Why is it that my job at the store is so much more exhausting and stressful than my job at the school? Well, I think I know part of the reason. At the store, most of getting work done efficiently is dependent on other people doing their part. Ah, there's the rub. People are so lazy. It really annoys me that I have to come in on a Sunday and finish over half of the work that my whole team was supposed to get done in a week. It also annoys me to have an incompetent supervisor. Honestly, why does someone like that get promoted to that position?

It is good that I'm employed for the summer and it's something I can do in the evenings while working at the school in the fall. I'm kind of anxious for school to start again because I'm gonna go insane if all I do is go to the store each day, come home, mess around on the computer for a while, go to sleep, then go the store again. So depressing. Plus, once school starts again, I won't be able to come in at 6 in the morning to help unload the truck anymore. Yes!

I started watching episodes of Glee. I freaking love that show. It's so hilarious, plus I'm a sucker for musicals and such things. It makes me want to do more musical stuff watching it.

Vapors of Smoke

I was reading in Mormon chapter 8 last night about the gospel coming forth during our times. Today when I saw the news about the volcanic ash blocking air traffic and people needing to stay at home to reduce health risks, the prophecies about "vapors of smoke" seemed to pop into my mind. Moroni's words are some of my favorite in the Book of Mormon. He says in Moroni 8:26-41 about the gospel coming forth in the latter days (our time).

26 And no one need say they shall not come, for they surely shall, for the Lord hath spoken it; for ^aout of the earth shall they come, by the hand of the Lord, and none can stay it; and it shall come in a day when it shall be said that ^bmiracles are done away; and it shall come even as if one should speak ^cfrom the dead.

27 And it shall come in a day when the ^ablood of saints shall cry unto the Lord, because of secret ^bcombinations and the works of darkness.

28 Yea, it shall come in a day when the power of God shall be ^adenied, and ^bchurches become defiled and be ^clifted up in the pride of their hearts; yea, even in a day when leaders of churches and teachers shall rise in the pride of their hearts, even to the envying of them who belong to their churches.

29 Yea, it shall come in a day when ^athere shall be heard of fires, and tempests, and ^bvapors of smoke in foreign lands;

30 And there shall also be heard of ^awars, rumors of wars, and earthquakes in divers places.

31 Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be great ^apollutions upon the face of the earth; there shall be ^bmurders, and robbing, and lying, and deceivings, and whoredoms, and all manner of abominations; when there shall be many who will say, Do this, or do that, and it ^cmattereth not, for the Lord will ^duphold such at the last day. But wo unto such, for they are in the ^egall of bitterness and in the ^fbonds of iniquity.

32 Yea, it shall come in a day when there shall be ^achurches built up that shall say: Come unto me, and for your money you shall be forgiven of your sins.

33 O ye wicked and perverse and ^astiffnecked people, why have ye built up churches unto yourselves to get ^bgain? Why have ye ^ctransfigured the holy word of God, that ye might bring ^ddamnation upon your souls? Behold, look ye unto the ^erevelations of God; for behold, the time cometh at that day when all these things must be fulfilled.

34 Behold, the Lord hath shown unto me great and marvelous things concerning that which must shortly come, at that day when these things shall come forth among you.

35 Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing.

36 And I know that ye do ^awalk in the pride of your hearts; and there are none save a few only who do not ^blift themselves up in the pride of their hearts, unto the wearing of ^cvery fine apparel, unto envying, and strifes, and malice, and persecutions, and all manner of iniquities; and your churches, yea, even every one, have become polluted because of the pride of your hearts.

37 For behold, ye do love ^amoney, and your substance, and your fine apparel, and the adorning of your churches, more than ye love the poor and the needy, the sick and the afflicted.

38 O ye pollutions, ye hypocrites, ye teachers, who sell yourselves for that which will canker, why have ye polluted the holy church of God? Why are ye ^aashamed to take upon you the name of Christ? Why do ye not think that greater is the value of an endless happiness than that ^bmisery which never dies—because of the ^cpraise of the world?

39 Why do ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not?

40 Yea, why do ye build up your ^asecret abominations to get gain, and cause that widows should mourn before the Lord, and also orphans to mourn before the Lord, and also the blood of their fathers and their husbands to cry unto the Lord from the ground, for vengeance upon your heads?

41 Behold, the sword of vengeance hangeth over you; and the time soon cometh that he avengeth the ^ablood of the saints upon you, for he will not suffer their cries any longer.

An Elephant Never Forgets

My soul was aggrieved tonight as my constitutional rights were violated through the passing of this alleged health care legislation. This legislation was not about health care, it was about power. The power of the federal government has astronomically increased not only through the control of 16% of the nation's economy, but through the notion that that the federal government can force, through IRS policing, the people of this nation to buy a good.

Those radical progressives would like to pretend that they have the power to create a right for the people to have access to health insurance regardless of whether they pay for it. Putting their blasphemous suppositions aside in supposing that they are the creators of rights, a right does not exist that guarantees one person access to another person's hard-earned money. The idea of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor has long been a plague upon the people of America.

I was raised to believe that America is the land of opportunity. But that idea took a serious blow tonight when I saw further evidence that the leaders in this country want to punish those that succeed and reward those that fail.

Now we hear tons of sob stories about folks who simply can't afford insurance. I looked up health insurance quotes for an individual at my age of 21, the best selling insurance policy was with United Health One at $131/ month premium, with office visits covered at $25, a $2500 deductible, and 20% coinsurance. That was about the median of all the prices, and is a pretty good plan. Now, the vast majority of Americans can afford $131/month. They might not be able to afford going out to restaurants every week, buying Ipods and trips to Hawaii, or paying at least half that amount in cell phone bills and other luxuries. They might have to make sacrifices and set their priorities in order. But they would be able to afford quality health insurance.

Despite my gross disappointment in the decision the House of Representatives made today, I was proud to see that for their 219 votes in favor of this financial onslaught, 212 valiant congressman, including all the Republican party and and 34 courageous democrats upheld the constitution and stayed true to their oath to sustain it.

In recent times I began to question whether I really wanted to retain my membership in the Republican party. I felt that both of the parties had run rampant in corruption, not standing for the values that I felt they should uphold. Tonight, to my pleasure, the republicans proved me wrong. I can say with fullness of conviction that the republican party has regained my trust in defending the constitution with valor. I am proud to say that I am a republican and that my representatives listen to the American people.

Now what stands for us as an American people, is to remember the valor of those opposed to this bill and the arrogant disregard shown toward the voice of the people shown by those who supported it. The fight is not over. In November we shall hold these congressman accountable for their actions. America is still the greatest nation on this Earth, and no small defeat on our side will discourage us from winning the war.

Silliness

So, I played World of Warcraft today. I haven't played it for a long time, but something I heard some people (most likely 11 year olds) saying while they were killing trolls was this

"The party don't stop till I walk in!"

Yep. I'm pretty sure those aren't the lyrics to the song. It's supposed to say the party don't start till I walk in. But I think they were being a little more honest than they intended.

Shut Your Mouths

Why in the world are we using terrorist attacks to fuel our political agendas? "Oh no, Joseph Stack, the epitome of right-wing terror!"

Really?

I have not read this psycho's suicide manifesto, and I don't intend to. But I know enough to know that he had rants against both political sides, and I know that it doesn't matter.

Why would we use the words of a psychotic murdering terrorist to fuel political attacks on the other side whatever that might be? To me, that is like saying, "Well it's a horrible thing, those World Trade Center towers coming down, but what a wake up call! Bin Laden's tactics were extreme, but boy do I see his point!"

No. They are murderers. No matter how much I dislike someone, I don't plan and execute their deaths. No matter how strongly I feel about my political convictions, I don't resort to violence. As the addage goes: "Violence is not the answer." And neither is excusing it.

Conversations

One of my favorite parts of my job is the conversation I have with my coworkers. We discuss many things including theories on teaching, society, politics, and religion.

Today we got on the subject of the Bible and metaphorical language used within, namely in Revelation and in the parables taught by Christ. My boss and I came to a consensus that Christ used metaphorical language and parables to teach because people learn things one concept at a time - line upon line, and precept upon precept. Those people who were prepared to understand new insights on their own lives did. Others merely heard some silly stories about seeds being sown and some guy burying his money in the ground.

As the conversation went on, I was finally asked what church I go to. I said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - Mormons. What do I see on my boss' desk when he lifts a couple of papers? A copy of The Book of Mormon.

My brain did back flips for a couple of minutes.

We ended up discussing for over an hour after work different religious ideas. Who we are, what we are doing, what God wants us to do with our lives - among other things. My boss is studying what our religion believes - he has studied many religions - and is curious to know what we have to say. I have no idea whether he will accept the gospel or whatnot. I know he already shares the same opinions with a lot of the concepts. If he does end up believing in the gospel, great. If not, at least I enjoy the conversations.

Genius, Duty, Work

President Obama is a genius. Now anyone that knows me very well can tell you that when I refer to geniuses I don't necessarily mean they are good people. The people that invented and implemented the global warming/ going green scam were geniuses. The folks that are trying to rewrite history to show socialist fiends such as Mao, Che, Stalin, and Marx in a good light are geniuses. Momofuku Ando, who invented instant Ramen noodles is a genius.

In his State of the Union address, President Obama emphatically called for a discretionary spending freeze beginning in 2011 for the next three years for everything but military, medicare, and medicaid. Now, this deflects attention from whatever shenanigans the progressives may get up to in the rest of this year, while even if more Republicans gain power in Congress during the November elections, they won't have as much freedom to push their agendas for the remainder of the rest of this administration's term.

One thing that has bothered me for a long time that I noticed a lot in this address was the president's whining and blame shifting. One of my favorite quotes are from Jeffrey R. Holland goes thus:

"No misfortune is so bad that whining about it will not making it worse."

Now, perhaps I am a hypocrite for whining about President Obama and the liberals, but I feel it is part of my duty as a citizen of this country to be informed, mindful, and to actively share my opinions with my fellow citizens. When an administration continuously rehashes the problems caused by any number of their predecessors, using them as a scapegoat, it makes them look worse in my opinion.

Now, I understand that it is tradition for members of Congress to stand and clap when the president announces something they like. I feel bad for those Democrats with bad knees from all their standing and sitting when our president addressed things such as "green" energy, socialized health care, and stimulus bills. I hope there weren't a lot of rehearsals.
Stand here. Now sit. Cheer. Chuckle. Murmur.

Speaking of health care. I realize the liberals have temporarily pushed this to the back burner of their agenda, but I have to ask, why in the world has it come this far? These congressmen that have sworn to uphold and protect the Constitution seem to be either ignorant or defiant of the Tenth Amendment:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Now, how can you possibly support a federally mandated socialized health care system and also adhere to this divinely instituted document? As I previously submitted, it is either by ignorance or evil design. Either of which are unforgivable in my opinion for a person in public office. Nowhere in our Constitution are the American people guaranteed the right to health care. That is like guaranteeing all car owners the right to mechanical service on their vehicles, that if they can't afford it, the government will ensure the taxpayers will help foot the bill. It is absurd.

Folks are working against the Constitution and the foundation of this country. They are attempting to redistribute wealth. President Obama mentioned in regards to education that we should reward success, not failure. Now why is this philosophy not applied to Americans in their financial conditions? Just as we cannot expect students to succeed and progress when poor performance is rewarded, we cannot expect our citizens to succeed and progress when poor performance is rewarded. As Ben Franklin said, "I think the best way of doing good to the poor is not making them easy in poverty but leading or driving them out of it. "

Come on, America. You can not just sit around and expect someone to give you a hand out. You are not entitled to a living. As our own Lord said in the book of Genesis: In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread.