Happy Thoughts

Don't let it bring you down.

If someone should hurt you and say a thing unkind,
Remember those happy times, and keep these thoughts in mind.

For everyone that makes you cry, there are three who make you smile,
And a smile will last a long, long time, but a tear - just a little while.

Don't let someone who hates the world, cause you to hate it too.
Behind those stormy clouds is a golden sun, and a sky that's full of blue.

If someone said a thing that's cruel, don't dwell on it or let it get to you,
Your achievements are greatly numbered, and your faults - are very few.

So, if life gets you down or a certain person should act a certain way,
Think of those who love you and are loved by you, and don't let it spoil your day.
 
DON'T BE BLUE

Change you can believe in: The 1st Federal Sales Tax E-V-E-R and next the New Value Added Tax

Motivated Photos

Intentional Misrepresentation of the Health Care Reform Bill.

Lawmakers never read the bill they mandated into law or else they conspired to hide the 19 new taxes found in the Health Care Reform Bill.
In their zeal to pass a health care reform bill that is designed to make health care coverage affordable and available for more than 95 percent of Americans, Congress hasn’t explained very well the hidden tax bombs that the bill contains.

You will only be allowed to deduct medical expenses in excess of 10% of your Adjusted Gross Income. Currently that number is 7.5%.

If you buy a house and live in it for 20 years and the value goes up over 250k, a 4% tax will be levied on your proceeds from the sale of your house, which will go to cover Health Care costs.

Medicare payroll tax goes to 6.15%.
New Medicare payroll tax of 3.8% will be applied to interest, dividends, capital gains and other investment income for couples making more than $250,000 a year and individuals making more than $200,000. The bill also increases the normal Medicare payroll tax from 1.45% to 2.35% for the same individuals.

3.8% tax on payouts from annuities
Investors who buy stocks and forget about them for more than a year will see an increase of almost 20% in taxes owed in 2010.

If you purchase a wheelchair, you will pay a 2.3% excise tax.

Pharmaceutical companies will be allowed to pass a $3 billion annual fee on to you.

Part of the bills is The Community Living Assistance Services and Support Act (CLASS Act), Americans will find between $150 and $250 taken out of their paychecks each month to cover this program nobody knew about.

Penalties on individuals.
Individuals will pay a yearly penalty of $695, or up to 2.5 percent of their annual income, if they cannot show they have purchased a government-approved health policy.

Penalties on families.
Families will pay a yearly penalty of $347 per child, up to $2,250 per family, if parents cannot show they have purchased a government- approved policy.

2.9 percent tax on medical aid devices.

This appears to be the FIRST - Federal Sales Tax - in the United States.
Tax on tanning. Imposes a 10 percent tax on services at tanning salons. Business owners will collect the tax from customers and send it to the federal government.

The START of.......................... 

                       THE - 1st FEDERAL SALES TAX, (E V E R)

                                                     WITH MORE TO COME ! ! !

Don't Be BLUE

UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION AND POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE AWRY

This is from 4 years ago.
We should all look to Malmo, Sweden, as an example of the problems of uncontrolled immigration and political correctness gone awry.

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/938

Malmö, in Sweden, set to become the first Scandinavian city with a Muslim majority, within a decade or two, has nine times as many reported robberies per capita as Copenhagen, Denmark.

It is interesting to note that these Muslim immigrants state quite openly that they are involved in a “war,” and see participation in crime and harassment of the native population as such.

Some talk of the possibility of a future civil war in Sweden, the country that gave us Bergman, ABBA and Volvo could become known as the Bosnia of northern Europe. The “Swedish model” would no longer refer to a stable and peaceful state with an advanced economy, but to a Eurabian horror story of utopian multiculturalism, socialist mismanagement and runaway immigration.

Although it is not stated, most of the immigrant perpetrators are Muslims. In one of the rare instances where the Swedish media actually revealed the truth, the newspaper, Aftonbladet, reported several years ago that 9 out of 10 of the most criminal ethnic groups in Sweden came from Muslim countries.

The recent Jihad in the streets of France looked like the early skirmishes of an impending Eurabian civil war, brought on by massive Muslim immigration and Multicultural stupidity. Law and order is slowly breaking down in major and even minor cities across the European continent, and the streets are ruled by aggressive gangs of Muslim youngsters.

At the same time, Europeans are paying some of the highest taxes in the world. We should remind our authorities that the most important task of the state – some would even claim it should be the only task of the state – is to uphold the rule of law in exchange for taxation. When enough people feel that the system is no longer working and that the social contract has been breached, the entire fabric of democratic society could unravel. What happens when the welfare state system breaks down, and there is no longer enough money to “grease” the increasing tensions between immigrants and native Europeans? There will be massive unemployment, and tens of millions of people will feel angry, scared and humiliated, betrayed by the system, by society and by their own democratic leaders.

European leaders decided that therefore what they really needed was a European Union that would obviate their need for nationalism.

They took all the wrong lessons from World War II and continue to apply them, while ignoring the only lesson that’s really relevant from World War II, which is that you have to choose good and defend good, and fight with the intention of defeating evil. We have to be able and willing to make moral distinctions and stand up for the good and fight evil — and that is something that both the Europeans and Obama refuse to do.

Nationalism isn’t evil. British nationalism hasn’t been evil. French nationalism isn’t evil. Polish nationalism isn’t evil. American nationalism wasn’t evil and has never been evil. Contrary to Obama’s actions, American exceptionalism isn’t evil.
http://www.atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

LJ BLUE
(Holding by breath)

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil and the one-eyed monkey.

Golda Meir got it wrong, only because of the basic prejudice of the Jews vs Arabs mentality, when she said, "We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us."

It should have been,
"We will only have peace with the Muslims when they love their children more than they hate non-muslims." Not all Arabs are Muslim and not all Muslims are Arabs.

Terrorism, like any other hateful prejudice from the KKK to Louis Farrakhan´s Black Muslim's to Hamas and Hezbollah and Al-Qaida and their ilk, should be dealt with by force, since force is the only language they speak. These terrorists are the cannabalistic kind, it's as if they eat their young, when they use them as human bombs and practice polygamy, so they can make more human bombs. It's no wonder they treat women worse than cattle.

The recent bombings in Moscow are a precursor of things to come in Eruope and therefore destined to happen in America, if we continue on the road to socialism and "political correctness" infesting our politicians. There is no place for "political correctness" in a war on terrorism. Whereas it may be thought of as politically incorrect to put all members of any group in the same catagory as those in the group that are true terrorists, you MUST start somewhere.

The place to start would logically be with the leaders of the group, except when the leaders can not truely lead because the followers will not except their leadership. Whether it's the religious leaders or the political leaders, the truth is that Islam is more about politics than it is about religion. Politics and religion are so intertwined that they can not be separated and the leaders are so powerless, they can not change it. Islam still rules by fear and the fear mongers are the fanatical religous leaders that hide in the shadows of evil.

LJ BLUE
(Holding my breath)

FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY GOT SLAPPED RECENTLY

For the John Gault that lurks inside, once you get past the Jewish bias. Like the Cycloptic Media or one-eyed monkey, that only sees with one eye, hears with one ear or speaks with only one voice, sometimes the message still needs to get out.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/

You can avoid evil, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding evil.

American business, the motor of the global economy, was dealt a deathblow by the Marxist coup delivered by the Demo-rat party. The numbers are staggering. AT&T, the largest telephone company in the country, will take a one billion dollar hit in the current quarter as a result of this economic attack on America.

Verizon Communications, the second biggest U.S. phone company, told employees that tax burdens under the new law would likely filter down to employees.

Other companies that announced health care reform related charges include Deere, a maker of farm equipment, which sees a US$150-million charge for its current quarter, and Caterpillar, which warned of a US $100-million charge.
 
Unemployment will increase as companies, both large and small come to terms with the intended conscquences of socialism, and the intention is to redistribute wealth.
 
Implementing a doctrine that has no plan to pay for it will eventually cause anarchy among the citizens that will be required to foot the bill, especially when the leaders decide to do it now and fix it later. While they are fixing this one, they will soon try to include the millions of undocumented immigrants in this plan and also put them in our welfare system.

We should never allow a law that costs more than a billion dollars to be passed with less than a 2/3 majority.

LJ BLUE
(Holding my breath)

More on the Games people play and the reasons they play them.

OK, it's super bowl time and another great excuse to have a party. Well, Friday is a good excuse also, but not as sociologically or psychologically of the same importance.
I've heard this before, but never paid than much attention to it. The world we live in is populated by a natural and inbred mentality to survive, expand hunting and living areas and to protect them. This has usually resulted in fights, skirmishes, and other acts of war. We are and always will be a warring species.

For the most part, constant acts of protecting your territory have been subdued in most countries populated by any type if civility. There are some countries that cannot escape that mentality, and don't want to. As much as we would like to believe that people will refrain from their basic instincts and live in peace, that will never happen, as long is there is one person out the billions that inhabit this planet that feels the need to protect what they have or want more.

We, in the civilized parts of the world, have replaced those acts of aggression with sports. Most sporting endeavors have grown from exhibitions that demonstrated the abilities needed for being a warrior and most people are no longer warriors, so we play sports.

We play sports and root for our favorite sports teams. Sports teams have people who are fanatics about how their team prospers. Some are more than fanatics; their whole world revolves around their adopted team, or mentally; their country, their warriors, and their king.

The games are their battles that lead to their own version of a World War, every year or every 2 years or every 4 years, in the form of Championships and worldly contests like the Olympics.

And we need these replacements of acts of war, to allow us to escape, when we can, from the realities of the real acts of war going on every day and the fact that there are bad people who want to do bad things. Out of the billions of people on this planet, there will always be at least one bad person and they will always let you think there is a chance they will become passive. They never will, but will use that hope to accomplish their goals.

Everyone needs something to channel mankind’s natural instincts into. Play sports, root for your team, compete in something that develops your mind, or play poker. All of these activities require some form of aggression, and mankind is nothing if not aggressive, even in it's yearn for pacifism.

DON'T BE BLUE

The mayonnaise jar...and the coffee...

Another oldie, but one of my favorites.
When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the coffee...
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. Again, they agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."
The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. ..........The students laughed.
"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, "I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things - your God, family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else - the small stuff."

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

"Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented.

The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

DON'T BE BLUE

You have two choices

This was emailed to me once and is one of my favorites.
This is a story about how we all should choose to start our days.

Jerry's the kind of guy you'd like to hate: He's always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I'd be twins!"
He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who followed him around from restaurant to restaurant, all because of his attitude - he was a natural motivator.

One day I asked Jerry, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all the time. How do you do it?"
Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today: You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood.
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood."

Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, and several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant:
He left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers shot him.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the shooting. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?"

I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die.
I chose to live."

"The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Well, there was a bossy nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied.
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.'"

Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

How do you chose to start your day?

DON'T BE BLUE

Contempt of Congress - Then and Now

Pogo had it right!

So, where does it all come from?

WASHINGTON, DC -------- HELLO!

Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax (Fed)
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Luxury Tax
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Service charge taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Tax (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone Federal Excise Tax
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax
Telephone State and Local Tax
Telephone Usage Charge Tax
Utility Tax
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft Registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
(And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes)

Not one of these taxes existed in 1900 ....
And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

History of Taxes in the United States
http://www.google.com/search?q=history+of+taxes+in+the+united+states&hl=en&safe=active&sa=G&tbs=tl:1&tbo=u&ei=mj5rS52_GYvqsQOv-OmrAw&oi=timeline_result&ct=title&resnum=11&ved=0CDUQ5wIwCg

About 100 years ago our National Debt was about 2 million dollars...
We had the largest middle class in the world...
And Mom stayed home to raise the kids..

What happened?

Can you spell 'politicians'

And I still have to Press '1' For English.

DON'T BE BLUE

Going John Galt?

Do you have your copy?
..... sales of “Atlas Shrugged” have tripled since President Obama's election.

http://www.whoisjohngalt.com/

"I swear by my life and my love of it that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine." -- John Galt
Galt spoke against what he saw as the "evil" of collectivism and Christian ideas of collective sin and guilt, and said they should be replaced by enlightened selfishness and individualism.

http://www.goingjohngalt.org/blog/about/
I really, really don’t want to ever actually have to go “John Galt”.

http://washingtonindependent.com/32772/battling-obama-by-going-galt

“Set off a series of regulatory blunders and congressional meddling, blame the free market for the financial crisis that follows — then use this excuse to impose a more intrusive state! Sounds like something right out of an Ayn Rand novel.”

Atlas Shrugged - From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years.
How about 52 weeks.

Does this sound familiar "...rebelled against them when they demanded he loan money to people who could not repay it...", right out of Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand.

The Democratic Party itself is making similar demands, not just on one banker, but on ALL lenders of money. Isn't that what got us here in the first place, when the Democrats forced lenders to loan money to people who could not repay it and set up ACORN to help find the people who couldn't qualify?

They’ve spent more in the first three weeks of Obama’s “rule”

than the government spent in all the time since America’s CREATION!

Socialism creates need!

“We just can't trust the American people to make those (health and savings) type of choices...the Government has to make those choices for people.......We can’t afford to have that money go to the private sector. The money has to go to the Federal Government
because the Federal Government will spend that money better than the private sector will spend it.”
-Hillary Clinton, in 1993.
http://www.cchconline.org/soundbites.php3

And President Obama said that he is not an ideologue?
Ask him about ramming health care down the throats of Americans, whether they want it or not,
the government knows best!

Going John Galt?
I'm not there yet...............yet!
However, I do have an American flag that will remain upside down for at least the next 3 years.
http://bullcutter.blogspot.com/2009/03/were-living-atlas-shrugged.html

DON'T BE BLUE

A TRILLION $$$$$$$$$$$$$

What's a Trillion?
13 digits, never thought about that part. Is it Lucky or Unlucky?

Everett Dirksen, one time Minority Leader of the Senate from 1959 to 1969, maybe most famous for the quote, "A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon, you're talking real money".

Do calculators go to a Billion? How about a TRILLION? How many zeros is that?
9 for a Billion and 12 for a Trillion – but who’s counting?

The next time you hear a politician use the Word 'BILLION' in a casual manner, thnk about whether you want the 'politicians' spending - YOUR TAX MONEY!
A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases. And don't even start them talking about a Trillion, you're head will explode.

A Billion seconds ago, about 31.7 years, it was 1979 and Iran's government becomes an Islamic Republic when the Shah of Persia is forced to leave and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Tehran
One TRILLION seconds ago – 31,688 years – Neanderthals stalked the plains of Europe.

A Billion minutes ago, approximately 1902 years, it was 108 A.D. and China discovers paper, made from rags and the fibres of mulberry, laurel and Chinese grass.
A TRILLION minutes ago, about 1.9 million years, the earliest known species of the genus of man, Homo. habilis, was in the middle of its reign on earth and our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

A Billion hours ago, about 114 thousand years, our ancestors were living in the Lower Paleolithic era "Old Stone Age".
A TRILLION hours is about 114 Million years, the first modern mammals roamed the earth, the World begins to cool and dinosaurs were in their heyday during the Cretaceous period.

A Billion days ago, about 2.74 million years, Homo. habilis, was in the beginning of its reign on earth.
A TRILLION days age, about 3 billion years ago, the Earth's atmosphere gets oxygen and the formation of the first known continent called "Ur".
 http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/timeline.html

A billion dollars ago was only 4 hours ago,
at the rate our government is spending it today,
and getting shorter by the minute.

If you spent a dollar per minute,
you could barely spend a TRILLION dollars during-------------

ALL OF KNOWN HUMAN HISTORY !!!!!!!!!!!!!.

Even if you spent $100 per minute, you would not be able to spend a TRILLION dollars in 300 years,
virtually the entire history of the United States.

Packed in bales of $100 bills (each weighing a gram), a TRILLION dollars would be 10 billion $100 bills, or about 10 million kilograms, 22 million pounds, or over 10,000 tons of cash (at 2000 pounds per ton).
A TRILLION dollars in $100 bills would occupy a million cubic feet of space. It would fill a football field 6 feet deep.

A stack of 1 TRILLION dollar bills would be 67,866 miles high or 2.73 times the circumference of the earth.
It could reach 1/3 of the way to the moon.

A TRILLION $10 bills, taped end to end, would wrap around the Earth more than 380 times.

You could spend $10 million a day and it would still take you 273 years to spend $1 trillion dollars.

One TRILLION is more stars than there are in the entire Milky Way GALAXY,.................
but who's counting?

DON'T BE BLUE

"True" Friend Test

There was an e-mail that went around as a chain letter, you may have received it, but not from me. I've amended it to be a "True" Friend Test. The amendments are underlined and in blue.
Was - Friend Test - now it's the True Friend Test

This is NOT a test of the Emergency Friend System. This is only a test of HOW TO BE A FRIEND

A Friend............................

A)ccepts you, and is accepted by you
B)elieves in "you", and helps you believe in you
C)alls you just to say "HI", but doesn't expect you to be there to answer the phone
D)oesn't give up on you, and doesn't let you give up on you
E)nvisions the whole of you (even the unfinished parts), but doesn't try to remake you
F)orgives your mistakes, and expects the same in return
G)ives unconditionally, but even more, receives unconditionally
H)elps you, and expects you to help you
I)nvites you over, but expects you to know when to leave
J)ust wants to "be" with you, but not impose on you
K)eeps you close at heart, and always in their heart
L)oves you for who you are, and even more for who you think you are
M)akes a difference in your life, but doesn't expect you to change your life
N)ever Judges, but will listen to your judgements
O)ffers support, but shouldn't be a crutch
P)icks you up, but not so high you will get hurt trying to get down
Q)uiets your fears, and calms your exuberance
R)aises your spirits, but not your skeletons
S)ays nice things about you, especially behind your back
T)ells you the truth when you need to hear it, and lies when even the truth won't help
U)nderstands you, even when you don't understand you
V)alues you, but doesn't put a value on it
W)alks beside you, but will pull you in the right direction and even will push you if you need it
X)-plains things you don't understand, and accepts that you may never understand
Y)ells when you won't listen, and whispers when you don't know how to listen
Z)aps you back to reality, and will help you to reach for your fantasies

"Flexible people don't get bent out of shape, but even trees can be blown over by a big wind or burnt by a random lightning storm."

A true friend doesn't expect you to try to count how many friends you have (by asking you to send an e-mail), but to accept all those who want to be your friend. So the rest of the chain letter doesn't matter, not to a TRUE FRIEND------ not in the slightest.

(of course, a true friend doesn't need to be tested!!!!!!!!!)

DON'T BE BLUE

How to respond to CHAIN LETTERS

I hate chain letters.
I break them every time, but I sometimes send some to others if I like the content, but never as a chain letter.
I once got a chain letter that said you can really know who your friends are by taking a "True Friend Test"  as a chain letter. I think that was the straw that broke the camel's back.
I revised it and sent it back. I'll include it in a seperate blog.

Feel free to use this in a response to any chain letter that you receive. (It's really ok to use, I think I stole most of it from some other internet article anyway)

PLEASE PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR MONITOR AND REPEAT THESE WORDS:

1) I will NOT get bad luck, lose my friends, or lose my mailing lists if I DON'T forward an email!

2) I will NOT hear any music or see a taco dog, if I do forward an e-mail.

3) Bill Gates is NOT going to send me money, Victoria's Secret doesn't know anything about a gift certificate they're supposed to send me.

4) Ford will NOT give me a 50% discount even if I forward my e-mail to more than 50 people!

5) I will NEVER receive gift certificates, coupons, or freebies from Coca-Cola, Cracker Barrel, Old Navy, OutBack SteakHouse or anyone else if I send an e-mail to 10 people.

6) I will NEVER see a pop-up window if I forward an e-mail..NEVER-NEVER!!

7) There is NO SUCH THING as an e-mail tracking program, and I am not gullible enough to think that someone will send me $100 for forwarding an e-mail to 10 or more people!

8) There is NO kid with cancer through the Make-a-Wish program in England collecting anything! He did that when he was 7 or 8 years old. He is now cancer-free and 35 years old and DOESN'T WANT ANYMORE POST CARDS or GET-WELL CARDS.

9) The government does not have a bill in Congress called 601B (or whatever they named it this week) that if passed, will enable them to charge us 5 cents for every e-mail we send.

10) There will be NO cool dancing, singing, waving, colorful flowers, characters, or program that I will receive immediately after I forward an-mail. NONE, ZIP, ZERO, NADA!!

11) The American Red Cross will NOT donate 50 cents to a certain individual dying of some never-heard-of disease for every e-mail address I send this to. The American Red Cross RECEIVES donations.

12) And finally, I WILL NOT let others guilt me into sending things by telling me I am not their friend or that I don't believe in Jesus Christ. If God wants to send me a message, I believe the bushes in my yard will burn and a BOOMING VOICE WILL SPEAK TO ME before He picks up a PC to pass it on! And my friends already know that I love them - whether or not I respond to or forward an email.

13) Oh, and you will really, really, have GOOD LUCK --- if just you-- and only you, send me $20 before the sun come up again.

Now, repeat this to yourself until you have it memorized, and send it back to the person who sent you the chain letter before the next full moon or you will surely be constipated for the next three months and all of your hair will fall out.

Have a Great Day!

DON'T BE BLUE

The games people play and the reason they play them.

War Games and Fantasy Role Playing Games vs Grand Theft Auto and violence for the sake of violence games.

New computer games are being designed that are more complicated and realistic than ever before. Games that require more dexterity and quick thinking. The most popular of these are Role Playing Games. You are what you play and some of these games are actually quite good in preparing game players for possible employment. Some other games place the harsh realities of life in such a nonchalant attitude that the mind can no longer tell good from bad, or at least what is acceptable behavior and what is not. When someone lives a life of constant anger in their real every day environment and then escapes to a fantasy world that has the same atmosphere, anger will be the norm.

Aside from the more and more realistic sports computer games, the most popular games are games of violence like games of war , fantasy role playing, and criminal gang activity.
Kids, teens, and preppies are most likely not going to use their gaming experience from War Games, like Call to Duty II and most adventure role playing games, to commit the same violence in the real world. Games like Grand Theft Auto however have no real practical application in the real world except to disrespect authority, learn criminal tactics, and commit random act of violence on women and innocent people. Games like Grand Theft Auto plant the seed that you can profit from robbing and doing drugs and advance your position in your gang.
The Fantasy Role Playing Games may have too much graphic violence, but for the most part you can mentally leave the game behind you when you quit the game, unlike games like Grand Theft Auto where those thoughts are more represented in the daily news. Fantasy Role Playing Games require more creativity to advance and allow for strategic thought. War games also require more intelligent and strategic thought like those based on games like chess.

War Games also have a real practical application in that it trains the young for the future of real military. There are more unmanned aircraft being used and more robotics being used that incorporate the same principles as the war games. Even the aircraft simulators for the computer can help teach you how to fly a plane.
Nothing good comes from games like Grand Theft Auto.

The Cost of Freedom

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
"If you want a symbolic gesture, don't burn the flag; wash it."

Norman Thomas (1884-1968)
U.S. Socialist Presidential candidate

"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 – 1968)
American clergyman, activist

"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

John F. Kennedy (1917 – 1963)

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing"

Edmund Burke (1729-1797),
British statesman and philosopher

"Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him."
"What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog."

Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890 - 1969)

"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

George S. Patton (1885 – 1945)

"Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it.... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week."

Will Rogers (1879-1935)

"There are good men and bad men of all nationalities, creeds and colors; and if this world of ours is ever to become what we hope some day it may become, it must be by the general recognition that the man's heart and soul, the man's worth and actions, determine his standing."
"Wars are, of course, as a rule to be avoided; but they are far better than certain kinds of peace."
"A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards."

Theodore Roosevelt

 
"I don't know with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"In time of war the first casualty is truth."

Boake Carter (1899-1944) aka Harold Thomas Henry Carter,
American national news commentator

"The Americans will always do the right thing... After they've exhausted all the alternatives."

Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965)

"The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thank the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act, as the destroyer of liberty. Plainly the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty; and precisely the same difference prevails today among human creatures."

Abraham Lincoln (1830-1861)

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security"

Benjamin Franklin (1706 – 1790)
American inventor, journalist, printer, diplomat, and statesman

"I'm not afraid of the man who wants ten nuclear weapons, Colonel. I'm terrified of the man who only wants one."

                                           from the movie 'The Peacemaker' (1997)

"There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action."
"None are so hopelessly enslaved as those who falsely believe they are free."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749–1832
German writer and polymath

"There is nothing more dangerous than stubborness and arrogance in action."

ME

"For every man who lives without freedom, the rest of us must face the guilt."

Lillian Hellman (1905 – 1984)
American playwright

"None who have always been free can understand the terrible fascinating power of the hope of freedom to those who are not free."

Pearl S. Buck (1892 — 1973) aka Sai Zhen Zhu,
American writer

"You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once."

Robert A. Heinlein (1907 – 1988)
American science fiction writer

"Freedom is not enough."

Lyndon B. Johnson

"There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires."

Nelson Mandela

"Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility."

Sigmund Freud

"I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."

James Madison

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression."

Malcolm X

"Freedom is a right ultimately defended by the sacrifice of America's servicemen and women."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

"Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose ~~~ nothing ~~ if it ain't free"

Kris Kristofferson