Ready for the Holidays!

Jenifer and I kick off our holiday vacation tonight! We've been building up the excitement for a couple of weeks now, having gone out and purchased our Christmas tree and decorating it with the first ornaments that we have purchased together. We also have been watching some of the old Christmas movie standards every couple of nights. I have to say, this is the most I've looked forward to Christmas in some time.

So tonight we're heading over to her parents' farm in Mexico, Missouri to spend the weekend with her family, and on Christmas Eve we'll drive down to Knoxville to spend a few days with my family. It'll almost be like an entire week of Christmas! After that, Jen and I will be driving to Fort Worth to see Beswick and to attend the Cotton Bowl, where Mizzou will be playing Arkansas on New Year's Day. It'll be quite the road trip!

Now, I'll make a plug for two things that keep me from dreading all that driving. First, we'll be cruising in our sweet Honda Civic Hybrid, so we should average about 48 miles a gallon--cutting our gas expenses in about half. Second, the car has XM radio. Let me tell you... I never much had an interest in satellite radio before we got The Smug (I hope my friends will catch the South Park reference...), but it is awesome! Pretty much any kind of music or talk or sports you could ask for, right at your fingertips. And you don't have to keep finding new stations as you drive across the country, either. If you haven't tried satellite radio yet, I do strongly recommend it.

So what are some things y'all have been doing to get in the Christmas spirit? Have any big plans for the holidays?

Have You Exercised Your Constitutional Liberties Lately?

Today is a little celebrated occasion... Bill of Rights Day! As a civil liberties junkie, I figure I would be falling down on my duties not to mention it and offer this historical tidbit from The Writer's Almanac:

It was on this day in 1791 that the Bill of Rights was adopted by the United States, thanks in part to a man who hasn't gotten a lot of credit, George Mason. He was a lifelong friend of George Washington's who wasn't interested in politics, but when Washington was named Commander of the Continental Army, George Mason reluctantly took over his friend's seat on the Virginia legislature. And then Mason was assigned by chance to the committee to write the new state constitution.

Mason had read the philosopher John Locke, and he liked Locke's idea that all people are born with certain rights, and that government's purpose should be to protect those rights. George Mason believed that the best way to protect those rights would be to list them in the constitution itself. And so he put together Virginia's "Declaration of Rights," the first government document in history that specified the absolute rights of individuals. Mason's ideas about rights and freedom influenced a 25-year-old legislator named James Madison, who passed them along to his friend Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson would go on to use Mason's ideas in his own draft of the Declaration of Independence.

Mason was asked to participate in the Constitutional Convention after the war, but he disagreed with the other delegates on numerous issues, especially slavery, which he thought should be outlawed in the new constitution. He fought for the inclusion of a list of rights, like the "Declaration of Rights" in the Virginia Constitution, but his idea for a bill of rights failed by a wide margin.

And so, when it came time to sign to the new U.S. Constitution, George Mason was one of the only men there who refused. He said, "I would sooner chop off [my] right hand than put it to the Constitution as it now stands." His decision ruined his friendship with George Washington. The two men never called on each other again. But he hoped that his protest would encourage an eventual passage of a bill of rights, and it did. His former protege, James Madison, introduced the Bill of Rights into the first session of Congress in 1789, and Madison used Virginia's Declaration of Rights as the model.

Even with the Bill of Rights, the U.S. Constitution didn't provide full citizenship to blacks or women, among others, and it has had to be amended again and again over the years. But when we think of what it means to have a free country, most of our ideas about the meaning of freedom come from those first 10 amendments, adopted on this day in 1791, which include the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, and the right to a fair trial. George Mason died in 1792, a year after those freedoms and rights became law.

Two Internet-Related Items

Those who know me know that I deeply resent the fact that major college football is about the only sport whose champion is not determined on the field. Every year new proposals pop up for a college football playoff and organizations like ESPN and Sports Illustrated post mock-brackets that let fans imagine what might have been. This year, however, there is a new twist! Accuscore, an organization dedicated to crunching sports-related numbers to predict the likelihood of various sports scenarios and contests, has developed a playoff simulator that lets you create your own bracket and see how statistics say it might play out. I find this much more satisfying than listening to Lee Corso and Kirk Herbstreit pontificate, although the first time I ran it through it named the Clemson Tigers as the National Champs. Kind of unlikely, of course--but the fact that it could happen is what would make playoffs so exciting!!

In other news, slate.com is hosting a back-and-forth among video game critics. Several have put forward their picks for game of the year, including one unconventional entry: Desktop Tower Defense. This free online game is very simple in concept, surprisingly difficult in practice, and completely addictive. The first time I checked it out I ended up playing for four hours straight. You've been warned.

For Those Who Weren't Able To Make It...

Check out these pics of the wedding!




We had a spectacular morning for the big day. Although it was a wee bit cold and blustery, the Shenandoah Valley had just started to bloom and the setting could hardly have been more beautiful. I just wish I had remembered to put on sunscreen that morning. That was an unfortunate omission, and I paid for it throughout the honeymoon in Maine.








It was nice and bright that morning... which is why we are all squinting in this picture.






The ceremony was held under an arbor made of river birch from the Zeigler family farm. Jen's Dad made the arbor himself. Mama Roland made Jen's spectacular dress.








My groomsmen and I were inspired by "Faith + 1".







Jen's bridesmaids were lovelier than everyone but the bride herself.






We had a fantastic local bluegrass band as the entertainment for the reception. We also served barbeque, cheesy potatoes, and Asian coleslaw for lunch, and I don't think I've ever heard so many compliments about wedding reception food!






I just really like how this picture turned out. It totally captures the sweetness and romance of the day as well as the love that occasioned it.

Long Time Coming

Ladies and Gents... It's been awhile.

For those who have been out of the loop, let me catch you up on things in my world:

I got engaged over Labor Day weekend in 2006 after a comedy of errors in which I broke up with Jenifer, realized my foolishness, and showed her I was serious about becoming the man of her dreams. We were married on May 6, 2007, in a beautiful, outdoor Sunday morning ceremony officiated by my grandfather.

Toward the end of the summer, an opportunity opened up for us to move to Saint Louis, closer to both of our families. As readers of this site will remember, I never really felt cut out for Washington and had always looked forward to the day that I'd be back in the real world. With the chance to start our family close to the Zeigler family's farm and within fairly easy reach of my folks in Tennessee, we knew that this was a great move to make. We left DC in early September and have since been settling into our new jobs and our new home.

While my personal blog has been quiet for some time, part of my job as an analyst with the Show-Me Institute is to regularly post to the organization's blog with my thoughts on various matters of public policy. I can't say that these are as fun as some of my prior posts here on theological matters, but they do tend to rouse debate among the wonky-types in these parts. If you have any interest in state politics, you might want to check it out.