American Socialism?

Given that this is the night before election day and the unpopularity of some of my posts on this topic, I think this will be my last political post. So bare with me! ;-)

There have been a lot of exclamation of "socialism" during this election year toward the democratic candidate and I will have to be honest that I am having a hard time swallowing that pill. Now, admittedly, I am an independent voter who will be supporting Barack Obama for this year, but I gotta say that the proposals that are being put forth are far from the typical "socialist" or "communist" visions that these name tags inspire. Below are the positions I have heard most often referenced as "socialism" and would like to put forth a bit of discussion and history to each:

• Redistribution of Wealth
• Universal healthcare
• Publicly Funded Education
  

The Redistribution of Wealth

This topic seems to be the biggest hitter for the call of "Socialist", but I think it is a bit of a stretch. Redistribution of wealth has been a part of the American economy since 1861 with the passage of the 1861 tax act that created a progressive tax system for the US. While one can debate the merits of such a system, it was not stemmed from socialist inputs. The ideology behind such a system has been traced back to Adam Smith, the father of modern free market economics. The tax policies proposed by this year's democratic candidate proposes no changes to the framework of our tax systems, but rather the percentages of taxation for different income levels, something that both political parties have done since the systems inception. In addition, the tax rate increases he proposes are nowhere near historical levels and are similar to those in the early 80's with Ronald Reagan. Even at current levels of taxation, the top 1% of the income bracket still pay significantly less due to low capital gains taxes (vs. payroll taxes), loopholes, and tax shelters. Just ask Warren Buffet.

When you look at our country from an income disparity perspective, we are one of the highest disparities when compared to other democratic industrialized nations, much closer to China than to any Western European countries. When looking at a history of our income disparity, the gap between rich and poor has widened since WWII, while similar countries have either remained the same or fallen, again, except for China.

And one last thing, I often see the phrase "why are you punishing people who work hard by raising their taxes?" I must remind those folks that the folks who are near the bottom of the income scale also work hard. Those that make over $250,000 are not the only ones. My wife is a good example of those who work hard and make little. She was a preschool teacher and later a preschool director and sadly could barely make ends meet, not to mention have any money available for "luxuries" like health insurance. Now throw a child and the cost of childcare in the mix that many single mothers need to endure and then ask me if they work hard enough..

Universal Healthcare

If the institution of a universal healthcare system means that the country is immersed in socialism, than the democratic countries are most certainly outnumbered by Socialist regimes. The US is the only wealthy industrialized nation in the world without a universal healthcare system. Virtually all of Europe, the largest countries in South America, and a number of countries in Africa and Asia have all deployed different flavors of such a system. I can certainly see benefits in debating the merits of implementing universal healthcare, but calling those that support it as "socialists" in the Karl Marx-sense is certainly off-base. I think the challenge with universal healthcare is around the economics and operational aspects of it rather than the need for it. I think that the one thing we can all agree on is that our current system is certainly broken and we have some of the most expensive and inefficient healthcare in the world.

I think an important concept that is often overlooked in Obama's plan is that the universal healthcare system is to be universally available to all, not universally mandated. Citizens will have the right to choose between plans and those who are happy with their current healthcare system are welcome to keep their plan. This is more similar to how our current mail system works (USPS vs. Fed Ex, etc.) rather than the traditional socialist's view of solely government run establishments.

Publicly Funded Education

The main difference between the two candidates here are really around the use of school vouchers that I have already discussed in previous posts, so I won't repeat here. I hardly think that government funded education would be classified as "socialism" since we have had this model since the colonial times and public funding of school was supported by our founding fathers.

The support for the expansion of the charter school programs is clearly not a socialist idea either. It opens up schools to be managed by non-government agencies and does allow some level of choice and competition between schools without allowing schools do cream scrimming of students through scrupulous acceptance practices.

In regards to funds being funnelled to make higher education more affordable, that is something that just makes sense to me. Having a well-educated populous is one of the cornerstones that made us a world leader and we should continue to invest money into making education accessible to all. Just ask Thomas Jefferson. There is no benefit in keeping those who have the desire and capability but cannot afford school out of school. In addition, the amount of debt that one obtains going to higher education has a significant impact in the career selection, and this I speak from experience. Being head of a household that still has over $30,000 of college debt, I can assure you that a career in teaching or in the science field was the farthest from my mind when I left college. My biggest question was, what job can I get that will pay enough to afford the loan repayments? I don't think this is a decision on whether this is a socialist idea or not. It is a decision we should all support for the general benefit of this country.

Religious Tolerance

When I contemplate why I am a Christian, I can only come up with two reasons:

1. It was the religion in which I was raised and,
2. I haven't found a reason to change.

I mean, the story appeals to me, heaven and hell, sin and redemption, charity and good will, but it isn't like I shopped around for a religion to find the perfect one. Religion to me isn't something you can really analyze and weigh the pros and cons of each like you do when buying a car or deciding when to start a family. Christianity feels right enough for me, at least right enough not to feel the need to "shop around" for anything else. After all, religion is really just the development of a personal relationship with God and living through his teachings. I believe in the teachings of Christianity and the message I get on Sundays.

When I step back and look at the 1000 different flavors of religion, I tend to find a number of commonalities between them. The commonalities aren't in numbers or names of Gods, the stories in their doctrines, or their ceremonies and dogma, but rather they reside in the beliefs of the fundamental rights and liberties of man. In Christian terms, these rights translate to those that abide by the virtues of "Love thy neighbor", "Do unto others as you would see them done unto you", and essentially the 10 commandments. In secular terms, don't steal, don't murder, don't lie, don't commit adultery, and so on. Perhaps I am being too much of an optimist, but I feel that every human has a sense of accepted morality and what is commonly good of society. The presence of these fundamental rights throughout disparate religions provides evidence that man is generally good and encourages the promotion of these beliefs throughout society. At the bottom of this post, I have provided an example of these commonalities with the pervasiveness of the Golden Rule.

It is this commonality in religion that gives me a great deal of acceptance of other religions. If religion is what solidifies these fundamental virtues, and thus protect my own freedom, liberties, and virtues, I whole heartedly support it. In the end, it is our Maker(s) who is/are the judge, jury, and executioner and it isn't my place to be his (or her?) surrogate. If I die and see Buddha at the pearly gates, all I can say is "Hey, I didn't believe in you on Earth, but at least I was a good person to others, right?" That is about the best that anyone can do. It is because of this, I don't really feel that there is a "right" or "wrong" religion. At the end of the day, no one will know for sure until they are at the end of their rope.

Unfortunately, many folks are pushed away because of the "institution" of religion. Not because of the fundamental rights or the foundation of religion, but rather because of those who, I feel, lose the meaning of religion. Those who judge. Those who push their beliefs rather than teach their beliefs. Those that promote prejudice, intolerance, stereotypes, and outright bigotry. Those that rob others from their freedom, their lives or their spirituality through violence, abuse, or intimidation. This is truly a shame. I feel that these individuals have lost sight of the purpose of a belief system and the doctrine from which their belief system is based.

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The Golden Rule in Different Belief Systems.

• Bahá’í: “Choose…for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself.” (Bahá’u’lláh)
  
• Buddhism: “Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.” (Udana-Varga 5, 18) “Consider others as yourself.” (Dhammapada 10.1)
  
• Christianity: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 7:12)
  
• Confucianism: “Is there one maxim that ought to be acted upon throughout one’s whole life? Surely it is the maxim of lovingkindness: Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you.” (Analects 15, 23)
  
• Greek Philosophy: “Treat your friends as you would want them to treat you.” (Aristotle, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, 5:21; Bohn Library translation, 188) “Do not do to others what you would not wish to suffer yourself.” (Isocrates, Isocrates Cyprian Orations, 149)
  
• Hinduism: “Men gifted with intelligence and purified souls should always treat others as they themselves wish to be treated.” (Mahabharata 13.115.22)
  
• Islam: “Not one of you is a believer until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” (Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 13)
  
• Jainism: “A man should treat all creatures in the world as he himself would like to be treated.” (Sutra-keit-anga)
  
• Judaism: “Don’t take vengeance on or bear a grudge against any of your people; rather, love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 19:18) “What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowman. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.” (Babylonian Talmud, Sabbath 31a)
  
• Sikhism: “As thou deemest thyself, so deem others. Then shalt thou become a partner in heaven.” (Kabir’s Hymns, Asa 17)


• Taoism: “Regard your neighbor’s gain as your own gain, and your neighbor’s loss as your own loss.” (T’ai Shang Kan Ying P’ien)
  
• Zoroastrianism: “That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good for itself.” (Dadistan-i-dinik 94, 5)
  
  

1 Peter Smith, “Golden Rule,” A Concise Encyclopedia of the Bahá’í Faith (Oxford, England: Oneworld Publications, 2000) p. 165.

The humor in politics

One of the best things I have come to enjoy the most about politics is the volume of comedic material that it generates. And even better, it stretches across party lines. This is especially true during a presidential election when the candidates are working 18 hours a day speaking in hundreds of engagements, meeting 1000's of people, getting very few hours of sleep. It is only inevitable that they stumble periodically, making great comedic opportunities. SNL has made a living off of political humor and have really struck gold with the Tina Fey / Palin spoof. (#1, #2, #3). We are on the eve of yet another SNL episode so I am sure that will be classic.

But do we really need comics to find humor in politics? I would vote "Nay". I came across this video on YouTube and after watching it, I am sure you will agree. Enjoy!

Fathers

I don't remember much about my biological father. I see him as an old faded Polaroid, an apparition from the past. He was the gloved hand of a thief that left no fingerprint... I am not sure what happened back then to split my family apart and it is probably irrelevant at this point. I don't hold any resentment, although I do have a hard time understanding how someone can walk away from their children. There is not much more to say about him.

So, this post is focused on my step-father, the one who in my mind holds the title of father for me. My early memories are pretty sketchy, which I am sure doesn't surprise the folks who know me well. One of the earliest memories I have of my father was him coming into my room late at night and telling me that he had been very lenient on me, but now it was time that he start acting like a father. I didn't understand what he meant at the time, but soon found out that it meant a regimen of labor, rules, and obedience. He was an intimidating and imposing man, so you didn't disagree or talk back, you just took your medicine.

Looking back, I was clearly the "step-child". I remember nights of praying and tears, hoping for a time where we could be the typical father and son duo. The time never came. The few times we did interact was mostly when I was of an age where I could work for him. At the age of 12 or 13, I was put to work at his job sites, cleaning up houses, clearing construction debris from golf courses, sweeping office buildings, and the like.


In high school, his behavior became even more erratic and his rules outlandish - DUIs, arrests, drinking on the job. His rules: Your teeth should never touch your fork or spoon when eating, your hands must be above the table when you pray before eating, entering the house must be followed by an appropriate greeting to the father, no sleeping past 9am, and I am sure dozens more that I have long forgotten. His arrival from work often exceeded 9 or 10pm if we saw him at all and when he was in the house, you could feel the tension in the air like a thick fog blanketing the house. The fighting was both unavoidable and never ending and he regularly blamed me for causing the marital problems. I dreaded report cards because it was always followed by long demeaning lectures and groundings. Near the very end, it escalated to a brief episode of violence. My mother, always the savior, made the hard decision to send me to Lubbock to live with my older sister a few months before attending college.

But the purpose of this post is not give a sob story, nor condemn my father, but rather embrace the experience. I have come to the conclusion that bad things happen in life for a reason as part of a greater plan. They represent challenges that test your perseverance, faith, and fortitude. For every arduous time, there is always something to be learned and how you respond helps define you as a person, for better or worse. So, the remainder of this post's purpose is to give my father some post-mortem forgiveness and praise. You see, even through all the difficulties, the fights, the anger, and resentment, there was good in him. He was a man who was inflicted with a horrible disease that he could not overcome. It was a disease that he eventually paid the final price for. It wasn't readily apparent to me at the time, nor did I have any revelations after I went off to college, but rather it wasn't until several years later I started to reflect on the positive influences he did have in my life. At his foundation, beyond the addiction, he held some fundamental values that I was extremely fortunate to have him pass on to me. For that, I am eternally grateful. I only hope I can do the same and pass these on to my children and I will list them here:

Value of hard work

Hard work helps you appreciate the little things in life and prepares you for the times in life that don't come easy. It takes endurance and dedication to get through the bumps in the road of life. And the best part of hard work is that harder you work, the more you enjoy the fruits of your labor. That is probably why I enjoy punishing myself so much when I go hiking. There is no better feeling than climbing to the top of a pass after 3 straight days of hiking, or reaching a breathtaking scenic overlook of the west Texas desert land after an all day hike in 100 degree heat.

Take Pride in Your Work and Do It Right the First Time

When you do something, do it 100%. This will help you go a long way in life as well in a career. I can't tell you how many things I thought were trivial in my job but turned out to be significant keystones to advancement within my career... A presentation I put together for an executive leadership summit, the small "low value" project team I lead, an application I wrote in my spare time.. sometimes it is the little things that get you noticed and it has proven to be extremely valuable to do these "little things" to the best of your ability because you never know who will be watching and what impression you will be setting.

Impression Setting

There were a lot of things in this category but I have named just a few below. It has always baffled me that these things work, but I guess it goes to show you how important the first impression is (and how superficial people can be sometimes!)

• When you give a hand shake, be firm.
• 
  Always look a man in his eyes when you speaking to him or listening to what he has to say
• Listen, think, then speak. If you do it out of order, you'll probably be putting your foot in your mouth more often than not.
• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have

Take responsibilities for your actions

This is a big one for me. It makes me sick when people blame the government, their parents, peer pressure, or authority figures for decisions that made and had absolute control over. Everyone makes poor choices sometimes so just own up to it, learn from the experience and move on. You'll never grow as a person if you continue to rely on others to make decisions for you or show you how to live your life. It is this reluctance of some people to admit wrongdoing that forms the root of so much human turmoil. An unforgiving, unrepentant nature, whether among individuals, families, communities or nations, is responsible for misconceptions that lead to animosity and hatred.

I am sure there are more lessons I have learned, but this blog is getting pretty long so I think I'll wrap up. I am not sure if they have the internet in the afterlife.. but Dad, if you are reading, thank you for giving me character, perseverance, appreciation, and integrity. I am forever in your gratitude and I hope you have finally found peace from your demons.

$700,000,000,000 rant from a simple man

Ok, I'd like to take a moment to rant. So, we are in the middle of a pretty significant financial crisis, some of which is pretty complicated but I get the gist of it:

1. Rampant increase of sub-prime lending for home ownership, partially due to the US HUD mortgage policies and other incentives to increase home ownership. Fannie and Freddie are wrapped up in the mix providing very high risk loans because they have the US government backing them (partial ownership). Other mortgage companies follow suit, often with low initial interest rates that balloon after a few years. High availability of loanable funds and lax restrictions on sub-prime lending cause lots and lots of high-risk loans.
   
   Translation: Lots of people own houses that they can't really afford.
   
   
2. Investment firms jump in on the action through a process called securitization where these mortgages are bought up, packaged, and offered as collateral to 3rd party investors. Now, the details of this process are pretty fuzzy to me, but it seems that everybody makes money in this deal as long as housing prices continue to rise and people continue to pay their mortgages. No reason that won't happen, right?
   
   Translation: The financial sector is playing the hot potato with mortgages.
   
   
3. The price of oil skyrockets, followed by food and fuel. The cost of living rises faster than the average income.
   
   Translation: Everything gets more expensive.
   
   
4. Housing market takes a tumble. Prices fall dramatically. Now those who can't afford their houses (nor gas, food, etc.), also can't refinance because their house is worth less now then when the first bought it. No one will buy their house because there is a housing surplus, thus eventual foreclosure. The more foreclosures, the more surplus of houses in the market, the lower the prices fall.
   
   Translation: Bub-bye home.
   


5. A number of large investment firms, not following their own advice of diversifying their portfolio, were significantly leveraged in the mortgage-backed securities market. De-regulation on the amount of debt investment firms could hold and the riskiness of their investments didn't help. The majority of their profits (and losses) were tied directly to the housing market and when that crashed, so did they.
   
   Translation: Bottom fell out. Big guys tumbled.
   
   
6. Now everyone is in a panic seeing all these large investment firms fall, causing stock holders to selling their assets at a pace comparable to what was seen after the attack of 9/11. "Sell, Sell, Sell" is heard globally. Anyone who had anything in the market lost big. I am still scared to see what is left of my 401k.
   
   Translation: No retirement for you Bob. No college for you Jimmy.
   


7. Everyone gets scared and hoards there money. No trips to Jamaica. No new car. Mac and Cheese for dinner instead of Outback steak house. Now other companies completely unrelated to mortgages or investment firms are feeling the pinch and are forced to reduce cost and overhead so that they can weather the storm. Many are spending their mornings in the unemployment line.
   
   Translation: No customers = no profit = cut costs = layoffs
   

Ok, so here we are, hours after the largest government bailout in history, $700 billion approved to buy up troubled assets from banks, and I am still scratching my head and trying to figure it out. Seems like an awful lot of taxpayer money to dig folks who made a lot of poor decisions out of a hole, but I guess I will leave that up the the economists to figure out.

But what REALLY chaps my hide are some of the smaller print items around this. For instance:

• "Limiting compensation to executives of the failing companies".
  
  LIMITING??? What? I am pretty sure that if, in the course of my job, I managed to lose several billion dollars causing my company to go under, they would not be sending me packing with a compensation plan. I'd probably be in court being prosecuted for fraud. Why in the world would we reward these guys for anything for poor judgement? Oy...
  
  
• "Treasury Secretary will have the power to take depressed securities backed by credit card debt and auto loans off banks' hands."
  
  Woah, now. Wait a minute. I have been busting my hump for years getting rid of credit card debt, working overtime and late nights, kissing up to this boss and that boss. Now because a few folks defaulted on mortgages, I have the honor to pay for others credit card and auto loan debts? I am having a hard enough time trying to figure out why I am paying for people buying houses they cant afford and now you are telling me I have to pay for their car, their Wii, and their trip to Florida too? Sweet.
  
  America, please put the "Pre-Approved Credit Card" application down!
  
  
• "Bailout Bill Laden with Earmarks"
  
  Hrmm.. Ok, so $700 billion is not enough to put into the hands of the treasury secretary to right the sinking ship that you need to add earmarks to it? Well, let me read them with an open mind. Perhaps they are legit, or somehow related to the bailout:

That's it. I quit. It's Friday and I am starting to feel VERY thirsty..... ;-)

A Story of Addiction

So, I most certainly cannot write a personal memoir without discussing the topic of addiction. This is a story I wrote for a creative writing class in 2005. While a bit melodramatic and the wording is still a little "cludgy", I think it is a good way to get it started.

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Five days. I can’t believe it has been only 5 days since I made the wager with my wife. It seemed like such an easy bet – 30 days without a drink.

This drive home seems longer then I ever remembered it. All I can think of are the worms writhing inside of me, craving for a cold pint. They are eating away at my insides, leaving in their place a cold emptiness. Their presence comes and goes like the ebb and flow of the tide. Nothing seems to quell their hunger but time. Like a dog before an earthquake, I can feel when they are about to feast, but can do nothing about it. I can only wait.

This hiatus is ripping at the fabric which defined me for the last 10 years. I am often anxious and uncomfortable in my own mind trying to figure out who this person was before the drink. There is a lot more time in the day and I don’t know what to do with it.

But all of this pales in comparison to the demons that speak to me in my mind. They try to rationalize why I don’t need to torture myself. Their whispers send chills through my spine but I can’t seem to drown them out. The voices creep in at all times of the day and night, when I am least suspecting or prepared for them.

You are as healthy as an ox! A few beers aren’t going to kill you.

I started drinking, like a lot of people, in high school, although my drinking was not something I did at parties, but something I did to escape reality. In college, I drank because that’s what you do in college - weekend binge drinking followed by Sunday morning coming down. In college, I began to come up with new reasons to drink. Thursdays become the 3rd day in the weekend. Monday night football with the guys always needs a good supply of beer. The years are punctuated by holidays drowned in bloody marys, margaritas, and eggnog.

You are still young with lots of life ahead of you! Don’t waste the time you have now.

The addiction creeps into your life like a malign cancer. You never see it until it finally erodes your soul bare. I guess I am “lucky” that I have been surrounded by drunks my whole life, so it makes it easier to smell when the addiction rolls in. My father, grandfather, a couple of uncles, and I have suspicion that a few others have all had it. I grew up knowing how to mix a drink. I have been good in previous years of catching when my drinking got excessive, and had successfully cut back. “Only during the weekends” I would tell myself. Then it became “only every other day”. Recently, I have given up giving myself rules. It wasn’t until my wife and I had a conversation about the last time I went a day without beer. I couldn’t think of one. I was regularly drinking a six pack a day during the week, and volumes more on the weekend.

You have a good paying job, a good family, and a happy home despite drinking. What’s the harm?

Cirrhosis was the cause of my father’s demise. Sadly, this did not curb my drinking, and in fact, the first thing I did when I learned of his death was to sit on my back porch and drink Shiner. I knew his death was coming, but I was surprised that it took him so soon. He was only 50. After his death came the task of cleaning out my mother’s house. There we found hundreds discarded liquor and beer containers throughout the attic and his car. It was only then that we truly knew the extent of his drinking. I had caught him once or twice drinking at lunch time when he would come home from work. It was likely that he was doing that every day. I am amazed that he could hold a job for any extended period of time, but I guess he grew accustomed to that state.

You don’t drink anywhere near as much as your father! He is the one who had the drinking problem. You never drink before or during work.

My world is now under a barrage of temptation. As I work my way home, I am constantly reminded by my old haunts - Plucker’s, Crown and Anchor, Posse East, Trudy’s. Their signs seem bigger and brighter then ever, trying to seduce me into succumbing to my demons. My car is flooded with tunes that remind me of alcohol. I have come to realize that most of the music I listened to made references to beer or getting drunk, or parties, or paradise.

You are the life of the party when you drink!

I am ashamed that I am having such a hard time with this endeavor. I have been successful in changing just about everything in my life, when I put my mind to it. But this is different beast. Each day is a roller coaster and I ride it white knuckled and tense. I have no idea how I am going to make it through this weekend without anything. This will be the first weekend I’ll be in dry dock and on top of that, the biggest game of the season is this weekend.

It’s Friday! The work week is over. You have to have a beer to celebrate!
Everyone has a beer or two after work to unwind.
You’ll just have a couple.

Five days was a good run, but I can’t do this for a month. A few beers won’t kill me this weekend. I have worked hard this week and could use some congratulations. What if we win the big game this weekend? I’ll have to celebrate, right? What if we lose? I only have two beers in the fridge so I’ll just drink those. I just won’t go get any more this weekend.
I pull my car into the garage and I can almost taste the beer. Man, what a long drive that was. My mouth is salivating like a mangy dog. Oh how good it will feel going down! I’ll put some music on. Some blues, no, wait, I think some country will be better. As I open the door to my house, I am greeted by my two retrievers and my wife, glowing with happiness to see me. My wife’s eyes dance wildly and her smile melts my heart. She throws her arms around me. I can feel the dogs making figure eights between my legs, waiting for their turn to get some attention.

One more day. We can wait one more day.

Building a Foundation for Religion

Before I begin, I must encourage the reader to read the Purpose and Introduction of this blog if they have not already. This intent of this post is not to "convert" anyone. This is a snapshot in time of personal reflection.

For the vast majority of my life, I didn't "get" religion. Sure, I did my time in church periodically growing up. I heard the outdated songs and saw the theatrical processions. We did our morning calisthenics; stand up, sit, kneel, and repeat.. The highlight of the service would be the 10 minutes where the preacher talked, but those sermons that actually meant something to me were few and far between.


I can't say that I attended church every Sunday though, but I can't fault my parents for that. There were a lot of "dynamics" in my family to say the least and getting to church every Sunday had its challenges. I am most certain, though, that it would not have made religion any clearer to me no matter how often I went. I wonder if young children actually fully understand spirituality and religion anyway. They learn about the bible and, most importantly, they develop a foundation for morals, values, and social norms but I suspect that the true meaning of spirituality is not really understood.


As I got older and more educated, my faith was even more in jeopardy because I heard stories about Moses parting the red sea, Jesus rising from the dead, making wine from water, and making the blind to see. The Bible read more like the Greek and Roman mythology books I perused when I was younger rather than the doctrine that should be guiding my life. I found it very hard to just "believe" that these events happened. They were events that could never be proven and contradicted everything I have ever learned in my science classes. I never did give up on God though. I knew in my heart that there must be something bigger than us, something more to life than just us wandering the Earth until we die. So I continued to pray, and I periodically went to church, waiting for my faith to somehow come to me. Unfortunately, the epiphany never came and I continued to scratch my head, searching for a way to find and develop my spirituality without compromising my understanding of the world and forfeiting my rationality.

In an attempt to rationalize the supernatural aspects and contradictions in the Bible, I started thinking about how it was authored. It was, in fact, men who authored the text, not God himself. I would reason that perhaps some of the claims and stories had some aspects of embellishment, or the author was using metaphors to tell the story. There was always the possibility that parts of the Bible might have more reflected the beliefs, prejudices, and values of the author rather than the true word of God. This text, over the course of over 2000 years, has also been translated a number of times, subjecting it to modifications due to different interpretations of its meaning, challenges maintaining the same meaning across languages, the use of colloquial language, and possibly political pressures. There are significant doubts to this day among scholars (Christian and non-Christian) on who the actual authors were in the new testament and how many books were "legitimate".

This train of thought seemed to help in some respects, but it was a slippery slope. If I doubt the veracity of parts of the Bible, how can I trust any of it? How will I know what parts are right and what parts are wrong? In some ways, this even brought more doubt.

But I think what has really revived my spirituality - what has brought me back to the church on a regular basis - is the understanding that the meaning and intent of the Bible, rather than the literal words on the page, are the foundations of Christianity and my belief system. It is important to embrace the lessons of the bible and use them as a guide to a better life. One has to question what is more important, believing if some of the events actually happened as detailed in the bible or reading between the lines to understand the intent. Knowing how many species of animals that were around 2000 years ago, is it really feasible that they would all fit on Noah's arc? Is it even relevant whether the author was using metaphors if the intent is the same? I contend that it is not. I don't believe that the Bible was meant to be a history book.

Now I know that some who may read this might believe that this is blasphemy - That questioning the events in the Bible undermines the very Word that the Apostles who down. But I would argue that God made me who I am. I have been built to use reason, to thirst for knowledge, to want to understand how the physical world works. Abandoning who I am and in which mold that I was cast would go against God's will. Right or wrong about this interpretation, I feel that this understanding brings me much closer to God which I believe is the whole purpose of Religion in the first place.

Now, admittedly, I have only just begun my spiritual journey. I have still yet to read the bible from cover to cover and have been getting the Cliff notes from sermons and kids books since I was little. I am certainly the last person to spout quotes of the Bible nor entertain meaningful discussions and debates with other family members who are much more well versed in the text. All I can say is that at least I have found a path for my journey to begin.

Integrity in the presidential campaign

The more I look into how each candidate is running their campaign, the more disappointed and disgusted I get with McCain. If you review my previous post, you will find that both candidates did some level of stretching the truth. However the bulk of the offenses from McCain are outright lies to the American public. Examples:

• Stating the FactCheck.org stated that Obama's attack on Palin was misleading and false.. They completely deny the claim.
• Stating that Obama supports sex education to kindergartners. Absolutely false. He supports "age appropriate" sex education.
• Stating that Obama's health care plan will force small businesses to cut job.. This is a lie Obama's plan exempts small businesses.
• Stating that he promised to increase funding for renewable energy.. but his plan shows no increase whatsoever
• Stating that Obama wants to close foreign trade.. In fact, Obama wants foreign trade to continue, but wants to strength environmental and labor provisions in the agreement
• Stating that Obama would raise taxes for the middle class, increase taxes for families making $42,000 a year, and that he has a history of voting for higher taxes. All of which are completely contrary to his plan and his record.
• Stating that Tony Rezko received $14M of taxpayers money for the purchase of property to be used for Obama's house. Absolutely false.

I am trying my best to keep an open mind for both candidates, but McCain is making it awfully difficult. I think the 2 things that have put me over the edge are:

• McCain's latest criticism that Obama's vote to end a filibuster on the immigration plan, which is in fact the same vote that McCain voted. They both were trying to end the filibuster.
• The 20/20 interview of Palin clearly shows that she has no political experience outside of Alaska. She couldn't answer a single question directly and her previous record is completely contrary to what McCain supports (pork-barrel spending, wasteful government spending). It made it very clear that McCain's choice for Palin was merely for votes rather than what is good for the nation.

So, my vote for Presidential Integrity: Obama

Factcheck.Org Coverage of Campaign Ads

A buddy of mine got to take me take a look at factcheck.org, a non-partisan, non-profit organization who's mission is to identify misstated facts in the media. As I started weeding through it, it seems like this is a really good way to measure whether McCain or Obama is running the campaign with more integrity. At the very least, I hope this post will help correct any misconceptions out there.

Below are the counts so far:

McCain

1. A McCain-Palin TV ad accuses Obama of being "disrespectful" of Palin, but it distorts quotes to make the case.


2. Those attacks on Palin that we debunked didn't come from Obama.


3. A McCain campaign ad claims Obama's "one accomplishment" was a bill to teach sex ed to kindergarten kids. Don't believe it.


4. He made some flubs in accepting the nomination.


5. A McCain ad comparing Palin to Obama isn't all above board.


6. A McCain ad wrongly claims Obama plans "painful tax increases" for working families. And who's talking about deficits?


7. McCain ad cherry-picks Obama remarks on Iran, twisting his meaning.


8. McCain misfires as he attacks Obama's home purchase.


9. McCain's new ad touts "renewable energy," but his energy plan offers little to support it.


10. McCain misrepresents Obama's tax proposals again. And again, and again.
    
11. Obama makes misleading claims about ethics legislation and abortion at a church-sponsored forum. McCain exaggerates his tax-cut proposals.

Obama

1. An Obama ad plays fast and loose with McCain's voting record on education and proposals as a presidential candidate.


2. An Obama ad running in Michigan claims McCain didn't support loan guarantees for the auto industry. In fact, he does support them.


3. He stuck to the facts, except when he stretched them.


4. Key facts are missing in an Obama ad linking McCain to Ralph Reed.


5. An Obama ad uses dated and out of context quotes to portray McCain as clueless on the economy.


6. Obama makes misleading claims about ethics legislation and abortion at a church-sponsored forum. McCain exaggerates his tax-cut proposals.


7. An AFL-CIO flier and Obama campaign ads say that McCain cost Ohioans 8,000 jobs. We say that's a distortion of the record.


8. The people in suits shown with McCain in an Obama ad are not lobbyists, as the narrator implies.


9. An Obama ad says McCain's campaign got $2 million from "Big Oil." The total is actually $1.3 million.

About Me

Tracy, my wife, had this little little game posted on her blog and I thought it was a bit insightful (and funny). She suggested I do the same on my blog to add something a little light-hearted before I move on to my next topic of choice. So here goes!



I BELIEVE... in perseverance, hard work, and continual self-improvement.

I WANT… to be able to hike in remote areas of the world and experience raw, undisturbed nature

I HAVE … only been arrested once in my life.. and I am still bitter about it.

I KEEP … my wedding ring on my finger.. always...

I WISH I COULD … remember birthdays, anniversaries, high school, and what my wife tells me

I HATE … olives and black licorice

I FEAR … being laid to rest. I enjoy life too much.

I HEAR … and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. (Confucius)

I REGRET … the way I treated a lot of people in my past, including (and especially) Tracy.

I LOVE … God, country, family and friends (not necessarily in that order)

I AM NOT … a gambler, a fan of ballet, a good bowler, a hunter, or a vegetarian.

I DANCE … when I have had too many.. or when Ashley asks me to

I SING … any song that Ashley asks me to sing.

I NEVER … want a house bigger than I can clean, a car more expensive than college tuition, or a job that robs me of my family time.

I RARELY … pass up a happy hour

I CRY WHEN I WATCH … myself smash my thumb with a hammer.

I AM NOT ALWAYS … the most patient man..

I MISS … my poor dog Dakota.

I HATE THAT … I have an addictive personality.

I’M CONFUSED ABOUT … particle physics and the large hadron collider. I read about it.. just don't get it..

I NEED … to stop procrastinating and schedule an appointment with a doctor about my knee

I SHOULD … take Tracy out on dates more often.

McCain v. Obama 2008 - Final Round and Scorecard

Here is 3rd and final round and the scorecard so far. Certainly a lot can happen between now and the election so there may be some changes up until my final vote is cast. Here goes:

Topics:

• War in Iraq/Afghanistan
• Experience
• Honesty/Integrity
• Presidential Candidate Scorecard

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War in Iraq / Afghanistan: Advantage McCain?

I have been back and forth about 100 times on this one and certainly don't see myself an expert in this by any means. While an unpopular decision I understand why will still are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just watch Charlie Wilson's War and you will get a good idea. It is absolutely essential that we see that the governments and local security forces are completely established in those regions before we leave. The U.S. has an unfortunate history failing of doing so. Besides, it would be nice to string up Osama Bin Laden, wouldn't it be?

I would support a phased withdrawal from the area, urge for more UN involvement as well as relegate more control and responsibility to the Iraqi government to assist. Immediate withdrawal of our troops would be extremely detrimental to the progress we have made, however.

I don't agree with McCain that we should be there "for 100 years"... another South Korea. I'd like to think Obama's plan is more aligned with my thoughts in regards to a phased withdrawal and increased presence in Afghanistan, but at the same time I am not sure whether the country will be ready or not to govern themselves in that time frame. Very tentative vote for McCain here but looking forward to the debates on this one.

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Experience: Advantage McCain.. but I ain't happy about it..

Ok, this was used to be an easy one until McCain picked Palin as his running mate. I mean, come on now, how can you pull the "experience" card when your running mate has even less experience then your opponent and is one heart attack away from running the most powerful country in the world. When comparing the two tandem candidates, I would rate this dead even. However, the purpose of this blog is to compare the presidential candidates so this one goes to McCain.

Just to be clear on my thoughts on Palin, I am not really a fan of her selection because it seems like a bit of gamesmanship rather than picking a VP who is best for the country. I had the following blog forward to me and I thought it was funny. I have not gone to the trouble of researching how true the claims are, so read with caution. But it is funny regardless.

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Honesty / Integrity: Advantage Even

I would actually vote both candidates as even on this topic since none have yet to be caught in nasty scandals or downright lies. McCain and Obama have both posted their positions on ethics reform, and have both demonstrated their dedication to reforming federal and state ethics. McCain has a little bit of flip-flopping and allegations of affairs and I am not happy about Obama going back on his plan to only use private funds for his campaign.

This topic, however, is the most likely to change as we get closer to Election Day. Honesty and integrity is the #1 topic to me. If you can't trust what a politician says, then there is no reason to look at their policies to begin with.

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Presidential Candidate Scorecard

As I was working through the issues, I began to discover that not all issues are created equal and some are definitely more important to me. Ok, so for the folks who don't know me, I am a math and science guy so my solution was to apply a little math to the problem. For those of you who hate math, please bear with me.. I promise it is easy to understand.

I rated each issue from 1 to 3, 3 being the most important issue. For each issue, the candidate who gets my vote gets a "1". I then used the importance as a multiplier to come up with a score for each candidate. (Winner * Importance = Weighted Score) Granted, we still have awhile to go before Election Day, but below are the current results:

McCain v. Obama 2008 - Round 2

Here is round 2, a continuation of the last blog. Again, comments welcome.

Topics covered in this round are:

• Environment
• Foreign Policy
• Guantanamo
• Gun Control
• Health Care
• Immigration
  

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Environment: Advantage Even

When you divorce the energy issue from the Environment issue, these candidates have very similar views on environment protection. Obama's goals for cutting emissions are slightly more aggressive but based on what I have read so far, it is splitting hairs. While environmental protection is important, I am debating whether this is even a deciding factor for my vote.

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Foreign Policy: Advantage Obama

Now before I begin here, I am admittedly not very well informed about foreign policy and international relations theories so my views below are more speculation than based in any real detailed evaluation. I certainly reserve the right to change my views on this a hundred times before election day as I read more on the topic!

I know this might surprise a number of people given the experience differences between the candidates, but I believe that the current status quo of our foreign relations is not working. Some folks may not care, but believe it or not, we are not a well liked nation to the majority of the world. Those of you who have traveled abroad will likely agree. The candidates have extremely different philosophical differences on how our foreign affairs should be handled. John McCain’s policies are essentially to continue what we are doing today. I believe that we should not be a nation requiring concessions or appeasement before sitting down with U.S. foes to discuss how to ease tension and promote peace. Our current approach to U.S. opponents is to handle them through cessations of talks and the threat of military action, which has only increased resentment towards us. Isolationism does not work. We should be spending more time building our base of allies and providing aid to countries in need. A couple of quotes come into mind:

“You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar”

- American Proverb

"Keep your friends close - hold your enemies closer"

- Arabian Proverb

I also personally believe that more investment should be put toward covert operations rather than outright military actions against our foes. You can catch more roaches by keeping the lights off than shining a flashlight on them.

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Guantanamo: Advantage Obama, with concessions…

I think the following quote from Obama summarizes my belief as well:

"Why don't we close Guantanamo and restore the right of habeas corpus, because that's how we lead, not with the might of our military, but the power of our ideals and the power of our values. It's time to show the world we're not a country that ships prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries. We're not a country that runs prisons which locks people away without ever telling them why they're there or what they're charged with. We're not a country which preaches compassion to others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of major American cities. That's not who we are."

However, I do agree with McCain that the prisoners are not US citizens so should not be treated as such. I would suggest respecting the intent of habeas corpus, but have different flavors of it for those who are US citizens and those who are unlawful combatants.

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Gun Control: Advantage Obama

This is another of the few “easy ones”, although one that would inspire debate at the Christmas dinner table with the family. I certainly respect the right to bear arms, but don’t see any need for Joe Blow to own assault weapons with high capacity magazines containing armor piercing rounds. A simple Glock or shotgun should do for personal protection. And if you need assault weapons for hunting, I would suggest picking up a new hobby because you can’t be very good.

I do support allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons. Good for protection and keeps the bad guys guessing on who might be packing.

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Health Care: Advantage McCain

This is a pretty complex issue and I am not sure I have enough interest in digging too far into this one given that I have health insurance I don't have a problem paying that bill.

Not a fan of mandating anything, including healthcare. I agree that the costs for the uninsured are ridiculous, but a federally funded universal healthcare system is too far to the other extreme and with a $50-$60B annual bill, that is tough to swallow. We should give tax breaks and incentives so that healthcare can be affordable, promote modernization of the healthcare industry to reduce cost, and make insurance and drugs available across state and country borders respectively. We need to be fostering more competition in the healthcare industry to allow the free market to drive the costs and price tag down.

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Immigration: Advantage McCain

The differences between the two candidates are relatively small on immigration, in my opinion. While I certainly don't see how we can possibly deport illegals outright, given the amount of work they do for this country, I don't understand why neither candidate really has a policy to turn the screws on them a little bit. Personally, I think we need to do more to discourage this activity or, perhaps in conjunction with that, make the process for citizenship easier and more expeditious. I don't understand why we should be extending social security or other benefits to illegals. It is essentially rewarding them for their crimes.

I do like McCain's idea of deporting illegals that have committed violent crimes. I don't like them, they are a drag on society, we don't need them. I am not even happy about US citizens committing violent crimes, much less those who broke the law to get here in the first place.

They both support guest worker programs and streamlining paths to citizenship for guest workers.

Just based on McCain's deportation of violent criminals, and support for setting English as the official national language, he gets my vote in this category.

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Drugs and Marijuana: Advantage McCain

As a frame of reference, yes I have done marijuana and a good deal more. While I am not proud of that fact, I feel it is important to mention it here so that any readers who might stumble across this understand that I am not standing on my pedestal wagging my finger at those awful offenders.

Let's be honest with ourselves.. Medical marijuana can be prescribed for just about anything; Insomnia, loss of appetite, "Case of the Mondays". We need to regulate this a bit more. Don't get me wrong, if someone has some serious illness that marijuana can take the edge off (e.g. cancer), smoke up, but I don't think that should open the door for any affliction.

Yes, I know some folks will debate that marijuana is not as bad (or not any better than) alcohol and I would largely agree with that but the fact remains that we tried to make alcohol illegal and it didn't work, likely due to its use being more ubiquitous. I would also debate that alcohol is just as much as a gateway drug as marijuana. Really, anything that someone uses to escape reality can be considered a "gateway" to something. One day, perhaps I'll have a post to talk about addiction, but won't bore the readers (if there are any) now.

We need to maintain the "war on drugs" (note I said "maintain" not "escalate") but prescription drug abuse should be given equal weight as well. I believe that cocaine and crack should absolutely carry the same punishment. It is ridiculous that they don't today.

And, BTW, the fact that Obama did drugs has no impact on my vote. We have all done things in our past that we might regret. Most of us get a little smarter and make better decisions as we get older. As long as he is not doing lines in the white house, I could care less that he played around with a little powder.

So, back to the purpose of this blog, my vote goes to McCain here because he has a stronger policy on drug enforcement.

McCain v. Obama 2008 - Round 1

I have recently have been contemplating my decision on who I will be voting for in the presidential election, and just as most decisions in life, it has not been black and white (pun intended!). I am not a fan of the party system we currently have because I feel that it polarizes the nation to rally around an organization rather than the leader you are voting for. I come from a very red state and as you can imagine, I have a number of friends and family who are staunch republicans and strictly vote the partly line (rather blindly, I might add). When I ask them why, the typical response is either that that is what the learned to vote growing up, or they cite typical stereotypes of the opposite party represents without having an understanding of what the current candidate actually supports and believes. I guess that behavior is somewhat expected in a country that is bred to be so highly competitive and individualistic. We all love to win and root for the home team.

In my quest to dig into the issues, I have come across quite a number of embellishments, innaccuracies, and in some cases, I suspect, downright lies. I have done my best to weed through these and do a detailed evaluation of the issues and selected the candidate who most represents my beliefs. Given the volume of material that must weigh into the decision, I plan on putting my thoughts down on this virtual paper in multiple posts as opposed to one long one that no one will get through. Bare with me!

Below are the first batch of my results and rationale. I reviewed lots of sources, but the following sites seemed to present the least amount of bias and provided the most straightforward position of each candidate. If anyone reading this finds any innaccuracies, please feel free to correct me (and cite sources!) because I want to make sure I am making my decisions based on fact, rather than rumor. By the way, a good rule of thumb for a biased site is one that lists most issues as a mere "Yes" or "No" on whether the candidate supports one issue or not. Rarely are you going to find a straight yes or no out of either candidate for the majority of the complex issues.

• JohnMccain.com
• BarackObama.com
• OnTheIssues
• Citizen Jane Politics
• ObamaMccain.info

Topics covered in this round are:

• Abortion
• Budget
• Capital Punishment
• Civil Liberties
• Economy
• Education
• Energy
  

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Abortion: Advantage McCain

Ten or fifteen years ago, if I were faced with an unplanned pregnancy, abortion might have been something I seriously considered. I wasn’t married, did not have a job that paid enough to feed another mouth, and I was not a very responsible person at the time to say the least.

However, I have done a complete 180 degrees on this issue due to the birth of my daugher. She is just an angel in my eyes and and brings me the greatest joy and happiness and has truly changed my life. It makes me sick to think it could have been her life that was aborted if she came ealier in my life. Now I know it would have been tough if she would have come when I was in college (or in high school, for that matter), but sometimes life is tough and you need to find a way to perserve. Life is never as bad as it seems at the time.

Now I know that the big debate is around whether the mother has the choice in what she does to her body. I contend that she already had a choice to have sex and that is what got her into this position in the first place. Once that baby is concieved, the choice is not hers anymore.

At the end of the day, though, this issue did not have a lot of weight for me in regards for my selection of a president, largely because of the low likelihood that Roe v. Wade will ever get overturned. Even a good chunk of Pro-lifers would not necessarily support overturning the decision because of the high possibility of illegal abortions that would take place, increasing the risk to the health of these mothers. Just ask John McCain.

I am not a fan, however, of McCain voting against a bill in 2006 to reduce teen pregancy through contraceptives and education. If you are pro-life, you should support alternative solutions the problem rather than ignoring them.

By the way, I have seen a number of innacurate material citing that Obama is for late term abortions. For the record, his actual position is posted here:

http://www.ontheissues.org/Social/Barack_Obama_Abortion.htm

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Budget: Advantage Obama

McCain is a strong believer in significant cuts in government spending. While I would typically support this when the economy is good, unemployment is as high as it has been in 15 years. Government spending, particularly those that generate jobs is crucial to buoy the economy during hard times. That was FDR’s approach when recovering from the depression with his “New Deal” and seemed to work well. Now there are critics who might dispute that claim, I would respond that there are still a large number of New Deal programs that are still funded today, over 70 years later. I do, however, support Obama’s push for disclosure of all congressional projects so that the public can put those projects under the microscope.

This issue did not have much weight with me either, though, because the actual policies that either candidate would implement was pretty ambiguous and made it tough to rally around a particular policy.

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Capital Punishment: Even

Both candidates support capital punishment and their historical voting paterns have supported that stance.

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Civil Liberties: Even

This one was a tough one. Obama clearly has the most experience in this area and has made great strides in the expanding the punishment of hate crimes, supporting voting rights, fighting employment discrimination, and has focused his policy on rehabilitation of ex-cons to improve their ability to re-integrate into society. However, he is against the patriot act and expanding wire taps. I for one, have no issues with the government listening into my phone calls or reviewing my personal record because I am not a terrorist and have nothing to hide. If it helps secure our borders, I am for it. Although, it does have some similarities to what the communist Chinese government does today with their citizens. I think the big question here is whether the battleground has significantly changed enough since the times of our founding fathers to justify changes to our constitution allowing the government a lot more access to our personal information. I guess my decision on this will depend on how much harassment I get from the FBI once I buy the Communist Manifesto and the Quran, books that I plan on getting over the next couple of months. While not necessarily doctrines that I support, they are certainly influential texts that have significantly changed the world.

Much to some folks understanding, Obama does not support gay marriages, and that civil unions should be decided by the states, not the federal government. This is the same position that McCain has, although most of their other values are dramatically different on same-sex issues.

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Ecomony: Advantage Obama

I support Obama’s “Robin Hood” policy of raising taxes for those making $250k+ and providing tax credits to middle and lower income families. I am probably biased because, of course, I am not in the $250k+ club, however, I am pretty sure that if I was in that bracket, I could afford a tax increase for the benefit of those who are struggling to live the American dream. I know this policy has a bit of a socialist flavor to it, I support it nonetheless. I disagree with McCain that pork-barrel spending is one of the biggest issues plaguing federal spending and do not support cutting government spending in times where the economy is struggling. In fact, I would contend that some pork-barrel spending, when it funds projects that generates jobs, is actually benefits the country and gives some power to the states to use federal funding for local projects.

Despite the fact that I work for a company who certainly does this to a significant degree, I would suport tax incentives for keeping jobs in the US rather than offshoring.

And yes, unfortunately I do know that a vote for Obama means no more tax cut checks. :-( . Those checks will likely go to programs to support the next topic. However, the closest I could find to an analysis on the differences of the tax policies between the two candidates and how it impacted my bottom line was posted here. Doesn't look like a big deal to me, unless I start making some big bills.

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Education: Advantage Obama

This decision is largely do to the school vouchers, that I do not support. While I agree that a free market for schools would drive competition and an overall improvement in our education system, I don’t think that it will be an even playing field for private and public schools to compete against each other. The reason is that public schools will never be able to deny enrollment to a student while a private school can. This will essentially amount to “cream skimming” and you will find that lower performing students or those with emotional or behavioral problems will be denied from the private schools.

I am not sure how I feel about government funding of a national voluntary pre-school, however. Sounds awfully expensive to me and I have not seen enough information around how this would be regulated and how schools would be accredited to accept these funds.

McCain has a history of voting against increases in funding to educational programs. I strongly believe that the future of our country relies on having educated population.

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Energy: Advantage Obama

This was an easy decision to me because of 2 words, “Nuclear Energy”. How can we heavily promote a source of energy that we don’t condone in other countries (e.g Korea, Iran, etc.). Seems like we are talking out of both sides of our mouth. We need to lead by example here and show that nuclear energy is not the right solution. I also definitely do not support a “tax holiday” on gas because all that is going to do is drive up gas consumption thus putting more money in foreign countries. We need to eliminate our dependency on foreign oil.

Post for the Undecided Voter

Main Entry: pop·u·lar
Pronunciation: \ˈpä-pyə-lər\
Function: adjective


1: of or relating to the general public
2: suitable to the majority: as a: adapted to or indicative of the understanding and taste of the majority b: suited to the means of the majority - e.g. "sold at popular prices"
3: frequently encountered or widely accepted - e.g. "a popular theory"
4: commonly liked or approved - e.g. "a very popular girl"

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As we near Election Day, I have been spending more and more time learning about the candidates and the issues that face our nation. It seems like the more I research about what plagues our nation, the more I realize how much I don’t know. Thank God for Wikipedia! I have always been of the mindset that if you don’t know the issues and the stances of each candidate, you should not be voting. It is our civic duty to educate ourselves about the various issues that we care about and make a concerted effort to choose the appropriate candidate who supports our ideas. Seems like a novel concept. It is what we learn about repeatedly in school. However, I am having some significant doubts that this is what is really driving the popular vote these days.

As casual conversations come up with friends and family, I often think to myself, “Do they understand the short-comings of No Child Left Behind? Do they know about the history behind why some believe that an extended occupation to stabilize a government is needed for the long term viability of the region? Do they understand the significance of removing the ability of the senate to do filibusters in the Senate in response to some judicial nominations? I wonder if they have a position on granting habeus corpus to enemy combatants. Do they believe that pork-barrel spending is one the biggest issues with federal spending?” I have a suspicion that if we did an exit poll after this year’s election asking voters to articulate the various positions of the candidates on key issues, we would be rather appalled as to the response.

Instead, it seems that America’s votes today are driven by the amount of campaign funds dumped into marketing, forwarded e-mails containing fabrications and deceptions, and quotes taken out of context devoid of their true meaning. Should our voting decisions really be based on the color of one’s skin, their birth name, the amount of properties that they may or may not remember, or the number of 4-letter words they use? At the end of the day, don’t we just want our president to represent our values and beliefs in the white house, someone who can protect our freedom and liberties, and to protect our country from foreign invasion? I think somewhere along the way, we lost our way.

I used to be of the opinion that the voting process should be simplified and made easier for every John Q Public to vote without leaving the luxury of their home. A process designed to dramatically increase voter turnout and allow for every voice to be heard. However, I think now that it would truly turn out to be the “popular” vote. I don’t want our president to be elected the same way that actor’s get the “people’s choice” awards. I don’t want a vote made based on what kind of music he likes, how is hair looks on Election Day, or what friends in Hollywood he might have. I wish there were some voter registration exam that had to be taken prior to being given the right to vote. Nothing to complex would be needed, just something that will at least be able to determine if the person voting has enough context around what they are actually voting for. If you can’t point out the US on a world map, you shouldn’t be voting. If you don’t understand what power the president does and does not have, then you shouldn’t be voting. If you don’t have above a 3rd grade education, you shouldn’t be voting.

Please educate yourself America and make your vote truly count. Don’t take for granted what our founding fathers fought for.

Purpose and Introduction

I’d like to first start out by explaining why I am starting this blog. The intent of this is not to push my values, beliefs, or ideology onto others. This is not an attempt to get on a soapbox and plead my case to the family, friends, or the general public. Rather, this is the best way I could come up with to document my ideology so that others (and I guess myself), who so desire, may understand at a deeper level who I am. I initially began writing this as a personal memoir for myself , a time capsule of sorts, to bottle my thoughts and beliefs so that I may look back on it in 30 years (if I am that blessed to live that long!) and reflect on who I was. However, I came to the conclusion that the idea of transparency really appeals to me. I should be proud of what drives me and not have fear of the probability of judgment I’ll likely receive for expressing my beliefs. In fact, I think that not allowing others to find out what I really feel is a complete misrepresentation of me. A falsehood created to avoid conflict and appease others.

I don’t expect to get anyone to read this blog, save my dear wife, but at least it is out there available to anyone who so chooses. I do beg of any reader, however, to approach this blog with an open-mind and a sense of tolerance. The topics I plan to write about are likely to be controversial for some and potentially trigger some deep emotions and possibly resentment. Politics, religion, relationships, addiction... nothing is off-limits. I do encourage comments and enjoy understanding other points of views as well. Please be respectful and constructive, however.

This blog is also likely to be short-lived. I have a history of becoming extremely passionate about a hobby and find myself casting it away a few months later. It is probably going to be the case here because I find writing very time consuming and, sadly, always hate reading what I write.

And so we begin…