Category → morality
Never Go To The Government
Our beloved General Motors has just been made a public example why you should never go to the government for assistance. I do not care if you are on the verge of homelessness, never EVER go to the government for help. When you do this, you are forfeiting your freedoms and subjecting yourself to humiliation. The United States government is far more corrupt than any corporate scandal you may have heard about over the years. The U.S. Congress is the most hypocritical organization known to mankind with the President running a close second. Barack Obama is no more qualified to be President than a random prisoner in just about any prison in the United States.
Let’s be honest here. Political Correctness has taken over this country and Barack Obama’s presidency is the biggest display of this. The ONLY reason he is President is because of the color of his skin. I am not saying that I oppose his presidency based on the color of his skin because that would be a complete injustice to what I am trying to say. I as well as most would have to agree that you cannot legitimately judge a person’s character based on the color of their skin. I do not want to be mistaken by all this by saying that my pointing out his flaws is an endorsement of the Republican party either. Both of the major political parties has zero credibility to point the finger at anyone. Whatever General Motors may have done to find themselves in their situation, it pales in comparison to what our corrupt leaders in Washington D.C. do on a daily basis.
General Motors biggest mistake was going to the government with their hands out because now they get to endure the embarrassment of being forced to walk naked in front of everyone while Barack Obama’s unqualified ignorance gets to play bully for a while. I would rather go bankrupt than to go to the government and accept their strings that are always attached to things. Shame on our local leaders like Governor Brad Henry for accepting one dollar of this criminally extorted payoff they call a stimulus package. Shame on anyone that accepts any of this money that is spending our country into financial ruin. George W. Bush was almost as big a disgrace as he spent himself out of control. What happened to conservatism? What happened to small government? Our leaders on both sides are playing us and people are too stuck in this Republican versus Democrat fight that they do not even see it.
While we sit around buying into the other party is the REAL EVIL our own guy is stabbing us in the back. Think about it… John McCain is not a conservative under anyone’s standard yet he gets the nomination for the Republican party. He has burned the Republican party over and over again. The Democrats are so far gone they are not worth even discussing. The Republicans are racing to meet them in their left wing agenda. The Republican party throws a bone to the conservatives by proclaiming their opposition to stem cell research, abortion or whatever topic the media thinks conservatives are against today. They never substantially act on any of these proclamations just like Democrats never do more than throw bones to their constituencies. Think about it. Democrats talk about helping the little guy and saving them from corporate corruption so they create programs that never help anyone. They spend more money on programs that never actually help anyone than if they had just given every American one million dollars each. I am not saying the government should be giving everyone a million dollars or any money for that matter. It is not the government’s job to be taking other’s property to give it to someone else. This loosely interpreted statement in the Constitution about the “common good” is misinterpreted at best.
Of course it is the people that are allowing themselves to be duped. I know what I am talking about because I have been guilty myself for this for years. I put all my hope in the Republican party to be the saviors of our family values while they sell us down the river. I meant what I said back over a year ago when I posted on February 9, 2008. People gave a me a lot heat for being anti conservative when I said that I was willing to concede this election to the other side to let our side know they are accountable. There are times that I feel that I have made a mistake every time I see Obama open his mouth on TV. When I think about it, I know I was right. This never ending voting for the “least of the two evils” does not work. I have voted Republican over and over again just to have each successive candidate be more liberal than the last. Of course if you listen to the left wing media you would have believed George W. Bush was the most conservative right winger that has ever been in office. You would have to either have your head completely submerged in the sand or be deliberately misleading people to believe that. I am thinking it is the latter. The truth is that George W. Bush though outwardly speaking semi conservative ideas was not committed to them. It was just throwing us a bone just like his dad.
I think our side needs to know they ARE accountable to the people that elected them. I think the time of allowing them to think they automatically have our vote just because our desire to keep the other guy out is bad policy. I am glad our side lost this time as painful as it is. I think it is time for us to communicate to our leaders that it was not an accident. They needed to be thrown out of office so they can understand that we mean business. Either they represent us or get in line at Obama’s welfare line. I can remember arguing with people in the past saying we must vote for this guy or that guy just to prevent the other guy from winning. I remember passionately defending Bush because of the danger of the other side winning. Let me ask you a rhetorical question… Has this made our land a more conservative place? Absolutely NOT! Our guy feels comfortable betraying us because he knows that we will not vote for the other guy. He plays us like a fiddle with the comfort that his own constituency will never vote for the other guy.
The checks and balances that our fore fathers put in place to save our land have lost balance because all the checks are in one pile. Our liberal elected officials have stacked our courts with liberal activist judges that do not interpret laws against the Constitution but rather make liberal laws. Our Congress does most of the corruption while blaming the President. They sit and pass laws that are thousands of pages without even reading them. They take your tax dollars and mine and spend them on their buddy’s projects padding their own nest. They make a kingdom for themselves so in the RARE event they are not reelected, they will have a free ride when they are out of office. They fail to do their duty and impeach corrupt Presidents and judges because they are so busy not paying their taxes just like half of Obama’s cabinet. The only organization that is more corrupt than the Barack Obama administration is the United States Congress.
Of course this is where I get religious on you so you may want to tune out if you are one of those that engage in this behavior. All this does have a common denominator and that is a lack of moral standard. Our country was founded on fore fathers that made mistakes. They were not perfect but they did believe in a standard and that standard was Christianity. These fore fathers were miserable failures at this standard just like we are but they understood what Christianity was all about. They understood that God’s word says in Romans 6:23
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
They understood that since they were every bit as much sinners as we are that Jesus’ death on the cross was payment for their sins through faith. They recognized God’s words as the standard to live by and made an attempt to live by those standards. They made one mistake when they wrote the Constitution and that was their lack of clarification in the establishment clause of the first Amendment.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
This lack of clarification in their intent has been used by those who oppose this standard as an excuse to forbid Christianity in almost every avenue of life in our country. They speak of being a pluralistic society where there are differing cultures living side by side in our own society. This pluralistic society also includes those of differing religions living side by side. They use this as more evidence for not allowing religion in public life in the name of not offending one of those in the other cultures, religions. They often speak of religion but they really mean Christianity. There are several religions in our country just as they speak and the goal of all of them is to evangelize of get others to become converts. The problem is that in the discussion of this false notion of separation of church and state is almost without fail relating to Christianity. There is almost a hatred toward Christianity that is difficult to describe.
My point in all this is that our country was founded on Christian values whether those pluralistic crowd wish to acknowledge this or not. True Christian values does not advocate violence toward any other religion. I know, I know, this is where the argument about the Crusaders usually comes up. Like I said before, true Christianity does not advocate this behavior. Anyone can take on a title and claim to represent that title and do things that are opposite of what that title stands for.
If we do not have a standard by which we measure morality, then everything is subjective and that is very dangerous. If morality can be voted on then look out for slavery and violence against various groups of people. With the media’s power and lack of objectivity they can have you hating blacks again if they chose to go that route. They can have the public outraged at them for a fabricated injustice they have done. I mentioned blacks because they are a group that most people can sympathize with and understand the injustices they have endured. I could just as easily have mentioned any group. My point is that if we do not sit down as a group and establish some immovable standards, then anything can happen. The Bible already has those standards. I am not advocating creating our government to enforce biblical rules but rather to acknowledge the standards by which our country was founded.
One thing that has still not learned is that every choice you make has consequences whether good or bad. Just because a person fails to acknowledge a moral standard does not eliminate the consequences of their actions. When people make a choice, there will be a consequence. If not Christianity, then what? If not Islam, then what? If we continue to live in this relative world of no values then our greed will be the end of our country. If you look at history you will find that no empire lasted forever and ours will be no different. Instead of ignoring what went wrong in the past just to make the same mistakes again and again, how about setting some standards? These standards already exist and have existed since our country’s founding. Our problems are not the result of religion, they are the ignoring of it. If we continue to subsidize failure, we will have a very prosperous crop.
Absence of Standards
In the never ending papers that I have written over the last couple of years I have been admonished to avoid beginning with the intent of proving a point. Many of the imposed themes of my papers were to have an open mind and understand that we live in a multicultural society with different religions, cultures, and norms. The idea is that we must be open to understand that our society now has different cultures that differ from our own and may not have the same views of morals and ethics. The former view of our country as being a melting pot where people from different countries and cultures assimilate into the society, losing their cultural identity and taking on the identity of America has been changed into a multicultural society. This multicultural society is where different cultures live side by side parallel, or independent of each other maintaining their own cultural identity.
The beginning of this encouragement of multicultural thinking can be narrowed to the point where identities were being described with a hyphen. No longer were we just Americans, rather we were African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native-Americans, etc. This new way of thinking has actually resulted in separating people based on the origin of their ancestors. The idea of many nations being inside our own country has become the new norm.
The problem with doing this, is that it gives an excuse to eliminate norms, standards, expectations. This multiculturalism has been used as a tool whether by design, or by accident to eliminate the standards of the Judeo-Christian values this country was founded upon. No longer could a person cite the Bible as a standard by which to measure morality. In this multicultural society, there are other cultures that did not believe in Jesus as the son of God, the savior of the world. These cultures within our own boundaries were at risk of being offended by adhering to the very standards that our founding fathers used when writing the Constitution of the United States.
The use of the Bible could be seen as offensive to non Christian Arab-Americans, or other groups that believed in other religions. With the onset of this multicultural idealism came a desire to be tolerant of differing views. The fear of offending others was enough to prevent using the Bible as a standard even though the majority of the laws in this country were written using the Bible as that standard. Suddenly the democratic policy of the majority making the rules, became the minority complaint made the rules. The majority of society were subject to the complaint of one. If the actions of anyone were to result in the offense of one, then everyone must stop.
I would like to break from this policy of not trying to begin a paper to prove a point. I can appreciate the concern for other cultures living along side each other. The conventional wisdom is that it would be insensitive to force all citizens to live by the same standards as a certain group. The idea that followers of Islam, and Hinduism would be required to live by the same standards that Christians do would be completely unacceptable. This sounds like an acceptable policy considering most people would not want another person’s religious views imposed upon them. The problem with having this non absolute standard is that no one can be held accountable for breaking laws because these laws cannot be absolute.
It seems that most societies have adopted a policy of anything goes, or all things are moral as long as it does not hurt someone else. This policy of morality being relative to the societal rules. Nothing can be absolutely wrong with this policy so there can be no standard by which to measure. When there are no standards, no one can say that anything is right or anything is wrong. This can be a dangerous way to live because when there is no absolute wrong, then anything can be justified. We have already begun to see things justified in this manner. It is now seen as compassionate to assist a suicide when a person is diagnosed with debilitating illnesses. If right and wrong are based on what the majority of a group agree upon then slavery would never have gone away. As society adjusts their views on issues, groups can be turned against one another.
I would like to say that our country was founded on Christianity and so the Bible is the standard by which our laws need to remain. The United States has always accepted immigrants from other nations with open arms but never before have they been actively encouraged to maintain their homeland identity instead of assimilating into society. Allow them to keep their history but understand when you move to a nation, the laws, culture, and norms of that society are expected when a person makes this choice. The United States had its own standards, culture, and morals. When others arrive to this country, they come with the understanding they are expected to assimilate into our society. They become Americans, not _______-Americans. If an American decided to move to another land, they would be expected to abide by the laws of that land.
I am not advocating forcing others to become Christians but to understand that our country was founded on these principals. When a nation is forced to have no standards as ours has been forced to do, then nothing good comes from this. Moral relativism is an oxymoron because it is impossible to exist in its fullest form. If there are no absolutes, then anything is possible. The problem with this way of thinking is that the only thing that is seen as absolutely wrong is to be intolerant of other behavior no matter how offensive it may be. This view does view intolerance as being absolutely wrong. The need to have an absolute standard that never changes is a must if a society is to survive long term.
In this day of no standards, the daily corruption stories on the news have become pandemic. There is hardly a day that goes by that people are not afraid for their futures when the media covers corruption in yet another corporate crime. Without standards, there is no measuring stick by which to gage failure. Without a tape measure to act as the standard measuring stick, homes would certainly not be very stable. Standards are very important and must exist for the survival of society as a whole. In our country, those standards were established more than 200 years ago when our founding fathers based their Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution on principals found in the Bible. The founding fathers have written many documents revealing their Christian faith as their standards. This influence of the Bible on our country’s development is evident when reading the Bible scriptures inscribed on many buildings in Washington D.C.
Allow people of differing views to live their lives in peace while they understand this country was founded on the principals spelled out in the Bible. Let us not allow a fear of offending someone cause us to discard our standards. I think that anyone that has been paying attention to our leaders in Washington can see an example of what happens when people discard standards.
How Different People Can Be
It is no secret that people have differences of opinions on virtually any topic. It should be no surprise that you are going to have people that want to legalize marijuana usage. I have heard many arguments on both sides of the argument. Those people wanting to legalize it usually post about how it can be used for medical purposes with a prescription. Others that I run across are just opposed to the restriction because they do not like the government imposing laws on individuals. After all any restriction is bad unless it is something that you oppose yourself. This evening I ran across a post on Friendfeed from a guy that is known for starting controversy. I purposely do not mention his name because it gives him unnecessary traffic when search engines pick up my post with his name.
This Friendfeed post was about legalizing marijuana and at the time of this post everyone of the comments attached to it were pro legalizing marijuana. Although I disagree with this opinion he has a right to say what he wants. What really surprised me was how one guy posts “I think the people who dismiss this as unimportant have no grasp of the scale and scope at which drug prohibition destroys lives.” This opinion just defies logic to me. How can a prohibition of drugs destroy people’s lives? There opinions are that the prohibition drives up the costs and drug lords use the money to buy weopons and make it dangerous. This is the typical liberal approach to things like this. Others think that you should legalize it and tax it. The problem with that is that people will go around the systems. Have they not been paying attention to the mp3 downloading of the last six or seven years? People opt for the cheap as in free if they can get it. If Marijuana is legal and taxed people would still rather grow their own and not pay any taxes. This notion that making Marijuana illegal is responsible for the violence in the drug trade are dismissing the fact that these countries are lawless already. When they make Marijuana legal the dealers will go to the next drug that is illegal. There is an attitude that people have that says that since someone is going to do something anyway then there should be no restrictions on them. Sort of like giving condoms to children because “they are going to do it anyway”. Why make drinking and driving illegal because “they are going to do it anyway”. Why have copyright laws because they are going to share it anyway? Why wash dishes because they are going to get dirty anyway?
It should be no surprise to me that people can be so opposite on some topics but I must admit that I am surprised. The assumption that all parents have common interests and will be in agreement on such important things as a runaway child is another thing that was a wake up call for me. Three years ago I had a 13 year old son run away on several occasions. On each occasion we found that other parents were hiding him in their homes. When confronted they would tell me they were told that I was abusing him. I would return with the statement that if they suspected that I was abusing my son, then they have an obligation to report me. It is illegal to hid a runaway from their parents but I was shocked to find that on every single occasion the parent would hid him from us.
We live in a lawless society now. People will disregard every law as though it does not exist. This is what makes me laugh when I hear people advocate new gun laws. If the criminal is willing to ignore the law that says you should not kill someone, what makes you think they will obey the law that says you cannot have a gun? This is a new day that we are living and if you have been alive for more than 40 years I am sure you have seen the change. The people that acuse religious people of being the ones that bring hate and intollerance need to wake up. We now live in a day where religion is virtual profanity . We are seeing all sorts of sexual crimes on the news every day. We are watching political crimes, corporate corruption, and a world that is spending more than they make. We now have school shootings and all sorts of crimes daily on the news. I guess the non religion crowd needs to see their way is not working. It is not going to work either. I am old enough to remember that we did not have cameras in school because we did not need them.
The reason people do not want to even consider the existence of God is because that would be the recognition of the ultimate law. If God is real then we are not at liberty to live totally free with no restrictions. If God is real then we have to recognize there is a concrete right and wrong. Again, I realize that people have differences of opinions but I still get surprised to the degree of differences. Somethings are so obvious to one person while to another person the opposite is true. This is what you get when you have nothing that is immovable, non negotiable to base right and wrong. When there is no religion there is confusion and wandering around. You have people that operate on consensus or the majority rules. This sounds like an innocent way to live until you put a few scenarios together. What happens when you have three people in a room where there is two men and one women and the two men vote to rape the woman? She must comply because the majority rules. What happens when the media hypotheticallyconvinces the majority that slavery is acceptable? The majority agrees that slavery is acceptable so it must be right. Who dares to go against the group? If there is no absolutes then who is to say.
Others think that anything is acceptable as long as it does not hurt anyone. Who determines what hurting is? What happens if the father decides that he wants to get into pornography? It seems that no one gets hurt in this innocent activity. Ask the wife if it hurts anyone. Pornography does hurt families and can result in families breaking up and the children actually do get hurt. This post is not an attempt to preach my rules on anyone but rather to explain my position. My position is that virtually every moral belief in our country has its roots in Christianity. If you take away the concrete, absolute values that are in the Bible, then who determines what is acceptable or not? There are those that would argue that religion has caused more wars and problems in the world than anything else. In these cases you will find that it was usually someone that was operating against the doctrines but claimed to be operating under the doctrine. An example of this would be the Ku Klux Klan. They boast Christianity though the Bible opposes their actions. It is easy to claim something even when you are not one of them.
You can agree with me or disagree but this is my feeling on matters. I may be not be right on everything but this is my opinion. Whether you agree or disagree with my opinions you must agree that it is amazing the degree to which people can disagree. I do not expect everyone to agree with my opinions but I have a hard time understanding how some fundamental things can be seen with complete opposite points of view. One group thinks slavery is acceptable while claiming Christianity while the very doctrine opposes it. I just thought I would share my thoughts on this.
American Exceptionalism
This morning, against my better judgment, I was listening to a program on National Public Radio (NPR) and they were discussing American Exceptionalism. They had a guest speaker discussing the dangers of viewing one’s self as being greater than others. This man was a British guest that I cannot remember his name. He pointed out that Americans have begun to see themselves as better than others. I was not surprised to have the guest point out this being a Republican policy dating back as far as Ronald Reagan and continuing through the current president George W. Bush. I would expect nothing less from this source being that NPR is a bastion of liberal apologetics. I do agree that announcing to the world that you are better than everyone else is not good policy. It is my opinion that Mr. Reagan’s proclamations to that effect, at the time, was not an attempt at being arrogant but rather an attempt to energize Americans to have confidence. Where I disagreed with him was his lack of acknowledgement that both political parties engage in this attitude. At least he did admit his sympathy to Democrat policies over the years. I did agree with his opinion that it is not a good idea to announce to the world that you are better than everyone else.
The current attitude of American supremacy in my opinion has gone too far. It really troubles me every time I hear someone on television or radio refers to our country as a “super power”. To me this statement just sounds arrogant to hear. I am not saying that I think it is wrong to denounce Communism as being wrong. In this case pointing out a murderous government that denies their people freedom is not boasting that you are the best around. In that case Ronald Reagan needed to address this because the Soviet Union was growing and conquering nations on a regular basis. I am very proud of many aspects of our country though we do have some things that are not to be proud of. Among them are the ways we have treated various racial groups in our own country. I do not think there is anything wrong with being proud of our country though I do think you can go too far. Just as it is inappropriate to scream obscenities at a sporting event it is just as inappropriate to announce to the world that we are the “only super power”. I am both a fiscal and social conservative and it bothers me every time I hear Rush Limbaugh exclaim this to the world. Sadly this guest on NPR was not completely wrong in this regard. The Republican Party that I have always clung to has become associated with this in recent days. Unfortunately the Democrat “ic” party is far worse in many other ways in my eyes. On many moral issues I cannot support the Democrats. It seems as though everything that I find that is wrong with the world is supported by that party. As bad as the Republican party has become, the alternative is even worse.
It would seem that everyone would instinctively know that public boasting is poor taste. This is just another example of a bigger problem that we have in this world and that is a lack of understanding of what is right and wrong. People base right and wrong on what the crowd thinks. If the crowd feels that something is right then most people will follow along. You may have heard this referred to as moral relativism. This is what happens when you take religion out of public life. The lack of having a fundamental standard in which to base morality has left an entire generation with no sense of right and wrong. Public boasting is wrong period. It is not acceptable in any circumstance. Not because it is some sort of political correctness but because God’s word (Bible) says so.
I Night of Little Sleep
Last night I had a bad case of insomnia and missed out on a lot of sleep. I could see this coming as we have been off work for five days. I knew that since I had go to work this morning that I would have a hard time getting to sleep. Unfortunately my lack of sleep was keeping my wife away and she did not get much sleep either. We managed to make it to work this morning but having no sleep made this a very long day.
I stumbled on a story online about a photographer that goes around taking pictures of homeless people and offers them $2.00 and then only if they ask for it. I do not like to pass judgement on someone so I am posting here to get the opinions of others. To me it just does not feel right to do this. I would think it would almost be better to take their picture and give them nothing than to do this. Am I wrong? It seems like a simple nice thing to do on one hand but my gut tells me that it is not a good thing even if the person agrees to it. This photographer does not just limit this practice to homeless people but offers this same offer to anyone for their picture. To me I would be concerned that someone is likely to request the entire wallet along with the money at some point. This photographer is very good at what he does but I just do not get a sense of moral peace with doing this type of behavior. Let me know what you think.
It’s Morality Stupid!
With all of the horror stories going on daily on the news about the stock market and companies going through hard times it brings back a discussion during the 1992 presidential campaign. During this time the famous words uttered by another morally bankrupt person Bill Clinton were flashed across newspapers across the country. Those words were “It’s the economy stupid”. This began the love affair the media had with this guy. We endured eight years of the most nauseating love affair America has ever seen. Bill Clinton’s face was on every newspaper, every news broadcast, every day. He could do no wrong in their eyes. This has been followed up with another eight years of the most vicious hate campaign by the media for George W. Bush the world has ever known. The media has hated this guy from the first day they heard of him.
The words of Bill Clinton are the words of ignorance. This was an attempt at humor to tell then president George H.W. Bush that the economy is where the focus should be. The media picked up on this and ran with it as they always do. The problem with focusing on the economy when you have unrepentant sinners doing the focusing is that right and wrong are often skewed. The economy was not the problem just as today. Today the stock market and the financial issues are not the problem but rather symptoms. The Bible says… 1 Timothy 6:10…
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
We are experiencing the symptoms of a greater problem and that problem is a lack of morals in America. I am defining morals as those specified in the Bible. After all this country was founded by Christians and has been blessed for more than two hundred years. Our attempt at removing God from the hearts and minds of America will continue to curse this country. The shameless unrepentant promotion of sin as a way of life in the media and government has caused an entire generation of Americans to spiral into a sinful way of life.
I have a lack of trust for either of the two presidential candidates because neither of them can be trusted. The Democrat”ic”candidate is about as left wing and immoral as they come. He claims Christianity while publicly putting down Jesus on national television. If he were the only candidate, I could not support him. On the other end of the spectrum we have John McCain. I cannot support this guy either as he has openly opposed conservative agendas in the past voting with the Democrats on numerous occasions. He is almost as liberal as Obama. Now that it is time to play the part, he is pretending to be conservative in an attempt to get conservatives to support him. It is amazing to me how many Republicans I hear supporting him in this voting for the lesser of the two evils strategy. We have become so polarized as a nation from Republican to Democrat that we have no room for anything else. What has resulted is having two parties that have the same moral standing while arguing over differing strategies.
If you want to know what is wrong with the economy you may want to do a root cause analysis and you will find that the economy is just a symptom of a greater problem and that is a lack of morals in America. I have decided that this will be the first presidential election in my adult life that I will not vote for either candidate. I may vote for the other offices but I will not vote for the lesser of the two evils.
I have always heard the phrase that you have no right to complain if you do not vote. I have always agreed with this philosophy until now. Once I began to think about the logic in that I began to disagree. There is no logic in this at all. If I passionately dislike both candidates and yet I vote for one of them then I do not have a right to complain. After all I was instrumental in putting them there so I am just as much to blame as anyone. So I am casting my vote by not voting for either of these candidates because I do not like either of them. Until they allow a person to vote none of the above then all that will be seen is that I supported one of them despite my very strong opposition to both of them.
Voting for the lesser of the two evils has resulted Republicans becoming more and more liberal with each successive election. They believe they have our votes already because we dislike the other candidate more. With them having this faith that we are going to vote for them regardless, they have no incentive to take a stand on our conservative issues. We have to start holding them accountable and not vote for them and let the other guy win just to show our guy that we mean business. We cannot allow our guy to believe that he or she has our vote just because they have an “R” next to their name. Think about it… If you knew without a shadow of a doubt that you will get 100% of the Republican vote even if you voted with the Democrats over and over again then you would not feel that you owed the Republicans anything.
After Ronald Reagan we have had a candidate to the political left of him George H.W. Bush, followed by another one slightly to the left of him George W. Bush. Now we have John McCain that is not conservative at all. He lives on the “war hero” mantra that everyone likes to promote. I am tired of not taking a stand for what is right and voting for someone just because they are not the other party. I am tired of voting for people that give us lip service when they are running for office and then do not follow through. It is not the economy that is the problem but the lack of morals that is the root cause. Our country has “greed” on our minds. Our country has anything but God on our minds. No country lasts forever and we will be no exception. We have turned our back on God and now we do not have his protective hand over us. I am not saying God is punishing us but rather that there are consequences for living a sinful life. Our hope should be in God instead of money.
Let’s not for get the words in Matthew 6:33…
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
The solution is not the economy but God.
Scary Trends
I understand the temptation for signing up for the newest toy that comes out. I have been paying attention to the computer industry for more than a decade. One thing that has consistently been the story is the hatred people in the computer industry have for Microsoft. Some of the stated reasons were because of their proprietary ways trying to control the market. This constant complaining about Microsoft is about their licensing methods and desire to maintain control. These complaints have been growing over the last ten years yet Microsoft has continued to have the greatest market share.
In the last two years I have seen a pattern shift and the roots seem to be around the San Francisco self appointed experts in the computer industry. They call themselves tech experts so they can increase their influence over phones, cameras, and other electronic devices. This shift to Apple products by these groups has been building the last couple of years. I have heard at least one of them admit that he has stock in Apple and Google. This is interesting since Apple is even more proprietary than Microsoft. Their products are consistently over priced for equally valued products from other companies. Apple is even worse than Microsoft in that they require you to use their hardware in addition to their software. I am not saying their products are substandard but rather they are way over priced. In fact, I almost bought an 80 GB iPod lately until I realized that a Microsoft 80 GB Zune was cheaper and it even had an FM radio tuner built in. Let’s face it Apple products are just too expensive. It is almost like a teenager drinking because his friends are drinking. Most people say beer is an acquired taste so that means they did not like it the first time. If you did not like it the first time, why did you try it a second time? It was that desire to do what your buddies are doing. I believe it is the same thing here with the Apple frenzy. Their products are so expensive but you acquire the taste anyway so you can do what your buddies are doing. I have a real problem with being a follower and those that are.
My observation is that the self appointed tech elites are all followers. There is a group of about 10 people in San Francisco, that I will not list, that join every social networking system that comes out and then adds everyone that will add them to their friends list. These individuals add 20,000+ people to their contacts list and then post about the newest toys that come out and pine over Apple products. Keep in mind the above comment about owning stock in the company. While they tend to have credibility because of their previous jobs being connected to the computer industry, they lose credibility with the admission that they are stock holders in these companies. People listen to them because a couple of them have been on technology related programs on satellite. Another one use to be a blogger at one of the larger computer software manufacturers.
With their background and their proximity to major computer, and Internet companies, they have taken on a celebrity status among computer enthusiasts including myself in the past. I see many fads based on people following those they see as celebrities. I know this because I have fallen for them myself. I love technology and have found myself adding these individuals to my list as well and following their advice with the group. It is almost like a cult following that has grown out of control. Before you tell your friends that I said it is a cult, you need to remember I said it is “like” a cult the way people just follow these people by the thousands.
It is very enticing to be a part of the group and feel as though you are part of something big and have inside information about the newest toy coming out before anyone else knows about it. It gives the impression that you are also an expert in your circles and people come to you as though you know everything there is to know about computers. I still have people come to me to ask my advice on computers and I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I love computers but I am not an expert. I guess one of the things that woke me up from this trance was the constant confrontation with those with views that conflict with my religious views. This should not surprise anyone because as much as California tends to be pretty liberal in their political slant, San Francisco has a reputation of being so far out there in their anti-morality views and they are very proud of them. One day I stumbled on a post from one of them telling about how intelligent people cannot believe in God. At first I engaged the argument and it kept coming up over and over again. I finally realized that I have no place in their circles. As painfully as it was, I removed them from my contact lists. There are many scriptures that tell about befriending non believers when they refuse to accept God’s ways. I have nothing against them but realized that continuing to be around those that are so confrontational with my religious views is not only bad for me but for them as well. I made a decision a few weeks ago to remove myself from the celebrity worship of those self appointed computer experts from San Francisco.
I canceled my Friendfeed account, Facebook, Myspace, Zooomr, as well as other accounts. If you really think about it, the main motivation for joining them is to join this celebrity worship group. I could have mentioned the San Francisco people that I am referring to but thought that would have been counterproductive to my cause. If you are one of them in the group that follows them, then you know who they are. Some of them are very pleasant to be around and very friendly. It does not help one’s testimony though when you are befriending those that are famous for their opposition to your religious beliefs.
The Apple/Google/Firefox/Linux worship that I have encountered can be traced back to this celebrity worship on all these social networking sites. You have thousands of people proud of themselves for their friendship with their perceived celebrity friend. They can walk around telling their friends that they are friends with ______. You will find that whatever _______ says, it is followed without question. This is not to say that Apple, Google, or Firefox have bad products but rather, their appeal is that _______ uses them. I have found many friends that will join AT&T and pay for their most expensive program just so they can own an Apple iPhone. These same people have a history of bashing AT&T for being in bed with “THE MAN”. They hate AT&T for cooperating with the Bush administration (their worst enemy). Nevertheless because Apple has an exclusive contract with AT&T, they will look the other way. I firmly believe this same celebrity worship is directly related to the demise of Yahoo, a pioneer on the Internet. They have been a victim of the endless and relentless condemnation of this group.
With the invention of these social networking web sites and social news pages that allow people to vote stories to the top and bury other stories they disagree with, we have witnessed a formidable force on the Internet. Microsoft has reason to fear them because I have seen them work. There are a couple of these social news pages that post about a story and then vote it to the top. This produces so much traffic to third party web sites that their servers cannot keep up with the demand essentially bringing it down for hours. This gives the effect of a denial of service (DOS) attack. I have heard those that use these social new pages brag about this power and have given a name to it. I will not reveal the name because it will reveal the name of these sites that I am talking about. I do not reveal these sites because I do not want to make myself liable for my opinion of them. This practice is real because I have been a part of it for several years. As a ham radio operator, I have always enjoyed programs that allow you to communicate with each other making myself a vulnerable target for these types of pages.
I often wonder how long this will go on. I will venture to say it will get worse. While this is not some moral debate, I do believe we are living in a generation that has rejected God and his standards. Whenever there are no standards, there is anarchy. People are desiring to have meaning and cling to these groups to have worth. I have heard people brag about how many contacts they have even though they admit they do not know most of them. We are living in an age where people have no idea what is right or wrong and base their beliefs in what the crowd believes. This moral relativism is a dangerous way to live because the media has a lot of power to convince the crowd. Remember, it was not that long ago that the American majority thought it was acceptable to have black slaves. Without a standard that never changes, we have no standards at all. Who will be the next victims?
Do I Want A Team This Way?
Call me naive, or just plain old fashion but I am tired of accepting dishonesty as an acceptable means for getting what you want. This evening I was reading a post on the OKCTalk website about the Howard Shultz’s lawsuit against the owners of the Seattle Supersonics. I began to see a trend of postings of fellow citizens of Oklahoma City stating that they did not care if the owners lied as long as they succeeded in getting a team here. This really bothered me because I really do not agree with this notion that lying to get what you want is acceptable practice. I finally had to speak up to point this out and was met with repeated defense of this activity for getting a team although they would not condone it for other purposes. I never claimed anyone lied but rather pointed out that condoning lying publicly is not good policy.
As I have posted many times, on this blog I really hope to get an NBA team here in Oklahoma City. I want to have a team because I want my hometown to get its name out nationally. Secondly it will give a perceived improved quality of life for those considering a move here. I am not saying the owners of the team lied or did not lie. I was simply posting that it disturbs me that we are so determined to be seen as a “big league” city that we are willing to not only lie but defend lying as a means of getting what we want. I was further chastised for being naive and that lying in business is common place.
I think these guys were missing the point. There is an issue of integrity at stake here and announcing to the world that lying is “okay” is a big statement that integrity does not matter. It is my contention that if a person cannot tell the truth, then they cannot be trusted. If a person cannot be trusted, then it does not matter what they say because they cannot be believed. This notion that ethics should not play a role in business is rediculous. These are the same people that wanted the heads of the Enron leadership on a platter.
We are all human and make mistakes. I am not faulting them for this but to announce to the world that “I don’t care if they lie as long as we get a team” speaks volumes about one’s values. I am not sure that I want my city associated with that and if getting a team means that I have to sell my soul then I do not want it. Let me clarify something about my beliefs. I believe right and wrong is based on God’s word. If God says that it is right, then it is right and if He says that it is wrong, then it is wrong. Lying is wrong period. Have I ever lied? Of course I have but that does not mean that I should not try to live right.
I will not accept that sin is acceptable because “everyone else is doing it”. Having numbers on your side is irrelevant to morality. One guy said on this board that he did not care if the owners “lied, cheated, or stole” as long as he got the team here. He said anything short of drinking babies blood was fine with him. Here is his exact quote…
“You know I would normally agree with you, but playing nice will not get us a pro team and I personally don’t care how they get it here minus drinking baby’s blood.”
Again, maybe I am naive but I do not want a team at the expense of selling out my morals.
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Tags: OklahomaCity, Seattle, SuperSonics, Clay Bennett, OKCTalk, lies, ethics, morality, God, Howard Shultz
Stand for Something
Often I find myself getting upset about comments made by some people that I really respect in the technology world, specifically in computers. An example is a technology personality that I have on my Twitter list made the comment last night that Myspace deleted a large atheist group for no “apparent” reason other than their non belief. Notice the natural instinctive assumption that religious people do not believe in free speech. Hardly anyone in their right mind would call the owners of Myspace religious but nevertheless the implication is made. I noticed that he used the word apparent implying that he does not know this for sure but made the assumption that it is true. I often have to remind myself these individuals are from San Francisco, the liberal left wing capital of the world. They make snide remarks about Christians and conservatives in general. At times I wonder what drives these people to be at such polar opposites to me and my belief system. What is it that makes them believe the way they do. I know what makes me believe the way I do and that is the Bible. I may have some incorrect interpretations on occasion but my core values are based on a fundamental belief in the Bible being the infallible word of God. In my world, if God says it is right or implies a principle, then I believe that it is right. If God is against it, or a principle has been made that something is wrong, then I believe that it is wrong and it is that simple.
I see a practice in the technology field that has bothered me for a long time. Most of these individuals are from the San Francisco bay area and most of them agree with what ever the other one says. If one says that Firefox is the best browser, they all fall in line. If one says that a Macintosh computer is the best, you get the same response and they all buy one despite the fact that they are so much more expensive than a PC. The biggest one that really gets me is the almost cultist following of anything Google does. They are not a bad company but if you are honest with yourself they are not that spectacular. Almost 100% of them are liberal in their belief and promote homosexuality and other depraved behaviors while making quiet jokes about it off the record. I am speaking of a specific This Week in Tech (TWiT) episode where they were discussing homosexuality and how there was nothing wrong with it though they were laughing hysterically and making jokes. The truth is, they know it is disgusting and depraved but their peer groups all follow the talking points.
The point that I am making in this is that it is a values thing and I cannot tell what another person’s values are, but I can only speculate based on what I experience. I see a group that follows what the other group says, though making jokes about them. I see a group that has no values at all. I see a group that goes with the wind and has no core values and that is a dangerous way to live. These same individuals make remarks about those who differ in opinion as though we are uneducated and unenlightened. I am guilty of the same thing to a degree when referring to liberals. Instead of bashing them, I wanted to try to understand them. So far, I can only derive that most people are followers and just follow the line of what their cohorts tell them. Without a core belief system, your beliefs are usually determined by your peer group. This is why I think it is so important to have core values that are unshakable and non negotiable. There was an old country song by Aaron Tippin that says “You’ve got to stand for something or you’ll fall for anything.”
The Bible said in Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” It also says in James 1:8 “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” They can call us crazy religious nuts all they want but you do not hear us telling the world that sex between two people of the same gender is normal. That instinctively gives a normal person the creeps without even bringing a persons religious belief into the conversation. Do not let the world convince you that unnatural things are okay. I stand on the Word of God without shame. I would suggest you not follow the crowd because the crowd is so easily swayed with what ever sick thing the media tells them. You can agree or disagree but that is what I believe.
Technorati Tags: Bible,Jesus,Core Values,technology,tech,right and wrong,opinion
God is Good
I just wanted to say that God continues to bless us more than we can take. As many of you know, there have been many issues going on with my work and some of the unethical actions of my former supervisor. During this time, I requested a transfer back to my old shop and even gave up my work leader position to go back. Well now I am back and I was prepared to go back and work like normal employees and my boss just put me on a project full time that I just love doing. I did not ask for it and was happy just to be back. It is amazing how God opens doors when you do not even know they are there. I cannot give him enough credit for this and the hundreds of other blessings that He has given to me and my family. I just wanted to express my thankfulness publicly.