Lamppost City

My top favorite conservative radio/TV shows covering current affairs:

2010-02-13T10:30:00.000-06:00

1) Michael Medved (radio) - written some great books, good movie reviews, based in Seattle.
2) Dan Patrick (radio) - Texas State Senator and really gives you great insight into local and national politics
3) Dennis Prager (radio) - I really enjoy his male/female hour and happiness hour the most, political stuff is ok
4) Bill O'Rielly (TV) - Lays out the arguements very well, attacks the ideas and does not attack/belittle people's characters like liberal shows on MSNBC.
5) Sean Hannity (radio and TV) - Really goes after liberal ideas and philosophy.

My Review of Avatar

2009-12-19T17:50:00.002-06:00

    Well, I just saw the movie Avatar and I must say that I was impressed. In this review, I’ll tell you exactly what I thought of the plot, quality, and message of this movie. If you’re concerned about spoilers, don’t be too concerned. I’ll try to keep the good pieces and twists absent and focus on the generalities. Having said that, there may be a few things I give away, just a warning.

   To state it bluntly, this movie was awesome as a whole. James Cameron did a great job with all the “mechanics” of any quality movie. The acting was good, the script was good, the graphics were stupendous, and the flow was great. So much so that during the movie I forgot I was watching a movie and to me that’s a mark of a great movie. The story sucked me in and kept me in its grasp the whole length of the movie, which is almost 3 hours. The casting was well done and I felt like all the actors really did a good job. I didn’t feel like I was left hanging in any particular scene because the acting was subpar. When it came to the graphics, this movie was top dog and one you should definitely see in 3D (I didn’t, but I will). I’d say the graphics were better than most of the big movies I’ve seen recently, including 2012. However, not better than Star Trek, but just as good. In fact, a good comparison of this movie to another would be to compare it to Star Trek in quality. All round good.

      Now on to what this movie really is about and what its message (intentionally or unintentionally) is communicating to the audience.   When it comes to message, this movie compares really well to Dances with Wolves. In this case however, mankind as a whole is the bad guy. Having destroyed nature and anything “green” on Earth, man is like a virus consuming resources wherever they can be found. So, mankind as a whole is shown in a negative light from the beginning. Man’s existence as portrayed in this movie appears to be gritty and dark. Lots of metal everywhere and everything is just kind of dark, not shiny and clean. Earth is never shown, so this may be just the human presence at Pandora that appears this way, but I don’t think it is.

       Pandora is a planet that is packed full of incredible life forms of all types imaginable. Many leave you seriously impressed and dazzled. The natives of Pandora, the Na’vi, are huge blue hominids that live in a primitive society. In fact, you could say that the Na’vi people are a liberal interpretation of what the Native Americans were like in the Americas during the 1500s through the 1800s. The natives are portrayed as “one with nature,” peaceful and good. This is reinforced by the awesome visuals that accompany the scenes with the natives showing lots of life, lots of light, and lots of beauty. A real Garden of Eden paradise, which of course Man is coming to consume, pollute, and destroy.

       Basically, no diplomatic solution is reached to move the Na’vi settlement which is on top of a huge priceless mineral deposit. The corporation running the mining operation is shown as ruthless and callous in its pursuit of profit, leaving behind morals, ethics, and even common sense at times. This is part of the message in this movie, that corporations are inherently evil and that profit drives everything. Technology is also shown as dark, metallic, unnatural, and mostly geared toward war. The military uses this technology to support the corporation’s mining operations. Of course, the military is also portrayed as full of “jarheads” that really only want war and thus are evil. In fact, in the movie the military states that they need to fight terror with terror and use “shock and awe” to force the natives to cooperate. This is obviously a knock at the Bush policies. So yes, this movie does have a political agenda or message. On top of that, the scientists are shown as the only reasonable people in what seems all of humanity. Glorifying scientists, the thus science, is fine but science is hardly the answer to everything. I can't help but draw parallels between glorifying science and how that's tied to the global warming debate in our current affairs.

       The bottom-line is this movie was very well done and very fun. I laughed, I cried, I really felt compassion for the Na’vi. However, the underlying messages that the movie was sending I have to take issue with because people love to take shots at corporations, the military, and industry. And really and truly you can’t paint these pieces of modern society with such a broad generalization. I believe that the current system in the United States of capitalism is good. That businesses are made up of people just like you and me and are therefore not inherently evil, because I believe that man is inherently more good than evil. If indeed one of the messages of this movie is that massive regulation is needed otherwise corporations will destroy our Earth, ravishing it for all resources to make profits, then this is obviously wrong from my point of view. Checks and balances are always necessary, but not massive regulation.

       So from the many messages this movie is promoting, whether it’s that the Americas were ravaged by the Old World several centuries ago, a longing for simpler existence that is “one with nature,” or that the military and corporations are evil, this movie is definitely political. The Bush references were what sealed the deal for me. But you should see this movie, definitely, and see it in 3D.

Houston Runoff Elections for Mayor and District A

2009-11-24T11:01:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to let everyone know what I'm doing for the Houston runoff elections. The two races I'm following are the mayoral race and the council member race for District A.

For mayor I'm voting for Anise Parker, pictured on the left. I originally wanted Peter Brown for mayor, but he didn't make it into the runoff. Now it is down to Annise Parker and Gene Locke. After comparing the two, I've decided to go with Annise Parker because I feel that she will be much more fiscally conservative than Gene Locke. Also, I feel Annise Parker will be more conservative overall when compared to Gene Locke who I think will spend like crazy.

When it comes down to city council, I used the same standards and I believe that Brenda Stardig (on the right) will do a fantastic job of being fiscally conservative and help transform District A into a better place. Her competitor is Lane Lewis who really doesn't have near the amount of experience that Brenda Stardig has and I don't believe he'd be very conservative.

Here's a provactive cartoon, Suicide of the West

2009-11-14T09:57:00.003-06:00

I thought this cartoon was really disturbing when I first saw it. The way Western Civilization cripples itself with political correctness, progressivism, socialism, and other liberal ideas expose America to fatal attacks. I think that as Americans we have to acknowledge that even though we have a free society with freedom of speech, there are ideologies out there that if left unchecked can destroy that freedom. The great American experiment can be destroyed by radical Islam, communism, socialism, fascism, liberal progressivism (which really is just a front for socialism), and Black Liberation philosophy (like what Rev. Wright is always preaching).

Which one has Barack Obama refused to meet with?

2009-11-12T21:27:00.003-06:00

Galveston County: A Model for Social Security Reform

2009-10-28T22:28:00.008-05:00

Something I found that was really interesting to me and gave me hope for a cure to our social security problem. Homegrown in the Houston area as well! Well, Galveston is close enough.

The current debate over Social Security reform is reminiscent of the discussions that occurred in Galveston County, Texas, in 1980, when county workers were offered a retirement alternative to Social Security: At the time they reacted with keen interest and some knee-jerk fear of the unknown. But after 24 years, folks here can say unequivocally that when Galveston County pulled out of the Social Security system in 1981, we were on the road to providing our workers with a better deal than Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal.

The Problem with Social Security. Social Security is a pay-as-you-go system under which taxes collected from today's workers are used to pay today's retirees. That was sustainable in the past; for example, in 1950 there were 16 workers providing benefits for each retiree. However, today the ratio has dropped to 3 workers for each retiree, and by the year 2030 the ratio will be 2 to 1.

America's demographic changes and the program's expansion have driven the initial Social Security tax rate from 2 percent (1 percent each from employer and employee) to 12.4 percent today, and threaten to drive it even higher. This unsustainable trend is why policy makers are looking for ways to reform the system.

One of the most prominent proposed reforms would allow younger workers to divert some of the payroll taxes they already pay to create personal retirement accounts. The burden on future taxpayers would decline as retirees draw retirement benefits from their personal accounts, reducing the demand for taxpayer-funded benefits. Current and near-retirees would be unaffected and would continue to receive currently scheduled benefits. But how should the new accounts be structured? Some point to Chile, Britain, Australia or one of almost 30 countries that have incorporated personal investments into their public pension programs. But there are examples much closer to home.

The initial Social Security Act permitted municipal governments to opt out of the system - a loophole that Congress closed in 1983. In 1981, employees of Galveston County, Texas, chose by a vote of 78 percent to 22 percent to leave Social Security for a private alternative. Brazoria and Matagorda counties soon followed, swelling the private plan to more than 5,000 participants today. In the private plan, contributions are similar to those for Social Security but returns are quite different.

The Galveston Plan. In 1979, many county workers were concerned about the soundness of Social Security, as many people are today. We could either stay with it - and its inevitable tax increases and higher retirement ages - or find a better way. We sought an "alternative plan" that provided the same or better benefits, required no tax increases and was risk-free. Furthermore, we wanted the benefits to be like a savings account that could be passed on to family members upon death.

Our plan, put together by financial experts, was a "banking model" rather than an "investment model." To eliminate the risks of the up-and-down stock market, workers' contributions were put into conservative fixed-rate guaranteed annuities, rather than fluctuating stocks, bonds or mutual funds. Our results have been impressive: We've averaged an annual rate of return of about 6.5 percent over 24 years. And we've provided substantially better benefits in all three Social Security categories: retirement, survivorship and disability.

Galveston officials held meetings that included debates with Social Security officials and put it to a vote: Galveston County employees passed it by a 3-to-1 margin in 1981 - just in time.

The Galveston Plan was implemented just before the U.S. Congress passed a reform bill in 1983 that closed the door for local governments to opt out of Social Security.

To be sure, our plan wasn't perfect, and we have made some adjustments. For instance, a few of our retired county workers are critical of the plan today because they say they are making less money than they would have on Social Security. This is because our plan allowed workers to make "hardship" withdrawals from the retirement plan during their working years. Some workers withdrew funds for current financial problems and consequently robbed their own future benefits. We closed that option in January 2005.

Galveston vs. Social Security. Upon retirement after 30 years, and assuming a 5 percent rate of return - more conservative than Galveston workers have earned - all workers would do better for the same contribution as Social Security:
Retirement Benefits%3A Galveston Plan vs Social Security

* Workers making $17,000 a year are expected to receive about 50 percent more per month on our alternative plan than on Social Security - $1,036 instead of $683. [See the Figure.]
* Workers making $26,000 a year will make almost double Social Security's return - $1,500 instead of $853.
* Workers making $51,000 a year will get $3,103 instead of $1,368.
* Workers making $75,000 or more will nearly triple Social Security - $4,540 instead of $1,645.
* Galveston County's survivorship benefits pay four times a worker's annual salary - a minimum of $75,000 to a maximum $215,000 - versus Social Security, which forces widows to wait until age 60 to qualify for benefits, or provides 75 percent of a worker's salary for school-age children.

In Galveston, if the worker dies before retirement, the survivors receive not only the full survivorship but get generous accidental death benefits, too. Galveston County's disability benefit also pays more: 60 percent of an individual's salary, better than Social Security's.

Two government studies of the Galveston Plan - by the Government Accountability Office and the Social Security Administration - claim that low-wage workers do better under Social Security. However, these studies assumed a low 4 percent return, which is the minimum rate of return on annuities guaranteed by the insurance companies. The actual returns have been substantially higher.

Guidance for Today's Reformers. Congress could consider making participation in any privatization plan voluntary at first. We made our plan voluntary in the beginning and 70 percent joined. It later became mandatory, and now there is full participation. Also, if some workers remain uncertain about investing a portion of their contributions, the plan could include a guarantee that low-income earners receive the same funds they would get with total participation in Social Security.

Our experience has shown that even though low-income workers would do better, a guarantee would ease their worries. Moderate- and higher-income workers would do much better, as ours do, because they have invested more in the plan and are not prejudicially punished or "topped out" on retirement benefits, as they are in Social Security.

In today's debate about whether to partially privatize Social Security, the Galveston County plan is sometimes demagogued. But our experience should be judged factually and fairly, not emotionally, politically or on the basis of hearsay. We sought a secure, risk-free alternative to the Social Security system, and it has worked very well for nearly a quarter-century. Our retirees have prospered, and our working people have had the security of generous disability and accidental death benefits.

Most important, we didn't force our children and grandchildren to be unduly taxed and burdened for our retirement while these fine young people are struggling to raise and provide for their own families.

What has been good for Galveston County may, indeed, be good for this country.

An Analysis of FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina

2009-05-05T16:21:00.003-05:00

As Hurricane season 2009 approaches, here is a little look at the past, specifically, the Hurricane Katrina disaster and FEMA's terrible response, written by yours truly of course.

This treatise will analyze FEMA’s poor response to the natural disaster of Hurricane Katrina and propose changes to FEMA’s organizational structure and culture. Although FEMA is not solely responsible for the poor government response in the wake of Hurricane Katrina (state and local governments were also dysfunctional), the scope of this analysis is on FEMA’s response and how they can better themselves for responding to future disasters of similar magnitude.

Most of us are familiar with the tragedy that occurred on the Gulf Coast of the United States on August 29^th, 2005 when Hurricane Katrina came ashore. The media was full of pictures and reports depicting complete devastation on the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Making matters astronomically more devastating, the levees of New Orleans failed at approximately 11am CDT and inundated the city of New Orleans under more than 20 feet of water in some neighborhoods. The death toll is now at least 1,836 and the damage from $71 to $130 billion, topping Hurricane Andrew as the most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history and one of the deadliest to hit the United States.[i] FEMA struggled to manage this disaster and failed to move quickly or effectively enough to mitigate the disaster and help the one million people displaced by one of the most powerful storms to ever be recorded in the Atlantic. What caused FEMA to respond so poorly in New Orleans? FEMA’s organizational structure carries most of the blame due largely to its enormous bureaucracy. FEMA’s organizational structure must change to meet the demands of its dynamic and uncertain environment. In addition, employees on the ground must be empowered to act and make decisions to overcome the unique and challenging problems that they will face in the future.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, has been around in one form or another since the 19^th century. However, the FEMA we know today was first instituted by an executive order by President Carter in 1979. This order merged more than 100 federal agencies like the Federal Insurance Administration and the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration enabling the federal government to more effectively manage national disasters. FEMA is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. Its mission statement reads, “to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of "A Nation Prepared."”[ii] Never was this vision so contrary to reality than during the major disaster in New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina. One aspect of FEMA many people do not understand, however, is that they organize and lead disaster relief, they don’t own the emergency equipment for it. Former FEMA Director Michael Brown stated in front of a House Committee as part of his defense, "Guess what, FEMA doesn't own fire trucks; we don't own ambulances; we don't own search-and-rescue equipment. [...]. FEMA is a coordinating agency. We are not a law enforcement agency."[iii]

The merging of government agencies shifted the power to a focused point of centralization. This centralization continued to grow as FEMA also absorbed many redundant and parallel state and local agencies that existed at the time. This is one of FEMA’s weaknesses that lead to the slow and inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The over centralization made it so FEMA’s top management was making the organization’s key decisions with little or no input from lower-level personnel. Congressman Shays stated that he believed, “FEMA suffers from bureaucratic fatigue with a command structure that is not decentralized to allow people on the ground to make decisions.” With a centralization of power it became more difficult for FEMA to make quick decisions to help with the disaster relief as it became very apparent in New Orleans. Typically, the operations managers that are at “ground zero” have more detailed knowledge about problems because they are close to the action. FEMA was out of touch with its people on the ground and this over centralization of decision power is one of the negative bureaucratic traits FEMA must change in order to become effective again.

Not only did FEMA have over centralization of decision power, but its top managers were largely inexperienced in emergency management. Michael Brown (former FEMA Director) and Patrick Rhode (former FEMA Deputy Director) were not only inexperienced, but friends of President Bush and appointed to their positions without any relevant credentials for their FEMA positions. To make matters worse, FEMA had seen an exodus of experienced officials over the past four years. When Katrina struck, there were three senior executive positions still vacant. Many believe this exodus was caused when FEMA was placed under the Department of Homeland Security and then downgraded even further to a branch of DHS. That change appears to have radically transformed the psychological contracts that employees had with the former FEMA organization causing them to feel disgruntled and the desire to leave. With that “brain drain” of experienced officials and apparent lack of knowledge retention coupled with the failure of state and local governments to respond, FEMA was left high and dry and unable to act effectively.

This shift to DHS may seem logical at first since responding to a terrorist attack has a lot in common with responding to a natural disaster. In spite of this, however, DHS failed to build on top of the existing emergency response infrastructure of FEMA and terrorism became a new and largely separate focus. In a Government Accountability Office report, more than 75% of the agency’s preparedness grants for next year are targeted to state and local readiness for terrorism.[iv] This conflict of focus is a natural result of the addition of another layer of bureaucracy because of the merging of DHS and FEMA.

Before FEMA was assimilated by DHS, they were an independent agency with direct accountability to the president. With DHS now on top of FEMA, the chain of command and organizational hierarchy became more ambiguous. With a more nebulous chain of command FEMA employees began to lose sight of FEMA’s mission because of their inability to clearly answer, “Who am I responsible to, FEMA, DHS or the President?” Jane Bullock, former FEMA Director during the Clinton Administration stated during an interview with CBS News in regards to FEMA’s relief efforts during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, “Who’s in charge? Is it FEMA Director Mike Brown? Is it Chertoff (DHS Director)? You don’t really know. And I think that’s going to be a continuing and even worse problem as we get into the recovery…”[v] FEMA’s identity crisis, caused by a vague chain of command and role conflict, is one of the major contributing factors of its ineptitude shown during the Katrina crisis. Since 9/11 the focus has been on terrorism and that is the focus of DHS. FEMA became swept up in this vision and lost its focus on covering all disasters.

In addition to FEMA’s vague chain of command and role conflict, FEMA’s organizational hierarchy became larger and more complex when they were merged with DHS. What this means is more levels of middle management with managers having oversight over fewer employees appeared. Although manager’s can maintain tighter control of their employees this way, it also makes vertical communication in the organization more complex, slows down decision making, isolates upper management and discourages employee autonomy. All of which contributed to FEMA’s failed response. From the pages of email and memos subpoenaed by a House panel, it becomes clear that there was bureaucratic chaos running ramped in FEMA throughout the entire ordeal until Chertoff finally placed Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen in charge of relief efforts. A few excerpts from emails the top FEMA official in Mississippi sent gives a small taste of this chaos, “We are getting less than 25 percent of what we have been requesting from HQ daily.“ When asked where FEMA Director Michael Brown was he responded, “Not here in MS (Mississippi). Is in LA (Louisiana) as far as I know.”[vi]

So, why did FEMA fail during Katrina and not during other past disasters? The explanation to this question is the same explanation for the majority of FEMA’s woes; they are a monstrosity of a bureaucracy and displayed all the negative attributes of being such. The primary strength of a bureaucracy is its ability to perform standardized activities in a highly efficient manner. They function well with problems that are “run of the mill” and because of this they can get away with hiring less talented/experienced managers. The rules and regulations substitute for innovative and experienced managers. The drawback is when a situation arises that does not precisely fit the rules, there is no room for modification or innovation. Congressman Shays commented on this saying, “What Mr. Brown didn't realize was that this was such a unique circumstance, he needed to step in, be extraordinarily aggressive, fill in the void left by the incompetence of the state and local government (and FEMA management). He should have taken charge if no one else was.” FEMA’s external operating environment, and even its charter, focuses FEMA on handling dynamic and unique disasters that can hit without notice. Because of this dynamic environment FEMA must operate in, a bureaucratic structure will not work. Bureaucracies perform better in a static environment. When Katrina hit with all of its unique challenges, FEMA’s bureaucratic structure failed.

FEMA’s inability to cope with the Katrina crisis has lead some to suggest giving the responsibility to another organization such as the military. During the Katrina crisis, the Coast Guard was placed in control of relief efforts after FEMA dropped the ball and did a very good job considering the circumstances. Approximately 60,000 National Guard troops helped during the disaster recovery. However, the military is a bureaucracy too. Nevertheless, the military’s vast resources, lightning fast mobility, high formalization (strong culture of discipline), and strong chain of command made this possible, but comes at a $400 billion/year price tag. Due to constitutional issues the military is not a viable solution to the problem. Also, if the military were to take on this responsibility, they risk role conflict by becoming a jack of all trades, master of none. One thing is for sure, FEMA must change if they are to meet their original charter.

My recommendation is for FEMA and DHS to once again be separate agencies. FEMA must be independent of any other agency in order to clarify its chain of command (direct to the President), regain its focus, and cut out the debilitating excess overhead. FEMA should even go as far as to drop its charter for responding to all disasters and focus only on natural disasters, leaving DHS to handle domestic civil defense and terrorist concerns. At the very least, the chain of command must be clearly defined and the enormous organizational hierarchy simplified and shrunk in order for FEMA to begin to be effective again. However, the change needed for FEMA to realize its charter effectively is a revolutionary change not an evolutionary change, thus the recommendation to separate FEMA and DHS.

The organizational structure of FEMA should also change to become more open, transparent, and “organic,” an organization less like a bureaucracy. This would enable FEMA to deregulate itself, tear down vertical, horizontal and external communication and bureaucratic barriers. In line with making FEMA more “organic,” FEMA must become more decentralized, flatten its hierarchy, clarify the chain of command, and utilize cross functional teams to facilitate interdepartmental cooperation with important stakeholders (such as law enforcement agencies).

Another very important recommended change is modifying the culture of FEMA to allow for innovative decentralized decision making by those on the ground and closest to the action. This would provide many benefits to FEMA such as retaining experienced employees through increased job satisfaction, providing faster more relevant actions thereby improving service quality, and even decreasing costs by flattening the organizational hierarchy. Free employees from the bureaucracy and engage their minds and you will resolve problems with impressive speed.[vii] In addition, employees would feel a sense of ownership for their decisions and accountability would be easier to trace. The increased ownership would increase employee motivation and job satisfaction. Employees that welcome empowerment should be the focus for all hiring efforts.

To accomplish empowering the employees it is proposed that FEMA establish a new department that would implement Centers of Excellence for employees. These Centers of Excellence are about providing a strategy and structure that facilitates the growth of people by giving them the opportunity to do their best work. They enable people to use their unique talents and abilities to the best interest of the business or institution, in other words, it empowers them.[viii] The main focus of COEs is to provide the skill sets necessary to employees that concentrate on the core purposes and competencies of an organization. Less focus on transferring control over employees and more focus on empowering those employees through developing those skills that will help them the most in the organization. The key benefit of this organizational principle is that the development of people becomes the important issue, not implementation of projects. With employees being nurtured and developed they are able to perform closer to their inherent potential and this in turn lifts the entire organization to a much more efficient and effective sphere of operation. Ironic that the focus of FEMA is all about people when they have been unable to give the same attention and focus for their own employees. With the COE model in effect, FEMA will be much more capable of retaining experienced employees. In FEMA’s case, the COE model will help them to respond quickly to major disasters with fewer problems that stem from bureaucratic red tape, poor communication between functional groups, and lack of disaster management experience.

In addition to empowering employees, management must become involved with events and problems on the ground. They must be aware of the real issues facing those on the frontlines. This can only be done by changing their perspectives. To accomplish this, managers should get “down and dirty” by engaging with those on the frontlines and working with them on the ground as an additional hand. They must also be doing this in all areas of the organization to get a real bird’s eye view of the entire state of affairs in the organization. With this fresh, “from the balcony” perspective senior managers from all parts of FEMA and DHS (if they determine to remain with DHS) will be able to make much more educated decisions that can greatly benefit the organization.

Katrina’s impact was huge and would have been devastating regardless of FEMA’s ability to respond to emergencies. Nevertheless, FEMA’s bureaucratic organizational structure turned FEMA into something akin to New Orleans’ famous levees; a structure sure to fail when a big disaster struck.[ix] For FEMA to respond to future major disasters they must change their organization to increase flexibility, speed up decision making, cut overhead, and empower employees. Sooner or later another “big one” will hit and FEMA must be ready to act. Hopefully, they have learned these valuable lessons from their big plunder and will streamline their organization to meet any disaster they may face, head on.

Written by Marc Anderson

[i] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurrican_Katrina

[ii] http://www.fema.gov/about/history.shtm

[iii] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,174590,00.html

[iv] http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-09-07-our-view_x.htm

[v] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/06/katrina/main817893.shtml

[vi] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,172520,00.html

[vii] Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Stephen P. Robbins, 2005, pp. 65

[viii] Centers of Excellence: Empowering People to Manage Change, Steven W. Lyle and Robert A. Zawacki, 1996, pp. 1

[ix] http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-09-07-our-view_x.htm

Harry Reid: Taxes are voluntary!

2009-03-24T17:35:00.004-05:00

Didn't you know? Paying taxes is voluntary, no one is forcing you to pay taxes every year. It's a patriotic duty that is voluntary, nothing mandatory about it. Not EVERYONE goes to jail if you don't pay taxes, so it's voluntary.

With mindsets like this, no wonder politicians think paying taxes is patriotic and no wonder they think raising taxes is perfectly OK. Are we a socialist nation yet? Is government too big yet? Where is the line the divides our government from totalitarianism?

Our Economy is tanking!

2008-09-25T19:28:00.005-05:00

What has happened to our economy here in the great United States of America? Seems like the sky is falling and only getting worse. Over the last couple weeks Wall Street has been going through extraordinary changes that it has not seen the likes of in, I don't know, a REALLY long time. Huge banks, savings and loans, and insurance companies are going under. Our economy is trembling.

Washington Mutual, that I have some stock in, is going under. AIG just started cracking, Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch, new home sales are the lowest in 17 years, home values are still falling, oil is still way to expensive and going up, gasoline shortages, Fannie and Freddie were just bailed out, job loss is rising, loans are increasingly difficult to get (especially for those with fair to decent credit), and to top it off, the market for mortgage backed securities and interbank loans disappeared last week.

This last one prompted the Federal Government to freak out and launch this 700 billion dollar bail out plan and this started to make me think. I mean, doesn't the government have a ton of safe guards in place to keep the economy from tanking already? What about the lessons learned from the Great Depression like a limit on how much the market can lose in one day or the FDIC or Fannie and Freddie? All of these things are supposed to keep our financial system from tanking. Fannie and Freddie guarantee a trillion dollars in mortgages, the FDIC insures the assets held by banks that collectively have a total of 13.4 trillion in assets. Now, on top of all this, the government is so freaked out that it is proposing more, 700 billion more, to stop the economy from crashing by essentially privatizing the gains and socializing the losses to prop up the economy. To put 700 billion in perspective, the total amount of credit card debt held by Americans is about 850 billion. The total cost of the Iraq war from 2003 - 2008 was been about 700 billion dollars.

That has to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside concerning the state of our economy. Personally, I think I'm starting to see the writing on the wall. For the last year, I've noticed that the optimists are now starting to talk about "tough" times ahead and the cynics have changed their tones from "tough" times to economic Armageddon.

We shall see...as for me, I'm going to try to eliminate as much debt as possible and put my finances in order to prepare for whatever is coming.

Size Comparison

2008-08-11T19:31:00.005-05:00

I love seeing the actual sizes of planets and moons in our solar system compared side-by-side to each other. Maybe that's just one of those really nerdy things about myself, nonetheless, it is there.

So, here is a cool image that shows the size comparisons of Mars, Ganymede, Mercury, and The Moon. Now, in case you are wondering (and I know you are), "What is Ganymede?" Ganymede is the largest moon in our solar system and it orbits Jupiter. Everything is bigger at Jupiter. Ganymede is actually bigger than the planet Mercury and almost as big as Mars! And if you also happened to be wondering, the only other moon larger than Mercury is Saturn's moon Titan.

Mars' diameter is 4222 miles
Ganymede's diameter is 3270 miles
Mercury's diameter is 3033 miles
The Moon's diameter is 2160 miles

Now, the official name of The Moon really is The Moon. Weird right? I mean all the other moons in the solar system have names like Ganymede, Callisto, Titan, Ariel, etc. But our moon is just called The Moon. Wow...really? So that leaves us with no other option than to refer to ancient mythologies for names for the Moon. The Romans called it Luna and the Greeks called it Selene.

Since there's so much talk about the Moon, here's an image to the right of the side you never get to see *yawn* Yeah, our side is much more interesting.

Anyway, Selene sounds too girly, unless you're into the whole "mother" earth thing. I prefer to call it Luna (or Lua in Portuguese). Besides, most of the planets are named after Roman gods anyways.

Ceres, the coolest asteroid

2008-08-09T12:19:00.007-05:00

Ceres is by far the coolest asteroid in our solar system. It's huge, it's round, and could have tons of water.

How big is it? Well, let's put it this way, if you took the combined mass of all the known asteroids Ceres' mass makes up more than 1/3 of that total.

That's big enough to take on a spherical shape apparently. If you want to know the exact size, it's 578 miles in diameter.

The picture on the left is from Hubble and is the best picture we have of Ceres. However, in 2007 a spacecraft was launched to visit Ceres by 2015. The spacecraft is called Dawn and will pass by Vesta first, which could be the second largest asteroid in the solar system with an irregular diameter that averages around 500 miles.

Ceres is icy like Jupiter's moons Callisto and Europa, but Vesta is all rock.

On the right is a picture comparing Ceres size to Earth.

John Faulk For Congress: Texas District 18

2008-08-03T10:59:00.002-05:00

www.faulkforcongress.org/

For all of you out there that are in Texas District 18, vote for John Faulk so we can oust career liberal politician Sheila Jackson Lee. She is part of the reason Congress' approval rating is 9%.

If you're not in Texas District 18, then find out which district you are in. In fact, find out who all of your Federal and State representatives are and which district you are in. One great place to do this is to go to www.congress.org and enter your zip code. You may have to enter your complete address to narrow it down enough. This site also lets you send letters and emails to your representatives.

Another great site for finding your district is www.nationalatlas.gov

What is involved in getting an oil/gas lease?

2008-07-27T15:46:00.003-05:00

There is a lot involved in getting a lease from the BLM or private owner for oil and gas. You have to determine who the owner is of the surface rights, mineral rights, depth rights, water rights, etc. All of which could have different owners. Then you have to agree to all the terms of the lease, how long until it expires, royalty fees, rental fees, permission to build, road access, can you sell it to someone else, etc.

So if you're an oil company:

A lease must be obtained to explore for oil and gas using geophysical technologies such as reflection and refraction seismic, magnetic surveys, geologic surveys, etc. Once a location is deemed as having potential, a permit must be obtained, if not already included in the exploration lease, to do exploratory drilling. Drilling can cost millions, so you don't want to drill a dry hole. If oil is found, then you can obtain another permit to build a production facility to pump out the oil.

Now, the United States has already seen extensive onshore exploration and the big easy oil fields have already been found. The millions of acres of leases Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats talk about are for small pockets of possible oil that dot the landscape. This is risky because your chances of drilling lots of dry wells looking for the oil is high. Spending all that money is not attractive to oil businesses big or small, especially with no guarantee of a good return. Offshore is a different story. Much of it remains unexplored as the government currently will not give permits or leases for anyone to explore for oil and gas offshore since the ban, not to mention drilling. There are some big finds offshore that were found back in the heyday of oil exploration, but technology did not allow for deep water drilling.

The technology does exist today though and is used in the Gulf of Mexico, off of Southern California, Russia, off of Nigeria, and all over Europe. Why the Europeans have no issue with drilling offshore and we do is a mystery to me. We should lift the ban on offshore drilling and start developing it for production. That way we have access to our resources and can free ourselves completely from foreign oil.

Mysterious Saturn

2008-07-08T19:32:00.004-05:00

Here's a really cool mystery to think about. Where do you find naturally occurring atmospheric hexagons? Why, Saturn of course!

This image is incredible and baffles scientists as they have no idea what could be causing this hurricane-like storm on Saturn's north pole to look like a hexagon.

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere, where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate, is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

The hexagon is nearly 15,000 miles (25,000 kilometers) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it. The thermal imagery shows the hexagon extends about 60 miles (100 kilometers) down into the clouds.

Another interesting mystery our universe continues to surprise us with.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

2008-06-07T13:31:00.004-05:00

I saw this documentary a month or so ago and just wanted to recommend it to everyone. Here are some insights of mine on it:

I may be mistaken, but I believe that the basis of the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" is that the scientific community is not as objective as it should be on hot button issues. The Theory of Evolution is used as an example of how science has been transformed into a battlefield for a war between theists and atheists. Pride, politics, preconceptions, and political correctness have all turned the scientific community into a "hostile and subjective" environment for theories that go against mainstream thinking.

Even though this may be true to a certain extent, I believe that those that view science as attacking religion and vice versa are missing the larger point, "Truth goes beyond established facts." All our scientific knowledge is only a small piece of the complete "truth" of the universe, despite the fact that many scientists and atheists consider the scientific method the end all of epistemological methods. There are many other places where knowledge and truth can be found, such as in philosophy or the arts, and do I dare say it, the one true religion.

Finally, as far as ID goes, it fails as a scientific theory largely because people view it as another attempt by creationists to teach religion in our schools (as implied in the movie). It also fails as a scientific theory because it is not falsifiable, another curiosity of science that limits its ability to think outside the box and constrains it to truth in "observable reality" (which is only as good as the instruments we use). If it cannot be observed then it does not exist according to science and that is why science will never discover all truth.

Ridiculous Speed Limits

2008-06-06T08:16:00.004-05:00

Now, by ridiculous, I mean absurd and meaningless.

The other day I was ticketed on Highway 59, driving out of Houston toward Beltway 8. I was going 79 MPH in a 60 MPH zone. Now, at first glance that may seem like excessive speed and maybe it was a little too fast, but the posted speed limit of 60 MPH is absolutely maddening!

First of all, this freeway is HUGE. 5 lanes wide, brand new as far as freeways go, and originally designed for higher speeds than 60 MPH (65 - 70 MPH). Since my ticket I've noticed that many speed traps are setup regularly on this stretch of highway. Every time I pass them now, I'm going, as well as everyone else, 70 MPH. I've discovered that the police will not bother with you if you are going only 70 MPH, even though it is 10 over the limit. I see many motorists that were pulled over like I was and I can't help but sympathize with them.

Now, the conclusion I have on this is that the cops understand that the posted speed limit is ridiculous. The freeway was designed for higher speeds and they know it too. That is why they will not bother with you until you've passed a threshold (I believe it is close to 73+ MPH).

Now, after receiving this ticket I did some research online to find out why the speed limit was set so low on this wide, straight, pristine freeway and I discovered that an environmental group was behind it (TCEQ - Texas Commission on Environmental Quality). Bottom-line, TCEQ pushed for the speed limit on all freeways in the Houston - Galveston area with 65 or 70 MPH speed limits to be changed to 60 and 65 MPH respectively, to "protect the environment" from American's evil SUVs and gasoline engines. In 2002, they convinced the Texas Department of Transportation to do this and didn't stop there, they pushed again to cap all speed limits in the area at 55 MPH.

Well, as you can imagine, there was such a backlash that the TCEQ relented and went back to their 5 MPH reduction scheme. Shortly thereafter, in 2003, the Texas Legislature prospectively banned environmental speed limits. Unfortunately for people like me, the wording of the bill allows environmental speed limits already in place to remain indefinitely; no new miles of roadway may be subjected to environmental speed limits, however.

In case you thinking, "Hey, lower speed limits are important for the environment," think about this:

Initial studies found that lower speed limits could bring the areas roughly 1.5% closer to compliance with the federal Clean Air Act. However, follow up studies found that the actual reduction is far less:

The emissions modeling software initially used, MOBILE 5a, overestimated the emissions contribution of speed limit reductions. Rerunning the models with the next generation software, MOBILE 6, produced dramatically lower emissions reductions.
Speed checks in the Dallas area performed 1 year after implementation of speed limit reductions show that actual speed reductions are only about 1.6 mph, a fraction of the anticipated 10% (5.5 mph) speed reduction.
With both of these facts combined, it is possible that the speed limit reductions only provide a thousandth of the total emissions reductions necessary for Clean Air Act compliance.

Isn't that worth reducing the speed limit and inconveniencing everyone?

Now, in case you are thinking, "Hey, lower speed limits are better for safety anyways, remember the National Speed Limit of 55? So let's keep them low!" Consider this:

It was believed that, based on a drop in fatalities the first year the limit was imposed, the 55 mph limit increased highway safety. Other studies were more mixed on this point, and a Cato Institute report showed that the safety record actually worsened in the first few months of the 55 mph speed limit, suggesting that the fatality drop was a short-lived anomaly that regressed to the mean by 1978. After the oil crisis abated, the 55 mph speed limit was retained mainly due to the possible safety aspect.
Furthermore, in 1986 The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, published a study claiming that the total fuel savings during the national speed limit was no more than 1% overall.

Other studies have shown that motorists generally pick reasonable speeds for conditions. For example, the 75 mph (120 km/h) speed limit in the U.S. State of South Dakota has good compliance: the average speed is less than or equal to the posted limit almost a decade after it was increased. When speed limits are set artificially low, tailgating, weaving and speed variance (the problem of some cars traveling significantly faster than others) make roads less safe.

Whew! Okay, I know this has been a long rant, but are you starting to get the point? I believe that a vast majority of the drivers on the road drive at a speed that they honestly believe is safe and comfortable depending on traffic, weather, and other driving conditions. Most people are smart and considerate in this regard. It is difficult for me to honestly believe that cops that pull people over for going 70 or 75 MPH on this stretch of the road because the "speed limit" is 60 MPH are making the roads safer. It seems to me that they are simply conducting revenue enforcement for the city. You want to ticket the really unsafe drivers? Ticket the ones that are tailgating, swerving and cutting, not using their blinkers, etc. Those are the truly unsafe drivers, not those going 75 MPH when everyone is going 70 in an absurd, artificially low, 60 MPH zone.

Now don't get me wrong, if the speed limit were say 70 MPH on this stretch of road (as I think it should be, or at least 65), and someone speeds by going 90, then yes, that is unsafe. The road was not designed for that speed and more than likely, neither was their car and the speed variance is too great.

Anyway, I'm done with my rant now.

Empirical evidence of God

2008-06-03T19:16:00.000-05:00

There is no evidence that God exists, period. Now, some say that creation itself is irrefutable evidence that God exists, but this does not satisfy science or atheists. They claim that it is just an illusion, that seeing design in the universe is a falsehood, just a pattern recognition function of the human brain.

Personally, I couldn’t disagree more and see this argument as a futile attempt to deny the possibility of God’s existence. However, the fact remains, there is no empirical evidence that God exists.

What about the testimony of 95% of the world you say? Well, that’s just a classic example of argumentum ad populum (If many believe so, it is so). Like saying the earth is flat because everybody believes it to be.

Again, I think it’s a mistake to immediately discredit the testimony of so many especially when there is no evidence to the contrary. I believe that people may have their own personal revelation that God exists, but God is not going to give them empirical evidence to scientifically prove his existence to the world. That is not how the plan of salvation works. It's all about faith and acting on that faith, if it weren’t so, then the whole point of mortality vanishes. The meaning of life is destroyed and you are left with the hope of an atheist that science or technology will save us. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy doesn’t it?

Again, there is no empirical evidence that God exists. This holds true if you only believe in the Bible, or if you believe in both the bible and Book of Mormon. God has not revealed empirical evidence of the Exodus, or Mount Sinai, the Flood, the Garden of Eden, King David, Kind Solomon, and many other parts of the Bible. There isn't any evidence even that Jesus Christ really existed other than a short reference from Josephus. The same thing is true of the Book of Mormon, no Zarahemla, no swords in America, etc.

Now, there may be scattered pieces of evidence found through archaeology, but one cannot connect the many dots objectively to prove God’s existence or the absolute veracity of the Bible and the Book of Mormon. It is just too easy to interpret the evidence differently. This may change in the future as the Millennium approaches, but who knows.

Bottom-line, as with all things spiritual, it is all about faith. Even if you have had a fantastic personal revelation or vision, you will not be able to convince anybody else demanding proof. Only through faith can one come to know the truth byway of the Holy Ghost.

What is "official" LDS/Mormon doctrine?

2008-06-01T00:17:00.001-05:00

My question that I present to all of you is, where do you draw the line on official church doctrine?

This is the line that I draw and it is my opinion that official church doctrine is:

1) a much smaller encompassing "circle" when compared to the gospel as a whole, which is in turn a smaller encompassing "circle" when compared to the complete truth (revealed and unrevealed).
2) any statement published by the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and ratified by the body of the church
3) any statement published by the First Presidency and ratified by the body of the church
4) any statement published by both the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and then ratified by the body of the church
5) any statement made by the living prophet to the body of the church when "moved" upon by the Holy Ghost (he is not constantly "moved" upon by the Holy Ghost even though he has the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost), which is then ratified by the body of the church
6) Canonized scripture (Bible, BoM, D&C, PoGP, Declarations)
7) the only measure by which members of the church will be judged on at the last day

For example, I would accept the Proclamation to the World as "official" doctrine. I believe the Gospel Principles handbook closely mirrors the official doctrine of the church, but is not in itself official doctrine. Besides not meeting the criteria I set forth, they occasionally make changes here and there to bring it closer to what is official.
Another example is Jesus the Christ. It is not official doctrine because it failed the ratification by the body of the church test when presented for canonization.

It is also my belief that many people "stumble" when they stray outside this defined scope of official doctrine and begin to include journal of discourses, anything a prophet said during his entire life, opinions and speculation of prophets and other church leaders, something an Elder somewhere in Albania once said, or the Book of Lehi (you can google it these days). Those opposed to the church love to include all of this as "official" doctrine of the church and use it to tell members what they REALLY believe in. There are truths to be found, in my opinion, in some of these sources, but it is not official doctrine, merely opinion and speculation which everyone is entitled, including church leaders. Refer to Alma 40:20 if you think prophets cannot have their own opinions.

So where do you think the line is drawn?

Atheism vs Christianity

2008-05-30T20:55:00.005-05:00

Recently, I have been active in discussions on the web concerning Atheism vs Christianity. I've argued with many atheists over the existence of God and these discussions always end with, "Show me proof that God exists."

It's amazing how atheists love to jump behind the scientific method as the only acceptable epistemological method of learning truths. They jump into this "box" largely to protect their beliefs from attacks from "other" sources of truth such as feelings, philosophy, the arts, and revelation. To them, the scientific method is the "end all" of ways to discover truth. In my opinion, that's awfully convenient for their belief system and horribly restrictive to just observed reality. The scientific method is only as good as our instruments, thus, there remains many unseen truths yet to be discovered, some of which can be discovered through other methods and subjects as aforementioned.

One of the greatest pitfalls for atheists when dealing with Christianity, is that traditional Christianity is fantastically confusing and irrational. Below is an excerpt from an atheist regarding how unreasonable Christianity sounds to him:

"Please explain a three-in-one creator deity that created humans from mudpies and ribcages, then a talking snake in a magic garden told them not to eat an apple but they did eat an apple so that's why there are natural disasters and cancer and childhood deaths and rape and murder, and then the three-in-one deity sent a third of himself down to earth to impregnate a woman with another third of himself, then that third of himself sacrificed himself to another third of himself to spare us all from the wrath of the collective whole. Until you do, I do not have to consider your stance to be rational."

Now, the above statement would be difficult for the average Christian to explain in a rational way, in fact, impossible. The above demonstrates exactly how perverted the original Christian teachings of Jesus Christ have become. The bible has many missing pieces from lost books and letters to translation errors to intentionally removed pieces. If this were not the case, there would not be this confusion concerning Christianity, the biblical accounts would make perfect sense, instead they lead to this confusion which really is impossible to explain in a rational and logical way without divine intervention and interpretation.

Welcome

2008-05-29T22:48:00.000-05:00

This is my new blog. Actually, it is the only blog I have ever had, so that was a moot statement. Anyway, I'll be posting more content here soon.