i just realized

i usually don't carry cash very much anymore. i rarely take the time to go to an ATM, and some of the ones i do use charge fees (which eventually gets refunded to me, but still, is ridiculous). For some reason, i don't like to get cash with my debit card when checking out at the grocery store or Wal-Mart or wherever. It just feels wrong somehow, like i'm being lazy, which is ridiculous because if i only need $20-40 (which is probable) then it is a very efficient way to get money without having to pay a fee. When did i get so set in my old ways that i didn't adapt with the changing times and ease of cash back with my debit purchases?

political apologetics

Last night i watched some West Wing from the first season, which is something that i hadn't done in a very long time. i was shocked to discover that i had seen six out of the first eight episodes. i didn't think i started watching the show until the second or third season. i'm wondering if i caught reruns later on and didn't realize that it was the first season because Moira Kelly is only in half of the episodes.

i forgot how much i loved this show. i absolutely love CJ's klutziness and ineptitude with men (which is funny because Danny's throwing himself at her). i love Toby's crankiness and Sam and Josh's sarcasm. i love Leo's authority and quiet fortitude in the face of his divorce. i love that Donna wants to buy a dvd player, but can't because the administration doesn't "trust her to make a smart investment" so she keeps the change from Josh's lunch for the same reason. i love the chemistry between Jed and Abbey, how she didn't come in right away but was instantly the perfect first lady for the president that has the tendency to get pissed off at the wrong time for the right reasons. i love how this president is pro-life and has faith despite the fact that he's a Democrat (actually, his Catholicism is probably why he's a Democrat, i'm merely commenting on the fact that most in that party are not pro-life, though i am glad to say there are exceptions), that he's a complete nerd, that everyone in the office is brilliant, but makes mistakes like the rest of us.

At the moment, i am exhausted with politics. One of the things i dislike about the West Wing is the tendency for the characters to get conceited towards whoever they're talking to, with total disregard for the person's personal beliefs, because the former "knows" that he or she is smarter, and right. i will allow that very often this attitude turns around to bite them in the butt, but not always. i'm thinking of one time where the Prez and VP are having a fight because they both feel as if the other man is slighting them, not giving enough respect. Why do men have such conceit? Why do they have to strut and make themselves look stupid in attempt to achieve the opposite?

i will never vote any party line. If i was in Congress, i would vote my conscience. i'm not good at falling in line just to fulfill the wishes of someone with their own agenda for its own sake instead of primarily doing what's right for the country and its citizens. Which of course is why i'll never be in Congress, because our government apparently isn't run that way.

The most important issue to me with always be life. i feel bad for Michael J. Fox, i do, but i will never be able to justify using the helpless in an attempt to strengthen the strong, particularly when research with adult stem cells has proved to be more promising than fetal stem cells. i know it's not popular to be pro-life, because everyone wants to feel as if they have been empowered to make whatever choice they want in order to make themself feel better, stronger, etc., but that always needs to be prefaced with not harming anyone else... Which is why i do not understand the Libertarian line on being pro-choice: if hurting others does not apply to killing an innocent and helpless baby, then what does? Punishing someone else for your own mistakes is wrong (not that i consider a baby to be a mistake).

i believe in smaller government, because government has the tendency to take away freedoms, to attempt to control that which should be up to the individual, to become a nanny state that wants to take care of its people from cradle to grave. i believe in individuals empowering themselves, not having anyone tell them "this is how you must live your life because we say so." That isn't a life. i am against socialism 100% because it penalizes the successful for achieving success and says that the individual has no right to defend one's self from those that would seek to put him or her down and keep them there. i am for freedom and capitalism because other systems subvert the right to liberty and to pursue happiness. One's happiness should never depend on the government taking money away from one neighbor and give it to the neighbor who refuses to take part in the pursuit or is less able (taking care of those less able is a responsibility of the Church and charities).

i don't believe in evolution, and if i did then i would be for Survival of the Fittest in terms of man: we are at the top of the food chain. So it makes absolutely no sense for an evolutionist to believe in protecting the environment because we would only be doing what we had evolved to do. i don't believe in global warming, but i believe in conservation and protecting the environment as long as it is not at the loss of human life and livelihood (in other words, within reason). The Bible tells us that man is meant to subdue and protect the earth.

i believe in the Constitution, in what the Founding Fathers were trying to achieve, even as i acknowledge that there were some compromises made within its lines. The Declaration of Independence stated that all men are created equal, and it's horrible how America took advantage of Native Americans and slaves (no matter what their heritage), but i cannot change that. i cannot make any reparations, i can only fight against enslaving new peoples. Even as i am proud of my German heritage, i am aware that my American grandparents' distant cousins allowed (perhaps even caused) horrible things to happen. i cannot change that, either, i can only speak out against it happening in this country as well.

i have never wanted to live in the past before, but oh how i envy how our ancestors were able to travel to a new, untamed land, and form it with their hands into something better. There is no place left on this earth that hasn't been claimed, that cannot be worked by people of all races working to improve their lives while remaining mindful of their equality, own ability to overcome problem's that their peers may fail at, protect the land they have been given, and choose to help enable their neighbors when they are able. Despite my great love for this country, in some ways i am ready to abandon it, for fear of what it is pressing towards becoming. Obama is no Bartlet, and even as i hope for deliverance i live in fear.

i do not believe in world peace. i know that sounds horrible, but it's true. i'm no xenophobe, i want to travel around the world, i don't want to wage war, but praying for one world government, for world peace, is like begging God to enable the anti-Christ. Read your Bible, things are going to be horrific once this happens.

i am not British, but i have grown up reading their literature and learning about their history (more about their history than any other foreign country, at least). There is a chance that i have some Scottish blood in me, but i do not know that with complete certainty. When i say that i am a Conservative, i will not ever apologize for that, but that does not mean the same thing to the rest of the world, or even to many in this country, that it does to one who is conservative It is important to understand the process that brought our country to the point where, what once was an outrageous idea, is now the one that is set in stone and steeped in hundreds of years of history. i am definitely no expert in the matter, but i have a bit of an understanding that the Founding Fathers were intellectuals that knew what parts of Roman republicanism worked and incorporated that with aspects of British parliamentary practices. They knew that having a king can be just as dangerous as having a dictator, and had learned from earlier colonists that socialism was a good way to make colonies fail.

So they did the unthinkable and formed a government that limited the powers of the government and empowered the rights of the individual. This didn't work perfectly, because at first the federal government didn't have enough power, and slave owners had more rights than they should have, but even the authors of a noble experiment are fallible and likely to make mistakes. The question is whether or not we have learned from those mistakes. The ideals espoused by America's Founding Fathers are still considered to be extreme by people around the world, to be a beacon of hope to the people who believe in the same dream they did. i'm sure that many consider those ideals to be liberal (in the truest sense of the world), but over time these ideals stopped being strongly espoused by many in the Democrat party and became the protectorate of the then newly formed Republican party, that is to say Lincoln's party. We were liberal enough to change the Constitution to free the slaves but conservative enough to cling to the ideas in the Constitution that work. Now we are considered to just be backwards, when in reality we are still carrying the banner in an ongoing experiment.

i do not know much about the Progressives in this country, and most of my information on them is from Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who i do not always agree with but acknowledge are smarter and better informed than i am (it helps to have a staff, i'm sure). But the Progressives, who are hiding behind the labels of liberal and Democrat, are really nothing of the sort. Democrats originally were called Democratic Republicans, and held to the same ideals now considered to be conservative (some still do, of course). The Democrat party has been hijacked by people who want us to believe that they are trying something new, a noble experiment where everyone is equal and everything will be sunshine and daisies. The trouble is that it's all a lie. They are only espousing socialism, Marxism, etc, they only want to take money from the rich and keep everyone poor in order to place themselves in power, and anyone who does not fall in line will be damned. i watched the Hiding Place last week, i saw a little of what the Nazis did to those who spoke up for those who did not have a voice. You can watch Schindler's List to see a bit of what happened to the people the Ten Booms were speaking up for.

i ask you, is that what anyone wants America to become? Do we want the people with large families to be arrested? The people who believe in the same God that the majority of our Founding Fathers did to be told that they cannot teach their own children what they believe? You laugh at me, but children are already being (essentially) brainwashed in public schools and there were hints of getting children to inform on their parents even a couple of decades ago (i'm sure it's worse now). Having a large family, something which was once normal (in Austen's day, a family of eight children was *small*), is now considered to be incredible, even crazy. Now we are told that our planet does not have enough resources to sustain us and that we are selfish to love our children while the rest of the world suffers (even as governments controlled by those with similar feelings to the Progressives keep those peoples controlled and held down).

It astounds me how many people are against the war in Iraq. Did it happen for the wrong reasons? Of course it did. Were there any nukes? No, but Hussein wanted us to think that there were, he thumbed his nose at us, and lied through his teeth. The truth is that he did have weapons that he wasn't meant to and the he was suppressing a people just as the Nazis suppressed the Jews and many Christians (those termed political prisoners). Why are we saying that it was a bad thing to overthrow a tyrant such as this? Why is it a horrible thing to rebuild a country that was ravaged by its own leader? Oh, i know, it's not our place to help them rebuild, what then should we say to Japan and every other country on this planet that owes the U.S. money because we helped them rebuild. Yes, we nuked Japan, we have waged war (and not always in ways that were right), but we always try to rebuild things better than before we came.

Is this news to anyone? America stopped socialism and communism in other countries, and struck blows to them elsewhere, all to be demonized for standing up for the principles we were founded upon. Tyranny is not as easy to get away with as it once was, though in my opinion it is still far too easy. Now the Progressives are here, ready to strike at the heart of those who have defended the weak, the poor, for so long, and helped them achieve greatness. What will happen to the world if we--the Beacon for freedom--should fall? Who will stand against oppression then? There will be no one, such will be the day that the anti-christ comes to power. The world will rejoice, the Christians will hopefully be raptured, and the Jews will go into hiding. Those who stand for freedom, for the radical ideas that were espoused by the Founding Fathers, will be mocked and killed. Right now, that time seems closer than ever.



ETA: i firmly uphold everyone's right to believe and say whatever they choose, but i will never remain silent to appease those who are ignorant or have ill will. i know that many disagree with me, i mean no hatred or disrespect, and am not seeking to start a fight, but hopefully gently inform. However, i am tired of being insulted every single day i sit in class because people around me don't believe that my opinion is as valid, or smart, as theirs. i love history, i love the USA, and i pray for its people, those who are content to be led into the darkness because they do not or cannot recognize it for what it is. This battle is not about what political party one belongs to, but whether we are willing to stand against, what history shows to be a brutal and would be just as much (if not more) so were such a regime to come to power in the United States.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
~ George Santayana

owie

My bum hurts. As do my thighs. Actually, i'm just tired all over, really. Headwinds kick my butt. ):

Global Warming and CO2

This is kind of old news, but it seems to world isn't warming after all, and hasn't been since 1995.
Climategate U-Turn
World May Not Be Warming, Says Scientists

Since hearing about those articles, something i have been wondering about lately is whether or not there's enough Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere. Look what i found:
Earth in Carbon Dioxide Famine, Says Scientist

What prompted me enough to write this today? Silly videos like these:




What i don't understand is why they claim wind power is all that great, as it's very finicky, but also claim solar power is both good and bad. Does anyone take stuff like this seriously? i guess it was good for a laugh, if nothing else, but it didn't make any sense whatsoever. For one thing, i'm pretty sure nuclear power has nothing to do with fossil fuels. Who has climate change killed, anyway?

ETA: Since i haven't stated my position on environmentalism lately, maybe now is a good time. i do not believe that Global Warming is a man made phenomenon that we need to be worried about. There's more trees in the U.S. now than when the continent was beginning to be colonized. i also do not consider Carbon Dioxide to be a pollutant because it's a natural substance. Humans breathe it out, plants breathe it in.

i do, however, consider myself to be a conservationist. i believe in national parks. i believe in (controlled) hunting in order to prevent wildlife overpopulation. i believe in reducing and reusing, but that recycling sounds good but is often a waste as we ship our recycling to China and back. i plan to breastfeed and use cloth diapers if i ever get married and have kids, and maybe even compost and garden. In fact, i am very green for a Republican, maybe even too much so. Most of the things i do cost me more and probably aren't actually helping the environment at all.

meant to post this days ago...

Read this while searching for triathlon gear. i don't totally agree with it, but it does have it's points: Those Fat People are Delusional. Or Not

In related news, i didn't blog about my workout on Thursday, but i did bike over one mile on campus and then about five miles later that afternoon, and i must admit that my calves are really complaining tonight, and my hamstring is tighter than it has been the past couple of days. You see, there was a headwind both ways on my ride: i kid you not, i was riding against the wind about 3/4 of the time, and the rest of the time it wasn't really blowing. This is why i'm still not sure that i like biking. That and the sore butt. And the loneliness (i don't mind swimming or running alone, but for some reason with biking i do). And the fact that it takes forever and i still go up hills too slowly.

i'm also extremely frustrated that i have yet to lose any weight. Am i always going to weigh more than 200 lbs.? i'm not asking for much, just to fit in size 14W or 16W and go below 200. Yeah, my original goal was lower than that, but i don't think it's possible. My body won't allow it. This is my punishment for not eating enough the summer i lifeguarded and lost enough weight to fit in a size 12. Yep, even when i was thin and fit... i was plus sized. So sue me, i have big bones.

TriNewb W2D3

Was only meant to swim 200m today, but i felt up to more. Once again, my biggest problem is breathing. i have to force myself to blow out while my face is underwater and my heartrate is higher than i'd like. But even though i did chin ups and dips right before getting in the pool, i didn't get very worn out today as far as my arms. My legs were tired from yesterday's ride, however, and though i wanted to swim farther i felt that i shouldn't overdo it too much. Every time i ride to the gym it's over half a mile each way, so i'm getting a lot of exercise. i'm eager to do more but don't want another injury anytime soon.

TriNewb W2D1

So far, i am very happy with how my triathlon training is going. i ran at the gym today, on the elliptical, and my leg hardly bothered me at all: it was just a little stiff but not painful. i ran five minutes longer than today's workout called for and swam. Last year, at this point in my training, i was not actually following the full workout, or if i was i felt i was doing very poorly (exhausted and slow). Right now my pace is better than i would have hoped, and the workouts are providing just a little bit of a challenge (granted, i haven't been doing the workouts every day, but then i have been in recovery and biking all over campus in addition). So assuming that my pace and strength continues to improve i think that i have the potential to do a lot better in my next triathlon.

Tomorrow i bike 6 miles and i fully anticipate that i will do much better than my last 5 mile ride simply because i have been riding around campus and am already feeling much more comfortable on my bike again. This week i started dismounting while coasting without even thinking about it, while last week i was more tentative, and would wait to come to a full stop (i was still in a bit of pain of course). Training also makes me feel more optimistic and less stress (haven't been knitting enough to help with that lately, i'm afraid). The only downside is that, once again, i am hungry all the time. i'm trying to cut back on fast food and get back into a healthy diet, which is hard because fast food is there and ready and healthy food takes preparation. i'm serious, i just ate about an hour ago, and i'm already starving. Time to pull out some more veggies... i'll probably finish them while watching Lost.

TriNewb W1D3

i guess i never got around to writing about how i was injured on February 21: i was running at Trek, where we are preparing for the Trek Bible Quiz and Olympics. Earlier that night i hadn't had any issues really.  Well...sprinting gave me a slight cramp in my right hamstring, but it wasn't too painful. i tried stretching a bit, massaging it, and it was still a bit tight, but didn't seem that bad. We set up for the race again, and right when i finished my first lap (of two), i felt a pop in my hamstring, and quite a bit of pain. i didn't collapse, but i knew that i couldn't finish the race, and hobbled about a bit, then sat down with my leg elevated. When i got home i iced it, but it really didn't seem as bad as what i was reading about online. A pop usually denotes a sprain, but i certainly wasn't collapsing and screaming. It certainly isn't debilitating, more annoying. i have been able to ride my bike without too much discomfort, but jumping and running are still too painful.

Despite this setback, i resumed training today in the form of swimming. It didn't occur to me until halfway through my warmup that it would be pretty bad if i got a cramp or intense pain while in the middle of a pool, but of course i'm a bit of a fish, and so buoyant right now that i probably couldn't drown if i tried. As it turned out, freestyle and breaststroke did not bother me at all, backstroke seemed to require too much kicking than is really advisable at the moment, and when i was doing the sidestroke with that leg on top, it was the most likely to get irritated.

i'm still not quite sure how to describe the injury. It was kind of like cramping with almost every step. Now it only bothers me when i try to stretch it or if i land with too much impact. Tomorrow i am going to tentatively try the elliptical trainer, but i don't think i'll be hitting the track for at least another week, and at this point in my recovery i definitely need to stretch it gradually, as my usual flexibility is lacking. After weighing in today, i tried to do the Sun Salute. Reaching up and back did not bother me at all, but when i went down to touch my toes, i couldn't reach as far as usual, and it didn't feel good. i'm thinking that i should stretch every day and maybe work on the Plank if that doesn't hurt too much. i doubt i could do Downward Facing Dog right now.

In more swimming news, i went to JCPenney and was slightly upset by the selection there. They aren't carrying the brand of swimsuit that i wanted to try on in Women's sizes here in town (i know that you can order them online), though at least they had some tankinis in that size, and i did in fact confirm that my top is size 22W. i imagine that even if i lose a lot of weight i will not go down below a 18W due to my bust size (if i even go below a 20W!). Their Misses do go up to size 16 (and appear to be the same as a 16W, astonishingly enough), but i wasn't going to try that on as i knew it wouldn't fit. Maybe next summer i can get some new bottoms there?

So i came home and ordered the top i wanted online. i didn't want to pay the shipping and handling, but oh well. Now the big question is whether my injury will keep me from being ready to be in a triathlon in mid-May. i definitely want to be in the Hustle again in mid-June, if nothing else.

In case you're curious:

It's on sale right now, big plus!