First off, Ayn Rand was right. Secondly, I often get tired of all those folks who can't help themselves or won't telling me to pay more in taxes to help the common good for all the poor people. You see, the greatest thing anyone can do is to participate in our free-market system and help themselves, and by doing so they are not a burden on society. If everyone did that, there would be so few poor people that our vast wealthy society could easily take care of those who truly can't.
Unfortunately, if we make people weak, create low self-esteem, and treat everyone like children eventually they won't be able to do much of anything for themselves, and therefore they won't. Now they become a huge burden on the rest of us, always demanding more - desiring to re-distribute the economic gains of those who produce and give it to those who don't. This is the real reason socialism doesn't work.
Not long ago, someone joked to me that Jesus was a socialist. And yes, there were some stories in the good book that might lead one to that conclusion. Still if Jesus was a socialist, I'd like to tell him where he can go, but I know he wasn't, not in the common definition. You see, it's okay to help your neighbor to help himself, but it isn't okay to hire the government to steal my money, to go give it to someone who wants it, yet will not plant, harvest, or bake the bread.
Before you condemn my comments, I'd like you to know that I've volunteered countless hours to help in the various communities I've been a part, far more than you have actually. That is the right way to play it, people helping people, not enlisting the government which is inefficient to pretend to help while funneling our tax money to their friend's businesses and pet projects.
Some would say that capitalism is no better, but they'd be completely naïve in doing so. There is nothing wrong with free-market capitalism, only with crony capitalism which is the type of distorted and prostituted capitalism that the socialists and corrupt practice for which I condemn in the strongest terms, just as I do this push towards socialism in our great nation under the auspice of helping people; it doesn't, it makes people pathetically weak, and thus, weakens our entire society and civilization.
In the end there will be hell to pay, economic collapse, poverty, and misery. Yes, everyone will be equal then, equally poor and hungry. No thanks socialists. I'll take freedom and liberty with responsibility over that any day of the week. Indeed, I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Politics and Economics. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net/
Oh, the joy. The pure joy that this Spring has brought fills me up. I am convalescing from major knee surgery, at my home (Eco Straw House. com) and sanctuary in the country. In early June, a pair of Barn Swallows chose the cozy corner, above my front door to make their nest and rear their young. I did not mind - I put down cardboard to deal with the mess. Many people, I know, blast the nest with a hose or knock it down with a broom handle, not wanting the mess to detract from the cleanliness of their property. I welcomed the pair, seeing it as a true gift to be able to share the whole process as a spectator from my porch.
The nest building began in late May/early June and took about 10 days. It was fascinating watching the cup shaped nest take form, one mouthful of mud at a time. They worked so hard, back and forth, making painfully slow progress. The female would work in the nest, packing and placing the mud, adding other bits of dried grass and an odd feather or two.
Finally the nest was complete and I gather the pair took off to do their courting, for very soon after, the female would be regularily sitting the nest, obviously laying her eggs and then incubating them. This process, I estimate took about 10 days or so, as they had not hatched by the time I left for my surgery however, were hatched by my return 5 days later.
I was overjoyed upon my return to discover 4 baby chicks in the nest. Boy, are they ugly, when first hatched! All mouth and no feathers, big bulbous heads and of course, perpetually hungry. Both parents gathered food on the wing for the insatiable brood, tirelessly, all day long. Day by day the transformation from ugly, scrawny, gangly blob to plump, feathered chicks was amazing. How four of them made it in that little nest is a miracle. There was one that always seemed to squawk the loudest and receive the most food. This must have been the first to hatch and therefore the first to fly.
I estimate it has been 12 - 14 days for them to go from hatching to fledging. This morning, as I sit on the porch with my coffee, both parents are demonstrating the way of flight. Two of the chicks have ventured out onto the ledge and are flapping and preening themselves, as tho ready for the big event. The remaining two in the nest must be glad of the new space they have been afforded to flex their wings. The parents are very much hanging around, chirping to the chicks, encouraging them to 'step out'. They fly in small circles under the porch, showing them the different landing platforms and perches.
All of a sudden the first one takes off! Both parents are close by, encouraging it along. It is awkward in its first flight and clumsy, dipping precariously close to the ground and then finding it's way to getting some height! It has difficulty navigating it's way to a perch but finally does, after landing on one of the parents backs! Whew, that must have been a rush! It was a rush for me watching! Finally it gets back to the nest and there is a lot of squawking to do to the other chicks, relaying the story of first flight!
My old cat comes out and sits on the porch with me, which immediately causes a fluster of concern from the parents. They start dive bombing her and voicing their objection to her being in such close proximity to their nest that she makes a hasty retreat indoors, too old to care about chasing birds anymore. What is interesting is, they are not concerned about my dog, who sits faithfully beside me the whole time I am here. What wonder of nature makes them able to recognize that the dog is not a threat whilst the cat most definitely is a threat? The other interesting fact is that they have not been at all concerned about the human element i.e. me. All the bird books say that they are very aggressive towards humans in close proximity to their nest, but they have tolerated me from the first day. Another gift...
All has gone quiet now - all chicks are safe, back in the nest (well, one, on the ledge, right next to the nest as it is so overcrowded it is no longer able to accommodate all four of them). The parents have been absent for the last 15 minutes or so - maybe gathering their own food and taking a break. They so deserve it!
First Flight was a success! I can hardly wait for the next episode...
If you enjoyed this article, Kandi Wood invites you to visit her website for more information at http://ecostrawhouse.com/. Your feed back and comments are always welcome. Why not sign up for my free mini email course on Tips To Get Started With Building You Eco Friendly Home!
With the Tablet quickly becoming the direct competitor with the iPad, it's clear that we can expect to see these devices rise in popularity for quite some time. With so many different brands, specifications, and capabilities it may be difficult to decide what is best for you and at what price. There's no doubt that you could spend a considerable amount of time shopping around. There are many places you can find a cheap tablet PC for a decent price, such as eBay, Best Buy, Craigslist (which I will elaborate more on in future posts), and many others. When making an informed decision on what is the best tablet to purchase for your needs here are just a few things to consider:
We all Love a Big Screens
Another aspect to consider on your journey through shopping for a cheap tablet PC is Screen Size. One of the biggest concerns of anyone buying an electronic device of any type is the view area and its quality. Even a half an inch is a significant difference for an enjoyable experience with everything from watching movies to typing an essay. Screens range in size from 5 inches, all the way to 10 inches! One caveat to that is there is chance of an increase in weight which may end up being a bit too bulky for the user that spends a lot of time on the go. It's important to test the screen out and see how the visuals stack up in different situations, such as video recordings, movies, photos, screen responsiveness, and anything else you may plan on using it for. After all, you're going to be using this thing often, so it's important to make sure all of your needs are met and that you make a satisfying purchase.
Got to Love Memory
Another key aspect is memory. Of all the other features to consider when shopping or cheap tablet computers is storage. You can never have enough memory on a portable device. Period. Most of the tablets out right now however have only a few Gigs of RAM. So your best bet is to grab one with an SD slot.
Camera Quality
Camera quality is another aspect to give consideration to. Many use their tablets for things such as family photos, vacation snapshots and many other things. Everyone likes to have a decent quality camera and the amount of mega pixels is the measuring factor you want to make a comparison with for picture quality when shopping for a cheap tablet PC.
Those are just a few more aspects to consider. My next post is coming soon. Stay tuned.
Apple has always been a loved and praised manufacturer by millions of people all over the world. They have always took the lead and tried to conquer the market by winning their customers hearts; First, they introduced the revolutionary MAC then came its little brother the classic iPod followed by their most epic invention yet the "iPhone." This invention has opened a whole new independent market and unlimited horizon of money and profits in front of talented developers (and no talented ones too). You must have realized by now that I'm talking about the App Store.
As you must have known, the mini gadgets produced by Apple don't run usual software like MACs, but they run special applications that were specially designed for them with different coding and design. And these applications (apps) don't run on PCs or MACs as well. Coming to this point, many developers have taken the chance of the unpredictably exploding new market and started developing apps trying to bring new features to the new gadgets. And believe me when I tell you that people who knew how to build an app and correctly advertise to it are making fortunes in this very moment (Angry Birds developers for example). And believe it or not, people with no development skills or knowledge are also making huge profits too, but how knew they how to build an app?
But let's talk about you here; are you going to stand still watching when these people are making insane profits? Why not take part of it and learn how to make apps? I have a working method that will spare you the hassle of reading development books and spending months in despair. Keep reading to find out how you can design your own app.
But let me tell you a short story: there has been a guy called Mike who also wanted to take part of this new market but he had no programing skills at all, but now he is totally dominating it. He was so desperate that he bought development books and kept reading for 3 month and when he tried to implement his knowledge, he was very disappointed. You can go through this is you really want to design your own app.
After a lot of effort he managed to make his first iPhone app come to reality and was finally able to submit it to Apple. He waited for a long week until it got approved. But the unfortunate thing is after all those efforts he only managed to make 50$ in a whole month. He emailed successful developers asking for tips and only 10% of people he contacted actually answered him. And thanks to these 10% he is now making 63,896.21$ a month! Unbelievable isn't it?
And today, Mike wants to share his success story with you and teach you how to make apps. Mike squeezed all of his knowledge and experience in the App Store into a single 4 weeks course where he put beginners and newbies in mind. He shows them how to develop their first iPhone app using simple methods in the 3 first weeks then how they can advertise for them in the following week so that they can begin making profit only 1 month after beginning learning.
This genuine guide will teach you how to build an app without even having any prior knowledge about designing or programming. He puts the easiest app development kit called Cocos 2D Toolkit under your disposition so that you can put your feet on the beginning of the road as soon as possible. You will also learn the different advertising techniques which will make your app hit the top App Store charts.
You can get this guide now accompanied with free bonuses that include the interviews and answers that Mike got from the genius and successful developers. Hurry and get it now for 99$ as copies are limited and the last time I checked there were only 33 copies left and maybe they are fewer now.
Three questions to determine if Palin is serious about being a successful presidential candidate: 1) Does she broaden her appeal… 2) Does she become more disciplined?... 3) Does she expand her policy portfolio?... New Q-poll shows Palin performing the worst among other GOPers in a head-to-head against Obama… The president's trip to Portugal was more successful than his trip to Asia… START has become the next big Washington battle… Expect to see more White House staff movement sooner rather than later… And an update on the uncalled House races.
From NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg *** Three questions for Palin: As Sarah Palin comes out with a new book this week, as she goes on a book tour (hitting some battleground states), and as she hints that she might run for president in a New York Times magazine profile, the political world finds itself in the midst of another round of Palin-palooza. Will she run for president? If not, what is she up to? While we're still not sure she actually runs (if she found the scrutiny of remaining Alaska governor too much, then she might not enjoy running for president or even being president), we’ve come up with three questions to determine if she’s truly serious about being a successful presidential candidate. After all, almost anyone can run for president (see: Mike Gravel, Alan Keyes, Fred Thompson, even Rudy Giuliani). But being a successful candidate -- coping with the campaign’s highs and lows, outlasting your opponents, and still appealing to a sizable portion of the country -- is another matter.
*** Does she broaden her appeal? First, does she broaden her appeal beyond her conservative/Tea Party base? Most successful presidential candidates --- at least at this point in the cycle -- are viewed more as uniters than dividers. Yet per a NBC/WSJ poll conducted earlier this fall, Palin is loved by conservatives (53%-19% fav/unfav) and Republicans (55%-17%), but not by Democrats (9%-73%), moderates (14%-62%), or independents (25%-55%). And in our most recent NBC/WSJ poll, which was released after the midterms, being endorsed by Palin was one of the more negative candidate qualities; in fact, it was worse than being endorsed by a labor union, than supporting allowing workers to invest their Social Security contributions in the stock market, and than supporting the economic stimulus.
*** Does she become more disciplined? Second, does she begin to be more disciplined? Since resigning her governorship last year, Palin has not only picked fights with the Obama White House and congressional Democrats -- but also with David Letterman, Katie Couric, Politico, the Wall Street Journal, and even some establishment Beltway Republicans. While that kind of combat can work for a political pundit or entertainer (like Rush Limbaugh), it’s harder for an actual presidential candidate, who will be a target of slings and arrows from Democrats and the White House, from fellow GOP presidential candidates, and from the news media. “She gives as good as she gets,” Mary Matalin told Robert Draper in his New York Times magazine piece on Palin. “But I don’t know her well enough to know if she’s developed the thick skin you need to be endlessly resilient, the way Reagan could take things for decades and let them roll off his back.”
*** And does she expand her policy portfolio? Third, do we see Palin expand her policy portfolio beyond her wheelhouse -- energy, special needs, and neoconservative foreign policy? Recently, Palin weighed in on the Federal Reserve’s action to pump more money into the economy (however, she mistakenly said that prices have risen over the last year or so when, in fact, inflation has been very low). There are two perceptions of Palin: One hits at what Lisa Murkowski said last week. ("You know, she was my governor for two years, for just about two years there, and I don't think that she enjoyed governing," Murkowski told CBS. "I don't think she liked to get down into the policy."). And the other is what Draper said of her. (“Less well known was the Palin who … was seen more than once passed out on her hotel bed half-buried in briefing books and index cards…”). But will somebody explain how she is helping herself to be taken more seriously when she’s using her new book to talk about things like “American Idol”?
*** More numbers on Palin: Meanwhile, a brand-new Quinnipiac poll shows Palin leading a hypothetical GOP primary field at 19% -- followed by Mitt Romney at 18%, Mike Huckabee at 17%, Newt Gingrich at 15%, and Tim Pawlenty at 6%. But in the GOP field, Palin's negatives are the highest (36%-51% overall fav/unfav and 33%-54% among indies), while Huckabee (41%-25%) and Romney (38%-26%) are positive, and Gingrich’s is negative (30%-43%); Obama is 48%-48%. And Palin also performs the worst in a head-to-head against Obama: Romney narrowly edges the president, 45%-44%; Obama leads Huckabee, 46%-44%; Obama leads the largely unknown Daniels 45%-36%; and Obama gets closest to 50% against Palin, whom he leads 48%-40%.
*** A better trip for Obama: Turning from Palin to American foreign policy, the NATO summit in Portugal was a very productive trip for President Obama. NATO endorsing major troop reductions in Afghanistan by Dec. 31, 2014 is a big deal. Yes, it's punting, but it's also an international coalition supporting the U.S.’s end game. So there's no second guessing outside the U.S. on this issue. The only second guessing will come from anti-war Democrats inside the U.S. And frankly, it's legitimate second guessing, but could the U.S. realistically pull out any sooner? The international community’s answer: no.
*** If you START me up, I’ll never stop: But Afghanistan was just one storyline in Lisbon; the other was the new START treaty. This is turning into a key political battle for Team Obama, and they know it. They got every European leader imaginable to go public this weekend supporting the treaty. Indeed, there's a real fear in the White House that if Sen. Jon Kyl and the GOP roll them on this, it will weaken the president on the world's stage. Right now, the White House is struggling to agree on a strategy to get this done. At a press conference over the weekend, Obama hit the Republicans for playing politics on foreign policy and national security. “This is an issue that traditionally has received strong bipartisan support,” he said. “There’s no other reason not to do it than the fact that Washington has become a very partisan place.” But he dodged the question of whether Kyl is playing politics. “I’ve spoken to Sen. Kyl directly,” he said. “Sen. Kyl has never said to me that he does not want to see START ratified.”
*** Sooner rather than later: Here’s a tip: Expect to see some more White House staff movement sooner rather than later. Nobody likes working in limbo, and this may speed up Pete Rouse and Valerie Jarrett, the two people other than the president himself who may know more about the re-arranging of the staff.
*** The uncalled races: Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY-1) has come back to overtake Republican Randy Altschuler with counting of absentee and provisional ballots. That means of the five House races still uncalled, Republicans lead in two. They are currently +61 in the House and could get to about +63 -- if current numbers hold. The uncalled races: CA-11, CA-20, NY-1, NY-25, and TX-27. In CA-11 and CA-20, the Democrats appear to be on track to win narrowly. In NY-25, Republican Ann Marie Buerkle expanded her lead over incumbent Democrat Dan Maffei. And in TX-27, Blake Farenthold (R) continues to lead, as a recount requested by incumbent Solomon Ortiz nears completion.
Prince William and Kate Middleton pose for a photograph in St. James's Palace, Nov. 16, 2010 Suzanne Plunkett/LandovTalk about a picture-perfect couple!
Hours after news of their royal engagement broke, Prince William and bride-to-be Kate Middleton appeared for the first time as an engaged couple during a photo call at St. James's Palace – and her ring was on view.
According to an official statement from the office of the father of the groom-to-be, Prince Charles, the two, both 28, "became engaged in October during a private holiday in Kenya."
While no official wedding date has been announced, the two are expected to marry in the spring or summer of next year.
"Everyone is absolutely delighted," an old friend tells PEOPLE. "He has never had eyes for any other woman since Kate came on the scene. She is going to make a wonderful wife, a wonderful princess." View the original article here
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility
(TEHRAN, Iran) — Iran began loading fuel into the core of its first nuclear power plant on Tuesday, moving closer to the start-up of a facility that the U.S. once hoped to stop over fears of Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iranian and Russian engineers started moving nuclear fuel into the main reactor building in August but a reported leak in a storage pool delayed injection of the fuel into the reactor.
Under a contract signed between Iran and Russia in 1995, the Bushehr nuclear power plant was originally scheduled to come on stream in July 1999 but the start-up has been delayed repeatedly by construction and supply glitches.
Iranian officials have sporadically criticized Russia for the delays, some calling Moscow an "unreliable partner" and others accusing Russia of using the reactor as a lever in nuclear diplomacy with Iran.
Russia began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007.
At the plant's inauguration on Aug. 21, Iran's Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi had said loading the fuel into the reactor core would take place over two weeks and the plant would then produce electricity two months later in November.
Earlier this month, he said that the start up was postponed because of a small leak. Originally there had been speculation that a computer worm found on the laptops of several plant employees might have been behind the delay.
David Darg is the International director of Operation Blessing. I have had the pleasure of working closley with David Darg on the ground in Haiti. David,myself and Bryn Mooser from APJNOW.org tackeled a flooded village area of Haiti where 8 people where kiled by fast moving waters just two days ago(this will be an ireport soon).David was one of the first responders to the Cholera outbreak at St. Marc hospital.... The following is what David had to say
We woke to some disturbing news today. Our friends at Partners in Health emailed to say that there were people arriving at St. Marc hospital in droves, sick with diarrhea and that people were dying from dehydration at an alarming rate. The question was clear, could Operation Blessing mobilize to provide clean water to an area suspected of having Haiti’s first major cholera outbreak in decades.
Our staff immediately began loading our trucks with equipment and supplies, just two days ago we responded to emergency flooding near Leogane so the drill was fresh in our minds. During the 2 hour drive to St. Marc the details began to emerge of what was unfolding in the region. Email traffic on my phone was showing the death toll climbing steadily while there was still speculation as to what was causing the sickness. Many of us suspected Cholera but some of our Haitian staff had heard rumors on the radio that villagers had been made sick through contaminated sea food. There was definitely an air of nervous tension amongst the staff.
We arrived at St Marc hospital to a horror scene. I had to fight my way though the gate as a huge crowd of worried relatives stood outside while others were screaming for access as they carried dying relatives into the compound. The inside of the courtyard was lined with patients hooked up to IV drips. It had just rained and there were people lying on soggy sheets on the ground half soaked with rain, half soaked with feces. Children were screaming and writhing in agony, others were motionless with their eyes rolled into the back of their heads as doctors and nursing staff searched desperately for a vein to give them an IV. The hospital was overwhelmed, caught suddenly by one of the fastest killers there is, Cholera (still to be confirmed).
Our friend, Cate Oswald, from Partners In Health came out from one of the triage tents clutching a hand drawn map. It showed the local river and had the names of a few communities where the patients had been coming from. Cate and some PIH staff loaded into a vehicle and led us into the countryside to find the source of the epidemic.
Soon we were heading down narrow dirt roads with rice paddies and canals on either side. The crisis had actually started yesterday but had only really come to light last night when doctors realized it was getting serious. By then the villagers had heard of the deaths and word spread quickly not to drink water from the river. Most people had stopped drinking the river water and had gone thirsty for hours. The roads were lined with villagers holding buckets, begging for water. Some larger groups of villagers had set up road blocks and our convoy was forced to stop and explain that we didn’t have water, only equipment to purify water and we were only heading to the source of the problem. The villagers reluctantly let us pass and we pressed on.
People were constantly trying to flag us down and pointing to sick friends and relatives. One group forced us to stop and had a girl seriously close to death. The PIH staff quickly started her on an IV and placed her in their vehicle. Her mother, clutching another baby, explained that her husband had died yesterday and asked us to save her daughter; Cate and the PIH staff did save her.
We arrived at the place where many of the patients had originated from, a small dusty community called Babou La Port. The Operation Blessing team immediately went into action setting up our water purification system. The key to the unit is that it filters and chlorinates, which ensures that any bacteria or diseases are killed in the water. As we worked the PIH team asked the community to split into two groups, those who felt ok and those who felt sick. The huge group of people began to split with sick villagers of all ages congregating under the shade of some large trees.
The medical staff placed IV’s in some critical patients. One of them, a boy named Frantz, was bought to us by his grandmother. He was weak and vomiting. His grandmother was frail and could only point to the river when we asked her how long Frantz had been ill. The unfortunate reality in this part of the world is that diarrhea is a common and frequent problem. But a villager with Cholera might lay down upon feeling ill expecting to get better as they often do, and be dead within hours.
Convoys of trucks plastered with the posters of various presidential candidates paraded on the dirt roads in the area. Many of the candidates saw this as an opportunity to campaign. They were tossing out small plastic bags of water to the desperate crowds, there were fights for the water and one man was crushed under one of their trucks in the scuffle.
Our filtration unit fired up and word spread quickly that there was water available. Soon a sea of multi colored buckets surrounded us. Villagers were appearing from every direction desperate to get drinking water. The tap stand was quickly surrounded and water flowed. There were no cheers and little laughter; most of the villagers there were stunned, afraid and weak. They were just relieved to have access to water. Every so often a villager would thank us in a gentle voice.
The system kept pumping clean water and night began to set in. I asked our Haitian staff if any of them would be willing to stay with the system overnight and keep it operating. It was a daunting challenge, to stay awake surrounded by deadly disease and desperate villagers but the staff stepped up to the challenge. Tonight there are OB Haiti staff members operating the water system giving life saving water to thousands and thousands of people in the midst of a horrific epidemic.
Confident that the system was in good hands we set back to St Marc. Back at the hospital in St Marc not much had changed, other than the death toll. As I write this the confirmed death toll is 135 and rising with thousands more infected. Tonight there were still patients being carried into the hospital close to death. Now however the cries of the mothers are louder and there were even more people at the gates desperate to hear news of their loved ones. The hospital is struggling to cope with such a sudden influx of patients especially considering that it is still recuperating from the January earthquake.
The last time I saw anything like this was a cholera outbreak in Bihar India in 2007. Now Cholera seems to have flared in Haiti to compound the misery of the earthquake and floods. The scenes I saw at St Marc reminded me of Port Au Prince after the earthquake: patients lying in the streets, doctors struggling to cope, mass hysteria and fatigue.
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility