To those that voted for Bush for his values

I would like to know what people think about the thoughts shared in this article.

Anyhow, enough politics. I got a new guitar pedal yesteray, cost me $300. I'll post more on it later.

Defector to North Korea Returns

Here's a detailed account given by an American soldier that deserted his post to North Korea out of fear 39 years ago. Crazy.

Pyramid Schemes and the Like

I met a guy on the train today with whom I talked for a while about random subjects. He and the conversation were very cordial and enjoyable until at the very end he talked about business opportunities and meeting with me later. Something seemed fishy in my mind as I walked back to my car until it hit me; he "sealed the deal" by getting my information. The only times strangers have approached me in this way in the past either wanted me to become a Jehovah's Witness or a part of their pyramid scheme.

I felt really bad because the man was genuinely nice, he seemed to believe in what he was doing. We had an engaging conversation about how he backpacked through Europe with his wife when he was my age, how he had gone to RPI for undergrad and grad for theoretical physics, etc. etc. But when I think about it, even though it was a nice conversation, I found that he used all the hallmark sales tactics: greet your customer with a smile, establish common ground, steer the conversation to what you really want to talk about, and seal the deal.

(By the way isn't that what modern evangelism has become? I had fishy feelings towards evangelism training videos I watched during college that taught the virtue of marketing and sales techniques to spread the gospel... shudder. Come to think about it, the way many of us growing up in the church don't realize that most modern evangelism techniques are really applied sales techniques!)

After I got back to my apartment, I checked out the guy's website online and browsed through his products. Some were pretty ridiculous, such as these therapeutic magnets that "work" by shutting off ion channels in your nerves. Folks, if that really happened, you'd see them being used in hospitals. You'd see MRI scanners double as anasthetizing machines. You'd see your muscles go limp due to the supposedly deactivated nerves around the magnet's area. Thank goodness I studied biomedical engineering and work in a neuroscience lab to pick up on this seemingly "scientific" basis for this product's efficacy.

This shadiness tipped me off, so I took some key names on the guy's site, Googled "pyramid scheme", and independently found these key names come up under some watchdog sites.

Yeah. Amway/Britt Worldwide(BWW)/Quixtar are all the same, and are either borderline or full blown pyramid schemes/multilevel marketing plans (MLM's). At the lowest level, they're peddlers of overpriced "health" products to consumers. This blog has a very interesting post about it, particularly due to the scores of comments left behind by people caught up in it, those burned by it, and those that avoided it altogether. Here's a link that deconstructs them as well as their many other names. Oh, and here's a link to the FTC site about Pyramid Schemes and similar shifty business tactics.

"'One day I remember thinking, I don't really like this [TV] program; why am I watching it?' he said. 'There might be one line that's funny or one situation that was intense, and that would keep bringing me back for more. It's like a drug: the promise of satisfaction is always right around the corner, and it delivers just enough to keep you coming back.'"

from this article

Doesn't this quote delineate the addictive lifestyle Americans live? We spend so much time, resources, money, and emotion upon entertaining ourselves; we're all addicts to media, aren't we?

Man, I have to think about this.

It's 1:15 AM...

... and it looks like Bush won at the moment. I'm too tired to stay up any more.... have to get up in six hours.

Sigh.

I'm falling asleep with one eye open
One hand in my pocket on the other on my wallet
No one's stealing a piece of me
Can't get my money that easily

Don't leave me here now
Don't leave me here now

Deliver as promised
The doors open here
Hands open wide,
trembling with fear

Tricked out RC cars!

You can buy them here and look at parts here. There's even a league! Hahah... such a marketing ploy.

Does it have to come to this?

I don't like Bush at all. I've been making that clear the whole entire time. I also don't like Kerry that much either.

So it's a decision between the lesser of two negatives, and so I've been forced to find issues that they differ upon in which I find most important.

What is more important? Abortion or Iraq/"War on terrorism"/foreign policy?

Abortion, I found, is a bigger consideration with the vacant Supreme Court seats coming up. And it's a pretty important issue in which I am more on Bush's side than Kerry's. Roe vs. Wade might even be overturned eventually; but does it have to come to this?

Does it?

Someone put it to me like this, and I couldn't answer back: would you support a president that wants the government to support embezzling? If you balk at supporting a candidate that doesn't care for a basic ethical cause, why do you not balk over the support for abortion?

Then again, how can I support this war in Iraq? Mistakes will costs lives.

Oh, but then again, millions of unborn babies died last year due to abortions. Ah, but then many will still die, along with their mothers due to poorly done abortions that would happen anyhow if the practice were made illegal.

God, I'm so tired of all this. I just want to know by tomorrow morning, not do to an emotional reason alone but a truly sound reason.

The Breakdown

I went to this site to clarify my stance for this election, but it didn't do much but affirm my indecision:

"Your Total Score Versus Kerry:

Overall Matching Score: 43% - You have a poor match with Kerry. Unless you particularly like his character and background, you should vote for another candidate.

Your Subscores Versus Kerry:

Personal Matching Score: 50% - Kerry matches your views on personal issues acceptably.

Economic Matching Score: 35% - Kerry poorly matches your views on economic issues. You agree with Kerry significantly more on personal issues than on economic issues. You will likely agree with Kerry on issues like morality, lifestyle, and civil rights, but will not agree as well on issues like taxes, budget, and spending issues."

"Your Total Score Versus Bush:

Overall Matching Score: 38% - You have a poor match with Bush. Unless you particularly like his character and background, you should vote for another candidate.

Your Subscores Versus Bush:

Personal Matching Score: 40% - Bush poorly matches your views on personal issues.

Economic Matching Score: 35% - Bush poorly matches your views on economic issues.

Your personal score is trivially higher than your economic subscore for Bush. You will find your level of agreement (or disagreement) with Bush about the same regardless of the issue under discussion."

Hmm. The quiz is a bit outdated, though, since the questions have nothing about Iraq.

Like I always say,

Koreans are everywhere. Read this article about Korean missionaries; I found it particularly well-written, without the typical critical bias against religion that journalists tend to have.

Quotes I liked:

"There is a saying that when Koreans now arrive in a new place, they establish a church; the Chinese establish a restaurant; the Japanese, a factory"

No surprise there. Drive through Flushing, NY to see the perfect example of what this means. When I went to Nicaragua five years ago, we met the country's only residential Koreans: they were missionaries.

"But because of their short history of living overseas, some South Koreans expect that other cultures will behave the same way their own does and that Christianity will spread abroad as quickly as it did in South Korea, said Mr. Moon of the Korea Research Institute for Missions.

'Western missionaries tend to carry a sense of guilt because of their imperialist past,' he said. 'But Koreans don't have that historical baggage, and they are not inhibited in reaching out to people with the Gospel. So in their missionary work, they tend not to consult the local people, but make decisions in one direction.""

Again, what I saw in Nicaragua only proved this point. Instead of understanding the Nicaraguan culture, they built a classic Korean presbyterian style sanctuary, complete with pews and elder chairs. They also explained that they have to teach the people how to come to early morning prayer, a Christian custom only practiced by Korean Christians (or those that have been influenced by them).

But come on. Besides that example, who of my Korean readers isn't surprised? Haha.

****

As for the election, maybe I'm swayed by Piper in voting for Bush for the abortion issue alone. I hate the Bush administration, but abortion's a big deal that hasn't been made a big deal by the media.

But hmm... what's the most important issue at hand? ARGH!