Contrary to the prediction that the Socialist health care bill would be "Dead on Arrival" in the Senate, the Democrats have just gotten the necessary 60 votes to move ahead with debate on the bill. This is one major step closer to bringing this economy-destroying, liberty-eliminating bill to the president's desk.

ACTION IS NEEDED NOW TO OPPOSE THIS BILL! Please call your senator and tell him/her to oppose the bill!

Again, the Democrats have used sneaky, manipulative techniques (like voting on Saturday evening) to shove this bill down our throats. Even if you can't call, go to healthcarevote.com to voice your opposition!

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I highly recommend this movie. As can be seen from the movie title and poster, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" is a holocaust film. I don't want to say much more about the plot, because I don't want to spoil it. This movie is quite clean; there's no sexual content or language. Unlike most movies, this one is rated PG-13 for a good reason, and not because it is full of immoral, unnecessary garbage. Many Christian reviewers say that this movie is inappropriate for children under the age of 16 or so, but I disagree. I think it is important for even young children to be aware that people are capable of horrible things, and that evil does exist in the world. Still, parents will probably want to preview it before letting the kids watch.

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Incentives can matter, but they don't necessarily matter.

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"I'm going to build a hospital, the biggest that money can buy, and it will belong to you. Any man, woman, or child who is sick or in pain can go through those doors and know that everything will be done for them that man can do. To heal sickness, to ease pain, free - not as a charity but as a right. And it is your right, do you hear me? It is your right. And it is your right that every child should have a complete education. That any man that produces anything can take it to market without paying toll, and no poor man's land or farm can be taxed or taken away from him. And it is the right of the people that they shall not be deprived of hope."

Governor Willie Stark
From the movie "All The King's Men" (1949)

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I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
-Thomas Jefferson

Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have ...
-Thomas Jefferson

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Those [bone] fibers, in turn, arrange into randomly oriented, parallel, tilted, or woven bundles in bone.

(Ritchie, Buehler, & Hansma, 2009, p. 42)
(Emphasis added)

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For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:13-16
(Emphasis added)

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Well, another summer is coming to an end. As I look back and reflect on it, the question comes to my mind: "did I waste the entire thing?" To answer that, I must review what I did:

We took a vacation this summer to Branson, MO and San Antonio TX. Unfortunately, I was not able to see nearly as many people as I would have liked, because we were there for such a short time; nevertheless, it was a good trip. I learned (sort of) to water ski, and slightly lessened my fear of roller coasters by riding "Powder Keg" at Silver Dollar City.

I became the proud owner of a 2006 Ford Explorer, and drove it around a lot. We took it up to Denver to see my grandparents for a late mini-vacation in Colorado.

Did you know that coffee is now thought to: -Lower risk of diabetes -Lower risk of colon cancer -Lower risk of Parkinson's disease -Lift your mood -Treat headaches -Get this...lower risk of cavities (I thought coffee stained your teeth) -And even more? All this from "webmd.com." I'm now a lifelong coffee drinker in the making.

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Who died and made Obama king? America did.

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Due to the energy crisis, the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off.

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My apologies to all my faithful readers for not posting in over a month! Arg, where does time go? As an update, I finished finals which went well, and subsequently eliminated any excuse I might have had for not posting!

A good friend of mine has recently struck up a conversation with me about the topic of "Once Saved, Always Saved" (OSAS) and it has expanded to include predestination and Calvinism as well. Rather than just write a normal post, I'd like this to be an open forum with lots of comments, so please post away!

By the way, my website seems to have been having a bit of trouble with long comments. If this is the case with you, try breaking it up into separate parts and submitting each separately: I'll put them together when I put the comment up. Or, of course, you can always email me.

Ever since I subscribed to the Rush Limbaugh radio show, I've found it difficult to come up with interesting political posts to write, since I agree with him on most of the issues and I don't like parroting back everything I hear. However, there is one issue that I have recently been thinking about and I do not think is often discussed.

I am currently taking a US history class, and recently we have been discussing the conditions of labor around the turn of the century. Especially compared with today's standards, it is true that the working conditions back then were in fact pretty bad. Most people (including myself, even though I consider myself to be a pro-life Libertarian) would agree that something had to be done in order to make the labor environment more suitable.

The first thing that happened was the creation of the labor union, beginning with the coal mines and working its way to other industries such as automotive and steel. They led the workers to go on strike until the industry owners were willing to negotiate, which many of them eventually did. Notice: the government did absolutely nothing to cause this to happen. The unions arose on their own. This is a classic example of how the free market works: the cost of a good (in this case, labor) was being sold for too low a price (i.e. the wages were too low), so naturally, the "sellers" of the "good" (the workers) decided not to "sell" it anymore (that is, stop work until payment increased).

Although labor unions did not improve the labor environment completely, they did help. And I believe that eventually, they would have been able to make more progress over time. Unfortunately, FDR had to let the government come in and mess things up by passing regulations. As almost any economist will tell you, regulations are rarely a good thing. For instance, while the concept of a minimum wage may sound like a good idea, it is like telling the supermarket that they are not allowed to sell milk for under $20 a gallon: when the minimum price of a good is restricted, the market goes away. This, along with many other regulations, can easily harm the free market. But this was not all FDR did; he started the trend of passing legislation that is favorable to labor unions: following what might be referred to as consumer-side economics. This essentially gave the unions an unfair advantage.

So the advent of the labor union, along with union-friendly legislation, had brought us to where we are today. Working conditions today are good--one might even say a little too good. We not only have decent and safe working conditions, we have jobs that pay workers' compensation, health care, sick leave, and even vacation time. Minimum wage is imposed on every business in most states. But what is the cost of these great jobs? Take for example our nearby city of Santa Fe, NM. It has been experiencing a huge setback in employment--stores are closing left and right. Why is it that Santa Fe appears to be suffering in this economy more than anyone else, despite the very large number of wealthy residents? Perhaps it could have something to do with the fact that Santa Fe has the highest minimum wage in the country.

Barack Obama has told us over and over that we are experiencing "the worst economic times since the Great Depression," and there is no doubt that there's a problem with our labor system. But what should be done about it? Liberals usually claim that unions need more power, and that we need more regulation. Conservatives often say that unions and regulations are the problem. Who's right?

In order to look at this properly, I think it is important to look at unions not as unions, but as companies that are selling a "good:" in this case, labor. If you look at it that way, then it is apparent that unions actually are holding a monopoly over labor, assisted of course by the government. Let's take this by analogy: when there is a monopoly in the private sector, the government has to break it up, because there is no longer any competition. I would suggest that this would imply that the labor unions should be broken up.

Competition is the key to capitalism, and it should be able to work in the labor market as well as the goods and services market. Competition in the labor market keeps labor prices and benefits at a minimum, while at the same time preventing conditions from dropping too low. Just like in any other market, the labor market has an equilibrium between cost, supply, and demand, and in my opinion, this is what is necessary to stabilize the working conditions properly, and without restrictive government regulations.

Well, those are my thoughts. Unfortunately, I now have to go work on Chemistry and World Literature. Please let me know what you think--I'd be very interested to hear others. opinions about this topic, and to be able to discuss it further!

Hello to all of my many dozens of friends who have followed the link from my Facebook page (ha ha). As you have probably noticed, I don't ever log into Facebook, as I am only able to maintain a maximum of one electronically based personalized web page at a time.

As always, please post lots of comments. Unfortunately, because I built this webpage myself, I have to manually put the comments up once they've been submitted, so it can sometimes take a bit. I do like having this blog be a two-way conversation, rather than just what I have to say.

This is not exactly a book review, because I do not just want to talk about a single book. However, the idea for this post was triggered mostly by my reading of Plato's Republic for World Literature.

Normally, I'm not a big fan of ancient books. I'm still at odds with most of them, especially the poetry ones like the Iliad and Odyssey. On the other hand, I find much of the philosophy to be intriguing.especially the philosophy of Plato and Socrates. But recently, I've been thinking a lot about the implications of studying the ancient writings and the major differences between them.

It would take a lot of time to go over everything that is covered in the Republic, so I just wanted to mention a few of them. First, Plato pushed the idea of an .ultimate reality,. that is, a standard against which everything is measured. He believed in a standard of what is right and what is wrong, referring to that idea as justice.

One of my favorite points that he made was that emotions can be dangerous because they steer us away from the truth. He even went so far as to say that poetry is bad, because it is deceptive and can teach falsehoods through the use of emotion. Furthermore, he explained that the study of math and science is philosophy, because it seeks the truth, rather than an emotional response.

Reading this was like a breath of fresh air. These days, especially at college, it seems like the idea of relativism is all around us. People are deserting logic and reason in favor of emotion and feeling. In fact, this book was not even part of the curriculum for World Literature; I read it for a project. Instead, almost all we have read is either poetry or eastern mysticism: not a single Greek philosopher to be found in the entire course. Furthermore, I noticed that the General Degree Requirements for my university require at least four English classes as well as two humanities, and one fine art, but only ONE math course and ONE science course required. Why is this? It is because our culture as a whole is moving away from a belief that reason is important.

So what is my conclusion? I don't really have one--thank goodness this is not an English paper! Sorry, this post is a little unorganized. Mostly, I feel as though we are surrounded by lost people: people who don't know what they believe, but don't want you to "force" your "opinion" on them, especially if your "opinion" is the truth.

(By the way, sorry about the long lapse in posting; I've been busy with exams for multiple classes recently as well as preparing projects for other classes, including World Lit. I've also been trying to sort out everything that's going on, especially politically. However, things have settled down a bit so I should have a little more time to devote to this blog.)

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Until philosophers are kings, or the kings and princes of this world have the spirit and poser of philosophy, and political greatness and wisdom meet in one, and those commoner natures who pursue either to the exclusion of the other are compelled to stand aside, cities will never have rest from their evils,--no, nor the human race, as I believe,--and then only will this our State have a possibility of life and behold the light of day. --Plato

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Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs. I don't think we can go fast enough to stop that.

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Part II of my review of the "Presidential Pledge"

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I pledge to think of myself as an American, not an African American.
I pledge to make good the 200 year old promise to end slavery, to the abolition of 21st Century slavery.
I pledge to free one million people from slavery in the next 5 years.

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I recently recieved an email declaring a celebration of the upcoming so-called "Black History Month" at my campus. I have a hard time understanding this, as I would like to know exactly what we need to learn about "black history" that is not already taught in standard history classes. I mean, we've covered slavery, we've covered the Civil War, covered Martin Luther King Jr. and covered the Civil Rights movement, not to mention watching all 20 video tapes of "Roots." We've even covered slavery and the abolition thereof in Great Britain, which is not even relevant to US history. What part of history is left to study that is so unique to people with a darker shade of skin color?

(That is NOT a rhetorical question, I would appreciate and welcome any answers.)

Please don't get me wrong: I am absolutely not racist in any way. In fact, I would say that I am less racist than most. I do not understand why anyone would want to distinguish in any way one group of people from another based on physical attributes, be it skin color, hair color, or eye color. This is why I have trouble understanding the purpose behind "Black History Month:" are we not all the same? To me, having a "Black History Month" is about like having a "Blond History Month" or a "Blue-eyes History Month," it's just silly. True, there were differences between different races in the past, but this is not true today. Shouldn't the way we study our history reflect our culture: a melting pot of different people groups to form America?

I believe slavery is over. I think racism is pretty much over also, if anything we have overcompensated. But the way I look at it, we are ALL only one race: human. And we are citizens of only ONE country: The United States of America. Any further classification, in my opinion, is racism.

I don't want to be a snob and ignore this month, nor do I want to be petty and demand a "Caucasion History Month." Instead, I would like to propose that the month of February be American Citizen History Month, where "American" refers to any and all citizens of the United States of America, past, present and future. I'd like to focus on all people as a nation: as one group of people who are all created equal, with no differences between us.

Therefore, during this month (provided I have the time) I'd like to spend a little time talking about several significant Americans, both black and white, hispanic and asian. I feel that it is good to celebrate our heritage together, rather than create division by segregating history. Recently several celebrities such as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore (people whom I have never heard of) put together a "Presidential Pledge" vieo. If not have not seen it you can see it here. In this video, a number of people make "pledges" to help accomplish various parts of Obama's agenda in an oh-so-inspiring heartwarming video. But the most disturbing part was, for me:

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I pledge to be a servant to Barack Obama...I pledge to be a servant to the president...

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Gilgamesh is thought to be one of the oldest stories ever written down. I'm not going to go through a synopsis because you can find that easily on Wikipedia. Instead, here's my thoughts.

As far as the story goes, there's not much worth mentioning: the plot is weak, illogical, and unpredictable. The actions represent the morality of the time: I would not recommend this book to anyone under 15. Yes, the book is old, but it can still be chock full of immorality. Gilgamesh is not a very likable character or role model. If Gilgamesh was not the oldest story in the world, I don't think anyone would want to read it. So, it makes more sense to analyse the historical significance of the story rather than the actual story itself.

There are a lot of insights to the culture of the time, I'm sure, to be gained by reading the story. I however am rather dense when it comes to that sort of thing, so it doesn't make much sense to me. But in my opinion, one aspect of this book makes Gilgamesh an abosultely essential read: the similarities with the Bible. Here's a few of them:

• Gilgamesh and Enkidu are rather similar to Jacob and Esau: one was conniving, the other was a hairy woodsman. I'm not sure if they actually refer to the same people, but I thought the similarity was worth pointing out.
• Gilgamesh meets a man who was said to have 'survived the flood' which is a clear similarity with Noah's flood.
• In the account of the flood, the man who survived was told to build a boat.
• The flood was explained by the gods wanting to purge the earth of everyone but the one man.
• The man who survived the flood used a dove to detect if there was dry ground available
• The man who survived was said to 'live forever.' While this was not true of Noah, we do know that after the flood people had much shorter life spans. So, many people born after the flood lived for a very short time compared to Noah--perhaps giving the illusion that Noah lived forever.

Well, that's my take on Gilgamesh. So how does it rank?

The Brand-O-Meter:
Plot:
Writing:
Believability:
Significance:

I'm making a few changes here and there around my blog. (For instance, I just added the rounded corners...ooooh, ahhhh). Please notice that a few parts are still "under construction," so pardon my mess and let me know what you think! Today is a sad day for America. We have just put into office a person who could well be the most liberal president we have ever had. I find it amazing how thrilled people were, I mean, what with the tee shirts, televised inauguration parties, and mindless Obama-worshippers chanting "yes we did," you'd think that we were being released from the rule of Saddam Hussein or Stalin!

However, I think what bothered me the most was all the fuss about Obama being the first black president, and dreams coming true, and Mertin Luther King Jr. being so proud, and so on and so forth about how racism is finally over--we Republicans may still be racist, but at least the perfectly unbiased Democrats won. In my mind, there is no more significance about the first black president than there is about the first blond president or the first president with blue eyes. Aren't we supposed to be "color blind?" Why do we even care that he is black? Shouldn't we focus on him as a person? The reality is that anyone who is happy that Obama is president simply because he's black is a racist against white people. Unless you completely disrgard skin color (like, might I say, I think the Republicans have done) you must be a racist, whether or not you are for the minority.

I suppose Republicans can take comfort in the fact that we really are more mature. You'll notice that there was no huge Republican protest during the inauguration. Instead, we saw the childish Bush protestors throwing shoes at an inflatable balloon. How immature and how disrespectful...give the guy a break! Can you imagine what would have happened if McCain had won?

Well, I must close. I just hope that, well, our country is still recognizable in 4 years, and that we might still be able to salvage what is left of our liberty. In the meanwhile, take heart. We are already 1/1465 of the way through Obama's presidency! This is the last day for at least four years to come for a conservative president to be in office. Despite the constant railing against Bush by the mainstream media, our country was still kept safe from terrorist attacks with George Bush in office since 9/11. It's hard to imagine what would have happened if Gore had been elected, and it's frightening to think what might happen with Obama in office. Here's hoping and praying that Obama will be able to live up to his predecessor's presidency. Obama has promised that the "Freedom of Choice Act" will be something he pushes when he gets into office. This act will federally override any restrictions that the state has placed on aboriton: removing all parental involvement laws. It will force YOU as a taxpayer to pay for abortions. It will force FAITH-BASED hospitals to perform abortions: forcing Christians to perform murder. A petition is being circulated to fight this act.

PLEASE SIGN THE PETITION NOW!

Once you have signed it, please spread the word around! I have just added a commenting capablilty to my blog. You can now post a comment by clicking on the link at the bottom of each post. I appreciate all the comments I can get, so please feel free to submit them! One of the things that we did on our trip was solving SuDoKu puzzles which kind of got me re-hooked. So, being too lazy to solve them myself, I wrote a little program to solve them for me. You can get the program here. Feel free to play with it. (It's written in C++, and it runs on .NET so you may need to get the redistributable package if that doesn't work.) Sorry for the delay on my annual New Year Post. 2008 was a very productive year. Although nothing particularly exciting happened, I feel like it was a great year all around. Some highlights:

• Had the One Year Anniversary of this blog!
• Joined Phi Theta Kappa, became webmaster and VP pro tempore
• Completed my second and third semesters of college
• Met several new people who are now very good friends
• Got in several debates in Political Science :-)
• Got to vote in my first presidential election!! Unfortunately, my vote didn't do much good...

The trip was a blast for all of us, and we got to do a lot of neat things as well, such as flying on a jet (a novelty for us!) seeing the Mall of America, and taking a Hummer Limo tour.