Interesting Things

Well, I do predict that McCain will unfortunately get the nomination for the Republican party and I am certain that he will be an absolute embarrassment in comparison to either Clinton or Obama.  I can’t wait to see him face them off in debates.  He will indeed be eaten alive on all sides.  This will be an unbelievably embarrassing election for him.  Well, at least after this he will certainly be out of the running next time around with his tale between his legs and Romney can come back in a very strong show.  He is the only one that can put any candidate in their place right now in a debate with intelligence and reason and it is a shame that he’s apparently not going to make it this round.

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Isn’t it unfortunate that we have someone running for the presidential office who has been involved in a scandal such as this previously?

As noted in this article, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois, also chimed in Thursday with a reference to McCain’s own scandal history. Hastert told reporters that he had worked with McCain on legislation early in his congressional career but “after the Keating Five scandal, he changed.” By contrast, Hastert said Romney has “never been involved in scandal.”

McCain was one of five senators involved in the Keating Five savings-and-loan scandal. The Senate Ethics Committee cited McCain for “poor judgment” but recommended no further action.

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It is so unfortunate that an individual who is trying to represent our country would say such a statement with such an absolute conviction as to absolve any feelings of forgiveness and understanding.  Are we not a country of understanding and forgiveness?  Being founded on Christian principles, do we not believe in being peacemakers and turning the cheek in situations such as this?  Sure McCain, you were in a horrible situation, but I have heard of so many other folks who were in your shoes - OR WORSE - who have readily forgiven their captors and enemies.  Try to put yourself in their shoes for a moment in terms of how they may have felt with the propaganda and misinformation that they may have been fed.

Click here to read the article.

Please, lets get someone with stronger roots and foundations in the GOP candidacy.  This type of open behavior is intolerable for the would be leader of our nation.  Sure, you worked to reform and normalize that nation following the war, however how can you say things that could be misunderstood today by innocent bystanders that may not know of your history or efforts and judge you and our nation by your face-value statements?

As you know and as I have learned throughout my life that the first impression is indeed the most important and that holds so true for the supposed head piece of our nation.  To me Romney is both more careful and honorable in his presentation.  We need someone like Mitt that can shine forth an example of good will and professionalism to our fellow world citizens.

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Yahoo!!! Very exciting indeed: we may see our obsession with gas guzzling vehicles and non-U.S. oil problems come to a form of resolution. This startup says that it can make ethanol for $1 a gallon and without corn AND CAN DO IT NOW (not in 5 years).

Wouldn’t it be nice if we could actually place these genrative devices at gas stations around the country with storage compartments in place so that each gas station could produce and sell its own ethanol at reduced rates???

Wow, in this model, the gas stations would actually make more money than they currently are making and provide a very high degree of self sufficiency for our fuel needs without ticking off the auto industry. At least we could now have a few winners with the only losers being the oil providers and shippers. That’s a big win for everyone in light of today’s crisis!

The other really big win is for farmers. I am all too familiar with this crisis as the smart ones are moving to haylige rather than trying to deal with current corn prices. This could save the corn market and really reduce some serious stress on the agricultural industry.

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Looks like John McCain won’t be getting up from this one. Indeed, who would want a president that does not know who Vladimir Putin is and who the actual leader of Germany is? Very sad to see someone running for office who cannot *at least* quickly correct himself in such a situation as lesser things have caused wars in the past.

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Just an FYI, this is one influencing factor to really pursue posts regarding the Church in my opinion. I already felt very strongly this way long before I read this, but I thought that this would be somewhat validating for folks who may question sharing personal thoughts, feelings and testimonies to the world by way of the Internet. Satan surely uses the Net for a lot of things, why cannot we utilize it for uplifting and educating as well?

A quote from Elder Ballard that I particularly like and that I’ve advocated for quite a while and which I’ve tried to share with strong conviction is:

“We cannot stand on the sidelines while others, including our critics, attempt to define what the Church teaches.”

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We indeed are foreigners living in America it feels all too often. And we often do face a glass ceiling. Please find below the text of an article that very much caught my eye and indeed often makes me very sad that there is so much misunderstanding and misinformation among my friends and associates everywhere:

Better duck — if you’re a Mormon

By Doug Robinson - “Deseret Morning News”
Published: January 8, 2008

I missed the memo that said it’s A-OK to make disparaging and often erroneous statements about Mormons.

Apparently, they are fair game.

Sure, these are hypersensitive times, when name-calling or perceived bias against any group will get you the Don Imus treatment, but you get a free shot with Mormons. You can say what you want about them with impunity.

If you denigrate a racial group, you’re racist.

If you denigrate women, you’re sexist.

If you denigrate Mormons, you’re hip.

No one would openly suggest that you shouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton because a woman can’t lead the country, especially an ornery one.

Nobody would dare say that you shouldn’t vote for Barack Hussein Obama because he’s black, or of Muslim descent, or because he has a name that sounds like a terrorist. One Clinton worker even apologized for alluding to Obama’s use of drugs as a youth, so apparently it’s wrong to disparage former drug users, too.
But nobody is shy about saying you shouldn’t vote for Romney simply because he’s a Mormon. It doesn’t even register on the PC-O-Meter.

Just like that, 6 million Americans have been virtually disqualified from running for president. They’ve been rendered second-class citizens. They’re foreigners living in America. They face a glass ceiling.
How un-American is that?

It would be one thing if most of those who oppose Romney did so because they disagreed with his politics or character. But Romney is one of the few candidates who has no character issues, a “squeaky clean” man who has a distinguished record of accomplishments, success and service, with no divorces, no affairs, no scandal. The only thing opponents can say about him is that he belongs to a church they don’t understand.

A Harvard law professor called Romney the most qualified of all the candidates and “the perfect candidate for this moment in time.” But there is his Mormonism, he noted.

Even the self-styled PC chief of police, Al Sharpton, once jumped in on the action, saying, “As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways.”

Mormons don’t believe in God?

For his penance, all Sharpton had to do was endure a family home evening in Utah.

It’s open season on Mormons. A few days ago, Miami Herald columnist Dan Le Batard stated on ESPN and in the newspaper that part of the reason fired coach Cam Cameron failed was because he got stuck with a Mormon quarterback — not a rookie quarterback (which he is) but a Mormon quarterback.

“And you’ll have a hard time finding a leader anywhere in sports who was as unlucky this year as Cameron,” Le Batard said, noting that because of injuries, Cameron was forced to play “a United Nations huddle of a Mormon quarterback, Mexican receiver, Samoan fullback and some guy named Lekekekkkkerkker.”

Now Mormons are foreigners?

Ignorance makes no difference. You can say Mormons have four wives or that they aren’t Christian, and no one cares.

Imagine the uproar if Le Batard had written that the Dolphins suffered because they had to play a black quarterback for part of the season? Or a Catholic?

The Salt Lake Tribune has had a field day for more than a week since learning that Mike Leavitt and some of his like-minded cohorts met early in the morning to discuss Mormon theology and governance while he was Utah’s governor. What if it had been a Bible study?

Nobody seems to mind when former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says his religion “defines me.” Or when Obama says his church guides “my own values and my own beliefs.”

People worry that Romney will take his orders from his church leaders. They don’t worry that Obama will take orders from his church, whose “10-point vision” includes two references to its “non-negotiable commitment to Africa,” with no mention of America. Oh, and the church statement begins by noting on the Trinity United Church of Christ Web site, “We are a congregation which is Unashamedly Black.”

It’s a different set of rules for some out there. You can print newspaper cartoons disparaging Mormons. You can harass their families as they walk to their biannual conference with all sorts of foul language. When someone commits a crime, you can note the criminal’s religion, but only if he’s Mormon. You can make them a one-liner on Leno. Good luck reconciling all this with the paranoid political correctness that’s so in vogue.

Meanwhile, the most politically correct presidential election field ever assembled — a woman, a black, a Mormon, a Baptist, etc. — has gone politically incorrect, but only when it comes to you know who.

Doug Robinson’s column runs on Tuesdays. Please e-mail drob@desnews.com.

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I’ve really thought, personally, what Huckabee is doing lately is extremely poor choice and it appears that Bill Donahue of the Catholic League concurs:

“Because there’s a pattern here,” he added. “Every other word out of [Huckabee's] mouth is that ‘I’m Christian.’ He’s calling into question Romney’s Mormonism…let people talk about there faith, but don’t sell it on your sleeve.”

We as Latter-day Saints are as much Christians as anyone else in this world and it makes me sick to hear folks saying otherwise. The name of the Church is not “Mormon,” but the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! It is unfortunate that mister Huckabee lacks true understanding and resorts to attacks as such that denigrate his own values.

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