The Stand-up Philosopher

“ Raising Awareness ” vs. Getting Results

I really don’t want to write this post. I probably shouldn’t. I guess I can take solace in the fact that nobody reads my blog, so I can write whatever I want. But I also don’t want somebody to stumble by and misunderstand me. Some people can be incredibly irrational, and from the depths of misguided emotion, will draw conclusions that were never intended.

For instance, I once wrote a post that did little more than make my reader(s) aware of a humorous post Tim Challies wrote comparing Joel Osteen’s (ghostwritten) sayings to fortune cookies. Somebody stumbled across my post and somehow drew the conclusion that because he had a fortune cookie with a proverb in it, we should stop reading the book of Proverbs.

And so, as this post continues, I want you to know up front: I HAVE ABSLOTELY NOTHING AGAINST BREAST CANCER OR CHARITIY. I will only be discussing and ranting about methods and terminology associated with them.

The other day, a friend of mine opened up a fecal storm with a post on Facebook. It got nasty fast. I was going to jump in and attempt to help him out, but the hits were coming fast and furious and I realized that nobody involved would listen to reason. So I caught him later and we discussed it free from the irrationality of the others involved.

Apparently, there was a campaign that was supposed to somehow “raise awareness” of breast cancer by asking women to post where they like to put their purses in the form of a sexual innuendo “I like it on…” How posting “I like it on the coat rack” or “I like it in the back seat of the car” “I like it in the trunk” or whatever else is supposed to “raise awareness” for breast cancer is beyond me.

I’m also curious as to the point. “Raising awareness for breast cancer”. Is there anybody who is not “aware” of breast cancer? Especially on Facebook? What exactly does that mean anyway? I’m “aware” of breast cancer. Therefore, your objective has been met and you can leave me alone and stop annoying me

This is what I think: this is little more than a way to make people feel better about themselves while requiring no risk or effort. You post a Facebook status. Good job, little girl! I’m sure by posting “I like it on the floor next to the coat rack” is going to cure breast cancer! Why didn’t we start this 40 years ago?

I’m not a fan of doing things that make you feel good but not accomplishing anything. Drink some booze or take a hot bath if that’s all you’re after.

The same goes for those stupid “If you love Jesus, then post this as your Facebook status”. No. I’m not doing it. I’ve never done it, and I don’t plan to start now. Or ever. Copying and pasting a status message about Jesus does absolutely nothing for Him. If anything, it cheapens His name. Go do something productive for Him. Go help the poor. Donate some non-expired food to a church pantry.

Seriously, my wife has run the food pantries for 2 churches. At our last church, we’d get up to 7 bags at a time of expired food. In 2009, we were getting food that had expired in the 90’s as donations. Most of the food that came in had to be thrown away.

All I’m saying is, if you really believe in a cause, then go do something productive for it. If your life’s mission is to eradicate breast cancer, then go to places where people might not be aware of it, or the dangers of it, or their responsibilities regarding it. But I’ll give you a hint: your efforts will not produce any results by copying a status message on Facebook.

The Burning of Any Book

I’ve been tempted to write this only as a journal entry. I want to organize my thoughts, but not to take any real risks. But few people read my blog anyway.

I pay very little attention to the media. Too much bias, and too many non-issues blown out of proportion. Normally, anything important enough for me to know about will find me. Lately, I’ve heard a bunch of noise about some apparent kook from a small church in (nowhere) planning to burn a bunch of Korans on 9-11.

Sounds like a silly and pointless stunt to me. Barely worthy of my attention. Had the Facebook posts stopped after the first one, I wouldn’t have noticed.

But “the media” took and ran with the story. I picture Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, and whoever else is still out there talking almost 24/7 about this “story”. I don’t know because I don’t bother to watch them. I have more important and effective ways to waste my time.

It makes me wonder, why does the media seem to love a story like this? Seriously, this church is located practically nowhere and has about 50 members. Berean is at least twice as big, and we get no media attention. OK, Magnolia, NJ is practically nowhere too, but we’re still bigger.

I think the media likes stories like this for a couple reasons:

1. They’re lazy. The media is about as lazy as anybody else. A story like this requires little research. Just keep parroting the same lines over and over again and book guests who parrot the same lines over and over again.
2. There’s little to no risk. A story like this isn’t likely to anger anybody the media considers important. But it also attracts a lot of viewership and sells advertising.

And of course, they don’t have to tell you  anything about what is really going on. Do you realize that if the November elections involve a huge turnover in Congress, we’re heading into one of the largest and most dangerous Lame Duck sessions of Congress in history? Lame Ducks are dangerous. All the Congress people who know they’ll be out of a job in January have no accountability to anybody, except for whoever will cut their next paychecks (hint, not the voters). This November/December session of Congress, we could get some dangerous measures passed, including the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST). If you haven’t heard of it, thank the media that spends way too much time on stories like a nobody church from nowhere doing something pointless.

As for the burning of books, I’m not a fan. I believe that the marketplace of ideas is a good enough filter for books. Bad books slowly disappear from circulation. Good books propagate and end up in collections to be preserved. Do you really think Twilight will be around in 100 years? As soon as the next fad pops up, nobody will remember Stephanie Meyer. How many books from 100 years ago simply disappeared because they weren’t really that good? When my grandmother died, I picked up some socio-political books from the 60’s that belonged to my uncle. Someday I might read them, but I doubt anybody has ever heard of them. I’m sure they’re all out of print.

In most cases, I believe book burning is a sign of cowardice or of elitism. Either it’s “you people are too stupid to realize how dangerous I think the ideas in these books are, so we’ll burn them!” or “We can’t counter the ideas in these books, so we’ll burn them!”

In the book of Acts, there is an account of the burning of a bunch of occult or magic books:

[19] And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. (ESV)

 

I don’t think this is a universal application though. It was something these people felt they needed to do when they came to Christ to part with their past. Paul didn’t tell them to do it. God didn’t tell them to do it. They decided to do it.

I think it really sucks that the Library of Alexandria was destroyed. I think China lost a lot of knowledge and history through various emperors ordering all the books in the empire burned.

I am not a fan of book burning. I believe that bad, stupid, and worthless books will naturally be filtered out of circulation through the marketplace of ideas. There are far better ways to disagree with the ideas in a book than to burn the book.

Vampires In Contemporary Culture

Back in February, I wrote a post asking what the deal is with the current cultural obsession with vampires. Since them, I've seen elements of Twilight pop up in some interesting places. Oh, come on, where else could this come from?

First up, we have "teen wolves" running around a San Antonio high school. I'm sure they're in others, but I have a link to a story about them in San Antonio. This is in the school district I graduated from. It's apparently harmless. Just a wolf pack that doesn't consider it a gang. I'm sure it will eventually evolve some rituals or initiation and cause trouble for the community, if the culture doesn't come up with something else for teens to obsess over first. I hope they don't have to shave their chests and oil up to join the wolf pack.

Next up, from TruTV, some 21 year old, drunk and dirty and caught trying to break into a drug store at 3 AM. So what's the big deal? I've seen enough "World's Dumbest" to know there's nothing special about that. But this drunk 21 year old claimed to be a 100 year old, immortal vampire. He threatened to kill one officer and his family. He wanted to eat the kidney of a female officer.

How Madoff Got Away With It: The SEC Was Surfing for Porn

I stumbled across this today, ironically enough, through a humor site. And I am not surprised at all. Apparently, while Madoff was ripping people off and banks were getting ready to siphon billions off the economy and collapse, the SEC was too busy surfing for porn to care.

"During the past five years, the SEC OIG (Office of Inspector General) substantiated that 33 SEC employees and or contractors violated Commission rules and policies, as well as the government-wide Standards of Ethical Conduct, by viewing pornographic, sexually explicit or sexually suggestive images using government computer resources and official time," said a summary of the investigation by the inspector general's office.

More than half of the workers made between $99,000 and $223,000. All the cases took place over the past five years.

Believe it or not, I’m not shocked by this. I’m also not surprised. If anything, it explains a lot.

If you think this is an isolated incident, you need to get out more. You wonder why government bureaucracies have to be so large and inefficient? It’s probably because of the amount of people not getting anything done while they look for porn. Or play golf. Or do anything but the jobs they’re supposedly hired to do. You know, like watch over the economy. And regulate the banks.

MSN: 8 Lottery Winners Who Lost Their Millions

I’ve written several times about why I don’t waste my money on the lottery. I waste it on a lot of things, but not lottery tickets.

I know a lot of people who believe they can become “rich” through the lottery. I don’t buy it. I’m hardly an expert, but I have done more research on the lottery than anybody I know. That’s kind of sad, actually. I have 6 articles bookmarked on delicious. I’ve probably read a few more, but forgot to socially bookmark them. But that’s far more research than most people do on actual lottery winners.

It’s funny though, how I’ve read and bookmarked 6 articles, and nobody believes me that I can’t find evidence of a single lottery winner who didn’t blow the whole wad and end up worse off. They keep telling me “but, isn’t it possible that there’s somebody out there who won the lottery and was smart with the money?” I reply “Sure, it’s possible, but I haven’t come across one in my research. If you find one, please get me the information.”

Today on MSN, I found an article 8 Lottery Winners Who Lost Their Millions. Once again, it’s an account of people who won the lottery and lost everything. Some people lost families.

I do believe it’s possible that there are lottery winners out there who didn’t ultimately lose at life. But I don’t have any accounts of them. If you know of one, please let me know.

Cracked: The 6 Most Insane Moral Panics in American History

I came across an interesting article at Cracked about the 6 Most Insane Moral Panics in American History. As with all Cracked material, the language can be a little raw, so you should know that going in if it's an issue for you.

The article discusses moral panics like Comic Books, Dungeons and Dragons, Satanic subliminal messages in heavy metal, and Satanic ritual abuse.

Dungeons and Dragons

I was growing up when most of the moral panics were happening. I can remember some kind of stink about video games as well. As with all moral panics, I think there is a lot of excitability and a lack of critical thinking involved.

Let's take Dungeons and Dragons as an example. I remember one time in the early 80's when we were stationed in Germany. My dad came home with some D&D material. I don't think he had much. He had some cardboard tiles to make a dungeon out of. Maybe a book or two. He was excited about playing D&D with my brother and I. Then, nothing happened.

I asked him later why we never did anything with it. He said something about some kids were playing in a storm drain, and it flooded and killed them. Somehow, it was the fault of Dungeons and Dragons. I never really understood it. I even asked him if he really thought I was so stupid that I'd think it was OK to play in a storm drain just because I played Dungeons and Dragons. He didn't think so, but somehow the idea that some kids' deaths were related to the game kept him from playing it with us.

When I got a little bit older, I bought a Basic D&D kit. I played a little bit with a friend of mine. Then we got into AD&D for a while. Then I realized it was boring and I walked away from it. I couldn't get into it, and it wasn't worth trying anymore.

I've read some of the literature against D&D. I've read Jack Chick's stuff. I read William Schoenbelon's claims that the creators of D&D consulted with him as a high-level warlock to ensure accuracy of the material with the occult. Even if it's all true, I still believe that if people are going to do stupid, insane, or unsafe things, they don't need D&D to do it.

Comic Books

I never could get into comic books. The villains were dumb, the heros were cheesy, I wasn't impressed with a panel taken up by a "BAM!" or "SOCK!", and I had better things to do than worry about "Wait! I'm missing the 4th issue of the 31st edition!" I don't know the difference between Marvel and DC Comics. That is, I couldn't tell you which comic went under which label. I also don't feel like I'm missing out on anything because I can't. I'm not likely to end up on Jeopardy. 

I bought a Lobo comic once. It was amusing. I could have followed Lobo, but I couldn't be troubled to make sure I had EVERY SINGLE ISSUE so I didn't bother.

I think the moral panic surrounding comic books was silly.

Satanic Subliminal Messages in Heavy Metal

I agree with Cracked's assessment of this one. If a metal band had the idea to implant a subliminal message, "Buy more of our stuff!" would be more like it. Actually, I'd expect that to be placed by the record companies, which seem to have a direct communication link to evil. Of course, the Compact Disc rendered the "play a record backwards to hear our Satanic altar call" obsolete. When I was a teenager and this was going on, I couldn't understand why everybody appeared to be worked up over this. Of course, I didn't listen to much Heavy Metal at the time. Trans-Siberian Orchestra didn't exist.

I can remember an image of old people sitting around churches late at night listening to metal records backwards and painstakingly transcribing the Satanic messages supposedly implanted in them. 

I think history bears out that this moral panic was a huge overreaction to nothing.

Conclusion

I'm not denying that there are moral reason why we should get worried. There are moral issues that need to be confronted. But most of the moral panics that show up in popular culture are not those moral issues. At best, they are symptoms.

Cracked: Lotteries

Looks like somebody wrote a topic page for Cracked about lotteries. I figure I'm better off linking to it. This is almost exactly what I would write about the lottery if I were capable of the kind of biting satire Cracked is known for.

From the page:

Even the Wikipedia article says that "buying a lottery ticket reduces the buyer's expected net worth," and when someone writing Wikipedia articles on lottery systems starts to call you worthless, you should probably be returned as defective by organ farmers.

I've made it sort of a hobby to study the lottery. Or, more specifically, lottery winners. I've written many times that I don't "play" the lottery. I've found more constructive ways to waste my money.

I once found a very insightful quote in 1984 about the lottery. I should rewrite that post. Even I can't stand my writing in it. 

The last bit of text on that topic page contains a very saddening development:

Make Me A Millionaire

In final proof that He Who Is Satan has not only come to Earth but set up a business, California is combining reality TV and scratch cards in "Make Me A Millionaire" - a game* where contestants pay for scratch cards for the chance of winning an appearance on TV. The moment people stopped dreaming of being millionaires, and instead dreamed of maybe having the chance to be on reality TV, is recorded as the exact date hope died.

*God awful moron experience

Statistically, I'd say you stand a better chance of winning a spot on a reality TV show than you do of winning the lottery. Maybe it's not that sad.

What Is The Deal With The Current Cultural Obsession With Vampires?

I’m trying to figure out exactly what it is about Vampires right now. They’re everywhere. Every time I turn around, there’s a new show or movie about them.

They have long since come to my house. My wife and her sister have read all the Twilight novels. I’ve even seen the movies. I guess the best I can say is I didn’t not like them if that makes sense. I rolled my eyes a lot during the dialogue but the story wasn’t too bad. I think they seriously overplayed the “lovesick teen girl” angle though. I also have trouble comprehending why a 109 year old vampire would want to spend his immortality as a junior in high school.

I’m probably not aware of all of the movie and TV offerings dealing with vampires. I couldn’t keep track of them if I wanted to. I know there’s a show called “The Vampire Diaries” and an HBO series called “True Blood”. I tried to watch True Blood, but I can’t get into it. Like most HBO series, it seems to be based on the following premise:

An Exciting Project: 10 Million Words

For 2010, Tim Challies has embarked on what I consider to be an exciting challenge: 10 Million Words.

10 Million Words is a year-long project by Tim Challies to learn about life and culture through the lens of all of America's bestselling books.

Tim, a Canadian, will be reading all of the New York Times’ non-fiction bestselling books in 2010. He is doing this to:

America’s bestselling books tell us, I’m sure, who America is, who her people are, at this time and place. Surely they will give me a glimpse into the world’s most powerful, the world’s most fascinating nation.

So why am I doing it? That is a fair question and one that does not offend me in the least. There are a few answers. First, I love to read and this project gives me an opportunity to read a lot. That, as I see it, is a good thing. Second, it is a challenge and I like to face a good challenge. I expect this project to involve at least ten million words of reading–break that down and you’ll see that it comes to at least three books per week over the course of an entire year. Third, I am interested in the cultural and worldview implications of all of these books. They will provide, I’m sure, a snapshot of where America is at as she enters a new decade. And for me, as a Canadian who spends a fair amount of time wandering the United States and who has family living in the United States, this stands to be particularly interesting.

Tim’s project excites me, and I’d love to embark on a similar project, except that I read a little too slowly. I like to study ideas though. As I look back through history, I like to focus on what ideas had the most influence on a culture. Just as the enlightenment had a massive influence on America’s founders, Robespierre had an influence on the French Revolution.

I’m excited by Tim’s challenge and I’m eagerly following along by his RSS feed in Google Reader. I can’t wait to see what conclusions he is able to draw from studying the ideas behind a years worth of non-fiction bestsellers.

This Is Why I Pay So Little Attention To The News

Here's an RT hitpiece on Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. I believe RT stands for "Russia Today". Apparently, RT interviewed Bill Ayers, a known former terrorist and close associate of our current President. O'Reilly attempted to "no-spin" the whole thing, which resulted in motion sickness for most of his viewers. Hannity also devoted 4 minutes of one of his programs to this "non-issue". 

I pay little attention to any of the mainstream media outlets. Considering how much time they spend on what amounts to hot air, I always wonder what they're not telling us. They seem to spend more time on celebrity affairs than they do on issues like the NAFTA Superhighway. 

As for Bill Ayers comments, I agreed with one thing. Get your news from places like The Daily Show and The Onion. During my teenage years, I went through a period of time when I got my news almost entirely from Mad Magazine. I was amazingly current with the issues. To this day, I still prefer to get my news from satire, which at least amuses me while I'm getting current.

Can We Stop Comparing Congress to Drunken Sailors, Please?

I'm starting to get tired of references to Congress that make comparisons to drunken sailors. Having been a drunken sailor at one point, I can assure you that we were NOTHING like Congress.

A drunken sailor blows his own money, and maybe some money of one or a few of his shipmates. Then he runs out and is stuck until either payday or when another drunken sailor needs somebody else to drink with. Congress spends OUR money with no evidence of conscious thought. Of course, if you think that's bad, most voters complain endlessly about Congress, but keep voting the same people back into office. Who is the fool here? (Hint, the voters).

V Is The Best Sci-Fi Miniseries EVER!

A new V series starts tonight. I LOVED the original. My dad was stationed in Germany from 1980-1985. Somebody taped it and sent all 10 hours to us, and I watched it over and over and over again (give me a break, we only had 1 channel). Of course, even after we moved to San Antonio and had more channels, I still would watch all 10 hours of V when I got a chance.

I remember one day in 1996 when I was stationed on the U.S.S. Oldendorf (DD-972) in San Diego. I had an apartment with a couple of my friends from the ship (I’m still really good friends with one of them). My dad, who worked for the Air Force as a civilian by that point, was TDY to San Diego for some reason or other. The Air Force goes TDY. In the Navy, we get to go TAD (Travelling Around Drunk). There actually happened to be a Star Trek convention in San Diego at the time. For some reason, while I was in San Diego, there weren’t any Star Trek conventions except for that one. I’d been to a few in San Antonio so I figured it would be fun to go with my dad. I haven’t been to once since.

The point of this post isn’t actually about the Star Trek convention. It’s about one idiot at the convention. I was walking through the booths and saw V- The Original Miniseries. It was on 2 VHS cassettes. I asked the vendor if he had The Final Battle. He said no, it hadn’t been released yet. I walked away, dejected.

Well, irony of all ironies: the next day, I was at the Navy Exchange, and saw a 5 VHS Cassette set of V The Original and V The Final Battle. I don’t remember what it cost me, but I bought it that day.

Later that year, I had to take a Typhoid shot. Typhoid always messed me up for 2 or 3 days, but for a short duration, I was working in Supply away from the ship and I was given the afternoon off. I settled down with my 10 hours of V and watched it just like I did all those summer vacations ago.

I don’t think I’ve had time to watch it since, but I still have it, safe on the shelf in my computer room. At some point, I should probably look for the DVD set.

Anyway, I hope this new V series maintains some of the splendor of the original. I know that 25 years and a new crew and a new generation and changes in society can change some things. Star Trek The Next Generation NEVER would have flown in the 60’s, but it worked well for the late 80’s. I hope the new crew is able to incorporate some new technology and cultural idiosyncrasies, while remaining true to The Original V. And I don’t mean that butt-awful attempt at a TV series where that alien hybrid girl shed her skin and aged 13 years every commercial break. After they kicked the Visitors off the planet, bringing them back for a TV series just didn’t make much sense. I tried to like it, I really did, but in reflection, it sucked.

This Is Hilarious: Acronym Change

The site Probably Bad News provides me with a lot of entertainment. Today it posted a clip about how the Wisconsin Tourism Federation had to change it's name. Why? Well, it turns out that Wisconsin Tourism Federation breaks down into the acronym "WTF". Years ago it meant nothing, but today it means quite a bit. I won't repeat what it means here since this is a "family blog", but it shouldn't be too hard to find the definition.

Cash for Clunkers: Buyer's Remorse

I wish I were possible for Congress and the long line of government expansionist Presidents that we’ve had to get buyer’s remorse. They don’t, because they’re often very well insulated from accountability. Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few months (got room for a couple more?) you’ve probably heard of the Cash for Clunker’s program.

According to Dave Ramsey, this program generated a lot of buyer’s remorse. It will probably generate a lot of other remorse in the future, like when the demand that got pushed up isn’t there later on when those people would have bought cars anyway. Dave Ramsey ranted about this program. Dave reads an article on AOL Autos and supplies his commentary. If you like Dave’s rants and commentary, don’t miss this one.

If you’d like to follow along on the original article, you can easily Google it. Or, I can save you the work. Here it is.

A Question About The Plane that Hit the Pentagon

I probably should keep this to myself, because I want to avoid controversial topics on my blog, at least for now. I honestly don’t have a problem with what people call “Conspiracy Theories”. Some are pretty far out there, but others are very well supported by facts and evidence. At this point, I’m not going to go into which I believe falls into which category.

There is one conspiracy theory that I can’t quite get my head around, yet it fits into another that I think has some interesting claims. When Flight 77 hit the Pentagon on Sep 11, 2001, some conspiracy theories arose claiming that a plane didn’t hit the Pentagon at all, but a missile. (Note: the link I included was the first return on Google, it’s not a site I frequent.)

The thing is, let’s assume that the supporting theories are true. Our government staged the whole thing to take away our liberties and enslave us all. Just for this paragraph, just assume that’s true, then you can go back to whatever you think about it. If that is true, and it’s also true that a missile rather than a plane hit the Pentagon, then I have one question: Where’s the plane? Seriously, if anything but Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, then we have a plane with passengers and crew that is totally unaccounted for. None of the ideas I’ve heard surrounding this claim make any attempt to account for the plane, passengers, and crew.

Actually, I think that’s an even better conspiracy theory: a plane totally disappears from space-time, and a missile hits the Pentagon in it’s place. That’s actually more horrifying.  I have a book by an author who was on that plane. If the people on that plane didn’t perish in a crash into a building, then where the hell are they? I’d love to see a proponent of the missile theory actually attempt to explain that one.

Please note that this post is an attempt to discuss a relatively narrow topic. Please don’t try to blow it out of proportion or project it onto any other subjects.

“Those Were The Days” Emails

I took the boys outside this afternoon to ride their bikes and scooters on the sidewalk. I know the fresh air is good for all of us, but of course I’m happiest cooped on on my computers or with a book or something. That doesn’t help my health much. I got to thinking as I watched them ride between the arbitrary boundaries that I set for them about how I seemed to have had more freedom when I was their age than we’re willing to give them.

I grew up in an Air Force family. When I was Joshua’s age of 4 (he’ll be 5 in a few weeks) I had some freedom to go up and down the street. At that age, my dad was stationed at Tyndale Air Force Base in Panama City, Florida. We rented a house “on town” for a year, then moved into base housing. I don’t remember much about our rented house other than one of those old tubs that had legs on it, and we fled from a hurricane (probably in ‘78 or ‘79) by heading into Georgia. When we lived on base, I can remember playing in some woods near our housing unit. I also remember a road that was being constructed that we would explore around. There was no traffic as it was being constructed.

I also remember riding my bike with my friends to a mini-mart or something to buy ice cream. I think I was able to mostly come and go from the house without worry.

I also had some freedom when we lived in Germany from ‘80-‘85. We would run around the woods in base housing. As I got older, we would often walk to the ruins of a castle in a nearby town. Often, this was done without checking for permission.

Any Indication That This is True: How A Millionaire’s Brain Works?

This is one of those apocryphal stories that pop up from time to time. This time it’s on Fortune Watch, although under a humor and stories set of categories. It’s the famous story of the millionaire who, on his way out of town, borrows $5000 from a bank and uses his Ferrari as collateral. Upon return, he picks up his car and pays approximately $15 in interest. When asked why he would use a $250,000 (although I’ve seen the value of the car vary in retellings) for a $5000 loan, he replies “Where else can I park my car in this city (usually NYC) for $15 and expect it to be there when I get back?”

It’s a nice story, and a nice illustration that most wealthy people get to be wealthy by not making the overpriced mistakes of the “poor” and “middle class”, but does anybody know if this story is actually true?

I’m not a fan of unverifiable illustrations. I don’t like them in sermons, in motivational material, and even in drinking stories. They’re fine in jokes. If this millionaire parking story came from a joke book, that’s fine, but I’m getting worried about it being passed off as unverifiable fact like the “train bridge operator” story. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that sermon illustration about the train bridge operator who brought his son to work with him, and when the train was approaching, he saw his son playing in the gears, and was forced to kill his son to put the bridge down as the express train was fast approaching, and as the train went by, he screamed “Don’t you people know that I just killed my son for you!” followed by a Gospel invitation. Yeah, nice story, but let’s have some names, and dates, and maybe some CPS or DYFS investigations, or some railroad investigations. It sounds more like negligence and parenting failure to me than a comparison to the cross. I’ve probably heard this millionaire parking story more than I’ve heard the idiot train bridge operator kills son for express train sermon illustration. (Yes, I’ve heard that train story from the pulpit in my own church several times, and in podcast sermons, and I’ve probably read it in books.)

I can’t find anything on Snopes, which is my go-to site for any stupid email that I get. Actually, nobody sends them to me anymore. It’s far more likely that I was just taken off distribution lists rather than I convinced people to verify that Bill Gates is in fact testing an email tracking program and will pay you $1000 for every idiot you can spam.

If you can provide any details about this millionaire parking story (or the train-bridge guy story for that matter), please leave them in the comments.

Arlen Specter is a Demonican: Who Cares?

This isn’t a political blog. It’s not because I’m not interested in politics, but because I’m not interested FIGHTING about politics. When you step outside of a two-party system be selecting some option other than “C”, you tend to be at odds with everyone.

So Arlen Specter is going to run as a Demoncrat. It’s taking up a lot of headlines. I was having lunch with a program manager yesterday when that news came up. I kept my mouth shut as tight as possible, other than saying ‘Well, he’s always tended to vote with them anyway.” That’s as non-confrontational as you can get.

I think Vox Day nails it: He came out of the closet.Although, I’m not sure that’s quite as accurate. Seriously, no matter which of the two mainstream parties is in office, does anything  but the rhetoric change? Replublicrats had both the White House, the Congress, and even the Supreme Court for several years, but didn’t do anything with them than expand government.

Anyway, Arlen Specter is going to be a Demonican in 2010. It’s not likely to change anything, other than to give news and political pundits a way to sell advertising for a few weeks.

This is why I rarely do politics on my blog. I don’t care about the party lines.

Will the Declining Home Size Trend Continue After the “Recession”?

I’ve been reading lately about people downsizing their homes. Just like how home sizes kept getting larger during “good times”, now they’re getting smaller during “bad times”. I’m fine with that. It makes perfect sense.

What drives me nuts are predictions that this will continue. After home sizes supposedly peaked, suddenly mankind has reached a new awareness that too big a home isn’t necessary and even if the “recession” ended tomorrow and prosperity returned, some people claim the trend will continue.

In the Navy, we had what we called a “BS” flag. We actually said the entire term, but I won’t here. I’d like to raise the BS flag on this one. I highly doubt that if tomorrow the entire nation woke up prosperous, we’d continue to downsize our homes. I’m sure people would go right back to borrowing too darn much and living in too large of houses and driving more car than they need just because everybody else is doing it.

Cool DARPA Project of the Day: Biodog

Check out this link. Watch the video. This thing is cool. It’s a robot with 4 legs that can run, climb steep terrain, and carry a heavy load. I assume it can do all three at once. The video shows it taking on a variety of obstacles, from a steep hill in the woods, to a swift kick in the sides, to a pile of cement blocks, to ice, to a snowdrift. It’s also featured carrying a 400 pound load, and running and jumping. It looks strangely life-like in many ways. The legs almost look like spider legs.

I’m not joking when I say I look forward to concepts like bio-horse and bio-camel. I think there is a lot that can be done with this.

I’m not entirely convinced that artificial intelligence will ever achieve any likeness to a human soul or spirit, but I do get excited by robots that perform valuable service roles. We only have one room in our downstairs with carpet, so a Roomba is out, but we have talked about getting a Scooba robot to keep the floors clean. Yes, I know it requires maintenance and service.

Technorati Tags: Biodog,robots,service robots

How Can I Drive in New Jersey and Not Influence my Kids?

I’m mostly serious with this one. I want to be facetious, and there is a little of that in this post, but the subject is a serious one. My wife relayed a story to me. She took the kids to the Amish market a few weeks ago. I was home from work sick and not about to go anywhere. At dinner that night, she told me that Joshua ran into Caleb with the shopping cart, and Caleb said “What where you’re going, idiot!” Note that Caleb is 3, so I should applaud him for his application of this concept however misplaced it may have been.

I’m not aware of calling many other drivers idiots (at least not with my kids in the car). To be honest, the terms I use are far worse. For some reason, New Jersey drivers have some weird mentality that it is better for both you and them to die than to ease up and let you change lanes. These people often get downright hostile when it comes to letting another car in front of them. When I leave work in the afternoon, I always run into somebody who refuses to let me over as I’m merging onto the Walt Whitman bridge. I’ve had several times in my 10 years of living in New Jersey when another car refused to let me merge on the highway. I would be coming up the onramp and another car was in the left lane and we were side by side. I would accelerate, and the other car would match my acceleration. It always seems to happen when there is a tight line of cars following this one person so slowing down and hoping somebody else will let me over isn’t a good option. I once had an ambulance try to run me off the road like that. It was the same ambulance company a family member works for. I should have written down the number, but that family member assures me a person who drives like that probably didn’t last long.

When Surveys Get Pushy

I can remember back to the days of the last NJ Governor's election in 2005. Let's see, it was Demonican John Corzine vs. ideological duplication Republicrat Doug Forrester. Seriously, if I were voting AGAINST Corzine, what was my point of voting FOR Forrester, who came out at the last minute and basically said "I am Corzine!" Anyway, that's not the point of this post. I don't care about Demonicans and Republicrats.

During the course of the election, I had a knock at my door. It was a woman with a clipboard wanting to know who we were planning to vote for, and insistent that it be Corzine. I said I wasn't likely to vote for either of the carbon-copy party candidates, and I would either vote Libertarian, or since voting anything BUT Demonican in New Jersey doesn't count, maybe the New Jersey Weedman. He's a stoner candidate. This woman wanted to know for sure who I was committed to. I don't remember the exact date, but the election was somewhere between two months and three weeks away. Caleb was born that August, so he was between 1 and 3 months at the time. Neither of us got adequate sleep, but Christina took more of it. I decided to be nice and go back to the family room to ask her. When she said she didn't care. I went back to the door.

I Almost Wrecked My Car Because of an Idiot Cop

I’m just about shaking with rage and shock right now. I picked my boys up at AWANA a few moments ago at the Berean Baptist Church in Magnolia, NJ. As I was driving home on Atlantic Avenue, I was stopped at the light at the intersection of Atlantic and Warwick. I know this means nothing to most people except for locals, but I find my blog makes a convenient record of events.

I noticed a few cars on the oncoming side waiting to make a left turn, but this is New Jersey and in older parts of town like Magnolia and Somerdale, there really are no protected left turns, and this intersection is no exception. The light turned green and I started to drive through. Suddenly, I realized that a car was making a left turn right in front of me. I jammed on my brakes as hard as I could, and my ABS kicked in. The other car stopped and I stopped. I saw right in my headlights on the side of the car “Somerdale Police Department”. That for some reason made me much angrier than if the driver was your ordinary impatient New Jersey douchebag driver, although I guess that’s the same stock from which we draw our police officers. As I drove off, I looked at my clock and saw it was 8:43 PM.

A freaking cop almost wrecked my car with my boys inside. You freaking idiot! Some paragon of public safety. I looked up the number for Somerdale PD and called it. It turned out to be the dispatcher, but I was told they would have an officer give me a call. I doubt they’ll do anything, but maybe they should force their officers to sit through some kind of safe driving class, like I have to sit through IT training whenever some idiot gets caught bypassing the firewall or looking at porn or pirating movies on the network.

I’m still shaking.

On the other hand, I do remember how many times I've almost had a New Jersey Highway Patrol car almost run me off the road when i had to take I-295 in to work. They'll tailgate you up to 85 MPH, and when you finally move over, they'll blast past you up to over 100. Maybe New Jersey cops are all totally unsafe drivers, and more of a threat to public safety than a gaurantee of it.

Some Interesting Developments in eBooks Today

Today brought some very interesting developments in the world of eBooks. The information also came to me in interesting ways. My wife was sick, so I stayed home from work to take care of the boys. I was using my mobile devices heavily. First, because the iPhone and iPod Touch have Exchange server support, I was able to keep up with a few things at work because of my Touch, which is set up for my company's Exchange server. I have a work issued BlackBerry, but I was carrying my Touch around with me anyway to listen to my podcasts rather than let a bunch build up. I was also using my Samsung Epix heavily today. I'd let a bunch of email pile up lately, so I was bouncing back and forth between the two devices to get through my personal account. I like the larger screen on the iPod Touch, but some of my html mail reads better in FlexMail 4 on the Epix. Also, the Epix's keyboard is slightly easier to use than the touch keypad on the iPod Touch.

I was catching up on some Twitter traffic on my Epix in Twobile when I saw that Michael Hyatt had downloaded something called "Kindle for iPhone". I switched over to my Touch, brought up the App Store, and searched for Kindle. I found it and downloaded it. From what I've read so far, using this application, I can purchase Kindle formatted books WITHOUT having to buy the $359 Kindle, but if I buy the Kindle, my books will sync between the devices.

Tim Ferriss: How To Be Jason Bourne…

Tim Ferriss has an interesting post with excerpts from a book about how to disguise assets and become an international citizen. I’m almost paranoid enough to get this book. In any case, it sounds interesting. I have no idea if things will ever get THIS bad in America, but it never hurts to be prepared or have alternative plans, does it?

No Note, No Mortgage?

I came across an interesting post on Vox Day’s blog recently. Apparently people facing foreclosure are asking their banks to show them the original note for the mortgage. Because mortgages have been bought and sold many times, most notes are misplaced in distant warehouses. I have no idea how successful this tactic is. I have an idea how ethical it is though…

I once had trouble with my note. When I bought my house in 2001, somehow I did not get a copy of the note in my mortgage paperwork, even though it’s supposed to be provided. In 2002 or 2003, I went to do a VA Streamline mortgage, and while assembling my documents, I couldn’t find my note. I looked all over for it. At the time, our mortgage was serviced by Washington Mutual, who had the note, but wanted to charge $20 to pull it from archives, copy it, and FedEx it to us. I was fuming over this. If our note had been digitized, we could have gotten an email copy for free. The title company, which should have given us a copy of the note in the first place, did not maintain our records. I was fuming.

Welcome, Obama Staff, to Crap IT

Interesting news coming out of the White House. 8 years ago, former President Bush’s staff arrived to find the place trashed. Current President Obama’s staff arrives to find it outdated. There is an interesting debate going on. Some people fell sorry for them. Others, like Valleywag's Owen Thomas, consider them whiners, and offers them a welcome to “The way the rest of America works.”

It may be the way we work, but that doesn’t make it right. Where I work, laptops cannot be ordered with a wireless card built on. Currently, only Dell will sell a laptop without a built-in wireless. What do you do when you travel, and the only way to get connected to the Internet to access email or shared documents in a hotel’s wireless router? You can order a separate wireless card. I am NOT making this up. Somebody in the interests of IT security dreamed this BS policy up.

Just wait, Obama staff. It will get worse. Much worse. Welcome to the wonderful world of government/large corporate environment IT. It sucks, doesn’t it?

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I got into IT because I love shiny new things. I resent when IT policies are made by people who aren’t quite ready for the release of the Apple II yet.

Security and convenience are two important factors, but they darn well SHOULD balance each other somehow. You can’t have security at the expense of convenience, nor can you have convenience at the expense of security. I only wish the people who made the policies seemed to understand that.

Dude, the White House Goes Web 2.0!

This is an interesting surprise. The White House now has a blog, already complete with RSS. President Obama (please bear with me while I adjust to that as I wasn’t as enthusiastic as some of you) plans to have an open and transparent government. That will be interesting. I’m fairly cynical, and when I read that line in the White House’s first blog post, I immediately thought of former-President Clinton’s promise to have the most ethical administration in history.

I didn’t agree with the new President in many of his policies and proposed solutions, but now that he’s in office, it is my duty to support him as I am able, and of course to pray for him.

At this point, the best we can do is watch. I will say that while I don’t agree with many of his policies and proposed solutions, I do respect the man in many ways.

Anyway, I’ve already got the White House blog in my Google Reader feeds. I’ll pray for the new President as he goes through BlackBerry withdrawals. That would hurt me.

Technorati Tags: White House Blog,White House Tech,Presidential tech

More Mystery Church Shoppers: Church Check

Perhaps I have somewhat of an emotional stake in this as my family struggles with a problem related to this issue, but I still don’t see why “mystery church shopper” services have to be considered as heretical from every possible angle. I’m hardly an expert among the “church growth” community, but I am the Stand-up Philosopher, so I’ll tackle the subject again and you are free to count my opinion for whatever you think it’s worth. Believe it or not, I have done some reading on church growth, and one of my pastors is considered an expert in small groups and is often brought into other churches to give a presentation and/or provide troubleshooting into problems that they might have. Having attended his small group leader training several times, I’ve picked up a few things, not enough to open my own ministry, but at least enough to feel like I can discuss the subject intelligently. Actually, I have no plans to start a ministry. The only person that I beg for money is my wife. On the subject of begging, I’m not talking about a church taking up a weekly collection. I mean that whole “We’ll send you this free book in exchange for your gift of $25 or more”. I fail to see how the book is free. Why not just sell the book?

 

I hardly know where to begin in this writing. I came across a Christianity Today article, which can be found here, that just about blew my top. The article was posted on December 18, 2008. Yeah, it’s taken me a long time to get this post together. I almost had it done, then thought of something else, and had to come back and rework it. The article speaks about a service called Church Check, which sounds like another mystery church shopper program like I wrote about here.

Economic Perspective

OK, obviously we’re hitting some uncertain economic times. Perhaps you’re one of those who has already been affected or is waiting for the ax to fall. I don’t spend a lot of time following “the news” but I do gather and analyze information. I’ve had a thought in the back of my mind lately and I decided that it’s time to write this up. This will be a short post.

Few combinations of words strike fear into the American psyche like “Great” and “Depression” used together. We’ve all seen the imagines of bread lines and tent cities and unemployed and the Dust Bowl. I want to try to give one thing that perhaps can provide some perspective on what is going on. Remember, on the news, if it bleeds, it leads. None of the news networks could stay in business for long with reports like “3 Billion People Reported having a good day today”. It would go nowhere. I’ve heard reports that unemployment during the Great Depression was as high as 26%. That’s almost unimaginable, but let’s turn that on it’s head: employment then was 74%. There were actually jobs during the Great Depression! Look at footage of Hollywood: it was doing just fine. People were going to movies, and stars and studios were making money. The grocery cart was invented during the Great Depression. Why would a grocery cart be needed unless people were buying enough groceries to need one? Many businesses did just fine during the Great Depression, many scientific advancements were made, and many people did fairly well.

Even if we hit another “Great Depression”, that doesn’t mean that everybody will be unemployed. Many will. There are some industries that will probably take a hit. Some companies will probably fail. In order to make it through, those affected may need to adapt, to learn new skills or even change industries.

Even if we do hit tough times, there will be bright spots, and eventually, they will come to an end.

Consider This Before You Call That 1-800 Number You Saw on the Late-Night Real Estate Millions Infomercial

I enjoy reading John T. Reed’s website. He has great insights into many topics from Real Estate to current affairs to military (mostly Army) issues. I found his site when I was following Casey Serin’s first blog. One of these days I plan to get a couple of John T. Reed’s books. I have sort of an essay I’ve been wanting to write for a while, but like most of my writing, it just hasn’t wanted to come together in a coherent fashion. I tend to write off the top of my head, although occasionally I will work on a single post for at least a week. I think John gave me the perfect lead-in to my essay.

Considering the harsh economic news (although please remember, if it bleeds, it leads), it seems that many people will soon find themselves in dire straights. I could be one of them, but for the time being things look secure for the near future, for which I am grateful. When people find themselves in desperate situations, that leaves a willing crop ready to be harvested by, well, cons. There is no nicer way to say it: when life sucks, you are often open to have advantage taken of you. We’ve all been there, and hopefully learned from it.

Rick Warren on Wealth

Recently, Beliefnet interviewed Rick Warren. I wasn’t going to bother linking the interview, but I came across a quote that stopped me in my tracks:

The other thing is that we’ve had people in previous years who were simply about wealth acquisition without creation of value. A guy who makes two million dollars in a day and doesn’t add anything of value to society – that’s phony money in my opinion. It’s not real wealth. It’s not like a guy who’s created a product or a service and that is really making the world a better place and he should be paid for it....

Rick (Dr. Warren?) was asked if he believed there was a spiritual cause to the hard economic times we appear to be in. That was part of his response. Once again, I’m working on a post that I haven’t finished yet that asks some questions and puts forth my opinion on this issue. I’ve said before that I love listening to Rabbi Daniel Lapin, who says that money has a spiritual component. I have nothing against wealth and I hope to have some one day, but like Rick Warren says, it should add value to society. Apple is making tons of money but their iPhones and other devices do add some value to society. Wealth for the sake of wealth cannot be good for anybody.

Why Do We Act So Surprised At Human Failure?

A couple of years ago, I showed up at church on Wednesday night ready to teach the final class in my series on Judges. I worked hard to prepare for that class. It was on Judges 20 and 21, the aftermath of the slaughter of the tribe of Benjamin. I thought it was going to be very interesting, and I got, well, angry when I found out that we would instead be assembling in the auditorium (in the churches of Christ, we’re forbidden to call it the sanctuary; we are the sanctuaries) for some kind of “family meeting.” I am almost ashamed to say that I normally don’t think too highly of those things. I don’t like it when we break our normal routine for these gatherings. I don’t like it when missionaries visit and we cancel classes so they can talk. I said I’m almost ashamed because I really don’t surprise myself much anymore.

Beyond Frugal- I Don’t Know What to Say

Here’s a story about a man in Vermont who is frugal beyond imagination. I honestly don’t know what to say about it. I’m at a loss for comments. I could be snide, but I see little point in that. I could say “Good for him”, but the thought of taking other people’s leftovers in a restaurant makes me want to cancel my own dinner plans. I have trouble eating anything that’s been in my kids’ mouths so even if I was completely broke, I can’t see myself doing it with strangers.

Some people end up in situations like this for reasons completely out of their control. It seems like this guy is just there because it’s where he wants to be. I would rather take some steps to improve my situation in life. I’m glad his wife accepts him. That really is a good thing.

Should You Go On A Media Fast Because the News is Depressing?

This seems to be all the rage. If you look at news headlines on any given day for at least the last year, you should probably expect the Second Coming this afternoon. The media is full of dire predictions. Some people, in an effort to not be depressed, have decided to start a “media fast”. Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, just posted yesterday about his media fast, and his Twitter posts reflect the newfound joy he feels from such fast. In this regard, I feel like I’m so far ahead of the curve that nobody will ever catch me. Somehow, I figured out a while back that the “liberal media”, or “mainstream media”, is full of it. Occasionally, they report on something useful, but for the most part, it’s either sensationalism or an attempt to get you to tune in so that they can sell advertising. “Will your children's’ school bus kill them? Tune in at 11!” Sure, the story runs at 11:23 and takes 20 seconds and has something to do with a badly placed stop sign, but in New Jersey all the stop signs are in bad places so that really isn’t news.

My wife hates the fact that I won’t watch the local weather. She doesn’t like the Weather Channel much. Come to think of it, neither do I. I’ll take them more seriously when they start holding “Global Warming” conferences from cold climates in the middle of winter to show us how much warming is actually taking place. That’s not the focus of my post. I hate the local Philly stations because as far as I’m concerned, they don’t report on “news”. They report on “sports and murders, murders and sports” followed by mindless public interest stories. I’ve tuned in too many times to find a live shot of a sports reporter at 5 AM in the hallway of a hotel saying something like “One of the Eagles is sleeping in THAT ROOM!” Oh, wow! A football player is SLEEPING! Dude, I’m so glad I have a job that I get up at 5 AM for so I can watch NBC 10 report like this! What a great use of my time this early in the morning! I saw the door to a hotel room that an Eagle slept in!” I’m so glad that NBC10 Philadelphia doesn’t show up when I travel. “A local engineer is sleeping in THAT VERY ROOM! In just 3 hours, he’ll be discussing hardware requirements with a vendor!”  I ignore the local news. I don’t care much for the national news networks either, including Fox News, which I call “The other party line”. Of course, if the fecal matter hits the rotary ventilation device, I do prefer Fox News until they find a way to spin the story.

Things I Don’t Like About Christmas

I know, what’s not to like about Christmas? Actually, I’ve developed several annoyances regarding this upcoming time of the year.

1) Generic and Unmentionable Holiday

This is by far the worst offender. I can understand the point of referring to a “holiday season” which can encompass everything from Halloween to Presidents’ Day, but when referring to one specific day as “holiday” strikes me as the worst kind of intellectual cowardice. Simply saying the word “Christmas” does not make one Christian and does not in any way acknowledge Christ. When I see commercials or advertisements or movies that specifically refer to Christmas themes but cover with the “holiday” word, I can't help but wonder if those behind it have ever seriously given this any critical thought. I hate when I go to a store that is decorated with Christmas decorations (lights and trees really don’t fit with Hanukkah or any other celebration this time of year) and I’m told by the cashier to “Have a nice holiday”, I often respond with “You too. You have a wonderful generic and unmentionable holiday yourself.” I’m not trying to be a jerk; I'm just trying to get people to think in the only way I can.

Don't think this whole "holiday" thing is purely secular. My church is going to put on a "Holiday" program involving the children. My wife asked if we should involve our boys in it. I wanted to respond "Only if they call it what it really is." I think it has to be a bad thing when a church reflexively refers to Christmas activities with generic unmentionable holiday terminology.

To be fair, it's possible that this could be a local thing. I notice in this region that during every holiday, people will say "Have a nice holiday." If I go to visit my dad in San Antonio, I'll hear "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Easter" and "Happy Thanksgiving" rather than "Have a nice holiday". It could entirely be that I live in New Jersey, a state that I can't speak of negatively enough even though it has somehow become my permanent home.

2) Christmas Music

97.5 FM in Philadelphia started playing Christmas music the first week in November. I'm already sick of it. Let's face it, the collective artistic talent of mankind is not focusing one bit on improving the polluted gene pool that has become our reservoir of Christmas music.To top things off, I'm pretty much burned out on everything BUT Trans-Siberian Orchestra. There are a lot of Christmas songs that I simply can't stand, and even if I once did like them, I've heard them way too many times in 34 years to tolerate them any longer. Most Christmas songs are not very good. The singing and the melodies are horrible, or the words are just plain stupid. "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas". Hey, did that guy have a literature degree from Yale or anything? Wow, seems like "Don't Worry, Be Happy" had more intellect behind it than "Have a holly, jolly Christmas". "Rocking Around the Christmas Tree" is another song that I really don't like. The music starts out with an electric synthesizer that sounds like a small animal dying, then that woman with the raspy voice starts singing. I change the station or listen to music on my iPod when those start playing. I've heard "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire" too many times and I can't take it any longer either. It's way too monotone for me. I lived in San Antonio for 7 years and spent the first several Christmases of my adult life going back there on leave, so don't get me started on "Feliz Navidad".

Every now and again, somebody actually does come out with a new Christmas song, but it goes into the rotation of limited selection and grows old fast. In 2000, the song "Christmas Shoes" was thought provoking and tear jerking. Now, it gets the station switched as fast as "Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas".

Believe it or not, I do like some of the classic or traditional Christmas music. Of course, those happen to be the songs that don't get played very often.

I have little use for Frosty and Rudolf and Santa is coming, but I do remember enjoying them as a child so I try to put up with them for my own kids, but I will change the radio station if I can at all get away with it.

To all artists and musicians, I appeal to you: please, write some new Christmas music. If the record labels are stopping you, then release it as indies. We'll find a way to get you the publicity that you deserve. If you have a new, Indy Christmas song, please send it to me and I'll share it with my readers (I must have at least 2). Just make it Christmas. There is a song that's been playing recently called "Happy Holidays". That's like writing a doxology to atheism. Seriously, it's a song about nothing. At least it's a little upbeat, rather than the monotonous "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire".

3) Traffic and Poor Planning

We know that Christmas is on December 25 every single year, and has been for every single year in recent memory. There are people, every year, who apparently as I'm getting ready to leave work on Christmas Eve, suddenly look at the calendar and say "Oh, crap! Tomorrow is Christmas! I have 800 people to buy for!" Then they proceed to take out a second mortgage and pile onto the highway right in front of me as I'm trying to get home from work to my family.

I married a woman who is good at planning for Christmas. It's November 14, and she's already done. She has me, the kids, her parents, and our extended family taken care of. She even has presents wrapped. She'll go out on Black Friday if there are some good deals, but we won't be stuck in traffic or crammed into the malls the last few weeks before Christmas. We also won't be thousands of dollars deep in credit card debt like a lot of you come January. We're done, and we did it out of pocket. I'm thinking about getting my wife a new laptop for Christmas (I don't think she reads my blog) and I won't have to go into debt for it either. I have time to research and find a deal if I go that route.

It's become a staple of the news to go to the mall the last few days before Christmas, and rather than actually report on anything that's going on in the world, they interview the people who looked at the calendar on Dec 23 and said "Doh! Christmas is coming!"

4) Christmas is Coming...

I've hated this one since I was a kid. There's a difference between a want and a need. Somehow after August, when I mention to my wife that I need a certain item, I'll hear "Well, Christmas is coming." Seriously, I'm a grown man (at least, by most definitions). If I mention in September that I NEED something, chances are that waiting until Christmas is not desirable. Just let me get what I need and I'll tell you what I WANT for Christmas.

Of course, I realize that Christmas is not about me. This blog, however, is. Have a merry Christmas, a happy Thanksgiving, or have wonderful generic, unmentionable holidays, whichever you prefer.

Meandering Thoughts on Today’s Election

I doubt I can put anything I’m going to write in a coherent fashion, so I’ll just post it. I’m not thrilled with either Obama or McCain, or their parties, for various reasons that probably don't matter in the grand scheme of things. I'm honestly tired of voting out of fear and intellectual bullying based on the logic of "Not voting for one guy is essentially the same as voting for the other." I decided I'm tired of that kind of bullying. Yesterday the thought occurred to me that this is sort of like asking "Would you rather eat rat poison, or a box of thumb tacks?" I would probably respond "Neither. I'd like pizza." Under a two party system, the questioner would then respond something like "Well, I think you should eat the rat poison. If you vote for a third choice, then that's the same as voting for the box of thumb tacks." That is obviously ludicrous, yet people fall for it in each and every election. I decided this time around I'm not voting out of fear, and I'm surely not voting for one candidate that I don't really care for based on fear of what the other guy *might* do if he wins. No doubt by the end of today either McCain or Obama will be the President-elect, but I'm sorry, I jumped off the two party train and wrote Ron Paul on the ballot. I felt that all I could do was register my disagreement in the only way possible. Based on past history, New Jersey will probably be about 60% or more blue, so nobody has anything to fear from my vote.

Yesterday a discussion broke out among my coworkers. I can remember several years ago when I would take disagreements personally. If I supported one candidate, and another person supported the other, I would take it personally. I decided I'm not going to do that anymore. I am not afraid of ideas. I have some reservation about the consequences of those ideas, but I think a true scholar should follow the truth wherever it leads. This can sometimes lead to an interesting journey with a lot of rabbit trails, but I decided I'm not going to fear ideas.

One observation that I would like to make is that most people do tend to agree, at least on the "ground level" on what the problems are. For the most part, people agree on the solutions. Where we tend to part ways is in which personalities or systems can best provide those solutions. I posted my choice of writing Ron Paul on the ballot this morning in a few places on the Internet. I got responses from other "3rd Party" people of their having voted for Chuck Baldwin, or Bob Barr. Some said that they voted for Baldwin because he was endorsed by Ron Paul. In consideration of my vote, I took into account even though none were likely to win, I should vote for the man best qualified to be the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief. I'm not sure that, even if either possessed the proverbial "snowball's chance in hell" of being elected, either Barr or Baldwin could be head of the Executive Branch or Commander in Chief of the military. To be honest, I don't know if Paul could be either, but he seems to have chased his philosophy closer to it's logical conclusion. This is probably why no 3rd party will ever get enough votes, because those of us who are starting to identify with the 3rd parties still can't agree on which particular party or personality can provide the solutions that we may agree on.

Philosophical and political disagreements aside, part of my discomfort with voting for McCain and Obama has to do with my 3rd party reasoning. McCain is a Navy veteran and has been a POW. Go Navy! Heh. But, does he possess the executive and military leadership required of the job? Obama was a "community organizer". I have no idea what the heck that is, but it doesn't seem like it translates well to executive and Commander in Chief type responsibilities.

In any case, no matter who wins, those stupid campaign commercials should stop playing tonight. Sometimes they do for whatever reason continue for the next week, but at least I'll have a few months reprieve from campaign BS until the NJ Governor's campaign starts ramping up next year. Then the year after there will be House and Senate elections again, then we'll get a two year break until until the 2012 election.

Billy Graham Will Be 90

http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/11/billy-graham-90.html

This is amazing, 90. My grandmother topped 90 and is still going, as is my wife’s grandmother. I consider it very impressive.

When I was a teenager, I had no idea who Billy Graham was. All I knew is that I wanted to watch MacGuyver, and it seemed for a period of time that at least every other week, MacGuyver was preempted by something called “Billy Graham Crusade.” I had no idea who Billy Graham was or what his crusade involved, but I hated him for preempting MacGuyver so often.

Heh. MacGuyver has long since been canceled, and age and maturity cause me to think of the show with less respect than I once did. Billy Graham is still going, and of course with more perspective on his life and work and ministry I have long since forgiven him for preempting MacGuyver so much when I was 12 to 14 or 15.

More Election Perspectives

I love to study history, if for no other reason than it can put current events into perspective. I recently came across a couple of artifacts that to me show that in our political system, there is nothing new under the sun.

The first artifact came from my in-laws’ basement. My wife and I had planned to sell our house and take over their house, and expecting a quick sale we moved a lot of our things into their basement to make our house less cluttered for showings. Now, a year and a half later, we found ourselves sorting through our things that had been down there for a year and a half looking for items to take to Goodwill to make some room in the basement. While my wife made a run to Goodwill, I rearranged some items and walked around a little bit. I saw a stack of books that had been in the basement for years. Looking through them, I saw a book titled “Is Eisenhower God’s Man for America?” I didn’t pick it up and read it, but I’m sure I’ve seen similar titles for more contemporary (Republicrat) Presidents.

Another thing I saw was in a book. Our library has a book sale at least once a year, and we went to the fall sale somewhere in the last couple of weeks (I’ve been so busy everything tends to run together) and I picked up some interesting titles. Once of the books I picked up was “The Memoirs of Richard Nixon”. While flipping through this rather large hardcover book, I saw a picture of one of Nixon’s campaign ads when he was running for the house. Guess what it said? “America needs change! Vote Richard Nixon, WW II Combat Vet for House.” Heh, don’t we have somebody campaigning on the “change” platform this time around?

There is nothing new under the sun.

Election Perspective 2: John Stossel's Politically Incorrect Guide to Politics

I can't find a way to embed video from ABC News, so click this link:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=6062018

Talk about reading my mind. John Stossel is a great reporter for turning out this kind of content. Besides, how can you possibly go wrong by invoking the question "What would Brian Boitano do?" That question is especially cool when Brian Boitano actually shows up. This isn't like South Park where they have to draw him in. Truth be told, I probably wouldn't have heard of Brian Boitano without having seen South Park.

And of course, let's not forget Brewster's Millions. None of the above, 2008!

Technorati Tags: 2008 election,John Stossel,Brian Boitano,South Park,election perspective,McCain,Obama

Perspective on the Upcoming Presidential Election

The purpose of this post is not to place anybody in a bad light, nor is it to start a fight. I only want to attempt to put things in perspective, if only for myself. Yesterday morning, as I was going through my email, I came across an email from the American Family Association. I've been on their email list for years. Sometimes they put out interesting updates or let me know about issues I hadn't heard of before. At other times, they seem alarmist and silly. One time, they wanted to call for a boycott of a certain company. I can't remember if it was Comcast or DirectTV, but the commercial dealt with things being pulled toward the TV and the characters in the commercial would make statements like "Our cable sucks!" I personally thought it was funny, and didn't see it as damaging to my children, so I deleted their email asking me to call whichever company and complain.

My Review of Lynne Spears’ Through the Storm

With their publication of Stephen Mansfield’s “The Faith of Barack Obama”, Thomas Nelson instituted a program that I hope continues, offering the first 200 bloggers to respond the chance to get a free copy of a book in exchange for a 200 word review, positive or negative. I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to read and review “The Faith of Barack Obama” and I was thrilled to see the offer repeated for Lynne Spears' new book, “Through the Storm”. At first I wasn’t going to ask for a copy of “Through the Storm”, as the only real time I have to read is in the evenings and since we’ve been busy at work lately my evenings are often cut short, depriving me of time with my family. My wife told me I could request the copy, and I did. It arrived about a week later.

I should point out right now that I am not a professional reviewer. I should learn how to better review books because I enjoy reading and writing. Having done this for two books I’m finding it to be fun, and it would be nice to either get free books or possibly earn a little money for this. Anyone know where to go to learn how to write a professional book review?

“Through the Storm” apparently generated a lot of controversy. Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson, had to delete some comments regarding this book off of his blog. I’m not sure what those comments contained. Many were supportive, but some were very negative. One accused either Mr. Hyatt or Thomas Nelson of publishing the book for M.O.N.E.Y. I have no idea where that came from. A publisher publishing books to earn money? Where does the problem enter into the equation? How can a business meet payroll or other expenses without performing those tasks for which the business was created to perform?

A Moment for the History Books

I can’t not post this. Everybody makes a mistake now and again, and it must be a rare privilege to commit a gaff like this on national TV, during a political convention. I don’t bother with political conventions myself. Thanks to blogs and YouTube, I’m likely to see that better parts or read them picked apart into meaninglessness later.

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama,MSNBC,son of a black man from Kenya and a white man from Kentucky

My Review of The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield

Thomas Nelson recently published “The Faith of Barack Obama” by Stephen Mansfield. The CEO, Michael Hyatt, made a very interesting offer to bloggers: Thomas Nelson would provide a free copy to the first 100 bloggers willing to write a minimum 200 word review of the book. Michael Hyatt had been linking to promotional videos by the author in his Twitter feed, and those videos got me very interested in the book. Though I am hardly a supporter of Obama, the promotional videos piqued my interest. A comment by the author stating that “Even if he loses this election, Barack Obama can run for President every four years for the next 24, and he will still be younger than John McCain is now. He’s going to be around for a long time” really gave me a desire to understand the man.

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first opened the book. Thomas Nelson emailed me the introduction and the first two chapters to get started, and they only made me want to finish the book, which arrived about a week later. This is not a very long book, but I found it to be packed with interesting information. I can’t say I’ve ever gone out of my way to read a book about a candidate in an election year, but I find that most fall into one of two categories: the puff-piece and the hatchet job. This book was neither. I found it to be an honest attempt to understand a prominent man in our politics who will likely be a fixture on the public scene for many years.

“The Faith of Barack Obama” contains 144 pages of content, plus acknowledgements, references, and a bibliography and index in the back. It totals 164 pages with the “back matter.” Keep in mind that the definition of “content” in this review is my own, and I do count the endnotes and bibliography as valuable. The book is organized into an introduction and 6 chapters.

Chapter 1, “To Walk Between Worlds,” is about the man: his background and upbringing. It traces the formation of Barack Obama’s background through his grandparents, his mother, his father, and stepfather. It deals with the “urban legend” that Obama was raised as a Muslim. I do personally know Christians who believe that because Obama has a school document from Indonesia declaring his religion as “Muslim,” then obviously he must be part of some Islamic plot to take over America from the inside. I’m all for a good conspiracy theory, and I do believe several that are very well documented, but this one is easily handled by Mansfield in this chapter. Barack Obama also attended a Catholic school, but does that make him part of a plot to take over America for the pope? His mom was an Atheist, does that mean Christopher Hitchens will be Secretary of State? Anyway, I’m getting off base here. This chapter also traces Obama’s growing up and going to college, trying to find his way between worlds of black and white. What was his identity? The chapter ends with Obama sitting in Trinity United Church of Christ listening to Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Chapter 2, “My House Too,” speaks about Obama’s longtime church, his pastor’s background, and black liberation theology. The concept of Black Liberation Theology is not new to me. I have heard and read of it in the past. This is a key to understanding Barack Obama.

Chapter 3, “Faith Fit for the Age,” speaks about Obama’s conversion and his beliefs and politics. Obama clearly does claim that he believes the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his words to me as an “Evangelical” clearly do indicate an honest belief and conversion. Obama also seems to subscribe to a postmodern philosophy, and claims to believe that there are other paths to God. This chapter examines these issues, as well as the issue of why Obama remained at Trinity when some of his former pastor’s statements made it out into the media. I must admit, Stephen Mansfield’s explanation of this made my ears pick up. I came to realize that I could not make the same claims currently about my church. Stephen Mansfield says that Obama stayed at Trinity because the church met his needs. The church was his family, and it fed him intellectually and in other areas. My wife and I are struggling with an issue at our church with whether it is meeting our needs or making us feel like we truly belong to the group, and when I read those paragraphs to my wife, we were about ready to just not go back to our church. I even wrote a note in the book “If only our church met our needs like that.” That has no bearing on the review; I just can’t help but adding TMI (Too Much Information) every time I open my mouth or start pounding on a keyboard. Our personal reasons for our reaction go very deep and I have no idea if I will blog about it or not, ever.

Between Chapters 3 and 4 are a series of pictures from Obama’s life, from childhood to present.

Chapter 4, “The Altars of State,” explores the formation of Obama’s political career and how he had to reconcile his Christian faith with his politics in the Democratic party, which has been secular for a long time. Even men such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, with claims of being “born again,” have tried to push faith and politics far apart. This chapter explores Obama’s race against Alan Keys, a man I have supported in the past, for the Senate seat from Illinois. Obama did win, but the race against Keys, a very eloquent and well spoken man, left him shaken. This chapter examines that.

Chapter 5, “The Four Faces of Faith,” contrasts the faith of Obama against John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush. I found this chapter particularly fascinating, though I think I’d rather open another discussion on them rather than sidetracking this review.

The final Chapter, 6, “A Time To Heal,” speaks of the issue of healing and Obama’s desire to help with some of that healing in our culture and our politics.

All told, I thought this was a very good book. It did not inflate Obama, nor did it skewer him. I took it as an honest attempt to understand the man and the issues surrounding him, and to pass that understanding to others. To me, this is what journalism should be. This book did help me to better understand Barack Obama. It challenges the seeming notion that Christianity in American politics belongs to the “Religious Right,” and that Democrats can’t be Christian and Christians can’t be Democrats. (I dropped my normal facetious “Demoncrats” for this review.)

This book did not in any way give me a desire to support or vote for Obama, but I believe it gave me something much better: it gave me the idea that I could like him. It even gave me the thought that perhaps I could like Hillary Clinton. Yikes! Our two party political system (I currently support neither, though I once considered myself part of one of them, you guess) seems to encourage demonization of the “other side.” I can’t say I haven’t fallen prey to that idea in the past myself. I’m finding it to be liberating that I can disagree with somebody and still like them, that disagreement does not need to mean lack of association. This is something I have been thinking through on my own prior to this book.

My final comment about the book itself is the price. During one of my discussions with my wife about my use of time during the evenings, as in, should I be reading a book or doing something she prefers, I said “Look, Thomas Nelson GAVE me this book on the promise to write a review. This book would have cost me…” I looked at the back and saw the price listed as $19.99. This is the MSRP, but my eyes must have popped out of my head and I had to restrain my urge to make a comment about some variation of “sacred fecal matter” in front of the kids. I’ll be honest; I have absolutely no idea what goes in to the pricing of a book, but I have bought thousands of books in my life so I can only go on the relative cost of them. $20 for a 6 chapter, total of 164 page book does sound kind of high. It is listed for $13.59 on Amazon with “39 new and used from $9.25.” Maybe some fellow Michael Hyatt readers can join me to ask him for a primer on how books get priced one of these days. I find him to be a very open CEO and I believe he would respond if we asked him. His blog has been a tremendous source of inspiration and advice to me over the years.

I would like to make one final comment on our political system. I’m not sure why, but so many people seem to treat the Presidential election as if we’re choosing our Messiah (already got one, thanks.) It’s as if we put the right man in and he’ll save us all, and the wrong man will destroy our country, ruin our lives, and make George Orwell’s 1984 sound like the recounting of a stay at a vacation resort. Please, people, read our Constitution and keep this all in perspective. Don’t look to the President to save you. He’s only the head of one branch of government. You still have one Representative and two Senators that you can call or write or email about any issue you wish.

If you’d like to read The Faith of Barack Obama, I highly recommend it. You can buy it from the Amazon affiliate link in my sidebar on the left under “Books I’m currently reading.” I’ll probably move it to the “Books I’ve recently read” sidebar at some point. I know, that’s a shameless plug, but if you buy enough of them from my affiliation, maybe you can help feed my gadget habit.

Technorati Tags: The Faith of Barack Obama,Faith of Obama,Obama's Faith,Democrats and Religion

10 Reasons Gen Xers are Unhappy at Work

http://seanmichaellucas.blogspot.com/2008/07/10-reasons-gen-xers-are-unhappy-at-work.html

This was an interesting blog post, which came from a discussion on Harvard Business Review. At least, it could spark an interesting conversation. I’m considered to be a member of Generation X. I was born in 1974. My parents were Baby Boomers, from the early part of the generation. I’m reaching that point in my career where I don’t entirely have a lot of power, but I’ve built up more than 15 years of experience. I work mostly for Baby Boomers, and the Gen Y members of the workforce already have a few years of experience. I currently work with at least one person who was still in diapers when I started high school yet he is old enough to drink today. It’s an interesting position to be in.

Harvard Business Review makes some assertions that I don’t exactly agree with, but I’m only going to discuss this from my perspective rather than assume that all Gen X’ers see things my way. I do find myself frustrated as a member of Generation X working in a corporate type environment, but not simply because it’s a corporate environment. The original article states:

Many of you X’ers are not thrilled with corporate life. You tend not to trust institutions in general and deeply resent the Boomers’ confident assumptions that you will be motivated by the same things that Boomers have long cared about. Many of you have told me that you are planning to leave corporate life “soon” – to start entrepreneurial ventures or work for smaller companies – options you feel will suite you better than the corporate roles looming ahead.

Honestly, I don’t see it like that. I grew up in the Air Force, and served in the Navy, and I’ve been working around the Navy ever since. I’m honestly very comfortable with it. I don’t mind it one bit, and I’m mostly happy to continue my career in this direction. I’ll address two points that stood out to me, then put in my two cents:

2. When you were teens, X’ers witnessed adults in your lives being laid off from large corporations

I was in my class “C” technical school in San Diego in 1993 when IBM went through it’s historic layoff. That really shocked everybody. But to be honest, I’ve come to the conclusion that an adult is an idiot to get into one job and expect it to last forever. I know that the WWII and Boomer generations were able for the most part to start working for one company and expect to retire from that company 40 or so years later. I’ve never been able to do that. I spent 6 years in the Navy, 1 year as an alarm installer, 5 years with one company, 3 with another, and I started with my current company this past March. I’m 34. In today’s work force, I realize that in most cases, the only way to move up is to move out. When I’m working for one company, I do the best job I can, but I realize that stagnation is my enemy. I always have to keep the next step in my career planned ahead. Today’s workforce is highly volatile, and I never know if I’ll get the axe. I haven’t had to worry about it, and I don’t expect to, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t plan for it just in case. I do the best I can, but I have to keep learning new skills to keep moving ahead. I’m honestly tired of having to keep moving from company to company, but I’ve come to expect it for the time being.

My dad’s career has been good to him. He served for 21 years in the Air Force, a few months in a pawn shop, then after getting his associates degree, he’s been working for the government. He hasn’t had to worry very much about job security. One thing I grew up watching my dad dealing with that I’m not about to is taking too much “crap” from his bosses. I guess my dad grew up and started working in an environment where you weren’t allowed to question authority. My dad was often under the influence of decisions that he disagreed with, but he would simply suck it up then take it out on us later when he gets home. I do my best to be diplomatic, but if I disagree with something or can think of a better way to do it, I will pipe up. I refuse to be complacent in that regard.

Back to job security, another point to keep in mind is that many markets are changing thanks to “globalization.” I don’t like it personally, especially since many policies coming from Congress and the executive branch seem designed to destroy our economy and move jobs overseas. Look into it. Like it or not though, it’s happening. People in manufacturing jobs are finding out left and right that those jobs just can’t compete against Communist Slave Labor in China.

8. Many X’ers’ are guarding a closely held secret: you’re not all as comfortable with the technology that is changing the way things are done as everyone seems to think you are. While it’s perfectly acceptable for Boomers to feign ignorance and ask for help, it’s embarrassing for X’ers to do so.

I don’t buy this one, but maybe I’m on the wrong end of Gen X. I’m not putting myself forth as a representative of the generation by anything more than my own experience, but I still don’t think this point widely applies to all of Gen X. I have an IT degree, for crying out loud. I’m perfectly comfortable with the technology that I work with. This is where I find myself running into problems in the workforce: it’s not me that’s uncomfortable with the technology, but I get highly frustrated dealing with people making policies about the technology who aren’t comfortable with it. Where I work, there are still a lot of Windows 2000 workstations. Windows XP workstations are just now starting to be widely deployed. Windows XP has been out since 2001, and although it will be supported until 2014, Windows Vista has been out for more than a year and a half and contrary to Apple’s “switcher” advertisements, is mature and stable. But the idiots making the policies need 20 years to be comfortable with the technology. By the time they deploy Vista, it will have been out of service for at least a year. One guy I work with told his company that he wanted a company cell phone because he was starting to use a lot of his personal minutes for the job while working on other sites. He was told to find a land line. Sumbitch, that’s cheap and narrow minded thinking for a technology company.

So to summarize, I don’t agree with most of the ten points, and I specifically don’t agree with these two. I don’t have a problem with Boomers (as long as they’re not setting technology policies) and I like the Gen Y people because I can talk tech with them.

TWIT 24 Hours of iPhone Coverage

TWIT Live.TV

Leo LaPorte is apparently going to broadcast around the clock as the iPhone goes on sale around the world, starting in New Zealand and concluding 24 hours later in Honolulu. I have his feed running right now. I wouldn’t have known about this had I not checked my Google Reader feeds. I’ll probably only listen in for a few minutes, but I heard him say “Alex Lindsey will be stopping by around 4 in the morning," which will be 7AM here, by which time I should be settled into work and finished with my first cup of coffee. I doubt I can get his site at work through the proxy though.

In any case, if you’re interested in such ambitious coverage of what may be exciting but will eventually go down in history as a fairly trivial event, tune into the link.

Technorati Tags: iPhone,24 hour iPhone coverage,TWIT,Leo LaPorte,TWIT Live

Yale University Study From 1953, Often Cited By Consultants, Is Probably Not True

I thought this was interesting, yet not surprising. A study often cited by consultants and motivational speakers turns out to not have happened. This is why documentation and references are very important. My last post was about MLMs (Multi-Level Marketing) organizations. I have been involved with an MLM in the past. I can remember statements in "The Plan," or the Sales and Marketing Plan, such as "The Wall Street Journal says that this is the business of the future." I even made that statement myself on occasion when I was giving "The Plan" to people. Looking back, I am more than a little embarrassed by my naivete in regard to believing and passing on undocumented statements. If I could sit through that original "Plan" today, I would likely ask if the article or author could be produced to document the reference. I can also remember being told that "The Supreme Court of the United States has ruled that this business is not a pyramid!" Again, no documentation was offered. Of course, I can also remember being told that "If you work this business only 8-10 hours a week, which is spare time, you can retire in 2-5 years!" I didn't have the Internet back then (1993), but from what I read now, most testimonials reflect mine- giving up lots of time prospecting, showing "The Plan", going to functions and meetings a lot more than 10 hours a week, and getting nowhere. I'm not aware of anybody who can claim to have "succeeded" on only 8-10 hours a week.

Goal setting is a wonderful thing, and motivational authors and speakers certainly have a place in the world, but always pay attention and listen for undocumented references or stories when dealing with them. The same thing goes if you find yourself invited to a "business meeting." Look for documented references. Any salesman can make fanciful claims about a product or system and people who have been successful, but can the salesman substantiate them?

Casey Serin Is Coming Back

Casey Serin is coming back. This should be interesting.

I first heard about Casey Serin I believe around March of 2007 from a story titled "The World's Most Hated Blogger." At that point, I still had aspirations of being a "problogger" and making lots of money from blogging. The title of the article intrigued me, so I clicked on the link wondering what it could possibly be about. I read about a person named Casey Serin who spent a bunch of money on real estate "investing" courses and bought a total of eight houses in several different states, maxed out all of the available equity through routine yet illegal means such as "liar loans" and overstating income, then couldn't sell the houses and the entire deal crashed down around him. He started a website, I Am Facing Foreclosure.com, which is no longer available but thanks to the Internet Archive can still be read. For some reason, like a lot of other people, I was intrigued by this guy. A lot of people suspected him of being some kind of viral marketing stunt, as if there is no way what he did could have been possible. Could anyone really be that greedy and stupid? I followed along for months with others watching him borrow more money, take afternoon naps, and pursue more "sweet deals" rather than trying to get a job and provide for his wife. I honestly didn't know what to make of the whole deal. Did he have some kind of personality disorder, or was he brainwashed by too many real estate seminars or "Rich Dad" style motivational books? I don't know.

One of the things that really bugged me about Casey is that everybody who disagreed with him was labeled a "hater", which later came to take a more trademarked style of "haterz." As you can see through political correctness in society, disagreement with a position is often immediately connected to hate. This is a logical fallisy but is highly useful as it has the effect of immediately shouting down the dissenting voices and dismissing any possible points they may have.

Casey had several people along the way who tried to help him. They all attempted to get deals with him, which would give him some productive work to do and give them the chance to capitalize off of his popularity. He always managed to slip out somehow, leaving the other person hanging. Sometimes money and commitments were involved and a lot of feelings were hurt. One person did pursue legal action, but as I remember he was talked out of it.

Like other readers, I tried to leave comments and even sent Casey an occasional email offering prayers and advice.

Casey ran off to Australia on an offer to stay with a fan on really short notice, leaving his wife to deal with the collectors. By the time he came back, his wife had it. He eventually sold his blog and shut the operation down. So far he's popped back up twice, only to dive back into obscurity.

I honestly want the guy to come out of whatever got him into his current mindset and be successful. Honestly, he makes a perfect case study for a Dave Ramsey class: trying to borrow your way to prosperity does not work.

I'll stay tuned. Let's see what develops.

How Futures Trading Works

I said a while back that I'm going to start monitoring oil so I can get a feel for what's going on and what's going to happen. I generally don't trust most news reporting because of the "if it bleeds, it leads" policy, among other reasons. I can remember stories back in 2002 and 2003 stating that "gas will hit $4 a gallon this year." While that did eventually happen, it took until this year, 2008, to happen, making the reporting from 5 and 6 years ago highly inaccurate.

Any research into how the oil market works will inevitably come across some discussion of "futures trading" and "oil speculating." I'm not sure how that works entirely, but I have heard that "futures traders are responsible for the mortgage mess we're in" a few times. I don't know what kind of truth is in that statement. It seems like greed, impatience, and shortsightedness on the part of both homebuyers and lenders was a large part of the cause, and yes, I take some credit for that as I am in my own mess in that regard from some shortsighted decisions I made.

Anyway, I came across this brief primer of how futures trading works, and how Congress, which won't allow any drilling for oil on our own shores, is starting to haul oil futures traders in front of their committees as they have run out of oil executives to blame.

Silencing the Christians Videos

I’ve ended up on all kinds of mailing lists over the years. I’ve canceled several. There are others that I find annoying but occasionally useful, such as the Libertarian Party and the American Family Association. The LP is always asking for money (but I’m sure the Republicrats and Demonicans do also but I’m not on their lists) and the AFA is always asking for money or to boycott something for some reason or other. I did participate in the Ford boycott, but to be honest that really didn’t cost me anything because I never buy new cars and I never buy Fords (OK, one exception and it will be the last. I’ve always said our 1995 Ford Windstar has run flawlessly since we spent $5500 in two visits to a Ford dealer to get Ford’s manufacturing defects worked out of it.) That’s like saying I’ll participate in a hip-hop music boycott. I never buy the stuff anyway, so why not let my otherwise inaction contribute to active support, however symbolic it may be? The AFA currently has a McDonald’s boycott going on. Guess where my lunch came from yesterday? I didn’t buy it, it was brought to me. It’s not that I don’t support the reasoning behind some of these boycotts, and the one against Ford was eventually effective, but I’m not sure this is a good long-term strategy.

In any case, several months ago the AFA was sending out emails about a series of videos about Silencing the Christians. To be honest, often when I hear of things like this, I assume it’s just the usual whining. "Whaw! the Liberal Media is ignoring Christian issues!” Right, and my three year old is lying to me that mommy said he could have ice cream and his little brother said he could have his share too. Where is the news in that statement? I’ve started to ignore the so called “conservative” news sources as much as I ignore the “liberal” or “mainstream” sources.

I’ve had a browser tab on my laptop open to the Silencing videos for several months. Maybe it’s time to watch them. If they actually contain something that I didn’t already know or write off as whining, maybe I’ll comment on it.