A take on the candidates

Fred Thompson has something to say to someone who emailed him a question about Romney and Obama. They asked what choice we have if one is a Mormon and the other a Muslim. Thompson responds to not fall for the wrong thing. The mainstream media is going to whip Romney on his Mormon-ism any way they can think of. But that doesn't stick. We will never find the perfect candidate, but most Americans agree that the country is headed off a cliff, and organized religion isn't in play here. He says we gotta go with Mitt. "Obama selections for the Supreme Court for another four years will have an adverse effect on the proper role of religion in our country and in our schools as well as a host of other issues."

We got where we are a step at a time. One guy isn't gonna fix it all in a year or two. We have to use what we have to pull back, stop the bleeding, and be more involved in our own government. We are the ones who put those guys there. We need to put new people in, and then keep an eye on 'em. Don't just throw them the keys and watch them burn rubber down the road. We can make alot of progress with a few key victories in the Senate and the White House. Time will tell. Better yet, faith, prayer, door knocking, and getting out the [properly registered] voters is the key. That means us.

Happy Easter!

I find it refreshingly ironic that our Resurrection Day is titled after a Germanic pagan goddess, whom they named the month after. One might say it is just a coincidence, but I don't believe in coincidence. I think God meant it that way to teach us that things are not as we see them, He is Good, and we need to be more open-minded to Him. I think God likes dichotomies. We didn't get dressed up today for nothing. We need to live like we believe what we celebrated today. Most of you will read this on Monday or after. Are we still living during the week the way we acted on Easter Sunday? Not out of guilt or addiction or habit, but of being absolved, hopeful, purposeful. Knowing the end of the story, and that nothing here can take away our prize if we have truly decided to accept the truth of the Gospel. Seize the power of your faith to engage the purpose only you can serve.

A Broom and the Commerce Clause

Here is a little more detailed bit following up on my Facebook comments this morning about the Commerce Clause. Part of my life is really boring, so I read a modern day version of The Federalist Papers. (The Original Argument, Beck, 2011) In it, I learned that the Founding Fathers had some really cool ideas. They aren’t really very intuitive; you have to study this stuff, and realize how nature and people work. They discovered that in order for there to be order, man needed to be trustworthy ( or more to the point, he needed to be assumed to be trustworthy),  certain natural elements exist (including man’s propensity to screw things up!),  and there are certain Truths that can’t be changed, or ignored.

The Founders acknowledged Natural Law, they pointed out that rights come from our Creator, not the Feds, they discovered that liberty is a gift from God, and that with that law and gift, other things can occur. Like where the Bible says that we are to work for our keep, and we get paid for it because it has value, and if others like it they will buy it, and that creates more value, and it just grows. So, the Constitution was written to protect the natural flow of things, to keep us from mucking up the works, and set some ways that we (meaning the states) can work together for our collective common good, while still having our own states’ individual features.

The reason we are the most productive country in the world, the wealthiest, the most industrious, responsible for so much new product and ideas, is that this country was set up to foster an environment where it is practical to try stuff, and make money on the stuff that works. Reading The Federalist Papers isn’t very fun, especially the original text, but when you read a few of them on the different topics, it comes together that those dudes in the funny wigs who were always dressed up were on to something.

The Commerce Clause isn’t just a blank check that says the feds can control business and trade with foreign countries and among the states. It was written to keep each state from adding a tax to a product that traveled through it on its way to the market, and to gather the collective buying power of all 13 or 22 or 50 (not 57) states to deal with other countries, instead of each state having to deal with them on their own. (In the same fashion, the military was set up on a federal level so each state didn’t have to have a navy and army. Much better to combine ranks for that. We have a federal government, NOT a national one)

The Commerce Clause makes it so that a broom made in Florida and shipped to Ohio, or vise versa, doesn’t get tagged with a tax when it travels through Georgia and Tennessee on its way; or worse, can’t get to Ohio because Georgia won’t let it pass.

So, we need to first of all, know why things are the way they are, and what they mean (and don’t mean), and then, we need to speak up when some goon in DC says he can do this or that because of the ______ clause/amendment/section. Mostly the Constitution says what the Feds can and can’t do, and then leaves the rest to the states. And if ya don’t like how your state does something, fix it, deal with it, or move to another state that does it the way you like. Our politicians have become so uninformed, or politically correct, or are rigging the system, so that nothing is as it should be, and our liberty, religious freedoms, and peace are almost gone. So healthcare can’t be regulated by the Commerce Clause, cuz that’s not how it was written.

Ok. I’m done for now.

Goodbye Continental Airlines

Today is the last day for the Continental Airlines name. The signs are down, the computer system and websites are being updated tonight, and Houston will not have a "hometown airline" anymore. Wish it was them that was staying. I'm sure the new United will have plenty of presence and employees here, but its not ours anymore.

I guess its progress, but I fear that the new company won't be as good as what we were used to.

So long Continental. It was fun.

Math, Infinite, and the Star of Bethlehem

Friday is the Feast of Epiphany. So…

Are you any good at math? I’m not talking about algebra, just math. Arithmetic to you sixties and seventies people. Have you ever wondered about what the last number is? I have. (nothing else to do while the NBA was on strike) There isn’t one. It just keeps going. Energizer bunny. Back to that in a minute.

It seems as though math is everywhere. I don’t know a lot about computers, but I know that an algorithm is a sequence of math calculations that causes a computer to process information. Math can be used for a lot of stuff, not just to decipher your cell phone bill. (I think the cell phone companies make stuff up on purpose so it doesn’t all add up). 

Some guy in the early 1600s used math stuff to figure out the alignment of the stars, and how they progress. Name was Johannes Kepler. He was a German mathematician and astronomer (NOT astrologer!), and had at least some belief in a God that made the heavens in a very orderly fashion. He didn’t have a computer. Or a lens. And he wasn’t alive when the Baby Jesus arrived. But we are able to calculate, using laws he discovered, what the sky looked like when the Magi showed up. It seems that it took the Wise Men about 8 months to get to Bethlehem. Jesus was likely born in the spring, April-ish, and we can plot that the Magi arrived on December 25^th, 2 BC. Some people think it might have been even later than that, like 2-3 years. The exact date isn’t the point, just so we don’t get into an argument about dates.

We can also support the movement of that great Star, from the east, to the west, and then to the south, to Bethlehem. We can also define where and how it stopped. It didn’t run out of gas. It didn’t burn out. Something called retrograde motion creates an optical illusion so that it looks like the star stopped. Are you impressed? I’m not as smart as I sound right now. I just know enough to start a lot of trouble.

Anyway, a bunch of smart people have figured out how to show what the sky looked like on that night in Bethlehem (or any other night, but we don’t care about the night they first learned to make a wheel out of a rock :D ) So, the Star of Bethlehem isn’t just some church story an old lady whipped up cuz she forgot her Sunday School notes one December.

Connection to infinity. Math and numbers goes to infinity. Time is eternal. Our salvation is eternal. God was, is, and will be. We existed in God’s mind for all time, and will dwell with Him forever. So God created and used time, space, science, and the physical world to build what we see, and don’t see, and also made it so we can discover it. Or at least some of it. This is part of where I get the idea from that there is no such thing as secularism. We are here, because He put us here. He has a reason for that. Part of your job, should you choose to accept it ( pun intended), is to figure that out. How? Using your gifts, talents, personality, likes and Guidance. Then, using the rest of your life to work on that purpose, and make an Impression on others, do Good to others, and give God glory in what you do. Even the things that don’t work out, by the way. I learned that the hard way in 2002.

Some people have told me that they are not religious; they don’t necessarily think God doesn’t exist, they just don’t pay much attention to it. My response to that is, You ARE religious, you just worship other things than I do. I’m not saying you’ll live forever; the infinity analogy breaks down at that point, but God is looking for you to put your piece into the puzzle. It all works for Good.

I’m thinking that the more of us who try to figure out what we are here for, and recognize that that comes from an Almighty God who is interested in all the details, even to the minutiae of aligning the Stars so you will find Him, the more content we will be, and the better we will get along with others, and then, just maybe, the world will be a better place.

So many other topics come out of that, but that’s enough for now. 

Happy Epiphany. Look for the Star.

Lamb and Sheep

Lambs are cute. Sheep not so much. Lambs are soft and cuddly, sheep are big and rough.

Tonight a baby arrived in the world. To very little notice, frankly, considering the significance of why He is here. Even before He was born he was referred to as the Lamb. A lamb is a baby sheep. Lambs were used in the old law as sacrifices to God to atone for sin. A first-born. A lamb grows up to be a sheep. Babies grow up to be adults. God the Son came as a baby, the Lamb of God, just as we do.

The Angel of the Lord arrived in the fields where the shepherds were watching their sheep, and announced to the world, to the “sheep,” don’t be afraid. There is great news. And then a huge concert happened right there out in the sky above the  wilderness. The first flash mob? Is that too irreverent?

The shepherds of that time were on the lower end of the totem pole, so to speak. They were always outside of the city, minding the sheep. I’m thinking there were lots more sheep there than people. Not a lot of folks to talk to. And they probably didn’t get to town much. Nobody else to take their place. But God, who doesn’t work in ways that we do, decided to announce the birth of His Son, to the shepherds. Not to the elders and rulers and Pharisees. He went straight to the people; the commonfolk. The less glamorous of the day, but people, still. And so other than Mary and Joseph and maybe a few people near the stable, the shepherds were first to know that the Christ child had arrived.

And they went to see what this was all about. And they knew this was from the Lord. And so the story begins. Actually, it continues, because it started way before this.

Next is the Fantastic Star.

How much more???

Civilization is crumbling before our eyes. For the second time in less than a year, a CFB coach is accused of contact with another of a sexual nature. One or more were actually juveniles. Not that it's ok if they're adults. And two head coaches lose their jobs because they were involved, no because they should've said something but didn't. Paterno is 84 somethin' years old. Been coaching longer than most of these people have been alive. Winning-est CFB coach of all time, with a was-gonna-be fine legacy to leave at a high profile place. Instead, he is fired. Not because he did nothing, but because he didn't do enough. What is that? Geez, what the hell is going on out there? Yes, Paterno needs to go, but that's like throwing a bucket of water on a raging house fire. AND, Penn State knew about it. Why isn't the board fired too? They are in charge if Paterno is. Paterno is gone, and into a dark cloud.
Jim Tressel lost his job last off-season for basically the same thing. What happened to truth and integrity and doing the right thing. What about the boys - and men - who are the victims. Money payoffs don't cut it. That's a lame attempt at legalized bribery. Their lives are upset at the least, ruined at the most. No money can fix that. Where are the leaders and coaches and fathers and colleagues. Somebody knew. I am tired of hearing about embarrassing reports on the sports reports. Get over yourselves, people. Get some help, or at least get out of the way. You deserve to be in a cold dark place for a long time.

Between the hoodlums in Manhattan, Oakland, etc, the fools in Congress trying to negotiate their way out of a debt hole, too many people trying to knock off a political foe, and these idiots, I don't know where to go for some sanity.

I think it will need to come from us.