Needed - A New Weight Class?

At 5'10" and 144 pounds sopping wet, I've always believed in the idea of athletes competing by class. My partner is 6'7" and over twice my weight. I suggested we might want to play some racketball one day. He asked me if my life insurance was paid up.

Well this guy is Nikolay Valuev, crowned in December as Russia's first World Boxing Assn. heavyweight champion. He is 5" taller than my partner at 7 feet. He weighs 323 and it would appear none of that is fat.

HT to Drudgereport.com who sourced it at the LA Times.

An Eventful Week - Part 2 Warner Publishes My 7th Book

Allow me to shamelessly flog my new book. If you are now an owner or manager of a small business, if you are thinking of possibly starting a small business, or if you know someone who is in one of those categories, please go to Amazon right now and buy a copy or 2 or 6 of Running a 21st Century Small Business: The Owner's Guide to Starting and Growing Your Business.

My last book on this subject was reviewed by Inc. Magazine, who stated that it was among the three best books on small business (out of over 70 the reviewed.) I think that's 'nuff said.

First Five Question to Ask Jesus in Heaven - Some Serious, Some Not So

If this subject is interesting to you, go visit Collecting My Thoughts again for a great story and answer.

Michael Williams first question of Jesus: 1. What am I supposed to do now that I'm in Heaven? It gets better. Go here

A friend of Michael Williams, W. Francis Porretto starts this way.

* "You interpreted all those times I used Your Name for emphasis as compliments, right? Right?"
* "You didn't really mind that during religion class my thoughts were less about you than about ... more

Vox Lauri doubles up with five not so serious and five serious answers. My favorite of the 10 - "2. When were you talking to me, when was I making up stuff? See the rest

First to Respond to Meme - Questions I'll Ask God

Here is a teaser from the answers at Collecting My Thoughts.

The question is: What are the first five things you want to ask Jesus when you get to heaven?

1. It’s so obvious when I looked around my earthly home, that you are a master artist. Is it the fallen world that makes so many of us visually and artistically challenged and impairs our thought closing our eyes to the beauty?

2. Where are you keeping all our pets and how soon can we get together? It must be like Noah’s Ark around here because

The rest is here

An Eventful Week - Part 1 This Blog Turns One

The first post was Jan 19, 2005. It is still truth today

Sex Kills

Out of wedlock sexual activity is one of the main causes of death, disease, emotional illness, and long lists of other maladies.

From Fox News

Risky Sex Habits Linked to Early Death, Disability

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

By Jennifer Warner

Risky sexual behavior among Americans is putting the public’s health at risk, according to a new CDC study.

Researchers found that the rates of early death and disability attributed to sexual behavior in the U.S. are triple those of any other industrialized country, and women bear the brunt of this public health burden.

The study showed that sexual behavior accounted for nearly 30,000 deaths and around 20 million adverse health consequences in 1998, such as infertility, abortions, and sexually transmitted infections.

Researchers found cervical cancer (search) and HIV infection (search) were the leading causes of sexual behavior-related death among women and HIV was the single biggest cause of death among men.

They say the findings highlight the range of adverse effects that sexual behavior has on public health.

More Evidence of Heart Benefits from Dark Chocolate

I'm eating chocolate twice a day, and taking my vitamins twice a day. It's beginning to look like my less expensive and better tasting chocolate may be more important than those expensive vitamins.

Antioxidants in cocoa might help your heart by keeping your blood vessels relaxed, thus easing blood pressure and helping circulation.

So says a study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study shows that cocoa’s antioxidants -- called flavonoids -- coax the body into making more nitric oxide, which relaxes the blood vessels.

The researchers included Norman Hollenberg, MD, PhD, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He tells WebMD that cocoa’s flavonoids could improve heart health.

The rest of the story

Celebrate My Blog 1 Year Anniversary - Do This Meme

Some folks feel that those who have the whatever it is that "real" bloggers have that would result in staying at it for a year, deserve to start their very own meme. The one I've been thinking about for months might have already been done, but if it has, I haven't seen it. It looks easy at first, but try it and see. The five people I'm going to tag are the five who I visit daily, thus they should do their duty and pass it along to five others after answering it themselves. Michael Williams, Mrs. Michael Williams, Christian Nichols, Josh Richie, and Norma Bruce.

The question is: What are the first five things you want to ask Jesus when you get to heaven?

Here are mine:

1. How can their be free will if You know what is going to happen?
2. Can you lose your salvation?
3. How many people actually recieved the sign gifts after 100 AD?
4. Did any species ever evolve from another species?
5. Why did you make women so difficult to understand?

If you answer the questions on your blog, send me a link, and I will post it.

Interesting Meme

Not sure why they call this a meme. You can do this little mind game if you want. Just put in the answer that first comes to mind in place of my answers.

1. My uncle once: visited Central America and caught some weird tropical disease that resulted in him having to have an oxygen tank nearby for the rest of his life.

2. Never in my life: done bungee cord jumping

3. When I was five: I couldn't nap at naptime.

4. High School is: maybe the coolest time in life

5. My parents are: my heroes

6. I once met: a guy who skunked me in ping pong

7. There's this girl I know who: calls me Poppy

8. Once, at a bar: in NY, I left my expensive, almost new, trenchcoat. It wasn't turned in.

9. Last night: My wife and I watched Season 1, 12:00noon to 1:00 pm of 24.

10. Next time I go to church: I would like to stay awake, totally awake.

11. When I turn my head left, I see: Teddy Kennedy

12. When I turn my head right, I see: correct political thought.

13. How many days until my birthday?: 59, but whose counting

14. If I was a character written by Shakespeare I'd be: advising Ceaser

15. By this time next year: I would like to be less concerned about money

16. A better name for me would be: Gary. Its my brother's name, but lists of people have called me that who don't know that my brother's name is Gary.

17. I have a hard time understanding: how to get in touch with my feelings, but maybe that isn't about understanding, or is it?

18. If I ever go back to school I: will be shocked. I hated school. All 20 years of it.

19. You know I like you if: I spend time with you.

20. If I won an award, the first person I'd thank would be: My wife

21. Take my advice: Trust Jesus

22. My ideal breakfast is: thick french toast with lots of butter and jelly

23. If you visit my hometown: you'll be miserable hot in summer and more miserable cold in winter, not like my adopted home in Los Angeles

24. Why won't someone: exhibit real leadership in Congress

25. If you spend the night at my house: You will have a bunch of laughs because my wife and son are funny.

26. I'd stop my wedding: if I found out my wife-to-be was only 90% sure

27. The world could do without: Ted Kennedy, Castro, Kim (Korea), Pelosi, California Legislature, France.

28. I'd rather lick the belly of a cockroach than: watch Brokeback Mountain

29. Paper clips are more useful than: remote control car doors on mini vans

30. If I do anything well, it is: analyze

31. And by the way: I have the greatest family on earth.

Why Is O'Reilly Only Moaning About Gas Prices

Fox Commentator, Bill O'Reilly likes to claim that the oil and gas mega companies are all working the system to keep prices artifically high. I don't know enough to say it isn't so. However, I would suggest O'Reilly broaden his scope.

1. Gold is almost at all time highs, as is platinum.
2. Plastic raw materials are at record highs and going higher
3. Natural gas has just dropped this week, but is at historic highs

I am more inclined to think that the guys who are gaming the oil prices are the Russians, Venezuelans, Iranians, etc. Every time the price heads south, one of these three creates a crisis to make the market skittish. Lets have an investigation into whether these three governments are meeting in smoke filled rooms to decide who will spook the market next.

And, by the way, Bill (and I like him for the most part), high oil and gas prices, over time will result in new sources coming on stream faster. That is the beauty of capitalism.

Global Warming - Plants Are a Major CAUSE

If you visit here regularly, you know I'm a skeptic of the whole global warming thing. My primary beliefs are that the ecosystem is far too complex to determine; if we are in a period of global warming; whether we can extrapolate what is now happening in any meaningful way into the future; what the causes are; and that we have no chance of reversing it, in any case. Our best hope is to adapt to it, if it is real.

Now this as reported in Junk Science:

Max Planck Institute researchers reported their discovery that living plants emit into the atmosphere methane (natural gas), the third most important greenhouse gas behind water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Until this discovery, scientists thought the methane in the atmosphere was largely produced by bacterial processes not involving oxygen. But the Max Planck researchers report that living plants -- two-thirds of which are in tropical rainforest regions -- produce 10 to 30 percent of annual global methane production.

The implications of this study are stunning. Previously, it was thought that the net effect of growing plants was to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and, therefore, to reduce global warming. But in the words of New Zealand climate researcher David Lowe, “We now have the specter that new forests might increase greenhouse warming through methane emissions rather than decrease it by being sinks for carbon dioxide.”

Like I said . . .

Iran President Ahmadinejad May Be More Dangerous Than Anyone Has Imagined

I don't know where Michael Williams is finding all this good stuff, but here is a pretty horrific indication of why Ahmadinejad acts in such extreme ways without regard for World opinion.

Mahdaviat derives from mahdi, Arabic for "rightly-guided one," a major figure in Islamic eschatology. He is, explains the Encyclopaedia of Islam, "the restorer of religion and justice who will rule before the end of the world." The concept originated in the earliest years of Islam and, over time, became particularly identified with the Shi‘ite branch. Whereas "it never became an essential part of Sunni religious doctrine," continues the encyclopedia, "Belief in the coming of the Mahdi of the Family of the Prophet became a central aspect of the faith in radical Shi‘ism," where it is also known as the return of the Twelfth Imam. ...

As mayor of Tehran, for example, Mr. Ahmadinejad appears to have in 2004 secretly instructed the city council to build a grand avenue to prepare for the Mahdi. A year later, as president, he allocated $17 million for a blue-tiled mosque closely associated with mahdaviat in Jamkaran, south of the capital. He has instigated the building of a direct Tehran-Jamkaran railroad line. He had a list of his proposed cabinet members dropped into a well adjacent to the Jamkaran mosque, it is said, to benefit from its purported divine connection.

He often raises the topic, and not just to Muslims. When addressing the United Nations in September, Mr. Ahmadinejad flummoxed his audience of world political leaders by concluding his address with a prayer for the Mahdi's appearance: "O mighty Lord, I pray to you to hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace."

This guy is just about as crazy as N Korea Pres Kim. When Rice says that we can't trust Ahmadinejad with Nukes, she isn't kidding. I still contend that we will have to use arms against Iran, probably this year.

And What About This Crazy Russian

Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of Russia's Liberal and Democratic Party had this to say about our Secretary of State:

Condoleezza Rice is a very cruel, offended woman who lacks men's attention," he added. "Such women are very rough. … They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: 'Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian!'

"Complex-prone women are especially dangerous. They are like malicious mothers-in-law, women that evoke hatred and irritation with everyone. Everybody tries to part with such women as soon as possible. A mother-in-law is better than a single and childless political persona, though."

HT to Drudge. For the rest of the article

Diamond Lane Tomfoolery - Or Carpool Lane Rules are Dumb

Bet you didn't know that your's truly was the guy who started Citizens vs Diamond Lanes back in the 70's and helped take the stupid lane off the Santa Monica Freeway. True Story. So it may be time to start up the organization again. Consider:

* In many other place, like N. California, there are no barriers to enter or exit the carpool lane. This eliminates the traffic jams at the exit locations. Why do they have this concept in S. Cal? To punish us?

On the most sophisticated freeway in the US, the 105, there is one stretch where there is no exit lane for about 4 miles. Makes no sense at all.

* Why are carpool lanes designated as such 24/7? Is anyone carpooling at 10:00 on Saturday night? But if there is an accident, having the carpool lane available would potentially help free traffic.

Carpool lanes should only be such during rush hour. It makes no logical sense to incentivise the use of the lane any other time.

* It is pretty common for carpool lanes to be just as jammed as the regular lanes just when you need them most. Where that's the case, shouldn't those locations change the rule to 3 per car like the San Berdu Fwy. Don't send hate mail. This is logical. If your going to have the darn lanes, have them at least be logical.

* On ramp lights. Back when I was fighting the cause, most of the members wanted to fight on ramp lights after we won the Diamond Lane battle. I decided against, because I was convinced that an appropriate metering of traffic into the flow of traffic on the fwy would be a good thing. Unfortunately, Caltrans does -0-, nothing, not one thing, to manage these flows. How hard can it be to set use existing cameras and counting methods to feed back information into computerized lights allowing for changes in the lights as conditions warrant? YIKES.

HT to Mike William's blog on preborn babies in carpools for reminding me to post these thoughts.

What Women Really Want

At various times in my life I have thought I really knew a lot about this subject. At other times it feels like I know absolutely nothing and am trending downhill. Now, I at least understand why I am so confused. According to a recent study, more than 50% of the women surveyed, when offered a list of things they wish they could change:

From a wish list that included never having money worries again, dating the A-list star of their choice or a genius-level IQ score, 51 per cent of women still plumped for a slimmer figure, according to a survey for the website tescodiets.com.

I really work hard at keeping my weight under control, but

One in three women admitted that they spend more time worrying about their weight than their finances, jobs or families. And while 29 per cent said their biggest dread was going to the dentist and 16 per cent cited looking for a new job, a massive 40 per cent admitted their worst fear was having to try on clothes in a shop's communal fitting rooms.

Personally, I don't think it is healthy to turn any aspect of life into an idol, but if I were choosing between IQ and size of any part of my body, the choice would be easy.

Nineteen out of 20 of the female population say that they place a higher priority on having a smaller waist than on their intelligence.

I have probably already said way too much about this subject, but I suspect for most men, this one study will be more eye-opening than the entire book Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus.

HT to WorldNetDaily.com and The Independent

More on What You Fear - Read This if You Care About Your Future

What you fear may define your politics. I argued this a few days ago in this place. Now Mark Steyn has written one of the most important articles I've seen in a while. It is being widely linked throughout the www. Its the Demography, Stupidclearly points to low birth rate as the most likely cause of massive changes in the way we live IN THE SHORT TERM.

...the political platforms of at least one party in the United States and pretty much all parties in the rest of the West are largely about what one would call the secondary impulses of society--government health care, government day care (which Canada's thinking of introducing), government paternity leave (which Britain's just introduced). We've prioritized the secondary impulse over the primary ones: national defense, family, faith and, most basic of all, reproductive activity--"Go forth and multiply," because if you don't you won't be able to afford all those secondary-impulse issues, like cradle-to-grave welfare.

He says of multiculturism and tolerance:

our tolerance of our own tolerance is making us intolerant of other people's intolerance, which is intolerable.

On tree huggers:

If you've read Jared Diamond's bestselling book "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed," you'll know it goes into a lot of detail about Easter Island going belly up because they chopped down all their trees. Apparently that's why they're not a G-8 member or on the U.N. Security Council. Same with the Greenlanders and the Mayans and Diamond's other curious choices of "societies." Indeed, as the author sees it, pretty much every society collapses because it chops down its trees.

That's enough of a teaser. You need to read the whole thing


HT to HughHewitt.com and his radio show

Marketing in the Church, of the Church, and for the Church

As a marketer and a Christian the issue of how one markets a local church is of great interest. I have encouraged my local church to use various methods to market themselves to the community. My primary recommendation has been to ask the community what they would like their local church to look like, what their needs are that might be met by the local church, and then go into the community and prove our love for them by showing them we really care.

Today my partner pointed me to a web site which considers this issue on many levels, and does so in a way that is accessible to everyone and very fun to explore. There are also many links at the site which bring in other points of view that are valuable.

Here is a sample:

No Need to Impress

"That's why it's so wonderful to have a home church. We get to mess up in front of them. Have fun with them. Experiment with them. Try things that work, and others that don't. It's nice to have a community of people where you don't really need to impress anybody. They become your 'soundboard' and a little bit of a testing ground where you can explore things together." -Eric Owyoung, vocalist for the worship band Something Like Silas, which despite releasing a national album is sticking with its San Diego church home (Source: Christian Music Today).

Church is supposed to be a place of acceptance and love where there's no need to impress. Perfection should be checked at the door. Which makes clamoring for excellence in church marketing a sticky proposition.

One of the links offers this:

Simply put, every copywriting
strategy can be found FIRST in the Bible. This may
appear to be a strong statement but I challenge the
reader to prove otherwise. As I did the research for my
latest ebook "77 Ways to Skyrocket Your Website's
Conversion", I kept saying to myself "but that's in the
Bible � that's in the Bible."

I would like to take a look at 5 adcopy principles and
show you that they are as old as the Scriptures. This
article is not meant to 'convert' you so read with an
open mind ... ready? Let's go!

1. Stress benefits not features.

It's the Garden of Eden. The serpent approaches the
woman Eve to get her to take of the forbidden fruit.
Does he rave about the color, taste and texture of the
fruit? No, he sells Eve on benefits. "Your eyes will be
opened, you will be like God ..." (Genesis 3:4). Now
that's a benefit, not a feature at all. And did Eve
fall for it? She surely did.

Worship as The Main Thing

Our Bible study tonight covered 1st Chronicles 9-12. Ezra (the likely author) went against the understanding of the leadership of his time to suggest that Israel was called on to worship God in the fashion of David.

Many millennia later, we have all kinds of things we call worship. However, our culture today knows very little about worship. The closest thing we have to the kind of worship God intends us to direct towards Him is the worship that we have of self. We believe in our own ability to rule our own destiny. We look to our own devices and our inner being for answers to daily problems. We only trust ourselves for our future happiness and sustenance.

In the time of David, the people knew that the king had the ability to control their lives and destinies. The revered the king because of some combination of fear and love. Even the worst and most horrific leaders commanded respect because of their power and authority. This model made it easier for people of those times to revere and worship a God who was like an unseen king.

We have no such kings today in Western Culture. The common suggestion that we worship money or things or celebrity is inadequate. We don't worship those things in the sense that those in kingdoms worship their kings.

Real worship is based on the abject and clear understanding that the person worshipped has power and authority to dramatically effect our lives. At the same time, the worship also derives from the love we have for the object of our worship. This love comes from respect for the character of the loved one and from awe at the beauty and power of that person. Finally it comes from our innate desire to reciprocate for the love we feel from the loved one.

So it is likely that the closest we come to worship in our culture is the way a dependent child feels about a loving parent. The difference is that the child doesn't do worship, but rather is worshipful. I think this is what God meant when He said that David had the heart of God. His worship (singing, dancing, praying) came from his love for his God, not the other way around. He couldn't help himself.

God grant me the spirit of worship to the point of not be able to help myself.

More Predictions for 2006 - A Critical Year

Never fearing to go out on a limb, here are a few important things to watch for in 2006.

I have been watching a lot of football the last few weeks, and a common refrain from the announcers is: "This is a critical series," or "This third down will make or break the game." I think this is going to be that kind of year. Since I'm an optimist, you'll note that my predictions are all pretty positive.

1. Alioto will be confirmed. We as a nation will start taking small steps away from the culture of death.

2. We will have substantial troop reductions in Iraq. There will be huge pressure on Syria and Saudi Arabia to become more "civilized." They will do so. Baby steps.

3. Unless the current president of Iran is deposed by his own people, or unless he chooses to dramatically change his tune, the US or Israel will take out the Iranian nuclear capability and its medium range missles.

4. The economy will continue to do just fine through the first three quarters. The fed will loosen monitary policy starting in June to stave off worries of stagnation.

5. Immigration reform will be fully in place by April. There will be a guest worker program and a major step up in effective barriers.

6. This combination of effective government on issues people care about will result in excellent results for Republicans in November, but will not help Bush to get his other desired results, like SS reform or drilling in Alaska.

7. Dean will be dropped as Dem leader by April.

8. We are already at full employment. Worker shortages will be the biggest issue in the late Summer, especially as immigration reform starts to work.