News TV No Fun for Kids

More funny phrases from the younger generation...

My son complained the other day when he turned on the TV because it was on a news channel instead of cartoons. Well, that's how I describe it. He put it a bit differently:

He said the TV was showing "The newspaper movie".

An Easy Way to Invest in Gold

You can invest in gold very easily through GLD, an ETF. An ETF(exchange-traded-fund) is a mutual fund that is traded on the exchange like a stock.

The GLD fund holds actual gold. And since they hold it, you don't have to deal with carting around wheelbarrows full of gold -- we all know how annoying that can be! :)

Peter Schiff has predicted the price of the DOW and the price of gold will meet at some point. Currently the DOW is at about 8,500 and gold is under 1,000. If they are going to meet there is a lot of bleeding still left in stocks... and/or a lot to be made -- or at least protected -- with gold.

10/28/08 Peter Schiff predicts doomed economy under Obama

Peter Schiff Was Right 2006 - 2007

Economic Situation - What do we do?

Things are bad in the economy in many ways. I DO mean to sound like an alarmist, because I think we need to be discussing and planning. Before we can plan, we have to look realistically at our situation. The government is playing extremely dangerous games with money. As reactionary as it may sound, I think we may be at the edge of events that could significantly change all of our lives.

Citigroup released a report with dire warnings about the economic situation. (Glenn Beck discussing the Citigroup report). This is Citigroup, not some radicals moving out the the wilderness and stocking up on guns and canned food. They talk about "meltdowns" and "political instability". More evidence that maybe we are teetering on the edge. In Citigroup's words "The world is not going back to normal after the magnitude of what they have done."

What do we do? We definitely need to be having dialogs about it. In my view, we need to be doing a few things:

1. Don't panic. Thankfully God is the one in charge, not the fools in Washington
2. Buy gold (there is a lot about gold in this article)
3. Do disaster planning: have food and necessities on hand, at least like you would for a hurricane or blizzard (perhaps a lot more)
4. Talk about it. We need to take care of ourselves and each other. We cannot depend on the government to do it.

I.O.U.S.A.

Here is a free half our version of the movie I.O.U.S.A. Visit their home web site here.

The Obama Bubble

There is a tendency people have to avoid the reality of market cycles. Things go up, things go down. But we want to ignore that second part.

First there was the "Dot Com" bubble. Internet companies were up, up up! dooooooown.

So people bailed and went into real estate. People bought houses that were bigger than they needed because it was an "investment" (how's that working out?). Some people put granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances into old shacks in California and sold them for half a million dollars. You couldn't lose. Then again...

So here we are. The internet bubble popped. The real estate bubble popped. So what do we bail to next? What is the next wave? The next thing to go only up? What could solve all of our financial problems?

Whatever it is, I sure hope it arrives soon to save us. This time it won't pop. It will only go up, only get better and better. Finally, the bubble to end all bubbles.

Two Fumbs Up

It is entertaining to watch kids learn. My son speaks pretty well, but there are still a few cute quirks.

One lingering one is the use of "F" versus "Th" in certain situations. He can say both; it is not a matter of pronunciation. He just mixes them up.

According to him, he has two Fumbs and lots of Thingers.

Condolences to Dick Durban

Condolences to Dick Durban and his family at the loss of his adult daughter (story).

Contentment

If you keep your food in a refrigerator, your clothes in a closet, if you have a bed to sleep in and a roof over your head, you are richer than 75% of the entire world's population.

...and be content with such things as ye have...
Hebrews 13:5

No matter how poverty is defined, if I were an unborn spirit, condemned to a life of poverty, but God allowed me to choose which nation I wanted to be poor in, I'd choose the United States. Our poor must be the envy of the world's poor.
- Walter Williams

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.
- Seneca, Epistles

The "poor" in the U.S. according to Robert Rechter of the Heritage Foundation
46% own their own home (3BR, 1.5BA, garage, porch/patio)
80% have A/C
89% have microwave
3/4 own a car, 31% have two or more cars
97% have a TV, 1/2 have two or more TV's
78% have a DVD or VCR
62% have cable or satellite
1/3 have dishwasher
1/3 both land line and cell phone

There are people clinging to the bottoms of trucks for the chance to be poor in this country.
- Michael Graham

Imagine how happy you would be if you lost everything that you have...then got it back.

King of the Mountain Forever

There is an interesting thing I have noticed while investing -- I mean losing money -- in the stock market: when everyone agrees things are only going up, it is time to get out fast.

I have a feeling the principle works for things other than stocks also. It certainly held true for real estate over the last few years. The one thing you always here is everyone saying how up is the only direction. They will often even acknowledge past events where everyone thought something was going up forever and crashed, but this time it is for sure. There is no peak in sight! The dot com bubble popped, but real estate has real value.

Is it possible it is true for nations as well? Greece, Rome, Great Britain with it's never-setting sun, they all must have thought themselves invincible. I think it is a dangerous thing to assume you are king of the world by right.

Speaking with Bill O'Reily in 10/27/08 about the election of Obama vs. McCain, Geraldine Ferraro had this to say:

The United States is a superpower, no matter what.

No matter what. How do I sell my stock?

Fun with Homophones

According to my son, meet...

The Incredible Honk

Worldview: God vs. Toyota

Two views of the world and our place in it...

God:

Genesis 1:28: God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Toyota:

...the best way to have an impact on the environment is to have as little impact as possible.

In the Future, Everyone will be Stupid for 15 Minutes

The appeal of pop culture amazes me. Sure, I have favorite actors. I have even been known to spend real time on imdb.com following a "Six Degrees" thread of links. But it is crazy the degree to which people get caught up in it.

Some time ago I was watching an episode of 1 vs. 100 (which may or may not still be on the air -- I proudly don't know). It is a quiz-type of show, which, as the name implies, pits one person against 100 others. It is multiple choice, and although not all of the questions are easy, it is no Jeopardy.

In this episode, there were two questions that I thought really illustrated to problem of people simply not paying attention to what is important.

Question #1: Ashton Kutcher is the stepfather of ______
The question involved knowledge of the soap opera that is Hollywood. You had to know that his is with (married?) Demi Moore, who used to be married to Bruce Willis, so they name of the kid in the multiple choice has the last name Willis. Out of the 100 people (or however many were left at the time of the question) only 5 people got it wrong! Almost everyone knew the answer.

At first that sounds great. People are smart. They are paying attention. Maybe. But paying attention to what? The next question didn't go quite as well.

Question 2 was regarding the government. What is a position in the House or Senate:
A. Majority Whip
B. Majority Chain
C. Majority Paddle

25 people did not know the answer to the question. Twenty five! That question came after the Ashton Kutcher question, so every one of those 25 had gotten that one right. But they didn't know the legislature does not employ chains or paddles. Mind you, they didn't have to name who the Majority Whip was, they just had to recall that such a thing existed.

It is as this point that I humbly suggest some sort of simple test before allowing someone to vote.

Anticipating the counter-proposal, I would gladly submit to a test of Hollywood trivia before I am allowed to watch the latest Ashton Kutcher movie.

Oh, and the picture inset...that's Dick Durbin, Senate Majority Whip as of the writing of this entry...not Ashton Kutcher. Mr. Durbin may or may not have something to do with the title of this entry.

Governement: Hardly at Work or Too Hard at Work

We have all heard the phrase, work smarter, not harder. Apparently the State of North Carolina take the opposite view.

Last month I filed a tax report that had a problem. It was my mistake. I accidentally counted some money for the wrong month. I thought I owed $434 and had already filled out the form when I realized my mistake. The tax belonged to a different month. I really owed nothing for the month. The form is pre-filled from a booklet, so there was no spare. I didn't really think anything of it; I just crossed out the amount and wrote zero. It made the form ugly, but hey, all it said was "0" anyway.

The response from the state was ridiculous. Apparently the forms are read by a machine, which could not make out my scratched up correction. I can understand that, and as previously admitted, that was my fault entirely.


However, their reaction is just plain stupid. If the machine can't read the form, it should just go into a pile for human processing. Any reasonable human being -- or even a state employee -- could read the form. They would also have been able to verify the non-existence of the check to pay the $0 amount.

But why do the quick and easy thing? Instead, it apparently goes into a pile for human non-processing. Rather than simply reading the form and entering the information, they read the form and generated a whole new form -- by hand -- saying that the machine couldn't read my form. After filling out the form they sent the whole thing back to me (at taxpayer expense) with a blank form for me to fill out...with another 0.

My guess is, there is a full-time position in the "I can't read this form" department just to take care of this sort of thing. The persons job is to ignore the simple solution to the problem, create a bunch of new paperwork, and cost the taxpayers money.

The next thing I'm looking forward to is a fine for late filing a form with a zero on it. That will be a joy!

Automotive Patriotism

Some people argue about whether it is more patriotic to buy an American car than a foreign car. I happen to have an Acura, which is made in Japan.

This picture is proof of the patriotism of foreign automobiles. On July 4, 2008, my car added it's support. When I went to start up the car, the trip odometer read "1776". Okay, just a hair past, but still pretty good.

Dumbing Down Pride

I am sure I am not alone in being annoyed by the "Proud Parent" bumper stickers. I'm proud of my kids too, but I don't need to advertise it on my car. Get a blog for Pete's sake! :)

But worse is how the threshold of pride keeps dropping. It used to be "Proud Parent of an Honor Student at Lincoln High". Now it's things like "My Kid is a Good Citizen at Lincoln High".

This is the same sort of self-esteem garbage we see constantly from the misguided school system. You can't say someone is "better" because it will hurt the feelings of others. So, there are no "winners" only "participants".

But where does this end? Let's fast forward through a few years of political correctness...

My Kid is a Good Citizen at Lincoln High -- implies a value in citizenry, which implies loyalty to some contrived system

My Kid is a Human Being at Lincoln High -- what about non-humans? Animals? Aliens? Non-humans are people too!

My Kid is an Person at Lincoln High -- better, but still might offend some aliens

My Kid is an Entity at Lincoln High -- yeah...except for the "kid" part, that is still too human

My Offspring is an Entity at Lincoln High -- but that could be offensive to the infertile

The Organic Organism in My Care is an Entity at Lincoln High -- Could be offensive to robots and cyborgs

An Object in My Care is an Entity at Lincoln High -- not bad

Really fills you with pride, doesn't it.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

This is what happens when a child uses headphones before he uses a stethoscope.

Pickles and Hemlock

We buried my grandmother last weekend. She was a resilient woman of 92 years who had a long, rich life, fought through much adversity, and bounced back from several incidents in her later years that would have meant the end of most.

I remember her for a lot of things: special treats she baked on an old wood-burning stove, playing in the mazes we built in the huge patch of lilacs in her yard, and many other things. But the things I remember most are two incidents that just make me laugh.

One time, we were all sitting around in her kitchen discussing politics and the troubles of the world -- well, complaining really since I don't recall any real solutions being offered. My grandmother was quietly working around the kitchen until she finally chimed in with her take on what was wrong with the world..."And the price of pickles...!" If she finished the sentence, I didn't hear it over the sound I was making rolling on the floor laughing.

On another occasion, we were talking about someone choking. I don't recall why that was the topic, who else was there, or what they had to say. The only thing I remember is my grandmother's advice: If someone is choking, give them the "Hemlock maneuver". Results may vary.

Farewell grandma. Rest in the arms of your savior.

Helpful liberals

Liberals are such helpful people. I'm not sure it is possible to be a liberal without having a cause. They just always want to help.

The problem that I have is their concept of "helping". I always thought that helping meant that you do something helpful -- you contribute something. But generally when a liberal tries to "help" a cause, it involves them trying to make other people do things and pay money.

Liberals help the environment by telling you and me that we are destroying the planet and we should change the way we do everything. Thanks for the help guys, I think I can smell the cleaner air.

Liberals want to help the poor, so they take money from you and me and give it to them. Thanks liberals, you really did your part. I sure wish I could help the poor.

Liberals, please stop! I don't have the time, energy or money to keep "accepting" your help!

.45 Caliber Chiuaua?

We were sitting in church today and the pastor was preaching about the Israelites about to march around Jericho. He mentioned that they had no weapons.

My daughter turned to me and said "A weapon is a chiuaua." I said "What?" -- I thought I must have misheard her. "A weapon is a chiuaua," she repeated, matter-of-factly.

Now, kids say funny things all the time, but this one really had me stumped. What was going on inside that little brain? Maybe we need to give up home schooling if this is the result.

Just when I was ready to give up trying to understand, her cousin, sitting beside her, chimed in "No, I have a Webkinz."

Home Sweet ... Battery?

My son has a lot of toys, many of them that use batteries. In fact, an amazing number of them that use batteries. (Is there anything that can't be battery powered?) He is always leaving his flashlight on and then complains that its "out of batteries".

Last week there was a car crash a few blocks from our house. It hit a pole and knocked out power to our whole neighborhood. The way he saw it, our house was "out of batteries". :)

Alms for the Independent

Have you seen the commercials for the hoveround motorized wheelchair? You can regain your mobility and independence...and Medicare will pay for it.

That's right, regain your independence by making all the rest of us buy you a wheelchair.