Christmas

Well, its been a while since I wrote anything, and, of course, I only have 2 minutes to write now. So, what do I say? What profound piece of wisdom do I have?

Enjoy Christmas!

There, I said it. Don't worry if your house is clean enough, what you're going to buy for Aunt Sally, if your car will make it to Boston, etc. Just enjoy this beautiful season we've set aside to celebrate the Savior's birth. Enjoy your relationships, the music, the food, extra football, candlelight services, whatever. Just enjoy it because that enjoyment was bought with a price -the blood of the American military over the past 230 years. And also remember that a relationship with the one true God was bought with a price - the Blood of that little Baby in a manger, over 2,000 years ago.

Getting Bored-er about the Border?

It keeps getting buried in the news media, but I couldn't believe it when I came across this link today from FOX news. I have said in the past, and I'll keep saying, that we need to lock down our southern border. There are all kinds of reasons , but, hey, let's talk about one: terrorism. Isn't it intereting that you have to wait 2 hours, and take your shoes off, for a 45 min. flight, yet we can't keep millions every year from pouring into our borders? Now, yet again, we hear of terrorists attempting to use our unguarded border to do their dirty work. This time, RPG's and other weapons were found. What were they going to do, use them to take out some high-ranking official? Maybe wipe out a shopping mall, or school. So, if for no other reason than fighting terrorism, can we please shut down our borders, now?!? I don't give a flyin' flip who it offends! I'd rather be called "offensive" than be called "our dearly departed..."!


http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071126/NATION/111260034/1001

Where I'm From

This is a picture taken near where I was born (Summersville, WV) and it reminds me of the beautiful and rich history of the Appalachians, in particular the Blue Ridge Mountains. This is some of the most scenic parts of the country I've ever been in. These mountains, a couple of hundred years ago, were a barrier to westward expansion. Its very difficult to get in/out of the area, especially in winter. The people there are friendly and live a simple life, and they seem happy. The thickly wooded mountains, numerous types of flowers, birds, animals and rivers make this one of the best places to visit, especially in late spring/early summer. The cool, crisp mountain air refreshes mind, body, and soul. I hope to always be able to visit wild, wonderful West Virginia.

Marriage?

In response to this article/editorial: http://www.lnstar.com/literature/samesex.htm

I wrote this in an e-mail:

read the article on legalizing gay marriage and the two Southern Republicans. First, the building block of this country is the family, and families are built around marriages. Of course, things happen and you can have "blended" families, but, lets face it, that' not the ideal situation. Grandma having to go back to work to raise her three grandkids because both parents are in jail for drug use is not the ideal (although I do applaud Grandma). So, a marriage is a holy and civil union between a man and a woman, because that's the way God made it. That's the definition of a marriage. That's the start of our country. A same sex couple cannot, or never will be, married. Its not possible by definition. Therefore, someone is going to have to change the definition of marriage. I personally wouldn't want to be the one who is so self-absorbed and prideful to think I can erase thousands of years of history just because its fashionable to be gay right now. So, if our nation is to survive, we need to preserve the building block of the nation, the family. Once gay marriage is legalized, where does it end? If two women can legally be married, why not three women? Why not two men and one woman? Why not a man and his daughter? If we are all protected under the Constitution and keeping gay marriage illegal is against people's civil rights, then why aren't the Mormons allowed to practice polygamy. You see, no one can argue with me on this, because its the simple truth. Its socially cool and popular to be gay now, so hey, let's enable the twisted, perverted homosexual lifestyle by allowing them to "marry" each other. Allowing homosexuals to marry is a slap in the face of God, history, and every man and woman who has been struggling for years to make a REAL marriage work. So I agree that attacking gay marriage should be one of the top 3 goals in the country-behind national security and outlawing abortion.

Sincerely Ssubmitted,

Ann Says it Best..."Phony Soldiers" non-scandal

I usually like to do my own writing, pontificating, exposing, and confounding, but Ann Coulter really nailed this one regarding Democrats, liberals, warfare, and Rush Limbaugh's supposed anti-troop comment. Enjoy. This was posted on Yahoo! news:

PRETEND TO BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE
By: Ann Coulter
Wed Oct 3, 7:58 PM ET
Not content to wait for my book to come out, Senate Democrats are demanding a censure resolution against Rush Limbaugh. Ah, the memories ...
In my experience, having prominent Democrats censure you on the Senate floor is the equivalent of 50 book signings. Or being put on the cover of The New York Times magazine 20 years ago when people still read The New York Times magazine. They should rename Senate censure resolutions "Harry Reid's Book Club."
Liberals are hopping mad because Rush Limbaugh referred to phony soldiers as "phony soldiers." They claim he was accusing all Democrats in the military of being "phony."
True, all Democrats in the military are not phony soldiers, but all phony soldiers seem to be Democrats.
If we are to believe the self-descriptions of callers to talk radio and the typical soldier interviewed on MSNBC, the military is fairly bristling with Moveon.org types.
The reality is quite the opposite. While liberals have managed to worm themselves into every important institution in America, from the public schools to the CIA to charitable foundations, they are shamefully absent from the military.
As noted in that great book that came out this week, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans":
"According to a Military Times survey taken in September 2004, active-duty military personnel preferred President Bush to Kerry by about 73 percent to 18 percent. Sixty percent describe themselves as Republican and less than 10 percent call themselves Democrat (the same 10 percent that MSNBC has on its speed-dial). Even among the veterans, Republicans outnumber Democrats 46 percent to 22 percent."
So there aren't a lot of anti-war military types for the media to turn into this month's "It Girl." (If conservatives ran the media, there would be a constant stream of government employees admitting to sloth and incompetence, welfare recipients admitting to being welfare cheats and public schoolteachers who support school vouchers.) Sometimes liberals get desperate and have to concoct Tawana Brawley veterans.
In addition to famous fake soldiers promoted by the anti-war crowd, like Jesse MacBeth and "Winter Soldier" Al Hubbard, even liberals with actual military experience are constantly being caught in the middle of some liberal hoax.
Al Gore endlessly bragged to the media about his service in Vietnam. "I took my turn regularly on the perimeter in these little firebases out in the boonies. Something would move, we'd fire first and ask questions later," he told Vanity Fair. And then we found out Gore had a personal bodyguard in Vietnam, the most dangerous weapon he carried was a typewriter, and he left after three months. Although to his credit, Gore did not put in for a Purple Heart for the carpal tunnel syndrome he got from all that typing.
Speaking of which, John Kerry claimed to be a valiant, Purple Heart-deserving Vietnam veteran, who spent Christmas 1968 in Cambodia -- until he ran for president and more than 280 Swift Boat Veterans called him a liar. We've been waiting more than 20 months for Kerry to make good on his "Meet the Press" pledge to sign form 180, which would allow the military to release his records.
Then there was Bill Burkett, who gave CBS the phony National Guard documents; Scott Thomas Beauchamp, The New Republic's fantasist anti-war "Baghdad Diarist"; and Max Cleland, whose injuries were repeatedly and falsely described as a result of enemy fire.
Liberals will even turn a war hero like Pat Tillman into an anti-war cause celebre posthumously -- so he can't disagree. Tillman died in a friendly fire incident that occurred -- unlike Max Cleland's accident -- during actual combat with the enemy.
Because they are screaming, hysterical women, liberals treat friendly fire like a drunk driving accident. But friendly fire has been a part of war from time immemorial.
Liberals have an insane, litigious view of the military: There's been an accident in warfare, let's sue! It's as mad as the line from "Dr. Strangelove": "Gentlemen! No fighting in the War Room!" Golly jeepers, accidents can't happen in a war!
Contrary to the insinuations of his family, we don't know what Pat Tillman would say about the war he volunteered for, but we do know that he was a patriot until death. And we know what other patriots have said about friendly fire during a war.
In his book "Faith of My Fathers," John McCain describes how demoralized American prisoners of war in Vietnam were when they didn't hear any bombing for years. Finally, after a long bombing halt, Nixon renewed aerial bombing of North Vietnam in December 1972.
Our bombers couldn't know with precision where the enemy was holding (and torturing) our troops. McCain and the rest of those POWs could easily have been hit and killed by an American bomb.
But the POWs weren't denouncing the U.S. military for risking their lives with "friendly fire." They weren't crying Mommy, investigate this! Get me a trial lawyer! If their camp had been hit by American bombs, it would have been as the POWs were shouting: "God bless President Nixon!"
That's from their own mouths; that's what's in their hearts. Friendly fire -- to a nation that hasn't lost its wits -- is part of waging war.
If Democrats don't want to hear about "phony soldiers," maybe they should stop trying to edify us with these bathos-laden hoaxes.

Health

I just found out that I have a disease that is miserable, but possibly treatable. It could have been worse. Sometimes I wish I would have enjoyed my perfect health when I had it. Well, I'm determined to get back healthy again. Its funny how there is always something going wrong in my life; maybe its that way with other people too. Just when my job starts to be smooth, my health goes. When my health is finally getting back on track, then I have problems with family. When my family situation is finally resolved, then money problems creep up. Once the money problems are done with, then my health is bad again. I can only remember a few times in my life when I had everything lined up and no real stressors to worry about.

P.S. Both of those times were before the age of 21.

Gender Gap, or Role Neutralization, or Idiocy?

I came across this article today. I want you all to read it, then I'll have comments below.

"He’s Happier, She’s Less So

By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: September 26, 2007
Last year, a team of researchers added a novel twist to something known as a time-use survey. Instead of simply asking people what they had done over the course of their day, as pollsters have been doing since the 1960s, the researchers also asked how people felt during each activity. Were they happy? Interested? Tired? Stressed?

Not surprisingly, men and women often gave similar answers about what they liked to do (hanging out with friends) and didn’t like (paying bills). But there were also a number of activities that produced very different reactions from the two sexes — and one of them really stands out: Men apparently enjoy being with their parents, while women find time with their mom and dad to be slightly less pleasant than doing laundry.
Alan Krueger, a Princeton economist working with four psychologists on the time-use research team, figures that there is a simple explanation for the difference. For a woman, time with her parents often resembles work, whether it’s helping them pay bills or plan a family gathering. “For men, it tends to be sitting on the sofa and watching football with their dad,” said Mr. Krueger, who, when not crunching data, enjoys watching the New York Giants with his father.
This intriguing — if unsettling — finding is part of a larger story: there appears to be a growing happiness gap between men and women.
Two new research papers, using very different methods, have both come to this conclusion. Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers, economists at the University of Pennsylvania (and a couple), have looked at the traditional happiness data, in which people are simply asked how satisfied they are with their overall lives. In the early 1970s, women reported being slightly happier than men. Today, the two have switched places.
Mr. Krueger, analyzing time-use studies over the last four decades, has found an even starker pattern. Since the 1960s, men have gradually cut back on activities they find unpleasant. They now work less and relax more.
Over the same span, women have replaced housework with paid work — and, as a result, are spending almost as much time doing things they don’t enjoy as in the past. Forty years ago, a typical woman spent about 23 hours a week in an activity considered unpleasant, or 40 more minutes than a typical man. Today, with men working less, the gap is 90 minutes.
These trends are reminiscent of the idea of “the second shift,” the name of a 1989 book by the sociologist Arlie Hochschild, arguing that modern women effectively had to hold down two jobs. The first shift was at the office, and the second at home.
But researchers who have looked at time-use data say the second-shift theory misses an important detail. Women are not actually working more than they were 30 or 40 years ago. They are instead doing different kinds of work. They’re spending more time on paid work and less on cleaning and cooking.
What has changed — and what seems to be the most likely explanation for the happiness trends — is that women now have a much longer to-do list than they once did (including helping their aging parents). They can’t possibly get it all done, and many end up feeling as if they are somehow falling short.
Mr. Krueger’s data, for instance, shows that the average time devoted to dusting has fallen significantly in recent decades. There haven’t been any dust-related technological breakthroughs, so houses are probably just dirtier than they used to be. I imagine that the new American dustiness affects women’s happiness more than men’s.
Ms. Stevenson was recently having drinks with a business school graduate who came up with a nice way of summarizing the problem. Her mother’s goals in life, the student said, were to have a beautiful garden, a well-kept house and well-adjusted children who did well in school. “I sort of want all those things, too,” the student said, as Ms. Stevenson recalled, “but I also want to have a great career and have an impact on the broader world.”
It’s telling that there is also a happiness gap between boys and girls in high school. As life has generally gotten better over the last generation — less crime, longer-living grandparents and much cooler gadgets — male high school seniors have gotten happier. About 25 percent say they are very satisfied with their lives, up from 16 percent in 1976. Roughly 22 percent of senior girls now give that answer, unchanged from the 1970s.
When Ms. Stevenson and I were talking last week about possible explanations, she mentioned her “hottie theory.” It’s based on an April article in this newspaper by Sara Rimer, about a group of incredibly impressive teenage girls in Newton, Mass. The girls were getting better grades than the boys, playing varsity sports, helping to run the student government and doing community service. Yet one girl who had gotten a perfect 2,400 on her college entrance exams noted that she and her friends still felt pressure to be “effortlessly hot.”
As Ms. Stevenson, who’s 36, said: “When I was in high school, it was clear being a hottie was the most important thing, and it’s not that it’s any less important today. It’s that other things have become more important. And, frankly, people spent a lot of time trying to be a hottie when I was in high school. So I don’t know where they find the time today.”
The two new papers — Mr. Krueger’s will be published in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and the Stevenson-Wolfers one is still in draft form — are part of a burst of happiness research in recent years. There is no question that the research has its limitations. Happiness, of course, is highly subjective.
A big reason that women reported being happier three decades ago — despite far more discrimination — is probably that they had narrower ambitions, Ms. Stevenson says. Many compared themselves only to other women, rather than to men as well. This doesn’t mean they were better off back then.
But it does show just how incomplete the gender revolution has been. Although women have flooded into the work force, American society hasn’t fully come to grips with the change. The United States still doesn’t have universal preschool, and, in contrast to other industrialized countries, there is no guaranteed paid leave for new parents.
Government policy isn’t the only problem, either. Inside of families, men still haven’t figured out how to shoulder their fair share of the household burden. Instead, we’re spending more time on the phone and in front of the television.
This weekend, I think I may volunteer to do a little dusting."

So let me get this straight. Studies show women are less happy than in the 50s and 60s, and these imbeciles say its because women back then were too duped, stupid, and witless to know how bad off they really were. Meanwhile, since most women have left the home to work full time, they are stressed, have way too much on their plate, and still are the main caretakers of the children and the home. All because women were told by the women's liberation movement that being a stay-at-home mom wasn't good enough, that they should go out and get a career just like a man. Hmm. Sounds to me like maybe the ladies in America were duped. Because now y'all register "less happy" than men, and "less happy" than before. You have tried to close a "gender gap" but that gap is there not to demean you, but merely because of the different ways God made us and the roles we are to fill. Somewhere along the line, it became accepted that career was more important than family. Let's all remember back to Genesis. The fact that Adam had to work to live was a CURSE and nothing we can do will change that. Let's get back to the basics of working to provide, not working to live and be happy and fulfilled. That should not come from work. And if it does, then what will happen to you when you retire? You will have built a shell of a life and nothing greater. Your family will not know you that well, in a REAL way, a REAL relationship. So, ladies, before its too late, think back to why you aren't as happy as you could be, and make some adjustments if you can. (Side note: a two-income lifestyle is no happier than a one-income lifestyle.)

Schoolin'

This week, my kids formally started school - home school that is. Yes, my wife has undertaken the great adventure of educating our children, and, you know what? She's great at it! My oldest starts 2nd grade, and my youngest is starting Kindergarten. As long as I'm able, I'm not going to send my kids to public school. They are not only sub-par, but violent, atheistic, and non-conducive to learning. Our family made a sacrifice for five years by having my wife be a stay-at-home mom. Times were tough, we sometimes barely made ends meet, and sometimes we did without some things. But we've always been happy. Now we're homeschooling, and its a wonderful that my kids are getting a first class education; better even than a private school. The same education that rich kids get from private tutors. Pretty nifty, eh? I hear some people say "But what about their interaction with other kids? Aren't they cooped up alone while home-schooling?" Hah! Nothing could be further from the truth! They meet up with other home-schooled kids, get out to the park, library, musuem, and have a flexible schedule that still allows them to be a kid and learn at the same time. I think its pretty amazing. Its going to be a great school year for our family!!

Light Conversation

I have looked over my posts so far, and realized that I have been laying out my deepest thoughts and convictions on intense, controversial subjects. I have since realized that I may want to include more of the everyday stuff too.

Time, Time, Time...

"Life is a vapor, so quickly fading; it only lasts a season, then its gone." That's from a 4Him song. Its so true. It has been probably around 2 months since I have posted on my blog, and I have no excuse except for lack of time. Why? Work, vacation, and family. There it is, in a nutshell.

What I was thinking about was that song and how it lines up with one of my favorite books in the Bible: Ecclesiastes. A book written by the wisest, wealthiest, most powerful, and most popular man of his time. Yet the book is full of sarcasm, futility, and negativity. One of the things Solomon talks about is time.

I wanted to expand on this because some will say that one of the worst things is, when you're advanced in years, you look back and feel regret for the stupid things you did, and the awesome things you didn't do. I would agree with that; it is important to live life to the fullest, and for the purpose for which you were created (i.e. the "Purpose Driven Life"). However, the elusive entity which is a major culprit in a squandered life is time. Not the actual passing of time, but more time management.

Time is an important, precious commodity, because it is the fence within which we live our lives. The single, wealthy person who lives on a beautiful piece of land and has everything they could want and doesn't have to work to earn their living still is shackled: by time. So time is like the Law, like a fence, like air in a spaceship, like gas in a car, the list goes on and on. My point is that because we all will one day die, it doesn't matter whether you're the most powerful person in the world, or a janitor in London. Everyone is allotted 24 hours a day, 60 minutes an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. This doesn't change, unless you're traveling faster than the speed of light, but I don't want to get into that argument. So we've determined that time is our greatest commodity, and our one non-renewable resource (on a personal level). Does this shed light on why I think time management is so crucial?

Time management is the effective use of your time, in a pre-planned and efficient way. That's my basic definition; I'm sure there's a better one but I don't want to look it up (it will take too much...time). Ha-ha. Anyway, when you boil this down, its not time management that is the big problem. That is easy to do. You get up every morning and pull out your LIST (whether a formal calendar or just a notebook) and you see what you did yesterday, you see what you didn't do yesterday, add what you need to do today, then prioritize. That is essentially time management. The problem comes in the EXECUTION of the time management, and that's the hard part. Why? Because it takes discipline and self-control. Those are two traits that most people, when left to their own devices, do not adequately perform well at.

So the key to time is discipline and self control. "But", someone might ask, "what about fun time, spontaneity, and all of that?" Well, what about it? Plan it. Plan your fun time, and do that with discipline. There are lots of people who are such workaholics that they don't slow down, and that's a vice as well. As for being spontaneous, there is a place for that too. Sometimes my wife and I will have a plan for a Saturday morning: do this, do that, go here, go there, blah-blah-blah. Then we say, hey, let's scrap all that and go out to a nice restaurant and have brunch! You know what, that's okay too, because maybe we know that we need it. As long as we update our LIST and get the items taken care of at a later date.

Summary: Time is a precious commodity on the personal level; a non-renewable resource (in our physical bodies as least-which is the subject of a whole other discussion). Time management is crucial to living a meaningful, fulfilled life. The root of time management is discipline. Everybody got that? Now, go have fun, and be sure to mark it off of your LIST when you're done.

Passions

I never realized, until about five years ago, the passion I have for career issues. I was working on my B.S. and came across data that suggested that upwards of 75% of Americans are unhappy with their job/career. That's amazing! We spend 1/3 if not more of our lives involved with work, and we are unhappy? Why is it that people get out of unhappy marriages quicker than they get out of unhappy work situations? Well, it seems that way, anyway.

I have to be honest and say that I am so fascinated with this topic because I am one of the 75% who was, and still is, unhappy with my job/career. Its not that I'm ungrateful, its just that, in my case, I have this feeling that there's something more that I could be doing. After vigorous and sustained analysis (Luke, if you're reading this, that's a tribute to you) I have determined that, in order to be happy and fulfilled at work, as a normal human being, you need to be doing something that you're passionate about, or talented in. Of course, the talent usually produces passion, but not in all cases.

I would love to get back into hospitality, because I love customer service. I also love to play the trumpet, counsel, and recruiting sounds fun too. So why don't I do one of those? Well, I used to toot my horn for a living (Marine Band), and I also used to be in hospitality, but it became inhospitable (pardon the puns). I read in a book called "Who Moved My Cheese?" a line that said, "What would you do if you weren't afraid?" Wow! What potentially life-changing words! I realized, after reading that line, that I was being held back by my fears. It takes a lot of courage to brush up on old skills, dust off the resume, and start looking for a job doing what you really love to do. Especially with a mortgage, car payment, utilities, groceries, the list goes on and on. Then throw in a spouse, kids, school plays, soccer games...you get the picture. So what is really happening? We of the 75% are all stuck, by some circumstance or another, in a job we hate or at best tolerate. We feel trapped in an endless cycle of "Monday stinks, but I can make it to Wednesday. Okay, its Thursday, just one more day until...FRIDAY!! Alright, now its time for the weekend. But wait: the yard needs mowed, laundry needs to be done, there's a soccer game," and next thing you know, its Sunday night and you haven't relaxed at all. Then the dread of going back to work on Monday starts the cycle all over again. I never thought I'd be one of those poor souls who "live for the weekend", but I do.

So what's the remedy for this? Well, there are two routes to take. One is, as the Bible says, be content in whatever situation you're in. Know that God is using you there, and has placed you there for a purpose. The other route is to ask God if its time for a change. Take the time now to invest in a change that will bring meaning, focus, and purpose back to your life. Once the change has been made, you can look back and say, "Thank God I decided to do _______, I'm happy I did" (you fill in the blank). Or, this can be summarized as my Gunny in the Marines used to say: "Put up or shut up!"

My Thoughts on 9-11, written on 9-11-2006

I remember 9/11. I remember hearing on the radio at work that a plane hit one of the WTC towers. No one knew initially what was going on. Then a second plane hit the other tower. The next thing I knew, I heard that a tower had completely collapsed. Soon after, the next tower collapsed.

What a range of emotions I went through! Was this the start of WWIII? Where would they hit next? Then I heard that the Pentagon was hit, and another plane went down in a field in Pennsylvania. My first non-emotional thought was to thank God that George W. Bush was our president.

Stunned. Sad. Angry. Perplexed. Those were my emotions, in order. First, I was stunned. How could that happen? Why would someone do that? Next, I was sad. I knew those towers held thousands of people, especially on a Tuesday morning. Also, the Pentagon was hit! Being a former Marine, I could only imagine what that meant and what those inside went through. I also thought of the loss of life on the planes. Then I got mad! A white, hot, smoldering anger coursed through my veins. Once it was determined it was a group of terrorists that did this, I wanted action. I imagined my hands throttling one of them. I was still on inactive reserve, and I thought about calling a recruiter and getting back on active duty. I wanted a gun and some bullets. I was angry because these scum suckers came into our country, infiltrated our system, and killed our people. I honestly don’t think I’d ever been so angry in my life.

Then the perplexity hit. I was used to hearing about someone bringing a bomb or weapon on a plane, but to use the plane itself as a weapon? Unthinkable. It was a flying deathtrap, as well as a giver of death and destruction. The absolute audacity of the event was hard to get a grip on. How fanatical must these people be! Could I sit on a plane, looking at innocent people-children, and elderly and then take over the cockpit and steer the plane into a building? Even if I was in an actual war, I couldn’t stoop to the level of killing innocent women and children.

It wasn’t until I got home that day and saw the pictures on TV that I realized the full impact of what happened. I realized then that our country would be changed forever. Comparatively, a tiny fraction of one percent of our population was killed. However, the damage done by the terrorists was way more far-reaching. We would be on heightened alert. Our airports were already shut down. Our economy would be crippled for a while. How would we find the ones that did this and bring them to justice? Would we? Could we?

It was amazing to start to see and hear the stories of heroism that came out of this tragedy. Those firemen and policemen were flat-out heroes. Next we began to prepare for war, and sent troops into Afghanistan because we heard that Osama Bin-Ladin was the leader of the group that did this and that was where he was staying. Then I began to wonder how we could have missed this with all our intelligence capabilities. As the months and years unfolded, the finger pointing started. The political haymaking started. A commission was appointed to find out what happened, and on that committee was one who had made it difficult to share vital information, which could have possibly prevented the attack in the first place. I could go on and on regarding the politics involved, but it makes me sick. Books were written, accusations were made, and political correctness had stifled our efforts to thwart any future attacks. I stand behind the actions of our President and his cabinet and leaders. I know that the former President, Mr. Clinton and his cabinet had a chance to capture Bin-Ladin, but because of the way our government operates, nothing was done.

We went to war with Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and he was toppled. A new, democratic government was set up, but there were/are bombings weekly and the radicals from Syria and Jordan are inciting Al-Qaeda operatives to continue to kill and make us look bad. Suddenly, the war on terror was replaced with politicians pointing fingers because of what was going on in Iraq. This has gone on for years.

So, where are we now? Let me sum up the big picture (which is my forte). We are remembering the fifth anniversary of an attack on our country, and its way of life, that was years in the making. Unfortunately, this has turned into politics: the right is mostly working hard to stop terrorists and anyone who harbors them. President Bush has a clear definition and purpose about what he is doing. Terrorism must be fought mainly with a change of ideals, because it is virtually impossible to stop terrorism. Liberals are concerned with taking down our President. They foolishly have taken a stance of appeasement and political correctness. This will get us killed. Other countries hate us now because of Iraq. They also do not understand the far-reaching implications of what we’re doing. We belong in Iraq, for a myriad of reasons. A small percentage of those reasons involve the attacks on 9/11. Secondly, it has become apparent that the Moslem radicals have hated us for years and have been planning the demise of Western culture and Christianity for years, since the 1970s (real beginning of the 3rd Jihad). There were many warnings about 9/11, but we didn’t listen. We actually had identified most of the hijackers, but, because of legal technicalities, they couldn’t be taken. Again, I could go on and on.

So, what’s the solution? Is the threat over? Will we be attacked again? Well, the recent foiling of a plot to attack us from London should answer that question. We are still targets. These people, these vermin scum, want to put their way of life on us or kill us. If they could repeat 9/11, they would. We need to continue to hunt them down and kill them. We need to continue the PATRIOT Act. We need to continue clandestine surveillance. We need to remember what happened on 9/11. Thank God we haven’t seen another attack on American soil. The hand of God plus the efforts of our government (military, law enforcement, etc.) have kept us safe for five years. The anger, sadness, resolve, and unity we experienced five years ago need to be re-visited if we are to persevere under this real threat. We need to wake back up.

The Ice is Melting! The Ice is Melting! (Or Maybe Not...)

Here is an article I found in the Associated Press (my comments to follow):

“By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 27, 1:19 AM ET
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - An ice sheet in Antarctica that is the world's largest — with enough water to raise global sea levels by 200 feet — is relatively stable and poses no immediate threat, according to new research.
While studies of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets show they are both at risk from global warming, the East Antarctic ice sheet will "need quite a bit of warming" to be affected, Andrew Mackintosh, a senior lecturer at Victoria University, said Wednesday.
The air over the East Antarctic ice sheet, an ice mass more than 1,875 miles across and up to 2.5 miles thick centered on the South Pole, will remain cold enough to prevent significant melting in the near future, the New Zealand-led research shows.
But it eventually may become vulnerable to the effects of rising sea levels driven by the melting of other ice sheets, Mackintosh's team found. Their research was published this week in the journal Geology.
"The East Antarctic ice sheet is the largest and the coldest and is going to be the last to respond in any great way" to global warming, he said. "Our research suggests changes in sea levels due to global warming will not be caused by changes in the East Antarctic Ice Sheet yet."
The researchers found that from 13,000 to 7,000 years ago, when sea levels rose by more than 330 feet, the East Antarctic ice sheet thinned by 660 feet to 1,150 feet. Rising waters during that period would have lifted the buoyant ice sheet's edges off its rocky base, causing pieces to detach or "calve" and melt.
If the sheet experienced such calving again, even small changes could have a significant impact, the researchers said.
The study — conducted with Australia's Macquarie University and the Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organization — did not predict how much sea levels would have to rise before the sheet's edges started to break away.
Glaciologist Wendy Lawson, head of geography at Canterbury University who took no part in the study, said the new research supported previous modeling indicating the sheet was stable.
"There is no short-term risk as far as the overall magnitude of the East Antarctic ice sheet goes," she said”

Okay, so what I hear is that the biggest polar ice sheet is in no danger from “global warming”. In fact, it did experience breakage and shrinkage from 7,000 to 13,000 years ago, according to this article. Doesn’t that mean that there was climate change and global warming before man had any technology that he does today? What this tells me is that I’m right about “global warming”; it is a big scare tactic, and if it does happen, it will actually have positive, not negative effects:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/01/resisting_global_warming_panic.html

So, don’t be freaking out about global warming, seas rising, the earth turning into a fireball, etc. Rest easy, and “let not your hearts be troubled.”

We Need Tolerance and Free Speech!!

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,285933,00.html


Sounds like a liberal rally cry, right? Actually, it’s what conservative radio talk show hosts are saying. Why? Because the left is trying to revitalize the “Fairness Doctrine” which is nothing more than trying to even out the playing field in the entertainment industry. Why would they need to do that? Because all of their liberal talk shows suck, that’s why! Of course, that fact really hacks them off because they can’t compete in the marketplace of ideas, let alone talk radio. They’re upset because talkers like Rush, Hannity, Savage, and Beck have huge success and a big audience. But its not just that. Its two other facts that have them skeered. One is that the conservatives have a powerful voice, and potential voters are getting swayed to the right. Two, and to them the most dangerous, is that conservative news/talk is exposing the lies and left slant of the mainstream media! Look, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that leaving out information is just as harmful as giving false information. That’s what the left-leaning mainstream media does; report stories, but leave out one or two facts which change the face of the story. This has been free advertising and propaganda for the left for decades, and now they don’t know what to do because its being countered and exposed by talk radio.

So, having said that, I, the mental giant, am about to shine the light of truth of what the left are doing: censorship! Appalling isn’t it, that the party that champions civil liberties and freedom of choice want to silence talk radio because they don’t like what they hear (and the affect it has on the populace). The left has no new, viable ideas to lead this country to greatness, they’ve done nothing but engage in hatemongering towards the President since he took office, and they want us to somehow believe that they are more SOPHISTICATED than we are and know more than we do. Well, I think the average American shmoe sees right through the smokescreen. What have the liberals in Congress accomplished since they got the majority a few months ago? Hmmm…nothing. They’re even afraid to stop funding for the war that they supposedly disagree with. But they’re too scared that they might lose votes.

Anyway, I’d better stop before I lose my mind. Keep your eyes and ears open for the censorship, I mean “Fairness” doctrine to come around again. When it does, get on the phone with your representatives and tell them what you think. Until next time…

Mars, Venus, What the Heck Is Going On Here?

Okay, so there was a book a few years ago explaining why men and women are different. It was a best-seller, especially since so many marriages are on the rocks. What's sad is the fact that somebody actually had to write a book telling us something that humankind has known since we've been around! Unfortunately, the women's rights movement, coupled with societal androgyny and the psychological castration of men, has driven that concept out of our brains. No more is a boy allowed to be a boy, and a man allowed to be a man. We have to be sensitive, nurturing, understanding, great listeners, blah, blah, blah. I read a great book called "Wild at Heart" (John Eldredge) and it opened my eyes. Eldredge maintains that men need to be powerful, dangerous, and have a woman to rescue. What boy, he asks, says, "I want to grow up and be a nice guy. I want to work at a boring desk job and look forward to retirement?" No boy does, because we are always told we are to deny our baser instincts of violence, power, danger, adventure, and winning the girl of our dreams. I could write pages and pages on this topic, but the bottom line is this: men, let's be men and women, be women. Its okay to be different, because that's the way God made us. Not better or worse than the other sex, but equal. As I tell my Bible study group, God made men and women with different roles and engineering, but with equal worth and value.

Unsatisfied

Okay, its 12:08 a.m. on a Sunday morning and I'm waiting for my wife to get home from work, so what should I do? Blog.

I'm at home and thinking, "Ah, the good old days were when I was single." You know, no wife (spouse) kids, etc. I could come and go as I please; screw around all day; actually wash and wax my car, then vacuum it, armor all the dash, the good stuff. Then I got to thinking, "Yeah, but you were pretty lonely and miserable back then too. How many times were you sitting in the front of your barracks wishing you had a girl, a family?" Of course, I think when you're single and in the military like I was, you are the loneliest of the lonely.

Its the same with jobs too. I started out in hospitality at Disney in Orlando. While there, I complained the whole time. Then I went to the military and dreamed of being back at Disney. I got out of the military and got a desk job at a small company. Of course, I spent a lot of my time there complaing about "being tied to a desk." You get the idea.

So what is it about us homo-sapiens that make us wish we were back where we were? You know, a few years after leaving Disney, I came back. I did appreciate it more, but I was still complaining. Especially working every weekend and holiday. So I went back to a desk job and now what do I do? Complain all day about being stuck behind a desk!

However, as a responsible blogger and being wise and a mental giant (MG), I would not enrapture you with this topic without offering a "why" and a solution. The why is simple: we are all flawed beings. We are imperfect. If we can be unsatisfied with something, we will. That is a fairly "deep" answer, but I know y'all expect a little better answer from someone of my mental caliber. Okay, here it is. The reason we always want to go back, always think the "grass is greener on the other side" is because we are putting our stock, our happiness, in the wrong thing. What is that thing? Circumstances.

Being happy is different, by definition, than being joyful. Being happy is when the Denver Broncos score a touchdown, the scale says I'm 5 pounds lighter, or the movie ends up being pretty good. But what if the Broncos fumble at the 1 yard line and lose the game? What if the scale says I'm 5 pounds heavier? What if the movie stinks? That is where joy comes in. Joy says, "Look, the Broncos just lost the game, but at least I'm over at my buddy's house having a great time watching football." Joy says, "I'm heavier, but wow!, that double hot fudge brownie sundae I had last night was good!" Joy says, "The movie was over-priced and miserable, but at least I'm out on a date with my wife and we are getting to reconnect again."

So, if you're mister nostalgia like me, and you find yourself on a nice trip down memory lane wishing things could be the way they were before, remember to pull out of that lane, do a u-turn, and get back to being THANKFUL for what you have and where you are now.

You Go, Girl

I'm so busy at work that this will be a short post. I got this article from a friend:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3228069&page=1

The girl is being raked over the coals for sharing her faith in a valedictory speech at high school graduation. She supposedly violated the separation of church and state. Here's a clue, there is no such thing, in the constitution, as the separation of church and state. Its that simple. In fact, the government is to protect our right to free speech and free practice of religion. This country is trying to erase God out of the equation, and I pray it doesn't happen. At least not on this blog. I will write and speak about my faith no matter what happens to me. I'm tired of hearing all the pansies who cry "I was offended". What a miserable life they must lead to be offended at the least little thing. Grow up, toughen up, and stop bellyaching!

Go to the Back of the Line

I remember one time when I went to Disney I had our first daughter and my wife with me in line for the Peter Pan ride. The wait was around one hour. We were almost there, having waited for about 50 minutes, when we saw a family walk up, cut under the ropes, and get on the ride, all within about 1 minute. I normally don’t let trifles like that get to me, because I figure it’s not worth my time or trouble. However, this time I was pretty incensed and so was everyone around me. So we started hollering to the ride operator that they had cut in line, and the guy ignored us! Here we had followed the rules and waited through a torturous line (95° but felt like 110°) and these people were let in, and when we complained, we were ignored.

You know, this really reminds me of the immigration battle we’re facing right now. It took a terror threat to bring the issue of illegal immigration to the table. Now that its here, its like our politicians are in a bubble and ignoring our demands. I absolutely refuse to apologize for saying the following: Any immigration bill should have two parts, and two parts only
1. Deport all illegal aliens immediately.
2. Defend and enforce our borders with as much funds and manpower as necessary.

That’s the bottom line. These people have a hard luck story, and for that I’m sorry. But they broke the law by coming here without going through the proper channels. The Bible tells us to follow the laws of the land. It also says that we all have to pay for wrongdoing. It’s not just the fact that they are coming here illegally. It’s the fact that they are doing it and thumbing their noses at our country by sucking up our resources, tax dollars, and national identity. Yes, I said national identity. We now have classes in schools that aren’t taught in English! Are you kidding me?!? All of these illegal aliens are a cancer to our society, and if we don’t cut the cancer out, we’re going to die.

How easy is it for Al-Qaeda to infiltrate our country through our southern border? We are not only destroying our economy, language and culture; we are also putting ourselves at risk because we are too afraid to do the right thing and enforce our laws! Now, personally, I feel for these families that may be uprooted because of a massive deportation effort. But, they made the choice to come here illegally and they will have to face the consequences. I sincerely believe this country is suffering because we are so concerned about being politically correct, especially as concerns illegal immigration. My hat goes off to those who are obeying the law and applying to come here legally. I welcome you to our country with open arms, and hope you know how great it is to be an American. (even with all of our faults). So, those who are here now, be prepared to go to the back of the line where you belong.

Where to Start

As a Christian, and someone who’s fairly intelligent, I have to ask, “where do I start”. I have a lot of things to say, and a lot of opinions about our current society. I think it best to start with the single thing which defines us as a barbarous nation: abortion. Don’t get me wrong; I was in the Marines and I enjoy some of the more violent aspects of life (boxing, wrestling, military, action movies, etc.). However, a proud warrior nation is different than a nation of barbarians. A barbarian is not governed by ethics, so much as by expedience. And that’s what abortion is: expedience. Let’s call it what it really is, legalized murder. Citizens of this nation who find it inconvenient to become parents, or don’t want to care for a life that they created, can now opt out and kill the baby. That in itself is bad enough, but there is a greater problem.

As a country, as outlined in our court rulings and laws, we have rationalized away the fact that abortion is murder. We call it a matter of choice and pat ourselves on the back for our creativity. Now, we can have all the sex we want, and not have to bear the consequences. It is a disgraceful shame that our thinking has become warped to the point where we don’t value the lives of the most innocent among us. This warped thinking started in the 1960s and has led to political correctness, weakened military, defeatist strategies, appeasement, anti-military and police thinking, the list goes on and on. But the worst is abortion. It makes me, a proud former member of the military, ashamed to call myself an American.