The World According to Me.

Well it is that time of the year again, one ends..and one begins. 2010 was less than great. Here is to hoping for something better in 2011. While it could always be worse, 2010 really had some crappy events. The good news is, from what I learned when I busted my back, I've been able to help multiple people. It seems I now have three individuals I'm assisting with different back trauma. They all enjoy the fact that they can talk without me attempting to charge them for something. So for that, I'm happy to help. The rest of life moves on, Morgan will be 2 next month..or...ah..January. So life truly moves on. incredible to think my son, Dawkin, is now 4. Wow. It really doesn't seem that long. I can still remember life before kids, I assume that will fade with time. So here is to everyone for a Happy and Healthy New Year!

For years, let's say most of the ninties and into this century we've long been pushed to the idea that Microsoft, not Apple, was in a mad dash for your cash. That just isn't true as more items come to light. For a long time I have been a Mac fan, and even as I write this on my iPad, I still am but can't overlook their problems. Mac iPhone, iPad iTouch have an issue, they can't run flash. Flash has been a long established platform for providing web users a great experience either in news, games, sports or any aspect where video or animation would benefit the user. All browsers, computer based that is, can play flash, including Apples very own Safari. That said, flash doesn't run on any handheld Mac. Why? Apple would have you believe it is a stability or technology issue, it simply isn't. Any web developed will tell you that, in fact hacker versions called "frash" have already been built for Apple devices. The evil truth behind this act is that Apple...

Every winter I get excited by the possibility of snow. It is in the forecast, but looks like this batch will miss us. Anyway, primed the snowblower, so we're good to go.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Had a wonderful holiday party last night, Bekah did a great job setting everything up. How nice to have people around you actually like :)

Well it is about that time, run to the kitchen..cook the turkey, make the stuffing, pies, etc. Good times. I love this time of year, the next 30 days are my favorite. I love my family and my children, being around them just makes my day. I feel so blessed with what I have overcome this year, from a destroyed lower back that left me incapacitated for 2 months..to making Master Mason. This year has certainly brought a lot and nearly every aspect has given me a positive experience. I'm truly thankful that I have my family, my wife and two children make my day on a routine basis. Today on the way to work the Rod Stewart song "Forever Young" came on and I almost balled like a chick thinking about my son Dawkin. Really, children are amazing parts of a life. My wife has officially been there through my worst times in life, from the death of my mother to my own destruction this year. She is always there to help. And though we have more than our fair share of problems and argument...

Everyone has them, man I'm getting hammered recently. I will have 10 straight days under my belt shortly, this is nutzo. Can't wait for Thanksgiving so hopefully I can take some time off (Thu/Fri).

I'm seriously done with making excuses for people I know. Sick and tired of saying things like "that is just how it is" or "just learn to get along". How about no. I have nothing in common with some and no real interest to find something. Listening to people I care about ramble on about how we need to "just all get along" is officially making me sick. Check it, if everyone you believe cares about you, has to run around telling others why you're an "OK" person, that means you're probably a problem.

Heard about one of my friends getting beat up by her boyfriend. This is something my wife has gone through and it makes me want to break someone. How tough are you that you can beat up a chick, really? Way to man up. If anyone ever touched my daughter like that I don't think I'd be too worried about the jail time. Just unbelievable.

I can't remember where the summer went, and was out all spring. This year has flipping blown by. Makes me wonder what 2011 brings since it will be here in about 45 days. The kids are growing up...Dawkin is now 4, Morgan is turning 2....amazing. Found a few new friends this year and found a few new enemies. Luckily, the good has vastly outweighed the bad...fell in love with God and made Master Mason...got to say it was a good day. The football season is great, the Iggles are doing me proud. Heck, anytime you spank the Redskins for 59 points is amazing, special thanks Skins for letting the Eagles get 3 new NFL records. Good times. Wifey is 'movin on up' and looks to be making a move soon. Hope the best for her, she tries hard. Can't wait for the holiday season. Fall is my favorite time, cool weather and colorful trees...and of course....FOOTBALL.

One of the pitches out of Congress following the failed "Debt Commission", was increasing the Federal gas tax from 18 cents to 33 cents (nearly doubling it) , an increase of 15 cents per gallon. Add that to the state average gas tax of around 22 cents, that equals 55 cents in just tax, JUST TAX. At the same time the Country is reeling from debt, loss of income, drop of the dollars value and no housing equity, throw in the insane legislative Eco-Nazi push for fuel efficiency and electric vehicles. How exactly is this in any way a long term debt solution for anything? What this is, is a ploy. It is an attack on the consumer on a few fronts; taxation of course for the pure benefit of being able to spend it and by the Eco-Party who isn't content with the gradual movement to fuel efficiency in America, even though more cars now than in history are fuel efficient. If they can get you to accept a 45% increase, then the next time when they ask for 40% it isn't going to seem s...

So Obama put together 18 people to make up a deficit reduction commission aimed at reducing the deficit. That is a great idea, almost stellar, and what a leader should be doing, reducing the nations red column. However, just as with healthcare, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about things. Unless there is an entire re-write of US tax code which moves us from a progressive tax base to a flat-tax tax base, there is no way on earth that any of the "ideas" of this commission would come to pass. Which begs the question "was this just an exercise in futility?" Some of the notions were: severely cutting Social Security, huge reductions in Medicare and removal of the Mortgage interest write-off. This is incredible without substantial tax changes. First, Social Security..no matter what you do here somebody gets slammed, either the old or the young. It is as simple as that. Because the only remotely fair way to do this would be to say something along the lines of: ...

I'm sorry I guess I'm just not a whore to "wiki" information. I've never visited WikiLeaks, so I'm only going off what the 'founder' says but I really don't have any concern about "American forces" not watching over the way Iraqi forces handle themselves. Iraq is not an American outpost, it is not a commonwealth of the United States and it really has no relevance in my life now unless you're discussing protecting the United States or an American Soldier, Airman, Marine or Sailor. I love this obsession the US has with "information" and trying to find dirt on someone or something. But it is seriously self-loathing to look for dirt against your own people when you're in a conflict. In my opinion. Should there be a degree of oversight to make sure that at a time of conflict "your" forces aren't abusive in their conduct? Sure however this is not a green light to scrutinize any and everything that is done. It is ...

Article How does this even work? The government wants to tell private investors and collectors of debt that they can't? So you walk away from your debts and get to keep the assets? Why the hell am I paying my mortgage!!! Maybe I'm the one lacking for some reason I thought you had to pay your bills. Question though, if they don't collect on the debt..who pays them? I guess the government plans to write a mortgage bill to simply pay off banks. This is such garbage. I guess we can kiss goodbye any responsible parties in America.

What ever happened to relying on industry to carve the path, now we rely on the government. If consumers will buy a 35mpg car..then where does the government get off making money off of industry by sending in demands for higher fuel economy? More of the government telling us what to do I guess. Fun times ahead. http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/10/obamas-47---62-mpg-proposal-unveiled-lobbyists-scurry/1

He was crying today about how the media gets rewarded for commenting on him. It is really funny considering he relied completely on the media/web to get him elected since he had and has zero track record of success for this country. And if you'd like to quote "healthcare" as a success, please define how...as companies currently cut healthcare to go on the government shelf because the bureaucrats have made it more expensive (see McDonald's dropping over 30,000 employees from plans in favor of the govt since costs went up 80% directly because of Obama).

The older I get the more I find that people, at least those I've bounced into over time, tend to "talk" a lot. They don't do so much though. I have people in my life, not by choice..more so by force, that make grand commentary and sweeping allegations but don't tend to have too much action. These are generally people who make brash, loud comments puffed up with what they believe are factual elements. But more times than not, these individuals find themselves without many compatriots. That result is discovered usually after long winded thought processes that seem to pull from facts based in "something they heard" but rarely can be reproduced without several counter arguments. And thus, the problems begin. I know I'm not alone in this experience and I'm positive some of these types of individuals would be just as accusatory towards me. That said, it doesn't shed the fact that comments based on education instead of experience only take you so f...

Article Obama is calling on Congress for a 100B small-business 'thing' for lack of a better word. It is based completely around stopping tax cuts allowed under the Bush administration to fund the credit. Here is the truth in that though. Most small business owners, especially those in Type-S corps, make over $250,000. Wait, I'll rephrase, are taxed on an income over $250,000 since all revenue on-hand in the company is viewed as 'income' by the Federal Government. This is the same group that Obama wants to "tax for being rich". So essentially, Obama wants to tax a group to pay itself later. This is the most ridiculous thing Obama has yet announced. Sadly, the only people smart enough to realize how bad this is are in the minority of voters. I'm sure to those that think $250,000 is "rich" this probably sounds like a great idea. Oh what a blessing to be ignorant.

Obama is to unleash another costly and useless program geared towards the few but paid for by the many. Apparently he doesn't understand that in economics things need to run their course. This constant interjection is more damaging than helpful and time has proven that. Now the administration is running around debating what type of "small business" deals they can cut in order to not bleed out in 2010 elections, and even worse the 2012 election. This lack of cohesion with the populace could be most obviously highlighted by the exit of combat troops from Iraq after 7 years having very little 'air' time. This administration has played favorites with its economic plans and as a direct result caused huge upheavals and turmoil within all aspect of economic America. Unemployment rates continue, continue, to push upward. And the smoke-screen of success in employment, done via hiring temporary people to work the US Census, was easily lifted by a perpetual increase in the l...

Sounds like Dems need a quick recap in the branches of government in the United States. The reason you have three is for a series of checks and balances so one can't run rough-shot over the others. Seems Obama is not a fan. He wants to challenge the Supreme Court on a ruling that allows corporations to participate in donations with parties without full disclosure. Funny thing is DEMS are in an uproar, but UNION donations are handled entirely the same way, and they have no issues with that. Maybe Obama should stop trying to distract the nation from his failed leadership, and just ride it out. Obama has done probably the most in the least amount of time of any recent president. However whether his actions are good or bad for the nation will not be known till around 2014 when his full costs come into effect. So to close, branches of government exist for a reason and it isn't to push socialist objectives. (i.e...unions can but business cant) Article

So Obama is upset because Republicans are pushing to privatize social security. That is quite possibly the only thing that could save SS, before falling off the map all together. But Democrats are upset, want to know why? Because for decades social security has been a government slush fund. The money is pulled in from every legitimate working citizen and then spent for whatever the government would like. This method worked fine when the public fund was bringing in more money than it had to shell out, but now the tables have turned. So unless you want to remove benefits, increase age or tax the ever-loving hell out of the rest of America, the only hope is privatization where quite possible, social security could profit. The big fear factor dems push to is the recent debacle in the stock market. Well too bad, had government policies not wrecked the business world with ridiculous "status quo" elements, the 'fall of the market' wouldn't have been so substantial. But t...

USA Today Article Amazing, no really I'm not being sarcastic. After 90 straight days of spewing oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico a mile under water, there is little coming to the surface. According to people who aren't enviro-nazis, the dispersant used have aided considerably in the breakdown of the leaked oil. Turns out it is degrading and dispersing faster than expected. Which makes me wonder, where is the doomsday scenario? I thought we were going to see vast amounts of wildlife death, ending of families, destruction of businesses and so on? Thus far, only 30% of the Gulf fishing area was closed for any period of time, there are no catastrophic oil covered beaches and there hasn't been an overwhelming abundance of dead wildlife. Before I get labeled as a "redneck" I'd say that obviously the oil leak was a tragedy, should and could have been avoided, BP should have had a backup plan and the Government should have had regulation and preparations for such a...

Why am I not remotely shocked. Lets see over 65% of the national population and 70% of the Arizona population want the full bill, not this partial crap, to be in effect. So Obama interrupts that for the sake of Democrat Latino voter needs. Wonderful. Then of course, crime lovers (I can only assume they are crime lovers as they like illegal actions) throw protests and get arrested. http://tinyurl.com/27cgdkc . So..just curious how many of those 'redneck racist, NRA member, F150 driving' tea party people have been arrested again? Oh, none. Well, nice work America...nice work.

Huh? The NAACP, possibly the most racist organization of current time, is calling the "Tea Party" racist. National Association for the Advancement of Colored People calling something else racist, this is utterly amazing. This is an organization that builds its entire client base on color. This is actually too much for words.

Climate change, once known as 'the greenhouse effect' or 'global warming' is a big topic now. I remember it becoming a relevant when I was in middle school (circa 1990), when we were shown a bench made entirely of recycled plastic. To me then, and now, that made sense. Something simple that used recycled products in a smart way. I'm all for alternative power sources be they solar, wind, water or what have you. I'm all for water barrels, composting, using fabric bags for your groceries instead of paper and plastic. I support recycling aluminum, glass, plastic and paper. And I'd also advocate loudly for not wasting water or power, shutting your lights off and TVs off when you don't need them, not running your washer or dryer unless it is full and using the dishwasher the same way. What I'm not in favor of when it comes to climate legislation or 'public opinion' is drastically altering, and in most cases diminishing, the human life experience as...

Pop Culture, the idolization of the life and acts of others. That pretty much sums up the root of most social problems in the United States. The US, more than most countries, idolizes individuals and gives them a tremendous amount of weight, not from great acts or titles but for simply being 'popular'. You can trace these roots in American society back to the 20s-30s with athletes and the birth of Hollywood. During the turn of the twentieth century baseball was becoming ever popular and voice based films were coming to life. We as a whole began to idolize individuals for acts that were no great educational feet nor were they any substantial act. We pay vast amounts of money and devote inordinate amounts of time to entertaining ourselves. Athletes and Hollywood types are making fist loads of cash for nothing more than entertaining. Aside from Athletes, the vast majority of entertainers from Hollywood do nothing more than 'look' pretty. But America is hell bent on paying ...

All this uproar and anger towards British Petroleum, as if they have some secret plan for success they simply have not invoked. The very vocal, very boisterous American minority is having rallies and letting their feelings be known that they hate 'big oil'. But very few of them seem to understand a few things, one this is not near the greatest spill in history and two the vast majority of the products they use every day that contain some from of petroleum. It is one thing to say lets get off our dependency on oil as a fuel. Remember though that oil is used nearly as much for heat as it is for propulsion. So in order to get off oil, as they would advocate, you'd need to find a cost effective way to create the same amount of heating fuel as you do propulsion fuel. Not an easy task. People also seem to avoid researching this topic at all costs. In 1979, following all the OPEC and oil-embargo nonsense, Mexico had the second largest oil spill in recorded history (the first being...

The Texas School Book Depository, wait that isn't it, the Texas Board of Education is writing a new social studies book. More so, deciding what topics or buzz words go in. This is important because the vast majority of education in the US is based on the recommendations of this board. Some items being debated are whether to write Barack Hussein Obama, Barack H. Obama or simply Barack Obama. Other questions are how America is viewed in the world and Americas origins and "exceptional" traits. To simplify a few of the questions one can ask, 'how are the other Presidents names listed?', Obama should be no different than the others. The latter questions become more difficult. It is my opinion that as an educational system funded by US tax dollars it is an obligation to be objective but tilted in the upbringing of US students. These are students, the goal of the school system is not to indoctrinate one way or the other, but specifically not to push students away from ha...

Dems are suggesting emergency inspections of all 'enviro-hazard' possibility oil rigs. And they want the oil company to pay for the inspection. A Senator from Louisiana wants 40% of oil revenue from the government to go to the gulf for clean up efforts. The US needs to be very careful how it handles this. We all want the mess cleared up, and engineers on both the government and private industry side have been working since April 20th to solve this crisis, that said we must not use fear-legislation to void ourselves of oil production. Can you imagine the sheer cost of oil with a failing Euro and if private industry decided that 'working for the US was simply not worth it'. Do you believe China or Russia would offer the same regulation? How about waters off of Cuba? This needs to be extremely well thought out, something Congress does not do well.

Ask yourself this, when in history has the United States at a Federal or State level ever levied a tax and then repealed it completely? Article Legislatures have a nasty habit of misleading their constituents into believing things can be temporary. They do this by stating things like "budget gap" or "we may need to cut schools", they use these because they are buzz words to open the door to taxation. Who wants to see little children standing on the street because the school can't afford to bus them in? Nobody, that is what the legislature preys on. The critical problem is that legislatures have proved zero ability to keep budgets in line, instead they tend to increase their spending and absorb anything that was a surplus. Sadly states that find themselves creating temporary taxes will find relatively quickly that these taxes become constant, they may get reduced, but much like the "Homeland Security Level" they will always exist.

Read this, it will some up all this weeks news that really matters. Everything else is simply non-sense: Oil Spill - Can we all just stop talking for five minutes? Yesterday was all a flutter because some scientists, who haven't actually been down 5,000ft to the well site, claim that British Petroleum is essentially misleading everyone to the spill amounts. So all the news agencies were picking their respective sides. What should have been the focus is fixing the problem, stopping the spill. We can figure out afterwards who lied and what the damage is. There should have been more focus by the media on the fact that Transocean, who owned the Deep Horizon rig, is attempting to limit their personal responsibility so simply 24M dollars. This is a company that makes over 660M a quarter. Unless there was some paperwork in the lease contract between BP and Transocean that stated BP was responsible for any and all damages to the rig or aftermath there of, how do they not share equally in r...

Redistribute the wealth, get rid of that high and mighty richest 10% of the world, send the money to the poor countries. Well there are a couple facts you need to consider in these statements; 1) The USA is the richest country in the world and in fact is the center of the richest 10% so when you advocate redistribution of wealth on a global scale of the richest 10% you are advocating, if a US citizen, the removal of your own pay check. 2) How does wealth get created once the richest 10% is gone? 3) How do you stop the inevitable civil war and class war that follows such a move? It is simple and feels good to say "help the poor countries" however this is not a sustainable model for human civilization. Governments have tried for years to adhere to a concept of 'sharing the wealth of many', it has never worked. It doesn't work for a few simple reasons; absolute control brings absolute destruction, once the average citizen or peasant has their own wealth and food remo...

I'm a freaking coffee addict. I have enjoyed coffee since I was about 16 years old. The stories your parents are told by doctors when 'kids' drink coffee is usually; they will have their growth stunted. Well I'm 6'2" and my parents were both well under 6' tall. So I don't think that played out. I'm trying to make a transition from coffee to tea. Coffee has been found to have some relatively good benefits to the heart in recent studies but the considerable levels of caffeine and inflammatory responders isn't so hot. Tea has outstanding properties literally across the spectrum of the human body. Everything from reducing cancer risks, increased cognitive capability, helping the heart to the intestines are all items encompassed by teas. The trick to teas are as follows: don't add milk, add citrus (lemon, etc), drink 4 minutes after pouring. I drink roughly 6 cups of coffee a day, my attempt is going to be to reduce that to maybe 1 cup a day by t...

With the recent BP oil crisis in the Gulf of Mexico a lot of environmentalist are grabbing the soap box to get off oil. In theory I agree 100%, reduce your need for a fossil fuel as much as you can. But I don't say this to save a Polar Bear, I say this because I'd rather we had fuels we can recreate than ones that are dependent on discovery. My position is start simpler: 1) define what type of power we want vehicles in the future to utilize. (once we can decide on this, we can move forward with R&D. Right now we are stuck in the Beta vs VHS era where every company is competing for the next best thing, focus the industry) 2) start replacing other items instead of "gasoline". (come up with realistic replacements for lubricants, tar, plastics, rubber, soaps, etc.) 3) it would be interesting to see estimates on power grid use for example: what if all residential homes used 75% less power grid electricity? what if all commercial real estate over 50,000sqft was required...

I follow a series of news groups pretty regularly including: CNN, FoxNews, USAToday, WSJ and so on. One thing I've noticed that seems universal between all of them is the low level of education of their readers, primarily their commentators. Those would be people that respond via different social media to the articles presented. Routinely the audience takes only the headline, rarely the article and never an outside source, before weighing in with their ever beloved 'opinion'. This morning I watched a series of confused souls on CNN mock or praise the recent Obama pick for the Supreme Court. I'd argue that 90% of the people who posted their comments did not research the history of the Supreme Court, the history of those nominated and the practices and policies utilized. Instead remarks like "what a great pick" or "look at the fat lesbian" were the posts of choice. Three prime current events that point to the overall lack of universal education or even...

Well today is the day, May 9 2010 - Mother's Day. You wake in the morning at dawns first light; Children are quiet and nestled in sight. You ready yourself, for the day that's ahead, and gracefully rise and move from your bed. You begin your day with others in mind, not wondering when you will have your own time. Undaunted and purposed you move through in your way, dressing the children and preparing the day. An exceptional person, there is not quite another, Everyone in the home is glad to call Mother. Happy Mother's Day Rebekah.

Why be exceptional when you can be average. I mean there is far less risk when you lower the bar enough to step over it. That is essentially what Fed Chairman Bernake told students the other day. "Don't go for the Gold" in his words, maybe that is because he is printing dollars and hasn't used the Gold standard since 1971. Or perhaps because 1oz of Gold is worth one-thousand two-hundred and twenty-two of his paper Monopoly money. Who knows why he'd make a remark like that, maybe he was thinking of the decisions he has made in life. Leaving the Prof world for the finance world, stepping over his knowledge base for the salary it entailed and assumed 'power'. Fact is, you don't usually here financial icons telling people to settle for happiness over wealth UNTIL they have achieved their wealth, then they immediately know all. Just a tad hypocritical, but hey this is America. I keep thinking of the terms from the Constitution; 'promote the general Welf...

"Obama announced today that he was very encouraged to see that unemployment in the United States is crossing that critical 10% threshold. It was only a matter of time before we'd correct that 7% unemployment debacle led by the Bush administration, the President joked..." Wait, reverse that apparently he was overly excited by 290,000 jobs being created, not the loss of more than 290,000 jobs which led to the increase to 9.9% in unemployment. Article

This show is funny, like an estrogen rich "Cops". show It was very timely, one officer pulls over a truck on suspicion because most of the illegal people runners go a certain path. So she pulls a truck over to check it out. And no, it wasn't profiling, it was at night and she decided to pull the car before ever seeing who was driving it. She asks the driver where he is headed "New Mexico" he answers, she asks for his ID and how many people are in the car with him, '9' he says. Nine people, she asks if any are children "1" she asks 'how old', "2" the driver responds. She then asks the driver to step out of the car, he does without complaint. She asks anyone else in the vehicle if they have ID and if she could see it, out of 9 people 3 people had IDs, so she looks at the driver outside of the car ands reads an ID. "So how do you know Rita?" she asks. The driver looks puzzled, she asks again. The driver has now response...

Regardless of why you came here, if you are illegally here, you are a criminal. Point of fact. So how do you help this problem, first you have to ask why? - Looking for work - Escaping violence - Looking for a better future Those are some ideas I could come up with off the top of my head as to why you would be willing to break a Nations laws. If those are the reasons, how do you provide a path for citizenship to make people citizens that genuinely wish to be citizens and how to you get those that just enjoy being criminals out? We should spend a portion of our border control funds setting up institutions that would easily accept and be overtly obvious to bring in those fleeing violence. The US has a long standing practice of brining in any Cuban that can hit our soil. We need to have similar practices in place for any immigrant trying to flee violence. If you are looking for work and want to be a citizen, we need similar institutions in place along our borders to get people in programs...

The Problem: Herniated L5/S1 disc causing severe sciatica Example MRI: What is Sciatica: Sciatica causes pain, a burning sensation, numbness, or tingling radiating from the lower back and upper buttock down the back of the thigh to the back of the leg. Severe sciatica can make walking difficult if not impossible. Sometimes the symptoms of sciatica are aggravated by walking or bending at the waist and relieved by lying down. So what about the pain? Sciatica is often characterized by the following symptoms: Pain on one side of the buttock or in one leg that is worse when sitting Burning or tingling down the leg Weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg or foot A constant pain on one side of the rear A sharp pain that may make it difficult to stand up or to walk So what caused it? A herniated L5/S1 disc Interesting facts: - Herniated discs in the lumbar region are very common in active males age 30-40 - At the one and two year mark both surgical and non-s...

Contrary to popular belief, fuel isn't the main way we each individually consume oil. To those that think "we need to get off oil dependency" you need to first remedy the following completely, before worrying entirely about energy: When petroleum is refined, its various chemical parts are separated and some become gasoline, some lubricants, some asphalt, and others the raw materials for plastics and rubber and many more things. Here are some examples of what can be obtained from petroleum (crude oil, natural gas, and/or viscous or solid forms): Fuels - like gasoline, diesel, propane (many people use propane to heat their homes), heating oil Heavy bottoms - like asphalt, bitumen, tar Petrochemicals - used as a feedstock for many everyday products: plastic gadgets, tools, bags, toys candles clothing (polyester, nylon) hand lotions petroleum jelly perfume dishwashing liquids ink bubble gums car tires ammonia heart valves and many more

There has been all this talk about the devaluing of the dollar and rising cost of gold, well check this out. Greece just worked out a Euro bailout that is undisclosed to terms and amounts. I'm wondering what the effect will be come Monday morning on the Euro vs Dollar and market for Gold and other commodities. There has also been chit-chat about the life of the Euro now. Who wants currency for their country tied to a multitude of other countries, of which the economies are failing severely? What shock wave would be sent if the Euro collapsed? What happens to the dollars value? This could be good or bad for the US economy in certain aspects. It will be an interesting week next week. Hopefully in the bailout for Greece there are stipulations on what and how money is spent. Remember, you simply can not promise everything to everyone. Union debt has crushed Greece.

There is a small conversation starting with Eco-Liberals about pushing to stop offshore drilling with the recent explosion of a platform in the Gulf. Well lets do a quick analysis, how many times have you heard of one of these platforms exploding and sinking into the Gulf of Mexico and how many platform are there in the Gulf. Totals: Sunk: 1 Running: 4,000 with 819 manned Article So, less than 1/4000th has exploded and caused a problem. Logic states, no the industry is fine.

Article California figured it out, the key to stopping kids from being fat porkers is to remove plastic toys from their lunch. That's it. I didn't know kids in California had jobs and were buying their own food at McDonalds. Is there a 'Little Tykes" drive through too? No I'm sure somewhere there is a loser parent that is filling their child with fattening food. I'm pretty sure that sounds logical. But then again, this is California and there isn't much logic there. You know what causes fat kids, fat lazy parents. Parents that are either too busy watching Americana Idol, Tweeting, working or shoving food in their own face to pay much attention to what their kids are eating. More welfare state crap from the league leader. Why doesn't Cali just vote to remove all personal responsibility for anything, ever. I mean you're already about to break 50% as a tax bracket for Cali to pay for your useless piss poor programs, why not just make it 99% and take ca...

When you're discussing what you're being taxed you need to consider the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is a conglomerate of private banks with publicly appointed leaders. This is important because these leaders, appointed by politicians, directly effect you. How? Inflation. When the government sends billions and trillions of dollars to a program where do you believe they get it? GDP, as if they have a vault under the Capitol that has pure gold in it that they turn into dollars? Wrong. The Federal Reserve creates the money and devalues the currency in the long term. This becomes inflation (Simplified Of Course). Though you never receive a 'federal reserve tax' you do pay for it, every day and on every thing. The dollar today is worth 95 cents less than it was in 1912, prior to the Federal Reserve. Products don't gain value, your money loses purchasing power. This is controlled and manipulated by the Federal Reserve. Do you realize that until 1974 you weren'...

Obama speaks of financial reform, making government accountable and making tough choices while telling the truth to the American people. The "truth" is that America has become too social program dependent. We need to pull back these dependencies. We have spent far too much time doing whatever is possible and impossible to make class warfare the prime topic of debate: "Tax the richest 10%" "Remove tax breaks for the rich" "Remove breaks for big business" All of these comments are class warfare comments. What we need to realize and state are what we believe as Americans to be the core dependencies of the United States. Until we bracket what is important and critical, we can't cut costs. Everything is not priority one. The role of a leader, is to lead. The executive branch is suppose to lead. It is suppose to set the course for the land while legislative and judicial bodies organize and keep balances in scope. The job of a CEO is not to make gra...

Goldman Sachs was beloved by the Obama administration. GS was one of the largest contributors to Obama's presidential bid and Obama has hired numerous GS employees for his administration. For starters, Tim Geitner (The Secretary of the Treasury) and Gary Gensler (Obama's Trading and Futures Commission Head). Now over 50 banks were at the heart of the financial meltdown in the US and World economies between 2006-2008. So now the administration has pulled in one, one out of fifty, entity to hammer in a public spotlight. Ironically this is exactly when the administration is looking to push financial reforms. Everyone gets bent out of shape when they think of Wallstreet. They think bailouts, they think about their loans, they think about their debt. What seems to be removed from the latter positions is that you, John Q. Public, signed up for those debts. You did not however sign up for a bailout. Bush and Obama signed that for you. Remember back about 18 months when Obama signed in...

Article James Jones, the National Security Advisor for Obama, made an inappropriate joke the other day at a meeting. Basically going with a joke that discussed a jewish merchant tricking the Taliban over a sale. The joke was done to break the ice at a meeting, however the Jewish individuals present didn't find it too funny. He has since apologized. To me though, this isn't the real issue of this event, this is: The official White House transcript of the speech he gave, though the joke was said during the speech, was not included in the transcript. Hmm, nice transparency there. I guess we just leave out the bad parts, right? How Bush of you. Jones, a retired general, used the lengthy joke to break the ice before his address last Wednesday at an event honoring the 25th anniversary of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Interestingly, it was not included in the official White House-provided transcript of the speech.

Wouldn't it be simpler to just say "anything but white males". I'm throwing in the race card, the white race card. I find it annoying at least and discriminatory at most that the US seems fine with daily articles from OPEDs to POTUS saying they are concerned about everyone but white males over 25. POTUS put out a note for the 2010 elections today asking for : 1) Blacks Americans 2) Women 3) Youth To come out and vote. Last I checked there wasn't a 100% white male voter turnout, so why is there never one second of focus on this group? And why is it that nobody ever condemns this non-sense of kowtowing to everyone and using the "white guy" as the scapegoat? The logic used by POTUS is he was looking for independent voters, oh you mean the 2nd largest group in the Tea Parties. Pretty sure that cat is out of the bag there leader. Just wish Politicians could stop pandering and start being honest. Try watching the special "America" on the History Chan...

Article I'm glad to hear that Obama is glad to be getting out of private industry, sadly he should have never gone in following Bushs lead. Obama wants a financial system overhaul to avoid future catastrophes but no where in his proposed legislation does he comment to Fannie or Freddie Mac or the multitude of other "government" programs that caused the mortgage failure which catapulted the financial crisis. For those not paying attention Fannie/Freddie are lending institutions backed by the US Govt, and in being so they have to follow government direction. So when the government says "give loans to poor people" regardless of their ability to pay it back, these entities do it. Fannie and Freddie collapsed requiring truck loads of tax dollars to stabilize. Not a word is mentioned in reforming their practices.

Lets discuss the AZ legislation that provides law enforcement in AZ the ability to call ICE or detain you if you're an illegal immigrant. Contrary to popular belief on the liberal and conservative front, the bill does not allow police to say "hey a Brown guy, lets check his papers". No, the 4th Amendment of the United States still applies. For those that need a refresher, the fourth amendment guarantees US Citizens the right against unreasonable search and seizure. This means that the government has to have a reasonable cause to question you. So if you're speeding down the road and a cop pulls you over in AZ, it is well within the officers means to say "show me identification". There is nothing illegal about that. This non-sense that police will be running around simply questioning people for their "papers", as those that like to claim Nazism like to elude to, is exactly that..non-sense. This bill is a direct result of the Federal Government not do...

Shocker, Obamacare is going to raise prices, not lower them as Obama claimed. This really is a shocker, I mean, who could have predicted that? I thought that Saint Obama said that it would all work out, hope & change. Article

Article This is amazing. Bertha Lewis, head of ACORN, called the Tea Party a movement that could be worse that WWII Concentration camps and Segregation. Basically accusing the Tea Party of all the worst things in the last 100 years on Earth. She is absolutely awesome, and paid for my your tax dollars. That is right, ACORN until recently was funded with tax dollars. So why don't you read about this piece of trash and her TRUE thoughts on America. Former ACORN head Bertha Lewis told a group of the Young Democratic Socialists on that they should "do everything [they] can" to build their organization, and then insisted that our times are worse than internment under the Japanese and the years of Jim Crow laws (h/t Morgan Richmond at BigGovernment): Any of these groups that says, "I'm young, I'm Democratic, and I'm a socialist," is okay with me. You know that's no light thing to do -- to actually say, I'm a socialist. You've got to know, actual...

ABC wouldn't run ads with "Plus size models" saying they show too much cleavage...ahh, these are lingerie commercials right? What are they suppose to show. And judging from the two photos used in this article, cleavage is about the same. What I want to know is, where are all the women's groups? And would it be different if the Fox network did it? article

Alright I'm not getting McCain coming out now trying to support all this 'immigration reform' now that a rancher was shot, IN HIS STATE. McCain hasn't done crap for his state, he has been busy pumping his profile up for the national platform and lost. Now he is acting as if he really cares about illegal immigration all the sudden. If you really cared sir, you would have taken care of your state over the last few decades.

Wow, pass me some of that crack, maybe I'll feel better. Article The Obama Administration, the same one that has us at a record 14T dollar debt..that is double the Bush Administration for those keeping score at home, has claimed it is doing far more to combat the deficit than Bush ever did. They even go as far as to say "Silly Republicans, the Tea Party people are mad at you". They really are out of touch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The Tea Party is not about health care or taxing currently, it IS about the fact that the spending in Congress led by the Commander and Chief is racking up an insane amount of debt for the future. Yes, taxes to date are near the lowest ever however, the taxes in the next 10 years will not be. Someone has to catch the bill for the 14T deficit that the Obama Administration has charged. That is the issue. Trying getting in touch, then make a statement. Now before all my libby friends run off and say "see you like George Bush" ah, no. A...

Today there are two rallies planned by people who like the bill of right, oh I mean gun advocates. These are citizens that have the right to bear arms and do, I always wonder why "anti gun groups" (that is like anti-free-speech IMO) go after these types of individuals, as if they are the ones that commit gun crimes like gang-banging at 3am and shooting up a neighborhood. To quote one such anti-rights individual: "What I think is important to note is that many of the speakers have really threatened violence, and it's a real threat to the rule of law," Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said of the program for the armed rally. "They are calling health care and taxes that have been duly enacted by a democratically elected Congress tyrannical, and they feel they have a right to confront that individually." Hey Josh, please tell me exactly where they advocate shooting up the Capitol in any form or fashion? Pretty sure yo...

Sometimes you just realize how weak you are. I've decided that I am not good at dealing with physical injury, to myself. I'm quite capable of helping others in pain or treating others as necessary for physical issues. I don't get queazy and I don't get nervous. However when it comes to my person, I'm finding a lot of flaws. I've found that I lack, whatever it is, that some people have that gives them the ability to deal with injury and being 'down'. For a while I bitched and moaned doing the whole whoa is me thing, then I felt as though I was wasting the time of my wife and kids and that they spent far too much time having to worry about me and not enough time having fun. That was quickly followed by the internal realization that I was not nearly as bad off as others. As I sit here laid out with zippy medical advice on how to get better, I think about how much I appreciate my family and how much I love them. Even the things my children do wrong or when...

Why is being a true American hard, well because it takes your personal responsibility to the next level. In many countries the citizens have turned over their mail key and told the government, 'hey you keep tabs on this, I'll pay for it". They did this for good reason. Being an active citizen is hard, it requires intellect, reading, knowledge, involvement and constant maintenance. Where as simply letting the 'government' work on its own requires nothing of you, offers you basic protection and simply requires you do something. In the United States our basic backbone is setup to keep the government and citizenry at odds. It is as basic as a check and balance. The same way the government is divided into three branches with no branch having absolute power over the other two (think of the game 'rock-paper-scissors'), the government is kept in check by the citizens and states. This point is what makes the United States so special. It is the only country in histor...