I was reading a post by John Eldredge today of the same title of this post, and really got to thinking about it.  How much of God is in a day?  And how much of that do we miss because we are simply oblivious to it?

John writes:

“how much of God is there in a single day? I mean, holy cow. If we will but pay attention, take notice both of what is going on inside us, and around us, and talk to God about it…wow. How much is he bringing to us in a single day?”  Read the entire post here.

For those of you who don’t know, I am leading a new group at my law school called Chapman Christian Society.  The group is designed to lead bible studies, and help law students cope with demands on their time and their faith.

On Monday, I am helping lead a bible study entitled “More firsts to come: God loves misfits and sinners.”  I have been contemplating what to do with this, as I’m not the foremost biblical scholar and my ability to find verses that support a topic (instead of a topic that supports verses) is not the easiest thing for me.  I was a bit anxious, to be honest. 

Last night, I prayed to God for the first time in a long time.  Just to busy most times, I guess.  It’s funny how such as small act as praying says “I’m willing to listen now, God,” and how that statement really makes God speak up.  This morning, minutes before I woke up, I had a dream where I was standing in front of a group of law students leading a bible study.  In my dream I looked down at the bible and verses started popping out at me; namely the Beattitudes (”blessed are the meek…” etc).  The Beattitudes, for those of you unfamiliar with them, speak directly to God’s love of the underdog, the sinner, the meek. 

I think John’s sentiment (”holy cow!”) only begins to describe my elation, my awe.

What if we listened all the time?

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In german, “traume” means “dream.” 

It’s been one year today since I met my fiance.   I remember when I saw her for the first time.  She was wearing blue jeans, her CSUF hoodie, and flip flops.  She was gorgeous.  She is stunning.  And the more I get to know her, the more I am captivated by her. 

I’ll spare you the gush, the doting, etc…

Suffice it to say, this has been the best year of my life.  I love you Heather.

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News surfaced recently that newly adorned GOP VP candidate Sarah Palin’s teenage daughter, Bristol, is pregnant.  The media jumped on this opportunity to repeat their lambasting of Palin as inexperienced at work, and to insinuate that she is inexperienced at home as well.

I find nothing more fitting to this situation than the words of James Dobson:

“Being a Christian does not mean you’re perfect. Nor does it mean your children are perfect. But it does mean there is forgiveness and restoration when we confess our imperfections to the Lord.

The media are already trying to spin this as evidence Gov. Palin is a ‘hypocrite,’ but all it really means is that she and her family are human.”

On a similar note, I find it slightly funny (and would find it hilarious if it weren’t so serious) that the media has no problem with having a presidential candidate who has less than a decade of relevant experience, but finds it troubling that the GOP has chosen a vp candidate with less than a decade of relevant experience. 

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Well, it’s Friday.  Last night was Obama’s much talked about 70,000 audience member speech (though the liberal media is frothing at the mouth to say 75,000; 80,000; or even 90,000) and the end of the Democrats’ convention.  Republicans estimated that Obama would get a 15% bounce from the convention and all the media attention that surrounded it.  They were wrong, and this spells trouble for Obama.

Let’s look at the numbers to see how effective Obama really is:

8/25: Democratic convention starts.  Obama 45%.  McCain 45%.

8/26: Day two of the convention. Biden announced as Obama’s VP.  Obama 44%.  McCain 46%.  Obama heard uttering “whoops…” under his breath…

8/27: Day three of the convention.  More talking.  Obama 45%.  McCain 44%.  Obama now thanking himself for allowing DNC to sell Obamabobble-heads which surely is the reason for the poll bump.

8/28: Day four of the convention.  Obama gives speech to 1 billion people! Or maybe a few less… who knows… mainstream media’s job isn’t to be accurate is it?  After all the hype: Obama 48%.  McCain 42%.

8/28: Final day of the convention.  Obama is talked about on all tv stations after last night’s speech.  Obama 49%.  McCain 41%.

Total “Convention Bump” in the polls: Obama +4%.  McCain -4%.  Zero-sum.

Why is this a problem for Obama? 

1) After an entire week (ok… an entire summer) of non-stop positive messiah-like media coverage of Obama, he has gained 4 points in the polls.  This is as good as its gonna get for Obama (and the GOP convention is as good as its gonna get for McCain).  If he can’t must out a good 7 or 8 percent bump, there is a major problem.

2) The change was zero-sum.  In other words, before the convention 10% of the voters were “undecided” and after the convention 10% of the voters were “undecided.”  Not good news considering that independents favor McCain solidly, and nearly 20% of white male democratic voters and 15% of white female democratic voters are in the McCain camp (compared to around 5% of white republican males and 5% of white republican females voting for Obama).  Obama is beginnign to plataeu.  Meanwhile, McCain is holding his own with little to no media coverage.

3) Sarah Palin.  McCain now announced a candidate that white females will vote for, former Hil-dog supporters will vote for, and independents will vote for.  Additionally, he’s selected a VP who has more foreign policy experience than Obama, and a Washington-outsider.  I ask Obama: how much “CHANGE” can you get when your ticket is exclusively made up of Washington Beltway Insiders? (Reminder: Joe Biden made history by being the youngest U.S. Senator in history: he is now one of the longest serving Senators in history.  If that doesn’t spell “insider,” I don’t know what does.)

Obama has a long campaign ahead of him, and now that McCain seems to have gotten his head out of the sand, McCain has just made it much harder.

Bottom line: despite the media’s self-aggrandizing self-congratulatory self-coronation of Obama to the stature of “the last great black hope,” this is still a very tight race, which is very bad news to Obama.

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I have to admit, I am extremely excited about the fact that our ticket is not McCain/Palin, not McCain/Romney, or McCain/Jindal, or even McCain/Pawlenty.  Palin is very much an old style McCain pick: to hell with what the GOP corndogs in D.C. tell me I should do; I’m going to do what’s best for this nation.

For the first time this election cycle, I’m excited to vote, and excited to vote for McCain.  I have one message for McCain: you done good. 

For the record, lets compare Governor Palin to Senator Obama, shall we?

Foreign Policy Experience

Senator Obama has lived overseas, visited various nations, and said he wanted to invade Pakistan.

Governor Palin is the head of the Alaska National Guard, has a son who is about to be shipped off to Iraq, and has also visited various nations…. wisely, she has not said she wants to invade Pakistan.

Fiscal Policies

Senator Obama spent years in the Senate chiding Bush for increasing costs of government, and railing against those fellow Senators who procure earmarks.  During the same time, he gathered up nearly $100 million dollars worth of earmarks for his own state, and formulated a new health care plan that, if implemented, would cost this nation nearly $500 Billion dollars at a bare minimum.

Governor Palin has spent years in Alaska implementing a ground breaking ethics reform package, derailing the infamous $450 million dollar “bridge to nowhere,” saving each and every taxpayer nearly $4.  During that same time, she has used her veto power liberally and cut the budget by historic amounts.

Religion/Abortion

Senator Obama is a Christian.  Unless he wants to be a Muslim for gaining votes, in which case he is a Muslim.  Unless he wants to be a born-again evangelist to try and win over Missouri and Kansas, in which case “he been SAVED!”  Unless being a non-practicing atheist is convenient in New York and Massachussetts, in which case, he’s not sure there is a God, but if there were one, He’d allow gay marraige and abortions.

Governor Palin believes in one God, and believes in life.  She doesn’t think “hoping” people will save lives is enough; she believes we must proactively save lives and get rid of abortion.

Bottom line: Governor Palin, the GOP candidate for Vice President, has more experience and a clearer message than Senator Obama, the DNC candidate for President.  Oh what a glorious day.  We may win this election after all.

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I have to say, I’m honestly very surprised, but very very pleasantly so: John McCain just chose Alaska Governor Sara Palin for his Vice President running-mate.  If he wins, she will be the first female vice president in American history.

You may remember, I talked about a small movement to get Palin drafted for VP, which apparently was a very successful movement.  Read that post here.

Palin is an interesting choice if for no other reason than not many people have any clue who she is.  Some other notes: Palin is from Alaska, so there isn’t any automatic “bump” in the polls for a large electorate swing state.  Palin’s oldest son is expected to go to Iraq soon; an obvious counter to Joe Biden.  Palin has a daughter with down syndrome: I’d love the DNC to say the GOP has no interest in solving the health care crisis now.

Overall, I think this was an uncharacteristically wise choice by McCain and very politically savvy.  The only thing left to find out: what Palin actually believes in….  minor details :)

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There was a time when my overly-ambitious spirit made me place blind faith in our schools and their administrators.  A time when my desire to attend an ivy-league school blindfolded me to the fact that our schools are often one of the biggest sources of budgetary wastes a state will ever see.

California has always had problems with Teacher’s Unions - a glorified credit collector.  Today is no different.  Right now, California’s budget is terrorizing the state.  There is a $17 billion dollar defecit in the budget right now, which already alots moer than $50 billion dollars to schools.  Yet the state superintendant says that is not enough.  Why?  Because the Governator told him to start teaching Algebra in 8th grade 3 years from now.  Now he wants another $3 billion dollars.

First off, the requirement is a bit stringent.  I was in the top of my class during High School, College, and now Law School.  I scored a perfect math score on my ACT.  And I took Algebra in the 8th grade: as an honors class.  To require every student to take Algebra in the 8th grade is a bit ignorant to the differing characteristics of different people. Not to mention that the requirement is ignorant to the need for kids to just plain out and out be kids.  Is it so hard for us to realize that simply requiring more does not mean better scores or a happier future?  Then again, they don’t teach common sense in school.

Secondly, how in the world does changing what grade level a subject is taught cost $3 billion dollars to implement?  More books?  No.  They already teach Algebra, hence they already have the books.  More teachers?  No.  They already have Algebra teachers.  A pay raise for principals and superintendants state wide?  Perhaps.

For the most part, increases in school budgets rarely trickle their way down to actually providing a better education for the student, so much as it provides a fancier office, new flooring, or a new set of encyclopedias that never were read, and never will be read. 

It seems to me that we need a study to tell us where every dollar given to “education” actually goes.  My guess is that more than half of every dollar goes to administration, and less than half actually reaches the teachers, the books, the classrooms, and the real education.

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So, after reading a very very intriguing article about how to choose stocks that cut through a lot of b.s., I decided that I would test out some of the theories of the article to see how well it performed.  Let’s just say I’m amazed. 

On Monday of last week, I went on to finance.yahoo.com and set up a fake portfolio.  In this portfolio, I have ‘purchased’ 100 shares each of 11 stocks, and 1 index fund.  My total “investment” was less than $15,000.  A lot of money, for sure, but not a sum which would cause someone to think ‘oooh… big hitter.’ 

As of today, one week later, I have seen an 11% return, which translates into a tad over $1,600 of growth.  Needless to say, that beats the hell out of my return on my savings account.

At this point, only 1 of the 12 investments is not returning a positive growth for me: I’ve lost $13 on it.  My highest growth is 30% for one stock, while my smallest positive growth is .75% on a stock analysts said was destined to fall.  On average, half of my stocks are returning about 3%, while half are returning above 15%.  These are tech stocks, clothing stocks, film industry stocks, real estate stocks, and the such.  There is no running theme to the pick except two things:PEG ratio, and Market cap.  With one exception, I chose exclusively “small cap” funds with the smallest PEG ratio I could find.  Only one of my stocks has a cap higher than 560 million, and only two of my stocks have a PEG higher than 1.  What does this mean?  I’ll admit, I’m woefully undereducated on what a cap is except to say it generally means that it is a stock that hasn’t had much attention paid to it yet.  The PEG ratio, however, essentially means that a company’s price/earnings ratio is “cheap” compared to the expected growth for the next year.  Essentially, PEG is like a discount sign: it tells you “hey, this stock is on sale for 40% off.”  For the most part, it works. 

Obviously 1 week is not nearly enough time to say this approach works, of if this is just a fluke.  My goal is to keep the same exact stocks, regardless of price flucuation, for 1 year to see how well they do.  (Remember, I’m not investing, I’m just playing with a fake portfolio: I have no money to lose).  I am expecting a 25% return for the year.  That is my goal.  It looks like it will happen: if growth continues the way it does, I may happen by the end of the month.

I have purposefully not told you what stocks I chose for this reason: I don’t want anyone to try and claim that I gave them financial advice that lost them money: I’m not a broker and I’m not educated on the stock market enough to give such advice.  If you take this article and use it as your guidepost for your stock investment strategy, you do so at your own risk.  You may also want to have your head examined.

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There is much to be said about Hollywood’s insanity.  A cursory glimpse on Hollywood’s philanthropic musings in an attempt to make up for the guilt that comes with tremendous wealth coupled with the stories of actors turning down good work because they were offered only $10 million to star in that movie instead of the $15 million they wanted will make one truly believe in hypocrisy.

Or perhaps it is the stories of high powered celebrity touring the safaris of Africa, lamenting at the hunger of dying children, pleaing for everyday average Americans to give more, do more, and learn more, all the while taking said tours in $120k Land Rover SUV’s, and flying in private jets that cost more than most people make in a lifetime.

Or maybe it is some actors’ fervent admonition of Republican policies, such as gun ownership, quickly followed the next week by news of that actor’s arrest for illegal possession of a gun.

Yet, despite what is said, there is hope for Hollywood.  There are some heroes.  Not because they braved the battlefields alongside soldiers or saved some civilian’s life.  Rather, they are heroes because they refuse to let Hollywood’s establishment decide the course of their own politics, or the politics of America.  One such ‘hero’ is oscar-winner Jon Voight (Angelina Jolie’s father, star of The Manchurian Candidate, Enemy of State, etc). 

Jon Voight is an impressive actor and easily recognizes good acting when he sees it.  And, let me tell you, he sees phenomenal acting in Barack Obama.  Oscar worthy no doubt.  For Barack, it is simply a shame that the Acadamy does not have an award for “Best Acting during a Presidential Campaign.”

Voight recently wrote a scathing op-ed in the Washington Times which I highly recommend.  Read the whole article here.  He criticizes the Democratic Party’s elevating Obama to messiah-like status:

“The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way.”

It is important to remember that while Obama found time to meet with nearly every leader of every muslim nation he visited, he was just out and out too busy to visit wounded soldiers… As Voight poitns out, given Obama’s lack of patriotism, maybe he should have:

“Our soldiers are lifting us to an example of patriotism at a time when we’ve almost forgotten who we are and what is at stake.”

Obama’s lack of experience in foreign policy is not hidden from Voight either.  Such gaffes as publicly saying he would bomb Pakistan (our only cooperative ally bordering land-locked Afghanistan) have led the State Department to even chide Obama’s policy as harmful, and Voight thinks so too:

“With what he has openly stated about his plans for our military, and his lack of understanding about the true nature of our enemies, there’s not a cell in my body that can accept the idea that Mr. Obama can keep us safe from the terrorists around the world, and from Iran, which is making great strides toward getting the atomic bomb.”

Give it a read.  Maybe, just maybe, the article will help restore your faith in a Hollywood which has lost its faith.

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Republican representatives are currently protesting a 5 week vacation taken by their Democrat colleagues while consumers are still facing gas prices nearly double what they were a little over one year and a bi-partisan bill to open up more land to drilling to help alleviate the situation sits on Nancy Pelosi’s desk awaiting her return.

In response to the energy crunch, Barack Obama kindly suggested Americans check their tire pressured.  McCain and the RNC handed out “Obama Energy Plan” tire pressure gauges today.

Meanwhile, commentators on the internet and beyond are calling for the heads of Oil Executives.

Several thoughts on this:

1.  How exactly can Congress justify a five week vacation at the end of summer when we still don’t have a balanced budget, we are still paying half our paychecks to fill our gas tank, when homes are being foreclosed on as fast as a kid can eat candy, when there still is no long term solution to social security, and when we are running such an inefficient government that it needs to take 30% out of everyone’s paychecks just to pave the roads?!  Keep in mind that this isn’t Congress’ only vacation.  In all, Congress works only about 200 days out of a 365 day calendar year.  Less if you run for President…

2.  Some have been calling for windfall profits taxes on the oil companies.  That’s it.  Let’s steal their profits so they don’t have any money left to do research and development.  Let me ask you this: if oil companies can’t afford to develop new sources of energy, who can?  I assure you, oil companies do want to find the next new source of energy: they will profit it from it my friends.  So many conspiracy theorists say “Big oil doesn’t care if we never find alternative energy.  They just want to sell more oil!”  My response: First, welcome to capitalism.  Second, big oil would love to be able to find alternative energy… and patent it… and sell it.  Most companies do not care what they sell so long as they are still selling.

3.  Some have been saying “why should we drill offshore?  We won’t see any impact for 7 or 10 years!”  Wow.  And I thought my 10 year plan was shortsighted.  I don’t care if we don’t see any impact for 20 years.  When we do see an impact, and we will, it will be extremely beneficial to our economy and to the individual consumer.  An impact is an impact.  Period.  If I save $1.00/gallon of gas in 20 years because of something Congress decided to finally do today, I’ll be exceptionally thrilled.

4.  Some have been praising, yes, praising, high gas prices as the final push over the cliff to stop people from driving.  One thing is missing from this peabrained selfcongratulatory puff-piece of an observation: not everyone lives in New York City; some of us HAVE to drive to work.  And for those of us making less than the annual salary required to qualify for that ever-increasingly-expensive Prius, high gas prices are not hurting how much we drive, but how often we heat our homes, or how nutritious of food we buy, or whether or not we can afford other “green” choices like the $5 energy efficient light bulbs Congress recently mandated we use by 2010. 

I am furiated.  Simply and purely furiated.  On one hand, I am aggrevated that cooler heads are not prevailing and Congress has been hijacked by demogauges and election pollsters who listen only to those who ask Congress to do more, restrict our freedoms more, spend more, and tax more.  On the other hand, I would scream for joy on the day a few good men could actually lead this country with some common sense and a hand outstreched to Americans not to give them a pat on the back to tell the “it will all be ok” while their other hand is quickly reaching into their pocketbook, but to pull them up off their knees, dust them off, and say “we can still make this dream called America work, are you with me?” 

America should not be a nation of tax evasion artists who exist by sheer necessity.  America should not be a nation of suckling pigs, feeding off the teet of the taxpayer for more welfare, more retirement money, and more viagra bought and paid for by medicare.   America should be a nation of proud people.  Proud because at the end of the day, we can look back at all we have accomplished, all those who love us, all that we have before us, and delight that we did it all on our own.  Proud because when one of our neighbors falters, we do not lend them a hand so as to keep them down and dependent on us, but we lend them a hand to get them back on their feet.  The greatest fault of today’s America is a mentality that no one is at fault, no one should have to work too hard, and no one should ever experience the pains of poverty: essentially “the soft bigotry of low expectations.” 

America has on one hand derided our forefathers for “building a nation on the backs of slaves,” yet on the other hand forced all working Americans to fork over nearly one third of their income to support those who do not work.  And before you deride this post as being out of touch with those on welfare: let me tell you: this post comes from a mouth that was once fed by food stamps. 

Make no mistake: this is a time for heroes.  A time for Americans to step up and stop electing people whose goal is to spend more, but rather start electing people whose goal is to make America more efficient, more self-sufficient, and more proficient.  Our economy can not survive much longer on the backs of a working class that continues to dwindle in size, and a upper middle class that imposes it’s richer rules on the low class.

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