Your turn at the Soapbox

Today I received my 5th letter from Romney. The previous ones were generic letters he probably sent out to thousands, but still made me feel important in an odd "I'm contributing" kind of way. This last letter was actually a handwritten message on the back of a family photo. I've only contributed nickels and dimes to his campaign, but what a red-letter day. I imagine he's sent the pictures to people who haven't maxed-out on contributions.........I have to be honest, he'll probably get more money from me (I told my wife I wouldn't spend any more though......so I'll have to sacrifice junkfood for a month or something). Is there another presidential candidate out there who would take the time to do that?

I've been quiet for a while, and I know you missed me. I'll try to balance out this blog a little more over the weekend.

Like the rest of the country, Monday's events were hard hitting for me. I didn't know a soul at the campus but it still feels so personal. To make things worse, it was my brothers birthday, another reminder of how tragic life can be. I can't even allow myself to comprehend loss on that scale, it is just difficult to wrap my mind around.

I wish we had answers, and pundits are already trying to find them and, in the process, turning a tragedy into a political opportunity. They see a tragedy and use it for an opportunity to spout the party line on gun control. Sad.

Even more sad is what I read on CNN today. 180 people senselessly massacred across Iraq in a series of attacks. It's interesting because I know tomorrow morning there will be few, if any, newspapers that put that news on their front pages. I can't pretend to understand why, but I think it has something to do with our personal detachment (us as a country- not personally) from the worsening situation over there. If 32 people is a tragedy, what is 180 people, and further, why don't we notice it anymore? I am afraid that attacks like this are no longer unexpected but it is no less a tragedy. Everyday children in Iraq are made into orphans, it's just sickening, and it breaks my heart that it is getting worse.

This isn't the most uplifting of posts, sorry. It's just stuff that's been on my mind. James, you should post something uplifting to compensate for my depressing stuff.

Just watched this..................Josh, you probably hate Fox news--hope I'm not torturing you. I was really entertained.
Other issue:
What kind of crazy world do we live in when 32 lives are lost mindlessly? Gone........just like that. (During the bloodliest month in Iraq, December, 112 soldiers died). I think about whackos all of the time.......especially when I go hometeaching in bad neighborhoods. I think about my family too, of course. I've been putting serious thoughts in purchasing a firearm. I sometimes wonder what kind of affect the army has had on me.......I'm capable of killing an assailant without the slightest remorse.......words cannot express the anger that wells up inside when I think of someone removing me from my family. That's probably where a lot of my issues with the Middle East stems. There are radical jihadists who persistently seek to destroy our nation and kill our families.....I hope we get them first. I've probably been too open with this paragraph.......just tell me I'm psycho......I'll probably agree with you.

"All of this is a response to what I've been witnessing and hearing, this idea that Barack is sort of a potential savior that might come and absolve the country of all its sins," Cordero said. "In a lot of ways it's about caution in assigning all these inflated expectations on one individual, and expecting them to change something that many hands have shaped."

Does this offend anyone? It doesn't offend me.....I've been annoyed with Obama's unsubstantiated star status, but I do feel sorry for him and the expectations placed on him by his followers (especially since we skeptics haven't seen anything he's done give his proclamations credence).

I have serious problems with Republicans who deny the impact we have on our environment. But I have just as many issues with Democrats who want to stifle growth.

We need to be innovative, embrace new technologies and science, and give entrepeneurs incentives.

Saving the environment can have many economic advantages.........especially if WE lead the innovative movement for alternate fuels, transportation, and energy consumption. Imagine the jobs and money created from using our own fuel resources (ethanol, methane, or electricity sans fuel), making our own (and for the world) environment-friendly vehicles (hybrids, fuel-cells, or ethanol engines), and etc. There is so much growth and money to be made.........

I am anxiously awaiting the day we stop buying oil from people who hate us, the government isn't controlled by powerful oil corporations, and we Americans buy into the system--by that, I mean we need to be more pro-active (buying a compact hybrid instead of buying a Hummer could be a nice start).

Check out this debate:

It's not so much that he's pro-choice......but he expects me to pay for aborted babies. I don't care if the woman is poor..........if she's too poor to have an abortion, I bet she has medicaid and can give up her unwanted mistake for adoption. Besides, the way things are now--any woman can have a free pregnancy--she just has to refuse to pay the medical bill and Uncle Sam will eventually pick it up.

I understand that abortion is a constitutional right, but to have me pay for them infuriates me. http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/

I guess the Queen of Bush Slander is just doing her patriotic duty presenting her own foreign policy out there in friendly Syria.

Thanks Nancy for fulfilling your promise to reach out across the aisle to help better unify our nation.

What is she doing?????????

Dear liberals,

feel free to bash our president, the U.S., the soldiers, your republican parents.....but have the courtesy to do it within our borders. After all, this is a time of war......we don't need to be wearing our weaknesses out on our sleeves. Man, wouldn't it be great if unity wasn't a weakness anymore?

Thank you, James McCann

As much fun it is to rail on politics, I realized that it is going to be a long haul until the election next year. Both Romney and Clinton have raised absurd amounts of money which doesn't portend well.

Folks, it's gonna get ugly. Real ugly.

Can we call him Moneybags Mitt now?