Fiction Family - "Betrayal"

Fiction Family is a musical collaboration that combines two of my all-time favorite musicians. The first is Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek -- the short, quiet, wonderfully talented guitarist content to live in the shadow of Chris Thile's deserved but sizable ego.

The second is an all-out hero of mine, Jon Foreman. There was a time in my life, a long time in fact, when if you had asked me to choose one living person to have a cup of coffee with I would have chosen Jon Foreman. Switchfoot was my favorite band in high school in a way that eclipsed every other band. Hit me up for some trivia sometime; I won't disappoint.

This song off of Fiction Family's record is filled with elements of what I love about both musicians. I think Jon is at his best playing simple, melodic, acoustic songs about girls, even though he would obviously rather write rock anthems about the salvation of our society. Sean's newgrass solo work is as intricate and beautiful as ever. Give it a listen, you'll be happy you did.

Oh and by the way, keep your ears peeled for Jon's down-to-earth humor and all-around good nature in this performance. Rock 'n roll he is, pretentious rockstar he is not.

Taylor Swift and America's Future

I loved this blog post from the NYT so much I just had to post it here. It's a conversation between columnists David Brooks and Gail Collins. Brooks explains his worries about the state of American government:

In addition to the swiftboating of Swift, there is this fact: there is a broad consensus on what we need to do to solve many of our major problems, but no political way to get there. Most experts of left and right believe we need a gas tax in order to address our energy problems. No political way to get there. Most believe that we need a flatter, fairer tax code, probably based on a consumption tax. No political way to get there. Most agree that the fee-for-service system drives up health care costs and the employer based insurance system is unsustainable. There is apparently no political way to change these things. Most experts agree that teacher quality is crucial to the schools and that bad teachers need to be fired. Again, no political way to do this. [...] Normally I reject declinism. But seeing Ms. Swift up on stage at the MTV awards, speechless and shocked, has quite obviously shaken me to my core.

Collins responds:

Countries go through stages. If they’re lucky they start out poor and raw, and then they grow. The political challenge is to give the people government services that make their lives better without strangling economic development. That’s hard, but it’s not nearly as hard as the next stage, which is reforming the programs we’ve already got to make them more efficient. Everybody is in awe to this day that Lyndon Johnson got Medicare through Congress. But that was an addition — a snap compared to what we’re trying to do now, which inevitably involves taking stuff away, whether it’s unnecessary medical tests or income via higher taxes. [...] But tough reform does happen if there’s enough sense of public alarm pushing it.

Don't agree with all of that, but what does it matter? Informed and interesting nonetheless. All amidst hilarious pop-culture satire like this:

As a member of the sentient world, I am obviously aware that Kanye West dissed Taylor Swift while she was trying to accept her MTV award. This was extremely impolite. Maybe not as impolite as calling the president a liar during a Congressional address, but still. It reflects badly on the manners of rappers everywhere.

Humor, politics, conversation, criticism, hope -- this is writing I love.

Dear Microsoft: You Need To Hire Me

You don't know it, but you do. I know I've made a bad habit of criticizing your painfully awful marketing over the last few years. Lately I've been trying to hold back. But this week, when you decided the best way to get the word out about your new operating system was to sponsor house parties where customers show off Windows 7 to their friends, I just couldn't take it anymore.

You really think there is one person on this planet who would want to attend a house party for a new operating system release? And you think this so-dumb-it's-funny video will help sell software like Pampered Chef? Are you freaking kidding me? I mean just look at that homogeneous yet mismatched cast -- it's like the Planeteers of boring!

What continues to boggle my mind is that you're paying some team of people millions of dollars to dream up and produce this schlock. You are one of the biggest, richest companies in the world. You have a product with very good selling points, which a lot of people will have no choice but to buy no matter what. And yet you can't hire someone to come up with something better than this?

So I'm going to put myself out there like a redneck in a modern art museum: I can do better than this! Yes, I'm a cocky, mid-twenties engineer with no marketing experience -- but let's be honest, can you do any worse at this point? You've got Vista's crash-and-burn to recover from and you're off to a start that makes Al Bundy look cutting edge.

Besides, I'm not all that bad. I do know a little bit about technology and making funny videos. How about this: give me just 1% of your marketing budget for Windows 7 and I guarantee you I can come up with something better than "Windows 7 house parties." In fact, I might just make a video myself, on my own dime, to prove it to you.

What have you got to lose?

Glimpse

ONE: A few weeks ago I get on the elevator to go home and there are two gentleman already riding. Both are in suits, one is in his late 50's, the other probably mid 40's. Right after the doors close the older gentlemen announces without warning, "We've formed a grand alliance!" I look at him with a quizzical expression to see if he's talking to me, and he smiles. The other guy chuckles nervously. Dumbfounded, I can't think of anything to say. We ride together in awkward silence. When the doors open on my floor I say, "Have a good one!" without looking at either of them and exit.

I think I may have missed my chance to join the Justice League or something.

TWO: Last week I get on the elevator to go home again and a woman in her 30's is already riding. After the doors close she lets out a long sigh. "Long week?" I ask. "Yes." she replies. "Well, at least it's Friday!" I say. She responds slowly, in a soul-crushed monotone, "Nope. I have to be here tomorrow, and Sunday, and every day after that until October first." Awkward pause. "Well," I offer meekly, "at least the day is over?" "Yes." she replies.

THREE: Around 6pm yesterday I walk out of my company's offices into the hall which holds the elevators (my company occupies half of two floors in a giant office building). I'm heading to the elevator buttons when something startles me. On the floor, in front of one of the elevators, lies a large, black, cotton, women's thong.

I don't want to know.

Image: Patrick Gage

A Pluralist Under Every Rock

Earlier in my life I was taught a lot about the dangers of relativism, religious pluralism, and Situational Ethics -- the general idea that truth is subjective (not absolute), right and wrong are culturally or circumstantially contextual, and morality is not based on natural law.

What is interesting to me is not that I was warned about relativism, but that I was warned about how pervasive it allegedly is. I was told I would find it everywhere; my teachers and professors, my non-Christian friends, the media I consumed, and the institutions and organizations I came into contact with would preach it to me constantly.

I have found that this is overwhelmingly not the case. Indeed, I don't think I've met or heard of one person who would say morality is completely relative. It's simply too much to swallow -- that the 9/11 hijackers were justified by their religious and cultural context, that the Nazi generals at Nuremberg should have been acquitted for following orders.

Here are two examples of people who agree that hard-line relativism really isn't all that prevalent.

1. A while back my old friend Stuart the steward sent me a series of articles which constitute a debate between Chuck Colson and Brian McClaren about postmodernism. Don't get me started on what "postmodernism" is --  for now let's just say Colson equates it with relativism. In the debate Colson argues that relativism is on the decline, and McClaren argues that nobody ever really believed it in the first place.

Colson's article > McClaren's response > Colson's response (2003)

2. This is a quote from a book I read recently called -Isms and -Ologies: All the Movements, Ideologies, and Doctrines that have Shaped our World:

Practices like sex slavery, female circumcision, and ethnic cleansing have been known to test the forbearance of even the most committed of relativists, who are perhaps neither as numerous or influential as their opponents make them out to be.

I would agree. I have never found a relativist thinker who would argue that female circumcision (or more accurately, female genital mutilation) is a permissible practice according to varying cultural beliefs.

Quotes: Rulers, Nonsense, and Bozo the Clown

"What luck for rulers that men do not think." Adolf Hitler

"That's not right. It's not even wrong." Wolfgang Pauli

"But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown." Carl Sagan

Top 5 Health Myths

My buddy the confident Harrison Brookie alerted me to these. I just could not believe they weren't true.

Top 5 Health Myths

1. Sugar makes kids hyper.
2. Your head loses more heat than the rest of your body.
3. Suicide numbers increase at Christmastime.
4. You should drink eight glasses of water a day.
5. Reading in dim light hurts your eyes.

Bonus myths: Eating turkey makes you tired and you only use 10% of your brain.

The incorrectness of the latter bonus myth was taught to me by one of my heroes, Bill Nye (the science guy). You use 100% of you brain all the time, even when you're sleeping! Science rules.

All myths are from the British Medical Journal.

The Mixed-Up World of Movie Economics

A while back I read a few chapters of film critic Michael Medved's book, Hollywood vs. America. Medved is a family-values pundit, so you have to take what he says with a grain of salt. But one particular point in the book has fascinated me ever since.

Hollywood makes many more 'R' rated movies than 'PG'/'G' rated movies, but 'PG'/'G' rated movies make more money.

From the book (with my paraphrasing):

An analysis of all 1,010 domestic releases between 1983 and 1989 showed that during this period, 'G' films achieved a median box office gross of $17.3 million, 'PG' titles earned a median figure of $13.0 million, 'PG-13' releases pulled in $9.3 million, and 'R' pictures returned $8.3 million.

Of the twenty leading titles in terms of domestic box-office returns between 1981 and 1990, 55 percent were rated 'G' or 'PG'; only 25 percent were 'R' films. However, 60% of the films released in this period were rated 'R.'

From 1980 to 1989, the number of 'R' films increased from 47% to 67%. In 1990, 64% of films produced were rated 'R'. In 1991, 61%. 'G' and 'PG' films continued to beat 'R' films in top box-office revenues.

Taken together, the numbers show that that from 1980 to 1991, a given 'G' or 'PG' film was five times more likely to place among the year's box-office leaders than an 'R' film.

41% of all 'R'-films in the 1980's generated less than $2 million in box-office receipts—compared to only 28% of 'PG' pictures.

38% of all 'PG' films exceeded $25 million in box-office gross in 1991—while only 19% of 'R' films reached that level of revenue. During the same year, the median 'PG'-rated picture grossed $15.7 million in domestic box office, almost triple the median 'R'-picture gross of $5.5 million.

These patterns held true for independent as well as major studio releases.

It's hard to argue with the data. Of course Medved's book was published way back in 1992, but here is an article showing the same thing covering up to 1996, and here is another one covering up to 1999.

But why? Medved argues that Hollywood (and by "Hollywood," I mean the top movie production companies) has an agenda—to produce only what they see as artistic, meaningful, and worthwhile, according to a specific value-set. I'm not sure I'm willing to sign on to that just yet, but the facts do shed considerable suspicion on the idea that Hollywood simply holds up a mirror to culture and gives our society what it wants.

Perhaps they just don't get it. This seems to be true of my fellow Atlantan Tyler Perry's family-oriented films. Critics constantly pan his movies (I admit, with some justification) and producers in Europe are telling him his films won't translate to European audiences. But Perry's pictures consistently do well. They've made nearly $300 million and counting on very low budgets. It's as if producers don't know or just can't believe that family-oriented material can turn a worthwhile profit—even though the numbers say otherwise.

Another interesting fact—movie attendance has gone down steadily since 1944. Medved outlines this in Hollywood vs. America from 1948 to 1991, but I found the following graph, covering 1930 to 2000, in this research paper.

Movie companies hide this by steadily raising ticket prices and publishing record box office revenues instead of attendance numbers.  Think about it—when have you heard that a movie drew more people than ever before? You haven't. You've only heard that it made more money than ever before. Crazy, isn't it?

Medved blames shrinking audiences on the fact that Hollywood has made less and less family-oriented films, which audiences want to see. But there are a lot of other factors at play, like television, DVD's, the internet, quality of films, and the culture of movie-going (from what I read, attending movies was a very different experience in the past). Regardless of the cause, this data makes Hollywood's preference for 'R' movies even more mystical. If attendance is down and 'G'/'PG' movies are more likely to make money than 'R' films, why aren't more 'G'/'PG' movies being made?

Not only that, but since the recession, big Hollywood stars are drawing less fans—so there's even more reason to try to produce what people want to see.

What gives?

Quotes: Civil War, Rehearsal, Seflessness, and What We Can Do

"All wars are civil wars, because all men are brothers." François Fénelon

"A rehearsal is a collaborative act of sustained attention, like worship itself." Richard Rose

"Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted; to understand rather than to be understood; to love rather than to be loved; for it is by forgetting self that one finds; it is by dying that one awakens to eternal life. Amen." Malcolm Muggeridge via Miska

"We tend to overestimate what we can do in one year and underestimate what we can do in ten." Andy Crouch via Winn

I may have to read something by this Muggeridge guy...

Top 5 Things Which Have Recently Blown My Mind

1. For seven months, the New York Times and Wikipedia worked together to cover up a story about a journalist's capture by the Taliban, in order to help him escape. In June he finally did.

2. During the Civil War, an abolitionist county in Mississippi seceded from the South.

3. A brilliant British scientist named Alan Turing who cracked Nazi war codes and helped create the modern computer was convicted of homosexuality in 1952. To avoid jail time he agreed to take female hormones to decrease his libido. (This weekend Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official apology for this on behalf of the British government.)

4. Let's say a meeting, originally scheduled for Wednesday, has been moved forward two days. What is the new day of the meeting? About half of you think it's Monday. The other half and I think it's Friday.

5. Africa is bigger than China, the US, India, Argentina, and Western Europe combined! That'll make you think twice about lumping the problems of every country in the continent together in conversation.

Honorable mention: Fortune cookies were invented in San Francisco.

All of these come from my shared items, so I'm sorry if you've seen them before.

Thoughts on the Taxpayer March on Washington

So last weekend Erin, the Buckleys, and I happened upon the Taxpayer March on Washington on the way to a tour of the White House. With no prior knowledge of the event we suddenly found ourselves engulfed by tens of thousands of protesters marching down Pennsylvania Avenue with signs in the air. Here is an excellent video from the Buckleys' video blog with some footage from the march:

The Buckleys Take DC

It was an exciting experience. Protesting is one of the things I love about DC, and it was super fun to be in the midst of it.

At the same time it was a sobering experience, because I found myself confronted with a group who claimed to believe what I believe while misrepresenting it horribly.

"The Taxpayer March on Washington." It really sounds like something I could get behind. Do I believe Obama's stimulus plan was an unwise measure which will put us more in debt without accomplishing its goals? Yes. Do I think spending measures like CARS are ridiculous? Yes. Do I think our 40% tax rate (and ever climbing) is too high? Yes. Do I think we need to cut spending and reform the entitlement programs? Yes. Do I think astronomic levels of debt and deficit we face need to be reversed asap? Yes. Do I think if we continue spending like we are now, we are going to face serious problems in our future? Yes. Do I think huge government bailouts/takeovers of failing companies like GM are a bad idea? Yes. Could I go on? Yes.

So why didn't I join in the march? Two reasons. One, the march was too late. At the end of the Clinton era, we had a balanced budget, a government surplus, and the national debt was on the decline. But then ol' GW took office, and everything changed. George Bush Jr. introduced one of the largest tax cuts in U.S. history, launched two wars, devised a $1.2 trillion expansion of Medicare (the prescription drug benefit), proposed an expensive new education policy (No Child Left Behind), doubled the deficit, increased government spending more than any other president since LBJ, cut less federal programs than Clinton, expanded farm subsidies, didn't even wince when the Pentagon admitting losing track of $2.3 trillion, authorized a $700 billion bank bailout, fired treasury secretary Paul O'Neill after he opposed Bush's spending measures, and increased the national debt by 18%. Where were these protesters during the last eight years? Sure, Obama has kept the money train moving, but the fact that these folks are waiting until now to march suggests my second reason...

This protest wasn't about the fiscal state of the union. It was about abortion. It was about Obama being a communist / fascist / hippie / Nazi / Russian / Muslim / socialist dictator. It was about "burying Obamacare with Kennedy." It was about how "hey, stupid -- it's a Christian nation." It was about Acorn. It was about Pelosi. It was about "taking our country back." It was about gun control. It was about Obama being born in the U.S. It was about how "Czar" is a Russian word. It was about illegal immigrants. I saw all of these issues and more on signs last Saturday. The protest was about fear and hate.

When we first met the protesters I asked one of them what she was protesting. She responded angrily, "We're not taking questions!" and walked off. (I have the feeling she wasn't a very good protester -- I imagine her sign saying something like "Something is very, very wrong!" or "If you don't know what's wrong, I'm not gonna tell you!") When I asked a second protester what he was protesting, he responded "Obama." And I gotta hand it to him, he told the truth. This march wasn't about spending or taxes. It was about Obama, plain and simple.

If you would like to learn more about the direction our nation is headed in financially, I highly recommend the following clip. I promise, it's worth 30 minutes of your time. It's a shortened version of a non-partisan documentary I would also highly recommend called IOUSA, which premiered last summer -- long before Obama took office.

IOUSA

P.S. On Saturday Amy saw a counter-protest sign which read: "Sure are a lot of white people here..." Hilarious.

End All Youth Groups Now Part II

As promised, here is Part II of my argument for the dissolution of youth groups, which contains my ideas for what we should erect in their place. Part I, which contains my ideas on why youth groups are flawed beyond repair, is here.

Again I'll use a list -- this time, ideas for youth group replacement.

Linda Lyndell - "What a Man"

This is one of those great 60's era songs which modern musicians have remade (and thus, replaced in the public consciousness) without any of the soul of the original. Remember ladies, slower is better.

END ALL YOUTH GROUPS NOW

A few years ago my lovely, intelligent wife Erin made an offhand comment to me that Christian youth groups do more harm than good, and should be done away with. The minute she said it I was surprised and overwhelmed by how much I agree.

So a year and a half ago I sat down to write about it. A few hours later I had typed five pages and I wasn’t finished. I had a rude awakening about how much hurt and bitterness I have about my experience with "youth group."

Last month I made another stab at this topic. I tried to be objective and (with Erin’s help) not let my bitterness creep in. I hope what I have come up with proves beneficial and thought-provoking to you.

A Quote for a Recovering Presbyterian

My good friend the encouraging Kyle McManamy shared this quote. As a recovering Presbyterian (I use the term lightly), I connected with it deeply.

"Man is so avid for knowledge that everything he touches turns to facts; his faith becomes theology, his love becomes lechery, his wisdom becomes science. Pursuing meaning, he ignores truth." Malcolm Muggeridge

Fanatical Distrust Follow-up

I decided. Fanatical distrust isn't worth it.

This is beyond insane. More to follow.

Number 9... Number 9... Number 9...

Tomorrow is one of the most exciting days ever for a die-hard Beatles fan like me. Four things are happening:

1. The Beatles Rock Band hits the shelves.

2. EMI releases digitally remastered versions of every Beatles album.

3. Apple hosts one of their famous key notes, entitled "rock 'n roll" -- which is rumored to have Beatles/Apple implications.

4. My brother and fellow Beatles fan Jared Ray turns 26.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this. I'm guessing the majority of Guesswork Theory readers probably haven't sat down and compared Let It Be and Let It Be Naked or The Beatles Love and Rubber Soul to hear the improvements that digital remastering can make on a 60's era record; but as someone who has, lemme tell you -- it's amazing. Whole new instrumental parts become audible. You really do hear things you never heard before in a song you've listened to a thousand times.

To celebrate, here's a wicked remix of "Lady Madonna," created by George Martin and son for The Beatles Love:

By the way, how do you like the new digs?

The Questionable Value of Fanatical Distrust

I can't decide.

It seems every day the news reports on a new outrageous form of outrage from the far right against the White House -- whether it's the spike in gun sales since Obama took office, the claims that Obama's "death panels" will kill your grandmother, the practice of bringing assault rifles to health care town hall meetings, the backlash against Obama giving a speech directly to schoolchildren to encourage them to finish their education (even though Reagan did the same thing), the claims that Obama wasn't born in the US, the allegations that Obama is a Muslim, a socialist, a communist, a fascist, a Nazi, and a hippie all rolled into one, the complete acceptance of Bush's fiscal insanity coupled with unbridled outrage at Obama's... it goes on and on.

Despite all of the unnecessary fear, hate, and ignorance that fuels these claims, actions, and prejudices, there is a part of me that wonders if somewhere deep, deep down they reflect something I desire the American public to posses: a distrust of the state. Would TJ's assertion that a little rebellion is a good thing apply here? Certainly I would take educated civil disagreement over uneducated yelling any day, but I'm not sure that this vitriol is worse than a public which trusts that their president's every action is implicitly in their best interest.

Then again, the distrust in this case is one-sided. The far right is perfectly comfortable with allowing Bush to spy on them, spend their money to bankruptcy, torture prisoners of war, go to war on bad information and then vastly underestimate the reconstruction effort, fake news reports, and so forth, but when Obama wants to improve our healthcare system the pitchforks come out. Am I wrong to take comfort in the public's distrust of the state if that distrust only applies to "the other guy?"

Not only that, but clearly this uproar is hurting any chances we have for an honest, open, national debate on critical issues and any progress which might result from it -- even though in my idealistic view, Congress should be ignoring its extremist constituents as part of the congressional responsibility to legislate not precisely what your constituents want, but what you discern is best for them. Still, given the reality and not the ideal, is sacrificing progress for fanatical distrust of the state worth it in the end?

I can't decide.

Quotes: Sacrilege

"Only God who appointed me will remove me." Robert Mugabe

"If I were God, I'd kick the world to pieces." Martin Luther via Frederick Buechner via Winn Collier

"The church is a prostitute, but she is my mother." Augustine of Hippo

"The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church." Ferdinand Magellan

"The greatest mystery is not that we have been flung at random between the profusion of matter and of the stars, but that within this prison we can draw from ourselves images powerful enough to deny our nothingness." Andre Malraux

The greatest mystery indeed...