Spin Cycle

I have talked about Kiva a few times on my blog already. Recently, they made a program change so that contributors receive back their loan proceeds incrementally instead of as a lump sum at the end. This allows funds to be reinvested more frequently.

I just received enough back from my "portfolio" to be able to make another loan. This time I went with Thomas in Ghana who needed some parts for repairs and maintenance for his taxi, as it is his sole income source to support 6 dependents. Act quickly, and you can join me by clicking the link below. If you no longer see Thomas, then his loan has been filled and a different entrepreneur is available for your consideration:



Merry Christmas Thomas

Lab rats?

That's it. I'm sick of it. I've had enough. It's time for us all to opt out of the rat race. To get off the hamster wheel of consumerism.

Yesterday, I ran into Rite-Aid on my lunch break to pick up a box of Dayquil. As I was walking out of the store, I noticed they already had an entire aisle set up for Valentine's Day. Are you kidding me? It's bad enough they start setting up for Christmas before Halloween (that alone Thanksgiving), now they have to start this crap?

When are we going to wake up? When are we going to realize we're all being strung along from holiday to holiday by our pride, fear and greed? Do we really have no way of expressing our love and appreciation for one another except for buying more and more stuff?

As an interesting backdrop to my Rite-Aid experience, I was talking to a co-worker yesterday and he told me that for Christmas, instead of buying each other gifts his family all makes a donation to a charity. On Christmas, they spread all the envelopes out on the floor and everyone picks one to see which charity received a donation in their honor. I was deeply impressed by this.

While I appreciate the gifts I have received (as evidenced by my last post) and have enjoyed giving them as well, next year just make a donation to one of the fine charitable causes you see listed on my blog. We'll all be better for it.

"I've seen enough and it's never enough, it keeps leaving me needing you." - Lifehouse

2009 Reading List

I finished reading Churchill this past week and am starting to draft up a prospective reading list for 2009. I am particularly excited as I received a B&N gift card from my parents for Christmas. My tentative list so far:

• Common Wealth by Jeffrey Sachs
• 1984 by George Orwell
• Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
• The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
• The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
• The Interior Castle by St. Teresa of Avila
• Saved in Hope by Pope Benedict XV
• The Winning Attitude, Developing the Leaders Around You and Becoming A Person of Influence by John Maxwell
• Selections From the Writings and Addresses of Abraham Lincoln edited by Cornelia Beare

Any recommendations to add to the list?

Gift Books

So, I happened to stop by the local Christian bookstore yesterday, and I noticed the prevalence of "Gift Books." Now, what is it that makes a "Gift Book" different from say, a regular book that one may either consume themselves or give to another? I think by definition, a "gift book" must be a book that is given by someone who has no intention of ever reading it to someone who has no intention of ever reading it.

O Holy Night

I'm not a big fan of Christmas music, but shortly after I woke up yesterday morning, I heard a rendition of O Holy Night by none other than Weezer. I find that my enjoyment of nearly any song can be enhanced by the utilization of an electric guitar.

Farfegnugen

It's not just the American Big 3 automakers who are looking to their government for loans in this economic climate. Volkswagen seems to ponying up to Germany's bank bailout too.

So, is it okay to loan billions of dollars to banks and financial institutions with lousy management and to spend $100 billion in Iraqi reconstruction with lousy management, but it's not okay to loan money to 3 companies who constitute actual domestic industrial output and represent, by their measures at least, 10% of employment?

I'm not sure it should happen, and I'm probably biased because I actually like GM, but once you've opened the bailout can, it's hard to get the worms back inside.

Running Start to a Resolution

So I have been pondering my New Years Resolutions today. My intent is to start to work them out now in the weeks leading up to the new year. I like to make new year's resolutions because it helps me refocus on things that are important, and it is a fresh attempt at retraining the habits of my mind, heart and body. I understand that no mystical transformations take place simply because the last digit of my calendar changes. I do not wake on January 1st with any more discipline and willpower than I had on December 31st. But we all need opportunities to clean the slate and start over. It is part of our sanctification to step back, consider our lives, and see if there is "any harmful way in me."

I am trying to draft my resolutions in both broad categories with smaller "SMART" goals. So, instead of just saying, "I want to eat healthier and get into shape" my goals are to "Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day." and to "Exercise for at least 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week."

What do you want in 2009?

Where's the News?

The fastest-growing bet in the oil market these days is that the price of crude will double to $200 a barrel by the end of the year. Options to buy oil for $200 on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 10-fold in the past two months to 5,533 contracts, a record increase for any similar period. - Bloomberg, January 7th.

So, has everyone noticed that oil is now below $45 a barrel and gas is now well below the $2 mark? Hmmm. Where are all the stories on the 6 o'clock news? Where are all the people ranting about the government not doing anything and how greedy "big oil" is fleecing everyone? What about all the conspiracy theories? What about the windfall profits tax?

On The Mark

A couple weeks ago the News Journal reported that in lieu of the expensive and glamorous inaugural ball, Governor-elect Jack Markell was using the time as a rally for a volunteer initiative across the state. Today they are reporting that the Democratic Governor has appointed noted local Republican businessman Alan Levin for secretary of the Delaware Economic Development Office.

It seems that on both the national and state executive level, there has been a big step up in managerial talent.

100 Year Bond?

Bloomberg is reporting,

BlackRock Inc.’s Peter Fisher said the U.S. Treasury should consider selling 100-year bonds to ease the federal government’s borrowing costs as it faces a budget deficit expected to top $1 trillion.

This makes sense to me. Let's get the money now before the world wakes up and asks themselves why on earth they're loaning us all this money for so cheap.

By the way, gold is now $774/ounce. Time to load up before it all hits the fan?

1934?

Rated below the story of Guns and Roses' spat with Dr. Pepper in terms of popularity on CNN.com is the report that a committee in Congress expects a biological terror attack on a major city within the next five years.

These truly are strange days to be living.

This is striking to me on a number of different levels. Is the indifference to this report an aspect of living long under the delayed threat of another attack on US soil? Has complacency set in such that since it has not happened yet it, we therefore believe it cannot happen again? Do we dismiss the raised spectre of such an event to be yet another political gimmick to convert fear into power? Are we so fatigued by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we do not want to contemplate a new angle on the global war on terror? Are we too absorbed in financial news and the threat of another global depression that we are deaf to all other threats to our security and well being? Do we feel hopeless in any vain attempts to personally prepare for such an event (i.e. "duck and cover")?

With an appropriate timeliness, I am still going through a biography on Winston Churchill. I read tonight that in July of 1934 , he spoke loudly in the House of Commons about England's vulnerability and the impending threat of bombings (particularly incendiary bombs) by the German Luftwaffe. He spoke of London being

"the greatest target in the world, a kind of tremendous, fat, valuable cow tied up to attract the beast of prey."

Later that year he added,

"The danger which might confront us would expose us not only to hideous suffering, but even to mortal peril, by which I mean peril of actual conquest and subjugation . . . The flying peril is not a peril from which one can flee. It is necessary to face it where we stand. We cannot possibly retreat."

At the time he noted,

"The fact remains that when all is said and done as regards defensive methods, pending some new discovery, the only direct measure of defence upon a great scale is the certainty of being able to inflict simultaneously upon the enemy as great damage as he can inflict upon ourselves."

With what defense do we arm ourselves against the threats of today?

Dare You To Move

I was listening to Switchfoot on the way to work yesterday, and this song struck me yet again with some of its great lines and fantastic sound.

I dare you to move.
I dare you to move.
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor.

The tension is here, the tension is here,
Between who you are, and who you could be,
Between how it is, and how it should be

Maybe redemption has stories to tell.
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell.
Where can you run to escape from yourself,
Where you gonna go, where you gonna go?
Salvation is here.