weather related utility problems

recently the area I live in experienced an ice storm, which under normal circumstances losing power is a small problem resolved in a few hours or at most a day or two. this time however due to the lack of an initial response and a lack of coordination the utility company was forced by the Governor to hand over the responsabilities associated with the repairs.

it came out that the utility company didn't want to pay the additional workers that were needed to ensure a timely recovery. there was some speculation as to why and each sinario is entirely plausible. the first one is just that they didn't want to pay the additional workers and the other is that they intentionally waited so the state would declare the area a disaster area which would take the burden of paying off of the utility company and be given to the state and federal governments.

with either sinario, there is one problem and that relates to public health. with a lack luster response to the wide spread outage it displaced thousands and forced others to get creative when it came to their ability to heat the homes and apartments during some of the coldest days of the season.

something needs to be done concerning the way the utility company managed their response to the power outage given that it was so wide spread and lack of an initial response and lack luster response overall.

an understanding of health care concerns

Health care it is on everyones mind in the U.S. especially due to the costs associated with it. Even when the individual or family does have health insurance, most people still wonder if their health insurance will cover them and for how long.

Back in March of this year I received two very distinct scares that relate to health care issues one was the fact that I was being laid off of work which meant that I would have to find out if I would have to file for one of the state sponsored plans or if unemployment offered unemployment benefits, the other came a few days later in the form of results from a biopsy done earlier that month with the results being skin cancer in the form of a single melanoma that had been discovered early enough for it to still be contained in one small area.

Both of them together made me really concerned due to the fact that the results of the biopsy meant that I could have minor day surgery to have a patch of skin removed rather than having to go through the more aggressive treatments while leaving me with a sinking feeling that I may not have the health insurance available to pay for the surgery.

In the end I found that unemployment provided and it ended up being pretty much the same health insurance plan I had before I was laid off and I also found that since I went from one place that had that carrier to another place with that carrier the referals I had were still in effect which took a load off and allowed me to have the surgery in piece. The healing process was a little different due to having at least a one inch by one inch patch of skin removed, I was just thankful that I had the time off to heal even though I was in the process of finding a new job which I found a few months later for which there are some good people there.

a question to ponder on wind and solar power

As a society we use both wind turbines and solar panels to create energy, with each type of energy source taking large spaces of land to create adequate amounts of energy to be used.

I have been wondering one thing which is:

has anyone thought of taking the time to see if it would be possible to create a wind farm that also has solar panels that are attached to the supports for the wind turbines and that vertical rather that horizontal?

where does it end?

The writers of the United States Constitution made an honest attempt at trying to separate religion from government. Granted you cannot complete separate the two but you can set up clear boundaries for which the writers tried to do with article 6 of the constitution and with the first amendment.

Even though Article 6 states multiple things, it does expressly state that religion cannot be used to attain any government office. As written it may not constitute a separation but a number of congregations in a couple religions have decided to use their churches as a way to influence politics.

It has gotten to the point that in some instances the leaders of those specific congregations have become strong enough to challenge our politicians with being ousted from office or by not getting elected through by getting their congregations to go for or against a specific politician, which does constitute a religious test to attain office or to keep office.

with that said, proposition 8 which passed in California, in my opinion was allowed onto the ballot due at least in part to the politicians not wanting to cause problems for themselves since it was an election year.

Granted the first amendment does state that government cannot interfere with a persons right to practice religion but at the same time we must allow our government to do its job without interference from outside sources that would turn this country into a religious state.

I am all for religion but I feel that it has no business in politics and vise versa.

Where will religion stop when it comes to trying to put one view point of religious doctrine into governmental law?

Will it stop after gays do not have the right to marry through out the country?

Will it continue causing religions to try to outlaw gay relationships?

Which doctrine will these religious congregations bring forward next; how about outlawing premarital sex or outlawing blasphemy or even forcing people to go to their respective houses of worship on their Religions Sabbath?

Barack Obame - President Elect

Barack Obama deserves to be applauded for attaining the office of the President of the United States. He exemplifies the hopes and dreams of many people in the U.S. especially those who have felt that they have been cheated out of the american dream.

He made history in being elected president. He is the first person to be elected that is of mixed racial background even though most see him only for his skin color.

The questions now are like that of any other politician. will he live up to his promises? will he be able to keep his promises?

education and the vice presidential candidate

Where Sara Palin has a special needs infant, I would like to respectfully ask why it took her so long to come out with a speech about education where she will need the specialized services of the education system when her son get older?

instead of attacking Obama on different issues she herself should be taking the high ground and spearheading the issues of Education and also the healthcare system to help the republican ticket get into office since her son will be effected for good or bad by any decision that the next president when it comes to the added education and healthcare requirements that he will need and what the availability of those services are.

pork barrel politics

the people who have the ability to do something to help the economy and the environment are all saying that we should to this or we should do that. Unfortunately, none of these people want to actually sit down and work with each other due to the mentality of "what is in it for me".

that mentality has slowed down any real attempt at helping those who would have the most to gain from people sorting things out, which only compounds the problem in the long run due to having to add pork barrel items to the solution that has nothing to do with fixing the problem only to have to deal with any ill effects of those pork barrel items at a later date if it is shown that those items just compound a problem elsewhere.

what is needed is someone standing up to those who really enjoy adding pork barrel items and stating that they have no business there if they need to paid with pork barrel items to do what they know to be right by their constituents.

there is a time and place for adding pork barrel political items. they tend to show up in area's where they have no business being in due to people trying to quietly attaching them to things that they do not relate to, just so they can pacify a persons friends or people trying to influence them in some way.

this has been shown with both the environment and the economy. If you look at the bail out of Wall Street, a few hundred million dollar if not a few billion dollars in pork barrel items had to be added to get the needed votes to pass congress. With the environment it has been shown that for many people with influence don't care about it due to wanting to go into areas that are protected to make money stripping the environment in some way to get the product that they are looking for with no real plan to protect the environment from the ill effects caused by the process of extraction. it also has been shown that these same people are catered too by not enforcing different laws that pertain to what they are doing or burying bills that would effect those people.

The bailout

The fundimentals of any bailout plan has to be the protection of those who would be adversely effected by the failure of the system. This means that those who are already or will be living paycheck to paycheck are the ones that are in need of the most protection. This is not to say that there should not be protections put in place for the financial institutions either but protections for both sides should keep one protection from overriding the other.

The working poor and the middle class should not have to worry about the potential loss of their homes or retirement accounts due to people or rules that favor taking the stuff to gain short term satisfaction over working with the people and families for long term satisfaction.

when it comes to the financial institutions they should be more willing to rewrite the terms of mortgages and other forms of credit so that the people who are paying on the credit can still afford to keep paying rather than taking steps that would hurt the financial company through having property that is not generating income due to forcing the people from their home.

The other forms of credit like credit cards, the financial institutions need to look at what is going on with the way they handle interest and fees. The financial companies who provide credit cards have to reduce the interest and not be so willing to add fees to the accounts due to the fact that sometimes when a late fee is assessed to an account the account gets charged an over the limit fee as well which at times forces the interest rate to spike. The financial institutions should not be permitted to assess fees when to an individuals account when the account is at or close enough to the limit that it would adversely effect the account holder financially.

at the same time the financial institutions should have protections against people who are trying to scam people and the financial institutions in ways that adversely effect the one going for the credit and the financial institution or are willing to lie about their financial situation to get the money that they are looking for only to turn around and file for protection against creditors.

The federal bailout of Wall Street

The lack of foresight with regards to mortgages has forced the federal government to step in and bail out the financial institutions. This does not directly stem from what the individuals looking for loans have done but rather what some lenders have done in order to make a quick dollar from both the individual they get the loan for but also the institution that they get to buy the loan.

The mess may not have happened or may have been less severe if the predatory lenders didn't find ways of getting the individuals and couples to leave their financial information blank so they could play with the numbers to get the people loans that they realistically could not afford

Where the federal government has to bail out these financial institutions, there should be safeguards for both the individual who gets the loan and the financial institutions that maintain the mortgage note. This would include the rewriting of the terms of the loans to protect both sides if the individual in the event that the individual is making every attempt to pay but through no fault of their own starts having problems paying, i.e. inflation rising faster than their pay, etc...

The financial institutions don't really want the property since they would be the ones who would be the ones required to maintain the property until sold and are forced to take a lose if they can't sell the house for the value of the mortgage note. At the same time the communities don't want to see a home that has become abandoned and neglected due to the family being forced to move out due to a foreclosure due to it bringing down the look of the neighborhood and the value of the surrounding homes.

The one real question is: Will we learn from what happened in the aftermath of the sub-prime mortgage lending problem?

A problem marriage

my brother, had been talked into a mail order bride that he would have to help bring over here for the marriage. It didn't take much to convince him given that he always had a thing for women of that specific race and really wanted to be with one.

It took him and her family more than five years of trying to legally bring her over here. After she came she seemed nice enough and looked like she genuinely wanted to be with my brother. A couple weeks after she got here they had gotten married and then a couple months later knowing that she needed a support system he decided to move out of state to some cousins of hers that had already immigrated here a number of years before so she would have some family around to help her settle in.

after a month with her family out of the blue they moved again to another state to be with a friend of her family that had immigrated here a couple years ago. Almost immediately they then moved again this time moving out of the continent and settling in Hawaii to live with her mother.

what had happened next shocked most of the people in her family and threw my brother for a loop. everyone found out that they were being used by the lady and she let everyone know this by going to the police without any evidence to back herself up with and getting a restraining order placed on my brother so he could not go any where near her and her daughter.

It got really complicated due to the fact she also has a 13 year old son who she abandoned when she walked out on my brother. she had decided to move out of her mothers place leaving both my brother and her son there and everyone there wondering what was going on.

the lady tried to convince her family that my brother had been abusing her and her daughter but most of her family didn't believe her at all. Where they were living at her mothers place and her mother being able to see that he wasn't abusing her would not take her daughters side. she tried to convince her family in Hawaii which consisted of her mom, her two brothers and her aunt (her mothers sister) and her uncle who is married to her aunt.

the only one she was able to convince that my brother had been beating her was one of her brothers and he was still living with their mother. Now she will not talk to her aunt and uncle since they would not take her side even though they were the ones that were actively trying to get her here legally.

come to find out there had been a guy in the background that my brother along with her aunt and uncle didn't know about that setting things up for her to make an attempt to be able to legally stay in the United States with out having to stay married to my brother for the required amount of time. this was proven by the fact that almost immediately after they moved to Hawaii she left him and filed the paperwork for a temporary restraining order, which was recently turned into a restraining order that lasts just past the required time she has to be married to him to be able to stay here permanently. It was also verified by one of her brothers that she had someone here helping her in the background to set everything up.

I just feel sorry for her son who she abandoned because he didn't deserve to have this happen to him and I also feel sorry for her aunt and uncle due to the fact they have been betrayed by someone that they love.

The Visa she came over on required her to get married within 90 days of arriving in the United States and requires her to remain married for 5 full years to be a permanent resident of the United States. With the fact that she is trying to take advantage of the system my brother has to find out how to get her legally deported so she can't take advantage of the system any more than she has.

this years presidential run seems a little off kilter

with the way both candidates have been going about their presidential runs you would think in some ways they are in the wrong political parties. you have a candidate in the democratic party who is willing to talk faith issues which the republican party normally talks about.

then you have a candidate in the republican party who has selected a running mate who doesn't fall under the normal conservative family due to her daughter being pregnant out of wedlock even though it has been publicly stated that she is going to get married before the baby is born.

on a personal level I do not have any problem with either of them but in my opinion as to whether or not they can effectively run the country, I feel that neither of them can do it, at least as it would be needed to put us back on stable footing both domestically and internationally.

the way I look at it we have to choose between someone who thinks for the most part like the current administration and someone who broke his promise to finish his first term as senator before running for another office.

it is almost like nature is giving a test

Three years ago when Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana it was a black eye for the readiness of the federal government. this time around it looks like the same administration is being given a test to see if there is a way of saving face by nature for past mistakes.

before we begin to judge anyone lets see how things get handled this time around and then see where and when people do both right and wrong this time around so we actually know who to give credit to and who to make answer for mistakes.

The U.S. Drinking age

when it comes to drinking there are a lot of people out there that feel that the higher the legal age for drinking is better. unfortunately, to some degree this is a misguided train of thought.

people have to remember part of the problem with underage drinking is the actual maturity of the individual not the general age group as a whole. what also has to be remembered is that regardless of the legal drinking age there will always be people looking to skirt the law and the only thing that actually changes is the age group involved in skirting the law.

with regards to college aged students showing symptoms of alcohol dependence, some of those individuals regardless of age are probably those who have the needed physical or emotional traits that permit the problem to take hold.

we also have to learn that when the Constitution states that these people are legal adult we have to stop treating them as children that we have to protect by forcing an artificial milestone to achieve based partially not being ready to let them learn what it means to be an adult for themselves.

new job

after almost four and a half months and some ups and downs with regards to my needed job search I finally found a job and I hope that it lasts for a good long while so I don't have to worry about the job market especially with the way the economy has been going in recent months.

an opinion on the candidates

as the presidential race is heating up we will inevitably be exposed to a lot of campaign rhetoric that would not sound like it is a bias against the normal set of candidates but with this campaign where age and race are involved what would normally be perceived as rhetoric will to some degree be perceived as a bias either against age or race.

the real problem is having to choose between two individuals one of which believes in the current policies which have brought our country to a breaking point domestically and internationally; the other has the ability to tell you exactly what groups would like to hear but hasn't really come out and said anything with regards to how his goals for this country will be achieved.

the economy

With the housing correction and the rising oil prices everyone that has influence over different aspects of the economy have speculated on the different ways we can remedy the short comings that have been made evident when the housing correction and rising oil prices collided.

The economists would prefer a quick fix or the band aid effect when it comes the economy, but the one real problem is that there is no one specific remedy that can cover every aspect of the economy. The one real remedy is something that has aspects that relate specifically to the different aspects of the economy that can be dealt with independently rather than a blanket plan that cover all of the economy.

When the housing correction and rising oil prices hit independent of each other they adversely effected the economy negatively which shows that there is no such thing as a blanket plan when it comes to the economy. Any real plan has to be able to deal with each factor that makes up the economy so it can be corrected as needed to keep the other aspect of the economy in check so there is a lesser effect on the economy than when the housing correction and rising oil prices happened.

Every one of the people who are capable of understanding the data all has their own versions of what should be done and what should not be done. There lies the problem, what is the wrong thing to do in one person’s version may be something right in another persons version, this is due to the interpretation of the available data that they both read. With the wording in the media it sounds like they are not looking at the specifics of their plans that would cause reactions in other areas of the economy that the economists don’t feel are related to what is involved with fixing what went wrong.

We need to look at the economy not as one specific entity we have to look at all of the parts of the economy to understand how one aspect of the economy will affect another aspect whether directly or indirectly through another aspect. Without a plan to deal with each part of the economy individually we cannot hope to actually deal with the economy as a whole which means that everything that happens that can go from the top down with regards to the economy will continue to affect various aspects of the economy with no real idea as to what direction it will take or what should be done with the problem.

Regardless of what is done it will not be as quick or as palatable as people would like but it has to be done without regard to who wants what and when. By allowing interference in any real remedy, the remedy will never fully take hold and will not be adequate.

The real question is; are those who can put the plan in place willing to do what is needed when needed?

the dynamics of the U.S. Economy

Given the dynamics of what has been happening with the U.S. economy due in part to the housing market collapse and the continually rising oil prices, the U.S. economy is going to end up causing long term problems not just in the U.S. but all over the world. The U.S. dollar isn’t the highest valued currency out there but it given the problems in the world markets since its slide downward shows that it is one of the major currencies that help keep the world’s economies going. This by itself has shown that as much as people like to complain about the way the U.S. does business, we have enough influence on the world stage to cause internal problems for other countries just by having internal problems of our own.

There has to be a real involvement from all public and private sectors involved in the U.S. economy in order for the real problems that are plaguing us. The unfortunate part of what is happening with the U.S. economy is the finger pointing that everyone does which only worsens the predicament that we are currently in due to everyone believing that they are not the one that is causing the problem. Everyone who has been pointing fingers at who should be blamed, tend to want everyone to entertain their ideas as if they are the only ideas that are valid.

What is needed is for an organization that has a vested interested in making sure the economy succeeds that is independent of both sides to actually see what needs to happen to protect the economy through giving protections to both sides that force each side to do things certain ways. The normal way that people on handle problems with the economy is for both sides stating that taxes should be reduced but in accordance with how they feel they should, normally with one side stating that the people who have the up front money to hire people should get the tax breaks while the other side states that the lower and middle classes should be the ones to receive them instead.

That mentality does not do the economy justice without first understanding where the underlying problems are with respect to where the most money is spent and why. Granted the top few percentages of income of the United States can out spend all other income levels per person but as income level go, in general most of the spending comes from people who have to do the grunt work so to speak which are in the lower income levels.

This would suggest that any tax breaks need to be targeted to areas that can do the most to help restart the economy rather than blanket cuts to specific income groups, even if it means that the tax cuts be for specific company tax ID numbers for companies with the most potential to hire new employees due to the availability of the products and ability to sell them at a reasonable price for the lower income levels.

We can no longer afford to dance around certain subjects as well, this would be due to the fact that each thing we negate to deal with pet projects or intentionally use as a carrot dangling in front of a donkey to get pet projects approved. Every area of the country needs to have things done and instead of trying play with the lives of people in other districts or other states, the projects that require federal funding should be prioritized so that way what is needed the most gets done first before something that isn’t as important does.

The government has been in charge of maintaining the infrastructure for the streets and highways, but in areas where there is a high volume of traffic for specific purposes the business’ there should be helping to maintain the infrastructure due to the fact that, they are the ones with the vested interest to make sure that the infrastructure is maintained to a specific level. There is one problem with it though and that is the companies that rely heavily on that infrastructure feel that it is the government’s job to maintain it but the companies squawk when they are told by the government that it is either maintain one thing or maintain something else with the money the government does have to maintain what is required of the government.

The government doesn’t help either with protocols that do not always permit interagency communication with matters and protocols that are may be needed in some form but are too costly due to man power or due to the needed supplies to maintain those protocols. What is needed is a way to allow interagency information exchange that maintains the protocols without compromising the integrity of the agency or the data that it requires to be kept inside that agency.
Both the private and public sectors have to shoulder what has happened to the economy instead of pointing fingers at each other for the short comings of both that caused the economic mess to begin with. If either side refuses to shoulder its share of the responsibility then it shows that they are more concerned with the short term band aid effect that has allowed us to limp along till now.

The one question should be; who can do what and when to reverse the negative effects of the spiraling economy?

opinion on domestic issues

By no means are international issues less important than domestic issues but when it comes to what is needed for the country is a real understanding of how international and domestic issues influence each other before deciding which is more important.

At the moment international issues are greatly influencing domestic issues and policies to the point that our economy is facing a real down turn in large part to our dependence on foreign oil. With that said our policies on domestic issues have to change so that our dependence on international issues is reduced.

Our policies have been to help international issues but at the moment if we forego dealing with out own domestic issues in an effort to help international issues then we will eventually be reduced to a third world country.

With the cost of oil skyrocketing, everyone is feeling the pinch both domestically and internationally especially those companies that afford to continue to do business as fuel and energy continually goes higher. One good way of dealing with these costs is to find ways of offsetting the cost of energy production that would also prop up the economy, this may include commercializing alternative energy sources that are usable but still need work to perfect them. They could be commercialized to deal with a number of domestic issues such as reducing our dependence on oil, creating jobs and to help the environment.

If commercialized there would be more people available to learn how those alternative energies work which would allow for others to be informed enough to give input on ways to improve on the technologies involved. This could be a way of dealing with the domestic issues that would probably directly impact how our domestic issues influence the international issues especially when it comes to how people deal with issues energy issues and more importantly how the international community deals with the dependence on oil.

The commercialization of alternative energy sources can only be part of the overall package with dealing with domestic issues. We need to deal with the deficiencies we have in other aspects that directly factor into how our economy hold up such as education. It has been shown that our public school systems are lagging behind some of the nations that are not as large and influential as we are.

With out the educational foundations that are fundamental to how well our country runs then there is, no way we can effectively stem any downturn of the domestic economy. It is a proven fact that our education system is failing to properly educate the nation’s children that are in the inner cities where there is the least amount of money allocated for what is needed, even though the teachers are held accountable for the failures of the students with regards to the standardized testing that is required.

The educational system has shown that not every student is capable of learning in the standardized methods that is used through out the country and that there are students who have proven that they have learned the subject matter but they are not able to show that on the standard versions of the tests. These things have to be addressed in ways that permit them to become productive members of our communities rather than a drain on them due to the short sightedness of bureaucrats who do not have any understanding of what is needed to educate.

Without an educated population we cannot hope to deal with issues that are plaguing our domestic issues due to not having people who would be capable of dealing with the problems our nation faces.

We also have to deal with our health care issues that are directly influenced by an individual’s ability to pay for medical treatment. Yes we do have great health care in general but where there is not standardized primary care for all regardless of income, there are many people who are forced to use the emergency room as their primary doctors office due to not having the upfront money on a weekly or monthly basis to pay for the health insurance programs that are offered in an attempt to reduce the prices of the health care.

We may not need universal health care all the way through the health care system but we do need a universal set of standards for primary care so that the preventative medicine that has been shown to work at reducing pricing can actually bee given to all. Affordable preventative medical treatment is the first step in having a healthy workforce, which would bring down the number of days needed to deal with illnesses that causes the productivity to go down in the workforce for both the public and private sectors.

When dealing with domestic issues everyone in a position to help or hinder any progress has to ask one question of all issues, which is; how does affecting one issue affect another issue?

opinion regarding military service in presidential politics

Given that President George W. Bush pushed military service to the forefront in the past two presidential elections it is something that is now a subject that people are going to look at. Unfortunately it is something to be used negatively due to George W. Bush since he belittled McCain’s years as a P.O.W. and then belittling Kerry’s swift boat record.

In my opinion, it should not be up to the general public to pass judgment on someone who actively served in the military. This judgment should be reserved to those who are serving, that have served and the immediate family of those serving and of those who have died.

The whole subject what brought into play eight years ago when a now sitting president who decided to use McCain’s status as a former P.O.W. against him calling into question where his loyalties lied since he was held captive and tortured. Then he used Kerry’s swift boat experience against him, saying that there was no way he could have gotten the amount of medals he did with such a short time in the military.

Those who have served should be ashamed of themselves if they come out against someone’s military service for the sole purpose of garnering support for the person going against him. If you are going to belittle someone’s service then belittle it solely on merit of service not for political posturing. If they are that intent on belittling their own then it should be an open field to play both ways and they should be dealt with in the same manner to see how it feels to have a peer belittle them for serving as they did.

In the end they need to act like adults who have commanded respect of others not as children who don’t know any better.

Ideas on how to deal with social networks and children

Ideas on how to deal with social networks and children

Where the minimum required age to join most social networks is the age of thirteen, there has to be to be programming implemented that would prevent people from taking advantage of children on the social networks.

Right now there is nothing stopping children from trying to posing as adults and despite efforts to keep adults that prey on children there is no way of tracking them if they haven’t been caught and even when caught unless they are kept from going online there is no guarantee that they would fulfill their requirement of staying off of the internet or away from children online if permitted online if they can’t help themselves.

I do not know how hard it is to prevent adults from going onto the internet but in areas where there are known to be children there should be safeguards in place, like when the child’s parents set up their child’s internet access and like in social networks we can have each social network put in programming that is designed to safeguard children.

Here are some ideas:

· Make it legally mandatory to have any internet access settings for children set up over the phone rather than through the parental controls on the computer so that the child if tech savvy enough cannot get around the parental controls on the computers. The parents would still have to protect the information used to set up the access for the child’s ability to access the internet so that the child cannot call up the internet provider.
· With social networks where there is an age requirement have access geared around that age provided. If an age is given to the social network that is eighteen and above require some sort of identification like that of a state ID or a social security number to prove that the person is over eighteen which if their real state ID number or social security number are used could be sent to authorities if they have suspect content on their personal pages on that network.
· When adults set up their homepage they should be required to answer questions as to what type of content they are looking for and what they will be looking to put on their page so that the social network would have some idea as to who can access that page. If there also should be periodic checks for content on the sites to make sure that the information provided corresponds to the content on the site.
· Complete separation of children from adults on social networks shouldn’t be required but rather how they can interact with each other should be restricted due to the possibility of actually communicating with family through that social network. The restriction should be based primarily on content and age appropriateness of the person trying to look at it so that even that if someone tries to provide access to content that isn’t age appropriate to someone that shouldn’t be viewing it can be prevented from viewing the content.
· With the internet in general, the children should be able to go online and be prevented from interacting with adults who they don’t know through a way of identifying in coming emails to the child’s email address even if it means that the ISP’s have to rewrite their email protocols to include a standardized marker regarding age that can be picked up by the ISP’s network that it is ultimately going to with it being able to send an automated response back that cannot be blocked stating that they cannot send emails to that email address. Anyone not on a list of email address of adults approved by the parents should automatically be blocked and the child cannot send to anything to an adult that isn’t on that list.

some thoughts for and ideas on how to power water desalinziation

When dealing with the Earths population having a shrinking water supply as the population grows, we have to deal with an issue that people think will need to happen but think it will not have to be done in their lifetime. This is desert farming; this has to be taken serious due to the fact that if we choose not to entertain the idea now we will lose even more of the rainforests which help maintain our various geographical climates.

We also have to couple this with large scale water desalinization which would primarily be for the desert farming while making sure that the water desalinization plants that are built for the sole purpose of purifying water for farming are as self sufficient as possible which would mean utilizing the power of the water as a power source.

Water desalinization has to be a top priority for every country with out regard to whether they have a coastline to utilize for the process and is especially needed in arid areas. As for the areas with established farmland where the water has to be split between crops and drinking water should have large enough quantities of desalinized water available for the farmers so that those municipalities that have to deal with the water issues don’t have to worry about finding the water to maintain their populations and the farms.

Given the facts surrounding deforestation and diminishing rainfall as a result, we need to reseed those forests with the types of trees and plants that are in that forest while making sure that we give the quantities of water that have been shown to grow and maintain those forests while making sure that the local populations that are willing to destroy the forests for money are shown that the forests if properly maintained can sustainable profits by finding markets for the stuff that the forests continually produce that is easily renewable and sustainable.

Here is a plan of action for designing desalinization plants:

· Design the system to have two aqueducts types, one for the intake of ocean water that is basically a holding tank for the water waiting to be treated, and the other for water that has been treated and waiting to be loaded into the vehicles that are meant to carry it to farms. Do this while making sure that the rate of the water flow for both the intake an outtake are at the same flow rate.
· When designing the power system, design it so that way the water itself is creating as much of the energy as possible starting with the intake. Design the intake to be a siphon to reduce the power needs while designing a water turbine that is meant to be used horizontally instead of vertically to be specifically used in the siphon. When designing the outtake design it to be like a dam with vertical water turbines that feed the plant like the turbines would on a normal dam but instead of feeding a river they would feed the desalinization plant at a constant rate that the plant can handle.
· When designing the desalinization plant itself, design it to be able to handle a constant flow of water from the aqueduct, while at every step of the way if there is a way of utilizing the water for power generation, design it to do so as long as it doesn’t contaminate the water or re-salt the water. With the areas where there is the possibility of water loss through steam, create a way of reclaiming that water while utilizing the power that the steam can offer to help with power generation.
· With the large structure that would be standing for both the aqueduct and the desalinization plant, position them so that way there are at least two full outer walls of each that has sunlight on it for as long as possible each day so that a solar arrays could be incorporated into the design of the walls making sure that as much of the walls could be covered by solar panels. Also you could design the roofing structure to have solar panels
· If there is extra energy produced by whole process then provide that extra energy to the local municipalities that could use it if they are within the area where the power can travel in the power lines.

thoughts on taxes and the economy

When it comes to the economy and taxes, at the moment the mentality of giving the tax breaks to the wealthiest of individuals and families isn’t working as well as it has in the past and as intended. This is due to the fact that these individuals have the same mentality as others when it comes to more for less, instead of it being product based it is based on how much service can they get for the cheapest possible price, this would include the salaries of the people offering those services along with trying to get the people who provide services to them to do more work for the same money that they have been receiving.

Most business’s are looking to find ways of saving money in today’s economy to the point that if they have to choose where they can actually save money given the cost of supplies and the salaries of their workers. At times saving money and actually producing the product or services are at odds with each other and usually the product or the employees loses out, in favor of maintaining or increasing the profit margin for the company.

With the rising prices of products and services the biggest losers are those companies that can no longer sell their products due to the cost of their products or services becoming too expensive for their targeted market stemming from not being able to afford their products any more due to stagnating incomes and rising costs. This is even starting to happen with the everyday household necessities and it was evident with the stimulus package when the middle and lower class’s went to the places that gave them the largest product amount for their money and to stores that enticed those same customers by giving gift cards for a percentage of their rebate check or giving a sale percentage off of the total bill for spending money at their stores.

Tax cuts can be a good thing provided they are in the industries that show real growth potential and are willing to make sure that their companies have what is needed to grow which would be a workforce that is compensated in ways to keep the companies potential growing, this would include salary and health care incentives along with offering various ways of letting their employees save for their retirement.

It would be very short sighted to give blanket tax cuts or credits to everyone within certain income brackets or companies which that have really high corporate profits. A blanket tax cut causes animosity for those in lower brackets especially when those individuals and companies choose not to live up to the premise behind those tax cuts in favor for higher short term profits. Any and all tax cuts which are geared towards those upper income and profit levels should be only allowed when they the individuals and companies are geared for long term profits and corporate sustainability rather than the fast cash that would be provided by such cuts without regards to sharing the wealth to those employees that did the bulk of the work in getting the companies to those profit levels.

The economy may be based on supply and demand to a great degree, but due to the rising costs of even the basic necessities of every day life that demand is going down creating problems for those companies who are producing products based on past demographics, causing those companies to shrink their work force due to a lack of money coming in but that is just a short term fix and ends up hurting those companies long term due to the fact they are adding to the problem by forcing those employees to go on unemployment or take lower paying jobs which causes their former employees to by less of that product if it is an everyday item used by their employees.

We also need to be looking at expanding on industries which can take our economy in new and more productive directions in regards to bringing in new taxes for the local, state and federal government while producing a product that can produce positive job and salary growth. A good deal of this would be to better educate people in general and retraining people to help be productive enough in those industries that need trained people to further the growth potential for the companies. These would be the types of industries where tax breaks and credits would be helpful especially if they are set up be given to those companies willing to train or send their workers to school to learn the needed skills.

All tax cuts for companies and corporations should be set up on an incentive basis geared toward helping the employees rather than helping the pockets of those high up in the chain of command. Ways of setting up the tax breaks should be like giving tax breaks to those companies and industries that provide education incentives for their employees and more of a tax break if these industries and companies are willing to provide education incentives for their employee’s immediate families.

For those companies that have the ability to allow their employees to use public transportation instead of driving should have tax breaks in place if they have position where the hours of operation for the position fall with in the hours of operation for the public transit system and the company actively promoting the public transportation system, allowing the companies to take advantage of the same or similar laws that make it attractive for the employees to utilize the public transit systems.

thoughts on water and energy

With the ever worsening oil prices and the water shortages that are becoming more common place and more apparent we have to start looking at new ways of doing things that require less water being used for non environmental purposes, while increasing the drinkable water with limiting the amount of oil based products to clean the water.

We know that eventually we will have to do large scale water desalinization but most people in a place to make sure it actually happens doesn’t see a real need at this time even though we are starting to show a real need now instead of the timetable that the people in power foresee the need.

We also have a real problem with actually desalinating the water due to how energy intensive it is to do desalinate the water and the most efficient power source we currently have is fossil fuels. We have a real need to desalinate the ocean water and a real need to start using the energy sources that are not fossil fuels in larger scales that are already in the mainstream for power generation.

Those energy sources that look promising and that are far enough along in their testing to attempt a commercial venture should be put into commercial use so that we can benefit from the power generation and to allow their developers to see where the real life can and should be for that specific power source.

With that in mind we need to use hydro, solar, wind and alternative power sources to power any and possibly all water desalinization plants with making sure that any heat generated during this process is also used for the water desalinization process through some sort of heat recovery system. We should also think about how to utilize any point where steam needs to be vented as a power source as well along with trying to recapture that escaping water to some degree.

If the power generation exceeds the needs of the water desalinization plants then that power should be diverted to the local municipalities or to the National Grid to offset any power generation that would otherwise be needed for that area. This would permit the power plants to use less of the needed fossil fuels that fuel the power generation.

Also find ways of designing newer power plants that take advantage of the commercialization of those alternate fuel sources in an attempt to move away from fossil fuels and to learn how to make those alternate fuel sources more reliable and more efficient in real life applications, while utilizing hydro power where available, along with solar and wind sources that would all tie in together to produce the energy for the given area.

Moving away from fossil fuels is a hard sell for everyone who is by nature accustomed to using them but everyone needs to realize that in the short term it isn’t as profitable due to having to start the mass production of some of the sources of energy and to build power plants that utilize non fossil fuel energy sources as their primary source of fuel.

With the way oil futures and prices are going which will oil be the most cost effective in producing the energy needs for the industrialized world in a few years?

opinion on job hunting

Since being laid off two months ago due to the company I worked for going out of business, I have found that companies even though they need workers for the few jobs they want filled, for the most part they don't make the application process easy.

I have found that most companies that are willing to pay anywhere near what I would need to make expect you to apply online. Most of those companies I have found don't make it easy to apply either. some have questionaires that are as much as eighty to one hundred questions long just to be able to sumbit your resume, while others don't make it easy to navigate their careers pages.

I did however find that a handful of companies who have career pages online would still prefer you to go into one of their locations and submit an actual application. so far most of them you actually had to print out the application then fill it out, I did find one place that I just had an interview with that their application once downloaded you could open up on your computer and fill out any information that has the ability to be typed in. I wish all companies set their downloadable applications like that, due to looking more professional than an application that had been filled out by hand

Jobs, Gas, Mass transit

given the unemployment rate and the skyrocketing gas prices, there has to be serious consideration given to designing job search criteria that is based on the availability of mass transit in areas that have mass transit for those who are currently unemployed and really cannot afford the skyrocketing gas prices and for those who are in general looking for a new job that are looking for jobs based on how much they can save on gas.

In areas that do have mass transit from the simple act of people willing and able to utilize the services offered by mass transit it helps both the individual using it and the service provider. The transit agency like other companies have to deal with the rising costs of gas as well as the individual that drives who could actually utilize the services of the transit agency.

If those people who could potentially take mass transit actually utilized the services offered to commute it would allow the transit agency to bring in more revenue without adverse reactions to their customer base while allowing the commuter to save on gas and all of the up keep of their personal vehicle.

The only real downfall for those looking to utilize the mass transit system in a given area is their start time at work or a lack of available mass transit service to a given area, but those companies who's hours of operation and location permit usage of any or all of the modes of transportation that the areas mass transit offers, may want to consider getting their employees to utilize the services offered to help their employees save money.

the race for the democratic nomination

I don't think that any of the candidates running for office are actually going for the office of the president strictly for the sake of running the country.

In regards to the democratic candidates, I feel that even if Hilary is really running to make positive changes, she would be unable to due to the fact she thinks too much like the national level politicians that bicker more than work. Obama, he has had the habit of bringing up that he grew up poor and really hasn't talked about his mixed heritage like he did early on in the campaign, he reminds me of the people who want nothing to do with their life before they made it to where they are now and I have known a few people like that.

Hilary has to show that she is capable of not thinking like the normal politician, and Obama even though being born poor still can be an elitist given his attitude and achievements.

I do think that Hilary should drop out but at the same time I think that she be on the ticket as the vice presidential candidate to make it harder for McCain to win.

oil and food

With the oil prices skyrocketing, the industries that normally use petroleum products are trying to find new ways of producing the same product with out petroleum products which is compounding another problem that already exists. This is the food shortage in some areas of the world which has been growing worse on its own through environmental factors and a growing population requiring larger amounts of food to be grown, with the industries that normally use petroleum products looking for alternatives they have found one alternative but it is causing the food shortage to grow faster than it was before.

No one seems to agree what to do to produce the needed amounts of grain that are needed for the growing world populations or for the new industries vying for those same grains to produce non food products based from the individual components of the grains.

Everyone that has done research seems to agree at least in part that we may end up having to use the deserts of the world for farming sometime in the next few generations but I haven’t heard of anyone taking the time to actually see what can be done now to start farming the deserts in an attempt to deal with both the growing population and the new demands placed on farms to produce crops for non food related products.

I know that it would not be cheap to farm in the deserts due to the fact that the farmers would need really large amounts of water to maintain their crops, which would mean that the water would have to come from desalinating ocean water so drinking water would not be taken away from the world’s population. The desalinization process itself is a costly adventure due to the energy costs that are associated with it at least when it comes to the traditional ways of producing the energy for the desalinization process.

We as the caretakers of the world have advanced far enough with trying to produce energy without the use of fossil fuels and with using renewable and green fuels. We have found that we can use both the sun and the water to create power instead of using fossil fuels but we are somewhat limited in how well we can use them due to our technology. We also tend to limit ourselves in regards to what we think can be done.

We know how to produce siphons, but I have not heard of anyone even attempting to use a siphon as a sustainable power source. What is actually stopping someone from designing a water turbine to be attached to the outtake of a siphon to create power?

Obama and Clinton

When it comes to the Democratic Party and the potential problems foreseen for the general election, it may actually be a good idea that Obama and Clinton pair up for the democratic ticket for the general election. This would be due to the fact that they both have people who would rather vote for a Republican rather than the opposing Democratic candidate along with having similar platforms in terms of the issues.

The only real problem is that both are strong willed people that would rather have things done their way. It is understandable that they would prefer their own ideas on the issues done but it also gets them both into The White House regardless of which one is president. If you actually sit down and think about it, even if Clinton decides to go with being vice president Obama would have a former president available for advice when he feels he needs someone else’s opinion.

By no means am I saying that one would be better at being president than the other, all I will say is that each of them on their own they face discrimination based either on gender or race together they offset the others discrimination which may actually give a combined ticket with both of them on it a real chance of winning against McCain.

If they can get past their own presumptions on what would be the best way to do each and everything I think they can make a great team, especially if they can retool or combine different aspects of what they like about the others plan on each issue.

my memories of baseball home opener as a kid

Even though it has been more than twenty years since my last opening day at Fenway Park, the memories are still fairly vivid of the day. I was a “paper boy” who sold a local paper as a kid from the age of eleven through the age of thirteen and I had the chance every year that I was a paper boy to sell newspapers in Kenmore Square on opening day.

Even though I wasn’t a big fan of baseball, I actually liked the experience due to the fact I was able to play hooky from school with my parent’s permission and actually got rewarded for it by putting a few dollars in my pocket and getting free tickets along the third baseline each year. It was an energizing experience on multiple reasons.

To begin with it was among the first situations I had to deal with large crowds with out my parents watching over me like hawks, even though my father was actually one of the people in charge of the paper boys which were not all children, as a matter of fact most of them were adults and I was one of the few kids that the paper allowed to be there since my father would be there to keep an eye on me somewhat.

For an eleven year old to have a relative free run of an area that stretched about half a city block working the crowd of baseball fans long before anyone proclaimed the fans “red sox nation” it was mesmerizing yet electric. It was all of the Red Sox fans and their families who were on planned days off or were playing hooky from work and school to show their support for the ultimate underdogs on the home opener.

After a couple hours of selling newspapers amongst a sea of Red Sox Jersey’s and baseball gloves that looked like it was a family heirloom that had been passed down through generations of hard core Red Sox fans, I was able to do what few other eleven year olds have been able to do and that is walk into the game as exhilarated as all of the other people there but not having paid for a ticket and essentially got paid to be there to watch the home team in action.

Everyone who lives in a city with a baseball franchise that has hard core fans on their first outing to their home teams opening day is lost in all of the traditions that the fans have in and around the ballpark. The very first time a fan is there you are indoctrinated into a culture all its own for which you learn to appreciate as you come to understand the team and the teams past. Even that cannot hide what goes on after everyone has found their seats and got situated for the game.

Of all of the traditions that happen on opening day that first timers have the most trouble is the tradition that the fans yell at their favorite players when they fail to get on base or fail to make that catch that looked like it was right to him as if the players could really hear them through a sea of thirty five thousand voices, then on the next at bat acting as if the last at bat was a warm up while spilling his beer all over himself of the person in front of him as he gets up yell, especially since almost everyone around you is doing it.

All of the other traditions are easy to get use to due to the traditions being more like a team event that every fan young and old participates in, this would include the Wave, the fans in the bleachers keeping track of the strikes using the large red letter K’s on the back wall of the bleachers and all of the little things that go on along the dugouts especially the fans trying to hang over the dugout roofs for autographs or to heckle the opposing team.

All in all the indoctrination of a first time home opener coupled with being paid to play hooky to be indoctrinated is truly a memorable experience that few kids get to do no matter which franchise you favor it will be something that someone can tell their kids and their grandkids.

When will people worldwide have enough clean safe water

When will people worldwide have enough clean, safe water to drink? This is a very relevant question especially given the population growth. It is also something that affects not just people but the world as a whole. The one thing that everyone has to realize is that the time frame is based on factors that people have learned to control some of it based on attitudes with given societies and some is based on what we have learned in the way of science and nature.

When it comes to attitudes based in our various societies, there are a plethora of things that have to be dealt with some of which is the mentality of the leaders in a given geographical location in regards to whether or not they think of the environment as a way of helping or hurting the people who live in their countries. Some countries are more open to doing what it takes to help the environment while others use the environment as a way to hurt others.

There are also governments which believe that clean drinkable water isn’t a priority due to other things going on in their country that they would rather focus on.

With regards to science and nature we have progressed far enough to make an honest attempt to reverse the damage we have caused and can cause. The technology that we are capable of engineering doesn’t discern between the variations of clean or dirty, it just treats everything as if it needs to be treated.

Clean drinkable water, every living thing on the planet depends on it to some degree. The only two ways water can be effectively cleaned is to either let the Earth do her jobs in cleaning the water, or to have us take a more proactive approach to actually cleaning the water in ways that doesn’t take one problem and transfer it from one place to another.

One good way of dealing with creating clean water is how we have learned how to deal with our waste water that flows to the water treatment plants in many metropolitan areas. The process usually included the separation of the water itself from the sludge and trash that accompany the incoming water along with treating the water with environmentally friendly cleaners which include things that attack the bacteria and other things that can make plants and animals sick.

After the sludge is removed it is processed in a way that neutralized the bacteria and such that would be detrimental to the land environment while turning it into beneficial fertilizer that can be sold for gardens and for farming. The process itself is in essence just the speeding up of the decay process that nature has and therefore the facility can capture the methane that the process creates, which allows the facility to use the methane as fuel which allows the facility to reduce the amount of energy they need to buy from a power plant therefore reducing the power created by fossil fuels.

Besides cleaning waste water, we are capable of desalinating ocean water to create clean drinkable water which can be used in municipal drinking water and in the irrigation of farmland. The one problem with this that it is expensive along with needing a lot of energy to produce, a good way of offsetting the energy needs of the process would be to place the desalinization plants in areas where we can get the environment to help create the energy.

One good place to build a water desalination plant would be to build them where there the sun is the hottest and that is out the longest. This way you could use the solar energy, and you could possibly convert the heat to energy both to offset the cost associated with the process. Other good ways to offset the energy production needed would be to design the facility to use the water itself to create the energy.

We have to find ways of creating clean drinkable water without creating environmental problems elsewhere in a geographic region or globally.

when it comes to job seeking and articles of interest for potential employers

Recently I became a job seeker due to my job of twenty years closing down so I technically became a new job seeker. Still in my early days of looking for a new job I have found that there are multiple places where you can submit your resume and use to distribute it as well.

I have found that you can let potential employers know about any education and/or experience that would enhance the possibility of getting hired, such as a degree in the field or a lot of practical experience in the field and even typing skills.

I had produced some forms for my work when it was still open for business that I would like to showcase to use as back up for my resume but on the sites I have my resume, I have found that there is nothing there to allow me to showcase my work. I would love to showcase the forms as part of an overall application package to a potential employer so I can look as good as my resume suggests but it looks like I will not be able to do so.

checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution

going by the checks and balances that the constitution has in place, there is a definitive separation of powers between each branch of government that prevents each branch of dealing directly with the issues relating specifically to a given branch of government.

many see that some of the decisions that the justice system has made constitutes the courts overstepping their boundaries. If you actually look at the decisions, you will actually see that the justice system is doing its job. the courts have made decisions that essentially tell the other two branches of government that they cannot act a certain way unless it is governmental law and doesn't interfere with the protections given to us by the constitution.

If I may give a couple examples to prove my point:
Roe versus Wade concerning abortion, the U.S. Supreme in simplistic terms basically stated that until the government explicitly forbids it, it is actually legal. it is a misconception that the court actually did the job of the U.S. Congress. It is also better to keep it legal due to the fact that if women want one bad enough they will find a way of getting one even if it means a forced miscarriage.

Massachusetts the only state that has gay marriage, the state supreme court in its decision did the same thing as the U.S. Supreme Court in their decision. the court basically stated that until you do the necessary legislation on the subject you cannot treat it as if it is illegal until it is illegal. There have been attempts to legislate it and also put it on the ballot but it has not made it past a constitutional convention or sub committee due to it being such a touchy matter.

a few years ago congress passed a law requiring oversight of any activities such as wiretapping of U.S. citizens by the courts so that the rights of the citizens were not trampled by the government. The justice system per order of the president circumvented the law, which when found out about prompted the court to take action against the program forcing it to follow the rules under the law.

We need the checks and balances, and any attempt to counter that system is completely unconstitutional in nature and would never survive an attack on it. the only way the senate were to pass such a law it would be forced to take on the job of the president to enforce the law which would be another abuse of power. it would also mean that there is no more functioning constitution in this country. If the people who sit in the senate truly believe in the constitution, then they cannot legislate powers away from the other branches of government and the other two branches cannot do that to each other or to the senate either.

preserving our nations monuments and memorials

Preserving the sanctity of our nation's memorials and monuments isn't as easy as it sounds. Those memorials and monuments stand as a reminder, a testament to what we have gone through as a nation from the very writing of the very first monument which is the Declaration of Independence.

Maintaining the material aspect of each isn't hard since we have the know how to maintain them and preserve them, it is another to preserve the sanctity in the hearts of the people who say they believe in the country. As time goes by the voices that were once an ever present in the hearts of those who believed in the idealism that this country was founded on has begun to fade and that idealism is beginning to tarnish.

Our memorials and monuments where built to honor those of us who have given all that they can give for this nation of ours, and deserve to be shown the respect that they are meant to display. At the moment we have a divided country, a country that is so fractured that no one cares to remember what our forefathers went through to be able to write our constitution, instead all they remember is the text of the constitution.
We as a nation have allowed ourselves to pervert the constitution in ways that the past generations would not have permitted due to thinking that it would do a disservice to those who sacrificed all that they had to give our nation a fighting chance.

In order to preserve the sanctity of our nation's memorials and monuments, we need to preserve the sanctity of the beliefs and idealism of those who came before us. We cannot preserve the sanctity until we strive to bring each of the disillusioned groups back together to work together to make sure that those reminders, those testaments stand for where we came from, what we strive to live up to and where we hope to go.

As long as we choose not to remember the lessons of the past we will continue with the fracturing of what this country was meant to stand for. If we forget our past we forget what brought us here and if we forget what brought us here then we will forget who we are as a country. With that we would end up loosing what we care about most. In the end we will end up going in the road that countless people have died to prevent and that is nothingness in regards to a government we can participate in and have faith in.

my take on job layoffs

With facing the loss of a job due to termination over something you have done or if it is from layoffs you experience a great deal of frustration over the fact that you are being forcibly uprooted from a job that you may enjoy. You will undoubtedly have issues that you will have to deal with, with the most important one is the job search and whether you can afford to take your time or not while looking for a new job so you can have some well deserved down time.

When faced with a layoff, it may just be cutbacks or a company closing for which both cause people to worry. With cutbacks if you were not laid off, you wonder if you may be next and asking yourself if you should look for a new job but with a company closing you feel like you should have gotten out sooner rather than letting your world come down around you.

Right after finding out you are being laid off regardless of whether it is a layoff effective immediately or a layoff effective on a certain date, you will feel defeated and looking at your co-workers and friends for advice and if they know of any companies looking for anything remotely similar to what you are doing. Each person with have their own ideas of what you should do and how you should go about doing it based on what they know about you

When laid off you will inevitably find out how good your networking skills are if you are set on looking for a job right away and if you feel you can afford to take some time looking for a new job you may be forced to refocus what you would like to do with making the decision to go back to school for a certificate or a degree if your finances permit or if you can procure the funding if not a program that you can do for free.

If you decide to go right back into the workforce as quickly as possible then you will have to decide what you are willing to do, if you can take a pay cut and how much of a pay cut you can take with still being capable of maintaining your bills. If you decide that going back to school will be a good thing that you have the time for then you may need to decide whether you want to go to improve your skills in the field that you just left or if you would rather gain new skills that would widen the field of jobs that you can deal with.

You may feel like you can’t afford to be completely unemployed but feel that you would be better served if you made the time to go to school for at least a certificate program which would possibly working part time while going to school during the day or working somewhere close to full time while going to school nights and weekends.

In the end you have to make the decision that is best for you and your family if you have one that you have to be there for.

an opinion on the presidential primary season

I do not favor one specific presidential candidate but do have an opinion on how this election season looks.

This time around even though it is still in the primary season, it looks more like the run up to the general election in regards to the campaign rhetoric from the major candidates.

the one real difference this time is that depending on the outcome it can perpetuate several different stereotypes that our society has been striving to knock down.

one is the gender stereotypes for which tend to perpetuate that people in general don't want women in what is traditionally a mans position, another is the racial stereotypes which denigrate minorities when they try to accomplish what is seen as not being capable of being done by a minority. We can't forget about the age bias either that has been floated in the past either for which is seen all over the place with regards to people past a certain age doing specific things.

There is one question however that should not have been brought up which is whether John McCain is eligible to run for president. Yes he was born on a United States Military base in Panama, what most people don't know is that when a child of a service man is born on a U.S. Military instillation in a foreign country, they are automatically both a U.S. citizen but also automatically a foreign born citizen and upon their eighteenth birthday they have to choose which citizenship they wish to have. Given where he has chosen to live his life it is evident that he chose the U.S. citizenship.

should you rent or buy in Boston

In Boston there is everything from the rooming house to the condo and home owner, with enough interest each type of property to make each a hot commodity in today’s market. Each has it positives and negatives for which must be dealt with in their own time.

Deciding what is best for oneself or ones family is based on a number of factors which include the amount of space required, the costs involved, desired location, and how involved in the maintaining of the property.

In certain parts of Boston especially in parts that are in the process of gentrification (or as I would like to say it “Yuppification” since it is the Yuppies that are the ones fueling the gentrification in Boston) both the rental market and the housing market are neck and neck in the way of the overall costs regardless of how many different costs there are.

If you are in need of a three bedroom unit where you would prefer to live has everything to do with whether you should rent or buy since the location of the rental unit could be the same as or above what you would pay for a mortgage. If money is at the heart of whether you rent or buy it would be wise to sit down and sort out your finances to see in what parts of the city you would be capable of doing either based on your individual needs and what you can afford to pay for a rent or mortgage.

When deciding to rent or to buy you will also need to determine how much money you need to allocate for your savings if you are trying to save money so that way you can determine what to do especially since owning means that you may end up having to use the money that you are trying to save on the property to maintain it if you choose to buy making a rental unit more attractive as long as the location you choose to live in has what you feel to be a reasonable rent.

If saving is not a top priority, if you qualify for a mortgage you may be better served if you buy a home or a condo especially if the upfront costs with signing a mortgage are somewhat close to what you would pay upon signing a lease agreement, which is in most cases first, last and security deposit for an apartment if you don’t go through a management company or realty company for an apartment.

Depending on the type of and how much of a commute you are willing to accept you both options may appeal to you. I know people on both sides on the issue of commuting when it comes to deciding whether to rent or buy, and for the most part the reasoning behind commuting one way versus another way is pretty much the same. When it comes to people who choose to drive everyone I know regardless of renting or owning say they don’t want to be on someone else’s schedule for commuting, when it comes to public transportation they say it is to save money depending on the length of their commute.

Commuting in general most people have to do it for work, it is just a matter of how far you are willing to accept or may be forced to accept given your individual needs, how much you are looking to save, how much you can afford and how much work you want to do in regards to dealing with the maintenance of the property. However the only real difference with maintaining the property is that if you are renting, general wear and tear causing breakage of something for property related, the owner of the property has to fix it but if you intentionally break something it is like a store you break it you bought it.

thoughts on the preamble

We the People in order to form a more perfect union, a noble concept in the preamble of the United States Constitution has given faith to many people though out history who thought that they could make life for their families better by making life better for all in our great nation.

Through the years we have seen many times where those words rang out resonating with a patriotic song that has gotten us through times like the world wars and the great depression. We have also see many times where those words were trampled on like they were worthless in their meaning, like how the soldiers were treated when they came home after the Vietnam War ended.

In the short history of The United States we have seen our share of leaders who have done great things for either good or bad but we as a nation of the people and by the people, are at a crossroad for which we the people have to step up and ask that our government do things that are stated in the preamble of the constitution like:

• establish Justice
  
• insure domestic Tranquility
  
• provide for the common defense
  
• promote the general Welfare
  
• and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves
  
• and our Posterity

How can we have justice if we turn a blind eye to the tyranny of certain individuals who would work against the text and the spirit of the Constitution by enacting laws that work outside the constitution or hide what they are doing?

How are we insuring domestic tranquility when people are at each others throats over issues that need to be addressed on the national level but are being pushed aside in favor of other things?

How can we provide for the common defense when most of our defense is off playing peace maker in other countries, leaving us vulnerable to forces both within or from outside that would attack us?

How are we promoting general welfare when budgets for agencies geared for general welfare are constantly being slashed in favor of larger budgets for special interests?

How can we secure the blessings of liberty when there are some who would take those blessings away?

Our posterity is our legacy and if we do not take stock in what we pass on and how we will be remembered by future generations then we would have failed in what our forefathers had established in an attempt to make life better for all who live here.

First time home buyer article I submitted for possible publication in Boston

Buying a home in or around Boston, at the moment it is a very enticing option given Boston's high rental rates especially in Southie, the South End and Beacon Hill areas of Boston. I grew up in Southie and know first hand that Boston has seen its share of ups and downs in the housing market and eventually had to buy a home outside of Boston a couple years ago due to the rising costs of the housing market.

When you start your search for a new home the first thing you should look into if Boston still offers the course for first time home buyers so you can learn some of the ins and outs of Bostons housing market. While doing that you will need to assess how much more you can spend on housing, this would be due to stuff like the water and sewer along with general maintenance of the property while going through the pre-approval process that would allow you to know how much you can borrow and would let the Realtor know that you are serious about looking at the homes that he or she has to offer.

At some point you will have to decide if the desire to stay within Boston is justified given the costs associated with the mortgage, taxes, water and sewer, along with having to have remember that you have to have a resident sticker to park in certain neighborhoods overnight. Part of the decision to buy inside the city or not should be the amount of time required for travel for work along with the availability of affordable parking inside the area of Boston. Parking downtown is notoriously expensive especially between the aquarium and Haymarket while over by the World trade it can be half the price but with the building up of fan pier it will eventually be just as expensive.

Since the sub-prime loan fiasco in 2007 the most important thing anyone can do in Boston is to not let the lender fill in your financial information and to insist on going over the paperwork in fine detail and ask what are the conditions of the loan if they seem complicated on paper with the explanations explained in terms that you can understand. Understanding the mortgage paperwork is the most important step in buying the home of your dreams since you really can't buy it with out the financing.
Where there are loads of older homes and older triple decker's in Boston, a home inspector that understands what to look for in older homes and triple decker's is a must especially if you are going to buy any property along the beach between Castle Island in Southie and Tinean Beach in Dorchester.

If your don't mind a little travel time you may want to look into moving either to the south of Boston since Quincy, Braintree and Weymouth will be somewhat cheaper than Boston. If you prefer moving north you could always look to Revere, parts of Cambridge, and Somerville which are cheaper but seem to be coming into their own with housing costs. when deciding how much traveling you are willing to accept you may want to decide if the T would be a reasonable alternative to actually driving given the soaring gas prices.

If you are willing to travel to the city then the T would permit you to get through the city without being stuck in city's congested streets especially if you are trying to get to work downtown. You would be on somewhat of a schedule due the scheduling of the trains and buses but you would not have to waste time or gas which can be costly, and depending on the length and method of the commute along with the type of work you do it could allow you to work en route, but thats if you decide buying in the Boston area is better than buying inside of the city.

congratulations to the New York Giants and the New England Patriots

Congratulations are in order for the New York Giants Football team for winning the Superbowl on Sunday February 2nd. They showed that they wanted the title more than the New England Patriots did even though the Patriots would have had a perfect end to their season if they had won.

either way the Patriots had a perfect regular season going 16-0 with it being the first time any American football team has done. The Patriots faced the Giants twice in total this season including the Superbowl both walked away with one win and one loss but the Giants won the game that meant the most.

Congratulations to the New York Giants for winning the SuperBowl and to the New England Patriots for being the first team go 16-0 and the first team to go undefeated in the regular season in more than 30 years for which at that point in time there was only 13 games in the regular season.

commentary on the presidential candiates

Dealing with the issue of race and gender in the democratic primaries, there has been no direct commentary that I have heard regarding race or gender coming from the candidates directly. The issues of race and gender have, but others regardless of whether they were part of the campaigns or not have had commentary on both. Early on it was general commentary about gender and whether a woman was electable, not it has gone from general commentary about gender to more specific commentary that normally goes on in other public forums in regards to race and an individual’s personal actions.

Obama has consistently tried to take race out of the equation, which is a good thing since he is actually mixed regardless of who says what about his race. At the same time there are elements out there in this country that purposely inject race into what ever they can even if an opponent is going with the actions of the individual. The problem is that the people who inject race tend to equate an attack on an individual as an attack on the race itself, which causes a tit-for-tat situation which works against both sides.

If either Obama or Clinton gets the nomination for the party, race or gender will definitely play a role in the general election due to the nature of our society and the nature of campaigning. All of the candidates have to actually take a stand and show everyone that there is no room for gender or racial bias in their campaigns otherwise it will only get worse as the campaigning goes on whether or not the candidates really want that stuff injected.

All of the candidates in both parities have all been campaigning to some degree for change, the thing is that change happens with each new administration sometimes it’s for the better sometimes for worse. The thing is that going from experience a campaign just touting change is far different then providing proof that you are going to make changes if elected.

The candidates have been saying we need to change this or change that but I have not heard one iota about the specifics of how they plan to change each issue that they have been stating that needs to be changed which for them is a good thing for them but a bad thing for the voters and the electorate. It is a good thing for the candidates not to go into specifics since it can come back to haunt them if they do but at the same time it is very bad for the voters and the electorate due to a lack of information to make an informed decision on who to vote for which opens up the opportunity for here say on what the candidates mean when the talk about change.

Beyond the race and gender issues, there is a definite feel that the candidates are already acting as if this is the general election instead of the primary due to the fact that the front runners for both parties are consistently attacking each other on stuff that pertains to their own actions. The general response has been to these attacks have been the same coming from both parties with the responses being “that’s not what I said or did” or “that’s not what I meant” even with evidence in hand to show that is what was said or done.

That shows me that the candidates who are using those general lines are trying to run or hide their record especially if it goes against what they are currently stating they stand for in their campaign for president. Those candidates more than anyone else have to show what they actually stand for due to the fact that they don’t want their own past used against them and if they don’t want their past involved in the current campaign season, then they have to have the same hands off approach for the past for the other candidates that they expect the other candidates to have with them.

The one real way to show that they intend on making real changes if they get elected is to actually show that their intent to change is real and by actually showing how they intend on changing things while in office. They have to make an honest attempt to show that they are more than willing to work with both democrats and republicans in the attempt to make the changes by allowing the proposed changes to be reworked by both parties as long as the way you wish it to work remains relatively the same and can actually produce positive changes for the issues.

Change for the sake of change isn’t at all a good thing, change to make a positive change is regardless of who actually comes up with the change. Real change in relation to issues that the government has to take up, comes when we actually take the time to work out how to do things in a way that promotes positive results for as many people as possible not for a select demographics.

tax rebates

Everyone understands the economics of businesses using tax savings to produce jobs which has to some degree worked in the past. the economic climate has changed to the point that those same businesses that would have produced jobs here in the United States 20 years ago are now the companies sending jobs over seas to reduce costs while maximizing profits.

regardless of how it is worked our economy and society is based on the supply and demand aspect of the free market economy. my understanding of supply and demand is if no one can afford to buy the products then there is no demand for the product which translates into no demand for workers to produce the products.

my idea on a way to help the economy

In my opinion the best way to help avoid or limit a recession here in the U.S. is to no follow the rules of "trickle down economics" that the republican party likes to use when it comes to tax cuts due to the fact that the large U.S. companies have shown a willingness to make cuts to try to pad their wallets even more.

Where the economy is based on supply and demand, the best way to stimulate the needed growth to avoid a recession is to put the tax cuts into the largest section of the economy which is the low and middle income levels.

How would giving a tax cut to the income levels that account for the fewest amount of people in the nation who are looking to line their pockets be a viable option to stimulate the economy especially since those same people are cutting jobs here in favor of cheaper workers over seas?

a thought before the New Hampshire primary

I am writing this before the New Hampshire Primary.

I feel that McCain will end up winning the republican winner of the New Hampshire Primary. Nothing against the other candidates but I think that McCain is the better choice on the Republican side.

On the democratic side I am not sure who is going to win, but do think it will be either obama or clinton.

Can God and Darwin Co-exist?

Can God and Darwin Co-exist?

Everyone by nature takes sides on the subject of God and Darwin based on what they have grown to believe. Everyone regardless of whether they believe in religion or not feels that there is some type of higher power that keeps everything together.

Religion by nature is the belief in a higher power for which we call God. Those who believe in one of the various religions feel that they have to have faith in him or her and some to the point that the faith is so strong that they do not want to hear that God had to adhere to the laws of the universe when creating the Earth. The one problem with that type of faith is that no one actually has a real understanding of Gods power so we have no real understanding of what God is capable of.

Darwin, a scientist when on his voyages showed that there are plants and animals that were essentially the same plants and animals that he was use to seeing but with sometimes unique variations based on where he found them, this prompted him to create a theory called creationism. This theory is basically shows that over time plants and animals change based on their surroundings creating new and unique versions of existing plants and animals.

We show creationism with objects we make we do this through creating an object of some sort and then try to recreate it in ways that may make it work better for the job or jobs we want that object for. Each time we recreate the objects we provide a version of creationism that we can see and trace back to a source.

In my own opinion, there is a God who created everything we understand for which he may have had powers that work outside of the laws of physics to create us or could have created everything we understand through the laws of physics and taking the time to perfect us over time. The Bible has allotted for either due to the fact that it states that God created the heavens and the Earth in six days and that our concept of time is far shorter than Gods concept of time.

Given that we have no understanding of God’s power or knowledge, who, is to say that he created the heavens and the Earth outside the laws of physics or has knowledge of physics that is far beyond our current comprehension of physics that would have permitted him to create us.

Even though I call myself a religious person, I am not about to blindly accept what the Bible states given what we know about science and math. I feel that we can learn more about God if we forego blind acceptance of him as being all powerful and learn from what he created. This would mean accepting Darwinism and other forms of creationism as a way of learning about the material aspect of the universe.

I think that given the fact we are capable of creating things of our own and re-engineering living organisms to some degree we should not be so quick to say that science is good or bad but rather another way of backing up the claims of religion. Unfortunately those who take religion solely on the written word don’t open their minds up to learning how God could have made what we understand, which is a sorry state of being in my opinion.

If God didn’t want us to find out how he created us he would not have give us the ability to learn how to understand how the math and science work to the degree we have or the ability to see that even with slight variations that would permit us to show that things re-engineer themselves over generations no matter where you go and in many cases these changes are based on the local environment.

Although I believe in religion, I will not close my mind to what is out there to learn just because I am told to do so by people who feel that we cannot meet God until we die. I believe that over the next handful of generations we will gain the ability to meet God while still alive, it may not be in the bodies that we are accustomed to seeing ourselves in. For all we know the God may have given us the ability to understand math and science and the ability for our minds to adapt and grow beyond each generations comprehension of the natural world which would provide a natural leap in how we perceive the teachings of the bible.