Pure good times.
Time for some campaignin'

Campaigning

Saturday was spent working on McCain's campaign. As part of our course work here, we are required to spend at least 30 hours between now and November 5 volunteering with a presidential campaign of our choice. It's all part of this campaign notebook we're supposed to compile about all our adventures, opinions, etc. McCain's national campaign headquarters is just over in Arlington, so it's super easy for us to get over there and help out with whatever. We started with the phone banks, making calls to the populace with the goal of asking them a few questions about who they planned to vote for and by what method, what party they affiliated themselves with. Stuff like that. We did that for about an hour then they asked for some people to go with some other staffers and work a booth set up at a street fair. So my friends and I went there, slapped on some stickers and talked it up with people. It was a chill environment with people stopping to rant or pick up bumper stickers. Democratic National Committee people were floating around too. It felt like a sports rivalry seeing them.
Afterward, I patrolled over to Old Town Alexandria to meet up with some Taylor U. people. Since I had some extra time to kill, I went down King Street, which is the main drag for Old Town. It was super rockin. I found this really cool bar which has live bluegrass every Friday and Saturday night. Most of the people who were in there looked to be at least 50 as well (not that that's old, they just weren't my age. You know). It was good to connect with a bunch of TU grads and see what they are up to in life after the rural Indiana community.
Sunday I went to Captial City Church for the second time. The people there are very welcoming and it's great to see a new set of faces who genuinely care.

In other news: as I'm sure you know, the most recent bailout plan failed in the House. Bummer. Not really. It's a shortsighted move to try and prop up those failures. It'll be as painful as all get out letting them go, for there will be repercussions. But is/was it the government's business to get involved with the financing market in the first place? Insuring people's financial ventures, while coming from a sense of goodness, creates the wrong incentive. I think the government has crossed the line, for the role of government in economics should be to oversee the transactions people voluntarily make, not, as Bastiat would say, under the guise of false philanthropy enact legal plunder. Letting banks fail would cleanse the system. But the problem with that would be freeing up the markets enough to let them self correct, which would necessitate a lot of backpedaling on legislation and tax laws. Such a move would also recquire a lot of will power on the part of the people, stemming from a belief that government has little role in market economics, thus preventing politicians from meddling in it for their own political gain. Can we get back to a nation founded on We the people?

Just simple thoughts of mine.

Killer day today, more details coming.

I was kicking it at a friend of a friend's house tonight and they showed me this video. Pure awesomeness.
Watch it multiple times and listen carefully to the lyrics.

I'm watching the debate now and you should be/have too.

Obama just said that what we need to alleviate our debt is not a cut in ear marks but a tax increase. Incredible.
Never has a tax increase done a state well in an economic crisis. All it does is drive businesses away. Imagine if we do that to a country. An increase in tax rate past a typically low rate is inverse to the revenue received by the government.

This information I found at that tax meeting. It blew my mind, so I thought I'd share it. Courtesy of the Tax Foundation

"In 2005, the estimated time and money cost of complying with the federal Internal Revenue Code was 6 billion man-hours worth $265 billion."

"The code that year stood at 7 million words in 736 code sections, up from 718,000 words in 103 code sections in 1955. By contrast, the King James Bible has 788,280 words in 66 books, the Harry Potter series has just over 1 million words in 7 books, and the English translation of War and Peace has 560,000 words."

"In 2008, Americans worked 113 days of the year to pay for federal, state, and local taxes. This more than the days worked for housing (60 days), food (35 days), and clothing (13 days) combined."

"The form 1040 and instructions in 1913 was only 4 pages. Today they are 144 pages."

The IRS is a beast. So are most other government programs.

The Groove

My life has begun to enter into the busyness of the semester as of this week. On Monday, my supervisors gave me the project of making sure the voting members of the Tax and Fiscal Policy Task Force had updated information in our data banks. The project consists of me comparing what info we have to what they each have on their government websites. It's sort of tedious.
Yesterday at Koch was sweet. We talked about Bastiat's The Law for a good two hours. If you haven't read that book, read it. He'll most likely get you stoked on Life, Liberty and Property. The conversation at my table even turned into where does morality come from? Is there Truth? Rockin stuff. Various speakers came and spoke about originalism and their efforts to spread property rights in Africa. Spending time at Koch has been great so far. What makes it crazy is the fac that I had no idea about it before I had applied at ALEC. God was just like Here, have this free education. That night, I went on over to the Heritage Foundation and saw a pre-screening of their new film on America's failing education system. The film is called Flunked. It was good, not all doom mongering, but also told the stories of teachers, principles and administrators who were having success within the system.

Today was more data entry and then a meeting over lunch with a bunch of tax policy think tanks in DC. They exchanged information with other, policy successes, etc. It's a meeting that goes on about once a month. I then booked it on back for class where one of Obama's campaign members involved in faith based projects spoke about his approach to faith and politics. A McCain rep was suppossed to come, but didn't make it. Oh well. For dinner, there was a picnic on the mall. Good times.

Condensation

I never expected to go camping while here in DC. But I did. On Friday night, in fact.
After a tiring week, I didn't really want to accept the invitation to sleep in the woods of Maryland with only blankets. I ended up going though and had fun nonetheless. A couple other guys from the apartment and I were dropped off at this random park my friend found out about. We then wandered into the park, looking for the campgrounds. Despite the pitch blackness in the trees we found a site tucked away which we thought wouldn't too near the main drag because we had not registered with the park service. Basically, we just sat around the fire and chilled for an hour and a half and then using our four blankets slept on the ground. An hour or so after we and lain down, we were awakened to bright lights. A representative of the Maryland law had found us and proceeded to ask three guys sleeping in blankets, without a car and only a few pieces of gear on the picnic table what the heck they are doing in the woods. I explained to him that a friend had dropped us off, that we are students spending a semester in DC and just had an urge to go camping. He told us that since we didn't have a sticker showing our registration, we would be in big trouble the next night if we were still there sans sticker. The rest of the night was cold, warmer, cold, warm, colder, warm and then the sun came up. We walked to a bus stop and found our way to the metro station at about 10:30 the next morning, carrying our blankets and smelling like campfire.
Even though it was not beneficial towards my sleep habits and I initially did not want to go, it was refreshing to get out of the city into the woods and just be.

Last night, a friend here from Burundi made us all African food. There was soo much good stuff to eat, it was really great and extremely generous since she bought it all. Something we also did last night, which has been going on for about a week is reading aloud short stories from a contemporary short fiction book I had found back home for $1. It's been a lot of fun taking turns each night, reading aloud the different pieces. Of course, since they are contemporary stories, the endings seem abrupt, they are usually heavy and real and often contain more "mature" elements. It's a lot of fun to just sit around and imagine together though. Another station of rejuvination for us from the constant barrage of theories, politics, philosophy and theology. While in DC, I've needed those times, like camping or stories to just be, relax, gather and condense all that I have been learning.

Internship

Well friends and family, I have begun my internship with ALEC.
Its offices are located near K street in the NW part of the city off the McPherson metro stop. The K street area of DC is full of corporations, financial centers, businessy type places, so everyone walking around looks important. I do my best to fit in, mastering the DC stare and walk, never talking to anyone. I am working on the 11th floor of the building and the ALEC offices take up the whole floor which is cool because we can muse about free markets and creative destruction all on our own floor. The task forces I am researching with are great, interesting topics and fun people. My directors are solid, fun, relatively young guys. Yesterday, they had me researching for an upcoming education policy publication and I spent all afternoon looking at a bunch of figures on tuition at Ohio State, the doings of its president, Gordan Gee (interesting fellow), and how 73 upper level faculty and adminstrators are paid over $300k. That kind of pay in itself isn't necessarily an evil, just the fact that it's at a public school and tuition prices keep rising as they add more people onto the heavy payroll. Fun stuff. For reals. Tax and Fiscal policy research hasn't begun yet, but I've been reading over that department's publicatons, such as Rich States Poor States and the "inverse relationship between higher taxes and higher growth rates" (Steve Moore said that, not I).

In other news, there have been a lot of heavy conversations lately amongst all the neighbors on our floor. I love political and social conversations, but having multiple heavy ones within two days, flying solo too, is a tiring experience. Good but tiring.

In other other news, how about us taxpayers taking over all those multibillion dollar (or trillion dollar) failing banks? Feels great, right?

Gnarliness

Got this story from Hugh Hewitt's blog.
Some fools hacked Palin's Yahoo! email account and took screenshots of her address book, photos and emails.
Desperate people out there.

The Update

This weekend was full of goodness, although not much sleep. But those elements usually come together.
Friday after class I booked it straight to the Family Research Council conference place in time to peruse the exhibit hall for a little bit and get an early seat to catch Mitt Romney. Before hand though, I ate at a super good hamburger place called Five Guys. Good stuff. Anyway, I got a sick seat two rows from the front. After a few minutes this guy sat down in the front row, directly ahead of me. A few people were going up to shake his hand, etc. Turns out it was Romney. Hip. I didn't go to shake his hand because I didn't want to bother him. Dumb reason, yeah. Soon thereafter he spoke, covering all sorts of issues the crowd resonated with. The other speakers that night weren't of as much consequence. At about 9pm I went to see this movie called Fireproof created by the same church who did Facing Giants. I thought it would be super cheesy and it was, but the message it presented overrided most of the cheesiness. Overall pretty good for a Christian movie. I then went back to the apartment.
Saturday morning I got up at 7:30 to go see Dr. Bill Bennett speak in the morning session. It was great hearing him address some of the issues. Gary Bauer spoke. Okay. Sean Hannity spoke. Okay. My favorite though was a guy I had never heard of, Bishop Harry Jackson Jr. from Maryland. He was near the very end of this 3:30 hr session but I thought he actually addressed an important topic rather than just energizing the crowd with stuff they've already heard and agree with. One of the things he said was "being a Christian can make you a conservative, but being a conversative doesn't necessarily make you a Christian." He also challenged us to serve God first and foremost and check our motivations for being politically and socially active. His message was a refreshing one, challenging us toward truth, not fanaticism. Afterwards, I bought a book of his on racial issues and the church and got it signed by him. Good stuff. For lunch, I had a salad and bought the new Metallica album. For the afternoon, there was a panel-ish thing on media which was okay. I then went to a breakout session on illegal immigration and national security, which was pretty good although I didn't stay for the Q&A session because I went to meet some friends.

Thoughts on FRC: It's an organization focused on energizing grassroots movements in very specific social issues, namely pro-life, traditional marriage and wholesome media. You know, family things. When addressing those issues, I didn't hear much logical argument for their implemenation, which may have been because they assumed everyone their already agreed with them. It was called the Value Voters Summit after all. But I feel as though even the people who are pro-life/traditional marriage need encouragement and training in how to reasonably present those ideas in this pluralistic world. That was something I was hoping for but didn't see much of. Overall though, it wasn't as extreme as I thought it would be nor were some of the people I talked to as much of the stereotype that would be associated with the FRC. Duh. I should be learning not to stereotype, right?

So I met my friends that Saturday afteroon at the Smithsonian metro exit on the mall. While waiting for them I picked out all the home school families and noticed the intense tourist crowd which was completely different from I'd been all that day around DuPont Circle.
We then went to the art museum for 30 min because it was closing. We ran to the modern art and went through it all quick. Some alright stuff.
Needing dinner, we took a trek to Adams-Morgan area, found an Afghan restuarant but decided to not eat there because the prices were too high. As we were leaving though, the owner comes out the door and tells us that we are missing some very good food. Tempted, I jokingly asked him we'd eat there if the prices were lower and he said he'd take 10% off the total for us if we ate there. We were sold and it was indeed very good food. Walking ensued afterwards and then a bus ride to U st where we didn't find anything cool so we took a bus down to the White House to hang out. There, we spent most of our time talking with one of the protestors who was holding down the fort in the tent that's been there since 1981. We asked him what he was all about and why the protest was there. To put it quickly (we talked for about an hour), he told us of how Love is the strongest bond there is and everything promoted in society today is against that message. If we don't change our ways, we are headed towards doom. His worldview was basically a mixture of new age/Jesus Moral Man teachings. His name is Start Loving which is tatooed on his bald forehead in the midst of three crosses. On his cheeks were the words Wage Love. We left him feeling loved, but a little confused in what he was trying to say and a little enlightened in what some people think our world needs to get out of the mess.
Sunday I went to a local church with my roommate because we got a flyer in the mail telling us about it. At the door I was greated by this guy whose voice sounded like my internship coordinator I hadn't met yet. Lo and behold it was him! He and my supervisor happen to go to that church along with one of our professors here. It was a very nice surprise. After church we met a few people, including this guy named Stuart who is a marine in the capitol hill barracks and whose sole job is to participate in ceremonies, most of which are funerals in Arlington. He had to do 5 today. He and his wife are way cool, maybe a year or two older than us, live nearby and are expecting a baby anytime. We also made plans to go camping soon/go shoot things. My roommate and I also went to lunch in an Indian restaurant with them, my supervisor, his roommate from Liberia and a guy from Armenia. It doesn't end there though.
That afternoon, right after I got back, I found some people who wanted to go to the Evensong service at the National Cathedral. In short, it was fabulous. Not crowded at all, beautiful music in a beautiful setting.
That was the weekend.

Today the internship started with an introductory class at the Koch Foundation where we will be taking a class every Tuesday in economics and how to apply those ideas within a corporation, either for profit or non-profit. It was sick. They fed us breakfast, lunch, pens, notepads (neither of which I had bought yet) will give us free books for the course whose authors include Sowell, Hayek, Smith, Mises and Friedman. The classes will be super solid. We have two more days of the intro stuff and start with ALEC on Thursday.

It's been out of sight. If you read the whole thing, you're cool.

Announcement

For those of you that know me well/have lived with me, you know that I am a cluttered type. My desk is usually piled with papers, books, sometimes bread crumbs, etc. But in my apartment, I am the neat one. I am typically the guy who cleans the dishes or reminds people to pick up our living room or to clean the bathroom.
Weird.

Jammin'

Friday and today were jam packed. Details to come which entail: sitting two rows behind Mitt Romney, FRC conference, Afghan food and talking with the protester who has been camped out in front of the White House.
Sick stuff.

Last day for awhile at Martha's Table today. We made another 900 sandwiches. Rock and roll.

Finished up the first paper today as well for our class.

Went for a walk to check in at the Family Research Council convention here in the city. I got off at the DuPont Circle metro stop, got turned around and ended up walking to the White House, the opposite direction I wanted to go. I was ticked. But at least I saw the White House. It was kind of trippy coming up on it, because I really didn't know where I was. But I saw some lights in the distance and was like Is that the White House? No, can't be! It was though. Feeling like an idiot, I took in the sights and then grumbled all the way back up Connecticut. Finally, I made it to the hotel, saw some friends, checked in, got my bag of goodies. Should be a good conference. Opinion time: I like the philosophy of the FRC, but they really turn a lot of people off to their message. They come across as a bunch of angry conservatives soap boxing it. One lady I met tonight thought her soap box would get bigger as a result of the conference and felt sorry for her kids. Why do we need to kick it on soap boxes? Let's reasonably, patiently, lovingly approach those we don't agree with, doing more listening than shouting, seeking the truth God has placed before us in His creation. However, that's not a shout out for open minded, whatever, let's-frolick-through-the-field type outlook. There is objective truth. Let's go find it.

Anyway, the conference should be a good time. Mitt Romney is speaking at it tomorrow and I plan to go to that session. John McCain may also make a surprise visit, Obama too, on Saturday. If that happens, it'll be a candidate filled week indeed.

PS-I am living on 8th Street, NE in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, for those wondering.

Yesterday was the usual Tuesday service project where we made a mess of sandwiches, both turkey and peanut butter. It was mellow.

Today, however, I had the privilege of attending a McCain/Pail rally in Fairfax, VA. I found out about it yesterday evening because a bunch of the crazies here were planning on going. Ultimately, I was just attending to see McCain and Palin in the flesh and indeed I did. Another dude and I left here at 6AM, took the orange line all the way to the end, hoped on a city bus in Fairfax and took it to where the shuttles aka school buses would pick us up. We ended up at this monster long line where we waited for about an hour to get into the park. Fortunately we made it into the park and got a pretty cool spot to see the podium. After about 5 local speakers, Fred Thompson made a surprise appearance (at least we didn't know he'd be there) and spoke for about 15 minutes, introduced Palin who spoke and then McCain was up. Because there were about 15,000 people there and a two lane road leading out, my friend and I decided to leave before McCain's speech was done. Best decision ever. The roads and buses were swamped leaving the area and we made it back to DC 2 hours before our friends who watched the whole speech.
All republicans were in attendance making it a cultural event as well. They were throwing out the classic lines about Obama voters lacking brains, shouting back at the boisterous Obama supporters who were attempting to persuade us all from our political doom. It didn't work. At the end, there was a lady with a microphone yelling things and a sign that said "Pro-war is not Pro-life." She got a few remarks including a lady who screamed at her "Baby killer!" and an old dude who said he wasn't afraid to die for his country. Oh republicans...
Also: oh democrats...
Also: I checked out the Constitution Party line today and was almost persuaded to switch, until I heard about their very isolationist type foreign policy. I don't think we can swing that in this day and age. What a bust. They were cool anyway because they combined Libertarian government style but with a Republican concern for the social issues.

Hipness

Bros, this quote rocks all:
"In speaking of man's fallenness, we point not only to his persistent rejection of the created order, but also to an inescapable confusion in his perceptions of it" (Oliver O'Donavan in his Resurrection and moral order).

That quote just makes so much sense to me. Our theories are wrong a vast majority of the time and only Christ's death and resurrection helps us make sense of it all. In everyone's approach to a problem or injustice, there is an assumed ought, is, can, will which comes from and matches up with the biblical narrative of creation (ought), fall (is), redemption (can), consummation (will be).

Rock and roll.

Went to the holocaust museum this morning to kick off week #2. It's a sobering experience, but well, well worth a visit or two. I plan to go again. The last time I was there I was about 14. It was really moving then, but it's even more so now and I wonder what it will be like in another 15 years, should I get the privilege of visiting it then.

Interesting poll counts today. McCain 08.

To all you McCain/Palin supporters (including myself), this NYT article by Frank Rich is a must read.
Helps one's discernment.

It's raining like deuce here. Remnants from whatever hurricane. However, despite the crummy weather, some friends and I decided to take a trip to some museums. We hit up the Natural History, Smithsonian Castle and Air and Space. Solid afternoon.

For those who haven't heard, I live in an apartment with 5 other guys. Two are in the journalism program, so we only see them when they're in the apartment, since we have separate classes from each other. There are two rooms upstairs, along with the bathroom. Downstairs is our common area and kitchen.

Speaking of kitchen, buying and preparing my own food has been an experience. My entire life food has just appeared. BAM. But here I personally have to make the effort and expend the money to keep myself alive. It's a hard knock life and a good experience.

I do a lot of walking since it's about 7 blocks to the nearest Metro station and then once you get off the Metro, it's a nice little jog to wherever you have to get usually. I guess the whole walking thing is typical of city life. Those of you who have lived/live in a city are probably thinking "what a dip, he should have known this stuff." I agree. Although, I came here to learn and learning I am. It's only been the first week too. Bring it on.

Ultimate on the mall.
Enough said.

Went to our volunteer place today. Made about 1000 sandwiches and cut some potatoes and onions. Met a lady named Naomi from Liberia. She was really cool.

Last night did a walking tour of the Jefferson, FDR, WWII and Washington memorials/monuments. It was a long walk, but well work seeing the sites. I hope to make more than three visits to each this semester. I think that's a reasonable goal.

Yesterday, I and a few other people volunteered at a food distribution center/daycare. Most of our time was spent making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that they take out into the neighborhoods every night. Then for the last hour, I helped out in the 2.6-3 yr old classroom. Cute kids.
The area the mission is located is a predominantly black neighborhood. Our volunteer coordinator asked us if we'd heard DC referred to as the "chocolate city." I said I hadn't. It's always a good experience to be in the minority, even for just an afternoon. But we'll be back to the place for another three days helping out with whatever they want us to do.

This morning I got up at 6:30 and did the business attire thing for the first time in DC because we went to talk with one of the assistant chiefs of the Border Patrol and had to look all hip. We met in the food court in the Ronald Reagan building. That opportunity was sweet and apparently we will be doing more stuff like that in the future.

Arrival

Well friends, I made it to DC. After about a year of prep and a bit longer of aiming for it. I feel like this is exactly where God wants me at this point in my life, so we'll see what He does.

Got into the city after a bus ride from Dulles, the Metro to a station and confused bus ride arriving around 9PM. Sick.
Sunday, walked around all day basically beginning with church in the morning, Target and then a scavenger hunt type thing all afternoon. The people here are great, interesting and well intentioned, at least that is the impression thus far.
My internship doesn't begin until Sept 15 and these few weeks classes will be starting and we'll be getting oriented to the city.

This blog will be full of actual historical events, thoughts and maybe even some feelings. I will try to write frequently.