iPandora

Yesterday I gave my thoughts on the death of Michael Jackson.

True to form, shortly after posting that article I thought of a simple argument that sums up what I spent paragraphs attempting to explain yesterday.

If a pedophile made music, we’d not consider him great for his music.

Music is amoral: it is not necessarily moral or immoral.

Pedophilia, however, is immoral. It is wrong in any and every situation to sexually abuse or misuse children.

If Charles Manson were a skilled artist, we would not celebrate his life and art when he died.

If the Una-bomber were an amazing trapeze artist, we’d not be celebrating his life and art when he died.

Just as we would not celebrate the life of a pedophile who wrote music, no matter how great his music, we ought not celebrate the life of a musician who was an unrepentant pedophile.

We ought to grieve that he failed to accept the redemptive work of Christ in his heart.

We ought to feel shame that we participated in the culture that deified him and protected him from the consequences of his actions in the illusory bubble of stardom.

But we cannot celebrate him.

To the extent we celebrate his life, we show our willingness to accept the unacceptable, and allow the unconscionable.

It’s been all over the place and most everybody has the same thoughts: the world has lost wonderful talent as it has lost Michael Jackson.

Conservatives, Liberals, Christians, Heathens alike are, for the most part, mourning the loss of this skilled musician.

Mike Gallagher was the first I heard to ask the question: Why are we remembering only the talent and the skillful music made by this man?

Let me get the boiler plate out of the way: The death of anybody is sad. If a Christian dies, there is the grief of loss here on earth, but the balancing joy knowing they are truly home at last and that our grief ought to be for ourselves still toiling here away from our true home. When an unrepentant sinner dies, the grief is much worse. There is no welcome for this person. There is simply the immediate inability to deny God any longer as the force of His self and all His holy attributes is no longer held off by the rationalizing mind and the containing body.

There is no reasonable evidence Michael Jackson accepted the saving Grace of Jesus Christ prior to his death.

There is always hope: he may have, on his deathbed, cried out to an ever-waiting and ever-listening andever-ready Jesus. If this is the case, we’ll know when we get to heaven.

But for now, it is reasonable, from human judgement, to assume Michael Jackson died with the full guilt of his own sins resting weightily upon his own, weak, shoulders.

Sin is sin, and there is no variance to it’s result. The Hitler’s of this world will suffer the same intermnible punishment meted out by the same just God for the same rejection of the same Holiness as the girl and boy blown up because they were too close to the exploding suicide bomber on their way to market in Fallujah.

But human’s judge variance in sin, because we must rationalize our own faults as not being “that bad.” And because we must restrain and punish those whose actions convey and cause inordinate danger to those around them.

Michael Jackson was a sinner.

There is little doubt he was a pedophile: His grown up sexual appetite coupled with his child-like and stunted emotional state and the stories of the several young boys with whom he slept and subsequently paid off leave little room for exhonoration.

As a society of justice we punish those who hurt and damage others by their actions. Those who prey sexually on the young damage those children’s ability to grow normally and lead productive lives, and so we punish them severely.

And when pedophiles die, we don’t celebrate them as an entire society.

I don’t advocate burning Michael Jackson’s music or videos. There is no purpose served by destroying it.

But his life isn’t worth celebrating. He made some ok music. He had some cool moves on the dance floor.

But he sexually assaulted young boys to satisfy himself as he was unable, in his stunted mind, to appreciate their future.

And so now, barring a hopeful miracle, he is facing God.

God isn’t playing reel-to-reel Thriller.

God is asking him for an account of his life.

It is with grief for the true loss of a life precious to the Lord God that I say, I fear it is going poorly for Michael Jackson.

In case you had trouble guessing: I like businesses.

If there weren’t business there wouldn’t be internet, iphones, cars, bicycles, buildings, tents, sleeping bags, fresh produce in the middle of winter, heat and A/C, in cars too, hospitals, medication, surgery…

You get the picture.

We’ve had government since the beginning of time, and it hasn’t done a thing directly to benefit or develop beneficent products and services (except nuclear energy and other war-related items).

We’ve also had businesses since the first person decided he’d rather spread and grow his wealth instead of laboring over the same rows in the same farm for his own families sustenance.

Chipotle is an excellent example of a good business.

Our wealth allows us to pay premium price for food raised and prepared in a reasonably environmentally conscious and sustainable manner.

And it tastes good, too.

Walmart is not too different from Chipotle.

The monstrous store chain that’s easy to hate until we need cheap razer blades and jeans and socks and hand towels and garbage can liners. Then everybody loves it.

Except the unions, who are never going to love Walmart until it caves to their regressive and stiflingly stupid and anti free market strong man tactics and effects.

I pray Walmart never does, and for good reason.

When Walmart enters an area, consumers win as the often cheaper prices at Walmart “encourage” the other stores to moderate their own prices.

The prices are not always better, but they are better enough of the time and for enough products to justify the crowds you normally find at these supercenters.

Does Walmart Save You Money? (read the comments, many people report savings in the $1000’s each year while others disagree with their perception of the business practices)

But enough about prices already, Walmart benefits your health!

Huh?

Indeed, studies are showing that people living near a Walmart or “club store” (Costco, Sam’s Club, etc) are lighter on average.

But don’t all the fat and ugly people shop at Walmart? No, it’s just the ugly people and me.

In an article published in Forbes Magazine, Art Carden, an Professor of Economics at Rhodes College in Memphis TN, reports on studies showing that the increased buying power people experience when benefiting from the Walmart effect has a direct and close correlation to the health of those people.

There are several reasons this may be, and the why or how is always a bit murkier than fact of correlation, but all of the possibilities enjoy sound economic sense.

Those benefiting most from the Walmart affect are…

…women, the poor, African-Americans and people who live in urban areas.

The arguments as to why and how and many, as I noted earlier, and some may find them difficult. Read it a few times if necessary.

Our evidence is indirect, but we think it shows that price changes can have subtle and sometimes hard-to-detect consequences. Any change in price results in two phenomena. The first is the substitution effect: a change in consumption mix due to a change in relative prices. If a bag of salad is $2 and a bag of potato chips is $1, then the price of salad in terms of chips is two bags and the price of a bag of chips is half a bag of salad. If a Wal-Mart opens and reduces the price of salad to $1 a bag and the price of chips to 75 cents a bag, the “salad price” of chips has risen (from 1TK2 bag to 3TK4 bag) and the “chip price” of salad has fallen from 2 bags to 4TK3 bags. In short, salad has become cheaper relative to chips.

This argument is based on basic price comparison. If the salad cost 2 times what chips cost before Walmart,  Jack and Jill are more likely to buy the salad now because it only costs 1.3 times more than the chips now.

Then there is the income effect:

If Wal-Mart sells food at lower prices–even if our incomes don’t change–every dollar can buy more. Therefore, we’re richer.

The crux of their findings is that people, when given a choice and a suitable price range, will purchase healthier foods.

Our data suggest that we buy healthier food when our purchasing power increases. There is a small increase in consumption of fruit and vegetables in places where Wal-Mart does a lot of business and a decrease–or smaller increase–in fatty food consumption relative to places where Wal-Mart doesn’t do business. That is, people might consume more fatty foods, but consumption of those unhealthy goods increases more slowly than it does for the rest of the population.

There are other facts, findings, and arguments in the article. I urge you to read the whole thing: Wal-Mart’s Weight Effect.

The point is, don’t be too quick to denigrate or disparage the current state of our free martket system.

It’s not always pretty, and it’s easy to find fault.

However, compared with any other system out there, capitalism and the free market are the best at providing escalating levels of service and product to the most people most equitably and with the least amount of downside.

It’s been proven time and again, yet we in America now are dangerously close to forgetting completely, if we haven’t already.

The free market and capitalism isn’t about the blind, mindless pursuit of money at all costs, that’s anarchy.

Free markets and capitalism are about working in tandem with those around us to maximize our return by providing the best service or product to others. It’s a mutually beneficial system.

And we’re in danger of throwing it away.

H1N1 (swine) flu isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Gee, it’s just aweful when the bugbear doesn’t live up the trumped up claims the media seems to want us to believe.

The Illinois Public Health Director has not drunk the koolaid:

The Illinois Department of Public Health director told state lawmakers Tuesday that it’s important to remain vigilant in the face of the H1N1 flu virus, but fears of a pandemic flu are overblown.

“We have to keep these things in perspective, look at them rationally, know what the threat is and deal with it in a rational way. We know right now that this virus is acting very similarly to the regular seasonal flu,” said Dr. Damon T. Arnold, head of the state public health agency.

“At this juncture, this virus seems to be in a mild course,” Arnold said. “We’re recommending now that for routine cases you take care of yourself at home as you would for seasonal flu.”

As ShatteredChina wrote here earlier, fear is not a reasonable response to this flu.

Yet fear is a powerful tool. Those desiring power desire a fearful populace. When someone tells you to fear, they are seeking to gain power over you.

Fear not, we are told.

An unfearful populace is a strong populace. The Christian following the most frequent admonition of God is a person who cannot be lead by whim or desire of the power-hungry.

And the kids can go back to school now.

And big brother wishes we’d die younger.

Two reasons: It’s a sure fix for the Social Security cesspool, and they can adjust the artificial, age-graded stratifications of service wherein those with greater potential determined by mathematically “fair” judgments of age and expected longevity.

Just a few of the many benefits of the new socialized medicine system President Obama and the Democrats laid the groundwork for in the big spending bills they’ve been forcing us tax payers to swallow since he entered office:

• Reducing costs by “guiding” doctor decisions
• Doctors surrendering autonomy and learning to operate less like sole proprietors
• Establishes the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, whose goal would be to slow down new medications and techniques because these drive up costs
• Forcing the elderly to accept the realities of aging and surrendering certain advanced treatments

Betsy McCaughey says HillaryCare 2.0 (ObamaCare) will ruin your health, especially if you’re old.

It’s being sold as the solution to our current health care system. But with our current system, if the old were forced out of treatments that would improve their lives, there would be an uproaor. If the government says they can’t be treated, who is there to turn to?

It always starts as something good:

As elsewhere, the combination of an aging population and the increasing cost of new technologies has started to put immense pressure on the French health system. But the French system of compulsory insurance – something for which many Democratic leaders are calling in America – acted as a Trojan horse, allowing the government to seize control over increasing areas of health care.

When costs became a political issue, the government mounted a cost crackdown. But instead of eliminating inefficiencies through greater individual responsibility, broader choice and more competition, the French government did precisely the opposite: It sought to control costs by fiat – that is, by piling on more bureaucracy.

But don’t worry: the Obamessiah will look out for each of us with the personal care of his omnipotent eye.

Oh, and it’s also why Obama is for lawful, government funded, unlimited and unrestricted abortion: fewer of us the government has to support.

What makes us so special?

Rather than embarking on a long dialogue, as is my norm, I want to instead throw some things out on the table for you to think about.

First . . . do we really readthe Bible, or do we just preview it through our Americanized mindset? In American culture, my actions are treated as my own, and the consequences are solely mine. However, read the Bible. Truly read it. The story of Achan clearly demonstrates that not only is a person responsible for their crime, but their wife, children, and grandchildren are to suffer for the sin and their possessions are to be destroy. Do I condone this? No, with fulfilment of the law, God brought grace. But guess what? God hasn’t changed, we are still responsible for the sins of those we are connected to (accountability) are our sins still effect those we are around (responsibility), to a much larger extent than our American minds want to accept.

Second . . . what makes us so special (American Christians)? We walk around acting like being an American Christian is a benefit to God. Somehow, we have a general mindset (not when we think about it, but when we just normally act) that God is in debt to us since we are American Christians and he owes us providence and goodwill. I got news . . . I am of no more value to God than a Chinese Christian who is of no more value to God than a Chinese heathen. We act like God owes it to us to keep our country “safe” and prosperous, but God owes us no such thing.

Third . . . are we (American Christians) the ones who decided who is a Christian nation and who gets God’s blessings? Somehow, we feel like we have a direct line to God and can dictate to Him who he should bless (us) and how the world should be run (through our prosperity). However, here is a though . . . maybe God is using, and blessing the Chinese. Here is an even harder thought, maybe God is using the Chinese to reshape the world for the next stage of human development. That is a hard pill to take, but guess what . . . we (as Christians) should rejoice in that because it is the next good  step in God’s good plan.

In closing, maybe we should get over ourselves, read what God really says (not what fits our mindset), and take joy in world event (and prepare for joyous persecution) because God has ordained it for his glory.

Here is a priceless article out of the WSJ. There are no real “slick” lines in the article or fancy catchphrases, just sound, well though out reasoning.

The article details how the economies woes are no longer the fault of the Bush administration, the poor credit lenders, or the greedy oil barons. In fact, the article explains that the economy was actually recovering from those disasters . . . untill the anticapitalists came it. Check it out.

There is one quote really worth passing on to you all though. This is about AIG and Citigroup.

Citigroup’s restructuring last week added not a dollar of new capital, and also no clear direction.

I don’t know about you, but this really sounds a lot like a major theme in Dilbert. The constant changing of the outside of the organization with no real changes to the people, operations, or leadership (usually the real problem).

“…to be Pro-Choice.”

Neil highlighted this fact in his article on why it is abortion supporters who are the ones still stuck in the middle ages of scientific ignorance.

It is an incontrovertible fact that life begins at conception and those who say otherwise are either deceiving or deceived.

And then John posted this video which uses humor and passion to reveal the moral depravity of the abortion industry.

Christianity has been recently buzzing with with what some people call a “prosperity” gospel. Over simplified, this gospel refers to a leader (preacher) calling on his people to becomes saved and everything will be taken care of (to the extreme, become saved and you will become rich). In Christendom, certain preachers have been labeled as “prosperity preachers.” People like Joel Osteen and Rick Warren have been assigned this label and ridiculed in areas of Christendom for their messages and actions. However, is this ridicule really due them?

I wish to make my argument in defense of many preachers (and specifically these two) through three different avenues. I want show you that these preachers preach a relevant gospel, not a traditional gospel. They use Christ as the backbone of their gospel, and their efforts are supported by scripture.

Many people easily despise the like of Joel Osteen and Rick Warren but have not listened to their message and heard they were “liberal” from someone else. Recently, I actually sat down and watched a Joel Osteen sermon. Guess what he was talking about? Self-Esteem. What topic could be more relevant to today’s needs? Honestly, there are so many people who struggle day to day with the ins and outs of insecurity and self esteem and here was a preacher giving them God’s perspective on the subject. Sure, this isn’t a traditional topic like the beatitudes, or Hell’s hot flames . . . but it is what people today need to hear. However, because people like Rick Warren and Joel Osteen are not preaching a line by line gospel, they are often ridiculed and despised by the traditional establishment. However, they aren’t teaching the words of the gospel (line-by-line), but the heart of the the gospel.

Not only is their teaching more relevant, their actions are more relevant. I remember Rick Warren sitting down with Barack Obama before the general election to promote AIDS awareness. At first I was taken back by this. What in the world is a Christian pastor doing associating with a secular agenda (that is originally linked to a sinful lifestyle)? However, I was soon convicted that, this is what we are supposed to be doing. As Christians we should be promoting AIDS awareness, we should be looking for the cure, we should be concerned because God LOVES the people with AIDS. Who better in Christendom is there to promote AIDS? Charlie Hunt (the head of the Southern Baptist Convention)? No one knows of him and he is stuck in an old establishment that is trying to splice syllables of scripture but can’t tell the laity its relevance to every day life. There is no one better than Rick Warren. His name is out there. He is respected even on the West Coast (a very hard thing to do). All that these preachers are doing in exemplifying the true gospel of Christ. A gospel that meets people where they are and addresses their direct needs in basic, simple, and easy to identify with ways.

However, there is still the argument that many people throw out the Joel Osteen doesn’t hardly use the scriptures in his messages. Once again, I am compelled to ask, how you ever watched him? A Christian survey service recently compared the average references to scripture in a “standard message” from a “normal” pastor to Joel Osteen. It was found that the normal message will contain between 7-15 references to scripture while Joel Osteen regularly references the scriptures between 25-35 times a message. Sure, it might not be an exact quotation, but is the Bible about the words, or about the heart behind the words? In fact, I recently sat down with my mentor and counted the number of times Joel Osteen references scripture. We were only watching for about 20 minutes and had counted well over 20 references. Joel Osteen and Rick Warren look the the scriptures for a message, not a recitation, and this is what they present. They give preach a gospel that speaks through the heart of the text to the current needs of our society.

However, there is still a further defence of these prosperity gospel preachers. I wish to direct your attention to Philippians. Specifically Philippians 1:15-18

“It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. The latter do so in love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, no sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice.?

Did you hear that? The important notes are here “The former preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely . . . But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from falses motices or true, Christ is preached.” What is that? It doesn’t matter how it is presented, it just matters that the gospel is preached. This is the true defense of the prosperity gospel. God is being taught and his name is being lifted up.

Sure, I have my issues with some churches and some Christians actions, but, as Paul said, “What does it matter? Christ is preached” and that is all we are called to do, however that looks

This is a slight commentary on Chipotle (the restaurant chain) and how it symbolizes the significant superiority of the free market economy and accompanying extreme wealth and their many benefits to the world at large.

Have you eaten at Chipotle? If not, you should.

It’s not really Mexican food, per se.

It’s more like Starbucks does Mexican food. We all know Starbucks isn’t really coffee, but it’s still really good and we’re willing to pay a lot for it.

Chipotle uses fresh ingredients and a limited number of choices in an efficient and modern atmosphere to serve quality food at reasonable prices.

Kinda like Henry Ford: You can get anything you want at Chipotle, so long as it’s a burrito (not completely true, but I’m suffering under a plethora of metaphors and similes today. Sorry).

Anyway, it’s good. I like it. My wife does too. And lots of other people too.

Chipotle uses it’s efficiency structure, derived from it’s owner, McDonalds Corp’s,  excellent experience at high-volume, low-cost supply-chain infrastructure management to maintain significant profits while maintaining reasonable prices.

Unless they were making tons of money from us eager eaters, Chipotle would not be able to be such a force for good so far as the environment is concerned.

Chipotle uses it’s leverage with it’s sour cream supplier, Daisy, to make sure the cows that give their milk to the Chipotle sour cream cause are not fed any hormones of any type. A non-hormone injected cow will not produce anywhere near the same amount of milk as one who is kept hormone-high. Which means that the “cleaner” milk costs more. If Chipotle were not making tons of money, it could not afford to reqire this better milk.

I probably couldn’t taste the difference between hormonal sour cream and non-hormonal sour cream, but I’m happy to be enjoying stuff that doesn’t  cause so much trouble to the cow.

Chipotle’s beef, pork, and chicken likewise come from free-range animals not injected or force-fed. This means the amount of usable meat from each animal is much less than ones that are artificially “enhanced”, lowering the profit and raising the cost of each animal.

All because I pay 5.35 for my loaded steak burrito, all these animals are able to enjoy better lives and provide me with my enjoyment in a more natural, healthful way.

Could an eatery in a poor nation support the same level of “sustainable” resource management?

It’s not that we can compel them to behave in a certain way. If the way they raise their cows raises the costs beyond what their economy can support, they’ll starve.

In a hierarchy of needs, basic human needs come before animal comfort. If feeding the cows in destitute South American and African nations means the people will be able to afford beneficial red meat while saving more money so their sons and daughters can attend school, that’s a trade worthwhile.

As their education level rises, their production will speed, efficiency will rise, and the average wealth of their economy will increase until they can afford places like Chipotle and the less efficient, but more friendly methods of production.

So don’t hate the economy, your wealth and ease, or the rampant consumerism that drives much of our lives these days. It’s not all good, but it’s far from all bad. Americans give and give and give more, by orders of magnitude, than anywhere else on the planet. We produce more per unit of labor, and we own more per person than anywhere else, and it leads to a continued cycle of growth and giving.

By working hard and excercising a responsible or even an irresponsible level of gratitude to God for His beneficence to us in giving to those without, we cause more good.

God did not punish the men who used their business acumen to double His granted funds, neither will He begrudge you trying hard, with ethics and moral behavior, to maximize your economic potential.

Now go and sin no more. And eat at Chipotle.

Twitter.

Yes, I’m one of “those” people. Texting to the world.

I think the moment that most symbolizes the power of twitter was when an average lady sent a direct message to a CNN newsman. No email address, mailing address, or phone number necessary.

There was also the moment when another average lady stood up and took charge and lead a massive “melt the phones” drive when the House was debating and voting on the stimulus package. Together we helped get the info on shaky representatives being pressured to support the travesty and we put pressure and support to them to buck up and stand strong.

The resulting vote tallies with every single Republican and several Democrats voting against the  bailout was a testament to the strength in concentrated power.

Twitter does it’s best to limit us arbitrarily.

#TCOT is a hash tag used to feed all the messages sent by the group Top Conservatives On Twitter, and it feeds tens of thousands of messages each day. By far the largest and most active feed, and Twitter refuses to acknowlege that power in it’s trends pages.

But we continue to stand and shout, and it’s fun.

Find me @music2myear.