29 things to know before you hit 30 (part 5)

this is part 5 of 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30. (from the awesome book by Jason Boyett - The Pocket Guide to Adulthood)

let's get right to it as our time is short & there's still 12 more to go on the list...

18  Staying in Shape is Easier than You Think
yeah, it's called straight up discipline. no, that's not really the content of this chapter. just some helpful hints to not get crazy fat, old, and out of shape like most of the rest of the Western world when turning 30...


19  Financial Procrastination Will Eat You for Lunch
we procrastinated til about 23 & 24 respectively. thankfully we didn't wait til 30. i wonder what it would take to get a mandatory "FPU" type class (or even simply reading this chapter) into every college in the nation?


20  Mystery Dumplings and the Key to Lasting Relationships
kind of a funny story, but basically the gist is = QUIT being all about yourself. that's what adults do. you can't be selfish anymore. i guess it's acceptable if you're 20something, but as an adult... grow up & be polite, courteous, generous, and shut up once in a while.

21  How to Pull Off an Impressive Job Interview
the awesome principles shared in this chapter really go for ANY human interactions/1st impressions. because really, we're always on interview for something :)
basically, you've got 30 seconds to make your mark on someone. that's it. so, be confident, dress the part, prep well, & if you have a job interview - you should seriously read this chapter 1st!

22  Romance Doesn't Always Have to Be Expensive
Really? i thought that was the number 1 rule? nope. it's not easy, but also doesn't have to be expensive. it's all about the LITTLE stuff. that's what chicks dig... so i hear. and creativity and spontaneity.


23  Buy Groceries Like You Own the Supermarket
i HATE grocery shopping. seriously can't think of many things in life i hate worse that going to the grocery store! even if just for a few things. HATE it.
*i would rather take a beating with a brick stick than have to go to a grocery store!
but, if you have to go this chapter has helpful tips on what to do while you're there. like - avoid buying the products at eye level - that's the stuff with the biggest profit margin/mark up. so, probably not the greatest deals. & all kinds of other old people stuff.

i hope i never have to go again!

29 things to know before you hit 30 (part 4)

this is part 4 of 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30. (from the awesome book by Jason Boyett - The Pocket Guide to Adulthood)
(you can read parts 1 & 2 HERE and HERE respectively.)

12  Prepare for the Worst with a Properly Stocked Medicine Cabinet
ok, i'll admit... i kind of skimmed this one because i'm married to a nurse. i feel like there's SO MANY (29) of these darn things you have to know before you can be an adult (30) that i should get a free pass on this one because of WHO i married!

(although i did make some notes about the suggestions of Vitamin C supplements & green tea. i guess i'll have to look into those.)

13  Blend Your Way to Happiness with a Butt-Kickin' Fruit Smoothie
i hate smoothies. straight up skipped this chapter. a smoothie will NOT give me happiness. but i did dog-ear the page for my wife because she loves smoothies & is always looking for a great recipe - which this chapter provides several.

14  Your 401(K) Should be Aggressive but Diversified
yes! another i can check off the list simply because they call me a "Ramsey-ite". in fact, these recommendations were pretty soft, imho. very thankful to have an aggressive & diversified retirement portfolio & a killer financial advisor who really hooks us up.

15  How Not to Fall Prey to Organ Harvesters or Urban Legends
some REALLY funny stories in this chapter. i think i will reject the lesson and add a few of these urban legends to my story repertoire :) hey, this happened to a friend of a friend... :)

16  Generosity is a Virtue, and Here's Why
was DIGGING this chapter! a couple cool lines like:
"Don't feel guilty for being comfortable. Nope. Feel guilty when you refuse to SHARE that comfort."      

"Materialism builds a shrine to the things we own. Generosity kicks the shrine over and gives away the parts."

love that  :)

17  How to Play Poker Like an Honest-to-Goodness Celebrity

ok, i got addicted to poker in college. played Texas Hold 'Em around the clock for a few semesters when the craze really hit big. haven't played a lot since i lost all our money in a poker tourney on our honeymoon. ok, not ALL our money... just a little.

i'm still game to play anytime anybody wants to hook it up :)

still more to come! learning all i can from this guide to adulthood, because i am about to step into it... adulthood that is.  

all i want for christmas (& my bday)

done this every year for like 5 years now, so i'll keep it short.

i don't expect anyone to buy me birthday gifts or christmas gifts. BUT if someone is going to buy me a gift - i DON'T WANT a gift... i would really just love to leverage all that money you would spend to build a well for a village in Africa that doesn't have clean water. makes way more sense than you buying me a sweater.

*So, let me be clear (this is my open letter to all of you) - I do not want anyone to buy me birthday or Christmas presents!

Crystal and i are actually pretty close to already building a well through Charity Water, SO it would be awesome if you just wanted to add cash to building our well. i can update you on where the well will go and send a link after it's done!

*or if you want to just give online you can click HERE to give through Living Water International.

i may set up a birthday thing on Facebook too, but really it would be most effective if it all would go in 1 direction. easiest would be finishing off the well Crystal and i are already working on. let me know if you have any Qs.

also, below are 4 articles I wrote a few years ago about this whole idea.
ADVENT CONSIRACY
double advent conspiracy
happy advent
best Christmas EVER!

i'm thankful for...

(i originally wrote and posted to this renown last Thanksgiving, November 24, 2011. still thankful for the same stuff. just a couple add-ons i wrote about yesterday HERE.)

today (and every day) i'm thankful for...

a God Who is the greatest Thing in the universe & loves me and has invited me into the greatest mission and story imaginable.

an amazing wife who i don't deserve but who sticks by me no matter what & who is more beautiful than i ever imagined a girl being. the perfect mate. ("you complete me... kitchen matey")

a brand new baby daughter who has completely captured everything inside of me and has introduced me to new joys and spaces in my heart that i never even knew existed!

a Mom & Dad who are the greatest parents in the world. God knew what i needed when He hooked me up to be raised by them.

1 grandmother who is still alive and gets to meet her 1st great granddaughter tomorrow.

some really awesome friends who are almost like family in many ways - who care so much about me and love on me, cheer for me, stick with me

blessings and blessings like crazy. Somebody backed up the blessing truck and has been dumping them on me for 28 years.

the responsibility to BE a blessing with the blessings i've been given. the joy of blessing others.

this amazing creation all around me that overwhelms me with awe every time i look up... created for no other reason than for us to say "wow, that's beautiful. Whoever made that is pretty awesome."

some pretty darn cool in-laws who are now grandparents that love us like crazy.

limbs and sight and hearing and a voice (that can't sing well at all)

the ability to run, jump, play after a doctor said 8 years ago that i wouldn't do that stuff again

a job that i LOVE. it's a privilege to be a part of a movement that's so much bigger than me or anyone else and the fact that i get to do something i love every single day and actually get paid to do it. doesn't seem fair.

sabbath - when i get to take a break from that work i love. that act of just being/resting

all the really cool accents in the world

the Gospels

generous people

the team of people i get to work with. they are awesome. so much better than working with a team of people that aren't awesome.

2 cars that run. are you kidding me? how freaking rich are we?

a house and neighborhood and neighbors that are all really nice.

a God who is bringing this revolution that we and all of creation longs for.

the unstoppable vision birthed in my soul to launch a movement that will change the world & the vision that keeps coming and coming for how to create the beginnings

bloomin' onion sauce

the Psalms

language

Ridge Church - my church, this community of people on mission together in Charlotte.

water

a space like renown where i can flesh out my thoughts and try to make sense of what's inside my head

the BEAUTIFUL game

wisdom

wise people

good stories

teams of amazing volunteers that i get to serve on mission with


beauty

art

passionate people

music (except country)

laughter

dreams

great t-shirts

the oceans

sunrises

sunsets

different cultures

smiles

books

the ability to express worship

things that are funny

diversity

the ability to learn

revolutionaries - past & present

hugs from my wife

sex

comfy chairs

the technology for double lung transplants

the ability to pass through a day without it passing me by

love

...and the fact that it always wins

renown, the only thing that really matters. the only renown that can satisfy. the only true unending fame.

from one Thanksgiving to the next

wow, how things change from one Thanksgiving to the next.

i remember last year we had sped out of town a few days before Thanksgiving because my Mom received the call that lungs were on the way to Duke for her double lung transplant.

we raced to the hospital to see my Mom before the transplant, but it ended up being a false alarm. a "dry run" they call it. the lungs were no good.

we hung out in Durham for Thanksgiving and my parents got to spend time with their brand new granddaughter.

but my Mom had to wear a mask and be really careful back then around Keira.

today my Mom was playing with Keira with no such concern. :) because she has new lungs. tomorrow she and both our families will come over for Thanksgiving and my Mom will play with Keira and you would never know she had bad lungs...

wow, how things change in a year.

on my end, i'm working on getting life back to the pace it was at last Thanksgiving = sustainable.
i'm getting there.
next Thanksgiving i'll look back and be thankful i did.

Crystal quotes of the day #5 (break down pregnancy edition)

yep, Crystal quotes of the day are back.
the funniest and most popular seem to be the "pregnancy edition" quotes, of which there have been 2. you can read them HERE and HERE.

and i still have more "pregnancy edition" quotes saved up for later. really good ones :)

and i guess today can be considered a "pregnancy edition" as well because Crystal was pregnant when all these quotes took place... but add to that the fact that our car had just broken down.

*i think this took place about 1 week before Keira was born! we had just left our home & were headed out on a date. we were on I-77 about 3 miles from home when the car broke down under a bridge... and here are all the gloriously funny quotes i recorded for your laughter and mine.


    in the 1st moments of realizing we were broken down Crystal says:

CRYSTAL:  "How are we going to get home?"

ME:             "Walk? You know this is just rich people problems, right?"

CRYSTAL:  "Won't be rich people problems after we pay for this."

    i was trying to make the best of our sucky situation while we waited for the tow truck/wrecker - after deciding against walking :) it was supposed to be date night so i was trying to make the best of it... i said:

ME:             "There is nobody i would rather be broke down under a bridge with than you."

CRYSTAL:  (SIGH) "Me too... (THINKING)... except maybe somebody who could fix the car right away... But then I would trade you back."

ME:            (laughing out loud for a while in appreciation of her honesty that only a pregnant Crystal can speak with)

there were probably a lot more quotes that night but i can't even remember them now. i probably didn't write them down. maybe Crystal can remember when i ask her?

of course, we ended up waiting under that bridge for hours. but it was all good... turned about to be a fun date night after all.

big David Beckham announcement

it's all over everywhere today - David Beckham will play his last game for the LA Galaxy in MLS this coming December 1st in the MLS Cup Final.

every news outlet has picked this up, so it's definitely not gossip at this point = ESPN, LA TIMES, Bleacher Report. it seems The Mirror may have broken the story. i read soccer gossip all day long every day & half of it turns out to not be true, but this is a done deal.

i'll go out on a limb & say this could be the perfect ending for Becks. they'll probably win the Cup after a horrible start to the season. they're playing the best they've played in years right now - largely due to Robbie Keane being in possibly the form of his life.

will Becks hang it up after December 1st? who can tell. he is 37.
he's done well at that age like Ryan Giggs & Paul Scholes to keep playing at a high level. Maybe there's something in the water at that Man U schoolboy academy that keeps these guys playing for so long? ironic those 3 came up together as kids and all are still playing.

but rumor has it Beckham will keep playing after he's done with the Galaxy in a couple weeks. and actually he is even quoted as saying that he wants to experience one more challenge before he quits playing.

sounds like EVERYONE in the A-League in Australia wants him. probably just to make a quick buck. maybe join Drogba in that rich Chinese league?

OR, and this could be really interesting... there are rumors all over they place that Snoop Dogg... yes, Snoop himself, wants to buy Celtic. or at least be a major investor. then he would do everything in his power to bring Beckham to Celtic for his final season.
Celtic is the storied Scottish side who now has a straight up MONOPOLY in Scottish football after Rangers went bankrupt and were sent down to the 3rd division.
and yeah, the same Celtic who just beat Barcelona in an amazing game in the Champions League. who doesn't love Celtic after seeing that?
Beckham could fit in nicely there?

But wherever he heads next, there seems to be no doubt Beckham will be back in MLS soon - as an OWNER. yep. that was in his original MLS contract back in 07 giving him the ability to own an expansion team. my guess would be that they will add a 2nd New York team and Beckham will own it.
(although i hope they will add a team in the Southeast instead because there are NONE in this part of the country. apparently because all Republicans and rednecks believe "soccer" is some part of a liberal communist conspiracy? never quite understood that one...)

so, here's MY big question = was David Beckham a success in MLS? i think it all depends on how you view "success".
playing on the field i guess he wasn't all that. he didn't win every championship for LA. in fact, in 5 years they only won 1 supporter's shield and 1 MLS Cup (both last year). that's pretty sucky for a team so stacked with talent. (of course they'll probably win this cup in a couple weeks too.)

Beckham was injured half the time those first 3-4 seasons & kept going back to AC Milan on loan every chance he had.
the last 2 seasons have been special though. it's almost like he got better.

but let's face it - "success" for Beckham was never about winning games, trophies, goals, assists, free kicks, etc... it's been all about making this beautiful game more popular in America. it's been all about "brand awareness". taking soccer from a joke to a legit sport in this country. and i think it's taken a few steps in the right direction since 2007.

more specifically, "Success" was going to be about lifting the bar in MLS in many ways. Beckham has absolutely done that. he led the way. he was the 1st Designated Player in MLS. i'll be a bit cynical and just say he started the high profile trend of = MLS is where legends come to die.
so, in this year's MLS playoffs i got to watch David Beckham, Thierry Henry, Robbie Keane, Rafa Marquez, Tim Cahill, etc...
those guys were all playing in AMERICA. Americans actually got to watch them on American soil. WOW.
these guys are legends. all heroes i watched as a little kid. (Except Rafa Marquez, of course. i hated his guts. still do.)

bottom line = i've watched a half dozen MLS games this year because of those guys. i still love to see the magic Robbie Keane and David Beckham can work with a ball.

i would NEVER be caught dead watching an MLS game otherwise.

so, thanks for coming over Becks. we'll see how things look in 5 years. successful for now, but my guess is that in 5 years i won't be watching any MLS games because the league will still suck. i hope i'm wrong.

as Beckham gets older and older, at some point my wife will have to land on a new man that she deems as her "sexiest man who ever walked the face of the earth." i just wonder who it will be? :)

"the biggest killer of relationships is busy"

i think i heard the quote a little differently, but i simplified it to this:

"the biggest killer of relationships is busy."

Kendra Fleming is a really great leader i've respected for several years. i've always valued any conversations or time i've been able to spend with her and always learn a lot. when she said this last week i thought it was a great bottom line summary of what our lives often look like.

"busy" is our enemy.

and we're always busy.

but you can't begin, cultivate, deepen, restore, or even ENJOY relationships in the middle of busy.

no, you need margin to do that.

i need less busy and more margin. 

and i'm getting there.

because relationships are more important than busy.

busy sucks.

busy is the enemy.

relationships are our friends. literally :)

and when we look back on life 20 years from now & 40 years from now i am CONVINCED...

relationships will make us smile

and 

busy will make us frown (or maybe even cry)

relationships will be our greatest memories

and 

busy will be our greatest regret

   

hide the gravy

this is part 3 of 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30.
(you can read parts 1 & 2 HERE and HERE respectively.)

another thing people need to know before they turn old (spelled "t-h-i-r-t-y")

11  Bling-free is the way to be: live beneath your means
duh. but no one in their 20s does this.
come to think of it... no one in their 30s or 40s really does this either.
but the author (Jason Boyett) made a GREAT point:

Consider the people closest to you--your friends, your fellow employees, your family. What forms the foundation for those relationships? What's the joint that keeps you together? None of us would chalk the connection up to material things: "I'm friends with Jessica because she has an awesome car." Or "I like to spend time with my sister on account of her fantastic furniture."

 great point.

+ i thought the other greatest piece of advice = Hide the Gravy. every time you get a raise, don't change your standard of living. you haven't needed it thus far, so why spend it just because it's there?
in other words, you've been used to living on $21k since you were 21, so just keep doing that & "hide" the raise...
[or better yet, i say - GIVE IT AWAY!]

29 things to know before you hit 30 (part 2)

crazy bummed about when i will turn 30. feels like it will be crossing a huge line that i desperately don't want to cross.

but at least i will be prepared after reading The Pocket Guide to Adulthood: 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30
thanks to Jason Boyett for putting together a guide for peeps like me closing out their 20s to help us know what we need to know to be an old person.

(i already posted #s 1-5 HERE.)

6  Being all weird about food safety is a pretty good idea
wow. i DEFINITELY learned a lot from this chapter! i was breaking ALL these rules that were shared big time. i.e. - eating pizza that had been left in my hot car for a week!
not any more - because i'm about to be an old adult.

7  How to change a flat tire like a real live mechanic
this is the one mechanical thing i actually did know already. pretty much the only thing i can do.

8  Marriage is not necessarily a rowdy sex romp, and other misconceptions
wait, for real?
wait, is that after you turn 30 or before? :)

9  How to stop worrying and be an optimist
i really love being & so thankful i'm an optimist. but i still have to battle worry like everyone else. i need to work harder at relaxing too. (oxymoron?)

10  Establish your own coolness with an amazing card trick
now this was awesome. i've never really known a card trick. i love playing poker, but i've never really known how to do a trick. NOW I DO. so, someone please - ask me to see a card trick! or do i have to wait til i hit 30?


*that's only 10 down of the 29 things you have to know to be an old 30 year-old.
more coming tomorrow.

be a student not a critic

this is something i must have heard Andy Stanley say a hundred times over the years.

"be a student not a critic"

it's something i think i've naturally tried to live out since i was 17 or 18... maybe even earlier in broader contexts.

i hope i can stay that way. every once in a while as i get all old... i sense the critic sneaking into my life. but i want to fight hard to stay the student i've always been.

because i would be a whole lot dumber if i had been a critic instead of a student all these years.
i can't even imagine all the great stuff i would have missed if i had been criticizing instead of learning.

i think this really comes down to pride for most of us. if i can stay humble, then i can probably stay a student.

but if pride takes over - that's when i'm tempted to be a critic. because i think i'm better, smarter, wiser, than the other ... therefore, i can't possibly have anything to learn from that.

what an awful way to live.

i have tried to live my life with an attitude of:

i want to learn from anybody or anything at any time and anywhere.

that's my goal and i hope i can always live that way.

i hope that even when i see, hear, experience stuff that is 95% awful... i can be a student and learn from the other 5%.

i'm not too good for it.

and i certainly never want to be a critic. somebody stop me if i turn into one.

a reminder for all of us who are too flipping busy

i've posted this a few times to renown. it's the final sermon that Kyle Lake ever wrote, but he never got to preach it because he died a few minutes before delivering it. this was the ending of that sermon.
something i read often & i'm about to hang it up in my office...

"Live. And Live Well.

BREATHE. Breathe in and Breathe deeply. Be PRESENT. Do not be past. Do not be future. Be now.

On a crystal clear, breezy seventy-degree day, roll down the windows and FEEL the wind against your skin. Feel the warmth of the sun.

If you run, then allow those first few breaths on a cool autumn day to FREEZE your lungs and do not just be alarmed, be ALIVE.

Get knee-deep in a novel and LOSE track of time.

If you bike, pedal HARD... and if you crash, then crash well.

Feel the SATISFACTION of a job well done--a paper well-written, a project throroughly completed, a play well-performed.

If you must wipe the snot from your three-year-old's nose, don't be disgusted if the Kleenex didn't catch it all... because soon he'll be wiping his own.

If you've recently experienced loss, then GRIEVE. And grieve well.

At the table with friends and family, LAUGH. If you're eating and laughing at the same time, then might as well laugh until you puke.

And if you eat, then SMELL. The aromas are not impediments to your day. Steak on the grill, coffee beans freshly ground, cookies in the oven.

And TASTE. Taste every ounce of flavor. Taste every ounce of friendship. Taste every ounce of Life.

Because it is most definitely a Gift."

(Kyle Lake, 1972-2005)

something i like to ask myself before i fall asleep

i'm trying to form a habit of asking myself a question before i fall asleep every night.

Last night before I fell asleep and tonight before i fall asleep and hopefully every night after that i'll ask myself:

Have I made someone smile today? 

doesn't matter how...

a kind word. 

a kind act.

just a joke. 

a smile from me 1st.

and if my answer to that question is "no"... 

then i want to make sure that tomorrow night the answer is yes. 

there are plenty of reasons in people's lives to make them sad. plenty of reasons for people NOT to smile. a plethora, in fact. there are LOTS of people already who will cause others NOT to smile. i would simply like to be the opposite.
 
so if i didn't even take the time to make at least one person smile...

no doubt the day was a waste.

and life is much too precious and short for wasted days.

29 things to know before you hit 30

i finally finished this book i've been reading for a couple years now.

The Pocket Guide to Adulthood: 29 Things to Know Before You Hit 30

i felt a little extra urgency to finish it and i won't say why ;)

throughout the next few weeks... before a little deadline in my head... i'll be posting these 29 things to know before you turn 30.

if you're not 30 yet, then learn these things like i did - these things that are necessary to become a proper adult.
if you're already 30 then just smile a little condescending smile and think, "those kids..." or whatever it is old people say :)

but unfortunately, i'll be a proper adult before long and i'm pretty bummed about it.

big thanks to Jason Boyett - the Relevant mag & relevant books writer - for making this book both helpful and hilarious.

so, here's my reflections on the pocket guide i just digested... in the nick of time...

1  How to Cook Eggs a Bunch of Different Ways
i usually stick with making either over-easy eggs or scrambled depending on my mood. but now i know how to rock fried, poached, omelets, & hard-boiled. i guess this is something adults should know how to do.

2  Beware the Credit Card Debt Monkey
THANKFULLY this is something i learned around 23 or 24ish. so thankful. this should be in a book called 19 Things You Need to Know Before You Hit 20!!! because getting this at 29 is simply TOO LATE. credit cards suck.

3  How to Speak Good... er, Well
i really can't remember what i read about this. haha. it was about using the English language properly. if i rebel against that can i stay in my 20s and not be an adult? please.

4  First Dates are hard, Except in Hollywood
didn't need this one. i already had my last 1st date :)

5  How to Craft a Spectacularly Awesome Resume
don't plan on needing this one either. for a plethora of reasons.

and more of the 29 to come soon... just keep your eyes open.

more deadly than hate

this morning i read this line in a book.

as often happens, the context in which i read this line is unrelated to where i'm going with it, but once my mind got on this train it never looked back to the original context...

"In some ways the silence of unconcern can be more deadly than hate."

Peter Scazzero

this is why i write.

this is why i have written so many times about so many things.

because i can't be silent.
that silence could possibly be more deadly than hate itself.

i can't be unconcerned.
that's a tragedy.

unconcern is how genocide freaking happens.

that's why i write about racism, and greed, and poverty, and sickness, and materialism, and evil, and hate, and pride...

i'm concerned. & i don't want to shift into being unconcerned and silent. so i write.

and i know that writing doesn't really solve anything. but it at least gives me an outlet to think this stuff out. to actualize my feelings and concern.

and writing for me is a start to DO SOMETHING and put my money and actions where my mouth is.

the prayer on my wall

Here's a prayer that hangs on the wall in my office.
i see it every day and pray it probably several times a day...

“God, before I die, I hope you will let me see the most beautiful sights, experience the most beautiful experiences, and feel the most beautiful feelings that life has to offer.”

i adapted this prayer from someone else and edited it to be my own. not completely original to me...

but i think this desire is original to all of us.

i just decided to start actively asking for it.

maybe we would all word it differently or resonate with different aspects, but i think this prayer is embedded deep down in all of us. at the core of who we are as humans.

i just figure if i'm gonna spend however many years here on this rock, in this life, i would really love to experience it FOR ALL IT'S WORTH!

and i think maybe, just maybe, this is what Jesus was getting at when He said "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
it would be a shame to live life and not live it to the FULL. to not experience it for all it's worth.

this is simply the kind of life i'm setting out to live.
so this is the prayer i pray.

Where Do We Go From Here: Reactions to Election 2012

I hoped I wouldn't have to write this article. I expected I wouldn't have to write it, as a matter of fact. What happened? It's the question I believe most of us are asking ourselves. After all, everything conservative pundits and humble bloggers like myself said before the election was true: undecided voters usually break for the challenger. So why didn't they this time?

I genuinely do not know the answer. Whether the American people have been paying less attention than they should or there are in fact more takers in America than taxpayers, it was enough for President Obama to be re-elected. At this point, it's hard to say what the reasons were yesterday.

I find myself wondering, honestly, if our country as we know it is lost. I believe America can survive four more years of Obama. My concern is whether we can survive four more years of people who would willingly re-elect Obama. I believe we can survive four more years because we have a firewall. The House of Representatives remains in Republican control so we can stop further damaging legislation by the President.
However, Obamacare is here to stay, and that's going to be bad for business. The Bush Tax Rates are set to expire, and the President seems to want to play hardball on this as well. So what we're looking at is big tax increases that are part of Obamacare, taxes being raised at the minimum on small businesses. Friends, I'm here to tell you things aren't going to get better in the next four years. I believe they will get worse unless the President reverses course and applies policies that actually work. 

So what do we do? I mean, short of Benghazigate blowing up into a huge cover-up scandal it is requiring both President Obama and Vice President Biden being thrown out of office, we're stuck here for four more years. What we can do is continue to fight for conservative principles. We can also work to build a big enough majority in 2014 to reverse the President's agenda. With what is likely to happen economically on the horizon, it's not at all beyond the realm of possibility. 

As for Biblical Conservatism, the blog is also at a crossroads. (This was always in the plans post-election, don't worry.) I began writing Biblical Conservatism as a way to collect my ideas before writing a book of the same title on the same topic. First, I'm going to take a few weeks off to rest from the world of politics. Then, Biblical Conservatism will be back, albeit as a biweekly blog rather than a daily, focusing primarily on topical issues rather than news. You may even see a few sneak peeks into the book. 

I leave you, for now, with this: Thank you for your readership through this Election and since I started back in 2010. Election Day was a banner day for Biblical Conservatism with the biggest one day readership since the beginning. Finally, I remind you one immutable fact that all Biblical Conservatives and Christians of all political stripes should remember: God is in control. No matter who is in the White House, we have a living King who sits on the throne and his name is Jesus Christ. God bless you all, and thank you for reading.

A Time for Choosing

Today is the day. I've had a countdown on Biblical Conservatism for over a  year. Today is the day American is given the chance to change course.

The Drive-By Media is already calling the election for Obama. I've already told you why this is happening...they are either a) delusional enough to believe their +5-10% Democrat turnout models or b) we can expect that these polls will be quoted as reasons why Romney's election must be the result of some sort of fraud.

Back in 1964, Ronald Reagan gave a famous speech in support of Republican Barry Goldwater called "A Time for Choosing."  Today we are again at a time for choosing.

Today, I am speaking not to those of you who have already made up your mind. I'm speaking to the few of you who inexplicably have not. Today, as you step into that booth to cast your vote, you have a choice.

Today our choice is whether or not to keep on the same path we are currently on. The path we are on is one of failure. It is a path of $1 Trillion deficits and no plan to fix it, save for raising taxes on "millionaires and billionaires."  Except by the numbers this will only raise about $60 Billion per year...which is only 6% of the deficit. There is no problem to bridge the other 94% of the gap.

Today our choice is whether or not we want to take proactive steps to to fill our nations energy needs with real, tangible energy solutions that we already have domestically like oil, coal and natural gas; or do we want to continue to effort after a solution by burning billions on fantasy green energy.

Today our choice is whether we want to put America back to work by not regulating and taxing those who own businesses.

Today our choice is whether or not we choose to continue to be the last, best hope of mankind and a shining city on a hill or if we want to let the sun set on the United States as a superpower as the sun set on the Soviet Union, the British Empire, the Roman Empire, the Greek Empire, the Babylonian Empire and the Egyptian Empire before us.

Today our choice is whether or not we want to have a President who will defend Americans in harms way or one who will pretend that a preplanned, forewarned terrorist attack was because of a video and then attempt to create a revisionist history of things that just happened.

Today, our choice is whether or not we want our country back.

So I close with a quote from our 40th President, Ronald Wilson Reagan:

Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is it easier for you to go and buy things in the stores than it was four years ago? Is there more or less unemployment in the country than there was four years ago?  Is America as respected throughout the world as it was? Do you feel that our security is as safe, that we’re as strong as we were four years ago?
And if you answer all of those questions ‘yes’, why then, I think your choice is very obvious as to whom you will vote for. If you don’t agree, if you don’t think that this course that we’ve been on for the last four years is what you would like to see us follow for the next four, then I could suggest another choice that you have.

a good reminder

tonight i was brushing up on my How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler because of all the books i'm having to read for Grad school.

it probly sounds like a humorous title but it's actually very helpful. years ago it taught me how to read and comprehend and learn from books a lot more than i previously could.

but there's a lot of unrelated to reading wisdom in this book as well. like this quote for example:

“disagreement is futile agitation unless it is undertaken with the hope that it may lead to the resolution of an issue.”

GREAT reminder for me & for all of us. 

i need to check myself & if there's no hope of a resolution... just drop it. whatever it is.

seems to be good advice. maybe there's an exception, but i can't think of one right now.  

Be Prepared for Legal Challenges In Close States

Especially the ones where the swing state polls are using preposterous samples that won't happen on Tuesday.

Quick history lesson: Who remembers 2000? I do. Al Gore held up a decision from the 2000 Election for a full month. While it was required by law for Florida to do a machine recount of votes when the margin for victory for Bush was only 2000 votes. Gore then demanded hand recounts of votes, not only focusing ONLY on three of the most heavily Democratic counties in Florida but also demanding that votes be counted for him where votes that were not clearly cast, as defined by law, for a particular candidate.

Liberals spent years using such methods as exit polls and polls done after the election asking people who they had intended to vote to say that the actual votes were wrong. That's the world of the Left, gang...the actual votes don't matter. Just the polls matter.

How about 2004? In that election, the Exit Polls showed John Kerry winning the Presidency. It wasn't close, in some polls. Then the votes started to be counted. It wasn't close. Bush won. He won by a comfortable enough 3% margin.

The stories came out again: There must have been fraud! The polls said Kerry was going to win! Even John Kerry pondered a challenge like Gore four years before...but ultimately thought better of it. That didn't stop the Left from claiming it was illegitimate. It's not the votes that matter...the polls are the TRUTH...according to the Left.

So now we have these poll that are continuing to use 2008 Turnout as their models...if not far greater Democrat turnout that 2008. I made this point Friday on Biblical Conservatism:

When the turnout in, for example, Ohio, ISN'T +9% Democrat but lets say it's +2% Democrat and Romney wins by 1-2%...don't you think the New York Times might just say "How can this be?! Our polls showed Obama winning by 5%!"

My friends, I want you to be ready. I believe we are going to win. And as history has shown, these attempts to claim fraud doesn't stick. What the ultimate result will be if this happens, however, will be a claim that future President-Elect Romney would be told he has no grounds for a mandate and therefore he has no right to institute his policies. That's what they said about George W. Bush.

Bottom line: BE READY. I believe we are going to win on Tuesday. If it's not a sweep victory for Romney (which it could indeed be...see polls before the Election of 1980), there will be these claims from some if not all circles in the Drive-By Media.

Model T leadership

when it comes to leading people there are 2 overarching paradigms leaders start with.

i know there are probably hundreds of leadership styles and different nuances...
but when it comes to the foundational assumptions a leader starts out with about PEOPLE specifically.

i found the greatest quote i've ever seen to summarize the other view:

"Why is it that whenever I ask for a pair of hands, a brain comes attached?"

- Henry Ford

Henry Ford. the name you think of when you think the invention of the automobile, the assembly line, the Model T...

he was fully immersed in a leadership paradigm that said "just give me a body that's alive. let them do exactly what i tell them and that's all i need." 

unfortunately that's still a pretty popular leadership paradigm. people are a means to an end. just a cog in the assembly line. in fact, if we could use robots they would be even better BECAUSE AT LEAST THEIR BRAINS WOULDN'T GET IN THE WAY.

innovation is essentially what Ford was complaining about. people can't help but use their brains. they innovate naturally.

i imagine people on Ford's assembly lines would inevitably innovate. they would think "there's a better way to do this." and they would try it. but those ideas probably didn't work most of the time. they would break the system. the assembly line halted. the bottom line was stalled.

i imagine Ford was livid. if he could just have a pair of hands without a brain - that would fit his leadership paradigm perfectly.

big problems with this paradigm, though. i hope they are painfully obvious.

the other paradigm is extremely opposite. it's innovation. the best thing about people is not their hands, but their brains. their ability to innovate. create. think outside the box. make things better.

and true innovators could not work for Henry Ford. they couldn't work on an assembly line for long.

because true innovators are never bound by what is.

instead they dream of what could be.

Good News, Mr. President: In Fantasy Land, You're Still Winning!

Of course, here in the real world, Mitt Romney's winning.

Scratching your head? Apparently you haven't read this blog.  We've got some new polls that have come out, and they claim Obama's winning. Only one problem: They are using 2008 Election Turnout. Nobody who is honest and worth their salt is claiming that the 2008 Electoral Turnout will happen.

So let's show you what's happening in Fantasy land, shall we?

• A National Journal Poll on Halloween, the report gave President Obama a +5% advantage nationally. Only one problem, straight from their article:

"In its likely-voter model, the Congressional Connection Poll projected that the 2012 electorate will be virtually unchanged from 2008, with Democrats holding an 8 percentage-point advantage among voters (compared with 7 points last time."

Allow me to respond in writing how I responded vocally when I read this:

BAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!

Election turnout will mirror 2008? Are you kidding me, National Journal? According to Gallup last week, Election 2012 turnout is going to look not like 2008, but like 2004 and 2010: +2% Republican. Rasmussen's most recent Party ID Poll shows a +3% Republican advantage.

So based on these two samples, predicting a +8% Democrat turnout is pure, unadulterated sophistry. It's a fantasy. Actually, it is, on average, a +10.5% Democrat oversample. If only someone had predicted this before he had seen that sample happening, say on the Biblical Conservatism Facebook Page:

Oh, I guess I did predict that.

A couple other fun state polls (our example comes from the New York Times, but they are hardly alone in this game) with similar baloney being sold:

In Florida, the New York Times says Obama is leading Romney by 1%. Using a +9% Democrat Sample. Over the last four elections, the average turnout in Florida was +1% Republican. That's a 10% Democrat oversample! Unskew that to the historical average turnout, you see Romney winning by 7%!

In Ohio, the New York Times has Obama leading Romney by 5%. Except they used a +8% Democrat sample. Over the past four elections the real turnout was +2% Democrat. They oversampled Democrats by 6%! Unskewed that puts Romney at +1%.

In Virginia, the Times says Obama is leading by 2%. Except they used a +8% Democrat sample. Over the past four elections the real turnout was an average of +1% Republican. Unskew that poll and Romney leads by 7%.

There are examples of this in other states like Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, the list goes on and on. The bottom line is the only place Obama is winning is in Fantasy Land. Here in the real world he's losing.

Time for Obama to Panic: Early Voting Favors Romney

That cursing sound you heard near 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue yesterday? That was President Obama, reading a Gallup poll of EARLY VOTERS.

According to Gallup, 52% of Early Voters who have already cast their ballots have voted for Mitt Romney. 45% of Early Voters who have already voted cast their ballots for Barack Obama. (For those of you in Palm Beach County, FL, that means Romney is up 7%.)

Friends, the Democrat Party thinks of early voting as their bread and butter. Some might suggest it's because that makes voter fraud easier.  According to this train of thought, fraud takes time, early voting gives time: Think Ryan Seacrest on American Idol with "Vote Early, Vote Often." (Except for the fact that on American Idol it's perfectly fine to vote as often as you like, in American Elections you cannot.)

So now here we find that Early Voters are favoring Romney, and we can expect that if Early Voting favors Mitt, so will Election Day voters.Combine that with states like Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania; previously considered deep blue states, are now tossups, the fact that the gender gap is gone, and the fact that Governor Romney is leading heavily with Independents, it's time for the President to panic. Big time.


My friends, I've said it over and over again: We're going to win in a week. Six more days. Game on.