Giving credit where it's due

The Iraq will be coming to a close. Read it.

Thank you military.

Good job with keeping a promise, President Obama.

Chivalry is not dead, but it's getting close

I've heard a lot of things about how the modern man needs to relearn how to serve the woman. I think there is something missing from our society and I think men do need to remember to serve women better as a whole than we probably do now.

But what happens when a man is not allowed to serve?

I witnessed this today as I was taking a trip to the airport. A woman with a very large piece of luggage had some difficulty getting on the shuttle. A man saw she was struggling, and offered a seat to the woman, who looked like she might need a seat. She refused, even after the guy stood up and pointed to the seat. So, he sat back down. He was just trying to be nice, but his kindness was rejected.

This is handcuffing for a man. Now, he might remember being rejected for his kindness. If I were him, I'd be hesitant to try and help again. If it ends in rejection, then what's the point?

The same goes for looking for a relationship, in my opinion. If I see a woman who is never going to ask for my help, I'm not going to ask her out. Why? Because if she does not want me or at least make me feel like I'm being helpful, then I'm not going to look at that and say, "oh there goes my future wife." I'm going to say, "there goes a woman who is on her own and could care less about me. There's a woman who does not need me."

Maybe the woman thought, "He thinks I'm old. I'll show him." Maybe she thought, "He thinks I'm weak. I'll show him." It could have been the thought, "He thinks I'm helpless. I'll show him." But the guy was probably thinking, "I'll serve this stranger and try to be kind."

I understand there is a spirit of independence among people, especially Americans. We can do it ourselves. But sometimes, it's being kind to just allow people to be kind to you.

I care by not caring

How much are we supposed to be caring?

To be honest, I am dreading the 2012 election. I'm a white, male, pro-business, pro-Capitalist, pro-life, pro-gun, pro-balanced budget, Christian.

I realized I probably offended you.

It might be time to show how much we care, by not caring.

We have to rank things on a scale of importance. Here is mine:

1. Sharing the Gospel (but this is my job, too)
2. How are my family and friends
3. If my car dies, how do I replace it?
4. I'd like to get married someday...
5. Why can't some of my friends get decent jobs?
6. If UCO Pittsburgh runs out of funding, what would I do?

Let's admit some things: our sphere of caring usually starts with our immediate lives. If people lose their job--which seems to happen more--they're not going to be worried about Middle East relations and our relationship with Mongolia as a country. Heck, they may even stop caring about recycling. When money was tight for me, I made $11 trading in aluminum cans to a scrapyard. Boy, it was not worth it.

Now, let me compare my cares with some of the cares I saw when I visited my relatives in the Philippines:

1. Will I work today?
2. Can we put food on the table today? What about tomorrow?
3. Will I make it if I get hurt in an accident?
4. Will I be able to afford to go to the hospital?
5. How can I get some better clothing? Something without holes?

So, maybe my resolution is to stop caring about the political news. As long as the government doesn't collapse, then today is probably going to be a pretty good day, all things considered. There is tragedy in our country. But tragedy is not having your parents still using AOL. It's not still having a regular TV. No, tragedy is not driving a 1990 Chrysler LeBaron, with the mirror taped to the door.

Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat cake." The peasants of France were starving, and inside her royal lifestyle, she had no idea what was going on in the rest of the world. She just thought they didn't have enough vegetables and meat with their meal, and said they should just go straight to the cake.

With over 1 billion people living on a dollar a day (it might be more now that we inflated our money), it might be time to care more about simpler things. It also might be ok to not care about certain things.



**Note and correction: Marie Antoinette may have never said let them eat cake. Also, it would have been from a lack of bread, not meat and vegetables.

Finally?!?

Obama releases his birth certificate.

Big deal. Who cares. This was the dumbest argument ever. I was ashamed it happened in the first place. This is almost as dumb as when people said Bush caused the World Trade Centers to fall and the levies to break in New Orleans.

Thank God this is done. Sick of it. We have bigger things to worry about, like the fact we're spending ourselves into destruction.

Also, no one wants Donald Trump to be president. No one.

Finally, happy Easter!

Why Can't We be Friends?

Were we not supposed to move on to a better world? Wasn't there supposed to be healing for the nations?

Egypt was the #2 receiver of funding from the US. Now they are in turmoil.

Unrest in Iran, Libya, Tunisia, and Bahrain.

No government in Lebanon. No government in Belgium.

The world seems to be coming unhinged.

I thought we were supposed to be better liked.

We're not.

We're running out of options. The world is looking for leadership. It might run to the most functioning form of government, best economy and least amount of debt:

China.

What's next?

One Year Ago, the Truth Came Out

In 2009, a scandal broke out in Europe, which most Americans were ignorant. Emails from scientists revealed there was manipulation of data in climate change research, showing exaggerations of how severe things really were and the urgency to act now on global policy to stop global warming.

But, then the truth came out, and it turns out scientists were lying. Chairman of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri has come out and says he regrets the falsehood of saying there would be no more glaciers in the Himalayas by 2035. Read his full statement here.

Also from the Guardian, which by the way is a left-leaning newspaper in the UK, is an article about what has changed.

There still might be global warming, and no one is really pro-pollution and hoping we all die in the second great flood(which theologically couldn't happen, unless you don't trust the Bible...that's another blog post). But let's be honest, use all the facts, remember there is a lot of money and power involved in this topic on a global scale, and question with boldness. Putting our heads in the sand will not help anyone or anything. But neither does lying to prove what you are doing.

[Image from The Nothing Corporation]

Obama is out of touch...seriously out of touch

Well, the elections are over. No more really bad ads during football games, which probably unites us as a country more than politicians. I know people who would really like to just watch sports in peace, and not hear how candidate X wants to ship all the jobs America ever created to China or how the other candidate Y wants to give us Sharia law.

But after the House will have a swing of at least 61 seats for "the party of no," what does President Obama think the problem was which led to such a swing?

A lack of communication.

Seriously.

To quote a CBS News article found here, it says, "President Obama acknowledges what many have seen as his chief weakness – failing to sell the importance of several legislative milestones to the American people."

Maybe it was the fact people did NOT WANT what was passed? Did this thought even cross your mind? This is the arrogance people really hate. It's not the fact that Mr. Obama can't speak. I've found him to be a great speaker. It's never going to be his delivery which is a problem. It's the content of the speech I'm going to hate. Governor Bobby Jindal gave the response to President Obama's speech in 2009 after the state of the union address. It was painful to watch. He's probably not going to do anything on the national level of politics ever again. It made Mr. Obama look awesome. I don't like Mr. Obama, but he looked really good.

No, maybe it's the fact taxes are going to rise, along with my health insurance (which has already happened). Maybe it's the fact our economy is going to face massive amounts of inflation because we're not willing to sacrifice some programs. Maybe it's the fact our debt is out of control, and we're going to be Greece in a few years. It's not the lack of communication. President Bush didn't communicate well, but he understood he lost power and tried to change his agenda (which I didn't like). President Clinton understood in '94. President Obama doesn't.

It looks more and more like Mr. Obama is a rich man's Billy Mays, RIP. We know the products aren't all that great, and we liked the initial pitch. But now that we got them and see what they really are, we want our money back. But rather than have satisfied customers, they give us more stuff we don't want.

We're not dumb, and we do get it, Mr. Obama. We just don't want it.