Constitution thoughts, part 1

In 2008 I was given a pocket sized copy of the Constitution. I know I read parts of it during High School, but I believe this is the first time I have read the whole thing. I am going to post some of my thoughts and questions about what I read. If you have any thoughts on this, please add them. I wrote down a lot of information so I am going to split this up into four parts. I am going to post them in reverse order so you can start at the top and read all the way through.

A member of the House of Representatives must be at least 25 years old and a member of the Senate must be at least 30 years old. Article one uses this phrase when giving the eligibility requirements: “Who shall not when elected be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.” Does this mean they must live in DC?

I have wondered before about how the first election of Senators was performed since 1/3 of them are expected to face an election every two years. Apparently they divided them up as Section 3, Paragraph 2 reads: “Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth year.”

In Section 6, paragraph 2, it reads: “No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been encreased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.”

I’m not exactly sure what this means. I think it is saying if a new office is created while you are a Congressman then you cannot accept the new position. Emoluments are payments for political leaders, so I guess a Congressman can’t take on a position where the pay has risen while they were in office. I think the last part is saying that someone who holds another government position can’t also be a Congressman at the same time.

Constitution thoughts, part 2

I have thought before that it is nice of Congress to admit how they vote on each bill, but apparently it is required. In Section 7, Paragraph 2, it reads: “But in all such Cases the Votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons voting for or against the Bill shall be entered on the Journal of each House respectively.” Now we just need to convince them to put the full text of all Legislation on the internet, so the citizens can keep track of what is being done to them.

There are a few interesting things in Section 8 which describes some of the powers given to Congress. One of them is “To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin.” I think the last part means Congress could set the value of the dollar to be in relation to another country, I believe China sets their currency based on the value of the dollar. In The 5000 Year Leap the author argues that this sentence means that our current system of determining the value of money is wrong and should be left up to Congress. It is explicitly stated, but I think a better approach is to have the free market determine the value through trading of currency with other countries.

Another part reads: “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years.” This actually surprised me because most of the wars in the 20th century and now the 21st century have been longer than two years. It is also possible that Congress is allowed to hold a new vote on the issue every two years in order to extend a war for as long as necessary.

Part of the Second Amendment mentions militias and Section 8 gives more details on what that means. It also mentions that the District of Columbia should not exceed "ten Miles square", which means 100 square miles. The current size is 68.3 square miles. The beginning of Section 9 reads: “The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight.” Importation of slaves was allowed until Congress prohibited it on January 1, 1808, the first day it was permitted to do so. Until then, the Constitution had permitted Congress to levy a maximum duty of ten dollars per slave imported into the United States.

Section 9 also reads: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” Abraham Lincoln suspended some rights during the Civil War and I have heard that President Bush has also. Apparently it is okay if only temporarily done during an emergency. Section 9 later reads: “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law; and a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time to time.”

Constitution thoughts, part 3

Article II gives the details of what the President is allowed to do and who can qualify. In Section 1 it reads: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President.” When Mitt Romney’s father wanted to run for President this issue was brought up because he was born in Mexico. I have also heard people talk about this because John McCain was born in Panama. It seems clear to me that as long as you are a legal citizen, it is not required for you to have been born inside the United States.

Section 4 reads: “The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.” President Clinton was impeached for lying to a grand jury, but I’m not sure if that qualifies as a legitimate reason. Article I describe how impeachments are to proceed, they are approved by the House and tried by Senate, but required 2/3 of the votes for approval. The House voted on the perjury charge 228-206 and obstruction of justice by a 221-212 vote. Based on these vote totals it doesn't seem like it was legally performed. 50 senators voted "not guilty," and 50 voted "guilty" on the obstruction charge. The Senate acquitted on the charge of perjury with 55 votes cast as "not guilty," and 45 votes as "guilty." Andrew Johnson had a similar outcome in 1868. His case was due to removing the Secretary of War and replacing him with a new person without permission from the Senate.

A few people have suggested that President Bush be impeached for lying about the Iraq War. It seems rather obvious that he did not lie, but went on available information and there were several reasons for the invasion besides weapons. However, I don’t think it would qualify as an impeachable offense.

I wonder if Congress has ever passed a bill that violated the stated rights in the First Amendment: no establishment of religion, free exercise of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to assemble, and the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

I have wondered if the Federal Courts have exceeded their intended control by ruling on moral issues. In the 10th Amendment it says that rights that are not given to the Federal government and are not banned to the states should be given either to the states or the people. I think issues like who is allowed to get married, whether abortions are allowed and laws against homosexuality and incest should be determined at the state level. Article 3 describes the responsibilities given to the judicial system and it says that Congress can create lower courts and that laws are to be reviewed by the courts, so I’m not sure if my view is supported by the Constitution.

Constitution thoughts, part 4

Amendment 17 says that Senators are to be elected through popular vote. I think this was a bad idea. The Founders purposely setup the House to represent the people and the Senate to represent the States. When I was in high school my US History teacher convinced me that we should get rid of the Electoral College. I wrote up an outline of what I wanted the new amendment to say and sent it to my Senators. They wrote me back and said it would hurt small states. I have since changed my opinion on the issue and think it is very important for us to keep the Electoral College. Our country was not intended to be a democracy, but a republic instead.

Amendment 19 gave the right to vote to women. I have heard from a few people who think this was a bad idea and that it has hurt our current political structure. However, I disagree. I think if there is something you don’t like about the political process, you could find similar things before this amendment was ratified. Amendment 18 banned the sale and transport of alcohol and it was overturned nearly 15 years later with Amendment 21. It obviously did not stop people from drinking alcohol and actually made it more dangerous. Currently several drugs are banned without having an amendment for them.

Amendment 22 restricted the President to serving only two terms. I think this was a good idea. It is important to get new people and new ideas into the Presidency so they know their power is limited and the country can try a new direction. Amendment 23 gave Washington DC Electors to vote in the presidential elections. I think this was a bad idea and it should have been left only to the states.

The Constitution was signed on Monday, September 17, 1787. On September 25, 1789, Congress transmitted to the state legislatures, twelve proposed amendments. Ten of them were approved and became the Bill of Rights.

Did Jesus say that Noah's Ark was real?

In 2007 I posted this to a forum: I am a new user and I don't know how long I'll stick around, but I'm hoping to find Christians who accept evolution and see how they reconcile their beliefs. I was raised Mormon, but no longer believe in the tenets. I am now slowly working my way towards mainstream Christianity.

Recently I was reading Matthew 24 and came across verses 37-39: "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." These verses really struck a chord with me and I'm surprised I have never heard about this before. Can you explain to me how you reconcile your beliefs with what Jesus said? Did Noah's Ark really exist?

I liked these two responses. First:

"I sympathize with your position. I can only imagine how hard it is to give up the tenets with which you were raised and what internal and familial conflict that may be causing you. Yes, Jesus spoke of the Ark as a real event. He also referred to Adam and Eve as real people. There are a great many errors of every kind in both the New Testament and the Old Testament.

The 3 synoptic gospels of the NT were written at the earliest 30-40 years after the events described and the primary sources for the tales in the synoptic gospels are unstated, except for Luke's claim to have spoken to (unnamed) eyewitnesses. Unfortunately Luke's claim to be derived from eyewitnesses is dented by the inclusion of conversations at which Jesus and Satan where the only people present. Other sections of Luke's gospel tell of events that occurred 70 years earlier; what eyewitnesses did he talk to for those bits?

The claim in the gospels that there were a large number of eyewitnesses to events such as the resurrection in fact decreases the chance that the gospels contain broad truth was not a single one of these eyewitnesses a literate man? Why did no-one make sure that a contemporary record of the events was preserved? One single credible contemporary source would add greatly to the credibility of the extraordinary claims in the gospels. The absence of any written record till decades later has to be disturbing, to say the least.

So, over time I've come to accept the fundamentalist argument, "Either the entire Bible is true, or none of its extraordinary claims are true." In my honest opinion the correct conclusion to draw from the available evidence is obvious... If however you are convinced by the extraordinary claims made in parts of the Bible (the life of Jesus), while rejecting other claims made by the Bible (the genealogy back to Adam, and the story of the Flood), I don't see why you can't ascribe Jesus's error to any of many possible explanations:

1) Jesus was misunderstood.

2) Jesus never said words anything like that at all; they were added to the Gospel in error.

3) Jesus knew perfectly well that the Ark was a fable, but was talking in a way that his audience could understand.

4) Jesus was God in man; the "man" part of Jesus had the normal knowledge of a 1st Century Jew, and for example knew nothing of quantum theory or cosmology.

5) Whoever told the story to Matthew simply got it wrong, or added their own take on Jesus's words.

In a way the fundamentalists are right, the moment that you accept that any part of the Bible may be false you are opening a can of worms that it may not be possible for you to unravel. Who is to decide which bits are true and which bits are false? And why does God permit false sections in His purported Word? But plenty of Christians do claim to be comfortable with evolution. If they are rational how could they be other than comfortable with evolution, when the physical evidence confirming it (and an old earth) across numerous lines of scientific enquiry is so crushing? I remain modestly perplexed that they continue to be comfortable with Christianity, but there are plenty of good people here who take that line and they can speak for themselves."

Second:

"I'm Jewish and fairly religious, if rather heterodox. I consider the narrative of the Bible inspired, both by God and by actual events, but muddled through need to explain complex events to a Bronze Age people, as well as human alterations, both by error and intent.

Noah's story is one of the more difficult ones to fit into history. However, there is an oddity in human genetics: An apparent bottleneck about 70,000-75,000 years ago, when the human population was reduced to a few thousand people. About the same time there was a massive volcanic event, the Toba Eruption, "Possibly the largest explosive volcanic eruption within the last twenty-five million years," to quote the Wikipedia entry.

The Toba Catastrophe theory is that these two events were related. Given that the Mount Tambora Eruption of 1815 produced "The year without the summer" and the Toba eruption expelled something like 20-30 times more material into the atmosphere, the worldwide climatic effect was likely quite heavy. Toss in other related disasters that may well have happened, like a tsunami, and primitive humans that managed to live through that must have thought the world had all but come to an end.

So, is the story of Noah and similar world-wide stories the story of the Toba event, passed down through 70,000 years of oral retelling? There are lots of difficulties to making such an argument. To start with it's not even clear that Toba and the population bottleneck are related. Similarly timed bottlenecks in other species are scarce. Could an oral story be passed down through 70,000 years of the human species? I don't know.

But because of my religious beliefs, I tend to think that it is a strong possibility that that oral tradition got mixed into the Genesis story. If nothing else, the Noah story in Genesis is quite clearly two different accounts of the same event, braided together, which casts doubt on it being literally true."

1776 Musical

I went to this musical in 2007 with my mom, her sister, and a 14-year-old girl who is my aunt’s neighbor. The musical was at Rodgers Memorial Theatre in Centerville, a non-profit organization supported by the community. The story is based on a book by Peter Stone and was turned into a musical by Sherman Edwards. It is about the Continental Congress and the debates they had about whether to declare independence from Great Britain and become the first colony to break off from their political mainland.

There was some humor and sexual innuendo. The point of the story is to show that our early founders had strengths and flaws just like any person. The history of our early country is amazing and I truly believe the founders were inspired by God in the documents they wrote and the incredible odds they had to overcome for peace and sovereignty.

The most notable departures from historic fact include: Martha Jefferson never traveled to Philadelphia to be with her husband, she was in fact extremely ill during the summer of 1776, having just endured a miscarriage; in actuality, the Pennsylvania delegation numbered ten, not three, and John Dickinson abstained until he finally left Congress to join the army; and the signing of the Declaration actually took place weeks, not minutes, after the final vote.

Historical Federal Budget Surpluses and Deficits

The federal deficit dropped from $413 billion in 2004 to $161 billion in 2007.

The unemployment rate was 6% in 2003 and dropped to 4.6% in 2007.

From 1983 to 2000, federal receipts increased. Federal spending increased from 1965 to 2009.

In the last 50 years there have only been 5 surpluses (1969 and 1998-2001), but I think Social Security is an off-budget program.

Year Revenue Spending Difference

1977 1258.9 1448.66 -189.76

1978 1316.18 1509.33 -193.15

1979 1369.08 1489.35 -120.27

1980 1346.32 1538.47 -192.15

1981 1414.83 1600.65 -185.82

1982 1373.48 1657.83 -284.35

1983 1293.68 1741.28 -447.60

1984 1376.22 1759.04 -382.82

1985 1463.68 1886.97 -423.29

1986 1505.67 1938.66 -432.99

1987 1613.56 1896.27 -282.71

1988 1649.02 1930.47 -281.45

1989 1714.91 1978.93 -264.02

1990 1694.14 2056.9 -362.76

1991 1661.95 2085.99 -424.04

1992 1668.74 2112.65 -443.91

1993 1714.07 2092.66 -378.59

1994 1822.12 2116.27 -294.15

1995 1903.1 2133.97 -230.87

1996 1987.03 2133.88 -146.85

1997 2111.15 2140.42 -29.27

1998 2266.46 2175.25 +91.21

1999 2353.47 2191.73 +161.74

2000 2523.49 2229.09 +294.40

2001 2412.36 2257.06 +155.30

2002 2210.24 2398.43 -188.19

2003 2078.33 2518.59 -440.26

2004 2135.49 2604.2 -468.71

2005 2366.06 2715.71 -349.65

2006 2561.78 2825.8 -264.02

2007 2657.32 2824.94 -167.62

Bush tax cuts preceded historic revenue increases

On June 11, 2007 FactCheck wrote an article called Supply-side Spin where they tried to discredit President Bush's tax cuts, however they made some interesting points about revenue, job creation, and spending cuts:

The 35 percent growth between 2003 and 2006 is significant – the last major growth in revenue was between 1997 and 2000, when the economy was booming and federal receipts rose 28.2 percent.

A Treasury Department analysis found that the tax cuts prompted the creation of jobs and increased the gross domestic product. If McCain had said the tax cuts contributed to economic growth, he would have been correct.

If the government had reined in spending – as McCain wanted – the senator might have more to brag about. Viard says economists would expect a boost to the economy if tax relief had been matched by spending cuts.

Christianity and Islam

I wrote this in 2007. My uncle is a liberal agnostic who was in prison for robbing several banks. I kept in touch with him through letters. We were discussing the role Islam has on current events. In his letter he wrote the following:

Saying Christians are more civilized, enlightened, and peaceful is bull. What do you base that on? What you see on TV? Civilized? What about the parents that won't take their son to the doctor because it's against their religion (Christian Science)? What about the white Christians who lynched blacks? But you say it's the fanatics. Well same with the Muslims. Enlightened? It's okay to bomb abortion clinics. It's okay to hate other religions as apostasy. It is okay to denounce science as bunk. It's only the fanatics you say. You say I can't base my dislike of Christianity on the people? Then why would you do the same with Islam?

The reason for the problems in the Middle East is poverty. Look at the US. Who causes the discontent and hatred? People who came from poverty. Look at Dubai, UAE. They don't rely as much on oil as other countries. They are extremely tolerant and civilized and enlightened. It is a tourist mecca for Europeans and Arabs. I read an article about oil prices. When it is lower, moderates tend to hold sway in Iran. When oil is high, it means more money for the government to use. That was the general idea. So yeah, I could see why Saudi Arabia would want to lower oil prices. Of course, Saudi Arabia practices the extreme form of Islam in the area.

I wrote him back with the following:

You might be right that poverty is the only difference between Christianity and Islam, but I think it is more than that. Perhaps Christians are better at running free market economies than Muslims. Christianity has had an extra 600 years to adapt. The religion also has Jesus who overhauled the old Judaic religion. He preached love and peace. He threw out many of the old laws and encouraged new ones. Islam doesn’t have anything like that.

During its infancy Muslims were probably the most enlightened group of Westerners, but that changed and they are going through a dark age. Christianity had to have a period of enlightenment to get away from the past. Now it is time for Muslims to step up and do the same thing. The five countries with the most Christians are: United States, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, and Germany. Two of those countries are wealthy, two of them are developing their economies and the Philippines elected an Agnostic woman as their president.

The five countries with the most Muslims are: Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Turkey. Turkey is a secular country and there have been several mass demonstrations this year to keep it that way. The wife, of a candidate running for their President, wears traditional Islamic clothing and it is feared she will have a strong influence on the rest of the nation. India is developing and could become a superpower during the next century, but they have a lot of poverty and class warfare. The other three are poor, chaotic countries with lots of support for terrorism.

In “The World is Flat” it mentions a Muslim country (Bahrain?) that ran out of oil and was forced to adjust its economic structure to survive and now it is far more successful. I think we need to lower our demand for oil for three key reasons: 1) It will force Muslim countries to change their economies to other sources 2) we will not be so dependent on political turmoil in other countries and 3) it will help the environment.

I contacted Roger Simon, a former Jew turned Atheist, to see if he had any suggestions. He frequently writes about Islam and Christianity on his blog. He only had time for a brief response. He said my uncle does not know anything at all about Islam and recommended he read something by Bernard Lewisan expert on the Middle East. Jesus encouraged separation of church and state (allowing for democracy and progress). Islam opposes such separation and demands that the whole world should live under Sharia Law. The difference between the two religions is huge and all of it stems from that reason.

Martin Luther King Day

We have this day to honor a dream of not evaluating people based on race and yet the federal government and all 50 states continue to operate numerous programs specifically targeted at people based on their race or ethnicity:

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

And this is what King had to say about the Nation of Islam:

The other force is one of bitterness and hatred, and it comes perilously close to advocating violence. It is expressed in the various black nationalist groups that are springing up across the nation, the largest and best-known being Elijah Muhammad's Muslim movement. Nourished by the Negro's frustration over the continued existence of racial discrimination, this movement is made up of people who have lost faith in America, who have absolutely repudiated Christianity, and who have concluded that the white man is an incorrigible "devil."

Lasik Surgery

In 2007 I went to Hoopes and Aldridge in Sandy for a Lasik consultation. The doctor said my vision is too poor for the surgery. He said another option would be a procedure called ICL where they insert a permanent contact lens into your eyes. However, the surgery has a higher risk and the total cost would be around $6500. If the lens moves too far in either direction it can cause cataracts or glaucoma. In an FDA trial 2% of patients developed cataracts after the surgery.

He said I could wait two or three years until a new procedure is available to the public. It would put tiny lenses called inlays underneath your cornea and the surgery would be done similar to Lasik, but without any lasers. The inlays would be based on your prescription and they could be adjusted later if they needed to be. It is expected to be about half of the price of Lasik.

I felt uncomfortable and nervous while the nurse was doing the eye exam. At one point she was trying to put this thread into the corner of my eye to test how dry they are. Unfortunately I kept flinching and shutting my eyes and she wasn’t able to do it. Later I told the doctor and he said not to worry about it. Also I had to look into about four different machines and look directly at a light or object and I wasn’t supposed to blink for five seconds. I had to do each of them three or four times because I kept blinking. The nurse was really sweet to me and close to my age, but I just felt bad that my eyes are so sensitive.

I do feel some sadness about not being able to have the surgery, but I understand that my eyes are really poor and I will just have to wait for better equipment to be developed. Without my glasses I could not even see the big letter “E” on the eye chart. I can’t even read my alarm clock when I wake up in the morning. When I am washing my face or taking a bath it is difficult for me to tell whether all of the soap has been washed off.

Lake Powell 2006

On October 7, 2006 I left for my grandma's house at about 4:40 am and by 5:15 am we were headed to Lake Powell. Our group started with 12 people and during the week more came and we were up to 17. My uncle's wife, two of their kids and two more of the kids' cousins came up during the middle of the week. My grandparents have a share on a houseboat and each person had to pay $250 to go on the trip. On two of the nights it rained, but I slept inside on the couch and so I was fine. One afternoon it rained and so we had to cut our plans short for the day. My family likes to go into slot canyons, taking the smaller boats as far as they can go and using the oars to avoid hitting the boat on the rocks. Then we jump out of the boats and hike for a while. A few days before the trip there was flash flooding at Lake Powell so when we arrived there was tons of debris in the slot canyons. We still hiked into two of them, but they were really muddy. Using the oars to prevent the boat from hitting the walls becomes annoying very quickly. Sometimes I enjoy just cruising on the open water. On our last day of play I rode on a tube being pulled by a boat.

I learned a version of Dominoes called Mexican Train which is really fun. We watched a 1960 Disney movie called Ten Who Dared which is about Major John Wesley Powell, who lost an arm during the Civil War, and his crew who were the first people to cross through the Colorado River and survive. Apparently it is a family tradition to watch the movie at Lake Powell, but I think it was the first time I had seen it. I believe this was my fourth trip to Lake Powell, but my last trip was probably in 2002 or earlier. Since the September 11th attacks you are not allowed to get close to the dam in a boat. Earlier you could get close enough to touch the dam from your boat. Lake Powell is second in size only to Lake Mead, downstream near Las Vegas. Lake Powell boasts over 1,900 miles of shoreline, more than the entire coast of the western U.S. and has 96 major side canyons. Upon completion of Glen Canyon Dam on September 13th, 1963, the Colorado River began to back up, no longer being diverted through the tunnels, creating Lake Powell. As the lake filled over the years, seismic activity in the area increased as the ground shifted beneath the increasing weight of the water. The water level is measured based on elevation and 3700 feet is considered full. The last time it was full was in 1986. From 1995 to 2000 the water level was above 3680 feet. The depth varies throughout the lake, but some parts are over 400 feet deep. When we arrived the elevation was at 3604.29 and when we left it was 3606.83. So the water rose about 2 1/2 feet during our trip. You can see the current water level at: The Lake Powell Water Database.

The one thing that bothered me on the trip was that my uncle sort of expresses this elitist attitude occasionally. He usually comes on the trips because he is really good at operating boats and fixing things. His income is probably double anyone else in the family and I think it goes to his head. He tends to exaggerate his stuff and his kids. He said that my cousin did two AP classes last year as a junior and five more this year as senior. When I asked my cousin about it he said it was actually one last year and four this year. This is still amazing especially since he scored a 5 on the US History test, but I actually took more AP classes than him. My uncle also was saying how great my cousin is with the drums and that he is on the marching band. My cousin told me that he is ranked 4th out of 7 students on the drumline which is still very good. My uncle was bragging about how athletic his kids are and that they could probably outdo or keep up with anyone. At one point when we were trying to get through some debris in the boat it was funny when my cousin was complaining about why we had to go through it. My cousin is really smart, but he is humble about his abilities and doesn't make himself seem superior to others. There were two fishermen who came and the whole time my uncle is complaining about how boring it is to fish and that some people are just naturally good at catching fish and everyone else is out of luck. His son (the brother to my cousin mentioned above) caught a decent sized catfish and then my uncle was excited for him, it was kind of ironic. We brought two boats for the trip, one is my grandma's and the other is my uncle's. They were both built by Gulfstream which was a small Utah company that went out of business. My uncle's boat is about 18 feet long and was built in 1973. It is very good at going into small canyons and it usually runs well.

My grandma's boat was built in 1988 and is about 21 feet long. My uncle is always saying how great his boat is and that most boats can't compete with it. Most of the time he went between 35-40 mph and the fastest I noticed was 42 mph. One day there was a boat far behind us and at first I thought it was my grandma. Eventually it caught up and passed us and was so far ahead I couldn't even see it. A waverunner also passed his boat and I wasn't even aware they could go that speed. He took my grandma's boat out for a drive and quickly got it up to 47 mph. I really think most boats could easily keep up with his boat and probably go faster if they just had a decent driver. My uncle is really great at driving boats. One time my grandma decided to race my uncle and she kept up with him just fine and possibly was going faster for a few seconds, but then she slowed down and got behind him. Also I think my grandma's boat handled rough water much better, but my uncle disagreed. My grandma's boat is a little bigger and the seats are more comfortable. My grandpa said they were the same also, but he only went on one boat ride the whole trip and it was on my grandma's boat.

My uncle makes comments that seem degrading. My hair is starting to thin out, but there aren't any missing patches and I part my hair down the middle leaving an open area. My uncle kept saying that I was bald and needed to wear a hat at all times and that he was glad he didn't have to wear a hat because he hated them so much. On the last night we were sleeping inside and my cousin was lying near me to be out of the rain and my uncle said be careful where you step that's my son you are sleeping by. It just seems like his kids are gods to him, but nobody else matters. My cousin just laughed at his dad's comment. I think my uncle changed because of his wife's family. He was describing them and they seem to act similar to how he is now. This uncle is my mom's brother and he was saying that my mom can push people's buttons sometimes and I was thinking that is exactly how you are.

Pocket Bike

My brother-in-law bought one of these miniature motorcycles off of the internet for about $250 (including S&H). He said the ones he saw in stores were about $400. They look almost too small to ride, but I fit comfortably on it and they have pedals for your feet. They weigh less than 50 lbs. They are easy to maneuver and you only have to worry about the gas, the brakes, and to tilt when doing turns. The top speed is supposed to be 40 mph. I didn't wear any safety gear, but it would be a smart idea. We just rode it around the neighborhood and then went to a church parking lot. There are also some bikes that are a few inches taller, that you can shift and they go up to 70 mph. Minibikes are banned in some states and many cities, including New York City and the entire state of California.

Genetic Genealogy

I have had an interest in genealogy for a few years after I decided to discover how I was related to a famous Utah pioneer. My interest in genealogy surely comes from being raised in a Mormon family. My maternal grandmother has a strong passion for genealogy. In the last few years genetics has started being used to prove relationships for which there are no public records or unreliable sources. Some people use it to discover missing links in their family trees. I was just curious to see what I could find out.

The first test I did was for SMGF. They are trying to collect samples from 100,000 people from across the world to see how everyone is connected and to decipher new genetic patterns. They plan to release their findings to the public once they have reached their goal. The test is free and they send you a special mouthwash to collect a sample from you. They do not tell you any genetic information, but they do keep a database on their website that you can search if you pay for a test from another agency. I participated to help them reach their goal and possibly to help others with their genealogy search. They require that you send in three generations of your ancestors with birthdate and birthplace.

Recently I took a genetic test from Family Tree DNA. They have the largest database of any genetic genealogy company with 401,555 samples. The test I did was for the Y chromosome and mitochondria DNA. Y-DNA tests your father's direct male line and mtDNA tests your mother's direct female line. The test was $391 with shipping, plus you have to pay another $0.52 to have it mailed back. The test is done with a cheek scraper. There are three of them in order to ensure the best sample. The test is mildly irritating, but not too bad. They will send genetic information and contact information for other people that I am related to. Then I will be able to use SMGF's database.

Here are several articles about the subject:
X and Y and You
New Light on Origins of Ashkenazi in Europe
Family tree project helps trace deep history
Could DNA Tests Solve the Mystery Of Miles Standish?
Jewish "again": DNA unlocks secrets in New Mexico

2012 Election Results

I think the election results have been finalized now. Obama received 51% of the popular vote compared to 47.2% for Romney. Obama received 3.6 million fewer votes than in 2008 and Romney had 983,000 more votes than John McCain. In total there were 2.1 million fewer votes than in the last presidential election. This marks the first decline in voter turnout since the 1996 election when Ross Perot came in third place with 8 million votes and 8.4% of the total.

Combined with the previous reelections of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama's victory marks the second time that three consecutive American presidents have achieved reelection (the first three being Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe). The 126 vote difference in electoral votes between Obama and Romney made 2012 the 21st closest election out of the 57 presidential elections.

The 2012 election was the first in U.S. history in which both major party candidates received more than 60 million votes, and the first time since Franklin D. Roosevelt's last two re-elections in 1940 and 1944 that a Democratic presidential candidate won a majority of the popular vote in two consecutive elections. Andrew Jackson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Obama are the only three candidates of the Democratic Party who have secured a majority of the popular vote in consecutive elections. The non-Democrats to have done so are George Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Ulysses S. Grant, William McKinley, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan.

Obama became the first president since Ronald Reagan, and the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt, to win two presidential elections with an absolute majority of the nationwide popular vote. He became the first president since Eisenhower, and only the fifth President since the Civil War, to win at least 51% of the popular vote twice.

Obama is the third president to win re-election with a lower percentage of both the electoral vote and the popular vote, preceded by Madison in 1812 and FDR in 1940 and 1944 for his third and fourth terms. Obama is also the first president since Woodrow Wilson in 1916 to win his second term with a lower electoral vote. Since Madison and Wilson received more votes in their bids for a second term, Obama is the first president ever to win a second term with a smaller number of votes. Obama became the first president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be re-elected with unemployment above 7.2%.

Romney is the first presidential candidate from a major party to lose his home state since the 2000 presidential election. Romney lost his home state of Massachusetts by more than 23% – the largest margin of any major-party candidate since the Civil War. Romney's vote share of 37.5% in his home state was the lowest of any major-party candidate since Herbert Hoover in 1932. In addition, since Obama carried the state of Wisconsin, the Romney/Ryan ticket was the first major-party ticket to have both of its nominees lose their home states since the 1972 election. Obama became the first Democrat to win the White House while carrying only two former Confederate states. Compared to 2008 Obama received fewer votes in 41 states and the Republicans received fewer votes in 14 states. While third-party voting had no significant impact on the outcome, Gary Johnson's 1.27 million votes set a Libertarian Party record, and his 0.99% of the popular vote is the second-best showing for a Libertarian in a presidential election, trailing only Ed Clark's 1.06% in 1980. Collectively, third-party candidates earned about 1.7% of the popular vote, the highest since receiving 3.75% in the 2000 election.

Conservatives for Evolution

In 2006 I decided to check out Godless: The Church of Liberalism by Ann Coulter because I have read a few of her columns on Townhall and I think she is funny. However, after reading her attacks on evolution on the jacket I decided I wouldn't read her book. I am surprised that someone with a law degree could have such a poor understanding of science. I decided to do a search to find other conservatives who support evolution and I came to Conservatives Against Intelligent Design. This also led me to another related site: Darwin Central. Intelligent design should not be taught in a science class because it cannot be tested.

I liked this quote from the CAID website:

"Hey, I’ve said on here before that ID might very well be true. It just ain’t science. What ID hasn’t done is passed the scientific tests necessary to take it from pure speculation to scientific theory. Being open-minded is all fine and good, but there’s a reason the scientific method exists. There’s a reason why the process of corroborating a hypothesis is every grad student’s nightmare. And there’s a reason we don’t spend much time on abiogenesis in school."

I believe that God has guided evolution, but since it can't be proven it should not be taught in a science class. I found an article that goes along with my beliefs:

"In just a few million years, one area of the human genome seems to have evolved about 70 times faster than the rest of our genetic code since humans and chimps diverged from their common ancestor."

"However, the reported genetic change is so fast that Clark said he has a hard time believing it, unless something unusual happened in a mutation. It's not part of normal evolution, he said."

In Utah, Educators support teaching evolution:

"I personally fervently . . . believe in intelligent design. (But) I believe it needs to be taught in the home and perhaps, religious institutions," board member Bill Colbert said. "It's a personal issue. Even if we try to teach it in a classroom, (I don't think teachers) can do justice to various beliefs that are out there in our communities."

Some things science can't address, but that doesn't mean they aren't true. I think more people need to understand that evolution and faith are not incompatible. The Catholic Church seems to have good positions on science and life: they support evolution, are opposed to In Vitro Fertilization because it leads to more embryo deaths than natural conception, and are against the death penalty in some instances. I am usually in favor of the death penalty, but am starting to reconsider because of how drawn out the process is. I have only attended a Catholic Church once and it did not interest me enough to go back.

Original NES

In 2006 I bought a used NES system over the internet. I bought four games at a Game Crazy store in Hollywood Video: Tetris, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and junior editions of both Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune. They didn't have much selection and Graywhale moved out of my city. I have also borrowed two games from my brother-in-law: a combo of Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, and World Class Trackmeet (which only works with a special pad); and Total Recall. The system gives me a sense of nostalgia as I used to play it as a child in elementary. It is strange how the games now feel different than I remembered. Some of my favorite games are: Legend of Zelda, Kung Fu, Thunder and Lightning, Dr Mario, and all of the Super Mario Brothers. I have played on computer emulators before, but they are less reliable.

2012: Year in review

February 1 – At least 79 people were killed and more than 1,000 were injured after a football match in Port Said, Egypt.

February 11 – Whitney Houston, American singer and actress, died from accidental drowing at age 48.

February 15 – A fire at a prison in Comayagua, Honduras kills 360.

February 19 – Iran suspends oil exports to Britain and France following sanctions put in place by the European Union and the United States in January.

February 21 – Greek government debt crisis: Eurozone finance ministers reach an agreement on a second, €130-billion Greek bailout.

February 29 – Davy Jones, British singer and actor of the Monkees died of a heart attack at age 66.

March 4 – A series of explosions are reported at a munitions dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, with at least 250 people dead.

March 13 – After 244 years since its first publication, the Encyclopædia Britannica discontinues its print edition.

March 22 – The President of Mali, Amadou Toumani Touré, is ousted in a coup d'état after mutinous soldiers attack government offices.

April 6 – The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad unilaterally declares the independence of Azawad from Mali.

April 7 – Mike Wallace, American journalist, correspondent for CBS' 60 Minutes, died at age 93.

April 12 – Mutinous soldiers in Guinea-Bissau stage a coup d'état and take control of the capital city, Bissau. They arrest interim President Raimundo Pereira and leading presidential candidate Carlos Gomes Júnior in the midst of a presidential election campaign.

April 13 – Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3, a North Korean Earth observation satellite, explodes shortly after launch. The United States and other countries had called the impending launch a violation of United Nations Security Council demands. The launch was planned to mark the centenary of the birth of Kim Il-sung (April 15, 1912), the founder of the republic.

April 18 – Dick Clark, American television host and producer appeared on American Bandstand and Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, died of a heart attack at age 82.

April 21 – Charles Colson, American evangelist and founder of Prison Fellowship, died of a brain hemorrhage at age 80.

April 26 – Former Liberian President Charles Taylor is found guilty on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Sierra Leone Civil War.

May 2 – A pastel version of The Scream, by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch, sells for US$120 million in a New York City auction, setting a new world record for an auctioned work of art.

May 8 – Maurice Sendak, American author of "Where the Wild Things Are", died from a stroke at age 83.

May 9 – Vidal Sassoon, British hairdresser, died of leukemia at age 84.

May 20 – Robin Gibb, British-Australian musician of the Bee Gees, died from colorectal cancer at age 62.

May 22 – Tokyo Skytree, the tallest self-supporting tower in the world at 634 metres high, is opened to public.

June 5 – Ray Bradbury, American author died at age 91.

June 16 – Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, died from cardiac problems at age 77.

June 17 – Rodney King, American robber who became famous after his beating by police was caught on film, died from accidental drowning at age 47.

June 24 – Shenzhou 9, a Chinese spacecraft carrying three Chinese astronauts, including the first-ever female one, docked manually with an orbiting module Tiangong 1, first time as the country, making them as the third country, after the United States and Russia, to successfully perform the mission.

June 24 – Lonesome George, the last known individual of the Pinta Island Tortoise subspecies, dies at a Galapagos National Park, thus making the subspecies extinct.

June 26 – Nora Ephron, American film director and screenwriter, died from pneumonia at age 71.

July 1 – Alan G. Poindexter, American astronaut died after a personal watercraft accident at age 50.

July 3 - Andy Griffith, American actor, died from a heart attack at age 86.

July 4 – CERN announces the discovery of a new particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson after experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

July 13 – Richard D. Zanuck, American film producer, died of a heart attack at age 77.

July 16 - Stephen Covey, American author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" died after complications from a fall off his bicycle, at age 79.

July 23 – Sally Ride, American astronaut and physicist, died from pancreatic cancer at age 61.

July 27 – August 12 – The 2012 Summer Olympics are held in London, England, United Kingdom.

July 30–31 – In the worst power outage in world history, the 2012 India blackouts leave 620 million people without power.

July 31 – Gore Vidal, American author, playwright, screenwriter, political activist, and lifelong Democrat, died of pneumonia at age 86.

August 6 – Curiosity, the Mars Science Laboratory mission's rover, successfully lands on Mars.

August 19 – Tony Scott, British film director, committed suicide by jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge at age 68.

August 20 - Phyllis Diller, American comedian, died at age 95.

August 25 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, died from bypass surgery complications at age 82.

August 31 – Researchers successfully perform the first implantation of an early prototype bionic eye with 24 electrodes.

September 3 - Michael Clarke Duncan, American actor, died after a heart attack at age 54.

September 3 - Sun Myung Moon, Korean religious leader of the Unification Church who claimed that he was a messiah, died of pneumonia at age 92.

September 7 – Canada officially cuts diplomatic ties with Iran by closing its embassy in Tehran and ordered the expulsion of Iranian diplomats from Ottawa, over support for Syria, nuclear plans and human rights abuses.

September 11 – Garment factory fires in the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore kill 315 and seriously injure more than 250.

September 11 – 27 – A series of terrorist attacks are directed against United States diplomatic missions worldwide, as well as diplomatic missions of Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the US, opinions are divided over whether the attacks are a reaction to a YouTube trailer for the film Innocence of Muslims. In Libya, among the dead is US ambassador J. Christopher Stevens.

October 14 – Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner becomes the first person to break the sound barrier without any machine assistance during a record space dive out of the Red Bull Stratos helium-filled balloon from 24 miles (39 kilometers) over Roswell, New Mexico in the United States.

October 14 – Arlen Specter, American Senator from Pennsylvania, died from non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at age 82.

October 21 - George McGovern, American politician, historian and author, U.S. Representative, U.S. Senator, and the Democratic Party presidential nominee in the 1972 presidential election, died at age 90.

October 24 – 30 – Hurricane Sandy kills at least 209 people in the Caribbean, Bahamas, United States and Canada. Considerable storm surge damage causes major disruption to the eastern seaboard of the United States.

November 14 – 21 – Israel launches Operation Pillar of Defense against the Palestinian-governed Gaza Strip, killing Hamas military chief Ahmed Jabari. In the following week 140 Palestinians and five Israelis are killed in an ensuing cycle of violence. A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas is announced by Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after the week-long escalation in hostilities in Southern Israel and the Gaza Strip.

November 25 – December 9 – Typhoon Bopha, known as "Pablo" in the Philippines, kills at least 1,067 with around 838 people still missing. The typhoon caused considerable damage in the island of Mindanao.

November 29 – The UN General Assembly approves a motion granting Palestine non-member observer state status.

December 17 – Daniel Inouye, American Senator from Hawaii the Democratic Party, died of respiratory complications at age 88.

December 27 – Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., American general who was commander of coalition forces in the Persian Gulf War, died from pneumonia at age 78.

Pluto no longer a planet

There are officially only eight planets in the Solar System, as Pluto no longer qualifies. Before there was no official definition of a planet, but large objects are continually being discovered and the International Astronomical Union decided it was time to have a definition:

Much-maligned Pluto doesn't make the grade under the new rules for a planet: "a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a . . . nearly round shape and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit."

Pluto is automatically disqualified because its oblong orbit overlaps with Neptune's.

I think this is a good idea as another proposed definition would have created dozens more planets:

Pluto would keep its planethood while three other bodies would be added, including Pluto's moon Charon, the asteroid Ceres and Brown's object 2003 UB313, which he nicknamed Xena.

By Brown's own count, 14 of his discoveries besides Xena are in the running for planethood. That could make Brown the most prolific planet hunter.

It would have been silly to have both Pluto and its moon considered planets.

Minorities Home Ownership Booms Under Clinton

Here is an article that appeared in the LA Times on May 31 1999:

All of this suggests that Clinton’s efforts to increase minority access to loans and capital also have spurred this decade’s gains. Under Clinton, bank regulators have breathed the first real life into enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act, a 20-year-old statute meant to combat “redlining” by requiring banks to serve their low-income communities. The administration also has sent a clear message by stiffening enforcement of the fair housing and fair lending laws. The bottom line: Between 1993 and 1997, home loans grew by 72% to blacks and by 45% to Latinos, far faster than the total growth rate.

Lenders also have opened the door wider to minorities because of new initiatives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac–the giant federally chartered corporations that play critical, if obscure, roles in the home finance system. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac buy mortgages from lenders and bundle them into securities; that provides lenders the funds to lend more.

In 1992, Congress mandated that Fannie and Freddie increase their purchases of mortgages for low-income and medium-income borrowers. Operating under that requirement, Fannie Mae, in particular, has been aggressive and creative in stimulating minority gains. It has aimed extensive advertising campaigns at minorities that explain how to buy a home and opened three dozen local offices to encourage lenders to serve these markets. Most importantly, Fannie Mae has agreed to buy more loans with very low down payments–or with mortgage payments that represent an unusually high percentage of a buyer’s income. That’s made banks willing to lend to lower-income families they once might have rejected.