More Manipulation

The DOW climbed enormously today.  90% of Americans won’t see past that first sentence.  The reason it came up is that the government is once again coming to our “rescue” by drafting a plan for more socialism!  Yay!

The government manipulation of our markets has got to stop.  It will not end well and rest assured, it will end. Once the money is gone, our dollar is so devalued, and our creditors (China, anyone) come calling, it will end.

I said this over on SlapShotSal’s blog, but it bears repeating here:  In these last 2 weeks, the Bush Administration (not just Bush, but his Fed chairman, his advisers, etc) has done more damage to this country than they had in the previous 8 years. Meanwhile, all we can do is squabble about some “supposed” emails and “lipstick on a pig” comments.

The Last 2 Months Without a Car Payment Have Been Great

Or, they would have been if both cars suddenly didn’t need major work that actually cost more than said car payment.

First, it was new tires for the Jeep last month.  Unfortunately, the price of tires has gone up.  Way up.  Last time, I had to buy a set it was around $600.  This time, it was $810.  At least they’ll last a while (hopefully at least 50K miles).  Thanks to a good mechanic friend of mine, Amos, I didn’t have to replace the front brakes–he turned the rotors for a very reasonable price and we were good to go on that.

Then, last week, I noticed my Mustang was lurching and/or bucking when I was just cruising down the road maintaining speed.  If I was accelerating or idling, no problem.  I had just filled up recently, so I thought maybe it was bad gas.  The problem got worse until finally on Monday I got a “Check Engine” light.  Oddly, after the check engine light came on, it ran better.

Well, my car has just over 100K miles, so I figured it was time for a tune-up anyway.  Amos is a little inconvenient when I need to leave the car for a period of time, so I took it over to America’s Service Station where Shane takes his car.  I figure if they can keep his ’96 Ford Exploder (that he didn’t change the oil in for the first 60K miles or so that he owned it) running, they could fix my car.

About an hour later, they called and said it was misfiring on a cylinder due to a bad O2 sensor (crap, that sounds expensive) in addition to needing the tune-up ($160 just for plugs and wires).  The nice thing is they told me the coolant flush/fill that I had suggested (I’ve never had it done in the car) was not needed.  So, that saved me a few bucks.  Still, it came out to just a few bucks shy of $800.

Well, I guess I’m glad I don’t have a car payment.  Otherwise, it might have been a challenge to come up with how to pay for the last two months!  I can now, however, give a pretty glowing recommendation to America’s Service Station considering they had the car done by just after lunchtime and actually saved me a few bucks by not doing some of the things they could have.  I wouldn’t have even blinked if they had serviced the coolant system, but they didn’t.

Oh, and it runs a heck of a lot better.  I’ve known something wasn’t quite right for a couple weeks now.  I guess when you drive a car nearly every day for 10 years, you get a bit of a “connection” to it.

The War, The Election, and Me, Part 1

So, I was chatting with a friend of mine, Mick, and posting to his blog and I mentioned that I’d have a lot to say about “The War.”  So, Mick, this is for you.  I’ll try to keep it to the point so it doesn’t get too long.

President Bush said in his second inaugaral speech “The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world.”  For a long time I agreed with that.  I still do to a point, but I no longer believe it applies to the US policing the world with our military. It seems that in the last 100 years, we’ve done more harm than good getting involved in conflicts that do not affect us directly.

I don’t believe President Bush is evil. I believe he was given information that certain people in Washington wanted him to see and made a bad decision with that information.  I believe that Saddam Hussein was evil and his removal will (in the long run) be good for the world.  I don’t know that we should’ve done it, but we did, it’s in the past.  I do believe Saddam Hussein was actively pursuing a nuclear weapon and he already had various biological weapons.

I don’t believe that pulling out of Iraq immediately is a good idea.  We need to finish the job properly now that we’ve stepped in it.  We need to turn provinces over to the Iraqis (we just turned over the Anbar province to the Iraqis and the media is hardly reporting it) as appropriate. We can’t just destabilize a country by removing their leadership and leave.  We need to clean up the mess we made.

Now, on to the media.  I do belive the media is to blame for the anti-war sentiment. People have apparently forgotten what it takes to win.  Sacrifice (even to death–I lost a friend over there) and time and the media sensationalizes this for their own gain.

Now, all that being said, we need to quit interfering in other countries militarily.  We need to quit sending troops to every conflict and every squabble and let some of these other countries stand up for themselves.  We need to stop fighting wars we cannot afford (the government’s debt is out of control at this point).

It’s just too bad that we don’t have a viable Presidential candidate that feels that way.  Obama talks a good game, but on “bringing our troops home” he’s only riding the coattails of the media’s anti-war propoganda.  He has no substance and will tax our economy into the crapper, advance socialism in this country, and raise the level of spending while weakening our national defense and Constitutional rights. McCain says he’s a maverick and will lower our taxes across the board, but without cutting government spending (what President really has in the last 30 years), how is he going to pay for that? Both candidates are beholden to the same special interest groups and both candidates want to eschew the Constitution for their own reasons.

That’s enough for now.  In part 2, I’ll explain why I’m voting for the “lesser of two evils” and who that is…

For My Friend…

Three years ago last month, my friend Specialist Joshua Dingler was killed serving our country in Iraq.  He was over there because 7 years ago today, terrorists invaded our country and killed nearly 3,000 of our citizens on US soil.

Here’s to you, Josh–we miss you.

And here’s to the rest of those that died or whose lives were changed because of what happened 7 years ago today.  I will never forget.

2 World Trade Center (South Tower) – 10:02 am
1 World Trade Center (North Tower) – 10:28 am
7 World Trade Center – 5:20pm

Vote for McCain/Palin and Defeat the Cylons!

Palin/Roslin

Everytime I see pictures of Sarah Palin, there is a nagging “something” in the back of my head–like I’ve seen her somewhere before this week.  JediChric pointed me in the direction of the above picture and I finally realized why she always seems so familiar!

Looks to me like a vote for Obama/Biden is a vote for the Cylons!

Here’s a link to the original on Flickr, but if the comments get too nasty, I’m taking the link down.

The Real Sarah Palin

Someone posted this on my favorite gun forum and I just had to share with everyone else:

Sarah Palin does not have 5 kids, she actually has 7. Their names are Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper, Trig, Chuck Norris, and Jack Bauer.

The Northern Lights are really just the reflection from Sarah Palin’s eyes.

The Russians sold Alaska to America because Sarah Palin would not submit to autocracy.

The Arctic Circle runs through Alaska so the Sun can have some relief from Sarah Palin’s bright glare.

Sarah Palin is allowed first dibs on Alaskan wolfpack kills.

Sarah Palin is so pro-life that she personally hog-tied two reps from Planned Parenthood who came knocking at her door.

It’s not raining in DC. Those are God’s tears of joy that McCain picked Sarah Palin.

Sarah Palin’s hotness is the largest single contributor to melting polar ice caps.

Sarah Palin is the “other” whom Yoda spoke about.

Sarah Palin’s presence in the lower 48 means the Arctic ice cap can finally return.

Sarah Palin fired Jack Bauer because he was too soft in dealing with terrorists.

Sarah Palin’s pageant career ended early so other women could have a chance.

Sarah Palin’s son Track is going to Iraq after the Surge, because a Palin during the Surge would have been unfair.

Sarah Palin wears glasses lest her uncontrollable optic blasts slaughter everyone.

Sarah Palin actually has Big Foot in her freezer.

Sarah Palin gave a speech in Texas after her water broke before flying home to Alaska to give birth. (Actually true)

Sarah Palin doesn’t need a gun to hunt. She has been known to throw a bullet through an adult bull elk.

Sarah Palin once spilled coffee on Joe Biden & one of his $400 ties from Pink.

Sarah Palin keeps her hair in a beehive to hide her ninja weaponry.

Sarah Palin will personally open a homemade can of whoopa** on Ahmadinejad, Putin, and Chavez as soon as she’s done making mooseburgers for her kids.

A grizzly bear once tried to stare down Sarah Palin. Once.

Sarah Palin will send Joe Biden a pre-debate cheat sheet. The sheet will have tips on defending against Kung Fu Death Grip.

Sarah Palin became governor because five children left her with too much spare energy.

Sarah Palin will give birth to the man who will lead humanity’s war against the machines.

Three of Sarah Palin’s 5 kids came out sideways and she never flinched.

Global Warming doesn’t kill polar bears. Sarah Palin does. Generally with her bare hands.

Sarah Palin was the original “Deadliest Catch.”

Sarah Palin paid her way through school by hunting for Kodiak pelts with a slingshot.

Alaska is the 49th state solely because they knew even in 1959 that Sarah Palin never finishes last.

Chuck Norris wishes he was Sarah Palin trapped in a man’s body.

Sarah Palin got Tom Brady pregnant, and then left him.

Sarah Palin killed and ate the Grizzly Man.

Sarah Palin killed and ate Frank Murkowski.

Sarah Palin once won the Iditarod without any dogs. She simply willed the sled to victory.

Sarah Palin wears half the makeup that John Edwards wears and still looks like twice the woman he does.

Sarah Palin once guided Santa’s sleigh through an Alaskan blizzard with the light from her smile.

Sarah Palin fishes salmon by convincing them it’s in their interest to jump into the boat.

Conflict

Oooo, time for a new blog category: Politics!  Even though I know everyone won’t agree with me when it comes to my political leanings (although, as my friend Ron would say, they should), this is too important of an election in our nation’s history to avoid the subject completely.

So, where’s the conflict?  Well, boiling things down to the simplest ideals and snippets, I agree with a lot of what Ron Paul has to say.  Unfortunately, he never had much chance of being elected and isn’t even running anymore, but I felt I needed to find out more, so I ordered his book “The Revolution: A Manifesto.

Within a few minutes, however, I also ordered some bumper/window stickers and a yard sign for McCain/Palin.  I have never before ordered yard signs or stickers for a political campaign.  I wasn’t terribly excited about McCain (honestly, I was planning on voting against Obama, but more on that later) until he made a brilliant decision in choosing Sarah Palin as his Vice Presidential running-mate.  Not only did that show awesome tactical skill and a little risk-taking, she is actually someone I feel I can get behind in the upcoming election.  Now, I know we’re voting on the President first and foremost, but I definitely feel better voting for a combined ticket where I agree with the VP more than not (which would not have been the case had McCain chosen Lieberman).

So, what does that make me?  A Conservative Republican with Libertarian leanings?  A sell-out?  Just another guy who wants the Federal government to butt out of places it was never intended to be, but someone who is practical enough to know it’s probably never going to happen?  I guess I’ll know more after reading a bit of the book…

Finally!

I know I haven’t written much.  It’s been crazy.  We have the house on the market.  Supposedly, there has been one showing, but they didn’t leave a card and we haven’t heard from our agent on whether they actually opened the lockbox or not.  He says there is a ton of interest on our house, though.  I guess that’s good.

I’ve also been devoting a lot of time to shooting and, when I can’t be at the range, collecting supplies and accessories for shooting and surfing shooting forums.  I got an awesome range bag, 3 more magazines for my XD (total of 6 now–whoo hoo), and I detail stripped my Makarov and replaced the trigger, trigger bar, firing pin, and recoil spring.  I’m hoping some new, tighter fitting parts will help it be more accurate.  It’s “Ok” but all the Makarov fans on the interwebs claim these are some of the most accurate little pistols around.  I don’t expect bullseyes at 25yds, but I’d like it to group like my XD at 7-12yds (3 inches with no bench resting).

Lastly, work has been tough lately.  Yesterday, I finally released Safe Eyes 5.2.  A few months ago, AIM updated their software to use an encrypted connection.  At that point, all of our code for logging AIM chats quit working because the data is encrypted by the time we see it.  Working with some of the great people at AIM and some very different (to me) technologies and architectures, we were able to get AIM chat logging working again, but it was a long road.  I was working in an area I was not at all familiar with.  I can honestly say that this was the toughest project that I’ve worked on in my time at InternetSafety.  It is rewarding to finally release it, though.

That’s it for now.  I know I say this a lot, but I’ll try to be more regular about posting.  Of course, baby is coming in a little over a month, so it’s going to get crazy again.  😀