So we decided to get a dog...

...and then we thought better of it. By the first "we" I mean Teri and by the second "we" I mean that Teri's brother David and I thought better of it. Teri, who at a very young age used to own something like 12 dogs at one time, immediately jumped on my idea that we take the kids down to PetSmart to see the dogs up for adoption. Once we were there she fell in love with an older German Shepard/Golden Retriever mix. Kirk (the dog) couldn't stop giving lots of love to Teri and Gibby. He, even at his healthy 60-70 pounds, would occasionally think he was a lap dog and just back right up into your lap and just wait for you to start stroking his back. Then he'd get up and want to check everyone out. He was very protective of Gibby and even came over to nuzzle his head against Gibby's so the little guy would stay warm. Then he'd cuddle up to Teri and lean right into her. Teri was in love. But we really don't have the space for a dog to run around in.

Once Teri had given up hope of adopting him she wanted to adopt two 3-month old kittens who have been together since birth and are pretty adorable. Teri was sort of crushed when she realized that trying to take care of a newborn baby and a new pet/pets had disaster written all over it. But she sacrificed her longterm animal desires and renewed her vow to someday adopt a pet.

The whole trip was funny. I was working on Thursday when I mentioned to one of my co-workers that Teri and I really wanted to get a Chocolate Lab Retriever. After all, who doesn't love those dogs? They are loyal, active, fun-loving, and all around good looking dogs. Well, my casual comment led to my coworker immediately looking up Chocolate labs that were up for adoption from shelters or foster families. One of the labs was going to be at a Chandler PetSmart last Saturday, so we packed up the kids and went down.

But just as we got there, Jake, the lab we went down to see, got adopted. Of course, with our small yard we figured that Jake wouldn't like our house as much as someone else's so that was really ok. We then decided to help McKay turn his love of animals in books into a love of animals he can really touch. It went...ok.

McKay loved the golden retriever puppy. I think McKay liked the fact that he was bigger than the puppy, plus that puppy just loved McKay. While Uncle David and McKay were exploring the puppy, Teri and Gibby met up with Kirk, the older Shepard/Retriever mix I mentioned earlier. McKay wasn't so sure about Kirk even though Kirk liked to give him kisses. Actually, McKay wasn't sure about any dog that was near his size.

Considering McKay's absolute fear of big dogs that day, I couldn't figure out why he would want to go up to a Borzoi that had a muzzle on.


Borzois, as you can see, are big dogs. This particular dog was even bigger than your typical Borzoi. But McKay was undetered. He kept getting closer and closer until he started saying, "Horsie! Horsie! Neigh...neigh." Yes, my son thought the Borzoi was a horse. But I guess I'll let it slide this time...as long as he gets a little better at his multiplication tables. The kid is starting to slack.

Valentine's Day

Everyone's heard about those Valentine's Day gifts where one spouse actually buys a gift for themselves but then gives it to the other spouse. In general, this is a bad idea. But for you guys out there, if your spouse has long discussed getting hair clippers so that she can trim you and the kids around the neck and ears, I want to tell you now that getting her those clippers in a grooming kit which is labeled primarily as a beard and mustache trimmer could lead to some serious miscommunications.

10-4 Good Buddy

In this day and age with so many downers, like the stock market, the housing market, and Richard Simmons, it's nice to know that there are some gainers out there as well. Count Gibby as one of those. At his 1 month doctor visit he weighed in at 10 pounds 4 ounces, surpassing his birthweight by about 2 pounds (8 lbs 3 oz). This little piggy went to market, had his roast beef, and finished it off by eating a chocolate cake bigger than the one Bruce Bogtrotter finished off.


You wouldn't really know it though as he still looks pretty tiny. But this kid has a pretty healthy appetite. Teri couldn't be happier. Gibby's big brother wasn't a good nurser so having a little one who sucks as much as the Miami Dolphins is a blessing in Teri's eyes. It's built a special bond between the two of them - so much so that Gibby's favorite perch is right on Teri's shoulder.


As usual for little kids, Gibby enjoys the little things in life like eating and sleeping. He has even found time to take little naps out on the lawn.


All in all, Gibby is a happy kid. Although we can never quite coax a smile out of him for the camera he did almost indulge us when Teri was singing to him.


We sure love Gibby and we're glad that he is such a sweet little kid. His patience with his big brother is remarkable. Just don't tell him that he'll have to wait for dinner. I tried that once and things didn't end up so well.

Super Tuesday Candidate Primer

Here's my rundown of everyone besides my endorsee, Mitt Romney.

GOP:
John McCain - The "Straight Talk Express" aka "Senor Exporte"
McCain probably should have remembered his nickname before he started campaigning in Florida. Two days before the primary he boldly announced that Mitt Romney was for setting a "timetable" for the withdrawl of troops in Iraq, a position Romney says is a gross distortion of his comment. Regardless, McCain is the same old same old. Despite the breath of fresh air McCain asserts that he is, he is ironocially the only candidate that hasn't plastered the word "change" on his website.

A McCain presidency wouldn't be the end of the world, although it might be the end of America's industrialization. McCain favors imposing voluntary carbon caps, which would set out a finite limit on the amount of carbon pollution the United States produces. The end result is that companies that want to make things, (and as a result release carbon emissions) would now have to trade for the rights to pollute. Of course, setting an arbitrary number of carbon emissions means that as more industry appears the price of being able to release carbon emissions increases. At the end of the day this means that either 1) the price of American goods goes up to compensate for the higher emissions costs, or 2) we have less industry so that we can be competitive in a global economy. In other words, the USA would be voluntarily pricing itself higher than goods from China and India - two nations who are not going to voluntarily impose carbon caps.

Under McCain we can count on at least one export going immediately through the roof - jobs. But I guess if exporting jobs and importing more finished goods counts towards the trade deficit McCain will look like a succees, right?

Ron Paul - Issue candidate who doesn't believe in his own issue.
I read Ron Paul's website. I listened to his speeches. He sounds pretty good right? He is very fiscally conservative and makes a strong case for reducing government and letting the market and people sort their way through things. Too bad he doesn't believe in his own plan.

I was so disappointed when I heard on a radio program that Ron Paul had gotten millions of earmarks passed for his district in Texas. He says that if earmarks are going to happen anyway then you might as well get them for your district. Which is fine - if you want to argue that the present system is inefficient rather than being broken. But Paul things the government is far too big and covers way too much ground. So why not stand up and take a stand? Why not say to the nation, "Earmarks are destroying our ability to rein in our spending"? Well, because that would make it harder to get elected. Ask Jeff Flake. He doesn't request earmarks and he gets criticized for it back at home. Sorry Dr. Paul. If you don't believe in your own plan, why should I?

Mike Huckabee
Huckabee has some good ideas and some bad ideas. The problem is that he has difficulty explaining any of his ideas. I watched Meet the Press a few weeks ago and the host was trying to give Huckabee a tough question on taxes. As it turns out Huckabee cut taxes in some areas and also raised taxes in other areas for a net result that taxes were raised slightly. When Huckabee was asked about raising taxes, he goes into overly defensive mode and starts talking about how the Arkansas Supreme Court mandated that he raise more money for schools so they did that by raising taxes and now Arkansas' schools are performing well. The host then asks "So you did raise taxes then right?" But Huck won't say "Yes. I was mandated to do so and I was a careful steward of those dollars and now we've reached a result that tremendously outperforms what other states do with their money." Instead Huck says, "Hey, I'm not going to apologize for having a Supreme Court make a mandate." So what exactly are you doing Huck?

I guess my issue with Huckabee is that I always feel like he's trying to be as slippery as the other Presidential candidate from Hope, Arkansas once was. And he's totally unelectable.

Democrats:
Hillary Clinton
This is a troublesome one. It's just way too easy to poke fun at her PAINFUL speaking style. I really can't decide whether she speaks like William Shatner or Robocrook. It's slow, monotone, and overly deliberate. Everytime I hear her I think of the worst church talks I've ever heard and then think...wow she could hold her own with these guys. But even though having to listen to her speak in the future would be cause alone for me not to vote for her that seems like an awfully silly reason to not vote for someone.

So what is it about Hillary that makes me say, "No thanks?" It's all about the money for me. She wants to stengthen the middle class, decrease the cost of healthcare, decrease the cost of college, bail people out for their poor decisions on mortgages, reward kids with $5,000 just for being born, and probably give the world a puppy. And she wants to do all of this on my dime. Look, there's nothing wrong with trying to help people who are less fortuante, but how many things are essentials that people could use to survive and how many things are wants that people usually have to sacrifice for? There needs to be a limit on some of this stuff or else we're going to end up with a country of rationed out surgeries, ineffective workers, and ingrates that take without ever trying to give back.

Barack Obama

Obama is an interesintg candidate. He is a good speaker. He seems to carry himself well. Lots of people say they are inspired by him. But I'm just not sold yet. I guess my problem is the same one that a Phoenix radio host has with him - what are people inspired to do?

As soon as I get the link to his 1 minute commentary I'll post it, but a quick summary of Joe Crummey's Obama opinion is that the word inspiration sure means a lot less than it used to. It used to be that when someone was inspired by a leader they looked to see what they could do. JFK's famous line comes to mind. "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country." If you read his speech it really is inspiring. It makes me want to go out and do something for someone.

So what does Obama inspire people to do? I'm not sure he inspires people to do anything other than vote and, if you make too much money, pay a lot of taxes. Obama's key initiatives in commercials are universal health care, making sure that anyone who has a job makes enough money to "not be poor," and expanding various and sundry programs and government entitlements. So at the end of the day the only thing that I can be inspired to do after reading his website is to wait around for the government to come in and take care of me.

Obama is engaging and he promises a lot of things that I'm sure many people feel they need. I have no doubt that he genuinely feels that these are things the government should provide. I just disagree.

Breaking News: Tad Endorses Romney for President

Yes, that's right. It's the announcement you've all been waiting for after we heard that Dwight K. Shrute was endorsing his cousin Mose for President. I am endorsing Mitt Romney. And yeah, it matters about as much as the Governator endorsing John McCain. But hey, faithful readers of this blog (like Teri) might be swayed by my likeminded views on politics.

Mitt Romney has sound strategies for addressing the shortcomings of our nation. His economic stimulus plan doesn't amount to writing checks and hoping for the best. It actually would provide businesses with an incentive to stay in business and continue to purchase the assets they need to modernize and be competitive. The end result is that more people stay working to produce the things that the end user will buy. But it's not just the economic intuition that gets my vote.

I like the fact that Romney has been in situations where he has made difficult decisions about a company's vitality. Sure he has laid some people off, but who doesn't think that there are plenty of government funded entities that could stand some layoffs (besides HRC and Obama)? We need someone who can take a hard look at our fiscal position and pare things down. (For a rundown of why Ron Paul isn't my guy on this issue, see the forthcoming Super Tuesday candidate primer.)

Romney, like virtually everyone in this Presidential race, could be fairly labeled a political opportunist. It's true that Romney's position on abortion has changed. He cites it as a mistake, but it would probably more accurately be described as a calculated mistake. You can't win the Governor's race in Massachussets as a staunch pro-life candidate. And yet, I'm ok with that. The fact is that every candidate is going to say or do something that may not be a consistent position during the timeframe of their lives. I don't have a problem with changing views until it becomes clear that the candidate truly has no position and will change as the wind does, ala "I voted for the war before I voted against the war."

The fact is that most politicians tailor their message to a particular crowd. When these tailored messages get spread out nationwide via the internet sometimes a tightly woven statement to a particular group gets presented as a "one size fits all" political theory. I don't mind more detailed discussions of what can be done for a particular area or industry just so long as a candidate is not for raising taxes in one state and then decides to abolish the IRS in another. Those people who can't stand tailoring neeed to vote for a candidate like my personal favorite Michael P. Shaw who is running to represent two key constituencies - "the hood" and "the God of Israel." Sure he's only on the ballot in Arizona, but if you're going to be that picky you might as well make your vote count.

The fact of the matter is that in this imperfect field of Republicans, we need to pick the best candidate available. We need someone who believes that a strong economy is good for America. We need someone who believes that America should be secure. We need someone who will ask the pampered citizens of our country to join together to make America great, rather than waiting for "the government" to go out and do it for us. I believe that this person is Mitt Romney and that's why I will be voting for him on Tuesday, February 5.