Quote of the Day

"The law has nothing to do with justice, and injustice can't be left unchallenged. So I decided to be a writer. Writing can't change the world overnight, but writing may have an enormous effect over time, over the long haul." Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko

Joe Biden's Dating Advice for Girls

At the Congressional Swearing-in day for Congressmen earlier this month, there was a photo op with VP Joe Biden. ABC News compiled clips of Joe Biden's dating advice to young girls. The same dating advice to each and every young girl he came across that day.

Oh, Arizona...

(I stole this from Amy who stole this from Robert who stole this from....)

Weekend Roundup: Vernal Equinox! Vernal Equinox!

1) Last Week
Last week was a bit of a roller coaster. Work has been crazy busy, and this morning I found out that the Secretarial Awards Ceremony I’m in charge of has been moved to the Fall. I’m doing everything I can to let them agree to let me go to Switzerland in September with Steven (see #3).
So, I only really pay attention to College Basketball until Tournament time, and since my other teams were out quickly, I turned my enthusiasm to BYU. BYU Men’s Basketball actually won a game in NCAA Tourney which was a major highlight of the week. Of course they lost on Saturday, but still-they proved that they could win a game at the Big Dance! Plus, Michael Loyd Jr.? He’s going to be fun to watch the next couple of years. The sad news is that a co-worker and close friend of mine passed away from cancer Wednesday evening. I worked closely with this co-worker for 4 years, and it’s always tough losing a friend. My heart goes out to her loved ones. However, the weather in DC has been phenomenal. Mid 60’s-70s with no wind and sunny days? Oh, I’d love to package up the weather over the weekend and save it for a rainy day. The tulip trees are just starting to blossom which means cherry blossoms in about 2 weeks.

2) The weekend?
Friday: I had Friday off and spent the morning at the Doctor’s office getting a Xolair shot. My nurse blew a vein in my leg, but she’s totally forgiven (seriously) for bringing me Cabbage and corned beef while I was waiting in the office afterwards. Food heals all wounds in my world. That evening Kelli and I sheepishly admitted to the other that we really liked “The Hangover” and we both wanted to see “She’s out of my League” but common sense ruled out as we went to buy tickets at the movie theater. Instead of paying $21.50 for a movie, we decided to spend $47.50 on a Dust-Vac. There’s logic to that decision somewhere, I think. Saturday: After Kelli got home from working a few hours, we went up to Eastern Market for Lunch. We didn’t find the pickle guy (my fave) or the Crepe Guy (Kelli’s fave) until as we were leaving, but still had a great time taking in the sun while browsing through the stalls. That afternoon I cleaned and watched my Bracket Picks go down the drain (Thanks Kansas!). After the first half of the BYU game, we went to a house farewell party that evening (friends are getting kicked out of their house as their landlady is moving back in) and talked to a good friend for most of the evening. Sunday: I slept in and didn’t go to Stake Conference. Oops. But there was more cleaning to be had, lungs to be convinced that pollen isn’t out to kill them, a dinner at our neighbors and tentative plans for next weekend made. All in all a great weekend.

3) Trip Plans
March is here and I already have two big trips (Ecuador and Switzerland) planned. Ecuador will include the Galapagos Islands, and Switzerland will be 2 weeks of hiking in the Alps with my baby brother. There’s a smaller trip to Montreal in July that we’re hoping to do, and then there’s Christmas and a trip to Portland to see a baby get blessed. I’m already saving for a house down-payment, but it’ll be good for me to do some further cut-backs on my expenditures.
4) The “I will if you will” Book Club
One of my absolute favorite blogs is “Monkey See” on NPR. The primary writer, Linda Holmes” waxes poetic on pop culture and each post is a gem. A couple of weeks ago after admitting she had never read Twilight, she started the “I will if you will” book club on the blog with Twilight as the first book. Today is their first installment of talking about Twilight and Linda chose to talk about the writing with another Monkey See Contributer. Here’s an excerpt about the book:
It's just this wildly florid prose that's wielded with the subtlety and repetition of a jackhammer, all in the service of a story that's going nowhere being told by a girl who seems to be fighting me for the gold medal in a not-liking-her contest.
Monkey See Blog

5) Health Care Bill
All in all, the Health Care Bill has kind of been an exercise in hilarity. I wasn’t real impressed with anyone during the whole debacle, but they finally passed it. Now that it’s passed, I’m hoping that it actually does more than just line the pockets of the Health Care Industry and actually gives the uninsured a chance to have cheaper, more comprehensive health care and it gives those that are insured better health care. Because really, our Health Care system is broken and unfortunately I don’t see how anyone except the government can fix it. Here’s hoping that the Bill will actually help fix the problem. And if someone could explain to me (in a rational, logical manner) how passing this bill would move us over towards a totalitarianism government, I’m all ears.

6) Everyone’s Favorite Mormon: Glen Beck!
I’ll be honest. I’ve only watched about 2 minutes of Glen Beck before changing the channel, so all I know about him is mini clips here and there, and others verbal repudiation of Beck. However, Beck encouraging listeners to flee churches that had hints of social justice shows of a lack of understanding of basic Christian Doctrine
Roger Ebert wrote an enjoyable piece about Beck and some great points that he learned about Mormonism. A highlight from his blog is here:

Nor, for that matter, could a genuine conservative identify with a flywheel like
Beck. Conservatism is a political and ethical philosophy that exists in another
universe from Beck's shopping cart. Remember that TV show where couples raced up
and down aisles seeing who could jam the most loot into their carts? Beck loads
up from the shelves of the Discount Screwball Supermart. He needs material to
fill his daily hours of air time and fuel his fans with one-liners they can pass
off as thought.

One of my friends, Matt, wrote a thoughtful, sometimes humorous (the kicking puppies line is great) post about Mr. Beck and Beck’s summation of the “religious left.” Definitely food for thought. From his post:

The savagely brilliant religious imaginations that Martin Luther King, or Walter
Rauschenbusch, or Dorothy
Day mobilized behind social reform worked because of their
comprehensiveness. They began with a vision of the world in part inspired by but
not bound to the contexts they found themselves in. And the social reforms they
advocated for were not merely an end in themselves, or to satisfy our basic
human impulse toward charity, or to pursue greater egalitarianism as a
self-contained good. Rather, their calls for social reform were bound inexorably
into the most basic and primal aims of Christianity – to, through the atoning
acts of Christ, attain for humanity salvation. Their theologies of social
transformation were based upon their imagination of the Kingdom of God. They
were radical, then, in the best sense, not merely political. They knew that the
world that Christ calls us to is not the world we live in; that the things
Christ asks of us cannot be fully embodied in the tools of politics. One does
not get that same sense of the incarnation of Christ in the politics of Jim
Wallis. And that, because, like those of Beck, they are simply politics.
So,
I feel an incessant, nagging suspicion that perhaps Beck’s salvo is a justified
one. This is not to endorse his somewhat staggering ignorance, bluster, and
paranoia; indeed, Beck suffers acutely from the same problem he diagnoses; he
believes God is on his side rather than engaging in that constant struggle that
should afflict every Christian – worrying that he is on God’s. It is, though, to
point out that as in every age, idolatry may be the most pervasive sin of our
own.

Quote of the Day

Outrage is like a lot of other things that feel good but over time devour
us from the inside out. And it’s even more insidious than most vices because we
don’t even consciously acknowledge that it’s a pleasure. We prefer think of it
as a disagreeable but fundamentally healthy involuntary reaction to negative
stimuli thrust upon us by the world we live in, like pain or nausea, rather than
admit that it’s a shameful kick we eagerly indulge again and again.

http://happydays.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/isnt-it-outrageous/

(Not so) Wordless

I love President Clinton. I don't think he was a horrible president, I think that the Lewinsky deal was stupid, and hamstringed his presidency for the second term.
Some of his policies worked well, some--not so well. He isn't a liberal commie pig, as someone I know would call him, in fact some of his administration's policies that would be considered conservative are those I really don't like. Getting rid of the OPM Personnel Handbook? Reduction in paper, yes but it totally stripped that agency and the Federal HR community is still affected adversely by that knuckleheaded move.
However, I still think he's a brilliant politician, and he's working on a post-presidency legacy that's to be admired.
But there's something about President Clinton, a Joe Biden quality perhaps, that makes me giddy when I see a picture or hear about him. Although he's known to be the most charismatic politician of his generation, there's something about him that is just so human. The brilliant Darrell Hammond's lampoon of President Clinton, the womanizing, slightly redneck southerner? Doesn't seem so far-fetched when you listen to him, or see a picture of him like the one above. That quality? That's what I find appealing-even if it may have cost his wife the Presidency.

Picture originally found at the site below:
http://obamafoodorama.blogspot.com/2009/07/white-house-food-messaging-weight-of.html


(Feel free to agree, disagree, yell at me, whatever. Just be respectful.)

Political Roundup: Patriotic Pride Edition.

Man Set me Up

One perk about living in VA, but working in DC, is that I have front row seats to the Marion Berry Show, but he's not one of my elected officials. The latest caper? Arrested on stalking charges Saturday night. Seriously. DC's former infamous Mayor is still his own sad stranger than fiction 3-ring circus. And yes, even after all of the drug problems of the '80s and '90s, he was elected several years ago to the DC City Council.

Rock-Bottom Republicans

When Rush Limbaugh is the de-facto leader of the Republican Party, it's pretty easy to say the Party has hit rock-bottom. But after this past week? I'm pretty sure we haven't seen bottom yet.

Sarah Palin has all but declared her 2012 presidency. Even though I'm first to admit that she's been an unfair media target (about half of it has been self-inflicted), her style of poltics is way too reactionary for my tastes.

The party is going to be fractured even more if she does run, if that's possible. Which is a boon for the Democrats, but this country needs two strong political parties.

Now with Palin in the mix, and one of their possible 2012 contenders sounding more like a Harlequin Romance writer than a governor, well-I'm not sure this week was rock-bottom for the Republicans. I'm afraid we're going to see more implosions from the Republicans, before the Republican party re-emerges.

That being said, Gov. Marc Sanford--after this past week, it's clear who the political mind is in your family. You didn't get where you were on your own brains sir, or you must've left them in Argentina. Has anyone else noticed Jenny Sanford's fashion taste this past week? Kudos to her!

The "This Man is now a Senator" edition of Wordless

Roundup:

1) While I was in Baltimore.....

President Obama took his girls to my neighborhood's icon, the Dairy Godmother.

2) Lungs:

I've been struggling with asthma/sinus infections since October, so my Pulmonologist ordered a sinus cat-scan and blood work to measure the reactivity of my lungs (IGE level). The Cat-scan shows that I've got fluid in my left maxillary sinus and I've got a referral for an ENT. The IGE level came back 153 (35 is severe), which means my lungs are extremely reactive and we're going through the paperwork to get me on Xolair Therapy. I'm just happy that we've figured out what's going on, and there's medicine out there that'll help me get better.

3) Marty Robbins

Marty Robbins singing "El Paso" live in the '60s.

Ah, Marty Robbins. I could write pages about this guy. If you can't stand this video, blame my parents.

Check out this move at :10 seconds. What a fox!

4) Disney Princesses I can get behind:

Photographer Dina Goldstein decided to photograph "what happened if the Disney Princesses didn't live happily ever after"... The outcomes are above.

Via Gnomie, Via Cup of Jo:

Thoughts on First Lady Michelle Obama’s visit to the Main Interior Building February 9, 2009

Friday afternoon, Interior employees were told that the First Lady would be speaking in the Main Interior Auditorium on Monday. This morning, I noticed many of my co-workers dressed a little nicer than they usually do, especially for a Monday. My hallway was a buzz with contagious excitement, especially when my co-worker found out she was going to be on the stage with the First Lady until about an hour before the assembly when the hallway went completely silent. After realizing everyone was gone, I decided I’d better go downstairs to get in line to attend the event. I went down-stairs and the line started at the auditorium and went up the stairs, and into the 2nd floor hallway. Our building is 2 city blocks long, and the line was already more than 2/3 the length of the building. By the time the auditorium opened up, the line stretched the length of the building and all the way down one of the side hallways (about 2.5 city blocks). I got through without a problem, but one of my new friends that I met in line had a couple of expensive pens (pens weren’t allowed into the auditorium) and he didn’t end up going into the auditorium. We got in okay (100 or so employees were turned away) and the event started about 15 minutes later. Our auditorium isn’t a huge space (fits about 600-700 employees) and it was full. The event started out with a drum circle until the Secretary spoke. He gave a nice speech, and then the First Lady arrived. She was presented a native American shawl that Nedra Darling made her, and then we listened to another song by the Drum circle. After that, the First Lady spoke. She wore a conservative black outfit (very DC chic), and only spoke about 15 minutes or so. Several people said she looks much more petite in person. Personally, I was impressed with her down-to earth manner. She gave us what was essentially a pep talk, telling us that we have a lot of work to do, it was going to be hard, but worth it. She also called us her family’s co-workers and talked about how we were all in it together. Anyway, love her or hate her, but everyone in the room appreciated the fact that she came to talk to us.

From Smokey

I've been sick since before Halloween and I'm currently home on Doctor's orders, which is good because I can finally get over this flu/cold/bronchitis/asthma party-virus that I have, but kind of annoying because the drugs I am on leave me with about a 90 second attention span. That being said, when I woke up this morning, it was the best I've felt since I got sick. Too bad it was at 3:00 am. Anyway, don't feel sorry for me, there's a lot of people out there with worse chronic illnesses than mine.

Anyway, "Smokey" sent this to me this morning, telling me that his wife already follows February 10th. The article is funny, but if you really want a laugh, check out some of the comments. Smash, they are all yours.

The First 83 Days

By Kevin Horrigan

ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Sunday, Nov. 09 2008

Every new president tries to emulate Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous "100 Days"
strategy of 1933 with a blitz of new initiatives, but Barack Obama is so
special he'll need only 83.

Based on in-depth research — via right-wing websites — here's Obama's agenda

between Inauguration Day and Easter Sunday.

Jan. 20: Deliver Inaugural Address (in Farsi) on YouTube.

Jan. 21: Redecorate Oval Office as cave.

Jan. 22: Get fitted for turban (Barack).

Jan. 23: Get fitted for burkha (Michelle & girls).

Jan. 24: Name new puppy: Roe-ver Siswade.

Jan. 25: Veggie Monday.

Jan. 26: Bill Ayers Medal of Freedom ceremony.

Jan. 27: Enroll girls in madrassa.

Jan. 28: Poison water supplies (red states).

Jan. 29: Ahmadinejad state dinner.

Jan. 30: Redistribute wealth.

Jan. 31: Nuke Wasilla.

Feb. 1: Hugo Chavez @ Camp David.

Feb. 2: Outlaw fur.

Feb. 3: Repeal Second Amendment.

Feb. 4: Talk-Like-A-Kenyan Day.

Feb. 5: Dick Cheney? Two words: extraordinary rendition.

Feb. 6: Rumsfeld trial begins at The Hague.

Feb. 7: Soak rich.

Feb. 8: Soak middle class.

Feb. 9: Declare basketball national pastime.

Feb. 10: Arugula: It's what's for dinner.

Feb. 11: Tim Robbins Film Festival.

Feb. 12: Washington Monument renamed for Harold Washington.

Feb. 13: Replace Gideon Bibles with Korans.

Feb. 14: Jeremiah Wright Crusade at Yankee Stadium.

Feb. 15: Outlaw snow machines.

Feb. 16: Redeploy troops from Iraq to Texas.

Feb. 17: National Flag-burning Day.

Feb. 18: Date w/Barney Frank.

Feb. 19: Mandatory sex education in utero.

Feb. 20: Declare Karl Marx Holiday.

Feb. 21: Have IRS audit Joe the Plumber.

Feb. 22: Name Rashid Khalidi America's ambassador to the U.N.

Feb. 23: Tell FBI to make sure Sarah Palin returned clothes.

Feb. 24: Hunt down bin Laden for Medal of Freedom.

Feb. 25: Ash Wednesday; Spring Ramadan begins.

Feb. 26: Chicago White Sox: America's Team.

Feb. 27: Pardon Tony Rezko.

Feb. 28: Pardon Rod Blagojevich.

March 1: Pardon Al Capone.

March 2: Run-Down-America Day.

March 3: Donate fake birth certificate to National Archives.

March 4: Raise taxes.

March 5: Destroy incentives.

March 6: Get Alito to resign, replace w/ Hillary Clinton.

March 7: Get Scalia to resign, replace w/ Bill Clinton.

March 8: Get Roberts to resign, replace w/ Chelsea Clinton.

March 9: Replace Pledge of Allegiance with Fist Bump of Allegiance.

March 10: Annex Mexico. Presto! No more illegal immigrants.

March 11: Redistribute Mexico's wealth.

March 12: Mother's Day, out. Baby Mama's Day, in.

March 13: Deport Toby Keith.

March 14: National Prayer (Rug) Breakfast.

March 15: Declare self as Anti-Christ.

March 16: Give Sarah Palin a much closer view of Russia.

March 17: Mock St. Patrick.

March 18: Put McCain on ice floe.

March 19: Nationalize oil companies.

March 20: Nationalize Google.

March 21: Outlaw NASCAR.

March 22: Work on jump shot.

March 23: Declare caribou an endangered species.

March 24: Redistribute more wealth.

March 25: Legalize gay marriage.

March 26: Legalize transgender marriage.

March 27: Replace "E pluribus unum" with just plain "unum."

March 28: Ban bowling.

March 29: Create National Leftist Militia.

March 30: Betray Israel.

March 31: Global warming initiative: dress in Arab robes.

April 1: Rename Canada "Yeswecanada."

April 2: Create joint U.S.-Europe currency: "baracko."

April 3: Fellow celebrity Paris Hilton to head CIA.

April 4: Jon Voight, Hank Williams Jr. join McCain on ice floe.

April 5: Close Guantanamo.

April 6: Except for Rush Limbaugh.

April 6: Raise taxes again.

April 7: Redistribute remaining wealth.

April 8: National Pal-Around-With-Terrorists Day.

April 9: Socialize medicine.

April 10: Socialize everything else.

April 11: Cancel White House Easter Egg Roll.

April 12: Cancel Easter.

President Bush in 2000 and 2008

Above: President Bush November 10, 2008.

Below: President Bush 2000.

Today for some reason, I was thinking about how much the Presidency weighs on the individual, and how with the past Presidents of the US, you could see visible wear and tear beyond just 8 years of aging. So, here's President Bush today, and a picture of him 8 years ago. What do you think?

Say what you will about the man, but he is the President, and please be respectful in your comments-no matter how you feel about him.

Wordless II

Sherpa’s Election Day Manifesto

This has been a long day coming but due to my rising blood pressure, I can’t keep quiet any longer. So here’s my little diatribe on politics and this campaign that (thanks heaven) is winding down.

Come on people! Are your political beliefs more important to you than the way you treat each other?
One of the keystones to a great Democracy is the free interchange of ideas. Yes, this is an important election year, but is the stakes so great that we forget that there are some things more important than whether or not so and so wins the ticket.
Calling someone who disagrees with you politically stupid or an idiot? That’s not funny, and it doesn’t exactly create a cordial environment.
Using the “You’re either with us or against us” slogan? That’s so 2001. Even then, it wasn’t the most logical bit of persuasion.
I’m not going to cite scriptures or conference talks or even Mr. Rogers, but let’s try and get a long a little better. Tolerance isn’t a dirty word.
I know individuals feel the stakes are very high in this election, and because of that people are getting a little carried away, but there’s no reason we can’t still discuss the issues, disagree and still be friends.
Arguing is fun, but at the end of the day, agreeing to disagree and carrying on a civil conversation? Priceless.
Personally, one Political Party isn’t out to destroy the free world, and even in warfare there’s the Geneva

Politics is not a Hallmark Movie!
Don’t try to tug at my heart-strings with your “I’m Proud to be an American schpeel.” Lee Greenwood has its place…at rodeos or country fairs, but not in trying to win over someone to your cause.
Don’t try to get emotional and tell me the end of your world is nigh unless I vote a certain way. I may agree with you and still get really annoyed with the fact that you are turning politics into a after school special. See, its really hard to argue normative values, and normative positions should probably stay out of political speech. The subjective is just that, subject to change from person to person.

"Your America may not be my America but it still can be our America"
Everyone has a little different idea of what America is. What America is to me is probably different than it is to you, and everyone else. However, preaching to me what America is isn’t going to sway me in your direction. America is a plurality and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Personally, I know a lot of very educated people who are well-versed in political literature and the Founding father’s canon. These people are libertarians, liberals, conservatives, and leftists. I’ve seen where people of similar backgrounds look at the same article and process it differently, and arrive to different conclusions politically. That doesn’t mean that one is smarter or dumber than another.

“The Founding Fathers are like the Scriptures and Ghostbusters-Don’t use them for Evil…”

Using the Founding father’s as a trump card is lame. Yes, they were very influential and what they did was inspired and even sacred. I enjoy reading their writings many people do, but as a trump card saying argument is over? I’m sorry, but that’s lame. There’s been inspired men that have led this country since then, and there’s inspired political thought being written even now.

“Republicans are for less government and Democrats are for more government”
“Republicans are out to make sure everyone has a gun and take out abortionists and are religious bigots”
Although there’s some truth to the first statement above, that’s a straw man fallacy. So is the second statement.

As far as Prop. 8 goes-to me that's a state's right issue. I understand why the LDS church supports it, and I'm okay with that. But i'm not a California resident, and even though the outcome may affect us all in the future, some of the behavior I've seen on both sides makes me shudder. Even though its a very passionate subject, I'm still a little horrified on the nature of discourse. On both sides. Maybe I'm wrong, but publically displaying acts of intolerance of your position doesn't make your position more right. Calling others religious bigots isn't exactly civil.

Then there's ad-hominem. Really, we're all hypocrites. Saying so and so is a hypocrite is a given. Your candidate is a hypocrite. I'm a hypocrite, you're a hypocrite. Why? Because no one is perfect. Hypocrisy is really, really easy to find, and its one of the oldest political tricks in the book.

Is it a pipedream to be wish for a civil atmosphere to discuss debates? Perhaps. Has there ever been a civil atmosphere politically? Even the Founding Fathers never had it, but personally, I honestly believe its not necessarily the issue you're backing but how you treat your opposition. Oh sure, there's a way to win politically, but it the right way to win? You tell me. There will always be dirty politics, as long as there's asses and elephants in our midst perhaps. Oh sure, maybe I should be better off singing kumbaya along a campfire, but as someone who adores the political process, government and the ilk, and is somehow less and less partisan the past few years, this is where I'm coming from. Don't try to discredit me or others by telling me how much education, how well read or versed you are in politics. Just discuss with me, and your education and intellect will come through. Personally, telling me who or what you are does little for me, just be and do and I'll respect you all the more-
If you reached this far, thanks for reading my rants. I could go into more detail, and there's a few other bits I could talk about but this will suffice for this election. I apologized if I alienated some people who read this blog. I still love ya!

"I'm a True Maverick-A Republican with no money" or "The Sad Grandpa"

I like McCain. I honestly think he should've been president in 2000, and I really have no problem with him even with all the election bs. So, these are great, but a little bittersweet.

Some Dream of World Peace, I Dream of this....

What would a maverick do in this situation?

I wasn't going to blog Fey as Palin anymore. And then, I watched the latest clip, and there was another Sherpa crush, Miss Latifah, and Floyd the Flower Guy from 30 Rock. So, here you go.

We the Emos

It's been a week or so since I've had a political post (granted, I don't really "talk politics" on here much), and I've had withdrawals. Here's two of my favorite images from the Political hubbub of this election....

"I can see Russia from my house"

In an Alternate Universe (OK-2004)

(2008)
Does Fey have a tie fetish? Actually, I think its a great pose. If I were in a picture with either, I'd love to strike the same pose also. Abso-freaking-lutely.