SendThinker

to blog or not to blog

2011-11-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

i am growing and thinking a lot these days. the question remains: to blog or not to blog? increasingly lately, i am thinking: to blog.

decision making-get your move on

2009-04-01T12:29:00.005-07:00

how long should a Christian wait to make a decision on an important matter?

what is the balance between waiting to hear an answer from God, and making a decision based on the principles He has already revealed to you through scripture and using the brain He has given you?

as with many things, leaning to far one way or the other is probably not the right answer. always relying on a "voice from above", or always applying principles only without listening can definately get us in trouble, so there must be a balance.

i have been pondering this lately and am coming to the conclusion that God wants me to apply much more than i have on what He has revealed to me already to the current question at hand. i have noticed many Christians can become paralyzed in waiting on God to "move them", when in fact He is clearly waiting for "them to move". i have fallen prey to this many times in my walk.

so do that. if you don't hear a clear voice, then get a move on making the best decision you can given the principles God has revealed in His word. and YES! we should always be attentive to hear His voice if He moves us strongly in one direction or another. in fact, many times He is probably waiting to speak until after you get a move on!

why

2009-03-11T11:13:00.004-07:00

some or none of my fan may be asking, where is that sendthinker dude? well, he is still here, here is now Washington instead of New Mexico and the reason I am not commenting as much is because I haven't made it a priority. i guess i'm trying to figure out what i really want to comment about. God is really working on humbling me and showing me how little i really understand about anything much less the stuff i've been posting about. so where will this go?, more to come...

How'd I do?

2009-01-20T19:19:00.004-07:00

Here were my predictions in January of 2008. So how'd I do?

1. US will begin significant troop pullout by September. Iraq non-issue in election.
--Correct: We began the troop pullout and Iraq disappeared off the radar. The surge worked and if we had listened to Obama and the democrats, Today, a lot more troops and Iraqis would be dead.
2. No hurricanes make US landfall.
--Wrong: 1 Hurricane hit the US, but they predicted 3, they were further off.
3. Congress gets slightly more democratic.
--Correct
4. McCain is the only Republican who can beat Clinton, if he's not nominated Clinton wins. If he is nominated, he wins.
--Wrong: McCain lost to Obama.
5. China wins gold medal count in olympics, by winning things like table tennis.
--Correct: 51 gold for china, 36 for US
6. Economy will continue to slow, but US will narrowly avoid recession.
--Wrong: US showed a narrow shrinking of the economy in 2008.
7. The DJIA will set a new record and top out around 14,600.
--Wrong: DJIA didn't set new record.
8. Low interest rates and cheap houses will cause significant housing pickup towards the end of the year
--housing pickup has begun, but it is not significant yet. Definitely right about the low interest rates.

3.5/8.0 44% Down from 50% last year. Not such a good year. 2009 Predictions coming soon.

outsourcing

2008-12-11T12:27:00.001-07:00

I was thinking today. Outsourcing has its pros and cons. But why not outsource our politicians. Surely that would be okay with americans.

Fight FOCA

2008-11-25T10:05:00.003-07:00

FOCA Would Wipe Away Every Restriction on Abortion Nationwide
This would eradicate state and federal laws that the majority of Americans support, such as:
Bans on Partial Birth Abortion
Requirements that women be given information about the risks of getting an abortion
Only licensed physicians can perform abortions
Parents must be informed and give consent to their minor daughter's abortion
FOCA would erase these laws and prevent states from enacting similar protective measures in the future.

If anything, abortion should be more discouraged and less available. This law would really erase a lot of states individual power to govern in this area. That's bad for all americans.

mini nuke plants

2008-11-08T22:50:00.002-07:00

so what have i been telling you guys for years now. nuke is the future of our energy needs. duh.

Now a New Mexico company is ready to mass produce units as big as a garden shed capable of supplying electricty to 20,000 homes. The future holds small nuke plants 18 feet by 6 ft capable of powering an office building for 40 years without fuel change. O yeah, and its not weapons grade uranium.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/nov/09/miniature-nuclear-reactors-los-alamos

so i'm crazy

2008-10-23T20:01:00.002-07:00

i think that mccain will pull this one out. I think that the polls are wrong. i predict he squeaks out a victory. so go ahead, call me crazy. Number 1 reason I am calling it for Mccain: if mccain gets Pennsylvania, it will be very hard for obama to win, and i just can't see obama winning Pennsylvania.

we're here!

2008-10-16T21:40:00.003-07:00

arrived in walla walla today. the week will be filled with finding a place to live and other such adventures. for now, I'm stoked that Pioneer park has a totally awesome boulder for kids (and grownups) to climb on. Ethan solved a really tough problem on it today.

moving

2008-10-07T22:04:00.005-07:00

as fall sets in in beautiful new mexico, the balloons fill the roasting chili saturated air.

We've said our goodbyes to the best neighborhood ever and our best friends ever and the move is this weekend. we will be in wally wally sometime next week. goodbye Albuquerque. I can truly say I have enjoyed living here more than any place in my life. Luckily we get to enjoy the balloon fiesta one last time this week. I'm loading up on the world's best green and red chili and heading north.

New adventure awaits in Washington and I can't wait to explore it all with my family!

universal mediscare

2008-10-01T19:58:00.004-07:00

The Bush Administration agreed to a 10.6 billion dollar bailout of Massachusetts' out of control health care spending. This after a 25B bailout of the auto industry and during talk of a 700B bailout of the banks.

"Massachusetts landed a $10.6 billion promise of federal funding over three years. The funding will come through the Medicaid program, with a waiver that allows the state to cover some people with higher incomes than are typically allowed in Medicaid, the Boston Globe reports.

The state offers subsidized coverage to people making up to 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $63,600 for a family of four. Since the universal coverage program launched two years ago, 440,000 more people have signed up for insurance. Elements of state’s insurance program have been cited as a possible national model by some Democrats.

But the program has been more expensive than expected, and there’s a rolling fight over how much businesses should be expected to support the program."

Wow, I can't believe that their universal health care plan turned out more expensive then planned. That is so shocking to me.

History of the Mass problem here:
http://www.heritage.org/Press/Commentary/ed091508d.cfm

Unbelievable. And democrats want us to do this broken health care system nationwide? Imagine bailing out every state, then turning around and having to bailout social security and medicare sometime in the next couple of decades.

People, where is all this money going to come from? The top 5% of Americans cannot bear the whole of these burdens!

"bailout"

2008-09-25T21:35:00.004-07:00

my prediction is that John McCain gets credit for orchestrating a bailout plan between the white house and congressional republicans which shifts the burden of this bailout to the companies and not all to the taxpayers. the democrats will be forced to go along with the republican plan to get the presidents signature and not look like the party for putting this burden on the taxpayers. obama will look like a fool for "being available by phone if the senate needs him" as McCain makes large poll gains after the plan sends wall street higher. I give kudos to McCain's campaign manager taking as much advantage of McCain's apparent genuine desire to be useful in fixing this mess.

busy

2008-09-23T18:45:00.002-07:00

well, we've been busy, and there is actually a good reason I've been negligent in my blog posting. I accepted a job offer in Walla Walla, WA and we are leaving mid-October. I've been feverishly getting our house ready for selling and also spending way more time than usual doing stuff with people, backpacking, mountain biking, tennis, dinner here, dinner there, etc.

i've been missing the posting as of late though and this is definately the longest dry spell in the last 4 years of blogging so I must return! look for more to come.

obama will lose

2008-09-03T18:05:00.002-07:00

i've predicted it since Jan. Obama will lose. He has no experience at all. He is a phenom, he is full of empty promises with no record to back up anything he says. He has less than 200 days experience in the Senate. McCain has 20 years in the military, and 26 years in the Senate. the experience is incomparable. this whole contest is a joke, McCain is going to run away with it. Obama is the definition of someone unfit for the highest office in the land. he needs more than the ability to read a speech or hire a good campaign manager. the dems know it and they are scared to death. he will lose. that's my take. bank on it.

as easy as money gets

2008-07-28T21:28:00.005-07:00

i don't know why so many people seemed bummed about the stock market drops of recent. as far as i'm concerned the longer and lower the dow goes, the better. my logic is as follows.

Highest DOW has reached is close to 14,200.
Today the DOW closed at 11,131.
The DOW has always reached its previous high and surpassed it since its inception.

therefore if you buy the index today, it is as close as a guarantee you can ever get anywhere for A 1 - 11,131/14,200 = 22% increase to reach its previous high.

BOTTOM LINE: YOUNG PEOPLE, THIS IS A GOLDEN TIME TO INVEST FOR AN ALMOST GUARANTEED RETURN OF 22%. TRY TO BEAT THAT WITH ANYTHING ELSE...AND THE LONGER THE DOW STAYS LOW, THE MORE MONEY YOU WILL BE PUTTING IN THAT WILL GET THE 22% RETURN. AS YOUNG PEOPLE WE HAVE TIME TO WAIT, SO I FOR ONE, AM ROOTING FOR THE STOCK MARKET TO HANG AROUND THESE LEVELS FOR A WHILE TO COME.

REMEMBER, IN ANY FINANCIAL INVESTMENT, BUYING LOW IS JUST AS IMPORTANT, IF NOT MORE SO, THAN SELLING HIGH.

enchantments

2008-07-21T21:06:00.002-07:00

Had a great 4 day backpacking trip into the enchantments again this year. Trip report is NOW AVAILABLE here.

emachineshop

2008-07-21T21:02:00.002-07:00

what a cool idea. a machine shop online. www.emachineshop.com gives you free software that helps you design just about anything and then get it delivered in a couple of weeks.

interview

2008-06-30T16:52:00.002-07:00

well, i had my interview with the army corps of engineers today. if they're smart they will take me, that's what worries me. I'd say I have a pretty good chance but should here back on Wed. if they have their act together, so I probably won't here back on Wednesday. God's will be done, but it sure would be an interesting change of pace to go from rockets to dams. Walla walla won't measure up to albuquerque, but there are a lot of other reasons to be in the nw besides the climate and dozens of other reasons i love NM. It will be so great to be close to both Sarah and I's families. And having our kids grow up in a small town has its pluses too.

Wednesday night the fam and i fly up to Seattle for just about the whole month of July on vacation. Lot's of fun stuff in the works.

wise man

2008-06-28T12:22:00.000-07:00

"A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." - Thomas Jefferson

prediction: iran

2008-06-27T23:04:00.002-07:00

israel will bomb iran sometime during the last 2-3 months of this year. they have guts and we don't.

trip report: salome jug 6/24/08

2008-06-24T18:06:00.003-07:00

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=d62fdjq_2gbn8hz8z

Good times 70 miles north of phoenix last night. And some bad times as I got my rental car stuck on a boulder. for more on that you'll have to read...

for more on the jug read on...here.

planning for july

2008-06-11T19:59:00.005-07:00

well the planning continues for our 9-12 July trip into the alpine lake wilderness in washington state. we have permits in hand, and all that remains to be seen now is how fast the snow will melt. aasgard pass as of the 4th of June still looks pretty snowy(see pic) but another trip report i saw made the upper and lower enchantments look not so snowy (as in the picture of prusik peak). but colchuck lake is almost melted out, so there is hope on this most snowiest of springs. these are all pictures from trip reports within the last week.

i'll just be keeping track at NWHikers website for trip reports through the 4th of July weekend. Plan B is to hit the Wallowa Mountains and Oregon's Eagle Cap Wilderness. Can't go wrong with that plan b!

another weekend in the jemez

2008-06-11T19:50:00.003-07:00

what a relief to finally be regularly camping again. this was our first real backpacking trip with the kids in years. summer is finally old enough to do some hiking, so out with the car camping for the forseable future.! they did wonderful and hiked in about a mile, crossing streams, logs, etc, into the las conchas canyon in the jemez. this is one of my favorite places in new mexico, so few people actually camp back in there and the stream is a beautiful winding fly fisherman's dream.

Daniel and Katie and their two kids also hiked in with us so we had 4 adults and 5 kids. needless to say they spent the whole time in the water. i built a big dam to give them a deeper pool to swim in. on sunday on the way out dan and i climbed a couple of routes. he did his first 5.10 lead climb, way to go dan! i chickened out halfway up and had to toprope a 5.9 80ft climb, but it was still an intense blast!

this place never gets old and is a seriously hidden southwest jewel!

we didn't take our camera this time, so this climbing picture is pulled off the internet.

memorial day in the gila

2008-06-05T17:06:00.004-07:00

Day 1: drove the 6 hours and camped up the long forest dirt road 150
Day 2: Drove to the gila cliff dwellings through some awesome terrain and then camped along the gila river in the sand
Day 3: Drove south to silver city and then north to the "catwalk" which winds up a slot canyon in the wester gila, then camped just outside of the ghost town of mongollon way up in the mountains.
Day 4: Drove out to Socorro box canyon and did a couple of climbing routes on the way home.

Overall I love these mountains. if they aren't crowded on memorial day, they're probably never crowded. the riparian canyon bottoms were beautiful and the water was very refreshing!

explore!

2008-05-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

I just got back from 4 days in the Gila wilderness, but more on that later.

It's funny, as I was just sitting here thinking. The places I love most
are on the tops of ridges, or in the bottoms of canyons. Kind of
opposites, but I spend a lot of time getting to one or the other
trekking through the in-between areas, which are cool too.

But to me there is nothing more beautiful than a stream cascading from
pool to pool over granite boulders in a shady Southwest Riparian canyon
bottom or the vastness of sweeping scenery enjoyed by scrambling a ridge
which gives the sensation of flying.

The world is truly a beautiful place in need of much exploring!

31,092 and counting

2008-05-22T19:10:00.003-07:00

including 9,021 with PhDs, scientists have signed the following petition regarding global warming. its interesting to click on the states and see how many many scientists are joining the chorus against the global warming hoax.

Just like the global cooling scare in the 70s, this craziness will eventually fade into the sunset of history. Read the peer reviewed paper which gives many many good evidences against human caused global warming at the site here. It is very eye opening, its worth it!

mr. Mcain, you're hired

2008-05-21T16:26:00.004-07:00

how do i know?

Obama has little to no foreign government experience. Obama’s only relevant government experience is two years in the Senate with no significant legislation to show for it. Like most Junior Senators, Obama was a rubber stamp for democratic legislation.

But more importantly Obama has no military experience-not even working with military leaders.

The primary constitutional job of the President is to be Commander and Chief of the US Armed Forces.

My simple theory is that the vast majority of Americans realize that the primary job of the American president is to be Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces. Obama has zero resume experience for that primary duty and will therefore lose his job interview with the public.

really really really good joke

2008-05-13T18:04:00.003-07:00

I was walking past the mental hospital the other day, and all the
patients were shouting, "13....13....13..."

The fence was too high to see over, but I saw a little gap in the planks
and looked through to see what was going on.

Some bastard poked me in the eye with a stick.

Then they all started shouting, "14....14....14..."

interviewing myself. Part 2

2008-05-13T17:45:00.004-07:00

Q: Why not just invest in reducing CO2 anyway, what could it hurt?
A: Why not just bury money in a hole, what could it hurt? Because that
is what we would be doing and the money and energy could be MUCH better
used elsewhere. The world is growing at an incredible rate and it will
take market forces to transform our dependence from fossil fuels to
something else. I'm all for a hydrogen car someday, but it will happen
when an American scientist finds out a way to make it affordable and
practical.

Q: So what should be the #1 environmental priority?
A: For me, throwing money at a theory is not a sure thing and therefore
a poor investment choice. Throwing money at environmental
responsibility with proven results is a sure thing. We are overfishing
our oceans, we are poisoning ourselves and the oceans and the air with
chemicals, we are over-farming our lands, we are wasting money and land
on corn farming for ethanol, we have a serious litter problem, toxic
waste cleanup areas, dump sites, mismanaged forests, we could invest in
nuclear power, etc. etc. Throwing money at these in a responsible way
has tangible proven benefits unlike religiously and arbitrarily reducing
a naturally occurring combination of Carbon and Oxygen!

Q: Explain further.
A: Look, if I pick up a piece of plastic from the ocean it is no longer
there. I immediately see an improvement in the environment and take
away the risk of a turtle choking. If I spend my energy worrying about
not using a weed trimmer, I may or may not have made any difference in
the future temperature of the globe. Besides my efforts can immediately
be offset by orders of magnitude by alterations in the earth's natural
behavior, like a volcanic explosion, a shift in the seabed, etc. The
benefits of my actions are unknown and intangible. I believe I am
helping, but I don't really know for sure. Would you invest in a Mutual
fund that has a 0% or negative rate of return, or an undisclosed return
over its history? No, you choose the mutual fund that has the proven track record of 10% or more of return. The global warming zealots are trying to sell us a mutual fund in the first category and I'm not buying. It's as simple as that.

no new laws needed

2008-05-12T19:44:00.001-07:00

the latest raids going on around the country are showing that we have the needed immigration laws in place already, we don't need new ones, we just need to enforce those already passed. Good on ICE for rounding up 700 illegals in Iowa.

Interviewing myself. Part 1

2008-05-10T14:04:00.006-07:00

my many fan are probably wondering why i rant and rave so much about global warming. maybe i can clear a few things up.

Q: Do you believe in globle warming?
A: "Yes. I question our ability to accurately predict global worldwide temperatures based on isolated data points over the last century, but besides that, it is clear that some parts of the world like Alaska are showing retreating glaciers and therefore increasing average temperature."

Q; Don't the retreating glaciers prove global warming?
A: "Sort of, at least they prove that localized warming is occurring in the locations of the glaciers. But is the temperature warming around the equator? I don't know. What is clear to me is that there is no such thing as static global temperature. The earth is always either cooling or warming. A half a degree in the last century, seems relatively easy for me to believe especially given the margins of error in early 20th century temperature keeping methods."

Q: Do you believe man is the cause?
A: "Yes and No. I believe that man is the cause of an artificial panic and an extreme amount of wasted energy trying to deal with what is essentially a process largely out of our control, but to answer more directly, I don't know and no one else does either. While global temperature change may be a fact, the causes of that change all remain theories. Anyone who says they know man is the primary cause of temperature rises on a global scale is calling theory, fact. Therefore anyone who says they know the "solution" is wrong." (to be continues)

middle east is in a whole lot of trouble

2008-05-07T17:31:00.001-07:00

my 600th post: We are not God's

2008-05-07T16:37:00.001-07:00

We are not Gods

Since Eden, Man has longed to be like God. The Global Warming crowd is a recent example of Man trying to be like God. All the folks who bought the hybrid car because they thought it would actually alter the amount of CO2 going into the atmosphere should be looking at the 1991 Pinatubo eruption and the current Chaiten eruption in Chile, which is spewing millions of tons of CO2 up to 20 miles into the atmosphere. It’s almost a disease of the heart, I think, to think that we are so powerful as miniscule humans to control such a powerful force as Volcanoes, or Worldwide Temperature. That driving a certain kind of car or using a certain kind of light bulb could compete with El Nino, La Nina or Solar Radiation Output from the Sun, variations in water vapor and Cloud Cover or variations in the tilt of the earth’s axis around the sun, or variations in the methane produced by natural decay in the world’s oceans. Of course we can’t. The last decade of cooling temperatures has shown that we don’t have a clue as to what is going on.

Volcanoes alone not only eclipse our contributions of pollutants into the atmosphere, they screw up all of our calculations because they cause Global Cooling as the ash reflects the sun’s radiation back into space for up to several years after a major eruption like that in Chile right now. Perhaps common sense will someday prevail. Using the alarmist crowd’s own logic, if several volcanoes went off in a given century, we should be still be decreasing our output of CO2 into the atmosphere to try and regulate the earth’s temperature back to being cooler, when the volcanoes themselves would be doing the job for us! It’s just beyond any kind of common sense whatsoever. We can’t regulate the earth’s temperature any more than we can stop volcanoes from erupting. We are not Gods. Global warming alarmists are coming very close to that claim...

rich dad po dad

2008-05-05T17:09:00.002-07:00

the media is really trying to hype this so called recession. when people are paying $20 extra for gas at the gas station a week, you would think the world was coming to an end. the same people who go out and buy a $400 XBox or $600 Playstation 3 are complaining that gas is too much. The same people who just bought one of the tens of millions of flat screens for around $1000 that have sold in the last year are complaining about gas prices. The same people who go and pay the equivalent of $28/gallon for a Latte' right after they fill up are complaining.

America has the richest so called poor people in the world. 99% of the families out there can cut back on expenses. stop eating out, buying IPODs, cut your cable channels, whatever.

If even half of us took 2 seconds to think about how we could adjust our lifestyle's maybe 99% of the bad economic hype on TV would disappear.

back

2008-05-02T11:43:00.004-07:00

from Tennessee. it was a busy but productive trip out to Arnold Engineering and Development Center near Manchester and Tullahoma. we are getting ready to do a ground rocket motor test at altitude in on of their huge test facilities. The local highlights were a couple of side trips to the Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchberg and a trip to the gorgeous Stone Fort state park in Tullahoma with the big and little duck rivers cascading in waterfalls on each side. Hopefully next time I can meet up with the great Wheeler-Spinner.

weekend adventure

2008-04-22T16:31:00.004-07:00

the sandia's are truly a magical mountain range. 4 climate zones from the foothills of albuquerque to the rim at over 10,500 ft. Dan and i hit the three gun springs trail to hike up to an odd feature I'd been observing the last several years. It's a dry fall, meaning that it becomes a wet fall when it rains in the summer monsoon season. We battled our way up to the feature hoping to climb it, but by the time we got there it had taken us 3 hours of bushwacking. We were totally worn out, so we took a short video of the beatiful 300 foot polished limestone and granite falls and headed back down. We could see the Trigo canyon fire burning in the distance. With temps in the 80's, humidity in the single digits and springs winds, some careless camper or hiker has unwittingly caused a 4,000+ acres of damage to the beautiful Manzano range to the south. Oh well, at least I can cross this one off my list. I think it would be fun to do the falls in 4 rappels from the top someday. It has natural shelves on the way down and must be as pretty as anything in Yosemite in a real downpour if the waterstains along it's 75ft wide mouth are any indication. Another hidden gem, that has a horrible approach from the bottom.

penn state

2008-04-22T15:54:00.003-07:00

hillary by 8 points: just enough to keep the talking heads talking

recession

2008-04-19T19:54:00.004-07:00

"The media has correctly predicted 36 of the last 2 recessions." – Zig Ziglar

By definition, a recession doesn’t happen until the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) goes down for 6 consecutive months. That has not happened yet; therefore our country is not currently in a recession.

By the way, why is this so debated? The root word of Recession is Recede. GDP growth has been Positive every month, though it has been not as positive. But last time I did a reality check it has to go negative in order to be "receding". This isn't rocket science here.

The media seems to think that slowing growth is the same as shrinking... that's like the democrats calling an increase in government spending on a program a cut because it only increased 2% instead of 3%. That's a 1% cut, ha!

filters and condoms

2008-04-18T14:25:00.003-07:00

the schools in this country seems to be okay with a 100% ban on cigarettes and banning all advertising within blocks of schools. Even though "the kids are going to smoke anyway" they do not see cigarette filters as an effective guard against getting lung cancer.

so why is it that they are so much against taking that stance with sexually transmitted diseases? they promote the filters (condoms) instead of teaching abstinence, "because the kids are going to do it anyway".

It seems we are sending an inconsistent message to our children. If it's a dog, let's call it a dog. If it is bad lets call it bad. But those who run the school systems seem to not want to call anything to do with sex, "bad".

american idol

2008-04-10T20:15:00.002-07:00

i thought it was awesome that last night on american idol they ended the "idol gives back" with all of the contestants singing "shout to the Lord". As a Christian, it was really encouraging to see.

we stand above our peers

2008-04-10T20:14:00.000-07:00

Why is it that whenever the left compares our health system to another country’s it’s always Sweden or Norway or some other dinky Scandinavian country? Same with environmental stats or you name it…What they always leave out is that the are comparing apples to oranges. This is such an obvious false dichotomy. We are a country of 300 million plus now. Most of the holier than thou country’s we are compared to have less than 10 million people in them-with various localized strengths and weaknesses due to many factors like climate, location, history, etc.

Comparing anything about our health care system to theirs is like comparing national statistics to individual state statistics. Why not look at all of the country’s even close to our population and larger. We stand heads and shoulders above all of our peers in almost every category.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

Indonesia, India, China, those are the only country’s whose population even comes close to ours. So what if Sweden’s health care is better than ours. So what if their lbs of cheese per capita consumption is greater, it is not relevant. A clear fact is that the US has by leaps and bounds the best health care system in the world for caring for 300,000,000 people.

Single Track Fun

2008-04-08T19:16:00.001-07:00

Sunday my friend and I hit the slopes. Not skiing, but mountain biking. He was kind enough to get my bike tuned up and give me some of his old peddles. It was a serious rush! We headed down some random trails after climbing up, up, up. Dodging cactus and ducking under pinion and juniper, jumping rocks and hard 90 deg turns met us all the way down. I’ve never done a route like that and it makes me want to get into biking a lot more. Only had to bail off the bike once. Unfortunately my bike doesn’t’ have shocks, but the jarring and bumping was definitely tolerable even with all the loose rock. Or maybe i'm just a little old school when it comes to bikes.

bad idea

2008-04-06T15:55:00.002-07:00

want to hear the worst idea ever? it's being spewed from the lips of the democratic candidates. their solution for increasing government revenue for health care: tax the rich. four quick reasons why this is unfair and principally unamerican.

1. It is unfair. currently the top 5% of income earners in this country pay 35% of the taxes. they are already paying their fair share and then some.

2. this is a bad idea because the private sector is much more efficient at spending that money than the government. the government wastes money, partly out of necessity (beaurocratic oversight) partly out of lack of consequence (waste) and stupidity and politics. taking away money from the top producers in the economy takes away their ability to higher workers, takes away jobs, plain and simple.

3. principally it is unfair to attack a minority with higher taxes. the high producers in our economy are a small percentage of the population, therefore they are a small percentage of the votes to be cast in November. It is easy for a politician to paint this minority as "not paying their fair share" when it results in little consequence at the ballot box.

4. punishing producers discourages production. punishing extremely good producers discourages production the most. this is the last thing our economy needs.

faith in evidence

2008-04-03T05:07:00.002-07:00

ultimately all of us put our faith in evidence. christians look at the world and see enough evidence to have faith in an improbable God. they see it as even more improbable that energy moving from place to place and rocks banging into each other, made the highly complex structures and living creatures and self awareness we see today.

atheists look at the evidence and put their faith in the improbable. they see a God as more improbable than the improbabilities involved in developing life from non-life, consciousness from non-consciousness.

it will be interesting to see where the evidence develops in the coming years. one side or the other is going to need more faith.

good use of google

2008-03-31T07:41:00.005-07:00

I was wondering if something like this would ever come to light. Of course the government should use google's expertise!

"In the most innovative service, for which Google equipment provides the core search technology, agents are encouraged to post intelligence information on a secure forum, which other spies are free to read, edit, and tag - like the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

Depending on their clearance, agents can log on to Intellipedia and gain access to three levels of info - top secret, secret and sensitive, and sensitive but unclassified. So far 37,000 users have established accounts on the service, and the database now extends to 35,000 articles, according to Sean Dennehy, chief of Intellipedia development for the CIA.

"Each analyst, for lack of a better term, has a shoe box with their knowledge," Mr Dennehy was quoted as saying. "They maintained it in a shared drive or Word document, but we're encouraging them to move those platforms so that everyone can benefit."

The collection of articles is hosted by the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, and is available only to the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency, and other intelligence agencies." (more...)

The rest of the world is using wiki type communities to leverage the collective knowlege of thousands of individuals, why shouldn't the intelligence community?

common ground

2008-03-28T09:08:00.007-07:00

as i like my fundamental principled values to be tested tried and true, I constantly think about their weak points and their similarities to other points of view.

yesterday as i was pondering conservatism i thought about what seems so far to be a distant similarity to liberalism. faith in people. well, sort of, let me explain.

liberalism, or its logical extension, seems to think that people will act out of the good will of their fellow man with little regard for how it effects them personally or how much better it could be for them. Essentially, the incentive to produce ends up being the good of the collective. they believe that a strong central government should act as transferrer of wealth from those who figure out how to make money to those who just can't.

of course, this is a system which has been shown to fail the larger the amount of wealth transferred, but nonetheless shows us that the left has faith in the good nature of people to just accept that and go on with their lives. the left puts faith in people.

in a kind of way the right does the same thing, in this country. the right puts faith in people to react a certain way to other kinds of stimulus. we feel strongly that when an individual has incentive or is empowered that they will perform higher than they otherwise would. that the government does not exist to give anyone a leg up, but it exists to protect the free market environment, to regulate as little as possible for a successful economy and therefore meaningful, earned prosperity for as many people as possible, even if a minority of those who are not willing to work hard never make it. the right realizes that there will always exist people who don't deserve to make as much money as someone else because they are not willing to make the sacrifice to achieve that same level of income. the right puts its faith in people to act a certain way given a certain environment.

the right is correct and the left is wrong about what will bring about the greatest prosperity for the most number of people, but both sides must fundamentally put their faith in people to react a certain way. while this is no longer a contest of ideas, communism and capitalism have shown how people will really react to incentive or lack thereof, the ideological struggle goes on to push the envelope further left in this country. the right has the evidence, but ultimately must put faith in the american people to do what they have done in the past, produce better than any people on earth given minimal regulation and minimum taxes.

this is a really dumb post

2008-03-26T16:32:00.002-07:00

I wonder what percentage of exchanges between people trying to debate are actually real communication…

The reason I ask is that it’s funny how two people can look at the same situation and view it differently. The key is said to be that we understand the different paradigms with which we are trying to communicate. So as a Christian, in order to communicate effectively with a non-Christian, I need to put myself in the place of a non-Christian. In order to better communicate with my wife, I should try to look at things from her perspective. In order to communicate with a liberal, I should try to understand where they are coming from.

This is basic communication 101 stuff, but it’s amazing how I forget this so often and how much poor or non-communication I see all around. At work, online, on tv, etc. Keeping this basic principle in mind, I am convinced that there is actually very little convincing communication going on in the world. It's mostly fluff. Based on my own experience, I’m guessing less then 5% of the words used in arguments or debates are even heard by the other person involved, probably less that 1% are even considered good points. Perhaps less than 1% of people are willing to even change their minds about something. I hope not to be that way. It must have been studied somewhere before…

inflation?

2008-03-25T16:39:00.003-07:00

It is interesting to note how people are worried about inflation right now but they weren’t so much when housing prices were inflating double digits just a couple of years ago. So gas goes up 50 cents a gallon, housing prices are dropping tens of thousands of dollars giving people who buy or refinance homes now hundreds of dollars extra per month in their pocket. What’s the big deal about bread costing a few cents more?

Where were the cries of inflation in 2006 when housing prices where going through the roof? As far as i can tell, the stuff at the store costs a little more and I can refinance my house anytime i want for a lower interest rate and a couple of hundred extra bucks a month. The opportunity to save money is actually better this year if you use the head God gave you people!

back from angel fire

2008-03-24T19:15:00.003-07:00

our friends and us went to angel fire ski resort over the weekend. it was my second time "skiing" even though i felt like a little baby learning to walk out there. I managed to fall only twice though, translated, i wasn't trying hard enough. one green run had a huge icy cliff, or at least if fealt that way and i totally crashed. good times though and it was nice hanging out in a cabin taking in the beautiful mountains around taos.

somehow i have a seriously compacted sinus cavity, must go to sleep.

travelin' foo and conservative vs. liberal thots

2008-03-14T08:33:00.005-07:00

back from 4 days on the central coast of california, vandenberg AFB, one of the United States premier space launch sites and the only available for polar (north south) type orbits. for you gee whizzers out there, a polar orbit is usually useful for spy sattellites because all of the country's on earth pass beneath the satellite at one time or another as the earth spins beneath its orbit. maybe i'll do a gee whiz on different satellite orbits someday. na.

well, off for three days to catch up and then going to Utah for a couple days Mon-Tues and hopefully travel will calm down for a while.

One interesting though I heard while talking to folks in California about liberals and conservatives.

As a general rule liberals seem to think that people are inherently good. I can't blame it just on them, because hearing Bush's speaches you could get that same impression. But I think it's different. I think when Bush talks about people helping one another it's within the context that they are living out the Christian principles which we as a nation try to abide by overall.

A liberal on the other hand seems to think that a person "is inherently" good because humans are born good and only outside forces can cause that to change. Of course a skimming of the book of Genesis dismisses this out of hand. We are all sinners and inherently bad. We can only do "good" because of the outside influence of a loving God in our lives.

Again these are dealing in generalities but I see this pattern emerge. Libs tend to blame the drunken father for the sons actions later in life. It even becomes a defense argument like "it wasn't his fault that he stabbed her 55 times because he had a bad childhood".

Conservatives tend to hold the individual's nature far more at fault than the individuals nurture. This i feel is clearly a far more biblical viewpoint. One more reason which I feel Christians tend toward the principles of conservatism.

to colorado

2008-03-04T20:22:00.003-07:00

i'm off to colorado for 5 days. mom and sisters were in nm for the last 5 days so today is the in-between day. we had lots of fun in the warm new mexico sun and they even sent sarah and i out for a night on the town complete with corner suite at the embassy suites! looking forward to seeing Kelley and the kids in C Springs. Ryan, a cousin has been in Iraq for several months already and she is strongly holding it together with 4 kids. Friends Jim and Teggin will follow this weekend as we zip up to Denver for a couple of days. guess i'll post monday?

Prediction for tonight is that Clinton wins both ohio and texas. wishful thinking???

TWA 260

2008-02-25T20:23:00.005-07:00

Every once in a while i should post a bit about the outdoors, since that is my true passion after all. right around christmas the father and law and i headed up domingo canyon in the sandia mountains with our gps unit in hand to find a crash site just outside of albuquerque.

we thought our wai'ale'ale gps experience would help us hone in on the crash site in no time and we were right. turned out that we didn't need to use our mad skillz as it was in the snow and we mostly followed in the footsteps of somebody else the whole way. o well, so much for the adventure. it was still cool to see my first real crash site tucked away in the pink granite spires. 16 people died that night back in 1955. Read about it here.

it became a near white-out on the way out as the storm we were trying to beat just hit us a mile from our car. good times.

link to a really bad youtube video about the site here.

GPS Coordinates: N 35° 11.696' W 106° 26.552'

wierd weather

2008-02-23T07:21:00.003-07:00

so i woke up this morning to snow on the ground. that is a little weired since its going to be 54 today and in the 60's the rest of the week. planning to get some work done this morning then off to the gre test at 1pm. then going mountain biking tonight before "movie night" kicks off. getting a hi def LCD has really made watching even old movies a whole lot funner and a whole new experience. sarah and i are deep in prayer for some friends of ours who are really having a difficult time with their daughter who is a drug addict. i want to offer my help all day tomorrow but not sure how they will take that, or if its the best thing for my family. either way i have a feeling that tomorrow will end up being a day of service somehow.

score!

2008-02-21T06:00:00.002-07:00

i worked with the navy on their aegis weapon system for 3 years building targets for it. its so awesome to see how far it has come and how many uses we can use our missile defense system for. there are always fringe benefits to pushing the edge of technology, no matter what the critics say. Navy scores direct hit on spy sattellite.

gre

2008-02-19T17:19:00.003-07:00

i'm doing some cramming this week to take a free practice gre this weekend. i've confirmed that my vocab is abominable. so its a crash course in the verbal section. the math and critical reasoning stuff seems pretty straightforward. will find out how pathetic I am Saturday afternoon. oh well, its just a data point anyway.

hard to post

2008-02-19T06:21:00.003-07:00

its getting harder to post. work now blocks my site, and most others, so i can't post during lunch. i have to find 10 minutes at home, which seems harder than it should be. oh well, i need to fit it in somewhere somehow-still brianstorming a way. to be continued...

negative taxes this year

2008-02-09T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well it's 11pm on Saturday and I just e-filed online and I feel good about the amount of taxes i paid in 2007 this year. zero. I ended up paying $1,200 to the feds for 2007 but since I'm married with children I'm getting back $2,100 from the stimulus package. That means I will be netting $900 from uncle Sam this year! Thank goodness for enough deductions to get me taxed at $34K, between 3 kids, a bloated mortgage, and charity, almost $50K in deductions this year! Thank you Bush for the tax cuts! The stimulus package is just plain stupid, but you won't see me returning the check.

off to phoenix

2008-02-04T06:36:00.000-07:00

for super duper top secret government stuff. back wednesday.

framing the bouldering wall

2008-02-02T11:05:00.000-07:00

so this week i started and hope to finish the bouldering wall. I'm building it in the pool house backside corner. so far i've designed it and attached the frame to the structure. next comes the plywood and T-nuts will be hammered in from the back for climbing holds to be screwed into.

out

2008-01-29T19:41:00.001-07:00

i'm spending a lot of time building a bouldering wall in my outbuilding. i'm through the planning phase and beginning construction. more to come...

wal mart leading pack once again

2008-01-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

"Give the New York Times credit for running this article about Wal-Mart, one which might even cause some readers to reconsider their hostility toward the retailing revolutionary. Headlined, "Wal-Mart Says More Than Half Its Workers Have Its Health Insurance", the piece recounts the lengths to which the company has gone to provide affordable coverage to its workforce, so that now more than half carry Wal-Mart health insurance in one variant or another. Most of the others have a plan provided by a spouse or through other means. Only 7.3% are without coverage, and Michael Barbarro reports on management's plans to reduce that number." american thinker

probably didn't hear it in the news though.

earmarks

2008-01-24T15:41:00.000-07:00

hillary by far, leads the presidential candidates in earmarks. Twice as many as any other candidate.

"An examination of the Heritage Foundation’s database of the earmarks in the fiscal 2008 omnibus appropriations bill revealed the total number received by Presidential candidates from the Senate and House: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), 261; Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), 57; Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), 52; Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), 46; Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), 10; Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), 9, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), 6; and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), 0." Council for Citizens against Government Waste.

and she wants to be the candidate of "change"?

Also of note is John McCain's "0".

freedom to be stupid

2008-01-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

as an american i cherish my freedom and yours.
one of our freedoms is freedom to be stupid.
i am free to sign a mortgage without understanding interest rates.
i am free to not look into what the word "adjustable" means.
i am free to not understand how that would effect my payment.
i am free to suffer the consequences of my stupidity.
i am NOT free to ask anyone else to pay for my stupidity.
i am NOT free to impinge on other's freedom.
we all are free to help out our fellow citizens in trouble.
we should also be free to choose not to, and let them learn from their mistakes.
the government is wrong to impinge on my freedoms and bail out others' stupidity.

what's next, credit card bailouts...?

the greatest thing a politician can do for americans in this situation is:

NOTHING.

That is conservative compassion. Like the giraffe mother who knocks over her baby to help her learn to stand, a stronger country is built when our citizens learn from their mistakes and are not bailed out by the government preventing any meaningful consequences (ie learning moments) from happening to them. We all may suffer in the short term because of the stupid actions of a few, but we will all be stronger in the long term because of what the few learn from their mistakes.

gore wrong: yet again

2008-01-22T10:22:00.000-07:00

al gore is just plain wrong when he says that sea levels can rise 20ft with a worst case 5 degree C temperature rise in the next 100 years. he's dead wrong because he doesn't take latent heat into account in his equations. in fact, much more energy would be needed. latent heat is the actual energy needed to change a substance into a higher state of matter solid>liquid>gas.

Jerome Schmidtt points out at American Thinker how al gore is off by many orders of magnitude because of the lack of considering the full latent heat in his equations. I post only his conclusion below, all the math seems reasonable and is available at the link.

"There is a difference of over ten orders of magnitude between these two figures (1010 = 10 billion). Even if I am wrong by an order of magnitude or more, there is still an enormous difference. This does NOT mean that ice caps have not melted in the distant past nor that ice-age glaciers have not grown to cover much of the northern hemisphere; it simply means that the time scales involved to move sufficient quantities of heat to effect such melting or freezing occur over what we scientists commonly call "geological" time scales, i.e. hundreds of thousands and millions of years.

Even if sufficient heat is trapped in the atmosphere to raise it the maximum value predicted by anthropogenic "global warming" alarmists (5°C) over the next 100 years, hundreds of millions or billions of times more heat energy must be imparted into the ice-caps to melt sufficient ice to raise sea-levels the catastrophic levels prophesied by Al Gore.

I humbly submit that this might constitute a flaw in his equations.

Jerome J. Schmitt has a degree in mechanical engineering from Yale, and is president of NanoEngineering Corporation." (more...)

The evidence against al gore's doomsday scenarios keeps mounting. Even his worst case scenario is horribly unimpressive.

More about latent heat at Wikipedia.

is the supreme court always right?

2008-01-22T08:06:00.000-07:00

happy anniversary roe vs. wade.

who can help but celebrate the happy day in american history when the supreme court made it a "right" that a woman could contract a doctor to reach into her uterus with forceps and crush the head of a well-formed thinking and feeling baby, pull apart the baby's limbs with steel instruments and burn its small body with saline solution?

whoever opposes that, must be a sexist kook.

47,000,000 dead americans and counting. but I'm sure they all would have made their mothers lives difficult and never would have contributed anything to society.

global warming scare unwarranted

2008-01-17T15:04:00.000-07:00

See Junk Science's Top 10 Climate Mythbusters for 2007.

2007 was a good year for studies confirming that the alarmist crowd is crying wolf, at least for now.

what is a right?

2008-01-17T09:38:00.000-07:00

As I am a thinker, when I hear people talking about the "right to health insurance" it makes me ponder, what is a right? After doing a small amount of looking I found a very good definition:

"A right is the sovereignty to act without the permission of others. The concept of a right carries with it an implicit, unstated footnote: you may exercise your rights as long as you do not violate the same rights of another—within this context, rights are an absolute.

A right is universal—meaning: it applies to all men, not just to a few. There is no such thing as a "right" for one man, or a group of men, that is not possessed by all. This means there are no special "rights" unique to women or men, blacks or white, the elderly or the young, homosexuals or heterosexuals, the rich or the poor, doctors or patients or any other group.

A right must be exercised through your own initiative and action. It is not a claim on others. A right is not actualized and implemented by the actions of others. This means you do not have the right to the time in another person’s life. You do not have a right to other people’s money. You do not have the right to another person’s property. If you wish to acquire some money from another person, you must earn it—then you have a right to it. If you wish to gain some benefit from the time of another person’s life, you must gain it through the voluntary cooperation of that individual—not through coercion. If you wish to possess some item of property of another individual, you must buy it on terms acceptable to the owner—not gain it through theft." (more...)

The Left has it wrong when it comes to a "right of health insurance for all americans". I don't have a "right" to have other americans pay for my insurance. I shouldn't have to pay for theirs because of a "right". Call it something else, like bloated government waste, but it is not a right.

I don't have the "right" to insurance for the same reason I don't have the right to yell "fire" in a crowded theater. Because it impinges on the real and actual "rights" of others.

Read the Bill of Rights and then the 10 ammendments to the Bill of Rights. Placing things that the left talks about as rights like gay marriage, health insurance to the 11th amendment sounds foolish in light of the others.

he's back but he's wrong, insurance not a human right

2008-01-16T08:32:00.000-07:00

well, we have our governer back. goody. health care is his top priority for New Mexicans. and he wants universal health care coverage without raising taxes. good luck! the only way he is able to even propose this without being a laughing stock at this at this time is because of the huge taxes NM currently gathers from the oil industry in this state. hmm, I sure hope those are around in the future too, or else, where's he going to get the money??

"Richardson said his speech will have a simple message for legislators: "Health care. Health care. Health care."

"It's going to be an address saying that we have a responsibility in this Legislature, with the governor, to produce universal health care for every New Mexican and to start it with a comprehensive bill _ not piece meal," Richardson said." (more...)

Two things: First, the positive side, this goes to show that the Federal Government has no business, under the constitution to provide insurance for all americans. States are perfectly capable of going there own path and providing insurance for citizens who may not be able to afford it. Yes is it harder, and yes some states may opt out. Why should all americans be forced into a cookie cutter solution anyway?

Second, the negative side. The people pushing this bill have as one of their fundamental points that "health care is a basic human right". They are being kind of dishonest for political purposes. "Health care" is already available for everyone including illegal aliens who walk into the hospital hurt. We are already fulfilling it as a basic human right. If you break your arm, it will be fixed. The costs will be passed to the next guy if you don't pay, but you got your arm fixed.

"Health care" is not what is at issue here. "Health insurance" is at issue. As opposed to health care, health insurance is not a basic human right. Insurance, by definition is a voluntary prepayment made to an insurer, to prevent catastrophic financial loss in case of event X happening. Is life insurance a basic human right? Car insurance? Flood insurance? Fire insurance? Homeowner's insurance? Of course not! But the arguments for health insurance paid by the government could apply just as well to life insurance. Why isn't the government pushing to cover every american with life insurance, well, someday they probably will. The argument that medical insurance is a basic human right is really ludicrous.

The debate should not be over how to provide "health insurance", but over how to practically lower the cost of already available "health care" in general.

the hillary has passed

2008-01-11T13:01:00.000-07:00

"He looked around for signs of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine, who had gone to the mountain 30 years before and who, some people believe, had reached the summit. He found no sign of them. Tenzing dug holes for food, small gifts to the gods. Having paid their respects to the highest mountain in the world, they then urinated on it." (more...)

glad to see its not just me...but probably a teansy more risk of frostbite in a sensitive region compared to most mountains.

by the way, most people know this, but the summit picture was taken by hillary of Tenzig Norgay those many years ago.

fuel common sense

2008-01-11T07:43:00.000-07:00

Let's get real. oil, gasoline and deisel aren't going anywhere and neither is the internal cumbustion engine. once again, market demand drives innovation and results. instead of subsidies to corn farmers to grow corn for ethanol which results in all kinds of problems like higher food and fuel prices, why not just keep making gasoline and diesel engines better and better. Some carmakers appear to understand the logic of this by the look of some new cars debued at the detroit auto show. there is plenty of oil in the world still, so working against that supply function is not really that smart. embracing it and improving efficiencies and cutting waste is much much more productive when a commodity like oil is so prvelant. reinventing the wheel is best done when there is a market to invest and buy into it, a market governed by reasonable regulation. a cost effective replacement for oil will most likely happen decades down the road when we get within at least a hundred years of running out of the readily available commodities of oil and oil shale/sand deposites.

8 predictions for 08'

2008-01-09T14:27:00.000-07:00

1. US will begin significant troop pullout by September. Iraq non-issue in election.
2. No hurricanes make US landfall.
3. Congress gets slightly more democratic.
4. McCain is the only Republican who can beat Clinton, if he's not nominated Clinton wins. If he is nominated, he wins.
5. China wins gold medal count in olympics, by winning things like table tennis.
6. Economy will continue to slow, but US will narrowly avoid recession.
7. The DJIA will set a new record and top out around 14,600.
8. Low interest rates and cheap houses will cause significant housing pickup towards the end of the year.

2008 new year's resolution

2008-01-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

resolve less

2007 prediction eval

2008-01-07T15:17:00.000-07:00

Let's see how i did in January 2007.....

"well, time to predict for 07'. here goes nothin'...

1. we turn the tide in Iraq by this summer. i'm going with our country's expert on counterinsurgency, the guy who wrote the counterinsurgency textbook, literally. Gen. Petraeus says we can win this thing with 20,000 more troops, I'm going with him. Nobody else's opinion (especially a politicians) carry's as much force. this combined with the dire consequences if we lose makes me think our troops and diplomats somehow pull this thing out-no thanks to congress.

I'll say that I was right on this one. Patraeus came through.

2. the economy starts to slow. we have the best economy in the history of the world, that can't last forever. dems will likely propose tax increases and the DOW will top out at about 12,800ish and be 12,600ish around Christmas.

I was partially right. Economy started to slow. DOW topped out higher than I thought at over 14,000.

3. iran capitulates. china and russia are now against them. they will give in because they don't want a war with the US or Israel.

wrong. the US has capitulated, sort of.

4. gas prices. $2.75 for most the country through the summer.

right on.

5. al-sadr will get taken out in iraq.

wrong. al-sadr changed his ways and is now helping with stability.

6. bin Laden or al-Zawahiri will get taken out.

wrong

7. my gut tells me obama and guliani will be the leading presidential contenders by the end of the year (but that will change in 2008)

I'm going to say right on this one. they are both leading in the polls nationwide around christmastime, I think. everyone was on the hillary bandwagon at the time of this prediction.

i know i'm nutz, but i have to put something down...

Final Tally

Right 3.5/7 50%

Looks like you can flip a coin on my 2008 predictions!

great teaching series

2008-01-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

who knows, maybe there is somebody out there who would be interested. Skip Heitzig, who leads the 20,000+ member church Calvary of Albuquerque and is my personal favorite teacher on all things biblical has been leading a series which is webcast every Wednesday evening. Even though I don't attend church there, I watch the teaching because it is rock solid biblical stuff. The 12-18 month long series is a survey called "The bible from 30,000ft". It's a great overview of the whole of scripture Genesis to Revelation. I've been enjoying the "big picture", I hope someone else out there in internet land can too.

webcasts are posted live and archived at

www.biblefrom30k.org and
www.calvaryabq.org

#2

2008-01-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

the great southwest is finally getting some of the recognition it deserves. Besthike.com listed the southwestern United states only behind #1New Zealand as the #2 best hiking area in the world. Others included

#3 The Rockies
#4 The Sierra Nevada
#5 The Central Andes
#6 The Patagonian Andes
#7 Nepal
#8 Australia
#9 The Alps
10 The Indian Himalaya

Quite the list. For those who haven't spent much time on the Colorado Plateau, it may seem hard to believe that it beats out the Alps and Himalaya on this list. I suggest you spend some time planning a trip to the southwest to see what you're missing.

from my college buddy army officer leading 150 guys in iraq

2007-12-28T13:12:00.001-07:00

yeah! sounds like a for real positive turn of events over there. this is in an email he sent me today.

A quick update on the Knights of Delta Company. Literally, as the
company came off the plane here in Baghdad, we received a change of mission. That is the reason for the move to Mosul. The change was a surprise to everyone. The basic reason for the change is to put more Soldiers on the ground here to engage the local populace and drive out insurgents just as the Coalition has done elsewhere in Iraq, with a lot of success. Last minute changes are not always fun, but the company is embracing it and looking forward to the mission being given to us. And its farther North, so that should mean a cooler summer, right? We hope!

From what I have seen and heard about the situation here in Iraq, it is remarkably better than it was 9 months ago. The violence is considerably lower and most importantly, Iraqis in many areas are beginning to stand up and take responsibility for their local communities. This has had a great impact on insurgent groups in that they cannot freely operate in any area they wish for fear locals will turn them in. Other encouraging notes are the development of the Iraqi Army (far from perfect, but slowly moving forward), stronger participation local governments, and a Coalition that has taken a different and far better approach to Counter Insurgency Operations.
We are not perfect and will continue to make mistakes, but in general, I believe, leaders and Soldiers here have a much better vision for how to move forward in leading the people of Iraq to a more stable and secure Iraq. One of the biggest frustrations, the central government.
No doubt, it is one step at a time... one small step at a time. I hope and pray we can continue this current positive trend and eventually gain an irreversible momentum that no one malicious act can stop.

iowa

2007-12-28T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here's my prediction:

John Edwards and Mike Huckabee win next week.

merry christmas

2007-12-26T08:27:00.000-07:00

TO ALL MY LIBERAL FRIENDS:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.

Have a Happy Non-Denominational Winter Holiday

TO ALL MY CONSERVATIVE FRIENDS:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

disaster all right

2007-12-18T08:51:00.000-07:00

why is it that every time someone screws up in the himalayas they write a book about it? i personally find rescue accounts a bore and so should you. the real meat of this book is the first half which is actually filled with adventure near Panch Chuli. a last minute trip up an unexplored valley and midnight asccent of Paunch Chuli V make for fast page turning, once Venables takes the 300ft plunge to serious injury, close the book.

brittle purple

2007-12-13T09:59:00.001-07:00

is it just me or does it bug anyone else that purple jolly ranchers seem to be more brittle than other colors? it seems like that corresponds with other candies I've tried too, but they don't come to mind. this has ocassionally bugged me for like 20 years. show me the answers!

absolute powerlessness

2007-12-05T14:44:00.001-07:00

"If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure?"
- Harry Shearer

This popped up as my quote of the day today and it really made me think. In terms of the physical world the answer is no, for no man can be made pure by any means. But in terms of the spiritual world, powerlessness, ie fully submitting to the authority of Christ, allows us to stand before God as snow covered dung...pure, ikn a strange smelly sort of way. Not only that but the more humble we become, the more powerless, the more pure the Holy Spirit makes us. Though we will forever be infinitely far from perfection this side of heaven, this side of our new glorified bodies. All this must sound kind of foolish to a non-Christian.

iran

2007-12-05T07:41:00.001-07:00

two things on iran:

1. Condolezza Rice summed it up nicely: ""At this moment, it doesn't appear to have an active weaponization program. That frankly is good news. But if it causes people to say, 'Oh, well, then we don't need to worry about what the Iranians are doing,' I think we will have made a big mistake."

2. Some things to consider: Iran has been pursuing nuclear weapons at least up to 2003. Iran is capable of secrecy which is beyond the reach of our intelligence community, which is known for its failures. The hard part about making nuclear weapons is getting weapons grade uranium to put in the bomb. Iran continues down the path of enriching uranium (ie the "hard part") The National Intelligence Estimate says that Iran could be nuclear capable as early as 2010.

Iran is ecstatic, but the president is right to proceed cautiously. We need to keep the pressure up on Iran, any let up by us could produce a nuclear capable Iran in as soon as several years.

lib v con

2007-12-03T12:52:00.000-07:00

libs and cons are interesting. libs seem to focus on what has not been accomplished yet. cons tend to focus on the progress made to date. its kind of a glass half empty, half full thing. optimism vs. pessimism. those are gross generalities, but over and over i see this same pattern.

how to raise smart kids...

2007-11-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

scientific american gives us the latest research...and the way I see it, it is saying that we should teach our children conservative principles. That it is not what you are born with as much as how much you want it and how much effort you are willing to expend that matters in your success.

"The Secret to Raising Smart Kids
Hint: Don't tell your kids that they are. More than three decades of research shows that a focus on effort—not on intelligence or ability—is key to success in school and in life
By Carol S. Dweck

A brilliant student, Jonathan sailed through grade school. He completed his assignments easily and routinely earned As. Jonathan puzzled over why some of his classmates struggled, and his parents told him he had a special gift. In the seventh grade, however, Jonathan suddenly lost interest in school, refusing to do homework or study for tests. As a consequence, his grades plummeted. His parents tried to boost their son’s confidence by assuring him that he was very smart. But their attempts failed to motivate Jonathan (who is a composite drawn from several children). Schoolwork, their son maintained, was boring and pointless.

Our society worships talent, and many people assume that possessing superior intelligence or ability—along with confidence in that ability—is a recipe for success. In fact, however, more than 30 years of scientific investigation suggests that an overemphasis on intellect or talent leaves people vulnerable to failure, fearful of challenges and unwilling to remedy their shortcomings.

The result plays out in children like Jonathan, who coast through the early grades under the dangerous notion that no-effort academic achievement defines them as smart or gifted. Such children hold an implicit belief that intelligence is innate and fixed, making striving to learn seem far less important than being (or looking) smart. This belief also makes them see challenges, mistakes and even the need to exert effort as threats to their ego rather than as opportunities to improve. And it causes them to lose confidence and motivation when the work is no longer easy for them.

Praising children’s innate abilities, as Jonathan’s parents did, reinforces this mind-set, which can also prevent young athletes or people in the workforce and even marriages from living up to their potential. On the other hand, our studies show that teaching people to have a “growth mind-set,” which encourages a focus on effort rather than on intelligence or talent, helps make them into high achievers in school and in life." (more...)

teach your kids that if they work hard, nothing can stand in their way. easier said than done, but definately the opposite of the typical liberal victim mentality which emphasizes the opposite: ie, the "woah is me", I've been dished out this lot in life and i need outside help to overcome it. an attitude which perpetuates dependency, victimism, and provides excuses and even incentives to remain unsuccessful. we should be compassionate to the few who cannot help themselves, the 2% or less of us. But the other 98% need to take individual responsibility and let nothing but themselves be an excuse for their failures.

predictions flop 2 years in a row

2007-11-26T15:22:00.000-07:00

for the 2007 hurricane season (march 1 - Nov 30) the forecasters predicted 17 named storms with 9 becoming hurricanes. just as major a flop as the 2006 predictions. and yet the global warming crowd would have us believe that scientists are capable of god-like forecasts 50 years, 100 years in advance. the yearly hurricane forecast alone mounts evidence against the trustworthiness of any such distant weather forecasting. and yet the religion of man-caused global warming as "fact" continues on. the earth is far more dynamic and complex than we can possibly comprehend, much less model. (live science documented the 2006, 2007 predictions here)

national thanksgiving proclomations

2007-11-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

these must make atheists cringe....

"National Thanksgiving Proclamations proclaim thanks for God’s providence in the events of the nation and, as President Washington explained in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, "for the many signal favors of Almighty God" in the lives of the people.

As congress recognized the importance of Thanksgiving observance, President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country...for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his Providence which we experienced in the tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed...and also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions—to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually...To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us—and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best."

In 1789 Washington designated a national thanksgiving holiday for the newly ratified Constitution, specifically so that the people may thank God for "affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness" and for having "been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed... "

The first official Thanksgiving Proclamation made in America was issued by Henry Laurens as President of the Continental Congress of the United States on December 18, 1777.[5] However, the precursor to the Thanksgiving Proclamation was issued by John Hancock as President of the Continental Congress of the United Colonies and was entitled "Fast Day Proclamation" on March 16, 1776.[5] Six national Proclamations of Thanksgiving were issued in the first thirty years after the founding of the United States of America as an independent federation of States. President George Washington issued two, President John Adams issued two, President Thomas Jefferson made none and President James Madison issued two. After 1815 there were no more Thanksgiving Proclamations.

If it weren’t for Sarah Josepha Hale, the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book, the popular women’s journal of the 19th century, Thanksgiving Day would not have existed beyond that.

She wrote editorials and lobbied “that the LAST THURSDAY IN NOVEMBER shall be the DAY OF NATIONAL THANKSGIVING for the American people.”

President Lincoln succumbed to her pressure and proclaimed the last Thursday in November a "prayerful day of Thanksgiving."

Since then every U.S. President has always made an official Thanksgiving Proclamation on behalf of the nation.

"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union." The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume VI, "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" (October 3, 1863), p. 497.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt set the date for Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday of November in 1939 (approved by Congress in 1941)." (more...)

and what is sad is that the no-mixing-of-state-and-church-crowd actually think things like national proclomations of thanksgiving is an endorsement of religion. i hope they stay in the minority for centuries to come.

even the NYT?

2007-11-20T08:44:00.001-07:00

wow, when the new york times recognizes things getting better in baghdad, you know something must be going good over there.

"Baghdad Starts to Exhale as Security Improves

The security improvements in most neighborhoods are real. Days now pass without a car bomb, after a high of 44 in the city in February. The number of bodies appearing on Baghdad’s streets has plummeted to about 5 a day, from as many as 35 eight months ago, and suicide bombings across Iraq fell to 16 in October, half the number of last summer and down sharply from a recent peak of 59 in March, the American military says.

As a result, for the first time in nearly two years, people are moving with freedom around much of this city. In more than 50 interviews across Baghdad, it became clear that while there were still no-go zones, more Iraqis now drive between Sunni and Shiite areas for work, shopping or school, a few even after dark. In the most stable neighborhoods of Baghdad, some secular women are also dressing as they wish. Wedding bands are playing in public again, and at a handful of once shuttered liquor stores customers now line up outside in a collective rebuke to religious vigilantes from the Shiite Mahdi Army." (more...)

we should all be proud of our troops and happy about the good news coming out of iraq!

book review: the heavenly man

2007-11-13T13:32:00.000-07:00

wow, a truly faithbuilding book! first book in a while that i can say has the distinct possibility of changing my life and my thinking. the autobiography of an early leader in the house church movement in china. it chronicles his numerous trips to prison and how every time God got him out and how God used him to bring literally thousands of people to know Him. it seems there are miracles in this story happening on every page. God giving people dreams to meet up in strange places, helping Yun walk out of several always locked doors and maxium security prisons, sustaining him during 76 days without food or water, a medical impossibility.

the sincerity, the truthfullness and the power God displayed during this time in china is breathtaking and believable and should serve as a wake up call to the church in the west! He surely wants to speak and use all of us in a way which impacts the world like He did in China. in the top 3 christian books i have ever read. no one will regret picking up this book.

flag ignorance

2007-11-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

the press seems to think the big story here is obama not puting his hand over his heart during the national anthem. but, having been taught in the military, I happen to know that you should face the flag during the pledge as well, so all the dems in the picture are in violation of the US Flag Code.

"171. Conduct during playing National Anthem
During rendition of the national anthem when the flag is displayed, all present except those in uniform should stand at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. Men not in uniform should remove their headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should render the military salute at the first note of the anthem and retain this position until the last note. When the flag is not displayed, those present should face toward the music and act in the same manner they would if the flag were displayed there. " (US Flag Code...)

True, it says "should" stand at attendtion facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. but these are people trying to say they want to be the Commander and Chief of the United States of America. At least two of them got the hand over teh heart right. Leaders set the example. The American leader sets the example to our nation for conduct such as this. Leaders do the "shoulds" not just the "shalls". I hope reminds them of how to properly treat our American flag during the National Anthem in the Future.

another two successful intercepts

2007-11-08T07:36:00.000-07:00

Moving right along...this time we intercepted two scud-like targets launched within seconds of each other.

"KAUAI, Hawaii, Nov. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- During an unprecedented test today, Lockheed Martin's Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) Weapon System successfully intercepted and destroyed two non-separating, short range ballistic missile targets nearly simultaneously.

This test marks the first successful attempt by any United States ballistic missile defense system at dual exo-atmospheric intercepts. The test also represents the Aegis BMD system's 10th and 11th successful ballistic missile intercepts in 13 attempts."(cnn money...)

but will you see it in on tv. probably not. only failures make the headlines.

boring forecast

2007-11-08T07:05:00.000-07:00

i love the effects la nina has on new mexico. its been in the low to mid 70's ever since the beginning of october and it looks to be that way through the weekend into next week as well! Truly the land of enchantment.

pathological science

2007-11-05T10:24:00.000-07:00

James Lewis over at the american thinker has a decent article on how "global warming" and other politically correct items become front page panic headlines, when they are undeserving.

Not to mention a quote from a living genius:

"Freeman Dyson, one of the great physicists alive today, put it plainly enough in his autobiography:

"...all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. ... I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do. ... They do a very poor job of describing the clouds, the dust, the chemistry and the biology of fields and farms and forests. They do not begin to describe the real world that we live in."

James covers how pathological science from gene theory in Stalinist russia, to the HIV/AIDs gay downplay, DDT, Mad Cow Disease all share in common the current "global warming" traits. What is the danger of all this? Well as James clearly demonstrates:

"When the truth-tellers in society begin to sell out and tell lies for some ideological goal, people end up dying."

mukasey is not the problem

2007-11-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

If congress is so adamant that waterboarding should not be practiced, then they should outlaw it! CBS' Andrew Cohen says it well:

"Instead of trying to coerce a high-ranking executive branch official into undercutting his own president’s power, the legislators ought to instead look inward, toward Capitol Hill, and simply and expressly prohibit “waterboarding” by federal statute.

They’ve been talking about it for years. And for years the White House and Congressional Republicans have been able to maintain the status quo, which is mealy-mouthed statutory language that clearly leaves open (as a legal possibility anyway) the notion that waterboarding is lawful.

Now, it’s true that Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., believes that waterboarding is outlawed by the Military Commissions Act of 2006. But unfortunately for those in the anti-waterboarding camp, McCain does not have a vote on the United States Supreme Court.

And he has only one vote on the floor of the Senate. He should use that vote, and the pulpit of a presidential campaign (pay attention Hillary, Barack and Rudy!), to try to rouse a veto-proof majority in both houses into a clear and definitive federal ban on waterboarding of any sort as an interrogation technique. I mean, even the soon-to-be-Attorney General himself, Mukasey, called the practice “repugnant” last week and pointedly noted that it is already prohibited for use by the U.S. military. So wouldn’t it make sense, then, to simply extend the prohibition against a “repugnant” form of interrogation method to all U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials?" (MORE...)

This whole idea that congress needs to "stand up to the Bush White House" by going after a very non-partisan nomination in Mukasey is laughable. Congress needs to clearly make it illegal first. Oops, that's too hard, better to pretend its illegal and make any attorney general nominees pretend that too. No, Bush will get Mukasey, because congress doesn't have a leg to stand on with this political posturing.

still going strong

2007-10-31T12:41:00.000-07:00

the economy grew at a sizzling 3.9% this summer, the greatest growth in 1 1/2 years. but will you hear about it? probably not, the gloom and doomers are too busy talking about people who took on mortgages they never should have. unemployment remains at or below 4%. median incomes keep rising, real wages keep rising, interest rates were just cut 25 basis points today. if you ignore the talking heads, life still is truly good here in america.

christians and halloween

2007-10-31T07:50:00.000-07:00

i respect christians who chose not to participate in halloween. but i would ask, why throw the baby out with the bathwater? this is one of the very few days during the year which gets the whole community on the same page, involved and doing something great for the kids. and halloween has become mostly a secular holiday with very few people even knowing its origins. christians should think of ways to take advantage of this opportunity to share the love of Christ with their neighbors, not hide in their theological caves. my wife came up with a great idea and I hope others will try it. our kids are going to give something to the houses which they will be trick or treating tonight. my family isn't celebrating for the same reasons that the ancient celts did, we are celebrating community, and taking advantage of this national event to share with our neighbors.

Grace to You has a great article on how Christians should treat halloween.

“In Essentials, Unity; in Non-essentials, Liberty; in All Things, Charity,”

“I speak where the Bible speaks, and am silent where the Bible is silent.”

antarctic ice

2007-10-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

the spewers of doom, often tout the shrinking arctic ice as a huge problem. the problem with their theory is that arctic ice makes up only 10% of pole ice. Antarctic ice makes up 90% And now, the thickening of antarctic ice has just reached its all time MAXIMUM. Typical of the media, they focus on the 10% shrinking instead of the 90% growing. Even John Christy, who co-won the Nobel prize with Al Gore as member of the Inter Governmental Panel on climate change scratches his head...

“I don’t see very much effect in trying to scare people into not using energy when it is the very basis of how we can live in our society….Mother Nature is so complex, and so the uncertainties are great, and then to hear someone speak with such certainty and such confidence about what the climate is going to do is…annoying to me.”

Christy confirms that of course carbon dioxide levels are going up, and indeed temperatures are rising. But he categorically refutes Al Gore’s conclusions: “I’m one of the few people in the world that actually builds these climate data sets – [and] we don’t see the catastrophic changes that are being promoted all over the place.”

"Score a point for the “deniers” — that’s to say, those of us who think climate change has been business as usual on this here planet since time immemorial and is not to be feared so much as adapted to, even though we should live as cleanly and greenly as possible." (canadian national post)

No one is reporting about the 90% of the ice. No one is touting the postive effects of an increase in global temperatures. No one is stating the obvious: that less than a degree a century is easily adapted to. No one is talking about increased precipitation do to slightly warmer weather. No one is talking about how the earth goes through neatural cycles which vary by 10's of degrees. No one is looking at their own local weather and noting how it can vary by 10's of degrees on any particular day year to year. The same can go for almost any spot on earth. No one is using any common sense. This hoax, that we can even begin to understand the complexity and dynamics of our climate can't die soon enough. In the meantime, let's do meaningful things like save species of animals, protect habitat, forests and clean up toxic waste. The energy of environmentalism is gathering momentum in a ridiculous direction.

from iraq

2007-10-30T06:43:00.001-07:00

From a Chaplain in Iraq

I recently attended a showing of "Superman 3," here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorium we use for movies, as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem the music stopped.

Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments; and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place.

Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed
forward. The music started again. The Soldiers continued to quietly
stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped.
What would you expect to happen? Even here I would imagine laughter, as everyone finally sat down and expected the movie to start.

But here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier continued to stand at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand Soldiers, finishing where the recording left off:

"And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that Star
- Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"

It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq. I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here.

Written by Chaplain Jim Higgins on 5/14/07. LSA Anaconda is at the Balad Airport in Iraq, north of Bagdad.

"feeling" green but being stupid

2007-10-29T08:11:00.000-07:00

i'm all for going green, if it means we are actually going green. and i think the only way it will happen meaningfully is to use market forces to our advantage to drive the revolution. but it seems like so many people are just doing things because it makes them "feel" good about themselves. for so many, it seems, if it makes them "feel" good, "feel" environmental, then it doesn't matter if the facts state otherwise.

Take Ethanol for example. It is clearly documented, that when you take all factors into consideration, it takes more than a gallon of fossil fuels to produce a gallon of ethanol. Not only that, it takes over two gallons of water per gallon of ethanol. It takes fertilizer which can contaminate rivers. It takes over $6Billion in Government subs to keep the farmers in business. It drives up the cost of food for everyone because the supply of corn and more land is allocated for growth of corn.

The best anyone can say about it, is that it diversifies our fuel sources. But, environmentally, ethanol appears to me to be a disaster and an incredibly stupid idea.

"Tribune Editorial
Article Last Updated: 10/29/2007 01:45:30 AM MDT

Corn ethanol is the answer to global warming and American energy independence.
Right?
Wrong.
A bushel of new studies suggest that production of corn ethanol not only makes global warming worse but contributes heavily to water pollution. One reason is the heavy doses of nitrogen fertilizer that American farmers dump on corn fields.
A study by Paul J. Crutzen, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, argues that some biofuels release more greenhouse gases than they save because nitrogen fertilizer produces nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas that is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide as an atmospheric insulator.
The study estimates that corn ethanol produces between .9 and 1.5 times the global warming effect of conventional gasoline.
Crutzen suggests that to get an environmental benefit from ethanol, it must be refined from crops that use little fertilizer and can be harvested without using large amounts of energy. Both of those criteria rule out corn or rapeseed, the primary feeder crop for biofuel in Europe.
This study is hardly the first knock on corn ethanol. Various others have concluded that it takes more energy from oil to grow and harvest corn and refine ethanol (a substitute for gasoline) than the ethanol itself produces. At best, it's a push.
So ethanol is a boon to American agribusiness, but not
the environment. That's the real reason why farm states and Congress are in love with ethanol subsidies. Unfortunately, the farm bill being debated now in the Senate will only make matters worse.
Besides, diverting corn from feeding humans to feeding cars is driving up the cost of eating around the world.
Biofuels subsidized by billions of tax dollars will push food prices 20-40 percent higher by 2020, according to the Food Policy Research Institute. Rising corn prices already are contributing to malnutrition in developing countries.
On top of all this, the National Research Council warns that projected increases in production of corn for ethanol will harm both water quality and supplies.
To be blunt about it, unless you're Monsanto or Archer Daniels Midland, making fuel from corn is a spectacularly dumb idea." (Salt Lake City Tribune)

the problem of abolishing evil

2007-10-26T08:08:00.000-07:00

I've often heard the question, "Why would [a loving] God allow the evil that goes on in the world today to occur?" It's a great question and not one easily answered, but also not one we as Christians should shy away from.

In Short:
Ask yourself the question: Would you rather be a robot or yourself, would you rather be locked in a proverbial room in chains, or free to roam the hills? God has not made us robots or little children that he locks in a closet to "keep safe", God has dignified man by giving him choices and the right to make our own decisions. Our choosing to live in conformity to God's will is only meaningful if there is an alternate choice to do and live evil. Love is rendered meaningless if it is not freely given. Locking us in a room or making us robots would be an aspect of the cruelest of gods. Clearly a loving God must allow for the prospect that we will make choices other than love as well.

Also ask yourself the question: Where would I be if God actually wiped out all evil on earth as so many wish He would? The obvious answer is...wiped out! All have fallen short and all of us, if we are honest, practice or think evil every day. How loving is our God that he gives us choices and allows us the oportunity to live on this earth fighting evil and social injustice for His name's sake. God has every right to wipe out everyone now, ie wipe out all the evil on the earth, but He chooses not to.

Finally, I ask myself this question: Is it better to have been created in a world full of evil with the potential for love, or never to have been created at all? This is a very personal question to which I have found the answer to be a resounding "yes, existance is better!". But I understand why others may wish they were never even a thought in Gods head after some of the horrific things they have seen man do to man.

One of the greatest questions man has thought up will be with us for a long time.

geeky fun

2007-10-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

there are 10 kinds of people in this world. those who understand binary numbers, and those who don't. (seen recently on a t-shirt)