| back in the game... |
[21 Dec 2004|12:30pm] |
Greetings and Salutations,
Yes, I'm back in the mix of the civilian world and I find it large and confusing! All of your freedom and choices makes me bewildered and tired! No, actually its good to be on Christmas leave and I hope your holidays are going well. I am presently down in Oklahoma visiting friends, however, by Wednesday night I will be back in Wichita and if anyone should like to contact me call me at the house.
The Army is everything I hoped and expected it would be, both positive and negative. Needless to say that I've enjoyed nearly every moment! Let me give you all a brief history/description of my recent adventures in the south.
Last July I went to Ft. Benning Georgia for Basic training and Infantry training (its called OSUT, but I forget the breakdown of the anacronym) which lasted 14 weeks with only one small 36 hour break over a week for a family visit. My family could not visit so I spent the time laying on a king sized bed in a hotel watching Kill Bill II and other various movies. There we learned the typical basic soldiering skills as well as Infantry skills (I will go into further detail for anyone interested over the phone or in person since its pretty extensive and actually complicated). After Graduation (literally fifteen minutes later) I was in Airborne school on the other side of the base, however because the class was full I was a hold-over for one week and got to spend the entire weekend with my family, Kendra, and Kasindra which was fantastic. Airborne school is literally training you to jump out of a plane flying between 800 - 1250 feet in the air, successfully (without breaking yourself) land, and fight the fight. It lasted three weeks and was actually extremely easy!! I jumped five times, twice out of a C-130 and three times from a C-17, and the C-17 is a lot more exciting - C-17 is a jet you get sucked out of and a C-130 is a propeller plane you fall out of. By the time of Graduation it was November and once again a short time later I was on a bus to Ft. Bragg, North Carolina - home of the 82nd Airborne, the Green Berets (Special Forces), and Delta Force. I showed up Saturday morning at 1:30 AM and started training for Special Forces 6:00 PM Sunday night. I will not try and describe how hard, insane, and AWESOME the training is at this time, but I will give you a general layout of the class. Its called either Special Forces Qualification Course 1A or Special Operations Preparatory Course(SOPC), but we all call it SOPC. It focuses on physical training (PT), ruck marching (with backpacks weighing ~65 lbs), and land navigation (map, compass, woods, COLD!), and grades you on all such events. You are worked until you want to collapse. You are worked and punished if you fail until you want to quit, and you can quit at any time if you so please. We started with 210 men and ended up with around 120 +. I was one of those who did not quit of course, however in the third week I feel in a trench and bruised the heck out of my right knee thereby making me fail a ruck march and do horribly on several timed runs. Our Major told me the ruck march didn't matter because the other two I passed WAY ahead of schedule, however my run time sucked therefore I have to repeat that little slice of hell we call SOPC until my run time gets better. Therefore I will be resting and letting my knee heal this Christmas so I don't have to repeat SOPC. Why don't I want to repeat? Because its a mental shock you cannot believe that breaks some men, however, I find that it gives me a sick sense of gratification knowing that I will (barring physical injury) complete training twice that broke some men once.
Anyways, got to run. Miss you all and hope you are all well. Please call if you're free. I'll be in Wichita by Wednesday and stay until January 2. I hope you hear from you all.
Best wishes,
Cameron
or
SPC Westphal
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| last |
[05 Jul 2004|03:34am] |
This will probably be my last posting. As of Tuesday I will officially in the Army, and will not have internet access - besides I rarely post anything of signifigance so I will probably leave the account until it expires/cancels. I have enjoyed talking to you all and hope that we can all keep in touch. I apologize if you all don't hear from me for a while, but for the next year or so I will be extremely busy.
Take care of yourselves.
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| back home, weird dreams and coincidences |
[16 May 2004|12:10pm] |
I'm back in Wichita now and despite being under heavy weight of dozens of boxes all is well for me here. Starting tomorrow I pick up my workout schedule and get into heavy gear for Army preparation.
I guess to commemorate the experience my subconscious decided to mess with me lastnight. I had three very vivid dreams. The first was Kasindra and myself checking into a hotel because one of the rooms was haunted and we wanted to stay in it and experience "the haunting" so to speak. The moment we walked into the room I felt something pulling at my brain for lack of a better explanation and could certainly tell the room was previously occupied. Then something threw me down on the bed and took all of my bags, opened them, and threw my clothes around the room. I manage to fight off the presense, grap my clothes, and Kasindra and I ran out of the room - laughing!
The second dream was really awesome. I dreampt that I was one of about eight young people chosen to be these modern super warriors, but in more of a Zen way rather than military way. We went on a quest that I don't really remember, but at the end of it we were in this modern building and we had to answer one question that was intended to stress our mental, creative, and physical limits. My question was to complete a song by Kenny G, but vocally rather than via an instrument. Basically this computer played a song on a clarinet and I had to decipher the notes into words (though there were no actual words, I had to "decipher music into words") and complete the phrase. I remember that there was a random rhyme scheme and the two words were love and note, but I got it right. Go Cameron-subconscious! Anyways, one guy didn't know the answer to his and was thrown into a pit of lava that signified hell. It was then I realized we were fighting the devil in our quest. They put us in robes that personified our personalities and gave us names. My robes were pitch black, they called them gunslinger black (an actual color made famous by Hugh Hefner) and my name was The Dark Man, and I had he new Punisher logo on my chest (great movie by the way, go see it if you like violence and a good plot).
This dream was really cool because after thinking about it or a while I realize that it was a hodge-podge of literary and movie concepts and characters. The quest is atypical as is the fight against evil, however the name comes from Stephen King's books, particularly the Dark Tower Series (ONE AWESOME SERIES) where a character, Randall Flagg if you've read the Stand - King reuses characters often, who isn't "evil" itself but is a powerful servant of it. What the hell does that mean??? The Punisher logo is just fargin' cool to me.
The third dream was a let down. I did an emergency C-section on a recently killed Kangaroo and the baby lived. When I woke up after that one, I typically wake up after I dream, I decided just to get out of bed!!!
Finally, I discovered something ODD today about Nick Berg, the young independent contractor who was murdered in Iraq last week by an al-Qaeda operative through decapitation. Not only did he attend and study at the University of Oklahoma, but while he was there he knew Zacharias Moussaoui, the 20th September 11th hijacker who was captured prior to the actual event, and even used Moussaoui's email account!!! Why would he be hanging out with Moussaoui???? Small world eh?
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| random thoughts and red wine |
[14 May 2004|11:17pm] |
Greetings and salutations,
This evening I am in the company of several fine females, and while no immoral acts are taking place (much to my dismay) we are all having a swimming time. We watched the season finale of ER, drank some red red wine, and now I am updating my LJ while Miss Flores discusses life in general with her affianced, and Kendra and Heather watch Mona Lisa Smiles - a film I have no interest in seeing since I saw it before when it was called Dead Poet's Society.
Saturday morning I leave the state of Oklahoma and the town of Norman for Wichita, KS for the last time as a resident. I will of course be visiting my friends again this summer, however, I will undoubtedly never live here again (knock on wood). For the next two months I will be residing at the home of my parents in Wichita once again (please visit) until I leave for Basic Training @ Fort Benning Georgia in July, as most of you know, but just in case, now you know. Strangely, I will miss Norman, not because Oklahoma is so fantastic...actually the liscense plates have it right...its OK, but because most of my life happened here. 19 years of living in Wichita and I find that the past four years here have resulting in more pivotal changes than anywhere else. When I left Kansas I was a 19 year old kid who wanted to be an Writer/Egyptologist and didn't know shit about anything, now I'm 23, have a BA in Middle Eastern and Ancient History, and want to redirect the course of the world in the Army, undermine the laws of every country in the world via the CIA, and write a few damned good books in the process. I guess we all have to have goals...but I still don't know shit about anything.
On a political note...according to CNN.com the top two candidates for John Kerry's VP place are Wes Clark and John Edwards...according to an online user's vote going on for the past week. I am happy since my horse (the General) beat out Bill Clinton, Dick Gephardt, John McCain, and Hilary Clinton for his present place, and I hope you all log (its easy, private, and free) on CNN.com and vote for the General! Apparently the results are going to be told to John Kerry...so it could mean nothing or a lot. Either way, it amuses me for the ten seconds a day I give to it!
Ado. See you all soon, or later.
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| Bon Chance! |
[04 May 2004|03:10pm] |
Good luck to everyone who is taking finals this week or sometime soon. Remember its just your future that's at stake!!! ;-) j/k
Do Well!
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| hypocrites? |
[28 Apr 2004|10:25pm] |
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Was the Bush administration being hypocritical when they condemned the Seatle Times for printing the pictures of the flag-draped coffins of our deceased and yet they say that it is okay for them to use the picture of a deceased fireman being carried from Ground Zero in a political ad? The pictures of the coffins was not used for political reasons, just in reporting the story while the picture of the fireman was used in a political commercial for Bush's re-election.
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| good movie |
[23 Apr 2004|01:25am] |
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Tonight Kasindra and I went to see the Punisher and I highly recommend it if you're interested in a well made movie that has a rather violent edge. Recent Marvel/comic movies haven't made me too happy (ie Daredevil), but this one is rather well made, though very violent. The story is believable, the violence and action and not "comic", and the characters actually have depth. On the Cameron scale of 1-5 I give it a 4+.
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| Fallujah |
[21 Apr 2004|10:16pm] |
Today in Fallujah a group of Marines was ambushed by 13 fighters during the so-called ceasefire. The Marines called in air support and killed 10, but more fighters joined in and the battle lasted four hours total ending in the dropping of a 500 lbs bomb in Fallujah killing another 10 fighters. This all during a "cease-fire"! Sporatic fighting has been happening since the ceasefire was called lastweek. The US' terms of the ceasefire was that the insurgants, Baathists, and fighters in Fallujah have to turn in their weapons and the only people to turn in guns handed in broken and unusable weapons.
The media is trying to play off this fight as a barbarous attack on helpless civilians because of the actions of a few radicals. They use as evidence that the bodies of the dead are in civilian clothing and aren't found with guns. Remember, these radicals aren't dressed as soldiers because they aren't soldiers - they're members of the insurgancy from other countries, former Saddam supporters, and so on. Furthermore, according to Marines who are fighting in Fallujah and soldiers who have fought in similiar situations in Somalia when a militant is killed in combat another quickly grabs their weapon to use it in the fight because weapons are in short order. Futhermore, when the press photos their bodies they are photographed in make-shift morgues and why would they still have their weapons?
Something you all might like to think about when you watch the news.
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| Iraq |
[20 Apr 2004|12:59am] |
I've been trying to keep up with the trouble going on in Iraq as it is highly pertinent to my future career and after taking this time to gain as much information as possible I'm pretty much ready to make a definitive stance on what is going on today.
First off, this is not an uprising. It is an insurrection. Webster's dictionary defines an uprising as a popular movement against the established government, while an insurrection is defined as a localized fight against the established government. Al-Sadr does not speak for the Iraqi people, or even the majority of Shi'ites. It is a stupid, stupid shame against us that we let about 10,000 of these Shi'ites keep their weapons after the war ended. What is going on in Fallujah is not an uprising or insurrection, but our response to lawlessness.
To win this war, which can be won, we have to have decent leadership. Say what you want in favor of President Bush but he is FOLDING under political pressure exactly when he could be using the title as a wartime President in his favor, and it is effecting his military leadership in Iraq. The deals we're trying to cut in Fallujah are absolute CRAP. The deals are basically if you let friendly police back in charge and promise to stop fighting we'll leave Fallujah. Why are we making these BS deals? Keep going into Fallujah (in the Sunni triangle), kill those who oppose us, arrest those who surrender, disarm the rest all under the authority of martial law and the Marines. The goals should be removing the disarming and killing those who oppose us.
With Fallujah out of the way next stop, Tikrit. Same deal. I'm not talking about carpet bombing cities. I'm talking about establishing a security presence in hot beds. Why have we left the hot beds of resistance untouched thus far? This is bad business! We want to turn over power to the Iraqi people ASAP and there are still militants out there in huge numbers! Get rid of them and things will drastically improve.
In the south we need to go into Najaf and get al-Sadr, and if his militia gets in our way we do the same to them as we should do to those in Fallujah. We should do this with the help of Iraqi security and al-Sistani's men to make this less of a religiously reproachable situations since Najaf is a Shi'ite holy site.
Like Fallujah, Najaf's problem is that foreign fighters are coming across the borders from Iran. Fallujah's foreigners come from Saudia Arabia, Syria, and Jordan and typically cross from Syria and those borders need to be closed. IF WE NEED MORE TROOPS TO DO THIS, SEND THEM! Good God! The troops aren't upset about having to go or stay there! It is, yes, a media lie that the troops are miserable and no one wants to go. I know in complete honestly, at least a dozen soldiers (NONE OF WHICH ARE SELF DESCRIBED REPUBLICANS - Most dislike Bush in fact) who want to go and help out because they believe in the cause.
Just so you can say I'm being "fair and balanced" John Kerry is, in my opinion, no better a leader than a folding and scared Bush. Until Kerry says something other than "bring in the UN/NATO" he's a complete moron. WHO IS NATO AND THE UN WHO AREN'T HELPING NOW WILL SUDDENLY SHOW UP WHEN HE ASKS? And if you think putting the UN in charge of Iraq will suddenly, or even eventually make things better look at Bosnia, Kosovo, and Somalia as great examples of UN reconstruction.
That's all I can think of right now, and I would appreciate your thoughts.
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| Marriage |
[09 Apr 2004|12:11pm] |
I've been thinking about the subject of marriage lately - mind you, I have NO plans of getting married of course, however the subject interests me. At one point in my life I considered myself very close to getting married, however taking into account my choice of occupation marriage would not be a great idea. Plus I have no candidate - as many of you do now.
Several of you have either been very close to getting married, have a good candidate presently, are engaged, or are already married so I'm hoping for a dialogue about the subject. I believed at one point I was ready to get married, but now I know that I am NO WHERE near ready. Someone please tell me about how you know it is time to get married. I know many of you are going to say "you just know", but try and go into the technical aspects of marriage (without the intimate details please).
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| Contact |
[05 Apr 2004|03:40pm] |
Josh,
Sorry to post this on LJ but I seem to be unable to get hold of you via cellphone and email outlets. When you get this message call me immediately. If anyone else reads this get hold of Josh and let him know I need to talk to him.
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| good book |
[02 Mar 2004|09:51pm] |
I finished reading The Picture of Dorian Grey by Oscar Wilde (also famous for The Importance of Being Ernest) tonight and thought I would share a few thoughts about it. If you've seen The League of Extraordinary Gentlement staring Sean Connery you'll know who Dorian Grey is, though the League's portray of him is somewhat askewed. First of all, he's a blonde, not dark haired. He is an elitist and a self-centered fop, but the question of his immortality was never really directly mentioned. He never ages, that is for certain, but he is never in a situation where he is shot, stabbed, etc and heals immediately, and looking at the portrait doesn't kill him. As a matter of fact he looks at it several times through the book. His picture doesn't just age, but reflects the decay of his morality throughout. I won't tell you how it can kill him.
Anyways, the book is Wilde's examination of morality and how it affects a person when there are no consequences to his actions. Kind of like Bill Murrey's Groundhog Day for those of you who have seen it. The character of Lord Henry introduces Grey to a lifestyle where he doesn't focus on the right and the good, but the pleasurable and the oppertunistic. Some scholars consider Lord Henry Wilde's personality in writing - as many consider Henry a homosexual and Wilde was thrown in prison for "immoral acts" with another man and eventually was exiled to Europe for the scandals of said acts. Grey becomes involved in the British underworld and lives a double life. In one, he is a beautiful member of the aristocracy and in the other he is a murderer, thief, and liar.
I won't tell you anymore, but if you want to read about morality and its affect on not only the body, but the soul and mind read it and enjoy.
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| important information |
[26 Feb 2004|10:17pm] |
I want to get something clear for all of you who are thinking about voting for John Kerry. I want you to consider his defense record. Considering my future career I am very concerned with the Senator's stance on the funding of my future job. If we elect someone who is in favor of cutting program after program I will go into combat (God forbid) without proper support and it could mean my early demise. Here is a really pertinent quote on the issue.
"After completing 20 planes for which we have begun procurement, we will shut down further production of the B-2 bomber. We will cancel the small ICBM program. We will cease production of new warheads for our sea-based ballistic missiles. We will stop all new production of the Peacekeeper (MX) missile. And we will not purchase any more advanced cruise missiles...The reductions I have approved will save us an additional $50 billion over the next five years. By 1997 we will have cut defense by 30% since I took office."
Those were the words of of GHW Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 28, 1992. As you may now have guessed, I don't buy this crud the Republicans are spreading about John Kerry. I don't usually like playing the "he said this and that" game, but if the Republican game is that if you vote against funding for something in the military or for defense you are not worthy of being President during the War on Terror then I thought we should have full disclosure.
Dick Cheney, our Vice President, as Secretary of Defense under Bush 41:
"Overall, since I've been Secretary, we will have taken the five-year defense program down by well over $300 billion. That's the peace dividend...And now we're adding to that another $50 billion...of so-called peace dividend." And then:
"Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you've squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don't fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements... You've directed me to buy more M-1s, F-14s, and F-16s—all great systems - but we have enough of them."
And here is the absolute best: "Granted, these reductions were made in the wake of the Soviet Union's dissolution and the Cold War's demise. But that's just the point: Proposed cuts must be examined in context. A vote against a particular weapons system doesn't necessarily indicate indifference toward national defense." Then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and our Secretary of State Colin Powell. At the same meeting he testified about plans to cut Army divisions by one-third, Navy aircraft carriers by one-fifth, and active armed forces by half a million men and women. And then they blame Clinton for carrying out Republican plans. It's obvious that voting against or speaking out against a weapons system or the like shouldn't matter when determining our Commander in Chief.
So let's discuss the 13 programs (M-1 tank, F-14, F-15. F-16, Apache helicopter, Patriot air-defense missiles, Tomahawk cruise missiles, etc.) programs that Kerry apparently voted to cut in S 3189 (with Colin Powell's blessings). Technically, Kerry didn't vote to cut them. It is important to look at the footnotes of these bills. Like I've mentioned it was S 3189 or CQ Vote No. 273 on Oct. 15, 1990. Do a google.com search, and you will learn that S. 3189 was the Fiscal Year 1991 Defense Appropriations Act, and CQ Vote No. 273 was a vote on the entire bill. There was no vote on those weapons systems specifically. On a couple of the weapons, the Republicans cite HR 5803 and HR 2126. Once again, do a google.com search. They turn out to be votes on the House-Senate conference committee reports for the defense appropriations bills in October 1990 (the same year as S. 3189) and September 1995. Simply, Kerry was one of 16 senators (including five Republicans) to vote against a defense appropriations bill 14 years ago. He was also one of an unspecified number of senators to vote against a conference report on a defense bill nine years ago. The Republicans take these facts and decides that he voted against a dozen weapons systems that were in those bills. The Republicans could have claimed equally that Kerry voted to abolish the entire US military, but that would be silly.
Another interesting attack the Republicans, particularly RNC Chairman Ed Gillespie, are using is that John Kerry voted to cut $1.5 billion from the intel budget in 1995. The Air Force's National Reconnaissance Office had appropriated that money to operate a spy satellite that, as things turned out, it never launched. So the Senate passed an amendment rescinding the money - not to cancel a program, but to get a refund on a program that the NRO had canceled. Kerry voted for the amendment, as did a majority of his colleagues.
Another attack is that he voted to cut the B-2 which has been very useful recently in Iraq and Afghanistan. The B-2 was created to drop nukes on the USSR, and was very expensive and controversial at the time. In 1992 GHW Bush halted production of the program himself. So much for blaming John Kerry.
I have looked over a lot of John Kerry's record using www.vote-smart.org and its true that Kerry voted to limit (but not kill Star Wars, he sponsored amendments to to ban tests on anti-satellite weapons as long as the Soviets refrained from testing, he voted for amendments to restrict the deployment of the MX missile (GHW Bush ended it all-together), and to ban the production of nerve-gas weapons. In 1991 he opposed an amendment to impose an arbitrary 2% cut in the military budget. In 1992, he opposed an amendment to cut Pentagon intel programs by $1 billion. In 1994, he voted against a motion to cut $30.5 billion from the defense budget over the next five years and to redistribute the money to programs for education and the disabled - that can be viewed both positively and negatively in all honesty! That same year, he opposed an amendment to postpone construction of a new aircraft carrier. In 1996, he opposed a motion to cut six F-18 jet fighters from the budget - so you see that once a weapons system has a function John Kerry realizes it and supports it. In 1999, he voted against a motion to terminate the Trident II missile. (Interestingly, the F-18 and Trident II are among the weapons systems that the RNC claims Kerry opposed.)
I'm thinking about staying in for 20 years to get full medical and retirement, but its funny to quote Donald Rumsfeld on Oct. 2002: "President Bush has threatened to veto the $355 billion defense authorization bill for the new fiscal year if House and Senate conferences do not eliminate new pension benefits for disabled military retirees that could cost from $18.5 to $58 billion over the next decade...This could divert critical resources away from the war on terrorism, the transformation of our military capabilities and important personnel programs such as pay raises and facilities improvement."
I hope that this information helps you to counter some of the Republican lies that are being spread around.
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| wrong |
[24 Feb 2004|11:31pm] |
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Say what you want to about homosexuality, but the US Constitution was not intended to restrict "We the People...". The Constitution set us free from tyranny. It should never, EVER become a cage.
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| update |
[20 Feb 2004|04:16pm] |
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According to CNN Nader will run for President and will announce his intention to do so on Sunday. There's a problem though, confidentially top Nader advisors have told CNN that they will announce they won't aid Nader if he runs and will advise Nader's top fundraisers to withhold funds in order to keep the Democratic party unified.
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| I am angry with Ralph Nader |
[20 Feb 2004|03:50pm] |
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On Sunday Ralph Nader will announce whether or not he will run for President this year. I see a guy who never learned his lesson. I voted for Ralph Nader as a way to punish the Democratic party in 2000 and since I lived in Kansas there was no way that Gore was going to win there; I don't regret it regardless of the fact that I am definetly not a Green (proud Independent/moderate). As I have argued with friends (I believe Josh will remember that long conversation with Jennifer A. at Leslie's house) and foes alike, mainstream Democrats like Gore have sold out many of the Democrats' best issues and have let the Republicans take them and the country. I firmly believe that Gore lost the election because of this and because he was a just a crappy candidate personally and his stances enabled Nader, however numbers are numbers. Fox News and CNN have already run scenarios on it and it shows that, like in 2000, his candidacy will enable Bush to beat Kerry by between 1-3%. Forget that though - in 2000 Gore lost two states, New Hampshire and the ever (in)famous Florida, because of the Nader numbers. In Florida Gore lost by about 530 votes while Nader got 100,000 votes there thus enabling Bush to win the state and eventually the Presidency. Everywhere else (especially Tennesse which should have been a shoe-in) he lost by his own faults.
I believe Nader intended to hold his candidacy and endorse the Democrat if, and only if, Howard Dean or Dennis Kucinich won the nomination. Now that it looks like either Kerry or Edwards will win the nomination he might be running. I think that Howard Dean needs to call up Nader, whom I have a lot of respect for regardless of my opinion of his candidacy, and tell him to join whatever Progressive group Dean is starting in order to unify the Democratic party. If Nader runs, even if he pursue the Green nomination, I think John Kerry will probably lose.
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| Contention |
[18 Feb 2004|10:15pm] |
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mood |
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 contemplative |
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Last Thursday the mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, issued a directive to the county clerk to issue marriage licenses for homosexual couples, and allowed 87 of the 95 applicants to be married on the spot by judges, justices of the peace, and I think he performed a few ceremonies as well. It was essentially a shame because while the marriage licenses were legal documents approved by the mayor it says on them that outside of San Francisco homosexual marriages will not be legal and that the couples should seek legal advice. Mayor Newsom’s actions were illegal since on March 7, 2000 the people of California voted in favor of Proposition 22 which is essentially the California version of the “Defense of Marriage Act”. The text reads: “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” There was a lot of debate on the issue, but in the end it was not a close vote since 61.4% (4,618,673) of the vote went in favor of banning same-sex marriages while only 38.6% (2,909,370) opposed it – in California, the second most liberal state in the Union! 52 of California’s 58 counties approved of Prop 22 including all major metropolitan areas minus San Francisco. Mayor Newsom says that he did it because he believes Prop 22 is a violation of state laws on equal protection under the law. Regardless of his opinion above his contention that the marriages are legal within San Francisco regardless of the fact the majority of San Franciscans disagree is wrong since, as we know, state law overpowers city ordinance and law.
Here’s my contention – Mayor Newsom is just as bad as former Chief Justice Moore in Alabama who used public funds to erect the Ten Commandments monument in the Supreme Court building. Mayor Newsom used public funds to order illegal licenses and to perform ceremonies in a government building, and that breaks the law. They’re opposite sides of the same coin and like Moore, Newsom should lose his job and the marriage licenses should be revoked like the monument was removed. Both had ethical reasons for doing what they did that they supported with facts, however, the law is the law. Props to him (and Moore as well) for standing up for what he believes, but in a nation of laws he should be punished by said law until said law changes. What do you guys think?
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| random thoughts |
[05 Feb 2004|09:17pm] |
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mood |
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I ship out in five months and two days. I am in the best shape physically that I have been in the last several years. I know what I want to do with my life and who I want to include in it. I get to leave this dismal state in just a little over two and a half months to move back to Wichita and spend time with friends I haven't seen in months. The most annoying thing I have in my life is so "unannoying" that I get up everyday and go - namely my job. There is a new cute girl there. I think I'll chase. Hurrah.
If I had a shovel I could buy Howard Dean for the country. He's dead. Today he announced he was withdrawing his mobile supporters from Washington state to Wisconsin, saying that if they don't win Wisconsin he's out. Well, he's out. It would take an extraordinary effort for him to win. Kerry has a 30% lead on him.
I have a very restless feeling in recent days. I feel like time is getting away from me. Its very odd. I never feel like I have time for anything. I am very impatient. I don't have patience for stupid people and people in bad moods.
I have the leavings of a cold. It sucks. I have no couch. That sucks as well. I am getting tired of laying on the floor. Floors are cold and mine isn't soft. Its sad. I think I'm going to go run into the wall a few times before sleeping time.
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