Stan wojenny w Polsce

A history lesson that interests me...
I'm trying to brush up on my Polish history, and after finding a great speech by Reagan given 28 years ago today it was the perfect time to start. The early 80's was a rough time to be in Poland. The Peoples Republic of Poland enacted Martial Law in an attempt to crush any opposition to the Communistic rule on December 13th, 1981. People were oppressed, media was monitored and controlled, private businesses were delegalized while other companies became under military management. The economy tanked driving up prices at least 20%. People lost thier lives.

On December 23rd, 1981 President Reagan gave an address to the nation and spoke about Poland. He announced that while private aid to it's citizens would continue, sanctions would also be in effect. "These actions are not directed against the Polish people. They are a warning to the Government of Poland that free men cannot and will not stand idly by in the face of brutal repression."

"I urge the Polish Government and its allies to consider the consequences of their actions. How can they possibly justify using naked force to crush a people who ask for nothing more than the right to lead their own lives in freedom and dignity? Brute force may intimidate, but it cannot form the basis of an enduring society, and the ailing Polish economy cannot be rebuilt with terror tactics.

Poland needs cooperation between its government and its people, not military oppression. If the Polish Government will honor the commitments it has made to human rights in documents like the Gdansk agreement, we in America will gladly do our share to help the shattered Polish economy, just as we helped the countries of Europe after both World Wars.
[...]
Yesterday, I met in this very room with Romuald Spasowski, the distinguished former Polish Ambassador who has sought asylum in our country in protest of the suppression of his native land. He told me that one of the ways the Polish people have demonstrated their solidarity in the face of martial law is by placing lighted candles in their windows to show that the light of liberty still glows in their hearts.

Ambassador Spasowski requested that on Christmas Eve a lighted candle will burn in the White House window as a small but certain beacon of our solidarity with the Polish people. I urge all of you to do the same tomorrow night, on Christmas Eve, as a personal statement of your commitment to the steps we're taking to support the brave people of Poland in their time of troubles.

Once, earlier in this century, an evil influence threatened that the lights were going out all over the world. Let the light of millions of candles in American homes give notice that the light of freedom is not going to be extinguished. We are blessed with a freedom and abundance denied to so many. Let those candles remind us that these blessings bring with them a solid obligation, an obligation to the God who guides us, an obligation to the heritage of liberty and dignity handed down to us by our forefathers and an obligation to the children of the world, whose future will be shaped by the way we live our lives today.

Christmas means so much because of one special child. But Christmas also reminds us that all children are special, that they are gifts from God, gifts beyond price that mean more than any presents money can buy. In their love and laughter, in our hopes for their future lies the true meaning of Christmas."
-President Ronald Reagan, Address to the Nation - December 23rd, 1981

Martial Law was lifted in 1983, but many form of control continued through the 80's. In 1989 Poland elected the first non-communistic president in Eastern Europe; Lech Wałęsa.

Thanks hun...

Wife sent me this. I think it fits.

A comment on my comment.

In my last post, I made a quick update in the comments when I looked something up for a friend...

I just looked up the tax a buddy will have to pay because he chooses to not have medical insurance. It's in Title 5, Subtitle A, Part 1, Subpart A, SEC 501, Part VIII, Subpart A, SEC59B. wow.
The answer is 2.5% of income, BTW. That's right, you will now be required by law to buy a product or face a punishment. This is the first time this has ever happened in America. *facepalm*

...and today there is a story about how some organizations and lawmakers will be challenging this concept as unconstitutional.

On the first issue, Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., on Tuesday renewed the call to examine the constitutionality of whether the federal government can require Americans to purchase a product. "I don't believe Congress has the legal or moral authority to force this mandate on its citizens," Ensign said in a statement, raising what's known as a "constitutional point of order." Such procedural challenges are rare and typically lead to a vote. The non-profit Fund for Personal Liberty, as well as a Virginia-based group called the 10th Amendment Foundation, already have threatened to file suit in federal court over this issue if the health care bill passes.

The Constitution allows Congress to tax, borrow, spend, declare war, raise an army and regulate commerce, among other things. Proponents of the insurance mandate point to the Commerce Clause in arguing that Congress is within its rights to require health insurance and dismiss such potential legal challenges. But foes say the across-the-board requirement is too broad.
"I personally do not believe the Congress has the authority to enact an individual mandate requiring a person to purchase a product from a private seller," said Kent Masterson Brown, lead counsel with The Fund for Personal Liberty. "I don't think the power is there. This is not regulating anything." He said his group would be joined by the Washington Legal Foundation in filing suit against the health care bill.
Even though Obama argues that the mandate is similar to laws requiring drivers to obtain auto insurance, opponents cite several key differences. First, the auto insurance mandate is avoidable, since anyone who doesn't want to pay doesn't have to drive. Second, auto insurance is mandated in large part so that drivers carry liability insurance to cover damages to other people and cars -- not themselves. Third, auto insurance regulation occurs at the state level.
-Health Care Bill Could Face String of Legal Challenges

Talkin' 'bout my generation...

I just asked "So, assuming representatives truly represent the American people, why and how did this pass?"

Yet I think a large portion of my answer is in my post...
"Most adults under 30 approve of this plan"

The under 30 crowd. My generation. Many of whom might not get The Who reference in the title of this post. :) Many of which have succumbed to the 'gimme' mentality we have the stereotype for. Many of which have not finished college. Many of which have lost any sense of hard work. A generation which has a very short attention span. Most of my under 30 friends are hardcore liberals and it's so hard to understand why. When I really dig into it though it's because they fit into one of those categories. They have low paying jobs and blame the world on it. Maybe the stripping business wasn't the best life choice for you, and THAT's why you can't afford health insurance. Your career as an actor doesn't bring in the big bucks? Gee, that's no surprise. You didn't finish college and am struggling to jump-start your music career... you know in one of the hardest entertainment industries and can't afford the best health insurance? No-kidding... You dropped out of college and expect a great job? Despite how good of a person you are, why should I be forced to pay for your choices? To be fair, why should you have to pay for mine? God bless you all for doing something you believe in, but it's not my responsibility as a taxpayer to fill the gap in your pocket. (Perhaps my responsibility as a friend, but that is a not a mandate, or forced tax)

The sad thing is, all these people have or can get free/cheap health insurance. You get what you pay for. I don't have the best insurance because I choose to spend my money on other things like my home, a car, and cable TV. Plus when I do file a claim, I too have to pay thousands of dollars. Thanks God I finish college, didn't get hooked up on drugs or drinking, and realized that I only deserve what I work for and nothing should come free.

Man, I hate my generation.

Three out of Five citizens agree, the health care bill sucks!

60-40. That ratio represents two things. First, it is the ratio of votes that helped move the new healthcare plan through the senate. Second, it is the approximate ratio of people who oppose the bill to those who support.

Here's some stats from Rusmussen to back that up... (Week of Dec19th)
-55% opposed, 41% favor (Just 19% Strongly Favor the plan while 45% are Strongly Opposed)
-Senior citizens: 60% opposed, 33% favor
-32% of dems, 80% of rep, and 64% not affiliated with any party oppose the health care plan
-57% say passing nothing would be better than passing this, with 54% saying they will be worse off if it passes.
-53% say it will most likely lead to lower quality of care
-58% say it will drive the cost of care up
-66% say free market principals would reduce healthcare costs more than government
-Most adults under 30 approve of this plan, while a majority of every other age group oppose

Representatives have accepted what essentially equates to bribes in order to pass this. The public does not want this by a wide margin. It is unconstitutional to require someone to buy something just for living. These representatives purposely hide the bill, spend less time discussing it than most other bills, and fail to even read and understand everything that is in it. The goals outlined are either not met with this new legislation, or can be achieved with far less cost in the free-market system. This does not address tort reform, inter-state sales of insurance products, or massive fraud and financial shortfalls in the current government run medical systems. We are going to start paying immediately for this, but won't see results for 4 years. Ten years of payment will support six years of this healthcare. The majority of healthcare professionals fear this reform. Lawyers love this reform.
So, assuming representatives truly represent the American people, why and how did this pass?

You say Copenhagen, I say Copenhagen...

I was REALLY trying hard to stay off the topic of global warming, because I feel it doesn't deserve the be discussed with everything else going on in the world; but yet again, I fail at keeping my mouth shut and irony is in full force this month. The international meeting about global warming is being held in Copenhagen. What ungodly blistering heat will they encounter as this meeting about the immediate distruction of the globe by fire and drought?

 Forecast for Copenhagen - Wednesday
Cloudy with heavy snowfall. Maximum day temperatures around 2 degrees Celsius, minimum night temperatures around minus 3 degrees Celsius. Up to fresh wind.

Well, break out the suntan lotion and surfboard! IRONY!

Fort Hood...

I have a co-worker who's husband is at Fort Hood and even though her 24 year old heart only has to support like 100 pounds (while holding a brick in the rain), she still nearly had a heart attack. Thankfully, he called her and is safe. Unfortunatley, there are at least 13 other families who have lost a hero, 30 other families who have to deal with injuries, and coutless others who have been affected by the horrible actions of a man who didn't want to deploy - despite reaping the reward of the voluntary military system we have.

It's such a damn shame.

The NBC affilliate of my (and the big O's) hometown of Chicago had a pretty blistering report on the his initial response to the shootings.
-A Disconnected President

He's usually a great speaker, but apparently (I have yet to see the video) he dropped the ball on this one. Here's a spot where I'll cut him a bit of slack - but only a bit - there are far more important things to think about in this situation. His word selection and timeing are nowhere near the top of the list.

My prayers go out to the victims and families.
I'm imperfect so can not forgive in the way God would want me to, so I hope the attacker has a slow and painful death.

LHC - God is REALLY protective of his particles...

In my last post about the LHC I questioned the theory that the Higgs Boson (which I affectionatly call 'Higgy-B') will cause nature to "'ripple backward through time' to stop the LHC ... like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather" .

Well Higgy's back at it again, this time not using electromagnatism and thermodynamics to screw up it's own birth. Oh no, this time it brought out the big guns...Higgy's weapon of choice now is the evil (those with wheat allergies hide your eyes) BAGUETTE!

This weapons of mass destruction was beleived to have been deployed by an indiginous bird after a hearty meal of the gluten filled product. Luckily civillians monitoring the LHCs stats noticed irregularities before catostrophic damage could be done by the winged terrorist.
(More at SkyNews)

No eye witnesses have come forward. Hopes to catch the assailant are low as they are considered an extreme flight risk.

There are three kinds of lies...

I was having a discussion with someone a few weeks ago about inflation and the risk the FED is putting the country in with it's constant creation of money. As I discussed in my "*Let's Say..." post, the more you circulate, the less worth each unit holds. Seems simple enough. But then it was announced that there will be no cost of living adjustment for Seniors through social security because there was "no inflation risk" this year. This caused two thoughts. First, if there was no inflation risk and we purposely hold back the increase from these seniors, why then spend $13 billion and give them each $250 checks? Considering their largest cost-of-living increase in 25 years happened last year (5.8%) due to inaccuracies, seniors would actually receive a cut in thier Social Security income this year if calculated fairly. I'm not for cutting their income necesarily, but I question the need to give them $250 bucks when they were just denied an increase - seems more like "Oh crap, they were denied a COLA and now they might be pissed and not support a health bill - let's buy them off and look like the good guy!".

My second thought, and the reason for my post, is the reasoning for the decision - no inflation.

It's no secret that the FED is running printing presses like crazy and pumping money out faster than we can keep up with. So my question was why have we seen no inflation despite this? The main reason is that the banks are saving our butts. Just because the FED makes all the money in the world available, doesn't mean it gets put into circulation. This was a misconception I was under.

"The following chart shows that bank reserves held at the Fed have increased 100-fold over the past 14 months -- from around $10B in August of 2008 to around $1000B ($1T) today. [Nov 2009] It is important to understand that while this explosion in the reserves of US depository institutions has rightfully prompted much discussion and consternation, it hasn't directly added to the total supply of US dollars (bank reserves are not counted in monetary aggregates such as M1, M2, M3, MZM and TMS). The reason that bank reserves aren't added to the money supply is that they do not constitute money available to be spent within the economy; rather, they constitute money that could be loaned into the economy or used to support additional bank lending in the future."
-Bank Reserves And Inflation

So as long as the holdings remain in reserve inflation can be kept limited. The biggest worry I have is when this money does start being loaned out without careful consideration about it's affect and then what I expect would be a failed attempt to pull the money back.

"...money enters the economy at specific points and therefore affects different parts of the economy in different ways at different times. (As an aside, this is why monetary inflation is such a popular policy. If increasing the money supply caused all prices to immediately rise by a similar amount then nobody could benefit from the inflation, but the way inflation actually works is that the first receivers of the new money obtain a benefit, at the expense of everyone else, by getting to spend the money before it loses purchasing power. The first receivers of the new money tend to be the government, the banks, and the supporters and pet projects of politicians.)
[...]
The main point we are leading to is that the damage done by injecting a lot of new money into the economy cannot be undone by subsequently removing money from the economy. With regard to the current situation, the monetary profligacy of the past year has propped-up many businesses that should no longer exist and prompted investments that would not have been viable in the absence of the "stimulus". These businesses and investments will inevitably fail after pressure is applied to the monetary brake. And if the central bank refrains from tapping on the monetary brake then an inflation problem will emerge that even the Keynesians can recognize."
-Withdrawing the Stimulus

I won't bore you with more thoughts on that, but here is an article that may help in understanding the relationship (and lack of one) between reserves and true money supply - and another article which helps explain the Inflation process. I know I posted a bunch of links, but they're worth reading IMO.

By the way, remember how the stimulus package was to save jobs? Unemployment rate is at %10.2.

"Figures often beguile me, particularly when I have the arranging of them myself; in which case the remark attributed to [Benjamin] Disraeli would often apply with justice and force: 'There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.'
-Mark Twain

Bitter Taste of Validation...

Today I see there are 11 more videos of schools having kids praise Obama, the man. (General "Go America" speeches are great - but to glorify and worship a president who hasn't done much good is disgraceful)

Yesterday I saw an article on North Korea building up its nuclear arsenal and using it to threaten the US into bilateral talks. (*Let's Say...)

I also saw an interview with Johnathan Hoenig of thecapitalistpig.com talk about the sinking dollar. He discussed why the dollar was originally backed by gold, what happened to it when it was separated from gold, how the dollar is worth 25 percent less than 10 years ago, and also presented a 100,000,000,000,000 (100 Trillion) Zimbabwe bill worth virtually nothing next to a 10oz bar of gold worth about 11,000 dollars. (*Let's Say...)

There have recently been some whispers of a new stimulus package.

Many companies that took bailout money (and some that haven't) are being pushed to cut their wages by government.

How to earn credibility when you are not credible? Ignore opponents, then call them crazy, then call them dangerous, then criticize them, and finally you attempt to silence and control them. Conservatives, then any party who supports the Constitution (TeaParties), then Fox news, then Humana and the Chamber of Commerce, and now the internet?

All these things I've seen very recently and realize how dead on I think I hit it on multiple posts of mine. =/

Glad I started a blog while I had the chance...

Thanks to John from WSB for posting this...

From:http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html


Secret copyright treaty leaks. It's bad. Very bad.

The internet chapter of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a secret copyright treaty whose text Obama's administration refused to disclose due to "national security" concerns, has leaked. It's bad. It says:

* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn't infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied to the internet -- and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living -- if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* That the whole world must adopt US-style "notice-and-takedown" rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused -- again, without evidence or trial -- of infringing copyright. This has proved a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

* Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)
For more on this goto: The ACTA Internet Chapter: Putting the Pieces Together

Sometimes I Overthink Things...

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I'm interested in way too many nerdy/scientific things. I made a post about the LHC thing to a forum I'm on and it led to the discussion of timetravel.

Me: Speaking in terms of traveling from present day to the past, I beleive there may be some form of limited particle time travel to be applicible for data transmission perhaps, but I'm pretty doubtful about solid matter. I'm also having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of mother nature "time traveling" back to stop the discovery of something. The first word that came to my mind when I read that was fate - and I don't like the idea of predetermination.
H:You mean like in Deja Vu?
Me:  I consider DejaVu to be strictly a biological response in our brain associating current perceptions to recorded memory ones and perhaps some rare connection in the brain - I would fail to see how particles could have the properties to travel back in time and also be able to affect biological events - but I admit that is an interesting concept and in the future who knows what may be possible.

I was actually thinking more along the lines of being able to control the speed and/or production of a Tachyon-like particle at one time, and a detector sometime in the past. This would allow data transmission in a simple form (think morse-code). If these particles truely exist there would be challenges. First you would need to be able to detect them. Second, you would need to know exactly where to look. Third, a method to alter them would be needed. Four, once altered you would need to return them back to their old state (speed) and direct them to the correct spot. I'm sure there's a million other issues too, but that's just what came off the top of my head in the last three minutes. This would explain why we have had no apparent visits or messages from the future - if we can't even detect the paper, how can we see what's written on it?
Side note: I say Tachyon-LIKE particles, because most of the theory of tachyons states the ability to do the things I mentioned (alteration, isolation, encoding) aren't even theoretically possible.
H: I meant the movie not that phenomenon.. where they could send small items back into the past..
Me: oh...

Deja Vu...Good movie.

*facepalm*

Justice concludes black voters need Democratic Party

Washingtontimes.com ran an article on the attempt of KINSTON, N.C. citizens to get rid of party affiliations in local elections and the Justice Department stopped them saying partisan elections are needed so black voters can elect their "candidate of choice".

*Deep breath....count to 10*

I just gave you a short summation, but the article is a good one to check out. Bottom line is that they have to get approval before any changes to their voting system. They wern't given approval because the Justice Department felt that "white voters in Kinston will vote for blacks only if they are Democrats and that therefore the city cannot get rid of party affiliations for local elections because that would violate black voters' right to elect the candidates they want.". Nevermind the fact that the area is predominatly black democrats - and they're the ones voting for this change!. (the article cites people saying they can't remember the last time a republican won anything there)

How does removing party affiliations stop black voters from electing who they want? Won't everyone vote for who they want anyways? White voters are more likely to vote for a black democrat vs. a black republican? Really? If white guy A votes for black guy B, what difference does ti make if he's democrat or republican if his opinions don't change? What about the fact that many black voters voted for Senartor Obama without knowing his policies only because he's half black? Should we say those were racially motivated votes and throw them out? Did that violate white voters rights?

My point to be made is that people should vote for whoever has the best ideas as it aligns with your views. If voters vote based on race, I think it's wrong, but it's their perspective and their choice to do so. Why should the Justice Department block a change the people (again, mostly black democrats) want, saying it's for their own good? I beleive there is a tone to this that alludes to one of two things really going on here - both of which are pretty sad: The first is that the DOJ thinks black voters are too dumb to actually look into what candidates beleive and that they need that "D" next to a candidates name like an answer key. Second, and more likely, is that if you remove the party system everyone will be stripped of any preconceived notions and will have to rely only on the facts of what they beleive. Voters will have to research the candidates and learn about politics. Strangly enough, this scares most politicians - especially democrats.

I despise the idea of parties because (almost) everyone has great ideas and also some really bad ones. The steriotypes that the democrats are all welfare-loving government increasing communists and that all republicans are crazy God/gun loving radicals are hard to stray from - and if a candidate tries to they're shunned by all voters.

Strip politics down to the people. Let each individual represent THEIR ideas and THEIR goals. DOJ, stop getting in the way.

LHC - God is protective of his particles...

So I found this story about the Large Hadron Collider and the theory that we will never find the Higgs Boson because "Nature will 'ripple backward through time' to stop the LHC ... like a time traveller who goes back in time to kill his grandfather" huh? Nature itself time travels? We live in a universe that has solid properties and laws, so isn't it better to say time travel is not possible in the dementional space we reside in, instead of attaching this matter-based concept to "nature"?

Best part of the story is Professor Brian Cox, who kind of reminds me of my father-in-law, who says "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a twit" He's from England, so I think calling them twits is the equivallant to giving the finger, right?

Damn it's easy to be a theorist.

Peace Prize given to President Obama (nearly given to Senator Obama)

Here is an article that best says what I want to...

"Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning. Over the last decade the only requirement to win the prize was that the nominee had to be critical of George W. Bush (see Al Gore, Mohamed El Baradei and Jimmy Carter).
President Obama has broken new ground here. Nominations for potential winners of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize ended on February 1. The president took office only 12 days earlier on January 20.
Let’s take a look at the president’s first 12 days in the White House according to his public schedule to see what he did to deserve a Nobel Peace Prize:
January 20: Sworn in as president. Went to a parade. Partied.
January 21: Asked bureaucrats to re-write guidelines for information requests. Held an “open house” party at the White House.
January 22: Signed Executive Orders: Executive Branch workers to take ethics pledge; re-affirmed Army Field Manual techniques for interrogations; expressed desire to close Gitmo (how’s that working out?)
January 23: Ordered the release of federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries. Lunch with Joe Biden; met with Tim Geithner.
January 24: Budget meeting with economic team.
January 25: Skipped church.
January 26: Gave speech about jobs and energy. Met with Hillary Clinton. Attended Geithner's  swearing in ceremony.
January 27: Met with Republicans. Spoke at a clock tower in Ohio.
January 28: Economic meetings in the morning, met with Defense secretary in the afternoon.
January 29: Signed Ledbetter Bill overturning Supreme Court decision on lawsuits over wages. Party in the State Room. Met with Biden.
January 30: Met economic advisers. Gave speech on Middle Class Working Families Task Force. Met with senior enlisted military officials.
January 31: Took the day off.
February 1: Skipped church. Threw a Super Bowl party.
So there you have it. The short path to the Nobel Peace Prize: Party, go to meetings, skip church, release federal funding to pay for abortions in foreign countries, party some more.
Good grief. 

Editor's Note: Although President Obama had only been in office for 12 days before the nominations for this year's Nobel Peace prize closed the entire process actually takes a full year. According to the official Nobel Prize Web site invitation letters are sent out in September. Every year, the Norwegian Nobel Committee sends out thousands of letters inviting a qualified and select number of people to submit their nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The deadline to submit nominations is February 1. -- Two hundred five names were submitted for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, 33 of which are organizations. A short list of nominees is prepared in February and March. The short list is subject to adviser review from March until August. At the beginning of October, the Nobel Committee chooses the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates through a majority vote. The decision is final and without appeal. The names of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are then announced."

wow. I'm speechless.

Where I was...

I was working at the paintball field. It was just Chris and I - the field was closed on Tuesday, but we had work to do. The only electricity we had was a generator to run the tools we needed to build the new awning on the main building. We had been working for a while when we needed more supplies from the main shop about 15 minutes away so we jumped into the truck to head back. I think when we first turned on the radio, we quickly changed the station trying to find some good music instead of talk - but when every station was void of anything pleasing to the ear, we listened. "An airplane has hit the world trade center". Our initial impression was probably what most would have had "What a horrible accident". It had just happened, and just as we got back to the main shop we heard a second one hit and we knew what was happening. We ran into the store and grabbed a cheap old TV to get some picture of the news. The TV was old and barely worked - we actually used three hangers and tin foil to get a fuzzy picture of two burning buildings. To be honest, I don't remember much after that.

That's where I was.

Of all the reasons for me never to forget my six years working for Badlandz, Bad Boyz Toyz, and Shocktech, that's the worst.

Are you SERIOUS?!

In my one post here praising the big O's administration I expressed my concern for it...

This speech was a pep-talk to school children accross the country. When the discussion about him bringing politics into the speech came up and considering the fact that the speech was not released early, I was skeptical and pretty angry. If you control the perception of the children of a nation, you control the nation. (10 points to whoever can tell me who thought that in history) Calling on impressionable youth to "help [the President]" is wrong - maybe they shouldn't help you and your socialistic friends destroy our founding piciples. Maybe they don't beleive what you beleive. With that said, it seems he listened to the American people this time and reworked his words. Thank you, Mr.O.

Today a video came out of school children singing praises to Mr.O. WHAT?! This is taking a page right out of Hitlers playbook! The school should be ashamed of themselves. If this happened with Bushor Reagan, there would be a shitstorm already. Where is the storm? Click here for details.

What the kids are saying...
Mm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama

He said that all must lend a hand
To make this country strong again
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said that we must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
He said red, yellow, black or white
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Barack Hussein Obama
Yes!
Mmm, mmm, mm
Barack Hussein Obama
=======
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth say "hooray!"
Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
To make this country's economy number one again!
Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
So continue ---- Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
Hip, hip hooray!
All praise Kim Jong Obama.

OK, so I added that last line myself. With things like this and schools needing to notify students on how they don't need to say the pledge of allegiance I'm sooooo homeschooling my kid.

Democracy vs. Republic

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America,
and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

I thought we lived in a democracy, too. I'm starting to do some research into the difference between a democracy like we're taught to think of ourselves as, and a republic which is the true intention of our founding.
Please post up your thoughts if you know more than me (not hard to do) about this, or what you find interesting about the conept. To get you started, here are the breif definitions from military training manuals. The following comes from Training Manual No. 2000-25 published by the War Department, November 30, 1928.
DEMOCRACY:

• A government of the masses.
• Authority derived through mass meeting or any other form of "direct" expression.
• Results in mobocracy.
• Attitude toward property is communistic--negating property rights.
• Attitude toward law is that the will of the majority shall regulate, whether is be based upon deliberation or governed by passion, prejudice, and impulse, without restraint or regard to consequences.
• Results in demogogism, license, agitation, discontent, anarchy.

REPUBLIC:

• Authority is derived through the election by the people of public officials best fitted to represent them.
• Attitude toward law is the administration of justice in accord with fixed principles and established evidence, with a strict regard to consequences.
• A greater number of citizens and extent of territory may be brought within its compass.
• Avoids the dangerous extreme of either tyranny or mobocracy.
• Results in statesmanship, liberty, reason, justice, contentment, and progress.
• Is the "standard form" of government throughout the world.

Old manuals, I know. These were ordered destroyed back in the Rosevelt Era, BTW.
More ramblings and whinning from me to come on this after I put forth my 8th grade reading skills to work. =)

Now Time for Something Completely Different!

I'd like to think I'm a fairly open-minded person. Most of my political rants are pretty damning of the current administration as a whole, and not always specifically about the man in the office. But I also will absolutely give credit where credit is due.

Nice speech, Mr.President. It was refreshing to read it.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/MediaResources/PreparedSchoolRemarks/
I have not seen the video, but I read the transcript - so maybe I need to say "Nice speech, Mr.Speech Writer" but I'm sure the Big O had something to do with it.

This speech was a pep-talk to school children accross the country. When the discussion about him bringing politics into the speech came up and considering the fact that the speech was not released early, I was skeptical and pretty angry. If you control the perception of the children of a nation, you control the nation. (10 points to whoever can tell me who thought that in history) Calling on impressionable youth to "help [the President]" is wrong - maybe they shouldn't help you and your socialistic friends destroy our founding piciples. Maybe they don't beleive what you beleive. With that said, it seems he listened to the American people this time and reworked his words. Thank you, Mr.O.

I try and bring up things about this speech that I don't like and I'm stretched thin.
I try and say I can do without the "I'm just like you" crap, but kids do need to see the sucess from a child who grew up in poverty. Even if I don't agree with his policies, he has done more than I can dream to. Having a good work ethic is something lacking in many of these childrens role modles.

I don't like that this speech has a feeling of going to young black kids in particular. "I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star" He redeems himself at the end of that sentence though "when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things. ... being successful is hard." Despite putting that as a complaint, I am not blind to the differences in racial quality of education and life in general. It is well documented that minorities have a higher drop out rate, get into more legal troubles, and score lower on standardized tests. Because of this, at least I understand where he's comming from. (perhaps someday I'll go into what the causes of these things may be, but not here or now)

I think that's about all I could complain about.

He basicly told kids "Life is hard work - and if you want great things, you have to decide to have an education. Get off your butt and do it". THANK YOU! Other presidents have talked to students, but I don't think it ever got accross as well as this speech does.

"But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future. ."

Bravo, Mr.President. Bravo.

wow

I don't feel so well.

The Furious Angels present: "All Good Things..."

Bombshell...I'm a nerd. I played a game based off the Matrix movies. In this game the group I played with would make movies, and because of our great members, they were really damn good too. You can see most of ours in my youtube channel by clicking the youtube button on the top right of this page. This is our most recent release. It is also our last because the game shut down a couple weeks back. It is our Directors Cut of a version we let out just before the servers closed. It is about 20 minutes long, and if you've ever played MxO, the last few minutes might get you choked up. A lot of work was put into this by our group. Enjoy!



MxO Forum Post: http://forums.station.sony.com/mxo/posts/list.m?topic_id=36300030227
Torrent Download: http://www.followtheangel.org/DirectorsCutAllGoodThings.torrent
Facebook Stream (FULL): http://www.facebook.com/pages/Furious-Angels/146559142066
Youtube Stream (PART 1): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxShMbnvHPg
Youtube Stream (PART 2): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PysFH25-Txo

Rights vs. Goods

I just ran into an article by Ron Paul about something my wife an I have had a long discussion about... Is health care a right? I don't think so. I beleive healthcare is something we pay for different level of service and because some people decide to become health care professionals, they deserve to be paid the same way that any provider of other goods are. I agree that all children should receive some sort of care, because if their parents are a waste of space it's not the kids fault, but the second they hit 18 they're paying for it like the rest of us. Also forget healthcare for the deadbeat mother of 5 who pops them out to keep receiving free care. (yes, it happens often)

"Political philosopher Richard Weaver famously and correctly stated that ideas have consequences. Take for example ideas about rights versus goods. Natural law states that people have rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. A good is something you work for and earn. It might be a need, like food, but more “goods” seem to be becoming “rights” in our culture, and this has troubling consequences. It might seem harmless enough to decide that people have a right to things like education, employment, housing or healthcare. But if we look a little further into the consequences, we can see that the workings of the community and economy are thrown wildly off balance when people accept those ideas."
Healthcare Is a Good, Not a Right. - Ron Paul

A Tragedy...

When I was a kid, I was pretty logical. My wife says I had no childhood because I didn't have an imaginary friend, and I think my parents were annoyed I figured out Santa wasn't real fairly early. Even as a young child I couldn't fathom the idea of a fat man on a sleigh powered by animals that could fit millions of toys in his sack and visit millions of homes across the world. Maybe if he walked to some of those houses carrying that sack he wouldn't be so fat - then again, he wouldn't be so jolly either. I'm getting off track...My logical brain has defined my personality more than any other identifiable trait.

Growing up I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I just knew I was good with computers. As a kid I remember hearing people say I would have made a great lawyer. I'm still not sure how they sensed that so young, but I'm betting they were right (if it wasn't for all the damn school involved!). Halfway through college I knew I didn't want to do anything with computers, but I was nearly finished with my degree; and you need a job, a paycheck, and a degree to get a good one of both. Now that I've been in the workforce a while, I realize how much I hate computer work and am desperately trying to find out where I can fit in and if not love, at least enjoy my job. Flying is Number one on the list, and some form of police/detective work is a close number two, but the other day wifey mentioned something that could make the top five...Politics.

It's no surprise that lately I've bitched, whined, moaned, and cried about a few of the insane political decisions being made in this country. I have to say I have no idea where it comes from, but I know it isn't my upbringing. My family never discussed politics, never watched the news, never paid attention to political decisions, or at least did not expose that to us kids. It didn't come from some sense of purpose or any activist activity. I've never spoke out for or against anything in any official manner - student counsel really doesn't count. I started caring when I moved away from home, and really when I got my own home and mortgage. I'm at the age where I have to think about what kind of life my kid(s) will have. When I started thinking about how the decisions politicians are making will affect my kids, that's when I started caring...and getting pissed. Again, I'll go back to my logical mind - it's one based on what is supposed to be common sense. The hand-me-out mentality of the majority of America pisses me off, and for the government to codder to that makes me even more upset. If there's one thing I learned growing up it's that you get what you work for. (yes mom/dad, I did pick up on that) My parents kept money so far off my mind, but seeing my father bust his ass every single day at work, only to slave over a stove every single night for us really hits me now that I'm old enough to understand it. If you want something, you work for it. If you can't afford something, you don't get it. If you can't afford something and buy it anyways, you’re in debt, owe someone, and can't get more in the future. See? - Common sense.

I imagine I'm going to be hated by my kids. I won't have any problem saying no, despite wanting them to be happy. I won't have a problem spanking them when they're children to teach them some actions have consequences. I'll have no problem keeping their allowance as teens - or forcing them to get a job if they want gas money. I'll have no problem giving them enough freedom to make their own mistakes and get a lesson about failure. If my child stole my credit card and maxed it out, I wouldn't tell them it's ok and give them another one. If they're 30 and still living at home, I might "strongly suggest" they GTFO. Perhaps if our political leaders treated the country more like their own children, we wouldn't have such a spoiled, self-centered country.

So where would I fit into a political career? I have no idea. I don't care enough about votes to rally, and I'm far too lazy for it anyways. I'm incredibly blunt and forward, so certainly wouldn't fit in with the suit and tie politicians. (I can only imagine what would happen the first time I dropped the F-Bomb on CSpan) I don't deal with bullshit well. I don't take it, I see right through it, I call it what it is, and I don't let it pass. Like I will do with my children, I will try to educate, but I'll also let the community make their own mistakes.
A child was killed a couple weeks back around here because he was trying to beat a semi truck across a VERY BUSY road. By VERY BUSY I mean it was a 4 to 5 lane city route. It is tragic he died, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Kids will be kids no matter how well they are brought up (I can't count how many times I did something stupidly deadly and came out ok). BUT, the crap that was being spewed on local news message boards was insane! It is a lower income area, and many made it a race thing. The people in the area claimed the town should pay for shuttles to take kids from one area of town to this park on a usual basis. Their reason? "If it happened in a white neighborhood, you'd have busses!". (I'll go into a tirade over race discrimination some other day) The best response? "We have shuttles... they're called friendly neighbors and minivans. We take our kids to the park ourselves so they don't get in trouble or hurt, say by a semi truck". Bravo. I hate the fact that a child died in our neighborhood, but to use that as an excuse for more "free" stuff pisses me off even more.

Taking this into consideration, I know for sure I would not make it in politics. When the request for busses came to me I'd say the same thing the "good neighbor" said. I would basically say I'm not providing shit because you failed to teach your kid to avoid large trucks and didn't want to drive them yourself. I would then be called a racist and I'd roll my eyes and call them a F*@%&#! idiot and be voted out of office.
Those who want free things are usually those who want everything free. Anyone smart enough to make positive change in this country is too smart to go into politics.

Are you serious?

REALLY?!

How much does a promise cost?

WE'RE NUMBER 1! WE'RE NUMBER 1!

What in? Well, put on your party hats and cue up "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow"....

MOST EXTERNAL DEBT IN THE WORLD!_{*noise maker*}

WHAAAAA?!!?!

ok, so this is not completely new news. First of all the $13,641,807,000,000 (13.6T) debt is a stat from the end of 2008. Secondly, we were also number one back in 2007. I know exactly what you're thinking... "HEY! At least we're not Japan who has an astounding 217 percent of GDP total debt!" (You DID say that, right?) While this is true, Japan mainly just owes it's own people. It's external debt is less than %15 of ours. Plus, you know what external entity owns the most of the US? China at $767.90B...know who's a close #2 in that list? JAPAN at $686.70B! *noise maker* WOOHOO!

That sounds pretty bad doesn't it? Well if that made you cry, stop reading. The United States is the place of dreams and promises. Unfortunatly, most promises cost something in return. So how much are the promises of this great land going to cost us for this fiscal year?

Federal Budget Deficit Tops $1 Trillion for the First Time.

That's ONE year! Sooooooooo who owns these promises? Not the people who benefit from them, only the people who provide them. They're the ones owed money. Next time you complain about China or Japan "owning us", take a look at where we really owe money, what we're promised for the debt, and what we actually get. Most of our debt is our own fault - or at least our governments fault. No taxes if you make less than $250,000 a year? Yeah right. Think we can overtake Japan on owing ourselves too?!

Side-thought:
If I created my own money and then tried to buy your car with it, would you accept it? You'd be wise to turn my offer down, because it has no real worth. When creating something from nothing, especially perceived wealth, true value declines rapidly.

And yet...we keep spending. *facepalm*

A dream can be a dream come true, With just that spark in me and you.

Don't be fooled by the title of this post...This is really just a random middle-of-the-day post about nothing. When thinking of a title, though, I thought it was brought to life by my imagination - which for some reason reminded me of the song used at the Imagination! Pavillion at Epcot at Disney. I use to go there as a kid - even had a stuffed Figment, the purple dragon.

Anywhoo, back to the randomness of my mind.
Ten things that please me, or piss me off. (Guess which ones are which)
10.Dogs
9.Cats
8.Work
7.Money
6.Babies
5.Internet
4.God (Big G)
3.Swimming
2.Driving fast
1.Cheesy Garlic Bread

KA-POW!

So it's June, which means BONUS TIME!! Despite the current economical status, I have busted my butt at work, and it has been noticed a little bit. I managed to pull in a decent raise. Instead of spending all of it on my car, which I had originally planned to do, I instead spent it on something I've been wating for about 3 years... A Smith & Wesson M&P pistol.

I bought it from megasports firearms in Joliet - a great place for everything 'weapons'. They have a huge selection of pistols, rifles, knifes, accessories, and a very nice indoor range as well. I've been wanting an M&P for about two years, but they use to have a few stoppage issues. They seem to be comming from the factory now with polished feed ramps and chambers and the stoppage issues have seemed to end with the change. The only close competitor was the Springfield XD, but the M&P's feel in the hand won me over. I went to the shop expecting to buy a used compact in .40cal. I've always wanted a compact. Despite living in a no-carry state, I like the way they fit my smaller hands better, and if I planned to move I would get a carry licence. Plus this used one cost less. After speaking to a few of the sales associates and giving it some real thought I pushed aside the compact .40 for a fullsize 9mm.

This really is a better option for a few reasons. First, it will be used primarily for sport shooting and home defense. 9mm is cheap and while a .40 beats out a 9mm any day in the home defense situation, I have the belief that a 9mm will still do a damn fine job. Any intruder who is shot with a 9mm will most likely be in the same position as one shot with a .40; laying on the ground or running away. Plus having more firepower doesn't mean anything if you can't control the recoil, which leads me to my next reason for getting a 9mm full size. My wife will be shooting this. She comes from a very different family than I. I was brought up around guns, hunting, and taught to respect weapons, but not fear them. Her entire family beleives that all guns either have killed, or will kill another human. She told her mother I bought a gun and her first response was "Is everything ok?!" as if I was a threat and planning on using it on my wife. *facepalm* My wife has been very open to learning about weapons and is working on her fear of them. This week I am taking her to our first safety course, then next week we will finally get to shoot in the class. I'm excited. =)

Last week I went with a friend and my father to the range for some shooting. I put 134 rounds through it, and am quite happy with my results. It seemed to shoot low for all three of us, so I'm unsure if that's a sight issues, or just all three of us are shooting wrongly, but it's still close enough to put someone down. I plan to get some Burnell work done and also install WT 2-dot night sights. Perhaps that will change my impact point a bit.

PICS:
-In the case
-Left
-Right
-Slide Back
-Broken Down

TARGETS:
-First Mag: 15ft. 2 way low,8 slightly low,7 good shots. Drawn on bullseye was aimpoint.
-Second and Third Mag: 20-25ft. 3 low, 1 slight high/right, 30 good shots

Lazy people don't break hips

BILLY MAYS HERE FOR.... Awww man, I just can't make a joke about the "BILLY MAYs Defibulator!" or the "BILLY MAYs hot hot pine box". After watching the first few episodes of Pitchmen I started to get my BM impression down pat.

[yell loudly] [point with both hands, all fingers outward - think karate chop] "HI!, I'm BILLY MAYs" [bring in one hand, made into a slight fist] "and I want to tell you about the" [point again, all fingers outward] "amazing new"  [point to product, one finger] <product name here>!
I never bought anything from you, but gosh darnnit, I wanted to. RIP BILLY MAYs.

The Middleman, DA...

David Axelrod... Makes me think of Axel Rose. Any name with "Axel" in it just screams rock n' roll, doesn't it?
Two quotes from him. The first was shown to me by my wife. Her note is directly below it...

“David Axelrod says Obama expressed his condolences to the Jacksons. He said Obama saw the pop star as a spectacular performer whose life had sad and tragic aspects.”
Awesome. Our President spoke about MJ sooner than he spoke about Iran

Well said, love. The reason? Much like Obama, MJ was a celebrity. While entertainment has a huge affect on society, it isn't really important in life. Therefore it's easy to quickly decide the correct, nearly scripted, condolence soundbyte. Unfortunatly, "I think your election was a sham, and so do your citizens. I don't want to play nice with you anymore" was on the very last page, hence why it took so long.

Next up...(from washingtonpost.com)
"There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going," Axelrod said. "We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."

I need to disect this a bit, because this quote is classic "don't do this" when it comes to college writing/speaking skills.

• 49 words
• "keep the process moving", "keep people at the table", and "keep the discussions going" are all the same idea, repeated.
• "number of formulations"... ok, how many? What are they? What are the results so far?
• "We'll wait and see"... I won't hold my breath
• considering "wait and see", "people at the table","long way down the road", and "finish that journey" are all just sayings with little to no relevance to anything, only about %70 of this MIGHT contain some useful information.

What's this all about? Could be anything, right? Basicly that promise the big O made about not taxing folks back when he was criticizing McCain for it? "I pledge that under my plan, no one making less than $250,000 a year will see any type of tax increase,". Well he kind of lied.

It drives me nuts how most peices of political information are so scrubbed and vauge, it's not information at all. Mr.RockN'Roll could have said that about anything!

Excuss me, Sir. What can you tell us about the declining spermwhale population and the opposition to whale hunting in general?
"There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going," Axelrod said. "We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."

Exceuss me, Sir. How does the current administration feel about legos? Has there been any discussion about what is liked more - blue or red blocks?
"There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going," Axelrod said. "We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."


Excuss me, Sir. Do you have any comment about the numbers of starving little people debate teams who also like to participate in long distance races?
"There are a number of formulations and we'll wait and see. The important thing at this point is to keep the process moving, to keep people at the table, to the keep the discussions going," Axelrod said. "We've gotten a long way down the road and we want to finish that journey."


Excuss me, Sir. Can you comment on the possibility of additional stimulus packages despite thier assurances of help yet obvious failures, and perhaps why the big O's administration wants to take back one of it's key primary promises?
...I think you get the idea.

MJ...

Yes, he was a musical icon. Yes, I loved his music. Yes, he changed the music business. No, I would not trust my child with him.

What is it with people praising his life so much because he's a celebrity? I am shocked at the forgiveness of the public and media. Am I really that old-time to have morals and not be blinded by fame? Why should a persons skills null thier personal actions? If I kill one person, and save another from certain death, do they balance out? If I beat my wife, but have a few hit songs like Chris Brown, does that make it ok? What if I like urinating on underaged girls, but "I belive I can fly"...do I get off then like R.Kelly did?

I'm not even talking about legal justice; even I have gotten out of a ticket or two. I'm talking the state of morality in this country and around the world. If I have a neighbor that has been accused of child molestation, has childrens parties at thier place all the time, built an amusement park for them, has no sembalance of an adult life, invites children to his room for sleep-overs I'm sure as hell not going to trust my child in the same area as him! What type of parent would!? Why is he being praised so much? The tallented, kind-of-adjusted, black MJ died a LOOOOOOOOONG time ago. I respect his music, but can never praise the man.
He hasn't even made any good music in like 10 years. Big whoop.

By the way, I never wish harm on anyone *cough*except child molestors*cough* and I do think that thoughts like this are rough for the family. He matters to them, not me. If one of my family members died I'm betting Janette won't write about them on HER blog! =P So yes, I do feel bad for the family because they have reasons to mourn. The rest of the world needs to grow a pair and suck it up.
EDIT:
Some amusing or interesting thoughts I've read today on MJ...

• NOOOOOOOO not MJ! Someone tell the paramedic to grab him by the heart and just "Beat it"
• To quote Chris Rock, "the brother was turning clear..."
• I wish I could fast-forward a week of my life and get Michael Jackson's death and the "global mourning" out of the way. Hopefully this won't last long and we can get back to our regular scheduled programming and keep an eye on socialist Obama and how he deals with nuclear war with N. Korea, unrest in Iran, all the while sinking our economy deeper into annihilation all for the betterment of the global citizen.
• It's a shame how the media covers and adores him and other non-essential personel and they look the other way at the real hero's of our Nation ie: all the Congressional Medial of Honor recipiants that have passed on as well as every Silver, Bronze and all that have gone above and beyond in the line of duty. The folks that deserve it don't get the recognition the media gives whacko & other entertainers."
• BT: What's really a shame is that Wacko Jacko stole Farah Fawcett's thunder.
  Farah was making the news big time in the morning until Jacko kicked the bucket. Now they've been talking about it ever since and probably will be for weeks. We'll probably not hear another thing about Farah.
  T: So one famous beautiful white woman died, and one ugly white woman died.
• The idol worshiping media is all over the Jackson distraction like stink on a heaping pile of manure while pushing Ed Mc Mahon's and Farrah Fawcett's death to the back pages of oblivion. Also, it's a good excuse to ignore little things like the Cap & Tax bill our gang in DC is spiriting through.
• Ho hum, ho hum. Ya' know what I hate about the whole thing? The 400 text messages I received in a 30 minute span from everyone who thought they were breaking the story to me.
• G: I wouldn't be surprised if he was faking it. He's weird like that.
  Y: No better way to pay off that debt...
  T: Except to actually die. Then he wouldn't have to worry about it.
• Wait a minute...Heath Ledger died?
• I haven't seen this much butt-kissing since the election...

*Let's Say...

*Let's say someone pulls a gun on you and your family and threatens to kill all of you, and you have every ability to take them out what do you do?
A. Laugh at them
B. Ignore them
C. Say "I'm going to do something about this...after you shoot one of us"
D. KILL HIM!

This is the best analogy I can think of to describe the situation with NKorea right now. As you may have guessed, Obama has decided to pull out option C. *facepalm* While I wasn't a huge fan of Bush, at least he would have been dealing with the NKorean threat by now. I mean, he went in to Iraq for WMDs with no valid proof (dumb move all together), and here is lil'Kim TELLING US he's building nukes and weaponizing every bit of plutonium they can. He's threatening the US directly. How can the big O be such a fool?! He wants the world to be this utopian place where talking gets things done all the time - they don't. One of my highschool teachers had a very odd lesson one day. It revolved around the idea that WAR SOLVES EVERY PROBLEM. Granted, it may create 2, 3 or 100 more in it's place, but force and threats gets things done.

*Lets say you have 10 kids. "you have 10 kids" (bud-dum chish!).
You give each of them 10 dollars. (10x10=$100)
Little Jimmy decides to sell his new toy truck and earn %5 of the total GDP of the kids. (5/100=$5)
He now has $15, which is 15% of kid GDP.

Now lets say you want to stimulate your kids spending, and give them an extra $90 FOR NOTHING. (100 + 90x10 = $1000)
If Jimmy wants to sell his truck for the same $5, that will be only .5% (half a percent) of kid GDP.
He will now have only %10.5 of kid GDP. ((100+5)/1000) Ripoff. Not much of a worthy investment and he's probably better off keeping his truck to play with.

If he wanted to end up at the same %15 of kid GDP he would have to sell his truck for $50.
This is an increase of %1000 from his original price of $5!

Has the truck changed in any way from the time it was worth $5? NO! Are there less trucks, driving up demand? NO! Therefore, has the worth of the truck increased? NO! Are any of the other kids going to buy a truck for $50? NO! (Maybe cross-eyed Stephen, but that's because he stuck a fork too far up his nose and became the "special" one). So little Jimmy is now out of the retail trucking business along with %9.4 of the rest of the world. (Unemployment rate as of this writing)

To solve this issue, would you:
A. Assume the $90 was too little and instead give each child and additional $200
B. Wait for the kids to spend the money on other more important things (no truck would be bought for a while) until the money supply came down, and then monitor and limit the amount of money to the stable $10

Stimulus packages = dumbest move you can do to solve an economic crisis. You can not change the fact that money, and the spending of that money varies. It has its highs and low, and history has shown that when you try to counteract one of these highs or lows, it is counterproductive!

The more currency you pump into any society, the less valuable each unit becomes. It's all about percentages people! %1 of $100 is $1. %1 of $11,000,000,000,000 (11 trillion) is $110,000,000,000!!! Our monetary system works on worth, and worth is based on PERCENTAGES NOT AMOUNTS! If there was only $5 in the whole country, I'd be a rich man. This is not rocket science! Why is it that I get this, my six year old niece probably gets this, yet our president, previous president, government officials, and the freaking FED don't get this! It's their job to understand inflation. You know what happens to me when I don't do my job, or in this case I costs my company trillions of dollars? I don't get a raise, I don't get extra vacation time, I don't get a private jet. I get canned. fired. trashed. given the pink slip. a boot in my rear. If I'm very lucky I'm not sued.

Maybe in the future I'll write about the fact that this money isn't even real. Long gone are the days where money meant something - it usually meant gold or silver. With the FED having complete freedom to create as much money as they want without backing it, it's anyones guess as to how bad it will get. To give you an idea, though... 100,000,000,000,000 (yes, one-hundred-TRILLION) Zimbabwe dollars recently sold on ebay for $14.10USD. My poor neice may be ahead of her class counting over 100 now, but she has a LOOOOOOONG way to go.

*Let's say you own a wonderful home and assist with a support group for abused families. Let's also say you are fairly close (proximity, not emotionally) to your neighbors; a single mother and a teenage daughter. The mother and the girls father are divorced and live separately, but for some reason (another rant I'll get into some day) the mother has full custody. Are we setup correctly? ok...

Considering that you live close to your neighbors, you overhear some things. The mother is very loud, and abusive. She berates the girl, and tell her that it is good for her. "It builds character!" She brainwashes the poor girl into believing everything she says and it really screws with her social life, self image, and even physical health. One day the girl tells her mother she's sick of it and wants to live with daddy. The mother laughs, says he's no good, and then beats her. You can hear the fight, and know exactly what's going on.

Would you:
A. Keep watching TV. You may not like her, but she has a pool and you don't. Plus the mother is still invited to the next support group for abused children.
B. Tell your family a week or two later what happened. "gee, that didn't seem right...", yet still keep the invite open to her.
C. Call the cops. Get the girl out. Take back your invite to the mother. Speak out against her and support the father

If you picked A or B, leave my site now. here's the thing... I completely agree that we should not meddle in our neighbors affairs. But I also believe in the saying "show me your friends, I'll show you your future". This whole situation with the Iran election is a huge deal for them. For Obama to be weak and not say anything denouncing the acts there for so long is such a shame. When election results came back less than three hours determining that Akmahinajajarbinks was the winner by a landslide when the other guy (who cares about his name?) was expected to win by the landslide, the first words out of Obama's mouth should have been "That shit don't seem right!". Apparently it's how things work in his line of business though - I mean he did come out of Chicago. Don't get me wrong, I'm from there and love it, but I'm pretty sure Obama got a few votes from many dead relatives of mine.

*Let's say you're a hard working American. Let's also say the government raises taxes to pay people who don't work as hard. Are you going to work as hard in the future, knowing most of what you are working for is going to lazy people?

*Let's say you're not a hard worker. Let's say you're a slacker. Let's also say the government gives you everything you need - housing, food, complete medical coverage, and a welfare check all paid for by the guy busting his ass. You even have enough money to buy a big screen TV and rent a limo to bring you to the welfare office to pick up your check. Are you going to want to bust your ass?

“I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.” – Ben Franklin

I'm not struggling to pay bills because I took the entire $250,000+ mortgage that the bank offered me. I'm not struggling because I have a bigscreen TV. I'm not struggling because I spend money on the things I want instead of the things I need. I'm struggling because despite buying a home I knew I could afford, being happy with my 23 inch TV with a purple spot on it, and doing everything right, the amount of money I have becomes worth less and less every day. The stimulus packages don't help us, they hinder us. I'll hold onto my 'trucks' until I can get that %15 back. $5 just isn't worth what it use to be.

Smells like... victory

ok, so it wasn't napalm I was smelling, but gun powder was a good substitute.
Last Friday my wife, one of our friends and I went to our second pistol safety course. We finally got around to shooting. The first pistol I ever fired (many many years ago) was a Ruger .22, and that was the first one we started with. It was nice to shoot it - .22's are always fun little guns to shoot. The big deal was having my wife shoot. A mentioned in a previous post, my wife has no experience with guns. so to see her shoot was pretty exciting. She was nervous, as expected, but did a very good job. She only shot about 5 to 7 yeards out, but was very accurate and handled her weapon safely. She loved shooting the .22 and wants more of it. When we moved to the .38 revolver she was a bit more nervous and wasn't thrilled with the recoil. Despite not liking the .38 as much, she shot a ton through it. I, too, did not like the .38. it had more to do with the grip and revolver frame than any "recoil". While I offered my 9mm to her to shoot she declined. She's not quite ready for that step up apparently - which is fine. I'm thinking when we get some cash I may pick up a small .22 for her for when I head out there.
I shot pretty well. The .22 and .38 were dead on accurate so I was hollowing out bullseyes with it. The I switched to my new 9mm. As before I was shooting a bit low. I was consistent - as in I would put bulletts through the same hole multiple times, but they were always 2-3 inches low at 7yrds. I had our instructor, which has 40 years shooting experience and has won many target shooting competitions, shoot my gun to see if it's the gun, or me (and my father and friend, who was also shooting low). She took 5 shots. 3 were on dead center, 2 were close to it, none of them were low. So it's me. Until I work on my trigger control I have to just adjust my aimpoint and/or sight picture. I do plan on getting both new sights and a trigger job anyways, so I imagine my shots will be better after that too.

BUSY!

So other than my incredibly busy work schedule, just about every weekend until the middle of august is booked.
June
26th - Walking all night in Relay for Life
27th - Possibly going to a large gun show in Kankakee (I'm getting more "central Illinois" by the day. *facepalm*)
July
3-4th - Celebrating America. =)
10-12th - Party witht he family
17-18th - OMG A FREE WEEKEND?!
25th - Driving to Iowa for a wedding
30-2nd - Driving to DC!! (Ugh. This 12 hour drive will be a rough one)
On top of that I have to...
-Work on my exception to policy waiver for the Air Force
-See a dentist (I think I need my wisdom teeth out. ugh)
-Keep the wife happy =)
-Arrange some items on my web page for when I head to DC because the server is comming with me.
-Stay sane at work. Harder than it sounds!
Fun times.

Pissed off...

Yes, I'm angry enough to get on the border of sewaring somewhere that my family looks at. Sorry mom, sorry dad, sorry to my aunt - I'm no angel for the following post. I"M FU@(ING PISSED off!

On Memorial Day my wife and I went to a friends house for good times. We (the host and I) invited two of our friends. With these two friends they brought thier perspective girlfriends and another person who we know as the driver. All is good, the more the merrier, whatever... We played bags, I cooked some food on the grill, good times were had by all. Wifey and I left early because she wasn't feeling so well.

The next day we find out more than $100 was stolen from the hosts best friends purse. PISSED. Apparently she saw the two girlfriends walking away from the kitchen where her purse was and they left the purse wide open with both her checkbook and wallet out on the counter. She didn't say anything at the time because she didn't want to cause a scene, which the host and I are upset about now. No one will admit to stealing it, and my 'friends' are defending the girl who we think took it. One of the girls was somewhat social, and outside with us playing bags almost the whole time. The other girl was drinking quite a bit, and many times in the house alone while the rest of us were outside playing games or cooking. She was not social with us, and pretty much there to drink. Obviously she denies it. The other girlfriend denies knowing anything about it. One of my friends immediately got defensive and the other blames the dog for opening a purse on a counter she can't reach, opening up the wallet AND checkbook. The dog is cute, but she isn't that smart. I doubt it would be anyone else there because we were all friends of the host. Even theives try to not steal from friends. You'll steal from someone you wont ever see again in a house you're never going to goto again.

I understand the reason for stealing, I really do. You want something, and can take it. I just have morals and empathy. I don't do it because it's wrong. That money was going to be used to buy gifts for her husband who's in Afganistan right now!

Between issues at work, the Air Force thing, and this it's been a very rough two weeks. Oh well: I'm employed and impressing people and am managing to keep wifey happy lately - so it's not ALL bad. =)
I have to go put my halo back on now and write about my new weapon purchase: M&P 9mm.

Short and bitter...

Medically DQd for a waiver I had in for a proceedure that I thought was allowed. Still looking into ETP proceedures, but it's not looking too good.
I'm too broke to go back to school, and too old to live with parents to lessen bills (and the wife would just LOVE that =/ ) so I have no clue what I'm going to do now. Just suck it up and realize hating your job and location is just part of life?


EH, I'll figure it out.

Job Security...

When I was a child I remember seeing my father come home from work stressed out. He would sometimes be red in the face, mumble about things that really didn't matter just because he had work still on his mind, and basicly would vent through cooking. It made me almost upset at his company that it had this affect on him and I expressed this to my mother. She explained in very simple terms; "Your father fixes problem for a living. If there are no problems, there's no work, and therefore no job".
I bring this up because I've been very busy at work lately. Basicly I've had a great deal of responsibility dropped in lap in the last two weeks and I'm sorting out how to deal with it all. I'm doing fine, but I finally get it. Everyday I keep telling myself this problem gives me another three/four/ten days of work before they can get rid of me. =) Not that they would, but it certainly makes having a job you're not thrilled with a bit easier.

Geowhatnow?

Me and the wife have picked up a new hobby. It's easily one of the most nerdy things we have ever done together - and that's saying a lot! With the recent purchase of a GPS we've gotten into Geocaching. I won't bore you with the details of what it is - besides, you obviously have the internet, use it!

So here I add to my dorkiness with a stat page of our new hobby...
Our geocaching experiment.

The Cut

"Where we work is a vicious place. I’ll attempt to describe it, but the full comprehension comes only in a sky full of hot metal and smart missiles that all seem to be looking at you. You’re in a machine that is so fast and powerful that you intuitively know if death comes, it will be full of hot fire. Frail human that you are, you will be shredded to pieces. Worst of all, you’ll be alone in a fierce place where your comrades can’t hold you while you die. This is the real environment of a fighter pilot. Fighter pilots above all else, know who among their peers are hunters and who are hunted. They absolutely will not fly into a tough combat situation with a wingman they don’t trust, and not all men make the cut."
- Jerry R. Caddick