Facebook is Big Brother

I am a social media fanatic. I blog (2 different blogs), I tweet, I connect with my friends and family on facebook. But I've begun to notice that facebook is getting really scary, maybe a bit too familiar. The other day one of my friends posted that she was moving to Australia. To anyone familiar with children's literature this was an indication that she was having a terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad day. But as I was looking at her post, I noticed that the ad column on the right was filled with ads on "relocate to Australia" and "find a home in Australia" and "Finding jobs in Australia" Big Brother was watching, and hoping my friend and I would reach out to their advertisers in Australia.

I also notice that when I am reading a post or comment by a particular friend, most of the "friend suggestions" facebook gives at that time are fiends of that person. I'm not sure why facebook assumes that I want to be friends with EVERYONE who knows someone I went to school with 25 years ago. I mean really, I am glad to be in touch with my friends from Wheaton, but I don't necessarily want to be friends with someone from their church in 2011.

But all these little indicators make me a bit cautious. We are being watched, plain and simple. Now I am not a conspiracy theory type of guy, but if someone knows we are talking about Australia, then someone can find out anything else we talk about. There have been divorce cases where the judge has ordered the couples to turn over their facebook passwords to opposing council. A case in England where facebook and Twitter feeds were used as evidence. I am pretty sure that in larger cities police forces have a dedicated Internet watcher searching for threats of criminal activity.

A friend of mine recently read a book about Hitler and how easy it was for him to round up the people he wanted to get rid of,and that was 70 years ago, long before the computers and technologies of today. Just think how easy now, if someone came to power who wanted to round up all that opposed him. Just a get a record of who "liked" what on facebook. The McCarthy trials would have been so much easier had there been a facebook then. Just see who "liked" the communist party, or who were friends with people who "liked" it.

All I'm trying to say I guess is a word of caution. be careful what you "like" or it may be used against you. please like this post and share with your friends. And a wink goes out to Big Brother "FACEBOOK" We "like" and "Hate" you all at once.

New Way to Decide the Winner

Okay, this is crazy, but I have come up with a new way to pick the winner of elections. It came to me today while briefly watching CNN. This will save all the problems of vote counting, election tampering, and all the other troubles we encounter in modern elections.

As I was watching CNN the little news blurb on the bottom of the screen read, "Romney Santorum Fight Heats Up". That's when it hit me, put the candidates in the ring and let them duke it out. I'm not sure if the should use the Queensburry rules, or go for an all out UFC style MMA fighting. But just let them go at it till someone is knocked out. Then the winner of the Republican fight can get in the ring and duke it out with Obama.

Ok, Who's with me on this? Sounds like a nice change. Hopefully less nasty commercials. Make it a pay-per-view event with proceeds going to pay off the national debt.

Hate breeds more Hate

If you are like there are three words that instantly start your blood boiling: Westboro Baptist Church. This is a group of so-called Christians who preach a message of hate. Their main tactic is to protest at the funerals of slain American soldiers.

Yesterday the Westboro church announced it would protest at the funeral of the Powell boys (brutally murdered by their own father) because, according to the church their death was God's punishment to the state of Washington for plans to legalize gay marriage. Now whether you support gay marriage or not, you can surely see the horrendous lack of logic in the church's actions. I admit I have a hard time not being angry with this church. Yes I have troubles not hating them. This church, who always seems to get themselves in the news, gives Christian groups a bad name. In a news media always searching for the bad, the crazy, the offensive news, this is the kind of Christian we see. We rarely get media coverage for the churches that have outreaches to the poor; or the churches that reach out to disaster victims side by side with the Red Cross. So I get angry that this group is making all Christians look bad.

But as the hate in me brews, I realize that Westboro's hate is just breeding a hate within me, and I do not want to stoop to their level. I think churches around he nation need to mobilize, and wherever the Westboro church plans one of their hate-filled demonstrations, the local church needs to counter with a demonstration of God's love. Wrap thee family in a circle of Prayer (literally surrounding them with God's love) and keeping the hateful ones on the outside of the circle. Hate only breeds hate, lets show Westboro that God's love is stronger than Hate!!

(After I began this blog I learned that Westboro has cancelled their protest on the Powell funeral in exchange for some radio time on a local Catholic program. Whatever keeps them away from the funeral...at least you can turn the radio off.

Serenity Now...NIMBY

I'm sure you all remember the Seinfeld episode with "Serenity Now". But here in Lake Arrowhead, the calls of Serenity are being answered with "Not In My Back Yard". The Serenity Lodge is one of several drug rehab houses that have popped up around the Lake Arrowhead area, and Serenity has also recently acquired one of the many local camps.

All of these drug rehab facilities have sparked quite a bit of controversy in our lovely mountain community. Cries that these facilities will drag down property values, and bring unsavory types to our mountain.

Well, I have news for some of my fellow mountain folk. The unsavory types are already here. In case you didn't know folks, drug use in the mountain is rampant. This of course leads to the need for rehab houses. Maybe if you took more time to check up on what your kids are doing, they wouldn't end up needing rehab. I'm sorry if I'm being blunt and stepping on toes, but the general mind set all over this mountain seems to be to let your kids do what they want. Let them smoke a little weed, no problem. Let them have a keg party for prom night, no problem. Oh,so they stepped it up from alcohol and pot to X, no problem. So someone wants to open a "medical marijuana" clinic, no problem. But God forbid we put a drug rehab facility here, it might bring in drug addicts to our mountain. GET A CLUE PEOPLE, the drug addicts are your kids!!

At least the people in the treatment houses are trying to do something about their problem. Let's try and close down Budmart before we try and drive Serenity from our mountain.
SERENITY NOW!!!

Death prayer for Obama?

Much talk has been made about Kansas speaker Mike O'Neal supposedly calling for people to pray for Obama's death. In a recent letter he sent out he quoted Psalm 109:8 which says "May his days be few, and may another take his office." Now the media has pounced all over this as the speaker praying for Obama's death. I'm pretty willing to bet that speaker O'Neal simply meant it as a prayer that Obama lose the election.

Now the media, and probably some of my liberal friends will point out that the following verse calls for his wife to be a widow and his children fatherless. And if you go on in the Psalm it gets pretty gruesome. David was apparently pretty upset with the person he wrote this about. I feel however, that speaker O'Neal probably didn't bother to research his quote this deeply. My guess is he saw the one verse quoted somewhere and decided it was a cute, nice little prayer jibe he could send out to a president he was not fond of. I am relatively sure he does not want the president dead, and if he did he certainly wouldn't put it in print. But of course the media grabbed hold of it, and won't let go.

Now I admit, it was probably a stupid thing for an elected official to put in his newsletter. But I think the media failed to notice that similar wishes were expressed by liberals toward the previous president. Liberals hate conservatives, conservatives hate liberals. Right or wrong, that's the way it is.

Should politicians be more careful with what they say? Yes. Should media be less liberal biased in the panic storms they stir up? Yes. Should people check their scriptures before quoting out of context? You bet.

And the state of American politics brings to mind the words of John 11:35 "Jesus wept"

No more James or John

America has had 44 presidents in its 235 years, and this year we will elect another (or maybe hang on to 44). Actually if you look closely there has only been 43, since Grover Cleveland served two non-consecutive terms. Of these 43 men 16 of them bore the names James, John, George or William. Almost all the rest had names unique to them (imagine 2 Millards or 2 Ulysses). This election we are once again looking at some unique names. Barack of course was very unique in the last election, and I'm pretty sure it will remain one of a kind.

But looking at the Republican front runners, I really must chuckle; Mitt and Newt. Really??? Mitt and Newt?? Please excuse my humorous tone, but dang, these are FUNNY names. Mitt sounds so 80's preppy, I expect he hang with Biff, Buffy and Kiki. Either that, or maybe his parents were dyslexic and were trying for Tim. And don't get me started on Newt. I'm pretty sure it is short for Newton, but that only reminds me of a guy in a giant fig suit. And whenever I hear the name Newt I can't help but think of John Cleese in Monty Python and the Holy Grail; "She turned my into a Newt!" "A Newt?" "I got better".

So it would appear that James, John and George are off the table for now, and the strange names will win out. So take your pick-- President Newt, President Mitt or President Barack.... tough choice?

I miss Ronald Reagan

In 1981 (31 years ago this week) Ronald Reagan became president. I was a 15 year old kid, and didn't know much. I'm sure I did my share of joking about the old ex-actor thinking he could run a country. But looking back now, I realize he was a great president.

I've been listening to his white house diaries and his mind and his love for his country, God and his wife Nancy is just amazing. He was a man with a warm heart, and a great sense of humor. I only hope in this upcoming election that we can find someone half as good as him to become the next president.