. We fear more or greater cuts in the future, and I don't budget based on the teaching money, but it sounded like I will return to the classroom as soon as the governor will let me.

Let me impress upon you that this mandate comes from somewhere higher up than the department. Ultimately, it goes back to Governor Gibbons who, instead of cutting excess personnel, hit all of us with a shotgun blast.

Unfortunately for the students we serve, this means that students will suffer. Instead of professors who love teaching and excel at it, they will sit in class with teachers like Professor O, who are present physically but whose ultimate motives seem to lie somewhere other than in the presentation of an education to the students.

I have enjoyed very much the opportunity to work with these fine young men and women. With this new knowledge, I promise to dedicate myself more fully for the remaining 27 hours I have in class with them and give them the best I can to spur them to success now and in the future.

On my honor.

Hopefully some day soon I will return to the classroom. Meanwhile, I will do my best to do my duty in the office to which I am appointed with due diligence.

Who's Teaching Your Children?...

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My students complained in lab Monday night about their lecture professor, so I went with them to their lecture Wednesday night before my other night lab section. Let me simply say that their concerns are well founded. Their teacher displayed no excitement for her position and no love for teaching as a profession. Here are some of the things she said:

basically, the stuff I addressed in lectures is all you need to know.
I will not pull random facts I didn't address in lecture for the test.
Learn something else you don't know.
I don't want you to ignore chapter one...
the exam is worth...did you look in your syllabus?
I didn't bring any of my notes with me.
It's explained pretty well in your book.
Whatever it does in the cell.
It's getting a little too detailed.
I don't want to go there. It goes into serious detail.

and my personal favorite:
Oxidation is when an atom loses an election.

I didn't know they were on the ballot.

The Erised Principle

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In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Dumbledore tells Harry that the Mirror of Erised was one of his most ingeneous devices to thwart Voldemort. I think that historical political philosophers would have liked this maneuver, as I will attempt to explain.

Yes, I aspire to lead. I do not really like to be in the limelight or be out front, but I do not like how people of low character and little discernment arise to positions of power. The Stone in the movie represents the ultimate power- power over life and death. According to the Founders, this power was reserved to our Creator, and every power man has over man is by the grace of God.

I am like Harry. I want to find the stone, to find it but not use it. If the people of this country gave me power, it would be so that I could get as much of it back to them as possible.

Only a person who wants to find the Stone, find it, but not use it, should be able to get it.

Litmus Tests

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As a scientist, I have used litmus paper for the better part of 10 years to determine the chemical nature of substances. As an adult, I have used other litmus tests to measure the disposition of people with whom I have had cause to interact. Some people say I should abandon them, and although I seem to have as a result few friends and few close relationships, I use them to protect myself from getting burned.

Just as acids and bases can burn sensitive parts of your body, associations with the wrong types of people can burn sensitive parts of your psyche. A few years ago, I made changes to my life, and I continue to do so, as a way to protect myself from people who would do me harm. Sometimes it works better than others.

Years ago, my paternal grandfather, who often recited poems, taught me this one:

You Tell on Yourself
You tell on yourself by the friends you seek,
By the very manner in which you speak,
By the way you employ your leisure time,
By the use you make of dollar and dime.

You tell what you are by the things you wear,
By the spirit in which you burdens bear,
By the kind of things at which you laugh,
By the records you play on the phonograph.

You tell what you are by the way you walk,
By the things of which you delight to talk,
By the manner in which you bear defeat,
By so simple a thing as how you eat.

By the books you choose from the well-filled shelf:
In these ways and more, you tell on yourself.

—Author Unknown

So, I grew a beard, kept an old sedan, and adopted a mostly vegetarian diet.

People tell me that I am too critical of people. I can usually tell within about 10-20 minutes of conversation about how likely I am to get along with someone. Based on their interests, the topics about which they like to speak, and what priorities they set, I can tell that although they are nice people, we share very few values on which to build a lasting relationship.

Very few people ever evaluate the world. Some of them do pro/con lists or some sort of actuarial analysis, but they also think too much with their heads and too little with their hearts. Most people value very little the things that are of the highest value. I am very blessed in most aspects of life where others may envy me, but until they serve my highest choice of Home and Hearth, they are but a means to an end.

Where your treasure is, there shall your heart be. You'll be in my heart.

Seven of Eight

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Lately, I have developed a new phrase to describe how well I've done. I am richly blessed, and I will define that for you because my best friend liked the categories.

They are:
Educational
Vocational
Financial
Physical
Personal
Intellectual
Spiritual
Familial

The first seven of those are very well. The last, because a large portion of it lies outside your control, remains as yet unsatisfied. The first serve the last, because it is my highest choice- to start a family.

May God soon fulfill the righteous desire of my heart. 7/8

Franklin's "Thus I Consent" Speech

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Since I had not seen it all before, in continuance of our celebration of the Constitution, here are Franklin's words following the signing of said document, as delivered by James Wilson:

"Mr. President I confess that there are several parts of this constitution which I do not at present approve, but I am not sure I shall never approve them: For having lived long, I have experienced many instances of being obliged by better information, or fuller consideration, to change opinions even on important subjects, which I once thought right, but found to be otherwise. It is therefore that the older I grow, the more apt I am to doubt my own judgment, and to pay more respect to the judgment of others. Most men indeed as well as most sects in Religion, think themselves in possession of all truth, and that wherever others differ from them it is so far error. Steele a Protestant in a Dedication tells the Pope, that the only difference between our Churches in their opinions of the certainty of their doctrines is, the Church of Rome is infallible and the Church of England is never in the wrong. But though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said "I don't know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that's always in the right — Il n'y a que moi qui a toujours raison."

In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other. I doubt too whether any other Convention we can obtain, may be able to make a better Constitution. For when you assemble a number of men to have the advantage of their joint wisdom, you inevitably assemble with those men, all their prejudices, their passions, their errors of opinion, their local interests, and their selfish views. From such an assembly can a perfect production be expected? It therefore astonishes me, Sir, to find this system approaching so near to perfection as it does; and I think it will astonish our enemies, who are waiting with confidence to hear that our councils are confounded like those of the Builders of Babel; and that our States are on the point of separation, only to meet hereafter for the purpose of cutting one another's throats.

Thus I consent, Sir, to this Constitution because I expect no better, and because I am not sure, that it is not the best. The opinions I have had of its errors, I sacrifice to the public good. I have never whispered a syllable of them abroad. Within these walls they were born, and here they shall die. If every one of us in returning to our Constituents were to report the objections he has had to it, and endeavor to gain partizans in support of them, we might prevent its being generally received, and thereby lose all the salutary effects & great advantages resulting naturally in our favor among foreign Nations as well as among ourselves, from our real or apparent unanimity. Much of the strength & efficiency of any Government in procuring and securing happiness to the people, depends, on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of the Government, as well as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its Governors. I hope therefore that for our own sakes as a part of the people, and for the sake of posterity, we shall act heartily and unanimously in recommending this Constitution (if approved by Congress & confirmed by the Conventions) wherever our influence may extend, and turn our future thoughts & endeavors to the means of having it well administred.

On the whole, Sir, I can not help expressing a wish that every member of the Convention who may still have objections to it, would with me, on this occasion doubt a little of his own infallibility, and to make manifest our unanimity, put his name to this instrument."

I promise to commit it to memory. I encourage you to do in kind.