How Private Is Your Business?

I have just finished a novel by Jeffery Deaver, one of my favorite authors. For those of you familiar with Deaver, it's a Lincoln Rhyme novel named Broken Window. I don't want to say too much here about the content for fear of spoiling it. That said, the "environment" of the novel is a world-wide information service company--the huge data miner Strategic Systems Datacorp. Their files contain everything about everyone, including you and me (?).

While the description of the extent of the contents of these files is likely to be premature, I believe it does portend what may come in the future. This information, if not used improperly is pretty benign, but who's to say it will always be used properly. See Aldous Huxley's Brave New World or George Orwell's 1984.

Do you know that every time you use your supermarket club card that the data of exactly what you purchased is transferred to a data bank? The drugs you buy at the pharmacy on your Visa card? Do you know that everything you buy at Costco is memorized forever? Your membership at the health club, the country club, Borders, the websites you visit.....they're all in a databank. Oh, don't forget the appliance warranty cards you fill out. They have lots of private information on them. Your warranty doesn't need submission of the form anyway.

Ok, so be careful out there. If you don't keep an eye on your identity, there are people out there who will.

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT FOR THE DAY(Courtesy of Our Daily Bread)Those who lay up treasures in heaven are the richest people on earth

PSA ?

No, that doesn't stand for Pacific Southwest Airlines. Remember them? If so, you're as old as I am. It was a great local airline which ended up with others as US Airways. Still a great local airline? Not so much.

PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen, which measures the amount of some sort of agent generated by the prostate gland and can, but not necessarily, the presence of cancer cells. There have been a number of medical reports recently issued which lead one to believe that the screening is a waste of time and money. The theory is that receiving a PSA reading over a certain number will cause too many men to go seek useless treatments because, "you'll die of something else before you will of prostate cancer", and you'll diminish your quality of life by seeking treatment especially that of radical surgery.

Let me tell you something. Screenings can save your life. Blaming cancer screening for doing more harm than good is targeting the wrong villain. It's not the screening process itself, it's the failure to identify which cancers are realtively bgenigh and which are aggresive and deadly. Doctors who fail sufficiently to explain the difference between dangerous and non-dangerous tumors are the problem.

So, go and do the right thing. If your'e 50 or more, make sure you get an anuual degital exam as well as the simple PSA blood test. My treatment, brachytherapy or radioactive seed implementation is brought my PS down from 6.3 to 3.5, to 2.6, and now down to 1.5 all in 9 months. I believe it will cotinue to go down for at least another 6 months or so. My treatment didn't affect my quality of life whatsoever.

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
(Courtesy of Our Daily Bread)

As God adds years to your life, ask Him to add life to your years.

Blessings, Desert Dave

PSA ?

Scooter is So Sad

Poor little guy, his "Mommy" is at a Ladies golf getaway since yesterday noon, and won't return until late tomorrow. He only ate 1/2 of his breakfast yesterday, (he sometimes does that, saving some of it for later), but he has neither drunk water or eaten anything since.

Although he's happy to take a walk and is active as usual, once home he just lies in his crate and looks at me with those enormous brown eyes. I miss his "Mommy" also, but I know where she is, why she isn't her and when she'll be back. Scooter doesn't know squat other than she's not here. On top of that, I'm going to be golfing this afternoon and going out to dinner after that.

How nice it is for we humans to know that we can count on God in our lives, always there, always looking out for us, always loving us, and always knowing that he is going to return to earth to reunite with true Christians everywhere.

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
(Courtesy of Our Daily Bread)

Christlike hospitality is an open heart and an open home


Blessings, Desert Dave

American Tea Parties

When I started this endeavor, I pledged (to myself) that I would eschew politics, even though I am a strong believer in both partisan and non-partisan politics. However, I feel compelled to write something about the April 15th demonstrations which have obscenely been called "tea bagging" by it's opponents. If you're not familiar with the term, "google" it.

I have posted two links below and have used the blogspot directions for making them clickable, but if they don't turn out that way, please just highlight them, copy, and paste into your browser address bar. The first link shows Jeaneane Garofolo on Keith Olberman's program. She states in strong terms that anyone who participated in the protests was a RACIST, and that the only reason they were there was because the hated a black man being in the White House. If you do any search at all, you will find many, many blogs that make the same observation.

The second link features a piece from Town Hall which puts my "spin" on it which is that this was not anti-Obama, it was for his current policies. This was not a Republican program, it was not a Democratic program, it was not a Fox News program except in the context that FN was the only network interested in reporting on it. Good grief, since when did public protest become anti-American. We've put up for years with public hostility towards parties, people and policies. Is it because we now are supposed to have "change"? I believe that both parties and both administrations are equally guilty for causing our current crisis.

Anyway, that's my rant for the day. I really hope that some of you out there will share your opinions on this topic.

http://townhall.com/Columnists/SabrinaLSchaeffer/2009/04/20/tea_parties_whats_next

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/16/garofalo-outdoes-herself-tea-parties-all-about-white-power-says-d-lister/comment-page-1/#comments

Rediscovering God In America

Last night, Tuesday, was a weekly home small group Bible study. We were privileged to see the Newt & Callista Gingrich DVD, "Rediscovering God in America". It is a powerful film in that it quotes the founders of our country and shows the various monuments that reference our nation's founding under God.

I don't know about you, but I am constantly bombarded with comments that our founders were really not religious and they had left England in order to escape religion, etc. The quotations of our founding fathers puts that where it belongs....in the garbage bag. The fact is that this nation has turned away from it's beginnings and has turned more and more towards secularism. God is not allowed in our public buildings, schools or any government facility, not even the Ten Commandments in a courtroom.

This film should be of interest to anyone, religious or secular. It portrays our history. Details on how to obtain may be seen at the following website:

rediscoveringgodinamericamovie.com

Sorry I can't seem to make the above a clickable link, but I tried.

Well, a long, long time ago, I told you that I would post a pic of our little boy.Notice that he is a very, very smart dog and is a full fledged GIANTS fan. He wears his hat with pride and he watches every game with me. He whimpered a lot during the San Diego series and yesterday for the opening Dodger game.

The primary message of this post is to say that the way to go when you pick out your next dog, is to go the "rescue" route. Unless one is into selective breeding or showing a dog, don't buy a purebred or especially through a puppy mill. Legitimate pet stores are no longer selling dogs or cats. A shelter will not allow you to adopt a dog unless it has been neutered, micro chipped and had all shots. They also screen the applicants for the suitability of the particular animal to the family adopting. So many, many dogs need a forever home. Go to all the local shelters, you will fall in love, I guarantee it.

I have had 6 dogs, all purebred, before Scooter, and he is absolutely the best I've ever owned. Do the right thing, please.

Resurrection Friday

So much to think about today, so much to remember about our Saviour being so humiliated and tortured leading up to His crucifixion. But wait, there's more...HE AROSE and lives at the right hand of God.

Today was teeth cleaning day........booyah, you say. Well, going to my dental hygenist always reminds me of the terrible loss she suffered almost 2 years ago. Her first born, (and only son), died from an drug overdose. Apparently not an habitual user, he got caught up with user friends at UC Berkeley. A senior with a splendid academic record, athletic, raised in a Jewish home, literall threw his life away for a "high".

I confess that my first born son, an adoptee, also threw his life away for quick fixes. Adopted at birth, he became familiar with drugs in the US Army, was discharged for their use, ended up in State Prison several times. Although I love him because God commands me to do so, I have not for many years now had a parental love for him. I have a family to protect from his violent life style and we have no relationship. He has broken so many promises, I can no longer trust him around my loved ones.

But God doesn't break promises and He has promised that if we believe in Him and trust in His death and resurrection, we will join him for eternal life. So, I pray for my son that he will come to know Jesus.

Thank God for a Risen Christ.

Love

Giants Win The Opener

That is worth a whole day's blog all by itself. Oh, by the way....my boy Jeff Gordon won yesterday at Texas Speedway.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Yesterday was an amazing day for me. My brother's widow and my oldest niece's widower visited us from out of town. My niece only passed away last January after a 3 1/2 year battle with breast cancer.

Since I was not really very close with my brother, I was not very close with his children either, mainly because of distance. My niece's last residence was in Washington. We would sometimes exchange Christmas cards, some years not. I had thought of my niece as kind of a whiny little girl and young adult. Whether that was true of not, I no longer remember.

During her husband's visit with us, I learned a great deal about my niece. I learned how she had supported her husband in his career, had raised two beautiful sons who are very successful in their careers. I learned that her husband, who had been her primary caregiver for sometime now, is absolutely devastated by her death, even though it released him from his caregiving. I learned how she constantly talked about Uncle Dave (that's me) and how I would come up from San Diego (US Navy) and visit them on weekends. I also learned that after learning about her grave illness and phoning her, she told one of her sisters that she could now go peacefully since she and I had reconnected. She died less than a week later.

I grieve for my beautiful niece, but I grieve more for the years that I was not connected to this wonderful spiritual woman. WHAT A WASTE ! I am joyful that I finally did for just that one moment, and I am joyful that I will see her again in Heaven.

To my readers: Don't let family and friends drift away, no matter what the reason.

Relationships Sunday

I want to share with you a number of definitions of a truly loving relationship. They are not my definitions, but I subscribe to them. The first one follows:

A loving relationship is one in which individuals trust each othere enough to become vulnerable, secure that the other person won't take advantage. It neither exploits nor takes the other for granted. It involves much communication, much sharing, and much tenderness.

Am I pontificating? I hope not. Some of what I post are things I've come across which have very special meaning to me. Enjoy...............or not? More tomorrow.

I Corinthians 13:4

Friday, April 3, 2009

Question: Do young people find that time goes much slower than for older persons. I can easily remember when I couldn't hardly wait for summer vacation from school. Later on, in my professional life, it was always looking forward to Wednesday (hump day) and Friday, the magic last working day of the week. Only 3 months until our vacation.... summer will soon be here.

How quickly the priorities change as we age. I have come to cherish every day that God gives me and try, not very hard sometimes, to make it a worthwhile day, a day which will please my Creator. Yes, as you can tell from previous posts, I definitely look forward to baseball season, and since I'm too far away to get Warrior, Sharks or 49er telecasts, I can only really get my sports fix with the Giants.

But for me, time flyssssssss by. Good grief, 25% of 2009 has gone by and I wonder sometimes how well I spent the last 3 months. I know that so many of those 90+ days were probably not very pleasing to the Lord, and I can only pray that those days will become fewer and fewer.

Give me some feedback on how your time goes by. I'd appreciate it and you.

WE ARE BACK

Well, back from Arizona with fond memories of seeing friends and seeing GIANTS baseball..

Six more days to opening day, and counting. The Giants, when they use their young and their rookies seem to be a winning ballclub. When the veterans play, not so much. The Giants are stuck for years to come with Rowand and especially Barry Zero, excuse me, I mean Zito. But one never knows when it comes to baseball. After all, I haven't seen a World Series championship since I fell in love with them back in 1962.

As we approach the Easter, (or Resurrection as I prefer) season, and as our nation falls deeper and deeper into financial chaos, I find comfort in a song, the gist of which is, "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow". Believe it, HE LIVES !

God's love to all, see you tomorrow, maybe ! =:)