How to Find Bin Laden

Today was a watershed day in my moving to Alaska. I moved up here from Missouri the last week in July; I have now lived here for just over 4 months.

There are a number of tasks that need to be accomplished when making a move. One of the most important is ensuring that your mail is delivered to your new address rather than where you formally resided. Dropping off a change of address form at the local post office is the easy part; making sure that all the folks you do business with (creditors, banks, clubs, organizations, magazines, mail-order houses, and maybe family and friends) can be more difficult. The ability to change your address with businesses using the Internet has made this task a little easier. However, there is still the concern that you will forget to give your new address to someone.

There are some that you intentionally forget. Organizations or businesses you do not want to hear from, and had never contacted in the first place.

Not long after I moved from Alaska to Missouri the first time, I started receiving newsletters and solicitations from my alma mater. How they knew where I was I have no idea; maybe they have students working full time Googling names of alumni.

Today I received my first piece of mail from them since moving back to Alaska. If the President had deputized the University of Alaska Anchorage Alumni Association into the War on Terror, Bin Laden would have been found long ago.

The Last Frontier

I'm posting this entry from a Kaladi Brothers coffee house. It's like many coffee houses that you would be familiar with, except it is in ANCHORAGE, ALASKA. I'm looking out the front window watching the clouds roll down the green Chugach mountains that border the city to the east, with snow still in the high crevices near the peaks. Awesome.

I still can't believe I'm back. I lived in the Anchorage area for nearly 9 years prior to moving down to Springfield, MO to attend seminary. I served for 4 years as a squad leader in an airborne infantry battalion on Ft. Richardson, adjacent to Anchorage. I earned my BBA from the University of Alaska Anchorage. I've motorcycled nearly everywhere in the state where there are roads, and some places where there weren't any. It feels like I'm back home.

I was a little surprised by how much the place looks the same. Sure, there have been some changes, but everything is so familiar. It is almost like I went Outside for a short vacation.

One thing that has been different is the weather. Anchorage is in the midst of the coldest, rainiest summer in most folks memory. It tends to be overcast the majority of the time. I think it's FANTASTIC! I was never really happy with the heat and humidity of the Ozarks, and tended to stay inside most of the time. The fellow I drove up the Alaska highway with commented each morning about how the temperature was dropping as we continued traveling north. The temperature difference from his previous home (Mesa, AZ) was greater than mine. Each time he commented on the temp, I'd reply with, "Isn't it great?" and laugh.

Following posts will detail how I ended up here, and why.

The Passing of George Carlin

By now everyone knows that George Carlin died last week at age 71. At least, I though everybody did - everyone except the woman that I heard quoting Carlin last night.

"You know he died, right?"

"What? No! When?"

"Last week."

"Nooo!"

I wasn't a huge Carlin fan. Carlin is probably best known for his bit on "The 7 Things You Can't Say on Television" from back in the '70s. He had a long career, with appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson in the '60s to shows in the last year. The past couple of decades seem to have made him more bitter and vitriolic, and I stopped listening to him almost 20 years ago. Of course, he ridiculed religion, especially Christianity.

But he had a sharp intellect and keen perception, especially about human behavior. My favorite bit of his, called "A Place For My Stuff," released in 1981 on the album of the same name, was a good rant about how materialistic we are. Matthew 6:19-21 states "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." But Carlin's bit was based on the fact that we spend so much of our lives working against this very warning, working hard to earn enough to fill our lives with possessions. It's a funny bit, because it points out the absurdity of our actions (I think much of comedy is about the absurd), but is extremely sobering when measured against Scripture.

Here is a clip of his "Stuff" bit recorded for Comic Relief '86. WARNING: Carlin does use some profanity, so if you are offended by profane language, please do not watch this clip.

No wonder they think we are nuts

As I was waiting to get a haircut today, I scanned the magazines in the rack, looking for something to read. There was a copy of Rolling Stone magazine there, and the cover promised an article inside by Matt Taibbi. I thought, "hey, the guy from NBC News," so I picked it up. I was wrong, however: Matt is the political commentator for RS; his father, Mike Taibbi, is a political contributor to NBC News.

Anyways, the article was titled "Jesus Made Me Puke," and was an excerpt from Matt's soon-to-be-published book The Great Derangement. In that excerpt, Matt, who is a non-believer, tells a story about attending a weekend long spiritual retreat conducted by a well-know mega-church in Texas (I won't tell you which one; you need to read the article). Matt poses as a new believer, and experiences both touchy-feely integrationist pop psychology sessions and a deliverance ceremony to cast out the demons of various sins. What he doesn't experience in any form is anything approaching discipleship.

I interact with non-believers about Biblical issues on a regular basis, and Matt's article highlights items #2 & #3 of the 4 items on my list of Typical Accusations Made Against Christians, which are #2 Christians are Gullible and #3 Christians Do Not Know The Tenets of Their Faith (items #1 & #4 are Christians Are Hypocrites). For the most part, they seem to be fair assessments of American Christianity. The two highlighted in the article I believe are closely linked. Understandably, the claims made in Scripture are fantastic, even to someone that subscribes to a historical-grammatical hermeneutic. But the vast majority of Christians are not well versed (I love puns!) in doctrine, and so have not been able to integrate the truth contained in Scripture into their thinking. They cannot formulate a rational, logical defense of their faith, because they know little of their faith. And the little they do know is typically misapplied within their lives. No wonder non-believers look at us like we have some sort of mental defect.

Why that name?

First thing I want to get out of the way is explain why I chose to name my blog The Perfect Demo.

I'm a motorcyclist. I love riding bikes. I enjoy every aspect of motorcycling. The ride. Planning for the ride. Talking about rides I've taken. Wrenching on my bike. Shopping for farkles. Spending time with other people who share my same passion for motorcycles.

I even became a motorcycle safety instructor. I became a Motorcycle Safety Foundation certified Instructor in May 1996, and taught for the ABATE of Alaska-sponsored Rider Education Program through August 2000.

When teaching students out on the range, instructors will read directions for the exercise they will be conducting, and one of the instructors will demonstrate the exercise by riding it. This way the students will know which way to go and how to perform the exercise.

Instructors are competitive. They are also show offs. At least my crew was. The standard was to demonstrate the exercise without mistakes. Unofficially, we wanted to be flawless. We practiced hard so that we could conduct the smoothest demonstration possible, smoothly, like a machine. We wanted to do "the perfect demo" each and every time.

I wish I could say that I had attained the perfect demo in my spiritual life. As a disciple of Christ, I know that I am being conformed to the image of my Savior. I'm striving for that perfection, knowing I'll never attain it in this life, but I'm still working towards that Perfect Demo.