Thursday, April 23, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Tea Bagging
No, it’s not what you are thinking. Last week, on Tax Day thousands of people gathered across the country to hold a tea party. This tea party was symbolic of the first Boston Tea Party, but it wasn’t just about taxes.
You might not know that if you watched the news. The press coverage was astoundingly horrible. Liberal bias skewed the entire coverage and what little bit of a story there was. If you watched the news you might be inclined to believe it was a bunch of radical right-wing groups protesting income taxes.
The truth of the matter is that it was people from both sides of the fence – republicans and democrats. And the protest was not specifically about taxes, but the oppression and expansion of the federal government in just about every aspect of our lives. People that want to get back to a government by the people, for the people, that adheres to a unified standard. You know, there is this thing called the Constitution of the United States? Our government seems to have lost sight of this.
And the humorous headline on this post? That actually comes from CNN where they referred to the tea parties as “tea bagging” and the people as “tea baggers.” Of course they couldn’t say it with a straight face because they knew what they were saying. Disgusting.
You might not know that if you watched the news. The press coverage was astoundingly horrible. Liberal bias skewed the entire coverage and what little bit of a story there was. If you watched the news you might be inclined to believe it was a bunch of radical right-wing groups protesting income taxes.
The truth of the matter is that it was people from both sides of the fence – republicans and democrats. And the protest was not specifically about taxes, but the oppression and expansion of the federal government in just about every aspect of our lives. People that want to get back to a government by the people, for the people, that adheres to a unified standard. You know, there is this thing called the Constitution of the United States? Our government seems to have lost sight of this.
And the humorous headline on this post? That actually comes from CNN where they referred to the tea parties as “tea bagging” and the people as “tea baggers.” Of course they couldn’t say it with a straight face because they knew what they were saying. Disgusting.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Happy Tax Day!!!
According to a book I just finished reading the first taxes were levied and recorded in human history. It does not indicate who thought this brilliant scheme up, but let me take this opportunity to call him or her a bastard.
Hope you got yours done....
Sunday, April 12, 2009
No Trespassing!
Well....photobucket apparently removed my image for use violation. I'm not sure how a picture of a sign in a field, with no harsh language, no nudity, etc., violated their usage but let me describe the sign...
It was a picture of a sign, posted to a fence post in some random field with haystacks behind it. The sign read "If you can read this you're in range."
I liked this sign. I felt it was pretty straightforward and to the point. After my nieces baptism we were eating lunch over at my sisters. Somehow the conversation turned towards medical shows and stuff of that nature. My father pointed out that statistically speaking people are more likely to survive a gunshot wound than a stabbing if they make it to the hospital. I pointed out that people obviously aren’t using the right caliber.
It was a picture of a sign, posted to a fence post in some random field with haystacks behind it. The sign read "If you can read this you're in range."
I liked this sign. I felt it was pretty straightforward and to the point. After my nieces baptism we were eating lunch over at my sisters. Somehow the conversation turned towards medical shows and stuff of that nature. My father pointed out that statistically speaking people are more likely to survive a gunshot wound than a stabbing if they make it to the hospital. I pointed out that people obviously aren’t using the right caliber.
Happy Easter!!
I went to church today. Not because it was Easter. Not because I felt compelled to attend church for spiritual reasons. No, I went because my niece got Baptized. I was afraid that I would be struck down by lightning upon entering the church, but I survived that without too much difficulty.
The church was huge. Apparently there are over 25,000 members of the church!! They have a bus schedule to get you to remote parking lots. And it certainly wasn’t like when I attended church. The seating was stadium style with section numbers and everything. How do you get the good seats? I guess you “pay” more for your ticket.
This was one of those churches where they have full bands, a video production, stage show with props, the whole nine-yards. It was odd to me that we couldn’t watch my niece get baptized directly. They wanted us in the theater so they could stick it up on the big screen and show us a pre-recorded testimonial before she got dunked. The dunking was live, but everything else was recorded.
Before the baptism they had a song, then a quick prayer. The baptism took all of about 10 minutes for several people to get baptized. Then they broke into song….and then another song…and people were holding their hands up to feel the power of Jesus and the collection plates were passing and I said “fuck this, I’m out.” I bailed. Then I realized that even in the atrium they had speakers and the show on the monitors. Then the guy starts preaching and even in the atrium I couldn’t take it. So I went and stood outside in the rain to get away. Some of the people that stayed told me that it got even more theatrical as it went on. Apparently, they had green berets guarding Jesus’ tomb and that was proof that he rose from the dead. I had never heard of this, but…umm…OK. Whatever it takes.
Now I love my niece and I am glad that I got to see her get baptized because it was very important to her. However, I didn’t really appreciate feeling like I was supposed to sit there for a 2 hour preaching session about how I needed to be saved. And my niece got a “do-over.” Apparently when they baptized her they screwed up the order and so our photographer wasn’t ready. They had to do it again after the preaching to get the good photos. I’ve never seen anyone have a mulligan on a baptism, but I don’t exactly attend a lot of baptisms.
The church was huge. Apparently there are over 25,000 members of the church!! They have a bus schedule to get you to remote parking lots. And it certainly wasn’t like when I attended church. The seating was stadium style with section numbers and everything. How do you get the good seats? I guess you “pay” more for your ticket.
This was one of those churches where they have full bands, a video production, stage show with props, the whole nine-yards. It was odd to me that we couldn’t watch my niece get baptized directly. They wanted us in the theater so they could stick it up on the big screen and show us a pre-recorded testimonial before she got dunked. The dunking was live, but everything else was recorded.
Before the baptism they had a song, then a quick prayer. The baptism took all of about 10 minutes for several people to get baptized. Then they broke into song….and then another song…and people were holding their hands up to feel the power of Jesus and the collection plates were passing and I said “fuck this, I’m out.” I bailed. Then I realized that even in the atrium they had speakers and the show on the monitors. Then the guy starts preaching and even in the atrium I couldn’t take it. So I went and stood outside in the rain to get away. Some of the people that stayed told me that it got even more theatrical as it went on. Apparently, they had green berets guarding Jesus’ tomb and that was proof that he rose from the dead. I had never heard of this, but…umm…OK. Whatever it takes.
Now I love my niece and I am glad that I got to see her get baptized because it was very important to her. However, I didn’t really appreciate feeling like I was supposed to sit there for a 2 hour preaching session about how I needed to be saved. And my niece got a “do-over.” Apparently when they baptized her they screwed up the order and so our photographer wasn’t ready. They had to do it again after the preaching to get the good photos. I’ve never seen anyone have a mulligan on a baptism, but I don’t exactly attend a lot of baptisms.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Off The West Coast of Africa
I have no idea why I am there....
it certainly doesn't feel like I am there.
it certainly doesn't feel like I am there.
Harley Davidson Seeking Bailout Cash
Harley Davidson, like most companies, is perusing bailout money. Yes, The Motor Company, has apparently fallen from grace with the financial gods.
For years now, I've thought HD made a significantly inferior product to the Japanese alternatives. In the last few years HD has made significant improvements in their technology and quality control. They had to. They were rapidly losing market share to superior motorcycles that cost less money. No doubt this had some impact on their current situation.
But what really gets me is that they pretty much did the same thing banks did. That is, target individuals with subprime loans on their grossly expensive motorcycles. HD reportedly had 30% of their loan portfolio in subprime loans. More than 5% of their loans were delinquent 30 days or more at the end of 2008. I have a friend that fell into this category.
This pisses me off. Once again we have a company that engages in poor business practices and now we may bail them out as well. Why do we keep doing this?
Recently, a friend of mine sent me an editorial comment based upon the latest round of trillion-dollar expenditures from the Obama administration. My response to him was as follows:
You know, [my friend]....I can't even keep up with all the spending and bail-outs anymore. I wasn't a huge McCain supporter, but I recall him saying that he would start cutting programs and that Obama would spend, spend, spend. Of course, McCain was pretty far off target because he only estimated a $1 Trillion dollar budget that Obama had in mind. We have already surpassed that and are heading for more.
It's interesting that people really liked to rail on Bush about the deficit and his spending. Did you know that when Bush left office the 2009 budget had a deficit of "only" $500 Billion? Even with the war in Iraq and the first bail-out and all that it was that low. So they railed on him at how much he spent. The big one was "Bush doubled the deficit in his eight years in office." Great. Obama tripled it in his first quarter.
I'm a pretty firm believer in capitalism and keeping the government out of the private enterprise. I do not believe that we should be bailing all these companies out. I really don't believe that we should be bailing them out and trying to take control over them and that's what part of all these stimulus bills are doing. I don't believe that we should be earmarking all this pork and continuing to run up the deficit that our grandkid’s grandkids will have to pay for. If anything, history showed us that if the government stayed out of it that we returned to prosperity in a short amount of time. The first great depression lingered because Truman got the government involved. The previous depressions recovered fairly quickly because the government didn't' get involved.
Even the individual states are filing cease-and-desist orders against the federal government to keep them out of states business. That's why so many states are turning down the money. They don't want the strings attached to it. The private companies and banks are doing the same thing. But the government is forcing it down their throats. Why? So they can have control of them. Our constitution was explicitly written to prevent this type of behavior and yet it's happening.
For a long time, people miss-used the term "fascist." The true definition of fascism is a government controlled private entity. I think that it’s what the Obama administration is trying to do. I think that the Democrats finally see their window of opportunity to turn us into a socialist state. I wouldn't go so far as to say communist, yet. But socialism is usually the first step to communism. Destroy the economy and make the people reliant on the government and you have an easy avenue for socialism. It's already happening. The government is in the process of federalizing banks, and private enterprise (fascism) and pushing more socialist programs through all this spending.
I also think that this spending is a slush fund for the DNC to continue to steamroll their war on republicans and capitalism. And further, it's quite obvious that at least some of this pork and the ludicrous things they are doing are to pay off Obama's buddies that helped get him into office. Just look at the presidential order to waive contract negotiations and mandate that all road construction go to unionized companies.
I'm not saying that I have the right answer. I'm not sure what that is, but I certainly believe that we should be treading lightly and not pushing these bills through. [my g/f] once said that if someone tells you they have the definitive, de-facto answer, that they probably are wrong and haven't examined the issue well enough. I tend to agree with that, but even she can't see that is exactly what the DNC and Obama have said, which makes me wonder.....
For years now, I've thought HD made a significantly inferior product to the Japanese alternatives. In the last few years HD has made significant improvements in their technology and quality control. They had to. They were rapidly losing market share to superior motorcycles that cost less money. No doubt this had some impact on their current situation.
But what really gets me is that they pretty much did the same thing banks did. That is, target individuals with subprime loans on their grossly expensive motorcycles. HD reportedly had 30% of their loan portfolio in subprime loans. More than 5% of their loans were delinquent 30 days or more at the end of 2008. I have a friend that fell into this category.
This pisses me off. Once again we have a company that engages in poor business practices and now we may bail them out as well. Why do we keep doing this?
Recently, a friend of mine sent me an editorial comment based upon the latest round of trillion-dollar expenditures from the Obama administration. My response to him was as follows:
You know, [my friend]....I can't even keep up with all the spending and bail-outs anymore. I wasn't a huge McCain supporter, but I recall him saying that he would start cutting programs and that Obama would spend, spend, spend. Of course, McCain was pretty far off target because he only estimated a $1 Trillion dollar budget that Obama had in mind. We have already surpassed that and are heading for more.
It's interesting that people really liked to rail on Bush about the deficit and his spending. Did you know that when Bush left office the 2009 budget had a deficit of "only" $500 Billion? Even with the war in Iraq and the first bail-out and all that it was that low. So they railed on him at how much he spent. The big one was "Bush doubled the deficit in his eight years in office." Great. Obama tripled it in his first quarter.
I'm a pretty firm believer in capitalism and keeping the government out of the private enterprise. I do not believe that we should be bailing all these companies out. I really don't believe that we should be bailing them out and trying to take control over them and that's what part of all these stimulus bills are doing. I don't believe that we should be earmarking all this pork and continuing to run up the deficit that our grandkid’s grandkids will have to pay for. If anything, history showed us that if the government stayed out of it that we returned to prosperity in a short amount of time. The first great depression lingered because Truman got the government involved. The previous depressions recovered fairly quickly because the government didn't' get involved.
Even the individual states are filing cease-and-desist orders against the federal government to keep them out of states business. That's why so many states are turning down the money. They don't want the strings attached to it. The private companies and banks are doing the same thing. But the government is forcing it down their throats. Why? So they can have control of them. Our constitution was explicitly written to prevent this type of behavior and yet it's happening.
For a long time, people miss-used the term "fascist." The true definition of fascism is a government controlled private entity. I think that it’s what the Obama administration is trying to do. I think that the Democrats finally see their window of opportunity to turn us into a socialist state. I wouldn't go so far as to say communist, yet. But socialism is usually the first step to communism. Destroy the economy and make the people reliant on the government and you have an easy avenue for socialism. It's already happening. The government is in the process of federalizing banks, and private enterprise (fascism) and pushing more socialist programs through all this spending.
I also think that this spending is a slush fund for the DNC to continue to steamroll their war on republicans and capitalism. And further, it's quite obvious that at least some of this pork and the ludicrous things they are doing are to pay off Obama's buddies that helped get him into office. Just look at the presidential order to waive contract negotiations and mandate that all road construction go to unionized companies.
I'm not saying that I have the right answer. I'm not sure what that is, but I certainly believe that we should be treading lightly and not pushing these bills through. [my g/f] once said that if someone tells you they have the definitive, de-facto answer, that they probably are wrong and haven't examined the issue well enough. I tend to agree with that, but even she can't see that is exactly what the DNC and Obama have said, which makes me wonder.....
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
No Food in the House
Bling! came over the other day with Jake. Budda was fighting the wind outside and trying to cook on the pit. I invited Bling! to a beverage. He accepted and then commented how I didn't have any food in the house. Hey man, I had been gone for about a month straight, what did you expect?
But even without having food in the house I made enough dinner for three people and we still had a few leftovers. I made three tasty steaks with sides of green beans and Mac 'n Cheese, and a bottle of wine. Not a bad stay at home meal without "any food" to go around.
But even without having food in the house I made enough dinner for three people and we still had a few leftovers. I made three tasty steaks with sides of green beans and Mac 'n Cheese, and a bottle of wine. Not a bad stay at home meal without "any food" to go around.
Monday, April 06, 2009
Some People Do Care
It’s good to know that some people do read the blog from time to time. I recently got this in my personal email:
Hey you fuckin' SLACKER !
I suppose you are going to use that 'lame' excuse that you are traveling, and can't update your blog. Whats happening to you ???
Umm…yeah… This last month has been a bit hectic and somewhat of a blur. I was working on a project for the power plant I had mentioned earlier. More to the point, I was working on a project for multiple power plants. We had a brutal and aggressive schedule of covering all of these plants in three weeks, then writing the report.
I had to leave town to do it, of course. My average day over the last month was to get up between 5:00am and 5:15am. No big deal to you morning people, but I am not one of them. Never have been, never will be. And no, I will not “get used to it if you just keep getting up early.” It pisses me off and makes me miserable. If you can get used to being pissed off and miserable, then I suppose you can get to it. No wonder so many of you are grumpy until you get your coffee. Try waking up a little bit later. I remember one morning we left to go get some breakfast and when we arrived they weren’t open yet. My friend and co-worker turned to the other guy and said “See? Even the breakfast people aren’t up, yet.”
Once we got to the plants it was generally a rough day of cerebral as well as physical activity (hey! It can take a while to make your way through a power plant). Sometimes we’d work through lunch, sometimes we got a break. Our afternoons generally ended somewhere around 4:00. Then it was off to the hotel to catch up on emails and other responsibilities until it was time for dinner. We’d all meet back up and go over the day as well as the over-all project. By the time I’d make it back to the hotel room and get settled down it would be between eight and nine o’clock. Time to finish up a few….more emails….before….the FUCKING ALARM IS GOING OFF AGAIN!
Three weeks of that, with about 2 whole days off before I made it home. I missed my mom’s birthday, Bling’s birthday, and my own birthday (a few others are in there somewhere for good measure). I worked the weekend I got home and then my other friend and co-worker flew in to help write the report. Now it was time to compile all that information into a report. That report also had to include a strategy, design, and summary that the plants could utilize. I know far more about power plants than I ever wanted to.
We rented out a crappy little conference room at a hotel for $200.00 and held up in there for a week pulling more 10+ hour days to get the thing written. That weekend? Worked right through it, again. Then I flew off to Portland and spent a few days there before I got back home. Worked all day last Friday and finally took the weekend off. Oh, sure, I could have worked, but I really needed a break.
Somewhere in between I found time to get my bills paid, start on my income taxes, got some yard work done, worked on my website (we are almost in beta!), and almost get caught up on expenses.
For the most part, I simply have been too busy or too sick of the computer and writing stuff to work on the blog. I have to drag myself to my desk to get anything done right now. I’m completely burned out. But here it is. Here is something to read. Hope you enjoy it, you slave-driving bastards!
Hey you fuckin' SLACKER !
I suppose you are going to use that 'lame' excuse that you are traveling, and can't update your blog. Whats happening to you ???
Umm…yeah… This last month has been a bit hectic and somewhat of a blur. I was working on a project for the power plant I had mentioned earlier. More to the point, I was working on a project for multiple power plants. We had a brutal and aggressive schedule of covering all of these plants in three weeks, then writing the report.
I had to leave town to do it, of course. My average day over the last month was to get up between 5:00am and 5:15am. No big deal to you morning people, but I am not one of them. Never have been, never will be. And no, I will not “get used to it if you just keep getting up early.” It pisses me off and makes me miserable. If you can get used to being pissed off and miserable, then I suppose you can get to it. No wonder so many of you are grumpy until you get your coffee. Try waking up a little bit later. I remember one morning we left to go get some breakfast and when we arrived they weren’t open yet. My friend and co-worker turned to the other guy and said “See? Even the breakfast people aren’t up, yet.”
Once we got to the plants it was generally a rough day of cerebral as well as physical activity (hey! It can take a while to make your way through a power plant). Sometimes we’d work through lunch, sometimes we got a break. Our afternoons generally ended somewhere around 4:00. Then it was off to the hotel to catch up on emails and other responsibilities until it was time for dinner. We’d all meet back up and go over the day as well as the over-all project. By the time I’d make it back to the hotel room and get settled down it would be between eight and nine o’clock. Time to finish up a few….more emails….before….the FUCKING ALARM IS GOING OFF AGAIN!
Three weeks of that, with about 2 whole days off before I made it home. I missed my mom’s birthday, Bling’s birthday, and my own birthday (a few others are in there somewhere for good measure). I worked the weekend I got home and then my other friend and co-worker flew in to help write the report. Now it was time to compile all that information into a report. That report also had to include a strategy, design, and summary that the plants could utilize. I know far more about power plants than I ever wanted to.
We rented out a crappy little conference room at a hotel for $200.00 and held up in there for a week pulling more 10+ hour days to get the thing written. That weekend? Worked right through it, again. Then I flew off to Portland and spent a few days there before I got back home. Worked all day last Friday and finally took the weekend off. Oh, sure, I could have worked, but I really needed a break.
Somewhere in between I found time to get my bills paid, start on my income taxes, got some yard work done, worked on my website (we are almost in beta!), and almost get caught up on expenses.
For the most part, I simply have been too busy or too sick of the computer and writing stuff to work on the blog. I have to drag myself to my desk to get anything done right now. I’m completely burned out. But here it is. Here is something to read. Hope you enjoy it, you slave-driving bastards!
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