The Pinnacle of Human Achievement

I like the celebrate the power of the human spirit. Over the weekend I completed my first Olympic Distance Triatlon. It wasn't too bad either, I got done in 3 hours and 3 minutes. If anyone wants more details on that wee escapade, let me know and I'll redirect you to my race report.

Last night on TV... Well, maybe you should watch the following and then I'll fill you in on the details.



That promo does not do the show justice. I'm not a fan of reality TV, but this one just has a little something extra. If they weren't making fun of the Go-Go girl, it was the male Jazz dancer, and if it wasn't then, it was something else. I laughed, I cried, my daughter claims she even pee'd a little.

If you didn't get a chance to watch it last night, I would highly recommend you make sure you get to see next weeks episode, or check online to see if ABC will make it available to view on their site.

World Improvement

I'd like to think that once I pass on from this life that I will have left a positive influence in my wake. In light of that goal, I should like to suggest some ideas that might help our society. Let me apologize in advance for the first, it may come out a little graphic, but some things just need to be said...

1. I have read numerous funny emails and blog postings about have to take care of #2 at work. Personally I'm still not comfortable doing it, nor do I think I will ever become the confident person who strides into the rest room with a newspaper under one arm and loudly talking to someone on his cell phone. Just for the record if you are that person and I happen to be in the restroom - I will make a point of flushing as often as possible, so the person you are speaking with knows where you are.

The point I would like to raise today has to do with the expulsion of gas once you get into the restroom and how you follow it up. I'm sure we've all been bloated at some point in our lives, and I for one fully admit that when you feel that way, there is a certain amount of relief that comes when you are finally able to release it.

However, if you happen to find yourself in a public restroom, and have been suffering from a bloated stomach for sometime, please do not follow the barrage of gas and other little projectiles into the water below with a good loud sigh and a hearty "Oooooh Yes!!!!"

If you're home alone, by all means, say what you feel, fart as loud as possible and whatever else you feel inclined to do, but please exercise some restraint in public, especially when I'm changing into my running gear just a few feet away. I would just rather not know.

2. And this one seems somewhat petty compared to the first... Guys without shirts... It you are at the beach and walking down to the surf, then by all means, take the shirt off. If you're running, or otherwise exercising and have a little bit of a tan and some muscle tone, then I think I'm OK with the shirt being removed, but seriously, if you and your alabaster white middle-aged friend with the matching beer belly and ample girth are taking a stroll around the park on your lunch break. Removing your shirt, just is not an option. I for one do not want to see rolls of super white skin covering the top of your dress pants.

Sadly I have had personal experience with both of these in the last 24 hours.

If...

Yesterday was the first of 2 triathlons out in Magna.

If I had entered the Novice race, instead of the Sprint, I would have won in my age group - helped by the fact that no-one 30 to 39 raced in that race. I'm not sure if I would have placed overall, but I may have been able to given the much shorter distance.

If I had raced in June last year, the way I raced yesterday, then I would have been the over all winner.

I was not the overall winner yesterday, coming in about 15 minutes behind that person that did, and I didn't place in my age group either. Still though, I had a great time and got my personal fastest sprint distance time to date.

Look for a full race report, which I will provide a link to when I get it done. Also watch as this coming weekend I will be racing in my first Olympic distance race in Provo, UT. It looks now that I may need to leave the house before 4am to make it there. My hope is to complete it in about 3 hours, but we'll see when we get there!

Here's the thing...

I have gotten 2 emails today that have irked me a little. If I may share them and perhaps dispel some myths. That aside though, I think most of my readers are relatively open minded folks already and wouldn't have fallen for this crap anyway...

OK, email number 1 came from Glenn Beck - I think I've shared my opinions on him before. I like his comedy, but not so much when he gets political. Anyway, he's touring right now and was chatting with someone whom he described as a left-wing goof ball - Ken Altshuler from WGAN in Maine. The focal point of his comments was that they had actually agreed on something.

I think there is a lot more common ground between people of different view points than we have been led to believe, so I though I would check out the transcript. I found this gem on why he would not support Obama.

ALTSHULER: He is an unknown quantity. He has done very little votes, he has stood for very little positions. He talks in platitudes. He talked in hope and change without substance. So we don't know who he is. In addition to that, we do know some things about who he surrounds himself with. There's a reverend named Reverend Wright who is a racist. This is his spiritual advisor. He has a wife who by my point of view is militant, is angry. And I believe the people running his campaign who will run the government if he's elected have a hidden agenda. I'm not sure what it is but I don't think I like it.

So Glenn and Ken then agree that until Obama has established a solid voting record he can't run as president because we don't know who he is.

8 years ago George Bush ran on a platform as a conservative. Apparently he came in with a solid conservative record and was supposed to be the next Ronald Reagan. Instead we got a weak leader with no balls who managed to get us into a major war based on lies and completely trashed our economy, and don't even get me started on the national debt and his complete disregard for our nations sovereignty.

With the past 8 years of someone with a solid record, I think I'm ready to take a chance on Obama. He and I could not be more different on policies, I'm pretty libertarian and he very clearly and openly a socialist. But he seems sick of a government run by lobbyists and other special interest groups, and quite frankly so am I.

The second email came from a guy whom I have called out on emails a couple of times. He's a nice guy, but gets caught up in conservative emails scams. The first was about the Golden Compass and how it was a tool of the Devil to convert children to Atheism. I think you all know my opinion on that... The second was on Obama wanting to change the national anthem to "I'd like to teach the world to sing"

Today was another Obama email, depicting Obama in front of a "White House" sign, saying "Well that has got to go!" Below is the following, under an ACLU logo with the Islamic crescent in place of the C.

I'm not impressed with the ACLU right now, but mainly that because they allowed the violation of rights for the FLDS polygamists in Texas, but they do serve an important role.

Anyway, so below that was the following:

The the bible - remember when I was sworn as a senator - I used the Quran. Then the flag - Remember I won't salute it. Then the pledge of allegiance - Remember I won't say it. Ready for a change? Vote deomocratic!

And yes that last word was misspelled in the email - some red neck from down south obviously hasn't figured out how to use spell check.

The thing that bugs me most is the lying. I'm not going to refute that whole thing, but if any of it concerns you, please check out the this article on snopes.

This year I think I may be getting a two for one on my presidential vote. I will not be voting republican, that's for damn sure. I refuse to vote for a party that nominates liars and war-mongers.

I'd really like to see a libertarian president like Ron Paul, or possible Bob Barr. Paul won't be on the ballot, but Barr might. I don't know much about him, but he has changed his views a lot in recent years, and many of his changes seem to be in line with the way my opinions have changed and developed as well.

If I and many others vote for Barr, it will in effect, help split the conservative vote and usher in the first African American president. This way I don't have to vote for someone with socialist policies, but I help elect someone who wants to change politics as usual.

"Holy Mileage Batman!!"

Two years ago I got some new running shoes. I took them out for a run, and would consider it overly optimistic to think I ran more than a quarter mile. I returned home huffing, puffing and did not venture out again for some time.

18 months ago, and a really good friend, who is employed as a cop (this is relavent later) persuaded me to join him in trying to lose some weight and get fit. What followed was several month of pain and suffering and included a lot of him waiting for me on short runs while I gathered my breath or tried to stretch out my calves.

In the last 12 months I have done 4 triathlons, 3 5k races, an international distance duathlon and a half marathon. Not only have I achieved that, but over the weekend I completed a 45 mile bike ride, then came to work yesterday and ran almost 6 miles over lunch. I returned home and took out my two youngest kids in the bike trailer and did almost 18 miles with them.

Last night my buddy was scheduled to pick me up for a mile or two at the track - due to injury, he didn't run all winter and is struggling to get it back. I'm trying to be as supportive as I can. Right before he was due to come, I sucked down a packet of Gu, which is an energy gel I used in my longer races. It works really well when you have nothing left to give. He ended up being late, and I then found a message on my phone from a couple of hours prior that he had been called out on a law enforcement matter and would not likely make it back in time.

Not wanting to waste the Gu, I then setoff on a 5 mile run around the local park. My mp3 player ran out of juice a half mile into it, so I was left with my thoughts. I have far more positive thoughts when I run than when I mow the lawn I've found.

Last night I was just amazed at how far I've come. Not only did I run 10.5 miles in a single day, with a significant bike ride, but I came into work today and ran another 5.5 over lunch. I'm not sure I've ever been this fit in my life. It feels absolutely fantastic.

Saturday is the Magnathon triathlon. It was the first triathlon I ever competed in. I will be trying to full sprint distance one this time. I am very excited about what I might be able to accomplish!

150th Post and young blonde beauties

This will be my 150th post. To celebrate I wish to report on an incident which happened this morning.

I was at the pool swimming laps and... A girl whistled at me.

A cute young, likely 18 year old girl whistled at me.

A cute young, blond, likely 18 year old girl whistled at me.

A cute young, blond, likely 18 year old girl working as a lifeguard whistled at me.

Let me set the scene for you... It's June in Utah - It's almost summer. Temperatures in Summer often reach well over 100 degrees (I think that's around 40 for my foreign readers.

Today was not one of the hot days, in fact I debated not going. The wind is blowing, the air is cold, there is snow in the mountains, and its an outdoor pool.

To make matters worse, the lap clocks were not working, and I think I got there a little after 11:30. Lap Swimming ends at noon and they open up the pool to the general public.

So as I start out on lap number 24, grateful most of my body was below the water. A few strokes in, I thought I heard a whistle or something. I got the end and caught a life guard waving to me. She dropped the whistle from her mouth and informed me that it was noon and they would be opening the pool for the general swim. "Thanks" says I and heads back to finish my lap and climb out the ladder.

I ended my swim floating to the wall on my back and touching the wall, before standing up and removing my goggles. "Excuse me Sir!!! It's noon. Lap swimming is O-V-E-R!!

I looked around... 1 huge pool, three young female lifeguards, who I doubt could get me out, should I have cramped up mid lap and nothing else... That's right, no horde of enthusiastic teenagers, no mothers concerned about me swamping their kids, no-one else around, except for me and the life guards. I climbed up the ladder and went to grab my stuff. The lifeguards all climbed onto their chairs and began their job, making sure the public was safe.

I walked to the change rooms, showered, dressed and headed out the door. I looked back at the pool. The water was as smooth as glass and the only life was the three young and obviously power loving girls.

I'm all for rules, but seriously... "Excuse me sir!! The lap swim is O-V-E-R!! What the hell was up with that?

Competition and Other Topics

Sorry guys, it has been way to long since I've posted, for which I apologize - Because obviously many of you could not survive without your daily dose of Koda.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy with races, work and my side business, not to mention the last week of school for my oldest two kids.

I have a couple of topics I've been thinking about, so perhaps let me share those, and then I'll expand on one and leave the rest for another day. The topics are:

The Environment - I think Global Warming is a corporate/government conspiracy, but I still think we have a responsibility to take care of our surroundings. I'd just rather do it by choice, rather than out of fear for Global Warming.

Carbon Credits - Al Gore and Jack Johnson both purchase Carbon Credits, I'd like to explore what they are, and why Al Gore is a huge hypocrite, while I think Jack Johnson gets it. Unfortunately, right wing commentators often group both of them together which I think is a huge mistake.

Competition - One of the blogs I like to read posted a video from a softball match where a team exhibited great sportsmanship - Click here to read it

There were two comments made which got me thinking, both by readers of this blog as well. I'm going to summarize them, and hopefully I capture their intent. The first commented that competition is unhealthy for our society, which I tend to agree with. The second said that competition is what made the US the great country it is, and so it was a good thing. I tend to agree with that two. I think the problem is that there are two different kinds of competition.

The first kind is about beating your opponents by being better than he is.

The second kind is about beating your opponent by making him look worse than you are.

The end result is that if you are successful in either, you win, but I think the first takes more skill.

I compete in a lot of road races and triathlons. My goal is first and foremost to finish and second to try and beat my previous times. It's going to be a long time before I can even hope to win a race, and even then it may well take a small miracle.

If I can finish a race completely spent and in my best time ever I feel remarkably accomplished and motivated to try and beat it next time. I am inspired by those who beat me, and may even turn to them for advice on how to get myself to that level. I have found they are generally more than willing to share and help a relative newby like myself along. At the end of the day I think everyone who participates in competition like this wins.

My other option would be to turn a race into a circus. I could start at the front on the pack, try and get in peoples way, prevent them from passing me, and 'accidently' trip them if they do. I may well finish higher in the rankings, but only because I have employed dirty tactics to put my competition down. This seems to be how the game of politics is played these days. It's how a lot of things are done. I don't agree with it.

In the game of life, I plan on doing my best. I hope you will too. Either of could win on the day, and we will do so with honor and as better people, enriching the lives of those whom we associate with. This is the spirit that make America and many other nations great. The other kind is what is going to be our downfall.

My Daughter's Hero

For a year or 2 now, I've been my oldest daughters hero. It's been kind of fun to watch, but it's also given me pause to think before I do stuff.

My parents were good people, but the one thing I never saw them doing was stepping outside the box and trying to better themselves. My dad was devoted to providing for our family and my mom was devoted to being a stay-at-home mom. I think they did themselves a huge disservice by doing that, and I sometimes wonder if they did us kids a disservice as well. My girls are already asking when they can do a triathlon with me. My oldest wants to know if she can try and do an ironman with me when she turns 18.... I've said sure, but this means I'm going to have to do at least 1 before then, and then keep myself fit enough that I can still do one when I'm 44. Not a bad motivator at all, and I think she has the drive that she could probably pull it off.

I got to thinking about this topic yesterday... The same daughter had her birthday party. We had a friend of mine run the party. My friend is in the process of starting up a kids fitness center, and parties are part of what they do. It went really well, and the kids loved it, but that wasn't what got me thinking about hero's... My friend always carries water with her in a Nalgene bottle... So as she's walking around setting up the games and cones and all that, the bottle goes around as well. My daughter was stuck to her like glue from the minute she walked in the door, and then all of a sudden, 10 minutes into it, she dashed into the house and vanished for a couple of minutes. She emerged with one of my water bottles and has been carrying it around ever since. I thought it was pretty cute!

I think hero worship is a good thing in moderation. If we can identify a hero and are able to take from that person habits and traits which make us better. I think the danger comes in becoming obsessed with that person and following everything they do, regardless of whether it's good or not.

I have some hero's too. I think they would likely be embarrassed to be mentioned here, so I won't, at least not now. I'm sure they're generally just normal people, but they have also done extraordinary things in their lives. To all my hero's past, present and future, Thanks! To those whom my kids do and will worship, thank-you as well, and know that there is a good chance you have someone, somewhere that looks to you as an example and wants to be like you.

GeoCaching!!!

I've been trying to find something for the Mrs and I to do together. Having kids seriously affects your ability to relate to one another and you lose a lot of your identity. I got the tri bug last year and have gotten a little of my identity back, which I think has helped me be a better father as well - Plus I now have at least 1 tri-junkie for a daughter.

So we've been trying to find something for my wife to get into, and were hoping it was something we could do together. A few months ago, someone told her about GeoCaching. She got really excited - so did I.

Last night the GPS arrived... The UPS guy who delivered it, awakened me from the nap I was having following 2nd grade field trip to the zoo - but that's another topic.

Following dinner last night, we headed out with 3 caches loaded into the unit. The unit is remarkably accurate...

Cache # 1 was found by the wife at the top of a spruce tree.

Cache # 2 was found by the wife in a metal bracket.

We then decided to try one more before calling it a night...

Cache # 3 was one we tried to find with friends a few weeks back, without success. Knowing now what we were looking for, we returned. It took a few minutes, but I located it in a small spruce tree, right near the bottom.

So last nights results were:

3/3 caches found and a great time had by all, in spite of the weather. I think I know what we'll be doing this weekend!

Marathons, Gay Marriage and Peace...

It's been a busy week around the Koda household over the past few days... Peace continues between the wife and I... I am no longer a bastard, but may have to do something about some of the circumstances leading up to the problem last week. Another reason on my list of why organized religion is a monster that should be destroyed.

Saturday saw the day of the Ogden Marathon. I have been registered for this since October last year, and pretty nervous about it lately due to some injuries. It could not have gone better. For those of you that are interested there is a race report here and hopefully some pictures will get added to it later in the week.

There has also been a fair amount of debate on another blog I read about various issues, including the topic of Gay Marriage in California. If you read this blog regularly, you probably already know that I'm pro gay marriage for a number of reasons, my own preference for the gentler sex, notwithstanding... And if you aren't a regular reader, now you know! I've been chiming in occasionally, generally just trying to offer my take on the situation as opposed to trying to argue or beat anyone down. I was beat down on one issue, and realized something in the process...

The problem with people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other political commentators from both sides, is a lack of original thought. All their content is geared towards why the other side is something to be feared. The person who beat me down didn't have anything to offer on his own, he just liked to point out everywhere I could possibly have made a mistake. I'm not above apologizing when I'm wrong, but unfortunately he then smelt blood in the water. I'll spare you the rest of the story though...

The Great Mystery

I'm in trouble with Mrs Koda. Unfortunately I'm not sure exactly why, but I do know that for sure, that asking why will only make the situation worse.

I have some ideas what may have sparked it, but generally the outcome of most of those reasons should be that I should be mad, not her... Perhaps she's upset that I'm choosing not to get upset over what is really trivial in the grand scheme of things...

All that aside, I still don't know, and at the rate at which the communication is going, I may never know.

I've tried to talk about it a couple of times, but it only seems to fuel the flames.

What is a conservative?

I ripped on Glenn Beck a few weeks ago. Today he gave the following definition on his radio show...

To be a conservative is, in my definition, is somebody that believes in the power of the individual, somebody that believes, please let me make my decisions, that I have a right to succeed and not be penalized for it. I have a right to fail and have no one run to me if I don't want them to run to me. A conservative believes I have a right to manage my family, I have a right to discipline my family in the way I see fit, as long as it is not criminal. A conservative believes I have the right to worship God, I have a right to worship the God of my understanding, and I do not have the right to jam my version of God down anybody else's throat or my version of no God down anybody's throat. A conservative believes live and let live. That's what a conservative believes. A conservative believes in the smallest amount of government, the smallest government you can get without anarchy. That's what a conservative believes.

I'm not sure if he actually believes that, or if there is a mainstream political party that sticks to that definition either - There is the libertarian party... But I have to give him credit for an excellent definition.

1 quick step to hypocricy...

I'm not sure I know anyone who isn't a hypocrite in one way or another... I may be one of the worst, but I've noticed that there does seem to be one foolproof way to really make your mark as a hypocrite.

I had an incident a month or 2 back at church, where a specific leader called me on a wee mistake I made. His excuse was that he is "By the book", interestingly enough since that time, numerous incidents involving other things prohibited by "The Book" have occured and have all been ignored. Hmmmmmmm...

Last night on TV, they interviewd Larry Miller. He's the owner of the Utah Jazz, the local NBA Basketball team. They are currently involved in an important playoff series against the LA Lakers. It's been fun to watch, but I couldn't help but laugh as I watched the interview.

The first point raised was that Larry had chosen not too watch the game, due to religious reasons. That's a matter of personal choice, and while I have no problem watching the tube on Sunday, Mr Miller has opted to choose otherwise. Interestingly enough though...

He did listen to the last few minutes of the game on the radio.
He then watched the post game highlights on TV.
He was given all the stats for the game so that he could review them.
He then watched more highlights in the studio and commented on them.

Like I said, the choice is up to the individual, but don't go making statements about how you don't do something because of your religious beliefs and then pretty much do it anyway. I'm not critsizing Mr. Miller, but I did get a laugh out of looking at the ridiculousness of the situation.

I guess when it comes down to it, anytime you make sweeping statements about your life, or make a statement where you claim to be better than someone else, people are going to pay more attention to you, and that's when you really look like a hypocrite.

The Weekend Report...

Twas a good weekend thats for sure. The highlight of which was that a huge regional meeting was planned for Church on Sunday, and the prospect of sitting in a hot room with 4 whiny kids, while some guy drones on about keeping the rules and how God will smite me if I don't just didn't seem appealing to me - Can't think why... Anyway, so we took a break.

Saturday I woke up early and went to watch a buddy of mine do a duathlon. It was out on Antelope Island, and I think I may have gotten bit by something during the race because my head is covered in little itchy bumps. Anyway, he did OK in the race, especially since it was his first time attempting a longer distance. He's posted a full report on his blog, and I think he's even added a link to some photos too.... It's here.

Sunday was spent installing some new light fittings, installing panelling and hanging new blinds. We also started watching The Golden Compass. You may recall the sad saga of my wanting to see this in the theatres, but at least now I have the DVD. I still haven't finished it, but I think they did an amazing job. The story is shortened, and they have eliminated some characters, but I think that was purely out of necessity. I would highly recommend both the book and the movie though, as both are excellent in their own ways.

Monetary Solution...

OK, I swear I'll get something funny on here in the next day or two...

In the meantime, if you're concerned about the ecomony, I tend to like this guys take on it. Now while I think most of my readers lean left, and will likely not agree with this, I think it might still be worth a read.

It's by Frank Stahelli, and it's here

Media Whores

Typically I wouldn't be posting this here, but I think it's important to share - at least that's my opinion. I have another blog which doesn't have many readers, if any, and that is typcially the place I put my rants about sensitive topics.

I've blogged about the polygamist situation a couple of times in the last week. This continues that saga. Before I discuss the reason behind the title, I just want to clarify my position on the situation again...

Arranged marriages to underage girls by old men is sick, perverted and wrong.
Incest is wrong.
Brainwashing is wrong (although I suspect that anyone with kids could be found guilty of this, just by virtue of different belief systems.

My understanding of the polygamous nature of the FLDS Church, is that previous to the current leader (Warren Jeffs - currently serving time as an accessory to rape) they had a strict policy of marriage only to girls who had reached the age of 18. This was changed under Warren Jeffs to include girls as young as 14. I would suspect that even though that change was made, many of the families may not actually practice this. With that said, there are definitely cases where older men have married underage girls, and often where the marriage constitutes an incestuous relationship. Cases like this should be prosecuted, but on a case by case basis, not the way in which they are currently doing this.

So last night I was catching up on some exercise and decided to watch the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I like Jay, especially his monologue based on current events. Last night he seemed to have a theme through out the monologue, in which he kept returning to the Polygamist situation. I'll admit I laughed at some of the jokes, as they were pretty clever, but at the same time, every topic seemed to wind back to the FLDS situation.

His first guest was Dr. Phil. Dr. Phil was not there to be interviewed. He was there to discuss the FLDS situation, and by discuss I mean, present a lecture to America about it, under the guise of an interview.

Let's look at Dr. Phil. He lost some credibility a month or two back with a situation where a couple of girls lured another teenage girl into a house and then video taped themselves beating her. The girls involved are currently in jail. Dr. Phil's show tried to bail one of the girls out in order to have her on the show. There was a pretty big outcry over it, and they backed off. Last night he made it sound like they just didn't want to do the story any more. Sorry Phil, I'm not buying that one.... I call him Phil since he is also no longer licensed as a shrink, or whatever it is that he claims to be.

Phil also spoke a lot about Mark Shurtleff. Mark is the Attorney General for Utah. He was the AG who originally went after Warren Jeffs on the rape charges, and rightfully so. Unfortunately I lost most of my respect for him a few months ago, when a local TV station did an Expose on Political Corruption. I don't like the lady who does the expose type reports, but Mark did himself no favors in the interview. He got really defensive when she asked him about some tickets to a sold out Rolling Stones concert that he had been giving by a Mortgage group. He said that he had taken his daughter and they had left after 3 songs. He claimed that there was nothing wrong with accepting the tickets as a gift. The Mortgage group was being investigated at the time, and has since been charged for a bunch of stuff. Mark's defense is that the tickets were a gift and didn't affect his decision to charge the company in Utah as well. He forgot to mention that Utah only did this several months after all the other states involved.

Like I said before Phil wasn't there for an interview. He was there to make a statement. The problem with his statement is that he made broad generalizations that all the polygamists are perverts and despicable creatures. He wholeheartedly supports the government intervention and planned eradication of this religion. About the only thing I actually agreed with was that putting these kids in foster care was a bad idea, but as for the rest of his little speech, it only displayed prejudice towards a very different religious group, and complete disrespect for the rule of law.

Our constitution has been violated on many levels with this illegal action by the state of Texas, unfortunately Jay Leno, Dr. Phil and the majority of the whores in the media seem to have missed that.

Polygamist Raid

The situation in Texas is troubling me more and more each day. My wife and I are discussing ways in which we can do something to help this situation.

I did not do the story justice the other day. This morning I read some coverage of the situation that appears to capture a lot of that which has happened. It is a tail of government intervention gone awry, religious persecution, unlawful search and siezure and many other unconstitutional acts.

I became a US Citizen less than 6 months ago. This is not the America that I wanted to align myself with.

The story is here.

Zimbabwe and Free Will

As you may know, while I grew up in South Africa, I was originally born in Zimbabwe, although it was called Rhodesia at the time. Zimbabwe has been in trouble for a number of years now, and it continues to get worse. Inflation is around 15,000% (Last time I checked at least), unemployment is off the charts and basic food and other needs are in short supply.

The leader, one Robert Mugabe is a dictator and grows increasingly corrupt. Finally it appears that the opposition party may have won the elections this year, but...

Mr. Mugabe claims that he will not release the election results until he knows they are accurate. It's been a month, and he is still asking for recounts. Meanwhile, he has threatened to charge anyone who claims that the opposition has won with treason. He claims it is an attempt to start a coup.

As this has been going on, a shipment of arms (3 million rounds and a ton of RPGs) was shipped from Chine to the South African Port of Durban. The president of South Africa, Mr. Mbeki has said that they cannot prevent the arms from being delivered.

Mr. Mbeki is in a precarious position... He is the only world leader who is still on speaking terms with Mr Mugabe, and such, should hopefully be able to persuade the man that his time is up, but he doesn't seem willing to do this. It's a situation I'm glad that I am not in.

This morning however, I heard that the dock workers union in South Africa has refused to unload the arms!

It's always good when the free will of the people trumps the incompetence of government. I think it's just a matter of time, before the free will of the people takes care of the rest of the problem.

KGB, Big Brother, Orwellian etc.

I know that typically, I don't get a good response when I write serious stuff, but I feel pretty strongly about this...

If you don't know about what has been happening in Texas the last few weeks, let me fill you in. The FLDS Church, a break off from the LDS or Mormon Church, has a ranch in Texas, where they live. One of the key parts of the FLDS Church is that they practice polygamy. Technically this practice is against the law, but it is typically regarded as a act of civil disobedience and not much else. The problems enter when the brides are young girls as young as 14 or 15 and they are married to me, many times older than them. While my understanding is that this is the exception to the rule, it does happen.

The current leader of this Church is Warren Jeffs, a man now serving time for being an accompliss to rape in the marriage of a very young girl to a much older man.

Please understand that I do not agree with this practice, and that I think that Warren Jeffs is a desipicable person for doing what he did. But incidents such as thing are the exception rather than the rule.

Several weeks ago, the Police in Texas received a call from a girl who claimed to be living in the Ranch. She claimed that she was routinely beaten by her husband, while one of his other wives held her baby. Allegedly her name is Sarah.

There are a number of problems with the story being told by the media. I'll skip most of them as the whole thing turns out to be false. Sarah was a woman living in Utah or Arizona, and has never been to Texas. The man she accused of the abuse has never been to the Texas ranch, and her name isn't even Sarah. You would think with the invention of caller id, that police would have figured this out early in, but instead they did the following:

They mounted a raid into the ranch to find Sarah. In the process of looking for Sarah, they removed multiple woman and children from the ranch. Overnight the raid grew from a mission to find Sarah to a full blown search of the entire facility.

Sarah was never found, which is to be expected since she didn't actually exist.

The premise for removal of the woman and children is that they are in danger of abuse. The abuse problem is with young teenage girls who are married to older men. But authorities saw fit to extract any child, even infants still nursing from their mothers. I believe the number of children is 437.

The explanation now given is that while Sarah is not real, she is a metaphor for all the abuse which has been happening. So apparently in Texas you can be arrested based on a metaphor. That's pretty scary.

Mothers have now been separated from their children and are under constant watch. Children have been placed into the foster care system. The foster system is riddled with drug abuse and other abuse. This is too protect the children - keep them away from their culture and traditions and subject them to dregs of American Society - no doubt someone will get an award for that stroke of genius.

I could go on and on, but what this boils down to is a gross use of power by the Texas authorities. While the FLDS no doubt has some problems, so does every other community in the United States or the world for that matter. They may be different, but I would suspect that an FLDS home is generally a place of love and caring for children. What the Texas authorities have done is DEAD WRONG.

I'm not generally a proponent of law suits, but this is one case where something needs to be done. Unfortunately since many regard polygamists as wierd and different, I suspect few will be rushing to their aid.

If this goes through without too much trouble, how long will it be before they come after you?

Glenn Beck and my Leg

Maybe I'll start with my leg... You may recall that 2 weeks ago, I screwed up my knee and went in to see the doctor about it. It turned out to be IBS, which just needed a little rest. I've taken it easy for 2 weeks, and done 90% of what they've told me too - I missed a little stretching here and there, and some of the Ibuprofen doses as well.

He told me to take 1 week off. I almost did 2, just to be sure. Saturday I went down to St. George for a triathlon. I had a phenomenal swim, and excellent bike section, but as I ran my bike in, and started my run, things went awry. At first it was just that I forgot to remove my bike helmet - DOH!!, but then it became apparent that my leg is truly messed up. I got my worst 5k time of the last year, mostly because I walked half of it.

When I was done, I did get my best Sprint Triathlon time ever, but it was a lot slower than I had hoped. My moping only served to annoy the missus too.

Saturday was OK, Sunday was a little stiff, and today I'm back to where I was when I saw the doctor. I'm going to give it a week, and if that doesn't work, I'm going to see if I can talk the doc into a cortizone shot. 4 weeks till the half marathon, and I can't even jog for more than a couple of seconds. This is not looking good.

Now onto Mr. Beck. I used to listen to him, he's conservative, but I then I used to be as well. I really like his honest and often humorous approach to current events, so much so that last year I subscribed to his magazine and even bought a T-shirt promoting his radio station - The Frog 109.9. (If you want to send me a comment explaining how that last thing mist be wrong, because you miss the fact that it's a joke, you should probably be reading a different blog....)

He used to share how some years back his show got very political and his ratings actually dropped, once he got back to humorous stuff however, then his ratings went up again.

I haven't listened to him for almost a year now, and here's why... You'd think he'd have learned from the past.

* With election 2008 approaching, he has decided that Barrack Obama is the anti-Christ.

* He criticizes the Democratic party for vilifying republicans (Apparently anti-Christ is actually a term of endearment?)

Edited to add: It would appear that Glenn may not have referred to Barrack Obama as the Anti-Christ. I deleted the email where I got the impression that he had, so I cannot prove it one way or the other. The fact that it did not surprize me that he may have referred to him in that way, does say something for the way in which he portrays candidates who do not agree with him.

* He didn't like Jon McCain because he wasn't conservative enough, but when given the opportunity to even speak to Ron Paul, he attacked the man about as badly as he's attacking Obama. Ron Paul is probably 90% inline with what I thought Glenn believed - apparently not though.

* He now appears to love Jon McCain. He did this same switch-a-roo with Romney. Glenn is a mormon, Romney is a mormon. I didn't like Romney in spite of his being a mormon. Glenn said he wouldn't back him just for that reason, but yet, after being invited to Romney's big, I'm a mormon speech, Glenn fell in love with him...

I could go on for hours, but I'll spare you that. I think Glenn has lost touch with his audience, at least with me. I liked funny honest Glenn, not grouchy, tow the party line Glenn.

Edited to add as well: I took some flak for the comment above. Apparently some bloggers feel that I need to source any claims made in my blog - Hey, my opinion, my blog and you are free to disagree!! While Mr. Beck does not claim to be a Republican, or back up the President in everything, I do feel that he feels beholden to some of the ideologies of the Republican Party. This is my opinion. I formed it while listening to Glenn for many years, and then listening to him discuss Ron Paul, a man who I felt was 90% in line with Glenn, and not give him any support at all. Again this is my opinion of Mr. Beck based on my impressions over time.

Glenn doesn't like Jesse Ventura either. Jesse Ventura who is not a career politician, who get borders security and who was a Navy Seal, but suspects that all may not be right with the current war mongering administration. I think I trust his judgement more than I would most other people. Here's a man who life depending on his instincts and doesn't spew fear everywhere. He and Glenn probably agree on 90% of policies too, but rather than back him, Glenn gets upset, and so now America gets to choose between war mongering Jon "the Flip flopping geriatric" McCain, Barrack "I like him, but he's a little too Marxist for me" Obama, and Hillary "Whiny and ineffective" Clinton.

Is it really a choice when you can only pick amongst the bad?

Oh - and if anyone would like to be a guest blogger and write up a piece on why any of these guys or girls would be a good choice, I'd be happy to have you! The only rules being, honesty and a little humor.