Reaching Chinese People from Home

Do you wish you could be involved in sharing with people in China, but can’t travel there? If you understand and speak English well (as a native-English-speaker) here is a way you may be able to bless Chinese people without leaving your own home.

http://www.englishcoaching.info/info.html

Ron Paul

In my research of the presidential candidates I have been having trouble finding one that I really want to support but the more I look at Ron Paul the more I want to support him. Take a look!

Giving to a person in need in a store line

I have heard many stories (and songs) about people standing in line at a store and seeing another person in obvious need and then helping that person. Those stories are touching and move me to want to help and look for situations like that were I could help. But AFAIK I have never been in such a situation. Have you ever been in a situation like that? Are they just rare in the areas where I go? Do I just not notice them? Do I just assume the person really isn't in need? Why do I hear those stories but never seem to get a chance to act out the good deed?

Joseph: School days

The other day I asked Anna what days she goes to school, and she didin't know so Joseph said: "I don't go to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays." He doesn't go to school at all but Anna goes to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Joseph's amazing memory: Jessica's age

A few weeks ago Jessica Pillman came to our house to visit (I was at work). Jessica asked Anna how old she was and Anna said 4, and then Jessica asked Joseph how old he was, and he said, "2, and Anna is 4, and you are going to be 25!" Our best guess is that he heard her age when we read the Pillman's Christmas at least a week before that. The things they say sure surprise us sometimes!

New car

A few weeks ago we sold our 1996 Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas because we are expecting a 4th child and that car only seats 5 people. For our new car we chose a car that seats 9 people but isn't a truck, SUV, or bus. For anyone who doesn't know do you have any guesses?

Technorati Profile

RE: What about Fetal Rights?

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/11/16/what-about-fetal-rights/:

I believe abortion is morally wrong, but I also believe that in a conflict between mother and fetus, a woman’s right must always take precedence. A human being’s rights under the law increase with maturity. That has been the tradition under Anglo-American law as well as world wide for most of history. To suggest that a fetus has the same rights as a mature adult individual borders on the perverse. A woman’s rights should never be placed second to the needs of her fetus. To do so is to treat women first and foremost as communally owned vessels for bringing forth life and only second as autonomous individuals.

The fact that an adult has more rights than a minor or unborn baby/fetus doesn't mean that the adult's "right must always take precedence." The same reasoning would allow a parent to kill an minor child. The parent's rights do take precedence but there are limits. The parent's rights are limited by the rights of a child -- it is unlawful for a parent to neglect or abuse a child.

Issue groups endorsing specific candidates

What do you think of issue groups endorsing specific candidates? To me to makes it seem like they are too political. For example the National Right to Life just endorsed Fred Thompson. I definitely think they should rate the candidates but it makes me questions the values and goals of the organization when they endorse a candidate. Your thoughts?

Christmas wish list

I'm starting my Christmas wish list early this year. Just buy anything from http://www.gfa.org/gift?motiv=WA7B-G4GC

Printing mail?

(Anna is by the printer when it prints a page)
Anna: Poppa...
Me: Yes?
Anna: There's some mail for you [Refering to the page that was printed]

Link to me

Have you every heard of linkedin.com? It is a professional
networking site that I have found to be useful. If you decide to sign up and you know me then please add me to your network.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesstauffer

Right to die -- Why not right to live?

Many people want to give people with "terminal illnesses" the right to kill themself. Why not give them the right to user experimental drugs to improve their life instead?

See
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/08/15/the-food-and-drug-administrations-deadly-policies/

Should the government do every good thing?

An article from Focus on the Family Action is titled "Urge Congress to Preserve Abstinence Funding". I agree that abstinence education is good but I don't think the federal government is good at that or should do that. And when the government does things that it shouldn't, then it generally causes more problems. I usually agree with Focus on the Family and Focus on the Family Action but I disagree when they suggest that the federal government should do things it wasn't designed to do (even "good things"). Abstinence funding should come from families, churches, non-profits, and local school districts.

Being seated in almost empty restaurants

It seems that almost every time we go to a restaurant that doesn't have many people there at the time we are seated near the other people. Why do they do that? I would prefer to be seated away from the other people so that we have more privacy. We have experienced this in a wide variety of restaurants.

Also, are there restaurants where you can just walk in and request a private room? I have tried searching and I can only find restaurants that require you to call so you can "plan your event".

Legislating morality

I often hear "you can't legislate morality" but that doesn't make sense to me. Murder is morally wrong and goverment has laws against murder. Maybe some people mean that laws can't change the morals of the people -- and I agree with that. But laws can change the actions of the people to reduce behaviour that is "immoral". Laws against murder don't prevent all murder but they do reduce it signifcantly. "Moral" laws help prevent people from harming each other.

The question then becomes: Which morals should be made into laws? I believe that answer to that varies by level and location of the government jurisdiction. i.e. Murder is generally a state crime and pet laws (leash, doo doo pickup, etc) are generally local crimes.

Freewill vs. predestination

First, does it really matter? i.e. Does the answer affect how you live your life? In both cases you must strive to serve God so I don't see how the answer matters.

Second, being able to see the future doesn't mean that one determines the future. If I see a car speeding toward a brick wall, I may be able to see what will happen in the future but that doesn't mean that I have any affect on the future. Just because God knows the future doesn't mean that he chose everything that will happen in it.

Do you see any problems with my arguments?

Labor union throws out credibility

This is hard to believe a labor union is hiring non-union workers to picket at construction sites that use non-union labor. So the labor union wants others to hire union labor but they don't!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/23/AR2007072302011.html

Would Education tax credits starve the government?

I like the idea of education tax credits because a free market in education would be much better then the one-size-fits-all government system. But I wonder what would stop people (and businesses) from starving the government by everyone giving enough to scholarship so that they don't have to pay any taxes? People may choose to give money to an organization that supports their beliefs in preference to the federal government.

For more on education tax credits see http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/05/11/loose-language-sinks-syllogisms/

Electronic voting

If electronic voting is to work well it must be trustworthy. I think the following would accomplish that.
Have the voting machine print the votes of each voter in a standardized and easy to read format. The voter could look at the paper to verify that the vote was correctly recorded.
The votes could be counted by either using the paper to double-check the machines counts or just directly counting the paper votes (like is done for standardized test that use machine readable answer sheets).

As a software engineer I don't trust computers to keep our elections accruate--because there is always the possibility of human tampering.

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2007/04/27/the-case-against-e-voting/

Person to person lending

I just learned about http://www.prosper.com/ -- a website where individuals can loan other money. It looks very compelling. They only facilitate unsecured loans but I wonder why it couldn't be done with secured loans also.

First make "right" easy then make "wrong" hard

I think it is best to make it easy to do the right thing and then make it hard to do the wrong thing.
Two examples:
The music industry should have made it wasy to buy and download legal music before making massive prosecutions. Most people will do the right thing when it is easy.
Immigration: We should make it easy to do the right thing (especially for those who aren't currently breaking the law) by making a guest worker program with generous limits, then after that is working well increase border security.

Spring Election

The Spring Election is tomorrow. Details at http://elections.state.wi.us/subcategory.asp?linksubcatid=1865&linkcatid=1846&linkid=155&locid=47

Does local control reduce corruption and waste?

It seems to me that when control is as local as possible then government waste and corruption are minimized. How much money is wasted by passing it up to Washington and back down to schools? If the federal government only controlled what only it can control (military, foreign policy, etc) then that would immediately reduce the lobbying at the federal level. At the local level lobbying is harder to do (because there are many controlling groups) and the citizens have better access to those in control (the local school board members all live within a few miles). Corruption can still occur at the local level but should be easier to address.
The WI Republican Party wants the state to limit the property tax amounts that the local governments can access but I would rather go to my local school board to ask for tax relief than the state legislature.

Do you think moving control to the local level would be beneficial?

Libertatian and Christian agreement on homosexual marriage

I have been reading a lot from the Cato Institute blogs lately and agree with much of what they publish. They had a blog entry against a constitutional amendment to define marriage. I think on the federal level both Christians and libertarians could agree to pass a law preventing federal judges from ruling on the definition of marriage by removing it from their jurisdiction (See Constitution excerpt below). That would truly leave the question of homosexual marriage up to states.

Article III, Section 2

In all cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and consuls, and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.

Is there an electric car in my future

I am interesting in electric car developments like those at Tesla Motors but I wonder if or when some company will create an electric car to meet my needs.
First it gets cold here in the winter so I wonder if the batteries will work well.
Second most electric cars are small. I have a car with an 118" wheelbase so that I have room for my family.
When will large electric cars that work well be made anytime in the next few decades?

Sold house

Last Friday we finally closed on the sale of our New Richmond house! That gives our budget a little more breathing room. :-)

Is a Filibuster ever good?

Is there ever a good reason to use a filibuster? It doesn't seem right to me that 41 senators can stop the will of the majority based solely on traditional rules. Can anyone give me a good reason for the filibuster (I am all for delaying voting under discussion is done but I am specifically referring to preventing voting just because a vote wouldn't go your way).

Election day on Tuesday

See who is running in at the state elections board: http://elections.state.wi.us/docview.asp?docid=9728&locid=47

WI Supreme Court candidates:
Linda M. Clifford: (I couldn't find an offical website so I just searched with Google).
Joseph Sommers: http://www.sommersforsupremecourt.com/
Judge Annette Ziegler: http://www.judgezieglerforsupremecourt.com/ (Thanks to her mailing and phone call for reminding me of the election.)

Another reason to keep your computer secure

If your computer's security is breached and someone puts child pornography on your computer you could get 10 years in jail for each picture!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,244009,00.html