The wake of 9/11

I found another blog, the Title of Liberty. What a cool site. The author, Kevin, declares his angst that he has become a 9/11 skeptic. Boy can I relate. Here's a link to the page: http://titleofliberty.typepad.com/ttol/2006/09/in_memoriam.html#comment-73202690.

I repost some of my reply to his blog...

The Title of Liberty (a banner reminding us that the rights and liberties of man flow from God and deserve our valiant efforts to protect.) never needed to be raised as much as it does now! Pahoran's patriotic answer rings through the ages: "let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we can not resist with our words, such as rebellions AND dissensions, let us resist with our swords, that we may retain our freedom..." Book of Mormon, Alma 61:14

We wage a war now on many fronts. We wage it with our "swords" in the Mid-East against a weapon, "radical Islam" that has been trained and fired against us. We wage with our words here against our countrymen who would turn our country into a socialist state. (And have virtually succeeded in doing so.) We wage a war of words against a media that is no longer an instrument for truthfully reporting events but a propaganda arm of some entity that seeks also to overthrow our liberties.

Now is not the time to cede the battlefield to the enemy. Now is the time to stand against an innumerable host of the foe with faith, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. Bible, 2 Kings 6:16

Vacation Time!

We own a timeshare at a ski resort near here. (The joys of living in Utah!) We spent a week up in the mountains enjoying clear blue skies, pine trees, glorious sunlight and mountain streams and rivers. My favorite times were walking through the trees hand in hand with my wife of 21 years. Can it be that long?? For those who wonder... marriage has been the hardest thing I've ever done and continue to do. The hard part is stepping into the traces every day and working for my family. But when I get moments to hold my wife's hand or play hide and seek with my children or get letters from my son... it makes up for it.

For those of you who wonder... families are worth the sacrifice of time and sweat and tears. Think of it as an investment with unlimited growth opportunities.

Of Darkness and Hope

I've been reading a lot here: http://www.journalof911studies.com about the 9/11 attack. I'm left with the conclusion that we have been duped into waging a war in Afghanistan and Iraq against people, who may not have liked us, but certainly had no means to attack us as occured that fateful day. If you think me crazy, go to the site and read for yourself. Before I did, I passionately disagreed with those who thought the Trade Center towers were not destroyed by the airliners. That is not the case now.

Once you cross that Rubicon, you choose a path that leads to the disturbing realization that Americans (or at least people who bare US Passports and birth certificates) have murdered thousands of of their countrymen in an attempt to get the rest of us to support their selfish aims: aims which they have draped in the folds of our flag.

Like I said, you may think me crazy. But when you look at facts and draw conclusions from what the facts present you must either be honest with yourself and make decisions based upon those conclusions or live in denial and pretend that they don't exist. You must choose for yourself, but as for myself, I desire to see the world as it really is, even when it's not the world I wished it were.

The only hope I draw from this is that I know virtually all American's would be outraged at those who caused this atrocity, especially if it were their own country men. And I take great hope in my faith that there is a God who presides over the affairs of men and that He supports those who stand up for truth and justice. He may let wicked men prove their wickedness to the world, but His justice is inescapable. Those who caused this will ultimately pay for what they did.

The Evolutionists' Dilema

I've a couple of questions for all those who claim evolution is the only rational explanation for man's presence on this planet.

First, how does evolution even work within the context of the laws of thermodynamics, particularly entropy? Think about it: in very simple terms, entropy states that the universe is gradually decaying from a universe of great order to a universe of totaly random chaos with everything being the same temperature. Evolution flies in the face of this by saying that of all the processes we know, the most complex process of all, life, started by itself and increased its order and complexity through purely random events. The realitiy is, both processes are mutually exclusive: either random things change from more order to less order (entropy) or they change from less order to more order (evolution) or random changes have no net effect over time because all of the random permutations cancel each other out.

Secondly, if we really are the result of random changes alone and that survival of the fitest is the sole key in determining which species lives on and which one dies out. Why don't we now live forever or much longer than we do with the bodies we have? It would seem that those who live longest would reproduce the most and thereby edge out those who don't reproduce as long. But that hasn't happened. Why?

Bottom line: entropy is an observed and well proven law. The universe is decaying to a state of totaly random and homogenous chaos. It is losing its order. But, it is perfectly reasonable to see how a creative force outside of the universe (God) created life that could exist and even thrive within this context of decay. No other paradigm about how life came to be makes sense.

Sound board Stuff

We have a family band. You can check it out at: www.thecluffs.net. I don't play an instrument: I write the checks and do sound. When I watch my family perform on a stage and recieve the applause that they get it brings a sense of pride and satisfaction that has to be experienced to be appreciated. All and all, it's an equitable arrangement.

I've recently learned how to set up a sound board where the sound is really good. So, in the interest of passing on some of that goodness to you out there, I offer Ken's 10 rules to running good sound for a show:

1. Tune the monitors first. The monitors should be loud enough in small venues that we typically play in that they could carry the show... almost.
2. Aim the monitors, especially when there’s a reflective surface, like a wall behind the performers, so that the sound from the monitors scatters away from the microphones. That will allow you to push the monitors much louder than you can otherwise.
3. You need to trim the sound for the monitors/musicians differently than how you trim it for the house.
4. The trim lights on the gain should blink just occassionally. If they blink a lot or they are on solid, the gain is to high. If they never blink... it’s to low.
5. Set the main mix and monitor mix to unity. Trim the channel feeds to control the volumn that goes out the main/monitors.
6. Channel EQ is for fixing up a performer’s voice or the audio signature of an instrument.
7. The main EQ is for adjusting the mix to the accoustics of the house and the speakers.
8. You adjust the EQ using a set of monitor headphones and the PFL
9. You adjust the mainEQ with your ears listening to the sound.
10. Mute any mike that isn’t being used.

Here's a bonus rule... :)

11. Typically you also use EQ to control feedback, provided your EQ bank can hit the frequency range in which the feedback is occurring without taking the surrounding frequencies out in the process.

Where to begin!??

So many issues, so many decisions. I feel like the little Dutch boy staring at a dike that is leaking like a sieve and wondering... "Where do I start? Which is the worst leak that needs the most attention now?"

Our government today is a constitutional republic in name only. In reality, we are a classic Greek democracy. And if you don't understand why that's a problem...then you are victim of the next two problems.

As I see it, the best control on government behavior is an educated, informed and civic-virtue minded populace. We have very few people like that today. The majority of American's today are neither well educated nor well informed nor civic minded. They tend to look upon those who are as modern Don Quixote's.

That brings up another major problem: the public education industry in America today is not designed to produce well educated, civic-minded people, let alone people who want to know what their government is up to. Schools today are designed to produce children who are comfortable living under the chains of socialism and content to hold menial hourly-wage type of jobs making someone else rich. (To all you public school teachers out there...I'm not talking about you, but the system you work within. There is a huge difference... more on that in a future post.)

This wouldn't be such a grave problem if it weren't for the fact that so many checks on government misbehavior have also been removed from the Constitution! We have judges legislating from the bench in a direct usurpation of power. We have the president likewise usurping power and legislating by executive fiat. We have the bureaucracy legislating simply because it can. We have a Congress that is so self-absorbed in making enough money to run for office it doesn't care about these ills. And, as mentioned in an earlier post, a major structural check on spending has been removed as a consequence of passage of the 16th and 17th amendments.

And lastly, we have a news industry today that regularly lies to the American people. The guardian of our liberties, the free press, has been co-opted into an entity that now works to undermine those very liberties the Founder's thought it would protect.

Despite this, I am not discouraged nor dismayed. I am convinced that God does have a hand in the affairs of our nation. He wont do our job for us. But those who commit themselves to the work at hand, will receive his help. And for that reason alone, I'm confident that things can be changed for the better.

That's good ... That's bad

In homage to a comic skit I saw as a child on the TV Show "Hee Haw" I present...

Joe says to Harry, "Hey, Harry did you hear that Becky's iBook died last week?"
Joe: "Oh, that's pretty bad. How's Shawn gonna get his schoolwork done? That is bad."
Harry: "No, that's good. They needed a newer notebook anyway, so they went out and bought themselves a brand spankin' new MacBook and they gave their notebook to their dad."
Joe: "Oh, that is good!"
Harry: "No, that's bad. The iBook was still busted and not much more useful than a big paper weight."
Joe: "Yep, that's bad. So now their Dad is stuck with this busted notebook."
Harry: "No, that's good, their Dad got on the Internet and learnt how to fix the darn thing. And he fixed it, so now it works!"
Joe: "That is good. He's always wanted a mac notebook."
Harry: "No that's bad, his wife don't like him playin' on the Internet, especially with them thar macs. So he's gonna sell it on ebay."
Joe: "That's pretty bad, can't have the missus mad at ye. To bad he's gotta sell that thar iBook."
Harry: "No, that's good. He figured, he can get near $350 for the thing."
Joe: "$350! That is good. He'll be able to spend all that money on somethin for his missus."
Harry: "No, that's bad, he's gonna buy two more busted iBooks. Said the spirit told him to do it."
Joe: "Yep, that's bad, 'specially listenin' to spirits. I knows which spirits he was listenin' to and it wasn't the ones ye hear, but the ones ye drink!"
Harry: "No, that's good. He's gonna fix them too. He figures he can make about $200 per machine that way and by'n'by will get himself a new sprinkler system, a new computer fer himself and a serger fer his wife. And so, she's happy."