My New Old Hero: Dwight D. Eisenhower

This is a repost of an excerpt I posted to my Facebook page a while back, but in light of our current situation, I felt it would be prudent to re-post it here. Please forgive my repetition repetition.

As the poet and philosopher George Santayana once said:
"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

"As we peer into society's future, we - you and I, and our government - must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convienience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assests of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heriatage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tommorrow.

Down the long lane of the history yet to be written America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becomming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect.

Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of the battlefield.

10 Quick and (relatively) Painless Energy Savers

So, I thought I'd share some super EASY ways to save some energy - and some $.$$ - around the house:

1. Compact Florescent Light Bulbs (CFL's)
• If you haven't changed out your light bulbs already, shame on you! It easy and incredibly efficient - a CFL produces about 75% less heat! And now, there are a myriad of CFL's for almost any residential or commercial application.
2. Power Down your Power Strips
• If you don't want to bother crawling around on the floor or reaching behind your desk to power down your power strips, then look into replacing your current strips with "Smart Strip" auto switching technology. These things are COOL! They automatically power down groups of outlets when not in use - check it out! ---> Smart Strip LCG3 Energy Saving Surge Protector with Autoswitching Technology, 10-Outlet
3. Stop the Air Leaks
• Air leakage is the single most common source of energy loss through heat transfer (eg. cold drafts in the winter, 'hot spots' in the summer). With some simple investigation you can find and stop these nasty energy zappers with some well placed sealant. Spray foam application usually works the best, but sometimes a simple application of caulk or weatherstripping works just as well.
  

Elevator Pitch My Blog or "Earache, My Eye!"

So, I started this blog, see. And I wrote a couple of nice posts, see.
     And then...(silence).
Like a whisper that you could just barely hear, but couldn't quite make out.

Now here I am again: unemployed, under worked, and BORED. Mostly looking for an outlet, but also thinking that this could be a way to somehow help me gather my strength and my emotional armor in an effort to charge forward. A way to stumble upon the next chapter in my life. So, "I'm back, b-aaaaa-ck in the Bloggle again."

But I've never been one for shameless self promotion.

A Few Thoughs on Crime and Punnishment

"The world has been filled with prisons and dungeons, with chains and whips, with crosses and gibbets, with thumbscrews and racks, with hangmen and heads-men - and yet these frightful means and instrumentalities have committed far more crimes than they have prevented.... Ignorance, filth, and poverty are the missionaries of crime. As long as dishonorable success outranks honest effort - as long as society bows and cringes before the great thieves, there will be little ones enough to fill the jails."
~Robert Ingersoll, Crimes Against Criminals

And another...

"Every crime is born of necessity. If you want less crime, you must change the conditions. Poverty makes crime. Want, rags, crusts, misfortune - all these awake the wild beast in man, and finally he takes, and takes contrary to law, and becomes a criminal. And what do you do with him? You punish him. Why not punish a man for having consumption? The time will come when you will see that that is just as logical. What do you do with the criminal? You send him to the penitentiary. Is he made better? Worse. The first thing you do is to try to trample out his manhood, by putting an indignity upon him. You mark him. You put him in stripes. At night you put him in darkness. His feeling for revenge grows. You make a wild beast of him, and he comes out of that place branded in body and soul, and then you won't let him reform if he wants to."
~Robert Ingersoll, A Lay Sermon
 
Well Said.

"Decriminalization" vs. Legalization

Kudos to the residents of Breckenridge and Denver, Colorado! Now, in those municipalities, adults over the age of twenty one are legally allowed to possess (and I assume USE) up to an ounce of pot. Good on ya, mates! A small step forward in the fight towards re-creating a rational policy towards marijuana in a seemingly endless battle that will take many, many small steps until we reach sanity.

However, (there's almost always a 'but') the logical argument behind "decriminalization" does not hold water. It may now not be illegal to possess or use marijuana in Breckenridge, but it is still illegal to grow it or sell it. That's right, you can have it, but where did it come from!? Did it just appear out of thin air? Did it get found on the ground, thrown out the window of a passing car? Was it left here by little green men? Herein lies the logical downfall of marijuana 'decriminalization.'