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Published on October 8th, 2009 | by Alex and Brett Harris

Hold That Thought, God…

After being eaten by a beanbag last month, our brother Josh is back with a challenge about self-control—particularly in the area of electronic media.

We don’t know about you, but his example sounded a lot like us. Can you relate? What are some areas God convicted you about as you watched?

About the Author

are the co-founders of TheRebelution.com and co-authors of Do Hard Things and Start Here. They have a passion for God and for their generation. Their personal interests include politics, filmmaking, music, and basketball. They are both graduates of Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.

  • Wow. This basically describes my life right now. Thanks for the encouragement!

  • Kay Morris

    This is really good. Must run in the family!!! 😉
    ~Kay Morris♫

  • Wow! This is so true!! Thank you for the reminder. It is so easy to lose track of time on the internet. I know the internet has definitely taken time away from me that I could have spent getting closer to God.
    God bless!!!!

  • Kay Morris

    I forgot to say, that was really funny, how he illustrated it. That reminds me of myself for sure! :)
    ~Kay Morris♫

  • ColinD

    Thats awesome! He illustrated that so well.
    And how much time do we waste on the web even when we should be there? So often I’m surfing instead of researching or writing, and then realize what I’m doing and keep doing it anyway. Horrible, but i do it all the time, fully conscious of it. I need this reminder more than I like to admit. Thanks!!

    Have thy tools ready. God will find thee work. ~Charles Kingsley

  • Gina

    Very thought provoking! Like many people, I like to jam out whenever I’m in my truck, but I often times I catch myself tuning in to the country stations or the pop. I think this is also an example, what we listen to affects what we say and think.

  • I saw this a few days ago when Joshua posted it on his facebook page.
    My mom and I both listened to it and found it so true!
    One thing I Love about Joshua’s preaching, he always makes it fun to listen to!
    Like being eaten by the beanbag that represents sin. Funny and also very true and inspiring!

    God Bless
    your sister in Christ

  • Olena

    This has been on my heart lately. At youth last night, the speaker talked about surrendering all of us to God & sacrificing things for Him because He sacrificed it all. And I got to thinking about what I could sacrifice, and I realized I spend A LOT of time on the computer. No, really. The thing is, there is soo much you could do on it! I go on facebook, check my email, watch my subscriptions on youtube, maybe watch a movie or TV show, do some online shopping, and the whole day is gone. It leaves me spiritually drained so much that the desire to read the Bible or talk to God is not really there. This is a HUGE problem. I was just at Bible School for 2 months, and I felt very close to God & I got to renew my faith with Him. I don’t want to lose that closeness and peace. So I decided to try something out. Something small but something that impacted me nonetheless. Last night, God kept nudging me to do something about all the movies I have on my computer. I have a ton of them, not to mention TV shows. When I come home from school, tired and wanting escape from my life for just a little bit, I like to turn one on. But I decided to sacrifice the movies & TV shows for a month. Just a month. And I told God, if I can’t NOT watch these for a month, I promise I will delete every one of them. So if I can’t live without them, they’re gone. Because I don’t want to be tied down to them. So that’s what I’m doing. Less time watching movies & being on the computer, more time actually doing my homework. Among other things. Just a little something I thought I’d share.

  • This is so true, less so for me because I don’t have facebook ;), but still true. He is such a great speaker, funny and easy to listen to. Plus his examples are GREAT!!!

    Nicholas K.

  • Cierra Jordan

    Well I don’t have that much internet distraction, i don’t have a facebook or twitter thingy or anything like that (my mom won’t let me :( ) But my peronal distractions are video games and just laying on my bed listening to music and stuff like that insted of doing my schoolwork. Thanks for the post! It helped!

  • Christopher Kingsley

    I totally agree with Joshua Harris. It’s so easy to be tempted nowadays with things like the media and television and cell phones. I should not let these things take over my life. Where can I find the rest of his sermon on this? Does anyone know?

  • Em

    That is a very awesome, very applicable, very convicting talk. Thank you.

    I would love to say more but I would rather not discuss it, and simply get off the computer and put it into action.

  • Betsy

    Olena, I think it’s great that you’re doing that! :)

  • Chelsy W.

    That was very encouraging. There’s something to be said for how people used to live before computers or tvs were invented. I mean, can you imagine what their lives were like? Time was often spent on mere survival and spending time with their families, churches, and Savior.

    Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that all the electronics are bad in and of themselves. Just like Josh Harris was saying, there are so many ways that God has glorified Himself using internet, tv, etc. But I agree with him that we have to be careful to use moderation.

    Our culture, being one of the richest in the world, tries to distract us and wants everyone to live leisurely. And yet, there’s a battle going on spiritually, of which we are soldiers, and we are called to be ready for the coming of our Lord.

    The Rebelution is great because we can fight together (imperfectly, of course) and with God’s grace and power, ultimately prevail against the temptations of the sin in our culture.

    your fellow soldier,

  • Rebecca

    wow. this has been so much of my life lately. i think i’m gonna set myself a time of day-maybe 1 hour a day only for technology, and spend the rest of my time doing more important things.

  • Ouch… so convicting. Ok, I’m getting off the internet right now… as soon as I post the link to this on my blog. :)

  • Wow, that is really convicting. This is something that I really struggle with, and this really has me thinking. What can I cut out that I do online that causes me to be on forever?

  • That was really inspiring! One thought that came to my mind was how lazy we (I am) are even if we are studying for school. Need a definition: dictionary.com. Need a biography on a famous person: Wikipedia is there. How do you spell that: Google it. I think it is similar to Josh’s beanbag example in that we are focused on technology it just takes hold and won’t let go. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t want to be the clerk that can’t add/subtract without a calculator. If it could be done centuries ago, we shouldn’t have any problems now. I think I’ll log off the internet, now!

    In Christ

  • Joshua K.

    That was an amazing talk : D Thank you Josh Harris!!

  • Thanks Josh! I have seen this before, but your messages are always a blessing. 😀

    The internet can definitely be addicting. I try to incorporate my time with the Lord with my time on the computer. How can one do that?, you might ask. Well I do that by having a blog and documenting my spiritual journey on my blog. It helps me put what I am learning into words and into action and also, I hope, edifies my brothers and sisters. I also don’t have a facebook, which helps with the distraction thing. If you want to check out my blog go to http://www.godzdancers.blogspot.com. :)

    Thanks again Josh!

  • Erika

    This has been a subject God has really been putting on my heart lately. I really struggle with technology and it’s an area that I can say I have low self-control in. I am very good at multi-tasking, in fact, to be perfectly honest, I was checking my facebook while listening to your brother’s sermon. It’s an area I really need to grow in and I actually have been thinking about fasting from technology (internet + TV) for some ammount of time because I want to be able to be able to go without it and not feel a need for it in my life. Thank you for posting this. This is definitely making me think more about this and give it some serious thought.

  • I think this is very true. We waste so much time thanks to all the distractions that we have in our part of the world.

    I know this is ironic, but I will post this video on my facebook page. Get some more people to think, and to react by wasting less time and seeking God more.

  • Thank you for sharing this with us Alex and Brett. I have been struggling with that very same thing of late. This really convicted me of how I spend my time and what my biggest priorities are. It has definitely challenged me to work harder. Thank you so much!

    In Christ,

  • Kristin Carr

    Wow! I can really relate there…very convicting. :) Thanks so much for posting this guys! GOD Bless

  • Courtney

    Amen. One of the ways that I’ve found very useful in controlling this is that I don’t turn on my computer until I’ve spent time with God first. On busy days, that sometimes means my computer doesn’t go on until 6 at night. If I have time for the computer (and all it’s social networking!) then I have time for God.

    Is there a recording of the whole message? I was disappointed that it stopped at just the intro!

    Does anyone else find it ironic that we’re watching and reading this on a blog – another form of social networking???? 😉 Good example of a godly use :)

  • Shay

    That is me! I needed this! thanks! I shared this with some friends too.

  • Paul

    Thanks for sharing this! This message came at a very opportune time for me. It really challenged how I think of my priorities, especially those pertaining to technology and the internet.

    Even though FB and Twitter etc can be used for witnessing to others and edifying our brothers and sisters in Christ, there’s the way bigger aspect & temptation of wasting time and just browsing aimlessly. I’ve definitely been there!

    @Courtney: Here’s the full message: http://www.covlife.org/resources/3259060-SelfControl_in_a_Wired_World
    Hope it helps! 😀

    Thanks again and God bless, Alex and Brett.

  • Paul

    By the way, I got that link from the Resource Library of Covenant Life Church: http://www.covlife.org/resources/

  • Alesha

    Wow, thanks so much for sharing this! I think almost everyone can apply that to their lives in a way. I mean, I dont have a cell phone, I don’t have DS or DSi, PSP, I don’t have a Facebook, a Twitter, or Myspace, or anything like that so I can’t spend the whole day texting or tweeting. And sometimes I don’t like the fact that my parents won’t let me have a cell phone (i really don’t need it when you really think about it) or a Facebook or a Twitter but then sometimes I’m thankful that that doesn’t have to be another thing that pulls me away from my spiritual growth.
    Sometimes it’s just the thought of all your friends have it, all your peers have it and that makes us think that we need it. You know, we need to be as good as them, we can’t let them have more than us. But we’re supposed to be laying treasures up in Heaven. We can’t take our cell phone w/ us to Heaven. We can’t take our PSP or DS w/ us to Heaven. We can’t take our mini laptop that we use to check our email and facebook and twitter and myspace w/ us to Heaven.
    We need to think about what is REALLY IMPORTANT and do it instead of doing what the world tells us is important. The world tells us what to wear, what to say, what to think, what to eat, what to drink, who to hang out w/, where we hang out, what to watch, what to listen to, what to buy, where to buy it, what we post, who we add as a friend, and who to serve…don’t you think it’s time we let God decide all that? Don’t you think it’s time to save up treasures that we get to keep for all eternity? I do.

    Thanks so much Alex and Brett for posting this! It’s a great reminder that we’re in this world but we’re really not of it and it’s time to stop being like the rest of the world and start being reflections of Jesus.

    Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!

  • Madeline Story

    I struggle with this all the time! The very reason I just watched that movie was because I was waiting for face-book to load! Even doing home-work slides off to the side while I check what my Aunt over in Wisconsin had for breakfast! It is such a sad portion of my life, (sad as in pitiful), that I am willing to change it. Thank you for the reminder!

  • Elizabeth Kelley

    Yeah….. the FIRST time I came to this post, I started listening to Josh speak again (I was there for the message.) My conscience hit me pretty hard, sitting at my computer, because I really should have been doing some of my homework that was due the next morning. And therein lies the issue.
    I don’t know that I’m on things too much, per se, but I tend to be on at the wrong times. I don’t feel like studying for biology, so I’m going to check my mail instead. And chat with this person, and this person, and check these blogs. That took 45 minutes. It was fun, but I shouldn’t have been doing what I was doing when I was doing it.

    Christopher: you can download the sermon here, or listen to it online. http://www.covlife.org/resources/3259060-SelfControl_in_a_Wired_World

  • Rae

    Too true! Wow! Thanks for posting this, it really hit home for me. I haven’t been struggling with this as much anymore, but I definately go through phases of “internet addiction”. This example is so useful in all areas of life, but especially with all the new “toys” that consume our time.

    God bless!

  • S. Rose Battles

    On one hand, this is a very relevant message- I know I’ve been filling my time with nonsense instead of doing the things I need to be doing, such as studying.

    However, after weighing what I heard, I feel I need to speak up on something- this is something that I noticed after the “beanbag” message as well. While the sermon has good advice on how to follow God, it (or at least the clip of it here) is rather short on speaking of God’s grace.

    That’s not a little thing- constantly trying to put our lives under God’s control is exhausting and overwhelming, and if some honest Christian is near broken in struggling with sin, and then comes to church and is convicted by this message that even Facebook and the other “little” things are detracting from the service they should be rendering to God, they might snap. I’ve had a taste of “church burnout” myself, and it’s not pretty. I also have an acquaintance who renounced his faith altogether, and although I haven’t talked to him much about it, I’ve gotten the impression that it was due in a large part to hearing the preaching of God’s Law all the time without hearing the Good News as well.

    Please understand, I’m not by any means trying to bash your message or saying you should downplay it- I and others need to hear it! But after listening to a message that’s so true and cuts so close to the heart, I (even I, who have been a Christian for nearly all of my life) need to be reassured that, yes, Christ died for sluggards like me, too!

  • Allison K.

    I have to admit that when I saw your description of the link I was like “Oh darn it. This is gonna be convicting in an area that I need conviction. I don’t want to watch this and have to get off facebook” Which was probably not a good sign. But he makes an excellent point. One that I need to hear over and over again… so thanks.

  • Sara

    He has a good point, although I would have liked it a lot more if he got in to WHY we do that , the destructive side of it. Anyway, he offers some good life coaching even for a non believer as myself.

    Thank you!

  • Bethany Breed

    Ouch! Soooo True (I am supposed to be doing school right now…) I am getting off right now and I am going to pray for more (much more) self-control!

  • This certainly comes at an appropriate time in my life, just recently I was thinking to myself something along the lines of “I’m a spiritual beggar right now. I’m craving the food and the water that only God can give but I would prefer to get it second hand.”

    What I mean by second hand is this. We are surrounded by “encouragement” in every conceivable form. I literally have dozens of christian websites, blogs, forums, modesty rings, and anything you could think of right at my fingertips. Right there, waiting, pressing, every day. And they all have something good to say. The Rebelution has something good to say. Almost every time I come on here the message is directly applicable to my life at that moment. But here is the danger.

    In hearing what other people have to say about God, and their relationship with God, I tend to lose my own chances for experiencing that walk myself. If I let even these good godly influences have too much priority in my life (let alone the loads of secular information) I lose sight of what is really important; letting Gods Word speak to me personally, Hearing the Holy Spirit and walking with Him day by day. I want to be holding Jesus hand, not the guy holding Jesus hand. (Or the guy holding the guy holding Jesus’ hand as the case may be)

    So my spiritual apathy grows in this safe little bubble where I “talk” the lingo, feel safe and secure, (after all – I have had spiritual “highs” before, they will come again) and end up living in light of past victories. Just because I “once” had a great relationship with God doesn’t mean its going to stay that way without constant work. Its hard to get down on your knees every night and pour out your heart to God. It hard to study the Word for yourself, instead of reading someone else’s study. And the enemy knows it. I think an overload of information and availability is one of his biggest tools in this generation. We end up exchanging our one and only, unique, precious, relationship with the King of kings for someone else’s regurgitated experience. We can’t build on the other guys foundation. It doesn’t work that way.

    The sad thing is; we often don’t even realize what we are missing. So thank you for reminding me once again of where my priorities lie. I’m so thankful for the faithful preaching of Gods Word in these challenging times. I need all the help I can get!

    In Christ,

    Lauren Ashley

  • Leeland

    Wow. Funny, I was about to go into some serious procrastinating before I watched this. Another wonderful sign God has blessed me with; Get your work done. Now. Ha ha! Thanks guys.

    God Bless,

  • As the culture continues to change and we become more dependant on the “wired” world of technology, I think all of us will have to show some self-control in this area.

  • Well I didn’t watch the video, because about three weeks ago, I made a commitment to God: no internet media (i.e. videos) for a month. It has been amazing how much God has blessed me as I have “rediscovered” Him and my love for His Word. I believe I have also learned much about how little I really need such time-wasters. Not all internet media is bad, of course–it just must be in moderation. I will certainly be back in a week to watch what looks like an awesome clip from your brother!

  • thanks for sharing this:)
    this is pretty great.
    P.S I’m from Taiwan.

  • Amy

    I know that this is off topic but, Alex and Brett, thank you so much for the doing the hard thing of starting the Rebelution blog. It’s been such a blessing, and such a challenge.

  • Tim

    I’m a horrible procrastinator and video games, movies, internet, and music only helps the problem! This is something I will definitely be working on!

  • Sharmane

    My mom has limited my internet (although sometimes I wish she wouldn’t) and I am really thankful because it has really protected and it has, also, made me not dependent on the internet. Sometimes we can forget what a blessing parents can be but we need to really appreciate them and thank God for them.

  • Really, really good message. One that definitely needs to be talked about this day and age. Little things piled together can take a long time to sort through and before you know it, you wasted so much time. Our focus must be completely upon God, and that is a message we must never stop preaching. Kudos to your brother.

    Your fellow outcast,

  • Oh yes, this is so true. Just as I was watching this video I realized that today I have gone through just such a scenario as Josh talked about. Minus the Princess Bride quiz. This is definitely an area I can work on.

  • WOW i loved that! I do it all the time I get to doing my own thing and totally get sidetracked. I kinda just thought how this could go along with a “hard thing”
    Alex and Brett are always telling us to do hard things. Josh really just hit us with the BIGGEST hard thing to do. The Harris family sure does know how to work together.

  • Ginny

    Wow!! That was really good! By the way, my dad likes to quote that verse to me… I don’t really know why.

  • I really enjoy looking at the posts and all the other things you write here! Keep up the good work!
    -Laura :-)

  • Danielle F

    This is amazing Josh! I love the way you get the message across! I was exactly where you are at the beginning of the year. I had Twitter, Facebook, a blog, and email… I was spending WAYYY to much time on them. So, by my parents orders, I deleted all of them except my e-mail. It was very hard for me to do at first, but now I am rather glad I did it. I will admit, I do miss my facebook. Thanks for posting this!
    Danielle :)

  • cool were reading your book its awesome

  • Storm

    Dear Harris brothers and others,

    I have been very fortunate that I have been isolated from those things which you have mentioned. I live in the middle of nowhere with internet that I didn’t really use until I heard about your website. I am thankful that God has put me here and I know that He has put me here for a reason that I have yet to learn. I know that He has put the rest of you out in the confusion of the world for a different reason than He put me here and, I will not hide my feelings, I pity and admire you at the same time. I pity you for the reason that you have to be in that confusion, but I admire you for the reason that you are ABLE to stand in that confusion and be a light, for God, to the fallen world.

    I pray for you, not out of pity, but for your encouragement.

    Thank you,
    your brother in Christ,

  • Alison

    This is so relevant to what I’ve been goign through. At church this week my youth pastor was tlaking about idols and we got on the subject of cell phones. After further discussion, he challenged those who were willing to, to not text for a month. I don’t have a cell phone, but realized (or at least I’m starting to) how much of my time has been consumed with electronics.

  • I never had a problem with spending too much time on the internet until I read Do Hard Things. 😉 Then I checked out the website/blog, joined the forum, and met and started e-mailing like minded rebelutionaries! But after a while God started to convict me and I’ve left several other forums, stopped visiting so many blogs, and slowed my e-mails to friends. It has definetely not been easy as I love to talk and interact with poeple, but it’s something I realized I let get in the way of my spiritual and academic life. Praise God, things are now changing!

    Thanks for the video Josh; you’re hilarious! And thanks for posting this Brett and Alex!

    Sarah :)

  • This is SO HUGE!! If young people can learn to practice self control and self discipline, it can change their lives. At Master’s Commission, we push this hard. You’ve got to make space for God each day if you want Him to be the center of your life. Keep up the good work guys!!

  • Lydia

    hey! love this blog. I love the videos of your brother, I think it’s the first sermon I have watched on the internet in it’s entirity (sp). He makes it interesting and not just dull! And you guys are exactly like him only with hair! Keep up the good work! Also, Brio mag has kinda come back! It’s Susiemagazine.com, so could you let all the teen girls on this site know? I was so excited it came back! I don’t know about breakaway though. sorry dudes! anywho, loved this blog entry!

  • It is really easy to get distracted on the internet, with games, music, my iPod etc. That was definitely a good reminder.

  • Great video….much needed!

    We’re blessed to be able to watch this!

    God’s blessings and peace to you!

  • Madeline

    Heh heh…

    That…hits…close…to home…..

  • Meridian

    Wow. I’ve got to share this one! It is so true.

  • Liz Maly

    “Popular daytime television programs illustrate this point in a powerful way. The format is always the same: you show as much garbage as you can during the program and then take the last few seconds to issue some moral exhortations. When you think about it, the logic behind this is truly incredible. How can any thinking human being believe that a one minute, haphazard, second-rate moralizing statement can ameliorate the effects of a full hour of unmitigated moral filth?”
    -J.M. Njoroge associate apologist at RZIM

    I just read this quote from Ravi Zacharias’ daily newsletters letter and I was so convicted!! I have watched Law and Order:SVU since middle school and always justified watching it because there was a hint of moral truth or justice at the end. This relates to your brother’s sermon in the fact that I don’t NEED to watch that show or any other crime related fictional series. I could be doing better things like praying or doing some sort of ministering to a friend. Yet, so many times I have wasted my time on the Law and Order: SVU marathons. I have been edified.Now it’s time to use self control. Thank you so much for posting that video.

  • Deborah

    Um…I was literally just doing everything Josh was describing! Not cool!! I’m going to go write that essay I needed to work on NOW. :) Thanks for that!

  • Just so you know, I recently discovered (much to my dismay) that Politically Incorrect on your blogroll has been discontinued.

  • Oneway purpose is also a dead link

  • legal redux has been discontinued as well

  • Jamie Kiley and How Great is his faithfulness are also dead links

  • God Writing is another dead link on your blogroll. I was going through all the links and thought I’d mention which ones are deleted or discontinued.

  • Victoria Belliard

    I needed to hear this! I always waste alot of time on the computer playing with my cat 😉 all these ” little” things really add up in your day.

    Thanks for posting this

  • jeanne

    wow so true! ive gotta get off the computer now!

  • Esmerelda Gallegos

    Oh My Goodness! I have been laying off chores and homework and even God by doing things like watching T.V. and just sitting around and spacing out. I hope to improve more on my self control, and prioritize things the way they should be.

  • Elizabeth B.

    Wow. Yes I have been convicted of the same things Joshua mentioned in his video. I am homeschooled, and coming into my 5th and last year of high school; I am struggling with staying on top of my school work. In some ways I am improving, but if I come upon a math problem I don’t like, or get stuck while writing a speech, it’s off to facebook I go and waste an hour or two. This reminds me I need to get off the internet until my work is done.
    one thing that wasn’t mentioned: how do you work on improving your self control?

  • Meredith

    Wow. I’ve been dealing with this a lot lately. Great choice for the blog, guys. I really appreciated it.

  • Jason

    Wow! That caught me distracted online!

  • Sarah Beth

    Great sermon. Hitting the truth right on the head must run in your family.
    By the way, I liked the article about you guys on PHC’s website.

  • Lindsay

    This sermon made me want to do something about my lack of self-control! Thanks for posting it guys!

  • Rebekah J.

    What an incredible message!!! Thank you so much for sharing it – I really needed to hear that.

  • Peter Boisselle

    That sounds like… ME!

  • Abby Geoghan

    Wow, totally convicting! Is the rest of his sermon posted somewhere? Thanks!!

  • Renee

    Josh pinned down what I had struggled with personally for a long time. I have spent a lot of my time on the internet (especially in the evenings) most of it has been uplifting, but it still is time spent where I probably could have been doing more constructive things.

    So, after God put this on my heart, I made several changes in my life and I put standards on myself. First, I only check my email about twice a day. And I sit down once a day after everything else on my schedule is done and respond to emails. What I used to do was think throughout the day “oh, I have to respond to that email” and end up getting totally distracted. So, set a specific time that you are going to check email, look at facebook or check out the Christian blog you like.

    Secondly, I have taken “fasting” periods from my computer. I actually went on one for two days this week, and it was refreshing. It also was an opportunity for God to speak to me.

    And lastly, I started a journal of goals, prayer requests and mission statements for myself. One of my goals for this semester of school is to limit my evening computer time to two (maybe three) evenings a week. This time will be filled doing more productive things.

    Finally, I got together with people I know who also had serious time busters in our lives. I have one friend who wastes a lot of time watching T.V. We were talking one day about our “time busters” and we decided to keep each other accountable on how much time we spent intaking media. This has helped me tremendously!

    Growing up and taking control of my life is a huge part of growing into an adult. I realize that as a young adult, I cannot let these forces in my life control me if I will continue to fight the good fight. Thank you for this reminder, and it has encouraged me to try even harder.

  • Marylynn

    Man, this is so true. I definitely need to work on self-control in the area of wasting time, especially online. I make lots of excuses, and some of them are even good, but the important thing is to focus on God, instead of on *fill in the blank*…
    It’s a little ironic, really, because I’ve been on the web looking for different ways to make a difference as a teen in my own hometown, which (of course) reminded me of your site. So, I’ve been doing good things-looking at Loose Change to Loosen Change, and a program in my town to help homeless teenagers, and Compassion International… and not getting my homework done, and not concentrating on the things I am supposed to be getting done during this time.
    So, I guess the moral for me goes back to something that has been my theme for a while – the tyranny of the urgent. This is a concept my father taught me (like a gargantuan number of the important concepts in my life) that basically means “Do the important things first, and then the ‘urgent’ things.” So many things are urgent, and I have to get them done RIGHT NOW… at the cost of getting the important things done.

    And now that I’ve rambled for a while, semi-hypocritcally, I’ll get off the computer and go do the work that I’m supposed to be doing.
    Thanks again for getting me back on track. :)

  • Hayley Drew

    Awesome. I watch too much TV. Not a lot of different shows; I’m pretty good about staying away from all the junk on. But I watch a lot of old movies on TCM, sports, and Fox News. And then a few shows that I do like that are clean. So yeah…TV is a problem for me.

    Thanks for that post! Great reminder!

  • Iris

    Yes, that definitely sounds like me. I spend at least 2 hours a day on websites like this one, reading edifying articles, going from one interesting looking link to another, when I should really be studying. (imagine how much time I would waste on the net if I was on Facebook??) And, I have known for a while that it was a bad habit, but it didn’t really hit me till now that it was an area of sin (such an ugly word, no) in my life, like my “inability” to keep my room tidy. What you and I would call “a bad habit” is usually sin.

  • I am so convicted after reading this, because I got here to your site just that same way! A little of this and a little of that and I ended up here. Glad I did today to hear this message, but now I have work to do.
    well, I will quickly retweet this first! : )

  • Justin Howard

    WOW! That was so true of the world we live in today. I do this all the time with facebook. I tell myself that I am just going to check my mail and then I will make click after click and boom I will have been there for thirty minutes to a hour. But what if we take the time we spend on facebook and twitter and spend that time on here. Getting ideas on how to live your life better and make an impact in your community.

  • Sophie LaFleur

    Wow! Encouraging! I don’t have facebook or any of that stuff YET, but my parents are considering it, plus we still have dial up which obviously inhibits alot…:) But I see that all the time and definitely am prone to the same thing. Praise the Lord for those who speak on such current issues so honestly and humorously! Bless you Harris family, whom God has so blessed with the gift of discernment and communication!

  • Em C.

    Wow how convicting. Omigosh someone just tweeted me…interesting link….brb. JUST KIDDING! Seriously, this is a major issue in my life. When I should be doing school, I often find myself wandering around the internet, and often times I’m looking at “good stuff.” Here’s an idea–and you guys can talk to me about this–but maybe if I set aside a small block of time where I can be surfing the web each day and keep myself strictly to that time it will go a bit better. Pray for me in this! :)

  • I was just now surfing around when I stumbled on this video. God really used it to reminded me how mindless surfing can often take me to dangerous places, and even when it doesn’t I’m still building a time-wasting habit. Thanks for this video!

  • jasmine

    Dear Alex and Brett,
    i try very hard as a christian to do right and i am on my way to becoming a doctor. I would love an answer to my question i am about to ask ,but if not i will just wait till God wants me to know. Why does mankind have to suffer? i was cursed with a horrible past when i was 7 by a human being and i wish to know why i must suffer with all that has gone wrong when i was that young. If God cared about me then why did he allow that to happen? I shake as i write this but only because i am afraid to know what that truth is. I know you do not know me but please pray for me. Thank you,

  • Funny, I was on a total rabbit trail when I saw this. Got me back to work anyway.

    What a great, eye-opening sermon. Thank you.

  • I am really impressed with your writing skills as neatly as with the format on your weblog. Is this a paid topic or did you customize it yourself? Either way stay up the nice quality writing, it?s rare to look a great weblog like this one today..

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  • OK! You’ve got my attention now. Great article. Now to see what happened in the quest to find the rest of the car…

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Friday, January 12, 2018

Arcana Wildcraft: Devilish, A Terrible Enchantment and Quelle Horreau

Quelle Horreur- Notes: Black musk, French tobacco, sweet ale, gardenia, sage and orris root. Only available as a 3ml as a gift with purchase.
Moon white gardenia blooming under a tarry black orris night is the mirage that rises from the vial when inhaled. Graced on the skin, a leather pouch of dark sticky tobacco leaves rests on a mossy stone bench in a neglected French Quarter garden. Herbs, leggy and spindly, reseed themselves, propagating under silver strands of Spanish moss, chandeliers hanging from oak trees lit with fireflies. Creamy gardenias open up their tender hidden hearts to the gibbous moon. Tarry orris and black musk dwell in the shadowy corners and underbrush of the ancient garden where goblins and spites rustle in their warrens. An inky, almost creosote note comes from those mystical burrows. What happened to the soul who left behind the leather pouch?

What is quelle horreur is that it isn't available in a full sized bottle for sale. I would buy it up lighting fast. This is one dark and magical southern gardenia and tobacco scent. It smells like an Anne Rice novel.

Devilish- Notes: Shaking off vanilla's reputation for namby pambyness, this infernally dark and smoky fragrance comes complete with licks of fire and sulfurous wafts of brimstone.
The fumes from the bottle emit the scent of sumptuous vanilla smoke with a lick of honey fire. Crackling wet on the skin, this is the Devil's wedding cake, smeared with buttercream glowing with coals and flame. Tongues of fire licking at vanilla bean ice cream. This is what Calcifer the mischievous fire demon who dwells in Howl's moving castle smells like. More brimstone than campfire with a touch of that velvety incense that brings to mind Holy Terror. In the drydown the vanilla takes on a tonka bean richness that mimics whiskered vanilla woods. Something purring and sweet, yet naughty.

A Terrible Enchantment- Notes: The scent of a powerful curse created in the dark forest, with oudh, opium smoke, fir, pine, cypress and juniper.
From the glass, blackest oudh and viscid opium burn in the dip of a slipware shard in an old growth forest of immortal trees that know no beginning nor ending. Brushed onto the flesh, fir and juniper boughs weave a camphorous wreath of scent that wraps around the limbs. As it dries, the base smells of dark and furred guaiacwood slivers and sticky smoky opium. Velvety and haunting. Slightly ominous. I adore it.

Initially when I grouped these together for a photoshoot and review feature, I thought it was pretty random. But after testing and wearing and experiencing these scents I can see the common thread of moody darkness that unites them all. These are three very different but very noir perfume oils that will delight those looking for something a bit darker.

  1. Oh wow, these sound so fabulous and up my alley!! Your words are such a treat, to imagine how these scents smell and wear. Just beautiful. :)

    1. You do like dark scents don't you?? I do too. I think you would enjoy these. I have already bought a back up of Quelle Horreur since it was only a 3ml. It should be here soon. Thank you for reading and taking the time to talk with me about it. I know the perfume reviews can be a tad verbose but hey... I feel what I feel. :-) Hope you had a nice weekend and a good week ahead!

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Rich Realty Rochester NY

Search the Rochester Area MLS

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New Listing - Home in Canandaigua-Town

00 North Rd has been listed for $244,000 - Beautiful lot for your new home. this is one of many plans. Two story, ranches or your own desi...more about this property

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text:
Corrections officers save inmate’s life

  • Written by  Rachel Cain, courtesy photo
  • Published in Local
  • Read 1759 times
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Corrections officers 03 courtesy of Sgt. E. Williams Prince Georges Department of CorrectionsUPPER MARLBORO - “He was lifeless. He had no pulse,” Master Cpl. John Nicholson said of an inmate who attempted suicide at the county detention center.

Nicholson is one of eight Prince George’s Department of Corrections officers who helped resuscitate this inmate, who is now making a full recovery under hospital supervision.
On Dec. 29, Prince George’s County Assistant Fire Chief for EMS Brian Frankel, Assistant Fire Chief Tony Hughes and an EMS supervisor recognized these officers during the detention center’s regular morning roll call.
Nicholson, Cpl. Samuel Aguocha, Cpl. Jean Nguep, Sgt. Kurt Moore, Cpl. Earl Jones, Cpl. Matthew Eckard, Cpl. Daniel Morgan and Cpl. Horace Stanback received the Fire Chief’s Award and challenge coins. The Fire Department hands out the challenge coins to their service members who save someone’s life.
“We thought they were very deserving of them,” Frankel said.
Yolonda Smedley, assistant chief of human resources at the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections, said this is the first time in at least five years that another agency has come to the facility to recognize corrections department officers.
The lifesaving action took place on Dec. 6, as the 7 a.m. shift was finishing up their routine checks of each cell. They found one inmate hanging from a light fixture from his bed sheets.
Housing officers Aguocha and Nguep called the signal 89-H, which designates a hanging.
The two officers got him down from the light fixture and discovered he did not have a pulse. They immediately began Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
The six-member emergency response team then arrived and began performing CPR in shifts.
For more than 11 minutes.
“We were breathing hard, we were tired,” Nicholson said.
Paramedics with the Fire Department came and then hooked up a cardiac monitor to the man.
“Before you know it, they were giving us high-fives, saying, ‘this guy has a pulse,’” Nicholson said. “We were very happy and satisfied...We don’t want anyone to die around here. Our job is to protect and provide and to promote, and we take that very seriously.”
Smedley said during 2017, at least one person died by suicide in the detention center.
“With us having 15,000 to 20,000 inmates in and out of our facility throughout the year, people do attempt suicide,” she said. “So it is something that every team member who works at the jail is trained to recognize the symptoms of and to foil those attempts hopefully.”
Nicholson said these symptoms might include when someone stops eating or has personality shifts.
 “Normally when we save someone from a suicide attempt, although we call 911 and take them to the hospital for observation, we don’t have to bring them back. We usually catch them before they passed out or whatever, so normally we don’t have to bring them back,”
 Smedley said. “This individual we had to bring back. He didn’t have a pulse.”
Frankel said the incident underscores the importance of CPR.
“CPR really does save lives,” he said.
The inmate has been sent to a hospital for psychological evaluation. He does not know the identities of the officers who helped resuscitate him.
About a week after the incident, Nicholson escorted the inmate through the hallway on his way to court, and the two joked together.
“It was a sense of enjoyment,” Nicholson said. “To bring a life back (of) someone that we thought was gone...and a week and a half later, to be walking him through the hallways, is amazing.”

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The Shoe Snob Blog

November 16, 2013

Written by , Posted in News, Patina Artists

Edward Green Hove – A Great Single Monk!

2013-11-16 09.39.17

I hope that you guys can appreciate me posting on my trip as I am getting so frustrated using WordPress on my Samsung tablet. It’s taken me about 20 minutes just to get this far!! Tablets suck for doing blogs and uploading images!!! Urghhhhhh!! Okay enough venting…..

So I have recently been seeing this lovely brogued single monk by Edward Green popping up all over the internet. I have always liked this model as it really differentiates itself from the rest of the monks out there that all seem to look relatively alike. But EG definitely made sure that with this one, they were separating themselves from the pack and even more impressive is all the shades of blue/grey that have sprouting up. Of course the top one is an MTO made by one daring client of Leffot in NYC. That guy seems to think just like me as grey and blue together are as about as good as it gets for me….actually just commissioned a patina from Alexander the Great in those two colors….but thats another story to come. At the bottom end of the post, and even more impressive (not for the colors but more for the fact that it is RTW) is this midnight version that is currently being offered by Leather Soul in Hawaii. Always good to see a shop take a chance with something a bit more daring and unique. I only hope that they do well with it, but I am sure that it won’t be a problem with how lovely they are!

Anyway, enjoying my time here in Toronto having had a good day yesterday meeting many of my supporters. I do thank all those that managed to come out and support the brand and I look forward to meeting those that able to come today. Just remember that I know that without all of you none of this would have been posible for me, so I cant express enough how appreciative I am of all of your support, whether or not you buy my shoes or simply read the blog. It all means a lot!

I hope that everyone has a nice weekend!

Justin, “The Shoe Snob”

Edward Green Hove for Leather Soul

Edward Green Hove for Leather Soul

Edward Green Hove for Leather Soul

Edward Green Hove for Leather Soul

  • jazzmenco

    Absolutely gorgeous, I would snap those up in half a second!

  • RogerP

    I would like to stand and applaud the gentleman who commissioned the stunning blue / grey Hove. Outstanding, sir.

    Justin, it was a pleasure meeting you and looking over your impressive and diverse offerings. I anxiously await my first pair of yours on the new chiseled last.

    Thanks for all that you do in sharing your knowledge and enthusiastic appreciation of the craft.

    • TheShoeSnob

      Dear Roger, even though this is a month late, I must say that it was a pleasure meeting you too my friend!! Thanks as always for all of your support and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

      • RogerP

        Thank you Justin – and all the very best to you and yours!

  • a

    You should refund your samsung & get an iPad

    • TheShoeSnob

      can’t…was a gift

  • Lord Vincent

    Im from South Africa- Soweto My name is vincent i like your blog learnt to much about shose on your blog n it really helped me to reall take care of my shoes and what good shoes to buy.

    • TheShoeSnob

      glad to hear it Vincent, thanks for sharing!


text:
Book Review: Immigration Wars - Jeb Bush, Clint Bolick, and the Elitist Libertarian Opposition to Sane Immigration Policy

By Stuart H. Hurlbert
Volume 26, Number 1 (Fall 2015)
Issue theme: "The unmaking of America? The 1965 Immigration Act after 50 years."

Book review:

Immigration Wars
Forging an American Solution
Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick
New York: Threshold Editions, 2013
274 pages, $27.00

Two years ago, Jeb Bush and Clint Bolick published Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution, a book that assumes special relevance now that Bush is a Republican candidate for president in the 2016 election. Bush previously served as co-chairman of a Council on Foreign Relations 19-member task force, which published a white paper in 2009 titled U.S. Immigration Policy. It anticipated most of the key ideas in this book.

Bush is to be commended for having had the courage to detail his position on the many different aspects of the immigration issue. No issue is so critical to the economic, social, and environmental future of the U.S. Yet rarely do we get from any political candidates, let alone those for the presidency, much more than vague platitudes. The mainline media on both the left and the right rarely challenge their evasiveness. And the media and the politicians often treat as taboo the most critical topics. During the 2012 presidential campaign, for example, how many debate moderators, talk show hosts, or television pundits did we hear asking candidates whether they thought total annual legal immigration should be increased or decreased, and, if one or the other, by how much?

The following essay analyzes Immigration Wars for both its style and substance. It is written from the point of view of a lifelong political independent and ecologist with particular concerns about the impacts of immigration-driven population growth on environmental quality, wildlife, natural ecosystems, and future availability of resources for the U.S. economy.

Bush’s preface

Separate prefaces by the authors constitute the first 14 pages of the book and give much insight into “where they are coming from.”

Bush talks family, describing falling in love with a pretty young Mexican girl, Columba Garnica de Gallo, getting married, becoming “bicultural and bilingual,” and eventually ending up in Miami and becoming governor of Florida. He acknowledges “the tragedy our immigration system had become,” and the many negative impacts of that system in his own Miami Dade County, including the fact that the majority of county residents are foreign-born and that its crime rate is very high. He praises his father’s (President G.H.W. Bush) administration for the 287(g) Cross Designation Program that allowed—until President Obama disallowed—strong cooperation of local and state law enforcement with the Border Patrol and other federal law enforcement officials. He does not acknowledge his own brother’s (President G.W. Bush) gross mishandling of immigration policy and enforcement.

With respect to the economy, Bush makes clear his beliefs on this issue: (1) We must import cheap foreign labor forever and in industrial quantities. (2) “Comprehensive immigration reform” legislation is the way to go, despite the recent legislative shipwrecks occasioned by the “comprehensive” bills of 2006, 2007, and 2013, not to mention the negative consequences of “comprehensive” bills actually passed in 1965 and 1986. (3) “Reform” requires large increases in legal immigration and in the rate of U.S. population growth.

In his own words,

Florida’s three largest industries—hospitality, construction, and agriculture—could not endure without immigrant workers. The 80 million visitors per year, the $8.26 billion of agriculture produced, and the construction business—Florida is historically one of the top home-building states in the country—will all be impacted, unless we achieve comprehensive immigration reform.

Lord help us if we stop bulldozing the landscape to keep the construction industry in high gear, providing housing and shopping centers for tens of millions of new immigrants and their progeny far into the future.

Bolick’s preface

Clint Bolick currently is vice president for litigation at the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix, Arizona, and a research fellow with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He describes growing up as a “white bread” Polish-Italian kid in New Jersey who got his first multicultural creds via immersion in the family life of his older brother’s “beautiful and even exotic” Filipino-American wife in San Francisco. As a convenience store clerk while working for his law degree at the University of California in Davis, Bolick interacted with Mexican migrant farm workers. He says his “views on immigration were imprinted indelibly from that experience.”

On moving to Arizona, Bolick was puzzled by “Arizona’s widespread hostility toward Mexican immigration, not just illegal but legal as well.” He notes that “the Arizona GOP was so strident on the issue [of illegal immigration] that it led me to leave the Republican Party and become an independent nearly a decade ago.” He claims Arizona “has earned the unfortunate reputation of being decidedly inhospitable to immigrants.” It doesn’t just have that reputation, it “earned” it, he says.

Bolick’s puzzlement about antagonism toward Mexican legal immigrants had and has no excuse. Legal Mexican-American residents, citizen and non-citizen alike, have often been the strongest and most vocal advocates in Arizona for illegal immigration and more mass amnesties. The antagonism they confront results from their anti-law enforcement political positions, and from the loud, occasionally racism-tinged voice in which some Mexican and Mexican-American activists announce these positions, in legislatures, in the street, and in the media. These chauvinists are a minority in the Mexican-American community, but, unfortunately, have an outsized influence on how the entire Mexican-American community is perceived by those not part of it.

Bolick says he doesn’t want “to minimize the legitimate concerns raised by many [mass] immigration critics.” Yet his list of such concerns is oblivious to what some of the largest of those concerns are. Most importantly, what will be the negative economic and environmental consequences of never-ending U.S. population growth, driven, not by our current unsustainably high immigration rates, but by the much higher ones championed by every politician who voted for the comprehensive immigration expansion bills of 2006, 2007, and 2013?

The subtitle of this essay signals the tone-deafness of both Bolick and Bush on that question. They know there will be no net negative economic or environmental consequences of increased levels of immigration. They know that with freer markets, reduced governmental regulations, freer international movement of labor, and advancing technology, the U.S. population can grow forever, and all will be good. This is their religion and Julian Simon is their prophet. It is an extreme libertarian view of reality, though neither author admits to being libertarian. The widespread acceptance of such views within the Republican Party contributes strongly to that party’s image as being anti-science and anti-environment.

Now to the body of the book. Though jointly authored, I will sometimes reference it by saying “Bush’s opinion” or something of that sort. It is his status as a presidential candidate that is of primary interest at the moment. Of course, if Bush is elected Bolick could well end up as head of the Department of Justice or of Homeland Security! But we must assume that every statement in the book has Bush’s own firm seal of approval.

A proposal for immigration reform

A first chapter of 61 pages with this title lays out The Plan, and later chapters mostly provide more detailed rationale for it and background information. The specific policy changes advocated by Bush are based on what he considers should be the objectives of immigration policy and on certain assumptions he makes. Let’s list these. If they don’t make sense or accord with reality, many of the policy changes he desires are not likely to make sense either.

Objectives and assumptions

1. Increased immigration can provide “a remedy for an inadequate K-12 educational system” (p. 4). Until that system is improved, we should be “attracting and welcoming large numbers of students and professionals from foreign countries, if we are to have any hope of maintaining American prosperity in the world economy” (p. 90).

2. Those favoring increased immigration levels are reasonably labeled the political “left” and those favoring decreased levels are reasonably labeled the political “right” (pp. 6-7).

3. There is potential for a “bipartisan consensus” on immigration policy (pp. 5-6)—and such should be sufficient despite the fact that a plurality (ca. 40 percent) of the electorate finds neither major party worthy of its loyalty.

4. Individuals who favor the halting of mass amnesties and the lowering of legal immigration quotas are “extreme elements” and “demagogues” and have been demanding the “deportation of all illegal immigrants” (pp. 6-8).

5. Most “Americans support a process by which illegal immigrants can obtain lawful status, so long as they learn to speak English, pass background checks, and pay restitution” (p. 8).

6. The great majority of “Americans favor reducing the number [of immigrants admitted each year] or keeping it the same” (p. 10).

7. “Left to its own devices and without immigration, America’s population is shrinking and aging. We need more immigrants to stem that debilitating demographic tide” (p. 10). We need to keep increasing the size of our workforce and population (p. 73).

8. “[W]e cannot sustain a generous social welfare program…if we do not increase the numbers of productive, contributing participants in our work force”…We can reduce the nation’s dependency ratio if we “increase the number of immigrant workers” (pp. 75, 77).

9. Only “comprehensive reform” will work because the “various parts of the immigration puzzle are interrelated” and because “bipartisan consensus” will not be achievable by dealing transparently with one policy issue at a time (pp. 12-13), as wiser members of the Republican party are attempting to do at the moment (April 2015).

10. “[W]e are locked in a stiff global competition for immigrants. … We are not bringing in highly skilled immigrants in sufficient numbers to meet our needs and to maximize future American prosperity” (pp. 17-18).

11. “The total number of family reunification immigrants is far greater than the numbers forecast by proponents of the current immigration law. When parents and siblings are given immigration preference, their entry in turn creates an entitlement to vast numbers of other extended family members to gain preference as well—a phenomenon called ‘chain immigration’.” (p. 20).

12. The fiscal and social costs of illegal immigration and of poor legal immigrants are high and fall especially on state and local governments and their taxpayers (pp. 33-35, 106-108).

13.“The continuing desire among Mexicans and other Latin Americans to emigrate to the U.S. is a blessing” because they have larger families and “are necessary to revitalize our nation’s aging lifeblood…” (p. 86).

14. “[I]t is so important not to reward those who have entered our nation unlawfully. … [C]omprehensive reform proposals that include anything resembling amnesty provoke widespread skepticism and opposition” (p. 108).

15. “There is one reason above all others that we have millions of illegal immigrants in our country: because under our current immigration system, there is no lawful avenue for them to enter the country.… If we do not provide a lawful mechanism for immigration for such people, we can expect a continued flow of illegal immigration during good economic times, no matter how many fences we build or how many obstacles we put in their path” (pp. 114-115).

Proposed policies

From the above, Bush and Bolick deduce and recommend the following policies:

A. “[I]mmigration and naturalization functions… [should] be placed either in a stand-alone agency or within an existing department (such as the Department of Commerce) whose mission is consistent with a national policy of promoting immigration” (p. 16).

B. Reduce chain immigration by “limiting guaranteed admission to spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens” and the “spouses and unmarried minor children of legal permanent residents” and by denying guaranteed immigration to the children and parents of such citizens and legal permanent residents (p. 21).

C. Eliminate the “diversity lottery,” which admits 55,000 immigrants per year with no regard to their family connections, education level or job skills (p. 23).

D. Foreign students “who obtain advanced degrees [in the U.S.] in STEM fields—science technology, engineering, and mathematics—should automatically be entitled to work visas if they obtain jobs in their fields following graduation.… [W]orkers in especially important occupations requiring specialized skills should be given green cards after a specified time…” (p. 26).

E. “Student visas should be plentiful and readily accessible, not only for the talent that many foreign students bring as possible future Americans, but for the goodwill toward America they engender if they return to their native countries” (p. 27).

F. Increase the number of temporary visas for foreigners who are willing to invest at least “$500,000 in distressed areas” or who “attract $250,000 in capital from American investors.” If they create some minimum number of new jobs and/or exceed “$1 million in revenues or new capital,” they should be given permanent residency. There should be no limit on the number of such visas given. (pp. 26-27).

G. “Work-based visas [need to be] vastly expanded beyond current numbers…” (p. 23). Establish “a guest worker program linked to market demand. …. The temporary guest-worker visa should be renewable on an annual basis so long as the work relationship continues. … [A]fter five years of working pursuant to renewable temporary work visas, guest workers should be entitled to green cards if they have obeyed the law and paid taxes. … [N]umbers for worker-based visas should be automatically adjusted…on an annual basis to reflect changes in market needs” (pp. 27-29). “[O]ur immigration policy [should be] freed from the shackles of predetermined visa quotas and allowed to respond to economic demand… [T]he only sure way to secure our borders is to create an immigration policy that is fair and predictable, and allows sufficient opportunities for lawful immigration” (pp. 116-117).

H. “[E]xisting employer sanctions laws should be aggressively enforced. … The immigration agency should be empowered to use whatever technology it deems appropriate to maximize adherence to the law, such as E-verify… That system has the potential to be improved sufficiently that it could be made mandatory” (pp. 30).

I. “For all forms of immigration, the current restrictions on government benefits should remain in effect. Indeed…we believe states should be given greater latitude in setting rules for government benefits. … [I]n our view, it would not only greatly improve immigration policy, but also greatly increase the odds for broader political buy-in for positive comprehensive immigration reform … Congress should confer express authority to states to determine which services should be provided to immigrants, both illegal and those who have not yet acquired permanent legal residency or citizenship, and under what terms and services they may receive those services. … [This should be] a core component of comprehensive immigration reform…” (pp. 30-35, 40).

J. “Federal authorities should be obligated to initiate and prosecute deportation proceedings against any noncitizen immigrant, whether that person is here illegally or on a temporary visa, who has committed any violent crime, a serious property crime, or a serious crime involving fraud” (p. 37).

K. “[S]tates should be allowed to protect the integrity of the franchise with voter identification laws, which are supported by a large minority of Americans, including Hispanics. So long as states make it simple for citizens to obtain such forms of identification, they should have the latitude to require such identifications for voting or to secure welfare benefits” (pp. 38-39).

L. “We believe that under our Constitution, children born within the boundaries of the United States are citizens, so we do not address that issue, because that status can only be changed by constitutional amendment.” In other words, Bush would not attempt to change this flawed interpretation of the Constitution (p. 41).

M. “We propose a path to permanent legal resident status for those who entered our country illegally as adults and who have committed no additional crimes of significance. The first step in obtaining that status would be to plead guilty to having committed the crime of illegal entry, and to receive an appropriate punishment consisting of fines and/or community service. … [P]ermanent residency in this context, however, should not lead to citizenship.” (p. 43)

N. “[W]e propose that those who were brought illegally into the United States under the age of eighteen, who have resided in the United States for at least five years, and who have committed no significant crimes also should be entitled to permanent legal residency [and ultimately citizenship], without having to plead guilty to a crime or suffer legal consequences” (p. 46).

O. “We need to swiftly deport individuals who overstay their visas rather than allowing them to stay indefinitely or to pursue multiple appeals” (p. 49).

P. “We would give federal authorities broad discretion to meet the border security challenge with the most cost-effective combination of real and virtual fencing, aerial surveillance, and increased Border Security staffing. We also support giving the Department of Homeland Security authority to take security actions in the fifty national parks within one hundred miles of U.S. borders” (p. 52).

Q. We should require that all visitors to the U.S. “provide biometric identification upon entry and exit. …Biometric data can be quickly compared to the Department of Homeland Security database to detect security risks. … [There should also be] a biometric electronic verification system, featuring tamper-proof fingerprint identification cards, for all visa holders” (p. 56).

R. Make the citizenship exam testing applicants’ understanding of the English language and American history and civics stronger, more rigorous. Then make passage of that exam a condition of graduation for all American high school students (pp. 58-59).

The broad middle ground?

Bush and Bolick state that “there is a broad middle ground on immigration that commands the support of a large majority of Americans” (p. 8). Do their assumptions and recommendations as outlined above constitute such a “middle ground”? They do not, for the following reasons.

Of the 15 enumerated assumptions, only four (nos. 6, 11, 12, 14) accord with reality, one is debatable (9), and the other ten lack factual or logical support. Of their 18 policy recommendations, eleven (B, C, E, H, I, J, K, O, P, Q, R) would indeed improve our immigration system and enhance future American prosperity broadly defined. But the other seven policies would be so bad as to cancel out most of the benefit to be derived from the others.

There is not room to defend my opinions on these matters here by citing and reviewing the large amounts of data and analysis supporting them. A reviewer cannot compensate for all the “homework” that Bush and Bolick left undone, or for their cherry picking of the literature in order to support libertarian apologetics. But a few brief comments are in order.

The assumption I characterize above as “debatable” is that only a comprehensive mega-bill addressing all the major immigration issues will work. That is a position that many pragmatic, fair-minded persons hold: either the usual cynical, non-transparent horse trading must be allowed or nothing will happen. On the other hand, the electorate has seen vividly how unsatisfactory the results were with the comprehensive immigration legislation bills of 2006, 2007, and 2013. The electorate has close to zero confidence in the U.S. Congress being able to do better with a new “comprehensive” bill. Further, a much stronger claimant to represent “a broad middle ground” is now a reform program outlined in a January 2015 23-page document by U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions, advocating the one-small-bill-at-a-time approach. Though the document is titled Immigration Reform for the New Republican Majority, its proposals are so pro-American worker, pro-population stabilization, pro-environment that it has strong appeal to the mostly non-Republican political center.

Second, a key assumption (no. 8) underlying Bush and Bolick’s scheme is that high immigration rates will lower the dependency ratio, obviating the need for other adjustments, such as means testing for Social Security and Medicare, later retirement ages, increased payments into pension plans, and/or smaller pensions. This is the only road to Bush and Bolick’s notion of “prosperity.” In fact, as demographers and economists have documented for the U.S.1 and other western countries,2 even very high immigration rates have only small and temporary effects on the dependency ratio.

Another major oversight is Bush and Bolick’s failure to consider reports on immigration and population matters put out by broad-based governmental commissions over recent decades. These commissions gave much more inclusive consideration of all the factors important to setting of immigration levels and policy. They include the reports of Nixon’s Commission on Population Growth and the American Future (1972), Carter’s Select Commission on Immigration and Refugee Policy (1981), Clinton’s President’s Council on Sustainable Development (1996), and G.H.W. Bush’s U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform (the “Jordan commission”, 1997). Bush and Bolick knew of these reports but preferred to ignore them in Immigration Wars, presumably because their collective consensus that immigration rates need to be greatly reduced is radically at odds with what Bush and Bolick propose.

In a nutshell, the thesis of Immigration Wars boils down to ten core or implicit propositions that may be baldly stated as follows:

1. The objective of immigration policy should be to increase the size of the U.S. population, to increase national GDP, and to increase U.S. economic dominance in the world.

2. The number of work-based visas issued should be greatly increased and allowed to fluctuate with market demand, with no upper limit or “cap” imposed, and essentially all recipients of such visas will be offered, after a certain period of time, a path to permanent residency and citizenship.

3. All foreign students obtaining an advanced degree in the U.S. in a STEM discipline and then getting a job offer in the U.S. will be offered such a work-based visa.

4. Every multimillionaire in the world willing to invest $1 million in a new enterprise and create some minimum number of jobs in the U.S. will be offered an entrepreneur visa and ultimately a path to citizenship, as will their spouses and children.

5. Foreign-born parents and siblings of U.S. citizens and permanent residents will no longer be eligible for guaranteed admission to permanent residency in the U.S.

6. Citizenship will continue to be awarded automatically to all children born in the U.S. to illegal aliens or to persons on temporary worker, student, tourist, or business visas.

7. Illegal aliens who entered the U.S. before they were 18 and have not been convicted of any “serious” crimes will be given a pathway to permanent residency and citizenship, as will any spouses or children they may have in their home country.

8. Illegal aliens who entered the U.S. after they were 18 and who have not been convicted of any “serious” crimes will be given a pathway to permanent residency but not allowed to become citizens.

9. Enforcement of immigration laws needs to be stepped up with much greater use of technology and much greater cooperation of state and local law enforcement with federal immigration officials.

10. The negative consequences of increasing the U.S. population for environmental quality, natural resources, wildlife, and wildlands in the U.S. are irrelevant to immigration policy.

The immigration imperative and the rule of law

These are the titles of Chapters 2 and 3 of Immigration Wars, respectively, but a more apt joint title would be “Population stabilization would bring economic doom to America.” Here are some of their main propositions that have not already been cited and that seem particularly misinformed:

• “[M]illions of people around the world cherish [our American] ideals and strive toward becoming Americans,” so we should give a green card to anyone who can find an employer willing to hire them.

• The population of the U.S. and our GDP need to keep growing forever; otherwise we cannot be a prosperous nation.

• We’ve accommodated large numbers of immigrants in the past and so can and should keep doing so to honor our “ideals” and “core values.”
“[M]ore than ever before, immigration is our economic life blood.” The U.S. economy cannot survive without mass importation of foreign labor.

• “[D]eclining birthrates are particularly threatening to China’s growing status as an economic powerhouse … [and likely will lead] to a high-speed economic train wreck.”

• We should work to prevent “other countries [including their own, from] reaping the benefit [from] …the enormous investment our schools have made in these [foreign] students” getting STEM degrees in the U.S.

• “If we do not provide a lawful mechanism for immigration [for all workers who wish to come here] …, we can expect a continued flow of illegal immigration” that we will not be able to stop.

With respect to the “enormous investment,” of course, the biggest investment has typically been made by the K-12 and university systems of the students’ home countries and by their parents before the students even come to the U.S. The value added by their graduate work in the U.S. is just frosting on the cake. The fact that China has brought its population growth rate down to little more than half that of the U.S. is just one reason why China’s economic strength relative to that of the U.S. seems likely to increase. Despite all its problems, the average standard of living is rising faster in China than in the U.S.

And it is seriously disconcerting to hear a U.S. presidential candidate claim that even consistent and firm enforcement of fair immigration laws would be incapable of controlling illegal immigration. Even if legal immigration quotas were reduced by 80 percent, as many have recommended, the Department of Homeland Security would be perfectly capable of keeping illegal immigration very low without having to resort to draconian measures.

Throw-away chapters

Three chapters do nothing to add to the value of the book as a guide to true immigration reform. Chapter 4 ( An enduring debate) is a brief, superficial, and tendentious history of past debates and legislation concerning immigration. Chapter 5 ( The human dimension) consists of vignettes about seven persons. Six immigrated or tried to immigrate, legally or illegally, to the U.S., encountered various obstacles, and, when and if they managed to complete the process, met with some success here. The seventh person was a U.S. citizen, who, after her husband, a Phoenix policeman, was killed by an illegal alien, went on to become an activist working to achieve amnesty for illegal aliens. Bush and Bolick commend her for her “sensitivity and compassion.” Go figure.

What is one to make of this string of anecdotes? Should there be no obstacles to immigration? No punishments for breaking the law? Is it news that immigrants to the U.S. can be good and successful people? Isn’t analysis by anecdote and hard luck story supposed to be a prerogative of biased and uninformed journalists and editors in the mainline media?

Chapter 6 ( Immigration and education) is not about immigration reform, but rather about how to improve our educational systems so that, inter alia, we can supply more of our own STEM workforce rather than importing it from other countries. No matter how much we might improve our educational systems, however, it is doubtful that utopian free marketeers like Bush and Bolick would ever give up their demand for unlimited access to foreign labor. The chapter focuses on educational innovations in Florida and Arizona, advocating, among other things, vouchers for private schools.

Hispandering to the max and the GOP as the party of God

This seems a more accurate title for Bush and Bolick’s Postscript chapter which they title A prescription for Republicans. Like Sessions’ Immigration Handbook, mentioned earlier, it is aimed at Bush’s fellow Republicans. Bush says the GOP’s biggest problem is the pro-law enforcement rhetoric of the populist wing of the party, that increased pandering to Hispanics is called for, and that the religiosity of many Hispanics should mesh nicely with the religiosity of the Republican Party.

The postscript opens with a critique of Mitt Romney and his 2012 presidential campaign. After brief reference to the “extraordinary business acumen…[of ] the talented former Massachusetts governor,” Bush and Bolick go on the attack. Romney’s position that illegal aliens should not get in-state tuition rates in universities and his advocacy of achieving “attrition [of the illegal alien population] through enforcement” by modest increases in the enforcement of immigration laws are attacked by the authors as being “far to the right,” “anti-immigration,” “nativist” positions expressed in a “hostile tone” and “toxic rhetoric.” Bush and Bolick play the “race card” with all the gusto of journalists in the mainline media.

Despite his tough, principled stand against illegal immigration, Romney still got 27 percent of the Hispanic vote. Considering how much of the Hispanic population consists of poor persons with low educational levels and of persons in “mixed immigration status” families, that 27 percent was something to celebrate. It was not the cause of Romney’s defeat. No doubt a Bush and Bolick platform of massive amnesties and almost unlimited worker visas would get more than 27 percent of the Hispanic vote—but probably far less than 50 percent of the rest of the electorate.

Bush and Bolick are shocked that Romney received an even smaller percentage (26 percent) of the Asian vote in 2012. They cannot explain it, but imply that it may have been because of Romney’s favoring enforcement of existing immigration law.

In addition to adopting an essentially open borders immigration policy, Bush and Bolick argue that the GOP “should put the immigration issue behind us” and talk about other things where Hispanic attitudes are more concordant with “conservative” political positions. One of the more interesting of these areas is religion. The religiosity of the Republican Party is evident and its platform makes clear that non-believers are not particularly welcome in the party. Thus Bush and Bolick see hope in the fact that “Only 8 percent of Hispanics are atheist, agnostic, or unaffiliated with a church, …[t]hat most Hispanics pray every day, … [and] almost half of Catholic Hispanics believe the Bible is the literal word of God….” Bush and Bolick note that “a large part of Republican successes since 1980 [are] attributable to mobilization of religious voters, particularly evangelicals.”

A less insultingly paternalistic way for the GOP to make headway not only with Hispanics but with many larger segments of the electorate would be for it to confront how narrow its “big tent” has actually become. What does a party supposedly standing primarily for small government gain from the anti-science, anti-environment, anti-church-state separation rhetoric that issues so relentlessly from its leaders and members?

Nothing in their Postscript chapter indicates the least awareness on the part of either Bush or Bolick that those are real problems for the GOP. Or that they can account for many phenomena and events, including Romney’s loss, the low Asian vote for Romney, and the scarcity of academics, scientists, and environmentalists in the Republican Party.

If pander it must, the GOP should consider pandering to the most educated, most pro-American, most civic-minded, most scientifically literate, most pro-environment segments of the electorate, Hispanic and non-Hispanic alike.

In sum, Immigration Wars comes across as a poorly researched and poorly argued, one-sided paean to the sort of mass immigration and population anarchy long favored by institutions such as the Wall Street Journal and Cato Institute and their many fellow travelers. The clarity and specificity of the book’s recommended policies combined with its authorship by a presidential contender make it an especially useful and timely book, however. It should be digested by all with an interest in immigration policy. Other political candidates will resist, as usual, giving us more than vague, soporific platitudes on most policy matters treated in Immigration Wars. But this book and Sen. Sessions’ equally specific Immigration Handbook for the New Republican Majority provide a diabolically good opportunity for the electorate to hold all 2016 presidential pretenders’ feet to the fire, if enough honest and bold journalists, editors, columnists, debate moderators, and other pundits rise to the challenge and grip firmly the usual squirming “greased pigs.”

1. Steven A. Camarota, Projecting Immigration’s Impact on the Size and Age Structure of the 21st Century American Population. Backgrounder, Center for Immigration Studies, December 2012.

2. Robin Banerjee and William Robson, Immigration’s impact on the growth and age structure
of the Canadian workforce, pp. 121-144 in The Effects of Mass Immigration on Canadian Living Standards and Society, Herbert Grubel, editor, 2009, Fraser Institute, Vancouver BC; Peter McDonald and Rebecca Kippen, The Impact of immigration on the ageing of Australia’s population, Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, Australia, 1999, 25 pp.; Katharine Betts, The ageing of the Australian population: triumph or disaster?, Centre for Population and Urban Research, Monash University, Melbourne, April 2014, 41 pp.

About the author

Stuart Hurlbert is a professor emeritus of biology at San Diego State University and president of Scientists and Environmentalists for Population Stabilization (


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Jan's Doll Making

Welcome to my world of doll making. This is what I get up to when I get some free time and wanted to share this with anyone who is interested or has similar hobbies. Creating these dolls is only part of my creative interests but one that I find exciting and which provides an outlet for my imagination. I have made dolls for many years purely for the pleasure of giving them to friends and family as gifts, and have loved to see the wide eyed expressions on children's faces when they received one. A good friend of mine reminded me the other day of all the things I made for her daughter when she was young (now grown up). In fact her daughter commented that it was this that inspired her to become interested in textile design. What a lovely idea to think that I had quietly influenced that desire in her, I felt quite chuffed.

Well, I hope I can continue to inspire and perhaps the following page may go some way to fulfilling that. Currently, I am busy making dolls for a local exhibition, this is the first time I have put myself and my dolls under such scrutiny so am feeling rather nervous. I am fairly new to sculpting dolls and am enjoying learning different techniques to mould and manipulate fabric into 3D objects. It is certainly feeding my need to create fantastical looking creatures as shown here and I do hope they will generate some interest.

I will add more dolls to the page as I make them, perhaps viewers may wish to comment so feel free to participate. I want my dolls to be colourful and fun, to brighten a dull day and bring a smile to a child and adult alike, so enjoy.

Doe Eyes
Saucy Wood Sprite
Saucy Wood Sprite Chrissy Lady Ha Ha
Ideas Tiffany Saucy Lady Ha Ha
Group Photo Twins Group Photo  Pocket Imps
Give us a hug Doe Eyes Sisters Baa Bara
Baa Barella Marni Lottie WI judge
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Comments (2)

  • Guest (cathie dunne)

    Oh my goodness Jan, what a talented lady you are.. They are just amazing..both you & Doug seem to be able to turn your hand to anything? Am so enjoyig reading your adventures in Tuscany.. I feel i was there with you.! x

    Wednesday, Oct 29 2014 11:18:27am
  • Guest (Lynda)

    Hi, we visited Hilliers yesterday to find the textile exhibits, what a find :) I love all things art and craft so really enjoyed it. Your dolls are lovely and looking on your website I think I like the one asking for a hug best :) great idea, keep up the good work. Lynda

    Sunday, Nov 17 2013 4:22:12pm


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Well the first of the UK Tour is done, with London the first venue last Saturday.

Not only was this a great session for myself and Stu, but as ever with training, it’s down to the attitudes, effort and interest of those attending………..and it was SKY-high!

You can read how we advertise the Workshops, but if you want to read reviews of those who have attended, then read this blog post by Ruth, or this one by Louise – you can’t ask for anymore in a review, and both have some rock solid goals to work towards!

If you want in, contact me ASAP to secure a place!

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Kicker KPw Wireless Speaker System

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  • Includes a mic for phone calls and wireless bluetooth

With all the advancements in wireless technology, maybe there will be a time in the future where coils of speaker wire won't exist. Well, they'll still exist, because they'll go into our Toolbox of Forgotten Technologies next to our phone cables, our slide carousel, and the stack of paper with holes down the side to match the sprockets on our dot matrix.

The Kicker KPw Wireless Speaker System understands that you may not be fully wireless yet. It includes a standard 3.5mm Aux input jack in case you're not. But it assumes you've got a device with Bluetooth® and you'd prefer to listen to that. Now, this isn't huge but it also isn't a speaker you can toss in your pocket (unless you have really big pockets). That's because it contains two 1 3/4" (44mm) full-range drivers and two 2" (52mm) passive bass radiators for full-bodied sound. The rechargeable battery gives you 10 hours of music with a 3 1/2 hour recharge time. And those kind of specs are music to our ears.

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• Betty Crocker is a favorite go-to when you need a quick fix for baking.
  • Betty Crocker isn't even a person, it's a fictitious name .
  • Since Betty Crocker isn't a real person, her image has been depicted by artists since the 1920s and has changed several times.

Betty Crocker is everyone's go-to when it comes to quick and easy baked goods. (Also, you've probably dipped a spoon in those frosting tubs a time or two. OK, all the time ... ). But beyond those amazing mixes and frostings, how deep does your Crocker knowledge really go? Here's everything you ever wanted to know about the brand responsible for all the baked goods you've been lying about making from scratch all these years. #NoShame

1. Betty Crocker isn't a real person

This might completely crush your dessert world, but Betty Crocker wasn't actually a person. The name Betty Crocker was a fictitious name created to personalize responses to consumer inquires about baking that were flooding the flour-milling company, The Washburn Crosby Company, back in 1921.

2. ... But she was named after one

The company based the brand's namesake off a popular first name of the era (what's more approachable than Betty?), and the surname of a retired employee. William Crocker was the former Director of the Washburn Crosby Company, and they thought his name would make for a fine last name (looks like they were right).

3. She was created by an actual home economist

Turns out Home Ec. class was serious business back in the day, and Marjorie Husted was so good at the subject, she snagged herself a job as the brains behind Betty Crocker. Along with Bruce Barker, Husted crafted Crocker in her own likeness, making her a treasure trove of kitchen knowledge, and an authority on all things home management.

4. Betty Crocker kitchens arose from public demand

Catching wind of the new persona, customers took note. After a while, the demand for baking information was so high that The Washburn Crosby Company ended up growing the staff, ultimately developing the Betty Crocker Kitchens. By 1924, Betty Crocker even launched the first daytime cooking show, "Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air."

5. Betty Crocker was a seriously popular lady

During the 1940s, Betty Crocker was the second best-known woman in America, following First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. NBD, it's casual.

6. The Betty Crocker cookbook was published in 1950

It was a picture cookbook that quickly became a best-seller. It sold for $3.95, and in 1950s terms, that was a pretty good deal. You can find it on Amazon today for about $29.99.

7. Betty's image has changed multiple times

Because Betty Crocker isn't a real person, her image has been depicted by artists since the 1920s. Initially, her look blended facial features of the female staff in the Washburn-Crosby home service department, but she's also been updated to resemble Jackie Kennedy, and in 1975, her skin tone was changed to olive to give her a more racially ambiguous look.

8. But she's more than just a pretty face

According to Adweek, Crocker is among the most famous fictional female characters in history. She held the #1 spot for years until Flo came along and dethroned her. She's still the front-runner in food though, and ranks higher than Mrs. Butterworth, Ms. Brown, and Catalina (of Chicken of the Sea fame).

9. Betty Crocker's first product was not cake

Nor was it frosting, cookies, or anything baking-related. It was actually packaged soup mix. Go figure.

10. She's always on

There's a 24/7 "Betty Crocker" on duty at General Mills HQ in Golden Valley, MN . Visit the headquarters and you'll be greeted by a buttoned-up Betty happy to answer any baking questions you may have.

11. Betty Crocker could give us a run for our money

Betty was bundling recipes before recipe bundling was even a thing. The first Betty Crocker cookbook, "101 Delicious Bisquick Creations," was an exhaustive collection of anything and everything you could ever dream of making with Bisquick. Millions of people still use the recipes to this day.


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December’s links.

Why Isn’t Agile Working?

Lots of good information but I really like this quote:

Agile is worthless unless it serves as a catalyst for continuous improvement.

Self-Education: Teach Yourself Anything with the Sandbox Method

I feel like a lot of this just makes sense but it could be helpful for a lot of people.

Developer Tip to Save Your Eyes

I’ve upped my font size after reading this article. It is easier to read.

Questions a Knowledge-Seeking Developer Should Ask at a Software House Job Interview

Good questions for your next interview and things every manager should strive for.

Why Senior Devs Write Dumb Code and How to Spot a Junior From A Mile Away

What was so mystifying about “Senior Dev” code was not that I didn’t understand it, but that I could understand it immediately, it was fundamentally dumb, and it seemed like there had to be more to it. “Where’s the rest?” I remember thinking. “How does this do all of that?”

This is something for us all to strive for.

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