Candidate report: Obama.

          I find myself in a peculiar position.  The following report on Obama is not as in depth as I wish but I feel compelled to share it anyway.  I ask that you read it all before you dismiss it and comment freely if you feel so lead.  I delineate between facts, conjecture, and opinion at the end.  I did not list the specific sites for my research as I didn't write them down as they were found via google searches and those searches are easy to duplicate (e.g. name/net worth or name/voting record).  I used government websites for the most part for my data as I don't trust most news outlets to be impartial.  So without further ado, please read on.
            As I did what little searching I could, I discovered somethings that were not telling nor useful.  For instance, Obama voted along hte party line nearly 100% of the time.  The few times he didn't did not stand out as a stance in any direction.  In other words, he has voted as one who seeks the party's nod for office.  He has played politics almost his entire career.  his monet comes mainly from books he has written.  Books which, on the surface, appear to be politcal retoric and self promotion.  This isn't to say he is poor, at a net worth of over 2 Million, he is better off than most Americans.  The funny thing is, through all of this, I found a picture of a man that is a politician.  He has a law degree, but really hasn't practiced law.  He taught law in Chicago for a while, but that is something that most politicians do as they start their careers.  In other words, Obama is a career politician.  I haven't really seen anything that tells me he is anything other than the Democrat Party mouth piece.  Nothing I have seen or read has convinced me he has anything he personnaly stands for.  The things he claims as successes were either started by other people or given to him by his party.
             As I read what I just typed, I find myself amaazed that what I typed is almost exactly what you would expect to find on a republican website.  I understand a lot of it is conjecture and opinion, but then most of it must be as there is a lot of contradicting reports out there.  The few facts I found (net worth and voting record) came off of government websites.  As for my thoughts on the books, they were based on the wikipedia article for them (and we all know how highly regarded that is as a source) and thus I call my stance on that conjecture.  As I put everything I had researched and everything I have seen and heard in the past 3 years from both sides (I do have democrat friends), I came to a personal belief (read also as opinion) that Obama is not a man of principles so much as a Democrat that has done well in his party.
         One final thing I feel I should point out here.  My research is not as in depth as I would like it to be.  Through out his carreer he voted on literally thousands of bills (96% of the time he voted with his party), I only reviewed the ones listed as important and based my opinion on those.  I welcome anything you may want to add, I just ask that you note what is fact, conjecture, and opinion and include sources with your facts.  I am not above changing my mind or my opinions if the situation warrants it, but in this case, I don't think Obama is the one I would vote for.
           Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Busy weekend

           With the weekend coming up, I realize I have so much to do that I can't get it all done.  I have to go shopping to get the stuff my son needs for his science fair project, I then have to do the third run of the project with him, then I have to help him design and put together his backboard, basically, I have to help my son complete his science fair project in one day because I am on swings and can't help him through the week and his mother refuses to help.  On top of all that, I still need to spend time with the rest of the family.  Oh, and I have duty Sunday so Saturday is the only day we can do this.  This is why I don't like swing shift.  I get no time with my family and when I do get some time with them it is filled with stuff that should have been done through the week but couldn't be done because I wasn't there.  At least I go back to days in another week.
            I really don't have much else to say so I think I will keep this one short.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Affirmative Action: Legalized discrimination.

            Sorry it's been a while since my last post.  For some reason the computer wouldn't let me compose these past couple of days.  Anyway, here is something that caught my attention and I feel needs to be said.
           Recently, a case went befoer the supreme court on affirmative action.  The case involved a student trying to get into a university in Texas.  If you haven't heard of it you can look it up as I don't feel the need to rehash it.  This post is on my thoughts on affirmative action.  I feel that affirmative action, by its very nature, is discriminatory.  If you give someone preference based on the race or gender and it is considered discrimination, yet this is exactly what affirmative action does.  Based on the fact that you are a part of a minority, you are given "special consideration."  I don't understand the logic of using discriminatory actions to "ensure equality" by forcing quotas.  We have a system that is very sensitive to discriminatory issues.  In fact, if you are a minority and want to get a bunch of money, bring a lawsuit against any company for discrimination and see how fast it gets settled.  It doesn't matter how legitimate it is, even the hint of discrimination will open their checkbooks.  Yet, we still feel it is necessary to pass laws and make rules that give special considerations to minorities.
            So how do you make the process fair?  You may ask.  Simple, you remove any hint of a persons race, gender, etc. from the application process.  You take a look at their qualifications and choose the best based on that.  When it comes time for the interview, trust your interviewer to be fair and choose the best candidate.  If you suspect discrimination after that, then sue and be prepared to pay.  As I said, I can't think of any major company out there that doesn't fear a discrimination lawsuit.  Just the hint of impropriety is enough to get people fired.
            As is so often pointed out to me, this is the 21st century, the practices of 50 years ago are past.  It is time to move on and start allowing people to earn jobs based on merit, not whether or not they belong to a minority.  I am sure there are people out there that will decry me as being insensitive to the minority plight.  That couldn't be further from the truth.  I believe that race and gender have nothing to do with ability and skill.  They are completely seperate.  I don't think I could take a job that I knew I got because of my race or gender.  Yet, it happens all the time.  And not because the hired person is white, but because they are a minority and that is apparantly an OK form of discrimination.
               So ask yourself this, if discrimination is wrong, how is affirmative action legal?  In summary, it isn't.  Affirmative Action is discrimination.  Affirmative Action promotes racism by saying that a minority couldn't compete without preferential treatment.  I say it is time to do away with affirmative action and embrace a new concept of equal treatment for all, regardless of race or gender.  Then again, isn't that what the Civil rights movement of the 60s was after in the first place?
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Valentines Day: what's the big deal?

           Please note that the previous post was not meant to be serious in any way.  The writer of it was slightly off his rocker at the time and only just remembered what day you will be reading it on.  What follows is the actual intend post for said special day.

          Happy Valentines day!  Yes, that would be an exclamation point at the end of that.  Yes, I am, in fact, a guy.  No, I am not gay.  Valentines day is one of those days that is set aside for what telling those you love that you do, in fact, love them.  Why there needs to be a special day for that I'll never understand since I tend to do that every chance I get.  Apparently, there are people out there that need to be reminded at least once a year to be nice to their girl.  This post isn't for them.  No, this post is for those of us who use this day as an excuse to get out and treat our special someone to something special.  Something that would normally land us in the doghouse for spending to much on something "unnecessary".  Something we can only do because it is Valentines day.  Things like, taking her out to a fancy (aka expensive) restaurant.  Buying her jewelry.  Getting her flowers and mushy cards. 
           Oh, and don't forget the chocolate, never forget the chocolate.  That is what women love about valentines day (at least that I've observed).  It's the one day out of the year where a woman doesn't feel obligated to complain that her significant other is trying to make her fat by getting her chocolate.  Don't get me wrong, they'll eat it any other time of the year, they just have to accuse you of trying to make them fat while they are eating it.  Not valentines day, though.  Nope, they get to eat it, smile at you, and tell you how much they love you at the same time.  It's like a law or something. 
           The downside for us guys is that we are also obligated to do something mushy and decidedly unmanly.  We have to be romantic.  That's right ladies, you have one day a year (minimum, some guys are overachievers and should be shot) where we go all out and try to be romantic.  One day where we will watch a chick flick without to much complaining.  One day where we will and try to listen and figure things out.  As I mentioned there are some of us who are overachievers, but I don't like bragging. 
          Yes, ladies and gentlemen, Valentines Day is upon us.  I guess I can't help it.  I got to end this with a little love for my wife.  You saw it coming.  You know you did.  I love her and I don't care who knows.  I really don't have time or space to go into detail, but the list of reasons is long and tedious to the uninitiated.  After 16 Valentines days together (I am counting the ones before the wedding by the way), there really isn't much else to say.  Love you dear, always.
         Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Huh?

            Sometimes I get lost in my head,
            When it starts is something I dread,
             I look at the way sun breaks through the clouds,
            Then I fall off the bench and into the crowds,
             What sense does it make when I lose my way,
             None that I noticed, at least not today,

             At least I'm at home when the medicine kicks in,
            And that's just the silly things that start at the end,
            I'm just kidding, this was all just in fun,
            The truth is just crazy and I gotta run,
            Come visit me some time at the place I call home,
            I'd call but the loony bin hasn't got a phone,

            The truth of the matter is something that's strange,
            I haven't a clue or a home on the range,
            Now that I've got you so thoroughly confused,
            Would you like to buy a Kleenex, slightly used?
            And that's the end of this sordid tale,
            Thanks for reading and have a great day as well.

Shifting shifts shifts everything.

           Today was interesting.  I woke up after only 3 hours of sleep and was unable to go back to sleep.  about 2 hours later I passed out on the couch for 4 hours.  It felt good, but I still missed the sleep.  This is the main reason I hate Graves.  It sucks the energy right out of you.  I found that it takes about a month and a half to get used to the schedule enough so you actually start to get regular sleep during the week.  The problem is I am only on it for a month.  Which leads to the second problem, it takes at least a week to get back on a normal schedule regardless of how long you were on graves.  The other problem with graves is that I get sick the first week or so of the shift because my body's way of protesting is to shut down any function that it feels is inconsequential.  I still haven't figured out how it determines order of importance, but apparently the sickness prevention portion is at the bottom of the list because it is the first section to be cut.  I have a cold that is absolutely horrid.
        I actually don't have a lot to say.  I drained every conscious thought into yesterday's post and thus have a mild case of writers block.  Besides, I could use the time for my candidate research.
       Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Faith: The strength Challenge.

           I've been doing a bit of thinking lately and I came to a realization that has me a tad bummed.  Turns out I have doubts.  This is not normally a bad thing, I am human after all, it is what we do with those doubts that has me interested.  I am, of course, referring to my faith.  Don't get me wrong, the doubts I am having are not the crippling, stop you in your tracks doubts.  Just the minor ones that, left unchecked, can grow to big ones. 
             The doubts I am talking about specifically are the doubts that tell me to do something, "just in case God doesn't."  These are the doubts that bug me the most.  Do I truly trust in God's strength when I take action on my own, or is that part of God's solution?  The fact is, God wants us to do for ourselves as much as we can while trusting in him to give us the strength to do so.  God only acts directly when action beyond our abilities is required.  Even that requires a strong faith.  As I read the Bible, I find examples of strong faith that astound me.  Faith that has no room in it for doubts.  Faith I want.  Think about it.  When you pray to God for something, healing, financial aid, spiritual strength, etc, do you pray with the confidence that God will grant your request as he sees fit, or are you just praying to "cover your bases?"
              The reason I am thinking on this is because we have a lady at our church who has the faith that God will grant her requests as he sees fit and has such conviction of it, that, once she has prayed about something, has the peace to move on, no matter the difficulty of doing so.  Where I would pray and then wonder if what I am doing is from God or of myself, she moves with the conviction that God is acting through her.  Many would call her crazy, but they also called the apostles crazy.  I envy her faith and try to emulate it.
            The strange thing is, faith is not a natural thing.  We all naturally want to doubt anything that we didn't make, do, or say.  Believing in something outside of ourselves and allowing our belief in it to direct us is unnatural.  It is something we have to work at.  It is something we have to use daily. 
              Faith is a muscle that needs exercise to grow or even stay the same.  If you shelve your faith, it will shrivel and atrophy.  The funny thing is, God gives us the tools we need to exercise that faith everyday.  From annoying little clashes with family and coworkers to bad drivers on the road.  There are hundreds of little instances where we can place our faith in God and gain his strength.
              All that being said, I am taking up a challenge to strengthen my faith.  I want to invite you to join me in it.  I am going to do this challenge for 30 days and then assess how it went.  Here is the challenge.  Seek out 10 events that occur everyday that you can ask for God's strength in dealing with.  I know it sounds hard, but think about God's standards of dealing with your fellow humans.  I know I need God's strength to love my neighbor when he cuts me off on the highway.  I know I need God's strength to keep from yelling at my sons when they tell me no.  I know I need God's strength to turn the other cheek when someone treats me unfairly.  I am willing to bet, there are more than 10 events everyday.  If not, either you aren't looking, you live in utter isolation, or God has blessed your life beyond anything I can think of.  So how about it?  Are you going to join me?
             Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Not your usual weekend.

           So this has been an interesting weekend.  As you may have noticed, I didn't feel like posting Friday.  I just didn't have anything constructive to say.  Mainly because I found out I was going to go to Graves this week and didn't feel like posting it until I told my wife.  This is a good thing as I can now participate in AWANA without interruption.  It also means I will be on days next month.
            I actually got of at a decent time on Friday and was able to spend some time at home.  Our 2 middle boys had special functions to go to, so we got to have dinner with our oldest and youngest on Friday.  Then Saturday, our second participated in AWANA bible quiz.  He did alright for his first time.  Then we got home and had about 4 hours to set up our food for Sunday's game.   That didn't go so well.  I messed up the hard boiled eggs (i think I overcooked them) and thus was unable to make deviled eggs like I wanted to.  I did set up the ribs though.
            It didn't get any better on Sunday.  I had to work overtime and thus missed church.  I got home around 3pm and we barely made it to our friends house for the game.  The down side was that my wife put the crock pot on keep warm vice low, so we had to wait an extra 2 hours to enjoy the ribs I made.  They still turned out OK, it was just a little disappointing to not be able to eat the ribs when I thought we were going to.  So, yeah, it was an interesting weekend.
          That's about it, so thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

The news: if it bleeds it leads, if it doesn't bleed, cut it so it does.

           Today, I want to touch on a couple of things I read in the news.  The first is a non profit that changed its rules and thus eliminated its contributions to one charity.  I am sure you have heard of this.  I can't remember the non-profit's name, but the charity that got cut out was Planned Parenthood.  As I read the story, certain questions leaped out at me.  The first is, does the non-profit support other organizations or people?  The answer, by the way, is yes, a lot of them.  The second is did the non-profit cut any others out?  Once again, the answer is yes.  If you look up the non-profit, you find that they also directly supports women.  This means that they provide money for exams and treatment directly to women.  This means that the rule also applies to the women.  Would you want to give money to a woman who is under investigation for fraud, or any other reason for that matter?  Yet, for some reason, the news chose to concentrate on the loss to planned parenthood.  As I listened to the news programs, they made it sound like the non-profit changed their rules, just so they could target planned parenthood.  The news chose to do this because they get to mention abortion (always a hot topic) as a reason for the loss.  Maybe, in an indirect way, this is true.  The fact that Planned Parenthood is under federal investigation (the reason they lost funding) for using federal funds to provide abortions (illegal under current law).  So yes, in a round about way, Planned Parenthood lost funding due to abortion.  By those same terms we can say that Planned Parenthood condones underage sex, they provide contraception and sex ed to underage girls and boys so they must condone it.  Or is that to much of a stretch?
               Sorry, went off a little bit.  Now, I can't remember the second thing I was going to go off on.  I guess I can start with a quick update on a couple things.  It is official, I am not going to swings, I am going to graves.  It is only for a month, but at least it means that I can continue to be involved in AWANA without interruption.  This also means I should be able to do a good amount of research.  I did a little yesterday.I found that every single candidate for the presidency is independently wealthy.  And that is by their own admission.  for that reason, I decided to look at how they got their money.  Did they inherit it or did they "earn" it.  I will only touch on it briefly as I think it is important to understand just how much these candidates can sympathize with us common folk. 
             That's about it for today.  Thanks for reading and, as always, have a great day.

Relations: they're all relative.

           Another Wednesday.  So much is happening that I just can't seem to keep up.  I recently sent a letter home to my church asking for forgiveness for how I lived while I was a member of the congregation.  They should receive the letter in the next couple of days.  As a part of this, I asked my family members for forgiveness as well.  I even emailed a copy of the letter to my sister.  That is when things got interesting.  I received an email from my brother in law.  He was reaching out to me.  The funny thing is, I never really thought about it.  I owe him an apology for ignoring him.  I really didn't mean to, every talk we have had has been an awesome experience and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  It just never crossed my mind to call my sister to talk to her husband.  Why it didn't, I'll never know.  I think that it will be the start of a great relationship.  Now comes the fun part of figuring out each other's schedules (we are 2000 miles apart) so that we don't interrupt each other at work.  I look forward to it.
            I find myself wondering where to go next with this.  I find that the research I was planning on doing for the upcoming elections is going slowly (read as, I haven't started yet).  Every time I tell myself I am going to start, I end up staring at the computer trying to figure out what to do next.  Oh, well.  Anyway, I really haven't got much to say. 
            The pretty much sums up things today.  Thanks for reading and, as always, thanks for reading.