Making a Mark

Mind numbing numbers

Between the costs of the war, and the "bailout", the numbers thrown around are simply unreal.  To give you an idea of what a trillion is...consider this:

How tall would a stack of a trillion $1 bills be?
500 sheets of copy paper is about 2 inches.
A foot stack of paper is about 3,000 sheets.
Therefore, a mile high stack of paper is 15,840,000 sheets.
And a trillion sheet stack is over 60 miles high. Plus interest.
Plus an extra $400 Billion debt GwB has run up during his Presidency.
.
Do the math. Wall Street Bankers did. That's why they want a BAILOUT immediately, before you have time to figure it out.
[BTW: if dollar paper is half as thick as copy paper, we're off the hook. The stack is only 30 miles high. Plus the National Debt. Plus interest. ]

Google's Chrome -- My first impressions

Image by EJeffson via Flickr

I happened to be at my computer just as Chrome became available, and installed it as soon as it was available.  Since then, I've been using it almost exclusively, and have been impressed with the results.

Firefox has been my main browser for many years now, and I've been pretty happy over all.  With all of the addins I use though, it now loads like hulking elephant.  Chrome on the other hand, loads and is ready with the speed of a gazelle.  For me, that is a big plus.  The other thing I've noticed, is that the memory useage for Chrome is lower by an order of magnitude, another sure enough good thing!

Beyond the low hanging fruit though, Chrome is a joy to use and is opening my eyes to possibilities for the future.  I can envision Google taking a strong position in the browser market very quickly...any bad news?

Well, any serious Firefox user probably has half a dozen plugins that they rely on every day, I know that I do.  As a matter of fact, I closed Chrome and opened Firefox to do this post because I wanted to use the Zemanta plug in.  I suspect that this problem will disappear quite quickly, but for now it is my biggest issue with Chrome.

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This sort of thing makes me crazy

Now, I'm sure that the pastor means well, but what does this sign, and it's underlying message really say? More to the point, what is there to fear?

It's of course none of my business, I'm not affiliated with Harmony Baptist in any way, but it irks me no end to have this sort of sentiment boiling under the surface of society.

Here's a shocker

As Georgia and Russia Headed for a Clash, the U.S. Missed the Signals - NYTimes.com

As with many foreign policy issues, this one highlighted a continuing fight within the administration. Vice President Dick Cheney and his aides and allies, who saw Georgia as a role model for their democracy promotion campaign, pushed to sell Georgia more arms, including Stinger antiaircraft missiles, so that it could defend itself against possible Russian aggression.

Wake up and smell the stench

It's honestly time for everyone to have a serious look at the greatest country in the world. How did we get here? More importantly, how can we turn this horror story around.


America's Middle Class Can't Take Much More Punishment | Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace | AlterNet

Sanders got letters from working people who have been reduced to eating "cereal and toast" for dinner, from a 71-year-old man who has been forced to go back to work to pay for heating oil and property taxes, from a worker in an oncology department of a hospital who reports that clinically ill patients are foregoing cancer treatments because the cost of gas makes it too expensive to reach the hospital. The recurring theme is that employment, even dual employment, is no longer any kind of barrier against poverty. Not economic discomfort, mind you, but actual poverty

Mick Jagger is 65

Image via Wikipedia

Regardless of what you think about the Rolling Stones music or lifestyle, to me it is simply a wonder that this guy is still alive, well, and kicking out the jams.

Being a musician in the sixties and seventies, I was always a Stones fan, but never considered that thirty years later they would still be touring.  I'm sure that if I saw him up close in the morning it might be different...but seeing him onstage or on TV, I just have to raise a glass and say that " It's only rock and roll...but I like it"

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Mortgage Crisis and the Poor

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Is it any surprise that the government is busy finding ways to bail out the very people who caused (and benefited) from this atrocity?  Each time I read about poor Morgan Stanley, or UBS...I just want to wretch.

Did you know that the bailout of the savings and loan industry cost more than the TOTAL dollars spent on welfare/social spending since the beginning of the Republic?  Time to wake up y'all, and realize what has happened to the country.

Do your best to cut down, or eliminate your debt, have a close look at your lifestyle and see how you could opt out, then do it...get out of the rat race.

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Barbara Ehrenreich | Circuit City Slaughter: Seniority Means a Pink Slip

While it may be legal, it is certainly immoral don't you think?  I have a suggestion for upper management at Circuit City...and all of the other job slashers.  Why not try to build sales rather than cut costs?  Hey, that takes real skill...so on second thought, carry on as you are.

 

Barbara Ehrenreich writes: "Columnist Bill White of the Allentown Morning Call pictures Circuit City CEO Philip J. Schoonover getting a warm welcome to hell - very warm. Schoonover's sin? Laying off 3,400 employees because they had been around for too long and needed to be replaced by minimum wage workers. His punishment? Having a choice of Dick Cheney or Nancy Grace as a roommate and spending eternity listening to Sanjaya's Greatest Hits."

Source: Barbara Ehrenreich | Circuit City Slaughter: Seniority Means a Pink Slip
Originally published on Tue, 10 Apr 2007 21:17:57 GMT

We should be ashamed of ourselves

For many, it is still the greatest country on earth, but is it really? I don't pretend to defend what these people have done, but come on...is this how we want to treat anyone? I think not.

The sparkling blue waters off Miami's Julia Tuttle Causeway look as if they were taken from a postcard. But the causeway's only inhabitants see little paradise in their surroundings.

Why do we tolerate this?

The government moans and whines about the cost of social programs, and I agree we need to be mindful.  Have a look at this video, and tell me how mindful our public servants are?

 

 

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