the economy and jobs

with the way the economy is going it looks like even with the newest stimulus package it will not stop the economy from dictating that fewer employees are needed in many area's at least in the short term. when the job market starts heating up again many of the jobs that once had a high rate of pay to begin with, will undoubtedly have a lower base pay to start than just a year or two ago. this will mean that even though someone finds a new job, they may not be out of their financial troubles due to what they are use to in terms of living standards and what they have to deal with prior financial obligations that they would still be required to live up too. this will most likely cause just as many problems as the person being on unemployment if not worsen their problems.

congratulations to President Obama

I would like to congratulate Mr. Obama on attaining the office of the President of the United States. I hope that he can live up to the promises made and live up to the aspirations of a nations that hopes that a new voice can and will be the voice of change.

Israel and the middle east process

Both Israel and certain segments of the Middle East in particular the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip need to approach the whole process of peace differently.

To this point any attempt at piece has been a fragile that has been easily fractured by even the smallest of events that may have more to do with a legacy of mistrust between both sides rather than a lack of wanting to end the violence.

The problem on both sides at least in one persons opinion is a lack of respect and control. The Palestinians appear to be unable or unwilling to prevent individuals from attaining weapons that are capable of being launched into Israel due to the legacy of mistrust and Israel seems to be unwilling or incapable of controlling their retaliatory response to any skirmish that may occur.

in the end both sides even though stating and making what looks like a half hearted attempt at change end up perpetuating the legacy of tit-for-tat that has been going on for countless generations.

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.