February 29, 2004

Saving Private Ryan

Donald Sensing says he'll soon be posting an essay about "Christ, Capt. Miller and Oskar Schindler - the unifying themes of The Passion of the Christ, Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List." I look forward to it. In the meantime, here's a copy of an essay I wrote for the August 5, 1998, edition of LoveLines, the weekly newsletter from The Family of God at Woodmont Hills, titled Private Ryan's Saving Grace.

February 27, 2004

Have A James Brown Moment

Wanna do something nice? Go here, and drop something in the tip jar. Why? Because. Because the blogosphere is a group of friends who just haven't met in person yet, and you don't want to miss the party. Because helping someone else is a way to show you know the world doesn't revolve around you. Because you probably won't be asked to lay down your life for someone else today, but you can spare $20. Because you'll feel good about doing good, like a few hundred others already have. I promise.

Digital Freedom Update

In the Tennessee legislature, SB 3101, a piece of legislation that will reduce your freedom to use digital devices and digital services as you see fit, even though you paid for them , has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee with some amendments. See the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network for details. I'm assuming they'll post an analysis of the amendments soon. Meanwhile, don't miss this page exploring whether SB 3101 violates the federal constitution by pre-empting federal law.

Don't Forget!

Whatever you do, don't forget to come to the March 2 Taxpayer Bill of Rights Town Hall Meeting , if you live anywhere close to Nashville and can get away from work for a couple of hours.

The event - with keynote speakers Steve Moore, president of the Club for Growth, and John Andrews, president of the Colorado State Senate - will introduce the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept to the general public and (hopefully) provide some momentum to legislation pending in the Tennessee legislature to put a TABOR amendment on the ballot in 2006.

As proposed, the Tennessee Taxpayer Bill of Rights constitutional amendment will:

1. Cap the rate of growth of state government spending,
2. Require tax increases to be voted on by the people, and
3. Require that excess collections be returned to the
taxpayers.

Read on for the line-up for the March 2 Town Hall meeting...

Keynote addresses by Steve Moore, president of the Club for Growth, and John Andrews, president of the Colorado State Senate, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session with the audience and Moore, Sen. Andrews, and Tennessee TABOR sponsors Sen. Jim Bryson and Rep. Glenn Casada; plus Matt Kibbe, executive vice president of Citizens for a Sound Economy, and Drew Johnson, policy analyst with the National Taxpayer's Union

Time and location:
Tuesday, March 2, 2004
10:00 - Noon
Sheraton Hotel, Downtown Nashville

The Tennessee TABOR Town Hall meeting is sponsored by the Government Accountability Project and the National Federation of Independent Business.

For more information on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, go to www.SenatorBryson.org and click on TABOR. Also, see the Taxpayers Bill of Rights category here at HobbsOnline.

From an email promoting the Town Hall meeting:

Mark your calendars!!! Make your plans! The Tennessee Taxpayer Bill of Rights Town Hall Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 2 at the Nashville Sheraton downtown. The purpose of this meeting is to show the legislature that people from throughout the state and nation support the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Tennessee. We need you to be there! A good crowd will show the legislature and the media that we are serious about passing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights this year. We need YOU!

The Next Big Thing

The Associated Press has published a very good story about RSS, "a somewhat crude but nifty software tool that automatically delivers updated information to your computer directly from your favorite web sites." Read it if you want to know the future of news distribution.

Passion Review

Donald Sensing reviews The Passion of the Christ.

Tonight, as the credits rolled (we stayed until they ended) I was filled with a deep sadness - indeed, shame - at the profound deficiency of my own discipleship. Gibson has said that the movie's answer to the question, "Who killed Jesus?" is, "We all did." That is not what I felt at the end. Instead, I felt a deep sense of having betrayed the great trust given me by Christ, a enormous awareness of my own sin and sinfulness and my total reliance on God's gracious mercy.

UPDATE: Wound up not going last night, and will see it this coming Wednesday. In the mean time, read Mark D. Roberts' commentaries on the movie and related topics.

Grading Kerrynomics

Joe Smolira says John Kerry gets an F for economics, and also has some good comments on Alan Greenspan and Social Security:

Greenspan said that Social Security needs to be fixed. Politicians were simply aghast that his suggestions were increasing the retirement age or decreasing payments. Instead, their solution is to increase taxes. ... The only logical ways to fix Social Security are reduce benefits or increase the retirement age.

February 26, 2004

Who Really Killed Jesus

From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 20, verses 17-19:

As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, "Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day."

What To Do, What To Do

My blog is hosted by Verve Hosting (who, by the way, are extremely responsive on technical-support requests), and the plan I bought includes the ability to create up to 40 email addresses that end in @billhobbs.com. Now, clearly, I don't need 40 email addresses. I am using one account, bill-at-billhobbs.com, and figure I ought to reserve 14 more in case I want to create email addresses for members of my family or create such email addresses as newstips-at-billhobbs.com, etc., and Anyone have any suggestions as to what I should do with the other 25 accounts?

Passion Review

Here's an extremely thoughtful review of The Passion of the Christ by Mark D. Roberts, a California pastor and blogger whose excellent blog I found thanks to Hugh Hewitt.

Part of what makes the brutality in The Passion of the Christ so hard to watch is the fact that our usual defenses don't work. When I see a particularly violent scene in a movie, I can relieve the tension in my soul by whispering to myself: "It's only a movie. This didn't really happen." But even though what I saw in Gibson's film wasn't really the crucifixion of Christ, it was enough like the real crucifixion that I couldn't pretend that nothing like this had ever happened to anyone.

I also rather enjoyed his post yesterday about Lent.

Ironically, This Post Is A Month Late

It's a month old, but a story from the Jan. 27 edition of the International Herald Tribune about how bloggers broke news from inside the gates of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is well worth reading if you are interested in the intersection of blogging, journalism and politics.

Delayed Reaction

Jeff Cornwall points to and comments on Jeremy Wright's blog post about the value of holding on to a business instead of selling out too early. Wright looks at the bottom line - and makes some good points. Cornwall's focus is the moral implications of entrepeneurs who are considering cashing out their ventures early on:

Free enterprise involves a social contract that requires some level of responsibility by entrepreneurs to their communities. The quickest road to increased regulation of business is to ignore the role of stewardship that all entrepreneurs have in our economic system. And quick exits that focus only on short term financial gains move regulation and government scrutiny into the fast lane.

February 25, 2004

Who Killed Jesus?

Michael Williams reviews New York Times film critic A.O. Scott's review of The Passion of the Christ. Well worth reading. In the piece, Williams summarizes the gospel in a nutshell: It would have been far more just and right if Jesus' life had been spared and if all of humanity were forced to stand, unredeemed, before God's perfect judgment.

Much of the controversy over the movie centers on the question "Who killed Jesus?" - and on accusations by some that the movie accuses "The Jews" as a group of the murder of Jesus the Christ. Let me say right here that, factually, "The Jews" didn't kill Jesus – some Jews, and some Romans, did. But theologically, the question has a much different answer. I have a confession to make:

I killed Jesus.

And I had many co-conspirators, including you.

Yes, you. All of us. We all killed Jesus. All of us – the Romans, the Jews, the Christians, the Muslims, the Greeks, the Asians, the Rastafarians, the Egyptians – ancient and modern - the Babylonians, the Russians, the French, the Mexicans, the Canadians, the Americans and even those nice people who live down the street from you and go to church every Sunday.

We're all guilty.

We all killed Jesus because we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – and Jesus came to earth, withstood real human temptation, lived a sinless life, was crucified despite His pure innocence, and then rose from the dead, thereby triumphing over evil's ultimate weapon. Because He paid the penalty for our sins, we can live without fear of death because, by accepting what He did, we accept God's free gift of grace: salvation and eternal life with Him rather than eternal life without Him.

In the end, the important question to be answered is not: Who killed Jesus? The important question is: WHO raised Jesus from the dead?

Secrecy, Lies and Legislation 3

I have - finally - received a response from the Tennessee General Assembly's Office of Legal Services regarding a lie one of its deputy counsels told in an email to the president of the Tennessee Digital Freedom Network, regarding a hearing on a piece of controversial telecommunications theft legislation. (Background here and here.)

In the email to Scott Lyons, Tigue claims he was "the only speaker" at the hearing, though audio tapes of the hearing prove that two lawyer/lobbyists on the payroll of the cable television industry, which backs the legislation, were also invited to speak.

Ellen Tewes, director of the Office of Legal Services, wrote

I have spoken with Mr. Tigue about the events surrounding the meeting of the Communications Theft Study Committee and his e-mail to Scott Lyon. When Mr. Tigue stated that he was the only speaker at the meeting, he meant that he was the only speaker on the agenda.

Mr. Tigue has verified that there was discussion from other parties who were invited to speak by the chair concerning an amendment which had been proposed to the bill. It is my understanding that the discussion from the other parties was limited to the amendment and that Mr. Tigue was the only speaker to address the bill as a whole.

I was the only speaker at that meeting so you did not miss a chance to speak by not attending.

While al Qaeda Planned, The Clinton Administration Snoozed

Neal Boortz is jumping all over the Clinton administration today for its failure to follow up on intelligence info that could have prevented the September 11 terror attack.

Boortz:

We all know that President Clinton turned down an offer from the Sudan to hand over Osama Bin Laden outright. As if that weren't enough, there's more news that the Clinton administration looked the other way when it came to terrorists. Gee ... thanks for nothing, Bill.

The federal commission investigating the 9/11 attacks is looking at whether the United States failed to track one of the hijackers after obtaining his information more than two years before September 11, 2001.

The New York Times quoted German intelligence officials who said that in March of 1999 they gave the CIA the name and phone number of Marwan al-Shehhi, and asked America to track him. The Germans never heard back from the U.S. until after 9/11. How nice ... just a little late, don't you think?

Our Washington correspondent Jamie Dupree says that the Germans only provided a first name, and the phone number was in the Middle East. If so .. admittedly that didn't give our spooks much to go on ... but we've done great things with less information in the past.

Turns out Al-Shehhi was a member of the al-Qaida cell in Hamburg, Germany and was the roommate of 9/11 mastermind Mohammed Atta. Ah-Shehhi flew United Airlines Flight 175 into the south tower of the World Trade Center. Had this terrorist been properly tracked, his cell may have been exposed and al-Qaida's cell interrupted.

It's impossible to know what might or might not have happened. One fact, however, remains crystal clear. The last time the Democrats occupied the White House and were in charge of the war on terror, they failed us miserably. Are you prepared to let that happen again?

Get Ready for Republican Blogads!

Wired magazine, Instapundit and others have noted the success that Democratic congressional candidate Ben Chandler in Kentucky had raising funds via ads on political blogs – and both have noted the dearth of Republican candidates advertising on blogs. In fact, Henry Copeland, one of the moving forces behind Blogads, told me in an email that there are none so far.

Well, that's about the change.

In the next few days, a Republican congressional candidate will start advertising here at HobbsOnline. When it happens, I hope you'll respond with donations – in fact, if you're inclined to support this blog with a donation via PayPal or my Amazon tip jar I would request that you give $10 or $25 to the congressional candidate instead. It's important for the success of blog advertising – and, more importantly, will help the candidate defeat a Democrat and solidify Republican control of Congress. The $10 or $25 you donate to the candidate now could help prevent Democrats from raising your taxes by hundreds or even thousands of dollars next year – imperiling the economic recovery - by failing to make the Bush tax cuts permanent.

One final note – I have adjusted prices for advertising on this site because my original rate sheet didn't make much logical sense. However, the price for a 3-month ad will remain $135 through the end of February, a very substantial discount off the per-week and two-week price. Buy a three-month ad before March 1 and I'll give you a fourth month free. On March 1, the price for a three-month placement will be adjusted to $165.

February 24, 2004

Tennessee Small-Business Formation Surged in 2003

One of the raging economic debates these days is about whether the government's "employer survey" or its "household survey" more accurately reflects the state of job creation in the nation today. The employer survey tracks jobs at big companies. The household survey is more likely to pick up self-employed people, entrepreneurs forming small businesses, and people being hired by small businesses. I've written several times about the subject, posts that you'll find in my Economics & Business category

Many small businesses are formed as limited liability corporations (LLCs). LLCs first became a legal form of business organization in Tennessee in 1995. So I contacted the Tennessee Secretary of State's Division of Business Services and inquired about the rate of LLC formation in Tennessee and here is what I found:

More LLCs were formed in Tennessee in 2003 than in any year, ever.

In 1998, at the peak of the Clinton-era economic boom, 6,934 LLCs were formed in Tennessee. That dropped to 5,710 in 1999, and then plummeted in 2000 as the Clinton-era boom ended, the Internet bubble burst, Wall Street slid, and the economy slumped toward a recession. There were just 4,629 LLCs formed in Tennessee that year. In 2001, President Bush's first year, the rate of LLC formation began to rise, reaching 4,962. In 2002, there were 6,204 LLCs formed in Tennessee. And last year, as the Bush Boom gained strength, Tennessee entrepreneurs formed 7,412 LLCs.

Tennessee is only one state - I'd love to have data from all 50 states - but it is one more bit of data indicating there may well be more validity to the household survey than its critics will admit.

UPDATE: A simple request to my readers: I don't have time to hunt down the data on LLC formation in every state, but you can help. Get on your state government's website and find the Secretary of State's office - that's probably where LLCs are filed. Click around until you find which office or division handles such business filings, and find a contact name, and send them an email asking for data on LLC formation over the past decade or so. Then pass on to me what you get, and we'll publish it here.

Quote of the Day

If consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds, John F. Kerry’s mind must be freaking enormous. - Tim Blair

Cutting Through the Lies

Earlier today I linked to Darren Kaplan's post refuting the Left's lie that the Bush administration has cut benefits and services for military veterans. That brought out the usual Lefty trolls to insist the lie was true.

But it's not true. It's a lie. It's a lie that even has been repeated by members of Congress. For example, Tennessee's Fourth District congressman, Democrat Lincoln Davis, repeated the lie in an article in the Chattanooga newspaper May 3, 2003 - and even touts the article on his campaign website.

Strangely, Davis claimed veterans' benefits were being cut even though Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi had released a statement two weeks earlier, on April 24, 2003, explaining the truth and blaming the rapid spread of the rumor on the Internet.

I've reprinted Principi's statement here verbatim (and uploaded it in this Word file), so you'll have the truth. Because truth is the ultimate weapon in a campaign season sure to be marked by an avalanche of lies from the Left's arsenal of weapons of mass deception.

One of the byproducts of the Internet Age is the blinding speed with which rumor becomes accepted "fact" among those willing to believe. More than a century ago, a wise man wrote, "A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth gets its boots on." Today, lies can rocket around the world before the truth can even find its socks. Only prompt intervention can squelch rumors before they are widely accepted as truth.

Here’s a rumor that desperately needs squelching - On the eve of our battle to liberate the Iraqi people, Congress slashed funding to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the organization I am privileged to lead. This rumor has the potential to frighten our nation’s America’s veterans, and to undermine morale among our brave troops in the field.

The rumor has already surfaced on the Internet, in Hollywood, and on the op-ed pages of the venerable New York Times. Even a member of Congress, in a Chicago Sun-Times op-ed published April 13, wrote of a "$28 billion cut in veterans’ benefits and health care."

If any such cut in veterans' benefits were made, veterans and their families would be justifiably concerned. But there is no truth to any suggestion or assertion that VA’s budget will be "cut" or "slashed" next year. In fact, funding for veterans programs will increase in fiscal year 2004, probably by record levels.

President Bush's fiscal year 2004 budget requests a record $63.6 billion for our nation's veterans, including a nearly 8-percent increase over the fiscal year 2003 budget for discretionary funding – which mostly pays for VA's health care system - and a 32-percent increase in overall funding since fiscal year 2001. And the Budget Conference report the House and Senate agreed to on April 11 raises the suggested levels of discretionary funding for veterans by an additional $1.8 billion.

This rumor may have been fueled by a parliamentary maneuver that escaped even the most die-hard C-Span viewers. At about the time the Iraq war began, the House of Representatives passed a resolution requesting House and Senate Appropriations Committee members to reduce most federal agencies' funding, including VA's, by 1 percent in fiscal year 2004, a reduction they believed could be made up by reducing waste, fraud and abuse at each department.

If that measure had passed, it would have lowered the amount of the record increase in funding President Bush proposed for veterans, but it would not have cut VA's funding. Lawmakers, however, quickly recognized the impact upon veterans and exempted VA from the across-the-board reductions.

So, despite rumors they may hear to the contrary, veterans and their families, including our newest generation of veterans, should rest secure in the knowledge that a grateful nation honors their service to America. These days, the only cuts at VA are to the waiting lists for medical care and the backlog of compensation claims. While VA can always use more money, the interests of America's veterans and their families will continue to be protected by Congress, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the President.

Blogging's Next Wave

I've been remiss in mentioning Glenn Reynolds' TechCentralStation article on blogging's next wave. Speaking as a journalist-turned-blogger, I think Reynolds' take on what's next in blogging, including blog-based micro-journalism with actual reporting, is an on-target prediction. I also happen to believe you're going to see more and more small businesses in certain niches using blogs as both their business website and an inexpensive but effective online marketing tool.

Closing In on bin Laden?

The Pentagon is denying reports that U.S. and allied forces have Osama bin Laden cornered in some remote part of Afghanistan but, clearly, something is up, as Pakistan increases its military attacks against al Qaeda and Taliban remnants, and the Defense Department is moving "Task Force 121" from Iraq to Afghanistan because its mission in Iraq - hunting down Saddam and his top compadres - is basically finished, and that intelligence on the whereabouts of bin Laden is growing.

Carnival of the Capitalists

I forgot to mention it Monday, but the latest installment of Carnival of the Capitalists, a weekly round-up of the blogosphere's best economics and business bloggage, is up at Forgotten Fronts. Next week's Carnival will be hosted by the NanoPundit, so remember to send your entries to capitalists@elhide.com if you do serious economics or business-related blogging.

Lies, I Tell Ya!

Have you heard Democrats claim President Bush is cutting veterans' benefits? That's what they say. "He's cutting veterans' benefits." Only one problem. It's a lie. Darren Kaplan has the details, including the inconvenient thing called "facts" that prove the Dems are lying.

The Economy is Truckin'

There's some good local business news from Nashville that indicates, I think, a strengthening national economy: Peterbilt, which makes trucks at a big plant just north of Nashville, is adding workers and increasing production.

Rising truck sales mean more people are back on the job at Peterbilt Motors Co. in Madison. ... The plant, which cut production from 36 large trucks a day to 12 in 2002, plans to ramp up production to 30 trucks a day when the workers rejoin the assembly line in a little less than two weeks, plant manager Larry Vessels said. The plant assembles 20 trucks a day. ... After seeing sales declines bottom out to a 30% decline in August, the company's sales of Class 8 trucks, the industry term for the large ''18-wheelers'' built at the plant, are on the rebound, rising 72% in January as more companies replace aging fleets.

And manufacturers are expecting a strong 2004, reports Reuters:

US manufacturers group predicts strong '04 rebound
The National Association of Manufacturers said on Monday that it expects a strong recovery in manufacturing this year, with the sector outperforming the economy as a whole.

The organization, which unveiled its forecast at National Manufacturing Week in Chicago, said it expects manufacturing production to increase by more than 6 percent this year, with U.S. gross domestic product up 4.1 percent.

"We are more positive about the outlook for manufacturing and the general economy than we have been over the past two or three years," NAM President Jerry Jasinowski told a press conference in Chicago's McCormick Place.

Sports Blogging

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes about sports blogs, a burgeoning niche of the blogosphere. Sportsblogs.org, "now lists 322 blogs, with 267 dedicated to baseball. Some have become so popular, they are selling advertising," says the P-I.

Attack!

You have to laugh a bit at the headline on this story in today's New York Times:

Campaign Begins as Bush Attacks Kerry in Speech

The Bush Boom is Entrepreneurial

Don't miss Virginia Postrel's New York Times column on the changing economy, and why official government employment and job-creation stats are missing a lot of jobs.

The official job counters at the Bureau of Labor Statistics don't do much to overcome our blind spots. The bureau is good at counting people who work for large organizations in well-defined, long-established occupations. It is much less adept at counting employees in small businesses, simply because there are too many small enterprises to representatively sample them. The bureau's occupational survey, which might suggest which jobs are growing, doesn't count self-employed people or partners in unincorporated businesses at all. And many of today's growing industries, the ones adding jobs even amid the recession, are comprised largely of small companies and self-employed individuals.

February 23, 2004

Trickery, I Tell Ya!

John Weidner looks at the bipartisan consensus behind the war in Iraq:

One of the 637 lies about the Bush Administration now being pushed by lefty apologists and bloggers, is that President Bush refused to seek consensus on the liberation of Iraq and the War on Terror. That he just went off on his unilateral lonesome, and didn't "reach out" to Democrats and others. And thus the country is "divided."

This is a lie. We had a consensus.

Before Bush became President, and to a large extant through 2002, the policies advocated by Democrat leaders were virtually identical to the policies Bush is following now...

Who Said It?

Who wrote this back on Jan. 15?

With Hobbs and InstaPundit starting to trash him, and Drudge playing catch up, and even Atrios being a little critical today, clearly Wesley Clark is building some big mo.

In The Zone

Will South Knox Bubba get as upset about this as he did about this? Doubt it.

The Real John Kerry

John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam. It's what he did after he came home that deserves intense scrutiny as he runs for president. Among the things he did before getting elected to office: lie to Congress, and present false testimony that helped America lose a war. You can listen to it for yourself here. Warning: prepare to be disgusted.

You should also be disgusted by his track record once elected to public office - where he consistently voted to gut the national defense and intelligence services. I don't question Kerry's patriotism. He fought for American and bled for it. He's a war hero, even if he is to modest to tell you that himself. I do question his judgment on matters of national security and foreign policy. One doesn't earn immunity from such questions by fighting heroically in a war. John Kerry voted consistently for policies that would make America weaker on the battlefield and in the all-important intelligence gathering business. I have no doubt he thought he was doing the right thing at the time, but I also have no doubt he was wrong. Kerry says his three Purple Hearts and his Silver Star render him immune to questions about his legislative track record on national defense. He's wrong about that, too.

The issue isn't Kerry's valor 30 years ago, or his patritism now. The issue is whether Kerry is right on the all-important trumps-everything-else issue of national defense and winning the winner-take-all War on Terror.

Random Goodness

John Weidner, who ought to be on your daily blog-reading list, has posted several very interesting things lately. Most recently, he's tapdanced all over Kevin Drum, one of the Left's favorite liars bloggers, about the politicization of environmental science. A few days ago, Weidner had some not-so random jottings about the job Colin Powell is doing as Secretary of State. Put Weidner on your regular blog-reading list.

Big Guns

They're bringing in the big guns for the March 2 Taxpayer Bill of Rights Town Hall Meeting , an event designed to introduce the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept to the general public and provide some momentum to legislation pending in the Tennessee legislature to put a TABOR amendment on the ballot in 2006.

As proposed, the Tennessee Taxpayer Bill of Rights constitutional amendment will:

1. Cap the rate of growth of state government spending,
2. Require tax increases to be voted on by the people, and
3. Require that excess collections be returned to the
taxpayers.

Here is the line-up for the March 2 Town Hall meeting:

Keynote addresses by Steve Moore, president of the Club for Growth, and John Andrews, president of the Colorado State Senate, followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session with the audience and Moore, Sen. Andrews, and Tennessee TABOR sponsors Sen. Jim Bryson and Rep. Glenn Casada; plus Matt Kibbe, executive vice president of Citizens for a Sound Economy, and Drew Johnson, policy analyst with the National Taxpayer's Union

Time and location:
Tuesday, March 2, 2004
10:00 - Noon
Sheraton Hotel, Downtown Nashville

The Tennessee TABOR Town Hall meeting is sponsored by the Government Accountability Project and the National Federation of Independent Business.

For more information on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, go to www.SenatorBryson.org and click on TABOR. Also, see the Taxpayers Bill of Rights category here at HobbsOnline.

From an email promoting the Town Hall meeting:

Mark your calendars!!! Make your plans! The Tennessee Taxpayer Bill of Rights Town Hall Meeting will be on Tuesday, March 2 at the Nashville Sheraton downtown. The purpose of this meeting is to show the legislature that people from throughout the state and nation support the Taxpayer Bill of Rights in Tennessee. We need you to be there! A good crowd will show the legislature and the media that we are serious about passing a Taxpayer Bill of Rights this year. We need YOU!

Half a Million

HobbsOnline will hit 500,000 page views today, according to the Bravenet counter on the site. The total includes visitors to this blog and it's previous Blogger incarnation, dating back to March 26, 2002, when I first installed the free counter on my site. FYI, I don't use Bravenet stats when discussing my site's traffic data for potential advertisers. First, the Bravenet counter's main total is for total page views, not unique visitors. Second, it includes even my page views of my own site. Third, its data seems less accurate to me than the SiteMeter counter - which DOES include only unique vistors, and produces data that roughly mirrors that of the much more extensive and detailed data I get from my web hosting provider.

Whither Goest the Entrepreneurial Vote?

Dean Esmay considers whether "the hidden secret of our economic growth the last two years has been an explosion of people becoming self-employed and starting their own businesses," and says that while it does seem to be happening, that might not be good news for the Republican Party.

I'm not sure that such notions bode quite so well for Republicans and conservatives as some tend to think. I've been self-employed, and loved it, but the one thing that self-employment cannot offer most people is a level of security, particularly in areas such as health care and regular income, to provide the necessities for a stable home life. Most self-employment ventures fail in that regard. There is a huge need many, many people have for the kind of health insurance and income stability that at least allows you to be sure you're going to make your rent and groceries every month.

I'm not honestly sure we should be assuming that people aren't going to be looking for that kind of social safety net in the long run to be provided by government. Right now, most entrepreneurs trend Republican because they sense that the Democratic establishment is hostile toward them, doesn't believe in them, doesn't like them, and wants to control them as much as possible. That could shift rather radically and rather quickly.

John Kerry, Spammer?

Chris Wage finds evidence that John Kerry's presidential campaign may be engaging in a form of spamming.

UPDATE: Chris Wage now says Kerry's not to blame, though he stops short of voicing the implication that it's those wascally wepubwicans.

The Need for Speed

USA Today on the rising tide of speeding on American roads:

It's the great paradox of the American road. Traffic is getting heavier, there's less open road, and gasoline costs more. That should slow us down.

But we want to drive faster, and we do it every chance we get. o why do we speed?

Because we have a full bladder or an empty cooler. Because the cake is in the oven. Because class starts in five minutes. Because the day care center is closing, and it's a dollar a minute after 6 o'clock.

We speed because we want to get away or because we want to win a race. Because we think we're James Dean or James Bond. We speed because we believe F=ma: Fun equals mass times acceleration.

We speed because our engines are bigger, our tires better, our suspensions firmer, our cabins quieter, our roads smoother. We speed because we don't realize how fast we're going - at least, that's what we tell the trooper.

But here , I think most people drive above the posted limit because it feels safe to do so. Our cars are, generally, much more capable of safe travel at high speeds than cars were a few decades ago when some federal lawmakers decided 55 mph was the right speed for hilly, curving Interstates in the Northeast and flat, straight, see-20-miles highways in the West.

Americans are voting with their right feet: speed limits are too low.

February 22, 2004

Advertisement

Please welcome HobbsOnline's newest advertiser, Passport. The company offers good products - I'm a customer - and a turnkey online business opportunity that is devoid of the usual trappings of such business opportunities (hype, excessive "training" costs, to name just two). One of Passport's product lines is Summit Nutritionals - there's a separate Summit ad on the left column. Summit Nutritionals is a series of high-quality, low-cost vitamins and nutritional supplements. I use them some of them and recommend them.

February 20, 2004

The Future Lies In The Entrepreneurial Economy

Business professor and blogger Jeff Cornwall notes a Miami Herald article that indicates a key Bush administration figure may finally "get" what's really happening in the economy - an entrepreneurial boom that is missed by the major data surveys, but is fueling the economy's growth.

The Miami Herald ran an interview this week with Treasury Secretary John Snow (thanks to RM Cornwall for the heads up on this fascinating article). In this interview, Snow gave me hope that maybe, just maybe, someone in the federal government actually is beginning to understand that our hope for the future lies in the entrepreneurial economy that has emerged over the past twenty years. This economic transformation has created the first entrepreneurial recovery we have experienced in modern American history.

Stories like these give you hope that - no matter how badly the other side trashes the economy and tries to discourage entrepreneurship by punishing the entrepreneurial class with high taxes and onerous regulations - the entrepreneurial spirit in America is stronger than ever.

Ad Space

I have added a second space for advertising on HobbsOnline - and at lower prices than my main Blogads strip you see over there on the right. For $10 a month, or $20 for three months, you can place a small ad (image may be no wider than 80 pixels) over on the left sidebar, below the various site boilerplate. I'm charging very low prices because those ads will not be seen unless the reader scrolls down fairly far on the blog - reading a particularly long post, or scanning several posts on the home page.

A Blogger at the White House

Nashville entrepreneur and blogger Rex Hammock, who runs a very good publishing company, blogs his trip to the White House to chat with President Bush. A few excerpts, though you ought to just go read the whole thing:

I was there as a representative small business owner who is using the increased capital expensing provisions of the Bush tax plan to invest in a wide range of hardware and software for my business. I’m also a proponent of the common sense logic that Congress should make the death tax repeal permanent.

... If George W. Bush could spend 25 minutes chatting with everybody in America like he did with me and five other folks today, he would win any election by a landslide. Despite the formality of the setting, he immediately put us all at ease with grace and hospitality. He was personable and seemed genuinely curious about each of us and our individual pionts of view on the subject we were there to discuss.

Congratulations, Rex.

Congratulations, too, on Rexblog getting mentioned in the Washington Post (even though the tone of the story was indignance that a blogger got a story that journalists couldn't get). Also, Jeff Jarvis plugs Rex's blogging of his White House visit, saying, "It's as if we all have a friend who just met the President and he's telling us all about it."

Utterly Central

It's interesting to me how completely separate memes seem to come together. For example, I've been posting a lot lately about the forthcoming film The Passion of the Christ,, which portrays the crucifixion of Jesus the Christ, who shed his blood for man's sins. Just now I've finished reading Donald Sensing's excellent post reacting to an article by former U.S. Navy Secretary James Webb criticizing the invasion of Iraq. Sensing calls it an example of "linear oldthink," and says Webb is utterly wrong about the Iraq war.

Far from being a distraction or diversion from the war on terrorism, as Bush's critics charge, the liberation of Iraq is utterly central to it. There is a long way to go, and almost certainly and sadly, much blood yet to flow, but had Operation Iraqi Freedom not taken place, I am convinced that America would be losing the war against terrorism.

His piece on Webb focuses only on military and foreign policy strategy - there's no theological aspect to it. Not intentionally. But re-read the snippet I just gave you. There is ... sadly, much blood yet to flow. I think Sensing is right - the Iraq war is utterly central to the War on Terror. Jesus's crucifixion on the cross 2,000 years ago was utterly central to His War on Terror, too, and his resurrection was His triumph - our ours - over the terror of death.

Freedom is always bought at a high price. And that price is almost always paid with blood.

Passion's Jesus Actor Speaks

Jim Caviezel, the actor who portrays Jesus in the The Passion of the Christ, discusses making the film, and why the message of the film made the hardship worthwhile.

Everyone Falters

This email by Dallas television reporter Jody Dean (KTVT Channel 11) about the forthcoming movie
The Passion of the Christ has been bouncing around the Internet and it just bounced into one of my email in-boxes. I share it with you, unedited and without additional comment.

There've been a ton of E-mails and forwards floating around recently from those who've had the privilege of seeing Mel Gibson's "The Passion Of The Christ" prior to its actual release. I thought I'd give you my reaction after seeing it last night.

The screening was on the first night of "Elevate!", a weekend-long seminar for young people at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano. There were about 2,000 people there, and the movie was shown after several speakers had taken the podium. It started around 9 and finished around 11... so I reckon the film is about two hours in length. Frankly, I lost complete track of time - so I can't be sure.

I want you to know that I started in broadcasting when I was 13-years-old. I've been in the business of writing, performing, production, and broadcasting for a long time. I've been a part of movies, radio, television, stage and other productions - so I know how things are done. I know about soundtracks and special effects and make-up and screenplays. I think I've seen just about every kind of movie or TV show ever made - from extremely inspirational to extremely gory. I read a lot, too - and have covered stories and scenes that still make me wince. I also have a vivid imagination, and have the ability to picture things as they must have happened - or to anticipate things as they will be portrayed. I've also seen an enormous amount of footage from Gibson's film, so I thought I knew what was coming.

But there is nothing in my existence - nothing I could have read, seen, heard, thought, or known - that could have prepared me for what I saw on screen last night.

This is not a movie that anyone will "like". I don't think it's a movie anyone will "love". It certainly doesn't "entertain". There isn't even the sense that one has just watched a movie. What it is, is an experience - on level of primary emotion that is scarcely comprehensible. Every shred of human preconception or predisposition is utterly stripped away. No one will eat popcorn during this film. Some may not eat for days after they've seen it. Quite honestly, I wanted to vomit. It hits that hard.

I can see why some people are worried about how the film portrays the Jews. They should be worried. No, it's not anti-Semitic. What it is, is entirely shattering. There are no "winners." No one comes off looking "good" - except Jesus. Even His own mother hesitates. As depicted, the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day merely do what any of us would have done - and still do. They protected their perceived "place" - their sense of safety and security, and the satisfaction of their own "rightness." But everyone falters. Caiphus judges. Peter denies. Judas betrays. Simon the Cyrene balks. Mark runs away. Pilate equivocates. The crowd mocks. The soldiers laugh. Longinus still stabs with his pilus. The centurion still carries out his orders! And as Jesus fixes them all with a glance, they still turn away. The Jews the Romans, Jesus' friends - they all fall. Everyone, except the Principal Figure. Heaven sheds a single, mighty tear - and as blood and water spew from His side, the complacency of all creation is eternally shattered.

The film grabs you in the first five seconds, and never lets go. The brutality, humiliation, and gore is almost inconceivable - and still probably doesn't go far enough. The scourging alone seems to never end, and you cringe at the sound and splatter of every blow - no matter how steely your nerves. Even those who have known combat or prison will have trouble, no matter their experience - because this Man was not conscripted. He went willingly, laying down His entirety for all. It is one thing for a soldier to die for his countrymen. It's something else entirely to think of even a common man dying for those who hate and wish to kill him. But this is no common man. This is the King of the Universe. The idea that anyone could or would have gone through such punishment is unthinkable - but this Man was completely innocent, completely holy - and paying the price for others. He screams as He is laid upon the cross, "Father, they don't know. The don't know..."

What Gibson has done is to use all of his considerable skill to portray the most dramatic moment of the most dramatic events since the dawn of time. There is no escape. It's a punch to the gut that puts you on the canvas, and you don't get up. You are simply confronted by the horror of what was done - what had to be done - and why. Throughout the entire film, I found myself apologizing.

What you've heard about how audiences have reacted is true. There was no sound after the film's conclusion. No noise at all. No one got up. No one moved. The only sound one could hear was sobbing. In all my years of public life, I have never heard anything like that.

I told many of you that Gibson had reportedly re-shot the ending to include more "hope" through the Resurrection? That's not true. The Resurrection scene is perhaps the shortest in the entire movie - and yet it packs a punch that can't be quantified. It is perfect. There is no way to negotiate the meaning out of it. It simply asks, "Now, what will you do?"

I'll leave the details to you, in the hope that you will see the film - but one thing above all stands out, and I have to tell you about it. It comes from the end of Jesus' temptations in the wilderness - where the Bible says Satan left him "until a more opportune time". I imagine Satan never quit tempting Christ, but this film captures beyond words the most opportune time. At every step of the way, Satan is there at Jesus' side - imploring Him to quit, reasoning with Him to give up, and seducing Him to surrender. For the first time, one gets a heart-stopping idea of the sense of madness that must have enveloped Jesus - a sense of the evil that was at His very elbow. The physical punishment is relentless - but it's the sense of psychological torture that is most overwhelming. He should have quit. He should have opened his mouth. He should have called 10,000 angels no one would have blamed Him. What we deserve is obvious. But He couldn't do that.

He wouldn't do that. He didn't do that. He doesn't do that. It was not and is not His character. He was obedient, all the way to the cross - and you feel the real meaning of that phrase in a place the human heart usually doesn't dare to go. You understand that we are called to that same level of obedience. With Jesus' humanity so irresistibly on display, you understand that we have no excuse. There is no place to hide.

The truth is this: Is it just a "movie"? In a way, yes. But it goes far beyond that, in a fashion I've never felt - in any forum. We may think we "know." We know nothing. We've gone 2,000 years - used to the idea of a pleasant story, and a sanitized Christ. We expect the ending, because we've heard it so many times. God forgive us. This film tears that all away. It is as close as any of us will ever get to knowing, until we fully know. Paul understood. "Be urgent, in and out of season."

Luke wrote that Jesus reveals Himself in the breaking of the bread. Exactly. "The Passion Of The Christ" shows that Bread being broken.

Go see this movie.

His and His alone.

Jody

The Next Iranian Revolution Will Be Blogged

Here's a good story on the growth of blogs in Iran.

Initially created to defy the nation's tight control on media, these web journals have turned into a cyber-sanctuary - part salon, part therapist's couch - for the vast pool of educated, young and computer-savvy Iranians. As Friday's parliamentary elections approach, however, there's a distinct tone of worry that conservatives expected to regain control of parliament would step up pressure to censor the Internet.

Bloggers in Iran have sidestepped censorship efforts, in part, by running sites through multiple servers and using foreign-based blogs as portals to Iranian ones whose locations may keep changing. But more importantly, officials have not countered with their ultimate weapon: bringing all servers under government control.

Plans to outlaw privately run Internet service providers were announced last year, but were never followed through. Some suspect officials feared too much public outrage. But a new parliament could change the dynamics.

"We have suffered under unjust press laws," said Issa Sahakhiz, member of the Iranian branch of the Committee to Protect Journalists. "We are afraid [of] more to come with this new parliament."

In a country full of paradox, the Internet has been one of the biggest. Authorities allowed it to expand in the 1990s without any serious controls - even as they hunted for illegal satellite television dishes and Western movie videos. The huge on-line appetite has been fed by thousands of Internet cafes, low-cost computers from East Asia and a rush of entrepreneurs offering Internet accounts.

Other tightly run nations - such as Saudi Arabia and China - keep reins on the Internet. In Iran, almost anything is a click away. Beside blogging, Iranians spend time in chat rooms, download music, read poetry, visit any of the countless Farsi news sites or even surf the erotic offerings.

At its present course, Internet usage in Iran is expected to grow sevenfold to 15 million users by 2006, according to studies cited by the Middle East Economic Digest. More than half of Iran's 65 million are under 25 years old and hungry for the web.

USA Today: "Most Economists" Blame Tax Cuts Fo