No control

In a recent Time Magazine, there was a characterture of Obama, Bird Bird and Elmo. My three year old son was flipping through the pages and said, mom, why is Obama with Bird Bird and Elmo?
Right then and there I realized, my son's learning is not controlled by me. Not that I have a problem with him recognizing our President of the United States, I just don't remember teaching him that. Although I could chalk it up to being such a fantastic political scientist mother, but like I just said I can't take credit for what my son learns. Although now that I think about it, I'm sure my son has heard his father and me talk about Obama a million and half times.

Political Movies

here's an old post
Normally I don't blog about movies I've watched, so be forewarned both of these movies swore a lot, but that was about the only thing that made them PG-13.
We watched W the other day, and I really found it fascinating, then again I studied this stuff in school so I had some background to bring to the movie. As I was watching it I wondered how much was make believe for the plot, looked it up, apparently they have sources for the movie, My polsci research professor taught me don't believe anything you read until you look up the sources. I would totally recommend this movie to anyone who watched PG-13 movies. I thought it might be harsh on George W. Bush, or a parody, but I thought the movie was very professional, and try to accurately portray the real people. It reminded me of all the thoughts I had during the pre-Iraq days, when they were threatening, Saddam Hussien. I was on the verge of graduation from High School, so it was obviously a big deal, for all us high school seniors where we were going to war, and could it mean a draft? (Remember I said high school)
Next we watched Swing Vote, I loved this one. I thought it was so good, and it was very funny. I keep replaying the funny lines over in my head and laughing. (Tha'ts just the type of person I am.) Very cute, the political scientist in me loved it. (Maybe I shouldn't classify myself as a political scientist since I have no graduate work in the field. Don't expect me to stop any time soon.)

Will this make me sound crazy?

The Case Against the Fed by Murray N. Rothbard
I'm sure this was a very informative, but it was also extremely dry. Even though I haven't read something this boring, since my Palestinian Hamas textbook in my senior polsci research class, I was going to prove I could finish it. I didn't finish it since I have a newborn, and Kim wanted to pick it up. (Although I'm not blaming my failure on Kim.) I didn't start reading it until it had been in my house for about a month. I read 3/4 of it in about a week before I ran out of time. It seemed to contradict the DVD The Money Masters on some points. I wonder which one has more facts straight, or if they are both sort of right in their interpretations. Maybe they weren't in contradiction on some points, I just was reading the book wrong, or maybe its been too long since I watched the movie. If I was going to suggest one, I would suggest the documentary, The Money Masters it was better at adding drama. The Fed is a scary organization so I would think it would be easy to add drama to written piece as well. Maybe I'm sounding stupid and naive by writing all this, but the book was one of the driest text books I have ever read. Although it was informative.
Like I said I would suggest The Money Masters if anyone cares to know more about the Fed, and isn't related to my husband, and already looked into matters. If you want to watch it, you can click on two dozen or so videos on YouTube to watch it, or just click once for three hours on google video. My husband and I listen to it in the car on a vacation, the visual part of the movie isn't that exciting, since its a documentary. So we uploaded the video to our mp3 player for the car, my husband couldn't watch because he was driving, and for whatever reason it made me nausea to actually look at the screen. To finish off, if you want to know the origin of Central Banking, its an interesting watch, if you are in the mood for a documentary that is about a decade old. But it is still just as relevant, anything more so, with the current recession.

Striking Fear

Yesterday my husband showed me a picture of the Prime Minister of Iran, and asked me if he scared me. I thought he wanted me to say yes, so I round about said um, not really I don't think so why? He said me either, I was just wondering, because I just read a news article about how evil he is, he doesn't look real evil to me, he doesn't strike terror into my heart. I said me either.
I said people who scare me by their pictures are people like Hillary Clinton (I am so glad she lost the primary.) and Ted Kennedy (I admit I found a partially awful picture of Ted, but he freaks me out.)Then later that night as we were about to go to bed, I said very excitedly, oh, I know who really freaks me out, Condoleezza Rice!Nothing strikes more fear in my heart than a picture of Condi Rice.
(See I'm bipartisan, both republicans' and democrats' pictures gives me nightmares.)
How about you? Are there politicians out there in the world that you see their picture and they scare you?
P.S. To make it even, I added another Republican, my husband can't stand to see pictures of Giuliani.(These pictures are probably all copyrighted so hopefully I don't get in trouble.)
P.P.S. Speaking of Politicians' Pictures, when I got my most recent Time Magazine, I said to my husband I'm so sick of seeing life size pictures of Obama on the cover. I brought up when an unnamed female relative said, the positive thing about Obama being elected is he is at least attractive and has a nice voice. And while I agree that after 8 years of listening to President Bush sound like a moron, we need a break, I am not attracted to Obama so I don't want life size facial shots of him in my house every other week. My husband said it could be worse, life size shots of McCain. I said no what would be really bad, is life size shots of Cindy.If someone really wanted to give me nightmares show me pictures of Cindy and Condi together. Ahh! What really gets me is Condoleezza's eyes, even when she is smiling they look devoid and angry. I believe what they say, about someone's eyes being the window of their soul, so I always look at politician's eyes. Let me tell you in my opinion, there are some pretty gruesome eyes to behold out there in the news. And now I am done with my extremely politically incorrect blog post. (By the way I don't think Cindy is scary, I just think she looks like a weirdo and I don't like to see pictures of her.)

Rather Controversially/ Probably the Last One in the Series

Voting day is quickly approaching so this probably the last in the series. I have bashed Palin enough to let it swing the other way, if I want to be a true independent. One of my brother in laws, who will remain nameless because I really have no idea who it was, left an NRA magazine in my car. Today I got home from the store, and my son wanted to play in the car, so I picked it up to read.
The NRA does not like Obama and after reading the articles, I have to say I myself was a little freaked out too. (Not that McCain gives me warm fuzzies.) Being a constitutionalists, I think the Bill of Rights (and the Constitution) is an important part of our citizenship, our government, our country, our way of life. (For the record some people could say, my husband's family brainwashed me, but that's really not true, it was my political theory professor I had before I married into my husband's family who turned me into a strict constitutionalists.) When I first started talking to my husband I was pretty neutral on the whole "firearm rights" issue, but after hearing his side of things, taking my political theory classes, reading a lot of convincing evidence that personal firearms decrease crime and not finding convincing arguments for the gun control side of things, I believe very strongly that the Second Amendment is in reference to personal rights. Based on Obama's record in the Illinois Legislature, and as a US Senator, he does not agree. He seems to think local government can take way rights given in the constitution. I don't know where he learned about the Constitution, the states have rights to regulate what the Constitution does not strictly mention, the right to keep and bear arms is stated. States and Local governments can not legally take that away. In a world that seems to be on a downhill slope I sleep better at night knowing we have the right to defend our family. According to the NRA magazine, Obama wants to ban use of firearms for home defense, pass federal laws eliminating your right to carry, ban the manufacture, sale and possession of handguns, along with more. That honestly makes me worried about my family and myself. I honestly could care less about all my personal property when it comes to criminals, its just stuff, but when it comes to the safety of my family's lives I care. When I think about the second amendment being taken away, I think about the stories of Hurricane Katrina, with all the raping and pillaging. As far as I can tell the right to defend my family, and my husband's right to defend our family is the only that can stop that in a state of emergency.
(Yes, I know I can be death and gloom, but well I've read the Book of Mormon and it doesn't give me much hope for humanity, if you recall it ended in apostasy, while the Book of Ether ended with everyone killed. And no one try and tell me for one minute if we had stricter gun laws something like the end of Ether could not happen. If I'm too gloomy for your taste just be grateful, I have great faith in all those little old ladies prayers in the temple.)

Early Voting

This weekend I convinced my husband to take me early voting. Early voting is a joy, to walk in there sign up, fill out the ballot, get your sticker, and walk out, unlike election day voting, which is just a lot of long lines and waiting. My son came along too, and got a sticker at the end. Luckily his dad knew what he was doing, when he wouldn't let my son stay with me, I wondered why, once when we went to vote, it then made sense when he had to pick up our son to see the voting machine. I couldn't have picked him up to allow him to see what voting was, thank goodness for a husband with foresight. All day long I told him how proud I was that he had voted, at which he would look down at his sticker. I told Brent at the end of the day, if what they say is true, and what you say to a child in the first two years of life has the most impact, then our son will always have a positive view of voting, because all day long I've told him I was proud he voted. Brent replied oh good, that will balance out everything I told him while we were voting. The whole time I told him what a terrible state our government is in, if these are the people have to chose between for voting. I laughed at my husband's doom and gloom opinion.

Quite on accident, our Monday family home evening was a nice follow up to voting. We randomly choose to do a flannel board story on Moroni, the Title of Liberty, Helaman and the 2,000 Stripling warriors. We spent a long time focusing on the Title of Liberty, and why defensive wars are ok, but offensive wars or not. Well a long time for a two year old. He was very receptive, the whole time saying, "yes" after every statement we said. My husband tried to teach him the three most important things are, "God, Family, and Freedoom," for whatever reason my son refused to repeat the three things. He seemed uncomfatble saying God, I had to explain to him, God is another name for Heavenly Father.

Unsatisfied

Since we don't have TV watching the presidential debates can be tricky. I happened to find last night's on the radio. (In actuality even if we had TV it would have still be the first one I viewed. The first was on my birthday, and although I really love politics that's not really a birthday dream come true. The second happened during Lamaze class.) I was so excited to finally be viewing one, that I was sorely disappointed once I realized it was just each candidate bashing the other. (Although I have to Obama held off on the bashing for most of the debate, unlike McCain.) Not to mention they didn't say anything new, which is why I didn't really care I missed the first two. If you have been following the election, then the debates rarely bring out new information. After the debate my husband went to RonPaul.com, yes we still are fans. That's where the unsatisfaction came, there was a list of example questions that he thought would be better than the run of the mill questions. After my husband read them to me, I had to agree the debate would have been fascinating if they would have asked some like this:

1. What are some advantages / disadvantages of our current fiat money system?

2. Would you be in favor of a simpler, easier to understand tax code, where money is only taxed once?

3. Do you think we are getting our money’s worth in the war on drugs? What tangible benefits does this war on drugs have?

4. Which would be more beneficial to an individual, a properly managed mix of 401k, Roth IRA, CDs, bonds, money market funds, etc. or government run Social Security?

5. Are we getting fair value for the money we spend on education? Why are some schools falling apart? What benefits do teachers unions provide to our children?

6. Do you agree or disagree with the statement that our infrastructure is crumbling? If yes, why is this the case? Could private companies handle the roads, bridges, and jails without as much waste?

7. Are the wars we are involved in constitutional, and why exactly are we at war right now? To capture Osama Bin Laden? Secure our oil supplies? Promote our way of life?

8. Why are we in the United Nations and what purpose does a UN declaration serve if we ignore it?

9. Do you think free markets could set interest rates, or do we need the Fed to set these rates? In your opinion, has the Fed played any negative role in the current economic situation?

10. Is it a good idea to let third-party candidates participate in the Presidential debates?

On a finishing note, I could never be a politician's wife. It is surprising all the gains feminists have made, but yet, a politician's wife still stand there in overpriced suits like trophies.

Two completely different thoughts

Am I the only who has noticed Cindy McCain does not have the ability to sound like she relates to the average middle class American? From what I've seen about her, she tries really hard to sound down to earth, but just makes herself that much more of heiress. Parents Magazine had a thing about her as a parent, and the Obamas as parents. Although Michelle Obama seems a little controlling as a mother, they at least seemed like average Americans; reading the interview about Cindy McCain was like reading a celebrity try to tell people she is just an average person like you who wears Gucci.

Next thought:
Yesterday morning, my son and I were up earlier enough to say good bye to my husband before he left for work. When we wake up this early, I always find monday mornings traumatic. We got a husband/daddy for 80 hours nonstop, but now all of sudden we are left on our own. My son and I usually get one quite stellar during the day, but it so much more exciting with a third in the house. When I said good bye to my husband I said, I'm going to miss you terribly. He said good, I said don't think I should start getting over this? He said, no, that would mean you are complacant with me. My thought: Isn't life grand?

Voting

Do you remember the first time you voted?
I do, I remember the excitement the thrill. (I know I'm a political nerd.) I turned 18 in September of an even year, so I got to vote. It was just a local elections, but still it was exciting. My parents are people that believe in the phrase vote early and vote often, well minus the often since its not allowed, but if it was, I'm sure they would vote often. So on a Saturday before the election after my parents had finished yard work, I remember going down to the county court house with them to vote. In my first real election. It was very thrilling, to show my card. But also very nerve wracking to try and get my ballot in the voting box thing, and hope I was doing it right. I remember pulling out my ballot and turning it in, then getting the I voted sticker. Then all of sudden doom came over my good mood, I thought oh my goodness what did I do? How do I know I voted for the best candidate? How can I go home with those choices a made? I was too embarrassed to ask anyone if there was anything I could do. Which I'm sure there wasn't since I already turned in my ballot. But whoa was that a weight on my shoulders, I still don't know if I've recovered. I'll make a confession I felt guilty for voting for a republican for an environmental position. When I think back to that day I still feel like I made a mistake. Although my dad told me in the car on the way home I shouldn't worry about it. Maybe thats why I take my husband and his siblings so serious, when they say voting for the lesser of two evils, is still voting for evil. Who knows.
But still the joys of voting.
The memories of voting.
This past spring was so exciting, I had never voted in a Presidential Primary before. Oh and civil elections voting in my north college town were always fun, they gave you a piece of card stock with a few names and boxes and you take a pencil and mark your choice then put it in a box. Nothing like small towns. I remember the first time I voted on a voting machine, feeling like no matter what I hit on the screen life wouldn't matter, because it could all be hacked anyway. I still think the Presidential primary was the most exciting, boldly talking with my husband about who our choice would be, feeling like these people in our state needed once last chance to hear something about someone other than Romney.

Week long

This is my week long assessment of Palin. Maybe longer than a week, how every long she has been in the news, two weeks? As you probably know, my husband and I were/are big Ron Paul supporters. I say were because he is no longer in the race, but are is more accurate word, we still support his views and voting record. When Palin showed up we thought hey maybe she is young enough in the political world (I mean by years of experience not age) that she hasn't been corrupted yet. We didn't make any judgement calls at first, we thought we should read about her for a while. I read quite a bit about Obama before I made a decision on him, he seems like a nice guy, but his views and my views don't exactly coincide. I like the free market a little to much to support him in my opinion, although he is very skilled at public speaking. I haven't read nearly as much about Palin but, I got a sour taste in my mouth that I just don't think I'll ever be able to shake. The Time Magazine, said as mayor she tried to get the librarian to ban books. The librarian was appalled as was I when I read it. I don't know what books she wanted to ban, (I don't think she accomplished that task) but in my mind see a group of angry parents saying books written by authors such as Mark Twain are bad. And well that comes down to my entire decision. How can I support someone who might not like Mark Twain? She might not be against Twain, but I never have wanted to support McCain, so its easy not to support her, since that is her job to be McCain's running mate. I don't like McCain's voting record. I also get angry when the newspaper reports on American military causalities in Iraq, and since he is in support I can't support him. Nothing makes me more angry about American politics than deaths in Iraq, in my opinion there is never a reason to start a preemptive war. You might disagree, which is fine, but I will never support a preemptive war.
Anyway back to Palin, the news media like to make her out as McCain's mistake in acting too fast. I disagree, it he getting so much publicity because of her. I doubt any of it was a mistake. Any publicity is good publicity when most voters vote based on name recognition and not issues. Research shows mud slinging ads against a competitor do more good for the competitor than the one paying for the ad, because all that matters in an American election is name recognition. Which is part of the reason our beloved Ron Paul didn't do very well, his name is not well know.

Campagin 2008

If you haven't read my blog for more than a few months, you might not know I can be very opinionated about politics. More than opinionated they fascinate me. I love the social sciences, not just political science, psychology, sociology, anything that studies people's behavior. So polsci combined to of my interests, politics and the study of people. (That's why I liked my political theory so much, reading things like Plato's Republic, and Machiavelli's Prince, if it wasn't for my offspring I would have spent more time studying theory, but I didn't have time.) I lately find this election fascinating. I got bored with back in early spring. None of the republicans were worth writing home about, so either Obama or Hillary was going to win. Really how could the republicans fight against either of those. And then everyone dropped out other McCain, and I thought pathetic, republicans got stuck with second string, that's my opinion since McCain already lost a primary. (By the way I am neither democrat or republican, I don't like either party's politics.) Then things got slightly interesting, just because I remember a professor of mine talking about the current way we do primaries is awful for the parties (it changed a couple of decades ago) because the parties members rip apart each other when, they should be building up the party so the public like them. So I found the bitter rivalry between the democrats very interesting. We (my husband and I) thought Hillary would win the primary and pick Obama as a running mate, but even beyond the numbers the primary took too much of a toll for that to happen. I kind of wonder what was going to happened, but part of me had already lost hope in our political climate. My husband didn't believe any of the polls saying McCain actually had a chance against Obama. I didn't really know what to think, I mean I did take Stats so know poll figures mean absolute nothing, anything can be proved with stats. But Obama has seemed to lose some of the fire he had a year ago. Then it all changed! I felt like a giddy sophomore studying at USU again, when Obama picked Joe Biden for a running mate. I sort had stopped paying attention to what was happening, so I was shocked. Someone to counter McCain-- old with military experience. Oh but that giddiness was nothing in comparison to when my husband sent me this article. Oh!! McCain picking a mostly unknown woman, Sarah Palin as a running mate, to counter Obama, young and a minority (female). Who could have guessed politics would get so fun again! Plus someone for drilling in Alaska. (Not that I'm for drilling, I just found it an interesting twist. I'm not really agaisnt drilling, I have no opinion except it won't fix anything.) Not to mention it made me very happy that he didn't pick Romney. Utah newspapers thought this was Romney's big chance. I had just read an article how Gov. Huntsman said it was totally Romney. (I don't like Romney because I don't want people associating my religion with his politics. I'm sure he is good standing in the church, but that doesn't mean I want people to think Mormons=Romney, because it doesn't.) Oh I wonder how things will work out. I can't wait to find out even though I want neither for my president.