Technology Edition! (lots of pictures)

I got my new camera yesterday in the mail. Ordered it Thursday morning around 4:00AM and it miraculously got delivered Saturday by FedEx. I only had the standard 4-6 day shipping too, believe it or not.

So, here is where I show it off, as well as my other gadgets that I bought this summer. Two of which, plus my passport, will be my best friends in Prague. Next to Jon of course.

New hotness (10.7x Optical Zoom and 9.0MP):





Old and Busted (3x Optical Zoom and 2 MP):



My first purchase this summer, a new cell phone:




My buddy named Mr. Passport:


My sweet Dell laptop:




And one last set to show off the zoom on this thing (taken from my bedroom window):

Political Ideologies: Conservatism Vs. Liberalism

Last night while laying in bed after posting my blog on Ann Coulter, my thoughts were racing. What I kept going back to was the difference between the Conservative mindset and that of Liberalism. The main detail that popped out at me was the definition of the two.

In America today, everyone thinks they have a good idea of what the two mean. Conservative= President Bush, Coulter, FOX News, Republicans. Liberal=John Kerry, Howard Dean, New York Times, Hollywood, Democrats. What strikes me is how little these groups or people actually represent the ideology they supposedly represent, conservatives in particular.

First, let's look at the obvious reason that people say Bush is not a conservative. A fiscally conservative person generally favors lower taxes. Bush covers that requirement. However, this also means that the person should be fiscally responsible. This does not mean that you can cut taxes and keep spending like you want. To be fiscally conservative, you must also cut spending. Bush fails at this aspect.

Now here's where most people overlook the fact that Bush is not a "true" conservative. I've thought about this before, just never talked about it. To be conservative means to favor less government. Liberals want more government. To put it in perspective, the extreme version of Liberalism is Socialism.

Here's another metaphor for you: if it were the 1770's the "true" conservatives and liberals would be the Anti-Federalists and Federalists, respectively. If a conservative wants less government involvement, then why do all these "conservatives" today want the Federal government regulating things like abortion, homosexual rights, etc.

The reality of the matter is this: Christian conservatism is a myth. Christians are taught to not be judgmental. Why then do all these Republican, Christian Conservatives judge others and try to force their idea of morality on others?

It seems as though the political landscape's make-up lately is the Conservative and Liberal ideologies, as well as the "Christian" theology, if you will (and I use Christian very loosely here). By that, shouldn't these "Christian conservatives" be kept out of politics to conform to the separation of church and state?

I hope all that makes a least a little bit of sense. I'm too tired to bother to proof-read.

I'm a dirty, Godless liberal

According to Ann Coulter. I was just watching a re-airing of her being "hard-balled" by Chris Matthews (that sounds so dirty). I guess this happened earlier today. I couldn't help but be incredibly disgusted by this woman. I had this nice, long rant to write out on here, but really, she's not worth the time. Plus I'm too tired. Plus, no one will read it anyway.

So instead of that, I settled for making a crappy looking, and very juvenile, picture. Simple, childish... but it gets the job done. The kicker: it makes me smile. So that makes it awesome.

Basically my feelings for her boil down to this. Either she's incredibly, well... stupid, for lack of a better word, or she does this huge "liberals-are-Godless-commie-bastards" thing for the money. Whatever the case, she sucks.

Oh, thank God for that...

Well, a little bit of unpleasantness that had my anxiety on the rise was the key issue of, well, paying for school this year. Once again I had to force myself further in debt with another school loan. Until today I was panicking, worried that CNU wouldn't approve my loan for the full amount I applied (applied for a loan with Wachovia, but for private loans, they send it to the school to be approved). If they didn't do this, I would not be going to school this year, and that means no Prague. That also means that I have worked hard all summer and had absolutely no life for no reason. So, I'm sure you can see the reason I was worried.

I signed on to Wachovia this afternoon when I woke up and now I need not worry. It has been approved for the amount I needed. I am good to go, and barring any unforseen incidents, I will be in Prague in 25 days.

And it begins...

This is my first attempt at a real blog, I hope I do a good job with it. I'm hoping for that coveted gold star. Wait, this isn't elementary school, we, as adults, do not receive gold stars for our efforts. I assume that's for the best, as something as pointless as a gold star doesn't excite me anymore.

Well, I hope I receive sufficient self-gratification from this, and by that, I mean I hope that I am able to at least slightly entertain my readers. That is, if I have any.

Until I leave for Prague, this blog will be used for daily musings, rants about work and idiot politicians, the terrible state of the world, etc.