Day16 Tuesday 09/14/10

The final Primary Elections are being held today for the mid-term elections. It is too early for many of the results but I can say that the Tea Party-backed Delaware candidate Christine O’Donnell has officially secured the majority of votes for that state. This Tea Party movement that has swept across America really is amazing and they have demonstrated the power of the people. However, there is a huge risk with their intentions. As much as I admire their merit and determination, the GOP is not backing most of the Tea Party-backed candidates, which could easily result in relative splits among republicans leaving democrats a huge advantage of not having to eclipse another competitive liberal. So there is a Tea Party candidate, a government backed republican, and one single government backed democrat all vying for the win. The two conservatives could easily divide the votes they need to defeat the democrat, giving he or she a default victory and people like you and me a shot in the foot. It is a risky maneuver but it speaks volumes of how fed up Americans are with not only democrats but republicans, too. This schism the Tea Party-backers have wedged into the GOP is a huge statement and I am all for it. Although we may possibly shoot ourselves in the foot by dividing the number of votes needed to overcome the current liberal majority, I have every confidence that the millions upon millions of people in this country who are fed up with the past two years will find a way to rise above this poor administration one way or another.

It will be a historic moment that we all get to be a part of if the House and Senate get flipped upside down on November 2. Hopefully conservatives can pull this off one way or another. At this point, I would take a crash test dummy over any democrat in office or any potential runner for a liberal seat. But it would be a defining moment in history, as important as any other epic pebble of sand in American history, since the hard-fought conception of this country, if the Tea Party pulls this victory off, obliterating the stains and residual of what American politics have somehow become despite the abundant disapproval of so many tens of millions of Americans who simply want to be left alone to succeed and be happy without a government getting in their way.

I ran 2.6 miles today and it felt great. There are no signs of letting up any time soon and I don’t think there ever will be as long as Barack Obama is President of the United States of America. I have never felt so inspired to fight for this country as I do now and I will not relent until Obama’s last mile is run against him.

2,043.8 miles to go.

Day15 Monday 09/13/10

I ran 3.2 miles today. I have surpassed the soreness transition and my breathing is adapting to the challenge. I find that Sundays are my weakest runs and Mondays are my strongest. That may have something to do with drinking too much beer on Saturdays, whereas I am certain that the success of Mondays is attributed to the sense of urgency I have to start each week with a big number.

The purpose this blog serves, as I have explained, is to help get Obama out of the White House in 2012. As monumental of a victory as that would be, what happens next, though? I have always listened only half-heartedly to other peoples’ grievances and let their unrests go unacknowledged due to the fact that for all of their complaints they would offer no solution. Anyone can stand on a soapbox and complain about everything under the sun, but to offer a solution, regardless of whether it is agreeable or not, is something that wears on the reticence of any listener. I now find myself guilty of protesting too much without a solution other than to elect someone else.

This week I will gather my thoughts and try to earn the time you spend reading these posts by presenting solutions. They may not be agreeable or brilliant but it is the least any reader deserves. There is nothing worse than a person who complains only for the sake of complaining and I do not want to be that guy.

Coincidentally, the President of the United States of America is the last person any American citizen wants to see on a soapbox complaining about his problems and blaming everyone else except for the people he appointed to be in control of solutions for the shortcomings we face. His solutions are new problems. He has stimulated our economy with monopoly money that our children and grandchildren are going to have to pay back with American dollars. He wants to tax the mildly rich all the way up to the extravagantly wealthy. None of this makes sense. The economy is reaping no reward in proportion to the unprinted money he is pumping into it, if he gets his wish to tax the way he chooses then he will force much of America’s wealthy citizens and the businesses they own to go to other countries, his Health Care plan is a proven failure everywhere that its model has been used, and, for God’s sake, will you just show us your Birth Certificate?

My impression of Barack Obama is that he wants to create a level playing field for all Americans, which is also level with other countries. He wants national and, ultimately, global equality where perseverance, talent, desire and will are all replaced by reliance on government, mediocrity, idleness and self-defeat. His vision is a utopia and it is deeply disappointing that in the twenty-first century a president of the greatest country ever would believe so ardently in the proven failure, which is Communism.

So what now?

2,046.4 miles to go.

Day14 Sunday 09/12/10

Today makes two weeks. My average for the second week is 2.50 miles per day. My total average for the past two weeks is 2.17 miles per day. After running 30.4 miles over the past two weeks I can honestly say the only thing I regret is the lack of endurance I possessed to have not run or typed more.

“The man who is capable of steering a clear course through it, who can perceive under the chaos presented by every vital situation the hidden anatomy of the movement, the man, in a world, who does not lose himself in life, that is the man with the really clear head. Take stock of those around you and you will see them wandering about lost through life, like sleep-walkers in the midst of their good or evil fortune, without the slightest suspicion of what is happening to them. You will hear them talk in precise terms about themselves and their surroundings, which would seem to point them having ideas on the matter. But start to analyze those ideas and you will find that they hardly reflect in any way the reality to which they appear to refer, and if you go deeper you will discover that there is not even an attempt to adjust the ideas to this reality. Quite the contrary: through these notions the individual is trying to cut off any personal vision of reality, of his own very life. For life is the start of a chaos in which one is lost. The individual suspects this, but he is frightened at finding himself face to face with this terrible reality, and tries to cover it over with a curtain of fantasy, where everything is clear. It does not worry him that his “ideas” are not true, he uses them as trenches for the defense of his existence, as scarecrows to frighten away reality.

The man with the clear head is the man who frees himself from those “fantastic” ideas and looks life in the face, realizes that everything in it is problematic, and feels himself lost. As this is the simple truth---that to live is to feel oneself lost---he who accepts it has already begun to find himself, to be on firm ground. Instinctively, as do the shipwrecked, he will look round for something to which to cling, and that tragic, ruthless glance, absolutely sincere, because it is a question of his salvation, will cause him to bring order into the chaos of his life.”

That was written by Jose Ortega Y Gasset (“The Revolt of the Masses”) and it gleams with truth in terms of digging deep and asking yourself, “What is real?”

He wrote that in 1930 and here we are in 2010 still wondering what role we have on Earth as individual human beings. Everyone acts cool and confident as though we all actually know what we are doing here with our lives, but do we? Greatness is not something you find; it is something that is thrust upon you when you least expect it. We, as Americans, have an opportunity to harness greatness in November and to turn Washington, DC upside down with sense. America has arrived at a fork in the road in which it is either going to continue to be America or it will cease to be America. The choice is ours and greatness is extending its hand to every American who is blessed enough to be alive right here and right now.

2,049.6 miles to go.

Day13 Saturday 09/11/10

Before I do anything else and once again forget this thought, President Obama was quoted last week as saying, “They treat me like a dog,” or something of that nature, and the words he spoke were a quote from a Jimmy Hendrix song, which is neither here nor there, but, he was referring to his Republican counterparts in the House and Senate as treating him like a dog. As I’ve stated before, I am no ardent fan of Conservatives but I do advocate their being a lesser evil to the wellbeing of this country. Therefore, it is infuriating to me to hear such an uncreative and desperate comment like that from a man who fills the seat of President of this great country. What is really sad is that I think he honestly believes it when, more than likely, it is a simple truth that Republicans will not give him an inch edgewise because they disagree with his intentions and the constituents that so many Senators and House members represent don’t want his vision either. My point is, Barack Obama is not being discriminated against or treated disrespectfully because of his personality; it is because the majority of people disagree with him and fears the direction he is taking America into. His ideas are not shut down because Republicans and everyday American citizens are bullies. We just completely disagree with him. It is as simple as that. If my dog could somehow speak to me and posit some of the intentions Barack Obama has for this country I would press and rub his nose into the proverbial urine he was dispelling on my red, white and blue carpet to let him know that his actions were unacceptable. Now that that thought has come full-circle, perhaps he was right to say he was being treated like a dog. Come November, he will be locked up in the bathroom until he is trained to behave like his American family. After all, no president is our King, Monarch or Despot. He is our servant and we are his masters. Barack Obama and his democratic entourage have bit their master’s hand and November will hopefully be a meaningful result of discipline towards misbehavior.

September 11, 2001.






















Silence.

2,051.6 miles to go.

Day12 Friday 09/10/10

I lightened up on my distance today. I managed 2.3 miles and it felt good. The Saints beat Minnesota last night and the simple fact that today is Friday had my adrenalin flowing. I may actually meet my desired weekly average this week and be on budget for my quota despite how taxing this process is.

Nine years ago tomorrow two airplanes flew into the twin towers in New York City killing thousands of Americans and making rubble of two immense symbols of American strength and ambition. Bending like steel beams all of our fears and ways of life were turned upside down and inside out in an instant.

Now a mosque is to be built in that sacred spot. Religious freedom in America is an imperative of our constitution, but this particular situation lacks reciprocation in respect and couth on the part of the Muslims who want to build this place of worship. To use the religious persecution card here is such a weak cop-out and to cite freedom of religion in America as a reason to build a mosque on the doorsteps of what was once the World Trade Center Towers is both conniving and menacing like a teenager that found a loophole with which to slant his parents’ rules. It comes down to this: There is no way any American would go to the Middle East and build a church of any religion you would like to choose next to or on sacred Muslim ground. Dome of the Rock with a Christian church next to it? Mecca with a life-size statue of L. Ron Hubbard along its walls? We accept everyone in America. You can put a Church of Scientology, a Jewish Synagogue, a Muslim Mosque, a Baptist Church, a Buddhist Temple, and an Atheist Meeting Hall of Disbelief on one single street when you are in America because that is how tolerant and understanding we are of religious freedom. In countries where Islam is the predominant religion these occurrences do not happen often. It is because they are intolerant and insensitive to other peoples’ beliefs and ways of life. The people who are behind building this Mosque at Ground Zero are being disrespectful of what happened there nine years ago and taking advantage of our tolerance to religion.

People come to America from all over the world and many of the countries they come from are in complete shambles. They come to America to start a new life and they usually succeed if they are naturalized just like anybody else would. But then, all of a sudden, a phenomenon occurs, in which many of these new citizens find it necessary to impose their beliefs and their culture, from the home country they just left to save their own lives, because it is completely cantankerous and fatally dangerous, on America and its longtime citizens because apparently they are so proud of their completely dysfunctional roots that they seem to want to make America into their own homeland of discontentment, which is ironically what they were trying to escape in hope of finding opportunity, which they have found and are apparently now unhappy with.

In America, a man in Gainesville, Florida threatened to burn copies of the Koran tomorrow. And it appears that he is going to change his decision after much coercing. In Afghanistan, they chose to go ahead and burn American flags and copies of the Bible, skipping threats all together. This is the dichotomy between America and so many other countries. So many naturalized immigrants, and illegal immigrants, leave one cruel and inhumane environment to come to America, the land of opportunity, and then they wave their flags and speak their languages so proudly as though they were in this country against their will and yearned to return to their original home. Now more than ever, and more and more everyday, nothing seems to make any sense in this country.

2,054.2 miles to go.

Day11 Thursday 09/09/10

Six people I know were laid off today as a direct result of the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. That number is a drop in the bucket compared to what lay offs and furloughs are going on in the rest of Louisiana and other southern states, but it hits you even harder when it’s people you know.

I completely understand that these things happen in every industry and in every state and in many various forms of unfairness, but this moratorium is a clenched hand slowly choking the life out of Louisiana. Every day that this moratorium continues is crucial. If the companies that own these rigs send them to South America, which is likely to happen, then two or three year long leases could be signed, leaving little to nothing for Louisiana drilling. Even if Obama lifts the moratorium it could easily be too late. And it will be a slap in the face to this entire country if he uses this action as political maneuvering to make himself look good for re-election when it is a completely bogus deed because everything Louisiana needs to drill has already been contracted elsewhere.

I am admittedly unqualified and not educated enough to fully assess this moratorium situation fully. I have no qualms about confessing that I hardly have a right to have just explained to you the possibility that rigs, which are usually in the Gulf of Mexico may be in South America for two or three years. I would be the last person you would want to quote on this topic. But I do have eyes and ears. I see lives being turned upside down and I hear a lot of disdain and disapproval. I read and hear news stories all with the same sentiment that this moratorium is wrong. I think we can all agree, regardless of any differences one may have with another politically or ideologically, that Barack Obama is one of the richest hues of green there is and that he is obviously very much against coal and oil as an energy resource. But this moratorium is an abuse of power similar to what a juvenile bully might use as a tactic to get what he wants as quickly and as unfairly as possible. I don’t know much about the coal industry, except for Obama’s dislike of it, but I know a bit about oil and how much of a vital resource it is for Louisiana. Phasing oil out would take a long, long time in a civilized world if the ones doing the phasing actually cared about the wellbeing of the people it was trying to help by not destroying the lives they had previously known in a matter of months.

I ran 3.2 grueling miles again today fueled only by pure frustration and an utter sense of helplessness. In my head all I could think to say over and over again as a mantra to keep me going was “Don’t stop. Don’t stop.” Left, right, left, right. “Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”

2,056.5 miles to go.

Day10 Wednesday 09/08/10

I matched my mileage from yesterday, 3.2 miles, but it was not nearly as smooth as yesterday. It is odd how one day can feel so good and the next day can be a torture. This new investment in my health, which Barack Obama has inspired me to begin, has me feeling absolutely phenomenal and empowered. I have more energy, I feel more focused, and I don’t eat or drink half of the unhealthy things I was consuming two weeks ago.

Thank you, President Obama, for driving me to run against your policies, your actions, and your desire to level this country into an even playing field of mediocrity. Thank you for your lack of experience and your pretentious ability to actually believe you could turn this country into something it’s not. Thank you for your birth certificate. Thank you for Reverend Jeremiah Wright. There is just so much to be thankful for. There are no words to express the fact that there is no way I would have ever taken this challenge on under any other circumstances that I can imagine.

Our generation stands on the shoulders of giants, the generations before us stood on the shoulders of giants, and the generations after us will stand on our shoulders as long as we continue to tower as a nation. One of the most inspiring and meaningful passages I have ever read is John Adam’s “Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law” written in 1765. Just to type that date and to think about its composition raises the hair on my arms.

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right, from the frame of their nature, to knowledge, as their great Creator, who does nothing in vain, has given them understandings, and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge; I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers. Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents, and trustees, for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust, is insidiously betrayed, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys, and trustees. And the preservation of the means of knowledge among the lowest ranks is of more importance to the public than all the property of all the rich men in the country…

Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write. Let every order and degree among the people rouse their attention and animate their resolution.”

This document reads a bit further but this portion encapsulates what role our government should play and it identifies the fact that the people being governed have every right to be heard and listened to. Obama’s administration and the left fight to pass bills that the clear majority of American citizens do not want, at least according to polls, pertaining to health care, stimulus packages and immigration issues. We the people were not asked to vote on Health Care but I speculate that if the House and Senate did not have the ability to do whatever they chose that it never would have passed in any shape or form resembling what it is.

2,059.7 miles to go.

Day9 Tuesday 09/07/10

The big story in the news today features a friendly neighborhood pastor out of Gainesville, Florida who intends to burn copies of the Koran from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on September 11, 2010. He has deemed the day “International Burn A Koran Day”. Thank you Reverend Terry Jones for representing Caucasian Americans on a world stage in a dim light of ignorance and persecution-style reasoning. Are your lynch mobs plotting within the walls of your church for the next big move? This man of God has also authored a book titled “Islam is of the Devil”. Check out his website at islamisofthedevil.com. Among many controversial, untoward views you can also order coffee mugs and t-shirts, which proclaim his message. Not only is this not what Jesus would do, but it is Reverend Terry Jones bullying religious freedom and being completely un-American by allowing his zealous pride to blind him from reason and the incomparable fairness America is supposed to flourish in. So thank you Terry Jones for taking matters into your own hands and representing all of America with your shallow attempt at some source of glory that I, and I can only hope most others, cannot understand.

Coincidentally, I was reading about this Terry Jones article on a CBS website and one of the top stories was about Mike Tyson. The headline was “I wish I had smoked weed with Tupac.” That’s refreshing front page news. In other news I am happy to see that the Democrats are falling further and further away heading into the November election. If reality resembles anything remotely close to the news and polls, which it rarely ever does, then pink slips will be flying in a breeze of monumental American history. I don’t know what the record is for voting out the most senators and representatives in one single election, but this election has the potential to shatter any sort of record that may exist.

Today’s run was a huge success. I broke through some kind of barrier that had been in front of me up until today. My breathing was calm and my legs did not ache. I ran 3.2 miles and I actually felt like I could have run a bit more.

2,062.9 miles to go.

Day8 Monday 09/06/10

Today is the third day of the Labor Day weekend. I ran only one measly mile today. Not a good start to playing catch up. I seem to have forgotten how strenuous it is to run the morning after drinking a lot of beer the night before. My sister-in-law got engaged recently so she and her future husband came into town and we had a barbecue. Her fiancé and I got to know one another better this weekend by consuming as much beer as we could and playing ping-pong. This is a nice platform for two men to get to know each other and to bond. After much smack talk and chest beating we agreed that being brother-in-laws would be perfectly fine.

I am going to have to go for broke soon and at least accomplish 2.62 miles just once to get my body prepared for my mind’s expectations. Maybe tomorrow will be the day. I have observed that the natural process of soreness from running begins with the ankles for a couple of days. Then the ankles become accustomed, leading up to the calves feeling as stiff as rusted gears for a few days. And then, just as the calves and knees get situated in their new predicament, the hamstrings and the quads ache with fury. I have to hope that my muscles are situating from the bottom to the top and that they no longer ache after the glutes.

2,066.1 miles to go.

Day7 Sunday 09/05/10

Today marks one whole week of running every single day and I am both reluctant and curious to see how far behind I am on maintaining my average of 2.62 miles per day. I ran 1.9 miles today and that makes a total of 12.9 miles that I ran for the week. 12.9 divided by a week is 1.84 miles. So I need to average 0.78 more miles per day and I need to catch up on the mileage deficit I have created for myself in this first week.

I am kind of excited about the deficit I have to get rid of. I blame no one but myself and I intend to take it on one day at a time. I am going to have to re-prioritize the things that I hold as important and conform to the most efficient path possible of not only overcoming my deficit but to have extra miles to put in the bank over the course of this term.

Now, if I were Barack Obama I would more than likely blame others for the short comings in my mileage, I would blame my shoes for being too heavy and my t-shirt for not being breathable enough or sweat absorbent enough for the task before me. Then I, as Barack Obama, would probably pay the parties responsible for this atrocity every penny I had to make lighter shoes and more moisture resistant t-shirts so that I, Barack Obama, could achieve the goal I promised everybody I would achieve. But I am not Barack Obama and I do take full responsibility for my faults. And I will also work as hard as I can to achieve my goal with no excuses. If I do not achieve the goals I have laid out for this campaign then I implore you to lose all credibility in me and to never re-elect to invest time in my ideas again or to consider my intentions as worthy.

I hope the same judgment will be passed on Barack Obama in November of 2012 and, more importantly, on our Senate and House of Representatives in November of 2010.

2,067.1 miles to go.

Day6 Saturday 09/04/10

“No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.”

This is a quote that I think at least a few people will recognize. If you don’t recognize it then I’ll put it in multiple-choice form. Albert Einstein, Jim Morrison, or Edgar Allen Poe.

I ran 2.3 miles today. I am going to have to start running two or three times a day on the weekends until I can stretch my stamina more. I am already falling behind my daily average and I am not going to get accustomed to 2.62 miles everyday any time soon.

“No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn.”

This quote belongs to Jim Morrison and it is one the best quotes I have ever read. I interpret it as an urgency to seize every day and to react because in this life you live each day only once. And without stepping on the toes of any certain religions, the quote expresses the notion that regardless of what God you believe in, no matter what doctrines or tenets you value, and regardless of what eternity you see your soul commingling in the great ether with forever, no eternal reward will justify the gift of life and the simple opportunity to live, right here and right now, being neglected or squandered by lack of desire or fear of failure to succeed. I believe that real happiness and contentment is directly proportional to the large sum of failures that precede it.

Having said that, the other strength this quote has is an arbitrary reference to no one particular religion. I, as everyone else, have my own strong beliefs and disbeliefs in the hundreds of different religions that exist around the world and I have come to realize that religion and conviction in different beliefs has been the primary source of war even preceding the bible.

Religion is a very thin sheet of ice to skate on and even as I type these words I wonder what misconstrued opinions might be balled up like a clay form and reshaped by another’s thoughts and interpretations. It is common sense to me that religious beliefs should not be persecuted and it is a humble matter of manners that we should not argue over religion or start wars on their behalf.

Now, having said all of this, America is a monumental beacon of religious freedom. Our Constitution, with great heart and mind, made it that way. But America is also a democracy, which means that majority rules.
The mosque in New York City that might be built next to the void left by the crumbling of the World Trade Center Towers nearly a decade ago is one of the pettiest misuses of religion for political maneuvering I have ever seen. Yes, Muslims do have the right to build mosques and to worship freely, just as every other religion does, but for them to build at this site is absurd and a slap in the face to how weak and unengaged our leaders are when issues arise that may require stepping on a few toes. They could build that mosque anywhere…and they are going to build it there?! It is political maneuvering and yet another opportunity for America to get down on its hands and knees to apologize for being so great.

I would never go to Baghdad in Iraq or Mashhad in Iran to start breaking ground on a Catholic church or to erect a statue of a saint right next to a site they deem highly important and spiritual. Aside from the obvious fatal danger surrounding the idea of doing that, I simply would not do it because it is disrespectful to those people and their beliefs. There overwhelming majority is Muslim and I would have the decency to not impose my beliefs on them. Therefore, it is an obvious decision to me for whoever it is making the decisions in New York that this is very wrong.

2,069.0 miles to go.

Day5 Friday 09/03/10

I wanted to stop so badly today about halfway through my run. I ran the furthest so far accomplishing 2.2 miles. I was excited to get started and felt good, immediately followed by the sensation of extremely heavy legs and breathing that was more rapid than usual so early on. But I did not stop and that is what is important. I am having trouble obtaining the average daily mileage of 2.62 miles I had set for myself.

I am really excited about documenting this whole process and having a venue to express myself through writing. I am no political scientist or politician and I have never paid much attention to modern politics until recently. But the one thing I do know is that I feel helpless and frustrated, unlike any other time in my life. Running everyday makes me feel like I am making the statement, “Hey, Washington, DC, I know you won’t listen to me or anyone else, even though we are screaming in unison, but can you hear me now? Can you hear me? Can you please tell me why the overwhelming majority of Americans do not want most of the bills you keep passing and the changes you keep making? By completely ignoring our opinions are you suggesting that I and the other tens of millions of American citizens who disagree with you are automatically classified as too stupid and incompetent to think for ourselves and to express those ideas?”

“What’s that you say?”

“Oh, okay, you do think that we are all idiots who serve no real use in the department of our own well being. Okay, well I am going to run 2.62 miles every day for over two years and write about it because you are really kind of freaking me out, Washington.”

I have no real plan here with what I am doing. Here is fair warning to much rambling, jumpiness from one subject to another, and raw lack of expertise in political journalism and blogging. All I can do is speak from my heart with the urgent belief that others feel the same way that I do. I simply feel driven to do it. And at the end of the day, if this amazing country should ever become anything different from what it has always been, fundamentally, at least I can say that I did something, as small as it is, to fight Obama, his administration, and his change.

2,071.3 miles to go.

Day4 Thursday 09/02/10

I woke up at five o’ clock this morning to run. I was pretty tired and only pulled off 1.3 miles. It was the first time in a decade, if I had to guess, that I woke up before work to run. I am really feeling exhausted now that I am well into the fourth evening. It is 9:22 p.m. and I just got home from a fantasy football draft. I took the initiative to wake up early to run this morning because it would not have been feasible to do so after the draft. As I mentioned yesterday, I am dedicated to the goal I have set and this is one example of how my time and daily routines are changing. Only four days in and I realize that the smallest things are going to have to be negotiated and re-routed to conform to pumping my legs on asphalt and typing blog posts.

Another offshore accident occurred today in Louisiana’s gulf. It was a platform, nothing the size or capacity of the Horizon you have been reading about in the news, and it was a much smaller scale accident. Don’t quote me on this but from what I have heard in the news today no oil was spilled and, more importantly, there were no fatalities. We will have to see what news is released tomorrow because it could be anything but the same from today. This mishap will work wonders on lifting the moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which Obama is fervently attempting to destroy Louisiana with.

I am absolutely exhausted, mentally and physically, right now. This post will be short and I want to end it with one critical observation. And I hope this observation will not be misconstrued as an accusation as much as a nearly impossible coincidence. Coincidentally, Barack Obama is greener than he is Caucasian or African and he has made it abundantly clear that coal and oil are two energy resources he wants to do away with as quickly as possible. Within months a coal mine has collapsed, taking lives, and then the Horizon exploded, spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico, taking more lives, and then this news today, amidst trying to overturn the moratorium, only strengthens it. Once again, coincidentally, this present oil related accident is exactly what was needed to give the government the perfect amount of leverage to prolong the moratorium, or at least to give them a leg to stand on because their other leg was wavering. You can draw whatever conclusions you choose from these bazaar coincidences, which are remarkably conducive to our government’s agenda of going green, but I have to say that, it just doesn’t feel right. I’m all for green, but I am completely against doing it too quickly and absolutely destroying the entire state of Louisiana, not to mention other gulf states and even numerous inland states that have business with oil industry offshore related work. I would not be mentioning any of this if it were not for the fact that when other industries have monumental accidents they continue and press forward. When two airplanes hit two skyscrapers in New York we did not stop building skyscrapers. When airplanes have horrific crashes we do not stop making or flying airplanes. And, one less grim example, when your child spills milk you don’t stop buying milk. You tell your child to be more careful and to not do it again. And they don’t. This moratorium, the events surrounding it, and our government’s complete disregard of what the majority of the state of Louisiana has to say about it is unbelievable.

What right does our government have to rule completely the decisions any state wants to make? I certainly think they should intervene and play watchdog, but to dictate such important issues that not even our governor, senators or representatives can intercede edgewise is a contradiction of what America is.

And, another thing, Arizona being sued by our American government over immigration laws the state passed---our country is paying lawyers to overturn a state’s rational and understandable law to fight illegal immigration problems. A percentage of that tax money is mine and I happen to agree fully with Arizona’s new laws. Yet, I am fighting Arizona?

2,073.5 miles to go.

Day3 Wednesday 09/01/10

I had to face some minor adversity today in the form of inclement weather as I ran. When I got off work, already tired, legs growing more and more sore each day as I adjust to this new regimen, it was pouring down rain. The streets were steaming and the humidity was smothering. I am not complaining, in fact I welcome adversity, just documenting today’s scenario. I managed to outdo yesterday’s distance by a small fraction. I ran 2 miles exactly surpassing yesterday by a tenth of a mile.

After only three days I immediately realize that this new activity is going to change my daily routines in a lot of ways. For example, I really enjoy tinkering around outside in my yard and I enjoy building things. The new running and blog posting have been very time-consuming leaving me less time and energy to do much else. I like the challenge, though. I am just looking very forward to getting used to this transition and adapting to it.

On a separate note, regarding the whole reason I am doing all of this, an exciting and potentially historical time is coming up on Tuesday, November 2. On this day Americans will vote for the Senators and Representatives they want to work alongside Barack Obama for the next two years. I get chills every time I think of what the new seat ratio will be between the democrats and republicans. There is a huge chance that the scale could tip drastically, more so than any time in recent history, away from where it rests now. And I am not talking about beefing up the left side. If republicans become a significant heavyweight during Obama’s last two years of his term, which I think is highly likely, they would solidify a huge barrier to contain the dangerous changes he adamantly wants to make to this country. On the contrary, my stomach sinks to imagine another two years, as things are now, or even worse, the scary possibility of the left becoming stronger. November will either be his change or our change.

Please vote! I almost feel hypocritical ending those two words with an exclamation point because I had never voted one single time until Barack Obama had run for president. So I am new to voting. But I can say without a doubt that whatever happens early this November will likely be a foreshadowing of what is to come in November of 2012.

2,074.8 miles to go.