Maybe my calls are having an effect. Today was the first time in quite a long time that I did not see any panhandlers standing at the intersection, which I called the police about yesterday.

Doing my part to annoy the panhandlers.

Every morning I get to drive by a number of these lazy, useless people, holding their cardboard signs containing some lame excuse why I should give them my hard earned money. Today I had another opportunity to annoy some of them. Lately they have figured out that if they push the crosswalk button at one of the main intersections on my commute, they can hold up traffic in the left lane, thus providing themselves with a captive audience. The other day I called the police station and found out that these losers are allowed to practice their deceipt as long as they do not disrupt traffic. I complained about their little crosswalk trick and the police told me that this was not allowed and they dispatched an officer to look into it. Today I saw the same pair of panhandlers but they had modified their little game. One of them would hold the sign while the other walked around the corner with a garbage bag like he was picking up trash. While I appreciate his sincere desire to make the world a cleaner place, I do not appreciate his pushing the crosswalk button every time he walked past it, so I called the police and complained about him again.

It annoys me that these con-artists prey on the gullible compassion of passing drivers, when they should be out working for a living like the rest of us, but I can usually just ignore them. When they find a way to really inconvenience me, am more than happy to return the favor.

There are a number of sites running discussions about Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum's comments in an interview with the Associated Press. The ones I have seen are either mildly or strongly in favor of the gay agenda. In the interview Sen. Santorum said the following regarding an upcoming decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on the constitutionality of antigay sodomy laws. "If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual [gay] sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything." He then added, "All of those things are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family. And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately." It seems the gay rights activists are up in arms about the way he equates homosexuality with acts such as incest, adultry and polygamy (How dare you equate our sacred cow with all of these other cows). In principle I would have to say that I agree with Sen. Santorum's idea that legitimizing one form of immorality will lead to legitimizing others, although being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I would not necessarily include bygamy and polygamy in that list (I am interested to know if Sen. Santorum would include all extra-marital sexual relations on his list). I also agree that immoral practices have deleterious effects on society. Mainly I wanted to comment on the fact that society is silly in how it wants to pick and choose which moral rights we should have. Currently, much of society says that it is OK to have pre-marital sex and to llive together without marriage. If children are born as a result of this, it is perfectly acceptable. The same two individuals may then acceptably split up and repeat the process with two other individuals. One of the individuals may even have sexual relations and possibly children with a third individual without splitting from the first, as long as there are no legally binding commitments involved, like marriage. However if a man enters a commited relationship like marriage with one woman and then decides to become commited to another woman, through marriage, without leaving his wife, even if the wife agrees to this, the man is looked down upon or even prosecuted. So it is perfectly acceptable to have a polygamous-like relationship as long as there is no real commitment to provide for any offspring resulting from that relationship. Sounds a bit silly to me.

This post at Rantburg comes with a pretty funny comment by the poster, Steve.

A section of the post from Reuters:
"Lebanon said on Wednesday it had arrested five people in connection with a booby-trapped car discovered outside a McDonald's fast food outlet and accused them of planning attacks on Lebanon's Western embassies. "We have five detainees so far who have confessed to placing a booby-trapped Renault car at McDonald's," Interior Minister Elias al-Murr told a news conference."

This is followed by the comment from Steve:
"A booby-trapped Renault? That's enough a smoking gun for me, on to Paris!"

Good stuff Steve :-)

Two bits about the Iraq war that caught my eye.

One from ScrappleFace:
"Looting Suddenly Stops in Baghdad
(2003-04-09) -- The looting in Baghdad stopped suddenly today as Iraq's largest organized crime family disappeared from the city.
Thousands of Baghdad residents entered government buildings in an attempt to retrieve some small portion of what had been stolen from them for the past 24 years.
"I got a big vase from one of Uday's offices," said one local woman. "It can never replace the family members Saddam took from me, but all of this stuff belongs to the people and it was taken from us without our permission.""

The other from The Sydney Morning Herald:
""They stand, they fight, sometimes they run when we engage them," Brigadier-General John Kelly said.
"But often they run into our machine guns and we shoot them down like the morons they are."
"They appear willing to die. We are trying our best to help them out in that endeavour," he said."

Another article that expresses my feelings as well or better than I could. This one is by Victor Davis Hanson and talks about how we can let our backstabbing, ex-allies know of our dissapointment with them.

Good read. Where do they get young men like this?

Maybe all of those virtues, like charity and unselfishness, taught to these young men by the vast right-wing, Christian conspiracy have some value after all. CNN probably isn't sharp enough to catch that though.

Yeah, I know it has been a while. Things got busy after th three foot snow storm and my Grandpa's death. I couldn't pass up commenting on this one. The New York Times has an article detailing the warm reception US soldiers received from Iraqis in one town. The last paragraph was the best. Speaking of minefields that the fleeing Iraqi soldiers left and that the US soldiers were clearing, the article says, "Lt. Col. Duke Deluca, noting that the mines had been made in Italy, said, 'Europeans are antiwar, but they are pro-commerce.'"

I wonder what the French, Germans and Russians were selling?

Imagine that, the environmentalist/zero population crowd is wrong again. An op/ed article in the New York Times (of all places) now says that the real danger is from a decrease in the world population growth rates. "The Population Bomb" seems to have been a dud. This article was brought to my attention by Glenn Reynolds at instapundit.com who was linking a comment posted by Ronald Bailey. This post refers to the book "The Skeptical Environmentalist: Measuring the Real State of the World" written by a now enlightened, former Greenpeace member, Bjorn Lomborg, which looks like it could be worth a read.
This brings to mind a scripture in the Doctrine and Covenants, section 104, verse 17, "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare.." I guess that there will be "enough and to spare" for the descendants of those of us who still put stock in God's command to multiply and replenish the earth.

I thought this cartoon was humorous.

An American human shield was killed while trying to block an Israeli bulldozer from destroying a Palestinian murderer's house. While it is tragic that this woman died, it can't be said that she didn't bring it upon herself. I think the last line of the article really points to the cause of the woman's death. A spokesman for the group to which this woman belonged said, "We didn't think they would kill us." I think the truth of the matter is that they just didn't think at all. As little children we are taught not to play in the street because large, heavy, moving objects can kill us. Did these protesters somehow think that they were immune to this physical phenomenon? Should be a warning to the human shields in Iraq. Large, heavy, moving, exlosive objects are even more deadly than the non-explosive types.


Update: Here is a link to some pictures and articles about the girl. I hate to sound uncaring, but I don't hold a lot of sympathy for anyone willing to burn an American flag, even a homemade one.

Today on my way to school I saw a lady driving an SUV with hand-painted flowers all over it. Do the flowers change an SUV from environmentally unfriendly to friendly? Maybe we could paint flowers on the oil drilling equipment and then the wackos wouldn't mind us drilling in Alaska.

Two thoughts:

1) Hugh Hewitt read an article from an Italian lady. She discussed having lived through World War II and being in the Italian resistance. She talked about the many American and other lives that were lost in freeing Italy from Mussolini. She talked about being a war correspondent and how much she abhors guns and war. But she talked about how necessary this war with Iraq is. I was unable to hear the end of the article and I did not catch her name, but I will try to find out and link to it.


Contrast that with:

2) Michael Medved interviewed this 27 year old girl who is trying to organize a group of people to go to Iraq to act as human shields. She attended college at an exclusive private college. She has probably been pampered all her life. Suddenly she has this epiphany that she can do some good in the world by going to Iraq to save lives by laying down and waiting for a bomb to drop on her. Toward the end of the interview it became clear that she probably won't ever make it to Iraq. At one point she said something anti-war/violence and in the same breath talked about how we saved the world from Hitler, Mussolini and Hirihito (sp?).

Two viewpoints. One experienced in oppression, war, death, and violence but sees the need for conflict with Iraq. The other only experienced in editing and trying to find some cause worth living or dying for. I would rather follow the woman who knows what is important than the one who is trying to find it.

In today's society, young people have nothing to believe in. They have no cause to follow. Religion has been meticulously cleansed from their lives. They have no foundation and it is interesting to see what they grasp at in their need for a moral/spiritual base. People think that my choice to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ are foolish and outdated. Even if these teachings were nothing more than fables (not that I doubt them for a minute) wouldn't it be better than taking up the cause of lying in front of a bomb to protect a dictator who has murdered tens of thousands of his own people, which people want him killed so they can have some freedom and liberty?

Here is an article that on the whole Iraq/war on terror/Islam thing by Lee Harris. I haven't read the whole thing yet but he gets into the idea that, sure attacking Iraq would be a kind of a new thing, but as the world changes around us, sometimes we need to change to fit into it. America has never had to deal with terrorism in the way that Israel has and maybe we will have to change many things about how we live our lives to deal with it. Mostly I am just linking the article so I can go back and finish reading it later.

More good news for the day, I am going home. It is almost 10:00 at night, and I have been at school far too long today. Despite my earlier comment, I may have had some success today, but I will have to wait until tomorrow to elvauate my results further. Also of note for the day, the doctor was worried about dec and his small stature. Initial tests suggested a potential problem with nutrient absorption but today's checkup looked good. He had gained two pounds in the last couple weeks and the doc is less concerned now. I feel bad that I didn't get to see my cute boys much today. I love my family.

Even if my science sucks today (well really it is not just today, but particularly today) it has still been a good day. Elizabeth Smart has been found and is alive. I am so glad for her and her family.

If the MOAB (Massive Ordnance Air Blast or Mother of all Bombs) doesn't bring 'em to their knees, we might have to break out the big guns.

Will actors and actresses ever realize how irrelevant they really are? Don't they know that they are merely eye candy and that nobody really cares what they think or what they have to say. Unfortunately they think that their opinion in politics really matters and then they go opening their mouths. It is getting harder and harder to find a bearable movie when the actors and actresses keep adding themselves to my blacklist. It really is too bad. I used to like Ethan Hawke even though he hasn't made a decent movie for quite some time. I even considered naming my next son Ethan (not really in honor of him, but I did like the name). Then he has to go and open his mouth and make me aware of how stupid he is. Who will be the next idiot to step up and show their ignorance.

All of my thoughts about the US and the UN neatly wrapped up in one article with lots of links, and all I had to do was read it. Sure saved me some time. I am all for first walking out of the UN and then sending them packing to find another home. I do disagree with the author of the USS Clueless article on one thing (I couldn't seem to find his/her name on a quick check, sorry). The two-bit nations, like France, that decided to try and keep the UN going after a US and friends walkout shouldn't have too much trouble finding and paying for a new home since there wouldn't be enough left to fill more than a 2-bedroom apartment.

Up with the US, down with the UN.

On my way into work today I saw a lady with a sign posted in her rear window. It said, "inspections work, war won't." I certainly don't want war with Iraq, but I am not so ignorant as to believe that the inspections are working any more now than they have been for the last 12 years. Talk about wearing your ignorance on your sleeve (or rear window as the case may be). To underscore the fact that inspections are failing miserably, despite the fact that Saddam would pretend he is cooperating by destroying a few of his proscribed missiles, the story came out today in the New York Times that new missiles have been found that are designed to carry chemical and biological weapons. If inspections and sanctions were really working, these missiles would not have been "found" but would have been brought forward and destroyed by Saddam himself. The very fact that no smoking gun had been found is evidence that inspections aren't working, because it means that Saddam has his weapons of mass destruction hidden such that they have not been found. I find it incredible that people are so deluded by the anti-war movement retoric that they would just accept it without any logical thought. Is it really a desire for peace or are they just so anti-President Bush that they would lie to themselves to oppose him?

"Developing spirituality and attuning ourselves to the highest influences of godliness is not an easy matter. It takes time and frequently involves a struggle. It will not happen by chance, but is accomplished only through deliberate effort and by calling upon God and keeping his commandments."

(Howard W. Hunter, "Following the Master: Teachings of President Howard W. Hunter," Ensign, Apr. 1995, 23)

A little anti-war humor.

A geek essay. Being one, I thought I would link it.

"O that cunning plan of the evil one! O the vainness, and the frailties, and the foolishness of men! When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves, wherefore, their wisdom is foolishness and it profiteth them not. And they shall perish. But to be learned is good if they hearken unto the counsels of God." Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 9:28-29

I find that this quote often applies today in our "information" society and with our "great" technological advances.

As I hear the ignorance of the "peace at all costs", (they are really backed by a completly different agenda) I wish for someone like Captain Moroni in the Book of Mormon. Moroni lived in a society where liberty was threatened and large sections of the population were ambivilent to this or even rallied against liberty. Moroni's response to this is found in Alma chapter 46, verse 12, which says, "And it came to pass that he rent his coat; and he took a piece thereof, and wrote upon it-In memory of our God, our religion, and freedom, and our peace, our wives, and our children-and he fastened it upon the end of a pole." Moroni called this pole and rent coat the title of liberty. He took the title of liberty and marched throughout the land gathering true patriots to him in support of the things they valued. Moroni then leads his people out against the opponents of liberty, captures them and gives them a choice. Alma chapter 46, verses 35-37 says, "And it came to pass that whomsoever of the Amalickiahites that would not enter into a covenant to support the cause of freedom, that they might maintain a free government, he caused to be put to death; and there were but few who denied the covenant of freedom. And it came to pass also, that he caused the title of liberty to be hoisted upon every tower which was in all the land, which was possessed by the Nephites; and thus Moroni planted the standard of liberty among the Nephites. And they began to have peace again in the land; and thus they did maintain peace in the land until nearly the end of the nineteenth year of the reign of the judges."

I do not really think that we are to the point where the peaceniks deserve the death penalty yet, but if they knew the story, there might be less people denying "the covenant of freedom."

This morning the radio was talking about how students and teachers on a number of campuses, both college and high school, are going to be skipping class to protest the future war with Iraq. I guess that some of the teachers are going to be holding teach-ins. I think it is interesting that these communists are going to be paid with tax money to encourage anti-American attitudes. Sounds a bit like an inverse Politburo.

Along the same vein as my last post. Some people recently got together and started a GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transexual) club here on campus. I wonder if I would be allowed to start a heterosexual, white male (hwm) club or would the outcry be great. As long as you're not too mainstream, you are OK to go public here on campus. Unfotunately, public probably means public funding as well. Boy am I glad I get to help pay for the degredation of good moral values in our society.

Our campus office of diversity recently sent out an email advertising the upcoming campus diversity week. Part of this email was a graphic depicting three hands forming a circle with some other fru-fru around the hands. The hands are colored black, red and yellow presumably to represent african americans, native americans and asian/latin americans. I thought it was interesting that they didn't think to increase the diversity of their image by including a hand to represent european americans or (since we really don't deserve a politically correct term) whites. It could be that I am just being picky about this, but this same office of diversity gave us all literature when I started going to school here. In this literature was a photo representing the student body here on campus, except that they forgot to have a token white person in their photo full of racially diverse individuals. I guess that since we represent the majority population in this country and here on campus, we are just not diverse enough to be included with the more diverse ethnic groups. Let it be known that the definition of diversity does not include whitey.

Let me just say that Glenn Reynolds at InstaPundit.Com has inspired me. I love the idea of being able to record and publish my thoughts in a way that others can access them if they would like. I often find myself ranting and raving while listening to the radio during my drive home from school. Unfortunately, the radio very seldom cares what I have to say, and responds to my rants even less often. Also, by the time I arrive home my thoughts are often lost as the natural instinct to obtain sustaining nourishment takes over my body. This blog will provide a way for me to record those thoughts. Perhaps, somone will even stumble across my words and will be interested enough to respond in some way other than with a grunt.