Misadventures in Colorado - Air Force Academy Chapel

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to visit the U. S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. There really was not all that much to see that was open to the public, but one of the highlights was the Academy Chapel. 

I have always loved visiting and touring churches and cathedrals. I don't know what it is about them, but I have always found the architecture to be beautiful. Despite it's modern style, the Academy Chapel is no exception. Here are a few shots I took of the exterior.

Once I finally went into the Protestant Chapel, which is the main sanctuary of the building, I was in complete awe. The different colors of the stained glass along with the modern design made for an absolutely beautiful scene and made for some awesome photos. These are just a few of my favorites.

Then I went downstairs to the Catholic chapel. Although it's not as grand as the Protestant chapel, it is just as beautiful. I liked the feel of this chapel more as it felt more quaint and intimate. But, as you can see, for the most part it mirrors the style of the Protestant chapel.

Then I continued the tour over to the Jewish chapel. You can sort of tell from the picture, but the entire room is purple from the stained glass on the outside. It was very pretty. There are also some cool artifacts here as well. There is the Holocaust Torah scroll from Poland that was saved from the Nazis and the entire floor is paved in Jerusalem Brownstone that was donated to the Academy by the Israeli Defense Forces when the chapel was dedicated.

Just to the outside of the Jewish chapel is the Buddhist meditation room. There really was not that much information about what was on the inside of the room or on what to do, only that all faiths were welcome to pray and meditate inside and to take your shoes off before entering. So, I physically didn't go in... only leaned across the threshold to snap a few pictures.

All in all, I was very pleased with the Chapel. I usually don't care for modern architecture in churches, but here, it worked well. The outside is so impressive that I couldn't resist taking a few more photos on my way out.

The Iron Lady

Note: Some spoilers ahead.

A few weeks ago, I went to the theater and watched The Iron Lady.  I have always been an admirer of Margaret Thatcher, so I knew that I had to go see this on the big screen. But I really had not heard much about this film. In fact, I really didn’t know that it was playing here in Hattiesburg until I happened to be scrolling through my Fandago app.

The film was fairly well done overall, though I will say that the flow of the story was a little confusing. The film is set today, with Lady Thatcher as a senile elderly woman, and she keeps having flashbacks. These flashbacks serve to tell her story of her meeting her husband, entering politics, becoming an MP, and her rise and fall as Britain’s first female Prime Minister. The story was just ok, but there was some fabulous acting on Meryl Streep’s part. She totally deserved Best Actress for that role. There were also some witty moments with Mr. Thatcher throughout the film.

I would say that if you have an interest for British history or culture, I’d say go and see this movie. Otherwise, I’d suggest it as a good choice if there isn’t anything else to see. So, I’d rate this as a middle of the road, “See if you have the time”.

Misadventures in Colorado - Rocky Mountain National Park

One of my first opportunities to play tourist in Colorado came the day after my Dad and I arrived. We spent the first day trying to find a place to stay and when we finally found the place we got bored. So, on a whim, we decided to drive up to Rocky Mountain National Park, just outside of Estes Park, Colorado.

The drive up was absolutely beautiful. There are canyons, small, quaint little towns, and lots of wild life along the windy highway. Unfortunately, I was driving, so I couldn't get any pictures of the trip up to the park. But I did get plenty of shots once we got there! These are just a few.

You all know I have a strange flag obession. Don't know why, but I have to take pictures of flags. Very strange I know. But I could not help this one! Who could resist taking this shot?

Because we came up on a whim, we really didn't have a plan on where to go. So basically we just took a driving tour of one corner of the park. In hindsight, I feel pretty stupid in the pictures I took. But for an east coaster that has never seen these sorts of sights, they were truly breath taking.

I thought this was a really cool picture, with the mountains in the background, then the trees and field, then the fallen and twisted tree in the foreground.

Apparently, I really liked this mountain because I took a ton of pictures of it. I don't really know if I knew I was taking pictures of the same mountain or not, but there are a lot of them. These are a few of my favorites.

For some reason, I like pictures of highways. I've taken a lot of shots like this one. Guess it's the beginning of another obsession.

As I said, we didn't venture too far into the park. Both of us were not acclimated to the higher altitudes and we started to get a little sick from it. So we turned back, but I'm glad that we went despite the headaches and such. I have tons more pictures from this trip to the park and I'll be posting them on my Facebook page very soon.

Never Forget

Giant Old Glory

Southhaven, Mississippi

Just wanted to make a quick post in tribute to the victims of 9/11. I cannot believe that horrible event was eleven years ago. Let us never forget that day.

A New Adventure

So it's been a while since I updated you all on my life. Now that I've had a free moment, I thought I'd give you an update on everything that's been going on in my world. Most of you are friends with me on Facebook, so you know this already. But a few weeks ago, I was offered and took a job with the College Republican National Committee. It's just a temporary job (until after Election Day) but this is a great opportunity for my career that could lead to something great down the road.

It's kind of funny how this all came about and the circumstances surrounding it. After last year's crazy political season, I had fully intended to stay out of politics this year. I had put out feelers for a few campaigns, but nothing really came of it, which I didn't mind. So, I moved to Hattiesburg to begin looking for a job and to begin applying for grad school. It took me forever to finally find a job and the one I did end up getting was far below my abilities. Don't get me wrong, I love the people at AAA, but the job just wasn't stimulating enough for me. Well after working there for several months, I really began to miss working in politics. So I made the decision to begin looking for new political jobs. But before I could do that, I got a call from Judson, who was a consultant for Lee's campaign. He told me about this really great job that had just opened. It piqued my interest, but I really had no intention on taking the job. But the more I thought about things, the more I realized that I had to take advantage of this opportunity. It was a chance to prove myself and I had to take it. After the year of depression that I've had, I really needed a change.

So, I called Amanda, who would become my boss, and discussed things with her. Honestly, I felt like I'd talk to her and then never hear another word. But I was wrong! I wasn't on the phone for five minutes before she offered the job to me. We discussed a few logistical things, like pay, job details, etc. Then she told me that I would be in charge of the Northern Colorado region. This excited me, as I've always wanted to visit Colorado, but it also terrified me. I've never been one for confrontation and I'm used to "politicking" with people that hold similar values and beliefs that I do. After all the horror stories that I've heard about Boulder, I had no idea how I was going to this job. But I really didn't have time to think about it. I took the job and there was a ton of stuff that needed to be done. There wasn't a damn thing I could do about it now!

After a mind-numbing two day, cross country trip across the country, my Dad (who came along with me to make sure I got settled) and I arrived at my new home in Colorado. So far, I've really enjoyed it. I've made some great friends and I'm really starting to fall in love with the scenery. My job, which could have been really difficult, has been made relatively easy by a great network of students that really know what they're doing. Despite some wacko liberals and insane Ron Paul supporters, most of the people that I have encountered have been very friendly, even if they hold different political beliefs than me.

So, that's the big news from me. I'm going to continue to update this blog whenever something of note happens, especially when I get to play tourist and get to see some of the wonders that are out here.

Best of "Ranting About Politics" - My Views on Initiative 26

Today, I made the decision to delete my old political ranting blog. It's been over a year since I last posted on it, so I just felt like it was time for it to be retired. But, I did want to preserve a few of my best posts from that blog and post them onto this blog. So, in the coming weeks, I'll be posting these posts here.

The first post in this series is the ever so controversial post I wrote almost a year ago, My Feelings on Initiative 26. I had a lot of comments, both supportive and not so supportive, but it's one of my favorites from all of my blogs. I liked it so much, I even used it as a writing sample for my application to Grad School!

Tuesday, November 8th, Mississippians will be going to the polls to elect a new Governor, Lieutenant Governor, a new Cabinet and a new Legislature. We will also be voting on three amendments to the state constitution. All three of these initiatives are controversial, however one has generated a lot of national news coverage. Ballot Initiative Number 26, also known as the Personhood Amendment, is an amendment to the state constitution that would grant "personhood" to a fetus at the moment of fertilization, effectively ending abortion in the State of Mississippi. This is the first time any state has drafted such an amendment and it has raised many questions here and around the nation.

My greatest concern with the amendment is the way in which it is written, which according to the Secretary of State's website, reads:

"Should the term "person" be defined to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the equivalent there of?"

Legally, the amendment would not outlaw anything. It is simply granting basic human rights to a fetus at the moment of conception, an idea that I support. However, most do not realize what could actually come from all of this, if the amendment becomes law.

In my opinion, there are far too many grey areas in the language of this initiative. When writing it, the authors of the amendment went too far without going far enough. What I mean by that is that the authors could have simply used conception rather than fertilization and left it at that. Or, they could have gone farther and listed all of the exceptions to the amendment, providing protection of in vitro fertilization, giving an exception for rape, incest or threat to the life of the mother, protecting contraceptives, protecting mothers who suffer a miscarriage, and any other exceptions that need addressing. Take a look at the other two initiatives, Initiative 27

(Voter I. D.) and Initiative 31 (Imminent Domain). Both amendments are full of definitive language that clearly states the intent of the amendment and lists exceptions to it. But the writers chose not to do this with Personhood and so we are left with an initiative that is full of ambiguity, and because of this ambiguous language, it will be left to the Legislature to pass legislation to govern the new law. What that legislation will be, who knows? We will have to pass it in order to see what is in it. Sound familiar?

I understand what the proponents of the Personhood Amendment are trying to do. Their goal is to get a purposefully ambiguous initiative passed and enacted so that its opponents will challenge the law in Federal court. Through appeal, the case would ultimately lead to the Supreme Court, forcing the Court to re-debate precedent that would hopefully lead to the demise of Roe v. Wade. This is something that I would love to see as well. However, I just don't feel comfortable giving a government... ANY government... such broad powers over a critical aspect of a person's life. It is for this reason that I am against this amendment and will be voting No on Initiative 26.

Movie Night with "J. Edgar"

Spoiler Alert!

As soon as this movie came out, I knew that I wanted to see it. I'm a huge history buff, so I knew that this film would be right up my alley. So, the other night, I finally rented and watched it. I have a few thoughts on it and there will be spoilers involved, so keep that in mind before you read this review.

First off, I'm going to go ahed and address the elephant in the room. I have a problem when directors and writers take artistic liberties with historical figures. It has always been a pet peeve of mine. This film sort of irritated me in that regard. They took rumor and ran with it as if it were fact. Truth is, we do not know if J. Edgar Hoover was gay. We have no idea of knowing. History can assume based on what we do know, but we have no way of confirming these rumors. Yes, Hoover was a cross dresser. Yes, he lived with his mother until her death. Yes, he didn't have a family or a wife or a girlfriend. Yes, he was really close to his assistant at the Bureau. But none of these facts can confirm Hoover's sexuality. It's just as likely that the man was asexual or was just very private. I'm not upset that Hollywood is trying to create more movies with gay leading roles. Far from it! I think that is great. I'm just a little miffed that they created a story based solely on rumor. Rumors that will now be seen as fact for future generations. I'm just a little touchy when it comes to messing with historical fact just to "spice up" a storyline.

Now, having said that, this movie was excellent! There was a great storyline, beautiful cinematography, great acting and, despite turning rumors into facts, the film was historically accurate. It was a little slow at first, but there is just enough drama, historical facts, and bits of dry, sarcastic humor to make this a wonderful film.

This is definitely a "Must See".

Movie Night with "The Ides of March"

Warning! Spoiler Alert!

I went into this movie without much to go on. I really hadn't heard anything about it. None of my friends had seen it, so I had no preconceived opinions of it. And that didn't help.

First off, this film was basically a propaganda piece for the Democratic Party. I figured that was going to be the case, as it starred and was directed by George Clooney. Most political thrillers that come out of Hollywood are the same way, so I usually I can over look the liberal bias if there is a good story at the root of the film. That was certainly NOT the case here.

There was a very clichéd storyline with nothing great going on. Basically, it's about a guy who works for a Presidential campaign during the Ohio Primary. He gets involved with an inter, she tells him that the candidate more or less raped her and got her pregnant. She has an abortion, he gets fired, she commits suicide, and he blackmails the candidate. Basically the synopsis of every political thriller ever made.

But what pissed me off the most about this film was the way it ended. After Ryan Gosling's character blackmails "the Governor", played by George Clooney, and is successful in becoming the campaign manager, he is brought into a room to be interviewed. The news people get him situated, the camera lights come on, you hear the interviewer ask a question, then Gosling looks into the camera and then.... NOTHING. The end. They didn't even finish the damn movie. Did they win? Did they loose? What the hell happened? It was like they ran out of money and they had to cut off in the middle of filming or something. It was very much like the Soprano's finale. Just pissed me off.

I was very disappointed in this film. As the political junkie I am, I could see the potential for a great political drama here. What a let down.

This film is definitely rated as a "Save Your Money"!

Just Some Random Shots

This weekend, I was going through my photos and found several that really didn't fit anywhere else. So, I decided to bunch them up into a random file and post them on here. Enjoy!

The "M" Key

Old Glory

A Musical Fruit

Glowing Beads

Zoom at 20,000 Feet

Balloons

I'm working on a few different photo projects right now, so be looking for them in the coming weeks!

Movie Night with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Ever since the The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo came out, I had heard nothing but good things. It won several awards and everyone said that it was just wonderful. Somebody either was lying or they were on drugs.

This movie was just so slow. It took forever for both the main characters to come together, the cinematography was so drab and boring, and the story was just boring. To be honest, the best part of the movie was when I turned it off. There were a few times when I felt like the story was beginning to pick up, but it would just fall off again.

To be fair, I did turn the movie off before the end. I'm not sure how much was left. I just couldn't take it anymore. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood or I was tired or something, but I just couldn't get into this film.

I am thinking about borrowing the book and reading it first then retrying the movie afterward. Maybe that will give me a bit of a guideline to follow while watching the movie.

But for now, I would rate this film as "Save Your Money".