Yesterday our Vizio VX37L died. Jaime attempted to turn the TV on and it wouldn’t power up. It has this logo in the front that is amber when powered off and lights white when powered on. I noticed that the logo wasn’t even amber, which was a bad sign. When I unplugged and replugged the TV, the logo would light up amber, but quickly faded. Not good.

I tried all the simple things (unplug, wait 10 seconds, replug, etc) but nothing changed. Jaime had done a bit of online digging and other people had seen this issue exactly as we are seeing. The only solution for them was to find an authorized Vizio serviceperson. /sigh It would probably cost us $200-300 to get this fixed after parts and labor, so we were going to look for a new TV.

Before we left, I decided I would go ahead and look for some folks who self-repaired this issue. I found a thread talking about the power logic board being at fault when this exact scenario happens. Apparently if you can find one for a decent price, you can do this fix yourself, but it’s not for the weak of heart. I’m a tinkerer so this doesn’t phase me at all.

So, I’m churning through this repair thread and it abruptly ends with a “Nevermind, was able to return the TV to Costco!”

This caught my attention as we purchased out TV from Costco, but it was in January of 2007, and at that time this TV cost a whopping $899! So this repair thread became a “How did that work?” thread where many others were asking this gentleman how he was able to return the TV, how long he had it, etc. Turns out he had bought his TV in 2005 and was able to return in in 2008!

THAT IS CRAZY! So, I read on. Apparently Costco’s original return policy didn’t have any time limits, meaning you could return products ANY time after purchase for the full price! He mentioned that the manager at Costco told him that if the TV was purchased more than 4 years prior, it would have required manager approval, but his TV was only 3 years old, so it wasn’t as issue.

Our TV was less that 4 years old, so why not see if we can get this to work, maybe the internet will be correct! So, I call Costco.com‘s customer service line and it turns out they couldn’t find that information, and they gave me the number of our local costco (which is barely local to us, but that’s beside the point). I call in and the manager seems very confounded, which I was expecting due to the nature of my request. Here’s how our conversation went:

Me: I would like to return a television, please.
Him: Okay, do you have a receipt?
Me: No, it’s been a long time since we’ve purchased this television.
Him: More than 90 days?
Me: Significantly more actually.
Him: Well, when did you buy it?
Me: Early 2007
Him: How early?
Me: January (at this point I think I am going to be told that I can take a hike)
Him: Let me look it up [waiting for a minute] A 37 inch Vizio?
Me: Yes
Him: Sure, you can return that. Just bring all the cables, remote, etc. and we’ll take care of it
Me: Really?
Him: Yup.
Me: We are on our way!

I still had my doubts, but we trekked up to the Costco and got the same strange look from the lady at returns, who then started some paperwork and ended up handing us a Costco cash card with $962 on it. The total purchase price and tax paid on the TV ALMOST FOUR YEARS AGO!!!!!

We were so shocked. So, we went over to their electronics department and after Jaime talked me out of another Vizio (but it was 55 inches! :-P), we ended up snagging the last of their Sony 46″ KDL-46EX701 models ( www.sonystyle.c… ). This model is no longer in production as Sony has moved to their 2011 TVs, but it has loads of features, a beautiful picture, and a 3 year warranty! Best part, it was on clearance for $899!

So we basically traded in out 3 year old 37″ 720p Vizio LCD TV for a brand new 46″ 1080p Sony LED/LCD TV.

As a final note, Costco revised their return policy sometime in 2007 to limit returns on most products to 90 days, so this plan will no longer work. :-(

-Chris

Here’s my take.

I am a conservative, this does not default to republican in my book, as the republican party has veered very, very far from it’s days of Reagan conservatives. Now, the republican party is happy to grow the government just as much as the democrats, and with just the same amount of bureaucratic inefficiency as their counterparts “across the aisle”.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for a two-party uber alles system, where the parties spend all their time fighting one another from some ideological bulwarks without ever wanting to work together. But, when you represent a party that has a base that believes in fundamentally small, efficient, and effective governments, who focus solely on what the Constitution requires of them, then they need to represent that view in their daily work. This won’t always be the case, just as sometimes a parent has to overstep their own ideal bounds with their children to steer them away from potentially fatal situations, when they might often let them learn on their own. Sticking your finger in hot water teaches you about hot things and the danger/pain of abuse, sticking your finger in a light socket may prove fatal, thus destroying the entire point of teaching at all.

There will be times (great depression) when the government is forced to act in extreme ways to fend off complete national collapse, but it must relinquish those powers once the emergency is over, lest we see a oligarchical nation come into power before our very eyes.

Looking at heavy-handed communist or socialist countries gives me pause, because most of those nations were founded with the best of intentions. Making the working-class, middle-class people more powerful by putting the government on “their side” looks great on paper, but the more you trust those without accountability outside of themselves, the more personal responsibility you (perhaps inadvertently) hand over to them. You no longer need to worry about working for yourself, you work for the country. You earn what the country earns and live how the country lives. Communities are “installed” as needed by the motherland and all you have to do is what you are told to do.

This system can work, but you don’t need the government to drive it. You can loan money to people without interest, believe it or not. Thanks to our overly-bloated tax and banking laws, it is much harder to do that, but you could do it easily once upon a time. There are lots of things that we now need the government to do for us, that once upon a time, we could do without the help of the government.

There are some things that a government should always be doing. Protecting the nation from threats for foreign and domestic is a good one. Guaranteeing citizens protection from crime and fraud is another one. Also, currency control in order to govern inflation and economic growth to prevent huge swings that are potentially national threats.

Neither of the candidates seem to want to focus on these issues. They both seem content to throw money at problems that call for much deeper reform. The fear I have with Sen. Obama is a complete democratically controlled government. The GOP had that a while back and they hosed it up badly. Checks and balances are our friends, after all.

But, I tend to think that the only thing that will wake up the republican party is to see how many conservatives cannot bring themselves to vote for Sen. McCain. Give me a conservative candidate next time, and he/she will have my vote.

I cannot discount Sen. Obama’s ability to bring a nation together under a notion of change, but we need to change for the better. Believe it or not, this country has “changed” greatly from what the Constitution has laid out for the federal government and I think we need to “change” back into the original vision of the founding fathers.

In debates with folks at work, and following an email list that I run for family members, it seems that many of the Obama supporters would rather the government take over stuff that is working inefficiently. They are fine with giving the government the go-ahead, having them tax the rich more, and then wait for the government to handle it. The problem with that mentality is what do you do when the government lets you down? What happens when a promise about pre-existing conditions turn into a wait in long lines for a “specialist”. What happened in other countries are people paying out-of-pocket to see doctors when they want to.

If malpractice was reformed, health care would see a dramatic shift in pricing and availability. Instead, the candidates want to funnel *more* money into a flawed system. You can’t federalize health care insurance without federalizing health care. The government will soon dictate, like a giant HMO, which doctors can charge what prices under their care. Once that division takes place, it won’t be long until the other doctors are forced into their system to still have patients.

Why not take those monies that you want the government to have and funnel them into non-profits and charities designed to help offset health-care costs specifically for people with a pre-existing condition? There isn’t one? WHY NOT BE PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE AND START ONE!?

I know plenty of people that could afford health care, but choose to buy flat-screen TVs and new cars. They take trips and vacations and have the latest technology, then turn around and say that health care is too expensive. Issues like that are about priorities. People with multiple kids have to adjust their spending as well as people that lose lawsuits. Life isn’t “fair” for everyone, but there are ways to make it work, if people are personally responsible enough to actually make it happen.

In my time in Church, I’ve seen that there are people that have a passion for just about anything you can think of. If you want to adopt, they can get you grants, huge sums of money donated by people who have a heart for the suffering of orphans. If you want to go on a mission trip to help build buildings in 3rd world countries, you can get donations to help you accomplish that.

Many children’s hospitals are funded by benefactors so that families can get the care they need without having to bear the entire burden. To think that there is no hope for adults that have a certain condition(s) is to discount the true nature of Americans. You can bet that there are people who have money to send and would happily fund an organization designed to help certain afflicted people get the care they need.

Many issues are just like this! We moved to California a couple years back and now we’re tired of it. The lifestyle is okay, but it’s not Indiana, and we don’t have any family here. In addition, this state is hemorrhaging money into a broken school system and countless junk programs. There are *plenty* of people out here who complain 24/7 about it. They talk about lobbying this and that and trying to change it in such and such a way. Good for them!! Get in there and make a change, but for us, we are going to move to a place that’s more affordable and closer to family. We will bear the responsilibily of moving ourselves and make it happen. I think Californians in general like the idea of a socialist agenda with a huge state government, so I am compelled to leave if I disagree. So be it. I don’t have a right to live in California with a government of my choosing.

The issue I face is that if America takes a turn toward a big-government behemoth, we will have to leave the country to escape that kind of government intervention. That’s a bit tougher for me to do because there have been many people who have fought and died for this country and I want it to flourish like it has the first 225 years of it’s life. We don’t need a bigger government, we need bigger citizens that will take to hear the infamous question: “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”

So, who am I voting for? Honestly, I’m not sure. I guess I pray that there will be something that can convict me what is best for America in the long term, and not just for me in the short term. Here’s to hoping!! /clink

As a last thing, here is JFK’s tremendous “Ask Not” speech. If you’ve never read it, you really should. I pretty much agree with every assertion he makes in that speech…

www.famousquote…

-Chris

My grandfather, Donald Lewis Heacock, went home to the Lord on May 20th, 2007. If you follow my blog, you’ll see that his wife of more than fifty years passed on less than three months prior.

It was this abrupt end to my grandpa’s life that left me unable to say anything worth saying on this blog. My grandmother was suffering from cancer and her passing was a welcome end to an outwardly visible suffering. My grandfather, on the other hand, was suffering quietly and internally. He had his share of maladies, he had suffered a stroke many years ago which affected his quality of life, and shortly before his passing had been to the doctor’s office trying to iron out some medication issues.

Even with those conditions, his passing was a complete surprise to everyone. In thinking about his life, especially after he lost his wife, it dawned on me that he was most likely overcome with a desire to be finished with this place. I can’t imagine what he was feeling, and as typical with Heacock men, he wouldn’t have shared those feelings anyway. I do know that as a veteran, a musician, and an avid woodworker, his stroke had changed his ability to enjoy life as much in those ways. I my opinion, he was living to take care of his wife, in whatever capacity he could, even if that meant just being there for her.

Once she had passed, I think his drive to keep on breathing was gone and it was only a matter of time until God stepped in and ended his mortal tour of duty. I think these two pictures sum it up perfectly.

The second picture was taken at my parent’s house after Grandma’s funeral. His expression looks to me like a man who is trying to figure out where he goes from here.

I’ll end this post with a reminder… Take time to talk with those people that are special to you. In my lifetime, I never got to know my grandpa very well. He was always working on something it seems, and I just don’t have a lot of memories of him from my childhood. In reading his obituary, I saw that he served in the Army (which I knew), but he served in a band and played the upright bass (which I never knew). I can honestly say that as I read that, I felt like I had let a piece of my own history pass off this earth without spending enough time to learn/appreciate it. I love music, and that love was installed by my parents, especially my father. I’m not sure (see my above note about Heacock men), but my dad’s love of music was probably influenced by his father. That, my friends, is almost a legacy of music. And I never knew.

Take the time to learn about your history, and if you can do that with a living legacy, do it asap. Don’t wait for another opportunity, it’s just not worth it.

Here’s an anonymous poem that reminds me of my grandpa…

THE FINAL INSPECTION

The soldier stood and faced his God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as brightly as his brass

“Step forward now you soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek,
And to my church have you been true?”

The soldier squared his shoulders and said,
“No Lord, I guess I ain’t,
Because those of us who carry guns,
Can’t always be the saints

“I’ve had to work most Sundays
And at times my talk was tough
And sometimes I’ve been violent
Because the streets were awfully rough”

But I never took a penny,
That wasn’t mine to keep
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills just got to steep,

And I never passed a cry for help
Although, at times I shook with fear
And sometimes, God forgive
I’ve wept unmanly tears

I know I don’t deserve a place
Among the people here
That never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears

If you have a place for me here O’ Lord
It needn’t be so grand
I’ve never expected, or had so much
But if you don’t I’ll understand”

There was a silence all around the throne
Where the Saints had often trod
As this soldier waited quietly
For the judgment from his God

“Step foward now you soldier,
You’ve borne your burdens well
Walk peacefully on Heaven’s streets,
You’ve done your time in Hell”

-Chris

See www.freedom-to-… for the info, but basically, that number was used to encrypt a copyrighted work (A haiku) and I was given explicit rights to decrypt the work my the encryptor.

You better watch out!! :-D

-Chris

I align with Kevin Rose, founder of Digg, in this plight. The DMCA is getting a bit to big for its own britches and something as trivial as this might be a tipping point.

I welcome debate on why I’m wrong…

blog.digg.com/?…

-Chris

That’s probably one of the first movies we watched on that thing, although I’m not quite sure that I remember it costing FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS! We were poor college students. I worked at a frickin hole-in-the-wall crappy restaurant just to pay the bills, and here you were living it up with your fancy-pants electronical equipment, speakers bigger than the wheels on my Skyhawk, and more wattage than the entire GPS constellation. Selfish…pure selfish ;)

What I do remember is thinking how cool it was to have a *digital* system to watch movies, and how cool that uber-expensive optical cable was. Did it make a difference? I have no idea, but it was still really neato. What I remember more (unless it’s the same player and I’m having a brain fart) was the super-mega-DVD changer. Now THAT was totally unnecessary, but still completely cool.

We’re here at work watching “The Matrix” at 1am in the morning (0100 military time, 0700 Zulu), and I’m remembering the first time you and I saw it at the Terre Haute mini-plex. Great movie. That was just a few months before we graduated and I moved a million miles away. Now I’ve gone and made myself sad…

This reply is too long for a comment, but not distinct enough for its own post. I’ll blog here if you give me a topic to write on. Deal?

~Andrew

Ah … the good old days.

After a nice chuckle, it dawned on me that I haven’t asked my USAF buddy about his role, or more accuratley, the USAF’s role in the current Iraq conflict. I was also curious about how the war was being perceived by the folks that aren’t necessarily doing the house-to-house combat. He gave me permission to blog him, so here’s his reply, sanitized to protect the innocent:

The AF is completely involved in Iraq, although not as much when it comes to full-up urban warfare in a place like Baghdad, where the Marines and Army have to go house to house and bombs are a little inappropriate.

We do have some pretty cool newer, smaller bombs — do a search for the “Small Diameter Bomb.” It uses the most precise GPS-aided package ever made, and unfortunately I can’t give you the exact precision numbers, but it’s pretty darn good. If you wanted to take out just your neighbor’s car across the street, while limiting damage to the house, this bomb can do it. If you want to kill somebody in the northwest corner of a building, and make sure you don’t kill the POW in the southwest corner, this bomb could do it. If there was a tank hiding under a bridge, this bomb could be setup to penetrate the bridge first, and then blow up the tank under it, without doing too much damage to the bridge itself (besides the hole where it penetrated).

There’s other places where we can provide “close air support” to Marines and Army guys with bigger bombs and what not, like in some of the further-out areas where insurgents lurk. These also use GPS to hit whatever target the soldiers don’t want shooting at them anymore. The soldier pretty much just hits the target with a laser rangefinder to get the coordinates, relays them to the pilot (kinda like when they called in an air strike in old Vietnam movies), and then a plane (sometimes the big B-52s or B-1s even) just drops a single bomb right where the soldier wants it. After that, they go in and clean up the mess.

And, of course, there’s all the non-direct, supporting missions that the AF controls — GPS (yeah!), satellite communications, weather over the war zone (aka “theater”), basically all the space stuff outside of reconnaissance. I also have a buddy over there doing something a bit different — he’s in charge of setting up the Iraq Air Forces version of Officer Training School. It’s where all their pilots and other officers will go to “boot camp” prior to getting their commission as officers and moving on to pilot training or whatever else.

I’m sure there’s plenty of other miscellaneous tasks we’re doing over there, but I’m just not in the know.

As far as your second question of “how do we perceive the whole thing,” well, that’s a bit more of a quagmire (giggity). Some people believe very strongly on one side or the other, but most people are pretty moderate; many of the younger guys just know that “a war is going on” and that we’re providing support through accurate GPS. Although I should, I don’t think I have a strong opinion on the matter. I know what we did was great for the Iraqi people, and I hear stories about their thankfulness when guys come back. I know what we’re doing now is necessary for Iraq’s success as a democracy, otherwise they’ll end up potentially worse off than before. I know we can’t make a public “we’re going to pull troops out by xx date” statement, b/c that’s pretty much a ridiculous mistake that only tells the enemy how long they need to wait before they can attack and meet their objectives without opposition. But that’s about all I know or have thought about.

Did that answer your questions? There’s actually good info/stories on the www.af.mil page from overseas about what some guys are doing, and (I don’t know the link) there’s more in-depth stories in “Airman Magazine” somewhere within the af.mil domain.

I told him that we feel about the same way. The Iraq war is a nightmare on many levels, but we have to complete the mission or we will have made an even bigger mess than we already have. Timetabling the way to a specific date will definitely end the insurgency, because why waste anymore munitions? We’re leaving, so just wait. That can only be perceived by the enemy as a victory on their part. They finally beat us into submission, and we’re pulling out disgracefully.

The other thing I did was go research a bit on the stuff that was mentioned. These “Small Diameter Bombs” are very cool. Their accuracy over the distance they can be fired is amazing, and the description of hitting a car while minimizing damage to the house seems to be awfully accurate. The GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb is some serious technology that is very versatile in what it can accomplish. If you don’t believe the claim about blowing up a tank under a bridge without heavy bridge damage, check this out. Here’s the aftermath. Sure enough, minimal damage, even through steel reinforced concrete, 3 feet of which is within operational specs of this particular munition.

Now, as to my title question. How does any of this justify the expense required to build/maintain/deploy it? For me, this is easy…

This is a graph of a concept known as Circular Error Probable (CEP). This graph is very important for many reasons, but let’s start with some basics. A simple definition of CEP is “The distance from a target in which 50% of munitions will hit.” Now, if you’re any kind of statistician, you already balk at the “50%” statistic. Obviously, if 50% hit within a certain distance, then 50% hit outside that distance, so it’s a bogus stat and might be easily written off. But, the graph clarifies this further, because CEP is the first distance “n” given all distances using a normal distribution of ordnance distances from targets. That means there is a “bell curve” that peaks at the target position and trails off very rapidly by 3 times the CEP.

Moreover, the CEP for precision guided ordnance doesn’t follow a normal distribution due to the very precise nature of the weaponry. That means that the CEP will more than likely contain a higher than 50% ratio of hits and nearly 100% of all munitions land within 2xCEP of target.

In the case of the SDB, the CEP is 5-8m. That’s 15-25 feet. Since the bomb is precision guided, that means that almost all ordnance will hit within 50ft of the target, even on the worst possible targeting effort. This also means that a majority of the ordnance will land within 20 feet of the target. If the weapon is fired from a closer range the accuracy increases still, and the more telemetry that can be leveraged, the more accurate still.

Basically, everything my USAF buddy claimed is correct. This bomb gives you the ability to hit very isolated targets and save lives. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t put a price on human life, not even an Iraqi citizen halfway around the world that I’ve never met. If spending more money on defense provides one piece of technology that can accomplish the mission with less collateral damage, then spend the money.

If we stopped all this high technology and went back to churning out high-explosive and incendiary bombs and revert to the carpet bombing days of WWII. Heck, we could even try to top the Soviet Tsar Bomba with a >50 Megaton nuclear bomb and just level Baghdad altogether. I’m sure that our defense costs would drop dramatically in the R&D areas and we would have a nice budgetary surplus thanks not only to the decrease in defense spending, but the lack of foreign aid as most all of the middle east would soon perish in the nuclear winter and fallout.

I realize that we need to spend money here for things like roads, schools, and life-enrichment, but I think Mother Teresa was onto something when she said, “It is a poverty to decide that a child must die so that you may live as you wish.” If my daughter having a better education comes at the cost of lost lives in other parts of the world, then I’m home schooling her. The Bible (as usual) sums it up even better, “Anyone who sets himself up as ‘religious’ by talking a good game is self-deceived. This kind of religion is hot air and only hot air. Real religion, the kind that passes muster before God the Father, is this: Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world. (Jam 1:27 MSG)”

We have a responsibility to protect all the people in the world from corruption, and a strong defense insures the old adage “Peace Through Strength”. Sun Tzu recognized that adage as an important part of maintaining peace in a world of war, and Ronald Reagan saw it as the same. If the USA can keep the peace by showing unwavering strength, we will be respected. If we can do that while simultaneously demonstrating a desire to preserve and enrich all human life, then we will be admired.

-Chris

I know that I should have blogged by now. I think of tons of great things to jabber about, but I never have the drive to put them into words that aren’t just monotonous fact-stating word-a-thons. That being said, there have been some interesting things happening and I think I’ll wax a bit.

We watched the NCAA final the other night and saw Florida win back-to-back championships. We were happy for them. Great job Florida.

Too bad that I can’t hardly stand to watch basketball these days due to all the thuggish garbage that happens. The NBA is a gathering storm of all-out brawling like hockey used to be. The bigger issue here is that the college players see what the pro lifestyle entails and begin to parrot the behavior sonner rather than later. Now, I’m not saying that every basketball player is a thug. I’m saying that there are more thugs than there used to be.

I also realize that the NFL isn’t a bunch of angels all waiting to help their fellow man. It is interesting to note though, that with the Colts winning and the pictures of the team kneeling in prayer after the game, America got to see a side of professional sports that was not readily apparent. I recall hearing the commentators debating whether or not the gun-toting bear, who’s name escapes me, should be allowed to play due to having to get special permission from the courts to travel to the Super Bowl.

The commentators were split down moral lines, which is to be expected. The “sport is king” purists would say that his personal life has no impact on his job, in this case playing football. While the “moral highgrounders” would say that someone who broke the law shouldn’t be glorified with special treatment, thus sending the message that entertainment power trumps legality. I think I stand in the middle. I love the idea of players humbling themselves enough to realize that it is God’s grace that allowed them to be there in the first place, but I think forcing morality down people’s throat will always backfire.

Coming from Indiana, we had the two polarities of sports conduct. The Pacers, who shot people at strip clubs, and the Colts, who didn’t get yelled at by their coach in order to control the practices better. The Pacers management was continually pleading with the public to come to the games, the Colts didn’t have enough seats to sell to buyers.

I think back to the 80s with Bob Knight at the helm of the Hoosiers. I can tell you, with a high degree of certainty, that if one of Knights players decided to get in a fight with other people, he would’ve been choked. I don’t think choking solves all problems, but it was a deterrent that made those guys get in line and stay there. Love him or hate him, he had the medicine to make young men keep cool under pressure. His being such a hothead (throwing chairs, etc) let his team know that if outrage was commanded, he would take care of that. There was no need for his players to ever act against good sportsmanlike conduct.

Remember when Abdul-Jabaar got charged with rape? Or when Magic Johnson shot that guy for saying the Lakers suck? Or how about that time Michael Jordan got arrested for slapping a stripper?

You don’t? Of course not. It’s ridiculous to think about. I realize they all had their indiscretions, but they did a great job of keeping their image intact. Like it or not, successful people are role models. You can’t say, “I’m no role model”. That won’t cut it. In the eyes of many youths who want to be exactly where you are, they will mimic you from the get-go. I think it’s high time that professional sports thugs got their bells rung.

These high-school, college, and even little league thugs-in-training need to be shown that sports institutions will not tolerate personal indiscretions beyond a certain point. If a player is willing to slap a stripper, why would you think that he won’t slap a receptionist? If he will shoot at a fan in a nightclub, why not a fan after a game? Why not an opposing player? If he will verbally assault his own wife, why won’t he tell a coach off?

The pastor at our chuch talked about this very thing this last week, and he was dead on. Your personal behavior indicates all other behavior given enough time. Same goes for me, same goes for everyone else. The real issue is that we have let the high bar of excellence in behavior slip slowly downward to where we allow anyone to do anything, as long as they’re not “on the job”.

I hate to think about the status of sports when my daughter starts to get interested. Between the scantily-clad cheerleaders and the glorification of illicit behavior, we’ll probably have to get Cinemax to watch the All-Star game.

-Chris

I can’t tell you the relief that comes from knowing where my grandma is. She’s not “just gone”, nor is she only alive “in our hearts”. She’s alive! She’s praying for all of us right now, just like Jesus has been doing since before we were born. She knew Christ, and she knew Him as her savior. That means that she will be right there when the rest of us believers shuffle of this mortal coil. As my mother told me this morning, “Save us a seat at the table, we’ll be right behind you…”

She was an amazing woman with an amazing history, and I am proud to have known her. She had seven kids, all of which were there when she went home to Jesus. I can only hope that when my time comes, I can handle it with 10% of the grace and dignity that she had.

We were lucky enough to get to spend some final moments with grandma during our last trip a couple weeks back. She was still able to talk just fine, and was fully aware of who we were and why we were there. It was so nice to get to share one last visit with grandma, and it’s something that I’ll always treasure. I thank the Lord that she was able to see just about everyone in her family before she headed out. While she was here, she was a great/grand/mother, better yet a matriarch for the Heacock clan, and she wanted to be sure that everyone and everything was settled in place before she breathed her last.

It is almost as if she was fully aware that death was near, but she was not afraid in the least. She acted as if she was taking a trip to Europe or something. How could someone facing death nose to nose be so at peace? Simple! She knew that death holds no power over her. Sure, death took her body, but that’s it. That’s all death is allowed to take, and she knew it full well. She had all of her post-passing business arranged to a T, just like you’d expect her to have. She waited until her last child was there before she passed away.

That’s right. It wasn’t luck for my uncle Rob. It was grandma holding on to see that he was taken care of. She would not have him feel guilty for having a delayed flight. She would not have him upset over missing his mother’s last breaths. She waited, and fought, so he could see her. Once he was there, she opened her eyes and smiled, using the very last bit of lucidity left in her I’m sure.

Then she was ready to be done with this old earth. She had lived a spectacular life, raised spectacular kids, and now had finally gotten the very last thing squared away. Just 6 hours later, she was with God, and left death behind forever.

Before I close this, here are the lyrics to a gospel song called Gloryland, made famous by Ralph Stanley. If you can’t find the comfort that I have through faith, perhaps these lyrics will inspire you to get yourself close to God. Hope lies within…

If you have friends in Gloryland,
Who left because of pain
Thank God up there, they’ll die no more
They’ll suffer not again.

Then weep not friends, I’m goin’ home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

The lame will walk in Gloryland
The blind up there will see
The deaf in Gloryland will hear
The dumb will talk to me

The doctor will not have to call
The undertaker, no
There’ll be no pain up there to bear
Just walk the streets of gold

We’ll need no sun in Gloryland
The moon and stars won’t shine
For Christ Himself is light up there
Pure rays of love divine

Then weep not friends, I’m goin’ home
Up there we’ll die no more
No coffins will be made up there
No graves on that bright shore

I love you grandma, and I can’t wait to see you again! Until then…

-Grandson of Emily Jeanne Heacock

I?m not sure who follows the world of
politics, but if you don?t, you might want to
pay a bit of attention these days.
After the most recent elections, the Democrats
now control the house and Senate.
These folks were voted into power, fair and
square, so there is no problem with them
holding their respective offices.

The real issue here is why they were
elected in the first place. The 2004 elections
showed a conservative America that
many people doubted was still in existence.
Many evangelical Christians, combined with
both moderate and far right conservatives
banded together to send a message that
ultra-liberalism is not what America is all
about.

I think that many ?confident conservatives?
felt great about the 2004 elections, or at the
very least I know I did. After that election, I
remember distinctly feeling that there was a
new America taking shape. This America
cared about people in need, cared about the
moral codes of our founding fathers, and
cared in some degree to have elected officials
that actually BELIEVED in what they
were doing and took some sort of stand.

As the Iraq war continues to drag on people
who thought that POTUS would command
and conquer began doubting. People
started talking about another Vietnam.
People started suggesting ulterior motives
combined with a slipping of traditional conservative
values. All this led to a terribly
low presidential approval rating. From
there, America said that the Democrats,
who had moderated themselves a good deal
since the Kerry fiasco, were the only possible
hope on getting us back on track to a
nation without fear.

Never mind that Iran wants us dead.
Never mind that we have negotiated with
terrorists in North Korea. America has
forgotten about the atrocities that pacifism
and appeasement have led to in the past.
When I think of the hardships that our
grandparents endured to secure America
from all-encompassing fascism and I see
how our resolve to finish what we?ve
started has dissolved, I feel ill.

I don?t believe that America needs to be a
world policeman. However, if America has
the ability to help an unjust situation be
rectified, and at the same time build a governing/
policing body in a lawless area, then
we should, nay we must, do it.

This concept garners much hatred from
the left because we should stay in our own
lane, according to them. They are happy to
sit in their ivory American tower while
poor people all over the world are suffering
unspeakable atrocities at the hands of evil.
This is the ?no business of ours? idea, and it
leads to destruction.

Pacifists exist to exterminate themselves.
Think about it. Given enough time, those
who refuse to fight for anything will be destroyed.
We must bear this in mind when
we consider what Islamo-fascists desire in
this world. Militant, terrorist Muslims believe
that all non-believers must succumb to
1) Conversion to Islam, 2) Slavery to Islam,
or 3) Death at the hands of Islam.

These rules are promulgated from religious
beliefs and when combined with the
directive of lying and deceiving nonbelievers
to accomplish these goals, appeasement
becomes an exercise in futility,
just as it was with Hitler.

Conservatives need to remember that just
because a war hasn?t gone as everyone expected,
we must remember why we do
what we do. As long as our government
continues to issue ?non-binding? resolutions
stating publicly that we are a house divided,
we can expect the enemy never to relent.

Abraham Lincoln was onto something
when he said, ?A house divided against itself
cannot stand.? Stay confident conservatives!
Trust in the fact that absolute morality does
exist and with God?s help, we can make
America a place worth being proud of, and
especially a place worthy of Soldiers? sacrifice.

God bless America!

-Chris