Halloween

Halloween's origins date back to "the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain",which means summer's end.  Roughly 2,000 years ago, a people known as the Celts lived in the area now divided among three modern-day countries: the United Kingdom, Northern France, and Ireland. The Celts began their new year on November 1, meaning October 31 was their New Year's Eve, and the time, they believed, when the dead came back to roam the earth. Evil spirits were warded off by lighting bonfires and wearing costumes to hide from them. According the History Channel, "the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred" that night. Turnips carved with faces got placed in windows to scare off the unwelcome undead. People would go "a-souling," and in exchange for food and drink, pray for a household's dead relatives. In Scotland, spirits were impersonated by men wearing all white with veiled faces. Bonfires and animal sacrifices were common, as were costumes "typically consisting of animal heads and skins." Eventually, the Romans conquered the Celts, and Samhain was combined with other holidays. Later, as Christianity became more powerful, Pope Boniface IV put a new tilt on the event. He designated November 1 "All Saints' Day" -- a day when followers could honor saints and martyrs.

The Celtic holiday of Samhain, the Catholic Hallowmas, also called "All-Hallows". period of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day and the Roman festival of Feralia all influenced the modern holiday of Halloween. In the 19th century, Halloween began to lose its religious connotation, becoming a more secular community-based children's holiday. Although the superstitions and beliefs surrounding Halloween may have evolved over the years, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people can still look forward to parades, costumes and sweet treats to usher in the winter season.

These days, Halloween is mostly known as a day when kids throw dental hygiene out the window and go hog-wild with candy. The origin of trick-or-treating is somewhat disputed. In the second half of the nineteenth century, America was flooded with new immigrants. These new immigrants, especially the millions of Irish fleeing Ireland's potato famine of 1846, helped to popularize the celebration of Halloween nationally. Taking from Irish and English traditions, Americans began to dress up in costumes and go house to house asking for food or money, a practice that eventually became today's "trick-or-treat" tradition. Young women believed that, on Halloween, they could divine the name or appearance of their future husband by doing tricks with yarn, apple parings, or mirrors. Today, Americans spend an estimated $6.9 billion annually on Halloween, making it the country's second largest commercial holiday.
(History Channel) http://www.history.com/topics/halloween

The First Jack O'Lantern
The Irish carved Turnips and put coals or small candles inside. They were placed outside their homes on All Hallow's Eve to ward off evil spirits. They were also known to use potatoes and Rutabagas. When Irish Immigrants came to America, they quickly discovered that Jack O'Lanterns were much easier to carve out and began using them. This truly neat tradition quickly spread to the general population in America and elsewhere. Others believe that the first Jack O'Lanterns came from the Story of Stingy Jack. http://www.history.com/topics/jack-olantern-history

Dia De Los Muertos
In English, this holiday translates to "The Day of the Dead". It is an important Mexican holiday. Where Americans shy away from the topic of death, Mexicans embrace it. On this day, they celebrate it in a big way. Asian cultures are also known to honor the dead in October.

The Legend of Stingy Jack

People have been making "Jack O'Lanterns" at Halloween for centuries. The practice originated from an Irish myth about a man nicknamed "Stingy Jack." According to the story, Stingy Jack invited the Devil to have a drink with him. True to his name, Stingy Jack didn't want to pay for his drink, so he convinced the Devil to turn himself into a coin that Jack could use to buy their drinks. Once the Devil did so, Jack decided to keep the money and put it into his pocket next to a silver cross, which prevented the Devil from changing back into his original form. Jack eventually freed the Devil, under the condition that he would not bother Jack for one year and that, should Jack die, he would not claim his soul. The next year, Jack again tricked the Devil into climbing into a tree to pick a piece of fruit. While he was up in the tree, Jack carved a sign of the cross into the tree's bark so that the Devil could not come down until the Devil promised Jack not to bother him for ten more years.

Soon after, Jack died. As the legend goes, God would not allow such an unsavory figure into heaven. The Devil, upset by the trick Jack had played on him and keeping his word not to claim his soul, would not allow Jack into hell. He sent Jack off into the dark night with only a burning coal to light his way. Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip and has been roaming the Earth with ever since. The Irish began to refer to this ghostly figure as "Jack of the Lantern," and then, simply "Jack O'Lantern."

In Ireland and Scotland, people began to make their own versions of Jack's lanterns by carving scary faces into turnips or potatoes and placing them into windows or near doors to frighten away Stingy Jack and other wandering evil spirits. In England, large beets are used. Immigrants from these countries brought the jack o'lantern tradition with them when they came to the United States. They soon found that pumpkins, a fruit native to America, make perfect Jack O'Lanterns.

Our First Real Cruise

We went with another couple on a cruise to Mexico on Holland America, the “Osterdam”, from San Diego; Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta, and Cabo San Lucas. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary along with the 30th wedding anniversary of our friends. We really enjoyed the trip, which exceeded our expectations. One of the first things to consider about this trip, is that parking is expensive, $15 a day, next to the cruise terminal, or $10 a day a little farther away. Embarkation was easier than anticipated, still had to have our luggage screened and go through the metal detectors, but it was easier than going through the airport. Anything that would normally be non-lethal or prohibited, was held for you until the end of the cruise. Outside of that, the cruise was fantastic.

We were not sure what our days would be like and if there was much of anything to do that would not become uninteresting after the first day. There was a lot to do, every day. You get a daily itinerary of activities to attend or sign up for and some hours had more than one activity at the same time. The activities started early, before 7am in some cases and ended late, after midnight, so there was a lot to choose from. There were all kinds of shows and acts every night and they have a small casino, with an electronic poker table for poker tournaments and regular poker games. (Cruise Poker)

We went dancing every night and they had several dancing areas. They had spas and sports and fitness areas also, and a couple of pool areas. Many people took the time to take a walk around the ship or just sit out in deck chairs and watch the ocean go by or the sun go down or sit inside and read and/or listen to the string quartet or watch sports in the bars. It was as relaxing or strenuous as you wanted.

We were unsure of how the meals and drinking actually worked. Being a poker player, there is a quote, “The person who invented Poker was smart, the person who invented the Chip, was a genius”. The same principle applies to money on the cruise as you really don’t need to carry any. Everything is charged to a cruise card, which you get when you check-in. Everything you would need to use money for is taken care of with the card and you can easily lose track of how much you are spending for drinks, tips, shopping, etc. The meals are, for the most part, free. They have a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, if you don’t want to eat in the dinning room for dinner. I liked the dress code for the dinning room, shirt with collar and slacks, except on the “formal” nights, where you could go the buffet if you didn’t bring a coat and tie.

This Mexican Riviera Cruise was probably easier on the pocket book for excursions than some of the ones I had heard about for other cruises. Most of the excursions were short, up to 4 or 5 hours at the most and reasonably priced. You don’t really get much time to experience any real flavor of the port or city. Fortunately we also have a timeshare, which lets you stay in one location for a later vacation to any of the ports we stopped in. We usually prefer Mazatlan, but Puerto Vallarta had changed so much from the last time we were there that it will be a future vacation for us. Cabo also changed a lot also, but we like the water temperature better in Mazatlan, it’s like a warm bath, and Mazatlan has the record for the largest ocean fish caught. Cabo and Mazatlan have an annual contest for sports fishing. The limited time for being in port has a side benefit. It allows you to take more cruises to the same destinations and use different excursions.

Tipping, is not necessary, except for the bar items, drinks, etc. and they included $11 per day per person for all the tips for the cruise, which makes it painless. You can tip your cabin stewards extra if you want. Disembarkation was also painless. You were assigned a color and number for your luggage, which also coincided with the time you were likely to disembark. Every one was off the ship by 10:30 am.

Shame on our own national news media! CBS NBC ABC

With all the news that's not fit to print or broadcast, why is the significance of Cordoba not getting out to the people?

I was watching the news the other day and noticed a familiar occurrence.

A reporter was talking about new parking meters in Los Angeles and that there would be tens of thousands of them going up in the next few months. His emphasis was on the technology; card readers in the machines, you don't even need cash or coins anymore and there is a sensor that will send a signal out to a central processor when the time expires that will get a parking enforcement officer over to write up a ticket.

What he failed to mention at any time was that right on the meter there was a big label, "$3 for each 15 minutes"! Nowhere in the story was there any mention about the cost to park. Luckily I don't need to go to Los Angeles and fight for parking. I don't really know how much it costs today or if the $3 per each 15 minutes is a new increase. It wasn't reported.

But it's what isn't mentioned in the news that is getting my attention more and more, especially when part of the story is right there in the background or foreground or hanging around in the ether. Not that some stories are not getting aired, but the stories are incomplete. I don't know if it's a carryover from the Dan Rather debacle where the news was being manipulated by the news organization or that there is still too much political correctness going on and they are just afraid to bring out the whole story. Most of the news on TV and in the newspapers is so skewed to the left, mostly, or at least leaning that way or over the top to the right, occasionally, that there are hardly any newscasts or newspapers worth watching or reading. The news should be balanced and fair, or maybe justified, but certainly not steered. That's mainly why I don't watch the national news broadcast on CBS, NBC, or ABC. They are not interested in both sides of the story. It's also why I don't read the Los Angeles Times or New York Times or any of the big newspapers. All of the current national newscasts and newspapers are blatantly biased. Those big stories will get out somehow, on the internet, where you can decide how much to read, but most of the real story on any national news broadcasts will be lost in the bias.

It's kind of ironic that when an event happens that will impact not only the local region but broad reaching enough to tug at the heartstrings of America and possibly the world, the national news stations will broadcast those stories all day, every day for a week or more, until the next "big headline news event" comes up. Even news stories like the oil spill in the gulf, airplane disasters, the kidnapping of a child or finding the kidnapped child, trapped coal miners, devastating storms and the downing of the World Trade Center in New York City, are "sold" to the audience in how they are told, or not told. Questions go unanswered by both the news media and the government. It's so very interesting that with all the competition for the audience of viewers and readers that the news media is trying to attract, they don't even understand how to make shock media work for them. They certainly know how to make it work against them. How many times do you see the nauseating effort the media takes to see someone cry on national TV or invading someone's privacy with an army of reporters and news vehicles camped at a victim's or suspected criminal's house, yet alone someone convicted of a crime.

Just think how more time could be given to real news stories if all that was said was "there was a drive-by shooting in Los Angels or New York or Detroit today, but no one died", read about it on our web site", or some other quick 3 second blurb, and then get to real important news. No one cares about the celebrities and superstars on again off again escapades or lack of social grace. It belongs in its own news show or program. Olbermann, Stewart, Beck and O'Reilly aren't news people, they're news entertainment pundits disguised as political news, but that’s where people are forced to go if they want the rest of the story that started on national news and was left unfinished on local news. We shouldn’t be relegated to getting our national news from CNN or Fox News and no one watches MSNBC anyway. Although Olbermann, Levine and Savage may be in the basement of the political pundit tower, the elevator isn't going anywhere worth stopping. if you are looking for the real story behind those "breaking headline news" stories. There isn't one local or national newscast that would be longer than 30 seconds, if each event was cut to one sentence. Then you could get to the news that actually impacts the city, state, nation or world, from the national news programs (ABC, NBC, ABC) that both the left and the right should be watching.

If National news really wanted viewers to flock to their broadcast, they would let the news happen, give a short summary and then ask the question everyone wants to know, and then go looking for the answers. There are far too many news stores about drive-by shootings and minor crimes that are allowed way too much airtime. We glorify gangsters and criminals, even overpaid unappreciative super stars, by making them headline news, so much so, that 80% of the news is either negative or driven by entertainment gossip. In fact, victims should, by law, be given 3 times more airtime than criminals, and the story should never be more than 6 seconds long. If there needs to be more time, they should be directed to a 'special' news program.

News stations and newspapers will see a resurgence of listeners and readers, if they took a more proactive, but unbiased, approach to the real news. News stories should be politically unbiased, as well as editorially unbiased. Most news organizations are politically bent, they all need to straighten up, or at least announce they are the voice of the left, or right, and see how their audience responds. That way we could have some fantastic news media battles that may actually get the whole story out and let the audience decide, or at least let them be informed enough to decide if they care enough to watch or read tomorrow's news.

Ask a politician a question, and the last thing that will come out will be the answer. Politicians always ignore the question. Their main objective is to get their message out first, because air time is so short and costly to them. Usually the question never gets answered and the news reporter on the scene or the interviewer in the studio, also short on time, lets them off the hook. The first sounds a politician should make when asked a question, must be about the answer. Give them 3 seconds to start the answer or cut them off. You could then have a standard disclaimer, "another long-winded politician that can't get to the answer". The politicians will be screaming, but it should be, answer first - stump second. Everyone knows the news anchor is just really an overpriced news reader anyway; give them something they can sink their teeth into. Congress is currently trying to silence the news that everyone wants under the guise of "equal air time", anyway, let the battle begin. Politicians would then get more air time than they would probably want, if they had to answer the question first, then stump, because there would always be questions that need answering.

The news media could easily put the challenge on politicians, government officials, superstars or the Corporate CEO, and drive up interest in viewing or reading their news. All they have to do is say, "We invited so and so to come on and answer these perplexing questions, but they have declined our offer", and keep repeating it every day. When they do come on, then it's, one question - one answer, stump later, if there is time. There would always be some important news going on in-between the hard hitting world and national catastrophes that occur. The news stories wouldn't have to be dragging on ad nauseam until the next "breaking news" happens.

So with all the news that's apparently not fit to print in our fine national newspapers or broadcast on our upstanding national news broadcasts, why is the significance of Cordoba not getting out to the people?  >>Watch and Learn!<<

And it took a non-American to point it out! Shame on our own national news media! Shame on CBS, NBC, and ABC.

The Story of the Statue of Liberty

The French, Egyptian and American connection.

The Story of the Statue of Liberty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty


While on a visit to Egypt that was to shift his artistic perspective from simply grand to colossal, French sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi was inspired by the project of the Suez Canal that was being undertaken by Count Ferdinand de Lesseps, who later became a lifelong friend of his. He envisioned a giant lighthouse standing at the entrance to the canal and drew plans for it. It would be patterned after the Roman goddess Libertas, modified to resemble a robed Egyptian peasant, with light beaming out from both a headband and a torch thrust dramatically upward into the skies. Bartholdi presented his plans to the Egyptian Khedive, Isma'il Pasha, in 1867 and, with revisions, again in 1869, but the project was never commissioned because of financial issues then troubling the Ottoman Empire.

Soon after John Wilkes Booth was killed by one of his captors, Frédéric Bartholdi (according to legend) was enjoying dinner with friends in Paris. Commenting how good it was that the U.S. Civil War was over and how terrible it was that Lincoln had died, one of Bartholdi’s friends (Edouard de Laboulaye) had an idea. What if the people of France, gave the people of America, a monument to commemorate liberty? And ... what if they gave such a gift during 1876, the first centennial of American independence? France, after all, had played a key role in helping America to win her revolutionary war. Enthused with the idea, Bartholdi visited America and ultimately sketched his conception of such a monument.

The first small terracotta model was created in 1870. It is now exhibited at the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon. The first reduced scale bronze replica was given to the city of Paris by Americans residing in the French capital on May 13, 1885; the statue was originally located in the Place des États-Unis and was moved to the Île des Cygnes in 1889. It was agreed that in a joint effort, the people of the United States were to build the base, and the French people were responsible for the statue and its assembly in the States. In France, public donations, various forms of entertainment including notably performances of La liberté éclairant le monde (Liberty enlightening the world) by soon-to-be famous composer Charles Gounod at Paris Opera, and a charitable lottery were among the methods used to raise the 2,250,000 francs ($250,000). In the United States, benefit theatrical events, art exhibitions, auctions and prizefights assisted in providing needed funds.

Meanwhile in France, Bartholdi required the assistance of an engineer to address structural issues associated with designing such a colossal copper sculpture. Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower) was commissioned to design the massive iron pylon and secondary skeletal framework which allows the statue's copper skin to move independently yet stand upright. The good-looking French widow of an important American, Isabella Eugenie Boyer, the wife of Isaac Singer, the sewing-machine industrialist, was called upon to be Bartholdi's model for the Statue of Liberty. The Statue of Liberty was dedicated on October 28, 1886 and was designated a National Monument on October 15, 1924.

The Statue of Liberty functioned as a lighthouse from 1886 to 1902. As a lighthouse, it is the first in the United States to use electricity. Birds, attracted by the original torch, sometimes became disoriented from the light of the flame. It was once discovered that more than a thousand had been fatally injured in a single day.
The bronze plaque in an exhibit on the second floor of the pedestal is inscribed with the sonnet:

"The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus.

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
' With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

It has never been engraved on the exterior of the pedestal, despite such depictions in editorial cartoons. The first two lines refer to the ancient Colossus of Rhodes. The bronze plaque in the pedestal contains a typographical error: the comma in "Keep, ancient lands" is missing, causing that line to read "'Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!' cries she", and noticeably altering its meaning. The name "Mother of Exiles" was never taken up as the statue's name.

In 1889, Americans who were living in Paris gave that city a smaller version of Liberty. The thirty-five foot monument is located near the River Seine and faces west, toward its sister.
http://www.awesomestories.com/movies/national_treasure/national_treasure_ch6.htm

Hundreds of other Statues of Liberty have been erected worldwide. A smaller replica is in the Norwegian village of Visnes, on the island of Karmøy, in Rogaland County where the copper used in the original statue was mined.

A Statue of Liberty replica at Odaiba, overlooks the Rainbow Bridge in Tokyo Bay. There is a sister statue in Paris and several others elsewhere in France, including one in Bartholdi's home town of Colmar, erected in 2004 to mark the centenary of Bartholdi's death; they also exist in Austria, Germany, Italy, Japan, China, Brazil and Vietnam; one existed in Hanoi during French colonial days. During the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, Chinese student demonstrators in Beijing built a ten meter image called the Goddess of Democracy, which sculptor Tsao Tsing-yuan said was intentionally dissimilar to the Statue of Liberty to avoid being "too openly pro-American." At around the same time, a copy of this statue was made and displayed on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C., in a small park across the street from the Chinese Embassy.

The sculptor James Alexander Ewing's most prestigious commission was for the carving of the Glasgow City Chambers' Jubilee Pediment, its apex group of Truth, Riches, and Honor, and the statues of The Four Seasons on the building's tower. The figure of Truth also is known as Glasgow's Statue of Liberty, because of its close resemblance to the similarly posed, but very much larger, statue in New York harbor.

The Statue of Liberty is located in the harbor of New York City, on the Jersey side (but that's another story), on what was originally called the Oyster Islands, which includes Ellis Island, Liberty Island, and Black Tom Island. Both Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty have become powerful symbols of the freedom and opportunity that awaited millions of men, women, and children when they legally immigrated to America from around the world.


Don't Be Blue

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