State of the Union

The State of the Union Speech should stop being a speech in Congress.

Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution states:

He shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.

First of all, from time to time.  George Washington's precedent was annually.  But maybe it should be more often.  Maybe less often.  Just time to time.  Don't be surprised if I ever skip one of these things if I'm ever President, or give a report in July, for example.

Secondly, these are recommendations.  Not mandates, not threats, not announcements.  This is the part where the President should give his input to Congress.  This is part of why it might need to be more than annually.

The speech is traditionally given the House chambers, since they are larger.  If I was the Speaker of the House, I would simply not allow the President to enter the chamber.  Or at the very least refuse to cede the floor to him.

Another thing, why is the Supreme Court even there?  They don't clap, according to Wikipedia, "in order to retain the appearance of political impartiality." How about not showing up to retain the appearance of political impartiality.  It seems to be an invasion of the House of Representatives and a show of force from the judicial and executive branches of government.  The House should be free to vote to ignore the report of the President, if they so choose.  Or to agree to read it on their own time, or have it read by the reading clerk.

Then we could just all tune in to C-SPAN if we want to hear it, and the local evening news can give us the highlights.

A Look Back at December

These kids are stressed out of their minds!

After administering a final exam for the freshman chemistry class, and taking a short final exam myself, we migrated back to the motherland of Utah.  We spent most of the month of December there.  And the stress of my first semester of graduate school was over!

It was so great to be home and get to see everyone!  We spent the first couple days with my family.  My sister and her husband flew in from Kansas City to be with us.  I think one of the best things about that first week was getting to Skype with my brother who is serving a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Indianapolis.  Baby Thor was so excited to see him (literally screaming at the computer screen) and it was great to see their reactions to each other.  

My parents got us Chromecasts for Christmas, which has been a pretty sweet deal so far.  Baby Thor (more like Toddler Thor these days) got a box of tissues and had a blast pulling them out of the box.  The only negative thing has been that now we can't let him get near any boxes of tissues anywhere.

We also went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was cold!

We also got to visit my grandparents in Morgan, visit Temple Square and see the lights, and we ate the candy that was going to be for gingerbread houses that never happened.  Shortly after Christmas, my parents left us behind to go on a cruise in the Caribbean.  So we migrate to Saratoga Springs and my in-laws.

I have got to say that I have some of the best in-laws ever.  I almost felt more at home there than I did with my parents. (I said almost, okay? Calm down.)  We had a couple of dinners with the rest of the family there and got to see everyone.

The best part: getting to watch both the Sugar Bowl and the Rose Bowl back-to-back, without my wife getting mad at me!  I feel like my father-in-law and I bonded a little more over football.  We also went to see the new Hobbit movie with my other brothers-in-law.

The worst part: 15-month-old diarrhea and vomiting.  Which got passed around.  It must have evolved by the time I got it, because I only had it for a day instead of a week like my wife and child.

Sadly, we had to come home to Wisconsin.  We made one last stop at the King house.  Their daughter is serving as a missionary in our ward in Madison.  Plus, we're related! (Thomas Jefferson Thurston for the win!) We had a good time meeting with them and laughing, taking pictures and whatnot.  When we got here though, we realized that this really is our home.  I'm starting to like it a little more.  Having snow on the ground certainly helped with that.  Now it's back to school and back to raising a child for us.  On Wisconsin!