What Pride Precedeth

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This past Sunday, I paid attention enough in Sunday School to learn something I had not previously noticed. Our text for the week was selections from the Book of Proverbs, and the teacher, although prepared, had a slightly different topic in mind than God apparently had for me. Due to my attentiveness however, I was able to notice and learn something I had always taken for granted and taken as an incorrect paraphrase of a concept that warrants further scrutiny.

For as much of my life as I can remember, I have been warned against pride. My maternal grandfather takes the warning so seriously that he reflects the fact that the scriptures always say or depict God and his people as 'pleased' and always uses that phrase when he speaks glowingly of our accomplishments. They say that pride cometh before the fall as a warning to those who parade what they have in front of us. However, that's not what the scripture actually says. I take this excerpt from the King James Version:

Proverbs 16:18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs teaches us that "Pride cometh before destruction" which means that although it comes before the fall, it also preceeds something much more dire.

In the two years I've been on Facebook, I have been struck by the frequency with which those who parade what they have on there for all to see quickly and inexplicably lose it. Although absolutely giddy at the prospect of new prospects and opportunities, many of those are short lived, and many of those who do not lose what they gain are the ones who only surreptitiously and clandestinely notify others who do not inquire. As soon as they boast of what they have, it carries them onward to pride, which we learn from Proverbs preceeds destruction.

Cities have been leveled, Caesars have been assassinated, and armies have been defeated because of pride in their populace or leadership. They do not simply fizzle out, they usually explode in a gradiose display where they are obliterated in one fell swoop. Skywalker tells Palpatine that his overconfidence is his weakness, and in the same way people who parade around what they have and protrude their tongues in glee at what they have that you lack are most apt to lose it, and lose it spectacularly.

Pride goeth before destruction. Is pride bad? What is pride? Pride means literally enmity, which means the pitting of one against another. As soon as you gratify yourself at how you're better off, you are not, because the universe almost always brings those kind of people down to size. We are so incredibly impotent on this planet, that any presumption or pride on our part is a misapplication of credit to ourselves for things we ought to ascribe to the Almighty. At His will we live and move and even draw breath.

CS Lewis said two things about pride: "It is the comparison that makes us proud, the pleasure of appearing to be the best" and "Pride gets no satisfaction out of having anything, only out of having more of it than the next man." Appearance is an illusion. What we have today may be gone tomorrow. The economic malaise should have taught us at least that if nothing else. When things change from a means to an end, that is the end, and we have no more increase. When you are only interested in one-upmanship, you will always lose, because it's transitory. Remember that as soon as you appear to be the best or have more, you have become proud and you are then ripe for destruction. Inevitably, you will fall and fall hard.

My Dad is a He-Man

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Last night, my dad managed something he's never seen done or attempted to my knowledge. Back in April, the engine in my car cracked the head and oil began mixing with antifreeze in the coolant system. We knew the car would die, and so this week we finally got down to the business of swapping out the long block (and transmission) with one that's in far better shape. Although my dad worked over ten hours at work and then repaired his Freus unit, he also tackled the removal of an engine that stalled us Saturday night.

My dad works very long hours. He lacks some of the stamina and visual acuity of his youth. However, he knows how to put his shoulder to the wheel and push. Where I would scratch my head, he looks for solutions and makes things work. I can tell that his parents experienced the depression and taught him to work and to be courageous when faced with a challenge.

The manual isn't as helpful for this kind of an endeavor as we would like. To my knowledge, nobody I know has ever swapped an engine, and although we know the EFI/SOHC 2.2L Saturn SL1 Engine fairly well, we've never dismantled anything on this scale before. My dad found a solution, and it was a great feat of ingenuity on his part.

The more parents I meet, the more I appreciate and thank God for my parents. Sometimes they frustrate me, but they are interested in the right things and place those things first in their lives. I may be a great guy, but my father is a great man. Although he is not perfect, he is perfect for me. He knows, like He-man, how to master his universe.

I hope that when I am his age I am at least half the man he is.

Happy birthday, dad.

College v. University

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When people discover that I 'only work for a college' I can see their esteem of me drop. I remind myself that they have a misapprehension of how higher education actually works, and that's the rubric on which they rank me. I'm 'only' part of a state/community college, which means I'm 'not as prestigious or successful' as my university counterparts. These people don't really understand what education is all about. Keep in mind these details are not universal to every person at every institution or every institution as a whole. These observations are drawn from personal experience and conversations with individuals in education.

State colleges exist to advance students. Universities exist to advance their faculty. University success has become a corporation, such that their sports teams, their research, and their faculty are put together in order to drive in donations and business partnerships meant to enlarge their stature and justify ever increasingly exorbitant expense to students. Notice, for example, that we do not have a football team or a stadium or any of the exorbitant costs in manpower or materials necessary to shoulder that type of endeavor. We lack research facilities and grants and famous faculty. Our emphasis is like that of all state colleges and community colleges to prepare students for jobs.

This semester, the university here cut sections. We raised ours to accomodate the students. Although there was no net change in total cost (we're part of the state higher education system, and so when you come here the taxpayers subsidize more of the cost), the students can take our classes for about half of what it costs them at the 'university'. This will save the students money and still allow them avail themselves of access to education since we have the facilities and materials to accomodate the influx. That's not always the case and not something for which I was actually prepared, but I am glad to be of service to more students even if I'm not on the front line of instruction.

There are great differences in the instruction and instructional quality between the two tiers of higher education. I attended a small state university where the departmental faculty were still personally invested in us personally. When the Biochemistry department discovered I was not bound for medical school, I immediately became their favorite. My advisor, who was also the dean ironically, bent over backwards to accomodate me, as I was one of their brightest and best prepared students ever, and he still is willing to go to bat and 'bust heads' if I need his help, even if I notify him just a day before I need his help. They were 'big enough to challenge and small enough to care'. Ask my students that I've had as a graduate teaching assistant and as an adjunct professor. One of them told me last fall "I could tell at the end of class that you were there for your students". My major professor was an exception to some of the rules. He actually got out and did research on the bench and in the field with us instead of just writing grants and papers in his office, but he hated teaching, and I taught large swaths of his class when he would leave town for conferences and meetings. Contrast that with larger and more prestigious schools where large bodies of undergraduates are taught by graduate students who themselves passed the class a year prior when the students expect to benefit from tutelage from leaders in the field on staff who are too busy in research to bother with teaching.

Why did I choose the State College? It offers me the lifestyle and work style that gives me the most satisfaction and happiness in life. One reason I originally opted out of a PhD is that in order to become faculty at a University, I would have to do research. I liked the research, but most of the professors I knew spent most of their time doing paperwork and took credit for the cheap labor performed by their graduate students. I discovered when I was forced to teach in order to graduate that I enjoyed that part of graduate school the most. So, I will go get a PhD now and compete for a regular faculty position at the state college tier instead where teaching is our prime directive. Additionally, we have a different type of student here. We take the second chancers, people who are retooling their lives or missed the chance when they were younger. Although some of them have different distractions, many of them are motivated to succeed and make a better life for themselves, and we even have high school students trying to graduate faster by taking our classes for dual credit. Many of our faculty love teaching and care about their students. Many faculty I knew in grad school loved the subject but not necessarily those to whom they subjected the subject.

I love my job. It gives me a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and I look forward to Mondays so I can return to work and maybe make a difference. I will never be famous or cure cancer or file a patent or get a multi-million dollar grant, but my job provides satisfaction of soul, sufficient compensation, latitude to expand myself, and happiness that comes from peace. Plus, I am able to go home after work and leave work there so that I can pursue my happiness outside of work doing other things I enjoy. I work to live, and I love to live, and what's more, I enjoy my work, so it's a win-win however you look at it. When your daughter considers whom to marry, it's more important to find someone who loves their job for the work than the pay.

My college has class, and I like it. Thank God I applied for this job!

Encourage Entrepreneurs

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Both ends of the political spectrum say they work for "the people". Both ends of the political spectrum however really serve another master. They serve glory and gold, and advancement is their aim and goal. Whether corporations or councils, both sides seek a concentration of riches in the hands of the few at the expense of the many. Most Americans lie somewhere in the middle. No matter which end you pick, if you are a normal person, you will lose.

Whenever one party captures a branch of government, they seem to lose their minds. Republicans overreact and pass policies that entrench large corporations as a reactionary measure to any efforts passed by the Democrats to hold them back. Both sides claim to be interested in prosperity of 'the people' and neither one of them actually defines what either 'small businesses' or the middle class are, respectively.

Both corporations and unions themselves emphasize money at the expense of the employees. Look at the financial statements of the AFL-CIO, the NEA, or the UAW, and you'll see they take in just as much in some cases as UPS, Intel, or GM. There is no longer much difference between big business and big unions- they both agitate, they both lobby, and they both leverage the people as a means to their ends. I have worked, ironically enough, for a unionized company and a company that did not. I was largely treated the same by both entities. At a personal level, the rank and file workers were the same, treated me the same, and were people who were real to me. At the corporate level, I was just a cog, and they learned too late that replacing me came at great cost.

It's not the union members or the workers at corporations. It's the union officials and the disaffected and disconnected managers. I really like the CEO undercover show (I've only seen it twice); in the White Castle episode, one of the owners went out on the floor with his people and it opened his eyes. He didn't know any better. I really liked the union steward who supervised my section. His superiors weren't interested in helping me because I was not unionized. Whether you go to the left or the right, you eventually end up with concentration of goods in the hands of a few, although their identities vary. The grass isn't greener on the other side; the problems remain, and only the faces change.

Frederick Bastiat wrote in his book "The Law" about legalized and legislated plunder. As power changes hands, everyone takes their turn at plundering their diametric opposites. In order to break the cycle, people must refuse to participate. In lieu of asking where 'our share' of the pork is, we should refuse to take any. I have to give Governor Gibbons (R-NV) credit; he refused to take stimulus money until the President forced him to.

What Republicans should endorse is Entrepreneurship. I have started (and failed at) a business. There were lots of hurdles and papers, and the $1000 in fees I paid to get started (before I bought any products, built a website, or did any marketing) constituted a large chunk of my gross household income at the time. When a large corporation forms a subsidiary, the fees they pay represent a few seconds of time. For me, it represents perhaps a week of work. The barriers the Republicans allow to remain discourage small business. The barriers the Democrats allow discourage business in general. In the end, normal folks at sidewalk level are the bulwark and beneficiaries of business and enterprise. Both sides wage war against us in our name. Are we insane?

If the government really was interested in helping the economy, they would encourage new business and new business transactions. Government jobs don't exist until a private sector job produces something for which it can be taxed. Without private jobs, there is not enough tax revenue generated to pay the wages, benefits, and retirement of nationalized industry. We need people to dream, invest, create, and then cycle the money they have earned. We don't need "capitalism". What serves us best is entrepreneurship. We don't need jobs. What serves us best is if the government lets us create our own.

Broccoli is Not Coffee

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Sometimes, substitutes just don't cut it. Sometimes, no matter how hard we would like them to, in order to meet a particular need or goal it requires a specific commodity. Sometimes, close enough isn't good enough. Look for the real deal.

There are a lot of pretenders out there. Coke is not Pepsi. Dr. Thunder is not Dr. Pepper. A lot of chivalrous and noble guys are creeps when you get comfortable. Politicians are not prophets or prognosticators. Sometimes a spoon is a spoon. Although one of my favorite college professors turned a skillet and some sand into a fitting substitute for an expensive dry bath, not everything makes a good substitute. The first set of tires I had on my Saturn were actually the wrong size. I'm sure that caused problems.

If you're looking for a nice cup of coffee, broccoli just won't do. Everything and everyone have their own virtues. If you're expecting a nice cup of warm broccoli, then sipping on liquefied broccoli will satisfy you, but if you expected coffee, that liquid chlorophyll drink doesn't cut the mustard. Broccoli may be good for B vitamins, but it provides no caffeine to perk you up.

Take things as they are. People want to be accepted for who they are without having to return the favor. Nobody is perfect. If you met a perfect person, what interest would they have in being friends with an imperfect one? Sometimes a spoon is just a spoon. Sometimes a comment is just a comment. Sometimes things don't work out like you would like. Take things one day at a time, and try not to anticipate and plan and project too much and too far into the future. People are people.

Your toast will probably always fall with the butter side down. Accept that, and savor each slice you save from the floor. And, if you really want to dunk it in a healthy cup of steaming liquid broccoli, be my guest...

**Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, and Dr. Thunder are trademarks of their respective producers and are used as points of common reference and not as endorsements or indemnifications of specific products or corporations.

Reid: Full of Hot Air

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While I initially intended this to be just about Harry Reid, his son Rory warrants attention as well. The Reids don't live in the real world apparently. Perhaps they recently mistook their state driver's licenses for passports to Disney's Magic Kingdom. In any case, they fantasize because they've not spent much time at sidewalk level lately, if ever.

Harry takes credit for things he did not do. When Nellis AFB put in solar panels, Harry Reid took credit for the project. How was he responsible? Reid routinely reduces the Dept of Defense budget. My father's organization lost 10 million this past month to help pay for extension of unemployment benefits. Nellis built it because it would pay them back within about five years. Now, Reid wants Nellis to put up wind turbines. Why would an Air Force installation consider that? Where do the planes fly if they pepper the flightline and the range with wind turbines? Harry is off his rocker. Nellis does NOT want these.

Rory sees mirages in the distant desert. According to his proposed budget, he can cut government services and EXPAND, not just save, education. Brian Sandoval is right- his budget assumes revenues that have not been realized because the economy at this time does not support them. Rory projects based on assumptions far beyond the standard curve. If he's wrong, it will exponentially exacerbate the state's financial woes. Rory's predictions are based on revenues that do not currently exist to be paid by people who do not currently come to the state. Partly, they don't come here because Obama told them not to. Then his wife goes off to Spain on vacation with an entourage of dozens instead of vacationing somewhere that would help the American economy.

Perhaps we should build some wind turbines on the floors of legislative buildings to run off all the hot air exhaled by politicians. They make sweeping promises. They recite 'facts' that are more 'hope'. Then, if they win, they will turn to us and give us all the finger.

Get rid of Reid. Both of them need jobs that don't impose things on us without our consent.

Lightly Esteemed Information

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Thomas Paine broadly penned the notion that what we obtain too cheaply we esteem too lightly. There are many things that modern people take for granted because they do not remember the pains taken by others to deliver us those conveniences, notions, and opportunities. Every year, someone does a story on things that the graduating class has always known as true or never known existed. It's been years, for example, since these kids grew up knowing what a 'walkman' was or having seen anyone actually use the cassette deck in their car, even if their car has one. There is another problem with information I wish to illustrate born of a conversation with a close friend. Words mean things, but they mean different things than we think they do.

Politicians regularly bandy about phrases about what the Founding Fathers meant. They trot out those quotes and those images to sell beer or guns or our participation in a rally at the foot of Lincoln's Memorial. None of those men really understand what the Founders meant. In order to understand the Founders, you begin with what they wrote, but it goes further than that. To understand what they wrote, you must understand how they used language.

People think that reading something someone said is the same as understanding what they meant. Two people can come away from the same experience or information received at the same time with completely different nuances, interpretations, and notions. For example, I read that the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) added the word "Chillax" to its tome this year, a word I have actually never heard used although I have seen it typed on Facebook. It's slang, and it represents the problem the OED had (as detailed in The Professor and the Madman) in hammering down what words in English actually mean.

I myself represent a conundrum in the minds of those who converse with and experience things alongside me. Some friends tell me I 'sound like an old book' as a consequence of what I have read and assimilated into my own knowledge bank. In January 2009, I took a trip to Washington DC. One of the other people who went along asked me for a copy of my journal entries from the trip, with the promise that she would reciprocate. Although her promise went unfulfilled, it was very illustrative that although we saw and experienced those things together I placed completely different emphasis on events and experiences. Of course, I saw things through the prism of my interest and experience and according to how I chose to see certain other events. She was struck by things I recalled that she could not recall without my prompts to her memory. It would have been interesting to see how she recalled the same events, experiences, and conversations.

English is one of the most fluid and mercurial tongues of which I know. It changes, not only with advances in civilization, but also with every generation. There are words even I use that are from cartoons, video games, and instant messaging, which are themselves words foreign to the OED at the time of my own birth. English changes today almost as rapidly as the Post Office changes the price of a stamp.

Gutenburg did the world a great favor. He also did individuals a great disservice. When he made the Bible available without the benefit of education commensurate to understand the Bible, he introduced a problem into society. The Bible I read was commissioned by King James II, and contains phraseology and grammatical constructs common to Middle English but foreign to the modern vernacular. Even that Bible differs in meaning from the original, because the Bible was not written in English, and when it was first transcribed to another tongue other than that in which it was originally written (whether to Latin, Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, or any other language, even if it has a modern counterpart today), it lost its original meaning. Even existing languages in which it was written have changed, and if you do not speek Greek or Hebrew growing up, your mastery of that tongue is limited to the education and educator by which you gained whatever degree of fluency you enjoy.

Just as in order to understand Founder writ we need a dictionary from their time, modern diction and verbiage masks proper understanding of the Bible. Likewise, all these attempts to 'modernize' the Bible go the wrong way because many of the concepts expressed in English words of the time of James II are already changed from Old English, German, and very far from Greek and meant different things to Jesus, Elijah and Moses than to us.

Words matter. I regularly speak to people and have to ask them to define what they mean with certain phrases and notions, because I know that some have geographical, demographical, philosophical, and other nuances, depending on who says them, in what context they are said, and in what part of the nation or world those people learned those phrases. Some of them mean completely opposite things now. By and by, for example, used to mean 'immediately' whereas now it means, 'when I get around to it'.

In the era of immediate access to information, people treat too meanly their access to information. Just because someone says it doesn't make it true. Just because it's on the internet or wikipedia or my blog or in a book doesn't mean it means anything to anyone at all or the same things to everyone who reads it. Regularly, I criticize people who read the books of the Fox 5PMer without reading First Sources because everyone filters information through their own personal lens. In order to see things as another person, you must have the lens through which they saw the world. Since we can get ahold of data easily in a Yahoo search, we don't do research anymore. We esteem what we 'know' so lightly that we don't care how or why we came by that information or the motives of those by whom it disseminates to us.

Islam: Church is the State

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One huge problem with the Mosque is the nature of Islam. Islam is an oppressive state. Islam is a theocracy. The so-called religion of peace wipes out everyone who happens to disagree with them. They are like the Genesis device of Star Trek fame- they overwrite whatever life was there in favor of their new matrix.

It is an established fact over centuries that Muslims build mosques over symbolic sites of their vanquished enemies as a way to establish their preeminence. The Romans too built Triumphal arches in cities th...ey conquered or at the sites of great victories (see the Arc de Triumph in Paris for example, which has Julius Ceasar's face on it). Even the Russians, as they conquered Nazi Germany, set up bleak monuments to their fallen dead all over the Austrian countryside.

What do you think the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is? It's a Mosque built over the site where the Jewish Temple of Solomon stood until it was destroyed by Titus in 70AD. Whatever the Muslims claim about that site, it was occupied intermittently by some kind of Jewish Temple for over 1000 years from 960BC to 70AD without the Muslims ever attempting to build anything there. If not for the Romans, Mohamed would not have been able to 'ascend to heaven' from that spot, because he would not have been anywhere near the Jewish Temple. It was in any event a Jewish symbol before it was a symbol of anything else, and it continues to be a point of strife today, almost 1500 years after the Muslims built it.

Everyone does not have the freedom to worship, despite claims of Democrat politicians to the contrary. A Greek Orthodox church was destroyed by Tower II, but they have been DENIED permission to rebuild a building that was already there. People of my Faith were once jailed, fined, and eventually driven out of America, and they are STILL vilified just on account of their faith. There are 20 mosques in the Bronx alone already; must they build one that close to a place where thousands of innocents were killed by fundamentalist radicals?

If the GOC was also allowed to build, I seriously doubt this would be as much of an issue as it is. I was not personally affected by this, but some people were, and to build one that close probably grates on them more because they feel it's disrespect for our hallowed dead. I am a bit disturbed too that they plan to build/open it on the 10th anniversary. Don't try to link it. If you build it, just build it.

Muslim radicals are antagonistic towards any other religions. There can be no peaceable coexistence with Islam. It is a matter/anti-matter relationship with any other religion. There is no separation of church and state in Islam. The Rabbinate of Jerusalem forbade access to the Dome of the Rock by non-muslims. That's not freedom. How can you demand it of us and not demand it of them?

Why do Liberals support the efforts of this religion? Their religion is anything but actual Faith and fidelity. Like Inga Barks once said, "There is God and then there is government. God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that." The enemy of their enemy (religious conservatives) is their friend.

Mayor Blomberg came out in support of the Mosque. It indicates a preferential treatment towards Muslims. There is a big play on western guilt, where we are EXPECTED to live up to our morality while everyone else can change theirs at will. The fact that Imam Roth has permission to build but the Greek Orthodox church does not indicates favor towards one religion by the Congress, a flagrant violation of the ban on the government by the Constitution to establish any religion.

The Muslim faith is oppresive. No other faith on earth of which I am aware creates more second class citizens or denigrates women as much as Islam. Although the Q'uran recognizes 'people of the book', because I neither look muslim nor practice their faith, I am considered as an infidel, unworthy, from their religious perspective from those who practise the religion in either extreme orthodoxy or radicalism. Women are discouraged from leadership, employment, and from visibility in public, and they are not generally allowed to worship in the same facilities. Islam is a reactionary faith that advocates the 'eye for an eye' policy to prevent recidivism. There is no repentance or redemption of which I am aware except to die in Jihad, often in trade for innocents whose only crime is that they are not muslim.

My own faith includes the tenant to allow other people to worship what, how and when they see fit. I treat others as I would like to be treated. Whatever you believe is your business. Religion is a very personal thing. Faith is entirely a matter of personal effort and concern. Islam is a threat to American Constitutionalism because it intends to compel men to live a certain way instead of that 'animating contest of agency' spoken of by Samuel Adams. God will force no man to heaven.

I wonder if those who support this mosque have ever left that small area around them to see the broader world. I have lived abroad for five years of my life. It's easy to take American freedoms for granted when you have never lived without them.

Nobody worries about upsetting a Christian. King George III would say you should.

Why I Hate Car Dealers

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It's not always the salesmen or the support staff. In the end, the thing I hate most about car dealers is their philosophy towards their customers. Last night, I spent some time at a dealership where, with rare exception, the decision makers care more about sales than about customers. Beware those who try to cheat me.

The first people I met were nice, friendly and helpful. The internet sales contact Flo turned me over to a lot salesman because she was under the weather, and Ricky treated me with the southern hospitality I've come to expect from Carolinians. The people inside were different. Their dark personalities matching their black shirts, quickly led me to feel like I was on the defensive, and they spoke with bellicose rhetoric I assume they believe calms the purchaser but felt more like a truncheon. I think it's a matter of policy at Prestige Chrysler-Dodge.

Before they ran any numbers, there was a form to fill out. You sit in the open at a table, like in an old cafeteria. I admit I felt ill at ease because of prior experience in lunchrooms during my school days. At the bottom of the form, they ask you to sign and say if the price meets your expectations you'll buy and drive today. I wasn't necessarily ready to buy today, because I never make rash decisions like that, and so I told Ricky I wasn't ready to John Hancock that until my concerns were resolved.

The sales manager, Frank, a thin, stick of a man with dead eyes, pale skin and a shaven head, came over to resolve my concerns. He immediately launched into an explanation of how basically my fears were moot and irrelevant. He spent no time building a relationship of trust with me or even asking me what my concerns were. Thus, he focused on manifestations of the problems instead of the problems themselves. Problems resolved in his mind, he then immediately probed for a commitment. I felt attacked. I felt pressured. My mind screamed "Take your money and run".

Ricky was different. He was compassionate. Eventually, he would give me his card and took me outside to relook at the car.

Truth be told, I am not really interested in a purchase from this dealer. The sales manager refused to recognize the advertised price. I called my friend in Pennsylvania and asked him to print the webpage to pdf and email it to me so I could prove that price was advertised. In the end, after the price of the car, they added $500 in tax, $900 in 'reconditioning', and $350 in document preparation. The 'best' he could do for me was to honor the original price.

I guess my error was twofold. I should have stuck with the internet sales manager, who probably changed the price to begin with. I should have also come better prepared, with printout in hand and my research in the bag so that I could buy. However, I think it was the interpolations of providence that I did not, else I might have bought that car. It's a nice car; too bad it's sold by such a sleazy dealership. How can your best deal be to meet the price for which it was advertised? For the past year, I have fought this with the housing market, where my realtors have insisted that in order to get a home I have to pay more than asking price. No thanks. It's just a car.

After I left, things made more sense. They had tried to put the screws to me with a signature and then tricks to give me the 'best deal they could'. Granted the car was a good price according to blue book, but I shouldn't have to fight to get them to honor the advertised price. They also boasted that they are the biggest referral for servicemen from the air force base. Well, I don't like to be taken for a ride. With the advertisement in hand and this narrative, I intend to file a complaint with the BBB, the FTC, Chrysler corporation, and the US Air Force. You may sell millions in inventory; I am only interested in one car, and if I have any say, this push to sell me a car against my will may have cost you much more than a single sale.

Unfortunately, they will probably sell the car to someone else for the price they want. I'm glad they reconditioned it, but I would not pay $900 up front for someone to do that, and I have found several vehicles since then from either other dealers or private parties with fewer miles or better options for the same price as that dealership demanded. A private seller, for the same out the door price, has one the same color with the same options but half as many miles, and it's all for the car- not for tax, documents, or dealer fluff. For another $2000, I could buy one from Carmax with half the miles. What is my incentive to do business with you? Why should I pay you after a harangue for things that are not value added to me? That's as bad as paying the Manufacturer's tax when you buy a new car (which is why new cars depreciate so much after you drive them off the lot). Thank God I refused to John Hancock their document.

If you sell a man a car, you can earn money today. If you sell yourself to a customer, you will eventually win his business and loyalty. If Ricky wants/needs a letter of recommendation or referral, I am happy to recommend him. He made me feel like I was the most important part of the transaction, not the money that I might trade him for a car.

UPDATE: 9:32AM The dealer's own website now shows the car for the price I asserted was accurate. That should have been the starting point. Sorry, charlies. You lost me, and now you've been enshrined forever on my blog as the sharks you are.

Transpiration and Irrigation

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It has long bothered me that while the government forces me to water during certain hours and only on certain days, they don't hold everyone to the same standard. In graduate school, I watched farmers water with sprinklers in the desert during the hottest hours of the day. In my neighborhood, they threaten to fine you if you water when not on your day or they find 'too much' water in your gutters.

The government isn't held to that standard. It's going to be 107F in Las Vegas today, and I can guarantee you that some government building, park, or byway somewhere will be watered in the heat of the day. Although I forget the numbers exactly, approximately half of that water will instantly evaporate in the air before it even reaches the ground. Plants that get water, in order to maximize the opportunity, will then photosynthesize during parts of the day when they are most prone to damage from the photosynthetic process in the absence of water. Most of our native plants are acclimated to fix carbon only through about 10AM, but if they don't have water then, they will not do it. Non-native plants will metabolize when there is water, and most of that will be lost to transpiration, which is driven by high temperatures and low humidity.

Stop being stupid. If I have to water only a few days and during certain hours, then you better hold yourself to the same standard. What's more, if you can enforce it among us, why don't you enforce farmers? That still gets my goat.

Can You Change Your Mind?

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Last night, I did something I rarely do- I watched the news. During a break, there was an advertisement bashing Sharron Angle for 'changing her views'. The person speaking said she had printous from Angle's website before the election that showed that she believed otherwise. I find it ironic that they always think it's disingenuous when it's a politician they dislike and always real when it's someone they like. Advertisements in Arizona talk about how McCain has 'moved to the right' to get ahead of JD Hayworth. His rhetoric has; but I suspect it's disingenuous and that McCain will be the same he always has been if he wins.

On the larger scale, it begs the question of ever having your own opinions. If they can always hold your opinions against you, how can you ever improve? As you gain knowledge and experience, your perception of the 'facts' and what classifies as fact changes. Or, like the Sunday School Teacher at church told me, "You have the same amount of knowledge about the scriptures as we. You apply it differently." Assuming that is true, there may be things that, given what knowledge I have, are currently inaccurate.

I remember in school as I progressed through the Biochemistry core of classes how I discovered some things they teach in general science are not necessarily true later on. While 'true enough' for understanding, you can't give people the meat up front without the right scaffolding to support that information. I didn't know about enzyme kinetics and chiral isoforms, and so what I knew was true, in the context of the knowledge I had.

We often brainstorm in order to solve problems. Sometimes, we brainstorm bad ideas in order to eliminate them. If I am to be suspected as an advocate of a certain idea because I mention it, this will lead me to hold my tongue and we will find organizations pursuing bad ideas because nobody ruled them out.

Angle doesn't do a stellar job of expressing her thoughts or explaining her rationale behind them. If she genuinely changed her mind, and it's for real, then we can trust them. Politicians, however, usually do things to get elected. I am kind of annoyed that anything you have said can and WILL be used against you forever and ever as your first and only valid thought, assuming of course that you're a Republican. The Democrats can change their minds whenever they like.

However, a fundamental precept of human compassion is a belief that people can actually change. Ideas evolve, knowledge increases, and wisdom can if the ideas and knowledge are rightly applied in the crucible of experience. Experience has shown that Angle expressed herself poorly. I knew what she meant in many of the ads where Reid makes a big deal of her diction, and it was poorly worded, but it did not mean what Reid wants you to think it does. For that matter, what does Reid think, and how has his opinion changed in my lifetime? Why?

Maybe we should be asking those questions instead.

Phoney Egg Crisis

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I suspect the egg crisis is simply manufactured to distract us from the mosque in New York City.

Similary, I think H1N1 was blown up as a crisis to distract us from the falling economy and that the BP Oil Spill was drummed up to distract us from Obama's nominees and the healthcare debate.

Danger of Disneyfication

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I love Disney. They wrote amazing music, built family-themed parks, and brought stories to life. I hate how people malign or misunderstand what Walt started. When I left for my mission in 1998, the last Disney animated film I had seen was "Hercules", and it wasn't one of my favorites. The next one I saw was the 2004 Pixar collaboration "The Incredibles", which was good. In between, there was a lot of crap, and unfortunately, in that time a lot of people watched it, still thinking it was good stuff because it said "Walt Disney Pictures" on it, and fell under their new spell.

What's wrong with Disney? Disney has suffered some of the same problems that plague the rest of Hollywood. During the last decade, Disney acquired other holdings such as ESPN, ABC Studios, Mirimax, Fox Family, Saban and his Power Rangers, and Marvel Entertainment. Not everything those subsidiaries in this major conglomerate produce is in line with Walt's original projections. Also, Disney reaches children in a way the rest of Hollywood cannot- in the way they establish unrealistic expectations.

Like it or not, life is not as dramatic or exciting as people like to believe. Unlike sitcoms or movies, we don't have to sell the story to an audience in 30 to 90 minutes, and so there are not plot devices or dialogues provided to us so we can overcome the hiccups of real life. Hollywood sells distractions from the mundane routine of real life. We go to the movies because they present situations that are uniquely different from our daily lives. That's what makes it entertaining. If our lives were really like ER or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or CSI, we would find those shows boring, as I am sure doctors, vampire hunters and law enforcment personnel feel about those examples respectively.

If you use Hollywood as your guide for how life should be, even if it's Disney, you will never be happy. There are no themes that play during epic life events. Things don't always work out happily in the end. Not everything we do is important to the 'plot' of life. People have to eat and use the restroom, fix their cars, go to work for poor pay, and have courageous conversations with people for whom they actually DO care, even though they risk being 'unfriended' as a result. Disneyfication of real life established a set of unrealistic expectations for romance, adventure, and life in general, so that people literally expect to live happily ever after even after a very brief and not-so-difficult period of trial or quest for what they seek and then cry foul when they settle down to the task of living with what they have won/earned/received. Humans really do find it difficult to endure.

Do not expect life to play out like a Disney film. Life is full of bumps, bruises, betrayals, and lots and lots of monotonous routine. I know a lot of people who live in a world of Disneyesque delusion, and although they say otherwise, they are not happy. It has created a generation of people always in pursuit of treasures at the end of the rainbow, never happy now, but sure that once they have what they seek that they will live happily ever after.

The happy ending, even when it does come, only comes at the end of ALL Acts, not necessarily at the end of this one that we call 'real life'.

Someone Else Made Me Do It...

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I have always hated this red herring. I learned yesterday that I 'offended someone'. I can't offend you without your permission, and yet people surrender constantly and consistently their responsibilities. Young people want to be treated like adults without having to carry the burdens of adulthood. They blame other people as a rule, which is a completely natural albeit false tendency. Imagine my anger this morning when I read how Castro believes there's a global conspiracy. This man is a complete basketcase.

First off, what's up with the title of this article? Why do I care what fascinates Fidel Castro?

As for the rest of this, conspiracy theories are largely excuses for inactivity. "Someone else controls my fate/life/job/prospects/actions/etc., so there's nothing I can do." If that's true, why does anyone give a flying flapjack about anything? If that can be true about humans, then how can these same people not believe in a Higher Power that controls things? This duplicity of thought about the role of humans and their place really gets my dander up. Humans are really irrelevant, universally speaking. We are very insignificant and fragile and here only because the Universe and its Governor haven't decided we are as much of a pest as we believe ourselves to be.

Although much of what happens in life IS out of your control, what you do about what you are given always is. In the end, no matter what happens, no matter how other people treat or oppress you, there is one last inch that they can only take if you surrender it. That inch is your integrity. It is an inch, and it is small, but in that inch, every one of us is free.

Read Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search For Meaning". Regardless of circumstance, this is still a Choose Your Own Adventure story.

Don't ever surrender responsibility for the things you control. Live free or die.

Religion of the State or the State of Religion

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So, there's some question as to the President's faith. His own supporters are confused. Why? I'm not surprised one bit. All of my life, I have run up against people who have judged my Faith based on one or two encounters with either Jack Mormons (who are Mormons on paper only) or Jacket Mormons (who are Mormons when it serves their interest). Then they meet me and say things like "You don't make a very good Mormon." I actually make a terrible 'Mormon' because Mormon has been dead since 385AD.

People ask me all the time if Mormons are Christians. If you have to ask that, you don't know anything about us. The Book of Mormon says on the cover "Another Testament of Jesus Christ". Have there been any others? If you have to ask that, you don't know anything about my religious observances. A friend's mother recently objected to my religious faith because she believed I was going to hell. My friend said that if I were going to hell, then nobody else she knew had a prayer. 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 am an ordinary man, but I am a man, and I really am what I purport myself to be.

I am bothered by the Mosque issue because in 1843, a Governor in this nation signed an order to exterminate the people of my Faith. Obama can talk all he likes about religious freedom, but this nation has jailed, oppressed, ignored, and harassed my people all of my life. Ask Mitt Romney if he feels like he's free to practice his religion. They tried to run him out on a rail.

Christians: Ask yourself if there would be enough evidence to convict you in a court of law of being a Christian. If, like the President's aids say he will, you have to make a visibly concerted effort to attend church to prove to people that you're Christian, you're not. Membership in the Kingdom of Christ depends more on who has your heart than who has your records.

Jesus knows mine.

Choose Where You Stand

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America will survive today the same way she survived the Revolutionary War. John Adams wrote that America was divided into thirds: one third was either secretly or openly loyal to the British, one third took up arms, and the other third didn't give a damn. Too many people today don't give a damn enough to do what it takes to secure the freedoms so costly purchased in blood. This freedom will look easy to come by when nobody loses his life to get it.

Liberals run our government and control our lives. They do not respect the rule of law on anything. 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. They do not do right by themselves because they do not care to know or be who they really are. They hide and lie. They pass laws we do not like, appoint bureaucrats who don't like us, and buy things with money stolen from us on which we would never spend a dime. They pick minorities, they set the agenda, and they tell us what we think. Sure, some people write and call and talk, but mostly to people who share their ideals, because the old adage that we avoid discussion of religion and politics was nothing more than an archetype of political correctness.

Engage your enemies. You gain no ground arguing with your friends in the echo chamber of self-justification. We cannot win as long as we stand idly by and watch. If you stand idly by, you get what you deserve. Last October, I wrote of an acquaintance of mine who said that the extend of his action was that he votes. I told him to put his money where his mouth was and run for office and prove his way is better, and he said that he does because he votes. Good for you. So do illegal aliens and dead people. Would you like a medal?

Life is an animating contest of agency, but it's very difficult to do what is right. Most people do what is easy or what other people do. If all of this is just for entertainment or to buoy you up without acting on what you learn, then nothing will get better. Joseph Smith Jr wrote that “A religion that does not require the sacrifice of all things never has power sufficient to produce the faith necessary unto life and salvation.” By the same token, any movement of men that does not require the sacrifice of all things lacks power sufficient to vouchsafe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I am appalled at how easily we abandon what is true and how simply we repaint the hues of right to rationalize and justify ourselves. The simple fact of the matter is that we are at war with everyone around us, and whether a Screwtape whispers in our ear or we play Screwtape to ourselves, we deceive ourselves and overcomplicate our lives.

We are at war. Don't you dare be proud of peaceful activism in this war of ideals. It will cost jobs, lawsuits, fortunes, relationships and security. I have already lost friends, fortunes, and favor by virtue of my adamant stand for what I believe to be right. Don't let the fear of what might happen paralize you more than what actually happened.

I starting reading Ira Stoll's Biography of Samuel Adams while in Wyoming last week. He said a great many applicable things:

“The liberties of our Country and the freedom of our Civil Constitution, are worth defending at all costs.”

and my personal favorite:

Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then ask 'what should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains rest lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!

Until we act, we in effect bow our knees and crouch down before our oppressors. We cannot reward people who do what is wrong by forgiving them for breaking the law. Hold them accountable. Anger is not action, it is emotion, and until we act, we are open to be acted upon. Said Abraham Lincoln, "To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."

The Founders were an amazing group of men, as diverse as America is today, albeit in different ways. What kind of men were they? They were men willing to risk it all.

Fifty-six men signed the Declaration of Independence. Their conviction resulted in untold sufferings for themselves and their families. Of the 56 men, five were captured by the British and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons in the Revolutionary Army. Another had two sons captured. Nine of the fifty-six fought and died from wounds or hardships of the war. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships sunk by the British navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts and died in poverty. At the battle of Yorktown, the British General Cornwallis had taken over Thomas Nelson’s home for his headquarters. Nelson quietly ordered General George Washington to open fire on the Nelson home. The home was destroyed and Nelson died bankrupt. John Hart was driven from his wife’s bedside as she was dying. Their thirteen children fled for their lives. His fields and mill were destroyed. For over a year, he lived in forest and caves, returning home only to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later, he died from exhaustion.

They signed that document knowing that from the point of view of the British it was treason but that in the eyes of God it was faithful adherance to their covenants. They pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men are we? We're worried about our jobs, our cars, our healthcare, our libidos, our home equity, and our freaking tax refunds. I have asked God for a home, for a family, and for children, but it's all for nothing if you don't have freedom. Pursue your happiness. Get fired for speaking your mind and then sue them. Until you believe as deeply in America as liberals do, you cannot win, but if you stand on the green, you will. We eventually will win, so commit to fight to the death until we do.

There is a place for everyone in this army. If not a soldier, perhaps a signalman, a medic, a drummer, or in the quartermaster corps. I wrote earlier this month about the danger of those who will not fight for that in which they believe. I reaffirm that I will stand on the green, even if I stand alone if for no other reason than to be true to the truth that my parents cherished, true to the truth for which martyrs have perished. Faithful and true, I will stand. Choose where you will stand.

Political attitudes in America remain largely the same as they always have been. We still have a third either secretly or openly loyal to tyranny and a third that doesn't give a damn. What makes the difference from year to year, decade to decade, is simply how many people take up arms and show up to stand on the Lexington Green of American politics. When things are ok, patriots stay home and cut wood, balance the books, or watch TV, but when Americans get mad, right thinking Americans, who have always been the deciding factor, get out and vote. He who does not vote has no advantage over him who cannot vote. We ought to be men of action. Until we stand up to tyranny, more will come, but when we stand up, they will be driven from our shores like they always have been, no matter how badly we may believe ourselves to be outnumbered. So what if we be few? We're Americans!

Mosque at Ground Zero

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The president defended the construction of a mosque at ground zero last night. He referred to rights that date back to the Founders. This man is either completely unaware of the Founders or cares so much for his ideology that he projects it onto other men as an ad populum effort to adjoin himself to famous and successful people who came before him. Before he trots out the Founders to do his bidding, it would behoove Obama to ask if he respects their intent.

For the better part of the last two years, I have made a concerted effort to study the Founders in depth. I've walked the same streets, read their papers, read the books that inspired them, and studied their families, their circumstances, and their origins. I visited the sights where the Revolution began and where their progenitors first planted the seeds of rebellion from Williamsburg VA to Lexington MA. My conclusion is that Obama's attribution of rights to Moslems reflects a willful ignorance of the Founders themselves.

What were the religious affirmations of the Founders? Both Adams came from the Puritan colonies of Massachusetts. Franklin and his fellows were at home amidst the Quakers. Jefferson, Washington, and a few others were deists, and disagree with organized religion in general. Most of them wrote vehemently against the Papist effort abroad in Europe that drove the emigration of these peoples to America in the first place. Their forefathers escaped England to settle here to avoid the Protestant/Catholic wars of Elizabethan England which protracted from that time until the time of revolution. They were wary of Catholicism and its Anglican offspring.

What was wrong with Catholicism and its Anglican clone? It was a religion imposed upon people. There was a time in the Austrian empire when the emperor sent soldiers into the countryside to ask what religion the farmers claimed. If you didn't say Catholic, they struck you down where you stood. Most of the earliest settlers came here to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. Terrorism is hardly however worship.

This is tantamount to establishment of a religion in this nation. We have all heard the allegations that Obama is a closet Moslem, and Reverend Wright's church was hardly a church visited or even acknowledged by the Christ. They get special privileges and allowances, and the anti-religionists follow suit, but if I want to erect a nativity set in my yard and a neighbor is offended, I cannot. Furthermore, the Imam already has another mosque or 'community outreach center' twelve blocks from Ground Zero. Why does he need another one within two blocks? I have ancestors who were driven out of the United States into what was then Spanish Mexico because of their religious beliefs. This is an outrage.

We insulate things to protect ourselves. It would be stupid to change our modus opporendi now and allow Moslems to erect what could be taken by radicals as a Triumphal Arch at the site of America's defeat.

At Least Tell Me to My Face

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People are trained to avoid conflict. Unfortunately, the best way to avoid long-term conflict is sometimes asking what may be a difficult or controversial question. In today's society however access to telecommunication devices has created a new problem in conflict resolution such that we no longer feel the need to do people the service to tell them face to face.

If I do something at which you take offense, tell me. More often than not, we read things into what people do or say based on historical precedent without acknowledging that everyone is different and deserves to be judged for who they are. Also, we usually don't mean things the way you take them. Yet, how many of us think to ask? Tell me what bothers you. Don't just block me on messenger, unfriend me on Facebook, or key my car. Oh, and don't tell me we 'need to talk' and then lecture me. That's not a talk.

This spring, I had two friendships end for various reasons. The first one I discovered through a boyfriend who called to tell me that she had taken offense to what I said. She never spoke to me, and when I saw her a week ago or so, she was friendly to me, so I'm not sure she was offended at all. The second one actually met me in the park, explained why, and had the cajones to face me with it.

Other people I know are not so lucky. It is incredibly tacky to end a friendship or write someone off via text message. We don't have to face them, and so we don't.

I surprised a lot of people in April when, before I began my remarks in church, I stood up and asked people to forgive me and invited them to speak to me afterwards. If I don't know there's a problem, I can't fix it, and I assume that unless it was important for you to broach me directly with it that it isn't really that important. People make time for the things that really matter. If I no longer matter to you, at least tell me to my face.

Face time is always better than Facebook time.

Employment Advice for WY

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As part of our trip to the Tetons, we spent a few hours in Jackson Hole in search of Momentos. I wonder if all the shops belong to the same person, because the inventory varies very little from locale to locale, and even the prices are very close. One thing, however, that differed that makes me think there is at least some honest competition, is who worked in those stores.

When my dad needed to ask a question, the employee to whom he turned asked him if he spoke Russian. Even if he had, why should he? We're in WYOMING for crying out loud! All three employees in the Shirt Off My Back location were foreign nationals from Russia or former satellite nations. In the economy as presently constituted, we should offer Americans the chance at those jobs before we grant work visas for foreigners who aren't interested in the clients and can't even communicate with them.

I suspect there's some kind of deal brokered between this particular company and some state department program to bring in people on work visas from the Eastern Bloc. They probably pay them a pittance, charge them for room and board, and then send them home, thus minimizing price to earnings ratio. However, it would behoove Wyoming, which is consistently identified as the freest and most Constitutional state, to set the example. Offer those jobs to Americans, who would likewise appreciate the wages, room and board, etc., in lieu of foreign nationals whose interests lie elsewhere other than in the United States.

Obama Hurts Vegas With Visits

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While he tells other people to avoid trips to Las Vegas, the President will take another vacationette in Las Vegas. However, the purpose of his visit will not be one in the interest of the people who live here. He won't be here to encourage people to visit, to shop, to relocate their businesses here or buy homes. Instead, he will tell select invitees to lavish dinners and exorbitant country clubs just how great Harry Reid has been for Nevada. That is an expressly repugnant notion to me.

When Obama arrives, he will upset the normal flow of commerce and cost us money. Air Force One's arrival will delay all other flight arrivals, which will cost the airlines and airport money and annoy all the people on those planes who don't know why they're being delayed. Wherever the president travels, it will require police escorts, blocked roads, and special guards, all at the expense of the city he visits. He will not spend ANY money here. We will give him golf, a hotel room, casino chips, food, and transportation complimentary, or in other words, at the expense of the people who live and work here. Then he will hold banquets that raise funds for Reid's reelection and then leave. Most of the people who live here will be relieved when he is gone.

The president should stay out of town and encourage OTHER people to come here, because every time he comes, he exacerbates our economic plight and serves only Senator Reid.

Annual Absentia

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As is the custom, I will be gone for a week on my annual summer vacation. Since I do not expect to have internet, I will probably not chronicle my exploits and adventures during the trip. Take care of the country, your families, and yourselves while I am gone. Ciao!

Cars Americans Want

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Annual statistics came out for auto thefts by vehicle type. The results did not really surprise me, but they tell us exactly the kind of cars Americans really want. If you can have whatever you want without having to pay for it, that's what you choose first and most frequently. Look at the top 5 by rankings:

Cadillac Escalade
Ford F-250
Infinity G37
Dodge Charger
Chevrolete Corvette Z06

The article says "Thieves are after chrome, horsepower and HEMIs," but they are also after cars that are useful, powerful, and fast. You don't see any SMART cars, hybrids, and sedans. Americans just don't want small cars. When you have groceries, tools, or children to cart around, even a SmartFor2 won't cut the mustard, and don't even get me started again about the Volt...

If you want a car that's theft proof, then those other kinds are for you. They are expensive to own and maintain, expensive to insure, and mostly a status symbol so others can say, "look at how much that guy cares about the environment!" because obviously other people don't. The article says "Two-door minicars are the least likely group to be targeted." What do Americans want in their cars? More doors and more power.

See Clearly in the Morning

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I love the mornings. Partly, it's because it's not quite as hot, even though the sun is already out as I get out of bed. The rest is because I exercise, and when I work out, things seem to work themselves out in my mind and in my soul. When I can, I also ponder about things, and today's ponder, like it often is, revolved around the fortuitous nature of my circumstances.

People who know me know that I jog thrice weekly when I can. I have even been known to do this on vacation, in the snow, and when it's 95F or hotter. Unless I feel sick, I run 10K, and even if I am sick, I run a 5K. At this rate, by the time I'm 50, I will have run around the equator twice.

As I rounded the first 1/8th of a mile, I was acutely aware of how fortunate I am. First of all, I am able to wake up after a good night's rest (mostly). Secondly, I know people who cannot run because they either have no legs or their health is not such that it supports running. Most people I know hate running, among which I include myself, but it's very efficient as a workout, and I was able to lose lots of weight when I made this a habit. I'm fit enough TO run, which is something in itself, because I remember hardly being able to finish a mile when I first began. I have the discipline to get up and work out at least 6 days per week, and I know it matters to me. I feel better on days when I exercise first thing.

I enjoy a great deal of freedom. Most of the shadows that hung over what I have built blew away in the storm winds of July, hopefully for good. I get up and run even when I get knocked down. I can go and do what I choose when I feel so inclined to do so. It's a beautiful life, and that's the honest truth.

The Men of Lexington

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We revere and honor men like Revere, Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. They are faces and names everyone knows who fought and worked as hard as any other in the fight for American Liberty. Today, men like Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck and O'Reilly want us to think they are the Washingtons and Jeffersons of our day when they are far from it. Unlike those men to whose stations they aspire, they do a lot of talking and not a lot of real fighting. They leave it to us to do so. If the Men of Lexington had been forced to carry the burden of the war, the Miracle of 1776 would have fizzled and died in infancy. Here are some thoughts on those men.

I have done a bit of research this weekend into the origins and activities of the 80 men identified by the Lexington Historical Society as participants on the 15th of April 1775. What I found came as little surprise. The men of Lexington were like everyone else in America. They were farmers and merchants, sons of soldiers or sharecroppers. People sometimes forget the Founders were people. They were people just like us.

Talking heads of the Conservative movement continually talk about countries they consider for 'when/if America falls'. They clothe themselves with odd old ends stolen forth from Founder writ and seem saints when most they play the devil. When they trot out the Founders to do their bidding, it behooves us to ask if these men respect the Founders' intent. Few of them show up as Washington did at the head of the army, at the head of the Tea Party, at the heads of government. They will not run for office if nominated or serve if elected. What kind of citizen refuses his duty?

The Minutemen Oath is simply and profoundly this:

We trust in God that, should the state of our affairs require it, we shall be ready to sacrifice our estates and everything dear in life, yea, and life itself, in support of the common cause.

The Talking Heads of either side are not read to sacrifice their estates, their lives, their families, or their honor. Would they stand with me on the green? I contend they would not.

Stop talking about where we'll go if America falls. This is our country. Fight for it. Otherwise, you betray the Men of Lexington. When that day comes, if God wills that it should be, I will be on the Lexington Green of American Liberty, gun in hand, and I will stand against whatever they send against me, even if I stand alone. It's God's country, and as long as a band of Christians exist in the land, he will protect them and either warn them to flee or prepare for battle. Unless he tells me to flee, I will meet them on the field of honor, and if they slay me there, I shall have secured in heaven all the things for which I really care and that have any significance anyway. I invite you to stand with me and the Men of Lexington.

"Stand your Ground! Do not fire unless fired upon, but if they want a war then let it begin right here!" -Captain John Parker, Lexington Minutemen

Take Home Pay Lower in 2011 Regardless

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The dean's secretary told me Friday that she bought a new car this week. It only cost her $60 more per month, and she's hoping that the governor won't cut our pay any more when the legislature meets the budget this year. No matter what they do, our take home pay will be lower in 2011.

Last year when they balanced the state budget, costs of many things went up. You probably saw a decrease in your automobile registration, but the basic service fee went UP. I noticed because my car is fully depreciated, and it cost me $55 to register my car, up from $41, previously. Sure, they also cut state wages officially 5%, but they also increased withholding for PERS from 10.5% to 12% and raised our monthly premiums $34/month. If you do the math, it constitutes a total of 9% paycut for me. Gas, food, and other services (like phone and internet) went up as well. They raise taxes (usually called 'government service fees') on these commodities, which means we buy less.

Next year, the "Bush Tax Cuts" will expire, and all the levels of Federal Withholding will rise. I know that the 30% bracket will now be 33%, which is a 10% tax increase over last year. What this means is that you will see a 'normal' paycheck on 31 December 2010, and then on 15 January 2011, your paycheck will draw $10 or $50 or $500 less, depending on your wages. Once they raise social security taxes, impose the Obamacare premiums, it will exacerbate things further.

What are the implications of this? More homes will go to foreclosure, more jobs will be lost, and they will raise more taxes officially on top of the new ones they just created. All the while, they will pass new 'tax credits' as a way to 'help the economy'. If those ideas are so great, then why not make them permanent? After all, a tax cut is just a permanent tax credit. If it works, then make it true all the time.

Liberals cannot admit that tax cuts work. It goes against their ideology. As long as you have any money and any freedom left, they will tell you that you have 'more than your fair share'.

Unless they roll back the budget and cut spending, your take home pay will go down next year without a promotion. And they will have to cut more than national defense.

Mark my words. Watch your bills. Watch your paystubs. You will have less buying power next year, no matter how many stimulous packages, hikes in the minimum wage, and tax credits they promise or pass.