Thoughts on Cablevision-FOX

It's the private contract dispute that's made national media headlines - Cablevision and FOX can't agree on a price, so Cablevision isn't carrying FOX in New York and New Jersey. It's kinda like when you go to a restaurant, ask to see the menu, see they're twice as expensive as the place down the street, and go there instead. It's the American way - a free market where goods and services are traded.

But, oh, no, can't let the protected monopoly that is Little League baseball hear that. Little League and mayors are calling it "un-american." Of course, what it comes down to is these people have no clue what America is and isn't. One thing it is - it *is* American to have a free market for goods and services. It is *not* American for the government to get involved in private contractual disputes.

The Washington Post prefers to throw around terms like deprive and rob. You are deprived when you do not have food, water, and shelter to meet your physical needs. You are robbed when people with guns come in and take your jewelry. You are not deprived or robbed when the cable TV company you subscribe to elects not to pay twice as much as they were paying to renew their contract with a programming provider. You are free to leave your cable TV company if you'd prefer to subscribe to a competing service that has chosen to pay those rates. It's a free market.

Cablevision is buying Bresnan, which is our local TV company here in Montana. I couldn't be happier. Cablevision already is well known for having some of the best Internet service in the industry. Now they're showing they have a backbone to fight rate hikes too. It couldn't get any better than this for the  customer. There are lots of competing services if the video services you want aren't on Cablevision. There's also always DirecTV... they're great! But, may I suggest a Netflix-ready Blu-ray player? Or perhaps the new, sub-$100, Apple TV is more your thing? There's the Slingbox if you have another house that does receive the broadcasts. Or, and here's the best one of all - a good old fashioned ANTENNA for over the air broadcasts, totally free, as always (yup, most of the programming FOX wants nearly $5 a month a subscriber from Cablevision for they're GIVING AWAY over the air for free! Higher quality too...) Whatever you choose those, choose a free-market solution; not demanding government interference in private contracts - the consumer always loses in those situations!

Bible 2.0

As a Christian in America, I have recently came to the alarming conclusion that the Bible, God's Holy Word, good for all eternity, no longer meets the needs of Christians in our country. In fact, throughout history, there have been many times the Bible didn't meet the needs of the church. It didn't meet the needs of the Pharisees. It didn't meet the needs of the Roman Catholic Church during the inquisitions. It didn't meet the needs of Colonial churches during the Salem Witch Trials. And it doesn't meet the needs of most Christians today. Therefore, I would like to introduce you to Bible 2.0®

Bible 2.0® is a concept designed to meet the needs of the most upstanding leaders of the church in America, including - but by no means limited to - Jerry Prevo, Ted Haggard, Mark Driscoll, Benny Hinn, T.D. Jakes, Terry Jones, Fred Phelps, Eddie Long, and many others.

Bible 2.0® removes all of the Law and the punishments commanded therein, except that which applies to homosexuals (thankfully, hiring a male prostitute doesn't qualify one as homosexual), rock musicians, Democrats, and all others whose sin is so different, so reprehensible, so much worse that they cannot possibly be of any good or any hope. By removing all condemnation for idolaters, the unfaithful, and the money changers; more resources will be freed to stone gays and Democrats.

Bible 2.0® will also remove Jesus' teachings on removing the log in your own eye prior to looking at the speck in your brother's eye. It is much more important that we cast out our brothers and turn them away from Christ - sometimes forever - than that we take the time to inspect our own faults.

Finally, Bible 2.0® will remove all reference to turning the other cheek, the golden rule, paying taxes to Caesar, and most of all, it will remove the entirety of Colossians 3 and Galatians 3. Our world depends on differences between races, social classes, and genders. Who is this Jesus guy to think He can declare:

"So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." - Galatians 3:26-28 (TNIV) 

? Oh, yeah, that's right, He is Indescribable. He the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, Yahweh, Jehovah, the Great I Am, the Holy One of Israel, El Shaddai, the Lamb of God, Adonai, the Alpha and the Omega, Father God. That is, our heavenly daddy. And guess what? We better listen to Him!

We don't need Bible 2.0®. We need a church willing to follow the original, the real deal! Now, I'm not saying I condone sin. Of course I don't. I'm saying the church is meant as a hospital for sinners and God hates all sin equally. I'm saying that a bi friend of mine decided to check out the whole church thing - and liked it. Until they found out she was bi. The hate and condemnation she experienced was just horrible. She needs Jesus. Everything else works itself out then! We were called by Christ to love the sinners. Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors. I truly believe that if Jesus was on earth today, He would probably show up in gay bars. Seriously.

But no, Christians in America today are too busy hating the sinners, and loving their own sins. They're too busy opposing Park 51 (a Muslim community center in New York better known as the "Ground Zero Mosque" despite being neither at ground zero, nor primarily a mosque) and gay marriage. And forgetting that without freedom, sweet freedom, we ourselves would be being persecuted. Look at countries without religious freedom and how the Church is treated there. Is that what you want for America? At least, on the good side, they DO tend to appreciate what they have a lot more... the persecuted Church is the Church fully reliant on Christ. Is that really where we need to get before we wake up and focus on the Gospel?

I'm sure I've made some people angry with this post. I'm okay with that. Jesus made plenty of people angry too.

Check out this cool video I found on YouTube for Todd Agnew's song "My Jesus":

Square Reader Unboxing

[EDIT - THIS VIDEO WENT WRONG - IT CUT OFF PART WAY, I TRIED IT AS A WEBCAM UPLOAD AND IT FAILED. STAY TUNED FOR A NEW VIDEO!]

Hi all, I just got my Square card reader and I gave it a try in my HTC Hero Android phone (running Cyanogenmod6) and in my Apple iPod Touch 2nd gen (running iOS 4.1). It's kinda tricky to swipe with, definitely practice before you do any real transactions! Here's my video (sorry that I stutter and seem confused, I didn't trial run or rehearse this so that y'all could see an actual first experience. I literally got the reader in the mail 15 minutes ago, and I started recording this video as soon as I got inside!).

How I'm Voting In 2010

Montana State Senate District 4:

Mary Reckin. I met Mary and talked to her for quite awhile and was very impressed. She's a nice lady, who has a very balanced worldview, and is quite intelligent. I think that she would bring a fresh, intelligent, balanced perspective to the State Senate. I don't know Jon Sonju, but I haven't been impressed by his public statements.

Flathead County Commissioner:

Pam Holmquist. Joe Brenneman just doesn't terribly impress me. He's had his turn, and I think some change and a fresh perspective would be nice. Full disclosure: I'm friends with her daughter and grandkids.

Flathead County District Court:

David Ortley. My experience with him as Justice of the Peace was very positive. I was ticketed by a Highway Patrol officer for speeding on a section of road I honestly believed had a 45mph speed limit. I did find out that the stretch I was on was 35mph, but the way it was signposted was inadequate for me to know that. I went to Judge Ortley and just told him how I felt, showed him some photos of the road, the weather conditions, and the signposting. He reduced the ticket to a lesser infraction that wouldn't go on my record, and reduced the fine to, I believe, $15 (somewhere in that area) to reflect the fact that as I had, indeed, been speeding, I would pay the court's costs but no penalty given the situation. I felt he was extremely fair and that he was willing to look at the facts with an open mind. Exactly what we need in a District Court Judge.

Montana CI-105:

Support. The last thing we need in this real estate market is any penalty for selling. Property values are low enough without the state taking a cut.

Montana I-164:

Support. Payday lenders are predatory crooks who take advantage of the ignorant and desperate beyond hope. They further the cycle of deep debt and should not be permitted to continue their behavior.

Montana CC-2:

Oppose. We do not need a Constitutional convention. The current Montana constitution is serving us well, and any new one could be a proverbial can of worms.

Montana I-161:

Oppose, hesitantly. The additional revenue from higher license fees for NON-RESIDENTS, and proposed fairer system seems great on the surface. However, it takes away the ability for MONTANA businesspeople - outfitters - to offer an experience they are paid well for and supports the Montana economy. Given the rich nature of the customers of these outfitters, I would, however, support raising the cost of the special outfitters' licenses rather than eliminating them.

CenturyLink / Qwest

Okay, so the AT&T purchase of divested Alltel markets that I blogged about so much is almost behind us. As most of you know, I was strongly in favor of the purchase, and I generally remain so - though I don't like AT&T's new 2GB data caps on smartphone plans. But still, it provides a real second national carrier to rural America and hopefully the free market will sort out the absurdly low 2GB smartphone caps in time. Ideally, before the release of the iPhone 5.

Now, there's one I'm not so hotly in favor of - the merger of CenturyLink and Qwest. This one is FCC Docket # 10-110, and can be followed here. CenturyLink, for those unaware, is the result of last year's merger of CenturyTel and Embarq. Embarq was the former landline side of Sprint. CenturyTel was (and remains) a plague upon the Kalispell/Polson/Flathead Valley area and other markets, offering poor service in an area of no competition. No local VoIP numbers. No local dial-up Internet numbers for major companies back in the days of dial-up. Very few local choices. But, you see, there wasn't a lack of competition due to a lack of market interest. Even much smaller towns in Montana have had VoIP carriers, competing ISPs, etc for years. The lack of competition was a result of CenturyTel claiming that as a "rural carrier" (despite their massive size) they ought to be protected from having to compete in a free market due to their increased costs. Qwest, serving most of the rest of Montana, never enjoyed such protections from the market.

Guess what? Surprisingly (well, not really), CenturyLink is now claiming that even after their merger with Qwest, they should be able to claim a rural carrier competition exemption like they do now! This despite the fact they'll be the third-largest ILEC and have 17 million access lines. Does that sound like a small rural company that needs government protection (official monopoly basically) because they can't compete in a free market to you?

The ONLY way this merger should be approved is if CenturyLink is required to give up all claims to being a "rural carrier" protected from competition. And it might happen, a lot of companies are telling the FCC just that. Now it is the time for the FCC to do their job and say "enough is enough" to CenturyLink. But they won't do it without political pressure. Click here to make your comments known to the FCC. Tell them you believe the merged CenturyLink/Qwest should be required to quit claiming rural carrier exemption in ANY of their markets, including the ones where they already do. The proceeding number is 10-110 but the way I wrote the link that should already be filled in for you.