We Are the Difference

Speeches

2010-05-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

For my English class this year, we have to give End of the Year speeches regarding politics and such things. We have to give them in front of the whole school. I'm really glad that we were given this assignment because it causes us to have to go into detail and search about our topic and find out the opinions and the facts. It gives us a chance to find out for ourselves what's true and what isn't. My subject was on the legalization of Marijuana and why it's dangerous. It was an interesting topic, and I was intrigued by how many people deny the fact that smoking Marijuana is the most probable cause for people to get into hard drugs like Cocaine and Heroin.

Health Care Reform

2009-08-25T21:07:00.001-07:00

This isn't going to be a long post, but I was listening to a talk show on the radio while my dad was driving me home from work, and the issue of the new health care plan was coming up, and Obama's plan for if people can't afford stuff like hip replacements and knee replacements, he'd give them the money for it, but, however, he doesn't include the elderly in this generous offer, because, according to him, it's immoral to help the elderly get the health care they need in order to live happy lives.
My grandpa has bad knees, and if this health care reform bill passes, he won't be able to get the knee replacements he needs, and he's retired, so he'd be living in misery, just because the darn president doesn't think the older people in society are of any importance. That makes me mad.
Just another little thing to keep you guys posted.

Federal Government - Power Greedy

2009-06-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

On facebook, I joined this group called the Patrick Henry Caucus, and i get messages from them every day practically, which gets a tiny bit irritating, because I'm not too involved with the group, but they send updates on all the horrible things that the federal government is pushing on the country, like the whole thing with the bailout on GM, and a new thing I just read about in the last message I got, and now several Chrysler dealers around the country are literally having their businesses taken from them and given to someone completely different! Most of these dealers have been a family business for 60+ years. It's happening everywhere, but there is something we can do about it. One thing in this message that I got was basically a plea to call Gov. Huntsman or Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert and urge them to call a special session to propose a bill that would protect these dealers and their businesses.
Just something new to think on.

Barak Obama - Born American or not?

2009-04-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Just tonight, I was listening to my mom and dad talk about things that are going on in the world, and the issue of Barak Obama's orientation came up. My dad was saying that after doing a lot of research, he discovered a few things that made the idea that he was actually born American very fishy. For one, his birth certificate that he presented to verify that he was born in Hawaii was printed on a laser printer, which didn't exist back in the 60's. In order to actually verify your birth certificate, it has to be an actual copy of the original, which means it couldn't have been printed on a laser printer for it to be legit. (I hope I'm using all these terms correctly.) Kind of makes me think "What's going on there?"
Secondly, there are a few groups of people throughout the U.S. that are doing the same research, to find out if his birth certificate is actually real, and his whole cabinet is trying to hush them up, and make it so that they can't do anything. If there was nothing to find out, why is he worrying about them? If he has nothing to hide, why is he concerned? Just a couple things to think over.

Interesting

2009-04-10T18:43:00.000-07:00

I though this was interesting. Think of it what you will. The only thing I have to say is that left wing politicians are claiming that this was NOT a bow. Why lie about something like this?

Obama Bowing

A.

PS. While I was perusing the related videos, I came across this one. Notice the slip in the middle, and how quickly he corrects himself. Arabic TV Interview.

Tax Raise

2009-04-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Over the past few weeks there have been some drastic tax raises on Cigarettes, Tobacco, and Cigars. I know this seems like a wonderful thing, with the whole "people will stop smoking because it's too expensive and they can't afford it" idea. That's not true.
Tax raises on "Roll-your-own Tobacco" and Small Cigars skyrocketed last week. To purchase a pound of tobacco, the tax went from $1.09 to about $25, and that's just tax. Small cigar taxes went from $1.87 to about $54. Again, that's JUST tax. Doesn't include the actual price of the product.
Obama raised this tax on cigars and tobacco in order to try and pay for the children's S-Chip health insurance. All the smokers out in the U.S. are pretty ticked off about this whole thing. I was listening to the Glen Beck radio program with my dad and one guy called in and said that he's not going to buy tobacco from the stores anymore, he's going to grow his own, which will of course result in the government going in and telling him "You can't do this" just because they want to give these guys no other option but to buy tobacco from the stores. This kind of taxing is wrong. It's like the income tax. It's aimed at a selected group of people. The income tax was aimed at rich people, because they'd have to pay a greater tax because they make a lot more money. This tobacco tax is specifically aimed at the poor people of the U.S. because guess what? None of the rich people smoke. Or at least if they do, they lose all their money VERY fast. This tax is probably going to be the start of a whole big conspiracy for smokers to try and get their smokes without having to pay 50 bucks just to get it because none of them have that kind of money just lying around.
This tax isn't going to stop the smokers from smoking, they'll find another way to get it, no matter what.

In Utah, Gov. Huntsman wanted to have Utah's own tobacco tax raise, which probably more than half of Utah was all for it, till Sen. Craig Frank came in and said "Why don't we just raise taxes on caffeine too?" and of course EVERYONE went ballistic over it! As of now, Craig Frank is my hero, because he actually has a sense of what is constitutional and what isn't.

Weirded Out

2009-04-01T13:37:00.000-07:00

This was the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me in my life. I'm pretty dang sure that it was just a prank pulled by somebody, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were the real guy.
I was checking my Facebook page this morning before school and I had a few notifications, so i was checking those and there was this one that said "Grace, Barak Obama confirmed you as a cousin on 'We're Related': see how you are related" So, already I'm thinking "What the heck?" so I click on it, and it brings up the page that has the names of a bunch of different people in a pedigree chart that says that my great-grandparents' names are Charles James Smith and Pearl Marie Petersen. Don't ask me how ANYONE could come up with such a thing, because I know the names of my great-grandparents and Charles and Pearl are NOT them. So, according to some nut-job out there in society, I'm apparently related to Barak Obama. That makes me laugh.

The American Embarrasment

2009-03-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

As an American, I am embarrassed. You should be too. Allow me to explain.
To start out, lets put one thing straight: elected officials are representatives of the people. They represent us, our ideals, our values, and should do what we want them to do. That having been said, some of the things many of the elected officials that are representing us are doing are so embarrassing, it makes me wonder what we were thinking when we elected them.

Tony Blair, prime minister of the United Kingdom, following the 9/11 attacks, sent a bust of Sir Winston Churchill for the President. This bust has since been displayed in the Oval Office, until shortly before the inauguration of our current president, Barack Obama. After being asked if he wanted to keep it during his term in office, our president said, "Thanks, but no thanks." It was returned to UK officials. One might think that it would be just fine for the president to be allowed to change the decor of his home, but there are many people from the UK that are offended at the action. The bust was a symbol of our transatlantic friendship. And of course, if it were me, I would totally insult our allies by returning a gift.

I request that we, as Americans, apologize to the UK officials for our presidents political faux pas. I suggest writing a short note saying that we, as Americans, still consider the UK to be our good friends, and that we want to continue that good friendship. The address of the American UK embassy:

Consular Section
19 Observatory Circle, NW
Washington, DC 20008

Another example. The following excerpt is from ABC news:

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance (on the Jay Leno show), the president talked about how he's gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

"That's very good, Mr. President," Leno said sarcastically.

It's "like the Special Olympics or something," the president said.

Yes, Mr. Obama. Go ahead and make fun of those autistic kids. I am ashamed of the fact that he actually has the gall to insult people that try to make a difference in their lives in spite of mental disabilities or physical handicaps. Bravo, Mr. President. Bravo.

As a side not, his score of 129 would not have won anything.

I know this post was all over the place. Hopefully, as time goes on, I will become more eloquent. In the mean time, thank you for your time.

A.

Weird but cool connection between fiction and reality

2009-03-18T17:16:00.000-07:00

I was doing my book report for English, and I'm doing it on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I know a lot of people have read that book, and that it's a really big hit, but i don't know if anyone made this connection, or maybe I'm just crazy.
As i was remembering the part where Harry, Ron, and Hermione break into the Ministry after Voldemort has taken control of it, and seeing the statue of the witch and wizard sitting on chairs that are really made of humans (muggles), and it kind of dawned on me that Voldemort's whole philosophy of enslaving the muggles, and killing those who oppose, including half-bloods and mud-bloods, is almost exactly like a Hitler or Stalin philosophy. Probably not exactly, but it's really close.
I'm sure there are probably lots of other people that have figured this out, but i just thought it was kinda cool.

Ignorance and Bigotry

2009-03-18T14:04:00.000-07:00

Over the past few days, on my Facebook profile, I've been having a "debate" with few certain peers who, one is very socialist, and the other, very capitalist. The conversation went on between me and the capitalist, P1 (I don't wish to post names, so I'll call the capitalist P1, and the socialist P2) and we were talking about how both of us are being treated rather unfairly and unkindly by Democrats (we are both very active conservative republicans) and eventually P2 chimes in, first of all calling me racist because I don't like Obama's ideas. His IDEAS! That has nothing to do with skin color, gosh!

As the conversation continued on, the issues of abortion, united health care, equal resources and property were all addressed, and at first I was seriously struggling with how to respond to P2's points because I had heard them all before, but not addressed with such vulgarity. One of the first things he said was that "to relate Hitler and Stalin to Socialism is unfair and incorrect." Where the heck does he get that idea!? In case he didn't realize it, the name NAZI stands for "National SOCIALIST Workers Party", and the USSR (Stalin's jurisdiction) stand for the "Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics" how in the heck is it "incorrect" to relate those two organizations to Socialism? Because, hello! It's in the freakin NAME!

Another big issue that came up was whether Socialism kills people or not. P2 is convinced that it doesn't, when, when Socialism is explained, it's more than obvious that it does. The state takes everyone's property, money, possessions, everything, and splits it up evenly between all the people, because the belief is that there are only so many resources, so we have to evenly share what we already have. That kind of thinking doesn't work. My dad and I were having a late-night conversation on Socialism, and he gave me this analogy: "Say you have a big pie, and there are 15 people in your family so you'll split the pie into 15 equal pieces. But what if you invite the neighbors over, and add 10 more people, then you'd have to split the pie into 25 equal pieces. Then, say you invite your extended family over, and a bunch of friends and you eventually have to cut the pieces so small that it's impractical. What do you do then?" I didn't have an answer to this question at the time. This is Socialism's answer: "You get rid of some of the people, either by killing them, imprisoning them, or just ignoring them, sending them away to die from starvation or disease." That's what Hitler did, that's what Stalin did, and we saw what happened there. Hitler killed about 13 million people in this practice, Stalin killed about 130 million. The government has all of the resources, then distributes them among the former-wealthy people, providing them with 'comfort' and ignoring the lesser classes of the people, cutting off their means of living. The idea that Socialism is good, when there's so many examples of how it is pure evil, is just outrageous and stupid.

As this conversation between me, my dad, and P2 continued on, he dropped his discussion on regular politics and began attacking religion, by stating that "being a Christian doesn't make you a positive force in the world. It is one of the most negative" If that's not just rude, insensitive, and completely idiotic, I don't know what is. He says that all we do is care about ourselves and our position for that after-life and that we don't care what's going on now, when, how many times have we seen on the news that, say, there's a shortage of food in Africa and they need supplies, and Christian religions are the FIRST to respond? How many Mormon churches have Humanitarian Aids? Every single one of them! And yet here he is claiming that Christians don't give a crap about anyone else in the world besides themselves. Wrong! And he also claims that Christianity itself creates "ignorance and bigotry." Those are words commonly used by Liberal Democrats trying to grind down their opponent. Clearly this guy hasn't studdied Mormon philosophy at all in his entire life.

The last claims of P2 were that no matter what he believes, he doesn't need to look it up for himself because "other people have already done the research for him." If that's not the laziest comment I've ever heard in my life, then so help me. He tried winning me over on the Global Warming concept by laying out the Lohachara Island card. The inhabited island lied on a river delta, and disappeared when it was steadily eroded away by the river. There's your explanation right there. The sea isn't rising. He told me to pay attention and watch "An Inconvenient Truth" (promoted and made by Al Gore, the King of Global Warming idiotics). My answer to that is change what you're watching. Try "The Great Global Warming Scandal", and maybe it'll change your mind about the whole concept. So, in reality, it's not religion's fault, it's the fact that there are so many stupid, gullible people in our society that will believe anything they see while sitting on their fat butts in front of the TV, unwilling to go out and do a little research to verify their beliefs. I don't know about anyone else, but that sounds like a whole load of "ignorance and bigotry" to me.