Okay, maybe not...MOVE over. Maybe just...scooch a bit.

Can you have two favorite artists? Both in first place?

I just found this CD by Andy Gullahorn on NoiseTrade. I listened to the first few seconds of a few of the songs (the samples available), told three friends, and downloaded the album. I didn't even know he was a Christian artist. I didn't care. The songs could have all been about peanut butter sandwiches and I would have been thrilled; the music and artistry in the songwriting was so incredible, the guitar so gorgeous, I had to have it.

Turns out his lyrics are better than even his music.

He is artful and sly, witty and challenging and emotional. In the same CD, he writes both a song about his love affair with his wife and his love affair with his hat, both a tear jerking memoir to a couple who lost a child and a subtly humorous memoir to a friend who got in a fight with a lawn mower and lost his toe.

I don't know how I've never heard of this guy before. I love the folky acoustic feel and the down to earth lyrics. It's refreshing and charming, intimate and understated. So if you haven't, go to Derek Webb's NoiseTrade, tell three friends, and download the entire album for free ("for a very limited time only!" Andy claims) or, better yet, "pay what you want."

I hate free stuff. At least, free stuff that's stolen from people who worked hard to earn it and handed to people who didn't. Yes, I believe in fair wages and making sure people are treated fairly - but the idea that compassion is the government's job (and not the job of, say, the church, as it has been traditionally) is socialism. And that's fine if you believe that, if you believe in free health care for everybody, in robin hooding your way past poverty, but don't call it "progressive" or "liberal" - it's an idea that's been around for much longer than that. Call it what it is - socialism.

A buddy of mine posted this on his blog and it's so freaking awesome I had to share.

"Two Kids: One gets all A's. The other gets all D's.
If the kid with the A's gives the kid with the D's some of their A's, then both will have all C's.
Nevermind the fact that the A student worked hard to earn their grades.
Just consider the fact that the D student wants what the A student has.
Eventually, the A student will have no incentive to work hard, and the D student will never have to."

This is exactly what's happening. This is political socialism at it's best. This is why Russia is still a poor country - because they spent decades and decades teaching the hard workers it's pointless and the lazy they can get whatever they want just by breathing.

It was NOT BUSH'S JOB to fix Katrina. ::shock and horror!!:: Well, it's wasn't. It has NEVER BEEN the job of the federal government to FIX US. The very idea is COUNTER to what this country was founded on.

I've been on welfare. ::shock and horror!!:: Yes, that's right. For about 6 months while I was pregnant I was on welfare. And then I GOT OFF IT. Justin found a job (not nearly as hard as they would have you believe - McDonald's is ALWAYS HIRING) and we got off benefits. I probably used more of the government's money in my application process than in actual benefits. This, I really believe, is fine, and exactly the way welfare was supposed to work. It was supposed to be a quick fix for someone in between jobs - it was NEVER supposed to be a way of life, and it certainly was NEVER meant to rob from the rich and give to the poor.

Economists have long said that 5% of the world controls 95% of the wealth. Wow! Why don't we split that up and make it even?! The same people have also always said this: "If you took all the money in all the world and split it evenly between all people, in 10 years, 5% of the world would control 95% of the wealth." It's a mental thing. If all the money you get just gets spent and you have nothing to show for it but a freaking awesome stereo that will be obsolete in 2 years, you have gained nothing. And that is simply what 95% of the world would do with all that new found cash.

Everyone in America has the chance to provide for their families. Some have to work harder than others. But even "overnight success" stories spent years working toward said success. Rich people have the right to be rich and poor people have the right to become rich - but NOT by forcing the rich people to give them their money.

I'm liberal on a lot of issues. I absolutely believe in saving the environment and don't believe in the death penalty. But I simply can't buy into this socialist taxation policy. It will ruin our country.

Okay, something has happened that I never thought would happen. When they told me it would happen, I laughed and said they were wrong. People are smarter than this. Surely - SURELY - we wouldn't buy into a concept so thoroughly ridiculous and obviously single minded.

Wow. We did.

Enviornmentalists are now claiming that cloth diapers are actually as bad, if not worse, for then environment than disposables.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Who, you may ask, did this study?

Proctor and Gamble. Yep. One of the largest disposable diaper manufacturers in the world.

It has now been seconded by a government environmental agency.

Before you get all worked up - or read the article and don't know the truth - let me point out a few errors in their (probably very well paid) calculations.

They say that the waste from the washing of cloth diapers is greater than the waste in the production and discard of disposables. Okay, I'll give you this: disposables definitely need less washing. But the amount of water and energy used to wash cloth diapers is equivalent or less than the amount needed to flush the toilet for the equivalent number of bathroom trips! In other words, if your kid is potty training, it takes the same amount of energy for that as to wash cloth diapers. They also don't mention that wasting water and household energy (which may be powered by windmills now) is MUCH better for the environment than wasting the oil needed to make a diaper (yes, there are petroleum byproducts in diapers), and that "wasting" water is also much better for the environment than the dioxin that is produced in the making of disposables.

They also, apparently, did not consider in their "production" calculations that cloth diapers will last for more than one child. Though you have to buy new disposables for each baby, cloth diapers can last for up to 4 kids - so suddenly the math becomes a little skewed because it is cut in fourth.

The last argument they make is that the diapers in landfills only account for 2% of the solid waste we consume. Frankly, that's still a big chunk. We consume WAAAAAAY too much solid waste as it is. That ridiculously statistical percentage would be much higher if we didn't use 18 pounds of PVC packaging on every child's toy and quadruple bag every gallon of milk we buy.

Has anyone else heard this argument? What were your initial thoughts?

I am not a scientist or a doctor, so I'm sure I'm missing something here. Anyone know what it is?

We spray toxic chemicals on our food (non-organic fruit, veggies, wheat, roots, etc are sprayed dozens of times by literally dozens of poisons, none of which will wash off before you eat them), on our clothes (9 of the 15 major pesticides used to grow cotton are known carcinogens, not to mention the fact that your favorite t-shirt is probably coated with formaldehyde and other chemicals), into the air we breathe (no one's debating that car fumes will kill you) and inject them into our body (vaccines contain abnormally* high levels of aluminum, a toxin that can cause neurotoxicity in 1/10** the amounts found in a typical injection***) yet we continually ask ourselves "where does cancer/insert other new disease here" come from.

What do they know that I don't? There's got to be something I'm missing here...anyone?

*Abnormally high means that if it were an IV, it wouldn't be legally allowed. Aluminum amount in vaccines is not regulated like it is for intravenous use.

**No one knows what a "safe" level of aluminum injection is. We only know for sick people, the elderly, or the premature, but know one has tested normal, healthy kids.

***I'm not anti-vaccine. I just ask a lot of questions. No hate mail, please. ;)