Thursday, September 10, 2009

When the Facts Don't Matter

I was on Facebook last night, and was about to change my status when I stopped and thought about how badly my liberal friends would freak out. I decided not to change my status, and I regret that, but it's got me to thinking about how we can convince others that individual liberty, freedom, and responsibility are not abstract concepts but integral to the daily lives of Americans.

I have liberal friends. In fact, I have a lot of friends who grew up in conservative households and went to the same (relatively) conservative college as I did, but have fallen into the trap that the government should provide everything for them. They're swamped with student loans, new baby bills, and the majority opinion that Obama can still save them.

It's hard to stand up to your friends. I've always been a conservative, and it's not as blind of a a faith that I feel liberalism is. Liberalism requires ignorance of facts, and conservatism requires analysis of facts. The fact is that government intervention in wages has driven the companies that my friends want to work for to not hire more employees. The fact is that the government's meddling in the insurance process has made the whole process more expensive and inefficient. The fact is that the government's supplementing of college loans has caused tuition to skyrocket, without a corresponding rise in quality of education. The government is not the solution for our lives, and a man who makes pretty speeches full of empty promises is not going to save us from the wreck the government has made of our lives.

But I think the key to my friends' indignation is pride (which goes before the fall, unfortunately). It's much easier to feel better about yourself when you talk about how you're making America better by talking about Hope and Change, how you're a champion of "social justice," and how you're post-racial because you voted for someone based on the color of their skin. (Yeah, I went there. Prove me wrong.) Admitting you're wrong when you're a twenty-something who's been told that you're the key to the future is a hard thing. I'm curious to see how many of my friends will admit that they were wrong, and how many will sink into blind faith in the government. Facts can be painful things.

Oh, and what my status was going to be? A rebuttal to the saying "No one in America should go broke because they get sick." Rush said the other day, "No one in America should die from rationed health care because America is broke."

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Do You Has What It Takes?

To suffer through a long and convoluted catch-up post? I doubt it, but I owe it to Kiwi, who is going to have a cow over this post's title until I tell her it's a quote from the Strong Bad Email "homestarmy." That'll make her be quiet for awhile....
Well, what has been going on this summer that is so important that I can't update my blog? Lots of things. The most important one happened a few weeks ago, but I will give you highlights of the summer:

We went to Corpus Christi, TX for the Protestant Men of the Chapel retreat in May. I got to see the ocean for the first time and we had a blast on the USS Lexington.
In June, we made a trip up to Iowa for a family reunion on my dad's side and had a blast with everyone (including stealing Rapunzel and Kiwi). I ordered a Dodgers shirt for the occasion, which you can see here:
Around July 4, we hosted the family vacation for Pooky's family. We hit Sea World, the botanical gardens, the zoo, a waterpark, and just about anything we could think of in and around San Antonio. Here is Pooky's nephew, trying to order room service. Or trying to get someone, anyone, to talk on the phone with him:
Right before my in-laws descended, we realized that we had water dripping out of outside wall and that needed to be fixed. The plumbers tore an unnecessary hole in our interior wall only to discover that the problem was a leak in the ground piping. It was all done and patched over within 24 hours, but this was not a pretty sight:
In August, Pooky decided that the window of opportunity for introducing a housemate for our American Bombay, Hex, was narrowing, and we should get a new cat soon. Meet Belphegor, the queen of the house:
Oh yes, she dominates us all. Especially Pooky, who is now her personal slave. Hex has taken to crashing out on my computer, which can be.... troublesome, at times:

So, that's what's been keeping me busy lately. Hopefully, this fall things will calm down a bit (and cool off-this two-year drought is getting old), and I'll be able to update more often.