Resuming Duty

I apologize for the long break. My need for writing has been occupied in other venues. However, I realized that I don't want to give this up entirely. I thought I would share what I am doing politically right now.

I have been reading "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen. It has been very enlightening both in terms of our country's history, as well as where the twisted ideological platform came from in the first place. I highly recommend reading this. I will post a review and my thoughts and feelings when I am finished.

March For Babies

Please visit my sister's March of Dimes page and help any way that you can. We'd love for you to come walk with us or support the cause however works for you. Her site can be found HERE.

Have you...

1. Started your own blog 2. Slept under the stars 3. Played in a band 4. Visited Hawaii 5. Watched a meteor shower 6. Given more than you can afford to charity 7. Been to Disneyland 8. Climbed a mountain 9. Held a praying mantis 10. Sang a solo 11. Bungee jumped 12. Visited Paris 13. Watched a lightning storm at sea 14.Taught yourself an art from scratch 15. Adopted a child 16. Had food poisoning 17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty 18. Grown your own vegetables 19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France 20. Slept on an overnight train 21. Had a pillow fight 22.hitch hiked 23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill 24. Built a snow fort 25. Held a lamb 26. Gone skinny dipping 27. Run a 1/2 Marathon 28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice 29. Seen a total eclipse 30. Watched a sunrise or sunset 31.hit a home run. 32.been on a cruise 33. Seen Niagara Falls in person 34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors 35. Seen an Amish community 36. Taught yourself a new language 37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied 38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person 39. Gone rock climbing 40. Seen Michelangelo’s David 41. Sung karaoke 42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt 43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant 44. Visited Africa 45. Walked on a beach by moonlight 46. Been transported in an ambulance 47. Had your portrait painted (not painted but drawn in pencil and another in chalk)48. Gone deep sea fishing 49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person 50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris 51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling 52. Kissed in the rain (I wrote a song about it) 53. 54. Played in the mudGone to a drive-in theater 55. Been in a movie 56. Visited the Great Wall of China 57. Started a business (and lost it) 58. Taken a martial arts class 59. Visited Russia 60. Served at a soup kitchen 61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies 62. Gone whale watching 63. Got flowers for no reason 64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma 65. Gone sky diving 66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp 67. Bounced a check 68. Flown in a helicopter 69. Saved a favorite childhood toy 70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial 71. Eaten Caviar 72. Pieced a quilt 73. Stood in Times Square 74. Toured the Everglades 75. Been fired from a job 76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London 77. Broken a bone. 78.Been on a speeding motorcycle 79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person 80. Published a book 81. Visited the Vatican 82. Bought a brand new car 83. Walked in Jerusalem 84. Had your picture in the newspaper 85. Read the entire Bible 86. Visited the White House 87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating 88. Had chickenpox 89. Saved someone’s life 90. Sat on a jury 91. Met someone famous 92. Joined a book club 93. Lost a loved one 94. Had a baby (not directly) 95. Seen the Alamo in person 96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake 97. Been involved in a law suit 98. Owned a cell phone 99. 100.Made amends with someone who offended you 101. Flew in a small Cessna plane with just you and the pilot 102. Ran out of gas 103. Eaten fried okra 104. Swam in the Caribbean Sea 105. Peed in a swimming pool (didn't everyone when they were 5 or 6? let's be honest here.)106. Stayed in a beach house 107. Hosted an exchange student 108. Been a Secret Santa to a family in need 109. Worked on a political campaign 110. Coached a sports team 111. Baked bread from scratch 112. Driven from coast to coast 113. Been stung by a bee 114. Paid off all of your debt (working on it feverishly) 115. Roast marshmallows over a campfire.116 Cut up a credit card 117. Drove a car through a flood 118. Been on t.v 119. Had braces 120. Have played in both the Atlantic & Pacific Oceans 121. Been to ground zero 122. Bite my fingernails 123. Likes to scrapbook 124. Hates pie 125. Been to the top of the twin towers in NY. 126. Visited Mexico 127. Seen a Tornado in person 128. Have ever been lost at sea! 129. kisses a frog. 130. Gave birth to twins. 131. Received 2 moving violation tickets in 1 day. 132.Been Life Flighted. 133. swore 134. stranded in a motel for Christmas. 135. Been in 2 countries at once! 136. Never tasted any kind of alcohol. 137. Floated down a canal in inner tubes 137. Sunk and almost got stuck knee deep in a manure pit. 136. Been to Mount St. Helens.

If you read this, consider yourself tagged. Cut and paste and bold or color anything that you have done.

Gun Control: PART 3

Katrina. What a disaster. As the storms and waters of the ocean breached their man-imposed boundaries, chaos was unleashed on a scale that this country had not seen for decades. Many were left homeless, many were injured, and many were left to themselves to protect that which had not not been lost. Then, as the government came to the 'rescue' this right of protection of life and liberty became threatened. Guns were illegally confiscated from law abiding citizens. Don't believe it? Watch this video. From the very founding of our country, we have enjoyed the right to bear arms. This has allowed our citizens to fend off invading forces, become self sufficient in food for hunting, and protection of our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness (a.k.a. property). At this time in our nation's history, these rights are becoming increasingly fragile. I know what many of you may be thinking, we just had the Heller case which put the issue to rest. This is not the case. That decision came nearly split down the middle of the highest court. It wouldn't take much to lean that decision in the opposite direction. Why are gun rights so important? Read my last post to answer that.

When a home invasion takes place, how long does it take for the police to arrive?

According to the U.S. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics 26.6% of the time the police can get to you within 5 minutes of a crime of violence. 32% of the time it takes between 6 and 10 minutes and another 29.7% it takes between 11 minutes and an hour. (reference) So let's work with the small number. Five minutes seems pretty fast, right? Not when you consider that the criminal you are now face to face with in your home can cross a 20 ft. room in a little over a second. Is he going to have a gun? A knife? If he can run 20 ft. per second, imagine how much damage he could do in five minutes. It's certainly long enough to take your life away from you. Let's say you simply scared the guy away. What are the chances of him being caught if he can run 20 ft. per second. With adrenaline pumping, 5 minutes could easily add up to a mile (6000 ft.) with this estimate - and that's if he doesn't have a car!

How long does it take to commit the intended crime?

It doesn't take an expert to know that a crime can be committed in a matter of seconds. If a burglar is disturbed or 'spooked' while laying his handiwork, they can often be unpredictable. Chemicals start pumping through his body that helps determine whether he is going to fight or 'flight.' If he flees, then all you have lost is your sense of security. I don't mean to sound flippant with that, because it is something we all cherish above most all else, save our family. However, the converse decision can be deadly - especially if you are not prepared. In these situations it often comes down to one element that has been handed down from our predecessors, even down to Adam: survival. Is it you or him? Most of that outcome will depend on how prepared you are and preparations you have made.

It is important to understand that the criminal always has the upper hand. Why? Because he has a plan, he knows what he is after and what the consequences could be. You? As far as you knew you were peacefully sleeping until there was a rustling of the door handle or a shatter of glass. You must try to react to his 'act.'

What have we been taught to do in the societal sense and does it really work?

Think about this one carefully... What do the police tell you to do when faced with an intruder?

Meet his demands and call the police when the suspect has fled the scene. This has been ingrained in us from a very young age. When faced with a bully on the playground we are told to 'walk away.' So we walk away as that piggish kid steals our lunch every day for a week or until the teacher sees something and she 'polices' the situation. Do not misunderstand me, police are a wonderful part of our infrastructure. They are heroes as they put their lives on the line to keep us safe. However, they can only do so much. They can only be dispatched as quickly as their cars will drive. This leaves a, well, five minute gap between hurt and help.

I propose that it would be better to be prepared. Rather than try to recover stolen property or loss of blood, why not do all possible to prevent it in the first place. A weapon can be a deterrent. It can help you get the upper hand in a bad situation.

I recommend that you check out The Concealed Handgun Manual by Chris Bird. It is packed full of good information. It can teach you how to avoid a situation, what you should look for when you get serious about purchasing a firearm, how to be more aware of your surroundings, and what the consequences can be if you are forced to use your weapon.

In conclusion, I want to emphasize the importance of our second amendment rights. There is a reason that the founding fathers put it right next to free speech, religion and petition. We would not have a free country were it not for the freedom of bearing arms. We would be speaking German, Japanese, or even some dialect of Arabic were it not for bearing arms. This is a right we all need to stand up for. Do our political leaders honestly think that by banning guns it will make us safer? If they do, they are foolish. In my opinion, they are either naive or, more likely, subscribing to that faction of our government that would like to see us in bondage or at least under greater control. The more we rely on the government, the more power they will have over us. Socialism. Stand up and stand tall in defense of this right. Once it is gone, we have little leverage against those who may choose to oppress us. Join the NRA, they are the largest organization that lobby to protect our God given rights to protect ourselves. Here is their site. Let your voice be heard. Do what you know is right. Do not let our rights be degraded any more than they already have.

Gun Control: PART 2

The last gun post ended with mentioning a needed respect for firearms which should be somewhat exponential with a handgun when the fact that it is short enough to point it at yourself is accounted for. So, why are firearms such a hot topic - Especially handguns? One could argue that it is because people are killed by them. However, the fault in this argument is that people are killed by many different things and they are not nearly as hot a topic as firearms.

Take cars for example, 43,443 people were killed in automobile related accidents (reference here) in 2005. This includes a car on pedestrian, cyclists, or anyone else that was somehow killed with something with wheels. What about knives? Knives account for nearly 1/4 of all the aggravated crime committee's weapon of choice. According to the New York Times (here)shortly after the tragedy at Virginia Tech, in 2004 29,569 people were killed by way of firearms. To be clear, this includes those folks who decided to use the weapon against themselves (suicide). In fact, according to the NY Times article, or at least using the same math that they are, 16,425 of those deaths (about 56%) were deemed suicide. That leaves 13, 144 people who were honest-to-goodness killed by a firearm. According to my calculations, that means that roughly 70% more people die in car crashes than by the "end of a barrel."

So under this premise, shouldn't we be more concerned with rounding up cars than guns? Get the cars off the streets, they are causing all the trouble! Obviously, this isn't the case but perhaps some startling statistics for some. Okay, so we have clarified that there are other things that pose much more danger to us as a species than guns but since this is a topic that is often hashed and re-hashed, let's examine the issue of gun control or more accurately - plain old control.

One person that understood the importance of gun control was Adolph Hitler, "The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to allow the subject races to possess arms. History shows that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by so doing. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the supply of arms to the underdogs is a sine qua non for the overthrow of any sovereignty. So let's not have any native militia or native police. German troops alone will bear the sole responsibility for the maintenance of law and order throughout the occupied Russian territories, and a system of military strong-points must be evolved to cover the entire occupied country." Adolf Hitler, dinner talk on April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk 1941-44: His Private Conversations, Second Edition (1973), Pg. 425-426. Translated by Norman Cameron and R. H. Stevens.

Gun control also played a part in why we do not have Japanese as our national language. Admiral Yamamoto: "You cannot invade mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass." Advising Japan's military leaders of the futility of an invasion of the mainland United States because of the widespread availability of guns. It has been theorized that this was a major contributing factor in Japan's decision not to land on North America early in the war when they had vastly superior military strength. This delay gave our industrial infrastructure time to gear up for the conflict and was decisive in our later victory. Reference for commentary here.


So if these former adversaries understood gun control so well, why is it that we have prominent leaders of our great nation such as Ms. Feinstein spouting off comments such as, "US Senator, If I could have banned them all - 'Mr. and Mrs. America turn in your guns' - I would have!" (Statement on TV program 60 Minutes, Feb 5 1995)

Listen to what Bill Clinton had to say: "When we got organized as a country, [and] wrote a fairly radical Constitution, with a radical Bill of Rights, giving radical amounts of freedom to Americans, it was assumed that Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly...When personal freedom is being abused, you have to move to limit it." (April 19 1994, on MTV) Here is a "citizen" (by the people, for the people) who had sworn to, above all, defend our constitution - not criticize or devalue it! In light of current economic times, there are certainly other "personal freedoms" that are being far more abused than that of the right to bear arms!

Lastly, for this segment at least, I would like to share a quote from President Theodore Roosevelt that I believe remains very much in effect in our day, "The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!" – President Theodore Roosevelt's last message to Congress.
I think that I will post one more section concerning this issue at a later date. It will cover the reasoning behind owning and learning how to use a weapon. I will also include my opinion on each of the questions and/or issues presented in the now ancient poll. I hope this has been thought provoking in some way. Best of luck to all of you.

Another Year, Renewed Resolve...

It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff can happen from one year to the next. I guess the trick, really, is to make sure you are moving forward instead of trying to tread water in the avalanche of activities and opportunities that present themselves. Here are some things that happened this past year that, if you would have asked me a year or two ago, I would have told you that I wouldn't do.

1. Be the father of 3 kids and have the audacity to assume that 'one more might be nice.' (and NO this is not some sort of announcement!)
2. Buy a recumbent trike and put over 400 miles on it.
3. Ride a 50 miler with my Varsity team.
4. Be able to wear a 34 waist again (although it didn't last long but on my "to do list for this year.)
5. Buy a pistol for self-defense. (Let alone 2 or 3)
6. Own and actually keep a minivan.
7. Nearly make it through reading the Book of Mormon with 3 kids. (We are still at it but getting close.)
8. Be an iPod owner.
9. Finish my bachelor's degree.
10. And probably the most surprising thing for me was: Having never really been in a canoe - Canoe down the Snake River. I literally thought I was going to die but what a rush!

I wonder what is in store this year? It is already showing signs of being a "doozy" as the piano business is drying up and the winds of change are headed down the canyon. Any which way, I believe that it is important to set goals. I also think that it is important to evaluate those goals often and adjust as needed. Without examination, failure is eminent. Here are my 2009 resolutions.

• Lose a solid 50 lbs.
• Complete the reading of a book at least every other month.
• Complete a Century Ride.
• Explore creative writing on a weekly basis.
• Go to the temple once a month.
• Read the D&C and Pearl of Great Price.
• Evaluate all resolutions weekly.

I greatly encourage anyone who reads this to ask me about how I am doing with each of these. The best way to accomplish a goal is to be accountable for it. If you don't have to tell anyone that you are failing, then the sting of defeat isn't nearly as stingy. Good luck to all of you with your new resolve to press forward and make the most of what you have!

Hard Break...

I hate to interject here in the middle of the gun control posts but I found an interesting and non-gun related video that I would like to share.