Hey, You are probably doing this wrong!

I learned something a few years ago when I started auto racing. I found out I had never learned how to properly adjust my rearview mirrors. Sounds simple I bet you are making the same mistake. Do you have that dreaded blind spot? Well, you probably don't have to to. Check out this guidle line a friend of mine showed me on Facebook:

http://boingboing.net/2011/12/13/adjust-a-cars-sideview-mirro.html


Hope this makes your travels a little safer this Christmas!

I don't think that is a very compelling Argument Mr. Hawkings

I like intelligent conversation about the deep things of life. It is so hard to have those kinds conversations with people as human nature causes us to be threatened by others who do not believe the way we do. Emotions and opinions get involved and the next thing you know somebody is being burned at the stake.

Recently an old friend posted a song on Facebook, Athiests don't have No Songs by Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers. I know one of the Steep Canyon Rangers so I was very interested to watch it. Here it is if you would like :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1ngMz92vwA&feature=share

This in turn led me to a Blog

greatmindsongod.blogspot.com

Ah, I thought! This will be great! Some open minded and diverse discussions on God. Well, I only spent an hour on this website but it would have been better titled" Video Clips of pompous people ridiculing videos of really STUPID people who are giving religion a bad name.blogspot. I guess that wouldn't fit in the name field.

Don't get me wrong, most of the stuff on there would make Jesus turn over in his grave if he had one, but nobody was using their great mind to talk about God. Instead they were using their great big mouth to carp and whine about what they disliked in peoples behavior that called them selves followers of God.

My next stop on this journey was that I DVR'd a show called Curiosity on the Discovery Channel. This episode was of Stephen Hawkings discussing he question "Is there a God". I don't know much about Mr. Hawkings but I thought this guy is supposed to be a genius so it ought to be interesting.

Well, the first 3/4s of the show was more of the same. Mr. Hawkings looking rather pompous in his wheel chair, making all kind of expressions with his eyebrow (sometimes you just can't resist a cheap shot, the devil made me do it) and talking about how stupid people have been in the past in believing in God and gods. Yes I agree it was stupid for the Vikings to think they caused the end of eclipses because they would shout at the god that ate the sun. Yes it was wrong for "the church" to put Galileo in prison for believing the earth rotated the sun, but let's here YOUR argument MR. Hawkings.

Ok here we go, great we are talking Natural Laws (not Natural Light which I hate) Einstein, E=MC2, (I get this stuff, I went to Virginia Tech), Big Bang Theory ( I love that show). Of course lots of folks point to the Big Bang as the point when God put the wheel into motion so what does Mr. Hawkings say about that? I'm really interested, I really am I want to hear some compelling argument. Here it is: the Big Bang come from a black hole. Now we know a lot about black holes cause we have them now, they are floating in space now, so we know a lot about them you see. Well, apparently in black holes the gravity is so strong everything is condensed to minuscule and extremely dense matter. Soooo even time stops in a black hole. So here it is, does Mr. Hawking believe in a Divine Creator not and why? Wait for it!

There is no God. Why? Because there was no time in the black hole so if there was no time then God couldn't have been there because there is nothing before time. What? That is your explanation why there is no God? Well, this made Mr. Hawking very excited (eye brow was going CRAZY) and very appreciative that we have this one life time to enjoy earth.

Ok, now I have set to DVR to watch Joey Behar talking to Donnie Osmond (certainly two of the greatest minds of our time) about the Book of Mormon on Broadway. I'll keep you posted.

Sunday at the Masters

Sunday at the Masters is a religious experience for those of us who truly love the game. If you have been to Augusta, GA and actually walked the hallowed ground; you understand it even more. If Scotland is the Garden of Eden of golf, then Augusta is Calvary.

I guess it is because of that I am thinking on a very spiritual level this morning. I was contemplating Tiger Woods making the statement that he was a Buddhist and he started his behavioral problems because he quit being a Buddhist. Now he is a Buddhist again and is wearing a little string bracelet to remind him of that.

Because of that, I googled "Karma" this morning. Here is what I found:

We ourselves are responsible for our own happiness and misery. We create our own Heaven. We create our own Hell. We are the architects of our own fate.

Basically, Karma is moral causation. What we do in this life or past lifes causes or rewards or punishment in this and future lives.

If I had run around with 14 woman on my wife I think I would want to find a belief system that did not espouse (like the use of the root word spouse, I thought that was witty) this concept. I think I would try out something that involved forgiveness.

I think this Sunday at the Masters totally disproves Buddhism and Karma. Tiger being back from the lead after a five month layoff is what he deserves? No Frigging WAY! Now if he is 8 under on todays round and walking up the 18th fairway waving to the crowd when lightening comes out of the clear blue sky; striking one of huge pine trees on the left causing it fall square on his head; pile driving him into the ground, then; and only then, I will become a Buddhist.

I went by a church (cue the Mama's and the Papa's-anybody get that), you know one of those churches with the big sign out side. Apparently those churches have Pastor of Stupid Stuff to Put on the Sign. Maybe it is a committee, who knows. In any case this week the sign is very short and concise it says:

WANTED-SINNERS

I almost wrecked my car. I actually put my blinker on and started to turn around and take a picture. Then I thought, "They will think I am applying for the job" so I kept driving. I did note that there was no one in the parking lot. Of course it was a weekday so maybe the sinners knew to show up on Sunday at 11am, that is probably when they do the interview for sinners. They should have put more info on the sign. What if I felt really qualified and wanted to apply right away who do I contact? Is this an entry level position with any chance of advancement, what kind of hours would I be working, and what is the pay structure. Yeah yeah yeah, I know what some of you are thinking. Wages of sin are death. I'll keep my current position.

I thought some more. There is a sign on I95 that says Avoid Hell call 1 800 blah blah. This sign is facing the north bound lane so perhaps they just meant New Jersey. How did one avoid Hell before toll free numbers? Aren't toll free numbers so 1980's anyway, can't I avoid Hell via a website? Why not by text?

I was listening to my good friend John ( hey, isn't that Mama's and Papa's song too? What the heck am I channeling hippie music from the 60's today) talk yesterday and he was telling me a story about a guy telling a story about a shepherd. He said this shepherd (why don't we pronounce this she f erd?) had a bunch of sheep, one of them got lost. What do you think he did? I'll give you hint, he didn't erect a sign and say "Hey stupid soon to be Lamb Chops come here or call this number"

I'm just saying.

Most of you won't get this, those that do will.

Did the inventor of the Gearwrench earn a Noble Peace Prize? Everytime I work on my car (took off 25mm sway bar off of street car to put on race car that has 21mm) I marvel at the usefulness of my Gearwrenches. I can do with out my ipod or windows 1 thru 7, Vista, and whatever the current upgrade I am supposed to buy now but I don't think I can do with out my Gearwrenches.

I am thinking about buying another set to hang in my office as artwork.

I could write poetry about my Gear Wrenches.

A Gearwrench by any other name is still a gearwrench.

It is better to have a gearwrench and lost it than to have never had a gearwrench at all.

Ah, gearwrench is thy name.

And yes I have had an entire pot of coffee this morning.

www.gearwrench.com

Lets quit winking.

Ok, here is the subject-Racism. I am sick of how we wink at racism in out country. We get all up in arms because Harry Reid says "Negro" and "light skinned". I think the whole African American History month is a farce. Yes I said it. Keep reading.

Maybe it is because I grew up in Virginia and we Virginians know all American History starts there and we are taught it very well. As a little skinny white kid growing up the Old Dominion I learned about Booker T. Washington, I knew all about Lincoln because we went on field trips to Appomatax, I wrote reports about the civil war as far back as third grade. I already knew about most of the sanitized stuff that goes for African American History. Now that we have that official month how is it wasted? By talking about who invented Peanut Butter, the first traffic light, and windshield wiper motor.

While I can not live my life with out Peanut Butter, why aren't we using this month to talk about the travesty of slavery which is the genesis of the attitudes that still haunt our society today.

My kids are grown (they are also white) so maybe I don't know what goes on in school today, but let me ask this. How many kids (or adults for that matter) have read Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave? This book should be passed out on the first of February every year. One can not begin to talk about African American History with out reading this.

At the end of the day, no government appointed month or program will do anything to end racism. The only thing that will end racism is changing the heart of man. I read somewhere that that heart is desperately wicked. The above book is probably the second best book to help change the state of that heart.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!!

I was thinking yesterday evening. More specifically, I was tripping on some post dinner starbucks coffee (I'm sort of like the Gremlins-don't feed me Starbucks after 6pm).

What if I got on a football team. I went to the weight room everytime the strength coach was there. I worked out like crazy, ate the right stuff, bulked up like crazy. What if I went to practice everyday, got there early, stayed late, and did all the drills. What if I took the play book home and studied backwards and forwards, knew every players assignment on ever play. What if i did this but never, I mean never, got in a game. Never played a down. Never even got in on the last play of the game when the quarterback takes a knee. I'm talking never got on the field. Would I really be a football player?

Jesus said the law was summed up in two commandments. Love his dad, and love all your neighbors. What if I memorize scripture, pay my tithe, got to church and hang out with other "non sinners" like myself everytime the door is open. Do I have to finish this to make my point?