Thank You Glenn Beck

I think it was two days ago that I posted a sweet video that made me feel really good because many states are joining in a law suit against the health care bill. I really liked it because it made it so blatantly clear that the health care bill is in violation of the Commerce Clause of the Constitution (Article 1, Section 8) because it forces people to spend their money on insurance or be fined for it. The government cannot force people to spend their money. That's wrong. Anyways, it seemed to be so obviously in violation of this that I felt real good because I thought, "No way is this going to last." Well, the long and short of it turned out to be that, although it made me feel good, it didn't make quite the most interesting blog post. 

This video, on the other hand, does. It's like 20 mins long, and I don't expect anyone to actually watch it. (Though, of course, I fully endorse such an enterprise). I found it while searching for materials to support (and moreover, put into words, as I could not clearly articulate) my opinion. And so, having found materials and becoming thoroughly enlightened, I here extend my thanks to none other than Glenn Beck. You're awesome. 

And now, without further ado, the video: 

Sad Songs

I've been thinking repeatedly over the past couple of months how much I like sad songs. Maybe this is because you get all the emotion of being sad crammed into about four minutes, and you get something like an emotional release (although I only rarely am actually pushed to tears). You also get the added satisfaction of emotional upheaval without actually having anything to be legitimately sad about. The current sad-song favorite is The Dance by Garth Brooks.



Ironically, after listening to that song a couple of times, I turned my iTunes on shuffle and pulled up On An Evening in Roma by Dean Martin. From The Lizzie McGuire Movie. And I'm pretty well enjoying it. I mean, as much as a person can enjoy a peppy, slightly silly song after listening to such words as "Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain, but I'd have had to miss the dance." The transition didn't work too well, I must say. But whatever. I like emotions a lot more than I like other things. They're kind of fascinating, kind of awesome, ya know. Life is good. I only have one class today. Muahahahahaha. :)

Things I See on Facebook

I love the things people say on Facebook. Here are a few of my favorites from this morning (with, of course, commentary):

"Xbox 360s are so bad, that when you see one, you do a 360 and walk away."

Oh really? You do a 360 and walk away? Good thing that when you do a 360, you end up facing the same way you started... So good luck walking away. 

"mmm chocolate for breakfast, dressing like a hippy just because i can and justin beiber singing his heart out for me ♥ . its gonna be a good day :)"

I actually think the person who wrote this one is a pretty chill girl. I just don't know how having a "16 year old" infant sing about how he's going to love you forever and how he's going to take you to the prom can possibly lead to a good day. 

"Save Clippy! I want my Microsoft office assistant back so I can write letters again. Join the fan page Save clippy to bring him back"

Again, cool person. But seriously, I hate "Clippy." That had to be the single most annoying feature of Microsoft Word that ever did exist. 


And now we come to the one that really got me fired up this morning. 

"Person thinks her family is lucky that they get to live in Europe for the next 2 1/2+ years and not have to deal with this health care crap. Except it'll probably be worse by the time it gets back :/ 

        Her Mom we deal with the health care "garbage" every time we go to the Dr's! That's why we are so against it!! We've been dealing with g'vernment politico run healthcare the whole time while in the AF. So now, everyone else gets to have the fun of living with it;o

        Other Person your a** can say nothing against the health care. The AF has covered your's and my a**es since birth. There are people out there who need it badly. I thought Jesus preached helping the poor but obviously y'all have lost his teaching long ago."

Mmmmmmk. This is going to take a bit. To say it again, this girl is great. So is her mom. The third person ... not so much. But basically I really have some opinions I need to type up before I speak them and offend a friend ... Haha. Okay. Here goes: 
(1) Europe is like socialized health care central. So they're definitely dealing with it. 
(2) YIt probably WILL be worse in the coming years. Hey thanks, politicians for making future generations deal with the sucky consequences of your stupid actions.
(3) Oh, military health care. Heck to the yes, it sucks. So, I am a pretty moral person. I'm not trying to ruin the government or waste people's time or money. But let me tell you, when I had a horrible cold for a couple of weeks, you can bet that I went to the doctor and got cough suppressants (second only to codeine!) even though I probably could have just dealt with it by getting stuff off the shelf at Wal-Mart. Why? Because when you can get stuff for free, you take (unnecessary) advantage of it. Can you imagine what life is going to be like when people have absolutely no incentive to try to get better without the help of a doctor? 
(4) **MORAL HAZARD ALERT** People have no incentive to try to be safe if they don't have to pay for the consequences. "Hey, I think I might break a bone today. Idk. Might be fun. I can get a hot pink cast for free. Whooo let's go!!!" 
(5) (Okay seriously other person? Why you gotta use the profanity?) And yes. There should be a safety net for people who aren't capable of paying for their own insurance, like mentally handicapped people and stuff like that. Those people need a safety net. It's the people who are just lazy and live off their disability checks and their food stamps and stuff because they don't HAVE to work to keep themselves alive. That's just stupid. And don't give me crap like those people don't exist. They do. I've met them. And I've seen their squalid little abodes. I'm not making crap up. 
(6) I'm pretty sure that taking money from people, siphoning off as much as they need to to pay for all the administrative aspects of the whole system, and then distributing whatever is left to the needy populace is NOT THE SAME as people giving money of their own free will. I mean, if we're gonna go doctrinal here, let's go full-out doctrinal. If the purpose of this life is to become like Christ, and/or like God, then the best way to help people do that is to let them have as much of their money as they can have so that they can give as much of it as possible to the poor and needy. If you just take their money from them, that's not making anybody a better person. Especially not the fools involved in making this whole thing happen who are just lining their pockets with people's hard earned income. Furthermore, it's so much better for people to get help through non-profit organizations (like the LDS Church) because 100% of the donation goes to those in need. (P.S. The government is NOT the same as Robin Hood. Mostly because the government lacks morals and steals from everyone except each other.)
(7) "Y'all have lost this teaching" Oh yeah. That's why the LDS Church is always the first on the ground with disaster relief, and the single most efficiently run charitable organization in the world. Clearly we have lost the teaching. It's not as though we have helping the poor and needy written into the mission of the Church. Nope. Nothing like that. 
(8) I hate to be a textbook, but socialist healthcare destroys self-interest as a motivator for people to excel at their work. So thank you, Obama, for when I need to go see an REI, and there aren't any because no one sees any reason to put more money into their education so they can get more money on the other end. No one's going to want to specialize in anything anymore, and the only way that we'll have people who specialize is if you force people to specialize. Freedom? Ah, who needs it? Just tell me what you want me to do Mr. President. Now pardon me while I throw up in your shoes. NEWSFLASH: People are selfish,  mmk pumpkin? 


Okay. Well I've about reached my anger capacity for the day. I'll now move on, listen to some relaxing music, and pretend like our government isn't trying to make our day to day lives a living hell. This is what I keep telling myself: 

"Happiness does not depend upon what happens outside of you, but on what happens inside of you. It is measured by the spirit with which you meet the problems of life." —SWK

Romantic Movies

I think I need to start appreciating a different genre of film more than I appreciate romantic movies because I just get to darn wrapped up in them. I just love them too much and they make me want things I can't have (at least temporarily) like weddings and boyfriends and sneaky kisses ;)

So I see two solutions to my problem here. (1) Get a boyfriend. Or a fiancé. (2) Stop watching romantic movies.

Well, let's just point out that I'm way too immature to be getting a fiancé, and I'm no where near having a boyfriend at this moment in time. So #1 is not really a viable option. As for #2, I don't think I have the moral strength to stay away from romantic movies, so that's not really going to work. Which means I only have Option #3 left. What is Option #3, you ask? Let me tell you.

Option #3 is to continue to drown myself in the abyss that is romance whilst leaving all my fantasies unfulfilled, and/or resorting to the hope of merely dreaming of such an incandescent romance. Which is pretty much what I've been doing since I discovered that I liked boys when I was about seven years old and I had a crush on Robert Schwartz.

Whelp. Methinks it is time to get some shuteye. And who knoweth but that the Sandman shall bestow upon me sweet dreams of love and happiness. Would that I could sleep all day with such dreams, and not be awoken until such a time cometh as Prince Charming is prepared to walk into my life! Alas, perhaps tis nobler to suffer the drudgery of being a single lady, that thus I may that much more appreciate the approach of such a prince. Time shall, one day, this story tell ...

Yeah. It's really time for me to go to bed. Shutting up commences ... NOW :)

Sunshine Sure Looks Good on You

What a start to a week!! And, no, I do not mean Monday. Mondays are lame, aside from the fact that it finally looks beautiful outside again today :)

The start to the week that I'm talking about is Sheri Dew's AWESOME fireside last night. It was just so good. I feel much more motivated, and it's great. I'm officially cutting Bejeweled Blitz and Tetris out of my life. Sad, but I am doing it. It sucks away my life, and does nothing good for me. So, if anyone sees me playing those games, I give you full permission to gently (but purposefully!) slap me (preferably on the back or something and not on the face... ouch) and tell me to cut it out. I'm also taking up her challenge to hold my tongue. If I start nit picking at people, tell me to shut up. Please and thank you :)

One thing that shocked me about her talk was how much she hates being single. I mean, I did NOT expect that from her at all. I thought she'd either just not mention it, or she'd tell us that she's learned to deal with it. Nope. She said it's miserable and that we should get married. If that didn't scare the crap out of me, I don't know what would. I do NOT want to be single for the rest of my life. Haha.

In other news, I found out about a fun paper I have due next week, and a couple of tests this week—American Heritage and Book of Mormon. I am trying to read American Heritage ... I meant to read so much more this weekend that it's kind of depressing how much I actually DID get done. And then I mean to read in between classes today, but that didn't really happen because this morning as I was packing my stuff up, I realized that I had an entire chapter of French to do in addition to eating lunch, which takes like half an hour. With the 35 or so minutes that remained before French, I tried to read on the stupid JKB benches outside my classroom, but they're so danged uncomfortable, and I was suddenly overcome with exhaustion. A heavy-lunch-induced coma, if you will. I could hardly read, and could barely sit up I wanted to lay down so bad. It was a fletching nightmare. Not really, but as far as frustrating-ness (wanting to sleep or work and not being able to do either) it was pretty high on my list so far this week.

Good story ... apparently VP was out in Brigham Square this afternoon. Probably because they have a concert coming up on Thursday (or Friday? Idk.) While I will probably not go to the actual concert, I might get a chance to run into The Date Who Has Fallen Off the Face of the Planet. :)

Sidenote: Googling quotes is not cheating. It is leveling the playing field. Just in case you were wondering. Haha. :)

So I have three new favorite songs. Reference the blog "The Green Wedding Shoes" for the playlist from which two of these three songs come from. I will start from the bottom of the three and work up to my super favorite that I just cannot resist right now. Goodness it would be nice to be completely in love with somebody ... haha. Okay. The list!

3. Two is Better Than One -- Boys Like Girls ft. Taylor Swift.

This song is just good. Sigh. It's so teenage-love-y and I love it.

2. Better than Love -- Griffin House

So Griffin House totally sounds like the random juxtaposition of words to make a band name. But this is one guy. And that's his name. How cool is that? Griffin House!I love it. Also, this song is SO cute. It has a very Juno-y sound to it, I think. Another song by Griffin House that rocks is "The Guy That Says Goodbye to You."

1. When You've Got a Good Thing -- Lady Antebellum

Teen pop-y love songs got NOTHING on country love songs. They are SO much better. Country singers take love much more seriously I think. They're much more into the eternal view of love. I love the phrases "the sunshine sure looks good on you" and "there's gonna be some ups and downs but with you to wrap my arms around, I'm fine" but I only love them fractionally more than every other line of the song, so I don't know how much it really matters that they're my favorites . But seriously, I want someone to wrap my arms around... haha. Lady Antebellum is the bomb-diggity of my world right now. And you should definitely listen to this song.

So yeah. I should probably get on to some studying and stuff right now. I do kind of have more to do than I would ever want to do ... Oh college...

Feminism

I am so sick of reading feminist garbage. Especially here at BYU. You'd think that people would realize that intense feminism doesn't mesh well with ... oh, I dunno ... The Proclamation on the Family.

And I'm definitely bothered that my English 295 professor thinks that a stupid "coming of age" book by a feminist science fiction author should be handed out with the For the Strength of Youth pamphlets. Or when she says, "I'd like to have a chat with Tommy Monson about that." EXCUSE ME? You're at odds with something the PROPHET is saying? Hm. Well. That doesn't bode well for your eternal salvation. At least, this is how it seems to me when I regard certain religiously significant historical texts. Like the Bible. Book of Mormon. That kind of stuff. But that's totally your call, professor.

It's not that I'm opposed to progression and rights for women. Women deserve rights. We should have equal value alongside men. Where I start to diverge with feminism is in regards to traditional vs. modern roles. Women belong in the home. Not because they're less qualified in the workplace, but because they are more qualified in the home. And let's not ignore the fact that there's this whole concept of children needing to be raised ... yeah. Kind of important. I mean, if a woman has to be in the workplace, then she ought to get the same pay for the same work a man would do, that kind of stuff ... but ... you know what I'm saying.

I'm just so confused as to why my professors seem to be such staunch feminists .... and members of the Church. I feel like that's something you can't straddle for very long without jumping off one side. I'm lost. But more than lost, I'm annoyed. Very annoyed with having feminism shoved down my throat like an old, stinky sock. Poo on you feminism.

We Could Write a Book

I think I really need to get over believing that there is a decent explanation out there for everything, and not just any explanation, but one that's in line with what I want. It's probably not out there.

I also really need to get over this cold ... it's grossing me out. I keep sneezing all over myself, and I don't know how to stop it. Either I am having horrendous sinus pressure/headaches, or I am taking Sudafed and my nose is running all over the place and I'm Sneezy, incarnate. Sounds delicious, eh?

I'm over thinking, over analyzing. I need to stop. Take a breather. Things will work. And if they don't, then there's something better on the horizon, and not just quasi-proposals (for lack of a superior term) from inebriated young men... Hah.

On the bright side of life, I didn't do my hair this morning, or put on fresh makeup, besides some blush. It's all the same crap from yesterday. Muahaha. Sneaky, eh?

I need to call my mom. I'm going to do that now.

--Kayla