Catching up

Well, it's been a while. Some random happenings since my last posting:

Political:

-Obama wins 11 straight primaries (wow, it has been a while since I posted)

-Clinton won three and then "offered" Obama the VP spot if he would withdraw from the race. Like Obama said, since when does the second place contestant offer the first place contestant second place? Hillary Clinton is definitely a mega-egomaniac.

-Geraldine Ferraro makes some very stupid statements....or some very true statements, depending on which way you spin them, I guess. My take?--she was working for Hillary Clinton, what do you think she meant? Then she resigned. Wow, if only we could get Howard Dean to realize how stupid he sounds. And this man is a DOCTOR?

-The Governor of the state of New York resigns for getting caught transferring large sums of money to a front corporation for prostitution. The kicker? He got caught by the same money laundering laws that he was partially responsible for putting in place when he was the Attorney General of New York. What a short memory he has, eh?

Natural occurrences:

-England has an earthquake in the middle of the night. We have some friends who live there, they all slept through it, except for their youngest son, 7 years old, who woke up when his favorite stuffed animal was rocking back and forth.

-We (Ohio) got 12+ inches of snow. The weather guessers finally predicted a big storm correctly. By the way, they've "predicted" at least 4 major ice/snow storms this year for us and every single one has come in at about 25-50% of what they predicted. One of them was supposed to be 8-10" of snow and ice, we got 1" of snow, a bit of ice and a lot of rain. Guess they forgot to look at the thermometer on that one, you know? Where was I? Oh, 12+ inches of snow that happened last Fri/Sat. Sun was fun to go out and play in it, but the temps were up in the high 30s and have pretty much stayed there since. So, our blizzard has all but disappeared. But building a snowman family in the front yard with my kids was fun.

I guess that's good for now. I have some other thoughts to share, I'll get to them soon......I promise.

Guess what? More politics!

Warning: The following are some thoughts and pastings from some conversations and emails I've been having with friends lately. Don't expect an entirely cohesive, flowing rant, but more of a classic, bouncing from point to point rant. Enjoy...think....

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Well, as expected, "Republicans" don't have any backbone. Post primary election surveys in SC, FL and CA are showing that:

1. By a margin of up to 2:1, "Republican" voters think that Romney more closely represents their "values."

2. But, by a majority, they voted for McCain, because they believe he's more likely to win the general election.

How oxymoronic is that? Obviously, their "values" don't include standing up for their "values." Now, I admit some of this myself, as I had a conversation with a friend at church a few weeks ago about supporting Huckabee. I confessed that I was currently undecided, leaning Huckabee/Romney, but it might come down to voting for who I thought was more likely to get the nomination, not who I thought was the better candidate. I got over that quickly, as I decided that it didn't matter who "could win", but what my values meant and I looked more closely at both of their records and decided on Romney.

Then you have the "Republicans" who vote for the candidate who's closest to the middle...'cause they don't want anyone with extremist views in office...'cause the middle is what more closely represents the true American viewpoint. Sorry, RINOs, every one has extreme views, that's why we don't have a one party system, we like to argue and hash it out and sometimes get our way in politics. We know we won't always win, but we want to TRY to win, we DO have "extremist" viewpoints and ideology; we don't want them moved to the middle, we WANT politicians who believe in our values and govern in ways that agree with our ideology and beliefs. American is NOT a Christian nation, but Christians want our values reflected in our politics and therefore, our government.

So we'll see what McCain does about illegal aliens, campaign finance, permanent tax cuts and most importantly of all, possible Supreme Court nominees. Given his past record on those issues, I'm not holding my breath for a truly conservative outcome on any of them from him....but only time will tell, I guess. And in the end, only God knows the what and why.

Oh, a few thoughts on why "conservatives" are so anti-McCain?---as I have been asked by several liberals I know:
--McCain is for amnesty for illegal immigrants ("just pay $3000 and you get your citizenship" )

--McCain/Feingold was a step back in freedom of speech. If someone wants to give millions of dollars to a candidate, I don't have any problem with that, that's their choice. If they want to badmouth and produce stupid commercials about each other, let 'em, that just denigrates their own cause, in my humble opinion. It's an easy fix, turn the television off and research the candidate's voting record and stances on the issues yourself, there are many voter's guides that can help you out. Other than that, if you/the humble voter get your info on a candidate from their television commercials, then you're just another Oprah watching American sheeple and I should have the right to take your vote away and get two for my candidate.

--McCain is for homosexual marriage/equal rights for homosexual couples (most rights which they already legally possess, by the way)--he voted against a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a union of a man and a woman only.

So, Mr. "Republican who thinks you're a conservative," if you're for all that, then McCain is your man. If you're really a conservative, I'd say that Romney more closely resembles what the Republican party stands for. Of course, it's too late to find out now....that he's out of the race.

Another "oh, by the way" for ya: Fact is that we don't really have a "two party system" here, we have at least three parties. Dems, Republicans and "independents." McCain's an independent, really. And they are the ones who decide the elections. With Obama, who knows? There's a big "it's time for a black president" movement, but I think there are a lot of Americans who are more bigoted than they like to admit and even Democrats won't vote for him. But a lot of Democrats loved Bill Clinton and hate Hillary. Then there's the Democrats who think they're getting Bill when they vote for Hillary. So who knows?

I'm not against a black or a woman president, I'm just against a Democrat. Or a Rino (Republican in name only). But when we're stuck with a Rino, I guess we don't really have a choice. Vote for him (McCain) and hope he does what he says he is, conservatively, that is and ESPECIALLY when it comes to possible Supreme Court nominees.

Which is another soapbox of mine, get rid of appointments for life. Too much influence on long term America. Flush them out every once in a while and renew the mix of the court.

I think that's enough for now.

Today's the day

For some great commentary on "Super Tuesday," go to Adrian's blog (see my list to the left). I only have a couple of things to add.

1. Our political system is hosed. It's no longer representation by the people, for the people and of the people, it's now a good ole boy/girl network and a business where transactions are made in favors, not money. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that you shouldn't work together for the best of the country, but this system of bill tag-ons, trading issues like they're tokens is much different than true compromise.
2. The conservative movement is hosed up. We no longer have a leader, we've let liberals convince polite our values (aka: the view that abortion is a right, not a killing of a baby or even that abortion is a major medical procedure that should be tightly controlled, at the very minimum). I don't have all the answers and I don't believe that America was, is or ever will or should be a "Christian" nation (different than a nation ran on common values, you see), but when we conservatives can't unite and stand behind the single most conservative candidate (whom I believe currently to be Romney, NOT McCain)....well then, I guess there are a lot of "Republicans" out there who vote "Republican" without knowing why or committing themselves fully to being a conservative ("because it's a choice" or "it's ok if they do that, we can't stop them").

And Adrian's right, Republicans have to stand behind the RNC candidate, whomever it is. We don't have a choice, really. The alternative of choosing either of the Democrats that are going to be on the final ticket is scary for our nation. If you think I'm wrong, look at the problems with the "socialized" nations of the world (I'm talking political socialization, not cultural), look at the differences between socialism and communism. Compare our problems with "socialized"
nations' problems and tell me which is better. I know my choice and I'm telling you that it's not the same place the Democrats will take us.

Catching up

Well, I've gotten some grief that I haven't posted anything in the past few days. So here you go. Obviously, the big news lately is that McCain has taken the lead past Romney in the Republican delegate count. Did anyone else notice that before the Florida primary, the MSM media was talking up how McCain had won the most primaries and now, he's ahead in the delegate count? Makes you wonder why they like him, don't ya think?

Other than that, not much else going on. Not sure if I'm just not feeling like expressing my thoughts or just tired. I guess both. We've had January sinus infections, ear infections and colds going through out house, so tiredness has settled in and I'm tired (no pun intended) of having it around. I probably need about a week of going to bed on time. But...I'm a news junkie and I'll spend a couple of hours reading through news and photo forums when I should be going to bed on time. Nobody's fault but my own, I admit.

Truth without bias?

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am opinionated. As my dear sweet wife tells me, I will argue with someone just for the sport of it, whether I have an opinion on what we're discussing or not....and she's right. I like spirited discussion, it doesn't bother me. But I'm also a terrible debater, if that makes any sense. Ask me to win an verbal argument based on presentation and I'll probably fall flat on my face. But give me the opportunity to prepare my points, make a presentation or write my thoughts ahead of time and I think I can do a pretty good job.

Which leads me (sort of) to my subject. My brother-in-law and I have continual discussion of those who have convinced themselves that they present information without bias. I submit to you that is impossible--everyone has a bias. But there are those in the MSM, blogs, even scientists who feed you information and tell you "this is the way it is, these are the facts, there is no other conclusion." The absoluteness of the information is almost always unmerited; again, everyone is biased. It is up to the receiver of the information to resolve the bias, turn the information over, even....EGADS!....to go and check out the information for themselves and to compare it to other information on the subject at hand.

That's all I ask, don't blindly absorb, think about the bias of the presentation, even if you agree with their bias--you still must realize it's there.

Personally, I believe there is only one source of absolute truth, God, but that is another discussion for another day. But at least you now know one of my main biases, eh?