It's President Bush!!!

Listen to any news article or broadcast, and people insist on using just the President's last name. I have never understood this. To me, when you speak of the President of the United States, you say President Bush, or President Clinton. Not Bush or Bush 1, or Slick Willy. You can have any political disagreement you want with the occupant of the Oval office, but it shows as an American that you have a fundamental respect for the Office, even if not the man. I disagree with the current administration on a great many things, but I always say President Bush.

A related story is that I was at an Amway convention -- yes, I did that for awhile :) ) and President Reagan was the on the agenda to speak. Some of the people in my party remained seated when he came onto stage. I actually told the woman to get up as she should have a respect for the office even if she disagreed with the man (as I do as well). We have lost so much in terms of civility in our political discourse. I think reserving a basic respect for the 43 men that have held that job. Oh and even after the next election, only 43 men will have held that job :)

Bush remarks on 'intelligent design' fuel debate - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

Bush remarks on 'intelligent design' fuel debate - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com. I must say that I am quite amazed at all the ruckus caused by the Intelligent Design (ID) group. I remember back in 1991, I sat down with a Catholic priest and discussed that I was sure evolution happened, but I believed there must be a plan as I did not believe it could have been by chance. I guess that was ID. The thing I find amazing is that the only fact in ID is evolution. I think people that support ID in a veiled attempt to teach creation as shooting themselves in the foot because to accept ID, you must accept evolution. I am sure beyond any doubt that evolution happened. For me, I have faith that there was an intelligent designer behind it. This does not mean I believe in creation. I think the story of the garden of Eden is a fairy tale. Creation was through evolution -- there is far too much scientific evidence to sustain anything else.

The place the ID people lose me is if today it is teaching that there is an alternative to evolution, then tomorrow we say, well; that thing we said about a creator was right, but not the evolution part. It really took place in seven days!." That is where the ID people will do more harm then they can imagine.

I say that the scientific community should embrace ID as it means people in churches that have been closet skeptics of the story of creation, can now openly believe in evolution. So what if they believe an intelligence was behind it. In the end, regardless of if there was an intelligence or not, the agreement is that we evolved from lower forms of animals -- in both camps; that is indisputable.

Ah, what a view...

If anyone ever wants to know what I miss about Salt Lake City, just look at the picture below. Are those the greatest mountains you have ever seen, or what? I got the picture from a listing on craigslist (here)