Clean Economy

On the rare occasion when we have nothing better to do, Mrs. Pundit and I sit down and watch one of those shows where some expert in cleanliness and/or organization comes in and helps some poor soul with a messy house. You know the kind of show I'm talking about...in the first segment, we are shown from room to room where there is stuff piled high enough to lose a toddler in, leaving only a thin path down the middle, and every horizontal surface is stacked with everything imaginable. My wife likes to watch these shows with me because when I was growing up, my room could have been on one of those shows...but that's another post.

Anyway, in each of those episodes, the first piece of advice that the expert gives to the hapless homeowner is to get rid of the junk. "It will be painful, but you have to be ruthless about this," they'll say, "because you can't get organized until you have fixed the underlying problem." In other words, all the organizational tools in the world can't help you if you continue to behave in the way you did to cause the mess. I can't help but make a comparison to the economic turmoil we are in as a country. We have selected President Obama as our expert consultant and are waiting for him to work his magic to get us out from under our economic wreckage. Unlike those experts on TV, however, he seems reluctant to counsel us to change our behavior and get rid of the junk. In fairness, no one in a position of authority seems to want to give us that advice. Congress has just passed a stimulus package which makes an effort (a wildly expensive one) to fix some of the symptoms, but does nothing to change the conditions which caused those symptoms in the first place. In other words, we are installing new shelves in the closet without realizing that they are nowhere near large enough to organize all the things we have stacked on the floor over the years. We need to clean house before we can organize. As with a messy room (and trust me, I know), it is unpleasant to get rid of much of the stuff you have collected, but it is necessary if you are going to ever get ahead of the clutter.

While I make no claim to expertise in matters economic, I do have a couple of modest proposals:

First, let's recognize that nearly any large company going into bankruptcy can cause an adverse impact on the economy as a whole, but that the short term pain will be worth it. Think of it as getting rid of some of those broken appliances and gadgets in your house that you have been meaning to fix, but never got around to it. After all, there is a reason those companies are failing in the first place. If the product or service they provide is in demand, someone else will quickly figure out a way to provide it. (OK, so this one's not original with me, but it does fit nicely into my illustration)

Second, we need to be realistic and admit that many of the houses currently facing foreclosure are owned by people who have no business in a house of that price. For years, it has been too easy to overextend financially and get into more house than you can realistically afford. Trust me, I've been there, too. Instead of just paying off people's mortgages, we need to figure out how to get people into the houses that they can afford. How about this: anyone who was paying more than 40% of their annual income for housing as of August first of last year would be required, as a condition of accepting a mortgage bailout, to move into a house costing no more than 30% of their annual income within the next year. This would take care of them for the short term, while still fixing the problem for the longer term. Think of this as getting rid of all those clothes in your closets that you just know will come back in style so you can wear them again...after you've lost that last 15 pounds and can fit into them again.

I am under no illusion that the adoption of these proposals would fix every problem, but it would at least demonstrate our willingness to actually face them instead of just trying to cover the symptoms. I am also under no illusion that either of them will actually be enacted. I think as a nation we would rather spend huge amounts of money on fancy shelves than actually put forth the effort to solve the problem. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go to the hardware store. They're having a sale on closet organizers.

Ancient Wisdom

I wonder why I haven't seen more pieces like this.

The perennial question at such times is, Where is God in the disaster, whether
our losses be small or large? Well, one of the oldest economic pamphlets still
in existence — the Book of Amos — has been arguing for 2,800 years that God is
in the middle of disaster.

It's worth reading in its entirety.

Maybe I am strange (OK, I know I'm a bit odd, but this is different), but when we first started getting articles on the latest economic crisis, one of the first things I thought of was to wonder what it might have been like for the ancient Israelites to be living through the time just prior to being taken into captivity in Babylon. King Solomon taught that there is nothing new under the sun, but we modern humans seem to think that everything that happens is a first in recorded history. Let's assume for a moment that the economic doomsayers are correct and we are headed into a dramatic worldwide recession (a point I am not generally willing to concede). How should the people of Christ react? What would God say to us in these times? I have to admit that I have never studied the book of Amos in depth, and cannot remember ever hearing a sermon preached out of it. I think that in general we miss a lot when we cut ourselves off from the wisdom of the past, and even more so when we ignore the very words of God preserved for us from time immemorial. No matter how dire our current situation appears, surely the Lord of Heaven has something of value for us. Perhaps it is time for us to delve deelpy into the ancient history of our faith and to wrestle with the unfamiliar passages that even the preachers tend to ignore. I know I will.

Kids of Iraq

I'd like to take a moment to post about an organization that I was involved with while I was deployed to Iraq last winter. Kids of Iraq started as an outreach to the community from a military facility in central Iraq to the local residents "outside the wire". Some of the company grade officers had the idea that they could collect clothes and school supplies from the US and distribute them to children in the area. That's where I got involved. Since then it has blossomed and grown far beyond anything I had envisioned while I was there. I have to admit here that I had very little to do with this growth other than to let a couple of people know that the effort existed. They took it from there and made it much more than I could have imagined. Check out the photo gallery to see some graphic pictures of American servicemen "abusing" Iraqi children. This is what America is really about, not an imperialistic effort to rule the world, but a true generosity and willingness to share our wealth with those less fortunate. We should all make an effort to support causes and organizations like this.

A Perspective on Elections

The American election season is (finally!) over, or maybe it is just beginning all over again. These days, who can tell? In the aftermath, I have been very interested in some of the comments from overseas, not just the news organizations, but also from some of the blogs I read on a regular basis. One of my favorites for inside information on Iraq is Iraq the Model, written by a couple of Iraqi guys in Baghdad. They have a unique perspective on the election, at least to my American mind. We have heard a lot about race in this campaign, and that aspect was not lost on Omar & Mohammed.

"People in the Middle East are amazed by the large number of white people and
Republican voters who voted for the “other.” America — who is always accused of
racism — has shown us that in fact our countries in the Middle East are where
racism flourishes. We didn’t choose that, but it’s the rule of tyranny and
repression that uses hatred and intolerance to further itself.It is liberty and
democracy that allowed America to become the great humane and mature nation that she is."

It's worth reading the whole post. I think it is too easy for us as Americans to get lost in the acrimony of a hotly contested election and forget that in many parts of the world, the idea of holding a free election is unthinkable, to say nothing of a peaceful transition of power between opposing political parties. We should not take our system for granted. This is a perspective I try to keep in mind. It is one of the reasons I joined the Air Force, and one of the reasons I continue to serve. Our country is worth fighting for, and even more than that, it is worth preserving in the political realm as well. You may not agree with the actions our government takes (heaven knows I don't) but if you are an American citizen, you have the ability, and indeed the duty to take action and change that government. Call your representatives, educate yourself and vote, run for office yourself (maybe even start a blog). Just never, never let yourself forget that those are rights and privileges that can be lost if not exercised judiciously.

Stem Cell "Miracle"

A Colombian mother of two living in Spain has received a trachea transplant, receiving a windpipe made partially from her own stem cells. While the headline reads "Breakthrough Windpipe Transplant Uses Stem Cells," it is obvious from the first line of the story that the stem cells were not embryonic, but came from her own bone marrow. This is yet another example of a number of stem cell treatments that do not require the killing of human embryos. Almost all of the debate on this subject completely misses the point. It is not stem cell research that pro-life people oppose, it is embryonic stem cell research, which incidentally has yet to produce any viable treatments. I would actually argue that the money being spent on embryonic stem cell research is being wasted and is taking effort away from research into adult stem cells that is already leading to useful treatments. In the name of helping Superman to walk again, embryonic stem cell advocates are actually hindering research that can help make that a reality.

Religion of Peace, Indeed...

Thanks to the Jawa Report for this piece that almost certainly wasn't supposed to be fodder for the general pubic.

But it was Choudary who rose to put her in her place. "Islam is not a religion of peace," he said. "It is a religion of submission. We need to submit to the will of Allah."

From my understanding, this is theologically correct, as a Muslim is "one who submits". Of course, that is a little different from the American PC version of the faith because it allows - indeed demands - that its followers submit to their god, even if he tells them to wage war on those who are not followers. I think this is a distinction that needs to be much better understood by many Americans, who would much rather believe that Islam is a faith that demands nothing except for its followers to get along with others. Come to think of it, this sounds suspiciously like American liberal Christianity, with its focus on "helping others" and "tolerance". Perhaps this would be better understood as people projecting their beliefs onto the Islamic faith to make it what they want it to be rather than what it actually is.

Islamists and Democracy

Two posts from Jihad Watch highlight the unpleasant fact that many Muslims do in fact want to change our political system. This would not be significant, except for the fact that most of the US is trying desperately to ignore the radicalized portion of Islam and pretend that we can get along peaceably with them.

The first article describes an essay posted by the treasurer of the Muslim Student Association at San Diego Mesa College on Oct 14. In it, Farhad Akbari urges his friends not to vote because supporting either candidate would be "poisonous to the cause of Islam".

The other post refers to an article by Anwar Al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born imam currently living in Yemen. He describes democracy as "an un-Islamic system," and says that "we as Muslims should have nothing to do with it."

I honestly can't be too disappointed that at least some of those who hate our way of life will refuse to participate in the electoral process. At least that way they can't directly influence the outcome. On the other hand, one would assume that they still desire to effect change. If they can't do it through the ballot box, that does not leave many other options. Based on the propensity of others who hold similar ideologies to use violence, it seems reasonable that these people might feel the same way. Cause for concern, in my opinion.

NEWSFLASH!! Television can influence behavior!

I saw this yesterday and almost laughed out loud:

“Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much higher
among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among
those who have tamer viewing tastes.”
Read more

I really think this is so obvious that it needs little additional comment. However, I will say one thing: If those who claim that viewing media images of sex or violence do not influence behavior are correct, why do companies spend millions of dollars each year producing TV commercials? They obviously believe that media messages can influence behavior.