Cool

It is so nice that it is not hot over here any more. The weather over here quickly went from hot clear days to warm hazy days. There is always lots of dust and smoke in the air now, but I haven't seen rain for months. I know it rained while I was gone, but it hasn't since I have been back. I am anxiously waiting the end of the election so that I can see something new on the news. I realize that the final results will probably be all the news talks about for at least two weeks after the fact, but I can dream. Unfortunately I don't have a lot to talk about right now.

Yes, I'm Back...

...if you couldn't tell already from my last post. I'm finally starting to over come jet lag and get my head somewhat back in the game.

I had a great time back home with my family. We went to a waterslide park and did a lot of Geocaching. (Here was one of my favorite hunts.) We had birthday parties, lots of eating out, and lots of wrestling, singing, reading, and playing with my children. All together to time went by entirely too fast, but I am trying to focus on making my remaining time over here fly by even faster.

I sent in my absentee ballot yesterday and was glad to get that over with, now I just can't wait to see the end of this election. As I have said before, the only channels I get on my TV are AFN news and AFN sports. Since I don't like sports, I really only watch the news and all they talk about is the election 24hrs a day. I know who I want to win.

Who Thinks the Electoral System is Unfair?

Lately the news has been reporting again on peoples' cries to change the electoral system. Some say that it should be done only by the popular vote. Some complain that candidates are only focusing on key states. Before I go on, look at this graph. It shows the results from the 2000 election by county! Before I saw this graph, I used to think as I looked at the predictions of the 2004 elections that there was a whole lot of red on the map and not a lot of blue so why is it so close? Well this graph just amazes me even more.

To the people who complain about candidates focusing only on key states, you can quickly see that if you change the system, candidates would then only focus on key cities!!!People are right, Gore won the popular vote, but Bush destroyed Gore when it came to winning counties, square milage, and population of counties.

The electoral voting system prevents any one group(urban or rural)/city/state from having to much say in the presidential election. It allows a reflection of the entire United States. You can look at this graph and identify almost every major city that is related with the blue areas. You can easily see that if we went with the popular vote of the 2000 election it reflects only that the urban population was voting for Gore. It's obvious to see that the vast majority of ALL American regions voted for Bush.

On Vacation

After today I won't be around a computer very much for a few weeks so I won't be blogging much if at all. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. All I want to do is sleep the days and time away until I get back home, but I am way to excited. I am looking forward to not having mortar or rocket attacks and not listening to f-16s with afterburners applied, flying right over my tent. I'm am looking forward to homecooked food and little children to play with. Get me out of here! :)

Excitement

I just found out that I get to go on leave in a couple of days and I am obviously extremely excited. I have a lot of plans for what I want to do with my family over the next two weeks, but most of all I am just excited to see them. I have been away from home for the last 8 months, the longest stretch I have spent yet. I have a wife and three young children who will tackle me as soon as they see me and it can't be soon enough. I really don't know how I am going to get back on the plane when the time is over.

An update on the mouse: he is still here somewhere. He is still licking the traps clean. I don't know how we could easily catch the other 3 and not this one. I'm definitely going to have to try a different technique. Fortunately in a couple of days it won't be my problem.

There's a Mouse in the House

...Actually its a tent, but I can't catch this guy. We have had three other mice that were really easy to catch, but this one has licked the traps clean 5 times now and is still alive. A couple of nights ago I heard him run past my head (on the outside of my mosquito net) and it really creeped me out. It was right after I had layed down to go to sleep. He hasn't gotten in to much of my food, but I guess that makes sense because we are keeping him well fed on peanut butter. I just finished doing a nice thorough cleaning in here too. The first day I saw him, he was on a shelf of mine and I started moving stuff around. Well I scared him good and he scared me back as he became a projectile that launched off my shelf and fell to the floor. I really don't know how they are getting in because we really sealed this tent good to keep any water out. Time to refill the feeder....I mean trap.

The War

Most of the time when people discuss the war in Iraq they state the reasons for going to war were the weapons of mass destruction...yada yada yada. What you don't hear very often is that leading up to those specific reasons was one really big reason, September 11th, 2001. The United States was attacked and Americans finally felt threatened. I say finally because September 11th wasn't the first act of terrorism that targeted Americans, it was just the last straw of many attacks. Through President Bush's actions, the United States made a public statement to the world that we would no longer live in fear and that we would not ask for permission to protect ourselves.

So even though Iraq may not have had obvious direct ties to September 11, there was credible evidence that Iraq was a threat to the world and the United States. There are no news reports of the Military finding any WMD in Iraq, but that doesn't mean they aren't/weren't there. My opinion is that WMD has been found, but not publicized. Regardless, we went to war because we were protecting ourselves from future attacks. Saying the war was wrong is saying that we were wrong to act on credible intelligence with the intent of protecting our nation.

Now many people will cite how the intelligence was false, well to that I say that we fully believed it at the time. How quickly we forget how not acting on intelligence can result in disaster (September 11).

People are forgetting Sept 11 though and want our nation to go back to the way it was before the Tragedy. They complain about the "Terror Alerts" and how they are tired of being "scared" by the Bush administration. Those same people confuse the false sense of security provided by their ignorance before September 11 with safety. "Ignorance is bliss" right?

We need to follow through with our efforts in Iraq and stand behind our right as a nation to defend itself from terrorism. I also believe that we should support other nations in their efforts to fight terrorism in their own nations.

Focus on the Family

I just finished reviewing both Mr. Kerry's and President Bush's official election websites. I found their issues on work vs. family very interesting.

Mr. Kerry's site pointed out that with the majority of families with both parents working, parents spend on average 12 hours less than they use to with their children 20 years ago. Setting my opinions aside until later, Mr. Kerry's plan proposes a higher tax credit for child care and extending children's' afterschool programs until 6pm. These afterschool programs will address important issues like teen pregnancy and not using drugs. From these ideas, I get the impression Mr. Kerry is ok with parents spending less time with their children.

President Bush's site pointed out that 68% of mothers who have children under the age of 6 work full time. Also about 68% of all married families with children have both spouses working. President Bush's current and future plans include a proposal for allowing Comp time for overtime, meaning if someone has to work overtime, instead of getting paid more, they earn that time back to be used as more time off later. He also promoted abstinence-only education for use in schools. From these and other ideas, I get the impression President Bush feels families are important and that our current family lifestyle is not headed in the right direction.

Now for my opinion. This is not meant to be critical to single parents or married parents down on their luck economically, but our children need to be raised by their parents. I don't think it is ok to have children and expect day care centers and the school system to raise them for you. Under Mr. Kerry's suggested plan, it would be even easier to spend less time with your children.

I do think that one parent, Mother or Father, needs to be a homemaker or work part time at the most. Our children need our attention. They are our responsibility. We need to spend a lot of time with them. It isn't just quality, but quantity.

After reading about this issue and many others on their websites, I still think I am going to vote for President Bush, but I will always try to keep an open mind.