Estate Sale

I woke up yesterday to cars lined up and down the block. I finally saw the sign on the corner last night that said "Estate Sale - Fri & Sat." They were out in full force again today. I was doing yard work thinking about how sad it was that I didn't even know the person who died when I noticed the second or third pickup truck in a row driving past loaded down with furniture and at that moment I felt the full reality and weight of the saying, "you can't take it with you.." You live and you die and strangers come in and haul off your stuff, ecstatic about the great deals they got. How bout them apples?

"Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the imperfect dissapears...And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love." - Paul the Apostle

Amusing Ourselves to Death

I ran across a great cartoon illustrating the foreward of the Neil Postman book "Amusing Ourselves to Death". You can see it here.

Indian Call Centers

In a perfect world, my family would live in a tiny, self-contained little town in the mountains. We would buy meat at the butcher shop, our shoes at the cobbler, our cobbler at the bakers', and singing chimney sweeps with English accents would periodically clean our fireplace. Julie Andrews would visit from the local nunnery to home school the kids and if we ever got lost in the mountains on one of our many day trips, we would just hunker down and sing songs about our favorite things until we were rescued by a group of St. Bernards wearing giant flasks filled with Irish Coffee. For reasons unbeknownst to me, this is not the world I find myself in. The world that I do find myself in, however, although far from perfect does have some neat little perks. One such perk is that I can have a problem with a product that I bought at a local store here in Texas and in my quest to solve the problem with said product, end up having a conversation with a gentleman in India. Apparently, I am one of the few Americans who enjoy this neat little facet of globalism.

Exhibit A: from the April 18th edition of the Wall Street Journal,

"Delta Air Lines Inc. said Friday it has stopped using Indian-based call centers to handle sales and reservations, making it the latest U.S. company to decide the cost benefits of directing calls offshore are outweighed by the backlash from customers.

Delta said it stopped routing calls to India-based call centers over the first three months of the year. Customers had complained they had trouble communicating with Indian agents, the airline said. Last month, Chrysler LLC said it would move its customer-service center back from India."

Now I am as opposed to globalism as the next guy but it does have several positive side effects: 1) cargo ships (the coolest things besides trains) 2) the growing Indian and Chinese middle class (both nonexistent 20 years ago) and 3) the fact that I, Johnny Six-Pack can have a conversation with a guy in India. Why does this not blow our minds? "Honey, you'll never believe it - I talked to a guy from Bangalore today!" I was pretty excited to end up talking to a lady out of Vegas when we were having problems with our Internet so I can only imagine how cool that it would be to get to talk to a guy from India. The main thing I would want to know is what he had for breakfast. The likelihood that I will ever get to make one of these calls is pretty slim as I tend to avoid the phone as if it were the source of the swine flu. But if I did, I think I would imagine my global counterpart taking a break for tea and a cigarette shortly after our call. I imagine him out on the terrace of a shiny new building overlooking the lights of the city under a waxing moon. As a dog barks in the distance, there is the sound of a horn honking and a man shouting (without anger). The heavy air is occasionally cooled by a breeze freighted with the scent of hundreds of wood burning fires, diesel, feces and spices. In the foreground an in ground sprinkler pops up and begins to water the manicured lawn of the business complex. He smiles as he drinks his tea, it is his favorite time of the day, quiet... He tilts his head back and exhales, stubs out his cigarette and prepares himself to go in and talk to more rude Americans. "That last guy was funny, wanted to know what I had for breakfast", he thinks. He laughs and shakes his head, "Americans..." he mumbles as he walks back into the air conditioned complex.

This is why I love Indian call centers.

Crunchy Cons

While trying to find some Sowell or Helprin in the bookstore today I ran across a book called Crunchy Cons by Rod Dreher. The book jacket caught my attention so I looked him up when I got home and found the following on Mr. Drehers' blog at National Review Online. Some of these I really agree with and some not so much. I have put my thoughts in parenthesis after his.

A Crunchy Con Manifesto
By Rod Dreher
(hijacked by the Ditchdigger)

1. We are conservatives who stand outside the conservative mainstream; therefore, we can see things that matter more clearly. (I'm automatically suspicious of anyone who can see more clearly than others so this one rubs me the wrong way. How bout: 1. We are conservatives who believe in the freedoms and responsibilities espoused by the founding fathers well over two hundred years ago; therefore, we would like to peel back the manifold layers of "progress" that have buried the simple beauty of their original vision.)

2. Modern conservatism has become too focused on money, power, and the accumulation of stuff, and insufficiently concerned with the content of our individual and social character. (If he had said Modern Americans (accumulation of stuff) or Modern Republicans (power.) instead of Modern conservatism then I would have to agree. However modern conservatism to me consists of a pretty small group who is far more concerned with the content of our character than either power or money. I'm thinking specifically of the Big 3 that I listen to, Bill Bennett, Dennis Prager (especially Prager), and Glenn Beck. Or of the greatest living mind on the right, Thomas Sowell who has taught me that economic and human liberty go hand in hand.

3. Big business deserves as much skepticism as big government. (Nine months ago it would have been a lot easier to instantly agree with this one. The slight pause I now feel is probably just a reaction to the current hostilities (French Revolution Part Deux). Yes, I do agree that big business deserves as much skepticism as big government, however the one thing that big business has that big government will never have is - competition. I believe in competition because in the long run it keeps you, me, and them honest. Having said that, I'll never forget what the old farmer said to me, "more money has been stolen at the end of the pen than at the end of the sword." True for both big business and big government, although as we are witnessing now with the differing response to the AIG and Fannie and Freddie bonuses - only the private sector ends up paying for their sins (which again proves the point that ultimately big business, although deserving of skepticism, is still far superior to big government). Might I add one sentence to #3? - And may the unions meet the fate of pirates.

4. Culture is more important than politics and economics. (Sounds sweet but I disagree. Just ask the dude in Bamiyan, Afghanistan who watched the Taliban blow up a couple of 1,500 year old statues back in March of 2001, or the nature loving Chinese guy who used to love paddling his boat along the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges area before the government destroyed it with the Three Gorges Dam. No, culture is elevated by sound politics and economics and destroyed by the lack of. The principles of personal, political, and economic freedom that this country were founded on explain the difference today between the United States and Russia, or Haiti, Cuba, Somalia, North Korea, Venezuela, Libya, Iran, Afghanistan et cetera, et cetera...) Switch the politics and economics for the last two hundred fifty years or so and we not they would be the ones living in fear, poverty, corruption, and repression. Ideas matter and ideas have consequences, something that we have had the luxury of being able to forget. I would amend this one to say 4. Sound politics and economic principles based on individual liberty will create a common culture of excellence that binds many diverse people together in a harmony seen nowhere else.

5. A conservatism that does not practice restraint, humility, and good stewardship—especially of the natural world—is not fundamentally conservative. (Finally, I agree 100%.) (p.s. - global warming is still a hoax.)

6. Small, Local, Old, and Particular are almost always better than Big, Global, New, and Abstract. (I am not alone, I am not alone! Oh, I just want to read this one over and over again. Perfect. And the inclusion of the words "almost always" covers me on the apparent conflict with this statement and my upcoming blog post about my love of Indian call centers.)

7. Beauty is more important than efficiency. (Yes, yes, yes!!! A thousand times yes!)

8. The relentlessness of media-driven pop culture deadens our senses to authentic truth, beauty, and wisdom. (You had me at #6 and yet, they keep coming! I was actually thinking about this yesterday morning; Jennifer Aniston could kill Angelina Jolie with a roadside IED and then kidnap all of her adopted children and run off to Mexico and live in the desert like a bandito with her clan of kidnapped children, get caught by Dog the Bounty Hunter and sentenced to die in the electric chair, request a last meal of chicken fried steak, rhubarb pie and Dr. Pepper and then get fried herself in a Texas state prison as Brad Pitt, Sean Penn and Tim Robbins lay chained together weeping and shouting in protest at the prison gates before they immolated themselves and I still wouldn't care anymore than I do that this is the mother of all run on sentences.)

9. We share Russell Kirk’s conviction that “the institution most essential to conserve is the family.” (Yessiree, small and local, uh huh.)

10. Politics and economics won’t save us; if our culture is to be saved at all, it will be by faithfully living by the Permanent Things, conserving these ancient moral truths in the choices we make in our everyday lives. (I am going to ignore the first five words because technically they are correct and the rest of this is wonderful.)

And although Rod Dreher ducks down and hides everytime I say it; "I'm a Crunchy Con! I'm a Crunchy Con!"

A Little Dose of Optimism

One of the highlights of Saturday morning is reading Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal. Following is the last two paragraphs from her piece on 2/21.

"Perhaps the biggest factor behind the new pessimism is the knowledge that the crisis is not only economic but political, that we’ll have to change both cultures, economic and political, to turn the mess around. That’s a tall order, and won’t happen quickly. One thing for sure: Our political leaders for at least a decade, really more, have by and large been men and women who had fortunate lives, who always seemed to expect nice things to happen and happiness to occur. And so they could overspend, overcommit and overextend the military, and it would all turn out fine. They claimed to be quintessentially optimistic, but it was a cheap optimism, based more on sunny personal experience than any particular faith, and void of an understanding of how dark and gritty life can be, and has been for most of human history.

I end with a hunch that is not an unhappy one. Dynamism has been leached from our system for now, but not from the human brain or heart. Just as our political regeneration will happen locally, in counties and states that learn how to control themselves and demonstrate how to govern effectively in a time of limits, so will our economic regeneration. That will begin in someone’s garage, somebody’s kitchen, as it did in the case of Messrs. Jobs and Wozniak. The comeback will be from the ground up and will start with innovation. No one trusts big anymore. In the future everything will be local. That’s where the magic will be. And no amount of pessimism will stop it once it starts."

Taming the Beast Within

I ran across this opinion piece by David Brooks over the summer. I cut it out of the paper and keep going back to read it from time to time. I figure if I am still enjoying it 5 months later, than it is probably worth sharing.

The Meaning of Maturity

Clean Slate

The Friday before the election while working in Houston, I turned on the radio to try and find some music to help keep my pace up. The alt country station I had been listening to back home (92.1) had become a gospel station. The music was energetic enough so I let it play on. This particular station was doing a remote broadcast from an early voting site and was interviewing local pastors as well as various people who were exiting the polls. Two things were immediately clear, everyone I was hearing was black, and everyone was voting for Obama. After nine months of listening to talk radio and reading my favorite conservative columnists, this was exactly what I needed – a different perspective.

The joy in their voices began to affect me and I found myself growing quite attached to these people on the radio. “Come Tuesday,” I told myself, “I will find myself thinking about these guys. If their candidate loses, my elation will be tempered by their sorrow; and if their candidate wins, my disappointment will be nearly washed away by their joy.” These folks were my brothers and sisters in Christ and that is a bond that trumps all political belief, regardless of how deeply held those beliefs are. Quick aside: I am a small government economic conservative in the tradition of Adam Smith first and foremost, and I believe that this view of government is key to raising the greatest number of people (of any color) out of poverty and bondage. So even though I feel that their vote was counterproductive economically, the point is practically moot as McCain was no economic conservative himself.

No matter what your politics, you would have to have a heart of stone to not be moved by the excitement running through the black community this past week. So it was Tuesday night that although the guy I voted for took a beating, I found myself happily caught up in the emotion of the night (made all the easier by the exceptionally uninspiring McCain). My brother, Josh, and I got to talking and decided we would wipe the slate clean, at least give him a chance. After watching the shameful ways the left has treated Bush the past eight years, we are faced with a choice: give it right back to’em or treat the left with the grace neither they nor we deserve. Choose grace, it feels fantastic. Sitting there in front of the tube on Tuesday, I could feel all the anger, distrust, and pessimism wash away. I feel at peace, happy, and full of optimism and all this without budging an ideological inch. Hopefully, the Republican Party will purify itself over the next four years and actually bring something inspiring to the table in 2012. In the meantime, I’ll at least give Obama a fighting chance and give him the opportunity the left never gave Bush. So, off to the honeymoon, it might be a short one, but by golly, I’m going anyways.

Solzhenitsyn Quotes

The following quotes were found last week in The Wall Street Journal.

From Solzhenitsyn's Nobel Literature Prize lecture in 1970:
The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of bare faced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles. The spirit of Munich is a sickness of the will of successful people, it is the daily condition of those who have given themselves up to the thirst after prosperity at any price, to material well-being as the chief goal of earthly existence. Such people-and there are many in today's world-elect passivity and retreat, just so as their accustomed life might drag on a bit longer, just so not as to step over the threshold of hardship today-and tomorrow, you'll see it will be all right. (But it will never be all right! The price of cowardice today will only be evil; we shall reap courage and victory only when we dare to make sacrifices.) Ouch! - JW

From a speech at Harvard, 1978:
However, the most cruel mistake occurred with the failure to understand the Vietnam war. Some people sincerely wanted all wars to stop just as soon as possible; others believed that there should be room for national, or communist, self-determination in Vietnam, or in Cambodia, as we see today with particular clarity. But members of the U.S. antiwar movement wound up being involved in the betrayal of Far Eastern nations, in a genocide and in the suffering today imposed on 30 million people there. Do those convinced pacifists hear the moans coming from there? Do they understand their responsibility today? Or do they prefer not to hear? The American Intelligentsia lost its [nerve] and as a consequence thereof danger has come much closer to the United States. But there is no awareness of this. Your shortsighted politicians who signed the hasty Vietnam capitulation seemingly gave America a carefree breathing pause; however, a hundredfold Vietnam now looms over you. That small Vietnam had been a warning and an occasion to mobilize the nation's courage. But if a full-fledged America suffered a real defeat from a small communist half-country, how can the West hope to stand firm in the future?

Thomas Sowell (an excerpt)

I ran across a book over Christmas break entitled, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy by Thomas Sowell. It was eye opening and started me on a Thomas Sowell reading frenzy. In the last couple of months I've also read and would recommend The Quest for Cosmic Justice as well as Ethnic America: A History. I have learned so much about politics, human nature, and economics from Mr. Sowell that my head is spinning from it all, it's almost been too much information to absorb in that short amount of time.

So while I sort my thoughts the following is an excerpt from his essay The Quiet Repeal of the American Revolution:

"A quarter of a century before he delivered the Gettysburg address, Abraham Lincoln gave another speech, much less celebrated but all too relevant to our theme and times. In an 1838 address in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln asked where future dangers to the freedom and security of the American people might be found. It was not from foreign enemies, he said, but from internal threats. If and when the fundamental principles and structure of American government should fall under attack, "men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the opportunity" and "strike the blow against free government."

What is particularly significant about Lincoln's warning is that it was based on a vision of what human beings are like, and especially what talented and ambitious leaders are like. To Lincoln, the historic achievement of American society in establishing a new form of government was in jeopardy from later elites precisely because that achievement was already history:

The field of glory is harvested, and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they too, will seek a field. It is to deny, what the history of the world tells us is true, to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up amongst us. And, when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification of their ruling passion, as others have so done before them. The question is, can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot.

While the ambitions of some might be satisfied with "a seat in Congress, a gubernatorial or a presidential chair," Lincoln said, "such belong not to the family of the lion, or the tribe of the eagle." He added:

What! Think you these places would satisfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napolean? - Never! Towering genius disdains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. - It sees not distinction in adding story to story, upon the monuments of fame, erected to the memories of others. It denies that it is glory enough to serve under any chief. It scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at the expense of emancipating slaves, or enslaving freemen.

That some leader dangerous to the basic institutions of American society would arise, Lincoln thought inevitable. Safeguarding those institutions would require a public sufficiently united, sufficiently attached to freedom, and sufficiently wise, "to succesfully frustrate his designs." Today it would also require a public sufficiently resistant to incessant criticisms and condemnations of their society for failing to achieve cosmic justice. Moreover, if the dangers in our own times were limited to those of "towering genius," there would be much less danger than there is. However, all that is needed are towering presumptions, which are increasingly mass-produced in our schools and colleges by the educational vogue of encouraging immature and inexperienced students to sit in emotional judgement on the complex evolution of whole ages and of vast civilizations.

Political leaders are not the only ones with a vested interest in opposing the existing framework of American society, precisely because it is the existing framework, so that supporting it offers no path to the kinds of glory that they seek. The intelligentsia have exactly the same incentives as Napoleonic politicians, even if the glory they seek is not necessarily direct political power in their own hands, but only the triumph of their doctrines, the reordering of other peoples lives in accordance with their own visions, a display of their own intellectual virtousity, or simply a posture of daring in the role of a verbal dandy. The easiest way to achieve all of these goals is to disdain the beaten path, as Lincoln put it, and to attack or undermine the fundamental structure of the American political system and society."

Thomas Sowell, The Quest for Cosmic Justice (New York: Free Press, 1999) pp. 147-149

Viva Tommy! Sheds a little light on things doesn't it? This is not only a bipartisan criticism, it also serves as a warning to look into your own heart to see the areas where you disdain the beaten or the ancient paths as my buddy John likes to call them.

"This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'" - Jeremiah

Taxes

From the Nov/Dec issue of The American, by Stephen Moore.

"6. What is the economic logic behind these lower tax rates?
As legend has it, the famous “Laffer Curve” was first drawn by economist Arthur Laffer in 1974 on a cocktail napkin at a small dinner meeting attended by the late Wall Street Journal editor Robert Bartley and such high-powered policymakers as Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. Laffer showed how two different rates—one high and one low—could produce the same revenues, since the higher rate would discourage work and investment. The Laffer Curve helped launch Reaganomics here at home and ignited a frenzy of tax cutting around the globe that continues to this day. It’s also one of the simplest concepts in economics: lowering the tax rate on production, work, investment, and risk-taking will spur more of these activities and will often produce more tax revenue rather than less. Since the Reagan tax cuts, the United States has created some 40 million new jobs—more than all of Europe and Japan combined."

- Stephen Moore

I would like to add that this issue really frosts my chaps. The budget deficit is caused by overspending not undertaxing. Of course the rich are going to benefit the most from tax cuts since they are the ones actually paying the taxes!

When you punish success it affects everyone negatively. Reward success and everyone has a fair shot at getting ahead. It won't be easy (Pursuit of Happyness) but it will be possible.

Here is a prominent Senator speaking on taxes in 2004, "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good." How is that anything other than legalized covetousness?

But what about the poor, you say? Well, Americans have always been among the most generous people on earth. Private citizens efforts on behalf of the poor are always more effective, compassionate and cost efficient than anything the government could dream up.

Thomas Sowell has a great analogy in his book, The Quest for Cosmic Justice. He is speaking about government efforts to make life more fair and he uses the following illustration to make his point. I'm paraphrasing here- "If a ship with 300 people on board is sinking and there is only room for 200 people on board, the fair thing is that all 300 people should drown. It is not fair to the 100 to let them drown while the 200 live." Obviously no sane person would recommend that we let all 300 drown just to make it fair, even knowing as Sowell points out that the most selfish scoundrels among the lot would probably end up in the life boat. And yet this policy of fairness, or "cosmic justice" as Sowell calls it is the guiding principle of so many in government today. Damn the whole lot for the sake of the few, rather than to let the horses run free and wild, knowing that some will get left behind. Let them fall behind I say, statistics prove that there will always be plenty of us who will turn around to help them on their way.

The Iowa Caucuses

The street in front of our house was jammed with cars and people tonight as I headed out towards my caucus site. There were two caucus sites between my house and the school where I ended up casting my vote and my excitement grew as I passed group after group of people walking with the cartoonish urgency that can only come on a cold night. I was so excited to live in a country where I was free to participate in an election process without fear of violence or doctored results.

The Republicans in my district gathered in a local middle school cafeteria. I sat down at a table after arriving roughly 20 minutes early and studied the crowd of nearly 90 people. There were only two people under the age of 30, which I took as a good sign, I mean honestly, when I was 18 I liked Bill Clinton solely because his theme song was Fleetwood Macs' Don’t Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. There were a few people in their forties, quite a few of us in our thirties and fifties, while the majority of the crowd was over sixty. Male female broke down to roughly 60 % male, 40 % female. Most of the crowd looked like they were very hard working, moving with the purposeful economy of motion common to those who need to save their energy for a long day coming. There were more than a few Carharts in the crowd, the instantly recognizable winter wear of the working man.

Most people spent the extra time trying to talk their seatmates into or out of various candidates. I was seated with two other gentlemen who knew they would be voting in the minority. All three of us shared a negative view of the eventual winner, Mike Huckabee.

After we all recited the pledge of allegiance, the emcee asked for a representative of each candidate to speak for roughly 3-4 minutes on why we should vote for his or her candidate. A friend of Fred Thompson’s spoke on his behalf, a woman from the crowd (small business owner) spoke brilliantly on behalf of Ron Paul, a young man spoke for Mike Huckabee, and three people from the crowd spoke on John McCain’s behalf. One of the people speaking for John McCain was an elderly woman whose husband had also been a prisoner of war. After each speech the crowd applauded, no one spoke on behalf of Romney, Guliani, or Duncan Hunter. Then paper ballots were passed out and we voted. The ballots were collected and a supporter from each candidate was called up to supervise the vote tally. As a man read aloud from each ballot, the emcee put a mark next to the name of the candidate receiving the vote on a large white tablet. The word Huckabee, repeated in a monotonous drone, bounced off my forehead 34 times like some audio version of Chinese water torture, by the end I had to resist the urge to stand up and scream, “You idiots! You lemmings!” Coming in second was Fred Thompson with 18 votes, tied for third with 12 each were Ron Paul and Mitt Romney, John McCain had 11 votes and Guliani although ahead of Hunter walked away with only one vote.

My choice came down to voting against Huckabee by voting for Romney, voting against the Government by voting for Ron Paul, or voting for conservative principals by voting for Fred Thompson. I wrestled with this for days, but eventually decided that for once in my life I would like to vote for something instead of the usual vote against the worse of the two candidates. So I voted for Thompson, a guy who doesn’t really act like he wants to be President, but who is for a limited government. And as long as I’m keeping things on the optimistic side, I would like to say I’m positive that Mike Huckabee would be a horrible candidate for President.

Joe Biden at Cooney's Tavern

Being as that I'm new to Iowa and all, I figured it would be a lot of fun to get out there and go see a couple of candidates strutting their stuff. So when my friend Eddie mentioned that Joe Biden was going to be speaking at an Irish bar near our house I jumped at the chance on both counts. I went in with a pretty negative impression of Biden based solely on the (D) that comes in front of his name and a general perception that he was just another blowhard in a nice suit. But I walked away with a lot of respect for the guy, he probably is just another blowhard in a suit but he does have the courage to speak his mind and that's saying a lot these days.

You had me at hello...

It was in the low twenties with a decent wind blowing when we ducked into a packed Cooney's about three minutes before the fire code was officially broken. Seriously, three minutes later and we wouldn't have even made it into the door. It was packed and electric, shortly after we arrived, an older and very happy gentleman near the door led the crowd in a fun version of "Happy Days are Here Again", a song I had never heard before but that was pretty easy to pick up. After about a half hour wait Biden showed up and walked past us, shaking hands and saying hello to people on his way up to the "platform" which was as I later saw, a couple of cases of beer pushed together. The crowd quieted down as he spoke, the bartenders quit serving and leaned back against the bar to listen to his speech, given under the green Christmas lights. In his opening remarks he mentioned having gone to the University of Delaware which got a couple of lighthearted boos from some of the Iowa fans in the audience. He replied to our great delight, "Unlike other candidates I'm not afraid to stand up for what I believe in - we kicked Iowa's a**!" That was such a great moment, so non pandering that you had to respect his candor.

I enjoyed his speech primarily because he really didn't make any promises at all. He wasn't offering bliss, prosperity, and to tuck us into bed every night like most of his Democrat rivals. He basically said, (paraphrasing) "we've got a hard road ahead of us but nobody said life was going to be easy, the American people love a good challenge and I believe they are up to the challenge so let's pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and get after it." That's not exactly what he said but I feel like that was the gist of it. Or maybe that was just what he said when run through my conservative filter. Anyways, I was surprised to hear what I was hearing.

During a brief question and answer time after his speech, someone asked if he would support partial birth abortions. I took from the tone of the question that they were really hoping he would say yes. Well, again to my surprise he gave a pretty lengthy and specific answer saying he was completely opposed to partial birth abortion. I thought that for a Democrat running for the party's nomination that was pretty gutsy. Maybe I'm just easy, but I've always said that I am so sick of the dishonesty in politics and that I just wanted someone to speak the truth about their views and I couldn't shake the feeling that Joe was speaking from his heart what he believed.

Since then I've learned that he was one of the few Democrats who recently supported refunding the troops, a potentially politically damaging vote about which he said, "there are some things worth losing the election over." In the divisive climate in which we live we need to champion the honest no matter what side of the aisle they come from. Our allegience should be to Honesty and Character before Party.

I'm raising a glass now to the two Joes, Biden and Liebs, two islands of honesty in a sea full of empty promises. Thanks for having the character to speak your minds.

And for my part, I'll be honest by saying "Ron Paul in '08!"

Yeah, I think I can make it

Took these pictures yesterday on the bridge just below Gruene. Not sure what this guy was thinking, but heard on the news that he was rescued and then immediately arrested. You can't see it in the picture but his car was getting tore up from all the debris in the water. The dam is going to be letting off this much water all week so he's not going to have much left if they don't figure out a way to get it out of there.

And Now For Something Completely Different

A quick holiday decorating tip before I get to the main topic: It is not acceptable to mix colored and white lights in front yard displays. Pick one or the other and stick with it. Also taboo is the mixing of blinking lights set at different speeds. Thank you.

I Feel it Coming On

Recently, while dining out I got the distinct impression that I was enjoying a luxury that at some point in the near future would no longer be available for me to enjoy. Ditto on recent trips to Starbucks, the movies, and the iTunes music store. There is a storm brewing on the horizon, the thunder of which we can all hear, whose lightning flashes we can all see increasing in frequency and proximity. What is clear is that the storm is headed our way, what is not clear is the exact intensity of the storm or for how long it will last. The storm of which I am speaking of is the rapidly increasing cooperation and unity amongst several diverse nations whose common bond is a desire to see us either subdued or destroyed. I feel as though we are on the verge (next 4-6 yrs.) of a major change in the way that life is lived here in America. And now some minor observations minus the requisite factual support, on account of the busy holiday season.

Who

China. As their economy grows, their need for oil grows, reason enough to cozy up to certain Middle Eastern entities. As their population grows, their need for other limited natural resources grows as well. With the world's largest standing army, and roughly 120 men per every 100 women, they have the might and incentive to flex some serious muscle. I can't see them attacking us outright but rather picture them pulling strings to weaken our economy. I can see them doing this independently and/or helping or waiting for another nation or entity to attack us and then exploiting. They could bring us to our knees without even firing a shot.

N. Korea. Crazed dictator with nukes. Nuff said. With a wink and a nod China could start the scenario mentioned above. Okay, maybe not quite that easily, but you get the picture, any one of these countries by themselves does not scare me but as a team they do.

Russia. Run by Putin whom I do not trust, a major economic partner with Iran, has given (is giving?) them military hardware and know how. Probably wouldn't mind being a big dog on the block again.

Venezuala. Spending a conspicuous amount of money on modernizing and increasing the size of their army. Venezuelan President Chavez and Iranian president Ahmadinejad are buddy-buddy as are Chavez and Fidel Castro who coincidently runs a small country 90 miles off the coast of Florida.

Iran. Calling their shot right now.

Extremist Islam, both here and abroad, like the crocodile in the mud hole creeping closer and closer to the feeding herd, waiting...waiting...

What

Increased cooperation and possible collusion to precipitate our demise. Or even just several of them waiting to opportunistically exploit events set in motion by another.

Worst case: nuclear detonation followed by extreme economic hard times. Best case: extreme economic hard times

Why

A lean, hungry dog will easily take the bone away from a much larger dog who is satiated by a life of ease and plenty. And if said hungry dog loves death more than life, the results could certainly be brutal.

Hope

I remember late August nights on the Jersey Shore in my teen years and the dread I felt knowing that winter was right around the corner and that the sun and salt water would soon be replaced with snow and salt trucks. I kind of feel that way now, only a lot happier. My heart is full of love and that gives the strength and reason to defend. I feel safe, not physically or circumstancially, but still safe nonetheless, "sheltered in the shadow of His wings" and that gives me joy. And after working around some of the greatest men in America for three years at the factory in Kansas City and here in Texas in the rock quarries, I know that these men and countless others just like them will rise to any challenge and meet it head on, with vim and courage.

Plans

I'm tossing around the idea of learning how to hunt. I don't need or even want venison right now but I might need it in the future. Maybe, still thinking about it, I'm not a nut, I just don't want to bury my head in the sand.
Beyond that no real plans, I figure letting God do His thing on us will prepare the family emotionally for potential stresses that may lay ahead. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfullness, gentleness, and self control. I think generous stores of those in our inner man will help us to rise up and act with honor, purpose, and clarity if and when we are called upon.

Too Much

I was recently reading a book written in 1953, in which the main character had a biscuit and coffee for dinner when he got home from work. His wife was pretty excited because she had just made the biscuits and was anxious for a little feedback. It was a pretty intense read, full of suspense, drama, incredible dialogue, etc... and yet here I am a week later and all I can think about is those dang biscuits. I want to know what it would be like to eat a biscuit for dinner, push away from the table, go about my chores, put the kids to bed, read for a while, and finally lay down around 10 p.m., satisfied, with nothing but the bitter brew keeping that little biscuit company deep inside my gullet. What freedom that would be, to be satisfied with so little.

We live in the land of plenty, and I enjoy it, I have no problems with the land of plenty. Okay, that's not true, I am horrified by Wal Mart for aesthetic reasons and I am paralyzed by anything with more than two options. Aside from that however, I have few bones to pick with the current age of prosperity. What I do have a problem with though is my inability to restrain myself when enormous amounts of delicious foods are available to me almost without limit. As I watch my pant size ebb and flow with tidal regularity, I know that I am missing out on more than rock hard abs. Slowly but surely, pleasure and satisfaction are eroding in the sea of Too Much.

Twilight is the sweetest time of the day for many reasons, most notably its brevity. Like summer in Wisconsin or Sunday morning, we savor twilight because it is delivered in the most fleeting fashion that assigns it incredible value and nearly demands that we revel in it. There is something about things in small or limited quantities that either amplifies or reveals signifigance. I want to rediscover the value of food, specifically great food by learning to consume it in increasingly smaller portions. I have no idea how I am to go about doing this, my will power in this area being practically non existent, but I know it is the only way my soul will survive and my body will enjoy my brief visit here to the land of plenty.