Better Said

A much more eloquent version of what I was trying to say about the Clintons and Obama can be found on the WSJ's article, Obama's Clinton Education.

It seems a little surprising to me that Edwards has not caught a favorable tailwind from all of the dispute between these two. It will be an interesting day in South Carolina.

T.S. Eliot Speaks On Stimulus Package

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. - T.S. Eliot

Clintons v. Obama

There were some good news segments on PBS tonight on both the economy and the election race. There seemed to be a rather unanimious opinion that the Clintons have really acted detestably recently but that unfortunately it seemed to be having a positive short term impact for them. One analyst discussed how it has become the Clinton strategy to make race an issue (as Bill coyly blames this on Obama) so that Barrack's broad support throughout the party and to moderates can then be thrown into question and he can be perceived to only have the support of a particular segment. Then, when Obama wins SC, the Clinton loss can be dismissed because "of course Obama was always going to win because there are so many black voters in SC." I don't think that was quite their line when she was leading in those polls. It's frustrating to see that spin gain traction though. What I really hope to see is a solid Obama win followed by a second place Edwards and third place Clinton.

The striking thing about this to me is that Hillary could end up winning the nomination as she and her husband and their supporters continue to sling and hack away at Obama and yet by doing so, not only is she the "Great Uniter" of Republicans, but the great wellspring of enthusiasm and interest that Obama has brought to the party and among moderates could easily turn against her and want to see her fall, especially if a reasonably palatable candidate like McCain were to win the nomination on the Republican side. I hope Obama pulls it off and it doesn't come to that, but even her victory in the primary might only pave the wave to her loss in the general election.

Good reads

Brenda had a copy of this at lunch today. Of first two articles I thumbed to, one involved the modern slave trade and the other involved Jeffrey Sachs. For that alone I found it worthy of further attention. Even if it did have Rob Bell on the cover. :-)

Indexed

I think I saw this in my first episode of Paste magazine. It's pretty amusing if you have some time you need to kill.

Cold

I was shivering violently and uncontrollably for at least five minutes when I got in my car tonight.

Today's low temperature in Bastogne, Belgium: 50 degrees
Current temperature in Wilmington, Delaware: 16 degrees.

Yeah, it's that cold.

Delaware Primary

As the races roll on without much increasing clarity of who will win either contest, I would like to mention that Delaware's primary will be on February 5th. Polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00p.m. While Delaware is rather meaningless in the big scheme of things, it's nice to know that there will actually still be a competitive race when it's my turn to vote.

Are You Stimulated Now?

So all over the news is the impending "economic stimulus package" that Congress and the President will soon be enacting to stave off a recession. In case you're wondering, the theory behind this can be represented by the following formula:

Y= C + I + (G-t) + X

I'll spare the explanation for another time. Personally though, I am against this proposal, just as I was against Bush's tax rebates back in 2001. I don't see how transferring billions of dollars from a government running a huge deficit to a general population up to their eyes in debt so that they can spend more money is really an effective long term solution. But of course, this isn't about a long term solution. This is about not looking like Herbert Hoover in an election year. Shadow over substance.

How is it that we can somehow always find the will and the means for a short lived economic stimulus package, but when we need to make changes to correct social security, health care or fund our foreign aid obligations, there is simply not enough money or will to do it?

The Real And The Ideal

So at work I have been part of a small group discussion on the book Primal Leadership. The last couple weeks we have been talking about creating pictures of the "ideal self" and the "real self." You then must map out where the two are overlapping (which is a good thing) and where there are gaps (which is a bad thing). You are also to create a picture of who and where you want to be in 15 years.

Although setting goals has always been part of my life, I am having a lot of trouble with this assignment. I am finding it difficult to create this picture of my ideal self from a clean slate. Is there like a multiple choice survey I can take for that or something? One of my points of reluctance is that I am going to create this picture and perhaps reshape myself to that over time only to find in 15 years that I should have been something different. Also, I feel like I could be content with several different conflicting or even mutually exclusive scenarios of the future.

Granted, "My times are in His hands" but that does not negate our duties to plan, prepare and pursue whatever ends God has put on our hearts. I'm just having trouble sorting this out right now. One exercise they mention is to create a list of things you want to do before you die, but even on this point I am having far more trouble than I have had in the past. Maybe I can find one of my old lists and go off of that.

Has anyone else gone through an exercise of creating a picture of their "ideal self"? I have to admit it sounded a little hokie at first, but after further examination it's really not as bad as it first appears.

Thoughts On Obama

On Monday, I grabbed a copy of USA Today to read while I ate dinner, and I read an article that I found both saddening and infuriating. My frustration centers around one particular comment,

Melvin, 57, said she yearns to vote for Obama but believes Hillary Clinton stands a better shot at making history as the first female president. "When white people go behind that curtain in their polling place, they won't vote for a black man, no matter how eloquent or capable," said Melvin, a retired Air Force transportation officer.

Perhaps the first problem I have with this is that it is factually untrue. Did it escape this person's notice that Barack Obama won convincingly in a state whose population is 95% white and only 2.5% black? As the New York Times reported,

Mr. Obama’s victory in this overwhelmingly white state stood as a powerful answer to the question of whether America was prepared to vote for a black person for president. At the same time, the apparent surge of independent voters to his side, as suggested by polls of voters entering the caucuses, suggested his potential appeal in a general election.

When people speak as Melvin did in the USA Today article, I feel that it causes racism to cast a longer shadow than actually exists. When we acquiesce to the remnant of racism in this way, we give racists two votes - theirs and ours. To speak as though no progress has been made and imply that no white people will vote for a black candidate disrespects the sacrifices and triumphs of those who have long labored for racial equality, even at the expense of their own lives.

Does racism still exist in this country? Sadly, of course it does. But significant progress has been made and to continue to embrace a defeatist attitude only increases the likelihood of creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. How can you listen to Obama's message of hope and change and then throw up your hands and say it doesn't matter or it won't work? It would be a tremendous shame if Barack Obama fails to win his party's nomination because of the lack of support of voters who desire to vote for him but betray him because they have convinced themselves that their vote is useless. Now is not the time for shallow chested men who will not vote by their conscience and conviction but succumb to the media created consensus of "electability" and the persistence of pessimistic attitudes.

We Shall Overcome

Thank you for all you did Dr. King. How we need to listen carefully to his message still today.

With this faith we will go out and adjourn the councils of despair and bring new light into the dark chambers of pessimism. And we will be able to rise from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope and this will be a great America and we will be the participants in making it so.

Song of the Day: Overcome ~ Live

I made another I-tunes purchase this evening. Like the video, I associate this song with 9/11. It takes me back and gives me chills every time I hear it.

Kerry Snides Running Mate

I was a little surprised to read that John Kerry overlooked his own former running mate to endorse Barack Obama. Such a man of unwavering conviction and loyalty, that Kerry fellow. Maybe if Edwards wins the nomination, Kerry can say he voted for Edwards before he voted against against him. Flip-Flop. Does this make a difference at all, or is Kerry completely irrelevant even to his own party at this point? Or maybe he thought this was the candidate most likely to appoint him to a cabinet position or as a running mate?

Bonus Song of the Day: You Can Shake the Mountains ~ Lifehouse

Yet another song from Lifehouse before they were Lifehouse. Where on earth are people finding these songs and why can't I find them on CD or MP3?

Song of the Day: In the Sun ~ Joseph Arthur

I am making some purchases today from my I-tunes giftcard I received for Christmas. This was on of my selections. Beautiful song.



" Because when you showed me myself, you know I became someone else."

A Small Critique on "The Vanishing Middle Class"

I am a little over 1/3 of the way through Ending Poverty In America. One of the chapters was on "The Vanishing Middle Class" by Elizabeth Warren. It was an interesting article. For instance, she cites that

When asked in an open-ended question to identify their class membership, more than 91.6% of the adult population of the United States volunteer an identification with "working" or "middle" class.

That's a pretty strong identification with being in the middle class. She then rather succinctly and clearly states the facts of the matter,

In a single generation the family had picked up a second earner, but it had spent every dollar of that second paycheck. Worse yet, it had also spent the money it once saved, and it had borrowed more besides. By the most obvious financial measures the middle-class American family has sunk financially.

She then critiques and criticizes the standard explanation of overconsumption as the reason for this. Again she makes some helpful and insightful points, but I would argue with her on a couple items.

For instance, in explaining where the money actually goes, she cites the increase in fixed costs, the first being for housing. Now, I would agree with anyone who says that the cost of housing has increased dramatically. But she has an odd way of trying to explain that we are living in virtually the same homes that we did a generation ago, citing that the median home today has 6.1 rooms versus 5.8 rooms in the earlier period. The number of rooms is not a very helpful measure though, and in my opinion it is a somewhat misleading statistic in two ways. First, I believe the size of families has shrunk over the last generation so we should need fewer rooms not more. And secondly, the size of those rooms has increased dramatically.

The square footage of new homes increased by 39 percent between 1971 and 1996 to include family rooms, home entertainment rooms, home offices, bedrooms and often a bathroom for each family member. (Source: D'tente in the Housework Wars, Toronto Star, 1999) as cited in Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenrich.

This is important to recognize because it reveals one possible solution is to to put greater pressure on local zoning and housing authorities to require more construction of affordable as opposed to luxury housing. Anecdotally, nearly all of the new housing construction I see in this area, especially near work, is for luxury homes. That doesn't help me any.

The second fixed costs she cites is healthcare, and I don't argue with her on that, but the third fixed cost she cites is transportation, namely automobiles. Again she misses an important aspect of our overconsumption. The average new car lasts for a life of 10.2 years and mileage of 120,000, but the average trade-in occurs after just 4 years and 50,000 miles (source: Good Sense Budget Course). Repeating the purchase of a new car at these intervals over a lifetime can literally add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I wish on her solutions segment she had talked more about financial literacy and education. She makes good points regarding the explosion in credit marketing, but there is so much more to it than that. In my opinion, no one should be able to graduate high school or college without a basic course on personal finances. Everyone needs to know how credit cards work, how to create a budget, what a mutual fund and 401k/IRA is, etc. We are not preparing young people for informed and responsible financial management throughout their life.

I am enjoying reading the book though and would continue to recommend it to everyone.

Distressing Object Lessons

So last Sunday Karl started a new class on the book of Jeremiah. One of the things that struck me is that Jeremiah's life was to be an object lesson for Judah's relationship with God. Hence, he couldn't mourn at funerals, couldn't celebrate at weddings, couldn't marry and so on as a picture of what was happening and about to happen to the nation. I never really made the connection before, but that's a pretty common theme for the prophets. Hosea of course has to marry a prostitute and give rather unpopular names to their children. Ezekiel has to do a bunch of rather odd activities and most sadly God kills his wife.

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, with one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears. Groan quietly; do not mourn for the dead. Keep your turban fastened and your sandals on your feet; do not cover the lower part of your face or eat the customary food of mourners ." So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I had been commanded. - Ezekiel 24:15-18

It's hard to wrap my mind around that sometimes. Talk about life not being fair. It gives me a deeper level of appreciation for the prophets.

Fairy Tales

Fairy tales. I saw one this evening. The Miner family graciously invited me to join them for some New Year's Day leisure, and after dinner everyone watched the movie, Stardust. I had never heard of it before, but it's actually quite good with all of the typical elements you would expect in a story of this genre.

It just got me to thinking about fairy tales in general. It's kind of a strange question, but how helpful are they? Are they eternal whispers of truth and ultimate reality? Or are they amusing illusions that just make the harshness of day to day life more real by contrast? On the one hand they bring freshness to life and make it more bearable, and on the other they can heighten one's cynicism about life and people.

I remember connecting with John Elderidge's summons to "live mythically", to see how our seemingly small day to day battles are part of a God inspired epic. And yet after watching the movie tonight, I think I can see more clearly why some skeptics would simply dismiss Scripture as yet another fairy tale. Once upon a time, two people eat fruit from the wrong tree and are cast out of paradise. Eventually a noble Savior emerges to free everyone from the spell they are under but only through his own tragic death before he magically comes back to life himself, and one day we will all live happily ever after.

But that's not really the path I want to go down tonight. At the risk of sounding calculating, what is the "utility" of the fairy tale? Do they instruct us to live as we really should, or do they carry us along in our own delusions and desires when we need to wake up and see life as it is and move forward?

"Now tell me that part of the story where the cowboy falls in love
And traded in his pistol and his saddle and the stars above." - The Refreshments