I’m cranky today, so please forgive me, gentle reader. But I am sick to death of everyone constantly referring to politicians as “leaders”.

BZZZZT! WRONG ANSWER!

The next politician who thinks for a second that his job is to lead me, has lost my vote!

Just remember two words: Representative Republic — The proper name for the type of government we have here in the U.S.A.

I don’t know what country all of these leader-mongers are from, but it’s not mine!

The only people who should be leading in this country are “we the people!” The sooner incumbent politicians figure this out, the sooner I’ll stop fantasizing about election day when I can throw them out of office.

Everyone must understand; we employ these people to do our bidding when we cast our ballots and pay our taxes. They answer to US. Their job is to represent, not lead. If they’re leading us, something is wrong.

We must get these insubordinate politicians (“leaders”), who love ramming rotten and unpopular legislation down our throats, out of office!

Leaders be damned—This is a free country, not a wagon train! If you want to lead, become a tour guide, or start your own church, but stay the crap out of my life and my government!

Do you like calculators? I do. In 1946 the first electronic computer, ENIAC, was built. It was constructed using vacuum tubes (the transistor and integrated circuit were not yet invented). It weighed 27 tons, took up 680 square feet of space, and consumed 150,000 watts of electricity. It was the first programmable electronic calculator.

Today, you can buy a simple calculator that fits in the palm of your hand and runs on solar power for less than $10. AMAZING!

So I thought I would fire up my, technologically miraculous, calculator and crunch a few numbers.

Everyone is talking about the US national debt lately, so I decided to figure out what my portion of it is and try to get a better understanding of just how big the number really is.

At the time of this writing, the US national debt is/was: $12,933,884,012,449. (Just under 13 trillion dollars [the current budget deficit exceeds 1.4 trillion dollars at present, so this debt is expanding rapidly under the fearless leadership of the Oblahblah administration. Thanks Barack!])

At the same time, the US population is estimated to be: 308,361,063 people.

So what’s my/your share of the debt?

Well, get out your calculator and try this: 12,933,884,012,449 (dollars) divided by 308,361,063 (people) equals: $41,943.96

That’s nearly $42,000 dollars for ever man, woman, and child in America. (Each baby born in America starts out life $42,000 in debt!)

If you have a family of 5, your family cumulatively owes $209,720!

Keep in mind that the current US budget deficit is 1.4 trillion dollars, so at present our national debt is skyrocketing. Think the problems in Greece are bad? Oh baby!

Ok, so you’re thinking, “Not my problem. That’s government debt—has nothing to do with me.”

You’re wrong. Our government is a Representative Republic (No matter what your air-head political science professor may have told you.) Which means that your government works for you—on your behalf. You are the boss and your government is your employee. (NEVER forget that!!!) The buck stops with you, and me, and every other US citizen! And it is “We the People” who are responsible for paying off this debt. Remember, the government doesn’t produce money, it consumes it. And it gets it from us!

So, just because we elect retards to make a huge mess out of our country, doesn’t mean we’re not responsible for the mess! It’s our own employees that are trashing the place, and we as their supervisors are responsible for what they do!

At some point, very soon I fear, our debt burden will become unsustainable. At present the US Gross Domestic Product is 14.6 trillion dollars, which is only slightly more than, and will soon be eclipsed by, our national debt! Additionally, Congress just passed a multi-trillion dollar health care bill, which will add mightily to the mountainous and crushing financial burden our country is facing. The interest on our National Debt alone is currently over $194 billion dollars a year! (That’s almost a trillion dollars every 5 years!) Think what we could do with that money?!

Of course, the out of control spending in Washington is no accident. These people aren’t stupid enough to believe their own rhetoric about saving the country.

Barack Obama is a smart man. He knows what he’s doing.

When you elect a President who hates America, who for 20 years attended a church where the preacher screamed words like “God da— the U.S. of KKK!” at the top of his lungs. A President who pals around with unapologetic domestic terrorists (William Ayers). A President who has refused to produce a US Birth Certificate to prove that he’s a natural born citizen and therefore eligible to be the President, and who’s own Grandmother claims to have witnessed his birth in Kenya. A President who’s presidential candidacy was endorsed by the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. A President who said that the US constitution is a “charter of negative rights”, lamenting the fact that it constrains the government, and prevents it from ruling the people, rather than the other way around. A president who has spent much of his adult life trying to destroy your 2nd Amendment Rights. A president who has surrounded himself and built an administration full of unabashed Communists and Marxists. A president who, prior to being elected, made it clear that he intends to impose wealth redistribution, which means the destruction of free markets, capitalism, and democracy.

When you elect a president like this, what do you think is going to happen? I understand that many Americans don’t know about these things due to the absolute dereliction of our mass media. But the information is real and it’s out there, and thanks to alternative forms of communication, it can’t be suppressed—yet. The Obama Administration, however, is trying feverishly to curb the flow of information and regulate the Internet, talk radio, and alternative press. Obama is sick and tired of people spreading the truth around behind his back!

In the meantime, we are doing all the same things that led to the recent financial breakdown, and societal collapse in Greece. Only we’re doing it on a much grander scale, and NO ONE on this earth will have enough money to bail us out when our house of cards collapses! Greece is the experiment that shows us our future, and ruin is our destination. Of course, this story has been repeated a thousand times throughout history, so it’s truly no surprise. And it will happen to us too unless we change what we’re doing.

All I can say is that we must turn this train around in November, or disaster is the only thing that can possibly happen to our freedom and economy. Vote these people out in November or suffer for decades!

There is so much more going on right now than I could begin to write about. But I’ll just leave you with this: It’s not rocket science. All you need is a $10 calculator and you can figure it out with ease.

Good luck!

Today is my first day off in 19 days. I have been working hard digging out of the hole left by several months of virtual, and then official, unemployment.

I come back to this blog humbled and filled with a new appreciation for the things that I have and my ability to earn a living for myself and my family.

It’s been a rough and punishing trip, but I’ve learned a few things, and I intend to go forward with a new sense of purpose, and to live my life with greater intention and direction. No more waste. No more indecision. No more fear. No more procrastination.

6 months ago I prayed that God would make me a stronger and better person. Practically the next day, work dried up, and life got really, really hard. I was thrown, so to speak, into a financial and emotional meat grinder.

For a time my confidence and pride kept me from admitting that I could fail. But as the weeks passed by without success, my faith in myself began to crack and break away, and at some point I realized with terrifying clarity that I am not invincible. I am, in fact, a mere speck in the universe and that my existence is preserved only through the grace of God.

Each day that we live is a gift from God, and something that we have no power to create ourselves.

Today, I realize that though I don’t always deserve it, God blesses and takes care of me (his undeserving and rebellious child). I also know that the last 6 months of soul crushing hardship was an answer to a prayer. It was a tough pill to swallow but it had the desired effect. It has made me a better person!

And the prayers for help that I cried out out on those dark nights he answered too. And through hard work and with God’s help, I am nearly out — out of that great pit. But I needed God to line things up and make a path for me. I still do.

Sorry if I’m sounding preachy. But looking around at the world today, it’s seems like maybe a little more preaching is needed. You can get your fix of mindless crap on “The Family Guy” later if that’s what you think you need.

I know God hears and answers prayers. He knows what you need. He knew that what I needed was a good solid butt kicking, and he loved me enough to give it to me when I asked for it. And when I couldn’t take it any more, I cried out to him for relief, and he gave it to me, but only after I relented in my stubborn pride and admitted that I couldn’t do it myself — that I needed his help.

I needed to be shown that I am capable of failure. (Not that I have never failed at anything — I have; but I always thought that my failures were simply due to not giving 100 percent, a personal choice which I could change if I wanted.)

I had to be forced down to the floor despite all my efforts before I could see that I can’t always win every battle on my own. Intellectually I knew it, but I never really believed it in my heart.

Now I do.

Going forward I am and will be more grateful for the blessings in my life, and I know that I need to prepare for the future and have a relationship with God, who is the only one who can truly save me. Nothing I have ever done has been by my own hand, but by his hand, because were it not for him, I wouldn’t have a hand at all. He has given it to me.

No doubt, times will get tough again. Rough roads lie ahead. Don’t be like me and think it can’t happen to you. Prepare for it, and be ready.

Get to know God. He loves you, and will help you when you need it.

It’s new year — 2010 — lets do this one right!

-Paul

I read today that NASA is going to expose squirrel monkeys to low level daily radiation doses in order to better understand the biological effects of extended space travel on humans.

I can’t help being reminded of the 1987 movie, Project X, which came out when I was about 12 years old, and had a very significant effect on me at that age. As a kid, being a bit of a nerd, I was interested in things like science, electricity, radiation, and whatnot. When my Mom took me to the library, I usually checked out science books. My Dad also worked in the X-ray Dept. at our local hospital, so radiation was something that I knew a lot about, and frankly, was a bit scared of.

I remember a scene from the movie where a particularly smart chimpanzee, which through the course of the movie became like a friend, was placed into an experimental flight simulator to be killed by radiation. It was one of the most horrible things my young mind could imagine. I was deeply affected by the sense of helplessness and sadness I felt for that chimp. I’ve never forgotten that scene after all these years.

Even though I understand the need for science, I feel sorry for the innocent animals that suffer for our pursuit of knowledge. And I hope that through the course of things no one ever views me as an expendable subject for a scientific experiment.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that NASA shouldn’t do the experiment. I would rather they experiment on monkeys than humans.  I just wonder if it’s really necessary in this case.

If you’re looking for an interesting (old) movie to rent, check out Project X. When I was 12 years old, I thought it was really good (your results may vary).

See the movie poster here.

“I get on Hannity every Monday night and say Obama is the greatest economic president since Franklin Roosevelt and watch Hannity’s jaw drop,” … “And that is one of the great moments of my week.” — Bob Beckel (Democrat Pundit)

Who could argue with that? The economy is has just soared since Obama took over!

Why can’t Microsoft make Internet Explorer web standards compliant?

Did you know that many websites require special conditional CSS to coerce IE into displaying the content correctly? After all these years, they still haven’t gotten it right!

First you design your site for a standards compliant browser like Firefox or Opera, then you re-design all of the elements that IE doesn’t handle properly, save the hacks in a special CSS file, and then insert conditional code to load the hacked CSS, overiding the corect code, if your visitor happens to be using IE!

Then there’s the constant stream of security holes that allow all kinds of malware to get into your system as you browse the web. From a security standpoint, IE looks like swiss cheese! Sloppy programming at its finest.

For the love of Pete, does Microsoft ever code anything that works right?!

AAAAAAUUUURGH!

There are few things in life that have given me as much joy as the marvelous invention of Radio.

This love affair goes way back to my childhood when I would lay in bed late at night with my first transistor AM radio playing softly under my pillow. Tuning around the dial I would listen to dozens of different broadcasts from all over the western US while the rest of my family slept.

For me, it was truly amazing to learn about the world outside of my tiny little home town in rural Utah. I could hear traffic reports from Los Angeles, talk shows from Denver, news from places I’d never seen and thought I never would. Broadcasts from distant places streamed into my pillow with amazing messages from afar. So many things I heard and learned about on those nights.

There were no internet connections back then. Hardly anyone had a computer — my radio was my connection to the rest of the universe. And it was a good one!

In my early teens, my favorite broadcast was the KNX Drama Hour, which I would try to catch from 2:00 – 3:00am. I absolutely loved it! They would play old radio shows from years gone by, including my all time favorite, “The Twilight Zone”.

It was a magical experience being a part of this strange and exotic world. With my eyes closed, I could see everything in my mind with incredible special effects! Nothing on TV or in the movies would ever come close.

Years later I became a licensed Amateur Radio Operator (Also known as a “Ham” radio operator), and along with my ability to listen to many interesting things, my new Callsign gave me permission to transmit my own signals with substantial power. In fact, on many frequencies I am allowed power levels as high as 1,500 watts. That’s enough to cook a turkey dinner on my antenna, and allows for worldwide communications without any dependence on any infrastructure of any type!

If you’ve never experienced such a thing, it is an amazing feeling to talk with a new friend in another country using your own gear and antennas. Most hams are able to do this without any dependency on commercial power, phone lines, internet connections or anything else. It makes us very valuable during emergencies when commercial services fail. Hams can still get their messages through.

Without fail, other hams have the same interests. We can talk for hours about electronics, radios, antennas, amplifiers, recievers, atmospheric conditions, weather, sunspots, and other things of interest to pretty much all hams.

Throughout my life, I have loved radio. It’s as close to real magic as anything gets. If you really think about it, it’s truly amazing. We have an ability to create something that travels as fast as light, goes through solid objects, and travels across huge distances instantly. It is invisible. You can’t feel it, or touch it, hear it, or taste it. Without a receiver, you would never know of its existence. But it’s there, and it carries pictures, sounds, voices, and information with incredible speed and efficiency.

Doesn’t that sound like magic?

If I could go back in time to explain the miracle of radio to people of old, who would have believed it? I’m sure they would think I was crazy. If I were to produce a working radio to prove my claims, they might have declared me a witch and burned me at the stake.

And yet today, radio technology is something that nearly everyone takes for granted — but not me.

Today, you don’t have to be a ham to participate in this amazing world. There are hundreds of shortwave broadcasters all around the world who broadcast to the public.

With a relatively affordable shortwave radio receiver you can tune in the universe. You can receive foreign broadcasts from all over the world. Radio Moscow, Radio Taiwan, the BBC (Not BBC America, but the real one!), China Radio International, Voice of America, Radio Australia, SW Radio Africa, Radio Canada and many, many more.

You can listen to coded messages intended for foreign diplomats and spies, or learn to speak a new language. Many international broadcasters broadcast in English at certain times of the day, and some offer special programs which are intended to teach their language. You can learn many things about other cultures and peoples, listen to their music, or hear about their way of life.

Sure you could use the Internet for many of these things, but the experience is not the same. The information takes on a unique and surreal property when you hear it directly. The signal fades and strengthens with the ionosphere, strange phase distortions give voices and music an ethereal airy sound. You hear static crashes from lightning strikes hundreds of miles away, and sometimes you can’t hear a thing. Other times, the band is wide open and it seems like the whole world is on your doorstep. It’s the greatest thing ever!

The world is at your fingertips — all you need is a radio!

Okay, today I’m going to be lazy and post some quotes — because I think they are pure and brilliant truth.

These are two quotes by Steve Wynn, CEO of Wynn Resorts (Las Vegas) taken from a recent interview with Chris Wallace on Fox:

“Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization’s history. For some reason that simple truth has evaded everybody. The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor — whether it’s you and I, Chris, or anybody else. The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America.”

“…And soaring rhetoric and great speeches with or without a teleprompter aren’t going to change the truth, and the truth is: The biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle that working middle-class America has is government spending.”

If only people could “get” this. I’m afraid that by the time people in America wake up to the truth (if they ever do), it’s going to be too late.

I used to believe that inside of every human heart there is an innate desire to be free.

I used to think that each one of us wanted to be in control of our destiny and potential — to fly with the glorious wings of liberty that our forefathers and brave soldiers bought for us with enormous sacrifice and with their lives.

But today, we’re a nation of infants — liberal, dependent, foolish, perfectly content with endless regulations, controls, systems, and laws. The cost of which is huge! It limits our potential and breaks our spirit.

There is no freedom in this. The government doesn’t fears us (like our founding fathers intended), it runs us. And the most abhorrent thing about that is: no one cares.

But I do.

I read a “Public Forum Article” (letter to the editor, I guess) today on The Salt Lake Tribune website. I should have known better — The SL Tribune has a knack for making my blood boil with rage and I am usually smart enough to keep away, however the headline pulled me in, and against my judgment I read it, and now I’m mad.

The “Article” complains about the LDS church, specifically the decision to post new signs on Temple Square informing the public that Temple Square is privately owned property.

The signs were posted in response to a previous incident in which a church security officer forcibly escorted two homosexual blockheads from Temple Square because they were drunk and refused to stop being romantic with each other on the temple grounds in front of God and everyone else.

The church was criticized for being hostile and overstepping its authority. Editorial reporting by biased media outlets (Tribune included) didn’t help matters much.

So in response, the church has thoughtfully decided to remind the public that they are on private property while visiting Temple Square and that being there is not a right.

The so called Article in the Tribune — clearly written by someone of limited intelligence, attacks the church (yet again), calling it laughable, deplorable, arrogant, and hypocritical.

Of course, the article inspired a litany of rude comments from mindless antagonists and morons of epic imprudence who’s sole desire in life appears to be to publicly attack the church. They complain endlessly about how the church runs everything, discriminates against everyone, and preaches fairness and acceptance while practicing the opposite, blah, blah, blah… Oh give me a break! Somebody call the whaaaaaaaaambulance.

It’s interesting to note how much hatred and intolerance is directed towards the church by people who are supposedly champions of tolerance and acceptance. Talk about hypocritical.

So here’s my take, and what I wrote in the comments section for their filthsome, loathsome article:

“It’s one thing to be homosexual, it’s another thing to go into a place and act in a way that offends and upsets those around you and then expect to be welcomed with open arms.

If I came into your house and behaved in a rude and disrespectful way, offended your family, and displayed a total lack of sensitivity and a brazen disregard for the sanctity of your home, you would probably throw me out, and rightfully so!

The LDS church has been forced into this position by the acts of an inconsiderate few. If you don’t like the traditions of the LDS church — which settled the SLC valley and was here long before you — then stay home or find somewhere else to go where people don’t care if you act like a jerk.

But, if you insist on being a thorn in the church’s crown, then don’t expect to be welcomed. It’s as simple as that.

When I come to your house, whether or not I agree with your beliefs and traditions, I will be respectful and behave myself. Can’t you do the same?

All it takes is a brain, folks! (…short supply around here…)”

I’m sure I’m being flamed at this very moment, but hey: when evil hates you, you’re on the right track.

I can tell you this from personal experience, blogging is hard — harder than a frozen crowbar.

It’s not easy finding inspiration and then slaving over words, worrying, fussing, revising; mindful of what an unseen reader will think.

But in all perfect honesty, I don’t know why anyone would care about my opinion or what I have experienced. We all have lives. We’re all busy. We all have our own experiences and views. What makes me think I’m special? What am I, some sort of expert? No. So why go through all the trouble to put myself out there?

Well…. The truth is, there are two things I wish for when I write. One is to get you to see things the way I do, and the other one, perhaps more important to me is, I want you to like me. Plain and simple. I don’t know why — I just do. It’s crazy! I’m such a dork!

But doesn’t everyone want to be recognized; to be appreciated? Doesn’t that just make me human?

So it’s Saturday afternoon, and I’m sitting with my computer fussing and wishing I were eloquent. But it’s no use today. Maybe another post on another day.

I’ve got to tell you, this blogging thing is hard.