My Cute Nerd

This is my daughter:

She's five years old and she just started kindergarten last month.
As you can see, she's a very attractive young lady and she's bound get even more attractive. That's worrisome all by itself. But beyond the troubles that come upon good-looking individuals in our society, I have the additional worry that she's very, very smart. She's already reading. She's not doing chapter books yet, but she can sound out the majority of words in the picture books we have, and she's even reading road signs and advertisements from the car.
The other day, my wife and I went to a kindergarten planning meeting. The teacher talked about some of the "learning activities" they would be doing at the class parties. Things like "walk around on the pictures and then when the music stops, say the "beginning sound" of the picture.
I worry that my very smart little girl is going to stagnate. If we keep helping her improve at home, she'll only get that much more ahead of her classmates and be even more bored. She's already one of the youngest in her class so I don't think that bumping her up a grade would be good for her.
I heard a guy on the radio talking about a documentary he did about our education system. While he was making it, he recognized that he was part of the problem by taking his wealthy, smart kids to a charter school. The public schools, being underfunded and poorly staffed also end up with the students who aren't as academically gifted. Average test scores go down, and teachers get blamed for poorly performing students.
We can't afford to put her into a private school, but even if we could, is that the best thing for her? Is that the best thing for the system? Do I care about the system more than I care about her academic success? I plan on continuing to be an active participant in my daughter's education, and I don't doubt that she'll be a top student in her class. I just want for "top student in her class" to be something she can be proud of.
By the way, it makes me pretty sick that the teacher's union voted against disbanding. They would have gotten DOUBLE their salaries. That would have given so many good people incentive to become teachers. Yes, it would have made it easier to fire crappy teachers, but you people are teaching my kid. If you do a bad job, I don't want you there.
I would have been a teacher if it had paid enough. I would have been a good teacher, and I'd have been able to spy on my daughter in high school to make sure she wasn't hanging out with any unsavory goons.

Burning the Koran

This jerk, Terry Jones is getting quite a bit of attention. In case you don't read or listen to anything but my blog, he's planning on burning the Koran on September 11. Mostly, people are voicing their concerns that this act will make radical Muslims really upset and it will put the United States and her troops overseas in greater danger.

I think this man's actions are insulting and disrespectful to millions of peaceful followers of Islam.

However, I find myself a little bit annoyed by the media coverage. I seem to recall a little while ago that there was some upset over Proposition 8 in California. Lots of evangelical Christians voted to outlaw gay marriage and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was one of the more vocal supporters of the bill. During and following the vote, I heard that numerous people burned the Book of Mormon, a text that is every bit as holy to me as the Koran is to a Muslim. They also vandalized Mormon places of worship.

Why didn't this get more press? Why didn't talk shows and pundits sit around tables and talk about respect for other's beliefs?

I'll tell you why. It's because no matter how many Book of Mormons you burn, a person of my faith is not going to strap a bomb to him or herself and kill a bunch of innocent people in "vengence." Members of the Mormon Church use legal, democratic processes to state their beliefs. If other people don't like those beliefs, and even if the democratic process is overturned, Mormons will not pull out guns to change people's minds. They will keep living and doing as they believe without destroying.

So really it comes down to the violence. This hateful Terry Jones fellow might be getting a call from the president of the United States asking him to reconsider because a small minority of horrible Muslims have made the whole world afraid. How sad that hatred and death have become the language of religion.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Terry Jones went ahead with his burning of the Koran and no reporters or cameras were there to document it? Let him burn it all by himself and let Al-Qaida wonder if they'll get into heaven by blowing him up.

That "Gay" Thing

About this whole "gay marriage" thing:

I believe that homosexuality is a choice. Come to think of it, I believe that ALL sexuality is a choice. I do believe in God, and looking at the human form, I think His designs for the species' procreation are fairly obvious.

I also believe that there are variations in humans, genetically, hormonally, and socially that make some of them more prone to abnormal behaviors. Are these behaviors contrary to what the God I believe in intended? Yes. Are these people accountable for these behaviors? I don't know. That's up to Him.

But now to return to marriage. Should these people, whose love for one another is undoubtedly very genuine much of the time, be allowed to get married? Do two guys giving one another rings somehow diminish or nullify the commitment I've made to my wife? I don't think so. Will their marriages be valid in the eyes of my God? I doubt it, but I also believe that other religions aren't completely valid in the eyes of my God. That doesn't mean that people shouldn't be allowed to practice them.

I'm much more bothered by people smoking or swearing or wearing immodest clothing around me than I am by same-sex people holding hands around me.

So as I'm writing this, I'm finding myself convincing me to disagree with the vast majority of people that practice my religion. I don't care if gay people get married. I don't agree with their lifestyle, but I don't think their lifestyle should be restricted by the government. I find it interesting that the same people who are screaming that the government needs to back out of their lives in regards to taxes and healthcare are screaming for it to stick it's big foot into the lives of others.

My religion and lifestyle isn't exactly what the rest of the world calls "normal." In fact, one of its tenants is that we "claim the privilege of worshipping God according to the dictates of our own conscience. We afford all men the same privilege. Let them worship how, where, or what they may." Does that tenant extend toward letting people marry who or what they may? I don't know, but I'd rather allow other people more freedom to be different if it means that my freedom to be different will be maintained.

The Body Legislative

I think we should abolish the senate. I'm kinda serious here. We have two legislative bodies, each of which is maintained by billions of taxpayer dollars for the legislators themselves, their staffs, the facilities, transportation and who knows what else.

The two houses were made originally to balance the power between the less populated and more populated states. Well, why don't we do this: combine the two legislative bodies so that South Dakota has a slightly louder voice in relation to their size compared to California. Then fire half of them.

The unfortunately named Anthony Weiner got rationally upset because Republicans voted against a bill that would have given health care to 9/11 responders. It would have been paid for by closing a tax loophole that has been allowing wealthy people and corporation to hide money overseas without being taxed. So the Republicans are screwing over people who put their lives on the line in order to protect wealthy tax cheats. Nice.

Of course, the bill would have passed if the Democrats hadn't insisted on forbidding any amendments to the bill (They only would have needed a simple majority). Apparently, they didn't want any Republicans to have any input because it's an election season and they wanted to hog the glory for themselves.

Nothing gets done if it's important because nobody wants anyone else to win. We are represented by childish bastard pricks.

I do agree with this guy, though.

Well, do ya? Punk?

My thoughts on guns.
I don't have a problem with people owning guns, as long as those guns aren't pointed at me.
I think that people should have to register their guns. That way, if someone buys a gun, and then lets their convicted murderer/rapist/moose molester cousin borrow that gun, the weapon can then be traced back. Having a license to own a gun means you'll be responsible, just like owning a car, or being a nurse. All those licenses are issuable and revocable. I'm OK with that.
I'm a little bit torn on the whole "assault weapon" issue. I myself have considered the possibility that I might own a hunting rifle someday. It would be nice to be able to obtain protein after the collapse of civilization. I can't imagine a circumstance in which I would need an automatic weapon. Then again, it might be nice to have something impressive to point toward the mob when they show up to steal our food storage.
And handguns? There are just too many stories about kids finding daddy's handgun and blowing out little sister's brains accidentally. Yes, I'd prefer to have a gun if somebody broke into our house in the middle of the night, but it's just not worth it. In order for a handgun to be of any use in that kind of situation, it would have to be loaded and ready. "Excuse me, Mr. Prowler, I'm just going to walk past you to get up into my attic where I keep the ammo for this pistol. Wait right here."
I'll stick with my fake vampire teeth/nun-chucks combo.

Tips

Don't be cheap. I'm going to break down a pizza man's wages for you:
In the store, a pizza man makes $7.25 per hour.
When he makes a delivery, he checks out on a computer and while he's out driving, he makes $4.25 per hour. Every delivery order includes a delivery fee of $1.99. The pizza man keeps $1.50 of that. So, if he spends half an hour making a delivery, and he doesn't get any extra tip, he'll continue to make $7.25 per hour, or minimum wage.
So tip your pizza man. If you don't feel like tipping, get in your car and go pick up your pizza from the store, or move your fat butt into the kitchen and make your own damn pizza.
And never say any of these things to your pizza man:
"Could you count that to make sure I'm not overpaying you?"
"Don't you wish you were doing somthing else?"
And after a 25 cent tip: "Happy Birthday."

You won't get any pizza delivered to your mansion in heaven.

Relief

I got a job. I'll be a nurse case manager at Crossroads Hospice starting July 12. I'll keep delivering pizzas until then. Being desperate for work really sucks. I only experienced that stress for about a month. I can only begin to imagine what it must be like to be unemployed for months and months and even years.
Anyway. I'm tired of ants.