if you don't want to read my last post, this says the same thing a lot faster...

...am I missing something?

I was honestly embarrassed by my country today.  Maybe it's not just today, but it's been building up over the past few weeks and finally today it just made it to the stage of embarrassment.  Either way, today I was truly embarrassed by the feigned outrage that took place on Capitol Hill, and in my opinion every American should be as well.  It shouldn't matter what side of the political aisle you may find yourself sitting on, and to (hopefully) show that I'm going to attempt to write this particular post without using names or R's or D's.

Several weeks ago, congress passed a stimulus bill that was supposed to help jump start the economy - whether or not it will actually work is another debate entirely - but suffice it to say that it was so important that this bill be passed immediately to delay impending economic disaster, no one in congress seemed to have read it.

Now, we come to find out that no one (democrat or republican) made sure that companies that received "bailout" money from this plan or the previous bailout plan could use the money to pay bonuses to employees.  This comes to every one's attention because AIG, an insurance company for banks in American and throughout the world, payed $165,000,000 in bonuses.

Here is where the feigned outrage comes in - today (and yesterday) we had to listen to senators lambasting representatives from AIG (at least one of which has come back out of retirement to try to help save AIG, is not taking a salary, and was in retirement when the current contracts in question were written) about their greed and how they are cheating the American people.

Oh wait, did I miss the outrage over congressmen who didn't do their jobs and write a bill that would have prevented this?  Or maybe I missed the outrage about the amount of money that we've given AIG alone so far already and how this just shows the mismanagement of TARP and bailout funds that is bound to happen?

Congress has given AIG over $170,000,000,000 of taxpayer money in the last few months.  They are using $165,000,000 of it for bonuses.  Do the math, America - this is 0.097 PERCENT of what we've given AIG so far.  

Maybe it's all the zeros that throw people off.  A million dollars is a lot to the average person.  So allow me to put this in terms that maybe any American can understand.  If you're an average person making $50,000 a year, this would be like you spending $48.50 to take your family to dinner for a birthday celebration.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're a family of 4 that's a pretty darn cheap dinner!  

Am I missing something here?  Where is the outrage over giving billions and billions of dollars to whoever congress seems to think deserves it!?

Don't get me wrong, none of this is by any means a defense of AIG paying out bonuses.  There's two points I'm trying to make:

1) The same congressmen who just couldn't take the time to read the bill they signed are now furious that AIG is taking advantage of bill to honor its contracts.  Taking advantage might even be the wrong phrase to use here, since a certain senator (I promised not to use names or even R's and D's) apparently put that language into the bill on purpose to protect AIG's right to do exactly this!  But now, since Americans are justifiably upset about this provision, congress just today passed a bill saying they would tax 90% of any bonuses paid to these employees.  Isn't this extremely self-righteous behavior for a bunch of congressmen, and shouldn't the American people demand better from their leaders?

2) If Americans are so upset about $165,000,000, why aren't they upset about over 1000 times that going to a single company, and many many times more being given to whoever congress seems to think deserves it?

I really thought that today's display of outrage at AIG from our leaders on Capitol Hill was ridiculous and a complete show for their constituents - and that embarrassed me.

...and I haven't even mentioned the ignorance of foreign relations demonstrated by Obama and his administration a few weeks ago...

I guess it makes sense...

I suppose it makes sense that people are always looking for an improvement in their circumstances.  My question is why this desire blinds them to any deeper reality.

I am reading a book right now called Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe (by Robert Gellately).  I have thoroughly enjoyed this book so far, as it blends two histories that heretofore had been separated in my mind - I had learned about the rise of communism in a class I had on 20th century Russian history, and I had obviously studied a bit on the rise of Hitler, and a lot on WWII.  This book shows how the different players in this period of history influenced each other.

The first paragraph of chapter 13 jumped out at me.

"The July 1932 elections showed Hitler with by far the largest following of any politician in the country.  He was the message, a social phenomenon, the fuhrer who enthralled millions by telling them what they already knew or wanted to hear.  He could draw crowds of twenty-five thousand or more almost anywhere, even as he steadfastly refused to make any specific promises of what he would do to cure Germany's many problems."

Humor me here and let's do a little rephrasing --

"The November 2008 elections showed Sen. Obama with by far the largest following of any politician in the country.  He was the message, a social phenomenon, the politician who transcended politics, enthralling millions by telling them what they already knew or wanted to hear.  He could draw crowds of twenty-five thousand or more almost anywhere, even as he steadfastly refused to make any specific promises of what he would do to cure America's many problems."

My point in doing this is not to compare Obama to Hitler - I'll leave that for the more extreme political commentators.  It is instead to ask the question of "why".  Why does history show us that men are blinded by their desire for something more, something better?

Hitler promised to fix the problems in Germany; to cause the rest of the world to respect Germany again (incidentally, Stalin did the same in Russia).  Even though Germany faced much more daunting problems at the time, American is being told that Europe, the Middle East, and the Far East don't respect us or even hate us.  We are all also hearing about "the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression".*  Sen. Obama promises to fix all of this.

I hope that my use of Hitler as an example has not upset anyone or caused anyone to disregard what I am trying to say here - that was not my intention.  The quoted paragraph simply jumped out at me as one that mirrored current events.  As someone who does take the time to follow politics and look into the past of those who ask for my vote, this seeming phenomenon of people being blinded by their desire for something better worries me.  Just like many were wary of Hitler in 1932 because of his radical ideas and policies, there are a lot of educated voters who strongly question Sen. Obama's credentials as he approaches the office of President.  The question is, are there enough educated voters in America this year to overcome it?

I suppose I'll find out tomorrow.

*Note: given that Americans were expected to spend $5.77 billion on Halloween this year, I'm finding it hard to believe that we're facing anything close to the Great Depression.

Tonight's debate

I don't have much to say about tonight's presidential debate, since in reality nothing that went on tonight was going to change my opinion.  One thing that did happen, however, was Sen. Obama confirmed a growing impression I had about his character.

Sen. Obama is arrogant and rude.  He demonstrated this tonight.  He is a Jr (very Jr) United States Senator.  He has only very recently entered the national (much less global) political scene.  Even so, he referred to his opponent as "John" almost the entire night.  He also referred to the current President as "George Bush".  I hope that people noticed that, even facing this blatant disrespect, Sen. McCain kept his composure and continually referred to "Barry" as "Sen. Obama".  

Sen. McCain was also not the one doing all of the interruptions tonight, nor was he saying "that's not true", over and over into the microphone in the middle of Obama's statements.  Obama also clearly felt that what he had to say was of sufficient importance to interrupt the moderator, and on several occasions gave the moderator "permission" to continue with the next question.

I already knew I disagreed strongly with Sen. Obama's policies.  Now I know I think he's far too young and self-indulged to be a leader of any country - much less the most powerful nation in the world.

So thanks for clearing that up for me tonight, Senator Obama.

I haven't been this happy since...

...since the election season started! Joe Biden for VP on the Obama ticket?! So much for hope and change. Things started looking up after the forum at Saddleback, and now I'm just so happy I can hardly contain myself!

Good job Obama - Biden's the best choice you could have made for this country!

impressions...

Jenn and I attended a community Good Friday service today, and I came to a conclusion -



Christians are crazy.



Seriously, if I weren't already a Christian, I would have thought Christians were totally nuts, sitting in a service singing songs, praying, and listening to a talk which could all seem quite "cultish". Now don't get me wrong - I believe totally and completely that I am created by a God who loved me enough to have a plan to save me from my sins (and I don't think I'm crazy because of that belief), but I think it's easier for me to hold that belief because I was introduced to it at a young age, and now have experienced the true love and the change that comes from knowing Jesus. In this post, I'm not even going to mention all of the evidence for both God's existence and Jesus' life and ministry that I've learned throughout my life - maybe another post on another day...

The point is, If I walked into a church for the first time at the age of 22 with my engineering degree and my overly cynical outlook on life, I'd think Christians were nuts.

I believe completely in God and Jesus' death on the cross, but have always looked at some of the other religions in the world and wondered at how silly or wrong or confused they might seem. But recently I've been struck with how silly Christianity must seem to the rest of the world. I suppose all I can do is do my best to let the world see how Jesus changed my life, and know that the Spirit of God is behind me, hopefully patching up the gigantic failures I leave in my path.

But for now, I'm looking forward to celebrating Easter on Sunday with all my crazy friends.

New Eye Balls

So on January 23 I had laser vision correction surgery performed by Dr. H. Douglas Cooper at Pacific Laser Eye Center. What a fantastic experience. So easy, so fast, and I can see better now than I have ever been able to in my life. Within one day I could see 20/20, and at my two week post-op appointment, I had 20/15 in my right eye, 20/20 (or a little better) in my left eye. There was almost no discomfort at all resulting from the procedure, and the only disruption to my life was taking one day off of work (not supposed to use the computer for a few days) and sleeping with goofy goggles on so I wouldn't rub my eye or poke it with a stick in the middle of the night.

It was the easiest, most amazing procedure ever - It took about 7 or 8 minutes once I got into the surgery room. You lay back, they cover one eye, and put some numbing drops in the other eye. The only uncomfortable part of the entire procedure is when they draw a suction on the front of your eye so they can cut a flap. That part just feels like someone is pushing hard on your eye, so it kind of aches and your vision fades, but then it comes right back and it's all ok. They flip back the little flap they cut, tell you to look at a green light above you, and you start hearing a popping sound as the laser fires. The laser they use can cut notches in a human hair it's so fine, and there's a tracking laser that fires at 4000 HZ, so even if you move your eye around, it follows it and will not affect your results, just lengthen the procedure time.

You smell burning cornea for a few seconds, then it's done. They fold the flap back, realign it, press lightly on it to seat it, and they cover that eye and move on to the next. When I stood up after surgery, I could already see clearly - it was blurry, and yet still in focus, if that makes sense. Like there was water in my eyes after swimming. By the time I got home, I could see pretty well - much better than with my old glasses, and the next morning I was fine.

I highly recommend the procedure to anyone who's a good candidate. I'm so happy with my new eye balls, and I sure am glad it was possible.