Mexican Drug War

Mexican Drug War:

Sample resolutions:

THBT the US should do more to help fight the drug war in Mexico.

THW legalize Marijuana.

THBT Mexico should not be abandoned.

THBT the war on Drugs is a lost cause.

Background:

Taken from Wikipedia

The Mexican Drug War is an armed conflict taking place among rival drug cartels who fight for regional control, and between the drug cartels and the Mexican government, which seeks to reduce drug trafficking. Although Mexican drug cartels have existed for a few decades, they have become more powerful since the demise of Colombia's Cali and Medellín cartels in the 1990s. Mexican drug cartels now dominate the wholesale illicit drug market in the United States.^[13] Arrests of key cartel leaders, particularly in the Tijuana and Gulf cartels, have led to increasing drug violence as cartels fight for control of the trafficking routes into the United States.^[14][15][16]

Mexico, a major drug producing and transit country, is the main foreign supplier of cannabis and a major supplier of methamphetamine to the United States.^[13]Although Mexico accounts for only a small share of worldwide heroin production, it supplies a large share of the heroin distributed in the United States.^[13][17]Drug cartels in Mexico control approximately 70% of the foreign narcotics that flow into the United States.^[18]

The US State Department estimates that 90% of cocaine entering the United States transits Mexico, with Colombia being the main cocaine producer^[19]—and that wholesale of illicit drug sale earnings estimates range from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion annually.^[13][20] Mexican drug traffickers increasingly smuggle money back into Mexico in cars and trucks, likely due to the effectiveness of U.S. efforts at monitoring electronic money transfers.

Pro and Cons with a sample model:

NOTE: Feel free to adjust these models as you see fit, they are just sample ideas with which you may run a gov/opp case.

Send more troops to US border, finish building the fence, and increase border protection so the drugrunners no longer have a market. Send 10k troops to border.

Legalize Marijuana in the US (Mexico too, if you want to take on the extra burden… I would suggest just the US).

THW legalize Marijuana

THBT the war on Drugs has failed

THW free the reefer

Sample model:

House= United States Congress

Fully legalize the growth, processing, sale, and consumption of marijuana. There would be a regulatory committee establishing levels of purity necessary for sale and establishing a tax on it. There would be a cap on the maximum amount a person can have in possession, being 3g, following the model of Denmark. The age limit would be 21 years old, and there would be restrictions on operation of motor vehicles while intoxicated with marijuana.

PROS	CONS
Help in the fight against the Drug cartels in Mexico. The legalization would cause farmers to be able to grow pot legally, therefore effectively eliminating the need to buy marijuana from Mexican cartels (see the points about the study done by RAND). **This is a huge point, obviously, and would need to be very much developed. The speaking points/evidence for this point is the main point of the brief.	Legalizing pot would actually put more money into the cartel’s pockets. Because of the wholesale legalization of pot, more people will be willing to try it, and therefore demand will go up, furthering the drug cartel’s business. This view is espoused by the two leaders who are hardest hit by the drug war, Fillipe Calderon (President of Mexico) and Juan Carlos (President of Colombia).
Legalizing would decriminalize the sale and consumption of marijuana, therefore freeing up the Police force and the Prison system from imprisoning otherwise law-abiding citizens.	Legalizing marijuana would lead to many social harms currently seen by Denmark, such as increased youth use of marijuana, declining school participation, and an increase in drug Tourism. This Drug tourism is an inevitable side effect which has brought about many problems for Denmark, as illustrated by a study shown in this brief.
Legalizing would allow the Government to regulate the sale of marijuana, and tax it, adding extra revenue, making the drug more safe, and helping to create new agricultural industry. **This point can, and should be backed up with a case study of Prohibition. Further evidence from this brief regarding total revenue gained through taxation could also be used.	We shouldn’t be legalizing a substance which has been proven in many different scientific studies to be harmful for humans. The social effects caused by marijuana are far reaching, and the government shouldn’t be endorsing such a socially problematic substance. Even if we could make money from it, we shouldn’t because it would be wrong for the government to take advantage of such a harmful product.
This would allow for freedom of Choice, that is, one’s right to choose autonomously whether or not they want to use a substance. Tobacco and Alcohol are both legal, and have been shown to actually be more harmful than marijuana. We are a free society that values the ability to pursue happiness anyway one so chooses, regardless of whether or not it is bad for you. Furthermore, criminalizing pot has brought about far worse harms, such as the 28,000 dead in Mexico, and the huge toll to our prison/court systems, than the nominal “social harms” presented by legal pot.	Legalizing could look weak in the international community. It would show that America and Mexico have admitted defeat in the face of adversity. Given up on a battle simply because it got too difficult. America, as the leader of the free world, has an obligation to democratic values and traditions to stand for what’s right in the world.

Important Facts about Drug War:

· 28,000 Deaths since Fillipe Calderon took office in 2006. This is more than the Iraq and Afghanistan war combined.

· It can cost as little as $35 to have an opponent murdered. There were more than 300 beheadings in 2009, becoming so commonplace most don’t even get mentioned in the news.

· On January 1^st, a 36 year old gang member was captured, dismembered, and his face was skinned off his skull, and sewn onto a soccer ball, kicked onto the lawn of a rival gangmember’s home with a message written on the other side, “Happy New Year, it’ll be your last.”

October 1 – 2 2010, 34 lives were claimed in a shootout in Juarez Mexico, right across the border from El Paso, TX.

· A man who goes by the name, ‘The Stewmaker’ confessed to dissolving more than 300 bodies in caustic acid, just in 2009!

· Joaquin Guzman is the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, the largest cartel in Mexico. The US currently has a bounty of $5m on his head, yet have been unsuccessful at capturing him. The Sinaloa cartel operates in the Juarez valley, directly south of El Paso, and he has become quite wealthy. Forbes put him on their billionaires list, as well as ranking him the 41^st most powerful man on the planet. He’s responsible for thousands of deaths, including many mayors of Juarez.

· On October 16, 2010 the Mexican army seized a huge haul of Marijuana packed for sale in Tijuana. They seized 134.2 tons of packaged marijuana, making it the largest seizure of packaged, for sale, marijuana. This marijuana has a street value over $336 million

· A report into the results of the first four months of Caldern's presidency showed the capture of 1,102 drug dealers, the seizure of about $500m, 556kg of marijuana, 1,419 military grade weapons, two airplanes, 630 automobiles, and 15 sea ships that transported drugs. This stopped the distribution of 17,728,000 doses of cocaine, 193,922,000 doses of heroin, and 6,996,000 toxic pills, stopping the intoxication of 647,771,000 people.

· Fillipe Calderon has deployed 50,000 armed troops the help contain the violence of the cartels. Many feel this exacerbates the violence, This was demonstrated in the massive protests of hundreds of people at the US/Mexican border in February of 2009, because many citizens of Mexico feel that the armed forces are actually committing human rights violations against the civilians.

· Cartels often “buy” police officers, according to an article posted by Wales on Sunday, roughly around $6m has been spent to buy police officers off. This is because police officers are considered 2^nd class citizens, not afforded the same rights to minimum wage, nor are they given protections against more than a 40 hour work week.

· Fillipe Calderon of Mexico and Juan Carlos of Colombia both urged against California Prop 19, saying that it would only increase the profits of the cartels, however former President of Mexico, Vincente Fox has given hourly twitter updates espousing the benefits of California legalizing. Analysts argue that the discrepancy is a result of politics, since the US gives both Presidents $9B in funds, they don’t want to jeopardize that cash flow. Calderon is quoted as saying, “drugs kill in production, drugs kill in distribution, and drugs kill in consumption.”

· California only makes up 1/7 of the marijuana market in the U.S., according to a study done by RAND, they found that the only way California legalizing marijuana could significantly undercut the cartel’s profits would be if drug runners began smuggling marijuana grown in California to other states.

· RAND found that even if sinsemilla marijuana (the most potent type of marijuana with a THC concentration of 10-18%, vs normal marijuana imported from Mexico at around 4-6%) was taxed heavily, at $25 dollars per ounce, the wholesale price would still be comparable to Mexican marijuana prices… so legal, twice as powerful, and taxed marijuana would still be about the same price as weaker, bloodstained marijuana.

· RAND also found, however, that through their transparent study (meaning their methods could be analyzed by any reader of the study) Marijuana sales only comprised 15-26% of Drug Cartel’s profits. They do concede the point that the government may have access to classified information, and government organizations have released the often quoted figure that marijuana sales comprise 60% of Drug Cartel’s profits.

· A little over 30% of marijuana users 18 and older are either dependent or abuse the drug, according to a 2004 study done in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They found serious correlations between marijuana use and cognitive impairment such as ability to think, reason and process information, it decreases motor functions, and has been shown to cause respiratory (lung cancer) and mental illnesses.

· A study done by the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport which is a Dutch organization caused the Dutch government to reduce the size limits on “coffee houses” which are essentially weed bars, because of the negative effects of drug tourism, and the societal harms associated with drug use/abuse. They found that the ease of access to marijuana led to underage students being able to easily obtain the drug, which affected their school performance, caused mass truancy issues, and in many cases caused permanent brain damage to their underdeveloped brains.

· According to the Economist, in 2007, 1/3 of Mexicans thought the death toll was a reasonable price to pay, whereas now, only 1/4 believe so. The death toll has been increasing rapidly, with twice as many deaths in the first half of this year as opposed to the first half of last year.

The high-profile cartels:

SINALOA CARTEL The Sinaloa Cartel is the largest drug trafficking cartel in Mexico. Its leader, Joaqun Shorty Guzmn, has become one of the richest men in the world and Mexico's most wanted. Since 2003, the cartel has waged war with its main rivals - the Gulf Cartel, Jurez Cartel and Tijuana Cartel - to control the coveted southwest Texas corridor. Also known as Federation or Golden Triangle, the cartel is responsible for importing nearly 200 tonnes of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2008.

GULF CARTEL Based in the city of Matamoros, the Gulf Cartel has been one of Mexico's two dominant cartels in recent years. In the late 1990s, it hired a private mercenary army called Los Zetas, which in 2006 stepped up as a partner. In February 2010, their partnership was dissolved and both gangs engaged in widespread violence across several cities of Tamaulipas state, turning several border towns into "ghost towns".

JUREZ CARTEL The Jurez Cartel controls one of the main transportation routes for illegal drug shipments entering the US. Its power has weakened, however, since it become locked in a vicious battle with its former partner, the Sinaloa Cartel, for control of the city of Ciudad Jurez. Headed by Vicente Carrillo Fuentes, the ruthless organisation has been known to decapitate rivals, mutilate their corpses and dump them in public and has an enforcement gang of former Chihuahua police officers.

TIJUANA CARTEL Featured in the Hollywood film Traffic, the Tijuana Cartel has been the least powerful of northern Mexico's gangs since its leader, Javier Arellano Felix, was arrested by the US Coast Guard on a boat off the coast of southern California four years ago. But in one of the bloodiest shoot-outs of the drugs war, 14 gang members were killed and eight others injured in a gun battle in Tijuana near the US border in April 2008.

The U.S. and the Mexican Drug war:

A brief History of Marijuana in the US:

In 1619, the Jamestown Colony actually had a law requiring farmers to grow cannabis. However, it was more for the other purposes of hemp, such as textile making, rope, paper, etc. In the US Census of 1850 there were 8,327 plantations growing marijuana.

Due to the previous Mexican war, and the Mexican revolution in 1910 which caused a spill over of violence when the Mexican army chased the bandit Pancho Villa (as a side note, my great-grandpa ran him off of our family dairy in Duncan, AZ) into US territory. Propaganda seized the “differences” between Mexicans and Americans, one of which was that they smoked “loco” (crazy) weed… or marijuana, which made them crazy. California, ironically enough, was the first state to pass a ban on smoking marijuana, merely based upon the fact that Mexicans smoked it. A few other states began to follow suit because Mormons also brought back marijuana from Mexico, and as Mormons were another persecuted group, this worked well for the propaganda machine (This source comes from Dr. Charles Whitebread, USC law professor). Examples of such rhetoric and propaganda come from the Butte Montana Standard, when it reported a legislator’s comment: “When some beet field peon takes a few traces of this stuff… he thinks he has just been elected president of Mexico, so he starts out to execute all his political enemies.” In Texas, a senator said on the floor of the Senate: “All Mexicans are crazy, and this stuff [marijuana] is what makes them crazy.”

Other propaganda began to target Black Jazz musicians (Cab Calloway’s ‘That Funny Reefer Man’ is a quick example of a song title bearing a reference to marijuana), with propaganda saying such things as, “Marihuana influences Negroes to look at white people in the eye, step on white men’s shadows and look at a white woman twice.” –Taken from an editorial in 1934. Then politicians and propagators connected Hasheesh, a form of marijuana, with the story of the “hasheesh-eaters” or ‘hashashin’ the root of the English word, ‘Assassin.’ They told stories of how the assassins would “rush at their enemies and ruthlessly massacre everyone in the area” because of the hasheesh (Dr. A. E. Fossier wrote this in 1931 for the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal), but the original stories say that they would eat hasheesh in the garden to get a glimpse of paradise, and then after the effects wore off, they could serve Marco Polo better.

Then in 1930 Harry J. Anslinger took the newly created position of director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger was a phenomenally racist man who took advantage of his position to impose regulations based upon ideals such as:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.”

“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

“Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

“Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

“Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”

“You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

“Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”

He employed the work of William Hearst, owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had many good reasons (detect the sarcasm here) to help Anslinger… he hated Mexicans… a lot. He invested heavily into timber companies to support his newspaper chain, and so Hemp threatened the timber industry because it was so cheap. He lost 800,000 acres of timber to Pancho Villa, which was valuable land to grow trees on. And he could sell more newspapers when he published lies about the Satanic Mexicans who smoked their Devil weed before murdering people.

So, in all reality, marijuana was made illegal on the grounds of racism and greed of timber corporations. So the burden that one who wishes to legalize marijuana is the health and productivity argument. There is a mild ‘religious’ morality

A look at Prohibition:

Prohibition in the United States, also known asThe Noble Experiment, was the period from 1920 to 1933, during which the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol were banned nationally^[1]as mandated in the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Under substantial pressure from the temperance movement, the United States Senate proposed the Eighteenth Amendment on December 18, 1917. Having been approved by 36 states, the 18th Amendment was ratified on January 16, 1919 and effected on January 16, 1920. Some state legislatures had already enacted statewide prohibition prior to the ratification of the 18th Amendment.

The "Volstead Act", the popular name for the National Prohibition Act, passed through Congressover President Woodrow Wilson's veto on October 28, 1919, and established the legal definition of intoxicating liquor, as well as penalties for producing it.^[2] Though the Volstead Act prohibited the sale of alcohol, the federal government did little to enforce it. By 1925, in New York City alone, there were anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000 speakeasy clubs.^[3]

While Prohibition was successful in reducing the amount of liquor consumed, it tended to destroy society by other means, as it stimulated the proliferation of rampant underground, organized and widespread criminal activity.^[4] Prohibition became increasingly unpopular during the Great Depression, especially in large cities. The bulk of America became disenchanted after the St. Valentine's Day massacre in 1929. Until then, they felt that, even with setbacks, Prohibition was working.

On March 22, 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed into law an amendment to the Volstead Act known as the Cullen-Harrison Act, allowing the manufacture and sale of certain kinds of alcoholic beverages. On December 5, 1933, the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment repealed the Eighteenth Amendment.

Many social problems have been attributed to the Prohibition era. Mafia groups limited their activities to gambling and theft until 1920, when organized bootlegging manifested in response to the effect of Prohibition.^[20] A profitable, often violent, black market for alcohol flourished. Powerful gangs corrupted law enforcement agencies, leading to racketeering. Stronger liquor surged in popularity because its potency made it more profitable to smuggle.

To prevent bootleggers from using industrial ethyl alcohol to produce illegal beverages, the government ordered the poisoning of industrial alcohols. In response, bootleggers hired chemists who successfully renatured the alcohol to make it drinkable. As a response, the Treasury Department required manufacturers to add more deadly poisons, including the particularly deadlymethyl alcohol. New York City medical examiners prominently opposed these policies because of the danger to human life. As many as 10,000 people died from drinking denatured alcohol before Prohibition ended.^[21]

Making alcohol at home was very common during Prohibition. Stores sold grape concentrate with warning labels that listed the steps that should be avoided to prevent the juice from fermenting into wine. Home-distilled hard liquor was referred to as “bathtub gin” in northern cities, and moonshine in the rural areas of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee. Since selling privately distilled alcohol was illegal and bypassed taxation by the government, the law relentlessly pursued manufacturers.^[22] In response, the bootleggers in southern states started creating their ownsouped-up, stock-looking cars by enhancing their cars’ engines and suspensions to create a faster vehicle. Having a faster vehicle during Prohibition, they presumed, would improve their chances of outrunning and escaping agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF), commonly called "revenue agents' or "revenooers". These cars became known as “moonshine runners” or "'shine runners"

Prohibition created a black market that competed with the formal economy, which already was under pressure. Roosevelt was elected based on the New Deal, which promised improvement to the economy that was only possible if the formal economy competed successfully against various economic forces, including the effects of prohibition's black market. This influenced his support for ratifying the 21st amendment, which repealed the 18th amendment that had established prohibition.^[18]

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=13&did=2172428571&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1288652722&clientId=20972

http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?index=20&did=2164815761&SrchMode=1&sid=1&Fmt=3&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1288654851&clientId=20972

http://www.rand.org/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP325.pdf

http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2010/1014/California-voters-should-reject-legalizing-marijuana/(page)/2

North Korea

NOTE: Something happened when I tried to save this brief a while ago, and it is now missing quite a few pages. I was able to print off a copy of the previous version, minus some pro/con arguments, but I haven't found the time to update this brief just yet.

North Korea:

Sample Resolutions:

THBT Western Liberal Democracies should increase diplomatic relations with N. Korea.

THW impose economic sanctions on N. Korea until they re-sign the NNPT.

THW invade North Korea.

Historical Background:

Korea is a peninsula on the south-eastern border of China, and is split into two nations, Communist North Korea, and democratic South Korea. In the late 1800’s, the monarchy of Korea was undermined by the fact that there were mostly child kings who were unable to maintain strong control. In 1864, Taewon’gun took power from his son Kojong and began instituting isolationist policies. Eventually, he was forced to step down, and Japan pressured Korea to open up ports. This brought about large scale Japanese influence, which caused political unrest, and a schism between two groups: the moderates and the radicals. China sent in troops after a failed coup attempt, and then created a trade agreement with Korea. Then the US, UK, France, Germany, and Russia all signed trade agreements with Korea. A coup attempt happened in 1884, but Chinese troops put it down, and then Japan and China signed an agreement to maintain order there after.

When Japan and Russia went to war in 1904, Korea declared neutrality, but Japan forced them to allow Japan to use Korea as a base. Korean guerilla fighters sprung up to fight the Japanese after Japan named Korea as a protectorate and occupied Korea. Japan then put in a proxy government, severely limited freedom of speech, press, assembly, and traditional Korean language. The Japanese ran the education system, and taught Japanese history in their schools. There was a demonstration of 2 million people in 1919, but the Japanese government brutally put it down. Then in Dec 1941 (same month as attack on Pearl Harbor), the traditional Korean gov’t that had moved into China declared war on Japan and joined the Allied forces.

In the conference at Cairo in 1943, China, The US, and Britain all promised Korean independence, but at the end of WWII, Korea was divided into two. Initially, a four-way power sharing deal had been proposed by China, US, Britain, and Russia, but to force the Japanese surrender in 1945, The USSR held the North Portion, and The US held the Southern portion. The USSR implemented a communist provisional gov’t led by Kim Il Sung. Growing tensions between the US and USSR caused trade to stop between North and South. In 1947, a UN committee was put together to oversee reunification of North and South, but USSR wouldn’t let them in the borders to oversee an election. In 1948, The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Pyongyang as capitol) was established officially with Kim Il Sung as the leader. In 1950, a war (Korean War) broke out between North and South as USSR and US troops left the areas, and a UN force led by US’s General MacArthur entered South Korea and pushed back North Korean forces. Then China sent 1.2 M troops to help out N. Korea. Negotiations began in 1951, and by 1953, a new int’l boundary and demilitarized zone was established. S. Korea received financial support from the US and signed a mutual security pact. The war left 4m people dead or injured.

After the war, Kim Il Sung set about to further establish his role as leader, and began purging his political rivals, he also introduced his philosophy of Juche, which is an isolationist view that states that N. Korea can make it on its own, with no outside help in development. By the late 70’s NK had fallen behind SK in terms of economic development and NK hit a period of economic stagnation. Kim kept relations with China and Soviets, but waivered back and forth, but when Soviet Russia fell, NK hit an economic crisis, and experienced widespread famine. Kim then attempted to increase relations with SK, but failed because of the allegations of Nuclear facilities in NK. In ’94, Kim died and passed the mantle to Kim Jong Il, also well known for his civil rights abuses.

Kim Jong Il ran the economy into economic subsistence, while spending on Military remained high. In 2000, Jong Il accepted SK president Kim Dae-jung as relations between NK and SK appeared to be getting better, when they got together they both agreed that reunification of the Koreas is the ultimate goal for both countries. However, in ’02, a naval battle broke out which killed 4 SK soldiers and about 30 NK sailors. Jong Il blamed the US and SK for the attacks, and SK president Dae-jung suspended all rice shipments to NK until he apologized. US and NK relations got a lot worse when Bush accused NK or forming the “Axis of Evil” with Iraq and Iran, to which NK responded by reactivating a nuclear power plant and demanded the withdrawal of inspectors from the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). NK officials claimed that they had to reopen it in response to US plans for a pre-emptive nuclear attack. Observers have suggested this was a ploy to force US into direct talks for signing a peace agreement, however, this obviously has yet to work. The reinstatement of nuclear facilities has scared the surrounding nations of NK, obviously, which has resulted in unrest between SK, Japan, and NK. In Feb 2005, NK admitted for the first time that they have nuclear weapons, and on October 9, 2006, NK tested its first nuclear weapon underground. In 2007, in a joint effort between SK, Japan, Russia, China, and the US, North Korea agreed to close its chief nuclear reactor in return for fuel aid. In oct ’07 agreed to further close three installations and the surrender of its nuclear stockpile was scheduled in 2008. They missed a deadline in Dec ’07.

Change and some old problems

It’s been a while since I last posted a blog, so I figure it’s about time! I’ve got some Andy Mckee (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsD6uEZsIsU) going on in the background, so I’m set for getting this busted out. Life has been fairly interesting since my last post.

A lot has gone on, for instance, I’ve moved down to California, and am selling Pest Control contracts for a company called Dewey Pest control. I basically go door to door, which everyone seems to love door to door salesmen, and I try to persuade people to buy from me. So, for any of you who may doubt man’s inherent sinfulness, I beg you, try cold-call sales, you’ll change your mind quite soon. But selling is not too difficult in Fresno, California, because let’s face it… a lot of bugs are out here. That also means, however, that there are a plethora of other companies to choose from, which makes things a bit more difficult. Cause then you run into customers who already have a service, and when you mention the fact that you can save them money, give them a much better service, and really good customer support, they get all sorts of defensive, clam up, and you are then looking at the wrong side of their door. With all that being said, I’ve made much better money than I ever have in my life, and I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such a great opportunity. I work hard, but it’s good work, and it’s such a blessing from God to have a job right now when so many folks are out of work right now (I run into far too many people out of work out here). This job is also pretty sweet cause I’ve gotten a lot of sermon illustrations out of it!

This job also has its difficulties though. Apart from often working 10-12 hour days, 7-8 hours of which are spent in 100 degree + weather, I am essentially on an island. I am a very gregarious person. Anybody who knows me knows that I’m nothing short of a full blown extravert, and so relationships are very important to me, and this job is completely void of relationships. At the very most I talk to somebody for 45 minutes, however most folks I talk to for about 30 seconds. I do have a few co-workers, but they both have families, and are best friends with each other, and they’re both in their 30’s, so it’s a little difficult to relate to them. All of my friends are back in Washington, and my girlfriend is in North Carolina, which makes things that much more difficult. So my life lately has consisted of work, and when I’m not working, I’m mostly making food, or doing laundry, or going grocery shopping. I do get to chat with Julia and some friends online, and talk on the phone when I get the chance, but I need some real face time. So that has been one of the biggest struggles for me.

I have had a few breaks though, which has been good. I was able to attend my sister’s graduation in June, and that was great! It was really cool to see my sister come to that accomplishment. She has always been a very intellectual girl, but she slacked off pretty bad her first few years of highschool, so she had to work extra hard to do well towards the end, and she really worked hard, so it was cool to see that. Plus it was nice cause all of my family was together (which has only happened once in times past… my graduation) and they all got to meet Julia, which was a cool experience. However, I think they may like her more than they like me now… okay, maybe they like us equally. Anywho, Brianna, my youngest sister attached to Julia like a leech, and really took to her. It was really really good to catch up with my mom too. I haven’t lived with my mom for over ten years, and I’ve only seen her 3 times in that ten years, so it was really really good to see her again, and get to spend some good time with her. She’s disabled as well, and doesn’t really have a guy around, so I was able to get some work done around the house, which Julia helped out a lot with, and was really fun.

Then towards the end of June, I was able to go to North Carolina to visit Julia and meet her family. It was a lot of fun. Nerve wracking, but fun nonetheless. It was really good to see Julia again, and I always love being around her. She’s so amazing, and I am soooo blessed to have her in my life, and so it was nice to meet her family who have helped shape her into the woman she is today. Her family was very hospitable, and easy going, which was a big relief… I just hope I didn’t shock them all too much with my crazy antics. I take getting used to, and they are all introverted, and I’m wildly extraverted, so I hope I didn’t mess anything up too bad! ;) Anywho, they are a very nice family. Julia’s parents were full time missionaries to Papua New Guinea, and now they work at an organization called JAARS, which if I remember stands for Jungle Aviation and Radio Services, but don’t quote me on that. Anywho, it’s affiliated with Wycliffe Bible translators, which is a pretty sweet organization, since they translate God’s Word into so many obscure languages. Julia’s dad is an airplane mechanic there, and her mom is going back to school to be a nurse, and they are both very hard working, good people. I feel like I got along with her parents pretty well, it was easy to talk to her dad especially about cars and such, since I’m a fairly mechanically inclined guy. Her mom is fun, and I can definitely see a lot of resemblances between her daughter and her. They share many of the same idiosyncrasies, so it’s cool to watch them interact with each other. Julia’s brother Luke is a cool guy, who is one of the most tech savvy guys I’ve ever met, perhaps only second to a Mr. Mike Lovely. He’s a really laid back guy, and introverted like the rest of the family and he’s a genius at finding deals. We went out for a pretty sweet bike ride in the woods that Luke led, and I have to say, it’s rekindled my love for biking, but I broke my flip-flops while riding, so it wasn’t a casualty free adventure. :( Anywho, I really like her family, and hope they feel the same about me, it’ll be cool to get to know them more in the future, and I hope I get the chance to talk more with them next time I visit.

So, now for the part you’ve all been waiting for! My crazy inflections about where my life is headed, and things that are going on in my life. Okay, you are welcome to skip over this part… if you’ve even made it this far… but I have had some things happen in my life recently, mostly internal, that I am really happy about, and some that I’m not so happy about and this is where you can read all about them! So, for the bad first. I feel like I have drifted way too far away from God lately. I hate it. I haven’t read my Bible nearly enough, which is ridiculous, since I should have no problem finding the time to do so. I have had a difficult time finding a decent church here, although I did finally find a good one. Northpointe Community Church! It’s a reformed church, which is a bit of a change for me in personal attendance, I do follow Mark Driscoll and John Piper fairly closely, and have multiple podcasts from each, so I listen to some reformed sermons, but this is the first time I’ve attended a reformed church. But still, I feel like I’ve relied too heavily upon being fed at a church, instead of feeding myself. I really enjoy reading the Bible, and I really enjoy studying it, but I haven’t felt the passion or drive to read as much lately, and I really need to work on that. I do pray every day, but I still don’t feel as close to God as I should. I feel like I’ve let too many other things occupy my time recently. This is going to change. My relationship with God needs to be my primary focus. In one of our little meetings we have for this job, my team leader Greg (he’s Mormon) said today that we need to prioritize. The first thing in our lives should be our relationship with God, to which I say amen, then second, our relationship with significant others, then our jobs. He’s exactly right. I don’t feel like that has been my list of priorities lately. I feel like it’s been, job, girlfriend, then God, although this past week, more like girlfriend, job, God, cause I’ve been missing Julia pretty bad. This needs to change though. I’ve got to start taking time for God, and so please hold me accountable to that.

I also haven’t been paying as much attention to my debate preparation as I should be. I intended for this summer to be the most intense preparation for debate ever, since it’s my goal to make it to the final round of the National tournament next year, and to break into the semi-finals of the world tournament, but I haven’t focused nearly enough on that. I know exactly why too. The computer. It’s a two-edged sword. On one hand, it helps me keep up to date on current events, on the other, it distracts me with its delicious glow. I am addicted to this screen, and it kills me sometimes. Part of it is because it’s one of the only ways that I still feel connected to the real world, since Facebook allows me to keep in touch with all of my friends, and a good portion of my communication with Julia is via chat messengers, since cell signal is sparse out at her house. Seriously though, I really should be reading more. I have a whole slew of great books with me that I should be almost done with by now, but I haven’t barely started them. It’s terrible. In fact, just writing this blog post isn’t really helping, but I feel that this is a more worthwhile investment than just lolly-gagging around on Facebook.

Also… my drumming skills have gone down the toilet. It’s killing me. I used to be a more than average drummer, and now I feel like I may be a better guitarist than drummer, which is not okay. That’s honestly my biggest complaint about Northwest. Every other instrument has the space to practice. There are a ridiculous amount of piano rooms, which anyone can sign up for, yet there isn’t a single drum room. If you do want to use the joke of a drum kit that the Jazz band uses, you either have to be in drum lessons, or you have to be a music major. It’ ridiculous. I can’t use my drumset in the dorms, because it’s too loud… I can barely use the electric drumset that Robert Otto brought with him last year, because all the guys downstairs complained all the time. It’s one of the most disheartening things ever. I seriously have watched my drumming skills fade before my eyes, and it really hurts. Drumming has been one of my biggest passions since I first picked up a pair of sticks in the fifth grade. Then when I got a drumset my sophomore year of highschool, it got crazy. I practiced a lot, and got good really quickly. Now I can’t do anything compared to what I could. My hands and feet won’t do what my brain tells them too… it’s frustrating to say the least. I think my friend J.D. also experienced this problem… he wasn’t able to drum for about a year, but he just jumped back into it, and has been fine since, so maybe there is still hope for me. I just wish I could work something out with the school… I think a petition is in order.

Anywho, now on to some good things! Well, I think I finally cemented my political stance. I am now officially calling myself a Libertarian. I know it’s not a perfect system to describe what I believe, but I think it’s the best ideology for me. The hardest thing is dealing with some of the personal issues which naturally come with being a Christian, but honestly I think that those are all things which society ought to be dictating. I don’t think the federal government should have much of a say in anything you do. If you want to smoke pot, then go for it. If you want to do stupid things, you should be allowed to do so. The government only has certain roles, the likes of which are spelled out fairly clearly in the constitution. I am a fan of Madisonian thought. I think the FDR approach to constitutional interpretation is nothing short of abhorrent. For instance, this healthcare bill is killing me. I don’t see how anyone can justify FORCING a person to engage into a monetary agreement with a third party. Ever. I’ve heard it all too, interstate commerce (which is terrible… I can get into that later if anyone wants…), I’ve also heard the classic: well they make us have car insurance! This one’s my favorite. Of course they make us have car insurance. 1.) We don’t have to drive a car…. We kinda have to live. 2.) You have car insurance so if you drive like an idiot and hit somebody else, you can pay for the damage you caused to them, health insurance is around so if YOU get sick YOU can go to the doctor. I could go on, but I don’t want to take up all of your time reading my blog. So, anywho, back to role of government. The government is only designed to protect sovereign states from foreign threats, and… from itself. That’s why there are checks and balances in our government, to make sure no particular branch gets too powerful and begins to become tyrannical. I will save the rest for another post, but I would gladly talk about this with anyone, if they like. :)

So that’s most of what’s gone on in my life since my last post. I’m really excited to get back to school, I really miss classes and my friends, and I’m really excited to start debate again. Pray for me that I can stay motivated out here, since it’s getting harder and harder with each day, and pray for me that I can find the love for God’s word again. Thanks for reading all of this if you have! Keep in touch, and feel free to comment if you have any concerns, questions, exhortations, or rude remarks!

Shalom!

Max

Life in the head of Maxwell

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for this blog. Frankly, I’ve been too busy, or too lazy, so I apologize to all 2 of you who may regularly check out my blog (I’m being optimistic here). A lot has been going on in my life lately. I don’t really know how to describe all of it, nor will I for all of the interwebz to see, but I’ll try to go through a little bit of it.

I have been experiencing one of the age-old problems that comes with attending college: not know what the heck you believe. This ranges from politics, to social issues, to religious doctrine, and heck, it feels like the only thing I do know for sure is that God is good. Maybe that’s enough, but for my mind, I need some sense of intellectual assurance, so this has been a very difficult time for me. I have been getting more and more into Debate, which I love, but it causes me to look at so many issues, and makes me realize just how little I actually know. I want to know what to believe, to have a firm understanding of everything and make an educated decision based upon that knowledge, but I am coming more and more to the realization that it will never happen. It’s a scary thing for me. For my whole life, I have relied upon my brain to get me what I need, to help me understand something, and act upon that understanding. For most of my life, I have acted upon reason, and the few times I’ve acted upon emotion, they have quite frankly, left me for dead. So this whole not knowing business is frightening for me. I don’t know if I should be a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian (what I’m leaning towards), Socialist, or a Communist. There are really good arguments for all of them, and I don’t feel I have enough information to choose, and I feel that I won’t ever. Winston Churchill once wrote, “If a man isn’t Liberal when he’s 20, he doesn’t have a heart. If he isn’t Conservative by the time he’s 40, he doesn’t have a brain.” (Courtesy of Russ Elliott) I’m sure that’s true, since that’s the general trend I see for people, but I don’t want it to be true. It implies that experience is the only thing necessary to really bring about a formulation of opinions in these situations. I don’t want experience to have to teach me here, I want to learn from other’s mistakes, and make a rational decision. My heart (isn’t this problematic?) tells me I’m just going to have to go through the experience though.

This whole politics thing is very challenging, because I know my faith affects my political standpoint, but I really don’t know how. I can’t decide if there is a certain political stance that Christians ought to take over others. Libertarianism is probably not the best one in the sense that many Libertarians support things I morally and ethically oppose (prostitution, anyone?) but at the same time, so do Republicans, Democrats, Commies, Nazis and basically every other group out there. I’ve heard so many arguments that Christians should support Socialism, because Socialism is what Jesus taught. Help others besides yourself, etc. But my head tells me that it’s not analogous to say that Jesus supports socialism… for instance, Jesus supports helping others over yourself. True. I don’t doubt that at all. How is it that I can help somebody if a huge amount of money is being spent by the government on things I don’t necessarily support? So maybe the best way I can live out my Christian life is to go the capitalism route. Then you get people who say, “Capitalism is the most self-centered, materialistic ideology out there!” Well, yes, for many people it is, but it seems from experience (stupid experience coming back to bite me again) that Capitalism is the best producer of wealth, and so there is more for people to give back, but just because people have money doesn’t mean they won’t use it for good. Look at Bill Gates… that guy gives me 10 grand a year to go to school… I think that’s pretty cool. Capitalism worked for him. But then there are those who like to extort people, and take advantage of the disenfranchised within Capitalism, so it’s evil. But people sit on their duffs, watching T.V. and getting fat (sloth, gluttony, a few other of the 7) when you have a welfare state, cause other people are paying for it… so which one produces less evil? These are questions I have… every single day.

Also, this whole Doctrine thing that’s going on in my head. I really don’t know what to believe anymore. After reading Romans 9 I kinda feel like an idiot for bashing on Calvinism so much. Paul gives a straight up Apologetic for Calvinist thought. I can’t deny that. All the studying I’ve done on it agrees. But I still don’t think the Reformers had it all right. I don’t think Arminians have it right either. My gut (see, these dang emotions again) tells me it’s some kind of hybrid that my feeble little brain cannot comprehend. That somehow, God has entire Sovereignty, and I have entire free will. Both arguments are found in Scripture… which means… both are true. But if you talk to any Calvinist, they will tell you free will isn’t found with consistent exegesis (which I think is the most bull-crap sorry excuse I’ve ever heard, my apologies Rich) and you talk to any Arminian and they will tell you that Romans 9 is in regards to an entire nation of people, especially in regards to the Jacob vs Esau comparison used by Paul (I think this is also a cop-out). What’s the right answer? I don’t know. I think though, that I don’t need to know, and that’s probably why God has smacked me with it. I have tried to wed the two ideas, but they simply cannot be wed with my limited human understanding, but that won’t stop me from trying to at least hammer out more what I believe. I had a talk with my Philosophy prof, Jack Wisemore, and I think he stands about the same place I do, which is: they’re both right… but both wrong, but that doesn’t mean that he knows what is right. The only thing that I know, and I’m sure Jack is on the same page, is that God is good. It’s still an interesting thought though. I was expressing some of my thoughts to my girlfriend the other day, explaining one of my hypotheses, that maybe God predestines some people, but allows others the choice (this would allow for Romans 9 to be true, as well as showing God’s desire that all shall be saved… not saying it’s right… it has a lot of flaws, but it is something I’ve kinda tossed around) and she ran into the same problem we all do. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s stupid. God has to be one way or the other. He has to choose, or he has to let us choose. Can’t be both, and it can’t be part of either, it has to be fully one, or fully the other. She got rather frustrated with me at the time, because I have really been going insane. Not know what to believe, or who’s word to take. (Yes I know I need to take God’s word, but that’s the freakin problem! He says both… o.O) Do you understand what it’s like to run into something like this? The very being that I worship, and serve, and am studying, has put this nice, fat intellectual barrier between me and him. Or, I have, rather. My good friend Randy once told me something, and since Randy is quite possibly the most intelligent man I’ve ever known, I’m sure it applies to me as well. He told me that once God spoke to him at the alter, and told him to bask in His simplicity, and marvel in His mystery. He just told me that in passing once, but it has stuck with me ever since. I find myself reminding me of his experience over and over again. It’s true. I need to stop trying to put God in my little intellectual box, because just by trying to put God to where he can be comprehended, it detracts from His glory. I just can’t help the fact that I’m a very rational person.

Lacking knowledge has also been a problem for me. In the debate circuit, people have been studying politics since the 9^th grade, they know every little thing that’s happened all over the world. I feel like a bumbling idiot sometimes. Wait, what happened in Somalia in 1921? What about Watergate? I don’t know so much of this stuff… it’s a rather humbling experience. I am looking forward to learning more about these topics, and I hope to one day be at the level of some of these debaters (hopefully next year!), but I have this feeling, that the more I get to know, the more I’ll know about how little I really know. I think that’s a Chinese Parable or something. I am going to be doing a lot of reading this summer. Any suggestions as far as politics go? And no, I won’t be reading Glenn Beck… Machiavelli is on my list, as well as Locke and Rousseau. Which brings me to another thing.

I am going to be working down in California this summer. This is a pretty big deal for me, as I’m hoping to make a good deal of money down there, and be able to really get a lot of studying and exercise done. I am still unsure of exactly what it’s going to look like for me, but I am trusting that God’s plan will be worked through it, as the circumstances in which the job came to me appear to be rather divine. This should be a cool experience, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m ready for the difficulty that will come with it, but it will be worth it.

Also, this whole growing up business. I have been a rather independent young man for a while. I have been able to decide for myself what I want to do, where I want to go, what I want to spend my money on, all of those things. I feel like I lived the “college life” in high school. I really appreciate that, and I think God had(s) a purpose in making it so, but it still puts me at an awkward position. Many of my friends are in their 20’s. The guys I have lived with during my senior year are all over 21, my girlfriend is a couple months off of being 21, and I’m 19. What scares me the most, is when I stop to think, then realize my dad was only 2 years older than I am now when I was born. This really scares the crap out of me. My dad isn’t even super young for my age, so I am really starting to realize that I am grown up. Many “adults” look at me, and still think I’m just a kid, and to them, maybe I am. But I am not anymore, and I don’t think I have been for a couple of years. But my body is now starting to catch up a bit with where my experience has been. I am getting that urge to start settling down. I find myself going to the Men’s section of clothing instead of the Young Men’s… I buy mostly dress shirts now. I find myself wanting to get an apartment so I can cook for myself, so I can have a cat or a dog, so I can start buying furniture. I look at some friends Facebook profiles and when I see their adorable kids running around, or their new family, or their new home, that I am really excited for when I can do that. It’s an interesting experience to have my body pushing me around again.

I really need to grow up in some areas though. I haven’t been doing my school work like the man that I am. It’s really been bothering me. I have been half-assing almost everything lately. I just sit on Facebook like a fool, doing nothing at all. Or I play guitar (which is a good thing, since practicing is never bad, but I really ought to find a designated time to do so) instead of doing my homework. I feel like this little black box that I am writing on now has consumed my life. I think I am going to take a laptop fast this summer, in so far as it doesn’t affect my job, or my studies. But I really have been sucked into it’s electric glow, the pixels that pop off the screen, and it really is no way to live. I really haven’t even taken the time to read anything of substance. All I really read, besides the news, is Facebook. What good does that really do me? None. None at all. I just need to pick up a good book, mostly political theory this summer, and read it. I also need to read my Bible more, considering it’s my field of study, and I’ve still never read fully through it. So I shall be doing that as well. So this rant is some of what I’ve been going through lately. I could use prayer, as this next little chapter of my life will be an interesting one, but I’m really curious to see what God does. Thanks for reading, if you have. This is just me, writing about crap that goes on in my head. If you have anything you wish to say, or feel like I ought to know, drop a comment. God is good!

Shalom!

Max

Life in my head.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything for this blog. Frankly, I’ve been too busy, or too lazy, so I apologize to all 2 of you who may regularly check out my blog (I’m being optimistic here). A lot has been going on in my life lately. I don’t really know how to describe all of it, nor will I for all of the interwebz to see, but I’ll try to go through a little bit of it.

I have been experiencing one of the age-old problems that comes with attending college: not know what the heck you believe. This ranges from politics, to social issues, to religious doctrine, and heck, it feels like the only thing I do know for sure is that God is good. Maybe that’s enough, but for my mind, I need some sense of intellectual assurance, so this has been a very difficult time for me. I have been getting more and more into Debate, which I love, but it causes me to look at so many issues, and makes me realize just how little I actually know. I want to know what to believe, to have a firm understanding of everything and make an educated decision based upon that knowledge, but I am coming more and more to the realization that it will never happen. It’s a scary thing for me. For my whole life, I have relied upon my brain to get me what I need, to help me understand something, and act upon that understanding. For most of my life, I have acted upon reason, and the few times I’ve acted upon emotion, they have quite frankly, left me for dead. So this whole not knowing business is frightening for me. I don’t know if I should be a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian (what I’m leaning towards), Socialist, or a Communist. There are really good arguments for all of them, and I don’t feel I have enough information to choose, and I feel that I won’t ever. Winston Churchill once wrote, “If a man isn’t Liberal when he’s 20, he doesn’t have a heart. If he isn’t Conservative by the time he’s 40, he doesn’t have a brain.” (Courtesy of Russ Elliott) I’m sure that’s true, since that’s the general trend I see for people, but I don’t want it to be true. It implies that experience is the only thing necessary to really bring about a formulation of opinions in these situations. I don’t want experience to have to teach me here, I want to learn from other’s mistakes, and make a rational decision. My heart (isn’t this problematic?) tells me I’m just going to have to go through the experience though.

This whole politics thing is very challenging, because I know my faith affects my political standpoint, but I really don’t know how. I can’t decide if there is a certain political stance that Christians ought to take over others. Libertarianism is probably not the best one in the sense that many Libertarians support things I morally and ethically oppose (prostitution, anyone?) but at the same time, so do Republicans, Democrats, Commies, Nazis and basically every other group out there. I’ve heard so many arguments that Christians should support Socialism, because Socialism is what Jesus taught. Help others besides yourself, etc. But my head tells me that it’s not analogous to say that Jesus supports socialism… for instance, Jesus supports helping others over yourself. True. I don’t doubt that at all. How is it that I can help somebody if a huge amount of money is being spent by the government on things I don’t necessarily support? So maybe the best way I can live out my Christian life is to go the capitalism route. Then you get people who say, “Capitalism is the most self-centered, materialistic ideology out there!” Well, yes, for many people it is, but it seems from experience (stupid experience coming back to bite me again) that Capitalism is the best producer of wealth, and so there is more for people to give back, but just because people have money doesn’t mean they won’t use it for good. Look at Bill Gates… that guy gives me 10 grand a year to go to school… I think that’s pretty cool. Capitalism worked for him. But then there are those who like to extort people, and take advantage of the disenfranchised within Capitalism, so it’s evil. But people sit on their duffs, watching T.V. and getting fat (sloth, gluttony, a few other of the 7) when you have a welfare state, cause other people are paying for it… so which one produces less evil? These are questions I have… every single day.

Also, this whole Doctrine thing that’s going on in my head. I really don’t know what to believe anymore. After reading Romans 9 I kinda feel like an idiot for bashing on Calvinism so much. Paul gives a straight up Apologetic for Calvinist thought. I can’t deny that. All the studying I’ve done on it agrees. But I still don’t think the Reformers had it all right. I don’t think Arminians have it right either. My gut (see, these dang emotions again) tells me it’s some kind of hybrid that my feeble little brain cannot comprehend. That somehow, God has entire Sovereignty, and I have entire free will. Both arguments are found in Scripture… which means… both are true. But if you talk to any Calvinist, they will tell you free will isn’t found with consistent exegesis (which I think is the most bull-crap sorry excuse I’ve ever heard, my apologies Rich) and you talk to any Arminian and they will tell you that Romans 9 is in regards to an entire nation of people, especially in regards to the Jacob vs Esau comparison used by Paul (I think this is also a cop-out). What’s the right answer? I don’t know. I think though, that I don’t need to know, and that’s probably why God has smacked me with it. I have tried to wed the two ideas, but they simply cannot be wed with my limited human understanding, but that won’t stop me from trying to at least hammer out more what I believe. I had a talk with my Philosophy prof, Jack Wisemore, and I think he stands about the same place I do, which is: they’re both right… but both wrong, but that doesn’t mean that he knows what is right. The only thing that I know, and I’m sure Jack is on the same page, is that God is good. It’s still an interesting thought though. I was expressing some of my thoughts to my girlfriend the other day, explaining one of my hypotheses, that maybe God predestines some people, but allows others the choice (this would allow for Romans 9 to be true, as well as showing God’s desire that all shall be saved… not saying it’s right… it has a lot of flaws, but it is something I’ve kinda tossed around) and she ran into the same problem we all do. That doesn’t make any sense. That’s stupid. God has to be one way or the other. He has to choose, or he has to let us choose. Can’t be both, and it can’t be part of either, it has to be fully one, or fully the other. She got rather frustrated with me at the time, because I have really been going insane. Not know what to believe, or who’s word to take. (Yes I know I need to take God’s word, but that’s the freakin problem! He says both… o.O) Do you understand what it’s like to run into something like this? The very being that I worship, and serve, and am studying, has put this nice, fat intellectual barrier between me and him. Or, I have, rather. My good friend Randy once told me something, and since Randy is quite possibly the most intelligent man I’ve ever known, I’m sure it applies to me as well. He told me that once God spoke to him at the alter, and told him to bask in His simplicity, and marvel in His mystery. He just told me that in passing once, but it has stuck with me ever since. I find myself reminding me of his experience over and over again. It’s true. I need to stop trying to put God in my little intellectual box, because just by trying to put God to where he can be comprehended, it detracts from His glory. I just can’t help the fact that I’m a very rational person.

Lacking knowledge has also been a problem for me. In the debate circuit, people have been studying politics since the 9^th grade, they know every little thing that’s happened all over the world. I feel like a bumbling idiot sometimes. Wait, what happened in Somalia in 1921? What about Watergate? I don’t know so much of this stuff… it’s a rather humbling experience. I am looking forward to learning more about these topics, and I hope to one day be at the level of some of these debaters (hopefully next year!), but I have this feeling, that the more I get to know, the more I’ll know about how little I really know. I think that’s a Chinese Parable or something. I am going to be doing a lot of reading this summer. Any suggestions as far as politics go? And no, I won’t be reading Glenn Beck… Machiavelli is on my list, as well as Locke and Rousseau. Which brings me to another thing.

I am going to be working down in California this summer. This is a pretty big deal for me, as I’m hoping to make a good deal of money down there, and be able to really get a lot of studying and exercise done. I am still unsure of exactly what it’s going to look like for me, but I am trusting that God’s plan will be worked through it, as the circumstances in which the job came to me appear to be rather divine. This should be a cool experience, and I’m looking forward to it. I’m ready for the difficulty that will come with it, but it will be worth it.

Also, this whole growing up business. I have been a rather independent young man for a while. I have been able to decide for myself what I want to do, where I want to go, what I want to spend my money on, all of those things. I feel like I lived the “college life” in high school. I really appreciate that, and I think God had(s) a purpose in making it so, but it still puts me at an awkward position. Many of my friends are in their 20’s. The guys I have lived with during my senior year are all over 21, my girlfriend is a couple months off of being 21, and I’m 19. What scares me the most, is when I stop to think, then realize my dad was only 2 years older than I am now when I was born. This really scares the crap out of me. My dad isn’t even super young for my age, so I am really starting to realize that I am grown up. Many “adults” look at me, and still think I’m just a kid, and to them, maybe I am. But I am not anymore, and I don’t think I have been for a couple of years. But my body is now starting to catch up a bit with where my experience has been. I am getting that urge to start settling down. I find myself going to the Men’s section of clothing instead of the Young Men’s… I buy mostly dress shirts now. I find myself wanting to get an apartment so I can cook for myself, so I can have a cat or a dog, so I can start buying furniture. I look at some friends Facebook profiles and when I see their adorable kids running around, or their new family, or their new home, that I am really excited for when I can do that. It’s an interesting experience to have my body pushing me around again.

I really need to grow up in some areas though. I haven’t been doing my school work like the man that I am. It’s really been bothering me. I have been half-assing almost everything lately. I just sit on Facebook like a fool, doing nothing at all. Or I play guitar (which is a good thing, since practicing is never bad, but I really ought to find a designated time to do so) instead of doing my homework. I feel like this little black box that I am writing on now has consumed my life. I think I am going to take a laptop fast this summer, in so far as it doesn’t affect my job, or my studies. But I really have been sucked into it’s electric glow, the pixels that pop off the screen, and it really is no way to live. I really haven’t even taken the time to read anything of substance. All I really read, besides the news, is Facebook. What good does that really do me? None. None at all. I just need to pick up a good book, mostly political theory this summer, and read it. I also need to read my Bible more, considering it’s my field of study, and I’ve still never read fully through it. So I shall be doing that as well. So this rant is some of what I’ve been going through lately. I could use prayer, as this next little chapter of my life will be an interesting one, but I’m really curious to see what God does. Thanks for reading, if you have. This is just me, writing about crap that goes on in my head. If you have anything you wish to say, or feel like I ought to know, drop a comment. God is good!

Shalom!

Max

THW remove all troops from Afghanistan Brief:

Pros:

1. Would drastically reduce costs-

a. Costs are already estimated at 1.3-3 Trillion.

b. 4,000 deaths already, and 33,000 injured.

c. To have any effect we would have to have a surge of an extra 35,000 troops…. At least.

2. We have no objective in Afghanistan.

a. They’ve got a 27% literacy rate, 40% unemployment, and 80 something political parties… they aren’t even stabilized. The only thing uniting them is hatred of the U.S.

3. Would allow Afghanistan’s people to start becoming stable on their own, with a little help of course! But we feel that we have no right to tell these people how to live their lives.

4. Implement a plan that imposes policies:

a. allowing opium to be produced in Afghanistan, but only to where they can sell to Pharmaceutical companies (there is an morphine shortage worldwide) … this would ease tensions in tribal Afghanistan, cause they could produce their biggest cash crop, but it would keep it out of the Taliban’s hands, so they couldn’t sell it off as illegal narcotics. This plan has been modeled and shown to be effective off the Nixon-Kissinger program implemented in Turkey.

b. Sending in Strike teams to combat the Taliban/Al Qaeda instead of having ground based troops… which is far more costly to maintain.

i. This would ease tensions with our allies over troop commitments.

c. Recognizing this is not a nation-building effort, but an effort to support the people of Afghanistan to build their own nation…

Cons:

1. We need to stay in Afghanistan! We need to show that as Americans we are willing to stick something through to the end. However, we need to take action quickly as is suggested by Obama’s own General McChrystal… If we continue to wait, the Taliban will continue to gather even more momentum.

2. They’ve got a 27% literacy rate, 40% unemployment, and 80 something political parties… they aren’t even stabilized. We can bring stabilization! By bringing in a decidedly pro-Western gov’t, the divided tribal Afghans would unite under a solid gov’t that would remove the Taliban from power, and start to increase their literacy and unemployment rates, and would start to unify these 80 political parties.

3. We don’t want another Vietnam, so we oppose and say we will stay, and we will win! We will set particular goals, specifically, to decrease the presence of the Taliban and Al Qaeda, to increase literacy rates and employment rates by at least 100% of their current rates, and to raise up a pro-western gov’t to unite the people by doing said things above.