Sunday, December 30, 2007

Happy Caucus--err, I mean New Year

The biggest thing this week isn't the New Year, unfortunetely; it is the Iowa Caucuses. It's game time, folks. And Romney is going to pull off the upset.

I pretty much lived out two movie scenes last night. The family went out to eat and me and Jamie were chatting. I can't remember how we got into it but she wanted to test out my observantness? I remembered a scene from Bourne Identity, so I told her told her if anything happened there were exits behind her and to my right. I told her I could take the guy to my left and that the most likely place there would be a gun was underneath the cash register. A couple minutes later she curiously asked, "but how do you know there's a gun there?" Haha, that was delightning.

So the waitress brought out boxes for some in the fam at the end of the meal so they could take home the food. I figured it would be better for me to also finish my meal at home, so I asked her for a box. So she went to get my box and as she walked away from the table, asked, "so you can't finish it?" with this challenging face. At that moment she was Biff Tannon and I was Marty McFly...and the music began. So I ate a little, but mostly spread the food around my plate. She came back and took back the box because I "ate" my food.

She fell for it. I haven't lost a step since I was a kid. Yeah, I still got it.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Santa's Political Leanings

I wrote him a letter wanting to know where he stood on the issues, but nothing. So I tried emailing him and I got an instant reply saying that he only accepts Christmas lists at this time of the year. I even tried staying awake so I could ask him personally, but I fell asleep in Mom and Dad's room while watching Home Alone. I woke up around 1:30, but I missed him, and then I couldn't get back to sleep for a couple hours.

Hmm, maybe I can figure it out on my own. He's a pretty traditional person, it doesn't look he's much of one for change, like conservatives generally. He's been overweight since before I can remember, meaning he probably doesn't get caught up in the overweight hysteria coming from liberal media outlets. I'm sure he's worried about where his social security checks are going to come from. I wonder if he just invests those checks into stocks and bonds because he needs added income to support Sister Claus, the reindeer, and the elves. I'm really not sure where he'd be on the war in Iraq. I mean sure he's against war (everybody pretty much is), but he would probably ike it if more were allowed to celebrate Christmas. He probably isn't too concerned about rising oil prices because his sleigh runs on Reindeer power. But food prices to feed the reindeer also go up with high oil prices, so I take that back. He's probably a small government type of guy, especially after what happened in New York City. Free trade? He probably likes capitalism and more competition in markets to bring down costs for supplies in his factories. But his favorite color is red, so ya never know. As a small business owner I'm sure he is against mininum wage increases and probably doesn't like unions. I wonder if he has problems with an Elves Union or a Reindeer Union. I'm guessing he's pretty concerned about climate change and has probably bought into the myth that global warming is all man-made despite the fact that it's also happening on Mars, Jupiter, and other planets. I bet he's out there with the Inuits protesting for more government action on climate change. You'd think he wouldn't mind the North Pole being a little warmer, but then again he probably just doesn't like change. He probably wouldn't mind univeral health care cause that would probably simply some gifts. If he knew he could get free health care he'd probably go ahead and eat all the cookies and drink all the milk offered to him, I think I remember more than one occassion where he passed on our cookies and milk. I guess I could see Santa as a liberal or a conservative, but then again...

...WHO CARES! This was the first thing I thought of this morning, so I had to get it off my chest.
Yeah, I know, I'm a loser. I really need to take a break from politics.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Snow Miser (He looks a lot like Pete Carroll)

The other day I realized that all my BYU friends were going home for Christmas...and that when they go back, I'll be going back too. It hadn't really registered until then that I'm actually going back, I really haven't thought about it that much. I prayed for my friends last week, with finals and everything. Gosh I hate finals. Only one finals week left for me...but it'll be a doozy, the worst one.

I've been making TONS of phone calls for the campaign. They give me a Verizon phone to make the phone calls with, but we odn't have reception out here so I make most of my phone calls in the K-Mart parking in my car. It gets so cold doing it and I always want to end a little early and just do more the next day. But here's the thing...it's the same with running, exercising, or other things where you want to end a little early. It's so easy to end a little early or to make excuses for not doing something, but that's what's interesting about discipline...it's tough! But it feels really good going to the end, toughening it out, and accomplishing your goals.

Next Sunday is my last Sunday in the singles ward here. I'm going to miss it. A lot of fun people and it's been kind of like being a missionary again. Last week I gave a talk and taught 2 lessons, takes me back to my good ole missionary days.

Peter Jackson is doing the Hobbit! He's actually doing 2 movies, which will come out in 2010 and 2011. He hasn't said if he wants to direct it, but he is an executive producer. Gosh I'm excited for those movies! Christmas time! I love it! Coolness in the air, the smell of firewood, snow, and pine trees. Christmas cookies, Christmas movies like Claymation Christmas, A Christmas Carol, A Year without a Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, Jack Frost, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, A Very Brady Christmas, Miracle on 34th street, Disney Christmas videos, etc. And then Christmas songs in Church. My favorites are the First Noel, Away in a Manger, Silent Night, Do You Hear What I Hear, and Angels We have Heard on High. It's Christmas! It's Christ, it's family, it's tradititions, it's everything.

My friend Honorable Moses died in Uganda. Captain Frank emailed me and said he was killed in an accident. It hurts to hear that. He was a fun kid to be around and ambitious to become a politician, that's why I called him Honorable Moses. When I'd go to the Crane School in Mukono, I would sit by Moses and we'd chat and joke around. Even though he was only 12, he knew a lot about Ugandan politics and quite a bit about American politics, we would talk a lot about politics and such. Once, when I was teaching a class about geography, I asked lots of questions about what language the people spoke in the different countries and he was able to answer many of the questions. I noticed that these kids liked talking about the world. They liked feeling a part of the bigger world. The whole time I was there he'd costantly say that he wanted me to try out the sugar cane because it was the best. One day I didn't see him at school and learned that the students who didn't have the required school materials had to leave and couldn't come back until they had them. I ran into him on the way home, he took me his home and gave me sugar cane. His home was very small and it was just obvious that his family was very poor. But Moses was always smiling and optimistic. Good kid.


He's on my right side, in the blue sweater.


That's him in the front in the blue sweater.



In the center in red.


Honorable Moses

Monday, December 10, 2007

HuckaBIGOT


Speaking of politics...I am very disappointed in Iowans right now. I can't believe how they have flipped so much on Mitt. Huckabee is winning right now here, because he is portraying himself as the "Christian candidate." I am stunned that Iowans are making religion an issue and voting for Huckabee because he's not Mormon. If Huckabee were to get the nomination I am really not sure if I could vote for him, because he's the only candidate that has offended me personally. He is playing the God card in his campaign by saying that the reason he's pulled ahead is because of God's help. Glenn Beck asked Huck if he could vote for a Mormon and Huck said he didn't know...which is him playing politics and actually saying no. His campaign has become "Mormons vs Us normal Christians." In an interview with the New York Times, he asked the interviewer, "don't Mormons believe Satan and Jesus are brothers?" What a bigot! Shame on him for his religious intolerance. Shame on him for saying that God loves him and his religion more than the other candidates. I really liked him at first but he is using Romney's religion to elevate himself and is basing his whole campaign on religion. This kid is going down.

Let's talk about Huckabigot's record: He was a liberal in a conservative state. You can look up videos on YouTube of him saying that he was willing to pretty much write a blank check of his support of raising taxes. He raised taxes 19 times, more than Bill Clinton. He took compassionate conservatism to the extreme and decided to force those beliefs on others. With those tax increases he gave tuition breaks to the kids of illegal immigrants. He pardoned 1,000 criminals, including 11 murderers, and one murdered a second time after he was released. Several of those pardons came about because friends and family members encouraged it, like his sister encouraging him to release a friend from high school, and pastors asking for criminals from their congregations to be released. I have the info if you want it. So our "Christian leader" candidate should have a squeaky clean past right? Obviously when I shape the question like that the answer is no. There were 19 reported ethical violations against him and he was convicted on 5 of them. The only thing conservative about him is his social conservative positions.

Mitt Romney is superior to the Huckster in many ways. For one, he isn't a bigot and isn't defining his campaign by his religion. It really bothers me that Hucky is doing that. But Romney does say that no matter what he will not betray his faith and if he loses the nomination because of it, so be it. Let's talk about the issues. Romney was a conservative in the extremely liberal state of Massachusetts. His biggest weakness is how he was once pro-choice and became pro-life as governor. People seem to forget that the great conservative, Ronald Reagan, also became pro-life, as did both President Bushes. Interesting how much trash he gets for that when Bill Clinton and Al Gore got no trash for changing from pro-life to pro-choice.
Everything Romney touches turns into gold. He's a good family man, who turned a small business into a very successful large business, came in and saved the Olympics, then was elected governor of the most liberal state in the country where he turned their $3 billion deficit into a surplus without raising broad based taxes. He's right on when it comes to issues- securing our border, going on the offensive in the War on Terror, fighting same-sex marriage, overturning Roe v. Wade, fixing our economy, lowering taxes, etc. This guy has got it together. He's the only candidate that unites fiscal, military, and social conservatives.

Anyway, Romney is it! He is the most qualified person to be our next president and he needs everyone's help. Huckabigot is pandering to the anti-Mormon block, and I want to fight back. There are several things people can do, including sending out neighbor-to-neighbor cards to friends in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, Nevada, and Florida. If anybody reading this really wants to help out, let me know, I can give you lots of ideas to help out, but number one is encourage voters in these states to vote for Romney.

I should also mention that Hucky apologized to Mitt, not Mormons in general, for asking that question. The Christian part of me wants to forgive him, but my weasel radar is also going off. Turns out the Huckster spoke at a Baptist Anti-Mormon Convention in SLC in 98. So even though he says he doesn't know anything about Mormonism and asked the question out of ignorance, I still wonder. You be the judge. Here's a good article about why Romney is our man:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YmMxYTUyYzA1YTk2YzE5NGVmNjc0OGFjYWJmNzMzNjI=&p=1

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

It's on, Kasey Beck!


I've become facebook friends with the enemy. When I google "Kasey Beck," there are a lot more web sites with the other Kasey Becks out there that show up. I found the one that gets most of sites...oh man, she's going down, give me a couple years and I'll send her to page 20.

Well, I saw Air Force One fly over the area, I saw the protestors and like 20 motorcycles with little flags parked, but I wasn't able to actually see Pres. Bush. It said in the paper that he was giving a public speech, but it turned out to not be allowed for the public- go figure. Hillary was in Council Bluffs on Monday, but ya know, I just don't have any desire to see her. I seriously cringe everytime I hear her talk. I really hope Obama or Edwards beats her in the primaries. I was hoping that she would win cause she would be so easy for Mitt to take down, but I think that the chances are better that the Clintons would just disappear completely if she couldn't even become the nominee. Plus I REALLY don't want her to win and so lets not push it.

Speaking of Romney...Wow! That speech last Thursday was amazing! Everyone should watch his "Faith in America" speech because I think this will go in the books as one of the great speeches in America's history. When somebody like Rush Limbaugh praises it and talks about it half his show it's gotta be good. This speech really made me proud to work for Romney and just proud to be a part of this church where these things are taught.

I love love love love love college fooball. This season has been absolutely incredible with all the upsets, and then the last day of the regular season- both #1 and #2 go down. This season didn't work out to be the greatest for BYU, due to our losses to UCLA and Tulsa, but everyone thought this season would be disappointing. It was anything but. I'm really excited for the next two years- I'm thinking National Championship contention.

Be sure to check out Becca's Blog