It's not a dream

It's 13!

Congradulations Justin

My good friend Mr. Justin Holzgrove is now an official "published author."

For all of you wanting to read his first major published piece, you need to do nothing more than drop 3 quarters in your nearest Mason County Journal purchasing spot and open up to the advent message.

Congrats Justin.

Funny RP video of the day

I know, I know... you people are sick of hearing about Ron Paul... I try and keep it to a minimum. But this video is just too hilarious to pass up. It's pretty sad at how obvious the news casters are TRYING to push one candidate, when on the other hand it's just as obvious who the people actually support. I thought the supporters in this video did a GREAT job, they didn't scream and shout and allowed the newscaster to do her job, but at the same time, I think they made a pretty powerful statement.



Every time I watch this movie, it makes me laugh, and makes me encouraged to know just how much support Ron really has, even if the "polls" tell us otherwise.

Give a buck for Huck? More like hang a dog

So what does our illustrious presidential candidate Mike Huckabee bring to the table? Why nothing other than the very thing that landed Mike Vick in jail for 23 months. It turns out his son hung a dog, slit it's throat, and then stoned it to death. It was reported to authorities but because he was the governers son no charges were filed.

I am not one for digging to much into someone's family, you can't control who you are related to. But having your son (not some weird strange distant relative) get busted for doing the same thing that Mike Vick did, and then using your influence in politics to have the charges totally dropped... well thats pretty shady in my book.

For more on what happened you can get most of the info here: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/thats-my-boy-by-digby-im-not-big-on.html and it contains links to multiple sources backing this story up.

I've been saying all along the Huckster has benefited from not being put under the spot light, turns out that as soon as people start investigating him we find out he is an economic socialist with a sketchy family history... no thanks.

Let's have a Tea Party!

Funny article

So this article popped up in my google reader today, and it was just too funny to pass up: http://www.nolanchart.com/article428.html

Prayer

So it's not often I refrain from posting, or even bother to think about what I post. Most of the time whatever hits this blog is a pretty raw and unfiltered "from my brain to the keyboard" connection. Thats why sometimes I go back, read what I have wrote, and immediately put my head in my hands and wonder what drugs I was on when I wrote THAT post.

This post is different.

I have spent 3 days thinking on this, contemplating this, and really trying to wrap my brain on how I want to communicate my feelings. We will see how this goes.

So the other day Justin was down helping me with my truck and as we were getting to try it one last time, I made a comment that we should pray for the truck, and then in jest I said that HE should be the one to pray since he is a pastor and obviously God would hear his prayer better than mine (again, this was in jest, bad theology is bad).

I am going to have to paraphrase because I don't remember the exact words he used, but it was along the lines of "I don't think prayer should be treated like rubbing the voodoo rabbit's foot" implying that sending a prayer up to God was merely like some sort of "good luck charm" in this situation. We had a brief conversation about sovereignty and I think there was some really good conversation to be had, but it was raining, my truck wasn't working, I was on a break from work, and we had a loooong way to push the truck. So sadly the situation went mostly ignored.

But I went home that day and thought about what Justin said, and for the last 3 days it has really stuck in my head. I have come to the conclusion: I couldn't disagree more with Justin's comments.

I know Justin believes in prayer, and believes in the miraculous power of God, that isn't the issue, I think the issue probably (and I am hoping to elicit some response and discussion here, so hopefully he can correct me if I am wrong here) comes down to what is and isn't "frivolous" prayer. I know people pray for medical healing, believing that God can heal a sick child/parent/friend etc (Jeremiah 30:17), and I know people pray if they have a loved one that is lost, etc. So why would we say "God can heal people" (either via miraculous healing or via doctors insight) and "God can find my lost child" (again either by bringing the child in to safety or by leading rescue workers to find him) but in the same breadth, we dismiss "praying for healing of a vehicle" or "praying to help me find my lost keys."

I believe that God is all powerful, nothing is out of his realm. I also believe that unlike us, issues never tax him. So the thinking that "I don't want to bother God with this little thing" is wrong, nothing bothers God (1 John 5:14). If he had the time to count the number of hairs on my head or grains of sand on a beach or stars in the sky (all things we know he knows), I am pretty sure finding my keys isn't a big stretch. If he can heal the blind, make the lame walk, and cure leprosy I am pretty sure whatever is wrong with my man made engine isn't going to befuddle him.

And I think there is very real value in small prayers or as I my wife would deem it "praying selfishly." (2 Kings 20:5-6) [Although on this note, we must understand that prayer is only answered when we pray in God's will, not ours (James 4:3)] The simple fact is, Christ came and died so that we would have access to the father. Outside of being the ultimate sacrifice, the next biggest thing Christ did was creating a conduit for us to communicate with God the father directly (1 Timothy 2:5). And Christ implores us to communicate with him daily/hourly/minutely/continously (1 Thessalonians 5:17). While I don't believe God is the great "slot machine in the sky" and you just put in a prayer and out pops the prize there is VERY REAL value in communicating with God your hopes, your dreams, your desires, your fears, your concerns, etc. Often times those things are manifested in the little aspects of your daily life.

Back to the original example, my truck. When I am asking for prayer for my truck, I am implying that I have a fear about it not working, and that means I am going to be out both a car and money, which leads to fear about providing for my family and uncertainty over the future. While "fixing my truck" seems like a frivolous thing to us humans and we don't understand why God would be interested in it, what we are really dealing with when praying for things like that we are praying the exact thing God wants us to surrender to him - control (Phillipians 4:6-7).

When you lose your keys and you are frantically running around the house looking for your keys, racking your brain to try and remember where you (or your daughter) left them, if you stop for a minute and offer up a prayer to God, what exactly are you praying for there. The prayer might be "God help me find my keys" but since God knows our heart, what exactly does HE see? He sees his child who has feelings of helplessness, frustration, lack of patience, worry, etc... and I don't think it's a stretch of the imagination to think that God hears that prayer as a prayer of "God help me learn patience" or "help me not to worry" or "help me to know you are in control of everything" or a million other lessons that God wants to teach us daily.
is that we are learning to communicate and practicing speaking with him daily. Do I think God ONLY wants to hear how he can help us? Of course not! When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray (Matthew 6:9-13), he taught them to communicate thanks, reverence, and requests. As we learn to come to God with our requests, I also believe we will learn to come to God with both thanks and reverence as well.

I believe that God wants us to be thankful for the frivolous as well (Ephesians 5:20). When I see Maddie take her first step, or speak her first word or any other major milestones I am reminded how much I am thankful to God for this major blessing in my life, and I communicate that to him (as I believe most parents often communicate in prayer to God how thankful they are for their children). But what about when you find a dollar in your pocket or you hit all the green lights, or any other "minor" thing... were those out of God's control? I don't believe so (Revelation 4:11). And as such, I need to be thankful to God for those things as well, and by coming to him with EVERYTHING, no matter how little or insignificant we might think it is, we are teaching ourselves to communicate with our father.

So while those of you out there disagree with me and don't feel like "bothering God" with the little things in life, that is fine, or if you think some things are just too small for God to care about that is fine... but I for one don't think God is EVER bothered by us coming to him and just like nothing is too big for our God, nothing is too small for him either. So I am going to continue to "rub the magic voodoo rabbits foot" and I am going to continue to tell God how thankful I am for the many blessings he bestows on my life.

And when I finally get my head around the fact of just how big God is, not because of how he created all the big things like mountains and rivers and trees and what not, but because of the fact that he has control over all the little things, like where my keys are... I am going to be forced to fall on my knees and marvel at how awesome and powerful God is, fulfilling the last thing God wants us to express to him... reverence (Psalm 147:11).

Ugh, what a day...

Where to start....

I spent the day answering phone calls and talking to over 400 customers (per my agent stats) explaining to them that we were trying to get the power back on as fast as possible, I didn't get lunch (too busy answering phones) and didn't get to stop talking on the phone until 5:15. Then I immediately went over to the "other side" of the outage center and had to assist them in bringing SCADA back on line since we were re-energizing the sub stations... so of course the craptastic Digi boxes we use didn't come back up which mean I had to drive down to Mason Sub. Shalisa wanted to know when I was going to be home so I thought to myself "Just drive your truck to Mason Sub, and then head home from there."

So I hop in my truck, run down to Mason Sub, hop in the control station, reboot the boxes, call to confirm they did indeed come back up, and hop in my truck to head home. I head out along whatever that front street is downtown that runs right in front of Simpson, I get about 100 feet when I realize I am driving through some pretty serious water, before I realize it the water is LITERALLY coming up over my hood... so I sorta panic and take a left down the next street to try and get out of the puddle... but it's too little too late *cough* *cough* *sputter* *sputter*.... dead truck. So now I am sitting in a puddle... no wait, LAKE in a truck that won't do anything. So I have to open my truck door, luckily the water was only about a half inch BELOW the door line, so no water gets in the truck. I then put the truck in neutral, take off my shoes, hike up my pants, and push my truck 250 feet along the street to get it out of the water... where I have to call my boss and ask him if he will come pick me up.

Of course he immediately CAN'T find me (since you know, downtown Shelton is so big) and I have to call him again and direct me to where I am (in his defense [and mine as to how I ended up in this lake] all of the lights were off downtown so you couldn't see jack crap). He finally shows up and helps me get the truck pushed off to the side of the road. My friend Sam swings by and listens to the truck as I try and start it and tells me my cylinders are all full of water. This isn't a HUGE deal, as I can pull the plugs and then crank it over and it should pump the water out... but it still remains to be seen if that can be done (we decided to abandon it until tomorrow to try). So I had to get a ride home from John. So tomorrow I have to try and take the Santa Fe to work, then tow the truck to the PUD, try and get it fixed, take the Santa Fe home at lunch, pick up Shalisa, ride back so I can take the truck back at the end of work... ugh.

And to top it all off, Tom Brady hasn't thrown any touchdowns and threw an interception, which means I will probably lose this week in fantasy sports... a perfect end to a perfect day.

Ugh, I am ready for this day to be over, hopefully tomorrow will be a bit better. We REALLY need the truck to get fixed... so if people wouldn't mind praying that it gets fixed without trouble tomorrow I would appreciate it.

Blog Strike!

Per Justin's request (I originally just sent it to him, but he said I HAD to post it).

Spreading holiday cheer across the globe

And obviously looting wood, which I am sure was going to be used for nefarious activities like "heating" and "cooking" and "lighting" is punishable by the complete end to your livelyhood. Also, if were really out for justice, why exactly wasn't the wood returned, instead of, you know, running over it.

I know not all, most, or probably even a minor amount of soldiers act like this, but the simple fact that we have numb nuts like this out in foreign countries representing us is yet another reason we just need to come home.

And we wonder why they don't like us...

Edit: Also, can someone explain to me why they shot the car first? Were they trying to "put it down" or something so it didn't run away? I mean I don't think a few bullet holes are really going to tip the car over in to the "unrepairable" state after it gets run over by a tank.... three times, I am pretty sure it's not gonna be salvagable after that with or without the bullet holes, but thats just a guess.

Edit2: Is my blog getting too "heavy" for regular readers, do I need to get back to blogging about more "life" stuff (as in whats going on in the smith home) vs things that strike me? Lately I have been on a politics rant, not because I am trying to push an agenda, but it's just what I have been interested in... but I also realize not everyone is interested in it and most of you want to see more pictures of Maddie and more whats going on in Shalisa and I's life, and maybe you don't care as much about what is going on in the world and can get that elsewhere. If people would like, I will try and refocus these next few days on more "family" related topics.

Snow Day

So we had a bit of snow up here... I built 2 snowman originally, Mr. Snowman and Mr Roof-Santa (he was visiting Maddie outside her window).

Then after that, while Maddie was napping I went out and built Mr. Snow-monster. I had to do it by myself so I couldn't reach my goal of 10 feet... and had to settle for 8 foot 1 inch.
Would love to see other peoples snowman, anyone top 8 foot 1 inch? And next time there is some snow I need a couple of burly men to come over and assist me, I think I have a pretty good system (seriously, engineering marvels should do a show at my house for snowman construction) and I think we could probably do 12 footer (5 foot base, 4 foot middle, 3 foot head) pretty easily if I just had a few more hands. Trying to roll a 5 foot ball by yourself is pretty exhausting.

The true cost of war

So we hear the cost of the war all the time now in the news, 100 billion here, 500 billion there, 1.5 trillion by the end of the war, 500 billion just in interest alone on the cost of the war.

Those are big numbers, but really... do those numbers mean anything to you? I will be honest, 1.5 trillion sounds like a lot, but it's actually SO BIG that it's just a number to me, where as the cost to repair my car when a basketball hoop fell on it was $1200... THAT was a lot of money. It's one of the problems with scale, we can comprehend and understand things that are scaled to our pocketbooks (mortgages, price of gas, etc) but when news organizations start throwing around these federal budget numbers if you are anything like me you "hear" them... but you don't actually grasp them.

This was one of the video's that was submitted for last night's CNN/YouTube debate, it didn't make it into the final broadcast but I did think it had a very powerful message on what the true cost of the war in Iraq really is.

Halliburton

So over the Thanksgiving weekend I got into a debate with Shalisa's uncles over the current state of our government (I know, shocking, Ryan having a political debate, try to contain your amazement).

I was arguing that there was rampant corruption in the government (on both sides of the aisle) and that Iraq was nothing more than war profiteering. They of course are hard line Republicans and believe we are over there to "save the Iraqi's" and that we must "stay the course." I then went on my rant against Dick Cheney and how corrupt he was. I pointed to his no-bid and cost plus contracts that he gave his friends in both Blackwater and Halliburton. The Blackwater stuff did bother them (they have a 10,000 man standing force ON DOMESTIC SOIL) but when we started talking about Halliburton they were confused. They said everyone always says "Halliburton this and Halliburton that" but that what actually had Halliburton done. Well besides accepting huge US Military contracts, then moving their headquarters to Dubai to escape paying taxes on BILLION dollar contracts... here is a video showing just exactly how they were serving not only the American tax payer, but the American troops as well:

For Justin

This post is just for Justin.

I have known about this video for a little over a month, but I have declined in posting it, wanting you to come to Ron Paul based on ISSUES. Now that you are finally a convert, I have a present for you.

Your HERO, yes, the sexiest man alive, the musical Jesus, supports Ron Paul:

AND, he is working on converting "Mac" to Ron Paul as well :p

This just KILLED me

As many of you know, both Justin and I have been playing Guitar Hero III a lot lately. The next logical step:

A shifting society

So I watched a video over on the .justin about how much our world is shifting to be more and more accessible on line.

It just blows my mind how accessible media creation tools are available to us today. From the video justin has on his site to the commercial I posted over on my side bar which is just a video made by some random internet individual for $0.... compare that "ad" with an ad made by some major ad agency for Obama or Guiliani or Hillary and I think we are starting to see a fundamental shift in how our world creates content.

More and more individuals go on line to get their information (as referenced by my earlier post on how many people no longer watch the daily news) and it is becoming easier and easier for an individual to have their voice heard amongst the masses.

Look at Ron Paul's campaign, an individual completely unattached to the "official" campaign decided to organize his own online fund raising event. This turned into a $4.2 million dollar single day donation to Ron Paul's campaign on November 5th... the largest single day a Republican has ever had in the primaries. Think about that, the internet allowed an individual with an idea to have his voice heard and potentialy changed the world.

The quicker our politicians, employers, schools, pastors, etc figure it out, the faster it will snowball as this is a self perpetuating phenomenon. I think it is exciting times we live in when one voice can literally be heard by millions... if not billions. That is just awe inspiring.

And on that note I leave you with another high quality video:

4-3 vs 0-8

So this fall I have been proudly wearing many of my "Portland Trailblazers" gear that I own. This was shortly after Oden had been lost for the season and things were looking a bit grim in Blazerland. But I am a true fan of my team, through thick and thin and so I wore their colors.

Well I had MULTIPLE people (I am looking at you A-Ha) try and tease me and make fun of me for sporting my Blazer gear. They wanted to know if the Blazers would even win one game. I just nodded and smiled, said yeah it might be a tough year for the Blazers but I had faith, and repeated the line "they will surprise you."

Well here we are, 2 weeks into the season. The team that traded away it's best player and got almost nothing in return, lost it's #1 draft pick before the season even started, and has the youngest roster in the entire NBA... and they are sittting at 4-3. They have played 6 of their games against the toughest division in the NBA (the Southwest) and went 3-3, and their other win came against the perennial contenders for the Eastern Conference championship "Detroit Pistons." The Blazers have protected their home court going 4-0 and young players like Roy and Aldridge are literally getting better every single game.

Contrast that with the team most of those Blazer haters root for... the Sonics. The Sonics traded away their best player as well, but got a top 5 pick in return. Their #1 draft pick (#2 overall) DIDN'T have micro-fracture surgery on his knee and is actively playing. Yet how are these Sonics doing? They are 0-8 while playing a markedly easier schedule. While Portland is protecting it's home court, Seattle has lost 4 of it's game at home... and while the Rose Garden is starting to sell out again Seattle is struggling to get 5,000 people to the gate.

Listen, I don't want to see the Sonics move, and some of the crap the ownership has pulled on this franchise is an atrocity. But all you Blazer haters out there, you better watch out. This team may not even finish .500 (but I have hopes that they may)... but this is a young nucleus that is growing together, learning how to win, and just anticipating the return of Oden. Teams and haters had better get their lumps in now, because in a year or 2 this Blazer team is going to be competing for Finals hardware for a looooong time. And remember, every loss this season is another ping pong ball in the lottery if the Blazers don't make the playoffs. You really want them to get ANOTHER top pick? I didn't think so.

I have returned

No thanks to NorthWorst Airlines. I got trapped an extra day Manchester, New Hampshire because of a broken plane. Also EVERY SINGLE LEG OF ALL OF MY FLIGHTS were delayed... but yeah NorthWorst Airlines is a top notch airline.

I did get a $200 voucher for a future flight on NorthWorst (not sure if that is good or bad thing) and they paid to put us up in a hotel and gave us food vouchers... but I would have rather been at home.

I will post a longer trip later tonight when I get home and have a chance to sit down.

Your first step

So all 3 of my loyal blog readers. I just took the plunge and signed up for the local Olympia Ron Paul meetup group. You don't have to do anything but it's a great way to 1) find out more information on Ron Paul and 2) get in touch with other Ron Paul supporters in your area. It's also very eye opening, there are your typical Republicans (like myself), independents and even hardcore Democrats that are in the meetup group!

Isn't the message of liberty grand! It appeals to everyone. Any way, if you have every had ANY interest in being political active, or just want to "stay in the loop" to know whats going on, sign up here: ronpaul.meetup.com/278/. If you aren't in the Shelton - Olympia area, there is most likely a Ron Paul meetup group around you as well. Just go to ronpaul.meetup.com and enter your zip code.

The BIGGEST knock I hear against Ron is that people believe he doesn't have a "real" shot at winning. Well if you don't vote for him, and I don't vote for him... then your right, he doesn't have a shot. But if we all vote for him the landslide victory will shock the world :p Seriously, driving around SHELTON I have already seen a truck and a car with Ron Paul bumper stickers. I also saw a Ron Paul lawn sign out on Mason Lake Rd. Ask yourself, how many other candidate bumper stickers/lawn signs have you seen? The support is real and most exciting of all... IT'S GROWING. Be part of the Revolution.

Doctor Ron Paul cured my apathy.

Wedding Bells are Ringing

So come tomorrow morning Shalisa and I (and Maddie and Annora) will be driving up to SeaTac airport and flying out to Portland, Maine. My brother Kyle is actually going to get married!

I am actually pretty excited for this wedding, before I turned 25 I had been in literally over 12 weddings and had gotten pretty burned out on them. So it has been nice to not have to go to any weddings these last few years and couple that with the fact that it's my brother getting married, and I do actually have some genuine excitement over this wedding.

It will be weird, Kyle and Beth have a pretty big wedding party (of which I am in) and I actually only know 1 other groomsmen (Ryan Doss) so the whole adventure may be a bit weird. The good thing is I am pretty good at meeting people, plus if these people were dumb enough to befriend Kyle I am pretty sure I can trick them in to liking me for a weekend no problem :p The other weird thing will be meeting Beth. Yep, thats right my brother is marrying a woman I have never even actually met! I suppose that is what happens when you move across the country, fall in love and start dating women that live 5000 miles away from me.

I don't know if we will have internet over there or not so we will see if I can make any more posts for the rest of the week.

On the off chance that I won't be able to post, you will have to just watch this video 2 or 3 times to get your Ron Paul fix for the week... but I will be back next week to continue to try and convert those of you who are as of yet unconvinced, Ron Paul 2008!


(Also, as a side note. I know a lot of people don't think voting for Ron Paul is a good idea because they don't believe he has a reasonable/realistic shot at winning. This is mainly due to the reason that Ron Paul has polled so low in main stream media polls. I will be honest, this very issue has concerned me, as much as I like ideals I understand math and understand that a proper sample size CAN predict with fairly good accuracy eventual outcomes. It is in this light that I will expound on why the sample size/group used for the main stream media polls is flawed, and what other indicators we can look at to see how Ron Paul is really doing.)

Edit to add: if you are reading this on the RSS feed, you should visit the page and check out the YouTube commercial clip I included over in the sidebar. It's only 30 seconds long and I really think it's a GREAT commercial... and it was done strictly by volunteers who received 0 pay from the Ron Paul campaign. With volunteers like this... he can't lose!

History Lesson!

So small history lesson for you today. How many people know the significance of November 5th?

It was on this date, in 1605 that Guy Fawkes attempted to enter the House of Parliament in London, England and execute the gunpowder plot.

Perhaps when you were younger you heard the rhyme:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,

The gunpowder, treason and plot,

I know of no reason

Why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Well hopefully in a less "explosive" manner we can all show our patriotism today. All you have to do is donatate $100 to Ron Paul here. The most amazing thing, 17,000 people have already committed to donation $100 each. That's 1.7 million dollars raised in a single day. The goal was $5 million dollars (a lofty goal indeed) but 1.7 million would still be the single largest day of donations in history for a presidential candidate. ANY candidate. So far today Ron Paul has already raised 1.5 million dollars at last check (12 hours down) and still had 12 hours to go.

Edit to add: to follow the donations for today you can do it at: http://paulcash.slact.net/

Edit2: Ron raised 4.2 million dollars in a single day! Go Ron Go! Largest single day of earning for ANY GOP candidate. And people say he isn't a "legitimate" candidate?

For those of you scared of Hilrod

So you all know that I am no fan of Hilrod... AT ALL. But I have had at least 2 people whom I consider politically well versed to state "Well, even if I don't like Rudy Giuliani he is better than Hillary right, so you have to vote for Rudy if he wins the Republican nomination." The implication that whomever the Republicans put up against Hillary (and lets be honest, I think she would have to stab Obama in the face, on stage... and then maybe pee on him to lose the nomination at this point) is going to be better.

And then I ran across this quote:

“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” - Rudy Giuliani

Seriously, if it's Giuliani as the Republican nominee... I may just vote for Hillary as she just might possibly be the lesser of 2 evils (okay, thats a lie, I promised I wasn't going to vote for the "less sucky" candidate anymore) but I am just saying for all of you who think you HAVE to vote Republican because that candidate will be "less evil"... those words by Mr. Giuliani are TERRIBLY frightening.

Also, as is the custom on my blog I have decided the Rudy needs a nickname since he is now on the "enemies of Ryan's vote" list (we already have Hilrod)... I am thinking Ghouliani (but I don't know if that is just cause we passed Halloween, will that be as funny in a month or 2?). The other option is Dobby the House Elf (or Dobby for short). I will post a poll for you guys to vote on (and will include an "other" option and you can leave a post for your other.

More Ghouliani quotes:

On the subject of Torture (waterboarding is only torture if the bad guys do it, not when Rummy approves it at Gitmo):

They talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I'm getting tortured running for president of the United States. That's plain silly. That's silly.

But hey, at least he doesn't have Priests who sexually molest altar boys on his paid staff... OH WAIT!

Can you say: Baaaaaa

So this is one of MANY reasons why I am voting Ron Paul, as he is one of VERY FEW congressmen who opposed the PATRIOT act.

And you know it must be getting bad when Fox News is covering this... WAKE UP PEOPLE.



This is why you should be politically active. (also, I fully expect the FBI is writing up their search warrant for my home right now as I type this :p)

I'm not a huge "big brother" type person (and the video editing with him just showing his mouth was a little... weird, but it's a slippery slope when your freedoms get taken away.

Food for thought: Immortal Sin Conversation

So to really "get" today's blog post it is going to require some work/time from you the reader. Before you go any further in this blog post (or at least, to really get anything out of it/be able to comment intelligently on it) I am requiring you to listen to a podcast over at EscapePod.og. The story is embeded right below this paragraph of this post, all you have to do is click play. The story is about... 30 minutes long or so, so make sure you have the time to listen to it before you start. Think of this as a new fangled e-community book club, only you don't have to read a book, just listen to a podcast!



 EP129: Immortal Sin [46:28m]: Download

This story really spoke to me on many levels. Lately I have been thinking about legalism vs heart condition and I thought this story illustrated it so well. In fact I was even thinking about how the Doctor after he talks with the priest and decides he is doomed to hell, in reality doesn't really change his life at all. His life before and after the encounter with the priest is completely dominated by "rules" whether they are his rules or what he thinks are God's rules.

I also ESPECIALLY loved the interaction with the priest, when he is talking about repentance. Obviously the doctors sin is probably "greater" than any sin I have committed, but is my attitude at times the same as his attitude. When the priest is talking about what it would mean for the doctor to have true repentance, how many times in our heart do we have a similar attitude to the doctor? The story is illustrating an extreme, but I think it can really speak in to our life on viewing what our heart condition is when we go before God and ask for forgiveness. Are we willing to show true repentance not only to God, but then take action and accept the responsibility that comes from our sin or do we just want a quick absolution and then continue on with our life?

I also wonder, when the doctor has his coughing fit... did he die and was the rest of the story after that point has he lost his life and this is his eternal punishment, or does the doctor actually survive but create his own personal "living hell" on Earth... in that he achieves his goal but in the process loses his life (figuratively).

Anyway, I hope at least 1 other person out there has the time to listen to the story and share their thoughts in the comment section. I really bought into the whole film and theology idea at church (and in fact would like to restart it) and this just seems like a logical extension of that. We can use secular media to bring about good discussion and as a gateway to talk about Jesus. This story is not hosted by a Christian, read by a Christian, and I don't know much about the author so I can't comment on whether or not it was written by a Christian... but it is still an excellent launching point for good discussion.

Bouncy Bouncy FUN FUN FUN FUN!

Happy Halloween from our sugar filled Tigger.

Just some filler

So I don't have a lot to write about today, mainly my wrist is hurting a lot because I am an idiot and played Guitar Hero for about 8 hours on Sunday... not exactly the smartest idea when you are 2 days removed from having your hand imobilized for 90+ days.

Guitar Hero is a ton of fun, I highly recommend it for any Wii owner as it fits right into the whole Wii sales model "make video games accessible to non-video game players."

It's a logical extension of the Wiimote that has been used as a bowling ball, a tennis racket, a racing wheel and now with Guitar Hero it helps power the guitar... if anything it gets me more and more excited for Star Wars: Force unleashed when my wiimote will turn into a light saber.

Also, Shalisa did a major overhaul on MaddieSmith.com and has added a whole new theme to the site, added a bunch of new pictures and even uploaded a video (the first one she has done in the new iMovie, her review of the new iMovie: it sucks) of Beth's Bridal Shower. Head on over and check it all out!

Will have more tomorrow, when I can actually type halfway comfortably. TTFN.

Freeeedommmmm!

93 days of oppression is over, I can finally see my left hand. It hurts to do just about anything, there are muscles that haven't moved in a LOOONG time, but the cast is off, so the road to recovery just took a giant leap forward. I thought about taking a picture of my wrist and posting it online for everyone to see, but it was all hairy, covered in dead skin, and atrophied... so I went with Mel Gibson instead.

For those about to Rock:

We salute you!
Only 1 more day until release date.

Inter-denominational co-operation

I love to see it when church's work together, especially when it is supporting the community. I think this is great:

Helpful tip

.justin often posts video's from the Common Craft guys with helpful tips on topics like MyGADs and RSS and other tech items. These video's are great as they are very accessible by "normal" people.

Well they have come out with one of their first "non-techy" help video's that I think everyone can benefit from, even those who aren't technology inclined:

Do you pay attention to your World?

So lately I have noticed that a lot of my peers/friends/etc are almost completely clueless when it comes to knowing what is going on outside their own little bubble world. This isn't a condemnation on them so much as it is on my entire generation I believe. It used to be your parents would wake up in the morning, read the paper to find out what was going on in the world, go to work and listen to the news on the radio, maybe discuss some of it at work, come home and watch the nightly news at 5 or 11 on TV... and while they may not have known everything that was going on in the world, they were pretty clued in.

Nowadays the idea of reading a "paper" is a complete nonsense! I mean thats made of paper and I can't read it on my crackberry! And listening to the radio?!? I have 7000 songs and 400 podcasts on my iPod to listen to, I don't need no stinkin radio. And the topics at work are usually dominated with the likes of "Can you believe Brittany lost her kids again?" and "Did you know Albus Dumbledore was gay?" Then when we come home we have our DVR's and our Netflix and our 100 channels of HD TV and our 400 channels of cable TV... watching the news, please I have no time for that!

I guess what I am getting at is that in our "information" age that we currently live in, I think people have LESS information (at least of what I think are of the important variety) than they did 20 years ago when you had 4 channels to watch and they all ran the news from 5-6:30 every night and that was your ONLY option.

Maybe I am wrong, maybe the people of my generation spend more time reading cnn.com and their local tv/radio website than I give them credit for... but sometimes I wonder. So as a little "experiment" I have 5 news articles I am going to link to. I want to know BEFORE you click on the links how many you were aware of. I am going to post a poll over on the right hand side, it's completely anonymous so no one will know how you voted, but lets find out from my readership how many of you honestly (and thats the key word here, be honest) know whats going on in the world.

1. Hurricane winds are propelling deadly wild fires burning homes and communities in southern California.

2. Georgia declares state of emergency because of record setting drought. Atlanta has less than 60 days of water left.

3. Snoqualmie Valley School District had to cancel school because all of their school buses were vandalized.

4. US Forces kill 19 "militants" in Sadr City... including 2 toddlers.

5. US Dollar reaches an all time new low due to global concerns over the US economy.

Oh no he didn't...

Oh yes I did. In honor of Saturday's festivities I present to you:

Q: How many U of W freshman does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, it's a sophomore course.

Q: What does the average Husky player get on his SAT?
A: Drool.

A little girl went before the judge & was asked, "where do you want to live, with your mother?" "No, my mom beats me.", she replied. "Would you like to live with your father ?" the judge questioned. "No, he beats me too !!" she exclaimed. The judge looked at her with pity and said, "well, little girl, who do you want to live with?" "University of Washington", she gleamed, "They can't beat anybody".

What are the best four years of a Huskies life? Third grade.

Do you understand the words coming out of my mouth

First of all, a word of warning, this post contains language... of the English, Greek, and explicit variety so proceed under advisement.

So lately I have been thinking about how exactly I feel concerning "cuss words" (I will use cuss words as my connotation, not "swear words" since they are actually different and the Bible speaks to each differently), specifically the use of and listening to them with respects to how it all fits in with the teaching contained in scripture.

First we look at Colossians 3:8 "But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips." So now let us ask ourselves, what exactly is "filthy language?" (For reference the KJV translates it as “filthy communication” and the ASV says “shameful speaking.”

When looking at the Greek (and forgive me, I am just now beginning to learn how to use my Strong's numbers and am HORRIBLE at learning languages, the fact that I am trying to self teach myself Greek, all is to say I will lean heavily on others interpretations and readings of Greek words, yay Google and Wikipedia!) the 2 words that make up "filthy language" are aischros and logia. The first aischros, seems to be translated very correctly, it is dishonorable, filthy, etc. It is the 2nd word, logia, that is the actual subject (aischros is the descriptor) of the passage. I will quote the first sentence in Wikipedia as to what logia is: "Logia is a term applied to collections of sayings credited to Jesus and used as source materials by the Gospel writers in the writing of the familiar canonic narrative gospels." To me, this passage in Colossians isn't saying don't use "cuss words", it is instead speaking out against false prophecy and the twisting of Jesus's message or "dishonorable/filthy message of Jesus". In my research I ran across an article that best summed up how I view this passage: "Thus, rather than reprobates like George Carlin, Eddie Murphy, and Buddy Hackett, the condemnation pertaining to the aischrologia rather applies to the practices of such men as Benny Hinn, Pat Robertson, Robert Tilton, Kenneth Hagin, and Kenneth Copeland."

Next in my reading I was pointed to the passage Philippians 3:8 "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ." The phrase I am looking at here is "I consider them rubbish," the KJV translates it as "dung." The Greek word in question is skubalon "This word is used primarily for excrement, especially human excrement; secondarily for rubbish, dirt, leavings, etc." It seems to me that Paul was trying to be quite emotive in this passage, that he was not only showing how worthless his previous Judiastic Religion was, but also complete revulsion (hence the primary translation of human excrement, and the secondary translation of "rubbish", human fecal matter isn't just worthless, it's to most people quite repulsive as well).

To quote the word study I linked above (which maybe 2 of you actually followed up on):

That skuvbalon took on the nuance of a vulgar expression with emotive connotations (thus, roughly equivalent to the English “crap, s**t”) is probable in light of the following considerations: (1) its paucity of usage in Greek literature (“Only with hesitation does literature seem to have adopted it from popular speech”) (2) it is used frequently in emotionally charged contexts (as are its verbal cognates) in which the author wishes to invoke revulsion in his audience; (3) there is evidence that there were other, more common and more acceptable terms referring to the same thing (in particular, the agricultural term koprov" and the medical term perivsswma) (4) diachronically, the shock value of the term seems to have worn off through the centuries; and (5) a natural transfer of the literal to a metaphorical usage, in which disgust, revulsion, or worthlessness are still in view, argues for this meaning as well.

I think that to capture the true emotion and expression Paul was displaying here we would translate it as: "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them crap(or if you wanted to go with the adult version, even the word shit wouldn't be inappropriate in expressing Paul's emotive stance here), that I may gain Christ."

Whats my point here? Glad you asked! My point is that whenever we interpret scripture that calls for refraining from unclean speech we need to do it in light of Paul using very emotive and "crass" (dare I say... "cuss") terminology of his day when speaking with the people of Philippi. We must conclude that the use of a cuss word in and of itself is neutral (Rom 14:14), that there is nothing inherently sinful about any particular word. Rather, its filthiness or appropriateness is derived from its referent and significance. Paul demonstrates this in his use of “crap, shit” in Philippians 3:8, where the word skubalon, has a metaphorical referent of his former religious practices, with the significance that these practices are worthless.

I am not saying that we should all wander around professing to be Christians and then dropping F-bombs and sounding like sailors recently in to port (that hardly sounds like a group of individuals who have been "set apart.") What I am saying is we need to stop judging individuals who speak differently than we do and instead focus on a message of love. Lately in my circle of friends quite a number of individuals have lately spoken out against swear words. When some friends of both Shalisa and I were over a while ago (of whom I have the utmost respect for their walk with Christ) the two adult males in the room (myself and the unnamed other individual) both used some "cuss words" in the heat of competition (we were playing some games). Later my wife was aghast that I would say something so terrible (well, she wasn't THAT surprised, but she did chastise me) but I believe that the words I used properly expressed my emotive feelings at the time. It's the difference between saying "My dice rolls suck" and "You suck", the reference to what I am talking about is what makes all the difference. If you refrain from using the "big 7" but call someone an idiot or stupid or dumb in my mind that is much worse than saying "my electric bill is too damn expensive!" Again, it all comes down to WHAT (as in context) you are saying not HOW (as in emotive) you are saying it.

During college I had mandatory chapel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and often we either had a guest speaker or professor come and speak to us. One of the guest speakers was a missionary in Africa. He got up in front of everyone and started off his speech by stating that "seven fucking thousand kids are dying every day from hunger in Africa alone, and more of you are upset about the fact that I just used the f word in church than the fact that a child is dying every 3 seconds across the globe." Needless to say, he never spoke at my school again which I think is a tragedy because he illustrated a very important point. We as Christians get so hung up on judging what is and isn't right that we forget our true calling to love the world and spread the gospel of Jesus. The fact that a child is dying every 3 seconds in 3rd world countries across the globe SHOULD evoke VERY STRONG emotions in us, that should make us upset to our very core, and in our in our language today the evoking/expression of that emotion happens to be done with words that we consider sinful. The sin in our lives is failing to be motivated to love our fellow man and bring them Jesus, not by using some words... I am pretty sure Paul would have dropped an F-bomb as well if he thought it would motivate people to live for Jesus.

Is Ron Paul a legitimate candidate?

This is a question I have been asking myself over and over and over. When speaking with James on Sunday one thing we discussed concerning which candidate we backed was their "electability" and viability as a real candidate. While I don't know if Ron Paul really has a legitimate chance, I have decided that at least until the January primaries (and depending on how those go, even up through Super Tuesday in February) I will back Ron Paul as the official candidate of the Smith Home. I reserve the right to change my support if someone like Huckabee comes out as the Republican candidate (and even possibly Thompson)... but while I understand that choosing Guiliani over Hilrod is choosing between the lesser of two evils, I refuse to accept that argument anymore.

This year, if there isn't a candidate I like in the big 2, I will still vote, but I will cast my vote for a third party candidate that I support. As long as everyone buys into this monopolistic thinking that it has to be a democrat or a republican, regardless if you like either of them, then it will be so. I know me stating and voting for a candidate I truly LIKE, not just the lesser of 2 evils will ultimately be fruitless, but until everyone starts voting for "good" candidates nothing will change. And quite simply, I can't ask other people to vote for good candidates if I don't walk the walk myself.

Finally, yet another video. Some interesting things to take out of it: 1) Ron Paul raised as much money in the third quarter as John McCain, just think about that. McCain was considered the front running candidate back in May, Ron Paul raised as much money as him. This not only speaks to how far McCain has fallen, but the fact that Ron Paul really does have some viable support for him. 2) Ron Paul practices what he preaches. He wouldn't allow his children to accept federal student loans, believing that the federal government shouldn't be in the education business (that it should be left up to state and local government, small fact for you, since the inception of the Department of Education children test scores have dropped every year). He also is a practicing doctor but would not accept medicare or medicaid. He practices what he preaches.

I REALLY like this Logo

I know this will look like a political post (and maybe subconsciously I want it to be) but in reality, I just want to talk about this logo. I think it is extremely well done, has a great message, and I think it's something that someone like .justin should steal/use for some YOUth ministry event.



I just think that is really clever AND has a great message (especially for Christianity). We are supposed to be revolutionary in our culture, but our revolution is based on love.

GOP Economic Debate Running Diary

So I am shamelessly stealing from Bill Simmons his "running diary" style of writing to cover an event. Basically I am going to watch the GOP debate and jot down notes as it moves along. They may be insightful, they may be humorous, they may be a complete waste of time... nobody knows! Also, at the end of this ginormous post is my short first impressions report card for the debate.

0:00 We are here in Michigan, chatting economics... I will make two predictions up front, before this is over every candidate will have promised me lower taxes, and will somehow make a reference to cars/auto-industry/etc.

0:01 Fred Thompson makes his first debate appearance! And he references the auto industry "here in michigan"... one down, 9 to go. So far he doesn't look horrible, but hardly "Presidential."

0:03 Mitt Romney makes his auto-industry reference... these guys are just knocking my prediction out of the park, so far 2 for 2 on their FIRST chance to talk throw it out there. Oh, and he offered me lower taxes as well (shocking). Mitt definitely speaks with more command and passion than Thompson, you would think he was an actor not Fred Thompson.

0:05 Guiliani is up... and the first thing he does is reference Hilary, not sure if that is a great tactical move of a guy trying to appear "more conservative." He offers me lower taxes as well (but so far no reference to the auto industry, instead he throws out a Yankee losing reference). "Joe Torre is the best manager in the history of the Yankees in the modern era"... glad that got said during a debate on economics.

0:08 Ron Paul make his first sighting. And he starts off talking about his "hidden tax" which is inflation and the deficit spending. He also throws out a foreign policy reference (his strong suit, we will see how he holds up on this economic debate). He gets some scattered applause, he is passionate.

0:09 McCain's first appearance. He throws out a reference to Michigan (Ron Paul and Guiliani so far are the only ones to miss this one). McCain appeals to fixing medicare and medicaid. Listen McCain, your 80 years old, you don't need to court the old vote... McCain's answer to the question "is the tax code fair" is "Yes it's fair, and we need to reform it tomorrow"... Wait??? That, uhm... wow. I think he is suffering from alzheimers.

0:11 Huckabee speaks. He wants to get rid of the IRS and go to a sales tax. I actually support this, drug dealers, pimps, and every other criminal doesn't pay income taxes, but you and I do. Go to a sales tax and wham, everyone pays taxes now.

0:16 Request for no applause... Thats gonna last maybe 10 minutes?

0:17 Senator Brownback, another guy wasting space on the stage. But in a shocking move, the first thing he says is "No new taxes." Shocking. And instead of aboloshing the IRS, he wants to add in an "optional flat tax." So basically the tax code is so messed up, lets keep that but then add in an optional flat tax, so those people that have more money to know how to manipulate the tax code can use that, but the poor suffer under a "simplified" tax code that they can't manipulate. Seriously, worst answer yet.

0:20 Every time Guiliani speaks I think of Doby the house Elf. Romney says "lets not just say we are going to cut taxes, lets cut spending" and absolute destroys Guiliani. Rudy is trying to paint himself as a hard line conservative, to his credit economics will help him there more than any social issues. Romney and Guiliani are now bantering back and forth about line item veto's, ultimately does anyone in America really care about this? I think the bigger picture here is Romney is challenging Rudy trying to turn this into a 2 horse race and just ignore Paul, McCain and Thompson and paint it as him vs Guiliani. Not a bad political move.

0:23 Applause (a reference to "beating a Clinton")... wow we lasted a whole 7 minutes. Why do they even bother asking, it never works.

0:25 Fred Thompson wants to give tax breaks to corporations... so wait we want to hand out MORE Corporate Welfare. Not sure thats a popular stance to take.

0:29 Mitt Romney is painting himself as a "regular" guy by stating everyone who is on stage is a politician except himself, he is a businessman. Granted he is a rich privledged boy, but in the first 30 minutes so far, he has come across as the most presidential and really has done the best so far.

0:31 Doby the house elf is continuing to rail on the "democrats" with just random nonsense about how evil the "democrats" are. I think he is just trying to convince everyone he is really a hard line conservative. I know thats his biggest issue but so far he is just sounding "angry" not "conservatice."

0:35 Question: Should a Dubai company be able to own 20% of Nasdaq?
Paul: If there is no conflict with national security, yes.

Huckabee: It's a free trade issue, we need to have more regulation on trade! (He doesn't really answer the question, just rails against China some more, that seems to be his move tonight, just attack Chinese free trade deals and monetary manipulation).

McCain: Yes of course, pass required security checks of course but yes. Then goes on to say that seperatist/isolationist attitude towards free trade is dangerous. But he doesn't do a very good job of explaining his point.

Romney: Of course we allow them. But he wants more regulation on free trade as well, he only makes free trade deals that are profitable for America.

Thompson: Yes, the answer is yes. It all depends on national security issues.

Hunter: No, because I don't trust em. (He is trying to position himself as strong on national security).

Brownback: Yes, of the people on the stage I am the only one that has worked in the trade business.

Tancredo: No, if they wanted to buy Wal*Mart I might think about it, but not NASDAQ. (Personal comment here, but that just shows the disconnect between politician and every man, they want to protect the corporate structure of NASDAQ, or "big money" but could care less about what a foreign interest controlling the largest retail chain in the US might mean, TERRIBLE ANSWER by Tancredo in my opinion).

0:40 Thompson has a strong answer on not confusing the wealth of government with the wealth of nations. The only problem I have is he likes to talk with his hands. He looks like he is trying to direct a plane landing or something with the amount of waving going on.

0:42 Thompson supports the war in Iraq, and wants to stay in and stabilize the place. Yeek, more nation building rah rah stuff. I was just starting to like Thompson's answer, and now he wants to continue foreign nation building. Boo-hiss.

0:44 McCain claims 4 years ago he was against this failed foreign policy and was criticized by his party. Then he goes off to speak about how he thinks Iran is positioning itself to fill a vacuum of terror left by Iraq. So wait you were against the war on Iraq, but are for a pre-emptive strike on Iran? Seriously, McCain has lost his marbles.

0:45 Ron Paul is about to speak, I think this should get interesting because apparently McCain's alzheimers is kicking in again, did he completely miss the last debate where Ron Paul spoke out against Iraq for the entire debate and was voted the front runner for it. Fun times ahead!

0:46 Senator Brownback continues to spout his belief this was a war on terror, not a war for oil. "We haven't found the weapons of mass destruction, but that doesn't mean we leave!" He then talks more about more nation building and splitting Iraq up into 3 states.

0:48 Hahahaha, Thompson being grilled on his statements about WMD's. He is backtracking and saying he was just stating what was obvious that Saddam had had WMD's in the past. SPIN ALERT. Thompson realized he stuck his foot in his mouth a few days ago and is now trying to spin it, instead of saying "I misspoke." Have you ever noticed politicians never make a mistake?

0:51 GREAT QUESTION being asked here for each candidate to answer. "Do you believe the President needs congressional approval for a strategic attack?"

Hunter: It depends. If the target is fleeing no, so if you have a narrow window of attack then he doesn't (yeah, that won't be abused hugely). He also thinks our attack in Iraq was a "strategic strike"... good thing we haven't been there for 4 years and it isn't a war... oh wait.

Paul: Absolutely. (simple and straight, and blows up Hunter's answer as "war propaganda" - calls it a road to disaster - HUGE applause).

Huckabee: a president has to do whatever a president has to do to protect the American people. Pressed on if he would do it without going to congress "if the situation needed it"... Yeeks bad answer from a candidate I like. Wow, his answer even gets worse, when asked "What if congress says no" he says "you do whatever is best for the American people and suffer the consequences." Just a HORRIBLE answer for someone like me who is a constitutionalist. I really liked Mike Huckabee but that was possibly the worst answer he could have given with respects to my political views.

McCain: if it requires immediate action then yes. If it is a long serious of buildups you go to congress. He says it depends on the scenario, but he says at minimum he would consult with congress. Not great answer, but not horrible.

Thompson: He agrees in step with McCain. Discusses the "war powers act" and the conflict between the president and congress, but says you should err on the side of caution and go to congress. Strong answer by Thompson, he gives the right answer (go to congress) but for the wrong reason, not because the constitution says we should but because you need the people's support for a conflict which congress will help you with (which I do agree with).

Guiliani: It depends on the circumstance. He starts attacking Ron Paul, and surprise surprise, continues to say 9/11 and September 11th over and over and over again. Then starts bashing on Hilary some more. Guiliani seems all defense and no offense, just reacting to his criticisms. Ron Paul looks pissed. Now he wants to go attack Iran before they become nuclear.

0:57 Now Rudy is double speaking, saying the war was really over oil and that the war with Iraq MIGHT not have happened if we weren't so dependent on foreign oil. Oh, and he mentioned that putting a man on the moon was an issue of national security??? He doesn't want to draw the line anywhere on Nuclear Plants or Oil drilling, but he doesn't want to harm the environment.

0:59 Brownback supports the raping and pillaging of oil anywhere and everywhere we can get it (summary of what he said). But he doesn't understand the difference between a hybrid and flex fuel car, calls the flex fuel Chevy Malibu an electric car... ???

1:01 Tancredo supports drilling anywhere and everywhere as well to get off the dependence of foreign fuels. I actually don't totally disagree with this stance but they don't really speak eloquently with respects to the position.

1:06 Huckabee and Thompson both support government funding for alternative fuels, not letting the free market decide but propping it up with subsides. Romney throws his hat in with them as well.

1:10 Ron Paul speaks against the subsides. His big problem is he is coming off as "angry and loud" while Huckabee, Romney and Thompson are sounding more "Presidential" with their tone and presentation. Candidates shouldn't underestimate the impact of their tone and presentation not just the words coming out of their mouth, you can speak the truth but if you don't sound good doing it the message is lost.

1:13 Guiliani continues to not answer actually any questions, just attacks Hilrod some more. Hey Rudy, win your party vote before trying to win the presidential vote.

1:18 Tancredo seems to be a one trick pony. All he does is talk about immigration. Trade, oil, social security, literally every issue he has turned around to talk about immigration. (Turning social security around to talk about immigration was impressive, sad, but impressive).

1:21 Paul supports unions (but obviously no legislation giving them special benefits), Huckabee supports unions, McCain and Romney are both middle ground. Thompson points out he is in a union (SAG) so of course he supports them. Rudy's grandmother apparently was in a union, and starts talking about the UAW (in Michigan, shocking). Brownback follows Rudy's lead and starts talking about his mother who was in a union. Tancredo starts bashing unions (and Sen Brownback's mother) and in a SHOCKING move, he brings up illegal immigrants. Seriously, wow.

1:27 McCain is asked a question and just stares blankly for 10 seconds before realizing they are talking to him. I think his hearing aid battery just failed (or he forgot where he was).

1:30 Guiliani is against taxing the internet, but wants to "police the internet." Wants to establish a task force to deal with it (yeah, those work... SO WELL). Wants to establish an FCC style agency to govern the internet. I can literally here hundreds of thousands of internet users jumping off his bandwagon. Doby the house elf is a moron.

1:35 LIGHTENING ROUND!
Huckabee: ignores his question, rambles on for over 2 minutes (he is given 30 seconds)... blah blah blah but says nothing.
Romney: stays within his time limit and looks more presidential.
Thompson: is asked about the dollar and I think he wishes he only had 5 seconds as he isn't sure how to answer. Ends up ending with 10 seconds left.
Guiliani: starts attacking the democrats and how pessimistic they are.
Brownback: Uhm, Uhm, yeah, Uhm... ANSWER THE QUESTION!
McCain: He can't hear AGAIN! Get a new miracle ear Mr McCain.
Paul: Repeats his "End the War!" chant. He won't support the Republican candidate unless that candidate changes his views.
Tancredo: He won't support the candidate either.
Brownback: He will support whoever.
Hunter: He will support whoever as well.
Guiliani: Calls the United States the "last best hope for humanity"... hrm perhaps he isn't Doby the House-Elf, perhaps he is an alien from Babylon 5.
1:40 Romney: will support the nominee (and then hints that it will be himself) And then makes the best joke of the year: "The Republican debate is a lot like Law and Order, it has a huge cast, it goes on and on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end" - Even Thompson has a good chuckle at that one and Romney continues to do well.

1:47 Debates over, Thompson says the debate was boring without him.

So my scorecard for the event:

I think Mitt Romney probably came off looking and sounding the best, this was definitely his strongest showing yet.

Next was probably Fred Thompson. He looked shaky at times and you could tell he is still learning this game, but for a first time showing he spoke well, didn't stumble on much, and didn't make any huge mistakes.

Guiliani probably came off next strongest. His repeated attacks against Hilrod and the Dem's are laying the groundwork for him to be more "conservative" viewed. If he can stick to economics he will do fine in the GOP, it's the moral issues that get him into trouble.

Huckabee despite the issue that I STRONGLY disagree with, had a lot of face time, kept his name in the mix, and sounded presidential. After the top 3 main candidates he probably faired the best of the next tier of candidates.

Ron Paul didn't come off great, he has a lot of good economic ideas, unfortunately unlike other candidates when reduced to 30 second sound bites they come off sounding horrible. As long as he keeps harping on the war he will stay in it, as it is obvious the American people are opposed to the war, but like Guiliani when he strays into moral issues he starts to fall out of step with the GOP.

McCain just came off as old and forgetful. His biggest issue is people view him as too old to run and part of the established party that got us into this mess, instead of changing his image he just reinforced it. Not a good debate for him.

Sam Brownback did okay, he is still young and this may just be foundation building for a future run at an office. He knows he isn't a serious contender but none of his economic stances were out of step with the party, so he could make a run in the future.

Tom Tancredo was just... annoying. All he wanted to do was harp on immigration, and unlike the Iraq war, no one cares "passionately" about that issue. Sure we care about immigration, but we care a whole heck of a lot more about troops dying over seas. Tancredo is just flushing money down the toilet by staying in this race.

Duncan Hunter was even worse than Tancredo. At least I knew Tancredo was at the debate, Hunter did nothing to establish or distinguish himself... Even though Tancredo was annoying, at least you knew he was there, Hunter was just vanilla bland. Not what you want when you are on the bottom of the pile.

It's a date

For Brad:

Suck It

A video response to this post







Roy William who?


Cowgirls suck

Go Skins!

New Math

As many of you know (and some of you may not know) I am a HUGE math buff. I offer to do math homework for my coworkers when they have assignments from school because it's "fun" for me. One of my great dreams was coming up with some unifying theory, pi integer placement prediction, or some other great math solution... unfortunately my limited intellect (as smart as I may want to think I am I have nothing on those true math geniuses) has yet to come up with anything...

So in that light, I present to you a new theory:


Bah, I am getting more and more frustrated. Here are some facts for you:

• Blackwater charges the government $1,222 per day per guard, "equivalent to $445,000 per year, or six times more than the cost of an equivalent U.S. soldier,"


• At least 90% of its revenue comes from government contracts, two-thirds of which are no-bid contracts.


• Blackwater had a "visible, and financially lucrative, presence in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina as the use of the company contractors cost U.S. taxpayers $240,000 a day."


• On September 22, 2007, U.S. federal prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations of Blackwater employees who may have smuggled weapons into Iraq, and that these weapons may have been later transferred to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Kurdish nationalist group designated a terrorist organization by the US, NATO and the EU.


• A Committee on Oversight and Government Reform staff report, based largely on internal Blackwater e-mail messages and State Department documents, describes Blackwater as "being staffed with reckless, shoot-first guards who were not always sober and did not always stop to see who or what was hit by their bullets."

Your government tax dollars hard at work... the more I read the more convinced I am that the last 8 years our government has been headed by an inept individual (GW Bush) who was compromised to do the bidding of one of the most corrupt men in US political history (Dick Cheney).

And the GOP wonders why people are considering Hilrod and Obama as serious contenders for the next presidential race. Unless the GOP gets their head out of their butts (read: nix Guiliani, Thompson, and Romney) we are going to have a Dem in the white house and a Dem controlled house and senate... and I have a hard time believing they will do any WORSE of a job than the GOP has done...

Are you having a bad day?

If you are having a bad day, I challenge you to watch this entire clip, and when it is done, tell me if your day isn't getting better. I don't believe it is possible for your day to NOT improve after watching this.

Libertarian - just what is it?

So in talking with .justin he saw that I have started thinking about classifying myself as a libertarian instead of a Republican and he wanted to know more about what a libertarian is.

First of all, a bit of history. Way back when during the conception of our country most of our founding fathers were considered "liberals" in that they stressed the importance of human rationality, individual property rights, natural rights, the protection of civil liberties, constitutional limitations of government, free markets, and individual freedom from restraint. Thomas Jefferson called these our "inalienable rights." This viewpoint is often referred to as "classical liberalism" which holds that rights exist independently of government.

Starting in the late 1800's and finalized during the 1920's and 1930's a movement begin within American politics (culminated by one Franklin D Roosevelt, perhaps you have heard of him?) that changed the definition of "liberalism." In the United states socialists did not want to be called socialists (it brought connotations of communism and marxism [and some would argue rightly so]) so through time the socialist party corrupted and co-opted the name liberalists. This is why a "liberal" in Europe is often actually what we in the United States would call a "conservative" while what we call a "liberal" in the States is referred to as a "socialist" in Europe.

So a libertarian is one who holds to the beliefs of "classical liberalism" which should not be confused with modern liberals.

So now we know the history of what a libertarian is, what exactly does a libertarian believe? Here are some quotes that describe libertarianism:

The basic premise of libertarianism is that each individual should be free to do as he or she pleases so long as he or she does not harm others. In the libertarian view, societies and governments infringe on individual liberties whenever they tax wealth, create penalties for victimless crimes, or otherwise attempt to control or regulate individual conduct which harms or benefits no one except the individual who engages in it."
-- definition written by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service

"Libertarianism is what you probably already believe… Libertarian values are American values. Libertarianism is America's heritage of liberty, patriotism and honest work to build a future for your family. It's the idea that being free and independent is a great way to live. That each of us is a unique individual, with great potential. That you own yourself, and that you have the right to decide what's best for you. Americans of all races and creeds built a great and prosperous country with these libertarian ideals. Let's use them to build America's future."
-- David Bergland

Or my favorite of them all:

"Libertarianism is what your mom taught you: behave yourself and don't hit your sister."
-- Dr. Kenneth Bisson

Libertarian Principles

1. Each individual has the right to his or her own life, and this right is the source of all other rights.

2. Property rights are essential to the maintenance of those rights.

3. In order that these rights be respected, it is essential that no individual or group initiate the use of force or fraud against any other.

4. In order to bar the use of force or fraud from social relationships and to place the use of retaliatory force under objective control, human society requires an institution charged with the task of protecting individual rights under an objective code of rules. This is the basic task, and the only moral justification for, government.

5. The only proper functions of government, whose powers must be constitutionally limited are:

* settling, according to objective laws, disputes among individuals, where private, voluntary arbitration has failed
* providing protection from criminals
* providing protection from foreign invaders

6. As a consequence of all the above, every individual -- as long as he or she respects the rights of others -- has the right to live as he or she alone sees fit, as a free trader on a free market.

I am still not positive I am ready to make the full jump to the Libertarian party, I really need to figure out exactly where I lie politically, but for now I am definitely Libertarian leaning.

Fred Thompson - Are you seriously this dumb?

So like I said yesterday, on Sunday night we had a nice long discussion about politics. One of the things we discussed at length was the current presidential candidates. One of my big issues is that I like ZERO of the current front runners in EITHER party. For the Democrats: Hilrod - kill me now, Obama - ick, Edwards - highly doubt it but the lesser of those 3 evils, then for the Republican party: Guilliani - kill me again, Thompson - a homeless mans Ronald Regan, Mitt Romney - democrat in red clothing, and McCain - possible but boy is he old.

My favorite candidates are actually all underdogs right now, I like Mike Huckabee and could vote for him if he was on a ticket and my top candidate right now is Ron Paul. While discussing this everyone else was like "Ron Paul is crazy!" and honestly, I am not sure where that is coming from. He is VERY outspoken about certain things, but honestly he lines up on more issues with me than anyone else. He is the only republican who voted AGAINST the war, instead pointing out that we should figure out why these people hate us (treat the root cause approach to foreign policy, not reaction to the symptoms approach that everyone else has). He is VERY strong on fiscal responsibility not just on the top level of government (he wants to abolish the IRS, and then to "pay for it" he would reduce government spending back to only 2000 level spending levels, not exactly impossible) but he also is very high on state and local government fiscal responsibility. This means things like a voucher system for schools, abolish the war on drugs (since he argues [and I agree with] the government can't make you be a better person, and leave that job up to friends, family and churches to handle), and many other issues I line up with.

But the facts are, Ron Paul won't win the republican nomination, which is sad. He accomplished a pretty impressive feat the other day, when he raised 1.2 million dollars in 6 days from online donations from regular citizens. 1.2 million dollars sure is a nice amount of cash on hand to run a campaign... but then you read the fiscal reports for other candidates. Mitt Romney donated 9 million dollars to himself last quarter alone for his campaign... and that has only bought him 3rd place! Unless Ron Paul is really able to mobilize this large internet base he has cultivated (no other candidate in my mind has tapped into the internet culture more than Ron Paul) he doesn't stand a chance against the big boys who will buy 30-60 second commercial spots, hire hundreds of students to do direct dialing and bug people at home, and canvas areas with large rallies and door fliers and staked signs. All those things cost money, and sadly in the US today the candidates with the most money has a huge leg up on everyone.

So now that I have gone off on Ron Paul for long enough, back to my original reason for making this post, Fred Thompson.

On Sunday I was told that Fred Thompson was the only true "conservative" in the Republican party. First of all I think Mike Huckabee is every bit as "conservative" (I will give you that Guilliani and Romney are both quite left leaning) as Thompson, and honestly Ron Paul is so conservative I would say he is off scale right and slid over to "libertarian" (which is what I would classify myself).

But I am starting to wonder if "conservative" has taken on a new meaning. I used to classify myself as a conservative, but I think that the definition of that has changed. It used to be someone who was for strong traditional morals and fiscal responsibility.

Under the Bush administration I think they have twisted conservative to mean big government spending to private contractors who screw us over (Blackwater RE-SIGNED for $92 million in Iraq security!, Haliburton moving to UAE) and complete cluelessness about anything with a pulse knows about (examples too long to list).

It seems Fred Thompson has taken the 2nd part of that definition in that he can't remember Terri Schiavo(they did a whole Law and Order episode on it!) and now the big kicker today, Fred Thompson still thinks there were WMD's in Iraq! So we have established that much like Bush 2, Fred Thompson is completely clueless about current political issues. Throw on top of that that he supports same sex marriage and lobbied to ease federal abortion restrictions and we combine someone with the intelligence of GW with the moral compass of a left wing nutjob (no offense meant to left wing nutjobs). If this is the new definition of "conservative" you can consider me out.

This just further confirms that I am right to start contemplating viewing myself as a Libertarian, not a Republican. Now if we could only get a couple more hundred million people to join the Libertarian party and we might have something going!

Fwii offer!

So this is by way of my wife, all credit has to go to her for tipping me off on this but I figured I would post here for all my Wii owning friends.

I don't know if everyone cashed in on the free wrist strap for their wiimotes offer about 6 months back when Nintendo sent them out, I know I got 3 free wrist straps for my wiimotes.

Well now Nintendo is offering an even BETTER free item. Free Wiimote jackets! All you need is your Wii serial number and then go to this page: Wiimote Free Jacket Request and you can get free jackets for your wiimotes.

Can't beat the price, and thanks honey for tipping me off to it!

Scary Politics

So on Sunday night I sat down with a group of other guys and we all chatted about the state of politics for a good solid 2 hours or more. It was quite fun, although some of us disagreed on who the best candidate or merits of another individual were, everyone was respectful and I think overall it was a productive conversation.

In the coming weeks I will be discussing politics (specifically the presidential primaries) a bit on my blog, as I have always been active in politics. I feel that if you don't vote you aren't actively involved in your government, and as such can't complain when things don't go the way you want them to.

But before I spend the next few weeks discussing politics off an on, I wanted to share with you a scary video that I just watched. Remember in 2004 the whole "One Person, One Vote" movement/scandal? Well in Texas apparently one person gets 2, 3, or even 4 votes if they are fast enough. This rocked my world and makes me wonder if this occurs in Washington States congress chambers.

Why yes, that IS a new cast I am wearing

So since I know I am going to get asked a hundred times (since people have already commented that they are surprised I am still wearing a cast) I figured I might as well get it out of the way here.

I went in to the doctor this morning after spending the last 9.5 weeks in a cast (and 12 weeks after the date of injury, July 4th) with the hope and expectation that I would finally be free from it's wretched clutches. Oh how wrong I was.

The doctor informed me that yes my bone was healing, and I am making good progress, but that unfortunately it wasn't completely healed. He said I could go home without a cast today if I wanted, but it was a 50-50 shot on me being back in his office in 6 months with the bone completely fractured again and restarting the whole process over again. It was either that or I get re-casted for another 4 weeks and in 4 weeks I can have the cast removed confident that my bone will be completely healed. Weighing the options and knowing that if I did re-break my wrist I could have a lifetime of arthritis in my wrist (a great option for someone who types daily as their main job duty), potential surgery to put screws in, and another 3 months in a cast... I decided to live with 4 more weeks (I have already made it this far, I am used to the cast, really whats 4 more weeks...)

But in the spirit of the upcoming fall holiday (also known as Halloween) I deviated from my normal. The last 2 casts have both been a baby blue color. I decided to go a different route and go for a Halloween color. It's not black. It's not orange. It's the third official Halloween color that you don't think of as the official Halloween color but when you hear it you will know what I am talking about. Yes, I have a glow in the dark cast. I figure Maddie will think it is pretty cool, and it's a bit festive, and I will now have a night light to read by.

October 26th, 10:50 am, you can't come soon enough...