The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil....

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. This Edmund Burke quote is so powerful and so true. The current situation in this world reflects this quote now more than ever. I just watched a documentary entitled "The Devil Came on Horseback." It is a film put together telling the story of a retired US Marine that went to Sudan to monitor the cease fire agreement of the 20 year civil war that went on there. While there on this mission he heard of the brewing conflict in the Darfur region and volunteered to go into this region and monitor the cease fire that had just been signed in that region. So he went into this region with the African Union forces armed with nothing more than a camera to document and send reports back up the chain of command. How is one supposed to monitor and enforce a cease fire armed with nothing but a camera and words? When you are fighting an evil that is out for the complete and utter destruction of a specific race of people, words do nothing. Sadly the United States and the rest of the world have only lobbed words at these people. This has become the policy of so many nations. We put economic sanctions on nations that are out for nothing more than wiping an entire people off of the face of this earth. Why are we using the weapon of words when the only weapon these people understand is the AK-47, the Attack Chopper, and the tank? In this movie then Senator Obama says that for the Washington to do something they need to know it is something that is important to the people of the United States. Why would we as an American people whose nation is founded on the principle that ALL men are created equal not be outraged at the fact that these people are being systematically slaughtered all because they arent like someone else? I know we in the history of our nation have had some things that we are not proud of but that should not stop us from standing up for the rights of others. We stood by for a long time in Iraq and let the evil of Suddam Hussein triumph, we finally stepped in and did something. We stood by for a long time and watch the evil of the Taliban triumph in Afghanistan, and finally stepped in and did something about it. Both times it took force to displace these evils, it was not a show of sanctions. It took getting in there and ousting the offenders with force. I know that sending American men and women into harms way is never something we want to do. It is never something we enjoy doing. We often times after sending our men and women abroad to stop atrocities forget why it is that we do that and stop our support for those efforts. We did this with Vietnam, we are currently doing this with both Afghanistan and Iraq. Now I am by no means saying that we have run things on those two fronts the way that we should have. Our leaders have made mistakes but everyone is human and cannot be perfect in everything that we do. There was only 1 person in the history of mankind that was perfect and it isnt George W Bush, it isnt Barack Obama, it isnt Bill Clinton, it isnt Ronald Raegan, it isnt you, it isnt me. Everyone makes mistakes, we need to learn from those and change. We good men need to step up and do something so that the evils of Darfur do not continue. The possibility of sending in troops does not appeal to us but it continues to be the only thing that people understand.

First day of job and life update

So today I started my new job. You might be asking "new" job? Yeah well on January 29th I was laid off of my job due to a 1 MILLION dollar shortfall. There were 9 people that were let go that day. The email that went out to inform them community of that fact was very impersonal and did not name any names as to who was let go. Assuming that everyone that was let go made right around the same as me (probably not far from the truth) the cutting of these 9 positions saved the employer roughly 300 thousand dollars, leaving them still 700 thousand dollars short. Now I am no financial genius but to me cutting low level positions does not do as much as they want, it takes full scale overhaul of the finances to cut 1 million dollars. The fiscal irresponsibility that continues to run through that community continues to be the norm for most departments and unless that changes they are just going to continually be in this exact same position. So while cutting some jobs may be a "solution", it doesn't solve the problem. Just like the government and their current "stimulus" package idea at helping to "save" our economy, in the end nothing will come of it. So for the last month I have been searching for a job. I have turned in probably 15-20 different applications at places in CA, OR, and WA. There were several nibbles on my resume from recruiters for various positions but in the end all i got from them was basic pre-interview phone screenings. Then 2 weeks ago my buddy and now former coworker Dean got an email from the former HR director from that place of employment saying that at the new place she works they had an opening for a Help Desk position. So I sent in my resume and got my name in the mix. I was interviewed via the phone on that Thursday, I got called last Monday about doing and interview on Tuesday. After the interview on Tuesday I was told it would be Friday or possibly today before I heard back. Last Thursday I was called and offered the position. The position is a 6 month position but there is a high probability that it will turn out to be a permanent position. The position pays more than my previous place of employment. So today was my first day at this place. It is a good position. It should be a fun place to work. My day started with filling out the standard paper work. Next was logging in and setting up Outlook on my profile. Then it was time to do some basic software install on some machines in the office. Then it was back to the office and sit in on some phone calls helping the remote users with some issues. Then came lunch. Then more helping remote users. Then for the rest of the afternoon I got to poke around and learn some things on my own. Overall it was a good day. Glad that I slept well last night and hope I will start sleeping well again now that I am employed.

How long will it last?

So this week here in the United States we averted a major tragedy when an airline pilot was able to pull off the nearly impossible and land a commercial airliner on the water without it breaking apart or flipping over. Soon after landing on the river there were ferries and tugboats there to rescue those 140+ passengers on that plane. Why is it that only in the moments of near tragedy that we all band together? The last time that we saw it as a nation was when we all pulled together on that HORRIBLE day in September of 2001 when our freedom was attacked. The togetherness from that attack lasted a few weeks or months and then it was back to the same old same old cutting each other off, flipping them the bird, cussin them out, not looking out for anyone but ourselves. Why is it that it takes tragedy to bring our nation together? Sadly I dont think the togetherness of this incident will even last a week. Some may say that the events coming up this coming week will draw us together but sadly I dont think they will serve that purpose. I dont think any of the candidates that were in the running for the position this year would have been able to draw our nation together. Our nation, the GREATEST nation, has a deep dividing line that will not easily go away.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Review

So over my Christmas vacation I watched the movie "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", a documentary done by Ben Stein. Yes that Ben Stein from the show "Win Ben Stein's Money" that used to be on TV. At first I was very skeptical because of that fact that the documentary would be far from serious. Boy was I very wrong about that fact. In the documentary Ben goes around and talks to scientists at various institutions ranging from the Smithsonian Institute to even Ivy League Schools who have been fired from their positions or their contracts not renewed because of anything from publishing an article in a magazine containing reference to Intelligence Design to putting it on a slide in a PowerPoint saying it is an opposing view that is out there. The Intelligent Design debate is so often attributed to being tied to religion and God. The problem with that is the Intelligent Design folks are not saying that God is the one that created everything they are only saying that the intricacy of the "simple single celled organism" that scientists say that everything evolved from point to their being someone that designed that cell. The scientific community goes to great lengths to follow Darwin's Theory of Evolution that comes out of his book Origin of Species. The problem with his book is that it doesnt not actually address the beginning or where that first single celled organism originated. The main point of the movie is to show that throughout the academic and scientific community anyone who is in anyway affiliated with the Intelligent Design community are shunned and can even lose their jobs because of that fact. One of the cases mentioned in the movie is a man who worked for the Smithsonian Institute, who after publishing an article in the Smithsonian Magazine (a peer reviewed magazine) that metioned Intelligent Design, was fired from his position. There was also a highly respected teacher who after mearly putting the words Intelligent Design on two Powerpoint slides was not fired but her contract was not renewed. The irony of the scientific community shunning those that question the accepted "norm" is that this is in fact what their high and mighty Darwin did when he first proposed his theory to the world. One of the more laughable parts (and also infuriating) of the movie is when Ben sits down with a die hard evolutionist and asks him where that first single celled organism came from. This "brilliant" scientist then goes on to explain (very poorly) that one of the current theories is that the first single celled organism came on the backs of crystals. When Ben, rightfully, asks for clarification on this, the scientist get very defensive, almost beligerent, and says well i already told you (which his explanation is almost verbatim what i wrote). It amazes me how people in the evolution camp are viewed as the "intelligent" ones and that anyone who is in the Intelligent Design community are viewed as "ignorant and dumb". This was a good documentary, it pointed out a lot of rather interesting cases as well as the fact that as our understanding of the simple single celled organism has progrossed over the years it has become so much more complex than Darwin imagined. I think one of the main problems with documentaries in general is that while they provide us with information, you are usually left with the "What do I do now?" question. This movie got hardly any press, it also got horrible reviews. This is not surprising but very sad at the same time. It was done very well. I enjoyed it. If you enjoy science in anyway it is worth checking out.

We are all just a random grouping of molecules that happened to come together

This is what the scientific world would like you to believe. I thought about this yesterday as I was driving down the California coast and realizing that I couldnt stop smiling because of all the the great childhood memories that were going through my head as I passed through the area from Crescent City down to Eureka. Our brains are amazing things, the fact that we can create memories, recall memories, learn things, recall that knowledge at the most random times. The complexities of our brains are outstanding and yet scientists would like you to believe that our brains are the product of evolution over the years and that we wanted our brains to get these abilities and our evolution followed that path. Are you kidding me? We just happened to get these incredibly complex brains by evolution? Wow. That is very narrow minded and I feel sorry for them. It amazes me how you could see the complexities of the human brain and not see that there is a Creator behind these wonderful things. And in this season of celebrating that Creator coming to earth, I hope that we do not all get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season, but that we remember to take some time to thanks our Creator for the wonders that he bestows on us daily whether we see it or not. Merry Christmas!

To CC or not to CC that is the question

So recently I have been part of a lot of email conversations at work and one thing I have noticed A LOT is that there a whole bunch of people in the work force that like to CC someone on an email when that person has no need to be included on the conversation. If you are going to email me asking me to do some work for you, you dont need to include my boss on the email. To me that is a very chicken move on your part to think that you have to include my boss on an email to get things done. If you have a problem with me say it to my face dont be chicken about it, if I did something that offended you tell me and I will apologize. If you dont tell me I probably wont know that I offended you. So please everyone out there, dont CC someone on an email when they dont need to be included, it fills up their inbox with useless email and it is a very chicken thing to do on your part.

7 yrs have come and gone already?

So today is September 11th, 2008, wow. It does not seem like it was 7 years ago today that we watched in horror as those Twin Towers fell in New York, as the Pentagon got hit, as the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania. A lot of things have changed since that morning.

A lot of things have gone back to how they were before that morning. Where were you when you first heard the news? I had just stumbled out of bed and wandered down to the bathroom in the dorm, heard the TV on in my RA's room and they were talking about the Twin Towers being gone. I wasnt coherent enough to completely comprehend that until after coming back out of the bathroom at which point i ran back down to my room and turned on the TV and saw what the rest of our nation saw that day. The United States changed that day. We no longer were a nation that went about our daily business thinking that we were safe and nothing bad would ever happen to us. Yes we had been attacked previously at the Twin Towers (We did basically nothing to respond to that by the way), but we had long since forgotten. That morning we found out the level of deep hatred some of the rest of the world held for our nation and the things we stand for. We were attacked on our soil, with our resources, killing innocent Americans who were just going about their work trying to provide for their families, also killing innocent Americans that were trying to rescue those people in those building.

What changed for you that day?

The attackers wanted to change America. They accomplished that in a very large way. One of the big things that happened was we became a united nation. We all came together and said prayers for those who were lost, we cared for our neighbors, we appreciated family a little bit more, and oh so many more things. We became united under the United States Flag and proudly displayed that we were Americans and we would not back down when we are faced with adversity. Just like the old flag that said "Dont tread on me" with the picture of the coiled rattlesnake, we stood up and said we wont stand for this type of thing and will strike back when you strike us. We stood behind our leaders as we struck back at those that struck us first. We knew the reason for our fighting and pursuing those that attacked us. They had caused our nation pain and we wanted justice for that pain, and were ready to do what it took to bring those who hurt us to justice. We would never be able to travel an airline with the same "ease" that we did previously.

Has that feeling persisted in the US?

NO! As time progessed we all went back to the way things were previously. We were back to not caring for our neighbors, family wasnt as big for us anymore, and most importantly the American flags we were proudly displaying made there way back to being stored in our closets. We no longer were "Proud to be an American", we were just Americans.

It is interesting to think back on those times now as we are approaching the elections this year. We are now engaged in a battle for the Presidency. And it is certainly a battle. The two camps are clearly divided and fighting the other for the Presidency. We no longer care that we are all Americans and we need to be striving to better our nation as a whole, it now becomes a matter of well my candidate says that they will do the most for me. We attack the other candidate on things that have no relevance to the wonderful nation in which we live. The other candidate may have some good views on things, they may not but we are against them from the start solely because of them being the candidate for the other party.

There are a lot of issues that we need to address in our nation, the candidates each have their own ideas for dealing with these issues. The big ones of course being the energy crisis and the war. Our nation has forgotten the reasons we went overseas to pursue those that lashed out at us by killing our citizens. We have forgotten the evil man that was the leader of the one country, we have forgotten the numerous attempts by the UN to check his country for WMDs where he basically dictated to the UN where they could check and where they couldnt.

We as a nation have come so far in the last 7 yrs. We have also regressed back in a lot of ways. As we look back on the last 7 yrs and look to the future, are we truly going to change the way our nation thinks? Are we going to change the way our nation acts? Are we going to once again become Americans united with the best interest of our nation at heart? I really hope that we are able to do those things, I am not going to be stupid in thinking it is certainly going to happen. Sadly I almost feel that it is going to take another event like the horrible events of that September morning 7 yrs ago for our nation to once again become united as Americans.

What are your thoughts/reflections on these last 7 yrs?