Presidential Campaign Thoughts

This Presidential election cycle has been one of distaste for me so far. Neither major candidate and I see eye-to-eye on most of the issues. Obama's politics are so different from mine and his inexperience so great that I do not feel comfortable supporting him. McCain's age, on the other hand, is a factor that makes me hesitate to support someone that I'm not sure could survive 4 years in office. Which is what makes McCain's choice for a running mate intriguing to me. By choosing a young, conservative governor, he has created a ticket that I could support far more comfortably than I could if it were McCain-Romney or McCain-Lieberman. I still am not completely convinced that I will vote for McCain-Palin; I still would like to do a little more research. Still, McCain's choice of Palin has made the idea of voting for McCain a little more palatable for me to consider. There's a long way to November, still, and I could still decide that I would rather vote for 3rd party candidate than McCain. We'll have to see.

Case in Point: Why I No Longer Watch Evening News

I rarely watch evening news anymore on television because of how insipid and irrelevant I find much of the coverage. It seems that the mainstream media is simply out of touch with what is going on. My case in point tonight comes from what is perhaps one of the most absurd statements I have heard a newsman utter in quite some time.
He said, "There are no headlines [to start the newscast tonight] because there is only 1 headline: a major party is about to nominate an African American for the first time in history." Now, while I can see why the media would consider this an historic event, I cannot believe the amount of hubris and ignorance that the statement expresses. The only headline is the nomination of Barack Obama? Not even close. What about Russia's continued conflict with the republic of Georgia? What about Tropical Storm Gustav, which is eventually expected to become a strong hurricane and threaten the Gulf Coast? What about John McCain's campaign? What about Pakistan's upcoming presidential election? What about...well, you get the idea. To be so narrowly focused as to see the (already assured) nomination of one man, regardless of his race, as the only important item of the day is poor reporting. I'm disappointed.

It All Starts Tomorrow...

The day that I've been expecting for 3 months is finally almost here: the first day of school for this school year. As a result, I'm going to break my "rule" about not writing about school and take a few minutes to ponder the coming start of classes. Even though I've gone through 6 other starts to school years, I still feel like I felt when I faced my first start to my first year: very excited and also a little fearful.
I'm excited because I see the potential that this year has to be an excellent year. I'm excited to teach a smaller Calculus class, and I'm looking forward to see the leadership that this senior class will take. Second semester, I get to teach a Meteorology elective, and that has the potential to be a great experience.
I'm also fearful, though. Some of my fears deal with the differences that every year brings: new students (freshmen), a new senior class, changes to the school calendar and administrative structure. So much about this year is different that I have no way to know what to expect. There's always a bit of fear that we have to fight when facing the unknown. The other component of my (mild) fears deal with my own awareness of my own inadequacy. I know that without God's grace working in me, I am worthless as a teacher. At best, I will last about 3 days on my own strength; after that, I'll be worn out. I need to rely on His grace if I have any hope of having the energy to think clearly and teach my students well.
Whenever you read this, please pray for me and for all of us teachers. We always will need God's grace in order to do our job well. Thank you in advance.
Now, it's time for me to relax a little more before the marathon-sprint known as the school year begins. As always, it could be a late night because without fail I have trouble falling asleep before the first day of school.

Maybe I'm Getting Too Old for This

A new soccer season has started, and with it come the challenge of 7 am practices. I say "challenge" because I am not a morning person. This week, though, has been difficult so far. I can't remember being this tired after three days of practice. I feel like I've been sleep walking all week. I certainly hope and pray that I don't feel this way next, or else the first two days of class are going to be very interesting...

And So It Begins (Again)

My students don't show up for another week, but tomorrow for me is the first day of the school year. Soccer practice starts bright and early at 7 am, and then it's off to school to work in my room and talk with anyone who happens to drop by during enrollment. I expect to be at school 4 out of the 5 weekdays this week. Hopefully, I'll be able to get enough done these first two days to have one more "project day" around my house to take care of all the little items I was too lazy to take on during the summer. Regardless, I'm looking forward to the school year starting and seeing what sort of twists and turns it will bring.

Environmental Friendliness

I thought with all the talk of reducing one's carbon footprint, I would do the same.
Here goes:



I'm not quite sure how this is going to help the environment, but hey, since it doesn't cost me anything, I'm all for it.

How I Feel Today After a Long Road Trip This Weekend

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Primary Election Results

The results from the primary election have rolled in, and they are hardly surprising. The closest race was between Republicans Jim Ryun and Lynn Jenkins. Jenkins won by a couple percentage points and now will face incumbent Nancy Boyda in November. Jenkins winning the primary presents a Boyda with a difficult task ahead of her. She won largely because of a backlash against Republicans, especially by moderate voters. Jenkins, however, should be attractive to many moderate voters. Definitely, she will be more attractive than Ryun would have been. Jenkins' ability to attract more of the moderate vote should give her a decent shot of winning, if she manages her campaign correctly. A good place to start would be the low approval rating of Congress. I've seen it listed as low as 9%, lower than President Bush's.
The other results were as I expected, most notably Rucker beat out Hecht for the Republican nod for District Attorney. Hopefully, all of the politics come to an end for a month or two before it picks back up in October. (Wishful thinking, I know....)

More Mud Than a Pig Sty

It's August, and the general election is still about four months away. Already, however, the mud slinging between candidates has begun. Locally, former representative Jim Slattery, a Democrat, is trying to beat out Pat Roberts, a Republican, for the Senate seat. And Slattery has already started in on a ton of negative attack ads against Senator Roberts. And, as with most attack ads, most of the information contained in them is mostly incorrect, at best. It's not the only ugly campaign going on. Lynn Jenkins and Jim Ryun are both vying for the Republican position on the ballot against incumbent Democrat Nancy Boyda. The Jenkins/Ryun ads are ugly enough. Once the primary election is over and Boyda and the Republican nominee start going after each other it's going to get really ugly, really quickly, especially if Ryun is her opponent. If I remember correctly, those two constantly attacked each other for months, often using subtle (yet powerful) means to avoid looking negative. Ugh. Such ugly political attacks are why I never want to run for office. I'm already sick of such horrible behavior, and it's only going to get worse once the primaries are over. I may be making much use of the mute button in the next few months, assuming I even dare watch TV at all.
Interestingly, the national election is getting ugly, too, although since Kansas is not a critical state, we're not having to put up with the Presidential mudslinging. Still, the news is constantly replete with mud-slinging, and, even more amusingly, accused mudslinging. Presumptive Democrat nominee Barack Obama constantly has accused his opponent's (presumptive Republican nominee John McCain's) campaign of playing the "race card." The odd part about that accusation: it's completely baseless. McCain has, however, run some attack ads against Obama that say he is arrogant and not ready to lead.
So, that's the current situation. Where do I stand on all of these candidates? Well, I'm not going to say definitely. In some ways, I'm not thrilled with most of the candidates, but I'm especially not excited about the two options for President. Obama and I disagree on just about every major political issue, and I think that the McCain ad about him being arrogant and not ready to lead is right on target. That doesn't mean that I'm all for McCain, however. I don't agree with half of his political positions, and I am not convinced that he'll survive four years of the stress of being the President. That will make McCain's choice of a running mate critical for my decision. (It doesn't matter if Obama picked Sam Brownback for his running mate. Obama already has lost my vote.) If McCain chooses someone who is a younger conservative who could legitimately run the country if McCain were to die, I think that I might vote for him. If he picks another moderate like himself, well, I'm not sure what I'll do. But I'll wait to see on that.
For now, I'll be sure to take a shower after watching any amount of TV to get off all of the mud that's being slung.