Keep What You Earn

In all this debate about whether the extend the Bush tax cuts past this year, I am hearing something over and over again that makes me cringe.  It goes something like this.  “How can it be fair that a person that makes a million dollars would make an extra $100,000 if we keep the tax cuts.  How is that fair?”  Maybe because the person that makes a million dollars earned that million dollars and it is his money to keep.  This goes to the idea that it is the governments job to somehow reallocate income.  It is also very ignorant of the fact that the man who keeps that money is a better steward of those funds in terms of economic impact than our government.  How many entitlement programs are there that are well run?  They are all fraught with bureaucracy.  Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, are all disasters.    

Can Stimulus Destroy Markets?

When I was Vice President of Sales in a public company, the vast majority of our sales was in the final week of the quarter.  This was because of the rush to get contracts into our fiscal quarter so we could report it in our quarterly results.  Prospects knew exactly how to play the game.  The longer they waited, the more discounts or other perks they could earn.  There were many cases where we would practically give the sale to get it into the quarter.  If we had waited just a few more days, we would have sold it at full price.  The artificiality of the system destroyed the natural ebb and flow of buying and selling.

That is exactly what the artificial stimulus of the Obama administration did to the markets.  Cash for Clunkers, Cash for Caulkers, Homebuyer Tax Credit, even extending unemployment tax benefits all completely mess up market timing.  You get short term spikes that do very little to actually improve economic behavior.  Look at the Homebuyer Tax Credit – do you really think that people actually bought a home because of this credit?  It may have moved timing up, but simply used taxpayer money to mess up market timing.  Every time government interferes with private sector in this way, it does little positive and can actually do a lot of harm. 

This administration understands very little about how free enterprise actually works.  Could it be because there is not a single representative from the private sector in the Cabinet?  We have barely scratched the surface of what harm they can do without that experience. 

The God Who Stoops

Debsue and I have been blessed with three little, precious girls.  They are not so little any more as they are 23, 22, and 19.  We even have married off one of them.  One of the memories I have is stooping down and looking them in the eye.  There are memories of then raising them up to my level and giving them big hugs and kisses.  If you are a father, you have that mental picture of your kids that never go away. 

The Psalmist in Psalm 113:5-6 describes the Lord as the “one enthroned on high who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth”.  The Lord brings himself down to our level in so many ways.  Jesus, Paul said did regard equality with God to be grasped but emptied himself taking on the form of a bond servant.  Jesus embodied a servant by removing his outer garment and washing the disciples feet.  The reason for the stooping is relationship with us.  Sometimes stooping is done to condescend.  This looks like “hey I’m a big shot, but I will bring myself down to your level”.  The Lord Jesus actually became a slave, died a slaves death, experienced what we experienced to “stoop” to our level.  This is hardly condescending.  This is grace. 

The Ig Nobels

You may have heard of the Ig Nobel prize handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research.  Here are some of the winners:

• Next time you crush your thumb with a hammer and you're in extreme pain, go ahead, let fly with every filthy obscenity you know. It really does help according to Richard Stephens and his students.
• Scientists developed a way to collect whale snot using a remote-control helicopter.
• Doctors from New Zealand found that wearing socks on the outside of your shoes reduces the chances of slipping on ice
• Researchers from China and the U.K. examined the sex life of fruit bats.

The theme this year was bacteria. There was the world premiere of "The Bacterial Opera," about bacteria that live on a woman's front tooth, and door prizes for all 1,200 attendees: bacteria (it was on the tickets).

The Beauty of Baseball

This past week, I watched the Ken Burns follow-up series on baseball called the “10th Inning”.  While the series covered things like the steroid scandal that cast a pall over the game, there is still so much beauty to the game of baseball.  As most people who know me know, I love playing baseball.  I re-started my baseball “career” at age 40 when Debsue sent me to Indians fantasy camp.  I always pinch myself that I can play this little boys game now at age 50. 

Baseball to people who have not really played it can be boring.  It appears to be a two person game as you have a pitcher and a batter.  However, you have so many unique attributes to baseball.  For example:

• The only team sport with no clock.  Any team can at any time come back.  Several years back, our team blew a 15-1 lead.  It can happen.
• The only team sport in which the defense always has the ball. 
• The only team sport where it doesn’t matter where the ball is, it is the man who scores.
• The sport is truly a team sport because at best a man can only come to bat once every nine at bats.  A game can rest on a middle infielder who is batting ".205. 
• It reminds you of life because if you fail 7 times out of 10, you are a .300 hitter and it you do that for 20 years, you are going to the Hall of Fame.
• The field has perfect symmetry with green grass shaped like a diamond rather than a rectangle. 
• Anything can happen at any time.  Crazy plays – in the playoffs we won a game because the second baseman dropped an easy pop fly allowing our leadoff hitter to score capping a come from behind rally. 
• I think one of the hardest things to do in sports is hit a 90 mile an hour fastball and have the .2 second reaction.  Of, in our league, it is a 70 mile an hour fastball, but it is still hard. 

This blog is dedicated to the Kent Mudhens, the team I play for that is the champions of the Masters division of the Roy Hobbs Adult Baseball League. 

Check out Debsue’s blog of the championship game.

Rick Sanchez and More Political Correctness

Rick Sanchez was recently canned from CNN for making “bigoted comments” about Jews not being an “oppressed minority”.  It is with great interest that I read this because Rick Sanchez is a friend of our family and in particular my mother and my stepfather who is Peruvian.  When they lived in New Jersey and Sanchez was on MSNBC, they became friends.  I got to spend a day with Rick and his wife and his kids at my sisters getaway place.  He is a good man-one that I doubt has any kind of vengeful attitude.  He was simply making a point and rendering an opinion.  We pride ourselves on free speech in this country, yet only when it comes to things that are politically correct.  You can selectively bash people but only if it is Christians.  Maybe CNN was worried about fallout – who knows. 

I am confident Rick Sanchez will end up somewhere because he is a good reporter.  But let’s let people say what is on their mind without constantly worrying about whether it offends someone.

Do Relationships Matter?

I watched the movie this evening Up in the Air.  The lead character in the movie played by George Clooney racks up 10 million frequent flyer miles and is gone over 330 nights a year going around firing people as part of an outsourcing firm.  He is actually very happy with his life and he actually conducts seminars on living the “baggage free” life.  However, he finally towards the end of the movie realizes the value of relationships but it is too late and the movie ends with him going back into his routine of living on the road. 

Human beings were made for relationship.  The first is a vertical relationship with the living God which is only made possible through Christ’s sacrifice.  This relationship is one that is so intimate that he is our “Abba Father” or Daddy.  The fact that the living God desires a relationship with us is just too great to get our arms around.  But He does.  The best way to know God is to memorize His word.  I have made a commitment especially this year to memorize scripture daily.  A goal is a verse a day.  This is not legalism – I find that the more scripture I memorize, the more intimate the relationship.  Scripture becomes applied and personalized.  And since scripture is “God breathed”, God breathes new life into us. 

When the relationship with God is real, it overflows into our relationships with each other.  These relationships are also vital.  I find when my relationship with God is right, my relationship with other human beings usually is right.  And the opposite holds true as well.  I call this living out of “overflow”.  Jesus said that the he will become “rivers of living water flowing from his innermost being” (John 7:38).  Did you ever have joy so unspeakable that you can’t explain it, even when circumstances are not so hot?  So is a right relationship with the living God and with people.  Note they can’t exist without each other.  We can’t have a problem with others and expect our relationship with God to be right.  We must make that right first.  Jesus said go first and be reconciled with your brother. 

Thank you Lord that you created us for relationship!