iPandora

• : eggnog, Christmas tree, lights and ornaments, my wife, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Christmas has arrived! #

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Listening to christmas music for the first time this year. Living with a wife as wonderful as mine sure changes things.

I miss a lot of people.

Living near Sacramento for 20 years or so, in San Jose for 2 years, and now Chicago area for 3-1/2 years now, there are many people I’ve left behind, both in space and time.

My Facebook friends list is testament to this. Only people I’ve actually met or had substantial interaction or connection with are my friends on facebook. I don’t accept people as friends just because we have mutual friends or because they ask. And still the list just passed 600 people.

Old churches, social groups, organizations, choirs, jobs, etc. Each contribute a few more memories to me and a few more friends to my life. And a few more people to feel melancholy when I remember I haven’t seen them for some time.

I’m glad that for my thus far short history the years have been full of joy and pain, angst and enthusiasm, love and loss. It means that I’ve made much of the opportunities I’ve been given and for the many people I’ve rubber shoulders with many relationships have begun.

And for the vast majority of them, I know they will continue on forever as they are with brothers and sisters of Christ.

Better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

And so, on this Thanksgiving Day, 2008, I wish that for each of you there will be people you can remember, joys you can share, love you can bask in, and plenty of blessings to relish today, and for each and every day of your life, both long past and yet to come.

Michael Medved opened my eyes.

On his radio show he was trying to explain on “Disagreement Day” to disheartened conservatives that trying to “purify” the Republican is not the correct course of action. The root of his argument:

You win by making your group bigger, not smaller.

First: you should not win by selling out. A win bought at so dear a price may not be worthwhile.

Second: you should not compromise your deepest principles either.

But, in my stands and beliefs there is a hierarchy: Abortion is one of my strongest concerns, to not value life is to not value life, there is no grey area. The issue of homosexual privilege is strong, though not as strong as abortion. Abortion is more external and more obviously a violation of laws and human rights and can be dealt with more legislatively than homosexual privilege.

The economy is a matter of principle: free market economics benefit the most people in a way most conducive to supporting Free Will as divised by God. But we can witness to people regardless of thier economic station and a faulty economy is less of a harm to people’s souls than abortion or homosexuality.

By balancing the hierarchy of beliefs and convictions and principles I can find ways to include people who I may have less in common with in reaching my goals.

I have no qualms working with members of the Mormon church to work for significant reinforcement of traditional marriage and the preventing of special privilege for homosexuals beyond the privilege accorded to heterosexuals, despite my serious disagreements with their beliefs.

I have no qualms working with Catholics to further the protection of the innocent unborn despite my belief that most Catholics are decieved and not Christians.

I have no problem working with athiests in pursuit of a libertarian economic policy despite serious disagreements on probably every other issue due to our differences in root beliefs.

The point is: Being wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, I will work with any I can to achieve the ends which follow my convictions. I will be accepting and friendly to all as people so that none will have reason to say that I’m not for them as they could be for me.

With the devious I will be devious, with the narrow I will be narrow. The goal being that by any and all means, except those which violate my conscience and God’s law, we can advance the cause of physical and economic freedom here on earth for as many as possible, and hope and eternal freedom in the life hereafter for as many as will believe.

Refining this ideal is the fact that people follow a leader with a vision. It does not have to be a clearly defined vision so much as a stirring vision (or at least one spoken of stirringly, see Barack Obama). Reagan was the “Great Communicator” and people followed his visions. Barack Obama has a way with words, a visible empathy that stirs people to want to believe what he says.

Individually, we need to be ready and willing and able to act in concert with all kinds of people, making the “big tent” an actual Big Tent. Seek common ground more than ideological purity within the bounds of our own individual abilities to accept differences. Instead of finding people most like us, find people most able to bring most of us along with them in a path headed towards truth.

As a group we need to find those people who have strong and principled stands we can agree with mostly who are also strong communicators and vibrant individuals. Vision and passion have few foes who can stand against them working together.

That is my plan for real change.

Continued from part 6

Salvation: God set up a system of free will. It is not the nicer, or cleaner, or prettier system. But it is the best system. In the short run (life here on earth) there is much pain and suffering, but in the long term those who find the truth and are set free through their acceptance of it experience the personal peace and freedom which the rest of the world will never understand.

Also, looking at America. God does not necessarily reserve His blessing for those who follow exactly in His way, and we often cannot see why it is God bestows blessing upon one and appears to withhold it from another. America, for whatever reason, is blessed far beyond any other nation right now. We have an incredible level of personal wealth spread throughout a percentage of the population unprecedented in the history of civilization. This has many benefits, dangers, and opportunities.

The benefits are obvious: a level of development and technological advancement with only a few equals, a level of stability and available leisure unmatched through history by a greater amount of the populace, and many other. The dangers are real: an apathy for anything worthwhile. The opportunities are endless: the ability to send money and resources to corners of the Globe with such volume that entire nations make base their economies on our own, sending us goods to get our money.

The Christian in this economy has many responsibilities. The foremost is to not allow themselves to be controlled by anything except Christ. The next is to provide for his own as God has given him. The next, but not less important, is to use what he has been given to meet the needs of those around.

This is done with wisdom and grace. Even Paul used strong language when advising the churches that they should not give money to just anyone who asks. He said that it is wrong to give money to someone who is able to work and does not. He said that hunger will teach that person the necessity of work. It is better to allow the person to starve now and learn, than to feed him and harm him by that food.

Further, in the StoryofStuff, it become obvious that the narrator believes the entity primarily responsible for her desired salvation is the government. Our Constitution prohibits the government from taking that sort of responsibility from private industries, a policy Barack Obama knows about and wishes to change. The very idea of government being capable of successfully supporting the social needs of a dependent population is a historical, philosophical, and theoretical demonstrably false idea.

Think Communism/socialism/Marxism. Think the philosophers of the French Revolution and Enlightenment. Think of who is best able to decide how to use their own money? You or the government.

And even if you think the government is better suited to that task than yourself: who then will God hold responsible for the use of the resources He has gifted to us? The Government? I think not.

God will judge governments in His own way, and He will judge me by how I made use of the resources available to me. If I abdicate my responsibility by passing my buck to the government willingly, allowing them to decide how to spend my dollar wastefully, I am held responsible by God for that abdication.

No, I stand with the resources God has given me, knowing the myriad problems plaguing the world, and using my resources to accomplish the most good according to the conscience God has given me. I can and will do no less.

Continued from part 4

CONSUMPTION: “Golden arrow” “heart of the system, the engine that drives it.
“Protecting this arrow (of consumption) has become the top priority for (government and corporations).”
After 9/11 President Bush told US to shop. – The economy had been hurt. It was not the only thing he said. Bush said many things during that time, among them he dealt with the serious blow to our economy. He was standing well in his position with the bully-pulpit to minimize the effect the attacks had on us. The goal of the terrorists was to cripple our nation in as many ways possible, including economically. To address this specific threat Bush did make statements encouraging us to not sit tight and hunker down. If the economy took a hard hit from people acting in fear, people would have lost their jobs, lost money, experienced much more damage than we actually did. This was not a cold-calculated attempt to shore up his ‘buddies’ in business, this was Bush’s way to keep Americans acting from a position of strength.
Percentage of resources still in use 6 months after purchase: 1% -
99% trashed within 6 months – How much of this is packaging? Terrible packaging, wasteful. Can the government do better? They can’t design a simple tax system. What do you think their packaging would look like? Once again, the private citizen using the resources available to them can change this. In the news just today Amazon.com reports they are redesigning packaging and encouraging other companies to do the same to minimize waste and improve the user experience with packaging in response to one person’s ‘encouragement’. It’s not that this isn’t a problem, it’s just the implied solution is far from the best.
“It didn’t just happen. It was designed.”
“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption…We need things consumed, burned up, replaced and discarded at an ever-accelerating rate.” Victor Lebow, 1955 – This is idolatry to a Christian who participates to the extent people such as Lebow desire or prescribe. That is undeniable. But it is wisdom to participate to the extent God allows us, for in our participation we expand the gifts God has given us (Parable of the Talents), benefit others through the melding and expansion of each others resources, and enable ourselves to support ministries which further His work on this earth.
Purpose of the economy is to create more consumer goods – NOT: Health care, Education, Safe transportation, Sustainability, Justice. Governments have a God-given responsibility to apply Justice. We ourselves, as individuals and together as an independent society have the opportunity to meet all the other needs through the strength of the economy. If there was not this vehicle for spurring innovation and creating wealth, how would any development and growth occur in any of these other categories?
Planned obsolescense: “Planned for the dump” OK for smaller things, packaging. Now bigger stuff too. – Solution? Research and buy more reliable stuff. I purchase a quintessential toss-away technology item, a portable CD player, 10 years ago. I paid $150, which is significantly more than people pay on average for such devices. However, mine is still running. My cost is therefore only $10 per year. A good price. And no extra junk for those 10 years from disposing of cheaper products. It’s not like I’ve not abused the device, it’s followed me to work and school in my pockets, walking, on the bus, bicycling, etc… It’s just better. Armed with the extensive knowledge we have today, we are more able than ever to verify products reliability. All this ability is because of the capitalist system which encourages innovation.
Percieved obsolescence: “Convinces us to throw away stuff that is still perfectly useful”
Not keeping up with the times.
“It’s to keep us buying new shoes” – We are allowing ourselves to be controlled and defined by media. There is nothing which says we must act a certain way as defined by the media, there is just our decision to allow such things control in our lives. If we allow ourselves to be controlled, we are not victims, we are weak but nevertheless guilty independent moral agents.

National happiness peaked in 1950s (post war). Why? – Because we were all working, on a post-war high. Industry was thriving. Poor people 20 years previously were now part of the exploding middle class. More people were going to school and getting college degrees than ever before. All because of the incredible wealth ingenuity and innovation supported by a free-market, capitalist system which had just vanquished a strong enemy in the form of Fascist Nazi Germany.

DISPOSAL: Trash – 4.5 pounds each day per person

Dumped in landfill or burned and dumped – Burning trash was the main power generation method in Woodland, CA. It may not be cleanest, but it does use the the output in a creative and productive manner.

Climate change: incineration, super toxins, Dioxin. – Climate change does not enjoy the scientific consensus many would like it to. After the UN report on climate change came out, several scientists sued to have their names removed from its list of endorsers, claiming they’d been misled in the content of the report. The climate change models popularized by Al Gore are suspect at the very best, with causation and correlation confused and data manipulated in ways that ought not be in serious scientific pursuits. Further, the aims and goals of many of those claiming catastrophic global warming are more damaging to society than they are helping to global climate change.

Recycling helps – Recycling is not energy effective. It takes more energy to recycle paper and plastic than it does to make more and new. Not that recycling is bad, it just takes a wealthy society to support an effective recycling system.

Core of the problems? - The solutions proposed in so many of these arguments engaged the government in taking over huge sections of private industry in an attempt to make it all work in some happy circle. Individuals building corporations to provide creative and effective solutions or convincing other corporations to clean up their acts is more effective and do not have the same crippling effect on the economy and devastation on people’s lives as the government intrusion.

Labor rights, blocking landfills and incinerators, taking back government (of the people by the people). - How do labor rights get in here? This is not a list of solutions, it’s a laundry list of the speaker’s favorite pet socio-political projects. Taking back government is an excellent course of action, one I can definitely sign on to. But I think her ideas and my ideas of what that government ought to do are very different and mutually irreconcilable. Instead, make government small and increase the ability of people to convince corporations to act responsibly. At the same time remove the protections from people who do try to convince those corporations so that frivilous suits over pointless and wasteful stupidities will be deterred from their damaging and greedy quests.

“Chuck the throw-away mindset” – Excellent idea. All for this one.
“Local living economies” – Read: “Master-planned communities” Who plans those communities? Allowing communities to grow naturally is better. Zoning laws needlessly restrict the growth of communities along the predetermined lines preferred by city planners.

People created problem, people have to create solution. - But can we? All these problems are symptoms of a single, much larger problem: human sin. And we are unable to resolve it. We do what we can as part of our changed and redeemed natures as Christians to fix problems as we can with the first goal of bringing others in from the dark of sin and into the light of Christ.

Continue reading in part 6

In honor of today, and people’s thoughts, I am staring a running blog for the next couple days that will highlight people’s election oriented Facebook and Myspace statuses. All the other authors are invited to contribute to this blog.

Emily E. – is thank God it’s the last day.

Andrew B. – let the entertainment begin. I won’t look at the news till tomorrow.

Teresa P. – is proud to be an AMERICAN!!!

Tim S. – says “Go mccain”!

Sonja L. – is torn between candidates…. I lilke both in different ways.

Angela G. – is working at the polls all day tomorrow. Please go vote!

Marie H. – is not looking forward to standing in line for hours to vote tomorrow!

Maggie B. – is praying that God’s will be done tomorrow, whatever that may be.

Hillary B. – is really ready for this election to be over.

Courtney W. – is the 1st person to donate her status to not caring about getting out the vote on whichever candidate. Just vote for who you want, and pray. God knows best.

Chad P. – voted McCain/Palin. You can too! .

Melissa D. – is turning off the stinkin’ tv! If I see ONE MORE political ad, I may scream……

Chris O. – “This is how liberty dies… with thunderous applause.”

Lauren P. – is giving everything to God! .

Hayley B. – is “going to love socialized america” not.

Joseph B. – is gonna treat the election the same way David treated King Saul. With respect and honour, and the knowledge that God works all things out for good.

Bernice A. -  praying for this nation and will hold steadfast to God’s word.

Audrey S. – is hoping that Obama fulfills his promises since he’s now our president. (Lets hope this doesn’t happen!)

Justin W. – is my president is black, my lambo’s blue, and i’ll be danged if i ain’t too.

Christina H. – doesn’t know what to think….

Bryson H. – is consoled in the fact osama won’t be able to mess us up too badly in four years. And by then ppl l be smart enough t keep him out.

Sam H. – here’s the real story–Pelosi defeats Sheehan!

Margaret H. – ohhh boy…

Tim S. – really needs to move to a redstate.

Melissa D. – watched a movie instead of the election. Politics OVERLOAD.

Chase K. – is thouroughly disappointed in the way many “Christ followers” have behaved during this election. But feels the better candidate won tonight. Bravo Obama, Bravo. (Not sure I agree with you Chase)

Tyler R. – is putting things aside for… ever.

Reece A. – “It is the end of the world as we know it.”, Obama is going to destroy america, but he can’t take away my guns or my faith!

Steve S. – is tired… of everything, g’night.

Mark S. – 1 Samuel 12:13-15. (Good one Mark)

Heather W. – is thankful for a God who is still the same and is praying for our new president!

Matthew B. – is glad that there will be big issues and lots to do. Anyone up for a fight? You’d better be…

Sammi W. – is trusting God. He has a plan, He knows best! I think some people have forgotten…”One nation under God!”

Bethany B. – is not a happy Camper not that Obama has won…how can we be so stupid to elect someone who doesnt surpport our Soilders,and hates our Military…Dumb Ass.

Scott R. – is still in shock from the election results…I still feel that either way we, the people, lost. But the reality is still evading me.

Jessica P. – is not gonna let the news of the new prez rob me of my joy in Jesus! God please havve mercy on us.

B. J. J. – Obama made history by being the 1st African-American president in the United States and I am going to get a newspaper to remember that historic day.

Emily T. – does not want people to blame her when this country goes down the drain – i did not vote for him.

Sarah H. – is very disapointed in the election results!

Grace B. – still loves America.

Amanda T. – is ?

Ryan C. – Will respect and pray for Obama as the President of the United States as all christians should.

Hayley B. – is “going to love socialized america” not.

Tim V. – salutes his president, MR. Barack Obama.

about our consumer economy?

How does a Christian live in a consumer economy?

Or, why using a pro-life criteria as a single-issue voting guide is acceptable and responsible in the American Republic.

A fellow-student of my wife’s at her well-known Christian school wrote a note stating her belief that Obama is a better Christian and will be a better President than McCain. It was discouraging to read.

This makes the second person who I’d've thought would be able to see beyond the incessant, sycophantic cheerleading by the MSM and the carefully tailored lies of the Obama campaign to the real depth of his deception and would not support him for that.

I guess an audacious hope in change for the sake of hope or something similar really is something for which people yearn to such an extent they are willing to kneel at the baals of our culture and join the thronging hordes chasing the dream of socialism.

I thought I had one more generation before America had it’s watershed moment of decision over communism.

We can’t choose our situations or the perils which will beset our life, we can only do our best in the situations with which we are faced. As when Frodo faced with despair his imminent doom:

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil.

But to the subject at hand:

This student, writing in her note, commented that she had people in her life who would not vote for Obama under any circumstances due to his support of Abortion. She considered this view too narrow and not a careful approach to the broader issues at hand.

She further commented, as noted earlier, that per her reading of Proverbs, Obama was living his Christian witness on the campaign to an extent she’d not seen elsewhere.

Two questions: Is a single-issue pro-life position too narrow a view and is Obama living a Christian witness on the campaign trail?

The abortion battle which divides much of our society so drastically is so divisive and drastic because it is so very important, and those who have considered it at all either believe it is extremely important for many reasons beyond those just on it’s face or they are decieved.

Suitable to the depth of the issue (not the complexity, abortion is not complex: the baby is either dead or alive), there are a plethora of positions on abortion, all along the continuum from “No, not ever” to “The more dead the merrier, the later the better”. I can understand and sympathize with those who have honestly experienced a “for the life of the mother” situation and have their ideas formed that way. But were my wife in that position (though the percentage chances of that are incredibly miniscule), I would only allow myself the position that it is an accepted risk and part of life that we go through, and that were it necessary for me or my wife to give up our lives for the sake of our child, that is the correct thing to do. Pragmatically, it is the measuring of potential: my child has greater potential than I. Theologically, Jesus died for me, God’s child, I can die for my child. Being a man it is easy to dismiss my argument as being ill-considered and shallow and prone to revisiting when I’m actually faced with that. But the truth is there, and I could not live with another decision.

Most average people believe the lies that abortion is intended only for rare cases of parental abuse, rape, incest, and the like, and therefore support it for those reasons. Some people recognize it for it’s inherent racism: whole generations of black and other minority children cut down like so much government-subsidized and unwanted wheat.

The real militants take it is a watershed for womens rights, making motherhood as much a choice as fatherhood.

Only the cold-killers go all the way: Abortion anytime, anywhere, for any purpose. Obama voted against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act in the Illinois Legislature AFTER it was ammended to included the obligatory protections for cases of rape and incest at his request. This is not a case of one random vote against, it is a case of him realizing the political expediency of something (support for such an obviously good piece of legislation) and then changing his mind for the sake of his personal belief that children are only to be kept when they’re wanted.

Obama further supported and defended a hospital which was found to be condoning the practice of leaving unwanted babies delivered during botched abortions unattended in storage closets until they died.

Obama is for, and this is not a debatable or arguable issue, the allowable killing of babies who have survived the horrifics of an abortion and are living outside of their mother.

Right now we call this murder.

What kind of man believes this is good? What kind of president would that man be who believe such a thing?

Human dignity was a term this student used to describe the totality of Obama’s ideas. His ideals were better for human dignity.

If we as a society believe it’s OK to kill babies AFTER they’re born, have we ANY acceptable or reasonable perception of human dignity?

A man who would not work to save a baby does not understand the magnificence and wonder of human life. A man who does not understand these basic aspects of human dignity has no dignity himself.

It is not a small view or a narrow perception to believe that one who does not support the protection of human life, especially that of the weakest and most innocent among us, is not a fit man to be president.

Is Obama living a “Christian” witness on the campaign trail?

He denies that children are a blessing from the Lord. Or if believes that, he doesn’t want that blessing.

He finds it necessary to lie about his past and about his views and opinions on issues. He was not raised in the middle class but by his extremely successful bank president grandmother. Nothing against him or his grandmother for that. I would not think less of him, were he to only not seek to hide it and lie about it.

He claims that it was deregulation which allowed the banking failures when it was his direct actions and work which contributed towards the protection of Fannie and Freddie from scrutiny and increased regulation at the hands of the Bush administration and John McCain years ago which may have averted this crisis we are now experiencing.

He claims that taking a position on the beginning of human life is “above his pay grade”, again failing to stand up, as a Christian man ought to have done, in protection of the innocent and unborn among us and denying that his actions, speaking much louder than his words, show that he believes human life begins when the parents decides they want the child and not a moment sooner.

He associates with people who support the disruption of society and killing of people in terrorist acts and who when given opportunity to recant, say they did not do enough.

He spends 20 years in the pews of a church which has more in common ideologically with Marxism than Christianity as Jesus modeled it.

This is not hidden fact or obfuscated information. It is all readily available to those who would listen.

I am not to judge because I will be judged with the same measure I have measured with, but I can observe based on the evidence before me and draw conclusions.

I just don’t understand.

If only the papers would run this headline.

Dinesh D’Souza has started an informal charity with the purpose of raising money for George Obama, the other Obama’s poorer half brother.

While Barak cannot spare a few dollars to help his half-brother George, people with much lesser means are even now putting aside a few dollars to help a man they hardly know.

From the article:

Here are some donor comments which I’ll be forwarding to George along with the funds. “This is for the poor brother long forgotten.” “A brother is a terrible thing to waste.” “I wish I had a brother, or even a step-brother. George is not my relative and not my race or religion but I still want to contribute to his welfare.” “When Obama said that not taking care of the least of our brothers is our greatest moral failure, who knew that he was talking literally about the least of his brothers?” “I never thought I’d be writing a check to anyone named Obama, but I do want to be a true Christian and help this man in his shameful situation.” “I’d send more, but I make $9.10 per hour.” “I’m unemployed, but I can spare $5 for the Obama Compassion Fund.”

Is this mostly about politics? Yes.

Is it massively amazing PR? Yes.

Does it benefit George? Yes.

Does is embarass Barack? Yes.

Where do I sign up?