Rights.

I read quite a bit about supressing the second amendment, these are usually the same people who decry any suggestion of doing the same to the first amendment. The basic premise is the second amendment is just so dangerous. I would argue that Freedom of Religion, Press and Expression is much more deadly to a population. I feel both are very important to protect.

Black Friday, when people get up way to early to buy things, was marred by violence. In every case I have read it was because of people behaving badly. The Toys-R-Us shooting and the Walmart trampling had any number of bad choices by people, mob mentality and just idiotic reaction. The common theme here?

people...

My friends.

My friends did something that is humbling and awesome. I cant say more for obvious reasons.

Thanks, its gonna be amazing.

Stella Joke

A man rushes into his house and yells to his wife, 'Stella, pack up your things! I just won the California lottery!' Stella replies, 'Shall I pack for warm weather or cold?' The man responds, 'I don't care. Just so long as you're out of the house by noon!'

Found this, posted it, no offense Stella...

Holidays Christmas

Tom Blumer has written yearly stories on the MSM's strong preference for using the term "holiday shopping" instead of "Christmas shopping", but they preferred to describe layoffs as relating to "Christmas."

He has Google News searches in November and December in each of the last three years :

2005-2007 News stories have overwhelmingly preferred "holiday shopping" on the commerce side, and have used "Christmas" over twice as frequently in articles about layoffs.

Interesting stuff?

Higher learning Gouging students!

So I catch this little CNN story, it is a sad tale of the time. Students feeling the pinch. Such tough economic times. Yadda, yadda, yadda.

My mind goes back to an old posting and I wonder. Why not have these institutes of higher learning drop the tuition fees to help?

In this story one college kid bemoans his $2000.00 he owes. Hmmm, hey University of Arkansas, write this off? You taught him so well he will make a great alum someday right?

I mean, where are those MSM types who are going after these Greedy colleges?

Presidential Pardons

At the end of a Presidency it is tradition to pardon a bunch of people. Since being in office, President Bush, has issued only 171 pardons. He may issue more, he has that right.

Bill Clinton awarded 140 pardons on his last day in office for a total of 396.

President George H. W. Bush. 75 pardons.

Oh the record holder (if it is something you can call a record) Franklin Roosevelt: 3,687

On the other end of the scale William Harrison Zero...

LA Times actually has something to read!

To me this is amazing the LA Times is slowly dying, just like the NY times. While they scramble to figure out why, they just might have been desperate enough to print something worthwhile, for kids even!

Not long ago I posted The real story of Thanks Giving (Triumph over socialism). A write up by Paul Schmidt. This is the true story from Plymouth Colony Governor William Bradford's diary. Somehow, someway, our school system lost or never had any of this information.

So Thanks LA times.

Bruce Lee pwns Ping Pong

Okay, so its a clever commercial for Nokia. Still, dang fun ad!

MSM is really full of crap.

There is this MSM out of context video going around that should never have made the news. Because it is George Bush however, this kind of crap is perfectly acceptable. Kudos's to Jeanne Moos, CNN for airing the correction.

If you bought into this crap, you may want to check your values.

Industry

GM officials say the average UAW reaches $39.68 an hour, with another $33.58 an hour for benefits. So that's $82,500.00 a year gross wages with $69,700.00 a year for benefits or $152,000 that the Auto industry pays for each worker.

Some US manufactures of auto-mobiles are not doing well. Depending upon what you read this is attributed to any number of things. The entire auto-mobile industry is not having the same problems. VW is up %15, China auto-makers are said to be looking to buy GM, Toyota and Honda are also doing well.

Some people think that regulation to make autos Greener is needed. Time Magazine

I think the national average wage being 40,405.48 and the high cost of labor making cars has something to do with it.

Family Matters

Let me go out on a limb here and propose the following crazy theory...

The best family situation occurs with two caring parents consisting of one male and one female. One of which is an involved stay-at-home parent the other is a competent provider. The further you move away from this ideal the situation worsens.

So if you have one caring parent, its less then ideal. etc...

Catholic Church .vs. Obama

First off I am a practicing Catholic, in good standing with the Holy See in Rome. Long after Pres. Obama passes this mortal coil the Catholic Church will still be around.
The MSM has been squaring off the Church and our new president. The MSM is using interesting terms in describing Cardinal Staffords critique on President-Elect Barack Obama’s pro-abortion position. The reporting says it is a "scathing rant" and a "diatribe."

Umkay... Here is the audio from his speech.

A rant? A diatribe? Is there really anything new here? Obama and the Church strongly disagree on embryonic stem cell research, abortion rights and civil unions for gay couples. This this is pretty common knowledge (unless your Pelosi). I would not anticipate the Church to change stance on any of these topics anytime, Pres. Obama, being a politician may.

I feel these are very important moral arguments with harsh future implications that need to be stated and re-stated.

Civil Discourse at the highest level. CNN's 'story' is just vilification disguised as journalism.

Warcraft .vs. Parenting

So this little ditty of a news item popped up: Boy collapses after playing World of Warcraft

First thing that popped into my mind, is how the news got ahold of this? Next was how distracted would a parent have to be to not notice the kid is on a game for 24 hours? Why did it take the kid having a seizure for the parents to realize that sitting on a game with little food and sleep, may be something they want to restrict?

Next David Brown (author) goes to the shrink view and yadda, yadda. The entire thing smacks as a scare, with nothing really of substance. For instance, why did Mr. Brown totally ignore the fact that WoW has parental Controls?

Every day of the week is broken up into 30-minute segments, and each segment can be set to "able to play" or "unable to play." As mentioned above, players cannot log in during a scheduled break, and if a player is already in the game when a scheduled break is set to begin, the game will automatically disconnect the player.

Mr. Brown, in my opinion, is a lazy reporter going for sensationalism over substance. What could have been a practical, informative artical, is now just another finger wagging hit piece.

Joe

Periodically you see someone who reminds you of someone on TV or the Movies. Or, you are told you look like someone in some film or TV show.

This is Joe:

Aside from some off kilter political beliefs (snark), he runs a software firm and has a blog (linked to the right as Delta Joe). I met him through Shoo, at Cal-Tech, way too many years ago. He dated my sister-in-law and tells a nice story of how I rescued him from living at LAX.

Anyways, I have always thought he had a passing resemblance for a certain actor, one of my favorite actors.

This is Christian Slater:
He currently has a show on NBC called My Own Worst Enemy.

I'm right, they look alike?

Shoo and Rob

Robert, Robbie, Bob, Shoo, Boobert, Bobby. How redundant is it when your two best friends share the same first name? Well, not exactly. I recall when I first got to know them, Shoo was Robbie and Robert was... well, Robert. Got do know them, is not as accurate as, became aware of their existence in the universe. Because, I can not recall actually meeting them.

I do know we went to the same elementary school. Shoo recalls us getting into trouble in a class room and being made to sit apart from each other. Robert I recall playing around on the field and Roger K. being there. Forced to define a point in time were friendship occurred, would probably be in Cub Scouts.

Living in Southern California in the same suburban housing tract was wonderful. Being easily within running distance of great friends, still far enough away that you had to let your folks know where you were playing. And we had quite a mix of family dynamic to witness. I was the youngest of five. Rob and Shoo knew my sister Myrna. I am sure they met my various other sib's along the way, just not sure on the who and when. Having a 15 year gap between oldest and myself, makes for a family going in quite a few directions. Rob had one brother, Shoo had two. I was around for Darren's entry into the world. Both Shoo and Rob had fights with their brothers. Something I never had experience first hand.

We all had our back yards as well. Mine had a pool, Shoo's was huge with quite a bit of vegetation to hide in and play "shoot-em-up", add to that a tower and play fort. Rob had a small backyard guarded by a vicious dog that would eat you. That dog scared the crap out of me. I kept expecting it to tear Rob limb from limb when he went outside. Rob also had a tree house and "the ditch".

California had these series of open air rivers that would whisk away ran water. This was just over his fence, and we could go play there. Unless the helicopter came over, then we would jump back over the fence or hide.

We had quite an adventurous childhood. Plenty of camping, long scout trips, visiting with relatives, playing Lego's, eating baked Alaska, riding mopeds, going to the beach on county buses, various classes in various schools with various teachers.

Did we always get along? No. Any fights were few and far between. It was one of those things where you couldn't stay mad long. Not sure we ever apologized in a formal sense. We just forgave.

We participated in each others weddings, without expectation. We try to meet online every Sunday and Tuesday, that in and of itself is a blast.

Anyways, I have been thinking about the extended family concept recently. I wanted to shout out to my two non-blood brothers. My life is much richer for knowing them.

Thanks Rob, Thanks Shoo (thank yous posted alphabetically)

Sunday Funday

The unexpected crisis following Obama's victory.

I have no clue what this is about. It's just amusing and bizzare at the same time! International appeal?

Connor interactions

When you have an autistic child, you tend to notice things that are considered normal and mundane with gusto.

Example; he came into the bedroom the other day, he looked up and noticed I was looking at him. Unbidden he stated\asked "I have to go to the bathroom"

I responded "Go ahead" and he proceeded into our master bath.

If this had been a typical 10 year old this would be rather ho hum. I mean what is the big deal?

Well, first off, he recognized a non-verbal queue. He viewed my expression as questioning what he was doing there. This is huge for an Autistic, because they can be in their own world and facial expressions are usually ignored or not understood.

His sentence was full and appropriate. He used 'I' instead of 'Connor' and the context was in keeping with the situation. Finally, he waited for my response before taking action. So this was an actual full conversation, full interaction.

I soared a little bit, because that was such a normal everyday interaction, yet something that shows growth and potential in my son. You could see how the same interaction in another house with another father and son would be overlooked, or viewed as mundane. Possibly even annoyance.

In my case it was a moment of joy that I could blog about.

Light hartedness

I read quite a few blogs. Over the last month or so they are rather terse. Any humor attempted on any sight tended to be at the expense of someone. And yes, I did participate...

Today, as odd as it seems. A somewhat light harted nature has woven itself through the Bloggernet.

Veterans

My Pop was in the Navy in WWII. His three brothers served as well, making my Grandmother a four star Mom. Uncle Donald never came home.

My Brother in Law Jim, served in 'Nam my brother Kraig was drafted. While I did sign up for selective service, I never entered the military (I think my mom is happy about that).

Two of my friends growing up served stints as well, Mike R. took a turn at the Army, Ronn was a copter pilot in Desert storm.

Renae is a friend of the family, scratch that, an extension of our family. She is currently in the Navy.

It is a day late. Thank you for serving our country.

Obama, Barak

Just for the record President Barak Obama does have my support. He is my president. To paraphrase one of my smarter friends I am ready to give him a chance. One thing I am looking forward to is a little more unity. He claimed that as a goal in his campaign.

and my Pop: Well, it doesn't matter what anyone says, lets see what he does in office.

I do have a tang of worry for him. I do NOT wish him to fail. I have quite a bit of dissent for his idea's and proposals. As soon as the smug gloating is over, I might actually start reading liberal blogs again...

MSM posting advertisements as news..

A while back my doctor wanted me to go on Statin's to help balance my HDL and LDL levels to some "healthy" numbers on some chart. After being on them for a week I started having problems standing up, that is to say, my knees hurt and I had to use my arms to transition from sitting to standing. At a family gathering, my brothers and sisters deduced it was in deed the Statin's and went on to tell their own stories of side effects. A call to my doctor and he said STOP TAKING THEM. He had told me to watch if my joints would hurt. They didn't hurt, they just got weak.

So I stopped them and my strength came back. We tried a few different ones and had smiler side effects.

So imagine my surprise to see this headline: The Benefits Healthy People Receive From Statin Drugs

Then the other shoe dropped today from Doctor John McDougals site: Advertising Passed Off As Research Confuses the Public Again

Dr. McDougal is an advocate for healthy diet and exercise over medication, so he had an agenda. He does point out the serious flaws in the study and documents them as well.

If your Doctor wants to put you on Statins, stop them from running to the next patient and ask the questions to get info about side effects. Also, ask your pharmacist as well. If your reaction is anything like mine, it will near cripple you and it will come on so slowly you may not relate it to the medicine.

Can Obama win over the MSM??

It is not often I read an MSM headline and laugh out loud. This is one of those rare occasions: How Obama Can Win Over The Media? It addresses all the pit-falls he must avoid and offers him suggestions like weekly press conferences, posting his schedule online and not complaining about the press...

At least the Washington Post seems to be capable of self examination. Deborah Howell "But Obama deserved tougher scrutiny than he got, especially of his undergraduate years, his start in Chicago and his relationship with Antoin "Tony" Rezko, who was convicted this year of influence-peddling in Chicago. The Post did nothing on Obama's acknowledged drug use as a teenager. "

Then Jennifer Rubin chimed in with a slightly different take: "The MSM is confessing. Yes, they were biased. Sure, they favored one side. But they don’t quite come out and say why. Worse, they show no inclination to do anything about it."

Oh, but do not get your hopes up that the old Media will start acting professional, As Reuters proclaims Media bias largely unseen in US presidential race ! Gah...

The big picture is this. The MSM lied by omission and turned tabloid journalism into daily headlines. If you thought that the news would look for truth to provide some kind of check and balance you were sadly mistaken. Luckily we have the New Media.

Where else can you find out that the Fed is hiding something, with the bail-out + spending bill that was ramrodded down our wallets?

Correcting the Internet

Umkay, from reading the various blogs I picked up the term MSM for Main Stream Media. I had a poster who inquired as to the meaning of the TLA (Three Letter Acronym).

I have come across various TLA's and if they do not become apparent by context, I would do a google search on them. For example: Define MSM. The internet has quite a bit of information at your fingertips.

If you had looked up MSM you would have found the following link: urban Dictionary

MSM:

1. "mainstream media", major TV networks and large newspapers. Blogs are eating into MSM eyeball share.
2. Abbreviation for "mainstream media". No matter who you are, they're not on your side.
   "Hey, Republican friend, did you see that news story on Bush?"
   "Yeah, the MSM is so biased."
   "Hey, Democrat friend, did you see that news story on Bush?"
   "Yeah, the MSM is so biased."
3. An acronym referring to the mainstream media The 'MSM' is pretty much everything but the blogosphere.

If you want to know why there is so much fear and hatred and blue .vs. red states, look no further then the newspapers and broadcast news. In fact, stop looking at them. Start finding some blogs that cater to your views and some that don't.

Election Analysis: America Can Take Pride

Thanks to Iowahawk who gave me the best post-election laugh to date

And so it begins

Who would have thunk he would bring back slavery? Welcome to the new America.

---UPDATE---

Prez. Elect. Obama must have had them change the site (I wonder why?) now the 'required' is gone and the Students get $40.00 an hour for volunteering. This means 100 hours hits the $4000.00 cap which is applicable towards collage.

Stay tuned for more runs up the flagpole...

It pours

So I have a new job, tech help desk for our county library system. It is a pay cut from my last job, which went bye bye last February. So, we are scaling back and being frugal.

So we had a plan that would slowly build back up our savings and such, still we need to figure out my take home and all that good stuff. So, now the van breaks, and breaks bad. Transmission bad.

*sigh*

On the bright side, with the downturn in housing, all the property values went down, except the tax assessors who determined the values went up. So we have higher property taxes again. Whee.

Rahm Emanuel Obama chief of staff?

This is interesting, I did a Google look-up to see what kind of people Pres. Obama will surround himself with. This is an newsweek excerpt about his first choice for Chief of Staff:

Certainly, there is nothing bland about Emanuel and never has been. Although he once won a summer scholarship with the Joffrey Ballet, he preferred the combat of politics. As a Democratic Party official, he once sent a pollster who was late delivering polling results a dead fish in a box. Old Clinton hands still laugh about the night after Bill Clinton won the 1992 presidential election. In his book, "The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution," Chicago Tribune deputy Washington bureau chief Naftali Bendavid writes that, as about a score of them sat around a picnic table mushily declaring their love for one another, Emanuel picked up a knife and called out the names of different politicians who had "f–––ed us." After each name, Emanuel would cry out, "Dead man!"—and stab the knife into the table.

--Edited-- Turns out the first source I used was altered. This is a better link with better info.

So be it.

Congrats to President Elect. Barak Obama.

Time to rebuild and move forward. Hopefully, in 2010 we can get some Conservatives running.

Way back when this election kicked off I had a wish, That John McCain would NOT be voted President, I got that wish. Later on I had a wish that Barak Obama would NOT be voted in as President.

Looks like I'm at an even 50/50.

Palin 2012?

Great Election Quotes

Take it from me--elections matter. -- Al Gore

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry. -- George Eliot

I'm older than dirt, I've got more scars than Frankenstein, but I've learned a few things along the way.-- John McCain

Washington, D.C., is to lying what Wisconsin is to cheese.-- Dennis Miller

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.-- Groucho Marx

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.-- Henry Kissinger

Do you ever get the feeling that the only reason we have elections is to find out if the polls were right?-- Robert Orben, humorist

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're a thousand miles from the cornfield.-- Dwight D. Eisenhower

Ideas are great arrows, but there has to be a bow. And politics is the bow of idealism.-- Bill MoyersEverybody knows politics is a contact sport.-- Barack Obama

To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government.-- Mark Twain

The politician is trained in the art of inexactitude. His words tend to be blunt or rounded because if they have a cutting edge they may later return to wound him.-- Edward R. Murrow

Thanks to Readers Digest http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/12-great-election-quotes/article104385.html?trkid=RINL2006

Grammar Police.

Just in case you have not yet realized it, this is a casual Internet blog about various thoughts and opinions that I write out with haste.

It is not a scholarly journal, term paper, or a literary work of any importance. Not something thats graded by an English teacher.

These are usually written on the cuff, quick, down and dirty. It is simply a laid back online blog for people to read and post comments. I welcome all but the profane and passive agressive. I personally find it obnoxious when someone "corrects" spelling or grammar unbidden. You know what I mean, so why do you feel the need to prove how smart you think you are?

I'm not impressed.

Do you correct the speech of those around you? I hope not, because it only makes you come off as pompous and condescending. Almost no one speaks true, proper English. Our dialect is casual. Get over yourself. Would a quick read through, spell check , preview hurt before posting? Of course not. But is it really that important? No, it isn't.

Our Entertainment Escape.

Americans watch too much television. It is not uncommon to see a TV in every room of the house and in some cases, running 24/7.

We got a TiVo and cut back on watching the tube. Instead of sitting down and hunting, we see if something we recorded is on.

TV used to be the magic glowing box that connected us (one way) to the rest of the world. Prior to that there was Radio, before that Newspaper, then town criers. So the microcosm of life would have been quite different back then. We now have the Internet and computers and while they are the primary connector to the planet for most of us, cell phones are poised to overtake the PC.

Television for all of its glory could do a fade out. Even now, if you miss a show you can watch the stream. It would be quite a reversal for the industry if standard television production went bye bye.

And it is happening. If you did not catch Doctor Horrible. That was the first baby steps into uncharted entertainment. There is still quite a hang up with how something looks, and linear production, that will change.

Smaller studio's, single brand advertisement, focus on quality over eye candy. It is going to be interesting to see.