The Courage To Be Imperfect

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly. Some things are so important that they must be done, even if at first we cannot do them well. We can never become good at what we don't work at. There must be a willingness to try, to practice, to improve, to become. We must give our imperfect best, and in so doing, our best will eventually become perfect.

"I propose that self-esteem becomes a nonissue for the person who is perfecting his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ . . . So many issues that revolve around the subject of self fade like the dew in the sun as one cultivates faith in the Savior. Without him, nothing else matters. No amount of self-esteem or anything else can adequately fill the void. . . One who practices faith in the Lord Jesus Christ will find relief from the stresses and anxieties of the pursuit of self-esteem." ~M. Catherine Thomas, Selected Writings of M. Catherine Thomas, 237-50.

"We can be so cruel to ourselves; we destroy ourselves wit our negative self-talk. We see only the raw material, much of it yet undeveloped, and we block from our awareness many already godlike qualities in us. We throw a wet blanket over all this divine fire. We steadfastly ignore the fact that many of our goals have been accomplished by our exercising godlike qualities: sacrifice, discipline, creativity, perseverance, love, faith. We decline to acknowledge the divinity that is developing in us through the challenges that life has already presented to us for this very purpose. And we are ready to argue - in a most ungodly way - with anyone who tries to tell us something to the contrary. This refusal to accept our developing divinity is a sort of blasphemy and a denial of the purpose of the plan of salvation; it diminishes the effectiveness of our service and inhibits our full surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no real settled contentment, no real enlarging of the soul to meet great opportunities and possibilities, until we find our own divine fire." ~M. Catherine Thomas, Gospel Scholarship Series, 254.

"God is your Father. He loves you. He and your Mother in Heaven value you beyond any measure. They gave your eternal intelligence spirit form, just as your earthly mother and father have given you a mortal body. You are unique, one of a kind, made of the eternal intelligence which gives you claim upon eternal life. Let there be no question in your mind about your value as an individual. The whole intent of the gospel plan is to provide an opportunity for each of you to reach your fullest potential, which is eternal progression and the possibility of godhood." ~Spencer W. Kimball, "Privileges and Responsibilities of Sisters," Ensign, November 1978, 105.

"The work of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to 'bring to pass the ... eternal life of man' (Moses 1:39) is an eternal work. Not all problems are overcome and not all needed relationships are fixed in mortality. The work of salvation goes on beyond the veil of death, and we should not be too apprehensive about incompleteness within the limits of mortality." ~Dallin H. Oaks "Powerful Ideas," Ensign, November 1995, 26.

"I do not believe that any man lives up to his ideals, but if we are striving, if we are working, if we are trying , to the best of our ability, to improve day by day, then we are in the line of our duty. If we are seeking to remedy our own defects, if we are so living that we can ask God for light, for knowledge, or intelligence, and above all, for His Spirit, that we may overcome our weaknesses, then, I can tell you, we are in the straight and narrow path that leads to life eternal. Then we need have no fear." ~Heber J. Grant, Gospel Standards, 184-5.

"How can we as imperfect, though improving, individuals know that the Lord is pleased with the course our lives are taking? The Lord's pleasure is manifest by the gift of the Holy Ghost endowed upon each of us. In addition to providing revelation and guidance, the presence of the Holy Ghost is an indication to each of us that our lives, though still needing much improving, are headed in the right direction, and thus pleaseing to the Lord. The comfort and peace that accompanies the Holy Ghost encourages continued progress down that same path that has brought us to this point." ~Richard K. Scott, Celebrating Celestial Marriage, 144.

"Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ. . . And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father." ~Moroni 10:32:33)

"Why is non-endurance a denial of the Lord? Because giving up is a denial of the Lord's loving capacity to see us through 'all these things'! Giving up suggests that God is less than He really is . . . So much of life's curriculum consists of efforts by the Lord to get and keep our attention. Ironically, the stimuli He uses are often that which is seen by us as something to endure. Sometimes what we are being asked to endure is His 'help' - help to draw us away from the cares of the world; help to draw us away from self-centeredness; attention-getting help when the still, small voice has been ignored by us; help in the shaping of our souls; and help to keep the promises we made so long ago to Him and to ourselves . . . Whether the afflictions are self-induced, as most of them are, or whether they are of the divine-tutorial type, it matters not. Either way, the Lord can help us so that our afflictions, said Alma, can be 'swallowed up in the joy of Christ' (Alma 31:38). Thus, afflictions are endured and are overcome by joy. The sour notes are lost amid a symphony of salvational sounds. Our afflictions, brothers and sisters, may not be extinguished. Instead, they can be dwarfed and swallowed up in the joy of Christ. This is how we overcome most of the time - not the elimination of affliction, but the placing of these in that larger context."

-- Neal A. Maxwell, Wherefore, Ye Must Press Forward, 112.

the 5:1 ratio

Thrilled as can be! For those who are wondering, Jackson is a tiny-bit disappointed, but knows he plays an important role in family now as the only son. We are excited to be receiving one of Heavenly Father's choice daughters to come to our house to live.

brown

Maegann: "Mom, why are you painting the whole house brown?"

Mom: "Because brown is a very nice neutral color.

Maegann: "But brown is not a color with any fun in it!"

Mom: "Exactly!"

the economics of free healthcare or why the president is wrong

economic transactions can be broken down into four different categories (i saw this first described in milton and rose friedman's seminal work "free to choose"). i call them Laissez-faire, Gift, Insurance and Government.

Laissez-faire is a system where you spend your money on goods and services for yourself.

Gift is a system where you spend your money on goods and services for someone else.

Insurance is a system where you spend someone else's money on goods and services for yourself.

Government is where a someone spends someone else's money on goods and services for a third party.

these systems are listed in order of most efficient to least efficient.

Laissez-faire tops the efficiency chart because noone else better understands the cost of a dollar to you (i.e. what you had to do to earn it) and noone else truly understands the value of of the good or service to you (i.e. what benefit you receive from it).

Gift is second in efficiency because it maintains the cost understanding of a dollar to you, but loses efficiency when the value of the good or service provided to the second party is misunderstood.

Insurance introduces mass inefficiency because the cost of other people's money to you is ignored in the face of getting a good or service virtually free. if the good or service has any perceived value at all, you will take it no matter the cost. so both the cost and value are somewhat skewed.

Government is the least efficient of all because not only is cost ignored(or misunderstood), but the value of the good or service can also be completely ignored(or misunderstood). this is why the effectiveness of government programs are often measured by how much money was spent on a problem instead of how much of the said problem was resolved.

today, our healthcare system is run off the Insurance (in)efficiency model. the receiver of the service (healthcare) doesn't really care how much the service being offered costs because "insurance has it covered". as an example, for those of you who have (or have had in the past) a full coverage insurance plan, think about what your answer is in the pharmacy when asked if you want to try the less expensive generic drug. the name-brand drugs can cost up to 5 times the price of generics, but when you have full coverage you don't care.

another example, i remember a time when i looked at a hospital bill for one of our baby deliveries and noticed a $10 charge for two over-the-counter ibuprofen. at first i was incensed until my wife pointed out that the insurance had it covered so why should i make a fuss? i didn't want to sully a good day, so i just let it slide.

the current healthcare proposal being offered in congress and pushed by president obama is one that will move us from the second least efficient economic model to the least efficient economic model. the predictions of us being able to save money by moving toward a government system are simply wishful thinking. you can safely ignore the projected costs of government programs (except, perhaps, to establish a floor to the cost), because they rarely only costs what was projected.

some will likely point out that other countries, with their socialized medicine (or socialized insurance), don't cost as much as our healthcare here in America, but they are comparing apples and crabapples and ignoring a serious economic problem.

first, the serious economic problem. we've all heard of how you can get prescription drugs cheaper in canada than you can in the US. this is true and it indeed means that overall prescription drug cost in canada is cheaper than in the US. this is a direct apples-to-apples comparison because they are the same drugs but simply cost less in canada.

the obvious (and simplistic) solution is to nationalize our own drug industry and force the "big pharma" companies to sell their goods at a lower cost. this would, however, destroy the innovation we see in the pharma industry for both the US and canada because canada is a beneficiary of what is known in economic circles as the "free rider problem".

basically, since canada gets most of it's medicines from the united states, the high cost of drugs in the US is subsidizing the lower price the canadian government is willing to pay. without the US paying for the research costs of "Big Pharma", the medicines would not be developed and would be unavailable everywhere. but since the US pays more than it's share of the development of these drugs, canada can slip in with offering a lower price and receive maximum benefit.

second, the apples to crabapples comparison. if we moved to a socialized healthcare (or health insurance) system and it actually did cost less than what we currently have today, then basic economics tells us that we would not be getting the same level of service than what we were getting. you can't move from an inefficient system to a less efficient system and get the same goods for a cheaper price.

one comparison statistic we can look at is cancer survival rates by country. "Most Cancer Survival Rates in USA Better Than Europe and Canada" blares the headline, even with our less healthy lifestyles.

so what's the proper solution to our inefficient healthcare system if not government? clearly, based on the economic (in)efficiency models i described, we need to get back to a more laissez-faire system. we need people to have a more vested interest in picking both the healthcare they need and the cost they are willing to pay for said healthcare.

one way to do this is to advocate a high deductible healthcare plan. people will be protected from catastrophic and unexpected medical costs while paying for a good portion of their healthcare themselves.

the government has started to promote this kind of system by creating the tax-advantaged Health Savings Account that is attached to a high deductible health insurance policy.

i believe enough in this solution that i participate myself and we have started to see some of the inefficiencies in the current system ironed out in our own transactions.

example: my wife is currently in her first trimester of pregnancy. this is the time when morning sickness reigns supreme and, at least in my wife's case, reigns all day (not just in the morning). she has taken a brand name anti-nausea medication in the past to help through this period and inquired of her doctor about the cost.

the cost for one round of prescription for the medicine is $300 which we would have to pay fully out of our Health Savings Account. under the insurance model, my wife never would have asked about a generic because she didn't have to incur the $300 cost. under the new model, she asked and found a generic that was $220.

now she had a choice to make. was spending $220 (knowing full well the cost, in labor and opportunity, of $220 to our family) worth the benefit of the good (the value of not feeling as sick during this period).

she decided it wasn't worth the benefit... yet, but did as good consumers are supposed to do and kept looking around. after a few more phone calls and questions to the right people, she found a local pharmacy that would mix their own version of the medicine (instead of getting it from a "Big Pharma" company) and it only cost $90.

she found the right cost for the proper value, made the economic transaction and maximum efficiency was achieved.

maybe someday i'll expand on the importance of efficiency to economic history and prosperity.

couch to 5k programs...

i've had several people that follow this blog ask about couch to 5k programs.

i used the "aggressive" couch to 5k program at beginnertriathlete.com that gets you there in 4 months. they also have a "conservative" program that takes 7 months.

my wife is using a program at coolrunning.com that she likes because there is a podcast associated with it that tells you when to start running and when to stop.

there are also plenty of other couch to 5k programs out there. if the ones my wife and i used don't work for you for whatever reason, just find one that will :)

YUM!

via the volokh conspiracy, i saw this and thought wowyum. or yumwow. or something.

tri libre!

so a week from saturday i'm going to "compete" in my first ever sprint triathlon. around sept. of last year my brother challenged me to do a sprint triathlon and i accepted the challenge. today i've decided to record a few things i've learned along the way:

1. the trip of 1000 miles (or, more specifically, 16 miles) begins with one step.

2. when talking about triathlons, the term "sprint" sounds more impressive than it is. all it really means is you are doing half an olympic length triathlon. (0.5 mile swim, 12.4 mile bike and 3.1 mile run).

3. when learning to swim, make sure to kick your legs hard.

4. when starting from ground 0, triathlons aren't cheap even when you try to go cheap:
- $40 for running shoes (you NEED good running shoes)
- $170 for a new bike
- $10 for bike helmet
- $10 for bike gloves (may not be needed. my hands kept going numb so i thought i'd try some.)
- $24/month for a gym membership (only needed for access to a pool with swim lanes)
- $75 registration fee for the actual triathlon (but hey, you get a t-shirt!)
- $100 for a trisuit
- ~$25 for sports nutrition
- $40 doctor fee to be told your foot pain is plantar fasciitis (but hey, the dr. DID print out the wikipedia article for me!)
Total: ~$700

5. if you decide to not use a trisuit, consider what you are going to do between the swim and bike portion of the race. you are standing there in your swimsuit ready to get on your bike. there are no changing rooms. your choices are to a) get naked in public and put on your shorts or b) buy an expensive trisuit that will dry quickly and can be used for both swimming and biking.

i decided not to get naked and to buy the trisuit. it looks great if i'm going for a mexican wrestler motif.

6. triathlons have old, fat guy divisions (more p.c. termed "senior clydesdale" division). anyone over 39 is "senior" and any man over 200 lbs is "clydesdale".

7. the big women division is called "athena" since describing a woman in terms of large farm animals is apparently pejorative.

8. women are more supportive than men. most common response i hear from women when they hear about my triathlon training are a variation of "you are an inspiration". most common response i hear from men: "can i watch? i've never seen a heart attack before".

i'm sure there are more things i've learned but that's all i can think of for now. wish me luck!

April Fools!

After getting fooled twice yesterday before noon even hit, I decided it was time for me to play my own April Fool's joke on my friends. It wasn't an original prank, in fact I'm pretty sure I've played this joke multiple times in years past. But this was the first time I've done it on facebook - and let me tell you, the response was hilarious.

I put my FB status as: "Liz Kenney Kirkby w00ty! baby #6 on the way! coming in November :) wish us luck!!!" Of course I got several "grats" and other well wishes. But there were a few doubters as well, citing April 1 as a day to be skeptical. I let it play out all day to see how far it would go.

The best reaction was definitely from our oldest daughter Brianne. In the end she was rather embarrassed for falling so hard for a joke, so I hope I dont make it worse by posting here. But I thought it was so sweet for her to be so excited for another baby in our family - it really touched me. She truly is a wonderful daughter - we couldnt have asked for a better firstborn.

After seeing my FB status she made the "announcement" on her own page: "Brianne Kirkby is getting a new baby brother/sister! YAY!!!" Several friends gave her grats too and she commented on how excited she was.

Finally Brian intervened:
Brian Kirkby at 4:07pm April 1
brianne, what day is today?

Brianne Kirkby at 4:10pm April 1
April Fools day, but i really think mom wouldnt lie about that. If she did then i am going to be mad at her.

So of course I had to make my own comment:
Liz Kenney Kirkby at 4:12pm April 1
yes, and by the way...i'll be moving the baby's nursery in to your room down stairs to make room for my office upstairs. i hope you don't mind taking care of the baby in the night. You're such a good big sister!

to which her only reply was:
Brianne Kirkby at 4:14pm April 1
wait. grrrrrrrrr! Where will maegann sleep?

the conversation continues:
Liz Kenney Kirkby at 4:25pm April 1
with you still. and since hannah has been wanting to go back to the downstairs room again we'll do that too. but then jackson will be by himself, so we'll just have to move the bunkbeds down and they can both be down there. so ya....party time! now, where should i put savannah? oh i know...IN YOUR ROOM!!!1!!

Brianne Kirkby at 4:27pm April 1
WAIT! SO I HAVE TO SHARE MY ROOM WITH ALL 3 OF MY SISTERS!?!?!?! that is the OPISITE of what i wanted!!!!!

Liz Kenney Kirkby at 4:29pm April 1
no no no.... jackson too. and dont forget the new baby as well :)

Brianne Kirkby at 4:30pm April 1
ugh whatever

she then changes her own FB status to "Brianne Kirkby ugh. JUST KIDDING! I DONT KNOW IF I AM GETTING A NEW SIBLING! MY MOM IS A LIAR! i am mad now."

She was actually very good natured about it. I am proud of her for not loosing it and being truly mad at me.

About an hour later I got a call from my father-in-law. "So, is it a prank or not?" I told him the truth and he was very disappointed. He said he had sent out emails to all his friends proclaiming the news of a new grandchild on the way. I told him he had better send out a retraction.

Thanks everyone for being so supportive of the possibility of us being new parents again. Hopefully someday soon we will have a REAL announcement. But don't hold your breath :)

Wordle Fun

drive-by media... UPDATED

this news piece irritates me.

first, the headline blares "Protesters angry about Obama's plan to help economy" which gives the impression that the people at this rally were a bunch of angry malcontents.

then the last line of the hit piece states:

"Most people at the capitol said they were at a loss about exactly what to do about the current crisis. Many said they simply were frustrated and afraid."

which furthers the idea that these were people just scared about the current economic situation and didn't really know where to direct their angst.

noone likes a malcontent who has no suggestions for how to make things better, and the "reporting" in this piece seems to play off that general feeling.

you are left with an impression that these people are a fringe group who just want to complain because they don't like president obama.

the problem is, i was there at that demonstration and i got a completely different feel than what is presented in that hit piece.

i was there for over an hour and i engaged in conversation with many of the people at the rally. i heard plenty of great ideas from the crowd about what should be done about our current economic crisis. the applause lines from the speakers all centered around having people, businesses and governments take personal responsibility for the mistakes they made and buckling down to pay the piper instead of begging for handouts. much like what we all have to do in our personal lives to show fiscal responsibility.

what most people seemed to be upset with was the fact that the administration is using the current fear of the economic crisis to allow the congress to fund all of the pet projects that the people have been rejecting for the past 50 years. you actually hear people justify the outlandish spending by saying "all spending is stimulous" which is like saying if your kids are hungry you should go buy them a nintendo. it's ridiculous on it's face, but the people are going for it because they are scared about potentially insolvent banks and are therefore willing to go into deep debt to assuage that fear.

and the obama administration and congress are all too happy to take advantage.

of course the ksl reporter wouldn't know about these viewpoints or the applause lines of the speakers because he left 5 minutes after the first speaker started speaking and didn't even stay to hear the 4 state representatives who offered remarks afterward.

he showed up for a few minutes, asked a few questions of a few people and then skedaddled out of there like he was late for his afternoon latte.

i was witness to an incident of what rush limbaugh refers to as "drive-by media". this reporter clearly had his own narrative about this demonstration and went there to get the video and sound bytes he could craft to fit that narrative and then left.

one thing that really struck me about the demonstrators was how diverse they seemed to be. a range of socio-economic classes, races and political ideology were represented. the organizer even commented at the end about how he understood that many of the demonstrators had various political views, but that we were united on this one issue. that was certainly the impression that i had from talking to people as well.

another thing that struck me about the demonstration was how deeply grassroots it was. these "tea-party" demonstrations started last week within several cities across the nation with attendance anywhere from 100 to 1000 people depending on the city.

i read several leftists trying to dismiss these demonstrations as being heavily funded by corporate interests in an effort to downplay the grassroots nature of them.

i can tell you if this demonstration had been "heavily funded" by anyone, we would have had a much larger turnout. as it happens, i heard about the demonstration last sunday by good ole fashioned word-of-mouth when a distant relative of my brother's wife told me about it in my brother's kitchen.

i went around the demonstration asking people where they had heard about it and everyone said they had heard about it from someone else. i asked if there was an email list i could get on to receive further notices and the response was that there was no email list, just people talking to people.

you can't get more grassroots than that.

in any case, the turnout was much larger than i expected (i half expected there to be 5, maybe 10 people show up) but i wanted to go anyway in hopes that this could be the start of a snowball that would get bigger and bigger. it has to start somewhere and i was glad to help start it.

next friday there is a "we surround them" demonstration organized by listeners to glenn beck's radio show. i don't listen to glenn beck, but i understand, from talking with people who do, that it will basically be about the same thing the tea party was about. i'm sure that event will be greater attended if anyone is interested (i'll be there).

UPDATE: here is an example of a real reporter getting the story. notice he has quotes from all the state reps that were there (i.e. he stayed for the whole thing instead of just driving by).

UPDATE2: after watching the video (instead of just reading the story) i notice the print report is slightly different than the video report. in particular in that last line where they claim the demonstrators were "afraid". the reporter didn't characterize that in the video report at all. instead he said "angry and frustrated".

knowing that editors usually write the headlines, it wouldn't surprise me if the anti-demonstration bias was slipped into the report, not by the reporter, but by an activist editor, so i might be being too harsh on the reporter.

but it remains true that he showed up briefly and bailed out well before the whole story could be aquired.

looking for a bike

brian here. i am looking for a decent bike for a project i am working on (to be fully announced later). i am also working on a limited budget (esp. since the taxman is not gonna be nice to us for this past year). i prefer a road bike, but i'd be willing to go with a mountain bike if that's what's available. if anyone who reads this knows of any bikes that are up for sale cheap. please let me know in comments or at bkirkby@kirkby.org.

thanks!

Runup on no candy for a whole year.

So, my mom's cousin Mitzi was wondering how my no candy for a year was going. It's going pretty well! I had to lick just one lick from a sucker for a class, but that's it! i haven't eating anything and its been 3 months! I think I'm doing pretty well!! haha. So, yah. there have been times when i REALLY want candy, but i tell myself no and i get on with my life. haha.
Well thats my runup on my life without candy!
♥Briannekirkby

on global economies

so i ebayed this microsd to usb converter since i'm playing around with flash drives lately. (i'm trying to find a good solution for bulk buying for a business idea i have).

i go to ebay and find one that's on buyout for $0.89 with free shipping. i'm thinking "that's not a bad thing" so i splurge and spend the $0.89 halfway thinking i'd never see the item.

i had to pay via paypal which, for some reason, didn't charge me anything for the transaction (maybe it was too small?!).

to my surprise, i actually got it today shipped all the way from hong kong.

all that for $0.89.

i'm guessing they are making a profit because they have a lot more listed (and not as bulk).

wewt!

Lessons learned from a Diaper Rash

Savannah has developed a yeast infection combined with diaper rash this last week. It is somewhat painful for her, especially when she poops or pee's in her diaper. She screams and screams when she has messed her pants because her skin is so sensitive. I have a prescription ointment for the yeast infection and I alternate that with regular diaper rash ointment every time I change her diaper.

The sad part is that she gets really mad at me whenever I change her diaper and put this goo on her bum. She looks at me as if I am the meanest mom in the world and I have broken her heart with my "abuse".

Just a few minutes ago I went through this with her and it made me think about our Heavenly Father and how he must feel when we have our own trials in life. As her mother, I see Savannah in pain when she has a wet/dirty diaper. I go to Savannah to clean her up and apply the medicine that will make her better in the long run, even though it is painful to apply at the current moment. She doesn't understand why I am doing it. It is hard for me to see her going through it. She thinks I am making it worse, but I know it is what she needs to overcome her problem.

Just as our Heavenly Father see's us in our earthly pain at times. He wants to give us what we need to overcome our problems. Sometimes we don't see it as the right answer to our problem, just how Savannah doesn't understand the ointment will help her sore bum. But in His wisdom, he knows what we need - even when we don't. It may even seem that He is not hearing our plea's and not giving us what we need. But He is. He see's the big picture where we do not. We are immature compared to Him. Just as Savannah is immature compared to me.

I would never stop giving my children their medicine just because they don't understand how it helps them. I understand and that is enough. They need to trust me that what I give them will help. As such, we need to trust in God that He knows what we need. If we are living the right way, He will put us on the right path.

I try to apply this principle in my own life, but it is hard at times. I see my family and friends going through their trials in life - asking "Lord, why is this happening to me?". But it is my testimony and belief that He is aware of us and what we need. We experience these trials for a reason and He is in control. Live by correct principles and He will guide you.

Love to you all,
Liz

Chirstmas 08

Chirstmas 08 was a great success. We finally got with the times and had Santa bring us a Wii. It has been lots of fun and everyone has been enjoying it the last month. We've had to put a ban on playing on school mornings since that usually causes problems with being ready on time. The games we got were: Raving Rabids (1, 2, and 3), Lego Indiana Jones, Mario Kart, Mario Super Sluggers, My Sims, and Wii Sports.

It was also Maegann's year to get her American Girl Doll. she was very excited. Especially when she got a trunk full of clothes and accessories from Grandma Kenney.

Hannah's favorite stocking surprise was a set of earrings. At first she was confused since she doesn't have pierced ears, but it turned to thrilling excitement when she realized it meant she could go get her ears pierced later in the week.

We had a blast with family over the Christmas Break. Our Kirkby cousins got Guitar Hero which turned into a huge entertaining event all week long. We were so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa Kirkby from Texas. They were here for two full weeks. Too bad it was during the worst snow storms of the year and they had to put up with the snow - they don't like snow :)

is church torture?

ok, so this story has Susan Crawford (the convening authority of military commissions over guantanamo bay detainees) declaring that a gitmo detainee was tortured.

what evidence did she have that he was tortured? it wasn't the "enhanced interrogation tactics" used against the man (like isolation, exposure to coldish environments, and some frat-like things like making him wear a bra) that had her reach that conclusion, but, rather, the fact that the tactics twice caused his heart rate to drop well below 60 beats per minute.

in her own words:

The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge [to call it torture]

the medical impact of having his heart rate drop below 60 beats per minute.

i dunno about ya'll, but i still think of torture as "a horrendous physical act done to an individual" like saddam hussein feeding people's legs to a wood chipper.

but it's comforting to know that this woman has my back, because apparently i'm being tortured every week. i wonder if i can get some gubmint money for my pain?!

let me 'splain.

my parents got me a heart rate monitor (HRM) for Christmas. this is all part of my ongoing effort to be healthier. i use it to pace myself properly when i go running 3 times a week (sometimes even in "torturous"ly extreme temperatures below zero). occasionally i'll wear the HRM throughout the day to establish a baseline of where my heart rate rests in normal activity. usually i'm right around 60-65 bpm.

last sunday i wore the HRM to church. the speakers for sacrament meeting were a very interesting family with interesting things to say. i was attentive and interested in the talks. i wasn't even close to falling asleep (which, i sheepishly admit, does happen way too often for me in sacrament meeting).

my heart rate measured a consistent 48bpm throughout the meeting (only spiking to normal when i had to reprimand one of the kids for something).

i just figured that i had scientific evidence that church was good for your heart, but apparently, according to Susan Crawford, i was being tortured.

so, anyone know a hungry lawyer-type that would be interested in making some easy money? we'll make sure the complaint includes reference to bush AND cheney and maybe throw in something about how global warming is causing the "torturously" cold tempurature's i'm having to run in. surely one of the liberal bugaboos has got to stick and make us rich!