A Pound of Thoughts

Good morning, everyone!  I hope y’all are having as wonderful a Saturday as I am.  Thursday evening me and the wife left L’dale for The Beach Club in Gulf Shores, Alabama.  Yesterday was a lot of fun.  We spent a good deal of time sleeping, eating, and swimming.  I have pictures of our cottage, I just don’t have them uploaded to Flickr yet.  As soon as I do, I’ll put them in a phoblog post.

This morning my wife had to take the Praxis II test at the University of Mobile for her education degree, so while she’s taking the first two-hour test this morning (7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.) I’m over at Moka’s Coffee Shop in Saraland, bloggin’ away.  And it is such a beautiful day today.  Not very many clouds in the sky, and not all that hot (yet).  My sister-in-law, V, suggested Moka’s and made a statement that it was “better than Starbucks“.  At first, I didn’t know if I’d agree with her.  But after having their Caramel Latte, I must say that I agree 100% with her!  The coffee is wonderful!

Ah, the utter relaxation of a sofa in a coffee shop with a laptop at hand.  It’s utter geeky bliss!  I suggest you all give it a shot.  There’s nothing like it.

9:00 PM - Goler has a question on Presidental power in the war on terror here at home.  Romney:  “Our focus must be on preventing attack.”  To Tancredo on enhanced interrogating techniques.  His response:  “I would do go to great lengths to keep this country safe.”  Response from McCain:  “Any information we get from torture can never ever be counterbalanced by the damage it does to America’s reputation.”

8:55 PM - Question to Tancredo on the surge since he was against it.  He says that he commends General Patreus and he hopes and prays the surge works.  However, the fight is against radical Islam and Iraq is but a battlefield.  “We weren’t attacked because we had troops in Saudi Arabia.”

8:53 PM - Nice exchange between Huckabee and Paul on Iraq…I believe Huckabee won!

8:33 PM - Ron Paul says that we should have let the private airlines protect their own property. He said that we assumed the government would take care of us, and look “at the mess” that happened at 9/11.

8:27 PM - Abortion question.  Romney says that he hopes one day we will have a “country without abortion.”  “We have to have compassion for both lives involved.”  Huckbee says he wants legislation like they have in Arkansas - a human life amendment.

8:24 PM -  Wendell Goler has a question on family values.  Brownback is first up.  “We’ve got to rebuild the family.” He also says that Larry Craig should still resign.  Duncan Hunter says that Craig should resign immediately.  “When Republicans have this problem, they leave - they leave the House and the Senate.  When Democrats have problems like this they often make them chairmen of a committee.

8:08 PM - Second question from Chris Wallace - Illegal immigration.  Mitt Romney basically copies Tom Tancredo’s philosophy verbatim.  Rudy Giuliani botches his response to his allowing illegals to come to New York City.  McCain also copies what Tancredo has been saying for years.  Huckabee states that he won’t secure the borders because he dislikes those coming here.  He’ll enforce it because it’s “the right thing to do.”  Tancredo nails his response to the others: “It’s not about disliking those who come here.  It has to do with the rule of law.  Doesn’t anyone understand that?” 

8:04 PM - The first question regards Fred Thompson…what the candidates think.  All the responses have been funny.  I think the funniest one so far was Ron Paul - Fred will “dilute” the pool even more since he’s Pro-War, and Paul is the “traditional” republican position.

8:02 PM - Now we meet the candidates in this order:  Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Mike Huckabee, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, John McCain, Sam Brownback, and Duncan Hunter.

8:00 PM - And it starts with Brit Hume as the host.

This ought to be a very interesting debate!  I am set to liveblog the debate tonight, starting at 9:00 P.M. Eastern.  Stay Tuned!

Human beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.

–Bill William Henry Cosby

Lately I’ve been having a few flashbacks and dreaming about people that had been important in my life in the past.  I don’t know why, but I have - and it saddens me.  The way some relationships ended, without true resolution, just saddens me.  Call it guilt, nostalgia, wishful thinking - whatever you want to call it.  I call it “losing good friendships”.

Recently I’ve been trying to hunt people down via the internet, just to say “Hi!” or “How are you doing?”  I would like to resolve these relationships, find out where I stand with these people.  I just want to tell them that I’m sorry for being stupid and that I miss their friendship.  They were good friends, great friends, and we had great times together.

There are a few regrets I have, and I’ll know that some of those things are in the past, and I’ll never have the chance to go back and fix what I messed up.  I just hope that I have the chance to let these people know how important they were to me before it’s too late.  I hope that in some cases, we can resume our friendships and bring back some of the good times we had.  Oh how I wish I could see some of them again.  That would mean the world to me.