Are you kidding me?

This is an absolute nightmare. Think about it. The Chinese gov't holds something like $1T in US treasuries. Once inflation sets in and they begin dumping US $, do we really want them to be able to exchange their $ for a fast track to US citizenship? $1T would buy 2 Million EB-5 visas! Moreover, I saw nothing in this that would prevent the EB-5 visa holder from employing H1B Visa holders to meet the employment criteria. Not hard to imagine several hundred thousand new citizens being created through this process.

Madden said winning is the best deodorant, but clearly it's money. This stinks to high heaven, but will undoubtedly be defended as "good for the economy". Since when did money become the sole arbiter of all we value? Frightening.

Casting Down Idols

Things that are hindering my walk with God:

Love of comfort
Love of pleasure
Love of others' esteem
Pride

Noli nothi permittere te terere

'Nuff said.

More lessons being learned...

3. Genuine praise is a priceless motivation tool.

My QOTD

Google'd this and couldn't find it, so I hereby lay claim to coining the following phrase:

"Successful organizations start with people, and end with management."

Pun *intended*. :)

Things I Think God is Teaching Me Right Now

1. He can be trusted to provide for me and my loved ones; I cannot.
2. He is the source of joy and peace; my circumstances are not.

Christian Pole Positions

1. Cloaking a judgemental spirit in the guise of concern for God's holiness.
2. Turning a blind eye to sin for the purpose of being loving.

In my experience, almost all Christians will naturally fall into one of the two above camps. But the two greatest commandments help us in our battle against these nature tendencies.

Loving our neighbor restrains our judgemental attitudes and creates a desire to extend grace, while love of God reminds us how he has loved and forgiven us.

Likewise, if we love our neighbor, we will certainly not, by our silence, implicitly call the evil they are doing "good" and thereby encourage them to incur more judgement from God (and yeah, God is gonna judge you - even those of us who he won't ultimately condemn). And of course, loving God creates a humble zeal for his holiness.

Authenticity

Authenticity is touted greatly these days, even (or especially) in Christian circles. I wonder if the folks doing the touting know of this word's history within existentialist thought? I also wonder if Christians are confused about the meaning of the term and just simply think of it as a synonym for sincerity, which *is* a Christian virtue?

Random House defines sincere as "free of deceit, hypocrisy, or falseness; earnest". But authenticity is defined as "not false or copied; genuine; real". While the absence of falseness is common to the meaning of both words, I think there's a subtle but important difference between the two. Sincerity implies moral conformity, e.g. "I am sincere in making this statement". Authenticity connotes "I am what I am portraying."

To which I say, "What if you're an authentic Jerk?"

Happiness and Joy

I could be wrong, but it occurs to me that happiness is the intersection of positive expectation and actual experience, while joy is the submission of all expectation to Ultimate reality.

Thoughts Shared with Market Research Firm

One of the market research firms that covers the information industry (OK, the only one that does) sent out a pricing survey today and, among other things, asked for what an ideal content license/contract might look like. Here were some of my thoughts:

1) Content clearly priced per unit (e.g. per full text document) for easy comparison to other vendors and providers.

2) Volume discounts increasing in logical increments until "enterprise" access - i.e. unlimited across an organization - is reached.

3) No "evergreen" contracts designed to "trick" customers into renewing.

4) Clear, yet unobtrusive watermarking of every fulltext download with the following information:

"'Vendor/Platform Name' Content Provided by 'Sponsoring Library's Name'. Licensed for use by 'User Name' of 'Org Name' on 'Date'. Distribution to non-licensed individuals prohibited by law. Your colleagues may access a licensed copy of this document at 'OpenURL Link to Document'.

This would a) Help eliminate copyright and licensing violations related to electronic subscriptions, b) Remind executive sponsors and consumers of content that it isn't 'free', c) Reduce the need for vendors to hedge their positions by baking-in 'X' amount of unauthorized usage into their pricing models, d) Eliminate the need for expensive DRM schemes which frustrate sponsors and content consumers.

Certainly not an exhaustive list, but I think these changes would make a big difference...

Coining a Phrase: WOflation

I think I'm the first to coin this phrase: WOflation. The hyper-inflation brought about by the economic policies of Bush - "W" - and Obama -"O". It hasn't hit, but it will.

Getting Old

I don't like it. Just kidding. It's fine. But sometimes I just feel old and rusty...

Really? Duh!

:Begin Rant

The only thing that's more upsetting than the fact that it took all of us as American citizens so long to figure this out, is that our leaders still haven't. (Or they have and they simply don't care.)
Our enemies (and they don't have nuclear weapons and armies because they think those things are neat) are into us for $13 Trillion. And that's not counting commercial paper and consumer debt.

End Rant:

Couldn't have said it better myself

The link is to an excellent flickr post. I don't think the author is anti-Obama, but he is pro free-thought.

I want to say that I am truly happy that America can elect the son of an immigrant to be President. And a black immigrant no less. Prejudice has been a blight on mankind and on this nation, and I am hopeful that Obama's election marks a true milestone in the healing of racial divides in this country.

And I am praying for our new President. Literally. But I'm also a bit fearful.

Fearful of the blindly fervent support Obama has received and the free pass he's been given by the press.

Fearful that just as in the days following September 11, when we allowed our leaders to rush through the Patriot Act, which had far reaching implications on our political rights - and was subject to little to no debate - we are allowing our leaders to rush through an 'economic stimulus' package that will have far reaching implications on our economic rights.

Fearful that the citizens of America literally see Obama as a savior and as such are unwilling to think critically about his policies.

Fearful that we as a people are so addicted to personal comfort and retaining a sense of "security" - physical, emotional, financial - at all costs that we're willing to believe whatever lies we're fed as long as they contain the promise of security and comfort.

Fearful that we are so divorced from virtue as a concept that pleasure is our only modis operandi; that we have become little more than animals seeking instant gratification of our base impulses.

I knew I didn't like this guy's econimic positions...

As you may know, I’ve never been a Warren Buffet fan (no, not Jimmy Buffet – pay attention, Steve). Than, last week, my honey gave me the low-down on why Mr. B is in favor of the death-tax: he’s built his fortune on it. I did some research and found this blog post http://reachupward.blogspot.com/2007/11/why-warren-buffett-loves-death-tax.html. Read it and the supporting articles for an eye opener.

I started disliking Buffet's economics when he pushed for corporations to expense their employee stock options (he also lost my affection when he encouraged Schwarzenneger to hike CA property taxes). His position was obviously motivated by the desire to keep “the little” guy from owning stock in corporations. I believe his motivations are twofold.

First, issuing stock to employees dilutes the value of each remaining share and thereby dilutes the control that any one investor – particularly a major stockholder - has over a corporation. Ever wonder why Berkshire Hathaway stock has never split? It’s so that Buffet’s hold on the company is never diluted. Checkout the current trading price to get an idea of what this means in the real world: http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BRKA&d=t. Probably not adding any BKRA to the old 401(k) in the near future, eh?

The second reason I believe Buffet opposes stock in the hands of the little guy is a corollary of the first: if the common man, on average, held stock in corporations, he could band together with other ‘common men’ to influence corporate policies. Here’s what I mean: Corporations can ride out a protest by consumers who oppose the company’s policy on a particular issue (pick your issue: promotion of homosexuality, funding of planned parenthood, hiring illegal immigrants, etc…). They just crank up the marketing machine, do some damage control PR, lower prices, etc… until the flap-up subsides. What they can’t ride out as easily, is a shareholder protest. Shareholders can literally cost executives their jobs. You might be familiar with what CalPERS is able to do in boardrooms across the country with their massive holdings and influence (the CEO of my old company, EDS, was ousted largely due to pressure from CalPERS). Well, imagine a large group of shareholders who held strong opinions about certain social and political issues; who collectively owned a good chunk of a company and who weren’t willing to compromise their convictions to save their portfolio. They might do something crazy like demand the company *really* verify the legal status of their immigrant workers, or even worse – make decisions based on the long term best interest of the whole company rather than what would drive the share price up as fast as possible this quarter.

Warren Buffet is probably a great guy. I understand he's a big fan of bridge, which seems like a pretty down-to-earth activity. I jsut don't agree with his economic positions and think there's more to them than a desire to keep his kids from becoming billionaire wastrels...

First Haircut

I was thinking about how hard it is to patiently endure life's circumstances, while waiting on God and resting in His promises. As a Christian I know it will all work out in the end. I know I'll end up in eternity with God, enjoying never-ending and ever-increasing bliss and blessing. So, relatively speaking, how important is my job? How important is my health? How important are the material blessings in my life? Not very.

If God can take care of the eternal bliss part, he can take care of the job-health-stuff part, right? I may not have the job-health-stuff ratio that I'm looking for at a given moment, but he'll do what's necessary between now and eternity to make sure I get there. Even if I don't like the process.

All this makes me think of the first haircut I got. Grandpa did it on the back porch. He had clippers, scissors, combs and even one of those plastic cloaks to keep the hair from getting all over your clothes. He sat me down on a stool, put the cloak on me, and started in. I did not like it one bit.

First off, I didn't trust Grandpa enough. I was positive those clippers would cut my ears off. If it could cut hair, surely it could cut my skin, right? And what if he accidentally poked me in the eye? I mean, those things were SHARP! Then there was the fact that the clippers tickled when he cut my neck hairs and above and around my ears. So, I squirmed and fidgeted and slumped and whined, repeatedly asking "Are you done yet?". I was miserable. And I bet Grandpa was too; we went to the barber shop for my haircuts after that.

The thing is, Grandpa was just trying to do something good for me: cut my hair so that I didn't look like Shirley Temple (As a toddler/preschooler I had curly blond hair). He had no intention of hurting me. Likewise, God is just trying to do something good for me (and for his glory): conform me to the image of his Son. But I fidget and whine and complain. I keep asking "When is this going to be over?". I spend my time worrying about the future, worrying that God is going to let me down or finally let me have it for all the bad things I've done. Many times, I just simply don't trust God to get me home safely.

Interestingly, I really enjoyed the results of my first haircut. I had "big boy" hair and could comb and part it, just like Grandpa. Fortunately I have the memory, and while the memory is far more enjoyable than the experience was, I wonder how much more enjoyable the memory would be if I'd spent that time in the chair talking to Grandpa instead of fighting against him? If I'd listened and obeyed his instructions to "sit still"? I wonder.

Verse of the Day...

Actually, I'm not a big fan of the phrase "of the day". It can make things seem more ephemeral than they are. (BTW - Ephemeral is the word of the day).

Anyway, my brother in Christ, Lou, sent me this verse to encourage me as I struggle against bad attitudes and such:

Hebrews 4:16
Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

How a Brazilian supermodel may crack U.S. 'greed conspiracy' - MarketWatch

How a Brazilian supermodel may crack U.S. 'greed conspiracy' - MarketWatch

Am I Nitpicking?

A friend forwarded this to me.

First off, I agree with the overall thrust of what Chandler is saying – that belief without works isn’t enough. But...

In the article he says things like
“It seems like every generation thinks of ways to make the faith real and authentic in their time.”,
which I find troubling. The faith was once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3), so it seems that the faith changes me, not vice versa.

He then says
“In fact, the very first Christians were not called Christians at all; they were called "The Way" (Acts 9:2).”
This seems to be a misreading of Acts 9:2, which reads: ‘...so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.’ I read “The Way” as referring to Christ, or the Christian faith, not Christians themselves. (We belong to Christ, not each other, right?). It’s not a major theological error, I suppose, but nonetheless it doesn’t seem to be an accurate reading.

In the end, I’m left with the feeling that he’s trying to de-emphasize doctrine more than he’s trying to re-emphasize the importance of godly living. It’s not an either/or choice: doctrine or right living. It’s a both/and command.

Well, those are my 2 cents.

Can't we all just get along?

Not always, but we could do alot better. A thoughtful post on the subject of Christian in-fighting over at the Jolly Blogger...