First Weekend

Well the first several days of 2008 have come and gone. I had a busy week, and I'm bound to have many more. Thursday I had supper over at Kate's. We had to move from Wednesday because I ended up working until 8:30 pm. This weekend I was fending off a cold. I baked some chicken and potatoes Saturday and Kate came over. On Sunday Kate and I made mini burgers with some leftover dinner rolls. They came out really good, I highly recommend it. I picked up the In Rainbows album from Radiohead. They never fail to please me, Yorke has some of his best vocals to date on the album.

When I brought Kate home I had some hot chocolate with whipped cream before heading back to Melrose! Thanks Kate, it was a sweet goodbye... literally. Til Wednesday!

POLITICS:
It has been an eventful couple of weeks with the GOP showing furthermore that it is no longer the party of fiscal conservatism in the heartland. Rather the GOP has become the fundamentalist party. Huckabee a fiscal liberal, once was baptist minister. Because of this the Evangelicals turned out in droves to vote for him because he is a "soldier of Christ". The Christian right has completely conquered the Republican party. The people of Iowa did not care that Huckabee is an nontraditional Republican because the only thing that matters is Abortion, Evolution, prayer in school, and many other ridiculous issues that don't deserve the time of day because the Constitution & legal precedent already detail how they should be dealt with. I suspect most of the South and Midwest will vote in a similar manner.

Unless McCain can make a last stand in NH the party Barry Goldwater helped mold will have transformed into the abomination and affront to American politics that Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and Christian Coalition organizations have helped create. These people have an agenda, and most people laugh it off, however it is no laughing matter. There is an agenda to force an ideology and lifestyle upon an entire nation, which ultimately if it gains enough credence will give way to persecution of those who do not agree. Already in just the past decade the word "secular" has become a dirty word in the eyes of many. Evolution in much of the country is even frowned upon, even though at this junction it is almost silly to even refer to it as a "theory". Coupled with an immigration issue that is championed by the far right, we are on the brink of a civil rights catastrophe that our country has not faced since the struggles in the 1950s and 60s.

Not to divert too much: Last weekend Kate & I watched a documentary called "Jesus Camp" which I highly recommend. It basically comes down to brainwashing/ Christian soldier camps for American youth. The rhetoric taught to the kids is similar to that of the films you occasionally see of radical Islamic Fundamentalist schools. It is scary to see it happen right here in our own country. Granted it is more subliminal in its brainwashing then direct calls to Islamic children to be martyrs, however off camera the directors of the camp have no qualms in saying that the radical Islamic schools are almost the inspiration. They also believe it is the destiny of the United States to be a Christian controlled Nation, and believe it was created to be such (in spite of that pesky 1st amendment). Of all people Ted Haggard is the person who speaks poorly about the film on the Wikipedia page I linked to above (recently in a scandal involving, among other things, homosexual prostitution, and methamphetamine possession).

Back on topic: Kate and I watched the debates this Saturday night and I couldn't help but notice the lack of substance on the Democratic side. They talked about their feelings, and how a change is necessary... but outside of Hillary mandating everyone has health care, and Obama countering that it is wrong to force people and fine them if they don't have insurance..... there were virtually no clear descriptions of plans. All of them claim they'll pull troops out of Iraq, but don't explain how they'll do it without destabilizing the nation. All of them champion the middle class, and talk of expanding programs, but no one mentions how they'll fund them, well except for Hillary who has said she'll raise taxes (big surprise). Edwards blinks 70 blinks a minute, and his constant insincere B.S. wears on you as he gives line after line, sound byte after sound byte. Obama is charming, and has become more confident and better versed at this point in the game, but again, it is mostly talk about hope and change. Richardson touts his record, but is not charismatic, and while he may be honest, his policies are probably the second worst next to Edwards. Anyway....

So I'm divided. The GOP with the exception of McCain and Giuliani are all trying to be more fire & brimstone than the other. Romney... well he doesn't count really. He tries but since he just tried to be a liberal 5 years ago....and now he's suddenly vying for the Christian right mouthpiece, and since 90% of all of his political ads are smear/ attack ads, largely based on falsified and spun information... He is almost doing himself in. I almost think Giuliani is all done, but we'll have to see how he does in more urban states. If McCain does well in NH, he could have a push going into those states.... otherwise the Goldwater GOP is dead. Libertarianism is dead. Pick who you want to vote for, the Socialist/Communists (Democrats) or the Fascists (Republicans). Either way you are going to lose some sort of personal rights. And both will increase the National Debt, Weaken the Dollar, and potentially make the world a less stable place.

Time for a new party to restore common sense thinking!