There are WAY too many bowls

We have had too much experience with the doctor, and now it's the car doctor. I took the car in for an oil change and a tire rotation. Of course they found more. The front tires were worn out, as was the rotor and the brake pads. A $30 trip turned into $720.

Brother, can you spare a dime?

This isn't the only strange thing going on in this world… I was watching ESPN, and they were discussing bowls. Then they mentioned the "San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl". The Poinsettia Bowl is hardly tier one (or even tier three), but it makes me upset. If a Credit Union can buy a bowl, I could have had the kypackrat.com Bowl.

Open Prayer Requests

I ask everyone to pray for the salvation of my great-uncle "R". He knows nothing about the Bible, little about Christianity, and has absolutely no hope. I've been working to witness to him ever since my grandfather (his brother) passed away, with little effect. He is too much of a boor to hear what I'm saying. For Christmas, I gave him a care package of a Bible and several study books, and wrote a letter to witness to him. Like the sower, I've spread my seeds. Now, please pray that God leads him to read those books and makes those seeds grow.

Second, my brother-in-law W has been tentatively diagnosed with esophageal cancer, and the doctor thinks it's spreading throughout his body. Since the tests (biopsy, etc.) are not done (they will occur this week and next), we are praying that the doctor is mistaken and it is either not a tumor or that it's not malignant. If the doctor is correct, please pray that W receives peace and comfort from the Holy Spirit (W is a baptized believer).

An open tribulation Theory Blog

Over at Vox Popoli, SugarPi posted:

OK, Starbuck and DrTorch, you're tempting me beyond what Markku's admonition is able to restrain me. I'm dying to ask a sincere question that no end times, post-trib scholar I've read has been able to illuminate satisfactorily.

Comments are unmoderated. Ask and talk away.

The Manhattan Declaration -- Why I agree, and won't sign

I was reading R. C. Sproul's blog for a post by Sinclair Ferguson (more about it later), when I noted a post about The Manhattan Declaration.

I've heard some about the Manhattan Declaration, but between work and Number One Son being back in the hospital twice in the last month, we've been busy. When I read Sproul's blog post, I went and read the Declaration. In general, it makes me glad to see the Church making a principled stand on three of the serious issues facing America. I would prefer more clarity on fighting the evils of divorce and fornication too, but that's just me.

I also have trouble agreeing with RC's insistence that it would be wrong to sign the document because of whom else is signing it: Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christians. Sproul says:

The Manhattan Declaration confuses common grace and special grace by combining them. While I would march with the bishop of Rome and an Orthodox prelate to resist the slaughter of innocents in the womb, I could never ground that cobelligerency on the assumption that we share a common faith and a unified understanding of the gospel.

As a Restoration Movement adherant, I am naturally hesitant to distinguish between types of Christians. I believe in "Not the only Christians, just Christians only" motto. Sproul goes too far (IMHO) in condemning Catholics and the Orthodox in not agreeing with his theology.

Nonetheless, I won't sign, because Sproul is not totally wrong. There is a difference between saying "You're not Christian enough" and saying "I can't co-sign on your theology". Chuck Colson said, "This document is, in fact, a form of catechism for the foundational truths of the faith." I don't believe it is an adequate catechism; that is reserved for the Bible itself. Second, the document is incomplete: any such document should have condemned divorce, fornication, and the sexualization of our society (porn, etc.) in equally strong terms.

Finally, if it is a statement of theology, then I can't agree that all Catholics and all Orthodox are preaching exactly the same Gospel as I am. There are saved Catholics and saved Orthodox. However, the Orthodox church and the Roman Catholic church both teach as doctrine non-Biblical principles. I may be in Christian union with believers in both organizations, I most certainly am NOT in union with either organization itself, and the document implies that I am.

Even without arguing the Stone-Campbell "no creed but Christ", I won't be signing the Manhattan Declaration, no matter how much I agree with 99% of it.

Crass Consumerism

Once again, I've been suckered out on Black Friday for the sales. I think I've done the best I've done since I lined up 6 or 7 years ago to get a "free" computer.

Here's my deals, in order:

• Staples had their 50 pack of jewel cases at $5. Since I'm completely out, this wasn't bad.
  However, I still have a beef. I don't care how "easy" it is, a rebate still is crap. The store takes my money, and then may give it back 2-3 months later. No thank you! I was going to buy Staples' 100 pack of CD-Rs and 50 pack of DVD-Rs, but instead of $5 each, they were $14 each with $9 rebate (I think).
  
• There's a new Computers Plus store in Lexington. The people are nice, and the first thing you see in the store is a MacBook Pro. :) They had a $10 8G USB flash drive (something I've been needing for a while), with a $10 coupon for later. Unlike Staples, I was willing to pay $10 for the drive, so the coupon is just a bonus.
  One problem with then though: the owner has a Marine-style haircut. I don't trust short-haired computer people much... ;)
  
• My best deal by far was Radio Shack's Gigaware USB headset. They're flimsy, and Radio Shack is useless for drivers (if you have Vista, start searching Google). However, my Mac loves them, and they've got the best sound I've heard out of headphones (and almost the best I've heard out of a computer, period). I bought two, and I may go back and get one or two more at these prices.

The one sale I'm disappointed in not happening: blackfriday.info and fatwallet.com claimed that Circuitcity.com would sell the Linksys WRT320N for $7. Unfortunately, there's no sign that they have, or that they will. If they would, I'd buy 4 at least. They'll run DD-WRT, and that would let me move the home network off of G and onto 5GHz N. Maybe that price will show up sometime soon.

(Interest disclosures: None. I didn't even give you links that make me money.)

Time to leave California

It seems that California is raising payroll withholdings, as an interest-free loan. (Sorry for no hat tips, I saw this too many different places....) I am SO glad that I never wandered too far left of the country. At this rate, I expect California to be bankrupt in months.

It is well with my soul

I'm sorry for ignoring the blog. In one sense, I've been suffering the death of a thousand cuts, but on the other side the Lord has been so very faithful.

In the course of two weeks, I have had the following items break

• the video card on "Precious"(*), my work laptop
• The battery on my supervisor's spare MacBook, which I was borrowing.
• Then the hard drive on the same MacBook dies, leaving it down. I had to scrounge a hard drive out of an older Dell laptop and restore my files again.
• My co-worker's hard drive decided to die a few days later.
• We had to cancel a trip out of town with our neighbors because our 7 person cabin ended up being a 4 person cabin...
• I spent Sunday afternoon taking out the vinyl flooring I put in the kitchen just a few months ago. We have no idea how water got under it, but it did. This would be less depressing if we were finished paying it off... *blush*

Even so, it is well with my soul. All four of us are healthy (including Number 1 Son), and no one has the swine flu yet. Our house is intact, and we aren't bankrupt. I have good friends, good co-workers, a good job, and a good church.

To quote the song:
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul

Something long forgotten

Roman Polanski drugged and raped a 13 year old girl.

His arrest isn't about a great artist being persecuted. It's about a pedophile and rapist being caught to face justice.

There was a plea bargain that the judge was waffling on. I don't know California law from the 70s, but most states didn't require judges to follow plea bargains for sentencing.

Even if it did, Mr. Polanski ran first and asked questions later. He should be in jail in California, awaiting the results of his appeal.

Sorry, Roman, you're no OJ. I tolerated the Not Guilty verdict for OJ because IMHO the state didn't prove its case. You on the other hand are a dirty old man who ran from his jail time and should face it.

And now the fun starts

Early this year, I told Milady, "I really hope they don't keep using the Great Depression as a to-do list". They are.

President Barack Obama has imposed new punitive tariffs on all car and light truck tires coming into the U.S. from China, a move Beijing condemned Saturday as protectionism and a violation of the guidelines of global trade.

At first, I thought the powers that be were "just" going to try to repeat Japan's 20 year depression. The same people that told Japan to let their banks fail are now propping up ours. However, getting into a trade war with our #1 creditor, one who has already publicly expressed doubts to our ability to pay(*), just isn't smart.

(*) There's no doubt about our ability to pay off our Treasuries: we can't. Sorry, sucker!

I watched Fearless Leader's Speech

I was impressed that Fearless Leader essentially allowed the progressives go under the bus to save his plan. That said, I have little trouble with the bullet points; they sound good. The devil will be in the details, of course.

The Republican who gave the response looked like a complete and total idiot. He outlined the 4 Republican points, but Fearless Leader had already put them in his speech. Once again, the Republicans failed to not fail.

Snow Leopard is faster

My work copy of Precious, um, Snow Leopard is here, and I installed it tonight.

Wow. I am impressed. Everything in the OS really is faster. Mail flows faster. Exchange integration does 80% of what I could ever need in Outlook. Safari is a LOT faster. The only feature I've lost so far is network scanning for my Brother MFC-420CN, and I'll pester Brother and Apple about that tomorrow.

Of course, my adventures in .0 land are probably only just beginning.

New Tim Hawkins Video

Normally, I don't repost videos, but my hero John Stossel had this one up. Tim Hawkins is a favorite of the Packrat family (watch The Wife Song. Now.)

The Government Can.

I can't bend my arms

If you're not allergic to poison ivy, you just haven't been exposed enough.

I never did believe that old saying, because I never was allergic to poison ivy. When I was a kid, I could walk through the stuff, and not even get a blister. Even recently, I might get one or two blisters while Milady would break out in full-body rashes.

It seems that now, I've been exposed enough. My left forearm is a constant and solid rash, and my right arm is a third of the way there. I am alternating calamine lotion, hydrocortisone cream, and antihistamines. Generic Zyrtec was definitely the best antihistamine, but the 24 hour dose only lasted 12 hours...

Excuse me while I work on taping on oven mitts.

A comment over on Roger Ebert's Journal

I'm not done on this, but this is too good a post to just leave as a comment somewhere else.

Ebert: The government woudn't run the health care system. It would make insurance more affordable.

The dirty little secret of "health care reform" is that there are only three ways to decrease costs (Adam Smith 101): increase supply, decrease demand, and remove overhead. Let's take on each one individually.

Milady and I have talked to doctors about overhead. For the birth of Number 1 Son, her ob/gyn was barely clearing enough to order a pizza after the delivery. He ended up retiring to take care of his ailing father. Why? Insurance paperwork and liability insurance. I would like to see a pseudo-criminal system completely replace the current tort liability system. If a doctor commits malpractice, he is criminally liable to losing his license for X number of years. Allow private prosecution (as England does some still), but institute loser pays for them. Make the doctor liable for consequences without opening up unending financial liabilities onto the entire system. The Democratic plans make no tort reform, and do nothing to lower Medicare overhead (which are running doctors out of the system).

We are also making no steps to increase the number of doctors out there. There are less medical schools now than in 1900, and less doctors per capita than in 1900. Most medical schools are turning away 4 or 5 equally-qualified students for every 1 admitted. Allow doctors a path through to where they aren't crushed by debt, and make a bunch more of them.

As an aside, make doctors publish price lists, and make insurance companies publish their payment lists. One price for everyone. I shouldn't pay $200 for what Humana pays $40. Instead, the doctor charges $50, and Humana pays up to $60, so I'm happy. Or maybe Humana pays $40, but the doctor charges $50, and I have to cough up $10. Most other people would face jail time for what is called business as usual in the insurance field.

The third step is lowering demand, aka rationing. No one wants to say "you can't have it", but we need to say so. We want to tell the lazy poor "get out of the ER, go to the free clinic in the morning". 90% of the people who get cholesterol medicine don't really need it; it's just that the 10% who do need it need it desperately. We just can't tell right now who the 10% are. Most areas of the country don't have enough need of a medical helicopter to justify it. They also don't need a trauma center enough to justify it either.

The British and the Canadians have made those choices, and most of the time they work. If you have something simple, you get a treatment, and it works. But the edges are where the cost savings hit the road. If Natasha Richardson had been in the US, she would have been in range of a medical helicopter and a Grade 1 trauma center. Only God knows if she'd have lived, but because she was stuck with ground transportation and multiple hours from any trauma center, she didn't have a chance. Canada works because the US back-stops it. The really bad cases (troubled pregnancies, denied claims, etc.) can cross the border.

The real question: who pays for the really expensive stuff? I've heard some claims that 80% of Medicare costs are for caring for the last year of life. Number 1 Son cost our insurance $100k from pneumonia that destroyed half a lung, and then another 100K or so with pericarditis. That chopper, that trauma unit, that second MRI, that extra doctor in the ER, all those things cost a lot of money. The British and Canadians are saying no to the "extras", and it's starting to show.

Our health care providers currently have to compete on service, and it shows. They can do the 20% chance of success treatments enough times to convert them to 50% or 75%. They can drive the $50000 MRIs to $500. But, all that costs money.
There won't be "death panels" deciding individuals. That will be too gaudy. There may be appeal panels, but not often. Most of the time, there will be faceless groups making actuary tables, deciding that the chance of you living doesn't pay off, so you won't get the knee replacement, or the speech restoration surgery, or that quad bypass.

As a libertarian, I want a real market. Most people don't pay for car care insurance; it costs more than the actual work. Most health insurance is really health care plans. We pay the insurance X+Y dollars to spend X dollars on our behalf, when X is usually a well-defined minimum amount each year. 80% of the people in the US (under 65) would be better off having a plan that had a $4000 out of pocket minimum and paid 100% of everything else, and be able to put that $4000 back pre-tax. If you can't afford that plan or can't afford the $4000, then provide that money as charity or welfare, not by hiding the costs as health care overhead.

Push the spending decisions back onto the consumer. If it's important to do, then you spend the money, and pay for it.

Insomniac notes

Milady and Little Miss are camping with American Heritage Girls up in the Cincinnati metro area. When I'm away from Milady or Milady is away from me, I don't sleep well. That's why I'm up at 1:49AM local time.

• Mr. Obama needs to quit campaigning. Even Number 1 Son is starting to notice that everything is a campaign issue.
  
• I am teaching a computer science class to the little darlings at homeschool co-op. At the teacher's meeting this week, they asked us to tell one thing that few people might know. I thought about mentioning that I was becoming quite good at Omaha and was winning at Texas Hold-Em. I knew that wouldn't go over well. Instead, I mentioned that I am right-handed but left eye dominant.
  

Since I'm finally sleepy, it's time to go to bed. Fortunately, Milady will be back tomorrow.

Scraping the inside of your skull

Yesterday was the first day of a well-deserved vacation. Instead of shopping and playing with Milady and the kids, I was laying on my sister-in-law's bed. Why? My first awful migraine in almost two years. I took some aspirin before I left the house, and I thought that had it under control. Nope. By the time we were done shopping at Big Lots, I was in a full-blown migraine. We stopped by my sister-in-law's house, and I made it up into her yard before I threw up the peanuts I'd had as a 2PM snack. Boy do peanuts hurt coming back up...

Instead of a nice trip to Sam's Club, I ended up sleeping on her day bed. Vomiting always eases the worst of my migraine symptoms, but I want to sleep afterwards.

Fortunately, I'm better now. I just feel like I want to crack open my skull and scratch the insides of my head. This should pass a day or two.

A Reasonable Plan to end the "Housing Crisis"

Karl Denniger proposed a 4 point plan that IMHO is a wonderful way to fix the mortgage and banking markets. It is a one-time overpowering government intervention, but we've already made the mess; it's time to become a janitor and clean up the mess.

I've got a few other post building, but I'll wait until lunchtime for them.

"I can't take it any more"

Mr. Obama's TelePrompTer tried to committed suicide yesterday. The spin is on, however, since the teleprompter is now denying any intent.

A few notes

• It's easy to call Michael Jackson a pedophile. It's easy to make fun of his plastic surgeries and financial problems. Then you look a bit deeper and you see an abused child with a lot of mental health issues crying out for God and fulfillment. It makes the criticisms a little less justifiable.
  
  
  Boy, could he dance....
  
  
• Sarah Palin left her one big office. She should have said "They drove me broke, and I've got kids to feed. I can make enough on the rubber chicken circuit to pay off my debts and put my kids through college. My family comes first, and I know I'm leaving Alaska in good hands with the Lt. Governor."
  
  
  Does she still have a chance at President? Don't look at me, I'm usually wrong.
  
  
• Why are the Federal Reserve Governors, Henry Paulson, and Tim Geithner still walking around without tar and feathers on themselves?
  

I'm sorry, but he's not "excessively evil"

Bernie Madoff is a jerk, and he's greedy. It looks like 10 of his closest friends and relatives will be going to jail with him. However, I don't understand the "excessively evil" part.

Madoff took people's money. That's it. He didn't kill, he didn't threaten, he didn't even extort. People who were greedy for "guaranteed results" flocked to give him money when they should have known he was crooked.

I'm sorry that a lot of innocent people lost their life's savings. If it is your life's savings, you shouldn't have every cent of it with one person anyway.

Bernie's old; any sentence worthy of his crime would be a life sentence. I just can't see the glee at 150 years when murderers get less.