andy – Page 77 – linsenbardt.net

11. Encourages minions to run three miles in 100 degree heat then taunts them as he rides his bicycle.

10. Greets interns by letting one rip.

9. Refers to everyone only by the nickname he has bestowed.

8. Should have been gone after four years, but he just won’t leave.

7. Amasses enormous institutional debt throwing private parties for his friends.

6. Cheats to secure a second term.

5. Resorts to belligerence rather than admit a mistake.

4. Has summers off.

3. Encourages others to perform community service, but only shows up for the cameras.

2. Smart kid provides him answers using a hidden audio transmitter.

1. May be kicked out of his house before the end of term.

October 30, 2006

Top 11 signs Dubya thinks he's president of a college fraternity

From Too Stupid To Be President.com

11. Encourages minions to run three miles in 100 degree heat then taunts them as he rides his bicycle.

10. Greets interns by letting one rip.

9. Refers to everyone only by the nickname he has bestowed.

8. Should have been gone after four years, but he just won’t leave.

7. Amasses enormous institutional debt throwing private parties for his friends.

6. Cheats to secure a second term.

5. Resorts to belligerence rather than admit a mistake.

4. Has summers off.

3. Encourages others to perform community service, but only shows up for the cameras.

2. Smart kid provides him answers using a hidden audio transmitter.

1. May be kicked out of his house before the end of term.

October 29, 2006

Happenings…

Brooke and I went and visited Kristen down in Springfield over the weekend… We hadn’t seen her apartment yet, nor had we really seen much of her since the summer, so it was a good opportunity to get out of town and see how she’s doing. We went out to dinner at her local hangout and then went to a piano bar (while the Cards won the World Series), both of which were quite fun. The piano bar largely involved dueling pianos (and a drummer) playing music mostly off of my parents Adult Contemporary radio station in Columbia, but it was still a good time… Thanks for hosting us, Little Sister!

Otherwise, we got back to St. Louis and had a message waiting on the machine from Lou Fusz Toyota… Our Scion xA arrive late-Friday night, so we can go pick it up on Monday. So, finally, I won’t have to drive Brooke’s Altima anymore and I can have my Elantra back… 😉 Now we just have to figure out how/when to get the Altima back up to Hannibal…

On another note, I had a doctor’s appointment on Friday, which was mostly uneventful…but he did notice my blood pressure is a bit high (145/82). The sad thing is that we’ve been learning about anti-hypertensive drugs in school (and I have a test over it tomorrow…that, and kidney function, which is quite related to blood pressure), so I generally have a good idea what high blood pressure means over the long-term. So yeah, I’ve made yet another resolution to try and work out more… I don’t think my eating habits are particularly terrible, especially compared with the national average, and I come in at or below 2000 calories per day… I just don’t exercise…ever… Therefore, I’m going to try and jog 3-4 times a week and bring that blood pressure down. That, and I’m gonna get some blood work done to check out my cholesterol levels, which I probably ought to do at this age anyway… Regardless, I jogged 20 min straight today, which was better than I thought I’d do after not really exercising much since summer. A good start, mehopes…

Time to get back to studying for tomorrow’s exam. Hopefully it doesn’t raise my blood pressure much more…

October 25, 2006

Submitting Sheep vs Doubting Sheep

So, I listened to an On Point podcast from NPR, where Tom Ashbrook was interviewing Andrew Sullivan, author of “The Conservative Soul.” Sullivan, an Englishman, came over to the US years ago and supported Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan-era Conservativism, not the form that has been in politics more recently (i.e. small government, less control over the people vs big government, big spending, more control over liberties). The crazy thing is that he said that Bill Clinton was actually more of a conservative than the people in power now (i.e. balanced budget, smaller government). More specifically, something Sullivan said struck me as interesting:

“The capacity to doubt yourself, to question yourself, is a critical element of Western liberty. My view is that it’s also a critical part of faith. If you’ve never doubted something, you’ve never really believed it. You’ve just submitted to it. You haven’t allowed yourself to question something, and faith for me is a journey between doubt and faith. It’s a dialogue within yourself and with others as to what the truth is. It isn’t this acceptance of the truth and then the imposition of it on the world, and the claim that God justifies everything.”

Most key to that quotation is: “If you’ve never doubted something, you’ve never really believed it. You’ve just submitted to it.” I think this is a really important point that isn’t made very often, or that many people don’t connect with. You can’t simply believe something because you were told to. You can’t simply listen to Pat Robertson and James Dobson and believe that they’re infallible (even though they both think that they are). That goes for both sides of the political spectrum.

I guess I’m just thinking that, in today’s day and age, we tend to go along with things without questioning them. Without questioning ourselves. I think even some of us believe that we must be unquestioning of faith in God (or any other religious belief), in believing that His words are infallible.

But we forget that doubt and faith are completely intertwined. I think Sullivan made a very good, and interesting, point in putting it the way he did. We must always question our beliefs, whether in faith or politics. We must not abide with listening to campaign ads without looking at the evidence ourselves. We must not think that just because my church endorses a political ideology or policy, it’s correct. We must have doubt before we can believe.

There’s a very big difference between being a simple follower, and being an active believer.

October 18, 2006

Robbed of childhood…

CNN is carrying a story where an elementary school near Boston has banned “tag” and other “unsupervised chase games,” afraid that students will get hurt and their parents will sue the school. From the article:

“I think that it’s unfortunate that kids’ lives are micromanaged and there are social skills they’ll never develop on their own,” said Debbie Laferriere, who has two children at Willett, about 40 miles south of Boston. “Playing tag is just part of being a kid.”

Another Willett parent, Celeste D’Elia, said her son feels safer because of the rule. “I’ve witnessed enough near collisions,” she said.

It’s kinda sad, methinks, how this seems to be happening across the country. I’ve heard mention of teachers who stopped using red pens to mark mistakes in homework because “it’s too degrading” to the student. Is there research somewhere where people have looked at people my age who grew up with red pens and dodgeball? Is there a significant percentage of us that have become violent psychotics because of red pens and “unsupervised chase games?”

I guess I’m saying that I hope that, when I’m a parent, I’m not that protective of my kids. If I am, I’m afraid that they’ll never learn anything about life and won’t be able to fend for themselves…they won’t be able to leave the house because of fear that they’ll bump into someone on the street, or someone will criticize their work.

On the other hand, I tend to be relatively protective in general…guess I’ll have to work on that…

October 15, 2006

Just a thought…

Pumpkin

As I was watching Brooke brutally attack and disembowel a pumpkin yesterday for our jack o’ lantern, I had a thought: can one be a “meat-itarian” (or carnitarian)? As in, one who only eats meat and no plant products. …’cause, logically speaking, if you’re against the eating of defenseless-creatures, aren’t pumpkins and carrots more defenseless than cows and bears? I mean, cows and chickens can run away and fight back…not effectively, but they can do so more than, say, a potato. On the other hand, potatoes and carrots are able to hide underground from predators and try to use root systems to chain themselves to the ground, but that’s even less effective than a deer trying to evade a hunter.

So yeah, I think it makes more sense to be a meat-itarian than a vegetarian…that, and meat tastes better, besides… Just think of the horrible scene played out in my kitchen when Brooke sacrificed an unknowing pumpking and you’ll understand.

Just a thought…

October 10, 2006

Let’s get this straight…

So, I noticed today on Facebook that there are a few groups with titles like: “Missourians Against Human Cloning (Vote NO on Amendment 2)” and “Say “No” to the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.” For those that don’t know, here’s the actual wording from the Amendment regarding cloning:

2(1) No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.

38(d).6.(2) ‘Clone or attempt to clone a human being’ means to implant in a uterus or attempt to implant in a uterus anything other than the product of fertilization of an egg of a human female by a sperm of a human male for the purpose of initiating a pregnancy that could result in the creation of a human fetus, or the birth of a human being.

For some reason beyond my comprehension, there are actually people in the state that somehow thinks this provides a constitutional means of protecting human cloning. No, really…you read it correctly…it completely abolishes the idea of human cloning. Why? Because in order for you to clone a person, you need to implant the embryo into a uterus for development. Does that also disallow somatic transfer (i.e. transfer of DNA from one cell to another). Yes. Because you have to implant it in a uterus. You cannot “grow” a human (or any other mammal) outside of a uterus.

So, if someone could please explain to me how people are seeing this as “constitutional protection” for human cloning, I’d be very happy to hear it…’cause it makes no sense to me. There are over 900 members in these two groups on Facebook, and it’s beyond me as to why this is so confusing. And they keep re-quoting the wording from the Amendment…like that’s some kind of defense. They only re-quote it because they don’t understand what it says and hope you won’t either.

One of the other arguments against it is that, with passing Amendment 2, you’ll target “underpriviledged women” so that they can sell their eggs for research purposes. Hmmm…let’s see…is that mentioned and outlawed?

2(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.

Yes, yes it’s outlawed! Oh, and even the following:

2(2) No human blastocyst may be produced by fertilization solely for the purpose of stem cell research.

So, let’s review: Missouri Constitutional Amendment 2 strictly outlaws cloning. Amendment 2 does not allow cloning. If you say that Amendment 2 allows human cloning, or provides a market for the sale of human embryos, you are lying.

It’s that simple.

Here’s more information on all the ballot measures we’ll be faced with on November 7th.

October 10, 2006

Let's get this straight…

2(1) No person may clone or attempt to clone a human being.

2(4) No person may, for valuable consideration, purchase or sell human blastocysts or eggs for stem cell research or stem cell therapies and cures.

Yes, yes it’s outlawed! Oh, and even the following:

2(2) No human blastocyst may be produced by fertilization solely for the purpose of stem cell research.

It’s that simple.

Here’s more information on all the ballot measures we’ll be faced with on November 7th.

October 4, 2006

You know it’s bad when…

So, Dr. Macarthur sent me this link from Washington Monthly titled “Time For Us To Go.” In light of the Rep. Mark Foley scandal, amongst other things, even die-hard conservatives are saying that it’s time to give up congress and get some more liberals in there. It is interesting to hear their perspectives, especially pointing out the benefits of having some checks and balances between the White House and Capitol Hill. There’s also quite a bit of historical perspective, comparing Republicans of today with those of yesterday.

Either way, here are some of the blurbs…they’re worth a skim. At the very least, the conservative voices writing these articles are “fiscal” or “economic conservatives,” i.e. ones I can respect…so they aren’t messing with the “church and state” border very much.

Let’s quit while we’re behind
By Christopher Buckley

Bring on Pelosi
By Bruce Bartlett

And we thought Clinton had no self-control
By Joe Scarborough

Give divided government a chance
By William A. Niskanen

Restrain this White House
By Bruce Fein

Ideologie has taken over
By Jeffrey Hart

The show must not go on
By Richard A. Viguerie

P.S. If you don’t vote in November, I may have to hunt you down…

October 4, 2006