I'm back, sportsfans! Yes, today I actually feel somewhat normal. Why? Well my clan all came down with the same thing - a chest cold. Believe it or not, myself and my two dogs all have the same sickness. Of course they get a cool name for it - "Kennel Cough". Oh you should hear the sound a 110 German Shepherd makes in a garage when he's coughing. It's like "HAAACK!!! HAAAACK!!!! HAAAAACK!!!" echoing through the house. I've been out of it the last couple of days, and I'd be napping on the couch trying to recover while Vick is in the garage going "HAAAACK!!" every 2 minutes. At first I thought he was choking, but then I remembered hearing the term "Kennel Cough" from a co-worker so I looked it up. Yep, he has all the symptoms. And because he has it, that means Jessi has it too, so tomorrow it's a trip to the vet. I took them to the dog park last weekend, so that means some mangy mutt was all infected and got my dogs sick. It's that time of year I guess. You know, when kids bring home every disease known to man and spread it to their parents who bring it to work to get ME sick and ruin everything. Stupid kids all crusty-nosed with dried snot to where their faces look like a glazed donught...haha. Anyway, I finally have some strength and feel like typing. That cold wiped me out, and sadly I know it's one of several I'll get this year. Ahh...you gotta love this time of year! I honestly think I got sick because I had been pushing myself so hard over the last several months, and it was almost like once I got a chance to stop and take a break, my body was like "ok dude, I have kept you going for a while, so I'm going to give you a nice cold to MAKE you take it easy for a few days". Weird that me and my dogs all got a chest cold, isn't it?
Yes, the Senate race is finally over and life can resume some sense of normalcy for a little while...well...as normal as my life can get. My first attempt at running for a political office has come to a close. And of course I didn't start small like running for city council, I had to go try and play on the big stage. Hey, it makes it A LOT more interesting. So how did I fare? I ended up with 3,562 votes for the U.S. Senate. It doesn't sound like much, but when I really thought about it, it's pretty incredible. Here I am, a guy who was an unknown and only spent about $500. I hard a very small amount of media coverage and no ads....yet I recorded votes in just about every county in Tennessee. I only made a few speeches and had a few radio appearances, yet people heard what I had to say and believed enough in it to spread the word and I ended up with 3,561 people who agreed with me. I'll be running again in 2008, and I know this whole experience will be a HUGE benefit. I learned an amazing amount during this campaign about the political process, and as frustrating as it got at times, I loved every minute of it. This race consumed my life for about a year and a half, and now it's over. I have to admit, it's a bit of a crash. When something is a huge part of your life for a period of time and it comes to an end, you feel a little empty. I know it sounds weird, but it's true. The day after the election, I was sitting around thinking "wow...I don't have to look anything up about the election...I don't need to research info about the candidates." However, I know this is only a small break because I will do this again in 2008. Yeah...a glutton for punishment...hahaha. The sad thing is, I can basically guarantee that all the issues I was running on for this race will be the same concerns in 2008. Why? Because our government sucks. Now I will say that this country is the best in the world, no doubt about it, but we have a bunch of boobs running this country. I can't stand Republicans, and I can't stand Democrats...they all suck. There are maybe one or two people I have any respect for in Washington, but I don't see ANY true leadership. I don't see a Barry Goldwater, I don't see a George Patton, and I don't see a Winston Churchill. President Bush is already sucking up to the new Democrat majority like he's scared and it makes me sick. This is the part of politics that just drives me nuts. Why can't people just be who they are? Granted, some are like several of those complete nut-job commies like Nancy Pelosi, but the true "politicians" always want to appear moderate with some uncanny ability to reach across the aisle and work with members of the other party to try and do what's best. Give me a friggin' break. I don't call those "moderates" at all...I call them either "cowards" or "liars". I want people in Washington who will alienate others...I really do. I want a guy like General Patton who doesn't give a crap about trying to say the right thing, but will truly speak what they feel and not give a damn what others think. All one has to do is look back in history at Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill. Chamberlain was considered an intellectual, someone who could be diplomatic and solve problems through talking. Churchill was just a war-monger, that was how he was thought of originally. Chamberlain signed some stupid agreement with Hitler and was praised for his diplomatic skills while Churchill was telling everyone "Hey, this Hitler guy is a big problem and we need to take him out". People scoffed at Churchill because he was such a hate-monger, not willing to accept another leader's way of doing things. So what happened? I think history has proved Churchill was right. Look at Patton - he wanted to go ahead and take Russia out while we had our forces in Europe because he kept telling our "leaders" that Russia would end up being a HUGE problem for years to come if we didn't deal with them then. But the ones with higher intellect who don't look at things in black and white and honestly think diplomacy can work with psychos thought otherwise and allowed Russia to "liberate" Europe from the East. We all know how that turned out. Who was right? Exactly...in both cases those war-mongers were right and if people had really listened to them there is no telling how many lives would have been saved, or how different this world would be. I am by no means trying to compare myself to these two great men, but I was called a lot of names during this campaign in various election blogs. I was called a racist (because I oppose illegal immigrants), a bigot (because I believe the God of the Bible is the TRUE God and don't accept this Allah character as God), and my personal favorite was when I was called a murdercon. Some guy who was writing a blog entry for a news site was going over the candidates and he said I wasn't a neocon, I was a murdercon. He explained this by saying that I hold on to some wacky belief that we need to wipe out every terrorist in the middle east. Ummm....yeah....and the problem with that is what??? We carpet bombed Germany, we hit Japan with two nuclear bombs, so I'm all for carpet bombing the middle east. That's why I said on one radio show that on 9/12 we should have had "operation glass parking lot". In case you don't know, when sand reaches a certain temperature it turns to glass...the kind of temperature made when nukes hit. Hey, there wouldn't be any discussion of the Iraq War, would there? See that's the problem...no one respects this country anymore. And by "respect" I mean no country respects our military strength because we don't unleash it like we could. Ok, I could easily get started on another rant so I'll stop. Getting back to the "mudercon" name...how did this affect me? It didn't. See, when Ford or Corker called the other a name or said something false, they would spend thousands to shoot a new TV ad and run it to dispute it. When this guy called me a "mudercon", did I even respond to his online article in the "comments" section? No, I didn't. The reason I didn't is because I honestly don't care what someone calls me and I think the guy is a pretty ignorant person. Why waste my time? I really think that those who don't have a lot of confidence in what they believe and value are the only ones who have to waste time when called something responding with "oh no I'm not!!!!". That's what the entire past month has been on TV and on the radio - Ford saying Corker is this or Corker saying Ford is that and the other disputing it. I swear, it was beyond juvenile. So yeah, I'm going to run again in 2008 if for the only reason to keep providing people an "insider" view into the bs of this political system. Hopefully with the experience I gained in this last election I can make a bigger impact in 2008. This two-party system is holding this country hostage, and I swear that I keep thinking about the The Declaration of Independence where it states -
"Governments exist to support the rights of men. Governments exist only through the power of the people that they represent. When a government fails to grant rights to the people and removes the involvement of the people, the people have the right to change their government in a way that will allow for their unalienable rights to be protected. Governments should not be overthrown for trivial reasons; it is not typical for people to change a system that they are accustomed to. However, when the people have suffered many abuses under the control of a totalitarian leader, they not only have the right but the duty to overthrow that government."
Now I am not calling for an overthrow of the government, but I will say that if they don't get their act together and actually start doing the will of the people and remember that they answer to us and not the other way around, I do think this country will see some sort of major change in several years. This world is too volatile to have a bunch of spineless wimps who only care about being re-elected deciding the future of this country. The one thing I am so appreciative of about this Senate race was that it REALLY taught me to stick to what I believe regardless of who I think it might offend. When you're on radio or being interviewed for TV and asked something that may be a little controversial, you have to say what you think. I can definitely say that I have no regrets about what I said in interviews at all and I stand by every word I said. And now the Democrats control Congress and are already talking about a troop withdrawal from Iraq. I swear, does anyone ever learn from history??? Well, I guess I can't cast the first stone seeing how I keep dating...hahahahaha. You gotta admit that was pretty funny.
Ok, to change the topic drastically with no segue at all...ever heard of Frank Caliendo? If you haven't, you really need to go to google and type in his name for videos. Check out the appearance on David Letterman...it was one of the funniest bits I've ever seen. I ordered his DVD from his website and watched it the other night. Man I was laughing so hard I was almost crying at certain points...this guy is a MASTER impressionist. the imitations he does are just unreal. On the DVD he does Bush, Clinton, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Robin Williams...and of course his best - John Madden. This dude does Madden better than Madden himself. All I have to do is think about his bit where he imitates Bush getting a complete sentence out and I still laugh hysterically. You really need to check this guy out.
Oh, I also watched one of the LAMEST horror movies ever - "An American Haunting". Now this was Hollywood's take on the Bell Witch...and if you live in Tennessee I'm sure you've heard about this. In Tennessee, the Bell Witch is THE most infamous ghost story. If you don't know, this all took place in the early 1800's where John Bell and his family were supposedly tormented by an evil spirit that some say led to the mysterious death of John Bell. His daughter, Betsy, received more abuse at the hands of the "witch" than any other family members. Now I'm not a huge buff of ghost stories, but I have always found this one intriguing. Why? Because Andrew Jackson even had something to say about it. If you don't know, Andrew Jackson was someone I would call a "badass". He was a war hero and became a U.S. President. Anyway, he knew John Bell and had heard about the "Bell Witch" story so he wanted to see it first-hand. After spending a night at John Bell's house, this future President is quoted as saying, "I’d rather fight the entire British Army than to deal with the Bell Witch." Ever since I was a kid when I moved to Tennessee, the story of the Bell Witch always has had my interest. So I get this movie and watch it. Oh man did it suck. If you want a horror movie about The Bell Witch, all you need to do is read the various websites about this and it will be FAR more terrifying than this piece of crap movie. Why? Because this movie makes it to where all the family torment was because John Bell was molesting his daughter, Betsy. Yeah, I just spoiled it for you so consider yourself lucky I saved you 90 minutes of your life. In everything I have EVER read about this, child molestation was never even considered. But leave it up to Hollywood to screw up a great ghost story. They could have just stuck to the historical accounts and it would have been MUCH better. Ok....it would be like hearing about the Amityville house for a ton of years, then watching a movie about it where the "haunting" is done by someone who got screwed over by George Lutz in a shady real-estate deal to where they rigged speakers and crap in the house to make funny noises and scare the family. Not exactly a good ghost story, eh? What really made it suck was not only the reason behind the "hauntings", but the fact the many scenes had other people in the town witnessing the haunting, yet when the big "A-HA!" moment comes out, all the times other townsfolk witnessed anything was just casually forgotten about. It was like Hollywood producers or whatever were like "Man, how do we end this? Uuuuhhh....hey...John Bell was molesting his daughter!" and everyone was like "GREAT! Let's go with it!". It just sucked. Now me personally, I don't believe in ghosts. I believe what the Bible says, and that's when you die you are asleep waiting for the return and Judgment Day...I really do. But what I do believe in is demons. Oh yeah, I'm sure all of this is going to sound nuts. I know there are a lot of people who have claimed to have been visited by a dead relative and all that. But let me ask this - wouldn't it be a pretty terrifying thing to think that after you die that you're stuck inhabiting a house or following someone around instead of being granted eternal peace? How many movies have you seen where the ghost is a result of some horrible murder where the body has to be found so the soul can be at peace...that's a pretty frightening thought to me. I truly believe that anytime a "ghost" makes an appearance that it's demons at work. The reason is because it's another lame attempt by the devil to confuse people as to what happens when you die. The Bible explains what happens when someone dies, but if you have never read it and the devil can cast all sorts of doubt as to what happens...he gets his jollies. That's what I believe.
All right, I'm running out of steam and have a looooong day of work ahead of me tomorrow. But you know what's cool? When I get home from work tomorrow I don't have to spend 3 hours online tomorrow night researching issues and answering emails. Although, I do have to say that I miss it in a sick way. Hey, 2008 will be here before I know it, so I need to just relax and enjoy the free time...especially now that this stupid chest cold is leaving. Man I HATE being sick.