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.