My 200th Post

I started blogging on June 26th, 2009. I have averaged slightly more than 6 posts per week, so have hit the 200 post milestone in 222 days. I thought I would slow down due to lack of ideas before reaching 200, but President Obama and the inept Congress have provided a lot of blogging opportunities.

About a month after I began blogging, I decided to allow Google to place ads on my blog. I harbored no illusions that it would become profitable, and that has become very true. So far my blog has earned me 80 cents. My first 100 posts earned 48 cents, and the second 100 posts added 32 cents. I don't like this trend, but it is possibly a good indication of the blog's overall quality.

I continue to find the difficulty in blogging is not the writing. I can crank out a couple of posts over my lunch hour without a problem. The difficulty is finding things that interest me enough to write about. My favorite subjects are the personal and family topics, but my life is not that exciting so that well runs dry pretty fast.

My next favorite topic is political. That is a rich source because you can find good topics every day. I suspect that my readers, all 5 of you, bore rapidly when I get on those rants.

My favorite posts from the second 100 were:

• Most Insightful Post: Men's Wardrobes - The truth about how little men care about how they dress.
• Best fantasy post: What I want to be When I Grow Up - Hey, I'm only 53! I can still play ball.
• Best Tongue in Cheek Post: My Sampling Rights - I have learned to plow through the crowds at Costco to get my free sample.
• Funniest: Copenhagen Update - I thought this one was creative and funny, but it received no comments.
• Most Hits: Deniers of Climategate - This was the first post I linked on several news sites. I had over 150 hits from all over the world. It still gets returned by Google when Climategate is used as a keyword.

My only reservation in continuing the blog is my inability to inspire my youngest daughter to occasionally blog. She is a good writer, but refuses to blog with any regularity. I am pleading with you to visit her blog and leave a comment asking when she will write again.

Please join me in badgering Allison, and thank you for your support.

Super Sunday, Big Monday and American Idol

Tomorrow is the Super Bowl which is followed on Monday by a big game for my KU Jayhawks on ESPN's Big Monday. Hollywood week is underway on American Idol, so I thought I would commit my picks by blogging my guess of the final scores and reveal my picks for the season 9 top 12.

I see the Super Bowl as brains against talent. Indianapolis has the smartest quarterback ever to play the game in Peyton Manning. The Saints have the league's best overall talent in my opinion. I am picking talent over brains this year (brains are so overrated). Final score will be New Orleans 35, Colts 31.

Big Monday is much harder to predict. KU is the better team, Texas is in decline, but the game is at Texas. Home court or not, I will take KU 75-65.

My picks to make the AI top 12:

Maddy, who has retarded brothers
Leah, the sheltered Christian girl
Kimberly with the cute 5 year old daughter
Vanessa the hillbilly bridge jumper
Tyler and his 2 broken wrists
Germaine coming back for his 2nd audition

My overall assessment of the season 9 contestants is average. I have not seen any one person who strikes me as belonging with Carrie Underwood or Daughtery. It is actually sad when the only one I really remember was a hillbilly from Tennessee who likes to jump off bridges.

Remember that we have seen less than half of the contestants sent to Hollywood, so a few of the unseen will impress the judges and move on. Also remember that I am making my picks as an interview for Simon Cowell's replacement. Howard Stern is rumored to now be in the running. I say, bring it on! We see if he can hit 6 for 6 top 12 picks after city auditions, and pick the final winner from the top 12, which will be my resume builder needed to secure the job. I may need you to help me get the word out and serve as a reference. I will let you know when.

Jobs Bill?

During the State of the Union address, Obama appeared to change priorities and begin focusing his resources on job creation. He asked that Congress produce a jobs bill ready for his signature as soon as possible.

Give me a break.

This administration wants more people working for the government, so a jobs bill is simply smoke and mirrors. With the current state of the federal budget, bringing on more government workers is poor management and will be detrimental to our struggling economy. Remember that to pay for each government job, there must be 10 tax-paying private sector jobs. Simply creating government jobs is just another way to run up additional deficits. In short, Obama's job bill is a recipe for financial collapse.

It is very difficult for the federal government to create private sector jobs. All they can really do is incentivize entrepreneurs to expand their businesses and create new work that requires new workers. Lowering interest rates is the best method, since it allows businesses to borrow and expand. But today, interest rates are at record lows. Without the interest rate lever, the federal government can only incentivize by reducing taxes or removing regulation and red tape.

Does anyone think that Obama or the democratic-led Congress would ever consider either of these approaches? I think not. Expect the upcoming jobs bill to be the next unfunded stimulus package used by the democrats to push their leftist agenda. Hopefully Americans are getting wise to their game.

Special Season

I am fortunate to be experiencing a very special NCAA basketball season. I have 2 favorite teams. Both wear blue and share the initials U and K. Both have been ranked #1 in college polls this year. Both are mentioned during any discussion of who is the best team.

The primary difference between my 2 teams is that KU plays their games 30 minutes from my house and shares my home state pride, while UK plays in the distant town of Lexington, Kentucky. My allegiances are torn. Who is number 1 and who is number 2 favorite? That is my current conundrum.

Kansas has brought me the enjoyment of many seasons of strong teams, several final fours, and one national title since I became interested in the sport. Kentucky has a long proud tradition, and rich heritage but not much else during baggy shorts modern history. In the current season, both are solid teams with outstanding players. Kansas is currently ranked #1 after winning an incredibly entertaining game last Saturday against Kansas State, (even with the loss, Kansas State moved up in the rankings, something that rarely happens).

So which team in blue is my favorite? It's like asking me which is my favorite daughter, (well actually it is a lot harder). So let's just leave it that I like each equally well. What I like the best is posting this picture. It never gets old.

The Trial of Scott Roeder

Last June, I wrote about the unfortunate murder of a murderer. His name was Dr. George Tiller. Why he retained the title doctor is beyond my comprehension as his trade was performing late term abortions. In my mind, a late term abortion makes the pro-choice argument of viability moot. Tiller was himself a murderer.

Just prior to that post, Scott Roeder had killed Tiller in pre-meditated fashion. He gunned him down in the church that Tiller served as an usher. He did so on a Sunday morning near the end of services on the church grounds. All the evidence indicates that Roeder planned the murder, committed the murder, and then fled.

The trial for the murder of Tiller was conducted in Wichita Kansas last week. Roeder confessed and has admitted the facts of the case as presented by the prosecutor. Yet the trial continues. The only goal of the defense was to put abortion on trial. The defender's strategy is to gain a manslaughter conviction instead of first degree murder. The defense did not having much success with their strategy. The judge shut down all lines of questioning that might make the trial about abortion.

I followed the testimony via the Wichita Eagle reporter who is in the courtroom. He has posted summaries several times each day. Roeder's testimony was rather shocking.

"These babies were dying every day and no one was able to do anything," Roeder said. "I thought I had to do something," Roeder said he began to think about killing Tiller. "I though about running my car into his, shooting him with a rifle." But Roeder testified he feared hurting someone else, besides Tiller. "I felt if he was to be stopped (his church) was the only place he could be stopped," Roeder said. "It was the only window of opportunity I saw to stop him."
Roeder said he took the .22 Taurus with him when he went to the church on May 24, the week before the shooting. But Tiller wasn't there that Sunday.

"I had no choice but to wait," Roeder said. "Abortions were being done every day," he said. "My honest belief was that if I didn't do something they would continue to die." Roeder said he went to the church and sat in the back row in the northeast corner. He said he saw Tiller come in and look right and left then go back in the foyer before he went out and did what he thought he had to do to protect the children.

Public defender Mark Rudy asked Scott Roeder, "Scott, do you regret what you did?"
Roeder responded, "No, I don't."

During District Attorney Nola Foulston's cross examination, she asked Scott Roeder if he became familiar with the church and its services on his visits. Roeder said he did. Roeder said he planned on where to park and backed in to the space for an easy exit. He also said he went to his brother's home to take target practice to make sure the gun was in proper working order. Roeder said that the gun jammed, because it wasn't oiled. He and his brother went to Topeka to get the gun fixed and buy bullets.

Roeder said he had the gun in his pocket with his Bible when he visited George Tiller's church on May 24, the day Tiller did not attend church. Answering Foulston's questions, Roeder indicated that he was somewhat frustrated but that he would have come back as many times as needed to get the job done. Roeder also said that he'd gone to the church armed in August of 2008, carrying a gun in a holster inside his jacket.

It would be easy for pro-lifers to hope that Roeder was successful in getting manslaughter instead of first degree murder. I am not one of those pro-lifers. Roeder committed first degree murder and deserves the associated penalty. Hoping for manslaughter, or even cheering if he was successful would be inconsistent and detract from the principles pro-lifers hold. Life is precious, no matter whose. Revenge for thousands of abortions is not for man to extract.

Last Thursday, the judge removed the ability for the jury to find Roeder guilty of manslaughter. Their only option was to find him guilty or innocent of first degree murder. After reading the testimony, there can be no doubt. On Friday, the jury returned a guilty verdict after only 34 minutes of deliberations. I wonder what took them so long?

Roeder must pay for violating man's law. Tiller is already serving his sentence for violating a higher law.

Hard Decisions

Most of you know that my mother in law, Mary Hansen, has stage 4 brain cancer. The prognosis is not good, but the family hopes that radiation treatment will give her a few more good months. To catch everyone up, six short months ago Mary began to show symptoms that once investigated found that she had thyroid cancer. Thyroid cancer is a slow growing, highly treatable form of cancer, however Mary must have had this cancer for years. Her thyroid gland was removed, but the cancer had metastasized and was found in her bones, lungs and brain.

The brain tumors are the most problematic. Over the past few months, she has lost the use of her right arm, and showed significant weakness in her right leg. Radioactive iodine, the best treatment for thyroid cancer, was administered at the Mayo Clinic but has not shown success in Mary's case. A couple weeks ago the decision was made to perform whole brain radiation in an effort to stop the growth of her brain tumors.

That treatment began on 1/19 with the knowledge that tiredness was a likely side effect. After 9 days of treatment, Mary has not shown signs of progress, and has in fact degraded to a point where she can no longer stand or walk without assistance. Getting her out of bed or a chair occasionally requires 3-4 adults. My father in law, Neil, is no longer able to care for her without assistance.

Oldest daughter Cindy was in town this past weekend, so the 3 siblings were able to discuss next steps with their father. It was decided to work with her physician to get her admitted to the hospital, the first step in getting her moved to a nursing home. In watching the decision process, I realized their decision was more difficult than my family's decision to withhold treatment from my father during his last days.

Elements of the decision are nearly identical, except for the patients wishes. My family understood my father's desire to stop treatment. This was a comfort when we decided to remove the ventilator. Mary still has a clear mind, and does not want to spend her remaining time in a nursing home. So the decision was a very difficult one for her family. Nobody wants to put her in a nursing home, but to care for her at home would require full time nursing by a professional or a family member. One extra person would not be enough at times.

The decision was the correct one, but correctness does not make it any easier. Your prayers for Mary and her family are coveted.

The State of the Union Address

I wrestled with how I wanted to blog on last Wednesday's State of the Union address. There was so much to comment on that I could write for weeks. So instead, I have decided to tell an old joke that came to mind as I listened to Obama. Sorry if you have heard it before.

The reigns of leadership of a large company were being passed from a fired CEO to his replacement. The two met briefly just before the new CEO moved into the stately mahogany-trimmed corner office. The departing CEO handed the new CEO three envelopes. He told the new CEO to open one envelope when he gets into a jam and doesn't know what to do next.

In the business environment, things happen very fast so it was not long until the new CEO faced his first challenge and was at a loss on how to proceed. Remembering the envelopes he had tucked safely into his desk, he removed the first and opened it up. Inside he found a handwritten note that simply said "Blame your predecessor". He used the advice and found that his excuse was accepted by the shareholders.

A few weeks later, the CEO found himself in a new jam and pulled out the second envelope. Inside, another hand written note simply stated "Blame your staff". He again used the advice and found the excuse was was again accepted. The CEO thought to himself that he was really getting the hang of his new leadership role. The advice he was getting from the old CEO was really helping him work out of tough situations.

It was not long before the CEO found himself in another difficult situation, so he opened the third and last envelope. Inside the handwritten note said "Get three envelopes".

Obama's blame Bush, blame Congress and the Supreme Court act is getting old. It may be time for him to get 3 envelopes.