Analytics

I had been on cloud nine for the past week because my blog had, for 6 consecutive days, been in the stratosphere as far as unique daily views. Everything was going smoothly until I posted about Friedman. Apparently economics turns people away. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe I'll have another go at it next week.

Milton Friedman

Milton Friedman, the recently deceased economist, was quite possibly the greatest economist of the past one hundred years. I've been doing some studying up on economics, and found a site full of excerpts and quotes from Dr. Friedman. I found a few both shocking and challenging. I'll share them with you below.

"Spending by government currently amounts to about 45 percent of national income. By that test, government owns 45 percent of the means of production that produce the national income. The U.S. is now 45 percent socialist."

"One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programmes by their intentions rather than their results."

"Political freedom means the absence of coercion of a man by his fellow men. The fundamental threat to freedom is power to coerce, be it in the hands of a monarch, a dictator, an oligarchy, or a momentary majority. The preservation of freedom requires the elimination of such concentration of power to the fullest possible extent and the dispersal and distribution of whatever power cannot be eliminated — a system of checks and balances."

Dave Weston

While in NYC, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting a guy by the name of Dave Weston (the guy in the tan jacket). Dave and another friend of mine, Robert Beckman, were missionary buddies with the IMB over in Europe a few years back. Dave is a man who has seen it all. He played University of Tennessee football and graduated from there with a degree in Psychology. He then went on to become a captain in the U.S. Army, serving ten years with the calvary. As a missionary, he’s been to Turkey, Malaysia, Singapore, most of Europe, and my favorite, Iraq, just after the second U.S. invasion in 2003. Any man that will follow God to Iraq, something I have even questioned myself whether or not I would do, is a guy I’m a fan of. As of lately, he and his wife have been resided in NYC. Right now, he runs the David Dean House in Brooklyn, while leading a small gathering of Christ-followers. He’s good friends with Neil Cole, and teaches with him on occasions, as well as teaching at a local seminary in the city. As we spent a few days and nights exploring NYC, I managed to gain some valuable and indispensable lessons from him. I learned that it is possible to connect with and reach out to people living a life different than the life I have been called to, and he demonstrated how to do this with extreme ease. One comment he made in particular that has struck me as astounding was when talking about the spiritual environment in the East Village, he said that there is a great spiritual conversation going on in the East Village, but Christians aren’t invited. It just kind of slapped me in the face. I know that Christendom is dead, but I can’t believe that Christians have lost so much of a voice that when a spiritual conversation is going on, no one even thinks to ask a Christian. One example of how this might have come about was on Thursday night, I was back at the apartment, and Boomer, Adam, Robert, and another Dave were in Union Square. It was about 12:00 at night, and there were, as the story is told, hundreds of people just hanging around. As the group worked their way around the area, they came across a stereotypical street preacher talking to a group of young adults. He was preaching the usual rhetoric, and one man in the crowd, stopped him and stated that he was no Christian, but that he had read the Bible a little and that the Jesus that he had read in the Bible was nothing like the way this street preacher was like. He said that if Christians lived the way Jesus lived, then he might would want to be one. After the preacher told him off, Adam and Boomer pulled him aside and talked to him for about half an hour. But hearing that story when they got back made me realize how far off base some of us have gotten from the original telling of the Jesus story. It rips me apart and makes me want to cry. Cry for Jesus, whom I and others have desecrated his image; cry for those who because of our actions, have turned from Him; and cry for the preacher and for me, who all have some bits of “street preachers” in us, and have not fully grasped the Gospel. God, we pray for these issues listed above. We pray that you will continue to break us and humble us, so that we can shed thousands of years of Christendom, and that we may be able to live lives worthy of your calling in the context of this day and age. Another quote from our first meeting with Dave Weston was this, “Before we figure out what our purpose of life is, let’s figure out what God’s purpose is.” God, that is our ultimate prayer, may we see your purpose with this life, with this creation you’ve made, and may we work along side you in this mission, not in front of you.

The Mac Store on 5th Ave.

While in NYC, I got to go to the Apple Store on 5th Ave. It was amazing! Dave Weston, whom I will blog about later, said he had talked to Jessica Biel there that week before, and had seen Kirsten Dunst before as well. Since I am a huge Biel fan, every time I went to the store, I kept looking for her. I know, a little weird, but I have been know to be easily star-struck before. Anyways, here are some pics that I took as promised from earlier. Hope they give you a little bit of a feel of the great store.

The New Camaro

Here's the new soon-to-be-released Camaro. I want one!

The Next X-Games Sport

While in NYC, we were walking around Chinatown and came across this group of guys in a fenced in park, riding bikes. With some investigation, we came to the conclusion that it's basically hockey on bikes. I have about a 30 second video, and I'll try to figure out how to put it on here. Keep you posted.

Tammany Hall

I finally got to see Tammany Hall after a few days of searching. It was pretty cool just knowing what it has been in U.S. history. It was founded in 1786-ish and lasted into the Depression. I wont bore anyone with the history of it all here, but if your interested, I checked out wiki's page on it, and it was pretty good. check it out. The pics above is of around the 1920's and the one I took Friday.