Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

If God decided to take Sunday off, I guess I could too! :-) It has been a slow week but looking ahead to what I have to do next month, I figure it was a good idea to take the break now while I have a chance!

Aries Marching should be ready to go (finally!) right after Thanksgiving. Aries Unleashed will be ready to go hopefully in the Summer of 2010 and it is going to be a while before I get to the fourth one.

What is it about Sunday and deep thinking? My mind seems to wander off more than usual on Sundays. Maybe it is because it is the end of the week and I am looking back or is it the beginning and I am looking forward. See? Odd, esoteric kind of stuff.

The weather is cooling off and it is supposed to be a cold winter. Good thing I like cold weather! On the other hand, I have heard that before...today I watched Pittsburgh and Minnesota do battle in the Steel City and it was sunny and 55! Take it from someone who knows..days like that in October are rare there! That is more like Spring than Fall but I did not write the operating manual for this planet.

I will have a lot to do this November and it seems a bit daunting. I, of course, am being dramatic as usual. There is nothing life threatening (unless you count the way no one seems to be able to drive...), so I took today off to gather my strength, sharpen my focus, take a deep breath and plunge into it head first.

If nothing else, I won't be bored!

Oil Prices Out Of Control...Again

Once again, oil rices are out of control....

Time to strike back. How do you do that, you wonder? You've cut driving back as far as you can go, oil supplies are at an all time high and still growing yet the price continues to climb. This is how you do it.

Don't buy anything for Christmas.

There will be advertising left and right, up and down, in front and behind, all hours of the day exhorting you to spend, spend, spend and spend some more.

Don't do it.

Send cards instead. This is how you bring down money hungry corporations. It won't be easy and it is going to take a while but it seems pretty obvious war has been declared against the American people. Forget terrorism, the greatest threat to America is here at home and they have the same passport you do

Do you have the courage to strike back? Or will you continue to dig yourself deeper into their pockets?

Happy Columbus Day!

Happy Columbus Day!

...a day late!

I never understood why this was not a bigger holiday. The man joined the New World and the Old together forever. The fun thing about this holiday is listening to the Politically Correct Stormtroopers try to tear Columbus down. portraying him as an invader of a New World Eden.

Sorry, he wasn't.

No one knew what smallpox was and he thought he was in Asia. And if he did not land in the Bahamas in October 1492, someone else would have. The Vikings were in Newfoundland somewhere around 1000 and if the Portuguese could read maps, they might have realized they landed in Brazil in 1480. On the other hand, maybe they didn't. Like I said, they weren't the best with maps. And the Chinese might have been scoping out the West Coast as early as 1421.

And all the while, the Aztecs were ripping hearts out of captives on top of pyramids in what would one day be Mexico City and cannibals called the Caribs roamed the sea that would be named for them.

Columbus was one of the greatest salesman of all time and maybe the greatest captain ever. He was also a terrible colonial admistrator and was hauled back to Spain once in chains because of that. But he never ripped anyone's still beating heart out for some bloodthirsty deity.

Let's face it. No one is perfect.

Including self righteous politically correct adademics who can't fathom an argument or point of view different from their own.

We can't change the past but we can make the future better by treating others the way we would like to be treated.

Happy Columbus Day!

Nobel Peace Prize goes to who?!

President Barack Obama was stunned to hear he had won the Nobel Peace Prize. He wasn't the only one. Come to think of it, I think everyone on Earth (along with any aliens monitoring the aforementioned planet...) was too. Compounding the mystery was the revelation that the deadline for nominations was February 1. Obama was inaugurated on January 20. That of course leads to the question, "What exactly has he done to win the Nobel Peace Prize"?
The Nobel Peace Prize Committee stammered out something about "changing the discourse of international relations" but I fail to see how overseeing two wars and threatening Iran is a fundamental change from the Bush administration's approach to foreign relations. As a matter of fact, Obama is sending 21,000 more US troops to Afghanistan which is sure to escalate the war there. Furthermore, General McChyrstal is asking for another three divisions, which would push manpower levels there to over 100,000. And the American commitment to Iraq is still over that particular magic number.
Anyone pointing to the health care "reform" is going to be broadsided by the question of how can threating to fine someone who does not sign up for health care be construed as reform? I have yet to hear an answer to that. From Republicans or Democrats.
Now there is the political angle. Norway is presently governed by a left of center coalition and one member of the committee was heard to say the nomination was a "kick to Bush's leg." Last I checked, Bush has been retired since January. For self-proclaimed liberals, the Norwegians seem to be looking backward into the past.
Maybe Barack Obama will do something in the future to earn the Prize. Regulating oil markets and muzzling speculators who make the world a worse place would certainly get my support. Award him a the Prize when he actually does something. Forecasting someone's political future is not much different than rolling the dice.
I hope the Committee doesn't break their arms patting themselves on the back. All the Nobel Peace Prize Committee accomplished was to cheapen the Prize. If Barack Obama had any humility, he would have gracefully declined the Nobel Peace Prize saying there are other people who have done important things.
All they have done is deepen the cynicism that affects the whole globe and pull the Nobel Peace Prize to the level of fantasy football.
I am going to McDonalds and get a happy meal. There might be a Nobel Peace Prize in it!

Never a waste of time!

Instead of dilgently pursing any number of things, I took the night off and spent it with Michelle, wandering around the city. In this rush/rush world of ours, we quite often forget to take a little time off to regain a semblence of sanity. When you spend time with someone you love, it is NEVER a waste of time :-)