Mom visits the grandkids. Opening a can of worms.
October 30, 2008 in FAMILY, POLITICS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Okay, so I’ve gotten pretty used to my position and the program I’m using now. As to what’s going to happen once we finish the board-amatic, I don’t know. I’ve been hearing more and more that we are just going to tighten the rough board and then send that off to Korea rather than do a cleaner layout. We might even show the writers another board-amatic, which seems weird since the point of the first board-matic is to get a working show up and running fast. If we show another board-matic then do we need yet another revision period? Seems counter productive. In any case, I’m thinking I’d like to do more storyboarding since the show seems to be headed into more of a storyboard show (which is the norm in the industry).
FAMILY
My mom came back from seeing my sister and my new niece and she gave me a call.
She came over and got to see her other grandkids. They were happy to see her. I got to see a lot of pictures of my niece. She’s so cute. I wanted to hold her. She’s really tiny. Yay Hunter!
POLITICS
My blurb up at the top of my blog doesn’t say anything about me writing about politics. I’m going to write about politics anyway since at this point they can’t help but make me reflect on my philosophical world view and my theology.
First I’ll say that I’m not registered under any political party. I’m an independent. I haven’t found a party that is fully Catholic enough for me. Each party has it’s good points and it’s bad. Lately both parties seem only to have bad.
I’m very disappointed in the choice of candidates we have in this election. I’ve recently become aware that Ambassador Alan Keyes is also running for president. It’s too bad no one was paying attention, (including me). Even if Keyes was in the spotlight, I doubt he would have gotten elected president. Mostly because he comes across as really arrogant and condescending. He also lacks tact, doesn’t sugar coat things, and tells you straight out what he believes. He’s often rude, thoughtless and is completely and totally politically incorrect. It’s also great fun to hear a politician be this honest. He is completely and totally orthodox in his Catholicism and (as Joe the plumber put it), “he might be too smart for his own good”. “Too smart” is an understatement, the guy is brilliant.
Keyes ran against Obama for senator and lost, probably for the reasons I stated above. Still, he pretty much whupped Obama during all the debates. It’s a pleasure to see someone with actual brains and guts debate Obama and show how hollow his rhetoric is.
You’ll notice that I don’t have any videos of Keyes debating McCain. I couldn’t find any. Besides, I think most of the traditional media goes out of it’s way to attack McCain as often as they can. I’ve yet to see this truly done to Obama. I can’t go to the supermarket without seeing his face on just about every magazine cover. What gives?
So anyway, here are some videos of Keyes debating Obama.
The first one is how both candidates feel about their faith and how it informs them. Note, the reason most people of faith hold a particular belief, whether it’s Islam, Buddhism, Wikka, Christianity, etc…is because they believe it to be true. Otherwise why bother holding that faith at all? Fashion? Just because you feel like it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Md2bf9DNVB4If it doesn’t load Click here.
I like the way Obama’s rebuttal was the political equivalent of, “you’re not the boss of me!”
In the video below, It’s funny to see Obama try to explain his position 0nly to realize he doesn’t actually have a religious foundation for it. He should have asked Keyes to argue it for him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SG5u04Gbg0A&feature=relatedIf it doesn’t load Click here.
I think Obama’s intention with his last argument (which he wasn’t very eloquent in putting forth) was to point out to Ambassador Keyes that his incest argument was not truly something that is ONLY linked to gay couples and perhaps should be it’s own issue. I agree and I don’t think Keyes should have forced the argument the way he did (especially since male gay partners wouldn’t have that issue), still, the logic of the argument in itself was sound. All that Keyes says before that incest argument though, was fantastic. I loved the reactions of Obama and the mediator as they tried to understand Keyes‘ Catholic argument over why marriage is between a man and a woman. Keyes was clearly answering the mediator’s question but somehow he made it look as if he wasn’t. It’s obvious this guy never took a class in logic.
Okay this next one is a question that is meant to show a contradiction between Keyes‘ faith and his political positions. As usual the question itself is flawed in it the fact that the questioner never bothers to actually learn what the Church teaches and HOW the Church teaches.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyOL8TxtexM&feature=relatedIf it doesn’t load Click here.
Obama gets the last word here and I think he’s right. Keyes’ lack of tact must have really hurt his campaign. On the other hand, it’s obvious that Obama hasn’t got a clue what an act of “intrinsic evil” is. Also, Obama said that the harming of children was “an act beyond the pail” and yet is that not what abortion is? The legal “right” for a woman to choose to harm her own child (painful circumstances or no) to the point of death? Keyes’ arguments here are rock solid. Wish he had been given a chance to respond to Obama in the end.
This next video is interesting. As much as I like Ambassador Keyes, he is still a flawed sinful human being. Though I like his answer to the question, he actually avoids answering the actual question asked. But that’s okay because something ironic happens that I will comment on below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT7qhGvykiQIf it doesn’t load Click here.
The irony is that Keyes daughter “came out of the closet” sometime after the senate race was over. His reaction? He treated her very harshly (fired her from his campaign and kicked her out of the apartment she was living in that was funded by his campaign. Essentially leaving her “homeless and jobless” ). That’s a really unchristian reaction. That said, I only know what I’ve read on the web and don’t have any real information on how he treats her in private. Still, it bugs me. I think Keyes should have answered like Obama. I would have said, “I would love that child and seek to understand them… though I wouldn’t support or encourage her homosexual tendencies I would support her in every other way that I can.”
On the other hand, as loving as Obama sounds, he wouldn’t hesitate to teach his daughter about how children are punishments and how abortion might be a possible solution to that “problem”, if he found her to be pregnant. He’d be perfectly fine in allowing his daughter to kill his grandchild. That ‘s one of the values and morals he’s going to teach them?
Ambassador Keyes is not above critiquing his own party. He makes sure to try to be more faithful to his faith before his party. As it should be. See that Biden?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9Xy6FOq92w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86hPrKUDbM4&feature=relatedIf it doesnt load, Click here and here
This final video is the beginning of a six part youtube video taken from a radio debate the canditates had, which deals with other issues besides the ones above. I highly recommend watching the whole thing to get a more well rounded view about both these men. Pay very close attention to how Keyes really tears down Obama’s bad arguments, and completely dominates the debate, leaving Obama with many “deer in the headlight” moments. It’s interesting to note that many of Obama’s arguments are the same ones that we’ve heard him say during his presidential campaign. Especially about the situation in Iraq.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QapiHA0LgIf it doesn’t load, Click here.
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The sucky part of all this, despite our vested interests in these elections, hearing out our candidates, and going to the polls, the popular votes don’t get our presidents elected, the electoral college does! Alas, it is only around election times when I’m reminded that I live in a Republic, not a Democracy.
Speaking of which, I wonder why most people including politicians make the common mistake of calling our country a Democracy? It’s like going along with the “Luke, I am your father” misquote that many people have uttered. It’s been said so much that even Earl James Jones believed he read that in the script. Anyway, I think it’s bizarre that no one would publicly correct that misconception.
Main Entry:
de·moc·ra·cy Listen to the pronunciation of democracy
Pronunciation:
\di-ˈmä-krə-sē\
Function:
noun
Inflected Form(s):
plural de·moc·ra·cies
Etymology:
Middle French democratie, from Late Latin democratia, from Greek dēmokratia, from dēmos + -kratia -cracy
Date:
1576
1 a: government by the people ; especially : rule of the majority b: a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections
2: a political unit that has a democratic government
3capitalized : the principles and policies of the Democratic party in the United States <from emancipation Republicanism to New Deal Democracy — C. M. Roberts>
4: the common people especially when constituting the source of political authority
5: the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions or privileges
Entry from Wikipedia:
“The United States of America (which is commonly referred to as the United States, the U.S., the USA, the States or America) is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district.”
Also from Wikipedia:
“The United States is the world’s oldest surviving federation. It is a constitutional republic, ‘in which majority rule is tempered by minority rights protected by law.'”
The Pledge of Allegiance:
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation under God, indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all.”
However, the word Democracy appears here:
“It is fundamentally structured as a representative democracy, though U.S. citizens residing in the territories are excluded from voting for federal officials.”
Well okay…a Republic that’s modeled as a democracy. I guess it can go either way.