tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-90448062024-03-23T13:26:33.039-05:00Fog of LifeAs long as you're here... leave me a comment... c'mon! What have you got to lose!Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger823125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-71922299496266235902011-03-28T16:57:00.002-05:002011-03-28T17:03:43.590-05:00Cloning an ESXi 4.1 VMAfter fiddling around with a lot of bad advice I finally found one suggestion that worked for me to clone an ESXi VM. It's not elegant or quick....<br /><br />so being relatively new to the vmware world and a somewhat reluctant participant since the test system i'm using won't support Hyper-V and only VMware, it's comforting to see that there's a Unix kernel lurking in it's background and that some of the old familiar shell commands work, like ls and df, etc. Unfortunately I don't see a man-pages facility which would help.<br /><br />the long and short of this cloning thing was found <a href="http://www.eanderalx.org/blog:vmware:clonevmesxi">here </a>. Essentially you ssh into the esxi host and run a vmkfs -i command to clone the vm.<br /><br /><ol><li class="level1"><div class="li"> If you hadn't activate <acronym title="Secure Shell">SSH</acronym> then do this as described <a href="http://www.eanderalx.org/blog:vmware:esxi41ssh" class="wikilink1" title="blog:vmware:esxi41ssh">here</a>.</div> </li><li class="level1"><div class="li"> Create a new VM with the same configuration as the machine you wish to clone.</div> </li><li class="level1"><div class="li"> By creating the VM you also created its virtual disk (*.vmdk).</div> </li><li class="level1"><div class="li"> Delete this disk (we will replace it with the clone) by using the “Datastore Browser” or <acronym title="Secure Shell">SSH</acronym> on ESXi.</div> </li><li class="level1"><div class="li"> Connect to your ESXi by using <acronym title="Secure Shell">SSH</acronym>.</div> </li><li class="level1"><div class="li"> type the following command (here “ubu-10.04-server” is the template).</div> </li></ol> <pre class="code">vmkfstools -i /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ubu-10.04-server/ubu-10.04-server.vmdk /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/newmachine/newmachine.vmdk<br />Destination disk format: VMFS zeroedthick<br />Cloning disk '/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/ubu-10.04-server/ubu-10.04-server.vmdk'...<br />Clone: 100% done.</pre> <ul><li class="level1"><div class="li"> boot your new machine and configure it.</div> </li></ul>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-5590258022784994082008-11-07T22:30:00.002-06:002008-11-07T23:59:17.889-06:00The next four yearsThe last few days I've spent hyper focused on work, which has been a welcome respite from the drama leading up to the election. Barack Obama is the President elect, Dick Durbin was re-elected to another term, as was Judy Biggert, my district's representative to the House.<br /><br />I believe that President Clinton received too much credit for an Internet boom he had little to do with and too little blame for a global rise in hatred, intollerance and danger. I believe that President Bush has received too much blame for having to deal with the consequences of a world consumed with hatred, intollerance and danger and not enough blame for allowing the housing and credit markets to fall apart, then putting forth a hair brained rescue plan.<br /><br />A Congress led by Pelosi and Reid worry me. The promises of entitlements that we may not be able to support in the long run trouble me. An America that grows increasingly dependent on its government for it's financial survival scares me. A President Obama has a lot of work to do. I did not vote for him, but I will pray for his success as his failure is not in any of our best interests.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-21286783849142070042008-11-03T23:36:00.005-06:002008-11-04T08:52:21.860-06:00Obamahood and his merry congressmenTake from the rich to give to the poor. Sound familiar? Who thought it would become a campaign strategy in the United States? Comparing our Democracy to dictatorships is extreme. Rather, Socialistic-minded democracies like Sweden or Spain where taxation rules the day in order to support public services. But no, our slide into Social warfare will be much more subtle. So much so that to argue against the Democratic party's initiatives will be viewed as greedy or even cruel to the poor, helpless people their programs would aid. We are about 12 hours away from knowing how difficult our fight for freedom has become.<br /><br />NEVER CEDE THE POWER OF YOUR DOLLARS TO THE GOVERNMENT.<br /><br />It's the only true power we have left.<br /><br />On the military... Should Barack Obama become President he has said he will remove troops from Iraq. Does anyone remember the Iran-Iraq war? I have no doubt should we remove our forces from Iraq that within 12 months Iran will take our place and the Iraqi situation will worsen bringing once again the security of the middle-east to the forefront. Furthermore, he has committed to increasing the ranks of troops in Afghanistan. Expect this to go poorly as well, although in some ways a more aggressive stance with Pakistan is probably needed. Afghanistan is bordered by Iran, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, China, and Tajikistan. Russia spent a decade mired in this country leaving in a stale-mate at best and in failure for certain.<br /><br />I fully expect that with a "dove" in the White House we will see his entire term dominated by foreign security issues as we witnessed with Carter and Clinton. Letting the Middle-east fall into chaos again is not acceptable until we are completely free from middle-eastern oil.<br /><br />To those who don't think it can get worse than it is; it can.<br /><br />Our economy was tanking by 1999. In spite of Y2K and 9/11 we were able to recover somewhat until last year. Economies run in cycles. Politicians have increasingly gotten in the way of free-market cycles through over legislating fixes to regulate these cycles. Unlike Karl Marx I don't believe in exploiting the upper class for the benefit of the labor class.<br /><br />Remember how shitty things were with Nixon, Ford, and Carter? Hold on to your ass 'cause it's gonna be a rough ride.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-10801432591616864682008-10-29T23:50:00.003-05:002008-10-29T23:56:53.937-05:00McCain questioned<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve received some responses from friends who support Obama and I am giving their criticism thought. <span style=""> </span>I’ll summarize and paraphrase some of the concerns I’ve heard.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">McCain is a womanizer who cheated on and abandoned his disfigured first wife for a rich, pretty younger woman. This tells me all I need to know about this man who likes to promote his so-called ethics.<o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">According to factcheck.org, McCain has publicly admitted to infidelities and said that he regrets the way he handled his first marriage. I don’t condone the manner in which he behaved and won’t make excuses for it, and from the sound of it he doesn’t either. Maybe it’s smart politics or maybe it’s some amount of maturity. Even someone I respect in Ross Perot, who helped Carol McCain after her accident, has spoken out against John McCain saying, “So he threw her over for a poster girl with big money from Arizona”.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The implication is that John McCain came home from Viet Nam to find his wife marred from the accident and left her, yet they remained married for seven years, albeit far from a happy or perfect marriage. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Somewhere between 40 and 50 percent of marriages in the United States result in divorce.<span style=""> </span>If you haven’t been in an ugly divorce you likely know someone who has been. The fact that a large percentage of the population has shared this experience with the McCain’s doesn’t wash with the backlash of resentment toward him. This is especially puzzling when considering the controversy of President Clinton’s activities, nor the myriad of rumors of infidelity by past Presidents.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">People get divorced for any number of reasons, reasonable or not. Relationships are complicated in the best of circumstances let alone separation over time, physical and emotional damage and strained reconciliations. So while the handling of his relationship with his first wife doesn’t inspire admiration, not even within himself, it doesn’t disqualify him for a leadership position. It may show that he can act like a jerk, and in that regard is human. It does put into question his judgment, but it doesn’t make him dangerous, and it doesn’t disqualify him for the office of President. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">McCain is a hot head, warrior, war monger who loses his temper and flings around profanities.<o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It would seem that Senator McCain has had several years of heated interactions. One might argue that his passion for what he believes in leads him to his outbursts. You might also say that he lacks tact and diplomacy. It might not be the first time that we’ve had a hot tempered President. Is this what we need at this time in the world? Probably not. Would he fly off the handle and “launch nukes” at the drop of a hat? No. Would he be respected in the world community? I don’t know, just as much as I don’t know if Obama would be respected. I suspect their allegiances would be divided amongst very different camps. Could he unite the polarized parties and camps domestically and internationally? No, but neither can Obama. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">As a side, we lived 8 years under a president that was slow to react to growing international threat and lost many innocent lives in the process. When he did react, it was random and erratic and under Clinton’s watch, Osama Bin Laden was able to grow his capabilities with the world watching. We can also place some blame on President Bush (G.H.) and even the great Ronald Reagan for not instituting long term plans that might have addressed the Islamic crisis in Afghanistan in the 1980’s when paths might have been altered before they had been travelled. This is not to trivialize the thousands of lives lost over the last 6 years, but we do not benefit by swinging from one extreme to the next in posture and attitude.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Understand this though; accountability applies to all people whether they are American or European politicians, Arab leaders or Islamic fundamentalists. Compounding wrongs do not equate to moral rights, and we cannot move forward while apologizing for the past. Neither a war monger or an apologist will succeed in uniting world factions. We have forces in the world at fundamental odds with each other. Progress may require patience and understanding, but it does not mandate compromise and acquiescence.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">McCain has run nothing but a dirty, mud-slinging campaign full of lies and distortions.<o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal">This probably frustrates all of us as much as or more than anything else in political seasons. Every season starts with promises to change followed by nastier and dirtier campaigns. I wish the RNC would have remained focused on running on the issues rather than running against Barack Obama. That said, what I read and see is media sound bites. I hear both candidates running against each other rather than on the issues. The media could choose to play sound bites of the candidates discussing the issues, but instead, they choose to play those that excite and incite. A candidate, in particular McCain, could avoid this trap by simply staying away from running against Obama. Don’t even mention his name. Talk about the economy, international and national security, immigration, and political philosophy. Wouldn’t it be refreshing to have a candidate that refuses to denigrate his opponent or for that matter, how about not even acknowledging the opponent? Some businesses make sales by scaring customers about their completion. Other businesses ignore the fact that there is competition and sell their goods based on their features and benefits. I’ve always preferred the latter. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Neither candidate can acknowledge or get involved in the mudslinging that individuals do throughout the campaign. People have concerns. Some legitimate, some ridiculous.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Obama acknowledges McCain’s Senate contributions on one hand, but bundles him with Bush on the other. McCain has called Obama a good man, a family man on one hand and labeled him as the most liberal Senator in Congress on the other.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So, I guess what I’m saying is that we all get caught up in the dirt. For the most part, it’s the stuff that questions the candidate’s integrity, attributes, and qualifications. It’s actually a good thing and thank God we have the liberty and freedom of speech to question our leaders in this fashion. I would like to explore the paradigm of people asking these questions and not the candidates themselves though.</p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-75613314553368866902008-10-29T00:30:00.004-05:002008-10-29T11:55:52.374-05:00Analysis of some issuesI've begun to compare the issues between the two candidates. It's difficult to sift through the facts; actually it's difficult to find the facts, which is why I suppose the rhetoric gets boiled down to generalizations and mud slinging. For my purposes I've tried to stick with CNN.com and the Brookings institute, understanding that these things are written by people with inherent bias, as my writings will also have.
<br />
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="">Morality (Abortion, Stem Cell research) - </span></b><b><i style=""><span style=";font-family:";" >Winner: McCain<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style=";font-family:";" >I actually believe this is a state rights issue and generally dislike federal legislation on moral issues. Intellectually I believe that life begins at conception and therefore believe that abortion is taking that life. I concede that others disagree with this stance. I have friends and relatives who have had abortions, so I am sensitive to their points of view. However, with this point of view, embryonic stem cell research is a mute point for me.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><span style="">Housing - Tie<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">The "Emergency rescue" law already has a provision for the Treasury Department to help prevent foreclosures. A credit card bill of rights is interesting and should be explained in more detail, however, the answer for the consumer credit industry should probably be better directed at regulation that works in addition to transparency. My pre-teen kids were getting Capital One credit card offers! It was out of control. Both candidates positions are relatively the same given the circumstance of pre-existing legislation with the exception of Obama’s tax credits.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">Immigration - Tie<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I guess they’re in agreement on immigration. A 700-mile fence though? I like the idea of shoring up existing legislation. I dislike the idea that legislators believe they always need to create new legislation rather than improve existing laws. I agree that we need better border security. Of course, we could always annex Mexico and then levee taxes.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">Economy (Taxes) – McCain<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style="">http://www.taxpolicycenter.org/publications/url.cfm?ID=411693<o:p></o:p></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I think they both have bone headed ideas and I’ve been clear on my opposition of the currently constituted “bail-out”, which they both supported and neither made a concerted effort to make better. I oppose the idea of more “stimulus” (Obama) in that it’s good money chasing bad. <span style=""> </span>Seriously, does anyone really understand what is being proposed by either candidate, specifically? Even the Brookings Institute says that neither candidate has addressed the tax issue seriously. The generalizations made by both Obama and McCain appear to be relatively accurate however as expected, exaggerated.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style=""> </span>Under McCain’s plan the highest earners would get the largest cut, however it needs to be stressed that the highest earners are already the highest taxed. We live in a progressive tax system that progressively taxes earners based upon their income. McCain’s philosophy is that free cash will flow back into the economy in the form of business growth which will stimulate production. <o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Obama’s plan favors low-income earners and small business. The philosophy is that free cash in the hands of small business and low-income earners will stimulate the economy in the form of consumption.<span style=""> </span>The top line difference is about 5% for high income individuals and 10% for corporations. This is significant by anyone’s standard.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I don’t think anyone truly believes that the average “Joe the plumber” earns over $250,000 annually. That said, there are many small business owners incorporated as S-corps whose personal income is, for better or worse, reflected as their share of their corporation’s income. Many of these small business owners will most assuredly make over $250,000 on their tax form, yet take home significantly less.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">I generally believe that production stimulates the economy; however it seems that neither candidate has put a responsible plan together. <o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style=""><span style=""></span>Obama’s plan seems more baked, but I oppose the level of entitlement programs and tax credits that are proposed. I'm not opposed to all entitlement, but I am opposed to indiscriminate spending. I think there has to be budget redistribution possible, which has been discussed very little in either campaign (and I do remember the scalpel versus axe comments)<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">McCain’s plan’s philosophy is more capitalistic and more to my taste, however it’s problematic in that it severely reduces tax revenue which would require spending control not demonstrated by previous administrations or Congresses. I think the idea of an across the board spending freeze is irresponsible and ad-hoc.<o:p></o:p></i></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">I am ok with the concept of giving smaller tax breaks to lower earners. The spread is dramatic. Under McCain, the lowest percentile will pay a mere 4.5% while the highest earners will pay 28.3% <o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">Under Obama, the lowest percentile will receive a 0.4% credit (that is a tax rate of -0.4%) while the highest earners will pay a whopping rate of 39%.<o:p></o:p></i></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">Perhaps what needs to be examined is the ethics and regulatory abuses by those who are earning billions of dollars per year. It would be nice to have people earn large sums of money in an honest and ethical fashion rather than simply take more of their filthy money from them. Part of the problem with the Obama plan is that its ceiling is too low. Dual income homes will make more than $250,000 and still be living comfortably, but little better than hand to mouth. The ceiling needs to be raised by several orders of magnitude for this to make any amount of sense.</i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;">I've commented previously that the tax codes are too complex and complexity breeds corruption and manipulation. We need simplification.
<br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-51059166767812307312008-10-25T23:49:00.008-05:002008-10-26T03:22:44.750-05:00BurnoutElection weeks not even here yet and I'm burned out on politics already. I had been avoiding the news coverage for most of the year intentionally but got sucked in by the bank failures and so-called "bailout". I've listened to the arguments made by both candidates, watched the debates, and while I haven't read either candidate's entire platform I've read some amount of them. Neither man would be my first choice, so once again I'm left with voting against someone rather than voting for someone. I've even tried to think of who I'd want if I could choose anyone, but I've failed to identify one person. So, let me think "out loud" for a moment...
<br />
<br />What qualifications should the President have? (I'm using "he" out of convenience, as I don't have a bias against a female executive)
<br />
<br />1. Executive experience.
<br />
<br />The President is the ultimate CEO. He must surround itself with the most talented people available representing the various interests to be managed by the office. He must be able to absorb the multitude of opinions and interests and act on what he fundamentally believes to be best for the country, in spite of public and private opinion. He must also be able to act against what he personally wants to this end, and in this sense, exercise executive "judgement".
<br />
<br />2. Leadership.
<br />
<br />As with a successful CEO, the President must be able to garner support from those he leads, and in this case it's everyone; at least everyone in the United States. He must be able to rally support for initiatives and ideas, and even convince those who would disagree to act in the interest of the country. His sphere of influence includes his cabinet, all political parties, special interests, industry leaders, foreign leaders and the public at large.
<br />
<br />3. Ethics.
<br />
<br />Given the stakes, the moral foundation of the President must be based on Universal truths regarding decency and humanity. It's hard to know that this has been the case throughout history as much as I want to believe it to be, but this is what I expect out of this position. Perhaps this is what makes it such a difficult office to fill. Those who would have this quality may well not desire to test their metal in such a weighty manner.
<br />
<br />4. Knowledge.
<br />
<br />The leader of the free world should have a fundamental understanding of the forces that keep it operating including domestic and global economic policy, foreign and domestic politics, military history, world history, world religion, and philosophy. I don't expect any single person to master each discipline, however in order to make informed and independent decisions I expect the President to have a solid comprehension of these forces even given the amount of expert advice which assuredly would be given.
<br />
<br />5. Courage and a calm demeanor.
<br />
<br />The president must be able to stand up under the most trying circumstances. He will inevitably be tested and will need to present calm and clear leadership as well as an ability to synthesize what's required versus what's not in making decisions. He must be able to determine when immediate action is required versus when patience is the best alternative.
<br />
<br />6. Professionalism.
<br />
<br />The President must always conduct himself in a manner that represents the status of the office. While I understand that even Presidents are human, all great leaders are called upon to rise above their flaws, if only for the short time they must. It is plainly unacceptable for leaders of nations to behave in ways that do not represent the best of who they lead. We have been sadly, and greatly let down in this regard for far too long. We have seen this at all levels of leadership over the past 20 years and it's time we insist on better.
<br />
<br />Considering these six factors, how would you rate your choices?
<br />
<br />Here is my analysis.
<br />
<br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:1; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} p {mso-style-priority:99; mso-margin-top-alt:auto; margin-right:0in; mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto; margin-left:0in; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Executive Experience<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Has never served in an executive position. In fairness, both men have run Senate offices, but have had managers to direct their day-to-day business.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Led a Navy squadron, but never held a business or non-military executive position. In fairness, both men have run Senate offices, but have had managers to direct their day-to-day business.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Tie – Neither have an adequate amount of executive experience. Sarah Palin has more executive experience than Obama, McCain and Biden combined, but she’s not running for President.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Leadership<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Has been very convincing in a leadership role in every position he’s held. In fact, I would say Obama’s leadership skills outweigh everything else about him being able to sell those around him on his ability and nearly instantly begin work on his next step up at every level.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;">He serves as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Veterans Affairs Committee, Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Led an Navy squadron. Sponsored 38 pieces of legislation. While he has been more outspoken in Congress than most, he’s never truly led the House or Senate. Ranking member on Armed Services Committee (tenure?). Serves on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Indian Affairs committees.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner: Obama</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> – While McCain has unquestionably led as a Senator, he has not demonstrated the same level of “leadership” as Obama. That said, it should be pointed out that many leaders are not viewed by history as forces for good in the world. These leaders were able to lead even when there was no rational support for their advance.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Ethics (voting records and stands on issues not considered)<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Has some questionable associations including Tony Rezko, ACORN, William Ayers, Emil Jones Jr., Rashid Khaladi, Rev. Michael Pfleger specifically. Obama’s campaign contributions have raised the question of ethical misconduct, or at the very least, ethical contradictions. Experimented with drugs as a youth.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">On the positive side, Obama has worked in the interest of the economically disadvantaged as a community activist.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain was implicated in the Keating 5 scandal, but cleared and chastised later. There are some rumors about McCain related to adultery and gambling, however these have not made it very far in terms of media scrutiny.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">In his favor, his prison camp story is compelling, and he made the right choice in remaining versus being released, a point he doesn’t seem to let pass anyone by.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain, but narrowly. Obama’s association with such a multitude of questionable actors over a course of time shows a continual lack of judgment regardless of whether he actually did anything untoward. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Education: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Harvard Law School; BA Political Science, Columbia University<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Economy:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Political experience; Relies on advisors<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Domestic politics:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> State and federal senator for 12 years. Education, teaching, and activism.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">International politics: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Congressional experience, including foreign affairs committee.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Military history:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Relies on advisors<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">World History: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cannot judge<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">World Religion: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama Christian, Father raised Muslim turned atheist, mother Christian, lived in Indonesia, Pakistan<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Philosophy:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cannot judge<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Education: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">US Naval Academy<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Economy:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> More political experience; Relies on advisors<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Domestic politics</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: US Navy liason to Congress (5), Congressman (26) for 31 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">International Politics</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: Military and Congressional experience including Armed services committee.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Military history:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> US Navy, Annapolis, Armed Services Committee<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">World History: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Cannot judge<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">World Religion: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Christian<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Philosophy:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cannot judge<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama, but narrowly. McCain rates higher with regard to International politics and Military history. Obama wins in education, domestic politics, and world religion.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Courage and demeanor<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama: <o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Demeanor:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Calm and cool exterior. Has appeared to get rattled during debates, but nominally. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Courage:</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"> Cannot judge<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Demeanor: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Generally calm and cool. Has demonstrated agitation during debates, but nominally. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in; text-indent: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Courage: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Has shown courage as a prisoner of war. Otherwise, cannot judge.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: McCain - I rate them a tie in demeanor but McCain wins in courage.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style=""><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Professionalism<o:p></o:p></span></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Obama</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">: Aside from the aforementioned ethics questions, nothing has surfaced that indicts Obama’s professionalism.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">McCain: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">While there have been sparse reports of breaches of personal ethics, nothing has been publicly substantiated. Otherwise, nothing has surfaced that questions McCain’s professionalism.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Winner: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">Tie. Neither are exceptionally professional nor unprofessional. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br />
<br />For me, rating the men against the qualifications for the position results in a lackluster tie. I rate Obama higher in leadership and knowledge, but McCain higher in ethics and courage, but neither win in a convincing manner in their respective categories.
<br />
<br />So now I have to consider their position on issues. On the surface my tendencies are conservative since I'm a state's rights advocate (a.k.a. federalist), Catholic and free-market advocate. I can't remember when we have had a true fiscal conservative in control of the government. I suspect my analysis of the issues will produce yet another non-choice situation for me; where I'm voting against someone and not for someone.
<br />
<br />Stay tuned...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-75575662597097251452008-10-10T23:28:00.002-05:002008-10-11T00:06:49.608-05:00What are you doing? Is this a time of crisis or an opportunity?I'm curious to know how you view the current economic situation. Do you see the market, now trading at a level around 40% off it's high of last year as an opportunity or do you believe it's too risky, implying that there are no companies worth owning at this point? Are you worried about keeping your job? Have you tried to get a loan and been denied?<br /><br />For myself, I put a little money in the market last week, and of course it went down. I did not sell into the downfall. Last November and again in January I talked to my broker about selling since I started to feel uncomfortable with being in the market. He talked me out of selling and I paid no further attention to it.<br /><br />I'm fortunate that I don't need the cash right now and as such, I just left it in. I put a little more from my last paycheck into the same funds last week feeling that I would start putting a little more in every paycheck. If it keeps going down I'll just continue to buy all the way down. Hell, I'm buying at levels I haven't been able to buy at in 10 years. I only wish I had more cash. In my opinion there are a number of good companies selling at once in a lifetime levels. And they may get cheaper!<br /><br />The US Treasury and the Federal Reserve are at their wits end having pulled the trigger on a number of spending initiatives, loans, and rate cuts. Where were they in July when rate cuts might have kept the flow of credit open?<br /><br />I'm not particularly worried about the business... yet. Many companies are continuing spending in essential initiatives. However, we're seeing all good companies begin to cut non essential spending including projects and headcount. It's not a good time to be a corporate ornament, a.k.a. dead weight. We're also seeing an increase in sales and marketing efforts. It will be interesting to see when marketing budgets get wiped out. I fully expect to continue to see massive layoffs through the remainder of the year in large and publicly traded companies. Small business usually don't operate with the same level of overhead, but we will all be taking haircuts.<br /><br />I don't personally know anyone who's been foreclosed, but given the statistics I expect that many of you do. My aunt emailed me the other day saying that one of the kids had gotten a mortgage that was more than they could afford then complicated things by running up their credit cards. Before anyone could help them they had dug their hole too deep and they got foreclosed. It's unfortunate, but probably a lesson they needed to learn.<br /><br />I do acknowledge that there are going to now be a lot of people swept up in this debacle who took on debt that they could afford when they assumed it but will have either lost their job or suffered setbacks in their income forcing them into situations where their debt burden is unsustainable. It's really all of our fear to be caught in this situation. Normally, financial institutions will work with their customers to keep from assuming the financed assets. It will be interesting to see how well this works in this new economy.<br /><br />Today I heard of a physician friend who was having some difficulty acquiring a mortgage for a home, saying that the amount of down payment was 80%. I suspect he was exaggerating, but I believe that the money required for a down payment is much greater than it used to be.<br /><br />I have 2 car payments and a home mortgage at the moment. Happily I've paid off my credit cards over the year and have minimal debt in that regard. My cars were financed at 0% and 3.9% respectively and I had a 30 year fixed mortgage at 5.65% as I never trusted adjustable rates or brokers and banks that were unknown to me. I don't have nearly enough cash should something happen to my business or job, so that concerns me and I have to remain optimistic but guarded that we will continue to prosper through the turmoil. As a result, I am focusing efforts on increasing sales on essential items and those that reduce cost or increase sales for our customers.<br /><br />I'd love to hear your perspectives; what you're seeing; what you're experiencing at home and at work.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-34898712031306939662008-10-03T22:40:00.007-05:002008-10-04T00:27:10.589-05:00Spend baby spendMarch 2008<br /><br />The Federal Reserve issues a 28 day emergency loan to Bear Stearns only to have Stearns sell to JP Morgan 2 days later at a steep discount, $2/share when it had traded at $98/share only a month earlier. The Federal Reserve extends a <span style="font-weight: bold;">$29 Billion</span> non-recourse loan to JP Morgan and assumes responsibility for Morgan's "troubled" mortgaged based assets. According to the Federal Reserve website, JP Morgan assumed Bear Stearns financial obligations, but it's not clear to me if the original emergency loan was the same as the subsequently reported non-recourse loan to JP Morgan. No Congressional vote was required for this action.<br /><br />Ben Bernanke is Chairman of the Federal Reserve.<br /><br />September 2008<br /><br />The Federal Reserve issued loans up to<span style="font-weight: bold;"> $85 billion</span> to A.I.G. for a term of 24 months with the right to assume up to 79.9% equity in the financial and insurance giant. No Congressional vote was required for the loan.<br /><br />September 2008<br /><br />According to several news reports, a<span style="font-weight: bold;"> $25 billion </span>loan package is tucked somewhere in H.R. 2638 intended to aid the auto industry. <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-2638">H.R.2638</a> is an appropriations act extending the US budget into 2009. Just try to find reasonable language that describes the terms of the loan. I can't. Congress passed this bill and President Bush signed it into law.<br /><br />September 2008<br /><br />The US Treasury take Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship. Loans of up to $100 million per GSE (Government Sponsored Enterprise) were extended to both GSEs with up to 79.9% equity positions acquired. A total of<span style="font-weight: bold;"> $200 Billion</span> available. No Congressional vote required for these actions.<br /><br />September 2008<br /><br />Emergency Economic Stabilization. The Congress passed and President signed into law an act that commits up to <span style="font-weight: bold;">$700 billion </span>to be spent purchasing nearly anything the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury determines that will stabilize the stock markets and keep people in their homes. A combination of an additional <span style="font-weight: bold;">$110 billion</span> in tax credits and allocations were added to the original act in order to obtain the votes required to pass the bill.<br /><br />Several new government offices and positions are created with this act. Secretary Paulson is given a great deal of authority to define the mechanisms and rules for exercising the intent of the act with several agencies acting in an oversight capacity. The cost for administering this program is not specified. There is no timeframe for recapturing the investments made by the Secretary. The act gives the Secretary complete discretion for which assets to buy from whom and under whatever terms he sees fit as long as the terms meet a liberally general set of guidelines. There are mechanisms to adjust individual mortgage interest rates as well as reduce pricipal in conjunction with a new program titled "Hope for Homeowners", announced by Senator Dodd in March of 2008, but included in this bill.<br /><br />Until the most recent "economic bailout", the Federal Reserve and US Treasuring had been trading in loans and equity. Now that we have given the US Treasury a $700B line of credit, let's hope that Secretary Paulson has the good sense to invest it wisely.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-27085892847458108882008-10-03T19:54:00.006-05:002008-10-03T20:26:38.999-05:00Plight of the ignorant American public at the hands of an irresponsible governmentAfter the "Emergency Economic Stabilization" act was passed today, someone that I consider to be fairly intelligent asked if it had been determined how much the plan would cost each taxpayer. I had heard earlier in the day that the "bailout" equated to something like $6000 per taxpayer. The math seems pretty close: $700 billion divided by about $136 million tax payers (although only about 100 million actually paid anything) comes to about $6K per filing adult. He then asked if I thought we'd have to pay it all in one year. I was dumbfounded. How many other people are thinking this way?<br /><br />This law commits up to $700 billion to be used to purchase "troubled assets" and otherwise be spent as Secretary Paulson sees fit. Don't believe me?<br /><br />“residential or commercial mortgages and any securities, obligations, or other instruments that are based on or related to such mortgages” determined by “the Secretary determines promotes financial market stability”<br /><br />and<br /><br />“any other financial instrument that the Secretary, after consultation with the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, determines the purchase of which is necessary to promote financial market stability, but only upon transmittal of such determination, in writing, to the appropriate committees of Congress.”<br /><br />It's a commitment of funds. It's basically the same retarded logic that led consumers to take on mortgages, auto loans, credit cards and other debt they didn't have income to support. <br /><br />The real fun comes later for Congress. Where will the money come from to pay for the purchases made by the new "Office of Financial Stability" (does that sound Orwellian to you?)<br /><br />Get it? Spend the money then figure out how to pay for it. <br /><br />But here's something nobody has mentioned. Contained in this Law is an increase of the public debt limit to $11,315,000,000,000 from about $10.6 trillion. WHOOPIE! MAMMA NEEDS A NEW PAIR OF SHOES!<br /><br />There is some convoluted verbiage in the law that discusses charging premiums to institutions that participate in the plan to cover the requests for coverage. This is unrealistic if not down right stupid. If these companies had the funds to cover their debt they wouldn't need their troubled assets purchased.<br /><br />So, to my dear friend, and I do love him, no, you will not have to send a check to Uncle Sam for $6,000 next year with "Emergency Economic Stabilization" written in the memo. BUT, make no mistake about it, your taxes will rise. Maybe not tomorrow. Maybe not next year. But this law opened a big checkbook which will, without a doubt, be drawn upon. Having raised the ceiling for public debt Congress allowed this bubble to expand having doubled in size since 2000. This money will have to come from somewhere (foreign banks) and at some point we WILL have to repay it.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-3249796767960587442008-10-03T16:20:00.005-05:002008-10-03T22:08:36.664-05:00A plea to save our country...I sent this to Obama and Judy Biggert before the sentate vote a couple of days ago. Durbin's contact form was broken, and his congressional email bounced, so I couldn't get to him, not that it made any difference. It turns out that all of my representation (Illinois) voted for this heap of dung. After the Senate approved the act I read it, well most of it... it's 451 pages of legal-speak. I quit making notes and comments as there were too many comments to be made. It is truly a bad plan benefiting people who default on their loans and those elite that made them. The rest of us are left swinging in the breeze. The "pork" was legal coercion to get the votes required to pass. We elected these people to represent us. We deserve better than we got.<br /><br />The "Emergency Investment Act" is now law. Mark this date down. Remember what you did today. It's a date that "will live in infamy". Our government's relationship with all of us fundamentally changed today. Shame on all who voted for this act and those who stood by and allowed it to happen. I'll post more on why it will not help the economy and how it accelerated our country's slide into socialism later. Maybe that's what you want, but it's not what I want.<br /><br />---------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />x,<br /><br />It is my earnest hope that these messages reach you. I am not in favor of the proposed "bailout" or "investment" plan for the following reasons:<br /><br />1. Private sector must remain private. Risky credit policies have to run their course even if the consequences are painful. I realize that this is not going to resonate, so I have other concerns that follow.<br /><br />2. If these financial firms are too risky to extend credit to how can they be any less of a risk with regard to stock or warrants?<br /><br />3. Exactly which financial firms are going to be helped? What is the criteria for investment or credit?<br /><br />4. How can we be assured that those people overseeing these programs are acting in the public's best interest and not in their own? It seems that nearly every official involved in setting past and present policy has ties to several of these failing firms.<br /><br />5. How can we be assured that those responsible for acting irresponsibly not only do not profit from assistance, but are fairly punished for their recklessness? Clearly the bylaws, regulations and legislation in place for the GSE's and SEC were not effective. How can we be sure that this law won't be equally inert?<br /><br />6. It appalls me to see the level of partisan posturing happening by both parties. I am embarrassed by it.<br /><br />7. What I now see are provisions being included to solicit senate votes that do not directly address the issue at hand. I realize that this is how the system works, but it's distasteful to see given the current circumstances.<br /><br />8. Nobody has adequately explained the alternative to a bailout. Much of the American public is sophisticated enough to follow logic when it's presented. Many of us do not appreciate generic doom and fear tactics. If someone were to clearly lay out the facts we would respond. Pandering to our fears has become a troublesome consistency by today's leadership. <br /><br />9. The financial aid provided will not prevent foreclosures and repossession on bad debt. The only benefactor would seem to be the executives and shareholders of these companies. As for how the markets will be affected is a guess and a gamble at best. When credit is stretched beyond the population's ability to repay, prices are inflated, and subsequently taxes increased in part on those inflated prices isn't it a matter of time before something breaks? I wish our leaders would stop using job loss and foreclosure as a platform when no spending program can adequately address those two symptoms of a sick system.<br /><br />If a plan is absolutely necessary, I would be in favor of a loan program that clearly identified where the money would go, had very strict guidelines for who qualified for loans, that eliminates companies who are too risky to repay the loans, that had an extreme transparency, that had a combination of private sector (non-invested) and public sector oversight and lastly that had provisions for investigation and remediation regarding the legislation and private practices that led to this situation.<br /><br />Respectfully,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-55792687628397573272008-09-30T23:28:00.007-05:002008-09-30T23:52:37.211-05:00Something stinks. I showered this morning so it's not me.<meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Calisto MT"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} a:link, span.MsoHyperlink {mso-style-priority:99; color:blue; mso-themecolor:hyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed {mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; color:purple; mso-themecolor:followedhyperlink; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single;} span.EmailStyle16 {mso-style-type:personal; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; color:windowtext;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RZVw3no2A4">
<br /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><o:p></o:p></p> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1RZVw3no2A4&hl=en&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1RZVw3no2A4&hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It boggles my mind that any business entity believes it can rampantly extend credit to risky customers with no consequences. Home ownership, nor credit of any kind, should have never been a “community initiative”. If a fraction of the money and effort had been spent in creating jobs instead of creating opportunities for businesses and consumers to overextend themselves we would have built a free market foundation for those willing to work for what they have and can afford. Clearly we’d still have corruption and manipulation; it’s human nature.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">There's a fundamental difference between charity and entitlement. Charity is personal and we have seen it work. Entitlement is contrived and although there are exceptions, rarely works.
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It scares the hell out of me that one of the people (Obama), his hands as dirty as anyone, perhaps dirtier than most, has a very good chance of becoming President with a democratically controlled congress. It doesn’t calm my nerves that McCain has been in Congress since 1983 while this sore festered either.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Entitlement does not work. This mentality goes as far back as Franklin Roosevelt. Jimmy Carter apparently planted this time bomb that just went off. Each generation has built upon a house of cards. I hold every President and congress person who’s held office since 1977 culpable. We can choose to knock it down and start over or put some tape on it and hope it remains standing until we can move out and let our kids and grandchildren deal with it.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Complexity breeds corruption and manipulation. It’s time to get back to some common sense basics. People should get the credit they can afford. People who overextend themselves need to deal with the consequences. Companies that extend credit to risky customers need to deal with those consequences. Our government needs to protect the public from fraudulent and criminal behavior.
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /><o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">If you believe the “bailout” will solve anything, google “Henry Paulson”. <span style=""> </span>Just who is getting bailed out here? How much of Paulson’s $700 million net worth is still tied up in Goldman Sachs, where he was CEO from 1999 to 2006. His network extends all across many of the ailing and now defunct financial institutions. People like Steve Wynn and Warren Buffet are putting forward ideas (and actions) that free up the credit market, hold the financial institutions accountable, and allow the market to sort out the garbage of overpriced assets.<o:p></o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are already too many regulations that are not enforceable. The tax code is too complex, which by its nature encourages manipulation and corruption resulting in an unfair distribution of cost. There are too many programs that require a tax base that is becoming unbearable. The SEC is asleep at the wheel.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 12"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cddurbin%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves/> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:donotpromoteqf/> <w:lidthemeother>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:lidthemeasian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:lidthemecomplexscript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:splitpgbreakandparamark/> <w:dontvertaligncellwithsp/> <w:dontbreakconstrainedforcedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> <w:word11kerningpairs/> <w:cachedcolbalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathpr> <m:mathfont val="Cambria Math"> <m:brkbin val="before"> <m:brkbinsub val="--"> <m:smallfrac val="off"> <m:dispdef/> <m:lmargin val="0"> <m:rmargin val="0"> <m:defjc val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent val="1440"> <m:intlim val="subSup"> <m:narylim val="undOvr"> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" defunhidewhenused="true" defsemihidden="true" defqformat="false" defpriority="99" latentstylecount="267"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="0" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Normal"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="heading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="9" qformat="true" name="heading 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 7"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 8"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" name="toc 9"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="35" qformat="true" name="caption"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="10" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" name="Default Paragraph Font"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="11" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtitle"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="22" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Strong"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="20" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="59" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Table Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Placeholder Text"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="1" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="No Spacing"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Revision"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="34" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="List Paragraph"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="29" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="30" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Quote"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="60" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="61" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="62" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Light Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="63" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="64" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="65" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="66" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="67" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="68" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="69" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="70" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Dark List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="71" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="72" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful List Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="73" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="19" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="21" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Emphasis"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="31" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Subtle Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="32" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Intense Reference"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="33" semihidden="false" unhidewhenused="false" qformat="true" name="Book Title"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="37" name="Bibliography"> <w:lsdexception locked="false" priority="39" qformat="true" name="TOC Heading"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Cambria Math"; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Calisto MT"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-alt:"Times New Roman"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} span.EmailStyle15 {mso-style-type:personal; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-unhide:no; mso-ansi-font-size:11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi; color:windowtext;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Our government is the 32 year old kid that hasn’t moved out of his parent’s house, throws wild parties, has loser friends that come and go at will, he’s stolen your credit cards, eats all of your food then trashes the furniture and won’t clean up after himself. Our society has become the parents that turn a blind eye, clean up the house, put more food in the refrigerator and makes the minimum payment on the credit card bill.<o:p></o:p></p> <o:p></o:p><p></p> Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-54139713451215886242008-09-29T19:35:00.006-05:002008-09-29T22:19:35.035-05:00On the brink, but it's not what you think...The political posturing of our public servants over recent days is despicable. Nobody can claim credit for anything right now. It's analogous to offering to give CPR to someone you just shot. The vast majority of us are not short sighted enough to lose the fact that it has been poor policy, over-legislation and under-management in our governments and big business over the last 20 years (at least) that has made making an honest living one of the most difficult things to achieve today. Nearly none of us would accept the excuses or self-centered behavior we've seen them demonstrate from our employees or children. Why do we accept it from our so-called leaders?<br /><br />People with little or no credit should not get loans. If they do get credit and can't make their payments, they should lose their asset. Businesses that routinely extend credit to risky customers should go out of business. Our government should enforce legislation that protects us all from fraudulent and devious activities. Complexity in systems encourage manipulation and chaos. It's time to get back to some basics.<br /><br />This said, now that we're on this slippery slope let's pray that our leaders put together an "investment" package that 1) clearly defines the rules for which businesses qualify for "investment" , 2) as with the airline packages in the recent past, loans, instead of investment, state a term for repayment at favorable but fair rates, 3) no special interest funding or earmarks and 4) investigation and accountability into the firms and the past legislation that allowed debt to accumulate and be traded at the magnitude we're seeing.<br /><br />There are a lot of smart business people that can guide this wreck forward. Paulson isn't one of them. It would be interesting to know how much of Henry Paulson's estimated $700 million net worth is invested in interests that might be involved in this so-called bailout. For that matter, full disclosure would be more than interesting for those crafting these financial devices. After all the money is spent scooping up these assets, the bad debts will still exist, right? Do you really want the federal government deciding to foreclose on your house or reposess your car because they now own the loan you weren't qualified to get in the first place? Warrants, loans, or just gifts of money do not erase bad debt. Nobody in this equation is going to forgive missed payments.<br /><br />It should make all of us sick that the executives of these "failed" companies have fleeced the system for billions of dollars while they ran their firms into the ground. These are the same companies that, through their financial might, have influenced our public servants and shaped favorable legislation that has built the culture of industrial irresponsibility that has created infamous names as Enron, Ty, MCI, and I predict Fannie Mae, Lehman, and Goldman Sachs will join them before this is over.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-58255310535966605952008-07-02T13:39:00.004-05:002008-07-02T16:25:32.449-05:00The saga, and weight loss continueI've lost 14 pounds since my last post on May 24. I'm particularly happy with this as I spent a week driving the Hot Rod Power Tour and a 4 day weekend in Florida playing. So while I wasn't able to exercise during these travels, I was able to continue to eat according to my plan (mostly). This morning's weigh in placed me at 214, down from 228.5 on May 24 and 290 on December 1, 2007. I was also able to put on a pair of 34" waist pants this morning, something I haven't done in at least 3 years.<br /><br />The Hot Rod Power Tour was phenominal!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2580534687_ca680d7e06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3191/2580534687_ca680d7e06.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I was sorry to see it end, and I can't wait for next year. Next year it will begin in Madison, WI and make a stop in Racine and Warren, MI at the home of GM's design center. I'm wondering how they will route from Racine to Warren; if they will go north through WI and MI or south through Chicago and Indiana. I would prefer a northerly route, but I'm thinking they will drop south and I might be able to sleep at home the 2nd or 3rd night. In any case, I'm scheming my upgrades to get done prior to next year so I'm not the same poor sap that was driving a bone stock car next year.<br /><br />I had a <a href="http://www.bbexhaust.com/car/corvette/c5/">B&B PRT</a> exhaust system installed on the vette over the weekend at Bloomington Gold in St. Charles, Il. I love the angry sound it makes now when I'm on the throttle, and I like that it purrs along when I'm cruising on the highway; it's the best of both worlds.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2620312570_9125a47976.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3208/2620312570_9125a47976.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />I also got some great news from my doctors last Friday. As I think I mentioned before, I developed heart failure in January 2007 and had an ejection fraction of 10% with atrial fibrillation. I've read somewhere that the prognosis for someone with an EF of 10% is 1 year. I was worried about this up until the point when I had a hybrid-maze procedure performed in February of 2008 at Northwestern Memorial Medical Center by Doctor Richard Lee. My EF had improved from 10% to 40% last year, but dropped back down to 30% by February. I had a check up last Friday and am happy to report that during the 3 week period in May I wore a long range heart monitor I showed no episodes of atrial fibrillation and that my echo cardiogram showed my EF had improved to 45%! Normal is 55% so I have some room for improvement, but this is happy news. As a result, I was taken off of Amiodarone, Lasix and potassium. I will wear a monitor again in August and if I still show no signs of afib then I can get off of the Warfarin, which will leave me on Toprolol, Lisinopril and fish oil. Life is good.<br /><br />It's the 4th of July weekend, which means festival time. For me, the main event is Ribfest, more specifically live music. I'm looking forward to Ted Nugent, REO, Big Head Todd, Trace Adkins and Janesville. I'm told that Night Ranger and Styx are playing in Arlington Heights, so I may go to that instead of Ribfest, but I'm not sure.<br /><br />Gotta go...Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-91316122571169074382008-05-24T22:14:00.001-05:002008-05-24T22:16:58.146-05:00Food logsBeing at Indy yesterday screwed up my diet, but as my rules state, you have to allow yourself to cheat once in a while. Between the ribs and chicken I was set back 600 calories for the day. I normally have about a 1000 calorie deficit, so it was a really decadent day for me, and I didn't even get cake!<div class="contentBody postContentBody"><span id="ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_phBody_phBody_phBody_ctl00_pageViewer_upd_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_mdl_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_contentDetail_ctl00_message"> <p> </p> <p>I<wbr> promised<wbr> to<wbr> post<wbr> a<wbr> snippet<wbr> of<wbr> my<wbr> diet<wbr> regimen,<wbr> so<wbr> here<wbr> it<wbr> is.<wbr> I<wbr> keep<wbr> a<wbr> food<wbr> and<wbr> exercise<wbr> log,<wbr> and<wbr> I'm<wbr> religious<wbr> about<wbr> staying<wbr> on<wbr> top<wbr> of<wbr> it.<wbr> I<wbr> think<wbr> it's<wbr> a<wbr> matter<wbr> of<wbr> accountability,<wbr> as<wbr> I<wbr> find<wbr> myself<wbr> thinking<wbr> twice<wbr> about<wbr> eating<wbr> the<wbr> candy<wbr> or<wbr> cookie<wbr> knowing<wbr> that<wbr> I<wbr> won't<wbr> want<wbr> to<wbr> enter<wbr> those<wbr> calories<wbr> in<wbr> my<wbr> log.<wbr> I<wbr> track<wbr> my<wbr> blood<wbr> pressure<wbr> and<wbr> heart<wbr> rate<wbr> in<wbr> addition<wbr> to<wbr> calculating<wbr> my<wbr> theoretic<wbr> weight<wbr> loss<wbr> versus<wbr> actual.<wbr> If<wbr> you're<wbr> interested<wbr> in<wbr> receiving<wbr> this<wbr> spreadsheet<wbr> to<wbr> use<wbr> for<wbr> yourself,<wbr> let<wbr> me<wbr> know<wbr> and<wbr> I'll<wbr> send<wbr> it<wbr> to<wbr> you.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <wbr> <span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><span class="highlighted_word"><wbr> </span><span class="highlighted_word"> </span><table str="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="1440" width="461"><col width="75"> <col width="64"> <col width="384"> <col width="63"> <col width="89"> <col span="3" width="64"> <col width="54"> <tbody><tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39585" align="right" height="18" width="75">5/17/2008</td> <td width="64">7a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey protien + soy milk</td> <td num="" align="right" width="63">1<wbr>77</td> <td width="89"> </td> <td width="64"> </td> <td width="64"> </td> <td width="64"> </td> <td width="54"> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td><td class="xl26" width="384">45 minutes elliptical</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>12:30p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">4<wbr> oz<wbr> orange<wbr> roughy</td> <td num="" align="right">80</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">caesar salad</td> <td num="" align="right">220</td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">activia<wbr> yogurt</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>4:15p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">gluten/fat<wbr> free<wbr> chips<wbr> +<wbr> salsa</td> <td num="" align="right">100</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pudding</td> <td num="" align="right">45</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">2 apricots</td><td num="" align="right">34</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>8p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">caesar salad</td> <td num="" align="right">300</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">2 meatballs</td> <td num="" align="right">1<wbr>25</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td><td class="xl26" width="384">lasagna</td> <td num="" align="right">300</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>137/83</td> <td num="" align="right">68</td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D1:D11)" align="right">1451</td> <td class="xl27" num="966" fmla="=2417-D12" align="right">966.0<wbr>0</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39586" align="right" height="18">5/18/2008</td><td>9a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey protien + soy milk</td> <td num="" align="right">177</td><td> </td> <td num="" align="right">229</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>3p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">turkey and ham subway salad</td> <td num="" align="right">150</td><td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>6p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pe<wbr>ar</td> <td num="" align="right">81</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">orange roughy</td> <td num="" align="right">180</td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">activia<wbr> yogurt</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">bracolli</td> <td num="" align="right">24</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>8p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">36<wbr> minutes<wbr> ellipticala</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>9:15p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pudding</td> <td num="" align="right">45</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>146/85</td> <td num="" align="right">72</td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D13:D20)" align="right">727</td> <td class="xl27" num="1690" fmla="=2417-D21" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">1690</span>.00</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39587" align="right" height="18">5/19/2008</td> <td>7a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey<wbr> protien<wbr> +<wbr> soy<wbr> milk</td> <td num="" align="right">177</td> <td> </td> <td num="" align="right">229</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr><tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">apple</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>12:30p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">salad<wbr> and<wbr> vinegarette</td> <td num="" align="right">130</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">chilli (quiznos)</td> <td num="" align="right">140</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>2<wbr>:45p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pickle spear</td> <td num="" align="right">5</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>3p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">panera<wbr> mediteranian<wbr> veggie<wbr> sandwich<wbr> -<wbr> 1<wbr> slice<wbr> bread<wbr> removed</td> <td num="" align="right">200</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>6p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">2xboca+parmisan</td> <td num="" align="right">200</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>146/93</td> <td num="" align="right">68</td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td><td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">salad and vinegarette</td> <td num="" align="right">100</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">acti<wbr>via<wbr> yogurt</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>9p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">52<wbr> minutes<wbr> stationary<wbr> bike</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>10p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">italian ice</td> <td num="" align="right">120</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D22:D32)" align="right">1212</td> <td class="xl27" num="1205" fmla="=2417-D33" align="right">1205.00</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39588" align="right" height="18">5/<wbr>20/2008</td> <td>7a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey<wbr> protien<wbr> +<wbr> soy<wbr> milk</td> <td num="" align="right">177</td> <td> </td> <td num="" align="right">227</td> <td>133/79</td> <td num="" align="right">68</td><td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>12:30p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">ahi<wbr> tuna<wbr> and<wbr> salad<wbr> +<wbr> vinegarette</td> <td num="" align="right">220</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">hot-n-sour soup</td> <td num="" align="right">6<wbr>0</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>3p</td><td class="xl26" width="384">pear</td> <td num="" align="right">81</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"><td height="18"> </td> <td>7p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">ham<wbr> and<wbr> whole<wbr> grain<wbr> wrap<wbr> +<wbr> lettuce</td> <td num="" fmla="=150+60+5" align="right">215</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">activia yogurt</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pud<wbr>ding</td> <td num="" align="right">45</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>128/73</td> <td num="" align="right">75</td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>8p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">30<wbr> minutes<wbr> stationary<wbr> bike</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D34:D40)" align="right">868</td> <td class="xl27" num="1549" fmla="=2417-D42" align="right">1549.00</td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39589" align="right" height="18">5/21/2008</td> <td>7a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">south<wbr> beach<wbr> breakfast<wbr> bar</td> <td num="" align="right">140</td> <td> </td> <td num="" align="right">227</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>12:30p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">1/2 bowl chilli</td> <td num="" align="right">3<wbr>50</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td><td class="xl26" width="384"><wbr>3/4<wbr> house<wbr> salad<wbr> w/vinegarette<wbr> (cheese<wbr> and<wbr> walnuts)</td> <td num="" align="right">200</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td></tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>8p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">healthy<wbr> choice<wbr> chicken<wbr> and<wbr> rice</td> <td num="" align="right">210</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"><td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">activia yogurt</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">pudding</td><td num="" align="right">45</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>9:<wbr>30p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">sliced turkey breast</td> <td num="" align="right">60</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>133/74</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D43:D49)" align="right">1075</td> <td class="xl27" num="1342" fmla="=2417-D50" align="right">1342.00</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td></tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39590" align="right" height="18">5/22/2008</td> <td>6:45a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey<wbr> protien<wbr> +<wbr> soy<wbr> milk</td> <td num="" align="right">177</td> <td> </td> <td num="" align="right">228.5</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td></tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>11:30a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">apple</td> <td num="" align="right">70</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>12p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">orang<wbr>e</td> <td num="" align="right">60</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td><td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">granola bar (whole grain)</td> <td num="" align="right">180</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" str="trail mix bar " width="384">trail mix bar<span style=""> </span></td> <td num="" align="right">140</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>5p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">8.5<wbr> oz<wbr> beef<wbr> roast</td> <td num="" align="right">502</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>6p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">peach</td> <td num="" align="right">38</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td><td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">30<wbr> minutes<wbr> elliptical</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>126/76</td> <td num="" align="right">7<wbr>0</td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D51:D57)" align="right">1167</td> <td class="xl27" num="1250" fmla="=2417-D59" align="right">1250<wbr>.00</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" num="39591" align="right" height="18">5/23/2008</td> <td>3:30a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">whey protien + soy milk</td><td num="" align="right">177</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>6<wbr>a</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">banana</td> <td num="" align="right">72</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>11:30a-4p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">indy:<wbr> 5<wbr> pork<wbr> ribs;<wbr> 2<wbr> drumsticks;<wbr> 2<wbr> thighs;<wbr> 1<wbr> breast<wbr> (all<wbr> small)</td> <td num="" fmla="=1300+71+71+68+68+200" align="right">1778</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td>8p</td> <td class="xl26" width="384">roast<wbr> beef<wbr> +<wbr> english<wbr> muffin<wbr> +<wbr> cheese</td> <td num="" fmla="=110+400" align="right">510</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td> </td> </tr><tr height="18"> <td height="18"> </td> <td> </td> <td class="xl26" width="384">6 cookies (bad dave)</td> <td num="" fmla="=180*3" align="right">5<wbr>40</td> <td> </td> <td> </td> <td>137/82</td> <td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">69</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D60:D64)" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">3077</span></td><td class="xl27" num="-660" fmla="=2417-D65" align="right"><span style=";color:#ff0000;" ><span class="highlighted_word">(660.00)</span></span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word">5/24/208</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">7:30a</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">w<wbr>hey<wbr> protien<wbr> +<wbr> soy<wbr> milk</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">177</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">228.5</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">10:30a</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">apricot</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">17</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">11:20a</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">ba<wbr>nana</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">72</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">12:30p</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">english<wbr> muffin+turkey<wbr> slices+cheese</span></td><td num="" fmla="=110+60+70" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">240</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td class="xl24" height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">6:30p</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">8<wbr> oz<wbr> turkey<wbr> breast</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">429</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">salad + ranch free</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">70</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">fru<wbr>it<wbr> (canteloupe<wbr> +<wbr> grapes)</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">50</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">7p</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">slice<wbr> of<wbr> roast<wbr> beef<wbr> (1oz)</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">59</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">8p</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">60 minutes elliptical</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">500</span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">9p</span></td><td class="xl26" width="384"><span class="highlighted_word">30 minutes stationary bike</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word">126/70</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">73</span></td><td num="" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">200</span></td></tr><tr height="18"><td height="18"><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td class="xl25" num="" fmla="=SUM(D66:D73)" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">1114</span></td><td class="xl27" num="1303" fmla="=2417-D76" align="right"><span class="highlighted_word">1303.00</span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td><td><span class="highlighted_word"> </span></td></tr></tbody></table></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-52333809697210324652008-05-24T21:56:00.002-05:002008-05-24T21:59:47.425-05:00In for a penny, in for a pound...<p>So,<wbr> as<wbr> I<wbr> sit<wbr> here<wbr> pondering<wbr> life,<wbr> I<wbr> have<wbr> a<wbr> pup<wbr> between<wbr> my<wbr> legs<wbr> and<wbr> another<wbr> bitching<wbr> at<wbr> me<wbr> from<wbr> the<wbr> wings.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a title="Who ever said dogs don't have souls... by ddurbin123, on Flickr" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/94043755@N00/2067352381/"><img alt="Who ever said dogs don't have souls..." src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2092/2067352381_618b25fe12.jpg" height="333" width="500" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/94043755@N00/2137555516/" title="Dakota waiting to join me by ddurbin123, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2389/2137555516_369ddf3a1f.jpg" alt="Dakota waiting to join me" height="400" width="500" /></a></p> <p> </p> <p>I<wbr> started<wbr> to<wbr> put<wbr> an<wbr> update<wbr> here<wbr> of<wbr> everything<wbr> that's<wbr> happened<wbr> since<wbr> I<wbr> left,<wbr> but<wbr> erased<wbr> it...<wbr> several<wbr> times.<wbr> If<wbr> you<wbr> want<wbr> to<wbr> know,<wbr> go<wbr> ahead<wbr> and<wbr> ask<wbr> :-)</p> <p> </p> <p>Instead,<wbr> I'm<wbr> writing<wbr> about<wbr> health<wbr> and<wbr> wellness.<wbr> I'm<wbr> a<wbr> compulsive<wbr> eater,<wbr> and<wbr> have<wbr> been<wbr> for<wbr> years.<wbr> Twice<wbr> in<wbr> my<wbr> life<wbr> I've<wbr> allowed<wbr> myself<wbr> to<wbr> tip<wbr> the<wbr> scales<wbr> at<wbr> nearly<wbr> 3<wbr> spins<wbr> and<wbr> twice<wbr> I've<wbr> lost<wbr> significant<wbr> weight,<wbr> like<wbr> 120<wbr> pounds<wbr> the<wbr> first<wbr> time<wbr> and<wbr> now<wbr> over<wbr> 60<wbr> pounds<wbr> most<wbr> recently.<wbr> Why<wbr> do<wbr> we<wbr> eat,<wbr> especially<wbr> when<wbr> we're<wbr> not<wbr> hungry?<wbr> For<wbr> me,<wbr> it<wbr> was<wbr> a<wbr> crutch,<wbr> like<wbr> cigarettes,<wbr> which<wbr> I've<wbr> had<wbr> to<wbr> quit<wbr> also<wbr> (3<wbr> months<wbr> now).<wbr> Stress,<wbr> nerves,<wbr> anxiety<wbr> were<wbr> all<wbr> triggers<wbr> to<wbr> eat.<wbr> The<wbr> crappier<wbr> the<wbr> food<wbr> the<wbr> better<wbr> too.</p> <p> </p> <p>Why<wbr> do<wbr> we<wbr> keep<wbr> eating<wbr> when<wbr> we<wbr> know<wbr> it's<wbr> going<wbr> to<wbr> kill<wbr> us?<wbr> Oversimplified<wbr> you<wbr> say?</p> <p> </p> <p>Obesity<wbr> contributes<wbr> to<wbr> sleep<wbr> apnea.<wbr> Doctors<wbr> are<wbr> learning<wbr> that<wbr> sleep<wbr> apnia<wbr> now<wbr> contributes<wbr> to<wbr> many<wbr> ailments,<wbr> including<wbr> hypertension<wbr> and<wbr> heart<wbr> failure.<wbr> I<wbr> can<wbr> personally<wbr> attest<wbr> to<wbr> this.<wbr> I'll<wbr> go<wbr> into<wbr> those<wbr> gory<wbr> details<wbr> another<wbr> time.</p> <p> </p> <p>In<wbr> the<wbr> last<wbr> couple<wbr> of<wbr> weeks<wbr> I've<wbr> had<wbr> several<wbr> people<wbr> ask<wbr> me<wbr> how<wbr> I<wbr> have<wbr> been<wbr> losing<wbr> weight;<wbr> what's<wbr> my<wbr> secret.<wbr> It's<wbr> no<wbr> secret<wbr> really;<wbr> eat<wbr> right<wbr> and<wbr> exercise.<wbr> One<wbr> guy<wbr> at<wbr> work<wbr> is<wbr> 37<wbr> and<wbr> was<wbr> told<wbr> by<wbr> his<wbr> doctor<wbr> that<wbr> his<wbr> blood<wbr> pressure<wbr> sucked,<wbr> liver<wbr> enzymes<wbr> were<wbr> too<wbr> high<wbr> and<wbr> if<wbr> he<wbr> didn't<wbr> change<wbr> his<wbr> habits<wbr> he<wbr> was<wbr> heading<wbr> for<wbr> an<wbr> early<wbr> grave.<wbr> That<wbr> news<wbr> shook<wbr> him<wbr> up.<wbr> My<wbr> telling<wbr> him<wbr> that<wbr> cutting<wbr> red<wbr> meat<wbr> out<wbr> of<wbr> his<wbr> diet<wbr> might<wbr> have<wbr> shaken<wbr> him<wbr> up<wbr> more.<wbr> I<wbr> have<wbr> two<wbr> more<wbr> guys<wbr> at<wbr> work<wbr> that<wbr> are<wbr> both<wbr> over<wbr> 400<wbr> pounds.<wbr> It's<wbr> hard<wbr> to<wbr> watch<wbr> them<wbr> struggle<wbr> to<wbr> move<wbr> around,<wbr> and<wbr> the<wbr> work<wbr> they<wbr> do<wbr> sometimes<wbr> requires<wbr> a<wbr> good<wbr> deal<wbr> of<wbr> dexterity<wbr> and<wbr> activity.</p> <p> </p> <p>Recently<wbr> my<wbr> company<wbr> decided<wbr> to<wbr> hire<wbr> a<wbr> dietitian<wbr> to<wbr> meet<wbr> and<wbr> consult<wbr> to<wbr> our<wbr> employees.<wbr> She<wbr> had<wbr> back<wbr> to<wbr> back<wbr> appointments<wbr> for<wbr> two<wbr> consecutive<wbr> days,<wbr> and<wbr> we<wbr> only<wbr> have<wbr> about<wbr> 50<wbr> employees<wbr> in<wbr> our<wbr> office,<wbr> over<wbr> half<wbr> of<wbr> them<wbr> are<wbr> usually<wbr> out<wbr> of<wbr> the<wbr> office<wbr> on<wbr> any<wbr> given<wbr> day.<wbr> People<wbr> are<wbr> clearly<wbr> interested,<wbr> but<wbr> are<wbr> they<wbr> committed<wbr> to<wbr> health?</p> <p> </p> <p>Healthy<wbr> habits<wbr> aren't<wbr> easy.<wbr> I've<wbr> screwed<wbr> it<wbr> up<wbr> many<wbr> times.<wbr> But<wbr> at<wbr> 42<wbr> I<wbr> want<wbr> to<wbr> live<wbr> the<wbr> remainder<wbr> of<wbr> my<wbr> life<wbr> on<wbr> my<wbr> terms<wbr> and<wbr> not<wbr> be<wbr> at<wbr> the<wbr> mercy<wbr> of<wbr> doctors,<wbr> medicines,<wbr> and<wbr> bad<wbr> health.</p> <p> </p> <p>Well<wbr> that's<wbr> what<wbr> I<wbr> claim<wbr> at<wbr> the<wbr> moment<wbr> anyway.<wbr> Healthy<wbr> living<wbr> is<wbr> a<wbr> day<wbr> to<wbr> day<wbr> proposition.<wbr> It<wbr> would<wbr> be<wbr> so<wbr> easy<wbr> to<wbr> fall<wbr> out<wbr> of<wbr> my<wbr> current<wbr> healthy<wbr> routine,<wbr> eat<wbr> a<wbr> quart<wbr> of<wbr> Moosetracks<wbr> and<wbr> begin<wbr> the<wbr> downward<wbr> spiral<wbr> of<wbr> guilt,<wbr> shame<wbr> and<wbr> eating.</p> <p> </p> <p>So<wbr> here<wbr> are<wbr> my<wbr> "BIG"<wbr> rules<wbr> of<wbr> healthy<wbr> eating.<wbr> I'll<wbr> post<wbr> more<wbr> information<wbr> over<wbr> what<wbr> specific<wbr> foods<wbr> I've<wbr> been<wbr> eating<wbr> over<wbr> the<wbr> next<wbr> several<wbr> days.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <span id="ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_phBody_phBody_phBody_ctl00_pageViewer_upd_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_mdl_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_contentDetail_ctl00_message"><wbr> <wbr> <table str="" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="1078"><col width="1078"> <tbody><tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Eat<wbr> mostly<wbr> fish,<wbr> chicken,<wbr> turkey.<wbr> Little<wbr> or<wbr> no<wbr> red<wbr> meats.<wbr> When<wbr> red<wbr> meat,<wbr> eat<wbr> lean<wbr> cuts<wbr> and</p> <p>small portions. Same with pork.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Avoid<wbr> starchy<wbr> veggies<wbr> like<wbr> corn<wbr> and<wbr> carrots.<wbr> Favorites<wbr> are<wbr> red,<wbr> yellow<wbr> and<wbr> green<wbr> peppers;</p> <p>radishes;<wbr> green<wbr> beans;<wbr> peas</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Limit<wbr> breads;<wbr> when<wbr> you<wbr> eat<wbr> breads<wbr> eat<wbr> whole<wbr> grain;<wbr> jewel<wbr> sells<wbr> wraps<wbr> that<wbr> are<wbr> gluten<wbr> free;</p> <p>fat<wbr> free<wbr> and<wbr> only<wbr> 50<wbr> calories<wbr> per<wbr> serving</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Avoid<wbr> anything<wbr> with<wbr> enriched<wbr> or<wbr> processed<wbr> flour</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Avoid<wbr> processed<wbr> meats;<wbr> turkey<wbr> sausage<wbr> is<wbr> ok<wbr> once<wbr> in<wbr> a<wbr> while</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">No<wbr> fried<wbr> foods;<wbr> grill<wbr> and<wbr> broil<wbr> when<wbr> cooking</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">No caffine</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Li<wbr>mit<wbr> soda;<wbr> no<wbr> more<wbr> than<wbr> 1<wbr> diet,<wbr> caffine<wbr> free,<wbr> low<wbr> sodium<wbr> per<wbr> day;<wbr> sierra<wbr> mist;<wbr> diet<wbr> 7-up;</p> <p>diet sprite</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Drink<wbr> water<wbr> or<wbr> flavored<wbr> seltzer<wbr> water;<wbr> LaCroix<wbr> or<wbr> Canfields</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Skim<wbr> milk<wbr> or<wbr> soy<wbr> milk<wbr> only<wbr> -<wbr> limit<wbr> to<wbr> one<wbr> serving<wbr> per<wbr> day</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Watch<wbr> the<wbr> "low<wbr> fat"<wbr> foods<wbr> -<wbr> they<wbr> are<wbr> loaded<wbr> with<wbr> sodium</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Snack on fruits</td> </tr> <tr height="18"><td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p><wbr>Watch<wbr> nuts;<wbr> they<wbr> can<wbr> be<wbr> high<wbr> in<wbr> fat<wbr> and<wbr> sodium<wbr> (even<wbr> the<wbr> ones<wbr> that<wbr> are<wbr> supposed<wbr> to<wbr> be</p> <p>good for you)</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Use <span class="font5">meal<wbr> replacement<wbr> </span><span class="font0"><wbr>shakes<wbr> and<wbr> bars;<wbr> read<wbr> the<wbr> labels;<wbr> I<wbr> use<wbr> Wild<wbr> Harvest<wbr> organic<wbr> whey<wbr> </span></p> <p><span class="font0">protien<wbr> with<wbr> 8oz<wbr> of<wbr> soy<wbr> milk<wbr> from<wbr> Jewel.<wbr> These<wbr> are<wbr> not<wbr> snacks,<wbr> they<wbr> are<wbr> replacements</span></p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Special<wbr> order<wbr> when<wbr> dining<wbr> out.<wbr> They<wbr> will<wbr> always<wbr> do<wbr> requests.<wbr> Also,<wbr> only<wbr> eat<wbr> half<wbr> of<wbr> your</p> <p>portion<wbr> for<wbr> foods<wbr> that<wbr> are<wbr> questionable<wbr> like<wbr> soup.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Learn<wbr> how<wbr> many<wbr> calories<wbr> are<wbr> in<wbr> what<wbr> you<wbr> eat.<wbr> Use<wbr> www.calorieking.com<wbr> and</p> <p>www.calorie-count.com</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>I<wbr> often<wbr> use<wbr> measuring<wbr> cups<wbr> and<wbr> a<wbr> postage<wbr> scale<wbr> to<wbr> make<wbr> sure<wbr> I<wbr> know<wbr> how<wbr> much<wbr> food</p> <p>I'm eating</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Potatos<wbr> in<wbr> moderation<wbr> if<wbr> at<wbr> all</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">No<wbr> real<wbr> eggs<wbr> -<wbr> buy<wbr> eggbeaters<wbr> or<wbr> the<wbr> store<wbr> brand</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>No<wbr> salt<wbr> -<wbr> get<wbr> rid<wbr> of<wbr> your<wbr> salt<wbr> shaker<wbr> -<wbr> you'll<wbr> get<wbr> all<wbr> the<wbr> sodium<wbr> you<wbr> need<wbr> from<wbr> your<wbr> food.</p> <p>Use Mrs Dash.<span style=""> </span>(Ok,<wbr> sometimes<wbr> I'll<wbr> use<wbr> a<wbr> dry<wbr> rub<wbr> on<wbr> some<wbr> meats,<wbr> but<wbr> I<wbr> really<wbr> use<wbr> it<wbr> sparingly)</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Exercise<wbr> between<wbr> 30-60<wbr> minutes<wbr> daily<wbr> (elliptical<wbr> or<wbr> stationary<wbr> bike<wbr> for<wbr> me)</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Weigh<wbr> yourself<wbr> before<wbr> bed<wbr> and<wbr> in<wbr> the<wbr> morning.<wbr> I<wbr> will<wbr> typically<wbr> vary<wbr> 2-3<wbr> pounds<wbr> from<wbr> night<wbr> to<wbr> day.</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Log<wbr> your<wbr> food<wbr> and<wbr> weight<wbr> daily.<wbr> I<wbr> find<wbr> keeping<wbr> myself<wbr> accountable<wbr> makes<wbr> it<wbr> easier<wbr> to</p> <p>stick with the diet.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>See<wbr> a<wbr> nutritionist<wbr> if<wbr> you<wbr> can't<wbr> find<wbr> the<wbr> discipline<wbr> on<wbr> your<wbr> own.<wbr> Having<wbr> to<wbr> spend<wbr> money</p> <p>should keep you accountable.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Get<wbr> your<wbr> blood<wbr> tested<wbr> every<wbr> 3-6<wbr> months<wbr> when<wbr> you've<wbr> been<wbr> able<wbr> to<wbr> make<wbr> some<wbr> progress</td> </tr> <tr height="35"> <td class="xl24" height="35" width="1078"><p>Consult<wbr> your<wbr> doctor<wbr> with<wbr> this<wbr> program.<wbr> Make<wbr> sure<wbr> they're<wbr> ok<wbr> with<wbr> it.<wbr> My<wbr> nutritionist</p> <p>recommends<wbr> I<wbr> eat<wbr> a<wbr> minimum<wbr> of<wbr> 1300<wbr> calories,<wbr> but<wbr> I<wbr> eat<wbr> when<wbr> I'm<wbr> hungry<wbr> and<wbr> I<wbr> only<wbr> eat<wbr> a</p> <p>reasonable<wbr> portion<wbr> until<wbr> I'm<wbr> sated.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Never<wbr> skip<wbr> breakfast.<wbr> Even<wbr> if<wbr> it's<wbr> just<wbr> an<wbr> apple<wbr> or<wbr> banana.</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Shoot<wbr> for<wbr> 1-3<wbr> pounds<wbr> per<wbr> week<wbr> weight<wbr> loss</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">1<wbr> pound<wbr> lost<wbr> requires<wbr> a<wbr> 3500<wbr> calorie<wbr> deficit</td> </tr> <tr height="35"> <td class="xl24" height="35" width="1078"><p>There<wbr> are<wbr> metabolic<wbr> rate<wbr> calculators<wbr> on<wbr> the<wbr> web.<wbr> Some<wbr> incorporate<wbr> your<wbr> activity<wbr> level<wbr> in<wbr> their</p> <p>calculation,<wbr> but<wbr> they<wbr> all<wbr> tell<wbr> you<wbr> how<wbr> many<wbr> calories<wbr> you<wbr> should<wbr> consume<wbr> to<wbr> maintain<wbr> weight.</p> <p>Use<wbr> this<wbr> as<wbr> a<wbr> guide<wbr> to<wbr> know<wbr> what<wbr> to<wbr> consume<wbr> to<wbr> lose<wbr> weight.</p> </td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">http://www.bmi-calcu<wbr>lator.net/bmr-calculator/</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">htt<wbr>p://walking.about.com/cs/calories/l<wbr>/blcalcalc.htm</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078">Remember<wbr> that<wbr> as<wbr> you<wbr> lose<wbr> weight<wbr> you<wbr> need<wbr> to<wbr> recalculate<wbr> your<wbr> basal<wbr> metabolic<wbr> rate</td> </tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Allow<wbr> yourself<wbr> to<wbr> splurge<wbr> once<wbr> in<wbr> a<wbr> while.<wbr> Even<wbr> plan<wbr> out<wbr> when<wbr> you'll<wbr> allow<wbr> yourself<wbr> to<wbr> have<wbr> a</p> <p>slice of pie, cake, or a steak.</p> </td></tr> <tr height="18"> <td class="xl24" height="18" width="1078"><p>Protien<wbr> is<wbr> your<wbr> friend,<wbr> but<wbr> don't<wbr> try<wbr> Atkins…<wbr> it's<wbr> misleading<wbr> and<wbr> dangerous.<wbr> Watch<wbr> carbs,</p> <p>sugars, and fats.</p></td></tr></tbody></table></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-86700066775456757182008-05-23T22:39:00.002-05:002008-05-24T21:56:05.752-05:00I went to Indy today, and all I got was this stupid look on my face<div class="contentTitle"> <div class="contentName"> <span id="ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_phBody_phBody_phBody_ctl00_pageViewer_upd_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_mdl_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_contentDetail_ctl00_title">I<wbr> went<wbr> to<wbr> Indy<wbr> today,<wbr> and<wbr> all<wbr> I<wbr> got<wbr> was<wbr> this<wbr> stupid<wbr> look<wbr> on<wbr> my<wbr> face</span> </div> </div> <div class="contentBody postContentBody"> <span id="ctl01_ctl00_ctl00_phBody_phBody_phBody_ctl00_pageViewer_upd_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_mdl_dd6a1fe6477448eaa69c4fc199aaa375_contentDetail_ctl00_message"><p>My<wbr> biz<wbr> partner<wbr> and<wbr> I<wbr> took<wbr> a<wbr> road<wbr> trip<wbr> to<wbr> Indianapolis<wbr> today<wbr> on<wbr> an<wbr> invitation<wbr> from<wbr> a<wbr> certain<wbr> software<wbr> vendor<wbr> who<wbr> is<wbr> trying<wbr> to<wbr> woo<wbr> our<wbr> allegience<wbr> to<wbr> their<wbr> cause.<wbr> I<wbr> left<wbr> about<wbr> 3:30am<wbr> to<wbr> get<wbr> there<wbr> by<wbr> 8am.<wbr> We<wbr> were<wbr> 20<wbr> minutes<wbr> late,<wbr> but<wbr> it<wbr> was<wbr> not<wbr> a<wbr> big<wbr> deal.<wbr> We<wbr> listened<wbr> to<wbr> was<wbr> remained<wbr> of<wbr> their<wbr> presentations,<wbr> then<wbr> loaded<wbr> into<wbr> a<wbr> group<wbr> of<wbr> SUV's<wbr> and<wbr> made<wbr> our<wbr> way<wbr> to<wbr> the<wbr> track.<wbr> I<wbr> had<wbr> a<wbr> nice<wbr> talk<wbr> with<wbr> another<wbr> guest<wbr> from<wbr> Ottawa<wbr> Canada<wbr> while<wbr> our<wbr> driver<wbr> fiddled<wbr> her<wbr> way<wbr> through<wbr> the<wbr> traffic,<wbr> getting<wbr> honked<wbr> and<wbr> yelled<wbr> at<wbr> by<wbr> the<wbr> other<wbr> drivers<wbr> who<wbr> were<wbr> as<wbr> baffled<wbr> as<wbr> we<wbr> were<wbr> by<wbr> her<wbr> erratic<wbr> driving.<wbr> At<wbr> one<wbr> point<wbr> she<wbr> just<wbr> stopped<wbr> and<wbr> waited<wbr> for<wbr> the<wbr> caravan<wbr> to<wbr> catch<wbr> up<wbr> to<wbr> her,<wbr> leaving<wbr> the<wbr> cops<wbr> and<wbr> the<wbr> drivers<wbr> behind<wbr> us<wbr> screaming<wbr> and<wbr> yelling<wbr> at<wbr> us<wbr> to<wbr> move.</p> <p> </p> <p>I<wbr> was<wbr> not<wbr> optimistic<wbr> about<wbr> any<wbr> racing,<wbr> and<wbr> my<wbr> pessimism<wbr> was<wbr> well<wbr> founded<wbr> as<wbr> nothing<wbr> happened.<wbr> Instead<wbr> we<wbr> dined<wbr> on<wbr> pork<wbr> ribs<wbr> and<wbr> fried<wbr> chicken.<wbr> My<wbr> gut<wbr> is<wbr> still<wbr> revolting<wbr> over<wbr> the<wbr> breach<wbr> of<wbr> my<wbr> diet.<wbr> We<wbr> talked<wbr> to<wbr> a<wbr> lot<wbr> of<wbr> folks<wbr> from<wbr> our<wbr> host<wbr> and<wbr> learned<wbr> some<wbr> much<wbr> needed<wbr> information<wbr> about<wbr> them.</p> <p> </p> <p>About<wbr> 12:30<wbr> three<wbr> time<wbr> Indy<wbr> winner<wbr> Johnny<wbr> Rutherford<wbr> came<wbr> in<wbr> and<wbr> spoke<wbr> to<wbr> our<wbr> group<wbr> for<wbr> a<wbr> long<wbr> while.<wbr> His<wbr> visit<wbr> likely<wbr> prolonged<wbr> due<wbr> to<wbr> the<wbr> incliment<wbr> weather.<wbr> For<wbr> the<wbr> record,<wbr> his<wbr> favorite<wbr> production<wbr> car<wbr> is<wbr> the<wbr> Corvette<wbr> (yay<wbr> me!),<wbr> former<wbr> drivers<wbr> can<wbr> actually<wbr> drive<wbr> the<wbr> speed<wbr> limit,<wbr> although<wbr> he's<wbr> had<wbr> officers<wbr> of<wbr> the<wbr> law<wbr> acuse<wbr> him<wbr> of<wbr> continuing<wbr> to<wbr> race,<wbr> and<wbr> he<wbr> likes<wbr> the<wbr> taste<wbr> of<wbr> milk.</p> <p> </p> <p>I'm such a dork.</p> <p> </p> <p>We<wbr> left<wbr> early,<wbr> forgoing<wbr> a<wbr> Stone<wbr> Temple<wbr> Pilots<wbr> concert<wbr> and<wbr> I<wbr> crossed<wbr> my<wbr> threshold<wbr> about<wbr> 8pm<wbr> tonight,<wbr> tuckered<wbr> out,<wbr> and<wbr> ready<wbr> to<wbr> eat<wbr> more<wbr> bad<wbr> food.<wbr> I'll<wbr> have<wbr> to<wbr> atone<wbr> for<wbr> my<wbr> sins<wbr> this<wbr> weekend.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/94043755@N00/2517733926/" title="Johnny Rutherford - I'm a dork :-) by ddurbin123, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3149/2517733926_b690989965.jpg" alt="Johnny Rutherford - I'm a dork :-)" height="375" width="500" /></a></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-62213782888564031402007-11-25T17:13:00.000-06:002007-11-25T17:17:38.346-06:0050,000 words! I win!<a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/"> </a>I've done it! Well, to a point. I passed the 50,000 word goal for nanowrimo today. yay for me. However, my book's not done yet. So, the writing continues. My reward? This nifty link, a certificate suitable for framing (lol) and a sweet icon.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org" _fcksavedurl="http://www.tagworld.com/fogoflife/PictureDetail.aspx?id=d8d8663a-50ac-4b93-b9d0-24c6ec530b0b"><img alt="" style="display: block;" src="http://files.tagworld.com/68ac499ee7154c218e70472d3c1aa197.jpeg" _fcksavedurl="http://files.tagworld.com/68ac499ee7154c218e70472d3c1aa197.jpeg" dir="" tgzsrc="d8d8663a-50ac-4b93-b9d0-24c6ec530b0b" tgzalign="3" tgzsize="3" clickurl="http://www.tagworld.com/fogoflife/PictureDetail.aspx?id=d8d8663a-50ac-4b93-b9d0-24c6ec530b0b" align="" border="0" hspace="0" vspace="0" /></a><br /></div><br /><a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/"><br /><br /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-73959070090272548102007-10-21T20:08:00.001-05:002007-10-21T20:11:19.133-05:00It's that time of year again!<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12pt;">I got an email from one of my buddies last week telling me to get off my ass and start writing again. With the start of National Novel writing month approaching I've been trying to think of some themes and plots to put into words. My first several ideas ran along the lines of those I tried last year; good vs evil with some supernatural intrigue. My wife, not being the sort to withhold her opinion, let me know that she'd heard those plots before - last year... I guess I naturally gravitate to those themes as they are most interesting to me and what I often read in the likes of people like Dean Koontz.<br /><br />I also read a lot of mystery, suspense and action novels, but I don't have enough research time for some of these nor do I know enough about how criminal investigation or the legal system works to pull those off right now.<br /><br />This of course leaves me in the realms that would allow me to completely make things up without fear of losing credibility on the trivial mater of fact lol.<br /><br />As I sit hear tonight the two leading thoughts are:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;color:blue;" >1) a story of a family coping with life when it's learned that fossil fuels have suddenly become so scarce that they can no longer be sold to the public given the out of control consumption of asia causing global economic turmoil, political chaos, and a chain reaction of events changing life as they knew it.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br />or </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:10;color:blue;" >2) a compilation of short stories which are the back stories behind a single days newspaper headlines with several intertwined and related characters showing that while the world plods through each day thinking nothing happened despite the vignettes that make the daily news</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br />Tick tock, tick tock... .November 1st is just around the corner so I'd like to have more than just the plot determined prior to the start of the contest.<br /><br />I don't suppose any of you are participating in nanowrimo this year, are you? If you are, add me as a writing buddy! I can use all the encouragement I can get!<br /><br />Boo!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /><a href="http://www.tagworld.com/fogoflife/PictureDetail.aspx?id=ea02d3e7-6d1f-4c7f-81e8-013c35eeffa1"><span style="text-decoration: none;"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shapetype id="_x0000_t75" coordsize="21600,21600" spt="75" preferrelative="t" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" filled="f" stroked="f"> <v:stroke joinstyle="miter"> <v:formulas> <v:f eqn="if lineDrawn pixelLineWidth 0"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 1 0"> <v:f eqn="sum 0 0 @1"> <v:f eqn="prod @2 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="prod @3 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @0 0 1"> <v:f eqn="prod @6 1 2"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelWidth"> <v:f eqn="sum @8 21600 0"> <v:f eqn="prod @7 21600 pixelHeight"> <v:f eqn="sum @10 21600 0"> </v:formulas> <v:path extrusionok="f" gradientshapeok="t" connecttype="rect"> <o:lock ext="edit" aspectratio="t"> </v:shapetype><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" alt="" style="'width:180pt;" button="t"> <v:imagedata src="file:///C:\DOCUME~1\ddurbin\LOCALS~1\Temp\msohtml1\01\clip_image001.jpg" href="http://files.tagworld.com/fa5229ae802649eaa55de8b61fe1eddc.jpeg"> </v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--></span></a></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-84068223289995545822006-11-26T20:19:00.000-06:002006-11-26T20:22:00.275-06:00Last week in photos<iframe src="http://www.flickr.com/slideShow/index.gne?%20user_id=94043755@N00&tags=fam20061126" align="middle" frameborder="0" height="500" scrolling="no" width="500"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-20441192509866586722006-11-23T01:13:00.001-06:002008-07-08T13:58:18.982-05:00If you wake tomorrow morn<p class="MsoNormal">If you wake tomorrow morn</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To frost covered limb</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Take care where you step</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Be wary of whim</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For the chill made brittle</p> <p class="MsoNormal">What once was warm</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Shut off from light</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Anticipating the storm</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Footfalls leave proof</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of your reckless ways</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Compressed by the weight</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Signifying your lack of praise</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">And when light shines</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Upon the damage done</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Tracks turn to mist</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Rising toward the sun</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yet the pain persists</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Though no proof remains</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of a life once loved</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And a love wrought with pains<br /><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-86416599496078363552006-11-05T03:59:00.001-06:002008-07-08T13:58:46.856-05:00Where the pavement ends<div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.flickr.com/120/289080324_f15f416ec1.jpg"><img alt="" style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" src="http://static.flickr.com/120/289080324_f15f416ec1.jpg" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/120/289080324_f15f416ec1.jpg" dir="" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/120/289080324_f15f416ec1.jpg" align="" border="0" vspace="0" hspace="0" /></a><br /></div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Where the pavement ends</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And the road turns rough</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">My journey begins</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And I call my own bluff</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Tis the light of life that I request</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">To receive without fear</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">An illuminated soul as blessed</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">As Your mothers virgin tear</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Would the heavens open to me</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">Your love shall guide me home</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">The Fathers hand will set me free</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">And no more shall my soul roam</p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: center;"> </div> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p> <div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-45524864692810885032006-11-04T09:29:00.001-06:002008-07-08T13:59:08.048-05:00In no one I trust<div style="text-align: center;"> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">In no one I trust</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I keep it hidden</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In a place only I know</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Covered by darkness</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Buried in distance</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Mired in deception</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Scarred by time</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Innocence lost</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I hide it from trust</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I keep it to myself</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Yet alone it has no value</p> <p class="MsoNormal">A corrosive parasite</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Struggling to be free</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It cannot be free</p> <p class="MsoNormal">There is no sanctuary</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Another cut begets extinction</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And in no one I trust</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> </div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-63178880670838706582006-11-02T20:09:00.000-06:002006-11-02T20:10:02.880-06:00Time to put my writing hat on...I was too tired to write about it last night, but I attended a 2 hour meeting of the National Novel Writers Month, a.k.a. <a href="http://www.nanowrimo.org/">nanowrimo </a>last night. My guess is that there were nearly 20 aspiring novelists in attendance with every age group represented. I was expecting something resembling a writing workshop with the topic of how to approach novel writing. It was nothing like that.<br /><br />There were three people organizing the event which was held at the Naperville Public Library (95th street branch). The first activity had the organizers applying pictures of fictional and non-fictional characters on everyone's back. Each person was to seek out others and ask yes or no questions of that person until you figured out who you were. I was Medussa, and yes, I figured it out before the time was up.<br /><br />Next, Tim Yao explained what nanowrimo was and fielded a couple of questions. I was still scratching my head at this point.<br /><br />The third exercise was to move to different tables then write one truth and one lie about yourself, written as a novel, and then were were to guess which was which. Of the four at our table only two of us completed both truth and lie in the 3 minutes given.<br /><br />Lastly, we sang, yes, sang a parody of Jimmy Buffet's Margarittaville which was recorded to be put on the nanowrimo website.<br /><br />Mind you, aspiring writers aren't generally known for their gregarious personalities. And as I said, this was not exactly what I'd expected, but I enjoyed it.<br /><br />As a side note, they put me on to a free novel writing tool, <a href="http://www.snapfiles.com/get/papel.html" _fcksavedurl="http://www.snapfiles.com/get/papel.html">papel</a>. I've yet to use it but I'm going to take a close look at it.<br /><br />So, the gist of nanowrimo is a contest during November to write 50,000 words in a novel. At midnight on the last day of November, your work becomes a pumpkin, so to speak. Something I didn't realize until I'd registered on the nanowrimo site is that the novel has to be started from scratch; no existing work may be used.<br /><br />So, out goes Red Crisis and The Ritual. I need another concept, and fast. Here are my ideas thus far:<br /><br /><ul><li>A story of a middle aged man who is not happy and is contemplating the worth and meaning of his life and whether it's worth continuing. As he teeters between life and death he reflects on the years that have passed.</li><li>A story of survival of a suburban family after a total collapse of civilized infrastructure... no utilities, police, fire... nothing... </li><li>A story of a man's family ancestry and the interesting, and sometimes disturbing things he learns about them, and himself along the way.</li></ul> That's all I can think of at the moment. Any thoughts? Suggestions? Anyone gonna play this game with me?Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-85051227189661544992006-11-02T19:11:00.000-06:002006-11-02T19:13:08.796-06:00Oh the stories your hands could tell...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.flickr.com/25/67567921_81eec35ac0.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://static.flickr.com/25/67567921_81eec35ac0.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">If a picture paints a thousand words, how many words are contained in the stories your hands can tell?</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For no particular reason I was looking at my hands yesterday and began to think of the many events in my life reflected in the scars and disfigurements of my hands. Of course, some of these stories have left visible reminders, yet others exist in wrinkles of my mind, only to be shaken loose by the mere sight of these instruments of tenderness, toil, passion and anger.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">On the underside of the middle finger on my right hand there lies a scar just above the 2<sup>nd</sup> knuckle. I must have been three years old when it happened. I scarcely remember how I received the injury, except that I had decided to climb the face of metal shelving and at some point had lost my footing leaving me dangling from a shelf, gripping the edge. Regardless of the shelving being upside down or right side up, the ledge that I happened to be clinging to possessed a lip which sliced into the meat of my fingers on both hands. Why I don’t have more scars, or a missing finger is a mystery to me. I can only imagine how freaked out my mother must have been.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Both of my pinky fingers are disfigured, yet fit snuggly against the ring finger on each hand.<span style=""> </span>Several years separate each injury, yet both occurred in my youth.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">My family took frequent camping and fishing vacations when I was young, and one such vacation took us to a park in eastern <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iowa</st1:place></st1:state>. It’s funny how I can’t remember if it were Strawberry Point or Keokuk now. Either way, I was as apt to wander off into the thick of the forest then as I am now. However, at that point, probably aged 12 or 13 I didn’t know the difference between a hand and a machete. This was made clear to me when I was karate chopping the weeds in front of me, clearing a path, when one of those weeds happened to have a thorn which lodged itself in the knuckle of the little finger on my right hand. Needless to say, this was painful and resulted in one of many trips throughout my life in <st1:place st="on"><st1:state st="on">Iowa</st1:state></st1:place> to Dr. Velma in Schaller, 7 miles east of where I grew up.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">My left little finger decided to take a left turn at the 2<sup>nd</sup> knuckle during the 1<sup>st</sup> half of a basketball game. It could have been Jr. High or High School and the game was, luckily for me, in Schaller, home of Dr. Velma. It occurred on an inbound pass and as I received the ball I had a momentary loss of sanity and attempted to catch the ball by ramming my little finger into it. This act resulted in a large “pop”, a ball dribbling back out of bounds, and me, doubled over clutching my deformed hand. ``Somehow, my mother was able to reach Dr. Velma who met us in her office only a couple of blocks from the gymnasium. Of course, nearly everything in these small <st1:state st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iowa</st1:place></st1:state> towns is within a couple of blocks of each other. She reset the joint, which wasn’t pleasant, splinted it and of course, I returned to play the 2<sup>nd</sup> half <span style="font-family:Wingdings;"><span style="">J</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Being a lover, not a fighter, I had a serious issue with taking my frustrations out on inanimate objects by punching them, including school busses and steel reinforced gym lockers. This was clearly preferable to punching people, but as a result I have no knuckle to speak of on the little finger of my right hand and the middle knuckle of my right hand is permanently swollen and flat. Nice huh? This level of insanity may have preempted a few actual bouts of fisticuffs, but of course, that’s only my biased opinion. It’s a fact that after putting some serious hurt on a couple of school busses, nobody seemed to bother me much with the single exception of one freak of nature, who was ironically my wife’s boyfriend at the time of our confrontation. He decided to get into it with one of my friends, and being the goof I was, I stepped into the fray and left with a nose bleed and a bruised ego. Like I said, I was a lover, not a fighter.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There is a scar on the top of my right middle finger, just below the fingernail, where there used to be an enormous bump, it may have been a wart of some sort. I had it removed a few years ago after several years of getting it caught on things. It was in a most inconvenient location after all. I tried several times to remove it myself, each time resulting in much pain, blood and a larger growth. It started in the basement of my parent’s antique store when I was 15 or 16. The basement contained my father’s workshop where we made and refinished furniture. On this occasion I was making a cut on the table saw when my wood slipped through accelerating my guide stick forward and pushing my hand into the blade. I totally freaked out, and ran to the main floor. The cut was deep and my finger throbbed like the dickens. How my parents put up with me I’ll never know.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">These stories are the easy ones to remember, and it probably says something about my persona that the easiest stories to remember are those involving injury and pain. There are others though. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In high school, as now, I was a very physically demonstrative lad. I didn’t have many girlfriends then, or ever, but I seemed to often have one from my sophomore year. After consolidating schools that year with the neighboring town of <st1:city st="on"><st1:place st="on">Holstein</st1:place></st1:city> I dated two girls throughout the remainder of school, both of them were members of the percussion section in our high school band, as was I. Our lunch room was in the grade school building located two blocks west of the high school meaning we got a 4 block walk each day for lunch. Of course two small town blocks are about the length of one city block. When I was going “steady” with someone it was common to make this walk to and from lunch holding hands. Would that even be allowed today? I don’t even know. I’ve seen much more contact these days than we might have imagined then… well… maybe I imagined it, but really… that was the grist of the rumor mills then, not reality. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sweaty palms. Sweaty palms seemed to be the benchmark of whether someone really liked you or not, or so was the ole wives tale. So, we’d make the 4 block walk to and from lunch, sweaty palms and all.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">These are the hands that stroked my wife’s soft as silk hair and marveled over how electric and magical the touch of her skin felt. These are the hands that held each of my children in their first moments of life and the mystery of life that spark radiated from their little bodies, through my fingertips, up my arms and warmed my soul.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Each wrinkle and every line contain another story, another memory and yet cupping both hands together, they hold the future; my future and that of those I love. What will be drawn from my mind as I gaze at these hands many years from now? <span style=""><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9044806.post-35140379189238629152006-10-31T23:32:00.001-06:002008-07-08T13:59:53.976-05:00A very doggy halloween<p>So what does it mean? Well, it means that I spent the day hiding from the office so I could make some progress on more planning only keeping in touch via email and a couple of phone calls. This works actually. </p> <p><br /></p> <p>It was a mostly sunny day but chilly. I think the temp reached nearly 50 degrees. Thank goodness the wind wasn't blowing as bad as Mom and Dad had said it did in Iowa yesterday.</p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/117/285267384_f81a7a6212.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/117/285267384_f81a7a6212.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/117/285267384_f81a7a6212.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/117/285267384_f81a7a6212.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/120/285267602_4f94271567.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/120/285267602_4f94271567.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/120/285267602_4f94271567.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/120/285267602_4f94271567.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p>I promised my daughter that I'd be home early so we could go Trick or Treating. She'd surprised me over the weekend by asking to get a costume. She'd not wanted to go the last couple of years and with everything considered we didn't push the issue. I took her to "Party City" last night and we walked out with a Gangster Hat and Pimp Cane for her and custumes for each of the dogs. I bought my self a foam clown nose :-)</p> <p><br /></p> <p>For some reason I thought my wife was working from 5-9pm tonight, but it turns out it was 1-5pm so I dressed the silkies and took them for a walk around the cul-de-sac... the really seemed to enjoy wearing their little costumes and prancing about!</p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/119/285267913_ca43dd9e50.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/119/285267913_ca43dd9e50.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/119/285267913_ca43dd9e50.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/119/285267913_ca43dd9e50.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/103/285268293_49e92247d7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/103/285268293_49e92247d7.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/103/285268293_49e92247d7.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/103/285268293_49e92247d7.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p>After our little walk we took pictures of them for posterity, undressed them and got ready to take Harry out with Erin. Even though she's 14 I still didn't want her roaming around alone and she seemed to have no problems at all with going out with Dad :-)</p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/113/285268101_89c9506347.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/113/285268101_89c9506347.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/113/285268101_89c9506347.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/113/285268101_89c9506347.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/99/285268453_404d90b597.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/99/285268453_404d90b597.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/99/285268453_404d90b597.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/99/285268453_404d90b597.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p>To complete my daughter's costume I gave her one of my "skinny" white dress shirts and she borrowed a tie from her brother.</p> <p></p> <p>We set off into the chilled darkness, my daughter with an enormous pillowcase to carry her loot in, and of course Harry dressed as Count Dogula.</p> <p><br /></p> <p><a href="http://static.flickr.com/102/285268549_4da04454ef.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto; display: block; text-align: center;" alt="" src="http://static.flickr.com/102/285268549_4da04454ef.jpg" tgzsrc="" tgzalign="4" tgzsize="3" _fcksavedurl="http://static.flickr.com/102/285268549_4da04454ef.jpg" clickurl="http://static.flickr.com/102/285268549_4da04454ef.jpg" border="0" /></a></p> <p><br /></p> <p>It was a good walk for all of us. Harry and I truly enjoyed watching my daughter delight in something she's missed for a few years now.</p> <p><br /></p> <p>I hope all had a wonderful Halloween and I'll be speaking at you again soon!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0