Thank you, lady at the post office,

You stood behind me in line watching slow moving, uncaring government employees for an hour. As if that wasn't enough, you incessantly tapped your fingernails on the counter, sale displays and boxes for the duration of the wait.

Thank you for reminding me that the situation can always be made worse.

Around the world people are afraid of the spiritual world, and try to manipulate the spiritual beings to get what they want. A few examples?

Shamans (witch doctors) operate with the goal of manipulating spirits for healing powers.

There's a Hindu sacrifice of 250,000 animals happening now in Nepal. The explanation? "If we want anything, and we come here with an offering to the goddess, within five years all our dreams will be fulfilled." (source)

This is something you might run into in various cultures around the world. But surely we wouldn't have a similar view of God, that he would be so easily manipulated like a genie who has to grant it's master wishes. God has no master, we'd never think in the same way.

However, the same attitude toward spirituality is plentiful in the church. As soon as we believe God is formulaic, we're doing the same thing - believing that we can manipulate the spirits - or in our case, The Spirit.

Have you ever heard something like "if you do these 6 things God will give you these 7 benefits"?

We say Christianity is supposed to be about a relationship, but we often live out the idea that God is ours to be manipulated by formulas. Look for this idea next time you're hearing spiritual teaching - are you being taught that you can and should manipulate the spiritual world?

I just received an email from my Senator, Michael Bennet about how wonderful he is for voting for the health care overhaul bill. Here is my response I've sent to him.

Dear Michael Bennet (or the staff that will read this letter if he has decided to delegate his responsibility of hearing from his electorate.)

Everyone wants healthcare reform. I haven't heard anyone say that the health care system is ideal. Whether it's the best in the world or not, it can be better - lots better.

However, rushing a bill through as fast as possible that doesn't even take effect until after Obama runs for re-election is a mere political move. Why not take a year to explore the options, and still have it start in 2014? When they've already decided to wait 5 years to implement the plan, why do we only have weeks to pass the bill?

In addition to the rush, it is also concerning the size of the bill. Will you read the bill? 2,000+ pages are not required to regulate insurance policy's pre-existing conditions clauses, or to expand the existing government insurance monoliths (medicare, medicaid, etc.). You must agree that the bulk of the bill is unnecessary, and if they were just trying to resolve these problems it would be an easy bill to pass.

The health care in the United States is wonderful. Every day news stories break about people from other countries coming to doctors in the U.S. and receiving better treatment. Thus the goal isn't about trying to get better health care - the only change would be to make it worse. We have the best doctors with the best technology in the world. The only change here would be to make it worse.

The goals must then be to 1) cover more people and 2) drive down costs. Government solutions have never worked. We already have government-run insurance monoliths in medicare and medicaid. Yet millions of people who qualify for these programs don't sign up, go to the ER for problems, and are lumped in with the "millions of uninsured" statistics. Government insurance also underpays doctors, and denies more services than private insurers. Further, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has run the numbers and is saying that the government run program will have a higher cost to the patient than a comparable private insurance run plan.

While government health insurance programs have not helped in the areas we're seeking to reform, free-market solutions have been proven to do just this. See Safeway's plan that has kept the same premiums for the last several years while the average premium increased 40%. (It's a group plan, so they legally have to accept pre-existing conditions, so that's great too.) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124476804026308603.html

Just because we Coloradans want health care reform, that does not give you license to do whatever you want as long as you say it's "health care reform." The changes in this bill are harmful, not helpful, and I will, for the first time, really become active in the next election based on your vote.

I will rally whoever I can to support you if you take a stand against this abuse of power, or I will work to hold you accountable by working against your upcoming re-election less than 1 year from now if you vote for this and in so doing, abandon your responsibility as our representative and choose party politics over your duty as our elected official.

5 workouts each week for weeks 6 and 7.

I've got my new scale that measures BMI - and my BMI is lower than is shown on the BMI height/weight charts. I weigh the same that I did two weeks ago from today, but my BMI has been declining.

My goal is to live the healthiest and longest I can as far as it is up to me, which apparently means being on the borderline between "normal" and "overweight" BMI.

With the Body For Life (BFL) workout, instead of just losing fat weight, it seems that I'm gaining the same amount of weight in muscle. BFL is a 12 week workout program, and my goal is to get to that borderline BMI. I've now completed 4 weeks, and if I keep up on the same pace, I'll surpass that goal and need to pick a new one!

• 49 days
• 40 trips to the gym
• Avg cost per visit: $7.50 ($300 for 2 year membership divided by visits so far. My goal is to get it well below $1/visit)
  

6 workouts again last week, lost 3.5 pounds mid-week, gained some back by the end of the week.

I found a deal on a new scale that does body mass index, which I hope will make it easier and more accurate to track progress.

Last week I doubled up on Body-For-Life workouts, this week I scaled back to just stick to the plan. It's much easier to find time to go the the gym when duration alternates between 20 and 50 minutes.

• 35 days
• 30 trips to the gym
• Avg cost per visit: $10 ($300 for 2 year membership divided by visits so far)
  

I previously wrote that the Democrats are "unable to recognize that others would think differently" than they do, so they follow the advice: "Assume and accuse your opponent of doing what you do. "

I also wrote that "A Democrat strategist saying that individuals expressing concern and demanding answers and entire crowds in an uproar at Senators' townhall meetings regarding health care is a nationally organized effort."

The majority of Americans who disagree with the Obama/Pelosi plan aren't an orchestrated effort from Washington, we're Americans speaking out for liberty. But Obama, to prove my point is starting a nationally organized effort to try to get some "grassroots" efforts started that agree with him.

So when people disagree with Obama, they must be part of a nationally organized effort, which invalidates it. But when Obama has to start a nationally organized effort to get people to agree with him, that's "grass roots."

Amazing.

• AARP loses members
  AARP lost 60,000 members due to their support of the Obama/Pelosi healthcare plan.
  
  
• Snitch email closed
  The White House snitch line email address, flag@whitehouse.gov, was asking for people's personal information if they disagreed with Obama to maintain an "enemies list." (It's illegal for the White House to do this, and also illegal for them to delete a single email, so that's what they were doing). The email has been shut down.
  
  
• Government-driven death counsel removed
  The House Bill to lower health care costs included paying doctors (which of course would cost more) to talk to patients about different "end of life" options - which in order to be in this bill has to save money, so it would be promoting the cheapest way for someone to die. Protests, including Sarah Palin's resulted in the Democrats saying they'll remove that provision.
  
  
• Public option may go
  In a complete turn-around, Obama and his spokespeople are saying that government-run insurance program that was intended to bring about single-payer health care is negotiable. The problem, of course, with giving the payer (insurance) power over regulations, is that they'll make regulations for what saves them the most money as the payer.

We don't know what will happen. Perhaps as some have predicted, the Democrats will work harder to spread fear to get people onboard this fall with the swine flu scare or some other scare. Perhaps the replacement for the public option will be nearly identical just under another name.

But one thing is to be learned: Whether the Democrat leaders are going to be more responsive or more deceptive, they're now reacting to what the people are saying. We need to keep talking.

There's a lot more that's problematic in the Obama/Pelosi plan, including fining people who don't have presidential-appointee-approved insurance (and it leaves that completely open, so the presidential appointee could say no private insurance is approved, or your plan is only approved if it pays for abortion, or only if it doesn't pay for abortion), reducing payments to hospitals who re-admit a patient (if the cost of re-admitting you won't get paid, your chances of receiving health care go down).

If you haven't called and written to your Representatives and Senators, please do. If you have, do it again. I plan on calling again today.

Conservatives now outnumber liberals in all 50 states - you are not alone, and if we speak, they will hear our voices. We don't know how they'll react, but the power-grab their after is lessened when they realize their constituents are displeased as we approach future elections.

6 days again last week, and I switched to the Body for Life workout plan, plus an additional BFL cardio workout every day.

It looks like this:

• M: Upper Body Weights + 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio
• T: 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio plus another 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio
• W: Lower Body Weights + 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio
• R: 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio plus another 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio
• F: Upper Body Weights + Ab weights (usually lower body, but the upper body weights take more time, so I didn't want to stay at the gym long enough to do a full 20 minute cardio workout so I just added Abs instead)
  
• S: 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio plus another 20 minute BFL exhaustive cardio

I'm going to weigh myself once a week now, but in the last week of watching what I eat and doing the BFL+BLF Cardio workouts, haven't lost any weight.

28 days

• 24 days at the gym
• Avg cost per visit: $12.50 ($300 for 2 year membership divided by visits so far)
  

I was stopped by a few Greenpeace volunteers downtown yesterday.

Greenpeace: "Hey man, are you interested in protecting and saving our environment?"

Me: "Well, I would sound like an awful person if I say 'no,' wouldn't I?"

Greenpeace: "Hey, we should talk"

Me: "I don't think so"

Microsof teamed up with reverbnation.com to offer thousands of mp3s for free. The only catch is that the cover art that is built into the file has a microsoft ad.

Now these microsoft ads will be built into your music library forever, unless you want to go through one by one and replace them.

Microsoft ads showing up on your computer, iPod, mp3 player - forever, unless you change the album art.

I hope someone latches onto this idea and it becomes a new way to offer advertiser-paid free or cheaper mp3 downloads.

Yesterday I wrote about how Nancy Peliso and her statist allies (those who believe the government is more important than the liberty of the people, and that the state is the solution to every problem) share a quality with Sauron: the assumption that everyone thinks the way you do.

I wrote about how Pelosi accused people who disagree with her on health care of carrying swastikas and similar symbols - either calling liberty-loving Americans Nazis or saying it's a common tactic they use in protesting - but it's the San Fransisco protesters, the people who voted Pelosi into office - who use Nazi symbols, not conservatives.

Pelosi has also stated that people who disagree with her are afraid of the facts and drowning out the conversation.

Again, this is Pelosi assuming that others will do the same things she does, think the same way she, Obama, and the other Statists behind the bill think.

1. Obama says he wants his opponents to stop talking. He's the one who wants their conversation drowned out.
   

   "But I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don't mind cleaning up after them, but don't do a lot of talking."
   

2. The White House has (illegally), requested that you report your friends if they are expressing disagreement with the Obama/Pelosi state run health care plan. Compiling an enemies list (it will be compiled, because it's illegal for the White House to delete email correspondence) is a scare tactic to shut down the opposing voices of the American public.
   
3. Obama spoke about why everyone should fall in line with his plan, giving a number of guarantees, then admitting he hadn't read the bill, and didn't know what it said.
4. Pelosi has been misrepresenting the bill and lying about the Americans who disagree with her.
   

The people who disagree with health care, are asking substantive questions about the facts of the bill. Obama, Pelosi, and the others driving the effort for State controlled health care are misrepresenting the facts and are doing whatever they can to silence the voices of the American voters.

Like Sauron, they are unable to see past their own desire for power, assuming that everyone else thinks like them.

We need to throw the ring into mount doom by standing up against what they're doing and voting in better representatives.

I managed to go 6 days again this week, and stretched to longer and longer cardio workouts.

I'm now switching from just cardio to a modified Body For Life workout. I did Body For Life before which was good, but I stopped because life got busier and my gym membership wasn't 24/7 so I couldn't go late.

I'm more confident now that I can do a modified BFL 6 days/week because I've been going that often for 3 weeks in a row.

• 21 days
• 18 days at the gym
• Avg cost per visit: $16.67 ($300 for 2 year membership divided by visits so far)
  

I'm most of the way through reading The Lord of the Rings to my 2 year old as a bed time story. The good guys are able to unite and trick Sauron because he is so evil, he cannot understand why the good guys would have a different motivation and strategy than he does. He assumes that they too are operating out of the desire for ultimate power. For one so old, brilliant, and powerful, he was blinded by himself, unable to recognize that others would think differently.

This is a pattern in leftist/statist politics. Assume and accuse your opponent of doing what you do. This was the case recently when Nancy Pelosi accused people who disagree with her position on health care of promoting swastikas, misrepresenting the health care bill, and stopping a civil dialogue.

To agree with Pelosi is to say that anyone who disagrees with her specific brand of state-controlled health care is a Nazi, uncivilized and un-American.

Dissenters are Nazis

What Pelosi says:	Reality:
"They're carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care."	Pelosi's supporters use swastikas, so she assumes everyone must.

Here's some pictures from protesters in Pelosi's district - yup, the people who voted her into office. [source]

October 26, 2002 and February 16, 2003:

September 24, 2005

I recently started a 2 year membership at 24 hour fitness that I purchased at Costco for $300.

I managed to go 6 days again this week, though several times I went after midnight, and got home as late as 2am (killer!).

I've been doing a different cardio exercise every day. Ellipticals are fairly efficient. The hour on the rowing machine and another on the stationary bike were killer.

• 14 days
• 12 days at the gym
• Avg cost per visit: $25 ($300 for 2 year membership divided by visits so far)
  

Thrice in 3 days I've seen news stories on CNN while at the gym that have a common theme: The Obama administration is acting like a cheap hypnotist, telling you not to believe your ears, eyes, or experience. Only believe what they tell you to believe.

1. An Obama economic expert saying the economy is improving, but the jobless rate will continue to go up, and consumers won't see the signs of recovery, so consumer spending will stay down. Even though everything consumers see says the economy is getting worse, it's really getting better.

2. A Democrat strategist saying that individuals expressing concern and demanding answers and entire crowds in an uproar at Senators' townhall meetings regarding health care is a nationally organized effort. Even though the health care bill is a national mandate coming out of Washington, it's the concerned citizens who are the national machine that's against the citizens.

[Video of town hall objection to government healthcare:]

[Another video of town hall objection to government healthcare:]


3. Obama's ABC correspondent-turned-White House Official saying that the videos circulating the Internet of Obama saying he wants single-payer health care are an effort to mislead the public. Even though this is video of Obama himself, that's not what he thinks - even though that's what Obama says, that's not what he says.

(Here's the video of Obama:)


Reminds me of Kenny the hypnotist from Little Britain [video].

Paul tells us that "The authorities that exist have been established by God." (Romans 13:1).

Peter writes:

Submit yourselves for the Lord's sake to every authority instituted among men: whether to the king, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God's will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God. Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king. (1 Peter..)

Titus adds:

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

This is a conflict between American culture and Christianity. As Americans we vote and have total freedom of speech. From the beginning of our country as documented in the Federalist Papers and other sources, we Americans have been excessively critical and harsh to those who are in office.

Now an image of President Obama with his face cut open, desecrated and painted white like the "The Joker" from the latest Batman movie is circulating the net and I've begun to see it as Christians' Facebook profile images.

This is certainly a legal expression of free speech, but this sort of thing doesn't at all match up with "to slander no one," being "considerate," "true humility," showing "proper respect," "honor the king," and will certainly not "silence the ignorant talk of foolish men."

It's being a good American.

It's just not being a good Christian.

1. On what basis do you believe the government will improve the medical care American receive?
   
   
2. What specific parts of the bill do you like?
   

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has declared of the health insurance companies: "They are the villains." They're bad, they're evil, they need to be punished.

This makes sense when you see the world through this way:

People should be punished not for breaking the law, but for disagreeing with me.

The new health care plan penalizes companies with an 8% payroll tax if they choose private insurance, and individuals with a 2.5% income tax if they don't have a government-approved plan.

But the idea isn't new. We have punitive taxes on things like cigarettes that are totally legal - if you want smoking to stop, outlaw it, and punish crimes.

Meanwhile, we don't punish people who break laws. Illegal immigration is just one example.

How does one justify this self-righteous idea of using the government to attack law-abiding citizens merely because they disagree with you?

It is the law that every hospital has to give the same treatment to anyone who comes in the ER, regardless of their ability to pay. It is the law that every doctor's office must treat someone if they come in needing treatment.

There's no problem with American health care. There are problems with payment for care, a totally separate issue.

Problems:

• Government programs (like medicaid) are horrible - doctors offices hate accepting Medicaid patients. The government payments for services are so low, other patients must be charged more so medical facilities can stay open.
• Some patients refuse to pay their bills.
• Insurance premiums are increasing every year.

Another government program is not the solution to any of these problems.

Given the facts, a complete overhaul of the healthcare system to put Washington politicians in control of every aspect of your health care is just obscene. It's merely a unconstitutional (10th ammendment) power-grab and an attack on our liberty.

The new government run health insurance plan:

Taxes (on junk food)
Taxes (on employer paid health insurance)
Taxes (on insurance plans better than what the government offers)

Families who pay for private schools still pay the same taxes as everyone else for public schooling.

With the new Obama/Pelosi Government run health insurance, if you buy your own health insurance, you pay more taxes to support their plan that people who don't buy their own.

I bought a 2 year membership at 24 Hour Fitness at Costco for $300, which is about $12.50/month, much cheaper than even the local rec center. The membership starts whenever you turn in the purchased pass.

I stared on Monday and committed to myself to go every day for as long as I could, one day each weekend off for a day of rest.

I'm not going to weigh myself for a while - I'd rather base things off of how I look and feel and feel about how I look. We'll see how long I can go without stepping on the scale, working out every day.

This Week: 7 days, 6 workouts

The words of the song, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," always make me think of heaven:

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There's a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Someday I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why then, oh why can't I?

Here's one rendition of it mixed with "It's a Wonderful World":



(If you don't see the music player, view the original post.)

Google Ad displayed next to my gmail just now. (No, there was no Hebrew in my email.)

If you pay for unlimited Internet with T-Mobile, chances are you get unlimited free WiFi at Starbucks on your phone or even your laptop!

1. Go to http://hotspot.t-mobile.com
2. Log in with your phone number that has the data plan and the last 4 of the primary account holder's social as the password.
3. Set up your new password and anything else you're prompted to

At starbucks, connect to the at&t wifi and open your browser.

1. At the login page, select "Connect to Internet"
2. Click third party
3. Choose T-Mobile
4. sign in with your phone number and password you chose above.

Done!

A number friends are have or are expecting babies this year - if that's you, you'll find this helpful - it will save you lots of money!

I was buying a peapod* because our pack-and-play broke when I came across diapers.com. It's a great place for diapers, but also for baby and kid supplies in general.

I just bought a box of pampers that works out to $0.13 per diaper! Thirteen cents!

• The prices are the same as or less than Babies R Us, and shipping is free.
• You can use manufacturer's coupons for diapers! (You mail them your diaper coupons, and they'll add them to your account)
• There's lots of coupons here.
• If you put in my referral code: JGRE1366 , you get $10 off your first order, and I get $1 off my next order :) Then you get a referral code you can give out to your friends.
  
• If you go to this link to get there, through bing.com, you'll get 3-10% cashback, on top of the coupons and low prices!
  

Oh, and a peapod is basically a tent for a baby or little kid with a little inflating mattress inside. It folds up to be very small and light, not as bulky as a pack-n-play. I couldn't find it anywhere locally, so I've bought it online after reading a ton of reviews - all very positive. Here's what it is:

The following appeared in an article in the Washington Post today about an official apology for slavery from the US Government:

This recent willingness to deal with the nation's difficult racial history has come about in part because of President Obama's election... "The Republican Party needed to do it... It would have shed that racist scab on the party."

The Republican party was founded as the anti-slavery party, in opposition to the pro-slavery Democratic party.

The Republican party came to power with their first presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, who presided over the civil war, believing that slavery was not acceptable.

The Republicans don't need to apologize for slavery - they were the party that overturned it.

The claims that the Republican party has a racist past is merely deceptive political propaganda from the party that was the pro-slavery.

Whether Obama's skill or just that of a speech writer, his prepared words have the skillful effect of feeling right to everyone. Individuals with vastly different views on a topic will both walk away thinking that Obama has just agreed with them.

What is the content when the verbal skill is saying two things at once?

"The danger I think is when the United States or any country thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture...

Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion -- those are not simply principles of the West to be hoisted on these countries, but rather what I believe to be universal principles that they can embrace and affirm as part of their national identity...

Because part of what we want to affirm to the world is that these are values that are important even when it's hard, even especially when it's hard, and not just when it's easy."

Questions I'd love to have your comments on:

1. I'm having a hard time finding a transcript of the whole speech, but from what we know... what did he actually say?

1. It's wrong for America to try to spread it's values
2. It's right for America to try to spread it's values
3. It's wrong for America to impose values except for the ones I think should be spread

2. Who disagrees with him? Bush the hated was only attempting to spread the values that Obama just said should be spread.

Here's the story

An abortion doctor was shot and killed in a Lutheran church service today.

The doctor was one of the few doctors who would abort babies who were far enough along in pregnancy that many would have survived if born at the point of the doctor-enforced death - essentially infanticide.

I'm as shamed of our culture for this barbaric act that is paraded as some advance in culture (though it was a barbaric practice throughout the ages and is in contradiction to science), but God reserves the rights to bring vengeance.

Anyone who takes a human life has taken something so valuable, they've forfeited their own. There is judgment awaiting those who are responsible for the deaths of the innocent, whether through manipulation of legal systems or taking the lives of the innocent and helpless young.

This is a mark of cultural shame and disgrace.

But vengeance is God's.

Attempting to take God's role, whether deciding how long innocents' lives last, or deciding how long the guilty live - both are attempting to take God's role - it is He who decides who lives and dies*. Lucifer started the trend of wanting to take God's place, and both the abortionists and the man who shot this guy are guilty of the same sin.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090531/ap_on_re_us/us_tiller_shooting

*After the flood, God did enforce the death penalty, and while it's a much longer and different discussion, God doesn't seem to be in favor of anarchy and protecting the accused through trials requiring multiple witness' testimonies, etc.

We're trying to organize all of our digital photos, going back several years. It's a real pain, trying to figure out how to organize - do we catalog by date, location, event, people in the picture?

Windows Live Photo Gallery, now available for XP and Vista for free, allows you to tag people just like you do on Facebook (but with more flexibility that Facebook, because you decide the size of the square around the person in the photo), and also allows for a caption and miscellaneous tags. Take the picture below, for example, (click to see full size).

With this photo I have:

• tagged several people (names blurred for privacy),
  
• added descriptive tags "180" and "Poland" because it's a trip that the group 180 took to Poland. You'll
• added a caption
• edited the author

The best part of this is that Windows saves this information right into the file. If keep a backup, the information is saved. If I email it to you, you get the tags I've added.

I can now

• search in Windows Gallery for "Dan Alice Poland" to see all pictures where there's a Dan and an Alice in a photo tagged with "Poland"
• upload to Facebook, including all people tags, which will be linked to their Facebook profile if they're my friend on Facebook
• upload to Picasa, including all people tags
• upload to Flickr and other places too.
  

Using Windows, you can find your photos by date, person, description tag, folder, or by searching.

Finally, a decent way of organizing our photos!

(If you're interested, it can even sync your photos between computers, via your hotmail/msn account, so if you edit a photo or add tags, it can make the changes to copies on other computers that you have.)

I pulled out of a parking spot today after I was waved on by a guy on a motorcycle. I was waiting for him to go until he waved me on.

Then, the entire time I was backing up he, shook his head and gave me a nasty look.

Don't shake your head at someone when they're only doing what you suggested - then you're just shaking your head at your own suggestion, and what does that say about yourself?

A quick tip from weeding the garden:

If a plant looks like it could thrive in Mordor - if it looks like it's evil, it's a weed.

There was a recent article in the Denver Post, "Budget will cut a wide swath: Making Do With Less"

At first I was impressed with the idea that the government would me making do with less, but the article goes on to state that it means that Coloradans will have to make due with less, because taxes are going to go up to pay for a non-balanced budget.

Yay.

“With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name – liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names – liberty and tyranny.” – Abraham Lincoln, 1864.

Levin's premise: conservatives agree with Lincoln's definition of liberty - valuing the individual as primary, necessitating the duty of every person to respect the liberty of others. Meanwhile, strict limitations should be put on the power of the federal government – for this definition of liberty the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the founding fathers, and conservatives agree.

He contrasts this with the “Statist^[1]” perspective that believes in the “supremacy of the state.” Individual value and rights are devalued because they impede the goals of the authoritarian state. Thus, the Statist is in fundamental disagreement with the Declaration, the Constitution, and the founders.

The Statist agenda finds resistance, so the pursuit toward a totalitarian state must be taken in small steps of increased government power and individual dependency on the federal government.

There were real limits on the federal government's role and the separation of powers, until FDR and the lopsidedly partisan congress began to reverse that. The courts became stacked with judges who would allow any new government program regardless of constitutionality, and the powers of the federal government grew, and continue to grow to the detriment of personal rights and liberty.

Questions for discussion:

1. Do you agree that the ideal of a central government is to protect and increase individual liberty?
2. Does personal liberty necessarily decrease as centralized government power increases?
3. Obama’s administration is dramatically increasing government power and reducing personal liberty. Is this happening to fast? Will this meet too much resistance, or has the resistance worn down too much to have any effect?
4. If our federal government scaled way back, and our federal laws were about protecting individual liberty, would you be willing to give up your sacred cows? If the following do not violate any individual’s liberty, are you/we willing to remove and deny federal legislation on:
   • Executive salary?
   • The definition of marriage?
   • Education?
     

[1] – Levin uses “statist” rather than “liberal” because the classic meaning of “liberal” was an opposition to the authoritarian state, but non-conservatives are in fact pushing for an increasingly authoritarian state.

If you're reading this on Facebook or somewhere else, please comment on the original blog post instead. Thanks!

It was sold out at Amazon.com as well as the local Borders and Barnes and Noble. I just received my copy in the mail. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin.

Apparently this is the fastest selling book in Amazon.com's history so far.

I'll be typing up some thoughts as I read the book and would love to have some discussion about it.

"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty." - Thomas Jefferson

Our Garage has been in a messy phase for a few years.

This week I decided to work on one quarter of the garage (the floor is 4 concrete slabs, so cleaning this way is easy. I've thrown out so much trash, organized a lot, and am getting ready to tear out some old poorly build shelves so I can insulate and drywall the back wall of the garage and reclaim lots of square footage.

It's amazing what can be done in small steps. Whether it's fixing-up my garage or socializing the nation.

1. Choose an industry you want the government to control. Let's start with banking:
   
2. Make people afraid.
3. Convince people to live in terror.
   

   "Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse." - Obama, as he wrote in an editorial 2/5/09.
   

4. Force a private company to look like a villain for following the law. In this case, give taxpayer money to a company that is required by legal contracts to use it for bonuses.
   

   Yes, when you sign a contract, you are breaking the law if you don't follow it's terms. AIG had a contract with the employees that they get bonuses.
   

5. Turn that fear into anger - at this company, even though you gave them the money to do what they did, with no restrictions.
   

   "I don't want to quell anger. People are right to be angry. I'm angry. What I want us to do is channel our anger in a constructive way." - Obama at the White House.

6. Leverage that anger to insult, attack, and take control of those companies who haven't even broken a single law.
   

   The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.
   

7. Pick another industry, say, healthcare, and repeat.

Definitions of the day from dictionary.com:

ter⋅ror⋅ist –noun

1.	a person, usually a member of a group, who uses or advocates terrorism.

2.	a person who terrorizes or frightens others.

ter⋅ror⋅ism–noun
the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization. a terroristic method of governing or of resisting a government.


ter⋅ror⋅ize–verb (used with object), -ized, -iz⋅ing.

1.	to fill or overcome with terror.

2.	to dominate or coerce by intimidation.

Get it now - it's free and fast!

In the news this week:

• Medvedev announces plan to rearm Russia
• Obama prepares to cut weapons and defense spending
  

Respect should be a two-way street. That's just a sign of being a grown-up. When respect is a one-way street, it's easy to see which person is the grown-up.

Bush explained his silence about Obama - he will not criticize him.

Or, there's Obama:

Obama	Two-face

The point of the different styles and racial overtones in the Obama poster, of course, was the same as the point of Obama's speaking style. Everyone who walks away is supposed to think Obama identifies with them.

The federal government gave billions upon billions of dollars in bail-out money to the bank AIG. The bank subsequently gave millions of dollars in bonuses to executives. The latest suspicion is that 73 AIG execs got over $1 million after the bail out.

Now Obama and the leaders of the Congress (democrats) are trying to figure out how to take the money back. The proposal is to create a new 60% federal tax on any bonus over $10,000. On top of the 35% federal income tax and state taxes, that will equal 100% of any bonus over $10,000, if the government has a stake in the company.

1. Obviously these companies did nothing illegal, or they'd be required by law to give the money back. This means it's the authors of the bailout's fault for just handing over money with no restrictions on it's use. These same democrats who fought Bush's push for regulation, but now say they want regulation, just gave away BILLIONS of our dollars in tax money with no restrictions at all.
   
2. They are using THEIR OWN ERROR as an excuse for higher taxes. They aren't just looking to tax at 100% (ie, take all of) million dollar bonuses, but any bonus over $10,000.00. Lots of employees of different companies rely on their bonus to get them through financially.
   

In summary, if the Obama government doesn't like what you do, when you're not even breaking the law, they will take away 100% of your money.

Thank you, Obama for this change. A 100% tax rate for people who broke zero laws to get their money.

P.S. The poster pictured here is from the Obama campaign. It certainly reminds me of 2-face from the Batman stories.

Nancy Pelosi wants to bail out the newspapers. It's no secret that the newspapers she is on a mission to save are not media that work to help conservatism, they work to help liberalism.

She writes "We must ensure that our policies enable our news organizations to survive and to engage in the news gathering and analysis that the American people expect." [source]

But of course, that doesn't apply to news gathering and analysis that more American people tune in for and expect on talk radio - she wants them out of business.

It is not the job of the federal government to bail out the media outlets that fail and attack the media outless that overwhelmingly succeed. It's their job to ensure freedom of speech, and freedom of the press.

I recommended WaMu as a bank in the past, but the bank is under new ownership and everything has gone downhill.

• 1% on what used to be 4% interest on savings .
  
• $12 fee that they refuse to refund for what used to be free overdraft transfers from savings to checking so I could keep my money in savings and have it automatically transfer over as needed.
• They closed my accounts and re-opened them with different account numbers so several checks bounced and electronic payments were canceled.

Move to another bank that gives free checks for life and better service.

A superbowl party wasn't the best way to start No Spend February. We dropped some good cash at the grocery store on February 1. Also this week we had my high school small group over to watch Ironman (blu-ray), and we made food for them. That cost us some cash too, but the guys pitched in a few bucks each, which helped some.

Other than that, we've been very good. We've spent some cash on produce and milk, but nothing on household supplies, home improvement or clothes, and instead of our weekly dinner date we went to Starbucks. That saved us $10-15 right there (we always share a dish when we eat out, so it's not that expensive normally).

We've also been discovering what frozen, canned and boxed foods we have. What we have to eat largely depends on what we have in the pantry rather than what we're hungry for.

February is exactly 4 weeks long, so we're 25% done. I hope we can save up some money to give away at the end of the month. It's only 3 more weeks of not spending.

Along with some friends, we're spending as little money as possible this February to sacrifice to give money away to the Denver Rescue Mission or some other non-profit. Inspired by our study of the Gospel of John, we're applying what we learn rather than leaving it in the realm of the theoretical.

We're eating lots of simple food, hitting Starbucks for our dinner date instead of a restaurant (and even then just buying a tall tea instead of a grande hot chocolate) and having friends pitch-in for lunch at our house on Sundays instead of going out to eat.

We're skimping on household supplies, home improvement is suspended for the month, our milk delivery and Netflix are on hold. No clothes purchases for the month, no miscelaneous/fun spending money.

This isn't an exercise in budgeting, it's about sacrificial giving.

It was surprising at how easy it was to say "I don't have anything to give" or "I don't have any expenses I can cut back on."

It ought not take long to see the sin in that. Has God not provided for our needs? Has God not commanded us to be generous? I was able to give money to church, even if it was only $1/week when I was in college and unemployed. How selfish is it to believe that God hasn't provided enough to me for me to be obedient to the command of generosity?

So, in addition to helping people by sacrificing this month, hopefully it will help us get away from believing the lie that we have nothing to give, and that we can't trust God so we have to hoard everything he gives us.

• How to push
• How to hit
  
• How to pull hair
• The song, "Row, row, row your boat..."
• The word, "MINE!"
• The cleanup song
  

One secret to happiness is to make unlikable tasks fun. I had to shovel lots of snow today. So I made a snow monster on our front yard. :)

My HP laptop came with a cheap remote control. It's cool because we can watch a movie on it and play/pause, mute, etc., without having to get up and touch the computer. The range isn't very good, the battery drains quickly, and now our battery cover is missing, so we can't use it.

Enter BluCTRL.

Your Blackberry has a bluetooth, as does your laptop. BluCTRL connects the two, so you can do anything on your computer (from quite far away) using the bluetooth connection.

It's currently in beta (not the finished "for sale" product), and it's currently free.

Check it out here.

(No, no one paid me to share this. I wish I'd get paid for this! :) )

Settlers of Catan, Carcassone, and Ticket to ride are great games. We get games as gifts because its a great way to spend time with family and friends.

These are our current 3 favorites, and they are all winners from different years of the German Best Game annual award.

Yes, Ticket To Ride, the game that is a map of the United States upon which you claim train routes was the German Game of the year. A map of the U.S.

I've had a lot of time with family over the last two weeks. Work picks up full time tomorrow. That makes me sad. Its been great to relax. Its been a while.

I just went out to buy a pair of jeans, but then spent a very long time looking at everything that was on sale. Here was my thought process for lots of items over the course of 1.5 hours:

1. This would be fun to have, we'd use it.
2. This is a really good deal.
3. I'd better inspect it to see if I really like it.
4. Yup, I like it. I'll get this instead.
5. But... I don't need it. Moving on...

I left with just the pair of jeans I went out for. I'm a lousy shopper.

Days blogged in a row: 3 (100%)

I signed up for mint.com a few months ago and love it with few reservations. I highly recommend it if you haven't found a good and simple way to track your expenses and investments.

Mint.com signs into your online bank, credit card, mortgage, and investment accounts, and downloads all of your transactions into one place - whether you wrote a check, paid with a credit card, or earned interest in your bank, you see it all at once, in one place.

The service currently monitors for me:

• 5 checking accounts
• 7 savings accounts
• 6 credit cards
• 3 investment accounts (1 IRA and 2 401Ks)
• mortgage loans
  

Mint.com alerts me when my credit card interest rates or credit limits changes, and even 5 days before a credit card payment is due.

I've also set up a basic budget with mint.com, and it emails me and sends me an sms text message the moment it finds out about transactions that put me over budget in a given category.

Here's other things you can do:

• Edit the names and categories of transactions
• Split a transaction into multiple parts to categorize it differently.
  
• Create new categories for transactions that aren't built-in
• Compare the history of your investment accounts against the stock market
• Compare your accounts to others to make better interest, or get better credit card rewards.

*No, I don't get paid to blog about this, or get referral bonuses, just writing about a service I like and I think you'll like.

Days I've Blogged in a Row: 2 (100%)

I don't know anyone who admits to making New Year's Resolutions.

Are we afraid we won't follow through with resolutions, or do we just not care to change? Are we just too comfortable settling for who we are, and so we just avoid making decisions to make ourselves better?


Days I've Blogged in a Row: 1 (100%)