So Beginith the Rant:
Yesterday I was sitting in my office preparing some last minute odds and ends killing a little time before youth group actually started. One of the youth came in and asked a two part question. One part I honestly couldn't answer, which saddens me. Before I tell you a question, I want to inform you that he young man is a 15 year old high school student and the question is the topic of an assignment for a class.
No this isn't one of those, "Are you smarter than a 15 year old situations". Because the question was, "What is one recent example of someone in government making good policy, and one example of someone in government making bad policy?"
One half of that question I can answer a lot, and I did. I ran down the list of boobs from local government all the way up to professional boobs in Washington, capped with our Commander and Chief. (both present and recently past, I have to say that so people don't think I'm a racist)
Which brings me to the sad part. I couldn't think of one single person who actually made a good policy in recent memory...
Surely someone had made a good political policy recently, but how could I not nail it down? Maybe because each news station only tears down the choices of the leadership because its what sells, and that's why we only hear about the flaws. Surely it can't be that our government has so lost touch with we the people (its constituency) and it only passes policies to pander to the smallest of interest and groups that keep them in office, not giving a flying rats arse about what's the best for the country, the majority of its people, and its future.
So I will end with this. Can you answer the question? I hope you can, and I hope you share it with me. I need some hope that good people are actually in office.
So endith the rant:
Monday, November 30, 2009
Thursday, November 19, 2009
1963
So beginith the rant:
As I drove to work today I was listening to a local talk radio show out of Panama City. This show has a local conservative guy who rants about limited government and often gets local officials to do interviews and allow people to ask them candid questions.
If you have met me more than 5 min you will know that I detest socialized anything (from welfare to political correctness) I see any form of it as a direct violation of my rights. And much like anyone else with a functioning frontal lobe I dislike and distrust the idea of "universal health care".
Back on task this morning as I turned on the car the normal guy wasn't speaking, no it was a voice recorded talking about the passing of a bill for a government funded medical program and how it is a foot in the door tactic of socialism. The voice took me a minute to recognize (because of my age) but I quickly gathered it was Ronald Reagan. The facts and observations he was making about the path of socialism that would be opened with even the slightest addition to the medicare program were spot on.
As this short speech was trickling through my speakers I was shocked that during his presidency that our congress tried to pull the same stunt, and that it took someone with logic to speak in front of the nation to explain how we as a country are not, by our founders design, destined to be ruled by our government.
This speech was dead on. The names of the bills were different but the facts were still the same. The flaws and questions still the same: How do we pay? How do we avoid abuse? What would stop it from expanding? Where does the government get the right?
I sat and listened to the last of the speech in the parking lot actually amazed at how history repeats itself. But then the real shock came. At the of the recorded speech the host of the show said that was Mr. Reagan in a speech delivered in 1963.
Kind of puts a whole new perspective on the people who have been ranting about how people in government have been trying to socialize our country for years, and will not stop. They are just waiting for we the people to get dumb enough to let it happen.
So endith the rant:
As I drove to work today I was listening to a local talk radio show out of Panama City. This show has a local conservative guy who rants about limited government and often gets local officials to do interviews and allow people to ask them candid questions.
If you have met me more than 5 min you will know that I detest socialized anything (from welfare to political correctness) I see any form of it as a direct violation of my rights. And much like anyone else with a functioning frontal lobe I dislike and distrust the idea of "universal health care".
Back on task this morning as I turned on the car the normal guy wasn't speaking, no it was a voice recorded talking about the passing of a bill for a government funded medical program and how it is a foot in the door tactic of socialism. The voice took me a minute to recognize (because of my age) but I quickly gathered it was Ronald Reagan. The facts and observations he was making about the path of socialism that would be opened with even the slightest addition to the medicare program were spot on.
As this short speech was trickling through my speakers I was shocked that during his presidency that our congress tried to pull the same stunt, and that it took someone with logic to speak in front of the nation to explain how we as a country are not, by our founders design, destined to be ruled by our government.
This speech was dead on. The names of the bills were different but the facts were still the same. The flaws and questions still the same: How do we pay? How do we avoid abuse? What would stop it from expanding? Where does the government get the right?
I sat and listened to the last of the speech in the parking lot actually amazed at how history repeats itself. But then the real shock came. At the of the recorded speech the host of the show said that was Mr. Reagan in a speech delivered in 1963.
Kind of puts a whole new perspective on the people who have been ranting about how people in government have been trying to socialize our country for years, and will not stop. They are just waiting for we the people to get dumb enough to let it happen.
So endith the rant:
Saturday, November 14, 2009
moo juice
So beginith the rant:
Let's take a trip down memory lane. You're in elementary school it's lunch time. You're waiting in line with your friends making dumb jokes picking teams for kickball or laying claim to the tether ball pole you plan to dominate for the next 30min. You start to inspect the trays of the kids walking out the exit door to the cafeteria line. You either smile knowing there will be french fries or fight back bile knowing its "bbq frank day". You get to the front of the line and there are milk cartons filled with moo juice in its two God given flavors regular and chocolate. You pick your poison and proceed down the line... Did you pick chocolate? I know I always did. Now before you leave this memory vacation. I want you to look around the lunch room... Really take it all in. Look at the children from your past sitting around you. How many chose chocolate? How many of them were obese?
In fact, can you even remember an obese kid when you were growing up? Not a "fat kid" who was pudgy and hadn't hit his or her growth spurt. An actual leading to type two diabetes obese kid. I can't think of any, but I was from a small town so maybe I'm jaded.
But according to this story chocolate milk is a leading cause of childhood obesity.
Funny, I drank chocolate milk all through my childhood, and I wasn't obese. In fact I ate candy during class parties, extra cookies every day at lunch, every day after school I tried to consume at least one soda and a pile of junk food before my parents got home (oh, and yes as a child I walked home from school and hung out at least an hour before my mom or dad got home, the humanity, the horror). This was also the trend with most of my friends. None of us were obese.
So, what was different so many years ago?
-Could it be that unlike my parents the house was only stocked with a limited supply of junk food?
-Could it be that after lunch that by my best estimates was at least 2,500 calories we played for 35-45min on a playground. Doing actual physical activities.
-Could it be that even at home with the lure of the NES and the TV we were still "forced" to play outside, with other kids?
-Could it be that on top of recesses we had PE which was an hour of actual physical activity.
Man I'm glad that parents and hippies have removed those demeaning and dangerous activities like dodge ball, kick ball, wall ball, tether ball, or any competitive sport from the curriculum. And I'm also glad that today kids are not expected to preform any physical activity they don't want to so as not to bruise their delicate psycis.
I mean really, being obese and unhealthy, pasty white an unable to run, do a pushup, or throw a ball is so good for confidence. But hey, fat peopel fall under the protective umbrella of "Political Correctness" and we don't want the thought police coming after us for thinking bad of the fatties... Cause you know its not their fault.
SO ENDITH THE RANT:
(yes i'm taking into consideration the rare, Less that %5 of the population who are born with a glandular defect which causes weight gain. Those people cannot help it, but most are medically working hard to maintain their weight)
Let's take a trip down memory lane. You're in elementary school it's lunch time. You're waiting in line with your friends making dumb jokes picking teams for kickball or laying claim to the tether ball pole you plan to dominate for the next 30min. You start to inspect the trays of the kids walking out the exit door to the cafeteria line. You either smile knowing there will be french fries or fight back bile knowing its "bbq frank day". You get to the front of the line and there are milk cartons filled with moo juice in its two God given flavors regular and chocolate. You pick your poison and proceed down the line... Did you pick chocolate? I know I always did. Now before you leave this memory vacation. I want you to look around the lunch room... Really take it all in. Look at the children from your past sitting around you. How many chose chocolate? How many of them were obese?
In fact, can you even remember an obese kid when you were growing up? Not a "fat kid" who was pudgy and hadn't hit his or her growth spurt. An actual leading to type two diabetes obese kid. I can't think of any, but I was from a small town so maybe I'm jaded.
But according to this story chocolate milk is a leading cause of childhood obesity.
Funny, I drank chocolate milk all through my childhood, and I wasn't obese. In fact I ate candy during class parties, extra cookies every day at lunch, every day after school I tried to consume at least one soda and a pile of junk food before my parents got home (oh, and yes as a child I walked home from school and hung out at least an hour before my mom or dad got home, the humanity, the horror). This was also the trend with most of my friends. None of us were obese.
So, what was different so many years ago?
-Could it be that unlike my parents the house was only stocked with a limited supply of junk food?
-Could it be that after lunch that by my best estimates was at least 2,500 calories we played for 35-45min on a playground. Doing actual physical activities.
-Could it be that even at home with the lure of the NES and the TV we were still "forced" to play outside, with other kids?
-Could it be that on top of recesses we had PE which was an hour of actual physical activity.
Man I'm glad that parents and hippies have removed those demeaning and dangerous activities like dodge ball, kick ball, wall ball, tether ball, or any competitive sport from the curriculum. And I'm also glad that today kids are not expected to preform any physical activity they don't want to so as not to bruise their delicate psycis.
I mean really, being obese and unhealthy, pasty white an unable to run, do a pushup, or throw a ball is so good for confidence. But hey, fat peopel fall under the protective umbrella of "Political Correctness" and we don't want the thought police coming after us for thinking bad of the fatties... Cause you know its not their fault.
SO ENDITH THE RANT:
(yes i'm taking into consideration the rare, Less that %5 of the population who are born with a glandular defect which causes weight gain. Those people cannot help it, but most are medically working hard to maintain their weight)
Thursday, November 12, 2009
fault
So beginith the rant:
So there was a shooting at a military fort in Texas. And unless you live under a rock and don't actually read any of the news blurbs from any of the popular web home pages (yahoo, msn, google) you'd know that it was perpetrated by a man who is of the Islamic faith.
Now, here's my problem. This man, who is of the Islamic faith, went bat @#($ and killed unarmed enlisted men and women. That is a fact. That is what happened. Turns out as well that he may have had ties to terrorist organizations as well, or became radicalized by teachings from a loon he heard preach.
But here's the problem all I'm hearing is how he was stressed and snapped. That he was under extreme stress and mental fatigue from hearing about other solders experiences over seas. This man's job was to help diagnose and council men and women dealing with combat stress. And the experts in the media are tying to play this off as the reason he went nuts and shot up a bunch of innocent people...
Does anyone else think this doesn't jive? If I were to just snap one day and start punching people while calling them hippies left and right would the media go, well he was always hearing other people's problems and that made him snap? No, they would say that this minister of a Christian church had gone nuts and starting beating people because his beliefs led him to that stage. Why would they say this about me? Because I'm white and Christian not protected under the umbrella of political correctness.
What's my point. Because someone is Islamic, with ties to radical teachings, does not mean that we should go out of the way to come up with excuses for them to do crazy crap. If a nut job Klan member beats a gay person its because they are a member of the Klan. If a nut job eco-koolaid-PETA person beats up a guy driving a hummer wearing a leather jacket its because they are a eco-koolaid-PETA hippie. And no one would have a problem with that. We would not try and humanize their problems as just a stress thing. So FOR CRAP'S SAKE call a spade a freaking spade. This nut job was into radical Islam, about to be shipped off to actually do some real fighting, and would have to probably kill radical Islamic people, at which point he killed people who were about to be shipped off to kill radical Islamic people.
He was not the victim here, the people he maimed and the families he destroyed they are victims. He's a Domer, a Manson, a McVay. He is to be loathed for his actions. No amount of psychobable can explain it. He passed up the chance to be considered a human when he became a monster, and should be punished accordingly.
"But Marshall, you're a Christian and you should know that Christians believe in forgiveness." And I do. I know vengeance is for the Lord which is why I don't believe his family should be gunned down as an example. But as for him. He should be forgiven, but punished. Forgiveness is in the heart. Stupidity would assume that a person who commits this kind of deed should not have to pay for his actions. I would assume no less for me if I were to commit a crime such as this.
So endith the Rant.
And a little follow up.
Just read the wording of this reporter a Samantha Gross From the Associated Press;
"The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major."
Re-read the last line... LEt it sink in. If you walk into a room and see a broken lamp and there is only one guy in the room you blame that guy. Sure, he may not have broken it but it looks like it, and a little invetigating could clear or convict him. Or you walk in a room with two guys and a broken lamp you can blame the one closest to the lamp, or the one who looks guilty. With a little investigation you can find out who is the real lamp killer.
But if you walk in and see a guy in a room smashing a lamp and you watch him do it and stop him from stomping it into dust. That is not blaming a man for breaking a lamp. See the difference.
This nut job is not being blamed, accused, or speculated about no, he was seen shooting people and was shot while shooting people to stop him. We are not blaming it on him HE FRIGG'N DID IT!!!
So there was a shooting at a military fort in Texas. And unless you live under a rock and don't actually read any of the news blurbs from any of the popular web home pages (yahoo, msn, google) you'd know that it was perpetrated by a man who is of the Islamic faith.
Now, here's my problem. This man, who is of the Islamic faith, went bat @#($ and killed unarmed enlisted men and women. That is a fact. That is what happened. Turns out as well that he may have had ties to terrorist organizations as well, or became radicalized by teachings from a loon he heard preach.
But here's the problem all I'm hearing is how he was stressed and snapped. That he was under extreme stress and mental fatigue from hearing about other solders experiences over seas. This man's job was to help diagnose and council men and women dealing with combat stress. And the experts in the media are tying to play this off as the reason he went nuts and shot up a bunch of innocent people...
Does anyone else think this doesn't jive? If I were to just snap one day and start punching people while calling them hippies left and right would the media go, well he was always hearing other people's problems and that made him snap? No, they would say that this minister of a Christian church had gone nuts and starting beating people because his beliefs led him to that stage. Why would they say this about me? Because I'm white and Christian not protected under the umbrella of political correctness.
What's my point. Because someone is Islamic, with ties to radical teachings, does not mean that we should go out of the way to come up with excuses for them to do crazy crap. If a nut job Klan member beats a gay person its because they are a member of the Klan. If a nut job eco-koolaid-PETA person beats up a guy driving a hummer wearing a leather jacket its because they are a eco-koolaid-PETA hippie. And no one would have a problem with that. We would not try and humanize their problems as just a stress thing. So FOR CRAP'S SAKE call a spade a freaking spade. This nut job was into radical Islam, about to be shipped off to actually do some real fighting, and would have to probably kill radical Islamic people, at which point he killed people who were about to be shipped off to kill radical Islamic people.
He was not the victim here, the people he maimed and the families he destroyed they are victims. He's a Domer, a Manson, a McVay. He is to be loathed for his actions. No amount of psychobable can explain it. He passed up the chance to be considered a human when he became a monster, and should be punished accordingly.
"But Marshall, you're a Christian and you should know that Christians believe in forgiveness." And I do. I know vengeance is for the Lord which is why I don't believe his family should be gunned down as an example. But as for him. He should be forgiven, but punished. Forgiveness is in the heart. Stupidity would assume that a person who commits this kind of deed should not have to pay for his actions. I would assume no less for me if I were to commit a crime such as this.
So endith the Rant.
And a little follow up.
Just read the wording of this reporter a Samantha Gross From the Associated Press;
"The action against the Shiite Muslim mosques is sure to inflame relations between the U.S. government and American Muslims, many of whom are fearful of a backlash after last week's Fort Hood shooting rampage, blamed on a Muslim American major."
Re-read the last line... LEt it sink in. If you walk into a room and see a broken lamp and there is only one guy in the room you blame that guy. Sure, he may not have broken it but it looks like it, and a little invetigating could clear or convict him. Or you walk in a room with two guys and a broken lamp you can blame the one closest to the lamp, or the one who looks guilty. With a little investigation you can find out who is the real lamp killer.
But if you walk in and see a guy in a room smashing a lamp and you watch him do it and stop him from stomping it into dust. That is not blaming a man for breaking a lamp. See the difference.
This nut job is not being blamed, accused, or speculated about no, he was seen shooting people and was shot while shooting people to stop him. We are not blaming it on him HE FRIGG'N DID IT!!!
Monday, November 9, 2009
I'm a fan
So beginith the rant:
It was brought to my attention Saturday that I may have a "man crush" on Fedor Emelianenko. I would like to start by addressing the term "man crush" if that phrase were a people I would embrace its genocide. I cannot imagine how that term came about or how it has stayed in circulation. And to be used around a poker table with other men while watching a fight. The person who threw that gym out in conversation is a friend of mine, and only because of his friendship did I not strip him of his man card and make him wear a skirt.
In fact before we move on here is a list of words never to be uttered around a poker table while watching a fight:
-mary K
-vw bug
-going green
-"man date"
-light beer
-opera
-dietary fiber
-super nanny
In fact, this list could dominate this entire post so I'll stop there.
The point is this I am a fan of Fedor, a huge fan. I have been watching him since Pride and can count on one hand the professional fights of his I haven't watched. Pound for pound he is the greatest fighter I have ever seen, he is skilled and intelligent and constantly improves.
His demeanor at a fight is one of quiet calm and respect. He is never flashy or bombastic. He is extremely famous around the world and gets paid large amounts for his fight yet he chooses to live in the same small town he grew up in where he focuses on his faith, his family, and his training. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to hang out with Fedor on his own turf. (so, if anyone wants to arrange that, go ahead and jump on it. doing so would result in my screaming like a school girl and probably fainting... in the manliest way possible).
So to wrap up Fedor is on my list of people who I think is awesome.
The list (in no particular order, and as I can remember today)
-Mr. Rogers
-Johnny Cash
-Adam Baldwin
-Fedor Emelianenko
-Ben Stein
-John Wesley
-Bud Lauen
So endith the Rant:
Here is Fedor breaking the head of his opponent (Brett Rodgers) in his most recent fight.
It was brought to my attention Saturday that I may have a "man crush" on Fedor Emelianenko. I would like to start by addressing the term "man crush" if that phrase were a people I would embrace its genocide. I cannot imagine how that term came about or how it has stayed in circulation. And to be used around a poker table with other men while watching a fight. The person who threw that gym out in conversation is a friend of mine, and only because of his friendship did I not strip him of his man card and make him wear a skirt.
In fact before we move on here is a list of words never to be uttered around a poker table while watching a fight:
-mary K
-vw bug
-going green
-"man date"
-light beer
-opera
-dietary fiber
-super nanny
In fact, this list could dominate this entire post so I'll stop there.
The point is this I am a fan of Fedor, a huge fan. I have been watching him since Pride and can count on one hand the professional fights of his I haven't watched. Pound for pound he is the greatest fighter I have ever seen, he is skilled and intelligent and constantly improves.
His demeanor at a fight is one of quiet calm and respect. He is never flashy or bombastic. He is extremely famous around the world and gets paid large amounts for his fight yet he chooses to live in the same small town he grew up in where he focuses on his faith, his family, and his training. Nothing would make me happier than to be able to hang out with Fedor on his own turf. (so, if anyone wants to arrange that, go ahead and jump on it. doing so would result in my screaming like a school girl and probably fainting... in the manliest way possible).
So to wrap up Fedor is on my list of people who I think is awesome.
The list (in no particular order, and as I can remember today)
-Mr. Rogers
-Johnny Cash
-Adam Baldwin
-Fedor Emelianenko
-Ben Stein
-John Wesley
-Bud Lauen
So endith the Rant:
Here is Fedor breaking the head of his opponent (Brett Rodgers) in his most recent fight.
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