tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36209875812346059722024-03-13T07:46:23.001-07:00View from the cheap seatsHere is where I chose to place my soapbox.Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-31905027980889699542011-07-14T07:06:00.001-07:002011-07-14T07:06:28.822-07:00Tax cuts don't create jobs<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=10,0,0,0" height="245" id="msnbc1f62f7" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" /><param name="FlashVars" value="launch=43746411&width=420&height=245" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed name="msnbc1f62f7" src="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640" width="420" height="245" FlashVars="launch=43746411&width=420&height=245" allowscriptaccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.adobe.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object><br />
<div style="background: transparent; color: #999999; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; text-align: center; width: 420px;">Visit msnbc.com for <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">breaking news</a>, <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032507" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">world news</a>, and <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032072" style="border-bottom: 1px dotted #999 !important; color: #5799DB !important; font-weight: normal !important; height: 13px; text-decoration: none !important;">news about the economy</a></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-11118760667950195622011-07-04T11:16:00.001-07:002011-07-04T11:19:04.507-07:00Truth, Justice and more Truth...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: The Perfect Meatloaf pan costs more than you think.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a commercial that has a meatloaf pan (with a cookbook) for the low, low price of just $19.95. If you act now, you can get two pan and two cookbooks for that same low price. This is 2 for the price of one. (all you pay is additional shipping and handling)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/perfect-meatloaf-review-300x218.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/perfect-meatloaf-review-300x218.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/perfect-meatloaf-review-300x218.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-847" height="218" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/perfect-meatloaf-review-300x218.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="perfect-meatloaf-review-300x218" width="300" /></a>My first thought was, "What am I going to do with two meatloaf pans? I don't think I've ever made meatloaf in my life so I'm almost certainly not going to cook it twice in one night."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">My second thought was, "What am I going to do with two identical meatloaf cookbooks?" I guess I could give one away as a present. "Happy Birthday! It's a meatloaf book."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I went to the website for the answer. Apparently, you get both for $19.95 but the shipping and handling comes to another $15.90. My guess is the "shipping" part of that is about $3.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The French guy Strauss-Kahn is now being accused of sexual assault in France. I know where there's smoke there is probably fire. This guy looks like he can't keep his fly up. At the same time, the maid-accuser can't seem to find the truth in anything. This should fill CNN's "hard news" schedule for the next several months. Just in time too, since the Casey Anthony drama-show is winding down.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Tell me what this means to you: "The American people don't want more taxes"</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I know I don't want to pay more taxes. However, there are things that I want more. For example: Education. In Minnesota, the state that is now out of business, the GOP's position was that the state could get more revenue if they delayed payments to schools.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Did you know that in 1958, Jerry Brown's tuition at Berkeley was $11 a semester. Now it's $12,000. The reason it is so high is because the state has no revenue help defray the cost. When the GOP says spending is out of control, they are saying, "Stop paying for education, or police."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Cutting a trillion dollars out of the budget means $1 trillion not going to teachers and such. Cutting a trillion dollars means the end to our Space Program (the last shuttle flight is this week) The GOP would have you believe they just cut out $1 trillion in handouts. That is simply not the case. The only handouts being given are to the rich people that put them in office to begin with.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">How much research will a millionaire fund with his tax break? How many scholarships will he give out? How many teachers will he pay for with this extra money? How many spacecraft will he launch?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The answer is - None. There are new boats to be bought.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">How about this one: "Raising taxes kills jobs."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This is so far from being a true statement that you should be allowed to throw tomatoes at whomever utters it.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">During the Clinton administration, he averaged about 2.5% job growth over 8 years. During the George W. Bush administration, bolstered by his "Job Creating Tax Cuts" he averaged .05% job growth. This was the worse since the great depression. Clinton's job creation rate was 50 times greater than Bush's...without the tax cuts.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Call your Republican representative and ask him or her when you can expect jobs to start showing up.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Enough of that...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">In Japan, the elderly are volunteering for cleanup duty at the nuclear power plants damaged by the tsunami (<-a surprisingly easy word to spell if you remember the "s"). They have less life left so they are stepping up to the plate so their children will have a better life.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Wish we would do the same...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Top executive pay went up 23% last year. Thank goodness they got a tax cut on top of that. Can you imagine how many Perfect Meatloaf pans they can afford? This is certain to cause a hiring binge at the Perfect Meatloaf pan factory.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm going to make a prediction: Cowboys and Aliens will be the big hit of the summer. So far, all of the movies have basically been remakes. This year, there were 19 sequels. The Cowboys and Aliens will stand out for its originality if nothing else.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Drug lords in Mexico painted a wall with a threat to attack DEA agents in the United States. I can't believe that one of the biggest battlegrounds on the planet is right next door and we don't seem to notice.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yingluck_thumb.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yingluck_thumb.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yingluck_thumb.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-848" height="132" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/yingluck_thumb.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="yingluck_thumb" width="150" /></a>This just in: Thailand's new PM is a babe! I'm just saying</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Your quote for the day: “Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen, but give us the determination to make the right things happen.” - Horace Mann</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I know it's a holiday but I have a world to save.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Jim</div><div style="margin-bottom: 24px;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5;">For you Family Guy fans - Here is a clip from a Star Wars episode. The Ewoks attack and end up being used in a pillow fight. I thought this was hilarious.</div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HREy9VKo_ys?rel=0" width="460"></iframe></span></span></div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-89731082941702798232011-07-02T21:50:00.001-07:002011-07-02T21:50:26.653-07:00"Everyone Lies" - Dr. House...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Buying gold on TV may not be the great investment that Glenn Beck would have you believe.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I was watching a commercial yesterday. It talked about a coin that had 99.99% pure 24K gold in it. This coin was a bargain at $50; especially when you consider that gold is currently over $1,300 an ounce. It even mentions that there is 14 milligrams of gold in the coin. Now, I had my calculator at hand and was in the mood for a bit of math. (I know, I'm a bit of a nerd sometimes). It turns out that $50 for 14 milligrams of gold is the equivalent of paying $101,000 and ounce!</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a video on the news this morning that was amazing. A bomb squad guy in Thailand was investigating a suspicious car. He was suited up like that guy in The Hurt Locker (a great movie). Anyway, he touches the car and BOOOOOM!</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The car is destroyed and the guy is blown off his feet. A moment later he gets up and walks away. I wanted to stand up and clap. (video at end of this blog)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Think about how heroic this person is. Now think about how our elected officials have turned politics into a sport (<-I got that from a man in Minnesota talking about their government shutdown.)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">By the way, I have grown tired of talking about the budget. I have posted an essay called The Big Lie so that I don't keep boring you with the same stuff. If you want, you can find it on the menu bar above. I will try to restrict myself to "snippets" in the future.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is an interesting photo of two spider webs. The one on the left was made by a young<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/110701203728-large.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/110701203728-large.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/110701203728-large-300x207.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-840" height="207" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/110701203728-large-300x207.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="110701203728-large" width="300" /></a>spider while the one on the right was made by an old spider. I'm wondering if the older spider is less capable or if it has learned that even an ugly web still catches flies so why bother making it pretty.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I have a question for you:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Which is worse...(a) to rape someone or (b) to falsely accuse someone of raping you?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This maid that is accusing Strauss-Kahn has admitted to lying about being raped in the past. She also went on to clean the room she was "raped" in after the event. There are now so many holes in her story that the smart money says this case is going to go away.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">If she lied, and that is a big "if", then she has caused the president of the IMF to lose his job. She has caused the front-runner for the presidency of France to fall out of the race. She has brought public humiliation to a man who did nothing.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">If she lied...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Today in Minnesota, 20,000 public employees lost their jobs. All of the state parks are closed.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I think the public should have a button that is issued to every voter. Once 51% of the voters push that button, all of the politicians are thrown out on their ears.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is a shout-out to Mark. He's a friend of mine that keeps taking advantage of the fact that I am an Oakland A's fan and he is a Red Sox fan. We used to bet every year before I noticed a trend...I always lost. I still owe him from at least one bet.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Mark, I'll pay up when my interest in baseball returns. So long as teams are able to buy championships, I'd rather watch ex-movie stars sell purses on QVC. Thanks for your patience.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The military is working on micro-aircraft that can carry cameras. Can you imagine letting<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/080722085558-large.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/080722085558-large.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/080722085558-large-300x224.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-842" height="224" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/080722085558-large-300x224.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="080722085558-large" width="300" /></a>a bucket full of these things loose in a war zone? You'd be able to see everything and the enemy would never know you are there.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The NBA has joined the NFL in a lockout. I can't bring myself to care much about either program. Millionaires arguing about millions.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Mitt Romney is on the news saying, "I never said that Obama made the recession worse." Every news channel that shows this statement then goes on to show three clips where Romney says, "Obama made the recession worse." He plays with the facts almost as much as Michele Bachmann.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Pat Robertson says that Gay Marriage is a warning that God is going to destroy America. Where do these guys get this stuff? Is God sending him text messages or is it possible that Pat is just making some of this stuff up.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Have a happy and safe 4th!</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Look for my silhouette against the backdrop of fireworks. I'll be the one with the cape.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is the bomb video...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">http://youtu.be/xBNcYvVytkI</div><div><br />
</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-30257998421639895392011-07-01T17:50:00.001-07:002011-07-01T17:50:43.571-07:00The Denial is not a river in Egypt...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: The GOP is now openly admitting to holding the Debt Ceiling hostage.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I watched yesterday as they stated that threatening to not raise the debt ceiling was the only "leverage" they had to get the budget concessions they want. At the same time, they acknowledge that the debt ceiling is otherwise not related to the current budget.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I believe I made this very point over a month ago.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I also said that the "tax break for the rich" portion of the GOP plan was the real issue, not Medicare. Medicare was just a bit of "misdirection." This has also turned out to be the case. Medicare, and all entitlements, should be looked at. But now everyone (but the GOP) is agreeing with me when I say, "Revenue is the issue, not spending."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-animal-.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-animal-.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-animal--300x200.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-825" height="200" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-animal--300x200.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="funny-animal-" width="300" /></a>A quick break for a funny picture...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">News Flash: For months, I have been saying that the Republican Party is intentionally blocking the country's economic progress in order to increase their chances of a victory in 2012. Yesterday, for the first time, I have heard that same idea suddenly occur to several congressmen and political analysts.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">So there you have it. Here is where you can get tomorrow's news today.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is <a _mce_href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5DepGu/www.pagetutor.com/jokebreak/139.html" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/5DepGu/www.pagetutor.com/jokebreak/139.html" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">a link to comedian Steven Wright's</a> one-liners.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here are a couple of products I saw advertised on TV within 30 minutes of each other:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">WONDERFILE: This is a blanket with pockets in it. You can unfold it on your desk (covering the entire thing) and see pockets where you can put stuff. They even show a business man packing up his "blanket" for the night. I'm wondering why this is better than a briefcase.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">PAJAMAJEANS: These are jean-looking pants that are really "comfortable." They are comfortable because they expand with you. This will allow you to by a pair of pants at a smaller size and then stretch them over the "real" you. I would call these SELFESTEEMJEANS.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">TOTAL PILLOW: This is a donut shaped pillow that can be twisted into shapes to fit your need. What caught my attention was the "wait there is more" comment. By ordering now,<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2918.zoom_.a.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2918.zoom_.a.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2918.zoom_.a-300x284.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-824" height="284" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2918.zoom_.a-300x284.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="2918.zoom.a" width="300" /></a>you can get a plastic bag filled with a gel. You can heat this or freeze it and then use it as a compress. I'm thinking, "How is this different from a bag of water?" And then they go one to say, you can get two for one if you order now (say quickly ->plus additional shipping and handling.)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A study of the 26 states that are the worse off financially have found that for the last decade, they have been spending 2-3 times what they are taking in. Their debt is made up of 75% pension obligations and 25% bonds. Last year, unfunded pension obligations rose by 50%.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This has given rise to a new term: State Arbitrage. As states try to raise revenue, people will simply leave to a neighboring state. We have seen this in California for years; not so much with people but with companies. They tax the big employers so they just move elsewhere. In some cases, they still keep their headquarters here but all of the jobs move to a more friendly place.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">On a brighter note: Glenn Beck is gone...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">And Bill Clinton likes Michele Bachmann. This is really pissing off the Republican Party as they know she is not a real candidate. I really, really want her to be the GOP nominee. I already have a list of gaffes. For example, she claims our Founding Fathers fought to eliminate slavery. When this was pointed out to her as false, she said that Quincy Adams, a small boy at they time, grew up to fight slavery so there...now you shut up.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-pumpkins-5.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-pumpkins-5.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-pumpkins-5-300x208.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-826" height="208" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/funny-pumpkins-5-300x208.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="funny-pumpkins-5" width="300" /></a>One last "interesting" picture to get our minds off the economy and politics.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I've noticed a slight drop in readership since school ended. That's okay. I will continue to save the world while you are escaping from it. I'll see you when you get back.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is your quote for the day: "Worry is like a rocking chair: it gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere" Erma Bombeck</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Time to get some air.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-6325511534875153112011-06-30T10:09:00.001-07:002011-06-30T10:10:45.745-07:00Who are you going to believe? Me or your lying math...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">This just in: If you want to fool TSA and stowaway on an airplane, all you have to do is try.<br />
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A Nigerian man did just that. He somehow got on a plane from New York to Los Angeles last week - without a ticket on the flight. You shouldn't even be able to get to your gate, much less get on a flight.<br />
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But it gets better. When a flight attendant asked to see his ticket, he showed her one that was for a different flight on a different date and didn't have his name on it. Still, when then landed in Los Angeles, he was able to just go along his merry way. He was only arrested a few days later when he tried to do it again.<br />
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So, TSA will always get their man - if "always" means 50% of the time.<br />
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Here is my question for you. Which is a better idea (a) give a million dollars in tax cuts that will in turn create a single job that will generate $20,000 in taxes or (b) don't do that.<br />
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The GOP is saying the Economic stimulus was a bust. This was where we spent $50,000 to give a man a $50,000 job and he built something the public needed like a bridge.<br />
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The GOP says that tax cuts create jobs. This is where a rich guy gets a $1,000,000 tax break. He uses $50,000 of that to create a job where a man works for the rich guy and thus makes him richer. As for the other $950,000 from the tax break...that's just spending money.<br />
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The facts: A tax break creates jobs but for every $100 spent, the government only gets back somewhere between $0 and $30. The rest is spending money.<br />
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A few financial stats on Congress: While only 1% of Americans are millionaires, 66% of the senators and 41% of the House members are millionaires. The Tea Party sent in a bunch of new Senators to "Take back America." Their average net wealth is $4 million per person.<br />
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Additionally, Congress is allowed to use their knowledge of events to trade ahead of the stock market. The average stock portfolio of a senator out performed the stock market by 10% last year.<br />
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And finally, 43% of all retiring congressmen go to work as lobbyists with an average salary of $2,000,000. This alone gives lobbyists a lot of power. Congressmen listen to them because that is a potential employer for them in a few years.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h0bHcte1x6Q/TgyuCcMSEYI/AAAAAAAAAcE/07q-MkgRSv4/s1600/cute-funny-animals-01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-h0bHcte1x6Q/TgyuCcMSEYI/AAAAAAAAAcE/07q-MkgRSv4/s320/cute-funny-animals-01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Here is a cute picture...just because...<br />
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Onward...<br />
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Bees are capable of solving a math problem that only the most powerful computers can handle. It's called "The traveling salesman dilemma (<- really hard word to spell)."<br />
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Here is the problem: A bee, like a traveling salesman, has many stops to make. Should he take the shortest route or longer routes that may be more profitable. In the end, what is the best route for the salesman/bee to take. They tested bees using flowers with varying degrees of nectar. They also complicated it by changing distances and nectar replenishment rates. The bees learned what was going on and came up with very optimal routing solutions. Instead of a computer, the bees used their brain which is the size of a grass seed. As a math guy, I found this really interesting.<br />
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Onward...<br />
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I just read an article that said we will start fighting terrorists with surgical strikes instead of massive invasions into random countries. Someone must be reading my blog.<br />
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In the U.K., people are striking because of pension reform. They are doing that all over the world, including Wisconsin. Here is the deal: We are living longer and the economy sucks. There is no money to pay for pensions like there was two decades ago. We can complain all we want but that will do little to solve the problem. I think pension reform is the single biggest economic issue in the modern world today. In Hungary, they gave everyone an option: You can keep your private pension or you can keep your government pension. Once you made the choice, they raided the one you did not choose. For example, if you wanted to keep your Social Security, the government came in and took your IRA. Hopefully, we won't get to that.<br />
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I read this the other day: We wouldn't have to worry about gay marriages if people would quit having gay babies.<br />
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By the way, Iran is testing nuclear capable missiles. I'm just saying. I think they deserve a good "finger waging."<br />
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Elsewhere...<br />
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Why do I always think of the Tea Party when I see the Greeks striking? Is it because the Greeks seem to think that if the government slashes costs they will still be able to retire at 53? The Tea Party position is that if you only tip 15%, you will be able to send your kids to Stanford.<br />
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Is it just me or is there way too much coverage of the Casey Anthony case. I'm watching CNN the other day and they cut to "dramatic" testimony. "Look, the dad is crying on the stand. What do you make of this Mitch? - Yep, that sure is dramatic, back to you Carol." I changed the channel and all of the major news shows were showing the exact same thing.<br />
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Michele Bachmann is billing herself as an American Girl. However, she tried to use that song and a rally and Tom Petty sent her a Cease and Desist order. I really hope she gets the GOP nod. There is so much good material on her to write about.<br />
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Here is your quote for the day: “This is an impressive crowd: the Have's and Have-more's. Some people call you the elites. I call you my base.” George W. Bush.<br />
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Time to put on my cape and get back to work.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
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jim</div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-59058501479885538402011-06-29T15:16:00.001-07:002011-06-29T15:16:44.306-07:00Obama issues a congressional spanking...This just in: Congress is the problem.<br />
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I just watched Obama's brief speech followed by an hour of Question and Answers. It can be summed up by the following quote he made close to the end: “We need to get out of the short-term and selfish approach that politics breeds.”<br />
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Let's look at a few questions and answers:<br />
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Question: If GOP will not approve anything that includes a tax increase, what will you do?<br />
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Answer: He danced on this a bit by not answering direct. Instead, he laid out why they must get the deal done. He restated the following points which he made in his opening speech.<br />
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He thinks there are things Congress should do right now such as (1) giving government loans to states that need infrastructural work to create immediate construction jobs (2) extend middle class tax cuts (3) rework laws that allow easier patent approval and (4) complete work in international trade agreements.<br />
He pointed out that Congress has the bigger stick when it comes to fixing the economy.<br />
He stated that he favors some tax-cut extensions such breaks for investment and breaks on capital gains for companies starting up.<br />
He notes that these things have traditionally received bipartisan support. However, nothing is getting done simply because Congress wants to argue and blame each other.<br />
He stated that he is against tax cut extensions for the ultra rich individuals and companies.<br />
He stated that we cannot balance the budget by cuts alone. For example, he does not want seniors to carry the entire load by cutting Medicare while giving tax cuts for corporate jets.<br />
"Every observer that is not an elected official (including GOP members that are no longer in office) says it can’t be done without a balanced approach." A balance approach means that there will need to be tax increases for the rich.<br />
Question: What about Libya"<br />
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Answer: He appropriately used the term "Cause Celeb" when referring to congress on this issue. He said, "I told the American people exactly what we were going to do when this started and I have made sure we did exactly what we said we would do." He even pointed out that Kerry (D) and McCain (R) are co-sponsoring a bill to extend the action for up to another year (although it will be done much earlier than that).<br />
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My response: At one point he stated that much of what is being said about Libya, the debt ceiling or the budget is just politicians saying things that will get them on the national news shows. I think this one issue (anything to get face time on the news) is big.<br />
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Question: What do you think about the government stopping Boeing from making a move?<br />
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Answer: He basically said, "Companies should not be allowed to close up shop simply because labor and management can't get along."<br />
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My response: This is a pure Democrat position that is not so simple and one that I cannot support. Companies should always do whatever they think they need to do to stay competitive. As soon as they don't, they are out of business and no one wins. Just saying, "That's not fair." means nothing. The Greeks are doing just that right now and look at what that got them. The world is a competitive place. Companies that don't compete don't stick around for long. The government needs to loosen their reins on companies. I want to point out that my position is based on the idea that if companies can compete, more jobs will be created.<br />
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Question: "When you gave your speech on Afghanistan, you didn't use the word "victory." How do you think that makes our troops feel."<br />
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Answer: "I used the word "success" instead of "victory" because it's more appropriate." He went on to clarify what "success' meant.<br />
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My response: This was a FOX news question and I feel embarrassed for them. They are catering to those that see war in the same light that they see a football game. Do we want to do what is right? Or, should we carpet bomb Afghanistan down to bedrock so we can have a pep rally.<br />
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Question: Would you consider tax cuts to stimulate the economy?<br />
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Answer: We gave tax cuts and they served to "cushion" the impact of things like high oil prices and the crisis in Japan. He stressed the benefit of putting the extra $1,000 in the hands of each middle class family. He also stressed (earlier) how focused tax cuts for job creators are a good idea.<br />
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My response: The "between the lines" response was that blanket tax cuts for the rich are not what we need. While I agree with what he said, I don't think he said enough. Here was the prefect opportunity to say, "Tax cuts don't pay for themselves." The GOP, against every knowledgeable opinion, is stating that we need to give the rich more so they will create more jobs. I can't help but wonder how many extra jobs were created by Carrot Top when his taxes were lowered.<br />
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Question: There are those that say you are using scare tactics when it comes to the debt ceiling.<br />
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Answer: “If US cannot pay its bills, then the consequences will be significant and unpredictable. All headwinds against recovery will get worse and job creation will be further hampered." He clearly stated that August 2nd is not an arbitrary date. He made a great point on this. He said we have already spent the money. We have already bought the car. Cutting spending from the budget will not give the car back. On August 2nd, we will have to make decisions like "Should we pay the military or should we pay social security."<br />
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My response: He hit this out of the park (he must read my blog). Obama basically said the congress needs to act. He pointed out that the GOP is telling him he needs to show leadership. He then pointed out how he has met with every caucus. He has met with all of the leaders. He has pushed and pushed for congress to get the deal done. Congress, on the other hand, has spent most of their time out of their offices and talking up how he is not involved. Obama basically said, "I'm here. I have always been here. I am involved. Where are you?"<br />
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Now, I am going to predict the GOP response: They will say, "Look, the American people want us to create jobs." They will then sit back and act as if they have just made a great counter argument. They may go on to say, "Look, Obama's spend and spend policies have created the debt and now is not a good time to raise taxes." Their base will hear this and nod knowingly, without questioning the legitimacy of it.<br />
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In summary, he said that there are solutions. Everyone knows what they are but the GOP is holding things up, arguing simply because it gives them political air time.<br />
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I think this was a great press conference.<br />
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I give Obama an A-. He is still trying to not point too direct of a finger. I would have loved a much more stronger "wage of the finger" at the Republicans. He should have said, "It appears to me that the GOP is defying all logic in an attempt to hold back the economy. They are doing this to make me look bad so they will have a better chance in 2012."<br />
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Sorry for creating a purely political blog, but this is important stuff.<br />
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Consider yourself saved.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
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jimJim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-39106561955762253092011-06-26T20:47:00.001-07:002011-06-26T20:47:27.854-07:00The View from the Las Vegas Strip...This just in: God has cast his vote for...Michelle Bachman.<br />
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Apparently, she prayed and came away with a "sense", whatever that means.<br />
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I have two problems with this. First of all, if God want's her in, why doesn't he simply smite all of the other more qualified candidates (which includes all of them). By whispering into her ear "you're my favorite" he has put her in a position to "claim" divine selection, thus nailing down the entire religious-right who will believe anything so long as it moves them up a notch or two on God's "good' list.<br />
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Secondly, God shouldn't be allowed to vote until after the polls close in California - 18 months from now.<br />
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I'm in Las Vegas today. This is an interesting place. The moment you step off the plane, they stick a vacuum (<-hard word to spell) in your wallet and set it to "steady suck." There are two type of businesses here: trinket sellers and buffet. The trinket sellers sell little plastic replicas of the worlds most plastic city. The buffets...well they are pretty darn nice.<br />
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There is also gambling here. Actually, it's everywhere.<br />
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I am staying in the Clarion Hotel-Casino which is near the McDonalds'-Casino and Target-Casino.<br />
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Thus far, this hotel is under performing. I got up this morning and took a shower. I got out only to notice there were no towels. Dripping wet, I walk to the phone and called down with my situation. They said, "You'll have to come down to get some."<br />
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I dried off with my bed sheet instead.<br />
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I watched the Bloomberg channel this morning. It's the same old story. The Democrats what to increase taxes on the rich and the GOP responds with "Americans want jobs." When the lack of a link between taxes and jobs is pointed out, the GOP quickly snaps back with "Pop Tart."<br />
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Elsewhere, the just found a tribe in Brazil that has never been in contact with modern man.<br />
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New York stepped up to the plate and voted in Gay Marriage. Good for them.<br />
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In the sequel to the book Eat, Sleep and Pray, the protagonist tells of her problem getting her fiance into the United States. The two most fouled up organizations in the country: TSA and the Department of Immigration are both part of the Department of Homeland Security. This is the department who idea of stopping terrorism is waiting for someone to phone in a suspicious lunch bag. Remember, they gave citizenship to the New York bomber who spent his vacations "snorkeling" in Pakistan.<br />
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If you want to cut spending, get rid of this department and hire a couple of good private eyes.<br />
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I have a conference to attend so gotta cut this short.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
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jimJim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-57426807696206800442011-06-22T10:56:00.000-07:002011-06-22T10:56:39.336-07:00No Zombies for you...This just in: Zombie attacks are less imminent that we'd originally thought.<br />
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However, if zombies do attack - there's an app for that. Well, at least a website designed to help us prepare.<br />
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Here is the website's Mission Statement: The United States Army Zombie Combat Command guarantees the survival of the United States in the event of any Zombie emergency.<br />
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Thank God someone is paying attention to this potential threat. So many are preparing for a tsunami to wipe out Germany's nuclear facilities that some of the more likely threats are being overlooked.<br />
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Speaking of nuclear facilities - ours are leaking. These sites were originally designed for 40 years of service. It was anticipated that we would replace them with new, more efficient and safer sites after that time. Now, 40+ years later, they are still running and have had their licences extended for another 20 years.<br />
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The problem is that no one told the metal-fatigue elves about this change. So the plants are leaking. We need to either fix these or build new ones. Where is the money going to come from? I'll let you know in a minute.<br />
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They are trying to build a giant solar power plant in the Mojave desert. It will cover 5 and a half square miles and will help the state meet its goal of 35% renewable energy by 2020. Some are against it because there is a famous hill nearby or something.<br />
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I'm in favor of it. Here is what it comes down to: "Either get serious about energy or learn to walk."<br />
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Congress is passing a new law that says you will go to jail if you stream a copyrighted video. People against this say that all of our 14-year-old male children will end up in our overcrowded prisons. People in favor of it say that copyrighted material should be protected.<br />
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Here is what I say, "This is just another platform for ambulance chasing lawyers to threaten families so they will settle out of court and make lawyers rich. Find another solution."<br />
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The GOP has a new entrant. His name is Huntsman. I watched his "I'm running for president" speech and felt embarrassed for him. Just a bag of clichés. Before I vote for this guy, I'll vote for my son's Xbox controller.<br />
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Update: Lulzsec has taken down the two top government websites from Brazil. As long as I can still watch Family Guy on Hulu, I'm okay with this.<br />
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Has anyone else out there noticed that websites that sell stuff try to "help you out" by filling in some of your order information for you? Be very careful of this as it can cost you plenty. For example, Travelocity defaults to the idea that you want "trip insurance" and includes it in your final bill unless you notice the charge and ask them to remove it. Here is another one. Fedex-Kinkos allows you to send printing jobs in over the internet. Their default selection is for you to use Color Printing on Resume quality paper. This can cost you hundreds of dollars if you aren't paying attention and tell them what you really need.<br />
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Now, how to pay for things like nuclear power plants or public education...<br />
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A little math here:<br />
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In 2006, about 4 million people made over 200K per year. Some made way more than that so I am going to use a weighted average of $1 million per person (it will be higher for 2010)<br />
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If those people all paid tax at the 35% rate they would generate $1.4 trillion in revenue.<br />
If they all paid 25% that the GOP wants, they will only generate $1.0 trillion in revenue.<br />
If they paid the 17% that the top 400 earners paid in 2010, they will only generate $680 billion.<br />
If they pay the 70% rate from the 70's, they will contribute $2.8 billion in revenue.<br />
A simple 3-4% increase in the tax rate for the richest Americans, for just one year, will enable us to double the number of nuclear facilities in the country.<br />
So, if the rich pay the pre 80's tax rate (70%), they will generate 1.8 trillion more PER YEAR than the GOP proposal (25%). This balances our budget tomorrow - with some left over.<br />
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There is your money for the new nuclear power plants.<br />
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Now, compare a tax increase for the rich to the overall GOP plan of slashing education, NASA, research, family planning and Medicare while cutting the tax rate for the rich.<br />
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I hope I have managed to sway a few people with these facts. The United States is a world power because of its economy. The size of the military means nothing as far as power goes.<br />
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Here is your quote for the day: "We cannot continue to have an excellence gap with the rest of the world and intend to remain the economic superpower and military superpower of the planet. That's just not going to happen, ... We're in a position where unless we take action, we'll end up being the France of the 21st century: a lot of talk, but not a lot of strength behind it in terms of economic capability." Mitt Romney. He signed a No-Tax pledge in 2008 but is wavering on doing that again this time around.<br />
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Mitt...I couldn't have said it better myself. If only you were as good as your word.<br />
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I have a world to say and I need to get it done before it gets too hot outside.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
<br />
jim<br />
<br />
And here is Jon Stewart on Fox news. Jon is so smart that it just doesn't seem fair.<br />
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<iframe width="460" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/-xkRgXEb73M?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-71416731555531903062011-06-21T06:58:00.001-07:002011-06-21T07:00:39.137-07:00Lawyers, Guns and Money...This just in: Chipmunks and Woodchucks have formed a neighborhood watch program.<br />
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It seems that these two different species have learned to heed each other's "danger Will Robinson" signals. Spook a chipmunk and all of the woodchucks will run away as well. I'm just saying...<br />
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Elsewhere...<br />
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The giant Wal-Mart sex discrimination suit has been thrown out and I couldn't be happier. Forget, for the moment, what the subject of the suit is about. A law suit was filed and suddenly every person in Wal-Mart found themselves a victim. This is utterly ridiculous. A lawyer went around and recruited "victims" so that the suit would be bigger and his payout would be bigger. He was basically saying that 100% of the women working for Wal-Mart should be compensated because one manager at one store didn't follow the company's published anti-discrimination doctrine. And, it's just one person's opinion that he failed to follow the doctrine.<br />
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More on Lawyers...<br />
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There is a firm called Righthaven that is suing people for copyright infringement. It seems that a lot of people cut and paste stuff on the internet. What this firm does is they threaten you with the largest possible fine ($150,000) and then settle out of court for $1,500. From what I have read, it looks like they find stuff on the internet that is in two places. They then find the originator and ask permission to sue on their behalf. This is quite the lucrative business. They are making millions, one cut-and-paste at a time. It seems that the few times it actually goes to court, the judge throws the entire thing out. This looks to be about lawyers being lawyers. I see little difference between this and ambulance chasing.<br />
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Have you ever been threatened by a lawyer? I have. They are typically little weenie guys that say things like, "I know the judge and blah, blah, blah."<br />
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I also have a great friend that is a lawyer. He is not an ambulance chaser and only takes clients that come to him. He helps companies go through bankruptcy. So, there is a need for lawyers and I'm sure most are great. It's the sharks that you have to watch out for.<br />
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Why are there no laws that keep lawyers from being themselves? Because most of our law makers are lawyers.<br />
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This just in: A 19-year-old in the U.K. was caught hacking into a police database. What makes this interesting is that he is a member of Lulz security. This is the group that has been hacking world-wide over the last couple of weeks. This kid is the first one they caught.<br />
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Onward....<br />
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Here are a couple of funny protest signs:<br />
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They are putting new labels on cigarette packages. These things will scare anyone. It's about time.<br />
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Ron Paul - I like this guy. I would not vote for him, but I like him just the same. He is not afraid to state his mind. I even agree with some of his positions.<br />
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I read this morning that there was a pause in the U.S./Taliban peace talks. Apparently, the Taliban, in Pakistan, had to run outside, kidnap a 9-year-old girl, fit her with an explosive vest and then release her back into the community with instructions to blow herself up. Her response, "You can kiss my ass." She ran from the van and immediately told the police who removed the vest.<br />
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Here is a cute picture of a kitten...just for fun. Poor guy.<br />
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I am in favor of abandoning the Middle East altogether. They have shown that they can rise up and take care of themselves if they want to. We should have just one rule: keep the oil flowing or we will come and interfere with your lives. That's the only reason we are there anyway - oil. Why pretend otherwise. If it's about the humanity, then why are we not in Syria?<br />
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I hate to say this (actually that's not true) but I have been right all along. Tax breaks do not create jobs. I sent MSNBC a long letter telling them why this is true and then 2 weeks later, they take up my cause. You must watch the video below. The man they are interviewing tells you the sources of his data as well as how the GOP is manipulating it.<br />
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Tax breaks are like redoing your kitchen before you sell your house. You put $30,000 into the new kitchen but all it does is increase the price of the house by $5,000. Yes, a new kitchen did increase the price of the house, but it cost you way more than it brought in.<br />
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The GOP knows that the tax issue will not stand up to close scrutiny. This is why they have bundled it with the Medicare issue. They will eventually fold on the Medicare issue but the compromise will be to get their 10% tax cut. More of the rich getting richer.<br />
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Be sure to watch the video at the end of this blog.<br />
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Here is a quote for the day: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers."<br />
William Shakespeare<br />
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This post will probably get me sued but I'm not worried; I have a cape.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
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Thanks for visiting my sponsors.<br />
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Sorry about the video's 30 second lead-in commercial. Worth waiting for...<br />
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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economyJim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-55462377313902917212011-06-20T07:48:00.001-07:002011-06-20T07:50:28.409-07:00The view from my officeThis just in: Green Eggs and Ham was written when his publisher challenged Dr. Seuss to write a story using only 50 words.<br />
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Elsewhere...<br />
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The GOP Path to Prosperity is part Smoke and Mirrors and part...a good idea.<br />
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The GOP is acting as if their attack on Medicare is the only part of their budget plan that people disagree with. There are actually three parts: (1) rework Medicare, (2) reduce spending wherever possible and (3) lower the tax rate another 10%.<br />
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Here is where I stand: (1) Go ahead and rework Medicare, but don't do it with a voucher that will be of no value by the time I get there. Instead, raise the age limit to qualify. Raise it slowly. This is fair since we are now healthier and living longer than when this was first put in place. (2) Everyone wants to reduce spending. The Democrats want to keep government oversight which costs money. Like I have said before, watch the money-changers but let manufacturing do its job. (3) The top income tax rate needs to be back at 70%. I know that seems high but that is where it was in the 70's. Right now, the rich pay less than 20% on their income while you and I pay 35%. We are paying a higher rate on a smaller amount. Any budget that cuts taxes for the rich - again - needs to be tossed out along with those that propose it. By the way, GOP sweetheart Cain, is calling for the elimination of Capital Gains taxes. This is a tax most often applies to the rich in place of income tax. He is a big believer that someday, a job will be created through tax cuts.<br />
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Is it just me or is Galaxy Quest a pretty good movie?<br />
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Michelle Bachman has found her soapbox. She wants to eliminate ObamaCare. I want it fixed. However, every time she chants to repeal it, I hear the following, "If elected, I will make sure every 18 to 26-year-old in this country will suddenly find themselves cast off from their parents health insurance policy."<br />
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Onward...<br />
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Have you heard of Lulzsec? This is the hacker group that is hacking into everything from Xbox accounts to senate emails. They actually have hotlines set up where you can request a hack. There are phone numbers you can call. And yet, no one seems to know where these people are. I actually applaud them. They are basically saying the internet is not secure. They are pointing out a situation that we'd all rather ignore. However, when China wants to shut down our power grids, we'd better be ready to sleep in the dark - or start getting serious about security.<br />
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The AARP is okay with taking a look at Social Security. I am okay with looking at it. I am also okay with fixing it so it will be there when I need it. When Social Security was first set up, they anticipate us using it for a couple of years and then dying of old age. Today, we just live too long. I think they need to raise the eligibility age.<br />
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For you techies: The Chromebook sucks. This is a cheap laptop that relies on "the cloud" to be functional. Few apps and spotty, high-speed internet make this thing more of a doorstop than a computer. Additionally, you have to pay for data transfer which makes this "cheap" computer suddenly very expensive. Someday, maybe five years from now, we will all have high-speed internet with unlimited downloading ability. Until that time, give this a pass.<br />
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The Navy had its Rail-Gun project terminated. I can see why. It's very expensive and there is not certainty that it will work. However, a rail gun is really cool. Imagine shooting a pellet at a target a thousand miles away with such speed and precision that they can knock and ICBM out of the sky as it's lifting off.<br />
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All of the best Science Fiction books have rail guns in them.<br />
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Who is Tiger Woods?<br />
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Did you see that Clarence Clemons from Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band last Saturday? This guy was great. By the way, the Boss is now 61! Makes me feel old. He was 25 when he wrote Born to Run. Check out Clarence in the video at the end of this blog.<br />
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Trouble brewing...<br />
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Microsoft bought Skype and now 8 of Skype executives have left the building. Microsoft better not screw this company up.<br />
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A quote for the day: "The expenses of government, having for their object the interest of all, should be borne by everyone, and the more a man enjoys the advantages of society, the more he ought to hold himself honored in contributing to those expenses." Anne Robert Jacques Turgot (a French economist from the 18th century)<br />
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There are Republican tax evaders and Democrat regulators afoot. I must run to help save the world from our elected leaders.<br />
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Up, up and away...<br />
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jim<br />
<iframe width="460" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/FYfVz-w32Os?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-73024997010266620322011-06-18T10:56:00.000-07:002011-06-18T10:56:51.977-07:00The View from my back porch<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Time-traveling Sea Monkeys Make Bad Mates.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This is an actual headline from Wired.com. Apparently, a sea monkey can stay in its egg if the environment is ... unsound. They can stay there for decades. But, if you wake one of these old timers up and then allow it to mate with one from the current era, the one from the current era will have his or her lifespan shortened by 12%.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">What's amazing about this is (1) someone did the study and (2) someone else published the results. Amazing...but not important</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is a funny picture I found online (funny but not important):</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Random-Funny-Photos-Part-124_6-297x5502.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Random-Funny-Photos-Part-124_6-297x5502.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Random-Funny-Photos-Part-124_6-297x5502.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-717" height="550" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Random-Funny-Photos-Part-124_6-297x5502.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="Random-Funny-Photos-Part-124_6-297x550" width="297" /></a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was busy standing on runways with my thumb out. Sometimes this actually works. Once, in Wyoming, I was late to the airport. I waved at the plane as it was heading towards the runway. The pilot actually came back and got me. Yesterday I was 2 for 2 on successful standbys. Home by 5pm instead of midnight. But that's not important.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A guy was arrested for refusing to pull up his pants on an airplane. Apparently, they were looking too cool to be pulled up. The pilot asked him to get off the plane and when the guy refused...busted. (cool but not important)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">There is a new fear in congress. In the rush to point fingers at each other for every small transgression, they suddenly realized that they have significantly lowered the bar for which they can be chastised. At one time, you had to do something really, really bad. Now if you break wind with gusto during a debate, they will take an immediate vote to see if you should be cast out of the chamber. The fear is that they can't behave in a way that meets their own standards. (interesting but not important)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is a <a _mce_href="http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-political-sex-scandal-showdown-do-democrats-or-republicans-have-the-wor/" href="http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-political-sex-scandal-showdown-do-democrats-or-republicans-have-the-wor/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">link</a> to a site where a guy tabulated the latest sex scandal by political party. In the end, can't we just say this is a "guy" thing and not a Democrat or Republican thing? I'd much rather see them working on laws to curb gang violence than discussing Twitter issues. (funny but not important)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Breaking news: The reason Saudi women cannot drive is not because it's against the law. Apparently, the local religious leaders warn that women, not with their husbands, will hook up with other men. Simply put, they can't be trusted. Why don't they just tether them to the kitchen or Bedroom. This seems to be very akin to keeping a pet, not a spouse. (amazing but not all that important)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The United Nations took a vote and are now in favor of wagging their fingers at Gay Discrimination. That ought to bring about a bunch of change - not. (a weak, and unimportant effort)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This is semi-important: 70 countries were surveyed as to how their educations systems ranked. The United States ranks 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in math. This marks a continued drop for us amongst other countries the world.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">We rank poorly because we fund poorly. We fund poorly because the rich do not pay their fair share of taxes.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This brings us to what is really important: The Economy</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">As I have said many times before, Congress is not qualified to make decisions about the economy. Even if they were qualified, they have no motivation to make things better. Every poll that I see tells me that the GOP "might" win if the economy stays down. They will "definitely" lose if the economy improves. They have no interest in seeing an improvement so they actively work against all efforts to do just that.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I have assembled a panel to discuss a couple of issues. Here are our panel members:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Alan Greenspan: Former head of the Federal Reserve with a PhD in Economics</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Ben Bernanke: Current head of the Federal Reserve with a PhD in Economics</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Robert Reich: Former Harvard professor of Economics. Former secretary of Labor. Studied economics at Oxford as a Rhode Scholar.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">John Boehner: Congressman with an undergraduate degree in Business (too 7 years to finish)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Me: Superhero</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Topic #1: Should we borrow money to give tax breaks to the rich? I say no. Alan Greenspan agrees with me. Boehner says it's a good idea.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Topic #2: Should we use the Debt Ceiling as a political tool? I say no. Ben Bernake agrees with me. Boehner says it's a good idea.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Topic #3: What happens when you lower the tax rate for the rich. I say the rich get richer and the middle class disappears. Robert Reich agrees with me. Boehner says lowering the tax rate creates jobs. When I ask him when, he says, "Sometime later..."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">So there you have it. The Republican party's "plan for prosperity" is not supported by anyone with any knowledge of economics. You must watch this following video. Once you have seen it, pass it on to someone else. If everyone in our country saw and understood what was being said here, there would be a revolution.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">THIS IS IMPORTANT!</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JTzMqm2TwgE?rel=0" width="460"></iframe></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">You to can help save the world. Pass this video along.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-19033765475567064652011-06-16T07:54:00.001-07:002011-06-16T07:54:32.674-07:00The View From My Hotel Room Floor<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Kansas City knows Barbecue</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I drove a couple of blocks from my hotel to Gate's BBQ on a recommendation from my hotel cleaning woman (don't worry, I'm not rich enough to be a threat to her). I loaded up<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1307632208-18.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1307632208-18.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1307632208-18-300x232.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-701" height="232" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/1307632208-18-300x232.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="1307632208-18" width="300" /></a>on BBQ and brought it back to my room. Boom! It was all gone and I am laying on the floor trying to breathe while my full stomach pushes back on my diaphragm (<- hard word to spell). Interestingly, I am also contemplating making another run to Gate's as soon as I can get back on my feet.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I got up this morning and there is BBQ sauce everywhere. I had to scramble to clean everything up before the press arrives. As you know, I have decided to become famous so I am assuming the press is always about to arrive.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Apparently Weiner had a relationtweep (<- you heard that here first) with a porn star. He told her to lie about it. I'm here to tell you right now that if I ever have contact with a porn star, I will post pictures and details about it on this blog.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The United States tried "chumming" Mexican drug cartels with loaded weapons. Turns out to not be a good idea. They (the drug guys) took the guns and killed people with them. What's amazing is that we did not anticipate this happening.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Breaking news - The U.N. condemns Syrian's killing of innocent civilians. When this type of thing comes out I can only shake my head. "Condemns?" You have got to be kidding me. I wonder how long they debated that before someone said, "I make a motion that we wage our finger at Syria...all if favor?"</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Gates is on his way out and it leaving quite a trail behind him. First he said that NATO is basically useless. When I heard that I was at first shocked. But then I thought about it and you know what, he is absolutely correct. I was in the military when there was a Red Menace. Now there is no one. Why do we need NATO? So that our allies can tap into our resources to solve their local problems?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Gates also said yesterday, "Governments lie to each other." He was speaking to congress. They were apparently surprised by this statement. Actually, I think they already knew this but were lying about it.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Hugh Hefner's fiance has backed out. What I can't understand is how she got into that situation in the first place. He is 85 and she is 25. I wonder if there were "issues" in the bedroom. Viagra can help but there is no cure for looking like you are 85 years old.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Click on this <a _mce_href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/82AcXO/www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/Humor/MiscellaneousHumor/TandemStory.html" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/82AcXO/www.astro.umd.edu/~avondale/extra/Humor/MiscellaneousHumor/TandemStory.html" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank" title="tandum story">story link</a> if you want to read something funny. A teacher assigned a writing task to people in pairs. Each would write a paragraph and then turn the story over to the other to write another paragraph. This is really funny.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Barnes and Nobel is out with the Nook; another e-reader. It costs about $140. It can hold enough data for all of the text books you have ever had during your life. I did a sample survey of textbooks on Amazon.com. I looked at what it would cost to have the following books purchased: History, Algebra, Chemistry, English and Spanish. I went with the most expensive book that showed up in the first 5 of each search. The cost...$660. Imagine if all textbooks were ebooks. Imagine if the government had standardized books so that everyone had free access to, for example, 7th grade math. We could save thousands of dollars per student (over the life of their education) just by going with e-textbooks.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Al Qaeda has a new leader. There is some downside to this position. The first thing is that all of your robes come with a big target painted on them. On the upside, you probably get immediate access to virgins.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">And finally, word is that George W. used the CIA to dig up dirty little secrets about a college professor that was critical of the Bush administration. I read that story without the least bit of surprise.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Oh yeah, Kim asked a very good question about the debt ceiling in the comment section of a post from 2 days ago (<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/?p=687" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/?p=687" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank">The view from the middle of the road</a>). I replied and I strongly encourage you to look at her question and my response (under the post). Kim replied that she now understood why we need to raise it. Then she asked an even better question: "I heard that the debt ceiling has been raised several times in the last decade and that makes me wonder why even have a ceiling." I am still pondering this one.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">By the way, follow <a _mce_href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-15-debt-limit-debate_n.htm?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-15-debt-limit-debate_n.htm?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" target="_blank" title="debt">this link to see how Democrats and Republicans</a> have voted on raising the debt ceiling over the last several years. This is such a great chart. It turns out that if the other guy is in power, you vote against it. <strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Both parties do it</strong>. They don't do it because they have had sudden changes in attitude. No, they do it to make the other person look bad.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Your quote for the day: “I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you” Friedrich Nietzsche</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Saving the world, one rack of BBQ ribs at a time.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for visiting my page's sponsors.</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-43391789615330469232011-06-15T14:26:00.001-07:002011-06-15T14:26:04.395-07:00The View From Kansas City<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Syria wants their refugees to come back. Seems they are running low on civilian targets.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China's migrant workers are beginning to riot more and more often. These are second class citizens that have basically nothing left to lose. This is what happens when you only have Kings and Serfs.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">In a weird turn of events, we are copying China. The United States seems determined to create Kings and Serfs. This top-secret plan is also known as the GOP Path to Prosperity.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The United States has asked China if they caused a certain website to crash. This site is an online petitioning site and it was in the process of trying to get people in China to sign up for the release of a Chinese prisoner. All of the sudden, the site was crashed by something that definitely came out of China.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China's response: "No, you shut up."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Not bad. It worked for Pakistan. Speaking of which...Pakistan has jailed 5 people for helping the United States nail Osama.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a video of my new hero, Pierce Morgan, interviewing Michelle Bachman. Here is a snippet of their conversation:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">PM</strong>: Are you hypnotized?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">MB</strong>: Why?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">PM</strong>: Because you are giving the exact same answer to every question I ask.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I love this guy. I also love the fact that she is considered one of the Republican front-runners. Amazing.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">For fun, here is a picture of a guy that decided one day, "I think I'll become famous." he is the one on the left.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dr-phil_walrus.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dr-phil_walrus.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dr-phil_walrus-300x203.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-694" height="203" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/dr-phil_walrus-300x203.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="dr-phil_walrus" width="300" /></a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The Gulf of Mexico has a dead zone the size of New Jersey. This is a place where nothing grows due to lack of oxygen. It's caused by animal waste and fertilizer that wash into the Gulf. Algae eats it and uses up the oxygen. Why aren't we talking about this instead of the weekly congressional sex scandal.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">For all the world to see and hear, Ben Bernanke warned congress about using the Federal Debt Ceiling as a bargaining chip in the budget wars. He must read my blog. The GOP laughed it off. Who can blame them? After all, what does the Chairman of the Federal Reserve know about economics?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A quote for the day: "All people are born alike - except Republicans and Democrats." Groucho Marx.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I have a busy day ahead so I have to cut this short.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Plus there is a world to save.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for visiting my sponsors.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-91599710462273889382011-06-14T16:31:00.000-07:002011-06-14T16:31:46.642-07:00View from the middle of the road<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">First of all, this site's content has been moved to <a href="http://jamesdillingham.com/">http://jamesdillingham.com</a>. I will continue to duplicate the posts on this site but eventually, I'll grow weary of that. So if you want tomorrow's headlines today...go bookmark the new site.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: The Republican Party presidential candidates all agree that it’s not their fault.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Big surprise. Their debate was essentially a unification project. While they were slamming each other the day before, everything changed when the cameras came on. Suddenly they were all in agreement. More on this later.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Since the overthrow of the Egyptian government, more than 7,000 civilians have been given prison terms via military tribunal. Maybe they all deserved it. I have no idea. but it seems like a big number to me. And, “military tribunal” sounds way different from “trial by jury.”</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The reason I moved my blog to this site is that I was able to set up a much better comment section. You can comment on a post or on other people's comments. I encourage this. if no one comments, I will assume we are all in complete agreement.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Has it ever struck you as strange that 100% of a political party can agree with everyone else in their party while still completely disagreeing with everyone not in their party? It is so unlikely to happen that when it does, it feels contrived or made-up. Both parties are guilty of this. When I hear a candidate preaching along party lines, I toss them out with the trash. Sorry Cain – no soup for you!</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">I am considering becoming famous. It doesn’t look too hard and the financial rewards appear to be staggering. I’m just wondering where to file my papers. After that, it’s sit back, pose for the paparazzi and let it all happen. Next stop…game show host</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I am in the middle of the road, politically, on several things. I’d like to touch base on a couple now.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Medicare:</span></strong> This needs to be there when I get too old to take care of myself. If it’s not, then the burden is shifted to my kids. The voucher will not work simply because medical costs go up faster than the voucher’s value. Go ahead and rework Medicare but don’t get rid of it. Perhaps raising the eligibility age should be considered. Any voucher program must come with medical cost containment practices.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Social Security:</span></strong> This is a huge drag on our economy simply because there are too many users and not enough payers. This is only going to get worse. More and more people will reach the eligibility age and fewer people will be left to pay into it. I suggest rising the eligibility age to 70. I’m willing to work until I am 70. I don’t want to but I will if you will.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Broad stroke tax cuts hurt the economy.</span></strong> I know the arguments about how they create jobs. However, not all of the tax breaks result in that action. Take 25 coffee cups and set them on your living room floor. Then take 10,000 pennies and throw them into the room at random. Some of the pennies will land in the cups but most will fall to the floor. This is how the tax cuts are used. The few pennies that fall into cups represent the few people that use the tax cuts to create jobs. We need to find ways to make the tax cuts more “surgically effective.” We should only throw pennies that will actually land in the coffee cups.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Sometimes government needs to be big.</span></strong> I like a strong, yet efficient and highly modern military. I like free education. I like investment in Research and Development. I like NASA, Medicare and Social Security. I like projects that are more efficiently done when we work together than alone.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Some areas of government need to be smaller.</span></strong> The Department of Homeland Defense is basically a job creation agency in the form of millions of TSA donut eaters. Fraud and waste are bipartisan issues that should be aggressively attacked.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Sometimes governments need to regulate.</span></strong> I think the government should be looking over every shoulder on Wall Street.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Sometimes governments need to get out-of-the-way.</span></strong> Over-regulation in manufacturing and business has tied the hands of those that would do the most to create a strong economy. Once again, California is a prime example of how too much government can ruin an economy. Governor Brown, who I like, claims it’s either raise taxes or cut programs. I say, make the business environment competitive with the other 49 states. This will bring companies to California, raising revenue while not raising taxes.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">Obamacare and Romneycare are the same thing.</span></strong> I like that my kids can be on my insurance until they are 25 years old. I like that the health care providers must spend a higher percentage of their income on actually providing coverage. I don’t like that nothing gets the soaring cost of health care under control. Tort reform and increased competition, but GOP positions, should be embraced.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">I am</span></strong> pro-life but first, pro-choice. I am in favor of gay rights.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">I think</span></strong> we need a branch of government, like the Supreme Court, where members are assigned for life. Their only job is to publish facts. For example, is Obamacare costing us money or saving us money? Depends on who you ask. How many jobs were created by the $740 billion dollar tax cut given to those making over $250K a year? I want to know.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;"><span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">And finally, I am against hypocrisy</span></strong>. The GOP takes center stage on this issue simple because the Democrats appear to be mute. I don’t know what they are up to. However, the GOP blames Obama for the economy while doing everything possible to keep it from getting better. The GOP is holding the debt ceiling hostage saying it’s the right thing to do for the economy in spite of the fact that <span _mce_style="text-decoration: underline;" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: underline;">all</span> economists believe that failure to raise it will cause “Global Economic Mayhem.” I think tax breaks for the rich make the rich richer – period. The GOP wants to eliminate Planned Parenthood as a way to cater to their base. To them it’s like saying, “See, we are against abortion.” All the while, they know that Planned Parenthood has a huge impact on reducing abortion.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I know, and so do all of the politicians out there, that the president is limited in his ability to impact the economy. He doesn’t have a “fix it” button on his desk. Congress has much more power than he does and even they can only do so much. The idea that Obama is failing because the economy is not yet back to full strength is simply propaganda. The fact that the GOP candidates are using this as their platform, even though they know it to be false propoganda, says a lot about the quality of these people.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/You-Never-Find-Me-Lol.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/You-Never-Find-Me-Lol.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/You-Never-Find-Me-Lol-300x225.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-688" height="225" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/You-Never-Find-Me-Lol-300x225.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="You-Never-Find-Me-Lol" width="300" /></a>Here is a funny picture for you to look at while you drink your coffee and contemplate the profound truths contained herein.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Let’s just look at Michelle Bachman. A few weeks back, I posted the results of an independent Fact Finding group that checked on several people, Democrats and Republicans alike. Michelle Bachman was found to be the least truthful, by far. They checked 19 of her statements. Here are the results:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">True: 0<br />
Mostly True: 0<br />
Half True: 3<br />
Barely True: 2<br />
False: 8<br />
Pants on Fire: 6</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I recall seeing her for the first time when she gave the Tea Party response to the president’s State of the Union speech. At that time I thought, “People actually voted for her? On purpose?” I’ve seen nothing from her to change my opinion since that time.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere…</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Skype and Comcast are coming up with a deal where you can video chat through your television. You’ll need a converter and camera, provided by them. This will be cool on a large screen television.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Very heavy on the political stuff today. For that, I apologize. I’m on an airplane which means that my normal sources for interesting stuff are not available to me. I’ll try to do better tomorrow.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is your quote for the day:“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.” Earnest Benn</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">As for now, well, you know…</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away…</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for visiting this page’s sponsors.</div><div><br />
</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-87482438440116129782011-06-13T02:22:00.000-07:002011-06-13T02:22:35.844-07:00Wisdom From a Lufthansa Lounge Lizard<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Drug lords got tanks...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">In other news, Dallas won the NBA championship. This news is actually third, behind "tanks" and the fact that the NBA season actually came to an end. You see, this is what happens when the season is played simply to eliminate the worst team so that everyone else can "advance" to the finals.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Back to tanks...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">What I don't understand is why the anti-drug people - you know, cops and the military - why these people don't just sit in their offices until a traffic cop spots one of these things. <a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/e8b2abdaaba787535adb9b019745b649_XL.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/e8b2abdaaba787535adb9b019745b649_XL.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/e8b2abdaaba787535adb9b019745b649_XL.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-680" height="182" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/e8b2abdaaba787535adb9b019745b649_XL.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="e8b2abdaaba787535adb9b019745b649_XL" width="280" /></a>They are hard to miss. Imagine one of these giant things being parked in front of a building. Since only the drug lords have them, I'd say this is a pretty good case of probable cause. They are little more than big signs saying "drug lord coming through, everyone step aside." We should actually give them tanks so we know where they are.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The fact that these tanks are not being used as a "Find a drug lord here" sign tells me there may be a bit of money changing hands.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The Book of Mormon kicked some butt at the Tony's. This is a musical written by the guys that created South Park. I've heard the sound track (thanks to Jim Hill) and it's really good. So far the only negative thing I've heard about it is that the tickets are hard to come by. I once called for tickets to Phantom of the Opera. When I said, "I'll take two for this Saturday night," the operator came back with, "How about two for late next summer."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I did get some culture this time in Europe; my wife insists on it. We went to see the Hungarian Ballet. They did about 5 different bits, all unique stuff. The last one was so captivating that I would have sat through it again and again given the chance. We had front row seats at the Hungarian Opera House <a _mce_href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzyxU1kDOQk&feature=related" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzyxU1kDOQk&feature=related" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="Hungarian Opera House">(click on this link to see this place)</a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Hawaii just fired a bunch of TSA agents for not doing their job. I don't find this hard to believe. This is a group of people who re-scanned a banana I had in my briefcase because it was a "sharp" object. The people in charge their say they weren't doing their job because they were overworked and thus, we should put more agents there. This sounds like the work of the infamous Hawaiian Donut Cartel. I can't imagine them fitting even 1 more agent around a donut box than they already do.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw the Pirates of the Caribbean last week; in Hungarian. I could follow the plot just fine<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Blackbeard.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Blackbeard.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Blackbeard.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-679" height="250" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Blackbeard.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="Blackbeard" width="300" /></a>without understanding any of the words. While the movie was worth watching, the guy that played Black Beard was by far, the best cast pirate of all time.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I was at a mall the other day. They have these escalators that only move when people pass by a light sensor at the start. It's an energy-saving thing. Anyway, I watch as this woman (blonde) starts to go "up" the escalator clearly marked "down". She thinks it's either broken or maybe just some metallic stairs. Anyway, it does not move until she is halfway up it. Someone entered from the top and started it moving down. The blonde continues to try to climb up, in spite of this; only giving up when the other people coming down get in her way. Funny.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">You know what else is funny? That the GOP is trying to make political hay by bashing the Democrats over this Weiner thing. I wonder what God was thinking as his party of choice cast the first stone, in spite of their own abundance of transgressions.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Did you know Budapest is actually two cities, divided by the Danube river? Buda is to the west, and Pest to the east. I went hiking in the Buda Hills a couple of days ago. This is a forested area that feels like an isolated jungle with beautiful plants. Seen from the sky, it's a patch of green inside a large city. We walked for five miles and never saw a car or a building. It was great.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I came across this site that had all kinds of "invisible" cat pictures. The cats were there, but the other stuff was missing. Like "toothbrush" cat showed a cat that looked like he was brushing his teeth but the toothbrush was "invisible." Here was my favorite.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/funny-pictures-stunt-cat.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/funny-pictures-stunt-cat.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/funny-pictures-stunt-cat-283x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-681" height="300" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/funny-pictures-stunt-cat-283x300.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="funny-pictures-stunt-cat" width="283" /></a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">In Bahrain, a poet was given a 1-year jail term for writing a poem critical of the government. These are out allies, at least until it looks politically more correct to cheer for the other side.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Apple is being sued for its use of the term "icloud" by a company called "icloud communications." This company has been doing, since 2005, what Apple is pretending that they just invented. So, Apple is taking something that already exists and adding their own little twist - a price tag. This feels a lot like the AOL model of "Let's charge people for stuff they can do for free because they don't know they can do it for free." I have one last word on this - dropbox.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A quote for the day: “Corruption and hypocrisy ought not to be inevitable products of democracy, as they undoubtedly are today” Mahatma Gandhi</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm in Frankfurt, on my way to the California Bounce. I end up in Kansas City sometime Tuesday.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I can't help but notice that most of you are asleep as I write this. There is no rest for this superhero....</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Note: Thanks for visiting this page's sponsors...</div><div><br />
</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-57528986057397256602011-06-09T02:29:00.001-07:002011-06-09T02:29:16.014-07:00Viagra Warfare - Never run out of ammo...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Gadafeee has opened up his Viagra reserve account in an effort to encourage his loyalists to rape the rebel women.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm not sure of the rationale behind this. Can he actually believe the rebels are thinking, "Hey, he's having our women raped. Maybe we should all just go back to work."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Did you know that the Daily Show on Comedy Central ranks #4 among the news programs? I think this is great. It's been a long time since other news programs made fun of Jon Stewart. I saw a 2008 clip of Bill O'Reilly talking down to Stewart as if it were ridiculous that people would take him (Stewart) seriously. Now-a-days, it's the other way around and <strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">I love it</strong>.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Just for the fun of it, here is a funny picture:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/that-face.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/that-face.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/that-face-300x199.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-668" height="199" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/that-face-300x199.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="that-face" width="300" /></a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Some elephants went on a rampage in India. I saw one push a cow around like it was a Chihuahua (<- hard word to spell). Speaking of which, I wish I had a pet cow.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">I saw a sign that said, "Beware of Grizzly bears. Wear a bell and carry pepper spray." The sign went on to say you could tell if a Grizzly was in the area by examining piles of dung. A couple of things to look for that is characteristic of Grizzly dung: "You may see small bits of bells and it will smell like pepper."</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A headline I saw online today: "Weiner must pull out."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China and India are starting to fret about the United States failing to pay its debt. Both of these countries put the probable fallout square on the shoulders of the GOP. Here is what is starting to happen as of right now.</div><ul style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Companies around the world are holding back on hiring as they wait to see what will happen</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Countries are becoming reluctant to buy U.S. bonds as they fear a default.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The U.S. bond rating is beginning to drop making the interest on our loans grow.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Once we default, our rating will drop steeply, raising the return we must pledge on our bonds. My math shows that a 5% increase in interest/rate of return will cost the United States $137 million dollars a day (that's just on what we owe China). This equates to $50 billion dollars a year.</li>
</ul><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The GOP is causing this. This being a global travesty that will change our place in the world - all to appease the Tea Party. If I were the president, I would look for a way to disband the GOP; not to get rid of the competition, but to rid our country of Economic Terrorism.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">OPEC cannot agree on a new level of oil production. Here is the deal. If I can produce more oil (like Saudi Arabia), I want to. Sure, this will make the price drop but I will make up the difference with more volume. However, if I can't produce more oil because I am at capacity already (Venezuela), then I don't want more oil on the market because it will lower prices and I cannot create more volume to make up the difference.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Also, Venezuela is run by a guy that wants to do whatever he can to make things bad in the United States. He is, of course, welcome to do this. It's not illegal. It's no more immoral that us allowing Syria to kill itself. The real fault here is that we allow ourselves to become dependent and thus put Chavez on his throne.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Embrace nuclear power and this will all change. I know Germany is changing to fossil fuel power generation. They do this out of fear. One can never tell when a tsunami is going to hit Munich, so they prepare for the worst. (Reminds me of the line: "We cannot allow, a mine-shaft gap. Let me know if you know where that came from) The <strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">FACT</strong> is that the death rate per Terra-Watt of power generated is 4,025 times higher with fossil fuel that with nuclear power.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">The two main things that are hurting job creation in the United States are gas prices and uncertainty. The GOP blames Obama for unemployment even though they are the ones causing the uncertainty. As far as gas prices go, Obama doesn't have a voice in OPEC and when he tries to crack down on oil speculators in the United States, the GOP blocks him.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The group that hacked Sony, LULZ also hacked a security company. The security company offered $10,000 to anyone that could hack their site and change a specific photo. LULZ did it quickly but turned down the money.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">A computer repair guy installed software on computers that he was working on. The software allowed him to remotely control the computers' video cameras. So, women would take their computers home and he would be able to see whatever was in range of the camera. He got caught when he got a little...ambitious. He caused their computers to post the following message "Your lens is becoming dirty. A suggested remedy is to put it in an area with steam for a few minutes." The idea was to try to get them to take their computer with them when they showered.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A quote for the day: “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: There is never enough of anything to satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics.” Thomas Sowell</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Alas....there is a world to save. Also, I need to get dressed - I'm off to the Budapest Ballet. I get a discount when I wear my cape.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for visiting my sponsors:)</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-56253816664149372552011-06-08T03:51:00.001-07:002011-06-08T03:51:38.305-07:00Global Weirding...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: The United States has experienced 8 weather related events this year that have each caused over a billion dollars in damage.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Climatology Bill Patzert of NASA gets credit for the "global weirding" term. The record, by the way, is 9 such events in a year. We still have 6+ months to go. The next one may be the result of "Be careful what you ask for." California's drought is over. There are record snow packs in the Sierras. This is raising fears of flooding in the San Joaquin valley later this year. I'm sure there are more than a few farmers down there that are saying, "Bring it on!"</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China has an aircraft carrier. It was an old Soviet Union thing. The Chinese bought it saying it would make a great casino. Then one day, it turned back into an aircraft carrier.<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/53300348_011903780-1.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/53300348_011903780-1.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/53300348_011903780-1-300x168.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-653" height="168" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/53300348_011903780-1-300x168.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="_53300348_011903780-1" width="300" /></a>See, this is just the type of thing we have to be ready for if we start making weapons treaties with this country. One day you have a pizza parlor; then the next, it becomes a nuclear missile silo.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">OPEC is meeting to discuss production. It doesn't feel right that here in the United States, we wait from them to tell us what we will be paying for gas. A full 20% of the current price of oil is due to the Arab Spring (unrest in the Middle East). Another 20% is due to oil speculators. These speculators live in the nice houses in the expensive neighborhoods...in your town.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Oil supply is an issue of course; just not as much as you might think. As long as there is uncertainty, there will be panic (reminds me once again of the GOP's intent with stalling on raising the debt ceiling).</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">By the way, oil demand dropped over the last year by 5% in modern nations. Emerging economies, however, increased their demand by 14%. By "emerging economies," I am referring to China and India.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Green is the way to go. The thing is, we can't be the only players or we will simply price our way out of the world's economy. We need to say, "We will go green and only green products will be allowed into our country." That will level the playing field while creating an industry that will be bursting at the seams with jobs.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">But everyone has to play. In California, we have hot tubs and government regulation. Since we are the only ones regulating, companies simply go elsewhere to conduct business.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Its been 175 days since the GOP extended the tax cut to those making over $250K per year. They insisted this would create jobs. So my question is: "<strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Where are the jobs?</strong>"</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">What everyone misses is the fact that the congress is in a much better position to create jobs than the president. They introduce bills, not him. He can suggest but in the end, he can either go along with congress or not. The GOP would have you think it works the other way around.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">If you want a job, fire the people most responsible for the lack thereof. By the way, you get a bonus because in doing so, you will also fire those most responsible for the national debt - the GOP.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The giant particle accelerator, CERN has managed to capture anti-matter atoms and hold them for 1,000 seconds. I'm assuming this is pretty impressive although I have no idea why.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Speaking of Green, in Copenhagen, commuting by bicycle is a way of life. When asked, they say the minor reasons are: exercise, cost and the environment. The major reason is<a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/copenhagen_bike_parking.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/copenhagen_bike_parking.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/copenhagen_bike_parking-300x224.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-654" height="224" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/copenhagen_bike_parking-300x224.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="copenhagen_bike_parking" width="300" /></a>the convenience. They can get anywhere quickly by bicycle. My office is 8 miles from my house. To get there, I have to take my life in my own hands. I can't help but wonder about the cost of building a bike trail compared to the cost of adding an additional lane to a highway. Where I live, there are miles of old, unused, train track. Pull up the track and lay down a trail. They've done this is D.C. with great success.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Pierce Morgan is the replacement for Larry King on CNN. I like how this guy asks the very toughest of questions. If you try to skirt an issue, he catches you. Romney and wife were on the hot seat yesterday. Here is how I remember it:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">PM: How is Romney care different from Obamacare</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Romney: Obama care is 2,000 pages long, while my plan is only 75 pages long.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">PM: But specifically, what is different?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Romney: Toaster</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">And so it continued. PM: Is homosexuality a sin - MR:skateboard. PM:You seem to be just like George Bush. How are you different - MR: It's all about jobs.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It felt like he was talking to someone else.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/groucho-marx.jpeg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/groucho-marx.jpeg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/groucho-marx-245x300.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-655" height="300" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/groucho-marx-245x300.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="groucho-marx" width="245" /></a><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">In honor of the latest spat of men struggling to explain themselves, I bring you today's quote by Groucho Marx: "<strong style="color: black; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-weight: bold; line-height: 1.5;">Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes</strong>?"</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">As for me, I seem to have gotten that e.coli thing under control. However, there is always more saving to do.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">thanks for the clicks</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Note: This page is will be discontinued soon. The contents have been moved to <a href="http://jamesdillingham.com/">http://jamesdillingham.com</a>.</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-49932121382020532062011-06-07T05:45:00.001-07:002011-06-07T05:45:18.741-07:00Weiner-gate<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Not all men are idiots in spite of a growing body of evidence to the contrary.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Congressman Weiner is the latest - to get caught. So he likes to tweet himself in his underwear. Who cares if he's married? When it comes to sex, any behavior beyond what I am familiar with is just...confusing. That doesn't make it wrong. I think there should only be two rules: (1) Consensual by <del style="color: #555555; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5; text-decoration: line-through;">both</del> all parties involved and (2) Do nothing that will produce an X-man.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I don't want to be perceived as standing up for our most public of Weiners. On the contrary. I think he should be shown the door immediately. He did two things wrong: (1) He tweeted his photo publicly and in such a way as to make certain he was the sender; all the while having no plan to explain the inevitable storm to follow - I'm saying he's an idiot. And (2) he stood right up in front of us and lied to our faces about the event.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">The number of people on disability is up 17% since the recession started. There are now 16 workers to every person on disability. Twenty years ago there were 32 workers per disabled. Draw your own conclusions here. I'm just saying...</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Obama has no tools to unilaterally create jobs. What this means is, congress and the president, together can get things done. So let's peak in on congress...Nope, nothing going on there other than a bunch of finger wagging about some guy and his twitter account.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">For some reason, when a Democrat has a sex scandal, I am less put-off than if a Republican had one. I think the hypocrisy is bigger when a member of God's chosen party strays</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Speaking of God, I talked to him just last night. Turns out he has a g-mail account. He said I could ask one question so I used a 2-parter. I asked, "Why can't women drive in Saudi Arabia and why can't women become priests in the Catholic church." He responded with, "Don't ask me. I have nothing to do with that." He went on to add that he reads my blog every morning with coffee.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for the bump, God.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">2012 Update: First floods and then tornadoes. Now we have an entire state burning to the <a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NightSanFranPks2_1310Reduced-550x366.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NightSanFranPks2_1310Reduced-550x366.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NightSanFranPks2_1310Reduced-550x366-300x199.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-646" height="199" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/NightSanFranPks2_1310Reduced-550x366-300x199.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="NightSanFranPks2_1310Reduced-550x366" width="300" /></a>ground. Is it just me or are things moving to the west. I'm betting on a big earthquake in California within the coming weeks. You heard it here first</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I think all convicted gang members should be shipped to Somalia and denied reentry to the United States. In my mind, they are domestic terrorists.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">The Syrian president was put in a hospital by his own people. In Yemen, the civilian population gunned down 120 government security forces. In Libya, Qadafffeeee (I give up on trying to spell that one) is still hunkered down with his female body builder hoping "his people" will stop shooting at him. It seems that if we just stay out-of-the-way, the "Invisible Hand" of human ambition will eventually stand up and say, "I'm made as hell and I'm not going to take it any more!" Only then can lasting change take place</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It snowed yesterday up at Lake Tahoe.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Santorum wants to be the GOP candidate for president. He is against gay rights, abortion and stem cell research. This is the type of guy that would have found Galileo guilty of blasphemy. He thinks he's doing God's will. Maybe I should send him God's g-mail information. Let him ask. I'll bet he gets an answer similar to mine</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a CNN analysis that said the GOP could win the presidency if the economy does not improve. This is not news to the GOP who has dedicated themselves to see that the economy stalls for as long as possible. Forget the Wealth of Nations. People react to what they believe to be true. Uncertainty causes inaction. Failure to act on the debt ceiling is the GOP's version of pulling a Pearl Harbor on our economy.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">A congressional budget arm estimates that with the Medicare voucher system, we will be paying for 66% of our own elder care out of our pocket by the year 2030. I think they must read my blog.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Daily quote: "A government that robs from Peter to pay Paul, can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Another week and I will bounce off of California on my way to Kansas City. In the meantime, I'm keeping Europe safe</em>.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Gotta run, there's e-coli afoot...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-3081432648763015572011-06-06T06:16:00.001-07:002011-06-06T06:16:47.524-07:00North Korea - Laugh Factory...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: The happiest people in the world live in China. They are followed by people living in North Korea and then by those living in Cuba. Last on the list - those living in the United States. These findings come from a comprehensive survey conducted by...North Korea.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is a picture of every happy person in Korea.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kim-north-korea.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kim-north-korea.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kim-north-korea-300x187.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-638" height="187" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/kim-north-korea-300x187.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="kim-north-korea" width="300" /></a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">On an unrelated issue, 25% of the people in North Korea are living at a starvation level. A drought in China along with sanctions for attacking South Korea have left the "very happy" people of North Korea surviving by eating grass and tree bark. Can you say, "Eastern Spring?"</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">For those of you keeping track of the approach of 2012; a volcano just erupted in Chile. I'm just saying.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">John Edwards is an example of the quality of people who rise to our highest offices. This guy cheated on his dying wife and used (allegedly) campaign funds to keep his now pregnant mistress quiet. He needs to go directly to jail. He plans on fighting this. At first, he was negotiating an out-of-court settlement. Once he heard any settlement would have jail time, he said, "Wait, I just remembered. I didn't do it." This is legal talk for "I did it and we all know it but I don't think you can prove it."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">My son has AT&T for his i-pad. Turns out, his 1-year subscription expired after 3 months. He then bought a 1-month service and it expired after 30 minutes. This sounds EXACTLY like the AT&T I have come to know and loathe.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The worst product I ever bought: An electric pencil sharpener that broke half way through the first pencil. You?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Kevorkian is gone. Dr. Death died just when we need him most. Who am I going to turn to when my Medicare voucher in 2023 is worth only $1.25 in 2012 dollars.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Jobs is a problem for Obama. If I were to be convinced someone else had the answer, I would turn to them. I know who doesn't have the answer. The GOP tax cuts have been extended for 6 months now. So, where are the jobs they promised? All we really have to show for the tax breaks are (1) a few millionaires with one more vacation home than they had 6 months ago, (2) a growing national debt that is killing our economy, (3) fattened political coffers for those, (the GOP) that got them the money and (4) a GOP budget that calls for lowering the tax rate another 10%.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">I saw a study that said college, as far as education is concerned, may not be worth the money. The gains in knowledge are apparently minimal. However, companies still prefer college graduates for the same reason they prefer Eagle Scouts. They set out to do it and they did it. I agree with all of this. I learned a lot in college but I almost never work with differential equations (okay, maybe during tax time). For me, college was about learning to learn.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I don't know about you, but I am not willing to trust "the cloud" to everything. I understand not having to carry all of my stuff with me. I can keep it on the cloud. I like to hike at a place about a mile from my house. There is no cell service there. I'm not sure why. It's not like I'm in a cave or a gully. I can't get internet service, I'm out of business. The cloud is a great idea whose time will have come, we 100% of the U.S. has internet coverage.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">I've been sort of toying with this idea of a guest blogger. No takers just yet. I think it would be cool if a reader out there had a young child that wrote a poem or a theme for school that could be published here.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Quote for the day: "Under democracy, one party always devotes its chief energies to try to prove the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed, and are right." H.L. Menchen, 1956</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm still in Budapest saving the day and such. Hope you all had a great weekend.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for the clicks</div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-27413440810701426922011-06-03T05:23:00.001-07:002011-06-03T05:23:52.424-07:00A Pinch of This and a Dash of That<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Scarlett Johansson has split with Sean Penn. Great, now I have to worry about her stalking me again.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Romney threw his hat in the ring and the first sentence he said was a lie. "When Obama took office, we wished him well and hoped for the best." Funny that's not what I remember. I remember something more like "The number one goal of the GOP is to make Obama a single term president."</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It's no secret that the GOP party's main goal is to block every attempt by Obama to succeed at anything. Romney is the perfect example of this hypocrisy. As a governor, he boasted of his state's health care system. As a GOP congressman, he's done nothing but blast Obama's health care system - the system that is nearly identical to the one Romney endorsed for his own state.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Here is a <a _mce_href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4mPAYJ/www.witty-quotes.com/armyquotes_1.html" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/4mPAYJ/www.witty-quotes.com/armyquotes_1.html" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="Army Quotes">link</a> to some funny Army quotes.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm going to the SHRM (Society of Human Resource Managers) conference in Las Vegas at the end of this month. My company, <a _mce_href="http://shift-work.com" href="http://shift-work.com/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="Shiftwork Solutions">Shiftwork Solutions</a>, will have a booth there, telling people about what we do for a living. Should be fun.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">An ex-aide to Sarah Palin wrote a <a _mce_href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/19/v-fullstory/2074909/ex-palin-aide-rips-her-in-leaked.html" href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/19/v-fullstory/2074909/ex-palin-aide-rips-her-in-leaked.html" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="tell-all book">tell-all book</a>. If any of it is true, she is way less qualified than I already suspected her to be. She's flirting with the presidency saying, "We need to <a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/blind-allegiance-to-sarah-palin-a-memoir-of-our-tumultuous-years.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/blind-allegiance-to-sarah-palin-a-memoir-of-our-tumultuous-years.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/blind-allegiance-to-sarah-palin-a-memoir-of-our-tumultuous-years.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-624" height="269" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/blind-allegiance-to-sarah-palin-a-memoir-of-our-tumultuous-years.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="blind-allegiance-to-sarah-palin-a-memoir-of-our-tumultuous-years" width="180" /></a>to get the country back on track." Strange to hear such implied insight from a woman whose qualifications can be fit onto a stick-it.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a video of a badger eating a poisonous snake after being bitten by it. The badger, half way through his meal, passed out and sort of went into a coma. After a few hours, it woke up and resumed its meal. Badgers are bad-ass.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">John Boehner made another one of his leaps-of-logic statements. I'm paraphrasing here but it went something like, "We need to get the debt under control because, uh, you know, uh, jobs." This is a little like saying, "I need to put gas in the car, uh, you know, uh, toaster." Whenever I see him talk, something about his manner tells me he doesn't believe what he is saying.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm in Europe now and I can tell you they are getting nervous about the U.S. debt ceiling. Here are a couple of important points to remember:</div><ul style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; list-style-type: square; margin-bottom: 24px; margin-left: 1.5em; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Failure to raise the debt ceiling will have a catastrophic economic on the world.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The debt ceiling will be raised.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The GOP will threaten to not raise it right up to the last-minute; creating increasing anxiety around the world.</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The world markets will begin to react adversely as the deadline approaches</li>
<li style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">The debt ceiling will be raised but by then, sever damage will have been done worldwide - by the GOP</li>
</ul><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Some Aussies sneaked (I like "snuck" better) up to a truck that had a speed camera on it. The took off the plates and put them on their car. They then sped by the camera several times before replacing the plates. The result was the police department sending 17 speeding tickets to itself.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">You may want to change your vacation plans for the summer and skip that stop-over in Libya. They have several cases of the bubonic plague. Other than that, and the occasional random arrests or mortar fire or heat and expansive vistas of dirt - it's quite the garden spot.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The word that won the latest National Spelling Bee: cymotrichous. It took me three tries just to the get the first letter right. (I'm sure Kimmy is not surprised by that.)</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">Check out this <a _mce_href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1nMH01/www.tweakiz.com/2011/05/innovative-useful-products-2/" href="http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1nMH01/www.tweakiz.com/2011/05/innovative-useful-products-2/" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" title="Useful Products">link</a> if you want to see some clever/useful products.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I saw a news blurb about a guy that had some software called "Hidden" installed on his Mac. When his Mac was stolen, the computer sent him messages telling him where it was at. It also took random photos of the thief. This is really cool.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/johndsalvo11.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/johndsalvo11.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/johndsalvo11.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-full wp-image-630" height="288" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/johndsalvo11.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="johndsalvo1" width="241" /></a>Now I don't trust my own computer. Suppose it turns on me and starts taking random photos and posting them on Flickr. Here's one that I found that looks suspiciously like me.</em></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is your quote for the day: "The state of your life is nothing more than a reflection of your state of mind." Wayne Dyer</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">That's a wrap for today. Time to save the world.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">thanks for the clicks...</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-79208560412872406322011-06-02T03:32:00.000-07:002011-06-02T03:32:05.101-07:00What's going on out there?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"></span><br />
<div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This just in: Apparently, the Church of Scientology is accused of being involved in a scandal involving sexual abuse of a minor. A young girl said the following was told to her -after being abused by a senior church member - on how to testify to authorities: "Just say no. Don’t say yes, because otherwise you will be taken away from your parents and you’ll never see your family again." The guy that coached her to testify thusly, a guy names Eastgate, later received the church's highest award.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I expect the Church of Scientology to contact me about a law suit any time with regards to the previous paragraph. It's in their nature.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I read a Time Magazine expose on Scientology a few years back. It seems that this group by thousands of copies of their own book Dianetics, just to keep it on the bestseller list.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Germany is planning on building more fossil fuel plants to replace 100% of their nuclear plants. It seems they would rather live in a polluted world than to live in fear of the next big nuclear accident. Not the choice I would make.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I think that if we knew what was next - after we die, we would spend less time being afraid of the monsters in our closets.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hiv-aids-map-aidsvu.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hiv-aids-map-aidsvu.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hiv-aids-map-aidsvu-300x142.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-613" height="142" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/hiv-aids-map-aidsvu-300x142.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="hiv-aids-map-aidsvu" width="300" /></a>Here is a map of AIDS cases in the United States. I found this interesting.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A Japanese group wants to put enough solar panels on the moon to power all of the Earth's needs. Interestingly, we already have the technology to do this, including power beams to send the power back to Earth. All we need to do is find the will to spend the money. It would take a global effort and decades of work.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The Syrian government is offering amnesty to protesters. Their idea of amnesty is a little different from the norm. Basically, they will reduce all sentences to the next lower level. So, if you are a protester that they would normally sentence to death, they will grant you "amnesty" and only give you life in prison.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I'm always amazed by how crazy you can be and still run a country.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Onward...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">"Craplet" is the term given to all the junk software that is preloaded onto a new computer.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China has launched another cyper attack on Google's gmail. China denies it.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">At the same time, we are in military talks with China. Who out there thinks China will honor any treaty if it suits them to do otherwise?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">A flight broke out on a plane because a guy reclined his seat into the space of the person behind him. I've considered being that person (the one in the back). I've come to accept the fact that if only one seat on the plane is reclined, it is the one directly in front of me. I recline mine about half an inch. If I don't, my head bobs as I try to sleep. The slight recline shifts my head's center of gravity back far enough so I can sleep without fear of whiplash.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Greece has just received a Caa1 rating. This means that if you lend them money, there is a 50% chance that they will not be able to pay you back. Would you lend them money?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The United States will be joining Greece very soon if the debt ceiling is not raised. Would anyone lend us money then?</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I know, I know. There are those out there that say, "We have plenty of money. All we need to do is cut spending and then we will not need to borrow any." Those people have no idea about the scope of our debt. They are overestimating how much waste we have and how much money we are taking in.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">If we are to remain a great nation, we need to be willing to pay for it.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This brings me to today's quote:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">"It's not the will to win, but the will to prepare to win that makes the difference." Bear Bryant.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">My spidy sense is tingling (yes, I have spidy sense), so I need to get going.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Thanks for the clicks...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Remember, my blog has moved to <a href="http://jamesdillingham.com/">http://jamesdillingham.com</a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Here is a cool video about a jet pack.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPedpE70Es&feature=player_embedded" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHPedpE70Es&feature=player_embedded" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;">Jet Pack</a></div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><br style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;" /></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-90383390227339430902011-06-01T05:53:00.000-07:002011-06-01T11:46:20.700-07:00News From Abroad...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 12px; font: normal normal normal 13px/19px Georgia, 'Times New Roman', 'Bitstream Charter', Times, serif; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; max-width: 640px; padding-bottom: 0.6em; padding-left: 0.6em; padding-right: 0.6em; padding-top: 0.6em;"><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The president of FIFA, the world soccer organization graced the press with a Q&A session.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I've never seen anything like this. It was as if he were the king of the world and was gracing the peasants with his brief attention.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It went like this:</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">In response to the very first question he said, "I'm not going to answer that question."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The next person asked a double question. His response, "That's two questions, which do you want me to answer as I will only answer one."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">After a couple of minutes, he said, "This is not a bizarre. You can all conduct yourself in an orderly manner or I will answer no further questions."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">This was the most arrogant thing I have ever seen.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Elsewhere...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It looks like the latest fad in New York is for the filthy rich to sexually assault the first person to walk into their hotel room with a can of Lemon Pledge. With unlimited money, it seems that a call to the concierge would take care of just about any need they might have.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><a _mce_href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/traffic_jam1.jpg" href="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/traffic_jam1.jpg" style="color: #0066cc; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; line-height: 1.5;"><img _mce_src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/traffic_jam1-300x247.jpg" alt="" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-434" height="247" src="http://jamesdillingham.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/traffic_jam1-300x247.jpg" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; display: inline; float: left; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; height: auto; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 24px; margin-top: 4px; max-width: 100%;" title="traffic_jam" width="300" /></a>They have a new plan for traffic control here in Budapest. They took a 3-lane highway, and dedicated two of the lanes to the occasional bus that might come by. The idea is to get people so fed up with traffic jams that they will get out of their cars and onto buses. The traffic jam this morning was 7 kilometers long. I wrote the local newspaper for clarification and they confirmed this is to discourage people from driving into the city.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The GOP forced a vote on the debt ceiling. The idea is to get votes on record. In the next election, if their opponent voted in favor of raising the debt ceiling, the can say, "My opponent voted in favor of uncontrollable spending."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">The Democrats did the same thing a week ago by forcing a vote on the budget. They get the votes on record and then will say, "My opponent voted to get rid of Medicare."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Failure to raise the debt ceiling will cause a global recession that will dwarf the one we are currently climbing out of.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">It is noteworthy that the debt ceiling was raised several times during W's "Reign of Terror." By the end of his 8 years, the ceiling was twice as high as it was when he entered. The GOP seems not to recall this FACT. Nor do they recall that it was their actions (and inactions) which caused the current budget overruns. I am surprised that anyone could vote for them.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">I just heard - Global Slave trafficking is a $32 billion dollar a year industry.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Did you notice my new web page layout? I'd be interested in your feedback. One of the main things I'm working on is the comment section. Feel free to comment below. I need a few of you to comment so I can see how it is working.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Today's quote comes from fragmentary notes that Lincoln made, perhaps in preparation for a speech.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">"<em style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.5;">The legitimate object of government is to do for a community of people whatever they need to have done, but cannot do at all, or cannot so well do, for themselves, in their separate and individual capacities. In all that the people can individually do as well for themselves, government ought not to interfere</em>."</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">China's growth slows...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Japan's economic woes continue...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Australia's economy shrank...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Syria shoots its citizens earning a stern finger waging...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Bahrain prepares to shoot it citizens and we prepare to look the other way...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">And for some reason...Basketball and Hockey seasons refuse to end...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Someone has to do something about all of this.</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Up, up and away...</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">jim</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;"><br />
</div><div style="color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 1.5; margin-bottom: 24px;">Note: I am in the process of moving this blog to <a href="http://jamesdillingham.com/">http://jamesdillingham.com</a> so you may want to start looking there.</div></div></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-61593148954891110622011-05-31T09:32:00.000-07:002011-05-31T12:47:29.333-07:00Laissez-Faire<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">In economics, <i><b>laissez-faire</b></i> describes an environment in which transactions between private parties are free from state intervention, including restrictive regulations, taxes, tariffs and enforced monopolies.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NBTnVC8bN4M/TeUaAHpqUgI/AAAAAAAAAbk/MspR6vRSXJU/s1600/fig01-wealth-of-nations.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NBTnVC8bN4M/TeUaAHpqUgI/AAAAAAAAAbk/MspR6vRSXJU/s320/fig01-wealth-of-nations.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">The Sarah Palins of the world will tell you Laizzes-Faire is the American way. Others will tell you it is what famed economist Adam Smith referred to as the "invisible hand." Supposedly, the economy will work just find so long as everyone just gets out of the way.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">It sounds impressive.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Just like "smaller government" or "less regulation" sounds impressive.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">But: Be careful what you ask for...you might just get it.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">The "invisible hand" allowed the crash of 2007 to occur. In reality, there was not suppose to be an "invisible hand." The government had controls in place (intentional </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">interference</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">) however, those controls lacked the manpower or authority to do their job so they essentially didn't exist. so the invisible hand was unleashed and the economy crashed. </span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Nearly 100% of the people responsible for the crash made money on the event. Nearly 100% of them are still in place and are in charge of "fixing" things.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">This is like going to the fox and saying, "I know you ate all the eggs. What I want you to do now is sleep in here with the chickens and make sure no one eats the eggs."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Dependence upon this invisible hand is hurting us today - at the gas pump.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Gas and oil prices should be based on Supply and Demand. If that were in fact true, we wouldn't be in the situation we are now.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Up to 25% of the cost of a gallon of gas is due to <b><u>speculation</u></b>. There is actually plenty of oil on the global market. Supply is high so the "invisible hand" should cause prices to be low.</span><br />
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</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Here is how speculation works. People with money wait for an event that will make people nervous - such as war in Lybia. Suppose, when that war started, oil was at $90 a barrel. The speculators will see the war brewing and they will buy "futures" which is the right to buy oil at a fixed price in the future. So they could pay $90 a barrel today, but instead, they buy the oil that will be available next week at $95 a barrel. Now, two things take place. Because they are buying future oil, they can take a lot of future oil off the market which makes it apparently scarce (in reality, it is there but owned by speculators). Scarce oil increases the prices. Fear of war in the Middle East also increases the prices. So, the future arrives and the speculators get their $95 a barrel oil. The problem is, because of their interference, the future oil is selling on the free market for $100 a barrel. They only paid $95 a barrel because they bought it in advance. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">The bottom line is that, in part, they caused the price to go up - without affecting supply at all.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">So much for the invisible hand.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;">A few years back, when oil went over $150 a barrel, a handful of speculators made billions. They made this money legally although, using questionable ethics. They could see what they were doing to the economy but continued to speculate just the same. After all - it was legal.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Now, I'm not a fan of government interference. Those of you that read this blog know that California is mired in debt simply because the government can't get out of the way. Government interference has ruined the 7th largest economy in the world.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Still, lack of government intervention ruined the largest economy in the world. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">In short, this is not a black and white issue. Tea Party members and the GOP would have you believe it is.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">I know this topic is a bit dry; but I needed to get it written down.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Now I have to save us from ourselves.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Up, up and away...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 19px;">Jim</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-5709682245551851542011-05-30T02:25:00.000-07:002011-05-30T02:37:40.909-07:00Jet Lagged...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">I'm in Budapest and not quite sure what day it is. <br />
<br />
It's Monday here but not there...well, maybe soon enough it will be. Nine time zones is a lot to get my head around.<br />
<br />
News is different here than there.<br />
<br />
For example, its big news that a couple FIFA executives have been fired in a scandal. Apparently there is this game called soccer and some of the higher-ups have been taking bribes...maybe. I didn't need to know anything about soccer to make that very accusation during the last World Cup. I saw the United States score a goal only to have an official say, "I don't think we're going to count that one." He didn't say why and wasn't required to. Replays showed nothing on the field that would have caused such a call. The only remaining possibility was that something "off" the field had generated the call.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ob189Bunn_M/TeNigajfuaI/AAAAAAAAAbc/OLosRdCboGE/s1600/Snagglepuss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ob189Bunn_M/TeNigajfuaI/AAAAAAAAAbc/OLosRdCboGE/s1600/Snagglepuss.jpg" /></a></div>I see that 14 civilians in Afghanistan were killed by NATO. How many good things does it take to makeup for something like that. In the Navy, we used to say, "It takes 1,000 atta-boys to make up for one aw-shit." I'm thinking its time to exit stage left. (Any guesses as to the name of the comic lion?)<br />
<br />
I am the digital equivalent of Murphy's Law. Electronic stuff seems to not work around me. My latest - I'm trying to build a WordPress website for this blog. This is an easy and failsafe type of software than anyone can use. It's impossible to screw up. I get everything ready to go and hit enter. <br />
<br />
My screen goes blank and then the cryptic equivalent of "You screwed up" begins flashing on the screen.<br />
<br />
I don't know how I did it. Every step was me basically following instructions like "Click on the big blue button on the center of the screen." There was no room for error. And yet....<br />
<br />
I see Apple is finally having to deal with viruses. The latest installs itself automatically on your computer if you visit certain websites. When you reboot, it erases itself, but only after creating something else. The new creation takes your computer hostage and will not release it without a credit card number. I know a guy this happened to. He eventually gave the number and his computer was released. He then called his credit card company and tried to get his money back from this scam. Their answer, "Sorry, we are too busy embedding our own secret charges into our billing software."<br />
<br />
Malta has passed a non-binding resolution to allow divorces. The church campaigned against it. You know, the same church that blamed child molestation by its leaders on the "Free sex hippy movement" of the 60's. Hmmm...<br />
<br />
Maybe I'm just getting cratchetty in my old age. I'm finding I have less and less tolerance for hypocrisy whether it be with the church or the GOP. I am much more tolerant of it within my own behavior...<br />
<br />
Eleven years until we have a nuclear free Germany. Wanna take that bet? They voted to close down all their plants although they have no plan in place to replace them. Maybe we'll have alien technology by then.<br />
<br />
On politics: A note of caution; beware that candidate that follows the strict party line. He/She is little more than a sock puppet.<br />
<br />
A quote for the day:<br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">"Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss." - Douglas Adams</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">And finally, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">A tip of the hat....</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">To those that gave their lives, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">That I may blog what I see</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">They fought far from home, </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">Giving their lives that we may be free</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">Pause for them on this, our Memorial Day</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">We thank them for their sacrifice </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px;">Up, up and away...</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
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<br />
</div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3620987581234605972.post-40899939866844399532011-05-26T17:40:00.000-07:002011-05-26T20:07:40.111-07:00Time to hit the road...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">This just in: My new Dyson Vacuum cleaner rocks!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">(It took spell check 5 attempts to figure out I was trying to spell vacuum)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TALGwgh3ECI/Td7y8zLBDkI/AAAAAAAAAbY/vYTHfIXvtb0/s1600/Dyson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-TALGwgh3ECI/Td7y8zLBDkI/AAAAAAAAAbY/vYTHfIXvtb0/s320/Dyson.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I've spent my entire adult life accepting the fact that the best you could hope for was a vacuum that picked up slightly more dirt than it deposited. Most often, my machines would pick up dirt only to drop it off somewhere else in the house. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Those days are gone.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Elsewhere...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The GOP suffered a big defeat in N.Y. where a Democrat unseated a Republican in a district that has been Republican for over 40 years. Her one platform: Save Medicare.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I actually applaud the idea that nothing is off the table and the GOP took a big gamble by doing something that had to be done. But, as I've said before, "Not while a tax cut for the rich is part of the plan."</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I was flipping through a Sky Mall magazine on an airplane yesterday. This is the place to go if you want to be a spy. They had at least 3 full pages dedicated to miniature microphones and cameras and such. Also, and I'm sure this is a big seller in the female 60 - 75 year age group, you can get this device that shaves you in a way that you don't need to shave again for weeks. I say "female" because the ad has a picture of a woman shaving her mustache.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">There are some things I just don't want to know about.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Onward...</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My life has been laid out for me all the way through August. During that time, for business or pleasure, I will visit: Kansas City, the Nevada outback, Anaheim, Budapest, San Diego, Las Vegas and Hawaii. After that, I will need to take some time off to relax.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I'm on a plane to Budapest tomorrow so I don't know if I'll get a blog off tomorrow or not. I hope to fly through the heart of the Icelandic volcano ash cloud - because its there.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">United has a new boarding policy that I love. Before first class or frequent flyers can board, they board military personnel in uniform. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">I typically make little electronic sticky notes during the day if I hear something that is bloggable. I have one note that says, "Have you ever stuffed..." I have no idea what that means, but it sounds like fun.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">My food blog is out-pacing this blog which is a mystery to me.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Here is a quote for the day:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>"Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy." Margaret Thatcher.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b>I'll see you on the other side of the world.</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b><br />
</b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Up, up and away...</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>jim</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse;"><b>Thanks for the clicks...</b></span></span><br />
<br />
What's going on with my fonts?<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Jim Dillinghamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15757867594099029819noreply@blogger.com1