Gov. Huntsman sums up my feelings about the Republican party lately.
“That’s why no one is paying any attention…Our moral soapbox was completely taken away from us because of our behavior in the last few years. For us to now criticize analogous behavior is hypocrisy. We’ve got to come at it a different way. We’ve got to prove the point. It can’t be as the Chinese would say, ‘fei hua,’ [or] empty words.”
For a candidate who won the White House on a mantle of bringing the country’s two political parties together, Washington could not be more divided on Obama‘s initial weeks in the Oval Office and the policies he has put in place.
The speed with which Mr. Obama and his administration passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is amazing. I commend the President for meeting with conservatives and engaging their ideas. His effort was whole-hearted.
However, I wish more time would have been invested in bringing conservatives on board. Rising monthly unemployment and deteriorating key indicators were used as justification for swift action, but it would have been worthwhile for the economy to have lost a few more thousand jobs if it resulted in bipartisan unity. Republicans would have caved given more time, their constituents would have seen to that.
I don’t know if I’d support the the Reinvesment Act even if more conservatives did, but at least I’d be more optimistic about the most expensive bill ever passed if I felt all lawmakers believed it was the right choice.
Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot in things racial, we have always been, and we, I believe, continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards.
Is anyone else tired of being told they’re racist?
What more can I do? I worship with my brothers and sisters. I tutor my brothers and sisters in science and reading. I try to serve my brothers and sisters. What more can I give? Is there a merit badger or something I can wear to show Eric Holder I love everyone?
I wish his speech would have been less accusative and more inviting. He might have suggested five ways to un-cowardize ourselves.
Discussions about race are tricky, but they’re especially tricky when one party always leaves the conversation feeling like a racist.
Especially when they’re doing the best they can to not be cowards.
I wish I could say I was related to someone famous, but really, as my dad likes to say, “We come from a long line of drunk plumbers and baptist preachers; we’re just good Southern white trash.”
My scientific genealogy is a little different. I recently committed to work in the Cristian Castillo-Davis lab at the University of Maryland. I’ll be here for the next four…five years. This lab can pull its roots all the way back to Morgan (big time fruit fly guy). Morgan’s research traces its evolutionary ideas to Darwin of course.
Cristian was on NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi show the other day talking about Darwin and evolution.
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The Church has begun to put inspirational messages on YouTube. Maybe it was the story, or maybe it was hearing Pres. Hinckley’s voice that really made this video a perfect Monday Morning boost.
JJ Abrams has lost it! I follow his new show, The Fringe, but his last episode was based on a few mistruths. The cool thing is that I wouldn’t have realized this a semester ago.
Viruses are non-living sacks of information. They’re small microprocessors that follow a set of commands when they come in contact with a living host.
In this Fringe episode a rogue scientist giganticizes an influenza particle, a supersized common cold that crawls out victims’ throats (scene below). The protagonists exclaim, “It’s a single cell!” and compare it to an ostrich egg, which also happens to be a single cell (scene below). Problem is, the common cold is a virus. And viruses ain’t cells.
I love the shoutout to Ebola.
At it’s heart is a public misconception: antibiotics, which fight bacteria, do not cure the common cold, a virus.
Fortunately, I think AB will learn this important distinction. The tutoring hasn’t come from me but from our know-me-all-too-well friends the Madsens. They gave Anderson these giganticized play animals for Christmas. I steal a play whenever I can.
Anderson Eats Rhinovirus
Just in case you can’t tell, the little blue icosahedron is rhinovirus. The sluglike green thing is influenza.
They got them from GiantMicrobes which also manufactures best-selling grotesqueries like:
Bed Bug (Cimex lectularius)
Common Cold (Rhinovirus)
E. coli (Escherichia coli)
Flu (Orthomyxovirus)
Mad Cow (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy)
MRSA (Multiple-Resistant staphylococcus aureus)
I have many friends who voted for Mr. Obama. To those who are Mormon or Catholic I write particularly.
President Obama will reverse the “Global Gag Rule” (here and here). The policy requires any non-governmental organization to agree before receiving U.S. funds that they will “neither perform nor actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations.” Effectively, due to the reversal, some tax payer money will now fund abortions in third-world clinics.
Members of the LDS Church know how their leaders feel about this issue. We know how Catholic leaders feel about this. How do you justify your vote in the contrary?
Some disagree saying “We didn’t know how he was going to vote on this issue.” You knew how Mr. Obama felt concerning this issue when you elected him. You knew he was a pro-choicer. A vote for him was a vicarious vote in support of abortion, for you can’t have his Iraq-war position without his abortion stance.
[An] Indian boy climbed a high mountain. It was cold up there. At his feet was a snake, a rattlesnake. The snake was cold and pleaded with the young man to pick it up and take it down where it was warmer.
The Indian boy listened to the enticings of the serpent. He gave in. He gathered it up into his arms and covered it with his shirt. He carried it down the mountain to where it was warm. He gently put it on the grass. When the snake was warm it raised its head and struck the boy with its poisonous fangs.
The boy cursed at the snake for striking him as an answer to his kindness. The snake replied, “You knew what I was when you picked me up.”
–Emphasis added, “Restoration of the Aaronic Priesthood,” Ensign, July 1989, 77).
You knew what he was when you voted for him.
Some say they elect a president based on their political considerations and not their moral ones. I don’t think the two are separate, and I believe every moral consideration should offset every political one, as policies are a derivative of morality. Others argue that they support him in most of his stances except this one. I ask, “Is the cumulative effect of his other policies enough to offset the reversal on this ban especially given what we as Saints know?” Essentially, you believe,
economy > abortion
environment > abortion
taxes, national debt > abortion
social policies > abortion
To those who wish to bring up the war I’ll remind you that in 2005 alone 1.21 million abortions were performed. There is more misery attributed to prenatal choices than there ever was failed US policies. Oh, and these millions were only in the US (source). This doesn’t include the number of worldwide abortions which will surely increase due to accelerated funding from Mr. Obama’s penwork. How do you reconcile your choice for President Obama when he didn’t differ (substantially) on major issues from other presidential candidates who were pro-lifers? Maybe the novelty and excitement in being a part of history electing the first African-American president helped you forget your position on these issues?
No Democrat should ever get your vote unless s/he’s a member of this organization:
We had crazy-good tickets for the Inauguration. It just doesn’t seem right that we sat next to the Medal of Honor Recipients. Our seats were just as good as the men and women who lost arms and legs for their country.
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