Election Day Thoughts

Well, it is election day. I am thrilled to see the high voter turnout with the large number of very important issues on the South Dakota ballot today. I am in my full-on, all-out politic mood today. Fox News will be on TV all day (can you guess which side of the isle I am on??), as will various local and national news websites.

I am generally a very politically immersed person. Given an option, I have favorite talk radio shows (mostly political) that I would listen to all day long. However, election day is the Christmas of politics, so I will be completely involved today.

My biggest complaint has to be about the advertisements. I am not even going to complain about the shear amount of ads, that doesn't really bother me. The attempt to spin an issue so severely to one direction or the other is my gripe today. Let me start off by saying that both parties do it, and I get offended by many of the ads that are aspousing opinions to which I subscribe.

The ad that gets most of my ire this year is a spot that is trying to convince SD voters to enact a $1.25 per pack increase in the tax on tobacco products. This ad tells us that this increase in tax will make smokes too expensive for youth to buy, so will SAVE thousand of young people (the children are our future) and others the fate of starting smoking. Then, nearly in the same breath, they tell us how this increased tax will raise much needed funds for government.

If this tax increase will make it so expensive to smoke that youth won't start, and thousands of others will quit, then how will it bring in more money??!! Talk about wanting to have it both ways!

Regardless of the over the top rhetoric of political ads, use the right that has been fought and died for, and get out and vote!!

Rain, Rain, Stay As Long As You Want!

Ok, finally, something a little lighter to blog about. It has been raining here in Rapid City for nearly 24 hours, and we had a half a day of rain yesterday. I can't tell you what a joy it is to just sit and listen to the rain.

Now, I know that my family members in Oregon and Washington may have a different take on this, but there is just about nothing I love more than a full day soft and gentle rain. It has been so long since we have had a good rain here, that it really feels as drops of heaven are falling.

I have lived in Rapid City for just over 9 years, and this is the first time that I can remember a two day rain event like this. Especially refreshing after multiple 105+ degree days in July have been the mid 60 degree highs of the last two days.

Even better: these days have come when I have weddings to shoot! Much more enjoyable for all involved than the two outside weddings in 109 degree heat earlier this summer, but I digress.

I often think about how much the rain means to us here in the drought-stricken upper midwest. I have absolutely nothing vested in the rain (outside of maybe a green lawn), and even I feel true joy to sit and listen to the drops fall, and to watch the world around me turn green.

How much more must the farmers praise God for reviving their livelihood as it rains today. I can't image what it must have felt like for the farmers of the dust bowl when the dark clouds finally appeared on the horizon.

I guess what it boils down to for me is that I love how the simplest things in life can bring such joy. Thank you God for the rain.

What is a child??

This is not an original thought, but I am concerned about the sanity of many of our friends on the liberal side of the isle. I can't decide if it is truly a disfunction, or if they simply have no moral compass and just float their opinions wherever their agenda takes them.

The anti-war crowd preaches to us how our soldiers are dumb, uninformed kids who do not know any better when they are duped into service by predatory recruitment officers. They are clearly not developed enough to determine at their age to choose to devote their lives to four years of service to their country.

The other lie that they like to spread about our servicemen is that they are only enlisting becuase it is the only job that they can get. That they are poor and downtrodden (presumably because of rich Republican's policies). People that say this most likely have never spoken to a serviceman, let alone thanked them for their service. However, I think I am wandering off my point here.

The same people that want to inform us that an 18 year old high school graduate is not mature enough or educated enough about the world are the same people who inform us that a 13 year old middle schooler is educated and mature enough to decide to abort the child growing insider her without even the consent of a parent.

I know this is a common theme in my posts, but the hypocracy of the left is startling to me. How can it be that an 18 year old is not mature enough do determine what he or she will do with their own life, but that 13 year old little girl is mature enough to determine not only what is done with her's, but the completely innocent child growing inside her.

There are possibly two parts to this dilema, and the reason for the lack of moral direction here. Liberals don't understand patriotism, that anyone would want to serve their country, and they also don't think that anyone should be held responsible for their own decisions.

When someone decides to serve their country (something liberals don't agree with), they are immature, and need to be protected. When someone decides to abort a child (something they do agree with), then they are fully informed and mature and should be given all the latitude they deserve.

You cannot have it both ways. Let's all join together and battle for a little consistency.

"Hi," Oh, Never Mind

I have been posting some really heavy posts lately. How about one a little bit on the lighter side. I went to gas up my truck the other day. While standing outside, I saw someone step out of a car who I thought I recognized. I said "hi" to him, and he said "hi" back to me.

We then realized that we had each mistaken each other for friends of ours. We then apologized, and went along fueling our vehicles, without another word. This really got me thinking.

Why in the world is a mistaken "hi" reason for an apology?? Why didn't I just say "oh, I thought you were Steve, anyway, hi, I am Ryan, nice to meet you." It was almost as if since we had not perviously met, we were not allowed to be civil to each other.

I wonder if my love of (and dependance on) technology has decreased my personal skills. I wondered if our society discourages new friendships that aren't made over a computer network. I don't blame society, I blame myself.

Even though I own my own business, and have learned that developing business and personal relationships is essential to success, for some reason, outside of a business setting, I wasn't willing to extend my hand to meet someone new.

I don't really have a conclusion to this post. I don't know why we are less friendly as a society as a whole these days. I do, however, think that since this strange thought has caused me to ponder this, it must mean that I desire a friendlier world. Or something goofy like that.........

Blame the victims

I don't exactly remember when I started hearing the phrase "blame the victims," but one of the most wretched examples of this has been the bleeding heart liberals ever since 9-11 asking what must we have done to provoke the terrorists.

I don't understand the incessant need for these lefties to "understand" the enemy. They think that we can get the enemy to like us, and then all will be daisies and sunshine.

People like Bill Clinton for eight years preached to the Isrealis that they must give up "Land for Peace." The Isrealis gave up the land to make the terrorists like them, and now they like them so much they are lobbing 100-200 rockets at innocent Isrealis every single day.

What is it going to take to get these wackos to understand that these fanatical Muslims hate us, and have vowed to wipe us (and Isreal) off the face of the earth.

The lefties in this country will bend over backwards to extend Geneva Convention rights to these evil men who intentionally kill women and children, but let a US Marine pose a Muslim in their underwear, and they should be strung up! The hypocracy is startling.

Have any of these people actually read the Geneva Convention?? To be considered a battlefield combatant, you have to follow some rules. You first of all have to be wearing a uniform. Not to be dressed like a woman in civilian clothing with a bomb strapped to your stomach!!!!!!!! Secondly, to be considered under Geneva, you are not allowed to target innocents. News flash here Democrats: THAT IS HOW THESE ISLAMO-NAZI PIGS SPEND THEIR DAYS!!!!!!!! (yes, I am screaming!)

Liberals in this country (and Europe) are so fast to rush to protect the very people that desire in their dreams and waking moments to literally lop their heads off, and at the same time so quick to judge the people who are out there giving their very lives to protect not only our rights, but our lives.

I don't for a minute pretend that all of our troops are saints, and bad things do happen and should be punished, but how about we give a little more leeway to our troops when they accidentally kill a civilian, and a little less to the people (read: President of Iran) who stand in front of the world and vow to wipe and entire race off the face of the earth.

All I am asking for is a little common sense people. Thank you.

Lebanese Civilians

Like most people at least somewhat interested in the world around us, I have been following closely the developments in Isreal and Lebanon. The level of anti-Israel (or maybe anti-semitic in general) spin coming from the media is just astonishing to me.

The phrase that hacks me off more than any is probably "Lebanese Civilians," as in "20 Lebanese civilians were killed by Israeli air strikes today." What the media (for the most part) seems to be willfully intentional on neglecting to mention is that the Hezbollah terrorists are dressed as "Lebanese Civilians."

How do we know that any, if not all of the people killed were not the people launching rockets into Israel minutes before they were killed. I have two main point here, but I want to preface them by saying that I of course weep for any truly innocent people killed in war, but it is war.

The first major concern (read: fact) that the mainstream media will go out of its way to avoid mentioning to you is that these terrorists, in addition to dressing like the civilian population, make it a strategic goal to use places of common as their launching points. They use hospitals, schools, markets for two reasons. They know that we are a people actually concerned with human life and collateral damage, so we (or the Israelis) are less likely to initiate a massive retaliation into an area where innocents are located.

The terrorists also know that even with our surgical accuracy, there will likely be civilian deaths. They hasten to take advantage of this fact by heartlessly parading around those killed. In other words, civilian deaths actually advance their cause, so they have no problems with, and actually attempt to maximize civilian deaths of even their own people.

My second major point is in the completely thoughtless comparison of what Hezbollah terrorists and the IDF are doing. "Both sides are causing many civilian casualties." We still hear this monsterous condemnation of our troops in Iraq. I cannot comprehend how the media does not understand that Hammas, Hezbollah, Al Queda all set out with the INTENTION of killing civilians. We and the Isrealis may accidentally kill civilians while targeting some of the most evil people on the planet. How does this differentiation escape the media. Maybe it does not escape them, maybe they understand fully and aviod reporting these fact to propagate their own agenda.

There is NO moral equivanency between Al Queda and the US Armed Forces, or between Hezbollah and the Isreali Defense Forces. There is a good guy and a bad guy in this fight. We value human life, and they willfully sacrife their children. They hate us so much that they kill their children to take out one life of an enemy, and then celebrate.

Our Armed Forces and the IDF (for the most part) are battling for the good on this earth. Let's let them do their job without making them the equal of murderous terrorists.

Global Warming??

Global Warming. What an ominous phrase. We are warming. Soon Alaska will be a tropical region, Mexico will resemble Mars, California will be under water (boiling water?). What I have never understood about the global warming fiasco is that I can't seem to get an accurate forecast for this weekend. How can they claim to be able to predict the global climate 30 years from now if they can't tell me if it is going to rain at my house later this afternoon???

Most people don't remember (because the media is quick to avoid facts) that "they" (still not sure who that is) were telling us in the 1970's that we were experiencing Global Cooling! People actually posited theories that stated we needed to spread coal dust on the glaciers to melt them to slow down the unfathomable threat of global cooling. We needed to avert a new ice age.

My main annoyance with the global warming (or cooling, depending on what week it is) crowd is their severely over-inflated sense of self-importance. "We are so important as a people that we can cause the earth to change, simply by driving a SUV." For most people, it is natural to be more in touch with the history that has exsisted during their lifetime than any time prior. However, how someone can look at the past 30 years, or 300 years for that matter, and see "trends" in the earth's evolution without considering however many millions of years of weather that preceded their ultra-important birth simply confounds me.

This glorious planet that we have been given has gone through countless cycles of hot and cold, wet and dry. When we hear that South Dakota set a "record" high last month, I have to chuckle. I am pretty sure that NOAA did not have a weather station in Philip in 4,000BC. This planet moves in cycles of millenia, not weeks or years!

Now, that being said, I think that it would be foolish to flatly deny some of the claims of the Global Climate Change crowd (that is what they call themselves now that they don't know which way the climate is moving). I think that the evidence clearly does point to the fact that the earth may be warming. However, let us deflate some of our egos in acknowleding the strong possiblity that we may not be to blame.

A good rule of thumb in life seems to be to follow the money. When I look at the amount of money of mine (ok, and yours as well) that the government gives away in the form of grants for studies, departments wholly dedicated to studying the environment and so forth, it seems that there is a clear motivation for most eco-terrorists, and their scare tactics.

I could go into a whole rant on Kyoto and the true purpose of punishing western civilizations while ignoring the biggest polluters (i.e. China), but quite honestly, I might put myself to sleep. I would also be able to rave for pages on the limitations that these scare tactics place on our energy production, but not today.

God entrusts us with this planet, and our job is to be good stewards of it. Let us recognize that this world has had a bit more history than we are able to sample and compare. And, as well-intentioned as it may be, driving a Prius will not buy the earth an extra 100 million years. Excuse me, I need to go run some errands in my SUV.

Excuse Me!!!!!!!!!!!

This post is simply a flat out rant, and for that I apologize. When did people lose the ability to say "excuse me" in this country. Seemed to me that there was a time ("back in my day......") that people would at least extend the courtesy of saying "excuse me" if they cut in front of you.

You will most likely see this phrase in many of my posts, but I firmly believe that the root of nearly all the problems that we face in this country can be traced back to the increasing lack of personal responsibility.

How much nicer world would we live in if people took the extra two seconds to take that gum wrapper to the trash instead of throwing out their car window? How much nicer if people would only take a second to say "excuse me" if they accidentally cut you off coming out of an isle in Walmart? How much more pleasant if people could just once in a while actually say "I'm sorry, that was my fault" instead of "I had to do it because...........".

Nobody wants to take responsibility for their actions. When people won't own up to causing a door ding in a parking lot (BIG GRRRRRRRRRRRRR on that one!), is it any wonder that we get phrases from the most hallowed elected office in our country like "It depends on what the meaning of "is" is."

Anyway, a breif thank you to those few of you out there who actually still remember to say "excuse me." You will be excused, and appreciated.

Celebrating Honor

I have a dilema. In my conservative heart, I will defend capitalism to the death. However, I have a serious problem with the exploitation of our national holidays. The three that cause me the most stress are Memorial Day, Labor Day and Independance Day. Since when did it become ok to say "Come celebrate our fallen soldiers with new carpet!"

I know that these types of sales have existed for the majority (if not the entirety) of my life, but recently they have really come to bother me. Instead of being asked to attend a memorial service or spend a moment in prayer or silence giving our gratitude for the people that have so valiently served and died defending the freedom that we so casually enjoy, companies want us to simply buy their stuff.

Does anyone else find it offensive that every merchant from clothing to furniture to car sales asks us to celebrate these national day's of honor by lapping up their products? I'm sorry, but I fail to see how getting 50% off a new pair of Docker's on Memorial Day shows any honor or respect to the people to whom we owe the blessed existence that we are afforded in this country.

I think that we have had such an excess of freedom in this country that even events such as 9/11 don't shake us back into the realization that there are people we need to thank for our way of life. While that freedom is a blessing, it has spoiled this country to the point that it is taken for granted.

I could rant for pages on this topic, but instead I will stop at this: I want to take a second to thank those people who have served, and countinue to serve our country, their families, and those who have given even their very lives for me. Please know that I am eternally grateful, and will celebrate our nations holidays by trying to remain humble, and giving the respect and honor to whom it is deserved.