Special Day for Two Bloggers

This Mother's Day is a particularly special one for two blogging moms, and I think it's worth calling attention to them, as it's the first for each since they added to their families via adoption.

Beth lives somewhere on the Atlantic Seaboard, and I trust that she will be pampered and spoiled as she celebrates with her new son, Joshua, and husband Tim.

DeDe is a much closer Gazette neighbor, as she and husband Rob are just a few miles away in Odessa, and they'll be enjoying the company of their new son, Liam, whom they traveled to Russia to adopt just after the first of the year.

Happy Mother's Day to all who enjoy that special title, but especially to those who have chosen the loving option of adoption!

Dutch study on lifetime medical costs merits close reading

A Dutch study is getting a lot of press over its findings that healthy people actually incur higher total medical expenses than those who are obese or who smoke, because the latter tend to die earlier. However, the conclusions of the study are not as straightforward as some news media reports are implying.

The study, entitled Lifetime Medical Costs of Obesity: Prevention No Cure for Increasing Health Expenditure, does indeed show (statistically, anyway; the study was based on a simulation model, not actual people) that the typical smoker or obese person will incur lower medical costs over the course of their lives than those who lead more healthy lifestyles. And, not surprisingly, a longer lifespan is accompanied by higher total medical costs than a shorter one.

But it's important to understand that the researchers are not suggesting that programs to eliminate smoking or reduce obesity should be eliminated, de-funded, or even de-emphasized, because there's more to the issue than the arithmetic of medical expense. From the study:

So, while some may attempt to use this study as justification for reduced emphasis on these health issues, they'll do so in direct disregard of one of the most important conclusions by the researchers:

In other words, the focus should not be exclusively or even primarily on those lifetime medical expenditures.

If nothing else, this highlights the importance of going straight to the source rather than relying on an AP newswire summary.

Dealing with Clients: Don't Slam the Competition

Much of my work involves redesigning existing websites. The owners of these sites approach me for a variety of reasons: the original designer graduated from high school (or junior high); the original designer disappeared without leaving contact information (we web designers seems to be an unreliable breed); the original designer switched to an occupation that pays a living wage; and so on.

Most of these sites are a mess, both from a cosmetic and a coding perspective. Most were built using FrontPage, and while that in itself doesn't doom a site to failure, it is generally an indication that the creator wasn't a professional.

The clients for most of these projects have no illusions about the state of their sites. They are often apologetic and/or embarrassed about how their sites look, and what they think it implies about them and their company or organization. And, frankly, they're usually right. But there's one thing I've learned over the years of dealing with these situations:

No matter how ugly the site is, no matter how many web standards it violates, no matter how unprofessional the image it presents, I never explicitly point out those shortcomings to the clients in a way that blames someone else for the problems.

Case in point. I had lunch a week or so ago with the board of a local organization who needed a site makeover. Their site had all the previously mentioned shortcomings and then some. They knew it (well, they knew it was ugly and out-of-date; they didn't know from web standards, and I didn't expect them to) or they wouldn't have asked me to meet with them.

Instead of launching into a laundry list of all the shortcomings of the site's design, I asked them about their vision for the site. The first comment was something like this: "our website is horrible and needs to be fixed!" There were smiles and nods all around.

Even then, I didn't aggressively agree. I said, "yes, I think there are several things we can do to make the site more attractive and more effective." And we launched into a productive discussion of how to improve it.

See, the thing is, the person who built the site was a member of the organization. It might have been a relative of one of the board members, or a friend, or even a well-meaning volunteer. There was nothing to be gained by denigrating those efforts – and a lot to be potentially lost by doing so.

It's one thing for "family" to slam their own; it's quite another for outsiders to join in. Since you never know for sure the relationships and dynamics of the situation, it's best to stay focused on the facts, and to look forward rather than rehashing old mistakes.

Now that I think about it, a lot of things in life would probably go more smoothly if we put this philosophy into practice.

Sad Political Commentary

You know we're in for a dreary presidential campaign when four of the top candidates make the nonprofit "public interest group" Judicial Watch's list of Washington’s “Ten Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” for 2007.

The group puts Democratic leaders Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on the list, along with Republicans Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.

You can decide for yourself whether the accusations leveled at each of these people (as well as other Congressional leaders such as Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Diane Feinstein) are credible or significant. If nothing else, the list provides food for thought about the state of our political system and our society.

Short-Circuited City

This morning's experience at the Post Office was a walk in the park compared to this afternoon's interlude at Circuit City.

I should have known better. Circuit City has the most onerous identity requirements and lethargic processing system known to humankind. I expect that soon we'll have to provide DNA samples from various sensitive body parts before we can write checks, although I'm not sure that even that would have helped today.

After the clerk scanned my check, the Man Behind The Scanner Curtain informed her that she needed phone approval. She dialed the phone and spent ten minutes mumbling into the handset, punching keys on the register, and entering numbers via the phone's keypad. At the end of this grueling session, she hung up and said "they rejected your check. I don't know why, but they did."

This is not the first time I've seen a check go through this process, but it is the first rejection, and it's a little difficult not to take it personally. As I handed the clerk a credit card, she said, "well, a check and a credit card are the same thing, aren't they?" I didn't bother to shepherd her through the intricacies of our banking systems and all the ways that a check and a credit card were, indeed, dissimilar. I merely replied, "that's not the point; I wanted to write a check." She then proceeded to ask for all the identity information that was included on the face of the check that she'd returned to me. (I was briefly tempted to write another check and tell her that this one would probably go through, because it had a different number.)

I suppose that this is the price one must pay to avoid the crush of the crowd at Best Buy. It's a price that I'm growing increasingly unwilling to accept.

As a part of our commitment to fair and balanced reporting, I will report that one of the salesclerks was able to immediately locate a DVD I'd been unable to find after 10 minutes of browsing the [unalphabetized] stacks of movies. It was the only question she was able to answer during my stay at the checkout counter, but we find our victories where we can, right?

Going Postal...really slowly

I heard on TV this morning that today is the busiest day of the year for the US Postal Service.

Our local branch is choosing to commemorate this occasion by having only two of its four windows open for business.

Postal customers have another term for the day.

China's Olympic Village Bible Ban: Good News?

Reports of China's prohibition of Bibles inside the Athlete's Village at next year's Beijing Olympics are slowly trickling out (do a Google News search for the topic and see how many mainstream media outlets are not reporting on it), it occurs to me that this action serves to highlight the power of the Gospel, and the fact that the Chinese government is operating not from a position of strength, but in abject fear.

That the iron-fisted government of one of the world's superpowers would simultaneously recognize and fear the power of God's word enough to ban it, while thinking that such a ban will actually be the slightest bit effective in blunting that power would be laughable if it wasn't so pitiful.

What the Chinese government seems to be incapable of grasping (or perhaps it's just in desperate denial) is that whether or not the Word is present in paper form, it will still be carried by thousands of visitors and athletes in their hearts and souls, and it will be shared by the millions of Chinese Christians for whom the term "freedom" has a connotation that many of us in the comfortable West can scarcely begin to imagine.

Some are reporting that the Koran will not be subject to a similar ban. If this is indeed true, it seem to indicate that the Chinese government doesn't fear the power of that book. Again, Christians should be flattered by the comparison.

Dead but not in the Red

You might not be able to take it with you, but that doesn't mean you have to stop making money just because you're no longer breathing. Forbes Magazine has published its annual list of the top earning dead celebrities, and some of them continue to generate quite a haul:

• Elvis Presley – $49 million
• John Lennon – $44 million
• Charles M. Schulz – $35 million
• George Harrison – $22 million
• Albert Einstein – $18 million
• Andy Warhol – $15 million
• Theodor Geisel (Dr. Seuss) – $13 million
• Tupac Shakur – $9 million
• Marilyn Monroe – $7 million
• Steve McQueen – $6 million
• James Brown – $5 million
• Bob Marley – $4 million
• James Dean – $3.5 million

In case you're wondering how a physicist made this list: Albert Einstein's name is used to peddle Baby Einstein DVDs.

It's interesting to note that Elvis last topped this list in 2005, meaning that he's apparently in the midst of a successful comeback tour.

Dang. I should have waited until tomorrow to post this.

Ways Women Are Not Like Men – #4,872

You have one new message and three old messages. All messages...played back.

Hi, LB*, this Mabel*. I noticed your haircut at church a couple of weeks ago and it's soooo cute** that I have to know where you got it. Please call me back at this number: 550-3253***.

That message was on our answering machine when we got home from church this afternoon. Now, can you see a guy leaving another guy that message?

Dude, I saw your mullet at the bowling alley last week, man, and it rawked. I have to know who your barber is, man!

OK, I guess when you put it like that, it doesn't sound so unreasonable after all.

*Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
**Granted, it is a really cute haircut, but, still...
***I've always wanted to use the fake Hollywood phone number prefix, and embed a hidden message in the digits.

Restaurant Service Expectations

I suspected that a post about the service in local restaurants would generate some interesting responses on both sides of the issue, and I was right. Judging by the comments left on that post, it seems that this is an issue that strikes an emotional chord in many people, and the reactions are all over the map.

One comment in particular caught my attention, and I'm taking the unprecedented (for me) step of responding to it via a separate post. And because I don't want to embarrass anyone, intentionally or otherwise, I've edited the comments to remove any traces of the commenter's identity. We'll refer to that person as "C."

C described a recent experience at a local restaurant where the server ...roll[ed] her eyes at me when asked for silverware. As a result, C left only a 5% tip.

My initial thought upon reading this was, "wow; what a sense of entitlement we've developed nowadays!" Even if "an eye for an eye" was still in play today (see Kyle's comment on that issue), would C's response be merited?

Let's weigh the cause and reaction in terms of the relative damage done. On the one hand, we have a case of eye-rolling, which clearly is hurtful to the customer's ego, at least to the extent said customer has decided that it is. The long term implications are, however, non-existent (unless the customer is in serious need of psychiatric counseling).

The retribution for this damage is the withholding of money. Put another way, the customer has made it incrementally more difficult for the server to feed her children, pay her rent, meet her family's health insurance premiums, maintain her car to safe standards, and so on. From that perspective, was the "punishment" appropriate for the "crime"?

Is this a ridiculous comparison? Practically speaking, probably – but the principle is sound. We need to think twice about defending our honor from some perceived slight by hurting someone else's ability to make a living.

It's C's money, and C has the right to decide how to spend it. But a little charity goes a long way, and the ability to turn the other cheek is at least one way we can fight the growing tide of coarseness in our society.

Want better service? Be a better customer.

Stewart Doreen addressed an issue in Sunday's newspaper (I'd provide a link but I don't seem to be able to find anything anymore on MyWestTexas.com, including a site search box) that's near and dear to the hearts (and stomachs) of most West Texans: the shortage of wait staff at local restaurants.

It's not at all unusual, as Stewart pointed out, to be placed on a lengthy waiting list for a table, and observe that up to half of the restaurant's tables are empty because there aren't enough servers. My wife and I have experienced this most often at the larger chain stores (The Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, On The Border, and Chili's come to mind).

The theory is that better-paying jobs in other sectors of the economy are drawing people away from these roles, and there's no doubt that that's often the case. But I have to believe that another strong disincentive to being a waiter or waitress is the apparently unavoidable requirement of dealing with inconsiderate customers. Perhaps if we were easier to work with – and that encompasses more than basic politeness – more people would be willing to fill the server jobs that are now empty.

For example, it's not your waitress's fault that you had to wait for 30 minutes to get a table in a half-empty restaurant. Don't take it out on her. And if she seems frazzled, perhaps it's because she's doing double duty on a double shift.

Or your waiter is new to the job, and the shortage of personnel meant that he didn't get the training he needed to give you the quality of service you think you deserve. Again, not his fault; believe it or not, it's not all intuitive.

And if you really want to make the profession more attractive and competitive, try being more generous with your tips. Being a waiter or waitress will never compete on a strict hourly basis with most jobs in the oil patch, but a little more liberality with your tips would do a lot to bridge the gap. And don't tell me you can't afford it; if you walk into the restaurant knowing that a 10% or less tip is all you can provide, you need to be walking into a different restaurant, one that doesn't involve tipping, or eating at home.

The bottom line is that you and I, as customers, represent the single most important factor in determining whether our waiters see their jobs as something worth making a commitment to. We can help make the work more competitive with the alternatives.

Jeremy Cowart, Photographer

I went to Jeremy Cowart's website because of the write-up in the current edition of Layers Magazine. His is one of three photography websites spotlighted by the magazine as being a cut above the rest.

It certainly is a fine example of how Web 2.0 technology is making its way into sites that are using it for its practicality and not its novelty – but that's a post for another time. As I said, I went based on the magazine's review; I stayed because of Cowart's amazing photographs of Africa and its people. These are some of the most achingly beautiful photos of that place that you'll ever see.

This is not just another shoot for the photographer. He's collaborated with Jena Lee to produce a book, Hope in the Darkness, with the intent of raising awareness of both the desperation and the hope that exists on that continent, or, rather, in its people.

If you browse through more of Cowart's portfolio, you'll see that he's tagged a number of photos with the term "Christian." (The ability to sort and organize the photos by such tags is another cool application of technology for this site.) The photos in this section are primarily of musicians, and well-known ones at that (e.g. Jars of Clay, Switchfoot, Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Everyday Sunday, and some guy named Michael W. Smith). Given that his website's target audience is art directors (according to the Layers article) it's pretty gutsy of him to use the "C" word anywhere on the site.

He's got a Virb blog, if you're interested.

Technorati tag: Jeremy Cowart

God Bless America

Ten Worst Jobs in Science

Popular Science has published its annual list of the Ten Worst Jobs In Science. It's not surprising that many of the jobs on the list involve interaction with the detritus, debris, garbage and other disgusting deposits of nature, including Whale-Feces Researcher (#10), Olympic Drug Tester (#8), Coursework Carcass Preparer (#5), Garbologist (#4), and HazMat Diver (#1). Oh, and Microsoft Security Analyst (#6).

I think the fact that the PopSci editors consider swimming in sewage only slightly more odious than working with Windows is, well, hilarious. Others may take a somewhat different view. ;-)

Twins Wed Twins: Mystifying Marital Math

My wife called my attention to the wedding photos page in yesterday's Lifestyle section, where the pictures of two lovely – and apparently identical – young women posed in (non-identical) wedding gowns. The twin sisters had gotten married on Saturday, one at 5:00 p.m. and the other at 5:30 (wonder how they decided the times?), in the same church.

As if this wasn't unusual enough, further reading of the accounts of the weddings revealed that the girls' new husbands are also twins. And that raises all sorts of interesting questions.

According to this article, there are only about 250 documented instances where identical twins married identical twins (for the record, we don't know if the people described above are identical twins; the girls certainly look that way, but we weren't given photos of the guys). I'm sure this combination has practitioners of various disciplines – including psychologists, geneticists, and, um, crime lab scientists – salivating at the prospect of doing research.

The primary question that came to mind was whether any of the children born to these couples would be identical (and would they be cousins...or siblings?). There seems to be a difference of opinion regarding this issue (just google "twins marrying twins" and start reading; I can't do all of your research for you!), but the most compelling scientific arguments give the answer of "highly unlikely."

But, still, as I dimly recall some of the basics from my college genetics course, there is at least a statistical possibility that the offspring of these couples could be genetically identical. In any event, I'm sure these folks will be a hoot at family reunions. I hope name tags are provided.

Crime and Punishment

Mr. Siegmund, we're contacting you because we've identified a series of suspicious charges to your account...

And so it begins, as the data theft epidemic becomes personal.

The first indication that something was amiss was a cryptic phone message from J.C. Penney asking me to call them as soon as possible about my internet order. I didn't know about any such order, but it was entirely possible that my wife had placed one, so I didn't return the call, preferring to leave it for her.

The voicemail message from the credit card company got my attention, however, and I did return that call. The woman in the fraud detection department confirmed my identity (it's apparently harder to prove that you own the card than to use it fraudulently), and then recited a string of transactions charged to the card starting on Wednesday. Many of them had been placed on hold or rejected by alert merchants, although some had gone through. The thief was a busy little rascal, and eclectic in his larceny, charging everything from auto parts to flowers to DVD players and clothing (Guess.com?! Give me a break, you hipster doofus.).

In a matter of minutes, we'd canceled the account, an order was given to ship a replacement card, and the process for dealing with the current legitimate balance was explained. I fed my card through the shredder and emailed my wife to do the same with hers. So that's that.

Only...not really.

There's the matter of dealing with the criminal, whose activities are felonious in nature. He (or she) isn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, having provided a residential shipping address (in Buna, Texas). The lady at J.C. Penney's loss prevention department assured me of their cooperation with local authorities if I wanted to press charges.

Filing charges hadn't occurred to me. I assumed that that's what the credit card company would do if they located the offender. After all, I'm not incurring any financial loss. It's the vendors and/or the credit card company who stand to lose something. I'm not sure what to do.

On the one hand, I could see how going forward with charges could be a royal pain in the rear, and a great time drain, not to mention the emotional costs. On the other, if that's the only way the criminal gets brought to justice, I've shirked my civic duty by not pursuing it.

As far as the impact of the crime itself, I find myself strangely unconcerned. I suppose I'm jaded, given my understanding of the inevitable implications of living in an online world to the extent we do. Credit card theft is no longer a question of "if," but of "when." I'm more impressed with the speed and effectiveness of the merchants and card company in detecting and short-circuiting the continuance of the crime. There's only so much we can do to prevent such theft; knowing that our personal interests (in this matter, at least) are closely aligned with the superior resources of those folks is where we need to find our comfort.

Two Modest Proposals

I'm sure that smokers, dippers, and chewers already feel like an oppressed people group, so the following shouldn't add significantly to the burden.

• At each checkout lane of the grocery store, there should be a button that must be pushed before you get in line, to indicate that you'll be purchasing tobacco products. When that button is pushed, a light will go on over the checker so that people contemplating getting in line behind you will understand that their wait time will be doubled over the normal period while the cashier finds the key to the vault, ambles the inevitable 100 yards to unlock it, searches for your off-brand request, returns only to find that you requested the unfiltered version, ambles off again, and eventually locates your product of choice.


• Along those same lines, the purchase of any tobacco product should automatically count as eleven (11) items, meaning that you cannot queue up in the Express Checkout, seeing as how your presence there effectively negates the entire concept of "Express Checkout."

Thanks for your consideration of these ideas.

Weary

I spent a couple of hours at our church's Missions office interviewing folks who'd been screened for potential financial assistance through our benevolence ministry.

It wears me out.

I know that Jesus said we'd always have the poor with us, but I don't know how to not become disheartened when I see how many people make decisions that seem to assure that they'll never be able to escape that condition.

I visited with a woman in her 30s who's living with her three teenaged daughters in a one-room apartment. One of those daughters -- age 16 -- is pregnant...for the second time (she lost the first baby). The woman confided that she was skipping meals so that the daughter would have enough to eat. We helped them with their rent, and gave them a couple of sacks of food from the crisis closet. But what will they do for, say, the next 20 years?

That was one story of six today. Today was one day of the eight each month that our church schedules appointments. Walk-ins are dealt with every day. Hundreds of people, almost every one of them affected by bad decisions, self-destructive behavior, or what some might call just plain bad luck.

It wears me out. And I feel guilty for that. Those blessed souls who minister in this area day in and day out must be angels in human form.

Dunbar's Number: Mark of the Decreased

A special welcome to those coming here via Jeremy Keith's follow-up post in which he ridicules my attempt to discuss a sociological phenomenon within a Christian context. That's OK, although he really got a bit derivative with his post title.

I confess that I'd never heard of Dunbar's Number until I came across a reference to it in this post in which the author, Jeremy Keith, explains his rather unique approach to dealing with comments on his blog (he collects them for a period of time and then shuts them off, reviews those submitted prior to the deadline, and then publishes all the acceptable ones at the same time, in one batch). Jeremy's reference sent me to the relevant Wikipedia entry where I learned that Dunbar is a British anthropologist and "evolutionary psychologist" who contends that the size of the human brain's neocortex is the limiting factor in determining the optimal size of any given person's social group (I'm simplifying to the extreme here). He's even computed that number, which is 150.

Put another way, 150 is the average number of people with whom we've sufficiently cultivated relationships to the extent that we can ask them to do us a favor and they'll likely comply.

This theory has widespread implications in many facets of our lives. For example, it could explain why it's more difficult to make new close friends after we reach a certain age; we've already reached our quota, so to speak, and we just don't have the capacity to enlarge our social sphere -- unless we drop someone else.

[For bloggers, it might also explain why it's darned difficult to maintain active online relationships with other bloggers beyond a certain point, and why gaining increased readership and comments quickly reaches a point of diminishing psychological returns. We may need to visit this issue in a separate post.]

A more significant -- in my opinion, anyway -- implication to Dunbar's theory is that the other six-billion-minus-150 people on earth aren't important to us in any personal way. They're statistics, or news items, or members of a huge crowd of beings whose lives have no qualities apart from those that might impact ours (as in, for example, serving us our food in a restaurant, or cleaning our teeth, or mowing our yards).

Dunbar has done research to qualitatively support his thesis, and the number 150 (actually, it's 147.8, but who's counting?) apparently has statistical verifiability. However, from my perspective, he's left out one crucial factor: Jesus Christ.

Christ's Dunbar Number is -- to quote a popular movie character -- "like, infinity." His ability to love, accept, listen to, interact with, minister to, care about, and save has no limit. He doesn't see nameless faces, or faceless crowds, or crowded planets. He sees -- and knows -- individuals.

And here's the thing: He wants us to be the same way. He calls us to a life of ministry and service and caring that doesn't stop once we check 150 people off the list. Obviously, we can't know everyone like He does (truthfully, we can't know anyone like that, not even ourselves), but that doesn't let us off the hook for understanding the importance of trying.

I don't mean to give the impression that I know how to do this, because I don't. There are a lot of people whom I don't know how to care about, much less love. But I'm pretty sure that God can and will provide us with the means to remove the caps on our personal Dunbar numbers if we'll but seek to do so.

And failing to do that lessens us all.

Baseball Class

I'll admit it: I'm not a baseball fan. I find most televised baseball games exceedingly boring and I can't remember the last time I watched one. I surely wouldn't normally watch a game between the Dodgers and the Padres.

Having said that, I'll also admit that sitting here and watching Rachel Robinson talk about her late husband's career, and the state of baseball today, from the booth of ESPN's broadcast of the LA/San Diego game is a privilege. She's an articulate and passionate spokesperson, not only for the legacy of the first man to cross the "color barrier" in big league baseball, but for baseball overall, and for civil rights as well.

I salute ESPN's wisdom in inviting her into the broadcast booth -- and especially for giving her free reign to speak her mind (including rooting openly for Los Angeles, which is fun). And I salute the LA Dodger players, all of whom are wearing number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson (as did many other players around the league today).

And thus, I must make one final admission: baseball is more than just a sport, in many ways. It's an integral part of America and American history. Even a non-fan should be able to recognize that.

Jury Duty: Not Needed

I was selected for one of two jury panels Monday morning, but because the trial wasn't to begin until Wednesday afternoon, I didn't have to report back for voir dire until Wednesday morning. Thanks to the excellent communications system set up by Midland County, I was able to phone in on Tuesday evening and find that the panel was not needed; presumably, the case settled out of court. I was not heartbroken at the prospect of not having to devote at least one more morning to this service.

Jury duty in Midland is a good excuse for people watching. I wonder if those who work near the courthouse observe the lemming-like Monday morning rush of prospective jurors between 8:00 and 8:30 a.m., each clutching their white postcards like first graders clinging to their Spongebob lunch pails. I suspect that most of those lemmings -- myself included -- don't get downtown all that often, and certainly don't spend a lot of time in the courthouse, so there's a bit of a sense of adventure in the journey, if nothing else.

If you do need to conduct business at the courthouse, you might want to avoid Monday mornings. The lines to get through the security checks have airport deja vu written all over them, although they're a little less stressful -- at least you get to keep your shoes on, and almost everyone gets wanded.

We in Midland, Texas, apparently take our jury duty service seriously. The jury pool on Monday filled the courtroom, with potential jurists sitting everywhere except in the judge's seat. I counted more than a hundred people in the room, not counting officers of the court. I also spotted not a single necktie among the male pool population. I guess the bankers got a pass this week.

In the comments to this post, Rob revealed that his biggest frustration with jury duty is the disorganization of the county clerk's office (I believe that Rob is in neighboring Ector County). I haven't found that to be the case in Midland, but it is easy to get annoyed with some of my fellow citizens on two counts. First, an arrival time of 8:30 a.m. seems beyond the grasp of more than a few folks, and that puts the whole process in the hole from the start.

Then there's the rush to the front of those who seek to be exempted from jury service. Fully 20% of our pool tried it; the judge ended up releasing only about five people, most due to age or illness, based on their appearances. But, there again, the remaining 80 or 90 people have to sit idly while each presents his or her case. It was fun, however, speculating on the various reasons each person was claiming to justify exemption, such as My mongoose and cobra are just not playing well together lately, and I need to be there as an intermediary.

In any event, all's well that ends well, and I should be exempt from the receipt of one of those ominous postcards for another six months.

The Oldest Thing

What's the oldest thing you still have that you got when it was new? (Spouses, children, and Galapagos land tortoises don't count for purposes of this exercise.)

I haven't performed a rigorous search through all of my worldly possessions, but the thing that most likely fits the bill is a Bible I received for my birthday in 1960. It's a King James Version -- there weren't a lot of alternatives back then -- and it bears various penciled notes in my handwriting, most of which are explicable but a few, like the one that says "Leviticus 14: How to cleanse lepers," are of mysterious significance. (Did I make a special note of that chapter, just in case I found myself trapped in a leper colony? Nothing like being prepared, I guess.) The Bible also has one of those inter-testament sections for recording significant family events: births, marriages; it even has a little fill-in-the-blank family tree page. The only things I felt were significant enough to be recorded were my own birthday (just in case I forgot), and that of my younger brother (probably so that I could remember to forget). The Bible's cover is ragged, and the rarely used, having been displaced by easier to understand (and more rugged) versions.

I suppose this exercise should be a reminder of fleeting value of material possessions, but it's also a reminder of the priceless nature of the memories such possessions can evoke. I'd like to live a simpler, less cluttered life, but taking inventory like this is proof that not all clutter is created equal.

Super Bowl at Church? Not so fast, bucko...

I made reference yesterday to our church's plans to broadcast the Super Bowl as a part of a fellowship that will substitute for the regular Sunday evening worship service.

Not everyone agrees that this is a good idea, and apparently the NFL is one of them. The league is warning churches not to violate its rules concerning broadcasts of the game to which it owns the copyright.

From the above-linked article:

Many churches are canceling their "Super Bowl Fellowship" plans, but not every congregation is rolling over:

[Sidenote: There's something amusing about hearing the pastor of one of the largest evangelical churches in America use the term "wack."]

For its part, the NFL isn't sending goon squads to comb the neighborhoods in search of offenders. NFL spokesman McCarthy said the NFL won't be patrolling churches for violations. But from a strict legal perspective, that could prove problematic for the NFL down the road in terms of copyright protection. Letting things like this slide is not a good precedent for claiming later on that the value of your copyright has been damaged.

I'm not inclined to take sides on this argument, but I will make a couple of observations. It would seem to me that churches should be beyond reproach in all areas of their actions, and if the owner of a copyright (or any other asset) protests about the use of that asset by a third party, it seems inappropriate to push back.

And with respect to our own church's plans, I fully understand why the NFL -- and its sponsors -- might be less than happy with the thought that the game will be broadcast minus commercials, very expensive commercials that the NFL's clients paid for with the express understanding that those commercials would be broadcast as a part of the game. There's nothing that says the viewers have to watch those commercials, but editing them out of a live broadcast so that they can't be seen is pushing the envelope.

Issues like this are probably why we're implored to be in the world without being of the world.

Poll Faulting

Let me get this straight. A mere two months after turning control of both houses of Congress to the Democrats, a significant majority of Americans feel that the country is moving in the wrong direction (according to a recent and widely publicized poll)? Now, I know I'm a political naif, but this seems to be buyer's remorse on a national scale.

Fortunately, we are blessed with the guidance of CNN Headline News, which was careful yesterday to put a photo of President Bush next to this poll question in its recurring reports, so we'd know *wink, wink* who poll respondents had in mind when they voiced their opinion, never mind that his name wasn't mentioned in conjunction with this question.

The lesson to be learned here? Friends don't let friends respond to lame polls (which, really, is a redundancy).

An Inconvenient -- But Self-Imposed -- Truth

Planned Parenthood has been running an ad in our newspaper for a screening of a film entitled Rosita. Here's how the ad describes this film:

"Rosita" is an award winning documentary that shows the plight of a nine year old Nicaraguan girl, who becomes pregnant as the result of rape. This emotional story pits her family against the government, the medical establishment and the church in a battle over whose life has precedence.

Did you catch that last phrase? ...a battle over whose life has precedence. The logical inference when one considers that phrase is that more than one life is at stake, and it can also be logically assumed that if one of those lives belongs to Rosita, then the other belongs to Rosita's unborn child. What's intriguing is that the Planned Parenthood ad seems to be admitting that the fetus is, indeed, a human life, and I don't recall ever seeing that in any of their material.

Assuming that this isn't an oversight in letting copy stray from the "party line" (which I suspect it is), it would be wonderful if Planned Parenthood's "counseling" of pregnant women would now include the fact that their decisions impact two human lives, instead of one life (the mother's) and one blob of inconvenient tissue. When presented with the truth of the matter, I wonder how many of those women would elect to proceed with disposal of their inconvenient truths?

I also discovered via the ad that Planned Parenthood has a "national chaplain." Rev. Ignacio Castuera holds that position of dubious integrity. My initial thought was that one would have to be able to perform some prodigious feats of self-delusion to hold such a position, but after some additional consideration, I admitted that nothing surprises me anymore. Anyway, Rev. Castuera was recently given an award for his work in the "choice in dying" arena. It's devastatingly ironic that such a choice is not extended by the Reverend and his flock to those who are most vulnerable -- the other life alluded to in the above mentioned ad.

Ex-Muslim Blogger Granted Refuge

Last September I passed along the story of Isaac Schrödinger (not his real name), the ex-Muslim blogger living in Canada whose upcoming hearing for refugee status would determine whether he'd be able to continue to live in freedom, or be forced to return to Pakistan where the life of an apostate Muslim tends to be short and unpleasant.

Isaac had his hearing last week; he's posted a long but a fascinating account of how it unfolded. You really should read it, but I won't keep you in suspense: Isaac will not have to return to Pakistan!

Most people use their blogs for pretty mundane purposes, and there's nothing wrong with that. It's just pretty cool that Isaac was able to use his in a way that may just have saved his life...and he had some great support from some A-list bloggers during the process. It's a story worth remembering.

The Web's most simplest site?

What's your reaction to this?

Hat tip to this coumn in the Wall Street Journal.

"I Say My Prayers" Bereavement Photography: Upcoming News Story

Mel Hudman, the news director of the local ABC affiliate (KMID-TV), just emailed to give me a heads-up about the story they're planning to run tomorrow about Jennifer Taylor's bereavement photography ministry. For those of you in the local viewing area, there will be a preview during the 6:00 p.m. news broadcast, with the full story to run during the 10:00 p.m. show.

I haven't seen the segment, but if it captures only a fraction of Jennifer's caring spirit, it will be worth watching.

Kudos to Mel for picking up on this story via the pages of the Gazette and recognizing that it deserves a wider audience.

Halloween Tips for Bone Crackers

Deb Thompson over at Write Lightning has provided a number of links that illustrate how Halloween is a different affair for today's children compared to when I was a kid (back when the Rocky Mountains were just lumpy bits).

But it's not just the kids who have special considerations nowadays. Even professionals have to consider the implications of how they choose to observe Halloween, and thus we have things like tips for costumes for chiropractors. The commonsense common theme is that these folks should avoid attaching pointy objects to their fingers.

[Someone with more time and creativity than me might be able to come up with similar costuming tips for other professions. Hint, hint.]

Yep, I'm one in a hundred million...

From Jon (the Totally Unique Jon) over at Random Commands, comes this little nomenclatural exercise:

HowManyOfMe.com

There are: 3 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

This is a fascinating tool, good for endless hours of useful research. For example, I now know that there is no one in the United States named "Bob Tomato." If there are any expectant mothers reading this, they might want to keep that in mind.

What I've Been Doing

The bereavement photography website that I mentioned a few months ago is now a reality; we went live yesterday.

Jennifer Taylor is a former Midlander, having recently relocated to Lubbock, and she's providing her services for free to residents of Lubbock, Midland, Odessa, and Amarillo. "I Say My Prayers" is an extension of her photography business -- and just one of the ways she's using her gifts and training in service to others.

For what it's worth, after seeing her plans for this ministry and her generosity with her time and resources, I felt compelled to donate my time in building and maintaining this website. It's a tiny contribution compared to hers, but it's what I can do.

If you know of families who are in the position of needing this service, please refer them to I Say My Prayers. I can assure you that they'll be in good hands with Jennifer.

Technorati tags: Bereavement Photography | Jennifer Taylor

Neighborhood Quiz

How well do you know your neighbors? I was interviewed today by a member of the Federal Investigative Services (US Office of Personnel Management) and found that I don't know squat about at least one of mine.

It seems that the person in question has applied for a position in the federal government that requires a background check, and a part of that check involves interviewing all the neighbors. The interview took about twenty minutes, during which time I came to feel like the most unsociable neighbor ever. Here's just a sample of the information about the person in question that I could not provide:

• Name
• Name of spouse
• Number and age of children
• Current occupation
• Exact time in current residence

There was much, much more. I'm pretty sure the neighbor isn't a member of a gang, but I couldn't comment as to susceptibility to blackmail, or feelings toward any specific foreign government.

I came closest to appearing non-comatose when I provided a physical description (approximate height and weight) based on the occasional spottings of family members in the front yard. I could have described their dog, but, sadly, that apparently wasn't of interest to our federal government.

At the end of the interview, however, I'm sure I redeemed myself by giving the investigator the names of a couple of other neighbors who I'm sure will know more than me. Well, I gave him their first names, anyway.

I couldn't remember their last names.

Support a fellow blogger's appeal for refugee status

Update: Isaac emailed to correct something I wrote below. The appointment this week set the date for the hearing that will decide his status. Sorry for the misunderstanding, but that means he has more time to prepare his case. Prayers still needed...that doesn't change.

Isaac Schrödinger's blog masthead says it all: "pakistani-born - ex-muslim - refugee-claimant - pro-usa, and he's backed it up over the years via a prodigious number of posts. He has applied to Canada for refugee status and will be presenting his case before a tribunal of judges later this week.

Why does he feel the need for refugee status? This post details some of the examples of how "apostates" are treated by their Muslim countrymen in Pakistan. And this Reuters news article documents the findings of an independent Pakistani commission showing how religious intolerance toward non-Muslims in that country continues to grow.

I'm not sure what's at stake for Isaac should the hearing not go well, but I'd ask you to join with me in praying that we don't have to find that out. I'm sure Isaac would appreciate knowing of your support for him in this very important hearing.

Local Kids Rebuilding NOLA

Our evening service last night was devoted to reports from four mission trips our church sponsored this summer, to Costa Rica, Germany, Montana, and New Orleans. The latter trip sent a group of teens to work on The Baptist Crossroads Project, a partnership with Habitat For Humanity that undertook the building of 40 homes in 40 days to replace some destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. (According to Habitat-NOLA.org, the scope of the project has now been expanded ten-fold!)

The report was given by our youth ministers and two of the teens who went on the trip, and it was accompanied by photos taken during the project. The work was hot, hard, and -- according to the workers -- extremely satisfying. The photos showed a very orderly row of colorful homes, elevated on concrete piers: the rebirth of a neighborhood.

Why do I mention this? Well, I think it's worth pointing out that not all teens spent their summer at the mall, but I also wanted report that if you were watching Fox & Friends this morning around 7:00 a.m., during the "Good News" segment, you saw video of the same row of houses we saw on the screens last night at church, as the network ran a brief report on Saturday's dedication of the first group of homes to be completed.

It was a great coincidence, hearing first from those whose hands helped shape those homes, and then seeing it affirmed via the international media.

Technorati tags: Baptist Crossroads | Habitat for Humanity

2005: A "Disastrous" Year for Texas Baptist Men

Texas Baptist Men is an organization within the umbrella of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, working in a wide variety of worldwide ministries such as church building, spiritual training and disaster relief. TBM was a key part of the Southern Baptist Convention's Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in partnership with the Red Cross.

In the most recent issue of its newsletter, the extent of TBM's involvement in disaster relief was clearly spelled out, and the numbers are a bit staggering. As a part of the relief efforts following Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, 5,114 TBM volunteers cooked and served 1,834,068 free meals to storm victims and relief crews. They also washed more than 1,500 loads of clothes.

When you include disaster relief trips in Mexico, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and India, TBM served more than 2 million free meals. Its motto sums up its commitment to service pretty well: "Love More Than Words...Anyway, Anywhere, Anytime."

Here's the kicker -- the organization has no budget for disaster relief, and receives no government funding. Volunteers pay their own way, and organizational costs are covered -- hopefully -- by donations from generous individuals.

If you'd like to make a contribution to the work done by TBM, you can do so online via JustGive.org, or via check or phone using the information on this page.

Oh, and despite its name, the organization includes women. You don't think guys could get 2 million meals served on time by themselves, do you? ;-)

Technorati tag: Texas Baptist Men

Infant Bereavement Photography

Note: This post deals with sensitive subject matter (look at the title), and I know that it may not be appropriate for some Gazette readers. Please feel free to browse elsewhere. I just didn't want to unintentionallly surprise anyone.

I'm not sure why -- because the subject matter has never directly touched me or my family -- but after only about 30 seconds on this site I had a strong sense of really needing to go somewhere else.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep ("NILMDTS") is a nonprofit organization that offers free photography services to parents experiencing the death of a baby. I had no idea that such a service existed, or that there was a demand for it.

Similar free services are provided to the parents of "desparately ill children" American Child Photographers Charity Guild.

The thing is, as difficult as it is to consider the subject matter, I can't imagine being the one doing the photography. It takes a special person, I think, to provide this kind of ministry, and that's what it is, really. And I need to start getting more comfortable with it, because I've just learned that one of my professional photography web clients is going to start offering these services in our area. I don't know if the client will be a member of the NILMDTS network, or will offer these services independently, but we'll be building a new website focused on these services.

May God grant me the sensitivity and skill to do a job worthy of the subject.

"Lebanon and the End Times"

Dr. Jim Denison has an informative essay up over at GodIssues.org about the new developments surrounding Israel and Lebanon. He gives a brief history and overview of Hezbollah and Hamas, the Muslim organizations who use terrorism as their chief weapons in pursuit of their goal of eradicating Israel as a nation, and then addresses the question of whether the events that are now unfolding in that part of the world herald the end times, as described in the Bible.

I'm not an eschatologist. Frankly, I've never understood why anyone would obsess over an apocalyptic timeline when it's pretty clear that none of us can predict the second coming. I suppose it's a harmless study, but I also don't see the benefit. Perhaps someone reading this can enlighten me.

Anyway, I tend to agree with Jim's leanings in the matter of Israel's role in the end times:

"Significant and valuable." I think that's a good -- if overly succinct -- description of modern day Israel. I agree, and I also believe strongly that Israel has the right to defend itself with all resources at its disposal against the same strain of terrorists who would do the same damage in America if given the opportunity.

I don't know. Maybe we are seeing "the beginning of the end" in the escalation of conflict between Israel and its myriad enemies. There's certainly enough lunatics in power in Iran to provide all the dangerous jokers the game can support. On a national level, I hope our country stays the course in providing Israel with the ally it deserves. On a personal level, I hope these events serve to motivate folks to figure out which side they're on from a spiritual perspective, because -- in the end -- borders and nationalities won't mean a thing.

As Dr. Denison puts it:

Ian's Out

In case you haven't noticed, Ian Woods has abandoned his attempt at a solo crossing of America via his souped-up and high-tech trike. I'm disappointed but not surprised, and I think Ian probably feels the same way.

Such an outcome is the unfortunate probability when big dreams collide with the laws of physics and physiology, said laws being pliable but unbreakable. It's possible to compute the power necessary to drive an 80 pound trike and trailer down the road, and the physical capabilities of a given human being are likewise measurable. If the rider's sustainable wattage and VO₂ max aren't sufficient, there's no amount of wishing that will balance that equation.

The drive and determination of the human spirit is a wild card, an unknowable variable in the calculus of achievement. People have done remarkable things in defiance of logic and predictive science. Perhaps Ian was counting on that spirit to compensate for the preparation he wasn't able to acquire. lf so, I commend him, for the only undertaking that can properly be called an adventure is the one for which the certainty of success is less than 100%.

Tough day at the office

I'm referring to our church's Benevolence Office, where I reported this morning for interview duty. For the first time this year, we had requests for far more money than our daily budget allowed, meaning that we couldn't help everyone to the extent they needed.

We tried to prioritize the assistance according to our judgment about the level of desperation of each situation, and that's not easy nor enjoyable when you know that you're not just dealing with dollars and cents but with children and single moms and sick dads. Let's see...which do we want do see happen less: someone losing their electricity in this 100° heat, or someone being evicted? Those were pretty much the decisions that applied to every person who came in today.

I went away feeling a little depressed. I'm not cut out for this...but I'm not sure any of us are, and so I'll keep doing the best I can, same as the other folks I volunteer alongside of.

God, have mercy on us all, Your children.

Never Forget

Teens Lack Financial Perspicaciousness? Like that's a shock...

The Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy was created in 1995 with the goal of ensuring that "basic personal financial management skills are attained during the K-12 educational experience." The Coalition had discovered what many of us suspected all along: the average student who graduates from high school lacks basic skills in the management of personal financial affairs.

The organization administers a biennial test to assess the level of financial literacy among American students. The 2006 test was given to almost 6,000 12th graders in 37 states, and the results released in April showed a very slight increase in scores over the 2004 test. Still, the average score for the 30 question test was just 52.4% (vs 52.3% in the previous exam).

I thought it might be interesting to look at the handful of questions where fewer than 40% of the test-takers knew the correct answers. I've extracted them from the complete test results, which are available via this PDF document. I've provided the correct answer in the blank line below each question; just click and drag over the blank line to reveal it.

Many savings programs are protected by the Federal government against loss. Which of the following is not?

a. A bond issued by one of the 50 States
b. A U. S. Treasury Bond
c. A U. S. Savings Bond
d. A certificate of deposit at the bank

Only 28.6% answered correctly (a); 49.3% answered (d)

Doug must borrow $12,000 to complete his college education. Which of the following would NOT be likely to reduce the finance charge rate?

a. If his parents took out an additional mortgage on their house for the loan.
b. If the loan was insured by the Federal Government.
c. If he went to a state college rather than a private college.
d. If his parents cosigned the loan.

Only 30.4% answered correctly (c); 32.9% answered (a)

If you had a savings account at a bank, which of the following would be correct concerning the interest that you would earn on this account?

a. Sales tax may be charged on the interest that you earn.
b. You cannot earn interest until you pass your 18th birthday.
c. Earnings from savings account interest may not be taxed.
d. Income tax may be charged on the interest if your income is high enough.

Only 22.7% answered correctly (d); 50.9% answered (c)

Retirement income paid by a company is called:

a.Rents and profits
b. Social Security
c. 401k
d. Pension

Only 37.7% answered correctly (d); 32.9% answered (c) and 25.9% answered (b)

If your credit card is stolen and the thief runs up a total debt of $1,000, but you notify the issuer of the card as soon as you discover it is missing, what is the maximum amount that you can be forced to pay according to Federal law?

a. nothing
b. $50
c. >$500
d. $1000

Only 15.1% answered correctly (b); 55.8% answered (a)

Kelly and Pete just had a baby. They received money as baby gifts and want to put it away for the baby's education. Which of the following tends to have the highest growth over periods of time as long as 18 years?

a. A U.S. Govt. savings bond
b. A savings account
c. A checking account
d. Stocks

Only 14.2% answered correctly (d); 44.8% answered (a)

I tend not to get too exercised over this perceived shortfall in "financial literacy." I'm pretty sure I was clueless even as a high school senior about many of these topics, either deferring to my parents for advice and direction, or deeming them irrelevant to my more immediate needs. On the other hand, I gained the knowledge I needed in college, and that's not an option or a choice for many kids.

I am surprised by certain things, like the abyssmal failure to understand that the liability for a stolen or lost credit card is not zero. This is a bit scary, given how many teens nowadays have their own credit cards.

The linked PDF has a section at the end where scores are broken down by demographic indicators. It's interesting to note how certain expectations by the students about their futures correlate with their financial acuity. For example, when asked about the type of work they intended to when they finished school (whatever that means), the group that picked "manual labor" scored only 41.0% on the test while the group that picked "professional worker" scored 54.9%, a seemingly significant difference that also raises questions of cause and effect, i.e. which came first, their career aspirations or their inability to grasp -- or lack of interest in -- basic personal finance?

Technorati tags: Jump$tart Coalition | Personal Financial Skills

Dinosaur Jobs

Fellow west Texas blogger Reagan Lynch emailed a link to an article entitled Six Jobs That Won't Exist in 2016. The jobs listed included "gatekeepers" (which are positions designed to control our access to or consumption of data), bloggers, "advertising creatives," auto mechanics, US high tech positions, and Indian call-center operators.

This list is obviously tongue-in-cheek. First, there's no data to support the claim that "blogger" is a job that exists even today. Second, those who believe that auto mechanics will be replaced by programmers are obviously not acquainted with fundamental concepts like friction. Third, the vanishing of Indian call centers is a pipe dream, given that the only accurate prediction of the bunch is the elimination of US tech jobs. You don't really think that once all those tech jobs are relocated to India that that country will relinquish its call centers, do you?

But it is an interesting exercise, predicting the next buggy-whip manufacturer or zeppelin engineer. Any thoughts?

More proof that we live in an age of lowered expectations

My wife ran across this "help wanted" ad in today's newspaper:

There's so much about this ad that's sadly ironic, not the least of which is the identity of the organization with the job vacancy: the Midland Independent School District.

Technorati tags: Certified But Not Qualified | Lowered Expectations

Them's some good preachin'

If you're not watching the TV coverage of Coretta Scott King's memorial service going on as I type this, you're missing one of the most moving and uplifting programs you'll ever see. This is a worship service, a time of praise and honor, with Mrs. King's life as being the excuse, but with the Lord of the Heavens as the true focus.

The music is awe-inspiring, the eulogies magnificent and emotional, the audience charitable and expressive.

I think Dr. and Mrs. King are watching and nodding with approval. I wish the generous spirit of unity that's being expressed in that Georgia Baptist church could spread to the ends of the earth.

Update: It's now after 3:00 pm and the service continues its glacial pace...but, unfortunately, it did not continue its inital "high road" path. The Usual Suspects took their opportunities at the podium to score political points in ways that I don't believe the Kings would have condoned. We continue to understand that class knows no color boundaries...nor does lack of it.

Technorati tag: Coretta Scott King

Big Houses, Big Prices

Forbes has an article about the most expensive homes in the U.K. It's really fascinating, in a head-shaking sort of way, but here's the money quote (emphasis mine):

I'm pretty sure that if I had paid $35 million to an architect and builder and found during my final walk-through that the home was featureless, I'd be peeved. (Is that the proper British term?)

Roadmaps for Illegal Immigrants

A Tucson-based organization called Humane Borders has prepared detailed maps of certain remote portions of the US/Mexico border to assist illegal immigrants in their journeys. The maps show, among other things, the locations of water stations and rescue beacons (which may be activated by people in distress to attract the attention of the US Border Patrol), and the extent of cell phone coverage in the mapped areas.

The group has also prepared and will distribute warning posters describing the dangers of attempting to cross in these remote areas. (For a graphic description of those dangers, read Urrea's The Devil's Highway, a review of which is here.) These posters (and the maps, for that matter) also pinpoint known locations of previous deaths related to attempts to cross the border, presumably as a warning to those contemplating a similar undertaking. Somewhat ironically, the posters also show the estimated walking time to cover the required distance.

I don't question the righteous intentions of the folks behind this project -- they want to save human lives -- but I do believe they're seriously naive about what it will accomplish. For example, setting aside the fact that the group is facilitating an illegal activity, here are a few flaws in their approach:

• It's unlikely that most illegals will have either the skill or the equipment to effectively use these maps; I doubt that most have ever seen a compass, much less used one. In any event, they'll likely be relying on a coyote or guide (often with disastrous results, as Urrea points out in the above-linked book).


• Even if you have a map and the skill to use it, that shouldn't give you the confidence of surviving the hellish trek through the Sonoran desert in high summer. How many people will overestimate their survival abilities based on having a map? How many can actually assimilate the reality of walking 40 miles over brutal terrain in 100° temperatures -- at night?


• The posters are designed to educate and warn folks about that previous point, but how many of the immigrants (a) can read, or (b) will view them as anything other than American propaganda designed to keep them from the Land of Opportunity? In any event, I doubt such posters will remain posted very long considering the huge amounts of cash accruing to the organized criminals engaged in smuggling human cargo across the border.

The real problem is, of course, the last thing we need to do is provide a terrorist with resources designed to make undetected entry into our country easier. A terrorist who, by the way, will surely have both the skills and the equipment needed use those resources.

In a pre-9/11 world, we might just shake our heads at the well-intentioned but ultimately misguided efforts of these folks. Today, however, the stakes are considerably higher, and the unintended consequences could literally reverberate through our nation.

Tip: GOPUSA's The Loft

Technorati tags: Illegal Immigration | Humane Borders

Ten Years of Concealed Carry in Texas

I don't have a concealed carry permit for a handgun, although MLB and I have recently discussed the idea of taking the course that would qualify us for one. I don't feel a great need (well, any need, to be accurate) to carry a gun on my person 99.9% of the time, and I haven't concocted any good solution as to how, exactly, I might go about concealing a 2.5 pound .357 revolver with a 6" barrel, short of investing in one of those dusters that would result in my looking even goofier than usual. But we do occasionally find ourselves out in the middle of nowhere on our bicycle, and the ability to pack a small pistol in those situations offers some not inconsequential reassurance.

But almost a quarter of a million of my fellow Texans have availed themselves of this privilege since it became available a decade ago, and it's interesting to read about the perceived effects of the concealed carry legislation since its adoption.

There's this:

And this:

And, finally, this:

Frankly, I'm a bit skeptical that concealed carry by 1% of the population should get the credit for the statistical drop in crime, and I would also argue -- with respect to the second quote above -- that those who are predisposed to commit violent crimes are also probably not going to fret too much about whether they're carrying their SNSs legally or not. But the point to be understood is that while concealed carry may or may not have made things safer in Texas, it surely hasn't made them less safe. The daily bloodbaths predicted by opponents to the measure simply haven't materialized, and the linked article provides several quotes from people originally opposed to the legislation who now admit they were wrong.

I don't know if we'll ever follow through on our discussion, but it would be a good excuse to buy one of these.

Technorati tag: Concealed Handguns | Crime Statistics

"The real reason the West is in danger of extinction"

Mark Steyn's column in yesterday's OpinionJournal is, as James Lileks puts it, "breathtakingly depressing." Steyn draws some logical conclusions based on indisputable facts, and the perceptive reader should be able to use them to cast some new light on the debate about immigration, legal and otherwise, among other things.

I recommend setting aside twenty minutes or so to read it. If you're in the US, you can then take a couple of seconds to comfort yourself that you're not living in, say, France, Spain or the Netherlands, but don't tarry too long in that state of mind. Denial, as they say, is not a river in Egypt, and Islamic fundamentalism is not something that's just going to affect countries "over there."

WWJD: Who Would Jesus Deck?

Update (11/22/05): Yesterday, TCAL officials awarded the state football championship to our local high school team, and mailed the trophy to the school. We probably shouldn't read anything into the fact that the TCAL website makes no mention of this.

Yesterday, one of our local high school football teams was playing for the state championship in its league. Unfortunately, after fights broke out in two consecutive plays, the game was suspended by the referees, and it remains to be seen what the final outcome will be. Our local team had a significant lead when the game was suspended shortly into the second quarter.

The championship being contested was that of the TCAL...the Texas Christian Athletic League, a statewide association of private Christian schools.

The more I think about this, the more it bothers me. If Christians wonder why they're making such a small impact in society today, they need look no further than this example to get a clue.

Here's what the coach of the local team was quoted as saying about the game: ""We were not the cause of this," Jauz said. "We were only trying to defend ourselves."

Well. Who could argue with "trying to defend ourselves"? Oh, let's see. How about the person for whom the athletic league is named, none other than Jesus Christ? That defense doesn't seem to square very well with what Jesus said here:

Oh, but he didn't mean that literally, did he? Well, I'll leave that to you to work out with God, if you're so inclined to question Him about it. But you can be sure that the world at-large is watching to see how you answer that question, if you're a follower of Christ, and if your faith doesn't distinguish you from anything else it sees, you can't blame it if it questions the value of that faith.

I don't know how the TCAL controversy will be resolved and frankly, I don't care. Both teams forfeited their right to be honored as "champions" according to the criteria that truly matter, and that's truly regrettable.

Technorati tag: Texas Christian Athletic League

What's in a Name?

I'm looking at a "holiday" shopping catalog, one of those glossy numbers touting some "exclusive" gifts such as

• a Jimmy Buffett Las Vegas Concert Package for eight - Price: $30,000


• a 1969 Chip Foose custom-designed 620 hp 1969 Camaro and travel package to meet the designer - Price: $190,000


• a Hummer H3 Golf Car complete with hydraulic disk brakes and your choice of four colors - Price: $8,998


• An inflatable 16' wide x 13' tall projection TV screen with Peavy audio system, perfect for poolside movie watching - Price: $6,999


• a set of platinum ear studs made with 10 2/3 carat total weight in diamonds, one-of-a-kind - Price: $158,210


• an 82 carat diamond wreath necklace, made with 155 pear-shaped diamonds set in platinum - Price: $263,574

Have you guessed the catalog? Neiman-Marcus? Nope. Gump's? Huh-uh. Tiffany? Nyet.

It's from none other than those good old boys right down the street at your local Sam's Club, where you can buy Pampers and hand lotion in pick-up bed sized loads, along with everything you need to stock your candy machine and storm cellars.

Now, I'm not a marketing expert, and I've certainly never had 200 large to drop on a bauble, but I somehow think that if I did have that kind of dough, I wouldn't be trekking down to Sam's to spend it in this magnitude. In fact, it would likely never even occur to me that I could get these things at a Sam's Club. (Does your average millionaire -- and I'm talking annual cash flow here, not 401K/home equity/comic book collection balances -- spend any time thumbing through a Sam's catalog?)

I also can't help thinking that the fortunate recipient of one of the above gifts, especially one of the jewelry persuasion, would much rather be able to brag about it coming from one of those exclusive names mentioned above. But, maybe that's just me.

Perhaps if Sam's Club is able to provide the same level of savings on these high-end items as on the more plebian bulk commodities it's better known for, the smart money will, indeed, get spent there. I'm just skeptical about their success in attracting those eyeballs in the first place.

Oh, by the way. While I don't have a wish list posted on this blog, I can assure you that my pride is sufficiently held in check so as not to be offended in the least if you decide to bestow one of these splendidities on me out of the sheer goodness of your heart. Feel free to use the money you save to buy yourself something nice, as well.

Cowboys and Politics

The Donald C. and Elizabeth M. Dickson Research Center serves as the library and archives of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Its mission, to quote the website, "is to preserve, document, and interpret the heritage of the American West for the enrichment of the public by collecting, arranging, describing, making available, and preserving library, photographic, and archival materials related to the West and its social and cultural history."

I've just come across one of the Center's online exhibits entitled Like a Cowboy: Imagery in Politics, Prose and Reality. The exhibit is a series of images juxtaposed against blurbs of text taken from a wide variety of sources, including poetry, newspaper and magazine articles, personal correspondence...and even the blogosphere.

It's a jumble of perspectives, where the lyrics to Song of the Cattle Trail, a 1907 postcard showing the start of a cattle drive and a quote from a magazine published in 1895 bump up against an excerpt from, well, this.

Like a Cowboy is an unfiltered look at how cowboys -- and the concept of the cowboy -- has been used and misused through the years. Apart from the dubious judgment of including a portion of a Gazette post (an acknowledgement which I nevertheless gratefully accept), it's a fascinating presentation. The old photos alone are worth a visit.

Technorati tag: National Cowboy Museum

Box Play

I can't think of a better way to jumpstart a Monday than a post about toys, so it was fortuitous that one of the stories on the early morning news was about the induction of the cardboard box into the Toy Hall of Fame.

I for one applaud the perspicuity of those who recognized the universal appeal of something so simple that it provides an endless array of possibilities when leavened with just a touch of imagination.

Everyone knows that toddlers are just as enamored with the boxes (and wrapping paper) enclosing their birthday and Christmas gifts as they are with the presents themselves, but that appeal isn't limited to that age. I can remember the feeling of amazing luck my brother and I had upon stumbling across the occasional abandoned refrigerator box when we were in the single-digit ages. Our preferred transformation of said containers was into a tank-like contraption that could roll over all manner of terrain with us ensconced inside, safe from all the prickly, stickery and biting things that made up the landscape of the vacant lots surrounding our house.

It's my firm conviction that the world would be a better place if more kids spent more time playing with cardboard boxes.

Veteran's Day 2005

What we now refer to as Veteran's Day actually began in 1919 as Armistice Day, in observance of the one-year anniversary of the cessation of hostilities in World War I. Armistice Day was made a legal Federal holiday in 1938, and in 1954 the name was changed to Veteran's Day. That change was effected by a proclamation by President Eisenhower and included the following:

Did you get that last part? "...let us reconsecrate ourselves to the task of promoting an enduring peace..." It's a difficult truth that going to war is sometimes the only option for securing peace. And while one may argue about imperfect rationale or execution of a wartime strategy, the loyalty, sacrifice and value of those who are called upon to carry it out must not be questioned...must be appreciated. That's what Veteran's Day is for.

So I want to publicly express my thanks to some specific people for their service to our nation. It's an incomplete list, but if everyone would make such a list, perhaps we can cover the bases. My deep gratitude goes to:

• My dad -- World War II
• My father-in-law -- World War II
• My cousin - Viet Nam
• My blogging pals Wallace (Viet Nam) and John (Airborne Infantry)
• SSG. Will -- Operation Iraqi Freedom
• The sons of friends, Adam (USMC Advanced Flight Training) and Joe Anthony (USMC - Iraq)

God bless you, and God bless America.

Technorati tag: Veteran's Day

An Average Meme

"Borrowed" (heck, who am I kidding; I even copied the non-standards compliant source code) from Charles over at Dustbury, who likewise stole borrowed it from Accidental Verbosity, an exercise of exquisite memeness.

According to this book, a majority of Americans:

• Eats peanut butter at least once a week
  
• Prefers smooth peanut butter over chunky
  
• Can name all Three Stooges
  
• Lives within a 20-minute drive of a Wal-Mart
  
• Eats at McDonald's at least once a year
  
• Takes a shower for approximately 10.4 minutes a day
  
• Never sings in the shower
  
• Lives in a house, not an apartment or condominium
  
• Has a home valued between $100,000 and $300,000
  
• Has fired a gun
  
• Is between 5 feet and 6 feet tall
  
• Weighs 135 to 205 pounds
  
• Is between the ages of 18 and 53 (we'll interpret this range as being inclusive
  
• Believes gambling is an acceptable entertainment option)
  
• Grew up within 50 miles of current home
  

So, are you or aren't you? An un-Lake-Wobegonly average, that is. (Note: You don't have to be American to play.)

Update: I just realized that I've consistently used the incorrect statistical marker of "average" throughout this post. I think "mode" is probably more proper, but I know Jim will let me know for sure.

Phobiaphobia

Frank Furedi has a thought-provoking article entitled "The Market in Fear," over at Spiked (thanks to Dave at North Sea Diaries for the link). With the proliferation of headlines nowadays reminding us of how afraid we need to be of, well, just about everything, it's worth taking a bit of time to consider the rationality of fear.

Furedi gives us a quick history lesson to show how fear has taken on a relatively new role -- or at least a new incarnation -- in our society and culture.

[Emphasis mine]

He goes on to distinguish between "fright" and "fear," where the former is a reaction to a specific occurrence that has impacted us in some way while the latter has become divorced from any such experiential reference.

The most powerful part of this essay is where the author discusses how fear has now become a market strategy for corporations, led by "fear entrepreneurs." Of course, a plethora of political and social agendas integrate fear into their tactics for achieving mindshare, funding or backlash against competing agendas.

One can easily create a list of well-known "fear entrepreneurs," if not by name then certainly by campaign: global warming, flu pandemics, terrorism, etc. Is there any question that the manufacturers of virus and spyware protection software hold the marketing benefits of fear in high regard?

When FDR issued the famous statement quoted at the top of this post, he was delivering a subtle, multi-layered message, one of both reassurance and of warning. He sought to reassure citizens that their country was strong enough to protect them; that seems obvious. But many probably overlooked the warning that fear itself -- in and of itself -- was dangerous and paralyzing. Those words still ring true today.

So, what's the answer? How do we combat fear, collectively and individually? Furedi's suggestion: