iPandora

After 14 hours in labor, my wife Grace gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy.

Matthew William Kelly Bedford is named after a dear friend of ours who was called home to be with our Lord not quite 1 year ago.

I only hope that this little man will grow into the true man that was, and is, Matthew William Kelly.

For those who like details. Matthew weighed 8lbs 6 oz, 20in long. He has a Bedford face but borrows his nose and mouth creasing from his mother. My dad says the nose is also his mothers.

He was very alert and inquisitive from the get go, earning an APGAR score of 9. He smiled for mother and will follow us with his eyes. He likes being sung to. And I was overwhelmed with emotion when he was born.

Something that struck me is how much birth must be like death: The womb seems safe and good and a nice place to spend your life, and birth is this scary thing. All of a sudden your senses are bombarded with light and noise and pain and… more. More than you’d experienced ever before.

The womb was good, but it was temporary. A place of preparation. Preparation for life.

Then life become comfortable, known, expected. Life is good enough, full enough, and not long enough. And we fear death.

Once we die, I believe we’ll experience sensations we’ve never experienced before. The sounds and sights, smells, and sensations we’ve experienced in life will seem like the dull sensations of the womb.

Life is good, but it is temporary. A place of preparation. Preparation for…

There are many misconceptions standing in the way of informed consent on the part of the American Electorate.

Bugbears and villains and bogey-monsters are trotted out each election cycle to herd the voting populace into the desired frame of mind.

One of the common scape-goats (ab)used by many is the spectre of “Big Business”. And not merely content to blame big business, the abusers often employ shake-down tactics when they need additional revenue.

After all, nobody likes their boss, and everybody knows businesses are endless sources of greedy men with far too much money, right?

Sticking it to “the Man” is the favorite sport in much of America, and it’s bred and grown in an environment free of logic and fact into a monster few can avoid.

Well, here’s one shot.

Business does good for people.

It’s not that they hold your hand and sing Kumbayah, or even that businesses that contribute financially to causes we agree with are good.

This is a blanket statement without conditions: The average business in America does good.

What is good?

Good is a quality of action or intent that brings about, supports, encourages some reasonable benefit to another.

Me winning the lottery is not good. Yes I get tons of money, but that money to one not capable of handling it wisely will with great consistency, harm me and cause me greater damage than were I not to have such largess.

Me working and earning a reasonable wage is good. I earn the money and therefore know its worth to me. I use that value to trade for other things of value which have greater good to me.

Now what just occurred? Each of the players in that last paragraph exchanged something for something else.

What is that called? It’s an economy.

Let’s look at it closer: The business I work for values my work more than a certain amount of money, so we trade. My work for their money. But I can’t live eating money or in a house made of money, so I trade the money for other things I consider more valuable than the actual cash, usually with other businesses such as landlords, grocery stores, utility companies, etc.

Each of us has something we can trade for something else and it is the constant trading and exchanging throughout America that creates the immense wealth we have.

If you think you have little and you live in America, you’re most likely very, very wrong. And this pernicious lie, that we have little, that helps fuel the constant badgering that businesses ought to do this and that and owe us one thing or another.

There are plethora ways the government inhibits business, and in each and every situation where regulation and restriction purport to keep businesses playing “fair”, it is the consumer, you and I, who are hurt most.

In order for you and I to survive we must efficiently and effectively trade what we have for what we need, hopefully increasing the value of what we have in order to trade it more efficiently and for more.

Education is one key way to increase our value. By increasing our skill, our versatility, our ability, through learning and practice, we increase our value to those we’d trade our abilities to. We make a higher wage when we have more skills.

Looking at our small economy described above, government inhibits the economy, making exchanges more difficult, by taxing. By taking away percentages of the money value being used in the trade, they lower the value of our abilities. When we give a business our labor in exchange for an agreed-upon amount of their money, government takes a significant percentage of that money given to us in the form of income taxes.

They also tax the business itself, not just our wages. In fact, America has some of the highest business tax rates of the industrialized world. The government takes around one-third of businesses reported Net Profit.

Do you want to know why businesses try to write off so many expenses? Because for every dollar they cannot right off as a valid business expense, the government will take 30 cents.

What would happen if the government took 30 cents of your pay check? Well, unless you’re making very little, the government very well may be.

So maybe a better question is: What if you made 30 cents MORE for every dollar you currently make?

Let’s say you make 40 thousand dollars a year now. What would you do with 52 thousand? $12,o00 extra per year would add up significantly. A house payment in just a few years, the kids in private schools (or home schooled, grin), a new business you start yourself.

Instead, the government takes it.

I don’t begrudge the government a fair share of money. After all, government is necessary in a fallen world. And government has reasonable and rational expenses. And they are immense, relative to each of our individual budgets.

But when the government tells us it knows, better than we  ourselves do, how to do things which could either be left well enough alone or by private industry and a knowledgeable populace. Then coerces us into giving it an exorbitant amount of money to perform those services. That is not right. And it hurts us.

A business must, by nature, make more money than it spends. It must be profitable in order for it to stay in business. When people talk about windfall profits and how we ought to tax businesses making more than there fair share, they illustrate only how imbecilic their own level of understanding is regarding the economy.

When a business operates effectively and efficiently and makes an immense profit, those large profits entice other businesses into the same market. When multiple businesses operate in the same market, they must give reason for their consumers to choose them over their competitor.

Competition drives prices lower, as this is the most visible way to differentiate ones product. Competition also drives quality up, as a second, very visible differentiation.

So because a market was allowed to become lucrative, the consumers have better access to cheaper and higher quality products. Sounds great to me.

And it’s not just looking on the outside, at the balance sheets of the business and on the store shelves, at the price tags.

Those businesses that make more profit are able to employ more and more skilled workers to further improve their products.

Sure, this is a sunny picture. But in the market, averages work out in favor of the sunny picture. Your job may indeed suck, but have you tried looking for one that doesn’t?

It may not be the best time, in the present economy, with government ham-handed handling of the economy stifling the recovery and prolonging this downturn. But there are still companies looking for workers.

Maybe leaving the big city, with is stifling regulation on top of already onerous federal meddling causes most businesses to fail or move away, to a smaller city which is more willing to lower it’s regulation and encourage businesses to build and hire is what needs to occur.

But when you hear a politician or government bureaucrat tell you that businesses must pay “their fair share”, remember that business may be employing you with the money the government wants to take.

And what the government takes, it does not give back readily.

Business Friendly means employee friendly.

Employee friendly means you have a job. A good job. One where the employer has the means to take care of you and compensate you well.

As for me, I’m already paying my fair share and more, and I’m getting fed up.

In every generation there is a Golden Age. A time where the generation is most passionate about its beliefs, best equipped to achieve its goals, and most free to do the impossible.

Unfortunately, very few generations ever achieve their cause or are able to promote it successfully. Many attempt have been tried, but few have succeeded. The reason, each generation is given only a small time to achieve their goals. After, a generation achieves the point of maturity where they can do something on their own, there is instantly a time limit set on their peak effectiveness. They have few worry, little concerns, and large amount so freedom. The people in the generation are able to do more and be more than they ever have been before or ever will be again. Each day that passes brings the generation closer to the point of more responsibilities and more constrictions.

Each generation is given this very small portion of time to achieve their purpose and many of them miss this opportunity.

Unfortunately, I and my generation’s time is almost up. With in the next 1-4 years responsibilities will take our time, bills will demand our attention, and commitments will steal our freedom . . . however, I do not stand ashamed for my actions.

While it is not yet a time for retrospective, I do have to look back.

I remember hearing my generations purpose only a couple years ago. We had the call to lead a revival. Our parents had built build building as praise offerings from their hearts, but the buildings soon became idols and coffins. Then our older siblings started to notice the hypocrisy of the church and started to define their own passion filled, heart directed course. However, they were not to be the ones who would redefine the church.

That was my generations responsibility. We were to start the next revival and change the church. At this point, we have not achieved total success. We have challenged the church, but have not changed it. We hold a different radically different mindset, but have allowed it to be tempered by the rigidity of tradition.

We have only a couple measly years left to achieve our purpose. Only a couple years to make the change that we have not made yet. We stand in danger of failure.

However, I am not ashamed. I have done as my Lord has commanded me. I have answered His call. I have tried to lead others to this call and have succeed with some and failed with others. He has blessed me with a peace in my life that cannot be explained in anyway and the support needed to fill my few small responsibilities.

However, I still weep over what may become a lost opportunity. Soon, those I have grown up with will no longer be the ones with the special commission, but we will be the ones commissioned to grow, train, and support those who come after us. Those who, like my sister, have a desire to learn and grwo and are only 15.

While this commission is wonderful, it hardly achieves our special commission. But as for me and my house, we have served the Lord and we seek to glorify his name in all we do.

Thank you to those who have done the same.

The only right I have is the right to struggle.

It is a right to potential, not a promise to payoff.

And any government or organization or person who takes away my right to try it denying me the basic dignity of humanity.

Obama, his philosophy, and his government, are trying to do just that. The socialist doesn’t believe in the right to struggle. They are many people who believe that pain never accompanies merit and that the stench of sweat never surrounds the worthy man.

I would rather be left free and die trying, than to perish slowly in the ignominy of a cage designed of good intentions and built with hope and change.

I only ask to be allowed the right to struggle.

…to be doorways to intimacy with Him. And the best kept secret about obedience in the face of hard temptation is that there is a blessing waiting on the other side. Satan doesn’t want us to know that. He would prefer the usual succumb-and-repent routine.”
~Andree Seu, No Glib Utterances, World Magazine, July 18th 2009

On Wednesday afternoon I was laid off from my job, along with two others from the Service Desk.

ACS Inc is going through a belt-tightening and they cut the McDonalds IT Service Desk US Crew from 8 to 5.

We were a good team and I had good times with all the good people there. I’ll miss working alongside them.

But to the future.

I admit it’s a little worrisome being laid off in such times as these. But at the same time, it’s an adventure in trust, and in possible being forced into some of those free-market principles I’ve espoused philosophically, if not in actual practice.

It’s not a dire situation: ACS Inc let us go with 2 weeks severance pay (Yay! 2 weeks paid vacation! Right when my baby boy is due!). Insurance will continue through August 15th, which should cover the birth. And I signed up for unemployment insurance which will cover our needs quite well.

Be praying for Grace and I as we look forward to the birth of our son very soon. And that God would grant us peace and trust as He continues to lead us in the way He has for us.

Stay tuned for the future.

And if you know of someone looking for a skilled technologist, point them to my presence on the web where they can find my latest resume: Music2MyEar.com

Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates is a racist. And an opportunist and publicity hound for the sake of his racist cause.

He brings no resolution or improvement to the cause of race relations.

The Story

Professor Gates had just arrived home with his driver from a long trip, and found his front door damaged and unable to open.

In an affluent neighborhood site of two men, with a backpack over one shoulder, trying to shove their way into an apparently locked door is suspicious, regardless of the race.

A neighbor called the police to report a possible home invasion/robbery taking place.

Apparently it took around 20 minutes for the cops to arrive, by which time Professor Gates had found his way in the back door.

The police officer, responding to the possible home burglary report requested identification of Professor Gates.

Professor Gates commented back to the effect asking if it were now illegal to be black inside ones own house.

The Police officer arrested Professor Gates when he exhibited “loud and tumultuous behavior”.

The Breakdown

If I call the Police reporting a home invasion burglary in progress, the Police responding to the call are required to verify the occupants of the home are there legitimately and that the occupants are safe.

The Police officer responding to this situation was trying to ascertain the nature of the situation cautiously and according to his responsibility before the law and those he served. I don’t doubt some of the Police Officer’s pride was injured in the affront he received from Professor Gates, and this may indeed have contributed to the eventual outcome.

How hard would it have been for Professor Gates to respond peacefully and maturely and with deference to the arm of the Law asking him for identification?

A question I’m certainly not the first to ask: If Gates’ house were robbed while he’d been away and the Police Officer who responded allowed himself to be racially browbeaten into allowing the thief to continue on their way, what hell would the Office have faced?

My Opinion

Professor Gates may be well known, but that doesn’t mean he’s universally known. This ignorance may have come as a shock to the tired Professor as he was winding down from his long flight.

But the obvious problem was the chip he was carrying on his shoulder.

Gates’ reaction to this situation can bring nothing but embarrassment to those he purports to represent in his success, and illustrates a point I made a long time ago:

When any person, regardless of any unchangeable characteristic (such as race, gender, etc), is advanced artificially because some higher “level” of society is not “diverse” enough, that one’s most harmed are: first, the individual or individuals being elevated, and second, those they represent symbolically or actually. Role models are important, there are none who can deny this fact. When a whole generation of black Americans are seeing role models in the form of rap stars who are in and out of jail as frequently as they are on and off the stage. When the women the girls look to dress like whores and sluts, selling and subserviating themselves to men and boys. There is no respect or honor here, there will be precious little in the generation who looks up to them.

Professor Gates heads the W.E.B DuBois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard. It is telling that the philosophy of the departments namesake is very likely at play here. W.E.B DuBois championed the idea that the best way to resolve racial inequity in reconstruction America, post Civil War, was to find the top former slaves and other blacks, and advance them to very high positions. My commentary above was in response to this faulty idea.

A man is less a product of his surroundings than he is a product of his ability and character.

General Colin Powell, a military strategist and capable man of unimpeachable reputation and ability, was able to come up from roots in poor and depressed inner city life. And the scientist and inventor George Washington Carver was able to leave the life of servitude he was born into and grown into one of the premier inventors and scientists of all time.

The road to success, for all people no matter their immutable characteristics, should be paved only with the sweat of their own effort, the paths of their own choices, and the foundations of their own character.

Professor Gates apparently believes that the Police Officer, because he was white, was incapable of normal and balanced thought racially, and therefore addressed the REAL root of the problem, as he saw it, by accosting the Police Officer with his own queries upon the request by the officer that he identify himself.

The Bible tells that what we are passionate about will be revealed by what we say. What consumes us cannot be hid because it will show in our words.

It would appear Professor Gates’ heart is filled with extreme racial sensitivity. When I see an Officer of the Law, he sees a racist.

Professor Gates has shown he is not worthy of the respect given him. There are many better people than him, more worth of recognition and respect. And when the need for true role-models for the multitude of children and youth and even adults and anybody else aspiring to true greatness look to him, he fails them in exchange for a few fleeting moments of infamy.

One wonders what he sees in the seats in his classrooms.

The Guardian makes a sage observation: Never a good idea to get angry with the Police.

And a commentor on the WizBang Blog’s article opines that Gates’ didn’t get Daddy’s First Rule Of Power: “Never tickle somebody who can hold your feet off the floor.”

Words mean things, and ideas have consequences.

If you don’t agree with the above statement, The American Patriot’s Almanac will be just one more collection of quaint sayings by old and dead men.

Euripides is said to have said “The tongue is mightier than the blade”, and the words held within this book show the people who uttered them believed these words true. And often held the sword in defense of theirs and others tongues.

The American Patriot’s Almanac is more than simply a collection of sayings and quotes and factoids. It contains history, some of it stories I already knew, some of it containing fresh jewels I’d not previously known.

From the story of the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, the nation’s first conference on women’s rights, to the story of James Forten, the free-born grandson of slaves who grew up through the birth of America. He spent time as a prisoner of war. He worked his way up through a company until he owned it. He developed new technology to ease the job of sailors managing the sails. He organized protective brigades of black Americans to defend Philadelphia during the war of 1812, and he was instrumental starting the American Anti-Slavery Society.

The American Patriot’s Almanac will be a valuable addition to the library, bathroom reading shelf, or coffee table of any patriot interested in knowing more about the roots of America and it’s liberty.

…come packaged with so much glitter it’s hard to convince ‘em that other things might be better in the long run. ~Andy Griffith

An accurate description of the task of those trying to show the failure of liberal policies as much as those trying to raise children.

Lord help me as I face doing both.

From last week: I learned I’m not allowed to decide how responsible my children are and the resulting levels of freedom they can then enjoy.

And in the re-running of the classic comic For Better or For Worse, we learn that Ellie is an abusive parent, allowing and even requiring her children, and her friend’s children, to walk to the park.

She ought to have helicoptered as the current social freaks require, driving the boys to the park, catered to their every whim.

And allowed their legs to shrivel up and fall off.