It appears that on further review, the number of Viability Challenged voters who cast ballots in the 2010 SC general election is not 950 as first thought, but a much, much smaller number.
This saddens me.
First because the courageous vanguard is so tiny.
Then because it will be that much harder to protect the voting rights of the Viability Challenged if more have not stood up before - pardon my choice of words.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Hanging Out in a Nouveau Entrepreneurial Culture
Last weekend, I attended an international conference of new technologies and deregulated energy entrepreneurs.
Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.
So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.
What did I come away with?
A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.
Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.
THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.
In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.
Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.
Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.
He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.
A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.
And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.
What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.
No joke.
Okay, I didn't exactly go to Paris, but Charlotte, NC is pretty convenient for such a cool opportunity.
So why would an attorney go to such an event? Well, attorneys have felt the recession like everyone else. In fact, while there I met or heard surgeons, other attorneys, corp execs, even a guy who ran a honkingly large division of Virgin Records.
What did I come away with?
A big dose of insight into how to create value for consumers, for one.
Loads of stimulation of ideas as I listened to people who had started companies and businesses in the US, Canada, and Europe.
Shoot! Even the Donald was there, and his appreciation for the smaller entrepreneur was gratifying.
THE SMALLER ENTREPRENEUR!!! Shoot, that may have been the biggest thing I got from the three days of this conference.
In a microchip world, the smaller entrpreneur can now - regularly does - achieve financial results that thirty years ago required boatloads of financing and a big physical footprint.
Begrudgingly, the President even gets a little credit.
Yes, hard to believe, isn't it? I am giving credit to the President.
He has been pushing the States to deregulate electricity and natural gas marketing by a 2015 target date.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet both see this as the next big thing.
A huge number of the attendees at this conference were already achieving some great value creation in the US, Canada and Western Europe in that economic segment alone.
And yes, I went to the conference already committed to that concept.
What is so amazing is that the ability to enter and participate in that business, even across state, provincial or national borders is great for almost anyone.
No joke.
The Challenge of Taking Free Days
Sometime soon I am going to do something I have not done in years.
Take a family vacation.
That may not seem like such a big deal, but I somehow lost the ability to do that after a parent became ill in 2007.
Oh sure. I have taken days off, but not for real, get out of Dodge, turn off the cell phone, and ditch the lap-top time.
A community of entrepreneurs I am a part of, calls these days "Free Days." Those are defined as 24-hour periods, midnight to midnight, where you are completely disconnected from work.
How will I possibly do it?
By investing some time and energy in delegating to a crack team, and outsourcing some things that need to be done, but are not my unique ability.
AND by planning for a productive week of both revenue generation and business tuning upon my return.
Thinking on this, I realize that to stay fresh and creative, I have to keep Free Days in the mix as part of my regular schedule, not as treatment for burn-out.
That is how to make sure I can continue to create value.
Take a family vacation.
That may not seem like such a big deal, but I somehow lost the ability to do that after a parent became ill in 2007.
Oh sure. I have taken days off, but not for real, get out of Dodge, turn off the cell phone, and ditch the lap-top time.
A community of entrepreneurs I am a part of, calls these days "Free Days." Those are defined as 24-hour periods, midnight to midnight, where you are completely disconnected from work.
How will I possibly do it?
By investing some time and energy in delegating to a crack team, and outsourcing some things that need to be done, but are not my unique ability.
AND by planning for a productive week of both revenue generation and business tuning upon my return.
Thinking on this, I realize that to stay fresh and creative, I have to keep Free Days in the mix as part of my regular schedule, not as treatment for burn-out.
That is how to make sure I can continue to create value.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Former Fundies, Evangelicals, and Death of a Salesman
I have mused over the last week about an exchange on Facebook with a friend who, like me, is an Evangelical and Reformed believer. She was sincerely adamant about certain conservative thinkers using terms like "objective legal standard" or "food stamp president" as code words for white racism.
So, I asked some other friends who are conservative, and are black. The scratched their heads figuratively.
I later listened to Congressman Allen West, who himself has been black for some time, and is a conservative by birth - - or is it the other way around?
I also heard J.C. Watts, former QB of the Oklahoma Sooners, former Oklahoma Secretary of State, Former Congressman, and I would say a potential Veep candidate.
He supports Newt, one of the code-speak offenders.
So, why do white liberals, who are former fundamentalist Christians and/or current Evangelical Christians (there is a BIG difference) buy into the code-speak thing?
Well, I worked it in reverse. I WAS a liberal, so much so that I could have made Nancy Pelosi look like Jesse Helms.
I protested outside the South African mission to the UN protesting apartheid. I still think the policy was wrong, by the way.
I was the typical Southern white liberal student who wanted to change things. I was angry.
And I did not want to be looked down upon by people from up North.
Then it hit me!
The unseen actor on the thinking of liberal former Fundamentalists and liberal Evangelicals was and is -
So, I asked some other friends who are conservative, and are black. The scratched their heads figuratively.
I later listened to Congressman Allen West, who himself has been black for some time, and is a conservative by birth - - or is it the other way around?
I also heard J.C. Watts, former QB of the Oklahoma Sooners, former Oklahoma Secretary of State, Former Congressman, and I would say a potential Veep candidate.
He supports Newt, one of the code-speak offenders.
So, why do white liberals, who are former fundamentalist Christians and/or current Evangelical Christians (there is a BIG difference) buy into the code-speak thing?
Well, I worked it in reverse. I WAS a liberal, so much so that I could have made Nancy Pelosi look like Jesse Helms.
I protested outside the South African mission to the UN protesting apartheid. I still think the policy was wrong, by the way.
I was the typical Southern white liberal student who wanted to change things. I was angry.
And I did not want to be looked down upon by people from up North.
Then it hit me!
The unseen actor on the thinking of liberal former Fundamentalists and liberal Evangelicals was and is -
WILLY LOMAN!!!!!
You know. The protagonist in the Tennesee Williams play, Death of a Salesman
He wanted everyone to like him. He was obsessed with the idea. He guided his sons with exhortations that the way to succeed in life was to get everyone to like you.
So, liberals and progressives in general are hypersensitive to anything that remotely looks like it could offend.
As such, discourse is chilled, otherwise acceptable words are relegated to a trash heap of language, and
Grace is sacrificed on the altar of a legalistic moral code.
The bad news, the ex-Fundamentalists are still Fundamentalists, but in a better part of town.
The good news - the right people like them!
By the way, Willy's obsession eventually led to self-destruction.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
On the Edge of Catholicism
For those of you who know me personally, and know I hold to a Reformed theological world-view, chill. It's all good.
I remain an Anglican trapped in the body of a Presbyterian.
I am reading a wonderful book entitled More Christianity, by Dwight Longenecker. Dwight is a former Anglican priest who came into the Catholic Church a few years back, along with his wife and children.
His terrific book is a cogent explanation to Protestants of what Catholic Christianity is all about.
While I find more than a few things in Catholicism I am not comfortable with, the sheer grandeur of faith as expressed by Catholic believers is, I think, pretty awesome, and gives me pause to consider whether I, as a Reformed believer, am too familiar with God - appreciating His personal and intimate relation to me, but being indifferent to His vastness.
I remain an Anglican trapped in the body of a Presbyterian.
I am reading a wonderful book entitled More Christianity, by Dwight Longenecker. Dwight is a former Anglican priest who came into the Catholic Church a few years back, along with his wife and children.
His terrific book is a cogent explanation to Protestants of what Catholic Christianity is all about.
While I find more than a few things in Catholicism I am not comfortable with, the sheer grandeur of faith as expressed by Catholic believers is, I think, pretty awesome, and gives me pause to consider whether I, as a Reformed believer, am too familiar with God - appreciating His personal and intimate relation to me, but being indifferent to His vastness.
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