Mei Mei

For those who don't know, the title for this post is Chinese for "little sister". Like many siblings, my sister and I fought constantly throughout our years growing up. The subject put more than a few gray hairs on my mother's head. I've found that since graduating from high school and leaving home that our relationship improved a great deal virtually overnight, and I have come to love her greatly. Since that time, she and I have both graduated from college and have started careers. That is until about three years ago.

During the spring of 2003, my sister was starting to get restless in her job. She had originally intended to become a doctor, but mediocre MCAT scores did not put her in a position to get into medical school. She and I had always been curious about the military (the Navy in particular) mostly due to Hollywood's portrayal of Naval officers and enlisted personnel as the most consistently favorable of the four branches of service. Long story short, she enlisted in the Navy.

The decision was not without controversy in our family. Our dad being a committed pacifist, did not care for the idea of his youngest going off to join the military. However, 9/11 had softened him to the idea and he gradually came to accept the decision. My wife and I, on the other hand, were both very proud and supportive and still are.

My sister went through basic training and has slowly moved up the ranks as an Arabic translator. Due to a misdiagnosis, she missed a flight school appointment that would have landed her (no pun intended) in Bahrain. She's been doing translation work in a cubicle for the past two years. However, she didn't join the Navy to see the inside of a cubicle wall in the continental US, so when an opportunity came up to head out with the Marines to do translation work, she jumped at the chance.

I'm proud beyond words that my mei mei is going off to defend freedom, liberty, and the enemies of the United States. Yet, I feel uneasy. I'm not the only one with a family member over in the sandbox, and I know there is no guarantee of her safety. I'll pray for her safety and effectiveness over there and hope she comes back home. The fact that she is going with the Marines makes me feel a little better. If anyone can keep her safe over there, the USMC can.

I watched the movie Serenity again a couple of days ago. For the first time I actually got more than just choked up over a movie. River's line "you've always taken care of me Simon. Now its my turn" suddenly had a lot more meaning than it did four months ago. My mei mei is going into harm's way for me and my family. How can I be anything but humbled and proud of her? How can anyone be anything but proud and humbled?

Anti-war protesters had best be on their guard. For me, the war has stopped being an academic exercise and is now far more personal. Attacks (verbal or physical) against our troops will be responded to by me in a harsh and uncaring manner. Your feelings didn't matter much to me before and they mean even less now. Until our forces are home safe, you'd best keep your nonesense to yourself while I'm around. My sister is your moral and intellectual superior in every way possible. You'll denigrate her service over my dead body. If a cross with her name on it shows up at Camp Casey, I make no guarantees about the consequences.

God's speed mei mei. Your service is appreciated by the thinking people of this nation. You're in my prayers and thoughts constantly. Shoot straight and come home safe.

Validation

Like most people, I have a day job that keeps me from watching all the news I'd like to watch. Last week, I watched with a sense of detached amusement as Senate Democrats devolved into a mire of their own hatred and prejudice during the Alito hearings. When will the left ever understand that Kennedy lecturing anyone on the finer points of morality and ethics is about as believable as Simon Cowell giving Yoko Ono a compliment on her singing.

The whole hearing was for show. The Democrats are going to vote against Alito and that hasn't changed since O'Connor resigned. Republicans were going to vote for him and that hasn't changed since Alito's nomination. People have been saying that there was value in the hearings because we got to hear from Alito. I'll partially concede that point conditionally, but what did we really find out about Alito?

We found out that Alito is smarter than Schumer, Swimmer, and Feinstien (aka Glockinpurse). Was this such a revelation? Like any organization, the brains and talent of our government does not reside with the people who are in control. Rather the true brains and talent of an organization lies with the people actually making things happen.

We found out that the right to free speech is actually codified in the Constitution because it is specifically mentioned, but the right to an abortion would require some additional reading and interpretation. Again, this is a huge revelation? I can take the copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and actually point to any person the specific wording that explicitly protects our right to free speech (for those who don't know, its the First Amendment). However, the word "abortion" does not appear anywhere in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, or Declaration of Independence. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of abortion (pro or con), this is an undeniable fact.

We found out that Kennedy can read. That may or may not be a revelation. He was kicked out of Harvard, after all, for cheating. However, we also found out that the term "satire" is something that he and his staff aren't aware of. John Stewart could easily give him some lessons.

The biggest thing I learned is that Alito is the intellectual superior of every Senator on the Judiciary Committee.

What bothers me the most is how abortion has become the only issue that matters. To many Roe v. Wade is the holy grail of judicial decisions and must be protected or overturned at all costs. It is the only case that anyone knows about. How many can state the significance of Marbury v. Madison (especially those coming out of our esteemed public schools) or Kelo for that matter? Like many of the people closest to me, I believe Roe should be overturned. Unlike many of those closest to me, it is not the subject matter of the decision that it should be overturned on. Rather, Roe represents a broad overreach of authority on the part of the USSC.

Roe is bad as a judicial precedent and as a matter of Constitutional case law. As I indicated above, abortion is not specifically mentioned in the Constitution. According to the Tenth Amendment "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." This means that since abortion is not included explicitly in the Constitution or its Amendments, the decision of the legality of abortion at the very least remains in the hands of the states or to the people. Let the states pass laws. My preference would be to the people. Let market forces dictate the availability of abortions.

The unfortunate part of this is that Roe isn't the high water mark for the part of judicial activism or finding rights in the Constitution that simply aren't there.

Alito's response to Schumer's baiting was to take the cheese and leave the trap for the dumbfounded liberal idiots to fume that once again they've been outmanuvered and outsmarted by the kind of person they believe to be beneath them intellectually, morally, and politically. To watch them chafe at that brutal reality is great television.

First Post

Since I can never manage that subject line at any of my favorite sites (Slashdot, or Kim's site), I'll post it for my first blog entry.

A little about me and what you can expect to read about here. I try not to be too complicated, but my wife will tell you that I am more often than not very complicated. First, I am a Christian so everything in my life must be filtered through that spiritual reality for me. That being said, I'm a libertarian (small l) Conservative. Just because I am a Christian doesn't mean I demand adherence to my religion's precepts in order to interact with you.

My libertarian Conservatism means that I am in favor of a minimalistic government, am a strong believer in the Second Amendment as the only real protection for the First, I am a fierce opponent to the Nanny State, and April 15th is the absolute worst day of the year. That's really only the tip of the ice berg for me politically speaking, but you can expect to hear my commentary on political events as they occur. This means if you're a member of MoveOn.org, or thought Ferenheit 9/11 was a great film, this blog will likely have little for you to read.

I am also a man. Not in the macho stereotype of Ah-nold, or VanDamme movies. Nor in the tradition of the gangsta rap nonsense that just won't go away. I am a man in the sense that I work hard, play hard, take care of my family, and I enjoy some of the things that men do.

Finally, I'm a computer geek in almost an entirely stereotypical sense. I work as a web programmer of sorts, and I actually enjoy computer programming and software engineering. I'm working towards my masters degree in Information Technology with a specialization in System Design and Programming at Capella University. Capella is an online school so I'm on the internet almost 16 hours a day. I also teach online so that means even more time online.

As Kim du Toit once said, "I don't just want gun rights... I want individual liberty, a culture of self-reliance....I want the whole bloody thing."