Oil Price Fall Coming Soon

This noon on WGN radio I heard Orion Samuelson interviewing some oil industry analyst who said to Orion's amazement, Oil is heading for 50 dollars per barrel or less. Orion was stunned. The guy said, the price is twice too high based on the fundamentals. This has been building and building. This rumbling is going on everywhere. See the following

This article by Jay Hancock of the Baltimore Sun:

The Fed is printing money to clean up the housing bubble, which was fueled by the money it printed to clean up the Internet bubble. The only question is what kind of bubble the new money will inflate.

Bet on oil and other energy.

Unfortunately for energy users, which is all of us, it may be years before the oil foam settles down. If this were the Internet bubble, we're probably closer to Nasdaq 2,500 in 1998 than Nasdaq 5,000 in 2000.

Every bubble needs a story. The Internet story was that the whole economy would shift to the Web. The housing story was that people don't trade Cape Cods and ranchers like penny stocks and that Wall Street knew how to lend to high-risk borrowers.

The energy story is that the planet is running out of oil, and we must pay $115 a barrel or more or return to the Stone Age. The "peak oil" theory, a fringe doomsday scenario a few years ago, is now an investment philosophy.

Like the other bubble stories, the energy tale contains substantial truth. It's just a matter of how much the truth is going to cost you.

Some energy analysts believe the natural price of oil, based on supply and demand, is $70 a barrel or less. This implies we're already into bubble territory.

There is no question that heavy speculation helped drive oil to $115. As with all good bubbles, leverage - investing with cheap, borrowed money furnished by the Fed - is a key inflator. Oil is the haven of choice for investors fleeing the dollar, which is the object of its own speculation.

Now taxi drivers talk about investing in Exxon Mobil. Exxon Mobil, The Wall Street Journal reported this week, is planning its future as though oil will return to $65. Maybe it knows something we don't.

With a slowing world economy, oil's price pop has outpaced increase in demand. The Energy Department projects that U.S. consumption will fall this year. Warren Buffett dumped his stake in PetroChina last year, although he later told Fox Business News that he "sold a little too soon."

Read The WHOLE thing.

White Guilt Will Take You Further Down than you EVER thought you would go

It seems to be popular to be striven with white guilt these days. Feel bad for slavery. For discrimination. For oppression. Even if you or I were totally innocent of all that, the fact that our skid is not ebony immediately makes us guilty.

That by any other terminology is racism.

But in today's polarized identify politics it's now necessary to play up to a racist agenda. See Obama's Jeremiah Wright for an example. Or Sharpton. Or Jessee Jackson. Kiss up to move up.

What frustrates me about this is John McCain is engaged in this in a big way. He just plain can't kiss enough liberal posterior to satisfy himself.

I'm sick of it. So is Pat Buchanan. So are a lot of people. My support for Huckabee and lack of support for McCain was solidly rooted in knowing he was the kind of Politician who would make this kind of "reaching out:

It began in Selma, Ala., where McCain went to Edmund Pettis Bridge to hail John Lewis and the marchers night-sticked and hosed down by the Alabama State Troopers on the Montgomery march for voting rights.

Now that was a seminal movement in the fight for civil rights.

But this is not 1965. Today, John Lewis is a big dog in the "No-Whites-Need-Apply!" Black Caucus. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright is sermonizing White America. The Rev. Al Sharpton is trying to shut down the Big Apple. And the fight for equal rights is being led by Ward Connerly.

With no help from McCain, Connerly is trying to put on five state ballots a Civil Rights Initiative that declares white men are also equal and not to be denied their civil rights because of the color of their skin.

And where does McCain stand?

From Selma, McCain went to the Gee's Bend Quilters Collective, where black ladies make the famous blankets. The stop could not but call to mind the hundreds of thousands of textile and apparel jobs in the Carolinas and Georgia lost after NAFTA and Most-Favored Nation for China, both of which McCain enthusiastically supported.

McCain's next stop was Inez, Ky., where LBJ declared war on poverty. But LBJ's war was a politically motivated scheme to shift wealth and power to government, which led to a pathological dependency among America's poor, his own abdication and Ronald Reagan's 1980 campaign against Big Government that ushered in the Conservative Decade.

McCain then went to New Orleans to backhand Bush for failing to act swiftly to rescue the victims of Katrina.

But the real failure of New Orleans was of the corrupt and incompetent regime of Mayor Ray Nagin and the men of New Orleans, who left 30,000 women and children stranded in a sea of stagnant water.

What I want is the Straight Talk Express we were promised. We are getting the same old soft soaping we get from every other liberal politician on the globe.

Kim Clement just prophesied TWO presidents this year. I don't know what that means, but if it means what it might maybe we won't be stuck with a Liberal John McCain Presidency.

HORRORS - Tony Blair Prayed and Prays

Atheists are outraged. Do you know that Tony Blair prayed before making key decisions as Prime Minister of England? How terrible.

You should make decisions purely on reason and nothing else is what the vocal godless are saying.

Blair said:

"I can't prove that religious faith offers something more than humanism," he said. "But I believe profoundly that it does."

In the United States, where talk of God and church can sometimes seem a prerequisite to getting elected, these open expressions of belief would not be unusual; in secular Europe, where religiosity tends to be viewed with suspicion, Blair said he kept his belief long under wraps for fear of being dismissed as "a nutter."

"One of the oddest questions I get asked in interviews, and I get asked a lot of questions, is: Is faith important to your politics? It's like asking someone whether their health is important to them or their family. If you are someone 'of faith,' it is the focal point of belief in your life. There is no conceivable way that it wouldn't affect your politics," Blair said.

Reason can fail, faith never does. Reason is like noses, everyone has one, everyone had an opinion and everyone thinks they are right. So, we try to reach consensus. That's worse. Committee based government. So we try to govern by polls. reason alone is an uncertain way to try to govern. We need to pray, to the true and living God. He who made all this anyway.

Thankfully Tony Blair and George Bush are men of prayer. God give us more men like them.

I wish George Bush could run for another term.

OVERNIGHT LOW LARAMIE WY 9 DEGREES

LARAMIE

I didn't get saved to join a country club

When I came to Jesus in Holy Ghost Power in 1980 I didn't go  looking for the best church I could join that gave me the most connections.   I already belonged to that church when I was saved.  I already had connections.  I already had people who with whom I networked.  

 

So, when I was saved and delivered I didn't want to be part of a Country Club Church.  I thought that I just missed it.  That somehow at First Lutheran was a group serious about seeking after God.

 

Pitifully there wasn't.  Talk in the coffee place after church was about golf games, vacations, business deals, fishing and  connections.  Nothing about Jesus.  They were nice people.  Just not really interested in anything other than getting members to the club.

 

In fact at that very church I was invited to join the Masonic Lodge.  WOW.

 

Within a few months I was gone.  I ended up at the most despised church in town, at least to some.  It was known as "THAT CHURCH".  They were radical and only wanted to talk about Jesus.

 

No country club.  Not even a Jesus Club.  A group of sold out passionate focused people looking to take back the ground the devil had stolen.

 

I haven't changed.  I have no interest in joining any church country club.  The minute any church I am part of becomes a club I'm gone if I can't yell loud enough to break the deceiving spell of the clubby atmosphere demon.

 

I so much want to be part of a church the Devil hates.  Not some nice little church on the corner.  I want to be part of something so radical, so sold out, so passionate, so on fire, so completely abandoned to seeking the Glory of God that nothing else matters.

 

There are places like that.  I wouldn't have to ever go to a conference or a meeting anywhere else.

 

Today I saw some sold out passionate friends of mine.  They said to me,  "Hey stranger are you lost, No, I said,  I'm home". 

 

Home is where your heart is.  My heart is in sold out passion for Jesus.  So if I'm ever in a place where that's going on, I'm home. 

 

Otherwise I'm just visiting a club.  Not something I look forward to.

The Plot Thickens

I have wondered about the Wright Obama issue. Why.

Leave it to my good buddy Mike Huckabee to sort it all out.

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has some supportive words for Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

A Baptist minister, Huckabee said Wednesday that Obamas former pastor is hurting Obama's bid for the White House. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright's anti-American comments and racially charged remarks demonstrate that Wright does not want Obama to prove that the country's race relations have progressed, said Huckabee, a former governor of Arkansas.

"Jeremiah Wright needs for Obama to lose so he can justify his anger, his hostile bitterness against the United States of America," Huckabee said.

Wright has claimed the federal government created AIDS to kill "people of color" and that the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were spurred by U.S. "terrorism" against minorities.

Spirituality in a Cup

At our little church on the corner there has been a great deal of talk about putting in a coffee shop. This story from the Faux News Site, Larknews.com tells you just how far this can go. It's all a joke but Lark News does such a good job, you almost think it's real. That's why it's called satire.

Church transforms into coffee chain

DENVER — Connection Metro Church, which used its foyer coffee bars to attract visitors to its eight satellite churches in the Denver area, has decided to abandon ministry altogether to focus on coffee.
"People liked the coffee a lot better than the ministry, according to congregational surveys, so we’re practicing what we preached and focusing on our strengths," says former teaching pastor and now chief marketing officer, Peter Brown.
Many in the congregation seem downright relieved.
"The sermons were okay, but the vanilla frappes were dynamite," says one woman who regularly attended the church for two years so she could enjoy the special brews. "I even brought my Jewish neighbors and they loved them."
The staff of Connection Metro Church began noticing last year that more money was coming in through the coffee bar than in the offering.
"People complimented us about the pastries and mochas but didn’t really mention the teaching," says Brown. "After feeling disappointed, we got pragmatic about it and realized God was telling us where to put our efforts."
The church renovated each of its locations into Connection Coffee Houses and removed most traces of its spiritual past. Now crowds are up and many former members are flourishing.
"Who knew I was so gifted at making foam?" says the former head usher, now the head barista, as he makes a heart-shaped design on a cappuccino.
The church’s small groups have been turned into neighborhood reading clubs, with some reading Christian titles and others following Oprah’s recommendations. The only visible remnants of the coffee house’s past are the offering bucket which serves as a tip jar, and the greeters stationed at the door to give a more welcoming feel than the nearby Starbucks.
Some former members were stunned to arrive at church Sunday morning to find the sanctuary transformed into a seating area with newspaper racks and coffee-themed gift items.
"I guess we’ll go back to the Methodist place," said one father who had brought his family. "But only after we try those delicious looking chocolate cream-filled croissants."
People in the surrounding neighborhoods say they are far more likely to stop by now. One man who came occasionally says he feels less guilty standing around the coffee counter now that there is no service taking place.
"Before, we had to sit through the service and pay our dues," he says. "Now we go right to the good stuff — the double espressos."
The staff also feels liberated now that the pressure of ministry is off.
"The best way to be relevant is to give people what they want," says Brown. "In our case, that’s coffee drinks." •

The Bed is Occupied

During our joint bouts with flu et al in the Redlin Domicile we have experienced a degree of separation that is painful.

She out of consideration for me and her own sanity has been sleeping in another bedroom. I coughed so much and then as my bout subsided she did. So it's been almost two weeks.

We both took granny's absolute flu formula cure, Beverly Hillbillies. You remember. Take it and in 7 days you get better?.

We did and now we are. It's a miracle.

Last night, she came back to bed. We both slept the night. It was comforting to have her there again. I don't enjoy being alone and neither does she.

When you are one flesh, and part isn't there, something is missing. You know how much when reuniting takes place.

Wonderful to Know

Some years ago I wrote a little booklet on marriage. I have sold or distributed over a thousand copies.

From time to time I get feedback from folks who have read it and it seemed to help them.

I got one such today.

It's wonderful to know that it has made a difference in someone's life. Makes all this keyboarding worth it all.

Secret Global Warming

Turns out there is no global warming. We are cooling. A Lot.

No less than the liberal main stream media democrat party sycophant the New York Times has come up with this reportage.

So, now we must fear freezing to death for the next 30 years or so.

But, never fear, global warming caused by humans is real and we need to do something about it right away.

I don't buy it, and if you have half a brain in your head you won't either. It gives me no pleasure at all to link to this article of freezing your rear end off prediction.

The last line of the article says it the best, In other words, CO2 is secretly warming the planet. Or not.

Sound Bites worth Consuming

From Mark Batterson's blog

"I was at a conference recently on generosity, and I asked a man who works full time with churches in the area of stewardship what typifies generous churches. His immediate response: 'They have generous senior pastors'."

"Suffering causes people to ask questions like no other force in the world. It snaps the threads of our illusions of control and sufficiency."

"We get so used to the Bible, we miss its edginess. The prophets were the original street performance artists. What they did was much more like radical street theater than it was like a church service."

"If I'm honest, what holds me back is not lack of creativity. It's lack of urgency. I don't think the main force that drove the prophets was creativity for creativity's sake. I think it was spiritual reality. There was such a desperate awareness of the need for God to come fix things up that it drove them to do anything to make space people's awareness for God.

"The teachers I most learn from often find non-verbal ways to drive home what they are teaching."

"People don't care what I know. They care about what I'm learning."

Rev Wright's Church Represents the minority of Black Churches

THIS FROM PROTEIN WISDOM:

While this story confirms that Wright’s Black Liberation Theology is a minority movement, even in urban black churches, it sadly demonstrates that some black leaders did not proactively debunk the suggestion that Wright was representative of “the black church” out of deference to Obama’s prior attempts to make the issue about race instead of religion and theology.

Perhaps worse is the degree to which the establishment media not only avoided soliciting the opinion of other black religious leaders, but also promoted the notion that Wright was expressing views commonly expressed within black churches. The offenders in this respect already noted here at pw include TIME magazine, as well as the taxpayer-funded PBS’s Bill Moyers and NPR. The list includes Andrew Sullivan, whose Obama crush has turned him into a human windsock. HotAir’s Ed Morrissey notes the attempts of the New York Times and the Washington Post to maintain the fiction even now that Wright’s estrangement from reality was not well-known and documented prior to this past weekend.

Those who engage in this level of intellectual dishonesty may serve Obama’s campaign and their own willingness to jump in the tank for him when he proclaimed that he could no more disown Wright than he could disown the entire black community. But this effort has been — and remains — a libel against the majority of black churchgoers who do not share Wright’s warped view of the world or his warped view of Christianity. Moreover, by suggesting to non-black America that Wright was representative of historically black churches, such media outlets set back the cause of race relations to the detriment of all Americans.

You can't pick your relatives

I am traveling today. Posting will be light. I'm much MO better flu wise. Peggy is still in full on chicken soup mode. We'll live but at our aging not back from the tomb as quickly.

I thought about Obama Wright et al.

I had a cousin once. He was a corker. People knew he was my cousin. They would ask me, isn't so and so your relative. Particularly when his name appeared in the police blotter of the paper.

Yep.

I couldn't pick my relatives. They are just relative.

But, I have picked my brothers of the faith. I'm pretty careful. It's about who they are and who I am in Jesus. If my spirit resonates with theirs we are brothers. But, Paul warns of "So Called" brothers. I'm afraid not everyone who calls me "Brother" is one. Not everyone who who says Lord Lord will be let in to the Kingdom.

Particularly since the defense of Rev Wright is all the good he has done. Feeding the poor, Preaching to the wounded, Helping the downtrodden. Good works.

I read something that helps put it all in perspective.
Matthew 7

15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

21Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

You can't pick your relatives but you can pick your spiritual brothers. Obama Picked Poorly.

Revival Meetings on TV and the Internet

For the last couple weeks as long as it's been on, we have been watching and "participating" in a fabulous move of God going on in Florida.

Todd Bentley.

Jesus.

Blind eyes opened, Wheel Chairs emptied, Deaf Hear, Lame walk, even restorative miracles.

I invite you to be part of it, I don't even care if you are a doubter, God has no doubts in his marvelous plan for YOUR LIFE.

See it here. http://www.freshfire.ca/ffmstream/index.php

How to Yell Fire in a Crowded Theater

Because of my Ministry Gifting and my personal temperament I often see things before they happen and before they become a problem. That has served me well in Business. I spot big problems and demand they be fixed before they are obvious to others.

Sometimes that requires talking straight to people. That doesn't always seem to be what people want to hear. I have a friend who owns a nursery. His operation is in the woods off the road. I told him six months ago that no one knows he is there. He needs to get some signs up by the road.

He agreed. I asked about the signs frequently. He said he knows it's important. He arranged with the guy that owns the land to post them.

Yesterday I asked him if he had the signs up yet as we talked about. He said, NO. He was offended that I keep poking at him to do what it's going to take for his business to do better. He wanted my help. He asked for my help. I'm trying to help him. So, when I later asked him how business was he said, "terrible, No body's coming in". I said nothing. I thought if the nexus of these two comments doesn't phase him I won't let it phase me.

This happens all the time. I have a marriage situation I am dealing with. I suggested a course of action to the Husband in the situation. He agreed that it would be very helpful if he did that. When later I asked him if he had done it, he said no and later complained that his marriage isn't getting better.

Some would say it's how you say it that counts. Some would say that you have to be careful with your words. A little at a time.

OK, I get that. But people are dense. They don't pick up on nuance. Plus there's that whole self esteem thing I posted on yesterday. People are deluded into thinking that everything will be OK if we just be nice. They have this all figured out.

So, how DO you clear a movie theater if there's a fire? I guess you could just start clearing a row at a time. That's how I would do it. Quickly. Enlist help. Don't panic but be insistent. Focused. Unbending. Determined. Probably can't care too much about people's feelings. The end result, a cleared theater, is more important than the method. Desirable methods seldom yield desirable results.

People would be offended. "Why can't I finish the movie. I spilled my popcorn. Why did he get evacuated before me. Lawsuits would ensue perhaps. But people didn't die." Form follows function.

Lots of things would be said afterwards. Gene wouldn't have to be so direct in all this theater clearing. He could be nicer.

What if someone is insistent on jumping into the ocean full of sharks. I tell them, DON'T JUMP IN THE OCEAN, THERE ARE SHARKS THERE. People would complain. I'm trying to hurt their fun. What do I have against diving. I know how to dive. I know more about swimming than you do.

But, if you do dive in you'll die. There are sharks down there.

"Who made you the expert".

Therein lies the problem. We live in a society that believes it knows what it is doing without knowing what it's doing. Phony self esteem. I see it everywhere.

I trained business managers, salespeople and leaders of industry for over 10 years. Thousands of them. Hard work. Drilling. Determined. I would start out with 44 people at a time and lose about a half dozen. Of those who finished many are still friends of mine. Many would say that their lives were changed.

Of those who became frustrated with my insistence on doing better, my drilling, my do it again mentality still are living below their potential.

Discipline (learning and growing) in the moment is never pleasant, but if it's done with an eye toward the end result a person can endure it and become what God intends them to become. Hebrews 12:11 We don't enjoy being disciplined. It always seems to cause more pain than joy. But later on, those who learn from that discipline have peace that comes from doing what is right.

If they reject discipline they will stop growing, plateau and begin to drift backwards.

That's where my friend is in his nursery business. That's where the man in the marriage is. That's where several people I care about are. They are at a crossroads of breakthrough or breakdown.

Maybe I need to be NICER when I deal with people as they are diving into the shark infested waters. My concern is people are not very open to correction of direction even if someone knows of these dangers. So, I don't know if it matters HOW I or anyone else says it.

The benefits of Illegal Wiretaps

Wiretapped Phone Call transcript between Rev Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama one week ago:

J Good Morning
B Hey Rev
J Barry my boy, hows it going
B Good but you got my butt in deep doo doo.
J Hows that?
B You know that God Da... America stuff
J Yea, what about it?
B Causing me all kinda trouble out here. I might not be President if I don't fix this
J What do you want to do
B Here's the plan. I've already distanced myself from you in Philly. You could act all ticked off that I sort of threw you under the bus.
J Well, I can't take back all those things I said in sermons all those years. The Republicans have tapes and CD's of everything I ever said so they'll hang that around my neck come November and get you unelected.
B OR, here's the cool part, you could make some speaches, be all cranky, radical, over the top, combative, nutty and say things like you're coming after me. Way I figure it, you could come up with some wild conspirisy theories. People would see that I'm the good cop and you're the bad cop. I'm the sane one and you're the nutcase. Heck you got that big house in the burbs now. Life is good. You don't need this. I think if we play our cards right we could get some sympathy votes for how mean you are to me. I mean you could be downright abusive. What do ya think.
J So basically you want me to take a dive for you. Is that it?
B Yep, but think of it, when President Obama takes the oath of office next Jan you'll be right there at my side. Won't it be sweet. I'll make you secretary of something or another. Michelle and I can have you right there with us. We'll show em.
J. Not bad, not bad at all. OK, I'm in. Let's make it look like Hillary set this up. Let's get every Republican and Conservative Blogger in the nation to take after me. In fact if Daily Kos and Huffington start to distance me from you we've got it cut.
B. RIGHT ON
J. I'll make a few calls, this is going to be so much fun. Today, Chicago, TOMORROW THE WORLD....BWAHHAHHAHHAHHA (Demonic evil laugh)

Of course this is all the fictional mindstorm of GENE. But, could it be we have just been had by someone really clever?

COULD BE!

High Self-Esteem Isn't Always Healthy

I Got this from WEB MD. It's exactly my experience. Thin Skinnedness and fragile self esteem go hand in hand:

Study Warns of High Self-Esteem That Is Fragile and Shallow

By Jennifer Warner
WebMD Medical News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

April 28, 2008 -- A new study suggests that high self-esteem isn't necessarily healthy self-esteem because there are different types of high self-esteem.

"There are many kinds of high self-esteem, and in this study we found that for those in which it is fragile and shallow it's no better than having low self-esteem," says researcher Michael Kernis, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Georgia, in a news release. "People with fragile high self-esteem compensate for their self-doubts by engaging in exaggerated tendencies to defend, protect and enhance their feelings of self-worth."

Researchers say it was once thought that more self-esteem was necessarily better self-esteem. But in recent years, self-esteem has come under closer examination after discovering links to aggressive behavior.

For example, Kernis says high self-esteem can become harmful when it is accompanied by verbal defensiveness, such as lashing out at others when a person's beliefs, statements, or values are threatened.

Self-Esteem Can Be Fragile

To help break down when high self-esteem turns from good to bad, researchers looked at whether people with "fragile" high self-esteem were more verbally defensive than those with more "secure" high self-esteem in a three-part study involving 100 undergraduates.

First, the students filled out questionnaires to determine their self-esteem levels. Then researchers assessed the stability of the students' self-esteem by evaluating it in different contexts.

Finally, the students participated in a "life experiences interview" in which they were asked questions about their past. The questions ranged from relatively neutral such as "How accepted did you feel growing up?" to more stressful questions, such as, "Tell me about a time when you have secretly acted in a self-destructive way."

The results, published in the Journal of Personality, show that people with secure high self-esteem appeared to accept themselves "warts and all" and were less likely to be verbally defensive by blaming others or providing excuses when discussing past transgressions or threatening experiences.

In contrast, those with low self-esteem or fragile high self-esteem were more verbally defensive.

"These findings support the view that heightened defensiveness reflects insecurity, fragility and less-than-optimal functioning rather than a healthy psychological outlook," says Kernis. "We aren't suggesting there's something wrong with people when they want to feel good about themselves. What we are saying is that when feeling good about themselves becomes a prime directive, for these people excessive defensiveness and self-promotion are likely to follow, the self-esteem is likely to be fragile rather than secure and any psychological benefits will be very limited."

The Jobs White Boys Won't do

At the risk of sounding more like the cranky old man I can be, I have been in a discussion about the truth or lack of John McCain's axiom that even if you paid White Boys Fifty Bucks an Hour they couldn't and wouldn't pick lettuce along with the Hispanics in Arizona. He was lambasted for his view. Unfortunately, as much as I don't LOVE John McCain, he's right on this one. White boys are pretty lazy. So are black ones. It's about culture not skin color. In response I wrote this following story of my personal recent experience that demonstrates the reality of our current situation in American Working Culture.

Not ALL white boys I’ve ever hired or worked with were bums. Not all Hispanic were supermen. Not all African American’s were hip hop culture layabouts.

I have knowns some diligent hard working steady white boys. I have known some just plain lazy Mexicans and I have certainly known some hard working Black Men who could get the job done.

It’s just that when you publish a job that says,
“Landscape Workers needed, 7am till dark. Seasonal. Must be willing to work. $14 per hour to start. Call xxx-xxx-xxxx” Most of what I get comes from Labor Ready, a temp firm.

Fourteen Bucks is about what we have to pay to get what amounts to a strong back now in my area. It’s all shovels and wheelbarrows.

What follows is real life recently. All of these are real people in recent past. The stories of how they worked out follows

I hire
5 white boys, I’m not getting the Harvard grads here.
One guy is just off Dope living in a halfway house.
One guy is burned out mid 40s
One kid had dropped out of school and living at home
One guy is just out of prison and trying to get work
One guy is unemployed and just looking to make a few hundred bucks, says he’s a good worker.

5 Hispanic
One is an older man, maybe 50. Speaks little English but when he looks at the situation, looks for a shovel.
One, Rodriquez, has been in the country maybe 6 weeks. NO ENGLISH. Mid 20s, wants to get established.
One, Jose, I think they are all named Jose, is young, very young, I wonder why they sent him.
One, a rough boy, speaks pretty good english, second generation here.
One is a son of someone who comes along that day. Good English, Danny I think they called him.

5 Black Guys.
One drives up in a car, doesn’t ride with anyone. Mid 30s. WAAAAY overweight. Manny.
Ike, an educated man, comes with fire in the belly and wants to work.
Jim, a kid with corn rows and a great smile comes with Ike
A lady comes with, obviously needing the money, obviously needing the work.
A big hulking almost football playing size fellow with a loud voice shows up and his first question to me is when break time is (that’s no lie)

Remember these guys come in response to an ad in a temp agency. I don’t worry about anything except their willingness to do the work. The temp agency takes care of everything else.

We begin digging holes, moving trees, loading trucks, unloading others. Hard repetitive work. Physical. Not intellectual. The kind I do.

The kind I did last week. The week before.

By mid day I have lost 3 white boys. Leaving The ex con and the doper. I like the doper, he’s not rocket science but he’s steady.

By mid day, all the Hispanics are still with me.

By mid day, Of the blacks, Jim, Ike and the Gal are still with me. The ball player and Manny are gone.

The day starts to wrap up when people start dropping out. I want to go till dark but by 4PM most are fading on me. All the white folks and Black folks hang it up.

The Hispanic folks are willing to stay and push thru except for the rough boy. He bails too.

So we work a couple more hours and wrap up about 6.

On this project we have to clean up and put away. Me and Rodriquez spend the last hour finding the spades that were left laying around by the others and rolling the barrows back where they were supposed to be.

Everyone that leaves I invite back for tomorrow as I sign off on their time sheets to pay them.

No one is uninvited except if they choose not to come back.

Show up I say:
Tomorrow, same place same time come ready to work.

Tomorrow comes. Who shows up?

4 of the 5 Hispanics (Rough boy doesn’t make it)
The ex con (white boy)
And Ike, the black fellow

I called the service, Wassup? Where’s my people? They tell me that some they didn’t know. Didn’t show up. The ones they contact complain the work is too hard. They ask the service What else you got that’s easy. Something in a warehouse involving air conditioning and a fork lift.

OK, let’s suppose I offered $50 bucks an hour. Do I retain or get any better workers for what is admittedly serious grunt work? Or is it the work?

Mc Cain is right.

If you look over the story, and by the way it’s all absolutely true. Composite over a few days but it’s experience that trumps our prejudices all day long and rules the day. Even if the truth hurts.

Reflecting on this, I wonder how good second or third generation Hispanics will be?

Maybe this is all a cultural thing. Once we become acculturated Americans we lose the ability or willingness to do stoop labor no matter the pay. Black or white or Hispanic.

My story only proves John McCain’s point. I don’t think you could get white lettuce pickers to work the field for 50 bucks an hour. I don’t think I could do it any more. When I was 30 yes I could. Not at 60. I have worked with crews of Mexican laborers. I’m astounded at their stamina. Particularly women. They go and go and go and go.

The hungry hard working foreigner has always been a part of the fabric of the American work force. Only in the last 20 years have we hit the wall in resenting them. Maybe the pendulum has swung too far. Maybe when construction and meat cutting became populated by cheap labor and we lost the union label things went south.

Strikes stopped. We all cheered. Meat got cheaper and new homes stayed affordable because of it all. We liked that. We just didn’t like the cheap wages. It’s Like we like cheap crap at Wal Mart but hate the fact that is builds the Chinese economy. We like cheap gas but hate the fact that some caliphate is built larger every time we fill our tanks.

Wasn’t it ever thus? Irish, Italians, and my German ancestors in the late part of the 19th century who walked from Mid Minnesota where the rail line stopped to near Watertown SD with what they could pull in a wagon by hand and what they could carry on their back. A 3 day walk. Working for whatever they could earn, speaking only German. Doing what they could to work hard to make a place and homestead.

Now 120 years later we’re still here.

I look at Rodriquez and see my great grandpa August Redlin (who was also Terry Redlin’s Great Grandpa).

We are a long way from those days. But sometimes I regret that whatever that work ethic was is lost. I wish I COULD hire some good white boys and do some good by them.

Oh, I’ve had a few. Very Few.

Unless you have had my experience you are living under the illusion of the “Hard Working American”. Yes there are some, but lots of them speak Spanish.

I don’t think we are hungry enough to do stoop labor anymore. Who will? At what price.

Somebody has to pick that lettuce and pick those oranges. Who you gonna call? I think if you want someone to do that work you’ll have to speak Spanish when you ask them.

Longing to see this day

Peggy and I have been watching two different broadcasts of some wonderful revivals going on in the world.

 

One is the continuing meetings that Rodney Howard Browne has been having around the country.  I follow what he does carefully.  It's miraculous what is going on. 

 

The other are the amazing revival meetings coming from Lakeland Florida with Todd Bentley.

 

We have missed almost none of these nights.  It's been wonderful.  We've Seen blind eyes opened, deaf ear's opened, people walking who couldn't before.  Lame walking and leaping.

 

It's been a wonderful thing.  No preaching, just the miracle power of God.

 

What a day we are living in. 

 

Tonight I watched John Kilpatrick pray over Todd Bentley.  John was a good friend of Pastor Dan Rothwell.  When revival broke out in Pensacola some years ago Dan really wanted to see it come to Fargo.  Rodney Howard Browne had been there.  It was all wonderful.  Ruth Heflin had prophesied that there would come a day when a line would be around First Assembly.  It was.  When Pastor Dan's Funeral was held.

 

Sometimes when Pr Dan and I would talk about these things he would tell me of the waves of Glory and the River of God that he experienced in Pensacola. 

 

He so wanted to see this day.  But a few years ago he passed away.  Cancer.  I wish he were alive to see what we are seeing now.

 

There was Papa Joe Frankhauser.  He's gone too.  Late 80s when he changed worlds.  But he loved to watch God TV and Rodney Howard Browne.  He loved the move of God. 

 

He would love what is happening now.

 

I know these good men who I loved so much are like the Prophets of Old that Jesus Spoke of when he said, I can guarantee this truth: Many prophets and many of God's people longed to see what you see but didn't see it, to hear what you hear but didn't hear it.  Matthew 13:17

 

Of course the Pharisees and Religious see the day and passed it by.  They ignored it.  They pass on what God is doing for what they are doing.

 

I guess I understand how that happens.  But the days are short. They will miss the day.  Die, maybe go to heaven and realize they could have had Heaven right here on earth.

 

I won't give you much information.  You can check the Todd Bentley meetings from 7-10 PM on God TV.  Google it.  Every night.

 

I wish I were there with them.  I know Pastor Dan Wishes he could be.  When I saw John Kilpatrick I realized how we, he and I are who are left.  Younger men and women are taking our place.

 

We can only bless them. 

 

I'll bet Pastor Dan and Pappa Joe wish they could be part of it all.  Maybe they are.

When a Market Makes Things Happen - Why Oil Prices Won't Hold

When Crude Oil Hit 60 bucks a couple years ago I made the comment that every geologist in the world would be looking in his back yard to find new oil. And they have. I said that we'd see Oil Rigs in State parks. We will.

At a hundred plus bucks a barrel they are gold rush crazy.

Course what goes up has to come down. I see every day new doom and gloom. Look here, Gasoline at 10, 20 bucks a gallon. Oil at 250 a barrel. Hogwash!

Even if we never came up with direct alternative substitutes (which tens of thousands of independent scientists are hoping to create and get on the market quickly), even if we never converted one ton of Coal to oil, Even if we never processes another grain of Oil Sand we have discovered more Oil than we can possibly burn for the next hundred years.

It's not easy Oil. There is no Peak Oil. That concept is brought to you by the same fearmongers that brought you global warming caused by humans. There IS peak EASY OIL.

The reality is in the last 24 months there has been HUGE ENORMOUS stashes of oil discoveries worldwide.

But to learn about this you have to do a little work.

Google the term OIL FIND and Pick ANY of the Following Countries or States and you will see.

This isn't off of them, just the ones it took me 3 minutes to uncover:

Oil Finds

• Brazil
• Cuba
• Dakota
• Alaska
• North Sea
• Kenya
• Sudan
• Nigeria
• China
• Gulf of Mexico (non US)
• Uganda
• Sunni Iraq
• Kurdistan
• Ghana
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• Norway
• Indonesia
• Australia
• Belize
• India
• Tanzania
• Canada
• Angola
• Libya

Here's the critical issue in all this. NONE OF THESE ARE BEING EXPLOITED NOW. None are yet on line. They will be, SOON.

All have yet to be developed. All have yet to be accessed. We don't have peak oil, we have peak easy oil. Some will be harder than others. But, I trust that we will figure out how to do even that.

I'm guessing looking at this list you didn't even know some of those countries were oil producers or had discovered oil in their own territories.

How to Cast Vision for your Church

1) Make it simple

Boil it down to an irreducible minimum. Andy cited the One Campaign's vision statement as an example: make poverty history.

Andy also shared Northpoint's vision: to create a church that unchurched people love to attend.

2) Cast it Convincingly

3) Repeat it Regularly

"Vision leaks." As your church gets larger, you need more vision and you need to share it more frequently. One of the unique challenges we face at NCC is our turnover rate. 44% of NCCers have attended less than one year. So we need to communicate vision more consistently.

4) Celebrate it Systematically

"Stories do more to clarify and illustrate vision than anything else."

5) Embrace it Personally and Publicly

Mark Batterson's Evotional Blog

Just to be Absolutely Clear - Jeremiah Wright, Pastor of Obama Emeritus is a racist bigot demagogue despotic black misleader

I don't want anyone to misunderstand my real feelings toward him.  I'm not a big fan of this so called reverend.  His reverendology credentials should be revoked.

This is NOT about left or right.  Black or white.

There are people on both sides of the political and racial spectrum who tell the truth, are honest, straight forward and good apologists for the positions they have unlike despot (no more nice appellations for him) Jeremiah Wright who deserves NONE of our respect.

I watched the Moyers interview.  I watched the National Press Club.  I watched the NAACP speech on CSPAN. 

This man is like Hitler.  He tells big lies to gullible people.  Like Moyers.

Yet, there are political people, African American Leaders, Religious Leaders and journalists who defend this demagogue.

I don't get it.

Oh, I understand a guy like Bill Moyers who is sucked in to the whole web of deceit a despot Wright will spew.  Bill Moyers has the discernment gift of a Gnat.  He has never met a despot he didn't love.  Arafat comes to mind.

What is most disturbing is the Hitlerian way Despot Wright makes lies up, lies about events, creates fantastic conspiracy theories and then sells them to people who are not willing or able to do the examination of his lies for truth.

People Like Barrack Obama.

That is most disturbing of all.

Jeremiah Wright is dangerous - to America, To Obama and to the culture of African Americans.

I have sat many many hours in many many African American Churches.  I have Never heard ANYTHING at all Like what The long transcripts of sermons of Wright expounds.  This supposed "Black Culture of Black Churches" is a bad excuse for just plain lying.

I think some of my black Pentecostal brothers need to go over to TRINITY and cast the devil out of Jeremiah Wright.  I'll bet his head would spin around.

Why Feminine Church - note to self

If you don't get Charisma Magazine, you should. If for nothing else but really straight talk articles like this one I just read. Here's an excerpt:

The crisis is spiritual at the core. Men's hearts have been penetrated by a demonic deadness.

Next time you're in church, perform a little experiment for me. Look around the sanctuary and count the number of women. Then count the men. If your congregation mirrors national averages, six or seven out of every 10 people with you in the pews will be female—meaning only three or four out of 10 will be male.

Visit a church during the week and you'll find the proportion of women to men even more lopsided. Seventy percent to 80 percent of participants at midweek activities are female, a phenomenon that prompted one pastor to comment, "If it weren't for the postman, every visitor to the church during the week would be a woman."

In some churches single women outnumber single men 2-to-1. Married guys are staying home too. Twenty-five percent of married women who attend church do so without their husbands. The gender gap is just as wide for young people. An estimated 90 percent of boys will leave the church before they turn 20. Many will never return.

At the conclusion of the article is this statement: Men's hearts have been penetrated by a demonic deadness. Men have been lulled into a spiritual stupor.

Programs, like fun things, like so many things we do as a church are only bad entertainment. Any TV show beats the socks off most Churches "Programs". We bore men.

The battle that must be waged is for conversions. If a man is truly converted he will go after Jesus with a passion that will require a large stick to keep him away. Men can and will be converted. That's why I have so little faith in entertainment for Men or Teens. We lose our kids because we think we can "Entertain" them into the kingdom of heaven.

No, first we have to touch a man's heart.

That is much more deliberate. Men hate all it takes to "Sit" in a church service. Men properly persuaded don't need much convincing about loving Jesus. They do need a LOT of convincing about Loving the Church. She's kind of a mess and reminds you a lot of that Girl you knew once who was really talkative, took up a lot of time and whined when she didn't get treated right.

She's needy and picky. Not much fun either. Wants you to come in, sit down, stand up, sing a couple silly songs with her, listen to her talk too much, be quiet give her some money and then go away quietly. MUSIC? She wants you to listen to her nice new album with Barry Manalow. Even if it bores you to death.

The one time you did enjoy Church was when they had REALLY loud drums, wailing guitars and played great music you could actually dance to. Pity they don't do that anymore.

If we used Genders in the English Language Church would be all feminine all the time. Feminine - not in a good way.

We have a big problem. If you have ideas on how to get over this I'm open.

I'm guessing it has more to capturing the stupored heart of Men for Jesus than anything else.

Just Like Women. Once I fell fully in Love with My Wife, all the dumb things I had to go thru to be near her seem pretty trivial. I'm driven by passion and devotion.

Ditto the Church. We keep hoping that men will learn to love the church. It's not gonna happen. BUT, If a man Learns to LOVE Jesus, he will do anything to be near HIM. Even if it means he has to go to Church.

It's Raining, It's Pouring......No it's not, IT'S SNOWING

Looks like we're getting a good dose of global warming from the sky today.  It's Snowing.

 

What a pleasant thing this Global Warming is.

 

I hope my redbud and flowering dogwood survive the night.

If John Likes it I'll go see it

I don't much go to movies.

Don't like disappointments. Most are.

The hype around Expelled caused me to back away.

But John went to see it and liked it. His review makes me think I will go see it.

Read it all here.

Traditions of Men Make the Things of God of no account

Steve Scott asked a great question in his blog today:

Jesus had a major problem when traditions of men were elevated by the self-righteous to the place of spiritual litmus test for righteousness. Yet as opposed to legalism and as supportive of liberty as we may be, we still fall into this trap. Not long ago I read an article by a man who was supposedly Reformed, a hater of legalism, etc, etc, etc, and he whined about a church he visited while on vacation. Nobody was wearing a suit and tie and there were even people in attendance who wore baseball hats sideways, showing a complete lack of respect for the Lord. Oh, what sad days we live in....
................................

What other traditions do we have in our church culture and subcultures to prop up our own sense of righteousness at the expense of lesser spiritual slobs?

I answered him, since he and I are both tippers and occasional butchers of sacred cows:

I have one for you. Where or when is there any evidence that after basic instruction the Disciples of Jesus EVER said the "Lords Prayer".

It seems like the church needs a FIX. The world takes Cocaine to get it's fix, we seem to need the Religaine of traditions. Not Jesus mind you. But traditions of men. Even dressing up. Even three hymns, a message and an offering. Ruts - Traditions. Same thing.

Religion and Tradition compartmentalizes and makes people feel like they did their "Church Thing" for the week. Jesus is only "real" for a few hours a week.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the Lords Prayer, it's just not talking to God. It's wrote, memorized, traditional, and for 95% of people in the pews meaningless.

Good theology badly used.

I think there are a Ton of these things and practices we do in church that have no basis in anything other than religion and tradition.

I wonder what would happen if all that was stripped away?

Maybe this:

Global Warming means I have to bring my plants back in and a lot of other things

I had already taken some of my more tender plants outside. Begonias, geraniums, citrus, and a few others. Things that don't mind mid 30s.

But, darn that global warming, here we go again.

So, back into the greenhouse they go.

Because of this I get from the NWS:

...FREEZE WARNING IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 7 AM CDT TUESDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN CHICAGO HAS ISSUED A FREEZE WARNING... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO 7 AM CDT TUESDAY.

LOW TEMPERATURES TONIGHT WILL FALL INTO THE UPPER 20S AND LOWER 30S... WITH SOME AREAS LIKELY TO EXPERIENCE SEVERAL HOURS OF SUB- FREEZING TEMPERATURES LATE TONIGHT.

A FREEZE WARNING MEANS SUB-FREEZING TEMPERATURES ARE IMMINENT OR HIGHLY LIKELY. THESE CONDITIONS WILL KILL CROPS AND OTHER SENSITIVE VEGETATION.

Maybe I'll burn some ethanol to keep them warm and starve a peasant:

The biofuels debacle is global warm-mongering in a nutshell: The first victims of poseur environmentalism will always be developing countries. In order for you to put biofuel in your Prius and feel good about yourself for no reason, real actual people in faraway places have to starve to death.

I can only hope common sense will hit us all soon. I don't have great hope. It looks like that insane farm bill is about to pass.

Is there no one who will speak for reality?

That Clears Things Up