John King--CNN--Obama FOX-MSNBC

Kudos to John King of CNN. I must say I'm astonished coming from CNN. I"m sure Ted Turner abhors this kind of reporting.

If we actually start to get real news from a few of the reporters from the MSM, then we can really watch Obama's ratings be where they should be. But sadly, Obama could call for Stalinesque purges and still get 30% approval ratings.

On Debt

This is one of my favorite blogs in my Google Reader, called "Frugal Dad". Here is a guest post on "debt".

Debt is one of the most aggressively marketed products in the world. It has permeated nearly every aspect of our lives. Even many churches are willing to accept offerings via credit cards, and Monopoly TM accepts credit card branding in their games.

The primary consequence is that debt is so ingrained into our culture that it hard for many to even conceive of purchasing a car or going to school without a loan. Unfortunately, consumer debts (i.e. student loans, credit cards, and car loans) such as these are exactly the worse kinds of debt to get into. These debts are designed to ensnare consumers into lifetimes of leveraged consumption.

For more

Take Back America

This link is to a short video. Worth watching.

The Internet and Ideas

The internet is a conveyor of ideas. Brilliant ideas. Click on this link and watch this inspiring video.

Chris Anderson: How web video powers global innovation

Best Political Ad I've Seen

VDH--Obama Made Us Do It

Running away from the record

Even the bogeyman George Bush has a finite shelf life. It is as if he is now somehow last fall’s Halloween goblin that we are still supposed to worry about months later during the Fourth of July. Yes, Bush’s utility for blame is now like that of the demonized Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, Fox News, Glen Beck, Wall Street, the insurers, the surgeons, the Republicans, and John Boehner, and so has pretty much expired. Even MoveOn.org cannot believe that all the above kept the country at nearly 10% unemployment.

Instead, the new mantra for Democratic candidates is a sort of “Obama made us do it!” And I cannot recall ever quite seeing that in American politics.

For more

Can a muslim be a good American

Can a Muslim be A good American?

This is very interesting and we all need to read it from start to finish
and send it on to everyone. Maybe this is why our American Muslims are so quiet and not speaking out about any atrocities.
Can a good Muslim be a good American?

This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia
for 20 years.
The following is his reply:


Theologically - no. Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon
God of Arabia .

Religiously - no. Because no other religion is accepted by
His Allah Except Islam (Quran, 2:256)(Koran)

Scripturally - no. Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of
Islam and the Quran.

Geographically - no. Because his allegiance is to Mecca , to which
he turns in prayer five times a day.

Socially - no. Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make
friends with Christians or Jews.

Politically - no. Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual
leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel and destruction of America ,
the great Satan.

Domestically - no. Because he is instructed to marry four women
and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34 )

Intellectually - no. Because he cannot accept the American
Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he
believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Philosophically - no. Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran
does not allow freedom of religion and expression.
Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist.
Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

Spiritually - no. Because when we declare 'one nation under God,'
The Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER
referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in the
Quran's 99 Excellent names.

Therefore, after much study and deliberation.... Perhaps we should be
Very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. - - -
They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish it's still the truth. You had better believe it.
The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country
and our future.

The religious war is bigger than we know or understand. ....

Footnote: The Muslims have said they will destroy us from within.
SO FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.

THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S.


Please don't delete this until you send it on.



=

Castro and Cuba

Fidel Castro, 84, might have failing eyesight but he has noticed something: "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore." So, the secret is out. And there is no joy among the alumni, if any still live, of the golden days of Les Deux Magots.

That Paris cafe, now a tourist magnet, was where, before and after World War II, Jean-Paul Sartre and kindred spirits compared notes on life's emptiness and the American menace. Of the latter, a major newspaper, Le Monde, editorialized on March 29, 1950: "Coca-Cola is the Danzig of European Culture." (Ancient history: Danzig was the Polish -- Germany thought German -- city that was a flashpoint in approach of the war.)

For advanced thinkers, Castro was a happy harbinger of, among much else, "direct democracy." He came to power on Jan. 1, 1959, and the next year Sartre arrived to explain, in the manner of Parisian intellectuals, the Meaning of It.

For more

Andrew Breitbart--Confronting Protestors

This is really good stuff. These people are idiots.

A Practical Financial Website

This is a very cool financial website.

What you do is put in 3 sets of numbers in the credit card box:

1. First is APR (This means annual percentage rate of interest you pay on your card)
2. Balance (How much you actually owe on the credit card)
3. What you pay monthly on the card

After those numbers are put in, then you put in the space where it says "If you spend _______ right now,
by the time you are debt free it will be like you just spent ...

And then the calculator will tell you how much that will actually cost you.

Very cool. What a great financial tool. If the average person who has credit card debt took the time and looked at this, it would certainly give them pause. But just imagine this: What if the next time you went to make a (possibly unnecessary) purchase and applied it toward the card, what would happen. Here's what would happen--your cost would dwindle to $0. That's right, a big fat 0.

Here's another sobering thought: Let's say you're in a 25% tax bracket. When you buy something it doesn't cost you what you're buying it for, let's say $150. In reality it cost you $200.

Wealth Distribution

Below is an article about wealth accumulation and inheritance. He discusses the philosophy of Andrew Carnegie and the fascinating story of a former billionaire, Chuck Feeney. My apologies to Mr Feeney for this post, he had wished anonymity, but what an inspiring story.


On Wealth Accumulation and Inheritance

While most of us are busily engrossed in our oh-so-American habit of trying to accumulate unbounded wealth, it is instructive to remind ourselves of the words of philanthropic wisdom penned by Andrew Carnegie more than a century ago: "[T]he duty of the man of wealth . . . [is] to set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance; to provide moderately for the legitimate wants of those dependent upon him; and after doing so to consider all surplus revenues which come to him simply as trust funds which he is called upon to administer . . . to produce the most beneficial results for the community." (Andrew Carnegie, from essay on "Wealth" published in the North American Review, 1889)

A quintessential living example of Carnegie's model philanthropy of 1) living frugally, 2) providing modestly for the material well-being of family members, and 3) giving the remainder back to the community, is Chuck Feeney

For more

Here's another article about this wonderful man.

and if you don't want to bust your budget, I just bought the book, "The Billionaire Who Wasn't, for $.01 on Amazon

New Credit Card-Multiple Accounts

This is interesting. Multiple accounts on one card, more secure and the card is useless if lost.

Dennis Prager--Gratitude

Here's a link to Dennis Prager as he talks about gratitude.

Dennis is a great man with great ideas. I love him. Go to the above link and watch his talk on gratitude, and how important it is to be grateful. It's indeed eye opening. That's what I love about Dennis. His ideas are so simple, but are full of common sense.

BTW, I have a subscription to his radio show. I listen to his radio broadcasts commercial free any time I choose. There is a fee, but I do recommend listening to Dennis. The free version is listening to him live on radio, 870 AM in LA--Mon to Fri.

My Favorite Restaurant

This is one of my all time favorite restaurants. We were in VA and ate there 4 times while on vacation.

There are some who do not like this place. That's OK with me, I absolutely love it. I think they are mostly an East coast chain. Oh, do I wish one would come to Brea. There is one in Temecula.

So the restaurant is called the Golden Corral. It's a buffet. Here's the main reason I like it--their fruits, salads and especially their wide choice of vegetables. We have buffets in So Cal, but for some reason they are meat centered, and woefully lacking on both the number of vegetables and their quality.

The mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes in this restaurant are home made. I love this place.

The pictures above are 2 separate plates I got of vegetables. As you can see there is a variety. Also I got a huge salad along with some fruit. And by the way, we often eat at the Soup Plantation here in CA. The price is almost double.

There is a station where the chef is cooking hamburgers with fresh ground beef, also steak and cheese sandwiches on fresh homemade bread. And in the evenings, he's doing up the steaks. This place is the real deal.

The Importance of Blogging

When I first started blogging, it was merely a try-out to practice writing skills and throw out a few ideas.

As time has gone by, I realize blogging is the last line of defense in the battle for democracy.

The truth will not win out on our major media air waves, in our main stream newspapers. It will be people writing on their blogs. It will be the common man that will help win back our American values. I believe we are in a war of ideas between big media and government against the common man. And the common man is rising up.

Why has newspaper subscriptions fallen? I argue the main reason is because we despise biased/slanted content. The more time passes, the more disgusted I get with big media. I now do not bother watching the news (as my mentor Dennis Prager says, "The proctologist's view of the world"). Look at my previous post. How on point is Chris Matthews. But the truth is he's biased to the left most of the time. It'd be interesting to see what he's said previously about Teabaggers. I'd bet it wasn't too promising.

I believe there's a lot more room for great thinking writers. I would love to see more of what someone says now, compared to what was said in the past. You know, like a before and after picture.

Eventually common sense and truth will win the day. At least I hope so. Man, these are weird times we live in.

My Vacation

I don't know why. Whenever my wife and I take a vacation, we look at places we go and ask ourselves, would we want to live here?

We've been to many parts of the United States and though there are a few places we would definitely not want to move to, most places leave us asking, could we live here?

On this vacation we were in Maryland, VA, NC and SC. Each one of those places we love. It doesn't hurt to have chamber of commerce weather either. What I love about the east coast is the affordability of homes, trees, water, people and restaurants. What I like about CA, where I live, is the weather and convenience. I've always said, CA is a euphemism for convenience. Whatever you want, you'll find in CA.

So while CA is not perfect, it is our home. Will we stay here? I think not. Eventually I think we'll move on. And that's a good thing.

(The above video is us coming home seeing our dog.)

Chris Matthews MSNBC

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Technology-A New Flying Experience

We're at the airport. My wife connects our laptop with Long Beach airport wifi. She then calls her mom on her cellphone. My wife tells her to open a program called "Teamviewer" on her computer.

What Teamviewer does is allow a person at a remote location control the other computer. In this case, my wife at the airport, takes over her mom's home computer. She then shows her mother how she can follow our plane in real time as we're flying across the US.

Also, when we're in the airport in MD, they want to charge to use wifi. My wife uses her phone as a modem, we hook it up to the computer and we're off and surfing the web. Also, while I'm viewing the internet, she's still able to use her phone for texting.

A New Way To Perform CPR

Camstudio

Camstudio is a free program that allows you to video record your computer screen. And it also records your voice.

So what this does is allow you to make instructional videos. Here's one I made yesterday and is on my blog.

These tools give us power to extend our reach way beyond what we've ever thought.

If interested, go to Youtube and watch videos about Camstudio.

Teamviewer

The above video is a review is of a free program called Teamviewer. Click on Teamviewer and download for free.

This is whatTeamviewer does. It will allow remote access to your computer. Or vice versa. And the code to get to your computer changes each time, rendering the program safe.

So let's say you have a problem or question about your computer. And you have a friend that is knowledgeable about computers. You can give him access to your computer, and he can show you how to fix your problem.

To illustrate a few examples. My wife is going to access her mom's computer and show her how she can follow us via the computer on our flight across the United States. Also I'm teaching my wife's mom how to create videos and upload them to Youtube.

My wife has an iPad. I thought if she downloaded Teamviewer on her iPad, she and I could play scrabble together. Or imagine, I guess if the program was left on, she could be on vacation, and have access to her home computer via the iPad.

Teamviewer is an outstanding program.