Mercy and the Sage: a Fable

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An elderly sage and his apprentice went on a journey to visit a friend and complete the next phase of the apprentice's training. they took very little with them, and as a result, they sought shelter for the night from kindly residents of the villages through which they passed.

One night, they came to an ornate manner. The Lord of the manner scoffed at the humble travelers who offered him only their company in exchange for shelter. However, he offered them a place in the barn with the pigs, which the sage accepted with a bow and words of gratitude. In the morning, as they traveled off the property, the sage stopped to repair a breech in the Lord's stone wall, an effort which delayed them on their journey considerably.

A few days later, the pair came upon a humble hoven. The owner of the croft brought in extra straw from outside to pad the mattress and gave up his bed to the travelers. He and his young wife slept on the floor. In the morning when the travelers rose to leave, they discovered that the man's cow had died during the night, leaving them without victuals for breakfast.

As the travelers continued on their journey, the apprentice seemed disturbed. The sage asked him to share his feelings and thoughts. The apprentice complained that the rich lord had treated them poorly and yet the sage had mended his fence. Then when the poor farmer's cow had died, they had left without a word or offer of help. How could this be right?

The sage smiled and sat down. "The rich man treated us poorly. During the night, God came to me in a dream and showed me that where the wall was broken it had exposed a vein of gold. I repaired the wall to prevent the rich man from getting the gold. The poor man, by contrast, treated us richly. While I slept that night, God appeared to me and told me that the poor man's wife would die that night. I persuaded him to take the cow instead. Things are not always as they seem."

I have learned a lot from perspective. Some things have happened to me in life that seem to be unfortunate, but with a few years or months, I realize that the Lord has been merciful to me. Perhaps, albeit unseen, he has also been just to those who did wrong by me in ways I cannot see. So when things seem unfair, I remember that if I do my best, it will be well with me in all the ways that matter, even if those are not ways that matter to the people around me.

Mercy cannot rob justice. It is impossible. --Boyd K Packer

MERIT Badges and the BSA

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I finished my eagle scout project for my 15th birthday. As such, I'm not the youngest scout or the most accomplished one. Unlike my father, I never went to Philmont or any Jamboree, and I have not yet served as a youth leader since my metriculation from Explorers in 1997. However, I was inspired last week to review my Boy Scout Handbook as a refresher of skills I once had so that I can be a boon to those around me.

Scouting taught me confidence and survival. It was the only real brotherhood to which I belonged as a teenager. I got to do a lot of amazing things and learned how to use the earth and its bounty for my benefit. We learned sometimes from our mistakes, and the world forgave us for those foibles of youth. As I grew older, I wished I had availed myself of the chance to learn certain things as a scout and even considered suggesting merit badges to the organization for the skills I have as a means to inspire others to follow me into science. Where possible, I took advantage of the opportunity to learn some of those skills I missed and recently to review old ones.

Imagine my surprise to hear that the Boy Scouts of America have introduced a merit badge for computer gaming. Lord Baden Powell and all the boys whose lives have been saved and by whom others lives have been saved would and should be appalled. Video games produce skills in a very limited number of fields. The opportunity cost for playing them is very low. Like basketball, very few gamers become programmers, boxers, spies, stormtroopers or tomb raiders. It's a fantasy world.

There is a mistaken belief that success in a fantasy world prepares you for success in the real world. The only way to succeed in this world is to learn in this world. That's what scouting used to offer: hunting, orienteering, camping, forestry, farming, ranching, horsemanship, leatherwork, small engine repair, electronics, lifesaving, first aid, urban planning, architecture, ad infinitum. These things prepared people for basic survival, sometimes for vocations, and taught us to think and prepare and work. We were rewarded for our successes and overseen to prevent failure as we learned. It taught us to love God, to love our country, to love our families, to love ourselves, and to love all that is brave and good and true in this world.

Video games? That just plays into the problems we have in the rising generation, generation Why. They have more means of communication than ever before but they communicate less. They have more technology to help them do work but they accomplish less. They have more access to information than ever before but they know less. The fill countless wasted hours with complete strangers instead of going out and actually interacting with people, and in the process they never grow up. So now we have internet dating, social networking sites, blogs, ad infinitum. We don't meet people anymore or talk to old friends or even know how to use a phone. So many of them are socially awkward, immature, and rough around the edges. They have Toys R Us syndrome and don't want to grow up. They have Your Way Right Away syndrome and don't know how to compromise or settle. They can buy whatever they want whenever they want over the internet. Then they wonder why they have no money and why companies cut jobs. It takes fewer people to satisfy internet orders than to have a store and it's easy to spend money when it's always in electronic format.

Where is the MERIT in a video game merit badge? What does video gaming teach our youth? They will make the same arguments that people have made for cable, but kids don't play educational games. They play Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto and Halo like everyone else so they can fit in, and those games teach them almost zero of practical use and nothing that will elevate them or help them elevate society. It is inherently valueless and broadly pandering to offer this as a "merit" badge; even if it is used to get boys in the door, let us offer them scouting on its own merits and not stoop to deception with things of no relevancy.

Scouting used to get boys outdoors. Now, they have joined the bandwagon that makes them codependent with the sessile teenagers who fill the program. I feel a bit betrayed, and I am --this-- close to buying a truck so that my church will call me into the Scouting program as a youth leader. I already lead hikes and camping trips and the like at every opportunity. There is so much more out there. No amount of pixels can capture the beauty of a mountain vista or of a rainbow after a thunderstorm, and nothing compares with seeing an actual arch or waterfall or wild goat. Those are things to be remembered cherished and taught. Those things have merit.

When I went to get a job in college, my employer did notice that I was a three-palmed Eagle Scout. I take pride in the work I did to help others behind me as Troop Guide to advance in rank. Scouting played a large part in the man I am today. in 1990, I first took the Scout Oath. Since then I have also done my best to live the Scout Law. For your benefit I will repost them here:

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country, to help other people at all times, to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.

If more of our young people grew up with these values, America and her values would be safe for the next generation no matter what the administration and the congress do. Video games will not help us take back the country. Real Scouting will.

Scouting for boys. Thank God for Lord Baden Powell.

"No Papers": the Impact of AZ

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Many people are worried about the "unfair racial profiling" that they assume will be evident under Arizona's new immigration law. Among the lies propagated by those who never bothered to read the law:

"any mexican can be bothered for any reason at any moment"
"reminds them of Nazi Germany"

I ask, if it's so bad, why are they flooding into Arizona? If it were Nazi Germany or even closely resembled it, they would fall all over themselves to get out. I have met some actual Nazis, former SS officers, and they give me the heeby-geebies. I could hardly wait to vacate their presence.

Arizona law, while stringent, is still more lax than that of our neighbor to the south. Mexican immigration policy includes some of the following:
-every US citizen must present a passport to travel to Mexico beyond the border zone as of 1 Mar 2010. That's like Arizona! Gasp.
-stays that last longer than 12 hours or that involve commerce require a VISA
-you must carry a valid passport with you at all times in Mexico
Let's also remember that they can tell who we are when we get there. I stick out like a sore thumb. Their laws must be perfect because we never hear complaints about immigration in other nations. Excuse me for being an American. All we ever did was spill our blood to save you from slavery, Nazi Germany, and Al Qaeda.

When I lived in Austria, they could tell I wasn't Austrian. By the time I left, many of them thought I was Dutch or Swiss, but they still required me to present my passport. When I left Austria, I spoke German so well that the customs agent was surprised that I had an American passport, but I LOOK GERMANIC, and that is the only way I could have imagined to escape detection. When President Clinton ordered the bombing of Bosnia under Milosevic, I was living in Austria, and they asked us to "blend in". I told the official that such a notion was all but impossible even for Americans.

Austrian immigration policy, as I perceived it, is even worse than Mexico's. I was regularly required to produce my passport. Many times, the eagle on the obverse sufficed to quench any trouble since the Austrians are loathe to mess with the United States. If not for the unrestricted European Union travel VISA I obtained, I imagine they would have harassed me. When they saw that sticker in my passport, they were always surprised, and they let me go without incident.

Saturday, a policeman in my area pulled me over. He was checking to see if my temporary 30 day tag on my car matched the VIN. I am clearly white, as was he. It was not about racial profiling. He was looking for revenue most likely or for an easy collar. I got away scott free because I kept the law. He did not know my race before he pulled me over. He pulled me over on suspicion of a crime. I have no sympathy for people who commit crimes who jump through hoops with the police when they are caught, especially if they are here illegally without regard for race, religion, or gender.

This is a question of whether you are for law and order or whether you are for anarchy. You cannot go to any other country, settle down, buy a home, send your kids to school, use their hospital facilities, apply for welfare, obtain a job, etc., without the proper paperwork. If you try, they will arrest you, detain you, annoy you, and deport you. American immigration policy is nowhere near that of Nazi Germany. Arizona asks nothing more of its residents than is asked of citizens anywhere else. When we use credit cards, go to the hospital, drive our cars, we are REQUIRED to present the proper paperwork to prove our identity, our coverage, and our ownership of our own goods. Why is it acceptable to harass the citizens more than it is to harass those who are here illegally? You worry about unintended consequences for some people when nobody worries about inconveniences to me.

I respect the citizen. I represent the citizen. The Constitution is written for the citizens. Until we control the border, people will come here who otherwise would not and could not. It does not solve the problem to make those who break our law citizens. Without law and order, we risk a return to the medieval mindset. So you say it "reminds you of the segregated south" or "Nazi Germany". When were you ever in a segregated south or Nazi Germany? How in Hoboken would you know? Who will speak out for the legal immigrant? For the law-abiding citizen? I am not interested in a putative future constituency. I am interested in those citizens who right now cast their ballot and pay the bulk of taxes and do the bulk of the work that makes America great.

If you follow the law, may God bless and prosper you. If you are here with intent to disregard our law, no matter your nation of origin, then please stay away.

Founding Fathers: Just Men Made Perfect

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It's not enough to claim as Rush did today that this is the kind of government against which the Founding Fathers rebelled. That kind of blanket assumption betrays his own kind of croney capitalism. Remember that Rush Limbaugh makes TONS of money because you believe what he says.

Always look to first sources. Remember that at the time of the Revolution the world was a markedly different place. George II was a German by birth, and he took little interest in his grandson who was not supposed to inherit the throne. George III didn't know or care much about America. Those people were not people he knew or "his people" in the sense of predecessors. The soldiers at Lexington were mostly Irish conscripts, freed from debtors prison in exchange for military service. The Founding Fathers themselves spent much of their time arguing, and some of them never lent their signatures to the documents of the Founding.

The kind of government in America today has never been seen on the planet before. I am unconvinced that the Founding Fathers would have been as "quick" to rise up against our government as they were against the Crown because to a degree we still do have life, liberty and property, even if it's less today than in 2008 or 2004 or 1972. Sedition and rebellion are unbecoming those such protected. The line is even less clearly demarcated than in 1776, but the board is set and the pieces are in motion. Limbaugh uses "regime" as an inflammatory term, the same way irreligious people use the word "sect"; in truth, these words are used to mean "anything which which they happen to disagree". Even then, the Founding Fathers grudgingly chose armed rebellion once all other lights went out.

In the end, you have to look out for yourself. Rush isn't looking out for you any more than he's looking out for himself. He has told us many times that he knows where he will flee when the going gets rough. Contrary to what Rush says, O'Reilly is not looking out for you; he's looking out for his show. Obama isn't looking out for you. How could he? He doesn't even know you. Reid doesn't even like you. He thinks you're stinky and smelly and that you make Congress less by your patronage in the observation balcony. Wal-mart isn't out to get you, Big Oil isn't out to get you, the Administration and the CIA aren't out to get you, and the Taliban aren't really out to get you. They are looking out for themselves. If you are part of one of those organizations, then they are "looking out for you", but only as long as you are a member, a patron, an employee, a stockholder, etc. Otherwise, you are not part of the GOBNet, and so you are irrelevant and expendable. Sure, if you hold things true that are contrary to the CIA or Taliban, then they may try to kill you; if you rob Wal-Mart or seize a tanker, those corporations may go after you, but otherwise, it's not personal. It's a question of "slave team 1 is better than slave team 2". The politicians in Washington are not looking out for you, and few if any of the aspirants that will appear on the ballot in November will be either. Oh, they will claim they are, but they will get paychecks and perks and power, and unless they agree before they win to some kind of self-imposed term limit and then stick to it, I bet you dollars to donuts that they are there to advance their own interests.

I am not happy with what Arizona did. Sure, something must be done, but John Ensign (R-NV) was DEAD WRONG when he told me that he voted for Stimulus I because "to do the wrong thing was better than to do nothing at all"? What in thunder?!?! The truth is simply this: the government isn't doing it's job, and so Arizonans decided to do what was right for them. Nevermind that it will adversely impact Nevada, California, and New Mexico. They did what was right by them. They stuck to the pirate code of politics. Yet, they are right in a way. To allow illegal aliens unrequited access to American amenities is to surrender their right to look out for their own rights. The illegals are looking out for themselves at the expense of every man, woman and child in this country who obeys the law.

In the end, it all comes down to the law. What is the law? I believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring and sustaining the law. Don't worry about cops pulling you over for whatever special reason in AZ. I was pulled over this weekend for no infraction whatsoever other than the fact that other people drive around with illegal temporary license plates and they wanted to make sure I wasn't among them. Cops can already pull you over for almost any reason. We do not need more taxes. We need those who get tax money to be better stewards of the common treasure. We do not need more laws. We need better enforcement of the laws we already have. We do not need more citizens. We need more of our citizens to obey, honor and sustain the laws. We do not need more regulation. We need to regulate our government. The government that governs best governs least, and so I am not interested in "reform". I endorse a "restoration". All I ask is that other people follow the laws just like I do when I go to the DMV, buy a home, travel to Europe, show up for work, pay my dentist, ad infinitum. Like DeTocqueville said, in America, the law is king.

If you don't like the president, protestation is fine. Eventually, it just makes you annoying. So you vote? Great. So you protested at a Tea Party rally? Do you want a medal? I flew to Boston, brewed tea in my hotel room in Birmingham, drove into the city, parked, walked two miles to the Congress Street Bridge, and threw a cup full of tea into the harbor. I share more in spirit with them than most of the Tea Party Protesters. Moreover, I have read their words instead of relying on Rush or anyone else to tell me what they said.

Before you tell me Jefferson said/did such and such, be ready to cite your source, in textual context, in historical context, with grammatical context, with political footnotes, exemplars, testaments to the legitimacy of your source, ad infinitum. When I was in school I hated questions that asked me what the author meant by a passage because I felt that if you wanted to know that then you should ask the author. Instead, the questions made inference as to original intend and declared one theme right at the exclusion of all others. That's the best we can do in their absence- guess. In the end, it's just a guess. Nobody writes down everything he thinks, says, and feels. Rarely do people record their dreams, their secret desires, and their honest errors. Much of what is quoted is either mis-attributed or taken out of context.

When someone tells you something, consider their motivation. In that sense, Limbaugh is no different than Obama or Cheney or Buffet- there is money to be made if the political winds swing his way. Consider mine. What do I have to gain from this? What do you have for which I could possibly wish? What do you know of my goals, hopes and dreams? How far can you trust me? Trust in God more than man. God, like Polaris, will lead in a straight and narrow course to happiness and peace. Man, no matter how well intentioned he may appear can only lead us there if he is built upon the rock of our redeemer, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

People forget the Founding Fathers were men. They were men who did what was right when it needed to be done whether they wanted to or not and without regard for who received credit. Before you Deify them, remember that they recognized a Providence beyond them. I know some people who aspire to be like me. I tell them that I am trying to be like Jesus, and they will do far better to be like him as much as they can. Then if they end up like Jefferson, Washington, or me, then they'll do just fine.

Mercy Cannot Rob Justice

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At the end of my first semester here, a young lady came into my office like two weeks before finals. Like most students in the program, she worried about her grade because the nursing program issues points for scores and she needed all the points she could get. By that point, there was nothing more I could do to fix it. Most of the points were assigned, and when we did the math, she would have had to score a 98% on the final to get the grade she wanted, which was impossible given her track record.

Fortunately for her, they let you retake a course for three total attempts and overwrite the previous grades. So, I told Maggie (not her name) to make use of this learning opportunity and avail herself of the myriad of offerings we have to help students excel. We spent the rest of her visit discussing what to do differently next time to build upon her previous strengths and help her be more successful.

I have several students like Maggie every semester. Some of them wait like Maggie until it's too late for me to fix it. Others come to me as soon as there is a problem in search of a solution. Sometimes they ask for pointers or alternative assignments or a chance to prove their knowledge. If they come seeking to earn a grade, then I offer them a lifeline. I never advertise this to them. I am here to help them learn, so if they are willing to go and do, then I figure they will learn. Besides, there are life lessons to learn from this that I teach as well, albeit off the syllabus. ;)

Then there are students who ask me, "why do we need this?" Intermediate steps along the way are also part of the price we pay. If you choose to become a nurse, this is part of the prerequisite coursework required. Ask yourself how comfortable you would be with a nurse who scored a "D" in basic Biology? We entrust these people with our lives, and so we make sure that they know what you assume they know.

In the end however, students fail. Mercy cannot rob justice. By the end of the semester, grades have been entered, and they can tell if I throw a student a bone. Besides, it does a disservice to the students who understood it at first who proved it by their scores.

People expect me to be merciful. People expect justice to be done to me when I do wrong. These same people would not show me mercy. Remember that there must be a balance, and that if you mess with me, the scales will eventually balance out. I have seen it happen, and I am richly blessed in spite of the spiteful things people have done to me.

In the end, what we become results from the choices we make. God is perfect because he choses to be perfect all the time. The difference between God and me is that at least some of the time I choose to be less than perfect. I expect justice to be done for my shortcomings, and I pray for mercy as I extend it to you for yours.

Facebook and Stalking

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While the ECHELON project of the Clinton Administration allows the government to track everything you do electronically, Facebook policies and programming do not allow anyone who wants to to stalk you. It is against their policy for applications to actually support this, and it is against their software to allow the kinds of embedded activity that would facilitate it. In other words, just because you want to watch my Facebook activity doesn't mean you can. If you work at Facebook or the Department of Justice, then maybe, but only with probable cause.

The one exception is the Facebook Stalker Application allowed by Facebook. It's similar to the type of activity under which Top Friends and similar things work where they display a ranking or a picture with your top friends. That is based on the relative number of page views/actions and includes the most recent 200 activities in the past month. So, they can tell where you rank but not the absolute number of views. They cannot tell that you account for 100 of the last 200 hits and that the #2 visitor accounts for only 20. Plus, it doesn't work on people who are not actually your friends.

All of the applications that allow you to stalk are spam. It joins the ranks of allegations that you have to pay for Facebook or that applications offer something when the applications themselves make no mention of that. It is simply impossible for a group creator to force Facebook or any of the applications it supports to do something. From time to time, someone finds a loophole, but Facebook pays people to scan for those in order to keep you safe. After all, the designers and employees use it too, and if your information is vulnerable so is theirs.

The only exception to this rule is if you can embed a javascript into your profile that reports to you the information that Facebook cookies generates. This is illegal because it's theft of intellectual property. Facebook has prevented this every time someone has tried it. They reserve the right to delete applications that violate this and profiles that continually test the limits. Unless you have a warrant, that information belongs to Facebook and Facebook alone, and if you take it out of their computer, you are subject to criminal action.

Most of the groups on facebook are scams aimed at stealing your identity or parts of it. Unless you know the person who created it or what it's for (like a reunion, wedding, party, etc.), use discretion. Face time is always better than Facebook time.

If you can get away without having a Facebook, that's the best thing you can do. It's only real values are: 1. a way to contact and spy on old friends you actually know without having to write them and ask what's up or 2. if you're part of a political/economic/religious movement and use it to communicate with lots of like-minded people. Remember that it is sold as a "networking" site. If you want to date, try eHarmony.com or your local college. If you doubt me, consider the premise of the KIN project which asks, how many of your friends are actually your friends?

In the end, Facebook prohibits and works to prevent any kind of stalking. What you voluntarily share is free game, but they will not allow any third party software to take any information you dont' volunteer. Check your masking and permissions. All they need to steal your identity or violate your peace is your birthday, your real name, and the city where you live. If you have other stuff up however, they will use that too.

Don't become or stay friends with people you don't actually know. It's just not worth it.

If it Rained Men...

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For some inexplicable reason, I've had this song in my head lately. I realized that it wouldn't be a good idea for the women who seek the men or the men who would fall from the sky. Good men grow up in good homes with good parents. They are rare. They will never fall from the sky, and you wouldn't want them to anyway.

If men fell from the sky it would be a bad thing for everyone. If you drop a body that weighs 160lbs from several thousand feet in the sky at 9.8 m/s/s acceleration, they would all be traveling fast enough when they hit the ground, the only ones that would survive would fall on trampolines or in pools or in other bodies of water or maybe in pillow factories. Every other guy would probably die on impact with the ground.

The reason this causes more problems than it solves is because of the body count. After all those corpses hit the ground, someone will have to clean them all up.

Be careful what you wish for. Remember your umbrellas.

Earth Day: Height of Man's Vanity

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We don't need to save the planet. It's the people who most need our help. It is hubris of the highest degree to presume ourselves powerful enough to destroy the earth. If the earth feels threatened by our existence, it will destroy us. Look therefore man first to thyself. Be careful while you try to extract the mote from my eye that you don't poke out something with the beam that is in your own.

"George Carlin's "The Planet Is Fine"
from his 1992 album Jammin' in New York

or watch it courtesy of Mark Levin
this transcript has been edited for profanity

We're so self-important. So self-important. Everybody's going to save something now. "Save the trees, save the bees, save the whales, save those snails." And the greatest arrogance of all: save the planet. What? Are these f***ing people kidding me? Save the planet, we don't even know how to take care of ourselves yet. We haven't learned how to care for one another, we're gonna save the f***ing planet?

I'm getting tired of that s***. Tired of that s***. I'm tired of f***ing Earth Day, I'm tired of these self-righteous environmentalists, these white, bourgeois liberals who think the only thing wrong with this country is there aren't enough bicycle paths. People trying to make the world safe for their Volvos. Besides, environmentalists don't give a s*** about the planet. They don't care about the planet. Not in the abstract they don't. Not in the abstract they don't. You know what they're interested in? A clean place to live. Their own habitat. They're worried that some day in the future, they might be personally inconvenienced. Narrow, unenlightened self-interest doesn't impress me.

Besides, there is nothing wrong with the planet. Nothing wrong with the planet. The planet is fine. The PEOPLE are f***ed. Difference. Difference. The planet is fine. Compared to the people, the planet is doing great. Been here four and a half billion years. Did you ever think about the arithmetic? The planet has been here four and a half billion years. We've been here, what, a hundred thousand? Maybe two hundred thousand? And we've only been engaged in heavy industry for a little over two hundred years. Two hundred years versus four and a half billion. And we have the CONCEIT to think that somehow we're a threat? That somehow we're gonna put in jeopardy this beautiful little blue-green ball that's just a-floatin' around the sun?

The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through all kinds of things worse than us. Been through earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles...hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worlwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages...And we think some plastic bags, and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet...the planet...the planet isn't going anywhere. WE ARE!

We're going away. Pack your s***, folks. We're going away. And we won't leave much of a trace, either. Thank God for that. Maybe a little styrofoam. Maybe. A little styrofoam. The planet'll be here and we'll be long gone. Just another failed mutation. Just another closed-end biological mistake. An evolutionary cul-de-sac. The planet'll shake us off like a bad case of fleas. A surface nuisance.

You wanna know how the planet's doing? Ask those people at Pompeii, who are frozen into position from volcanic ash, how the planet's doing. You wanna know if the planet's all right, ask those people in Mexico City or Armenia or a hundred other places buried under thousands of tons of earthquake rubble, if they feel like a threat to the planet this week. Or how about those people in Kilowaia, Hawaii, who built their homes right next to an active volcano, and then wonder why they have lava in the living room.

The planet will be here for a long, long, LONG time after we're gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, 'cause that's what it does. It's a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the earth will be renewed, and if it's true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new pardigm: the earth plus plastic. The earth doesn't share our prejudice towards plastic. Plastic came out of the earth. The earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn't know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old egocentric philosophical question, "Why are we here?" Plastic...a******.

So, the plastic is here, our job is done, we can be phased out now. And I think that's begun. Don't you think that's already started? I think, to be fair, the planet sees us as a mild threat. Something to be dealt with. And the planet can defend itself in an organized, collective way, the way a beehive or an ant colony can. A collective defense mechanism. The planet will think of something. What would you do if you were the planet? How would you defend yourself against this troublesome, pesky species? Let's see... Viruses. Viruses might be good. They seem vulnerable to viruses. And, uh...viruses are tricky, always mutating and forming new strains whenever a vaccine is developed. Perhaps, this first virus could be one that compromises the immune system of these creatures. Perhaps a human immunodeficiency virus, making them vulnerable to all sorts of other diseases and infections that might come along. And maybe it could be spread sexually, making them a little reluctant to engage in the act of reproduction.

Well, that's a poetic note. And it's a start. And I can dream, can't I? See I don't worry about the little things: bees, trees, whales, snails. I think we're part of a greater wisdom than we will ever understand. A higher order. Call it what you want. Know what I call it? The Big Electron. The Big Electron...whoooa. Whoooa. Whoooa. It doesn't punish, it doesn't reward, it doesn't judge at all. It just is. And so are we. For a little while."

Rifling Makes it True

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Last night as I left work, I ran across a friend who asked me if I'd bought and read "Killer Angels" yet. He's a big civil war officianado, and he views that war as the turning point of warfare for all time. He's right, but in the course of our conversation, I was able to teach him something. Jay pointed out that the cannons of the civil war finally contained rifling and that it somehow made the cannons more accurate and further reaching, which is what ended the line warfare that had marked war for millenia.

Rifling is a simple but ingenious device. Simply put, a rifled barrel includes grooves along the inside of the barrel that help the projectile leave the weapon with better direction. Until rifling came out, bullets left the barrel with a corkscrew motion. That meant that they waffled in a circle and that they could theoretically miss someone directly in front of you if they happened to spin in a circle at exactly the right moment and that they could not reach targets as distant as an arrow. Arrows followed a parabolic path. Bullets followed a series of offset circles. Rifling made the projectile move along a straighter path, hence it allowed them to hit targets further away with greater accuracy than ever before.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Rifling narrowed the vector of travel and kept the ball from waffling in the air. Rifling kept the bullet true, and the longer it flew straight, the more likely it was to hit that at which it was aimed. At the beginning of the war, armies relied on vollies of massed fire; by the end, Sharpshooters were picking off officers, once outside the range of rifles, on purpose so as to sew confusion in the ranks.

Everyone likes things that are true. We like true friends, true stories, true 2x4s in the frame of our house, etc. Something that is true is something we can count on to be where we need it to be when we need it there. Once set in motion, changes in our lives, if properly rifled, can help us hit whatever target at which we aim. If we don't hit them, it's because we haven't rifled our lives correctly.

I love in the Sword in the Stone where Merlin goes with Arthur to the castle. As they wander off, the wolf in tow in hope of a meal, Merlin tells Arthur, "You've got to have a direction." Until then, he has just led the way, but then he asks what direction the castle was. Arthur informs him that it's in the other direction completely.

If you are not headed in the right direction, it matters very little where you go. However, once you head in the right direction, you will make progress, see fruits, no matter how laboriously slow your progress may be.

Speeding Tickets Hurt in a Depression

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During my morning jogs, I regularly see a police SUV. Sometimes, it's probably the officer who lives in my neighborhood either headed to or from work. Other times, they may just be on a shortcut. Rarely, they are there to enforce the law. I live in a fairly affluent neighborhood where crime generally boils down to running stop signs, trash blowing into yards, and obfuscation of view at blind corners. Yet, there is a major thoroughfare that runs through the neighborhood on a hill along which virtually everyone speeds.

This morning as I ran, I crossed this street eight times like I usually do when I run a 10K. At one point, there were three police SUVs detaining vehicles for speeding along the road. Hooray! I like to see the law enforced. However, to do the right thing for the wrong reason is still the wrong thing.

I am glad to see the police out issuing tickets for speeding in the neighborhood. Does it really take three SUVs to patrol this stretch? They would not be necessary if the law were regularly enforced. This is not about the law. The problem is that to enforce speed limits now exacerbates the problem for everyone. This decision, while it may buoy up municipal government budgets, hurts the economy. So, they may bandage it now only to have an internal hemorrhage later. We all know why you are out there. I have lived here almost three years and only seen you enforce the speed limit twice. Shame shame.

The city needs tax money. The solution is not to punish people for crimes that have thus far been ignored. Now that money is tighter for everyone, to take it out of our pockets will not give you long-term liquidity. If you want more money, you need to entice more people to live and do business here. Raise taxes, and people and businesses will leave. Lower them, and more people will be here. If 10,000 people pay 80% of their income in taxes, you will have less tax revenue than if you have 200,000 people who pay 50%.

We need an incentive to be here. I have left jobs, left cities, resigned from positions, and cut my output when there was no personal incentive. Our neighborhood was safe enough before. Most of the speeding cars are passing through and pass through regularly. There are better solutions, and I encourage the cities to seek those instead.

Thank you.

Do Something You Like

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At the end of every semester, a student comes to see me worried about "grades". Within the past two weeks, I've had two different experiences with students that I would like to share. Then, I will share with you one from my college days. I hope this will help you understand why I feel that it is more important to do something you enjoy for a living instead of doing something for the PAY.

My first student encounter took place with a struggling student who has bitten off more than she can chew. She is enrolled in the "weeder" course this semester while she balances two children, a mortgate, a full time job, and three other courses. When she came to see me, she admitted that she didn't really like the class. I asked her how important it was for her to become a nurse. If it's really your goal, this is part of the price you pay. Many people I know go after a degree or career in something without any idea whatsoever of how the path looks on the way. Everyone I knew in graduate school hated their Biochemistry courses. I was a Biochemistry major. It's part of the process, part of what they need to understand. Imagine surgery without anesthesia...ever.

The second student was yesterday. I ran into him just as I was leaving for the day, and he struck up a conversation. After about 30 minutes, I determined that he had a test an hour after I encountered him and that he was avoiding last minute cramming. He's an intelligent man, but his weakness is exactly the technique his anatomy professor uses on his tests. That which we do not exercise atrophies. Until we exercise it, it cannot grow stronger.

During my undergraduate years, all eight of us Biochemistry regular track majors dreaded Physical Chemistry. Fortunately, my neighbor in the dorms Zach was a whiz at Chemistry. Zach's brother had also proceeded him in the major but was now in law school. One day Zach told me about the differences between him and his brother. During spring break, his brother had asked their dad for help, their father being a big whig at a major chemical company. At some point in their conversation, the dad turned to Zach's brother and asked him, "In your free time, do you think about chemistry? If you don't, perhaps you should rethink your career".

That in which we invest our energies and time becomes our strength. This has always been one of my favorite Far Side Cartoons:

So many people I know invest their time and energy into "gaming". Others invest it into booze. Others copulate. You get the picture. Very few of those things lead to a living, and none of them lead to a career on which to raise a family and live a productive and fulfilling life. Those are all dead-end activities.

I advise people to study for a trade the thing they like to do second most. The reason why is that if you pursue your primary interest, when you reach a stage in your education where you MUST do things related to your dream job that you abhor doing, you will often hate your job afterwards. Just look at how many doctors are grumpy after taking Biochemistry. My sister's dream was music, but she chose Architecture because it also interested her and because there would come a time when she would be FORCED to compose, perform, or listen to music she hated, and she knew that when she was forced to do something she enjoyed it would sap the enjoyment from that activity.

If you choose to keep your "dream job" in reserve, you can still live a productive life. On days when you hate your job, you can always do something else as a hobby to unwind. You will complain about your second choice and always enjoy your first. Yes, it's nice to get paid to do something you like to do, but try a variation on the theme. I told one of my sister's friends who races dirtbikes and such basically all the time to consider a job with the border patrol, the national parks, or something similar, because then he would get paid to sometimes do something he liked but he could still race on his days off. This way, you will always enjoy your primary dream, and you can do it on the side or as a second career and always do something you love because you love to do it and not because someone tells you that you must or because you have other obligations. I know it's strange advice, but there is wisdom in it.

I am What I am

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If you doubt my faith in Christ, my patriotism, or my moral fortitude, then you do not know me very well. Come watch me worship, read what I write, look at what I hang on my wall and watch how I treat women, and if you still believe what you believed when they fed you kool-aid, then nothing can convince you. I may be an ordinary man, but I am a man, and I really am what I purport myself to be.

Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the fulness of my intent is that I may persuade all men to come to God and be saved.

If it Walks Like a Duck

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The first family earned $5.5 million in 2009. By my calculations, that's 22 times the amount that he uses to classify us as "rich" at $250,000. Time for us to all benefit from some of that "Obama Money" from his stash.

Test Taking Tips

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Since I've been helping students with this a lot, I thought it might be useful to illustrate at least one powerful thing that people use when they test you. Morale being such a fragile thing, it's so easy to dispirit other people and sap them. Whether it's a life test or an actual school type test, oftentimes, the first things you encounter will be designed to elicit a particular disparagement. They want you to overreact and lose confidence. It works very well.

During my first enzymology exam, I learned this lesson completely by chance. Everyone knew that Dr. Lincoln (not his name) gave tough exams, and this particular class broke the backs of many would-be doctors. It was a tough test. Basically, as we would learn when he handed our exams back, the tests were designed so we could tell him everything we knew about what he discussed. He might as well have just written "Tell me everything you remember" on the test and been done with it, but that might have cost him accredidation.

I looked down at the first page of the exam and almost wet myself. I was a phenomenal student and studied almost constantly. After lecture, I would where possible recopy my notes into another notebook within 24 hours. I rarely missed a class. I also rarely read the books, but I reviewed my notes regularly and as such spared myself the cramming-related anxiety such as is common to men. Until that time, I considered myself well prepared.

Not to be outdone, I turned the page. Lo and behold, I could actually answer question #3 and began scribbling furiously. At this point, my classmates looked up, mostly strewn throughout a large lecture hall whose capacity far exceeded the maximum number of students who took the course. They saw me on page 2 furiously working and probably lost hope.

When Dr. Lincoln called time, I still had not finished the test, but I answered seven of the ten questions. A few weeks later, he handed them back to us, and I found that I had scored 54%. The guy who sat next to me had scored 12%, having never gotten off the first page.

There is a finite amount of time and material in the world and at your disposal. To do the best you can with what you have, use it where it yields you the best return for your investment. My compatriot changed majors from Biochemistry to Biology to escape the rest of the Biochemistry lecture series. If he had looked beyond the first page, the questions were of varied complexity. I didn't even attempt three questions, but I received 78% of the points for questions I actually completed. This trend continued, and I ended up with what was at the time the highest ever historical score for the course. I worked hard for it.

Do not be afraid with what you first face. Consider Sparta v. Persia, David v. Goliath, Washington v. the British Empire, and consider how you might conquer your own goliaths. Your enemies will put before you something that will disparage your courage and faith, that will seem to be beyond your capability. Small and simple things often confound the wise and strong.

Begin with what you know. Begin with what you can. A friend of mine noticed on her exams this semester that the instructor often included the answers to early questions in questions found later on. You will find that often times you cannot do it all. When you can't do it all, do what you can, and if you use what you have wisely, you may find yourself capable not only of something unexpected but also of something as yet unrealized.

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

There is a reward to be had for those who know how to fight and win. Do something amazing and you will not only pass your tests but you will also excel in them. I promise.

Keepers and Sleepers

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A friend of mine posted a link to best of craigslist today about a manipulative woman caught in her own devices. In short, she tried to pin another man's baby on her regular bedfellow who unbeknownst to her was sterile and could prove it. There are two morals in this story: do the right things for the right reasons and morality pays.

On the surface, this is kind of a cool "gotcha" type story. After I gave it some thought about how cool it would be to be this guy and how cool it is to be me, I was kind of upset. The guy manipulated the woman first, because he let her believe that he was someone with whom she could reach her life goals while in reality she was just "an easy lay" to him. So, he's not quite so cool to me anymore. This man perpetuated America's Syndrome by his contribution that undermines good families. He never intended to have one with her. This was a setup. Then there was the woman. I have seen that self-righteous smirk in women who think they have you dead to rights. Since I am a relatively decent fellow, I am often targeted by hard luck cases who appeal to my greater sensibilities, and in this situation, she would have caught me and tricked me into raising another man's child.

Fortunately for me, I would never be in this situation. A few years ago, a female friend of mine called me one day and announced she was pregnant. My first words were "I console myself with the knowledge that it's not mine". That didn't help her much, but it put things in perspective; she had no claim on me for help. I had no say in the creation of that life and therefore no obligation for its future care and nurture except as I so chose.

I wrote a few days ago about dingbats and deadbeats. People know there are people with whom to have relationships and people with whom to have families. The two pools overlap but are distinct. The guy was out for a relationship. The girl chose the guy for a family but fathered the child with a fling. That really gets my goat. Children are not a tool with which to manipulate people.

Any children I ever have may console themselves in this simple fact. There are no illegitimate brothers and sisters out there anywhere. This is not because they were not born; it is because they were never conceived. Sterility, as in this story, would be the easiest way to vouchsafe that, but I have arrived at this point through abstinence. I have kept the Law of Chastity. When I have children, it will be on purpose.

Like Sheri Dew, I can confidently say this:
While it hasn't always been easy to stay morally clean it has been far easier than the alternative. I have never spent one second worrying about an unwanted pregnancy or disease. I have never had a moment's anguish because a woman used and then discarded me. And when I do marry, I will do so without regret. So you see, I believe a moral life is actually an easier and a happier life.

How glorious is he who lives the chaste life. He walks unfearful in the full glare of the noonday sun, for he is without moral infirmity. He can be reached by no shafts of base calumny, for his armor is without flaw. His virtue cannot be challenged by any just accuser, for he lives above reproach. His cheek is never blotched with shame, for he is without hidden sin. He is honored and respected by all mankind, for he is beyond their censure. He is loved by the Lord, for he stands without blemish. The exaltation of eternities await his coming.

I may not have a family right now, but at least when I have a family it will be because I chose to. The chief cause for failure and unhappiness in this life is trading what we want most for what we want at the moment. I learned the pain of that when I was very young, and I'll wait for a keeper. If she's the right one for me and our love is real, she will be willing to wait to do the right thing at the right time in the right place by the right authority and for the right reasons. If that's not her, then someday it will be someone, no matter how much people tell me not to "put it off".

Fools rush in.

"I've Lost Car2..."

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You know that scene in Return of the Jedi where Vader shoots at Skywalker and hits R2-D2? I've finally lost Car2-D2. This last weekend, after 130,000+ miles of faithful service, the head finally cracked and oil started pushing into the radiator. I noticed because Sunday morning there was a pool on the ground under my car that looked like a melted Frosty. Car2 has at best 30 days before the hoses all fail and the engine dies.

We looked online to assess prospects. Diagnosis is that it's a cracked head and not just a head gasket since many Saturn SL1s from 1991-1997 fail because of this engine design flaw. To buy a new long block will cost me about $1500 and require several days of work with my dad and the right tools to put Car2-D2 back on the road. Everything else has been replaced, so I am inclined to continue to drive the car, because, where else can you get basically a brand new car for $1500? I do need a new driver's seat...

When you consider the facts, Car2's performance has been nothing less than a standing miracle. I took possession of the car in 2002 when it had just over 80,000 miles. It was on a salvage title, having been written off as a total loss. I expected the car to fail because of damage to the engine because of that accident. That and it burns oil or maybe just leaked it through the head, such that when I chagne the oil if I have 2 quarts I consider myself lucky. At that rate, I expected the engine to throw a rod. Instead, I drove an average 16000 miles per year.

I expected the car to die around 220,000 miles. As of this morning, I have driven the car to 210,057 miles.

My dad has gone back and forth on the car. Even as he encourages me to replace it, he does research into what it will take to get it roadworthy again. I have decided to keep it as a backup and commuter vehicle for around town and to go to work. I will work on it with my dad over the summer as time and tools allow and put this faithful car back on the road hopefully for many more years. If things continue, I could drive this car for another seven years.

This little Car2 unit and I have been through a lot together. Maybe one day I'll even repaint him. For now, he is a testament to General Motors engineering and the grace of God and one of the most tangible reminders I have of the singular interpolation of Providence on my behalf. He has saved me untold amounts of time and money I would have otherwise wasted and given me a wealth of experience and exposure as we drove thousands of miles across Nevada and beyond in search of adventure and memories. I will dedicate my book in part to this car and the nameless engineers and workers at GM whose hands were blessed to bless my life to infinity and beyond.

For Our Own Good

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Liberals try to sell us on a policy of "we know best" or "don't you want everyone to have the best?" when in reality they just want to be in charge.

From "God in the Dock"

If we are to be mothered, mother must know best. . . . In every age the men who want us under their thumb, if they have any sense, will put forward the particular pretension which the hopes and fears of that age render most potent. They ‘cash in.’ It has been magic, it has been Christianity. Now it will certainly be science. . . . Let us not be deceived by phrases about ‘Man taking charge of his own destiny.’ All that can really happen is that some men will take charge of the destiny of others. . . . The more completely we are planned the more powerful they will be. . . . .

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. Their very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be ‘cured’ against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals. —C. S. Lewis

They do not know best. No intellectual elite in a far distant capital knows better than you how to make your life better. Everything they do is a pretense. They play on fears- fear of loss, fear of war, fear of global warming- as a pretense to get more power over us.

Man is not in charge of his own destiny. We make choices that is true, but so do all other men around us, and we are subject to the consequences of their choices just as much as we are by our own. When they say take charge of destiny, they mean to take charge of all men's maximum potential destiny and hold us back while they move forward.

It is not "for our own good" for someone else to make our choices past a certain age. If men never choose their own adventure, they never grow. If we're always able to go back and fix things, we never learn from mistakes, never grow, never improve, and the great plan of God himself is frustrated. That is the same plan proposed by Lucifer himself- they won't have to choose; not one we will lose, and give all the glory to me!

It is for our own good to follow that animating contest of freedom spoken of by Samuel Adams. Anything more or less than that comes of evil.

Dating Dingbats and Deadbeats

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I don't believe in soulmates per se. I believe that any two people can make things work if they choose to focus on their relationship with each other and with their Maker. That being said is precisely the problem. As long as we date people for the wrong reasons, we cannot possibly expect couples to choose to make things work out.

My grandparents are concerned. I'm that enigmatic "menace to society" in Mormondom, that 30+ single male who isn't in a relationship or at least isn't in one of which his parents and peers approve. My grandparents also make the case for me. Young men these days continually choose dingbats, and these deadbeat men encourage the perpetuity of this trend by picking dingbats over women of substance and character. If you bring nothing more than looks to the table, I'm not likely to be interested. Granted, attraction matters to me, but if that's all you have, we're through. In turn, women choose men who are fun and entertaining, and they seek nonstop thrills and wining and dining and as such show little interest in men like me who have jobs to which they must go and bills they must pay and who cannot drop everything anytime to grant their whims. Dingbats choose deadbeats, and it shows in society.

What matters most is responsibility. Women today have been trained to look for unending entertainment. They would rather socialize than exercise, play games than pray, and put off until tomorrow the duties of today. Maturity asks that a person do what needs to be done when it needs to be done whether they want to or not.

There are a few signs that help me that I feel inclined to share. You may think this makes me picky, but I would rather be alone than in a codependent relationship. I know it's tough; we're brought up to value companionship sometimes at the expense of character. You all know someone who says there are no good men/women anymore. I beg to differ.

Men and women of value may be hard to find, but they are easy to find when you know how to recognize them. It's kind of like belonging to a secret club, and it's actually kind of fun. Again, there are probably any of several people with whom you could have a happy and healthy relationship. CS Lewis warns of the trend that encourages us to breed with the most prodigious of women and steer us away from those with whom such positive associations as in the former are possible. Beware the temptation to seek perfection. It's a choice, and the choice is up to you.

Here are a few things to keep in mind.
1. When you're together you feel like you're home, that you are safe, and that you can trust them. (See Sleepless in Seattle)
2. You feel like your partnership was meant to be, and perhaps it comes to pass by a very low margin of propensity. (See An Affair to Remember)
3. In your communication with each other there is a rapid "knowing" of what each of you means. You recognize quickly what they think or feel.
4. You have a shared direction and purpose in life that goes beyond a recited creed or basic to-do list.
5. When you're together the world seems like a better place, like your problems loom less large.
6. Your mood is elevated when you're together. It's not necessarily passion or excitement, although that's there too at times. You just feel better.
7. When you look at him/her you see a part of yourself that's been missing. Perhaps they encourage a part of you that you were recalcitrant to share or unaware existed.
8. Being together makes you more hopeful about the future you are creating and about the prospects of reaching that future.
9. You can be more authentic and fully yourself around your partner. It's ok to be you.
10. Being together makes each of you work harder on overcoming bad habits and becoming more loving people. He/she inspires you to be a better person; you are disinclined to bad habits more than at any other time of your day/week/month/etc.

You may not feel all of these with this person or not all the time, but odds are that they will all be there and that some of them will always be there. Every relationship takes work. Every relationship takes committment. A good relationship will improve over time. There may be bumps and bruises, but there will be a general upward trend.

It takes time to make a good relationship, time and patience and practice. It takes forgiveness, tenderness, meekness, and love unfeigned. Real love cannot be so tenuous a thing that it takes many months to build but mere moments to destroy. True love must include the idea of permanence. True love is forever.

One Nation Under God

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I had an epiphany in the shower this morning. For some reason, I was singing patriotic songs in the shower, and I wondered as I did so if they all mentioned God or deity after some fashion, because at first I didn't believe they did. Since I learned all the verses to these songs as a Boy Scout, I was able to go through them all in the shower without looking them up.

During the Olympics, I bemoaned the apparent fact that some of our athletes either care little for our national anthem or don't know the words. Watch athletes from other nations, in particular Canada, during the Vancouver Olympics, and you will find many of them sing along while ours grin stupidly. I attended a hockey game the other night, and the group with which I went stood there stupidly while I stopped, placed my hand over my heart in reverence and listened to the national anthem although we were not yet in the arena. When I saw the Red Sox play the Orioles in Boston last fall, many of the fans around me talked to each other during the anthem.

All of our patriotic songs pay homage to that Creator from whom our rights come. That might surprise you. For your benefit, I list the relevent stanzas here:

Star Spangled Banner [Francis Scott Key 1814](fourth stanza)

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

My Country Tis of Thee [Samuel Francis Smith 1831] (fourth stanza)
Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

Battle Hymn of the Republic [Julia Ward Howe 1861] (in its entirety)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on."

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.

(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.

America the Beautiful [Katherine Lee Bates 1895] (first and second stanzas, chorus repeats)

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

God Bless America [1918 by Irving Berlin] (in its entirety)
God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Through the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

George Washington said that "It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything. Abraham Lincoln attributed the plagues of the Civil War to an abandonment of allegience to God. In his declaration of a national day of prayer and fasting (1863), he said:

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

We have truly forgotten God. Fortunately, he remembers us.

We are involved in the same war that has always been waged on earth. The destiny of men and of nations is always contested. It is time that God sent forth a great army to revive a dying world. Although we bear no responsibility for the choices and transgressions of former generations, we carry full the burden of our own. We must succeed. When in doubt, look upward; when you fall, seek mercy, for this is our charge, our privilege and our sacred duty, to gather our brothers and sisters and return with honor.

Then conquer we must when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: In God is Our Trust

May God grant that we be always protected by him so long as there remain a band of Christians in the land, not by name only but by their fruits. Godspeed the right.

Everything in its Place

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I find it somewhat of an inconvenience that I have to walk across the hall sometimes for chemicals. The nature of our building, spacing issues, and the types of containers they built in conspire against me. In order to keep chemicals separate according to federal law, the bases are kept across the hall from the acids. The practical applications for this make sense to my brain, because only a few miles from where I now live, the TNT factory regularly explodes because they mix acids and bases during the synthesis of TNT and precursors. My feet refuse to understand.

Everything in its proper place is a fundamental concept of happiness and peace. Alone, one of the strongest acids, hydrochloric HCl, and one of the strongest bases sodium hydroxide NaOH, are among the most caustic and corrosive of substances. If you mix them in the right conditions and the right order however, they combine to form the most completely innocuous of substances- saltwater.

Fortunately for us, saltwater cannot react in the opposite direction, turning the oceans into a morass of burning compounds that would destroy all life. It is interesting to note however that these two substances, themselves harmful to life, combine to form two new substances that are absolutely critical- H2O and NaCl.

It is right that men and women should come together too. Youth, unfettered and unrestrained, when they come together male and female create two things absolutely critical for the future perpetuity of life and happiness. When men and women combine in the right way at the right time for the right reasons, family and children are born. Thus, potential hooligans and harlots become the guardians of civilization when they become husbands and wives, fathers and mothers.

Most of them skip to the chase. I have read and spoken a lot of late, though not on this blog, or the reason for copulation. It really is only about procreation. Sure, the media, your friends, and even the government have conspired to tell you that things exist for different reasons than the truth. The media and cultural icons have led us to believe that sex is fun, but sex isn't really that much fun. Our bodies like it for two reasons. First, our bodies desire to procreate and thereby guarantee the perpetuity of our genes to future generations as proof of their virility. Secondly, our bodies have learned to like sex because there's a pleasure receptor in our brain that is activated during sexual climax that has also been activated at exciting hockey games, during meteor showers, and when you eat potato chips, and our bodies are addicted to it.

The procreative power of the human body is just as dangerous as acids and bases. It can destroy dreams, dissolve hopes, burn bridges to the future, eliminate ambition, and introduce disease that ends life. I remember well the youthful inclination to experiment. In high school chemistry, we were doing a lab that released hydrogen gas, for which we were to test with a flame. Unsatisfied with the brief "pop" made when the flame touched the gas, i decided to capture more in an overturned erlenmeyer flask so that the flame would be more brilliant. When the flask exploded and threw glass all over the room, including into my own cheek, I learned the folly of playing with fire.

However, in the right place, at the right time, for the right reasons, and by the right authority, men and women together make possible the fullness of our creation. Every other creature on earth exists to perpetuate itself. Humans are the only species that put the survival of other species over their own or focus on personal and selfish pleasures at the expense of the actual reason for why things are and should be the way they should be.

Many people I know live in "the now". While it's a good thing to live in the present, if you don't live for the future, then it's mostly just a big waste. Without goals, there is no progress, and when people are not progressing, they are regressing. I really hate men who "pursue conquests". It would be different if they actually wanted tons of children, but they don't want that...they want copulation without conception.

Sometimes I have to mix caustic chemicals. I use the right equipment now because I have been burnt sufficiently often already. People laugh because I wear a labcoat and goggles and gloves, but I'm still alive and possess all of my faculties. I count myself richly blessed.

Use caution when handling chemicals, even those you yourself produce.

Behavior We Disallow Our Children

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A friend of mine called me today and asked me a question that took me back. She asked me for advice teaching her daughter. After some period of time, she discovered that her daughter has been stealing money from basically any source she can to buy whatever she likes.

This girl is basically innocent. She thinks that she can have whatever she likes. The problem is that in order to fund this spree, she takes money from other people without their knowledge and without their permission to use it for said purposes. Like so many people I know, she "spends money she does not have to buy things she does not need to impress people she does not like".

Today I heard the Democrats pat themselves on the back for how well they have joined hands to fund this massive authoritarian state. Why are we praising these politicians? They are involved in behavior we disallow our children. We would never allow our daughters to take money from our purses and frit it away or give it to their friends who will frit it away on their behalf. We do not allow our children to purchase friends or fame. Why do we let politicians get away with it?

Most of them are crooks. They lie to get in office. They lie about what they promise. They lie when they take our money. They lie to get reelected. THey are in the business of legal plunder. Read Bastiat's book "The Law". It's available for free online here. Even still, read my own previous analysis of this phenomenon, inspired by the very culture icons who praise the politicians who plunder us. They are not Robin Hoods. They are common criminals.

I told my friend that, whatever else she told her daughter, her daughter needed to learn to see things as they really are. Too many people in our nation walk around with rose colored glasses as respecting the problems of others. Too many people in our nation consider themselves victims. Too many Americans undervalue how blessed they really are. I have lived overseas for several years. I am always grateful to come home.

During the first Gulf War, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney said these words, and I have always remembered them: "It is easy to take your liberty for granted when it has never been taken from you." That which we have obtained so easily we esteem too lightly. Teach your children that good works. Teach them to love the law and love liberty. Teach them to rise up and be men or women of character. No success anywhere else in life can compensate for failure in the home.

Children rule over us, and the world weeps.

So Long, Farewell, German Missions

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My second mission president was the last president of the Austria Vienna Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was very sad for me to hear that my mission had been consolidated. It didn't help any to hear Elder Holland tell my grandfather that they didn't know why those missions were not successful. I worked very hard.

I took the Sound of Music Tour in Salzburg for free because the guide knew we were missionaries and didn't charge us. The only place I didn't get to see was the theater at the end of the movie where they escape the Nazis because you can't get in there without buying a ticket to a concert and they were prohibitively expensive for a person on my budget. That movie came alive for me.



So, the remaining five German Missions will now be reduced to three: Hamburg, Frankfurt and Munich.

It's bad enough to see it in a generation, but to see this happen ten years after I returned home made me kind of sad today.

Austria was a fine time for me. It was a lot of hard work, but it is largely responsible for who and how I am today. I grew up there, and it's kind of sad to think that few people if any will ever follow up or follow through on what I sowed if any of the seeds even took root. John Taylor told Heber J Grant upon his return from Japan that "his success was that he continued on in the absence of success".

I will miss those German missions and the fine people I met. Godspeed and Gruess Di' Gott.

Florida Doctor Denies Care

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Much has been said and crossed my mind concerning the doctor in Florida who posted a sign in his office that might turn away those who voted for Obamacare. I have read the book from which the Hippocratic Oath is taken, and while I respect his agency to treat whom he will, I find it to actually be a violation of that oath and the principles of medicine.

One of my favorite movies as a young boy was "Captain Blood". Peter Blood was a physician during the Scottish Wars of Succession. He is called to the home of a separatist on the eve of combat, a man he knew well. While in the midst of care for this man, he is taken by the king's men, put on trial, and convicted for service to an enemy of the King. Eventually, he turns pirate and plies his hand against the tyrant King James.

Perhaps some people fear to end up as Captain Blood. While I was jogging this morning, a thought came into my mind as powerful as any impression I have ever had. Do what is right; that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest. For the benefit of those who have not actually read the Hippocratic Oath, here it is:

I swear by Apollo, the healer, Asclepius, Hygieia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgment, the following Oath and agreement:

To consider dear to me, as my parents, him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and, if necessary, to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked, nor will I advise such a plan; and similarly I will not give a woman a pessary to cause an abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my arts.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men
and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.

For your own edification, I recommend you read the entire volume from whence this oath originates as well as the historical context during that time. Hippocrates wrote On the Sacred Disease years ago. Perhaps it would behoove this doctor to read it again.

Do I like Obamacare? Hoboken no. I resent being told I MUST buy health insurance. I resent that it comes with a fine. I have a friend who has sprained or broken her ankle every year since I met her. Why should I pay for her recklessness? It is a fundamental tenant of my faith that men should bear the consequences of their own choices. They are not there when I need them.

People will say that I am unChristian because they think that my opposition to Obamacare constitutes an opinion that I don't care about other people. On the contrary, I care a great deal. It is these people who misunderstand the Christ. They have imagined a Jesus who asks of them more social responsibility while he ignores the degree of their personal unrighteousness. They hope that he will laud and reward what they do for others and ignore the liabilities they accumulate on the ledger of individual choice. Charity towards others remains imperfect and does you little good until you also do what is right to and for yourself.

Do what is right; that is best; leave unto the Lord the rest.

I have served my enemies and done good to those who despitefully use me and persecute me. God knows my name and he knows my heart. I pray, this Easter Sunday, that he will have mercy on me at the day of judgment and turn away his wrath because of the Sacrifice of the Savior, whose resurrection we celebrate today. By that Master Physician, we will all live again.

Age and Maturity

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Wisdom and maturity are rare today. In my Institute class last week we discussed maturity and education. On other days over the last few weeks, we have often discussed maturity and age. In a few weeks, I will be old enough that I will be forced by virtue of policy to leave the congregation I attend for another largely void of singles near my age. For the last few years, I have taught students who ranged from 16 to 60 and discovered that although they differ in terms of calendar, they share other important characteristics.

Circumstances of my life gave me the opportunity to learn and grow. At the age of 18, I left my father's home for college 500 miles away. At the age of 19, I left college to serve as a missionary almost 6000 miles from home. By the age of 23, I had married and built a home. I have seen death, dishonor, and disobedience. I have taken responsibility. I grew.

Age in and of itself brings neither wisdom nor maturity. I know people many years my elder who act like teenagers and people many years younger who act elder than their age. What we do defines us. Many people with much make little of it; and many people with little make much of it. Greatness is not to do much with much but to do much in spite of what happens or what does not.

Much has been said on the subject of age as respects relationships. Men find young girls attractive but shallow and old girls interesting but unattractive. There is a beauty beyond the senses, a beauty of the spirit that is often overlooked. For when looks fade, it is the heart and soul that really matter. Differences in age mean you may have little in common. I have found that there are many things that we do not share, but most of those things like TV shows, music, fashion, etc., are things that don't matter. While age often describes where you have been and what is left in front of you, some people, either by their own choice or because of choices made by those around them, go through things even I have not experienced while others are completely spared the trouble of growing up.

The most important thing in relationships is to know what you are attracted to, understand what you want in a partner and a relationship, and confirm that these things are in agreement before you choose to spend time with someone. Now when I meet someone extremely younger or older who I'm into, I look for common interests before committing to a date, and these interests go beyond free time activity. Sometimes it doesn't work. I have met girls who actually read and understood DeTocqueville but who haven't read a book in over a year or who got up to exercise when they were single who now stay up until 3AM with their boyfriends and no longer ever work out. Excellence is a habit, and people make time for things that really matter to them.

I am not that older guy who always dates younger women. As a rule, I am usually irritated by their immaturity. Some women I know are headed in different directions than that in which I head. Some women have no idea where they go. Not that they head in the wrong direction per se, but most of the women I know spin donuts in the parking lot while they wait for someone to come and point them in the right direction. Often, I am not chosen because I am neither rich nor ever intend so to be. I seek a help meet. However she looks or whatever her age, when she comes, I will rejoice at the opportunity to grow old and wise together with her.

Semantic Argument

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Yesterday a friend of mine posed this quandry on Facebook:

Studying expands knowledge, knowledge is power, power corrupts, corruption is a crime, crime doesn’t pay. Why study?

Sounds convincing. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with it. We take on authority these definitions through concise maxims, and that is the problem.

Studying does not necessarily mean you will be a criminal. Studying can expand knowledge, but only if you study things you don't already know. Knowledge can give you power but only if you study things that exist. Power can corrupt, but only if you use it to serve yourself at the expense of others. Corruption is a crime unless you're a Liberal in which case it's a badge of honor. Crime is relative since we celebrate the High Treason of Adams, Jefferson, et al., when they declared their independence.

Study is study. Knowledge is knowledge. Power is power. Corruption is corruption. crime is crime. Why study? Well, as an educator, I have a personal vested interest in it, but I have also nothing to lose if you don't. I get paid whether you study or not, but I am interested in your success. You can be successful without studying or without a college degree, but you cannot succeed if you know nothing at all about anything. I have never seen that happen.

Studying can be worth your while. Sometimes it doesn't seem that way, but no matter what you feel or believe, the truth remains. Say all you want that 2+2=5, or that 1 does not equal 1, and while I agree with both, in the absence of more detail they are fallacious arguments to simply cast about without facts to support your argument.

What Do You Trust?

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I have this disease where I believe everyone is truthful until I discover they are otherwise. As a result, I have been the victim of deceptive and conniving men and women who take advantage of such trust as I mingle with all sorts of society. Occasionally I fell into foolish errors and displayed the weakness of youth and the foibles of human nature. In making this confession, no one need suppose me guilty of any great or malignant sins as such a disposition so to act was never in my nature. Also, it has led me to hate this day on the calendar most of all because people joy in deception.

As a rule, I am prone to disbelieve everything that people tell me on April 1st. This is particularly irksome this year as I expect any of several conversations to occur today that vary in importance from vital to absolutely critical. I hope that these individuals will put off levity and jovial company for a more appropriate time.

So many people have deceived me that I am often unsure whom to trust. Whereas some of these people did so purposefully, the vast majority did so because of miscommunications. Nevertheless, the disappointment and disenchantment that come when you discover you cannot count on someone's word affect all other interactions. Once trust is destroyed, it is invariably difficult to reestablish, and some of these people have no place in my life anymore, let alone in my heart.

One of the ways in which I intimidate is to be forthcoming. Sometimes, I think people fear the truth and run away from it through flippancy and the joke proper. Many people tell me to be honest, but they don't really mean it. I decided that if I am going to be damned, I might as well be damned for what I really am. You may not like it, but you can depend on it. When the time comes, you will know how to find me and how you will find me to be when you get there.

There was a bakery near the end of the subway line in Floridsdorf Austria that i have always remembered. It was called Anker, which is German for anchor, and their slogan was "Every life needs an anchor". Maybe that's what I was born to be. In a time of turbulence and violent waveforms, I will be true, for there are those who trust me. I will be pure for there are those who care. I will be strong for there is much to suffer. I will be brave for there is much to dare.

I am imperfect, but I will always do my best. I swore that oath a long time ago as a Boy Scout, and I mean it. Faithful forever.