Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

Nine Eleven

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

The two numbers, nine and eleven, will always have a horrific meaning to Americans. That was the date when our country was attacked.

Today, we are remembering the victims of those attacks nine years ago, and the first responders who tried to save them and who ended up giving their lives, as well.

Are we middle class?

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

I can remember when I was in college, one of my favorite courses was sociology.  I found that topic very fascinating, so I learned a lot.  One of the things that the professor taught the class, was the “official” definition of what “upper,” “middle” and “lower” classes were.  According to the definition we were taught in class, the “upper class” were people who had really “old” money – many generations of wealth, going back as far as the Mayflower or longer.  The “middle” class were the “new” money people like the Kennedys and the Bushes and most of our political leaders.  These people have had tons of money for several generations.

Those of us who are “self made” wealthy, well, we’re just “upper-lower class” according to that principle.  And, to be politically correct, we no longer call the “lower” class by the term “lower.”  To be politically correct, we call the “lower” class the “working class.”

So it was with much surprise that I read an article on the Internet today at Investopedia that suggests that what I was taught as “working class” is in fact, in many cases, considered to be “middle class.”  Are you as confused as I am?

It’s Awfully Quiet

Wednesday, August 25th, 2010

Since the I saw on the news last week that we were all out of Iraq I haven’t heard or seen much online or on the TV about the “war being over”. In fact the few people that I’ve talked to about this didn’t even know about the convoy that was videoed leaving Iraq.

Last night while doing a bit of channel surfing I did see a news headline that stated that there is actually still 50 thousand of our military troops still in Iraq. What’s going on?

Water conservation

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

My father has always been interested in conservation – even before it became “cool” to be “green.”  Part of his attempts at conservation have always included rain harvesting.  Ever since I can recall we have had rain water barrels at the corners of our house and our garage.  We would use the water collected from the rain barrels to water our gardens and wash the cars.

The only thing that worries me about doing this is the reports that I hear about acid rain.  That’s the biggest reason we don’t use it for potable water.  I don’t know if there even exists a filter system that could be purchased by a homeowner that would make it safe to drink.  That is one of the things that makes me very angry about the slowing down of environmental protection acts – the air that is being polluted hundreds of miles away from us is ruining our air and water.  I know that there are technologies available to scrub the pollutants from the factories at the source, but they aren’t being installed and maintained as fast or as well as they need to be done.

Well…. I’ll get off my soapbox now!  Conserving water is still a good thing.

Preacher Blooper on YouTube.com

Friday, August 20th, 2010

I saw this guy on a news program and immediately went onto YouTube.com and looked the video up. I was surprised to find so many videos regarding preachers that are caught on tape with strong words coming out of their mouth. But this guy is the best, check it out.