I enjoy my life.  There’s not much I have to complain about, aside from a pending divorce.  But of the few things about my life that I could actually say suck — and it’s generally a relative concept, as in, “relative to winning a million dollars on the same day a Belgian supermodel falls in love with me, not having a garage is kinda crappy” — there’s one that stands out and truly pains me every day.  It’s the fact that I can’t save the world.  By God, I’ll try my best, but I’m just me.  And the only man who can do it hasn’t come back yet.

But, yes, not being able to fix what’s wrong truly burdens my heart.  I see so much war, crime, bigotry and just general hate in the world, and I want to tell these people that it is the meek, humble and compassionate who shall inherit the earth, not the dictators and warmongers.

But there is something I can help fix, and I’m going to do all in my power to do so.  And you can help.

You all know I’m a single father, and we’re hundreds of miles from our nearest family.  My life revolves around that little girl, and I spend most of my time worrying about her.  When she has the sniffles, my heart aches for her.  When she cries for her “Dedo,” I want to cry too.  All minor, passing afflictions, to be sure, but she’s not just someone who depends on me; she’s part of me.

It’s that build-up that brings me to Katie Fitch, a beautiful little three-year-old from Florence, South Carolina.

See, Katie has hepatoblastoma.  Don’t try to say it, or you might wind up with your tongue in a splint.  But, essentially, it’s a cancerous tumor of the liver.  Cancer.  In a three-year-old.

My next-door neighbor and close friend is a pediatric nurse who deals with cancer patients all the time.  I have no idea how she can see this stuff on a regular basis and be anything more than a basket case for her entire shift — I merely read a story about someone and almost broke down crying in part because of the innocent child being afflicted with such a horror, and also because I can’t do anything about it.

Katie’s family is taking donations; you can contribute directly from the Web site they’ve set up for her.  I ask anyone who can give to do so.  Help make a future for someone who doesn’t even really have a past yet.  I implore you to find some way to scrape up a donation, even if it’s only a few bucks you scraped together by foregoing a cup of coffee, a Big Mac or a pack of cigarettes.  And please, tell your friends and family.

None of us can save the world.  But if everyone tried to save a small slice of it, we wouldn’t just save it — we’d make it infinitely better.

You can read all about young Katie and make a donation at KatieFitch.com.

Do I really look that old?
We often develop close relationships with the people around us at our jobs.  Those relationships, though (in Information Technology, at least) are usually tightly based on alcohol consumption, and not so much on actual personal knowledge of one another.  On my birthday a week ago, at a small celebration in my honor held by my manager and open to my coworkers, a friend speculated on my age.

He guessed 35.

D’oh!

I decided to let him live, but that wasn’t a decision I came to lightly.  I think it was based largely on the fact that there were several witnesses (if you so much as say “cake” in an IT department, you better have experience running with the bulls in Pamplona).

And They Partied On…And On…
I vowed this year that I would make up for last year’s birthday — the only way my 27th could have sucked worse is if someone had kicked me in the cajones, repeatedly, the entire day.  So, with that in mind, the party kicked off on Monday, August 11.  A trip to the beach — the Outer Banks is my new Favorite Place On Earth™ — launched the festivities.  A week of U.S. Olympic triumph, presumably in my honor, then ensued.

We won’t go into all the details — no, there was no debauchery, but there was food, music, general fun to be had by all, and even a $10 prize for finishing third in a beer pong tournament at a local bar.  I finally let the party give up the ghost on Monday, August 18, sometime around 11:45 p.m.  And, I’ve got to say, I think it ended a little too soon.  I had a semi-crappy 19th birthday too, so I still have a little bit of karmic make-up to do.

Just as I did at Christmas, I want to take this time to remind you all exactly what it is we're celebrating.  Amid your colored eggs, your baskets full of candy and even your array of gifts, remember this day was set aside to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his subsequent ascension to Heaven (which, of course, happened weeks later).  The Easter Bunny may have visited your house, but have you let God in too?

We teach our kids about the Easter Bunny.  He has nothing — nothing — to do with the meaning of the holiday aside from the fact that the Christian holiday of Easter was a "mash-up" of the Christian celebration of the resurrection and the pagan ritual of fertility each spring — celebrating a goddes called "Eastre" or "Oestre" depending on your preferred spelling.  It was done that way by the church because potential pagan converts were willing to give up their gods, but not too thrilled about kissing their celebrations good-bye. 

People who celebrate fertility with orgies, and who don't like to stop partying.  Wow, sounds like college.  But I digress.

The point is that most kids who aren't Muslim or Buddhist can likely identify the mainstream view of Easter.  Fewer, probably, can identify the real meaning of the holiday — even in Christian families.  So I challenge you to sit with your children today, no matter their age, and explain to them why we are celebrating today.  Explain to them that the candy and toys and colored eggs are nice, but this would still be the most important day of the Christian calendar even without them.  Today is bigger than Christmas, people: on Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus; on Easter we celebrate his ultimate conquering of sin and death, so we can each have the chance to accept his love for us and, ultimately, join him in Heaven when we, too, rise above death. 

Mike,making an argument in favor of shipping jobs "across the pond?"  Absolutely, if it's the right thing to do.

I'm a Republican.  I'm a purist conservative.  I believe in what the Republican Party was originally based on: smaller government, less spending, lower taxes, minimized meddling in the affairs of the people, and leaving most decision-making to the state and municipal governments, among many other things.  But we also see the need for strong domestic businesses and a simple economy that desires healthy, legal competition and fair prices.  Unfortunately, the "conservative base" has been left behind by the Republican politicians.  Man, do I ever hate politicians.

I'm driving to a point here: Boeing recently lost a military contract to develop a new line of refueling aircraft to a conglomerate known as EADS — which includes French company Airbus (they, of the Airbus 380 double-decker luxury airliner fame).  Hoo-boy, was the "political right" up in arms about that one.  And so were the Democrats.  To them, it was the equivalent of outsourcing jobs for pennies on the dollar.

This is where the politics come in to play: people looked at the 35,000-foot view (given that this is about aircraft, I swear that was an unintended pun) of the situation: a French company would be building U.S. military aircraft.  How rude.  How cruel.  How Un-American.  How soooo not-apple-pie.

But for the people with their heads on ground-level, and facing the right direction, this was the right thing to do.  First of all, this isn't about shipping jobs overseas; in fact, EADS has promised to build the aircraft, or at least large portions, in a plant they agreed to build in Alabama as part of the contract.  The contract is actually listed under Northrop-Grumman, a long-time defense contractor who will likely be providing a majority of the avionics.  Guess where N.G. is based?  Yup, here in the states.  In fact, the only thing Airbus is providing, as best as I can tell, is the airframe — the "body," basically.

The reasons go beyond this, though.  For one thing, Airbus has, as of late, built a higher-quality aircraft at a more-bang-for-your-tax-dollar price.  On top of that, Boeing won the original contract in a no-bid situation that ultimately led to the dismissal of several top executives who got in deep, steaming crap for conflicts of interest — basically, they did things to win the contract essentially just to line their own pockets.  When all this came to light, several in Washington successfully had the contract nullified and the bidding was re-opened, this time with Airbus allowed to play the game.

Here's where the Democrats had a field day: People working for John McCain, the Republican nominee for the Presidential election this fall, were in the group lobbying to have the contract re-opened.  By picking and choosing their facts, they made it sound as if McCain had lobbied to outsource the program.  In reality, his people lobbied in 2004 to have the Boeing contract overturned because of the impropriety of the entire situation.  He wasn't lobbying in favor of a foreign company, he was lobbying against unfair business practices.  And I don't care who you are; you should be ashamed to call yourself a Republican — or a Democrat, or an American, for that matter — if you can actively and openly support unfair business activities.  We built this nation on fair, open trade and markets and healthy competition for customers, even if that customer is the nation itself.

And here's my final point on the matter: Boeing has had a strong upperhand in military contracts for a long time now, ever since N.G. was purchased by EADS.  They have dominated the U.S. airliner market because of the relatively low cost of aircraft in comparison to overseas competitors due to a weakening dollar and other economic factors.  They have become complacent, and quality has begun to suffer.  Ingenuity has fallen by the wayside, the victim of such large dominance in domestic markets.  If you want another example of this, look to Redmond, Washington, where Microsoft has supplied inferior products for years, simply because they are so ingrained in our American culture that the cost of replacing them in the infrastructure is prohibitive.  When competition is severely crippled, and you have the luxury of forced customer "loyalty," quality is generally the first victim.  By awarding the contract to Airbus, the U.S. government has — intentionally or not — quietly but sternly told Boeing that they now have to earn their contracts on quality, not past reputation and "friends in high places."

I don't care what side of the political fence you are on; if you can't see the good in this situation after examining the facts, you simply don't understand the original goal of our founding fathers to create a fair, free nation, free from political squabbling.  And it's the blurred vision we've developed toward that original concept that is now hindering this nation locally and abroad.   It's time to get back to basics, to understand that Capitalism is only good and successful when it is executed fairly, without underhanded favors.

I know I've been away for a little while; it's been a hectic few weeks.  And I know most of you who read this site do so because it's fun to laugh at me being an idiot.  I do it rather well.  But I have to go serious on you for a few minutes.

I feel a serious pain in my heart every day for this country.  We're headed down such a horrid path, and no one is doing a thing about it besides talking.  People condemn the actions of others, only to perpetrate their own crimes against themselves and their peers; political campaigns are filled to the brim with a bunch of wonderful rhetoric, but no real substance or activity.  Now we face a weak dollar, a housing market that would be a buyer's boone if the buyers out there hadn't already mortgaged their families' futures on false hopes of a dream loan, crime and violence are increasing nationwide, and the government that thinks it knows what's best for us is so divided on every issue that they've stalemated themselves.  And now, thanks to an overtly liberal media that pushes the me-first attitude, everyone thinks they are entitled to a hand-out to fix their problems.

Here are the facts, people: you have a responsibility to yourself, your family and your nation.  Yes, there are times when the government needs to give assistance to people; I've benefited from government help, and people to whom I am very close have benefited from it.  It's often very important, and just as often necessary.

However, you live in the Land of the Free; your decisions are yours to make.  And if you choose to sit on your lazy arse and try to collect money from the government without putting any effort forth, you are a leech and a major threat to this nation.  If you are informed that a category-four hurricane is going to hit your city that lies below sea level, you are able-bodied, and you choose not to leave, that's your problem, not mine.  If you failed to research the sub-prime lending vultures out there, and you failed to read the terms of the contract you signed, why should my tax dollars pay for your mistake?

My point is this: man up, people.  Take some responsibility for your own actions.  If you are unable to decide anything for yourself, do the world two favors: stop procreating, and go live in a communist country where the government will make sure you have no decisions of your own to make.  Your lack of personal responsibility is rapidly degrading this nation into a cesspool of the worst kinds of human dredge — blue-collar and white-collar included, there's no distinction in my mind between class when it comes to the scum of the earth. 

And, no, I'm not saying that everyone (or anyone in particular, for that matter) who defaulted on a sub-prime loan is the "scum of the earth."  That's not the implication; what is implied here is that you are responsible for your own decisions and the consequences that come from them.  If you choose to feel the government is obliged to bail you out, that the other 300 million people in this country should be forced to bear the burden of your failure to take responsibility for your actions, you are sadly mistaken.  I am happy to help out those who make an effort to help themselves, but I will not sit idly by and watch my hard-earned dollars continue to support and bail out those who just don't want to get a clue.

With that, I'd like to put something on the table for you: if I ran for President, would you vote for me?  Talk back!

I just wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone has a great day, and I hope we can all look past the presents and the decorations and the commercialism for a little while today to remember what this day is truly about.  And if you need reminded about the true meaning of Christmas, read Luke chapter 2.

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." 

I wanted to let you, my faithful few readers, know that updates will be sporadic for a little while as InvertedMind and the InvertedFamily are sorting through two very private, very personal issues right now.  Some details will come with time, but until the time comes when I feel comfortable sharing, it will remain private.  I can assure you that my sense of humor is still intact, and that my sense of reality is as detached as ever.  However, words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

In time, all will be resolved.  Thanks again for visiting regularly, and please keep the entire InvertedFamily in your prayers.