R or D

Most people's political views are determined by the level of their understanding of economics and finance, and by whether or not they are net contributors to or net beneficiaries of the tax/welfare system. People who pay tax and who realise that "the government's" money is in fact their money, and that others are receiving in benefit what they have worked hard to earn, tend to be more critical of policies that benefit people who are not helping themselves.

People who don't pay tax tend to support generous regimes that benefit them. The Liberals aim appeared to be to get as many votes as possible by affording state benefits to more and more people - hardly a good investment of the US's capital. It has created a culture of entitlement that we would do well to break down if we want to compete and prosper in future.

The work ethic here is unbelievably low.

Finally

most productive congress??

The federal government has accumulated more new debt–$3.22 trillion ($3,220,103,625,307.29)—during the tenure of the 111th Congress than it did during the first 100 Congresses combined, according to official debt figures published by the U.S. Treasury.

That equals $10,429.64 in new debt for each and every one of the 308,745,538 people counted in the United States by the 2010 Census.

The total national debt of $13,858,529,371,601.09 (or $13.859 trillion), as recorded by the U.S. Treasury at the close of business on Dec. 22, now equals $44,886.57 for every man, woman and child in the United States.

In fact, the 111th Congress not only has set the record as the most debt-accumulating Congress in U.S. history, but also has out-stripped its nearest competitor, the 110th, by an astounding $1.262 trillion in new debt.

Cataclysm Beta - Dancing Goblin and Worgen with comparison

Origins for the new WoW playable race dances. After all, what else is there??!!

Christmas Heart smiles.

Every so often something happens, a chain of events, the result of which is just a good feeling inside that something is right in the omniverse. I call this feeling a heart smile.

I have never been one for office Christmas. There are just so many aspects that inspire drudgery. The entire Secret Santa crap, for instance...

Before I run off on a tangent rant about Secret Satan.. er Santa.. Allow a rambling digression...

I work in Major Sales in Costco. I love my job. I enjoy the people I work with. I like getting up knowing I will be working there. My cadre of co-workers is Jr., Jessie, Ashley and Chayton. We are all new hires and locals. With the Holiday Season upon us I thought buying Santa Hats would be jolly fun. Unfortunately there are a lot of really crappy ones out there. Then at the local Grocery Outlet they had little chimney stockings. So with a few guilder and some puff paint, sparkles and a loving wife with a creative streak and steady hand, I had some custom socks to hang up at work. I got a sour candy cane, just to make sure they did not think I was going soft.

With some of those 3m hooks I set up the five stockings, one for each member of the team and one for Greg, our manager. I did not make myself one as I thought that seemed a little narcissistic. The stockings where a hit even if they did take a while to get noticed in some cases...

It was fun and I had my little moment.

Imagine my surprise when Ashley came in with matching Christmas ties and a chocolate Orange for each of us. We all wore the ties for the next week. Then Chayton came in with a bag presents with Ferrero Rocher for all of us. Next Jr. had pop-corn tins. Jessica then came in with some mugs filled with fun and useful items (and gum). I was pleasantly surprised by each of my comrades. Is it any wonder I love my job?

It was just so fun, really a Christmas type feeling.. A heart smile.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Go Green, KILL PEOPLE! (Crowder Visits Mexico)

Pomplamoose Deck the Halls

Very Christmas!

Overpopulation: The Making of a Myth

Toby Keith - A Little Too Late

Well worth watching through. Gotta Love Toby.

5:00 AM comes early!

On of my "Dad Jokes" is to tell the kids to go to bed because 5:00 comes early. Welcome to CostCo's 5:15 to 1:45 schedule! So I am hoisted by my own petard!

Actually, I enjoy the early shift quite a lot. It is highly physical and very busy. They roll the door sup at 9:45 and we have to be in ship shape by then. The Manager of "Hard-lines" (read: the right side of the building as you enter, prior to food) . Has trust in me with orchestration product moves. Following our marketing plan. Items in our flyer go on the end of aisles (end caps) and certain products we are obligated to have on those "end caps" as well. Major product shifts are always planned by management, but they graciously accept idea's as well.

Each Television needs to have a demo-model set up and running and there is an envelope with Support information as well as two stickers that go onto the carton. Then the facing of the product has to be considered. Sony pays a lot of $$$ for that box artwork and we want to make sure it gets a good exposure.

Brian, my hard-lines manager has a knack for making rows of product perfectly fit within the given space. It is a frustrating talent for me to observe, when I have tried to duplicate and fail only to have him waltz in and arrange it in five minutes.

My talent must be in the execution of complex tasks in an efficient manner. And the technical aspect of getting everything up and running.

Lately I have had Thursdays and Fridays off of work. Which allows me to attend the TOPs meeting with Tina and have two days off in a row. Tina and I have a date night after TOPs and we opted to have Pizza and soda at CostCo. I was informed that two banks of TV's were not working and after some attempts they were going to wait for me to fix the issue. They did not know my next work day was Saturday.

Anyways Saturday arrived and I was surprised to find the same situation existed. One of my co-workers threw some doubt into a repair because he had worked on the situation on and off for the last two days.

It took me less then five minutes. The composite cables that run from each splitter to each bank of TV's has the wrong colors. During the opening I had taken a small TV set and troubleshot this, writing the actual colors on the wires.

So I got to feel smug for the next five minutes...