Success Warrior: Alan B. Rowley II - Beachbody.com, P90X, Voluntaryism, Voluntarism

The Nukeler Quandary

Condoleeza defended the attempt to get congress to pay for the retrofitting of the B2 and the manufacturing of 30,000 pound "bunker buster" bombs by saying that Iran is stubborn and might not listen to the world controlling United States like they are supposed to.  If they don't do what they are told, we need to be prepared to bomb the hell out of them.

I understand her position because, after all, Iran has oil and we want it is trying to go nuclear.

Here's where I get concerned (besides the fact that we are willing to kill people - theirs and ours - to get oil):

If you believe that we are on the downside of the Peak Oil curve, it's time to start looking for new sources of energy.  One of those sources is going to be nuclear.

Are we going to threaten to blow up any country that tries to use nuclear energy as an alternative to oil?  Or just the ones that happen to be sitting on oil fields? 

If we are afraid that they will use the enriched uranium for weapons instead of for electricity and those weapons might be used against us, should we keep pissing them off?  Are we going to be able to stop them from creating weapons for the rest of time?

What if our impending economic collapse and China's surging economy change who the world's "Daddy" is?  Should we attack China now to keep that from happening?  They did try to poison all of our kids with lead, didn't they?  That should be a good enough reason to go to war under the current administration.

"Shei shi ba?"

(That might not translate right.  My Chinese is almost as bad as Bush's English.)

Thinking about lowering interest again

"How cool is that?"

Isn't that what we've been taught to think?  If they lower interest, I can refinance my house, pay off my credit cards, and buy a new boat.  Nevermind that I live the desert.  That doesn't matter.  With lower interest rates, I can buy a new boat and a new truck to pull it to some water which I will do once and then never be able to do again because I don't have time and by this time next year, I won't be able to afford to put gas in the truck or the boat.

But I *could* buy a boat dammit!  Don't take that away from me or I'll stomp my feet and yell, "I hate you!  I hate you!  I hate you!"

So what does it really mean?

The bailout continues.

Ron Paul: Plan A - Ignore him, Plan B - Mock him, Plan C?

There are a lot of things that aren't surprising about the election.  The media is trying to choose our candidates.  People like candidates that they already know.  Being a celebrity somehow means that you know how to run a country.  How much money a candidate has determines their level of success.  We've seen it over and over.  There is one surprise this time however.

The Ron Paul Phenomenon.

It has been a long time since I've read as much about politics as I am currently doing now.  I am one of those cynical people that has been discouraged by a system where it seems we are trying to choose the lesser of two evils for a president.  Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose.  I hadn't gotten to the point where I quit voting because I subscribe to the belief that you aren't allowed to complain if you don't vote.  I have voted for Democrats.  I have voted for Republicans.  Not that it has mattered when state supreme courts pick our president for us.

This year is different.  I took a peek and it all started with a simple little quiz.  From this quiz, I found Ron Paul and it has been very interesting learning about him.

Commentary for October 17, 2007

Today's post is on the Chronicles blog and is the next installment of the August 6th story:  Ask a Cop: August 6th, 1993 - Part 7.

I have written about the first 3 minutes of this story a couple of times but have never written about the rest of the night, the rest of the weekend, and the years following.  I have verbally told the story a couple of times all the way through but have never gone into this much detail.

It has been interesting to look back trying to dig up the details from my mind.  I'm not great with memory so this takes some extra digging and I still feel like I'm missing things.  Some things have always been missing though and my concept of time during that period is really messed up.

New Blogging Plan

I've been away from blogging for a while trying to decide what I want to be if I grow up.  I didn't come up with any definite answers so it will be best for me to stall off the growing up process for as long as possible.

There are some things that I do want to do while I grow up though.  Two of those things are reading and writing.  I need to finish my book and try getting through some of the books sitting on my "to read" list.  I have been a non-reader for far too long.

I also need to get back to my exercise program.  My 90 day experiment was cut short by the stick strike to my trachea but that's healed up and it's time to get back to exercising. 

All of this leading to my point.  I'm only going to write one blog post per day.  I'll alternate between the two blogs and probably post some small commentary on the opposite blog for the day.  Nothing that will take much time but probably a note of what was posted on the other blog for the day.  The themes will stay the same with Success Warrior being about money and Chronicles being about just about everything else with regular posts on cop stories, fitness, family, and humor.

Random Thoughts from the Headlines

W gave a big fat veto to healthcare for 4 million kids, supposedly because there might be some abuse of the system.  If that's the case, we need to shut down every government program in place.  It's not the case though.  There's just too much money at stake in healthcare.  This is changing though because every year, there are fewer and fewer people with health insurance.  When insurance companies can't make money, they will start lobbying for a change.  Probably something we don't like but it will be a change.  How about making health insurance mandatory like car insurance? 

Pennsylvania is adding a couple new slot parlors and Massachusetts is adding three new casinos.  The government makes a lot of money off of casinos so these things are going up all over the country.  I read that the government gets about half the take so people protesting in PA are pretty much out of luck.  We are headed for some pretty rough times financially as a country and lotteries and casinos are just going to make things worse.  Desperate people are going to risk money they can't afford hoping to be the big winner and solve all their financial problems.  There is likely going to be a lot of get rich quick infomercials in the next couple of years and the people making the commercials are going to get rich quick.

A Simple Little Trip In A Car

Last week we had to do some driving in the Salt Lake City area.  We made plans to meet my daughters for dinner at a place that was only a few miles away.  Maybe 10 or 15 miles.  I drove over to a main road and started south and ran into rush hour traffic (does it really only last for an hour anymore?). 

We live in such a small town that we never have to deal with traffic.  A lot of people out here don't own cars or have driver's licenses.  The grocery store is about a mile away and my commute to work is 3 miles. 

The traffic turned out to be not so bad.  I've just gotten used to no traffic so when I saw the wall of cars ahead of us, I figured we'd be moving in slow motion.  We were soon where we wanted to be or at least close enough to ask for directions.  That's a whole 'nuther story. 

Anyway, while I realize that the rising gas prices are going to cause the price of everything to go up, I couldn't help but think how nice it will be when there are fewer cars on the road.  Only people who truly need to go somewhere will be there.