Success Warrior: The Blog That Embraces ADHD

Parent-Teacher Conference

So,

We just had parent-teacher conference for Trey, which has renewed my conviction to finish getting my degree so that I'm free to home-school.  The teacher, who is a friend that we trust to be honest with us, announced that there isn't much more that she can do for Trey.  He's in second grade and his last test scores show that he's doing fourth grade math and at least fourth grade reading.  The reading test only covered the first quarter of fourth grade and he scored 100% on the test so next time, she's going to give him a higher level test to see where he tops out.  All of this sounded fantastic to me since we've been teaching him math and reading at home.  In fact, she pointed to some of the things and said that she knew he didn't learn this stuff in school. 

Then she hit us with the bad news.  In math, he's so far ahead of everyone that she won't be able to spend time teaching him.  In reading, there is one other student that is in the ballpark with Trey that she can pair up with him and have them work as a team.  Other than that, she said he'd just be sitting in class nodding his head and jumping through boring hoops showing that he understands what she's teaching him and this was not likely to improve until he gets to junior high school where they have advanced classes for students.

She did give us some advice for things to work with him that would make him stronger, things that they barely scratch the surface of in school, like science and nonfiction reading comprehension (wtf?).  She suggested that he be in some kind of music training because of his ability there.  He loves art too and every couple of weeks, we have to go visit his art teacher after school so he can show her what he has done.

Before school that day, we were out shooting hoops.  When we came home, we played Magic: The Gathering (which he is now obsessed with since he found out how many Magic cards there are in the house).  His nightly "homework" takes him about 5 minutes tops to complete.  He reads quite a bit each day because there is a reward for the top reader each month, which he announced on Friday would be him this month.  The student who consistently beat him in amount of time reading each month moved.

It would be disingenuous to blame just the competition for his reading since both of my daughters are outstanding readers and were reading several grades above their level when they were in school.

This is obviously a proud-dad post but there is more to it than that. 

The American school system is a failure in both its stated purpose and now, even its actual purpose.  The American school system is about indoctrination and not education.  The graduation rate is about 75%, which isn't saying much given the standards, and means even less for people in urban areas where the graduation rate is 25%.  There are over 1,500 high schools that are labeled "dropout factories" because less than 60% of the students graduate.  Less than 60% is an "F".

Knowing this about the school system gives parents the power to change things, to some degree.  I realize that the system has been set up to encourage single parent families (although I believe the UK may actually have a better system in place for destroying the nuclear family) and that corrupt practices of the government puppets of the 1% mean that many people have 2 or 3 jobs so school is more of a tax-paid babysitter than an educator.  However, for those of us that can find any time at all to spend with our children, it is possible to actually teach them.  It is possible to counter the government's dumbing down of generations of children. 

I've already covered the increasing failure to indoctrinate.  I certainly don't take part in it.  Most of the students in this city refuse to say the pledge of allegiance.  I don't know if Trey knows it or not.  I've never asked.  I suppose I should so I can tell him that it's bullshit to pledge allegiance to a flag or to a gang of criminals.  I think he's picking some of that up already, just in the little bits of ethics that he asks about. 

Speaking of ethics, how about a "Homework Help" question for the week?  I'll be posting my answer after I get some sleep but I'd love to hear your answers:

Where do individuals get their basic ethical instincts?  Small children are taught in the home, school, church and community.  The things they learn there are hopefully to do the right and ethical thing whatever the situation.  Now, as individuals mature and become decision makers in corporate world at mid and higher levels....where bonuses, incentives, etc. are tied to their performance appraisals....do you think they will bend those early childhood ethical convictions for that extra dollar?  If so....why?

Get Ready for Summer (Part 2)

So,

There are about 90 days left until June, which gives people enough time to make some dramatic changes in their body composition or fitness levels before summer if they start now.  We have taken it up a notch here to get ready, individually and as a family.

We started doing something new a couple of weeks ago that has been fun and that we'll continue.  It stems from, in a way, from watching The Biggest Loser.  Quite some time back, as I was walking through the living room to get a drink before returning to homework, I noticed that Tia and Trey were watching some kind of fitness show.  This went on for a couple of weeks and I found that I would stop at watch a few seconds more each time to see what was going on.  One day, I just sat down and finished watching the rest of the episode they were watching.  They were watching episodes on Netflix and by the time that I finally decided it was interesting enough, they were halfway through Season 2.  I have a whole post of information in my head about The Biggest Loser but the important point for today's post is that many of the people on the show have been obese since childhood.

Trey is incredibly skinny and I think that Tia and I provide a good example for him already but we thought it would be fun to do some exercise together as a family a couple of afternoons a week.  When the weather is nicer, it will be less like "exercise" and more just "activity".  Last year, we would go for walks together, play basketball, and go do some batting practice.  Yesterday it was snowing so we stayed indoors and tried to do one of Bob Harper's kettlebell workouts.  Kicked my butt.

I haven't done much exercise in the last 3 weeks other than the family exercise time because I have had some kind of nagging illness that has just made things miserable.  I think I'm on the mend now and Monday I'll be getting back to my morning workouts.  I'm going to change them up a bit.  I usually change them every 4 to 6 weeks anyway but I'm going to increase the intensity a bit this time along with changing the exercises.  I'll still be using Tabata Intervals because they fit my personality so well at the moment and have proven to be effective for me. 

As a family, we have cleaned up our eating habits a bit more over the last month as well.  Tia has been reading various cookbooks on healthy eating and we've been trying several different dishes a week.  Some have been good and some not so good as far as taste goes but it has kept things interesting and we are seeing results, especially Tia. 

She also drinks a BeachBody Shakeology shake every morning because it's something healthy that she can blend up and take with her out the door, which is so handy because morning's can be a little chaotic around here (like most families, I suspect).  Shakeology is a meal replacement shake with lots of good stuff in it like protein, fiber, prebiotics, vitamins, minerals, and plenty of other stuff.  BeachBody just came out with Strawberry flavor too, which Tia is really happy about.  I changed our monthly order to strawberry and it should be arriving next week.

We have also decided to run a 5K this year as a family.  We haven't decided when yet.  We've glanced over some of the 5K's that are coming up but we either need to pin down a date or a particular race/location/cause that we want to take part in.  After Tia and I were done working out last night, Trey decided to do intervals on the treadmill.  He was doing minute intervals and I was watching because he wanted to see how fast he could go.  He did 7 mph, 5 mph, 8 mph, 5 mph, 9 mph, 5 mph, and then tried at 10 mph.  He did about 20 seconds before he looked like he was losing control and I pulled the plug.  Earlier, Tia and I were talking about who would hang back with Trey on the 5K.  Instead, we may have to see who can keep up with the kid.

***

Follow me on Twitter to get updates on when new posts show up on this blog (plus get random thoughts on the life of Success Warrior) and feel free to "friend" me on Facebook.

Success Warrior is an Independent BeachBody Coach for BeachBody.com, a company that offers fitness programs, supplements, and equipment that have absolutely changed my life.

Have you heard of P90X? That's BeachBody. They also have Insanity, Turbo Jam, TurboFire, RevAbs, Brazil Butt Lift, and many more. They have some of the best exercise programs on the market. These aren't just DVDs but are complete programs to transform your body. They also have the hugely popular, and what they call "the most important meal of the day", Shakeology. Go HERE to learn the most inexpensive way to get Shakeology.

They have equipment and supplements in addition to Shakeology and popular exercise programs. Visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Shop" link to see everything they offer.

There is also a business side to all this fitness that you can take advantage of. Whether you're looking to just make a couple hundred extra dollars in fun money or are looking to take complete financial control of your life, BeachBody can help you get there. If you have a desire to be more fit and would love to help other people do the same while making some money at it, visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Coach" link. Team up with me and I'll help you reach your goals, in fitness and finance.

Get Ready for Summer

So,

This is your annual reminder that there are about 90 days left before June so if you have any fitness or self-image goals that you would like to accomplish by the beginning of summer, NOW is the time to start (if you haven't started already).

I don't do blog posts on fitness very often anymore because I found it hard to keep coming up with new thoughts on the subject but I am just as committed to fitness as ever and I'm still a BeachBody coach (I should go back to putting the links at the bottom of my posts so people don't think I've quit because, you know, Look!  Something shiny!).  I still field questions on fitness by email and in person and, in fact, I did both this last week.  Some questions are specific to BeachBody and some are general fitness questions.  I do not consider myself to be an expert but I do know a thing or two and if I don't know the answer, I will go look it up so that I can help someone and so I know the answer for myself.

This week's email question was about recovery drinks following an intense workout.  There are lots of them to choose from and BeachBody has the P90X Recovery formula which tastes like an Orange Julius, which I found to be very yummy.  However, when it comes to basics, chocolate milk can be used as a recovery drink, oddly enough.  It has the 4:1 quick carb to protein ratio that is the current advice for recovery drinks.  The P90X recovery drink has that and also has glutamine and creatine, which are both great if you are exercising intensely.  You should drink your recovery drink within 45 minutes of exercise.  If you are going to put sugar in your diet, this is the time to sneak it in because it can actually help speed up recovery and replace glycogen levels.

My wife started on her goals far earlier than today because her goal date is prior to June.  When I told her what the theme of today's post was though, she loved it.  She thought it was a great reminder for people because summer tends to sneak up on them.  By the time the weather starts turning warmer, a lot of people give up before they start because there doesn't seem like there is enough time to make a change.  It snowed here today and it's really easy to forget that summer is on the way.  90 days is enough time to make a huge difference in your body composition or fitness level.  P90X has proven that over and over.  Check out these before and after photos:

This post was twice as long as what you see here but when I hit save, Typepad logged me out instead of saving and I lost the second half of this post.  I don't have the energy to type it all back in at the moment so I'll try to recreate the thoughts tomorrow.

Good night.

***

Follow me on Twitter to get updates on when new posts show up on this blog (plus get random thoughts on the life of Success Warrior) and feel free to "friend" me on Facebook.

Success Warrior is an Independent BeachBody Coach for BeachBody.com, a company that offers fitness programs, supplements, and equipment that have absolutely changed my life.

Have you heard of P90X? That's BeachBody. They also have Insanity, Turbo Jam, TurboFire, RevAbs, Brazil Butt Lift, and many more. They have some of the best exercise programs on the market. These aren't just DVDs but are complete programs to transform your body. They also have the hugely popular, and what they call "the most important meal of the day", Shakeology. Go HERE to learn the most inexpensive way to get Shakeology.

They have equipment and supplements in addition to Shakeology and popular exercise programs. Visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Shop" link to see everything they offer.

There is also a business side to all this fitness that you can take advantage of. Whether you're looking to just make a couple hundred extra dollars in fun money or are looking to take complete financial control of your life, BeachBody can help you get there. If you have a desire to be more fit and would love to help other people do the same while making some money at it, visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Coach" link. Team up with me and I'll help you reach your goals, in fitness and finance.

Freedom of the Press

So,

I read an article today from Reporters Without Borders about their Press Freedom Index for 2011 - 2012.  No surprise but the United States dropped in ranking going from number 20 to number 47.

Damn you Occupy Wall Street!

Maybe they put too much importance on things like beating journalists with night-sticks.

"The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them."

Suppressing the blatant disregard for civil liberties is obviously a big part of the equation but I think there are a couple huge chunks that may have played roles in the plummet in the US ranking, with OWS acting as the catalyst to bring these things to the surface.  The article is big picture taking in the entire world in one article but in the case of the United States, it's vital to include the changing face of "media" and who the spotlight is pointed at when Occupiers start chanting.

The fact that anyone and everyone can be a journalist (although cities are going to be much more strict with press credentials from now on - to keep the riff raff out, doncha know).  When there were only 6 major media corporations controlling the release of information, it was safer to allow journalists near the action because it was easier to tell them which stories to cover and maintain control on what was eventually released to the public.

Similar to watching the Great and Powerful Oz do a "press release", only people who will go along to get along are allowed to participate with a camera.  Anyone allowed to ask Obama questions has to sign a "Softballs Only" agreement.  Before Obama declared himself a third world tyrant, anyone asking a question seeking real information would be banned from any further presidential "press releases", fired, black listed, and called names by the lapdogs still allowed to sit in the same room as Oz.  Today, armed with NDAA, JSOC, and other "laws" repealing the Constitution, any journalist with the balls to ask Obama a question of any informational value will find themselves in Gitmo with electrodes connected to said balls with no legal means of getting released.

Ohhh, the Monica Lewinsky presidential media contract.

To get close to the prez, you have to suck His dick?

Your self-esteem has got to take a hit when you suck the dick of Goldman Sachs' little bitch.

The Great and Powerful Squeak?

Sounds about right.

In today's world though, anyone with a camera, smart phone, or blog is part of the media.  The whole world is watching.  It's impossible to control what goes on the Internet (although Obama is doing His part for the 1% and signed the ACTA Treaty - Yes, it's a direct violation of law for Obama to sign a treaty without Congressional approval but puppet dictators don't pay much attention to Congresses) so, at the moment, police are trying their best to restrict media from being too close when they start pepper spraying and tazing people for committing the crime of being alive.

Weird as it may seem with the bright colors and the voices in my head getting to say their piece, this blog is part of the media.  The old media used to control the release of propaganda information and, as such, were able to really lead people around.  Today, I (and many, many others) are able to talk about peace and freedom in a medium that can reach the entire planet.

Enemy combatant!  Enemy combatant! 

Smartass has been watching OZTV again.  All Obama, all the time.

With the Internet, it's not only possible to show video of the police shooting people in the head with tear gas canisters because the 1% told them to do it, we can also discuss solutions outside the one party, one percent, solution.

This is obviously motivation to suppress freedom of press and freedom of speech and Freedom in general, especially when you couple it with the fact that the alternative media is pointing its cameras at the depraved actions of the 1% and the government officials that they have bought.  The 1% owned the media and were quite happy to report on anything and everything from six inches of the dead body if it had no relation to them.  Now that the cameras are pointed at the 1%, journalists have to be miles away from where the cops are running over people with their scooters.

Freedom of the Press was a great saying while the 1% owned the press resulting in the fact that there wasn't actually any freedom of the press.  Now that the 1% are actually threatened with freedom of the press, their puppets in the United States government are coming down hard on anyone who dares speak or show the truth. 

This brings us back to the quote from Reporters Without Borders but in the case of the United States, the dictatorship isn't held by the government, it's held by the 1% that own the government.  It was so much easier for them before Occupy Wall Street and that's why the United States was mistakenly ranked at number 20.  Now that the 1% are losing control of information and people are starting to look at them, they are reacting violently and the United States press freedom index ranking is going to continue to tank.  Truth is the greatest threat to the 1% and their puppet government and must be suppressed at all costs (using tax payer money of course - don't want anything ruining this year's multi-billion dollar bonus).

Constitional Protection

So,

Before I started in on this accounting stuff, I had a law class for which, as a first assignment, I had to write a paper that dealt with the protection offered by the Constitution.  My argument was to dismiss the entire question because the Constitution is just a god damned piece of paper and offers no protection whatsoever.  As a DIY litmus test, I suggested holding up a copy of the Constitution the next time a cop was going to violate your "Constitutional Rights" and see if it was actually able to stop the tazer barbs from shocking the shit out of you.  Next to the 100% grade for the paper, the instructor added a comment to the effect of "me no-likey".  Since I'm in this to get my degree and, at this point, I'm not willing to sacrifice my 4.0 gpa, I toned back all further writings in a way that got my point across but without evoking as much of an emotional response from the instructor.

That was back in August.  What has happened since then that I haven't blogged about because ACCOUNTING SUCKS OUT LOUD?

Occupy Wall Street happened and the media blackout ended when the police trapped two women on a public sidewalk with their bright orange kettle netting and then pepper sprayed them for the apparent crime of letting themselves get caught in the bright orange kettle netting on a public sidewalk.  Later, 20 or so college students were pepper-hosed (spray is much too kind of a word in this case) for the violent crime of sitting down in a public area. 

Bit of the ultra-violence.

Clockwork, it ain't.  Or were you talking about the cops?

The Great and Powerful Oz made good on a speech that he made, in a level of irony to match his level of arrogance, in the room that holds the original Constitution.  In that speech, he announced that King George (George W. Bush for those of you that aren't long-time readers) was a bastard for violating the Constitution in the way that he had.  Obama said that He would never act in such a way because of his Constitutional Law background.  Then, without pause and within the exact same damning speech on bastards violating the Constitution, he announced his intention of passing a law allowing the indefinite detention of non-criminals anywhere in the world.  "God help you if you get in the way of the 1% because I will make your ass disappear, Constitution-be-damned!"  In December, without fanfare or ceremony or media coverage, Oz signed it into law.

At the same time Obama was signing NDAA, I was reading about SOPA while thinking, "I should write on my blog while it can still be found."  On the surface, the act is supposed to protect copyright material but I haven't read anyone who believes either: 1. That's what it's supposed to do; or 2. It will work.  Some people do believe that the original intention was to protect copyright material but even they don't think it will work.  Maybe that's how it started but now it's more of a Trojan Horse to allow the government to make sites disappear.

I'm starting to sense a pattern.

Making stuff disappear or violating rights?

SOPA will act contrary to what many Americans think of when it comes to law enforcement.  If a person files a complaint against a web page, the entire web site will be disappeared (even if it contains 1,000 pages with no complaints).  The site owner then will have to petition or fight or bribe people to get the action reversed.  Guilty until proven you'll comply with what we say you're allowed to put on the Internets innocent will be the rule.

On the other side of the equation, it will be possible to use browsers that don't comply with the government restrictions or visit the sites directly if you know their address.  However, it will probably be a felony to circumvent government restrictions on websites.  Just like China, you could end up in prison for reading Wikileaks.

"Welcome to Alcatraz.  Whatcha in for?"

"Reading the news."

"Hardcore man, hardcore."

On the horizon, I just read that New York City is planning on taking TSA's radioactive nekkid body scanners and making them smaller so they can be installed on police cars and street corners next to surveillance cameras. 

Making clothes disappear.

And all semblance of a "Free Country".

To make this post a "They Really Said That?" edition, let me give you this quote from New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly:

"The scanner would only be used in reasonably suspicious circumstances and could cut down on the number of stop-and-frisks on the street."

It might cut down on the stops but it's going to exponentially increase the number of frisks.  He talks like he's doing everyone in New York a favor.  "We know you're in a hurry and have places to go and how inconvenient it is when the police stop you to give you a quick feel-up.  Now you won't have to stop.  We'll just look at you naked as you walk down the road.  We will, of course, use anything we see to file criminal charges when we find violations of the law, despite the fact that what we found was the product of a warrantless search, Constitution-be-damned."

Text books will have to heavily edit their "Fruit of the Poisonous Vine" chapters.

It'd be easier to just make those chapters disappear.

Law books will start to look like a Jehovah's Witness's bible.

"Professor, why does my text book go from chapter 10 to chapter 12?"

"We didn't like chapter 11.  It dealt with archaic right to privacy beliefs."

The bottom line is that as governments continue to lose their relevance and completely trash any claim to being useful, restrictions are going to tighten.  Freedoms are going to be reduced.  What people are allowed to do, say, read, and think is going to be narrowed in an effort to keep them from choosing freedom.  The Constitution can't protect people from this.

Whether W actually said the line or not, it is true that the Constitution is just a piece of paper.  It does not grant rights as many people mistakenly believe or accidentally imply when they say things like, "I have the first amendment right to free speech."  Bzzzt.  Wrong but thank you for playing.  Johnny, tell 'em what they've won as a consolation prize. 

The rights that people are talking about are human rights.  You get them by being human (which rules out many politicians).  The Constitution doesn't grant rights.  The government doesn't give rights.  The government can only violate rights.  It does so in the name of protecting rights, which is an obvious self-imploding argument.  "We are going to violate your human rights so that we can protect your human rights."  Whu-uh?

The Constitution, specifically the Bill of Rights, was written as an agreement to set boundaries on how much the government was going to violate the human rights of Americans.  By itself though, it offers no protection.  Protection comes from the people.  People who stand up for their human rights and the rights of the people around them.  The Constitution, while just a piece of paper, was important because it set out the rules of the game and when the rules were broken, people took action to fix it.  As governance has moved further from self-governance to a central government and as that government has become incredibly powerful, the incentive for politicians to play by the rules has decreased to the point where it's okay to pepper spray people sitting on a sidewalk or disappear people who haven't committed a crime to secret prisons in Iraq or hide websites that dare speak the truth or expose people to radiation while getting a tax-payer funded peepshow out of the deal.

The Constitution isn't going to stop this escalating trend into a police state.  Only the people can stop it.

The Constitution doesn't protect human rights.

Humans protect human rights.

Occupy Wall Street and the 2012 Election

So,

For those of you that were wondering, yes, I'm still alive. 

The big talk now is the fact that there is only a year left before the next batch of sociopaths is elected and will Obama make the cut and how will Occupy Wall Street affect the outcome with Obama being Wall Street's bitch?  Can he somehow convince them that he's on their team?

Only if the New York winter freezes their brains.

Well the fire department did take away their generators, for their safety of course.

They will freeze to death safely.  That's good to know.

I suppose that it would be good timing to address a question from the previous blog post since it pertains to this topic.

"But do you *really* think Obama -- who signed Frank-Dodd into law, fought hard for the consumer financial protection act, and INHERITED the whole TARP chaos -- is a Wall Street crony who doesn't give a shit about the little guy???

Really???

Maybe constructive criticism would be more helpful."

Well, considering that He has continued to bail out Wall Street, His top advisors come from Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, and Wall Street has made more money in the last 3 years than in the previous 8 years combined, I would have to say that what I *really* think is immaterial.  The facts speak for themselves.  If you really want to know what I think, I'll put it this way.  If the Great and Powerful Oz ever gets any symptoms of colon cancer, Lloyd Blankfein will know about before Obama's staff of doctors.

"Feel right here, doctor, this isn't right?"

"Are you sure?  That seems normal."

"It wasn't there yesterday and Jamie Dimon says it wasn't there the day before.  I think you better do a biopsy because I've got too much money invested in this mouhtpiece."

"You know the mouthpiece is at the other end?"

"Whatever."

You know Democrats don't have a sense of humor when it comes to their Messiah, right?

Can I read the first piece of hate mail?

Let's move on to constructive criticism.

Oh, this should be good.

I'm only reading the first piece of hate mail.

It was kind of a vague suggestion on who I'm supposed to help so I'll dish out a bunch.

Let's start with The One, Oz himself.

What kind of constructive criticism do you give a guy that makes Al Capone look like Mother Teresa?

I would have picked Ghandi.

My constructive criticism is this: keep doing what you're doing because apparently some people just don't get it yet and are still supporting You in supporting the 1%.  You, Mr. President, have completely outdone my expectations on your blatant hypocrisy, broken promises, and taking money from Wall Street to completely fuck over the American people.  For some though, 3 or 4 years isn't going to be enough, so use a teleprompter to keep from sounding like Beavis and Butthead, stick to the script, and run a good race and give the people 4 more years of your stellar performance.

Next, the Neo Cons.

Are you going to sugar coat this one too?

He did hold back on Obama, didn't he?

I sincerely don't know what to say about them.  I summed it up last time.  These people are batshit crazy.  I saw a video recently that said that the Republican handlers are actually Democrats because the Neo Cons are saying exactly the wrong things to win an election, when they aren't just being stupid.

When aren't they being stupid?

The smartass has a point this time.

I guess I can just encourage them to keep on doing what they're doing so they can alienate everyone on the planet.  That way, even if Obama and Blankfein are the only people who show up at the polls, Obama will win.  Just like last time, I'm rooting for the cult members because I think it paints a clearer picture of the hypocrisy, violence, and corruption of the system with Obama at the helm.  If a Neo Con gets into the White House, people won't be surprised when another foreign country is turned into a crater because they dared to promote democracy or threatened to stop using the US Dollar as the world currency.  Obama, the guy that was going to end the wars and stop torturing people, is setting the record for the number of countries attacked.

Including America.

Hey!  If you aren't with Wall Street, yer again' us and deserve to be beaten down with batons, peppersprayed, shot in the head with tear gas cannisters, trampled by horses, hit by scooters, and run over by cars.

Ummm, something about that doesn't sound right.

Yeah, the scooters.  How not-manly is it to ride around as a cop on a scooter?

Maybe they were short-handed that day and the meter maids were called out to help run over protesters.

Does anyone remember where we were?

Taking a ride on the ADHD version of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride?

Constructive criticism.

Who else should we help out?  Occupiers?

Keep up the great work!  Keep it peaceful.  Keep looking for solutions.  The longer you ask the questions, the better your chance of finding the solution and the more other people will start looking for solutions.  Keep the videos coming.  The thin veil covering the police state is being ripped to shreds with all the videos that are coming out.  People are being arrested for standing on public sidewalks.  It is illegal to not support Wall Street but legal and moral are, more often than not, opposites. 

This movement actually gives me hope.

Are you going to let the cult members off the hook?  After all, they can't help it.

Yeah, go easy on them.  The DNC has their brains locked in a vault guarded by a waterfall that detects invisibility and a dragon.

Fine but would it be okay if I addressed the comment about Frank-Dodd?

Wheeee!

This won't be pretty.

This is such a beautiful masterpiece that sums up the Obama administration with incredible accuracy.  This bill is the most "broad" and "sweeping" bill since Noah came down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments.

Noah?  Isn't that the boat guy?

Boat guy? 

What does this broad and sweeping bill do?  Nothing.

Wow, that is broad.

And sweeping.

Words.  More words.  Hope and Change.  Broad and Sweeping.  The bill set up a plan to create regulations somewhere down the road, somewhere between 200 to 400 regulations designed by a couple dozen 3-letter agencies whose Tsars are no doubt on the take from Wall Street.  Of the first 40 "regulations" passed, they were all watered down or completely neutered so as to make this broad and sweeping bill completely toothless.

I heard that how Blankfein likes his Presidential blowjobs.

Business as usual in Washington.

Passing this bill was like having a meeting to set a date about when to have a meeting to determine who should be in charge of being in charge of the next meeting. 

Kind of like Hoping for Change.

But not actually changing anything.

Just like that.

Occupy Wall Street - Spread the Word

 
So,

I am getting closer to becoming a blogger with a regular blogging schedule.  One more final to conquer but I thought that I would make a quick post in response to this:

 Of course, today (day 20 of the protests with something like 100 cities participating?) is the day that the Great and Powerful Oz gets asked about what he thinks about Occupy Wall Street.  Here is his, uh, answer?

 I could add so much to this because He's funny from the first sentence but I just don't have the time. 

Instead, I'll just leave you with one of the comments under the video:

"Translation: uhhhh fuck . . . "

That pretty much sums it up.

Spread the word!

My New Bug Zapper (pic)

 
So,

Damn!  I ran smack dab right into a bit of homework that actually had me stumped today and while taking several hours to find the solution, I completely forgot about my blog.  It turns out that the reason that I was so stumped was because I was trying to solve the problem using a method that has not been taught to us yet.  That does make things a bit more difficult, but . . .

(And I bring this next part up in special consideration to Mrs. Chili, CV Rick, JohnM, and anyone else who happened to post anything today about the incredibly sad state of education in the United States)

I solved the problem by finding the resources to teach myself how to solve the problem in the way that I wanted to solve it.  Yeah, that probably added another hour or so onto my homework but the problem was solved much more elegantly and it's information that I will be using again (in fact, as soon as next week). 

And, so as to not leave Jewbacca out of today's post since he was kind enough to interrupt my self-teaching time for the incredibly amazing news that a baseball diamond is actually a square that looks like a diamond because of how it is placed in the stadium (although I did not know that it had sides of 90 feet), I offer my solution to his problem:

double hypotenuse (double a, double b)
{
double c = sqrt ( pow( a, 2.0) + pow ( b, 2.0));
return c;
}

int main ()
{
double x = 90.0, y = 10.0;
cout << hypotenuse ( x, y);
return 0;
}

I left out some of the more basic stuff but I'm sure you knew that and can fill them in.

And now, to the point of this blog because I am still not done with homework and it looks like it's going to carry over to tomorrow, which I really try to avoid.  Once the weekend arrives, my time becomes very scarce and I get nervous about school stuff going undone and I would hate to see that happen.

Here's a pic of my new, certified green technology, bug zapper, installed on my back porch:

 
What do you think of that?

Is There A Spin Doctor In The House?

 
So,

Here's something that I've been wondering for a while.  If the spin and the political tactics become so obvious that every corporate media article, talking head, and blogger is mentioning it, what's the point?

For example, The Great and Powerful Oz would love Mubarak to stay in power but that's just not going to happen so he can't openly endorse support for the dictator and has to speak in a way that supposedly doesn't offend the next Egyptian government.  Everyone knows this.  Everyone.  The US government has long had a standing policy of putting oppressive dictators in place to control regions of interest and giving them billions of dollars in weaponry, support, and bribes.  This is just common knowledge and Obama's waffling in Egypt is an obvious result when the supported dictator falls.

And while we're on the subject, does this common knowledge make statements like this one, from Steve Clemons, look stoopid or more like completely inept and unbelievable spin?

"Given that we are seeing a pattern of protest in many vulnerable nations throughout the Arab world, the Obama administration will be expected to roll out a new strategy of engagement that protects America's interests — particularly its energy sector interests — while at the same time standing behind the universal rights of people around the world to assemble and call for political reform."

Dude!  Obama kills someone every single day!  What we need here Steve, are baby steps.  Let's wait until Obama has mastered the skill of standing behind the universal rights of people around the world to breath before we go merrily skipping ahead to freedom of speech, shall we?  It's really hard to speak freely about what kind of government you would like when you're not breathing.  Steve acknowledges that Obama is using the military to help oil companies pull off something that they couldn't afford to do nor would it be accepted by anyone else in the world and then goes on to give the bullshit line about respecting human rights.  Really Steve?

If Obama didn't have his military completely tapped out destroying two other countries under false pretenses, he'd probably have them in Egypt helping Mubarak put down the uprising with extreme prejudice.  The rumor is that the "Mubarak supporters" that are fighting against the protesters are actually paid soldiers in plain clothes and that the money comes from the US government.  I have no idea if that's true but it's very easy to see the possibility that it's true.

Maybe Steve gets his Internets service from Canada and didn't pay the overage to get the whole story.

Oh no you don't!

What?

Finish the thought on spin before you go merrily skipping ahead to Canadian Internets service.

Fine.  <pout>

Okay, so let's get this out of the way quickly so we can move on.  Do you think that the people that are going to be in charge of the next Egyptian government are, in any way, fooled when Obama and Clinton try to straddle the fence?  I don't understand all the pretend coyishness.  If it's transparent to everyone with an Internets connection, doesn't that include Egyptians (you know, when Mubarak hasn't shut down the Internets)?

Happy?

Yes.  Thank you.  Move on.

Nothing to see here.

You know?  I say that I don't do commercials but that's not entirely true.  I don't watch them on TV (love DVR) and I don't listen to them on the radio (love-love-love Pandora) but every once in a while, I'll check them out on YouTube.  Right now, E*Trade's are my favorites:

Turns out my parents are dabbling in wrestling.

Hello?  Canada?

Jeezus!  What are you?  The ADHD police?

Canadian Internets users are in the midst of a scare.  Bell is charging them through the nose, using a cell phone type of plan where people would get a certain amount of minutes (in this case data) and then they would have a super-extra amount in overage fees for any Internets use over the cap.  With people streaming TV shows and movies from places like Hulu and Netflix, companies are looking for ways to increase revenue from providing Internets service.  Bell, who provides something like ALL the Internets to Canada (okay, I'm exaggerating, it's only 80-90%) is also going to charge wholesale companies so that customers can't sneak around the bill by getting unlimited data packages from smaller Internets providers (who are getting their service through Bell).

Supposedly, the Canadian government is going to tell Bell that they can't do this.  If they don't, a Netflix movie will cost something like $8 to watch if you've gone over your limit for the month.  Then there's the popcorn and soda pop. 

What?

Isn't that what everyone always says about movie prices?

Yes, yes it is - AT A MOVIE THEATER!

What?  You don't eat popcorn at home?

Speaking of taking out a second mortgage to take the fam to the movies, Congress is going to raise the debt ceiling again.  Okay, I've covered this before but I read a better perspective about this stoopidity last week, a better way of putting it into words.  I'm taking my own creative license with the idea, which is completely summed up in the first two sentences of the next paragraph.

Congress should raise the debt ceiling and they should do it right.  They should raise it to $100 trillion.  There is no such thing as a debt ceiling anyway for Congress.  When they get to the current imaginary ceiling, they just raise it again.  This happens every 6 - 12 months and they are wasting valuable time debating the amount when that time could be better spent killing people  infringing on the rights of their subjects  supporting Mubarak but pretending not to  having sex with underage hookers taking an extended vacation (after all, the government that governs least is the one that governs best).  Just raise it to the point where you don't have to worry about it for a few years.  It doesn't exist anyway so they might as well vote to not even have a debt ceiling.

I vote that we quit pretending like there is any amount of money we won't spend.  Is anyone opposed?

Nay!

The lone vote from the gentleman from Texas is noted.  Motion carries.  Let's go shopping!

Gotta luv OPM!

Doncha?

Last, but by far the best part of today's post, is an email that I received from C.R. in response to the fact that I have to buy new pants that are a size smaller.  She sent this:

"If you think you've got it bad . . . I'm buying clothes again for the third time.  I bought some new things for my birthday back at the beginning of December because everything I owned was falling off.  By Christmas, things were baggy again so I shopped the after-Christmas sales, and I'll be darned if it's not happening again.  I'm about 7 pounds away from my goal.  Actually I reached my first goal and decided I could do better.  I haven't been this small in 26 years.  I don't want to see my high school weight, I was too thin back then, but 10 pounds above that is where I'm headed and I never dreamed I would ever come close to that again.

I have been stuck where I am for the past couple of weeks as far as the scale, but you're right.  If you keep "pushing play" the results happen.  Although the scale hasn't moved recently, the measurements keep getting a little smaller each week.  This is awesome!!!  You've got to love Beachbody!"

How cool is that!?!

Right?  That deserves a "You, the Super Hero" mention.

Right you are, Ken.

She doesn't mention it here but, for those of you that are interested, she is currently doing TurboFire.  She mentions Beachbody as a whole in her email because she also has P90X and TurboJam and uses some of the supplements like P90X Recovery drink and Whey Protein (I've mentioned the benefits of whey protein many times and will likely mention it again).

Email like that make it so rewarding being a Beachbody coach.

***

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Success Warrior is an Independent BeachBody Coach for BeachBody.com, a company that offers fitness programs, supplements, and equipment that have absolutely changed my life. 

Have you heard of P90X?  That's BeachBody.  They also have Insanity, Turbo Jam, TurboFire, RevAbs, Brazil Butt Lift, and many more.  They have some of the best exercise programs on the market.  These aren't just DVDs but are complete programs to transform your body.  They also have the hugely popular, and what they call "the most important meal of the day", Shakeology.  Go HERE to learn the most inexpensive way to get Shakeology.

They have equipment and supplements in addition to Shakeology and popular exercise programs.  Visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Shop" link to see everything they offer. 

There is also a business side to all this fitness that you can take advantage of.  Whether you're looking to just make a couple hundred extra dollars in fun money or are looking to take complete financial control of your life, BeachBody can help you get there.  If you have a desire to be more fit and would love to help other people do the same while making some money at it, visit BeachBody.com and click on the "Coach" link.  Team up with me and I'll help you reach your goals, in fitness and finance.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and many thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.

Short and sweet today as I plan on spending the rest of the day in the company of my family.  My son gave me the Lego game, Minotaurus for my birthday so I know that is on the events list, along with a fire in the fireplace and way too much food.  I get to spend the day with that which I am most grateful, my family.  I would not be who I am today or have the feelings of peace that I am enjoying at the moment without them.  I am truly blessed.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful day and want to express my gratitude for all of my readers.  You add so much to my life.  Thank you for visiting, reading, and commenting over the years.

***

Tomorrow, I'll talk about all the TSA hoopla.  I don't want to ruin the mood for today but it seems like a good topic for black Friday.