.: bistan.net :.

Random photos from Plains, Georgia:

When I was born, Jimmy Carter was our nation’s president.  I’ve always wanted to meet him.

A few weeks ago, I read that he still teaches Sunday School classes at his church in Plains, Georgia and the public is welcome.  That’s just over an hour away so I decided we would be in his next class.

The Davis Family with the Carters

This morning we woke up early and drove down. There were already about 60 people in line.  On Sundays that Carter doesn’t teach, about 20 members show up.  Today there were over 300 from about 30 different states and 20 different countries, including Richard Riley, a former South Carolina governor and Secretary of Education under Clinton;  several international interns from the Carter Center and a Navy submarine commander.  It’s amazing what a former president can do to a sleepy little church!

When we drove up, a military dog sniffed around our car and then we went through secret service screening.  Those agents are pretty cool.  It’s just like the movie Guarding Tess, where Nicolas Cage is assigned to an old widowed first lady.

We had great seats.  After the lesson and the worship service everyone is able to take a photo with the Carters.  Since we were seated near the front of the sanctuary, we ended up near the rear of the photo line.  The lady in charge of the morning, a former teacher of Amy Carter named Ms. Jan decided that Mackenzie was so cute that she literally grabbed her hand and walked us to the front of the line.  Even Jimmy Carter thought my baby girl was cute!

Later, we stopped at the local cafe for lunch and guess who was there?  The Carters and the whole secret service detail.  Pretty cool!

It was amazing how accessible and approachable this world leader is.  I dare you to find another current or former world leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner, or governor who is this accessible.

Bucket List Check!

This weekend, I participated in the inaugural Georgia State Fair 5K.  In my race packet were free admissions tickets, so later we returned to check out the festivities.  We saw a water-skiing squirrel, racing pigs, and many Maconites (which are a carnival act themselves).  Some old ladies gave us their left over ride tickets so we enjoyed a few rides as well.

The fair is not as big as the Georgia National Fair, but its also not subsidized with tax dollars.  That means I can enjoy the atmosphere without thinking about how high the student/teacher ratios at my child’s school have to rise in order to put it on.

Bibb County residents voted this morning on a continuation of the ESPLOST. I know that the ESPLOST will pass and in reality I could care less, but here is why I voted no:

• New facilities do not translate into better performing students.  This is a fact.
• In all of the propaganda, Heard Elementary was supposedly at the top of the list.  On the actual text of the ballot, Heard could not be found. Other schools were mentioned by name, but not my child’s.
• My local school board member visited Heard PTA last week to pitch the vote.  It was warm in the auditorium, and she mislead the audience by telling them that a new building would provide comfort.  The rednecks in the room may have bought that, but I know that classroom temperatures are strictly regulated by central office, regardless of the newness of the building.
• A significant portion of the money is going for technology upgrades. I believe that technology purchases should be included in a regular budgetary process. As a technology professional, I can’t imagine only getting new equipment when people feel like voting for it.
• For the past few weeks, proponents of the ESPLOST have continuously stated that 71% of sales tax in Bibb County is paid by non-residents.  I worked for several months as a statistical analyst and I can tell you that 95% of statistics are fabricated (including this one!).  Bibb County is no tourist mecca.  If you told me that 71% of sales tax revenue in Vegas or Orlando was paid by non-residents, I might believe you, but not Bibb County.

A Picture A Day Post for the first 2 days of December:

December 2, 2008 - Re-Election Day in Georgia

December 1, 2008 - Cyber Monday

Here’s a life lesson straight from Tristan’s preschool class.  I captured it on video while delivering cupcakes for his birthday.  I think it appropriately applies to countless situations.

First, whether you are a democrat or republican, you have to admit that this was not a “fair” election.  Legally, it may have been fair.  But in reality it was not. 

• Obama had the mainstream media by their collar from day one beginning with Oprah Winfrey pleading with him to run for president during an interview about his book. (That’s as far as I’ll take my Oprah bashing in this post.  After all, she did SERIOUSLY hook me and Kimberlie up last year during one of the biggest events on national television.)  The media preference was obvious much later as Sarah Palin interviews highlighted her errors and edited out her thoughtful answers.
• Obama supporters (if not Obama himself) managed to turn the election into a civil rights issue.  The race card was promptly played against pretty much anyone who criticized Obama.  Voter registration drives also focused on minority populations — knowing that people vote skin color in places like Macon, Georgia.
• The two party conventions weren’t even in the same league, thanks to a potentially destructive weather scenario that nearly cancelled the Republican National Convention.  Even though the convention eventually began, scores of speakers were never heard.
• Obama also duped McCain with the whole public financing thing, allowing him to surpass previous campaign donation precedents.

Regardless of how I feel about the fairness of the election, I do plan to give Obama a fair shot.  I did go back and forth between Obama and McCain during the last several months so I’m certainly not bitter about the results.  I think in spite of the media bias, Obama will be under a microscope during his presidency.  Anytime you are the “first” of anything, people watch you more closely.  This happened in Macon with C. Jack Ellis, the city’s first mayor.

I hope that the election of a (half) black president will move us along as far as racial tensions are concerned.  Racism is rampant here in Macon and non-racists like me are sick of it.  Even if Obama turns out to be the worst president in history, if he can move America forward where race is concerned, than it will probably be worth it.

I also think the Obama will have better luck getting things through Congress than his opponent would have.  Many democrats were elected at all levels of government, no doubt riding Obama’s coat tails.  With that much support, he should have a nice honeymoon period as president.  At least until he screws up.

Tomorrow is Election Day and thankfully it will be over.  No more negative commercials, robocalls, or biased campaign reports.  Just a bunch of lame ducks.  Personally, I’ve already voted and could pretty much care less.  I don’t think I have much to lose under either presidential candidate.  I also think our world will be fine with either representative and either senator in office.  I’ll be in Atlanta all day tomorrow for a Dell thing anyway.

If you haven’t already voted, go ahead and do it.  I don’t live in a state where it makes much difference and your one vote probably won’t make much difference either.  But if it does make you feel like you have some sort of control on your destiny, then by all means do it.

I won’t make any predictions, because like my life, this election has be predictably unpredictable.  I’m sure I’ll be back Wednesday with lots of commentary.  Let’s just hope we don’t have a repeat of Florida in 2000.

I finally made up my mind on who I to vote for: John McCain.  Actually, my vote isn’t for John McCain as much as it is AGAINST Barack Obama.  Here are a few reasons I don’t like Obama:

1. He has numerous associations with shady people/organizations: Louis Farrakkan, Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, ACORN, Tony Rezko, and more.  Come on now, if your own pastor isn’t with you, why should I be?
2. He is a socialist.  I took real issue with him when he told the plumber that we need to “spread the wealth”.  With governments around the world buying significant stakes in the banking system, this just seems a little too scary for me.
3. I’m not wealthy by anyones standards, but I don’t like the fact that he wants to tax the wealthy disproportionately.  Bill Gates and Warren Buffett shouldn’t be penalized for success.
4. In the final debate, Barack kept trying to take the “high road” and back out of an argument by simply declaring that they weren’t going to agree.  That might be fine in any other setting, but this was a debate.  This was the time and place to duke it out.  We don’t need that elitist attitude.
5. He has a funny name.  We need to get these folks with funny names out of America.  Let’s take back the Dairy Queens and Subways, the taxi companies, and the Holiday Inns from these people with funny names.  We need to return these American insitutions to Americans.

   (That last one was a joke by the way.  I’m not racist and I have lots of friends with funny names.)

For the record, I’m not happy with John McCain either, but I do believe that he is the lesser of the two evils.

Can we, as a nation, please get over September 11?  Every year we lower the flag, have rememberances, read the names, make it a top news story, etc.  Am I the only one who is sick of hearing about it?  Maybe its the administration?  Will we still have to hear about it this much if Obama is elected?  I’m not trying to be unsympathetic, but if I lost a loved one SEVEN years ago and I still couldn’t get over it, people would think I am psycho.

Sure, the date did affect me personally.  I . . .

• stand in line longer at airports.
• watched my stocks and retirement tank.
• pay more for gas.
• had to watch that horrific telethon on EVERY channel.
• gave up a bit of my privacy.
• paid more taxes to fund this senseless war.

Other than that, I could care less about September 11th. I don’t know anyone who died.  Can you imagine having a birthday on september 11th?  Everyone would here the date and care more about some demolished office buildings than about your special day.

As far as I’m concerned, the individuals who attacked us are dead, so justice has been done.  Our government has invested billions of dollars into this “homeland security” fantasy, when the reality is that IF YOU ARE WILLING TO DIE FOR YOUR CAUSE, NOBODY CAN STOP YOU.