Obama Offers a Carrot on Oil

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Don't get too excited about the President's announcement to open offshore drilling. People forget that as soon as he got into office he was able with a stroke of his pen to reverse it when President Bush did that. Since this administration is unafraid of executive orders and recess appointments, I won't believe this will do any good until the oil starts flowing out of the ground.

There are some practical reasons for this. A business must want to drill there. The last time Congress approved this, the areas they opened were areas devoid of oil in sufficient amounts to make it worthwile. Even if a business plans to drill there, it must still obtain permits. Unless I'm mistaken, it's still prohibitively expensive and unnecessariously laborious to obtain a permit. Once you get one if you do, there are still confiscatory taxes, union contracts and litigation from environmental wacko groups to hurdle, meaning that it could be years before we ever see any oil come from this, if it ever flows at all.

Contrast this to our neighbors. China and Mexico have already begun to drill during the Obama Administration. These nations know no environmental restrictions, have a bureaucracy of one, and steal their technology from us. The prices of our commodities are high because of governmental policy and because of the enormous cost associated with finding these reserves, work that we do and that places with Communist or Dictatorial regimes steal via espionage if they can.

Furthermore, this could be just Shylock's pound of flesh. I suspect that Obama offered this so that recalcitrant "moderate" republicans like Webb, Snow, and the like will sign off on legislation he wants. He scratches their back and expects them to throw him a bone. They are fools to trade on his promises as the President has not kept the campaign promises he made that mattered most to Americans at the time of his election. I would believe him when I saw him keep his word, and so far his record on this is abyssmal at best. But they will trade him after the fashion warned of by CS Lewis where evil men "steal a man's soul and give him nothing in return" (Screwtape Letters).

The carrot is a ruse.

Ask yourself, are you better off now than you were before Obama was elected? I know I'm not. So, his bait won't lure me in.

America's Sex Syndrome

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Notice among the efforts of the left that they seek more and more the platonic utopia in which everyone shares everything equally. As they grant us more and more the pleasures and indulgences of our baser animal natures, they distract us from the focus on things that make all of that matter. While they give to us greater freedom from responsibility for your sexuality and render it not only more possible but also more likely that young people engage in sexual activities at younger and younger ages, they take away other rights, liberties at which the youth have looked little, distracted by the burgeoning physiological changes in those around them. While you may be able and encouraged to procreate, you will bring children into a world that renders them slaves and resources rather than the divine beings that make them a heritage of the Lord.

In the health care bill, we see this phenomenon at work. There is federal funding for abortions and increased focus on "sex education". Whereas that used to mean an effort to prevent sexual relations, it's now about how to prevent the consequences of any and all sexual liaison. The most effective way to protect yourself both from the positive consequences of intercourse (children) as well as from the negative ones (rejection, disease, ad infinitum) is to abstain. I know it's hard, but I also know it can be done. Now, the federal government veribly instructs our children not only how to actually have sex but seems almost to encourage it as part of their maturation process.

As soon as you can, I encourage you to read "The Teenager and the West" by Dr. Michael Platt. He discusses in this essay how the Sex Drugs and Rock n Roll generation has bequeathed to us a generation of teenagers. We have a teenager in the white house, a man who is not only not grown up but who has no intention to. We have men in positions of power who are interested in providing us only with the tools of pleasure, the instruments of indulgence, and the encouragement to excuse ourselves of every evil imaginable.

Maturation is not simply a matter of physiology. True adulthood means responsibility. The liberal ethos involves a shift of responsibility to other people, primarily the as yet unborn (and potentially unlikely to ever be born), as they indulge in new "rights". Just because you can do a thing does not necessarily follow that you must or that you should.

The youth wants to enjoy adult pleasures once earned. The teenager wants to indulge in them as a means to block out reality. Youths looked forward to becoming adults. Teenagers look forward to being cared for by other adults. Youths contribute and build. Teenagers are a burden on the productive.

You do not have to be like everyone else. I know that it's tough. I know you're tempted sometimes to "go out and get a life". If you are like everyone else, eventually it will be impossible for you to be anything other than that.

Unlike God, the government gives us things with one hand WHILE it takes away everything else with the other. While you indulge in sex, violence, and liesure, remember of what else the government robs you. Eventually, even sex is regulated by a total government. If you don't believe me, read Orwell's "1984" or Lowry's "The Giver". Do not let them distract you from what really matters. Spencer W. Kimball warned: "Never trade what you want most for what you want in the moment." J Reuben Clark wrote in 1940 that "that man or woman who demands as the price of his or her friendship that you abandon any of your righteous standards of living offers you nothing worth buying".

Why am I chaste? Why am I chased?

That man who demands without marriage as the price of his favor or love the enjoyment of your body, has in fact nothing but sorrow and degradation to give you in return...next to you sons: that woman who offers to you her body outside wedlock invites you to a feast that brings disease and corruption that will pollute you until death. -J Reuben Clark

This makes it "easy" for me, when I am offered the chance to do otherwise, to reject the ovations and invitations. The man or woman who offers you that isn't actually concerned with you. If they were, they would respect your standards.

So why am I chased? Women know that I respect them. I consider it the highest form of love to refrain from taking something to which I have no right even if you offer it to me. Yes, I am attracted to women and I enjoy their companionship, but there is a proper place, and a proper time and a proper reason for sex, and it is not about what the media and the administration has made it out to be. Sex is the gateway to fatherhood and family, and while it is the highest thing to which I aspire, I aspire to it in the right way, at the right time and under the right authority. The basic unit of society is the family. As the families of the nation go, so goes the nation.

I will do my part.

Not a BYU Grad by Choice

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For reasons too complicated to describe here, I could probably go to BYU absolutely free. Many people are surprised when they discover my religion that I didn't attend BYU and that I root for their opponents most of the time. Part of the reason why revolves around the assumption that in order to be a good Mormon you must go to the Y. Ask around among those who know me, and they will tell you I'm the best Mormon they know. Sad, I know, but true.

General Petraus put out a list of reasons why he likes to work with BYU grads. The same could be said of me, almost without exception.

10 — They have already been on many a mission.
I went to Austria. It was tough. I was there when Clinton ordered bombings of Milosevich of Yugoslavia. I could tell you stories. Maybe some day I will.

9 — Army chow is no problem for folks accustomed to eating green Jell-o and shredded carrots.
I happen to like MREs, not that they're my favorite, but it beats having to pack in stuff with which to cook, not to mention the light from a fire lights you up like a candle for snipers...

8 — It's not a problem if they don't know what rank someone is, they just refer to them as Brother or Sister so-and-so.
Ask my bishop and he will tell you that I get up to greet people who outrank me at church. I learned, because my father was a combat veteran, to respect adults, to listen to authority, and to honor those whose sacrifices earned them that honor.

7 — They never go AWOL. They just call it being less active.
I have never left the Mormon church because it is true.

6 — They will seize any objective swiftly if you tell them refreshments will be served.
I don't go for the refreshments. I do what I do because I believe it matters to God that I do it.

5 — They know how to make things happen. In fact if you ever need a base built quickly in a barren wasteland, stride out to where you want them to start, plant your walking stick down and say in a loud voice, "This is the place."
This one is just funny. It's particularly helpful if you stick the stick into the ground next to a monument of Brigham Young...

4 — They have innovative ideas for handling insurgents — like assigning them home teachers.
This might be a good time to link to one of my favorite YouTube videos where a british commentator suggests Al Qaeda take tips from our book...

3 — They always have a years' supply of provisions on hand.
Not just food...quilts, toilet paper, pencils...you name it. I even plan to have coffee and tobacco. After all, money will eventually be worthless like fiat currencies always are.

2 — They are the world's most reliable designated drivers.
I usually just opt against going out, and my closest friends usually don't bother to invite me.

1 — They understand how far Iraq has come over the last seven years, and they think that Iraq's old spot in the "Axis of Evil" can now be filled by the University of Utah.
I like the U. I also follow the admonition of CS Lewis who wrote, "IF you take away all the good in mankind you are not left with a bad man. Take away everything good about a man and you are left with nothing at all."

I learned a great deal of other things I find useful in and for life because I attended other institutions of higher learning. Contrary to popular opinion of the student body, BYU is the least diverse major college campus.

You can be a great person no matter where you go. What you get out of college depends largely on you. You will get out of it what you put into it. My favorite professor in college earned his PhD from the University of Nebraska. A school just needs to be big enough to challenge while small enough to care. Thanks to the Ag school. You will be missed.

Core Values

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This is an unfinished concept on which I have worked for about a year now. It serves to explain a bit why I choose the associations I choose and why I go and do what I go and do. Since it came up in conversation with my aunt today, I thought I'd share it for her benefit and by way of exposition.



When I look at people, I see certain behaviors as evidences of certain core values that go beyond the surface appearance. I know that some people pretend and purport to certain behaviors and character traits, but over time, we show what we really are by what we do. Sometimes people just do certain things, but patterns of behavior evince a design of values beneath the surface, and that is how I make my selections of companionship and comraderie.

The core values in this particular diagram are among those that matter the most to me. Note the glaring absence of Worldly Vanities. The selection of Good Friends matters so much in shaping the outcome of your destiny. You can make so much more Proper Use of Time if you surround yourself with people who believe in and live by the Beliefs, Values and Norms that matter to you.

Most people, especially young people, have done little to establish what Beliefs, Values and Norms will guide their lives. Although many of them inherit a basic rubric from their parents, as part of their Teenage Rebellion, they generally cast all of that aside without replacing it. In the absence of a system of values, whatever comes along perchance usually fills the void. It takes a lot of effort to define yourself, but once you do, you save a lot of heartache and headache because you can easily identify those who value you and value the things you value.

People I know intimately often recognize they spend most of their time with negative friends. It's so much more pleasant and effective to learn from positive friends. I made this rubric. I make no claims that it is perfect, but it gives me direction. Now that I have a course to chart, I know I'll come closer to my goals than if I pick an arbitrary star and follow straight on until mourning.

Demagoguery and Debate

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Friday night, a "friend" of mine attacked me. Here are some of the things I said that night by which I am most particularly impressed:

You see in me what you choose to see. If you cannot see the good, then that's your problem. It's there.

Everyone wants to be accepted for who they are. I would appreciate it if they returned the favor.

There's no point in talking until we can hold an honest conversation. If all you intend to do is throw one-liners at me, then communication is impossible for now and it's best if we postpone interaction to avoid altercation.

As soon as you realize that your fellows prefer to demonize you rather than discuss the merits and facts of an issue, you know they care more to demagogue, because that's easier than a debate.

Sometimes I amaze even myself.

Only the Powers Specified

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I have some coworkers who only do exactly what their job description entails. In part, it's because they're not really qualified or allowed to do certain things, but in this job like in my previous job, when I am gone, it takes a lot of people and a lot of thinking and a lot of scramble if I miss a day of work. A few weeks ago when I caught the flu in the middle of the busiest part of the semester, everything went to chaos. I wish Congress would stick to only what their job empowers them to do.

The Founding Fathers at the Constitutional Convention thought it was obvious, but some of the delegates would not vote for the Constitution until it expressly said that all other powers not delegated to the federal government belonged to the states and the people. That's how we got the 10th Amendment. Apparently, that wasn't good enough for the Democrat-led Congress as presently constituted.

Among other things, Congress now thinks they have power to compel you to buy something. They already did that backhandedly, like the ban on the incandescent bulb that will force us all to buy those stupid compact flourescents that contain mercury and are all a biohazard, but now they do it to our faces. This is new, and there is already old historical precedence that Congress cannot do this. When the Bill of Rights was being debated in front of Congress, the skeptical Rep. Theodore Sedgwick of Massachusetts asked if there should also be an enumeration that “declared that a man should have a right to wear his hat if he pleased; that he might get up when he pleased, and go to bed when he thought proper.” 1 Annals of Congress 759–60 (Aug. 15, 1789). Sedgewick’s point was that national laws about bedtimes and hat-wearing were self-evidently beyond the authority of Congress.

That has been clear for over 200 years, but the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority leader don't care about that. They know better.

Congress has only the powers specifically given to it. That is the platform on which I would run, which would surprise and disappoint a lot of people who have become accustomed to their representatives doing things for them. Congress is there to free you to do things for yourself, because they are only allowed to do certain things. However, they don't like to do those things, like defend the nation, and they like to do everything else, to which they have zero right. They want to do those things so they can have power over you.

A friend of mine on Tuesday mentioned they should be restricted to shorter terms like a jury. I suggested they also be paid as if they were on a jury. That way, only those who really wanted to be senators for the right reason would even bother to run, because the pay would really suck.

Why I Don't Buy Gold

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I read a very interesting series of comments in this article the other day which made me feel really good about my portfolio. Not that I feel secure per se, but because it shows me that I was right to follow my gut and avoid the bandwagon with so many other people I know who tell me to buy precious metals. It sounded too good to be true, and I have learned by enough sad experience to steer clear of it.

According to this article, the worth of gold is tied to the dollar. The problem with that is that the dollar only has value because the US Government says it does. Since Obama took office, the Treasury has printed dollars at an unprecedented rate, up to 1000 times the number of dollars in circulation compared to when the US first went off the gold standard. So, the dollar is worth a lot less, which is why gold, relative to the dollar, seems to be worth so much more.

Herein lies the problem. Now that the government has deflated the dollar relative to gold, it may do what every other nation with a fiat currency has done. They may change, by law, the exchange rate of dollars to gold. What this means is that if you bought gold at $900/oz, if the government changes by passing a law the gold exchange rate to $450/oz, the government just wiped out half of your money. Governmetns do this so they can buy back gold and then repeat this process. Gold only has value because we say it does. In and of itself, it's completely useless. You can't eat it, cook with it, make tools out of it, etc., as I have previously written. Gold only has value because people place value in it.

What I do intend to buy is commodities. I have a friend who keeps tobacco and coffee in his food storage, not because he uses them, but because he knows he can trade them for things he values if his money goes to absolute zero for whatever reason after whatever fashion. Some commodities don't keep very well, but everyone has to eat and poop, so the foodstuffs and paperstuffs as well as the information, skills and talents to produce them may one day become the most valuable things of all.

I don't know exactly what to do with my money. The government continues to deflate its value with debt and the printing press while my pay is cut, my expenses go up, and taxes rise. Maybe some day, I will be relieved of the bother of worrying about it at all. It will make pretty wallpaper.

My Beef With Conservative Leadership

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This will probably surprise some people and gratify others, but I have a great beef with the major figureheads of the Conservative Republican movement. I have listened to them speak, and whereas I agree with much of what they say, I realized last night that I disagree with what they actually do by and large. Like the Liberals, who encourage participation with bribes, the Conservatives depend on other people to do the work for them, encouraged by sometimes fear, sometimes ideology, and sometimes issues of morality. What we do defines us, and most of them just talk.

Let me start my analysis with the admission that I like Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin. There are a few other lessor figures whose thoughts make me think in ways I enjoy. Then there is Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, even Sean Hannity, to whom I can listen with scant little ease than President Obama himself. I admire what they do. Everyone knows what they say, and they take a lot of flak. However, they have set themselves up as pointmen for the cause of freedom. Pickets never won wars. They just stop the army from losing them.

I am a bit confused by this: if these men are so in tune with the Founders, why do they refrain from office? For years, I have heard callers betimes speak of Hannity for President etc., and they always dismiss the offer with "if nominated I will not run; if elected I will not serve." What kind of an attitude is that for someone who ostensibly cares about this country?

Most of these figures are wealthy, far beyond the $250,000/year that the President has established as "rich". The Liberal god is government; the Conservative god is gold. For the Left, rights come from government; for the Right, rights come from wealth and opportunity. In the middle, the rest of America worships that Creator from whom our rights actually come. These men, well intended their efforts may be, want to hold onto their money. To become a senator or president would constitute a HUGE paycut for them and a decline in their relative influence over the people. Despite what I thought, I no longer think Talk Radio is as righteous as they would have us believe. There are elitists on both sides apparently, people unwilling to step down from their thrones. If Rush really cared as much as he claims he does, he'd act more like Carter Braxton than John Dickenson.

I do these things for a different reason than anybody else. I do them, not because Rush leads me or because I can get rich or because I want special land deals or health care in perpetuity or simply because I like to tell people what to do. I do what I do because it's the right thing to do, to glorify God and serve Him.

Regularly callers ask these men how bad they think the plight of America has become. Rush and those like him tell the callers that they will know. At the same time, I hear them talk all the time about "where they will go" when things come to a head. They intend, when the times get hard, to flee. This betrays their villainy, clothed with odd old ends stolen forth from Founder writ under guise of which they seem a saint when they care just as little for us as individuals as the leftists they ostensibly oppose.

As for myself, I will go to the green with my rifle in hand. If it is God's will, I will also die there, for I would rather die than live in a world without that America in which I believe.

I signed the Minutemen oath. I meant it. Maybe it's easier for me because my net worth is less than $75,000. I guess that also means I have more in common with the major portion of Washington's men- farmers, merchants, coopers and craftsmen- who chose to do what was right instead of what was easy, to whom the pledge to lay down their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor was more than just an empty recitation. They were inspired by a better cause than money or power, and they bought this nation with their blood.

Thank God for them.

Demand Your New Rights

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Now that the President has kept his word to pass health care reform, it's time to demand the fulfillment of all the ancilliary details he claimed would come to pass in its wake. I will begin writing my legislators in Washington, Harry Reid, Dina Titus, and John Ensign (although that one just as an FYI) and demand the fulfillment of things Obama said would be better.

Mr. President:
I hereby demand as my constitutional right that I be given immediately free health care for current conditions, preexisting conditions, conditions I may one day have. I need a tissue graft to prevent peridontitis, an eye exam with new contac lenses and transition lenses in glasses, and anything else I might need as a profilactic against any health malady my family has ever had just in case.

I here by demand as my constitutional right that healthy food to be delivered to me, including but not limited to asparagus and broccoli and cous-cous, all at no expense to me and in quantities I deem necessary to satiate my hunger all day and every day.

I demand that my annual health care premiums be reduced $2500/year as the President promised. This will mean that I get a tax credit every year and get paid to go to the doctor on top of free coverage.

I demand all of this whenever I want for whatever reason, and that the quality of it also continue to rise, availability to expand, and costs to decline immediately because the Annointed One has spoken and promised that it shall be.

This is like Christmas! I will always wear these rose-colored glasses.

They say that the benefits will not kick in until 2014. That will surprise a lot of people. If it's a Divine Right, then it is a Right NOW, not in four years. If it is a right, demand it. That is government's job- to vouchsafe our rights.

Obama Did Not Win

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"The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." --Princess Leia to Grand Moff Tarkin, Star Wars IV: A New Hope

Obama did not win this fight. In order to win, you have to overcome the opposition. Opposition, by contrast, has GROWN to Democrat social programs. We have 13 States suing the federal government to block this. Virginia and Idaho have passed legislation to prevent this from taking effect. No Republican in Washington voted for the bill. Many Democrats voted against it. That is not a win. This is tyranny.

As this passes, in spite of vehement opposition by phone, email, letter and personal visitation to their offices, the American people are mad. Obama has "signed this bill into law", but as I previously discussed the Slaughter rule is in direct violation to Article I section 7 of the Constitution. If ever we needed Judicial Review, now is the time.

Americans understand that this will harm the country. I have never been more proud to have thrown tea in the harbor. I have never been more proud to have signed the Minuteman Oath in Concord Mass. This only passed because six members of the US Senate were not actually elected by the people. Obama intends to ram his plan down our throats. It was made possible by virtue of these appointments, not by popular election, and if not for that, no bill would have ever been sent to the House.

Previous presidents have almost always surrendered when they saw the people opposed it. Opposition to this will mount. I know of no man more tyrannical than this in the history of American colonization. Not even George III had this kind of nerve. He repealed the Intolerable Acts and the Townsend Acts. The Stamp/Tea Act was a trick, and we didn't buy it.

Obama has now closed a port of call. That was the last straw of George III when he closed the Port of Boston in response to the Tea Party of 1773. By God, I have never been so rassafrassin proud I stood on that bridge last fall and threw tea in the harbor. Mr. President, I am coming for you. I hope you enjoy the last few years of your only term.

I am not really a fan of the "Anybody but Harry" movement because that's a dangerous attitude, but I cannot conceive of a worse man for the job than Barrack Hussein Obama. "The world will sing of an English King 1000 years from now, and not because he passed some laws or had that lofty brow. Incredible as he is inept, whenever the history books are kept they'll call him the phoney king of England. A pox on the phony king of England."

A plague of both your houses, Mr. President. “And thus I clothe my naked villany With odd old ends stol’n out of holy writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.” King Richard III Act I, Scene iii.

Just Because it is Said Doesn't Make it True

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For a while now, since the Tiger Woods scandal broke, I have used this saying: Just because it is said doesn't make it true and just because it is true doesn't mean it ought to be said. Remember the source and the agenda of that source. It makes a huge difference.

Imagine my surprise to read today that American's tax refunds went up this year. That's quite frankly not true. The story says refunds are up 10% over last year due to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Well, last year, I received a $1300 refund. This year, I owe $423. That doesn't sound like a bigger refund to me.

Here's the simple math. The article sites four tax credits which are temporary, one-time boosts to certain people's tax refunds and not permanent. The article doesn't refer to people like me who broke into the 25% tax bracket from the 15% tax bracket in which I was last year. I earned more money in AGI this year, significantly more in fact, which pushed me into that higher tax bracket. Unless you are trying to make your home energy efficient, attending college, and/or collecting unemployment, you are not really a beneficiary of this. Beware what they say.

I am not complaining per se. I earned more money in 2009 which is actually pretty rare. The same will not be true in 2010. I took an effective 25% paycut, so I will probably get a nice refund next year. A 25% paycut beats a 100% paycut, but I did not do better on my taxes. This is arrogant and condescending to assume something is true just because someone said it, especially some faceless staff contributing writer who posts something to the internet.

Weeks ago, I sarcastically said to a friend, "If Facebook doesn't say it, it isn't true." Beware what you read on the internet, and beware what people tell you. Investigate it for yourself. Take advantage of what differentiates us from all other mammals- our ability to think, to reason, and to read.

He who does not read has no advantage over him who cannot.

Health Coverage Passes...Joy...Rapture

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We now have health coverage. I did before this "historic" vote. I also had health insurance. I am not so sure I will now. All is not lost, for just like in Tolkkien's novels, something always happens that the Lord of the Rings does not intend. This is how I know.

When people have won something in which they are confident, they take a victory lap. I remember watching the olympic women skate relay where the Koreans took this jubilant victory lap with their flag and everything just before they were disqualified. The Democrats are not out having parties. They took to the microphones and the talk shows and everywhere they could to persuade us that they had done the right thing. When you know you have won, you don't spend time convincing others; you won't hear them say "everyone knows" because that's a rhetorical tool to dispirit.

I am, suffice it to say, disappointed. The Constitution isn't by a thread yet per se, but if the Courts do not put the Congress and the President in their place, I don't really see much hope barring a change in November 2010 for the Constitution to endure. I also wouldn't be surprised if the President just cancels elections, declares himself Ceasar, and abolishes the Senate. They gave him their power today anyway. For what then do they still exist?

Am I surprised? No. Titus had better be ready for a strong challenge to "her" seat. Voters didn't want this, but our Congress doesn't care.

I don't buy this.

Thoreau wrote that in a world ruled by injustice, the only place for a just man is in prison. Amen.

Your Education Contract

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My first semester as a teacher, and this semester as well, my laboratory students came and complained to me about their lecture professors. It seems that several of them fall way behind or fail to cover certain topics of subject matter either towards which the students looked forward or which they felt as important to their future academic success. This inchoate effort to educate betrays the fundamental problem with education in general, and the tenure system ensures continuity of this broken state of affairs.

Our educators fail to realize that their job is part of a contract. For a sum of money, students pay for information which we provide as a service in exchange for their specie. When we fail to deliver information expressed on the syllabus, we in essence commit breach of contract. Students have PAID us to give them information. Maybe 10% of our faculty understand the student-teacher relationship. The increase in cost rarely results in increase of information disseminated to the students, if ever, and the governor's mandate has robbed the students of my tutelage in favor of individuals less qualified and less inclined to deliver on the College's promise.

There was a man who decided to start a barbershop. The demand was so high despite his relative inexperience, that in order to keep up with the customers, he never actually finished any of the haircuts. Eventually people noticed. Soon after that, he had no customers. If we cut hair here, we'd be out of business in six months.

Like the barber, the college for which I work among others is derelict in its contractual obligations. No matter what politicians tell you, the problem with education is the philosophy by which people enter academic employment. We got along for years with fewer members of the administration. We would get along better with instructors who liked their job and always gave their very best, even if they sometimes have a bad day or two or six.

Some of our instructors belong in other fields. The union and the governor keep them in place. One of them just plays on the computer during lab. One of them just reads off of her slides in lecture. Few of them actually answer questions. Some of them wouldn't know what to say anyway. One of them even lost her temper in class and dismissed early. At least one misses her last position at a larger university. All of them think we need more money. What we really need are people who love their job, because then we can maximize our resources by hiring people who love to teach, even if they earn less money than they could elsewhere. The union protects the ensconced, tenure prevents terminations, and legislation forestalls appointment of the best interested parties.

I hear Rory Reid has a plan. I can virtually guarantee it will fail. We do not need more taxes, more bureaucracy, or more facilities. We need people who love to teach and who excel at it. That is the first step to change performance. It's not about staffing the department with PhDs and JDs and all those other high-falutin' Greeks. The students don't really care how much I know until I become real to them and they know that they are real to me.

Every semester I have twins in one of my classes. Last semester, the girls knew I knew who they were, just not which name went with which girl. I could tell them apart. I knew things about them and they about me. We shared personal experiences. We shared real-world applications.

Build relationships of trust and you will improve education. Students will trust teachers who convince them that the students and the subject matter to them. I promise. They pay us for a product. We ought to give them the best bang for their buck possible. That will earn their "brand loyalty" for generations to come.

gods on Capitol Hill

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Representative Steven King of Iowa said yesterday that "it would be sanctimonious to create a right on the Sabbath". The Democrats intend to work on the Sabbath, on Lent, in a conspiracy to steal our liberty. Will a man rob God?

The Democrats cannot create rights. Rights are given by our Creator. The Democrats have, first with the Slaughter rule, and now with this effort, decided to deficate on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution it helped birth. Nowhere in any authoritative text or by any historical figure outside the Progressive movement has anyone ever forwarded the notion that health care is a right. I heard a man on the radio yesterday speak about how we should all drop ours to 'make it fair for those who don't have it'. Excuse me, but I PAY for that healthcare. If they want it, they can pay for it too.

Said Inga Barks weeks ago, "There is God and then there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that". This is Congress's attempt to replace God, to overwrite his omnipresence, as they obfuscate his role in our lives, our minds, and our hearts, as they steal freedoms on the day God rested from his labors.

We must continue to work. This is by no means a sure bet. If it were over, Obama would have gone on his vacation to Asia, firm in the knowledge that the bill would be on his desk. If it were over, Obama would not be headed to California to campaign for Barbara Boxer of all people, who should be firmly ensconced in her chair by virtue of the socialists that permeate that state. If it were over, the media would not be telling us it was over, they would be celebrating it as if it had already happened yesterday. If it were over, we would know.

Founding fathers and statesmen have warned us for centuries now of that troublesome third of our populace that would seek to install a new tyranny. Only some 20% of Americans want government sponsored healthcare, and that tyrannical minority would impose its will on us. These great men spoke of God and our duty to him. They warned that we were "too proud to pray to that God who made [us]" and said that the Constitution was inadequate to the governance of an immoral people.

This land will remain a land of liberty as long as the majority of the people live good and brave and true lives in accordance with the commandments of God. Whatever your religious persuasion, if you keep to the tenants practized by your faith, we can be assured that God will deliver us. If your faith has not made you a better person, then it matters little which religion you adopt, but if you see what I see and feel what I feel, then drop to your knees in prayer this Sabbath and flood the capital with your phone calls, emails and letters. You can reach the Capital Switchboard at 877-SOB-U-SOB (no joke). I will be fasting actually this Sunday. You are welcome to join me.

I intend to fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way. America is great because she is good. Her strength is in her houses of worship. The Democrats trust in the arm of flesh. Each of them swore an oath to God to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. God will not be mocked.

Socialism 101- Registration

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I decided to start a series of posts that detail some of my experiences in a socialist country. As we go along, I will as nearly as possible detail my experiences chronologically. From September 1998 to June of 2000, I lived in the nation of Austria. It is dominated politically by the "social democrats", and at least 50% of the urban population lives on any of the various entitlement programs. Although I spent most of my time in the rural areas, the hand of the government reached there too, especially when the FPO (the residue of the NAZI party) won control of the country and we were told to "blend in". Socialism creates fear.

As soon as I arrived at my first station in Ried im Innkreis, Oberoesterrich, Oesterreich, I was required to "anmeld", or register. The ramification of this procedure is that the government knows where everyone lives at every moment. When I left Ried in January in an "abmeld", they were concerned that nobody would be living in the flat. I assured them that someone would come behind me. My companion at the time refused to comply with Austrian law and register. I had nothing to hide.

What can the government do when they know where you live? It's not like in this country where they know who owns the property. They know EVERYONE who occupies the building at all times, and where in the building they are. Our building had only two apartments as we lived above a photography studio, but if you want to see what life is like when they know who lives where, watch Minority Report when Tom Cruise goes to get new eyes. They know where you are supposed to be. They know with whom you live. They know what you do. They really probably know where you are at every moment of every day, particularly when you start adding mass transit passes to the mix, since you basically get scanned when the conductor comes through.

They know where you are. They know who is there with you. They probably do this under the auspices that they can then track down lawbreakers and the like. Well, if you are Christian, you believe that everyone makes mistakes, but a mistake is different than a sin, and their system does not discriminate for motive.

This is why I oppose a national ID card and the federal sex offender registry as presently constituted. Did you know that you can go online and find out the names and addresses and even photographs of sex offenders in your neighborhood? That is a HUGE invasion of privacy. It is unconstitutional for any government official to be able to come up to you within the borders and demand to see your identification. The police may ask when they pull you over when driving to see if you are licensed to drive, but if you don't drive, then you don't need to carry identification in this country. That is a total government idea. I know you want to be safe, but our government, particularly at the federal level, is there to keep enemies out, not to find them once they get here. If you prevent them from entry, then you have no need to find them or track them once they are here.

Americans have one of the greatest freedoms ever given to man- the freedom to move about the country. We can just get up one day and decide to drive from Montana to Maine, from San Antonio to San Francisco, or to appear on the National Mall. National ID cards would severly curtail that freedom if you can be stopped at any time anywhere and asked to produce it. That is a burden arduous and illegal under our Federal Republic.

I still have all of my "Meldezettlen". I keep them as a reminder that it is such a blessing to live in America. Every time I come back to this country, I realize just how fortunate I am to be a citizen of this great land.

God bless the USA.

To Steal Your Identity

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When I first went online, I was much more cautious than I am now. I used to contact new online friends and warn them against information they had by which individuals with ulterior motives could hurt them financially, physically, etc. Some of them were scared, but they all knew they could trust me. You can too!

Identity theft is very easy and very common. Theives started actually stealing identities of young children because they know those people won't come of age and pay attention until they're done with High School. By then, they may have ruined your good name without you having done a thing. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

My sister and I talk about this all the time. We have kept the obvious information about us on Facebook and elsewhere to an absolute minimum. Nothing is foolproof. Avoid information by which they can find out basic information and steal your identity. Thieves need your sex, your name, and your birthday, and that's it. If you have your High School class and a bunch of pictures in which you're tagged and you get birthday greetings all over the place and use your real name, your friends are actually helping someone steal your identity. They don't mean to hurt you; it's just part of "social networking".

People on there don't really network in the classical sense. They play games, befriend complete strangers, and just post asinine banalities or updates. Some of these are dangerous like "Out of town for a few days". Why would you tell everyone that? That's like taping a sign to the door that says, "Rob my house while I'm gone". I am on there to connect with people I haven't seen in years, but I don't let anyone who is anyone know about everything. Facebook, for example, allows you to mask your profile so that people only see what you wish them to see. Or at least it used to...

You can't get your good name back without a lot of money and a lot of time. God knows how hard I have tried to right unfounded allegations over the years, and there are people who are convinced I am sure that I am evil or did them wrong. They have never contacted me to arrange a rational and reasonable means by which to make it right. It's easier just to bellyache and bombast your enemies than to actually work things out, especially if you're not really willing to admit you did anything wrong.

Protect yourself. Nobody, not in government, online, or even in your family cares about your well-being as much as you do. If you don't look out for yourself, who will?

Years ago in a faraway land, there was a highwayman. His job every night required him to trudge into the forest to a dark clearing and guide travelers to the right road. This road was heavily traveled at all hours of the day by caravans, merchants, farmers, soldiers, and all other kinds of travelers. It was difficult enough to find the path during the day. The man always took an oil lamp with him so that he could be easily seen in the dark and so that he could easily see and ward off the dangers in the woods, thick as they were with carnivorous beasts.

One night, every traveler upon which he happened had wandered around on their own in the thicket so long that they had exhausted the oil in their lamps. The man, kind as he was, gave them of his oil reserves every time he was asked. The night wore on. More travelers depended on his stores, such that when it came time to go home, he had run out of oil. The next morning, the highwayman who worked days found his fellow torn apart by wolves and wedged into some bushes. He had been unable to find his way when the situation became dire because of his outreach to others. When you run out of oil in your lamp because you gave it away to others, how will you find your way in the dark?

There are dangers everywhere. Trust, but verify. If you don't look out for yourself, you won't be there to look out for anyone else either.

Whatever Obama Wants

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Growing up, my parents loved and allowed us to watch "Damn Yankees". It has a great story and an awful title. The story, ironically, is the same spectacle we see in the political arena as a devious Mr. Applegate tries to steal our souls and sends out his minions to convince us to just follow along. If you're not familiar with the Lola song, I have included it here.



The President is prepared to violate his oath of office and sign away not just his own soul but that of every man woman and child in the nation. Shut up and do like Obama tells you to do...

The health care issue has now come to a dangerous head. The Democrat party leadership has a plan that compels each of us to change the way we live without the benefit of an actual law. What is your constitutional authority to violate the Constitution? They call this process as if the people don't care. As if we don't care about the Constitution. The Democrats have announced that they are considering violating the Constitution to impose upon the American people most of the whom do not want it an authoritarian healthcare system that will change their lives forever.

They refuse to read the bills or vote on them. There isn't even a bill at all. We're supposed to go along for the ride. They want to pretend a law was passed and have the Slaughter rule in process that would pass a "bill" into "law" without a vote taking place. This is in clear violation of Article I section 7 of the United States Constitution. Are we even obligated to obey the particulars if there is no law? Said Thomas Paine in Common Sense, "In America, the Law is King." I demand a roll call vote. That should stop this travesty.

Whatever Obama wants, Obama gets.

Texas Declares Jefferson an Enemy of the Constitution

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I am a Jeffersonian. In the past two years, I have visited his home, payed tribute at his grave, photographed his monument, viewed the documents he wrote, and read his complete works. Imagine my surprise to hear how today the State of Texas cut his name from a list of influential revolutionaries on the auspices of one comment he once made of which much ado has been made and in a way he never meant.

I suppose this means the Declaration of Independence is even more sacred than ever before now that Texas has declared it authorless.

As a Jeffersonian, I know Texas is wrong about this. I have read Jefferson's complete works, and I know for what he stood. The clause on which they base this ruling was first used in that fashion in the 1940s by a former Klan Kleagle who hated the Catholic church. Jefferson may have been a Deist, but if he had meant it that way, he would have never referenced the Creator in the Declaration.

That document and the men who wrote it and inscribed their names thereon deserve appropriate reverence for their vicarious sacrifice on our behalf.

I will write Ms. Dunbar myself. I hope she is doing the best she can with what she has, so I will give her more. This is the problem when people legislate not according to law but according to ideology, and it is why self-proclaimed "conservatives" can be just as dangerous if they cannot govern themselves.

An Ordinary Man

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Many people that I know hold me in high regard. Perhaps that is well that they do so. I invite you to consider that I am an ordinary man, prone to the same human frailties as everyone else, and just because I have not yet made certain mistakes does not necessarily follow that I never will. Like you, I need the Atonement of Christ in my life to compensate for the things that I do, and this need exists without regard for the severity of what I may or may not have done. Please let me know if I have offended you, and I will do all in my power to set things right.

Since my ascension to adulthood, as I mingled with all kinds of society, I fell into any of several foolish errors and displayed both the weakness of youth and the foibles of human nature. I am sorry to say this led me down roads I would have otherwise avoided, and, although I was naive, these choices may have been offensive in the sight of God or of other men. Despite this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins as it has never been my disposition to purposely hurt anyone or hurt my relationship with my Maker, but I was guilty of levity, marked by obstinacy and sometimes associated with individuals whose behavior and beliefs are inconsistent with that character which ought to be maintained by one such as myself.

I proudly call people friend who come from many variegated walks of life. When it comes to my associations with them, I follow the admonition of Abraham Lincoln:
"I will stand with anyone when he stands right, and I will part from him when he goes wrong." God has brought me along a path that exposed me to many fine people with whom I would have never chosen to associate, not because of who they are as much as where I found them. As part of my own refinement process, God took me among these people so that I could learn about them and from them and that by my associations with them I could learn more about myself. For this special tutelage, I consider myself richly blessed.

For the better part of my life, I have striven to live as best as I can. My best friend will tell you that he doesn't know anyone who is always on his best behavior. Where other people may be capable of and act from time to time in better ways than I do, I sustain as long as possible the very best stance I can. However, I am an ordinary man and you must not expect perfection from me. If you expect perfection from me, then I shall expect it from you, but if you will bear with my imperfections then I promise to bear with yours. I sincerely hope that as I grow older and gain wisdom, experience and stature, that I will increase in favor with God and man.

Until then, I ask your forgiveness, and where I have wronged you, I promise to do what I can to make things right.

Hearts of Parents to Their Children

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I have become aware of a trend among parents that disturbs me. My awareness of this problem has been many years in the making, but it finally came to a 'T' in the last 24 hours as I heard some stories that disturbed me. When you bring a child into this world, there is a contractual obligation to that child to care for its physical and emotional needs as a bare minimum. Whatever their reasons, it seems parents bring children into this world not to care for them but to use them as a tool for their own advancement.

It is not a new concept that having children is a status symbol. There are plenty of people who have children to comply with societal norms. Just last Sunday, a man just a few years my junior told me to get with it, get married and have a family. Others sometimes omit me from activities oriented around families because their children don't know mine, and so my name doesn't cross their mind when they plan and organize. Even in times of yore, children were taken as a symbol of a man's virility, and in more recent times, especially in China, there is a push to have an heir. So much for "children are an heritage of the Lord...

Some "parents" manipulate their children for welfare. In particular, certain communities out west and in poverty areas use children to get access to social services like food stamps, welfare, and health care. I have seen parents parade the "misfortune" of their children before regular folks as a simpathy ploy. I have myself fallen prey to their schemes.

Then there are other schemes that particularly worry me about parents with grown children. Last night on Judge Judy, some parents sued their daughter for reimbursement of wedding expenses. Judy, rightly so, reminded them that it's the bride's family's responsibility to pay for the wedding. Not that the bride gets whatever she wants but that her family carry that burden according to their ability to pay. When I got married to my now ex wife, her parents protracted a scheme on me. During the immediately precedent period of her life, her parents had bought her a car and paid for her schooling. They refused to let us get married until I settled her debt to her parents. Then, they didn't pay for the wedding. Nice. Now, I hear a friend of mine is being charged for the cost of a dorm room at college for which her parents paid and in which she didn't want to live. They insisted that she live there, ostensibly to control her, and now she's on the hook for it.

When you bring a child into this world, you accept the burden of responsibility for it. I didn't have any say in the frequency of your "relations", in your wedding, or in the birth of the child. Why am I then obligated to pay for it?

Unless we turn the hearts of parents to their children, the earth really will be cursed. What we have is a generation of children in adult bodies raising their own children. These people adopted a Toys R Us attitude and never grew up, and they never intend to. If you want a great primer on the subject, I recommend The Teenager and the West (available for purchase from the author). Time used to be that children helped people grow up, but I think it should be different. You don't have a child to meet your needs; you have a child when you are willing and able to meet its needs. Every one of us comes into the world the same way- naked, crying, and completely helpless. Choices have consequences, and this is one to which I look forward in the right place at the right time in the right way with the right woman when God finally decides that this privilege of parenthood finally be mine.

Happy will be that day.

Living and Breathing God

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As I sat in Fast and Testimony meeting yesterday, I was struck by an interesting thought. Most of the people in the Democrat party and most of the students with whom I interact on a political basis believe that government is the source of all that is good and nothing that is bad. They believe that government is always a servant, beneficial, caring, loving, trusting, trustworthy, etc. They forget that governments, like clocks, are run by men, and that men are only as good as their own personal morality.

It is a fundamental tenant of my faith that "honest and wise men should be sought for diligently, and good men and wise men ye should seek to uphold" in political office. James Madison reminded us that the Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. As such, I remain the best man I know willing and able to say and do what I say and do. Lincoln, who is allegedly Obama's favorite president, spoke of how his people were "too proud to pray to the God that made us".

Liberals believe in a living and breathing Constitution. Why do they disbelieve in a Living and Breathing God?

There is a God in heaven. He knows my name. He knows what I am up to, why, and how much it hurts me to make this sacrifice when I would rather be a husband and father. He knows that because he is my eternal father, and he knows what it's like to be proud of a struggling son. His Son suffered for our sins in Gethsemane, then he rose from the dead with healing in his wings to set people free from sin, from pain, from fear, from death, and from the devil who seeks our misery. To help us understand, they called wise men on earth who speak as prophets. There is a prophet on earth today. I have heard his voice. I know that he speaks for God, and I know that if I obey, I will have peace in this life and eternal life in the world to come.

Living and breathing does not mean that it must change. God is ever beside me because I have tried my whole life to be on his side. If I'm wrong, then it doesn't matter what any of us do because everything is irrelevant, but because I am right, I know that I shall have justice where it is earned and mercy through His Son.

I believe in God as I believe in the noon-day sun, not that I can see it, but that by it I can see everything. --CS Lewis

Income Tax Burden

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I knew I owed taxes this year, so it wasn't exciting for me to get online and Turbotax my way to a refund like it might be for some of you. When I teach, they withhold $50/month from those checks, so it meant I took home $8000 last year without any income tax withholding, so I knew this would come. Some of the other numbers surprised me.

Since I don't give enough to anyone to itemize, I just get the standard deduction. My raises and teaching last year pushed me into the 25% tax bracket as well, so, I took it in the pants when it came to taxes. The Federal government got to keep nearly $6000 of my pay this year just in federal income tax alone. Ouch.

I support the Boortz Amendment. I think that Federal Income Tax withholding is against the founding principles of the constitution. That someone managed to get it written in as an amendment is a shame; there is precedent to remove and fix these changes, and it's time we did that. If you really want to shift the burden of tax to the ability to pay, this is the way. I am hardly "rich".

Under the Boortz Amendment, you pay tax when you buy something and only then. No withholding, no April 15th, no IRS audits. If you don't want to buy, you don't pay taxes. If you don't buy a Lexus, you pay fewer taxes than someone who does.

I am not really complaining. I understand that the government needs our money for its legitimate functions. What I disagree with is what they claim to be necessary functions and how they use the money they receive.

That's why I threw tea in the harbor, and it's why I now throw caution to the wind.

Fight For Education?

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There is allegedly a movement afoot to defend the "right" to an education. Imagine my surprise to discover that education is a right. In all the books I've ever read, only socialist authors have ever advocated education as a "right", and that was not the education that they imply in this. The movement doesn't talk about budget cuts, better teachers, and the obligation of students to perform. It doesn't talk about access to more information, debate, discussion, analysis, and exposure to methods and experiments. It asks for diplomas without dissertations. Since when is education a right?

I do not see students fight as hard for an education inside the classroom as they do when they march out on the quad. We don't even teach people how to think, reason and read. Instead, we teach them what to think. This isn't about education. It's about a cause.

I oppose the endeavor to bouy up education at the price of higher taxes. That which we obtain too easily we esteem to lightly. I paid a great deal for my education. I paid the price in High School with good grades, which earned me scholarship money. I worked 40 hour weeks all summer and 20 hours every week during the semester to earn enough of my own money to pay for it. I sat down and studied every day instead of networking games with my dormmates and neighbors. I didn't take out loans I never intended to repay like some people I know as a way to get others to subsidize my education. I am for education, and I think too many people take it for granted.

My department turns away 25% of applicants to biology courses every semester. However, by the time the semester is over, 25% of the seats are vacant. The system is now such, what with lower admissions standards and the Millenium "scholarship" that anyone who can pay their bill and is awake and online at the right time to register for an open slot can take our courses. Many of them are ill prepared for success. Every semester I have taught, at least one student has come into my office in search of help when it was TOO LATE TO DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

Before you say I am anti-education, talk to my students. Before you say I don't care about our kids, come and watch me teach. I am among the more popular of our instructors, and I love my job. What I don't love is those who squander an opportunity because they expect me to spoon feed them that for which I scraped and struggled.

Thomas Jefferson said that every man who ever amounted to anything had a part in his own education. Since I left college, I have continued to think, to reason, to read, and learned new things of philosophy, economics, science, mathematics, history, literature, "gymnastics" and language. I have made myself the man I am. I graduated from the public school system, but I am what I am in spite of it, not because of it. I believe that college is what you take from it. You can go to a "small" and "undistinguished" school and come out wise and powerful. One of my favorite professors in college and one of the men I most esteem in academia was the only member of the department who never went to an ivy league school, and he earned his PhD from the University of Nebraska.

Education as presently constituted impoverishes the minds of the people. Although I am pained when students fail the course, I understand how important it is to hold people to a high standard who wish to be in nursing, dentistry, and other parts of the medical profession. Nobody in the department likes to teach Biology 189 because it is a weeder course, which is how I got to teach in the first place. I thought that maybe I could make a difference even in the lives of those who had to retake it.

Rights never come from Government. Said Inga Barks, "There is God and then there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that." Government and politicians and their ilk have established an expectation in your mind for education and set themselves up as your benefactors. As soon as the government becomes the grantor of rights, they have all power to take anything from you. God made man, and men made government. Men get their rights from God and government gets its from men. Politicians have fooled you. They want you to think that liberty and struggle are bad for men. This is not about saving education at all.

One of my favorite quotes and one very unknown is this from Thomas Paine's Common Sense. "This therefore is the origin and rise of government, namely a mode made necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world." We do not need more laws and government. We need more virtue. As men rise in virtue, they rise in everything else that is worth having and that lasts.

Government is not the answer to your problems. It is the source. Stop looking to it and look to yourself. Make something of yourself and educate yourself. If you really believe in fighting for education do it in the classroom. Go out and earn it.

March Forth

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This is my favorite day of the year for some perhaps silly reasons. First of all, it's the only day of the year that is a command. Secondly, it's the only day of the year that's a complete sentence. In light of my current situation, it's completely fitting, and today I am excited and jazzed up for the future albeit for no good reason in particular.

Over Budget, Under Performance

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This week, I discovered that in the language department we continue to convene a class in Portugese even though there is only one student. This week, we heard the Post Office threaten to reduce mail delivery to five days per week. This week, we heard the President talk about how more money in a government entity will increase performance. Where has that ever worked?

Whenever there are problems in our life, our "leaders" claim that it's time for more government control over our lives. People with no expertise therein whatsoever claim clairevoyance and clout sufficient to solve problems in our lives even while those same problems persist and grow in their own. So, we pay more for school and postage, and somehow that does nothing to alleviate the budgetary hemmorhage.

During my brief period in industry, I worked in R&D. Since it was a for profit company, our R&D had deadlines to meet. You had to show progress or they cut off the project. I think the R&D department had the highest job risk. Bring back food or be food yourself.

Many government agencies run over budget and under performance as the rule. Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the Postal Service, AMTRAK, the Park Service, ad infinitum, spend money they do not have to meet their obligations and then come back and beg for more. Americans do not protest taxes per se. They protest the waste of their money by inefficient and ineffective bureaucracies. If they're not doing their job or we no longer need them, fire them too.

I have asked our governor to do so, with the knowledge that my job might be ended or that I might invite backlash and get the ax. It is always the right time to do the right thing.

Only one bureaucracy does its job on budget. The Department of Defense. I know a lot of you may not like the military, but it is the only part of the government that accomplishes its objectives on time and on budget. When they need more money, it's because the Congress historically and the President more recently sent them to war, and war is never something for which you can accurately budget. Our military exists to kill enemy soldiers and break their stuff. They do a smashing job, pardon the pun.

Any part of any government agency that cannot deliver on its mission and keep to budget deserves to follow the path of darwin. I am amazed that socialists advocate darwinism in every part of life except for government. Only the departments that are fiscally fit should survive. That doesn't leave many. Sunset all government programs that do not turn a yield. They say we should relax the war on drugs because it doesn't net results, yet they never say we should relax other government endeavors that do not net results and never will.

Come in under budget and on time, or we'll right you up as your bosses, just like I am and would be in a similar situation for failure to do my job.

Remember that government was created by "We the People". You work for us. Your job depends on us. When the American people awaken to this, most of you will lose forever the comfort of your plush thrones, and that will be a great day indeed.

Gag Reflex Protects You

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Yes, I'm up way early this morning. I have the stomach flu, and I am pretty sure I know why. For the third time in my life that I remember, I puked, and that was about an hour ago. Better out than in after all, and I think the botulism toxin looks much better in the bottom of the sink than in my bloodstream.

The last time I puked was because I was poisoned. I drank some Orange juice laced with formalin and had one of the worst sick days of my life. Unlike today, I didn't miss work, and although I will try to make it in today, I so rarely call in at any job I think they can make due without me at least for a while.

Many people rely on their immune systems far too much. The immune system is the last line of defense. I prefer the Miyagi theory of health- best way avoid fight, not be there. So, when my body decided to expectorate and otherwise eradicate the virulent vermin, I knew it was for my good.

There's a reason they call it food poisoning. I was somewhat cavalier with some food I bought and didn't refrigerate it. God has been merciful and spared me from being poisoned, in spite of me, and I am extremely grateful today to be alive.

Why I Use a Pseudonym

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Like all of you probably have or will experience, there are people on this planet who do not like me. They have imagined up unto themselves offenses protracted against them by me. In an effort to be left alone, I have for virtually all of my adult life used pseudonyms online as a means to protect my privacy where I did not choose to give it away and to keep them from finding me through something as asininely simple as a google search.

The time for that has now ended.

Unlike most people I know who have people who dislike or even hate them, I am unashamed of my past and unafraid for my future. The time has come for me to live up to my potential and do what it was I believe I was born to do. I was born to lead; I was born for glory. Regularly, I ask myself why in Hoboken I intend to do that which I intend to do. Periodically, someone close to me will accuse me of pride. Confidence and aspiration to serve is repectful of God's gifts and plan and a form of humility. God knows how much I would rather be a husband and father than walk the path on which I have decided this year to tred. I hope that in submitting my will to His I will earn His grace and favor and be justified in the end, that as Lincoln said, "the Cause will approve of my efforts".

So why do it? It is the right thing to do. I know of nobody in a position of strength in such as I am to do this. I have been trained, tested, gifted, educated, refined and left divest of anything that might impede my ability to perform to my potential and which might otherwise be subject to attack by my adversaries. Above all that, I have tested my Creator in prayer, fasting, and supplication and gained His endorsement of my plan. Maybe I don't have money or friends or staff to support me. Nevertheless I go forth.

I don't know the end. I am not concerned with that. Even if all He intends is a leap from the lion's head, I will prove my worth.