MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

Tonight we see the last of Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. 3 down, Rheingold, Die Walkurie, Siegfried and tonite Gotterdammerung.

It’s been much better, much more apprehendable and much more beautiful than the first time we saw it. I won’t write a music review. Trust me on this.

I buy CD’s. They are more expensive. I don’t download. Jail seems like a bad plan. The music execs who are fighting downloading raised the price of CD’s because they are concerned about illegal downloading. Isn’t that counterintuitive?

I bought the latest Joe Cocker. Don’t bother. I love Joe Cocker’s Music, except. Remember him at his glory, not at my age. Frank Sinatra pulled a late life reprise. Some shouldn’t. JOE.

When I buy a CD I love, I play it to death. I play it until I wear it out. Included are: Several Joni Mitchell (too many to name), Tom Waites “Heart of Saturday Night”, K D Lang’s “Hymns of the 49th parallel”, Bernstein “Copeland’s Appalachian Spring”, Patsy Cline Compilation by 14 female artists (Wonderful), Kate Bush The Whole Story, Seal (Crazy), David Ruis (any but I like Sweet Mercies), Scott Brenner’s Paradise is Waiting, Joann McFatter’s Magnificent Obsession, Kevin Prosch’s Reckless Mercy and Several anointed worship CD’s too obscure to mention.

I have a new one.

FACING FUTURE by IsraelKamakawiowo’ole (Brudder IZ). 20 plays so far and it is growing on me more and more. You would recognize one cut from it immediately. A sweet high voiced man with a ukulele singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. Unfortunately it’s becoming overused in commercials and movies. Sort of Like Carmina Burana’s Il Fortuna.

This is “Hawaiian Music” except, it’s not. It’s one of the most beautiful albums I have heard in a long time. It took me over an hour to find it on the internet. I ordered a half dozen copies. It plays constantly in our home. It’s so hopeful and so rich.

It might be a little hard to find. Went to Borders bookstore and was told it was out of print. Right. It’s a gold record selling like hotcakes.

I predict even though Brudder IZ passed away nearly 10 years ago this CD is about to take on a new life of it’s own. Get it. It’s worth it.

Der Ring des Nibelungen

If you know me you will know that I have enjoyed opera for a long time. I wouldn't tell you I'm and expert. Kevin is. I bow at his knowledge feet.

I get goosebumps when certain passages are sung. I cry at sad operas. Laugh at the buffo. I'm not an opera snob. I wish we could have popcorn and diet cokes in a holder and one of those big seats like you get in modern movie houses. I don't stand on much pretense.

Last night we saw the first of 4 parts of THE RING by Wagner. Rheingold.
http://www.chicagomag.com/primetime/marquee_story.htm

Peggy and I saw it 8 years ago. Big. Long. 18 hours of opera in 5 days. Sore rear. Tired. Trainride home arriving at 1AM.

Being gluttons for punishment we signed up again. 15 hours to go.

AND, It was wonderful, majestic, moving, colorful, riveting.

2 1/2 hours without intermission. Seemed like 2.

I have a few observations:

• The capacity of singers to color the nature of the characters is extraordinary. Alberich becomes almost sympathetic. Mime more submissive. Loge much more pensive and less playful. Woton passive aggressive.
  
• The Lord of the Rings trilogy is loosely based on this opera series (So was Star Wars), LOTR tracks with themes in the opera faithfully. I'm sure JRR Tolkien must have been a fan since Wagner wrote this 50 years before LOTR was written..
  
• Sometimes minimilism in staging assumes you know more than you do. I sometimes appreciate overt staging to help me understand what's going on.
• This opera is as much about the futility of satisfied greed and the impotence of realized power in humanity as anything.
• Even though there is little to offer metaphorically, but since I see Jesus in everything , the fact that the kingdom of the gods is destroyed by the chief god, Woton acting injustly answers a metaphysical question, can God lie. NO. Can he do other than justly, NO.

This cycle of 4 operas is the second for this year. There are tickets for next weeks cycle. If you can take it come to Chicago in the spring, get tickets and prepare for a real mind and body testing exercise. They won't do it again until 2010 or so. Next time I see this it will be in Bayreuth.

You are who you hang with and laugh at

FRIENDS
This comes under the heading of things I have learned. Peggy and I had occasion to host some friends from my past on the occasion of my 60th birthday. It was delightful. We talked about ideas, concepts and life for hours until it became apparent the sun was going to come up if we didn't stop. Julie had a post http://loneprairie.net/blog_archive/2004_10_10_archive.htm last fall of just such an enriching dinner and conversation. I don't think it has to be otherwise. We can live like this. At least we can try to avoid NOT living like this.

I must be blunt, not all of my friendships and social contacts are as stimulating. Some are difficult. I enjoy a conversation that has no boundaries. I enjoy a laugh with an intelligent wit. I enjoy people who are courteous allowing others to talk.

I was better for that night. I realized a truth again I had lost. You rise or fall as a person based on your friendships. Relatives. I can't pick them, neither can you. But I am more careful of people I allow into my life who can bring me down, don't encourage, are lacking a positive outlook and in general are a drain on me. If you are reading this it's probably not about you. The people I'm talking about are self focused enough not to read what others think.

My dear ones, if you want to be better for it all, select your friends well. Be careful not to let others lead you to places you wouldn't otherwise go. Find those who encourage you, spur you on, challenge you.

FUNNY
I enjoy laughing at good jokes. I like good humor. I learned a key truth from a guy I admire. I'll give him attribution, Ron Carpenter, Jr. He said something nearly a year ago that has haunted me and is becoming apparent in my life. Whatever you laugh at you will accept.

I have comedy Channel on my Dish. I watch it some. Bluntly, it's hard for me not to laugh at jokes which have to do with things I would never admit. There are blogs which are hilarious but they have to potential to scar my conscience.

When I was a kid in ND we told Norwegian Jokes, Jokes about Jews, Jokes about N......s.
Don't be offended. I am still affected by some of these racial and class slurs. Blue Collar TV is very funny. It also wounds.

I am not humorless. In fact I may think too much is funny for my own good. The distance between humor and ridicule is short.

Most humor is funny because it carries an element of truth. It's couched criticism. I have enjoyed very dark gallows humor in the past. I'm trying to clean up my act.

Make a conscience decision on what you will access to laugh at. What you laugh at you accept. What You accept becomes much of who you are. I won't even talk about the "good old days". That's a disease of the old. I have a few years left. But our culture laughs at things in public today that just 20 years ago would NEVER have passed. Think about it.

Jesus, Whimp or Lord of All?

I am a big fan of Mark Steyn. He is a dead tree (newspaper) columnist who also maintains a blogsite. His redux review of
"The Passion" was a good read. I have highlighted one part. It's so true. Preach an unadulterated pure word and people will come. Preach a Whimpy Jesus People will run. That's why I do not have any comprehesion why the American Lutheran Church, The Episcipol Church in America, Methodists as some other mainline denominations are so intent on self destruction by endorsing aberration. Read what he has to say.


http://www.steynonline.com/index.cfm


.......Indeed, though Mel is Catholic, his Passion is a hit thanks to evangelical Protestants – those who believe the Bible is the literal truth and not a “useful narrative” culminating in what the Bishop of Durham called a “conjuring trick with bones”. Instead of Jesus the wimp, Mel gives us Jesus the Redeemer. He died for our sins – ie, the “violent end” is the critical bit, not just an unfortunate misunderstanding cruelly cutting short a promising career in gentle teaching. The followers of Wimp Jesus seem to believe He died to license our sins – Jesus loves us for who we are so whatever’s your bag is cool with Him.

Strictly as a commercial proposition, Wimp Jesus is a loser: the churches who go down that path are emptying out and dying. Those who believe in Christ the Redeemer are booming, and Mel Gibson has made a movie for them. If Hollywood was as savvy as it thinks it is, it would have beaten him to it. But it isn’t so it didn’t. And as most studio execs have never seen an evangelical Christian except in films where they turn out to be paedophiles or serial killers, it’s no wonder they’re baffled by "The Passion'’s" success...........

Have a blessed Resserection Day

The Lord is Risen, He's Risen Indeed

Terri Schaivo, 14 Questions

I have been silent on this whole issue since it first became the center of media attention. I won’t try to give you any should, could and if only’s. I will try to ask some questions which need to be asked:

1. Does the order of caretaker reside in legal terms “Michael or the Schindlers” or does the law of "he who cares most" decide?
2. Is Terri’s imminent death any more important in the cosmos than say the young kids gunned down in Red Lake Minnesota?
3. Are the courts who appear to carry all the decision making power in this a substitute for spineless politicians unwillingness to act?
4. In light of number 3 was Gov George Wallace’s stand at the schoolhouse door (which I didn't support) 45 years ago an act of conscience and conviction that is now absent in elected officials?
5. Are Florida law enforcement people carrying out court orders any different from Germans who worked in concentration camps who decided to do what was wrong rather than lose their jobs (which they needed too) in the early 1940’s?
6. Does the climate created by the patriot act and the 9-11 aftermath enable the drone syndrome (I don’t make the laws, I just enforce them) in law enforcement?
7. When Terri dies will the beginning of the end of respect for life be lost forever in America or even the western world?
8. Does this event have the potential of steepening a slippery slope we didn't intend to go down as a nation?
9. If you put on your most cynical glasses what WAS the big vote of congress all about last Sunday other than political grandstanding?
10. Who among elected officials wouldn’t vote against "bad things" and for "good things" if it wouldn't have any efficacy like the Schaivo vote was designed not to do?
11. If you apply the Andy of Mayberry Barney Fife test, what would Andy do? What about Barney Fife? Remember the buffoon Mayor? What do we have today in America, Andy or Barney, the Mayor (Andy we hardly knew ye)?
12. How different from Pontius Pilate are those elected officials who from core gutlessness will not take the action they know they should take if they really had the courage of their convictions?
13. Doesn’t a tail wagging poodle dog (just like our elected officials) make everyone happy but takes no action that might have potential to anger anyone?
14. If this continues how far are we from the heirs of an estate who are short of cash going to court and saying, "Mom has lived long enough, we want to end her life, her quality of life isn't much anymore"?
    

This event is no longer about Terri. It’s about who we are as a nation, who we are as Christians, what our judicial system really is, who our politicians really are, and what do we want to do about it.

I am pretty sick of it all. I’m sick of the grandstanding. I’m sick of the opportunists on all sides of the fence. I’m sick of the blatant pocket lining already started as an offshoot of this tragedy. As a fairly visible Christian I am already being bombarded with requests for $ to fight this sort of thing.

I’m not too sick of it all to vote and lobby for people of conviction. I hope I’m able to identify who they are. It's not the people we have.

So, Gene, Someone makes you king. What you gonna do? Arrest all judges not following the mandate of a subpoena from congress. PUT THEM IN JAIL. National Guard shows up and takes all law enforcement people into custody under the command of Jeb Bush. Terri (Who may not make it anyway) is transported to hospital at once. President issues an executive order. Let the liberal press whine. They hate us anyway. Take a stand for GOD"S sake.

If that happens get ready to say President Bush for 8 more years beyond GW. JEB.

Otherwise I think we are in for a long sad drift.

This is a rare opportunity that is about to be lost. I grieve.


PS: It's Easter Sunday. I have had a chance to reflect on what I wrote. 13 of the 14 questions asked above are questioning the moral compass / ethical center of the people involved. It's a symptom of a lost generation. A lost generation beginning with nearly all of our elected officials. Few truly principled leaders tune into God's wavelength and are instead tuned to WIFM (What's in it for ME). That's why they poll before they speak.

The real benefit of a spiritual awakening it will be the restoration of confidence in God rather than in man. Let it come soon.

Un-Holy Christians and Holy Pagans

I have been a minister with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church for a while. It’s a good organization. http://www.iphc.org/home.html

I have never had a problem with the words International, Pentecostal, or Church. I have had a problem with the word Holiness.

I know all of the theological definitions. I know the concept from scripture pretty well. I don’t like the way it’s used in most of evangelical Christendom. Holiness defined as the absence of tobacco, fornication, lust, alcohol, drugs, swearing, and then by outwardly manifesting a whole set of other external behaviors that say, “I’m holy and you’re not, nya nya nya”. Look at those horrible people who do all those things. (….and such were some of you)

I know how to do it. I can be the best flesh driven Pharisee you ever met. I did it for years. I used fleshly suppression driven of my pride in MY disciplined ability to behave in a certain way. Talk about the ultimate works based salvation theology. Then I got sick of the hypocrisy. I rebelled against it; Maybe too much.

I don’t love Jesus any less. In fact I'm more passionate than I have ever been. I just refuse to jump thru hoops I don’t think have anything to do with living for Jesus on this side of the veil.

In the last couple days a magazine put out by the IPHC hit my mailbox. Experience. The cover story was on Holiness. I almost tossed it. Bun’s in the hair, no makeup, long dresses, crew cuts, the full catastrophe. Until I read it. Rhema hit.

It became clear from reading this issue that reality in holiness was more about living a life reflecting the presence of God in treating other people well, being a decent example, honesty, caring and lots of other things which should be part of any Christian’s life. Holiness is taking care of a sick person, putting the grocery cart back where it belongs, doing right even when no one is looking. Doing right because it’s who you are. I don’t think the hair buns, makeup issues, clothing and hair length has anything to do plus or minus in making a person holy. If doing so turns your crank have at it. I prefer my badge of holiness to be a little less ostentatious.

Holy Pagans
I have known some precious holy people who were lost pagans in every way. How about the Dahli Lama? Holy. I can name many people I have known who lived holy lives because they were unique from the world in their behavior towards others and in their exemplary life. They lived lives of goodness without God. I worked with a man by the name of Al who was kind, honest, and gentle. But he had no time for anything relating to God. He died lost in his sin. He was holy in every way but spiritually separated from the saving power of Jesus.
He was a HOLY PAGAN

UN-HOLY CHRISTIANS
On the other hand, I have known Christians who were correct in every way professing the love of Jesus and at the same time were as mean as a snake, crooked, selfish and greedy. I won’t name names but some you know. Some are even in the national spotlight in ministry.
Saved, heaven bound and completely UN-HOLY Christians.!

So what’s the difference?
A holy Christian reflects the character of Jesus in all he says and does and lives in the grace and confidence of his continuing salvation. It’s who he is because of Jesus, not because of his human ability to abstain from certain behaviors. It’s a process of spirit over flesh.

A holy pagan lives by the golden rule reflecting what is right by society and is well thought about by all around him. Good works abound. But he does it because it’s who he is. Just him. He is unmolested by the enemy because he is good, but lost.

It’s a crime to be the holy pagan. We need him to show us the way to live here and we need to show him how to live there.

It’s a crime to be the un-holy Christian. He is showing the wrong way here and he will know it over there. One little bitty rhinestone in his tiny crown.

Both are tragic.

Being Holy is living our life in a continual process of development until we attain the very likeness of Jesus. (…till Christ be formed in us). Not that we have already arrived, we press toward the goal of the high calling of God.

That’s Holiness I can embrace.

One of the Best Men I EVER Have Known

I have hesitated to write this because it sounds more eulogistic than it is meant to. I just think it’s important to send flowers BEFORE and not as important after.

Further down in this blog is a dissertation on ages of life. This relates to that.

Earl H Redlin is in late life. We are all going to end up there. And, in this age he is struggling with health issues many of us will face. I pray for him. God’s will is going to be done. It always is and it’s always good. It’s not always in line with our will but it’s always good. In that we can take ultimate comfort.

Earl H Redlin is one of the best men I have ever known or loved. He has been a protector to me and my brother and sister in a time of need. He has provided a strong symbol of strength for decades. He has stood for and with those in difficult circumstances. In my mind’s eye is a strong handsome man upright and confident in his resolve to do the correct thing. He will always be.

Here are just a very few of the things I remember him best for:

• As Mayor of Ellendale he took mass criticism, even hatred for doing what was right
• Running for Governor of ND he made accurate and unpopular statements about the state of monopoly agriculture that cost him support. He since was proven correct. I do my best to carry on the tradition of speaking the truth even when it’s unpopular.
• Earl made much of his living doing right deals at the right time. It’s a reassurance that when lesser men were trying to stretch their social security check he was providing for his family by working to 80 yrs old. If he had been able to he would have gone longer.
• When he didn’t have to he invited my siblings and me into his family and treated us with respect and support thru what were difficult years for everyone. He provided the parenting we lost when our folks were killed in 1959.
• He encouraged all of us to reach hard for our potential. He did more. He led the way.
• I watched carefully as he nurtured his ailing son John for years of illness born of Diabetes to the day John died. That said more than words as to the kind of man he really is.
• He has faced his own difficulties in these late life years with humor and grace. When others might have complained, he has stood firm and strong.
• He has been the stability in his family’s life. I guess you expect that but he has done it without imposing his own will or influence above what a loving father would bring.

The world is a better place for his time on it. He is leaving a legacy of making the woodpile higher than he found it. He has paved a path many of us travel in big footprints worthy of imitation.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then my flattery has been disguised as love and admiration of one of the best men I ever know.

Earl H Redlin

An OKIE Speaks

Merle Haggard. "I'm Proud to be an OKIE from MUSKOGEE". Red White and now much more Blue than he used to be. He commented in the article printed in the Sun Times today that a few years ago when everyone turned right he turned left. I think with him it's more than just being an iconoclast.

He is like a lot of us who have traversed time and remember a few painful lessons of the past. As my brother John used to quote constantly, "Those who fail to remember the past are condemned to repeat it". He had a poster which hung on his dorm wall. Others had Farah Faucett. He had George Santayana. The Okie may have a point we need to hear.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/rock/sho-sunday-hag20.html

"It's a question of mine," Haggard said. "If we're going to die in wars somewhere every day and fight for freedom, it [freedom] shouldn't be some watered-down version like we're living in now. We've added so many different levels of security here at home, they're fighting with each other. We should adapt some of the arrogance of our president and stand straight up again. That's what the song is about."

Then Haggard sang, "...After a soldier fights / should we read him his new rights? / There's not that many to read anymore / Where's all the freedom we're fighting for?"

He continued, "The reason we have these soldiers dying all over the world is so we can be free here. And we're not free! There's so many different levels of police that have been added since Sept. 11 that we can't afford. Why do we want to break the airlines? Why are we so in tune with everything happening in North Korea, but nobody knows what's happening in Phoenix? There's roads and bridges to be fixed in this country. This is a country that's worn down. This is democracy supposedly in its best form, and we're not getting that kind of reality here."

If you read my blog you will my recall the tirade against the TSA. Phony baloney security designed to give the impression of safety but in fact accomplishing nothing but harassment. The elephant stampede brigade has accomplished the same effect. The TSA advocates always trot out the same blather. "We haven't been attacked since 9-11". I haven't been run over by a herd of elephants either. I know, we were attacked on 9-11. In some places in the world people were run over by elephants. I don't disagree with the effort. I disagree with the emphasis of form over function.

If you have traveled internationally as I have post terrorism you don't see the kind of window dressing bullying of passengers in Germany or Israel that you do here. Who's more secure?

"Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose, nothing don't mean nothing if it ain't free"; we are reaching that point. You are about to be made free to do nothing.

"I'll Pray for you" and other LIES

I read Betsy Hart's Sunday Sun Times editorial on the opinion page Sunday March 20. Here's the same article in another newspaper. http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/cda/article_print/0,1983,KNS_350_3629374_ARTICLE-DETAIL-PRINT,00.html

She shared something that has been bugging me for years. I believe it's akin to taking the Lords Name in Vain. Maybe not but close.

How many time have you heard celebrities and newscasters say "Our Prayers are with you". It's become so rampant that people you know aren't ever on their knees lifting people up before God are using it like "have a nice day". My late friend Pastor Dan Rothwell in Fargo used to strongly advise that if you say you are going to pray for someone that you do it. There were people in that church that if they said they were going to pray for you they did. You know because they had a little black book they wrote your prayer request in. They meant what they said. I wanted to be in their little black book. They did what they said.

PLEASE: If you aren't really going to pray for someone, don't promise or offer to do so. You are making a vow before God you aren't going to keep.

There is another aggravation in this area which is an offshoot of this. I have people I know who like to take credit for the work of God. It goes something like this,

ME "I was struggling with the flu but I'm better now". THEM "I was praying for you".

ME: "I go all my bills paid this month bless God". THEM "Halelujah, I've been praying for you".

ME: "My mom was really sick but she got well" THEM "We've been praying for your mother".

I don't believe them. I can't understand why they have to piggyback on the mercy of God seeking undeserved glory or credit. I think they are playing a dangerous game.

Do I want people to pray for me? Do I want others to pray for my friends and relatives? YEP. I just hate the self aggrandizement which come with "I've been praying for you". It's funny, I never hear this when I don't have a good report. I guess prayer credit only counts when you are over the top. "Don't bother me with praying THRU with you". Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan.

I love the whole Body of Christ. I just which it would lose some flesh.

The 10 Ages of Man

Because I just crossed a Rubicon in my life (Birthday) I think a bit more about age and it’s implication.

I heard a report on NPR that defined old age.

“Young old”, “old”, “old old”.

I process things. What follows is my opinion based on my own observation and experience. No scientific studies were involved in any of the subjective opinions that follow. Wait, that’s my normal policy. Oh well, that never stopped me in the past:

0-15 years. = Childhood
I know some 14 yr olds will argue about it. But consider a man of 20 who asks a 14 year old to marry him. Now consider the same with a 15 or 16 yr old. It’s about puberty and transitional age. 6 year olds can play with 11 yr olds as peers.

15-25 = Youth
This is an age category that is changing. People are young longer. Of course youth of 21 in Iraq at war are thrust into adulthood with vengeance. Most youth don’t take on adulthood until 22-24 years. This is the age of blooming in every way. Educations completed. Who am I is a question being asked. Political and spiritual values centered.

25-35 = Adulthood
Coming into your own. These are the years where careers are carved out. Families formed. Taking the plunge. No longer young. Responsibility becomes serious. Your promise is all ahead of you. Peak consumption years.

35-45 = Early Middle Age
Raising Children. Doing and acquiring. Financial success is developed. Marriage struggles. You are in your promise years. You already have what you will have. Buying slows.

45-55 = Middle Age
True maturity. Now children are growing up. Some leaving home. Marriages solidify or dissolved. Financial change. Can be peak earning years. New start. Chemistry changes in your body. You buy less and upgrade more. Discover that it means less than it did. What I have doesn’t define me.

55-65 = Late Middle Age
A transitional time. Bodies change shapes. Gray hair. Mental acuity changes.
Life becomes clearer in the rear view mirror. Signs of health issues you will cope with until you die. Financial issues start looking forward. End of life becomes a reality. Marriages deepen as the body settles down. A rich time if lived well. Children become parents and grandchildren begin to develop. Your technical skills freeze right here. If you haven’t learned to program your VCR you never will. Materialism stops cold when you realize everything you buy or get from this day forward will be given away, thrown away, or sold at auction. You can’t bear to throw it but you know that someday someone will. So you stop buying. That’s why you are no longer a marketer’s key target.
Examples: George W Bush 58, Roger Daltry 58, Glen Close 58, Ted Koppel 64, Tom Brokow 64, Geraldo Rivera 61

65-75 = Young Old
Relationships become critical. Many lose a spouse in this time. Friends pass. Your own health changes. You value your days more. Difficult to make the transition from being “in charge” to something less. You develop friendships with younger people. You feel too young to be old, too old to be young. Hanging on to those things of youth are more and more important. Supplements, face lifts, Spas. Put off Travel is finally taken. Examples: Michael Gorbachev 74, Paula Prentiss 66, Kenny Rogers 69, Larry King 71, Barbara Walters 73

75-85 = Old Age
A mixed bag of living. Your children are now adult to middle age. Lots of grandchildren. You don’t remember all their names anymore. You say goodbye to friends for the last time more than say hello. I just can’t do that anymore is your mantra. Chances are you will be alone in these years. You have nothing to prove. You hope for the best and live each day as it comes. You are reminded of the trek of time. You think of it with mixed feelings. If you have health issues they have potential of being serious here. Scaling back and disposing of stuff becomes your venture. Examples: George H W Bush 80, Carl Reiner 83, Harry Belefonte 78, Ed McMahon 82, Alan Greenspan 79,

85+ = Old Old
The quality of life here depends on friends, relatives, health and spiritual dimension. You see every day as a gift. You scale back to the essential few things you need. Sleep too much. Watch too much TV. Feeling well is all. Simple things matter most. Hearing a bird, seeing a flower. They matter. Nearly every day someone you knew is gone. Death is not your enemy. Being relevant is. Your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren are the genetic legacy that exists after you are gone. Examples: Walter Cronkite 88, Karl Malden 93, Gerald Ford 92,

Eternal Life
Stepping from time into eternity. That’s the best. Don’t miss it. It makes the other ages worth it all. It all makes sense, there’s a plan. You’ll understand it better by and by.

I would appreciate insight or contribution if you have anything to share on these observations. I haven’t yet lived thru the last phases of life. I am only sharing what I think I see. Help me understand. If you don’t want to do it via the comment line do it by email. gredlin@cfaith.com

Who am I, Do I matter, Do you like me??

Am I what I do? Or what I eat? If you identify me is it based on what I might do or have done for you, am I OK? NOPE!

Here's something I have learned along the Royal Path of Life: My identity is not based on what you or anyone else thinks of me. It can't be. I'll live on an emotional roller coaster otherwise. If I rise or fall based on your approbation and approval I'll be hopeless and useless to you and to me.

Do I like to be known, respected, and considered successful in my generation? I hope to be. But I must be first respected in my own counsel. You might consider that self centered. I submit it's the ultimate in selflessness to not expect you to love me or even like me. If I can't appreciate me I can't expect others to.

If I get praise for my work, writing, wisdom, ability,(or good looks) it doesn't hurt. But it doesn't control my life. I do what I do including this blog for me and my unique perspective. I am ignored in spades. Criticized. Lambasted and rejected.

I'm in good company. (You knew I'd end up here). Despised and rejected of men.
Jesus. If he was and I am then that identity is all that counts.

Every other source of approval and acceptance is a poor substitute and can be a tool to help me feel inferior (beatdown). I am what I am, I will strive to be the best me I can be, I hope that's OK with you. I will try very hard to maintain my own counsel and be my own worst critic without being transparently self deprecating; like I'm fishing for nice things for you to say to me. I'm not.

The more I strive to be like myself the less I will be like anyone else. That's true holiness. UNLIKE ANY OTHER. If I capture my unique factor in HIM I'm Holy.
Join me. Be you. Don't try to be like any other ever. You'll fail. Be you. Be in Him. He'll reform, reshape and renew you to his very image. That's not all bad.

It's all good!

Why I'm against Drilling for OIL

I like to drive. Got gas?? Don't much like $2.30 regular. So, in the wake of our discontent nationally we are going to go wake up a polar bear or two and run off all the caribou.

I am not against that. Drill away. I am against the idea that this matters. Anwar is window dressing. It doesn't solve the problem. It's such a drop in the bucket globally that it makes no difference at all.

Texas light crude based fuels are on deathwatch. So are some of the other methods. I worked in Brazil for a while. All cars there run on 100% alcohol. It works for now. We could do that. There are better solutions.

I'm against drilling because it masks the real problem. I'm against drilling for the same reason I mourn when good crops and good prices put off the eventual and ever more painful restructuring of agriculture.

It's like waxing the 73 Impala in hopes it'll repair all the rust spots. The car looks a little better but it's still a rust bucket. There are solutions. They exist. Political will. Look at the steroid hearings. Makes you nauseous. If that's the political framework to solve our petroleum problem in this country the obesity crisis is solved. We'll all walk.

Aborted for Nearsightedness

.
Aborted for a cleft lip. Slippery slope anyone? Read all about it at the link below.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1439312,00.html

I’m glad my folks didn’t know I would be nearsighted (I’ve since had laser surgery). I might not have made it.

In a letter to the editor someone asked why 2005 feels like 1984. Genetic screening will keep "defectives" like me off the planet.

Hitler would have loved our age.

The master race lives.

No Bad Weather is Bad – Useless Winters

North Dakota. Grew up there. Loved to skate and ski. Ice fishing. Snow Angels. Sitting under a tree in the woods in a foot of fresh snow with a deep silence unknown anywhere else in the world.

I read in Julie’s Blog that there was supposed to be a real blizzard there this week. I haven’t experience a legit blizzard where I am snowed in since I left ND nearly 20 years ago. I do miss winter’s charms in ND. I enjoyed winter there except for the cold and the wind. Come to think of it I don’t miss the wind and cold at all. I’m confused.

So I moved to Illinois in 1985 – 86. I tell people I moved for the weather. HA

Half true. I do love the zone 5 horticulture. Redbuds and flowering dogwoods. Sweet bay magnolia and wisteria in spring.

But winter is Illinois is as useless as, well it has to do with male hogs and nursing efficacy. The winters are rain/snow/slush. We get one week where you might skate outdoors without falling to your certain death thru the ice. Ski? 2 or 3 hours north of here perhaps in a bad year. Otherwise can you say Colorado? Ice fishing maybe on small ponds IF you want to fish in the ice for non-edible fish.

And solitude and silence? Haven’t heard nothing in years.

We get one snowstorm per year. Seldom a real blizzard.

It’s not heaven, It’s not Iowa, It’s Illinois. Land with pretty springs, beautiful autumns, hot humid summers and 5 months of cloudy cool but not cold days.
Makes me think of what Jesus said to the Church at Laeodocea. Neither hot nor cold.

Spring will spring soon and I’ll quit grousing.

On Completing my Sixth Decade of Life

Spring is nearly here. So is my birthday. It happens every year about the same time. I was born and grew up in an agricultural family enterprise. Dakota. We farmed. There was seedtime and harvest. We watched others farm. I learned life lessons from these people.

There were big farmers with so much land that they forgot to sow full quarters of land (160 acres). Some years they planted full quarters with crops they later forgot to harvest.

It was a source of amusement and instruction. How could they be so rich or so stupid as to do such a thing? Sometimes “stupid” was planting crops that made no sense. Like Flax, or Sunflowers. “Stupid” made sense later at harvest.

There were some poor farmers who didn’t use good seed. They saved so much money on poor seed they went broke. They didn’t get good crops. When they saved money on seed cleaning they planted polluted seed and got a polluted crop that included a lot of weeds.

Out of these early experiences when I hear the truth “what you sow you will reap” it is very real to me.

I turn 60 today March 15th. I have lived many good and some bad years. These years have been the result of sowing and reaping. Not just money. They are years of discovering that what I invested my time energy and attention into I received back. That goes both ways. Some things I invested myself into I wish I didn’t or hadn’t reaped the harvest I did. I hoped for a crop failure. There are others I’m waiting for the fullness of the good crop to harvest from good seed I have planted.

I have many things I have invested myself into which are producing good crops in my life I am happy to harvest. My Wife Peggy. My children. My grandchildren. My work. My writing. Most important, my relationship with Jesus.

On a spiritual plane, my investment in the things of God has produced the richest rewards. The peace and joy I experience is the crop I harvested from my quest. That’s why they are called the FRUIT of the Spirit. They are a natural harvest of sowing our trust in prayer and worship. Knowing God means I have confidence in what He will do.

I recognize that I am still sowing. I also know that some sowing can be unto destruction (to the flesh). So if I visualize the harvest I desire in the future I must be more careful of how I sow in every area of my life. If I sow criticism I reap criticism. If I sow rejection I reap rejection. If I sow anger I reap anger. Sow fear I reap fear. Sow control I’ll be controlled. Whatever I am experiencing from others is in part a result of what I have sown.

Every desirable and undesirable thing in my life today is the fruit from what I have sown. This is not karma. Hindus stole this principle from God. This is a Bible truth that has 88 separate references (I counted). Several of them start out with Jesus saying, “the kingdom of God is like a sower……).

The Kingdom of God is best understood in seedtime and harvest, sowing and reaping. Many pastors use this principle to extract money from their flock. That’s too bad. The truth of this principle is so important that we miss a great deal if we miss its pervasive application to our complete life.

So, on this new year of my life I resolve to sow less to the flesh and more to the harvest I look forward to in the kingdom of God on this side of the veil. I will sow more love, more friendship, more acceptance, more understanding, more compassion and more of the nature of the Spirit of Jesus who lives in me. As I grow in God my fields are becoming more and more white unto harvest. It’s time. I look forward to a good harvest as I enter the third quarter of my life. I will finish well.

You know this story; It’s in the Bible:

Long Long ago in the land of Egypt the Children of God, the Israelites, were working in the construction trade. Life was good. Lots of leeks and onions. One day little baby Moses was lost in the reeds. The Pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him as an Egyptian.

When Moses grew up he moved to a far away land called the backside of the Desert. Moses settled there, got married and went into the sheep business. One day God told him to go back to Egypt and ask Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave Egypt. So he did.

He went to Pharaoh and said, “Uh (Moses wasn’t good with words), God said for me to ask you to let my people go”.

Pharaoh said, “OK, and oh by the way Moses, you folks have served us well these many years, take as much gold and silver as you want as a parting thank you gift. Have a nice day”.

A few days later as the Israelites were moving toward the Promised Land they came upon the Red Sea. “No problem” said Moses. They found a nice 4-lane bridge that had just been built and crossed it.

A couple days later they came to Mount Sinai. Moses said, “I’m going up to get the Law of God. Wait here and I’ll be back”. The people said, “We will pray for you”. 40 days later he came back down the mountain with the 10 commandments. The people were praying and fasting faithfully. They welcomed Moses with open arms. He gave them the law and they praised God.

In a couple weeks they came to the Jordan River. Moses said, “Well, there’s the promised land”. The people said “Good Deal! Lets send in some guys to make sure we know what we’re doing”. 12 men went in, came back and said, “there’s lots of Grapes, Milk, Honey and really nice beaches”. “No Problem”

They prayed that God would send a message to all the various ….ites who lived in the land. The ...ites all heard from God, laid down their weapons, packed up and left town never to be heard from again.

So the children of Israel crossed the Jordan River via a newly constructed 4-lane air-conditioned tunnel. Not one person was tired, wet or dirty. No ....ites were injured in possessing the land. The happy Israelites all moved into houses they hadn’t built, drank from wells they didn’t dig, harvested grapes from vines they hadn’t planted and lived happily ever after.
THE END

Now if that’s not exactly as you remember it, I have a question, why do we believe that when we leave Egypt (embark on a mighty quest) that from that day forward everything will be hunky dory?

The real story of the Israelites and their struggles, falls, failures, defeats and victories is the life we all lead. Jesus warned us not to be shocked when tribulation comes in this life.

When we go into the ministry, start a business, take a job, get married, have children and all the other decisions we make in life, the promise held out in those decisions will be equaled by the magnitude of the problems we will face to reach our promised land in this life. Big Promise = Big Problems.

But it’s all worth it. Jesus also said that we could cheer up, even when big problems come that the world sends our way, he has overcome the world. The quality of a man or woman is best measured in how he or she reacts to life’s shock and awe. Victory is measured by the number of times we are knocked down versus the number of times we get up. If our getting ups is a larger number than our knock downs, we win.

Hang in there – The battle is the Lords and faith without works is dead!

There’s nothing to do here

I grew up in rural North Dakota. Dickey County. Not the end of the earth; but if everyone in our county were spread equally apart we would have been spaced about a quarter mile from every other resident of the county. 128 acres per person. Not exactly high density population. People who live there today might say there is nothing to do.

In contrast, today I live in a county (Kane) with a density about two people per acre. Spacing of that population equally spread apart would be about 100 feet apart. In Northeastern Illinois we are considered a “Rural” county. Saving the remaining undeveloped farmland is a big deal. There’s a lot for people to do. All of it costs money. All of it is organized. All of it is contrived.

In this dense population play is without spontaneity. Kids don’t play outside. They are on soccer teams. They have play dates. Tumbling is done inside. Fishing is a team sport. No one just gets together and just plays anymore.

Natural things are off limits. The capacity to go for a walk or a drive in the country and experience some level of solitude is lost.

If you live in a rural area as I grew up in treasure the benefits of what you have now. Everything in life is a trade-off.

Everything.

TSA = They Stand Around or Tormenting Stupid Americans

I Just returned from my second trip in as many weeks. Tennessee and Massachusetts. All business. I didn’t walk, drive or run. I took the more painful method. I flew.

Let’s see, I passed thru the TSA screening a total of 4 times to make these trips. I was wanded and patted down 3 of 4 times. I’m such a suspect. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds

Let me be clear. I want there to be good security. Good and Real security. Not the Barney Fifedom that TSA passes for. I hope they never give those people Tasers. We’ll all be writhing on the floor in pain.

Here are the main issues:
There are too many doing nothing. Every baggage screening machine in Chicago has 7 people manning it. 2 people work. Even the highway department gets at least half the workers to pretend to work.

When did it become law that everyone had to take off their shoes? It started that people took them off to avoid hassle. Now, if you leave them on, even if you wear shoes without steel in them or flip flops you are hassled. This is mission creep. Is no one in charge?

The TSA people have made it more and more difficult to get thru security in order to prove Parkinson’s law, “Work expands to fit the time available”. This TSA thing is a make work scheme which give the appearance of trying to create security but is in fact a sham.

Many TSA people are passive aggressive types who use their badge as a passport to be the bully they could never be if it weren’t for their uniform. Worse this attitude has spread to airline employees, flight attendants and rent-a-cops. I feel like just one buck in a herd of sheep. Flying stinks and they killed it. The terrorists have won this round.

I have an idea. Lets just eliminate all air travel. Then we’ll all be safe.

OR: The TSA could use common sense and screen out those who are the problems and maybe they could pass up a few 80 year old women in wheelchairs, ex Govoner war hero Joe Foss, old men with steel in their legs from the war, 6 year old kids and the one which baffles me to this day, 25 year old blond female airline pilots with proper identification. Of course the ACLU attorneys want to forbid common sense. You can’t stop and examine with the same detail as above any Muslim or middle eastern looking male between the ages of 17 and 40. That’d be wrong, wouldn’t it??

If you take the quiz below and pass it you will understand. I want to see some judgment and profiling and less of the phony baloney we have now.

1. In 1972 at the Munich Olympics, athletes were kidnapped and massacred by
a. Olga Corbett
b. Sitting Bull
c. "Arnold Schwarzenegger
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

2. In 1979, the US embassy in Iran was taken over by:
a. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
b. Elvis
c. A tour bus full of 80-year-old women
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

3.During the 1980's a number of Americans were kidnapped in Lebanon by:
a. John Dillinger
b. The King of Sweden
c. The Boy Scouts
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

4. In 1983, the US Marine barracks in Beirut was blown up by:
a. A pizza delivery boy
b. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
c. Geraldo Rivera
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

5. In 1985 the cruise ship Achille Lauro was hijacked and a 70 year old
American passenger was murdered and thrown overboard in his wheelchair by:
a. The Smurfs
b. Davy Jones
c. The Little Mermaid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

6.In 1985 TWA flight 847 was hijacked at Athens, and a US Navy diver
trying to rescue passengers was murdered by:
a. Captain Kidd
b. Charles Lindberg
c. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

7.In 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed by:
a. Scooby Doo
b. The Tooth Fairy
c. Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

8. In 1993 the World Trade Center was bombed the first time by:
a. Richard Simmons
b. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
c. Michael Jordan
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

9.In 1998, the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were bombed by:
a. Mr. Rogers
b. Hillary Clinton, to distract attention from Bill' s women problems
c. The World Wrestling Federation
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

10.On 9/11/01, four airliners were hijacked; two were used as missiles to
take out the World Trade Centers and of the remaining two, one crashed into
the US Pentagon and the other was diverted and crashed by the
passengers. Thousands of people were killed by:
a. Bugs Bunny, Wiley E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd
b. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
c. Mr. Bean
d Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

11.In 2002 the United States fought a war in Afghanistan against:
a. Enron
b. The Lutheran Church
c. The NFL
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

12. In 2002 reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and murdered by:
a. Bonnie and Clyde
b. 60-year-old balding German American born male O/W by 50 pounds
c. Billy Graham
d. Muslim male extremists mostly between the ages of 17 and 40

DID YOU PASS THE TEST? DID YOU GET IT RIGHT?
If so, sorry, you have no future with the TSA.

How to Eliminate Smoking in North Dakota

1. Make it very expensive to smoke. Charge more for smokes. That will discourage people from smoking.

2. Make it difficult for people to buy them. Make places they can buy cigarettes inaccessible. That will slow them down.

3. Make it hard to find places to smoke. Don’t allow people to publicize places they could smoke if they desired to do so.

4. Allow smoking only in private places. Smoking there only if you have permission to enter there.

If you are aggressive in using this and other very restrictive policies smoking will stop and become a non mainstream activity only practiced by a few elite people on private property and frowned upon by most of the rest of society.

Wait, I’m talking about hunting here. The same policies as applied to hunting policy will kill hunting in North Dakota just a surely. Is that what we really want? Think about it please.

Death by a Thousand Pokes

I just returned from Boston Saturday. I’m from a big city (Chicagoland) and not shocked easily. HOWEVER: I saw a young man in the public library with his face tattooed all over (sort of like the KISS makeup). He couldn’t have been 30.

Later in the day I was in a meeting and a young man in attendance about the same age was covered on his whole upper body with a mountain scene. I had a glimpse as he removed his coat and his t-shirt lifted.

I am not a high control person, more libertarian than most. I don’t think regulation by the nanny state answers anything.

I’m not against the vanity tattoo (Mom on the upper arm, Butterfly on the butt, or an Anchor on Popeye’s bicep). I don’t want one but if you decide to do it I won’t stop you.

Like everything, moderation in all things, nothing to excess. These tattoos were excess. Way excess.

Do they have a right? Yes, or maybe not. Please read on.

A year ago a man was arrested in Europe for killing and eating another man (cannibalism) he had solicited on the Internet who had agreed to this activity. Did the man who was eaten (who had agreed to this) have the right to engage in this? He's still dead.

If a young man of 23 wanders into a clinic and asks a physician to cut off a finger, or hand (so they can be like Captain Hook or Luke Skywalker) and the doctor agrees, does that man have the right to do this?

If a young woman of the same age decides she would like to have an eyeball removed and a large jewel inserted in its place is that OK? Sort of the ultimate body piercing. Does she have that right?

Is the handicap in life from the disfiguring of the tattoos I saw OK??
(I haven’t described them well, your imaginations can’t reach what they are)

The idea they can get them removed is not practical. No existing method does it effectively. Makeup doesn’t work. People with these unbelievable tattoos will for the rest of their life be as handicapped as if they were blind in one eye or an arm or hand removed.

My core question is, is that OK? Isn’t there some responsibility on the part of the tattoo provider NOT do this; particularly if it’s a very young person? If the doctor in either of the above scenarios were to in fact poke out an eye or cut off a hand I imagine I could find a lawyer or two to bring them to court and win.

What about tattoos……………… You decide.

A passing of a friend

I was sad to see that Lou Ziegler of the Fargo Forum newspaper passed away. I had an epistilary relationship with him. The reason in part that this and other blogs exist under my tutledge is in no small part due to him and his "Saving North Dakota" series.

Without that I don't know if my passion would have been fueled fully. When I read what was written by people from North Dakota, the despair was palpable. I thought, I can do something about this.

He was a reasonable man. I hope the Forum has the courage to do right and put a person of his equal or better on staff. I fear they won't. Some recent hires are really lame. They slip on ice.

Bless Lou's family, the feel the loss even more than I do.

You'll Never Be Welcome in North Dakota

Father forgive me, for I have sinned.

I moved from North Dakota in the middle 80's. Other less sinful folks stayed and payed penance. I desire to make amends. Alas, I never will be able to. I have committed the unforgivable sin.

I am unacceptable as an opinion giver because I didn't stay in North Dakota after having lived in ND for 40 plus years, started 5 businesses which operate today in ND and having farmed extensively. I'm unqualified. I am unclean, unaccepted.


There are categories of people who will never be accepted as real North Dakotans and will be shunned forever as "Outsiders".
The rule of absolute parochialism must be applied.

Those who have no say in North Dakota (ACCORDING TO ND PEOPLE) are:

• 1. Those who leave and come back. We told you so.
• 2. Those who move into town from the country. Thought you'd never lean you can't make it on the farm.
• 3. Those who move to the country from the city. What makes you think you have what it takes to make it here.
  
• 4. Those who left and now want to help. We stuck around when vermin like you left. You have no right to an opinion and we will treat anything you say in the most pejorative manner possible.
• 5. Those who didn't grow up here (within 10 miles of wherever in North Dakota that is) and move to another area. We don't need your big money and ideas here.
• 6. Those who decide to move to North Dakota who never lived in North Dakota. Particularly if you are from another country. Don't think your are going to change things around here. We know better.

The prevailing attitude is: We know better. We don't want your ideas, input, or influence.

• What if the opposite were true?:::
  

• What if having stayed in fact makes people LESS qualified to have an opinion?
• What if the only policy makers allowed were those who left the state and returned or were not from here in the first place and had moved here? What if only they could vote and make policy decisions.
• What if returnees (you have to have lived outside the states of ND, SD, MN, MT for at least 5 years) were the only ones eligible to vote or serve in the legislature or hold public office?

Would things be better or worse in North Dakota?

Contemplate and decide, however if you're from out of state your opinion doesn't count.

Professional Three Card Monty

I have never played 3 card Monty. It’s a sucker game. You know you can’t win. They win by diversion, confusion and complexity. About the time you think you know where the card is the dealer moves it. You can’t win. He holds the cards and you are always behind the next move he makes. He wins by keeping you confused.

The same is true of some professions. They live by the confusion that exists in their field. Even if they don’t cause it, they live on it. It’s professional 3 card Monty. It’s the pea under the walnut. It’s magic.

I am blessed/cursed to have a great deal to do with some of the more confusing components of existence.

• The Law
• Healthcare
• Taxes

The law. I have been involved in some lawsuits. I have gone to court. The man that represents himself has a fool for a lawyer and a client. Lincoln said that. The complexity in the law has come to the point that if you are even in the most basic legal dispute you need lawyers. They work hard. But it is so confusing and so convoluted that you spend more than it might have otherwise cost you. That’s why so much of the law bent on settlement is basically legal extortion. If you sue someone you can collect because they don’t want to go to court. About the time you think you understand it you can count on the pea being under another walnut.
3 Card Monty.

Healthcare. I fell off a truck last spring and broke my arm. Not dangling. Cracked my wrist. I went to urgent care. 4 different doctors treated me; The one who looked at it first, the one who set it first, the osteopath who set it in a sling, and the x-ray doctor. Plus there were two different facilities. And 4 visits. The bill for all this came to somewhere between 800 and 3600 dollars. We got bills from the clinic, and notices of various types twice a week for months. The insurance company decided they would, wouldn’t, did, didn’t, wanted to, and didn’t want to pay. We kept all the paperwork in a file. It’s now 3” deep. That all happened 8 months ago. This week we got a bill from the clinic. The insurance company decided 8 months after the fact that they shouldn’t have paid something they had already paid. They want us to pay it. We will even though we had received absolution from the clinic paid in full. Now this. I challenge anyone to really understand this. It’s extortion by confusion. 3 Card Monty.

IRS and Accountants. I almost hate to bring this one up, it’s legendary that if you call the IRS about one problem 5 times you will get 5 different answers. That level of confusion is inexcusable. If you do your own taxes you are in the same category as the man who represents himself in court. I say that assuming you have some level of complexity in your tax form. I have had tax issues. I have had a few accountants in my life. Of the half dozen or so only two were worth their salt. They make their living by interpreting the tea leaves of the tax code to the best of their ability and way beyond your ability to deal with it. The IRS continues to move the pea under the walnut so that about the time you or your accountant believes you have a handle on your situation they reveal the fact that the pea isn’t where you thought it was. 3 Card Monty.

I don’t have a cure for this problem. I just wanted to complain and call it what it is. A con game you can’t win any more than you can win 3 card Monty.

Rampant Graft Uncovered in North Dakota

When I moved to the Chicagoland area nearly 20 years ago my first impression was shock at the level of graft and corruption that existed. I have become hardened to it now. I'm less shocked than disappointed now. It results from a spirit that rests on this place. Hustle and get what you want at others expense. Not every public servant is crooked. Not every businessman cuts corners. The big bosses and big power call the shots. It's a case of absolute power corrupting absolutely. When you do business here you have to know that it's all part of the mix.

Now looking back with wiser eyes I see some of the same things in North Dakota, my home state. Less about money, more about mine-mine-mine-mine at the expense of others.

Take for instance the battles over economic development, Hunting, Intrastate migration, and where the money goes. It's soft graft but it's graft none the less. Graft here defined as the powerful exploiting the weaker for the powerful and their friends gain or enjoyment.

As the city states of rural America, particularly in North Dakota, gain power and voter influence, the tendency to use that power for their own devices is too much for representatives to eschew. 25% of the legislative representation in ND is from Cass County.

That mean Lamore county is left dangling, hoping for a morsel. The arrogance of ignoring these small population counties to feed into the large population counties will result in more rapid acceleration of the decline of the small counties. Even intermediate sized cities are not immune. If Grand Forks landed a large High Tech plant needing 500 able workers at $9 per hour where do you think they will come from? HMMM Devils Lake? In fact there is a parasitic relationship between city state economic development and small town demise.

I suppose in a poor way the city state areas are serving their constituencies well, after all, if there are no people in these low pop counties the hunting pressure is less, the golf courses are empty, no one to chase you off from snowmobiling, 4 wheeling anywhere you want will be ok. If there's no one there, it won't matter.

That's what graft is in Chicago. I'll get mine, I don't want you to get yours if it means I can't get all I want.

I think in a way it's the same in North Dakota. You just don't go to jail when you get caught with your hand in the cookie jar. You get re-elected.

TSUNAMI ECONOMICS NORTH DAKOTA STYLE

WHAT THE TSUNAMI DAMAGED COUNTRIES COULD LEARN FROM NORTH DAKOTA AS THEY BEGIN
TO DEVELOP THEIR ECONOMIES

To spur economic development, the destroyed beach communities should implement stringent controls on its prime resource, beaches, swimming, and sunning.


1. Issue Sunning and Swimming licenses, charge $100 for one weekend visits. For that you get the opportunity to sun for 12 hours total.

2. Make beach goers visit only specific beaches. Control access. Put no trespass signs on most of the beaches. Don’t over-publicize the access. You wouldn’t want too many people coming to the beach from other countries.

3. Create public sunning and swimming areas but have them only available for half the day. Citizens of the country only will have the opportunity to use the areas any time all day long during the season.

4. For swimming, issue only 30,000 swimming licenses per year. You want to keep overcrowding to a minimum.

5. Keep in mind at all times that the people that live in the area are far more important than those who come to visit. Make sure those who visit understand this. Make visitors feel like imposers. Don’t be overwhelmingly welcoming. They might come back.

6. Allow those from the big cities inland from the beaches make the beach permit rules. Don’t allow those who live on the beaches to control their own fate. After all people in the big cities know best.,


By now you must be saying, that’s the dumbest thing you ever heard. For a country to take its prime natural resource and make it inaccessible to people who might want to pay to use or participate in it makes no sense. When we look at thru the lens of these destroyed countries it’s easy to see what THEY should do.

It’s harder when it’s on our own turf. North Dakota controls hunt tourists who come to hunt in exactly this way. Does it make sense? Only you can decide.

As laws regarding hunting are made, ask the question, is this rule encouraging or discouraging hunt tourism. Every rule made that wouldn’t pass the tsunami beach common sense test should not be enacted. Those that are equally as detrimental to hunting tourists that are in effect now should be re-evaluated.

As Helen Keller, the famous deaf, dumb and blind figure from the early part of the 20th century said, “People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”

Fixing broken systems means change, and all change is perceived as loss. We must learn to cope with the cacophony of shortsightedness.

From the BIG BAD BLUE State that’s Mostly RED

Look out North Dakota, this could happen to you.



I live in ILLINOIS, Democratic Governor, Two Democratic Senators, mostly Democratic House members (the obvious difference being Dennis Hastert).



At first blush you would think we are a midland Massachusetts. Paul Green, a political analyst in our area made a startling find. There is ONE county in the whole state who voted BLUE in the last election. COOK county. Cook County represents 40% of the state’s population. There are 94 other counties in Illinois.

They virtually all voted RED in spades in the last election. If Cook County had not voted, Illinois would have been overwhelmingly for Bush.



Here’s the rub. One county, one of 95 tilted the whole state. It still does. Cook County is why we have the government we have now. Don’t get me wrong. I like our governor who’s a democrat and I think Barak Obama is going to be OK. Durbin?? I’m not so sure.



I know, dirt don’t vote. But, something must be done to stop the overwhelming influence of the City States developing in this state, or in this country. That’s why the Electoral College is essential to equal representation. I only wish we had it in Illinois. Knowing the polls, I didn’t vote for Bush. Horrors. I voted the libertarian candidate (I don’t even know his or her name). I wanted to send a message since I knew my vote in this case didn’t count. I wanted Democrats and Republicans alike to know that the status quo isn’t right.



I would like to believe that my vote, my interests as a resident of a county other than Cook count too.



I don’t want a crumb. I want a vote.



This problem isn’t just in Illinois; North Dakota my home state suffers from the dominance of city-states. Dirt don’t vote there either. 25% of all legislators in Bismarck at this time are from Cass County.



Legislators from rural counties and even those not so rural must begin to exercise control over the rules imposed on them by city state power brokers. One size does NOT fit all.

They eat wild horses, don’t they??

I read an editorial in today’s Chicago Tribune regarding the overpopulation of wild horse herds in the west. The anguish has always been that if these horses are rounded up and sold to the highest bidder they will end up in France on a butchers hook. Poor Trigger.

I have a radical view that should not be considered radical except for those who don’t understand dominion. I won’t attempt to give the entire theological basis for this but Man was placed here to have dominion. Dominion means sometimes we eat other organisms as part of our dominion. Food chain. Some of those organisms are green leafy, some are kernel (Corn Flakes) and some say MOOO. We often patronize companies with golden arches that serve all three with a special sauce. They call it Big Mac. They could call it the dominion burger.

Here’s the radical part. I have lived and worked around the world in my lifetime. I have eaten lots of things which others might be squeamish about. My theology says, if it’s edible and there’s a place that wants them, let them eat them.

I’m a hunter. I’m not a killer. I only kill what I eat. I have known purists in this, if they killed a crow or a sparrow even by accident they eat it. To kill wantonly is wrong. I saw “Dances with Wolves” last Sunday on TV. The most disturbing and haunting scene is hundreds of dead buffalo stripped of their hides and left for the carrion feeders by money hunters. I despise that kind of waste. I also despise the waste that happens in animal shelters.

Last fall I was hunting with a Pastor from Grand Forks near McVille ND. Late in the day he downed a nice doe. I stood by and helped as he eviscerated the animal for transport to his vehicle. At one point he looked up and said “this is a holy thing”. I understood exactly what he meant. I remembered the scene in “The Gods must be Crazy” when the bushman converses with the dead antelope he has just killed. It is a holy moment as he apologizes for having to take his life and promises to use him well and thanks him.

Millions of deer roam the wooded areas of the US. In upstate New York and parts of Pennsylvania the population is so high (70 head per square mile) that authorities are beginning to consider holding landowners who post their land against hunting responsible for deer auto collisions and the damage that is being done to the under story of the forests by overgrazing. If something isn’t done those who post their land against the adequate harvest of the deer on their land will lose the right to post their land. We must harvest more deer nationwide.

In Illinois in some forest preserves the act of reducing the deer herds by ¾ is met by crying animal lovers to stop the reduction. And there is the rub. If it’s Deer, Lambs, Cute little ducks, Messy Canadian Geese I can get some agreement from even thinking people that there is a need to allow do a the bushman did, harvest them for the meat they provide and keep the population at a reasonable pre agreed level. It’s when we anthropomorphize Bambi, Trigger, Lassie or Garfield that we get into trouble. There isn’t much anthropomorphism for Black Angus cattle otherwise Burger King would have to go out of business.

Wait a minute, I heard you thinking. Lassie, Garfield? The other day I was hearing someone lament the fate of greyhounds turned out to pasture when their racing days were done. My first impression was to think Oriental. I worked there. Our predecessors the original Americans a hundred years ago if you were to come to their home for dinner they might say, “did down deep, puppy in the bottom”. The meow coming from the back room of an oriental food restaurant may well be dinner preparation. How is it worse to utilize the overpopulated unwanted animal as part of our food chain responsibility? I may not want Lassie on my dinner plate but some people do. Should I be their palate policeman and tell them what they should or shouldn’t eat? That’s what Peta does.

One last thing. I am against “Mercy Killing” of pets. My dog Skip died in my arms at 18 years old. Our cat the same. I know sometimes it is better but for who? Who are we putting out of their misery, us or them? I think some mercy killings are convenience not mercy. I worry about the slippery slope in all this too. Cats, Dogs, Grandma. If killing for convenience is ok…………

You will have to ponder the difference. My position is absolutely consistent in all this. There is no place for killing without reverence for life. I’ll probably get hate mail for this. Welcome to the club.

Lawyers, Maybe Shakespeare was right

You know the quote, “first kill all the lawyers”. Our world would be less orderly without them. We are a nation of laws. The courts are the places where lawyers use the power vested in them to keep order, ask for equality, make justice reign.

That’s most of the lawyers, most of the time. There are some who are less than the honorable workers of the bar that we see in TV dramas.

I have a few examples:

I have in my possession an advertisement torn from the pages of the Chicago Tribune. The title of the ad says, “I am not a shark”. Then this nice looking women, a divorce lawyer representing women, says, “we just want to make that scumbag pay”. Shark is too nice a word. I don’t think this is what the founding fathers had in mind as they began to construct the legal system. Reconciliation is not in her vocabulary. She has a 100% divorce rate among her clients. Destroying your life is not her problem, KACHING is all that matters.

I have been “sued” by an attorney who said I sent his client a fax without his client’s permission. It’s true. I did. But I did have his permission according to the law; I did business with this client. It made no difference. He threatened me with a lawsuit. Of course, if I would agree to pay a decent settlement he would drop the case. I don’t know what the difference is between this legal extortion and when Tony with an ill fitting suit and a baseball bat shows up and lets you know you get to keep your kneecaps if you give him a hundred bucks a week. I got the lawsuit dropped when I appealed to the client.

I have on my desk right now a half dozen class action lawsuits being acted in my behalf right now. I am not participating. The way this works is the lawyers get all the money and I get a 50% off discount coupon for my next $20 purchase. And, corporations don’t pay these settlements, I do, you do, we all do in higher prices, less service and if the corporate attorney is smart he takes everything offshore insulating the corporation from anything like that again. This means jobs are gone. We need tort reform.

I won’t even mention medical malpractice abuses with lawyers helping clients win the Doctor Lottery and I won’t mention the workman’s compensation attorneys protecting repeat performance “injured” ad infinitum.

It’s a mess; it makes companies look for safe haven. Can’t something be done to stop these abuses? It should be the Bar Associations themselves. But sometimes you can’t depend on the wolves to watch the chicken coop.

Shakespeare was wrong, let’s not kill all the lawyers, let’s begin neutering the pirates and extortionists. That might discourage them. Or maybe not!

2005 Predictions

Being accused of a Prophetic Bent, I offer these Prognostications for the year (or years) ahead:

WEATHER
The weather cycle we are in will become more intense. If it’s global warming or if it’s a natural long-term cycle it will become more intense. Things will change noticeably in 2005. Man cannot do anything about this. I’m not sure he ever could have. Learn to go with the flow, it’s coming. If you have ever studied Kondratieff you will understand that the breakout has happened. There’s no turning back.

ENERGY
The price of Oil and the shortages that will happen will produce two effects:

1. In 2005 somewhere in North America a significant find or development of an old find will have a dampening effect on the price of Oil in the future. It may be unconventional

2. Intense research on alternative fuels will mean that a viable breakthrough will take place soon. I don’t think it will be announced in 2005 but I do think the breakthrough will happen in 2005. This will be a one for one reciprocating engine fuel. I believe it will involve a volatile hydrocarbon component linked for stability with either a water or alcohol carrier, which will be deconstructed thru a catalyst before it is combusted like gasoline. We will fill this in our tanks like gasoline but it will need this pre “burner” to make it all work. This new synthetic fuel will change everything. I know this; we will not freeze in the dark or park our 57 Chevies. You read it here first.

NEW LEADERSHIP
there will be changes in world leadership:

A new Pope (that’s an easy guess)
A new Vice President (I don’t think he can keep this up)
The election in Iraq will be held, but it will not hold.
A cleric will become the Country’s leader eventually
Kofi Annan will step down at the UN. I don’t know who will take his place.
Alan Greenspan will be replaced
Three Supreme Court Vacancies will occur

A PRAYER FOR OUR PRESIDENT
There will be an attempt on President Bush’s life. I hope it doesn’t happen. I sure hope it doesn’t succeed. But the Devil Hates our President. Pray for him.

IRAQ
A year from now it will become apparent that Iraq is going to make it. It will be expensive and bloody but in the end it will have been worth it. We will not leave the area in my lifetime. Much blood has bought us the right and mandate to take up permanent residence.

TSUNAMI
The Tsunami devastated area will rebuild and be better than ever. In fact tourism will triple. The net effect will be more prosperity than ever would have been possible before this disaster. A horrible price to pay but this too shall pass.

ECONOMY
Inflation will kick in. The political will to stop it isn’t there. It will be double what it is now by the beginning of 2006.

Commodity Prices will drift down as they always do. The world’s ability to respond to commodity shortage thru production will put a cap on the temporary high prices in the market. Watch particularly cattle.

HEALTH
Studies of suspect nature will continue to tell us that coffee, red meat, and chocolate are GOOD/BAD for us. Ignore them. All things in as much moderation as you can stand is good advice.

POLITICS
Legislative Predictions:
Social Security Reform --- Limited, much more limited
Income Tax Reform --- This has a chance
CIA etc Reform ---- Conceptually OK, disastrous in execution
Education Reform ---- Slower than before

All in all, 2005 will on balance be a good year.

Have a happy one

Christmas Jesus Tsunami

Christmas is wrapping up. Kevin leaves for Boston this morning. We made the trek back arriving late yesterday. I am back on my boring monotonous normal wonderful schedule again. I don’t do upheaval as well as I used to. Too much food, too much travel, too much of everything. I go tilt.

Upheaval. Hard to think of this and not think of the hundred thousand dead and their families abutting the Indian Ocean this morning. They have upheaval. My little life’s tilt is nothing.

I process slowly. Think before I speak (sometimes). A few thoughts:

Act of God, that’s what it’s called. Like God in a cosmic chess game makes a decision to wipe a hundred thousand off the face of the earth. I tend to be more theologically along the lines of a bumper sticker that was on the back of a lot of pickup trucks some years ago that loosely translated said “things happens”.

His disciples asked Jesus about a tower collapse that killed several people near the pool of Siloam (which they just found a couple weeks ago in Jerusalem). They wanted to know if those people were more sinful and that’s why God killed them. Jesus’ answer was: Things Happen! Just be careful that if it happens to you that you are ready. Sometimes we stub our toe and sometimes the earths crust shifts in a 9.0 magnitude and a hundred thousand people die. Things happen.

Compassion and giving is how we can respond. Best if it’s thru our church.

People’s response to incredible tragedy of this nature is predictable. Find someone to blame. This will mean the political landscape of the most devastated countries will change. Some not for the better.

There will be significant efforts to install a response and warning system for any future such events. It’s like putting lipstick on a pig. It makes you feel better but it doesn’t really change things. In the USA everyone at top levels is convinced that somewhere sometime in a major metro area a nuclear device will be detonated for maximum neutronic pollution. (dirty bomb) Pop quiz. If you live in or near any of these areas what is your civil defense plan for this predicted event? About the same as Siri Lanka’s I’ll wager.

Then there will be the money thrown at the effort and no one will have done enough. It’s already begun. Much of that money will be wasted, siphoned off, graft, theft and lost. Good intentioned people will give to good intentioned NGO’s and it will be stolen. If you give, give to organizations that have the fear of God as part of their charter. Theft is less there.

People will ponder the if-onlys. It is delusion to live in a world that believes that things will get better if only. If only I had more money, if only I had a better job, if only I were (or weren’t) married, if only, if only, if only. Things on balance never do get better. They only change. All change is perceived as loss. ALL CHANGE! If we live our lives waiting to start living when things get better we miss life. Jesus said (I can’t help myself, I’m a preacher) in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer I have overcome the world. Lots of people think that it means if you come to Jesus all your circumstances will improve. NOT! If you come to Jesus his presence in your life will overcome the pain of the tribulation you suffer. You will still suffer but you will do it with joy set before you. Peggy’s grandmother Ruth was ill most of the last years of her life. She lost both legs (amputated) from infection. But even in her last days bedridden she brought joy to the doctors and nurses who tended her. She had tribulation but Jesus in her overcame the tribulation.

If I could give a gift to the suffering from the tsunami I would do it by bringing the overcomer to them. It would be better if they had known it before. Now it seems a little contrived to rush in and thump our Bibles. When we hit the wall in tragedy we do so with the reality of God we possess. If we possess little we don’t have much to deal with.

So, in the Indian Ocean who sinned that this great Judgment was brought upon them by God? No one. But prepare yourself that you are ready for when life slaps you in the face too. The world’s bad news is Jesus is all there is; but the good news is, Jesus is all you need.