Wow, people are smart.

People may have just figured out that the government serves us, not the other way around. Conservatives!! Friends!! Brothers and Sisters!!! Our day may finally have come. LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD!!! I'm happy to report that political unrest is on the rise in our great nation. YOU ARE NOT ALONE!! During the early days of the war for independence, several colonials dressed up as Indians, and turned Boston Harbour into the biggest cup of tea that the world had ever seen. They realized that the line of BS that the government had been feeding them was wrong, and wanted to express their opinion in no uncertain terms.

Find out more about this wonderful political movement here and here. And remember "Power to the people!"

Bail out, get your free bailout money here!!!

It's a hard thing to blame someone else for all your worries. Just remember that for every finger you point, there are at least 3 pointing back at you.

This is from CNN :"Sen. Barack Obama on Monday blamed lobbyists, special interests and "an ethic of irresponsibility" in Washington for the financial crisis that has swept the country in recent weeks."

I'll tell you who's to blame, it's us, the American consumer. Both presidential candidates blame special interests, and lenders. But did the lenders put a gun to your head and force you to accept the money? Obviously, they did. Obviously, Washington doesn't think that the American consumer can think for themselves. That's why we're back to the era of the Big Government. Ohhh happy day, my Big Brother is looking out for me. 'cause I'm a brain dead oaf!!

Did I mention that I've been living debt free except for my student loans and a mortgage for the past few years. No credit cards. (But I do have a nice little bag of CC confetti to celebrate with.) I'm not trying to boast, but that is how people used to live. That's how my parents live. In fact, I used to hate to go shopping with my mom, because she'd try to buy me something that I didn't need or want. Good Will around our house used to do really well, and the folks who shopped at the Good Will store were surprisingly well dressed. Thanks in part to me.

Currently, we also live pretty well debt free. We also live a pretty spartan life. We've got DSL (Required for work), a DvD player, bottom of the line cell phones for my wife and me, and a government issue analog to digital box; but that's about it. No cable, no satellite, a single older TV, and an older stereo. Keep in mind that I've got 5 daughters. Not a single one of them has a TV in their room.

There are those that I know about that I could contrast that with, but I won't. I have some nephews that happilly live in debt. But they do have the absolute latest of everything. It's a shame that their lifestyle can't last. There'll come a day when the debt collector will come. Simply put, all debts MUST be paid in full. If the TV goes out, the first place I look is the want ads, Craig's List, or Freecycle. But that's not how 'normals' think.

I sincerely feel for those who have lost their jobs because of the current economic situation. Is there hope? If there's one thing I believe, it's that there is hope. Have faith in each other and pray. Pray like it all depends on God. Then go out and work like it all depends on you. If you're unable to find work, get involved with your neighborhood. Get to know your neighbors. Get to know them not because of what they can do for you. But for what you can do for them.

Until Next time, God bless...

The detonator has been primed and the bomb in exploding...

Senate Democrats are like spoiled brats. They get what they want, and they want more.

They won the presidency and have a majority in congress. Why are they fighting amongst themselves, now? You'd think that the losers of the last election would be the ones in disarray.

Here's what the problem is :"Democrats are going to be Democrats," he said. "We're creative thinkers. We don't believe in group think." He being Capitol, House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn, D-South Carolina. (http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/09/democrats.stimulus/index.html)

Gee, if companies were run like that, we'd all be out of work, and companies would be out of business.

Hope for the future.

Barack Obama and I disagree on almost every issue of this campaign. I had some significant problems with McCain, as well. I voted with my conscience last night. I voted for a 3rd party candidate.

Obama was elected anyway. I still believe that he'll lead us in the wrong direction. HOWEVER, I do agree that he dynamically changed the election by getting more people involved. I also pray that he that he proves me wrong.

I finally understand women and men

I explain this to my wife, and she rolls her eyes and says, "sure you do..." Which tells me that I'm probably facing an uphill battle. Ho well. Both women and men are governed by certain overriding traits. Some of these traits are learned, some are tallent, but all are of equal value. If one realizes these driving traits, one can use them to manipulate the situation to their advantage. The key is finding out what they are. (And I'm not talking about skeletons in the closet.)
I've heard these traits called love languages and personality traits. Neither is correct for the point of this discussion. People are motivated any of the following: the need to feel in control, the need for accomplishment, the need to feel actual love from another person not of their immediate family (mom/dad/sibs) or any combination of the three.

Take a mother, for example, some are motivated by a desire to accomplish having a family. Or possibly, to feel love from her husband or kids. Mothers are often the disciplinarians in older style families, which satisfies the need for control. Or an executive, who is having marital problems. At work, he's the boss, who has subordinates who do what he wants. Yet, at home he is powerless. At work, he has a sense of accomplishment and the acclaim of his peers. But at home, he only has heartache & disappointment. In neither situation does he have the love of another. Continuing this analagy further, where is he going to want to spend his time? In this case, it would be at the office. The only thing he could hope for would be to eventually have a female coworker who is either single or in the same circumstance, fall in love with him. This used to be called the secretary syndrome. Simply put man with bad homelife spends many hours at work with his secretary who falls for him.

If that were the case, I hope he doesn't have kids at home. If his wife were to find out about his love affair with his secretary, she would probably leave him.
Please keep in mind that the genders in either of my examples are interchangable. Feel free to mix and match all you like.

Knowing what modivates people can help in understanding of basic human nature. Children who are recognized as good kids by their parents tend to want that recognition more often. Today, for example, my 9 year old daughter made breakfast. She made scrambled eggs. Note: my wife, I, and all of the older sisters were asleep at the time. She did it completely on her own. I may never know how close she came to burning down the house, or causing bodilly harm to herself or others. Did we yell at her and tell her how crazy she was? Nope. Did we get upset with her in any way (even though she could have caused terrible damage)? Nope. Instead when she gave us breakfast in bed, we praised her. Knowing that in so doing, she'll want to repeat that sense of accomplishment and that we will then have more influence over how she does things. She'll be more attentive to what to do, and that she'll improve.

Were we to have reacted badly, she would have been sad. She would have eventually developed a sense of disappointment with herself, and may have started to turn to other sources for the sense of worth that she so desparately requires for proper development. Also, it may have stemmed her desire to improve. This can be extended indefinitely. In this case, I'm extending it to internet usage.

Unlike many I know who believe in shielding their children from the bad things that are on the internet, I believe that children should be tought to distinguish right from wrong, and that not all things are either good or evil. Children should be tought how to use things properly. That goes for everything from safe cooking practices to internet usage. Parents don't realize how smart their children are. Being a computer professional and all around geek, I've been able to sheild my kids from the worst things on the net, but as they get older and more curious about the net, I intend to exert less and less controll to let them make decisions on their own as to what sites to visit, whom to chat with, and what to do while on the net. A few months back, my daughter, following the directions of one of her friends, created herself an email account, a myspace page, and a vume IM account. When she created her myspace page, it scanned our computers hard drive for images to put on the page, and immediately posted them to her page. The problem was that we also use that PC for sending/recieving internet faxes. I had some tif images there that were contracts, and had all my personal information, including our correct address, on them. They were posted to her myspace page. Needless to say that I was a bit upset with her when I found out. Instead of exherting my efforts to control her internet usage, we did several things to assist her in discovering the internet. We 1)purchased a good internet filter with reporting, 2) shut off her vume and myspace accounts, and 3)allowed her to keep her email address with the condition that we were able to monitor it at will, 4) explained to her what had happened, and why we were taking the action we took, and 5)allowed and showed her how to use the resources (such as IM) the internet has to offer to her advantage. The only condition for our generosity on the net is that if she has questions, that she goes to us instead of her friends. I also explained to her how what her friends were doing could cause harm to themselves and their families.

Children, like their parents, have very similar motivators. The key to life is showing your spouse and children how to achieve their motivators within the setting that you want. Wives, do you want your husband to spend more time at home? Make a quasi-big deal of the minor accomplishments he achieves, make yourself available for sex (it wouldn't hurt to be the initiator once in a while. Spontaniety is also nice sometimes.), and make him honestly feel like there's no place in the world you'd rather be, than by his side. Husbands, do you want more from your relationship? Use what you know of your wife's love language to your advantage, and MAKE SURE IT'S SUCCESSFUL. Make your wife feel an honest sense of accomplishment, (they'll smell a fake sense of accomplishment a mile away), and make her feel like an equal. Parents, do you want better children? Make sure they know that you're proud of them for their accomplishments, make sure they know they're loved (see love languages), and make them feel like they're in control of themselves (and to an extent, their lives). Children, do you want a better relationship with your siblings? Show them you care, be nice to them, have fun with them.
When problems arise, face them with a happy heart, united in your purpose, and give it your best.

Barak Obama: If this guy's got a vision, someone get him some glasses, quick!!!

If Barak is elected president, then we really have lost our way.

Let me start off this installment of my opinion by saying that I'm not racist. I've lived around blacks (People of color, colored, whatever...)all my life. I have great respect for them. They're hard working, honest, and a credit to the human race. In fact, the other day, I had a question on a project that I was working on between my department and another department and the fellow that I was working with in the other department was a black man. I asked my question and when his answer didn't make sense, we both examined the others work more closely, and discovered that the documents I had been given were the wrong documents for his project. What impressed me was the fact that he didn't treat my question as a stupid one and blow me off. He actually came over to my desk a few hours after I'd asked the initial question, brought his paper work, and we went through them both together. Actions say a lot without having to say anything at all.

Here are a few facts that I'm extreemly happy about:

1. That white americans are getting more color-blind as far as race is concerned. I just hope the Rev. Wrights of the world can become more color-blind as well.
2. That we had a really interesting primary elections race. In this race, we had a white woman, a black man, and a white man. Condoleezza Rice should have run on the republican ticket we'd have had the best of both worlds.
3. I saw some uproar from black leaders in regards to Rev Wrights comments about racial relations in America.

But it's issues that get candidates on the map. And sofar about the only place that Barak and I agree is that Families need reinforcing. That's about where our agreeing stops.

99% of what he's proposing is straight out of the communists handbook. Free this, Free that, etc...

Either way, you get what you pay for.

Thank God, I'm an independant!

It's been a while since my last post.

What can I say about this campaign? It's been an interesting ride. I'm confused by all the double talk. I'm a plain and simple person who doesn't understand why the plain and simple things that most Americans want can't be given to them. Simple things like:

• The War- It's amazing to me that we can't get a straight answer on this. Is it working?
• The Economy- I looked all over Hillary's site, and found nothing that resembles a national economy plan. I looked on Barack's site, and found a few interesting ideas, but are described in too general of terms to be worth paying attention to. I looked on John's site, and found almost exactly the same good idea/too general terms crap. This is simple, not rocket science. Tax those companies who utilize workers abroad, and reward them for hiring domestic workers. Eliminate all federal incentives for alternative fules. Let capitalism work. The oil companies are on their way out, and they know it. Eliminate all unnecessary federal spending, subsidies, & entitlements. Increase federal grants, loans, and scholarships. Dump Medicaid & "Universal" healthcare like it was a hot potatoe.
• Strengthening Traditional Families- No candidate wanted to touch this issue, directly. Hillary's site doesn't deal with families directly, but does mention the middle class.

More to come later. I'll analyze John and Barack, then.