My top 5 sporting events dream list

With the Masters this week, it got me thinking... what are the 5 sporting events most want to attend. Obviously every male sports fan has a similar list in their head. And everyone's list is going to be different.

So here is mine.

5. The Olympics. Summer, winter, whatever. The whole specitical, the whole country pride thing... I'm all about extreme and I'm all about my country.

4. BCS National Championship. The whole setting would be a lot of fun. You have fans from both schools, it'd be fun to take in the atmosphere before the game. The one problem you have is corporate seats. Any event with a vast amount of corporate seats automatically moves down the list. You have too many people without affiliation, and I crave that crowd roar.

The real story of oil, and Obama's grave mistake

I previously wrote about the Keystone pipeline and pointed out what I thought were the true reasons for Obama's decision.

Yesterday, Obama came to Cushing, OK and gave a speech(transcript here) about his "all the above" policy... and in the process took credit for "fast-tracking" the southern portion of the pipeline. When I heard this I was shocked and physically laughed at the notion that he had any hand in this. Since that time, many of our leaders have come out and stated the same. See... the deal is, Obama has no hand in inter-state pipelines and does not approve them. The only pipeline Obama has to approve are ones that cross the nations borders.

Here is a good article on the visit: http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/217607-obama-says-hes-added-enough-pipeline-to-encircle-earth-and-then-some-defends-position-on-keystone-pipeline

Now, lets talk about the actual truths here, using points Obama made in his speech.

Facing our fears... by running

A few weeks ago, a teacher at my church did a lesson on being "threatened" by sin... the times when we get tempted. It was a great lesson and I'd like to put a few thoughts of mine on paper.

 When it comes to sinning, or temptation to sin, so many times we "sit" in our sin. We assume we have will power that we don't actually have. Then, after our mistake is made, we look back and realize, "oops, I should have known better". It's so easy to say "i can go to the bar, I just won't drink" or "I'm just cussing under my breath" or "They're just in swimsuits" or the more extreme "I'm just talking... I'm not cheating". In the end, this only leads to trouble.

God wants to not only say no to temptation, but flee from temptation. Not only should you be free of sin, but soooo free that no one can question your sinlessness... So how can we run from temptation? There are many, many ways to do this... and too many times we don't "go all the way". Here are the things that have really been laid on my heart the past few days.

1 Timothy 6:11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

Immerse yourself in scripture
The power of scripture can't be explained in any number of words, it has to be experienced... This cannot be expressed enough. I can't count the number of times that a scripture read has directly applied to a current situation I was in.

Judge Napolitano pulls the veil!

I saw this youtube video this weekend, and thought it did a great job explaining exactly how I've been feeling. Also, pretty much the exact reason I've been supporting Ron Paul in this election. Please watch the video, and I'll have a few thoughts afterwards...

"What if the 2 party system was a mechanism used to limit public opinion?"

"What if there is no such thing as public opinion? What if what we call public opinion is just a manufactured narrative,

Dumping China

The other day, I had a facebook chat with Derrick Bemis, a buddy from Oklahoma State. We got on the topic of China, debating how China would react or be effected by certain US actions. It was a great back and forth, and Derrick suggested a joint blog post, which I thought was a great idea. We then transferred the conversation to email and cleaned it up just a bit...

Before we jump into the post, I'd like to give a few definitions....

ASEAN - The Association of Southeastern Asian Nations. They've taken steps to organize in a more European Union fashion, with China/Russia playing big roles.

Dollar peg - A peg is a fixed exchange rate. In essence, China tries to keeps its currency value fixed to the value of the US dollar.

Yuan - the Chinese currency

QE - Quantitative Easing. The US policy by which we print more dollars, cheapening our currency. The goal is to encourage spending and in turn trigger growth. In reality, we've frustrated other countries and hurt the world economy.

And with no further delay, our conversation, with some editorial comments after the chat.

• Derrick Bemis

  • I know ... I was saying I am looking at the China contrarian issue
  • What if we decide that the "big bad wolf" isn't so big and so bad.
  • I have been guilty of arguing against a trade war. What if we called their bluff.
  • I think they need us as much, if not more, than we need them. Specially with the peg and now with ASEAN developing
• 10 hours ago

  Kurtis Hanni

  • How would the ASEAN mean they need us more? I would think it'd mean the opposite
• 10 hours ago

  Derrick Bemis
  

How political donations set Obama's policy: Keystone XL pipeline edition

When I first heard about Obama delaying the permit process for the Keystone pipeline, I was truly shocked. I did not understand how you could be against something that would create so many American jobs and help us supply less oil from the middle east and OPEC. Add that the administration said "we haven't had enough time to learn the impact on the environment", when they had 3 years to research it and had reports from the Department of State showing the impact to be "minuscule".

But, I should have known better. I should have seen the connection immediately. Obama is like all politicians... he owes the billionaires who supported his campaign, and will watch out for their financial interests. The donations even buy them private meetings with the president! Fundraisers are also a common tool to get access to the President that many others could never achieve.

The "charge" being brought by this article on Bloomberg(credit to Derrick Bemis), as well as a few others, is that Warren Buffett would benefit from the denial of the pipeline. Warren Buffett has interest in the BNSF railroad which, if the pipeline isn't approved, will be asked to haul more fuel in its tank cars. This is just one example, but it led to me researching other examples of how big donors shape the Obama administration agenda. And Obama doesn't have a shortage of big donors....

Why Newt Gingrich should never be President

These last few weeks, we've seen the rise of Newt Gingrich in the Republican primary polls. He has now officially taken over the top spot of the national polls and looks to be quite a ways ahead in Florida. To those that have had these discussions with me, they know I dislike Gingrich... and I have many, many reason. In the debate in Tampa he admonished Romney for attacking him using what he called untrue statements(many of which were VERY true), and then immediately following the debate attacked Romney more viciously and with less facts. But, he will defend this not an attack... he is a very good debater... but I'll contend... the greater the debate, the bigger the possibility you're a slime ball! In this post, I'll tell you why I don't like Gingrich and why you shouldn't vote for him either.



Lobbyist for Freddie Mac - don't let this guy trick you. He did lobby for them. As Romney pointed out last night(kinda sad because he stole some of my thunder), there is a lot more to this lobby deal. You were hired by the chief lobbyist of Freddie Mac. First, Gingrich tried to say he was hired as a "historian". Then he was hired as a "consultant". So, what was it Newt? At the very least, Newt was "consulting" the lobbyist at Freddie Mac how to gain influence in Washington. And that's at the very LEAST.

Cheating while prosecuting a cheater.