Recall Petition For Phil Gordon

If you still want Gordon recalled, you got your wish. A petition recall of Phil Gordon was just announced. A press conference is set for Thursday, 9 am. There aren't a lot of details yet. Check out American Citizens United for more contact information.

Who: American Citizens United

Where: City Hall, 200 W. Washington St, Phoenix

When: Thursday May 1, 2008, 9:00AM

Stay tuned here for updates.

Vaccination Hounds on the Move Again

A lawyer-friend told me recently that States have some jurisdiction over parents when it comes to decisions about minor children. Although, I don't understand how that works, I do know that school districts nation-wide have been "pulling rank" over parents with increasing frequency and making some pretty rank "mandatory decisions." Parents with kids in public schools have almost no say. Now New Jersey wants to vaccinate the babies for colds and flu!

The modern vaccine movement is a racket—the easy money du jour for pharmaceuticals. They rule what MDs do and say, then our witless public officials fall promptly in line. It's an easy $trillion each time a vaccine becomes mandatory, and that money is guaranteed-subsidized by the State.

The first vaccinations were in response to a clear and present danger. Now its the "likelihood" of complication from the "likelihood" of a cold that prompts a state-wide hijacking of parental authority. Doesn't New Jersey have bigger fish to fry anyway? These preschoolers aren't a threat to the State, UNLESS this is a means to address the crisis of emergency rooms being used as clinics to treat colds and flu! If that is the case, shame on New Jersey, CDC, and all those medical associations for being so manipulative. Deal with the real problem, and stop forcing American families to absorb the consequence of your failure and greed.

This is crazy, why vaccinate a toddler against a cold?

Stop pushing the toxic, high-fructose, genetically (untested) modified foods down the throats of preschoolers and colds won't be such a threat. Oh yea, preschools cannot get Federal money unless they provide government prescribed meals featuring refined food hall-of-famers such as commercial macaroni and cheese and peanut butter (made in China) and jelly on white bread. Plus all kids must be vaccinated with the other eight or nine vaccines to get into those preschools.

Isn't it cheaper to pass out free vitamins?

I think so, however pharmaceuticals have exhausted existing vaccine markets and now want fresh new venues for their wares. The elderly are doped up on every conceivable medication. Pre-teen girls are already in the vat, and pre-teen boys are being introduced to a new steroid everyday. The only group where pharmaceuticals don't have a comparable market share—babies and toddlers. Every child born is a potential stream of income for these companies.

Too many vaccines have more serious side-effects than the indications they are designed to address. These meds are put on the market immediately and the age of the vaccinated is increasing younger. Right now, the CDC wants pre-teen girls to be vaccinated for sexually transmitted microbes that accompany promiscuity. Districts in Massachusetts are distributing birth control pills to 11-year old girls without parental knowledge! No doubt, I abhor with this trend. Parents are scorned as nuisances, and administrators drink whatever kool-aid they are given, and in a drunken stupor, issue their golden edicts.

I wish we could know how much money passes under the table to get a school district or an entire state on board with the latest scare.

Parents, if this is a test, it won't stop here. It is critical to get interested in the vaccination issue and study these things for yourselves. And scream louder, if Mr. Administrator won't listen.

Moving Rainbow Time Lapse

This has got to be one of the most fantastic videos. It shows a rainbow forming. Be patient, it is time-lapsed.
Does it make you happy? Is it in anyway evidence of God in heaven?

AZ Security Freeze Legislation Bites the Dust

I spent several minutes today organizing myself to opt-out of various databases and the credit bureaus. Fortunately, I came across the information I wanted to freeze my credit report. A security freeze will prevent a credit bureau from reporting your credit file to third parties. They can be lifted temporarily or permanently at the consumer's request. However, security freezes are based on state law. Until I saw an article published by Linda Valdez on the AZ Republic website, I was unable to confirm that Arizona had actually passed the state's security freeze law. It has been under consideration since 2005. Eventually, ARS 44-1698 was not passed due to interference mainly by retailers. To add, Arizona legislators proposed Arizonans pay 30% more for the service than the credit bureaus charge, $15 dollars for AZ residents vs $10 for all other states with the law! What for?

Arizona ranks #1, number one, primera for identity-theft and is aptly regarded as the identity-theft capital of the U.S. It is too easy jam up Arizona legislation intended to protect state residents.

An example of why it is important not to trust any third party with the task of opting out or filing any credit information for you!

Getting Ahead

Get ahead has been our mantra for generations. Parents want advantage for their children, every possible advantage. We start them early in academics, sports, beauty pageants, music, entertainment. Achievement is good, and providing well for a child means giving him what he needs to excel in his life. Except, will it really be early learning, prowess in sports or music, or social status that makes this happen? The clamour for formulas that make us rich, strong, successful, happy, and sexy is off-the-charts. That's why the books, pills, dating aids, clinics, TV shows, are making money and lots of it. There is nothing wrong with achievement or rising above the pack. Most people just want the little bit they think will bring them joy and happiness. We all should be happy! The reason we all aren't can be found in what we think will bring it about.

If any of these ideas actually worked, we would have already seen the frenzy taper off. People would be satisfied and feeling rosy. Instead, the frenzy snowballs because the goods don't deliver and people believe the hype about the next promotion guaranteeing results. I and most of the parents I know value character above things as we raise our children. But honestly, I am sure character alone won't last. I say that because often what is perceived to be character is just learned behavior which is easily corrupted. I suspect generations will be bankrupt failing to grasp a simple truth.

Consider it's not already obvious—how fast you run, how much your car costs, how sexy you are does not bring you joy or distinguish you from anyone else. Imagine the opposite is true? What if by your joy you are distinguished! What if joy and happiness gets us ahead, rather than the getting ahead that brings us joy? Pleasant as it is to be profoundly sexy or smart or strong, what if a deeply rooted moral compass—rooted in your emotions not just your memory—is the secret to joy. Imagine. What you love and what you hate holds the key to your joy and subsequently how you measure up to your peers. How easy it that?

The Context of A Child's Education

I have a personal desire to see both children and adults gain a basic understanding of history, arts, and architecture. Perhaps the world will seem more valuable to them with such knowledge under their belts. In grade school, my brother was required to learn Latin. He subsequently learned German too. Just one generation ago, our education system was still ripe with context, ripe with an appreciation of culture, so that intuitively, a child understood the application of his technical skills. The beauty in teaching a child about life and culture in concert with technical skills is that such context lends purposefulness to everything he learns.

It does not seem to be that way anymore. Nationwide, our educational requirements have been reduced to rudimentary tasks. If you don't know why you are learning anything, it really won't matter much to you. That is a huge problem. For a child to cultivate vision for his own life is rarer in the absence of cultural context. I am a strong proponent for homeschooling for this reason. Good parents can do miles more providing their child's education today, than most any institution.

I have a BS in Civil Engineering and a Masters of Architecture. I spent four years at MIT in Cambridge to earn my M.Arch. When I was in school, I observed that the students who had architects in their family were more thorough in their design projects. This is a good example of context in education. In architecture, for example, apprenticing with someone like a grandfather early in the game, frees up your ability to be creative and execute your own designs. You learn technical skills with specific insight into how they are useful. It's exciting. The student goes into an institutional setting all the more ready.

But that isn't all there is to career readiness. Parents must get into the habit of steering their students to learn the business of their respective crafts, not just the craft itself. Believe me, it doesn't matter how much tuition you pay. Schools don't do this for you, despite being such an important aspect of education. Parents, make it a part of growing up. This is how leaders are made. We want our children to be ready to start their own companies. They should be ready to be the employer if they are so inclined--not only the employee.

Personality and Following Your Dreams

Dear Marge:

...You remember how I felt when you took this position. Two years tops. I said that because an extended stay in an entry level position means that your pay relatively decreases over the years, and too often also, so does your satisfaction with the position. Periodic change, is how you grow. Be true to these life realities, and you will be happy.

As you say, you will probably always be kinda slow to act--that's a part of your personality. But slowness does not preclude success or the exercise of your wisdom. Just do what you have to do when you have to do it.

Let me offer you something else. You may not realize this right now, but presently [as a single adult] you are in the most flexible and exploitable stage of life that you will ever know. I want for you that you flex your creativity and exploit your uniqueness. You were excited about a particular industry when you started this job. I think it's time to follow that dream.

Because you are having a not-so-easy time switching jobs after interviewing over the years, consider that you might be looking in the wrong places. When you get excited about something, you inspire people. Dust off your dreams, get excited and do nothing except what moves you in that direction. Don't buy real estate, don't look for a man, don't look for another boring job. Don't' sign up for another event or buy any more clothes that advance the same old holding pattern. Move in the direction that excites you. ...NOW.

It is important to see the value in this concept. Sometimes, people get attached to routines and mislabel the routine as God's peace. Instead, there is a fire inside you, that yearns to have its way. Your fire is what makes you the unique pleasure to God that you are. However, some discredit really seeing and knowing oneself this way. Perhaps they think that only a few get to experience a life of excitement and passion and purposefulness. May we know the BIG happy God in heaven, and get a true glimpse of what we should be like.

Only one more something else. More than anyone, we should know that the life of a man passes quickly. We are but a breath, it says in Isaiah. Despite this, we allow an experience of life wrought with insignificant activity. Instead of making joyful noises to the Lord, we credit more the noises we render as sacrifices than the noises we make while we are happy. On this day, September 21, 2006, you should commence your plodding to the place in life you were created to occupy. Go as slow as you want, but do nothing else!

Protecting Our Children

The children of our nation are under siege! In the span of a decade across this nation, we watched one elected official after another seduce the youth with whom they were charged. In the span of a year across this nation, we chronicled the pandemic of child sexual predators. In the span of a week across this nation, we watched in horror as five schools were either invaded by gunmen or threatened with the same. Upon the recent report of one more predator, how is it that our watchdogs (albeit self-proclaimed), rant on single-mindedly about political ramifications?

It's unreasonable that each attack against our children spawns a political debate.The threats to children today are untenable--beyond sexual predators. They are threatened by neglect, divestment of family, epidemic health maladies, abduction and murder.

We work hard for the security of our families. But security is just one of our priorities. It certainly helps to live a long life, but we want more for our offspring. We want for them health, prosperity, joy, and productivity. These are less likely to actualize if we are forced to raise them in a cocoon.

In a better day and time, people will properly discern the fool and the scoundrel from the noble man. It won't be like it is now. Today, men stand up to deceive a nation with the crumbs of mischief still on their face. And those who chase after them dole out shallow justice and confer seats in public office. Former congressman Mark Foley is only a recently publicized example of how life and dignity are being confiscated from U.S. children en masse.

To be sleepy or politically correct in the face of blatant attacks on the welfare of our families is to undermine every good hour that we labor. And to consider that any such attack has partisan origins is deception. Noble men of noble deeds will come forth if we refuse to settle for fools and scoundrels.