On my way back from the cafeteria today God stopped me and aked me--if I wasn;t too busy--to relay a message to all of you. His message is:

Do the right thing.

Not because you're gonna get into Heaven.

But because doing the right thing is the right thing to do.

Pretending I only hear some of you, or pretending that only some of you have Me figured out and thereby have My ear...that ain't the right thing. And I DO take notes.

You know what the right thing is. Do it.

Oh, and don't for one second think you're getting out of trouble through prayer or by getting together in some centralized building once a week.

If you're sinning against someone, you've gotta work it out with them--then, and ONLY then, do you and I have something to talk about. So don't think I'm gonna be moved because you whispered for forgiveness in some man-made "house of worship." It doesn't count. Cheating on your wife? Work it out with her. Scamming a business partner? Sit down and tell them. Then make an appointment to come see me.

Oh, and these guys who tell you they speak for Me? They don't. These guys that get up and tell you if you don't follow their religion you're not getting into Heaven? They're screwed. I promise.

That was all He told me. Then He asked if He could borrow a buck for a soda, but unfortunately all I had was big bills....

You can't call yourself pro-life if you support an administration that enacts legislation and policies that are harmful to the economy, thereby creating a greater need for people to consider having abortions. Abortion far more frequently than we acknowledge is an economics issue, not a moral one. People who have good careers and see the possibility for advancement keep children. People who have to work two or even three jobs to make ends meet and see their benefits cut do not--they can not.

Overturning Roe v. Wade will not reduce the number of abortions in this country.

Repealing irresponsible tax cuts that encourage corporate aristocracy to allocate more money to the bonus pool rather than the R&D pool will. Period.

You can't claim that you are a Christian and support an administration that outs a spy as an act of political revenge, or a president whose campaign staff are permitted--even encouraged--to distort and lie against any opponent--out of their party or within it, or an administration that claims to have Jesus on its side but cuts veterans benefits and makes it more difficult for people to file for bankruptcy while doing nothing to curtail irresponsible lending practices of financial institutions. Sorry--you just can't. Period.

You can't claim that you are a patriot and at the same time support an administration whose monumental ineptitude in issues of diplomacy and national security every day become more and more embarrassing. A vote for an administration that distances traditional allies while engaging a "coalition of the willing" that includes nations whose populations want to destroy us. If you buy into the idea that "we bailed out" Europe and Japan and sit by and watch idly while the US declines into second-tier status in the world of global business, then you are not a patriot. Period.

You can't claim to own "moral clarity" or be driven by "family values" if you belong to a party whose very existence is based on duping working people into supporting policies against their own best interests, or by supporting an administration that at its political rallies sets up "free speech zones" for dissenters among the public. All of America is supposed to be a free speech zone. An administration that responded so poorly to the natural disasters in the south last summer is not moved by "family values". If you disagree with that, then you have no claim to "moral clarity." Period.

There is no reasonable way to expect that America--now ranked 13th in internet and cell phone technology in the world (!)--is moving forward by supporting the party of Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), who has claimed that the most important issue facing America is gay marriage.

You just can't. Period.

There's this black guy in our IT area--he works on systems that are used by our back offices to process trades and loans.

We're not friends--I hardly know him--but we're friendly. If we see each other in the corridor we say hi, how ya doin?

This morning, he came round and gave me and each of my colleagues a good luck token for Chinese New Year. I was very touched by that, and told him his gift would be very much appreciated in my home, since I am married to a Korean woman (she was born in Seoul, where she spent most of her life, then moved to Japan for several years, then came to the US.)

And guess what? His wife is Korean, also, and also was born in Seoul! That coincidence got us talking for like half an hour.

So here I am, this New York Jewish guy chatting with this New York black guy about the way we spent our weekends celebrating Chinese New Year with our Korean wives. How cool is that?

There are certain behaviors I don't understand, but do justify my sentiment--expressed in another post below, that I will take dogs over people anytime.

Soo & I go the gym every morning before work, typically getting there around 6.45. While of course there are others at the gym, the locker room is, for the most part, pretty empty. You pretty much have your choice of lockers (well, some of us, like myself, don't, because we rent specific lockers.)

Why...why! do some guys, then, feel its necessary to park themselves at the row of lockers right in front of the coat stand? Common sense tells you those are the lockers that you use when every other one is taken, right? But every once in a while, some genius comes in and uses a locker in front of the coat stand. And today's genius was a snarler, so not only does he block everyone's way to their coats, but he shows he's pissed off at you for disrupting his routine in order to get to your coat.

Here's another thing I don't understand: why do some guys feel, in a rest room at the office that has three urinals together, that the best one to use is the middle one? So that if someone else comes in to pee they HAVE to stand next to you? Isn't it obvious that unless they're already in use, you should use the urinal at either the far left or far right, so if soeone else comes in they can take the one at the opposite end, and no one feels crowded while they're relieving themselves? Is that not an obvious thing to do?

Why do people feel the world is a better place when they bring their toddler on a rush hour train? I assure you, it's not. First, the kid takes a seat that someone else probably wants. Secondly, in the morning they're a loud distraction for people who need to do work before they get to work, and in the evening, they're a loud distraction for someone who perhaps would like to close his/her eyes after a bitch of a day at the office. Thirdly, people who have to travel with very young children invariably move several beats slower than everyone else, and that's not fair. It's not fair for someone rushing to make a connecting train to have to wait while som moron who just thought they'd take their kid into the city to see a show (yeah, like the two-year-old is really gonna remember seeing Beauty & The Beast) unload their stroller and all the other crap they have to take because they've got a two-year-old in tow. People: take non-peak trains if you're bringing your kid into the city. Better yet, don't bring your kid into the city, there are already too many kids here. Best yet, don't have kids, get a dog. 'Cause if you're the type of person who brings kids on rush hour trains, trust me, only your own dog will ever really like you.

More later...have a nice day.

Apparently, we've made some real good use of obscene amounts of money to rebuild Iraq.

You can't make this shit up--here's our government auditing itself:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060129/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_squandered_aid

Yup--these neocons must be very proud.