So now the president is kicking into campaign mode again with a new push to help out the middle class. What he’s proposing is bigger child tax credit, some changes in how student loans are repaid and some credits for taking care of the elderly. Which in reality means he’s trying to by us off, but what he’s missing is that none of this crap matters. It’s completely inconsequential to the majority of the population and the only reason he’s offering this carrot on a stick is to give the appearance that he’s doing something great, when really, it just is not going to make a difference whatsoever in most of our lives.

If you want to help us Mr. President, here’s what the middle class really needs.

JOBS.

That’s all we need. The middle class doesn’t want handouts or charity. We want to work. We want to be left alone to make a living for ourselves without the interference of some out-of-touch greedy politicians sticking their nose in our business. And you’re not going to create jobs by making everyone a government employee. You create jobs by making it easy for people to start and do business. And how do you make it easy? Get out of our way.

Once upon a time you could have a business and employ other people without a truckload of fees and taxes and red tape, and without the fear of getting sued for having your bathroom mirror two inches too high or killing a field mouse and end up losing everything you worked for.

And once upon a time you could actually build things in America without fear that some sweatshop in a third world country who employs what basically amounts to slave labor will undercut you to death because they don’t have to play by the same rules you do and they have access to your market while they lock you out of theirs.

I could go on and on, and this is really a giant rant, which I don’t like to do, but honestly, it’s not a crazy concept to figure out. Government should do a few things: protect us from our enemies; maintain our infrastructure; and ensure that everyone plays fair according to the Constitution. After that, get the frick out of our way and let us do what we do best; Work our American butts off and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Today’s story has the following headline: “Rocket Fuel Chemical Found in Baby Formula”. WOW! That’s crazy right? Rocket fuel??? Immediately my mind starts racing… is it China poising our kids again? Terrorists sneaking something into the food supply? What are we going to do about this? Our kids lives are at stake!!!

Then the skeptic in me kicked in. Can’t be actual rocket fuel. Oh wait… rocket fuel “chemical”. There we go. Rocket fuel is made of tons of chemicals! So I read through the story to find which chemical we’re talking about. The chemical is Perchlorate. A quick search on Wikipedia turns up the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchlorate. Turns out it’s a naturally occurring chemical used in all kinds of things, including candles, medicine… oh, and rocket fuel.

So is there something to be worried about? Probably. It certainly deserves to be reported and further study done. But the problem I have with the media is the blatant effort to push my buttons; to manipulate my feelings.

They could have used a headline like “Water supply possibly carrying too much naturally occuring chemical”. But who would read that? It’s too honest and not alarming enough. Babies eating rocket fuel is much better!

The problem is that the media is a business after all and that business relies on people paying attention so the advertisers stay happy. So we get bombarded with half truths and alarmist language to prompt us to respond.

This is a trivial example, but it makes you wonder how much the truly big stories are being twisted for emotional effect. How “fair and balanced” are the stories we’re seeing on the financial crisis, or the wars in the middle east, or the political events in Washington?

It all reminds me of the need to question everything, compare the news from many sources, dig for hard facts, read between the lines, and view everything in it’s proper context.

Two years later, his predictions are spot on. So it makes me wonder…. how many of these so called experts we see on TV daily are completely, absolutely clueless? I’d say most of them. Unbelievable.

Check out the video below, then read Schiff’s latest article which is [RIGHT HERE]. Maybe it’s time we started listening to this guy.

Anyway, now Sears stoops to new lows in my mind by installing spyware on your computers when you join their “community” on their website. Here’s the link to the full details. Be warned, it’s a little technical.

Honestly, I think you really know a company is in trouble when it starts viewing it’s customers as prey.

Sears.com: Join the Community – Get Spyware - via CA Security Blog

The cool thing about these laptops as well is that they are not your typical fragile, crashing all the time, call tech support I’ve got another virus, Windows laptops. They are custom built laptops designed specifically for the environment in which they will be used and for the kids who will use them. They require very little power, can be charged via solar panel and are made to work in hot, humid and dusty areas. The software is custom written and provides web surfing capability, writing and math software, sharing and chat programs and even music and art creation software.

I think this is an outstanding program and it’s encouraging to see my industry take up a meaningful project such as this.  But we don’t need to sit idly by and let everyone else make a difference. The machines are being built but they still need to be sent to the children. Many countries have voiced interest in purchasing these laptops, but not all of those promises come through due to financial restraints affecting those governments. So we can help.

For the next 15 days the OLPC project is offering a Give One, Get One program. Basically you buy two of these machines and the OLPC will send you one, and send one on your behalf to a child in a developing country. Of course you can also just buy laptops and have them sent directly to needy kids.

So check out the following link and think about taking part in this revolutionary program.

http://www.laptopgiving.org/

Being in the technology field I saw this same type of hysteria during the Year 2000 Bug Scare. This was a real, but manageable issue that really only affected software that depended on the date being correct. So mainly financial, payroll, those types of systems were at real risk of malfunctioning. Nobody can convince me that heart monitors were going to fail, planes fall from the sky, or defense networks fire all their missiles. However, the media saw a hot story to boost ratings, latched onto this, and they blew it into a full blown crisis.

When the people saw this, a few groups emerged. The first group, the chicken-littles, freaked out and wanted to replace everything that had a computer chip in it. The second group saw a chance to be heroes and at the same time infuse their departments, businesses and consulting firms with massive amounts of cash from the first group, and so they wanted to replace everything with a computer chip in it. Everyone else was labeled an idiot.

Of course it wasn’t the end of the world, though you’ll hear many tech people say it’s because the did such a great job. But I’m convinced that most of the work done for “Y2K”, was not done to prevent huge business losses, or to protect the public. It was done because the crisis was seen by the industry as a “blank check”.

There are so many parallels between that crisis and Global Warming it’s amazing. Scientists and governments are using it to fund programs and redistribute wealth. Companies are making huge dollars be churching out ineffective “green” versions of their products (and charging a premium for them). And everyone who disagrees is being labeled an idiot.

Nobody’s going to deny that we have an energy problem because of who owns the oil. Nobody’s going to deny that we have localized pollution problems. But to say we’ve set the entire planet off balance, or are even capable of it, is ridiculous in my opinion.

Links

MorningCoffee
OxfordMedievalist
Icecap.us

Usually I wait until our Africa meetings every other Tuesday to post an offical Africa Blog entry. However, this morning I was just hit with several Africa related stories as I fired up the old computer and I think as it gets close to the trip, God is just really placing a lot of things on my heart. So I thought I’d do an extra post.

First, my immunizations are done. YES! 7 shots later, I am now fully immunized against most of the common diseases I could get during my trip to Africa. I still have to finish my typhoid medication but those are pills so no big deal. One thing that is bothering me still is the Malaria risk. To combat Malaria you have to take pills during and for a short time after your trip. Not a big deal except that there are wicked side effects to some of the medications. Basically there’s two medications that most people take. The first one, called Malarone, is really expensive, nearly $200 for a three week supply. It’s complications are relatively minor, but the cost makes it unattractive. The second medication, called Lariam, is very inexpensive, but it’s side effects include nightmares, psychosis and suicidal thoughts! So I don’t know man, I think I’m going to take the expensive route, just for peace of mind. Literally.

So I wanted to talk about charity a little bit this morning because as I talk to my friends and family, it seems that charity is one of those things we are content to let other people do. It’s amazing how much we puff ourselves up when we give a toy to the Marines at Christmas or we drop off our old junk to Good Will twice a year. It also amazes me when we tear people down who are doing really good things, simply because they aren’t sacrificing enough in our eyes. Maybe it makes us feel better about doing nothing ourselves?

The reason I’m talking about this is because of a story that hit the news today. Bono, from the rock group U2, has donated a Ducati motorcycle to be auctioned off for charity. Now this is pretty significant because first, Ducatis are freaking expensive. And secondly, it is giving some publicity to a group called Riders For Health which is a group of people who use motorcycles to get health care out into African villages where there is no infrastructure as we know it. However, soon after this article was posted on a blog I read, the commenters started tearing Bono down, saying that a giving up a motorcycle wasn’t any real sacrifice to Bono. And you know, this just really pisses me off. Maybe it’s not a big deal for Bono to part with a bike that costs more than the cars we drive. But damnit, until your willing to match his donation in terms of time AND money, percentage wise, with your own, you really need to keep your mouth shut.

I also wanted to pass along another blog post I ran across this morning. It’s from a family who is going to Africa to do charity work and the guy has assembled a series of pictures showing what a weeks worth of food looks like for different families around the world. You can get to the post by clicking here. There are so many things that this series of photos illustrates to me I could do a whole post on that alone. Check out the link and let me know what you think.