Let's not be petty now, General

Democrat with military background assails McCain's credentials

The former supreme commander of NATO debunks McCain's security resume for us.

"He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall," said General Wesley Clark, also a former Clinton supporter.

Hmmm. Let's take a look at those former presidents who served but were never there to "[order] the bombs to fall."

• James Madison
• James Polk
• Millard Fillmore
• Jimmy Carter
• Ronald Reagan - kept out of combat due to bad eyesight
• George W. Bush

Clark's wikipedia site says he voted for Ronald Reagan, and I wonder if, as a now-prominent pro-choice, pro-Affirmative Action Democrat, he would look back and scoff at Jimmy Carter for his lack of experience in the bomb drop-order departments.

Now let's look at Presidents who never served:

• John Adams
• Thomas Jefferson
• John Quincy Adams
• Martin Van Buren
• Grover Cleveland
• William Taft
• Woodrow Wilson
• Warren Harding
• Calvin Coolidge
• Herbert Hoover
• Franklin Roosevelt
• Bill Clinton
  

Again, I wonder what Gen. Clark's stance was when his liberal pal William Jefferson Clinton was campaigning for commander-in-chief. Was he hiding his feelings of ill-will towards the two-term president who fought claims of being a draft-dodger? Would he go back and say that FDR was unfit to stand at the helm of the world's greatest armed forces?

That whole "WWII" thing seemed to turn out alright without Roosevelt's ever having "been there."
J. Sutton

Pour the lemonade!

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.

-- James Madison

The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed.

-- Alexander Hamilton

To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

-- George Mason

The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one who is able may have a gun.

-- Patrick Henry

That the said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United states who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms...

-- Samuel Adams

Yay! The oracles got it right!

More later,
J. Sutton

Keep your (trigger) fingers crossed!

In coming days, the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the ban on handguns in Washington, D.C. Today the court ruled that child rape is a petty crime, or that it, at least, is unworthy of getting out our pitchforks over. Hopefully, we, the American people, can get a bone thrown to us from on high. I'm praying that a majority of our judicial oracles, the mediums who channel the forefathers when setting precedent, will rule in favor of personal security.

You should, too.
J. Sutton

P.S. - An interesting and very un-left day it was for presidential hopeful Barack Obama. Voicing her support for the Fairness Doctrine, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi came out today and told reporters that she would not allow Rep. Mike Pence's (R-IN) Broadcaster's Freedom Act to reach the floor in 2008. You may remember this issue from my post almost exactly one year ago. Well, Mr. Obama has gone against the liberal grain within the same 24 hours, having his spokeman avow his opposition to the FD. Also, Senator Obama shocked many with his dissent towards the Supreme Court's ruling against child rapists being put on death row.

I think I smell bamboo; is there a pander around?

Stay Classy, San Francisco

San Franciscans prep monument to U.S. prez

From the San Francisco-based Presidential Memorial Commission's blog:

As we near the end of George W Bush’s presidency, we think it is important to select a fitting monument to this president’s work. On matters ranging from foreign relations to fiscal and environmental stewardship, no other president in American history has accomplished so much in such a short time.

To honor George W Bush for his eight years of honorable public service, the Presidential Memorial Commission of San Francisco is sponsoring a ballot initiative this November.

It reads…

Should The City And County of San Francsico Rename The Oceanside Water Pollution Control Plant the George W Bush Sewage Plant?

I know that all of you will are printing off the petition to sign as I type,
J. Sutton

"Get over it", Ladies

"If women take a moment to realize that on every issue important to women, John McCain is not in their corner, that would help them get over it," said Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a Congressional Black Caucus meeting on Thursday. He talks of politically active women who simply cared about their candidate as if they're just a bunch of blubbering, sore losers. Most of the Clinton supporters who are considering a jump to McCain may be, but the man just can't curb that elitist rhetoric.

Oh, Obama also further affirmed that there is no need to hope for/worry over the dream ticket. When confronting Obama about his tips for women on getting over it, former Hillary supporter Rep. Yvette Clarke mentioned that there was a lot of healing to be done between the Obama campaign and Clinton voters. Agreeing that there are more scars than band-aids, Obama replied, "There's healing on both sides."

Don't like this post? Get over it!
J. Sutton

There and Back Again

Yeah, so I didn't tell you that I was going off to Birmingham for orientation; so sue me.

Well, it was pretty great. I have to say, no business, school, or other institution has ever given me so many of their plug products at one event. Affectionately titled "Goin' Green," the three "programming and advising" sessions all meshed together very nicely to strip away any trace of the adjective "prospective" that we the freshies may have had. Initially, I was worried that I would be forced into a Freshman Learning Community (FLC), in which I would be matched with 25 other underclassmen for 4 of the same classes. I really considered this to be too much like the high school experience in which entire classes, rather than individual students, gain an identity in the teachers' eyes.

"Oh, Dr. Nanteck, you definitely don't want the class that's in the Business FLC with English 101. I hear that they're terribly talkative in all of their classes."

I can see the benefits of having access to a myriad of study partners who are taking the very same class under the very same teacher, but I think that part of the college experience is learning new study skills or implementing those that you've tried and validated. Finding your own study partners from different classes is a part of that which also allows you to network and meet with more new faces. More diversity, not less networking. Anyhow, the registering software wasn't easily navigable when I had actually given in and decided that I would take on the FLC, and so I was able to make up my schedule exactly as I wanted and as follows.

On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I will be taking Music Appreciation from 9 to 9:50 a.m.; Sociology from 11 to 11:5o a.m.; and Business 101 from 12 until 1 in the afternoon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I will have Principles of Microeconomics from 9:30 until 10:45 a.m.; Survey of Calculus from 11 until 12:15; and Aikido from 7 until 8:15 p.m.

If anyone from UAB happens to read this, I would like to thank the entire orientation staff for making "Goin' Green" an experience that only reaffirmed my postsecondary choice.

To the U-U-U-U-A, to the A-A-A-A-B... Eh, you had to be there.
J. Sutton

Bleh... I'm disgusted.

Saudi King: 'We will pump more oil'

I say that I'm disgusted because I know that this will lead to the more and more of the agonizing delusion that we can just fill 'er up forever without pumping ourselves out of house and home. I'm tired of it. Just when I thought that we would hit the crunch and that American consumers would be forced to *gasp* change their poor habits.

Stupid Saudis,
J. Sutton

As promised...

I'm from...They're in pretty good shape for forty-year olds, eh?
J. Sutton

For those of you who may not have heard...

My girlfriend, my best friend, and I are the founding (and only) members of the AIF, the Ariton Improvement Foundation. We pull weeds, cut limbs, and un-decrepitize in general for a greater Aritonian aesthetic experience. If you happen to live in Ariton, by now you should have seen the signs on the side of the old fire station that read, "Ariton, Alabama" and "Small Town with a Big Heart." If you haven't seen or if you don't live in Ariton, I will have a picture posted up here tomorrow. The signs were originally erected in 1968 under the mayorship of Mr. Billy Clyde Herring. Their initial seat was around the intersection of U.S. Highway 231 and State Highway 123 in the area known affectionately as "Little Ariton." The signs had to be removed because of their proximity to the highway. They went behind the now rundown local grocery store and remained there until such a time as a few precocious teens decided that it was about time that Ariton began to take pride once again in being a small town with a big heart. My father and I erected the signs last Saturday. I must say, I feel more town esteem already.

The main thing that I know that most no one has heard is that I am trying to put together a mural design for the side of the Ariton Library (former Police Station). It will include pictures of a purple cat, of course; Mr. Creel Richardson, a late principal of Ariton School and local historian; the Robert Zumstein Stadium sign from end zone view; and Dean's Store, where thrift in the pre-Ariton area began. I will also probably put the names of the businesses who help out with paint and labor costs around the edges.

I am really excited about this project, and I have full faith that it will happen in the near future. Any help that my readers could provide would be appreciated.

I also want to get a festival or a jamboree started up again. In the earlier days of my youth, we celebrated the Catfish Festival every year, when the Ariton Fire & Rescue would put together catfish plates for a fundraiser. We had vendors and games: the whole she-bang! But it eventually lost its umph and fell off after Y2K. I think a festival in Ariton could make a comeback easily. We have a barbecue restaurant that is slowly but surely getting closer to opening and the owner already fills coolers up every weekend for sale on the restaurant site. I know that he could make a killing if we asked him to provide the barbecue for a big (as big as a town of 750 can muster) festival. Vendors would be no problem, I'm sure.

I'm ready for something big in Ariton. Are you?
J. Sutton

Feels like the first time!

Feels like the very first time!

For Muslim women in Europe, a medical road back to virginity

You know, besides the travesty of women faking virginity and creating lifelong relationships under false pretenses, this story sort of makes me feel bad about the route that we, the supposedly Christian U.S. of America, have taken. Why isn't virginity valued anymore? It seems today, in the America of Sex in the City killing at the box office and porn shops outnumbering McDonald's franchises, that we have become numb to subjects and themes riskee and outright outrageous. Why aren't women having to flock to their gynecologists for this procedure to hook a good husband? I don't support the lies that the procedure entails, but I wish that at least the devout of us would hold the world around us to a higher standard a little bit more often. What's wrong with having high standards if they are moral standards?

"'If you're a Muslim woman growing up in more open societies in Europe, you can easily end up having sex before marriage,' said Hicham Mouallem, a doctor in London who performs the surgery."

Doc makes it sound like sex is a pandemic condition.

"It's easy to end up catching sex in Europe these days."
J. Sutton

Putting all things aside...

To whom it may concern (even myself):

What is holding you back, forward, up, or down? What is it that inhibits your becoming what you, at base, are meant to be? If you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, then you know your purpose and you know what you are at root. Man, in his natural state, is an animal, living only within the parameters of birth and death. Christian man, on the other hand, does not live in this natural state; he has broken outside of these parameters. All of the things that a Christian does do not, in some way, correlate to the parameters of life and death, as is the case with natural man. It is what it is. Without God's influence, man lives naturally, in complete earthly freedom. With God's influence, we are tied up in numerous constraints, far from free by comparison.

But that is the thing, my friends, Christians and non-believers are apples and oranges altogether. We don't live for tomorrow; we live for eternity. We are to have no affection towards the things of this world because we know that such affections draw our energy and love away from the things of Heaven. Or do we?

Do we really live for eternity? Just now, as I'm typing, what, more beneficial act of outreach could I do to serve one of my two major Christian purposes: witnessing and praising. People, namely Christians, today don't live as if souls are heading straight for the furnace. "Well, Jared, you've got to have some time for yourself. What?! You say that God is your all and yet you-time is essential; how oxymoronic! Really, are there no more extreme Christians? By extreme, I don't mean, fire-and-brimstone Bible-thumpers. I mean, are there no more 24-hour Christians who have an ever-burning burden on their heart for unbelievers, other than their lost loved ones? Blood doesn't matter. We are all God-created and we should care about each other as such. Where is a burden for burning humans?

I know that Christianity seems to put fun and joy under lock and key. We, the Christians, are to blame! We go out into our jobs and schools everyday complaining and frowning and blaspheming against the joy that we are supposed to be shedding. Don't sing that you've got joy like a fountain and peace like a river if you're not witnessing such with your mood. People don't want the vacuum that you're trying to sell if the example model doesn't even work! For Heaven's sake! Think about what you're being saved from, and then tell people about it. If you're not happy about it, you might be one of the increasing and illustrious group of pseudo-Christians who don't believe in a literal hell.

Well, isn't that just chocolate ponies and bunny farts,
J. Sutton

For a horrible swimmer like myself ...

... this is incredibly scary.

'Dry drowning' claims 1o-year old's life

Considering that I've almost gone under twice and all of the times that I've coughed water out of the wrong pipe, I'll definitely be saying an extra thankful prayer tonight. As I mentioned earlier on BudoSeek!, I'm sure that this will also make me a lot more aware about roughhousing around a pool.

You should be too,
J. Sutton

Great Flickr Photostream

This woman, Pat Henson, is an absolutely wonderful photographer of places near and dear (more near than dear, I guess; a lot of places I know only in name) to my heart.

Smut Eye... Definitely in Alabama,
J. Sutton