Ok, I have been feeling this way for about three weeks but since nobody has put this in print—at least that I have seen—I want to be the first to blog that it will be clear that Romney has won before the polls close in California. I expect that the main stream media will be throwing in the towel by 5:30 pm on Election Day. This will be the earliest call since Jimmy Carter was spanked by Ronald Reagan. This will result in a few close races in California going our way. At stake may be the 2/3 majority being denied to California Democrats and the fate of Prop 30 & 32.
Billy Graham, Mormonism not a cult?
Rev. Billy Graham has reportedly agreed to stop calling Mormonism a cult following a recent meeting with Mitt Romney. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2219364/Evangelistic-Association-Reverend-Billy-Graham-stops-calling-Mormonism-cult-meeting-Romney.html According to the report, Graham’s website has issued a statement that reads in part.
‘We removed the information from the website because we do not wish to participate in a theological debate about something that has become politicized during this campaign.’
I am disappointed that Rev Graham is willing to subjugate his theology to avoid appearing political. Since the beginning, Christianity has been viewed as political. Christians were persecuted in Roman because they believed Jesus was Lord and rejected the claim that Caesar was lord. Rome viewed the Christian doctrine as treason. Instead of standing for the Truth of the claims of Christianity, Graham has slipped another plank of the faith under the proverbial bushel basket.
This is not the first time Graham has been weak-kneed about the claims of Christianity. When backed into a corner on Jesus’ claim that, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14: 6) Graham allowed that perhaps followers of Islam and others might be able to avoid Jesus and get to heaven anyway. Graham has stated this rejection of Jesus as “the way” on several occasions. Such a denial of Jesus by Graham is heresy.
Standing for the truth of Christianity does not mean that we as believers cannot support Mitt Romney. Romney wants to be President not pastor or pope. The upcoming election is a choice between two men. One of these two will be President for the next four years. We have been given the opportunity to pick between a man that wholly rejects any biblical ethics and is openly hostile to God and a man that—while unregenerate—can acknowledge the value of many beliefs that we derive from the Bible. Stated another way, Obama repudiates western civilization and Romney embraces it.
We should use the candidacy of Romney to lift high the cross and call all men from error to the true gospel. We are defending the faith that Joseph Smith repudiated and attacked as “corrupt” and “an abomination” when he started the LDS church. Graham’s actions in scrubbing his website are wrong. His actions seem to imply that we need Romney to make a profession of faith or walk an aisle before he should get the evangelical vote. This is silliness. To the degree that Romney supports our values we should support him. Clearly he is at least willing to listen to us while Obama thinks of us as “bitter clingers.”
Aaron Park’s Opposition to Prop 32 and Charles Munger
“Money is the root of all evil” goes the old saying. When it comes to politics in California, the biggest player and advocate of evil on the Republican side of the aisle is Charles Munger. Munger has decided to spend much of his vast fortune in an attempt to remake the California Republican Party as the Democrat Light Party. Munger clearly hates Conservatives—especially social ones—and wants the state GOP to be a secular group that embraces the power of government. He is for California what George Soros has been for Democrats on the national stage. If you look at Munger’s spending, it is clear that his main enemy is Conservative Republicans. Given the choice of defeating Democrats or Conservatives in his own party, he will fund the moderate Republican over the Conservative every time. He frequently avoids opportunities to defeat Democrats in seats that could be won by Republicans.
Munger’s win/loss record has not been that great in Assembly and Senate races but he has done better at the ballot initiatives. He is largely responsible for the top two primary in California. He is also one of the backers behind Prop 32. Given the mischief that can be traced to Munger, Aaron Park is rightly suspicious of Prop 32. Park wrote recently on his blog, “Passing Prop 32 would effectively eliminate the free speech of labor unions and corporations – thereby enabling powerful individuals with deep pockets to buy elections with no counterweight.” http://www.rightondaily.com/tag/no-on-prop-32/
I respectfully disagree with Mr. Park. While I am no fan of Munger, I must say that the public employee unions in California are a greater threat to liberty than Munger. I will attempt to explain some of my reasons for holding this position.
In the book of Samuel, after David killed Goliath the people shouted “Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands”. As I see it, Munger has spent his millions and the public employee unions their hundreds of millions. Recently the Sacramento Bee ran an article that unions representing state employees collects 10.5 million dollars a month in dues. The largest public employee union is the California Teachers Association and they collect more. It is likely that public employee unions in California are collecting over $25 million per month in taxpayer funds. Supposedly only a fraction of this amount is spent on political activity. Advocacy to members and lobbying in Sacramento do not count as political activity in the union world. Much of this political advocacy is instead called member communications. When they tell members or legislators how to vote, in my world that is political activity.
Doing the math for union influence in California goes like this. Public employee unions in our state are collecting more than $25 million dollars a month in dues. Elections are on a two year cycle; so 24 months times $25 million per month is $600 million per election cycle. Is it any wonder that these unions own everything in the state?
If Prop 32 passes, Unions would be crippled but not shutdown. Unions claim that only one to two percent of the dues collected go to political purposes. We all know this is a lie. By parsing the words, unions do not count most of their political activity as political activity. Instead they call it member communications. Lobbying legislation is also not counted as political activity. If this initiative passes unions would be forced to open their books to show members and taxpayers where all the public money goes that they have collected. This transparency is the last thing that they want but it will be the logical result of passage. Also folks like me that have money forcibly take out of our checks even though we don’t belong to the union will finally have the choice not to fund people and causes that they find morally objectionable.
California’s Prop 32 is Wisconsin light. While 85 percent of Wisconsin folks opted out of compulsory union dues for political purposes, I think the number in California that choose to remain in the system will be much higher. The funding of PACs and 527s will not be affected by this initiative.
A second line of argument against Park’s claim and in favor of 32 is that in the wake of the top two primary, party identification of candidates is not as important. This is especially true with the Republicans. The state party is broke and has been for many years. Their endorsement is almost meaningless. They have no money to help candidates or spend on their behalf. They are just a pass thru organization to funnel money to candidates by exploiting loopholes in existing campaign contribution laws. Nothing on our side of the aisle will change much.
If Munger wants to be king of the hill in our party so what? I can’t imagine a more inefficient use of money in California politics. Republicans are on the verge of going below the status of even being called the loyal opposition. We are functionally irrelevant to the political process. Elected officials in the party will only help Munger as long as the money flows. We have a name for folks like that … and you thought that was only legal in Nevada? At this stage in the decline of the Republican Party, donors will get more bang for their buck in supporting ballot measures than candidates. In the initiative arena, Munger has lots of company; he is not a lone actor as Park makes it sound.
Proverbs 13:22 promises that “the sinner’s wealth is laid up for the righteous”. How this works is a mystery but I know that God is in charge of this world and is bringing his will to pass. He is using folks like Soros and Munger for his purposes. Mostly this purpose appears to be judgment for not obeying Him. If you look at Munger’s spending it is clear to me that his problem is not with Conservatives it is ultimately with God. I have comfort in the fact that he will fail at anything he does that is not for the glory of God.
Being a Conservative Republican in California is much like wandering in the wilderness for forty years without Moses to guide us. All we are left with is griping, complaining and fighting amongst ourselves. I don’t think much will change for the better until the current generation (i.e. baby-boomers) have gone to their eternal reward. As long as a majority of people look to government to provide their needs, our future will be filled with more tyranny and less liberty. If passage of Prop 32 can slow the trip down the road to serfdom then I count that a small victory and worth my vote.
Chick-fil-A Caves to Gays
Chick-fil-A has let it be known that they will no long fund groups that support traditional marriage. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/sep/19/chick-fil-a-no-longer-will-fund-traditional-marria/?page=1
OK, so why did all of us wait in line for hours just to find out they were out of food just to show our support. I thought the Cathy family had some backbone. I am profoundly disappointed in this caving to immorality. I suppose they will soon be open on Sundays now if Liberals criticize them for that too.
Update:
Chick-fil-A has responded to published reports such as the one cited above. The release reads in part:
For many months now, Chick-fil-A’s corporate giving has been mischaracterized. And while our sincere intent has been to remain out of this political and social debate, events from Chicago this week have once again resulted in questions around our giving. For that reason, we want to provide some context and clarity around who we are, what we believe and our priorities in relation to corporate giving.
A part of our corporate commitment is to be responsible stewards of all that God has entrusted to us. Because of this commitment, Chick-fil-A’s giving heritage is focused on programs that educate youth, strengthen families and enrich marriages, and support communities. We will continue to focus our giving in those areas. Our intent is not to support political or social agendas.
http://www.chick-fil-a.com/Pressroom/Press-Releases#?release=who-we-are
Further Adventures with Windows 8
I once went to an estate sale near my house. It was the afternoon of the third day when I finally wondered over there to see what all the fuss was about. All the rooms of the house were arranged in a logical fashion but most of the contents had been stripped to the bone. Only a few crumbs remained. Any hope of finding a treasure that would make you a star on the Antiques Roadshow had faded days ago. This is the feeling that I have when I wander through the Windows 8 Store. All the rooms are there but the contents are sparse.
I realize that the Store for all intents and purposes is still a beta but I doubt there are five hundred apps in the whole thing. Many apps appear to be in other languages which further reduces the number that I would be interested in using. Some apps are just long form commercials—“crapware” that often comes preloaded on PCs—only this stuff has a different wrapper on it. One example is a Kaspersky app that looks like a free anti-virus beta.
Another disappointing app is the Kindle Reader from Amazon. You can’t direct it to your existing Kindle library and can’t add other content to it. Not even pdf files. I downloaded the Windows 7 Kindle Reader and no longer have these problems.
Some apps are great but others are unfinished or even lame. My other complaint is that if I try an app and don’t like it, I can’t find how to get it off my list of apps that want to be installed. One support thread said try going into Power Shell and remove the installer package. …OK; so nobody at Microsoft ever thought of this before? Don’t they have children in Redmond?
Speaking of children, my seven year old wanted a faster computer to play games with his brother. His little XP box could not handle the games in a networked play environment. Command & Conquer Generals and Diablo II were ok but Minecraft was beyond what his little PC could handle. I figured that this was daddy’s excuse to upgrade and give junior the old stuff. My upgrade went fine. Windows 8 didn’t skip a beat with a new motherboard, CPU and more RAM. It booted right up. I did not get a pesky message that my license was invalid and I needed to register the software again. Just for the record both boards were from Gigabyte.
However, getting my son’s computer to run and keep running was a major project. After installing Windows 8 three times from the install DVD and twice from back-ups, I threw in the towel. The motherboard, CPU and RAM from my computer plus the old hard drive I found in the garage did not exist in harmony. I experience corrupted files and bad registry hives. My first thought was that hard drive was in the garage for a reason so I bought a new drive and tried again. The installation still got corrupted. I put a new power supply in the computer and still the files were getting corrupted. Soon the operation system would give me the sad screen of death—a modest improvement from the dread blue screen of death (BSOD).
To get Minecraft to run on Windows 8, I needed to use beta drivers from NVIDIA. I didn’t know if it was the video drivers or the hardware. Finally, frustrated beyond “R-rated” words, I put the Windows 7 install disk in the computer with the intention of wiping the drive and going with a more proven OS. Not satisfied that this was going to work, I rejoiced to see the Memory testing utility as the other choice besides installing Windows 7. I figured that it wouldn’t hurt to run this silly program. The diagnostic program got to 9 percent complete before I saw the message that I needed to contact the PC manufacturer because a hardware problem was detected.
YES Finally I was vindicated. It was a problem beyond my control. I was not sure if the problem was the RAM, motherboard or CPU. I talked to a guy at Fry’s and he told me of a similar problem that he had experienced. He found that the culprit was the motherboard and not the RAM. After wasting a week on this computer already I decided that I was beyond “plug and pray” repairs and opted for a new motherboard, CPU and RAM. After my son went to bed, I assembled the components and then installed them in the case. Then I loaded Windows 8. All while he slept peacefully a few feet away. Things have been great since then.
One last word of advice is that in Windows 8, System Restore is off by default. Turn it on and run it occasionally. While it didn’t help in my situation it might save your bacon with other PC problems. Oh, and good luck finding the Control Panel. When you do, pin it everywhere.
2016: Obama’s America
My wife insisted that we see 2016: Obama’s America. Earlier today we hopped into the car and headed to the local theater. After buying a lunch of soda and popcorn, we marched into the theater and grabbed a seat.
I was familiar with Dinesh D’Souza’s thesis about Obama, his father and colonialism so I had some idea what the movie would cover. The movie begins with a compare and contrast of D’Souza and Obama. This simultaneously lets viewers meet both men and also lets you know the perspective of the man who brought his book to your local Cineplex.
The movie introduces a few actions taken by Obama during his first term in office. These events are ones which many viewers will be familiar and had wondered why? Then it moves to the story of both Obama and his father. Much of the narrative in the film is audio from Obama’s two books. Obama did us the favor of recording both books in his own voice. D’Souza interviews Obama’s family and many that knew him earlier in life or had known his father.
The film weaves a more complete picture of the President’s life history than most people have ever heard from their televisions or talk radio. Granted, this movie presents only a thumbnail sketch of these events but the framework is logical and objective. I never got the feeling that I was being manipulated by the filmmakers. Yes, I was seeing what they felt was significant but in most cases I think they exercised good judgment in preparing their story.
The highlight of the movie to me was finally getting to see Obama’s brother, George. George was intelligent and very different from his more famous half-brother. Obama Sr. had five wives and died when George was six months old. George lives in a ghetto in a tiny 10 x 10 hut in Nigeria. It was great to see him on the big screen.
The movie then tries to explain actions taken by President Obama within the framework of D’Souza’s thesis. It finally circles back to the events at the beginning of the movie. You can almost hear Paul Harvey’s words “and now you know the rest of the story” echoing in your ears.
The last few minutes of the film are spent in extrapolating what a second Obama term would be like based on the first term and D’Souza’s thesis. This is interesting especially since Obama has never said what he plans to do if re-elected.
I don’t think everyone will agree with D’Souza’s analysis but if you don’t then what explanation do you have that fits the facts better? On this point those across the political spectrum have been silent. Obama’s actions as President defy traditional flavors of Liberalism in American politics. 2016 is the best window into Obama’s life that has been produced thus far.
Windows 8: Preliminary Review
Yesterday, I downloaded the final code for Windows 8. As a Microsoft TechNet subscriber, I have access to most of the software produced by Microsoft. I chose to upgrade my main desktop machine just to see what the experience would be like.
Unlike other recent versions of Windows, the installation procedure did not run a compatibility check. With only a few prompts, the software seemed to run on its own. Only at the end of the procedure did I encounter problems. Toward the end of the procedure, the user starts getting prompts to select theme color, some default settings and then tie the installation to your Windows account. (For many years this was called the Windows Live account.) It was at this point that the installation process crashed. I got a message that Windows could not be installed and then the program removed Windows 8 and a few minutes later my computer restarted into Windows 7.
My first thought was that my Kaspersky internet security program was responsible. (I am aware that no existing antivirus product works with Windows 8 but it was part of the experiment to see what the average user would encounter.) I uninstalled the program and did the suggested restart. Again I ran the Windows 8 DVD and about 25 minutes later I was running Windows 8.
The final code provides a much clearer interface than previous versions. Before when I ran betas of Windows 8, every item in my start menu appeared as a tile. It was just a cluttered mess to wade thru but the tile experience on the final code is much simpler. I also installed the beta version of Microsoft Office 2013. (I may blog on this at a later date.)
So far I like the program. I did shrink many of the default tiles to the smaller size and add a few but otherwise everything fits onto one screen. The best thing I found in the marketplace was the app to let me run XBOX programs thru my network on my Windows 8 PC. That looks interesting.
Lastly, on my desktop view, all my stuff is there except my Gadgets. I had read that they were deemed a security risk and MS was planning to end them.
I still haven’t checked out dual monitor capability because my other monitor is the TV and Chef Ramsey does not like to be preempted.
My final word is uninstall your antivirus program and the take Windows 8 for a spin.
Amazon Cloud Player with Music Scan and Match Reviewed: Part2
After my first attempts at uploading music failed, I decided that the only way to get further into the uploading process with any prospect of success was to convert all songs in my library to mp3 files. Most of my library is in WMA format. It took two days to convert all songs in my library to mp3 files. I used the conversion utility that comes with the free version of Real Player (http://www.real.com).
I then tried to upload music to the Amazon Cloud. Thus far I have uploaded about two thousand audio tracks. Amazon never recognizes all the songs—ever when they sell the identical songs on their website and I ripped them from a factory CD. On average, out of a block of 200 or more songs, the cloud service will identify about 35 to 40 percent of the music. Just as a test for this blog posting, I tried the Grammy Award winning album by Bob Dylan Slow Train Coming. As you can see in the attached screen shot, Amazon correctly identified only six of the nine songs; the other three had to be uploaded individually.
Once the music is uploaded, other catastrophes were waiting to be worked-out. Many songs from the same CD were split into five or six “albums” even thought they were ripped from a single commercially purchased CD and uploaded at the same time. Trying to fix these errors is frustrating and very time consuming. Whether you use the back button or other navigation links in the Cloud Player, you end-up not where you were just working but at the beginning of the list of albums. In addition, the suggestions from the Cloud Player for artist, album and track number are frequently wrong—even when Amazon sells the same CD on their website. Perhaps working in multiple monitors and multiple browser sessions would allow fixing these errors quickly.
Once you think you have all the bugs worked out on a particular album, you have no visible indicator to let you know if Amazon matched a music track with their library or what bit rate a song is in unless you actually download it. I have gone to great lengths to use correct year for album release dates in my library however this information only confuses the music identification routine used by Amazon’s software. Amazon favors the date they made something available for download not the year the album or CD was released originally.
So far I have mixed opinions about the Amazon Cloud Player.
How to make Joe Soptic Ad True
“I don’t think Barack Obama understands what he’s done to people’s lives since being elected.
I don’t think he realizes that people’s lives completely changed.
When Barack Obama and Biden were elected, I lost my healthcare, and my family lost their healthcare.
And a short time after that my wife became ill.
I don’t know how long she was sick and I think maybe she didn’t say anything because she knew that we couldn’t afford the insurance, and then one day she became ill and I took her up to the County Hospital and admitted her for pneumonia and that’s when they found the cancer and by then it was stage four.
It was, there was nothing they could do for her.
And she is close to passing away.
I do not think Barack Obama realizes what he’s done to anyone, and furthermore I do not think Barack Obama is concerned.”
Amazon Cloud Player with Music Scan and Match Reviewed: Part1
I purchased the Premium Cloud Player from Amazon last night after reading about it on CNET. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57483608-93/amazons-cloud-music-service-gets-scan-and-match/ . They claim to be able to scan and match your existing music from ripped CDs, iTunes, LPs and other sources and replace them with 256 kbps audio which you can download. Amazon claims a library of 20 million tracks and for their $25 fee you can have a library up to 250,000 songs on their cloud service. I did a test of some of my music. My library is over five thousand songs. I randomly picked some for uploading. Here are some preliminary results.
As you can see, the service does not match all tracks. All the above were ripped from CDs that I purchased. Miss Angie and Dan Peek are on available for purchase as MP3 downloads. Both CDs with all tracks are listed for sale as downloads on Amazon. Some Donna Summer and 2nd Chapter of Acts tracks are available on the site but not all.
The next issue is, are the cloud tracks that they matched their regular bit rate or the 256 kbps audio that they advertised? What about LPs that I recorded? Are they replaced by the super audio files that are advertised or is the program just uploading the ones that I made?
Stay Tuned…