NASA Sattelite Photos

New NASA website grants access to thousands of sattelite photos . . . great site; I found it thanks to Instapundit.

Weather Pictures

If you ever looked for high resolution weather photographs and struggled to find them for free, check out the National Weather Services photo archive. They have over 20,000 photos including this nice double tornado I found in their historical vault. I think I just found my new wallpaper to match my new Window's theme.

Immigrant Discussion

I am very happy to see this issue being confronted; although I have little faith in our elected leaders coming up with the best solution after their two week recess. What I do expect is a lot of posturing by both Republicans and Democrats.

We were watching CNN this evening and heard good points and bad points on both sides. Here are a couple of thoughts:

1) "Illegals come here and make $25,000 a year tax free . . . that's not fair"
-- Pretty much anyone, legal or illegal, pays little if any taxes on an annual income of $25,000. However, this is still not entirely true. There is still sales tax, income tax paid by employers, etc; so even illegal aliens pay taxes.

2) "Why should we pay for illegal immigrant children going to our schools?"
-- If you make this argument yourself . . . you'd better be willing to accept this argument from those who have no children and don't want to pay for your children's schooling. This is a no brainer. What nation really wants a larger population of uneducated people? Why can't we take advantage of the education process to help assimilate immigrants? Denying public schooling to immigrants will not eliminate the driving force for illegal immigration . . . it's only one out of 50 reasons people want to come here.

3) "Should we legalize something just because there are a lot of people braking the law?"
-- This is a great question, but I would suggest that the current laws are probably as flawed as their enforcement.

The point is we need more dialogue. I could care less who comes up with the solution . . . but I can guarantee it won't be a radical from the right or left. I hope there are more programs like the one we saw on CNN. I want to hear Senators selling us on their ideas not telling us how the other side is wrong.

Extreme views on abortion

I have yet to find a good radio station here in New Jersey and, like I did when I was here 3 years ago, find myself listening to NPR on my 1/2 hour commute to and from work. Although the reporting is generally left of center, its not the extreme that is complained about. On the way home from work, there was a piece on the plan B emergency drug. A bill that would force all hospitals to offer the drug to rape victims is in the Connecticut legislature. Many Connecticut hospitals are run by the Catholic Church and my knee jerk reaction was that no private hospital should be forced to offer such a terrible, life destroying drug. But, but by the end of the entire report, I was left offended by a group of social conservatives with whom my views might have usually aligned.
During a hearing for lawmakers to hear both sides of the issue, a woman who was raped reported how grateful she was that one hospital offered her the drug so that she would not get pregnant. Then, a group of Catholics basically said that the morally responsible thing is not to offer this drug, and that instead, a rape victim should have the baby.
What worries me is not whether a woman decided to have a baby caused by rape, because in my opinion it is morally justifiable to have an abortion after rape, but the fanatical extremes that are the voices being covered in this important issue. This is the case of the silent majority who believe that wanton abuse of abortion is wrong but who understand that there are a few morally justifiable reasons. Unfortunately, those who want abortion on demand and those who want to ban it for any reason are the loudest. It's dangerous on the edges.

Where is the Domestic Agenda?

With so much focus on foreign problems, it feels like media coverage of important domestic issues has been replaced by misleading stories on the Iraq conflict. Republicans seem to be floundering for anything positive and Democrats are struggling to come up with a better message than "You're wrong". We need somebody or something to step up and lead elected officials back to issues at home like the rising costs of health care, possible social security failure and struggling public schools when compared with other countries. And, how can we expect politicians to come up with good solutions when they are shielded from the effects we all feel? Too few in the media question why government officials have lavish health care plans, impressive pensions and who seldom let their own kids attend public schools. It's not that these benefits are bad; I certainly would be happy with them. The problem is that when many Americans clammer for changes that could make it easier for us to secure such benefits, politicians of both parties drag their feet. I'm talking about social security privitization and school vouchers . . . of even a limited kind as to test their effectiveness. Unless they feel the actual pressures of middle class America, I'm afraid that our elected officials have no real reason to address these issues.

BYU Football Preview

It's never too early to start speculating about BYU football. Here's a preview of the team. Last year's 6-5 regular season team was better than their record indicated and their offense should prove one of the best in the country this year. I'm predicting 9-3 regular season this year and if the defense shows up, I'm not sure there are three teams on the schedule who could outscore them (only Tulsa and TCU even averaged the same scoring last year as BYU). One thing you can be sure of, with John Beck, Curtis Brown and Jonny Harline returning you will see vintage BYU offense.

First Posting

Here is the first post on judlog. Enjoy!