Well, this must be a bad day for Obama's PR people (or Democrats in general). First, this morning, the Washington Compost,er, Post, released a poll that said that for the first time since he was elected, the approval for Obama's handling of the health care system has fallen below the "healthy" mark of 50%. Another poll, this one by CBS, says that Obama's approval ratins have dropped 6 points in the last month. Next up, the Feds are now estimating that Obama's efforts to correct the economy could cost as much as twenty three TRILLION dollars. That is double the nation's total economic output a year. Tax and Spend Democrat, anyone? Next up is that Democrats are planning to oppose an amendment by John Thune that will allow CHL holders to carry in other states that also have CHL. Guns are a topic that moderate Dems don't want to have to touch, so this could mean trouble. As a final problem for the day, Obama is delaying the release of the mid-session budget info, fueling speculation that he is trying to do that, since the numbers are not expected to be good. So, I think that just about covers it. Not the kind of day I would want to deal with...

Minor(ish) Candidates

Debra Medina:
I must admit, I had never heard of Debra Medina until someone commented on a post of mine, and told me to check her out. So, I did. Unfortunately, I could not find out too much about her, but what I did was this. She is from Beeville Texas, with two children. Her education includes a Nursing Degree from Baptist Memorial Hospital System, and a Bachelor of Science and Business Management from Le Tourneau University. Apparently she is currently the President/CEO of Prudentia, a medical claims management firm. She is the chairwoman of the Wharton County Republican Party. As far as I can tell, she has never held office. Reading the "issues" section of her website, she sounds like pretty typical Republican fare. That is until I read two things, first she wants Texans to use ballot initiative to force Republican candidates to support, or at least not harm, the Republican platform. The second is that she was the state director for Ron Paul's Campaign for Liberty. Now, I have this thing against Ron Paul since he and his supporters usually come across as moonbats. And before the election, I would have supported the ballot initiative idea, but I saw that the Democrats have a winning idea with allowing people to adjust to their districts, to be able to take the other party's turf. So, that is two strikes against her, in my book. However, it is still to far away from the election to pass judgement, so I will wait, and learn more about her before I decide who I am gonna support.

Larry Kilgore:
You can sum Larry Kilgore up in two words: Texas Seccession. I do believe that is enough to say about him, but I will give you his background regardless. He is from Amarrillo. He served in the USAF from 1984-88. He has run for a variety of offices, from congress (in CO) to US Senate against John Cornyn, but has never won. Here is a complete list:

• Colorado Republican Primary HD40 1994
• Colorado Republican Primary HD40 1996
• Colorado Constitution Party General Election HD40 1998
• Texas Republican Primary HD93 2004
• Texas Republican Primary Governor 2006
• Texas Republican Primary US Senate 2008
• Texas Republican Primary Governor 2010

It is not to early to make a call about Kilgore: no. While I respect that he is very religious, seccession is absolutely the wrong course of action to take, at the moment.

Kinky Friedman:
How could it be a race for Gov without him? Well, he is running again, this time around trying to get the Democratic nomination. Kinky was born in 1944, and was a singer/comedian, as well as a novelist, and a columnist for Texas Monthly. He gained notoriety for his 2006 campaign for Governor, featuring the themes of "How Hard Could It Be?" and "Why The Hell Not?" He gained 12.6% of the vote, to come in fourth. He has also run (1986) for Justice of the Peace in Kerrville, but, predictably, lost. As I said, he will be running as a Democrat, which is good, since many of his ideas are more towards the Democratic side. He is pro-choice, anti-death penalty, and pro-gay marriage. And being a joke, he should be a perfect fit over there.

Ah, Britain

I am in Oxford, England, studying bio-ethics. Slightly ironic, but two major bioethical things have been announced today, here. First, the House of Lords (equivalent to our Senate) has voted down a bill that would allow citizens and doctors to go abroad for physician assisted suicide. The other issue is that scientists now claim to have made artificial sperm. So, one more step towards being able to create life on our own...

Biden Single-Handedly Drives Stock Market Down

Here is a story from the Forbes that Vice President Biden literally drove down the stock market by his comments about the economy, alone. Enjoy.

The (Future) Republican Comeback....Otherwise known as the "If you can't keep it in your pants, don't run as a Republican!" Plan

Well, I know I am a little late to start chiming in on this, but I have been sitting here steaming about what has been going on with Republicans lately. First, Senator John Ensign had an affair. Less than 2 weeks later, Mark Sanford, another up-and-comer admitted to an affair. This is not the way to have things happen when the party is already out, and trying to stage a comeback. Now, I understand the urges a man gets, after all I am one. However, what these folks need is a good dose of discipline. Ooooor, if you want to have an affair and still be a FISCAL conservative, go be a Libertarian! After all, a trademark of the Republicans is supposed to be family values, but we can't hang on to that and our hypocritical members at the same time. So folks, get your act together!

Christians and Politics: Part 1

I am going to preface my discussion by stating that I am a Christian, and that I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God. This influences how I look at everything in my life. This post will be about how I got to this point (I guess this should actually be the intro, but it is too late for that). Growing up, I was in a very political family. There was never any question about whether or not Christians should be in politics. In fact, when I was 10, I remember reading a book titled The Political Christian.

I have just finished my first year at Criswell Bible College in Dallas. My brother attended there, and talked me into going there for a year to figure out if I was really a Christian, or if it was just because my parents were Christians. After that I planned on transferring to UT for pre-law, and intended on getting in to politics after I finished my law degree. However, Criswell changed all that. For the first time, I have been faced by people who have spent their entire adult lives studying what they are teaching, who are so good that they can read the Bible straight from the original languages, translating on the fly. And these professors presented the Bible in a different way than I had ever heard before. All of a sudden the Bible was not a disconnected set of principles that could be used to fuss at gays.

Through these profs, I came to a correct view on ecclesiology, which is just a five dollar word for: "What the church is supposed to be". I discovered that the church, when done correctly, is very geo-political, and that it is to be a standalone society. The church should offer an alternate way to view the world. We are supposed to be differnent in almost every way, from our way of persuasion, to our care of other people. Now, obviously this is not the way the church actually is, but I am dealing with how is SHOULD be, not how it currently is. The main conflict with politics is that the political system is based on power which they obtain through manipulation, force, deception, etc. The Christian obtains power through weakness. Christ was led to the cross like a lamb. He told us to not try to fight those who hurt us. That is weakness. This is the problem that any Christian would have to deal with in order to be in politics. How do I be in the system, and yet not work it the way everyone else does?

The next few posts will be expounding this further, as well as dealing with a few individual issues that would be affected by Christians' involvement or non-involvement in politics.

Christians in Politics-Introduction

Well, I have finished another semester. I took 21 hours this semester, which is why I have not had time to write. However, life is slowing down now, and there is a topic that I am going to start exploring. This topic is the relationship between Christians and politics. What is the role that Christians should play in politics? Is being involved in politics really the best way to change things? Is being in politics even biblical? These are the questions that I am going to start answering over the next few posts.