The U.S. Senate passed Tuesday the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Any U.S. Citizen suspected in taking part in any "terrorist" activity can now be held indefinately without a court trial or brought up on any charges.
The Lemmings of course think this is great. But those of us that are awake know that the current tyrant (dictator) calls us terrorists. We read the Bible, we pray, we talk in public about the U.S. Constitution, we have a political bumper sticker, we have or have in the past been a member of the National Rifle Association, etc. Our government has put out check lists which include all of the above that they use to categorize domestic threats and 'home grown terrorists' developing. (Listen to the video below starting at 12:30 if you do nothing else... he actually lists some of these things... having extra food, having extra ammunition, etc....)
We're not even a full step away yet at being termed terrorists. All it takes is one incident for O'Bummer to declare martial law and that's when we are all officially terrorists.
Watch Rand Paul on the Floor of the Senate speaking on this:
Anyone want to re-think their disbelief in the FEMA camps now?
Here are the Senators that supported this (Only 3 Senators stood against this):
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Brown (R-MA)
Burr (R-NC)
Casey (D-PA)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagan (D-NC)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lee (R-UT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lugar (R-IN)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Moran (R-KS)
Nelson (D-NE)
Portman (R-OH)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wicker (R-MS)
Friday, December 9, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Baaa Baaa, And The Sheep Say Baaa
So, your friends look at you with a smirk of condescension when you tell them that for a hundred years socialist/Marxist/communists have been infiltrating the United States? Yeah.. me too.
I used to work on an Orchard in Northern Michigan and one day I was cleaning out the attic of one of the houses that the illegal Mexican aliens lived in during the summer/fall months and I stumbled across several election posters. Interesting... the father of my boss (he must have been like 60 years old back when I was 15 yrs old... so he'd be like 87 years old now)... had run for governor of Michigan on the Communist ticket some while back before that time.
Of course, being a kid it didn't mean much to me at the time because I didn't know the difference between one political party and the next. I was sheltered very snuggly between one small down and others.. the outside world meant nothing to me.
As the years progressed I have learned a great deal more about this communist determination to take over the United States. When I talk to people about it I get this glazed over look and am basically told, "The socialist government media warned me not to listen to you when I tell you what they've been doing... so I'm tossing out years of knowing you and your character and integrity and reputation.. and I'm going to distance myself from you now and call you a extream wierdo because that's what they told me to do." yeah.. you know the look.
I thought it would be fun to put up a cartoon that was published in the Chicago Tribune in 1934.
I used to work on an Orchard in Northern Michigan and one day I was cleaning out the attic of one of the houses that the illegal Mexican aliens lived in during the summer/fall months and I stumbled across several election posters. Interesting... the father of my boss (he must have been like 60 years old back when I was 15 yrs old... so he'd be like 87 years old now)... had run for governor of Michigan on the Communist ticket some while back before that time.
Of course, being a kid it didn't mean much to me at the time because I didn't know the difference between one political party and the next. I was sheltered very snuggly between one small down and others.. the outside world meant nothing to me.
As the years progressed I have learned a great deal more about this communist determination to take over the United States. When I talk to people about it I get this glazed over look and am basically told, "The socialist government media warned me not to listen to you when I tell you what they've been doing... so I'm tossing out years of knowing you and your character and integrity and reputation.. and I'm going to distance myself from you now and call you a extream wierdo because that's what they told me to do." yeah.. you know the look.
I thought it would be fun to put up a cartoon that was published in the Chicago Tribune in 1934.
Make note of the sign in the lower left.
Back in 1934 people were brave enough to call out the truth and be laughed at and mocked. Today, there are a few of us still remaining.
Still... people will mock you and say nothing like this ever happened 100 years ago and nothing like this has been going on between now and then... you're just making stuff up.
So, the next time you see a cartoon like the one below:
Before you just scoff at them and write them off.... pick up an actual book and learn your history. A book.... oh dear.. I forget how much we've actually lost in this Country over the years. Do people even know how to read anymore?
Keep Killing My Child: It Makes The Doctors Happy
Several months back my wife started to talk to me about friends she has back in Michigan. The family was asking for prayer for their little boy because he had cancer. Hundreds/thousands of people started to pray for the little boy as he was going through chemo.
Time passes..... a PET scan is done and he's cancer free (at that time)... Much rejoicing.
A little time passes and we get another prayer request.... the doctors are insisting to continue chemo, even after the PET scans are telling them that the little boy no longer has cancer.. they want to keep pumping the poisons into him anyway.
I'll let the story below tell the full issue.. it covers everything very well.
My wife is subscribed to a Homeschool newsletter and it was interesting that this information about people she knows back in Michigan showed up in the Homeschool newsletter. I thought I'd share it with everyone here so you can see: Just how close you can be from the government taking your children from you any time they get the whim.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
( Full Article Here )
Who Makes the Really Tough Decisions: Parents? Or Doctors?
by Michael Farris
HSLDA Chairman
Who should make very difficult decisions for children? Parents or doctors?
In March of this year, 8-year-old Jacob Stieler was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a dangerous bone cancer. His parents took him to a highly-rated children’s oncology center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Jacob had surgery to remove the tumor, which was followed by several rounds of chemotherapy. The treatment was incredibly difficult, and Jacob’s mom, Erin, told me that when she looked her son in the eyes, she knew in her heart that he simply could not survive many more rounds of these drugs.
Erin and Ken, Jacob’s mom and dad, joined by hundreds of others, prayed for Jacob and his complete recovery.
After all of these rounds of chemotherapy were completed, there was a PET scan done to check on the status of the cancer. There was no evidence of cancer detected in Jacob’s body. Jacob’s family and friends rejoiced in his healing—praising God for this wonderful outcome.
But the doctors wanted to give Jacob several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, despite the clean PET scan. When asked why they wanted to keep giving Jacob these incredibly dangerous drugs, the doctors replied that this was “the standard of care” for his illness.
Jacob’s parents begged the doctors to make an individual diagnosis, rather than simply following unbending standards. But the doctors were steadfast. All children with this cancer needed multiple rounds of these drugs—regardless of PET scan results, the doctors contended.
Jacob’s parents did extensive study of the side effects of the five different chemotherapy drugs that the doctor wanted to administer. And they believed that the risk of the drugs was far greater than the risk of recurrent cancer, since Jacob had a clean PET scan. They said no to the doctors. No more chemotherapy treatment for now.
But the doctors would not take no for an answer. They called child protective services in Jacob’s county and asked the agency to file charges against the family for medical neglect.
After looking into the matter, both the local CPS agency and the local prosecuting attorney refused to file charges. They believed that the parents were making reasonable decisions for Jacob.
The doctors still would not take no for an answer. They called higher authorities in the state level CPS agency. The doctors had to make several calls before they finally found someone who would agree with them.
As a result of all of these calls, the local CPS agency was pressured into filing medical neglect charges against the parents.
The local prosecutor still refused to take a case against the family, so the state level CPS officials hired an independent private lawyer to serve as the prosecutor against Ken and Erin Stieler.
A jury trial is scheduled for early January to determine if the doctors will be given the authority to take over the medical decision-making for Jacob.
When I heard about this case—and checked out the facts—I knew that I could not sit on the sidelines and watch this family be overrun and parental rights be trashed by well-meaning but overzealous doctors.
I recently flew to Michigan and took the depositions of all three doctors who were scheduled to testify against the family.
Jacob’s treating physician is the key.
I prepared for the depositions by obtaining copies of the official “package inserts” that the FDA requires all drug companies to give to physicians and patients. Undoubtedly, you have seen these inserts when you have picked up prescriptions for your children.
The inserts tell you several things:
Indicated uses—that is a list of the diseases for which there is evidence that the drug is a safe and effective treatment.
Warnings—these are strong cautions that indicate serious potential issues.
Side effects—these disclose all of the potential consequences that arise from taking the drug.
Approved for children—there is a specific disclaimer on many drugs that indicate whether the drugs have been proven to be safe and effective for children.
“Have all of these drugs been approved by the FDA as safe and effective for children?” I asked Jacob’s treating oncologist.
“Yes,” she replied, they have been FDA-approved for children.
According to the official package inserts that we were able to obtain, she is just flat wrong.
She wanted to continue to give Ifosfamide to Jacob.
The FDA disclosure for this drug says: “Pediatric Use: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.”
The oncologist wanted to give Jacob a weeks’ worth of Etoposide.
The FDA disclosure says: “Pediatric Use: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.”
The warning on the drug Doxorubicin says: “Pediatric patients are at increased risk for developing delayed cardiotoxicity.” This means that the drug can cause severe harm to a child’s heart—at even higher rates than it can in adults.
In fact, as it turned out, the treating doctor had never even seen, much less read, these official FDA-required package inserts. She did state that she had seen similar information from other sources.
Most of the drugs did not list Jacob’s form of cancer as an “indicated use.” This means that these drugs had not been tested and validated as safe and effective for this particular kind of cancer—even for adults, much less for children.
And then we get to the official warnings and side effects.
In addition to the strong warnings about “congestive heart failure” from Doxorubicin, other drugs the doctor wanted to give were known to have caused cancer—new forms of cancer—in patients being treated for an original cancer. Vincristine’s label is typical of these warnings: “Patients who received chemotherapy with vinchristine sulfate in combination with anticancer drugs known to be carcinogenic have developed second malignancies.” The warning labels say that sometimes these second cancers develop years after the treatment.
All five of the drugs that the doctors want to give Jacob are either known to cause other cancers or have not been fully tested.
Some of the other side effects for these drugs include:
Damage to the cranial motor nerves
Serious infections
Failure of boys to sexually mature
The inability to father children
Anorexia
It would take pages to recite all of the warnings and side effects.
Parental rights are increasingly being lost in the medical arena. I am beginning to wonder why physicians even bother asking for parental consent if they will just do an end run around the parents whenever it is convenient for them to do so.
This is not an easy case. It is not a case where a child has a current illness and the treatment is tested and proven to be safe and effective—those cases are easily resolved. The best evidence is that Jacob no longer has objective evidence of cancer. And not a single drug that the doctors want to give Jacob is FDA-approved for children for his kind of cancer.
This is a case where there must be a judgment call—a balancing of risks.
Who makes that call?
The doctor told me during the deposition that she thinks that she should make the call—for every child in this situation. And she would give the same answer every time, rather than making an individual judgment.
I can’t imagine a more clear case of the need for parental rights. This is a decision that requires the wisdom of God.
HSLDA was established to defend parental rights in the context of homeschooling. But the assault on parental rights comes to us on many fronts. This is why we have set up the Homeschool Freedom Fund to enable us to fight important cases for the broader principle of parental rights. Our regular membership fees do not stretch far enough to cover these kinds of cases. We truly need your help to be able to fight for the principles we all hold dear.
If you would like to stand with us in this critical battle for parental rights, I would ask you to send the very best gift you can to the Home School Foundation’s Homeschool Freedom Fund. All gifts to HSF are tax-deductible.
This trial is coming soon—we will send out email alerts if there is any change in the schedule.
Fighting a case of this magnitude is an expensive proposition. I hope you will be as generous as possible so that we may cover travel costs, local counsel, and deposition expenses—for this case and future cases where justice demands action to preserve freedom.
Our nation was founded upon the traditions of Western Civilization. This civilization was founded on the principles of the Word of God. God gives children to parents—not to the state, and not to doctors. In cases like this one, our legal system must remain steadfast in following the principle that God has delegated these kinds of decisions to parents, not to doctors, social workers, or courts.
Please pray for the Stieler family’s case and help as best you can. Thank you.
Time passes..... a PET scan is done and he's cancer free (at that time)... Much rejoicing.
A little time passes and we get another prayer request.... the doctors are insisting to continue chemo, even after the PET scans are telling them that the little boy no longer has cancer.. they want to keep pumping the poisons into him anyway.
I'll let the story below tell the full issue.. it covers everything very well.
My wife is subscribed to a Homeschool newsletter and it was interesting that this information about people she knows back in Michigan showed up in the Homeschool newsletter. I thought I'd share it with everyone here so you can see: Just how close you can be from the government taking your children from you any time they get the whim.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
( Full Article Here )
Who Makes the Really Tough Decisions: Parents? Or Doctors?
by Michael Farris
HSLDA Chairman
Who should make very difficult decisions for children? Parents or doctors?
In March of this year, 8-year-old Jacob Stieler was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a dangerous bone cancer. His parents took him to a highly-rated children’s oncology center in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Jacob had surgery to remove the tumor, which was followed by several rounds of chemotherapy. The treatment was incredibly difficult, and Jacob’s mom, Erin, told me that when she looked her son in the eyes, she knew in her heart that he simply could not survive many more rounds of these drugs.
Erin and Ken, Jacob’s mom and dad, joined by hundreds of others, prayed for Jacob and his complete recovery.
After all of these rounds of chemotherapy were completed, there was a PET scan done to check on the status of the cancer. There was no evidence of cancer detected in Jacob’s body. Jacob’s family and friends rejoiced in his healing—praising God for this wonderful outcome.
But the doctors wanted to give Jacob several more rounds of chemotherapy and radiation, despite the clean PET scan. When asked why they wanted to keep giving Jacob these incredibly dangerous drugs, the doctors replied that this was “the standard of care” for his illness.
Jacob’s parents begged the doctors to make an individual diagnosis, rather than simply following unbending standards. But the doctors were steadfast. All children with this cancer needed multiple rounds of these drugs—regardless of PET scan results, the doctors contended.
Jacob’s parents did extensive study of the side effects of the five different chemotherapy drugs that the doctor wanted to administer. And they believed that the risk of the drugs was far greater than the risk of recurrent cancer, since Jacob had a clean PET scan. They said no to the doctors. No more chemotherapy treatment for now.
But the doctors would not take no for an answer. They called child protective services in Jacob’s county and asked the agency to file charges against the family for medical neglect.
After looking into the matter, both the local CPS agency and the local prosecuting attorney refused to file charges. They believed that the parents were making reasonable decisions for Jacob.
The doctors still would not take no for an answer. They called higher authorities in the state level CPS agency. The doctors had to make several calls before they finally found someone who would agree with them.
As a result of all of these calls, the local CPS agency was pressured into filing medical neglect charges against the parents.
The local prosecutor still refused to take a case against the family, so the state level CPS officials hired an independent private lawyer to serve as the prosecutor against Ken and Erin Stieler.
A jury trial is scheduled for early January to determine if the doctors will be given the authority to take over the medical decision-making for Jacob.
When I heard about this case—and checked out the facts—I knew that I could not sit on the sidelines and watch this family be overrun and parental rights be trashed by well-meaning but overzealous doctors.
I recently flew to Michigan and took the depositions of all three doctors who were scheduled to testify against the family.
Jacob’s treating physician is the key.
I prepared for the depositions by obtaining copies of the official “package inserts” that the FDA requires all drug companies to give to physicians and patients. Undoubtedly, you have seen these inserts when you have picked up prescriptions for your children.
The inserts tell you several things:
Indicated uses—that is a list of the diseases for which there is evidence that the drug is a safe and effective treatment.
Warnings—these are strong cautions that indicate serious potential issues.
Side effects—these disclose all of the potential consequences that arise from taking the drug.
Approved for children—there is a specific disclaimer on many drugs that indicate whether the drugs have been proven to be safe and effective for children.
“Have all of these drugs been approved by the FDA as safe and effective for children?” I asked Jacob’s treating oncologist.
“Yes,” she replied, they have been FDA-approved for children.
According to the official package inserts that we were able to obtain, she is just flat wrong.
She wanted to continue to give Ifosfamide to Jacob.
The FDA disclosure for this drug says: “Pediatric Use: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.”
The oncologist wanted to give Jacob a weeks’ worth of Etoposide.
The FDA disclosure says: “Pediatric Use: Safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients have not been established.”
The warning on the drug Doxorubicin says: “Pediatric patients are at increased risk for developing delayed cardiotoxicity.” This means that the drug can cause severe harm to a child’s heart—at even higher rates than it can in adults.
In fact, as it turned out, the treating doctor had never even seen, much less read, these official FDA-required package inserts. She did state that she had seen similar information from other sources.
Most of the drugs did not list Jacob’s form of cancer as an “indicated use.” This means that these drugs had not been tested and validated as safe and effective for this particular kind of cancer—even for adults, much less for children.
And then we get to the official warnings and side effects.
In addition to the strong warnings about “congestive heart failure” from Doxorubicin, other drugs the doctor wanted to give were known to have caused cancer—new forms of cancer—in patients being treated for an original cancer. Vincristine’s label is typical of these warnings: “Patients who received chemotherapy with vinchristine sulfate in combination with anticancer drugs known to be carcinogenic have developed second malignancies.” The warning labels say that sometimes these second cancers develop years after the treatment.
All five of the drugs that the doctors want to give Jacob are either known to cause other cancers or have not been fully tested.
Some of the other side effects for these drugs include:
Damage to the cranial motor nerves
Serious infections
Failure of boys to sexually mature
The inability to father children
Anorexia
It would take pages to recite all of the warnings and side effects.
Parental rights are increasingly being lost in the medical arena. I am beginning to wonder why physicians even bother asking for parental consent if they will just do an end run around the parents whenever it is convenient for them to do so.
This is not an easy case. It is not a case where a child has a current illness and the treatment is tested and proven to be safe and effective—those cases are easily resolved. The best evidence is that Jacob no longer has objective evidence of cancer. And not a single drug that the doctors want to give Jacob is FDA-approved for children for his kind of cancer.
This is a case where there must be a judgment call—a balancing of risks.
Who makes that call?
The doctor told me during the deposition that she thinks that she should make the call—for every child in this situation. And she would give the same answer every time, rather than making an individual judgment.
I can’t imagine a more clear case of the need for parental rights. This is a decision that requires the wisdom of God.
HSLDA was established to defend parental rights in the context of homeschooling. But the assault on parental rights comes to us on many fronts. This is why we have set up the Homeschool Freedom Fund to enable us to fight important cases for the broader principle of parental rights. Our regular membership fees do not stretch far enough to cover these kinds of cases. We truly need your help to be able to fight for the principles we all hold dear.
If you would like to stand with us in this critical battle for parental rights, I would ask you to send the very best gift you can to the Home School Foundation’s Homeschool Freedom Fund. All gifts to HSF are tax-deductible.
This trial is coming soon—we will send out email alerts if there is any change in the schedule.
Fighting a case of this magnitude is an expensive proposition. I hope you will be as generous as possible so that we may cover travel costs, local counsel, and deposition expenses—for this case and future cases where justice demands action to preserve freedom.
Our nation was founded upon the traditions of Western Civilization. This civilization was founded on the principles of the Word of God. God gives children to parents—not to the state, and not to doctors. In cases like this one, our legal system must remain steadfast in following the principle that God has delegated these kinds of decisions to parents, not to doctors, social workers, or courts.
Please pray for the Stieler family’s case and help as best you can. Thank you.
Friday, November 18, 2011
Speeding Ticket Hell
I am going to chronical the experience of getting a speeding ticket here in Arizona. I can tell you, if I would have been given this list up front about what crap I'd have to go through I'd have just shot myself in the head. But.. because it was hell one step at a time, I was able to slowly go insane rather than become overwhelmed all at once.
*Note*: Whenever calling the driving school, assume a 10-20 minute stint being on hold (even when not mentioned below)
*Note*: Whenever calling the driving school, assume a 10-20 minute stint being on hold (even when not mentioned below)
- Drive too fast on a road that is stupid-silly marked for slower than makes sense (Yes, that's my excuse. I am discovering that I really don't do well with authority. Didn't used to be like that but as I learn what Authority is and has become, I have almost zero respect for it).
- Get a ticket and get treated like you're some sort of child rapist by the police officer that has serious issues involving the lack of love from his mother as a child.
- Look up online how much the ticket will cost.
- Have wife coax you up off the floor after fainting and assist you in taking large doses of meds for your migraine.
- Panic when attempting to try and figure out how to come up with $200+ dollars in the family budget over the next month.
- Discover that it just isn't going to happen.. so call court house, wait on phone, ask for an extension.
- Get directed to a website where it gives you instructions on how to get an extension.
- Get your printer at home to work with your laptop so that it can scan in documents and turn them into .pdf files (3 hours).
- Scan your drivers license, scan your ticket.
- Write a letter asking for an extension.
- Print out your letter asking for an extension.
- Sign the letter asking for an extension.
- Take the letter, the drivers license scan and the ticket scan to work with you.
- Fax all three items above to a number at the court house to request your extension.
- Wait 3 days and then call between 9:00 am and 11:30 am on the third day after sending your fax to confirm that they received your request for an extension.
- Get confirmation that your deadline now isn't until November 21st. Take just a moment to catch your breath.
- Discover that you can take an online driving school for $200+ (basically the same as the ticket) but if you do, they will throw the ticket out and you won't get any points or car insurance cost hike, etc.
- Wait until about 2 weeks before the new November 21st deadline because you still aren't amazingly wealthy and it takes you that long to come up with $200 to pay for the online course.
- Discover that most online courses have several built-in delays that will cause you to miss your November 21st deadline. (spend another 3 hours finding a course that will accept you enrolling only 10 days before the deadline of the ticket).
- Sign up for your online course (zap... they are very eager to withdraw the funds out of your checking account/debit card).
- Get told that you have to send the online driving course proof of your extension.
- Contact the driving course and tell them that you do not have proof. That you just talked to the court house on the phone and was verbally told it was approved.
- Have driving school tell you that they will contact the court house on Monday (it is currently late on Friday) and get verbal confirmation themselves.
- Call the driving school on Monday afternoon to ask about what happened with the verbal approval with the court house. Be told by the driving school that they tried to call for two hours and that they will try again on Tuesday.
- Inform the driving school that you know they are lying because the court house ALWAYS answers the phone within 1-2 minutes of calling. That you are positive that no phone call was made to the court house and you are running out of time and getting frustrated. Quick jerking my chain and just do your darn job!
- Call the court house yourself (get through right away).. ask them about confirmation of the extension. They say they need a fax number of the driving school and will send something right away.
- Call the driving school right back and tell them you need a fax number for the court house to send the proof of extension.
- Call the court house right back and give them the fax number.
- Wait 30 minutes.
- Call the driving school and ask if they received the fax. Wait as they determine that they must send a supervisor to go find the fax machine and check (be on hold 20 minutes).
- Find out that the fax of the extension has something hand written on it and it needs to be typed and it can not be accepted.
- Find out from the driving school that they will just call on Tuesday for a verbal and that a fax isn't really even needed. Make them promise and make their supervisor promise and it be noted in your file what supervisor said they will personally call the courthouse on Tuesday.
- On Tuesday, call the driving school and see if they called the court house like they said they were going to do.
- Find out that they did call the court house (after another hour of being on hold) but now it's past the 7 days deadline before the court deadline so they can't let me take the course.
- Get access to the supervisors' supervisor and let them know that it is the driving courses fault that I'm past the 7 day before the court date deadline because they failed and lied about making phone calls and are the reason it was dragged out so far.
- Agree to pay $20 for a 2 day express shipping of your certificate so you can get it to the local court house before your November 21st deadline.
- Pay for the 2 day express over the phone with your debt card.
- Get a waiver from the company policy and get them to unlock the computer program so that you can take the online driving school course.
- Get home and start the driving course.
- Log in - Have the course immediately lock you out because you are within the 7 day window before the court date.
- Call the driving school back and explain everything from the beginning to the 9th person in the company and then get the supervisor's supervisor on shift at that moment; to contact tech support so they can bypass the computer auto-locks and unlock it so you can take the test (per your previous waiver).
- Start the class.
- See that the class is telling you that you only have a regular mail (2-8 days) set up and that you need to pay $20 for the 2 day express.
- Contact the driving course company and confirm that you paid the $20 already. Have them tell you that it's noted in your folder/account that it's paid for. To just select regular(free) mailing so that you don't get charged twice.
- Spend 4 hours taking an online class that is more a test of your ability to listen to someone say "beuler.. beuler.. beuler" over and over without falling asleep.
- Finish the course.
- Contact the driving course and just double check to make sure the 2 day express shipping is in fact going to happen.
- Confirm that they screwed that up and have their supervisor's supervisor make sure that it's going to be the 2 day FedEx express shipment.. good thing you called or you would have missed the court deadline of November 21st.
- Insist on a tracking number from FedEx.
- Be told to call back the next day after 3pm so you can get a FedEx number.
- Call back on the next day (again, don't forget being on hold 20 minutes each phone call) and get your FedEx tracking number (each time you get to explain everything from the beginning and/or let them spend 20 minutes reading the pages in your file of notes now).
- Let 2 days pass until the Friday before the deadline (deadline is on Monday).
- Call the court house to confirm they will be open until 5pm like their website and/or phone auto-recording says.
- Get the FedEx delivery at 1:38 pm on Friday.
- Jump in your car and drive 45 minutes to the court house.
- Stand in line for 15 minutes.
- Hand the lady the driving course certificate and a copy of your ticket.
- Lady behind the bullet proof glass makes a photo copy and hands you back the original.
- Lady tells you she will hand deliver the course certificate 'right now to the lady that needs it'.
- Leave the court house wondering if the lady will actually do her job because everyone you ever meet never does their job and you're the one that gets screwed all the time.
- Drive 45 minutes through traffic-hell back home.
- Consider moving into the basement at work and selling your vehicles because this crap is bull.
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
We Don't Need Your -Stink'n- Electricity!
Oh, what a dream to be 'off the grid'. I don't see it happening any time soon because we are living in rental houses and home owners just aren't so accepting of the idea of you installing many thousands of dollars of equipment into their house and cutting into their electrical junction boxes and such.
I would just love to get enough solar panels for a backup though. I'd be just giddy as can be if I could have a small system all set up where if we lost power I could just carry out the solar panels and set it up, let the batteries charge up and run some critical systems off the inverter while we're out of 'grid power'.
Maybe make the system just large enough to keep the refrigerator going, the microwave and some portable fans for cooling (the air conditioning would just take too much intrusive wiring into the house electrical system). The microwave, refrigerator and fans though could all be run on extension cords from the invertor without any big issue at all. It'd be fantastic to know that you won't lose everything in the freezer/fridge if the power goes out for a day or more. Or to know that you can still cook food and boil water without any electricity.
I've been researching electric and wind power for months now. Once I got past the 'fear of change' and procrastination and actually started to research it; I was shocked at how simple it really is. You can go DIY style and buy solar cells on eBay and solder them together yourself and make/buy your own frames for the solar panels; or you can just buy the panels already made up from the factory on eBay as well.
You can make them cheaper of course.. .for like $160. But that's a homemade frame that might leak when rained on and it's all the work and possible mistakes that comes from DIY work too. You can buy a brand new 100 watt, 18.5 volt, 5.55 amp
I want to throw up some pictures and the procedure on how to do some of this work yourself. You'll see just how easy it is to get solar power cranking in your place too. I'm not going to get into the process of hooking it into your house. I'm just going to show you how to make a small system that can go with you camping or in your RV or just an emergency system like I mentioned above to get you by until the grid comes back online.
Step 1:
Check out what area of the country you live in and see just how smart it would be to look to solar power vs. other options. I'd say in Michigan you'd better for sure include a wind power generator into the system because most of the time you can't see that bright burning ball in the sky.
You can pick up a 100 watt solar panel for about $225 each. A 100 watt solar panel will charge your batteries 100 watts for each hour of sunlight. The sun though isn't up and useful 24 hours a day. So you have to plan for only about 6 hours of sunlight (here in Arizona) where the sun is right above and just dishing out the power if you're ready to use it.
So.. 1 panel that puts out 100 watts will give you 600 watts of charging power into your batteries per day. If our need is 12,486 watt hours per day. Using online calculators where you put in your data and it tells you how many panels you will need it says I need 8 panels.
But in reading it's calculations it's assuming you will need to charge up for 3 days worth of power. It's taking into account using solar power in areas of the country that doesn't get as much sun as here in Arziona.
I think it's safe to trim that down to 3 panels instead of 8 if you're living here in Arizona.
$225 for each panel x 3 panels = $675
Step 6:
Next we need a Charge Controller. This will control how your batteries are charged from the panels. It will slow down to a trickle charge when the batteries are almost fully charged, etc. It also keeps power from coming back into the panels when it's dark and power naturally wants to flow back through the circuits into the panel.
Each panel puts out about 6 amps. So with 3 panels you are putting 18 amps towards the batteries from the panels. You need to know this so you can size your charge controller so it can handle the amps you are using.
A 20 amp (just a little larger than your 18 amps) can be bought on eBay for about $93.00
Step 7:
Last, but not least. Decide how many batteries you need. 6-volt batteries have many bonuses in these systems. The main one is that they last longer and function better when they are cycled. If you drain them down and then recharge them..they hold up better. A 12-volt batter like is in your car gets real annoyed with you if you keep draining it and recharging it.
So what you do is buy 2 6-volt batteries and link them together with cables. This makes a large 12 volt battery; but it is made out of 2 s-volt batteries which don't mind your recharging them frequently.
Problem is the 6-volt batteries are larger and then on top of that you need two of them. So, they take a lot of room.
Checking out battery calculator programs on the internet to figure out how many batteries you would need for our system we would need. Much of this varies so much because of the type of batteries that you buy. How many amp/hours the batteries are rated at, etc.
If I choose the highest quality/rating of batter we'd need 3 groups of 2 batteries. Wow.. searching the internet I can get brand new marine batteries (6 volt) for about $230 each. 6 x 230 = $1380.
So.. our grand total:
Inverter: $225
Controller: $93
Panels: $675
Batteries: $1380
We could run our full sized refrigerator, a microwave, a coffee machine, fans and some lights indefinitely (the grid could be completely down).. for about $2375.
Seems like a big pill to swallow doesn't it? What if you plugged it into your house system with a little different wiring and then you could trim $100 off your monthly bill from the electric company? About 2 years and it would pay for itself.
You'd have the peace of mind knowing that you're covered if the grid went down and then you'd be making $100 profit every month (reduced electrical cost from the electric company every month)... take that $100 and put it aside for expanding your system.... maybe you can be completely off the grid after a while and then actually have a 'job' where the electric company pays you money every month.
Muahaha!
I just love doing the planning and math and calculating; even if it never happens. I like to know how and that it is possible.
Side Note: You can buy a $200 kit with 1 panel, a small charge controller, and invertor. It's a little system that's just set up for 50 watts. Something like your laptop can be run off it, charge your phone, etc.
Summary: I hope you enjoyed my little research project and have found that solar isn't all that confusing after all.
I would just love to get enough solar panels for a backup though. I'd be just giddy as can be if I could have a small system all set up where if we lost power I could just carry out the solar panels and set it up, let the batteries charge up and run some critical systems off the inverter while we're out of 'grid power'.
Maybe make the system just large enough to keep the refrigerator going, the microwave and some portable fans for cooling (the air conditioning would just take too much intrusive wiring into the house electrical system). The microwave, refrigerator and fans though could all be run on extension cords from the invertor without any big issue at all. It'd be fantastic to know that you won't lose everything in the freezer/fridge if the power goes out for a day or more. Or to know that you can still cook food and boil water without any electricity.
I've been researching electric and wind power for months now. Once I got past the 'fear of change' and procrastination and actually started to research it; I was shocked at how simple it really is. You can go DIY style and buy solar cells on eBay and solder them together yourself and make/buy your own frames for the solar panels; or you can just buy the panels already made up from the factory on eBay as well.
You can make them cheaper of course.. .for like $160. But that's a homemade frame that might leak when rained on and it's all the work and possible mistakes that comes from DIY work too. You can buy a brand new 100 watt, 18.5 volt, 5.55 amp
I want to throw up some pictures and the procedure on how to do some of this work yourself. You'll see just how easy it is to get solar power cranking in your place too. I'm not going to get into the process of hooking it into your house. I'm just going to show you how to make a small system that can go with you camping or in your RV or just an emergency system like I mentioned above to get you by until the grid comes back online.
Step 1:
Check out what area of the country you live in and see just how smart it would be to look to solar power vs. other options. I'd say in Michigan you'd better for sure include a wind power generator into the system because most of the time you can't see that bright burning ball in the sky.
As you can see.. where we live in Arizona we get a crazy amount of sunshine.
Step 2:
Determine what you want your system to run. Refrigerator and microwave and some fans? Do you want to include your coffee machine? How about your television so you can keep up on the news? Maybe some extra available power for charging cell phones and laptops and various other things?
There are many different charts you can find within 1 minute of a little Google-ing to help you add up the power usage of most appliances in your home. Just add up all the items you want to be able to use so you have an idea of then; how big your system needs to be in order to meet your needs.
The above was a screen capture off a website. You can find the original ( here ).
These items won't be used all the time. Like your microwave. Wow.. 1500 watts?! Oh.. but you're only going to use it for 1 hour of the day. You need your invertor large enough to supply for peak usage, but your battery bank doesn't need to be massive because that 1500 watts isn't going to keep draining your batteries for hours.. just a little at a time and your panels will start recharging the batteries between uses.
When off the grid.. all those tree-hugging earth-worshiping cultist suggestions actually become important. Unplug that/those items that are not being used. Save your power.
Just add up the items you want to be able to use. Keep in mind that some items may peak on startup. To start a motor or equipment the amps sometimes double until it is up and running.
Also a small hint: Turn off the warmer plate on your coffee machine just as soon as it's done percolating and making your pot. The hot warmer plate is a massive drain of power. Make the coffee, turn off the coffee maker (unplug it even), pour your cups and enjoy.
Step 3:
Design the system size you need. In my example above we have:
- Refrigerator: 540 watts: It only runs about 4 hours a day though.
- Microwave: 1500 watts
- Table Fan: 25 watts x 4 = 100 watts
- TV: 25" color: 150 watts (need to get rabbit ears for non-cable reception).
- Incandescent Lights: Just add up wattage on the bulbs. Here might be a good place to listen to the earth-cultists again. Those Compact Fluorescent or LED lights are a fraction of the wattage usage. I'd say 300 watts for lights. (emergency lighting here.. not having the whole house lit up).
- Coffee Maker: 800 watts
So.. add up what I have above and use the load evaluation pdf file on the website listed above and get your total load. Ours would be: 12,486 watt-hours/day.
Holy Cow! I didn't realize it was going to be that high. Jeepers. Looking at the pdf file that you make up off that website when you're entering your appliances, wattage and hours used.. you can really see what takes up your wattage in a huge way. The refrigerator is like 60% of the power usage.
Maybe it would be a good idea to just get a little mini-fridge and we just shove the emergency items into the mini-fridge and use that instead of having the big 20 cubic foot fridge. Wow.. what an electric pig!
Step 4:
Take your watt usage peak (add up all items that will run at the same time and double that), that will be the size of the invertor you need. In our case: about 6,000 peak usage. It'd be smart not to run the microwave, fans, all the lights, the coffee maker and the fridge at the same time. It'd be very simple to just make a family rule: Don't run the coffee maker and the microwave at the same time. Problem solved. Just use a 6,000 watt peak invertor.
A 3,000 watt use / 6,000 watt peak invertor I found for sale at eBay for about $225 (including shipping).
Step 5:
Now you need to find out how many/what size solar panels you need.
So.. 1 panel that puts out 100 watts will give you 600 watts of charging power into your batteries per day. If our need is 12,486 watt hours per day. Using online calculators where you put in your data and it tells you how many panels you will need it says I need 8 panels.
But in reading it's calculations it's assuming you will need to charge up for 3 days worth of power. It's taking into account using solar power in areas of the country that doesn't get as much sun as here in Arziona.
I think it's safe to trim that down to 3 panels instead of 8 if you're living here in Arizona.
$225 for each panel x 3 panels = $675
Step 6:
Next we need a Charge Controller. This will control how your batteries are charged from the panels. It will slow down to a trickle charge when the batteries are almost fully charged, etc. It also keeps power from coming back into the panels when it's dark and power naturally wants to flow back through the circuits into the panel.
Each panel puts out about 6 amps. So with 3 panels you are putting 18 amps towards the batteries from the panels. You need to know this so you can size your charge controller so it can handle the amps you are using.
A 20 amp (just a little larger than your 18 amps) can be bought on eBay for about $93.00
Step 7:
Last, but not least. Decide how many batteries you need. 6-volt batteries have many bonuses in these systems. The main one is that they last longer and function better when they are cycled. If you drain them down and then recharge them..they hold up better. A 12-volt batter like is in your car gets real annoyed with you if you keep draining it and recharging it.
So what you do is buy 2 6-volt batteries and link them together with cables. This makes a large 12 volt battery; but it is made out of 2 s-volt batteries which don't mind your recharging them frequently.
Problem is the 6-volt batteries are larger and then on top of that you need two of them. So, they take a lot of room.
Checking out battery calculator programs on the internet to figure out how many batteries you would need for our system we would need. Much of this varies so much because of the type of batteries that you buy. How many amp/hours the batteries are rated at, etc.
If I choose the highest quality/rating of batter we'd need 3 groups of 2 batteries. Wow.. searching the internet I can get brand new marine batteries (6 volt) for about $230 each. 6 x 230 = $1380.
So.. our grand total:
Inverter: $225
Controller: $93
Panels: $675
Batteries: $1380
We could run our full sized refrigerator, a microwave, a coffee machine, fans and some lights indefinitely (the grid could be completely down).. for about $2375.
Seems like a big pill to swallow doesn't it? What if you plugged it into your house system with a little different wiring and then you could trim $100 off your monthly bill from the electric company? About 2 years and it would pay for itself.
You'd have the peace of mind knowing that you're covered if the grid went down and then you'd be making $100 profit every month (reduced electrical cost from the electric company every month)... take that $100 and put it aside for expanding your system.... maybe you can be completely off the grid after a while and then actually have a 'job' where the electric company pays you money every month.
Muahaha!
I just love doing the planning and math and calculating; even if it never happens. I like to know how and that it is possible.
Side Note: You can buy a $200 kit with 1 panel, a small charge controller, and invertor. It's a little system that's just set up for 50 watts. Something like your laptop can be run off it, charge your phone, etc.
Summary: I hope you enjoyed my little research project and have found that solar isn't all that confusing after all.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Cain -CAN- Beat O'Bummer
I won't delve into the 'no stones' mentality of these people that just whine and don't even try to win against the establishment; but just whimper and vote how they are told by the GOP. Instead let me point you to an incredible article.
(Entire article can be read here)
"Mr. Perry would, however, steamroll in a general election, topping President Obama 45-37. Mr. Cain leads Mr. Obama 40-35.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won just 9 percent support among Republicans when it came to their presidential nomination, and he topped Mr. Obama by just 36-34 in a head-to-head matchup."
The article's purpose is to show that even in Texas Cain is beating Perry. The part that convinced me to take up my own blog space to mention this article was the part where it shows that Cain is now passing O'Bummer in polls for the Presidential election. Not only that.. but he's beating O'Bummer by even more than Romney in polls.
I just hope the lemmings can see beyond who they are being told to support and not support.. and grow a pair (as well as a spine) and vote for someone other than the established GOP which got us into much of the problems we have today.
Thank you.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Occupy This !
What are these spoiled rich kids freaking out about on WallStreet and other places around the Country?
You don't know? Well... neither do they.
Check out this video that lays it all out there. If you don't hear yourself saying "EXACTLY" about 30 times during the 5 minutes; I'll give you your money back. :)
You don't know? Well... neither do they.
Check out this video that lays it all out there. If you don't hear yourself saying "EXACTLY" about 30 times during the 5 minutes; I'll give you your money back. :)
Thursday, October 13, 2011
33 Minutes That Will Open Your Eyes
I've been becoming active at a forum on the net sharing ideas and learning with and from others about political ideas and also far deeper thinking.
That website/Forum can be found here: http://itsaboutliberty.com/
While at the site I made a post about some beliefs I have about Christianity and the world around us. It led me to a specific portion of the forum dedicated to the discussions of Faith, etc. On that specific part of the forum I stumbled across a few videos.
Those videos I want to share with you.
The first two are interesting and caught my attention enough to convince me to invest 33 minutes of my life to watch the third video. I'm glad I did. It's very powerful and educational.
The most encouraging part to me is that completely ignorant and uninformed people that make up a shockingly high percentage of the people you meet on the street... have dramatic and life-altering changes in their thinking after watching the video.
They use the term "180" to describe the completely opposite decision being made by people after they watch this video. Now.. most that read this blog already know this and have the same viewpoints.. but if you could share it with people that you know are lost and confused and utterly ignorant... it just might make a massive change in their lives.
Make a difference in the world around you.. go out and be the salt of the world.
That website/Forum can be found here: http://itsaboutliberty.com/
While at the site I made a post about some beliefs I have about Christianity and the world around us. It led me to a specific portion of the forum dedicated to the discussions of Faith, etc. On that specific part of the forum I stumbled across a few videos.
Those videos I want to share with you.
The first two are interesting and caught my attention enough to convince me to invest 33 minutes of my life to watch the third video. I'm glad I did. It's very powerful and educational.
The most encouraging part to me is that completely ignorant and uninformed people that make up a shockingly high percentage of the people you meet on the street... have dramatic and life-altering changes in their thinking after watching the video.
They use the term "180" to describe the completely opposite decision being made by people after they watch this video. Now.. most that read this blog already know this and have the same viewpoints.. but if you could share it with people that you know are lost and confused and utterly ignorant... it just might make a massive change in their lives.
Make a difference in the world around you.. go out and be the salt of the world.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
I Should Get PhotoShop
I really should get Photoshop. I have so much fun with just the LAME Windows Paint program and it looks so Hokie when I do it.. but it's so much fun. Check out these two pictures and then my creative genius after them. (Laugh).
I'm having such a great time with Rose (the name of my Guitar). I'm learning that memorizing all the chords and getting your fingers just right.. and building up the callouses is very little of what guitar playing really is. It's all about the strumming and the pick-hand. You can play about 85% of the songs on the radio with only 4 chords; what makes the difference is what you're doing with your right hand strumming the strings.
I'm just a fledgling musician right now with the guitar and am still working on moving from one chord to the next, trying to get faster and keep them clean sounding.
A long road ahead still. After I get the guitar playing down where I can do it without much thinking... then I have to tackle singing (oh dear). Ignore the dogs howling, they're just singing along with me. :)
I'm having such a great time with Rose (the name of my Guitar). I'm learning that memorizing all the chords and getting your fingers just right.. and building up the callouses is very little of what guitar playing really is. It's all about the strumming and the pick-hand. You can play about 85% of the songs on the radio with only 4 chords; what makes the difference is what you're doing with your right hand strumming the strings.
I'm just a fledgling musician right now with the guitar and am still working on moving from one chord to the next, trying to get faster and keep them clean sounding.
A long road ahead still. After I get the guitar playing down where I can do it without much thinking... then I have to tackle singing (oh dear). Ignore the dogs howling, they're just singing along with me. :)
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Budget Cuts 1.0 - Welfare Program
There are dozens of government agencies and programs that I would LOVE to see trimmed back or completely eliminated. I am contemplating writing blog entries about each of these ideas and open up the ideas to debate here on the blog.
To test if this is a good idea or not; I am opening up with:
Welfare Program
I base my life on my relationship with Christ and as such, have different motivations and purposes than what our Country has evolved into. Our Country started out on a pure and God centered focus but as compromise after compromised has slipped in and slowly eroded the baseline values of our Nation, we have drifted a great deal away from where we had started.
My Bible (I say my because many versions have been printed in the latest years which twist and change and modify the Bible to suit their own political needs and spiritual needs in pulling more people away from Christ)...
My Bible offers a plethora of scripture which impresses the need of the followers of Christ (and God: Old Testament for Jews) to provide for the needy, the poor, the widows, etc. It clearly puts the duty of caring for those in need on the Church (those that follow God).
We have a clear blueprint of who has the responsibility of taking care of the poor. (Note: A Widow in the culture in the Old Testament times was destitute. Without a man for income, she was immediately homeless and helpless. Much like an orphan the culture offered a widow no real hope for a future).
So we fast forward to the United States of America and our history. The development of soup kitchens, church run orphanages, work training programs; all of which get tax-free status to continue the work of Christ in all the cities across our country.
Why did we need to give the Churches a tax-free status?
Slipping into the time-machine of our Country you'll find that there was a time not too long ago that an income tax did not exist. A person would work on a farm and sell their crop at market and then have that money to spend as they wished. If they were a factory worker, a deli owner or a seamstress it was the same. The money you earned was yours to decide what you wished to do with. You could buy flour at the store, a bag of sugar, a new stove for your cabin, supplies for a trip out West, new windows for the 2nd floor of your home.
It was also your choice and within your power to give of that money to your church so that they could continue on with the work of Christ. Spreading the Gospel of Christ, helping those new to Christ to grow in their relationship with him and for the care of those in need in the community (Church funded Welfare).
Then... along came the income tax and those farmers and seamstresses found out that when they earned some money, laws now required them to send off a percentage of what they had earned to someone in Washington D.C. or be fined and/or imprisoned. Ah yes, much like when we had lived under a King which demanded payment for the honor of being called his servants/slaves.
So, now the farmer and seamstress no longer had as much freedom to give as freely to their Church. Sure, they still paid their 10% tithing to the church, but offerings given above and beyond were more difficult to hand over in the offering plate.
As the years progress, the men in Washington D.C. decide they have more and more purposes in which to authorize them to take more and more of that farmer and seamstresses earned money. Each year that passes the earned money of the farmer and seamstress gets less and less and less, with more and more of their money going to Washington D.C.
The Church finds itself no longer able to provide as they had for the poor and needy in their communities. Thus comes the tax-free status which Churches are able to negotiate with the slave-owners in Washington D.C. Thus, they get a short term fix to carry on the Work of Christ in their communities.
But, the taxes continue to go up and up and many people in the Church cut their 10% tithing back to 9%, then 7% and some down below 5% as they try to keep their children in clothes and shoes.
The Church and their ministry to care for the poor and needy continues to suffer and they can't be as effective as they were. A visible and problem segment of our society begins to develop because the Churches can no longer keep up with the demands.
So, Washington D.C. steps in and creates a Welfare program of their own.
One of the major problems as I see it is that now people are no longer giving to the needs of the poor and needy themselves. They are being robbed (without recourse) by their government and then the government is burning and wasting those funds on their Welfare programs.
A church in its community is very frugal. The members on its board or supervisors or the pastor is directly held accountable to those giving them the money (tithe/offerings). If the members of that church see their hard earned money being frivolously wasted you can bet that that board or that pastor will be quickly reminded of his responsibilities and the fat would be trimmed and the program(s) would become efficient again.
While the programs are overseen from the Overlords in Washington D.C. though, they waste, they pilfer from the funds and they burn through the money they've recently stolen from you earnings. They have no fear of the wrath of those they are stealing from for they are detached both geographically and emotionally from those they get their funding from.
Additionally, a persons relationship with God is damaged. If you give freely of your income to the church and for the Work of Christ there is a profound and deep purpose and connectivity with Christ that comes from being a part of his Work in the world. But, what are your feelings and spiritual growth when you are robbed at payday and your money instead is spent to buy a wide screen t.v., a second car, an X-Box and cartons of cigarettes?
The care for the needy and the poor in our Country has evolved into a system that ensures that generation after generation of families never even seek out employment or becoming a contribution to the community in which they live. Parasites are created and encouraged to suck off the marrow of those that struggle to keep their freedom from the slavery system of the Government.
2 Thessalonians 3:10
New King James Version (NKJV)
10 For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat.
- εἴ τις οὐ θέλει ἐργάζεσθαι μηδὲ ἐσθιέτω
that is,
- If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
The Greek phrase θέλει ἐργάζεσθαι means “is not willing to work”. Other English translations render this as “would” or “will not work”, which may confuse readers unaccustomed to this use of the verb “will” in the obsolete sense of “want to, desire to”.
Indeed, there are a great many truly needy people out there today that are unable to work and to earn a living in this world. Just as their always has been in this world. It is a wonderful opportunity for people to give beyond themselves and to bless others; thus growing closer to God in their acts of services.
But what do we do with those MILLIONS of people in our Country that are absolutely capable of earning a living and just shrug it off and play with their X-Box while chain smoking their cigarettes while eating their free food in their free housing?
It's this segment of our society which needs to be cut off completely. 100% of any funding to these people need to be immediately cut off. Not even the Churches are to provide any assistance to these people. "Let him not eat". Not eat? To me that sounds pretty plain. If you do not eat.. you die. If the Bible is so plain as to say if you are not willing to work, you should just starve and die.... then so be it.
A simple and lazy fix to this would be to do means testing for Welfare recipients. If a person is able to work, they get no Welfare support from the Government support system. But this would only encourage hundreds of thousands of new government employees to go into each family across the Nation to snoop and ask questions and rule over the people even more. Which, in turn.. would authorize a dramatic increase in even more taxes to pay for all this manpower; the continued growth of the Government.
Instead.. I say:
Create a flat-tax for every income owner in our country at 17%. Not a penny more. If you earn $7 an hour you pay 17% in income tax. If you earn $50,000 an hour you pay 17% in income tax. The socialist promote the "fair share" continually. Well, wouldn't a fair-share mean everyone pays the same percentage of their income to taxes?
Second, completely disband the Welfare system. 100% abolished, 100% flushed down the toilet.
Third, if a person or family wishes to hand-out or a hand-up, they are to proceed directly to their local church for assistance.
Now you have local accountability, the reduction of waste and fraud and those that are able to work and do not will either lose weight dramatically (will not eat) or will promptly learn that they must earn a living if they wish to live.
Summary: Flat Tax - Individuals can easily contribute to their churches - Eliminate the entire Welfare Program.
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
U.S.A. Baseline Budget Explination
When you hear Washington D.C. throwing around numbers in the Trillions it's understandable that you just can't wrap your mind around what is really going on. You know from experience that your paycheck gets smaller each time you get one. You know the cost of your gasoline, food, electricity is creeping up faster and faster... but Trillions? (eyes glaze over and you shrug as if it's a different language talking to you).
I have heard a few analogies to try and put the national budget into real-world terms that make things clear and understandable.
The most recent one is as follows:
1. You have sat down with the family and looked at all your income and your expenses. You've laid out money for a meager savings, for the church, for rent, groceries, transporation, electric, water, etc, etc. You have set money aside for the purchase of a new (used) vehicle but still find that you're going to need to take on a car payment. (bogus: this is an example I heard... still sucks to be stuck with a car payment.... CASH!) Anyway.. back to the analogy.
2. You determine as a family that you can buy a vehicle and afford the monthly payments of a $40,000 vehicle (again, not my analogy, obviously $35,000 too much).
3. You go shopping... and fall in love with a vehicle that costs $70,000. The salesman tells you that he'll give you a red hot deal and sell it to you for $60,000.
4. Wow... you have another family meeting and find out... I can SAVE $10,000 !
Okay... this is what we've got going on in Washington D.C. They've got $40,000 income but are going to be spending $60,000 this year.. and they're telling you they cut $10,000 from the budget.
Real-life translation: The american people are so stupid that they'll never figure out how we're screwing them over. (Laughing all the way to the bank).
I have heard a few analogies to try and put the national budget into real-world terms that make things clear and understandable.
The most recent one is as follows:
1. You have sat down with the family and looked at all your income and your expenses. You've laid out money for a meager savings, for the church, for rent, groceries, transporation, electric, water, etc, etc. You have set money aside for the purchase of a new (used) vehicle but still find that you're going to need to take on a car payment. (bogus: this is an example I heard... still sucks to be stuck with a car payment.... CASH!) Anyway.. back to the analogy.
2. You determine as a family that you can buy a vehicle and afford the monthly payments of a $40,000 vehicle (again, not my analogy, obviously $35,000 too much).
3. You go shopping... and fall in love with a vehicle that costs $70,000. The salesman tells you that he'll give you a red hot deal and sell it to you for $60,000.
4. Wow... you have another family meeting and find out... I can SAVE $10,000 !
Okay... this is what we've got going on in Washington D.C. They've got $40,000 income but are going to be spending $60,000 this year.. and they're telling you they cut $10,000 from the budget.
Real-life translation: The american people are so stupid that they'll never figure out how we're screwing them over. (Laughing all the way to the bank).
Friday, July 15, 2011
July 5th Haboob, Phoenix, AZ
I thought I'd throw up a CNN video of the Haboob that came over my place on July 5th. I did a home video myself but I don't want to put it up because it's got my yard, wife and daughter and such. Don't need stalkers and such.
Friday, June 17, 2011
GOP Canidates Pros and Cons
The List
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
![]()
Positive:
![]()
![]()
Newt Gingrich
Positive:
1. Has demanded a balanced budget amendment (2010).
2. Negotiated 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969.
3. 1995 budget: cut taxes, regulations, & spending.
4. "Bailout combines bad policy with worst of Detroit's decay." (Jul 2009)
5. Helped oust Iowa justices who approved same-sex marriage. (May
2011)
6. Wants to discontinue affirmative action programs. (Nov 1998)
7. "NEA includes most bizarre & extreme misuse of tax funds." (July
1998)
8. "Convert decommissioned military bases into prisons." (Jun 1995)
9. "Offer coupons to send kids to schools that work best." (Dec 2007)
10. "Removing God from Pledge of Allegiance assaults our identity. (Dec
2006)
11. Voted YES on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary
prayer. (Mar 1994)
12. 2008 petition drive: Drill here, Drill now, Pay less.
13. Promotes building new nuclear plants.
14. "Kyoto treaty is bad for the environment and bad for America." (Dec
2006)
15. Against Cap and Trade.
16. Does not believe in Junk Science Man Caused Global Warming.
17. Against marraige tax penalty.
18. Supporter of "American Exceptionalism"
19. "Insist on judges who understand our rights come from God." (Dec
2006)
20. Contract With America: deep cuts in Medicare/Medicaid/taxes.
21. Promotes our rights to have guns.
22. Wants to repeal Obama-care.
23. "Deport 55,000 illegal aliens with multiple arrest records." (Dec 2007)
24. Firm stance against socialist unions.
25. Proposes 50% of FICA to go into private retirement programs.
26. Wants 0% capital gains tax.
27. "NASA bureaucrats hijacked the great space adventure." (Dec 2007)
28. "Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem." (Nov 1995)
29. Strongly supports teacher led prayer in school.
30. Strongly supports death penalty.
31. Strongly supports school vouchers.
32. Strongly supports churches taking lead in Welfare.
33. Strongly opposes letting ILLEGAL aliens to earn their citizenship.
34. Strongly opposes the Patriot Act.
35. Supported by Herman Cain.
Negative:
1. Neutral on gay marraige/partnership.
2. Broke the 11th commandment in politics "You shall not say anything bad about a fellow
Republican".
![]()
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rick Santorum
1. Proposes drilling for oil/natural gas, etc wherever we have those
resources in the Country.
2. Wishes to bring down the corporate tax rate.
3. Wants to cut capital gains tax to 0% for 5 years, then raise it back up to
1/2 of the rate that it is today.
4. Would support a federal right-to-work law. (This means that people can
not be forced to work for a socialist union to get a job).
5. Very strong against abortion and gay marraige.
6. Strongly opposed the Patriot Act.
7. Proposes border fence with Mexico.
8. Strongly opposes a progressive tax.
9. Strongly approves of parents using school vouchers.
10. Strongly approves privatizing social security.
11. Strongly supports our rights to keep and bear arms.
12. Strongly supports teacher led prayer in schools.
13. Strongly supports death penalty.
14. Strongly opposes same sex marraige.
15. Pro-Life
6. Strongly opposed the Patriot Act.
7. Proposes border fence with Mexico.
8. Strongly opposes a progressive tax.
9. Strongly approves of parents using school vouchers.
10. Strongly approves privatizing social security.
11. Strongly supports our rights to keep and bear arms.
12. Strongly supports teacher led prayer in schools.
13. Strongly supports death penalty.
14. Strongly opposes same sex marraige.
15. Pro-Life
16. "Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem." (Nov 1995)
17. Supported by Glenn Beck (November 2011)
18. Supported by Rush Limbaugh (January 31, 2012) ? ?
17. Supported by Glenn Beck (November 2011)
18. Supported by Rush Limbaugh (January 31, 2012) ? ?
Negative:
1. Supports affirmative action.
2. In 1996, endorsed Arlen Specter for President (Wikipedia)
2. In 1996, endorsed Arlen Specter for President (Wikipedia)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Positive:
1. Has demanded a balanced budget amendment (2010).
2. Negotiated 1998 budget: first one balanced since 1969.
3. 1995 budget: cut taxes, regulations, & spending.
4. "Bailout combines bad policy with worst of Detroit's decay." (Jul 2009)
5. Helped oust Iowa justices who approved same-sex marriage. (May
2011)
6. Wants to discontinue affirmative action programs. (Nov 1998)
7. "NEA includes most bizarre & extreme misuse of tax funds." (July
1998)
8. "Convert decommissioned military bases into prisons." (Jun 1995)
9. "Offer coupons to send kids to schools that work best." (Dec 2007)
10. "Removing God from Pledge of Allegiance assaults our identity. (Dec
2006)
11. Voted YES on giving federal aid only to schools allowing voluntary
prayer. (Mar 1994)
12. 2008 petition drive: Drill here, Drill now, Pay less.
13. Promotes building new nuclear plants.
14. "Kyoto treaty is bad for the environment and bad for America." (Dec
2006)
15. Against Cap and Trade.
16. Does not believe in Junk Science Man Caused Global Warming.
17. Against marraige tax penalty.
18. Supporter of "American Exceptionalism"
19. "Insist on judges who understand our rights come from God." (Dec
2006)
20. Contract With America: deep cuts in Medicare/Medicaid/taxes.
21. Promotes our rights to have guns.
22. Wants to repeal Obama-care.
23. "Deport 55,000 illegal aliens with multiple arrest records." (Dec 2007)
24. Firm stance against socialist unions.
25. Proposes 50% of FICA to go into private retirement programs.
26. Wants 0% capital gains tax.
27. "NASA bureaucrats hijacked the great space adventure." (Dec 2007)
28. "Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem." (Nov 1995)
29. Strongly supports teacher led prayer in school.
30. Strongly supports death penalty.
31. Strongly supports school vouchers.
32. Strongly supports churches taking lead in Welfare.
33. Strongly opposes letting ILLEGAL aliens to earn their citizenship.
34. Strongly opposes the Patriot Act.
35. Supported by Herman Cain.
Negative:
1. Neutral on gay marraige/partnership.
2. Broke the 11th commandment in politics "You shall not say anything bad about a fellow
Republican".
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mitt Romney
Positive:
1. Says he helped introduced bill to repeal Obama-care (but still says States
should be able to treat their citizens as socialist slaves).
2. Supported by Chris Christie.
2. Supported by Chris Christie.
Negative:
1. Keeps talking and ignores the moderator in debates.
2. Massachusetts Governor that created socialist healthcare. He still
believes that States have the right to create small socialist/communist
governments at the State level.
3. Will not sign promise to support Pro-Life position.
4. Supported by Bill Clinton.
5. Supported by John McCain (Douch-bag: Arizona Rion).
6. Broke the 11th commandment in politics "You shall not say anything bad about a fellow
Republican".
7. Supported by Lisa Murkowski (Alaska Rino).
8. Supported by George H. W. Bush (another progressive)
9. Supported by Tim Pawlenty
10. Supported by Paul Babeau (in bed with John McCain, another progressive)
3. Will not sign promise to support Pro-Life position.
4. Supported by Bill Clinton.
5. Supported by John McCain (Douch-bag: Arizona Rion).
6. Broke the 11th commandment in politics "You shall not say anything bad about a fellow
Republican".
7. Supported by Lisa Murkowski (Alaska Rino).
8. Supported by George H. W. Bush (another progressive)
9. Supported by Tim Pawlenty
10. Supported by Paul Babeau (in bed with John McCain, another progressive)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Positive:
1. Wants to stop all foreign aid.
2. He does not want us to meddle with Isreal's policies.
3. He is stedfast against Unions.
4. He wants to bring the troops home from Iraq and Afgahnistan.
Negative:
1. He is in support of gay marraige in that States should be in charge.
2. Wants to leagalize marijuana, gay marraige, cocaine, etc. Let each State
make their own law.
3. Would not support water boarding under any circucumstances
4. He wants to sell off the Countries gold reserves.
5. Brags that he never voted for a bill with pork in it. He pushes and promotes bills until he knows that
no matter how he votes the bill will pass. Then he stuffs the bill full of pork for his own district and
then votes no on the bill. Deceitful, manipulative and very low honesty and integrity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jon Hunstman
Gary Johnson
Tim Pawlenty
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)