Major Mike’s Musings

Rats! If the national Republican race goes anything like Florida’s primary then in November we’ll have a choice between a liberal and a socialist.

 From the “Campus Ministry Update 2008″ published by the Ivy Jungle:

Religious People Give More:  Religious Americans give more money and time to charitable causes than their non-religious neighbors.   A new book by Arthur Brooks, Who Really Cares, analyzed ten data sets, concluding that religiosity is one of the best predictors of charitable giving.  Religious citizens give 3.5 times more money, volunteer with organizations twice as often, are 57% more likely to help the homeless, and 66% more likely to donate blood than those who are not religious.   The findings also paint an unexpected political picture as those who are more religious also tend to be more conservative in social and political issues.  In fact, of the 25 states with above average charitable giving, 24 voted for George Bush in the last election.  In Arkansas, citizens donate an average of 3.9% of their income, while in Massachusetts it is only 1.8%.   Good news for religion, however, among religious people, the data showed nothing distinctive about those who consider themselves evangelicals.  (Books and Culture January/February 2008 p. 11)

I did upgrade to Wordpress 2.3.2 (the latest version of the software that publishes this blog) today. The transition went smoothly with no problems.

I perceived by my earlier post that I get the most comments when I publish stuff that’s incomprehensible to most of my readers. So in an effort to generate more comments I respectfully submit the following:

(more…)

Electile Dysfunction : the inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year.

Today I made some code changes to the template that displays this site. That little guitar that displays below each post is now part of the background code instead of code in each post. The advantage is that (1) I don’t have to cut code from a text editor and paste it into each post and (2) if I want to change the icon, I can just change it on the server by uploading a graphic with the name post_bullet.png. The disadvantage is that if I change the template, I have to make code changes to a few files in the new template.

Tomorrow we upgrade to Wordpress 2.3 (If I have time).

I got two more today: you know, those fancy labels sent from charitable organizations as a “free” gift to entice you to give a donation. Here are some of the address label contributors:

• The American Heart Association
• St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital
• The US Olympic Committee
• Veterans of Foreign Wars (more…)

“I generally avoid temptation unless I can’t resist it.”

Here are the tag rules:Link to the person that tagged you: Tasty (my sweet Dau)!Post the rules for the me-it’s-all-me on your blog. And here they are:Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I usually ignore tags. But since Tasty was completely out of people to tag, I’ll play along.
2. It’s been about two hours since I started listing these seven things. Maybe I’ll quit trying to make this interesting…which is why I’ve not posted here since November. Nothing interesting to say.
3. We just returned from a cruise on Carnival Cruise Lines. If you’ve never cruised before, Carnival would be a wonderful experience. It’s just a notch below RCCL, Norwegian, Celebrity, and Holland America in service. Lots more activities, though.
4. I’ve done our own tax returns all but one year…sometime in the mid 70s. I paid H&R Block $35 to do something I thought was complex but turned out to be easy. It helps to use Turbo Tax.
5. I get really annoyed when someone tells me how to do something that I already know how to do.
6. I am really enjoying retirement. My wife recently said she’s surprised that I didn’t get a part time job or volunteered for Habitat for Humanity or something. I guess leading the youth band (Everfall) at church doesn’t count. Besides, I don’t want another job.
7. I just got up to pee for the fourth time since starting this exercise. Not only have I always had a “tiny bladder”, but also I now have an enlarged prostate contributing to the problem. I doesn’t help that my wife and I started a diet today during which we have to drink eight, count em’ eight, glasses of water a day. That and the coffee are running through me like an eight-year-old through Christmas packages.

So there, I’ve killed two birds with one post. The following folks are tagged: Mandy, Scoop, Vicki, and BLB. (I know it’s only four. I don’t have that many friends.)OK. I’m done with these tagington thingys.