Terri is out of Town

Well Terri is in Atlanta for the week. So here I go. The reason I do not post more often is because I am extremely boring. Case in point, my current two favorite websites are as follows:

http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/webcasteqfall07.htm

(Totally cool because it basically walks you through how to value a company)

http://fwallstreet.com/

(Totally sweet because it shows you how to do the same thing the first site dose only it does it faster)

Now sit back and be happy that I do not post more often.

P.S.: My current stock picks are:

Marathon Oil (MRO) – I don’t think there is anything out there that can replace oil anytime soon. So this is a safe bet.

FactSet Research Systems Inc. (FDS) – This one is a little more risky but the company is still under valued. Last quarter is the first time in the past five years that they did not post a gain. After the elections I think they will do really well. But like I said it is still pretty risky.

Joe's sad neglected blog

he's neglected this sad, poor thing since september 12, 2006. what can we do to encourage him to blog again? do i need to go away again? :-P

September 12, 2006 – Nigerian 419 Scams

Sad news everyone. I just read some news about one of the major ring leaders of a 419 Scam was arrested. So say good bye to a lot of those great classic emails promising to make you rich.

For those of you who are unaware of 419 scams they are those emails you get offering you too good to be true deals over the internet in order to trick you into sending them money. They are called 419 scams because most of them originate out of Nigeria and the criminal code in Nigeria outlawing this is 419. I believe the actual wording for the code goes something like this.

Code 419: Don’t rip morons off over the internet.

The scams are usually pretty easy to spot. My favorite goes a something like this.

Dear Sucker,

I am a high ranking official with the banking ministry of some country you have never heard of and am loyal to the recently overthrown Prince Nameyoucannotpronounce. Since Prince Nameyoucannotpronounce was exiled and his banking accepts frozen he is unable to start an army that will help him regain his thrown so that he can promote peace threw out the world for a million billion years. If you send me $10,000 I can bribe some officials and get Prince Nameyoucannotpronounce fortune of elventy billion dollars released which we would be more then happy to share with you for your stupidity. Oh wait I meant generosity. All you have to do is send a cashers check for $10,000 along with your name, address, telephone number, SSN, mothers madden name, bank account numbers, and any other information we may need to withdraw all your life savings.

Come on how could you not help. The Prince gets his thrown back, there is the whole world peace thing, and even though you did not do it for the money but rather the good feeling you get for helping an ousted prince half of eleventy billion dollars will be a nice perk.

I read one story about a guy in the US that lost about $500,000 and was convicted of mail fraud because he fell for that scam.

An old coworker of mine thought he was getting a motorcycle worth about $7,000 for $500. Net gain for him -$500 and a ton of dumb ass jokes from me.

Another old coworker of mine actually played with the scam for a while to find out how exactly it worked. He was trying to sell a car at the time and got an email saying this guy wanted to buy it, but he only had a cashers check for $5,000 over what my friend wanted. Of course my buddy realized it was a scam from the second he saw it, but wanted to see how far he could take it. So he agreed. A couple of days latter he got a Bank of America cashers cheek for $5,000 over his asking price. He knew it was a fake so he took it to a Bank of America branch and asked if they could verify it. They ran it under there fluorescent light and checked the check number and told him it was a real check. So he went to his bank and had them check it. They told him it was a real check, but suggested he wait a couple of days after depositing it so that it could be processed and verified. So he went a head and deposited the check and sure enough he had several thousand dollars sitting in his account for a couple of days. The following week was classic. He got countless emails with very bad grammar asking him to hurry and transfer the $5,000. He even has voice mail from some guy asking for the money. Of course after a couple of days the bank realized the check was a fraud and withdrew the money from his account and coincidently about the same time all the voice mails and emails stopped.

What I like most about these scams is that the scammers get involved. It is not just send your money here and never hear from them again. No they take a personal interest. You really get what you pay for. The guy that fell for the Prince scam and lost $500,000, that was not one check. It started off small like $5,000. Then they ran into some problems and needed an extra $20,000 and so on and so on. And when he ran out of money they asked if he would help them with another sucker they found. My friend that lost the $500 on the motorcycle got an email saying there was some unforeseen processing fee and they needed another $200. It was not until he refused to pay that and demanded his money back that they stopped talking to him. And the buddy that was selling the car has all sorts of correspondence from them. It really is a customer service industry.

I am just up set that taking money from stupid people is illegal. I don’t think the scammers should be punished for having tricked people out of there money. If they are stupid enough to fall for it they don’t deserve the money in the first place. Look if you want to get rid of these scams it is pretty easy. All you have to do is make a law that says if you fall for a scam you have to pay your scammer twice as much as he tricked you out of and exchange nationality with him. The way I figure it we will get a huge influx of smart people and get rid of all our morons.

Ok one more topic since it is so close to 9-11. I watched the tail end of the ABC 911 special, and have read a lot of stuff on message boards claiming it was bias and made this person or that person look responsible. People tend to look back on history and apply a modern day prospective on it. I tried explaining this to one of my boss’s, and his response was, “No what is wrong is that we have became too reliant on technology for surveillance and spying rather then using human intel.” So seeing as how my statement was on the validity of accessing blame rather than operational setbacks I quickly dropped the subject and now try and not discuss politics with my boss any more.

Anyway back to my point, one thing people love to point out is that the CIA had OBL tracked to some tent and could have taken him out if some politician had only given them permission. Five years ago having the CIA assassinate someone was easier said then done; the CIA’s track record on it has not been a good one. (I.e. Bay of Pigs.) Even if we had succeeded, we would have looked more like an imperialistic nation then we do now. And there is no way Pakistan (The only Arab country with a nuclear weapon) would have become an ally of ours.

Well I hope this has given you something to think about and good luck with those 419s.

July 24, 2006 – Way to Long Between Updates

Sorry it has been so long between updates, but with Terri out of town life has been pretty boring. Boo Boo has snuck out a couple more times since then. I have been working in the yard a lot lately. I finally got most of the mulch laid out, and now all I need to do is set up two more sprinkler heads, and plant a couple of more plants and I will be set for a while. Dixie came into town last Friday and Alicia and the gang all got together for the occasion. Terri’s dad was in town on Saturday to finish cleaning out the condo so I helped him a bit with that. The bad part is now I have tons of boxes sitting around my living room taking up space. On Saturday my parents also showed up at the house with a truck load of mulch. So needless to say I was pretty worn out by time Sunday rolled around.

Sunday was a little more laid back then Saturday. In the morning I went to see my cousin Tracy’s new house up in Leander. On our way up there the car I was riding in was rear ended. There was just a little damage to my aunt’s bumper and the car that hit us was an uncle of mines. So it really was not a big deal. Then I helped George move the last of his stuff out of the condo and gave Boo Boo a bath.

Also last night I realized Terri is trying to change me into a tree hugger. Recently I replaced all our light bulbs with florescent lights, we have a recycling bin at home, and I am even driving her civic instead of the Xterra to save on gas. Don’t worry I won’t change too much. It just goes to show you people will choose a more environmentally friendly way of life if it is economically beneficial.

Today our old forgin exchange student from Germany, Patrick, is coming into town. He is only going to be here for about two days, so I am going to take a half day tomorrow and go out to the lake with him.

Ok one of the main reasons I have not written in a while is because it looks as though I might have been wrong in one of my previous posts. With the election of Hezbollah in Palistine I said it was not the end of the world while my friend Aldo assured us all that it is.

Here is something some one posted on a forum I like to read. It does a really good job of explaining the current situation, and what each side is hoping to do. Apperently the article came from www.stratfor.com which has a yearly $99 member ship fee. If any one is interested. It is a little too expensive for me, but if all the articles are this well written it looks to be a good place to get some perspective about what is going on in the world.

Special Report:Why Hezbollah FightsTo understand Hezbollah,it is important to begin with this point: Almost all Muslim Arabs opposed the creation of the state of Israel. Not all of them supported, or support today, the creation of an independent Palestinian state or recognize the Palestinian people as a distinct nation. This is a vital and usually overlooked distinction that is the starting point in our thinking.When Israel was founded, three distinct views emerged among Arabs. The first was that Israel was a part of the British mandate created after World War I and therefore shouldhave been understood as part of an entity stretching from the Mediterranean to the other side of Jordan, from the border of the Sinai, north to Mount Hermon. Therefore, after1948, the West Bank became part of the other part of the mandate, Jordan.There was a second view that argued that there was a single province of the Ottoman Empire called Syria and that all of this province -- what today is Israel, Jordan, Lebanon andthe country of Syria -- is legitimately part of it. This obviously was the view of Syria, whose policy was and in some ways continues to be that Syria province, divided by Britain andFrance after World War I, should be reunited under the rule of Damascus.A third view emerged after the establishment of Israel, pioneered by Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt. This view was that there is a single Arab nation that should be gathered togetherin a United Arab Republic. This republic would be socialist, more secular than religious and, above all, modernizing, joining the rest of the world in industrialization and development.All of these three views rejected the existence of Israel, but each had very different ideas of what ought to succeed it. The many different Palestinian groups that existed after thefounding of Israel and until 1980 were not simply random entities. They were, in various ways, groups that straddled these three opinions, with a fourth added after 1967 andpioneered by Yasser Arafat. This view was that there should be an independent Palestinian state, that it should be in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967, extend to the originalstate of Israel and ultimately occupy Jordan as well. That is why, in September 1970, Arafat tried to overthrow King Hussein in Jordan. For Arafat, Amman, Jerusalem and TelAviv were all part of the Palestinian homeland.After the Iranian revolution, a fifth strain emerged. This strain made a general argument that the real issue in the Islamic world was to restore religious-based government. This viewopposed the pan-Arab vision of Nasser with the pan-Islamic vision of Khomeini. It regarded the particular nation-states as less important than the type of regime they had. Thisprimarily Shiite view was later complemented by what was its Sunni counterpart. Rooted partly in Wahhabi Sunni religiosity and partly in the revolutionary spirit of Iran, its view wasthat the Islamic nation-states were the problem and that the only way to solve it was a transnational Islamic regime -- the caliphate -- that would restore the power of the Islamicworld.That pedantic lesson complete, we can now locate Hezbollah's ideology and intentions more carefully. Hezbollah is a Shiite radical group that grew out of the Iranian revolution.However, there is a tension in its views, because it also is close to Syria. As such, it is close to a much more secular partner, more in the Nasserite tradition domestically. But it alsois close to a country that views Lebanon, Jordan and Israel as part of greater Syria, the Syria torn apart by the British and French. There are deep contradictions ideologically between Iran and Syria, though they share a common interest. First, they both oppose the Sunnis. Remember that when Lebanon firstunderwent invasion in 1975, it was by Syria intervening on behalf of Christian friends and against the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). Syria hated Arafat because Arafatinsisted on an independent Palestinian state and Syria opposed it. This was apart from the fact that Syria had business interests in Lebanon that the PLO was interfering with. Iranalso opposed the PLO because of its religious/ethnic orientation; moreso because it was secular and socialist. Hezbollah emerged as a group representing Syrian and Iranian interests. These were:Opposition to the state of IsraelAn ambiguous position on an independent PalestineHostility to the United States for supporting Israel and later championing Yasser ArafatHezbollah had to straddle the deep division between Syrian secularity and Iranian religiosity. However the other three interests allowed them to postpone the issue.This brings us to the current action. Three things happened to energize Hezbollah:First, the withdrawal of Syria from Lebanon under pressure from the United States undermined an understanding between Israel and Syria. Israel would cede Lebanon to Syria.Syria would control Hezbollah. When Syria lost out in Lebanon, its motive for controlling Hezbollah disappeared. Syria, in fact, wanted the world to see what would happen if Syrialeft Lebanon. Chaos was exactly what Syria wanted.Second, the election of a Hamas-controlled government in the Palestinian territories created massive fluidity in Palestinian politics. The Nasserite Fatah was in decline and a religiousSunni movement was on the rise. Both accepted the principle of Palestinian independence. None made room for either Syrian or Iranian interests. It was essential that Hezbollah,representing itself and the two nations, have a seat at the table that would define Palestinian politics for a generation. But Hezbollah was more a group of businessmen making moneyin Beirut than a revolutionary organization. It had to demonstrate its commitment to the destruction of Israel even if it was ambiguous on the nature of the follow-on regime. It had todo something.Third, the Sunni-Shiite fault line had become venomous. Tensions not only in Iraq, but also in Afghanistan and Pakistan were creating a transnational civil war between these twomovements. Iran was positioning itself to replace al Qaeda as the revolutionary force in the Islamic world and was again challenging Saudi Arabia as the center of gravity of Islamicreligiosity. Israel was a burning issue. It had to be there. Moreover, in its dealings with the United States over Iraq, Iran needed as many levers as possible, and a front in Lebanonconfronting Israel, particularly if it bogged down the Israelis, would do just that.Hezbollah is enabled by both Syria and Iran. But precisely because of both national and ideological differences between those two countries, Hezbollah is not simply a tool for them.They each have influence over Hezbollah but this influence is sometimes contradictory. Syria's interests and Iran's are never quite the same. Nor are Hezbollah's interests quite thesame as those of its patrons. Hezbollah has business interests in legal and illegal businesses around the world. It has interests within Lebanese politics and it has interests inPalestinian politics. As a Syrian client, it looks at the region as one entity. As an Iranian client, it looks to create a theocratic state in the region. As an entity in its own right, it mustkeep itself going.Given all these forces, Hezbollah was in a position in which it had to take some significant action in Lebanon, Israel and the Islamic world or be bypassed by other, more effective,groups. Hezbollah chose to act. The decision it made was to go to war with Israel. It did not think it could win the war but it did think it could survive it. And if it fought andsurvived, it would have a seat at the Palestinian and Lebanese tables, and maintain and reconcile the patronage of Syria and Iran. The reasons were complex, the action was clear.Hezbollah had prepared for war with Israel for years. It had received weapons and training from Iran and Syria. It had prepared systematic fortifications using these weapons insouthern Lebanon after Israel's withdrawal, but also in the Bekaa Valley, where its main base of operations was and in the area south of Beirut, where its political center was. It hadprepared for this war carefully, particularly studying the U.S. experience in Iraq.In our view, Hezbollah has three military goals in this battle:1. Fight the most effective defensive battle ever fought against Israel by an Arab army, surpassing the performance of Egypt and Syria in 1973.2. Inflict direct and substantial damage on Israel proper using conventional weapons in order to demonstrate the limits of Israeli power.3. Draw Israel into an invasion of Lebanon and, following resistance, move to an insurgency that does to the Israelis what the Sunnis in Iraq have done to the Americans.In doing this, the U.S.-Israeli bloc would be fighting simultaneously on two fronts. This would place Jordan in a difficult position. It would radicalize Syria (Syria is too secular to beconsidered radical in this context). It would establish Hezbollah as the claimant to Arab and Islamic primacy along the Levant. It also would establish Shiite radicalism as equal toSunni radicalism.The capture of two Israeli soldiers was the first provocation, triggering Israeli attacks. But neither the capture nor the retaliation represented a break point. That happened whenHezbollah rockets hit Haifa, several times, presenting Israel with a problem that forced it to take military steps -- steps for which Hezbollah thought it was ready and which it thoughtit could survive, and exploit. Hezbollah had to have known that attacking the third largest city in Israel would force a response. That is exactly what it wanted.Hezbollah's strategy will be to tie down the Israelis as long as possible first in the area south of the Litani River and then north in the Bekaa. It can, and will, continue to rocket Haifafrom further north. It will inflict casualties and draw the Israelis further north. At a certain point Hezbollah will do what the Taliban and Saddam Hussein did: It will suddenly abandonthe conventional fight, going to ground, and then re-emerge as a guerrilla group, inflicting casualties on the Israelis as the Sunnis do on the Americans, wearing them down.Israel's strategy, as we have seen, will be to destroy Hezbollah's infrastructure but not occupy any territory. In other words, invade, smash and leave, carrying out follow-on attacksas needed. Hezbollah's goal will be to create military problems that force Israel to maintain a presence for an extended period of time, so that its follow-on strategy can be made towork. This will be what determines the outcome of the war. Hezbollah will try to keep Israel from disengaging. Israel will try to disengage. Hezbollah sees the war in these stages:1. Rocket attacks to force and Israeli response.2. An extended period of conventional combat to impose substantial losses on the Israelis, and establish Hezbollah capabilities to both Israel and the Arab and Islamic worlds. Thiswill involve using fairly sophisticated weaponry and will go on as long as Hezbollah can extend it.3. Hezbollah's abandonment of conventional warfare for a prepared insurgency program.What Hezbollah wants is political power in Lebanon and among the Palestinians, and freedom for action within the context of Syrian-Iranian relations. This war will cost it dearly,but it has been preparing for this for a generation. Some of the old guard may not have the stomach for this, but it was either this or be pushed aside by the younger bloods. Syriawanted to see this happen. Iran wanted to see this happen. Iran risks nothing. Syria risks little since Israel is terrified of the successor regime to the Assads. So long as Syria limitsresupply and does not intervene, Israel must leave Damascus out. Looked at from Hezbollah's point of view, taking the fight to the Israelis is something that has not happened in quite a while. Hezbollah's hitting of Haifa gives it the position it hassought for a generation. If it can avoid utter calamity, it will have won -- if not by defeating Israel, then by putting itself first among the anti-Israeli forces. What Hezbollah wants inIsrael is much less clear and important than what it opposes. It opposes Israel and is the most effective force fighting it. Fatah and Hamas are now bystanders in the battle for Israel. They have no love for or trust in Hezbollah, but Hezbollah is doing what they have only talked about. Israel's mission isto crush Hezbollah quickly. Hezbollah's job is to survive and hurt Israel and the IDF as long as possible. That is what this war is about for Hezbollah.

So if you are still with me congratulations. There are a few things that this article sort of brushes over. For example it suggests that the British mandate after WW I that established Israel took land away from Arabs and gave it to the Jews, and this is what started all the fighting. Actually there was already a large Jewish community living in the region. Back in the 1881 there were a lot of Jews that migrated to the area and bought land from Arabs while following the teachings of a guy named Moses Hess, who wrote about a Jewish nation. Anyway after these Jews bough the land they formed large farming communities. It was at this point that the current conflicts between Jews and Arabs began. I am not exactly sure what started these conflicts. My guess is that neither side is 100% blameless. But it is my understanding that back then most Arabs were merchants and nomads, and the Jews were settlers. It sounds a lot like the conflicts we had here in the US between Indians and Pioneers. Any way it really dose not matter how it started, because to be honest the things they are fighting for today have nothing to do with it.

Now the scary part is everyone know Hezbollah is basically a puppet organization of Iran and Syria. How long will it take terrorist organizations like Hezbollah to get there hands on nuclear weapons if Iran is allowed to develop them?

Another interesting question is, is it a mistake to be pursuing democracy in the Middle East? Would it not be more beneficial for us to emphasize nonsectarian government? Emphasizing democracy has so far played into the hands of radical fundamentalist. Hezbollah was elected into government in democratic elections in both Lebanon and Palestine, and Iran is a Democratic Republic. While on the other side almost all our allies in the Middle East are monarchies. i.e. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Dubai, and the list goes on. The big differences being there governments are nonsecular.

Ok I know this post is going to upset some of you because it is so long. Sorry.

July 10, 2006 – I Will Do it Tomorrow

That was my slogan all weekend long. I did manage to at least manage mow the lawn on Saturday, but that was about it. I still have a ton of gardening and edging to do. I slept most of the day on Friday. Terri tried to wake me up by calling me 45 times. I did manage to wake up in time to have dinner with my family. It was nice to have everyone there. Peyton had a huge bump on his head from where he fell at Sea World. It was pretty bad. Robin had to take him to the hospital for a CAT scan to make sure everything was OK.

Saturday after mowing the lawn I went out to my parents to visit and have dinner. My dad bought a new computer. I am pretty sure the only reason he bought it was so that he would have one more thing to complain about. While I was out there Boo Boo ran away twice chasing deer. Saturday night I went out with Dave, Boris, and Julie. Julie just bought a 2003 MR2 Spider. Man is that a sweet car. Dave also got a new toy. He got himself a motorcycle. With everyone getting new stuff I feel left out. I want a new toy.

Sunday I was the biggest bum in the whole world. I only left the house one to get lunch with George. George is pretty lucky I put pants on for that outing. And after that there was a whole lot of nothing going on. I did not even watch the world cup. I did manage to watch the penalty kicks at the end, but I basically missed the entire game. 1 to 1 sounds like my decision to watch my grass grow was just as action filled. Sorry to all ya’ll soccer fans, but it has to be the most boring game ever. In base ball at least something happens every once in a while.

I was reading my favorite forum today and someone posted a link to something the founder of Whole Foods wrote. link It is basically about his belief in Libertarian. He does a pretty good job of pointing out some of the mistakes of the Libertarian movement. However he dose seem to get a little idealistic about some things, but aren’t political beliefs fairly idealistic at there core. One thing he dose bring up as being a fundamental part of Libertarianism that I see as being it’s biggest obstacle is this thing he calls Social Responsibility. This is the idea that it is a person’s duty to society that when they have sufficiently satisfied our needs we then turn around and start helping those around us. In liberalism this social responsibility is mandated and force upon society, while in conservatism it is largely ignored and delegated to charitable societies.

Last week I unfairly commented on a show I have not yet seen when trying to point out my disapproval of people promoting theories as facts in order to push an agenda. And some people took it to mean that I do not believe that our energy consumption is having negative effects on our environment. That could not be further from the truth. Currently it seems as though our approach to reducing energy consumption is taking a very libertarian approach. Everyone do what you can at your own pace. The result being, the limiting factor of Libertarianism, that no one is willing to make sacrifices for anyone else if they do not have to and thus noting is getting done.

So my questions for this week is: Is Libertarianism a viable political belief? Can Social Responsibility be taught, and if so how?

July 6, 2006 – Long Weekend

Wow, were to start. Last Friday Dan and Melanie came into town, because Mel’s sister got them a great deal at the Omni down town. While they were in town I got to dog sit Tanner, there two year old lab.

Most of Friday and Saturday were spent cleaning the house getting ready for Terri’s visit. I picked her up late Saturday night and on Sunday we meet up with Dan and Mel at Kirby’s for a late breakfast. We watched the new Superman movie. I know most people are talking about how bad it was, but I don’t think it is that bad. It is exactly what it was suppose to be, and entertaining action movie. There are some parts in the story line that make you go, “What the Hell?”, but for the most part it was entertaining. The special effects were good, and Parker Posy and Kevin Spacey both did a great job.

Saturday night we BBQed up some kabobs, and had a pretty nice relaxing day at the house. Monday we got a lot errands run in the morning, and went to Bret and Wills wedding that night. It was a very nice wedding.

Tuesday Terri and I were up by 5:00 to get her to the airport. John had a 4th of July pool party at his house which was a lot of fun, but I tried to take it easy after a hard night of partying at Brett’s wedding. Boo Boo had a good time at the party though; there were lots of dogs there for him to play with.

Since then all I have been doing is work and trying to recover. At least it is a short weekend. The yard is starting to get a little out of hand since I have not been able to work on it at all this past weekend. So I will probably be having fun with that this weekend.

Now on to current events. After that huge response to immigration reform last week we are once again going to turn our attention to south of the border. Ok I was not going to mention immigration reform at all, but my co-worker got me a little worked up on the subject so here it goes. Yesterday my co-worker sent out this video thinking it was very interesting. Immigration video Watch it or don’t, it really does not matter. Basically the video is a guy with a little bit of information and an agenda. He starts talking about the US population growth with some information he downloaded from the US census burro. So he points out how the population is growing and how it is predicted to hit a plateau except for the evil immigrants who will just make the population blow up right off this chart. Then from there he goes on to say that our infrastructure will not be able to handle this population growth. Where he gets this information no one knows. (It is just like the underwear gnomes on South Park, “Step 1 steel underwear. Step 3 Profits.”)

Anyway she asks me what I thought about the video, and I politely explained how I did not believe his conclusions were justified. She keeps trying to tell me that he had lots of facts in his presentation. Anyway what scares me is that I believe she is quite a bit more intelligent then your average American, yet she can not see that this guy’s presentation is lacking a lot of facts, and he is basically trying to scare people into immigration reform. What would your average American think?

Terri the other day watched “An Inconvenient Truth” the new Al Gore movie on global warming. I have not seen the film so I can not comment on it directly, however it seems like it is a lot along the lines of that clip my co-worker sent me. Lots of numbers and facts, but the link between the data and the conclusion is not there.

Now don’t get me wrong. Do I think illeage imargation puts a strain on our social services, yes. But don’t show me a population grath and tell me that. Point out how people are coming into this country using social services such as welfare. Do I think there is a link between burning fosil fules and gloable warming, I don’t know. But hay it would probably be better to be safe then sorry, so if there are some things we can do to reduce polution why not. But don’t show me an ice core and say it proves that in the last 100 yr our average temprature has increased by 1 degree and say it is proof that cars are causing a green house effect.

By the way for everyone worried about gloable warming I suggest you read a book called “A short History on Nearly Everything”. It is very intresting and walks you thew our understanding of most of the natural sciences. My favorate thing about the book is he goes on to explain how all sorts of natural things in this would we do not understand, and how easily we can be all be killed off by these natural fanomonon. His conclusion being that even though life is fragile and rare it seems to be very resealiant and finds a way to adapt.

So be wary of all those profits of doom because they will be wrong millions of times, while the optomise will only be wrong onece.

June 26, 2006 – Lots of Work to Do, and No Time to Do it.

Last week was a pretty nice week. Last Sunday was Father’s Day so I went out to my parent’s house and helped them with some chores. On Tuesday, my old college friend Nichole was in town and we watched the Dallas Mavericks choke. Wednesday Gena, Liam, and Mitch came by the house to barrow my car and go for a walk around the park. That was really nice.

Thursday I invited them back over for a BBQ, and they brought Mitch’s dad with them. I tried a recipe for Shiner Burgers I got off a 6-pack of Shiner Bock. The burgers were way too moist and fell apart on the grill. They were also not as tasty as I had hoped, but everyone was very nice and did not mention it to me. Friday I started a long weekend of yard work.

Friday night I went out with Dave and Boris and when I got home I tried to write my blog. Around page eight I realized Jason was right and that I need to be more concise. In it however I believe I did have three cures for cancer, the answer to the question of life, and a great recipe for brown betties.

Saturday Dave cooked Jen and I a great lunch, and we watched a weeks worth of The Daily Show. There was a great bit making fun of the new North Korean missile name, plus tons of other really funny stuff. The rest of the day was spent on yard work. I started installing a sprinkler system in the back yard.

Sunday was Chloe’s birthday party, and Julia went all out. There was tons of food there so she sent George and me home with a lot of the leftovers. I am going to be eating well this week. I bough Chloe a trampoline with handlebars on in. (frog trampoline – They sell them at Academy for $29) It is a great toy for little kids, because they spend hours jumping on the thing wearing themselves out and it dose not make any noise. I bought one for Peyton when he turned one, and he still loves to play on it.

The rest of the day I worked on my sprinkler system, and then went to help Robin clean out a fish tank at her school. Apparently Peyton accidentally over fed some fish, and Robin needed help figuring out how to clean the filter. A helpful hint to everyone, don’t buy fish. They suck.

Update on Omer’s dad. He is doing a lot better. It looks like he should be able to make a significant recovery. I need to say sorry to Yung and Liam for butchering there names in previous posts.

Also I would like to apologize to the oil and gas industry for accusing them of price gauging. The real reason for the higher gas prices is due to limited production capacity which is a result of strict environmental regulations put on new refineries back in the ‘70’s. Because of these regulations oil and gas companies have not built a new refinery in the US in the past 30 years, thus resulting in a market where demand exceeds supply. It is at this point where the explanation must stop, because if you were to examine it any further you would have to ask yourself if this is the cause of the higher gas prices would we have not had a gradual increase in price as refineries approached there production limits rather then a sudden spike? There is an attempt to explain this spike by using price points and foreign markets that if you don’t dig too deeply into covers a lot of bases. But we are going to stop back there by blaming it on environmental regulations. Oh, and on a completely unrelated topic this blog is now sponsored by the good people at Exxon-Mobile.

Now on to the discussion topic. As promised this one is on immigration. I know it is a touchy topic so I will refrain from any jokes like, who is going to build the wall? Let’s face facts the only reason this became an issue is because Dubai tried to manage one of our ports. Then people cried about border security, and some jakehole who wanted to draw attention away from ports pointed towards the Mexican border. I mean if you are an terrorist doesn’t it make more since to send a bomb via cargo ship then try and sneak it across the Brownsville border on your back?
Now I think we all have heard a lot about the many different sides and issues of immigration reform. My favorite being, building a giant wall, only because it shows how freaking stupid people in congress are. Now don’t get me wrong I hate Mexicans as much as the next guy, but the truth is they are here doing the jobs no one else would do. Like accounting, architectural design, and computer programming. (Funny side note Dave was telling some girl what he dose for a living, and she replied, “I figured it was either computer work or working in a field.” I just hope the girl was really good looking, because with that brain she is not going to get very far.) Because Mexicans are to blame for how bad our economy is doing right now, they are trying to turn the southwest into Mexico II, and they eat babies, we can all agree that immigration is a emendate crisis that must be taken care of. So let’s get on to the solutions.

Since this is such a rational problem shouldn’t we take care of it rationally? The truth is people for the most part people come to America looking for a better life. It is pretty straight forward. People in Mexico need jobs, and people in the US give them jobs. So first why don’t we enforce our current laws and punish employers that hire undocumented workers, and second stimulate the Mexican economy so people do not have to leave Mexico to get a job. It is the second part of my plan that admit tingly there might be a couple of holes, but politicians love to point out how many illegal immigrants there will be in 10 years, imagine how much better the Mexican economy could be in 10 years. Now I must confess I am not very well versed in Mexican history, but as I recall not too long ago Mexico had a fairly decent economy (’60 – ’70). Then the late ‘70’s depression hit and Mexico was hit way harder then the US. Since then corruption has been holding Mexico back. Mexico is a country filled with natural resources, yet something like 30% to 50% of the countries GDP is from people working in the US sending money home to there families. There is also some figure like 5% of the population has 90% of the wealth. Now all of that could be wrong. So if you do know the real story please enlighten the rest of us. However my question is what do you believe to be the best way to stimulate the Mexican economy? Oh, and please be quick with your answers, I believe Hugo Chavez already working on his response.

A little correction in my Mexico history. Apparently according to wikipedia, the time after WWII was know as the Mexican economic miracle, and in 1994 was the economic crash in Mexico. The crash was due to corruption in government, and would have been much worse if Clinton had not given the Mexican government $50 Billion.