My Take on Debate #1

Yesterday was practically a dream come true for me, since the first presidential debate essentially kicks off the intensity of the political season. Here are some of my thoughts on the debate:

point #1: Obama is presidential. He's a better debater, speaks directly, looks more like a president, and pretty much seems like a nice guy. The type of guy I'd want to be friends with. Unfortunately, his ideas lack substance and his plans are allarmingly socialist. AAAAAAHHHH!

On the other hand, I don't really care for McCain all that much. He's cocky, less attractive, and frankly, was a bit of a Debbie Downer last night. Also, his constant arm gestures irritate me even though I know that's really mean to say since he got his injuries as a POW. Plus, he was really a jerk to my man, Mitt. Anyway, as much as I wouldn't want to hang out with John McCain, he's the man for the job. Why? You'll find out as you read on.

Point #2: McCain has it on national defense. Pointing out Obama's lack of knowledge and experience in military strategy and his failure to visit Afghanistan despite the fact that he chairs a committee overseeing NATO in that country was a good move. McCain also pointed out all the senate votes he has made over the years that have turned out to be the right choices in hindsight.

Point #3: Obama is a big spender. Not that I mind spending money to help people in need. However, his solution is to "provide" healthcare, computers, access to education (nevermind the fact that it's already pretty easy to get money for college if you need it), etc. for everyone with tax dollars. Why not let people keep their tax dollars and spend them how they want?

Point #4: Capitalism drives America, and it should. It's what works. Robin Hooding his way around and turning this into a socialist society is not going to make Obama the best president ever. Look at Russia's super successful economy, for example. The middle class in a socialist society is worse off than the poor in a capitalist one. Obama kept talking about the fact that businesses and the "wealthy" don't need or deserve tax breaks. The fact is, 70% of all tax revenue comes from 10% of the population (the weathiest 10% paid about 48% of all taxes in 1981). I'm not suggesting that these people pay less taxes than everyone else, but I think it's poor policy to make them pay so much more. Obama talked a lot about tax cuts for the poor, which he would fund by increasing taxes on the already overburdened rich. The reality is that many of the poor already don't pay any taxes. About 30% of American wage-earners pay no taxes at all. He says "put money back in the pockets of the middle class." What? There's no "back." What he means is, "take money out of a rich man's pocket and put it in a poor man's pocket." Here's why it's good for everyone if the wealthy get tax breaks too. If you give a tax cut to a poor or middle class citizen, what does that do? It allows them to keep another few hundred dollars or maybe even a thousand a year to use as they see fit. Most likely, they'll pay bills or buy a tv or something. On the other hand, what happens if you give a tax cut to the wealthy too? You allow tons of money to stay in the hands of those who will grow the economy. They'll spread that money around in the food and travel industry, they'll invest, allowing other businesses to grow) and they might even hire a few people to do some things. They'll create jobs, which puts way more money in the pocket of a poor person than a couple of hundred dollars in their tax return would do. Same thing for businesses. America has the second highest business taxes in the world. We're at about 35%. Think of all the jobs that would be created if they could keep some of that money and expand some of their businesses. Think of all the money that would come into the US from other countries if this was a good place to start a business. Hmmm... Well, enough about money for now. Obama is NOT the Messiah. As inspiring as he is, there's no way he can rearrange things in a way that will ensure that everyone has everything they want, simply by virtue of the fact that they exist and live in the US. It can't work, and it shouldn't be done. That's it for point #4.

Most awkward Moment of the debate: Obama's statement "I have a bracelet, too." Well. Awesome for him. I think he even worked up a little quiver in his voice.

Most irritating thing about the debate: The way Obama always called McCain "John" even though McCain always called Obama "Senator Obama."

Funniest line: When Obama announced that he would consider attacking Pakistan, and McCain said "You don't do that. You don't say that out loud!"

Overall, I think Obama came across as more presidential, but McCain came across as the candidate who would actually make a better president. Hope you enjoyed my rant and I haven't alienated any of my friends too badly. You can count on more opinions from me in the days to come.

Name the Car Contest!

For those of you who haven't yet met our sweet new set of wheels, I though I'd introduce her to you. Several weeks ago, someone turned left in front of Theron and smashed the front corner of our 94 Camry. It didn't take much damage to total it, so we found ourselves in the market for a "new" car. Now, I know lots of people think dentists drive BMWs and Porches, but I'll just say that some of us drive 93 Chevy Caprices. When we paid off our Camry back in 2002, we decided we never wanted to have a car payment again and so far we've stuck to that. In fact, we got a really super deal on this car. Here's how the conversation went:

Theron: The car's listed for $2,500, but would you take $2,000 for it?
Seller: Well, you can have it for $1,800.
Theron: Okay.

Nice, huh? So far it's been pretty fun. Complete strangers approach me on the street to talk about my car. Every kid who rides in it thinks it's a luxury car. They're all really impressed by the wood paneling, the bench seat in the front, and, most importantly, the rear facing third row seat in the back.

The only thing we need now, other than maybe a set of fuzzy dice for the rear view mirror, is a name. This car is practically begging for a name. She just has too much personality to remain anonymous. Post your suggestions, and to sweeten the deal I'll offer rear-facing seat privileges to the person that submits a name thats sticks.




The view from the back seat, taken by Viv.

What Does it Take?

So, what does it take to bring me out of my shameful lapse in blogging? Maybe Theron graduating from dental school and buying a practice? Nope. Or buying a house of our very own and moving into it? Not that either. Surely then, it must be wrecking our car and replacing it with a totally sweet '93 wood paneled station wagon. No again. Yes, all those things happened. But what I really just couldn't resist blogging about was BYU FOOTBALL! WOOO HOOOO! I LOVE BYU football. I love it so much that we had season tickets when we lived in Provo and the only game we missed was BYU vs. San Diego State in 2001. That game, we watched on TV in the hospital while I gave birth to our second child, who, being the accommodating little soul he is, made his debut during half time. BYU defeated San Diego State 59-21 and Seth was born a healthy 7 lbs 3 oz.

Today the mighty Cougs came to Seattle, so Theron and I took the boys (Viv stayed with a sitter) to the stadium with a bunch of friends and cheered our men on to victory with a final score of 28-27. Not much can match the roar of the crowd, the smell of hot dogs, the stickiness of spilled soda on the soles of your shoes, and the rumble of the bleachers under your feet. The skies were sunny and our boys in blue managed to win in spite of some infuriatingly incompetent referees. In the end, justice was served and we tried really hard to keep the smug smiles off our faces in the midst of our foes.

Of course, being the inept blogger that I am, I didn't bring a camera so you'll have to make do with photos I found on the net.






Now that I've broken through that awkward barrier of "first-post-in-such-a long-time-that-it-has-to-be-really-awesome-to-make-up-the-deficit," I'm sure I'll be posting more regularly. I have a lot on my mind and I even promise to post some actual pictures of my actual family soon. So, stay tuned, because I'm back in the saddle. (and leave a comment here so I can see if I have any ultra-faithful readers who still have enough hope to check if I've finally posted something new.