Tuesday, July 07, 2009

African thunderstorm

African thunderstorm

Shared via AddThis
The Sounds of Silence

Have you noticed just how loud and noisy life is today? We're surrounded by talking, noises from machines, office equipment, traffic, TV, personal audio devices, cell phones, etc. The first thing I do when I get in my car is turn the radio or CD player on. The first thing I do when I get home is turn the TV on. The first thing I do in the morning is turn the TV on.

Some sounds are wanted, such as the laughter of a child, another person saying, "I Love You", or even just "Hello". A ringing phone with someone on the other end saying "You're hired" or "you have a grandchild". These are all wanted.

Sometimes, the noise gets to be too much. I remember many years ago, I used to have a radio on in my office tuned to a station that played high energy music. I started to notice that I was on edge, jumpy, and even somewhat short tempered. I couldn't concentrate. My work didn't necessarily suffer, but my soul did. I tried an experiment and switched to a station that played less strident music and I calmed down. The louder, high energy music was stressing me. It wasn't good for me, especially since I was in a job that could be stressful.

Over the years I've learned that I don't like loud noise of any kind, whether it's music, talking, outside noise, whatever. I don't enjoy concerts where the music is louder than the singer. If I have to yell to be heard, or can't understand what another person is saying, it's too loud. I've heard a couple of TV commercials recently that have music playing behind voice over commentary. The problem is that the music is nearly drowning out the voice. I have no idea what the product or service was since I couldn't hear what the actor was saying.

I don't think I have a hearing problem. When the sound levels are "normal", and there isn't a lot of extraneous noise, I can hear everything just fine. I live alone, with just my dogs and cat, so it's nice to have the TV on to hear another human voice when I'm home. But sometimes, isn't it nice just to sit and hear nothing but your own breathing? I read a blog about that very thing: the need for silence in our lives.

For most of us, it's calming and relaxing to be in silence. It's a time to unwind, to de-stress and to remember just who we are and where we are in our lives. The idea is to just be in the quiet, the silence of the moment.

I'm very lucky that I don't have a lot of noise in my life these days. Once I leave work, most of my stress is gone. But even so, I think I'm going to start taking a few minutes at some time in the evening just to listen to the silence around me.
By Hilary Walke | June 23, 2009

The weather is warm, the beaches are gorgeous, the accents are sexy, and…. the men prefer a size 14 woman?

Yup. We love you, Australia.

According to new data, men down under like something to grab on to. As opposed to America’s obsession with waif-thin models, Aussie men prefer what the researchers are calling "Miss Average," a size 14 woman. The study found that the most attractive woman of all is as follows.

Height: 5ft 4in
Waist: 30in
Hips: 40in
Size: 14

Slightly overweight people may live longer than very thin people >>

And it doesn’t stop there. The too-thin-celeb-trend may be just that: too thin. The University of New South Wales researchers said “many modern-day celebrities may simply be too thin to be tempting.”

Momlogic did their own research to see if American men were ready for the size 14’s. The results? They’re not. Yet sadly, we’re not surprised.

Africa is right up there with Australia’s trend, but on a different kind of note.

Overweight and obese women from the country of Mauritania in Africa are considered beautiful, rich, and desirable. However, some argue they have taken it too far.

With “wife-fattening” farms and girls who are force fed from their childhood, Mauritania’s government has argued that the weight these girls grow to is “life threatening.”

"I make them eat lots of dates, lots and lots of couscous and other fattening food," Fatematou said to BBC News. Fatematou is in her sixties, very overweight, and runs a feeding camp that parents send their daughters to for extreme weight gain.

Making your children finish their vegetables at dinner is one thing. But force-feeding? That’s just out of line.

With America’s obesity rates rising and models getting thinner and thinner, are we forgetting where to draw the line when it comes to weight issues?

It seems as though we have put appearance on top of health in our priority list, and it’s not looking pretty.

Note: there are links within this article, but I didn't transfer them. Too lazy, I guess, but you can read the entire article by clicking on the link in the headline.

Monday, July 06, 2009

Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater.

If you give her sperm, she'll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she'll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she'll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she'll give you her heart. She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her.

So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit

The Perks of Reaching 50

Someone had to remind me, so I'm reminding you, too.

Don't laugh....It's all true!

Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and heading towards 70!

1. Kidnappers are not very interested in you.

2. In a hostage situation, you are likely to be released first.

3. No one expects you to run -- anywhere.

4. People call at 9 PM and ask, 'Did I wake you?'

5. People no longer view you as a hypochondriac.

6. There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

7. Things you buy now won't wear out.

8. You can eat supper at 4 PM..

9. You can live without sex - but not your glasses.

11. You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

12. You quit trying to hold your stomach in no matter who walks into the room.

13. You sing along with elevator music.

14. Your eyes won't get much worse.

15. Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

16. Your joints are more accurate meteorologists than the national weather service.

17. Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

18. Your supply of brain cells is finally down to a manageable size.

19. You can't remember where you read this list.

And you notice these are all in big print for your convenience.

And last, but not least:

Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night!!!

Sunday, July 05, 2009

Wouldn't You Know....

...No rain for weeks, now we have flood warnings. My little container garden is underwater for the second time. The plants that survived the first flooding probably won't make it through this one. Oh, well. Guess I'll have to replant. What with being in hurricane season, maybe it's not such a good idea to have a container garden. And I don't have enough room to plant in the ground - not to mention that the ground is all sand here. Can't even grow good grass. And scattered thunderstorms expected through the 10th. Guess the rainy season is here.

...I wrote about my recurrence of Plantar's Faciitis recently. My foot is much better after being strapped for the better part of a month. Usually didn't take that long to heal, but I let it go longer than I should have. Doctor recommended orthodics for my shoes. Then yesterday, I read that the podiatrists association admits that over the counter inserts (such as Dr Scholl's arch supports, etc) work just as well. Not two weeks after I paid over $200. Oh, well. I'll put the orthodics in the shoes I wear for work, and the OTC inserts in the shoes I wear for shorter periods of time, or when not walking as much.

...Just when I decide to grab some overtime, they change the way it's charged out. As it stands now, I can only get time and a half two days during the pay period, meaning to work o/t, I have to work seven straight days. Not gonna happen. And they wonder why they can't get any of us to work o/t.

Cleaning Poem

I asked the Lord to tell me

Why my house is such a mess.

He asked if I'd been 'computering',

And I had to answer 'yes.'

He told me to get off my fanny,

And tidy up the house.

And so I started cleaning up...

The smudges off my mouse.

I wiped and shined the topside.

That really did the trick....

I was just admiring my good work.

I didn't mean to 'click.'

But click, I did, and oops - I found

A real absorbing site

That I got SO way into it -

I was into it all night.

Nothing's changed except my mouse.

It's very, very shiny.

I guess my house will stay a mess....

While I sit here on my hiney.

Saturday, July 04, 2009

"Silent gratitude isn't very much use to anyone." - Gertrude Stein
Fireworks Display


The Flames of Liberty

"[T]he flames kindled on the 4th of July 1776, have spread over too much of the globe to be extinguished by the feeble engines of despotism; on the contrary, they will consume these engines and all who work them." --Thomas Jefferson


"Posterity -- you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." --John Quincy Adams
EXTEND OUR AMERICAN HERITAGE

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence." --Justice Joseph Story
Sack Lunches

I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought.

Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me.

'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan.

After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time.

As I reached for my wallet, I overheard soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base.

His friend agreed.

I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq; it's almost like you are doing
it for him.'

Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?'

'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks.'

After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars.

Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand, and said, 'I want to shake your hand.'

Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers.

Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm.

When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars!

Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.'

Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country. I could only give them a couple of meals.

It seemed so little...

A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to "The United States of America " for an amount of up to and including my life.'

That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.
"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."

--Declaration of Independence

Friday, July 03, 2009

Posted By Bobby Eberle On July 2, 2009 at 6:54 am

You may have missed it, but on Wednesday, Barack Obama held yet another so-called townhall meeting. This one was to discuss his health care plans and use the new tools of "social media" to do it. Although surrounded by a live audience, the main focus of the event was to reach people using the White House web site, Facebook, and Twitter.

The problem is that there should be some kind of standards when it comes to a townhall meeting. By labeling it as such, Americans get the impression that this is a meeting of average Joes (and Janes) -- people from all walks of life and all parts of the political spectrum -- who can throw out questions to the president. Well... not quite...

As we have seen in many Obama events already, the purpose is strictly to get his message out and NOT hear from the American people, even though that is the stage upon which his sales pitch is being delivered. The White House picks the questions ahead of time, and the audience is generally made up of Obama supporters. Does this sound like a townhall meeting to you?

Take yesterday's event as an example. As noted in an Associated Press story on GOPUSA, one of the main people who spoke at the townhall about the ills of the current health care system is a Democratic National Committee volunteer. Whose plan do you think she'll support?

Some of Obama's questioners Wednesday were from friendly sources, including a member of the Service Employees International Union and a member of Health Care for America Now, which organized a Capitol Hill rally last week calling for an overhaul. White House aides selected other questions submitted by people on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

Republicans said the event was a political sham designed to help Obama, not to inform the public.

"Americans are already skeptical about the cost and adverse impact of the president's health care plans," Republican National Committee spokesman Trevor Francis said. "Stacking the audience and preselecting questions may make for a good TV, but it's the wrong way to engage in a meaningful discussion about reforming health care."

With a more detailed analysis, The Washington Post reports that "questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for 'tweets.'"

Obama also called on three "random" people from the audience. The Post points out that "all turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration.

Obama's habit of staging and scripting is beginning to irk even the White House press corps. From pre-selected questioners at White House press briefings to pre-screening of questions supposedly from the "general public" to "personal" stories from Obama supporters, the list of Obama schemes goes on and on. Just look at what happened at yesterday's White House press briefing:



Obama can call these events "townhall meetings" if he wishes, but just because you call something a duck doesn't mean it will quack. I hope the American people are smart enough to figure this out.
Maxine Says

Everyone concentrates on the problems we're having in this country lately: illegal immigration, hurricane recovery, alligators attacking people in Florida ...



Not me. I concentrate on solutions for the problems. It's a win-win situation.

+ Dig a moat the length of the Mexican border.

+ Send the dirt to New Orleans to raise the level of the levies.

+ Put the Florida alligators in the moat along the Mexican border.

Any other problems you would like for me to solve today?

Yes!

Think about these:

1. Cows
2. The Constitution
3. The Ten Commandments

COWS

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that during the mad cow epidemic our government could track a single cow, born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she slept in the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 20 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give each of them a cow.

THE CONSTITUTION

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq .... Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it has worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore.

THE 10 COMMANDMENTS
The real reason that we can't have the Ten Commandments posted in a courthouse is this: You cannot post 'Thou Shalt Not Steal,' 'Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery,' and 'Thou Shall Not Lie' in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians...It creates a hostile work environment.

PART OF THE PROBLEM

Also, Think about this: If you are afraid to speak up because you are afraid of offending someone --

YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM!

It is Time for America to Speak up !

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Speaking of speaking up....one of the principles on which the United States was founded is Freedom of Speech. The Constitution guarantees our right to say whatever we want. It doesn't guarantee that anyone else will agree with us. Nor does it guarantee that we won't suffer consequences from voicing our beliefs.

It's true that some thoughts shouldn't be voiced, but even idiots have the right to an opinion. So-called "hate speech" laws go against society and, in my opinion, are the result of a poor upbringing. Parents who (correctly) taught their kids to voice their opinion, but failed to teach how to know when they are being stupid, insensitive, thoughtless, and hurtful, are really the guilty parties. Intelligent people (not necessarily those with college degrees, by the way) know when to speak, and how to get their opinion across without falling into the hate-speech realm. There is a big difference in expressing an honest opinion which might be illuminating and educational and showing ignorance.

However, as stupid, ignorant, insensitive, thoughtless, and hurtful as some opinions may be, I'd rather listen to those than to have my basic Freedom of Speech taken away. When we begin to say this is illegal to say, it may not be long until that is also illegal.

Be careful of what you wish for, you might get it.
FairTax in A Minute How does the FairTax affect income tax preparers, accountants, and many government employees?

There are, of course, still some people who are involved in sales tax return preparation and sales tax administration under the FairTax, but many fewer than those involved with the income tax today. Those tax preparers, tax lawyers, and Internal Revenue Service employees, who are typically well educated and well equipped with transferable skills, will have to find other, more productive work. The projected 10.5 percent growth in the economy during the first year of the FairTax will provide plenty of new jobs.

But the heavy compliance costs of the income tax are like an anchor holding back economic growth. We have nothing to show for the $265 billion (greater than the current federal deficit -- $205 billion) that we spend each year measuring, tracking, sheltering, documenting, and filing our annual income. Surely these valuable labor and capital resources can be employed more productively -- for example, in following the money trails left by terrorist, drug, and other criminal enterprises, rather than in tracking everyAmerican wage earner.

FairTax in A Minute – How does the income tax affect our economy?

How does dragging an anchor affect the speed of a ship? Our entire economy is not dependent on the income tax. Instead, our economy is held back by the income tax. There was no income tax for the first 124 years of our history -- that’s more than half the time we have existed as a nation. A study by the Government Accountability Office estimated that the federal tax system imposed efficiency costs on the U.S. economy of two to five percent of GDP. Under the FairTax, within ten years average Americans will be at least 10 percent and probably 15 percent better off than they would be under the current system. That translates to an increase of $3,000 to $4,500 per household, per year.

Thursday, July 02, 2009

by Ann Coulter
Posted 07/01/2009 ET
Updated 07/01/2009 ET

With the Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano this week, we can now report that Sonia Sotomayor is even crazier than Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

To recap the famous Ricci case, in 2003, the city of New Haven threw out the results of a firefighters' test -- which had been expressly designed to be race-neutral -- because only whites and Hispanics scored high enough to receive immediate promotions, whereas blacks who took the test did well enough only to be eligible for promotions down the line.

Inasmuch as the high-scoring white and Hispanic firemen were denied promotions solely because of their race, they sued the city for race discrimination.

Obama's Justice-designate Sotomayor threw out their lawsuit in a sneaky, unsigned opinion -- the judicial equivalent of "talk to the hand." She upheld the city's race discrimination against white and Hispanic firemen on the grounds that the test had a "disparate impact" on blacks, meaning that it failed to promote some magical percentage of blacks.

This strict quota regime was dressed up by the city -- and by Sotomayor's opinion -- as a reasonable reaction to the threat of lawsuits by blacks who were not promoted.

That's a complicated way of saying: Racial quotas are peachy.

According to Sotomayor, any test that gets the numbers wrong -- whatever "wrong" means in any given context of professions, populations, applicants, workers, etc. -- is grounds for a lawsuit, which in turn, is grounds for an employer to engage in race discrimination against disfavored racial groups, such as white men.

Consequently, the only legal avenue available to employers under Sotomayor's ruling is always to impose strict racial quotas in making hiring and promotion decisions.

Say, if the threat of a lawsuit permits the government to ignore the Constitution, can pro-lifers get New Haven to shut down all abortion clinics by threatening to sue them? There's no question but that abortion clinics have a "disparate impact" on black babies.

This week, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 for the white and Hispanic firefighters, overturning Sotomayor's endorsement of racial quotas.

But all nine justices rejected Sotomayor's holding that different test results alone give the government a green light to engage in race discrimination. Even Justice Ginsburg's opinion for the dissent clearly stated that "an employer could not cast aside a selection method based on a statistical disparity alone."

Indeed, the dissenters argued that the case should be returned to the lower courts to look for some hidden racial bias in the test. For Sotomayor, the results alone proved racial bias.

The one advantage Sotomayor's talk-to-the-hand opinion has over Justice Ginsburg's prolix dissent is that brevity prevented Sotomayor from having to explain why quotas aren't quotas.

That was left to Ginsburg.

Liberals desperately want race quotas -- as long as quotas never come to their offices.

But they can't say that, so instead they talk in circles for 10 hours straight, until everyone else is exhausted, and then, when no one is paying attention, they announce: So we're all agreed -- we will have racial quotas.

Based on her lifetime of experience working as a firefighter, Ginsburg said: "Relying heavily on written tests to select fire officers is a questionable practice, to say the least." Liberals prefer a more objective test, such as race.

Isn't excelling on written tests how Ruth Bader Ginsburg got where she is? It's curious how people whose entire careers are based on doing well on tests find them so irrelevant to other people's jobs.

In the middle of a fire, it can either be a great idea or the worst possible idea to open a door. An excellent method for finding out if your next fire chief knows the correct answer is a written test.

Unleashing the canard of all race-obsessed liberals, Ginsburg observed that courts have found that a fire officer's job "involves complex behaviors, good interpersonal skills, the ability to make decisions under tremendous pressure, and a host of other abilities -- none of which is easily measured by a written, multiple choice test."

So does a lawyer's job. And yet attorneys with absolutely no "interpersonal skills" get cushy jobs and extravagant salaries on the basis of their commendable performance on all manner of written tests, from multiple choice LSATs and bar exams to written law school exams.

I note that Ginsburg has not shown any particular interest in rectifying the "disparate impact" of legal exams: She never hired a single black law clerk out of the dozens she employed in more than a decade as an appeals court judge. (Her hiring practices on the Supreme Court are a state secret, but I can state with supreme certainty that her clerks do not reflect the racial mix of Washington, D.C.)

But liberals think other people's jobs are a joke, so the testing must also be a joke. That is -- other than their preferred test: "Is the applicant black, female or otherwise handicapped?"

There is no test that can prove all things about an employee and so there is no test that can't be derided by the race-mongers. Which is exactly the point. Get rid of all tests -- except for lawyers who graduated at the top of their law school classes at Columbia, like Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Then liberals are free to impose racial quotas on other people's jobs without limit.

As crazy as this is, even Ginsburg and the other dissenters made a big point of pretending there was some flaw in this particular test. None adopted Sotomayor's position that unequal test results alone prove discrimination.

This suggests that a wise Jewess, due to the richness of her life experiences, might come to a better judgment than a Latina judge would.

COPYRIGHT 2009 ANN COULTER

~~~~~~~~~~~

And I was silly enough to think that a judge, of all people, would be beyond blatant discrimination, especially from the bench. And make no mistake, this was discrimination, by both the municipality that threw out the promotions and by the judge. What gets me is that among the people who were denied promotions they deserved were Hispanics. But, honestly, that's not the point.

There has to be something to distinguish one person (or persons) as more deserving of a promotion than others. Personally, while I hate tests (they don't always prove that the highest scoring is the most qualified), they do show that this person knows enough about what the job entails to be more deserving of a promotion than the person who scored lower. And that might only be because they studied for the test or studied harder.

It might be that some of the firefighters who took the test just don't do well on tests. Some people just don't test well. I worked for a supervisor once who did very well on tests, but didn't have the people skills he really needed for the job he had. I've also known people who knew the job, but didn't test well. They usually end up being promoted because the higher ups want them in that position. Where I work it's known as The (insert name here) Curve. We all know this happens in all professions and industries.

In any case...the days are generally gone where people are simply promoted. Too many times people have been promoted because of who they knew or maybe because they were owed a favor by someone who had input into promotions. it still happens, but now, mostly people wanting a promotion have to prove their worth. This is really a good thing. Although it doesn't always keep out those who aren't worthy of a promotion, for the most part it does.

It's a shame when a group has to sue to get what they deserve, and even more so when the presiding judge doesn't think it's worth going forward. Not all law suits are worth taking to trial, but most times they are. If only because the citizens who feel they have been wronged will have their day in court. Not all cases are nonsense. That's something that needs to be determined in proceedings. Whoever loses should pay at least court costs, and maybe all costs including attorney fees. That should slow down a lot of the nuisance cases that are filed.

This case alone causes me to wonder about Judge Sotomayor and her objectivity. Seems to me that this would be a case a judge would want to come to court so as to prove that the promotions tests did or did not go against case or statutory law. I don't understand why she thought it unworthy of going to hearings and maybe trial.
The Koala and the Lizard


A koala was sitting in a gum tree smoking a joint when a little lizard walked past, looked up and said, 'Hey Koala! What are you doing?'


The koala said, 'Smoking a joint, come up and have some.'


So the little lizard climbed up and sat next to the koala where they enjoyed a few joints. After a while the little lizard said that his mouth was 'dry' and that he was going to get a drink from the river.


The little lizard was so stoned that he leaned over too far and fell into the river. A crocodile saw this and swam over to the little lizard and helped him to the side. Then he asked the little lizard, 'What's the matter with you?'

The little lizard explained to the crocodile that he had been sitting with the koala in the tree, smoking a joint, but got too stoned and fell into the river while taking a drink.

The crocodile said that he had to check this out and walked into the rain forest, found the tree where the koala was sitting finishing a joint. The crocodile looked up and said,


'Hey you!'

So the koala looked down at him and said,


'Shiiiiiiiiiiit dude...
How much water did you drink!?'
FairTax in A Minute – What about the 16th Amendment?

It is not the intention of this plan, or the desire of the American people, to end up with both a federal income tax and a federal sales tax. The objective is to ensure that one is replaced by the other, not added on top of the other. By repealing the 16th Amendment, we close the door on an income tax for generations to come.

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Ramblings of a Retired Mind

I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older. Then, it dawned on me, they were cramming for their finals.

As for me, I'm just hoping God grades on the curve.
FairTax in A Minute – How does the FairTax affect government spending?

The public must remain vigilant to ensure that the economic gains caused by the FairTax benefit the people and the causes they deem worthy. However, it is easier to determine if your elected representatives are acting in your best interest. Legislators can more easily be held accountable for their decisions. For the first time in decades, it is simple to see whether a politician is advocating an increase in taxes or a restraint on government spending as the economic pie gets bigger. This is not the case today.

FairTax.org