Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, August 13, 2010
From Heritage Foundation
If the President really wanted to see the economic damage his policies are causing in the Gulf, he could first stop in Pascagoula, Miss., where idle oil rigs in the Signal International shipyard have formed an eerie floating ghost city that locals have dubbed “Rig Row.” Instead of being deployed at sea where they could be creating wealth for this country and jobs for Gulf residents, these rigs are wasting away idly in port as a direct result of President Obama’s oil drilling moratorium – a moratorium that when first issued on just deep sea rigs, a federal judge ruled was “arbitrary and capricious.” Undaunted, the Obama administration doubled down, issuing a broader oil drilling injunction that is killing even more jobs than the first ban.
For more
The stunning decline of Barack Obama
Sometimes, the most poignant articles come from over the pond.
London Telegraph--Nile Gardiner
There is a distinctly Titanic-like feel to the Obama presidency and it’s not hard to see why. The most left-wing president in modern American history has tried to force a highly interventionist, government-driven agenda that runs counter to the principles of free enterprise, individual freedom, and limited government that have made the United States the greatest power in the world, and the freest nation on earth.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Gay Marriage, CA
From Power Line
The notion that the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars the government from adhering to the traditional understanding of what is and is not marriage strikes me as ludicrous. That understanding was nearly universal in this country when the Amendment was enacted and remained so for at least one hundred years. It still prevails today. Should the time come when it no longer prevails, it can and will be overturned democratically.
If an argument that adherence to the traditional understanding of marriage is unconstitutional can be cobbled together from existing Supreme Court jurisprudence, that tells me this jurisprudence is hopelessly misguided, not that there is a constitutional right to gay marriage. In other words, Judge Walker's decision represents the reductio ad absurdum of left-wing "living Constitution" jurisprudence. If the Supreme Court reaches the same result, its opinion will probably replace Roe v. Wade as the symbol of judicial activism intolerably run amok.
More
El Pollo Loco--Automated
El Pollo Loco's (EPL) automated teller allows one to order and pay via the computer.
Just as Home Depot, and some Super Walmarts have automated service, now it's moving into the fast food industry.
After putting in my order today, I then payed the machine, which distributed my change. Also, by imputing my phone number, it remembers me and my order. That way, in my next visit, if I keep the same order, the process is further shortened.
I believe that in the future, EPL will allow me to call, and recognizing my number, allow me to place and pay my order, ready for pick up as I walk in the restaurant. Or to go one step farther, having an app on my phone, I click on the app and the order is placed.
Think about it--Why the need to go into EPL, look at the overhead menu, give the order to the taker, (and have you ever had to repeat 4 times), and then fumble around with the exact change?
I don't need to go to Subway, walk down the isle, tell them each ingredient I want and don't want, and then deal with the cashier. It would be nice to just walk in, pick up my sandwich and be on my way.
Some might see this as a bad thing, I don't.
Now if I could pay someone to help me chew my food;>)
=====================================================
This is cool. I posted this a few days ago, and the very next day, I got this email. I'd say this business is on top of its PR. This is the email from Brent:
Hey Michael,
Just wanted to let you know that I saw your blog post about the kiosks at El Pollo Loco, and was very interested in your insights. You have some good ideas.
In case you were wondering, those kiosks are produced by EMN8 – (short for “Enterprise Media Networks”) in San Diego, CA and are also being used by Jack in the Box, Carl’s Jr, Arby’s and a few other brands.
If you are interested in more info, you can check out our web site at www.emn8.com
Thanks again for posting about us!
--
Brent Christensen
Vice President, Sales
EMN8, Inc.
This
But Look On The Bright Side
Staggering deficits. Exploding national debt. Grossly underfunded public pensions. Aging populace. Social Security on track for insolvency. Investors running for precious metals. Higher education bubble. Stagnant economy. Massive new government healthcare program. Words like “unsustainable” in CBO reports.
I have racked my brain and debated with anyone who was willing. I can’t come up with a way out of this that doesn’t involve printing vast amounts of cash, double-digit inflation and interest rates, and the end of the dollar as a global currency because we “soft default” trillions of the national debt. What productive capacity we have left would be gutted by the tax increases needed to honestly pay what we are going to owe. And the people we owe (China, seniors, public pensioners, etc) aren’t going to just write off the debt like a bank short-selling a beach house.
John Steakley
Sunday, August 8, 2010
VDH--A Rather Angry America
A handful of judges nullified what millions voted for in Arizona and California, apparently on the premise that wanting federal immigration law enforced, and seeing marriage as a traditional bond between a man and woman as it has been for 2,500 years in the West, was bigoted, analogous to the racism of the Jim Crow South, and thus in need of judicial intervention.
A guy in Bakersfield might think it prejudicial that a gay judge struck down an amendment to the Constitution passed by a majority of voters and opposed by the gay lobby; a guy in DC would think the guy in Bakersfield prejudicial for coming up with that preposterous conclusion.
For more
On Stealing
stealing - definition--To take (the property of another) without right or permission.
There is the outright stealing of another's property, and then there's the not so subtle form of stealing.
Ways we steal that may not necessarily be thought of as stealing:
1. Downloading music that is copyrighted.
2. Calling a business, asking many questions, with no intention of buying their product or service. (Stealing of a business person's time, which in itself, contains value.)
3. Buying something in store, using it, and then returning for a full refund.
4. Using coupons with no intention of buying the product at regular price.
These are just a few examples. As we look toward being more frugal, getting deals, I wonder if we sometimes cross a line from making use of a business/product, to outright stealing.
How to: Mikie's Green Smoothie
I don't do this everyday. Wouldn't it be a worthy goal? Imagine the health benefits of drinking a healthy smoothie daily.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Happy Friday
Psalm 24
The earth is the LORD's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob. Selah.
Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.
This is the time for me to seek God, asking for his guidance, his mercy and forgiveness.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Dennis Prager, Make Good People
Have We Stopped Trying to Make Good People?
by Dennis Prager
The most important question any society must answer is: How will we make good people?
That is the question Judeo-Christian values have grappled with. There are many and profound theological and practical differences between Judaism and Christianity. But in the American incarnation of Judeo-Christian values -- and America is really the one civilization that developed an amalgamation of Jewish and Christian values -- the emphasis has been on individual character.
One cannot make a good society if one does not begin with the arduous task of making good individuals. Both Judaism and Christianity begin with the premise that man is not basically good and therefore regard man's nature as the root of cause of evil.
This may sound basic and even obvious, but it is not. In the Western world since the Enlightenment, belief in the inherent goodness of human beings has taken over. This has resulted in an increasing neglect of character development because evil has come to be regarded not as emanating from human nature (which is essentially good) or from morally flawed individuals but from forces outside the individual -- especially material ones. Thus, vast numbers of the best educated in the West have come to believe that "poverty causes crime."
Now, while no one could possibly refute the argument that starving people will steal bread for their families (an act that is morally defensible), the argument that poverty causes crime posits that when poor people in America commit murder and other violent crimes, it is because they are poor.
This is irrational dogma, as much a matter of faith as any theological doctrine. Two simple facts illustrate this: First, the vast majority of poor people, in America and elsewhere, do not commit violent crimes. Second, a large amount of crime is committed by the middle class and even by the wealthy. Neither fact prompts the "poverty causes crime" believers to rethink their position.
They need to, however, not only because the poverty-causes-crime thesis is so demonstrably false, but because it prevents societies from making good people. When society blames evil on forces outside the individual rather than on the individuals who perpetrate evil, society will work to change those forces rather than work to improve the character of individuals. That is a key to understanding why the left constantly attempts to radically change society -- how else make a better world?
Conservatives, on the other hand, believe that the way to "repair the world," in the oft-used Hebrew phrase of those most concerned with "social justice," is far less dramatic, far less revolutionary and far less macro-oriented. It is the laborious process of raising every generation from scratch with good values and self-discipline. Without both of these, individual goodness and therefore societal goodness is impossible.
That is why the most important question a society can ask is how to raise young people to be good adults. American society, under the influence of the left, asks other questions: How do we make young people environmentally aware? How do we teach them to fight allegedly rampant racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia in society? How do we fight AIDS and breast cancer?
It is, of course, good to be environmentally aware, to fight AIDS and breast cancer, and to oppose bigotry. But before training young people to be social activists, they must first learn character traits -- truth telling, financial honesty, humility, honoring parents and, above all, self-control. Before learning to fight society, people need to fight their own nature. The world is filled with activists of all varieties who are loathsome individuals.
In general, we would do well to be far more impressed with a young person who sits next to the less popular fat kid who is eating alone at lunch, who fights the class bully, who doesn't cheat on tests and who refrains from drug use.
There is no federal budget, no Senate or House bill, no social policy, no health care fix that can do as much good as a society that is filled with decent people.
Monday, August 2, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)