Tuesday, August 26, 2008

The Next President of the US











Not long ago Obama looked unbeatable, but that is no longer the case.

Recent successes in Iraq makes the Republicans look like they knew what they were doing when Democrats were calling for withdrawal and surrender. China on the rise and Russians on the march make the world a scary place. As poorly as the 3am call ad flopped, it's true and American's know it. American's just didn't appreciate Hillary saying it because...well, she's Hillary. But war hero McCain will continue to make this charge and it will stick.

Inflation, a weak dollar, housing and auto industries in the toilet and bank failures make for a scary economic landscape. Most Americans are smart enough to realize government regulation and higher taxes are not good for America, especially now. The have-nots might embrace socialism because they stand to gain from it. But I think most of the working middle class believe big government is not their friend, even when its well intended, and run the other way.

McCain should pick a qualified conservative woman as his running mate. He'll nab a bunch of Hillary supporters and for the next two months we can watch multiple sound bites of Biden ripping Obama courtesy of the committee to elect America's Favorite Grumpy Grandpa. Not to mention the "pay grade" commercial that's coming courtesy of Mr. Smooth himself.

America may support generally the right for a woman to have an abortion, but most American's are not comfortable w/ the idea of late term abortions. The thought of fetuses surviving abortions and Obama somehow defending this horrible practice will hurt Obama. If the Dems can shift the debate to Roe v Wade this issue could favor them, but if the Republicans can keep the focus on late term abortions this will favor McCain.

Perhaps the greatest weakness of Obama, Pelosi and Reid is their claim that drilling for more oil will not help reduce the cost of oil. McCain wants to drill to save America from OPEC. Obama wants to save the world from warming by drastically reducing American consumption of oil and he's willing to let the American economy take a major hit to make this happen. Obama has pie in the sky pipe dreams about clean energy saving the planet but his only answer is to throw billions of taxpayer dollars at the problem. This approach failed in the 70's and will fail again. Having the government try to guess which technologies to back is a losing strategy. The end result will be billions spent on failed technologies and solutions that require permanent taxes and subsidies to keep them viable. Why not allow the market develop efficient sources in the first place? The one safe and effective renewable source of energy is nuclear and Democrats won't even consider it. We need more oil and more nuclear energy to keep American going while renewable technologies like solar and wind are being developed.

There is no reason for America to jump off the cliff of global warming and hope the solutions will be there by the time we hit bottom. All of the scientific studies on CO2 and warming have proven correlation (they occur at the same time) but none have proved causation. Even Al Gore's pop culture pseudo scientific documentary shows that warming has historically occurred slightly before increases in CO2 levels. Global warming may actually cause increases in CO2 (by facilitating its release from the oceans) instead of the other way around. A recent study measuring the temperature of the oceans for the last five years shows that the oceans have not warmed at all. A recent discovery of plant fossils in the arctic areas proves that thousands of years ago arctic regions were much warmer. In fact the earth has gone through several ice ages and warmer periods. Man obviously wasn't the cause of these warning and cooling periods and polar bears and all the other species on the earth today obviously survived. Species adapting to their environment is the foundation of Darwin's theory of evolution, but apparently liberals only believe in evolution as a way to keep God out of our schools. If warming and cooling are normal for the earth's environment, why are liberals asking us to sacrifice our prosperity in an attempt to maintain the temperatures of Al Gore's childhood? Because despite all the talk of scientific studies, saving the planet by halting global warming has become a matter of faith, a new liberal religion. Unfortunately, liberals are working to make warming the official religion of this country and force all Americans to sacrifice for the cause, regardless of reason, logic and science. And when liberals fail to get their policies adopted via the ballot box they will do an end run around democracy and have them adopted and enshrined by the courts.

McCain is old, ornery and possibly unbalanced. I pray he gets elected.

By Tom Martin


Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Spencer's Baptism

Tom and Spencer

On August 9th Spencer was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Tom baptized and confirmed him. He had such a special day. So many people came to support Spencer on his special day.

Shelby and Spencer

Spencer and Shelby Burdette were baptized during this service. It was a wonderful day.



Spencer and Lindzie

Spencer had lots of friends and family come to support him. Both sets of grandparents made to the trip to be there for him. His cousin Kelly and Grandpa Watts gave talks. Grandma Zan gave the closing prayer and Uncle Matt and Uncle Joe were witnesses. Afterwards we had a nice luncheon.




Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Draper Temple updates

Angel Moroni was placed on top on July 9, 2008. I can't believe what a difference it makes in the look and feel of the temple. It has been incredible to watch the progression from the ground up.

Presiden Gordon B. Hinckley, broke ground and dedicated the site for the temple on August 5, 2006. "It is a great tribute to our people," he said. "They are so faithful in temple attendance and it is for this reason that we construct this beautiful house of the Lord." Construction of the temple is expected to be completed in 2008. We have heard it will be completed by November but that has not been confirmed.


Angel Moroni being placed on the top of the temple marks an important milestone in construction and coincides with completion of the exterior granite facing.

The Draper Temple is the 12th temple to be built in Utah and is the 3rd temple to be built in the Salt Lake Valley. (http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/draper/)

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Skoose

Skoose


Dear Suzanne (aka: Skoose, Sister Grannis),

I want to publicly thank you so much for everything. Thank you for creating my super cute blog site that I get so many compliments on. Thank you for being the wonderful friend that you are and for the wonderful memories in Taiwan. Some of my favorite memories in Taiwan are with you and Sister Bailey. You two kick started my Chinese. I still can’t speak as well as you but I can get from here to there on my own.

Thanks for sharing your adventures. I have enjoyed following your life From Jia Yi to the US and now with your family in Shanghai. Life is awesome.

Thanks for being you! Love you.

Kim