Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Ready for change? The fed has now pledged an amount of money equal to half the US GDP, that basically means the value of our dollar was just cut by a third. It works like this, the value of our currency is linked to our ability to produce and consume in our economy, last year that number was right at $14 trillion, so if the Fed prints up $7.4 trillion new dollars it means there will be about $21 trillion in currency for an economy of 14 trillion (it's hard to really know this number since the fed stopped reporting on the M3 money supply in 2006).

That would be like if we had 1000 ounces of gold, each with a certificate giving the bearer of that certificate the right to an ounce of gold. Then if we decided to just print up 500 more certificates without the gold to back it for a total of 1500 certificates backed by 1000 ounces of gold. It wouldn't give us more spending power, it would just make each certficate worth less gold, it's really pretty simple division. So get ready for some change, because that is what our government via the Federal Reserve (which is not our government) is doing:

Sounds like change:

Regulators hope the rescue will contain the damage and keep banks providing the credit that is the lifeblood of the U.S. economy.

Most of the spending programs are run out of the New York Fed, whose president, Timothy Geithner, is said to be President- elect Barack Obama's choice to be Treasury Secretary.

The money that’s been pledged is equivalent to $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the country. It’s nine times what the U.S. has spent so far on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Congressional Budget Office figures. It could pay off more than half the country’s mortgages.

If credit is the 'lifeblood' of our economy (not real money), and it's dried up, that sounds like a problem. The new Treasury Secretary is the guy currently at the federal reserve bank running all the new spending programs. He's in charge of the people who believe the solution to the problem is to find more credit, instead of finding sound money.

After all the hubub about change I guess we will get it afterall, except it will be the change that comes with ignoring basic principles about money that have been with us as humans for thousands of years. This change includes inflation, price increases, loss of liberty, the disintigration of infrastructure... Hopefully we'll come to our senses.

Time is (the) money (of liberty).

The true currency of liberty is time. Time cannot be counterfeited, it is only being continuously redeemed. How are your redeeming your time, what are you trading it for? On what do you spend your children's time? The tyrants of the world want you to spend your time toiling for them, and in exchange they provide a myriad of distractions to occupy your time until your eventual death. The redemption of time in service to an entity who is not sovereign over time is the equivalent to toiling for a bankrupt and dishonest employer, neither have the means nor intention to pay. They can only provide empty promises until you finally die.

Only God, who was and is and is to come, is the Lord over time. He councils us to buy from him "gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see". Only He can redeem our time (which was a gift from Him in the first place) and in exchange give us LIFE. Take some time and consider the value of your liberty, and of your time, the currency of your liberty, and resolve only to hand it over to Him who is capable of redeeming it!

Global Special-ed

One of President Elect Barack Obama's new policies likely to be enacted quickly upon his assuming office would be the Global Poverty Act of 2007. This act will do some pretty dangerous things, particularly for the rights of Homeschoolers. This act would cause the US to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child as an international Treaty. The "rights of the child", that sounds harmless enough, right? I mean aren't we all for helping the children? NO! Not like this. This act basically subjugates the welfare of all children to the supreme supervision of the (Global) State.

The globalist, due to a misinterpretation of Article VI of the US Constitution, mistakenly believe that treaties entered into by the United States make that treaty the supreme law of the land, where state courts and legislatures would have no power to overturn or limit the provisions of the treaty. There is precedence via supreme court rulings that dispute this belief, however this is part of the globalists' strategy and argument in order to progress their agenda of one global government and monetary system.

The alarming parts of The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child for a homeschooling family are found mainly in articles 28 and 29:

Article 28
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:

(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;
...
(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.

Article 29:
...
2. No part of the present article or article 28 shall be construed so as to interfere with the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct educational institutions, subject always to the observance of the principle set forth in paragraph 1 of the present article and to the requirements that the education given in such institutions shall conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State.

This treaty, if adopted, would pretty much eliminates our right to home school by making primary education compulsory, enforcing attendance, and then making any alternative educational institution "conform to such minimum standards as may be laid down by the State".

The presumption is that the state can effectively create and establish even minimum standards for eduction. It can't. It doesn't work here, and it definitely won't work on a global scale. This is the opposite of liberty, this is the handing over of liberty to an elite group of distant experts so they can decide (for the whole world) what is the right and wrong way to raise and educate your child. The Federal mandates on our local schools are often ridiculous enough, and the people who created those mandates are at least in a similar culture as you are. Can you imagine the educational mandates passed down by a GLOBAL department of education? This is basically what this treaty creates (see article 43 of the UN text).

The preamble of the UN text states that they are "Taking due account of the importance of the traditions and cultural values of each people for the protection and harmonious development of the child".

I wonder if they'll take into account my tradition and cultural value says that the education of my children is one of the primary responsibilities given to MY WIFE and ME by GOD. Probably not. Why? Because they don't recognise the authority from whence I derive the right. And if they don't recognize that, then I can also assume they don't assign the same value to me that I assign to myself and to my family. My value is derived from the fact that an infinite God of infinite value was willing to lay down His life as a ransom for my life. However, I will only be as valuable to the globalist as I can be compliant to their dictates. My value to them is limited to the amount of my time I spend, willingly or not, laboring for the advancement of their self-serving purposes.

Another Liberia Update

Maria Luyken is introduced by Kris Ewbank and Bryan Bishop. Maria leads the West African Children Support Network (WACSN) in Liberia. Maria speaks on the efforts in WACSN and its collaboration with FreshStart Fellowship and Delta Force. This event took place on the evening of Wednesday Oct 29, 2008 in Fairview, Oklahoma. Maria begins speaking about 7 minutes into the video after introductions by Kris Ewbank of Fresh Start Fellowship and Bryan Bishop with DELTA Force Missions. It's a very exciting talk.

My favorite part is about 47 minutes into the video Maria says: "When I go to Liberia I feel like I'm going into the past. When I come here I feel like I came to the future. So in my mind I think, wow, I see the future and I go back to the past. God has given us and opportunity to go back to the past. Knowing what we know today in the future, what would we change here? What would we do differently for the Lord? That's the charge we have. What are we going to do? Are we going to make the same mistakes here? What are we going to do?"

Money

The true genius of our country is that it is based on a truth that all value flows from God, as ultimately He is the only valuable thing. God made it, God places the value on it, and only God is ultimately able to redeem it. God placed that value in each individual and it is expressed most vividly through our free and willing desire to enjoy our Creator. The problem of money is at the root of this issue. Any kind of large scale currency system must end up becoming a tyrannical control mechanism that manipulates and thwarts the liberty of the individual and that ultimately ends in chaos as the currency increasingly fails to redeem the value demanded. This failure is because there is no human endeavor that can redeem the true value placed within each one of us as image bearors of the Creator of the universe. This is the value we are chasing, God Himself, and the satisfaction of finding our own relationship with God is only fleetingly counterfieted by the satisfaction derived from the exchange of money.

Money, especially fiat currency (which is the only kind of currency in use in all the world), has to chase value since it has no value of it's own. It's a funny thing to serve mammon over God. Since money only chases value and must be traded for the thing that has the real value, and value can only be determined by calculating what a person who is capable of paying is willing to pay for the item being valued, it's strange that we would hoard and lust after money so much. No matter how much money you have you cannot trade it for yourself in order to give yourself value. That's because you are niether capable nor willing to pay for yourself what you are worth, only God is and he did by laying down the life of his son as a ransom, the only way to redeem the value in you. He did this not so much because of a flaw in you, but more because of the great value that He can provide in your being with Him. So it's true we cannot serve both God and money, because a service to money only leads to an insane attempt to accumulate more in a vain attempt to redeem the value in ourselves that only an infinite God is capable of redeeming.

If it's not capital it's not capitalism

From the books and videos and blogs I've been consuming lately on economics, the Constitution, capitalism, etc I've come to a pretty simple understanding. Basically it's this: If your economy is based on fiat currency, then you are not in a capitalist system. Capitalism is just that, a system based on capital, if your money is based on nothing but the government's demand that it be accepted as money (as is ours) then it's not capitalism. When you have a central organization that has the arbitrary power to control the money supply for the purposes of funding their own imperialistic aspirations, placating the restless demands of their working masses, and manipulating the day to day lives of the people who depend on the money they create then what you have is tyranny.

Tyranny? you ask, isn't that a bit harsh, anyway the people in charge of creating all this currency would want to do it responsibly in order to maintain it's perceived value, right? I mean if they printed too much too fast then prices would increase and people would quickly begin not to value the currency. If people did not value the currency then they would find something else to trade with and the central power in charge of creating the currency would lose it's ability to manipulate the people. You're right, but you also must realize that tyrants understand economics as well as anyone.

This is basic economics: fiat money chases value, since it has no value of it's own, it rapidly flows to those things that do have value. This happens because people spend the money, which has no intrinsic value, on the things that they perceive to have real intrinsic value. An excess supply of money always results in the eventual increase in price as the devalued money is traded for less of the things of real intrinsic value. This is a problem for the tyrant, because it impedes the rate at which the currency can be inflated in order fund his tyrannical activities. The financial yoke of the tyrant has always been in the management of the currency, inflating it enough to perpetuate his power, but not so much that it devalues quickly and thereby losing his grasp on the people.

But what if you could control where that money flowed? So that the creation of the new money would not be evident to the masses in the form of price increases of day to day things (like bread, fuel, cable television, etc) because the money never or rarely flowed to those kinds of things. Instead what if you created a "bubble" to inflate the money into, and then controlled the rate at which that new money left the bubble? You could make your friends rich by buying stock in their companies, you could finance wars, finance political campaigns, you could have enough capital to facilitate the merger of gigantic segments of the economy and further consolidate power so that you could create more bubbles in which to place more inflated money and better control the rate at which the currency was released from those bubbles into the economy at large.

An example of this is the derivatives market. Derivatives are basically financial products that are "derived" from the existence of something real (for instance an insurance policy on a mortgage on a house, or an insurance policy on an insurance policy on an insurance policy on a mortgage on a house). The fiat money flows to these products basically because it is fooled into believing that these products have value. But it's a trap, a bubble to hold the new money in so that the creation of it only affects prices in certain parts of the market. Currency still has to be created in order for these products to be purchased. However, since the money stays in the derivative "bubble" and only slowly is released into the economy in the form of big time CEO bonuses Joe the plumber doesn't realize that his currency is being inflated at an alarming rate because the price of plumbing parts is only slowly increasing. So the people managing the fake money and trick products are actually benefiting from the inflation of the currency and the resultant price increases by skillfully keeping the new money from flowing to any of the real things of life, like electricity, twinkies, and orange juice, while at the same time allowing the money to flow to things like stocks and CEO salaries.

How much of this goes on? ALOT. Some estimate that the size of the derivatives market is over 1 quadrillion dollars (that's a trillion thousand, or a billion million, or a million billion, or a thousand trillion, or $1,000,000,000,000,000). And there are other bubbles. For instance someone may trap some money in a derivatives bubble, and then release some of that money to purchase stock in a company, which would in turn increase the price of that company's stock, if you just used this money to buy stocks then you could basically use the whole stock market as a type of bubble without having to worry to much about that money effecting the price of every day things.

So the question is obvious. What if the bubble bursts? What if all the new money comes rushing out and flows to the real things of life? All that has to happen is for for perceived value of the trick product that the fiat money is chasing to vanish, when this happens the money will seek new value. What if the derivatives bubble burst and 1 quadrillion dollars flowed out and say it all tried to go to a safe place like gold.

If there's just over 5.05 billion ounces of gold in the world and it's trading today at $745 per ounce, then all the gold on earth is worth about 3.76 trillion dollars. If 1 quadrillion new dollars went chasing that gold, then it would increase the price of the gold to about $198,500 per ounce!

You can imagine what it would do to bread, coffee, electricity, and bacon.

Anyway, that's all fun to think about, but the important thing to remember is that this is NOT capitalism, because at the heart of all of this is a politically motivated tyrannical organization called the Federal Reserve that is arbitrarily creating our counterfeit currency. They, not the market, are in direct control of the value of things. They manage the bubbles and direct the money where they wish to accomplish the agenda's they have set forth in order to continue their stay in power.

Don't let people fool you with arguments that this current economic crisis is the failure of capitalism, it isn't. Capitalism always wins because it deals in reality and not in abstracted trick products and fiat currency.

How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver has become dross, your best wine mixed with water. Your princes are rebels and companions of thieves. Everyone loves a bribe and runs after gifts. They do not bring justice to the fatherless, and the widow's cause does not come to them. -Isaiah 1:21-23

Jack-o-lantern

Tried carving my halloween pumkin different this year, it was pretty fun:



Halloween is fun, we always have fun making costumes and carving jack-o-lanterns. For some reason I really like pumkins. I have a dream to one day live on enough land that I can have a pumpkin patch and then sell the pumkins each year around Halloween at a roadside stand. I think that sounds fun.

Vote Third Party!

"I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around [the banks] will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs. "

• Thomas Jefferson, Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin (1802) 3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)
  

That's a good quote, I don't know if anyone else noticed the bait and switch pulled on us. First the $700 billion "bailout", that apparently wasn't even needed since all the world banks got together and basically created a new global central banking infrastructure, so what to do with the $700 billion? Oh don't worry they had all that figured out up front, instead of using that money to buy the infamous "illiquid" mortgage assets, they'll just use that money instead to have the government take major ownership positions in the HEALTHY banks.

Well enjoy it, you are watching the nationalization of our economy a coup of our government. Don't worry, if it bothers you, just change the channel.



Vote third party, it doesn't matter which one, just pick one.

Where we're headed:

I'm not quite as alarmist as this guy:

We face extreme danger. Unless there is immediate intervention on every front by all the major powers acting in concert, we risk a disintegration of global finance within days. Nobody will be spared, unless they own gold bars.
-Ambrose Evans-Prichard

...but he's probably smarter than me...

Here's a little powerpoint I made that tries to explain a few things. I might expand on it a bit later.

I was pretty shocked when I ran the linear regression from the peak of the 1987 boom and that simple math formula almost exactly predicted the bust that would follow it (it's about midway through the video). One would assume then that the crash we are witnessing today would only fall to about 9500 based on the linear regression, however that doesn't really take into account any other increases in prices that may occur as all this money leaves the stock market in an effort to find a safer place to live.

I guess the main thing I've come to realize lately is that the rise in stock prices over the past 20 or 30 years is primarily a result of the Federal Government inflating the currency. The reason we haven't necessarily seen such dramatic price increases as a result of the inflation in other parts of our lives is because the stock market was rapidly growing and able to create a demand for money that kept up with the inflation of it. But what we are getting ready to witness is a giant devaluation of the stock market. All that money will want to go somewhere, once that money leaves the "bubble" of the stock market and starts to enter into other parts of the economy we will begin to see prices rise, probably starting with gold.

If you want to read a good book on this subject read "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy?" by Richard Maybury, it will bring you up to speed pretty rapidly.

How to get your money back.

So if this bailout cost $700 billion, and in 2006 there was an estimated 136 million federal tax returned filed, less 43.4 million with no tax liability (or get a refund). For the remaining 92.6 million returns each taxpayer would have put in $7,559.40 for the financial bailout. If you just divide it by the total number of all Americans (301 million) it comes to $2,325.58 per person.

How do we get that money back?

Here's what I say, with all the new credit that's been made available by the new bill, lets take out some credit cards and purchase $7,559.40 in gold coins with them.

And that's it...pretty easy huh?

Get in on the action now, because as people start buying the gold coins the price will go up. This is how inflation works. Generally the banks get to take advantage of the new money before it inflates, but now is your chance!

If your thinking "Gee, I probably can't afford to make payments on $7,559.40". Well that's ok, do your best, if you start running out of money because bread cost $15.00 a loaf for some reason don't worry about the credit card company, the government will bail them out. They really can't afford for the credit card companies to fail. It really is a win/win for everyone. Especially considering that when the government has to step in to bail out the credit card company you didn't pay (again) that will cause even more inflation and will in turn make your gold coins even more valuable!

Here's a link to get you started:

"The only Platinum card that pays in GOLD!"

Bush's Ransom Demands

After the bailout failed the President gave a speech that frankly gave me the first impression that it was some kind of ransom demand. As if we're being held hostage and the kidnappers are demanding $700 billion in ransom.

"I assure our citizens and citizens around the world that this is not the end of the legislative process...it matters little what path a bill takes to become law, what matters is that we get a law."

Gee, I've always really kinda thought that it DOES matter what path a bill takes to become law, for instance, if the bill FAILS then it DOESN'T become law...seriously, is this some kind of a joke?

"I recognize this is a difficult vote for members of congress."

Um, maybe because the people they represent are wildly against it...could it be that? maybe?

"The consequences will grow worse each day if we do not act, ...it will have a direct impact on the retirement accounts pension funds and personal savings of millions of our citizens, and if our nation continues on this course the economic damage will be painful and lasting."

Are you threatening me? I'm sorry but it's the policy of the United States of America not to negotiate with terrorists...

"Our economy is depending on decisive action from the government ... we face the choice between action and economic hardship for millions of Americans."

I choose option b, economic hardship I can handle, but "decisive action from the government" frankly sounds kind of scary.

Where did all the money come from?

I'm not an expert in the stock market, or in economics or anything like that, but this graph brings up a few questions.

The main question is regarding the large increase in value starting about 1982. The early part of this graph shows an almost flat line. It looks as if you were to have put money into the market in 1971 and pulled it out in 1981 you would have gained very little, in fact the DOW was priced at $810.67 in November of 1971 and ten years later it was $852.45, and increase of just 4.9% in 10 years. Compare that to the next 10 years and we see an increase of 257% (1991 the DOW was at $3045.62) and then another ten years we get an increase of another 206% (Nov 2001 DOW was at $9323.54). So from 1971 to 1991 there was over a 1000% increase in the value of the DOW. Where did all the money come from? How did people make money on the stock market prior to 1982?

Here's my theory. First the early part of the graph is misleading because in the past people invested in a company in order to receive a dividend. The price of the stock was not the most important aspect of the company you were investing in. You would buy stock in a company, if the company made a profit it would pay that profit out to its shareholders in the form of a dividend. Actual cash money. Then I suppose people would take that dividend and put it in their accounts at their local banks and those banks would in turn use that money to lend out and promote business in their communities. However, in recent history we have moved to a model that speculates on massive stock trading and attempts to gain value by being less interested in the companies profitability and more interested in how many of the companies shares were trading and at what price . Dividends are less common today than they were in the past as most people are more concerned with the price of a given share, than on the dividend the share pays. In other words the market became much more speculative.

I suppose part of this came upon with the onset of computers and the ability to rapidly place buys and sells onto the market and the ability to update the price of a stock in real or near real time. Whatever the reason, the difference is profound. The graph above clearly shows a shift in the way we relate to the market where share price became the more predominate factor. But the question still remains: Where did all the new money come from?

Initially anyway, the new money came directly from people's savings accounts and from the profits of businesses. It happened like this: "In 1978, Congress amended the Internal Revenue Code, later called section 401(k), whereby employees are not taxed on income they choose to receive as deferred compensation rather than direct compensation." The law went into effect in 1980, and according to the above linked reference, by 1984 over 17,000 companies were offering 401k's. So basically congress set up a system to discourage people from holding their savings in the form of cash or other investments and to encourage them to put those investments into the stock market. Now instead of saving their earnings locally people were placing their savings in 401K's which were heavily invested in stocks traded on Wall Street. This was provided further incentive because employers would match the contributions of the employees, providing even more money for Wall Street.

In my opinion it's basically why we only have Wall Street shops like McDonald's, Starbucks, and Wal-Mart in our neighborhoods, and the shops that used to be owned by our neighbors have closed down. Access to capital is vital for a business to thrive and lending regulations make it much more difficult for a small business to negotiate terms with a banker that can help him to achieve success. The small businessman can all but forget raising capital investment in his own town, not only has most of the incentive for his neighbors to financially participate in his business been removed by tax law favoring investment in Wall-Street stocks, but he would also probably be thrown in jail for some kind of securities fraud for even trying.

It's funny how much difference a law can make. With the 401k law the government basically took away our Main Streets and replaced them with the all to familiar corporate counterfeits we have become so used to.

Maybe this financial meltdown will help us get back to an older and more honest way of doing business. But we would have to do this by working together as small, self sustaining communities of people who can and are willing to defend themselves.

Hallelujah! our financial saviour has arrived!

Just to show how much of a socialist scam our entire monetary system is, stocks SOARED today on NEWS that the all powerful Federal Government was going to step in and fix the banks.

Here's what Secretary Paulson said:

"What we are working on now is an approach to deal with the systemic risk and the stresses in our capital markets," Paulson said. "As we've said for some time, the root cause of the stress in the capital markets is the real estate correction. So again we're coming together to work for an expeditious solution which is aimed right at the heart of this problem." And, that is bad debts— or "illiquid assets" — on financial institutions' balance sheets, he said.

Translation: "A bunch of our banks made under collateralized loans to people who could not and will never be able to pay them back and now they don't want to carry those loans anymore, because...well they're worthless. For some reason, now they can't sell those loans to anyone and because of this they've lost a bunch of money. So obviously the Government should step in and help."

And our government responded:

"It will be the power — it may not be a new entity — it will be the power [for the government to be able to] to buy up illiquid assets," Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass, said.

Frank said there was "virtually unanimous agreement" among lawmakers in attendance that such legislation was needed.

Translation: "We'll just use taxpayer money to purchase these worthless notes. We'd hate to see our biggest campaign contributors go out of business for something as silly as blind, militantly ignorant greed. So instead we'll make a law that allows the government to spend money on NOTHING!!!!!"

I think Glenn Beck also has a good explanation of it, check it out.

So I wonder how this will work?

Since the government is purchasing these assets, I would assume that the government would be trying to collect on them as well. With the new bankruptcy laws the stupid people who took out these bad loans don't have many options anyway, and now they are going to have to negotiate these debts with the Federal Government instead of with the business that loaned them the money. That sounds like fun, and it sounds fair too. I mean we had to do this to save the economy, we can just let it fail? Can we? I mean we can't just let stupid people be punished by reality for doing stupid shit? Can we? Our big brother has to protect us, we can't handle this on our own. Thank goodness for Congress and the Federal Reserve.

The more I think about this, the more it just seems like a tax on the people in an effort to fund big business. I mean the government purchases all these bad debts using tax payer money, and then goes after those same taxpayers to collect on the debts.

This is terrible. It's a condemnation on us as a population that we are allowing this to happen with out a revolt...our country is in very sad shape.

[UPDATE] Sept 19, 2008: WORLD Markets Soar!

More fed funny money

Today the fed announced that they would be adding $180,000,000,000 to the money supply, two days ago they added $70,000,000,000 and don't forget they "loaned" AIG $85,000,000,000.

That right there is $335,000,000,000, or about 2.5% of our nations GDP in the last week!  No wonder Gold and Silver prices are soaring!  I guess people just prefer owning real money!

More fun fed figures...

So the Fed is now going to bail out AIG by "loaning" them 85 billion dollars. Don't worry though, its all good because the Fed is watching out for our tax dollars by taking about an 80% equity position in AIG as collateral:

The interests of taxpayers are protected by key terms of the loan. The loan is collateralized by all the assets of AIG, and of its primary non-regulated subsidiaries. -The Federal Reserve

Doesn't that make you feel better? Never mind the fact that as of close of business today AIG's market cap was only $10 billion.




I wish I could get a loan like that:

Hey Mr Banker, I want to buy this $100,000 house, can I have loan for $850,000? No? Ok how 'bout if I give you an 80% equity position in the house? No? How about an 80% equity position in my neighbors house? Sweet!

Another thing I like about this is that the Fed "took" an 80% (actually 79.9%) ownership stake in the company.

The US government will receive a 79.9 percent equity interest in AIG and has the right to veto the payment of dividends to common and preferred shareholders.
- Federal Reserve

..what about the people that already owned AIG, you know those pesky shareholders? Did the fed "take" that from them, or did they buy it? If they did buy it, what price did they pay?

Did AIG own 80% of it's own shares?

85 billion dollars divided by 80% of 2.69 billion shares comes to $39.50 per share.

So basically AIG can buy the share from their shareholder at $3.75, or even better, NOT buy it and NOT pay dividends on it and then they can use that share as collateral on a loan (not sell it mind you) and receive $39.50. I wish I could collateralize other peoples property for a loan, that would be great, I could get all kinds of money and not have to worry about losing any of my stuff when I didn't pay it back...sounds like a sweet deal for AIG!

Ask for a raise!

If the mortgage bailout is going to cost us $800 billion dollars then you must ask for at least a 5.6% raise this year or you'll be taking a pay cut.

Here's how I figure it:

Total US GDP in 2007: $13,543,000,000,000
Total US Population in 2007: 301,139,947
GDP per Capita (GDP/Population): $44,972.44

Cost of Mortgage Bailout: $800,000,000,000

The cost of the mortgage bailout is equivalent to the government printing $800 billion in new dollars. This is the magic and wonder of the Federal Reserve System, it can create new money whenever it wants since our money isn't based on anything real like gold or silver.

Now if you add the cost of the mortgage bailout to the GDP and then divide that number by the population you get $47,629.02. This means that after the mortgage bailout it takes $47,629.02 to purchase what $44,972.44 would purchase before the mortgage bailout. Your dollar is worth about 5.6% less because of the mortgage bailout.

So if you don't get at a minimum a 5.6% raise this year then you are basically taking the equivalent pay cut thanks directly to the mortgage bailout.

So to figure out how much of a raise you need, just take your current salary and divide it by .944, that's how much you'll need to make next year in order to afford living in a country who's government creates $800,000,000,000 in new currency in order to facilitate a mortgage bailout. And this doesn't even take into consideration the fact that our government also engages in massive welfare programs, expensive foreign entanglements, and is generally wasteful and bloated.

So don't go blaming the Saudis, oil companies, or anything else until you first look at the real reason why prices are so high. The real reason is because you vote for people who promise to buy you stuff without raising taxes, the only way they can do this is by printing more money and that has the effect I described above, I think it's called inflation.

Tell your boss...

Leveraging selfishness and looking at what is missing from Christian Hedonism.

EDITORS NOTE:  When I say "we" I generally mean "I", it just makes it easier when I can lump you into it with me...and BTW this is a big ramble towards the end, I'm still processing how to put many of these thoughts and ideas into words, but that's the fun part isn't it?

Belief in God AND service to others that one views as equal to or greater than self is vital for communities to prosper.  This is true because people are completely self serving.  There are no completely self-less acts.  Even a man who "lays down his life for another" is doing so out of a sense of meaning either derived from belief in a higher being that rewards or is pleased by such activity, and/or a belief that serving others or service to the group to which a person belongs is a more meaningful expression of life that is the simple perpetuation one's own existence.  I'll go out on a limb here and say that even Christ in that "while we were still sinners Christ died for us", and even while he was acting not out of his own will but that of God's, was ultimately seeking that which would bring himself the most glory (and thereby enabling for us the most satisfaction in the participation in that glory).  Read John 17 and you'll see what I mean.  Overall this service to self is nothing new, it's a complete rip off of John Piper who by his own admission is ripping off the Westminster Catechism, which was ripping off other stuff all the way back to what the Bible itself teaches on the subject. Piper calls it "Christian Hedonism" which is great, but I think that it only addresses half the issue.

Christian Hedonism accomplishes the goal of a). fulfilling our purpose to bringing God glory and b). doing so while still ultimately satisfying the self in the only way the self was ultimately meant to be satisfied.  So in summing up the Law, Christian Hedonism perfectly addresses "you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength", however it does not (directly anyway) address the second commandment "Love your neighbor as yourself".  I think this is important because we can basically see the results of this omission from the rifts that exist in the church based on basically minor theological or doctrinal issues, and in the churches irrelevance and impotence in addressing the needs of our communities.

The problem is, that in service of our selfish desires to be satisfied by God we tend to get too wrapped up in the study of Theology.  This is good and bad.  It's good because much of the time it helps us to understand and relate to God better and thereby increasing our satisfaction in Him.  It's bad because it tends to cause us to forget about the rest of the world.  The study of Theology is very good because it is what enables us to be "of God" and not "of the world", however we must still be "in the world".  Theology helps us to love God, but we still have to love our neighbors.  It easy when we are with our fellow believers sitting around talking about Theology and exploring the wonders of God together, however what about non believers?  How about people who don't like the church, or don't believe the Bible, or believe it differently than we do? Is there room to love others when we've figured out how to derive all our meaning from God? 

So should we just grit our teeth and obediently start loving our neighbors?  

• Can you truly love someone out of obedience alone?  
• Is it really loving your neighbor when your acts of service are born out of a love for God and not out of a love for the person? 
• Is God pleased when we serve a person we despise in order only to be obedient?  
  

It's easier to obediently reach out to "the least of these", especially when I see them as lower than myself.  This is proof for me that my motivations in helping people have often been misplaced.   I don't love the people I'm serving...I love God and I love to prove it to Him by lording my own greatness over all of the "least of these" in my obedient acts of self indulgence.  I'm pretty sure it pisses God off.  And it probably doesn't make me a very good neighbor either. 

I keep mentioning "the least of these".  It comes from the parable of the sheep and the goats. The most striking thing to me about this parable is that the sheep didn't know when it was that they were serving Him, they asked him "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink?".  They weren't really aware of their own good deeds, they just did them.  I'm acutely aware and proud of my own good deeds...there is definitely a work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer that enables this kind of behavior.  I pray that my good deeds would become less and less evident to me as they become more and more a natural expression of my true self in Christ.

Christ said that we have to make ourselves last to be first, that in order to be the greatest we have to be the least.  I think I get it.  I'm still not abandoning my premise that there are no self-less acts. If I can see everyone else as greater than myself, then I can derive great satisfaction by serving them...very selfish.   Maybe others would see me as greater than themselves, and derive great satisfaction by serving me...still very selfish, but I could see how this could make for a great community...maybe Jesus was on to something there...

still rolling this around, more later...

Daxological solution for defeating tyrants and terrorists...

I read a book called "The Different Drum", by M. Scott Peck and Ron Paul's book "The Revolution" and it got me to thinking, I came to the conclusion that the best defense against tyrants and terrorism is self sustaining communities of people that can defend themselves. It's really pretty simple,

Here are some definitions:

• self sustaining: adequate locally available food, water, and energy needs.
• communities of people: people who live close to each other geographically and who relate to each other in terms of meaning derived from their life together.
• that can defend themselves: protect each other and their food, water and energy supplies from theft or other raiding.

Terrorism would be more difficult under this setup because it's a community, and in a community people know each other, even the bad things about each other, so locally born terrorists will probably be found out or tattled on, and foreign terrorist will just stick out.

Tyrants will have a hard time, especially if these communities can replicate themselves by evangelizing techniques and solutions that worked for them to other communities and then creating some limited interdependence on other communities for supplies and defense via simple and mutually beneficial trade. The only possible effective attack would be a massive air attack by a technologically superior air force...

A key point is that the community must have an identity of its own that the members of the community all buy into. The people of the community have to see it as a value to themselves, and they have to see the community as bigger than themselves. If a person does not accept the premise of the community then in service of their own self interests, the interests of the community will not be considered. They will likely "sell out" to any outside influence that offers an enticement that provides a momentary gratification greater than the perceived value of membership in the community.

The Acts 2 Church seems like a good model to promote and perpetuate this kind of community. It provides for the members needs, they protect each other, and the meaning of the community is based on a relationship with God who provides an infinite source of meaning greater than self, and on a relationship with the others in the community where the other members of the community are viewed as equal to or more important than the self (and in case you're wondering those seen as more important than self would include people who are not Christians as well as those who are, per the teaching of the Good Samaritan).

So, it also seems to me that this kind of community could also accommodate people of any religious persuasion even mixed religious persuasions, (ie Muslims and Christians, Calvinist and Armenians) without the two having to abandon their deeply held convictions.

Heck I could even see a community where Muslims, Christians, and whateverians (shoot, probably even homosexuals!) were able to live together, provide for each other, protect each other, and even argue with each other about who's right and who's wrong and who's a sinner and who's not without ever having to resort to violence against each other. In fact violence against each other would seem somewhat preposterous as it would be a threat to the health of the community.

If an aggressor were to attack the community, the community would respond in order to protect the lives of it's own people, and to protect it's life sustaining resources. It may choose to totally annihilate it's aggressing enemy in order to protect itself from future attacks, however I couldn't see it attempting to use force to perpetuate itself into other geographic areas. If membership in the community does not come from physical need AND individual intellectual will, then the community will be weak, so empire building would actually work against the strength of the community.

Imagine a whole nation built out of communities like this, independent yet interdependent communities of people that provide for and protect themselves. I hope to put some of this to practice in my own neighborhood, as well as in Liberia. I wonder why nobody has ever thought of this before?

Update on Liberia

Hello friends and family,

I wanted to give everyone an update about what is going in with DELTA Force, Fresh Start Fellowship, and West African Childrens Support Network (WACSN) in Monrovia, Liberia.

As many of you know a group of us went to Monrovia, Liberia, Africa in the beginning of August of this year. While we were there we did a variety of things including a VBS, teen conference, and training. Personally I had the privilege to preach the Gospel to the teenagers and also helped to build a computer network and trained some of the guys there how to administer it, I also made some great friends in the process (click here for some pictures). Most importantly however, we put on a pastors conference where we had over 150 pastors from all over Monrovia attend. Kris and Bryan spent a great deal of time with the pastors teaching them and encouraging them to get out and to love, minister to, and serve their flock, and also to work together to rebuild their communities, putting the Cross of Christ ahead of any other differences they may have in order to repair their broken land.

Well since we've returned home much has happened. Our group of 150 pastors has organized themselves into a network of 1000 pastors all hungry to go OUT and into their communities and to reach them in Love for Christ. We are now planning to hold a conference at the soccer stadium in Monrovia in December, it seats 45,000 people (which means 65,000 will attend), and it may be several days of conference, so we're talking over 100,000 people reached. This in combination with a continuation of our effort to train and encourage the pastors will lead to a great move of God. Our intent is not to go and simply provide a "mountain top" experience at the soccer stadium, but to use it as a catalyst to get people connected to the pastors and churches in their communities. However it is coming upon us quickly and we have to move fast.

We are literally scrambling right now to get a high speed Internet connection (Via satellite) installed at the WACSN compound in Liberia, so we can have much better communication capabilities with the pastors in Monrovia, and so also we can provide to them the resources on the Internet that we all take for granted each day (they can't just go to the local bookstore or library and pick up John Piper's latest book, many of them could barely if even afford a Bible). We hope to have this completed within the next month. This connection will greatly help our ability to plan this conference and to keep the vision strong among the pastors there in Liberia, however we also have a plan to the future to turn this Internet project into a sustainable Liberian owned business that will provide connectivity to the churches and to the people, and also employ several Liberians with good paying jobs.

Through DELTA Force we are working on several opportunities to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ with a plan to also develop sustainable business and community projects. To date we have placed a new van at the WACSN compound that is used to securely transport guests around the city, we have placed a new generator at the compound so that we can have reliable electricity, we have shipped a 40 foot shipping container full of food and other supplies, and are planning another container now with medical equipment and supplies to equip WACSN's new clinic. Plans on the radar are to provide for a fishing boat, water filtration, solar and wind energy, and many other exciting projects.

God is blessing our activities, for instance, after we purchased the Van, the office of the President of Liberia contacted WACSN and is now renting the van and providing a nice source of revenue. Our purchase of the Van gave us some good relationships within the Lebanese business community in Monrovia, this greatly helped in the purchase of the generator.

DELTA Force Missions is the path through which we provide our support to WACSN in Liberia. To date Fresh Start Fellowship (a small church in Fairview, OK), has provided a great deal of the giving needed to get these projects where they are today, however they are now needing to reach out and gain the support others who have a similar vision to help the least of these in our world.

Here is what you can do to help:

• Donate funds to DELTA Force, 100% of the money will go to support the activities in Monrovia. Many things in Liberia are expensive, Internet for example costs MUCH more than it does here, for you techies, a 128/128k dedicated connection runs $1400.00 a month. This kind of stuff is vital to build a foundation for sustainability, and the world does not want us to succeed, the world wants to continue to oppress the Liberian people, this is truly a battle.
• Contact us to have us come talk to your church or organization about our vision for Liberia. Let us cast a vision to your friends and family to truly help the least of these as Jesus commands us to. I know that Kris, Bryan and myself will readily make ourselves available to come talk to your group.
• Raise money to help pay for people's travel to Liberia, or volunteer and raise money to go yourself (but be ready to work!)
• PRAY: Pray that our vision will be clearly from God. Pray that God will move in the hearts of the people and that pastors in Liberia, pray that personalities and minor theological issues won't impede the forward progress of the Gospel, pray that communities will be built up strong in Christ. Specifially right now we need prayer that our shipping container full of food will be released from customs without us having to pay ridiculous import taxes etc. Also that the internet service will be installed quickly and with no show stopping technical challenges (but with a few technical challenges just to keep it fun for me!)
• Adopt a child through WACSN, You can literally save a life, and change your own life. Liberia has been destroyed by years of war, many families cannot afford to feed or care for their own children, when you adopt from Liberia, many times you adopt not only a child, many times you adopt a family, and as is the case with many of my friends who have adopted, they adopted a whole nation. Get in contact with me an I can forward you to many families who's homes have been blessed by adopting from Liberia.

If you are interested in this vision, even if you have the least bit of interest, please contact me. Heck, even if you HATE the vision and think it's a stupid idea, contact me and at least give me a chance to talk you into it. We are working hard now to build a network of individuals interested in supporting and serving Liberia. PLEASE forward this email along to anyone you might think is interested in helping. We are on the precipice of a powerful move of God in Liberia that will impact thier nation in a very good way, I want to have a front row seat to that.

Some stats on Liberia

These stats come from the UN statistics website. and then I extrapolated some more information from it.

Average annual income per capita:

in Liberia: $192.00
in the US: $43,562 (we make on average 226x more money than the average Liberian), Most of us make more per day than the average Liberian makes per year.

There are 1,971,300 men and 1,970,900 women in Liberia
There are 152,004,400 men and 156,793,900 women in the US

147,834 people over age 60 in Liberia
62,501,783 people over age 60 in the US

Percentage of population below the age of 15 years:
Liberia: 47.2% (1,861,190 people)
US: 19.6% (60,524,467 people)

Percentage of men over 60 years of age:
Liberia: 3.4% (67,024 people)
US: 17.6% (26,752,774 people)

Percentage of women over 60 years of age:
Liberia: 4.1% (80,810 people)
US: 22.8% (35,749,009 people)

Number of people under 15 for each person over 60:
Liberia: 12.5
US: 0.98

Liberia is a nation of children with no older generation to teach them. What heritage is being passed to the next generation Liberia? The older generation is already pretty much dead. The only heritage that can be passed is whatever remnant of teaching the young people received before their fathers and mothers died, whatever meaning they can come up with amongst themselves, and then (and probably mainly) whatever influence a foreign culture has on them.

Another interesting fact is that Liberia has one of the fastest growing Muslim populations on earth.

In contrast to this, America is on the brink of becoming a dying culture, with less people under 15 than we have over 60.

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AHHHH...leadership and vision...

It's refreshing...sigh...

The problem with invisibility.

I'm pretty sure that if they could make a person invisible like they did in stories like "The Invisible Man" and "Hollow Man" that person would not be able to see.

If your body's cellular structure were modified so that light passed right through it I think that would make your eye's stop working because they wouldn't be able to detect the light that hit them in order to turn it into signals that your brain could turn into sight. The light would just pass right through your eyes. Also the light would not be properly focused because the light wouldn't be shaped by the lenses of your eye.

They would have to make some kind of forumula that left your eye's visible, which would be really creepy looking. just some eyeballs floating around with no body.

Don't have a cow man...

The other day my family and I watched the movie "The Nativity Story" , it was great, I thought it was very well done. I didn't know how my kids would react to the scenes where the babies in the movie (John the Baptist, and Jesus) were being born, well I found out the next day.

We were going for a walk and on our way back to the house Zoe was skating really fast on her Heelys, she stopped for a minute and was really out of breath.

Xander turns to her and hears her gasping for breath and says "Man Zoe, you sound like Mary when she was having Jesus!"

WOW! I thought that was hilarious, "You don't only sound out of breath you sound like your giving birth to God"...only a 5 year old could come up with that one!

GOOD NEWS!!! : All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God!!!

So I came across some good news in the Bible that I hadn't seen before. That news is this in a nutshell: "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God." (Romans 3:23). There are a bunch of other versus with this same theme, basically the idea of Total Depravity and Orginal Sin. I always thought and was taught that this was the "Bad News" (especially when someone regurgitated the Bad News/Good News evangalism technique "I've got some bad news, you suck and your gonna burn in hell, the good news is that if you say these magic words about Jesus it will all be ok"). Here's a very uncomfortable video to demonstrate, not the good news bad news technique but just as bad, (I think Mitt Romney stars as the hero in the video, you'll have to watch to see what I mean).

The thing is that the bad news is not the bad news at all, it really is really really good news that we are totally depraved and that all of us have fallen short of the Glory of God, in fact it may be the best news.

If I'm correct in latching onto the idea that the whole purpose of my being is for me to seek and obtain a right relationship with God and that God Himself is all that can satisfy the longings of my soul, and if there is no way on my own I can come into a right relationship with God because of my sin, then that is just awesome! It's awesome because it means that God must be incredibly good and worth obtaining, so good that not even Christ "who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped" (Phillipians 2:6).

I was always shown Romans 3:23 to explain to me how I was destined for Hell and this is why I needed Christ to save me. True enough, but it does little to motivate me to love God. I'm just looking to save my own skin. But if I take the focus of this idea off of me and put it onto God, I can see something completely different. That God desires for me to have the very thing that will bring total, abundant, and even overflowing satisfaction to my entire being (a relationship with Him) and the even better news is that this gift of God is so good that there is no way I can be good enough to deserve it. I could work for the rest of eternity and not be able to earn or deserve it by any standard human or divine. Even if I lived a PERFECT life for all of eternity I still could not deserve a relationship with God that could satisfy me and Glorify Him simply because I had a beginning and He didn't (maybe another post on this idea later, maybe not). This relationship that God is offering must be AMAZING!

If I DID earn or deserve this relationship with God then the magnificance of being with God would have to be limited by my mortal ability to achieve the deserving of it and therefore God's goodness would be limited by my goodness and then God would cease to be God. In other words what I recieved could only be as good as me. And I am mortal, I had a beginning and I will die. This really limits the scope of whatever goodness I can provide for myself. So this new understanding of Orginal Sin and Total Depravity also brings about for me a new understanding of Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Through Christ I can recieve God who is so good that there is no way for me to deserve Him. And if I was not totally depraved then none of this would be possible!

Thank you Lord that mankind fell from grace through Adam, so that you could give us an inheritance through Christ that is infinately more than we could ever deserve on our own.

Getting ready for Christmas

I was having a discussion with some friends about how we should celebrate Christmas this year, and maybe how we should start planning now to make it a Christmas with at least a partial message of non-consumerism, or at least bridaled consumerism. There was some discussion about how we need change hearts and minds and that maybe focusing on non-consumerism isn't really the right angle. I agree with this idea except to say that the only real way to change a heart and mind is to have that change to be manifested in behaviour. I believe that all of our good intentions at Christmas are generally cancelled out by our propensity toward hyper-consumerism. Not to mention that in many cases the simple living out our cultural norms (ie shopping at wal-mart, using lots of energy, eating lots of food) is actually contributing to the oppression of people all over the world, and although a "boycott" is not really what I think is necessary or effective, a change in behaviour would at least go along way to open the hearts of our church to the fact that our actions have a rippling if not tidal wave effect on people all the way across the world.

I definately agree that the non-consumerism message should not be the only message of the Christmas season, but never-the-less think about what would happen if we did just that. If people actually tried to live out a non-consumeristic Christmas, that would leave them with a giant void (where all the stuff used to be). I think that would be great, because even if nobody mentioned it, since it IS Christmas, Jesus would get some attention. It's not like Jesus is really the subject of the season now anyway, refocusing to to a message of non-consumerism could at least create the opportunity for Jesus to come up in a meaningful way.

Also, as one who has kids, I can attest that it is almost impossible to keep the focus of Christmas on Christ, family, and friends when there is so much time, money, and attention spent on stuff. (right around august we start getting hammered by our relatives to get our Christmas lists together, so basically the consumeristic stage is set very early)

Personally I am all for consumerism, but let's do it right. Here are some thoughts (I might cover some of these ideas in depth in future posts):

• Take the time to find quality items that aren't made by slaves and pay more for them on purpose.
• Since quality items cost more it may cut into your budget, that's ok, just buy less.
• Don't cut out the middle man (he might be your neighbor), and if you cut him out he'll probably have to go to work at wal-mart.
• Have a few awkward Christmas's with no or very few gifts, and let that time of awkward silence (when you'd usually be opening gifts) slowly be filled with conversation and the enjoyment of each other, it'll become normal and comfortable soon enough.
• Tell someone you love them, and try to show it in a way that doesn't involve purchasing something from wal-mart.
• Spend more money on food and eat it together.
• Buy your food from a local farmer, have him tell you a story about it/himself/his family/his business, relate that story to your family.
• Prepare the food with the people you are spending christmas with.
• Buy gifts that aid in the preparation of the christmas meal.
• It must be getting close to lunch because I am talking alot about food.

I'm pretty passionate about this for several reasons, one being that I am all for the resurrection of the small business owner in America and the small town and tight knit neighborhood in the cities. Two I don't like the new slavery, I think it's more cruel than even the slavery of the South in America, because at least those slaves were housed and fed and cared for to some extent because at least they were property (which was horribly wrong), but the slaves of today are less than property. They are simply an endless supply of hungry people, and if they can't care for themselves and thier families on $.13 an hour we'll just get another one who will try. And most importantly I think that one of our jobs as Christians is to redeem things for Christ. And the way we trade with each other is a very good thing to redeem for Him, it is really something that cuts right to the core of who we are.

That's my pocket full of change on this subject, there's probably some more in there somewhere, maybe i should check the seat cushions in my couch...

Speaking of incarnational living...

There's a great Spurlock documentary out there call "What would Jesus Buy". It's about this group of performance artistist/activists. The lead guy is a character called the "reverend billy" who looks and talks like a stereotypical television evangelist, however his message is very different. They call themselve the "Church of Stop Shopping" and thier message is one against the rampant consumerism that is consuming our lives and our culture.

I don't know if these guys would call themselves "Christian" but you know what? I think they get it. When I whine and complain about not knowing what to do about living a life that honors Christ in this American culture these guys have a message that I think really gets me somewhere on this journey, the message?...stop shopping...hey that's a start, really it is.

Here's an interview with Morgan Spurlock at Imago Dei

Good intentions are keeping me from good works.

WARNING: This post may not make a lot of sense, the ideas I'm working on here aren't as of yet fully developed.

That being said...I was thinking the other day about words like "incarnational" and "works" and general ideas about the evidence of salvation displayed through the way in which I live my life. Alot of this thought has been brought on by my new job. Although I am thankful that I have a "really good" job that pays well, I find it hard to cope with the fact that I must spend all this time at the office and much of that time is spend not doing a whole lot. Sure there are bursts of activity and sometimes its really busy with projects and problems and fun stuff like that. However sometimes there's really NOTHING to do, and yet I'm still kind of expected to waste my life away sitting at this desk. I know I know i should get creative and all that and put that time to better use. So we can get into the ethics of corporate life and my responsiblity as a christian and a father and a husband and how my corporate schedule pretty much sucks most of my time away, but that is for another post.

The thing is that I have this desire to 'do something' for Christ and for others, and integrating that desire into the monolithic nature of my work schedule is really a pretty daunting task. I keep coming to the conclusion that I'm serving two masters and one of them has got to go. Now you may ask why I don't do anything about this breach of integrity that has seeped it's way into my life, and I would answer that I do, and that what I do has created yet another little trap.

You see to cope with the fact that I feel somewhat paralyzed by demands of corporate life and the middle class american lifestyle I often resort to good intentions. What I mean is that I'll think good thoughts and have good conversations at church or at bible study. I'll talk about the starving people in china and all that, i'll watch the compassion international videos on TV and send them some money, and I'll even go and meet with a homeless man in my neighborhood and help him out in some small ways with food and money and whatnot. You might say, well hey, that sounds good, sounds like your doing some good things. And I might agree with you, but still something doesn't feel right about it. Something is a little off.

Now obviously all the talking at church and at bible studies is pretty blatantly shallow behaviour. It's just talk, and it's main purpose is to make me feel better about myself, and to help me to think that since i'm spending part of my free time considering the things of God then somehow that makes me a good person. Most of the time the main purpose is to make other people think I'm smart, so you can see that is pretty much just pure sin. But the actual activities, the giving the helping, that's real right? I mean I only have a little bit of time left at the end of the day, and my family would like to see me some, and well, by the time i've met my minimal expectations for the day its 10 or 11 at night and i'm pretty tired, and at that point I still have to get my entertainment fix (which is also a subject for another post). So if I can manage to scrape together and hour or two here or there to help out a homeless guy or maybe dig a little (a very little) deeper into my pocket book to send some money to Ghana or whatever then what else can be expected of me right? My intentions are good, my intentions are to serve Christ with all that I have. And by my very american standards I have about 2 hours a week to give to him.

I think I may be putting a little to much weight on my intentions. In fact I think I'm letting the intentions associated with my actions completely redefine and exaggerate the significance of my acitons. I even think that sometimes at church or bible study when I talk about the suffering in the world and come up with brilliant hypotheses about how to alleviate it, I somehow actually convince myself that I have done something good. It's like I have some kind of guilt-o-meter in me, but it doesn't work very good. You see it's supposed to go off whenever it has detected that I haven't done much good stuff lately, however I can fool it by doing some pretty menial stuff and having really good intentions (like helping out a homeless guy but not really having any kind of plan that would require me to really get involved in this guys life), or even better I can trick it by simply talking about doing good stuff.

All of this obviously is a result of a severe lack of integrity in my life. And by integrity I mean to use the meaning of integrated. Meaning that instead of having a compartmentalized life with the bulk of the time being completely meaningless and then that time is sparsely peppered with a few bits of very over glorified acts of "good works". And even though I'm using the word integrity with the idea of an integrated life, by not having my life in this way I am basically suffering from all the same symptoms that any man who lacks integrity in the more traditional sense.

What I want is a life that has meaning, and not only that but that all of the natural and God ordained parts of my life would build upon each other to enhance that overarching meaning. I mean from what I do for money, to how I spend time with my wife and children, to how I spend time with my friends, my free time, my spending, my reading, my entertainment, my acts of service...why can't it all be driving toward the sigular purpose that I know I was created for and that is the worship and glorification of Christ... I have to find out how to live my life (meaning how to spend my time) better. Maybe the corporate gig has got to go, I definatly have to change how I relate to it. Not to mention I just have to get some kind of vision for some kind of life that is different that anything I've seen. Hopefully I can do more than than to just talk about it and have good intentions...

Still here.

I haven't posted in a while, been pretty busy. Generally my posts are a pretty spontaneous reaction to an "AH HA!" moment. I guess my brain is still percolating a new idea, and when it gets done I'll be sure to share it.

right now I'm reading Cryptonomicon , In Defense of Food, Ministries of Mercy, and Psalm...just in case your interested.

Total turn around

Read this article . If this is how it all went down, then WOW...not only are my worries about Huckabee's integrity greatly eased, but I am very very impressed.

Basically the article says that Ed Rollins (Huckabees advisor) said that they had to go negative in order to control some of the damage being caused by the Romney campaigns attacks. Rollins knows what he is talking about, and knows how this game is played. Huckabee went along with it, made the spot, and then was praying about it the day the attack was going to begin and decided to pull the ad at 11:10am (they were going to release the ad at a press conference at noon).

They would have preferred to cancel the press conference and the whole thing at that point was done impromptu. Yes some mistakes were made, and yes probably some people were still trying to get a "swing in" amidst this whole thing. But the bottom line is that Huckabee made the call, and stopped the attack.

So it looks like we have a guy here who is really willing to take a personal hit in order to follow his convictions. Even against the advice of his advisors, even in the midst of adversity. That is truly unique in politics.

I'm back on the Huckabee express! ... for now anyway ... I must be bipolar or something...sheez...