So anyway read these and if you would answer these questions for me at the bottom  if you have time, you can either do this privately through email, facebook or twitter, or just post a comment.

The Nine Principles

1. America is good.
2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.
3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.
4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.
5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.
6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.
7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.
8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.
9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.\

1.) How many principles do you agree with?
2.) Which ones do you disagree with? Why?
3.) Do you think that agreeing with 7 of these principles makes you a conservative? Why or why not?

Whether you are a democrat or republican you have to be worried about our current financial situation. Where we obviously disagree is why this happened and what needs to be done to solve these problems.

Now I’m not an economist or a politician but I do consider myself to be somewhat bright and to me I see signs of the kind of change that is taking us away from what makes America great.

We have long been a country that has picked ourselves up by our bootstraps and got things done. We took ownership of our success and in most instances didn’t ask for anyone to “bail” us out. In the past companies come and go with not worrying about what is “fair” but who provides the best product at the best price. Capitalism with a conscience from the government has long been our stance and because of that we have grown exponentially and fast became a world power.

We have used the human drive and to a point “greed” to have a formidable economy.

Now things are changing, they are small steps but I fear that years from now we’ll be like the frog in cool water. If you heat it slowly it won’t notice the change and will die. I’m not saying we’ll die but there are some real concerns.

1.) We have these companies like Fannie Mae who have become to big to fail, so we were forced to bail them out. My fear is that they will not truly learn from their mistakes because we were forced to protect and coddle them. That just doesn’t sound like capitalism to me. It may have been unavoidable but still.

2.) Individuals and companies more and more are looking to the government to help them out. They’re asking the government to solve their financial problems, since when did we start doing this? This is a land of opportunity not a land of guaranteed success. In any economy people are going to be poor and it’s up to the people that do have money to give back. It’s ok to be poor, the poor are very important in our world. Without the poor we wouldn’t have a practical reminder of how lucky we are. The bible talks about this a number of times, that the poor are necessary for us. Without the poor who else would we give? Therefore, that’s what the poor does, teaches us to be thankful.

I do know that their are minorities that need the government’s help, like the mentally and physically handicapped and maybe even veterans. I have no problem with that. But this notion that people ask the government “what can you do for me” is preposterous. Didn’t Kennedy, a democrat, say to not ask what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country?

Now I know people are worried about their future, as am I, but can’t we look back at our history and see time and time again where we have grown from our failures to only make us stronger and a better country? So let’s take ownership again for our success or failure and stop asking for a help up, lets get our bootstraps on and get it done.

Thanks to Stephen for posting it on Twitter!

When I first heard that I agreed, but after thinking about that statement it made me feel more and more uneasy. I started thinking, why don’t you care how your child does, do you not want them to succeed in life? Now I’m sure that this parent wants their child to succeed, but that kind of attitude, I believe, is crippling children today. I feel that parents are immunizing their children from disappointment and failure. Their concern is about protecting their children from these negative feelings and not about exposing them to challenges that will give them tools to succeed.

I see more and more children sport’s leagues going away from winning and losing. They keep no score and just play to play the game. Now like that quote on the surface it sounds great, but seriously since when is losing such a bad thing? I’m sure there still are lessons to be learned and sports is definitely more than winning and losing but I bet you if you asked professional athletes about when they’ve grown the most, almost all of them would give you an anecdote about a time when things were the most difficult, but they still we are able to overcome the obstacle and as a result were a better person for it. Now I know we’re not all professional athletes but I think it applies to us as well. I just think in life, learning to fail is just as important as learning to succeed, so much though that the tools that you receive from failure help you become a successful person in all walks of life.

The movie I just saw last night called Seven Pounds speaks to giving of yourself in such a way. Some movies are just there for entertainment but this movie was much more.  It literally hit me right in the face by it’s amazing story and controversial ending (trust me I still have the bruises). I won’t be a spoiler for all of you that haven’t seen it but essentially it’s about a man (Will Smith) who gives of himself the best way he knows how until he doesn’t have anything else to give.

The movie, although interesting, probably spoke more to me than others because I’m reading a book right now that it’s theme is also giving of yourself. So apparently somebody is trying to tell me that I need to be giving more of myself or something.

Anyway, this book, “Love is the Killer App” by Tim Sanders, talks about how, in giving of yourself, you can succeed in the business world today.

The general idea is that you should strive to maximize your own personal value by learning as much as possible, connecting with as many people as possible and then sharing knowledge and connections as freely as possible. By being what he calls a “lovecat,” you can greatly multiply your value to others. In a way it goes against the “rat race” mentality that our capitalistic economy can sometimes breed. Instead of holding knowledge back in fear of losing your advantage, you give it away freely. In doing so people start to count on you more and more and also start coming to you with more and more opportunities.

Now to some people, this sounds like brown nosing, but if it’s backed up by genuine care and action, it doesn’t really matter what it seems like. This comes through because you actually do care by your thoughts, words and actions.

To me this book gives me hope; someone has found a way to be successful BY being a Christian in the workplace. And what’s great is that I see this happening more and more each day, people are realizing this concept and the old way of thinking is becoming less and less common.

Now by no means am I saying I’m perfect at this, in fact I probably need to take heed to this advice just as much as anyone else. With my job it’s easy to be secluded, it’s easy to just drive around to different client locations, fix their technology issues and move on. However, if I want to truly be a “lovecat” I need to do much, much more.

So if you think you want to be a lovecat ask yourself this question:

Who do you think would benefit from your connections and knowledge? How are you going to help them?  Come on let’s all be lovecats to not only improve our world but to improve ourselves. And if you’re not truly sure what this lovecat nonsense is, let me know and I’ll let you borrow the book.

No matter what your political stance is, you can’t deny that tomorrow is going to be a hugely (is that a word?) monumental day for this young country. A day after we celebrate Martin Luther King, Barack Obama will assume the role as president. It seems so fitting that these two days are so close together. It seems so fitting that today we honor the man who started a dream and tomorrow we celebrate a man who is a witness to the dream being fulfilled. You can’t make this stuff up.

Now I for one didn’t vote for Barack Obama, but that doesn’t mean I am not excited about these changes. Yes of course he is going to be instituting a lot of things that I don’t agree with and that he represents ideals that I don’t practice, but I am proud of America. I am proud that we were able to do this.

A lot of people would say that I’m wrong, that the reason why Barack got elected was because he was black. But I would tell them that even though 95% of black Americans voted for Obama, that is not why he was elected. It’s because of the youth, Hispanics and new voters as well. Also, don’t forget that around 43% of ‘white’ American’s voted for him as well.

I do know that Dr King’s dream is not fully realized, there is still a lot of evidence of hate based on the color of someone’s skin throughout this country. However, I do believe that tomorrow might be the single greatest sign of his dream finally becoming a reality since he gave his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

I’ve got the basics done, I’ve tried to find a good title, a good tag line, the dedication to be consistent and now it’s just time to put out content that has a focus.

As far as content goes, this blog will cover many different topics that I find interesting on a day-to-day basis.This blog will cover sports, philosophy, technology, faith, and anything else that I find relevant and timely. I think that after a while I will more than likely rest on a certain topic, but for now I’m just going to wing it. Hopefully the things I write about will be compelling enough that you take some time each week to check it out.

Oh and by the way, to get to know me better here is a picture of me and Eli, I know I said this wouldn’t be about baby pictures but I had to do it just this one time, after all wouldn’t you if you had the cutest baby in the world?