philhull.com

thedailyshow: Bemidji, MN, Feb. 7, 2012Contrary to what you may...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:54:23 -0500

Bemidji, MN, Feb. 7, 2012
Contrary to what you may have heard, there is ONE contraceptive device endorsed by Rick Santorum.
Via Facebook

"Suppose the Muslim owner of a large company that employs Muslims and non-Muslims (or even just..."

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:22:22 -0500

““Suppose the Muslim owner of a large company that employs Muslims and non-Muslims (or even just Muslims) wants to be exempt from insuring medical stuff except in cases where male employees see male doctors and female employees see female doctors. The owner find it objectionable that ‘his money’ should pay for anything he finds religiously repugnant, and this is his take on sharia law. Would Republicans have any objection?””

- John Holbo in a fantastic piece about what the contraception battle really means for “religious liberty.”

theatlantic: In our March issue: James Fallows takes measure...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 13:52:02 -0500

theatlantic:

In our March issue: James Fallows takes measure of President Obama, Raymond Bonner chronicles an unlikely battle against the death penalty, the last review of Christopher Hitchens, and more. Read the whole issue at The Atlantic

James Fallows does an incredible job covering the shortfalls and triumphs of not only the Obama administration, but presidents going all the way back to Truman. The article is the most balanced and thoughtful article on the presidency I have read in a very long time. Well worth the time to read it.

"I was. I was the perfect candidate. America had their chance with the perfect candidate."

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:10:00 -0500

“I was. I was the perfect candidate. America had their chance with the perfect candidate.”

- Michele Bachmann, 2/6/2012

(via think-progress)

Photo

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:25:27 -0500

Romney vs. Romney vs. Reality

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:04:59 -0500

Romney vs. Romney vs. Reality:

Steve Benen provides a treasure trove of visual evidence that the economy is improving under President Obama and that Mitt Romney (both of them) are completely out of touch with the reality of our economic recovery.

House Strip Club Vote Misses the Point

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 09:49:42 -0500

House Strip Club Vote Misses the Point:

This is the exact reason I spurned my conservative upbringing and moved to the left. I lost my job when I was 22 and newly married. Suddenly I was one of those “leeches” on society that I had learned to loathe. The only problem was that I wasn’t a leech, I was a guy who was trying to figure out a way to earn a living and support my new family. Republicans love to demonize the poor as lazy freeloaders who are often criminals as well, but many of them have never had to face the tough choices that the poor have to make every day. If they did, it would be much harder for them to come up with stupid pieces of legislation like this one.

This is exactly what I wish I could say when I’m at a...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:29:49 -0500

This is exactly what I wish I could say when I’m at a family event and the talk turns to politics.

A Democrat's View of the Republican Primaries

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 22:18:00 -0500

As a Democrat and a liberal, I have been very concerned about President Obama’s re-election chances in 2012. Despite his impressive policy record over the first three years of his administration, the economy is only now hitting stride after four years of falling flat on its face and then struggling to stand up again. Unemployment is high, families are struggling, and people are tired of waiting for things to get better. Regardless of any external circumstances, people hold the President responsible for the state of the economy and usually vote them out when the economy is bad.

As concerned as I have been, the way the GOP primaries have gone have convinced me that I have absolutely nothing to worry about.

The candidates for the Republican nomination are so uninspiring and unlikable it’s almost as if they were hand-picked by the Democratic National Committee to represent the exact type of candidates that could never in a million years beat President Obama. The only candidates who would have presented a reasonable challenge have been eliminated early or never even got in the race to begin with. Chris Christie, Mitch Daniels, and even Jeb Bush never entered the race. Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman dropped out due to lack of support. The remainder of the field is made up of a moderate former governor who laid the foundation for the Affordable Care Act, an extremely unpopular philandering former Speaker of the House, an extremely unpopular former Senator who has a serious Google problem, and of course Ron Paul.

Mitt Romney presents the biggest “problem” because of his business background and relatively successful terms as head of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Committee and then governor of Massachusetts. The problem is that he has a huge glass jaw when it comes to his previous history of moderate (dare I say progressive) stances on policy issues and his massive personal wealth. Romney’s inability to put together a coherent sentence when discussing his finances would allow Obama to destroy him with a populist hammer that would leave him broken into a hundred million little pieces. Add to that his history of leveraging businesses to drain the profits from a company he bought before putting them out of business, it’s hard to make the case that he’s much of a “job creator.” The cream on the cake is Romney’s willingness to say absolutely anything he thinks will get him support from whatever crowd he’s speaking to. He’s given the DNC opportunities for two dozen commercials slamming him for flip-flopping and saying things that are flatly untrue. Seeing what Newt Gingrich has been able to do to him during the South Carolina primary, it shows how easily Romney can be flustered and smacked down.

Speaking of Newton Leroy Gingrich, in the wake of South Carolina he seems like he’s picking up steam and is close to resuming front-runner status. I am truly puzzled by his campaign. Gingrich is extremely unpopular, even among Republicans. I saw a poll this past week that puts his unfavorable rating at 39% among registered Republican voters nationwide. He is arrogant, pompous, and more than just a little bit racist. He uses the word “fundamentally” way too much, so much that when he says it the word has no real meaning. (The race for his second favorite word is a dead heat between “rethinking” and “profoundly.” The jackpot is when he uses all three in one sentence.) A lot of people describe him as “the smartest man in the room,” but I would only imagine that is the case when he is in a room by himself. He has the gift of sounding smart without actually being smart. If he were to end up with the nomination, it would lead to a spectacular defeat in the general election. His inflated ego and messianic complex would send independent voters and even many moderate Republicans running to cast votes to re-elect President Obama. Between his marital problems, spotty history with ethics in Congress, million dollar payments from Freddie Mac, willingness to drop thinly veiled racist statements about food stamps and government assistance to African-Americans, and general douchebag-iness he would be hard pressed to get over 40% nationally and over 100 electoral votes. He would win in the deep south and the southwest, but he would lose every single swing state and put reliable red states in play. He claims that he is the only candidate that could compete with President Obama in a debate, but he would get creamed. President Obama is known for soaring rhetoric that inspires and challenges people to the loftiest goals. Gingrich is known for angry tirades against the media and “liberal elites” who he claims are un-American. Those types of rants may work in a primary in the deep South, but he has no way of effectively communicating to the 85% of Americans who are not a part of the Republican base. This is the match up I’m praying for.

I would devote a lot of time to breaking down all of Rick Santorum’s weaknesses, and they are many, but it’s not worth it. Santorum is a special kind of whack job who hates Iran almost as much as he hates homosexuals. He opposes birth control, abortion under any circumstances (even rape and incest), working mothers, and the possibility of the existence of a Palestinian state. He has compared homosexuality to bestiality and pedophilia. He would do even worse than Gingrich in a general election and lead to President Obama winning more that 40 states. He has no real chance of winning and I’m not sure why he’s staying in the race. The guy lost his Senate seat by 18 points, so he probably wouldn’t even win his home state of Pennsylvania. He’s a dangerous idiot, but not a real threat.

That brings us to Ron Paul. I have a hard time figuring out what I think about Ron Paul. There are some issues, like dealing with Israel and the war in Iraq, where he is dead on. There are other issues, like the Federal Reserve, where he is completely bonkers. I don’t think Ron Paul would present a significant challenge in a general election. He has a very devoted group of supporters, but that group of supporters hasn’t been able to bring him a single primary victory in two Presidential campaigns. I think Ron Paul has some important things to say about America’s role in the world and the direction of our government. I don’t agree with many of the things that he says, but he is much more sane about the issues than any of the other declared candidates in the GOP race. I think a campaign of Congressman Paul vs. President Obama would be a great step forward for our country, but Paul’s lack of support among evangelicals and the core of the GOP base makes that very unlikely.

I’ve gone on long enough and I haven’t even included Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain, or Jon Huntsman in my assessment. I think Bachmann and Cain were both as insane as Sarah Palin (who thankfully never even entered the race). Huntsman is an interesting candidate who could have presented a lot of problems for President Obama but turned out to be a lousy campaigner who barely managed to scrape together 3 or 4% support nationally.

All in all, I don’t really see any way that Obama looses barring some unforeseen circumstance beyond his control. All bets are off if the Eurozone collapses and the global economy spirals downward. And if somehow Romney or Gingrich end up with the nomination and confound everyone’s expectations, I will be forced to eat a whole heaping plateful of crow. I hope for the country’s sake that I’m right.

What are Newt Gingrich's big ideas?

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 14:02:25 -0500

What are Newt Gingrich's big ideas?:

I love the description of Newt being “a very smart guy to stupid people.” He is all pomposity and hot air with very few ideas that could actually transition into any sort of substantive policy.

"Predictions are dangerous, but I’m going to go ahead and make one right now: By November, the..."

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:55:00 -0500

“Predictions are dangerous, but I’m going to go ahead and make one right now: By November, the Obama campaign will have torn Mitt Romney into tiny little pieces, put those pieces into a wood chipper, and fed the dust that came out the other end to the worms. He’ll end up the kind of failed nominee that no one wants to associate themselves with when it’s over. Think Bob Dole after 1996, or Michael Dukakis after 1988.”

- Paul Waldman, The American Prospect

How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:00:00 -0500

How Obama's Long Game Will Outsmart His Critics:

This Newsweek cover story has been the subject of a lot of discussion this week. I don’t agree with everything that Andrew Sullivan says in the story, but I do think that the President has been very adept at getting his opponents on both the left and the right to self-destruct. I can’t say that I love everything he has done while in office, but I think he’s been able to get a tremendous amount accomplished in the last three years. When you look at how bad things were when he took office, and how things are improving now I think he definitely deserves a second term.

Another Election Year

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:49:34 -0500

Way back in the olden days of 2008, I used my blog to share my thoughts on the Presidential election. I voiced my support for then Senator Barack Obama and it caused quite a bit of controversy among my friends and family who tend to be much more politically conservative. I don’t have an issue with people who disagree with me, but a lot of the comments that were made publicly and privately in the wake of my blog posts went beyond open and honest political debate and proved to be very hurtful. Awful things were written about me publicly by someone who I trusted and loved and had a fairly large national following in the Christian community. By the time election day came around, I had stopped writing on my blog and I never really started up again for more than a few brief periods.

Well, another election year is here and I’m going to test the waters again and start writing about politics again. Hopefully things will go better for me this time. I don’t mind a debate on the issues or even criticism when I make a point that is incorrect, but I want to avoid the out of bounds personal name calling that pervades too much of our online world. For this reason, I’ve disabled comments on all posts. If you read something here and disagree with something I have said, please use the “Respond” link at the top of the page. If you make a reasonable point or have a valid criticism of something I said, I will post your comment along with my response. I can’t claim to have developed this type of system since it’s what Andrew Sullivan has used for many years now.

I’ll be posting links to good articles I read as well as my own thoughts on events. I don’t know if anyone will even notice or care what I have to say, since I won’t be linking to these blog posts from Facebook or Twitter. Even if I’m only talking to myself, it will be nice to get these thoughts out as opposed to bottling everything in my head and then yelling at the radio or TV when I hear something I don’t agree with.

The Green Wristband

Mon, 23 May 2011 01:03:00 -0400

When they put the green wristband on me, I realized just how bad things had gotten.

I was sitting in an intake room at the Psychiatric Emergency Room at the University of Michigan hospital. I was there because I was feeling depressed and I was worried I was a danger to myself. The nurse sitting across from me is doing my initial evaluation and asks if I have had suicidal thoughts. ”I have thought about hurting myself in the last few days. Like driving my car off of a bridge near where I work.” I reply. Shortly after this moment, the nurse tells me they are going to put a green wristband on me which signifies that I am potentially suicidal and not allowed to leave the psych E.R. until I am cleared by a psychiatrist on duty. The nurse also tells me that a security guard is going to come in the room and search me for weapons or objects that I could use to hurt myself. All I have in my pockets are keys, my wallet, my cell phone, and my iPod which I take out and place on the chair. The security guard still gives me a rough pat down touching me in places that make me very uncomfortable and checking me with a metal detector. The guard finishes and I’m allowed to leave the intake room.

I spent several more hours that Friday night in the psych E.R. and talked to several more people. They determined that I was not an immediate danger to myself and let me go home. They gave me a prescription for an anti-depressant and referred me to get some counseling. I was feeling so lost that night at the end of several months of a steadily declining mental state. I was overwhelmed by my life and circumstances that seemed beyond my control. I don’t know if putting that green wristband on me would be considered “the bottom,” but it sure felt like it to me.

I spent the rest of the weekend at home thinking about what I should do. I had been suffering from massive panic attacks and I woke up with one on Monday morning. I called in sick to work and stayed in bed all day. I made an appointment to see my regular doctor the following morning because things still weren’t right.

The worst part about a serious depression is that when you do decide to finally get help, you have to keep answering the same questions over and over again and the answers are difficult to keep repeating. The questions the nurse, social worker, and psychiatrist had asked on Friday night at the psychiatric E.R. were all asked again and I had to give the same sad answers.

Thankfully my doctor was willing to help me out in the short term and sign off on a three week medical leave from work to allow me some time to let the anti-depressant get into my system and start working. She also prescribed an anti-anxiety medication that would help to calm me down when panic attacks hit. I left the doctor’s office feeling better than I had in a long while.

I decided that day that I could not just stay in bed for three weeks, but I needed to stay busy. I had not been very useful around the house for a long while, so I worked diligently on chores that I had neglected for weeks. I worked in the yard. I did dishes. I did laundry. I picked up the kids toys and vacuumed. I spent one morning with Lily at her preschool. I gave the kids a break from day care (even though Jen who watches the kids is wonderful) and kept them at home with me.

The extra time spent with Lily and David has been great therapy in and of itself. The days where Lily has been in preschool have been especially fun because I got to focus only on David and the joy that a 17 month old boy has in the way he sees the world. His burdens seem so small compared to what I have been having to deal with. He cries because he can’t find his blankie or because his sippy cup is empty. These toddler crises are quickly solved and he goes back to enjoying life and the amazing world that he is still discovering. I only wish that my problems were so easily resolved, but I realize now that I need to enjoy the wonders of life much more like David does.

I am doing significantly better than I was a few weeks ago, but I have also been living a relatively stress free life for the past three weeks. Playing hide and seek and watching my kids go down the slide at the park 50 times a day isn’t exactly stress-inducing. (Except when David tries to climb up to the twisty slide that’s way too tall for him and I have to run up there to grab him before he gets there.)

Tomorrow (or today actually since it’s past midnight) I go back to work and I’m not sure what awaits me. I’ve been working with my therapist on ways to deal with my work situation that will keep me from being overwhelmed there. Keeping a handle on the stress from work is important because it was spilling over into other areas of my life and doing a lot of damage there as well. In addition to seeing a therapist, I’ve also sought out a person to provide me with some spiritual counseling and direction. My problems are not only psychological, but spiritual as well. I would be foolish to think that simply taking a pill every day and going to see a therapist once a week would be enough to solve all of my problems.

I really need prayers in the next few weeks. I need to learn how to handle all of the stress and anxiety I feel so that I’m not feeling constantly overwhelmed. I need to continue to make my family a higher priority than my work and to be able to focus on them when I’m at home, not the things that are waiting for me at work when I go back the next day. There are a lot of things that I need to learn and I don’t have a lot of time, so prayers are needed.

I want to say thanks to those who have known what has been going on and for the encouragement and support that you have given. Please continue to call and send Facebook messages or emails. (I’m sure Cassie would appreciate it if you didn’t text me too often since we pay for each text received.) Just knowing that people are out there and thinking about me and praying for me has been such a comfort to me.

I owe a huge debt to my children who have helped me so much with nothing more than hugs, kisses, snuggles, joy and laughter. I don’t think they will ever realize how much they have helped me to get through this time in my life. I hope that I can be the father they deserve because they are wonderful and the best that any dad could hope for.

As always, Cassie has been the rock of our family and I am so thankful that she is my partner in life. I know it has not been easy for her, but she has taken a huge load on herself and managed to do it with grace and humor that I would not be capable of if the roles were reversed. I would not have been able to make it without her.

I couldn’t end without saying that if you find yourself in the same state that I was in, go and get help and don’t wait. I was lucky that I knew what the warning signs were and I was still rational enough to see the danger in where my thoughts were going. If you are thinking about killing yourself or if you are doing something to hurt yourself already, please get help and get it today. Ask someone you trust to take you to a hospital emergency room and get help right now. Your life is too valuable to lose.

My Life's To Do List

Sat, 26 Feb 2011 02:02:00 -0500

I’m not yet 30 years old, so I think it’s a little morbid for someone my age to have a bucket list. I do have things that I would like to do in my lifetime, so I tend to look at those things as part of my life’s to do list. Since I like to share and I can’t seem to fall asleep, I’m going to list just a few of the things I would like to do at some point in my life.

I want to see U2 perform live. U2 has always been one of my favorite bands and they have the most spectacular live show. The problem is that tickets to their shows are pretty expensive and we never have the money whenever they’re close by. I’ve seen Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) play live and make all of those crazy sounds come out of his guitar. I’d really love to see how The Edge pulls off all of his technical wizardry in person.
I want to go to a Michigan/Ohio State game. This is another item that seems pretty doable, but it’s extremely difficult to get tickets to this game both in Ann Arbor and that crap hole of a state down south. Watching it on TV just isn’t the same. Watching football in person is so much better, and with a rivalry that is as intense as “The Game” I can only imagine how crazy it gets. I want to spit every time I see an Ohio license plate so I can’t imagine how fired up I would get if I saw someone wearing scarlet and gray in Ann Arbor. This is another instance of coming up with the money to pay the exorbitant ticket prices
I want to be in Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve. This is something that Cassie and I have talked about a few times, but I think it would be such a cool experience to join the massive crowd in Times Square and watch the ball drop. I’ve never even been to NYC, so that would make it an extra special moment for me.
I want to sing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at a Cubs game. My baseball allegiance is divided between both the Cubs and the Tigers, but if I had to choose one over the other I would choose the Cubs every time. Every Cubs fan knows the legacy of Harry Caray and the 7th Inning Stretch at Wrigley. While the tradition of singing “Take Met Out to the Ballgame” has been tarnished by many lackluster performances over the years, it is still an honor that most Cubs fans would love to have. I can actually carry a tune and stay in time with the organ so I would probably be in the top 25% of all of the performances in recent years.
I want to attend an Olympic Games. I love sports of all kinds, but I love the Olympics as much as any sporting event. I have always wanted to have the chance to see the Games in person, but the last time they were close enough to go was 1996 when I was only 15 and my family was way too poor to go. I was really pulling for Chicago to be awarded the 2016 Summer Olympics, but it was not meant to be. Maybe 2020. (I would also be willing to substitute the final match of the soccer World Cup for the Olympics.
I want to stand outside the Blind Beggar Pub in London and preach the gospel. The Salvation Army began with one guy standing outside a pub and preaching the gospel to the people going in and coming out. William Booth changed history that day 146 years ago standing on that spot. I certainly wouldn’t be alive today if he had chosen another path. I will never be a fraction of the man that William Booth was, but it would be humbling to stand in the place where God set into motion what became The Salvation Army and try to continue his legacy of going for souls and going for the worst. (I would also probably hop on the tube to get to Boelyn Ground to see a West Ham match as well.)
I want to stand in the Oval Office. I have no desire to ever be President of the United States. I’m not smart enough to be a White House staffer either, but I would like for even one brief moment to step into the Oval Office and take a look around. I don’t even need to meet the President. I would just love the chance to stand in the room where the decisions that shape our present and future are made.

Those are just a few of the things I would like to be able to do some day. Some of the things don’t seem that big, but they are dreams that I’ve always had. I doubt that I’ll be able to do everything on this list. Even half would probably be a stretch. However, sometimes it’s good to think about what we would do if anything were possible because it can force us to work harder to achieve our dreams.

Madness

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 16:42:38 -0500

Writing once a week = FAIL. My resolution of writing one blog post each week lasted for two whole weeks.

My last post here was a bit of a downer when I go back and read it. I have been in a place of searching and wondering for the past few weeks and I think the post I wrote was a reflection of that. Some things have been happening behind the scenes, but I’m not really ready to make public what I’ve been working on. If you check back over the next few weeks I’m sure it’s going to be a big topic of discussion here.

One thing that I have really wanted to write about is the shooting that took place a little more than two weeks ago in Tucson, Arizona.

In the world of twitter and 24/7 news channels, tragic events are communicated to the world in an instant. On January 8^th, my twitter feed exploded with the news of the attempted assasination of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 18 others. The reports were scattered and no one was sure exactly what was going on.

My gut reaction is something that I am not proud of. My liberal leanings kicked in and I immediately jumped to the conclusion that the shooter was a far right-wing type who loved his guns and hated his government. What other explanation could there be for a Democratic Congresswoman being shot in a more conservative state like Arizona? To be honest, I really had no idea who Congresswoman Giffords was or what her politics are. I didn’t know that she is a moderate who is a member of the more conservative Blue Dog Coalition or that she is a strong supporter of gun rights. This is not the kind of person who would be a likely target for fringe groups on the right.

In the hours that followed the flood of news continued. People started to place blame. Some claimed it was Sarah Palin’s fault for putting a target on Giffords’ district during last year’s campaign. Others blamed the fiery rhetoric that has come to permeate our political debate. But the only one to blame was the lunatic who pulled out the gun and started shooting.

Jared Loughner is the one to blame. In the aftermath his postings on MySpace and YouTube were dissected and it is clear that he is a madman who was hoping his actions were an attempt at suicide by cop. He spouted off a number of insane theories that were not connected with any mainstream political ideology. He claimed the Communist Manifesto and Mein Kampf amongst his favorite books. He believed the U.S. government was responsible for 9/11 and they were using mind control to brainwash people. He had strange views about currency and grammar that I cannot even begin to understand. He was crazy, and it’s no one’s fault.

I’m not a big fan of the Tea Party or conservative leaders like Sarah Palin, but it’s just as crazy as Laughner to try to blame conservatives for the shooting. No one of any substance on the right has advocated or even hinted at the attempted murder of a United States Representative. While there have been some statements that probably shouldn’t have been made publically (i.e. Sharron Angle’s “Second Amendment remedies” comment), these statements are not truly incitements to violence.

In the wake of the shootings, there has been a greater call for civility and comity amongst our political leaders and pundits. While I’m all for increased respect between competing ideologies, I don’t believe that joining hands and singing Kumbaya is going to keep events like this from happening. Crazy people are going to do crazy things whether or not politicians engage in bombastic rhetoric.

What happened was a tragedy caused by lunacy, plain and simple. Let’s acknowledge the reality instead of focusing on who is to blame.