Announcing support for STEPHEN COLBERT for President

I would like to officially endorse the idea of writing in presidential, uh, hopeful STEPHEN COLBERT for ALL PRIMARY ELECTIONS in ALL STATES.

The point of this is not necessarily that he would win, but to send a message to all concerned (namely both wretched political entities that have been ruining our country long enough) that their TIME IS UP.

We need to make these political parties ACT, not TALK. Remember: THEY SERVE US. That's why we supposedly elect them!

So, here we are - finally into something of a routine. I'm feeding my baby cereal and generally getting by just fine.

BUT WAIT, there's a game show where we find out what percentage of the public would rather watch a hot dog eating contest than the presidential debates!

Hey, did you know you can get paid to blog! I don't!!!

Cheese you later!

Greener living, Guitar info, Being an individual

Welcome, questioners at Yahoo, and other sources therein. Please feel free to comment on anything you see here, on topic or not.

There's lots of academic questions out there that can be addressed, but my three main areas of concern here are:

1. Positive change in our society through individual empowerment to control ourselves and not others.
2. Guitar stuff. Sorry, gotta have a vice, and I have quite a bit of experience - beyond many that have been to trade shows, even.
3. Reducing our effect on the world by finding win-win solutions that aren't at crossed purposes with enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of.... well, you know.
4. There is no number 4 - didn't you read above? If your comment makes me care about something new, then you can be happy that you've made a number 4 happen for me.

BE YOU

Be an individual - remember that ANY group cannot truely represent what you feel. Groups exist to make actions that individuals want to happen, happen - but that doesn't mean they should get your unconditional support. Represent yourself whenever possible, and make sure the groups hear you, but make sure that hate doesn't color what you express.

If a group cannot hear you, or will not take the time, find a new group.

If you want to be heard here, please feel free to comment.

Guitars - off topic

Seems like lately there have been lots of questions about my other passion (besides God, my family, and politics/society changes) - guitars. If you have anything you want answered, ANYTHING, let me know. I've had unique life experiences in this area. Please leave an email address, even a junk one if you want, so I can reply without having to blog details - unless I feel like it :)

Dems talk

Watched the democratic presidential candidate debate. Not good. Not that I expected more from them, but they were all bragging about driving a hybrid and they all, except one, flew private jets to the event. The mainstream candidates, if they can be called that, argued with each other about when to pull out of Iraq, and all said that increasing MPG on cars was important. I disagree there - the elimination of MPG on cars and lawn tools is important. Both parties are still wrong, and no candidate running that I can see is going to do anything to change my mind. I'm still listening, though. Soon as one says something important, I'll relay it.
BTW, CNN sponsored the whole thing, using Youtube videos for questions. It was, in my opinion, a set up.

Energy saving ideas

Anyone there have ideas on the little things we can do to save energy? Comment them here. We need all the help we can get - keep in mind not all of us live in California. Share what we know, and we all win!

The best hints are the ones where any doofus can do it without spending a bunch of money, and don't lose lifestyle points at the same time.

Care

Care. I insist. it has to happen, because without it, things die - ideas, art, music, relationships, and life in general. Without care, art goes to the priveleged few. Ideas are quashed faster than flame in a vaccuum. Relationships turn dispassionate. Music without care leads to the recording industry - perhaps the worst fate of all, hahaha.

All spiritual beliefs depend on care - weather showing your faith to others, showing yourself you have a system of beliefs, or even in a negative example, becoming comfortable in your belief system to use it as a crutch to prevent positive change.

Care happens in any event, except indifference - which I have for several ideas out there. Those ideas that should die should be met with indifference. Those that need life, positive or negative, need care.

I am indifferent to several things, but telling you here would imply caring :)

Tune out things that aren't important, and care about and change things that are important - or reinforce things that don't need change by caring for them as they are.

Anyway, the OX tractor dealer in Toronto hasn't returned my email asking for an electric lawn tractor quote. I wonder if they care, or if they want the idea to die? I know it would be difficult to get it to where I live, but once it's here I could probably sell them on commission.

Also, we aren't in a position to change our society for the better, yet, so how can we change a different one? We're busy investing in oil - literally throwing our earnings into a fire. We have so many laws that we can't steer away from our course without...

care.

DO SOMETHING, Please... we're running out of time.

Here's an update - old, really, but here it is anyway - look up tesla electric car on youtube. It's there. People drive it. No imagination necessary.

So, what to rant on today? I'm thinking it's time to slam the tree huggers a bit. They go around telling everyone how bad they are and what they're doing to the en-viron-ment, and that we should all live in the woods without shelter and TV and air conditioning. Also don't eat meat, because our canine teeth are lying to us when they look like they're supposed to tear flesh. That's NOT the way to effect cultural change - honestly, it's like any religious branch starting with the phrase, "you're condemned as you are." The way to get people to change their practices is to start with acceptance that we're all different. All of us are able to change PART of what makes us wrong. Start there. I'm not giving up my A/C, leather, steak - particularly venison, gaming system, or ability to complain JUST BECAUSE I don't want to vote for a major party. JUST DO ONE THING. Go buy a CFL. (see below). If you don't go to church, read the bible and see what's in it by yourself. If you do go to church, read the bible and see what's in it by yourself. And if your parents say you don't have a right to complain because you didn't vote, remember there is still freedom of expression - and you WILL vote if that's in jeopardy. Maybe if you have the skill, start doing projects on the side like making electric lawn tractors out of broken gas ones. Or snow blowers. I'll buy one. (offer good only for one mower or blower, not for one from each person making one. But I WILL help sell them on Ebay or something after that.)

Everyone has something they can do. The problem is that people think EVERYONE should do EVERYTHING. That's not the way to encourage a large culture to change. Start with a direction, then make it happen. All right, I have a baby and I'm tired. Rant you later!

Just in case anyone has been sleeping under a rock for the last 50 years, let's be clear about some things: People get a lot of money to write laws, and a pittance to enforce them. If we were to pay cops what we pay lawyers, and vice versa, laws would be enforced. Here's the rub: we honestly as a people don't want to enforce them. It's illegal to speed, jaywalk, smoke marijuana in California if you don't have a note... to a state cop, but a fed can still arrest you. No, I've never smoked ANYTHING - being something of a fire hater. It took me 34 years to grill for the first time.
So, the easy distinction is that Aggrivated Murder I is more serious than, say, mitigated not-shoveling-your-sidewalk-for-handicapped-access-just-after-a-snowfall. Yes, that's illegal. Or having a rear bumper that's more than 19 inches off the ground, or whatever. It's like a sport here in the U.S., finding ways to make new laws and sue the pants off of whomever. Then there's class action - which should be abolished. Some group of lawyers in southern IL has a near monopoly on this- my phone company ripped me off and I was sent a letter saying they had settled a class action suit to give me a phone minutes card... which I CAN'T use on my phone, let alone NEED. Maybe I could sell it on eBay, but WAIT. It has my personal info on it!!!! The excuse the lawyers use is "better than nothing". I disagree. the punishment MUST be punishment, not pandering, and needs to make sense, in cases where physical harm isn't done. Maybe create a slow lane for speeders where they HAVE to use it for a set time, hahaha.

So, it's out of control: laws are being written and jails filled with 9 time offenders since we can't jail for the first offense, rather we take money from the offender or remove a driver's liscense creating desperation that might push a borderline person into crime. Then we let politicians rob us blind, lawyers rob us blind, and accountants are paid to make numbers fit into little holes where they don't belong - if they're honest.

How do we expect our government to be fair to others abroad if we aren't all on the same page here at home? Does a law apply to everyone equally? No? Then we can't have it. The lawbooks need a good cleaning, and a consumption tax with nothing else - possibly the fair tax unless we get immigration under control, then a flat tax would work fine. Americans consume. That's what they do best, and we are almost as good as throwing good money after bad money.
Enough for now, I'm sleepy and rambling even more than usual.

Crossing the lines

Two societies. That's what I see every time I look around - one society of tolerance, the other of arrogance. The issues separating them are completely moot because each item only serves to separate and delineate rather than bring people together. Everyone to some extent or another lives in their own little world - solutions individuals come up with tend to make sense to them, but not to others, with a myriad of gray shades in between.

There are many times that those delineations or lines drawn in the sand become law, and other times that people can't see the difference between legal obligations and moral ones. Generally, the solution that works for me is to not worry about the minutia of differences between people and enjoy the time spent connecting with everyone from differing cultures within and without of our country. That doesn't mean I change who I am, unless it makes too much sense not to.

Is it too much trouble to learn a few words in Spanish, for example, to encourage a large minority of people to do trade with you? How about French? How about Sign English? If I were exposed to enough people who spoke Swahili or Japanese, for example, I might pick up a few phrases - for common courtesy's sake, if not respect. Which brings me to English...

Many claim to speak it, and many DO speak it, to varying degrees of proficiency. There's always someone who is better than I am at writing or speaking. However, I do not INTENTIONALLY separate myself by speaking any special "part of culture 'X' words" that would serve only to delineate me from society in general. I do enough of that without really trying.

So, do we, as citizens of our creator, and as citizens of a secular world, and as citizens of a country, and as citizens of a state/province, and as citizens of a family choose to have enough context with others to mesh when appropriate? I do not believe so. I believe evil delineation is embedded in many common phrases, such as, but not limited to: African-American, Spanish-speaking American, Caucasian, White/other (as seen on government forms), Reverse-discrimination, and indeed, in common usage in our particular context, American. Why does American in the U.S. mean a citizen of the United States, as opposed to Venezuelan? Or as opposed to a group that went on a ship with Amerigo Vespucci to name our continents?

As long as we accept these labels without complaint, we accept being separate. I hear a smart person one time said that separate was inherently inequal.

So, let's drop the pretenses and the wounds - I am a mutt, being part of all the following separate and inequal entities: Welsh, Portugese, Swiss, Baltic, African, Native... American, for lack of a better term. What do I fill out when asked which separate entity I belong to? Do I tell those in power to opress a group, give me 10 acres and a mule, get off my land, and stop religiously oppressing me all at the same time? How about we just stop asking - I like that better.

ZOMBIES!!!!! Media, AT&T, and the 2 party system

Good news: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/07/10/fa.ford.plugin.reut/index.html.

Notice the comments: many people plastering CNN.com for not knowing what the real story is!!!!

Down with the zombielike members of mainstream media - only one zombie is actually needed, to give a sounding board for non-zombies to compare to. Americans should choose one by vote, like the Simpson's town contest, and have the others just die out. I'm thinking Tom Brokaw, since conspiracy people seem to think he's involved somehow, but let the votes decide.

How much money would we save if we didn't have to pay all those "reporters" to repeat what everyone else already knows or has said? There IS a downside though, the makeup and suit industries would feel a bit of a burn.

Also, American Telephone and Telegraph (formerly known as Cingular, formerly known as American Telephone and Telegraph, formerly known as Bell laboratories, formerly known as Amalgamated Slaveholdings, formerly known as THE MAN) took over Cingular, speaking of undead things rising from ashes. I asked my independant local retailer why, and she had no answer other than, "it was expensive - just redoing all the signs was expensive". But they got new mousepads from the whole thing. Glad I could pay for those. AT&T seems to me to be the "skull and bones" (again, goofy conspiracy stuff) of communications... good thing the conspiracy theorists are all inverse-zombies. Kinda like Dems and Reps - they cancel each other out, making complete entropy and getting nothing accomplished without much angst.

I would like to request prayer for a small Indianapolis community church called Midtown Vineyard - new leadership is coming in, and leaders of organizations can always use prayer, since in many cases secular leaders don't listen to anyone not throwing a lightening bolt at them.

Do you automatically use a lid for fast food drinks? Why? If you are taking a refill on the road, it makes sense, but at least wait until you are leaving to pick it up - unless you are worried about spilling or something.

A case can be made for straws, since someone may have touched the cup before you (usually the employee giving it to you). I choose to take that risk sometimes.

Seems a small thing, but think of the landfill consequenses.

I'll be out of town for a day or so, so here's for the weekend: There's this Simpson contest about where Springfield is. There's a lot of Springfields around the nation, and a bunch of them sent in videos and they're having a vote to find out where America wants Springfield to be. (from the cartoon perspective). Someone out there like me found a way to find out how many hits the votes were being sent from by area - using counters and URLs and cookie backtracers etc. - actually it's not that difficult unless you work for the government and have to abide by the patriot act.

The local news got a hold of it, and was asked by USA Today not to print it until they released their source, stating, "we're all on the same team".

Done. Guilty. This is a direct admission that the media is controlling the news, and free press is DEAD. Thankfully, the reporter for the local news reported the scoop, and didn't blackmail USA Today for a cushy desk job with a huge pay increase to regurgitate the news we see every day. I'd raise a donation for the reporter's retirement fund, but the reward for work well done is more work, right?

If I were the public, and not just me, I would boycott USA Today for this reason - thankfully, I have no regard for anyone that works there, and don't purchase their product. Maybe I should find out who advertises there and write them - they might hop off the bandwagon faster than MSNBC got rid of Imus.

Thought For Today

Got an outside shielded post or lamp style (covered) light? Stick a compact flourescent light in it. Buy the little, economy, cheap one that buzzes too much, maybe like 13 watts or so. Mine is on about 12 hours a day, maximizing the savings provided while minimizing the color issues some people have with CFL's. Save enough energy, and we have less reason to stay at war. Personally, I like the Sylvania bulbs because they don't buzz and have better color, but for outside it doesn't matter. Plus remember that you won't be changing them as much - so that extra $ you spend on the bulb itself buys you the convenience of not changing your outdoor light several times more. Few things are both economical AND lazy... I also find that it's easier to read by CFL light than regular or flood bulbs.

If you had a 100 watt bulb in there before, you just saved 87% of the energy. Too bad the floodlight versions don't work in many fixtures. ANYWAY, I support our troops, so I'm slowly changing the bulbs out. Tree huggers will tell you it saves with air pollution too, but their sciences aren't sticking with me sometimes, so that would be on top of everything else.

New Cars

I have owned several cars: new, used, foreign, domestic, good gas mileage, muscle car, large SUV...

I'll keep the muscle car. It's a piece of history, although not worth much right now, since it's a bit of a sleeper. Here's the problem I have: the EPA says I can't convert it to run on e-85 or ethanol due to pollution laws. Are you kidding me? We pay people LOTS of money to write laws, and the laws they were well paid by us to write now tell me I have to keep it gas, thus polluting MORE and helping people who don't believe in educating the women of their population support themselves.

The small gas-sipper died, leaving me with the SUV, which I would love to sell, given that it served it's purpose for me for the last couple of years. Again, I could buy a converter for ethanol OR e-85 for about $700-$800, legal to buy, illegal to install due to EPA REGS. SO, I emailed my congresspeople, and a couple of out of staters. Only Lugar (out of stater) got back to me within 6 months, asking for what I knew, then his party gets voted out and he is powerless.

CNN - that completely unbiased news-monster that helps us by pre-digesting information we don't want to know about anyway, publishes a "green car" article, stating that the greenest car was a hybrid. WRONG. Tesla Motors is now making electric cars that put both my muscle car AND gas sipper to shame. But since they are backordered and the reporter wasn't invited to drive one, CNN's response was to ignore the technology in their article, Instead focusing on fuel cells and GM's Volt concept car. Still uses gas. Not good enough.

I will wait until Tesla does their White Star $50k electric car, or I hear Mitsubishi or someone else might make one for less. I don't need a new car, even with better gas mileage or cooler styling or roadside assistance or a warning buzzer that my washer fluid is less than 85% full. These things distract me from focusing on the road anyway. I tried to email GM, to ask for an electric car. No email addy. I tried Chrysler. No addy, FORD had an address, but refused to get me to someone who cared enough to tell me why they won't make an electric car - even after I offered to paint my NON-FORD muscle car any color with ford logos all over it and sing their praises at muscle car shows in the area. Yes, I can sing.

So, I am willing to put up with the "humiliation" of driving an electric only car, but when I'm accused of hippyism, I'll be happy to pull out the other car and rev the engine until the jeers turn into choking spasms of pre-pcv fury. Anything to get the money out of the oil companies, terrorists, and gas station attendants, who are an unfortunate casualty of a war they had no part in. Hopefully, they find better jobs.

BTW, anyone know about Ox tractors in Canada? They build an electric only riding lawn tractor. Can't John Deere or Cub Cadet buy them out and have whoever makes regular lawn tractors make some of them to see if they sell?

How it starts

Everyone with at least half a brain knows we aren't getting the full story - media creates news rather than reports it, with the exception of the "who died today" lists on local news. The two party system of government is fooling itself, and large groups of people everywhere, sometimes including, but not limited to: Unions, State recognized religions, protesters, politicians, lawyers, the rich, the poor, the young, the old, the racist (meaning supporting ANY race),the pop culture stars, ad nauseum - they all have a perspective on what should be. They're all wrong for everyone but them. Keeping in mind that I'm only right for me, here's a place for me to put my thoughts.

Offended by something? Perhaps I will even have an open mind if you state your case in a non-negative, win-win way, but remember, we BOTH have to win for me to change my mind.