Volkswagon, Blackberrys, and Control

For years it has been my opinion that corporate America uses the distribution of blackberrys to key employees as a conrolling mechanism. What better way to demonstrate the idea that "your life is no longer your own" then trying to ensure this by trying for 24/7 contact. I remember talking to a friend of mine who use to work for GM in middle management about this.

Here is an article about Volkswagon which seems to indicate that this is a problem and a major source of employee frustration:

Volkswagon article about blackberrys

Happy Valley is not so Happy Right Now

There is a mess right now in Happy Valley. I wrote a commentary that is posted on the main site: click here

The Ides of March, Cain and Perry

I recently saw the movie "The Ides of March" and it appears to be somewhat prophetic. Somebody obviously leaked the info on Cain whether it was Perry or not. Things are starting to heat up with the Republican race. Black, sexual harassment - anybody else thinking Clarence Thomas.

I know that when a person enters politics it is open season on any skeletons in the closet and that is the way it should be -but! I just wish the ones who do the leaking could be caught too.

Please Let the Cement Dry First!

"There's a lot of oil and gas here" - Doug Suttles, COO BP

I want to see how long it takes before BP tries to extract oil and gas from the recently plugged Macondo well site. It is not realistic to think that this massive corporation called BP is going to just walk away from a possible 3 to 4 billion dollars. Estimates are that there is another 1.9 billion gallons or more still left in this well which translates in market share dollars close to 4 billion.

I know many cringe at the thought of too much government interference but recent history has shown that governmental controls are necessary to keep big business in check. What do you think?

Drill Again

Christian Medical Missionaries Killed in Afghanistan

International Assistance Mission, an international christian group, said that eight members of its medical team were killed on Saturday in Afghanistan. Two Afgan interpreters were killed along with the six Americans, one German and Brit.

Dirk Frans the director of the charity said the group of medical workers were returning back to Kabul from an eye clinic in remote Nuristan.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack with the fact that they were Christian missionaries being an apparent motive for the murders. A third interpreter in the group was spared when he started quoting passages from the Koran and declaring over and over, "I am a muslim".

Here is some information from the IAM website:

IAM is an international charitable, non-profit, Christian organisation, serving the people of Afghanistan, through capacity building in the sectors of Health and Economic Development.

IAM’s core values are:

Dependency on God
Love for All
Teamwork
Accountability
Learning
Quality Work

Let us remember to pray for their families. They are modern day Martyrs who died practicing their faith.

Anne Rice Leaving Christianity Not Christ

Not Leaving Jesus

Bestselling author Anne Rice decided to leave the Roman Catholic Church on July 28th with an announcement on her Facebook page. You may remember her as the author of “Interview With a Vampire”, starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt, or one of the other erotic gothic novels she was known to write.

Since her announced conversion to Christ in 1998, the former atheistic Rice wrote “Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt”, and other Christian themed works. Here is her Facebook announcement:

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being 'Christian' or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."

For more on this story you can check out this article over at NPR.

There have been numerous responses including this one entitled, “An Evangelical Leader’s Open Letter to Anne Rice”.

More and more believers are disassociating themselves from formal Christianity. I think Anne Rice is really leaving religious nonsense, and there are many other famous and non famous believers who have followed this same path. I pray she finds some practice of community with other believers because Christ has not called us to an individualistic brand of belief but the life of Christ worked out in shared faith.

Racism Does Not Make Good Sense

New Disturbing Reports

Reports about the rise of Neo Nazism worldwide has revealed some perplexing trends. In Mongolia, one group venerates Hitler and proudly displays the Nazi symbol. How could they do this when Hitler did not even consider their race human?

In Israel, some immigrants from Russia deny their Jewish heritage. They have been linked to desecration of Synagues and attacks on religious Jews.

Other reports on Neo Nazism are coming in from Chile, India and Taiwan. In India they report over 100,000 copies of Mein Kampf purchased by Indians in the last 10 years.

Of course, the normal reports continue to come in from Germany and Russia, two places normally associated with white supremacist left wing groups.

My question is this - how are non white racial groups being drawn into left wing ideology that believes in white supremacy and the inferiority of non white races. This does not make good sense.