What a cool time we live in.

A while ago, Connor and I went on one of our bike rides to BK. While I was sitting there, I popped open my smart phone and had a conversation with Robert.

Robert was in Montreal Canada, on a business trip. He remarked at the wonder of being able to connect like this. I had just shrugged it off in a "yeah, so?" fashion. As soon as I did that, I realized how Jaded I was.

It is all too easy to go Luddite and proclaim the evils of tech, going so far as to post it on your blog. We can go the other route and become "one with the machine." Loosing out on the world around us for the joys of too much connectivity.

The yin yang symbol and the lesson of balance comes to mind with Mr. Miyagi accent intact.

a scant twenty years ago I wondered about people I used to know. Today I can check in with them and take part in memory scrubbing. It is great to see where they wound up (sometimes it is not that great...)

There are so many triumphs and tragedies that I get to share.

Great read about a great president.

I'm starting to understand what made Ronald Reagan such a great president

Spilling Oil

For the longest time I wondered why the US pays top dollar to another country for oil. Oil production is messy and hazardous, how fair is it that we impose our oil buying will on others?

Then we get this oil spill off the Gulf, which is a horrible thing that needs to be stopped and cleaned up. British Petroleum being the operators have been working to stem the flow. So far they have not been able too. As I am reading I came across this "Since January 2005, inspectors issued just one minor infraction for the rig. That strong track record led the agency last year (2009) to herald the Deepwater Horizon as an industry model for safety". Then it blew up??!!

Then I read about the herculean efforts being made to stem the leakage. This boom being lowered the 6.6 miles down to cap and siphon off the oil. Around 1/5th of the leak... Which begs the question, why drill 6.6 miles when we have access in much, MUCH shallower water? Of course it is the government regulations and the environmentalist mindset that makes it nigh impossible to provide our own oil for our own use.

The MSM is reporting doom story after doom story. Typically focusing on the worst case scenario. Although, some are reporting on where the disaster actually is located. Many invoking the Exxon Valdez proportions.

Which brought to my mind the reports that the ocean is self cleaning. And the technology for mitigation is impressive as well.

Booms -- Floating barriers placed around the oil or around whatever is leaking the oil.

Skimmers -- Boats, vacuum machines, and oil-absorbent plastic ropes that skim spilled oil from the water's surface after booms have it corralled.

Chemical dispersants -- Materials that break down the oil into its chemical constituents. This helps disperse the oil and make it less harmful to wildlife and shorelines.

Yes its bad, its location makes it worse. It is a good that they are trying to mitigate. Lets hope they get containment and cleanup done quickly.

The Government is causing Obesity!

My buddy Flying Van is hostile towards school lunches. I believe he feels that the government is spending his money incorrectly. A point I am in agreement with.

The idea behind the lunch entitlement is that poor people can not afford to buy food or they care so little about the kids they have they choose not to feed them or they lack the training on how to purchase and prepare food. Seeing how kids are required to go to school, this makes it a logical place to feed these poor starving kids, who must be thinking about their empty stomachs instead of learning reading, writing and arithmetics.

That is to say your brain needs calories to function. Add to that the fact that hunger is a distraction and you have a prime example of the Government aiding education!

One of the primary problems with the above idea that people are starving. No doubt there are people in the US, who cannot access the cornucopia of goodness. If someone is starving the human thing to do is to get them fed, then have them to feed themselves. Finally have them help feed those who are starving.

So holding a parent responsible for providing for their child gets jettisoned. Having a community wanting to help the less fortunate is also jettisoned. And the chance of the child learning to feed themselves is shunted towards letting the government feed you.

Case in point: If you are on food stamps the USDA added incentives and other changes that targets the link between Obesity and Food Stamps with an idea to trim rampant obesity rates among low-income groups. Obesity is not caused by starvation... Right?

So we know that food stamps, from the government, are making poor people fat. Now I read that school lunches are not just making sure that hungry kid has sustenance to insure better performance. No our School lunch program, from the government, are making hungry kids Obese.

I never got\purchased school lunches. My mom made me a sandwich with some fruit and veg for quite a number of years. Sadly, many of those lunches were never eaten. Sometime around third grade I was responsible for my own lunch. Which means I had breakfast and dinner at home and ignored lunch. In HS I was on swim team and had instant breakfast (beats upchucking). Again, if I did have some lunch it was not everyday.

Basically, I was too lazy to make a lunch and too busy to bother with lunch. When I did eat, I made up for the missing meals. I did a pretty good job of burning off any extra calories as well.

Now my daughter needs to have regular intervals of food intake or she gets listless. My nephew would have to eat a certain nutritional balance to avoid nasty headaches.

To my way of thinking. Yes, we need to feed habitually hungry kids. The parents need to be held responsible or face some kind of consequence. Funding a Union does not seem to be covering the basic need.

Fiscal responsibility.

Obama, to much fan-fair, Praised the Pay-as-you-go rule. The media high-fived and there was much rejoicing. There was talk of fiscal responsibility and joyous singing praise of the deficit hawk Obama. The meaning, at first glance, is to make sure any bill is funded prior to passing. That means you cut other programs or raise revenue by some other means. That sounds good right? Not adding to the debt or deficit with any new expense. Pres. Barry says: “the American people are tired of politicians who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk when it comes to fiscal responsibility.”

The same bill raised the deficit limit to 14.3 Trillion. This is disturbing to anyone who has a household budget. Liberals just shrug and think it is a good thing to borrow that much more money to help the economy. Because nothing makes you richer then being in more debt... [/facepalm]. Also, because they passed PayGo they are now fiscally responsible... Trust in them...

Enter Senator Jim Bunning who stated his intent to block a $10 billion spending bill until it is offset by cuts elsewhere, or payed-for-as-they-go. Which should have gotten him the same high praise from the media right? I mean Pres. Obama got accolades as did the Congress for fiscal responsibility? This is a Republican joining the Democrats! Bi-Partisan support for PayGo! This is winning!

Nope, Jim Bunning is\was being vilified for his mean spirited fiscal responsibility. So as I sit mystified at the MSM and the hypocrisy. The Democrats are going to pass healthcare despite the fact they do not have the votes, nor the ability to under the rules that they operate. Pelosi said this is the most Ethical Congress ever! Which can only be true if your Ethics are situational...

Source:

Bunning’s Spending Hold Makes Him a Cad to TV Nets, Focus on His Supposed Victims

Jim Bunning's fiscal hardball jams GOP

More on the Bunning Benefits Blockade

George Will CPAC speech.

President Palin

Okay, so get this. There was a convention of the Tea Party which is for fiscal responsibility in government. Sarah Palin gave a great speech. This has caused the MSM to become unglued.

And the major unglued story I read today? She jotted some hand notes for the speech. There is something truly amazing about Sarah and her ability to drive liberals over the top nutzo.

She has unleashed some amazing unprecedented media responses from her Facebook postings. It seems to go like this. She issues a statement, the MSM gears up the attack team. People, most of whom are savvy to this hatred, figure out what she means and scoffs at the press. Sarah becomes more popular and the state run media is left scratching its head on what just happened.

The idea around these stories is that Sarah is unsophisticated and a "Dumb Hick". Most of us jott something down on our hands at some point. It is a smart thing to do, as you will not leave your hand on your desk when you need that info.

I suppose the more intellectually elite thing to do would be to set up a higher tech method of note cribbing. I mean, that would not look as silly right?

Force Christmas down their throats and Make Em Like IT!!!!!

Last year I was lamenting on the commercialization of Christmas, until Steve V. set me straight.

No reason to participate in the "War on Christmas" angst.

Godless capitalism is what it has always been: godless capitalism. It has *always* longed to maximize spending and minimize our interest in things higher than this world. The task of keeping both Christ and Mass in Christmas does not belong to American industry, but to the Faithful.

One can certainly roll one's eyes at the naked worship of Mammon. But when you do that you should take a little responsibility too and chalk stuff like TV ads up, not to evil socialist atheists engaging in some nefarious leftist War on Christmas that has nothing to do with "conservative family values" but to good solid godless capitalism that is just trying to figure out how to shake the Money Tree more efficiently in a postmodern and dechristianizing culture.

Being disappointed and perpetually vexed because exploitive corporate entities you naively associate with childhood, Christmas and mistletoe are actually exploitive corporate entities is a waste of time.

Learn to separate out what is essential to Christmas from what has, in our culture, learned to parasitically feed off Christmas and retain your joy.