To drive or not to drive a Prius.

I am a Nitromethane junkie. I love drag racing, horsepower, burning rubber, thunderous exhaust pipes and fire. I prefer sports cars and trucks over the diminutive hybrid. With that said, I confess that my ego has no defense against the truth of math. Here's the "rest" of the story.

My wife and I went car shopping last night. I despise car shopping. No, I LOATHE it entirely! I'd rather jam a screwdriver up my nose than to endure the sales pitch of a car dealer. My love for my wife superseded my opinion so I went along for the ride. We had already narrowed our search down to a hatchback with good fuel economy. I prefer Toyota's or Honda's. I've had good experience with them. So, the list narrowed quickly down to the Toyota Matrix or Toyota Prius. I immediately ruled out the Prius. I can't be seen driving one of those things. The automotive designers in Japan did marvelous things with the technology and fuel economy but they failed to add any Testosterone to the design at all. Even the paint schemes are lacking. Powder blue, Lunar Mist, Gold, Beige? Really? Come on, throw me a bone here. I'm barely able to sit in a mini-van much less a powder blue Prius. I "need" my 1964 Chevy with the Buick 455 that makes 400hp and 510ft/lbs of torque breathing through 3" exhaust and shredding tires for a city block.

After our test drive of a Matrix, my wife saw a Prius. "May Day, May Day...We're going down...We're going down!!!". I tried to tactfully express to her the fact that there was no way in Hades that she was getting me in THAT car! The salesman found my banter quite entertaining. I was like a cat getting pushed into a bucket of water..... Well, after a couple of miles into the test drive, my darling wife looks at me with a smile and says "You need to drive it honey". My expression was that of Archie Bunker looking at Edith with arms crossed. The voice of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham's dummy "Walter" was ringing through my head. I remembered the dearest love I have for this woman and acquiesced. I became a kid in a candy store. Push button ignition, joystick shifter, touch screen with fuel consumption data, regenerative braking, touch screen audio, touch screen climate control. It accelerated as fast as the Matrix, road smoother than the Matrix and has as much room as the Matrix. It, I must admit, performed everything as well or better. All while getting 20+MPG better. The engine turning itself on and off is strange though. So is the constant velocity gearing. However, the technology packed into this thing is really cool! Being the gizmo geek that I am, it grew on me quickly. Just as long as I stay inside the car and not pay attention to the other people on the road looking at me, I think I'll be OK.

The math was staggering. I put a lot of miles on a vehicle. Between my daily commute and weekends back home, I log anywhere from 2,500 to 2,800 miles per month. At today's gas rates of $3.50 per gallon, I will save around $175 per month in gas cost over the Matrix. If, as some experts say, gas hits $5 this summer, the savings will be over $275 per month. Hmmmmm....my ego has no defense for this. If all of America were to gravitate towards a car that gets 45mpg, then the 200 million passenger cars on the road would pocket a gas savings of $180BILLION per year!

I am a political, religious and social conservative. However, I veer away from my constituency in my environmental conservationism. I'm not going to go out to UC Berkley and hug trees, start wearing Birkenstock sandals or protest the use of deodorant. However, I do believe, as I interpret bible scripture, that we should be good stewards with the blessings God gives us. Having dominion over the earth does not mean we have the right to environmentally rape it. A soccer mom in a Chevy Suburban driving to school to drop off their one child and then driving to a PTA meeting is a poor example of good environmental stewardship. The purpose of a Suburban is to transport a bunch of stuff and a handful of people. Not a 6yr old with a lunch box. If we want the government not to mandate regulations forcing us into this, we had better all take a better look at how wasteful we are and do something about it out of good principle. Oil is not like solar energy, its not going to be around forever despite what conspiracy theorists believe. The free market of this country will gravitate naturally towards the demand. If we buy more fuel efficient vehicles, car-makers will cease production of gas-guzzlers. If we plug our cars into the grid at night, the electrical companies will expand the grid due to demand. Clean nuclear power will be back on the table for discussion instead of coal, oil, gas or hydroelectric if demand increases. This would not require an act of Congress or the state of California to demand it. The only reason the rail system in the United States is a century behind Europe is that we turned a blind eye and demand our [invisible] independence. If more people demanded it, I could be taking a train between work and home instead of sitting on I-65 during rush hour.

So, do you want to just save that money or would you rather the government institute a "consumption tax" that takes it out of your pocket and into the abyss of the system in the name of saving the environment? For example; owning a V8 engine in Germany will cost you over $1,500 per year just in consumption tax over and above the other annual taxes you pay. Want to reverset the trend toward socialism? Take the steps ourselves and eliminate the [middle-man] government. We don't need a talking head like Michael Moore to flame our system. We just need to use it correctly. Let's all reduce/reuse/recycle, drive more efficient cars and be better stewards of what God has given us. Even if we have to modify our ego, swallow it down and take deep breath first.

What does the next verse say?

Anyone who was raised in church or has said a salvation prayer knows some verses of scripture. John 3:16 is very familiar - "For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life". We can then fast-forward into the daily events of life and look at the position of the Church that the world perceives. The world sees the church as a condemning, morally superior institution. We have, unfortunately, gotten that stereotype legitimately because of our general actions of being against so many things but not known for what we are for. Let's go on to the next verse. John 3:17 "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved". Whoa! Stop the horse! So Christ didn't come to condemn the world?? It says it right there in scripture. In order to take a shower to get clean, do you have to rinse off with a hose before stepping in the shower or do you just get in? If someone is broken, hurt, in pain, in need...and comes into the church and sits down to listen, how often do they feel eyes looking at them with contempt? What is the purpose of the church? To condemn, isolate, to be pious, morally superior, higher than thou? You better not say yes because the fact is Christians don't perform any better at moral/ethical behavior than non-Christians. It's a sad fact. Why? Because we don't look to see what the next verse says. We get spoon-fed a little on Sunday and go about our merry way. We don't eat a full meal, digest it and learn from it. We spray a little Christianity on ourselves like deodorant..expecting it to last till next Sunday.

Instead of standing on a soapbox screaming our lungs out over what we are against, why not spend our time being examples of healthy marriage, being in our kids lives, teaching, loving, helping those in need? Through that comes opportunity to witness the Gospel. No one is going to listen to the fire and brimstone preaching of someone waving a Bible on a street corner. Let's let the broken, dirty, beaten and bruised come in. Show them a better way rather than preaching to them how bad and terrible they are. Maybe, just maybe...they too will find a better way as a result.

Vermilion Oil Rig 380 on fire and leaking

Yet another rig has blown. Initial reports said the rig wasn't drilling at the time of the explosion. Now we know it was drilling....and is now leaking. All 13 crew members rescued. One injury. This begs, again, the question of why are we out there?

Our own Bakken reserve has more oil than all of Saudi Arabia from beginning to end...but we aren't allowed to drill it because of environmental restrictions. So, we push oil rigs into deep water and when (not if) an accident occurs...it's 5,000ft deep where pressures are 2000 lbs per square inch. Sure would be easier to deal with if it were on a plain in North Dakota where we could get to it. In January 1991, 700 oil rigs in Kuwait were blown up. By November, all the rigs had been extinguished and capped. The Deep Water Horizon blew on April 20th and is still leaking. One rig - 4 months and counting. The Bakken reserve would allow us to sever all dependency on foreign oil while we work towards alternative energy. All while mitigating the environmental risks that we are currently facing in deep water. To give you perspective...the test depth of our latest Seawolf class attack submarine is only 2,000ft. A few atmospheric suits can go to 2000ft. Only our DSRV (Deep Sea Rescue Vehicle) can go 5,000ft. We are drilling in a place that exceeds our technical ability to fix when something goes wrong.

It doesn't matter if you are on the right or the left. Common sense dictates this: We must have energy. How do we get it while exposing ourselves to the least risk? We are in the worst possible position for a country. We are risking our environment at depths we cannot reach. We are dependent upon oil-producing nations who wish to kill us on religious grounds. We are so far in debt, our grandchildren will be paying the note. Our economy is in the toilet. Want to solve all the above? Institute a stimulus program that opens the Bakken reserve, exploits nuclear power, put Americans back to work actually producing something. Cut our dependence on foreign oil. Terrorists wallets will dry up. We will be managing wells within a technical level that we can economically handle.

You are where you are because you want to be.

This was a very hard pill for me to swallow the day my boss Bob told me this one day back in the mid-90's. I left work hacked off at him for not sympathizing with my pain and disgust with the job environment. It took a couple of days before I'd even speak to him. He hadn't been rude. He was trying to give me some advice. He was also right. You hate your job? Get another one. You don't like your living condition? Move. You don't like your educational level? Go back to school. You don't love your spouse? Get counseling or get out of it. Don't like your church? Find another one. Don't like your car? Get another one. Get the point? We are where we are in life largely because we have chosen to. Our lack of making a decision is a decision none the less. Now there are things that paint into a corner for certain. But staying in that corner is our decision to make. The next time you complain about something...just how much do you hate it? Enough to do something about it?

A change in direction

I recently deleted all the previous political posts I had made. Introspection revealed that it was taking my personality and emotions in the wrong direction according to scripture. There are "watchmen on the wall" within the body of Christ. I am not one of them. My father is and he's very good at it. I cannot be one. I find myself becoming too militant and angry. Digressing from the gospel. I'm more the teacher and counselor. I've stumbled, learned and now want to teach others where those potholes are. I need to leave the watchmen to what they do best.

Memorial Day

Here is one thing in particular I remember this Memorial Day weekend:

I remember "George". He was my landlord who lived downstairs in the house from which we rented an upstairs apartment from. He was a short, stocky fellow who was very cheerful and quite chatty. One would not have surmised that George was a Marine WWII veteran with the 1st Marine Division. Being a Marine myself, we had lots to talk about.

George landed on the island of Tulagi near Guadalcanal Island on August 7th, 1942. George was one of 3,000 Marines assigned to take Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo while 11,000 Marines landed on Guadalcanal. Of the 3,000 Japanese soldiers entrenched on the three smaller islands, only 4 survived. Marines suffered 122 losses. In the early morning hours of August 21st, George was patrolling the eastern perimeter of Lunga when 917 Japanese attempted an ill-fated attack. This became known as the Battle of Tenaru. All but 128 of the Japanese invaders were killed. George survived again only to soon come down with with a near-fatal bout of Dysentery.

On October 24th, George again survived the Battle of Henderson Field under command of Lt. Col. Chesty Puller. Later, on September 15th, 1944 at 0832, George and the 1st Marines landed on "White Beach" on Peleliu which was fortified with 30,000 seasoned Japanese soldiers. George's LVT was hit by a 47mm shell and sank is chest-deep water layered in coral. George and his landing party waded through the water while the Japanese raked the water with machine gun fire. George and his men took "The Point" which was the most heavily fortified fortress overlooking the beach. His joy was short-lived when the Japanese attempted four times over the next 30 hours to retake "The Point". 157 Marines lost their lives on "The Point". George was one of only 18 to live to tell the tale.

On April 1st, 1945, George found himself in hand-to-hand combat fighting through the west-central area of Okinawa known as Cactus Ridge, about five miles north of Shuri. 1,500 soldiers were lost there. George fought his way all the way from the Oroku Peninsula on the west-central coast up to the Motobu Peninsula passing what is now Camp Hansen on the eastern coast. A total of 6,319 Americans died and 61,471 were wounded in taking Okinawa. George survived with grenade shrapnel in his legs after diving for cover when a grenade rolled out of a pill box he had assaulted.

George came home, married, raised his children, worked and eventually ended up retired, drinking sweet tea on his front porch many times with me. As we would sit, he would talk and I would listen intently. An average man, an average life, an extraordinary hero.

Thanks George!

A lesson in humility

As soon as I stopped tumbling after being thrown from the bike Tuesday, I began throwing my helmet and gloves in a fit of very adolescent tourettes. This was a poor example of Christianity for those gracious people who came running to my aid after witnessing the event. It wasn't until the adrenaline subsided and my blood pressure returned to normal that I hung my head in repentence and thanked God for watching over me. I saw this as a revealed character flaw that I must work on. How we react in the moment without time to think reveals our instinct. My instinct was to beat myself up for not having had x-ray vision and responding quicker. If only I had.... Rather, my instinct should have been an instant "Yeah, God!" for not having any broken bones. So, the next time you smash your finger with a hammer, spill coffee on your iPad or hit the gas instead of the brake, train your instinct to give glory to the Creator. It will take the edge off an otherwise inglorious moment.