The World Upside Down

I don't know what kind of world I'm living in today when I find myself defending Hillary Clinton, and yet, here I am.

The RFK thing. Ok, it was stupid thing for her to say, but she didn't mean anything by it, other than, hey, you never know what's going to happen, so, she's going to stay in to the bitter end. She was not insulting the Kennedey's, nor was she advocating any harm to Obama, it was simply a faux paux, but come on, after saying that he's been in 57 states, with 3 more that he hasn't visited, and proving that he doesn't even care enough to get his own family history right, I don't think anyone in his camp has anything to say about that.

On another topic, I heard a caller on a local radio talk show this week ask the question that if, during the term of the next President, it came about that, as a last resort, they had to drop an atomic bomb on Iran, who do you think would do it. The consensus among the 4 people who were in the studio that day, was that John McCain was the only one who would do it.

I can't believe that I have to tell you how much I disagree with this. Given this horrid, doomsday scenario, I'll give you my take. To me, it's obvious that Obama wouldn't be able to make that call because he's a wimp. McCain would never do it because he's seen the horrors of war, and simply wouldn't be able to give such an order. Now, to be clear, I don't think that this is something to base your vote on, but honestly, if you're trying to figure out who has the chutzpah to push that button, it's Hillary Clinton. Does anyone out there really doubt that she would nuke millions of people if she felt she had no other choice?

So, was that second point defending Hillary or not? I'm really not sure.

Two Things You Won't See

There are two things you won't see on my blog.

First of all, you won't see me rejoicing that Teddy Kennedy has been diagnosed with Brain Cancer. First of all, I am sad for his family for this news, and besides, it's never a good thing when someone gets news like that, no matter what you think of them.

Honestly, I haven't gone looking, but I have to imagine that there are some people out there really celebrating this news, but I'm not one of them. Also, this is not something that Conservatives or right wingers generally engage in on anywhere near the scale that the left does.

The second thing that you won't find me doing is something that you will find a lot of prominent Republicans doing, and that is singing Ted's praises, and celebrating his long career in the Senate. I mean, come on, this guy has worked harder than anyone else in Government service to destroy our country, I'm not going to praise that.

You see, it is possible to have sympathy for his family, and even for him, without abandoning everything you stand for and making it sound like he's a hero. He's not.

You would expect him to be praised by the media, and by the other Democrats and far left crowd, but it was a little strange to see so much of it coming from the GOP. Frankly, it was a little disheartening to see just how little principles mean to those Republicans that have been praising Kennedy.

So, you won't see those two things here.

Broken Hearts

My heart really goes out to Steven Curtis Chapman and his family, as they are dealing with the loss of their precious 5 year old daughter, Maria.

I cannot imagine the pain and loss that they are feeling.

Our prayers go out to them.

If anyone wishes to make a donation to the Chapman's adoption assistance foundation in memory of Maria, you can go to www.stevencurtischapman.com.

If Only I Still Cared

This has become a very interesting Presidential election season for me. For the first time since I was old enough to vote I can sit back and watch the two major parties, and analyze the entire event, unbiased as far as who wins or looses. The simple fact is, I don't care at this point, I really don't think it matters. I no longer have a dog in this fight.

Honestly, if the GOP had a good, strong, reliable Conservative as a candidate, I would be positively excited about Barack Obama becoming the Democratic Nominee, in fact, little would make me happier, because a strong Republican who was willing to stand up and fight for the American people, and do what's right, would crush a lightweight like Obama. I don't know that McCain will or won't defeat Obama, but I'm not sure it matters.

It's interesting to me that there is such a huge push for Hillary Clinton to get out of the race. From an objective viewpoint, she is, by far, the stronger candidate for the Democrats, and, if nominated, would stand a pretty good chance against McCain, and yet, the Democrat Party elites seem to want to run her out of town on a rail. Don't misunderstand, I don't think she would be a good President, this is just my own, personal, political analysis here, and I think the Democrats are making a mistake if they don't make Hillary the nominee. But that's ok, Democrats, make mistakes all day long, that won't hurt my feelings at all.

Indications seem to be that the Democrats will keep a majority in both houses of Congress, possibly a bigger majority than what they have now, so, even a good President might be irrelevant at this point. Of course, you have to wonder, how much of the Democratic gains in Congress are media driven? I would guess quite a bit, being how far left most of the media in this country are. After all, McCain and Obama both are media driven Candidates. Without all the love they got from the media throughout their respective primaries, McCain would not be the GOP nominee, and Obama would be a footnote on this election cycle, and not a major player.

To those Republicans who feel that they have to vote for McCain because he's not quite as bad as Clinton or Obama, well, you do what you feel you need to do, and when I settle on a Third Party Candidate to cast my vote for, I'll post it here so you can see what I've decided, but regardless of what you decide in the Presidential elections, when it comes to Congress and State and Local elections, take a good hard look at the various Candidates and find the one who will do the best job, because these are important races where the American people can still win.

My Blogger Birthday

Happy Blogger Birthday to me!

Ok, this might be a little silly, but it was one year ago today that I started this blog and posted my first post. There have been quite a few since then, but it did have to start somewhere.

I think I've learned a little about blogging in that time, but I still have a lot more to learn... hey, give me a break, it's only my first blogger birthday.

I think that blogging is a great forum to express opinions on all sorts of topics. It is something that I really enjoy doing, and I hope you all enjoy reading it.

Time has been pretty tight lately, so I haven't been able to keep up with posting the way I would like to, but I do try to do what I can.

I hope everyone likes my blog, because I have no plans to stop.

Prince Caspian (NO SPOILERS!)

Last night my wife and I took the kids, along with some friends kids, to see the new Narnia movie; The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

First let me say, what a great movie. I'm sure a lot of people are asking the question, "How does it compare to the first movie?" And I would answer that you can't really compare them, they are both great movies, but they are different.

I should also say at this point that I have never read the Narnia books, so I cannot offer any thoughts on that matter. I did hear an interview with the Producer on Focus on the Family and he said that there are some big differences, but they had no choice if they wanted to put the story on the big screen.

From the standpoint of just watching a movie, I have to say, I really enjoyed it. It is a big movie, being two and a half hours long, but it doesn't feel that long. It's a fast paced story that keeps things moving, and is utterly enjoyable, just from a basic entertainment standpoint, but there is a lot more to it than that.

As a thinker, I saw a lot of deeper truths in the movie, a lot of moral lessons that parents can take advantage of in explaining to their kids after the movie is over. In fact, we had one of those discussions as we were leaving the theater. My daughter asked about a very tense moment in the movie (I'm being careful not to give anything away) and it gave me the chance, which I took, to explain the lesson to her.

There is a lot more stuff I'd like to say about this movie, but I really am committed not to giving any spoilers here, because I don't want to ruin it for anyone who hasn't seen it yet.

I welcome comments on this movie, but I have to warn you, I will not post any comments that contain spoilers, so just be careful about that.

My opinion though is that it's a great movie, and I highly recommend that you see it. I also did not find it to be inappropriate for kids at all. My son is 4 and my daughter 8, and there were no issues with either of them seeing it, and yet, it's a great movie for adults too, with some deeper meanings that the kids may not pick up on, but as I said before, we could still explain many of these things to our kids, and that would be a good thing.

JE doesn't matter, WV does

Big surprises this week, that media coverage has been upside down on two stories, downplaying the important one, while hyper inflating the one that really is utterly meaningless.

First, we have seen John Edwards come out this week and endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination, now that Obama is 95% assured of victory (I'm still not ready to count Hillary out completely). This story means nothing, and yet it was hard to escape this week. The first reason why it means nothing is simply what I stated above, it's pretty late in the derby to be picking a horse. It doesn't take much guts to wait until you are certain of the victor to pick one. This is just an attempt to stay relevant. On top of that, Edwards was a one term Senator who couldn't even win re-election in his home state, and has already been a failed Vice-Presidential candidate, and still couldn't muster a realistic shot at being the nominee this time around. Basically it comes down to, who cares who he endorses? They don't come much more irrelevant than this guy.

The second story is the West Virginia Primary. Most of the coverage of this simply states that Clinton beat Obama, and usually they are sure to point out that this is a state of uneducated, unsophisticated white people, who just don't know any better, or are racists for not voting for Obama. That's not all clearly said, but it's implied almost everywhere you look. Of course, that is not the story. Clinton did not just defeat Obama, and the margins were not slim. The fact is that Clinton crushed Obama in a landslide, and the spread was over 40 points. And this was not a racist issue at all. The fact is that regular rank and file Democrats, the normal people, not the elite far left ideologues, found Obama too elite and too radical for them, and that is why they went overwhelmingly for Clinton.

You have to understand that West Virginia is made up of mostly regular folks who work for a living, in real jobs. Most of these people are Democrats because they haven't realized that the party left them years ago, as is the case with many Democrats around the country. It was not the color of Barack Obama's skin that kept them from voting for him, it was the content of his Character.

Cuddle Parties

There is a new phenomenon sweeping the nation. It is something called a "Cuddle Party." What happens in these events is that adults get together and... well... cuddle. They hold hands and hug and rub each others shoulders and just sit around and hold each other. Keep in mind that these people could well be complete strangers. The rules are that there is absolutely no sexual touching, so, I guess that at least is one good element, if the rules are enforced it won't devolve into a swingers party.

This sounds really crazy to me. I mean, the idea of cuddling with complete strangers, or, let's face it, even friends, is a little creepy to me. But the reason that I find this a topic worthy of a blog post is why adults would go in for something like this. It seems to me, and if you have an alternate theory, by all means, please share it, that there must be some need inside this person that they are trying to fill. Either they are lonely, or they lack meaningful relationships. It seems to me that you would have to feel pretty empty inside to go somewhere to cuddle with other adults.

My first thought was, get these people some Chocolate Skittles! But I quickly thought about it a little more deeply than that.

A former Pastor used to talk about people with a God-shaped hole in their heart, which, I think, pretty well sums up what we are talking about here. I also think that the rising popularity of these events should send us a clear message that there are a lot of people who feel empty and are reaching, grasping for anything to fill that need. In John 4:35 Jesus says, "Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!" (NKJV) I think that this idea of cuddle parties is absolute proof positive of what Jesus is saying here.

There is a song I remember well from my childhood, called "People Need The Lord." One line from that song said, "When will we realize, that we must give our lives? For people need The Lord!"

This is something that I've been thinking a lot about lately, and struggling with the question of what can I do. It is so easy to get caught up in our own daily lives, and our own affairs, and the endless distractions that this world offers to keep us from doing the work that we need to do for the cause of Jesus Christ, and for the people who need Him.

Something to chew on: Those of us who are Saved will one day stand before the Judgement Seat of Christ. At that time our works will be judged, whether or not they are of eternal value, but our Souls have already been redeemed, and we need not fear eternal judgement in Hell. But do we really want to stand there and watch everything that we have ever done in our Christian lives just burn up and be gone, and find that we have done nothing that is worthy of the Kingdom? I know I don't want that.

Even more compelling though is this: Those who are not Saved will one day stand before the Great White Throne of Judgement, will they will learn that nothing that they have done will get them into Heaven, and they will be eternally judged in Hell. Their works, good or bad, will be of no consequence, because their Souls will not have been redeemed. What more motivation should we need than this?

Chocolate Skittles

I don't know if you've heard of them, but I was in Wal-Mart this morning and saw a package of Chocolate Skittles. I know that I'm working hard on loosing weight, but I still had to see if they were any good. A somewhat odd compulsion for me, being that I really don't care for regular Skittles. Anyway, I went ahead and bought a bag of them, but don't worry, I didn't eat them all, I just got a few to taste.

My impression of them is that they are great. They pretty much the same consistency as regular Skittles, maybe just a tad more jelly-bean like, but they taste great. There are five flavors in each bag; Brownie Batter, Chocolate Pudding, Chocolate Caramel, Smores, and Vanilla (No, I can't explain that.) In my opinion the Brownie batter, which is the darkest colored of the flavors, is the best, but they are all quite good.

I looked around a little and honestly, they have been getting pretty poor reviews on most of the candy review sites, but I guess that just goes to show you that the people that do the candy reviews on the Internet must be taste bud deficient.

I hope you'll all do yourselves a favor and try some of these. I put the rest of the bag in a seal able candy dish, so that they can last as long as they need to. It will be nice for both of us to be able to have just one little taste of Chocolate from time to time.

Go ahead and try time, I think you'll like them.

State of Denial

Ok, so this should be fairly short. On the subject of Global Warming. It was clear a few months ago that the average global temperatures were going to be trending down very soon. I was talking about this with someone, and I wish that I could remember who it was, but I can't. Anyway, they asked me what the loonies were going to do when this proof came out, and I replied that it was simple, they would deny it. The other person didn't believe that they could actually do that. Well, now even the Global Warming crowd has had to admit to the falling temperatures, but they are saying that it will be a temporary lull in Global warming, and in 10 years or so the warming trend will resume. Of course, this is nonsense, the cycle will go down the cycle will go back up and then back down again, it's not a trend, it's a cycle. So, and I wish I hadn't been, but, I was right, they look the truth right in the face and lie. It's just what they do.

Liberals and Conservatives

We hear terms such as Liberal and Conservative all the time. In fact, I use them all the time myself, but how often do we think about what those words actually mean? Well, I've been giving that some thought and so I'll go ahead and share it here today.

Liberalism, basically, is ideological system of thought. What it says is that in a perfect world things would be thus and such, and so we have to make things be that way. A lot of the things that Liberals push for sound really good when you hear about them, in fact, a lot of them are very laudable goals, that's not where the problem comes in. Where we run into problems with liberalism is that there is absolutely no room left for Liberal programs not working, and in fact many of them can never work in the real world. But that doesn't stop the liberal. You see, when liberals do get programs pushed through, and they have disastrous results, which they nearly always do, the answer, given by the liberal, is never to rethink the program, and figure out if it was really a good idea to begin with, the answer given by the liberal is always that the program wasn't big enough and didn't get enough support, so we have to grow government and expand the program, and this will solve the problems that the program caused in the first place.

As to growing government, this is important to the liberal because they do understand that the public at large will not fall in line with the liberal agenda, because it always ends up costing them, both in monetary terms and in terms of personal liberties. So, in order to get these programs in place, they must be imposed by a large and powerful government, which is able to force it's will on everyone, and they can make it appear that the programs are working regardless of the truth.

Conservatism on the other hand, that is true conservatism, is a system for dealing with reality. Conservatives are interested in doing what works, and what is right. Real conservatives generally don't want to implement any government programs, or, at least very few, because history has taught us the truth of the words of Thomas Paine, "That government is best which governs least." That's not to say that Government has no role, in fact it has a very important role, but but it still needs to be kept small and in check, otherwise it takes away liberties, and controls aspects of our everyday lives that it has no business getting involved with.

The biggest problem with Conservatism is that there are too many false conservatives. That's not a problem with liberals, oh sure, some people are more liberal than others, or committed to the ideology of liberalism to greater or lesser degrees, but they don't really have to worry about fakes they way Conservatives do. There are many who claim conservatism, while at the same time, commit themselves to some sort of ideology, and refuse to admit mistakes just as bad as committed leftists, and these certainly don't help the cause of true conservatism at all.

Two of the biggest examples of fake conservatives at the moment are George W. Bush and John McCain... but that's a discussion for a different day.

The Interview

OK, show of hands, how many of you saw that Hillary Clinton Interview with Bill O'Reilly on Fox News?


But seriously, I have to say, this was a great interview, and I think that Hillary did herself a world of good by going on the O'Reilly Factor.


First, if you've read anything here before you know that I'll never be swayed to vote for Hillary, nor will anyone of my political stripe, so it would be grossly unfair for me to say that she didn't win my vote and therefore she gave a bad interview. The fact is that I think she really had a winning interview here.


Now, I don't agree with much of anything that she had to say, but she still said it very well. The questions were tough, which I would expect from O'Reilly, but she was ready for them, obviously she had some good help in preparing for this interview. She was very quick and came across as very intelligent, and very strong. She also had a nearly playful quality in this instance, which probably shows something of the human side of her that democrats have been looking for in her.


I really think that Democrats in the states that still have primaries to vote in could very well be swayed by the performance that she gave here. The back and forth between her and O'Reilly was entertaining and enjoyable, even for a Conservative like me.


There were a couple of places where Bill let her off on some questions that he probably should have followed up a little more, but at the same time, I can understand that time was limited and he had a lot of things that he wanted to get to while he had her there, so he chose to move on rather than keep up the spar.


O'Reilly called this the greatest interview ever aired on TV. While that might be a tad conceited, I have to say that in my opinion, it ranks right up there.


I honestly think that she has validated her decision to stay in the race.


Now, obviously I don't say any of this to praise the woman, I think that she would be a terrible President, nor do I think too much of her as a Senator, but I have to be fair and say, she did herself a lot of good in the interview and came off very well. I also think that, without saying it in literal words, she has laid out a very good case why she should be the Democratic nominee, and not Barack Obama.


I can't really believe I'm going to say this, but good work Hillary Clinton.

So Obvious

Ok, I know that I have been having some trouble keeping up with putting new posts up on my blog lately, and I have been deliberately not ranting all the time about politics, but something is going on right now that I simply can't sit back and ignore.

I'm sure that we are all aware of everything that has been going on with Obama and Rev Wright, in fact, when the story broke, I had some things to say about it here on my blog.

In the past few days Wright has come back and started saying loads of ridiculous and insulting things, and Obama is acting all angry and denouncing him. I guess the big part of this story though, is the number of people who are buying into the story. I'm not at all surprised that all the liberals in the media have decided to take it all at face value, they don't want to do or say anything that could even slightly cast Obama in a bad light. It is a little funny to see all those liberals trying to defend Wright and then Obama turns around and throws him under the bus.

Anyway, the part that surprises me is all the Conservative to Moderate people, who do not have a vested interest in Obama doing well, who are also taking things at face value.

When I got home from work this morning I mentioned it to my wife and asked her if I was the only person who saw this for what it really was. That this whole thing is obviously contrived, and that Wright is not, as some say, deliberately trying to hurt Obama, but is being as outrageous as possible just so that Obama can distance himself from him. They are clearly in cahoots. It is so glaringly obvious to me, that I totally don't understand how other people aren't getting this. I did feel better, though, when my wife said that she had just told someone else that yesterday, so at least I'm not the only one that saw it. I figure that there must be a lot of other people who understand this just as well as I do, they just haven't gotten it through to those who have a louder voice yet.

I think that the one that surprised me most of all was Mark Levin. Of all the Conservative commentators that I know of, I fully expected that he would see through it. Of course, maybe he came around last night, I won't know until I listen to the podcast of yesterdays show tonight, but I thought he would have come to this much earlier on.

Personally, I try to be careful about taking anyone, or anything, politically speaking, at face value. I tend not to be so suspicious or critical in my personal life.