President Obama has achieved what was once thought of as the impossible. Both Houses rejected his budget unanimously.  Yup not a single vote. no president has done this much in the name of co-operation and unity in bi-partisian politics on Capital Hill.

Senate Democrats and Republicans unanimously rejected President Obama’s proposed budget this afternoon. The final vote tally was 99-0.

Likewise, the House also unanimously rejected the budget in March.

Prior to the vote, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions blasted the budget. “It was voted 414-0 in the House this year,” said Sessions. I suspect in an hour or so it will go down again on the floor of the Senate by unanimous vote. That speaks a lot. That says a lot. It indicates the sad state of affairs in which we are in. It’s deeply disappointing.”

Obama promised that Washington politics would be different.

Rasperry Pi

In England some people have decided to do something about what they feel is a slipping in their computer skills as a nation,  They have been working on a $25.00 solution. The Raspberry Pi.  The boards are slowly being let out to the legions of waiting hackers ( I expect to get mine at around the middle of April. The Raspberry Pi has created a lot of chatter and plans. It will be able to run several OS systems including some pretty robust Linux based systems,  complete with the standard development  tools. Of all the different plans and hacks, the strangest idea may be comming from the folks at The Pirate Bay.

The idea is to set up drones flying over international waters and using the a Raspberry Pi as a portal to route traffic to secret ground based systems.  In a blog posting yesterday The Pirate Bay folks laid out their plans.

With the development of GPS controlled drones, far-reaching cheap radio equipment and tiny new computers like the Raspberry Pi, we’re going to experiment with sending out some small drones that will float some kilometers up in the air. This way our machines will have to be shut down with aeroplanes in order to shut down the system. A real act of war.

We’re just starting so we haven’t figured everything out yet. But we can’t limit ourselves to hosting things just on land anymore. These Low Orbit Server Stations (LOSS) are just the first attempt. With modern radio transmitters we can get over 100Mbps per node up to 50km away. For the proxy system we’re building, that’s more than enough.

But when time comes we will host in all parts of the galaxy, being true to our slogan of being the galaxy’s most resilient system. And all of the parts we’ll use to build thatsystem on will be downloadable.

They aren’t without their critics, and while I  believe the future belong to those who take bold steps, I cant help but wonder what these guys are smoking and what tint of purple haze are they in while they type this stuff.

Just wondering ..

Montgomery County crashed a drone into their SWAT team tank. I suppose we should just be grateful that it was a tank they crashed into instead of an officer or even an innocent civillian.

As the sheriff’s SWAT team suited up with lots of firepower and their armored vehicle known as the “Bearcat,” a prototype drone from Vanguard Defense Industries took off for pictures of all the police action.   It was basically a photo opportunity, according to those in attendance.

Vanguard CEO Michael Buscher said his company’s prototype drone was flying about 18-feet off the ground when it lost contact with the controller’s console on the ground.   It’s designed to go into an auto shutdown mode, according to Buscher, but when it was coming down the drone crashed into the SWAT team’s armored vehicle.

The damage was not severe, according to Buscher, who described only some ‘blade strikes’ on the prototype drone that was being shown off to the Montgomery County Sheriff’s team.

Maybe Tom Kirkendall has a point when he questions whether the Montgomery County Sherriffs Department has too much money.  Montgomery County is just north of Houston’s Harris County and has some high value taxable lands in the Woodlands  and parts of  Kingwood.  Apparently the county received a Obaman TARP grant to buy one of these things.  So it isn’t just Montgomery county citizens paying for this thing, but all of us.  Do they really need tanks and drones?

Seems like they hold little regard for the people they are supposed to protect and serve. The safety of a drone will never achieve the safety of real piloted aircraft.  Pilots know that any chances taken with an aircraft endangers their life first. A drone operator has little at stake.  The  GAO has looked these droned with skeptism, and spoke of the risks involved.

In the 2008 GAO study, Gerald Dillingham, Director of Civil Aviation for GAO said,

“The concern is that you could lose control of that aircraft and it could crash into something on the ground or, in fact, it could crash into another air vehicle.”

The GAO study found that 65% of drone crashes were caused by mechanical failures.  The study analyzed Pentagon and NASA data on 199 crashes of drones on battlefields.

Before this Montgomery County crash, the only crash of a law enforcement drone was recorded in 2006 in Nogales, Arizona.   The Customs & Border Protection flight crashed in the desert due to the same “lost link” scenario that sent the Montgomery County unit crashing into its SWAT team tank.

When the link between the drone and the control console on the ground is lost, all drones are designed to steady up and glide to a landing.   In some cases, the drones already have a location programmed in for landing in the event of a problem.  In others, there is no such pre-determined landing zone.

Dillingham said that’s another dangerous problem with drones in urban areas.  He said,

“If you’re onboard the aircraft, you can tell that you’re in turbulence and you can maneuver to get the plane or the aircraft out of the turbulence.   But if you’re using a UAV and there are no sensors aboard, you don’t really know that and, again, if you lose that communication link as a result of that turbulence or for any other reason, then you have an aircraft that is not in control and can, in fact, crash into something on the ground or another aircraft.”

Montgomery Sheriffs Department had no comment.

You just can’t make up this crap.

Harry Reid is having secret meetings in a plot to have Homeland Security take over the Internet. Perhaps believing, “If the people didn’t like SOPA maybe they would like something worse”.

Details about the bill remain shrouded in secrecy. Clues available to the public suggest that the bill might be stronger than President Barack Obama’s cybersecurity proposal, which was released in May 2011. Reid said that he would bring the bill — expected to come out of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, chaired by Connecticut independent Sen. Joe Lieberman — to the floor during the first Senate work period of 2012.

A classified meeting behind closed doors in October 2011 between key Senate committee leaders with jurisdiction over cybersecurity and White House officials, took place at the request of the Obama administration. Lieberman, in an interview with The Hill in October, said that past Senate cybersecurity bills were considerably stronger than the White House proposal.

I guess my question, “Is this about protecting real security interest or is this another powergrab to protect Hollywood from the teenager  downloading the latest tunes?” He shows little concern on how the voter, or the civilian experts and is prepared to move ahead, despite the peoples will.

“It is my firm hope that the working groups will be able to achieve an agreement on legislation by then, but I believe the cyber threat to be of such urgency that we must act whether or not such agreement can be reached,” Reid wrote.

Updated the apearance of the blog a little, The header picture was taken at Galveston State Park, this last August. The Theme is an upgrade from Twenty Ten to Twenty Eleven.  Pretty much the default but it works.

I plan on more changes this year, like moving the blog to Host Gater, and combining the Wiki and the Blog so they share the site and host.

There are a a couple of stories that surfaced this week. That illustrate what seems to be a trend with  gun control movements and their lack of understang of the folks they are trying to effect.

Starbucks Boycott

It was about 2 years ago, that Californians decided to make a statement by making use  of California’s open carry law. The were allowed to open carry their handguns as long as they were unloaded. Folks started taking their exposed guns into all sorts of restaurants and meeting places.

The fight for retailers heated up in early January when gun enthusiasts in northern California began walking into Starbucks and other businesses to test state laws that allow gun owners to carry weapons openly in public places. As it spread to other states, gun control groups quickly complained about the parade of firearms in local stores.

Some were spontaneous, with just one or two gun owners walking into a store. Others were organized parades of dozens of gun owners walking into restaurants with their firearms proudly at their sides.

The panty wetting gun banners got all upset at seeing guns just dangling of folks hips right out there in the open.  The gunbanners complained and one by one many of the establishments adopted a “No Guns Allowed” policy.  Starbucks stood their ground to continued their policy to allow folks who were legally carrying to exercise their right under the law.

While we deeply respect the views of all our customers, Starbucks long-standing approach to this issue remains unchanged.  We comply with local laws and statutes in all the communities we serve.  That means we abide by the laws that permit open carry in 43 U.S. states.  Where these laws don’t exist, openly carrying weapons in our stores is prohibited.  The political, policy and legal debates around these issues belong in the legislatures and courts, not in our stores.

Now Starbucks is a Hippie West Coast company that is supportive of some leftist type of causes such as the environment. The gungrabbers of course were outraged.  There are lots of gun friendly companies, but Starbucks was supposed to be one of their side. A boycott is in order!! On Febuary 14th, Valantines Day,   The National Gun Victims Action Council (NGAC) is calling for a boycott.

WHY STARBUCKS?  Currently, Starbucks allows guns and assault weapons to be openly carried in its stores (in 43 states) and concealed and carried in its stores (in 49 states) (See Photos). Starbucks’ compliance with the National Rifle Association’s Pro-Gun Agenda was exposed in 2010 when members of the “open carry” movement began meeting in popular chains, such as California Pizza Kitchen, Peets, IKEA, Disney and Starbucks openly carrying their handguns and assault rifles. (Types of Guns)

To protect their customers and employees, all of the retail chains—except for Starbucks— banned guns from being carried in their stores.

“Starbucks allowing guns to be carried in thousands of their stores significantly increases everyone’s risk of being a victim of gun violence,” says Elliot Fineman, CEO of the NGAC. “Open and conceal and carry are among the reasons there are 12,000 gun homicides each year in the U.S.  If we had England’s gun laws we would expect 375 gun homicides each year—97% less than we have. England’s gun laws are based on protecting public safety, ours on maximizing sales for the gun industry.” Non-Sane Gun Laws.

Its pretty strange that they are picking on Starbucks. I find that I am welcome to carry almost anyplace here in Texas,  restaurants liquor stores banks, even churches and synagogues.   While I’ve heard about retail establishments prohibiting guns, I’ve never been to one. Walmart sells guns and ammo, We even have the Texas tradition of the Wally Walk for new CHL holders. It was the expectation that they should cave that has the gun grabbers so upset.

There is a counter boycott brewing,

On Thursday Starbucks announced that its profit climbed 10 percent in the quarter ending on January 1st on revenue that increased 16 percent over the last twelve months. And the company further announced it would open 800 new stores in the next twelve months, making its biggest expansion since 2008.

A suggestion that appears to be gaining traction among lovers of liberty and the Second Amendment is to make a special effort to spend a little time and a little money on a latte at a local Starbucks with the Valentine of their choice on Tuesday, February 14th to support their stand. As Mike Crenshaw wrote on the forum TheHighRoad.org:

I’ve just heard that there’s a planned boycott on Feb. 14 by anti-Second Amendment groups attempting to punish Starbucks for their decision to follow state and local law instead of changing company policy on law abiding customers carrying firearms legally. While I’m an occasional customer I’ll make a point of doing my share to offset any business Starbucks may lose due to this proposed boycott. I’ll see to it that my family and I are in Starbucks at least once on Feb. 14. Thank you for not caving in to the radical beliefs of a small vocal group of marginalized extremists.

Massad Ayoob, a well-known writer and supporter of the Second Amendment, agrees: “This Valentine’s Day I’m gonna drive my sweetie the twenty-something miles to the nearest Starbucks and scarf up a Yuppie coffee, or a hot chocolate, or a boutique muffin, or whatever. It’s about showing solidarity with an entity that stood up against an attack on our freedoms. And [I’m] sending a positive email to Starbucks…”

The mentioned thread Where Mike Crenshaw is quoted may be found here.  I have a feeling that things aren’t going to work out as NGAC has envisioned. I am willing to bet that there will be a whole lot more guntoters showing up on Valentines Day than gun banners not showing up.  Its suggested that we pay with $2.00 bills so that they might know where the little bit of extra business is coming from.

Montgomery County allows Guns in the workplace

Supervisors were concerned that licensed employees might be be bringing guns into work, so they petitioned the commissioners to clarify the issue. Well they did.

Montgomery County Commissioners have adopted a policy change that will allow county employees with a concealed handgun license to bring their weapons to work.

The former policy, which simply states employees are prohibited from carrying a weapon to work unless authorized by law, was seen as vague, assistant county attorney Phyllis Rainey said.

“It is not well understood by people because of a change in the statue that allows an employer in the county to prohibit employees from having weapons in the workplace,” Rainey said.

The phrase “authorized by law” could be interpreted as including those with a concealed weapon license, she said.

The new policy allows employees with a concealed handgun license to carry their weapon into a county building.

Funny things can happen when you tug on supermans cape.

I had the privilege working on a project a few years ago. It was an experiment for creating a drug delivery system for targeted cancer cures or MEPS. A lot of people poured their hearts and souls into, but so far not much has happened to forward the idea. Maybe there is hope:

Angela Zhang of Cupertino has an idea:

 … mix cancer medicine in a polymer that would attach to nanoparticles — nanoparticles that would then attach to cancer cells and show up on an MRI. so doctors could see exactly where the tumors are. Then she thought shat if you aimed an infrared light at the tumors to melt the polymer and release the medicine, thus killing the cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely unharmed.

Angela is only 17 years old.   Angela, Please keep it up and pursue your idea.

Tomorrow his website and my wiki will be going black in protest of the Legislation known as SOPA or PIPA.  These pieces of legislation are designed to give the government complete control over internet access. The experts are in almost universal agreement that this would severely limit and change the internet and web as we know it. Others such as Congressman Lamar Smith say that the boycott is a publicity stunt.  I assure him the boycott is because we are afraid.  Afraid that he is attempting to make us inadvertent felons. Afraid that the government would have the power to strip us of years worth of labor and work, without so much as a day in court.

So I join Wikipedia and thousands of other sites in the hope that folks take notice.

I am sorry for any inconvenience.

To many voters a candidates stance on the second ammendment say it all. The candidates support says a lot about what a candidate really believes about rights and the constitution, and maybe even more about how he feels about his constitutes.  A candidate that doesn’t trust the citizens probably doesn’t deserve our vote. Now Mitt Romney isn’t the most conservative of the candidates,  but where does he stand on the the RKBA issues? Surprisingly, he fares pretty well. A posting for GOAL ( Gun Owners Action League) iterates some highlights:

Legislation: During the Romney Administration, no anti-Second Amendment or anti-sportsmen legislation made its way to the Governor’s desk.

Governor Romney did sign five pro-Second Amendment/pro-sportsmen bills into law. His administration also worked with Gun Owners’ Action League and the Democratic leadership of the Massachusetts House and Senate to remove any anti-Second Amendment language from the Gang Violence bill passed in 2006. A summary of this legislation follows.

Budgetary: In the Governor’s first year, he made a political error when he submitted a budget that did away with the Inland Fisheries & Game Fund. (More of this is explained below.) Fortunately, after this matter was resolved, GOAL was able to establish better communications with the Governor’s office. In working with the legislature and the Governor we were able to restore the Fund and increase the money released from it to better manage the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. Over the next three years, GOAL was also successful in getting some “capital revenue” released to acquire land for the Division.

Regulations: During his administration, the Executive Office of Public Safety passed a new regulation providing free replacement of firearm licenses to those who had them stolen or lost. (A resident license fee in Massachusetts at that time was $100 every 6 years.) Prior to this new regulation a citizen would have to repeat the entire application process and pay the whole fee to acquire a replacement license.

Policy: His administration conducted a review of the state’s Environmental Police agency (Game Wardens). One major concern was to keep in place the hiring requirement that officers needed to have some environmental education background not strictly law enforcement. This was a policy that GOAL worked to support.

Fees: In 2003 Governor Romney filed budgetary language to raise firearm license fees from $25 to $75. That year the legislature actually raised them to $100 in the General Appropriations bill (Section 34 of Chapter 140 of the Acts of 2003). At that time a resident license was good for 4 years. In 2004 a law was passed increasing the license term to 6 years.

In 2005, Governor Romney waived the administrative fees for the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Fund. The state currently charges these fees that were as much as 36% a year. Gun Owners’ Action League worked with environmental organizations to urge the Governor to temporarily waive the fees until permanent legislation could be passed to do away with the fees all together.

Appointments: One of the agencies that GOAL watches very closely is the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. This agency is run by a strong seven-person board. The appointments to this board are spread out over several years so that drastic changes cannot be made to it in any given year. During his administration, Governor Romney made five appointments to this board. All of the individuals appointed to the board were supported by GOAL.

Proclamations: During his administration, Governor Romney issued a proclamation declaring May 7, 2005 as “The Right to Bear Arms Day”. The proclamation was issued on this date to coincide with GOAL’s Annual Banquet.

Newt Gingrich is some conservative’s favorite. His support for 2nd amendment issues has been a bit on week side. He supported both Lautenburg and the Safezones Gun Bans.

While Newt used the institutional gun lobby as a mouthpiece to convince millions of gun owners nationwide that “as long as he is Speaker, no gun-control legislation is going to move in committee or on the House floor,” he was working behind the scenes to pass gun control. In 1996, Newt Gingrich turned his back on guns and voted for the anti-gun Brady Campaign’s Lautenberg Gun Ban, which strips the Second Amendment rights of citizens involved in misdemeanor domestic violence charges or temporary protection orders –- in some cases for actions as minor as spanking a child or grabbing a spouse’s wrist.(1) Gingrich even called the anti-gun measure “reasonable,” and predicted that it would sail through his Republican-controlled House of Representatives with little trouble.(2) The Lautenberg Gun Ban is one of the Congressional Republicans’ worst betrayals of gun owners, and those complicit in its passage deserve nothing but contempt from gun owners. This gun control measure ranks right up there with the Brady Registration Act as the most aggressive gun control in America, denying hundreds of thousands of would-be gun owners the right to self defense. Gingrich also stood shoulder to shoulder with Nancy Pelosi to pass the “Criminal Safezones Act” which prevents armed citizens from defending themselves in certain arbitrary locations. You and I both know that Criminal Safezones don’t protect law-abiding citizens, but actually protect the criminals who ignore them.(3)

Then there is Ron Paul, the Constitutionalist Libertarian. He has been more than just a little bit hypocritical, While he claims to stand for less government, freedom, and the right to keep and bear arms. He voted against a cpommon sense bill that would have reduced paper work on gun manufacturers.  It was revenue neutral but greatly reduced reporting red tape. While Ron Paul claims and provides some support for support of the 2nd amendment.

Voted NO on prohibiting product misuse lawsuits on gun manufacturers.A bill to prohibit civil liability actions from being brought or continued against manufacturers, distributors, dealers, or importers of firearms or ammunition for damages, injunctive or other relief resulting from the misuse of their products by others. A YES vote would:

• Prohibit individuals from filing a qualified civil liability action
• Exempt lawsuits brought against individuals who knowingly transfer a firearm that will be used to commit a violent or drug-trafficking crime
• Exempt lawsuits against actions that result in death, physical injury or property damage due solely to a product defect
• Dismiss of all civil liability actions pending on the date of enactment
• Prohibit the manufacture, import, sale or delivery of armor piercing ammunition

Reference: Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; Bill S 397 ; vote number 2005-534 on Oct 20, 2005

Voted NO on prohibiting suing gunmakers & sellers for gun misuse.Vote to pass a bill that would prohibit liability lawsuits from being brought against gun manufacturers and dealers based on the criminal misuse of firearms. The bill would also block these actions from being brought up against gun trade organizations and against ammunition makers and sellers. The measure would apply immediately to any pending cases. Several specific exceptions to the ban exist. This includes civil suits would be allowed against a maker or dealer who “knowingly and willfully violated” state or federal laws in the selling or marketing of a weapon. Design and manufacturing defect lawsuits are also permitted when weapons are “used as intended.

Reference: Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act; Bill HR 1036 ; vote number 2003-124 on Apr 9, 2003Voted NO on decreasing gun waiting period from 3 days to 1.Vote to pass a bill requiring anyone who purchases a gun at a gun show to go through an instant background check which must be completed within 24 hours [instead of 72 hours].

Reference: Bill introduced by McCollum, R-FL; Bill HR 2122 ; vote number 1999-244 on Jun 18, 1999

He also voted against  the easing of  reporting requirements for gun manufactures.

Really strange that Ron Paul would vote against this. Rep. Paul is has claimed he is against oppressive taxes.  The fact that the excise taxes had to be reported and paid Bi weekly, made these particular taxes oppressive and punitive.  In fact reducing the reporting time to quarterly saves the government $4M over the bi weekly reporting.  What is with Ron Paul? Is he supporting punitive taxation policies or has he turned anti gun? Maybe he is just losing it and doesn’t really know what he is voting on.

Weird things in the News:

Marin County California Makes tough anti-tobacco stance but makes clear exception for marijuana:

Marin’s war on smoking was blunted Tuesday as a measure cracking down on tobacco and other “weed” was sent back for revision to make clear the crackdown does not include marijuana.

Companies are to facing fines for not using fuels that don’t exist.

When the companies that supply motor fuel close the books on 2011, they will pay about $6.8 million in penalties to the Treasury because they failed to mix a special type of biofuel into their gasoline and diesel as required by law.

Righthaven Complains about “Scortched Earth Efforts” to Enforce Judgements

Obama warns that Republicans threaten the “very core of what this country stands for.”

Obviously we have different opinions on what the core values that the country stands for.

The Occupy 5 at Galveston

The Occupy Galveston folks were all set up on the seawall this afternoon. There were only 5 of them although I believe one may have been just a passerby. They were older than most of the Occupy people that I’ve seen on the tube around the country, and they were enjoying themselves.  There isn’t any encampment and the area around them was pretty clean. I wonder if they realize that most of their complaints are pretty much the same as the TEA Partiers  and libertarians,  and that the fix for their issues just might be Hope and Change for  November.   If they change their minds perhaps all those signs could be made into a shelter or two.

Yes, Galveston different and Occupy Galveston is likely different from any of the other Occupy groups.

A new law went in effect for the New Year in Chicago. This time it is Nannyism to protect surfs from caustic chemicals.

The law, which took effect Sunday, requires those who seek to buy caustic or noxious substances, except for batteries, to provide government-issued photo identification that shows their name and date of birth. The cashier then must log the name and address, the date and time of the purchase, the type of product, the brand and even the net weight.

While the new law might be considered a nuisance, it takes on a racial implication with Holders claim that asking for an ID is racial discrimination.

Eric Holder has been on a racialist bender the last few weeks.  Last week, he said his skin color is responsible for the fury of criticism over his Justice Department allowing thousands of guns to flood Mexico.  Friday, he blocked South Carolina from implementing a voter ID law under the Voting Rights Act saying it was racially discriminatory.

Sixteen states, including South Carolina, must submit all election law changes to the United States Justice Department for approval.  States also have the option of bypassing DOJ and going straight to court for approval, an option they should readily choose.  This law, unlike so many federal laws, actually has a legitimate Constitutional basis – the Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which bars racial discrimination in voting.  Passed in 1965, it was designed to prevent states from drifting toward renewed discrimination.  It is now being challenged as unconstitutionally outdated by Arizona and Shelby County (AL) in federal court.

I believe its really racism of convenience.  Leftist prefer to call actions racist only if it suits their political agenda. If something promotes nannyism or big government then PC arguments don’t accept that an action is racist. But removing dead peoples voter rights is racist, because  there are more minority dead voters than dead WASP voters.

Scattered alters of stacked sandstone red rock.

We went to Sedona a few weeks ago for some R & R  a beautiful place that has a reputatation as a gathering place for mystics, hippys and other odd sorts.   I wasn’t surprise when I visited the Airport Mesa, a place concidered a vortex,  that people had stacked the red sandstone rocks to make pillers. These seemed to me to be a sort of hippy alter built assist communication with  some unknown god. The formations were scattered but all around the area. I  wondered what the people were thinking that would spend the time gathering and stacking these stones.  It is what one should expect in the land of hippies and new agers I supposed. I have seen lots of silly things in Galveston, we here tend not to take things very seriously, and do have an apreciate of art and music, but I never expected this type of thing here.

Hundreds of rock stack alters on Galveston's Seawall.

On the seawall at Fort Crockett Park there was a breakwater built into the seawall made up of broken limestone rocks of various sizes.  Over the last few  months its grown to something rather large if not surreal.  The people I saw stacking rocks seemed to be just kids doing it just for fun. But some of these were pretty massive.  Every one has things they like to do for fun and entertainment, but making rock piles seems pretty weird to me.  One expects to find the hippys and newagers in Sedona, but here in Galveston??  It just doesn’t seem right.  I wonder now if Fort Crockett Park isn’t a new vortex. A letter to the editor of the Galveston Daily News implies that at least someone thinks these things have some value and they may be a tourist attraction. We were promised that the enhancements to Crockett Park would be a tourist attraction. I don’t think stacked rocks was what they had in mind though.

A collection of artwork involving stacks of rocks has drawn visitors to Fort Crockett Park in Galveston.

Vandalism Shows A Lack Of Appreciation

I am appalled, disgusted, furious (I could go on) because some idiot, ruffian, criminal, fool (I could go on) has knocked down many of the stacked rocks on the beach at about 49th Street.

They were beautiful, peaceful, intriguing to look at and already had become a tourist/resident attraction. People were stopping by to take photos, admire the work and even try their hands at stacking.

This is the second time that I am aware of that they have been destroyed. I do not know what can be done, but it is a sad commentary on contemporary society that this has happened.

We can only hope and pray that the artist or artists come back and restore these fantastic stackings.

I don’t really have any issue with any of this, but I do find it a bit strange. Art is all in the eye of the beholder, and in this case perhaps the builder.

Folks Stacking rocks on the Galveston Seawall

When Hurricane Ike struck here on Galveston Island we lost our phone service. By the time we moved back in we got used to using our cell phones and restoring our landlines had a low priority.  for a while we put our phone service on “vacation hold” but eventually we just realized that the hookup fees and the extra monthlies didn’t worth it and we let it go.

I did miss having a landline, talking on a real phone for long calls is more comfortable, and although we have lots of spare minutes,  unexepected events can add up to extensive cell phone time.  So we decided to give Magic jack a try. At $69 for the first year it seems to be worth a shot.

I ordered it on line and a few days later our new Magic Jack plus arrived.  It contained the Magic Jack Plus dongle a small 110 volt to USB power unit, a short usb extender and an ethernet cable.  Equality picked up a cordless 3 phone set to go with it.

The Magic Jack needs to be connected to a computer to configure and attach a phone number to it.  The Device works with Windows and Mac machines it is not Linux compatable.   Once it is all configured it can be connected directly to a router directly won”t need a computer anymore.

Once the Magic Jack Plus is plugged into the computer the program is automagically installed and started. The user is guided to selecting a phone number or to transfer their existing number. The menus selections have some upsell options, but is pretty easy to navigate anf only takes 10 or 15 minutes. After the Magic Jack + is configured the user has the option of leaving it plugged into the computer, or to connect it up to the network.

The Good

The good news is that the Magic Jack Plus works and it is pretty cheap.   The sound quality is excellent exceeding that of cell phones.   It delivers on what I expected and wanted. Unlike the old Magic Jack a computer doesn’t have to be up and running. As I type this Vonage is and Comcast are advertising their basic services at around $20 to $30 dollars a month  about what the yearly rate is for Magic Jack Plus.

The Bad

Magic Jack isn’t without some issues. If you use it to replace a regular phone line You have more points of failure. If you lose cable or power or a router failure you lose your phone. One might consider putting A phone Modems, Router and Magic Jack on a UPS. These are low power devices

Their built in service includes an service which will pick up the phone after 4 rings.  The answering service announces it is a Magic Jack service. If you wish to use your own answering machine you have to set it to pick up on the 3rd ring.  This doesn’t give much time to answer the phone.  It would be nice if we could have the choice of disabling automatic answering altogether.

The Ugly

It came as no surprise to find that their support is lousy. It is only available via Web Chat. and that it is pretty lousy. The web and forums are full of complaints about their service support.  I had attempted to reclaim my old home phone line. We had abandoned the number 2 years ago, but it still isn’t in use.  The installation accepted my old number, and it reported the number as my ID when I dialed into my cell. I couldn’t call into my phone. I  didn’t know what the problem was and and called support via the chat.  They had me reconfigure reboot and moved me up to whats called a  10% level support and she ran me they ran me through the same procedures.  Finally she gave up, and told me they would refer me to engineering and they would get back to me. I was on chat for about an hour.

After the unsuccessful chats I checked my email before I prepared to leave for the day. I found an email with a time stamp of 6:02am that I received just as I was beginning the support chat telling me that my phone number transfer was unsuccessful.  I went back and picked out another phone number and everything worked properly.  It seems to me that  the support people should have been able to find this out.

Conclusions:

Magic Jack plus delivers a good quality phone line, Once it is up and running there should be little need for any support. Set up and configuration is straightforward, but a user might be in trouble if they are need in need of customer support.  There are some preresiquites to get the Magic Jack working.

• A Windows or Apple Computer
• A good Highspeed Internet connection.  To use the system without a computer you will probably need a router with an available ethernet connection.  One can connect through a computer that has a highspeed internet connection, but if the computer goes down there is no phone. Using the computer to make the connection might be a good option for those who have only WiFi service in their homes.
• A phone. A regular plain old corded phone should work. but the Magic Jack might not be able to power more than one or 2 non powered phones. A regular corded phone requires power to ring the phone.

People who live  or spend time out of the country might find this particularly usefull. One can set it up using a stateside phone number and call abe called without dealing with international rates or calling plans. The unit is very small and can be used with regular headset and mike available anywhere. I am happy with mine because I can use a regular phone and line. I can send or receive a fax if I want to.  Its probably never going to be a real minutes saver on my phone because I get free minutes on my cell service if talking to others on  the same plan.  So I if I call one of the phones in my family with this its going to count toward my minutes.

The bottom line is this thing works and is cheap.

Thursday was the scheduled day for the boycott of Go Daddy over SOPA.  Go Daddy has gone from supporting SOPA to pulling support from SOPA  to claiming SOPA and PIPA is a bad idea.  I don’t know how sincere they are but it’s apparrent they were bleeding customers and their trust.

While GoDaddy had previously withdrawn its support for SOPA, until Thursday’s statement, the company had not voiced public disagreement towards the bill,which the House Judiciary Committee had been debating before adjourning for the holiday.

According to Yahoo, about 70,000 domains had already been switched before Thursday’s planned boycott. While these numbers aren’t extremely consequential to a company that hosts 50 million websites worldwide, these withdrawals along with high profile moves from Wikipedia, Cheezburger and image sharing site Imgur seem to have been enough to force GoDaddy’s hand.

Now, I don’t believe for a minute that Go Daddy is genuine in their recant of SOPA, their only regret is that their customer base found out that they have Hollywood’s interest over their customers.  The damage is done, they’ve helped craft the bill and supported it through the committee hearings it really doesn’t matter any more whether they support it or not.   Until we see proof that they will actually fight online censorship.

Go Daddy isn’t the only company that has supported SOPA and PIPA there is News Corp (Foxnews), CBS (C-Net), NBC and Disney. Just about all of the media, We don’t hear much about boycotting them.  Go Daddy struck our ire because we expected them to support their customers and the open internet.

I seriously considered pulling my domain.  I decided to wait. I have 2 domains, and am well paid up until for the next several months. If I were to bail on Go Daddy Thursday, they would still have my money, yet not have to provide any services. This would hardly be punishing them. On the other hand I can’t see renewing my services with them, Later on this summer I will move my sites to Host Gator. I will do so when I have used up my contract, and have the time to ensure that I can move this blog safely.

Losing our rights on the road;

When we crossed the Ohio River from Paducah, KY to Metropolis, Illinois this afternoon, I had to unload my Ruger LCR and lock it away. Unlike in the antebellum days when crossing the Ohio River meant going from a slave state to a free state, it has now been metaphorically reversed. We went from a free state to one that views personal freedom as an anathema.

I must say I felt a little naked driving with no self-protection.

One of these days, the people of Illinois will have the same freedoms as the rest of the 49 states. Until then, I will need to increase my level of situational awareness.

Passing SOPA would be a web owners worst nightmare. Godaddy’s support of it is a stand against its customers,  SOPA and its sister bill, PROTECT IP Act, in the Senate is a bad idea that promises to censor and restrict the web as we know it,  and threatens the very existance of websites like this that don’t have a staff of lawyers and editors to maintain compliance.   It is understandable that if not to be expected that Godaddy has pissed of its customers base.

There has been a tremendous backlash against GoDaddy.

Talk of a Go Daddy boycott began yesterday on community link-sharing site Reddit, and quickly grew to include several influential business leaders and media personalities. Among them were Y Combinator founderPaul Graham, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh and celebrity/investor Ashton Kutcher. The company’s change-of-heart was announced today around the same time Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Tweeted he would be transferring Wikipedia’s domains from Go Daddy in protest.

Go Daddy initially shrugged off the protests, issuing a nonchalant response to let people know it hasn’t negatively impacted its business — which was the equivalent of shaking the hell out of a giant beehive and not expecting to get stung. Boycott participators responded by publishing step-by-step tutorials for transferring a bulk of domains to a new registrar, complete with recommendations to competitors.

Go Daddy’s response didn’t get to to the heart of it. They basically claimed that SOPA might be poorly written, although they support the basic idea behind it, they are withdrawing support. They didn’t offer to fight it it or withdraw support from the  Senate’s PROTECT IP ACT. It gets worse for Go Daddy.

Hosting and domain registrar company Go Daddy has lost more than 37,000 domains in the past two days due to the company’s wishy-washy stance on the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Talk of a Go Daddy boycott began yesterday on community link-sharing site Reddit, and quickly grew to include several influential business leaders and media personalities. Among them were Y Combinator founderPaul Graham, Cheezburger CEO Ben Huh and celebrity/investor Ashton Kutcher. The company’s change-of-heart was announced today around the same time Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales Tweeted he would be transferring Wikipedia’s domains from Go Daddy in protest.

Go Daddy initially shrugged off the protests, issuing a nonchalant response to let people know it hasn’t negatively impacted its business — which was the equivalent of shaking the hell out of a giant beehive and not expecting to get stung. Boycott participators responded by publishing step-by-step tutorials for transferring a bulk of domains to a new registrar, complete with recommendations to competitors.

37,000 in two days before Christmas, looks like the beginning of an avalanche of bailouts. Now I’m left with a dillema.  This blog and the domain is hosted by Go Daddy, I’m paid up ahead, and I’ve been pretty happy with their service.  Host Gater is a local Houston Company has a good reputation, and is opposed to Govenment and Hollywood censorship. Their statement opposing SOPA:

Imagine if you were able to genetically combine Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, Darth Vader and Barbara Streisand into one horrifically terrifying being. Now imagine that being is actually a piece of proposed legislature — the terrifying creation in your midst would then be the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which is currently being considered by the House.

SOPA, aka H.R. 3261 is a bill right now in the House sponsored by R-TX Lamar Smith. It’s not just any bill though, it’s a bill that would allow the USDOJ, RIAA, MPAA and anyone else who lobbies for the entertainment industry to effectively censor the internet to suit their needs.

So, I’ve got a lot to consider. moving the content and the domain is a scary thing,  a lot of work and some money. Perhaps if Go Daddy took a substantial stand to actually fight this thing my decision would be a little easier. A significant donation to someone like the Electronic Frontier Foundation perhaps?

Eric Holder is blocking South Carolina’s new law which requires that voters provide ID to qualify their right to vote.  The Justice Department claims that requiring an ID is racist.  I’m not sure I understand why requiring folks to provide proper identification is racist. Is requiring travelers to provide an ID racist when at the airport? I wonder if the attorney general will demand that sellers quit insisting that gun purchasers provide an ID.

If someone can please explain to me why requiring an ID to vote is racist, than why shouldn’t the practice be outlawed on the more routine things. Voting is inherently more dangerous than buying a gun or flying    Perhaps it’s only considered racist when states require the ID, and alright when when it is a federal mandate.

A few weeks ago I was at the Toyota Center in Houston.  When I purchased a beer I was asked for an ID.  I’m a bald, greying 60 year old, I thought it was just silly. Now I understand it was racist.

Alexandra Petri isn’t the only one having nightmares:

Last night I had a horrifying dream that a group of well-intentioned middle-aged people who could not distinguish between a domain name and an IP address were trying to regulate the Internet. Then I woke up and the Judiciary Committee’s SOPA hearings were on.

It’s exactly as we feared. For every person who appears to have some grip on the issue, there were three or four yelling at him.

The experts testifying for SOPA and promising that SOPA won’t be disastrous to the internet, admit they don’t know anything about how it works.  The experts on the Web are the folks claiming an end to to the web as we know it.  Who do we believe Spielberg who makes Billions making movies, or the folks who actually built the internet?

There ought to be a law, I think, that in order to regulate something you have to have some understanding of it. And when people are saying things like, “This is just the rogue foreign Web sites” and “This only targets the bad actors” and “So you want universities to host illegal pirated versions of copyrighted content?,” it’s enough to make you claw out large fistfuls of your hair. No! No! Nobody is hosting anything. This bill would require service providers to cut off access to entire Web sites where users are deemed to be engaging in copyright infringement, not take down stolen content they posted themselves. That’s already against the law. But no one seemed to be able to express this.

When you have a signed letter from the engineers responsible for creating the Internet pointing out that this bill would jeopardize our cybersecurity, balkanize the Internet and create a climate of uncertainty that would stifle innovation, it seems odd to ignore it. As a general rule, when the people saying that this will have a horrible, chilling impact on something are the ones who created that thing in the first place, and the people who are saying, “Oh, no, it’ll be fine, it only targets the bad actors” are members of the Motion Picture Association of America, it seems obvious whose opinion you should heed.

The problem is the folks with the most influence at the capital aren’t the people with the most knowledge, but the folks willing to spend the moist money for their cause.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. is publically considering shutting down Wikipedia in protest of SOPA.

The proposed shutdown has nothing to do with technical problems or money issues, and everything to do with the Stop Online Piracy Act, an anti-piracy bill that has raised the ire of many major technology companies. This past weekend, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales posted a discussion on his Wikipedia user page suggesting that the English-language version of Wikipedia may temporarily go dark to protest the bill, which critics say gives movie studios and other copyright holders unprecedented power to shut down Web sites seen as infringing on their content.

SOPA endangers the very existence of Wikipedia,  and most any other site that relies on links or user input.  SOPA would criminalize links to sites that offer copyright violations, or other things that offend the sensibilities of the Hollywood crowd. On the surface this might sound reasonable bu the penalties kick in with out trial or court orders and site owners have little opportunity to defend themselves. Web owners and maintainers have a difficult time keeping their websites clean as it is. Most of us don’t want this crap on our sites and work hard and dilligently at keeping our sites clean, but it isn’t our job to protect the Hollywood moguls and their revenues.

SOPA is an attempt to shut down the internet, and restrict voices to only the Hollywood approved.  It is an attempt to shutdown search engines like Google or Bing. Google is very worried, and concerned that it will crimminalize every search engine.

An online piracy bill in the House would “criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself,” according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.

Schmidt said the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would punish Web firms, including search engines, that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. He said implementing the bill as written would effectively break the Internet.

 

“By criminalizing links, what these bills do is they force you to take content off the Internet,” Schmidt said, calling it a form of censorship.

 

The search giant has been at the forefront of a tech industry backlash against the legislation from House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas).

“If Congress writes a bad law, we all suffer,” Schmidt said.

He compared the proposal to the Web censorship practiced by repressive foreign governments like China and doubled down on that comparison when speaking with reporters after his remarks at the Economic Club of Washington.

If Wikipedia shuts down in protest of the of SOPA I will pull the plug on my little Wiki , and if I can safely take my blog down for the duration I will take down this blog.  The Wiki is easy, I can literally just pull the plug.

Don Surber remarks that the Occupy folks are the real 1 percenters.  They don’t work and have  trashed and stunk up their environment wherever they  show up.  They have feeling of entitlment, but don’t really want to do anything but lay around and maybe beat a few drums.  I mentioned before that they are upset about some of the same things that triggered the beginings of the TEA party that they look down on with so much disdain. The Occupiers are doing more alienating than winning over.  They are destroying parks and behaving badly, and what few solutions they have to offer are outright goofy. As Don points out:

Now let us get a few things straight about who these loony goons are. For the most part they are spoiled rotten brats who took out huge loans to pay for four years of self-indulgence at some over-rated liberal arts college. Somehow, they were able to spend a few months in the fall camping out and protesting against the working class while not working themselves.

They are in that upper 1% who do not have to work.

Now it appears that they are attacking dock workers and commuter, by blocking the ports on the West Coast and blocking traffic in Houston. Once again we observers are wondering “What’s the point?”.  It apears the people they really are going after and trying to hurt is the commuter, truck drivers, and port workers. The typical blue collar worker the left and the unions claim are trying to protect.

The protest in Houston was an attempt to snarl traffic and cause more pollution and working class people losing lost wages.  These idiots aren’t making friends or support for their cause.  The occupiers in Oakland Ca, are even bolder, they blocked all traffic coming and going into the port.  Causing people to miss their shifts and lose their pay.  I doubt if any of the Wall Street moguls noticed or even cared.

The companies that operate the 26 berths at the nation’s fifth-busiest container port told longshore workers not to report for the 7 p.m. evening shift – effectively halting work for the next eight hours and preventing 100 to 200 employees from earning the pay they would have received on a typical shift.

…

“We are ecstatic with the results,” said Milo Avery, 22, of Oakland. “This day is the culmination of a lot of hard work. It’s a historic and momentous step in this movement.”

These aren’t the same longshore workers of years gone by, The Teamsters and longshore workers would have busted some heads, and still have made it to work on time.  I guess we are just more civilized these days. All the same it just seem very prudent for a bunch of near do wells to take on longshoremen in the streets.

As we struggle in a Obaman economy kept repressed buy policies which are intended to give government more control over businesses and peoples lives.  The White House has agreed in principle to  continue the payroll tax reduction, to further sweeten the pot Congress, is considering paving the way for the Keystone XL pipeline.  The pipeline would create jobs in construction provide ethical oil,  create stronger trading with one of our true allies. President Obama is  resistant to this, of course, and would rather see us revert to the greener world of the stone age.  He has threatened a veto if provisions are attached to clear the way for the Keystone pipeline provisions.

Obama warned that he would veto an extension of the payroll-tax cut, his top legislative priority, if House Republicans link it to a measure that would force the administration to greenlight the pipeline project.

“Any effort to try to tie Keystone to the payroll-tax cut, I will reject,” Obama told reporters Wednesday after meeting at the White House with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

It’s as if he is intentionally trying to keep the economy down.

There are a lot of guns being sold these day.  According to the the numbers created by called in NICS checks for the last 18 months there are more guns sold than in the year before.  This past November was the second best month ever for gun sellers, and was only exceeded by the rush to buy created in 2008 by the election of President Obama (arguably the best gun salesmen ever) and Black Friday resulted in the most NICS checks ever.

Moreover, this November had the second highest number of NICS checks for the month of November in the last 10 years. Only November 2008 had more. I believe that we can reasonably say that November 2008′s sales can be explained by the election of Barack Obama and the feeling that he would seek to implement new gun control measures once in office. He did after all says that we gun owners were bitterly clinging to our guns and religion.

We don’t know who is buying all these guns: Is it people adding to already large collections or are lot of these folks new gun owners?   I suspect the increase is broad based, newer people are being introduced to guns and gun owners are stocking up. One thing that isn’t clear is how safely these new guns will handled.  I remember as teenager taking a Hunter Safety Class. Damn there were a lot of rules.  Rules that don’t get remembered will be broken.  There is a simpler set of 4 rules — These are rules that even I can remember.

Even if this is so second nature that you can recite it in your sleep, please read this, read it all the way to the bottom, read it again, then save it to read down the road. Read it back to me, to all your friends and to yourself, and especially to anyone you teach to shoot. Make them recite it till it’s burned into their memories and yours, then recite it again…and again, and again.

Never let us or yourself slip, no matter how long we’ve been shooting. Humans make mistakes, and if we keep an eye out for each other, we can learn from them and live to pass that knowledge on to others. Yes I’m going to YELL. If you see anyone being unsafe, YELL it back to them/me/us!

As a kid, I remember my dad teaching me gun safety. It seemed that there were 1000 rules. Asking “what’s rule 39, paragraph 2, subsection B?” was nothing but confusing. There’s no need for a zillion rules if 4 are ALWAYS followed. I repeat and stress ALWAYS.

1: Humans make mistakes.

All guns are ALWAYS LOADED! If someone unloads a gun and hands it to you, they have just handed you a LOADED GUN until you personally prove that it is empty by checking the chamber. If you are handling a gun that you know is “unloaded”, it is LOADED until you check it again. Each and every time, no exceptions, no excuses!

There are too many people shot every year with “unloaded” guns. It happens when cleaning an “unloaded gun” (I lost a cousin to that), it happens when someone points an UNLOADED GUN (yes I do mean to shout..please hear me out) at someone or themselves, it even happens at gun stores (more on that later).

2. Humans make mistakes.

Never point the muzzle at anything you do not intend to destroy! Guns are safe, and guns protect lives. They do that by DESTROYING what they are discharged at. They are also indescriminate and will destroy anything or anyone they are discharged at, even by accident. WE are their brains. Do not point a gun at anything you do NOT intend to DESTROY…DESTROY! There’s no such thing as a safe gun, only a safe shooter. Please be one.

3. Humans make mistakes.

NEVER put your finger on the trigger unless you are ready to shoot. If your sights are not on the target, there’s no reason for your finger on the trigger, right? So DO NOT PUT IT THERE!

Modern guns in good repair will not fire on their own. They don’t get in a bad mood and go off because they feel like it. They go off because someone pulled the trigger. If your finger isn’t on the trigger, the gun will not go off. Don’t put your finger there EVER unless you are ready to fire the shot at that moment. Otherwise, keep that sucker pointed out straight.

4. Humans make mistakes.

Always know where your bullet will go. You can shoot at a target, but the bullet can carry on and kill someone down range unless you know for a fact where that bullet will stop. DO NOT fire unless you know the bullet will stop harmlessly in a backstop and not carry on to injure someone down range.

If you don’t get that deer this year because of an unsafe shot that you didn’t take, well the hunter’s life you might have saved has a family who is grateful. If you’re target shooting, please make sure you have a safe backstop that you know will stop your bullets.

I’m fanatical about checking and double checking my guns before I bring them home, to make sure they are unloaded. I remember a trip to the range some years back, where I was having trouble with double action shots. When I got home I decided to do some double action dry firing, which is a great way to practice.

Knowing that I ALWAYS, I mean ALWAYS, check and double check my firearms to make sure they are unloaded before packing them up, I settled my sights on a spot on the wall with the fridge on the other side to satisfy rule #2. I was about to squeeze the trigger when I chastised myself for being so lazy and not checking the chamber, and racked the slide to satisfy rule #1. Out popped a round! A ROUND! Out of an “unloaded gun.” Somehow, that gun had gotten overlooked, and even though the magazine was empty, the chamber was not. A moments laziness… Don’t be lazy! Takes only a second to check, but a lifetime of regret if you don’t…’nuff said.

A few years back, one of the local gunshops had an unforgivable accident. This is a decades old shop, with people who probably deal with more guns in a week than I’ve ever handled in my lifetime. Apparently a cop brought in his duty weapon for some type of repair, and the employee, in violation of several of the rules above, SHOT THE COP WITH HIS OWN GUN!

Luckily, the man survived, but there’s just NO excuse for their unsafe gun handling, or mine for that matter. Now I’m a forgiving fellow, but I have not done business with them since. That’s unforgivable, period.

The fact is, we’re human. Humans make mistakes. Our mistake can cost someone else their life. That’s a lot of the reason we’re having to fight to keep our Second Amendment Rights. If we follow safe guidelines, the chances of our mistakes hurting someone is greatly reduced. See above; humans make mistakes! Please teach this to anyone who wants to enter the sport, and please keep an eye on yourself, me, and everyone else who enjoys it so that we can continue to do to.

One of the most satisfying things I can remember, happened last summer. I was teaching a single mother and her 11 year old son to shoot. They had never handled firearms before and I went into “safety nazi” mode and drilled the above over and over, especially the part about keeping your eye on other shooters.

I had finished a string with the .22 pistol I was teaching them with, and kept my finger on the trigger after the gun ran dry, to see if either noticed (most don’t). I wasn’t finished for more than a couple seconds, and the mother hadn’t noticed, when the young son pointed out rather LOUDLY that I still had my finger on the trigger. I was very proud, and so was the mother when I smiled at him broadly with a “well done!”.

Sorry for the long rant and I know I’m preaching to the choir, but it’s something that many of us take too lightly. It has nothing to do with experience, as shown by my own mistake and the gun shop’s, and those that we’ve all seen from others. Please always keep this at the very front of your thoughts when you shoot and especially when you teach others to shoot.

If any of you ever shoot with me, just know that I’m watching you! lol. I hope you’re watching me just as closely, because humans make mistakes.

Its been a busy time for me, and blogging has ground down to a stop.  some of the things keeping me busy has been updating the blog,  Building a wiki, and spending some much needed time on vacation.  All of these things are bloggable. Along with the political races and The Occupy movement there is no shortage of something to blog about.

Just as Sarah Palin is so effective at delivering a message, Rick Perry, not so good. Last night he drew a blank trying to recall the third agency he would like to dispose of.  The media focus is on the delivery. A shame, his plan to get rid of the Department of Education. The Department of Commerse, and the Department of Energy is bold and would make a huge difference in our economy. The concept deserves debate and discussion, instead we focus on Perry forgetting the name of the third agency he wants to nuke.  Meanwhile Romney is declared to have done well in all the debates, but so far I haven’t heard any plans or ideas make us more prosperous and freer.

We are looking for a leader not a preacher.

Any one notice that the one guy who has a good message and great delivery, is the Newt, and he doesn’t seem to have much of a chance.   Also the Perry gaff did show a rare side of Ron Paul, He does have a sense of humor.