The Sun up close
So this big campfire just appeared one day millions of years ago?
Read more about this here.
Facebook and ShareThis
I just reconnected with a good friend from college this past week on Facebook. Tim and I used to play in a band together called “Skydiver” named shortly after we all went skydiving. We caught up by phone this past week and it was like 20 years hadn’t just passed. Our drummer was Mike Zimmerman, Tim’s cousin, who lives in Nashville now and plays with Tracy Byrd. Just talked to him too. Anyway, Tim tells me about this little company he’s founded called ShareThis. ShareThis is one of the coolest new widgets out there because it allows you to do in one step what used to take several. Now you can send a url directly from the page with a single click. Already saving lots of time. Oh, and did I mention Tim’s got the attention of some big players looking at what he’s doing. Try ShareThis on your blog. You’ll have the capability to track who has shared your stuff with some really cool analytics reports. I highly recommend it to all the Watercooler Wednesday folks at Ethos.
Congress Website Overrun by Citizens
From the House of Representatives website as I was trying to share some views about the current crisis.
The House of Representatives is currently experiencing an extraordinarily high amount of email traffic. The Write Your Representative function is therefore intermittently available. While we realize communicating to your Members of Congress is critical, we suggest attempting to do so at a later time, when demand is not so high. System engineers are working to resolve this issue and we appreciate your patience.
Dave Ramsey suggests the following course of action. From an email sent by his organization. It makes a lot of sense to me. Who do you trust more with your money, Dave Ramsey or congress? I mean think about it.
—Start of Email—
We are at a crucial time in our country’s financial history. Congress defeated the $700 billion bailout plan on Monday. However, they are revising it and trying to push it through again. I’m supporting an alternative plan that will keep our nation from going even deeper in debt, and I’ve been on TV and radio all week telling people about it.
We need everyone’s help!
3 Steps to Change the Nation’s Future
Follow the instructions below. Together we can change history.
Pray For Your Leaders
Pray for them to resist a spirit of FEAR and to embrace WISDOM. Even if you don’t like them or agree with them, pray for them and tell them you are praying for them. There is a spirit over this problem that must be broken. Also, most of the media personalities are afraid as well and that is affecting their reporting. Pray for fear to be removed from them; they are making this worse.
Send the Common Sense Fix
Send The Common Sense Fix to your Representatives and Senators and tell them how you expect them to vote, and that if they put this nation in $700 billion of debt, that you will vote them out. It’s their job to listen to us! (Whichever presidential candidate or political party that champions this plan from their leadership down will likely become the next president. That is because this plan fixes the crisis while going along with the wishes of the vast majority of Americans.)
1. First, read this page (PDF)
2. Next, copy the info on this page (text file)
3. Send it to your Senators and Representatives by copying and pasting the text in the web form you’re sent to.
*Note: If their websites are down, that means we’re making a difference! Keep refreshing the page until you get through. You can also go through Congress.org, though we don’t endorse this site.
Tell Others
Forward this email to everyone in your address book and tell them to urgently follow these 3 steps TODAY. The more people we have supporting this and contacting their elected leaders, the more likely we can turn our economy around!
— end of email —
Well I sent it off to Sen Corker and Alexander. The house website was down. I’ll try that later.
Ronald Reagan said it best
The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away.
From Virgil’s Aeneid
Now Turnus leads his troops without delay,
Advancing to the margin of the sea.
The trumpets sound: Aeneas first assail’d
The clowns new-rais’d and raw, and soon prevail’d.
Great Theron fell, an omen of the fight;
Great Theron, large of limbs, of giant height.
He first in open field defied the prince:
But armor scal’d with gold was no defense
Against the fated sword, which open’d wide
His plated shield, and pierc’d his naked side.
So now I know the rest of the story.
A month of Mondays
Where did the last 30 days go? I just noticed that a month has elapsed since my last post. What gives?
For starters, my occupation provides a never ending source of manageable stress that I let get a little out of hand. Not good. Combine that with one of those nasty virus bugs going around and the old body got a little out of whack. You know like when it just starts to shut down.
All is back on track now thanks to some specific and intentional changes with work and play. I’m hopeful that what I enjoy doesn’t have to play second fiddle again to misguided perceptions of expectations.
Quotes for the times
Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts and murders itself. There was never a democracy that did not commit suicide.
– John Adams (1735 - 1826)
Anything will give up its secrets if you love it enough. Not only have I found that when I talk to the little flower or to the little peanut they will give up their secrets, but I have found that when I silently commune with people they give up their secrets also - if you love them enough.
– George Washington Carver (1864 - 1943)
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
– George Washington (1732 - 1799)
Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
– Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790)
Advertisements… contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper.
– Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)
When 900 years you reach, look as good, you will not.
– Yoda
Paying for Education
My kids just starting attending a private Christian school. Since my wife teaches there, we are able to put both of our girls in for free, which is nice. I’m really impressed with this school. My first impression is that parents are truly involved. The school has a program in which parents have to achieve a certain number of points each year choosing from a whole bunch of different activities in order to continue on the following year. Some of these activities include sitting in on your child’s class for an hour, maintaining a section of landscaping on the grounds (adopt a ground), teaching a class, attending parent-teacher meetings, helping with fall festival, etc. Yes, parents can get busy and forget about how important involvement in the school is and specifically the education of their child, but I think it goes deeper to something else.
These parents are paying some good money to get into the school. And in addition to those hefty tuition payments, the parents (whether property owners and renters) still have to pay for public schools through property taxes (renters pay through the lease payment). Though taxes are necessary, they become a hidden fee that you don’t see come directly out of your bank account each month. And that is my point.
When you have to put your money directly from your wallet into something you believe in, you darn sure are going to make every effort to ensure that it is put to good use. In the case of the school, parents show up. They spend time talking with teachers. They get on committees. They want success.
Unfortunately, when our monies are taken through backdoor channels like withholding taxes, electronic tithing (which I do), and property taxes, we can lose connection to that money and its purpose. If every American that now paid withholding actually had to pay it out of pocket like we do for gas in the car, there would be an uproar when it rises exponentially. The thing is, we just don’t see it. If we did, I think we’d each take a little more responsibility with how that money is being used. If public school parents were required to pay for their child directly and not through the property tax system, more public school parents would get involved (and not just in how good the football team is or who is the best chearleader). The effect would be more pressure on the school boards to do the right things and not the politically correct things. Teachers would see the trickle down effect of that. Kids that really want to be there would get a great education. Kids that don’t would save their parents the cost of the tuition and could pick strawberries for all I care. There appears to be enough of that work out there that we now need illegals to do.
So how involved are you?
Head on over to Ethos for Watercooler Wednesday. You’ll find some good folks there.
