What's in a name? Take 2.

His name is not "Barry."

His name is not "Bo or B.O."

His name is not "Bozo."

His name is Barrack Hussein Obama.

You would do well to address him as President Obama, or Mr. President, or POTUS (President of the United States) if you're tweeting. I don't care if you don't like his policies, or even the man himself, but if you cannot muster respect for the man, then respect the office.

I do not know the president as a person, so I can't say whether or not I like him on a personal level. I could most likely have a beer with him. Our conversation would probably involve him saying a lot of nothing - because he's a politician and they're good at that - and me saying a lot of nothing - out of respect and my desire not to get at all heated.

I do know that there are very few policy decisions he has made that I approve of. I do know that I do not like his philosophy and politics, and believe that his are the politics that undermine our good. That does not give me the right to attack him on a personal level, even if it be only in the realm of caricaturizing his name.

It shames me sometimes to hold company with others of conservative mind-set, for the simple reason that during ALL 8 YEARS of the Bush administration we were fighting this name calling, and now what happens when we don't like the sitting president? We turn around and do the same damn thing.

I don't care if President Obama is a Muslim, or has been a Muslim, or has an appreciation for Islam in general, or whatever the Islamic Charge-de-jour is.

At this point, I don't care if the birth certificate is a hoax. The governor of Hawaii said it's the real deal, and let's be honest, the man only has one year left in office.

What concerns me about our sitting president is that he is a left-wing pro-abortion socialist, and I fear that his policies - while of good intent - are going to do more harm than good.

Ad hominem (to the man) attacks are considered fallacies because even if the assertion be true, it does not affect the validity of the person's argument. We are losing the culture war to relativistic socialism, and that is the front on which we must face him, and all who share his political persuasion.

Calling him names does nothing but demean ourselves.

If you can't use reason and history to assault his political and philosophical convictions, don't say anything at all.

What's in a name?

So, I though I'd take a moment to share with those not in the know why exactly this is "musings-of-jeb."

So, given name is Jeremiah. Noble name. Prophetic name. Means "God exalts," or "God will exalt." A rather apt name, taking my personality type and that of my namesake. Also my confirmation name, as at the time I didn't have a great devotion to any particular saint.

Obvious shortenings:

• Jeremy: Kill it with fire. I know some really great guys with that name, but that is not my name.
• Jerry: Unless you're a Carlson, kill it with fire.  There is one family who is allowed to call me "Jerry." It works for them. It DOES NOT work for anyone else.
• Jer: Well, pretty obvious, whatever.
• Miah: This was my common family name.  Sometimes extended to "Miah-mooga." Why am I telling you people that...?

Not so obvious nickname and the point of this post: Jebediah/Jeb.

As many of you know, I was homeschooled K-12, though I went to the public school for band and vocal from 5th grade on. My freshman year, being a freshman, I was of course picked on by seniors, as that is what seniors and freshman do. Specifically, in an attempt to irk me, a few of the seniors started calling me "Jebediah," as of course, since that's not actually my name, it would annoy me or something.

As Robert Jordan says, that which you cannot change, you must accept.

This same year, our band took Alfred Reed's Russian Christmas Music (Part 1 | Part 2) to band contest. It has a wicked awesome string bass part (my favorite part starts at about 6:55 in part 1, with the melody in the woodwinds, and a running string bass line underneath, it still gives me chills), which our band director let me play. That's right, as a freshman, having experience only on the guitar and bass guitar, I got to learn string bass, the part, and take it to contest. Win.

So, for a good chunk of the year, I got to go over by the trombones and play string bass.

I don't care if you're just a freshman, string bass is cool.

The lead trombone was a senior, and one who didn't think I was dirt. She actually thought that my playing the string bass was pretty cool. That meant the trombones thought I was a cool cat, and the appellation "Jebediah" became my mark of coolness.

From there, I just really dug the name, and so I introduced it to the mighty ISUCFVMB as an optional shortening, and from thence it stuck.

Fun fact, Jebediah I have seen translated as "Beloved of Yahweh," and "Beloved Friend." Also win.