After President Obama’s warmly accepted speech last Thursday in Cairo, voters in Lebanon took to the polls in a widely contested parliamentary vote, where it was expected the Iranian backed group of Hezbollah would make great gains with their anti-west rhettoric. However the voters of Lebanon stunned us all by retaining the western backed bloc in power in the Parliament.

So what does this all mean? Well in recent months there has been a growing concern about the Iranian’s influence over the entire Middle East and how the largely Shiite nations would react to a minority Sunni power play. So for this result to be returned it says a lot about that.

I do think President Obama’s speech played a major role in these returns, as if it had been a disaster I have no doubt that we would of seen Hezbollah get major gains in the Lebanese Parliament. I think the dramatic shift in Foreign Policy in the Muslim world is already working wonders and with the Iranian Presidential elections this Friday, Im excited to see if President Ahmadinejad will be toppled!

16% per capita crime rate…though violent crimes fell by 8.3%.

Im so glad Im moving to ITP in 8 days…yay!!

“40 Nights of Great Sex”

A sermon series based on great sex….hmmmm…SIGN ME UP!

For those that don’t know Ashton Kutcher raced CNN to be the first Twitter Member to 1,000,000 followers and he said that if he won, he’s Ding Dong Ditch Ted Turner, well he also decided to punk CNN at the same time.

Me thinks the Mayor is a dummy and doesn’t realize how much money the students are already contributing to his city through the amount of goods and services they pay for already. I really hope this doesn’t pass at all, what a dumb idea.

Hell if you want to tax somebody tax the damn University god knows tuition is high enough that they can at least afford some kind of a tax or fee.

There is good and bad to take out of this article, one it shows us that no system is perfect. While Socialism has allowed for Norwegians to remain relatively unaffected by the worldwide economic downturn when the economy rebounds they wont experience near the upturn that we will here in the states and the article points out obvious faults in the system where people are working less hours, taking more holidays, and become generally lazier overall.

So the question is what’s better an economy that will give you the highest of highs and the lowest of lows or an economy that will stain relatively steady but won’t let you maybe fulfill your potential??

One way ticket to Oslo, please???

Here is your top 10;

1. Olivia Wilde
2. Megan Fox
3. Bar Refaeli
4. Malin Akerman
5. Mila Kunis
6. Eliza Dushku
7. Adrianna Lima
8. Rihanna
9. Jordan Brewster
10. Jennifer Love Hewitt

Alright my intial thoughts…Olivia Wilde is not #1, that’s Megan Fox and anybody who says different is a damn liar! Bar Refali is way too high as is Rihanna. Jordan Brewster and Eliza Dukshu are too low. My redone top 10 would be;

1. Megan Fox
2. Malin Akerman
3. Eliza Dushku
4. Jordan Brewster
5. Olivia Wilde
6. Mila Kunis
7. Bar Refali
8. Adrianna Lima
9. Jennifer Love Hewitt
10. Rihanna

Here is the entire list;

http://www.maxim.com/girls/hot-100/79081/2009-hot-100-100-91.html?p=1

Edit: Michelle Obama made the list at #93…WTF??!?! Sarah Palin and Megan McCain better have made it as well!

Now I happen to agree with the Pope, I see the creation of an independent Palestinian state as vital to any workable Peace Plan. Personally I have grown tired of Israeli antics in the past and in the Gaza War the war crimes and attrocities committed by both the Israelis and Palestininans were disgusting. The time has come to give each their seperate homes. There will be no easy way to divide up the land, somebody is going to have their feelings hurt and I have less faith in new Israeli PM Benjamin Nentanyahou than I did in the PM Elmert but it is what it is.

Let’s be clear though that this would only be step #1 in a long process towards working on Peace in the Middle East.

First off Sen. Specter became a Democrat officially which is conveinent since many people have known that he has been a Democrat unofficially for years. However he also did say that he hope Sen. Coleman wins out of Minnesotta therefor ensuring that the Democrats do not reach a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. If comedian Al Franken does win the court battle (and it appears he will) then we have a very dangerous situation on our hands where the Democrats will not only control the two legislative branches but be able to pass legislation at will without any fear of the Republicans being able to stop it.

SC Justice David Souter to step down…

Souter was appointed by a Republican and the hopes were that he would be a hard cord Republican on the bench instead he has been a constant moderate swinging his vote on some issues and driving Republicans over all batty. For me I believe strongly in Judicial Activism. I support activist judges and rulings like Marbury v. Madison, and Griswold v. CT. The Constitution was not written to be our one and only set of laws forever and ever. It was written as a guideline for the future. Our founding fathers were smart men and they knew in time as this nation succeeded thing would get better, more complex, technology would boom and new laws would be needed. I can only hope that President Obama appoints a moderate in Souter’s place who believes in interpreting the constitution and not just reading it.

Europe’s Social Systems Lessen Recession

Even with many people out of work in Europe many still yet enjoy the day as if nothing has changed. Because Europe has very liberal unemployment benefits, universal health care, and other social systems the recession has hit middle class Europe much differently than it has here in America where some middle class families who have lost their jobs are barely scraping by. Does this mean that the system is perfect? No, because in the best of times the American system will always allow for greater benefit and rewards, but in the worst we will fall lower. So which is better? Personally I like ours, but the temptation of a social safety net many be too much for some others to pass on.

Today’s Parents Are Dumb…

Real quick here yesterday the missing three year old was found in Missouri after he simply walked out of his home while his mother was there and went missing for 48 hours. His Dad was asleep because he works over nights and in the middle of the day this three year old child walked right out of his own house while his mother was there and awake and went missing. No further comment needed.

Then we have the story of the mother who left her two daughters (10 and 12) on a street corner and drove off because they were bickering in the backseat. Thankfully they were both safe, and while it may be a tempting thing for most parents to do, its probably not the smartest idea in the world.

I believe in individual freedom.

I dont believe in legislating morality, I dont believe in telling people what is right or wrong for them, I dont think we live in a Christian Nation. All those are ideals that I hold very strongly and ones the founders felt strongly about as well. Our elected officials are not there to tell us every detail of what is right and what is wrong. Because those thoughts are obtuse, what is wrong to me may be right to you and visa versa. Conservatives cling to this strong belief in the bible and its principles but yet refuse to act in a way that I would consider to be one that God would approve of. When did God approve of judging people, and persecuting them for thier personal choices in life? Did we not learn over and over again that God does forgive sins? Did Jesus not say let he who is without sin cast the first stone (John 8:7)? Now Im not the most religious person in the world but I at least know a good lesson when I hear one.

What does this all relate to? Basically two key issues that somebody called me out for at work this morning. The discussion came up about gay marriage, and of course being the usual loud mouth that I am, I couldn’t help but express my own opinion. Which was of course in the minority. Basically I said that I had no issue whatsoever with gay marraige that I thought it was only fair and would be very happy to see them get equal rights. This led to somebody saying that I was a liberal, which is not true, as I am a Republican so when I was asked to defend this point of view I put it this way. I believe in individual freedom, I believe in the right to privacy, and I believe that each and every person in this country regardless of sex, race, age, gender, religious affilaition or sexual orientation should be allowed to live their life how they so choose and not have to be told what they can and can’t do. If any of here talking were ever discrimnated against (Note: All the people in the dicussion were WASP’s [White Anglo Saxon People]) that there would be hell to pay but we have no problem telling others what to do.

So the discussion changed to other issue points asking where I stood on stuff like Abortion, The War, Healthcare, Education and a number of other things. Where I disagreed with a number of them on every issue. So I started off today thinking that I was Republican and that the current party was misguided, but I end it asking;

I once was a Republican, but where did my party go??