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Mike Huckabee scares the hell out of me. People ACTUALLY like this guy? You thought Bush was bad? What do you think would happen if this guy gets elected? His latest stunt is stating the constitution needs to be amended to fit the “so it’s in God’s standards”. For Huckabee to claim that we need to “fix” the Constitution to bring it in line with “God’s view” shows an incredible ignorance and hubris. What vision of God’s is that? Baptist? Catholic? Mormon? Jewish? Muslim? Seriously, who the hell would vote for this jackass.Doesn’t this incompetent fool realize that this country was NOT in any way founded by Christians, and that most of the founding fathers were deists if anything?

The Treaty of Tripoli states:

“As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion“

Directly quoted from the constitution:

“Congress shall make NO law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Now just to get this out there, I have no problem with religion. Everybody is entitled to their own beliefs, and they will be respected. Huckabee no doubt though would try his hardest to shove Christianity down all of our throats.

He’s covered up his son’s hanging, torturing, and murdering of a stray dog. If he can’t raise his own son, how the hell is he supposed to lead the country? Anybody who is capable of torturing a dog is sick in the head.

Let’s also not forget about how he aggressively pushed for the early release of a convicted rapist despite being warned by numerous women that the convict had sexually assaulted them or their family members, and would likely strike again. The convict went on to rape and murder at least one other woman.

Huckabee:

“The Ten Commandments form the basis of most of our laws and therefore, you know if you look through them does anybody find anything there that would be all that objectionable? I don’t think most people would if they actually read them,” he said.

REALLY !!?? From scienceblogs.com

Utter nonsense. I can’t see how anyone who has actually read them could possibly think that they are the basis of “most of our laws. Of the ten commandments, only two would even be constitutional in the United States, with a third being constitutional in limited circumstances. The other 7 could not possibly be the basis for any law because they would be clearly unconstitutional. Let’s take a look at them one by one:

1. Thou shall have no other Gods before me.

Blatantly unconstitutional. The free exercise clause of the first amendment guarantees that we each have the right to follow any God and any religious belief system we wish.

2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.

Also unconstitutional on free exercise grounds. Americans can make any graven image they wish to make, and bow down to whatever god or idol they wish.

3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain

Unconstitutional on both freedom of religion and free speech grounds.

4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy

Again, unconstitutional on free exercise grounds.

5. Honour thy father and thy mother

A good idea, in most cases, but a law requiring it would be unconstitutional and outside the purview of government. You can’t legally enforce an individual’s feelings toward their parents.

6. Thou shalt not kill

This one is obviously constitutional, and is a part of our legal system. But it’s also found in EVERY legal system, even those that have nothing to do with the bible or Christianity. No society can condone murder of each other and survive, so this is simply a survival imperative.

7. Thou shalt not commit adultery

Another one that is a good idea, but not constitutional if legally enforced. Adultery is a moral wrong, but it’s a private matter between individuals.

8. Thou shalt not steal

This is the second one that is obviously constitutional, but also found in every legal system regardless of the religious system that may have initially spawned it. A universal imperative that would be part of the law even if the bible never existed.

9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbourSome have interpreted this to be analagous to our perjury laws, but nothing in the text indicates that. It’s talking about lying in general, not in a legal sense during court proceedings. And while lying may be wrong, it’s not legally wrong except in specific circumstances - perjury and libel/slander. Under our system, most instances of lying would be covered by the first amendment free speech clause.

10. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour’s

Not only unconstitutional, it would require the ability to read minds. If coveting what your neighbor has was against the law in the US, there would be no “keeping up with the Joneses”. You cannot, under our system, legislate against thoughts or feelings.The “basis of most of our laws”? Not even close.

More:

• He used state money to promote a creationist museum.
• He wants the 10 commandments in the white house.
• He equates environmentalism with pornography, homosexuality with necrophilia, and nonbelievers with evildoers.
• Thinks women’s role in marriage is to “graciously submit”.
• Thinks gay marriage will END civilization.

Here’s Huckabee’s track record on education:

“During Huckabee’s tenure as Governor, evolution education in Arkansas languished in an environment of general hostility and insufficiency. Two anti-evolution bills were introduced in the state’s House of Representatives; textbooks in the Beebe, Arkansas public high school carried disclaimer stickers denigrating evolution; the state’s science curriculum earned a grade of “D” overall and an abysmal “zero” for its treatment of evolution; a creationist “museum” enjoyed state-funded advertising; and evolution was systematically and broadly squeezed out of schools and other educational institutions across the state. Huckabee did nothing to deter any of this – in fact, some of his public statements might indicate his tacit support. “

How Huckabee has this much support baffles me.

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• macbook pro: check
• iPod nano: check
• iPhone: on the wish-list

I’ve been on a mac pretty much exclusively the last 3 months or so, since I’ve started working at IZEA. I was supplied with a kickass MacBook Pro, and I love it. It just blows the old Dell I had away. It feels so solid, it flies, and the touchpad is perfect(I struggled with the Dell’s touchpad and it was a constant source of frustration). Up until this point I’ve always been a windows guy, and still have no complaints about Windows. It got the job done. I have a desktop that is still running Windows, and Visual Studio kicks ass although it’s a beast on resources.

I got a iPod Nano 8GB for x-mass(thanks mom!), and that kicks ass as well. About time I finally got an iPod. I think I was the last person out of everybody I know to get one. My main use for it is working out; Putting on some heavy rock just gets me in the mindset to attack the weights. I workout at LA Fitness, and the crap techno remixes of lame pop songs they blare is just shit. No wonder everybody that works out there brings their own source of music.

A good number of my co-workers have an iPhone. I’ve always held the opinion of just give me a simple phone that calls people and I’d be happy, but the web browser and gorgeous interface of the iPhone are very appealing. The iPhone SDK is set to be released in February so I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot of kick ass 3rd party applications out soon after that also. I could go on and on about what makes the iPhone so cool but I’m sure you have already heard it all before. Unfortunately I’m currently locked into Verizon for another 8 months. When my contract is up, or my current phone dies I think I’ll definitely be picking one up, after which I’ll be a full blown mac nerd.

Sorry there’s none of us surfing. Nobody wants to stand on the beach and take pictures when there is good surf to be had.

Click here for all of the pictures

What a loon!!!

From thinkprogress.com http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/04/coulter-gardner/

Earlier this week, Ann Coulter told The New York Observer that she believes women shouldn’t have the right to vote:

If we took away women’s right to vote, we’d never have to worry about another Democrat president. It’s kind of a pipe dream, it’s a personal fantasy of mine, but I don’t think it’s going to happen. And it is a good way of making the point that women are voting so stupidly, at least single women.

It also makes the point, it is kind of embarrassing, the Democratic Party ought to be hanging its head in shame, that it has so much difficulty getting men to vote for it. I mean, you do see it’s the party of women and “We’ll pay for health care and tuition and day care and here, what else can we give you, soccer moms?”

Sigh. Where to begin?

If we were to subscribe to Ms. Coulter’s theory “that single women be left out of the political process ” and further assume that given the leading GOP presidential candidates decision to skip Hispanic and African American forums, those Americans be left out as well, we could very well believe that conservatives want the elections decided by married white men.

Let’s hope that’s not true.

The fact is that anyone seeking elected office ignores unmarried Americans at their peril. With each passing year, America is becoming more unmarried. One in four voters is a single woman. It is the marriage gap ” not the gender gap or income gap ” that will decide the 2008 election.

Fifty percent of all households are now headed by an unmarried person; single women comprise most of them. And whatever predispositions anyone had about who single Americans, they are not what they used to be. They are separated, divorced, widowed and now make up the majority of women. 50 million total.

And while a clear majority of unmarrieds are white, they are considerably more racially diverse than married adults. More than a quarter of unmarried Americans are Latino or African-American. These 50 million Americans ” who are more likely not to have health care, are economically stressed, and are solely responsible for their child’s care ” have more at stake in this election than their married counterparts.

Ms. Coulter may be a provocateur but a political strategist she is not.

After graduation I got the chance to spend a month in Costa Rica on a month long surf trip, and damn it flew by. It was my 6th time in the country, and every time I go down there I have more fun.
I went down there with 2 of my good friends, Robbie and Paul. We started out the first week in Hermosa, and got a room at our favorite hotel down there, Outback Hermosa. The first couple of days were relatively small(chest high or so), but by the 4th day a huge south swell came in, so we had the opportunity to surf Caldera, and Boca Borranca a couple times each.

We headed to Dominical for a few days after that but we weren’t digging the place too much so we headed up to Nosara, where we spent another week surfing 6-8 foot waves with some occasional 10 foot faces rolling in. Definitely a lot gentler and mellower wave than Hermosa but still had some punch especially at low tide. Long paddle outs! The hotel we were staying at, Casa Romantica, was awesome. I definitely recommend it, especially to somebody who is taking a girlfriend/wife.

Our next stop was Tamarindo, where we spent our 1st and 3rd times in Costa Rica. We didn’t ever surf the Tamarindo river mouth, as it is not exposed to the south swells that Costa Rica picks up in the summer, but staying there did put us 20 minutes away from Playa Grande, which is one of the most consistent breaks in the country. It only breaks at a mid to high tide, and will go from waist high mush at low to firing head high on a mid incoming tide. We surfed Grande for three days, the third day being the best and the least crowded. I had head high peaks all to myself for 3 hours - awesome!

After our 3rd day of surfing at Grande, we discovered the maid where we were staying, Hotel Milagro, had jacked about $30-40 from each of our wallets. We dipped out immediately and headed back to Hermosa, where we spent the last 10 days of the trip.

We got back to Outback Hermosa, and got the top room of the place, which was super spacious, and had a great view of the beach. It’s definitely nice being able to pop your head out the room to check the surf at 5am. The waves the last 10 days of the trip were definitely the best of the whole trip.

My surfing definitely improved drastically over the trip, especially going backside. I’m able to pull some hard carves, cutbacks, hit the lip, throw a little spray, and even pulled a backside floater one of the last days of the trip.
When we weren’t surfing we were playing poker. We must have played about 100 games throughout the whole trip, using the Costa Rican currency(Colones) as our poker chips. I opened up a PokerStars account where I’m playing (with play money haha).
It felt strange the first couple of days back in the states, basing my life around a clock instead of the tide charts, and having actual responsibilities. Our biggest things we had to worry about while we were down there were “Hmm, what kickass break are we going to surf today” and “Do I feel like the fresh caught seared ahi tuna or some dank ass burritos tonight?”. I was sad to give up surfing 6 to 8 foot glass every day, but I am excited about moving on with the next part of my life now that I am a college graduate.

Things have been hectic since I’ve been back. The day after I got back from Costa, which was September 19th, I have been moving out of the house I’ve lived in the last 5 years for college, and on top of that searching for a full time job.

Here’s a couple pictures for now. I’ll be posting up more pictures from the trip as soon as I get them from Robbie.

Anyways, I’d write more but I feel like I’ve written a novel, back to work. Peace out.

“Ever wondered what’s the craziest, least sensible group of people on the planet? No, it’s not Islamic fundamentalists. No, not turbo-militant creationists. No, not the evil crazy cat ladies either. It’s followers of a ‘religion’ called Scientology. Though I use the term religion very loosely, like how worshipping a dried pear that looks like Ronald …”

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I’ve just launched a site for my cousin’s fishing charters. http://www.floridabackcountrycharters.com . Check it out and go fish.

School has been keeping me busier than I want this semester, and I have not been able to focus on my work(this includes both ASG and my freelancing) as much as I’ve wanted. Physics II, Discrete Math II, Programming languages, and 3D Computer Graphics in OpenGL are my courses for the semester. The semester ends next week and during Christmas break I have a lot of catching up to do.

Anyways, I recently completed a new layout for a site within the last couple of weeks. You might be familiar with the case.

On July 17, 2006, Dr. Anna Pou, (pronounced “poe”) a widely respected head and neck cancer surgeon with an undisputed reputation for providing patients with deeply personal and long term care, and nurses Cheri Landry and Lori Budo were charged with murder by the state’s Attorney General. In an even crueler twist, Dr. Pou’s arrest interrupted her care for a desperately ill cancer patient whome she had operated on only hours before.

Check it out and support Dr. Pou at supportdrpou.com