The Things that Consitute A Good (Religious) Visit

I have been a religious leader for thirty years, both ecclesiastical and administrative. I have worked with all sorts of people in all kinds of capacities and have enjoyed both sides of religious work.

Of course, you already know that I am a Mormon and we are increasingly known for our "Home Teaching" program, where our priesthood holders visit Latter-Day Saint (LDS) families in their homes with spiritual messages and encouragement to live better lives and attend to their religious duties. A good friend of mine of another faith, who doesn't think much of Mormon doctrine otherwise, did say that Home Teaching was inspiring to him and he wished his own church had the resolve to do something similar. Pretty good program, yes?

As an LDS priesthood leader, I collect statistics on family visits made and report them to regional (stake) and the general leadership.  The question often comes up of what can be "counted" as a proper visit, as many attempts just simply don't rise to the level for administrative purposes. It may seem a little strange for religious people to get weird about statistics, but we are very concerned about being effective ministers and really helping people - good record-keeping is a part of that!

For my part, this is what constitutes a good priesthood visit with others, no matter the intended purpose:

• Always take someone else with you.  Never make visits alone.
• Pray beforehand and listen for inspiration. Follow any promptings that you get.
• Prepare a spiritual thought to present. You may be prompted not to use it, but have one ready.
• Before you leave, offer a prayer and blessing on the home and family.
• No matter the stated reason, always record a contact that includes these elements, which should always be done, as a home teaching visit.

I think anyone, even those who shun religion, can find good principles in this list to use and enjoy uplifting visits with family, friends, and acquaintances. Everyone likes to be around people who bring a pleasant "spirit" with them and leave whatever "blessing" or well-wishes feels good, no matter who is offering and what position they may hold!

Selling Your Soul for Easy Money

I recently published an intriguing little booklet called Feeding the Soul of Steve Jobs, which is about finding the sort of life and success that Steve Jobs enjoyed. It dove-tailed so well with my popular blog-post about The Psychic Proximity Principle that I used it as the framework for the booklet, giving all of you a wonderful case study in putting the power of weak magnetism to work!

As I was writing, I went off on a tangent about the evils of acquiring money for its own sake. I was going to use it as a bonus chapter in the booklet, but I decided against it.  I still find it useful, so I decided to put it here for your "fun and profit"!  Enjoy!

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For those of you who have no interest in realizing your potential beyond a low money-grab, I will happily share two legal and honorable methods for becoming "well-off".
I and several friends have used these two methods to become financially "set".  Either will provide anyone with enough money to get the playthings shallow people seems to desire and "the good life" as far as our modern "easy path" society defines it. Regardless, I am here to help you accomplish this small goal.

Before I begin, the best advice I have for the money-motivated (and everyone else as well) is to never get into financial debt or get out of it as soon as possible. Dave Ramsey or any number of personalities can be found on the Internet to help you eliminate debt. It is a good thing to do no matter your personal attitude toward money as it frees you from bondage and provides you the resources to act independently. You can't really accomplish much if you are a slave to creditors!

Following either of the routes below, you should be financially set in a surprisingly short time. Hopefully, after you have the money you want, you might find a way to discover your soul and make use of The Psychic Proximity Principle, though it may be a huge course change.  Until that transcendent day, here are two simple and proven routes to financial security:

The "Hot Job" Route

1. Get the current list of "hot" jobs and choose between either the first or second job on the list,
2. Get low-level work in a bigger company hiring people in your chosen hot job (even as a janitor to begin with) and develop relationships with the hot job holders and their managers.
3. Get the education needed to get your chosen hot job (the company will often help you do this), and
4. Take any advancement opportunity you are offered toward the hot job.

This route also works with the traditional professions, such as medical doctor, lawyer, MBA, etc.

The "Military" Route

1. Join your national military or local military reserve unit,
2. Serve for an enlistment or two (or if how you spend your days doesn't matter to you, stay through retirement),
3. Secure work with a military contractor,
4. Take any advancement opportunity you are offered.

This route requires no real planning or formal education but lots of diligent effort. It works best if you are enlisted as contractors don't need many former officers.


There will always be money in the professions, hot engineering roles, and the military. The point is to get in the front door, rise to the needed requirements, and work hard. Money will readily flow as a result.  As always, I suggest you pursue The Psychic Proximity Principle first to protect yourself from the "empty soul" disease of the money-grab.

There are no Rat-holes to Respectability

In my time working for the military, I have been introduced to the concept of the "rat-hole". This is a situation where a lot of time, money, and other resources are spent on something that ultimately accomplishes very little or nothing. There are rat-holes all around us and we often don't realize it until they have already stolen a lot of our precious time and money!

I'll tell you about one of the bigger rat-holes where I have wasted a lot of life: disability exemptions.

Many people know my son Matt, who was diagnosed with autism just before his third birthday. If you spend time with him, you will quickly learn that he is disabled. He doesn't have the judgment needed to live independently, to contribute as an equal partner to a marriage, or to lead a family. He was determined by experts to be disabled. A determination of disability is essential to help a person get the added help they need and to get recognition by society that such aid is justified and needed.

The resources and time spent to determine Matt's autism was not a trip down a rat-hole. Sadly, as a result, I took a personal journey to explore my own relationship with autism, which ended up being a long stroll down a very useless rat-hole. I even went so far as taking all my children to be professionally evaluated and wasting a lot of time and money on it. While Matt was obviously disabled and needed a determination of what future expectations family, friends, and society should have for him, I and my other children are not disabled and should have somewhat capable lives. We may be odd in ways similar to Matt, but that doesn't include an inability to meet the requirements of society.

Honestly, I don't know what I was thinking! What would an "autism" determination have accomplished for any of us? If some diagnosis was coming (it didn't), would we get some hoped-for special pass or government benefit? No. I think my wonderful wife tried to get me to realize this, but I wasn't listening. In my case, a diagnosis might have actually interfered with my ability to provide for our family. Can you imagine if I was suddenly prevented from operating a car or if I was required to take drugs that wrecked my work performance? My family and life could have been ruined by continuing down this silly rat-hole! In the end, it only wasted some time and money.

There are plenty of rat-holes out there, leading nowhere useful and causing far more harm than just the loss of some time and money. As an acknowledged surveyor of some rat-holes, I feel somewhat qualified to identify a few. Let me address the gargantuan rat-hole of "difference".

Everyone is different. However, those differences typically don't preclude a person from participating effectively in society. The problem comes when people think their particular difference justifies some special treatment or exemption from common responsibility. In the past, a proper term was applied to this situation - discrimination - and was soundly and rightly discredited. Whatever perceived differences you see in yourself or others, it didn't take away from everyone's responsibility to provide for themselves, overcome obstacles, to start and raise a family, and be a decent neighbor. In a word, we are all expected to become respectable members of society, differences notwithstanding.

Over the years, a growing number of people have rediscovered rat-holes of "difference" that earlier generations largely dismissed as foolishness. Many people now pursue "new" (actually age old) re-definitions of gender and sexuality that rob them of respectability as they purposefully reject family creation and responsibility. Others manufacture or "blow-out-of-proportion" perceived mental or physical illness to justify being a bad neighbor or expecting others to provide resources for them. There are now larger numbers of people who choose to live in such rat-holes; far more people than the larger society can afford to deal with.

I will tell you from experience the pursuit of such exemptions from responsibility are a complete waste of time and energy. There is nothing to be gained by examining yourself against "new" gender definitions and exploring self-absorbing sexual "preferences". I have gone down similar roads of extended navel-staring myself and it proved to be a worthless effort. Sadly, society is now redefining respectability to accommodate such things and forcing everyone to respect people who waste precious social resources. Courts and psychologists are demanding that society treat people who refuse to create families and take on adult roles as both highly respectable and totally acceptable! The shrill voices of far too many militantly childish people are forcing our entire culture down their own self-indulgent rat-holes just when we need to spend our "adult" attention and resources facing real problems.

Take it from someone who has wasted some life exploring a few rat-holes: There is no rat-hole to respectability! Put childishness aside and embrace time-honored definitions of responsibility. You will find that you accomplish far more with the same effort, enjoy far greater happiness and satisfaction, and people of true worth will honor you!  

Field-book for Our Times - Liberty and The Book of Mormon

In my continuation of verse-by-verse scripture study, I have been reading about the rise of Amalickiah and Captain Moroni's response to it. If these names or things don't mean anything to you, I would suggest that you read a bit of a tome called "The Book of Mormon" (forget the trashy, tawdry, and cynical play by the same name - the book is better) which I have dubbed "the Field-book for Our Times".  Hopefully, after reading this, you will see one reason why I call it so.

Amalickiah wanted to be king of the Nephite nation. The Nephites were founded on this kooky idea that God had granted people their liberty and their government was formed to support this. The Book of Mormon's editor, a man named Mormon (it's his book), goes so far as to reveal Amalickiah's methods.  He promised lower government officials positions of expanded power under his kingship in return for their support. In a word, Amalickiah employed "flattery" to win supporters to his cause. The national church of the Nephites was firmly opposed to having a king and supported personal liberty, so Amalickiah used his flattering words to turn people against the church as well.

This situation caught the attention of a man named Moroni, the chief captain of the Nephite armies and a recent war hero. Moroni had fought to retain Nephite liberty that had recently been threatened by the neighboring kingdom of the Lamanites, who wanted to enslave them.  Moroni was "angry" that these defended liberties of his people were being subverted from the inside by Amalickiah and his conspirators. He chose to tear up his coat, write on it, and use it as a flag to stir the hearts of his countrymen to reject the idea of a king.  The coat-flag said this: "In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children."  Moroni called it "the Title of Liberty" and spoke on liberty himself, rallying supporters to the cause of religious and personal liberty and the defense of that liberty. He put on his war armor and those who took up his call to arms did the same. Amalickiah took stock of his position, figured he didn't have the needed support, took his most loyal supporters, and ran away.  Although he caused much havoc and pain in the years ahead, that is another part of the Book of Mormon.

A good field-book gives you the tools you need to face certain circumstances.  The Book of Mormon, as the field-book to our times, lets us know what to do about the circumstances that we are in right now.

America has become a strange thing - a country that gives its President near-kingly powers in four-year terms, a mockery of a democratic republic.  Recent presidents have boldly spoken of their power to rule without Congress via executive order and found few willing to really oppose them. Elections have become full-scale ideological gang-wars between conspiratorial parties bent on using "flattery" and fear to galvanize voters against their political enemies and raise up their own flavor of a president-king.

I have not heard our present presidential candidates utter the word "liberty" with any conviction, if they mention it at all. They crow very hard with what they will do with the kingly powers of the American imperial presidency! They echo the fear and hatred of our "easily-flattered" citizens through a bull-horn and win primaries.  The presidential kingship will likely be won by the loudest, nastiest, most "flattering" person on the field, not anyone who would defend our liberty.

What would the Book of Mormon suggest?  Raise the "Title of Liberty" afresh! Raise the call to arms in behalf of religious and family-based liberty!  Captain Moroni would shed light on the evils of kingly people and seek to bring them down.  At this time of Easter, when Jesus liberated us from the consequences of death and sin, we should all read Alma 46 of our field-books again and not be taken in by the "flattering words".

Trump's Next Big Surprise and How the Establishment Can Really Stop Him

As a matter of disclosure, I am not a Republican. Before most of you scamper off in the face of a Limbaugh "program caller", I also have no love for Democratic ideals or either of the potential Dem candidates. Actually, I am not a member of any political party and am a registered "Independent" at the local courthouse. Hopefully, I won't be perceived as some underhanded double-agent of your political enemies trying to snooker you. I truly want to help you, my beleaguered friends of the Republican Establishment!

Okay, you Rep leaders don't like Trump but he is winning in the polls. If you try to undermine him and replace him with someone more to your liking, you likely alienate the disgruntled (at you?) majority that keep pulling the large wins in for the Donald, against your supreme political wisdom. What is a misunderstood, under-appreciated, and apparently ineffectual major party apparatus to do?

Some people say to undermine Trump, quietly help Hill, and let the Dems have the win this election cycle so you can build a winning strategy for 2020. Sadly, there are already an uncomfortable number of Reps that would go with Hill anyway just to defeat Trump and they may just stay away for good if this is the Rep Party of the future. Others suggest some trickery to get the coming convention "brokered" and to fight it out in a concentrated battle on live television.  That would likely fracture the party permanently and leave the Dems as the sole political "superpower" for the foreseeable future. I am sure other procedural maneuvers are in the works, but it will be hard to convince anyone that it isn't just a bunch of old white operatives (who look strangely like you) trying to eliminate a guy who isn't their favorite flavor of old and white.

You must be kicking yourselves right now as the Dems should be suffering just as badly with an avowed Socialist running decently against the anointed Hillary. However, your prime opponents fixed the problem of a disobedient electorate a while back with those Super-delegates. The "powers" don't like Bernie, but the Super-delegates then swing into action to effect their establishment's will for the Hill. Too bad the Reps didn't pick up that little trick in the past as well. I haven't heard much angst from the disenfranchised Dem voters - that's the way their system works (but not yours).

I will tell you in a minute why none of this matters and the Republican Party, as you control it today, may not last into August, much less through the general election.

In the end, the Republican Party can only front one candidate for President and it is going to be Donald Trump, like it or not. The Donald figured out how to game the primaries, he will bully you into nominating him, and he will obnoxiously and inexplicably carry straight through to a general election win, first woman president and her "governing experience" notwithstanding. He knows what it takes to win and he has the desire to do it at any personal cost, which makes him practically unstoppable. Neither you nor I have any serious doubts that this will indeed happen.

Here comes the terrible truth that will destroy the Republican Party if you don't act fast.

You should know that Trump will offer Hillary Clinton the vice-president side of the ticket in the grandest gesture ever to "unite the country" against the evils of "party politics".  They have few authentic political differences to trouble such a partnership. Hill is a political pragmatist - she gave up her bid against Obama in 2008 for the added gravitas of being Secretary of State and a more "experienced" presidential candidate resume in the future. The more you ponder a Trump-Clinton ticket, the more it seems not just "outsider" possible, but nearly inevitable - someone like Donald, the corporate guy who knows the power of merged competitors, would propose it and someone like Hillary, who knows a VP has an easier course to the big chair than anyone else, would take it.  It is a complete political "slam-dunk" for both and final curtains for the old GOP, whom both would like to see disappear.

The final question is this: how badly do you of the fading Republican Establishment want to see a different future?

Straight to it -

You need to embrace the Libertarian Party, the #3 political party that no one takes seriously.  Trump is stealing and redefining your Rep platform, Hill will continue to dominate the Dems (even as Trump's sidekick), and that means you have to find a new ideology to front your need to win (sorry to be so blunt).  As a disaffected yet pitying friend, I suggest you adopt the Libertarian platform. The Republican Establishment has been losing young voters since Reagan, mostly to that detestable Ron Paul and his talk of personal liberty, responsibility, and smaller government.  The young people, who haven't taken Bernie's socialist bait, are very attracted to the elder Paul and liberty.  For a few years, you tried to woo these kids back with Ron's "liberty-lite" son Rand and a basket of undelivered "artificial-liberty-flavored" promises, so it wouldn't be completely out of character for you to ally with the Libertarians and work to actually deliver the real thing. Libertarians actually have your most high-minded ideals without the baggage of having proven to be liars about it once in office.

Libertarians have been hungry for years to be real contenders for major political offices.  They front a presidential candidate every cycle, occasionally a person you may have actually heard of.  They became so desperate once that they nominated Bob Barr, congressman from Georgia, who had a shaky "liberty" record. Sometimes, Libertarians are willing to forgo nominating a "true believer" to get a better chance to win, making them willing to "merge" with a group (like you) who are vaguely like-minded and basically compatible. You should probably consider pulling Ron Paul out of retirement and convincing him to be the Libertarian presidential candidate as part of the deal. You do believe in liberty, right?

The two things the Libertarian Party brings to the table of any candidate are:

1. ballot access in almost every state, which no other "third" party has, 
2. a compelling list of platform issues that appeal to young voters, anti-war liberals, abortionists, Christians, atheists, "Conservatives" who will vote as instructed by you (sorry to be blunt again), and people of every persuasion (political, social, sexual) who currently feel disenfranchised or over-regulated (who doesn't feel like this?).

What the Libertarian party needs most is:

1. a bigger organization, and 
2. a bigger bankroll.  

You wonderful Rep establishment folk have a huge organization and the money that such an organization generates! The Libertarian Party would kill to have your assets and gladly ally with you in exchange for the commitment to actually make good on their principles of smaller government and liberty beyond just "lip service". I know it may pain you to actually come through on some of this (it would be a loss of regulatory power), but you have to remember that Trump is going to destroy your Republican Party come November anyway and then you will have nothing and become nobody.  Is it really worth going down with that ship?

While you still control the Republican Party, re-open the "loopholes" that you closed to kill off Ross Perot and his Reform Party, which also hurt the Libertarians.  The Dems will readily agree to the change as it typically damages Rep candidates more than Dems. The Dems will think you are taking the option to throw the 2016 election in favor of being back in 2020, rather than abandoning the Rep Party for the Libertarians. You are going to need those openings in a few months when the conventions are over.

The Dems will be weak and scrambling to replace Hillary when she teams up with Trump. In desperation, they will probably draft Bernie. The Libertarian Party, strengthened by your money, your machinery, and the sincere Ron Paul, can come into the now-opened debates out of left field, steal away the Trump/Clinton thunder, and take back the votes of those who see and will be shown the trickery and hostage-taking being perpetrated by Donald and Hillary. You, Ron, and the Libertarians will be the "knights in shining armor" shedding light on political calculation and subterfuge while bringing LIBERTY to an electorate begging for real change!  What a winning combination! (You like to win, don't you?)

In the end, when you are up against the ropes like Rocky Balboa was against Clubber Lang in Rocky III, you finally see the truth, you look for your real friends, and you train for a new kind of fight. Trump is stealing the GOP "champion belt" from you of the Republican Establishment right now and laughing in your face (literally). Are you going to find the new friend in the Libertarian Party, combine forces, and gain the ultimate victory against the common foe? For your survival's sake, I hope so.

The Miracle of the Quilt

Every now and again, I write fiction.  Then for some unfathomable reason, I give it away.  Today, you can read my first published short story right here.  If you like it, please pass the link around to others by commenting and "liking" it on Facebook.  If you want to support my writing, you can purchase the Kindle version of "The Miracle of the Quilt" which is the first story in The Joys of Autism and Christian Ethos e-book.

If you like "The Miracle of the Quilt", you will absolutely love my best story ever, Rachel and her Knight in Shining Armor, also available as an e-book.

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy "The Miracle of the Quilt"!

RMS in Houston

So, I am flying through Houston on my way to a training in San Diego and I look up from eating something in a waiting area and I see this guy and say to myself, "That sure looks like Richard Stallman."  I just keep looking and he flips open his laptop (a little Thinkpad, good choice) and there are FSF stickers on it.  "Oh, my," I think, "It IS Richard Stallman!"

Now you probably don't know RMS, but you can look him up on Wikipedia:  Richard M. Stallman. He is a virtual god in the free software movement and was either the original writer or major contributor to a lot of GNU software that I use everyday.  He might even be more famous for being a catalyst behind the GPL: the GNU General Public License that applies to the Linux kernel and the bulk of open-source (don't use that term in front of him) or "free as in freedom" software.

It wasn't enough to just note that I might have sighted him.  I walked up (pretty bold move for me) and said "You are Richard Stallman."  He looks up and nods his head.  Gutsy still, I sit down across from him and say I want to shake his hand and that I have respected him as the premier free software advocate.  He seemed nonpulsed, as he gets this often enough, and says I can help him by going to http://www.fsf.org/help-menu, which is where you can donate to the Free Software Foundation that he was instrumental in starting.  I said that I would visit, so I have.

I was confused because I figured there would be a lot of people around him, but he said that he rarely gets recognized, although he looks exactly as he always does - unkempt. He said he came from Mexico City earlier today and someone recognized him, but to have two people in two airports in one day was really quite rare.  He said he was only famous to a very small group of people, statistically.  I guess I am a pretty rare guy.  Leave it to an MIT hacker to talk statistics.

He was trying to find a cell phone to use because he though someone had screwed up his flights.  I told him that I had a cell phone but I don't have cell service for it and only use it with wifi.  He smiled and congratulated me for doing that, which seems consistent with what I know of his tech view and basic distance from popular culture.

I was sitting there saying that I should get a picture with him, just to show off to other people, but I talked myself out of it.  I think that sort of stuff is pretty corny anyway, so I let it go.

He said to visit the fsf.org site once again and I said again that I would and that it was really cool to meet him.  He ended with "Happy Hacking!" and I replied "You, too, RMS!"

So, I finally meet one of the people I always read about!  Stallman was never on my list of people I wanted to meet one day, but it was very cool nonetheless and put me on cloud nine!  Of course, I didn't tell him that I was more a BSD type of guy, which would have raised his hackles probably, but I do definitely respect highly everything he has done for the universe of free software, even his political stuff!