BrandonHendricks.com

After half a year, I’m finally starting up the blog again.

So wher do I start? Democrats won Congress in November. Maybe it will serve as a wake up all to the Republicans. Saddam Hussein was hung. Good Bye. Ron Paul is running for President. While I admit his chances are slim, I have something to be excited about. I’m sure I’m not the only one sick of Rudy McRomney or Hillary John Barrack Roddam Hussein Clinton Obama Edwards.

I guess the biggest thing happening in my life right now is that in November Robin had a seizure and burnt her hand. Third Degree burns and required a skin graft. She lost parts of her little and ring fingers on her right hand. But she is recovering well and improving faster than expected.

Our Lady of Lourdes in Violet will be opening up sooner or later. The process of reopening it has begun. It may take a while. Robin and I are living in Metairie but will be going there sometimes once it opens. Abbey Youth Fest is this weekend. I still have posted part two of of from last year. I won’t be going as a chaperone from Lourdes but rather as a volunteer from the KC’s since no one showed any interest in going.

Louisiana Crawfish Festival is March 30, 31, and April 1 at the old Wal-Mart in Chalmette.

I switched the blog from bBlog to WordPress. The SQL Dump was close to 30 MB. I kept 5 comments that I knew were good and deleted the rest. I used this script to convert bBlog to WordPress. I have also required regustration to post comments. I know some people may not feel like doing that, but it will help fight the blog spam. I still need to set the lay out to match the rest of the site.

Hopefully it will be less than six months before I post here again. Whenever that is.

I haven’t posted here in a while (like usual). Busy with married life. Been married two weeks now. And I really did not feel like going to work last Monday.
Wedding went great. But we were tired afterwards. Again, thanks to everyone who participated, attended, or got us a gift.

Pictures can be viewed here: http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=Nikon2005&gallery_id=433440 (pw = cotton ) and here: http://www.printroom.com/ViewGallery.asp?userid=Nikon2005&gallery_id=441483 (pw – hendricks )

Obviously we are still adjusting to things, but we are enjoying ourselves.

Since my last post a few interesting things have happened. Congress voted to fund unproven embryonic stem cell research, but President Bush vetoed the bill and Congress could not override it. (It was Bush’s first veto.) I can at least see the argument that the children that these stem cells were taken from were already dead and that instead of throwing them away they would be used for a meaningful purpose. But doing this would create more a demand for embryonbic stem cells and therefore would result in the deaths of more innocent unborn children. Not to mention this funding (or funding for adult stem cell research for that matter) is unconstitution (as is a majority of what Congress has been spending money on).

Congress passed and President Bush signed the anti-southern discriminatory Voting Rights Act. I think it passed the House 390 – 30. Only one member from Louisiana, Richard Baker, voted against it. My old congressman (Charlie Melancon) and new congressman (Bobby Jindal) both voted for it. It also passed the senate I think 100 – 0. Way to look out for Louisiana fellas.

Isreal has been at war with Hezbollah. Isreal, a sovereign country has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah, a terrorist organization. I wish Isreal the best but hope they can keep civilian casualties in both Lebanon and Isreal to a minimum.

Coming up on one year since Katrina. Things are starting to improve but are moving slow. Our old neighbor from St. Bernard sent my mom a picture of their house and our house a few days after Katrina. Water went down 1 – 2 feet from its peek at that point. I need to upload and link to the picture so everyone can see sometime.

Advice for all future husbands: when throwing the garter, tie it to something with a little weight because that thing does not fly very far. Robin’s nephew ended up catching the garter because since he was the shortest one there – he was closest to the ground and everyone let him get in front.

Til next time.

18 Days. Damn.

Here is something on a more serious note. About a month or so ago, one of my friend’s nephew shot himself in the head. After about a week or so in the hospital with no improvement, he died. He was health and had nothing to be depressed over. But he was on a drug called Accutane. Accutane has been known to cause suicide. Another person who committed suicide after being prescribed Accutane was the son of Representative Bart Stupak (Democrat – Michigan – CD – 1). Rep. Stupak has sponsored a bill restrictions on the use of this drug. Please tell your congressman to support [url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-2956]HR 2956[/url].

Here is a story I read the other day about Colorado State Representative Ted Harvey. http://www.family.org/cforum/commentary/a0040927.cfm . On the last day of the legislative session, the House was going to pass a reolution commerating the 90th Anniversary of Planned Parenthood in the state of Colorado. Rep. Harvey knew he had to do something but didn’t know what. Well he was at a pro-life dinner and the guest speaker was [url=http://www.giannajessen.com/]Gianna Jessen[/url]. Gianna has cerebral palsy as a result of her mother’s failed abortion. So Rep. Harvey talked to Gianna and invited her to the House that day to sing the National Anthem. After getting an applause for telling about her struggle with Cerebal Palsy, Rep. Harvey then told everyone how she go cerebal palsy. To quote the article, the silence was deafening.

Lousiana Governor Kathleen Blanco signed the Abortion Ban that only goes into effect if Roe V. Wade is overturned. I really hope this bill actually does more than take up space on paper and hard drives.

It looks like the [url=http://www.constitutionparty.com]Constitution Party[/url] in Louisiana will start going somewhere. As a result of a law passed in 2004, becoming a major party in La. requires 1000 members and 1000 dollars. Currently the Republican Party, Democratic Party, Reform Party, Libertarian Party and Green Party are all major parites in La. Hopefully the CP will join them.

I wrote to Representative Charlie Melancon (Democrat – Louisiana – CD – 3) a couple months ago regarding the Voting Rights Act and the discrimatory pre-clearance requirement placed on Louisiana and several other southern states and got a reply. Well last week a group of Republicans stood up to oppose this requirement in the bill. I don’t have a problem with the bill in general, but I do have a problem with this requirement. Please tell your Congressman to oppose the pre-clearance requirement in this bill. [url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h109-9]HR 9[/url] and [url=http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s109-2703]S 2703[/url].

Well 18 days will be here before Robin and I know it. If I don’t post here for a while I at least have a good excuse.

Yes, today was “one of those days”.

First off, a funny story from yesterday (Wednesday). I was on the Highway 11 Bridge crossing Lake Pounchatrain on my way to work. Well traffic is slow and on the curve of the bridge I could see a white car holding up traffic. When I finally get in I-10 I passed the car and noticed some bumper stickers: “Code Pink” and “Stop (something, probably Bush) Now”. There were a few others I could not make out. Are all liberals bad drivers.

So on to today (Thursday). I wake up and noticed the freezer was not shut all of the way. We have rags on top of the freezer and one got caught between the freezer and the door. So the freezer had a gap in it all night. Ice Cream melted but everything else seems fine.

At work I needed to set up a site for someone. I was getting a permission denied error because there was no default.htm file. (IIS uses “default” instead of “index”. No idea why.) So I added it and got the same error and then file not found when trying to go directly to the file. Turns out while I created a file named default.htm, Windows created a file named default.htm.txt. I was going crazy trying to figure out the problem.

So I went to Metairie to pay off the balance for the [url=http://www.JeffersonOrleans.com/]Jefferson Orleans[/url] which is where our reception will be. Everything goes fine and the owner, T.J. is a real nice guy. I recommend the place. So Robin heads home (in Metairie) and I stop to get something to eat then head home (in Slidell). While I am in [url=http://www.raisingcanes.com/]Raising Cane’s[/url] Robin calls me and says the front door to the apartment is wide open. The last time she was there was yesterday. So we called the police. No sign of forced entry and nothing was missing. The only explanation is Robin did not lock or latch the door when she left, but she is sure that she did. Everything is fine though.

It would be nice to have a dull day once in a while.

I really did mean to do this one last week.

Thursday, almost two weeks ago, my brother got into a car wreck. He is ok, but his car, which was only 6 weeks old at the time, got heavily damaged.

We finally got Zarqawi. He is evil and deserves what he got. Now if we can only get bin Laden.

Last Monday we finally went back to the office at [url=http://www.lsuhsc.edu/]LSU-HSC[/url]. I miss being able to sleep a little later and not have to drive, but at the same time it feels good to get out of the house and I missed the office some.

This past Sunday was Robin’s shower. We ended up with a lot of wedding gifts. The wedding is now 4 weeks, 4 days (as of Tuesday). By the way, you can view our registry here:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/pws.asp?id=RobinandBrandon2373964

and a site here:

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/regGiftRegistry.asp?order_num=-1&wrn=%2D817860976

We need to register at a few other places as well.

Hurricane season is here now. Good luck to Florida and everyone else as the deal with Alberto.

As of Sunday May 28, 6 weeks, 6 days. Things are coming together well. Looks like we have our apartment.

Rep. William Jefferson (Democrat – La. – CD – 2) is involved in a scandal. Some of the Republicans are attacking the way the investigation has taken place because the FBI is part of the executive branch while Congress is part of the legislative branch. It’s too early too tell right now, but I won’t be surprised if he wins re-election.

Speaking of re-election, Ray Nagin won re-election. I’m not in New Orleans and it is not that big of deal to me (though I do work in N.O.).

And speaking of Nagin, Douglas Brinkley released a book a few weeks ago called “The Great Diluge” will explains who screwed up during Hurricane Katrina. Not sure if it covers St. Bernard any. But it puts a lot of blame for what happened in New Orleans on Nagin.

And speaking of Brinkley, I have been reading one of his other books “Parish Priest: Fr. Michael McGivney and American Catholicism”. I recommend it to any Catholic. For those of you who don’t know, Fr. Michael Joseph McGivney is the founder of the [url="http://www.kofc.org/"]Knights of Columbus[/url].

And speaking of the KC’s (I’m on a role; I need to keep it going, at least a little more.) Our council will be having a meeting on June 10 to decide if we keep it going or not. Katrina has severly screwed us up.

And speaking of Katrina….. not much new at this time. Just pray that it will be another 40 years (or never) before we get another Hurricane like Katrina. (Trying to think of a way to flow to the next topic….) Katrina sucks.

And speaking of things that suck, American Idol is over for this season. More people voted for this than the Presidential Election. I have a suggestion: allow people to only vote in one or the other, but not both. OK, so most of the people that voted in AI probably didn’t vote in the last election anyway.

That’s all for now. I am working an online photo album for the site. It shouldn’t be much longer before it’s up.

Abbey Fest was almost three weeks ago. I posted Kerri Caviezel’s talk, but still haven’t gotten around to Jim’s. I also haven’t done my rant on Anti-Catholicism and given enough time has passed, I am not quite as angry as I was a few weeks ago. Someone from Jim Caviezel Forums found my last post and decided to share with others. Wonder if I got any new readers now.

Robin and I did the Pre-Canan last Saturday (Holy Saturday). As of today (Friday) 85 Days until the wedding. Time is flying.

Louisiana is in the process of joining states such as South Dakota and Mississippi in telling the Supreme Court that Roe v. Wade was wrong and that they need to listen to the will of the people. SB 33 would ban abortion in most circumstances. I have already contacted my state senator and representative, encouraging them to support this bill. If you are from Louisiana, you can find them here: http://senate.legis.state.la.us/senators/ByAddress.htm.

Rep. Cynthia McKinney (Democrat – Georgia – CD-4) is not worth the space that will be used to mention her. I disliked the woman long before she decided to punch a cop. See HR 4209 for details.

To help out our country, especially if you live in GA, please support Hank Johnson (D), Vernon Jones (D), or Catherine Davis (R) for GA-CD-4. (Credit Politics1 for the list of candidates.)

The pro-aborts don’t give up, so neither can we. The Radical Left has proposed the Freedom of Choice Act to Kill Your Unborn Child Act. HR 5151 and S 2593. I have written Senators Landrieu and Vitter and Representative Melancon urging them to oppose this bill as well as my opinion on several others.

Several entries ago I mentioned the Voting Rights Act requiring Louisiana and other states to requite preclearance from the DOJ when chaning the election schedule. I sent an e-mail to Representative Melancon and got a reply from him saying he will keep my wishes in mind when dealing with this bill in 2007.

A recent poll showed most Americans disapprove of President Bush, disapprove of the Republicans in Congress, and disapprove of the Democrats in Congress, but approve of their own Congressman. There is a lot of talk the Republicans will lose a lot of seats to the Democrats. As far as the House goes though, it doesn’t matter what 434 / 435 of the country thinks. As long as they make that 1 / 435 the represent happy, that is all the matters.

As far as the Duke Rape Case goes, I think the District Attorney Mike Nifong is doing this for Political Gain. I have no idea whether or not a rape occured. There are too many contradictions though at this point for me to believe the DA should have pressed charges. If you live in Durham, NC, please support Freda Black or Keith Bishop (or any other canidate I left out). On a somewhat related note, does anyone remember the name Katelyn Faber?

Please keep a friend of mine in your prayers. Becky, the wife of my friend Dennis of the KC’s, passed away Wednesday.

Damn I am taking too long in between posts.

I am not a resident of New Orleans, but the New Orleans city elections are coming up soon. As a result of Katrina, many of the city’s residents are living outside of the city. The city is going out of its way to make sure those resident not in the city are able to vote. However, groups such as the NAACP and Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Push Coalition want to delay the election. They have said that this is a poll tax because of the cost associated with traveling to the city to vote. Keep in mind though that if you registered to vote in your new place of residence then you are no longer eligable to vote in your old place of residency. And if the city was mostly white, would these same groups be involved?

There is something else that is troubling me about this that affects more than the city of New Orleans. As a result of the Voting Rights Act, Louisiana and several other states, must preclear any election changes with the Department of Justice. Fortuneately this provision is up for renewal in 2007 and hopefully we can get this voted down. I know during the 60s, blacks were discriminated against and everyone person deserves the right to vote, but this should apply to either all states or no states (preferably none).

This past weekend (March 25-26) many illegal immigrants held protests. There are legal immigrants and illegal immigrants. I fully support legal immigrants and have a lot of respect for doing things the right way as it is not a quick process. Illegal immigrants are illegal. We don’t need new laws; we just need to enforce our existing laws. We need more people like the Minuteman Project and Rep. Tom Tancredo (Republican – Colorado). And the liberals accuse Bush of being a conservative. If it hasn’t happened already, it is only a matter of time before terrorists come through the U.S. – Mexican border and launch another attack. Also, considering many of the protesters want to be American Citizens, there were a lot of Mexican Flags at the protest.

Flood Gates are going to be delivered to the area over the next few weeks. I am still skeptical when the Army Corps of Engineers says the levee repairs will be completed by June 1. But there is a chance they might. I am not sure where I will be living, but it probably won’t be St. Bernard. Metairie (which also flooded but not as bad as St. Bernard) is becoming more and more likely.

Since my last post, Harry Browne passed away (March 1). Browne was the Libertarian Party Candidate for President in 1996 and 2000 as well as one of the co-founders of Downsize DC. Although I did not vote for him, I commend him for doing more than his share of things to help fix what is wrong with this country.

With the wedding coming up, we had to take care of the Bride’s Maid’s Dresses this past weekend (and then the tuxedos pretty soon). Robin got sick so it ended up being me along with Holly and Katie. Shopping for dresses with two girls. Not quite as bad as one would think. Of course we missed Robin. But we are doing what we can so our wedding turns out good and we want our Bride’s Maids to look good (but not better than the bride ).

I installed a mod for bblog that blocks spam and after doing a brief test, it seems to work pretty good. I have had close to 10,000 pieces of blog spam.

Abbey Fest is this weekend. Looking forward to it. It will be the first time some people will get together since Katrina.