It has begun...

Alright, so this is the genesis of my brand new blog. In a very broad sense this blog will be merely my brain dump and dedicated to anything I deem worthy of comment. So first let me give a list of topics that may/will be talked about on this blog in no particular order:

• Politics/current events
• Religion/theology
• My basic armchair philosophy including the ideas of objective truth, justice, right and wrong, civic and social duties, and morality
• Baseball - news, statistics, and opinions
• My thoughts and reflections on what I'm reading/have read

I think that this may evolve into a strictly political blog (especially for the remainder of this year because of the ongoing primaries and upcoming national presidential election). If I determine that this blog can be sustained with politics alone I may start another, more personal, blog and devote this one entirely to politics. We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Ok, full disclosure time. In the interests of transparency and honesty I will now attempt to lay out my background (basically life story) and current viewpoints so that my biases are well known. I try to stay open minded but if I have any agendas I hope I am honest enough to have them well known.

I was born in Houlton, Maine and lived there (in the same house since I was 1) through high school. My parents still live there. The median household income in Houlton as of the 2000 US census was $26,212 (Houlton). The US median household income in 2005 according to the US census was $44,389 (Household),down from $44,853 in 2000, so let's just say I grew up in a fairly economically depressed area of the country (the median income for the county is just over $28,000).

My family did fairly well for the area and was solidly middle/slightly upper middle class nationally (in the range of $50,000 - $75,000). Look at wikipedia's household income page linked above. For quick reference
$150,000 and above household income in top 5% in America
$250,000 and above household income is top 1.5% in America

I mention this because I went to Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine where tuition and expenses come to about $40,000 a year. Luckily for me Bowdoin's financial aid is need based and I received all but approximately $5,000 a year in financial aid. Needless to say I was on the lower (probably even lowest) rung of the Bowdoin financial ladder and my financial shortcomings were almost painfully obvious to me every day. Add this to the fact neither of my parents had gone to college (an information and cultural disadvantage that only served to heighten my awareness of inferiority). Because of this I'm quite sensitive to issues of wealth and class.

I was raised in a conservative Christian family (at Thanksgiving dinners I remember democrats being referred to as dummy-crats). I wouldn't call my town/area intolerant just insensitive and unaware due to lack of diversity. Until recently it would be almost unthinkable to vote for a democrat.

I still maintain my religious beliefs. I continue to read Calvinist (think predestination) theology and seriously considered going to theological seminary. In most ways I would consider myself a social/moral moderate. Some of my views:

• I support civil unions for homosexual couples but not marriage
• I have no moral problems with the death penalty, only its implementation
• I believe in the idea of just war
• I am pro choice for reasons of womens rights although I still have apprehensions regarding life/viability
• I support American's rights to own handguns and rifles (not assault rifles or automatic weapons) but I believe in fairly strict regulations as far as registration, licensing, and gun dealers security responsibilities

I am very liberal when it comes to economic and governance issues:

• I believe institutionalized racism and sexism is rampant and I believe it is the government's duty to correct for this
• I believe in social programs, big government, universal (preferably single payer) health care
• I believe campaigns should be publicly financed
• I believe our corporate tax (one of the highest in the world) should be higher
• I believe our tax scale should be even steeper near the top

I think you get the point and hopefully my blog will make some of my views more clear.

I am a firm Obama supporter (both for policy and character reasons) and Russ Feingold is my favorite senator and I'm currently reading Sanford Horwitt's book about him.