Kony 2012

If you don't know what I'm talking about with Kony 2012 there is a video on youtube and probably a thousand other places that talks about a guy named Joseph Kony. He is a warlord in Uganda and an overall piece of human garbage and should be killed as soon as possible.

But, there are literally hundreds if not thousands of African warlards with territorial jurisdiction that we don't give a rip about. We, as Americans don't really care that much about human suffering in general. I guess I should rephrase that, we care for a little bit when its brought to our attention and then we get bothered by the inconvenience of it and go back to watching American Idol. Take Haiti for example, or the victims of the Japanese tsunami, we don't care at all about the suffering in Kashmir or Darfur or in oppressive South American countries ruled by horrible regimes.

So naturally when I start seeing Kony 2012 all over the place and the viral response to it red flags go up for me. He has been terrorizing Uganda for over 20 years now. They have not killed him, we have not cared....until apparently now. The Obama administration made it official policy to kill him in 2010. More red flags go up. What business is it of the United States to kill small time thugs in another sovereign nation? On a personal level the guy should be killed. In fact if there were a mercenary group raising money to buy weapons to go kill him, I would donate, readily. But he has nothing to do with our national security. Then I found the answer. In 2009 it was announced that Uganda had discovered an oil field that housed something like 2.5 billion barrels of oil. It is as simple as that. We still don't care about genocide or terrorism or general human suffering but we will go to war for some one's oil.

I hope Kony is killed. I also hope it is by a citizen of Uganda with a sense of self-determination that they will not take that kind of thuggery any more. If he is simply taken out by some foreign military who then leaves there will surely be a vacuum left that will be rapidly filled with another warlord.

Ron Paul in Twin Falls

Late on Tuesday I learned that Ron Paul was going to be speaking in Twin Falls, ID on Thursday. Since that is only about 3.5 hours away and the chance of him coming to WY or UT are slim (due to WY's very low general population and UT's last in the nation caucus) I talked Sarah and the kids in to joining me for a road trip on Thurs. We were able to get some seats about 12 rows back in the auditorium where he was speaking, which is pretty awesome. Seeing Ron Paul speak is a lot more like going to a rock concert versus the somber church like feel I've experienced when politicians speak. It half fulfilled one of my bucket list items. Unfortunately the other half, getting my picture taken with him, will have to wait for another time.

The kids did pretty good considering they had just spent the previous 4ish hours in the truck. Jack and Addie were pretty pumped and cheered at all the appropriate times and were even caught chanting 'Ron Paul.' Yeah, you're right I'm brainwashing my kids. No matter what I think it will be a cool thing to look back on, especially for Jack since he is really the only one of the kids who stands a chance of remembering it.

Also, I have the greatest wife in the world. One who let's me be spontaneous with this kind of stuff and totally supports me in it. She bore the brunt of making it go, as always.

I had the opportunity on my mission (I served in Norway), especially when I was in the arctic to get to know many political refugees from North Africa and the Middle East the vast majority of which were Muslim. On ALL counts they were warm people, extremely friendly, welcoming and giving. I actually visited a Mosque when I was in Bergen and traded a first discussion with some gentlemen who were kind enough to teach me and my companion the 5 pillars of Islam. We were there during the call to prayer and the place was full of men praying. This was approximately a year after the attacks on 9/11. In other words when the U.S. was gearing up to go to war in the Middle East. If ever there were a time when we were vulnerable and could have been in harms way surely this was it. However it was fantastic and it continues to endure as one of my favorite mission experiences.

What worries me is that there is a ton of war propaganda being spread all over the media telling us that Iran wants to attack us or Israel or anyone else. There seems to be a widespread effort to make us all very afraid of them and to force us to hate them. I can't remember ever once seeing a picture of Tehran on the news or anything besides Ahmadinejad in front of the UN. Maybe its just me, but there are never pictures or stories of the people of Iran. After seeing what it looks like and listening to Rick Steves talk about his visit there recently, I actually would love to visit there. These are both worth the watch, one is short and the other, much better one is a bit long.

What actually upsets me about it all is another war is completely avoidable. We are the ones stirring the hornets nest. We are imposing sanctions, we are the ones making military blockades, we are the ones that have Iran surrounded and cornered. They don't have a single thing to gain with going to war with us or anyone else for that matter. I don't hate Iran or Iranians, I don't dislike them either. I have no feelings about them other than I think that the average Iranian is a lot like the average American - just a poor sucker trying to slog through another day, put food on the table and keep their family healthy and safe and above all, to be left alone. Before you parrot the war propaganda please at least read something. Listening to Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity does not count. In fact that is probably making you dumber. Above all, we are supposed to be Christians, yet it seems to me that the Christians are the most belligerent, salivating for another war, and this breaks my heart.

I thought this was awesome

Jack and Trains

Jackson still likes trains. A lot.

On Saturday we had to do a few Christmas clean-up type of errands in Ogden. Conveniently, Ogden has a train museum and a pretty good little restaraunt in Union Station. We ate lunch there are played on the trains.