rexwolf74

latest poll numbers:

Thompson 28%
Giuliani 27%
Romney 10%
McCain 10%

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/2008_republican_presidential_primary

First, its still funny that the guy that leads has yet to announce. If this keeps up, why bother announce?

Second, Mitt. I think Mitt Romney is the Chili's of the GOP field. How many people would name Chili's as their favorite restaurant? Not many. But almost everyone likes Chili's - its kind of the fallback for any group outing. Someone vetoes Mexican, someone else nixes Chinese... then it happens... someone suggests Chili's. No one really started the night wanting Chili's, but everyone is ok with it. Mitt is the same way. Obviously few people have Mitt as their favorite. But I bet if the polls asked for a "second favorite," Romney would get a majority of the responses. Nothing excites me about Romney, but I'd be ok with him. I think most people feel this way.

random debate thoughts...

I know they were positioned by draw, but Mitt got the lucky draw. For every "quick answer" round, Mitt got to go first. He would take more than the allotted time (as they all did) and explain the answer. Most of "quick answer" questions were the basics, so all the other guys were left restating Mitt's position - and having Chris Matthews move on for time considerations. I don't blame Mitt, he took advantage of a format flaw - and came out looking like the leader of the pack.

"least presidential" - tie
1a. Tommy Thompson. The guy did some great things in Wisconsin, but he looked like the oldest one up there.
1b. Tom Tancredo. I really liked what this guy had to say most of the time; unfortunately it usually took him 2-3 tries to say it.

"most presidential" - Mitt
Mitt was the most polished, almost too polished. Apologies to Mitt, but he was Clinton-esque. I half expected him to bite his lower lip and tell us "I feel your pain."

"most like a cartoon character" - John McCain
promising to follow Osama to the gates of hell was humorous - and not in a good way.

John Kerry flip-flop award - Rudy G
I'm still not sure where he stands on abortion. Clearly trying to have it both ways.

Houdini Disappearing Act - Gilmore
Did he distinguish himself in any way? Oh yeah, he's a consistent conservative

One-Trick Ponies
"I'm Sam Brownback and I'm pro-life."
"I'm Duncan Hunter and I built a fence"

My two current favorites - Huckabee and Paul
By "favorites" I don't mean likely to win, I only mean "likely I'll vote for."
Huckabee seems like a straight shooter. Solid, but not shiny-polished (see Mitt). Has executive level experience.
Ron Paul - basically they let a libertarian into the GOP debate. He was the most distinct candidate up there. Sadly, his skills aren't well suited for 30 second clips. His record is the best to talk about big picture items - smaller government, individual liberties, freedom. Yes, he should talk about what he doesn't like, but only as a sub-point to the big picture items of liberty, freedom and smaller government. I would argue that Paul is the most legitimate limited-government conservative in the bunch.

Will the debate hosts ever dispense with the stupid questions??
-What do you dislike most about America?
-Could Tom Tancredo be your Sec of the Interior
-Other than yourself, who would you vote for?
Stupid, stupid, stupid.

How about a American Idol type deal... have a call-in number and the lowest vote getter gets booted from the next round of debates.

DrudgeReport has a completely unscientific poll up on who won the debate. As of 11pm Thursday
Mitt 34%
Rudy 21%
Ron Paul 15%
Tommy Thompson 7%
John McCain 6%
Tom Tancredo 5%
all others less than 5.

I'm thrilled that Paul is 3rd, and not even a close 3rd. Paul's website is not directing people to the poll, and neither has he sent he any emails about it.

I don't know what it says that I'm 32 and I think I just had my greatest Spring Break ever.

It started a day early actually. Thursday I headed to the ACC tournament in Tampa with Jeff and Bart. We saw 2 games Thurs, Fri and Sat. Then the championship game on Sunday. Also on Friday we went to the Astros - Blue Jays spring training baseball game. So thats ACC tourney, Florida, baseball and two good friends - all before Monday.

Monday, Saturday and Sunday I played basketball with some more friends.

Tuesday and Wednesday were yard and grading days.

Friday, Heather and I rode the motorcycle up to my parents lake house. Then went to Porters til late/early.

Saturday night Heather and I met her parents for dinner.

Sunday was church.

And of course Thursday - Sunday was spent watching lots of college basketball.

I got to do everything I enjoy - watch the tourney, play hoops, ride the motorcycle, do nothing.

I got to do everything I needed to do - yard, grading, etc.

I got to spend time with lots of good people - Heather, Jeff, Bart, Porter (et al), my parents, Heather's parents, youth at church.

I don't think I'm missing anything. It was perhaps the most complete Spring Break ever.

I'm taking the physics certification test this Saturday. They allot 4 hours for it, but hopefully I won't take that long. As I read through my college physics text, I'm reminded again of the greatness of God. There are so many things in the physical universe that suggest at the very least that something quite remarkable is going on. I'm talking of course about hints (evidence is to a strong word) of intelligent design.

This gem from the chapter on Temperature: "Given the broad range over which temperature can vary, the very fact of our existence seems the grandest of miracles." Take note, this is not a Christian text, just some honest authors expressing awe at our world.

Albert Einstein once said "the most incomprehensible thing about our universe is that its comprehensible." If the world was truly random in origin, would we be able to even study it? Can you study random things? I suppose you can study, but you probably won't reach any conclusions. Our physical world, however, has been studied and many patterns and laws have been discovered. Reviewing the physics book has shown some interesting parallels across specific topics. Gravitational force and force from a charge have very similar equations. Mass, energy, momentum and charge are all conserved. Light, matter and electric charge are all quantized.

Other physical wonders: distance from earth to the sun, distance to moon (or that we have a moon at all), the way water expands as it freezes (unlike almost all other fluids), the list goes on and on.

I'm reminded of one of my favorite professors at Baylor, Dr. Holstead. Once or twice a semester he would give an aside during a lecture.(allow me to paraphrase) Do you realize how amazing this is? Do you ever wonder why the world is so orderly? Why and how are we able to understand any of this? We should be in awe. If you believe in God, allow it to strengthen your faith, and praise Him for it. If you don't believe in God, just ask yourself if the world looks random to you.

For some months now I have pondered an odd question. What product, currently priced at $20 or less, is the greatest invention ever. The price restriction rules out some obvious answers - car, computer, A/C, etc. I'm talking about the smaller things in life.

I have a list of 3 so far. in no particular order...

1. Chap-stik. Hi, my name is Rex and I'm a Chap-Stik-aholic. I carry one with me everywhere. The flavors are kinda nice (strawberry and cherry). The dark blue variety with sun-protection is great for the outdoors. But nothing compares to the light blue - its the Michael Jordan of Chap-Stik flavors. Other flavors may be nice, but no one questions the supremacy of the medicated version. On particularly harsh days, this magic tube offers miraculous relief. This might be the most "bang for your buck" product ever invented.

2. Q-tips. Like item #1, its most commonly known by a particular brand. (like coke, kleenex, xerox, etc). That kind of name identification could be reason enough to make the list. Officially "cotton swabs"; these 3-inch sticks keep your ears clean. Even though the box clearly states "DO NOT INSERT IN EAR CANAL." - does anyone buy these for some other purpose? I recently went a week without a q-tip. They say man can live without air for 3 minutes, without water for 3 days, without food for about 40 days. I'm putting the q-tip line at 10 days. I made it a week, but I was starting to fade the last several days.

3. the electric blanket. On cold winter nights, you just dread getting into that cold bed - spending several miserable minutes just waiting for the sheets to thaw. Sometimes as much as 30 minutes can be spent for you and the bed to get thermally adjusted to one another. The phrase "necessity is the mother of invention" was probably coined by the creator of the electric blanket. I hope the genius inventor has a Nobel prize for this effort. Perhaps they should just rename the Nobel prize after him. This is not exaggeration.

I welcome your suggestions. greatest inventions of all time - but costing less than $20...

"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Sadly, you might not recognize that statement. Its the 10th Amendment, the last of the Bill of Rights.

"Limited Government" is not supposed to be a political position. Its supposed to be a political presupposition. I believe in limited government not because I'm a Republican or Democrat, conservative of liberal, but because the Constitution (you know, the document that supposedly lays the framework of our government) says that we are to have a limited government. Its not supposed to be a political issue.

The Founding Fathers were quite aware of this, and numerous quotes are similar to this gem by Thomas Paine: "Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one."

The Founders tried to restrain the powers of government - perhaps you learned about "checks and balances" in a history class. They knew quite well the dangers of to much power. Today, however, there are few leaders on either side who grasp this concept. Democrats tossed aside the 10th Amendment long ago, and would be shunned out of the party for uttering the phrase "limited government." Most Republicans aren't much better. They pay lip-service to the term, but few really believe it. "Conservative" used to mean a belief in smaller government, now it means using government for things Republicans (rather than Democrats) want.

Will someone please stand up and at least point this out? Can some fresh political face even get elected with such a message?

1. Kind of disappointed at the lack of response to my previous post. No one cares about soccer?

2. Go Tigers. I really don't like the Cardinals.

First off, I am by no means a soccer expert. I know what offsides is, and at one point I was a certified soccer referee, but still, I am no expert. I am a fan. It started when my brother played soccer and I would go to his games. The World Cup and its international following are fascinating. And more recently, I have had a number of outstanding students on the KHS soccer team. It’s easy and more fun to go to games when you like the participants.

Though initially my enjoyment of soccer was based on people, I have begun to enjoy the sport for several other reasons. First, I have developed great appreciation for the skills required to play. But most sports require some specialized skill set to perform successfully. Secondly – and this is what makes soccer different than most sports – is the level of perfection and execution required to be a successful soccer team. Obviously every player and coach in every sport strives for perfection, but few demand it the way soccer does. A blown offsides trap results in a goal. A missed defensive assignment results in a goal. A lapse in concentration standing over a PK results in a miss. Inches determine the success of a header from a corner kick. The list goes on and on. Partially because it is a low-scoring game, soccer demands perfection. A baseball, basketball or football team that executes their plays and positions correctly 95% of the time will win a lot of games. A soccer team has no such luxury. 5 minutes of poor play – or even 1 blown assignment - and you’re down a goal, perhaps an insurmountable lead.

This demand for perfection is what makes soccer so compelling. I am a perfectionist. I hate making errors – always have. My goal on every math test I ever took was to make a 100. A 90 is still an A, but not satisfying. Not fulfilling. Soccer is similar. So to watch a good team play a near-perfect game really is a thing of beauty. But what makes it compelling also makes it frustrating. Sometimes the “better” team loses because of one mistake. But “better” in soccer doesn’t really mean “fastest” “strongest” or even “having the most skilled players.” “Better” means being closest to perfect, executing the game plan flawlessly, and taking advantage of the few mistakes the other team might make.

As my reasons for enjoying soccer have grown and matured over the years, I find I am drawn more to this idea of a sport which demands perfection.

its been right at a month since I last posted. far to long, but what can you do?!

For the record, I had strep. I was on antibiotics, but it seemed like it took 4-5 days to finally kick in. Better late than never I suppose. Glad to be done with that. I wish it was like chicken pox - once you get it your body becomes immune to it.

I see that oil prices are down nearly 20% from their record highs. I demand a congressional investigation. Oh wait, thats only when prices go up. Welcome to capitalism. Where are all the liberals when capitalism brings lower prices? I know, they still complain. And I'm sure they still want government controls on... well on everything. Why don't we just let the government run the energy industry? And the health-care industry?

I'll stop the rant there - though you all know I could go on.

way past bedtime. I have so much stuff to grade this weekend. 4 sets of tests, 1 set of quizzes and 3 sets of homework.

51 advil. 46 Tylenol. 10 Amoxicillin. 30 popsicles. 10(?) cans of Chicken Noodle Soup. 2 Dr. Pepper blended floats from Sonic.

Its been exactly 1 week since I started feeling sick. I'll find out tomorrow (Monday) if its strep throat or not. I'm starting to think its not, since my body hasn't responded to the Amoxicillin yet. If its not strep, its likely mono. Great. Mono to start off the school year.

If it is strep, then I'll be asking the doctor for more, different, better, stronger medicine. If its mono, then I think I'm just plain hosed.

Its hard to get excited about the school year when you feel like this, but I'm still looking forward to it. I have 3 great subjects to teach this year: Alg2, PreCal H, and Calc AB. I know over 20 of my students from previous classes or from church.

Any prayers you want to throw up for my health would be greatly appreciated. thanks!