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Spank your children. If you disagree with me, watch the movie Thirteen then agree with me. If you already agree with me, don't bother watching it; you will be subjected to one hundred minutes of “drug use, self destructive violence, language and sexuality — all involving young teens.”¹ If you spank your children, they will thank you later.

1. MPAA Rating

Never give a girl (or guy if the case applies) something that will last forever. Walking around on my campus and seeing a perfectly good, Valentine's-Day stuffed animal in the trash just breaks my heart but not because of the obvious relationship breakup though. I'm an environmentalist now, remember?

It made me think of my own past. I have a stuffed animal saying that someone from UNC loves me tucked away and wasting space in some junk drawer back home which I only keep because I can't bear to throw away only because I hate throwing stuff away. There's also some stuffed animal saying “Someone From John Brown University Loves Me” rotting away in some landfill near Greeley (again, I cry because of the environmentalism in me).

Again, my advise is this: never give a significant other something that will last forever unless you're sure that the relationship is going to last forever. Get her flowers; she likes them, and they die.

I was once asked what my favourite book of the Bible was. It's Ecclesiastes. There's just something about the book that gives me this meaningless attitude. In short, it's a highly depressing book. However, there's just something about the depression aura that Ecclesiastes gives off that just puts me in a thinking mood. I know that depression is highly looked down upon as an emotion that's evil. I suppose that it could be with chronically depressed people sadly comitting suicide. The thing is that I like depression. When I'm happy, I'll be dancing around like a maniac with my dumb buddies. With depression, I'll be pondering selected topics that will give me a whole new perspective on life. I don't know what value that there is in new perspecives, so I guess that there's just an intrinsic value in such.

It is absolutely beautiful to have leisure time to do anything that my heart desires. This morning, my wild, rebellious heart decided to take advantage of the situation and pleasure myself in forbidden ways; I decided to read the newspaper. I grabbed the daily edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. I sat down to read about what was happening in the world even though that information could have been found on the Internet, but I read anyway. What caught my eye was something written on the left margin of the front page. It was about Colorado's own Tom Tancredo putting his foot in his mouth again.

Apparently, the proposed memorial for Flight 93 just so happened to be in the shape of a crescent. Of course, it's well known that the crescent is a symbol of Islam. However, in the very letter that Tancredo wrote to the government official in charge, Tancredo mentioned that the architect didn't design the memorial in the crescent shape with Islam in mind.¹ Apparently, the artist had some concept that the crescent symbolised the broken circle that the tragedy caused. However, Tancredo doesn't care. He makes it known that the design needs to be reconsidered whether it was “intentional or not”. He states that the hijackers were radical Islamists, and it's not fitting to use a symbol that vaguely resembles one of Islam. First of all, so what? Radical Islam is to Islam what the Ku Klux Klan is to Christianity. Does that mean that the cross should be purged from our society because of its negative connotations?

1. http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/home/article/0,1299,DRMN_1_4077598,00.html

Conversations with my roommate lately have been on the topic of fate and God's plan for our lives. I had to confess that I really didn't know what I was talking about. All of my theories were pure speculation. I don't know God on that level, and I might possibly never know. I know for sure that as long as I am on this earth, I never can. As humans, we often feel that we can absorb all of the knowledge in the world just like a mosquito thinks that it can suck all of the blood from someone. However, it's not the case. Imagine it this way: take the rabbit. You could have a rabbit from day one and raise it in your own family just as if it was one of your own children. However, when that rabbit reached maturity, do you think that it will be able to comprehend the greater laws of quantum physics or great works of literature? No, it would be impossible. However, just as it is impossible for a rabbit to learn higher order logic and such, we are just as well incapable of understanding the nature of God or God's plan for the world. Despite our failure to comprehend such, we could still speculate. It might be nice to look back and laugh at ourselves after we're all dead.

So, I herd on the news that Al-Qaeda is claiming that Hurricane Katrina is God's judgment on the United States. I tried to look for this on the Internet, but I had no success. Anyway, let's assume that natural disasters are God's means for judgment:

• 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake — 126,915 dead in Indonesia which is the country with the most Islamic inhabitants.
• 2003 Bam earthquake — 41,000 dead in a country where the official religion is Islam.
• 1999 Izmit earthquake — 17,000 dead in a country that is 99.8% Muslim.
• 1991 Bangladesh cyclone — 138,000 in a country where 83% of the population is Muslim.
• 1970 Bhola cyclone — 150,000 dead in Bangladesh.

By contrast, the death toll for Katrina is estimated at ten thousand. I don't want to by any means pass off any of these deaths as trivial. Also, I do not subscribe to the view that these natural disasters are necessarily always God's means for punishment. However, if Al-Qaeda wants to subscribe to the view that they are, then God doesn't like the U.S., but he hates Muslims. It's so much easier to say that God gives and takes away from both the righteous and the unrighteous whoever they may be.¹

1. Matthew 5:45

Tom Tancredo is just a really, really mean man.

Being 850 miles away in Northwest Arkansas, I typically would have an opportunity to hear about affairs happening back in the great Mile-High City. Amazingly enough, I had extra time today before one of my classes. Since the class was in the same building as the library on campus, I decided to do something that I often do; I entered the library and picked up a newspaper. They get copies of The Denver Post, but the issue available isn't recent, and I'm not a Post person but a Rocky Mountain News type. However, I picked up the daily copy of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. It was mostly articles about the recent hurricane devastatio, but one article¹ caught my attention. I was aware of the situation before I left Denver, but I had just dismissed it as pure, local evil done by Tancredo. Now, I'm seeing that it's making national news.

Basically, the Denver Public Library has a good deal of Spanish-language material in its inventory. It's not unique to Denver at all, but it's being scrutinised in Denver all because of the acts of a local politician. Tancredo wrote a letter to the Denver mayor expressing his concern about the situation. In a nutshell, he was worried that some other language besides English would be getting attention at the library. I have no objections to placing material in a library purely on the basis of language. Let's face it: Denver has a large population of Hispanics². The library is intended to be a sanctuary of literature for people to use. Believe it or not, the English language is not the only language that has literature, and I'm sure that Spanish-language literature would not go to waste in Denver given the demographics. The article listed two objections to the library keeping Spanish material: public funds shouldn't support a demographic that could include illegal aliens and shouldn't support any language other than English. First of all, if we want to exclude public money going towards a demographic that can include illegal immigrants, we should just not have libraries. I'm sure that there are people in the United States who speak English as their first language and are here illegally. Besides, it doesn't matter that there are Spanish speakers here illegally. What matters is that there are Spanish speakers who are here legally. These people pay their taxes too. In my mind, they should have their share of that public money.

Tancredo's position on immigration is not one that is against immigration per se. Rather, Tancredo believes that two elements are essential if immigration is to happen: immigrants must come to the United States legally and immigrants must culturally assimilate once they arrive.³ I can agree with Tancredo on the first issue because, of course, I wouldn't want anyone to break the law. However, our laws are ridiculous. There are several people wanting to come to this country who only want to make a decent living and enjoy the same quality of live that any American has, and immigration policies can make the process take forever. However, on the second issue, Tancredo couldn't be more wrong. The fact is that people who come to America have the right to retain the features of their culture. If a person wants to speak Spanish in their daily life, that's their choice and their right. In parts of Denver, the number of people who choose to speak Spanish is great enough to warrant the businesses in these areas to choose to cater to these people which is also their right as business owners to decide.

Tancredo often uses the concept of Western Civilisation to refer to the values which he stands behind as a model for the ideal society. However, Tancredo appears to use this concept in a ethnoselective manner to select ethnicities which he chooses to include in Western Civilisation while at the same time excluding others. However, the term Western Civilisation is ambiguous itself as I learned in my college course with Professor Jones. From reading his speeches, Tancredo's definition of Western Civilisation apparently excludes Hispanics and Muslims. My definition of Western Civilisation includes them both as they both derive from an ancient, near-east origin (which is where any textbook on Western Civilisation begins). However, for this purpose, I'll use Tancredo's definition of Western Civilisation. Tancredo's fear is that America will become so “multicultural” that it will loose its cultural identity. Tancredo finds it shocking that schools teach that our culture is one that was founded on the slavery of Africans and the genocide of the First Nations. He finds it shocking, but it's true. This nation does not have a clean record when it comes to morality. However, I don't want to deemphasise the progress made. There are no slaves in America, and we don't kill people from First Nations anymore. So, American culture wasn't founded on ideal ideals, but I doubt that any culture can say that it has. Besides morals, the other elements of a culture can't really be placed in a dichotomy of good and evil. I can't say that Chinese food is inherently better than Indian food. I can't say that baseball is great and soccer is evil. I can't say that jazz is great and country music is evil. I myself happen to love Chinese food, baseball and jazz and hate Indian food, soccer and country music with a passion, but that doesn't affect its sacredity. Tancredo will agree when he says: “When I talk about multiculturalism and the problems I see in it, I am not talking about cultural diversity that brings into our society the music, the poetry, the art, dance from different cultures of all continents of the globe. Certainly our Nation has been enriched and continues to be enriched by these contributions.”⁴ Should Tancredo realise that American morals itself could become enriched by other cultures? This might seem hard to believe, but I think that American morals could take a page out of the Islamic world. When the Islamic world is upset when young employees at “Western” hotels sneak into rooms to watch naked lesbians have sex with each other on television channels provided to clients, I really can't argue with that. When Mexicans come to the United States to find a better life through a strong work ethic, I cannot complain. When Asian cultures place a strong emphasis on education compared to a nation of students that continually score lower and lower in subjects, I cannot complain. There is good and bad in each of these cultures. Rather than focus on tradition or culture or values, can't we just simplify the issue and concentrate on what's good and right?

It's amazing how I started talking about Spanish books in libraries and end up talking about value in cultures.

1. Gartner, Erin, “Libraries adjust to Hispanic needs”, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette — Northwest Edition, 2005 September 5, section A.
2. I am aware that this doesn't necessarliy include Spanish speakers, but, from the usage in the article, I'm assuming that it does otherwise I doubt that the library would bother to purchase Spanish-languge materials.
3. http://www.limitstogrowth.org/WEB-text/tancredo-42903.html
4. Ibid.

I just realised something about my life that sucks.

I just got off of the phone with four of my best friends in the whole world, and they all happen to be women. Of course, at the university, when I get the question, “Who were you talking to?”, and they discover that they were all lady friends, I'm immediately dubed the pimp, and I'm congratulated as the Wolfeman in a manner similar to Norm walking into Cheers. Then, I have to go through the trouble to explain that it's not like that and that we're only friends and that I we're more like family. Then, it hits me across the head like an impliment designed for hitting someone across the head:

1. I have many more female friends than male friends.
2. I tend to be able to connect better to females than males.
3. I see females as normal people to have deep meaningful relationships with and not as romantic objects.
4. I realise that although it's great that I don't see women as romantic objects, men are supposed to have romantic relationships with women.
5. My mindset is still one of romantic inactivity. I'm just not so enthuistiac when it comes to pursuing romantic relationships with someone even though I'm sitting here on my computer complaining about my lack of romance.

Well, life sucks, but, sometimes, life is what we make of it; we reap what we sow. So, I really have no right to complain, but that is what the rant bord is for. My suitemates haven't given up, and they're still determined to find a woman for the Wolfeman. That'll be great: I'll come out of a date with one more female friend that I don't have a romantic attraction towards.