Post Election Musing

Here is a cut and paste from Slate.com that explains things in a way I'd never thought of. I did not vote for Obama either time, but this gives me a different perspective.



Dear Republicans,

Sorry about the election. I know how much it hurts when your presidential candidate loses. I’ve been there many times. You’re crestfallen. You can’t believe the public voted for that idiot. You fear for your country.

Cheer up. The guy we just re-elected is a moderate Republican.

I know how stupid that sounds. Barack Obama is the head of the Democratic Party. For five years, conservative politicians and media told you he was a raving socialist. In the heat of the campaign, when you’re trying to beat the guy, it’s hard to let go of that image of him, just as it’s hard for Democrats to see past the caricatures of Mitt Romney. But now that the campaign is over and you’re staring at a second Obama term, the falsity of the propaganda may come as a relief. By and large, Obama’s instincts are the instincts of a moderate Republican. His policies are the policies of a moderate Republican. He stands where the GOP used to stand and will someday stand again.

Yes, Obama began his presidency with bailouts, stimulus, and borrowing. You know who started the bailouts? George W. Bush. Bush knew that under these exceptionally dire circumstances, bailouts had to be done. Stimulus had to be done, too, since the economy had frozen up. A third of the stimulus was tax cuts. Once the economy began to revive, Obama offered a $4-trillion debt reduction framework that would have cut $3 to $6 of spending for every $1 in tax hikes. That’s a higher ratio of cuts to hikes than Republican voters, in a Gallup poll, said they preferred. It’s way more conservative than the ratio George H. W. Bush accepted in 1990. In last year’s debt-ceiling talks, Obama offered cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid in exchange for revenue that didn’t even come from higher tax rates. Now he’s proposing to lower corporate tax rates, and Republicans are whining that he hacked $716 billion out of Medicare. Some socialist.
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Yes, Obama imposed an individual mandate to buy health insurance. You know who else did that? Romney. You know where the idea came from? The Heritage Foundation. Personal responsibility—insisting that people carry private insurance so we don’t have to bail them out in emergency rooms and hospitals—was a Republican idea. Same with Wall Street reform: There’s nothing conservative about letting financial institutions gamble with other people’s money in ways that would force us to bail them out again. Even Obama’s cap-and-trade proposal echoed the market-based emissions-control policies of the 1990 Bush administration and the 2008 McCain campaign. And last year, when the EPA proposed a new air-pollution limit, Obama ticked off environmentalists by killing it on the grounds that it might jeopardize the recovery.

Remember how Democrats ridiculed George W. Bush’s troop surge in Iraq? Obama copied it in Afghanistan. He escalated the drone program, killing off al-Qaida’s leaders. He sent SEAL Team 6 into Pakistan to get Osama Bin Laden. He teamed up with NATO to take down Muammar Qaddafi. He reneged on his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay. He put together a globally enforced regime of sanctions that is bringing Iran’s economy to its knees. That’s why Romney had nothing to say in last month’s foreign policy debate. No sensible Republican president would have done things differently.

Obama’s no right-winger. You might have serious issues with his Supreme Court justices or his moves on immigration or the Bush tax cuts. But you probably would have had similar issues with Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon, or Gerald Ford. Obama’s in the same mold as those guys. So don’t despair. Your country didn’t vote for a socialist tonight. It voted for the candidate of traditional Republican moderation. What should gall you, haunt you, and goad you to think about the future of your party is that that candidate wasn’t yours.

Nothing is free.... (minor rant)

So you might know I went to a shooting competition this past weekend in Phoenix. Entry fee $100. Gas, food, lodging $150. Ammunition $45. So with this almost $300 expenditure I got a raffle ticket. In which I won a 2 day advanced pistol training class here in San Diego with a company whose original name rhymed with 'stack hotter'.

I actually know the instructor and have shot with him before. But it's been a nightmare to get signed up for my 'free' class. I not only need the regular details but also proof of a clean criminal background check! It's a seven page application form. Ridiculous in my book.....

And then I am going to need 1,000 rounds of ammunition as well, another $250. Oh and the $60 background check. So this "free" class is now costing me about $600.....

Suggested retail? $550. I know this guy. I was happy to win the two days of lessons. But the process of claiming it is super annoying and taking away from my joy in 'winning' it.......

The 4 places you find someone... Or is it 5 now?

I have lots of friends who are single. Heck, I was single for a long time off and on. I go back and read my journal and see my angst about it when I was single.

A lot of advice and such gets thrown around when you're single and you sometimes seek it out. So I thought I'd do a little reflection on some of the major relationships I've had and see where/how I met each one.

Julie-neighbor, church, friend of friends
Holly #1-work
Tara-work
Sharon-friend of Holly #1
Kristen-church
Becky-student of my mom's. sister to the girlfriend of my best guy friend.
Andrea- college
Michelle- college
Monica- work
Tracy- internet
Wendy- girlfriend of a friend. i stole her. drama.
Holly #2- internet
Natalie-church
Diane- friend of Holly #2, internet

I've always espoused the saying that you meet people in these places only, School Work Church or your Hobby. Looks like I've never met a girlfriend through a hobby. But actually some through the internet. Orrrrrr poaching the from my friends.

These were all relationships too, not just dates. I couldn't begin to work through that list. Shudder at the thought of that memory lane. (no offense to any ex reading this. i just don't like looking backwards too long. good or bad.)

So single readers, if you aren't meeting someone at work, school or church then I don't know what to say..... Change. hahahaha.

Tri-Rowdy

Today was a rowdy Rowdy triathlon. And in all of them I could have done better. Have done better. But I still got off the couch and went and "DID".

10am-1140am rock climbing at Mesa Rim.

115pm-245pm road biking around Lake Murray.

4pm-5pm shooting guns at American Shooting Center.

I still need to find a reliable, accountable way to get total fitness and exercise in during the week. I need some external motivation. I've already gotten up to 143.8 pounds! I would like to never weigh more than 139.

Crossfit?
Boot Camp in the park near my house?
Yoga in some form or another?
Rejoin my old running club?

Either way, not matter how tired or sore I am currently, I found a way to do my own triathlon today. Rowdy style.

Patagonia

Patagonia, a set on Flickr.

Instead of themed posts per day, here is a batch of the best. I'll let you sort them out.

Super Slow

So here is the video of my first sanctioned IDPA match. It was in Phoenix Arizona and I did so-so. Honestly, I was slow, even for my skill level.

I was 13th out of 16 in my class, sharpshooter. Not sure about my division, stock service pistol. Or about my overall placing.

None the less, it was fun and I learned things about competitive shooting. And while I am a medal and trophy chaser and disappointed at my lack there of, I did clean up big in the raffle!

I won a gift cert for a $700, 4 day, advanced pistol training class with Academi here in San Diego. (Academi = Xi = Blackwater) I'll end up spending a couple hundred in ammo, but I would have anyways.

Here you go. 7 of the 8 stages as I messed up the camera once. 2012 South Mountain Showdown for IDPA in Phoenix, Arizona.



PS-I'm having troubles loading the Patagonia pictures, so that will have to be done in a different way and not to the posted schedule.

Sky.

The themes I chose for my Patagonia/Chile/Tierra del Fuego pictures are Sky, Water, Mountains, Self, Ice, Animals, Food and Other. I'm starting with Sky.
This area is known for extreme weather and it did not disappoint. Self preservation for myself and my camera surely caused me to miss some wild weather shots. All of these were taken with either my Nikon D3100 dslr or my Samsung SII cell phone's camera.
With zero editing, cropping or post-processing. Nothing.
Raw.
(It's a camera joke)

Saturday-Water and Self.
Sunday-Ice and Animals.
Monday-Food and Mountains.
Tuesday-Other.