Some of our office members (myself included) got whatever stomach flu is making the rounds, which led to a 102.1 fever on Tuesday. I went back to work Wednesday but came right home after work to sit back and recover fully. The agony of having two new lenses in the camera bag and a stomach that’s still sorting itself out was tolerable…but just barely.
On my way out the door I talked to one of our clients, who said the same stomach bug had worked its way through his office last week. Look out!
There’s a reason that we don’t let kids do certain things before the age of 18, even 21 in some cases: they’re not always able to make sound decisions. So how are they magically supposed to come up with good judgement when a physician presents them with medical options, dealing with their body and that of their baby, in the absence of a parent? The only logical reasoning I can find in this bill is that it’s a step toward making abortions legal without a parent’s knowledge. The way most liberal policies take effect is a little at a time, in tiny harmless steps. This looks like an insidious way to work our way towards a pro-abortion bill for North Dakota. As of now abortion is excluded in this bill, but SB 2181 paves the way.
There’s only one abortion clinic in ND that I know of, in Fargo. Presumably if there was more demand, there would be more clinics. Either too few women are getting abortions to support additional clinics to provide the murder -er, service, or it’s just plain socially unacceptable here. How do liberals change that? The kids.
As soon as teens can handle unexpected or unwanted pregnancies without the knowledge of their parents, they’re more susceptible to the tempation to just “end” the pregnancy and go on as if nothing has ever happened. No facing the music with Mom and Dad, just a trip to the clinic and hope that nobody notices. Kids are brilliant at covering things up, and this bill wants to give them accomplices with medical degrees.
As for the title of this post: let’s apply this logic to the sale of alcohol and tobacco. We don’t allow kids to purchase these items because 1) they’re unlikely to have the judgement to decide whether or when to use them, and 2) these items have the potential for severe, even life-threatening consequences from their use. Well, if the legislature makes it legal for teens to seek medical advice without a guardian knowing, how is that different? We’re talking about the health of a teen and a baby as well. Nothing could have more dire, immediate consequences for a teen’s future than their medical well-being and sound decisions made for their care. That’s why they have parents, unless the state legislature passes this nonsense.
So, if this bill passes, let’s just go ahead and let them smoke and drink and everything else too. Follow the same logic. If that seems unreasonable to you, as it does to me, then urge your state legislators to vote against this ridiculous bill. The only one it serves in the end is the pro-abortion crowd, NOT the teens they claim it helps.
A friend of mine is shooting with this very same lens in Utah right now as he mountain bikes various parks and stuff on his way to Death Valley, California, and said that it’s amazing to be able to take such wide angles of striking scenery. Well, North Dakota has striking scenery of its own, which I plan to post here as soon as things green up.
For a sense of perspective of exactly how wide this lens is, that little protuberance on the horizon is the capitol. Given a high enough vantage point, I can get the majority of Bismarck in the frame. Obviously this is going to be exciting once I get out into some wide open territory. Stay tuned!
The shorter one is a perfect fit for much of my “work.” It’s a 10-22mm super wide angle lens, which will be great for landscapes, panoramas, and skyscapes. I really look forward to sunsrises, sunsets, and most of all… Northern Lights photography with this lens!
I had a little bit of money saved for a lens last year and decided to invest it in the bankrupt Delta Airlines. Playing around with stock in bankrupt companies is risky, but I managed to play my money up quite a bit as rumors of Delta’s merging with USAir circulated. I managed to sell right before the stock took a nosedive (no pun intended) and turned my money into two really fantastic lenses!
I’ve been really busy being a husband, dad, homeowner, landlord, and video monkey lately, but hopefully soon I will be able to find more killer sights around Bismarck and Mandan to share with y’all.
While going through some past photos for another project yesterday I came upon this particular shot, and I have no idea why I haven’t shared it with you sooner. In keeping with my strict policy of not trespassing, this was shot from a section line road and not on private property. The farm resides next to the wind turbine “farm” up near Regan.
Going through old photos is a blast. I’m new to this photography thing, so by “old” photos I mean ones I’ve taken since I got my camera from Bob’s Photo a couple years back. An SLR camera was something I wanted since high school, and I’m trying to make up for lost time by taking pictures almost daily. It’s a great release!
One of the things I wish the civilians in our government would do better is let us know what’s going on overseas. Really…if you watched nothing but CBS, NBC, or ABC, or read only the Bismarck Tribune, would you think that our troops are doing anything at all aside from hiding in the green zone digging holes and sitting them all day, leaving only to drive around aimlessly until an IED goes off next to their Humvee? Shamefully, if someone asked me about what the guys are doing over there, I would have few answers, and none of them specific. Our soldiers deserve better than that.
I know that people opposed to our President politically like to claim that issuing good news about the troops is “propaganda” and can’t be trusted. Obviously that’s wrong, but those people are 100% wrong about the military anyway. Those are the same people whose overblown statistics are accepted as biblical fact when it comes to trying to damage the war effort or try to pass their silly little resolution through the state legislature calling for “peace.”
If we wanted to get political about our military’s role overseas, which we don’t, a guy could ask why Bismarck soldiers just spent a year in Bosnia trying to help clean up a mess that Bill Clinton created and then didn’t follow through on once the headlines settled. I’m not asking that, and I told my friends serving there that I was grateful for what they’re doing. I meant it.
I’ve got friends who were involved in some of the nastiest close-quarter fighting of the entire war in Iraq, flushing out terrorists (no, not “insurgents” or “militants” or “freedom fighters”) with the 3rd ID. These guys were fighting building to building, sometimes room to room, and it’s amazing the stories they have to tell. Too bad nobody’s telling these stories for them. To find good news, one has to hunt for it.
So if you want to see some success stories to combat the dearth of accurate reporting on the local TV and newspaper, check out the Central Command website every now and then. You’ll be pleasantly surprised at what’s really going on over there.
I got a 2007 Membership Renewal form for the National Republican Congressional Committee in the mail this weekend. I figured it took a lot of guts to send them out, since it’s really just a fundraiser after they really didn’t perform at all since 2000, so instead of a check I typed up and mailed in this reply:
To: Congressman Tom Cole, NRCC Chairman
Re: Membership contribution request
Dear Congressman Cole,
Thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the NRCC. I was surprised to hear that there are actually any Republicans still in the Congress. The last time I sent you money, we controlled the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. We were really going to get things done. So what happened?
You’re asking me for money to help you fight for reform in the areas of immigration, Social Security, and Medicare…yet you had six years of total control in Washington in which to advance our agenda. Who fell asleep at the wheel? The same folks who want my hard-earned money now that they’re powerless to push anything through the House at all, and can merely stonewall Democrat bills in the Senate? What was my money paying for when you guys ran the joint?
The fact of the matter is, I am not sending you guys a penny. I, like many who vote Republican, am the antithesis of the “rich, evil Republican” that the Democrats like to portray. I make a modest living and am happy doing so, and thought that sending some of my valuable money to you Republicans while you were in power would actually help you accomplish something. I was sorely mistaken, and I won’t be making such a poor investment any time in the near future.
I was not one of those voters who “sat out” the last election in order to teach you Republicans a lesson. I do understand what’s at stake here. But for you to come back to us with your hat in your hand after a shameful squandering of six years in control of everything in Washington is too much. I won’t vote with my wallet the way I will with my ballot. Either you Republicans in the Senate had better start acting like conservatives, or you won’t have any support left from people who thought you were there to advance the causes about which we care most deeply.
Good luck. Your candidates will likely get my vote in 2008, but you won’t get one red cent. This time you earn it first.
PS: The same applies to Presidential candidates in 2008. At this point I remain firmly resolved to write-in Ronald Reagan.
I really don’t think anyone in Washington truly represents the people who vote for them any more. Look at the Democrats, for instance. The ones who ran on an anti-war platform don’t dare defund the war, because they know that’d be political suicide. So the crazy leftists who helped them raise money are going to be mad as heck. On the other side, our Republicans had six years to get things done, and had the power to do it, and still produced nothing.
This simply reinforces my long held belief that nobody in Washington is there to solve problems. What would the Republicans do if they couldn’t dangle the abortion or immigration carrot in front of us voters? Especially in this age where you’re only as important as your last five minutes’ performance, they’re just simply afraid of having no crisis handy with which they can rally the voters.
The letter I wrote pretty much says it all. I wish everyone who got the NRCC fundraising request would do the same thing. If nobody with an (R) by their name has any sack anymore, then they don’t deserve to be in national politics. Period.