Random Things

I am not quite sure how I will classify this post. The following is a collection of items I have running around in my head and don’t seem log enough for individual posts.

Barak Obama

Congratulations to Barak Obama for winning the Democratic nomination. As a Republican I have to admit he gives me much more concern than Hillary Clinton in the general election. Whatever happens in November I hope that people will vote for him or McCain based on their ideas and what they stand for and not the color of their skin. We are in the 21st century now and really ought to look at what the candidate stands for, not what race, gender, religion, or sexual orientation, etc. they are. We should really look at voting as a serious obligation and study out the issues for ourselves. It really doesn’t matter what our favorite news show, right/left wing blog, or talk radio host says about the issue. It matters what we believe and what the candidates believe. All in all I hope we all will take the chance to study out the issues and vote for the candidate we believe most closely matches our beliefs.

Serving As A Volunteer

I have really come to believe the maxim that , "No good deed goes unpunished." In my church I am responsible for the 12-18 year old young men’s program. I have been doing this for about 2 years now and am really starting to realize what a thankless position it is. Most of my frustration comes from the other leaders though, not the youth themselves. Actually I enjoy working with the young men and seeing them mature and takes the steps to determine what kind of people they will be in their lives. I could really care less about the politics, and backbiting that the rest of the calling has though.

Gas Prices

As gas prices continue to go up and up and up I keep wondering when we are going to realize that we have oil in our country and need to go get it. I wonder how many other countries in the world would have a resource and decide to to use it? I realize this is a simplistic example, but I compare it to playing a real-time strategy game. In most of that genre one of the keys ways of winning is generating as many resources as you can. I think in some ways that applies to real life as well. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I think with a country as great as ours and with the technology we have we should be able to get the resources we need while still protecting the environment.

Global Warming

I guess I would say my position on global warming is that the Earth is getting warmer, but we don’t know why. I realize that makes me a simpleton in the eyes of those who believe the debate is settled. I have tried to study as much as I can about both sides of the issue, but it still seems like there is a lot of confusion out there. Honestly I wonder if we really have the ability to determine the exact cause of changes to the climate. I mean there are a lot of variables that can lead to the Earth getting warmer or colder. Not only do I think we are still missing variables I also think we don’t really know what the weight of each variable is. Do humans contribute .01%, .1%, 1%, 10%, etc. to global warming? I am not sure we know what our impact is. I recognize that there are people who say even if we only are causing .01% of global warming we should still take steps to make that .01% 0. I agree to an extent, but wonder if we are behaving as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice trying to cast a spell without understanding the rules of magic? If we legislate changes now will we find that we changed the wrong things while ignoring those that were really causing the world to get warmer?