I wanted to briefly discuss how Billy Graham touched my family and affected my relationship with God as a result. I thought this a fitting tribute. While my beliefs don’t perfectly align with his, I wish this blog to accentuate the positive on this occasion.
As a condition of being married in the Roman Church, my dad was required to sign an agreement with the Church that he would allow his children to be raised Roman Catholic—my mom’s faith. Just over a decade later, in the 1970’s, I was transitioning from a private Catholic elementary school to a public junior high.
At this period, my mom watched Billy Graham on a local television broadcast. She knew about Jesus but felt distant from him. As Graham spoke, she felt her need to have a more lively faith and walk with Christ. As Graham asked his audience to pray with him, so did my mother.
Graham’s basic message included the concept that it was not our works—the things that we did or did not do—that got us into heaven but that our works were inadequate to gain salvation. Our sin separated us from God. Only the work of Christ dying on our behalf could get us into heaven. We must acknowledge our sin and ask Christ to forgive us and enter our hearts. It was not the external that related us to God but the renewing of our hearts that cause our regeneration (in Graham’s terminology, being born again). To this end, it was Graham’s practice to conclude his sermons with a call to get into a right relationship with God. As such, he would ask that people pray with him as he recited “the sinner’s prayer”.
This prayer caused a change in my mother and she began to explore other places to worship. As a result, we ended up attending a local Baptist church. A few months later, my sisters and I attended a summer camp sponsored by the new church. At camp, we also made a commitment of our lives to Christ.
As a result of my camp experience, I was a different person. I had a hunger for reading the Bible and learning about God. I had a lively faith and wanted to share it with others. Over the years, I have continued my walk with God, sometimes closer than others. I have moved beyond the Baptist ways and found a way to make peace with the Roman Church as well.
I am grateful to the ministry of Billy Graham for the difference that has been made in my life.
There is an old saying, “he who frames the issue wins the debate”. But what is supposed to happen is that after the debate, (eventually) the issue is solved or voted upon and then we move on. However, sometimes that doesn’t happen. Did you ever wonder why?
Before I proceed on this topic, please understand that I am the messenger. I wish to have readers look at my examples not in terms of agreeing with one side over another but as a political analysis.
I wish to begin with two topics that seem to have no solutions: abortion and immigration.
Abortion
Abortion opponents say that they wish to have government support life and will stop at nothing short of the human life amendment.
A Human Life Amendment can be both a unifying strategy for individuals and organizations and a powerful political tool to discern the true pro-life convictions of our elected officials. The ultimate goal of the pro-life movement
Abortion supporters want unlimited abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy—this is the status quo under Roe v Wade. Plus, they want you to pay for them with taxpayer dollars. Many see abortion—or the absence of child bearing—as the only way to have real equality with men.
As you can see, there is no room for common ground, compromise, or any other of the usual political maneuvering using such a binary equation.
Immigration
Some folks want to allow everyone that can get inside the borders of the United States to come and then once here, they wish to unilaterally confer upon them all rights and privileges of citizenship without them even asking for it. No assimilation is required. This includes voting, employment and education. Think California once Gavin Newsom is sworn in as governor.
Other folks say they want to deport everyone here illegally. For them, Trump’s wall is just a symbol of the protectionism necessary to insure United States sovereignty. They wish to keep illegals from accessing any of the programs or opportunities available to our citizens. Only those who followed the established path to Green Cards and citizenship are welcomed.
As you can see, there is no room for common ground, compromise, or any other of the usual political maneuvering using such a binary equation.
Yes, there is a segment of squishy people in the middle of both these issues but the people driving the issue tend to be on one side or the other.
My question is why can’t a political solution be found for either issue? My answer is simple. Neither side wants it solved. They would rather have the issue to get votes in the next election than fix anything.
Remember Obamacare and the Republicans? Republicans wanted the issue for campaigning but really had no plan to “repeal and replace” even though they campaigned on that promise for eight years. When they got the chance with majorities in the House and Senate plus a supportive and friendly President, they could pass no legislation because there was no plan.
In the same way, abortion is not about killing or not killing babies, its about votes. Democrats view being pro-abortion as a winning issue for them and most Republicans view being pro-life as being to their benefit. Again, this is just posturing.
I have been told by Liberal Republicans that they wish the pro-lifers would go away because social conservatives have ruined the Party. My response is “simple, get the taxpayer money out of the issue. If you do, abortion will no longer be a political issue.” Think about it, both sides have built their respective fortresses on the issue of “to fund or not to fund”. Yes, there are moral issues involved but without taxpayer money, it is a mute topic at election time for the vast majority of folks.
Immigration is a more complex issue but given a choice of fixing a defective and broken system or having the issue at election time, politicians of all stripes would rather have the issue than fix it.
Conclusion This ladies and gentlemen is the real gridlock in Washington. Both teams are happier playing “prevent defense” than winning. To strike a decisive blow for your side is to risk galvanizing the opposition. Think of it as trying to steal the other guy’s honey without being stung by their bees in the process. Get as much as you can and still make a clean getaway. This is what passes for modern statecraft.
Or to use a different analogy, we have entrusted our economic harem to the eunuchs in Washington hoping that they won’t screw us too badly.
Someone once said “it ain’t bragging if you can do it” or words to that effect. President Trump got roasted by the media yesterday when he said that he would run into a school to stop a shooting even if he wasn’t armed. The Left had a cow but guess what? He’s actually done something very similar before…
Trump’s lightly-educated critics ignore history, including a 1991 incident in which The Donald rush to stop a mugging in New York and chased the armed assailant away, despite lacking any weapon himself. As James Rosen reported at the time in the New York Daily News, “When he saw ‘a big guy with a big bat’ bashing another fellow, Donald Trump did what any self-respecting billionaire would do: He ordered his driver to pull over.” Trump confronted the armed assailant, who recognized him and claimed not to have done anything wrong. Trump reportedly asked the mugger, “How could you not do anything wrong when you’re whacking a guy with a bat?” The mugger then ran away. FLASHBACK: Donald Trump Rushed To Stop An Assailant In 1991 Even Though He Didn’t Have A Weapon
Trump the Negotiator
By the way, what even happened to the idea that a hero runs into a building when everyone else is running out?
A headline caught my eyes this week and I knew I had to do more in depth research, “JM Smucker Company announces global pet food recall.” Ummm, why is a jam and peanut butter company recalling pet food I wondered aloud? I’ll get into this a little more later. As I continued reading the article I figured the dog food may not have been heated/mixed/prepared correctly…wrong, they added pentobarbital….yeah as in the lethal injection death penalty drug. For those of you in Soviet California, other states use lethal injection to wipe clean the earth of scum, you guys just let them out of jail with a slap on the wrist. But back to my point, how in the world does pentobarbital get introduced into the food supply of a huge company? I mean I thought the point of buying dog food was to keep Fido alive not kill him/her or if you’re in California your gender neutral dog. The brands recalled were; Ole Roy, Kibbles n’ Bits, and Gravy Train, all wet dog food products only. Besides the fact that wet dog food is basically processed diarrhea I still honestly wonder how in the world pentobarbital was introduced to the supply chain. What was it even doing in the factory? I will explain below.
The FDA has this to say regarding ingesting pentobarbital “Consuming high levels of pentobarbital can cause coma and death. However, pentobarbital present in the withdrawn products is at a low level unlikely to pose a health risk to pets.” You should feel much more assured now, it was just a low dose so likely nothing would happen to your dog. What a line of crap.
Editor’s Note: Our readers in the Orient should understand that this FDA pronouncement does not consider the cumulative effect of consuming dogs or canine products over a long period of time. Participants in the recent Winter Olympics were unlikely to have been exposed to enough canine products during their time in South Korea since each athlete was issued 37 condoms by the International Olympic Committee and thus are presumed to have been too occupied doing other things to suffer ill effects of canine exposure.
Smucker had an even better one, get a load of this “We take this very seriously and are extremely disappointed that pentobarbital was introduced to our supply chain,” Barry Dunaway, President of Pet Food and Pet Snacks said in a statement. “We will continue to work closely with our suppliers and veterinarians to ensure the ingredients used in our products meet or exceed regulatory safety standards and our high-quality standards,” Dunaway continued. “Above all, we are a company that loves pets and understand the responsibility we have in providing high quality food for the pets our consumers love.”
Literally this Dunaway has admitted nothing other than they are embarrassed; yeah like a child sorry they got caught, not sorry for what they did. Then he goes on, but don’t worry we will work closely with our suppliers (sounds like you should terminate the contract), veterinarians (But notice not the Vet you will be taking your sick dog too) and they still love your dog (they love your $$$ and hope their ignorance doesn’t kill it). Clearly Smucker’s legal team wrote the press release and Dunaway signed his name. The kicker is this waste of human flesh is a president of the pet food division, like he actually has major responsibilities. Apparently, there is no brain cell requirement to hold a high-ranking position at JM Smucker Co.
The over laying issue here is about 10 companies control 90% of the market on most food and other essential products we use in our lives. Best examples; you hate Pepsi because they are evil and their soda causes diabetes, so you reach for Aquafina or Quaker Oats instead…PepsiCo makes those products. Gatorade, Tropicana, or Lays….yup all owned PepsiCo. Coca-Cola makes Coke, but did you know they make Dasani bottled water? Or Fairlife milk? Campbell’s Soup tastes awful, so I will grab a V8 instead…both owned by Campbell’s. MARS, the maker of M&M’s also owns Banfield Pet Hospital…yeah. I am attaching a graphic to show the depth of this. The point I’m trying to make isn’t about a monopoly or anything it’s that the Stock Market/Wall St. are so demanding that companies have no choice but to buy other brands. As William has said, it’s a 90 day cycle you need to beat last quarters numbers, or the same quarter from last year’s numbers and if you don’t there are consequences. These consequences sometimes result in buying of other brands, most often though layoffs occur.
You may remember the old Campbell Soup plant in Sacramento, its closing had nothing to do with productivity, it was closed because it was old and the County wouldn’t pony up major tax breaks so they left. Mondelez International moving Oreo production from Oregon to Mexico had nothing to do with streamlining of the company it had to do with the input costs are less in Mexico then the USA. These are done to appease Wall Street investors and big banks and investment firms. Uncle Pennybags and his brethren want their quarterly divided or there will be hell to pay.
Back to my point, when one of these conglomerates buys a brand, they destroy it in the name of saving a few dollars. Look at Annie’s, it’s an organic line of food designed for children, it was bought by General Mills, they stripped out the natural ingredients and now the product is trash. Look at McDonalds, what used to be an all-beef patty, is now a frozen hockey puck of mystery meat, and a bad tasting one at that. These examples underscore that when you live in a 90 day cycle and anything necessary to drive profits can and will be done. Look at what Coke did years ago, replaced cane sugar with corn syrup, the effect has been great, it was more addictive and tasted the same, and sales soared.
Enough rambling, back to Smucker; the problem now is companies used to actually make their products now they just mix ingredients together and package them. A good example is Campbell Soup, I used to know an employee there, and he told me the ingredients were all locally sourced (within 5 hour drive) and were mixed and cooked at the plant. That practice ended a decade ago. I’m sure it is the same at Smucker, their ground meat is from one country, the gravy from another, the bits from another, they show up on a flatbed truck, in unlabeled boxes, you throw them into a mixer and voila! Ole Roy wet dog food is created, can it, label it and it’s off to the local market. Not sure where the pentobarbital gets mixed in but it’s in there somewhere. The bigger issue is corporations like this have numerous suppliers for the same product so there could be 5 that supply the gravy mix, and it all comes in unmarked boxes making it impossible to know what supplier/country of origin it came from.
The point of this article isn’t to scare you, most all corporations make food that is completely healthy and safe to eat, but “hitting the numbers” causes corporations to use lower quality ingredients or layoff the food safety inspectors, and this is where these problems lie. Conagra Foods, maker of Chef Boyardee, laid off most of their food safety inspectors, and hmmm 2 months later issued a global recall of 100k cans of pasta, just saying.
Til next time,
X
PS Mark Cuban had a bad week…….maybe time to dance on his grave!
Following the recent school shooting in Florida, many folks are asking, “what it will take to end such senseless violence?” I wish to address this question but not in the way that the George Soros types are expecting.
• First, the shooter was not a current student.
• Second, all of the non-violent, touchy-feely stuff like “See something, say something” was followed. Months Before Massacre, Cops Told of Cruz Threats With Weapon
• Third, did you know there was an officer on the campus when the shooting started and he did nothing but hide until it was over?
Sheriff Scott Israel during a press conference Thursday said video showed Peterson arriving at the west side of the building where the shooting took place. Peterson, Israel said, took up a position but “never went in.”
Peterson was armed and in uniform during the shooting, but never entered the building despite “clearly” knowing a shooting was happening, Israel said.
The sheriff said he believes Peterson remained outside of the building for four minutes, while the shooting in total lasted six minutes. Israel said the officer never fired his weapon.
Unless Tom Cruz really wants to setup the Pre-crime Unit from his movie Minority Report, nothing of substance could have been to the gunman prior to walking on the campus with his guns. (And no, you can’t lock people up because you think they’re crazy, the U.S. Supreme Court killed that idea in the 1980’s. What do you think caused the epidemic of homeless people?)
Sorry but Pre-Crime Unit is Science Fiction
What should have happened is that the cop on campus or some teacher “packin’ heat” should have ended this thing before it ever got started. If the coach that died shielding students had been able to use deadly force, then the tragedy could have been avoided entirely. But Liberals would rather that we all were defenseless sheep rather than potential deterrents to crime.
Calling 911 Won’t Save You
If you think that calling 911 during an active shooter event will save you then you are a fool. Never has a call to 911 prevented an active shooter situation. The police take too long to arrive to be of any good and will wait outside until they know they have superior numbers before entering the building. This time is measured in hours not minutes. Here are a few random examples
Parkland Florida: February 2018
In this instance, the shooter left the school with a group of students and before law enforcement was ready to enter the building.
Authorities said the alleged gunman, Nikolas Cruz, stopped at a WalMart, a Subway restaurant and a McDonald’s immediately after carrying out the second-deadliest mass shooting at a public school in US history.
No news story directly addresses when police entered the school but they were setting up a command post for an active shooter situation about an hour after said shooter arrived on campus via Uber and a half hour after he had fled the campus. Florida school shooting timeline
Schools aren’t the Only Soft Targets
I happen to work for the State of California. Where I work is supposed to be a “gun free zone”. Even if I had a conceal carry permit, I still wouldn’t be allowed to bring a firearm to work. If I did, I could be prosecuted by the State. While he’s really busy filing lawsuits against President Trump and the United States government, Xavier Becerra would gladly take time out of his schedule to bury me in a deep hole for daring to defend myself and coworkers against bad guys.
Nevertheless, we have mandatory training for active shooter situations. We are supposed to run, hide, or fight back; in that order. Let’s examine these instructions.
Option 1 Run
We are supposed to outrun a bullet or at least the guy with the gun; after all we are trained to do that. Yeah, right! If this is such a great idea then answer me this, “So how many state workers have you seen in the Olympics?” None. Most State workers feel fortunate if they can run to the breakroom fast enough to catch a donut because someone is celebrating their promotion.
Option 2 Hide
I work on the second floor of a building with two stairwells as access points. If two guys each took a set of stairs or disabled the back door before acting then everyone here would be trapped in the building. We have a few conference rooms built of metal studs and sheetrock in an otherwise open floor plan. A bullet would easily travel the whole distance across the room until it strikes a solid object which would likely be a person. Only if the gunman was interested in a quick hit and run would you have hope of surviving.
Option 3 Fight Back
Picture this, a bad guy brandishing his semi-automatic loaded with a clip of hollow point bullets versus me throwing my tape dispenser and stapler while yelling loudly to intimidate a guy with murder in his heart. That outcome seems rather stacked against me seeing another sunrise.
The State wants me to be happy that I’m a target. After all they are giving me a paycheck in exchange for workplace free of violence.
But if this is such a great policy why do they get metal detectors, armed California Highway Patrol guards, and armed drivers who are sworn officers?
Elected Officials have guns nearby for protection but not us
Beslan
Beslan has been called Russia’s 9/11. Over 330 people died in a school siege that you’ve probably never heard of. Here’s the short version. On the first day of school, over two dozen terrorists descended on an elementary school in a town of 35 thousand people. They took over 1,100 people hostage. They herded them all into the school gymnasium. They placed explosives on all the doors, confiscated all cell phones, and then executed the men and boys that they felt might have the physical ability to fight back. Three days later the Russian Army raided the school.
A documentary called Beslan: Three days in September is well worth viewing. I saw this years ago on Netflix but it is no longer available from them. In fact, I can’t find it for sale anywhere; however, it is available via streaming from CBS News. It is on their page for the news program, 48 Hours.
I think it will take a similar incident in our country to make meaningful changes in our public debate. As always the debate is do we begin to defend ourselves or cede freedom to the central government in exchange for the illusion of safety?
Loyal readers your humble correspondent has finally found a piece of legislation with which he agrees and it’s coming from New York nonetheless. Yes, a bill moving through the legislature there will force Tide’s manufacturer, Proctor and Gamble, to redesign their Tide Pod product.
If you’re a Tea Party or CRA member (are there any left?), live in your parent’s basement, or just have bad hygiene then you might not know or care that Tide started making laundry pods about 5 years ago to simplify the laundry process. Rather than measuring a cup of liquid or powdered detergent you could simply throw a pod into the wash and Voila, your clothes were magically clean and nice smelling.
All was well, until it was discovered that children were trying to eat the pods since they looked similar to candy and smelled good as well. Tide has responded by coming out with child proof bags, etc. but they’re not working because…well, parents are dumb. Once they reap the consequences of a biological act of momentary gratification, these parents are not interested in watching over their offspring. Instead, they allow their young ones to fend for themselves and some eat these toxic little pods. Said offspring are then rushed to the ER seeking medical attention.
So yeah, go ahead CRA members; tell me how I am in favor of big government (or anti-business) because I want Tide to change the color and scent of their pods, so they are not as inviting to children. If the pods tested like broccoli or cauliflower, think of all the lives that would be saved. Just remember that there are some parents out there who are irresponsible enough to leave these poison packets around within reach of their children and in such cases, government can make a difference.
If you are under 10 and eat a Tide Pod, I feel bad because you were brought into this world by horrible parents. Such parents should even be prosecuted for child endangerment. (I know CRA folks; I’m a big government guy.) Face it, some people in this world, (it’s a very large and growing number) have no business having children at all, let alone at an early age.
However tragic pods may be for young children, the news about them does not stop once they are old enough to know better. Let me turn my fire on to a new, disturbing, and flat out ridiculous new trend among the youth in our country, the Tide Pod Challenge. In this “challenge” you eat/ingest a Tide Pod, then film the aftermath. Apparently, these videos are very viral on YouTube and other sites like Facebook. Essentially you film yourself-foaming at the mouth, choking up blood, or even better…dying!
Why do I say even better dying? Remember the old axiom of journalism, if it bleeds, it leads. In a world where popularity is measured in hits, clicks, and views such videos are a measure of your success. Too bad you won’t be around to see how it turns out.
In closing I will say this, I don’t understand this Tide Pod challenge thing, I likely never will. It’s very sad but I believe legislation is required to get the company to change their packaging for the sake of protecting young children from their parents. It’s even sadder I’m considering visiting my local Costco and buying these in bulk to sell on the streets late at night because this sounds like a legal means by which to make extra money. What happened to the good old-fashioned trying to eat 10 saltine crackers in 5 minutes challenge or hold ice cubes in your hand for 5 minutes challenge? Now the challenges are deadly or worse case could leave you with debilitating side effects for the rest of your life.
Reminder, Tide takes grass stains out of clothes, it is highly toxic, and warns about it being ingested. Doesn’t sound too appetizing to me.
Til next time,
X
PS. 1 Tide pod for $2 or 3 for $5
I wish to begin this discussion today with two propositions:
Rush Limbaugh says that for most people, history begins when you are born. In a sense that is true because you remember best what you experienced.
We have also been admonished that those that don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.
My subject today touches on both propositions.
In recent times, the Internet has revolutionized the availability of information; however, I don’t mean this in the way you think I do. We have made everything transient and disposable. One such casualty is “Truth”. Our culture often speaks of “what is true for you” as opposed to “Truth” as an objective, absolute standard. Liberals have their “truth” and conservatives have theirs, too. Most of the time the intersection of the facts in any discussion is tangential to the discussion and not central to it. We talk past each other not to each other. Look at the news of the day and how CCN or the old gray lady covers it as opposed to Fox or World Net Daily or Breitbart. How do folks witness the same events and come-up with this stuff?
I love the ease of finding things on the Internet but try finding the same event or article six months or a year later. There is a good chance the link (URL) is gone or broken. It could be moved, purged, or the website is just gone. If you are lucky, the article might be behind a pay firewall—and thus out of reach anyway.
Example: Rita Crundwell “The Crooked Comptroller: Poster Child for Segregating Duties”
I took a college level class a few years ago and we had to read an article about a particular person that was written by a particular author. The subject was business ethics. The required article was owned by a company that wanted $595 for a membership just to access its contents. I wrote the company and they made an exception and allowed me to get a copy to write my report. Ironically the instructor had no copy of the article and didn’t seem to know that it costs money just to get it.
I dislike the current practice of allowing school children to compose reports solely from “research” conducted on the Internet. We all know that search engines put their thumbs on the scales when it comes to getting results. This can be to promote a particular political viewpoint or to promote one advertiser over another. Furthermore, research on the Internet only goes back for a few years. The farther back you go, the less you will find. Much prior to the “digital age” is unavailable.
Another factor that affects search results is that companies and people are employed to “scrub” the internet of unfavorable reports. This is particularly true of politicians and large companies and institutions. Here are two examples.
The University of California at Davis tried to scrub any references to an on campus protest in which students were maced by campus police. They were “busted” doing this and mercilessly raked over the coals by local media. The story eventually went national and lives on in infamy on Wikipedia.
While on Elk Grove’s City Council, Jim Cooper, ran for Sacramento County Sheriff. At the time, the department was facing budget cuts and layoffs. Candidate Cooper said that his solution would be to make the department more financially stable by the wide scale use of traffic cameras to fund the department. (Cooper by his statements admits that cameras are not about safety but revenue.) I heard Cooper say this while I was attending a candidate forum but I dare you to find a written report of his comments via an Internet search.
The Internet has other limitations as well. Ever buy music on Apple or Amazon or some other service? Here’s what you are missing.
• Who wrote the song?
• Who produced it?
• Who are the musicians?
• What inspired the artist to record it?
• Where was the track recorded?
• When was it recorded?
All this and more was once common on the jacket of a vinyl record and less so on a compact disk. Now you get no context to the song.
Electronic documents such as Adobe PDF files and EBooks are another area of concern when limitations of the digital age are concerned. With the click of a mouse or push of a remote button, these documents can be disabled in their entirety or edited without any user input. Paper books are better for sharing anyway. The thought that Amazon can edit, disable, or delete any book that you’ve purchased from them should give you some cause for concern. If someone modified or disabled, the PDF file extension then anything in that format would become unreadable. If you drill down into the licensing agreement, you will find that you really don’t own the software, music, or book that you think that you purchased. No, in reality you have only bought a use license and ownership is actually retained by some faceless corporation not you. The digital age has its benefits but don’t overlook the limitations as well.
It doesn’t take an EMP weapon from North Korea to end the “information age” as we know it. Buyer beware. Clearly I like the digital age but I like parts of the “old school” ways as well. In my mind physical media is always better.
Lastly, for your reading and amusement I present a technology called B.O.O.K. Bio-Optic Organized Knowledge.
BOOK is a revolutionary technological breakthrough: no wires, no electric currents, no batteries. Nothing to be connected or switched on. So easy to use, even a child can operate it! Compact, portable, it can be used anywhere—even on a beach, yards from a power point. Yet it is powerful enough to hold as much information as a CD-ROM disc! Here’s how it works:
BOOK is constructed of literally hundreds of sequentially numbered sheets of paper (recyclable), each capable of holding thousands of bits of information. The pages are locked together with a custom fit device (a “binder”) which maintains each sheet in its correct sequence.
Opaque Paper Technology (OPT) allows the manufacturer to utilize BOTH sides of each sheet, thus doubling information density while cutting costs. Sheets are scanned optically, registering information directly to the brain—the most efficient interface yet developed!
I’m just wondering what things are like in your corner of the world? Here in the shadow of California’s capitol, I keep hearing how great the economy is but I think its wishful thinking. Prices of food and energy keep going up due exclusively to government policies. In my town, Elk Grove, the city council is spending money faster than a drunken Congressman with a new girlfriend.
The only fault here that any politician will admit is a housing shortage. What shortage? The only thing in short supply is affordable housing. Ten years ago, at the peak of the housing boom, it cost about $100,000 per lot just to get a building permit. Wages, taxes, and utilities cost much more than ten years ago, but real estate prices in my area have never recovered their peak values of the last decade.
Nevertheless, single people that I know at work are paying apartment rental that is double what my monthly mortgage is costing me. What is worse is that there is plenty of housing available. I have three empty homes in my neighborhood that are within a two minute walk of my driveway. Two of the three are not even listed as being for sale. Yep, they are just sitting there. One has been empty for about two years and another for six months, and the third for about four months. Another family on my street is closing up shop and heading out of state later this year. If this is a common occurrence then things are worse than I imagine.
I fear that by the time Gavin Newsom and the gang in the “bill mill” are done with this state, we will be comparing ourselves to Haiti or Puerto Rico. That’s when you know that California has achieved its goal of being the worker’s paradise that we have been promised. Oh, and then government will have created affordable housing to boot. Until then, buckle-up.
Bob Dylan released a track on his Grammy winning Slow Train Coming album called Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking but I’m not sure the article below is what he had in mind.
At first glance you might think this is the prison version of My Fair Lady but we are not talking about which fork to use at the fancy dinner or “The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain”. Neither is this a redux of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten where rules such as “don’t hit others” and “share” were the life lessons that folks used to learn.
No, the article below is a target rich environment for an alien way of thinking. We are in fact looking at a religion of self-improvement and behavior modification which yields no improvement in the human heart; thus there is no real moral or ethical basis why the prisoner should change.
By Lt. Edward Sanchez, AA/PIO
California State Prison, Corcoran
Thinking for Change recently congratulated its second graduating class on Facility 3B at California State Prison, Corcoran. The inmates in the class learned social skills such as active listening, apologizing and responding to anger.
The next subject the class learned last fall was, Cognitive Self-Change: paying attention to how their thinking affects their responses, recognizing risky thoughts and behaviors that are likely to get them into trouble and how to identify new and different ways of thinking and acting that will help them avoid conflict.
After practicing these skills, the next subject was Problem Solving: learning to take problems they experience every day, such as conflicts with cell mates, family members and staff and develop a more constructive way of dealing with those difficulties.
Members of the class learned by observing the group leader and one of their own members who had already completed the class demonstrate the specific skills they were learning.
They then identified their own problem situations, worked through the process of identifying potential solutions, chose one and acted it out in front of the class with another inmate.
For Inmate Harris, this was the second time through the class, this time as a teacher’s assistant who helped demonstrate the various skills and worked with some of the other inmates to help them complete assignments in between classes.
“This wasn’t just book learning,” said another inmate. “We actually did what we were learning about.”
“The experience I got out of this class was the most helpful thing I have received in all my years in CDCR,” said another inmate.
Graduates of Think for Change
Folks let’s face it, the guys in prison are those that are more logically consistent than the rest of us. If Darwin is true—which is what we teach from elementary school on up—then taking what you want and exploiting the weak is proper behavior. Rape, murder, theft, and other “crimes” are just survival of the fittest in action. What these inmates learn the hard way is that society for the most part doesn’t really believe Darwin.
You see, we want the morality of Christianity—the fruits if you will-without the consequences of the reality of God. We latch onto Darwin to explain our existence apart from God and justify abortion on demand but otherwise we don’t really have much use for him.
Inmates acted like animals (per Darwin and evolutionary theory) and subsequently got caged. Thus the society that caged them is now trying to train them to behave better. Acting according to nature got them in trouble so now somebody decided that the problem was their lack of nurture. Sorry but even with Siegfried and Roy, the animals were still wild, they just acted tame in a controlled setting for short periods of time; their fundamental nature is not changed.
Siegfried and Roy
Likewise, this prison program cannot effect the type of change that these men really need, only the Gospel of Christ can have lasting change. Why? Because when God saves us, he gives us a new heart, a new nature, His nature.
From a biblical point of view, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can’t really do either correct or rehabilitate. God is in the business or redeeming people from their sins. (Imprisonment is not a biblical punishment anyway.)
When the government gets into the business of trying to redeem people, they have left their God given sphere of responsibility and strayed beyond their mandate. These eight guys were able to get out of their cells and interact with others but sadly they were not given the antidote to their real problem just a placebo.
Back when I was a kid, most of northern California was in the 916 area code. In 1997, the area code was split so that the metro Sacramento area remained 916 and the outlying areas became 530. Starting in the next few days (February 10th), a new area code will be overlaid on top of the area currently served by 916. Thus folks in Sacramento will be required to dial both area code and seven digit number—even for local calls. The new area code is 279.
