another list saying how great point is

forbes just released an article declaring its opinion concerning the 15 best small towns in the us of a in which to raise a family. four cities from wisconsin ranked in the top 15 and point was declared the 6th best. yet more proof that the terrell family moved up to a wonderful place – something we already knew.

there’s no need to be jealous people just because we have the best water in the nation and are in the 10 on everything else that is good. 🙂

our water taste better than your water

water

i just found out that stevens point won the national best of the best water taste test. that’s right stevens point has the best tasting water in the nation for 2010. so there! your water stinks and our water is amazing. here’s the proof.

i hope this doesn’t wound some of you non-pointers to the extent that you no longer feel like you can live in your town. i’m sure your water is at least bearable.

i want to watch this

my undergraduate schooling is in business management and psychology. i remember reading the study the above “show” was based on while studying at the great school of the university of south alabama (go jaguars!!). it’s pretty famous. it’s called the milgram experiment and was meant to study how far people would follow authority when crossing the lines of their conscience. this isn’t really a show but a documentary study. too bad it’s in france. hopefully it will show up on youtube.

sometimes the best protest is laughter

We Have Signs

westboro baptist church is an infected pimple on the name of CHRIST. they are awful and in my opinion embarrass JESUS by claiming to be followers of HIS while joyfully spreading hate all over the place.

anyhow i read this article concerning an interesting counter protest in regards to a westboro protest that was happening in front of the twitter office. the counter protest was a series of absurd signs that helped point out the stupidity of the westboro signs.

here’s the article.

oakland

i have been focused on school work for the past 15 or so days and therefore i haven’t watched or read any news. when i’ve watched video on t.v. or computer my whole goal has been to zone out rather than be informed. so i didn’t know anything about what is going on in oakland until i saw some photos on brad’s blog and then saw a tweet from mc hammer (yes i follow mc hammer on twitter – do you have a problem with that?). so i decided to see a little of what is happening in the world. i finally saw the video of the police shooting oscar grant and i can’t see anyway that this will be a justifiable shooting. what in the world was this guy thinking? i don’t know a lot about what is going on and has happened. i’ve had my nose stuck in books about a world that existed 2,600 years ago, which ironically bares a great deal of similarity with what is happening within our present day. still with my limited understanding of the events i can understand the desire of some to riot though i would add that they are probably not helping to correct the problem at all. their violent response is more than likely just making the problem worse. that type of violence, even in response to awful violence, merely continues the circle and encourages more brutality.

so in my ignorance i have two things to say:

  1. please, please, please may the system do what is right rather than just trying to defend itself.
  2. sometimes it is a great, big, stupid world.

of course, i will freely admit that i am speaking out of very limited knowledge at this moment.

Our Inflation is Nothing

I read an article today concerning the amazing inflation of Zimbawe. The official inflation right right now according to the government is 2.2 million percent a year, though some analysts believe the actual rate is closer to 12.5 million percent a year. For those of you who are not economically inclined, think of it like this. If a Diet Coke (God’s nectar) costs $1 on January 1st it will cost about $34,223 on January 2nd and by December 31st it will cost $12.5 million. Since, most analysts contribute this inflation to mismanagement by the Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabee, it makes me feel for the population. How do you survive in the midst of this type of inflation.

Here’s the article on the situation.

a brit that understands

i promise i will soon stop posting things concerning politics. i hold no hope for politics solving the main problems of our world. that’s why i’ve never really understood why the religious right (of which some would wrongly say i was a part)have pushed so hard for political power – even when gained for “pure” reasons political power seems to just lead to a desire for more power. service & sacrifice are the way of JESUS and if we would struggle with living out that way we would see GOD do remarkable things in our world.

with the above said i thought i would post this article from the times. it’s a pretty good description on at least one issue concerning why i feel that our country will have a good choice no matter what if mccain and obama end up facing off for the presidential election.

now, mcCain pledges to stay in iraq for a hundred years if necessary and claims that the surge has altered the cost-benefit analysis. obama argues that the surge has not solved the fundamental problem and promises to begin withdrawing troops next year. unlike hillary clinton, and unlike this columnist, neither man has actually changed his fundamental position. and so there is now a path for americans either to fully own this misbegotten Mesopotamian adventure or fully disown it.

of course, it is a brit paper and therefore the whole thing could be some kind of joke that went straight over my head.