How F’d Are We dot Com

We’re Sorry… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

Well guess what Google? I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I have stopped using your search engine due to the fact that your search engine is the only one that makes me enter a captcha.

Why is it that Google can’t tell the difference between me, and a computer virus or spyware application. Granted I do a lot of search engine inquiries… perhaps I do more than the average Joe, but why must I enter a new captcha every two to three times I enter a query into Google? Why would Google have me enter a captcha to prove that I am not doing anything malicious at their expense, and then pretend like I’m up to no-good five minutes later? Makes absolutely no sense to me…

Does this happen to anyone else as often as it does to me? Or, does Google hate me? Whether or not Google hates me doesn’t much matter to me at this stage, because I hate Google! At least their stupid search engine! And I mean stupid! Who has ever heard of a computer program telling a human that they think that they’re a computer program?

Anyways… I’ve said my piece.

Oh, by the way Google… Yahoo! and MSN return better, more relevant results anyways!

Posted in How F'd Are We dot Com | 4 Comments »

Senate Passes Housing Bill Supposed to Help American Homeowners Facing Foreclosure

Last week the Senate passed a new bill intended to aid homeowners that are in danger of foreclosing on their homes. The only problem is that the Foreclosure Prevention Act will not be helping the working class so much as it will big business. Apparently, the bill will provide billions of dollars in tax breaks for airlines, alternative energy producers, automakers, just about every other struggling industry… and of course the ones who helped us get into this whole mess – home builders!

So the new bill allows home builders to claim millions in tax refunds by charging their current losses against the extraordinary profits they made during the housing boom, several years ago. It also allows auto manufacturers to collect alternative minimum tax (AMT) credits, that they otherwise wouldn’t have received due to the fact they did not pay enough in taxes over the recent years. Let’s see… it just wouldn’t be right to leave our friends over in the airline industry without a tax break. So, they too will be allowed to claim AMTs too!

Despite the Senate bill’s name, it will do little to anything to prevent current homeowners from foreclosing on their homes. This has many consumers advocates and other groups in an uproar… and I don’t blame ‘em!

Posted in Politics | 7 Comments »

The reality of God

I was searching the internet and came across this interesting article posted by a man named Richard Franing. This article describes Richards interesting view on the reality of God. Since we have not touched on the subject of God before, I wanted to share this with you and see what you thought about it.

THE REALITY OF GOD

God is the ultimate reality. He has spun the universes into existence and has created all other beings. As humans, we too had our beginning from God. Like Plato and Socrates, I believe that we pre-existed in a
spiritual realm prior to being born into this world. Unfortunately the church fathers, with the exceptions of Origen and Augustine, rejected this view as an overreaction to the heresies of gnosticism and
neoplatonism that threatened to subvert the Gospel.

How do I know of this pre-existence? I have very faint memories of a spiritual existence before being born into this world. My children spoke of this of this existence when they were small. I have heard of other 2-4 year old children being able to talk of their own pre-existence in the spiritual realm prior to their earthly birth, when carefully questioned about it. One couple I know of had three boys who each spoke of having been with God and the angels prior to birth without any prompting from their parents when they were small. Evidently as people age and develop, these memories are overlaid with countless earthly memories and are largely forgotten.

One may ask why are we here and forced to leave that spiritual realm. I believe that the answer lies in the fall of Lucifer from Heaven along with a third of the angels. It is my own belief that human spirits were originally intended to be part of Lucifer’s cadre in the spiritual realm. Once Lucifer fell, there was no further need for our existence in the spiritual realm, since we had been created to serve Lucifer in
carrying out his heavenly responsibilities. Lucifer’s disobedience led to our own eventual banishment from Heaven, even though we were not involved in his revolt against God. God in His infinite mercy has
brought us to this world to perfect our redemption. He is bound by His own spiritual laws in the eternal realm, but at the temporal level, He can rewrite our destiny through His plan for our redemption. Had not Adam and Eve disobeyed God, this plan would have been much simpler and salvation would have been universal for all mankind.

When that couple listened to Lucifer rather than obey God, suddenly salvation became much more difficult. Man had chosen sides and was no longer just an innocent bystander thus bringing condemnation on all mankind who was to be born on earth from that time forward. Man himself had sinned against God and lost his opportunity for an easier salvation. To put it in the vernacular, man really blew it. Now man’s disobedience had to be dealt with in a manner satisfying God, fulfilling the new parameters now required for our salvation and permit our return to the spiritual realm (Heaven) after leaving this earthly sojourn.

Christ, the second person of the Godhead, came to earth in the form of a man to die a sacrificial death for our redemption so that by believing in Him and on His death, we can be redeemed and made new spiritual beings fit for His kingdom. Through Christ, the Holy Spirit creates us anew and we are reshaped into His image, no longer designed to follow after Lucifer and his entourage. Praise be to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for their gift of salvation through the Son’s loving sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the Father’s willingness to send Him and the Spirit’s perseverance in causing us to believe. Some have a difficult time grasping the concept of the Trinity.

The Trinity is the three distinct, separate, yet simultaneously occurring dynamic states in which God exists and through which He expresses Himself. It may be easier to understand the Trinity by the functions they perform. The Father is the Creator of His creation. The Son controls the interface relationship between the Creator and His creation. The Holy Spirit permeates the creation carrying out the will of the Father and the Son. Others may ask how does God create worlds and universes, i.e. this temporal existence.

I believe the new physics gives us an insight into God’s methods. The big bang which began our universe was caused by a large quantum fluctuation. These fluctuations are believed by some cosmologists to be power spikes in a tremendous quantum field of incredible intensity. Since there are undoubtedly many of these power spikes, and at the top of each powerful enough spike is a created universe, there are probably many overlapping sister universes to our universe in existence at this very moment. They are separated from each other only by the different quantum time value that each universe possesses. Thus we can not see or sense them nor can they see or sense us. You may ask how does God fit into the overall scheme of these things. I truly believe that the energy that creates and drives this quantum field issues forth from the mind of God even as He speaks the Word.

The beauty of God and His methods is that while we may seem far removed from where God is, He is only a prayer away. He loves us and cares for us, who believe on His dear Son, and longs that all mankind will come to a saving faith in His beloved Son; but God wants our love freely given and not given through coercion. He gives us His Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us into paths of righteousness for His namesake. All that is required of us is simple faith in our living Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our Lord made a way back where there was no way, so that we may dwell with Him and enjoy Him forever. Praise be to God that He has not left us nor forsaken us, but through His death established His plan for our salvation when we come to believe on His shed blood. Hallelujah, God is truly great and greatly to be worshiped in spirit and truth.

Richard E. Franing

Posted in Religion, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

The Negative Effect of Several Fed Rate Cuts

I got an idea! Let’s lower interest rates in hopes of increasing home sales, refinances and helping people with home loans lower the interest rates on their HELOC. Then, let’s tell everyone that we’re going to do it again in a few weeks. If we do this the people will always wait to buy or refinance because we told them that we’re going to give them a better deal next week. This is a great idea because we’ll all just sit around twiddling our thumbs and not actually do shit. Problem solved, right?

Seriously does my idea make any sense? I didn’t think so which is why I constantly wonder why the Fed lowers rates and then tells the public that they’ll most likely do it again soon. I’m not making this up, I swear. The Fed lowers the rates; then the Fed and the media tells the world that the interest rates are going to go down in the short future and wonders why nobody buys a new home, or refinances their current home loan today. It’s ludicrous and weird. It’s similar to telling a person that they can buy a car today for $500 and for no reason, they can buy the same car next week for $350. I’d wait for the $350 price. Does this method give investors anything to feel comfortable about? Sure it does – they’re comfortable with not investing in markets affected by these absurd acts. They are comfortable not investing in America.

I just got a new idea! Why not lower the rates and tell people nothing? Why not just say “We’re lowering rates this week and might meet again on it in the future”? HMMMM – I might just go out and buy instead of waiting to see what you may do sometime in the future.

I think the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I think the Fed is insane but that’s just me. Keep cutting rates Ben and keep telling people it will happen again, and then, and only then, it will never work. The effect of several Fed rate cuts will leave us all waiting for the next cut. If it does ever get out that there will be no more cuts, will it be too late? Cheers to prolonging our dilemma.

This is what we have to work with – this is why I ask How f’d are we?

JG

Posted in Financial | 1 Comment »

Our Next President is Going to Suck

*Disclaimer - meant for fun!

I’m not sure who the next President will be but from the looks of it, we’re in for another few years of bull and shit. Not one candidate seems like they have all of their ducks in a row and only a couple of them have the ability to cause change. We need change and if the new President can’t deliver it then we’re in for a few more years of bull and shit.

You’re probably sitting there reading this post thinking about how qualified the candidate you’re going to vote for is. Really?

Let’s say we get Hillary in office and she actually attempts to make good with her promise of better health care and bringing our troops home. Does she have the will and support to accomplish either of these tasks? I’m not saying she would make a bad President but I’m pretty confident that she can’t deliver much more than bull and shit. Seriously – look what she delivered the last time she went up against health care – what’s that? You can’t see anything? Oh, well that’s because she delivered shit and it’s been picked up and thrown away since.

Mitt Romney, to me, looks and acts like a character; I’m not quite sure he knows what’s going on or that he cares. Is his hair always that slick? It seems like he rambles a lot and is pretty indecisive. He keeps talking about his business experience, which may be good, but I’m not too sure the next Presidents main mission is going to be to create jobs or streamline the economy. These things will be important but I think the most important decisions made by our next President will be about foreign affairs.

Dr. Ron Paul can’t be serious - are you, Doc? Although I like the guy and think his presidency could do some good, and be entertaining, I just can’t take many of his beliefs serious. This guy thinks he’s going to change the world in four years and I just don’t see that any of what he talks about is worth the conversation. Do you think he can really get rid of the IRS? Has he met the IRS? I haven’t, but the horror stories keep their name out of my mouth and would likely keep anyone from talking about them the way Paul does. Maybe he’s not worried because his accountant takes full blame if something comes up, but you best be careful Paul. I think Presidents should talk about realistic goals and promise realistic things. I got an idea! In addition to getting rid of every government agency why don’t we try to get Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to embrace Jewish believes and convert!

John McCain seems like he’s the most qualified to deal with, in my opinion, our nation’s most important issues but I don’t think he has a fighting chance with the current congress and our nation’s believes. His support for the war doesn’t sit well with most Americans. In addition, for some odd reason, everyone thinks the poor guy is a hop, skip and a jump away from death. He looks healthy to me - alright you caught me - I like McCain as the GOP’s main guy, but I’m not sure he’s the one.

On to the candidate that seems to have the most promise – Barack Obama. From what I’ve seen he’s well spoken, articulate and can capture the attention of an audience. He seems to be a leader, and along with McCain, might be our best bet, but does he have the experience and get the respect needed to deliver on his promises? Is that email going around about his Muslim believes true? If so what’s wrong with a Muslim President - did the email mention he was an extremist? If so, at least he’s committed; his book reads well too.

Our next President is going to give us nothing but bull and shit because for years and years now that’s all we’ve got from most Presidents. It’s not entirely their fault; most of what they try to do gets kicked out by Congress. Bush wasn’t the first President to deliver only a few promises – I think most of them have failed. It’s just more important now than it has ever been because our nation is in trouble of losing more power, face and fans. We need change and a leader that can bring it. We need to restore our once great reputation and our forgotten eagerness to help others or our influence and ability to do anything on the global stage will slowly fade.

What leader do you think is bull and shitless?

JG

Posted in Politics | 3 Comments »

How F’d Are We? I’ll let her tell you

Naomi Wolf Video

Seems like we’re on our way to marshal law according to Naomi Wolf. What do you think? Are we becoming the next Germany or Russia…….

Got the video from The Pragmatic Thinker

JG

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Local News – Why won’t they just give us the news?

If there is one thing that will lure me to change the channel when watching the local news broadcast, it is a statement similar to this: “A common household item has caused the deaths of several residents… stay tuned to discover what that item is…” Really? Isn’t this something that should be brought to everyone’s attention, immediately? It is not that they do this every once in awhile, but it is that they do this all the time. And if you do stay tuned to hear what the issue is, they will not cover the topic till the last 3 minutes of the news broadcast. Then have the audacity to explain how if I accidentally drink bleach I should call Poison Control. Thank you for telling me something that I really could not go to bed without knowing!

This is a technique incorporated by every local news station, which is employed through radio and TV commercials. Who do these networks think we are; mindless morons, with no other medium to find out the news?

These tactics are nothing new and I know most of you have been irritated from these types of ploys in the past. Personally, I can’t stand it! Do these networks not realize that this is the information age, and that we have an unlimited amount of information at the touch of a button?

Obviously not, otherwise they would show us some respect and tell us the news. They wouldn’t make it secretive, nor would they force their audience to watch the entire news show before reporting the story. I will never wait for this sort of story again. I will go to my computer and search the Internet for what to me is a top story.

The other thing that I don’t care for, that many of you may appreciate, is the reporting of non-news related stories. I don’t care about Brittney Spears’ next court appearance, or her latest rants filmed by paparazzi. Even CNN and Fox News will report on these ridiculous stories. Thanks CNN, I am glad to know that Ashley Tisdale is glad she got a nose job. This so-called entertainment news has absolutely no affect on me, my family, or my business. My life is not so bad that I have to watch somebody else’s life fall apart, for me to feel good about my own life.

So let’s just stick to the news… please!

PE

Posted in Miscellaneous | No Comments »

Dr. Ron Paul is an Idiot

Congressman Ron Paul vows to abolish the IRS, put an end to the war in Iraq and to eliminate current trade agreements. These are the raving rants of an idiot, or at least that is what his opponents will have you believe. The fact of the matter is that Paul’s ideology of how to create a better America, for all Americans, involves serious reform. Perhaps the presidential hopeful’s most extravagant promise to America’s citizens is the eradication of the Federal Reserve, only to have the gold standard reinstated.

The following is the skinny on the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Act.

Founded in 1913 the Federal Reserve is to: furnish an elastic currency (abandon the gold standard), allow for rediscounting commercial paper (create new money at will), and supervise banking in the United States (expand credit).

The truth is that since the creation of the Federal Reserve, Americans have fallen to the mercy of cyclical monetary policy and recessive economic conditions. In other words, it is because the Federal Reserve consistently floods the market with money that artificial growth, in various sectors, is followed by recession. This is a direct cause of the devaluation of the dollar and the increase to the national deficit.

Paul wishes to put an end to the domestic issues and political ramifications that Federal Reserve policies have on the United States. He realizes that without a gold standard, congress is free to continue spending recklessly; under the assumption that monetary expansion will correct the negative infringement on the economy.

In a statement presented to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2002, titled Abolish the Federal Reserve, Paul noted, “policy should only permit currency backed by stable commodities such as silver and gold to be used as legal tender.” Why silver, why gold?

Because precious metal is what the market chose! Remember the term laissez-faire? If not, here is the Encarta Dictionary definition: the principle that the economy works best if private industry is not regulated and markets are free.

Dr. Ron Paul is no idiot. He merely sees through big business lobbyists and supporters, and attends to the people who truly matter—you and me. His theories on how to address the issues which affect American’s, aren’t to favor his personal objectives or to help secure his legacy; they are to better the lives of those he is sworn to represent—the citizens of the United States of America.

RJ

Posted in Politics | 4 Comments »

TV Commercials Suck!

I hate TV commercials! And I hate the networks that insist on running 8 commercial breaks every hour, even more! You know who those networks are—Comedy Central, MTV, Spike, Discovery Channel, FOX; just to name a few. Is there any greater lack of viewer appreciation than subjecting us spectators to endless advertisements?

Now I’m not suggesting that the solution is to remove commercials all together. I’m simply asking that the TV networks limit the intervals. For example, the average half-an-hour time slot will show roughly 22 minutes of programming and 8 minutes of advertising. Ideally I would prefer to watch all 22 minutes of my favorite shows consecutively; then watch the 8 minutes of commercials before the next show begins.

I realize the chances of this happening are extremely slim. But here, right now, I vow to religiously watch any network that will go so far as to show me 11 consecutive minutes of programming, before breaking for commercials—even if it ends up being Lifetime!

In all seriousness, this isn’t a farfetched proposal. TV viewers in the United Kingdom aren’t forced to watch the network sponsors’ advertisements every 6 to 7 minutes. In fact, many British networks will show the whole 22 minutes! They often only have one break halfway through the show when they present a movie; which is kind of nice.

So, if any of you big-shot network suits stumble upon this post… Please begin to treat your viewers with the respect and dignity that we deserve. Give us commercial free programming! Show your advertisements when we want to watch them—after the show! Don’t run the opening credits then immediately break to commercial, that’s like a slap in the face! It’s not that TV viewers hate ads, it’s that we would prefer to learn about special offers and new products during a better time; like when we’re not already watching a show! Please help us to help you, by preventing the unnecessary recording of your shows only to have the ads fast-forwarded through!

RJ

Posted in Miscellaneous | 2 Comments »

Give Americans the Healthcare They Deserve

According to a 2006 National Center for Health Statistics study, there are 43.3 million uninsured U.S. citizens. This means that roughly one in seven of you, your family members, your neighbors, your co-workers, your peers, etc., have minimal financial assistance when it comes to personal healthcare needs. That’s right! The world’s richest and most powerful nation doesn’t even provide full medical assistance to 15 percent of its own citizens!

Critics of universal healthcare will argue that the uninsured are generally low-income individuals and children; therefore they are eligible for state and government funded healthcare programs—Medicaid, Medicare, or some other health coverage program funded by Social Security. The problem with this system is the middleman—HMOs. Whether you have private health coverage or qualify for a state assisted health coverage plan, the money used to pay for medical expenses passes through the HMOs’ hands before reaching the doctor’s office or hospital that performed the procedure. But most importantly, HMOs determine healthcare eligibility!

So if the HMOs are the problem, the solution would appear to be the removal of their existence and roll in healthcare completely. Not necessarily, or at least not yet. We merely need for them to function as what they were initially intended for… health insurance. Many nations that practice universal healthcare—the United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Canada, Cuba, etc.; also offer their citizens additional healthcare coverage at an expense to the insured. Basically this form of health insurance allows those with the means, to receive premium health services; such as shorter waiting periods to see specialists and private hospital rooms.

These countries don’t allow HMOs to determine the level of coverage individuals are eligible to receive.

Instead, everyone receives the healthcare they are in need of—no questions asked!

Shouldn’t Americans be allowed that same freedom? …All Americans, from Navajos, the homeless, veterans, Blacks, Whites, the elderly, Hispanics, Texans, New Yorkers, Muslims, Democrats, and even Detroit Pistons fans??

RJ

Posted in Healthcare | 3 Comments »