Never Too Busy to Help

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About a month ago, this guy Troy I know told me about a project he started to help other people. Although I arrived at different commitments than he did, I decided as a result of his revelatory communique to resolve to never be too busy to help someone who needed me. Over the years, I have been the recipient of much benevolence, and if I don't have an actual prior commitment, then I decided to help when it was legal, moral, and possible.

Last night, just as I got home, the phone rang. A woman I know who is currently out of state was afraid that keys left under her doormat might not still be there Wednesday when she could get to it without my help. I agreed that it was probably best not to trust that someone might not take it, especially after having seen this newspaper report:
Accordingly, much as I really wanted to have hot chocolate and veg out in front of the TV watching "Wild Hogs", I dressed for the weather and hit the road, driving about 20 miles one way to pick up a set of keys. On the way home, I stopped and checked with a guy on the side of the road to see if he needed help. He told me that although he was squared away that I was the first and only person so far to stop.

When I had my first collision in August of this year, nobody stopped to help me. It was ok because the car still drove and my body remains as yet unhurt as a consequence, but it would have been nice if someone had stopped to check on me after I slammed into the median. What if I had been hurt?

It has been said that God watches over us and answers our prayers but that it is often through another person that he meets our needs. I told a friend a few weeks ago that most people just want to know someone is paying attention to them, and so when I was asked, I acted like I believe a Christian would and was the friend they sought in me. Long ago, I decided that I would be available if God needed something, and since I am single, I really have no excuse at times when I have not already given my word to go and do what he needs done.

Who knows but that maybe you will save someone from a choice they will regret? I really like the following video from Liberty Mutual:


You never know what a small gesture will do to change the lives of others. A kind word, a compassionate look, or a helping hand can all change not only the life of the person you influence but also all those with whom he subsequently interacts.

My new policy is to never be too busy to help. Even if I'm headed to do something God asks, there may be other opportunities by the way on my way, and sometimes it's about the journey more than the destination itself.

Finishing Out the Semester

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As we reach the end of the semester, in the weeks sandwiched between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we see and hear a lot of students lose their motivation to follow through. Granted, the faculty could do a better job of spreading out responsibility through the semester rather than allowing it to stack up at the end when the students are all nostalgic for holidays, gifts, and gaiety. There is a problem here that needs addressing.

For those of you who consider quitting, first of all, I appreciate your honesty. Many people are not willing to admit their shortcomings, but that is the first R of Reform, to Recognize. I can only imagine why. Winter was always a rough time when I was a student because there are so many other things revolving around fun, family, and festivity, that it's hard to focus on the hard and often monotonous work that stacks up just before you celebrate Christ's birth.

As a College employee, I'm a little sad, but I won't take it personally. You have already paid them for the classes, and so now it's entirely up to you if the money spent was money well spent. Along the way through college, I remember many classes or portions of classes that I either hated or for which I saw absolutely zero need. As far as work goes, sure, I don't evaluate fractals or integrate functions from zero to infinity, but math taught me order and to calculate things, and I learned other valuable lessons from Jane Eyre, McTeague, and The Jazz Singer. Let's face it that life is about routine and conflict, and if we know how others dealt with it, we can either avoid their mistakes or follow their successful strategies.

One of the most valuable things you can get from education is to get an education. Although your degree might not be something you ever actually do, it shows things that you can do. It shows commitment to goals and follow through on difficult, monotonous, and repetitive duties and assignments. It shows that you can finish something. It demonstrates aptitude to succeed. It shows us that you were able to assimilate, integrate, and at least regurgitate a large body of information on subjects ranging from the mundane to the transformative. Also, knowledge is the only thing you take with you from this life as a guarantee, and so the person who gains more does better. Notice that I said 'gain' and not 'receive' because whether it gets into you depends just as much on the learner as it does on the teacher.

Your teachers may not be the greatest, but for those who really care, you owe them the service of being a good customer. For those who got into the subject and got the subject into themselves, please do us the favor of getting it into you, even if you just can't quite get into the material. As someone who has sat on selection committees for the hiring of employees, although grades do not matter per se, completion does. Plus, you've already paid a great price, and I would like to see it well used.

What thou dost, do well.

Governments Only React

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As complaints have mounted over airport scrutiny, people have started to question the effectiveness and value of the TSA. Many of the people there are not capable of passing the physical and intellectual tests of other law enforcement agencies. Their presence has yet to catch a single terrorist, probably because most attempts originate far from our shores. The scrutiny has become more of an imposition on law-abiding citizens because they will not profile to be politically correct. This stupidity of government is as old as time.

Governments are by nature only reactive. Each new intrusion on people comes after an attempt is foiled, often accidentally, and almost always by foreign powers. The only successful attempt to blow up anything with a plane succeeded, and that was nine years ago. As they hide bombs in their shoes, their purses, their underwear, and now their body cavities, we are ignoring the obvious fact that they are at least one step ahead of us. Furthermore, there are ways in which they could attack us that are currently not scrutinized. Where is it going to end?

I was reading Benjamin Franklin's pamphlet "Plain Truth" and found that this fault of government is old. He writes:

When 'tis too late, they are sensible of their Imprudence. After great Fires, they provide Buckets and Engines; After a Pestilence they think of keeping clean their Streets and common Shores; and when a Town has been sack'd by their Enemies, they provide for its Degense, &c...When the steed is stolen, you shut the Stable Door.

Why do we expect differently now?

The government cannot protect us here. By the time they get to our shores, it is too late, because the amount of scrutiny necessary can come only at the expense of liberty.

A Different Black Friday

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We're about to all sit down and gorge ourselves on food as we join together with Friends and Family tomorrow for Thanksgiving. Many people forget that Thanksgiving was originally a religious holiday. See, there just aren't any gifts, and so we spend the afternoon perusing advertisements in search of stellar shopping bargains for the next day, forgetting the religious intent and overtone of Christmas as well.

Thanksgiving traditionally became common in our minds and dear to our hearts with the Puritans. They celebrated the providence of Providence for a harvest and for their survival in 1621. Other colonies also held "Days of Thanksgiving" which became days of prayer to God for blessings such as rain or cessation of hostilities. It finally came to rest approximately where we know it under President Lincoln, who, although not the first to so enact or suggest, called for a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving. I reproduce the act here because I think it's important.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Roosevelt was the president who, like many other things, ruined Thanksgiving and bastardized it. After trying for two years, he was finally able to move Thanksgiving from the final Thursday in November to the fourth Thursday in order to give the economy a boost after the attack on Pearl Harbor that year [55 Stat. 862 (1941)].

After Thanksgiving, many people will go out excitedly for Black Friday. It is so called because for many businesses it is the first day of the fiscal year on which they finally operate in the black and turn a profit. As we think about Thanksgiving, as mentioned by Lincoln in recognition of the gracious gifts of the Most High God, and the Christmas season, let us remember a very different Black Friday.

In accordance with Jewish tradition, Thursday at Sunset, which was Friday for Jews, Jesus met in that upper room with his disciples to celebrate the Passover. Some time around midnight, he repaired to the garden of gethsemane to pray where he took upon himself the punishment for and burden of the sins of the world who would repent and come unto him. Within a few hours, Iscariot betrayed him and he was arrested. By sunrise, he had been on trial twice and confined to Ciaphas' prison. Between sunrise and when most people get to work, Jesus went through three more trials and was sentenced to crucifixion, before which he was sent out to be scourged. He carried his own cross from the court of the Romans to Golgotha where he was nailed into place on its crossbeam. He hung on the cross for three hours. By late afternoon, before any of us will be done with work, he was dead. That was a very black Friday.

In this tough and trying time, we have been likewise the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. Many people among us suffer, but not all. Our population continues to increase, our crops continue to ripen, and our armies continue to be victorious, even in the face of economic, moral, and environmental upheaval. We enjoy what we have, despite what others may claim, not due to any councils of men but by the Providence of our Creator. These are gracious gifts and tender mercies of the Most High God, the birth of whose son we will all soon commemorate.

To his memory and his name, I commend this holiday to you and your loved ones. Just because one aspect of my life isn’t how I wish doesn’t give me permission to pretend the others aren’t well. I still have Seven of Eight, and so my life is blessed indeed. As we gear up for Thanksgiving, let us give more thanks to our Father and His Son, in whom we have hope, and by whom we are lifted up to have, do, and be more than we otherwise could and recognize His hand with an attitude of gratitude.

Forgiving a Traitor

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If you haven't yet, you will, as I have, eventually know someone rather well who will turn and wound you. Sometimes it will be on accident; often it is on purpose. I will admit that I wrestle to know exactly what I would do if, as Richard Rich did to Thomas More, on the testimony of a friend I were condemned falsely to the block. I don't know what I would ask be done with a man who had raped or murdered my beloved or my child. I don't really know what should be done about a traitor.

Capital punishment leads to zero recidivism, especially when it is lethal. Since I could not actually pull the lever or the trigger to execute another, I do not feel that I can advocate it.

Among the greatest and most noble tenants of the Christian faith is that of forgiveness. Recently, I was falsely accused of something and forced before a tribunal of sorts. Instead of taking advantage of an opportunity to go after this person in retribution, I have decided to let it go. There is nothing personally to be gained by making a mountain out of this molehill, and "ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them; and ye shall be the means of bringing salvation unto them." If I do something offensive, there will not be contrition later when they realize they were wrong, and then I will be the one who caused the wrong.

People have and probably will continue to wrong me. I could have a little justice now, in which I would be completely justified, or I can take the road less traveled and be noble. Not that I believe that you give a thief a key to the safe or let murderers buy guns in the open, but I know my weaknesses, and so I will forgive others as I hope that Christ will forgive me.

My Blog, My Facebook, My Thoughts

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Quite some time ago, I was struck by the irony of some posts on Facebook. People had joined the United States of America fan page in order to post on the bulletin board about how much they hated the United States of America. You will not see me signed up as a fan of things I do not like. You will not find me reading the New York Times or visiting TheBlaze.com or in possession of Mein Kampf because I do not support the people involved therein or the ideas they present. While I have read books like Rules for Radicals and the Communist Manifesto, you will not see me quoting them in support of my ideas or discussing them excitedly because I disprove of their content and character.

About a year ago when I started posting my own thoughts on my Facebook every other day or so, I started to lose friends. The first of these of whom I was aware continued to post contrary and argumentative comments that bordered on flaming. As moderator, I decided to silence his ability to post to my wall. He eventually left. My facebook, my blog, my website, my journal, etc., are all mine to do with as I wish as long as I am moral, legal, and ethical. I cannot conceive of anything I have written to offend anyone, at least not on purpose, but if I have, let me know and I will be happy to give you satisfaction and make restitution for wrongs, true or imagined, occassioned by the foibles of youth. Don't key my car, block me from messenger, or libel me on the Facebook walls of other friends. I cannot fix a problem if I do not know you are offended.

You have thoughts, ideas, and opinions every day too. Much of what you do is relevant only to the moment or 'shop talk' that isn't easily understood by people in other fields. Occassionally, you may say something that shocks you and share it with someone else who wasn't there. How is what I do any different except that I do it all the time? What people say of your decor (even on blogs and Facebook) tells you more about them than it does about you. I have never tried to offend anyone on purpose. Only people who do not know what they think or want can honestly be affected by what I say. Others will acknowledge it and move along when they finish with anything of value they take from it.

We've all recently been deluged by Harry Potter mania. Who decided that what JK Rowling had to say was any more important than what you have to say? People have paid her franchise $5.5 billion in merchandising for a bit of fiction that isn't really very intellectual or inventive. Someone or some people decided that it was worth reading and sold it to others, and now she has the last laugh, because until this started, she was a british welfare recipient barely eeking out an existence. Moreover, what of Chaucer or Melville or Shakespeare? Who decided that their stuff was good? Shakespeare struggled very hard to sell his plays, and I'm sure people thought he was delusional or arrogant to think he could sell those stories.

If you don’t like what I have to say and think I’m arrogant, why do you read my status updates? I don’t force you to look at my Facebook or read this blog. I do what I do here so that instead of “I feel like fish and chips” or “I am headed to see Harry Potter LXXII” you can read something substantive.

Facism in Harry Potter

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I did eventually go see the new Harry Potter flick, and I noticed something that may have gone completely unobserved by most of the fans. Actually, it's a brilliant imagery when you consider the overtones, but for many of the people who read the novels, facism and especially that under Hitler seems so far away.

From the pins to the leather jackets, the Ministry exemplifies facism as a hint of what life under Voldemort will be like. Even while the new minister of magic speaks of 'temples of tolerance' they practice a policy of anything except that. It is very common for them to do exactly that- to speak of one thing and do the opposite. They also villify and dehumanize the 'mudbloods' and such, with LeStrange (wow, what a fascinatingly inventive name...) going so far as to cut the word into Granger's arm. People are paid to roam about and round up dissidents, the subhuman, etc., paid thugs interested in their own advancement rather than heirarchy.

Like most facist regimes, the people in power are not their for demonstrated skill. They occupy positions because they share ideology with the brain trust. Voldemort puts people in positions based on loyalty and commitment rather than any other skillset, which is why devout punks serve as 'Snatchers' (another inventive name) but Malfoy does nothing, because his faith is in question.

Intrusive searches, inaccurate information, threats of violence and lingering fear rule the atmosphere of the movie. It is really kind of a shame, because this movie upsets the timbre of the series. Sure, there must be a confrontation, but we've now dragged the confrontation out from a few chapters in each book to the entire book and two films based thereon. Furthermore, the conflict resolution is hardly a pacificstic live and let live green theorem. There will be violence, anticlimactic death, and disruption, things for which America is routinely critiqued.

Many of the people who see it will not notice because they are too young to recognize the symbols of Nazi Germany evident in this film. Most of the readers and fans have never met a real SS Officer or been to a death camp. Their only exposure would be from "The Sound of Music" or "Schindler's List", both of which are old enough movies that these kids have probably seen neither.

It was one major thing that stuck out with me. There are signs all around if one only has the eyes to see.

Final Thoughts on Angle

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My grandfather, who lives in UT, reports that he has received phone calls from the Angle for Senate campaign asking him for money with which to help her pay off her campaign debts.

Why would anyone who really believes in conservative government spend money they do not have and then impose upon other people to pay it off?

I do not see this as a conservative principle, and so, while I am disappointed Reid won, I am not disappointed Angle lost. (Wow, there were a lot of negative modifiers in that sentence.) It's not that I celebrate the outcome as much as it is that I feel that Angle was more than she purported herself to be. Responsibility and ethics cannot be gained in Washington; you must bring them with you when you come.

Angle has now demonstrated to me that she got what she deserved.

American Flats, NV

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In all of my travels, I have only broken down twice since I procured the Saturn I drive. One of those places was what I can only assume was a mining complex called American Flats, just SSW of Carson City. It's a kind of eerie place, void of sound and barren. It's one of the places on earth where I felt least at ease and most happy to leave. Of course, it took a tow truck to lift me back up onto the road since the slope was too great for my valiant car to drive back up even though it drove down just fine. Soft silt accumulated at the bank where you have to turn, and I just couldn't make it back up.

Here are some pictures:

Just to the left of this last picture is where the embankment is where I got stuck, FYI.

Mission to Mars

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Proposed settlement of Mars begs a few thoughts, most of which are inchoate, so bear with me today.

I am seriously considering signing up, even though it's almost certainly a death sentence to the first wave.

I am single, and so there is nobody to inconvenience if I go, unlike the Apollo 13 Astronaughts, whose families were extremely distraught during the trip back.

I am a scientist, which means I probably make the short list.

Since men are from Mars, I am a perfect choice.

Mars would be the easiest congressional district to represent given its small population although it would be the most difficult to represent well given the commute.

It would be a chance to boldly go where nobody has gone before, at least to our knowledge.

I can dream I guess, but we'll never see a settlement on Mars in my lifetime. This is a shell game.

RIP Target the Hero Dog

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If you are not familiar with the story of Target, read this story. After saving the lives of troops in Afghanistan, she was accidentally euthanized over the weekend.

This is one of those things that is a heartbreaker, but given how it played out, I can only assume that God needed Target more than anyone here needed her.

Character Matters Most

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When I was young, my grandparents quoted this poem frequently:

My mother says she does not care about the color of my hair;
Nor if my eyes be blue or brown;
Nor if my nose turns up or down--
It really does not matter.
And Mother says she does not care if I am dark or if I'm fair;
Or if I'm thin or if I'm fat;
She does not fret o'er things like that--
It really does not matter.
But if I cheat or tell a lie or say mean things to make folks cry;
Or if I'm rude or impolite and do not try to do the right--
Than that does really matter!
It isn't looks that make one great, it's character that seals your fate;
It's what's within your heart you see
That makes or mars your destiny
And that's what really matters!

I am routinely, as I was today, chastised by people who think my beard is unsightly and a mark of being a bad person. I actually enjoy my annual trip to BYU to see a best of show for Divine Comedy in April because I know that the presence of a bearded man in a leather jacket on the campus upsets the students more than it upsets me to be there. I am comfortable with myself and who I am, and I live a morally clean life full of things that add value to my mind, my community, and my fellow men.

There are a few reasons for which I would shave. Most of the arguments people make do not apply to me. I work in a field that does not require me to be clean shaven as long as I shower, use deodorant, and show up smelling and looking nonoffensive. In fact, I am one of the tidiest male members of the department. As far as I know, since I am single, I am ineligible for many of the stewardships in my Faith which ask or require of the men that they maintain a certain look. It isn't that I disdain the Savior or that I use the fact that he had a beard as an excuse. It's a matter of my character, and if you can't or won't see past the beard to get to know the man I really am, that is really your problem, not mine.

I will confess that I find it strange how young people can go serve missions where they represent Jesus Christ and then immediately grow a beard when they return. My sister has commented on how ironic and sad it is that they seem desperate to catch up on the life they 'missed out on' in their absentia. I am not one of those guys. I shaved regularly if not daily until I was 27. Unlike those who grow them to look mature and have people think they have character, I had character first, and then the beard came later.

The beard is not the man. I am.

Vanity Plates

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I have noticed that many people with 'vanity plates' seem to do stupid things that cause me to pay attention to them. Take, for example, the woman arrested in NH who had her name on her plate, which was sighted as she sped away from a robbery. I know other people speed, cut me off, and commit crimes, but I do find it absolutely fascinating how many people with personalized plates break the law.

Perhaps the answer is in the word 'vanity'. People who are vain usually think they are better. I have already written that it's not necessarily personal that they think they are better than you as much as it is that they think they are more important than your car. Nevermind that you are in your car traveling in a speeding missile parralel to their own trajectory at the moment they decide to cut you off. It costs a great deal to get a vanity plate. In tough economic times, that seems like one of the easiest ways to cut back and save $100 per year or so.

When you do this, it is much easier for me to remember your plate. Even if I don't get what you were trying to say, it's easier than memorizing "CA Plate Victor-Alpha-784-Charlie-Tango" when it says "LVMYWFE". Just a thought, next time you decide to cut me off, slash my tires, or rob a bank that it might be a better idea not to have your name on your car and to take the ski mask out when you get home.

Cuts in Education

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It is now a well-established fact that education in the State of Nevada has taken huge budget cuts as a necessity of the budget malaise. Whenever 'cuts' to education are proposed, the people whine that people will suffer because they will be uneducated and underfunded etc., and yet I see zero stories or studies that show or claim that our students are performing under par or losing out now that fewer funds are available. If as they claim reductions in costs lead to laziness, waste, and stupidity, then the rising generations of Nevada's youth can be expected to make zero contribution since education funding has been cut by 25% or more compared to previous years.

Moreover, people in Las Vegas routinely criticize the Clark County School District for its incompetance and inability to educate. I graduated Valedictorian from a High School in this school district several years ago. Granted, I did not come up through the ranks from the earliest years, but to simply lay the blame at the feet of the school district is a Roorback argument and ipso facto fallacy.

Experience and logic show that throwing money at a thing and hoping blindly for good without metrics for accountability is foolishness. If you have lousy teachers, paying them more or buying them new equipment will not make them better. If you have lousy standards, hiring more administrators will not make the standards better. If the parents do not care or do not have time to support the education of their own children because of economic distress, then paying for classrooms will not help.

I agree that governmental priorities and societal priorities are awack. However, the amount of money spent on them is a poor yardstick when textbooks cost $100 each and staplers $4, but it costs $15 million for an F-15 jet and $1050 for an AR-15 rifle. People routinely criticize the military for buying $300 hammers, and nobody thinks twice when a university buys a refrigerator from ThermoSci for $3000 when they could buy a perfectly comparable one from Home Depot for $800. Education expenses, even when not justified, are acceptable carte blanche, while defense spending is cut and criticized.

Education suffers, not because of money, but because of other resource bottlenecks. Until and unless we find the best people we can for the wage we offer, education will continue to languish. Until and unless we direct most of the funds to the classroom instead of the bureaucracy, the bureaucrats will find ways to spend it before the students see a dime. Until and unless parents are as invested in the education of their children as they are in the stock market, stock car racing, livestock, and living room sets, the children will not perform to potential. Until and unless we hold people accountable to teach by the way, we will continue to fall by the wayside in the global market.

Like most federal agencies, the Department of Education is a misnomer. Nobody is educated by the DoEd. None of its employees, to my knowledge anyway, teach, even in an adjunct capacity. We got along just fine until 1979 without it, and since its inception, our children have grown increasingly lazy, stupid, and wasteful. Coincidence? I think otherwise.

Where's My Flag?

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Last Wednesday, I moved, and so naturally I had no idea where some things ended up. It was Friday before I found my drill so I could hang blinds and pictures and adjust the stupid door that doesn't shut right, and I just yesterday found the rest of my silverware so I could eat. This morning, it took me four hours to find the bracket so I could hang my flag outside.

I was the only one I could see in the neighborhood who did so. Then again, I am also the only single male in the neighborhood, and so it might stand to reason that families have other things going on. For me, it was a priority.

When I was 15, my parents contacted my Senator and asked him to fly a flag over the US Capitol in commemoration of my Eagle Scout. I still have that flag. It is actually of really high quality and has withstood many years of service. Granted, I have often opted to hang a cheaper one outside where the elements may attack it, but it meant a lot for me to find this particular flag this morning.

My family has a legacy of service. We have several living combat veterans in the family. The flag is a rally point, a place to look for reassurance and orders, to know where you stand. I am glad I was able to get it put up today before I left to run errands.

Thank God for all those men and women who have been willing to die rather than submit to tyranny.

Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God. --Benjamin Franklin

Start Googling

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People often ask, "What should I do?" when they have a problem. I remember that I spent hours after hours helping these two students, a couple who were dating, when I was a graduate teaching assistant. Eventually, I exhausted all of my resources, and they exhausted my patience. If I'm doing more than 50% of the work, I'm doing too much to help you.

If you want to do something, start doing something. I am not a fan of Google or Wikipedia, but at least start. I am not your paralegal, your bishop, your parent, your boyfriend, your husband, your personal tutor, or your god. People make time for the things and people that matter to them. Prove to me that it matters to you, or it does not matter to me.

Moreover, if I don't get to share in the rewards, why should I share in the efforts? If it's not my vision, why do I have to do the work? Now, I know that there are less fun things to do enroute to the thing that you choose sometimes, but I am also mature enough to recognize them as part of the package.

The first step on any journey is to take the first step. In this day and age, there is no excuse for doing nothing. Do your own homework; that's always good advice.

Strange and Strangers

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While I was in college, I showed up for work one morning very early, dressed as I normally am. A younger lady, student worker on the softball team, who came dressed for practice turned and looked at me and said, "How cute! You tuck in your shirt and wear a belt and everything." Apparently, that's not normal. I'm ok with that.

People who know me routinely praise me for sundry details of my character. I have good habits and good routines that make me who I am. When they do so, I remind them that I am an ordinary man, that I do nothing special. I do what I should.

However, in the last ten years, I have seen an explosion in the frequency of people who want to be recognized. No matter what people say, what they really want is attention. Thus birthed the reality shows like Survivor and the Bachelor and American Idol, juxtaposed across from Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger. Everyone wants to be noticed, and some people, like in the Duke Lacrosse case, will do anything, including lie.

You will note if you look at my Facebook, that I reveal very little about myself. The Department of Homeland Security has repeatedly warned against giving out information over the internet, especially to complete strangers. People can say anything they want on the internet, like this fellow I happen to know. Pay attention to his education and activities in his profile. Yet, some people reveal anything and everything to Google or people who scroll the internet in search of identities to steal.

Most people really just want someone to pay attention to them. You see it with children at the grocer, in the park, on TV, in the classroom, in meetings, etc. People vie for attention, and if they don't get enough, there is no payout. What makes them think they deserve attention? Frank Lunz presents at the end of his book What Americans Really Want, Really, a series of surveys he conducted in the population. What struck me most is that when asked most people think they're above average, in intelligence, in looks, in their need of public assistance, in their influence among their peers, etc.

Most people think they are unique, which cannot possibly be true. That is why they think they deserve our attention. Chances are someone else somewhere has written about this same topic on a blog, however articulate comparable to me the article may be. I am not the only person to say and do these things, even if I am the first. CS Lewis explains the truth of human value in the Screwtape Letters thusly:

[God] wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the, fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. [God] wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents—or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things.

We are glorious and excellent, but not because of what we do. We are great because of who we are.

We are often told to trust in the educated and in those who profess the blood of nobility. They often have no credentials to support their claims of superiority, and patens of nobility are easily forged, and so why should we surrender to their claims? Like Sir Thomas More told the Duke of York, if the world were flat, the command of the king could not render it round, and therefore he refused to sign and died for his beliefs. Most people want to think they are important, and while they are philosophically, they are, quite frankly, in the grand scheme, completely irrelevant. Ask an astronaut if he can tell they exist from orbit. Now ask God why he cares about us from his vantage point.

Who are you? Do you know who you are? Are you a stranger to yourself? What about that woman at the checkout or the security guard in the hall? Who are they? They are glorious and excellent people too, even though they seem strange to us perhaps. The poet wrote that strangers are nothing more than friends you have not yet met. While I appreciate the poetry, I do not think I will be 'friends' with everyone I might ever meet. If you read my blog, you know Harry Reid and I are barely even acquaintances, and I am not sure I'd be friends with Heinrich Himmler, Henry VIII, or any random resident of Sodom.

What I do believe is that strangers are people we have not yet met. They are strange because we know only that about them what others tell us or that we can observe in a brief window of time during which they expose some small part of themself to us.

In the Arbinger Institute's book Leadership and Self-deception, the authors explain that we put people into the box when we stop treating them like people. We mistreat others when we stop thinking of them as glorious and wondrous beings. At the time of their birth, people coo and aww over babies as they have for all of recorded time. The babies grow into adults and then we judge them. Again, I turn to Screwtape because we participate in this campaign:

Fix in his mind the idea that humility consists in trying to believe those talents to be less valuable than he believes them to be. No doubt they are in fact less valuable than he believes, but that is not the point. The great thing is to make him value an opinion for some quality other than truth, thus introducing an element of dishonesty and make-believe into the heart of what otherwise threatens to become a virtue. By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools. And since what they are trying to believe may, in some cases, be manifest nonsense, they cannot succeed in believing it and we have the chance of keeping their minds endlessly revolving on themselves in an effort to achieve the impossible.

By the same token, we can be made to justify ill behavior by convincing ourselves that other people are less valuable than we believe or that there is value in fase modesty, false humility, false piety, and, most of all, false joy.

I remember well the last time I ever went Toilet Papering. Being in my youth, I went along for company and shared enjoyment, but it was anything but. See, I knew the man who owned the house and admired him, and as I knew it would fall to him to clean up our mess, I returned to his home the next morning (he was only a few blocks from my house) and offered my services to help him clean up the mess. I never confessed that I had a hand in it, but I wanted to make it right. The man was not our intended target. The man was a man, and I could not dishonor him by allowing that to be. As a consequence, I have avoided company since then that insisted that such things were 'fun'.

We are able to commit crimes against other people only when we dehumanize them. Think of the guy who cuts you off on the freeway. He doesn't know you; he sees your car. He doesn't know your face, your race, your age or wage, or any other demographical information. All he knows is that there is another car where he wishes to be, and that he, as a human, is far more important than a car. It is easy for people to abuse inanimate objects, and however rightly so that may be, we often forget that at the end or inside of those objects there is another human being. You think nothing of pocketing a $20 you find on the street. What if you knew, without a doubt, to whom it belonged, and that person was a near and dear friend, or moreover if that specie were attached to a line connected to the owner's pocket? Robbers who steal break into houses; they do not think they are breaking into homes. They care little for the sanctity of the refuge. They do not break through our grip or slip past us at the door. They break doors and windows, often when we are not home, and so they can justify their intrusion because it didn't directly affect a person. Even if they mug you, they take your wallet, not you. So it's ok.

Such is the philosophy of genocide. They do everything they can to dehumanize the targets of their violent aggressions. Look at the cartoons of Jews, who are depicted as goblins, buzzards, and wine-bibbers, for these depictions were the only way to encourage a nation to villify and erradicate an entire race of people, because man can only act inhumane towards that which we do not consider human.

We focus too much on what separates us and not enough on what binds us together. I saw this video of a trip into the upper Trophosphere in a U2 spyplane. While I disagree with the narrator's conclusion that if we could all do this, we would all end war and poverty and all that, I do think it gives men perspective that cannot be found in any other way.

We emphasize our differences over our commonalities to the detriment of civil society. Uniqueness isolates and makes strangers, who are really nothing more than people you don't really know. In the end, we have far more in common than we have that is truly unique. Our enemies want us divided. If we think we're alone, then we make much less of a threat. Perhaps that's why Jesus encouraged us to look out for, befriend, and welcome the strangers at our gates. Who knows when we might entertain, assist, befriend, or simply smile at our Creator?

Viced to Sell

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I was in Home Depot last week and saw a display for incandescent bulbs that says "stock up while you can". I looked at the packages, and they are made by Philips, which is a Dutch company, not GE, which is our domestic supplier that has decided to stop making them. Is it ok for Holland to destroy the planet or is this just a way to eliminate another piece of the American industrial complex?

I find this very odd. It sounds like an example of viced to sell, where one company leverages on our fears of an evil to stock up, like happens to cigarettes just before a tax raise on them goes into effect. There is a brief peak in sales, and the Dutch, not Americans, are able to capitalize on this.

Who is shipping American jobs overseas then? If these bulbs continue to be available in America after our domestic supply runs out, then I contend that we have cut the GE factory workers loose and sent their jobs overseas in order to comply with environmental regulations. You don't see China worried about the environment, as its industrial juggernaut rolls forward to consume all raw materials it can manage to procure. America is the one that shoots itself in the foot.

I bought three boxes.

This is why I support the Philips Corporation, regardless of their national origins. From the Philips Corporation's Website, translated into English:

During the occupation of the Netherlands by the Nazis, Fritz remained in the Netherlands to continue managing the Philips Corporation. From May 30 until September 20, 1943, he was held in the Vught SS Work Camp after there was a strike in the factory, which was primarily worked by Jews, whom Fritz brought there by telling the Nazi overseers that they were indispensible to the production process at his plant. He saved at least 382 Jews and was awarded the Yad Vashem award in 1996 by the Israeli ambassador to Holland for his actions.

Guy Fawkes

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On a fall evening in November, a single, solitary figure stole surreptitiously into the underbelly of Britain's Parliament building. His goal- the complete destruction via an explosion of House of Lords, at which King James I was scheduled to appear. He loathed the protestant monarch, and although his motivation was primarily religious, he has become a symbol for those who endorse religious liberty.

During the Elizabethan era, there was great upheaval over the subject of religion. Whereas England had been loyally Catholic until the reign of Henry VIII, the Anglican Church had replaced it as equally tyrannical. As the Catholics had slaughtered Lutherans in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Protestants returned tit for tat to the Catholics in England, including Mary, Queen of Scots, who was James I of England's mother. Fawkes might have seen James' religion as a repudiation of his mother and as a betrayal to the commandment to honor his parents. What was clear to the conspirators however was that James intended to have even harsher anti-Catholic laws than his predecessors.

Why do I care about Guy Fawkes? I lived in Great Britain for about two years when I was many years younger, and I remember the festivities of the time. Moreso, however, for me Fawkes represents the struggle that eventually brought my ancestors from England to the Americas. The Anglican Protestants continued to oppress other ideas, as vehemently as the Catholics had before them during the English Civil War, and the Huguenots, Puritans, Pilgrims, and many others like them eventually fled England for religious liberty in the New World.

This summer, I was unfriended by a close and dear friend because of my religious beliefs. For much of my life, I have been ostracized when not mocked or persecuted because my Faith differs from that of my fellows. Fawkes for me symbolizes the concept that Truth and Freedom are more than words; they are perspectives. My ancestors, living and dead, have fought and bled for the freedom to worship the Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience. As our government and some of our citizens campaign to restrict Christianity in any form or name, I remember Fawkes, who feared more egregious anti-Catholic sentiment, verily established by the State.

Tonight, I will burn a small marshmallow effigy of Fawkes, an ephemeral torch to the memory of a man who saw any restriction on or establishment of any Faith as the greatest offense to faith.

Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder, Treason, and Plot.
I know of no Reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be Forgot.

Why I Don't Use Google

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Google has become the standard for many things in the technological age. People swear by it. They share documents and experiences and rely on it to give them accurate, useful, and reliable information. However, Google is a business like others, and in addition to their attempts to shelter their earnings offshore and avoid US Income Tax, there are a few people there who provide information that is of dubious value.

About a year ago, a friend of mine who is from Hawai'i pointed out that Google Maps directions from Las Vegas to his home in Hawai'i was neither logical nor helpful. Below you see a screenshot showing how to get from Vegas to Honolulu. Pay attention to step #26:



After 2756 miles, my arms would be VERY tired. Also, who was the last person who tried to Kayak across the Pacific Ocean? There are a lot of assumptions in this. What about rations? Water? Waste? Ocean Traffic? Do you have a permit?

Someone at Google needs a CAT Scan.

People Seek Attention

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Facebook, American Idol and other reality programs, and miscreant behavior from sea to shining sea point at one thing. People seek attention. Some people will tell you that they do what they do to be happy, but what they really do is act in such a way so as to draw attention to themselves. It's the primary reason for misbehavior and for relationships. People want someone who will pay attention to them.

I know very few people who are as adept at keeping the focus on others in a conversation as I. Several of my Facebook friends know absolutely nothing about me at all, because when we chat, they never ask me any questions about themselves. People prefer to pontificate on their own problems, status, hopes and dreams. Perhaps you have noticed that you may say something, and then they have a similar story. Sometimes that's to show empathy. Other times, it's a form of one-upmanship, where they try to get ahead of you and say they've had worse. They turn the conversation to themselves whenever they can and rarely ask you about yourself.

When people ask me how I am, I often use words that don't exist to see if people are listening. "Splendiferous" or "wellish" are my two most common quips, but people who are self-centered skip over them both and hurry into how they are, even sometimes when I have not yet asked or do not intend to ask.

In making these observations, I have come to the conclusion that this is why so many people are in relationships who seem ill suited. They found someone who will give them attention. Naturally, logical fallacy follows that since this person pays attention this person would make a great mate. That works as long as the other person doesn't need someone else's attention or help.

Everyone needs attention. Babies cannot act for themselves. Children often feel forsaken by parents who are distracted by worries at work or with money or health. Teenagers are beset by hormones. Adults like to feel like they have accomplished something. Much misbehavior and misanthropic behavior stems, I think, from the need of all of these groups to be noticed, to get attention, to have someone look. Even bad attention seems preferable to complete anonymity, especially where positive attention and affection immediately follows, as with parents to their children.

Why else do so many people post anything and everything about themselves for all to see on the internet? Everyone is after their fifteen minutes of fame, to feel like they mattered, and to have other people notice them. It's why we dress up, use makeup, drive Jaguars and wear amiga watches, so that other people will notice us. The same is true in the animal kingdom; I remember well the Peacocks at Mt. Vernon, descendents of those raised by George Washington perhaps, who compete with their plumage for mates. Spies try to blend in; everyone else seems desperate to stand out above the crowd, no matter what antics it requires.

People make choices allegedly because those things make them happy. The attention they get from those choices is what makes them happy, not the activities themselves. People like me don't usually like big groups or parties and the like because those kinds of places don't make us happy. I much prefer to sit with a handful of students on a Saturday afternoon in a lab and discuss Punnett Squares or allelic inheritance. They pay attention to me, and I feel needed, appreciated, and noticed, which contributes to my happiness.

Life, however, is like racquetball: you win when you serve. James, in his general epistle to the Christians, said that "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world". When you go out and give people attention who go unnoticed, who are lonely, who are stranded by the roadside, bereft of food or clothing, that is when the People who Matter pay attention to you. When the Divine smiles upon you and pays attention, that is when you are really happy, and that is why service elevates and uplifts the soul.

What will you do? Whom would you prefer to pay attention to you? You can choose that, and it will make the difference for you as it does for me.

Election 2010

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How in Hawthorne did Harry win? The most unpopular Senator EVER won because the Republicans couldn't field an opponent against him who could communicate with people at sidewalk level. Sure, Angle lives in a small home, but she refuses to answer questions carte blanch. I heard commentators refer to her as polished and articulate, but in many instances, she was a bumbling mush mouth. I am not sure that she believed in what she said, and she certainly couldn't sell it to us. Reid, however, is a True Believer, and that may yet mar all.

Harry could only win when he cheated. I know a woman who told me that her ballot was indeed marked for Harry Reid. Her husbands was not, but hers was. It makes me wonder, even if it was random, how many of Reid's votes were against the will of the voters or unbeknownst to them. It is theoretically possible to program the EDGE machine to record a vote for Harry no matter whom you selected on the screen.

I will always remember how Reid treats and thinks of me. When I went to DC, I wanted to go to the Capitol so I could be one of those 'smelly tourists' he so despises. Somewhere in my possession, I have a letter from Harry that says in essence, "You're a moron, so shut up and stop writing me". He claims he saved my job. I don't think so. Nevada is still dead last in the positive indicators and first in foreclosure, unemployment, etc. He's done a great job. "This war is lost."

There are advantages to having Harry as the face of the Senate going forward to 2012. As long as Reid is there, Yucca Mountain is probably postponed. When he dies or loses, the protections he negotiated will collapse, but for now, they remain. He's also one of the most presumptuous men I have ever seen or heard, and most people I know don't think very highly of him. It means he can still be defeated gloriously, perhaps by someone better than Angle. Plus, now Obama cannot claim that the Republicans are responsible completely in 2012, because they didn't sweep the Senate.

Some say this will be Reid's last term. I disagree. With his reelection, he will claim that he has 'defeated conservatives' and take it as not only a tolerance of his policy but as license to continue in the way he has, ignoring his constituents and giving them the finger if they disagree. Harry Reid will die in office. Whether he dies of old age or God comes to claim him, this man believes he is a superhero. Remember that he saved the world from depression. Perhaps Pfizer or Merck or GSK should make an antidepressant and call it Riederol.

Pre Election Thoughts

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Since the election is tomorrow and since the powers that be do the same things every time, I thought it prescient to post a few tips for those headed to the polls in the morning.

Ignore the exit polls. Go vote your conscience. Pollsters right now are absolutely drooling to talk to me as a registered Democrat. Back in 2008, you may remember a pollster hung up on me when I told her I would vote for Obama only if God himself appeared to me and personally commanded me to do so. The polls in the last few weeks are designed to disspirit voters.

Ignore the last minute stories. I generally ignore everything that comes up in October (the October surprise) because I don't have time to investigate it before I vote. Were the things they allege really true, they would publish them as soon as they know them and not wait until last minute to sway you. Sad to say, I have previously been caught in this.

Stick to your first gut choice. Students in classes with me made most of their mistakes when they second guessed themselves. Smart people think too much. Stick to your gut no matter how many 30 second blurbs you hear.

If you are accused of something, cowardice, racism, etc., by people who don't know you, ignore them. They have been told what to say to heckle, harass, daunt, and disspirit their opponents. Evil men only win when they cheat. Like Edmund Burke is quoted as saying, "All that is necessary for the success of evil is for good men to do nothing." They win if you stay home.

Predictions are designed in the 11th hour to make a win seem like a loss. The media wants you to think that anything less than a grand slam by the Conservatives is a loss. If you don't win every election, you lost and the Tea Party Movement was ineffective. It is not about for them whether or not you won; it is about whether they lose. It is an attempt to shape events. Most of the nation is conservative. Most of the ruling class is elitist.

If you like the way things are, vote Democrat. No matter how they dress it, Democrats have controlled the legislature since 2006 even though Bush was president. Obama voted against only one increase in spending and one tax hike. Vote for people or moral character. You know what your state needs. Vote for someone who agrees. Obama presides over a nation in decline. If he and his supporters thought this was a great nation, they would laud and applaud you.

Go vote. Uninformed opinion is invalid until those people show up to vote. You must come counter them with your own. Beyond the fraud, there is great danger in the ignorance and indifference of a significant fraction of the populace that doesn't care as long as they have their daily bread. As Dick Cheney said as Secretary of Defense in 1991, "It is easy to take your liberty for granted when it has never been taken from you" and as Thomas Paine wrote, "That which we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly." Go vote. It really is the least you can do.