First off let me apologize for two things: The first thing I am going to apologize is for my last blog entry it was a cheap and desperate attempt to have something interesting on my blog and I am sure it failed miserably. If you don't like reading English papers then you probably didn't enjoy reading my last entry and if you don't like reading crappy blogs then you probably didn't enjoy any of my blog entries. The second thing that I am going to apologize about is that I am once again going to talk about politics but the last time I blogged about politics I got a record number of comments, a whopping 5 comments!!!

Barack Obama

I did not vote for Obama HOWEVA I am totally fine with Barack Obama being our next President and I am not freaking out like all the other people who didn't vote for Obama. I do not think that Obama is the anti-christ or that he is a terrorist or anything like that, I think he will do just fine as our President. The guy is so likeable and charming how can you not immediately fall in love with him every time he speaks. (He kind of reminds me of Bruce R. Mckonkie when he speaks)
I am sure Obama could convince me to walk through fire and then be overjoyed that I was burned from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. I said before that I really don't think that it's the President who is making all the decisions, or any for that matter, but the people behind him. I think the President is just the face of those decisions and needs to have enough knowledge to back them up when they are talking to the media, Congress or leaders from other countries. So all I really care about is that my President is well-spoken, he is diplomatic and won't embarrasses our country by sounding like an idiot or having sexual intercourse with his interns. I think that Barack Obama will be able to represent our country in a very dignified and respectful manner and definitely better than John Mccain.

I am also extremely proud of our country and the progress that we have made in civil rights. No other country in the world could of been able to pull something like this off to quote Christopher Wallace "it would of been like the French electing an Algerian to be their President." African-Americans went from slaves to being treated like second class citizens and now to becoming the President of the United States of America.
Tupac Shakur talked about all the things that are wrong with America and how they treat African Americans in his hit single "Changes" and he says and I quote "And although it seems heaven sent We ain't ready, to see a black President" this is the exact kind of change that Tupac and I am assuming Obama was talking about and we were definetly ready for it. Obama's believed in change and as he defianetly announced on Tuesday night "Change Has Come!" I think it is just incredible how far this nation has come in its effort to squash discrimination.


When Mitt Romney announced that he was running for President I was obviously very intrigued by the idea of a Latter-Day Saint being our President. I had many discussions with my father about Mitt Romney and if I would be voting for him if he was put on the Republican nominee and I told my father several times that I would not be voting for Mitt Romney because we shared the same faith and that I wanted to learn about his policies and all the other candidates policies, and I wanted to vote for Mitt Romney because I believed he was the best man for job, and if I believed he wasn't the best man for the job then I WOULD NOT vote for him.



When Martin Luther King prophetically said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." While Obama's change that he believed in came true on Tuesday I do not think that Martin Luther's dream of his sons being judged by the content of their character rather than by the color their skin has been fullfilled.

It worries me that I was even able to get this information because I don't think it should matter but according to CNN exit polls more than 95% of black voters voted for Obama for comparison, Asians voted for Obama at a rate of 63% Latinos voted for Obama at a rate of 67% and Whites voted for Obama at a rate of 43%. Nationwide 51% of people voted for Obama. To me that means around 30 percent of African Americans voted for Obama because he as well was an African-American. To me that is just as bad as all the white people who said they wouldn't vote for Obama because he was an African American or all the men who wouldn't of voted for Hilary Clinton because she was a woman. Now I know that this happens every single election year and that only because Barack Obama was the first African American to become the President that race is being discussed, but it told me that even though we have come a long way in treating every one as equal and not discriminating because of race we still have some work to do.

PROPOSITION 8

Ok I am a Latter-day Saint so I obviously am against gay marriage right? In a way I am against it and in a way I am for it. I am not going to pussy foot around this issue at the risk of offending some people so I am sorry if I am too bold in this blog entry. Proposition 8. Big deal right? The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been very involved in Proposition 8. They have encouraged church members to vote "Yes" on banning gay marriage in California. I want to be very careful of what I am saying here. I believe 100% that the leaders of my church as receiving direct revelation from God so I am very careful not to say that they are wrong but I do not understand why we are getting in the middle of this political issue.

This in excerpt from the LA Times:

During the campaign, a website established by Proposition 8 opponents used campaign finance data and other public records to track Mormon political contributions to the Yes-on-8 campaign. Opponents estimated that members of the church had given more than $20 million, but the amount is difficult to confirm since the state does not track the religious affiliation of donors.

A commercial opposing Proposition 8 also drew criticism. In it, two actors portraying Mormon missionaries forced their way into the well-kept home of a married lesbian couple. Here is the commerical:



Jeff Flint, strategist for Yes on 8, called the ad "despicable" and said it "crossed every line of decency."

"I am appalled at the level of Mormon-bashing that went on during the Proposition 8 campaign and continues to this day," he said. "If this activity were directed against any other church, if someone put up a website that targeted Jews or Catholics in a similar fashion for the mere act of participating in a political campaign, it would be widely and rightfully condemned."

Members and leaders of the Catholic Church and other Christian churches were also heavily involved in the campaign to pass Proposition 8. The Knights of Columbus, which is tied to the Catholic Church, gave $1 million, and several evangelical groups gave millions more. But they have not come under the same kind of attack.

Leaders of the No-on-8 campaign said they did not believe they were engaged in Mormon-bashing. "This is not about religion," said Jacobs. "This is about a church that put itself in the middle of politics."

I agree with that last statement, we put ourselves "in the middle of politics" something which surprised me and I think we are going to get a lot of flack and negative attention for doing so, but then again our decisions come from a much higher source even if I don't understand exactly why we decided to become so involved.

We are going to break this down Gay Marriage into two sections: First section: My opinion on Homosexuality and the second section my opinion on Marriage.

We fear people who we do not understand. I went on my mission to England and there were a lot of Arabs in England and they had the full ensemble. Dressed from head to toe in traditional clothing and they scared the heebie jeebies out of me. They just looked like terrorists or ninjas and I was constantly waiting for these women to pull out either a stick of dynamite or a ninja star and throw it at me. I didn't want to approach them, talk to them or even make eye contact with them...but one of the few times that I went and knocked on peoples door I happened to knock on a home and sure enough a women dressed in all black with the whole outfit on answered the door. I gave her our little spill and of course I wasn't expecting to get in the her home to share more about our message and I really didn't want to either but surprisingly she let us in. We sat down and talked to her for a while and met her kids, her husband was still back in the middle east, and we became very good friends with this lady, her name was Agusta Din-Gabishi. We were invited back to her home several times and we didn't even attempt to teach her about our church but I got to know Agusta very well and realized that she was just like every other lady I have ever met. We watched the Simpsons together, complained about the weather and she was completely normal, she chastised her kids when they didn't do their homework and was one of the nicest ladies that I have ever met and completely changed my view on Islamic people and I immediately overcame my fear of them.

The only reason that I even feared Agusta was because everybody told me too, the media had me convinced that they were all terrorists. All that it took for me to get over my fear of Arabic women or Muslims in general was to understand them and to get to know them. I guess I had the same problem with gay people. I didn't know any gay people and always felt that if I was confronted with a gay man I would feel extremely uncomfortable and wouldn't want to talk to him.


Two summers ago I was scammin Teleperformance out of some money by going through their month long paid training with no intention of staying with Teleperformance. In my class I sat next to a lesbian. I think her name was Stephanie, but that doesn't matter, Stephanie was very proud of her homosexuality, she had a rainbow necklace on and announced to everyone on the first day at class that she as gay. Stephanie was very open about it and always talked about how much she loved having sexual relations with women and it kind of was like getting thrown into the deep end of my uncomfortableness of homosexuals. Anyways, one day in the break room myself and two other coworkers were talking about how cool we thought it was that Stephanie was so open about being gay and how much we admired it. We talked about how we wouldn't have the guts to openly announce to the world that we were gay because we would be afraid that society would look down on us and wouldn't want to be seen as social outcasts.

Then out of the blue one of my coworkers just said "Yeah, it would be hard to tell everybody. I'm gay and I've never told anybody until now." We were shocked!! I don't know if it was the fact that Stephanie told everybody she was gay and we were all cool with it or why he thought that it was a good idea to open up about his homosexuality, but whatever it was he just felt it was ok for him to tell us that he was gay. The point is the fact that he told me he was gay didn't change a thing about the way I felt about him. I just kind of shrugged and said "ok" and then I think we went on to talking about the Transformers Movie. I liked the kid and I see him around every now and then and I don't think of him as my homosexual friend but just as my friend. It's really no big deal to me that he is gay. I think he is a great guy.
I do not believe that homosexuality is morally right on a moral stand point I believe it is wrong. This is not only a Latter-day Saint teachings it is something that is or at least should be taught in every Christian church that accepts the Bible as the true word of God. I do not believe that homosexuals are evil people or that they are condemned to Hell for liking someone of the same sex or that they sinning by having these feelings.



HOWEVA I do believe that engaging in homosexual activity is a sin. The best way I can compare it would be the example of two Alcoholic parents, when they have kids, and if especially if the mother was drinking during the pregnancy the kid most likely will inherit his parents addiction to alcohol. I believe that drinking alcohol at any age is a sin. Now this kid even though he is a an "alcoholic" has not committed any sins, it's the way he was born there is nothing he can do about it, but if he drinks alcohol then he is sinning. Same thing with homosexuals, while being a homosexual is not a sin, engaging in homosexual activity is a sin.

Second Topic and it won't be as long: Marriage:





In the LDS religion we believe that marriage is a sacred ordinance it is so sacred that we only perform marriages in our temples and the only people that are allowed in our temples are worthy members of the Church and one of the requirements of being worthy of going to the temple is obeying the law of chastity which means that you cannot engage in homosexual activities. So if you are a homosexual, you are breaking the law the chastity and will not be allowed to go to the temple and get married.




We believe that marriage is something that is ordained of God and must be performed by the correct authority, and we are the only Church on Earth with the authority to marry people and that these marriages can only take place in the temple and that you may only go to the temple if you are worthy to go to the temple. In a civil wedding you make vows to love honor and cherish your wife til death due you part and in LDS wedding you make vows to love honor and cherish your wife for all time and eternity. So basically in the LDS church if you are not married by the proper authority, the priesthood, and only the LDS church has it, and if its not in the temple, and only worthy members can enter which means you cannot have a same sex marriage in the temple, then are they really getting married? No they are not, as far as we are concerned they are just signing a court document that says they are married and the only things that change is your last name and how you file your taxes and insurance. So even if gay marriage is legalized they still are not getting married according to the LDS definition of marriage. My point is they are not threatening the sanctity of marriage because even if proposition 8 is turned down and they legalize gay marriage in every state, they are still not getting married under the proper authority in the temple and besides homosexuals are going to engage in just as many homosexual acts if they are life partners or if they married to each other anyways.

Yes, if they are married then they will file their taxes differently and they can be on their life partners insurance plan and will be rewarded a few financial benefits, but I do not see how it is taking away the sacredness of marriage and from a moral standpoint I do not see the difference between being gay life partners and a gay married couple.

On to some lighter topics:

I am dead last in fantasy basketball which I am extremely pissed off about it.

The KFC Combo meal is a huge rip off. I spent 9 bucks on my KFC Combo meal and totally wasn't satisified I would of much rather got the three chicken piece meal with two sides it would of filled me up more and cost half as less. The Big Bell Box trumps KFC Combo meal any day of the week.


The Lakers look awesome. I love how Odom is coming off the bench, something I wanted to happen last year. It's nice that they can always have either Odom and Gasol or Odom and Bynum and of course Bynum and Gasol on the floor at all times. The Lakers are kickin some serious butt.

My Lakers are 4-0 and as Stu Lantz, the Lakers play by play announcer mentioned the last time they started 3-0 they won the championship and if there is a bright side to Obama winning the Presidential election is that the last 7 titles for the Boston Celtics only happened when a Republican was the President.