Living Epic

Hey Obama, Stimulate This!

2010-02-09T12:10:00.001-06:00

"Nowadays, people can be divided into three classes--the Haves, the Have-Nots, and the Have-Not-Paid-For-What-They-Haves."--Earl Wilson

There's talk of another stimulus bill, mostly because the first one didn't work as advertised. The United States government of late has held the opinion that if a thing doesn't work the first time, then putting more money into the same thing will fix it. Redesigns of the thing are not sought after, desired, or used. Any suggestions of that ilk are shot down immediately, and at maximum volume.

It's a sad state of affairs. During the space race, new ideas were constantly tried, and the path to the drawing board was well-used. However, even some space-race ideas were just plain stupid. There's a quote that my company likes to show at every staff meeting. It may be apocryphal, but it's sage advice: "The Americans spent millions of dollars inventing a pen that could be used in space. The Russians used a pencil."

The quote is a reminder to search for the simple solution, and not make things needlessly complicated.

Which brings me to all the legislation proposed so far by the current administration in Washington DC.

Americans need jobs. Regardless of which statistic you read, a lot of people aren't as employed as they want to be. Energy is a big money-sink for the average household. Terrorists are getting the money we spend in petroleum. Wouldn't it be great if we could solve all those problems with one solution?

It would be great, and here's the kicker: we can do it, but the Administration isn't letting us. See this article: Drillgate: Internal Emails Shows Obama Team Lying to Public. A magic bullet-one that would create hundreds, if not thousands, of real, private-sector jobs that will actually grow the United States' economy; one that would keep money within our borders instead of going overseas to fund groups that don't like us very much; one that would lower the price of oil worldwide, allowing Americans to keep more of their paycheck, and doubling down on the keeping-money-out-of-terrorists' hands argument.

Call (202) 224-3121 and ask to speak with your Congressman and Senators. Tell them how you feel about this, and demand that they do something to actually stimulate the economy.

On Immigration and Felonious Pilgrims

2010-01-14T20:15:00.000-06:00

This is the last old one that I'm resurrecting. Henceforth, it's all one hundred percent brand-new content. And that's all the percents there are.

World War III

People are going to call me a racist and a bigot, but illegal immigration pisses me off. It's called ILLEGAL immigration for a reason, but liberals and other bleeding hearts (are there other kinds?) seem to give any Hispanic with half a contrived sob story carte blanche to enter the United States of America. "Their situation in their native country is deplorable. It's inhumane to deport them. America was founded by immigrants." These are the arguments proponents of illegal immigration use. These arguments don't hold water.

First of, there is a massive infrastructure in place for legal entry into the country. There are American embassies in almost every country in the world. It's an annoying chore to fill out paperwork, but it is not particularly difficult or harrowing. Having filled out the paperwork and waited for it to be processed, one may cross the border without having to fear ICE agents in the middle of the night. Thousands of people enter the country legally each month. Probably tens of thousands.

Legal immigration costs money. A lot of money. And the price keeps going up. My wife's family has immigrated to the United States 10 years ago. Right now, they wait on the next to last step for INS to process their finished applications. The final step will be a history/culture test, to show that they've learned rudiments of United States History. I didn't understand the purpose of this test for the longest time. I only saw it as a pathetic joke. You hear the statement "Most naturalized citizens know more about American history than natural born citizens" all the time. Sadly, it's true. I got a 4 on the AP US History exam. (At least I think it was a 4. It could've been a 3. At any rate, I finished the class with an A average.) I did not know the answers to about half the questions. My wife, on the other hand, didn't miss a single one.

Legal immigrants are forced by the system to learn about the land they have chosen. Illegal immigrants are not. One question that isn't on the test regards the Mexican-American War(1846-1848). Texas, originally part of Mexico, seceeded. Mexico didn't recognize the secession, much as the American North didn't recognize the secession of the American South some fifteen years later. America annexed Texas, Mexico attacked. Mexico lost. In fact, Mexico got trounced. Rights of conquest (albeit defensively) notwithstanding, the United States of America paid cash money in the amount of 15 million dollars to Mexico for the acquisition of Texas and what is now California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. In addition, the USA assumed Mexico's 3.25 million dollar dept to American citizens. That land was sold to the USA. Now, apparently, Mexico thinks we stole it, and they deserve it back. Google "La Raza" or "Reconquista" if you don't believe me.

I begin to digress. Illegal immigrants, from the get-go, show that they have no respect for our laws. They do have respect for our money. They apply for welfare and wic, and they are sucking America's golden teats dry. Sure, many illegal immigrants seem to be the "deserving poor" that politicians remember at election time then forget after their swearing-in ceremonies. However, they are felons.

A citizen of the United States of America, once convicted of a felony, for all intents and purposes, ceases to be a citizen. A felon's franchise is stripped. That wondrous ideal, a government for the people, by the people and of the people does not apply to felons. Politically, felons have no voice. And yet there are those who lobby for criminals' rights, always trumping the rights of their victims. (Again, I find myself digressing. The issue of illegal immigration touches on so many problems facing America, it's hard to focus on one thing.)

If I were to murder someone, I would be arrested, tried, and sentenced. I could evade the authorities for as long as I dared, and they would pursue me for as long as taxpayer money allowed. Once caught, I'd be punished, regardless of my motivation for murder. The same for stealing. If I got caught stealing, I'd be punished. The judge, if he was worth his stripes, would grant me no leniency because my poor family is starving and I had to steal to feed them. My motive for breaking the law IS NO MITIGATION for the fact that I broke the law. However, when illegal immigration is the crime, it's discounted. No punishment. No consequence.

Illegal immigrants come here to escape deplorable conditions in their home country. But, who's working to improve conditions in Mexico? Who is building infrastructure in Mexico? Who is purging the Mexican government of corrupt officials and affecting real, positive change in Mexico? I hear a cricket chirping the answer.

The land of milk and honey is not confined to north of the Rio Grande. Paradise is what you make for yourself. And it costs nothing. I think it's a Nationwide car insurance ad that shows people being nice to each other. A man holds a door open for a complete stranger. An onlooker sees this, and later helps someone pick up something he dropped. Another onlooker is inspired to small acts of kindness. All it takes is one inspiring figure to get the ball rolling. Being on welfare, accepting handouts while doing nothing to help yourself only enslaves you. And they are chains you put on yourself.

Rental Car Review

2009-10-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

I've traveled a lot recently for my job. I've been twice to Reno, NV and once to Troy, MI. Each time, I rented a car from Avis, and each time, the experience was quite pleasant. The cars themselves, however, bring me to the conclusion that GM is (was?)severely mismanaged, ignorant, and rightly deserving of bankruptcy.

My first rental car was a Chevy HHR, in Silver. New to business related travel, I had not signed up for frequent flyer miles, hotel points, or car rental rewards. As an Avis non-Preferred member, I had to walk to the far-away parking spaces to get to my assigned vehicle.

I'm not a large person, but inside the HHR I felt cramped. I've seen museum-piece APCs with larger viewports. Visibility sucked, but the controls were also in an awkward place in the console between the front seats. Window controls weren't on the door panel like 98% of people are used to. It made me nervous when I rolled-down the window while driving. I've been driving a car for 10 years now; I should be able to roll down a window at highway speeds without having to think about it. Not the case with the HHR.

One good point was the large trunk. You could fit a lot of suitcases back there.

By the next trip, I had signed up for Avis Preferred service. Free sign up, and the very next trip, I got a much better car. It was parked closer, and they had it unlocked, trunk open, and the engine running for me. By some stroke of luck, the seat was even at the exact right distance.

The car, this time, was a Pontiac G6 with less than 1000 miles on it. It drove fantastically. Were I in the market for a new car, I'd seriously consider getting one of these. It was fun to drive. (It'd probably be better with a manual transmission, but then, what isn't?) It was a nice car, and after driving HHRs, I can see perfectly why Pontiac was the first brand that GM dropped. (/sarc)

That trip was a fluke. Each time since then (about three or four trips), I've gotten HHRs. It's clear that the biggest buyer of these vehicles is rental companies, for whatever reason. Hopefully, next time I need to rent a car, my travel agency won't order another hearse/milk truck mashup that is Chevy's HHR.

On Education in America

2009-09-25T11:45:00.000-05:00

This is from April, 2007.

The State of Public Education

I was surveyed a while back, a month or two ago to be slightly less vague. The survey was about my education in NC public schools. Whether I'm successful after it, if the classes adequately prepared me for college, that kind of stuff.

The classes were, for the most part, adequately satisfactory. It's all the other crap required of students that didn't help one iota.

Academic courses are useful for college students. They enforce study habits, teach you stuff, and prepare you for the work load expected of you in college. However, not everyone needs to go to an institution of higher learning.

I got great grades in school, did well in college too. I couldn't find a job though, at least not one in my field. Having spent months looking in the classifieds for jobs, I came to this conclusion: vocational skills are in great demand. Schools are focusing on academia at the expense of blue-collar training. And there's more money to be had in blue-collar labor than in academia. Much more.

Schools realize they need to better prepare their charges for the real world. Officials just don't have a clue how to do it. They think that requiring students to do some public speaking, writing tests, and a vague "Project" will prepare them.

Well, those ideas won't prepare anyone for anything.

I had to do the speech to graduate High School. I barely passed. Later, at Appalachian State, I had to take a public speaking course, as required by my major. The professor, the Dean of Admissions, was one of the best teachers I had. He said he liked to teach at least one course a year, citing that it helped him stay connected to the needs of the students. (If more administrators shared his dedication...) He cared about our success, taught us how to write and then perform a speech instead of merely saying "Here's a topic. Give me a speech." Consequently, I now have no fear of public speaking, and can pontificate in public quite well.

The moral of that anecdote is that an ancillary assignment in addition to all other courses doesn't get the job done. Teachers have to take enough time from instruction as it is with disciplinary action based on dress code violations and the like. Making them proctor speeches, when most kids don't know the first thing about them is counter-productive. It took a semester long, three credit hour course to get me to give a good speech. School boards expect kids to do it without any lessons?

Instruction time is valuable. Teachers need all of it, and if they're not using it completely, it's detrimental to their pupils. Wasting time with ancillary, half-assed requirements is of aid to no one.

That being said, here's what to do about making American schools better. American school systems accept everyone. Foreign school systems have a school for the college bound, a school for the service industry bound, a school for mechanically inclined individuals, etc. When 87% of Japanese kids score in the 98th percentile, it's irrelevent data to Americans. The test is administered only to the elite. So: quit comparing American schools to foreign ones.

Second: Kids need to be better behaved. That's not an easy problem to solve, but the solution lies at home. Good parenting makes for well behaved children, which makes for more attentive students, which gives the teacher more useful learning time. Parents need to take responsibility for their children, and not pawn them off on the free babysitter that the state provides. That free babysitting service has an extremely high, extremely fast burnout rate, and said burnout rate is in direct proportion to the number of bratty young'uns a teacher has in his class.

Three: Prepare students for what they want to do, and don't waste their time with courses they won't ever need later in life. Vocational programs must have funding. Give the mechanically inclined their auto-shop, their carpentry classes, their metalsmithing. Give the college bound their courses, but don't force the Future Farmers of America to take AP European History. It's exactly like the foreign school model (surprise!) which, incidentally, will give American number crunchers some hard facts to analyze and compare.

Mostly though, parents: take note of your kids. Encourage them to pursue career paths in fields they enjoy. If they like tinkering with Legos, suggest engineering to them. If they've gotten 20 speeding tickets, maybe you ought to take them to the dragstrip sometime, or pick up a pamphlet for Nascar College in Tennessee. Make learning fun for them. Lord knows the schools aren't doing it.

------
New material given the pseudo recent changes in the economic climate:

Classifieds don't exist anymore. There aren't any jobs to be had. But those with a vocational background and experience will always be able to do something. The Sears Auto and Tire Department might not be hiring, but if you've got your own equipment, there's nothing to stop you from running a 'donations accepted' car clinic in your church parking lot every week.

Enterprising individuals with a good skill set can go as far as they want to. Everyone needs and will continue to need plumbers, mechanics, roofers, carpenters, machine operators...etc, etc. People won't always need Microsoft Office 2000 certified Fortran programmers. Or Ph.Ds specializing in Siberian folk art.

It's important for people to love what they do for a living. But it does them no good if what they love doesn't put food on the table.

Universal Health Care

2009-09-17T09:46:00.000-05:00

My issue is that the game of life has well-written rules. Some jobs have better benefits than others-and health insurance is a good benefit to have. Employers that provide health insurance usually require education, hard work, and dedication.

The playing field is level. Person High graduates have been accepted to Ivy-league schools. Anyone can work hard, get the great job with the excellent health benefits, but fewer and fewer people put in the time.

Since I did work hard, why should I have to carry the freeloaders? Consider the story of Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness). Asked about his rags to riches success on a morning news show, he had this to say:"I did it with a 10 month old. What's your excuse?"

Health insurance is a great thing to have, but it's not an inalienable right. We have the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Personal liberty is spelled out in our Constitution. It places very specific limits on the power of the Federal government, limits that have largely been ignored, trampled on, and forgotten since the Philadelphia Convention signed the document.

It's well known that merely pursuing happiness does not guarantee that one will actually find it.

But Life, that sounds like it falls under the purview of Healthcare! If we are guaranteed life, that must mean we're guaranteed the best quality life that modern medicine can provide! Au contraire, mes amis. The right to life simply means that the government won't kill you outright. Thomas Jefferson mentioned nothing about Quality of Life when he wrote his Declaration. It is a fact that good health drastically improves one's quality of life. So does having lots of money. And these days, it seems that money and health are mutually exclusive goals.

Free health care for all persons in the United States, be they here legally or otherwise, sounds like a great idea. But it will fail. America has the greatest doctors in the world, and that's in large part due to the fact that doctors here get paid a lot more than they do in other countries. Doctors provide a service that everyone will need at least once in their lives. They can pretty much charge whatever they want, and someone will pay it. However, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services--the existing government health care plan) only pays a certain amount for each procedure, visit, and consult. Given what equipment is necessary for a procedure, CMS might not cover the expenses. If a physician wants more money, he has to make it up with private insurers, or self-pay patients. most insurers pay only what Medicare pays, so if the doctor charges more, tough break, he's going to get reimbursed at the CMS level. Any overhead, then, is left to the self-pay patient, who either pays, or gets his credit rating slashed.

It's expensive to be a doctor, just with equipment, training, support staff, and overhead, but then there's the lawsuit-hungry culture we live in. If the weatherman calls for 6 inches of rain and there's bright sunshine instead, he's never called to task. A doctor can diagnose a patient complaining of hot flashes and headaches with symptoms of menoupause. But if the patient dies of complicatiosn related to pheochromocytoma, then the doctor will get sued. The doctor will do his best to isolate teh pheochromocytomas from the menopauses, but mistakes happen. When a doctor makes a mistake, people die. Consider if everytime you missed a turn when driving, someone died. Before too long, you'd drive very carefully, and you'd almost never miss turns. But you'd never be perfect, and once in a great while, you'd get cut off at the last minute, or the exit wouldn't be marked, or you'd be tired from the fourteen hour workday you were finishing, and you'd miss your turn. And everytime that happened, you'd have to shell out at least a couple hundred thousand dollars, and that's if it wasn't any fault of your own.

And people wonder why healthcare is expensive?

So how do we fix it?

Tort reform is a good start. John Edwards made millions suing the pants of physicians. You can bet he doesn't want tort reform. There's lots of good money to be had there.

Pay for performance is another option. Right now, doctors get paid based on the number of patients they see, and the number of procedures they complete. From a billing standpoint, MRSA is the best thing that ever happened to hospitals. I haven't seen any models for how pay-for-performance works, but the idea behind it is that physicians get reimbursed at a higher rate for patients that stay healthy after seeing the doctor. If a patient has to come back repeatedly, the doctor wont' get paid as much. That has it's own legion of dangers, though. Doctors will only take on simple cases, with healthy patients, and the sickest won't get the care they need.

Warranties is a good idea though. Geisinger Health offers a warranty on heart surgeries. There's a standard price that the doctor gets paid for the heart operation. Any complications with the surgery then come out of the doctor's pocket. If the patient gets sick as a direct result of the surgery or hospital stay, the patient does not have to pay extra.

Those are just a few ideas. The one that we know will never, ever work, is government control. Do you want your hospital run like the DMV? Or the Post Office? Or Amtrak?

It bears repeating:

2009-09-03T10:16:00.004-05:00

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

A question for Liberals

2009-08-05T15:14:00.002-05:00

I got this in my inbox today. It's a newsletter from Jen O'Malley Dillon, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee.

There's been a lot of media coverage about organized mobs intimidating lawmakers, disrupting town halls, and silencing real discussion about the need for real health insurance reform.
The truth is, it's a sham. These "grassroots protests" are being organized and largely paid for by Washington special interests and insurance companies who are desperate to block reform. They're trying to use lies and fear to break the President and his agenda for change.

Health insurance reform is about our lives, our jobs, and our families -- we can't let distortions and intimidation get in the way. We need to expose these outrageous tactics, and we're counting on you to help. Can you read these "5 facts about the anti-reform mobs," then pass them along to your friends and family?
5 facts about the anti-reform mobs

1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the "Swiftboat" ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.

2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President's plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no "government takeover" in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.

3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the "SS" symbol to compare President Obama's policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting -- and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President's health insurance reform plans, they are trying to "break" the President himself and ruin his Presidency.

4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to "stand up and shout" and try to "rattle" lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.

5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress." It's time to expose this charade, before it gets more dangerous. Please send these facts to everyone you know. You can also post them on your website, blog, or Facebook page.

Now, more than ever, we need to stand strong together and defend the truth.

Thanks,

Jen

Jen O'Malley Dillon
Executive
Director
Democratic National Committee

If I could ask Jen one question, it would be this: How do you like it, now that the shoe is on the other foot?

I think I already know the answer.

Universal Health Care

2009-07-17T17:06:00.002-05:00

My issue is that the game of life has well-written rules. Some jobs have better benefits than others-and health insurance is a good benefit to have. Employers that provide health insurance usually require education, hard work, and dedication.

The playing field is level. Person High graduates have been accepted to Ivy-league schools. Anyone can work hard, get the great job with the excellent health benefits, but fewer and fewer people put in the time.

Since I did work hard, why should I have to carry the freeloaders? Consider the story of Chris Gardner (Pursuit of Happyness). Asked about his rags to riches success on a morning news show, he had this to say:"I did it with a 10 month old. What's your excuse?"

Health insurance is a great thing to have, but it's not an inalienable right. We have the "right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." Personal liberty is spelled out in our Constitution. It places very specific limits on the power of the Federal government, limits that have largely been ignored, trampled on, and forgotten since the Philadelphia Convention signed the document.

It's well known that merely pursuing happiness does not guarantee that one will actually find it.

But Life, that sounds like it falls under the purview of Healthcare! If we are guaranteed life, that must mean we're guaranteed the best quality life that modern medicine can provide! Au contraire, mes amis. The right to life simply means that the government won't kill you outright. Thomas Jefferson mentioned nothing about Quality of Life when he wrote his Declaration. It is a fact that good health drastically improves one's quality of life. So does having lots of money. And these days, it seems that money and health are mutually exclusive goals.

Free health care for all persons in the United States, be they here legally or otherwise, sounds like a great idea. But it will fail. America has the greatest doctors in the world, and that's in large part due to the fact that doctors here get paid a lot more than they do in other countries. Doctors provide a service that everyone will need at least once in their lives. They can pretty much charge whatever they want, and someone will pay it. However, CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services--the existing government health care plan) only pays a certain amount for each procedure, visit, and consult. Given what equipment is necessary for a procedure, CMS might not cover the expenses. If a physician wants more money, he has to make it up with private insurers, or self-pay patients. most insurers pay only what Medicare pays, so if the doctor charges more, tough break, he's going to get reimbursed at the CMS level. Any overhead, then, is left to the self-pay patient, who either pays, or gets his credit rating slashed.

It's expensive to be a doctor, just with equipment, training, support staff, and overhead, but then there's the lawsuit-hungry culture we live in. If the weatherman calls for 6 inches of rain and there's bright sunshine instead, he's never called to task. A doctor can diagnose a patient complaining of hot flashes and headaches with symptoms of menoupause. But if the patient dies of complicatiosn related to pheochromocytoma, then the doctor will get sued. The doctor will do his best to isolate teh pheochromocytomas from the menopauses, but mistakes happen. When a doctor makes a mistake, people die. Consider if everytime you missed a turn when driving, someone died. Before too long, you'd drive very carefully, and you'd almost never miss turns. But you'd never be perfect, and once in a great while, you'd get cut off at the last minute, or the exit wouldn't be marked, or you'd be tired from the fourteen hour workday you were finishing, and you'd miss your turn. And everytime that happened, you'd have to shell out at least a couple hundred thousand dollars, and that's if it wasn't any fault of your own.

And people wonder why healthcare is expensive?

So how do we fix it?

Tort reform is a good start. John Edwards made millions suing the pants of physicians. You can bet he doesn't want tort reform. There's lots of good money to be had there.

Pay for performance is another option. Right now, doctors get paid based on the number of patients they see, and the number of procedures they complete. From a billing standpoint, MRSA is the best thing that ever happened to hospitals. I haven't seen any models for how pay-for-performance works, but the idea behind it is that physicians get reimbursed at a higher rate for patients that stay healthy after seeing the doctor. If a patient has to come back repeatedly, the doctor wont' get paid as much. That has it's own legion of dangers, though. Doctors will only take on simple cases, with healthy patients, and the sickest won't get the care they need.

Warranties is a good idea though. Geisinger Health offers a warranty on heart surgeries. There's a standard price that the doctor gets paid for the heart operation. Any complications with the surgery then come out of the hospital's profits. If the patient gets sick as a direct result of the surgery or hospital stay, the patient does not have to pay extra. It puts a great burden on the doctors to provide the best care they can.

Those are just a few ideas. The one that we know will never, ever work, is government control. Do you want your hospital run like the DMV? Or the Post Office? Or Amtrak? Or Acorn?

Big Hollywood Requests: A List of Favorite Movies

2009-02-24T16:17:00.004-06:00

As commentor dan_O requested, here's a list of my all-time favorite movies. These are in no particular order, except for the first handful. Some of them aren't worth watching more than once, but they do need to be seen at some point in your life.

Boondock Saints
Equilibrium
Batman: The Dark Knight
Batman Begins
Breaking Away
XXX (better than James Bond, if I say so myself.)
Sullivan's Travels
1776

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Sleeping Beauty
Beauty and the Beast
Rules of Engagement
La Boum
The Princess Bride
Die Hard with a Vengeance
The Prestige
It Happened One Night
Stranger Than Paradise
Bull Durham
Fistful of Dollars
Star Wars (all 6, but I like ep 3 the best)
Far and Away
October Sky
Terminator 1 and 2
Shaolin Soccer
To Sir, With Love
Rocky (1 & 2)
A Christmas Story
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Muppet Family Christmas
Amelie
Les Ripoux (aka "My New Partner")
Jean de Florette
Charade
Meet Me in St Louis
Stand and Deliver
Amadeus (I took a music class in high school, this was the class where they threw all the deadbeats (read drug dealers, drug users, and all around lazy people) who needed one credit to graduate, and any course that required thinking might be too hard to pass. They were riveted to the screen.)
Wanted
Transformers
Rear Window
Gladiator (Russel Crowe, not Cuba Gooding Jr)
The Patriot (Mel Gibson one, not the Stephen Seagal one.)
Jerry McGuire
Aliens (and Alien)
Predator
Batman and Batman Returns (Micheal Keaton)
The Bucket List
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
Curse of the Golden Flower
The Emporer and the Assassin
Titanic
What's Eating Gilbert Grape
Pirates of the Caribbean
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Gene Wilder version)
The Producers (Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel version)
Blazing Saddles (Notice a trend here?)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Ronin

And there I think the list is long enough. Further additions as events warrant.

On Public Speaking, and President Obama's Skill Therewith

2009-02-10T12:17:00.003-06:00

I saw Obama's press conference yesterday, and watch O'Reilly's commentary afterwards. I must confess, I was underwhelmed. Since the campaign began, all the news analysts, liberal and conservative alike, have been gushing about what a phenomenal speaker President Obama is. I just don't see it.

I know the common sentiment is when he's using the teleprompter, he is the finest orator since Demosthenes, but when he's speaking off the cuff, there's no telling what he'll say. I agree with the latter, but not the former.

His speech last night, to put it simply, was boring. Even Bill O'Reilly was bored. Obama speaks clearly, he has no accent, and he pronounces everything correctly, but there's nothing special about that. Any Toastmaster can do that. I can do that. I'm not impressed, Mr President.

His question and answer was worse than boring. Not only is "Umm" the President's favorite word, but I felt like he was condescending. I've never felt like that before. He ended every unnecessarily verbose answer with "Mmkay?". If I had done that in my public speaking class at Appalachian State University (a university not renowned for it's oratorial excellence), I'd have gotten at least one letter grade knocked off. You just don't condescend to your audience.

A President should not ever say "umm" or "er". Compare President Obama speaking extemporaneously to talk show host Dennis Miller. When Miller is asked a question, there's usually at least a full second pause before he responds. He says nothing while he thinks of what he's going to say. The pause is just long enough to be noticeable, but not long enough to interrupt the flow of the dialogue. He never stammers; he never minces words. Miller could orate circles around our President.

Furthermore, despite President Obama's verbal tics, he never says anything off the cuff that he didn't already say when he was using the teleprompter. It appears as though he doesn't have any more information in his head than on the screen, and what appears on the screen isn't much.

I question the use of teleprompters by Presidents. The President of the United States should be informed enough to know all the details of the current issue, without needing notes, and he should be intelligent enough to remember his speech. If Brad Pitt can remember his lines, shouldn't the President be able to remember his?

Economic Stimulus, or They Took Our Jobs!

2009-01-30T10:00:00.004-06:00

President Obama has promised to "save or create 3 million jobs" over the next couple of years. The plan, as I understand it, is to spend a heck of a lot of money in an FDR-esque infrastructure refurbishment. I have no problem with that, and it's obvious our infrastructure needs work. When bridges collapse in the most powerful nation in the world, it's just plain embarrassing.

Rush Limbaugh has published his take on the stimulus, and I agree with much of what he says. Take the percentage of people who voted for McCain (46%) and the percentage of people who voted for Obama (54%), and divide the stimulus accordingly. The 54% portion goes to Obama's plan. The 46% portion goes to Reaganomic-supply side endeavors. We get to scientifically determine which has a better effect on the economy, while giving the appearance of making progress in the recessed economy. I like that plan.

However, what are the specifics? I read the Limbuagh show notes and his Wall Street Journal article. They speak of the high cost of doing business in America, and that businesses are taxed to the point of inoperability in this country. That doesn't make sense to me. Here's my proposal: Ask every American company that has outsourced operations to foreign countries how much money they save by running their plant outside the USA. If they bring those jobs back to the US, they get a tax cut equal to the difference in operations costs. Example: if employees make 35 cents per hour in Madagascar, and that job would pay $35 here, then that company gets $35.65 per employee in tax credit. They'll have to rebuild derelict factories, but that's infrastructure that will, in itself, provide more work for Americans.

Since many of the talking heads are talking about reducing the capital gains tax, I think this proposal would meet their approval.

The government can take steps to ameliorate the economic and employment problem in this country, however, it's up to the citizens to take advantage of it. I've seen a lot of evidence pointing to people who don't want to work. Children of baby boomers, in particular, are among the worst offenders. I myself am a member of that demographic. I remember learning in school that all I needed for success was a college degree, and the world would open up for me.

It's not true. When everyone has a degree, no one stands out. Therefore, a person must find other ways to attract the attention of employers. Having a previous job, any job, fills this need. Back to the Baby Boomers' progeny: We've got pride, misplaced or otherwise, that prevents us from taking the unglamorous jobs, or the perfect job at an imperfect salary. We, as a whole, would rather live with our parents for a few more years while pursuing that perfect job, or pursuing a post-graduate degree. That attitude needs to change.

My first job out of college was for a retail printing and shipping store. I was surrounded by complacent slackers with no desire for upward mobility. I had a midlife crisis of sorts--I was pissed off at myself for not being able to achieve better, and angry at the economy (even in 2006) that prevented me from finding a job in my field. I slacked of at the job I had, putting my livelihood in danger. My manager saw this, took me aside, and gave me this advice:

"This is where you work. It's not where you wanted to be at this point in your life, but it IS where you are now. Do well here, and something will eventually come up. Jobs will open up in other fields. Management positions may open up here. The better you do, WHEREVER YOU ARE, the easier the path will be to take you where you want to go."

I took it to heart. I used the company's education assistance program to get a second degree (in a growth industry-computers). I went from third shift production to second shift production manager. I went from second shift production manager to running the store by myself on weekends. Then, a job opened up in my field, and I took the position. I wouldn't have been able to do it had I not taken that job. Had I held out for a better job on the get-go, I wouldn't have been in that ideal position when opportunity came knocking.

Americans' attitudes about work need to change. No job is meaningless, and while different jobs may pay drastically different salaries, the line on a resume is always worth more than the paycheck. Even if President Obama does manage to create 3 million jobs, at this point I'm wondering who would take them?

On Certifications and Training

2008-12-11T16:15:00.004-06:00

I've now been at Epic for six months. During the hiring process, that's the amount of time they said it takes to be trained. Some people complete training a lot faster. I procrastinated, which is always a bad idea. The main thing that held me up was the C exercise. I don't know why it's called that, as it has nothing to do with the C language (Epic uses Cache, which is based off of M), and there are no corresponding A or B exercises. It was a tricky little bit of programming, but there was always this nagging thought in the back of my mind that there was a much easier way to fulfill the requirements of the exercise. Oh well. It's over now and I'm certified in everything.

Despite it taking me six months to meet the minimum requirements, I've done a lot more. I'm certified in three applications, including my main app. There's a nice financial incentive to pursue extra certifications, and doing so is my main means of getting out of debt right now. That, and using a debt management company. I should have done that a lot sooner.

Dream Big

2008-12-01T14:00:00.001-06:00

This is from May, 2007. I just finished reading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy.

The Legacy of our Generation

Science fiction is easily the most thought-provoking literature in print. The general format is pose a problem, then create a solution. The problems tend to be Herculaen in difficulty, and the solutions monumental. Older sci-fi novels have possessed plot devices that, while unknown in their own time, later came into reality. One HG Wells novel mentioned mobile armored artillery platforms years before World War I, which saw the advent of tanks. Jules Verne was writing about submarines before bathyspheres were even ivented (someone check this for me). Not an invention, but it's cool nonetheless: Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote about the two moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, before astronomers ever saw them.

That's old sci-fi. Modern sci-fi has a thousand books about colonization of space, politicking with alien cultures, unified world-wide governments, war where skirmishes are fought light-years apart, zombie plagues... The list goes on. And almost all of it takes place far away from Earth.

Let's take the Mars Trilogy, by Kim Stanley Robinson for an example. No aliens, no galactic wars, no hordes of shambling undead. Just a mission to establish a research colony on Mars, Earth's most hospitable neighbor. A team of 100 men and women gets sent. They build cities. They begin controlled global warming to get the ice water on Mars to liquefy. They send robots to mine the asteroids. They dig holes 20 kilometers deep to pour areothermal (like geothermal, but for Mars) heat into the atmosphere. They create a space elevator that is at once touching the planet surface and in orbit. They do things in one lifetime that rival nothing since the industrial revolution of the late 19th century.

The end of the trilogy has a successful colony on Mars, colonies in progress on Titan, Mercury, Europa, Ganymede, and anywhere else that's big enough to put a person on.

The colonization project totally changed every aspect of everyone's life on every world. From politics, to interpersonal relationships, to technology, to religion. And it started from an idea.

From fiction to fact. By my reckoning, the last several centuries have seen a few ideas like this, and they all revolve around travel. Marco Polo's excursion opened up a whole new world. Fishing junks grew to schooners, to ships that could sail from England to Hong Kong. Columbus paved the way for his own sort of off-world colonization project. All made possible by the invention of really big boats. New products are introduced, based off of different agricultural methods, substances, divergent evolutions.

Later, James Watt discovers that steam is useful for moving things. Big things. Very fast. Lay down a couple of rails to give it a smooth ride, and what was once a month or so of boat ride becomes a week or so of train. Stuff that would rot traveling by boat from China to Portugal now can travel overland fast enough that the orient becomes less of a legend and more like a tangible place.

Later, some Ohioan immigrants to North Carolina put Bernouli's Principal to clever use. Around the world in 80 days? Phineas Fogg sure was sandbagging. People travel all over the world, stopping on each continent in a week. What was a journey of years, was now whittled down to a journey of a single day. People could get fresh oranges any time of year. Venezualan coffee, whenever they wanted. The exports of every culture, delivered to their door.

Then man goes into space. We know there are no cultures waiting to be discovered on the moon. No new toys to bring back to the little ones. This is a venture that will show no fiscal returns. Mankind puts all its effort into it nonetheless. Successful venture. Then--nothing.

The space program was the first and last monumental undertaking that was completely for scientific and research purposes. The movement to faster movement stopped there.

But wait! you say. What about this internet thing? Lots of people worked on that! Well, it's brought people closer together than ever before. All the combined knowledge of the world is at our disposal. We can travel to the far reaches of the planet, without leaving our climate-controlled living rooms, in which our HD tvs reside, playing our favorite episodes of House.

Well. Here we are. Since the internet, what progress has been made? What new ideas born? What heretofore unknowns have become known? What figurative mountains have been conquered for no other reason than because it was there? What progress is there to be made?

What point is there to making any progress? We have arrived.

A short story I read once told of a wizard who created a Man from his dreams. The Man was a hero, sent to slay an ogre who routinely terrorized the town. The ogre lived on an island, thus the hero was forced to sail to the ogre's lair to defeat him. The wizard, fearing for his creation and given to worry instructed the crew to raise black sails on their return home should the hero fall in battle. Battle ensued, the hero used fire to defeat the ogre, smoke from said fire staining the sails black. The hero emerged victorious, and unscathed. The wizard, upon seeing the black sails, wept, and died. Last words of the story: "What man lives, when his dreams are dead?"

Civilization, with the birth of the internet, has stagnated. There's no future to look forward to. Only a continuous, mind-numbing perpetual present. Another daily grind at the office, another routine day of scanning produce labels while customers yammer to stupid devices jammed in their ears. What's there to dream for? A different job? Everything is service industry. Gamestop is the same as Food Lion. Move to a different city? Architecture and the accents change, but LA has the same problems as DC.

In all eras previous, there was always a frontier for malcontents to run to--for the disaffected to pull up roots, and create for themselves utopia. They weren't always searching for a promised land as much as an adventure. Now, there's nowhere to go. We can see other planets, but we're fish, trapped in our terrestrial aquarium.

I'll end with a hypostrophe. What man lives, when his dreams are dead? Our dreams are stillborn. What kind of life is that?

Another oldie but goodie

2008-11-11T14:50:00.000-06:00

I wrote this one in Febuary 2007.

Military Strategy 101
There's a lot of debate in Washington about the War in Iraq. Many say that pulling out of Iraq is the best choice, the only choice. Others think that to leave now would be suicide for America. In war, the side that quits first is the side that loses. It's a forfeit, and every athlete in every high school across the country understands that you don't want to be the team that forfeits. Forfeiting the game (or war) is the same as saying you're too lily-livered, too chicken, too yeller to stand up and fight. I, for one, don't want to look at my country and see yeller.

Miyamoto Musashi was a renowned samurai in Japan's feudal era. He fought his first duel at age 13 against a grown samurai. He won that duel as the loser died choking on his own blood. Before the age of 29, he entered more than 60 duels, and won them all. By 35, he quit using swords of steel, in favor of wooden bokken, or training swords. He continued to fight, and he continued to win.

He later wrote a book, entitled "A Book of Five Rings." It outlined his Way, the steps to achieve victory with the sword. It's been used by military strategists and businessmen to win conflicts ever since.

Journalists need to read this. Politicians need to read this. Military leaders need to read it again. Soldiers need to read this.

"To cut and slash are two different things. Cutting, whatever form of cutting it is, is decisive, with a resolute spirit. Slashing is nothing more than touching the enemy. Even if you slash strongly, and even if the enemy dies instantly, it is slashing. When you cut, your spirit is resolved."

America's spirit isn't resolved. We're slashing at phantoms half-heartedly. In the 1940s, we were committed to cutting down the enemy. America was united in its resolve to be victorious over enemies that wanted to conquer and rule America. Today the enemies are less numerous, but there goals are higher. They want nothing less than the complete destruction of America and everything it stands for. And they're not afraid to kill you at work, at play, or in your sleep. They've done it to others.

Americans, thanks to the media and frightened politicians (not scared for their lives, mind, but scared for their re-election campaign) are too scared to cut the enemy. We slash, and we miss. We touch the enemy, but the enemy dances away from our blade.

"[You must] crush the enemy, regarding him as being weak. In large-scale strategy, when we see that the enemy has few men, or if he has many men but his spirit is weak and disordered, we knock the hat over his eyes, crushing him utterly. If we crush lightly, he may recover. In single combat, if the enemy is less skilful than ourself, if his rhythm is disorganized, or if he has fallen into evasive or retreating attitudes, we must crush him straightaway, with no concern for his presence and without allowing him space for breath. It is essential to crush him all at once. The primary thing is not to let him recover his position even a little."

A crushed enemy is an enemy that can't fight back. If America pulls out of the Middle East now, then the enemy will have crushed us. The only way to prevent this war from becoming "Bush's Vietnam" is to win.

Going Live

2008-11-05T14:40:00.000-06:00

During the many steps in the hiring process, my interviewers made it very clear that working at Epic involves travel. Depending on the position, you'll be required to travel quite a bit. But most positions allow you to travel as much or as little as you want.

If you're an implementer (listed as Project Manager/Implementation Consultant on Epic's website), you'll travel a lot. At least 50% of the time. I share my office with an implementor, and I rarely see him. If you're employed in any of the other positions, you get to pick when you travel, or at least I've been able to so far. When my main customer goes live, I'll be required to put a couple of weeks in at their site, but the HR people who hired me gave me plenty of forewarning.

I've seen a lot of rants, angry blog posts, and general grumpiness from disgruntled Ex-Epic employees, and people who didn't make the numerous cuts required by the hiring process. Most of them involve the lack of warning about travel, expected hours in a work-week, and general stuff like that. I can only speak for myself, but Epic was very up front about all that. They didn't sugar-coat anything.

Anyway, I had my first opportunity to travel at Epic's expense over the weekend. It was within driving range, so I got to get in my car and explore Greater Wisconsin. I drove past the Ho-Chunk Casino, saw some spectacular-looking waterslides in the Dells, saw gas prices steadily decline the farther I got from Verona.

Having had no clinical background besides what my RN mom brought home with her from her home health supervisor job, working in an ED was interesting. It was as much a steep learning curve for me learning the ED as it was for the nurses, doctors, social workers, EMTs, paramedics, etc learning Epic. There was a lot of frustration on the first day. By the second day, things were running a lot smoother. Most of the people working in the ED looked like they wanted to walk across the parking lot and admit themselves to the psych ward after work on the first day. A couple of hours into the second day, though, they were using Epic like old pros.

I learned a lot on the trip. Mostly, no amount of training in the classroom can prepare users for after Go-Live. Users have to learn new workflows, and if one link in the chain messes up, it screws everybody. Also, Epic staff need to spend more time in the clinics, the EDs, on the hospital floors. We, as a whole, don't know enough about the inner workings of a hospital to be the best use we can be. However, that could just be me.

Food for thought before the election

2008-10-27T14:39:00.000-05:00

In my old blog, which I will delete soon, I wrote what I think are some pretty poignant rants. I figured I should share them here before I delete the old blog for ever.

Food for Thought

I found this on a message board. Thought it was kinda interesting.

Regardless of your political views, this certainly gives us all food for thought.

SENATOR JOHN GLENN SAID: Things that make you think a little.......
1. There were 39 combat related killings in Iraq during the month of January (2007-ed.).....In the fair city of Detroit there were 35 murders in the month of January. That's just one American City, about as deadly as the entire war torn country of Iraq.
2. When some claim President Bush shouldn't have started this war, state the following: FDR...led us into World War II. Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year. Truman...finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,334 per year. John F. Kennedy....started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us. Johnson...turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year. Clinton...went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent, Bosnia never attacked us. He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing. Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions.
3. In the two years since terrorists attacked us President Bush has liberated two countries, crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaeda, put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot, and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people. The Democrats are complaining about how long the war is taking, but...It took less time to take Iraq than it took Janet Reno to take the Branch Dravidian compound. That was a 51-day operation. We've been looking for evidence of chemical weapons in Iraq for less time than it took Hillary Clinton to find the Rose Law Firm billing records. It took less time for the 3rd Infantry Division and the Marines to destroy the Medina Republican Guard than it took Ted Kennedy to call the police after his Oldsmobile sank at Chappaquiddick killing a woman.
Wait, there's more... Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living. This is a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of our military.
JOHN GLENN ON THE SENATE FLOOR Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2004 11:13
Senator Howard Metzenbaum to Senator Glenn: "How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?"
Senator Glenn: "I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by antiaircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program. It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank. I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day...to a veteran's hospital and look those men - with their mangled bodies - in the eye, and tell THEM they didn't hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their Dads didn't hold a job. You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags. You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell ME that those people didn't have a job? I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum; you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men - SOME MEN - who held REAL jobs. And they required a dedication to a purpose - and a love of country and a dedication to duty that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible. I HAVE held a job, Howard! What about you?"
For those who don't remember - During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the COMMUNIST PARTY in the USA.

#30#

Just something to think about.

What this is

2008-10-24T15:58:00.000-05:00

I'm closing my other blog. I don't like how I don't know how to get pictures on it, and I don't feel like fixing it, so I'm closing it down. I'll copy the good stuff onto this one though.

So, onto other things. I no longer work for a printing/shipping company. I got a job at Epic, in Verona, Wisconsin. I'm a TS, which means my job description includes the job descriptions of all the other positions here. I write code, I do QA, I help our customers solve their technical issues with a smile on my face and encyclopedic knowledge in my brain.

Right now, I'm technically still in training. I've been here almost 5 months, and I'm almost done with everything that I need to be done with. Only one test and one project to go, and I'll be a fully qualified Epic TS. Huzzah.

This blog will accomplish several things. One, it's a soapbox to rant on. Two, it's a medium that prospective Epic employees can peruse to find what qualifications, ideas, and attitudes they need to have to procure employment with this exemplary company, in order that if they don't get the job, they'll know why. There is a plethora of posts on various websites complaining of the hiring practices of Epic. Personally, I found their full disclosure policy extremely fair and refreshing, but some people apparently didn't listen when HR went over the expectations. Their loss. The third reason for this blog is to earn a pittance with advertising and perhaps get a few people to sign up to take surveys for cash money. On two survey websites, to date, I've earned over $150. And this for nothing more than allowing an email account to be spammed. Links are over there on the right: ===>

Sit back, enjoy the reading, and let me know if you want a job here. I'm empowered to grease the wheels.