I'm John Blanco and this is my life in blog: Democrat, chess player, Wii Gamer, hubby to Michele and Cedric's daddy. :-)
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If we are going to start rewarding no skills and stupid people--I'm serious, let the unskilled jobs, let the kinds of jobs that take absolutely no knowledge whatsoever to do--let stupid and unskilled Mexicans do that work."
- Rush Limbaugh
Funny, even though Giuliani is a complete weanie when he talks about how HE ALONE made New York City safer, I can only grin when I see this on the debates tonight:
(CNN) – Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani fielded a question on whether citizens should be required to pass an exam before being permitted to buy a gun, only to get booed by the audience.
Giuliani said that although the Constitution allows citizens the right to bear arms, "The government can impose reasonable regulations."
Despite disapproval from the audience, Giuliani continued to say that government regulations should be related to individuals with criminal backgrounds and histories of mental illness.
Giuliani defended his record on crime in New York City. "When I took over, there were 2,000 murders a year, 10,000 felonies a week, and I enforced the gun laws very aggressively. I enforced all laws very aggressively. We went from being one of the most dangerous cities in the country to being one of the safest," Giuliani said.
From the ongoing Oral Roberts fraud case:
TULSA, Okla. - Richard Roberts told students at Oral Roberts University Wednesday that he did not want to resign as president of the scandal-plagued evangelical school, but that he did so because God insisted.
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God told him on Thanksgiving that he should resign the next day, Roberts told students in the university's chapel.
"Every ounce of my flesh said 'no'" to the idea, Roberts said, but he prayed over the decision with his wife and his father, Oral Roberts, and decided to step down.
Roberts said he wanted to "strike out" against the people who were persecuting him, and considered countersuing, but "the Lord said, 'don't do that,'" he said.
After submitting his resignation, he said, for "first time in 60 days peace came into my heart."
Roberts spoke for only a few minutes and was applauded and cheered by students. He wiped away tears with a white handkerchief and his hands.
"This has nearly destroyed my family, and it's nearly destroyed ORU," Roberts said.
A lawsuit accuses Roberts of lavish spending at a time when the university faced more than $50 million in debt, including taking shopping sprees, buying a stable of horses and paying for a daughter to travel to the Bahamas aboard the university jet.
Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations. The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said that God told him: "We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion."
On Wednesday, Roberts said God told him he would "do something supernatural for the university" if he stepped down from the job he held at the 5,700-student school since 1993.
So God's all like, "I'm gonna do something wicket crazy for ORU if you quit." Yes, that sounds like something God would say. Because God knows sending your kids to the Bahamas with school money is wicked awesome!
Romney, according to previous statements, actually favors overturning Roe vs. Wade and returning the issue to the states as a stop gap measure until enough votes can be gathered in the Senate to pass an amendment.
In a 2005 Boston Globe op-ed, Romney wrote that he is "pro-life" but said that "while the nation remains so divided over abortion, I believe that the states, through the democratic process, should determine their own abortion laws and not have them dictated by judicial mandate."
So, what Mitt is saying here is that it's *not fair* that Roe v. Wade was decided against what he believes, so he wants that judicial decision to be revoked so the state's can decide for themselves until abortion can be banned by legislative mandate.
You dick.
All he's bitching and moaning about is that his opinion differs from the majority of Americans, so until he can figure out a way to get the law changed to OPPOSE the majority -- but in the meantime, we're supposed to find the words *judicial mandate* unfair to us.
You dick.
Seems unlikely he'll get the votes anytime soon seeing as no one is planning on voting for Republicans in 2008.
The Broncos just lost a game that just makes ya sick. The hapless Bears, who could do nothing on offense except leverage 4 special teams' play for TD's...came back from 2 touchdowns down to beat the Broncos.
OMG.
Sickening.
I'll say it again...Shannahan, would you please fire the special teams coach??
Put up the Christmas tree today. :-) Here's some antics of the day (and our new front door!):
Some pics of the Cedrinator...he's 8 months old now! :-)
Here he is in his new jumper that Grandma New York bought him. :-)
Cedric just crawled for the first time. :-) Went across his bedroom to get a remote control. hahaha. Michele was noticing he was moving with his knees and I ran and got the video camera and we filmed the next few strolls.
OK, time to baby proof. See you in a week. ;-)
Got back from a short and sweet business trip to Los Angeles this weekend. We went to visit NeoPets regarding a project we're working on with them. Tons of fun, and my first trip to L.A., though I didn't get much time to visit anything. Bah.
Nick (above), Mahe, Lance, and I had fun going over the project plan and enjoying their offices. What a colorful crew. :-) On our last night there, Thursday night, we capped the trip with a glorious Brazilian dinner. I had more bacon-wrapped chicken than I could imagine.
God, I love palm trees. :-)
The humorous part to me is that McCain thinks he can beat Hillary. Every poll in the country shows he has NOT A CHANCE to even come close to win his own primary. So, thank you Mr. Rasmussen, but Johnny boy, we don't hire 72 year olds to be President.
And, frankly, you suck. :-)
So sad for me. Today is my 31st birthday, and I'm spending it sick. :-( Had a miserable night last night. Michele has done a lot, though, to make me feel better. :-)
Michele gave me some presents in the morning since I was so sick. She got me 9 pairs of nice socks, a little christmas penguin, and MLB Power Pros for Wii! SWEET! (And what a neat game!) Then, she made me french toast for breakfast, while I fed Cedric some yogurt. :-) Afterwards, we finished off Resident Evil 4! Curse you, Leon, for rejecting Ashley!
Now, we're showering up and headed out. We're gonna hit a few stores. I especially am going to get a Nintendo DS game with some birthday money as I'm flying out to California Wednesday evening for a couple days for work. So, hmmm, what shall I play?
*cough*
I've just finished reading (2 minutes ago), Don Quixote. It's regarded as the first modern novel. Written in the early 1600's, a friend of ours named Jay recommended it for Michele, who bought it, but never got to reading it. I gave it a spin and I think it took me 3 or 4 weeks, I can't remember. Mostly read it on the train. :-)
Very good book. The first few chapters are absolutely brilliant, especially that first. :-) It's a huge book, split up into two parts written 10 years apart, but you'd really be greatly served to suck it up and go at it. After about 25 pages, you're hooked in. I assure you.
Time to take a break from book reading for a while. I have a lot of tech material to cover now.
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican whose lone term was dogged by a hiring scandal, lost badly Tuesday despite an election-eve effort to woo conservative voters by displaying the Ten Commandments in the state Capitol.
This is how you try to win office in Republicanland. Whip out the Ten Commandments, in a public office mind you. How absolutely sad and pathetic. At least they saw him for what he was in Kentucky -- a shameless pig who didn't do right for the people to win office, but pander to the base with non-governmental snobbery.
I'd love to try to do that at work. Do miserably in several projects in a row. Then, I'd show up to work waving a "Grateful Dead" flag. :-) And I'd be given a promo-...damnit, I got fired.
So I ordered, for lunch, a tukey/bacon/swiss/lettuce/tomato/mayo sandwich. I get back to the office and it seems instead I have a turkey/roasted pepper/pepperjack/luttuce/tomato/mustard sandwich.
Lovely. :-)
