Changing Times

We recently upgraded Josh’s and Evie’s cell phone to include unlimited text messaging and phones that would facilitate such a form of communication. Over the summer we also paid for Josh to have access to the internet from his phone so he could check emails, DCI scores and do the Facebook thing…now that he is back to campus the internet access is gone.

In April my Blackberry was upgraded, and as of a few weeks ago, the divisional plan includes unlimited text messaging….not that I use it much other than to communicate to Josh a few times.

The following little humorous item is so true in many ways and at so many levels. Enjoy.


"Things are spiraling out of control. I think I have become lost in a world of electronic madness.

One of my sons informed me this week that my cell phone has become obsolete and I must head down to the Cell Phone store and get a phone that is contemporary with the time.

I pointed out that the fancy Razor/Slim line phone with camera built in that he made me trade my perfectly good flip-top Motorola cell phone for two years ago still works perfectly fine.. Well, except for the camera thing. Never could figure that out.. Even the few times I actually did take pictures I couldn’t figure what to do with them and gave up.

That is except when I would push the wrong button and take a video of the ceiling or my feet.

Seems the issue is that I am unable to text with the tiny little 3 character buttons. "Hi, son," would come out looking like, "Gh Qmo." My grandkids have even spoken to my wife about Poppa’s crazy text messages. Give me a break. Whatever happened to actually talking on a phone? Isn’t that what they were invented for?

They want me to get one of those phones that you can turn upside down and sideways and has a typewriter keyboard with keys about one-eighth the size of my pinky finger.

One of my four sons is a realtor whose real occupation is fly fishing. "Way to go, son."Or in my text language, "Xbz um Io, rmo."

We were floating the Yakima River in his guide quality drift boat south of Ellensburg, Washington. We were miles from anything remotely resembling civilization. Rock canyon walls were on either side of us. Bear with me as I try to explain this strange thing.

His "Blackberry" rang. It was blue and I asked him why it wasn’t called a Blueberry. He shook his head with that “dealing with an elder” despair look I get a lot these days. It was another realtor who called to say that the sellers he represented had agreed to my son’s client’s changes and he had the signed documents in hand.

My son told him to FAX the papers to his office and he would get them signed and Faxed back, to close the deal that morning. A minute later the phone rang and he hit a few buttons and looked over the FAX, now on the Yakima River with us.

He then called his clients and told them he was Faxing the papers to them to sign and asked them to FAX them back to his office. While he was waiting, he hooked into a fat rainbow and was just releasing this 22 inch beauty as his phone rang again with the signed FAX from his clients.

He called the other realtor and told him he was sending the signed papers back by FAX. The deal was closed. He smiled and just said, "You are a little behind the times, Dad." I guess I am.I thought about the sixty million dollar a year business I ran with 1800 employees, all without a Blackberry that played music, took videos, pictures and communicated with Facebook and Twitter.

I signed up under duress for Twitter and Facebook, so my seven kids, their spouse, 13 grandkids and 2 great grand kids could communicate with me in the modern way. I figured I could handle something as simple as Twitter with only 140 characters of space. That was before one of my grandkids hooked me up for Tweeter, Tweetree, Twhirl, Twitterfon, Tweetie and Twittererific Tweetdeck, Twitpix and something that sends every message to my cell phone and every other program within the texting world.

My phone was beeping every three minutes with the details of everything except the bowel movements of the entire next generation. I am not ready to live like this. I keep my cell phone in the garage in my golf bag.

The kids bought me a GPS for my last birthday because they say I get lost every now and then going over to the grocery store or library. I keep that in a box under my tool bench with the Blue tooth [it’s red] phone I am supposed to use when I drive. I wore it once and was standing in line at Barnes and Nobles talking to my wife as everyone in the nearest 50 yards was glaring at me. Seems I have to take my hearing aid out to use it and got a little loud.

I mean the GPS looked pretty smart on my dash board, but the lady inside was the most annoying, rudest person I had run into in a long time. Every 10 minutes, she would sarcastically say, "Re-calc-ul-ating Route" You would think that she could be nicer. It was like she could barely tolerate me. She would let go with a deep sigh and then tell me to "make a legal U-turn at the next light". Then when I would make a right turn instead, she was not happy.

Then I really got lost so I call my wife and told her the name of the cross streets and now she is starting to develop the same tone as Gypsy, the GPS lady, at least she loves me.To be perfectly frank, I am still trying to learn how to use the cordless phones in our house. We have had them for 4 years, but I still haven’t figured out how I could lose three phones all at once! I have to run around digging under chair cushions, checking bathrooms and the dirty laundry baskets when the phone rings.

Oh, and have you noticed that we obviously came from another era, 'cause we say words like "point", "decimal", and "period"? It would appear that those words have been replaced with the universal term of "dot" - I always thought those had to do with polkas.

The world is just getting too complex for me. They even mess me up every time I go to the grocery store. You would think they could settle on something themselves but this sudden "Paper or Plastic?" every time I check out just knocks me for a loop.

So I bought some of those cloth re-usable bags to avoid looking confused but never remember to take them in with me.

Now I toss it back to them. When they ask me, "Paper or Plastic?" I just say, "Doesn’t matter to me. I am bi-sacksual" Then it‘s their turn to stare at me with a blank look."

A Fun Moment

Picture a hot humid mid September afternoon in Kentucky, a stuffy classroom built for 30-35 crowded with almost double that number of students sitting in thin old wooden chairs in tight rows with rows no more than an arm’s reach between rows, and it is the 3 PM class on a Friday at this faith based college. While the windows are wide open in this old building that classroom lacks air conditioning, the air is so still outside that a Kleenex resting on pavement makes no movement. Now add in a professor who is somewhat soft spoken and who is about 35 minutes into the 50 minute lecture with dozens of students fighting not to nod off. Add into this mix that this professor teaches Bible and has been known from time to time to pause his lecture to prayer.

Put into this mix a student who was losing his battle remain cognizant of his surroundings and an impish sophomore who is sitting behind him.

As the student nods again, he is tapped and hears a whisper in his ear, "He wants you to lead us in prayer."

The suddenly aroused student shoots up like a jack in a box into a standing position and immediately starts, "Our heavenly Father." Hearing others giggle at the interruption the student pauses and realizes he has just interrupted the lecture.

The elderly professor was not alarmed. He merely added, "As the Spirit so moves brother, please continue."

After praying, as the student takes his seat he looks back at his grinning dorm mate promising revenge.

They say confession is good for the soul. I do not know about that but it sure brings back a warm memory of Dr. Hunter saying "As the Spirit so moves brother, please continue." As to the revenge he never really got his revenge but I do know he never sat that close to me ever again.

Little Will Happen with Healthcare Reform

Listening to some opponents of reform you will hear deep anger, fear, distrust of government (and by extension their neighbors) and suspicion that there is a hidden agenda. Such a pool, and it is a significant pool, is fertile ground for people to be gullible and quickly accept created mythical claims. There is a host of mythical claims being made around proposed health care reform.

Here is a story about some of those claims.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090824/sc_livescience/majorityofamericansbelievehealthcarereformmyths

I am not surprised by the polls. As you will recall, though I am a fan of healthcare reform and a public system I anticipate that reform efforts to fail. Something will get passed, but a year or two later most people will realize that the changes were cosmetic and made not real differences. Regardless of the claims of insurance and health care executives are making, they are not interested in serious reform. Their eyes are upon the dollar and trying to keep the gravy train going a little longer. They have the same attitude of financial services and insurance executives who created, marketed sub-prime loans that nearly brought the financial industry into total ruin….keep the train going, allow us to make as much as possible hoping that the collapse we see coming will not happen.

Two of the most powerful motivators are fear and greed. Both those emotions are at play in the healthcare debate.

What is interesting is that the views of those who have been to other developed countries, and intentionally listened to those citizens and understood the dynamics of their what is happening in those countries, tend to see the value and importance of healthcare reform. Interacting, listening, learning and grasping what is happening elsewhere changes a person’s worldview and impacts their views. To hear the those against healthcare reform, the Canadian healthcare system is a backwoods system with ancient hospitals thinly staffed by second-rate healthcare providers.

Though Americans may travel widely in their own country, and take quick little vacations to a foreign resort, Americans are for the most part insular in their worldview. Traveling outside your own country does not give you a worldview when you go to a resort filled with fellow Americans, or travel in tour groups and do not really interact with those from other countries. Such individuals continue to view their own nation as being superior and as not needing to learn from others. They have bought into the political mantra of superiority, enlightenment and that other societies are falling apart and less vigorous than American society.

While I hope I am wrong, the myths will continue to hold sway and be proclaimed as truth. There will be not political inertia to bring forth reform. Meaningful healthcare will not happen until about half of the middle class is without adequate healthcare…a day that may be as near as twelve to fifteen years.

What Is So New?

Nation troops lack discipline, slow to meet enrollment goals and when they enroll, quick to desert.

Local authorities slow or unwilling to recruit troops necessary for their defense.

Ethnic cleansing campaigns conducted by locals with local officials looking the other way and in some cases hindering the foreign troops from interceding.

Other local authorities declining to raise men for the military noting that there is no need given overtures of peace being made by some on the other side.

Foreign officers complaining about lack of discipline amongst local troops, and that they run to quickly from a fight.

With mounting debt the foreign nation expends a significant portion of their wealth on military expenditures and in keeping their military in the field.

Foreign troops sacrificing themselves but wondering why local governments and troops are not doing the same to protect their own people.

The hot war was simpler than the victorious aftermath. The ongoing fighting and political folly has become a greater quagmire than the hot war.

Locals claim they want help, but then do not what to help themselves.

Foreign leadership seeking ways to have the other country pay its own bills.

Local government wanting to take control but the other nation questions the commitment and viability of self-rule.

Rampant factionalism with no unified vision or sense of nationhood uniting various provincial governments into one central body.

The foreign country pouring large sums into building public works and infrastructure, but while local authorities argue over the needs or whether they should contribute to the paying of the same.

Large cultural divide between the country and the foreign country.

Homeland politicians crying out that it is long overdue to bring troops home and to end putting money into an endless pit with little home of return.

Local authorities wondering how much say they really have in running their own country.

People questioning whether the other country is really governable and worth the fuse, particularly when the citizens of the other country do not appreciate what they have been doing for their benefit.

For several years we have heard the above over and over again, so why recount the familiar and the recent. History is repeating itself. As today the Americans are speak of Iraq and Afghanistan the British were speaking of the Americans between 1755 and 1770. As Americans then came to detest the British crown and Parliament so too are the Iraqis and Afghans today. By the way, other similarities would make the list is much longer.

It is ironic that America has forgotten its own history and in many ways has been doing to Iraq and Afghanistan what they complained about the British doing.

An Alarming Statistic Called "Good News"?

Retired Commissioner Joe Nolan recently wrote on The Rubicon (http://therubicon.org/2009/08/grasping-for-salvation/)

“Interestingly and coincidentally, in the July issue of Salvationist, the editor comments as follows: ‘Here is some good news: YP rolls peaked in the period following the 1950 International Youth Congress; more than 111,000 young people were on those rolls of whom 33,000 were junior soldiers. Half a century later those figures were approximately 14,000 and 7,000 respectively.’”

“Good news?

“I guess it can be interpreted as good news, the percentage of those becoming junior soldiers rising to 50%, the bad news being that the rolls have declined significantly: 111,000 to 14,000? She does go on to say that “statistics do not tell the whole story and in some cases can be misleading” (”Lies, damn lies and statistics,” said Disraeli, not me, I would have politely said “darn lies”).”

I concur with Nolan. We need to ask, “what planet are you living on” and “where did you learn your logic” of anyone who sees “good news” in 7,000 out of 14,000 youth being junior soldiers in the USA when there use to be 33,000 out of 111,000 fifty years before. The cited stat should send alarm not comforting good news. It signifies the Army in the US is dying and that the officer pool both in numbers and in quality of leadership is collapsing. If the quality of leadership at all levels is collapsing, the American Army (also similarly trends in Canada) as a whole is in decline, that decline will increasingly become evident on two levels, the number attending worship and a significant decline in support from the community. Support from the community will take longer to be felt but the first signs could start to show within seven years.