Um...been awhile

Yeah, that is an understatement. Going to give it the old college try again. What the hell is the college try? If it's like my college tries, then you will see me get drunk and play Counter-Strike.

Note to self: update the computer so you can play more CS.

Either way, one of my goals this year is to update my blog more often. I'll talk about movies, music, politics, sports, whatever. Don't expect much personal stuff for I have a livejournal (that I never update) for that.

Gerald Ford was laid to rest recently and it made me start to think about Jimmy Carter, the man who beat him in 1976. Much like Ford, Carter's term in office is not looked back very fondly. Carter did not pardon a disgraced leader, but he did find himself in bad situations he could not get himself out of.

First, the terrorist incident in Iran. Well, this is not very fair. America had allowed the Shah into our country which basically took sides with the Iranian Revolution occurred. They took the 52 hostages and held them until 1980 when they were released in a very fishy set of circumstances. Carter failed at getting them back with force, but his freezing of Iranian money eventually led to the hostages being released. The fact that Iran eventually took the same deal Carter had put on the table for the hostages makes me believe they just did not want to release the hostages with Carter in office.

Of course, there is also the "October Surprise" conspiracy that Reagan and his people acted with Iran to keep the hostages in captivity until Reagan took over. I doubt this occurred, but do believe Iran wanted to play a power role and get Carter out of office.

The other event that always comes up when it comes to Carter is the Energy Crisis, or Oil Crisis, of 1979. There is some real beef here. Carter seemed to not be prepared to keep this event from happening, though there was much effort. And to give Carter justice, he proposed several deregulation efforts that were not all put into play until 1981, the year Reagan took office.

My biggest praise of Carter comes from how much he cares about people whether they be white, black, poor, rich, American, non-American...it does not matter to him and it is what separates him from every President I have ever really studied. He ended containment and pushed human rights to the forefront. Every President before and since is willing to look past human rights violations, but not Carter. I just love that about the man. The Carter Center has been focused at these exact things and name another President who has been out there for Habitat for Humanity.

Here's hoping people remember what the man actually did and not what he did/could not.