A little over two years ago I wrote this and this.

Today I watched this and was happy.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I decide to take a break from blogging for a bit and look what happens, all the sudden we have a new gauge on the state of the Presidential election, what does Joe the Plumber think?  It seems like this has happened in the last several elections.  In order to seem more at touch with the people watching at home, one or both of the candidates highlight the story of someone they met on the campaign trail.  Perfectly understandable.  It also drives me crazy, and this time, it just about pushed me over the edge.  Apparently, Joe the Plumber (actually Joe Wurzelbacher) lives in Ohio and dreams of purchasing the plumbing company he works for but is afraid if Obama gets elected, he won’t be able to afford to run said company.  This is a perfectly legitimate and meaningful question and debate point, how do the tax proposals of each candidate impact small businesses?  Joe, and the American public, have the right to know.  Here’s what makes me so frustrated though.

Joe is a plumber, probably even a good one.  According to the US Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average plumber in Ohio makes $47,930 per year.  Lets round that up to $50,000 since Joe is actually a good plumber and a nice guy.  Now, for the ease of discussion, lets say Joe pays back 20% of his wages in taxes, $10,000 per year.  This leaves him with $40,000 in take home pay.  Now, lets say that Joe, after purchasing the plumbing business, is fortunate enough to make $250,000 per year, the point at which Obama’s higher tax brackets would kick in.  Even if Joe then paid 50% of his wages in taxes, his take home pay would still be $125,000 per year.  Heck, even if Joe paid 68% of his wages in taxes he would still take home $80,000, twice his original $40,000.  My point is this.  There are certainly tax reform issues that need to be dealt with in America, there are things that need to be examined and discussed and fixed.  However, decisions about the future cannot be made based on the possibility that maybe someday we might become rich.

Furthermore, how rich do we really need to be?  We already, and still, are the richest country in the world.  I, on my meager ministry wages, can afford what by the standards of several billion people is a life of luxury.  I do not want for food or shelter, if I see something I want I buy it, no questions.  Do I hope one day to have more money than I currently do so I can pursue my hobbies of photography and computers?  Of course!  I just get tired of people who protect essentially meaningless tax rates on the rich because they think one day they might be rich too.  I certainly do not wish anyone lose their home or even their job in the coming months, but if we are headed into a deep dark recession, hopefully it will become a chance for America to re-examine our priorities and the measures by which we judge the quality of our lives.  Because I can tell you, even if you are living in your car, you have it better than billions of people fighting starvation, war, and disease in the developing world.

From the Chicago Tribune:

“Kim Bobo, executive director of Interfaith Worker Justice, says:

‘Contrary to Palin’s disparaging remarks, organizers have major responsibilities for creating policy changes. Feeding the hungry and housing the homeless are clearly responsibilities of people of faith. We do that by providing food and shelter and more importantly, by organizing to address the causes of injustice and inequity which lead to hunger and homelessness.’”

I think the Republicans might end up regretting that thing.  After spending years promoting faith-based community development and non-profits, they took a giant dump on those people last night.  Too bad helping feed the homeless and serve the least and the lost isn’t good enough for the Republican party.

“Jesus was a community organizer. Pontius Pilate was a governor.”

The internet has spoken, and it does not approve.

I’ve made it pretty clear in the past who I am supporting in the current election and who I will be voting for but I haven’t written anything on the election for a while.  With Obama officially winning the nomination on the Democratic side and McCain naming Sarah Palin his running mate I figured it was a good time to check in.  So here are a few thoughts in no real order. . .

Biden – My opinion of him can be summed up thus, “at least he’s not Hillary.”  Frankly, while he has a bit of a brain/mouth filter problem that could lead to a few embarrassing moments, I don’t think he’s really a bad choice, he doesn’t hurt Obama at all.  If Obama had picked Hillary, that would have been a deal breaker.  Fortunately, that had the proverbial snowballs chance.

Convention speech – They wanted a spectacle and they got it.  Fireworks and a packed house at Invesco made for a pretty impressive showing this last week for Obama’s acceptance speech.  I don’t care if it is a sappy sentimental play, I eat up all that unity stuff.  I love that Obama was talking about the myth of Red America and Blue America and that Republicans are patriotic and Democrats want to sell out the country.  It’s stupid.  As much as I can’t stand Hillary, think Kusinich is a nut job, and laughed at anyone who thought Ron Paul was ever a legitimate candidate, I never once question the commitment of those people to our nation.  We have spent the last 8 years drawing lines in the sand and dividing the country between left and right we have lost focus on actually solving problems the country is facing.  Why does, for example, Pro-Life simply mean Anti-Abortion?  I’m with Obama, lets leave that debate for another day and focus on reducing teen pregnancy and unwanted pregnancy rates.  Lets stop fighting about how we got into Iraq and focus on getting out and finishing the fight in Afghanistan.

My Buddy – I don’t understand why so much attention is being paid to which candidate sympathizes with the “little guy” better.  I don’t care who would be more fun to have a beer and watch a game with.  I’m not interested in having a beer with the President.  I’m interested in a President who is wiser and smarter than I am because he controls the worlds largest nuclear arsenal.  I tried to dig out an old West Wing clip on this but couldn’t track it down (though not for lack of trying, YouTube is ruining my sleep patterns).  It is what I refer to as the “Surgeon Argument.” If you had life threatening cancer, would you rather have a surgeon who is an ass but has a 100% cure rate or a surgeon who is your good buddy but known for being a little bit of a klutz?

Sarah Palin – When McCain picked Palin as his veep he ensured a historic election no matter the winner.  Unfortunately, I think he’s going to end up regretting the decision.  I do think Palin is a better pick than Mitt Romney and she is definitely more palitable than Hillary as a woman in politics.  She also runs circles around Leiberman in the personality category.  However, picking a candidate for her strong history of ethics reform usually works better when that candidate isn’t herself in the middle of an ethics investigation.  Palin is currently the subject of a probe in Alaska to find if she orchestrated the dismissal of the State Police Commissioner after he refused to fire Palin’s former brother-in-law (who is currently involved in a custody battle with Palin’s sister after their divorce).  I like the little I know of Palin and think she is the kind of woman who, with a little more exposure/experience, could have had a chance at being a legitimate candidate (certainly women are capable of leading a nation, it’s just going to take a special candidate to break through).  Palin is too easy of a target for the left to tear appart though.  If she hadn’t been so involved and tied to the Bush presidency, I actually think Conoliza Rice wouldn’t have been a bad choice

I’m sure in the coming weeks, I will no doubt have more to say.  Especially now that summer is over and I have time to think about some of these things.  Anyway, anyone else have any thoughts on the above?

When I was going into Quiznos today for lunch the lady who went in right before me held the door open after she stepped inside.  This seemingly inconsequential nicety represents a much more profound truth that is the reason I’m not worried about the future of the country.  There is a lot of fear right now about a coming recession that is going to hit all of us very hard.  Personally, I don’t think it is going to be as bad as people say, but I’m not exactly a paragon of financial knowledge so don’t take my word for it.  That said, the sky isn’t falling.  If a recession really does hit and the economy slows, there will be a few hard years, maybe some tight budgets, but we will pull through and be alright because we are a country of people who inherently want to be nice to each other.  Sure there are greedy and less altruistic people who are only interested in others based on what they have to gain, but by and large, people want to help each other out.  We know that at the end of the day, come recession or economic boom, we are our best assets.  I think as Christians this is one of those great times where we can lead the way as the example of how to treat each other with love and respect, to show the light of Christ to those around us who might take a big hit.  This is also the reason that I’m increasingly drawn to support Obama for President.  As was referenced by Ted Kennedy today (who thought I would see the day where I agreed with that guy!), Obama is offering people a platform of change and hope.  He is hearkening back to Presidents like Reagan and JFK who lead the country through dark times with messages of hope.  Men who reminded us of why we, America, are the greatest country in the world.  I don’t mean that in an arrogant ethnocentric way, but rather in the sense we can be that City on a Hill, that Camelot, serving as a beacon to a world full of war and famine.  He is the only candidate that I see as someone who gives us a legitimate chance at a New Politics, a political landscape where we no longer are bickering over party lines but having substantial discussions of foreign and economic policy.  Maybe we can finally do something about Stage 2 subsidies, maybe we can finally find a real, lasting solution to illegal immigration.  Maybe we get policies that are more than just vote grabs.  We have had nearly 10 years of fighting over which party is the most corrupt and sleazy and with Obama we get someone who has no reason not to throw open the gates and run a transparent government that values truth and openness over deceit and bureaucracy.  This is the future I want to live in, this is the country I think we can be.  Will you join me?

So I’ve been having an increasing feeling over the last few weeks of belonging, feeling less like a part time temp or student worker and more like a real employee who has real responsibilities. It is kind of strange but really nice too. I feel like I go to work and I’m part of a team. I really like that, it is very important to me and part of why I came to Mount Hermon in the first place. Hopefully it is not a feeling that fades in the coming months and years.

I went to Costco tonight with Juan and Shelly and found that florescent bulbs were on sale. So I bought a bunch and replaced all the bulbs in my apartment. So, just like Australia, I’m now completely free of incandescent lights. So far I like it, they are brighter and use a lot less power. My power usage has gone from 460 watts to 124 watts (if I were to have all the lights on at the same time). Though I don’t have to pay the electricity bill on my own so I won’t see and savings, I feel a lot better about being less wasteful. Maybe it doesn’t matter but it’s by getting people to do those small things in large numbers that big changes can be made. I think I read somewhere that if the US were to switch to florescent bulbs like Australia is proposing consumers would save something like $2 billion a year just on their electric bill and power consumption would noticeably drop. I think people don’t realize how easy it is to be a good steward of the environment and that if you can show them how easy it can be and what little changes they have to make we really can make the world a better place.

Ok, enough being sappy. I sound like a democrat! Honestly though, I am looking forward already to the Presidential race in ’08. I’m not looking forward to all of the bickering and fighting but I am looking forward to the possibility of two new candidates. So far it looks like Obama and Hillary are the front runners for the dems and Giuliani and McCane are the front runners for the GOP (unless McCane or one of the less likely candidates ends up winning, this means we will have a Presidential first, either the first woman, first African-American, or first Italian President). I would really like to see Obama win the nomination on the Democrat side, I’d have to think about it some but I might consider voting for him. His stance on abortion, gay rights, and the specifics of how we got into Iraq don’t really matter to me much. I’m tired of the GOP telling me that to be a good Christian I should be Republican who wants to over turn Rowe v Wade, be for a Constitutional ban on gay marriage, and view God’s command to “subdue the environment” as a blank check for strip mining and flogging the planet till the ecosystem collapses. I think as fractured as the Democratic party is, the Republicans need to clean house and get rid of the neo-cons and fanatically conservative far right (ala Falwell and Robertson). Personally, I think R v W should stay because it has been around so long overturning it and making abortion illegal (which really R v W didn’t decide, it had more to do with privacy than legality) would be doing the reverse of making drugs legal. The fact that women get abortions is not something that can be cured by passing a law. If we want to decrease the number of abortions we should direct money to crisis pregnancy centers and child care programs for single parents. Same with a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. For one, while I don’t agree that putting it there “writes discrimination” into the document (the same document, btw, that refers to blacks as being worth 3/5ths the votes of a white person), it just doesn’t belong there. The constitution is about the most basic and foundational principles this country was founded on. And I’m sorry to break the heart of James Dobson or his cronies on the far right but America was not founded to be a Christian theocracy. It was founded on the principle that there should be no established state religion. A ban on gay marriage is an issue with its basis in theology and the right, not in some natural right of men and women to marry only persons of the opposite sex. If you want to get really cold about it, in the entire animal kingdom, there are only a handful of species who mate for life. While I personally believe there is more to the relationship between a husband and wife than cold anthropological observations you could make an argument that marriage is a sociological construct rather than a natural phenomenon. And when it comes to the environment, clear cutting the forest and strip mining the mountains is hardly honoring God’s creation. If our living bodies are a temple to be respected and maintained then how much more is the entire living planet a temple of God? I’m tired of faith that is informed by politics and big business rather than being informed by the love of Christ. We shouldn’t read the Bible as people searching for a witty quote to bash our opponents with, we should read it as Christians who strive to honor God and live “righteously.” I really enjoyed when Dan preached about the idea of thinking of ourselves as “righteous” the other week in church. His point was that when we stop thinking of ourselves as sinners and start thinking of ourselves as “righteous” in the eyes of God then we are more likely to lead righteous lives. I want to vote for a Presidential candidate who is willing to take ownership of his mistakes and who says that we need to work on being good, loving, decent people. To quote Morgan Freeman’s character from the film The Bonfire of the Vanities, “. . . law is man’s feeble attempt to lay down the principals of decency. Decency! And decency isn’t a deal, it’s not a contract or a hustle or an angle! Decency…decency is what your grandmother taught you. It’s in your bones! You go home now. Go home and be decent people. Be decent!“

Anyway, that’s enough for tonight. It’s past time for bed so I’ll sign off for now. Quick music update first, classical music is awesome and Dvorak is by far my favorite composer. Also, the Dresden Dolls are really good but if they didn’t swear they’d be even better and I could play them at work.