My fellow nerds and I will retire to the nerdery with our calculators.
We've played in tournaments the past two weekends and finished in 2nd in both. Check out our rankings. We're (Designs Now) the 2nd ranked team if you only count teams that have been in more than one tournament.
http://www.ovr.org/mw/mstandings.php?div=B
Feels pretty good. But it would be nice to take a tournament.
Regionals are in Columbus on the weekend of April 16th. We'll probably do pretty well.
Tara attempts to speak for conservatives:
"As conservatives are generally skeptical of government, I find it curious that they generally have no qualms with putting the government in charge of deciding the value of someone's life."
Being a reformed Conservative, I'll attempt to address this point. Of course conservatives are skeptical of government. However, it doesn't mean no government at all. Government is necessary for certain things and enforcing laws and protecting liberties is another one (don't respond to this with any mention of our current president. It's irrelevant to this discussion).
Certain crimes, in my opinion deserve death. On the way to work, I heard of a man who stabbed 5 of his children, killing two and then killed himself. SOB got off easy. I'd have preferred he not even get death and spend life in prison at the mercy of the other prisoners. Call me a bastard. I can live with it.
I don't have a problem with the death penalty being handed out to a criminal convicted by a jury. But since we now have access to DNA evidence, I would be open to extra provisions being necessary for death penalty.
And to balance that, I'd fast track every death penalty appeal. No living for 10-15 years on Death Row waiting for appeals. Fast track it. Either it gets overturned or you get put down.
Good column on Town Hall.
Having witnessed this twice in the past year. I'll relay my experiences.
In Korea, we went to a club called the Golden Gate. It was right off base and had a lot of Filipino girls. We went there a number of times and I met a gal named Revelyn. Sweet enough gal. Fluent in about 3 languages. She told me a bit about how things worked there.
Typically, the girls are committed for a full year. They or their families get a lump sum of cash for this commitment from the girl. Then she spends the year in Korea being a "jiucy girl" (named for the overpriced juice drinks we have to buy for the girls to get them to sit with us). Basically they are confined to an apartment about 8 of them share and "work," where they sit in skimpy outfits with us and dance in skimpier outfits on the stage. As far as I know, sex is a rare occurrence and frowned upon typically in those establishments. Guys who get too friendly are thrown out quickly.
In Spain, we were in downtown Sevilla and ended up in a club called "American Show." This was a lot more like what is described in the article. There were 3 of us and we all sat down. Quickly 3 really attractive girls sat down with us. They were Romanian. I forget the name of the girl I talked to but she was really pretty and obviously intelligent. But the economic situation in Romania is so poor, a lot of the girls end up where they were, in a club, dancing topless and inviting guys into the backroom for a lapdance or "more."
I only paid my cover charge to get in and bought nothing else. I just spent my time telling this girl how she was too good for a place like that. I felt pretty dirty and heartbroken for the women in this place.
Whatever you think of protitution, a woman voluntarily prostituting is different from one who's basically sold into it, which is, more or less, what was going on here.
I felt like a child does when taken to the pound. I wanted to take one of these gals to the US just to show them that life had hope and there were other things to see.
Anyway, in times like we are in, rarely is a critical word spoken of the military without people snapping back quickly (I can certianly be guilty of this). But this author is right. Those of us in the military are complicit to a high degree as well.
It’s been a while but if you’ve stuck around to read this, you’re truly interested in what I have to say. This makes you really weird.
OK, I said I would type out some of my opinions on the way I think and my political views.
So we’ll just right into it on a topic that is bound to rile some people up. But that’s ok.
Abortion
I believe abortion is wrong. I believe it should be illegal. The only instances I can see someone making a logical case for it is if the mother's life is in danger or rape. Not for incest, if it is consensual. I don’t consider a father raping his daughter as incest. I consider that rape so that is where that situation would fall.
Truth is, Planned Parenthood is a heinous organization and really cares very little for women. Why do I say this? Follow the money. Over 1.3 million. Do the math. That’s a half a billion dollar industry, and those are conservative estimates on my part. They don’t want their industry to go down the tubes. To that *business*, it’s about the money.
Now why do I say Planned Parenthood doesn’t really care about women? Well, they’ve never stopped trying to ban other options from being discussed in clinics and the actual emotional aftercare of the women is often left to pro-life non-profits to take care of.
Now, there are two sides to this. There are radicals on the other side as well. They stand out in front and yell heinous things at the women who feel so trapped that they venture into these places. A while ago, a few clinics were bombed and people were killed. Some abortion “doctors” were also targeted for killing and some killed. These radicals do not represent the mainstream who believe abortion should be illegal. Many in the mainstream disavowed these views.
“But Eric, you are a Libertarian. You believe in keeping the government out of personal issues. Government involvement only makes things worse.”
Well, you are right. And I do believe in the right to personal choice. I believe I should have the right to do anything I want so long as it does not infringe upon the right to life, liberty and personal property of another person. And that’s the catch. I believe abortion kills. It is an infringement upon the life and liberty of another human.
Now, people will argue until the end of time over when life truly begins. I have my view. You can have yours. But it certainly seems to me that if we assume either side is true, one is going to be more heinous if it is wrong. If I am wrong and life begins during the 2nd trimester, well, I’ve infringed on someone’s right to choice and “their own body” (oh how I hate that phrase). But if the other side is wrong, we’ve just killed a human being. Seems rational people could agree to err on the safe side. But apparently not.
I believe rational people can disagree on this topic typically. However, the fringes choose not to be rational. And I would even argue the “mainstream” pro-choicers choose not to be rational. Keep in mind, I haven’t even brought up the process of abortion which would make most people puke or wince in pain just hearing about.
I also believe that if the pro-lifers spent as much energy changing the hearts and minds of people on this issue as they did on banning this horrible procedure, we’d make a lot more headway.
This view aligns with both my Christian and Libertarian beliefs. I believe a human life trumps personal choice. Others do not agree. But I don’t see a flaw in logic in my position and, as I pointed out, if we’re going to err on either side, then my side is certainly the safer side to err on.
Other notes:
-Melissa can rest. She has been linked for over a week now.
-The Phantom of the Opera movie is great.
No, I'm not going to talk about my dirty boxers. But I'll be it either got your attention or scared you away briefly.
I'm tempted to start doing a political profile of myself on here. I don't want to devote most of this blog to politics but I do have a fairly healthy(on unhealthy) interest in them. I was thinking of tossing out one of my platforms if I were running for POTUS and have a discussion of it under the comments section.
This would allow me to put some of my beliefs out there and see who is enough of a friend of mine that they'll still love me after reading it.
The other advantage is that defending my positions allows me to do the following two things:
1. Become good at communicating why I believe what I do to others.
2. Have my views challenged, allowing me to better debate or even modify/change my position if a compelling counter argument is made.
PREDICTION: Patriots tonight by a 31-14 score. After the game, Pats defensive coordinator Romeo Crennell is named the new head coach of the Cleveland Browns.
Also, the movie The Grudge is a big fat turd. Some creepy and scary parts but after about 80 minutes it's as if the director decided he had to end it abruptly. I was really disapointed in it. Still better than The Terminal, though.
One of my guilty pleasures is South Park. I just started watching it a couple years ago. I don’t get cable but the local Family Choice Video had the first season and the movie on VHS. I decided to give it a try. I watched the movie first.
It’s rare that I’ll laugh out loud while watching something by myself. This movie had me rolling. So, now I’m hooked. I still don’t have cable but I rent the DVD’s when they hit the store or I’ll buy one from time to time.
Last night on the way home from volleyball, I decided I wanted to watch some new ones so I stopped by Blockbuster to rent season 4.
I wandered through the store but couldn’t find it. I asked one of the sales reps if she could help me find it. She said she wasn’t sure if they had it but if they did they’d be in the sections she was showing me. When she couldn’t find them, she explained “Well, Blockbuster likes to consider itself a family store. That’s probably why they don’t have it.”
I paused for a second and asked “But you guys carry Eyes Wide Shut, Basic Instinct, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and 8 MM, right?”
She answered “Yes.”
OK, just checking.
Also, check out this review of the upcoming South Park, Season 5. Think the author needs a thesaurus?
