Sunday, May 31, 2015

Conservatives Need to Stop Attacking Clinton

There has been so much attention paid by candidates, journalists, and political campaign specialists on Hillary Clinton that one might think she has the nomination wrapped up. The truth is that she has a big fight on her hands in the primaries and conservatives should hold their attacks, their ammunition until after she is nominated.

If we don’t, we might be putting too much effort on the wrong person. We made the same mistake in 2007 and 2008 when we were attacking Clinton based upon a perception that she would be the nominee, only to watch a stronger nominee come in and demolish us. Bernie Sanders can reach people with his passion. Martin O’Malley can reach people with his ideas and his humanity. Both are more dangerous candidates than Hillary Clinton.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not want to see her in the White House. However, we believe that she is the easiest candidate to beat in a general election which is why we do not believe that she should be getting the brunt of attacks just yet. We can damage her chances, but the result may be worse if she does not get the nomination.

All in all, Hillary Clinton is a weak candidate. She’s an ineffective debater. She’s not very likable. Some would say that the concept of a female candidate could pull Republicans over to her side for the sake of having a woman in office, but that would be minor in comparison to the independents who would more likely embrace Sanders or O’Malley than Clinton.

It’s a risky move, especially if you believe that she would be an incredibly damaging President as we do. However, we do see her as the easiest of the candidates to beat at this point. Hold your fire until she wins the primary, then unleash on her.

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Forensic Social Media is All About Applying the Data and Evaluating Results

Shows like CSI and its many spinoffs and copycats helped to introduce the concept of forensic science to mainstream American culture. We know that anything can be tested, prodded, enhanced, and analyzed until it yields the results we desire. In the end, it’s all about the scientific method.

In the world of social media marketing, there’s no better way to the true benefits than to apply the same principles as forensics. You’re given information and data. You can establish a hypothesis and test it in your ‘lab.” Then, you can improve on your testing and enhance your results. That’s forensic social media in a nutshell.

Here’s how it plays out in the world of social media marketing:

Use the Data

Facebook and Twitter offer incredible targeting data. You know where people live, how much money they likely make, in which direction their political opinions lean, how they prefer to shop, and what they’re most likely to buy. This gives you a basis for creating multiple data sets for targeting.

You can take it a step further by creating custom audiences on Facebook based upon other data that you have at your fingertips. For example, you can take an email list that you’ve built over time or purchased and cross-reference those email addresses to identify targeted Facebook or Twitter users. This is extremely useful in creating custom campaigns that go after specific individuals within a group.

Finally, you can enhance it all even further through retargeting. By taking your website visitors and putting a message in front of them that is compelling. Since they’ve already been on your website, you will want to put a different type of message in front of them instead of a message that would draw the in for the first time.

Establish Your Hypothesis

Once you know who to target, it’s time to put the data to work. Your various hypotheses should be based upon your knowledge of your industry and product and then guided to fit the individual campaigns to target your specified audiences. The reason we’re calling them hypothetical campaigns at this point is because we don’t know if they’re going to be effective or not based upon what we know right now. Once you get done with the next step, you’ll have established campaigns that work. If there’s one thing we’ve learned doing social media marketing for so long, it’s that campaigns rarely perform the way we expect them to initially.

Let’s say you’re a car dealer wanting to run a retargeting campaign on Facebook. It’s easy to think that you want to put specials in front of them, but we’ve found that it’s not always the best way to convert them into leads and sales. Instead, we’ve seen success retargeting people to visit a page on the website that calls for a direct action. In other words, rather than convincing them to do business because of price or anything else, it’s a matter of convincing them that you’re the right dealership to work with for other reasons. You’re the nicer dealership. You deliver the best experience. You care for your customers beyond the initial sale. They’ve probably visited several dealer websites during their car buying journey. Now it’s time to stand out.

Enhance Results

Sometimes, you’ll find that your initial instincts were correct. Other times, you’ll go through several iterations of different campaigns before finding the ones that perform the best. Trust your gut to start but trust the data to finish.

Thankfully, testing and improving on social media is not a long process. Depending on your budget, a couple of weeks of data is often enough to get a feel for whether a campaign is working well or not. Try multiple images. Change the wording. Try different landing pages. Do whatever you can to mix and match.

The most important thing to remember is that wholesale changes are the biggest mistake that people make when testing different hypothetical campaigns. If something is working a little but not at its best level, don’t change the whole thing. Change one thing at a time and see how that changes performance. If you change more than one thing, you won’t know which change had the effect you desired. In fact, one change could be negative while the other is positive. This could yield a wash. When you test changes one at a time, you’ll be able to see which individual changes had the most benefit.

The art and science of forensic social media might seem like something that requires a lot of time. It isn’t. Once you get going, you’ll find that your process improves and becomes more efficient over time. In the end, you’ll have the best possible campaigns based upon data rather than relying solely on your gut instincts.



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Saturday, May 30, 2015

Fish Fossil in Alberta and a Comment on ‘…if you accept science”

Some would call it irony. Others would say it’s an example showing the God has a sense of humor. The discovery of ancient fish fossils in Alberta, Canada, by a man known as the regions leading Creationist is worth noting regardless of what you want to call it.

The news itself is interesting. Edgar Nernberg, who sits on the board of directors of Big Valley’s Creationist Museum, was performing his day job as a backhoe operator excavating a basement when he came across five coveted fossils of fish. He recognized them and immediately brought people in to confirm one of the greatest fossil finds in the country in decades.

There are two things to note, here. The fact that it was found by someone who has a strong understanding of science gives the world a view into a concept that many would never explore. As he Nernberg puts it, “We all have the same evidence, and it’s just a matter of how you interpret it.”

The second thing to note is that the article acknowledges that the majority of the world, including Christians, believe in an old earth concept. They listen to what we’re told in school about the earth being billions of years old. The look at the fossil record in passing (few actually explore it deeply even though that’s their primary reason for believing in an old earth versus a young earth) and believe that secular scientists have the right theory. This is why they say in the article that the fossil is 60-million years old “…if you accept science.”

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:Romans 1:20 (KJV)

Here’s the reality of our situation. Those of us who hold to a Biblical understanding of the world do not dismiss science. In fact, true science is revealing itself as an affirmation of Noah’s flood, young earth, and the Creation itself. We don’t need the science to believe it; between the Bible and the the understanding that our Father has put on our hearts about the nature of the universe and the truth of Creation, we have no excuse.

Creationism is not against science. The science itself, when viewed purely, is confirmation of everything we’re told in the Bible. What has been so widely accepted to the point that most people believe it and media outlets promote it is that the conclusions of most secular scientists based upon the data they have – the fossil record and geological hypotheses – is what actually happened. It isn’t, at least not the way that they present it.

No matter how widely accepted a concept is, the truth doesn’t change. The geocentric model of the universe made perfect sense to people for a very long time. We saw the sun rise in the east and set in the west and it made sense to the vast majority of the people observing it that the sun was going around the earth. That’s what most of the observable data showed. However, it turned out to be wrong.

When we look at stories like this, we can either see God’s hand in it or we can choose to see something else. The evidence is available to everyone and the conclusions are different. One thing that they’re avoiding when discussing these fossils is an obvious question to ask… if you’re a creationist:

Northwest Calgary was landlocked and elevated over half-a-mile above sea level in the time frame proposed by scientists. How did sea fish from 60-million years ago get there?

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Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Is Ann Kirkpatrick a Threat to John McCain?

It should come as no surprise that MSNBC is promoting a liberal opponent to go against John McCain in 2016, but is there any juice to their claims? In looking at the whole picture, we believe there really is something there. Ann Kirkpatrick may indeed be a threat to take McCain’s senate seat.

The real problem that McCain faces in right-leaning Arizona isn’t his popularity, though that has been waning in his fifth Senate term. The biggest risk to McCain is that he may not be able to capture the vote from the right where he is considered a moderate and someone who bends too easily to liberal perspectives. While it’s unlikely that he’ll lose, the fact that there’s a doubt at all both from the Democrats contending as well as potential Republican primary challengers says something about his decision to be so liberal.

According to MSNBC:

Some Republicans view McCain as too liberal, and if a serious challenger emerges on the right, McCain could potentially be forced to swing right during the primaries – something that could bite him later on.

Still, when it comes to the general election, Kirkpatrick should be considered as a serious challenger, according to Mike O’Neil, an Arizona political analyst and non-partisan pollster. “I’d rate her as first-rate opposition against McCain,” he said. After all, despite a 2014 GOP wave, Kirkpatrick managed to hold on to her seat against former Republican Arizona House Speaker Andy Tobin. That race was the most expensive congressional race in the state and she was helped by strong support from Native American votes in her rural district.

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Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Nature helps the brain. Duh.

One doesn’t have to be a nature lover to believe in the therapeutic value of seeing green grass, trees, and natural landscapes. It’s common sense to feel like the beauty of the world can have a positive psychological effect on people, which is why a recent study that came to this conclusion shouldn’t really be considered newsworthy.

However, it did make the news, so we became interested in learning more. What we found turned out to be pretty interesting. By adding nature into the concrete jungle of standard urban workplaces, even if there’s no direct connection, the visuals seem to have a positive effect on the brain itself.

Take a look at what the Washington Post said about the study:

But the psychological benefits of green roofs to busy office workers may also be substantial, according to new research. In a study published in the journal Environmental Psychology, the University of Melbourne’s Kate Lee and a group of colleagues found that interrupting a tedious, attention-demanding task with a 40-second “microbreak” — in which one simply looks at a computerized image of a green roof — improved focus as well as subsequent performance on the task.

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Court Decision, Marine Supervisors, and the Bible Combine for Terrifying Trend

The vast majority of the US military seems to still be serving properly and righteously, but every now and then something pops up that makes us terrified about our future. In the case of the religious persecution against Monifa Sterling, we pray that this is an isolated incident. Unfortunately, it seems to be a trend.

First and foremost, if Monifa Sterling needs a job, we would be very proud to talk to her about that, for the record.

Second, I’m going to be brief with the breakdown of the events because it fills me with anger that is not conducive to our stance. We want to love all people, but when a Marine supervisor betrays the Bible and when a military court finds this to be acceptable, we must pray for those who are being misled and for ourselves to maintain composure. It’s that terrifying and infuriating at the same time.

The short of it is this: Sterling had a Bible verse displayed by her work computer. Her supervisor was offended by it for whatever reason, trumped up charges against her, and the court system decided that this was acceptable behavior. The dangerous trend that is emerging both in the military and in the civilian side of American society is that religious rights are protected as long as they’re not Judeo-Christian rights.

Who took America away and replaced it with hypocritical idiocy and dysfunction?

I’m going to cut this article short. It’s just too maddening. Please read more about it on Fox News:

As it now stands – Sterling is unemployed and looking for work. It’s a process made harder because of the bad conduct discharge from the military. Hopefully Liberty Institute will be able to restore this Christian Marine’s good name and expunge the charge.

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France says Iran deal unlikely to meet deadline

After a couple of days of hope when it appeared the United Nations made dramatic process in getting a deal done with Iran, things turned south quickly when the Ayatollah decided to insult the other players in the negotiations. With the next major deadline approaching its 30-day notice, France is casting further doubts that a deal will get done in time.

Let’s call it what it is: the United Nations team gave up much more than they wanted to give up and Iran still didn’t think it was fair. In the negotiating world, this is called an insurmountable impasse. Unfortunately, the desires of US Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama to build a foreign relations legacy may be the only thing left to keep the deal together. This means that they will likely try to give in even more to Iran’s demands, potentially putting the world in danger by allowing Iran to get nuclear weapons capabilities while rewarding them for doing so by lifting sanctions.

It’s way too early to tell, of course, but that’s not stopping France from calling it unlikely. As Yahoo News reports:

Envoys to Washington from Britain, France and Germany, three of the P5+1 group that also includes China, Russia and the United States, sketched out their expectations for the end game as a self-imposed June 30 deadline approaches.

“It’s very likely that we won’t have an agreement before the end of June or even (right) after,” French ambassador Gerard Araud said in an appearance at the Atlantic Council think tank.

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Why a Biblical Perspective must be the Conservative Guide when it comes to Same-Sex Marriage

The ongoing debate about same-sex marriage seems to be a potent crossroads issue for conservatives as well as GOP presidential candidates. Most are going to be forced to identify their campaigns with their stance on the issue. Whether we like it or not, it will play a pivotal role in 2016.

There will be an urge by many to spin the issue in a way that is conducive to winning the primaries and the general election. It would seem based upon many polls that the American people have warmed to the idea of marriage equality because nobody wants to feel like they’re discriminating. That’s how it has been positioned and conservatives might use that as a justification for switching sides on the issue.

This cannot be. Beyond the clear physiological challenges with same-sex marriage and procreation, some might want to pull in the ethical or moral aspects of the issue. Whether you believe that to be true or not, it’s not the right way to handle it. In fact, it’s an issue that is so easy for the left to defend that going down that road could turn off even the most staunch conservatives.

Why a Biblical Perspective must be the Conservative Guide when it comes to Same-Sex Marriage

The proper way to handle the issue is from a Biblical perspective. It’s a fine line to toe when trying to maintain a Constitutional grasp of the separation of church and state, but if conservatives stay true on the issue, they can address it with these three things in mind:

  1. Defense of marriage is not a valid stance anymore, at least from a moral perspective. However, it applies from a Biblical perspective and that can be the basis for keeping the right message. In other words, on issues that are covered by the Bible such as marriage, abortion, welfare, and defense, one can keep their personal views in light while letting their political worlds be ruled by factor #3 on this list.
  2. The dominant Biblical perspective to maintain is one of loving God and loving thy neighbor. Those two things supersede the other aspects of the Bible and can be a proper guiding light for personal doctrine. In this way, the perceived discrimination is superseded by greater commandments.
  3. While one’s personal views will always guide their political agenda, the Constitution is the greatest ally for now when it comes to winning the election. The stance from an election perspective allows the Constitution to state that the federal government will allow states to determine their laws on marriage. This is a temporary fix; eventually all or nearly all states will allow it if we stay on the current course. However, this allows as limited of an effect of gay marriage on the presidential election as possible.

Here’s a video that shows why keeping a Biblical view of the same-sex marriage issue is so important for everyone, conservative or liberal. If you are a believer in the Bible, you should keep this in mind.

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Facts about the IRS Hack would be Comical if they weren’t so Infuriating

For years, the Internet Revenue Service has been an absolute joke of an agency. We don’t tend to get into name-calling or editorial elaboration on this site too often, but today’s revelation of a major security breach of personal information for 100,000 Americans is simply too insane to allow to slide without commentary.

The most staggering fact that should blow everyone’s mind is that in 2013, $5.8 billion in fraudulent tax returns were paid out to hackers and thieves around the world. Please let that sink in. That’s enough money to feed over 32 million starving families in third world countries around the world.

We’re talking about an indifferent, hostile, absolutely corrupt agency that is empowered to destroy lives. Am I being too harsh? Read up on the evil tactics of the IRS in recent years. We won’t even get into the utter debacle of the IRS scandal itself. The fact that an agency so well funded yet so frivolous with their internal activities, political targeting, and utterly corrupt nature has the audacity to allow this hack is completely unacceptable. Rather than simply going after the criminals, the Justice Department should look deeply into the incompetence that led to this hack in the first place. It’s truly criminal.

As ABC News reports:

“That the IRS — home to highly sensitive information on every single American and every single company doing business here at home — was vulnerable to this attack is simply unacceptable,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. “What’s more, this agency has been repeatedly warned by top government watchdogs that its data security systems are inadequate against the growing threat of international hackers and data thieves.”

How can an agency with the immense clout that is given to them fail to secure our personal data? How can they spend money going after hundreds of dollars from poor people and yet leave a gaping security flaw like this in place? Most importantly, how can human beings work for such an abusive and obtuse agency and still sleep at night knowing that their efforts are designed specifically to harm other human beings?

The system is designed so poorly that it requires thousands of pages of tax code just to hide the loopholes necessary to keep the whole thing veiled from scrutiny. I am a capitalist, but knowing how disingenuous the United States tax system is makes me sympathize with socialists. As flawed as their concepts are, it’s understandable why they would feel the need to change things based solely on our tax system.

Clearly, I’m passionate about this topic. I’ve never written about it before simply because I knew I would get into name-calling and emotional rhetoric, but the hack was enough to bring forth my vitriol. When it comes to corruption, there’s Monsanto, Russia’s government, and IRS at the top. Everyone else is in a league far below the top three.

(Image Credit: The Blaze)



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Piano bikes… because you probably never knew it was a thing

Personally, I had never heard of piano bikes, but thanks to a post on Reddit that led me to do a search on Google, I came to the conclusion that I may be the one missing out. In case you’re like me and didn’t realize that piano bikes were a thing around the world, here are a few images of some of the coolest ones we found.

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A Quick Overview of ‘General Welfare’ in the Constitution

The phrase “general welfare” is often utilized by politicians on both sides of the aisle (though most commonly by liberals) to promote a justification for actions that run contrary to the Constitution. It has been butchered in recent years to mean something that it was never intended to mean.

Here’s a brief explanation from the folks over at Tenth Amendment Center that should shed some light on what general welfare was intended to be and how it should be handled today.

General Welfare

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Tic Tac Toe and basketball don’t mix

Call it pressure. Call it silliness. Call it failure. Call it whatever you’d like, but when two contestants each had missed opportunities, neither was able to make the final play. Oh well. I guess the two games simply don’t mix well on national television at a Houston Rockets game.

Tic Tac Toe and basketball do not mix

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Watch this bird take a bath in his owner’s hands

The synergy between man and animals can be easily seen with animals like dogs and cats, but domesticated birds often form bonds with their owners that transcend anything that other animals can do. They become attached in a trusting manner that is relatively unique. Take a look at this amazing bird video and see for yourself how much trust there is with an incredible animal and its human friend. Bonus points for the tough looking arms with tattoos stripping away stereotypes.

Watch this bird take a bath in his owner's hands

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Forgive Me for Diversifying Soshable Content

Hello friends, fans, contributors, enemies, unknown folks, and alpacas. After seven awesome years of focusing on social media pretty much solely, we’ve decided to expand the scope, posting frequency, and style of this site to include “important” news. While we’ll still be posting plenty about social media, marketing, and other important topics like these, it’s time to focus on more prevalent issues in the world.

Don’t get me wrong. I know there are plenty of sites out there that talk about the news and we’re not going to follow in the footsteps of sites like Mashable and Techcrunch that diversified for the sake of traffic. Call it a transition intended to bring attention to the things in this world that deserve it more than social media. We acknowledge that we will lose many faithful readers who have enjoyed the social media content over the years, but it’s time to bring more things to light.

This will NOT be a general news site. Again, you have plenty of choices for that. What we will bring to the table are perspectives. Those perspectives fall into three categories:

  1. Highlight News: There are things that happen every day in the world of politics, religion, technology, and pretty much everything else that could use a freshness in perspective. We don’t want to report the news. We want to take the important things and give them a fresh view that may bring to light some critical thinking and intelligent discourse.
  2. Automotive: From a purely business perspective, I own a company that focuses on the automotive industry. I’ve kept it very separate for a long time. Having this resource available allows me to bring the industry I love to light for others.
  3. Marketing: As I said, we’re still going to be posting much of the same content that we’ve always posted. We’re just going to mix in other things as well.

If you’ve read for a while, you’ll know that there were months when we posted every day and there were months when we barely posted at all. This is always following the ebb and flow of what time and resources we have available at any give moment. Now that we’re going to be diversifying, it will give me an excuse to always post daily and to keep it fresh and inviting.

As I said, I know that some of you will leave the blog as a result. Nobody wants to be constantly reminded about what’s happening in the real world. It’s one of the reasons that people turn to social media in the first place, to get away from those things that nag at them in life. I ask for your forgiveness ahead of time. I know that you’ll either leave forever or give it a chance. With that said, here’s the promise:

We will attempt to keep the site moving forward with everything we do. Social media was an incredible and tight little niche for us to explore. Now, we’re taking it further. It’s my hope that this will be both entertaining and enlightening for all of our readers. I look forward to exploring this new direction with you going forward. God Bless!



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He bought a Harrier – the coolest AARP member you’ll see all day

What do you do when you’re a retired pilot with plenty of money and Harriers become available for purchase? You buy and restore them, of course! Check out this AARP video and set your own goals for retirement that include old vertical liftoff fighter jets.

Harrier

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The Truth About September 2015 (and why it will not/did not bring the Rapture)

So many videos and articles are coming out proclaiming all sorts of things that are supposed to happen in September, 2015. We do not believe that the end of the world or the Rapture will occur at that point, so it’s important to warn people about the warnings ahead of time as well as to have a point of reference after the fact.

Below is the transcript from the video we made on the topic. Then, we have the video itself.

For a couple of years, there’ve been a ton of videos made and articles written talking about September, 2015. It’s an important month as it marks the fourth of the blood moons in the tetrad that will occur on Sukkot, September 28. Much speculation has been given to Yom Kippur and the Day of Atonement starting September 22nd and ending September 23rd. People are even pointing to the Pope coming to America, the conclusion of Jade Helm 2015, and the economic collapse that is “scheduled” for the Shemitah.

I’m not going to downplay the amazing series of events that all seem to be culminating in September. However, I’m very concerned with all of the conclusive statements that are being made in the name of warning. As believers in Yeshua as our Lord and Savior, we must know three important things:

  1. First, signs and prophecies are designed for recognition rather than preparation. The problem with preparation, as strange as it may sound, leaves people unprepared. Our will cannot be allowed to supersede the Will of the Father and when we go through setting dates and announcing coming events, the nature of which we have zero control over, we’re doing a disservice to the calling of discipleship.
  2. Second, this is another example of people proclaiming that the Rapture will occur on or around September, 2015. As I’ve said before, the concept of a pre-tribulation rapture is non-Biblical and potentially dangerous to the fortitude of believers whose faith can be shaken when it does not come to pass. If you’re watching this before September, 2015, I strongly urge you to stop waiting for the Rapture and to instead prepare yourself spiritually for the tribulation that is coming by wearing the full Armor of God at all times and helping others to hear the Gospel.
  3. Third, it’s important that you understand the concept of preparation. If we are indeed in the end times, then it’s extremely important that you trust your Father and our Lord Yeshua, that you allow the Holy Spirit to guide you through these times, and that you focus on today. Give no thought to tomorrow. Be prepared on a spiritual level to face whatever is put before you, the challenges, trials, and tribulations that may be directly ahead. Your priority list should have higher things than gold, water, and ammunition. Those things are important for this life and this world only. Your only requirement is to prepare yourself, your family, and all who you touch in a way that is meaningful. With that said, once you have your spiritual fortitude rooted firmly in the Bible, then the preparations of this world might not necessarily be a bad idea of the Holy Spirit compels you to do so.

With all of that understood, the question then becomes, “What’s the point?” Why would we have the blood moon tetrad? What are all of the worldly signs seemingly pointing towards September 2015 as an important part of world history, perhaps even the end of the world as we know it? To answer these questions you must understand God’s prophetic timeclock and why the adversary is in such a hurry to rush people towards a prophetic end. The adversary knows how easy it is to distract us. He is aware that we as a people can be easily shaken to not heed the warnings before us.

If the signs of the sun and the moon are truly intended to mark a significant point in history, then our understanding of these things becomes ever so important. Rather than listening to Bible scholars, conspiracy theorists, or end times eschatologists, turn instead to the Lord. Pray, fast, pray some more. Read your Bible constantly in every free moment that you get. That doesn’t mean to quit your job and become a hermit but it does mean that every moment spent watching reality TV or playing games on your Xbox could have been spent deepening your connection to the Holy Spirit, to worshiping our Father and living life as Yeshua has pronounced throughout the Bible.

Whether you’re watching this video before, during, or after September 15, know that every moment wasted on the distractions of this life will be time that you’ll never get back. Today, regardless of when you’re watching this, is the time to expand your Biblical understanding and to worship the wonderful Creator who breathed life into us all.

These signs are designed to keep us firm in our beliefs so that we will not be deceived by the world or the adversary who controls it. So often in the Bible it talks of gnashing of teeth. Those who face the second death will be angry. They’ll feel betrayed. They’ll go through eternity thinking that they were given a raw deal but the truth of the matter is this: you have no excuse. Read Romans 1 thoroughly and know that no person has an excuse when it comes to the judgment at the end.

The Bible is the only truth that you need. If we’re in the end times, then there will be so much compelling evidence of a false reality that the vast majority of people will be deceived. The way the world is going, it would appear that we’re in the great falling away from the truth that is foretold in the Bible. You cannot allow yourself to be caught up in this deception. That is why these signs are appearing.

We have all been warned. September 2015 may or may not be the time of a tremendous world event, but if you’re heart and mind are steeled to the truth of the Bible, the worship of our Father, the honoring of our Lord and Savior, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, then there is nothing that will be put before you that you cannot overcome, even if overcoming it means martyrdom.

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I’m stressed out watching this truck being loaded on a boat

As anxiety-driving videos go, this is a winner. As you watch, you’ll envision the breaking of the planks, a wheel sliding too far to the right or left, or any number of possible conclusions to this, nearly all of which are bad. We won’t spoil it for you. Just watch.

I'm stressed out watching this truck being loaded on a boat

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Monday, May 25, 2015

Are driverless cars too far fetched for today’s drivers?

If you look around the tech blogs and automotive websites, you’ll see that everyone seems to be getting into the driverless car race. The technology to have a vehicle drive us from point A to point B without our interaction beyond plugging in the destination seems like a nice possibility if it works, but modern drivers are very skeptical about whether or not it will actually work the way it’s being billed.

Some manufacturers are jumping on board. Others are promoting the concept of keeping control in the hands of human drivers. Either way, it’s a trend that seems destined to continue even if it never bears real fruit.

In a recent writeup, the Washington Post tackles the issue and points to many of the concerns that drivers and even manufacturers have as this burgeoning technology continues to accelerate:

Loaded with cameras, sensors and computing power, the cars’ performances have been, in tests, more sharp and consistent than human drivers without fear of drowsiness, drunkenness or distraction.

Yet the tension comes from a puzzling inconsistency traced in a survey by AutoTrader.com, which found that although most Americans say they are unnerved about ceding total control to a driverless car, they are happy to pay for all the piecemeal upgrades on which that car is built.

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Barack Obama’s Secretary of Defense Problems

In six years, President Obama has had one successful Secretary of Defense. That was Robert M. Gates whom the President inherited from President George W. Bush. The second half of his tenure was under President Obama and that was the longest tenure so far for the President.

Now, he’s on his fourth DefSec in the form of Ashton Carter. Whether Carter’s unfortunate remarks about Iraqi troop fortitude were his own or sent down through the President is unclear, but either way it looks bad for the President. Either his Defense Secretary is not aligned with him or he is using Carter as a proxy to deliver messages that keep him clear of insulting the Iraqis. Both scenarios are signs of poor leadership.

To make things worse, the President then sent Vice President Joe Biden to deliver a counter message from the White House. This is either Mickey Mouse politics or another sign of poor foreign relations understanding by the President.

Harry Truman was the last President to have four Defense Secretaries (though Richard Nixon had an acting DefSec in William P. Clements for 39 days after moving Elliot L Richardson from DefSec to Attorney General). With a year and a half left in his Presidency and Carter already getting into hot water in his third month as DefSec, we might see a fifth appointee under the Obama administration. What’s happening? Why does the President have such a hard time keeping people in place to lead the Pentagon’s efforts around the world?

The problem is that President Obama does not consider the military to be an important aspect of his foreign affairs. He has two criteria that seem to be apparent in his appointees: they cannot be “hawkish” and they cannot be friendly towards Israel. It’s as if he likes to place weaker people into the position to check off the box and move along with other pressing issues. Unfortunately, this stance has contributed to a weakening of the military and an unwillingness to stomach conflict. Even Bill Clinton was more assertive with the United States military presence.

Some would say that it’s a stark and necessary contrast to the eight years of military blunders we suffered under George W. Bush, but the mistakes that Bush made have only been accentuated by President Obama’s failures. We are in a precarious situation with Russia, China, Syria, Iran, North Korea, and Iraq. All of these challenges can be directly attributed to the failure of the President to position the United States with a posture of strength and the problems he’s had with Defense Secretaries is a clear sign of his failures.

Will Carter be thrown to the wolves or will he be swept under the carpet and eventually replaced? With the President in legacy-building mode, we are going to go with the former as the most likely scenario.

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Sunday, May 24, 2015

Kaiserstuhl, Germany, has the wild garlic you crave

Okay, so it’s probably not advisable to start an Italian food restaurant based upon the wild garlic growing in Kaiserstuhl, Germany, but it makes for an incredible nature shot.

The post Kaiserstuhl, Germany, has the wild garlic you crave appeared first on WeHeartWorld.



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Tea calendar will make you want to be European

When brilliance in marketing meets traditional quality, something special comes forth. In this case, it’s the Hälssen & Lyon tea calendar. Before you ask, we’ll go ahead and declare that it’s not for sale. Yet.

The company produced it through a painstaking manual process of producing 365 different types of tea “pages” that could be torn from the calendar, dropped in hot water, and turned into a cup of tea. Take a look at some images of the calendar in action, then watch the video below to see how it all works. Then, sit back and wait for it to become available.

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Finger Pointing Hits Home as Iraqis Blamed for Iraq Loses

In a perfect example of “we did out part, you do your part,” the Pentagon started pointing fingers at Iraq for not being able to defend itself properly after being propelled into a bad situation by the Bush administration and a worse situation by the Obama administration. Next up: finger pointing between the two administrations about whose fault it really is that Iraq is falling to the Islamic State.

For now, the attention is being placed on Iraqi forces who, for whatever reason, seem to be denying their advantage of numbers are are crumbling at the first sight of Islamic State advances. This is why Ramadi fell in the first place, according to the Pentagon. However, the counter argument is that the Pentagon and most military officials familiar with the Middle East were against a complete US pullout that the Obama administration mandated.

The question then becomes, “Which is it?” Did we abandon them when they were unprepared or were they prepared but failing now? It can’t be both, so the Pentagon needs to get its stories straight. If we knew they were unprepared, then we shouldn’t have left. If they were prepared but are failing now, then why did we declare that they were unprepared when we left?

“What apparently happened was the Iraqi forces showed no will to fight. They were not outnumbered, and they vastly outnumbered the opposing force, and they failed to fight and withdrew from the site,” Pentagon chief Ashton Carter told CNN.

“That says to me, and I think to most of us, that we have an issue with the will of the Iraqis to fight ISIL and defend themselves,” he said, using an alternative name for the group.

This falls squarely on the two truths that are becoming crystal clear in regards to the blunders of the last two administrations. Bush shouldn’t have brought us in and Obama shouldn’t have taken us out. We’ve taken a bad situation in Iraq under Saddam Hussein and we’ve translated it into the worst possible situation, giving the country over to a radical Islamic militant group bent on a caliphate and desiring to destroy peace, the United States, and Israel.

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Environmental message of Tomorrowland fails to deliver

This is not a movie review. In fact, we won’t be seeing this movie. It’s an account of disappointment for a movie that had the potential to promote the concepts of climate change but that failed on both levels: critically and at the box office.

Tomorrowland had all of the right elements. Disney is promoting it. George Clooney stars in it. The budget was there: $190 million. The timing was right as it’s the only major release (other than Pitch Perfect 2 if you want to consider it a major release) for Memorial Day weekend. Some would say that other studios backed off on releasing against it as a sign of respect. Righteous message – no need to hurt the cause.

Then, it failed. Miserably. Showbiz 411 says it will be the second-worst Memorial Day take in this century. As they mention as a Fun Fact:

“Tomorrowland” is the 44th highest ranking number 1 movie for Memorial Day in history. It ranks between “Dinosaur” (2000) and “Beverly Hills Cop 2″ (1987).

So what went wrong? Was the buzz off? Was the targeting poor? Was the economy down? No, we can attribute it to one thing and that’s the whole point of writing this article: Americans are getting climate change fatigue. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Most people believe that it’s happening, so awareness moves like this movie are not as necessary. Coincidentally, this weekend is showing some pretty strange weather around the country with flooding in Oklahoma and Texas, freezing in the Northeast, and a drought in California.

What, then, should we do? If the nation is fatigued about the climate change debate, then perhaps it’s time to make real strides. This is not the time for political action. It’s the time for grassroots movement. We don’t need Hollywood or Washington DC to get us moving. We simply need to make the decision and act. Sounds too easy? It is. Then again, most things worth doing are pretty easy once you put your mind to it.

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The Pope is No Friend to Conservatives

Right wing politics in the United States often side with religious leaders as they are normally supportive of conservative principles. The most powerful religious figure in the world does not fall into that category and could spark problems for conservatives when the primary elections get rolling later this year.

Pope Francis is popular around the world because he has many non-traditional views. Some would say that he’s the most progressive pontiff in history, making strange statements about the necessity of belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, reaching out to homosexuals, and embracing concepts such as climate change. He even has many Catholics worried that his odd behavior will have an effect on the elections.

According to Politico:

Francis may be popular with the general public, but key Republican primary constituencies — hawks, climate-change skeptics and religious conservatives, including some Catholics, are wary of the pope’s progressivism. Some, pronouncing themselves “Republicans first and Catholics second,” even say they would look askance at a candidate perceived to hew too closely to the bishop of Rome. This internal conflict flips a familiar script, in which Democrats like John Kerry and Joe Biden were labeled “cafeteria Catholics” when their stances on social issues like abortion and gay marriage differed from those of the church.

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Will California traffic violators get a pass on old debt?

When people think about amnesty in California, they probably believe we’re talking about amnesty for illegal immigrants. In the most recent proposal by Governor Jerry Brown pertaining to amnesty, he’s talking about the millions of citizens who owe money to the traffic court system.

What he calls a “hellhole of desperation” has resulted in fines that compound upon themselves and force many low-income residents to abandon driving altogether rather than pay the hefty sums. Nearly five million people have had their driver’s licenses suspended since 2006 because of failure to pay fines.

The Associated Press reports:

“California has sadly become a pay-to-play court system,” said Michael Herald, a legislative advocate for the Western Center on Law and Poverty who helped write a scathing report released last month by civil rights groups on how Californians are getting caught in a cycle of debt and having their driver’s licenses suspended as a result of costly traffic tickets and court penalties.

The post Will California traffic violators get a pass on old debt? appeared first on Uberly.



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Saturday, May 23, 2015

A Judeo-Christian Perspective on Gay Marriage

Arguably the hottest flashpoint in the political and religious worlds today is gay marriage. Many support the right of homosexuals to get married. Even churches are “coming around” to the idea. Nations are lining up to make it allowable under law. How should Christians react?

First and foremost, this is not an issue of sinful judgment. Those who believe that it is a sin would be correct. Those who believe they are without sin can cast the first stone. We are not able to judge one another regarding sin because we are all flawed. We all sin. None of us are good. No, not one.

This is also not an issue about personal rights. Free will allows us the right to do whatever we want as long as it does not hurt others. While a Biblical worldview denounces homosexuality, it falls under the same category individually as any other sin. The difference is that it is unnatural, a concept that required no Commandments in order to be upheld. Homosexuality goes against the Creation in that it produces relationships that cannot bear the fruit of marriage. Man and woman can join together to become one flesh. That is not possible with same-sex marriages, which is why it required no Commandment.

With this understood, one might wonder what the difference is between allowing it and disallowing it. If we are all in sin and we are all redeemed by the Blood of the our Lord and Savior, then gay marriage should not be an issue of contention for the faithful. The problem comes in the form of corporate judgment, a concept that is throughout the Bible and that means that we must fight against the passage of same-sex marriage. Just as Sodom and Gomorrah were judged corporately, we too fall under the same risks as a nation and a society.

Romans 1 captures the disapproval of God. It portrays a promise that we know there is a Creator by the nature of the Creation. It tells us that we were allowed to become vulnerable to our sinful nature because we refused to follow the natural course laid before us. It tells of homosexuality leading to other sins and it concludes with a very important point.

Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.Romans 1:32 (KJV)

It is one thing to do sinful things. It’s another thing to accept and even joyfully acknowledge that those things are okay. We all know Christians who have fallen for the concept that being against gay marriage is a form of discrimination. Every day, more Christians are starting to accept that men should have the right to marry men and women should have the right to marry women.

Listen to the rest of the story on our YouTube video:

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Is Selling Allowed on Social Media?

There has always been a thin line between marketing and spamming, between being social and social selling. That line has been getting broader in the last couple of years for a few reasons, most notably because businesses and marketing companies are simply getting better at using social media the right way.

Selling and marketing are allowed on social media. In fact, businesses that try to hard to “be social” without applying appropriate business-relevant messages to the mix are missing the boat. Sure, it’s good for branding, but action does not stem from branding. More importantly, it’s very easy to promote branding while still getting the bang for the buck that proper social selling, lead generation, and calls-to-action bring to the table.

The key is targeting. This has been the most powerful aspect of social media for a long time. Now that Facebook and other social sites have so much information about us, we can apply that information to put the right message in front of the right people at the right time. That’s the way to use social media properly.

The reason for it is relevance. When a message can resonate because its targeting is righteous, you can find tremendous results. In our industry, the car business, we see this applied so beautifully that it’s a wonder why more dealers don’t utilize it. Through targeting, we can find high-potential car buyers interested in specific makes or types of vehicles and put a message in front of them that matches their needs. The social media user likes it because they get to see something that matches their current needs.

Don’t get me wrong. I have no illusions that people love to see ads on social media. However, when the ads hit home and bring the appropriate message that matches their current needs, the ads become much more powerful for them. In fact, the average consumer will view such ads as serendipity rather than intrusion. They don’t know (or are willing to accept) that Facebook and other social media sites know so much about us that the targeting is often spot on. They sometimes consider it a wild and fortunate coincidence that they see an ad for a Honda Accord while they’re in the market for a Honda Accord.

Blanket messages and inappropriate targeting are the things that drive consumers crazy. In fact, they should drive businesses crazy as well because bad marketing makes it harder for good marketers to get the word out.

Use the targeting. It’s the most powerful and effective portion of a proper social media strategy.



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Friday, May 22, 2015

My hair is so long my daughter wouldn't go out in public with me if I didn't wear a hat. Today's version is a camo Christian motif.


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How to Properly Handle a Single-Issue Journalist, by Ted Cruz

When confronted by journalists trying to make them give a “gotcha” sound bite, many politicians crumble and stammer. Ted Cruz, when faced with a similar situation over gay marriage, turned the tide on the journalist and came out looking like a GOP frontrunner.

Here’s the video:

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Thursday, May 21, 2015

Northeast weather looks bad for Memorial Day weekend

It’s considered by many to be the unofficial start of Summer. Memorial Day is known for barbeques, picnics, and travel. The Northeast United States may have a difficult time doing their traditional Memorial Day weekend activities as the weather appears to be anything but accommodating.

Chilly air from Canada will effect everywhere from Pennsylvania up to Maine starting Friday when many people will be in the middle of their travels. Temperatures are expected to dip down into the 20s across much of the region.

According to Accuweather:

This potential for a freeze is occurring later than normal across the Northeast.

In a typical year, many areas outside of the White, Green and Adirondack Mountains experience their last freeze of the season by the middle of May.

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Is TOMORROWLAND designed for hope or despair?

The bleakness of the future is something that has many people feeling like there’s really no hope. To some, the human race is rushing towards a dismal demise while other see positives in the way that technology is allowing us to expand our understanding and hopefully our sensibilities.

Where does Disney’s TOMORROWLAND fit into this? The movie is being released this weekend and points to a promise of the future, but does it do too much to make us believe we have no hope outside of a fantasy world? Is this further push back against a Biblical worldview? We’ll watch and let you decide.

Tomorrowland

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Why Republicans (and Democrats) are Wrong About TPP

Today, the Senate advanced a measure that would give President Obama fast-track capabilities to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with a dozen Asian nations. This is being positioned by Democrats as being harmful to the US job market by making it easier to shift commerce towards Asia. Their thoughts are correct. Their motives are not.

The pro-union party is fighting it because they believe it will steal jobs. This may be true, but the reality is that it is designed to improve the economy in general, allowing for more jobs to be created. Where they miss out is that it’s not the unions that need to be protected by TPP but the shift in economic power to Asia that is most worrisome. In the short term, it may actually create jobs. In the medium term, over the next decade or so, it will improve the economy. In the longer term, it will hurt as more clout is being positioned in manpower-rich Asia. This is why it’s a bad move for the Republicans and why the Democrats, while in opposition, are wrong about their reasoning.

Perhaps the most unfortunate part is that most of this is speculation on both sides. Nobody knows for sure what is being negotiated and giving up the ability to amend it in Congress is a huge mistake. On the surface, this seems like the type of initiative that lines up with conservative ideals. At its core, though, is a dangerous agreement shrouded in secrecy and layered with so many questions that one must wonder whether the Republicans supporting it are doing so out of principle or if they’re just passing a measure that takes the emphasis off them. They won’t be to blame if and when the TPP blows up in America’s face.

That’s the scariest part of all.

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The Importance of Serving Certified Organic… Content

In the world of food, organic is the growing trend that fuels a $63 billion industry and that is intended to make America and the rest of the world healthier by eliminating the old, bulk, inorganic methodology of growing food that has emerged in the last two decades. In the world of search engine optimization and social media marketing, organic content should be the growing trend that makes websites stronger by eliminating the old, bulk, inorganic methodology of building content that has become prevalent in marketing for a decade.

The good news is that we’ve seen incredible progress with delivering organic content, links, and social signals in a way that makes Google, Facebook, Bing, and other marketing venues happy. The bad news is that there are no certification systems that can look at a site and tell you if the content is organic or not. Everyone claims it. Very few are doing it, particularly in the automotive industry.

Thankfully, you can test your own site manually to determine if it’s organic or not. Here are some things to look for with the content that is being placed on your website.

  1. It’s Not Copied and Pasted: I know. You may be a culprit of this yourself. There was a trend of content syndication and bulk building that swept through the internet for a long time. The reason that it did was because it worked. Google removed this strategy from the land of validity when they introduced the Panda update in 2011. Since then, they’ve honed their skills of identifying copied content and they do a great job of filtering out the copiers.
  2. It’s Spun: Many vendors, particularly larger ones, use content spinning techniques to populate content on sites. The strategy is to take boilerplate content and plug in enough unique identifiers like company name and address to try to beat the system. It doesn’t work. The system is smarter than the spinners.
  3. It Sounds Like SEO Junk: Content should be built for individuals. That means no long lists of every city in the area that you want to target. That means to long lists of vehicles that you sell. That means that if you read it out loud on a phone call with some random person you knew in high school, that they wouldn’t cringe at what you were saying. It means writing for the people, not for the bots.
  4. A Social User would Happily Share it Because it’s Good: There are certain pages on your website that don’t need to be shared and probably couldn’t be realistically shared if you tried. Inventory, specials, contact pages, staff pages… these and other parts of your website do not need content that compels people to share it. The rest of your content, whether on your website blog or on landing pages designed for conversion, should bring enough value to the table that any person visiting the page can say, “That’s interesting. I want to share this page on social media!”

There’s a reason that true content marketing is so effective for both SEO and social media marketing. Every major player is pushing for quality over quantity, which means that Google, Facebook, and everyone else wants to see your best content effort, not your most automated. If you build it organically, you’ll be able to wow the marketing venues. If you stick with “GMO Content” you’ll be exactly where you are today – in the middle of the pack.



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Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Sometimes it’s the Little Wrongs that Stick

“I was a pretty cocky kid.”

It’s something that I get to hear a lot lately, especially when connecting with old friends from high school and college. I remember thinking that I wouldn’t be that guy, the one who looks back while on the second half of a standard life and calls himself stupid, but that’s exactly what I’ve started doing. I was a cocky, stupid kid.

There are several instances that I can recall that had an effect on the way that I grew and would eventually point me to dedicate my life to Christ. One of those events was very small, so small that the person I “wronged” likely doesn’t even remember the incident.

I was managing a steak house in Oklahoma City. I was the youngest of the managers of what was supposed to be a summer job and ended up supporting my young family for three years. I was cocky (and did I mention I was stupid as well?) and took pride in my ability to diffuse situations. It wasn’t a fancy steak house. In fact, it was a two-story, 550-seat monster that served hundreds of steaks every night.

One particular evening I was helping one of the servers by taking the order. It was a special day for the patriarch of the family and they were celebrating – what exactly I don’t recall or perhaps never knew. The special day man had one important request – no Texas toast. His wife (or daughter, couldn’t tell for sure) said that he was extremely allergic to anything that had bread and I assured her that no bread would touch his plate. I plugged in the order, put the special instructions in all caps (NO BREAD NO BREAD NO BREAD) and went on to see to the hundreds of other guests as well as the staff.

I was walking by the table, just checking in, when the food came. Time went into slow-motion mode as the plate was put down in front of him with a big, buttery piece of Texas toast right smack dab on his 14 oz. ribeye. The look on the wife/daughter’s face has always stuck with me. It was pure disappointment, shock, and even a little bit of fear all flashing before me in technicolor slow motion.

Instantly, I reached down and grabbed the plate, but the man grabbed my arm. His fury was clear. I told him that I would get him a new steak, but refused to let go. He wanted to keep that steak hostage to make certain that we didn’t just take it to the back, pull of the bread, and reserve the same steak. I assured him that we wouldn’t do that but he was firm. He didn’t believe me and that made me mad.

In the same situation today, I wouldn’t have tried to take the steak back. In fact, I would have left one more instruction on the ticket – “Page ME for delivery”. I would have made certain that the bread didn’t go on his plate. Instead, I allowed myself to get angry. I took it out on the staff that couldn’t read instructions. I took it out on the table that had a special occasion ruined. I didn’t even comp the meal because of my petty, stupid, cocky anger.

For all I know, they never thought about it again. For all I know, the man was emotionally unstable and hurt someone that night due to my mistakes. His grip was very strong, the type of grip that one can’t get by working out. It only comes from working through life with your hands.

It’s the fear in the wife/daughter’s eyes that I’ve never been able to shake for two decades. Mad – understandable. Disappointed – who wouldn’t be? Fear – that’s something that was distinct. She wasn’t looking at me. She was looking at him. She was waiting for his response. I don’t recall if I truly saw it out of the corner of my eye or if it has emerged through my imagination over the years, but I think she even looked up at me with a subtle, desperate shake of her head as I tried to pry the plate from his grip as if she was warning me that this many might kill me over the mistake.

We never know the effects of our actions. We don’t know what little thing we might do that causes someone to snap, something bad to happen, or something life-changing that could have been avoided by being a little less stupid, a little less cocky, and a lot more like a believer in Jesus Christ should act.

I never had the chance to apologize properly to the family. Maybe that’s why it stuck with me for all of these years. The slow motion look of mixed, terrible emotions – I pray that my little act of defiance didn’t cause pain to anyone.

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Google Now Showing Tweets

This has been a long time coming. We knew it was on the horizon and now it’s finally here. Tweets are now appearing in Google search result again after being missing for a few years. When it was announced in February, we went to work integrating Twitter back into the search spectrum of content marketing strategies. Now that it’s here, the initial testing has been pretty strong.

“When tapping on a tweet in Google search, you’ll be taken directly to Twitter where you can view the Tweet and discover additional content,” Jana Messerschmidt, vice president of global business development & platform at Twitter said in a blog post. “By deeply integrating Twitter’s real-time content into Google search, we hope you find it easier than ever to explore your interests across both Twitter and Google.”

This will give the real-time power of Twitter that Google craves. The news section has been the best way to get real-time information for a while, but even then it’s not truly real-time and requires major publications to be the source of the news. With Twitter, Google will be able to follow trends and highlight sites that aren’t on the mainstream popularity lists. With the rise of citizen journalism and specialty blogs, this will be especially useful when events unfold and regular people find their way to report them before the media.

From a marketing perspective, the jury is still out. We will have to see how standard searches react to Tweets that are pertinent, but again the initial testing has been very compelling. Will marketers start spamming Twitter at the same rate they did a couple of years ago or will the safeguards that Twitter has put into place supersede and eliminate “Tweeting for rankings” that used to fill Twitter when Google was first tied into their firehose. Time will tell.



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Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Space junk risk could have us putting lasers on the International Space Station

With the risk of space collisions growing with every passing second and with every new satellite put into orbit, some scientists are suggesting that we should equip the International Space Station with defensive lasers that could blow space debris out of the sky. Literally.

Yes, freakin’ lasers.

“The EUSO telescope, which was originally designed to detect cosmic rays, could also be put to use for this useful project,” says Toshikazu Ebisuzaki at the Riken Computational Astrophysics Laboratory in Wako, Japan.

While it sounds like a good idea to protect the equipment in space, there’s a little hesitation and skepticism coming from some circles concerning the idea of weaponizing space. It’s likely bound to happen either way.

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Monday, May 18, 2015

Can I hitch a ride, Mom?

What does a four-day-old African spurred tortoise do when he needs to get around? Become a hat for his mom, of course!

Via Daily Mail.

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Another blogger folds to Monsanto

At some point, one has to wonder if there really is money changing hands when it comes to Monsanto and bloggers. It seems unlikely, of course, but the number of bloggers who are miraculously “seeing the light” about Monsanto and becoming rabid supporters is starting to get ridiculous.

Case-in-point: Manny Schewitz from Forward Progressives. This liberal blog has been on the right side of many issues, but they’ve turned into Monsanto apologists for whatever reason. In this case, it’s being blamed on science. According to their hundreds of hours of research, the site is now claiming that most of the negatives associated with GMO and Monsanto are trumped up in order to promote the $63 billion organic food industry.

Let’s say that it’s true. It’s not, but for the sake of argument, let’s go down that path. Currently, Monsanto has the footprint, logistics, political clout, infrastructure, and most importantly the cash to be able to feed millions, perhaps tens of millions of starving people and still remain profitable. They could continue to grow, innovate, and save a massive number of people at the same time.

Supporters would point to token initiatives that are minimal compared to the dollars they spend preventing GMO labels from going on our food. Supporters would point to the other companies in the industry that aren’t doing any better than Monsanto and offer that as an excuse for the company to squander the incredible power they wield. Supporters would point to countless studies about how Monsanto is saving the monarch butterflies, fixing the environment for bees to repopulate, and making food better and easier to produce.

Supporters do not want to hear that monarch butterflies are still dying, bee populations are still diminishing at an alarming rate, and the food improvements they’re making through their “enhancement” processes are not solving world hunger. This is a company, like so many out there, that profits off of starvation. They help just enough to say that they’re helping so they have positive spin for the things they do.

This isn’t a political issue between left and right. It’s not even a moral issue where companies should be compared based upon their good and bad works. It comes down to this: they are one of the most successful and powerful companies in the world and they’re utilizing their specialized resources to make the world a better place. Schewitz points at Exxon, Bain Capital, and Verizon as having worse traits than Monsanto. My counter to that: it’s not a race to see who’s more evil. Everyone is responsible for their neighbors. Those who can do more should do more.

If all of the negative sentiment about Monsanto turns out to be unearned, then they still exist as a company that could save millions but that chooses not to based upon the power and profits that they would have to give up. That alone is enough for me to continue to dislike them.

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I should buy stock in Plantronics.


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Mexico, Canada bully US over meat labeling law

The Republican Congress is taking measures to repeal a law that requires meat to be labeled with information about where an animal was born, raised and slaughtered. The reason: Canada and Mexico think it’s unfair and it’s costing them money. They’re also calling it discriminatory against imported livestock.

As consumers, we should be outraged. There’s a reason that the law requiring labeling was put originally put into place. We have the right to know from where the food we eat originated. The economic impact on Canada and Mexico, as unfortunate as it is, does not supersede the need for knowledge, particularly in food.

“Our governments will be seeking authorization from the WTO to take retaliatory measures against U.S. exports,” the Mexican and Canadian ministers for trade and agriculture said in a joint statement.

They are bullying Congress with threats of punitive actions in retaliation if Congress does not meet their demands. They’ve even made a “hit list” that includes wine, chocolate, ketchup, and cereal. This should be an outrage to Americans. When countries try to affect our policies and negatively influence the health of American citizens to make their trade revenues higher, it’s time to act.

“Today’s WTO ruling … effectively orders the U.S. government to stop providing consumers basic information about where their food comes from,” said Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch Director Lori Wallach, adding that it showed the danger of free trade deals’ undermining consumer safeguards.

Write to Congress. Let them know that we want labeling, that we deserve to know the origin of the food that we eat, and that we will not accept repealing the law to appease foreign interests. As strange as it may sound, it may be time to boycott imports from Mexico and Canada. They feel like the economic hit of information is more important than our health concerns. They should feel a bigger economic hit for thinking they can rewrite our laws for us.

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Ending of ‘Mad Men’ was so good for Coke, one might wonder…

…did the ending of Mad Men come as a result of a sponsorship? The answer is no. Now, let’s go ahead and give the obligatory spoiler alert. If you haven’t seen the final episode of the series, check out this amazing comparison between the Ram Rebel and the Ford Raptor.

Now, back to Mad Men. The finale was pretty unexpected in that it was everything that everyone expected. It had Don/Dick learning a lesson, reaching into his past, doing something we had never seen him do before in the form of testing a muscle car in the desert, and sleeping with another random girl, this time for money. It had Joan being strong, Peggy being smart, Betty preparing to die, Sally preparing to take over when Betty dies, and Roger being quirky. For some reason, we didn’t expect the unexpected, so the expected itself turned out to be unexpected.

Now for the surprises. Joan found the perfect man and situation that she described in the very first episode and decided to pass. In a way, it wasn’t really a surprise. Those who saw her hold her own in a man’s world knew that she couldn’t resist making it a woman’s world when the opportunity popped up. Peggy fell in love, or at least admitted that she was in love and oddly vulnerable. Pete got everything he wanted, something that few would have anticipated based upon his sleazy beginnings as an antagonist.

The biggest surprise (or perhaps anti-surprise) is that Don didn’t fall/jump to his death. It’s finally clear that the opening credits that kept us wondering for 92 episodes was a metaphor of his life.

Back to the original question: did Coke sponsor the show? Of course they didn’t, but they couldn’t have paid for this type of advertising. Those in my generation are reminiscing about the first time they saw the commercial if we can remember that far back. Those too young to know of it are researching to see if it was real (it was) and how it came about. Either way, Coke wins. Didn’t you want a glass bottle of old school Coca Cola after seeing it?

The implication is that Don found his inner peace, then took it back to the agency and came up with his tour de force of advertising mastery. It was the right ending for the show for those of us who have grown to love/hate Don Draper and everything he represents. Weak yet resilient, ignorant yet inspired, cursed and blessed. Well done, AMC. I’m going to have a Coke now.

Here’s the Coke ad:

The post Ending of ‘Mad Men’ was so good for Coke, one might wonder… appeared first on Uberly.



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US Intel warned of ISIS rise in 2012

There is no question that the intelligence branch of the United States military knew that ISIS was growing in a worrisome way nearly two years before President Barack Obama declared that they were the “JV team” of terrorism. There’s also no question that a report was sent to the State Department, the CIA, and senior military leaders. The only question is whether or not the President was briefed.

If he was, then it calls into question his lack of action against the Islamic State before it actually became the Islamic State. If he wasn’t, the question suddenly becomes why. How could a threat that is causing havoc in the Middle East and influencing events around the world go unchecked by the President? Was it ignorance or incompetence. Unfortunately, it’s becoming crystal clear that it was one or the other.

According to Fox News:

The report warned the continued deterioration of security conditions would have “dire consequences on the Iraqi situation,” and huge benefits for ISIS — which grew out of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

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Getting in was the Biggest Mistake, but Leaving Iraq was a Mistake as Well

It’s the type of war that never should have happened. Many can argue that Saddam Hussein needed to be ousted, that the reports of weapons of mass destruction couldn’t be ignored even if they turned out to be wrong, and that the stability of the Middle East hinged on our presence. Others can argue that we needed to send a message to terrorists around the world that we would not sit back idly while our country was attacked.

Our assertion is this: going to war with Iraq has led to many of the bad things that are happening in the Middle East today, including the rise of the Islamic State. The other part of our assertion is that leaving Iraq the way we did may not have technically been considered a worse mistake, but it is the catalyst that has allowed the current state of affairs. It’s the knife sticking our of someone’s back – just because it’s there doesn’t mean you need to pull it out. You can do more harm in the exit than the entrance, and that’s what we fear is happening in the Middle East today.

Could the Islamic State have risen to power, recently taking hold of Ramadi less than 80 miles from the edge of Baghdad, had the United States maintained a presence in the country? With troops on the ground, as ugly of a concept as it is, would ISIS be an issue today at all? Would they truly have been the junior varsity as President Obama famously called them? Would hundreds of thousands of people be killed, displaced, or held prisoner if we were still there?

The answer to these questions is clear. What’s not so clear is whether or not we need to go back. That seems like an impossibility at this point, but the timing will not be lost on the electorate and the question is going to be asked. While _____, as a new President in 2017, take us back into Iraq? We are pretty certain we know the answers that would be negative. Rand Paul and every Democratic candidate will say that they will not go back into Iraq without American interests at stake. What about the others?

Finding the correct solution for Iraq is harder than most people realize. While there is a broad consensus today that we should not have invaded Iraq, the sentiment at the time was positive. Many who are against the invasion today supported it over a decade ago. Today, we’re faced with the same type of challenge. We shouldn’t have gone there in the first place. We shouldn’t have left. Should we go back? The answers to that question could determine the next US President.

The post Getting in was the Biggest Mistake, but Leaving Iraq was a Mistake as Well appeared first on Conservative Haven.



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Sunday, May 17, 2015

Christianity in America is Not Dead, But it’s More than That

I like Ed Stetzer. He’s one of the few “popular” Christian figures who does a nice job of promoting the truth about face. Nine times out of ten, I agree with his assessments. His last big piece has something that is not exactly correct.

The message is proper. The understanding of the numbers is much better than pretty much everyone else out there who has been declaring the fall of Christianity in America even before the Pew Research study showed some “alarming” numbers. He missed one major point, though.

Children are not being raised in truly Christian environments as they once were. One does not need to look at statistics to know this is true. Culture has accelerated the decline in faith-based parenting. I was one. My parents allowed me to go to Sunday school and occasionally went to church (I think) when I was very little, but we were not a church-going family. I found my true faith in high school, progressing through college, and then as a parent I actually became saved. It was an interest, a compulsion that drove me in the early years, but it finally manifested itself later in life.

My wife was in the exact same boat. Her parents would take her to church on Easter. Otherwise, there wasn’t much faith in the household. I tell you this because I believe it’s the model for true revival in the country. It’s not those caught in a cycle of going to church who will turn the tide. It will be those who change the trend within their family tree, who realize that the truth of Creation and the Salvation offered only by Yeshua – they will be the ones who can allow change for the future.

We must not allow flawed statistical analyses like the ones surrounding the Pew study to make us lose hope, but we must also not allow our guard down based upon interpretations from the other end of the spectrum. This is a battle. We already know we will win in the end, but it’s our responsibility to bring this victory to as many people as possible until the time.

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