I would eat here every day

I love this one

I took this picture just a few feet out the back door of our hotel when we were in Oregon last summer. It was so wonderful. I love the picture, it's my wallpaper right now.

Big News Last Night and Early This Morning

Guiliani and Edwards are out.

This has HUGE implications. It pretty much shores up the nomination for McCain, since at least 70% of Rudy's support will go toward McCain, particularly after his endorsement that will probably come this morning. I would also anticipate some type of position for Rudy. My thoughts here look more and more plausible. Romney needs to act fast or he's done for and it may already be too late.

The EVEN more interesting development was Edwards dropping out this morning. Big surprise since he had indicated he was in for the long haul. I definitely didn't anticipate this until after Super Tuesday. This definitely smells like a deal between him and the Obama camp, who will GREATLY benefit from Edwards pulling out. The rumor mill is talking Attorney General John Edwards... wow that was a frightening thought. Anyway, I would say a vast majority, if not ALL of Edwards support will go to Obama because it is part of the "anti-Hillary" vote. I won't say that this will have Obama winning the nomination. I would bet that Hill-Bill still has a dagger or two they haven't thrown yet, although it will be a surprise when it does come. They've already played the feminist card, the race card, the drug card, the slum lord card, the "present" voting record card... Geesh, what could be left?

This race is definitely going to be one for the history books.

Part Two

Part Two
Reagan made all kinds of excellent points, because he was a very clear, very principled thinker who knew how to win because he knew how to lead. The ideas and principles of conservatism are alive and well today. The reason most Republicans are having a hard time with the current candidates is because none of them are what people have been calling “real conservatives”. However, remember what the Gipper use to say:
- Who is the most conservative person we have that can be elected?
- Someone who agrees with me 70% of the time is my friend not my enemy.

So based on that let’s look at those who are electable.

Unfortunately from what I can see there are only two left that really have a shot and they are McCain and Romney.

So let’s look at McCain:
Social Conservatism:
- Good record for being pro-life. However, he has made several public statements saying that Roe v Wade should not be overturned. This is disturbing at best. His record of “reaching across the aisle” also disturbs me on this one. Quite frankly the main thing that we need from a president on this one is someone who will nominate strict constructionist judges who will uphold the original intent of the constitution. McCain was a leader of the “Gang of 14”. As one of the seven Republicans he negotiated a deal with Democrats. Now, this deal did get us Roberts and Alito, but it left the UNCONSTITUTIONAL practice of filibustering judicial nominees intact. I give him a mixed review on this one, though leaning toward the positive.

Fiscal Conservatism:
- Again, somewhat of a mixed review. He traditionally resists pork and has vowed to veto any bill with pork in it. This is a good first step. He has also said that he will cut spending in the federal government. All sounds good. However he voted against the Bush tax cuts that were desperately needed and backs the global warming movement that could be very dangerous to our economy and is based on emotion rather than scientific fact. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t research alternative fuels. I think that’s a great idea for businesses to do. But it’s not the job of the federal government and restrictive environmental policies are damaging to our economy. He also voted against environmentally friendly development of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, that would help to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil. Again, a pretty mixed review.

National Defense Conservatism:
- Still a mixed bag, although I have to give McCain a lot of credit on this one. He knows what is at stake in the war on terror and in Iraq and Afghanistan. I just don’t know how his very loose border policy can be good for national defense when terrorists can just march across. He has listened to the people (at least a little) on this one and is saying that he will build a fence and beef up security first. This is a lot better than the failed immigration bill last summer.

Over all:
- McCain is a war hero. He suffered terribly for this country over years. He had the opportunity to come home at one point, but refused to leave without his other brothers in arms and continued to suffer because of his decision including horrible injuries and multiple broken bones. He is a very straight talking person for the most part, despite over two decades in Washington. He will do what he thinks is right, no matter what the implications are. That is the sign of a leader and McCain is definitely a leader. He has supported some bad stuff over the years. McCain-Feingold hid more of the money in politics instead of getting it out. The McCain-Kennedy amnesty bill last summer was a disaster. I’m not sure how great he would be for the Republican Party or the conservative cause. But, I do know he would be better than ANY of the Dems who would all take us further toward secular socialism, bigger government, higher taxes, pro-abortion judges and a destroyed healthcare system.

As Super Tuesday Approaches: Part One of Three

Part One of Three:

People have asked me recently who they should vote for. My answer is, “well, I’m not sure who YOU should vote for, because that’s YOUR decision.”

However, I thought it would be useful to give you my low down and tell you how my thought process works.

First of all, looking at all of the candidates, much to my dismay, Ronald Reagan isn’t running this time. That’s probably obvious to everyone, but the fact is that RR was the head of a movement, the conservative movement. The basis of the movement was and is this:

Social Conservatism:
o Life is sacred. Whether that be the life of a mother of two kids or the life of an unborn child. Whether that be a 90 year old with Alzheimer’s or a baby that is going to be born with a mental handicap. All life is sacred because God made it sacred.
o This country was founded on Christian principles. That doesn’t make it the national religion, but it does mean that it is historically accurate to talk about it.
o The best thing for this country is to maintain the institution of marriage. One man, one woman. That’s the way it was always meant to be. It is not the job of the government to step in and redefine it.

Fiscal Conservatism:
o Lower taxes + lower government spending = Economic prosperity for all
o This is a Federalist system. You can go back and read 85 essays on how the founding fathers interpreted and meant by the constitution. Everyone should read it. The federal government did not create the states, the states created the federal government.
o The government has certain things that it was created to do, most everything else can and should be cut or cut back.

National Defense Conservatism:
o The primary responsibility of the President and the federal government is to protect the people.
o We can negotiate with other countries only when we can negotiate from a position of strength. Basically, we need to be THE military might in the world. We need to know who our friends are and stand by them. We need to know who our enemies are and stand against them.

Now, like I said these are principles of a movement. No one man will follow them perfectly. Even Reagan himself had at least a hand full of mistakes on these principles, but by far followed them better than any other president that we have had.

So what if...

Thoughts were just buzzing around my big giant head and I suddenly had an idea. Don't worry, I didn't hurt myself.

What if Romney calls up Huckabee and asked him to be his running mate? Then they go up in the polls. What if McCain then asked Guiliani to be his running mate? Hmmm... that could be REALLY interesting.... I like it.

PGTC

I just finished reading Tim Steven’s new book, Pop Goes the Church. Being from a very traditional background I have to say that I struggled through the first part of the book. At some points I got pretty squeamish but I read on, and man am I glad I did!

I am new to the whole concept of a church being “innovative”, I have to admit, so at first I really balked at some of the points that Tim was making. At one point I went to bed thinking, “Man! Why am I even READING this!?” But as I read on I found all of my concerns addressed from a Biblical and logical (almost embarrassingly glaring) perspective. Tim uses great examples from scripture of Jesus and Paul casting out with cultural hooks in order to bring in a catch of lost people (okay, that was my cheesy example, but you get the point). I’ve been brought up and heard time and time again that some churches are just entertaining people. Granted if that is all a church is doing, then they missed the boat and Tim spells that out very bluntly.

I was skeptical, but by the end of the book, I have to say I was on board. Great stuff. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

Praise God for people like Tim who are willing to challenge us. Think like a missionary. Take the culture that people are living in, expressing their thoughts and feelings through, and use it to point them to Jesus.

Awesome.

Good bye, Fred

After a dissappointing third place finish in SC, Fred has announced that he is out. His mother is ill in Tennessee and, well , he was just never really into it.

Romney is in the lead as far as delegates are concerned. McCain is in the lead as far as polling is concerned.

Florida is going to be a huge deal and based on that, some interesting things could happen. Mitt could call up Huckabee (who after failing to win SC, will start to fade) and ask him if he would be willing to pull out in exchange for a spot on the ticket. McCain could do the same, but I just don't see him doing that. Either way, something has to happen. The whole scenario up to this point has followed pretty close to what Rudy was wanting... right up until he ran out of money. Bummer for him. Right now it is looking like Florida will go to either Romney or McCain.

My two cents is that if nobody cuts a deal and Romney, McCain, Huckabee and Rudy all go into Florida without Fred... Romney is the winner. If you look at all of the candidates the only 90% conservative was Fred (just no passion). The next one pushing conservative values is Romney, even if he hasn't always followed them himself. However, the economy has become issue number one and this is a great issue for Romney. He knows what he is doing and if he can keep the outright PANDERING down to a minimum, he will do well (what was that $20 billion promise to MI all about... come on!) He is also the only one that will still have a positive balance in his bank account after Florida. You can't discount that.

McCain has a good record for limiting spending, but he voted against the tax cuts that bouyed the economy after Clinton. This didn't sit well with conservatives. Neither did McCain-Feingold or the McCain-Kennedy boarder fiasco last summer. Some conservatives will stomach McCain if they have to, but most would just as soon vote against him as for him. He has done well up to this point, but in most of these races independents could vote. Not Florida. Most of them were also a split on who gets the delegates. Not the sunshine state. All or nothing. Republicans only.

Now, if Rudy can finish second that might be enough to hold onto a lead in his home territory of NY/NJ.

Quite frankly this whole thing could come down to the wire! Wow! That's pretty exciting.

I'm hoping for a move by someone to pair up as a team and build a ticket. This could do a lot to change the race, but... we'll see.

On the other side... well, it's just a slug fest. The beauty is that in this fight you don't have to worry about your guy losing. We win with each blow! I'm jumping out of my chair with each shot! BEAUTIFUL!!! And good old Bill is having a HARD time staying in the background. Of course he is having an even harder time staying awake. Barack is taking it too personal. He needs to stay above the pettiness if he wants to maintain his composure.

Ahhh! Democrats beating up democrats. It's a beautiful thing.

Monday

Lots of political stuff to discuss and digest. Big things happened over the weekend, but on a more serious note... I have to say that Wally has become my favorite Dilbert character.

We're kind of a mess

The shot went good for B. She's taking it easy today, but her back is significantly better. PRAISE GOD!!!

I went to the dentist this morning to deal with the canker sore that has given me a Rocky lip. He said the thing you never want to hear a doctor say, "I've never seen that before." Nice. It turns out it isn't one killer canker sore on the inside of my upper lip, it's actually FIVE killer canker sores. Nice.

He asked me if I have been having a lot of stress lately. HA! Don't make me laugh... it HURTS too much.

Well... give it a shot!

Pardon the pun.

Brandi gets her first of three shots today. We have been encouraged over the last few days by people who have told us how much the shots have helped them.

Please pray that the shots will help and that they will reduce 'the bulge' significantly. This is the seventh week of this ordeal and we're just kind of worn out.

Thanks and God bless.

This will weird you out

All kinds of questions come to mind. #1 of course is, what happens if you have a dead battery?

Don't know.

I do know that if they had built the 1977 Nova with this, then many of my classmates would have been spared some door dings delivered by my passengers (both unintentional and shall we say... slightly more than unintentional :)

Either way, pretty cool.

Down for a while

My last post was last Thursday because since then my wife has been down with a relapse. I tell you, back problems just stink.

Please keep her in your prayers.

We are going to the surgeon for a follow up to see if there is anything else (non-surgical) that they can do.

Obama's a nice guy... right?

Charismatic? Sure. Calculated? Sinisterly.

I'm really rooting for Hillary (wow, did I just say that?) This guy just scares me.

Check this one out.

I think the mantra is exactly what we've seen. Get people to suddenly realize that they are miserable, then give them a target for their misery and a deliverer from their misery.

Quite frankly the libs have been working this trick on minorities for decades.

It's Barack's version of hope.

Nice.

Another symptom of the problem

People expect too much from government.

Government is not here to pay for your child care, make sure you get health coverage, guarantee the safety of your car, house, boat or whatever other toy or vehicle you want to buy.

All of the controls and regulatory agencies are the result of people whining and complaining to politicians who want to get elected. So what do they do? They pass laws that infringe upon our liberties and rights all for the sake of "protecting us". The problem is that the more you meddle with a system, like the free market, the more you have to meddle to undo the effects of the previous meddling.

For instance the laws and regulations involved in building a power plant, particularly nuclear power plants are quite steep, not to mention truly needed things like oil refineries, but let me continue. Obviously no one wants a Chernobyl incident. No one wants their kid to come out with extra appendages and no one wants an oil refinery pumping toxic chemical waste into your local fishing hole. But the restrictions have cut off the sanity.

CA is huge. People are everywhere. If you've been to So-Cal in the last few years I'm sure you've noticed that you never really leave the city. It goes on forever. So, naturally they have a power problem. When the infrastructure and power supply don't increase as fast as the demand, you have a problem.

Read about the latest solution.

In a free market, there would be two new nuclear power plants supplying most of So-Cal. As it is they are sucking up power from... Palo Verde nuclear plant. The problem now is that AZ is needing more and more of what PV is producing and the result?

The government controls the temperature in YOUR house.

Government big enough to do anything FOR you, is big enough to do anything TO you.

No real surprises

Yesterday went pretty much as expected. Check out the results here. The media will be acting shocked all day today that Hillary beat Obama (not very decisively).

The biggest loser last night was Romney (obviously). If this gives McCain enough momentum to beat him in Michigan, where Huckabee and McCain are both coming up in the polls... put a fork in him, Romney will be done. He was very gracious in his speech, that was a class move. The second biggest loser was Thompson. 1100 more people came out to vote for Dennis Kucinich than Thompson. That's gotta hurt. He only got 1/6 the number of votes that Ron Paul got. Thompson is done. He has been banking on South Carolina, which I think will come down to Huckabee (the probable winner depending if he improves his performance in the next debate) and McCain. I expect Thompson to maybe get third. He'll call it quits after that. It would interesting to see who he puts his weight behind, if he actually had any supporters. Sorry Fred-heads.

Like I said, I wasn't surprised to see Hillary win last night. Relieved. But not surprised. I think she is the most un-electable candidate that the Dems have, so this was very good news. :)

I love it!

We need more mean moms :)

Sure they are harmless... right

Entirely unacceptable. US naval vessels threatened and provoked in international waters. Next time just take 'em out.

Among the insanity

Among all of the insanity of election season, when poll numbers and watching Hillary's startling slide (as she loses some of her composer in the debate over the weekend) all threaten to block anything good from getting into my giant noggin, there is always the reminder of good things happening in churches around the country.

For us yesterday it was at SSCC. Awesome teaching from the book of Micah. That's right, Micah. Specifically Micah 6:8 talking about doing justice, showing mercy and walking humbly with our God. Awesome stuff. Very inspiring.

Checking up with Elevation and Pastor Furtick, they started their Made series. Everyone dressed in suits for the 'mafia series'. Sounds like "the boss" was on the move in their midst. 130 people gave their lives to Jesus. That's a good hit. :)

So who won and who lost last night?

First of all here are the results.

For the Dems:
- Obama
- Edwards
- Hillary (ouch)

For the Reps:
- Huckabee
- Romney
- Thompson/McCain
- Paul (10% REALLY!?)
- Guiliani

Some quick observations.
- The real winners are #1 the Democrats. This whole thing does not bode well for Republicans because if you look at the number of voters, it's amazingly lop-sided. In many districts the numbers were at least 2 to 1 the number of Dems voting vs. the number of Reps and in some cases a 4 to 1 ratio. No bueno. What this means is that the Democratic base is energized. The Republicans... not.
- #2 winner is Obama. He slammed Hillary pretty good, but this isn't the end. Some people attack their opponents with Romney style shotguns. The Clintons? They use snipers and lots of them. Look for the gloves to come off. I think Hillary will still get the nomination. The real danger is if she kisses and makes up with Obama and asks him to be #2. That would be all kinds of no bueno.
- #3 winner is McCain. I know, he came in third. Well, when you are saying that you are going to cut farm subsidies on corn... you ain't going to win an Iowa caucus. Just isn't going to happen. Fiscal conservatives do like the message however and McCain is gaining momemtum... big time.

And on the flip side?
- #1 Loser? Romney. He's done. His last hope is to get the train back on the track in Michigan, which he should win anyway (his dad was a very popular governor there). Unfortunately the first three races are the only places he has spent money. He was banking on Iowa. McCain will take New Hampshire and get momentum for the rest of the primary. Watch Guiliani and Thompson supporters shift towards McCain. On that note...
- #2 Loser? Guiliani. He finished behind Ron Paul. Ouch. He wasn't doing hardly anything IN Iowa, but still... come on. If he doesn't pick up and win by Florida (1/29) he's done. The only way that it will swing his way then is if the other races get pretty evenly split or Romney somehow rebounds to win MI and NV and SC goes to Huckabee. Then he's got a shot... sort of. Quite frankly his message just doesn't appeal enough to the base social conservatives and he doesn't have the magnetism to inspire the fiscal and national defense conservatives to get out and vote for him over the other guys.
- #3 Loser? The Hair or Edwards as some call him. He's done. Always number two, never number one. The anti-Hillarys in the Dem party have there guy now and his name is Hussein. Edwards is done. His numbers will drop to the low teens pretty quick.

Huckabee? I don't know. The margin was certainly larger than expected. The only Republicans fired up about this thing at all are in his camp. Tough call. This definitely will give him a boost, but can he move it forward? I just don't know. I used to be excited about the guy but I've really kind of soured over the way he has stumbled with stupid comments and an extreme lack of foreign policy know how on handling countries like Iran, which is one of the HAVE to's of a president.

Okay... want a rash prediction? It will come down to Hillary v. McCain. The winner... I think would be McCain. I think the anti-Hillary vote would be enough to rally the Reps but not positive enough for the Dems to rally their base... unless Obama was the VP on the ticket, but I don't know if she or he would do it... who wants a their VP and their husband to get a better response from crowds than they do? I personally think that she would choose Richardson or another Dem governor, which won't help her that much.

That's my 2 cents. We'll know more in the next four weeks.

Exciting stuff... if you're a political geek like me.

Big day today... but not in Iowa

Check out the family blog.

This doesn't seem right at ALL

Want a night out?

Need a babysitter?

Would you mind voting for me in the Iowa Caucus while you're out? Great!

Unbelievable.

Mountain Dew

I had the Mountain Dew at lunch. Those first few sips were so wonderful I could barely believe it... the second half of the glass... not so much, in fact it got kind of acid tasting after a while. Hmmm.

Maybe the soda on a rare occasion won't be such a hard thing after all.

Maybe there are some hicks in AZ

Man, if I had a nickel for everytime my pet buffaloe got a little cranky!