Parental Units

As the previous post said, I was off on Monday. Awesome. Tuesday I worked on the Report for Government Affairs and on Wednesday, I finished it. Also I did Cato Today in 2 hours! The quickest I've done it. I started at 8:30 so I had to wait 30 minutes (until 11) to send it out. I went to the the informal lunch group and I met a mult-millionaire. Pretty epic. I also did an email for Brandon. On Thursday, I didn't do that much. We had a lecture with Tom Palmer (my favorite) and I did a mailing for Caitlyn. On Friday, I did CT in 2 hours again! On a roll baby! I also started putting together a list of freshman congressman and their offices so we can deliver handbooks to them. My parents came up on Friday so I hung out with them all weekend. It was awesome to see them again. We had dinner with all my DC friends on Saturday and Kayon started talking "real suthern" like my parents. pretty funny!

Ain't Presidents Grand?

As you can see from the title, I was off work today. Much needed day off, let me tell you. It was a great week though. A lot of epicness. I've been using that "word" too much... Anyways, here's the stitch:

On Monday, I helped one of my fellow interns make phone calls to see what Representatives were coming to our New Member Breakfast on Tuesday. No one I talked to was coming. Drat.

On Tuesday, I did Cato Today again. I was not planning on this and I got started about an hour later than usual (9:30). I was doing the newspaper delivery and when I got done the other guys asked me to take if for the day. Kind of rough. I tried the pizza place near work with Saagar. Pretty good stuff.

Wednesday, I worked through the Gokhale distribution list till I was down to the last two emails. When I got home, I called numbers for both and I was able to get an email for one.

Thursday, I finished the Gokhale list. Thank the Lord! I now hate excel. Completely. I was able to start a new project too. I began to put together my department's (Government Affairs) quantitative report for 2010. I have to list all the events and put descriptions with the events. That evening in the apartment, I had a huge foreign policy "discussion" with Josh, Jason, Taylor, and Nick. I was ganged up on, but at least I know I'm right. Our military is there to provide for the common defense, not world domination and messing in already hostile situations does nothing to make them better (the Middle East).

Friday, I worked more on the project and then I went to the International Students for Liberty Conference. It was awesome. I attended the whole weekend. I saw John Stossel, David Boaz, Gary Johnson (2012), and several other awesome speakers. If you ever get the chance to go to one of these, don't think, do it. (Employee of the Month reference.)

Today (Monday), we went to the national zoo. Saw red pandas (my favorites), giant pandas, shrews, leopards, and a bunch of monkeys. Check out my pics on Facebook if you want to see them. Awesome stuff.

Thanks and peace.

Bourbon Babies! "Somebody hit her with the ugly stick"

A wee bit behind but at least I'm posting...

On Monday I went with my supervisor, Brandon Arnold, to the Republican Study Committee. That's always an interesting meeting. Its a bunch of Republican staffers that discuss whats coming up for the house. Pretty legit. On the way back to Cato in the taxi, Brandon explained the process of making laws and procedures. Pretty awesome, and intricate, stuff.

Tuesday I started making phone calls for my distribution list. Calling offices all over the country. I hate phones... but it was still fun. You can definitely tell when you're talking to people from the south. I left about an hour early so I could drop of some testimonies for Mark Calabria for the next day.

Wednesday: More phone calls. OH JOY. Another discussion with Kuznicki. I still haven't decided if I like him. He's good, but odd. I also put together a list of freshmen congressmen that declined their provided health care. For lunch I went to Micky D's and I saw Dan Griswold. I also bought lunch for two homeless guys.

Thursday: I did CT again but I was overconfident. So it took a while. And then I went with Caitlyn Korb and Roger Pilon to a Hill briefing about restoring Constitutional liberty. Pilon and Rep. Scott Garrett spoke. Pretty awesome.

Friday: LYNCHBURG!!! But first work. It wasn't bad. Then four hours on the train.

Went to Jordan Connell's concert. EPIC. and then I went to b-dubs with everyone: JB, Cribby, Stephan, Sara Beth, Ryan, AJ, Zack, Corey, Zach, Lexie, Chris, Allison, Nick, and a random Asian girl I don't know.

Saturday: We went to the mall and got Chinese like old times (Stephan, Sara Beth, and Grant) and went to Walmart and Target. Then I went to the ball game and then played the futuristic risk and it was epic. Watched Wall Street with JB and Zack. Not sure about that.

Sunday: Left on the train at 10. Back in DC...

Thai, mushrooms, and emails...

So here's the weekly update:

On Monday, I took the lead on Cato Today. Um... can you say intense? It's Cato's daily publication that is sent out by email. I got there about 8:20 and didn't get it out until 1:00. Over four and half hours. But it made it out!

On Tuesday, Jason Kuznicki spoke to us about logic. Very interesting despite the fact one of his examples of bad logic was a faulty argument that creationists (which I am) sometimes use. He definitely had some valuable insight. At Cato we're allowed to take the books they publish home. Because of this, I've started a list of books I really want and one has been at the top: The Libertarian Reader. I found it Tuesday. I was excited! haha

On Wednesday, I put together a fax for Kuznicki's Marriage Against the State. It's a good article but not really something LU would like. Oh well. I also worked on the Gokhale distribution (like I have the last 3 weeks). For lunch I had Thai food for the very first time. Saagar talked me into (one of the other interns).

On Thursday, Kuznicki talked again, but this time about natural rights. A good lecture with a lot of good discussion. I really like the article from Ayn Rand. Good stuff.

Today, Friday, I went to Capital Hill to deliver books and then we (me and Saagar again) had lunch in the Longworth cafeteria with one of his roommates who works on the hill. His roommate is allergic to mushrooms so what did he do? He had one. We had to take him to the first aid room.

We're watching the Island right now. Epic movie. We're always watching movies... haha. Tomorrow we're heading to Georgetown to get cupcakes. Yep. Cupcakes. They're so legit they're on the food network.

Why Libertarianism Fits With, and Exemplifies, the Christian Faith

This is just my preliminary thoughts on the subject. I hope to really get into this at some point from both angles. Here is just the Christian angle.

"Many Christians today feel that the Republican Party is the only option that fits with their faith. They feel that the “morals” exemplified in the party so closely resemble their own, that they have to support the party. While I personally agree with some of the moral issues that the Republican Party takes a stand on, I do not agree with the Republican way of implementing them. I consider myself a Christian Libertarian. Many, from both sides (Christian and Libertarian), would stare at me with wonder at this pairing of seemingly contradictory words. These two things are in fact compatible. I would go so far to say that this worldview is best acted upon through this political philosophy.

Christians in today’s time have fallen down on the job. We do not have the passion that the early church had and because of this, we are losing the fight in society. In order to “shore up our defenses,” we attempt to legislate our views and morality. If we can outlaw drugs then our society will become more moral; so we think. If we legislate morality, the actual morality that we are trying to uphold is warped and lessened greatly. When we force people to act a certain way by fear of punishment, there is no morality; just fear and disdain for the overbearing authority. In order to truly reach the culture around us, we must do it on our own: through relationships and personal interactions. Legislation cannot induce morality. If people are allowed to choose what they do and how they act, then when they make good moral decisions, the decisions are actually good and true.

Christians take the easy way out when we take our moral rules and obligations and apply them to the general public. Its almost as if we are jealous that they can have fun so we have to make them “suffer” as we do. This is not true faith. It is laziness and immorality at their pinnacle. To truly win a society and make it “moral,” we must win their hearts. We must regain the passion that once made Christianity so enticing and show that to the world.

If we (Republican Christians) enact our morality into legislation when we are in power, what do we expect the other side (“Godless” Democrats) to do? It does not take a genius to see what will happen, and what has happened. If we try to enforce our beliefs on those who do not share them, when they become the ruling party they will most definitely strive to enact their policies as well. When they do, we cannot complain. We did the same.

Take a look at Genesis. God created Adam and Eve for companionship. Did you get that? He CREATED them. He chose how they would be. Every. Single. Aspect. Not long after their creation they disobeyed him and fell into sin. They were given the free will to do what they pleased even if it went against what God wanted for them. (I hold that it was still His will but that’s another discussion.) The Republican way of doing things does not recognize this. They try to tell people how to act through coercion. God wants us to come to him of our accord (with the Holy Spirit’s guiding).

Man is fallen. Dr. Metallo would be proud of that statement. Man is a sinful being. If we place people in a position of power, that sinful nature is tempted even more than a normal person. It is magnified beyond belief. Government is necessary but not the type we have today. Our founders created a governing system with a very small central government because they knew that men governed themselves better than a government can. Because of the size and magnitude of our present government, the greed and immorality of man has been expanded so much that the government rarely functions effectively. The founders confined the government by establishing certain actions that the government could take and then delegating the rest either to the states or to the citizenry. Today’s government has ignored these rules (aka the Constitution) and has stolen power from the states and the people."

2nd Blog from DC

So this week was pretty epic. I am still loving the city. I've been able to see and do so much! Last Saturday we went to the Air and Space Museum. Pretty awesome stuff! On Wednesday, I sat in on a House Judiciary Subcommittee meeting. One of our scholars at Cato, Dan Griswold, testified about immigration. It was pretty exciting. It snowed so much that day! They let us leave at 3. On Thursday, we went in 2 hours late. I'm really glad we actually made it because the founder of Cato, Ed Crane, spoke to us. I also put together 2 faxes and emails about new material we had. On Friday, we had a debate and a bunch of students came from organizations all over the city. I ran around with a microphone for questions and answers. It was really epic. The discussion was about welfare and poverty.

Yesterday we went up to the Washington Monument. Boy was that awesome! The view was amazing! Today I went to Ebenezer's (NCC) again for church. They gave all the new people food after the service. For dinner I had Armond's pizza (AMAZING) and we're watching Chaos Theory now. (ALSO AMAZING). Peace.

Moving and a Little Bit of Consistency

So I recently moved to Washington, D.C. Not permanently of course (I'm a country boy), but for an internship. I'm working at the Cato Institute (flipping awesome) and I'm wrapping up my final semester at LU through their online program. In order to keep up with my oh so exciting life now (it really is!) I'm going to try and blog on a weekly basis. I'm keeping notes each day about what I do and on the weekend I'll blog about it.

I just finished my second week but it seems like I've been here for months! In a good way though. I was scared to death to start at Cato but I absolutely love it! The atmosphere is not Liberty Way per se, but its definitely an atmosphere of liberty. I work with the Government Affairs department and their goal is to get Cato's libertarian information out to Congress and other leaders. So in other words... I've been compiling databases with contact info. No that glamorous I know, but incredibly important. Jagadeesh Gokhale, a Cato Scholar, wrote a study on the costs of medicaid on the states in regards to Obamacare. We are trying to get this out to all the states and this is where I come in: get all the emails, addresses, phone numbers, etc. for a bunch of people. Tedious, but important.

We've been to the hill (Capitol Hill for all you people back home. haha) a couple times for events and I've been to a lot of cool places. I've delivered Cato books to several house and senate offices. I haven't seen anyone, but eventually I will! On Wednesday, we took a taxi to capitol hill for an event. First time in a D.C. taxi. Ok. When we got back to the office we found everyone outside because there was an gas leak in the building and they sent us home at 3. Heck yeah.

The next day I delivered a couple packages for Jason Kuznicki to the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institute, and Americans for Tax Reform. They're all kind of close to Dupont Circle, one of the famous D.C. landmarks. On my way I passed the embassies of Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Peru. And for the finale of the day, I was stuck in the elevator between the 1st and 2nd floors at Cato. I was there for about 30 minutes but I had coffee so I was fine.

Today, we went to the hill again for an informal pizza lunch/discussion with staffers. It was pretty cool. Afterwards we delivered more books around the hill. Today was my first happy hour at work. It was a Chinese New Year theme with a bunch of Chinese food and sake. I didn't have any because I don't like alcohol and because of my commitments to LU. It was hilarious. They had a huge dragon that people walked around in and they had pictures of Chinese and Korean leaders everywhere. I had a good time socializing and discussing.

Last weekend we toured a bunch of museums (we being a bunch of the LU students in the Washington Semester.) We've got a great group of people and we're all hanging out and getting along. We've been to the National Community Church the last two sundays at Ebenezer's Coffee Shop. It's epic. We're watching Clue right now. Also epic.

This was a lot but its my first post. Hopefully this will be once a week so I'll tone it down a bit. Thanks guys.

Oh, the grocery stores here are outrageous!