Merry Christmas to all. I’ll not stopy saying it. Christmas haters, you can have the other 364 days. I’ll keep using the word CHRISTmas. Those of you who celebrate it like me, enjoy!
Those of you who are haters…well… you must be HATING that first amendment right about now!
-MH
When this infrequently updated project began back in 2002, acquiring “thebackwash.com” was just not an option. Not sure who had it, or especially who wanted it, but (greedy Despicable Me laughter) it is mine now. So, over the coming months, I will be transitioning everything to thebackwash.com. Most will be transparent (I still have .net for at least two more years…but whatever).
-MH
If 2010 has done anything for us, it has shown that the NCAA is, aside from being a corrupt money-hungry organization, past its prime. This may be silly, but I submit that until a group of schools (such as the current SEC, Pac-10, Big 10, ACC, Big East) band together to put together another sanctioning organization to replace the NCAA, we will continue to see the same money-driven filled-with-moral-compromise decisions from the NCAA.
Just the two recent decisions – Cam Newton “oh….well, my daddy is pimpin’ me out, but I didn’t know about it…” BAM – forgiven; and the Ohio State players “Seinfeld Defense.” Brilliant take on this at www.collegesportsmatchups.com.
One must ask…why the NCAA? Why do THEY have to be the perpetual organization? Replace it. That is the only answer. There is no changing this bunch. Every year proves it.
The NCAA is severely broken. The only fix is replacement.
-MH
Wow. Went here to do some server maintenance and realized I HAVEN’T POSTED SINCE JULY 4TH?????? EGAD!
Oh well…too much happening. Right now I’m fighting my estrogen rush I’m getting from reading “The Help.” Hope everyone has a happy holiday (and a Merry Christmas…yes, I hope several of you are offended. Get over it).
Probably won’t post back until early next year. I won’t have much time to write it, and you certainly have better things to be doing than reading my drivel during the holidays!
-MH
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
READ Mike Cope’s blog post. Live it. I myself am sick of so many parents not taking up the mantle of a real parent and choosing the easy way out of trying to be “cool.”
http://preachermike.com/2010/06/20/dont-try-to-be-the-cool-parents
-MH
I have an invisible shield. It is 3″ by 4″. It has completely transformed everything including how I watch a movie. It modifies my outlook on the world. I speak of course of my mobile phone. See if any of this fits you:
The significance of these little devices and their effects on our lives is amazing and frightening at the same time. Just last night I watched the original “Terminator” movie – and communication dated the flick. When Sarah Connor was trying desperately to get in touch with her roommate, it took her the better part of 20 minutes to locate a place that had a pay phone so she could make the call. All that work just to get an answering machine – which used a tape.
Yesterday I also had a complete scare when I thought I had left my phone in a cab in NYC. It took me accessing the phone GPS online to realize it was still in my bag.
Don’t get me wrong – I much prefer having the ability to communicate when and where I want. I guess I am just amazed at how much sway these objects have had on my life. My hope is that I can regain control over it!
-MH
Most are sick to death of hearing the healthcare debate. I have friends on both sides of this fence, and to be clear, I am quite opinionated on it; but will NOT share my opinion here. I will, rather, look at one significant fact about which we have heard little.
Forget the mandates. Forget the abortion issue. Forget the constitutionality or non-constitutionality. Forget the debt or deficit-neutrality claims. Let’s go Econ 101 for just a moment and talk supply and demand.
We are about to see a demand curve take a hockey-stick growth rate. A market that has been treating X-number of insured and some uninsured, will now have millions of new insured individuals. Here’s the problem – despite this legislation, there is still a significant shortage of doctors – and no plans for addressing that issue.
Think about it this way. You are accustomed to going to a restaurant. You typically wait about an hour for a table. The same crowd tends to be there. Now imagine that a lot of individuals who previously never went there just got handed gift cards to that restaurant. It is a simple Operations Management nightmare – same number of tables, same number of servers, same space in the building, same typical customer set, plus a spike of activity for which you are not equipped. The results? Longer wait times, the need to cycle your food deliveries faster, and everyone gets frustrated.
Apply the same here. We have the same shortage of doctors today as we did yesterday before the bill was signed into law. What result do I see? Longer wait times, and physicians trying to find a way to quota-out their available appointments to those patients who have insurance that pays the best. I don’t fault them. It’s economics.
And what happens when you have a shortage of professionals? Well, that has already happened – and we can apply the lessons learned here. It has happened in the airline industry with pilot shortages. Things that happened in that industry?
Do we really want that in healthcare? How far off are we from the medical boards relaxing standards in an effort to get more doctors practicing and dealing with the overflow of patients?
Regardless of where you stand on this issue, it will affect you because your doctor only has so many hours in a day – and the rate at which we are seeing doctors enter the workforce is not as high as 20-years ago. Have all the rallys you want on the issue – until this unfortunate fact gets dealt with, everyone will hurt.
-MH
If you watch LOST, then you will easily remember what follows. If you do not, let me give you the paragraph catch-up.
Plane crashes. Survivors on remote Island. Island strange. Secret communities. Surprise “stations,” or evidence of high technology. In the clip to follow, you will see two people – Desmond, the love-forlorn hero desperately trying to get off the island to find his true love, Penny; and Charlie – the musician turned semi-hero. In this clip, Desmond and Charlie are in an underwater station they have discovered, and Charlie receives a desperate transmission from…who else…Penny. The season ended with a haunting scene of Charlie sending a message despite the odds:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MotKxENoXFE
I am someone who appreciates creativity that sends a message when it comes to teaching teens about the Bible. I want to give some serious props to the PV Youth Ministry team (Steve Hovater, Ryan Rampton and Sarah Smith) for using the clip above to frame the youth group’s minds around the notion of “Urgent Messages.” If it were your last message, what would you send? Below is a video of some of the result. I think it is worth watching.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OodqZ4dNc3o
Yesterday I was in complete New York mode. I was headed out, trying to get to LaGuardia on the hope of catching an earlier flight. I was out the door of the hotel at the time I was hoping to be, and to my benefit, the stoplight at 8th and 40th was red. Behold a line of cabs. I grabbed the first one, and from the start of the ride I could tell this guy was different.
Now understand, I do this enough that I have my standard line…”La Guardia – and take the tunnel…stay off the FDR.” This guy engaged me in conversation right away. Good conversation. Not the type that is hoping for a larger tip, but something substantial.
I usually retreat into the screeen of my Blackberry as the cab driver is talking in some language I don’t understand into his phone. This ride was different. It was in the tunnel that this guy starts talking about his family, and what he thinks is important. I can tell you that this random cab driver in New York City has his head screwed-on better than most of the people I interact with. After a few questions of my own, I realized this is the kind of guy that will move things around in his life to have more time with his family. He didn’t seem interested in posessions, but more interested in the things that stay with you longer than life. Yeah…this guy gets it.
My ride came to an end quicker than I realized or wanted. It wasn’t until the plane was taking off that the thought ran through my head that I might have just had a brush with an angel. You can call me cheezy if you like, but yesterday I was reminded that there are a lot of people out there who value the REAL things. How refreshing. I sure hope all of us can keep all the real priorities in the right place!
-MH