Jan

31

Conservatives and our funny voting

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I don’t get much news anymore, and it’s almost refreshing, especially during an election year.

I have noticed a lot of rumbling about McCain recently. Of course, someone (actually many someones) have questioned his conservative principles. This almost makes me laugh. American’s don’t have a clue what conservatism is anymore. Republicans are not conservatives. At best, they are mid-stream. They look conservative because the other major option is super liberal.

The fact that so many Republicans are libertarian should suggest that American political “conservatism” is not the same thing as philosophic conservatism (ala Burke, Eliot, Weaver). In fact, both major parties are libertarian in some places and authoritarian in others. In America, we debate what should be controlled, not whether we should control. Republicans want to outlaw various social evils (most of them are genuine evils). Democrats want to outlaw other evils (e.g. “hate speech” and “intolerance”). But extreme libertarianism exists in both parties. Curious.

When it comes to picking a political candidate, I think we look at the wrong things too much. We worry about issues and where various candidates stand. Many Christians are willing to make things like abortion supremely important1. If so-and-so doesn’t agree, they don’t get the vote. I think we give the politicians too much credit when we do this. We assume that they will never change their minds, completely fulfill their promises, and manage to not mess everything else up while upholding the “one issue.”

We don’t pick people for their leadership ability anymore. We choose delegates–people who we think agree with us on the important issues. This is the height of the American democratic spirit, and it could destroy our country. We think we live in a democracy. We don’t. It’s a republic. Without getting too far into the subtleties of the difference, the key here is that in a republic, we choose representatives. We confer upon other men the right to make decisions for us. We trust them to make good decisions, even if we disagree. If they blow it, we vote them out in a few years. Politicians live and die on the media and the polls. We profess to hate this, but actually we encourage it by expecting them to decide the way we do, even when they have more and better information. We would be better served to learn the difference between good and bad leadership and character, and ignore all the little intricacies of the candidates’ policies.

Ok. Rant over. But I am serious. It’s a small wonder that we get any good leaders. We don’t seem to care much.


  1. I think Bob Bixby had an article on this some time ago, but I can’t find it now. Paul Matzko has a different sort of take on McCain. back↩

Jan

25

Second Semester of Graduate School

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I am thankful to be in school this semester after some uncertainty regarding finances. When we moved to Virginia we had enough money saved up for my entire year of schooling. However, because Andrew couldn’t find a job for so long we had to use that money to pay expenses. In October we began the process of finding out if I was eligible for financial aid. After many delays and problems I found out I was eligible for the Stafford Loan. We received this news only a few days before school began! (I noticed a pamphlet in the Financial Aid office that made me laugh. It said something to the effect of “Apply for Financial Aid is as easy as 1-2-3.”)

I am almost done with two weeks of school. Trying to get back in the school mode is going slowly. Last Thursday school was cancelled because of snow. This past Monday there was no school because of the MLK holiday.

I am taking 13 credits again this semester. My undergraduate classes are Introduction to Audiology and Speech-Language Disorders: Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention. This later class is 4 credits and is supposed to teach me everything I know about therapy. The graduate students all speak highly of the class. My graduate classes are Motor Speech Disorders and Language Disorders in Children and Adolescents. I wanted to take another class, but my other two grad class options were offered at the same time my big undergraduate class is offered. As it is, I miss that class one day a week to attend Language Disorders. The chair of the department allowed me to do this in part because of my high grades last semester (all A’s!).

I am continuing my GA position for one of my teachers. She has 4 independent study students that she has turned over to me. I am responsible for them. My teacher keeps talking about how I am such a good writer and that she hopes I can help these students improve their writing. I requested a second GA position, and yesterday I found out one was available. I began training today as a worker in the Harvey Center. The Harvey Center is a small library in the building I am in all day. Things are run pretty similarly to the BJ library where I worked 5 summers. I work 10 hours a week there.

Andrew is still working his temporary job. They have downsized the group from 30 to 7. He is one of the faster workers, so the supervisor told him he could stay as long as he wanted. The job will probably continue several more months. There still aren’t many options for jobs around here. He is considering going to school full-time next year if he doesn’t get a better job by the fall. This way we can hurry up, graduate, and get out of the area. And of course once I’m done I’m pretty much guaranteed a job. Pray that we have wisdom in this decision.

Jan

12

Where’s the editor?

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I was reading a book last night and found an ambiguous phrase. Andrew and I had a good laugh over it.

“her blond hair fell from a simple knot halfway down her back”

Possible interpretations
1. Her hair was in a ponytail and middle-of-the-back in length.
2. She had really long hair and around the middle of her back she tied a knot in it.
3. She didn’t have any hair on her head. Instead, this poor girl has a knot in the middle of her back that has hair growing out of it.

Jan

9

New gallery

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There are new pictures in the Gallery from Christmas and the days surrounding it.

Jan

7

Christmas Vacation

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These last two weeks have been busy for me. Andrew and I were able to go to Greenville for Christmas. We drove down Friday, December 21 when Andrew was done with work. Christmas day was divided up between our two families. We had breakfast with mine, and then we went to his parents’ house to open presents. We ate lunch in the dinning common with both families, and then we went to my parents’ house in the afternoon to open presents. Andrew left the day after Christmas to go back home. Since I didn’t have work or school I went to Michigan with my family.

We headed to Michigan on Thursday and enjoyed a week visiting all my extended family on my mom’s side except for one cousin. We had Christmas together that weekend. The rest of the week was spent eating and visiting. Sunday night (I think) we got about 4 inches of snow. Monday night (New Years Eve) we got more snow. The snow was supposed to end by midmorning Tuesday. Well, Tuesday morning the sun came out a tiny bit, and then it started snowing around lunchtime and didn’t stop until sometime in the night. We took a walk Tuesday night in the snow. We were supposed to head back to Greenville on Wednesday, but because of our snow and the snow being called for most of the way back to Greenville we decided to stay an extra day. Wednesday was beautiful. The sky was clear and the snow was so pretty. We had over 8 inches of snow. Unfortunately it was very dry and wouldn’t pack at all. When we left Thursday morning it was 4 degrees.

We went back to Greenville, but only for the night. My cousin Kyle Bowman (on my dad’s side of the family) was getting married that weekend. We did lots of laundry and repacked Thursday night so we could leave Friday. We took my grandparents with us, so we had seven packed in the van. Thankfully the wedding was only five hours away in Lynchburg, VA. Andrew drove over to Lynchburg that night, so we were able to be together again after a little more than a week apart. That night Grandpa took 17 of us out to dinner. We were quite a group.

The wedding was at 1pm Saturday. It was a nice wedding. That night for supper we were invited over to the Bowman’s house. We had thirty people there. We don’t get to see the Bowman’s much, so we enjoyed our time there. All of the extended family came to the wedding except for one cousin.

We all left Sunday. Andrew and I only had 1 ½ hours to travel, so we were in no hurry. We drove through the historic downtown and then went to a historic cemetery that had confederate graves, a pest house, and a display with a horse-drawn hearse and information on making tombstones. It was a neat place.

It has struck me lately how unusual my family is. We are close to my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins on both sides of the family. When we get together after being apart for 6 months to a year, it feels like we were never apart. Everyone professes to be a Christian, and we all get along well with each other. I don’t think many people can say that about both sides of their family. I’m very thankful that God has allowed us to be so close and spend so much time together.