Mark,

Senator John Kerry, recovering from prostate surgery, was told it would be six weeks before he could be sexually active. Joe Lieberman called to wish Kerry well. President Bush called to tell him to "fight the good fight." Al Sharpton called Kerry to offer prayers. Howard Dean called with a get-well message. Richard Gephardt called wishing a speedy recovery. Bill Clinton called Mrs. Kerry.

Okay, it wasn't that good. It appears as if I got under the hackles of someone named Dean Howard of dean@whitehouse.gov. Hmmm. I wonder why. I guess I'm an idiot for reporting the good stuff our soldiers are doing in Iraq, rather than bashing them on a daily basis like the major media outlets. Perhaps it's because I do some research before I write. For those of you interested in actually finding out what is going on I suggest you look up centcom.mil and defenselink.mil which are probably the two best sites offering statistics and information on what our soldiers are doing in conjunction with other nations. It was interesting that little old me got hit with that huge liberal argument that since I like the military I should join up. Yeah, I'm sure they would want a half-blind, 38 year old that has had four knee operations. I think I could pass the physical however, because I did run a 7 minute 40 second mile last Friday. And I am quite a good shot at 100 yards from a bench with a 6mm (or .243 for those of you that don't like the metric system) or 25/06.

Truth is that I have always admired our military men. I grew up the son of a 6' 3", 250lb Army Drill Sergeant that was stationed in Karlsruhe, Germany. I was born in Heidelberg and my younger sister was born in Kaiserslautern. Despite his size, dad was pretty laid back unless I got out of line with mom. He was a blue collar Democrat until recently when he started voting Republican. Mom was a staunch Conservative, who has voted for a few Democrats. I grew up in a house that flew the flag, respected the President no matter who was in office and saw both sides of an issue. It was my mother that always told me that it was the facts that count and not to yield to opinions unless presented with facts. So I guess I'm an idiot for being proud of my father and mother, and proud of my country and military. And since I like the military so much I should join up. I guess I like engineering more, because that's the way I went. My parents gave me $800 my first semester and not a cent the next four and a half years. I worked my ass off for money every summer, took out loans, and put myself $10000 in debt from credit cards. I donated blood plasma twice a week for spending money and my wife worked part time to pay our rent. When I graduated she went back to school full time and I helped pay her way. We saved, bought a house, saved, had three children, she quit her job to be a full time mom, and we moved back to Pa for a better life. My kids go to a private Christian school, I have a great job, and last year I started my own small business with my best friend. I'm only 38 and I'm just getting started. So, I'm an idiot.

Well, here's some more stuff I'm an idiot about: I like vanilla ice cream, so I should become an ice cream maker. I like the Pittsburgh Steelers, so I should become a free safety. I like Peanuts and Dilbert, so I should become a cartoonist. I like taking pictures, so I should become a photographer, for Playboy. I like all kinds of music, so I should become a singer, not. I like my church, so I should become a pastor. I like playing games with my kids, so I should go to work for Hasbro. Then again, I like the Hooters girls, so...well maybe not. Get duh picture? It's not hard. First grade logic. Lazy reasoning. Well if you like the military so much maybe you should join...there, now I'm taking my toys and going home, nay, nay, nay. Whatever. Call me what you want, I've been called worse.

As for THE Howard Dean, I have a question. Why is he plunging in the polls? Why is he being smacked around by the other candidates? Why do many of them disagree with him? Why is the liberal media giving him such a hard time? Who knows. But as of today, Iowa looks like a dead heat statistically speaking with Kerry about one point up on Dean. We'll see what happens. In the mean time we got Clark doing more flip-flops than a trout on a boat bottom about the war. We have Dean announcing he will repeal the tax cuts and raise taxes, ala Walter Mondale and we all know how good he did. Truth is these two guys are scary. Like Bush or not, at least he does what he says. I'm not a huge Bush fan these days as I don't agree with his spending, but our deficit is small compared to our revenue. It's comparable to a person making $100,000/year and having a $9000/year house payment-no big deal. I'm not a fan of offering amnesty to illegals. I would rather see our troops over in Germany and France brought back home and a pair of solders stationed every quarter mile along our borders with night vision goggles. Hell, we're paying for them either way, why not keep them here protecting us. He let Kennedy write the education package, which was nothing more than a money dump on a failing system when we have five straight years of successful growth in states with voucher systems, and huge increases in home schooling and Christian schools. But even my father appreciates what Bush has done and that he is standing up for his positions in the face of horrible criticism and Nazi ads.

To Mark's point about the sage 14. How could they possibly have not been informed on Home Rule? Were they buried in the sand in a small biosphere? For weeks and weeks, the papers and radio were discussing nothing other than home rule, not to mention the petitions and fliers that were distributed. Mark and I both wrote about how bad it was on the radio, where we heard nothing but pro-home rule. Remember Kevin Lynn's comment, "If these guys (current politicos) and the new guys are in opposition to it, it must be a good thing." I listen to the radio every day and during this time I heard one or two guests on the radio that were anti-home rule. But it may happen that a judge may once again go against the wishes of the vast majority. We'll see. In the mean time, I'm still hopeful that our local area will once again be booming. It would be nice to see another Lazarus downtown...and more.

Wait, Zogby just announced on Hannity that today Kerry is up by 5 points in Iowa. Hmmm.

Keep the faith.
Private Sector Idiot.