Creaking Ice

Last Sunday we took a short drive out to Lake Maria State Park just outside of Monticello, Minnesota (because that’s near our home!). By the way, it’s pronounced mar-eye-ah, like the song from Paint Your Wagon. Lake Maria is not very big; I would say about 600 yards across.

It has been a mild and drought-like winter thus far. Little snow (less than 9 inches) and above freezing daytime temperatures for a several weeks. Though it is still getting cold enough at night to form ice over lake surfaces.

We drove down to the lakeside to be out in the sun for a while. With barely any wind, it was still warm enough for me to walk around without a cap, and for some reason I had forgotten my gloves as well.

As we walked a path to the lake, we noticed some strange sounds. At first I thought someone must have had some music on loudly enough to carry across the lake from the other side. It was bassy, not like drum thumps. But then again, there was really no echo.

It was nearly 40 degrees by then. There was a fishing dock, and we walked out on it. The ice seemed just thick enough to walk on. At the shore it seemed to be at least four, maybe five inches thick. Alex and I walked out onto the ice nearby the dock. The ice was not transparent, so I couldn't tell how thick it may have been there.

That’s when we heard cracking! It was slight, but enough for all of us to hear it. And it didn’t last long. I also noticed the visible crack through the ice from one corner of the dock radiating out toward the shore to the south. Now I have been on lake ice during March while ice fishing, and then there can be lots of water on the surface as the temps get warm enough. But you know the ice has been almost a foot thick still, and there is no danger. This ice at that time was a different story. No knowing when or where it might not be thick enough.

Alex and I made our way back to the shore and returned to Connie on the dock. All through this time we were still hearing that low thumping sound. It actually was coming from under the ice! We walked further along the lake to the boat access area. There we could see a long crack about 8 feet from the shoreline. It stretched parallel with the shore for a long distance. The crack was about an inch wide, with more ice having filled the space between; a good sign that it separated once and then refroze. I noticed more cracks similar in other places.

At this place the low sound was more noticeable, too. Somehow, there was some kind of wave action going on under the ice. The ice was thin enough to allow the sound to come through. Also, I think the ice was thin enough to flex under the movement of whatever wave action was going on. Like the skin that forms over a pot of cooling soup, it would move slightly from the movement of the water underneath. That would explain the cracking all over the lake as well.

I was just left with a wondering whether this was common on other lakes this year, or if there was some unique aspect to this one.

Fond Farewell 2011

As I look back on 2011, I realize that I have not posted to this blog all year. Some exciting life I lead! I must make it one of my New Year's resolutions to be a more consistent blogger.

Well, before this year is fully out, I must register at least one entry. So here's to the year 2011, the amazing year that it wasn't. It was mostly a struggle to get through, although as far as having a job all year, that beat out 2010. I am quite sure that many hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. are like me and my family.

Recounting events of the past year, I see good and bad. The worst may be yet to come for 2012, but that should wait for next year's recounting. The bad includes lack of employment at the worst times. I had a full-time job, and for that I am very thankful. But my part-time employment and my wife's employment were greatly lacking. That hurt us an awful lot this year.

The next bad thing: cars. When cars work well, they are a great blessing; but when they go bad, it is a big pain. A pain fixing and paying for parts, especially when there is not money for parts and paying bills at the same time. So my car had issues through the year: water pump, air conditioning clutch, heater fan, alternator, battery, tires and brakes. The van needed tires, water pump, heater hose, spark plugs, and other minor things. Then my daughter's car just died over Christmas weekend.

On a positive note, there are a few things accomplished, by the grace of God. Number one, I was able to get my website up and running for selling my iron-on transfer designs. That's Revelant Iron-Ons, if you should know. And I am now posting most of my designs on Zazzle.com, where you can order one already printed on a shirt for a reasonable price (especially if you become a member and get their regular emails). Also, I will be able to break out into bumper stickers and other things as time goes along. The best thing is that I was able to do this on basically a shoestring financially.

My wife learned the Microsoft Office suite applications over this year, which may help her find an entry-level office administrative position somewhere. For those of you in the northwest Minneapolis suburbs looking for someone to help your company out, she learns fast and is a good organizer.

My daughter got to go to Hawaii for her Spring semester. She studied at the University of Hawaii in Hilo on the big island. We were blessed to go there for a few days to see her.

Anyway, I gotta go.  Bye-bye 2011. Hello 2012. Here's praying God has better in store with you.

A [small] Slice of Humanism

Our current social and political situation in the U.S. is the culmination of more than 100 years of incessant, patient and persistent indoctrination and application of the stated beliefs and principles of Secular Humanism.

Secular Humanism.

Now there’s a term that hasn’t been spoken out loud by society at large, or by Christians, in the U.S. for a long time (a long time). For at least twenty five years. It seems we’ve lost our vigilance against the menace of Humanism after the 1980s.

When George W. Bush Sr. was in office, we Christians let go of our responsibility to confront Secular Humanism, even though President Bush pushed for a “New World Order,” a phrase practically lifted from the Humanist Manifesto II.

The amazing thing is, very few even understand the real root of the current socialist directions we have taken in this country; that it is the program of Secular Humanists, who have networked their efforts over the last century. Not even Rush Limbaugh ever points this out, if he is aware of it.

Secular Humanism, or just Humanism, has really nothing to do with the Humanities, if you ever thought that. It is a declared system of religious belief (though humanists claim all their beliefs are based on scientific facts, such as evolution!) that states there is no god, or divine being, but only mankind, and that man’s own capabilities are the only thing we have to get us through what lies ahead, and what will build our future. Because there is no god, then morality, or ethics as they may prefer, can only come from man’s own ideas and culture. “Ethics are autonomous and situational, needing no theological or ideological sanction.” Ultimately, in this way, whoever is in power, makes the rules for that society.

Now back to the socialism stuff. It’s probably true that many socialists are not necessarily Humanists. In fact, somehow, they believe they are really on the right track to help solve problems and provide people with their needs. But generally speaking, all Secular Humanists are socialists. It’s in their Manifestos, their “statements of faith,” if you will.

In one place it is stated: “If [people are] unable, then society should provide [via government programs, of course] means to satisfy their basic economic, health, and cultural needs, including, where ever resources make possible [i.e. where there are enough rich people to suck it from], a minimum guaranteed annual income.” This statement is not the only one. Implications and direct calls for socialist “top-down” transformation of society are smattered all throughout the Humanist Manifestos. Humanists have been working toward this and many other goals for more than a hundred years.

The major arm of indoctrination into Secular Humanist values has been the public education system and the State-run universities and colleges, through which most of us Americans have been duped into adopting Humanist values into our own lives.

We now have a socialist oligarchy running this country. We will soon be told what we must do in almost every aspect of our lives: What to eat, how much to exercise, how to talk, what car to drive, where to get educated and what to get educated in, where to live and when to die. How can we be allowed the free pursuit of Life, Liberty and Happiness, when our Federal Government has its hands in so many interests?

Big Government is needed for Humanistic transformation of society. That’s been the aim ever since John Dewey’s push to mold public education began. (Think of the Dewey Decimal system we use in our libraries. Dewey was a signer of the first Humanist Manifesto back in 1933.)

Before our Federal Government gave us the current monstrous takeover of over one fourth (and soon to be much more) of our private sector economy, I was more concerned about where the Humanists would take us in domestic and foreign policy. Needless to say, I was very alarmed when Hillary Clinton (our classic Humanist stateswoman) said that as Secretary of State, she would abandon the “rigid ideology” that has directed our diplomacy for the last two hundred years, and institute pragmatism.1

The rigid ideology she speaks of is, of course, the tried and true principles of Judeo-Christian morality. Pragmatism is the Humanistic philosophy of simply doing what will get the results we want, without recourse to any ethical principles: “If it works, use it.” In other words, now we are “established” as a nation adrift on the sea, with no moral compass. Thanks, Hillary!

Now the Obama administration is pushing us toward the ultimate political goal stated in the Humanist Manifestos: assimilating the United States into a one world transnational federal government. And it is happening at a breakneck speed. It’s my belief that by the end of this year, we will see legislation that will effectively take over our private economy and the press (to squelch all dissent via “hate” talk gag laws), and maybe anything else they can think of.

In a couple of years we will be in debt so great that as a nation we will have to accept this assimilation or be left destitute or invaded by the Chinese. Don’t think it could happen this soon? I think we should consider ourselves blessed if it doesn’t.

Let me now discuss the matter of the recently passed health care reform. Soon, when the policies (policy, by the way, is created by beauraucrats, not legislation voted on by your representatives) will soon be implemented to require a health checkup every year or so. Soon after, they will require a mental health checkup or evaluation for every person covered by the health reform measures. The Humanist Manifesto states that religions that believe in “[p]romises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful.” Now here you’ll have a multitude of humanist-inculcated psychologists and psychiatrists who will evaluate a ton of people (and especially their children) who hold to such religious views. Hmmm. If they believe such religious ideas are harmful, what will they recommend for these patients? Perhaps some time in corrective therapy?

Now, a true work of conservative people are beginning to wake up (decades too late), hoping that by the next election we could turn the tide somewhat. If the Obama administration gets an inkling that they might lose their majority in the House and/or Senate, they will try to find a way to declare martial law and suspend any elections. Mark my words.

Perhaps this seems rather alarmist, but many other coups in other nations never seemed possible in their day.

But if by God’s grace there is not a coup, and the Obama administration does abide by the Constitution and election results, don’t expect everything to be OK after this November. If it took Secular Humanists 100 years to infiltrate and overpower American society so completely, it could take as long for American citizens to re-establish true limited government and constitutional principles once again.
We have a lot of work ahead of us.

Evolutionary Hangups (part 1)

My family and I went through the Christmas events we were to do as a family. We had friends over Christmas Eve. Then we went to my brother’s house on Christmas day. All of my brothers were there, with all the attached kin. There are six of us, and when we get together, we can get into some pretty deep discussions (I mean, philosophically deep, not heated argumentative). One of these discussions involved the theory of evolution. It was cut short for me, because it was time to get ready to head home. The weather was snowy and it was past 11:00.
That discussion, however, got my mind going. The Evolution-Creation issue has been one of my interests ever since I was a child. Since second grade, when I got my first book about them through a book club at school, dinosaurs have been my favorite animals. That book was by Roy Chapman Andrews, who worked for New York’s American Museum of Natural History. He was one of my childhood heroes, and I wanted to be a paleontologist when I grew up.
Of course, along with the cool reality of dinosaurs, evolution hops on for the ride. And for many years I was, like so many others, enamored with evolutionary theory, assumed as fact. I went through my elementary school years almost as an evangelist of evolution.
Early in my high school career, I started attending a bible study youth group. Within a short time, one of the small groups I was in for a few months went through a tape series by a guy named John C. Whitcomb on Biblical Creation. There were many points he made that opened my eyes to the incompatibility between evolution and the Bible’s claim of God having created the universe.
Then I chanced upon a copy of “The Genesis Flood” by Mr. Whitcomb and Henry Morris, in our high school’s library no less (I figure no one would be able to find a copy of that in his/her school library today!), and I read the whole thing with great interest. The information in this book is hotly contested by evolutionists and even other creationists (mostly of the old earth variety). This book almost singlehandedly started the modern Creationist movement.
The ideas from these and other sources soon changed my views on origins. But I also have had more than thirty years now to ponder, read and research. Am I still a creationist? Do I still believe that “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth?” You bet! But have my views been modified over these years? Yes.
But I am convinced that evolution has no leg to stand on, with all the new information we have on the subject.
When I use the term “evolution,” I mean the theory (or public school dogma) that all the universe and all life began from simple to complex with no input from any kind of intelligent mind or force originating any aspect of it or directing it, i.e. God. That is what evolutionists will insist it means, and that it and all science must be interpreted and approached with the philosophy of naturalism—that “the cosmos is all there ever was, ever is and all there every will be,” to quote Carl Sagan. It is said by the evolutionists that it is unscientific to appeal to Divine agency for the origin or direction of it all.
Here’s a couple of points in this regard:

The origin and development of the universe.

Now, we all know that the current ideas of the origin of the universe hinges on a theory called the Big Bang. Supposedly, all evidence of astronomy and astrophysics seems to indicate that all the universe expanded rapidly at the beginning from an exploding ball of matter, super-heated and compacted, about the size of a basketball. That’s pretty dense!
It’s easy to see all matter could possibly fit into that, when we consider that, with the size of protons and neutrons and electrons in orbit inside each atom, it is really mostly empty space!
Anyway, at some point, this whole mass “exploded” and expanded super rapidly, with such a complex activity of cooling and energy distribution, that it formed the structure of the current universe, and the way galaxies, stars and such things as planets have developed.
Now, many Creationists scoff at the Big Bang theory, but it really is a breakthrough in many particulars. For one thing, before this theory was prominent, evolutionists had the freedom to think of the matter in the universe as eternal, with possibly an oscillating universe (contracting and expanding in cycles), or other similar ideas.
Research on the Big Bang has pretty much killed all those concepts, however, with the realization that this universe materially must have had a definite beginning, and it will have a definite end. Research into the mathematics and physics of this event can only go back to the explosion event or perhaps just before it, but it can never explain the origin of the material ball.
The other point to see is the complexity of this event. So many equations and physical events have been needed to explain how the Big Bang could bring this universe’s structure into being, that it couldn’t have been just a common explosion; it would have to have been more like a very sophisticated bomb! Once again, in my mind, it takes Intelligence to do that.
By the way, I’ve always had a nagging question in regards to this super-heated and dense ball of matter the Big Bang starts with: If a super-massive star explodes and collapses on itself with gravity so great no light can escape it, becoming a black hole, what kept the Big Bang’s ball of matter from collapsing on itself and turning into a super black hole, preventing this universe from ever starting?

The origin and development of life.

Compared to the complexities of even a single-celled life form, the celestial universe is easy stuff. I personally don’t have too many issues with the way understanding of the universe developed is shaping up, if it is necessarily billions of years old (More about this in another installment, perhaps.). However, to hurdle over the barrier from inanimate matter to a completely self-contained, and self-replicating organism with no Designer or Creator seems more and more absurd. I think we all need to look up Stephen C. Meyer, in his new book, Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design, for a good look into all this.
It has been the position of evolutionary theory that the first single-celled life form eventually evolved from a concentrated soup of organic compounds on the early earth, starting with a globule of simple organic molecules inside a simple membrane. As early as sixty years ago, that idea seemed almost plausible, because our knowledge of the structure of the living cell was so basic. Then scientists cracked the genetic code with the discovery of the DNA double-helix, and the complexity just grew by leaps and bounds!
If we only had to deal with the DNA formation on its own, there might be a way for evolutionists to triumph about life evolving. But really, the living cell is so intertwined with functions that must rely on and support one another, there is no way to posit a gradual development from inanimate to alive. Besides the DNA chain in a cell, you need the RNA molecules to travel up and down the DNA to read the cell functions and chemical production, and the Messenger RNA to get those readings from the RNA to the other cell elements. Also, the RNA needs to “know” what the DNA should read, so that if anything might damage the DNA chain, then the RNA can “fix” it. And all of this has to be fully functioning within the confines of some kind of simple, self-replicating organism. For this to have evolved in stages, there must have been some kind of mechanism, if you will, to get random bunches of amino acid chains to not just bump into each other, but to interact in some meaningful way. And what, pray tell, would that be? And what was the judge of what was meaningful or functional?
I like what is said by Dr. Malcom in Jurassic Park, which is typical of evolutionary thought. When speaking of the dinosaurs, he says, “They had their chance, but Nature chose them for extinction.” Wait a minute! If the whole of Nature is one of complete no-Intelligence-guided events, with no ultimate purpose from any Intelligent agency, how can a Nature choose anything? What is to say or even recognize that something is fit or beneficial for survival, and choose that over something else? Innately, there is always some kind of personification given to this Nature. Ever watch the Nature shows on places like the Discovery Channel? The narrator will eventually say something akin to, “Nature gave this animal the ability to adapt to such-and-such.” Nature, according to evolutionary theory, is impersonal. How can anyone say that Nature “gave” or “chose” or “intended” or, and I like this one, “designed” anything?
The other issue about life evolving is that of mutation. Let’s suppose we have a single-celled life form generate or evolve. Very quickly it multiplies, ad infinitum. How can the descendants change to some kind of higher order? With what science can show us now, the only real path is through beneficial genetic mutation, which, it is stated (as fact, remember) eventually leads to an accumulated amount of mutations enough to change characteristics of a creature’s form and functions. What, in Nature, is going to sort out these beneficial mutations? “Well,” the evolutionist replies, “Natural Selection, of course! Only those characteristics that are beneficial to the organism will survive.” So the environment around the organism pressures the organism to make its descendants through the generations mutate their DNA in a way that will adapt it to the environment. Now, for something to realize it must change or die or lose ground, mustn’t it must be self-aware or at least be able to have some emotional response to harmful or helpful environs? So if an organism has no recognition of this, how can it change? Do we see any coral adapting to the changing environment that is slowly killing them off? Why won’t Nature select mutations in them to something that lives in the new surroundings?
There are only two triggers to genetic mutations: radiation that randomly passes through a gene, and chemistry that somehow gets to the gene and changes it.
Most of the chemistry that will cause mutations is man-made pollution, so I don’t think anyone really posits that as a trigger for evolution. And environmentalists are trying to get rid of it anyway. (Why not leave pollution be? Maybe we will see some beneficial mutations come along if we leave it alone or let it grow!)
So radiation is the most important thing to cause an evolutionary change. Now, life on earth only gets limited amounts of radiation passing through its gene pool, as an occasional neutrino comes through, or extra ultraviolet light might somehow concentrate on it, or maybe an animal may stumble upon some uranium somewhere. Now if the organism doesn’t get sick and die, it may pass on mutations to the next generation. In a laboratory environment, the typical results of radiation on gene-splicing techniques only yield about 1 percent of “beneficial” genetic mutations. In Nature, it must be way less. One beneficial mutation may help an organism survive, but one mutation will not generate a new kind of life form. And the DNA code of any organism is highly resistant to change. How many mutations would it take to move an organism from one “kind” to another? A dozen? One hundred? A thousand?
By the way, it is actually given as evidence for the theory of evolution that we can get beneficial gene mutations out of a “random” process of gene splicing done in corporate laboratories. Evolutionists feel that if we can do this in a meticulously-controlled lab, Nature certainly must have been able to do it too! Let’s look at the details of how this gene mutation work is done.
First, rather than leave the genes in a living cell, where Nature is restricted to have them, they are isolated for their specific desired characteristics, taken out, then either bombarded with radiation or chopped up and reassembled.
Then they are “screened” to see what beneficial change may have occurred, and then the beneficial ones are separated from the rest to be used in whatever work the scientists deem appropriate. I wonder how Nature ever “screened” the mutations evolutionists believe MUST have occurred to make one kind of life form change into another.
Many of these and other problems exist with evolutionary explanations of Origins, but evolutionists believe the answers to these will all be solved the more that we can manipulate life in the laboratory, and pound out more ideas with Quantum physics.
I know this has been rather lengthy, and it is a big chunk to digest. I actually have more to present later, if you will. Isn’t that a surprise!

2012: Some of My Observations

2012: the Movie
My wife and I went out to see 2012. As a “global” disaster movie goes, it was pretty good. But there are a couple of things to note in way of critical observation.

2012: the Accuracy
As with any movie of this type (Deep Impact/Armageddon/Damnation Alley), what we all want to see is a meaningful and engaging story, no matter how improbable the event could really be. It at least has to be conceivably possible and cohesive. So, to do that, there are some things in line of poetic license or just good story-telling that we will allow. So, for this story, we let popular ideas of what the Mayan calendar predicts to be right–if we have their calendar reading correct, of course!
According to an older USA Today article, the Mayan calendar simply ends a single 5,000 plus year cycle at the Dec 23, 2012 date, which would reset to zero.
But here’s one obvious item. In this movie, they have short shots of planets in alignment, and the sun erupting prominences or flares. There’s one quick pan from a near planet (Mercury?) down to the solar surface all full of fury and activity. The first thing I noticed is that planet showing as a crescent.
Now, as far as this solar system is concerned, all light comes from where? The sun, of course. And if we are seeing planets from the surface of the sun, how should the planets appear? Well, it’s from where all the light comes, so we would see a planetary face fully lit up.

Technically, this view would be impossible.

Also, I don’t see how the alignment of earth and the sun to other planets or to other celestial objects, like the Milky Way, can have any kind of impact on the entire solar system like they portray.
2012: the "Salvation"
Once more, the only answer to keep people alive is the action of human government (i.e. The STATE), which is the secular humanist savior. In this story, there’s no Divine intervention, no strength in prayer, as many people in the midst of praying get wiped out. It’s true that there’s a slap on the wrist for the U.S. government. They did some bad things to keep the destruction of the world secret, like murdering dozens of scientific and cultural leaders to keep them from talking. But every other world leader is shown as a loving, caring person, who has done all possible to save a few from certain doom. How nice!
Now even though there are no Divine interventions, like I said, there is one thing these governments do that is just like what God did once in the Bible to save a few of mankind from complete destruction. I won’t give it away and totally spoil the whole movie for you, but I will just give a hint: look up Genesis chapter 6. I think it’s rather ironic.
Personally, I think it’s extremely unlikely that anything so completely catastrophic to the whole world would be able to be kept under wraps by all the governments of the world. There are too many people with conscience enough to keep that from happening.
2012: the Bible
Of course, if you know me, you know just what I would say here. The end of the world will not be along the lines of this idea, or whatever any group says will happen in 2012. On Christmas Eve of 2012, we will be able to tell millions that what Jesus said is what we can count on, not this Mayan stuff. The Bible has a “calendar” set up, and when God starts it, THAT will be very reliable.
True, things like what we see in these movies will happen to some extent: nuclear bombs detonating, mountains falling into the sea, asteroids hitting earth, the earth’s crust unstable (As it says in Isaiah, the earth will reel to and fro like a drunkard.). But if we are trusting in the Lord, we can be confident that whatever happens along these lines, we are taken care of in His hands.

The GoKart was Never the Same

We own a 1993 Ford Escort LX wagon. We bought it as a family car when our two oldest kids were toddlers. It seemed bigger than our Horizon, and the Sundance I drove to work. When we bought it, it had 21,000 miles on it. We found it in a dealership’s used car lot. Long since paid off, it has been a fairly faithful little car.

We have driven it to the moon and back, with a total of over 301,000 miles on it. Most of that was freeway via trips up north and many round trips to work and home. I am very thankful to God for the sixteen years we have had this little car. I also pray He will make it last at least another year.

Since I have been unemployed from mid-summer until now, I have had some time to put into fixing it up somewhat for returning to long journeys to work and back (if that will ever happen). I had some great help from a neighbor/church friend who helped me find suspension parts and replace the worn out struts and springs (Thanks, Tom!).

Of course, the body is a rust heap practically at this point. Somewhat from some years of neglect on my part. And also, we have no garage. I never neglected regular oil changes, though, and that’s probably one good reason why the engine is still running!

Anyway, I took it upon myself to at least seal up the rust holes that have eaten into the trunk area. Once water started leaking into small holes there, they just kept getting eaten into larger holes. I would like it in the dry through the winter and spring. So I am also very grateful for the lingering nice weather during this November. To have a stretch of days hanging in the low 50s is a great help to me.

So I pulled out the extension cords, the only electric drill I have (a hand-me-down from my dad), got a few grinding and stripping wheels from the local hardware store, cleared out the trunk, took off the rear bumper, and then I started to try stripping away rust down to the metal around these holes. This was precarious work, as there is more rust actually than solid metal any more. I won’t try kicking this little Escort anywhere.

It was doing this, that I have discovered something interesting about this car, which we were never told when we bought it, of course. It appears to have been hit in the rear in its infancy of low miles. After this accident, it was all straightened out, maybe new fender panels put on, perhaps. However, while I was trying to strip to the metal, I kept finding sections of putty. The entire length of its trunk had been seamed together with this putty stuff. Not even fiberglass resin, just putty.

That explains the extreme rusting that has taken place in that area to some extent, because as soon as that putty started to give way in any little spot, that opened up ever so much more each season.

Well, I don’t really feel like getting mad about being cheated at the time we bought this Escort. It’s been way too long ago for that. But it does open up a little more history about it for me. I mean, these Escorts were good little cars for many years. I still see a good deal of them on the road, in much better shape than ours. Why would someone want to have gotten rid of theirs at just around 20,000 miles? That’s barely broken in.

It must have been the thought of keeping a car that had been broken, and was no longer pristine. Oh well, up to this point, it has served us well.

Commemorative Cup?

My wife and I swung by an Arby’s last Friday. We ordered medium drinks with our other items. Without realizing it, we received two “commemorative” Vikings cups. These held way too much pop to drink, but that is beside the point. What I realize now is that these are probably by no means true Minnesota Vikings cups! We have been had.

Marketing your brand, or some other company’s brand to build incentive is fine. A marketing partnership for tie-in promotions is also a common thing. It builds relationships, good-will and can actually make more sales for both parties involved. But I wonder about the ethics of a company that makes a pseudo promotion to sell its products, and probably also to save on costs for such things as licensing fees, and so forth.

Here’s the goods, and you let me know if this is OK or not. Now I assume, Arby’s is promoting this commemorative sports cup for a larger sale. Buy a medium instead of a refillable small. There’s an extra buck in their pocket. The cup has the Vikings colors on it, or at least they’re close. It says “Vikings” on it. It shows football players in purple and white garb. OK so far.

I wonder about the ethics of a company that makes a pseudo promotion to sell its products.

While I was washing it, I took off my glasses and zoomed in for a closer look. It looks like the Minnesota Vikings logo for the most part. But I realize there is no registered trademark or copyright or anything like that. Now I thought the Minnesota Vikings should have that. And, as with any other National Football League team, aren’t they property of the NFL? No mention of the NFL on this cup either. No legal line that says anything about that. There’s a legal line for Arby’s, of course.

Also, what about the team name? Isn’t it officially Minnesota Vikings, not just Vikings? Looks like a loophole to me. Also, there is not anything on the pictured football players that can pin down exactly which team they are a part of. The helmets are set in such a way that you can’t make out any Minnesota Vikings horns. The quarterback does have a number 4 on his jersey, but no real likeness to Mr. Favre. I guess somewhere in this country there must be one high school or college football team called Vikings.

So, what is the value of this cup? If it was evaluated by real Minnesota Vikings or NFL memorabilia collectors, it would probably be deemed as worthless.

What also alarms me is that Arby’s is probably doing this in every state it does business that also has a football team. (Is there anyone from another state who can verify this?)

I know one thing useful for this “commemorative” cup: it does have a recycle symbol on it.