Olbermann’s tendency for hyperbole is actually drastically understated here. In a few years this country will not belong to us, it will belong to the wealthy corporations who will literally rape and pillage the American citizens, and won’t care (corp owners never care) about the death of democracy, the environment or anything else. Time to get the fuck out of the US.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The one and only hope is an Amendment to the Constitution:

Visit http://www.freespeechforpeople.org/ for more details.

Okay, the main purpose of the blog is to keep family and friends up to date with what is happening with my family. To that end…
Ari is enjoying Kindergarten and his bus ride home. No real news to report there yet. They went on a field trip to see a ballet of Peter and the Wolf, which “was good but not too good.”
At the moment we have only one car, so Sara and the kids have to take me to work, then she and Sidd have to take Ari to school. Why only one car? The other day Sara calls and says that the truck feels funny, like it has a flat and the brakes weren’t felling right, but she pulled over and the tire didn’t look flat, and decided (against my instructions) to continue on. Later she calls broken down. A friend of hers came and got her and the kids and took them down to their place since that was where she was heading anyhow. We learned that the lug nuts must not have been tight enough and that they came loose (odd thing is, I thought I tightened them, and the truck drove fine for days afterwords). This resulted in one of the bolts getting sheared off. So now we have to replace the 5 bolts… not an easy task. The alternative is to replace the whole hub, but that costs a crap ton and since it only needs bolts, we’ll wait until we can get that fixed…
Meanwhile, Sidd is rolling over both directions really well. His rolls to his back are sometimes met by him bumping his head, but for the most part he does well. He sleeps on his side it seems. He is also starting to get some of the mechanics of crawling… well, scooting. He hasn’t figured out that if he got on his knees that he would be more mobile, but he does try to scoot to get stuff that is out of his reach.
Sidd’s colic is gone. For the most part he cries if hungry, wet, wants attention, is too bored or really tired. Otherwise he is a fairly happy kid. Still needs lots of attention.
The apartment is okay. We are nearly unpacked. The downstairs is cleared of all boxes. Sidd and Ari’s room still has boxes, but not much we can do about those as those hold toys and we can’t have them all over the floor as Ari’s toy box is already full. Lots of boxes in our closets, but nothing we can do there either as there is no room in this place for the stuff to be unpacked.
That should be the quick rundown of all that is going on here.

To make up for the far too many political posts, here is a dancing baby.

Both sides of the political spectrum keeps using words in ways to scare their base from the other side. This became most noticeable recently at the 9/12 tax party and at the ever so scary Value Voters Summit (where Carrie Prejean had the nerve to say” the level of intolerance is unbelievable”, this from a lady who is herself intolerant of those she opposes, and in fact keeps spreading the lie she was fired for said intolerance despite the fact she was fired for not making her public appearances as required by her contract).
At the tax party there were lots of signs and posters accusing Obama of being a Nazi and a Fascist, something pushed by conservative radio/TV hosts. The same thing with Communism and Socialism. All of which are so ridiculous that one has to conclude that the hosts, who probably know better, are using as a scare tactic to scare a gullible group of people into a fury that shouldn’t be. Both terms are misused and overused.

Just another quick example of how messed up our health care system is. Bush started negotiations with New Zealand…
Now New Zealand, like every other first world “westernized” country has universal health care. Every New Zealand citizen is covered. Also included in that coverage is prescriptions. The government of New Zealand negotiates with the drug companies to get a cheap price on prescriptions. A fair chunk of this price is paid by the government, the citizen then pays a small percentage of that. Basically it is like a prescription plan we may have here, but cheaper, and subsidized by the government instead of an insurance company. If you want to eliminate wait times and other stuff that comes with the universal system, you can buy supplemental private insurance from for profit companies, as I noted before that would be about $80 NZD a month ($55 USD).
Anyhow, one of the main issues the administration had was that the government of New Zealand was subsidizing prescriptions for their citizens and negotiating such cheap rates. They wanted them to not to negotiate such low prices so that American pharmaceutical companies could make more profit. It was Bush’s view then that it is better to see New Zealand citizens suffer and pay more to protect US profits. And I think this helps point out one of the many problems we have here. The fact that too many people care about profits and not enough about sick people.

The music on this one is a bit irritating, but the video message is great:

This video is obviously pro-reform. It is odd to see the people who want to keep the system going as it is. As if they want to protect the insane profits that the insurance companies make over the ill health of people, for those who have it. Odd how people like Glen Beck says we have the best health care system in the world, but just a year ago was talking about how all they care about is profit and they don’t care about people and it needs fixed, of course he was just released from a major hospital at that point. It’s crazy how so called “Compassionate” people don’t care that an insurance giant can deny a teenager a liver transplant, and many other fatal decisions every day, letting people die because it is better for their bottom line calling a government board a “death panel” yet that same board making a for profit decision isn’t a death panel.
Socialism isn’t Communism. They are vastly different beasts. The people complaining about socialized medicine don’t complain about other socialized stuff such as the police services, fire fighters, the military and the like. Could you imagine the disaster if the police department worked like our medical system does today?
Is socialized medicine perfect? No. Heck, that’s not what is really being proposed. What is being proposed changes nothing for most people save drastically lower costs and insure the many people who don’t have insurance now. Does it mean a bigger tax on the wealthy? Yes. However, in the end it may lower our health care percentage of our GDP, which right now is one of the highest in the world, despite being no where near the healthiest. The main focus of the bill, beyond the public option is to force insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions and not charge more for them, and this is a good thing, since people like Sara can’t get covered for the thing that most threatens her life because it is pre-existing.

Rachel Maddow breaks it down simply. These Mobs are not debates with the Town Hall people about Health Care Reform, but mobs of people trying to shut things down. There are other reports about who is funding these mobs, and who is funding the busing of people in to create mobs at these functions which I may post later. We do need a real debate, not hot headed people trying to shut things down that they don’t understand. It is like those idiots who keep pushing for Intelligent Design to be taught in school, have no understanding of the real science, and how we got to where we are today in the science of cosmology, abiogensis and evolution (which they further confuse those three separate things into one). These people in these mobs aren’t educated on the truth of universal health care. They believe the horror stories that come from the systems while turning a blind eye to the many more horror stories coming out of our own system.
Anyhow, check out the video.

What is amusing is that what is being proposed in Washington isn’t a single payer system like Canada at all.
I do think that things are being rushed through without creating a whole new system that will work for everyone properly. Funny how those on the right are fighting against health care reform when they say they are the compassionate ones, they are the ones with Christ on their side. I say Christ hangs His head in shame over the way these conservatives are treating those that need affordable health care in this country, the country that claims to be the most Christian, but the only one not to provide affordable health care to every citizen, the only one not to guarantee vacation time, and a number of other areas that those who say they are compassionate, have no compassion for.
Are systems like they have in Candada, the UK, New Zealand and the rest of the world perfect? No. Are they better than what we have now? Undoubtedly. There is a great article at Science Blogs about Are patients in Universal Health Care Countries Less Satisfied? that I suggest people read.

In a case of the pot calling the kettle black, Obama, standing in front of the Constitution of the United States, rightfully attacked Bush for his policies regrading detainees. Bush and Cheney and all the others should be prosecuted for war crimes. No doubt they overstep the rule of law, no doubt they tortured, or at least ordered the torture of detainees. Unfortunately, Obama hasn’t had the courage to order a full commission into those war crimes. During this speech, in front of the Constitution, Obama laid out a new plan. A plan that includes putting people in jail because they might commit a crime. It is, as the video below points out, something out of Minority Report (good movie by the way).
Here is Rachel Maddow, one of the more liberal reporters out there, on the most liberal media outlet out there, attacking Obama for it:

Of course this is what separates the liberal media from the conservative media. Hanity, Rush, Beck, O’Reilly and their ilk would just as well such Bush’ and Chaney’s dicks before admitting that they were wrong on Iraq and torture.

There are some really cool Android phones coming out soon. The HTC Magic, the Samsung i7500 which has tons of onboard storage and a really cool screen, but both of those lack one key thing, a physical keyboard, with which you could use:

Okay before people get too excited, per the guy’s website, you will need a rooted G1 and have installed Debain on it. So it isn’t running through the Android SDK. Still very impressive.

There are a few things I need to do now before they will think about promoting me to Jr. Copywriter… it seemed like such a sure thing the way my boss and her boss were talking… Anyhow, I first need to find a product we can sell at $100 to $200 profit. This is a bit tricky since I don’t think any of my ideas would sell for that much over cost. There were lots of other reasonable requirements, then it hit to one where I have to be willing to buy the ad space. The question there is, are they saying that I need to actually pay for it, or just something I believe is good enough that if in some fantasy world I had enough to place a full page ad, I would? As it stands there is no way I could afford a full page ad, even in something like the Canton Repository, let alone a major market newspaper. Needless to say, I was sad to get that news… not that it is so bad, at least if I don’t have to pay for the ad. I may never get a job that will let me take care of my family…

Right now, until May 26th, Wal-Mart is giving a $50 gift card for signing a new 2 year agreement with T-Mobile. Sara and I use T-Mobile. Mobile to mobile is free, so you could call us for free, and we could receive your call for free. So if you get a phone that would be free normally with 2 year contract, it comes out like they are paying you to get the phone from them. If you get a G1 like I want to get, it is normally $98.88, but after getting the $50 card, it is basically like getting the phone for only $48.88, which is nearly a steal. Remember, your number is likely to be portable, so you probably don’t need a new number, just a new T-Mobile contract.

Android, is a cool mobile phone (and laptop, etc.) platform. T-Mobile has the G1 out right now, and there are a couple more phones coming out soon from them, and we should see some coming from other carriers this year as well (probably not AT&T and Verizon as they don’t like not controlling the market, and Android opens things up too much, but they will support it if their customers demand it enough). Anyhow, I want one to do geocaching with… and add to the fact that my phone is 4 or so years old, it all adds to the fact it is time to start looking at a new phone.
I learned about a new application for the G1 and other Android devices. It is called SkyMap and you point you phone at a star and it will tell you what it is and more about it. If you want to find a star/planet it will tell you where to look for it. Video demo:

I think Ari and I, and perhaps some friends of ours if I can get them to go, will go to a football… err soccer to us… game this year. That’s right, I am thinking of going down to watch the 2008 MLS Champions, The Columbus Crew. I think in the day we’ll go down early, go to the Zoo or COSI, then head to the game. The original plan is to then head back at night.

Some vids:

A great video from many talented people explaining why radio and music suck so much these days. The Beatles came out over 40 years ago and are still influential, still getting radio play, still selling records and in a while will be selling a The Beatles: Rock Band video game. 40 years from now how well will Britney, the Jonas Brothers or any other pop icon be remembered? Will they sell as much music as The Beatles sell now, or heck even then? I would wager that 40 years from now The Beatles, Pink Floyd and lots of other big bands who were around before the 80’s will outsell 98% of the music that is popular today. From the mid 70’s on, music has been largely dead. Internet didn’t kill the music industry. Illegal downloads didn’t kill the music industry. The music industry killed itself by producing a product instead of letting artists create art. To heck with it. Here’s the video:

I should supplement my rant by saying that I am not saying there hasn’t been any good music since the mid 70’s. Lord knows I have liked or loved plenty of music since those days. And there are breakthrough artists that I think will be remembered, loved, respected and influential 40, 50, 100 years after they came out or were popular (if they ever got popular). But 98% of the music produced today is just to make a quick buck for the label. The music industry is no longer interested in fostering talent, they removed the talent from the executive ranks a long time ago and filled it with business people who only care about impressing the shareholders. Shareholders don’t care about fostering talent either, they don’t care if the label is here 10, 50 years from now, they want a quick return on their investment.
Okay, okay, I’ll stop my rant…
The great movie, Almost Famous, touches on how music died in the mid 70’s and became more of a product.

Soon I’ll be 40 years old. Wow.
We got a used XBox 360 for a really good deal from Sara’s brother (he upgraded to a fancy new version), so my wish lists has modified some, since we no longer need that.
Top item on the list continues to be a GPS for Geocaching (not for car use so much), either a Garmin Oregon 400T or a DeLorme Earthmate PN-40. The DeLorme unit is cheaper, but really isn’t that usable outside the US. The Garmin unit is a bit more expensive, but is better for car use and easier to use outside the US. (As a low end choice is the Garmin nüvi 500 which is a car unit, but is portable in that it can be taken out and used on the trails, but you really need a good carry case for that one, and by the time you add the stuff to bring it up to usable for geocaching status, you already are at what the Delorme unit runs). In the end the Garmin Oregon is what is most wanted.
With us now having an XBox 360, the item most wanted for it is Xbox 360 Rock Band 2 Special Edition with all the instruments and all that jazz… that and a Xbox 360 Live 12 Month Gold Card plus 1 Month Bonus membership so we can use it online.
New to the list is the Nikon D40 6.1MP Digital SLR Camera Kit with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor Lens. This is the camera that Ken Rockwell recommends the most. With the money saved by going for the D40 over more expensive DSLRs, he suggests getting a Nikon SB-400 AF Speedlight for Nikon Digital SLR Cameras which allows for a separate flash.

I may soon be promoted soon, to Jr Copywriter.
A year ago I made an ad for a spin dryer. This was more an effort to learn how to do something in InDesign than anything else at the time. Recently they asked for green ideas and I sent in the ad. The guy sent the idea to the owner and marketing people. They then called me in. They liked the idea, and suggested I should become a Jr. Copywriter.
To that end, the following two books were suggested:
The Copywriter’s Handbook, Third Edition: A Step-By-Step Guide To Writing Copy That Sells and
The Adweek Copywriting Handbook: The Ultimate Guide to Writing Powerful Advertising and Marketing Copy from One of America’s Top Copywriters
I have both books on request at the local library. The second one is not in the Stark County system, so they’ll have to get it from another system.
I think it will be exciting…

March 26th is when our second child should be born. He is expected to be a boy. Aside from that I will give no details yet.

Here is a great series put out by a Christian that refutes the Kirk Cameron’s and Ray Comfort’s Way of the Master series. In the series, Cameron and Comfort try to prove Creationism, particularly Young Earth Creationism. The video series that follows points out a few of the lies that Cameron and Comfort tell.
There are 4 videos in all, and hopefully they flow one after the other automatically:

Today is our 6 year anniversary. I would find it hard to believe if it wasn’t for the fact that Ari will be 5 in just 3 more weeks, which is also hard to believe. I guess time flies when you are having fun. Add to all that, 2 weeks after Ari’s birthday our 2nd child will be born.

I meant to put this up yesterday (February 12th), as it would have tied in a bit better, but better late than never, and the next date to tie it into wouldn’t be until November 24th.
I recall hearing in church, or reading stuff from church and the like about how a live seal would carbon date thousands of years old, among other examples this video talks about. The point they were trying to make was that the Earth couldn’t be as old as scientist say, or at least cast doubt on their measurement methods.
Well, this video goes into a bit on the actual science going on in fairly simple terms.
EDIT: Since from the comment below it may not be obvious, but the point of the video is to point how Creationist are wrong when they say carbon dating doesn’t work. I thought the video was self explanatory, but…

I may post more of this guys videos as time goes on.