Myth of Equality

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Yesterday I felt a bit guilty because I had a good week and others faced trials. Yes, I had two exciting and dangerous days, but all in all things have been really well. I even went kayaking safely for the first time and was able to run a 10K this morning without any hiccups. Life is good, but societal pressures make me feel like it's not ok to celebrate good news.

As I opined this with a close friend who is sick, she told me it was ok to be happy, because she's happy I had a good week. I'm not going to go get myself sick to bring myself down. That doesn't help either of us. How can one man be caregiver if both are sick? Yet that seems to be exactly what people propose when it comes to economic duress. In their quest for the supposedly desirable notion of 'equality', they attempt to bring those who are successful down. How does that help the people who are economically sick to spread around the infection? Making everyone sick doesn't make anyone healthy any more than making everyone poor makes anyone rich

Equality is secretly code for a campaign for larger government. In order for there to be true equality, someone must define it and enforce it. Government is the only thing large enough and powerful enough to do that besides an internal conscience, and most people will admit that morality holds far too little power to accomplish this. What those who tout equaility really want is that you become dependent on government. Thomas Paine reminds us that "this therefore is the origin and rise of government, namely a mode made necessary by the inability of moral virtue to govern the world (Common Sense, pg 3)."

How else can one explain the celebration over welfare programs? We now have 47 million Americans on food stamps, as if 47 million among us would starve if not for that assistance. We now have 47% of the population who pay no income taxes. They are takers. These programs are clothed in odd old elements stolen forth from holy write to make the administrators thereof seem saints when most they play the devil. They claim to help the poor, but they keep men poor.

For example, this morning the radio reported that the RTC in Vegas reports a fare increase, which will hurt the poor. Rich people dont' ride the bus, particularly after some yahoo smashed into a bus stop while intoxicated at 100mph and killed several people including one of his own passengers. They want us out of our cars where they can control us. My car, ugly and old as it is, is freedom. The RTC monthly pass costs just over $1/day. Sure, it costs me $4/day in gas for work, but I am free to do a lot of other things. I can get up and work out, read scriptures, drive to work, run errands enroute or on the way home, go out for lunch, work a second job after work, etc. The extra money I pay is for the convenience to do what I want on my own terms. Government wants to set the terms.

This is even why they attack religion. You see, "there is God and there is government; God is greater than government, and government doesn't like that (Inga Barks)". As long as God sets the terms and dishes out the rights, there is something more powerful than they are. They seek power. It's very Luthorian of them to think they can partner with General Zod and not also be ruled by him. It's acceptable to mock Mormons but not Muslims, and that's because Mormons won't pull people's arms out of their sockets if they don't get fair treatment. You don't see Mormons tearing down flags and killing ambassadors because of a Broadway mockumentary on the Book of Mormon. That's the 'religion of peace' that responds to a film.

Most of the politicians who promise equality do not mean prosperity. There is only one way to guarantee equality- to make all men miserable. That's where they are headed. Who is better off than four years ago? Barack Obama is. He got is. To hell with you, which is exactly what they propose to build here. They ignore the fallacy of trying to make on earth, which is fallen, the utopia that heaven alone can sustain.

Superman- a Metaphor?

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With great celebration and a small hiccup, I procured the first Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve last week. As I watched them, I started to see things in the movies that made me wonder if the script writer intended the movie to be a metaphor. Even if he didn't, the original superman can be taken as an extension of American culture and faith.

Begin with the planet Krypton. It orbits a distant sun, peopled by a race of advanced humans who have managed to make peace and work without money. They have few criminals, and those few that rise are imprisoned in the Phantom Zone, doomed to wander the universe unless freed by a nuclear explosion. They are scientists. They live with crystals under their feet. They have great strength, wisdom, and power, attenuated on Krypton by the radiation of their red supergiant star.

The names are symbolic. I do not know if they translate, but Kal-el, and Jor-el sound Hebrew to me, and "el" in Hebrew is an allusion to God. They are certainly, compared to the people of earth, what we might consider gods in 1950, people who can fly, fry, run, lift anything, and cannot be killed by anything on earth. In fact, Superman's only weakness is something that is not of our world that a man manages to get. He is weak and almost dies in essence because a man is allowed to have power over him. That man also does not, just as satan is dependent on God's will, ultimately have power to destroy Superman or kill anyone on earth.

Superman's mission resembles that of the Christ. He came from a distant star, learns lessons from his father, and goes about doing good, or in his words, "Fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way". This he does without payment or scrip, without any place to lay his head. He doesn't seem to take advantage of mortals, until he becomes one of them by surrendering his powers in that special chamber in Superman II. He fights overwhelming odds. He fights battles humans cannot win. He even brings people back from death. This he does for us, even when men revile him and persecute him and cast him out. He doeth in secret so that his father will reward him openly.

I know it's not perfect, but it made me think. When I think about the measurements given me in scripture to judge the value of a thing, Superman with Mr. Reeve exceeds most of the media's quesquilia. It led me to think about Christ, and so I conclude it might be sent forth by the spirit and power of Christ.

Reeve is no longer with us. I suspect most of the people intimately involved in the plot are gone too. I wonder if they did it on purpose or if it is a happy accident of a mind prone to inquiry beyond the action scenes. Consider what superman means to you. For me his worth has grown, like his power, to be out of this world.

QE3 Bad For You and Me

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The market is all atwitter today that Ben Bernanke issued another round of Quantitative Easing. However, that means bad things to you and me. It means two things and two things only: the FED will print money (they talk about taking money from our reserves, but we have none because we're in debt), and they will buy mortgages. Big woop. That will not create jobs. It will affect you and me in very small ways, mostly negative.

Unless you are buying "mortgage backed securities", you won't see any positive changes from this. THe FED will buy mortgages from banks and then sell that to investors, but chances are you're not much of an investor, and even if you were, you probably wouldn't buy these. They are "toxic" bonds like those that precipitated the Panic of 2009. If you're a homeowner, it will change to whom you pay your mortgage, but chances are the FED already owns your loan. They bought mine six months after I bought my house, which I found odd since I bought my house from Freddy Mac in the first place. In essence, I bought it from them, and they bought my note from my bank, so now they own the note again. Seems fishy.

Meanwhile, most regular folks will see the negative side of this. Eventually, inflation will expand beyond the gas and food sector which is bad enough, and in an economy bereft of job creation, raises, and promotions, we will pay more for the same but have less with which to do it. Pretty soon, you'll have to earn $250,000/year just to pass the poverty line!

Far too many people equate doing something with accomplishing something. Although you must do something in order to accomplish something, we all know about busy work. In fact, this morning an old friend of mine asked me if I require my students to turn in their lecture notes. Why would I want to read 30 copies of the same thing I originally said? Sounds like busy work to me, something that they do to keep us busy but not with any particular objective in mind.

Bernanke's choice and the market's reaction indicates that the financial sector is wrought with panic. The market has risen, not because we created wealth and the companies are worth more, but because the dollars in which they are valued are worth less. Another crash is coming, but some people insist, like former Senator Ensign told me once in a letter that "to do the wrong thing is better than to do nothing". QE3 is artificial, ineffective, and contrary to Romney's request. It smacks of insanity, because they are doing for the third time something that did not work twice before.

That's the attitude of the Obama administration. they never acknowledge that they are wrong; they just insist it hasn't been done enough or for enough time or whatever. More dollars are not more wealth; companies do not exist to provide jobs; QE3 will not help the 'middle class'. This is done to help rich people, investors, the people who know how to buy "mortgage backed securities" without getting hurt. I don't see how it's good for you and me. If Obama gets reelected, that might prove good for him, but I'm not convinced that Obama has done anything good for you and me either.

Do me a favor, Mr President, and don't do me any favors.

In the Hand of God

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For two reasons, this theme crosses my mind today. First of all, I was spared from a tragic and perhaps fatal crash last night on the way home. Secondly, as we rely on gods of steel and stone to protect us, I am reminded that prevention of another 9/11 attack relies more on repentance than on technology. Know ye not that ye are in the hand of God and that at His word the earth shall be rolled together as a scroll?

Last night while driving home from lecture, I was already kind of tired. I had the radio on to keep me awake and the window down for the same reason. As a semi truck approached me from the rear to pass in the fast lane, I registered a strange noise. For some reason, I have paid attention to noises made by wheels lately, probably because it was two years ago that I had a blowout and wrecked. I felt like I should look at his wheel well, and when I did, I saw that it was already full of rubber as his tread was probably separating. Right then, I felt impressed to slow down and pull over to put plenty of space between me and the truck. I did so, and as I reached the right shoulder, the truck's tire blew out and flew across the freeway in front of me, striking a road construction barrel with such force that the barrel flew over the edge of the freeway into the neighborhood below. Rubber shrapnel flew everywhere as the truck jack knifed across the lanes of traffic and the truck careened to the right, where I would have been if I'd kept up my speed. If I had been there, he would probably have crushed or flipped my Saturn.

Some of the comments were interesting. People observed that I "must have said my prayers that morning", and in the moment right following the blowout, I tried to pray as I continued on home, but all I could say was thanks. Aside from being stiff this morning from being on edge or in shock, I seem to have escaped unscathed. I don't really consider myself all that special, but it seems important to the universe that I not only survive but survive without any harm. I feel very unworthy of this blessing, not because I am wicked per se, but more because I feel rather insignificant.

As we commemorate the 11th year since the 9/11 attack, many people talk about the use of force to protect Americans. I maintain that the best protection we can procure is the intervention of the Almighty. If we desire His assistance, protection, and intervention on our behalf, now is the time to repent so that, when we need it, His Spirit CAN be with us. To illustrate this, I quote General George Washington from his farewell address to the army:

A contemplation of the complete attainment, at a period earlier than could be expected, of the objects for which we contended against so formidable a power, cannot but inspire us with astonishment and gratitude. The disadvantageous circumstances on our part under which the war was undertaken can never be forgotten. The singular interpositions of Providence in our feeble condition were such as could scarcely escape the attention of the most unobserving; while the unparalleled perseverance of the armies of the united States through almost every possible suffering and discouragement for the space of eight years was little short of a standing miracle.

I think sometimes about why the United States actually emerged victorious and free. I cannot speak to the actual state of grace of the people at the time, but I can say that more of them were talking of Christ and trying to stand in holy places.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the citizenry did too. It was suddenly not only acceptable but fashionable to pray, to ascribe blessings to God, and for the President to reference His interpositions. Today, we labor under a president about whom the following can better be said that "There is God and there is government. God is greater than government and government doesn't like that (Inga Barks)." For our current crop of leaders, they desire government to be the ultimate source of everything. The ax boasteth itself against him who heweth therewith.

We are protected and safe today in spite of President Obama. He had to be persuaded to move forward with the Bin Laden mission. He has not removed our troops from combat or closed Gitmo. I am confident that today, as then, the singular interpositions of Providence keep us safe. As soon as we cast out the righteous from among us, as happened betimes in Sodom and Gamorrah, we will be ripe for destruction. We are safe and free and happy and prosperous still today at least to some degree because we are in the hand of God. He holds us up. He upholds us. If we spurn that, we have no promise.

If America desires to continue or increase in goodness, she must repent. Her people must change their hearts, change their directions, change their directions, and become better people. We must ask God to forgive us, ask our neighbors to forgive us and then seek to make it right. I looked up in my copy of the Royal Standard English Dictionary (1756), and "penitence" meant "willingness to make atonement" or willingness to make things right. Only the penitant man shall pass. Only the penitant man shall persist. Those are the ones God keeps in His hand, protected from dangers and elevated to life and salvation. Today I thank God that I was preserved by the power of His matchless hand. I do not know why. I shall endeavor to be worthy of it.

"Free" Healthcare

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A woman I know who is living in the USA on a student visa, finally managed to get pregnant this year after many years of trying. She was dismayed to discover when she went in for whatever medical preparation is involved that under Obamacare it's not only more complicated but more expensive. I'm surprised that it wasn't free, and so was she.

Everyone has probably heard the adage that "there's no such thing as a free lunch". Most have heard and parrot, particularly when I do something foolish, that "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". However, that is precisely the logic at work here- you will get the best medical care possible at absolutely no cost ever! Quite frankly I don't understand how anyone who bought into Obama's lies can consider themselves a rational individual.

Once upon a time, we knew that the snake oil salesmen sold at best a placebo. Sometimes they worked because we wanted them too. Mostly, they were inert and sometimes they were harmful. Usually, those traveling salesmen, promising to cure our biols or form our kids into a boys band, were run out of town on a rail. Now, not only do we elect them to government office, but we give them our money in perpetuity. They don't even have to sell anything. They just have to promise that they'll eventually bring us the magic pill via the Wells Fargo Wagon.

There are no magic pills, easy solutions, or free lunches. Somewhere, somehow, someone pays, and it's probably going to be you. I find it somewhat laughable that people who criticize me for being taken in and chasing bad money with good insist on doing the same thing. The difference is that too often they're doing it with MY money, and so it doesn't cost them much, so they have nothing to lose.

Truth be told, Obama and his closest advisers, even if they believe what they do will work, purposely intend to destroy what is. Capitalism, freedom, property, and free thought are the enemy. They are perfect in their own minds, and they know best. I train hopeful healthcare professionals, but even most of them are humble enough to not try to diagnose me. I am not a medical professional, and so when they ask my advice, I tell them what questions to ask their physicians. I don't have all the answers; I just know where to look.

At some point, it becomes an issue of semantics. Free to whom? We too infrequently bother to ask them what they mean. We just assume, as they hope we will, that they mean the word the same way we do. Rather than inquiring, we just hope they mean what we hope they mean, but they rarely provide details or specifics so that they can be vague. This allows them to take credit for what works and ascribe blame elsewhere for what fails. It's diabolical.

Like the Sophists, these demagogues should be condemned in our day. They try, in their sophistry, to cure people against their will. For them, all truth is relative. They even take money. That's not what Plato described in The Republic. They are not guardians of society. They are guardians of themselves. They cannot care about people they do not know. It's largely imagined, but they covet what you have. As I have previously written, their pride drives them to be concerned, not with how much swag is in their hold, but that you have some in yours. They are not their to give; they come to take. According to the liberals, you will always have too much freedom and too much money until you have none at all of either.

Free healthcare is too good to be true. I suggest you treat it with a skeptical eye. At least ask for details. They like to cast a broad vision for the future without any plan to actualize it. That's an emotional technique, and when you get emotional you almost always pay the price. Mark my words, the promises of the liberal demagogue will cost you more than you could ever gain. The difference is in what we value.

Refining the Soul

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Sundays are often difficult for me. My beliefs and faith matter a great deal to me, and sometimes I feel like the people with whom I worship and about whom I care the most don't seem interested in faith or the Faith. Sometimes, I go to bed more tired after the Day of Rest than I was when I awoke, but then again, it doesn't mean that kind of rest. In fact, the Day of Rest was originally one day a week God gave man in order to encourage man to spend it getting closer to God, and at least Sundays accomplish that for me.

I do not know if I would think about the Savior as much if not for the congregation I attend. They seem so much more interested in going through the motions than anything else and strike me as the people CS Lewis mentions who "do not desire true nakedness in prayer". When I relate the scriptures to us and point out how we are repeating their mistakes, the parishoners rationalize that, although we might make the same mistakes, "at least we're not making them as often". Excuse me! Being less bad doesn't make you good, and it certainly doesn't make you any better to admit you are bad and justify it because you're not sinning as badly or in the same way. Perhaps this is the process and place God has chosen in which to refine my soul.

Years ago, I worked briefly in a refinery not far from where I live now. This company smelters titanium from rocks into ingots which it then sells to companies that mostly make airplane parts from it. We've all heard of the refiner's fire, and this company uses a very hot fire, but more than that, it also uses acid during the refining process to burn out other impurities that do not come out in fire. Making a titanium ingot is expensive and difficult, and I have seen the rejects- they're very "colorful", much like unrefined people, laced with metals of other elemental makeup that would weaken the titanium.

As I considered the refining process, I realized how much I know about this from other pursuits. In graduate school, we cared for a vineyard on which we depended for our data. Every year, we would prune the plants, dig up and around their roots, hack them back to nothing, and dung them. Honestly, this looks barbaric. We really tortured these grape vines, and yet, reliably they grew back every year, stronger, with better fruit in greater quantity. Some of them died, but the ones that survived the refining process grew stronger and better, and I know that's how it works.

God allows trials to come upon us because they refine our soul. If we respond correctly, penitently, and submit to the will of the Master by turning to Him as our Lord and Savior, we can grow back stronger and more fruitful. He's less concerned with our wardrobe or our vocabulary or our vocation because He cares more about what we are than what we do. He is looking to make us useful, like the titanium ingots or the grapevines, and so the impurities must be removed, the stalks made stronger. To make steel strong, the metal must be beaten and heated repeatedly.

Following Christ becomes then a great paradox. Rather than finding a life of ignoble ease and rainbows and butterflies, the path of discipleship is wrought with perils and pitfalls. The road is rough, not because God doesn't want us to make it up the path, but because the path makes us into what He intends us to become. The difficulty of the path reminds us that we are dependent on God for all that we have and are, and that all of us need a Savior to carry us ultimately to paths that we do not know and of which we are not ourselves capable, no matter our talents or tenacity. The path is not there to perfect us; the commandments remind us of our need for a Savior, and when we turn to Him, He makes weak things strong in us because He is in us. It's tough to follow Christ because the path to become like Christ exists to make us tough.

Ultimately, some of the worst experiences of my life have been the best things that happened to me. Fortunately for me and with gratitude to God, they turned me to Christ. I know that in order to progress, the difficulty level must increase. I may continue to be burned, beaten, acid washed, pruned, dunged, and dug about. All of this is so that I can grow back hardier, faster, and more fruitful. A refined soul is one that has been made pure. Apparently, I need my current circumstance to get me to turn towards and think about Christ. I see I have a long way yet to go.

Democrats and Emotion

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As I hear about the DNC convention this week, I wonder about Democrats and their priorities. Much of what comes out of their mouths contradicts other statements. Many of those who listen to and fawn over what they say extend courtesies to Democrats that they would never extend to Republicans. In fact, when called out for doing this today, those of my Facebook friends who did so seemed upset to be called for hypocrisy.

The more I watch the Democrat party, the more it appears led by emotion than reason. In order to incite and drum up support, they engage in conduct that gets an emotional outburst. Republicans hate women, old people and the sick. Republicans only like you if you're rich. Never mind that the Democrat keynote speaker was an impeached pervert who takes every liberty with women and that the President cut money from Medicare. Never mind that the Obamas and Pelosis and Reids are themselves rich. Apparently, to hear them talk, they hate themselves, but they love money more than they hate being rich.

From where I sit, they need to sort out their priorities. I learned Obama didn’t have money for shoes or a car that wasn’t rusted out but always had money for drugs. Apparently Obama didn’t have money for school or time for friends, but there was always plenty of both for drugs. I learned that Michelle thinks it's more important kind of success to make a difference than to be rich. Well, Ted Bundy and Ghenghis Khan made a difference. Does that make them successful? Democrats cast out these vague statements that can be used in whatever way serves your purposes.

Then their supporters rationalize what they do. When Michelle makes a statement about success, it immediately gets dressed up in fancy fonts on image sharing servers and blasted out to the social networking world. Nevermind that Emerson wrote a better and more inclusive poem. Nevermind if Ghenghis Khan or Ted Bundy or Mitt Romney also said it. They are caught up in the identity of the speaker rather than the truth of the message. If Romney had said it (he might have; I didn't listen to him either), I doubt very much it would get the social networkinge exposure that Michelle's statements will. If it's truth, the speaker should matter very little.

Democrats do what suits their ends. The ends always justify the means, and so they insist on having it their way. Voting on the amendment to restore a vague reference to God in the party platform, the mayor of LA voted thrice until he got the answer he wanted. Even then, it sounded to me like the delegates rejected the addition of God and Jerusalem to their platform. There's elsewhere a statement about how much the Democrats appreciate and value people of faith. They do not value people of faith. They put up with us if we cast our votes ‘correctly’. They allow us to talk as long as we pass on what they like and say. Otherwise, they view us as a threat and condescendingly refer to how we cling to our bibles.

No matter how much they talk about reason, the democrats act on emotion. While they fear what "might" happen if Romney is elected, they turn a blind eye to the misery and setbacks that are the Obama administration. While they balk when others compare them to the Nazis, it's ok for them to cast that aspersion on others. What they are doing is violating a basic tenant of civil society- Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor. As long as they flagrantly and reliably violate what establishes and preserves civil society, they cannot possibly facilitate or uphold one. That's not logical.

I care less about who is right than what is right. I care less about who has prosperity than I do about how many people prosper. I care less about getting credit than I do about reaching goals and fulfilling my promises. The Democrats claim the same thing, but apparently, they need "four more years" despite being in absolute control from 2008 to 2010. What was stopping them? If they're right, how come their ideas haven't worked? They sell us a panacea, and then people swoon at the feet of the god of emotion and cast aside all reason for hope. And they say we're the fools for believing in a better world. At least my treasure isn't here where moth and rust corrupts. Sometimes faith is the more reasonable position.

Unjustly Ascribed to Obama

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Since the DNC convention began, I have taken serious stock of my own status and asked if I'm better off now than in 2008. The answer is yes, but if I gave Obama the credit, it would be unjustly ascribed. I am better off despite Obama rather than because of him.

In 2008, I was near rock bottom. I had quit a job cold turkey and moved to Vegas without a job in 2007 and was recently divorced when Obama was elected. That cost me ultimately almost $150,000 which amounts to more than all the money I took home during the time I was married. I sold my house for far above market value, but most of that money was eaten up by debts incurred by my ex wife, and I moved out with very little to my name, about the same as I had when I married her in the first place. I drove the car I still drive today. I moved in initially with my parents.

From there, things started to look up. By the time of the election, I had finally been promoted at work and had my first pay raise, but soon after Obama was sworn in, I took my first pay cut. Officially it was 5%, but with the increased fees for health care and PERS retirement (in lieu of Social Security), the real cut was 12%, meaning I now take home less than I did when I was hired despite being promoted. I have received zero raises during the Obama Administration but I have more work required of me. In my organization, the women earn more than the men. Meanwhile coworkers who are less qualified and who provide less of a contribution to the organization have been promoted and received raises. My job would have been cut if not for the fact that a coworker died, and so her position was cut in lieu of mine.

In 2010, I bought a house. Last month, it looks like it finally bottomed out in value, such that I owe less on it now than it's worth, but I put down 20% on it, which means I'm still down $20,000 or so from my initial investment. My property taxes are also down, but the HOA likes to harass me regularly despite the fact that my yard is the nicest one on the block. I will earn more money this year than any other year. This is also not because of Obama. It's because I work two jobs. I will spend 58 hours every week at work this semester, in addition to the work I do at home or during the commute or elsewhere. The extra money isn't because Obama did me a favor. It's because someone else vacated a job in Nevada for a better opportunity elsewhere.

I live without the burden of debt. This is because I live below my means. I still drive that 1995 Saturn I mention regularly. I do not have designer clothes or furniture or decor. I simply spend less than I earn. Despite that, my costs have risen. Gas prices are twice what they were when Obama took office. Food prices are up. Wages are down. My house is worth less money. Despite the stock market being up under Obama, my stocks are even, meaning they are worth exactly what I put in. Given how much money he printed, I expect a better return on the market than we have seen. Increased costs delay my purchase of things like a newer car, newer furniture, a newer kitchen, vacations, appliances, and landscaping in the back yard. I still do a lot of it myself to save money, which means I'm technically withholding money from the economy. With the Supreme Court sue me for not paying someone to do something for me that I can do more cheaply for myself? As long as I can get 38mpg in my car with no monthly payment, why would I pay for a hybrid, let alone a Chevy Volt?

I hold onto my money lest someone take it. During my time of prosperity, things have happened to me. I have been accused of things I didn't do and withstood those investigations. Twice my car has been damaged seriously. Two years ago, my ex wife took me back to court for more money. Women have chosen other men because of their wages or their smaller waist at a time when I spend 5-10 hours per week at the gym running, cycling, playing racquetball, lifting weights, etc. There's nothing sexy about being a Chemistry professor, so the extra pay hasn't transformed that part of my life.

I am better off, but none of these things are because of anything Obama has done. If I have benefitted from him, it was by accident. That's how OBama's great ideas and promises work. He is there to buoy up the government, and if you are enriched accidentally by crumbs from the table, they will take credit for it. Of course, nothing is their fault. They are perfect. Ironically enough, the people who are convinced they are right are usually wrong.

Obama's plan sucks. His record stinks. He has to talk about "memories of the future" like his wife said last night because the past doesn't corroborate the utopic picture he paints before our mind's eye. Obama's doing very well. He's a millionaire. He's better off. Are you? I can say I am. I cannot say it's because of Obama. In fact, I have eeked this out because of myself, despite the best efforts of the Lord of the Manor to glut himself with the fruit of my labor. Even if Romney wants to go back to 1950, it is clear that Obama wants to go back to 1050- Lords and Vassals. He will always go back to the mistaken notion that he can make people better. He will meddle. When they meddle, things change, but it's not always for the better.

Apparently it's backwards and evil to support Freedom and Opportunity and Private Property. If that's true, then I'm pleased to be Freedom's First Friend. Obama had nothing to do with the Declaration and the Constitution and the Revolution, and thank God for that. He makes Benedict Arnold look like a petty thief. If he's responsible for the good, he's responsible for the struggles too. You can't pick and choose. I'm from Vegas. We know buffets.

Incomplete Work

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Incomplete grades mean that a significant amount of the expected work required by the course has not been accomplished, at all. It means you missed a test or a presentation or a significant assignment, without which you are likely to fail, and you have persuaded the professor to be merciful. We are under no obligation to do so, and very rarely do we.

President Obama likes to give himself grades. After his first year in office, he graded himself with a B+. Now, he’s lowered the bar and given himself a grade of incomplete. I know what that means. It means he vastly overrated his capabilities and bit off more than he could chew. Although he may think he’s giving an ‘A’ effort, his work doesn’t support that claim. Although he may claim that success in this course matters, where he spends his time and efforts tell a different story.

Mostly, Obama deals in trivial matters. He works on his golf game, playing 104 games during his presidency so far. He plays card games and basketball and bowls a 94. He fills out NCAA brackets. His landmark legislation is Obamacare (which the people opposed by a margin of 52%) and the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. Obama goes to interviews with nonsensical journalism outlets and brags about how well he doodles and makes chili. Who cares? Throw the coins, boy, the people are hungry! He celebrates things that are largely inconsequential, and that’s where he spends his time.

I'm only allowed to give grades of incomplete for exigent circumstances such as extreme medical problems or military deployments. Also, you usually only have a year from the time you score an "incomplete" to fix it, or it automatically becomes an "F" on your transcript. Ergo, an "incomplete" is not something of which to be proud. Furthermore, since when do people give themselves grades? None of my students give themselves a grade, just as I am not allowed to rate myself. This is poppycock.

Contrary to his notion, Obama doesn’t care much about being a good president, let alone a mediocre one. In fact, his efforts show that he intended to create exactly what we have. If he really cared, he’d be out asking the people, who will issue him a grade on 6 November, how to fix his grade. Instead, he flips us the bird at every opportunity and legislates by executive order instead, a gross violation of the Constitution he swore to uphold. Furthermore, he offers unsolicited advice and tells a lot of paradoxical things (like it’s your body if you want an abortion but not when it comes to dinner time). Apparently, he already thinks he knows everything.

This weekend, I rewatched the first Harry Potter movie. I feel like I’m watching Harry Potter come to Hogwarts as if possessed of abilities so formidable that he doesn’t need anyone else and that his failures don’t matter. Fame isn’t everything, and neither is Obama’s personality, because people are getting fed up with him. The evidence supports that, because they are out there in the media attacking his opponents and buoying up every jejune minutia that might possibly make Obama seem cool and caring when quite frankly I feel like he views me as the Roman deities viewed their people- largely an annoyance, however necessary we might be to a continuation of his power.

The only way in which I can conceive that Obama considers his work incomplete is that he hasn’t completely destroyed or reformed America into something abjectly foreign. Some tiny vestiges of what made America great remain, more than he expected, and so as we cling to our Guns and our Bibles rather than worshipping him, he can’t stand that. He wants us dependent on him. I have said before that Liberals will always think you have too much money and too much liberty until you have none at all of either. They do not care how much swag they have amidships as long as anyone else has any in their hold.

Obama is a failure in everything except the final assignment of his grade. He can’t even play basketball well, bowl consistently, or golf competitively. Maybe he can doodle, but we don’t need a doodler- we need a president, a leader, a solution. If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the precipitate, and Obama is proud that he’s a loser. He always has been, even in his first autobiography when he was unabashedly proud that he did so much drugs that he can’t remember much of High School. This just supports the notion that Obama keeps his college transcripts secret because his grades don’t justify his claims to accomplishment. In fact, they probably show he got piss-poor grades and was just as much of a failure then as he is now.

In November, make Obama’s “I” revert to an “F”. Put him back where he belongs- in the hall of mediocrity, which is all his records justify. Incomplete work everywhere else in the real world gets you a demerit and a pay cut. Imagine if we had only won a war halfway- oh wait, we did and it's called every war since Vietnam. He's had his chance. A vote for anyone other than Romney is a vote for Obama, and it's time someone else had the opportunity to pull the sword from the stone.

**as for the author, the author had a 4.0 through every level of schooling until graduate school, where he finished with a 3.93 GPA, having received a B in Biochemistry 705- Molecular Genetics**

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A close friend of mine finally registered to vote last week, catalized in part by the fact that I know and talk quite a lot about political issues. As she did so and started studying issues and candidates, she asked me what advice I gave her. My answer surprised me, but I'll share it with you because it's how I keep my sanity during insane times.

"Pay no attention to advertisements or news reports during the last 30 days before the election. Quite frequently, they will cast untrue aspersions designed to rile up emotions with timing that prevents their opponent from reacting and assuaging concerns. If it was true and really important, we'd know sooner. The so-called 'October surprise' is more approriately often the 'October Lies'."

We're getting very close to that point. It's only September, but it will be October soon enough, and then we'll hear all sorts of things that are half truths and whole lies. We'll hear all sorts of things about Candidate X or Senator Y that are not true or that are only true without the rest of the story to back it up. This is done in a calculated manner, and it's the reason I told my students last week to do their own homework. That's always good advice. You won't have anyone or anything in the voting booth with you, and if you haven't educated yourself, you're really casting a second vote for the opinions of someone else.

Far too much of what I read on the internet is nothing more than editorials masquerading as facts. Even if the counterarguments offered are true, they frequently do not actually refute the original claims. More often than not, the 'fact checkers' are partisan. I even read a story yesterday about fact checking the fact checkers, because again as I tell my students everyone has an agenda. Some of them have ulterior motives. When I read things, I have come to adopt the attitude that they might be right. Far too often, the people who say those things are not willing to return the favor.

Bishop Stendahl, part of Harvard's Divinity School until of late, explained his three rules for all discourse. First, you do not ask a detractor for objective information about his opponents. You see, we typically get inaccurate and emotional charicatures from people who do not know or do not like what they are asked to describe. To the good Bishop, asking one group to describe another invites them to violate the commandment that states, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor". Frequently they are far too eager to do precisely that. Secondly, you do not compare your strengths to their weaknesses. That sets up an adversarial relationship that introduces inequities from the outset of discourse. It's a gross violation to skew the direction to the most favorable light for yourself without returned the favor. Finally, he asks us to leave room for what he calls "holy envy". If there's something virtuous or of good report or praiseworthy, adopt it and emulate it.

Then again, the problem may lie in the fact that too many government officials are lawyers. You see, law is the art of rhetoric, where the best argument prevails rather than the true one. Some Greek philosophers considered rhetoric to be an evil advancement of discourse and warned people to reject it. After all, lawyers are the best liars; for a sum of money, they will say whatever you ask.

It has been said that while you are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts. Even if what you bring is factual, it does not excuse you ignoring other facts that don't corroborate what you already happen to believe. Most people I hear investigate only what validates them while ignoring everything else. This they call being 'open minded' or they will read the opposing viewpoint looking for things to prove it's not true. You see, the more I teach, the more I realize that people are not really looking for truth; they secretly hope the truth will corroborate what they already happen to believe. They bend facts to fit theories and ignore other facts as "right wing conspiracy theories" or other emotionally-charged phraseology.

Fact check the fact checkers. I frequently ask people to, as I often do, cite their source. Then at least you know if they're valid or biased or well rounded in their argumentation. If you do not, you are not speaking your mind; you are speaking theirs. Sayest thou this of thyself or did others tell it thee? That doesn't make you a person; it makes you a puppet.

I will close with this fascinating verse from Job:

Who is this that darkeneth counsels by words without knowledge? Arise, gird up thy loins like a man and answer thou me. --Job 38:2-3

Far too many people speak "words without knowledge". They do not have any firsthand knowledge. Come look at my bookshelf and flip through the books. You can tell I have read them because I annotate them. My handwriting is distinctly awful, but it's mine. I do not let other people tell me that Jefferson or Lincoln or Eastwood said such-and-such; I actually buy books to find out what they said and in what context it was said, and then, even when I wish it were a real quote, I call out those who pass on these inaccuracies. I am looking for truth. I can handle the truth.