There have been two incidences lately that warrant comment. First and foremost there was the tragic incident at Ft. Hood, where a lone gunman pulled out a couple guns and started shooting people. Now, I will grant you that he acted alone, and the people he killed were mainly military. One could consider it an act of war in that light, since the targets were mainly military.

But, I choose to fall back on the definition of Terrorism: “The use of force or violence to make a political statement.” It’s pretty simple then, the only question was whether Nidal Hasan was making a political statement. We can answer that question quite simply though. If he did indeed say the words “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is great”) right before he started shooting as so many have already testified, then it was an act of terrorism.

I would like to state that my wife and I absolutely deplore this wanton act of terrorism, and our hearts and prayers are with the families and friends of those killed in that tragic incident. It was a deplorable act, and one that brings discredit on the man – Nidal Hasan – and those associated with him.

The second incident in recent news that bears scrutiny is the decision by the Obama administration to try the 9/11 “masterminds” as civilians in a Federal Court in New York. This decision is also deplorable, and there is no excuse for giving those “terrorists” and foreigners the same rights as American citizens. Attorney General Holder’s claim that it’s “his” decision is absolutely wrong as well. The decision had already been made to hold military tribunals for all the suspects held at Gitmo. He’s just using President Obama’s (liberal) revisionist policies to change the way things work, and in essence to try to change history.

It is a shameful thing that the current administration has allowed to take place. It is further shameful, and “Politically Correct” and so on to tap dance around the issue of whether Nidal Hasan is indeed a terrorist. He _is_ a TERRORIST!

OK, enough is enough! We learned this week that “Health Guidelines” for women are being changed. First, it was Mammograms, now it’s Pap smears. The clear goal of this administration is to reduce cost, not focus on health.

Now we read though that FHA is giving out risky loans in “wealthy” areas. There was a fellow quoted this morning in the NY Times who said “I have no idea how we got this big of a loan.” My goodness, isn’t there any oversight of these agencies? Wasn’t that part of the package in the bailout? Less than 12 months ago, that same fellow had to cash in part of his retirement savings to move to Boston!

I tell you, things are spinning out of control, and there is no accountability anywhere. The focus in Washington has shifted to President Obama’s agenda no matter what, and nobody is watching the chicken coop. Add on top of that the big firms on Wall St. are voting themselves HUGE bonuses because of the supposed “recovery” on Wall St. That same recovery has not translated to a recovery on Main St., but do they care? Is it important to Wall St. that unemployment is still on the rise and the average American now, who doesn’t even have a subprime mortgage is now much more likely to lose his home?

This recovery has been about the wealthy, not the lower and middle classes in America. Nothing has been done to support them. I use again the case where in Colorado our Governor stated in no uncertain terms that we were going to get Federal Stimulus monies to help pay for much needed highway and bridge repairs. So, in light of that eventuality he said we should raise auto licensing fees to pay for those repairs now, we’d get the money later from the Fed. We never got a DIME!

Are we being ripped off? Heck no, we needed those repairs, but, and this is a HUGE but, don’t treat me like a fool and count those job numbers in the “jobs saved” category (which you can bet your bottom dollar they are!) by Federal Stimulus monies. The only jobs saved by Federal Stimulus money that this author can see are traders and fund managers and executives on Wall St. The same jerks who got us into this mess to begin with.

I wrote a comment today on a CNN article that at first, I agreed with the TARP program, that it was necessary to “do something.” Now that we’ve seen the results of that “something” I think it would have been better if we’d never done anything at all, and simply let those fools go down with their Wall St. ships. So what if they had gone under? I think the average Joe American would have been better off, since he would have gotten a much sweeter deal in terms of opportunity to refinance his mortgage and modify his debt.

The President and his liberals are minding the store, but the fox has left the chicken coop hours ago with all the chickens and the eggs too.

Unfortunately, I have no job yet. I had a couple interviews lately, both were very positive, but I didn’t get either job. It’s kind of a drag in my situation that I’ve not been employed at any one employer for longer than 4 years out of the past 20. It makes me a “project” person now, somebody who gets hired when projects are in need, and the first to be let go when things start to tighten up again.

It really has nothing to do with my skills and talents which is the biggest bummer in the situation. I’ve wanted to get in a company where I could be part of a great team. The last place I worked again was a bit behind the curve in terms of software technology even though it was a great team, and that makes me not as “portable” which is the main reason I’ve had great interviews, but am not on their “desirable” list. It’s getting very difficult to compete anymore with the kids coming out of school, all of whom can work 26 hours a day. Me, I just don’t do that anymore, I’m slowing down as I am nearing 50. It’s probably time to figure out something else.

I’d love to goto work full time for The Lord too, but doing what? It’s a hugely uncertain time of life when you’re stuck in the place where you don’t need (or want) lots of money anymore. Heck – I just want a job! I don’t want to start completely over doing anything. I tried that 5 years ago, went back to work in something totally different (Home Depot) and I didn’t fail, but the stress of walking 8 hours a day on concrete floors nearly ruined my feet and ankles. My body is just not used to that kind of abuse. I got tendonitis in my elbows right away too from lifting doors and windows over my head. That was a lot easier to deal with than my feet though.

So, I’m not much cut out for manual labor, I’m still plenty strong, but it’s just that a constant 40 hrs/wk would likely break my body down in a hurry. I’ve not done anything else besides software in the past 25 years. I can build great web sites, but there I’m competing against graphic artists, and folks who have much better tools than I do, and can do it faster and cheaper and so on. I keep saying to myself, if I were to work for The Lord, what would I do? That’s a huge question mark too.

I’d probably like to teach, but teaching positions are in the same situation as every other type of job out there. Any openings have 10x as many applicants as there are spaces to fill. And, on top of that, state budgets are being cut left and right, and teachers go first it seems, never administrators. The world is an awful place.

President Obama wants to know how to create jobs. I’ve sent him my ideas. It’s not a cheap thing that I’ve proposed, but it makes sense to folks I’ve talked with. We, in this country, are falling our economic behinds because of one thing: OIL. I’ve written about it for years, told many folks, everyone we meet in fact. It’s our belief that BIG OIL has been running this country for some time now. Nobody can deny any longer that the real reason we’re fighting in the Mideast is because of oil. Sure, our troops over there have become a lightning rod, and we have few terrorist attacks in this country as a result of that, but oil brought the problems on, and oil is why we’re still there fighting.

We need to NOT be dependent on oil any longer – at least foreign oil. We need to be self-sufficient. We need to build up our alternatives. The _best_ one as we see it is Ethanol. Ethanol could literally bail us out overnight. There are dozens of pulp and paper mills that are shutting down in this country (finally) due to the decreased demand for paper. That’s a good thing. But, those same mills have wonderful facilities for making pulp (all of them). And, if you can make pulp, then you can make Ethanol through the cellulosic process. There are bacteria available now that turn cellulose directly to sugar. If you can do that, then making Ethanol is simple! Cellulose is the most abundant organic material on this entire planet folks.

We could be producing millions of barrels of Ethanol within 5 years if we quickly invested as much as we could into turning those abandoned pulp and paper mills into cellulosic ethanol production facilities. They all have rail lines, and they all have the facilities in place to make pulp, the amount of further investment to make them Ethanol production capable is a drop in the bucket compared to the waste of letting them sit there. A few years ago, the average paper milll cost on the order of $500M to build! They also employ about 5,000 people! We could put lots of people back to work! It’s simple to convert any modern car to burn ethanol too, costs less than $500 on average. T.Boone Pickens agrees that oil is our biggest problem, but his solution is natural gas. It’s next to impossible (read that a LOT more $expensive$) to convert a car to burn LPNG! Sure, we could start building cars to burn LPNG, but it will take years to get very many vehicles on the road that are LPNG powered.

There are over 10M cars today that can burn ethanol, and any MODERN car can burn (with no conversion) up to 25% ethanol, no problem. And, at that mix of ethanol, cars actually get better mileage! Isn’t that amazing?

I’ve been studying this stuff, obviously, eh? I’ve sent letters to local energy folks, to T.Boone Pickens, to Presidents Obama, and Bush before him. I’ve sent it to my local state senators. I’ve published articles on the web. Nobody is listening! I’m so frustrated that I could just scream! To get folks to listen, you gotta have money. If you don’t, no matter how good your ideas, nobody listens.

Everybody wants “hybrid” cars. That’s a joke IMO. The reason why – it’s a “high tech” solution to a “low tech” problem. The problem is we simply need to reduce our demand for oil. Converting cars to burn Ethanol reduces your demand for oil to NOTHING! Hybrids reduce your demand by maybe 50%. It’s a pretty simple equation to figure out in my mind. I just don’t see why nobody else sees it that way? Corn prices peaked 2 years ago during the Ethanol “boom.” Then, mysteriously, since we had a “bumper” corn crop, prices dropped to less than half the per bushel price overnight. Ethanol companies folded, went bankrupt overnight. ADM almost went under. They had all locked in corn bushel prices at the “high” (stupidly, I might add). Who do you think is responsible for nearly ruining the Ethanol industry? Do _you_ see a conspiracy in there somewhere?

I’m not a conspiracy theorist, or nut as they say, but I do see one there! Big OIL is trying to keep things the way they are, because they stand to LOSE big if anyone replaces them as “king” in this country. They’ll do ANYTHING to stay in power, and keep the status quo. Sarah Palin wrote an article entitled “Drill.” I agree wholeheartedly with her conclusions in that article too (it’s on the web on Facebook somewhere). If you’d care to read it, it’s available:

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=Nzc2ZjhjY2MwMWUyM2M4NTM5YWRjYTcwMTEzZTNjMTc

I’m not really in favor of keeping up our dependence on oil, but if we’re going to use it, then it might as well be oil we produce in this country, and not some third world corrupt nation. Pakistan and Afghanistan are not the only corrupt places in this world. IMO, all the third world countries are corrupt. We pay the rulers of those countries (our corporations pay them mostly) so that they can stay in power and continue providing us with stuff we “burn up.” In the meantime, we rape and pillage their countries and leave them as environmental and economic disaster areas for the most part. Third world countries are not like us, they’re 10% wealthy and 90% poor. They have no middle class! There are those who have (few) and those who have not (most), and they either work or starve.

We, in America, have been insulated from all that mostly, but that is the source of terrorism IMO. The “have nots” aren’t taking it any more. They’re fighting back in the only way they can. Um, I should make that the “Imperialist” tendencies of western economies have created a situation where the “have nots” have no hope, so they turn to wanton violence and organized destruction in order to make their needs and beliefs heard.

No, I don’t believe they are terrorists just because they are Muslim any more than I believe standing in my garage makes me a cadillac. Terrorists are just desperate people, who’ve decided to make a political statement through the use of violence. Yes, sometimes folks become Muslim because they have no hope, and that “religion” appears to offer them hope. But, in reality, it can be a front for politically minded types who want to spread violence and terror.

Face it, I became a Christian because I had no hope, but I received love and unconditional acceptance, not a religion of terror and violence. I was fortunate, those who join with “radical” Islam are not so fortunate.

So, do I sound frustrated and angry? You bet!

I could go on and on. But, I’m just boring you with my analysis of the world that I’ve done over the past few years. I’m definitely a thinker and ponderer. This stuff, the real way this world works, since it’s under the control of the enemy of our souls, is not so nice. The world is really a very UGLY place. The only thing beautiful is God, Jesus and The Bible. His love is the only thing that makes it OK anymore. I’m blessed to have a believing wife, but even she gets frustrated with me sometimes. Gee, I wonder why?

=)

You have got to be kidding! Why on earth would somebody honor a fellow for being gay? When it all comes down to it, that’s what the honor is about. It’s not about what he did, or anything spectacular. He wasn’t a war hero, he wasn’t a cop or firefighter who did something worthwhile. He was assassinated. Was that because he was Gay? No, read the (unofficial) historical blurb from Wikipedia:

“Milk served 11 months in office and was responsible for passing a stringent gay rights ordinance for the city. On November 27, 1978, Milk and Mayor George Moscone were assassinated by Dan White, another city supervisor who had recently resigned but wanted his job back. Milk’s rise to political power was as symbolic as it was real. His election signified and was made possible by a shift in San Francisco politics. The assassinations and the ensuing events were the results of continuing ideological conflicts in the city.”

He was killed by a guy who wanted his job back. The last blurb was put in there by an activist. You can tell because it’s not a “fact” but an opinion, and then not even supported with any evidence. Harvey Milk was also responsible for passing laws promoting “Gay Rights.” There’s a HUGE battle today over “Gay Rights.” What the heck is that all about? Do gay people deserve more rights than I do? Or is it that they want rights to simply exist and not be disturbed? The laws now say that purposely targeting a gay person for a crime is a “hate” crime. So, if a mugger attacks me in downtown Denver, it’s just a crime, but if he attacks a gay person, it’s a hate crime? Oh, only if he knew that person was gay and if he was specifically targeting that fellow because he was gay. This is getting complicated. A gay person walks down a street, wearing a gay T-shirt and gets mugged. Now it’s a hate crime because the mugger should have known he was gay…

Now gay people want to get married. Huh? How can you be “married” if the definition of marriage is “man and wife?” I stick to the Bible on this one folks. It’s the only standard we’ve needed as the basis of our laws for the first 233 years of our country, and I don’t think we need to change it now. I’ve stated it before that gay people are out there trying to “prove” there is some sort of gay “gene” or reason for them being gay other than their own choices. What a crock! It should be obvious to anybody that if there were a gay gene, then evolution (if evolution even existed which it doesn’t) would have selected against it and extinguished it. Gay people just don’t want to admit they are responsible for their own choices, and that being gay is a choice, _their_ choice. And, since I don’t believe in evolution, rather I believe the Bible, I believe what God says about being gay: That it’s a perversion and an affront to God.

Don’t get me wrong, that doesn’t mean I don’t like gay people, in fact I love them too. God said we must love each other. But the fact that I’m an alcoholic and a drug addict doesn’t mean I get a free pass to “excuse” my behavior, and that I’m not responsible for the things I did. I am ultimately responsible for all my choices, so are gay people. Their choice to be gay, to have promiscuous sexual behavior and so on, can lead to serious consequences for them, not the least of which is disrespect of their own bodies. STD’s have been around a long time folks. The simple fact is the more people you have sex with, the more likely you are to contract a STD. Gay folks have on average something like 15 times more partners than straight people.

I’m sorry, I don’t miss Harvey Milk, I don’t think he was any kind of “hero” and I certainly don’t agree that we should have a “Harvey Milk Day.”

So, are we surprised? Did you expect to have this fellow walk up to the FBI and announce that he was a terrorist? Even if he was a bad one? Let’s face it folks, terrorists are taking advantage of the fact that 90% of folks, and probably more like 99% are decent, law-abiding citizens. Even those who are not citizens of the U.S., but are living here are probably decent folks for the most part.

I know, I live with them in my neighborhood. Let’s take a look at my neighborhood for a moment, we have white folks, African Americans, Asians, Indians, other Africans, Latinos, so much diversity in fact that I think the white folks are in the minority.

Is that a bad thing? Heck no! We like our neighborhood a lot, and we’re proud to live there. Need we remind you that it was not any racial group in particular that raided the corporate coffers and pilfered yours and my retirement savings in this latest stock market meltdown? Somebody got my money (I wish I knew who)!

Anyhow, my point in this article is that so many folks go around “profiling” and stereotyping after a terrorist gets arrested that we forget that bigotry and racism are the roots of terrorism to begin with.

Jesus commanded us to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. He didn’t ask us to do it, he didn’t pray for us to do it, he didn’t insist that we do it, he COMMANDED us to do it. Just do it!