Abby Dances at Mazatlan

Here is a quick video from Mazatlan. Abby loved to stand on these utility boxes, and sometimes broke out into dance.

So behind! Sorry! Mazatlan first:

Okay, so I am so behind with pictures. Graduation was crazy, I had many more weeks of seminary and other things, and then we left for California! So here are long overdue pictures. Let's begin with Mazatlan:

We had the best time with my family in Mazatlan. The best part was just being together. I just finished a digital scrapbook for everyone yesterday--so I can finally get around to updating the blog! Here are many fun pictures!

Everyone after a dinner on the beach!
We spent a great deal of time at the pool--especially in the large kiddie pool area.

We also loved the beach--here is Abby in the sand.
Uncle Brenty also enjoyed the sand--except when flung in his face!


Here are the Shakespeare girls and Caleb after a barbecue dinner by Mark and Kevin.
Uncle Matt bought the older kids ice cream and I think they enjoyed it!


Brent, Nicole, Matt, Jen and Abby went to check out the local aquarium and saw more than fish. Check out what is behind the fence!


The seal show was the best part of the aquarium!

Matt, Jen and Abby at dinner!

Grandma and Grandpa and the grandkids--some were not too happy!
One more of Matt, Jen and Abby on our last day in Mazatlan.

Hello Bakersfield

This past week I got a job offer from Bakersfield College. It is a tenure track (permanent) position, pays really well, and is located two hours from my family, the beach, the mountains/snow, and Disneyland. Some folks don't think much of Bakersfield, and it has the worst air pollution in the country, but we are quite excited. The population is 320,000 so it is big enough to meet any needs (and close enough to Los Angeles for any eccentric wishes) and like any town that size there are good and bad parts. The community college looks to be in a nice part of town, i think, because I found a massive country club nearby and lots of other parks. Maybe somebody who knows Bakersfield can tell us more. I've also been looking at the cost of housing and found that it is actually VERY cheap to buy a home there, so that is a double plus. I'm so excited to settle down a bit--no more moving town to town every couple years. Of course, I'm still working on publishing my dissertation and other articles so that I will have options to go to a university when the market recovers, I hope. But if we like it there, we could stay for a long long time.

This offer came by phone while Jen and I were taking Abby and our niece Brynley to Disneyland. I already had an offer from Brigham Young University to teach for one year, but that position would not be permanent so we were pretty nervous about the uncertainty of the next year. This position in Bakersfield is a real blessing.

Also, Jen has been dutifully making a photo book of our trip to Mazatlan (last month), so she has been too busy to get new photos on the blog. Rest assured, she is nearly done with that project and will soon get photos posted here from our trip to Mazatlan, graduation, and this most recent trip to California.

Expenses

Today I came across an interesting factoid. The United States military (army, navy, national guard, etc.) employs THREE MILLION people, and another two million are receiving benefits. The military is by far the largest employer in the nation.
Source: Department of Defense web page at: http://www.defense.gov/pubs/dod101/index.html

As I've pointed out before, the US military spends $500-$700 billion/year, roughly matching the combined expenditures of the rest of the world and ten times more than any other country.

Less you think I just hate the military, let me point to some other expenditures.

Social Security - $730 billion
Medicare & Medicaid - $790 billion

Is anybody else troubled by this? These numbers make my eyes bleed. Do you know how many happy meals I could buy with all this money? We've got these three major expenses that eat up 3/4 of our budget, but nobody can touch them because they are all entitlements. That is, somebody is benefiting and they will throw a fit if you take them, and then you won't get re-elected.

So, we just keep spending, to the tune of $3.5 trillion/year. We spend $185 billion just on interest for our debt.

Sometimes I wish we could follow the ancient Greek's system of electing a temporary dictator to clean up theses sorts of problems and then return order to the elected assemblies (obviously I don't really want a dictator to govern us, but I do envy that they had some solution).

What solution can we have to correct our over-spending? How do we get our elected officials to stop supporting the projects/expenditures that get them elected? Do we need to revert to some sort of libertarian utopia for a few years and then rebuild from scratch? I don't think so, but I'm at a loss for a better idea.

Religion & Politics

Who thinks you should avoid religion and politics in civil discussions? Well, for those who enjoy these topics, and their confluence, you might get a kick out of this interactive Religious Landscape study from last year, conducted by the Pew Center:

http://religions.pewforum.org/

It profiles different religious denominations and compares them to each other in terms of political attitudes as well as worship and spirituality. In politics, the Mormons jump out from the data. They are, simply put, FAR more conservative than any other religious group. In terms of worship, the Jehovah Witnesses lead out in most categories as the extremists--the meet together the most often, prey the most, believe in God, etc., but Mormons are not far behind, followed closely by evangelicals and historical black churches. Mainstream christian churches do not appear to have nearly the intensity of worship or personal internalization of faith.

While we're on this subject, let me share with you the result I found in another study at the University of North Carolina. They polled youth on about thier church attendance, worship frequency, prayer, etc. and found that Mormons again stand out as extremists. Generally speaking, Mormon youth are twice as likely to participate in scripture study, read a spiritual book outside of the scriptures, practice a day of rest, share thier faith, and pray alone. They are also far less likely to express doubts in thier faith, and are more likely to share the faith of thier parents. Mormon youth are the most likely to participate in conferences, service projects, attend Sunday School more than once a week, and cite the most adult supporters from church who they feel they can trust and rely upon. Source: Christian Smith, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 20005), ch. 2, passim. In fairness to the Jehovah Witnesses, they were not isolated in this study so they may even be more extreme (as the Pew survey suggests).

Another Doctor

By the way, Jen also passed her defense and is now appropriately addressed as "doctor."

CONGRATULATIONS!

Well, you can all call him "Doctor" now (although he might get annoyed!). Yes, I just walked in the door from Matt's defense of his dissertation and the professors came out with a grin, a hand shake, and a "Congratulations doctor." I was so proud! Matt felt really sick last night and didn't sleep at all, so I was praying he would be okay and he was awesome. He answered all of their questions, presented himself very professionally and they really encouraged him to keep working on the paper and get it published! I just thought you would all want to know!

I defend on Tuesday, so if you have a few extra prayers to give out I could use them. I still am finishing all of the edits from the professors and have to resubmit to the wonderful format people. I need to wrap that all up in the next two days. As long as all goes well for me we both graduate May 12th! Amazing!

We had an amazing trip to Mazatlan with my family which we had planned so long ago! It's hard to believe it is over. I do not have time to put up the pictures until my edits are done, so you might have to wait a day or two!

Abby in the Grass

Here are a few shots of Abby and Jen in our backyard from last Sunday. Yes, I know I need to cut the lawn. I have since chopped it down.

541 Pages

No, that is not the length of my last post.

My dissertation is just about complete. I just need to fix a few formatting items, enter the edits for one of the chapters, and add a couple pages to the conclusion. So, anxious to see how long it would be, I finally made the left margin the requisite 1.5 inches (standard width for all dissertations so that they can be bound and still leave a 1 inch margin) and I paginated each chapter to begin after the previous. When I got to the end I found this beast is 541 pages! Holy Moley! That is a very long dissertation (250-300 is pretty normal). Now, to be honest, 39 of those pages are my bibliography and appendix, but it is still a meaty book. Everything should be finalized by end of this week and I can put copies on the desk of my committee members and schedule the defense.

So, you are wondering where Jen is at with her "final paper." They may call it a paper but long winded writing seems to run in the family because her work will be exceptionally long as well. I think most final papers are the length of MA theses, that is, 80-120 pages (though a good friend of ours just got away with a 25 page paper to finish his DMA). Jen is on track for about 150 pages, she thinks. We'll see at the end of the week when she finishes the draft for each chapter. When I was writing my thesis at Nebraska she said she could never do it. I think now she is even starting to like it.

As per Abby, well, she is working hard too. Last night she counted to ten with just a little help remember number four. She can also do most of her ABCs from A to G. She is a bright girl.

Overdue Pictures!

Life has been slightly crazy this past few weeks as Matt and I attempt to finish our papers and graduate! We've had some great adventures and thought you might like to see some pictures. Here are some cute pics of Abby--I braided her hair the night before for a "new look!" Recognize the outfit Tiff?!

I realize that this is a little overdue, but I think it's a fun picture of the three of us. This was our Ward Valentine's party (Hoe down!). Matt even found his hat from his mission!
The ASU Symphonic Chorale that I sing and conduct in at ASU took a trip to Tucson to sing at the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Convention. The ASU choir combined with choirs from NAU and U of A and sang Honegger's "King David." I was in charge of the trip and we definitely had some interesting adventures including 5 singers passing out during the performance (none of them from ASU!). We were able to work with conductor William Hatcher which was a fabulous experience.

Our friends the Levi's moved to Utah about two years ago and they came to visit this past week! Abby and I were only able to see them from a little bit but we were so happy to see them!
I had the opportunity to conduct a small ensemble of singers, soloists and instrumentalists on a Bach Cantata, BWV 12, "Weinen, Klagen, Sorgen, Zagen." I wish we would have had more time to rehearse and polish, but it was a pretty amazing experience. We called it a Bach Lunch--you know, like a "Box Lunch." So we had a lunch reception beforehand and then a fellow grad student and I each conducted a Bach cantata. I am so grateful to the performers--they were amazing!

A Political Observation about Healthcare and its Treatment

So I recently stumbled on an interesting article from 1964 that caused me to reconsider some of the arguments against Obama's health care that you can hear on Fox News and other conservative mediums. As far as I can tell, Republicans have issued six main criticisms of the current health reform initiative. They are:

1. It will lead America toward socialism - the federal government will be controlling just one more aspect of your life--your healthcare!
   
2. There are not enough doctors -- 30 million new people cant fit into the existing system without causing shortages of doctors for everybody
3. Rationed healthcare! You wont be able to get the services you want or need!
   
4. It will economically cost too much - the economy cannot handle it - our childrens' children will be paying this debt
   
5. Its passage via "reconciliation" is a sinister movement
   
6. Americans overwhelmingly do not wan it
   

1. Threat of socialism:
The 1964 article I read was written by Republican Congressman John H. Rousselot. He cited conservative think tanks and policy groups who shared his view that the federal legislation at hand was a communist conspiracy to implant socialism in America. Conservatives across the nation agreed. What was the legislation? Civil rights. One conservative policy center said the legislation was 10% civil rights and 90% socialist efforts to empower the federal government. They really argued that civil rights legislation was bad because it empowered the federal government to control the lives of individuals--where they could eat, sleep, swim, etc. Funny how the old specter of the socialist boogy-man is still a staple of the Republican opposition to anything the democrats want to do. In the case of health care reform, Republicans have argued that the reform will force everyone to use government controlled health care. That just simply is not true. In fact, the bill counts on private insurance because it is funded, in part, by taxing some of those. You see, if all the healthy people jump into an insurance plan and leave the unhealthy behind, the unhealthy will probably go for government health insurance (rather than pay ultra high rates for private as they currently must). To help fund thier access, the government will tax private companies and in that way give everyone--healthy or sick--freedom of choice and access to medical care. The current system only gives freedom of choice to the healthy. So you see, the continuance of private enterprise is an essential part of this plan. This is not socialism. It is an ethical issue though, and Republicans have a proven track record of opposing ethical legislation on trumped up charges that it is a socialist conspiracy.

2. Not enough doctors:
In 1944 Congress passed Public Law 78-346, which included the now famous GI Bill. It allotted tons of cash to WWII veterans to buy houses and go to school. Over the next 20 years over 5 million Americans used the bill. Was anybody concerned that there would not be enough homes? Was anybody concerned that there would not be enough professors to teach them all? Would there be professor shortages and would classroom size swell out of control? No. Why? Because they believed that the market would balance. If you have more demand, more people will build homes or become professors. Why would it be any different with doctors? It wont. In fact, in America we have made education so common place that many pursue more education just because it is available. That is the case for university professors. We now have way too many educated people and not enough jobs for them.

3. Rationed health care:
Okay, so there is an ounce or two of credibility to this one. Yes, if you chose a government health care program then the government bureaucrats running it get to determine what is an acceptable cost and treatment for all sorts of ailments. However, it is exactly the same now when your privately owned health insurance company. No matter who runs it, the guys at the top determine what you can or cannot get. And if you really want more options, you are still free to buy an expensive "Cadillac" plan from a private company. They are not going anywhere. The current legislation does nothing to restrict their ability to market and sell services. In fact, the legislation is depending on them sticking around.

4. Too expensive:
Obama has dressed up the new bill as a cost saving measure and that just is not true (republicans are not the only ones misrepresenting things). However, it is not a massively expensive bill either. It is funded by taxing private insurance companies, medical equipment providers, and re-allocating funds already set aside for medicare. Ultimately, this is not that expensive. The bail out was expensive, and I agree we need to start cutting back costs, but this medical reform is not going to increase the deficit much at all because it has plans built in to fund it. It is a fraction of our military budget, which by the way, is almost exactly 10 times larger than any other country in the world and much more than the rest of the world combined! Just google words like military, budget, and world to see for yourself.

5. Reconciliation is unethical
Reconciliation is a parliamentary procedure to reconcile bills passed by the Senate and by the House so that they match up. It has been used many times in the past, most often by the Republicans. It was used to pass much of the Republican "Contract with America" during the 1990s. It was fine and great when it worked for the Republicans, but now that the Democrats want to use it the Republicans label it sinister-the "nuclear" solution. Isn't that a bit hypocritical? I think so.

6. Americans overwhelmingly rejected it:
Americans are not overwhelming opposed to the legislation. That is a myth. The polls range from 44% opposed to 59% opposed, but most of the credible polls say it is between 50% and 54% opposed. So, half (or slightly more than half) of American oppose the bill. And how many Americans typically vote for Republican candidates in an election? Oh, somewhere around 45-50%. So basically, what we have here is most people who usually like Republicans and don't like Democrats feel as they always do, and a few moderates have joined them. That is not overwhelming opposition. Besides, it is always easier to poison public opinion on an issue than it is to build it, especially when you have the disinformation campaign that I've addressed above. So if you want to claim overwhelming opposition you better post some better stats to prove it. That does not stop Fox News from claiming there is overwhelming resistance.

Fox News and the conservative media outlets just keep claiming the above arguments are true, even though they are not. Why? They figure if they repeat it enough times you'll believe it is true. You see, they are a political entity first and a news reporting entity second. They selectively report on things that they think will strengthen thier cause, and they overlook things that do not. I can give you several examples of this policy.

1. Remember when they ran repeated stories on Obama's birthplace potentially disqualifying him from the presidency? It wasn't true, but they brought it up over an over again anyway. They also used this to argue (before the election) that he could not even pass the top security test, which has no relevance at all except to cast some sort of illusion that he is a security risk (when they knew full well that his birthplace did not make him a risk). They look for any way to discredit him.
   
2. How about when Fox News repeated his full name constantly--Barack Hussein Obama. Who knows George W. Bush's middle name? Clinton's? Bush Sr.'s? Reagan's? Not many people. But we're fighting terrorists from the Middle East so if you oppose Obama it is a good time to make sure everybody knows his middle name.
   
3. Fox ran stories about Obama's supposed relationship with Bill Ayers, the Weather Underground terrorist. Of course, he has no real relation --they attended the same conference once--but by portraying them as buddies Fox hoped to convince Americans that he was sympathetic to him and weak on terrorism at a time when the nation is fighting terrorism.
4. More recently Fox ran stories about Chicago having corrupt politics, and insinuated that Obama and his administration must also be corrupt because they come from Illinois. Do they have any evidence that anybody in the administration has ever done anything questionable? No, but who needs that? In the modern media world you just need accusations to ruin somebody, they hope.

Now, I don't really watch Fox News much (mostly I read Associated Press articles) but these are just things I noticed when I did watch it. I'm sure there are more. This does not mean I am in love with Obama and the Democrats. Heck, I'm not even a Democrat. I have problems with some of thier positions too, but it frustrates me when one group engages in such overt misinformation and obstructionist actions that derail the democratic system. Americans voted for the Democrats last November. They have disgusting majorities in both houses and the presidency, so stop obstructing and misrepresenting everything they do and give them a shot. If they fail, well, we're only a year away from the next election. I just ask that they get a fair chance to do something without Republican politicians and news networks misrepresenting everything to sway public opinion and then justifying obstructionist tactics to slow any progress. Last month Time magazine's cover story discussed this. They pointed out that the new tactic in Washington is for the minority party to derail the majority party and then at elections to point out that the majority party did not accomplish what they promised to do. As Republicans continue to vote no on every measure and threaten to filibuster everything they are not just voting no on the issues, but on the democratic system. If the Democrats do the same thing in the future nothing ever will be accomplished in Washington.