Gandhi’s Seven Social Sins

In light of the 99% and "Occupy Wall Street" movements, the Great Recession, historic levels of partisan rancour, terrorism, environmental havok, and continuous global warfare, I am reminded of the great Mahatma Gandhi in "Young India", 1925, and his Seven Social Sins. Who can point to a list of social sins better than this: Politics without principles Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Commerce without morality Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice It seems like our society and our daily news broadcasts depict a nation whose actions can … [Read more...]

2009 – Tough on the Economy and Tough on Truth

If you're interested in even-handed, but accurate information about all of the political claims made over the past year, then I strongly recommend you take a look at FactCheck.org.I enjoyed their Whoppers of 2009 article, pointing out those who stretched the truth among liberals, conservatives, and various special interest groups.Let me know what you think,-Kev … [Read more...]

Changing Thoughts on Tithing

I recently stumbled across a couple articles about tithing that got my mental gears turning. First, on Slate, I encountered this article in an advice column where a reader asked whether it was ok to suspend their tithing while they paid off a credit card. Then I further read about tithing on a more global and historical basis in an article on CBS Sunday.This whole discussion got me thinking about, despite the protest of our most conservative citizens, that our Christian history and ethos informs and colors so much of what the US government does. For example, governments have never paid to … [Read more...]

If I Were President, Episode #4 – Alternative Energy

I have issues with our current alternative energy plans. It mostly focuses on a lot of corn ethanol and a little wind power here and there. For example, they subsizes inefficient ethanol technology. Corn ethanol consumes more energy to produce than it creates. It pollutes because it requires significant fertilizer and pesticide. And it help our dependence on foreign oil because it's completely targeted at consumer gasoline, which would require 100 times more ethanol to achieve any degree of independence. First proposal - Sugar cane based ethanol, perfected in Brazil, is much more … [Read more...]

Government Accountability

Once again, I'm left wondering if the current administration will keep any of its promises. At the time of the Valerie Plame incident, President Bush vowed to send to jail anyone on his staff who might've leaked the information about the high-level CIA agent. As soon as the trail towards members of his own inner circle, that promise went out the door. Now, I'm not saying that any specific person is guilty. But I believe that the justice system must and should be allowed to complete a full investigation. This website is a lot more strident than what I normally go for. But after I watched … [Read more...]

It’s the Economy Stupid

Sometimes all a prophet has to do is speak truth to power. The Old Testament showed examples of that over and over again. Most of the minor propehts of the Old Testament simply spoke out against the people in power who thought they were righteous while oppressing the poor. For some reason, this Daily Show video had me laughing and thinking about the Old Testament:http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=176740&title=headlines-its-the-stupid-economy Once again, this show really has stolen the initiative from real media outlets. Why doesn't real media do something, anything, … [Read more...]

If I Were President, Episode #3

The newspapers are filled with news about how hard it is for the Army to find foot soldiers for duty in Iraq. It's ironic that the USA has over 2 million people serving in active duty roles in all branches of the military, but we have great difficulty fielding more that 130,000 fighting men in Iraq. This fact of military organization is metaphorically known as "the point of the spear". The idea being that it takes an even larger pool of cooks, logistics officers, car pool mechanics, administrative assistants, and others in total to field a large group of fighters. I can't remember the exact … [Read more...]

If I Were President, Episode #2

This idea comes from two contradictory forces at work in the capital.On the one hand, you have a President that always has to deal with currying favor with various legislators to gain their support for various laws and policies he wants to enact. On the other hand, DC and the surrounding areas has grown into one of the most pricey, traffic-laden, HR-recruiting nightmares in the country. A final factor in this line of thought is that DC was rather centrally located back with the USA was only 13 States on the Eastern Seaboard. But now, DC is far removed from most of the country and, many say, … [Read more...]

If I Were President, Episode #1

I have millions of thoughts, ideas, and hypothesis running through my head all the time. Some are about inventions I'd make. Some are about stories I'd write. Some are about politics.So one area that I've been thinking about over the years was along the lines of "If I were president, I'd do...xyz". Some of these ideas I think are kind'a good. So I thought I'd share them with you and you can shoot them down or talk them up. Here's one example - I'd create my own political party that represents my own political ideas. (That's going to be its own series of posts, however.) But the political … [Read more...]