...it's a gas.
Quote from one of my superiors in a meeting last week: "There's no downside, in my mind, if you make more money." Clearly, this is the model for capitalism, but really? After what we've seen in the housing market over the past few months, how can you possibly utter such a phrase? If there's one thing we've learned as a nation (and I'm sure there's not), I hope it would be that there should be higher aspirations than the bottom line. That line has had me a little down over the past week.
Another depressing thought that's been running through my head is that all this bailout talk seems to be rewarding people who've endangered (literally) humanity.
Stephen Colbert: "I believe these guys should be able to speculate and do anything they want to make as much money as they want in any WAY that they want in the good times. And in the bad times, we should help them out so they can do it again later."
With no hyperbole, I believe the men and women in charge of these corporations were participating in evil practices. These practices were the center of their lives which makes them evil people. A few scriptures are running through my head. The most obvious, of course, is that "the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." (1 Tim 6:10) Here are some others to ponder...
"Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." (Ecc 5:10)
"Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.'" (Heb 13:5)
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them." (2 Tim 3:1-5)
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money. Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" (Matt 6:24-27)
In this last one, Jesus is juxtaposing the desire for money and worry. These two and inherently tied, as we have seen over the past few weeks. Everyone is WORRIED about the FINANCIAL systems' seemingly imminent collapse. We're also worried about the people who've caused this mess being treated fairly. I'll end this blog with one more scripture.
Psalm 37 (I added some emphasis)
1 Do not fret because of evil men
or be envious of those who do wrong;
2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
like green plants they will soon die away.
3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD
and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the LORD;
trust in him and he will do this:
6 He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn,
the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.
7 Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when men succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes.
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath;
do not fret—it leads only to evil.
9 For evil men will be cut off,
but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land.
10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look for them, they will not be found.
11 But the meek will inherit the land
and enjoy great peace.
12 The wicked plot against the righteous
and gnash their teeth at them;
13 but the Lord laughs at the wicked,
for he knows their day is coming.
...
16 Better the little that the righteous have
than the wealth of many wicked;
17 for the power of the wicked will be broken,
but the LORD upholds the righteous.
...
21 The wicked borrow and do not repay,
but the righteous give generously;
...
25 I was young and now I am old,
yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
or their children begging bread.
26 They are always generous and lend freely;
their children will be blessed.
27 Turn from evil and do good;
then you will dwell in the land forever.
...
35 I have seen a wicked and ruthless man
flourishing like a green tree in its native soil,
36 but he soon passed away and was no more;
though I looked for him, he could not be found.
37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright;
there is a future for the man of peace.
38 But all sinners will be destroyed;
the future of the wicked will be cut off.
39 The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
40 The LORD helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
A summary of the bailout. By Stephen Colbert.
Maybe I'll just post what other people do. It's much easier that way.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Friday, September 26, 2008
Church and Politics
It's an interesting relationship. Personally, I'd prefer not to have unsolicited advice on my political choices from my church. That said, it's difficult to avoid.
I received an email from a fellow member of my church that was attempting to recruit volunteers for a McCain event in conjunction with the debate that will be here in Nashville next month. It was sent to a large mailing list whose purpose is to easily reach all the members of the "Singles Group" of my church. This bothered me and I attempted to passive-aggressively let her know that. My response to her (not to the list): "I would be interested in volunteering for a Barack Obama event. Could you send out information for that?"
Either she didn't receive the message I intended or simply chose to keep everything on the high road: "unfortunately I don't have that info - but I do encourage you to get involved!!"
Now, I can become what made me angry in the first place and send out a message to elicit Obama supporters. Or I just let her use the church's email list to garner political support for a presidential candidate. I will most likely choose the latter, but it still bugs me.
I know that Tennessee is pretty much in the bag for McCain - but that's not really the point. Am I getting hot-headed over nothing? Probably. Please tell me I'm not, though.
I received an email from a fellow member of my church that was attempting to recruit volunteers for a McCain event in conjunction with the debate that will be here in Nashville next month. It was sent to a large mailing list whose purpose is to easily reach all the members of the "Singles Group" of my church. This bothered me and I attempted to passive-aggressively let her know that. My response to her (not to the list): "I would be interested in volunteering for a Barack Obama event. Could you send out information for that?"
Either she didn't receive the message I intended or simply chose to keep everything on the high road: "unfortunately I don't have that info - but I do encourage you to get involved!!"
Now, I can become what made me angry in the first place and send out a message to elicit Obama supporters. Or I just let her use the church's email list to garner political support for a presidential candidate. I will most likely choose the latter, but it still bugs me.
I know that Tennessee is pretty much in the bag for McCain - but that's not really the point. Am I getting hot-headed over nothing? Probably. Please tell me I'm not, though.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Bail Out
So.
It appears that the American Experiment isn't working. At least not the economic side of things. I am by no means an economist, but I can see the merit of trying out this experiment of free-market capitalism. The problem is that we aren't really trying that. Politics and mafia-movie-style pressure from corporations make us just as susceptible to the downfalls of any other economic system. When we venture from pure capitalism, we ruin the experiment. Oh well, I think Stephen Colbert put it very aptly...
"Screw or be screwed" - it's the Darwinism of economics. If I screw up, I'll just put the screws to the screwballs in charge, so I can screw more people later.
SCREW IT!
It appears that the American Experiment isn't working. At least not the economic side of things. I am by no means an economist, but I can see the merit of trying out this experiment of free-market capitalism. The problem is that we aren't really trying that. Politics and mafia-movie-style pressure from corporations make us just as susceptible to the downfalls of any other economic system. When we venture from pure capitalism, we ruin the experiment. Oh well, I think Stephen Colbert put it very aptly...
"Screw or be screwed" - it's the Darwinism of economics. If I screw up, I'll just put the screws to the screwballs in charge, so I can screw more people later.
SCREW IT!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
I versus Me
Okay, when you're referring to yourself as the subject of a sentence, use "I." If you're the object of a verb or preposition, use "me."
The rule seems to have become as follows: if used with "and" the word "me" is never correct. This leads to "Please pray for my wife and I." ARRRRG! You wouldn't say "Please pray for I" would you? I am far from grammatically perfect, but this just bugs the crap out of I.
My guess is that people have said, "Jane and me are going to the pool" and someone merely corrected, "Jane and I." So when the pool is too cold, it is to cold for "Jane and I."
How do we correct this huge problem? Does this even bother anyone else?
The rule seems to have become as follows: if used with "and" the word "me" is never correct. This leads to "Please pray for my wife and I." ARRRRG! You wouldn't say "Please pray for I" would you? I am far from grammatically perfect, but this just bugs the crap out of I.
My guess is that people have said, "Jane and me are going to the pool" and someone merely corrected, "Jane and I." So when the pool is too cold, it is to cold for "Jane and I."
How do we correct this huge problem? Does this even bother anyone else?
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Abraham Lincoln
In honor of Presient Lincoln's turning 199 years old today, here are some of my favorite quotes of his...
"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."
"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."
"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."
"When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to away, it's best to let him run."
"Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"
"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas better than any man I ever met." - speaking of a lawyer
And my personal favorite...
"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
"If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference."
"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."
"A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved - I do not expect the house to fall - but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other."
"I am rather inclined to silence, and whether that be wise or not, it is at least more unusual nowadays to find a man who can hold his tongue than to find one who cannot."
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal."
"The probability that we may fall in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just; it shall not deter me."
"I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union."
"Stand with anybody that stands RIGHT. Stand with him while he is right and PART with him when he goes wrong."
"When you have got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to away, it's best to let him run."
"Towering genius distains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored."
"No man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent."
"Tact is the ability to describe others as they see themselves."
"If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?"
"He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas better than any man I ever met." - speaking of a lawyer
And my personal favorite...
"'Tis better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
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