Facebook allows you to state your “Religious Views” and your “Political Views.” One of my Facebook friends had this:

Political Views: Yes, I have them.
Religious Views: I have those, too.

That, of course, is not in the spirit of Facebook, where you’re expected to tell the world absolutely everything about yourself. No being cryptic.

My own Facebook “Political Views” says, “Moderate, but you might think me liberal.” As I’m sure many of you do think of me. I decided to look up the political views of my Facebook friends, and I found a fascinating assortment. Some just said “Republican” or “Conservative,” but others waxed far more interesting. Many would describe me, including the simple “Unclassifiable.”

Enjoy.

• I’m a rebel against the new establishment.
• Caught in the middle
• Pondering
• Whomever – but I’m always right! 🙂
• Incorrect
• Depends on the Issue.
• Too complicated for sound bytes
• Right Wing Republican Wacko [the same person who had “Right Wing Evangelical Republican Wacko” as his religious view]
• Other
• You don’t know, and I won’t tell. I like it that way.
• Tired of crooks
• Thoughtful
• Responsible
• I hate politics, but I suppose they’re necessary…
• Lots of ’em
• Go very for left and when you think you cant go any further take two more steps to the left.
• I don’t want to play anymore
• Optimistic
• Right vs. wrong not right vs. left
• Opinionated
• Does It Really Matter?
• Tend to be middle of the road
• Constitution Party, but a monarchist at heart
• Definitely left of center
• God, soldiers, family
• Medium Rare
• Conservative most of the time.
• You say “liberal”, I say “biblical”
• Reformed Biblical Reconstructionist
• Conservative Hippie
• Disappointed
• Looking for a nice conversation over lunch about how Jesus wants the world to spin
• I want to actually help the poor, not just talk about it
• Don’t give a sh*t!!!
• I don’t love politics–or political TV. I vote based on convictions and who might be at least a little bit honest.

You gotta love Microsoft, whose brand identity is, “We’re more frustrating than anyone else.”

I thought I had mastered forms on Word 2008. But on Word 2011, I couldn’t even find the forms controls. The built-in help was no help. Looked everywhere in vain.

Finally, someone on a bulletin board explained that you must enable the “Developer” tab. You do that by clicking on the gear symbol in the ribbon (of COURSE!), clicking on “Ribbon Preferences,” and then checking a box labeled “Developer” (of COURSE!). Now there’s a tab called “Developer,” and it has forms controls.

That was TOTALLY intuitive, don’t ya think?

Salon, an online magazine, has an advice column. I don’t read advice columns, since they are answered from a secular perspective and therefore miss the boat when it comes to problems with spiritual solutions. But the heading for this one read, “I have everything. My life is empty.” I just HAD to see how the columnist answered that one.

The person seeking advice wrote:

I have it all. Life has been good. Though by no means rich, I have money in the bank, a solid marriage and prospects for a comfortable future.
But I am happier when I have less.

The advice columnist wowed me with her wisdom. She really did. Particularly the first paragraph. I added some emphasis.

It is not hard to figure out why the life you have chosen does not make you happy. It was not designed to make you happy. It was designed to maximize your purchases….

Maximizing your purchases will not make you happy. The lifestyle of consumption is not designed to make you happy. It’s designed to make the people who sell you things happy. It’s designed to suck the maximum number of dollars out of you for the maximum number of years, maintaining you as a dependable, lifetime revenue source on the nearly infinite ledger of American capitalism….

In considering how to change your life, remember that you have enemies. Your enemies don’t want you to change. They want to keep you as a dependable revenue source….Your enemies prefer you to be constantly unhappy, constantly in search of things to buy. It is better for your enemies…if you know little of your true capacity for free action, for a relaxed, carefree life devoid of worry. It is better for them if you believe there is no alternative.”

There is much, much more, as the columnist talked about her own journey amidst American materialism. But I found these opening paragraphs to be very perceptive.

Our whole society is designed around materialism. We want to possess tings. We’re told that saving money is good, and yet our economy will collapse if people don’t spend. Buying stuff is partly what it means to be an American. It’s practically patriotic.

As a Christian, I know that I’m not made for this world. I’ve been “fearfully and wonderfully made” for something eternal–to love God and enjoy him forever, as the catechism says, and to make a difference in people’s lives while inhabiting earth. I’m not designed to be a consumer. Not designed to fit neatly into a man-made political category. Not even designed to be United Brethren, or Nazarene, or some other religious brand. I’m made for something not of this world.

The world’s systems won’t bring me happiness. I’ve got to remember that.

It’s been revealed: Apple’s next operating system, version 10.7, will be named “Lion.”

OSX came out in 2001, code-named Cheetah. While 9/11 doesn’t seem like all that long ago, it seems like I’ve been using OSX forever. Was I really still using OS9 back in 2001? Hard to believe.

I was wondering which cat would be next. Since OSX (version 10) arrived, they’ve gone through these names:

10.0 Cheetah (March 2001)
10.1 Puma (Sept 2001)
10.2 Jaguar (Aug 2002)
10.3 Panther (Oct 2003)
10.4 Tiger (April 2005)
10.5 Leopard (Oct 2007)
10.6 Snow Leopard (Aug 2009)
10.7 Lion (???)

My personal prediction for 10.7 was Lynx or Bobcat. Other possibilities are Ocelot and Cougar. That’s pretty much all of the choices left in the cat family. We’ve only got two more cats coming, with versions 10.8 and 10.9.

I’m guessing Bobcat and Cougar, though technically, the puma and cougar–and mountain lion–are the same animal. However, Microsoft used the Bobcat and Cougar names with its small business server in 2003 and 2008, perhaps playing some kind of dirty trick on Apple. Or, more likely, following Apple’s lead in a futile attempt to be hip.

Maybe Apple will do the Leopard/Snow Leopard thing with Lion, and make 10.8 “Mountain Lion” an incremental upgrade Then conclude with Ocelot or Lynx.

I wonder what code names Apple will use when they reach version 11. Switch to dogs? Famous painters? Or maybe something inanimate, like planets? Whatever they decide, it’ll be better than Vista.

In San Diego, people are rightfully outraged over a convicted sex offender who killed two young women. In 2005, he had been released from prison after serving five years for beating and imprisoning a 13-year-old girl. After three more years on parole, he was basically living free. We hear these stories all the time.

Whenever cases like this arise, people understandably ask how such a person could go free in society, and there are cries for perpetual monitoring or imprisonment. I totally understand the outrage, whether it applies to sex offenders or murderers or other violent criminals.

But I got to thinking–how many thousands upon thousands of people who have committed such crimes and served their time–for sex offenses and violence–are living free and will NOT repeat their crimes? I know a few people who served their time and have not been repeat offenders. They are back in society, living freely and productively.

When someone commits a sex crime, do we want to imprison him for the rest of his life, or perpetually monitor him electronically? We could. But it would overload an already-burdened system.

Is this guy in San Diego an exception, or the norm? I’m asking, because I don’t know. The stats show that sexual predators tend to remain sexual predators, and repeat offenders deserve little mercy. But there’s only so much we can do (like sex offender registries) after a person has served his time. And a great many convicted criminals do change their lives.

I’m not advocating anything. I’m just wondering out loud. Criminal justice isn’t my area of specialty, so a high lack of knowledge accompanies my musings. What should be my attitude, and society’s attitude? Do we really want to come down hard on everyone, because of the potential repeat offenders? What’s the right approach?