When You Invite UConn to Play, Watch Your Meat

I found this little tidbit as I checked the ESPN site this afternoon (as I do quite frequently). I know it's dangerous to have great basketball teams come to your place to play, but I had no idea that the Huskies were known for pilfering porterhouse.

I'm loving that headline.

Well, their politics are straight out of the Dark Ages...

If this is true, and I really hope it is, the Bubonic Plague has struck an al-Qaeda training camp in Algeria. As my post suggests, this is the most fitting piece of karma I've seen in quite some time, as the politics of AQ are to return man to the Dark Ages, forcing women out of schools, and creating a patriarchal society where these same women have no say, no rights and no place save it be below the man.

I smell a rat. A plague-infested rat. Maybe this is all the workings of the CIA's latest bioweapons program: RC rats running around desert camps biting terrorists. Heh.

I can't take it anymore...

I know it's been an eon since I've posted, but Facebook has taken control of my online life. If you really want to know what's up with me, go there. Now, for the reason I've posted.

I am going to officially boycott history Tuesday. I DO NOT CARE ABOUT OBAMA'S INAUGURATION. I'll tell you why.

The consistent cross-outlet fawning over PE Obama is disgusting. The ten official inaugural balls are opulence in a time where frugality is needed. $150M? Come on. Four years ago, the media decried Pres. Bush for having any sort of gala at all. "Too expensive." "Unnecessary." Where are they now? They are silent and complicit in this. It is, after all, their doom and glooming which in my opinion, contributed to the outcome of the election. The consistent character assassination of both Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin, playing the old "Republicans are doofuses, dummies and dolts" card, was so transparent. The hero worship aboard Obama Force One by media reporters was about as far from objective journalism as you can get. Chris Matthews's tingle on his leg moment actually made me wretch a little in my mouth.

What did the losing side do in 2001? They cried "thief" when the election was won in the Electoral College by G.W. Bush. They then spent the next four years complaining about the illegitimate president who "stole" the White House. When he kicked Kerry's can in 2004, they complained again that "millions were disenfranchised." Complain. Complain. Complain. We just found out what the liberal loudmouth machine does when their guy wins: they spend millions of dollars--many of them my and your tax dollars--and throw a party...er...multiple parties.

What does $150M buy?

• At $250K a pop, you could apply a personal housing bailout to 600 people.
  
• At the new low price of oil of about $60 a barrel, you could add almost 4.2 million barrels of oil to the strategic reserve.
• The military could purchase 18 additional Predator MQ-9Bs and drop some crap on idiots around the world who are causing such a ruckus--like Hamas kooks in Gaza or Taliban fools in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
• Give every teacher in my now-home state of Idaho an $11,000 raise. (That's the 13,328 non-administrative members of the IEA--the union leadership doesn't need a raise. They need to be fired, along with every other teacher union hack in America.)

I could think of a million other uses for Obama's millions, but The One has decided that the best use of these funds, and the taxpayer dollars used to secure law enforcement support, etc. is to have a Bruce Springsteen concert for Mom and Dad and the JoBros with Miley Cyrus for the kids.

Guess which mouse-themed network we will NOT be watching in our house come Tuesday?

WARNING! Adult Content!

So we were playing the "ha ha" game yesterday. That's the one where everyone lays on the floor and rests their head on the stomach of someone else. Then the hilarity ensues. The first person goes "ha" (and the heads start bobbing). The next person goes "ha ha"...you get the idea. Usually the group just starts laughing and bobbing up and down at that point. That was about how far we got before we were all laughing ourselves silly.

Then Nate makes a stinker.

Of course, in normal families, this would stop the laughter. Not in ours. It amplified it. Then Mommy says "Nate has the buns of doom." And of course, the "jokes" continued. We use the word "chones" in our household to refer to undies, so I said "Nate: Attack of the Chones." Then Riley chimed in, "He's Count Doodoo." It finally degenerated into "Nate is Darth Skidius, Evil Sith Lord."

Nate of course couldn't get enough of it and tried in vain to come up with his own monikers, most of which were things like "Yeah! I'm Count Doodoo!"

Of course, trying to keep it high-brow, as we drove around looking at Christmas lights last night, I decided to "have a talk" to the family and discuss how it may be better and more appropriate if we start to talk "nice" and remove references to "body functions" from our dialogue.

All four kids were put to sleep by this. I heard snoring. I did.

What the crap? (Sorry about the title, Mom)

Never mind that the earth has been cooling for the last three years, the idiot climate global warming kooks are trying to take over your kid's Christmas program. My buddy in Salt Lake sent me this link--his kids were indoctrinated into this just this past week as they performed the drivel to his shock and horror.

Join your local PTA before Principal Gore makes this a horrifying reality at your local elementary school.

FYI: We live in a place where the kids can still sing Silent Night and say "Christmas." Yep, you guessed it, we're no longer in California.

I've been a Reagan Republican for quite some time...

My mother emailed me this little tidbit this morning. I wrote it when I was eleven years old for a creative write assignment in sixth grade. It's interesting to me in that I was so cutting-edge in my political priorities. Economy. Alternative fuels. Homeland security. I was Hopechange before Hopechange was Hopechange!

Behold:

If I Could Vote....

If I could vote I would probably vote for Ronald Reagan. One reason is because I am a loyal Republican (even if I'm only 11). When I'm 12 I'll be a TAIR. Teen Age Independent Republican. Another reason is I like his way of doing things. I know he has a good record in California as Governor of that state. That sounds like a tough job.

What I would want him to do if he were elected is to help make a more stable economy, help bring down inflation, start searching for more American oil so we rely less on OPEC and other countries. To put more money into military spending and find safe ways to make alcohol and coal fuels.

My Essay on Marriage

Since November 4th, when Californians again (without my help this time) affirmed their majority belief that marriage should be defined as between a man and a woman, I've had some interesting discussions with people on both sides of the issue, and have witnessed questionable behavior as well. I'd like to dispatch with all of those actions, thoughts, observations and votes and state my case for marriage between a man and a woman. I warn you, that my opinions and beliefs on this issue are formed as a result of my faith, conviction and experience, and I neither seek to "understand" or "be tolerant" of others here. My purpose is to lay bare the reasons why I assert that marriage is to be confined to that between a man and a woman. Before I continue, let me state for the record that I do not deny that there are numerous pairs of loving men and loving women who would like nothing more than to pledge their love to someone of the same sex--and who may very well be better at executing their homosexual relationship than many heterosexual couples. As you'll see by reading my commentary, I am not grading the "love potential" for lack of a better phrase of couples--homosexual or heterosexual--but want my friends and family to know why I believe and act the way I do. I also acknowledge both my inability to clearly articulate all that I wish to say and my own imperfection before a God who I will reference in these comments. We are all sinners in this life, we have all fallen short of the glory of God. That is a commentary for another day.

First and foremost, I know that I am a spiritual son of my Father in Heaven. I know that I was spiritually begotten of him before coming to this earth. My earthly parents, married since 1957 in this life, gave me life almost forty years ago--and in so doing, were made participants in God's plan of happiness for each of us--His children--here on earth. I know that God extends to all who will accept these same opportunities to partake of the blessings of creation and raising children in this life. As we are all sons or daughters of our Father in Heaven, He has entrusted us to help one another--our brothers and sisters--to come to know Him in this life and to work together to return to live with Him again, given that we've successfully exercised our agency in this life. He does not restrict us in this life. He has blessed us with the gift of agency--basically the ability to choose our path--in this life. It is why we are here. Life is therefore like a big test. He has provided us with study guides, mentors, proctors for the test and the answer key. He will not, however, force us to use any of these tools as we take this examination. He will merely show us where the helps are and allow us to choose for ourselves.

That kind of lays out the foundation. Another fundamental belief I hold--which has been confirmed to me as truth by a loving Father in Heaven--is that just as we lived in the presence of Him prior to coming to this earth, we have the potential to return to His presence if we are faithful in making and keeping the covenants He has laid out for us. Of course we first must apprise ourselves as to what these covenants are, but once we know--we must do. In addition to this, I know that the rewards for this life are not a "thumbs up--thumbs down" heaven or hell scenario. We are promised a variety or degree of glory commensurate to our disposition and actions here--basically we merit what we're comfortable with. (Think of the common idiomatic expression "as comfortable as a whore in church." We won't be comfortable in the presence of God if we've lived so as to exclude him from our lives or at least not make him the center. He does not want us to be uncomfortable--nor does he reward us or give us something we haven't warranted or desired, hence the situation as I see it.)

Because our Father in Heaven desires that we inherit everything He has, he has designed this life to provide us with opportunities to grow, learn and through trial and error, come to know what He knows and act as He does. He has also provided us the great eraser for our mistakes--our elder brother Jesus Christ. Basically, it's a foolproof plan--except for one thing: our own disposition to err. If we can overcome that basic nature, we can overcome the weaknesses and sins of this world and be blessed with a full measure of God's inheritance--just as a loving earthly father would leave his "millions" to his posterity.

Earlier, I mentioned "covenants" which I define as a two-way contract between God and one of his children--son or daughter. In order to gain this inheritance, God has prescribed that we faithfully attain to knowledge of His plan in this life and make covenants with him. One of the key covenants we must make is that of marriage--what he refers to as "the new and everlasting covenant of marriage." In other words, a marriage that is not just a "til death do us part" promise, but an eternal covenant that has effect after this mortal life has ended for us. In His definition, Father states that this eternal covenant is to be made between a man and a woman. The mortal purpose of raising righteous posterity to him and raising them (as I already noted) is key to our joy in this life. Our desire to make this covenant is critical to our eternal happiness.

So if we are comfortable with the marriage covenant being between a man and a woman, God will bless us with the blessings associated with that desire. He has noted that the reward for faithfulness in this regard is exaltation--in other words, eternity with all that He has, and the potential for eternal increase--an eternal family. If our desire is something else, He promises us blessings commensurate to those desires. My feelings are that any blessing or reward for something other than the eternal marriage God has prescribed will end when mortality for that individual ends. They may be "happy" with their mortal choice, but will never know "joy"--the lasting effects of making choices that are pleasing to God, not just ourselves.

So there it is--poorly written, but from my heart. I am blessed with a beautiful wife here in this life, but even more so, I am blessed with an absolute knowledge that this angel who walks by my side as my mortal equal in theory (and mortal better in practice) and I will be together in the eternities because we have chosen this as a course of action--and we know that God approves. He has spoken it to our souls, we have felt it in our hearts. A loving Father would do nothing less than to confirm that what we're doing is right. A loving earthly father would do the same. "Good job, son. I know you're having a tough time, but you're on the right track."

My Father in Heaven has told me the same. THAT is why I know that marriage between a man and woman is an integral part of God's plan for our eternal joy. I do not apologize for this view. I advocate it. I know there are many who disagree with it. I know there are many who ridicule it. I know that there are many who do not understand it, may call it outdated or any number of other things. Nevertheless, I know it to be true, and for that knowledge, I thank my Father in Heaven daily. I trust that if you do not have this same conviction that you take it to him in prayer--even if it's the first time you've had a conversation with your "Dad." Ask Him. It could be the start of something eternally beautiful.