Part of me isn't surprised about the current sub-prime mortgage fiasco. Combine people living beyond their means, i.e., spending more than they make, and greedy lenders and you have a formula for disaster. The current situation is a bit reminiscent of when we purchased our first house and mortgage rates were between 18-21%! To try and get people to qualify for mortgages they wouldn't otherwise qualify for, lenders were offering GPMs (pronounced gyp-em as that's what they were) or Graduate Payment Mortgages. The theory was that you payed less than the interest due during the early parts of the mortgage. The result was that as time went by, you owed more money than when you started.
Although GPMs weren't the same as ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) they shared many of the same pitfalls. It may have been possible to combine them, although I can't remember for sure, to guarantee that the mortgage you barely qualified for wouldn't be something you could afford in a couple of years. The problem with ARMs is that they almost ALWAYS go up in rate a lot during their first adjustment period or two. What that means to a borrower is that a $150,000 mortgage with an initial interest rate of 4% yields a $716/mo payment, plus taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage insurance, making the payment more like $1000/mo or more. But that teaser rate is often only good for a year or two and was bought down substantially by the borrower paying points (prepaid interest). After a year or two, the rate climbs to 6% and then again a year or two later to maybe 8%. That increases the monthly payment from $1000 to nearly $1200 and then almost $1400. Suddenly what was barely affordable at $1000/mo becomes impossible to afford at $1400/mo.
You combine the above with modest to non-existent wage increases and flat housing prices and new homeowners are likely to lose their shirts (as well as their homes, their credit, and their down payment). The problem has apparently been exacerbated in some states like Illinois where less than scrupulous lenders altered applications to allow applicants to receive mortgages they weren't qualified for.
The moral of the story? Live within your means and don't fall for some teaser rate a mortgage broker or real estate agent tries to convince you to accept.
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Tale of two houses
An e-mail I recently received and confirmed by way of SNOPES. It is rather humorous if not a little sad.
LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and
natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."
LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.
HOUSE # 1:
A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and
natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.
HOUSE # 2:
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.
HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville, Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.
HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W. Bush.
So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read about in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed, for Mr. Gore, it's truly "an inconvenient truth."
Sunday, August 26, 2007
The great flood
Well here we are some days after the great flood. No arks floated down my street, but that almost seems surprising. We were extremely fortunate and clearly God had a hand in making sure we didn't flood our completely finished basement.
I had planned on leaving Thursday to go to Michigan with Kelsey and her friend Robyn. We decided to leave around 3 (or was it 3:30?). The storms hit around 3:00 and by 3:15 pm on August 23, we were without power. Lately that hasn't been an unusual occurrence. Oh look, there goes a goose overhead, better get ready to lose power. See a cloud? Get ready for a power loss. It is becoming a repeat of when we first moved to Palatine over 17 years ago. At that time we would lose power all the time and our basement would flood pretty regularly. Back then I bought a larger 5000 watt generator complete with a transfer switch. A transfer switch is something an electrician wires into your house wiring and in the advent of a power failure, when the generator starts automatically, some subset of the circuits in your house switch over to the generator automatically. When power returns, the circuits switch back to the main power lines and the generator shuts off.
Well due to procrastination, being cheap, and Commonwealth Edison cleaning up their act a bit so the power situation got better so we never installed the generator. In fact it has only been started once in the last 15+ years to show a potential buyer that it worked. As well we did a lot of work on regrading parts of the yard and having a waterproofer fix the improperly poured concrete floor in our basement. Instead of being poured on top of pea gravel on top of the footing, the floor was poured directly on the footing. Thus the water as it finds its way to our foundation now has a choice to make. It can either flow under the basement floor and eventually to our sump to be pumped outside, or it can flow above the basement floor and get our belongings wet. So before finishing our basement we had a waterproofer come out and remove 6" of basement floor around the entire perimeter of the basement and place a drainage system in the space where the pea gravel should have been.Thank you so much Palatine building inspectors for allowing the builder to get away with this .
So by 3:30 or 4:00 its become clear that the battery for our battery backup sump pump is on its last legs. My fault for not replacing it sooner. Fortunately the neighbors across the street still have power. In fact that is pretty typical. We lose power much more frequently than they do, which is something I would love Commonwealth Edison to explain as the entire development has underground utilities. Oh well, a battle for another day. Stringing together some extension cords allows us to hook our sump pump up to the neighbors power and life is good, if not hot as the temperature outside is still as high as the humidity.
Then the situation gets much worse. Our neighbors across the street lose power. Now we have no power to operate our sump pump and with all the rains over the last few weeks, water is pouring into the sump pit at a pretty good rate. So I pull the battery from our Grand Caravan and hook it up temporarily to our battery backed up sump. I also then realize that this is not a long term solution, so head out in Kelsey's Focus to buy a small portable generator as I have little confidence in the big old generator sitting in a corner of our garage that hasn't been used as long as we've owned it. Encountering horrible traffic on virtually every road headed North to get to Home Depot I finally head up Rohlwing only to find it cover in water. Stupidly I press on and pull onto the bike trail that is 6" or so above the road. By the grace of God I make it through after only stalling twice. Lesson learned, if the road is covered with water, find another route. But desperation will cause you to make silly decisions.
I get to Home Depot and of course they have been sold out of generators for a while, duh! I then head to West Marine and pick up a smaller than desired marine deep cycle battery (all their larger ones had already been sold). Once back home, I hook it up and then start working on the generator in the garage. With the help of Scott and Robyn we get it onto the back porch and I get to work on figuring out how to hook it up.
After wiring a couple of electrical boxes with outlets in them to the generator and bringing up the Grand Caravan battery to the generator, we're ready to try starting it. Thankfully the generator starts right up and we can now power the sump pump and the battery backup with the generator.
While this has been going on, our other neighbors across the street have been hand bailing the water out of their sump pit to keep their basement from flooding as they are also without power. So now we reverse the extension cords and bring power from our generator over to their sump pump. Also during this time, our next door neighbor heads out to try and get our across the street neighbors a generator or battery as their battery had also failed, which was why they were hand bailing. Fortunately for them, a couple of hours later, their power is restored and they are in good shape save for some seepage that got their basement carpet wet.
Although I finally get some sleep that night, it's rather fitful as I'm not comfortable just letting the generator run without being watched. Fortunately the flow of water into our sump pit as diminished to the point where the battery backup sump pump is having no difficulty keeping up nor running very often to make me concerned about flooding. Finally at 6:00 pm or so the next evening our power is restored and life can get back to normal after 27 hours without power.
The real miracle in all this is that I shouldn't have been home when all this happened and the way our neighborhood pulled together to help each other out!
I had planned on leaving Thursday to go to Michigan with Kelsey and her friend Robyn. We decided to leave around 3 (or was it 3:30?). The storms hit around 3:00 and by 3:15 pm on August 23, we were without power. Lately that hasn't been an unusual occurrence. Oh look, there goes a goose overhead, better get ready to lose power. See a cloud? Get ready for a power loss. It is becoming a repeat of when we first moved to Palatine over 17 years ago. At that time we would lose power all the time and our basement would flood pretty regularly. Back then I bought a larger 5000 watt generator complete with a transfer switch. A transfer switch is something an electrician wires into your house wiring and in the advent of a power failure, when the generator starts automatically, some subset of the circuits in your house switch over to the generator automatically. When power returns, the circuits switch back to the main power lines and the generator shuts off.
Well due to procrastination, being cheap, and Commonwealth Edison cleaning up their act a bit so the power situation got better so we never installed the generator. In fact it has only been started once in the last 15+ years to show a potential buyer that it worked. As well we did a lot of work on regrading parts of the yard and having a waterproofer fix the improperly poured concrete floor in our basement. Instead of being poured on top of pea gravel on top of the footing, the floor was poured directly on the footing. Thus the water as it finds its way to our foundation now has a choice to make. It can either flow under the basement floor and eventually to our sump to be pumped outside, or it can flow above the basement floor and get our belongings wet. So before finishing our basement we had a waterproofer come out and remove 6" of basement floor around the entire perimeter of the basement and place a drainage system in the space where the pea gravel should have been.
So by 3:30 or 4:00 its become clear that the battery for our battery backup sump pump is on its last legs. My fault for not replacing it sooner. Fortunately the neighbors across the street still have power. In fact that is pretty typical. We lose power much more frequently than they do, which is something I would love Commonwealth Edison to explain as the entire development has underground utilities. Oh well, a battle for another day. Stringing together some extension cords allows us to hook our sump pump up to the neighbors power and life is good, if not hot as the temperature outside is still as high as the humidity.
Then the situation gets much worse. Our neighbors across the street lose power. Now we have no power to operate our sump pump and with all the rains over the last few weeks, water is pouring into the sump pit at a pretty good rate. So I pull the battery from our Grand Caravan and hook it up temporarily to our battery backed up sump. I also then realize that this is not a long term solution, so head out in Kelsey's Focus to buy a small portable generator as I have little confidence in the big old generator sitting in a corner of our garage that hasn't been used as long as we've owned it. Encountering horrible traffic on virtually every road headed North to get to Home Depot I finally head up Rohlwing only to find it cover in water. Stupidly I press on and pull onto the bike trail that is 6" or so above the road. By the grace of God I make it through after only stalling twice. Lesson learned, if the road is covered with water, find another route. But desperation will cause you to make silly decisions.
I get to Home Depot and of course they have been sold out of generators for a while, duh! I then head to West Marine and pick up a smaller than desired marine deep cycle battery (all their larger ones had already been sold). Once back home, I hook it up and then start working on the generator in the garage. With the help of Scott and Robyn we get it onto the back porch and I get to work on figuring out how to hook it up.
After wiring a couple of electrical boxes with outlets in them to the generator and bringing up the Grand Caravan battery to the generator, we're ready to try starting it. Thankfully the generator starts right up and we can now power the sump pump and the battery backup with the generator.
While this has been going on, our other neighbors across the street have been hand bailing the water out of their sump pit to keep their basement from flooding as they are also without power. So now we reverse the extension cords and bring power from our generator over to their sump pump. Also during this time, our next door neighbor heads out to try and get our across the street neighbors a generator or battery as their battery had also failed, which was why they were hand bailing. Fortunately for them, a couple of hours later, their power is restored and they are in good shape save for some seepage that got their basement carpet wet.
Although I finally get some sleep that night, it's rather fitful as I'm not comfortable just letting the generator run without being watched. Fortunately the flow of water into our sump pit as diminished to the point where the battery backup sump pump is having no difficulty keeping up nor running very often to make me concerned about flooding. Finally at 6:00 pm or so the next evening our power is restored and life can get back to normal after 27 hours without power.
The real miracle in all this is that I shouldn't have been home when all this happened and the way our neighborhood pulled together to help each other out!
Thursday, July 26, 2007
The persistent ones
A few months ago I ranted about credit card companies and their indiscriminate offers of credit. I also reported how some of these loathsome organizations apparently can't take a hint. For instance, I've registered with the various credit reporting agencies and the Direct Marketing Association to not receive offers of credit.
Yet still to this day my household regularly receives offers of credit from Discover Card and Chase. Most of the others have stopped but these two persist. I've spent probably several hours on the phone trying to get Chase to stop sending offers. They always claim that they've removed my address from their mailing lists, yet the offers continue to come months later. I even tried to contact the woman who supposedly signs these offers, one Deborah Walden at Chase, some VP who obviously could care less about who she sends offers of credit to. She apparently can't be reached by phone or by e-mail. In fact, if anyone knows how to reach this woman, I'd love to hear it as I'd like to let her know how I feel about being constantly solicited for credit I don't want. How her company continues to disregard my wishes. How I have to spend time shredding their stupid applications so some identity thief doesn't utilize them.
The sad part about Chase is that I use them for my normal credit card as they are provider of the United Airlines Mileage Plus card. So even though I am a loyal customer, generate lots of revenue for them, they still refuse to honor my simple request to stop being solicited for unwanted credit. When and if I ever want a new or different credit card, I will certainly not choose one based upon some stupid come on offer I receive via the mail. Puhleeeze. Chase, get a clue. Service your existing customers so well that they'll be delighted with your service so much so that they become your most effective advertising. Instead you choose to abuse your existing customers. Must be some Harvard Business School brainchild. Market like mad and abuse your customers. What a go to market strategy!
Well enough for now. Chase you will NEVER get any more business than my current Mileage Plus Card and if there was ANY way to move that to a different servicer, I would! I personally hope the whole credit industry goes up in flames. Subprime loans are just one of many examples of bad credit policies by basically dishonest companies. Issuing credit cards to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and then crying wolf when these people can't pay their bills is another example of dishonest business practices. As much as I hate Congress (the opposite of Progress?) interfering with free enterprise, credit reform is needed and it is needed now!
-tl
PS I still think monthly bankruptcy filings should be allowed until the credit industry cleans up its act!
Yet still to this day my household regularly receives offers of credit from Discover Card and Chase. Most of the others have stopped but these two persist. I've spent probably several hours on the phone trying to get Chase to stop sending offers. They always claim that they've removed my address from their mailing lists, yet the offers continue to come months later. I even tried to contact the woman who supposedly signs these offers, one Deborah Walden at Chase, some VP who obviously could care less about who she sends offers of credit to. She apparently can't be reached by phone or by e-mail. In fact, if anyone knows how to reach this woman, I'd love to hear it as I'd like to let her know how I feel about being constantly solicited for credit I don't want. How her company continues to disregard my wishes. How I have to spend time shredding their stupid applications so some identity thief doesn't utilize them.
The sad part about Chase is that I use them for my normal credit card as they are provider of the United Airlines Mileage Plus card. So even though I am a loyal customer, generate lots of revenue for them, they still refuse to honor my simple request to stop being solicited for unwanted credit. When and if I ever want a new or different credit card, I will certainly not choose one based upon some stupid come on offer I receive via the mail. Puhleeeze. Chase, get a clue. Service your existing customers so well that they'll be delighted with your service so much so that they become your most effective advertising. Instead you choose to abuse your existing customers. Must be some Harvard Business School brainchild. Market like mad and abuse your customers. What a go to market strategy!
Well enough for now. Chase you will NEVER get any more business than my current Mileage Plus Card and if there was ANY way to move that to a different servicer, I would! I personally hope the whole credit industry goes up in flames. Subprime loans are just one of many examples of bad credit policies by basically dishonest companies. Issuing credit cards to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, and then crying wolf when these people can't pay their bills is another example of dishonest business practices. As much as I hate Congress (the opposite of Progress?) interfering with free enterprise, credit reform is needed and it is needed now!
-tl
PS I still think monthly bankruptcy filings should be allowed until the credit industry cleans up its act!
Stop the calls
As it's been a while since my last post, I thought I'd resume with a rant. Why do companies feel the need or right to abuse their customers or volunteers? For example; several members of my household donate blood on a regular basis at LifeSource. Personally I do it as I believe it is my responsibility to help others. What I object to is the never ending anonymous calls we receive from LifeSource should someone in our family miss their appointment or not have donated within a certain period of time. Why I just don't simply block callers that don't provide full caller ID is beyond me. But in any case, why does LifeSource feel it is OK to harass my household until they get an appointment? Why do they call from a number that doesn't clearly name the caller as LifeSource? If someone can answer those questions, I'd love to hear the answers!
LifeSource, get a life!
-tl
LifeSource, get a life!
-tl
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Offended others?
A recent article in the Chicago Sun Times (not necessarily a paper I read, but I found the article on the web) poignantly points out a problem with our politically correct culture. The article is about Heidi Zamecnik's attempt to wear a T-shirt that didn't support the gay lifestyle. On the day after the "Day of Silence" in 2006, Heidi wore a T-shirt that said "BE HAPPY, NOT GAY". The Dean of Students at her school told her to remove the T-shirt of leave because her message "offended others". Whoa... Apparently it is OK to offend Christians by promoting a lifestyle counter to God's command, but possibly offending other students is not OK.
Face it, Christianity is an offensive religion, at least in the eyes of the world. This has been true since Christ started his ministry on earth, and is just as true today as ever before. Now that the hair on the back of your neck is raised if you're a Christian, or you are chuckling to yourselves if you are not, let me explain. Christians believe that Christ and only Christ can redeem us from our sins and that he died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, past, present, and future. Christians believe that only a personal relationship with Christ can grant us everlasting life. I would imagine this is pretty offensive to the current culture that believes anything goes as long as it doesn't hurt someone.
The difficulty with that view is that how can you know whether you've hurt someone (including yourself) or not? To know whether you've hurt someone requires omniscient knowledge of the results of your actions. Unfortunately that isn't something we as humans can ever know. Almost by definition we can't be omniscient. We can't see into the future and see the results of our actions. Only an omniscient God can see the impact our decisions and actions make upon ourselves and others throughout all time.
Although there is almost universal belief that harming someone else without "cause" is bad, that belief is likewise faulty in that it assumes something about what is "cause" or "just", what is "bad", and what is "harm". The only way to have a real understanding of what is appropriate "cause" or suitably "just" or to really know whether something is harmful or not is to have measuring stick. If one uses the culture's measuring stick that is relative to one's background, feelings, belief, experiences, etc., then we can't know what is "just" or causes "harm" for someone else because it is all relative to what we believe and value. This is why we need the absolute truth of God to help us discern what is "just" or "bad" or "harmful". Again, only an omniscient God can know those things for everyone.
What does all of the above rambling mean? Well first that the relative truth of the world will only lead to conflict or sin as it ultimately leads to the conclusion that everything is truth, which obviously can't be the case. That to know what is really truth requires an intimate relationship with our creator who ultimately knows what is right and wrong or what is truth and what is lie. This is why Satan is referred to as the great deceiver as his "truth" is really a lie and he deceives us into believing that he has the truth. This is certainly going to "offend" those that believe anything goes as it means they are wrong.
What is really sad in the action taken by Bryan Wells, Dean of Students at Heidi's school, is that it is apparently OK to offend Christians by promoting a lifestyle that is offensive to God, but that it is not OK to offend those same people by advocating a different lifestyle. As Christians, we have been put on the defensive. The culture says it's OK to espouse Wiccan ideology, Satan worship, Scientology, or any other loony belief system, but promoting Christian beliefs has become "offensive" and doesn't deserve the same level of tolerance or acceptance that these other belief systems now receive. How sad is that.
Face it, Christianity is an offensive religion, at least in the eyes of the world. This has been true since Christ started his ministry on earth, and is just as true today as ever before. Now that the hair on the back of your neck is raised if you're a Christian, or you are chuckling to yourselves if you are not, let me explain. Christians believe that Christ and only Christ can redeem us from our sins and that he died on a cross to pay the penalty for our sins, past, present, and future. Christians believe that only a personal relationship with Christ can grant us everlasting life. I would imagine this is pretty offensive to the current culture that believes anything goes as long as it doesn't hurt someone.
The difficulty with that view is that how can you know whether you've hurt someone (including yourself) or not? To know whether you've hurt someone requires omniscient knowledge of the results of your actions. Unfortunately that isn't something we as humans can ever know. Almost by definition we can't be omniscient. We can't see into the future and see the results of our actions. Only an omniscient God can see the impact our decisions and actions make upon ourselves and others throughout all time.
Although there is almost universal belief that harming someone else without "cause" is bad, that belief is likewise faulty in that it assumes something about what is "cause" or "just", what is "bad", and what is "harm". The only way to have a real understanding of what is appropriate "cause" or suitably "just" or to really know whether something is harmful or not is to have measuring stick. If one uses the culture's measuring stick that is relative to one's background, feelings, belief, experiences, etc., then we can't know what is "just" or causes "harm" for someone else because it is all relative to what we believe and value. This is why we need the absolute truth of God to help us discern what is "just" or "bad" or "harmful". Again, only an omniscient God can know those things for everyone.
What does all of the above rambling mean? Well first that the relative truth of the world will only lead to conflict or sin as it ultimately leads to the conclusion that everything is truth, which obviously can't be the case. That to know what is really truth requires an intimate relationship with our creator who ultimately knows what is right and wrong or what is truth and what is lie. This is why Satan is referred to as the great deceiver as his "truth" is really a lie and he deceives us into believing that he has the truth. This is certainly going to "offend" those that believe anything goes as it means they are wrong.
What is really sad in the action taken by Bryan Wells, Dean of Students at Heidi's school, is that it is apparently OK to offend Christians by promoting a lifestyle that is offensive to God, but that it is not OK to offend those same people by advocating a different lifestyle. As Christians, we have been put on the defensive. The culture says it's OK to espouse Wiccan ideology, Satan worship, Scientology, or any other loony belief system, but promoting Christian beliefs has become "offensive" and doesn't deserve the same level of tolerance or acceptance that these other belief systems now receive. How sad is that.
Children deserve unconditional love
Apparently Alec Baldwin really doesn't get it. He at least admits to being sorry for getting angry, although whether he is sorry for what he said is hard to say. What's disturbing is that what he is most saddened about is that the recording was released to the media. Way to go Alec! Instead of being most saddened by the impact a tirade like that can have on his daughter's emotional well being, he instead rationalizes his behavior by stating "...told by numerous people not to worry too much, as all parents lose their patience with their kids...". I think there is a difference between losing your patience and unleashing a tirade that most likely cut to the core of his daughter's sense of self worth and value. It's a pretty safe bet that even without all this press, his daughter will never forget those words. How could anyone forget words like that when spoken by a parent and directed at your person.
As parents, I believe it helpful to follow God's example. God loves us no matter what we do, yet He doesn't necessarily love what we do. The difference is that one focuses on the person and the other focuses on the behavior. We need to love our children no matter what. Yet we don't have to love their behavior. Love the sinner, but not the sin. If more people would get that, I believe we'd have a lot less conflict and hurting people in the world. I also believe this is why Christianity is sometimes portrayed in a bad light.
Take the issues of homosexuality, pornography, gambling, alcoholism, etc. As a Christian one must remember that we are to love God first and people second. Not that we are to love the lovable people second. As Christ said in Luke chapter 6, even sinner's love the lovable. We're called to love sinners and our enemies. Christ showed this sort of love with the adulterous woman. He loved her as a person by stopping her impending stoning. Yet he commanded her to stop her adulterous ways. Love the sinner, not the sin. Separate the person from their actions. Alec Baldwin confused the two when he uttered "You are a rude, thoughtless little pig, OK?" or "You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being."
I pray that some good will come out of all the publicity this story is receiving. I hope that some parents will "get it" and understand that their words cut deeper than the sharpest knife. Lift your children up instead of beating them down.
As parents, I believe it helpful to follow God's example. God loves us no matter what we do, yet He doesn't necessarily love what we do. The difference is that one focuses on the person and the other focuses on the behavior. We need to love our children no matter what. Yet we don't have to love their behavior. Love the sinner, but not the sin. If more people would get that, I believe we'd have a lot less conflict and hurting people in the world. I also believe this is why Christianity is sometimes portrayed in a bad light.
Take the issues of homosexuality, pornography, gambling, alcoholism, etc. As a Christian one must remember that we are to love God first and people second. Not that we are to love the lovable people second. As Christ said in Luke chapter 6, even sinner's love the lovable. We're called to love sinners and our enemies. Christ showed this sort of love with the adulterous woman. He loved her as a person by stopping her impending stoning. Yet he commanded her to stop her adulterous ways. Love the sinner, not the sin. Separate the person from their actions. Alec Baldwin confused the two when he uttered "You are a rude, thoughtless little pig, OK?" or "You don't have the brains or the decency as a human being."
I pray that some good will come out of all the publicity this story is receiving. I hope that some parents will "get it" and understand that their words cut deeper than the sharpest knife. Lift your children up instead of beating them down.
Friday, April 20, 2007
James 1:19
I've always heard that we have two ears and one mouth because we should listen twice as much as we speak. Paul tells us in the book of James that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry. Although not especially relevant to the listening part, perhaps Alec Baldwin should heed a little of what Paul teaches. His latest tirade against his daughter is utterly dismaying. The sad part is how many of us have heard explosive comments like that growing up. Condemnations of person and character that slowly and surely destroy one's sense of self worth; often said in anger.
As one who struggled with anger that I learned from an example set by my father, I regret all the inappropriate outbursts I made before taming my tongue. I pray that others can learn from Alec Baldwin's much publicized outburst. Learn that you can't take back words once they've left your mouth. Learn that however angry you may be, taking it out on your children is more damaging than you can imagine. Learn that there are healthier ways to deal with your anger and that maybe counting to 10 before launching a tirade might just let you discover what your anger is all about and keep you from saying something you may regret for the rest of your life.
As one who struggled with anger that I learned from an example set by my father, I regret all the inappropriate outbursts I made before taming my tongue. I pray that others can learn from Alec Baldwin's much publicized outburst. Learn that you can't take back words once they've left your mouth. Learn that however angry you may be, taking it out on your children is more damaging than you can imagine. Learn that there are healthier ways to deal with your anger and that maybe counting to 10 before launching a tirade might just let you discover what your anger is all about and keep you from saying something you may regret for the rest of your life.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
The running of the bloodsuckers
Well, after completing 4 income tax returns and assisting with 2 others, and paying an obscene amount of taxes, I've come to the conclusion that our taxing system is completely and totally screwed up! I'm sure that doesn't come as news to anyone. A simple example is the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Because our tax code is so riddled with social engineering and special interest promotion, certain high-income people were managing to avoid paying much tax at all. Apparently CONgress learned in 1969 that 155 families earning more than $200,000 hadn't paid any taxes. So their solution was to come up with a tax add-on that would eventually turn into a parallel tax code that was supposed to target high-income families. The difficulty is that the definition of high-income wasn't indexed to inflation. Thus millions of tax payers are now paying additional taxes. According to the Congressional Budget Office over 1/3 of all tax payers in the $50,000 - $100,000 range will pay AMT in 2006. The IRS estimates that 1/3 of ALL individual tax payers will have to pay AMT by 2010.
On a related note, as a tax payer with 3 household members in college, I notice that because I have been fiscally responsible and saved money since I was in college, I'm not eligible for any educational financial assistance from the government. On top of that, the tax breaks for college tuition and fees don't apply to me either because an investment I made in 1979 paid a large dividend to me and bumped me temporarily into a tax bracket that prohibits those tax breaks. Even without that dividend, taxable income from my other savings push me out of the eligible income ranges. What I glean from all this is that federal government doesn't want people to save their money. After all, I get taxed on the income from my savings, I am excluded from many tax breaks and/or aid options simply because I have been frugal and am not counting on the federal government ever paying me back a penny of the nearly $100,000 they've taken from me in social security taxes over the last 30+ years. Perhaps this is why in 2005 the US national savings rate dipped into negative territory for the only time other than the Great Depression. I'm not suggesting people not save, I'm just curious as to why the government penalizes people that save quite so much?
Another interesting tidbit about AMT is that it must certainly violate constitution guarantees. Under AMT rules, if you exercise ISO stock option (options granted you to reward performance or help ensure employee retention), you are taxed on the difference between the exercise price and the current market price. "Say What?" you say? So my company grants me 1000 options at $10/share. If I then buy the stock that those options allow me to buy some years later, I will pay a total of $10,000 for those shares. Yet if the market price for the stock is now $60/share, according to AMT, I just made $50,000, although you won't find that $50,000 in any of my accounts. Had I just bought those 1000 shares for $10 and now the price of those shares is $60, I have $60,000 worth of shares, that I will pay taxes on WHEN and IF I sell them, i.e., when I actually have money in my hands as a result of the stock transaction. But NOOOOO, with AMT, I get to pay for the stocks, AND pay for the increase in value that at the moment is only on paper. What a ripoff!
Instead of this "progressive" income tax system that we currently have that in effect discourages people from earning money, and penalizes you more and more the better at making money you are, and discourages savings, why not move to a consumption based tax? He who spends more pays more, with some obvious threshold(s) applied. As well tax heavily those items you want to reduce such as energy consumption, oil consumption, etc.
Well, in any case, the bloodsuckers got their pound of flesh from me this year!
On a related note, as a tax payer with 3 household members in college, I notice that because I have been fiscally responsible and saved money since I was in college, I'm not eligible for any educational financial assistance from the government. On top of that, the tax breaks for college tuition and fees don't apply to me either because an investment I made in 1979 paid a large dividend to me and bumped me temporarily into a tax bracket that prohibits those tax breaks. Even without that dividend, taxable income from my other savings push me out of the eligible income ranges. What I glean from all this is that federal government doesn't want people to save their money. After all, I get taxed on the income from my savings, I am excluded from many tax breaks and/or aid options simply because I have been frugal and am not counting on the federal government ever paying me back a penny of the nearly $100,000 they've taken from me in social security taxes over the last 30+ years. Perhaps this is why in 2005 the US national savings rate dipped into negative territory for the only time other than the Great Depression. I'm not suggesting people not save, I'm just curious as to why the government penalizes people that save quite so much?
Another interesting tidbit about AMT is that it must certainly violate constitution guarantees. Under AMT rules, if you exercise ISO stock option (options granted you to reward performance or help ensure employee retention), you are taxed on the difference between the exercise price and the current market price. "Say What?" you say? So my company grants me 1000 options at $10/share. If I then buy the stock that those options allow me to buy some years later, I will pay a total of $10,000 for those shares. Yet if the market price for the stock is now $60/share, according to AMT, I just made $50,000, although you won't find that $50,000 in any of my accounts. Had I just bought those 1000 shares for $10 and now the price of those shares is $60, I have $60,000 worth of shares, that I will pay taxes on WHEN and IF I sell them, i.e., when I actually have money in my hands as a result of the stock transaction. But NOOOOO, with AMT, I get to pay for the stocks, AND pay for the increase in value that at the moment is only on paper. What a ripoff!
Instead of this "progressive" income tax system that we currently have that in effect discourages people from earning money, and penalizes you more and more the better at making money you are, and discourages savings, why not move to a consumption based tax? He who spends more pays more, with some obvious threshold(s) applied. As well tax heavily those items you want to reduce such as energy consumption, oil consumption, etc.
Well, in any case, the bloodsuckers got their pound of flesh from me this year!
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Apple's plan to destroy Windows
I'm not particularly a Microsoft fan, in fact, I'm far from it. Yet my experiences with Apple has been equally bad if not worse. As I've blogged before, I think the iPod is a total POC and Apple should be shot for selling something with such incredibly bad software on it. iTunes and Quicktime have also caused me more pain than gain. Most recently I was trying to scan images from my network attached scanner. As the web based print server delivered the images in TIFF format, the Quicktime plugin handily scarfed the image. But I wanted the image in a file so my son could manipulate it for a school project. To do that with Quicktime would have required purchasing Quicktime Pro! Just to save an image to disk that I created with something other than Quicktime. Brilliant piece of work Apple. On top of this, the Quicktime plugin manages to kill both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Nice work guys!
Some other time I'll write about trying to use iTunes on a library of thousands of songs. Combine that with their proprietary DRM system, has convinced me to become Apple free. All this stuff may work just great on OS X, but I don't really care to run OS X. So Apple, take your software somewhere else.
Some other time I'll write about trying to use iTunes on a library of thousands of songs. Combine that with their proprietary DRM system, has convinced me to become Apple free. All this stuff may work just great on OS X, but I don't really care to run OS X. So Apple, take your software somewhere else.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Tired of shredding applications
After receiving my 3rd or 4th offer from American Express this week for a credit card plus who knows how many other offers from other banks/issuers, I have come to the conclusion we should make it trivial to file bankruptcy and that personal bankruptcy should be expunged from your record within 1 year of filing. Until it becomes painful to the credit industry, they will not clean up their act. When our pets receive credit card offers, something is definitely wrong. With personal debt at an all time high, and personal savings at a near all time low (below zero last year), people are obviously availing themselves of these credit offers. So if credit card companies are so quick to offer credit to less than credit worthy people or to non-people (our pets) or to people who have specifically registered with every possible opt-out mechanism, maybe eating a bunch of write-off losses will get them the message.
Yet the credit industry whines to congress that it is too easy for people to file personal bankruptcy. Perhaps if the credit industry encouraged financial responsibility instead of pushing credit cards, there wouldn't be as much of an issue with people over extending themselves due to accepting unsolicited credit card offers. Maybe we should allow filing personal bankruptcy monthly until the credit card industry gets a clue and becomes responsible for their own behavior.
Yet the credit industry whines to congress that it is too easy for people to file personal bankruptcy. Perhaps if the credit industry encouraged financial responsibility instead of pushing credit cards, there wouldn't be as much of an issue with people over extending themselves due to accepting unsolicited credit card offers. Maybe we should allow filing personal bankruptcy monthly until the credit card industry gets a clue and becomes responsible for their own behavior.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Companies I will never do business with
Just another rant...
Certain companies have business practices that I find repugnant enough to warrant never doing business with them. One such company is American Express. They seem to be incapable of honoring my requests to remove my address from their mailing lists. I continue to get mailings soliciting credit cards contrary to my preferences as registered with the various credit reporting agencies and against my previous requests to them to remove my address. Apparently they feel free to ignore my preferences and requests and simply keep mailing me these offers.
I'll add others as I come across them...
Certain companies have business practices that I find repugnant enough to warrant never doing business with them. One such company is American Express. They seem to be incapable of honoring my requests to remove my address from their mailing lists. I continue to get mailings soliciting credit cards contrary to my preferences as registered with the various credit reporting agencies and against my previous requests to them to remove my address. Apparently they feel free to ignore my preferences and requests and simply keep mailing me these offers.
I'll add others as I come across them...
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