Change…

Isn't life about change? I seem to see people change a lot, whether for better or for the worst. This presents a challenge to deal with constantly right? Here are some of my thoughts.

• What if the weather was always a comfortable, sunny, 70 degrees? I agree, this would be really nice, at least for the first few months, until everything becomes dry and dusty. We need the weather to change now don't we.
  
• What if the leaves stayed green all year long? They would get old. We would never see the beautiful colors that grace the tree tops in the fall.
  
• What if people never changed? If people never changed, we would seldom get hurt and grow from that, and we would also not progress. All great influx of progression, comes from what? Change?
  

You may wonder why I write this. I have been thinking about the things that bring the most happiness. This in my mind is the realization of truth, whether or not it is religious truth or other. When one realizes truth, they must make the proper change, to align with the new-found truths.

So why do we ridicule people for being different today than they were yesterday, or last year. "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

The Mormons

On May 1 and 2, PBS aired a two part documentary on the 'Mormons'. I was pleasantly surprised as to what I saw. There was a fairly balanced amount of positives and negatives, as well as truth and errors of fact. All in all, I think there was a light cast on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which will introduce people to the faith in a positive way.
I have several complaints however. These are included in the following list:
- The prophet Joseph Smith was portrayed as a power hungry dictator, who had crazy visions. The descriptions given of his vision were told by PBS in a mystical sort of way. Now folks, it was either real or imaginary, history or make believe, it has withstood almost 200 years of scrutiny, give it some credit please.
- Issues that are not really issues were dwelt on too much. Who really cares about the Mountain Meadow Massacre or polygamy? There is no evidence that supports the argument that Brigham Young ordered the massacre, and the church forbids plural marriage. These were two topics that did not deserve about one sixth of the broadcast time.
- Credible interviews... who were these people? Where did they come from? The people from the church did very well in explaining the church and its doctrines, but many of the non-LDS people were... I don't know, what were they? People trying to cast a bad light?

Regardless of all of the things that I took exception with, I must give credit where credit is due. I was impressed for the most part by the last half of the documentary (May 2). There was a huge emphasis put on the most important parts of 'Mormonism', such as the temples and the family. These two topics are among the most important to members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
Good job PBS! The program was well put together, and there was a great introduction to 'Mormonism' given to those who watched the program. This is much better than a current film coming out of Hollywood. Thanks for making us look good to the world.

Why do politicians switch their views so often?

As the presidential race begins to heat up, it is mind boggling, how much candidates are changing stances on issues. The two democratic frontrunners argues with each other like 4 year olds, and two of the leading Republican candidates, flip-flop more than John F(lip-flop) Kerry.

Rudy Giuliani changed his stance on abortion no less than 3 times in one week, and now, John McCain is 'rethinking' his stance on immigration? Does that mean he wants to close the borders? Is he going to become every illegal immigrant's most bitter enemy, instead of "best friend"? I doubt it.

All of this "flip-flop" mentality will lead to one thing, voters thinking that the candidate is open minded and willing to change, when in reality, it is just smoke and mirrors.

When things don't work the way they should...

Have you ever seen something happen that was completely out of the ordinary... not what anyone would expect to happen? Maybe it is the Texas Longhorns losing in the second round of the NCAA tournament, or a family member passing.
In every "bad" thing that happens, there is always something good. Sometimes, it is more necessary to look for the positive benefits, whether obvious or not. For every negative, there must be an equal and opposite positive.

Who really cares about Halliburton?

I am amazed this morning as I read the news. Every headline is about Halliburton moving their headquarters to the UAE (United Arab Emirates). Does it really matter? Does it hurt? The only group that it really hurts is the government, because they will eventually lose a lot of tax revenue.

There has been much ado about oil companies and their incredible profits. They are only making about 30% profit… that is pretty normal, since many companies work on a cost-plus-30% system.

Whether it is Exxon-Mobile or Halliburton, it looks to me as though most of the world is fighting against capitalism. After all, Mr. Chavez, the leader of Venezuela said just yesterday, "Those who want to go directly to hell, they can follow capitalism." He followed that up with, "All of us that want to build heaven here on earth; we will follow socialism."

Democracy and our capitalist system are under attack. When we do what is right, and stand up for that right regardless of the situation, we will preserver.

When there is a will, there is a way...

This morning at 4 AM, a woke up, felt normal for a Friday, weary but rested, ready for the weekend that really wasn't going to happen. The idea of a day of homework was very... uugggghhhh.
I hurried and got ready for the day, and then started my statistics homework. Of course, it had been put off the day before. I managed to get nothing done in 2 hours, and decided to head to school. The library would be a much better place to study.
After 4 hours of taking notes from the book, I finally had a vague idea of what I was supposed to know. If I keep this up for the rest of the 'weekend', I will pass the test on Monday. Stay tuned for more...

I am confused...

If Scooter Libby did not commit a crime, why would he lie to the authorities? Is it that important to the 'Anti-Bush Administration' to ruin a person’s life? He will have at least 2 more years of re-trials and jail time before the President will pardon him (the day after the '08 elections).
In America, we stand for what is right. If a man commits a crime, he should be punished accordingly. It appears that this has now changed however. It is more realistic to say nowadays, that a man is guilty unless the majority of the people like him and those he associates with.
I am appalled by the way that people in general seem to love destroying the lives of others. Can't we just go about our lives, be friendly to each other, and punish those that are clearly guilty? It would make life a lot more pleasant.