Stunningly Average

Pulling it all together

2010-06-25T13:07:00.000-07:00

I have discovered the world is flat... by falling over the edge. My last meaningful bit of posting was around a year ago. I passionately followed politics and linked to what I considered to be good articles either for educational value, expression of opinion, or entertainment.

The arena of politics exploded... and so did my blood pressure. Everything started happening so fast that it was like trying to take a drink from a firehose. Combine this with a particularly demanding schedule at school, while finishing a basement, and it was the perfect time to take a break.

I have a LOT to talk about... I just need to sort a few posts out. There will be a balance... and though what is going on right now in the American political sphere is very important, I will be posting on memories, moments and religion as well.

I have never maintained a blogroll of personal blog contacts on this site before, but I look forward to adding this soon.

Sophie

2009-05-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

There are two girls that Alphaville's "Forever Young" album remind me of: One red-haired French beauty who was my first love, and the girl who came after her... Melanie.

It's July 1986, and I'm part of a foreign exchange group in the resort town of Courchevel, France. It seems customary that every hotel in the area invites us over for a meal and an evening in their discotheque. Surpisingly, every hotel had one. Just like every hotel managed to serve us food that was either surprisingly good, or utterly revolting (the fetish with putting anchovies on everything totally escapes me).

One of these hotels - Le Zenith - has us in for dinner and dancing, and halfway through my not-so-bad dinner, I notice a very pretty girl, with fiery red hair, sitting down at the table across from us. Though I watch her off and on throughout the meal, she never notices me.

After the meal, everyone (hotel guests and foreign exchange students alike) move to the basement discotheque for fun and dancing. I continue my babewatch.

It doesn't appear that she has a boyfriend there. The dancing lasts for two hours, and finally, with only one dance to go, I muster the courage to ask her to dance. She says yes. I try my best to talk to her, but either my French is too horrific, or the music's too loud. Either way, anything I said elicited a look of confusion from her. Immediately after the song ended, She grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the door of the discotheque where her brother was waiting. For a few minutes, there was a three-way chat as I would talk to her brother in English, he would say something to her in French... she would look at me, say something back to her brother in French, and he would relay the message back to me in English. I found out that her name was Sophie, and that she was 15, and was staying at the hotel with her family. Score.

At least someone spoke English there....

The girl, her brother, my best friend and I climbed the stairs to the hotel lounge, where we would spend the next hour talking to each other in this dysfunctional style, with the girl chiming in every time I spoke "...Qu'est-ce qu'il dit?!" (What's he saying?!)

Over the course of the next week few days we became friends, hanging out and doing things together... talking, playing pool, dancing... until the night before she left. Our usual session of talking was punctuated by long periods of silence, as Sophie's brother was making out with his girlfriend. We smiled at each other, and I reached over to touch her hand, which through some deft and ninja-like reflex, she was able to twist around so that we were holding hands.

Oh yeah....

At this point, she quietly murmurs something toward her brother, who is now part of an indistinguishable lip-locked mass on the other side of the room. He surfaces for air. "She wants you to kiss her."

Did I mention I had never kissed a girl before?

This was my first... and mmmmmmm, wow..... I STILL have great memories of that kiss. I had started the evening merely in a serious crush... now I was ridiculously head over heels for her.

I had arranged to stay the night with one of our chaperones who was staying at the hotel, but the hotel manager caught me in the stairway and expressed in his best halting English that it might be a bit scandalous if I were to stay there... even in a completely different room.

So I hiked the three miles back to my hotel in the dead of night... totally walking on clouds! Even though the route was mostly on a small mountain road, with no lights, in the middle of a forest... (and I had just seen "An American Werewolf in London a few months earlier), I was totally NOT freaked out.

I watched the road the next morning as her family's car passed by just beneath my hotel window... wishing so very much that we could have had one more day together....

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T07:49:00.000-07:00

I began Earth Day this year with my house completely dark... not a single light on, nor a single appliance running. Pitch black... the only light coming in from the stars outside.

Actually, everyone in my neighborhood began earth day that way, as our power went out last night and didn't come back on for several hours. Probably some eco-terrorist nut blew up the substation... saving us from ourselves, unilaterally forcing us to be "carbon neutral" until our power was restored.

Forget that.

I broke out two oil lamps that shine bright and spew carbon dioxide and several other hydrocarbons into the air, and ran them in our home, giving us the convenience of light and heat, as well as the satisfaction that I was offsetting some Global Warming hysteric's attempt to reduce man's environmental impact.

The day is still young, there is far more to do... Maybe I'll idle my car in rush hour traffic for three hours, charter a private flight to Vegas and back, run my dishwasher and clothes washer empty several times and turn the Christmas lights on the house back on... oh, the possibilities.

Here are some excellent Earth Day links:

I Hate The Media	Very good post: Read the Earth Day predictions from 1970... see if anything sounds familiar.
I Hate The Media	25 Anti-Global-Warming movies Al Gore does NOT want you to see...
Don Surber	Applying the Obama Budget Cuts to Every Day Situations... Hilarious!
Don Surber	Congress figures out the massive bailouts might hurt taxpayers?
Don Surber	What we have to look forward to with socialized medicine

Classy vs. Not Classy

2009-04-21T15:41:00.000-07:00

Perez gets so excited he nearly wets himself, as he describes the crowds booing when Miss California when she says she believes that marriage should be between a man and a woman, and then proceeds to tell the viewer the answer that Carrie Prejean should have given. As far as I have been able to discern, it was an opinion question... not a question with only one possible answer.

Here is the actual footage from the Miss America pageant. Funny.... I don't hear the booing that Perez was talking about... unless, of course, clapping is the current politically correct way of expressing horror, outrage and disdain.

And here is the follow-up:

Kudos to Miss Prejean for standing by her beliefs and values, though it may have lost her the Miss America crown. Integrity is worth far more than that diamond tiara.

So, to recap:

Classy: Carrie Prejean for being honest and standing for what she believes in.
Not Classy: Perez Hilton for his obscenity-laden, narcissistic, hate-filled ad-hominem attack on Carrie for being honest and standing for what she believes in.

Here are some great links for the day:

Tim Blair	In honor of the “Pagan Eco-Tart”, Tim Blair points us to Iowahawk’s Virtual Cruise-In.
Iowahawk	While you’re at Iowahawk, read up on what happens to good, unsuspecting American citizens when exposed to horrifically dangerous documents like… the Constitution
Bilge Munky	Arrrbon Credits: All the rage with the peg-leg, parrot-keeping swashbuckling crowd. (hat tip: Tim Blair)
I Hate The Media	Hilarious “Quote of the Day”
I Hate The Media	The "Change" that a lot of us wish we had... $201,913 is a lot of "change"

Stunningly Familiar...

2009-04-17T10:40:00.000-07:00

Take a minute and watch this familiar part of Disney's Lion King, and see if you can't see some parallels with what is happening to our nation today. I will update later with the similarities that I've been able to discern.

Testing Linkage...

2009-04-17T10:35:00.000-07:00

Every morning, I belly up to an excellent buffet of political information, and sup from its pages to see what the world has been up to over the past day. Rather than trying to explain much of this in my own words, and in order to give credit where credit is due, I have devised a link table, which will come at the end of the post, or sometimes will be posted independently of any other material. This is a test run at the link formatting:

RedState.com	A funny cartoon on the evolution of Team Obama’s Message from the campaign to the present day.
Gateway Pundit	Obama: Apologizing for America. Again. Would he just knock it the hell off?
Gateway Pundit	Olberman and Garafolo have a lewd, racist, insult-filled discussion on the tea parties. This will induce vomiting quicker than Ipecac.
Gateway Pundit	Nice! Palin slams “The One” on abortion issues.
Big Hollywood	"Mainstream Media: Only Conservatives Are Sore Losers"

"Maybe it's time to fire some people"

2009-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:00

Representative Barney Frank said he was disgusted, asserting that "these bonuses are going to people who screwed this thing up enormously."

"Maybe it's time to fire some people"

Wait... he was talking about AIG? Not Congress?!! Did I get the wrong quote with the wrong headline?

You have to admit though, in this context, it's the most sense Barney Frank has made in years.

New Obama Transportation Policy

2009-03-17T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hey, it works for the Chinese, right?

I mean, what better way to become communists than to emulate communists, right?

And if everyone can hold their breath while they're pedaling, we can drastically cut down the ol' CO2 emissions... we'll be as green as green can be... or at least a nice shade of blue.

Obama's New Energy Plan

2009-03-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

"Alternative form of energy... doesn't block anyone's view, isn't radioactive, doesn't require drilling, and we have an unlimited supply of this natural resource..."

The Grasshopper and the Ants - Redux

2009-03-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

There are those of us who lived at a time where reading was vogue, instead of watching a steady stream of mind-wasting cartoons and worthless teen sitcoms (ahem, nickelodeon & disney channel).

Among such stories to be read was a time honored classic - The Grasshopper and the Ants.

The premise of the story is that the grasshopper spends his days relaxing and recreating, and mocking those who work for a living. Warning after warning came from the ants to prepare for the impending winter season, only to be spurned by the lazy grasshopper until the day that the ants have gone underground and the weather has turned nasty. In the Disney version, at least, the ants have compassion and let the grasshopper come in and share their food. The grasshopper pays his way by playing his fiddle for the ants throughout the winter. Happy ending.

And now, the "Hope and Change" version of this classic fable:
While the ants toiled and labored, preparing their food storage for the winter, Grasshopper bitched and moaned about how much food the ants had, and how they really didn't need all that much to survive. On the first day of winter, the door to the anthill was pushed closed for the season... but soon after, there came a knock at the door. Puzzled, the ants opened the door back up.

There stood the grasshopper with another ant. Both entered, and the new ant (from the Hope and Change government) explained that it was the ants' patriotic duty to pay taxes on their earnings, and to "spread the wealth" among those of the less privledged classes of the insect world.

"Mmmmm... what makes this grasshopper disadvantaged?" asked one ant.
"His heritage as a grasshopper" stated the new ant.
"But.... other grasshoppers are productive and earn their keep, why not this one?" replied the first.
"Because of discrimination by the ants... he is constantly repressed and held back from success" said the new ant. "Because of this, it is our society's obligation to fund social programs for our underprivileged; someone is going to have to give up a piece of their pie so that someone else can have more."

So, the grasshopper came into the anthill and shared the ants' wealth throughout the winter season, though he had earned none of it.

Spring arrived, the door opened, and the grasshopper tipped his hat at the ants and said "toodles!" and jumped off and away.

Throughout the season, it seemed as though there were fewer workers, and smaller piles of food being built up in the storerooms. Indeed, it was with a bit of alarm that the chief ant found that the food stores held little over half their normal amount on the very day that the door was supposed to close. Shortly before the appointed hour, the grasshopper strode in with four other grasshoppers, and several ants who were wearing grasshopper masks.

"What is the meaning of this?!" demanded the chief.
"Oh hey chief, this is my brother and his friends. They were deceived into subprime mortgages that they could never afford by some wily ants, and subsequently lost their homes. So here we are... what's for dinner tonight?" said the grasshopper
"Who are these ants in the grasshopper masks?" asked the chief
"We're honorary grasshoppers" replied one muffled ant voice behind a mask.
"Craig, is that you?" asked the chief
"Yeeeeah," said the ant as it removed the mask from its face. "I figure I worked my thorax off all season long to save up food for the winter... and the grasshopper did nothing. Yet, we were both fed and housed throughout the winter. How is that fair to me?" the ant asked.

There was a murmur of agreement among many of the other ants, particularly those who were not wearing grasshopper masks and had achy thoraxes. That murmur was soon drowned out, though, by boisterous, happy grasshopper voices coming from the food storage area.

Upon reaching the food storage area, the ants were shocked to see all of the grasshoppers gorging themselves on the piles of food that the ants had so painstakingly collected throughout the harvest. One grasshopper was heard to say "I never thought this day would happen. I won’t have to work on puttin’ gas in my car. I won’t have to work at payin’ my mortgage..." to which another replied "What's a car?"

"I dunno" the first grasshopper shrugged, and stuffed another kernel of corn into her mouth.

That winter was a far leaner one for all who lived in the anthill. Somehow, the ones wearing the grasshopper masks thought getting a handout would feel a lot better than it did. Instead, they noticed the quality of life in general drop as the labors of the few supported the lives of many. Near the end of the winter season, as they prepared to open the door of the anthill, there came another knock at the door. Puzzled, the lean and slightly bedraggled ants opened the door to find another ant standing outside with a group of large warrior ants.

The short of it was that on top of their normal seasonal labors, each ant was compelled to work 50 hours of community service "toward the good of the insect nation".
"Isn't that what we already do from the first of Spring through the end of fall?" asked the chief ant. "Each anthill is self-sufficient... I just don't see wh-"
"Yes, yes, but what about the underprivileged insects? See, the grasshoppers need a new rec center where they can lay around in hammocks and play their fiddles all summer long until it's time to come into the anthills for the winter. It's in society's best interest. And yours too, if you know catch my meaning" said the speaker ant while the warrior ants growled and made menacing gestures with their jaws and legs.

A few weeks later, an edict was handed down from the "Hope and Change" government: There would be no food gathering on the ants' own lands because it was considered by some to be "damaging" to the environment. Instead, the ants would have to gather food from designated fields two hours away from their own lands... the crappy "corn ethanol" fields.

The following week, representatives from the labor unions showed up with their menacing bodyguards, forcing a vote upon the anthill population to unionize into two different groups: Food Gatherers and Facilities Management. Both labor groups set limits on how much the ants could work in a single day, but made generous demands when it came to the food allotments for each union ant. Which meant everyone, since the entire anthill was unionized.

"We do not need to stand for this" sounded voices of dissent over the ants' antenna networks... "What our ant government is doing is against the principles that our great ant nation was founded upon! Soon, however, these voices were silenced as something called "The Fairness Doctrine" was implemented. "Our ant airwaves are a precious resource," the Hope and Change representative droned... " we can't have this verbal pornography polluting our ears and thoughts!"

Morale was at an all-time low; the ants had to gather more food, and had to go farther for it. The chief ant sat down, did the math, and quickly found that their current situation was not self-sustaining; there was no way to harvest enough food to meet the basic union demands, on top of the additional amount they needed to feed all of the grasshoppers, both native and honorary.

The chief sighed and walked out of the anthill, never to be heard from again. Though, the union bosses did spread the rumor that he was caught by French people, dipped in chocolate and eaten as a delicacy. "Let that be a lesson to you", they growled "not to leave the safety of your territory. It's a dangerous world out there..."

The union worker ants soon realized that their dream of living well was fading more and more with many anthills becoming insolvent and declaring bankruptcy. There was no food in the anthill storehouses, and no motivation to find food outside because once you did, it didn't belong to you anymore anyway. It was whisked away as a form of "wealth redistribution". Misery and apathy were endemic among the ant population.

The ants didn't even care when the anteater showed up and ate them all.

Obama Lied; The Economy Died

2009-03-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

Very good Op-Ed in the Washington Times by Tony Blankley... follow the link and read the whole thing.

"If President Obama were to try to misrepresent his positions for the next four years, there would be nothing he could say that would approach the inaccuracy of his claim last week that he is not for big government. It is the essence of the man and his presidency. He doesn't like America the way it has been since its founding - and it will take an abusively big government to realize his dreams of converting America into something quite different. If you don't know that, you don't yet know Barack Obama."

Tony Blankley - Washington Times Op-Ed

Elsewhere…

"We don't believe it makes sense to significantly subsidize the production and use of sources of energy (like oil and gas) that are dramatically going to add to our climate change (problem). We don't think that's good economic policy and we think changing those incentives is good for the country”

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner – Senate Finance Committee Hearing, March 4, 2009

Thank you, Secretary Geithner, for sacrificing the lives and livelihood of 300+ million Americans upon the altar of Unproven and Disputed Junk Science.

What a freaking idiot. This is “Amateur Hour” at its worst.

Time to Lock Arms, Not Horns

2009-03-04T23:47:00.000-08:00

It’s no secret... no news flash that Republicans lost big time this past election...
But why?

Because they tried to re-brand themselves... they tried to be "all things to everyone", like some kind of political metrosexual. Instead of confronting and solving the charges of corruption that Democrats leveled against them in the 2006 elections, the GOP did a half-assed job of trying to look better by trying to make the other side look worse. They essentially played the same game the Democrats do and lost miserably. The lesser of two evils does not a good choice make.

Amidst the indecision and identity crisis, as the GOP was floating aimlessly along, the evangelical right grabbed the rudder and decided to turn the GOP into "God's Own Party". The way religion was dragged into the elections and put center stage was nauseating. Identity politics played a huge part in the way the 2008 GOP campaign was run... largely from the evangelical crowd. Mike Huckabee's usage of the cross and "Christian Leader" in his commercials, to his statements about amending the constitution so that it reflected God's standards... to his incessant whining jabs at Romney for just about everything.

There was little doubt who was at the wheel of the 2008 Republican Party: It was a group of people who don't give a damn about disenfranchising different elements of the party. Elements like people with beliefs that don't match theirs, including Atheists. That's right, Atheists.

Moxie, from Moxie.nu brought up a point that is not often discussed, but certainly true: A Christian (or other religionist) is obedient to certain laws and behaviors primarily due to their belief in an eternal reward, whereas conservative Atheists, with no belief in an afterlife or eternal reward, are good for the sake of being good. I find that truly admirable.

No group of people "owns" conservatism; it is made up of principles that are universal, and freely available to all. Principles like obedience to law, decency, civility, goodness, and charity among others. No individual living these principles should ever be refused a voice in the conservative party because they don't pass some sort of religious litmus test. There is enough room under this tent for everyone... except bigots. It is time to lock arms, not horns.

Remember, Republicans, our greatness comes from true conservative principles, but our power and strength comes from individuals with diverse backgrounds, united together in the desire to be a strong American people:

E. Pluribus Unum
"Out of Many, One"

If we are united in cause, principle and spirit, we cannot fail.

Hope and Change: Way to go, Barry O!

2009-03-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

7 Broken Promises in Record Time

Make government open and transparent.
Make it "impossible" for Congressmen to slip in pork barrel projects
Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public. (Even Congressional Republicans shut out.)
No more secrecy.
Public will have 5 days to look at a bill.
You’ll know what’s in it.
We will put every pork barrel project online.

Read about it at:
Sweetness and Light
Gateway Pundit

The Global Warming Myth

2008-07-12T23:44:00.000-07:00

John Coleman, founder of The Weather Channel, pretty much summarizes my beliefs concerning global warming alarmism, and its destructive effects on our economy. I certainly couldn't have put it any better than he does.

It's one thing to be environmentally responsible; completely another to subscribe to this apocalyptic madness Al Gore has started.

Global Warming and the Price of a Gallon of Gas
by John Coleman

You may want to give credit where credit is due to Al Gore and his global warming campaign the next time you fill your car with gasoline, because there is a direct connection between Global Warming and four dollar a gallon gas. It is shocking, but true, to learn that the entire Global Warming frenzy is based on the environmentalist’s attack on fossil fuels, particularly gasoline. All this big time science, international meetings, thick research papers, dire threats for the future; all of it, comes down to their claim that the carbon dioxide in the exhaust from your car and in the smoke stacks from our power plants is destroying the climate of planet Earth. What an amazing fraud; what a scam.

The future of our civilization lies in the balance.

That’s the battle cry of the High Priest of Global Warming Al Gore and his fellow, agenda driven disciples as they predict a calamitous outcome from anthropogenic global warming. According to Mr. Gore the polar ice caps will collapse and melt and sea levels will rise 20 feet inundating the coastal cities making 100 million of us refugees. Vice President Gore tells us numerous Pacific islands will be totally submerged and uninhabitable. He tells us global warming will disrupt the circulation of the ocean waters, dramatically changing climates, throwing the world food supply into chaos. He tells us global warming will turn hurricanes into super storms, produce droughts, wipe out the polar bears and result in bleaching of coral reefs. He tells us tropical diseases will spread to mid latitudes and heat waves will kill tens of thousands. He preaches to us that we must change our lives and eliminate fossil fuels or face the dire consequences. The future of our civilization is in the balance.

With a preacher’s zeal, Mr. Gore sets out to strike terror into us and our children and make us feel we are all complicit in the potential demise of the planet.

Here is my rebuttal.

There is no significant man made global warming. There has not been any in the past, there is none now and there is no reason to fear any in the future. The climate of Earth is changing. It has always changed. But mankind’s activities have not overwhelmed or significantly modified the natural forces.

Through all history, Earth has shifted between two basic climate regimes: ice ages and what paleoclimatologists call “Interglacial periods”. For the past 10 thousand years the Earth has been in an interglacial period. That might well be called nature’s global warming because what happens during an interglacial period is the Earth warms up, the glaciers melt and life flourishes. Clearly from our point of view, an interglacial period is greatly preferred to the deadly rigors of an ice age. Mr. Gore and his crowd would have us believe that the activities of man have overwhelmed nature during this interglacial period and are producing an unprecedented, out of control warming.

Well, it is simply not happening. Worldwide there was a significant natural warming trend in the 1980’s and 1990’s as a Solar cycle peaked with lots of sunspots and solar flares. That ended in 1998 and now the Sun has gone quiet with fewer and fewer Sun spots, and the global temperatures have gone into decline. Earth has cooled for almost ten straight years. So, I ask Al Gore, where’s the global warming?

The cooling trend is so strong that recently the head of the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had to acknowledge it. He speculated that nature has temporarily overwhelmed mankind’s warming and it may be ten years or so before the warming returns. Oh, really. We are supposed to be in a panic about man-made global warming and the whole thing takes a ten year break because of the lack of Sun spots. If this weren’t so serious, it would be laughable.

Now allow me to talk a little about the science behind the global warming frenzy. I have dug through thousands of pages of research papers, including the voluminous documents published by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. I have worked my way through complicated math and complex theories. Here’s the bottom line: the entire global warming scientific case is based on the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the use of fossil fuels. They don’t have any other issue. Carbon Dioxide, that’s it.

Hello Al Gore; Hello UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Your science is flawed; your hypothesis is wrong; your data is manipulated. And, may I add, your scare tactics are deplorable. The Earth does not have a fever. Carbon dioxide does not cause significant global warming.

The focus on atmospheric carbon dioxide grew out a study by Roger Revelle who was an esteemed scientist at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute. He took his research with him when he moved to Harvard and allowed his students to help him process the data for his paper. One of those students was Al Gore. That is where Gore got caught up in this global warming frenzy. Revelle’s paper linked the increases in carbon dioxide, CO2, in the atmosphere with warming. It labeled CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

Charles Keeling, another researcher at the Scripps Oceanographic Institute, set up a system to make continuous CO2 measurements. His graph of these increases has now become known as the Keeling Curve. When Charles Keeling died in 2005, his son Ralph, also at Scripps, took over the measurements. Here is what the Keeling curve shows: an increase in CO2 from 315 parts per million in 1958 to 385 parts per million today, an increase of 70 parts per million or about 20 percent.

All the computer models, all of the other findings, all of the other angles of study, all come back to and are based on CO2 as a significant greenhouse gas. It is not.

Here is the deal about CO2, carbon dioxide. It is a natural component of our atmosphere. It has been there since time began. It is absorbed and emitted by the oceans. It is used by every living plant to trigger photosynthesis. Nothing would be green without it. And we humans; we create it. Every time we breathe out, we emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. It is not a pollutant. It is not smog. It is a naturally occurring invisible gas.

Let me illustrate. I estimate that this square in front of my face contains 100,000 molecules of atmosphere. Of those 100,000 only 38 are CO2; 38 out of a hundred thousand. That makes it a trace component. Let me ask a key question: how can this tiny trace upset the entire balance of the climate of Earth? It can’t. That’s all there is to it; it can’t.

The UN IPCC has attracted billions of dollars for the research to try to make the case that CO2 is the culprit of run-away, man-made global warming. The scientists have come up with very complex creative theories and done elaborate calculations and run computer models they say prove those theories. They present us with a concept they call radiative forcing. The research organizations and scientists who are making a career out of this theory, keep cranking out the research papers. Then the IPCC puts on big conferences at exotic places, such as the recent conference in Bali. The scientists endorse each other’s papers, they are summarized and voted on, and voila, we are told global warming is going to kill us all unless we stop burning fossil fuels.

May I stop here for a few historical notes? First, the internal combustion engine and gasoline were awful polluters when they were first invented. And, both gasoline and automobile engines continued to leave a layer of smog behind right up through the 1960’s. Then science and engineering came to the environmental rescue. Better exhaust and ignition systems, catalytic converters, fuel injectors, better engineering throughout the engine and reformulated gasoline have all contributed to a huge reduction in the exhaust emissions from today’s cars. Their goal then was to only exhaust carbon dioxide and water vapor, two gases widely accepted as natural and totally harmless. Anyone old enough to remember the pall of smog that used to hang over all our cities knows how much improvement there has been. So the environmentalists, in their battle against fossil fuels and automobiles had a very good point forty years ago, but now they have to focus almost entirely on the once harmless carbon dioxide. And, that is the rub. Carbon dioxide is not an environmental problem; they just want you now to think it is.

Numerous independent research projects have been done about the greenhouse impact from increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide. These studies have proven to my total satisfaction that CO2 is not creating a major greenhouse effect and is not causing an increase in temperatures. By the way, before his death, Roger Revelle coauthored a paper cautioning that CO2 and its greenhouse effect did not warrant extreme countermeasures.

So now it has come down to an intense campaign, orchestrated by environmentalists claiming that the burning of fossil fuels dooms the planet to run-away global warming. Ladies and Gentlemen, that is a myth.

So how has the entire global warming frenzy with all its predictions of dire consequences, become so widely believed, accepted and regarded as a real threat to planet Earth? That is the most amazing part of the story.

To start with global warming has the backing of the United Nations, a major world force. Second, it has the backing of a former Vice President and very popular political figure. Third it has the endorsement of Hollywood, and that’s enough for millions. And, fourth, the environmentalists love global warming. It is their tool to combat fossil fuels. So with the environmentalists, the UN, Gore and Hollywood touting Global Warming and predictions of doom and gloom, the media has scrambled with excitement to climb aboard. After all the media loves a crisis. From Y2K to killer bees the media just loves to tell us our lives are threatened. And the media is biased toward liberal, so it’s pre-programmed to support Al Gore and UN. CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, The LA Times, The Washington Post, the Associated Press and here in San Diego The Union Tribune are all constantly promoting the global warming crisis.

So who is going to go against all of that power? Not the politicians. So now the President of the United States, just about every Governor, most Senators and most Congress people, both of the major current candidates for President, most other elected officials on all levels of government are all riding the Al Gore Global Warming express. That is one crowded bus.

I suspect you haven’t heard it because the mass media did not report it, but I am not alone on the no man-made warming side of this issue. On May 20th, a list of the names of over thirty-one thousand scientists who refute global warming was released. Thirty-one thousand of which 9,000 are Ph.D's. Think about that. Thirty-one thousand. That dwarfs the supposed 2,500 scientists on the UN panel. In the past year, five hundred of scientists have issued public statements challenging global warming. A few more join the chorus every week. There are about 100 defectors from the UN IPCC. There was an International Conference of Climate Change Skeptics in New York in March of this year. One hundred of us gave presentations. Attendance was limited to six hundred people. Every seat was taken. There are a half dozen excellent internet sites that debunk global warming. And, thank goodness for KUSI and Michael McKinnon, its owner. He allows me to post my comments on global warming on the website KUSI.com. Following the publicity of my position from Fox News, Glen Beck on CNN, Rush Limbaugh and a host of other interviews, thousands of people come to the website and read my comments. I get hundreds of supportive emails from them. No I am not alone and the debate is not over.

In my remarks in New York I speculated that perhaps we should sue Al Gore for fraud because of his carbon credits trading scheme. That remark has caused a stir in the fringe media and on the internet. The concept is that if the media won’t give us a hearing and the other side will not debate us, perhaps we could use a Court of law to present our papers and our research and if the Judge is unbiased and understands science, we win. The media couldn’t ignore that. That idea has become the basis for legal research by notable attorneys and discussion among global warming debunkers, but it’s a long way from the Court room.

I am very serious about this issue. I think stamping out the global warming scam is vital to saving our wonderful way of life.

The battle against fossil fuels has controlled policy in this country for decades. It was the environmentalist’s prime force in blocking any drilling for oil in this country and the blocking the building of any new refineries, as well. So now the shortage they created has sent gasoline prices soaring. And, it has lead to the folly of ethanol, which is also partly behind the fuel price increases; that and our restricted oil policy. The ethanol folly is also creating a food crisis throughout the world – it is behind the food price rises for all the grains, for cereals, bread, everything that relies on corn or soy or wheat, including animals that are fed corn, most processed foods that use corn oil or soybean oil or corn syrup. Food shortages or high costs have led to food riots in some third world countries and made the cost of eating out or at home budget busting for many.

So now the global warming myth actually has lead to the chaos we are now enduring with energy and food prices. We pay for it every time we fill our gas tanks. Not only is it running up gasoline prices, it has changed government policy impacting our taxes, our utility bills and the entire focus of government funding. And, now the Congress is considering a cap and trade carbon credits policy. We the citizens will pay for that, too. It all ends up in our taxes and the price of goods and services.

So the Global warming frenzy is, indeed, threatening our civilization. Not because global warming is real; it is not. But because of the all the horrible side effects of the global warming scam.

I love this civilization. I want to do my part to protect it.

If Al Gore and his global warming scare dictates the future policy of our governments, the current economic downturn could indeed become a recession, drift into a depression and our modern civilization could fall into an abyss. And it would largely be a direct result of the global warming frenzy.

My mission, in what is left of a long and exciting lifetime, is to stamp out this Global Warming silliness and let all of us get on with enjoying our lives and loving our planet, Earth.

Possible Campaign Slogan?

2008-06-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

What so many Americans have been longing for: A political savior. Someone who looks good, sounds good and makes them feel good.

But does anyone really listen to what he's saying? All of the promises and platitudes, and the Hope that he's selling to all of us... where will the money come from for all this?

You guessed it. You and me. If you think taxes are high right now, just wait until his first 100 days in office.

Barack Obama is the epitome of the American Dream... If a junior senator with little to no governing experience can be elected as the leader of the free world, then you can too. Don't let the experience thing bother you too much. After all, he's not Bush.

Making Him Look Good...

2008-06-22T08:46:00.000-07:00

A seemingly impossible task, given this president's unpopularity over the past several years... who could possibly make our American president look good?

These clowns, that's who.

It is becoming vastly apparent to the American people that to be "Anti-Bush" is not enough; you cannot stand on a claim that "anything is better than Bush" because apparently there are things that are worse than Bush. For instance, a do-nothing congress with consistently lower approval ratings. Let's take a look:

As you can see, Presiden't Bush's approval rating hovers between 25% and 33%, depending on the polling source. His disapproval rating, however, seems to hover at a constant 64% to 68%, indicating that about 2 out of three of us don't like what he's doing. Now let's look at congress:

No, not that picture again... I mean their approval ratings...

As you can see, The Democratic Congress' approval rating hovers between 13% and 23%, depending on the polling source. Their disapproval rating, however, seems to hover at a constant 69% to 79%, indicating that about 4 out of 5 of us think they're doing a pretty bad job. The word "abysmal" comes to mind, but hey, that's just me.

It must be a conspiracy.

I mean, Pelosi and Reid must really, really love Bush, and so sacrificed any semblance of competency and intentionally ran congress into the ground in an attempt to comparitively boost the President's approval ratings.

Wow. I would never have seen that one coming.

/sarcasm

Force of Nature

2008-05-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Congratulations, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. You're doing what no force of nature has ever achieved.

You're turning my lifelong Democrat grandparents into Republicans.

To vote for John McCain, no less!

Two Paths Converged In The Woods...

2008-05-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

I stood in a small grocery store the other night, flowers and M&M's for my wife in hand, choosing between two checkout lines. One had a man purchasing a six pack of beer with nickels and dimes, the other had a man whose face was far too familiar... a face from many, many years ago when I was only eleven.

He had been one of my best friends back then, the kind of friend that was loyal to a fault, but was also eccentric to an exponential degree. He was the kind who thought nothing of prowling the neighborhood at night, dressed like a ninja, or sitting on the sofa, fondling himself to an R-rated movie on the TV in front of his friends.

A walking contradiction, he was deeply religious (one of his best friends was the preacher in their church) and yet deeply irreverent. He went from being absolutely squeaky clean to addicted to alcohol, drugs and smoking.

We had kept in touch for a long time, but ultimately made different choices about the paths we took in life, and parted ways. There he stood, most likely still living in his mother's basement. There I stood, professionally employed, married and father of four children.

Should I walk up, greet him and catch up on the past, or should I leave the books closed on that chapter of my life?

I stood silently in line, watching the man in front of me continue to count out nickels and dimes for his beer...

Tell Me...

2008-05-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

How does one kill a soul?

How does somebody become so numb and beyond feeling that anything and everything in life is acceptable and nothing is held back or sacred?

How does somebody put their whole self out for the world to consume on a whim, and not care in the least?

How can somebody stand for nothing, fall for everything, and be completely happy with it?

How....?

Gas Prices... WHO is to blame?!

2008-05-23T09:24:00.000-07:00

Very good point brought up by Glenn Beck today; here we expect our oil companies here in America to give us reasonably priced oil, yet, congress has placed so many restrictions on the drilling and refining of oil within our own national borders that it's nearly impossible. It's beyond the "between a rock and a hard place" analogy, it's more like telling someone to dance, while nailing one of their feet to the floor, and cutting their other leg off.

Here is Glenn Beck, with what should have been said in the conressional hearings:

We brought together the heads of big oil. See that big head over there? Yeah, he runs Shell. That one? That runs ExxonMobil. Mr. Big oil, we're here to talk about the high price of gasoline. How could it have possibly gotten this high?

Let me tell you what we've done here in congress. We told you that drilling in ANWR is off limits. We told you that drilling off the coast of Florida and California is off limits. We told you, Mr. Big oil, that there wouldn't be any new leases for drilling in the Gulf while China and Venezuela and even Cuba pursued these leases and have just signed 100-year leases on the oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

We here in congress have promised, as all three presidential candidates have also promised, to introduce and pass in the next term a cap and trade legislation bill that will increase the price of gasoline according to the EPA by an additional $1.50. Some people say it could be as high as $5 additional per gallon. Order, order.

We have said that we're shutting down oil fields in Colorado. We won't let you develop shale oil fields in several Western states. And yesterday we passed legislation that would let us sue OPEC with the full understanding that they'll never retaliate. Yes.

We have allowed environmental attorneys to sue you big oil fiends for future possible destruction of Alaskan Eskimo village which legal experts believe is the same strategy used to bring down big tobacco. We're especially proud of our recent action to protect the polar bear and their habitat which just happens to be where the future oil deposits happen to be located.

We told you that you're making too much money and that we're looking at seizing any money that we consider windfall profits. Yes. We have allowed you to drill in some very small areas in Alaska while simultaneously creating very generous environmental laws which have tied up the very production we authorize through years of litigation after you spent the money on buying and setting up equipment.

We told you through our policies that we would not allow you to build a new refinery in over 30 years. In fact, this great country, under our tutelage, has even reduced the number of operational refineries by half since 1982. Order, order, order.

We have even told your potential competitors in the nuclear and hydroelectric industries that we would send the environmental lawyers after them if they even dared think about building a new plant or a new dam.

We've refused to fund or allow the deployment of coal-to-oil technology which has been around since the 1930s. We've told you that you have to make different blends of gasoline, let states like California dictate what unique gasoline blends you have to make for them. We will not reduce our federal gasoline tax. We won't even consider reducing it for the summer months. So Mr. Big oil, tell me why exactly are gas prices so high? Order, order!

I couldn't have stated it better.

Once again, we see that Congress is the opposite of Progress.

Parenting Lessons From My Dog

2008-05-14T18:40:00.000-07:00

Simple determination. Any time I sit down to eat at the dining table, my dog sidles up right next to me and begs for food. Each bite I take is met with her licking her lips in eager anticipation, body shaking with excitement.

Nine times out of ten, I don't give her a thing. I'm kind of heartless that way. But every single time, she sits and begs and puts the effort into it. The tenth time, it pays off, and I'll give her some table scraps, or roast trimmings, etc.

Now the parenting part.

Nine times out of ten, my kids pay me no heed whatsoever. I tell them things until I'm blue in the face, and they still don't catch a clue. It's like their brains have a teflon coating that deflects even my best efforts to impart wisdom.

But that tenth time, when they listen, makes the other nine times well worth the effort.

Never, ever, ever give up. That tenth time could make all the difference in a child's life.

FLDS Situation - My Take.

2008-04-16T14:53:00.000-07:00

Mormons and FLDS polygamists relate to each other about as closely as Catholics and Baptists; in essence, there are a few root similarities, but we are completely different past that.

I was listening to a radio interview with some of the polygamist wives this morning, and their sing-song voices chiming in exactly the same words at the same time had a seriously creepy effect; it got me thinking of the Borg Collective, or quite possibly Xenu.

In spite of that, I have to side with the FLDS on this one. Contrary to what Hilary Clinton may think, it does NOT take a village to raise a child. It takes loving parents.

We put ourselves on dangerously thin ice when we abrogate the rights and liberties of others, without substantial proof that laws have been broken or that lives are imperiled or endangered.

Think about this situation, and what it would be like if you were on the receiving end of this injustice. Then consider that if it can be done to this group, it can be done to you as well. This establishes precedent. If the "village" doesn't like the way you're raising your children, then the village can take them away from you and teach them what it likes.

That scares me, because if the "village" I live in were to take my children away and reassign them to different parents, I could be sure of three things: My children would end up on government support, they would receive a substandard education, and they would far more likely suffer abuse in another home than they ever would in their own. No one can ever love and understand my children better than my wife and I; no one has their best interests at heart and wants them to succeed more than us. Besides, how many times have we heard horror stories about abuse in foster homes?

Add into the mix that Texas is a Baptist state. The majority of acceptable foster homes would belong to the Baptist faith. Baptists hate Mormons, and anyone who might resemble them (read: polygamists). Well, okay, they LOVE Mormons in a "let's save them from their satanic counterfeit religion" sort of way. I should know; I'm related to a Baptist pastor. Anyway, with no consideration for these children and their faith, these well-meaning Baptists will immediately set to work, teaching these children that everything they knew about God was false, and reprogramming them with what they consider to be "the truth".

I won't even pretend to know what the FLDS consider to be truth, but I can bet it is radically different than what Baptists believe. I certainly won't make any arrogant assumptions as to whose version is closer to the truth, either. That call is made by God alone.

I won't pretend to have any idea what really goes on inside the FLDS "compound". I won't even pretend that I'd enjoy being a polygamist; I can barely handle one wife... more than that would kill me. If there is any sort of physical abuse, sex abuse or emotional abuse going on in there, then prosecute! If there are really older men "spiritually marrying" and impregnating underage girls, then yes, prosecute the hell out of that... just like you would any other older man knocking up a teenage girl. Let's show some consistency here.

And when it comes to accusing the FLDS group of "indoctrinating" their children, let us remember that if the FLDS can have that label attached to it, then anyone can. The Baptists can. The Methodists can. Planned Parenthood can. The state and National Education Association unions can. Global Warming advocates can. "Indoctrination" is quite simply an emotionally charged, backhanded way of saying "teaching."

It seems that some in Texas have boasted that "Texas has done what Utah and Arizona haven't done in well over a century."

What, taken an entire community, torn families apart, incarcerating parents and children in different locations, neither of them having any idea whether they'll be reunited or not? You're right; Utah and Arizona haven't done that. But Nazi Germany did.

Remember, these FLDS fathers, mothers and children are people like you and me. Most of them love each other like we love our families, and to marginalize or dismiss them or their plight endangers all of us. All it took was a cell phone call, a call that yet has to yield an accuser. A call that could very well have been a hoax.

And that's all it took.

If it happens to them, it can happen to you and me too. And that should scare the hell out of us.

An Unlikely Hero

2008-04-11T14:51:00.001-07:00

Aren't heroes supposed to have huge muscles and swing swords? Maybe take out 12 ninjas with their bare hands? Stand atop a tall pyramid in sun-god robes while a thousand naked women scream and throw little pickles at them??

They're not supposed to be old men, are they?!

When I was a young boy, my grandma had a pin-up on her refrigerator of pictures of several smiling old men in suits. "General Authorities" is what they called them; leaders of the church we belonged to.

Twice a year, we would have to watch these old men speak for two hours at a time, four times in a weekend.

BO-ring.

I came to associate that picture with monotone, boring talks that would drone on and on. Church, for a young energetic boy, was an undertaking in boredom, filled with boring lessons, boring people and boring music.

One of those boring, smiling old men would become very important to me years later. His name was Gordon B. Hinckley.

I first became aware of President Hinckley's subtle sense of humor while serving as a missionary. He was talking about the scourge of illicit drugs in General Conference:

"Some have even used as an alibi the fact that drugs are not mentioned in the Word of Wisdom. What a miserable excuse. There is likewise no mention of the hazards of diving into an empty swimming pool or of jumping from an overpass onto the freeway."

In the following years, these talks that were so dry and boring to my younger self took on a new light, and I found myself learning from and appreciating these words and the men that spake them. Did they suddenly figure out how to speak to young people, or was it that I had matured to a point that I understood how their words related to me and my life?

My appreciation for President Hinckley continued to grow as I came to know him for the man he was. He was terribly intelligent, and creative beyond compare, always thinking outside of the box.

From the moment he was set apart as church president in March of 1995, he did things differently. He held a press conference, complete with a question and answer session with the press. None of his predecessors had ever done the same. He traveled much and met with different media groups, eventually landing an interview with Mike Wallace, reporter for "60 Minutes", and appearing on Larry King Live a number of times. He was beloved by church members far and wide.

President Hinckley had an uncanny ability to look at a situation, and come up with unconventional solutions to problems. Many years earlier, when they decided to host their son's wedding breakfast at their home, it became evident that the dining room would not accomodate the crowd. Gordon decided to enclose their patio, then remove the wall between their dining room and patio, making one large room for the event. He would then rebuild the wall after the wedding was over. For some people, walls are barriers. For Gordon B. Hinckley, walls were rearranged, moved or removed in order to reach a solution.

For years, one of the biggest logistical problems facing the church was "How do we extend the blessings of the temple to as many members as we can?" Temples, up to that point, were large and very expensive to build, and were normally located central to a large LDS population. President Hinckley introduced the idea of small temples, having all of the same functionality of the larger ones, but at a fraction of the size and cost.

When it came time to demolish an old sandstone tabernacle in eastern Utah, he instructed the church architecture department to renovate the structure - gut the entire interior - and build a temple within the existing sandstone block walls. This project was the first of its kind, and certainly not the last, as the Copenhagen and Manhattan temples would be built within existing, renovated structures.

Another issue at stake was the world-famous Salt Lake Tabernacle, in which the church would hold General Conference meetings, Mormon Tabernacle Choir performances and other cultural programs: It was aging, and sorely in need of renovation. The structure needed to be reinforced, and seismically retrofitted. This process would take 2-3 years. Again, thinking forward, President Hinckley proposed a large conference center on the north side of Temple Square be built and completed before the renovations on the Tabernacle were to begin.

The conference center would need to seat more than 20,000, and not be a structurally imposing building, overshadowing the adjacent temple and tabernacle. It would also have to provide an unobstructed view for everyone within its auditorium. President Hinckley submitted a rough structural design to church architects and engineers, which included a massive central beam supporting the roof of the structure. The resulting interior arena is large enough to park a Boeing 747 jet inside.

The church, under President Hinckley's leadership, seemed to bask in a golden age. The new conference center had the technological capacity to offer real-time translation of General Conference proceedings into 62 different languages, temples were being constructed at a rate never before imagined, and the people of the church were seeing their prophet, as he traveled nearly constantly to different parts of the world.

One announcement at the end of the April 1999 General Conference by President Hinckley literally took my breath away and brought tears to my eyes:

"In closing now, I feel impressed to announce that among all of the temples we are constructing, we plan to rebuild the Nauvoo Temple."

The Nauvoo Temple holds a special place in my heart. It was the second temple built in the latter-day church, and was yet incomplete at the time the Mormons were driven out of Nauvoo and across the plains. Some church members remained in Nauvoo, vowing to finish the temple before their departure. Shortly after the temple was finished, the last of the Mormons headed west. The mobs came into Nauvoo and took over the property left behind by its departed citizens. An arsonist set fire to the temple, gutting the structure. A short time later, a tornado destroyed all but the front wall of the building, which was later razed for safety reasons.

I walked over the foundation stones of this temple when I was 18 years old. Some of the original floor tiles remained. It was a very touching experience, one that I hold sacred. To hear that this beautiful building was to be rebuilt after 150 years was simply breathtaking.

Over the thirteen years that he served as church president, I came to love and cherish this great man. His words of counsel and wisdom, his endearing smile, his wise and familiar voice. Since 1981, having a strong and healthy president of the church was a rare thing, so from the time he was set apart as president in 1995, he maintained a visible presence, working a vigorous schedule that many younger people could not keep up with.

He bade us to move forward with faith, and we followed. His testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ is inspiring, his testimony of restored gospel truths resonate in the soul. He defended the role of family and marriage in our society, not mincing words, not apologizing, and not shrinking from the fight.

Gordon B. Hinckley did not know the meaning of the word "impossible."

Late in the evening of January 27th, as we were putting our children to bed, our telephone rang. My wife answered it, then came back into our childrens' bedroom a minute later, with tears in her eyes. "President Hinckley just passed away tonight."

We all cried. It was like we had lost a member of the family. In truth, we had. I can't understand why it would be unexpected. He was 97 years old, but maybe it was because he always seemed so strong and healthy... even actively leading the daily affairs of the church up until a few days before his death... maybe it was because he was always there that we never imagined that moment would come.

It came.

A light had gone out. It left a huge emptiness in my soul. This man I had come to admire so much for his strength, courage and convictions... and his ability to move forward.

Though my hero was laid to rest, a part of him lives on inside of me and countless others; the ability to stand for something, the ability to move and remove walls, and the ability to go forward with faith.

Thank you, and may God bless you always, President Gordon B. Hinckley!

"Paging Tobi Dawn..."

2008-04-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

Tobi,

You may not remember me; you were three and a half years old the last time I saw you. I can still remember the day... you were in your mom's arms, and I could tell from the tone of voice, and the look in your mom's eyes that this was goodbye.

Your mom and I started dating when you were about 10 months old. Your grandma and I both worked at JCPenney, and she told me one day that she had a daughter who was a single mother, and needed to get out and socialize a bit. So I asked your mom out to dinner, and came to really like her. We dated on and off for probably the next year and a half.

I have a lot of fun memories with both of you. A 4th of July at Draper Park, swimming in the pool, cooking dinner at your house, watching movies, going to the Parade of Homes, your 2nd birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza (I have pictures somewhere) and more.

Your mom told me at the very beginning that you were a package deal, and asked me if I could accept you as part of the relationship. That was a very smart question on her part, but there was never any question on my part... I adored you; you were a fantastic kid. Except for your choice of TV shows... that purple dinosaur drove me absolutely freaking nuts.

I think the biggest reason your mom and I were never serious enough to get married was that we didn't really share each other's interests; we didn't really understand each other's world. We were two completely different people with different directions in life. Neither right, nor wrong.. just different.

Thirteen years later, a simple google search pulls up your MySpace page, and you're a beautiful young woman! It's uncanny how much you look like your mom. I met your dad once or twice, and I honestly can't see any of him in you.

I've wondered, over the past few weeks, what it would have been like to watch you grow up.

I hope that life has been good to you and your mom over the past several years, that your step-dad is a good man and that he's treated both of you well.

If I could tell you one thing, it would be that the world is your oyster. You can have anything you want in this life if you're not afraid to work hard for it; you can achieve anything you set your mind and heart to... Always remember to aim high in your goals.

And also know that you'll always have a friend in me.

I guess that was more like 5 things.

Take good care, kiddo.

Why Romney?

2008-02-03T20:24:00.001-08:00

I'm a conservative... in pretty much all senses of the word. I've followed the various candidates for probably about a year and a half, through the time they started their maneuvering and jockeying into position for their candidacy announcements through the present day.

Surprisingly, the one candidate who has been labeled a "flip-flopper" isn't. That candidate is Mitt Romney, and he has my vote for president. You see, I have one perspective that most people don't; I was friends with one of his sons for a while. He moved into the neighborhood, and seven months later I moved out. But during that time, I got to know him fairly well.

Financially well off? Oh yes, but nothing in his conduct would have ever drawn attention to that. In fact, he was the perfect model of integrity in all that he said and did. I never got to meet his dad, but the love and respect that he showed toward his dad made it rather clear that this apple was quite close to the tree from which it came.

When the flip-flopping charges first surfaced, they primarily focused on one thing: His conversion to a pro-life position. Had the change in heart been the other direction, no one would have batted an eyelash. He was the Washington outsider with a squeaky-clean image, no skeletons in the closet, a huge reputation for success, and a penchant for fixing things. The truth of it is, Mitt Romney can fix Washington, which means that some very fat cats would find some very lean times ahead. The pork-barrel establishment holds no love for someone who likes to shake things up.

On this eve of Super Tuesday, I can think of no better message than "Get out and vote! Make your voice heard!" But, if you're a conservative like myself, I can think of no better message than "Make sure your vote counts."

We stand at a pivotal point in time, when the next president of the United States will most likely oversee two or three new justices installed to the Supreme Court. If we, as a people, elect Hillary Clinton as president, those new justices will undoubtedly lean liberal. Barack Obama has even more liberal positions than Senator Clinton! If John McCain is elected, it is doubtful that any of the new justices will be conservative, as John McCain has barely been able to suppress his disdain and even contempt at conservatives.

Mitt Romney is the conservative choice, and for as likable a guy as Governor Huckabee may be, he targeted his campaign to only a certain demographic, and so lacks the broad-based appeal and support that Governor Romney has. Though many evangelicals feel that Governor Huckabee is a more comfortable choice, because of his identity as a Southern Baptist pastor, Mike Huckabee cannot win the nomination without a lot more support from the non-evangelical base. Primaries and caucuses have shown that Governor Huckabee's support and appeal outside of evangelical protestantism is rather limited indeed.

Leadership

John McCain led the Navy's largest squadron of jet fighters. Governor Huckabee ran a state for ten and a half years. Governor Romney ran a state for four years, several successful business enterprises, and turned a rather disastrous situation with the Salt Lake Olympic Games into what has been arguably the most successful Olympic games in modern history... at least in terms of finances. When all was said and done, the Salt Lake Olympic Committee was operating well in the black... a spectacular feat, considering that most Olympic cities carry a burden of debt connected with the different arenas and facilities constructed for the games. Mitt Romney's leadership is proven.

What about the Mormon thing?"

Well, what about it? There is an irrational fear among many evangelicals that a Mormon president would somehow "legitimize" the Mormon faith in the eyes of the world. What a pathetic excuse. First of all, I am a Mormon, and to be perfectly honest, I really don't care a bit about being "admitted to the club" of "traditional Christianity". The issue of whether a faith is legitimately Christian or not is not decided by committee, but rather by the author of that faith Himself. Besides, the upside of having a Mormon president is that his faith will also come under a greater degree of scrutiny. That in itself should please a great many evangelicals (that is, unless Mormonism stands up to that scrutiny).

Last but not least...

I'm voting for a man, who has proven very successful at pretty much anything he has set his hand to. So many people have been wishing and hoping and praying for a competent president to take the helm of our great country... don't let the chance to elect such a man pass us by. Mitt Romney can make a difference; let's give him the opportunity.

Truth and Mt. Olympus

2007-05-30T13:57:00.000-07:00

Among the peaks of the Wasatch range that run through the Salt Lake valley stands Mount Olympus.

Rugged and majestic, Olympus changes her appearance dramatically depending on your position.

If you live on the bench or foothills at the base of the mountain, it takes on the appearance of the Paramount Pictures mountain. If you are slightly to the southwest, the divided twin-peak looks like a gigantic Oreo cookie buried in a milkshake. From the northwest, it looks like a pile of dumplings. From the east, it is hardly distinguishable at all; the peak becomes lost in the myriad of other peaks. From the top of the mountain, it looks completely different from any of the other perspectives. Its appearance can be drastically different if you look at it through a peephole or a small narrow window.

Can you imagine great groups of people dividing themselves, insisting that the mountain was shaped like an Oreo, or a dumpling, or that it wasn't really a mountain at all, but a foothill? Can you imagine these people passionately insisting that their representation of the mountain was the only valid one? Can you imagine these people seething and becoming venomous in their attacks on each other, in an effort to prove that they are right and everyone else is wrong?

Do you find it rather easy to imagine this after all?

Mt Olympus has spatial qualities independent of any viewpoint: It is what it is. The size and shape and mass do not change because somebody describes it differently.

Truth, unlike beauty, is not in the eye of the beholder. It is what it is, independent of what you or I may think.

How different would our world be, if people searched for truth, rather than just proof of their own opinion and position?

"If I Had Only Known"

2007-03-16T23:17:00.000-07:00

I'm typically not one to paste the lyrics of an entire song into a blog post, but this song captures the essence of what I'm posting about:

"If I Had Only Known" by Reba McEntire

If I had only known it was the last walk in the rain
I'd keep you out for hours in the storm
I would hold your hand like a life line to my heart
Underneath the thunder we'd be warm
If I had only known It was our last walk in the rain

If I had only known I'd never hear your voice again
I'd memorize each thing you ever said
And on those lonely nights I could think of them once more
Keep your words alive inside my head
If I had only know I'd never hear your voice again

You were the treasure in my hand, you were the one who always stood beside me
So unaware I foolishly believed that you would always be there
But then there came a day and I turned my head and you slipped away

If I had only known it was my last night by your side
I'd pray a miracle would stop the dawn
And when you'd smile at me I would look into your eyes
And make sure you knew my love for you goes on and on
If I had only known, If I had only known
The love I would've shown
If I had only known

I've been learning more about a grandparent that I hardly knew. My Grandpa was never really aloof, and didn't keep people at a distance, but he wasn't really all that accessible and open. I count it as a blessing to look through this window into his life a little, and to better understand him.

Grandpa had married his sweetheart, Alice. From journal writings, I find that he considered himself to be the happiest and luckiest man alive. They had three children, and they were expecting their fourth. Close to the due date, Alice suddenly started hemmhoraging. She was taken to the hospital, where she lost the baby, and lost a lot of blood as well. She was put on oxygen, and the color started returning to her face. She slept in the hospital bed until shortly before noon, when she quietly passed away.

Grandpa lamented "What wouldn't I have given for a chance to have lived with Alice another day, or even an hour, and known that she might be leaving me. Everything was so unexpected, going from what seemed like perfect health in a few hours, and not even a chance to say goodbye."

Life suddenly took on new meaning, and Grandpa tenderly cared for his three children, taking pains to enjoy every moment he could with them. Grandpa married just over a year later, realizing he would have to do so in order to provide a good home for his three young children. His new wife was a younger woman, and would eventually have four children with my Grandpa, one of her daughters being my mother.

Eight years after the death of his first wife, Grandpa's oldest son, Russell, enlisted in the army, and was killed in May of 1945 in the Phillipines during the second world war. Two deaths of such magnitude in a person's life can affect them, and I imagine that this is why he might have become a bit distant over the years. It was as though fate had robbed him of the ability to love tenderly and deeply for a while.

In 1980, Grammy was diagnosed with cancer. Her sister had just passed away from cancer, and so this was a worrisome development in everyone's lives. After many problems and difficulties with treatments and different conditions throughout the next year, Grammy started making some marked improvement, and was allowed to come home from the hospital in at the beginning of October. She started to look healthier, and everyone had hope that brighter days were soon to come. A few days later, Grammy quietly passed away from heart failure.

I had never seen my Grandpa cry before. As I stood at the side of her bed in the ER, Grandpa held her arm. "You can still feel the warmth in her body," he cried, hopelessly clinging to every last symptom of her life that he could. Those last three and a half years that he lived, after my Grammy died were different. He was more tender and giving, more interested in what was going on in the lives of his family.

I believe I was the last one to see Grandpa alive. He had been on a real big push to get his place spruced up. He put two coats of paint on the house, fixed anything that needed fixing, made sure all of the trees and bushes were trimmed, and that the yard was mowed. Grass covered roughly half of the acre that his house sat on, and I spent most of that day mowing it. His yard looked like a little bit of paradise. He dropped me off at my other grandparents' house just a few blocks away, went home and put extra food out for the dog, and then passed away that night as he was getting ready for bed.

I better understand who he was now, and I am amazed at what trials he had to pass through. I have a better appreciation for how he lived his life, despite the difficulties he faced. There is an old fisherman's prayer that hung on the wall in his cabin for many years. It reads:

"God grant that I may live to fish until my dying day. And when it comes to my last cast I then most humbly pray: When in the Lord's great landing net, and peacefully asleep, that in his mercy I be judged as big enough to keep."

I think he will be judged "Big enough to Keep." Thank you, Grandpa.

Past Life Experiences

2007-02-04T21:53:00.000-08:00

What are your thoughts?

Do you believe in reincarnation? Or would you subscribe to the "cellular memory" theory that the experiences of all of our ancestors are microscopically imprinted in our genetic material?

A close friend offered up the suggestion that we might have these memories, because we were actually there... in spirit form. One LDS belief is that any "guardian angel" or ministering spirit that ministers to the people in this world, has either lived on this earth, or has yet to be born on this earth. That makes sense to me.

There are places and times that I can picture lucidly, though I wasn't around at the time. I have a very strong affinity for the area that my parents and grandparents grew up in... particularly around the 1930's and 1940's. And yet, outside of the prospect of being a "spiritual observer" before attaining a body, I really have no explanation as to why.

I actually prefer this idea to the reincarnation thing: For all of the bad things I've done in my past, my next incarnation would have to be pretty bad...

Something like a protozoa on a camel booger.

The Lifeguard...

2007-02-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

My biggest crime was not being who I appeared to be.

During the summer of 1988, I worked as a lifeguard at Raging Waters. I had a thoroughly enjoyable season, getting an amazing tan, making new friends, partying and living it up.

On the last day of the season, a rather short but cute high school girl started flirting with me as the park was closing. I talked with her for a bit while cleaning and inspecting my area, walked her out the gates and to her car, and even got her phone number.

Like any oblivious guy, I didn't call her until maybe four days later when I was desperate to go to the movies, and wanted company.

She immediately fessed up that she had been waiting or my call. We went out to the show, and sat and talked on her front porch for about an hour. Then we kissed. It was an amazing kiss, and I found myself falling more and more for her.

She said that she had assumed that I had a different girl every night. Nope. Pretty monogamous, and I wasn't seeing anyone at the moment.

Somehow, that affected everything, and she started dating one of my friends behind my back.

My second biggest crime: Falling in love with someone who clearly wasn't worth the trouble.

Memories in the Half-Light

2007-01-31T22:47:00.001-08:00

I have always had a strong affinity for the twilight times of the day; the time when night melts away to day, and then when the daylight fades away to darkness. Those brief moments are when I feel alive the most, and my senses are excited, my memories stir.

I also take comfort in old things; buildings and items that come from a golden age when there was so much promise in the air. I loved spending time at my grandparents' home when I was young, and for the feeling of security I felt in their solid, old house. Some of my favorite times included spending Christmas with them, and coming in from playing in the snow, as the twilight settled across the scene, and smelling the fragrant smoke from the fireplace in the air, looking forward to the blazing warmth I would find on the hearth.

I liked the use of smaller lights that created a warm glow. In my Grandpa's music studio, there sat a small lamp near the baby grand piano and his desk, along with a large box-style heater and recliner chair for taking afternoon naps. A young child full of energy rarely is wont to take a nap, or relax. But I soaked in all of the details of that place - from the smells to the sights. The whole place exuded security. Perhaps now, as the vanguard has passed into the sunset, and I draw closer to the front of the line of trailblazers, I long for the wisdom and security that my parents and grandparents had. Three, nearly four children later, I have more questions than answers, but I am also filled with gratitude for all that I have been blessed with...even the questions.