There’s no gatekeepers to distribution anymore, and while that can be a good thing, it has horrible unintended consequences, in that the masses that are consuming this drivel are idiots who don’t know how to pronounce “vice versa“. People are idiots, and “success” is defined as anything that appeals to those idiots. The folly of self-promotion is the idea that we need to appeal to mentality of those idiots.

The bigger issue is whether this is going to be the crack in the dam, inspiring legalization campaigns around the country. My interest is going to be in how the recent 10th amendment folks are going to react. We’ve been hearing a lot about nullification and states rights regarding “Obamacare”, but are these folks really principled federalists, or just whiners? Are they going to apply their newfound love for constitutional principles to issues they might not agree with? After all, it’s the commerce clause in the constitution that the federal usurpers use to defend control over drug laws and health insurance.

So, I put this as a challenge to the “tenthers” out there. Are you going to be consistent, or are you going to show that your “principles” were mere whitewashed pragmatism?

It’s kinda hard to miss Rand these days. Fox News has people from the Ayn Rand Institute on often criticizing just about every action made by the Obama administrator, and for good reason. The reactions of our current federal government in response to economic crisis (starting with the Bush administrator, I should note), reads like a significant portion of Atlas Shrugged, under the section of “what not to do”. It’s hard to watch the news without hearing stories of bailouts, crony-ism, “corporate welfare”, and other actions of governments and corporations not only in bed together, but filming amateur porn, and forcing us to watch it.

For those not familiar with Rand’s magnum opus, it tells of the story of a the struggle for success for American capitalists whilst overcoming a society increasingly jealous of their successes. Rand’s philosophy is based on the premise that society runs on the backs of private enterprise and entrepreneurship, and that as long as those entrepreneurs are willing to bear the load, society’s flourish. However, when the community takes advantage of these “Atlases”, at some point, it is no longer advantageous to the entrepreneur, and he will shrug off society, leaving it nothing left from which to leech.

In my opinion, Rand failed before she started writing Atlas Shrugged. Her goal was to write an all-encompassing philosophical defense and a page-turner at the same name, and her didn’t succeed in either respect. One reviewer wrote that the “characters are less flesh-and-blood humans than mouthpieces for various philosophical points” However, as a philosophical argument, her book does a fantastic job in fleshing out the various types of personalities that lead to the establishment in society of the false ideas of justice that endlessly eat away at the true freedom and liberty that society should enjoy. She could have written “There are people in society who feel entitled to the wealth of others,”, but instead she created those people, and this is where Rand succeeds.

However, my goal is not to defend her observations on the failures of society, but to critique her solution offered in Atlas Shrugged, and ethical egoism in general. My goal is to show that while Rand does correctly identify the sin of greed and especially established greed under the misnomer of “compassion”, her solution to government enforced equality is as bad as the problem.

Contrast this to what I believe is the Biblical view of ethics and personal property. When reading the Bible, it’s easy to defend diverse ideas of how wealth, poverty, property, and charity. A fiscal lasse faire capitalist, a mutualist, and a Marxist could all pull out different verses to support their positions. However, I believe that the Bible does support a single economic philosophy of personal and property “rights” (a la Rand), while still embracing charity as a moral duty. Unlike Rand, I see no reason for these ideas to conflict.

Charity and giving are clearly commanded of Christians in Scripture, and even codified in the morals law (Lev. 19:10). Even the Jubilee laws that commanded slaves be set free also commanded that the land be left fallow for an entire year “that the poor of your people may eat” (Exodus 23:11). In even a surface examination of scripture, it’s undeniable that the Bible stands in clear disagreement with Rand’s objections towards charity.

But, at the same time, the idea of property rights are also very strongly supported. From the root moral law of “You shall not steal” (Exodus 20:15), the scriptures condemn scripture and command restitution for property stolen (Exodus 21:1). (As an interesting aside, the Bible does recognize that one may sympathize with a person who steals, but it doesn’t take away the need for the thief to restore the stolen property, even if he were to forfeit all that he owns. (Proverbs 6:30-31)).

Many today have concluded that since charity is a moral good, and since the civil government is an agency for promoting good (Romand 13:4), therefore, the civil government should be an agency for charity. This thinking, however, passes the moral buck, and in fact, undoes all the charity works to accomplish the life of the giver. When a person is forced to give (if I can even put those words together), the moral goodness that comes from the act is stripped. Likewise, when the state coerces a person to give under duress, whether that penalty be the threat of fines, jail, or even death, the state is no longer acting as an agent of good. In addition, it can cause the victim to begin to horde whatever money is left to them by the state.

In order to promote charity as an social norm, we must first promote a society where property is protected. The ultimate moral responsibility for charity is the individual alone (although he may choose to voluntary work with collective organizations like the local church), and it should be the role of the state to promote this reality by encouraging charity, while protecting property rights. Historically, America has excelled at private charity, and I strongly believe that this follows from recognizing our wealth, promoting strong property rights, and upholding charity as a strong moral good. For the most part, I believe America still considers the poor as an opportuntiy to show love, and not as a mass of ingrateful consumes. I strongly hope that this positive attitude is not replaced by politics of greed, forcing the rich to turn to people like Ayn Rand for ideas about how to protect their wealth from the masses.

As a final thought, I think the best argument against Rand’s personal philopsophy of ethical egoism is the results her life showed as she attempted to live according to her principles, dying arrogant and alone. She has many admirers, but very very few friends. I honestly cannot imagine a true friendship based on upon the ideas of Rand’s egoism. After all, if you knew that a person was going to act exclusively in their own best interest, then any relationship with them will always last as long as it is practical for them. The idea of personal sacrifice is unknown, even immoral, and even if an egoist were to help you, you would always suspect an ulterior motive.

• Installing Zimbra.
• Messing with VirtualBox.
• Enjoying Sapporo.
• Preparing to travel to Colorado.
• Starting to invest using TradeKing and Kapitall.
• Watching the kids grow up.
• Enjoying Tab getting her yellow belt in karate.
• Waiting for summer.

People in Japan do head up north, but generally it’s a winter vacation destination with fantastic skiing and amazing hot spring baths (Onsen). They had a map in the tourist center showing at least fifty different onsen within a thirty mile radius of Aomori.

The one local delicacy we were able to enjoy was the local apples. Aomori apples are known throughout Japan and the rest of Asia as some of the best apples, and they truly were amazing. The countryside was covered with orchards, and each tree was meticulously maintained and pruned, with the fruit individually protected on the trees with coverings.

After spending the morning in Aomori, we decided to head across the water to Hokkaido via a ferry that travels between the two towns. There were a couple different types of ferries, but since we were paying out of our pockets, we decided to go with the cheapest, no-frills option. The cheapest ferries are used to let people going to Hokkaido bring their cars along with them, and the ticket salesman was a bit surprised when we told him we didn’t have a car. He sold us the tickets anyway for about $13 and a few minutes later we were walking through the belly of a well-worn ferry past people in their cars. We carried our bags up on deck, and relaxed in a small room while the rest of the cars were being loaded onto the boat. When the ship was ready, it backed out of the port and we spent the next four hours on the deck of the ferry leaving the Aomori harbor and heading to Hakodate (pronounced “Hah-ko-dah-tay”.

We arrived in Hakodate and took a taxi into town. Anwar and I both have guidebooks, and by their powers combined, we’ve managed to make out pretty well. They recommended a rather inexpensive hotel in Hakodate called the Hotel Route Inn, which, according to the book, had small rooms but an included onsen. After spending the last few days on our feet, and covered in salt spray from the ocean, a free onsen sounded really good.

We checked into the hotel, dropped our bags off in our room, and headed into town. Hakodate is no Tokyo, and the major means of transportation is an old trolly that runs through the town. The town is famous for Mount Hakodate, jutting and rising high out of the water. It’s a bit of tourist mecca, and when you look at the top of the mountain at night, you can see the flashes from the cameras shining like fireflies. We took the trolley to the base of the mountain and rode a cable car up the side of the mountain to the peak. The view was amazing, and it was one of the few sites that pictures really can’t capture. The area is one of the more populated areas of the northern island, and it was amazing to see the lights of civilization leading away from the shore to the base of the mountains, and then just stop, leaving nothing but the dark mountains beyond.

On the way back to the hotel, we attempted to hunt down some food. As I said, Hakodate is no Tokyo, and English speakers are hard to find. We found a seafood restaurant on the way back, and we were invited by one of the waitresses to come in for a set meal (set-toe). Besides the mountain, Hakodate is also famous for their large crabs, and we were served a small, but tasty meal of crab tempura and conch sashimi. Delicious, but we were still hungry. 7-11 heroically came through, and a few minutes later, we were in our room munching down convenience store sushi and cold soba.

By this time, my back and feet were hurting, and the onsen was calling to me. We grabbed our towels and washcloths and headed up to the 13th floor. We were greeted by a small but very pleasant hot spring bath that soothed all the aches in my body. The hot bath is, without any doubt, a part of Japanese culture that is superior to America. Our fear of public nudity limits us to quick, purely utilitarian showers at the YMCA, and precludes us from taking the time to relax and enjoy becoming clean. I’ll probably expand on this in a future post, but for now, I can’t encourage you enough to enjoy an onsen if you visit Japan. (BTW, my friend Billy says the baths in Korea are great as well.)

The next morning, we walked around the local fish market, saw some of the biggest crabs I’ve ever seen, still alive and moving their half-meter bodies around their tanks. Some of the vendors had little grills with crab legs toasting on them. For breakfast, I enjoyed a “Hakodate donbori”. Donbori is simply rice with different kinds of sushi on top. A Hakodate donbori had local crab leg meat (about five inches long), ikura (salmon roe), and uni (sea urchin) on top of rice and seaweed. Delicious!

After that, we hopped on a train and we’re currently heading south towards Nikko, with a quick stop off at Matsushima and Sendai. We need to check into our hotel tomorrow evening, but we have just enough time to enjoy these few sites.

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The celebration of Eliot Mooney’s life was so beautiful. I am eternally thankful that his parents recorded his life so well, and that they had the heart to share this treasure with others.

Praise God for every day our children live and may this big-picture perspective encourage us to be Godly parents who love our children and consider it a joy to be allowed this honor to take care of them while they are here.

For more, check out Eliot’s parent’s blog.

Does anyone else have a special place in their heart for flowering weeds? I once dug up many violets in the yard and lined the borders of my flowerbeds – that’s how much I love them

I always think of this verse when I look at my lawn, dotted with flowering weeds:

Luke 12:27-29 “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; but I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass in the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, how much more will He clothe you? You men of little faith!

This verse inspired me to look up more gardening verses… so I’m passing them along! Amazing how many there are, as gardening is such a perfect metaphor for so many spiritual concepts.

• Verses about weeds
• Verses about thistles
• Verses about plants
• Verses about flowers
• Verses about seeds
• Verses about harvest
• Verses about trees
• Verses about gardens
• Verses about soil

List of all the plants in mentioned in the Bible

The USHMM has compiled a list of information about the killings and displacements going on in the Sudan, but those numbers get lost when printed on paper. In order to make the information digestible to their audience, they teamed up with Google Earth to create a visual, multimedia presentation of their data in Google Earth, complete with geolocated photographs, videos, and icons.

You can see it yourself by downloading the Crisis in Darfur layers in Google Earth and learning more about what is going on in the Sudan.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Todd Zuniga’s interview for 1Up.com:

“1UP: Were there any legendary players from your court? Either old dudes or guys who were NBA-good, but just never made it?

RH: Oh yeah, we had a lot of great players that come from Coatesville. Victor Ford, Coatesville legend. Darrel Lewis, Coatesville legend. Marty Eggleston, Jody McMillan, Ricky Hicks — Coatesville legends. These are guys that if you go into a barber shop, there’ll be guys in there saying, “Who’s better: Rip Hamilton or Victor Ford?” It’s fun, and that’s what we have — it’s all we have. And it’s great for conversation at the barber shop….

1UP: How much did playing on your homecourt in Coatesville have an affect on you becoming one of the NBA’s top shooting guards?

RH: I think the court in Ash Park helped me tremendously. It’s war at that court. It taught me how to be a man. You can be 13 or 14 years old, but it teaches you how to be a man real fast. It’s either go hard or go home. There ain’t no looking over your shoulder and asking “Where’s mom?” It really gave me that edge that I need to play in the NBA….

1UP: You go back and host the “Rip City Celebration” in Coatesville every year — how important is it for you to acknowledge where you came from?

RH: It’s very important for me to acknowledge where I came from. It’s all you’ve got. One day basketball’s going to be over, and I always want to be able to go back home. So one thing I try to do to put a stamp on the city is to do a free day for everybody. A free day for the kids, free day for the older people — so the older people don’t have an excuse not to be there. We do a free cookout. We give away bikes [and] give away school shopping sprees for kids. We got clowns [and] basketball tournaments. We give out trophies, give out T-shirts — we give out everything. Everything’s free. It’s just one day when everyone can unite, and come together, have fun and kick it — shake a leg or two.

1UP: What do you think it’ll mean to the people of Coatesville that their basketball court will be represented in Street 4?

RH: For the people of Coatesville, once they see this game…oh my goodness. It’s going to be bananas. You wouldn’t understand. I get chills in my body to even just think about it. It’s already a great thing for them to see me on there, saying, “Oh, yeah, that’s Rip — we got someone from Coatesville.” But to have a place where kids go everyday to play basketball, to go play in the playground and things like that — and now, for them to get an opportunity to see that? And not just them, but the everybody in the whole world? It’s crazy. I get chills just thinking about it…”

We see the name Marty Eggleston mentioned often when it comes to local politics, but I appreciate Rip’s humility and paying homage to the men he considers his basketball heroes. I loved his quote about comparisons at the barber shop.

I wonder if Ash Park will now become a tourist attraction?

It would be interesting to follow a tour of amateur basketball players playing at each of the courts featured in the

I’m also curious to know how the game was made and what kind of footage was taken to make it look so detailed and realistic.

I’ll let you know if I actually make it in the book.

Remember this brand from the boom? At that time with the severe shortages, cigar smokers would resort to just about any cigar available on the shelf. Even despite those circumstances, it’s still amazing anyone actually bought a cigar with a name like this. Worse yet, the cigar itself was marginal – acrid tasting with a foul aroma and unappealing wrappers. No surprise then that a closeout just came my way. I guess it beats a machine-made… if only barely.

BTW, the “boom” refers to the big cigar boom from about 1992 to 1997. I started smoking them in 1995, but stuck with them even after the “boom” was over, much to my wallet’s relief.

We ordered our stove as an early Christmas present. One other major change is that the old stove was electric, and the new one is gas. We didn’t have gas growing up, but my in-laws do, and I really liked it when we lived out there a couple years ago. So, for very little money, we ran the gas back up to the stove area upstairs on Monday, and got the new stove hooked up today.