Death of the Republican Party

Today we are at an interesting juncture of history. Not since the 1800s has this been truly seen. There is a distinct possibility that we are witnessing the dying days of the Republican Party and the waning days of strong conservatism.

Let me explain. In the early 1800s there were two political parties: the Republicans and the Federalists. The Federalists were the party of John Adams; the Republicans, Thomas Jefferson. Now, after a while, the Federalists became widely unpopular, the reason of which can probably be found in a textbook. Basically a lot of the decisions made by the Federalist party were very unpopular. This led to the Federalists losing in many of the elections and also led to many Federalists to change parties. In the end, the Federalists were so unpopular that they didn't even put up a presidential candidate.

Fast forward to today. John McCain got whipped in the election (seriously, not even 4 hours into the polls being closed, Obama had it wrapped up), incumbent Republicans across the country lost their seats in congress, and now Republicans over the country are asking themselves if they want to change parties. What led to the downfall of the Federalists is happening to the Republican party (being horribly unpopular and making wildly terrible decisions, not trying to secede from the Union, though judging from the amount of people wanting to move from the US it might have been discussed...).


Au revoir Repubican party. It was never nice knowing you.

Censorship at Baylor

Ugh, I'm tired. I'm tired of the stupid conservative people I live with. I'm tired of the restrictive and alienating environment of Baylor. I'm tired of being here and if it wasn't for the Cahnz, Liz, Suzan, Michael, Morgan, and Ryatt, I would be out of here in a heartbeat.

So, I come home just wanting to read some reviews and interviews on The AV Club, the serious art critique section of The Onion, and instead of doing just that, I'm greeted with this:

Baylor's Internet use policy restricts access to this web page at this time.
Reason:	The Websense category "Sex" is filtered.
URL:	http://www.avclub.com/

Wait what? This must be a mistake. No, it's the second time it's happened in the past two days. They temporarily unblocked it today, and then shut it back down. What the heck?! If you've ever been to the AV Club, you know there's nothing even close to controversial there. Ugh. So, then I try and go to The Onion. What did I get? The same exact thing.

WTF?! This is straight up Big Brother censorship! They blocked a website only because of it's liberal slant for something that it is not even remotely close to offending. I just checked the Huffington Post just to make sure they didn't do a massive attack on liberal sites while I was out.

I'm sick and tired of Baylor. Two more years then I'm gone from this place. Gone from these people. Even my future roommates are being complete douchebags and idiots. So, UGH!!!

The Fall

Oh my goodness. I just finished The Fall by Albert Camus tonight. It was excellent. The whole novel is simply one man's monologue given over a couple days. It started out as an entry into he collection of short stories, Exile and the Kingdom, but it grew to be it's own novella. It bears a striking resemblance to Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground, and I'm sure that's a connection Camus was deliberately making. It also bears a resemblance to Camus' first foray into fiction, The Stranger. The resemblance is fleeting though, as the two characters in the realize the world they live in is absurd, yet end up with completely different ideas about life in the end. Really though, The Fall is an amalgamation of The Stranger, The Plague, and The Rebel. An excellent, yet unfortunate, ending to a literary career so magnificent.

Does It Weird Anyone Else Out

that we clean our ears out with spit?

Agape

So, I've been wasting a bit of time looking up people's home phone numbers and addresses on Baylor's online directory. I find it creepy that you can look up random people's information, but hey, that's just me. But for the real gist of this post, let's proceed.

1 Corinthians 13:4

I'm tired of seeing girls after getting their little hearts broken posting this to make themselves feel better. I recently heard that it gets read at weddings. What? Please let me explain.

YOU'RE READING IT WRONG!

Now, I have this small little beef with the English language. Love is used in multiple ways and it's not readily apparent what meaning it takes. So let me just cover the 3 main words for love in Greek (You know, the language the New Testament was actually written in?).

Eros
Phil-
Agape


Now, Eros, we all know. It's erotic love. Lust some would call it. Nah, it's just the love between man and woman. Keep that in mind for a little bit.

Phil- is basically a obsession or affinity for something. Most people know it in conjunction with sophia. Philosophia, the love of knowledge. Other uses are to label obsessive and unhealthy practices, pedophilia, the such.

Now agape. Agape is basically a divine love, often used in conjunction with god's love for man or man's need for brotherhood with his fellow man.

Now guess which word for love is used in 1 Corinthians 13:4. If you guessed agape, you're correct. Man needs agape to interact with humanity in a truly Christian way. You may say, well, it could count for love between two people too! No. If Paul meant eros, he would have said eros, instead he referred specifically agape. This is love for fellow man in a way that resembles god's love for man. Actually, a better translation of this word is found in the Latin translation of the New Testament. The word, which for life of me I can't spell, translates to Charity.

So, from now on, I expect you to use 1 Corinthians 13:4 in the correct way, not to mean the love between you and your boyfriend.

Thanks.

No Heart?

So, I was just reading CNN and apparently Liberians here in America are facing a mass deportation starting March 31st when their "temporary protection status" ends. Now, this temporary protection status was first given to Liberian citizens trying to flee slaughter and a tyrannical rule of Charles Taylor (no relationship to the shoes, but there might as well be one). This was in the 1990s. Now, that would mean that there are Liberians here who have lived here for upwards of 10-15 years, who have had children, bought houses, started businesses, established friendships and relationships, etc. How can we take these people in, let them obtain some idea of semi-permanence and then order them out? The children are legal citizens of America, where are they to go? Some people in the country want to just throw them out, with nothing more than a good-bye. Can we honestly just kick them out, and expect them and their children to adjust to a life they have been removed from for so long, or in the children's case on they have never before? Can we allow ourselves to deport legal citizens, or do we suppose that we separate the children from their parents?

Start processes to allow the Liberians to gain citizenship if they want!