weissblog

Tonight I went to Amazon and ordered a book in an attempt to do a better job managing my dedicated server. While I was there I got to looking through my wish list and realized that some of the books on that list were put there back in July 2002! That’s kind of sad. So, rather than asking me what I want for Christmas this year, those of you who want to buy me a gift can just buy me a book off my Amazon Wishlist.

This post is just me ranting about a few things that are really starting to get under my skin in relation to the state of politics here in the USA.

<rant>

1. Every since G.W. Bush first ran for office the media and the liberals have delighted in calling him names and claiming that he just wasn’t mentally competent enough to be President. But, President George W. Bush is the very first President to hold a Masters Degree in Business Administration. Even better, his MBA is from Harvard Business School, where postgraduate management training was invented in the early part of the last century.^[1] So, if President Bush has an MBA, why do the liberals claim he’s stupid? Because he’s not a great public speaker. And this brings me to gripe #2.
2. Since when has public speaking been the main skill that we demand in a president? Every Obama supporter that I’ve spoken with mentions his speaking ability as a reason they like him. And on the flip side, Sarah Palin is already catching flack from the liberals because she isn’t a great public speaker. I’m sorry, but this is ridiculous! I couldn’t care less if the President or Vice-President can give a good speech. I care if they can run the country! But we’re told by the media and the liberals that Bush can’t run the country because he’s not a good speaker and Obama will be great at it since he is a good speaker. I’m sorry, but this is total crap and I’m ashamed that the American people are buying into it.
3. And would someone please explain to me why it’s okay for Obama to have absolutely no executive experience, but yet Palin is the one being called inexperienced? And furthermore, why do the media and liberals continue to compare Obama and Palin? Is Palin running for President? Where’s Biden?
4. Oh, that’s right, Biden’s not doing much media since it has become obvious that he’s no Obama when it comes to public speaking. But, there’s no out cry that he’s short on intelligence. No, when you stump a liberal it’s because the reporter was asking the ‘ugly’ questions. But when you stump a conservative it’s because they’re stupid. Yeah, that makes since. People are still pitching fits because Palin didn’t know what the Bush Doctrine was. Heck, Biden doesn’t even know what his own campaign platform is._[2] And no, Senator Biden, I’m not joking
5. And, in closing, when did being a Bible believing American become a bad thing? I’ve seen more snide remarks about Evangelical Christians in this election cycle than ever before. And, quite frankly, I’m sick of it. I’m tired of comments about how Christians are ‘the easily manipulated, highly impressionable, Bible-beating masses._[3]‘ If we’re so easily manipulated why is it that most of us are refusing to follow Obama with that same wide eyed, ‘he’s the one’ expression all the liberals have?I’m also sick of people who choose to believe in evolution, regardless of the facts, slamming my belief in creation as having no scientific value. Those who claim that because Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in the theory of evolution that she is ’someone who completely dismisses evolution in favor of blindly accepting the baseless, fact less notion of creation, despite indisputable evidence to the contrary, obviously has little use or respect for the fundamentals of science’_[3] show their own ignorance and inability to look at scientific data and draw their own conclusions and rather choose to blindly follow the masses. But that does pretty much describe the current Democratic party.

</rant>

I feel better now after getting that off my chest, how about you? No? Maybe you should go write a rant on your blog. It’s therapeutic I tell ya.

[1] http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/02/gwb_hbs_mba.html
[2] http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/09/23/biden-turns-on-the-gaffe-machine.aspx
[3] http://www.seoaly.com/sarah-palin-embarrassingly-unapologetic-ignorance/

Okay, I’m not going to spend the time needed to look up references on these items because I really don’t think anyone will disagree with me on this. If I’m wrong and I get some comments wanting it, I’ll do the research then. But for now, I will speak in sweeping generalities. Deal with it.

As I said in my previous post, there are quite a few reasons why I’m not voting for Obama. But the economy has to be the one topic that more Obama supporters like to question me about more than anything. So, here’s how I see it.

From what I understand, Obama wants to raise the taxes on people and businesses that make more than $250,000 per year. According to one report I saw, Obama’s tax/economy plan will result in the average $250K earning family having to pay tens of thousands more in taxes than under the current system. Alternatively, the average middle class family will save around $3,000 on their taxes. I’m not even going to get into the who tax refunds for the lower class / redistribution of wealth mess. Obviously I’m against it, but that’s not the point I’m looking to cover here.

On the other hand is McCain’s tax plan. It’s my understanding that that same family earning $250K would pay about what they’re paying now. And that same average middle class family will save around $2,600 on their taxes.

So that’s the breakdown on the taxes. Seems that people making $250K or more will vote for McCain and the typical middle income family will vote for Obama. But there-in lies one of my biggest complaints. So many times I’ve been told by Obama supporters that ‘it would be better for me if I voted for Obama’ and judging by these numbers that may be true… if that’s all there was to this. But the fact is, there’s so much more to electing a president than what’s best for me. I’m not voting based on what’s best for me and I feel that anyone who is voting in such a manner is being extremely selfish. We should be electing a president based and what we feel is best for the nation as a whole. Which president will make this country a better place for our children to grow up in? It totally astounds me that people will risk their children’s and grandchildren’s futures just for an extra $300 on their tax return.

Now you’re thinking I’ve made a leap out of the economy topic and that I’m going to start preaching, but I haven’t and I’m not. Here’s why I don’t think Obama is good for our economy. Jobs. It’s that simple. I predict that when Obama’s tax increase hits the wealthy and the corporations that it is going to stifle job growth. Paired with the increased insurance burden from Obama’s socialized medicine plan and what’s going to happen is skyrocketing unemployment rates. This is going to lead to a huge burden on the systems that are in place (and the ones Obama will put into place) to help lower income people. The end result will be whenever Obama’s time is up and the next president is elected, it will be a Republican who will lower the taxes on the wealthy and on businesses in order to spur growth.

It’s really a fundamental difference of opinions. The Democrats generally want to raise the taxes on the rich and lower taxes on the middle class. The Republicans generally want to lower taxes on the rich to spur reinvestment in hopes of creating more jobs. One of Obama’s commercials talks about how McCain will lower the taxes for wealthy and corporations and it’s said as though that’s a bad thing. Personally, that’s how I feel it should be. Give the guys a break who are taking the risks and starting the businesses that create the jobs our country needs.

So that’s my 2¢ on the economy issue and how it relates to Obama and McCain. I believe it’s wrong to penalize people for achieving their dreams and even worse to take what they’ve worked so hard for and let the government redistribute it to those who haven’t earned it.

The US Presidential election is drawing near and I, for one, will be glad when it is over. I have grown weary of people obsessed with Obama trying to debate with me on why Obama is better than McCain, when I have no desire to debate. My mind was made up before he was even nominated and there is no way any his supporters are going to change that.

I’m not writing this because I hope you will agree with me. I’m not running for political office so, quite frankly, I don’t care if you agree or not. And I have no desire to try and argue or debate with you in an effort to change your opinion on this matter. This is simply a response to many who know me and have asked, sometimes repeatedly, why I’m not voting for Obama.

Different people have different issues that matter to them. My primary issue is simply this: I believe abortion is murder. I believe that Roe v. Wade was a bad ruling and is well past due to be reexamined. The Court made a wise move in choosing not to get into a debate on when life begins. I don’t feel that such a topic should be decided by the courts.

However, I disagree that a woman wanting an abortion has anything remotely to do with the right to privacy granted by the 14th Amendment as is stated in the Opinion of The Court. Considering that when the 14th Amendment was adopted in 1868, by which time there were at least 36 laws enacted by state or territorial legislatures limiting abortion, I’m of the persuasion that if the authors of the 14th Amendment had meant to give women the right to kill babies, they would have just put that in the document. In his dissension, Justice Rehnquist stated, “To reach its result, the Court necessarily has had to find within the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment a right that was apparently completely unknown to the drafters of the Amendment.”

So that’s my beef with Roe v. Wade (yes, I could have left that last paragraph out). And Obama’s support of Roe v. Wade is the biggest reason why I won’t vote for him.

Now, several people have tried to brush this off by saying it’s not an issue and they talk about things like the economy and socialized medicine universal health care and what ever issues are important to them. And I get that; to them abortion isn’t an issue. To me, people trying to talk me into voting for a guy because of his economic policy rather than against him because he believes it’s okay to kill babies is like trying to get me to say that money is more important than human life. Now, these people would never say that nor would they ask me to. But that’s what it all boils down to when they tell me that abortion isn’t an issue and then continue on about the economy. Obama himself stated during the final presidential debate, “It is very likely that one of us will be making at least one and probably more than one appointments and Roe vs. Wade probably hangs in the balance.” (Source: Campaign booklet, “Blueprint for Change”, p. 35-36 Feb 2, 2008)

So, that’s reason number 1 why I’m not voting for Obama; because Obama will make protecting rights granted in Roe v. Wade a priority.

After abortion, my next issue is gun control, and on it goes from there. But the economy is on my list and I plan on covering that in part 2 because something just dawned on me yesterday and I want to share it (most of ya probably already know it anyway).

The last couple months have really been rough. For those who deal with me on a regular basis, you’ve seen my general vibe change several times as I’ve walked this stretch of the road called life. I’ve had to deal with depression/worry, a month on antidepressant drugs, recent diagnoses that I have ADD, more worry. All this started due to martial problems (as my previous post made fairly obvious). But problems spread. The worry over my marriage began to affect my ability to focus on work, which in turn affected the amount of work I’m able to do, which resulted in a 25%+ drop in my income, which caused more worry. Rinse, lather, repeat.

When you’re facing problems you have to make choices. Do I ignore the problem, run from it, try to fix it? If I run, where do I go? If I try to fix it, what do I do? I don’t like change. As such I usually try to find a solution that requires the least amount of change.

But this time around, all the solutions require a great deal of change. Until I make those changes I’ll be uncomfortable, unhappy, and quite moody. I’ve been told by others that once I make the changes I’ll be happy again. Logically that makes sense… and I’ve always prided myself in being a logical individual. But still I find myself fighting change, even after agreeing to it. Part of me still wants the change that would be caused by running from this situation. But I’ve given my word that I’d stand my ground and make the changes required of me. Last night at church I said a simple prayer. I asked God to either remove that urge to run or to provide me a door to run through, but not to leave me in a room with no exit and a desire to run. I sat through a great service last night where the Holy Spirit was moving mightily and I left the same way I entered because I couldn’t stop thinking about myself long enough to enter into His presence. So much for me being logical.

So what does all that have to do with the title of this post? Simple. No matter how bad you think the situation you’re in is, your opinion of it is all a mater of perspective and can be changed in an instant. This morning I went from being totally self absorbed to feeling enormous empathy for a complete stranger. All I did was read a blog post on his MySpace page. And now I sit here with the same problems that seemed so enormous before and they look so much more manageable. The problems haven’t changed. I’m still behind at work, I’m still behind on some bills, I still have to make some major changes in myself and in my marriage. But now I can feel a touch of hope in my heart. I feel some encouragement to press on. After reading what Wayne wrote, I can’t help but feel that if he can have the attitude that he has after what he’s been through… where do I get off acting the way I’ve been acting? That’s not to say it’s going to be easy, just easier, now that my attitude has been adjusted.

And for this I thank Wayne for willingly sharing his story. And I thank God for letting me somehow stumble across it earlier today.

And for my readers I leave you with this: Any problem can look like a mountain or a molehill, it all depends on your prospective. If you don’t like your perspective of your situation, just pray as I did last night. God will hear you and He will help.