Credit Card Bill

You may have heard that the congress has passed a new bill, changing the way credit cards work. Congress is working to protect consumers, who have been bearing the burdens of the companies (who else would bear the burden? See the bottom of this note). No matter that the Federal Reserve had already tightened a lot of the rules, congress wanted it's name on a bill.

The new law (to be signed soon) will make it harder for people under age 21 to get cards, and "it would also ban rate hikes unless a consumer is more than 60 days late -- and then restore the previous rate after six months if minimum payments are made." (According to CNN) There are other items reported to be in the bill, I found a good list at the Simple Dollar (this site). He even some predictions as to what might come about in the future. Some of bill's line items include restrictions on raising interest rates without a 45 day notice, putting a stop to double-cycle billing, which hit me back in April 2007 (see here). Teaser rates that last a couple of months would be gone for good.

So what do you think of this new bill? I'll share my opinion. I don't think much about it. And neither should you. Not that I think bad about it, just that I haven't wasted many brain cycles thinking about it.

I'm one of the freeloaders, the folks who charge using their credit card, then pay it off each month. I never (except in April 2007) get hit with interest rates, fees, etc. In fact, I get reward points which I trade in on free travel, so I'm making money off the cards (well, not much). I pay no annual fee and therefore, I'm getting a free ride. The credit card companies are making this money by charging fees on other people. They charge interest, late fees and annual fees.

So this sounds like a reverse "tax", much like the lottery (see my note here), a Robin Hood thing - take from the rich, give to the poor. So this legislation seems like a good idea, right?

Actually, I think it's not a good idea. First, there seems to be some hypocrisy here. We're telling credit card companies they've been bad corporate citizens, but we're not telling the consumers they've been bad. Isn't that a little one-sided. Additionally at a time when we're trying to encourage our banks and financial institutions to be cut their expenses and be more liquid, we are cutting one of their tools to increase their liquidity. If they can't make a profit "on the backs of the consumers," how will they make a profit? If they don't make a profit, they will go out of business and then who profits? Certainly not the consumer.

Many conservatives have been saying that a likely change will be increases in annual fees. People like me will suddenly see new fees where they had none before. The Simple Dollar (another reference) disagrees. No problem, I'll change cards or eliminate them all together.

You may say that it's fine for me to suggest I'll change or eliminate cards, what about those who can't afford to do that? They have a super high balance and bad credit and can't get new cards. My answer is simple, if you can't afford the stuff you bought, you shouldn't have bought it. Credit cards are nothing more than a way of deferring payment on something. If you can't afford it today, what makes you think you can afford it a month from now? Instead of paying $25 a month for that big LCD TV, why not save $25 a month and pay for it in cash?

One thing is certain, this new legislation will make credit cards less attractive. Those with poor credit are less likely to get cards, because the companies can't charge the exorbitant fees. And those who pay the cards off monthly are likely to see less benefits. In reality, this is probably a good thing. Which brings me back to the original statement. Why did congress do this? Most of the line items in this bill were already set to take effect next year due to the changes made by the Federal Reserve. So why all the ranting and raving? Because congress wanted to have their name beside something good.

Seems like much ado about nothing.

Sweet Caroline - *updated*

No, I'm not talking about that song by Neil Diamond (which can be seen/heard here). I'm talking about my newest grand-daughter, Caroline Adair Beam. She was born early this morning (4:44am - that's easy to remember) and is my oldest daughter's first child. She came a little earlier than expected, weighing in at 6 pounds 8 ounces and measuring 18 inches.

Caroline joins her two newly born girl cousins Audry (detailed here) and Kayden Grace (detailed here) and will likely torment their 3 year old cousin Anthony (way back here). He's in for a mess between these three and another girl on the way (just hang on Anna Grace, your time's coming).

I will have to share this little girl with her paternal grandfather who is on a local talk-radio show. He & I tend to think in some similar ways, he was able to start playing the Neil Diamond song a few months ago when they chose the name. I may have him beat though, I think I still have the song on an 8-track tape somewhere.

For Caroline's dedication here, I'll use some of the words Neil Diamond wrote: "Sweet Caroline - good times never seemed so good." And when I see her, it will be "Hands, touchin hands - reachin out - touchin me - touchin you."

I'm also going to repeat what I said with some of the others - babies are a sign from God that He intends for the world to continue. A miracle from God, babies teach us so much. Caroline has the ability to teach her parents, her grand-parents, aunts and uncles. Or to be used by God to teach them.

It will be late this week before I get to see this beautiful child, I planned a full week out of town and can't back out of it. Congratulations Adam & Ashley! I know you will be great parents.

*Update* Caroline's paternal grandfather called into his radio program to announce her birth. But I scooped him here.

Star Trek - no spoilers

Ok, tonight I went to see the new Star Trek movie. Don't worry, I won't spoil it for you. I will tell you that it will blow your mind. Ok, if you watch the Big Bang Theory and you're like Sheldon, that means I already spoiled it. But if so, that's just too bad.

I will say the movie was great. It stayed true to The Original Series (TOS), with a few changes that were explained. Yes, there were one or two cheesy lines, but they were easily overlooked (I'm a blogger, not a critic). There was very little use of old tricks from the series and when they were used, they made sense.

You get introduced to most of the characters from TOS. I have to say my favorite is Bones (Dr. McCoy). You learn new things about him that are funny. The character is better than I ever imagined. I never saw Nurse Chapel, but heard her name called once. And Yeoman Rand was missing (or at least I missed her). All of the other characters were there. And very believable.

The movie had some good special effects, but the writers didn't rely on that to make the movie. Ok, there was too much hand to hand fighting and maybe a little too much space fighting, but hey this is Star Trek. Yes, Kirk is shown with his shirt off, but again...

My only complaint was the profanity. We made it through three years of the series without any profanity, we could have gone through two hours of the movie without it.

I give the movie a solid thumbs up and I'd go see it again.

You also meet Captain Pike. Some of us remember Captain Christoper Pike from TOS or the original pilot. Something about him stuck with me through the whole movie. When I got back here, I looked him up on the Internet and realized that he was played by Bruce Greenwood. This is the same guy who starred in my all-time-favorite-too-soon-cancelled TV Show "No Where Man." (sometime I have to see if I can get that on DVD). It made me like Captain Pike even more than I did in the original pilot.

New way to invest $50,000

Seems like someone has found a new way to invest money, by building a nickel pyramid. On my Google home page, I have a selection that is the "How To" of the day. Actually, there are three entries and they sometimes change more than once a day, so it's just the "How To" section. Today, they had an article on "How To Coin Stack a Nickel Pyramid."

Seems you take eleven nickels and make a stack. Then you build a base that is 2x2, that is four stacks close together. This is followed by a fifth stack on top of the four. That gives you a pyramid of two levels.

Now to make it a pyramid of 3 levels, you need 9 at the bottom, 4 at the second level and one on the top. It doesn't take an Egyptian to see that this pyramid can quickly start costing some money.

See the complete "How To" here. It shows a pyramid that it says is over 1,000 nickels. That's a little over $50. I think somehow they cheated, it looks like it has 15 levels to me and would be like the pyramid in the video, over 13,000 nickels and about $682.

But the guy in the video has a goal of over 1million nickels. That would be 65 rows. And about $50thousand. So if this guy is successful, he'll have $50thousand tied up in nickels on his dining room table. That would be about 25thousand rolls on nickels. I don't think you can get that at the drive thru of your local bank.

Of course any time we talk about investing, you're going to want to know the return. How much money will you get back when you cash in all those nickels? Well, it's not hard to figure. And the return isn't that great. But it's a lot better than most stocks have done the last year or so...

Enjoy making your nickel pyramid.

Happy Mother's Day

How many women in your life do you need to thank on this special day? How many have shown their selflessness, have given up part of themselves to be a mother to you?

At the risk of boring my readers, I wanted to list a few of the special moms in my life. Of course I have to start with the one that brought me here, my own mom. As far back as I remember, she was a working mom. Oh, I remember when she first got the job as the substitute teacher and can't recall what she did before that. Or the job at the temp agency. But in my mind she was always a working mom. Cook, cleaning, all the rest too. Even found a way to slip me a little cash on weekends when I was in college, when I know she didn't have the cash for herself. Somehow thanks doesn't seem to cut it as a response.

The second mother I need to thank is the mother of my children. Some of you know that my first wife passed away 10 years ago. She gave 15 years of her life to raising our 3. Boy if she could see them now.

God is good and in everything He finds ways to show His glory. A little over eight years ago, I met a woman who was a mother herself. Her kids were out of the house, she had "finished" the job of raising her kids (do you ever finish?). She gladly stepped in to help complete the job with mine. She's given up a lot of her dreams over the last eight years to make sure that they have a chance at theirs. Trying not to overshadow their own mother, but also trying to help them in the way that she knows will result in mature adults (after all, she was already batting 1000).

And then there's our girls and girls-in-laws. All four are mothers or will be in about a month. For one of them, this is their first mother's day with a little one. For two, they have the sweet knowledge that in a few days or weeks, they will hold the little one in their arms. They all have no idea what the next 18 years will bring, but I know that they will devote everything to the little ones.

I could go on and talk about my sister and her giving up her career for the second time to devote to her daughter, or my sisters-in-laws and how they drop everything to take care of theirs. You get the picture.

To all of these mothers, and all of you mothers out their, thank you for what you do, have done and will do. Thank you for giving of your life to take care of us. Thank you for giving up the things you want for being mothers. Happy Mother's Day. Somehow, one day just isn't enough.

Randy's popularity is dropping

Well, it looks like my popularity is dropping. Or at least the popularity of my name. Seems the Social Security Administration has been tracking the popularity of names and you can find your name at this site.

Being adventurous, I looked at my name popularity over the last 50 years. You're given the rank in popularity from 1 to 1000. Looks like in 1958, my name was the 32nd most popular name. Comparatively, in 2008 (the most recent year reported), my rank was down to 301 (up from 321 in 2007).

So I did a little math and created a popularity index. The index will be a value from 0.1 to 100. Looks like 1959 was my best year (which happens to be the year I was born, so I guess mom & dad inflated the number that year). But no matter how you look at the chart above, looks like I'm headed downhill.

My kids aren't helping much, I had two grandchildren born in December and two more due in June (with one threatening to make an early appearance). But all four of these are girls, not much chance for a "Randy" in the bunch.

So, it sounds like it's time for a new "rule" from me to my kids. From now on, you are only allowed to have BOYS and you MUST name them "Randy". Even if you have more than one, after all if George Foreman can name all his kids George, you can name all of your kids "Randy." And remember, you do this because "I'm the Dad."

Unthink what you thought about KFC

That's KFC's tagline for their new grilled chicken. Earlier this week, Oprah announced that you could download a coupon good for a free 2-piece meal. Apparently, KFC underestimate the demand. The website was very busy and KFC stores have "sold out" of the free meals. There were rumors of a riot in NY City, but KFC says that's not true.

Anyway, I printed my limit of four coupons and decided to take my son out to lunch. Hey, if it's free, I'm a big spender. I even gave the two extra coupons to my daughter and her husband (their kids can go hungry). The coupon was truly a freebie, you get two pieces of chicken, two sides and a biscuit. Manager's choice on the kind of chicken (white/dark meat) and the kind of sides.

We first encountered some skepticism about our coupons as they didn't have a good clear watermark (I guess my laser printer didn't print them well). But after conferring with someone in the back, they decided my coupons were genuine and granted me my free meal. Apparently, it's not really the manager's choice what kinds of chicken and sides you get unless the young lady at the counter was the manager (if so, why did someone else have to approve the coupon?) She quickly boxed up two pieces of chicken a side of potatoes and a side of cold slaw. I was surprised that she didn't ask if I wanted a drink (which I did).

So, we spent $1.59 for a medium drink (+ tax times two for two drinks) and had a meal. After we ate, I explained to my son that this was a marketing test to see how people liked the new taste. He said it was ok, but not great. I agreed. This is supposed to be lower fat, lower cholesterol. But if I'm going to KFC, I want the hard stuff.

If you try the grilled chicken, I'd be interested in what you think.

P.S. My daughter called, they wouldn't let her use the two coupons I gave her. Seems they couldn't see the watermark. Even though all four coupons were printed at the same time.

Sinko de Mayo!

Happy Sinko de Mayo everyone. A co-worker from out of town is coming in today and it was my job to co-ordinate dinner. So yesterday I sent out a note suggesting a Mexican restaurant. I included this bit of history and decided to put it on my blog today.

For those not familiar, Sinko de Mayo represents a big event in Mexican history. The actual event has been over-shadowed by the parties, so most people aren't familiar with the history. Details are sketchy, but it appears that a shipment of mayonnaise was being delivered from Spain to Mexico, but there were significant taxes on the mayonnaise. Taking a clue from the Boston Tea Party, native Mexicans slipped onto the ship and loaded it with charges. When the charges exploded later that night, the ship sank - hence the phrase "Sinko de Mayo!". The holiday comes on May 5 this year.

Enjoy the day!

(Oh and Adam, the exclamation points are for you!!!)

Who's your daddy?

When I say this phrase, it comes out "Hoosier daddy?" (which is approved by Wikipedia) or "who's yo daddy". Wikipedia says the phrase "is commonly used as a boastful claim of dominance over the intended listener." I've been thinking about this phrase and how it relates to our present day government. It's been rolling around in my mind for a while and I had the chance to explain it to one of my daughters this weekend while my son was listening.

As I explained to my daughter, "yo daddy" does things for you when you are young. He buys you things like clothes, food, shelter and maybe some things you want as opposed to need. As you get older, you find that "yo daddy" has certain rules. Rules for the way you drive, rules for where you can go and sometimes rules for who you can see.

When you borrow money to buy something like a car or a house, you accept a new daddy. The bank becomes "yo daddy." They make sure you keep insurance on your car, make sure you pay taxes for your house and will probably require you to risk some of your own money. They will likely look over your shoulder to make sure you're getting a good deal and not getting ripped off. FHA loans used to require extra inspections as "yo daddy" was stricter than most.

One of my daughters (who was the one hearing this) decided she didn't like her daddy's rules and decided to move out on her own. She's learned that some of her daddy's rules weren't all that bad after all.

Now, the government wants to step up help people in a lot of new ways. I'm convinced that universal health care is coming, we just don't know the style it will take yet. There is already an expanded health program for children, there's a promise of new medicine from stem cell research, new foreign policy, etc. The question comes up "hoosier daddy?" What rules will "yo daddy" have for you to live by?

Swine Flu Prevention

My dear sweet wife sent me this note with a simple solution to prevent swine flu.

Don't do what this little girl is doing!!

Swine Flu Pandemic *Updated*

*Update* I guess I scooped the local news paper. Hope my son-in-law is reading this. Seems the craziness has already started. Today's headline (I posted last night) says "Flu-likecases shutMauldinHigh today" (complete with typo). See their article here.


Unless you've been ignoring news on radio, TV and the newspapers, you've heard a lot in the last few days about the Swine Flu Pandemic. Seems like everyone is up in arms and running around like chicken little. Just how serious is this disease?

Well, I don't want to make it sound small. There has been 1 death in the US and the parents of that child don't think it's small. But let's look at the facts.

There are approximately 307 million people in the US. With about 100 cases of the flu confirmed, that means there is one case for every 3 million people. This means about 3 people in all of New York City.

The disease is more prevalent in Mexico. The population there is about 111 million and there are about 1000 cases of the flu. 68 people have died. That means one death for every 1.6 million people (about 4 in a city the size of New York) and that one in 111 thousand are affected. I'm a big Clemson fan, if I went to three sold-out home games, there would be two infected people at the games.

When looking at it this way, one might wonder why is this being pushed so hard? Communist plot? Democratic plot? No, I think it's very simple. TV, radio and newspapers like to sell TV, radio and newspapers, so the folks in charge like to stir things up. Also, the people at WHO and related agencies won't have a job if there are no pandemics.

P.S. I'm working on a multi-part post on President Obama's performance. Be looking for it to come.

Aha Moment

We've all had one of those moments, times where something clicks and we suddenly understand something we've struggled with for a long time. Teacher's live for these moments and can see it in their student's eyes. Comic strips show it as a light bulb going off above your heard and from this article at WebMD, it may not be too far off (the article says these moments are "marked by a surge of electrical activity in the brain." - What will Al Gore say when he hears this, try to legislate aha's out of existence?)

But it seems that TV Queen Oprah may have had one too many "Aha" moments. She found out that Mutual of Omaha Bank (is MOB the correct acronym?) is the "official sponsor of the aha moment" according to their website here. Seems the MOB thinks an aha moment is that "moment of clarity... a defining moment when you gain real wisdom - wisdom you can use to change your life." A little wordy, but a good definition.

Oprah's lawyers sent the MOB a letter telling them to cease and desist using the phrase, for fear it might look like she supports the MOB. She claims the legal rights to those words. Of course the MOB claims that even if she trademarked the phrase, "she 'abandoned' those rights by failing to 'police their alleged mark' when other businesses used it in the past. (source here). Seems the MOB thinks the words are free game (but then how could they be the sponsor?)

Looks like all of this is headed to court. I hope the judge has an "aha moment" and throws it out AFTER splitting court costs between the two parties. And I hope they don't see my post and start coming after me. But if they do, I'll just claim that with the greenhouse effect, I'm afraid to use any additional electrical charges in my brain for fear of the environment. Hey, I wonder if that excuse will work for my boss?

Innovative Discipline

Ok, this lady in New York might have stepped over the line. Seems her two kids were fighting in the back seat, so she pulled over and put them out. One of them caught up with her and got back in, but the 10 year old was left stranded. A passerby picked up the young girl and took her to the police station.

When the mom contacted police to report the 10 year old missing, she was arrested for "endangering the welfare of a child." Maybe there was more to the story.

But it made me think, what innovative discipline techniques have I used? I know that I DID indeed pull the car over to give my kids a spanking (my daughter said more than once). I supposed in some books that would be child abuse.

One of my favorites (I stole from a caller to Dr. Laura) was taking the bedroom door off the hinges when one of my girls slammed the door (she was warned of the specific consequences before it happened). She changed in the bathroom and lived without a door for a week.

Another discipline was for locking the bedroom door. After explaining to my son for the 100th (hyperbole here) time that he wasn't supposed to do this, I quietly turned the door knob around so he could no longer lock me out. I was tempted on more than one occasion to lock him in, but never gave into the temptation. After a couple of weeks, he quietly put the doorknob back, but he didn't lock himself in any more (at least for a while).

Probably the most questionable thing I did was for sticking the tongue out at the table. Having just seen a Star Wars movie with Obie Wan Kenobe and Jar-Jar Binks, I knew what to do. I challenged her to do it again. When she did, I moved with Jedi speed and grabbed her tongue before she could pull it back in her mouth. I don't recall the exact response, but I'm sure surprise was involved. And I recall she never stuck her tongue out at us again (at least not where I could grab it).

So what innovative discipline techniques have you seen or used?

My second and third TEA party and opposition

Last week I told you about my first TEA party. That was Monday, on Wednesday I went to one at lunch time in Simpsonville (the picture here were before the party started) and then I went to one Friday night that was much larger. And there was some opposition to the Friday night party.

The Simpsonville party was, by nature, small. I estimated around 100, the TV station there estimated about 200. Downtown Simpsonville isn't exactly a metropolis, so this was about what I expected. There was a single protester who had a sign saying "Obama's Will Help" (presumably, it meant his plan). The sign was quickly drawn on a cardboard box top. At the end of the meeting, signs were displayed with the number to call for the White House and for Congress. Everyone was encouraged to call one of the numbers and to let them know we were at a TEA party.

The Friday evening party was much larger. The police estimated 10,000, later estimates from the TV station with helicopter view estimated 6,000. The party was coordinated by the Upstate Young Republicans and there were several Republican speakers, but the crowd was far from died-in-the-wool Republican. When Congressman Gresham Barrett (who voted for TARP) was booed so loudly and longly, that his speech could not be heard.

There was also a counter-rally at the same time, behind the auditorium. I walked down there several times to get a feel for the rally. The meeting got off to a late start. Apparently, Leola Robinson-Simpson (see her webpage here) got tied up in the wrong meeting. My first thought was, if this lady, who is a Trustee for our local school board, was tied up in the wrong meeting, why is she leading our children? Scary.

The counter-rally actually was not so much anti-TEA (which would make it a coke party?), but a "Save Our Schools" (SOS) or anti-Sanford rally. For those outside SC, Mark Sanford is our Republican Governor. Because of term-limits, he's ineligible to run again in 2012 and appears to be positioning for a presidential run. He's spent the last 5 years as one of the new "young" right-wing conservative southern governors. He has, so far, turned down part of the stimulus money. There are many in the state who feel this is stealing from education. (SC has one of the worst education records of any of the 50 states.)

There were some "facts" given out at the SOS rally that I have questions about. To me, it sounded like the speakers were disappointed that the rally was so poorly attended. I did hear on the news that some of the participants moved to the TEA rally and a small ruckus broke out. Apparently, some TEA attenders asked them to leave (the news clip I saw showed SOS attenders yelling). But apparently, this was resolved without major incident.

My final thought for the day is that the TEA movement, while promoted by local radio and republican groups, is a big "grass roots" movement. The people attending are upset at government, but aren't quite sure why. The big test will be to see what happens from here.

Beta release ...

A lot of times in computers, we see the words "Beta Release". I recently learned first hand what this means.. Wikipedia says that it is "A software release ... of an initial or upgraded version of a computer software product" (see here).

Sometimes a product can stay in the "Beta" release for a long time. I've been using Gmail from Google for around four years and it's still in Beta (see here for discussion of Gmail beta). Gmail works great and has many advantages over other web-based email products. I've even know several organizations that use Gmail as their primary email system.

But recently, I found that "Beta" can mean the product still has a few bugs left in it. I'm a big believer in Google Maps, and we wanted to walk across the Cooper River Bridge in Charleston. We found a starting address (764 E Bay St, Charleston, SC 29403) and an ending address (920 Houston Northcutt Blvd, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464) for our walk and used Google to map it out.

First shot, it showed 3.7 miles about 8 minutes driving time. Great makes good since. Then I see that you can ask for walking directions. Ok, makes sense to me, so I put that into Google. Imagine my surprise when it says that it is now 71.5 Miles about 23 hours 15 minutes. WOW. That's a lot further walking than I want to try. (Actually we walked it using the driving directions. Took a little more than 8 minutes but a lot less than 23 hours).

I guess now I understand what Beta really means...

This life is for the birds

Some days I have to blog about items that might be considered less serious. Today, it's about the birds frequenting our bird feeder. We have a lot of finches as can be seen at the right. Note the finch that seems to be hung in mid-air. No, I didn't hang him there, he's in mid-flight. There seem to be two kinds of finches, the yellow and some that are plain gray. I've been told the males are more colorful (they're showing off), if that's true they are sorely lacking for females. Or maybe they are going out to seek for food and then they take it back home.

This second picture just shows the number of finches we have.

We also have some birds that are too lazy to pick their own food out of the feeders. They just pick up whatever falls on the ground. I'm not sure what kind of birds these are, I call them doves. If you know what this really is, let me know.

Hard to see in this picture, but there's a robin beside my electrical box. He's too shy to come around the finches, but I've seen these guys around a lot. I'm glad I can recognize a robin when I see one.

When the crows come around, they scare away the finches. Here's one peeking out from behind the feeder. They are the bullies of the bird world.

While they may be bullies, they are actually very beautiful. Their head and neck is a deep, royal blue.


Comments on birds and the types here appreciated. Know any bird lovers? My favorite bird is chicken....

My first tea party - Updated

Last night my daughter was surprised that I was going to a tea party. She probably thought the same as my son, who believed I was at a tea party with my niece (who has probably outgrown those parties). Surprisingly, when I searched on the Internet for details I found out they still have those kinds of tea parties in Laurens County, a southern genteel county about 30 miles from my home.

Instead, this tea party was reminiscent of the Boston Tea Party held in 1773. If you're a Mary Poppins fan, you know the initial event made the tea undrinkable, even for Americans. But more than that, it signaled a rebellion, a rebellion against a government that didn't listen to the people it governed. The current day tea parties, over 2000 scheduled to have occurred by the end of this week, also signal a rebellion -- a rebellion against government spending and a change in the philosophy of this country.

During the meeting that lasted slightly over an hour, I tried to keep myself from becoming engrossed in the speeches and to report the details. My goal was to learn what was really going on and to listen carefully to what was said. A good bit of the meeting was simply political presentations: one man running for congress, another for Lt. Governor, a state senator and a US Congressman. Much of it toed the right wing of the Republican Party line - anti-abortion, defense of marriage and anti-Obama.

But there were also some good points that were brought out that require more research - a call for thinner waste lines on government (pardon the pun), more transparency in government, accusations of overstepped constitutional bounds (discussion on six provisions in the Constitution given to government).

One of the most impressive speakers was Bill Connor, candidate for Lt Governor. Connor spent some time in Afghanistan serving our country in our efforts there. For that alone he garnered my respect. He also gained my attention when he spoke of the difference in English view of taxes and American views (fodder for another post). While I didn't agree with everything he said, I want to follow this man and see what his candidacy will look like.

Another speaker, Bobby Smith, Chairman of the Laurens County Republican Party pointed out that effort started with the individual, that we must not allow the government to be the source of our provisions. In a poor county like Laurens, this is a difficult step for a lot of people. Smith admitted this in his speech, but encouraged everyone to make the step. With the way the government rules over those it helps (see here), we should all heed those words.

The final speaker was Dr. Tony Beam, pastor and local talk radio host. Beam's speech outlined what I believe is the focal point for the tea party - it's not about taxes, it's about tyranny. His notes will be posted on the 'net later this week, once I find them I'll post a link.

To summarize, the tea party was a success. I counted close to 150 people and probably missed some (a local report said 200 - I don't doubt it). I hope to attend another party later in the week, maybe even two. My goal is to understand what is really going on and what all the talk is about. I'll report more of the ideas later.

* Update - Tony Beam's speech can be found here.

VITA/TCE Update - End of Job

Back in February, I proudly announced that I was VITA/TCE certified. This program (certified by the IRS) allows volunteers to help low income and/or elderly prepare their taxes. Locally, it's administered and coordinated by the United Way.

Since I've only been doing this on Friday & Saturday, this was my last week. After 23 sessions of about 4 hours each, I have prepared taxes for around 100 people. I also did state taxes for these people and in one case, NC state taxes. I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the process and hope that I can do it again next year.

In all of these tax forms, I found exactly one person that might have been actively trying to skirt the law and exactly one person who actively avoided filing taxes (he "missed" at least two previous years and I think only filed this year at the urging of his girl friend). Two bad apples out of 100 isn't a bad record.

Some of the "customers" I worked with were young (20's or less) and some really wanted to understand the process. For these people I worked a little harder to explain the forms and make some suggestions. Some were older and were happy to have me talk to them as I punched buttons on the computer. Most went out of their way to be nice. One even hugged me. A couple were veterans and I thanked them for their service.

The funniest moment was when the Site Coordinator came in and announced "Sorry I'm late, I just got out of prison." Lots of heads turned as they wondered whether he would do their taxes. (He had been involved that morning with Prison Fellowship Ministries - Neil, you should use this line.)

Hardest moment was when a 3 year old flipped a fire alarm and I had to continue preparing taxes for others who had been waiting 2-3 hours with the siren blasting.

All in all, this was a good experience for me and I'm looking forward to more community service like this.

Back from vacation

As I last posted, I was headed out to vacation. A week in beautiful Charleston, SC can be very relaxing. We drove down on Saturday and found the temperatures were unseasonably cold. No matter, we still were able to do almost everything including a couple of walks on the beach (albeit in blue jeans and jackets).

We went with another couple and their 3-year old daughter. I had forgotten how much fun a child that age can be. Especially when she's not your problem when things don't go according to plan. You can simply walk away and think "I'm glad she's not MY problem." Fortunately, that didn't happen often.

On Wednesday, Greg & I walked the Cooper River Bridge. The weekend before, 35,000+ people had run the bridge (see here). We walked the opposite direction (from downtown to Mt. Pleasant) and fortunately had the wind at our back. Total walk was about 4 miles.

Oh, the picture above? We saw this on our last day in a parking garage. Apparently, the car had been there a long time, definitely longer than the 72 hour limit the garage had posted. The words just struck me as funny. If you can't read it, it asks "any dead bodies inda car"? Now if CSI shows up to investigate, it stops being funny.

Great vacation, glad I'm back. (not really on that last part, but it sounds good).

Busy few weeks

Some of my readers know what's been going on in my life the last few weeks, but I decided to fill the world in on it. About two weeks ago, my son had orthognathic surgery. Basically, that's surgery to change the bone structure of the jaw (see here for Wikipedia article). The surgery happened during his spring break.

We've been anticipating this for several years, you have to wait until the patient (my son in this case) is past most of the growth spurts. I've been working directly with insurance companies for at least 5 years to review the estimated costs and coverage. Needless to say, this has been an experience.

The surgery went well and lasted about 3 hours. We spent the night in the hospital and came home the following day. Of course having major jaw surgery, chewing was not an option, so he mainly had juices, soup, and lots of pudding for several days. There was lots of swelling, but this went down in about a week. At the end of the week he went back to school.

This week on Monday, I got a call from the oral surgeon. He asked that I come in, that day, to review the x-rays. It doesn't take a lot of prognostication to figure out that this isn't a good request. So, I went in that afternoon and looked at x-rays. The doctor said he wasn't happy with the "fixation" (the way the bones lined up) that he was getting. He wanted to go back in and fix this.

So Wednesday, we went back into the hospital to fix the fixation. This was a quicker procedure, about 45 minutes. By 11am, we were back home. Today, he's back at school. Still in some pain, still some swelling, but doing better. We'll have new x-rays next Monday, hopefully the fixation is ok.

Next week, I'm going on vacation. I'll probably take my laptop, but I don't think I'm going to blog. I need a week off.

For those of the praying type, please pray for my family. It's been a rough couple of weeks. Pray for healing and insight.

Thanks.