3 Pieces of News That Will Interest Any Utahn

1. Recent political activity, especially here in Utah, has been making national attention. Lot of questions have been flying around the internet about the recent convention failure of Bob Bennett to win his party's nomination. Questions like "Are the tea-partiers this strong?" and "The convention system in Utah disenfranchises regular voters. Why does Utah still use it?" I've already given my answer here. Here is an excerpt from one of the more popular articles on the subject published in USAToday.com:

New Rasmussen Poll Shows People Don't know What They're Talking About

Yes, I did say that. The people at large tend to have a pack mentality. I'll admit that it's always tempting to follow the crowd. Now let me explain what I mean.

This new poll says that 48% of voters feel closer to the Tea Party than to Obama, while only 44% say that they feel closer to Obama than the Tea Party. It show pretty much an even split, if you count the usual margin of error. I kept reading the poll as it went through the related questions it asked. It got down to comparing the Tea Party to teachers. Lots of teachers belong to teachers unions. The poll mentioned that the most voters favor Tea Party over unions, while they favor Teachers over Tea Party. I found it a little confusing. A lot of what people may say about usual teachers in our nation is hearsay, it seems a little off balance for people to seeming favor and dislike the same things. At least teachers and unions go together in my mind. They get together to protest that they aren't getting paid enough, they need better benefits and so on, and many places have unions. I'd believe teachers more if what I heard out of them was insight on how to improve the education system. And harping on raises is not the end all, be all, of public schooling fixes.

People believe teachers more because that's what society says we should do. That's all there is to it.

LDS General Conference FTW!

General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a bi-annual affair, something that most Latter Day Saints look forward to from the time the most recent one ends. I find this true for myself as an active Latter Day Saint(LDS).

Many people find us "mormons" to be strange. I saw a short film produced by a couple of LDS guys that proved the point. Some people they talked to confused us with the Amish. Most of the misconceptions are not true. I've heard some crazy idea's about us; no, we don't have horns, and no, true mormons don't have multiple wives.

What I want to mention today, however, is something that most people can find some common ground with. That is our General Conference. Most other religions can find some similarities with us in the fact that every religion comes together to listen to their leaders. People come from all over the world to witness conference. I have some friends who brought people they knew from Fiji all the to Utah for conference. So there is another similarity. We feel it paramount to give heed to those we know are men of God, even if that means traveling long distances.

But something that is desperately needed in this day and age is reliable counsel. We receive counsel and ideas from all sides these days. We have the internet, TV with thousands of channels and so much music that we don't know what to do with it. We need someone we know we can rely on. That someone is God. I know that many people don't think that the idea of God is needed these days, with all this technology and so called "new science". For me and nearly 14 million other Latter Day Saints, we feel that God is a reality. And so do some few billion other Christians, Catholics, Jews and Muslims.

General Conference, more than anything else, is a time when we Latter Day Saints can receive counsel that comes directly from God, given to us by men he has chosen to lead us, men he has chosen as prophets and apostles. Knowing that these men are what we believe them to be, we can rely on them to help us through these tough and perilous times. It is counsel for our day. They help us to understand the scriptures. For these reasons and many others, we look forward every six months to General Conference.

Mormon.org

Utah Precinct Caucus in Reflection

I've had about a week and a half to look back and reflect on the event of my precinct caucus meeting here in Utah. I've been to other caucus meetings and they were short and productive. These meetings were quiet and orderly. Well, except for my first one, but that's another story for another day. The whole point here is that the way these meetings were conducted have traditionally been a very good showing for the so called "grass-roots" politics here in Utah.

This latest meeting can also be called orderly. Especially if you hadn't been to one before. Now I need to step back for a minute to explain a few things.

The way a precinct caucus meeting for the Salt Lake County, Utah Republican party go as follows; The meeting is called to order, the party platform is read as quickly as possible(however, questions have been welcome to clarify particular points), and then voting. The way voting takes place is supposed to be similar to the way an actual legislative session takes place, which is conducted by the "Roberts Rules of Order". You don't make movements with this form, because movements are for the toilet. You make motions. If there is a question, you call Point of Order before taking the floor, and so on. It's a little more lax than how I make it sound, but the Robets Rules of Order is there so that there can be no disputes concerning the way an election is held.

When voting, the precinct chairman is presiding. There are precinct offices; chair, vice-chair, treasurer and secretary. Other offices, the ones that everyone concern themselves with, are those of state delegate and county delegate. This year the office of state delegate here in Utah is especially important because of the big United States Senate seat that is up for grabs. One thing that I know for sure is that the incumbent, Sen. Bob Bennett, R, Utah, will loose his seat. The only thing I don't know for sure is if he'll loose it in convention or a forced primary.

Now to the business I undertook in the first place.

Our latest precinct caucus was an entirely different undertaking this year. Instead of holding them in homes, the county party decided to gather whole legislative districts together in school auditoriums for the reading of the party platform. This decision presented a huge logistical problem. Normally the democrats in Utah will do it this way and never have a problem because there aren't many democrats here. Couple that with voter outrage with incumbents and you have a lot of people who want and have a right and duty to be involved.

On the evening of March 23, 2010, my parents and I made our way to the caucus site. We were surprised to see more cars in the lot than we thought there would be. Then we remembered how heated these senate races would be. When we walked around the building to the door, we were even more surprised to see that the line to get in was out the door. There were campaign signs all along the walkway up to the doors and then inside, too. Once we got inside we learned why the lines were so long to get in. All the many precincts in our legislative district were being signed in all at once at tables just inside the door. This may not have been as big of a problem as it was, but most of the people there hadn't ever been to caucus meeting, and so didn't know their precinct number. That, and we had tons of people show up late. With all of this confusion, getting people signed in and verified as Republican took longer than it should have.

The meeting was supposed to start at seven that evening. I was in my seat ten minutes early. At 7:15, they said it would be another ten to fifteen minutes. Well, a half hour later, we finally got started. There was a flag ceremony(never had that before, but it was refreshing to have one), and we finally got around to reading the party platform. Suffice it to say that this reading was different than any others I've been privy to participate in. It was like the freakin' State of the Union address. I was wondering if the people knew that we were here to vote, not listen to a speech. Finally, after over an hour from when we were supposed to start, we separated to our precincts, some in the auditorium and others in the cafeteria, and got to work.

This didn't take very long at all. Most of our precinct, at least the regulars, knew how this business took place, and we got the real work done in less than half an hour. I was lucky(or unlucky) enough to be elected as a county delegate from my precinct. I've done this job before, and it seemed that my neighbors were glad to send me to the convention. I was only 18 the first time I did this, so now that I'm four years more mature, I really hope that I will enjoy the experience at the county convention as much I did before.

I hope those of you who want to be more involved in your local government will feel the urge to do so and take the plunge. There is no other person who will take the advantage for you. Despite my latest experience, I doubt it will be as much of an organizational nightmare as it was that night ever again. I love the opportunity to work with my neighbors to ensure a safe and enjoyable community, and this is a great way to do it.

Tell us about your experience from your Utah precinct caucus in the comments.

How To Not Buy An Expensive HDMI Cable

Do you remember that time when you were in Best Buy or RadioShack, and you were needing to get an HDMI cable because your XBox 360 only came with a component cable? Do you remember how much it cost you? Yep, me too. To be blunt, if you spent more than 15-20 bucks on the thing, you got ripped off. You just need to shop around a bit, and most likely buy on the internet. The guys over at the Mint.com blog advocate spending no more than $10 on an HDMI cable. Take a look at the graphic they put together. It won't lead you astray.

Off Shore Drilling? Surprise!

Indeed this announcement was a surprise to me to learn that Obama has decided to lift a 20 or so year ban on off-shore drilling and exploration. My immediate thoughts were something like, "What's his angle" or "what does he expect to weasel out of the Republicans now?". My reaction turned out to be similar to other bloggers, who did not know what to make of this new "revelation" from the White House. Some may say that I'm paranoid, and sometimes I feel that way, but somehow everything Obama is doing comes back to amassing more government control.

It was no surprise, however to hear that there were many bleeding-hearts for Obama, singing his praises as a "fix-it man". And all of this coming as news of drilling restrictions being lifted. My answer to those people: No single politician since the beginning of human kind has ever kept the best interests of his constituency in mind all of the time. Obama's decision to allow drilling and exploration off-shore has more to do with things that are either not reported or information that is hard to find.

It's all political, no matter how you spin something. Obama has his and his party's interests at heart on this one. We just need to wait and see where this goes.

Facebook Is Now Evil Like Darth Sidious

I've been saying it for a while, but not very loudly. Facebook has gone to the Dark Side of the web. Not in a Vader way where there is hope, but in a Darth Sidious way. They have gone over totally and completely to the point that they cannot return to favor in my mind.

Facebook claims that with the new "privacy" settings, Facebook will be safer and more fun. I cannot disagree with this more. It seems that they are trying to take the same tact that Myspace or some others did, allowing plain strangers to automatically see you private info. Even though you can make your privacy settings reflect how much you want to share with strangers, Facebook is just taking this issue to lightly, and, as with any large company, turn a profit with it.

If I remember correctly, the reason I chose Facebook in the first place is the fact that I could choose who could and could not see my private info. It has been great for keeping in touch with people who I otherwise would have lost contact with. But this paradigm seems to be shifting for Facebook. Not only are they bullying us into sharing private information with the world at large, they've moved into taking back the vanity URL's to sell to large companies in order to make some quick money.

I'd say that it's time to step away from Facebook and use something different. In the next week or so, expect me to be using something different for social networking.

Gallup Poll Says Americans Favor Profiling As New Security Measure

I'm not going to be totally long winded with this one here. I just wanted to throw this new poll out there. Gallup says that 71% of Americans agree that profiling based on age, ethnicity and gender as a way to improve airport security. I'm glad to know that I'm not in the minority on this one. If we really want to make security in the airports effective, racial profiling is a must. All of the airliner hijacking and bombing attempts within the last 30-40 years have been attempted by one group of people: radical muslim extremists.

People Seem To Have Been Hoodwinked......

After reading one of the latest Rasmussen Reports Scientific polls, I have come to accept, though not easily, that most people tend to believe the government tells them the truth. The poll that I am referring to was taken in the wake of a recent terror attempt aboard an airline flight bound for Detroit. The polls indicates that 46% of Americans now think that airport security is not strict enough. I repeat, not strict enough. I was totally blown away by this recent poll. It seems that people trust the government to increase the asinine "security" already in place. Here's an idea! Completely overhaul it, and bring in law enforcement professionals to train your TSA agents properly.

According to this law enforcement professional, the way in which "random" searches are carried out will never catch someone intent on hijacking or blowing up an airplane. Now we have Janet Nopalitano, the head of homeland security telling us that letting a bomber on an international flight was the system doing what it's supposed to do. I'm going to repeat what many all over the radio and web have said, and that is the TSA has never done anything to  prevent or stop the progress of a terrorist attack. It has been upon the passengers of flights and law enforcement in the air and on the ground who have shouldered the weight of the TSA's real job.

Another problem that the government is making is the decision to charge the bomber in federal court, and not in a military court. This article discusses the legal rational behind the Obama Administraions decision not only to charge this recent terrorist as an American, but all of the Guantanamo detainees. To make it plain and simple, al-Qaeda trained this guy and pretty much everyone else who commits acts of terror against the United States. Even though they don't where uniforms, they are still armed militants. They are the jurisdiction of military courts.

Good Tidings To All

Christmas is now over, and part of me is glad for it. I have made some major life decisions over the break, and I am eager to go and get to work. I know that some of you may find going back to your jobs to be a downer, and rightfully so. But after having a good holiday to get rested up and get a renewed prospective on life have done a lot of good for me.

A new dynamic this Christmas season for me was the extreme lack of feeling the same "spirit of the season" that I used to feel as a kid. I was trying to bring those feelings back, but found that I could not. I don't know if many people experience this, but what it allowed for me was to ad something new to my holiday. Growing up, we all know Christmas as the time of year when we get tons of crap and think we should have gotten more. You would be right in telling me that just a few posts down I was ranting about all the things I wanted for Christmas. All I can say is that it is healthy to hope for things in your life, but it is not healthy to get mad when you don't get what wanted. Often we think we want something, and then once we have it, it looses it's luster. There are other things that we should have in life that are not "things". We should use this season to cultivate familial relationships, to learn how to give(if you're me, that means learning it again), and most important, to learn who Jesus Christ is, and what the holiday really means.

You've never heard me say much about my religion, but I wanted to say a little bit now. I learned a lot this last month. It was not told to me by some preacher or anything like that. But what I did learn was what I remember from being taught as a child about the life of Christ and what he  did for mankind. Christ's mission was so profound, that no man could ever effectively teach what He did by himself. But let me tell you what I know. Christ gave, so we must give. He served, so we must serve. He used His time and money wisely, and so we must do the same. What Christ gave us was the ultimate example for the perfect life, and during this season which bears His name, we must learn what He did, and do the same. That is what we need to do to effectively celebrate Christmas. This brings a different spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

So even though I didn't feel the same 'ol Christmas "spirit" that I felt as a child, I found something else, something that I hope I will continue to build upon for the rest of my life.

Sell-Out? Or not....?

Am I or am I not a sell-out? I believe that is for you, gentle reader, to decide. I have actually been trying to tastefully place ads all over RandomBrainwork.net in order to see if earning money were possible. I hope it is. I spend an inordinate amount of time do a lot of back end work to keep this place going.

My purpose, however, is to asses from you, my four loyal readers, to let me know what is tasteful and what is not. Please not that if things are deemed to flashy and in the way, that it will be left alone. Maybe you'll accidentally click on it.... Hehehe......

Scientific Polls Don't lie

According to a new Rasmussen Poll 55% of Americans oppose the idea of a federal bailout for the struggling news industry. I'm not going to say much more than that, but I did find a very interesting dichotomy in some polls that cover similar ground. In another poll that Rasmussen conducted, where people were asked if they found the network news agencies as reliable, 55% say that they "now are at least somewhat confident" in them. "By contrast, just 25% are at least somewhat confident in the reliability of news reports from bloggers and Internet journalists", the same article went on to say.

In my mind, this is a plain and simple oxymoron. People say that they don't think that news found online is reliable, yet the large network news agencies are failing because the news is beginning to circulate on the web because more people find it all reliable. To say otherwise you would be lying to yourself. How do you think people will react to the polls I just cited? I don't know. You could argue many different ways. But this is what I think. If people can recognize the name, you got instant credibility. If they don't, they chalk you up to being some conservative zealot(Hey, that's what I am!)

Most People Can Tell If You're Lying

And those White House party crashers are not an exception. In a recent CNN article it was revealed that the Salahi's had crashed another party earlier in the year; the President was also in attendance. When it was discovered that they were there without tickets, they were escorted out by security(not secret service). The article clarifies that at this earlier dinner the Salahi's had no access to the President at any time.

Now, on to the mild satire and analysis.

The Salahi's claim that they are not, in fact, publicity hounds. I beg to differ. If, in fact they are not publicity hounds, then why did they hire a publicist to make their statements for them, as shown in the article. The Salahi's are facing possible criminal charges, and yet there seems to be no lawyer involved. I wonder why that is.....?

Number two point: The Salahi's are in fact publicity hounds because they insist that no news organization do a profile on them until after they do interviews and conduct "press junkets". So these people are taking a whole week to do interviews and be on the news, trying to show themselves as innocent bystanders. If it was me, and I honestly thought that I was invited to this dinner thingy via an email that turned out to be meaningless, I would seek my privacy because of embarrassment. But not the Salahi's. They are getting all the press they want, getting news organizations to bend to there will. It's infuriating. Insulting to my vaunted intelligence.

I Really Need To Stop Taking Things Personally

It's bad for my blood pressure.

But seriously, most of you who may read my blog already know that BYU won the annual rivalry game against the Utes. As a Ute fan, all I have to say is that the Y gutted out a tough win, Hall overcame the stigma of five interceptions of last years game, and all in all, a great game to watch. What you also may know is that Max Hall, BYU's quarterback, made some harsh comments after the game. Some of what he said,

 "I don't like Utah. In fact, I hate them. I hate everything about them. I hate their program, their fans. I hate everything," Hall said. "It felt really good to send those guys home." "I think the whole university and their fans and the organization is classless," Hall said. "They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them and they deserved to lose."

I don't know Hall at all. Only ever seen him on TV. Some of what I said on facebook after the fact:

Max Hall is a retard. He totally made himself look like a jackass in some of his comments after the game.

btw deseret news is obligated to back up Hall because being BYU quarterback somehow qualifies you a free ride to the celestial kingdom.... 

I don't like being associated with beer throwing fans. The other thing that Hall has shown the world is that BYU tends to foster the "I'm holier than you because I'm mormon" attitude. Thats not cool either because just because I'm mormon I get associated with that. Hall just made himself 100,000 + enemies tonight, and the only way he can get past it is to apolagize. I feel symathy that some idiots threw beer at his family, but that's no reason to "hate" a program and a whole fanbase either. Stupid Jackass-like comments he made.

"Do you really want me to go into it? I think the whole university and their fans and organization is classless. They threw beer on my family and stuff last year and did a whole bunch of nasty things. I don't respect them, and they deserve to lose."-Max Hall after the game. So just because I'm a Utes fan I'm a beer throwing lunatic. Well, I guess I need some more practice at it.....

Rain falls on even the good people. God has nothing to do with BYU sports or the Y would be #1 in the nation every year. But if we wanted to bring God into everything, we should pray for the sense to take it all as a rivalry, not make anything personal, and to have a good time playing. Hall didn't do it. Nobody does. This is what our world comes to in most facets of life. I'm sorry for all the rants Josh and Sean, but I just have to vent when I feel a personal attack, even if Halls comments don't look that way. Y fans, don't take my comments personally, either. I'm just callin' 'em like I see 'em. The Y gutted out a tough win, Hall overcame the stigma of some mistakes, all in all a good game. I just wanted to mention some things the way most of my peers don't realize.

Compare what I said to what Hall said. He didn't say much. I made myself out to look like a total dirtbag. I think that this is the tendency that a lot of us have, to make something stupid develop into something undeservedly overblown. All over the internet we see it. It's what make the news entertaining some nights. It's how we identify the idiots of society(like myself).

I realized this while I was trying to come up with a new zinger to throw at Hall and his fans. You can see my last comment in quotes that I was beginning to feel this way. I wanted to make this post to show myself, more than anyone, that we should not see ourselves as better than someone else simply on the basis of a few comments. I'm sure Max Hall is a great guy, and if I end up going to the same ward(I belong to the same church as Hall) as him, I would hope that we became friends.

These are the types of things that I can see driving other sectors of society apart. We need to realize it where it happens and stop it.

For those who have viewed some comments of mine on facebook and took offence, I offer my sincere apology, and hope that this doesn't deter us from a good relationship.

Now that I have said all that, I feel a little bit better. Just put this behind me so that I can blow something else out of proportion. ;-)

A little prospective for ya'll

I found a picture that says a whole rant so that I don't have to. Thanks whoever made this thing.

More Basket Ball?

Shouldn't Obama be presidentin? I think so. I figure the harder you work at a job the better you learn it. If you learn it right, then you won't dig us deeper than $12 trillion.

According to this Wall Street Journal article, Obama has played 25 full games of golf. First off, thats more already than Dubya played in two full terms. Second of all, do you people know how long 18 holes of golf takes? Just flip the channel on Sundays and find out.

But the real kicker is there are some "critics" who just want our illustrious president to play more basket ball, the better to worship with. Sickening........

Ubuntu Linux: Way Better Than Windows

I know what you all are thinking. "Daniel's gone insane(I know you knew that already dad), Windows 7 just came out and he's just jealous that he can't have it, he doesn't really know what he's talking about" and on and on it could go. I admit, many arguments may have a foundation on truth, but that's not at issue here. (or is it)

To tell you the truth, I bought a netbook about 6 months ago because it would serve me as my college note-taking and paper writing platform. I has done very well so far, but there are a few things that would just bug me all the time. Foremost among my hate for some things windows is the insane time it took to boot the operating system. It was way to cumbersome(under my standards) to boot the stupid thing in class. Other reasons to hate the thing is that Windows(I was using XP) would have these crazy seziures all the time. I don't know what was going on there, but it just wouldn't handle a certain number of programs running all at once, have a coronary, and keel over. How did I remedy said problem? Reboot. Microsoft might even say the same thing. I heard a funny joke a few years back.... or was it a true story based on fiction... anyways, the most seen fix for most windows issues is of course, format and reinstall. It's true, if you got something unfixable, you can just try to back up all your files and blow away what you got going on, and start over, and repeat ever 1-2 years. There, your set for life.

But, hearkening back to my swingin' computer nerd days(I'm a geek now, but most don't realize that there is a fundamental difference between them)when my brothers and I would play around with lots of different Linux distros and UNIX or BSD, I looked into Ubuntu linux, found out my dad and another brother were running it, and looked into it. Turns out they have an OS optimized just for netbooks. I looked into some more, here and there, and finally decided to take the plunge. Turns out it was great. As you can see from the screenshot taken from my machine, the desktop layout for netbooks is way different from what you would normally see in most(even linux) OS's, the model for norm being taken from Windows and Mac. The desktop layout has been optimized for the screen size of a normal netbook. It makes it so everything is displayed cleanly, but also adds the practicality we've come to expect from normal GUI interfaces. Everything looks clean, is extremely customizable, and if you dual-boot with windows, will even automatically port all of your documents and desktop settings from windows.

As you remember, I was most concerned with the Windows boot time being tediously slow. Now don't just tell me that "you've got a netbook, Daniel, is just gunna do that to you." Well, I reject you reality, and substitute my own! My very first boot into ubuntu took just under a minute from pushing the on-button to checking my email. Now tell me netbooks are crap. I'm also pleased that I can go to class and start taking notes on this rig just as fast as if I were using a real pen and paper.

For all of you now intrigued, but not willing to give up on windows, you can partition your harddrive so that you can boot both windows and ubuntu. As a matter of fact thats what I did.

You can read a very good review on the latest update of Ubuntu, now at 9.10, here at technewsworld.com.

Cause Of The Problem

I was at a loss for words after seeing this video. I felt encroached upon and put down by the remarks that this woman made. Take a look for yourself....

What Are They Doing? Part II

It's finaly started to happen. Some schools are starting to serve only diet soda's, "nutritious juices", and low-fat milk.

I'm glad that I'm not a student anymore. I also feel sorry for these kids. They only get bitter, unsweetened junk.

My beef with this whole issue lies in the fact that legislators, school administrators, and advocacy groups are just trying fix a problem that is not theirs to fix. Parents are at fault for not teaching children self control. It should be up to the parents to decide whether or not their chilren can drink caffinated, sugarfied high calory crap. On the other side of the road, it should be the school district to decide what they want to put in their school vending machines to make money.

Also, to say that only drinking diet soda, which does not have any calories, will not make you fat, is also untrue. Go into a gas station "kwik mart" and watch who buy diet soda. You'll observe that whoever buys a diet soda, they also by 2 "milkyways" and a "three musketeer". Diet soda gives the drinker the impression that they are on some kind of diet, so sometimes you can "reward" yourself with the stuff that does make you fat.

Just leave the kids and their parents to decide what they can and cannot eat.

A History Lesson

As most people, I've been following this whole imagration issue, and there is one thing that makes me more angry than anything else with this issue, and that is claims that the United States stole the land that we have now from Mexico. Not true.

First of all, the land in question was disputed between the U.S., and Spain. Mexico had no legitimate claims on the land. Second of all, to claim that we invaded is also a lie, because any and all were invited into Texas, because the Mexican government could not get anyone to live there.

Texans decided to secede from Mexico after the Mexican government adopted a new constitution that the invited North-American settlers did not want to live under. So, in 1836, Texas became a nation with the signing of their own Declartion of Independence. Thereafter, Texas won it's independence in subsequent battles, most notably the Battle of San Jacinto.

Ten years later, in 1845, Texas was annexed to the U.S., which sent Mexican officials into a furor, claiming that Texas was just a rebel province. According to America's "Manifest Destiny" policy, President Polk sent an ambasader to Mexico to offer $30 million dollars for the land. Mexico refused, and Polk sent an army to the border where they built a fort on the Rio Grande to presure Mexico into taking the deal. They did not take the deal and crossed the Rio Grande and attacked U.S. forces. The rest is history.

I've just proved that 1) America did not attack Mexico and 2) We offered a peaceful means to an end.

All those who repeat the "Americans attacked and stole Mexico" rhetoric is full of it.

Source- WikiPedia