Category: Politics

Beckapalooza

Salon.com had a good article today giving a full background of tomorrow’s Glenn Beck event for those of us who are too cheap to buy cable and who haven’t been following the unfolding of the event planning.

This article just reinforces my wife’s feelings about Beck – Beck is a brand, and he does whatever he can to build his brand.  Love him or hate him, he’s a genius at self-marketing.  It’ll be interesting to see how ‘apolitical’ this rally (errr fundraiser) is…

I saw some other articles, though, from folks wanting to make hay out of the fact that he’s co-opting the National Mall on the anniversary of the MLK rally.  I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, other than the fact that those who might make a pilgrimage to the national park (yes, the Mall is a national park) will find hoards of people, giant screens, and a lot of loud conservative propaganda — not exactly the reflective environment that one would want to honor King and the legacy of the civil rights movement.

But hey – it’s a new day – and it’s as good a day as any other for a little free speech in Washington.

Have fun out there , MIL and FIL.  If nothing else, you should have plenty of good ‘people watching’ to do.

Honesty

Last Sunday, our Stake Presidency hosted their semi-annual Youth Standards night. This meeting brought back quite a few memories from my own youth (only 10 or so years ago), where we’d get frequent frank talks about abstinence, the internet, drugs, and a host of other societal ills.

This was my first time attending such a meeting as an “adult”, and it was really weird being on that side of the line. As we started talking about the technological minefields of today, social networking and texting, I found myself saying “Wow… this is worse than it was when I was a youth.”

I immediately caught myself.  Have I, in a short ten years, become the old fart I used to mock in my youth who was completely out of touch with what was “now”?)

The best was saved for last when, instead of continuing the harping on TXT messaging and social networking, the topic turned to Honesty.

Though his main motivation seemed to be to encourage the youth to be honest with their Bishops and not let little problems turn into big problems by trying to cover them up, the more nuanced parts of his talk made me reflect more sincerely on the general topic of honesty.

Honesty isn’t just a religious topic.  President Ward started out talking about doing the right thing when no one is looking.  In his case, that was stopping at a four-way stop at 4am, even though 100% of the time there was no one at that intersection.  Whether he believed that God was watching or whether he’s just heeding the social contract that we make with each other as drivers, the honest thing to do is to stop at the stop sign.

Complete honesty:

  • Prevents problems from happening
  • Prevents real problems from ballooning in size and scope
  • Enables you to live a less stressful life

The key takeaway for the youth was to be honest with themselves, be honest with God, and be honest with their leaders and Bishops. A common theme – to do the right thing even when no one else is watching. However, this reminder made me think more about the subject of honesty and how truth and honesty are the antidotes to most of the troubles that surround us.

Party of No

I like a good political rally.  As an independent moderate, I enjoy listening to both sides and coming to my own conclusions on where the truth is in all the politics.  I’ve been known to make solid, impassioned arguments solely for the opportunity to hear myself talk sometimes, even.  Rhetoric can be good, clean fun.

This is how the Tea Party movement began in this country; a group of people got together as way to protest what they felt like was wasteful government spending on bail outs and special deals.  Fun.  Some people even dressed up in little colonial costumes and read from scrolls.  Nice.

Continue reading Party of No

Say No to Socialism

I found this on Facebook, and can’t find a source to attribute it to.  Still, it’s is good.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power utility regulated by the US Department of Energy (DOE).  I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility.  After that, I turned on the TV to one of the federal communications commission (FCC) regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and maintained by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) .  I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) approved automobile and set out to work on the roads build by the local, state, and federal Departments of Transportation (DOT), possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and of a quantity regulated and certified by the State Bureau of Weights and Measures, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve.  On the way out the door I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service (USPS) and drop the kids off at the public school .

After work I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which has not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet, which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and Fox News forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can’t do anything right.

Like a Phoenix From the Ashes

Like a phoenix from the ashes, I rise again to blog…

…Renewed in spirit, and with fresh new opinions to opine…

…Unashamed of even the most poorly-researched commentary…

…and unafraid of being lampooned, harassed, technologically abused, and left for dead.

Here’s a quick smattering of topics to get us up to speed:

Politics:

Congress now has a “jobs agenda” instead of a “jobs bill.”  Switching from an actual bill to an agenda seems to mean it will be even less likely that anything actually gets done in congress.  Is there a negative approval rating?  That’s seems to be what they are heading for.  People were harassing Obama that he got very little of his ambitious agenda done in his first year, but I would definitely say Congress gets the prize for completely wasting its time working on mondo-legislation that will be forever gridlocked.  My solution?  Congress needs to focus on incremental, consensus change.  Get what you can get, because it will be better than getting nothing at all.

Religion:

Lately I’ve been reading a biography of Brigham Young.  So far, I’m at 1848, right after he’s entered the Salt Lake Valley for the 2nd time.  Here are few things I didn’t know I never wanted to didn’t realize:

  • Brigham came from a very poor family
  • He was one of the most ardent protectors of Joseph Smith, oftentimes threatening and exposing apostate church members who were seeking to harm him.
  • He served only one mission to England, which was less than 18 months, and still baptized and gathered over 8000 converts.  The message was not well received in London, but was best received in the British countryside among the working class.
  • Brigham left Winter Quarters shooting directly for the Great Basin, in spite of others who made strong cases for California or Oregon.  It wasn’t quite the ‘wandering children of Israel with miraculous discovery of the Salt Lake Valley’ portrait that has oft been painted.
  • After Brigham got to the Valley, he basically turned back around and went directly back to Winter Quarters.  I wasn’t sure I knew that.  He left most of the men of the initial 1847 company there to start planting winter crops, and his thoughts then turned exclusively on initiating the massive migration the following spring.
  • I’m surprised how poor of a writer he was.  All of the direct quotes from his diary are extremely poor in grammar and spelling, while things like “Journal of Discourses” are just replete with flowery language.  He must have been a much better orator than he was writer, and he certainly had some help committing it to paper later.

American Idol:

I’m not going to be able to watch the Top 12 Boys and Girls until Thursday… so stay tuned for a massive blog on Thursday.

Popularity Contest

Facebook’s most ‘popular’ pages are as follows:

In what universe is Vin Diesel more popular than Barack Obama?  For reals?  I can understand Michael Jackson being #1… but Vin Diesel as #3?  I’m surprised…

This is a throwback to high school.  For most people who aren’t caught up in the high school experience, on the surface it seems like one big popularity contest after another.  Hallway politics, assembly attention-getters, sports stars, and cheerleaders… it all seems so important when you’re in it, but it’s not really.  True talent is rarely recognized except by some teachers who truly reach out and mentor their students.

You have to leave high school to ever realize that popularity is irrelevant.

…Kind of.  Just ask Barack about the importance of popularity.

This reminds me of a quote from one of my favorite movies: Little Miss Sunshine.  I’m afraid this quote won’t really make sense out of context, and you’ll have to pardon all the asterisks… but it’s one of the BEST moments of the film.

You know what? **** beauty contests. Life is one ***ing beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work… **** that. And **** the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I’ll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and **** the rest.