Beware the Credit Card Balance Transfer!

Credit cards are the Devil.

(numbers are hypothetical. insert your own to accurately evaluate the sitchy-ation).

Suppose you have $10,000 on a credit card with a 19.99% interest rate that you desire to transfer to another card in order to pay it off at a lower interest rate.
Your second credit card has a $5000 balance, 9.99% rate, and still enough room to receive a balance transfer. The transfer will be subject to a $150 fee and a 3.99% fixed interest rate.

So you do the transfer. Your second card now appears as follows:

• $5,000 at 9.99%
• $150 at 9.99%
• $10,000 at 3.99%

Now here's the kicker. When you make your monthly payments, the credit card company will apply them to the transferred balance first. So in this scenario, your $10,000 will be the only thing getting paid. The other balances at 9.99% will remain untouched and continue to grow at a compound rate!

Therefore, before you do a balance transfer, do this:

1. Read the fine print
2. Run the numbers on a good online financial calculator, knowing how the payments are applied, so you can see how much you'll pay over the long haul.
3. Transfer to a card without a balance if you can.

And, last of all: GET RID OF ALL CREDIT DEBT! NEVER BORROW AGAIN.

Why I'm An Independent, Part One

Yet another election year is upon us. I find the unending campaigning and mudslinging disheartening. I find the complexity of issues absolutely overwhelming. To make matters worse, I'm not a fan of any of the leading candidates. Come election day, what shall I do? Thankfully, I don't have to answer that right now. There's still five months to decide.

While it's a blessing to have choices in candidates, it's this very blessing that complicates the matter...at least for people like me. (Don't get me wrong, multiple choices is a good thing.) When I look at the candidates, I see pluses and minuses, so much that I remain unconvinced as to who I want to lead my beloved country. Trying to be objective, here's how I see it:

John McCain: perhaps the boldest of them all as he has taken up the fight against the powers that be (corporations, wealthy, etc). That was the past, not sure what he'll do going forward. I think his strength will be a strong military. My concern is that he seems desirous of prolonging a war that I now question (reasons which I won't get into in this entry). He's also known to waffle on the marriage issue. Furthermore, I remember an article about him referring to Vietnamese as "Gooks", then got defensive when questioned about it. Racism is too important an issue to me. I have trouble backing a man who would say such things. And speaking of venomous speech...

Barack Obama: His long-time association with his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, pretty much killed it for me. (In all fairness, Wright does speak some truth about horrendous portions of our nation's past. But I think he crossed the line with the "God damn America" bit.) Sure, Obama calls him a "former" pastor and I totally understand about inconsistencies and conflicting loyalties in all of us. However, why did he wait until now to distance himself. It comes across as reactionary and insincere. My only other major criticism is his lack of commitment to protecting the unborn. I just hope the "abortion reduction" lingo becomes reality as the underlying issues of poverty and economics are addressed. As for Obama's strengths, I think he's a good consensus builder with demonstrated success at building coalitions across party lines. That's desperately needed and is something I want to see more of in the political world. He's also comfortable dealing with matters of faith. It's good to have Christian voices raised on the Left (and all across the political spectrum). Last thing I'll say about him is that I find it deplorable that people tried to use his own name against him, suggesting that he's suspicious for having an Arab name. Having a middle name of Hussein makes him no more dangerous than having the name of Angel or Jesus (hay-soos) makes one godly. People need to calm down. And while we're on names...

Hilary Clinton: we've had her hubby Clinton as our chief before. Now she's running, bringing him along, and both tend to have undendingly scandalous reputations. Yes, as humans they are brilliant, likeable, and have done some good things. However, given the troubles, I don't see her candidacy and possible assent to office in the best interest of our country. Character counts. As for her strengths, I truly think she may be able to bring some desperately-needed health care reform. I don't know exactly where I stand in terms of solution, but she at least gets the issue on the table.

Why I'm An Independent, Part Two

I still haven't said why I'm an independent. Well, not explicitly. This installment may well explain why I'm an Independent (perhaps implicitly).

I really want to say a word to some very important groups of people:

To my fellow Christians:
We are called to be salt and light in this world. We are called to serve, to lift up Christ and He will draw people to Him. I think we honestly do try to be salt and light in its various forms. At the same time, I also feel that we depend too much on laws, government, and self-isolation to carry out the will of God.

Along with that, too many of us give way too much deference to the Republican party (and to the Democrats for that matter). Understandably, Republicans give Christians space to carry out the pro-life agenda, which I believe in. However, I don't think they really care about it to the extent that we do. Reason why, I think they've shown us. For example, Roe v. Wade was passed during Nixon's tenure. Republican. During the thirty-five years since then, we've had approximately twenty-four years' worth of Republican presidential terms and the law still stands (although partial-birth abortion was rightfully banned). In the current election, Rudy Guiliani was a very strong contender for the party's nomination. He is pro-choice. Also, many Republican politicians are members of Republicans For Choice -- a pro-choice movement. All of these occurences speak loudly to me about how Republicans really feel -- other things are more important. Remember, politics is about money and power.

Now to further complicate the matter, what do we think about Democrats for Life? That's the pro-life wing of the Democratic party. Despite them agreeing with what is the paramount issue to many of us, I wonder if most of us would even give them the time of day, simply because of their party affiliation.

Faith leads people in multiple directions. No two individuals interpret and apply the Scriptures alike. That's why, generally speaking, I think it's okay that some of us are on the right, and others are on the left and everywhere in between. There are myriad issues and opinions, all with varying degrees of urgency and passion to Christians everywhere. I liken it to Scripture talking about the body being made of many parts with many a function. I believe we do need Christians all across the political spectrum who put their faith in action. We also need to remember that the world's greatest movements originated with the church. Can you say abolition, civil rights, women's suffrage, Protestant Reformation?

Whether you are conservative or liberal or apolitical is not important to me. Issues are. I see value in that Conservatives uphold lines that shouldn't be crossed: religious freedom, opposition to pornography, family values. Liberals cross lines that shouldn't have been there in the first place: advocating for the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus and the Bible have a lot to say about all of these things. Herein is where my question starts to be answered. My faith currently leads me to identify with no party (not even with the Independent party). And that's okay. Some people's faith leads them to identify with a party. And that's okay. What's not okay is when we start to say that our affiliation is the only one that pleases God and then we tow the party line on everything. Do we really think our party is that perfect? We don't even give our own churches that much credit. Afterall, what is the true Biblical position on campaign finance reform? Gun control? School vouchers? Immigration? Health care? War? Global warming? Pollution? Taxes?

I often ask myself, if Amy or Chloe were diagnosed with a terrible ailment, which party would I support? That depends. I'll support the party/candidate that helps them the best and helps me help them the best, regardless. The well-being of my family trumps all other issues and factions. For that I make no apologies.

Why I'm An Independent, Part Three

To Red Letter Christians:
I agree with and like your overarching philosophy. To paraphraase, we want an Evangelical Christian movement that transcends partisan politics and focuses on the teachings of Christ. In doing so, hold both parties accountable instead of being captive to them.

It comes very close to giving a guy like me a place to go. I lean in so many different directions, depending on the issue. I lean left on gun control; moderate on war and education; and I lean right on the flat tax. As far as "womb to tomb" is concerned, RLC holds a consistent life ethic in that they want to protect the sanctity life from conception to death. I like that. However, when it comes to the death penalty, I wouldn't advocate for it, but I wouldn't oppose its eradication either (and I would contend that convicted murderers remain permanently in jail).

Unfortunately, where RLC breaks down for me is that we Christians still can't agree on how to handle the issues, so we remain divided. Many RLCs come down on the left on most things and have no real representation on the right. Until there's more balance, I'm afraid the RLC movement will not be truly non-partisan, if that's what you aim to be. For that reason, I'm hesitant to join the Red Letter Christian movement.


To my fellow Black folk:
We've got to quit throwing our overwhelming support to the Democratic party. They get well over 80% of our vote. No party should be trusted to this extent. Yes, I realize that there's lots of strong ties going back to the days of FDR and the NewDeal, LBJ and the Civil Rights Acts, and how northern Democrats strongly supported our quest for equality. While I'm at it, even Richard Nixon passed legislation that we deemed beneficial to us. Meanwhile, all along the way, many (primarily southern) Dems and Reps fought us tooth and nail -- or shall I say noose and bullet. Anyway, back to the point. Casting all of our eggs into one basket makes us appear simply monolithic, predictable, and only moved by rhetorical references to slavery and MLK as if history stopped in 1968. Along the way, we've become overly dependent on government programs. And I'm not letting Republicans off the hook. They don't need 80% of our vote either. They skirt over our issues with cliches and fail to tap into the soul of black folk.

That said, I think we still need to work within both parties. We've got to get them to pay attention and convince them that our votes must be earned, not taken for granted, not ignored. We've got the potential for tremendous power here. If we're honest with ourselves, we as a group are conservative on marriage, religion, abortion, immigration, and our bent toward entrepreneurialism -- enough to interest the right wing. Simultaneously, we interest the left wing with our traditional stance on school funding, law enforcement, and health care.

Here comes the most difficult portion of my essay.

The impetus for real change lies within our own need for a cultural shift. Our biggest problem is not racism. It's illegitimacy and fatherlessness -- stuff we control. We know all too well the vicious cycle of absentee dads causing an emotional void in kids that they attempt to fill in antisocial ways. I don't have time here to expand upon this theme, but we know the story. Single parent homes tend to be poorer, depend on public assistance, and have kids who are more likely to repeat the steps of their parents and continue the cycle of poverty and brokenness. And in the midst of it all, the powers that be promote condoms and clean needles. How dumb. Those things don't tackle the root of the problem. (By the way, wealthier non-urban communities are preached abstinence, therapy, rehab. To me the implied message is that we negroes are incapable of self-control. What's worse is that we act as if we accept that idea.).

Not ignoring our unique history in America, I think we can learn a valuable lesson from our Asian neighbors -- make education a priority. Parents, get involved with homework, PTA, parent-teacher conferences. Have high expectations for ourselves and hold ourselves to high standards, including every teacher, principal, and superintendent. Last and most important...We've got strong roots in religion. It's high time we live it vigorously.


My Desire for a Viable Third Party
I would like a third party to really step up and capture independent voters who feel stuck in the middle and have no clear home with either of the major parties. Sure, it would take years to really take root and grow, but I'm willing to participate. My idea of a viable third party (imperfect as it may be) would be strong on defending morality and progressive in handling key social issues. I want to stand up for faith and family. I want to advocate creative solutions for poverty, crime, education (my primary area of concern), taxes, and the environment. I don't want partisan self-righteousness that only sees the good in one's own group and the bad in all others.

Until then, I think the most noble thing I can do is BE these ideals. Living it out is more respectful than talking about it. Living it out is the way to learn and really flesh out my own political vision.