In a nutshell: I used to be more partisan in my political beliefs, I was state chair of College Republicans (including sitting on the state steering committee) and my degree was in Political Science. I've basically lost hope in the process, since it's too broken to fix itself before collapse.
However, I do enjoy watching it and analyzing the same way I'd watch football or a movie.
So I'll admit I'll get a long chuckle from watching the incredibly arrogant Democrat party get its donkey handed to it next week. How they ever thought they were going to pull off those kinds of stunts and still get re-elected is beyond me. Maybe they watch too much prime-time.
Whatever the case, their cluelessness enabled a leaderless, abstract opposition to completely clobber them. This is also known as the Tea Party effect.
The Tea Party effect is a logical response to that arrogance and cluelessness. However, this tea will be served to the country before it's even lukewarm. Unlike the takeover in '94-which was basically a midterm carefully nationalized by an organized Republican party (via the Contract with America)-this takeover won't even have a sketch of what sacred ground looks like.
You see, the motivation behind the Tea Party would historically have been drawn off to a real 3rd party where ideological and logistical organization would have taken place. Solving current problems of our runaway government is going to absolutely require this type of organization. Instead, the raw material was funneled into the old rusty machinery of the Republican party, which these days is far more like a t-shirt and bumper sticker company than a political organization.
Unfortunately this obtuse power shift means the only mandate that R's will have is that "well, they aren't Democrats". This won't be sufficient to fundamentally fix any of the problems of Government, but they'll still be really busy. Which brings us to the other key difference.
The other key difference is that in '94 the well organized Republicans marched head first into the buzzsaw of the Clinton campaign machine. It wasn't long before Republican politicians were out to steal babies and run over your dog. The inept (and very presidentially Democrat) machinery of the Obama Whitehouse will have but a fraction of that coherence.
So, you'll have a bunch of newly elected Republicans with no guiding ideology, no mandate to actually get anything difficult done, and an imperative to "look busy!" This will lead to the following results.
Contemporary Republican Bizzarro Free Market Capitalism: * More policies that favor large, established businesses * More policies that create very monopoly-like industry sectors * More policies that favor mass consumption and minimal production and/or innovation
Contemporary Republican Bizzarro Concepts of Freedom * More policies that strip individual liberties (All for National Security, of course.) * More policies that make removal of said liberties very profitable to someone * More drug enforcement policies that are worse than the drugs themselves
In short, you're going to have bigger government...more intrusive government....and more centralized economic planning. Just, you know...the Republican kind. And all of this will be ensconced in very warm sounding names. "The Thomas Jefferson Airport Funding Act", "The Telecom Wholesomness Act", "The Bill for Automotive Prosperity Act". You'll feel downright patriotic when grandma gets tazed for baking a pie without the proper permits.
These actions will continue to infuriate real conservatives, continue giving Joe and Jane American the uneasy feeling that something just ain't right, and contine making bumper sticker conservatives happy until the next rout. At which point the whole process continues until we're broke or the whole thing collapses when the money machine wears out.
The problem is that details matter. Capitalism (the real kind) matters. Freedom matters. The Republican party has a pretty bad record in these recently and they're about to be back in the political driver's seat. And thus our long, national broken record will continue.
Israeli airport security experts laugh at these things. And they know air security better than anyone and they say it's a waste of time and money.
The government has repeatedly lied about how these machines work. First they said they can't store images, now they say they can...but just "aren't set to save them".
The very nature of these images, the dismal record of the government in keeping anything secure...things like images, video, and oh...hundreds of thousands of top secret government documents should immediately cause outrage.
The consistent and blatant corruption and crime by lower level TSA personnel make any trust of scanner operators laughable.
All this pretty much guarantees that these images will be abused in some form or fashion....
...and...my goodness...stop and think for a second. The government is taking naked pictures of citizens. How the heck did we get here?!?!? Why aren't people freaked out about this? Why are we doing this?!?!?
Well, the machines are expensive. There's your answer.
But even with that, don't look to a new Republican Congress to change this. In the increasingly bumper sticker driven world of our political system, "war on terror" trumps any concept of liberty or personal privacy. And again, these things are making alot of money for a district somewhere.
Of course I'm old enough that I don't need a reason to complain about music...but hear me out. My complaint about "music these days" is that it's all the same. There is very little diversity in any Genre. Top 40 is processed Sex. Alternative is electronic'y U2 derivative. And can anything define "sameness" better than Praise/Worship/Inspirational? There are a few pockets of originality, but not much.
For the most part, my radio stays off. But a couple a weeks ago my wife used my car and left a new oldies station on-97.7 the Peach. I didn't really think about it, until about a week later when I realized I'd been listening the The Peach every day.
They play music from the 60′s and the 70′s, and I'm amazed that I'm listening because I've never been into that era/genre. Then it occurred to me that:
The music is actually music. Melodies and everything.
There are quite a few different sounds from those 2 decades.
It's actually very happy music.
Even the music that's not happy doesn't take itself too seriously.
Most of the music is new to me.
Basically I'm discovering new music from the 60′s and 70′s, because that music is both newer and more musical than current fare. No real punchline here. It's just amazing that even with all of the new delivery channels, the music keeps getting samer, to the point where the old stuff is more original and exciting.
As I've mentioned, I'm trying out a B&N Nook and an iPad for use in corporate document delivery and overall communications. Here's a quick snapshot of my findings.
A couple notes, the Kindle didn't make my initial cut for various reasons, primarily because it's more of a retail outlet than an e-reader. I probably will try the Sony e-reader eventually. Lastly, I'll limit comments about the iPad to the evaluated purpose. As a general computing device I find it very cool yet overwhelmingly annoying.
So here is the snapshot eval:
As a book store the B&N option is my choice. B&N books are viewable across several devices (including the iPad), and so far they seem to have a decent selection relative to the other stores (although none have a great selection yet).
As an e-reader the Nook is my choice. The e-ink is a pleasure to read from, especially in sunlight. I've used it for a couple hours and it felt like reading a book. The only drawback is that you can't see it at night, and in dim light it's a little blurry-unlike a real book. Hopefully this will be better as they improve e-ink screens. But either way with electronic ink you have to have a lamp or use a booklight, which is pretty funny when you realize what you're doing.
Despite the slowness of the page turns, reading also seemed faster in general because it's still faster than dealing with pages in a book. And clicking the side buttons was actually alot easier than hitting the touchscreen on the iPad.
The iPad is a TFT screen, which means that it's like staring at a computer for several hours. I found my eyes feeling strained and tired from looking at the iPad screen, even after adjusting the brightness.
The interface for the Nook is a bit atrocious, and I wouldn't look forward to helping non-techies on the device. However my daughter, an avid reader, also enjoyed the nook. Even with the interface quirks, the B&N Nook is a winner for reading e-books.
As a corporate communication device the iPad edges out the Nook. There's just too much you can do with an iPad. You can read PDF's and power point presentations, as well as keep a photo gallery (which look great when viewed) of reference material. You can store video and audio as well.
Having said that the iPad's maddening limitations and hod-podge data storage would be a severe limitation on corporate use. I ended up having to email stuff to the iPad in order to display it, and it seems that all the viewing apps want to put them in their own little areas. Hopefully they'll fix this in the anticipated iOS 4 release.
The Nook in comparison was extremely easy to add documents. It connected immediately via USB with a very straightforward file structure. However, the Nook's screen is also way too small for corporate documents although they'd look great on the e-ink. Word doc and powerpoint viewing isn't supported as far as I can tell.
iPad wins this one, but they really need some refining before it's practical in a corporate environment.
So there you have it. I still think the e-readers rapidly falling price is going to make e-books a tougher and tougher selling point for the iPad, but the iPad is clearly a compelling device. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
"Some parents weren't happy about the program, judging by comments left on stories at local news outlets. Some kids' grades have slipped, one comment said, 'because it has become TOO important to socialize on the netbook and not turn in assignments or even do the required work.'
Read more: Indiana school district fights HP over netbooks - San Francisco Business Times "
When I was in 6th grade, our middle school had a big room full of TRS-80 computers. It was impressive, but for the most part the school had no idea what to do with them. We would do these little math quizzes and such, but a few of us spent most of our time hacking them to give us arbitrarily good grades on the quiz.
Thus, there seems to be an built-in rookie mistake in most school systems, which is to place the strategic technology thinkin' on the hardware and not the software. They seem to be buying these things with very little strategic thought with regard to what they'll be used for.
If the students are using them for facebook, games, etc. It's not because they're slackers. It's because the slacker software is very well spec'd, designed, written, and implemented. Facebook has scads of developers. I'd wager that most of the educational software is either non-existent or just plain bad in these "every kid gets a laptop" plans.
(In many business organizations, technology is seen as a supporting role. Maintain the printers. Replace a bad network card. Implement software some other department decided on. Personally, I see technology as a huge strategic advantage. A company that integrates tech knowhow into it's strategic thinking and decision making can absolutely whollop competition through better performance and cost savings. Technology shouldn't be seen as the cost of doing business, it should be seen as a way to outthink your opposition.)
This is not to say that all schools are like this. While touring my alma mater for our 20 year reunion, it was clear that the rooms full of macs were being used for a purpose (multimedia, etc), and that there was an agenda at work.
It seems to me there needs to be a strategic role for technology in educational planning. Otherwise a ton of money is being wasted and alot of folks are getting rich gaming the system.
The e-reader wars have begun. Apples iBook/iPad combo is the media darling, but the rest of the world is rapidly comoditizing in response.. B&N's nook, Amazon's Kindle, and Sony's 'something' have all had prices slashed lately. (I would say the name of Sony's reader except they'd probably require a royalty on the intellectual property.) B&N takes the threat so seriously that they're basically selling out to the e-future, losing millions to make sure their reader is prominent.
Since I'm paid to be a strategic I.T. person, I see a huge potential for the corporate world. I'd love to use these readers in our various board and committee meetings, which would avoid all that paper and make a more effective meeting. So we'll be purchasing a demo unit of all the popular readers to see how they would display these documents.
Well, we'll try all of them except the Kindle. The Kindle doesn't support the formats we need. It's basically a one-show pony and only really works with the Amazon store.
Which gets to the first major problem with all these e-readers. They are not conceived and produced as e-readers. They're primarily e-storefronts for the various companies that make them. There is some notion of an interchangeable product, but it's still locked down to the whims of the "content providers".
Media players (iPods, etc) took off because the companies had no choice. People were going to be making mp3′s and playing no matter what. These mp3′s would play on anything that supported the format, and if you wanted to catch that wave you had to make an mp3 player. In this way, Napster set the stage for the iPod.
There is no such analog in the book world. There are not hordes of book lovers loading their paperback collection into book readers. You can download bootleg books, but the majority of folks will be building the collections via purchase...and the occasional Gutenburg freebie.
This will severely curtail the growth of the e-reader market. And you have to wonder how much time they have to capture the imagination of readers. Even with the price cuts, you can buy 15 books and an e-reader....or 30 books. That decision is going to be way too easy for most folks.
And what about libraries? Are you going to be able to borrow an e-copy of a book? Nah, there's just still too much retail design in the e-reader market. I wonder if anyone has even thought of the corporate document angle?
I do like the Nook so far. I'll post a full review later after I've had a chance to look at the other options. But no matter what people say it's not going to surpass regular books any time soon.
Meanwhile, I have been going through a couple thousand comics at home. I did this about the time I saw the Marvel comic app for the iPad. Which led to some further thoughts about digital formats...but that's for another post.
There was a funny routine in interactions with my father-in-law. It is funny to me now because of how consistent it was. It happened after most visits where we had a sit-down lunch or dinner.
First, we'd go into the living room and sit in front of the TV in the two blue recliners. Many times we'd have ice cream and/or coffee. Golf would be on. Recliners would be engaged.
Then we'd talk about what was going on with jobs (or college, back in the day). He'd always be interested, with the sly implication that he was making sure that I was taking care of his daughter. As such, there was always some advice or input. Some of it was a bit too conservative for my taste, other times it was really excellent guidance particularly with regard to management and career strategy.
When the ice cream was finished, I'd set my empty bowl down on the coffee table in between the blue chairs. My intent was to return it to the kitchen in a few minutes, but my father-in-law would usually take both his and mine in before that.
About this time I would pick up the paper, which was always lying on the floor in front of the chairs. My father in law would say "hey, you need some light, don't you?"
I'd say that I was fine, but he'd go turn on the light anyway. Over the years, in the houses where there were several switches, he'd hit the ceiling fan or other lights at random until the right one came on. Isn't it strange that no matter how long we've lived in a house, we still have to hunt for the right switch when there are more than two?
Then after reading some newspaper and perhaps discussing the electronics in the Best Buy ads, he'd give me the TV remote and we'd both either doze off or keep talking about things for a little while longer. If a golf tournament was on we'd discuss golf, even though I'm a terrible golfer. Other times the kids would lobby for Spongebob which meant naptime for the adult males.
This routine occurred in some variant from the time I was 17 years old, which is almost 20 years.
I never realized it was a routine until a couple weeks ago when I sat down in that blue recliner with ice cream in hand and a paper at my feet. While the quiet noise of NickJr. echoed through the dim room, I ate ice cream alone.
Kinda sad...if you're one of those people into thriving economies of liberty and democracy.
I maintain that all of this talk about "when things get better" and "when the economy improves" are missing a key component: how?
I believe our economy is:
* Too dependent on government spending (Thanks Dems!) * Way too biased toward established mega-business (Thanks Reps!) * Gutting it's manufacturing base (which results in over-dependence on consumption and debt) * Way too engineered by elected officials. (Thanks everyone!)
All of these characteristics work toward one result-"bye bye growth".
Now granted, growth has it's own set of problems. But our economic model currently depends on it, and before you change that you better understand the implications. But it's kinda hard to get that picture when several generations have only had half the pieces to the puzzle.
It looks like the Rep's are going to make significant gains in Congress, partially due to this mess and partially due to the President's Quixotic health care efforts.
This will not improve anything. It will just result in more anti-growth policies of a different tact. Meanwhile, the sea keeps receding towards the debt tsunami just over the horizon.
So this is kind of old news. But I've been thinking about it for awhile.
Because if you value marriage (your own, or in general) it's important to think about why a 40 year marriage would end. I look at my wife and I know I want to be with her rockin' on the front porch, or wheelin' around an old folks home, or doing whatever it is that the elderly will do when we're old. Which is in...um....a few years. Unless you count our recent date to Cracker Barrel and Hobby Lobby, in which case the future is now.
After examining family history and current trends, I'm pretty sure she'll be in some sort of scooter and I'll have completely lost my mind. Hopefully her scooter will be the levitating kind and I'll have a genetically engineered cyborg service monkey to remember things for me. If not, then we're going to need each other. If so, then holy crap...I want her to be there when I say "I told you so!"
Either way, it's us until the end.
This might be something specific to my generation or just folks I know, but many of us have seen that careers, money, politics, houses, cars, etc. are really dumb things to get married to. And yes, people try to do that. Over-commitments to these are temporary and in the meantime they enslave you.
When the proverbial stuff hits the fan (or just ends up in a pair of Depends), you have your relationships-with God and with each other-and whether or not you believe there's anything after that, those are far more rewarding.
So why do long term marriages end? We've all seen short relationships fueled by emotion and feeling that dissipate pretty quickly in vague I-don't-love-you-anymore's. But what can terminate a relationship that was by appearances based on commitment and by fact endured for decades?
I have no idea about any of the specifics regarding our former VP and his wife. But I do know that whatever happened is probably the result of decisions and behaviors over those years and decades. These things don't just suddenly happen.
As you start to examine the lives of yourself and others, it's amazing how decisions early on can drastically affect the years to come. Often decisions with negative consequences are made when things are going really well. Song of Songs 2 speaks of the "little foxes" that attack a garden when things are in bloom.
Proverbs 5 contains a pretty heavy set of warnings about consequences. These warnings are generally regarding the disasters from infidelity (loose cars, fast women in particular). These are big things, and obviously when you take a hammer to commitment it can fail suddenly. But what about little day-to-day things?
Proverbs 5, does say one thing that I have taken to heart in regard to this. When the Verse 18 says "may you rejoice in the wife of your youth." I think it's saying something regarding consequences of day to day behaviors. Early in our relationships, just about everything is about the other person. Generally we're out to impress them, cater to them, and show them our best. We want to hang out with them. We bathe. We buy stuff and write things to them and let them know we're thinking about them.
In short, we were youth and we were rejoicing like a Bryan Adams song. We were probably a bit cheesy and over-the-top.
Yet these are the behaviors of our youth. Why would we abandon them? Have we gotten so busy with kids, jobs, and life in general that we didn't even realize they stopped? Have we equated maturity with a more stoic interaction? Are we avoiding problems that are much more serious than we want to admit? Have we devolved into desperate security?
There could be many reasons, but it's a worthwhile exercise to take stock of our daily investment in our marriages. Is it rejoicing?
After consideration of these, I believe that a long term marriage doesn't end at the end. It ends in the middle and just takes that long to ultimately wind down. The way to prepare for weeks, years and decades ahead is with decisions now. Take some time and/or money each day and week to devote it to your marriage. Make the decision to put some joy in it.
Because a cyborg service monkey is no comfort to an old man, no matter how awesomely cool!
So I'll admit, the last post was a bit of an exercise in tone. Some of the most informative sites I'm reading seem to specialize in a cynical and pessimistic tone. Unfortunately, most of these sites have been an excellent predictor of the increasingly wobbly economy. Certainly better than the commoditized status quo of CNN/Fox, and just about anything is better than the Rah-Rah of CNBC. So I wanted to try my hand a bit.
However, "to the bitter end" conveys an excessively worldly approach on it's own. So I figured I'd round it out with a little absolute Truth. Fortunately, Chris' sermon on Sunday provided excellent material.
Habakkuk 3:17 Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! 19 The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! For the Chief Musician; with my stringed instruments.
Personally, I think "the bitter end" of what we're doing is going to ultimately a good thing. Our failed experiment in government-god, fueled by cheap debt and energy, has left us much worse off than we know. It's time to end it and start being human again, for better or worse.
And, no..this is not some nihilist view that it's all about to go to crap and never come back. It's not even a Christian view that we're in the end times and that it's all going to crap in preparation for the second coming (although the blood red oil in the gulf, frogs in Greece, earthquakes, etc. do look very end-times-ish).
History is chock full of "bitter ends", followed up with rebuilding periods of varying lengths and implications. If we are indeed about to see one as I think, it will be an extraordinary opportunity to build something better. And besides, no amount of socioeconomic junk has ever stopped the cause of Christ...even when people have tried to stamp His name on it.
Through it all, God is sovereign and we can and will rejoice in the Lord. No matter what happens we know who's running the show. And our cup is always overflowing.
