As our unemployment rate flirts with 10% I have to wonder about a few things

1. Why do we accept the idea that illegal immigration is a good thing and has not directly contributed too many of our current economic woes.

2. Many women want to be in the workforce and God bless them that do want participate in the workforce. However shouldn’t we keep in mind the best times in our country were when families had a choice of the wife being a homemaker or a bread winner?

3. As we continue to increase the retirement age shouldn’t we remember words such as respect your elders. Those words make me wonder how respectful it is to plant an elderly person on a stool at the entrance of Wal Mart for an 8 hour shift.

4. Is it really wise that our current job market is so strained that youth looking for a summer or an after school job is just plain out of luck in many cases.

5. Is it wise that we put up with elected officials serving out their term from their death bed because the party they associate with may lose power if they step aside?

Those are just a few questions I am pondering, and as we deal with a difficult economic situation many of the answers will be hard to find while some answers are extremely simple.

Here are my simple common sense answers.

1. American citizens above all else! Immigration laws must be enforced so we are not giving an American job to a foreign citizen.

2. If you want to do business in America you must produce in America. Companies that send their plants overseas should sell all their products overseas also.

3. Give families the support they need to make a strong household. By support I mean tax breaks, school choice, and community enhancements, etc.

4. Eliminate the capital gains tax! It is call the free market for a reason and those who participate in the purest form of capitalism should not be penalized for their successes.

5. Phase out Social Security as we know it and replace it with a program that mandates all workers must invest 10% of their income in an investment of their choosing. The investor should be free to change the investment as they desire but are restricted from removing the monies until retirement.

6. Lower the retirement age, not raise it. Those that want out need to get out making room for the youth coming into the workforce.

Many will say how could we ever pay for all of that. Consider that when a company eliminates higher salaries they make more money. With this money the corporate tax rate will generate more revenue. That coupled with the elimination of the capital gains tax which will grow businesses and encourage more investment. This will go a long way toward putting the country in a good standing, but of course none of this will work without extreme cuts in spending that have been out of control for most of modern time.

1 yard from glory

As a professional athlete retires and fades from the glory surrounding the sport he participated in the athlete also fades from our memory. Usually we do not know or really care about our athletic heroes after sport endeavors. The athletes quickly fade from our memory, while the game winning shot, hard hitting tackle and the Hail Mary pass remain etched in our minds forever.
The only time we open up the past is when we give pause to honor the passing of the athlete who once astounded us by their playmaking abilities, on field courage and heroics. Well today is one of those unwelcome days when we pause to honor the memory Steve McNair.
For me McNair was not a great QB but he was a very solid player and I have great respect for the way he played the game. He was always a leader, always willing to share the spot light and never the troublemaker. McNair did not have the Super Bowl successes of Tom Brady, Dan Marino, John Elway, etc. What McNair did have was a successful career year in year out. In 13 seasons McNair threw for a very respectful 31,304 yards and 174 touchdowns. We tend to measure QBs by their passing yardage and touchdowns and forget about the yardage gained off of a QB scrambles (674 rushing yards for McNair) and the pain they played through.

Steve McNair shot to death July 4, 2009

I think, I believe, I know

Recently the outbreak of Swine flu has me thinking about immigration. I think our open door policy on our borders has done severe damage to our economy. I think our health care industry has also suffered greatly due to immigration. I think we do not do enough to keep drugs from entering our country. I think it is a bad idea when American business turns to illegal immigrants to fill jobs. I think we should do a better job of getting legal immigrants to assimilate into our culture. I think it is wrong for public education to teach foreign languages, I think that hiring an illegal immigrant should be a felony offense. I think I would be happy to have my taxes increased if the increase went to secure our borders and to deport all illegal immigrants. I think immunity is a lazy way to approach the problem, even though illegals are currently in our country they are still illegal.

It may surprise you to know that I am in favor of immigration but legal and thought out immigration. I believe foreigners should be able to study in our colleges and universities. I believe that great young minds should be welcomed to collaborate within the industries of our country. I believe that those who want to escape oppression should be welcomed to assimilate into our country. I believe that we should be accepting of those who value our laws, our ideals, and our compassion.

I know America is a land of immigrants who worked hard to build the truly greatest nation known to man. I know my country is a place of compassion, caring, and kindness. I know I am free because of the blood of my forefathers. I know my country is on the wrong course economically, morally and in issues of national security. I know things will be corrected because I know America.

I am absolutely sure that if you do not agree with the statements above you are not an American!

10 years after Columbine

Below is a link the a story from the Denver Post 10 years later, Columbine remembers
Stories by Kevin Simpson | Photos by Cyrus McCrimmonhttp://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_12174127?source=rss

I took the time to remember back to Columbine and from my memories came the question what has changed in the last 10 years. Sadly we have learned little and done even less to prevent tragedy's like Columbine. Some schools have taken measures to protect our children and those schools should be commended. Most though have done little but pay lip service to parents concerns over their child's safety while at school. Don't agree or believe me take a look at your child's school when at recess or ask to see an emergency evacuation plan, ask what happens in the event of a Bomb threat, spend some time around your neighborhood school and count how many times you see police patrolling the area. If you do all or even some of these things you will come to agree that most schools have done little to protect our kids from another Columbine. However if you still believe that schools are safe do a Google search of school shootings since Columbine and you will certainly come to agree that there is still a problem.
What is the solution, I don't know for sure but I have a few ideas just like most of you. I will share my thoughts with my son's school and I hope you will do the same.

Drafting McDaniel's Saviour

Who knows what the Broncos will do. However I think their are 2 offensive players worth taking if they fall to 12. QB Mark Sanchez is young, healthy and very accurate. Drafting Sanchez would calm many fans after the Cutler debacle.
The other player worthy of the 12 pick should never fall this far but if WR Michael Crabtree were to slip it would be a great pickup of Denver. Picking up Crabtree would send notice to Brandon Marshall, get your head straight or your on your way out. If Marshall were to listen Denver would have possibly the best WR trio in the NFL.
Should these 2 be gone the Broncos need to retool on defense and there is plenty of talent out there. With the 2 first round picks it should be simple to score big in this draft.

Reunions

We all have the desire to reignite friendships from our youth and occasionally we find ourselves taking extraordinary and expensive steps to find those friends. Nobody capitalizes on this like classmates.com, and when I say capitalize I mean rips people off. Classmates could be happy with profits from advertisements and not use a subscription based site but they insist on doing both. What does not make sense in how they compete with sites like Facebook, My Space and other social sites that are free to use and really do as good of a job if not better job than Classmates at enabling people to reunite through the web. Classmates seem to get its base to buy into their subscription service through many schools reunion committees. Many of these committees lack the tech knowledge to organize a reunion without a lot of help. So as your reunion approaches watch for the classmates.com connection and if your school uses Classmates suggest some alternatives. Facebook is 1 alternative but there are many, including starting your own school web page.

Enjoy your reunions being and actual reunion or an online reunion!

Will the Iphone replace the Kindle

Great news the Kindle 2 is out! How exciting! WOW! I am so excited and I just can't hide it.
We’ll wait a minute what’s that - Amazon just released an Iphone Kindle application. So I am confused the Kindle 2 just came out but it still costs a fortune around 300 bucks, so why don't I just use the free Amazon Kindle app on my Iphone.
Well that is entirely possible except the Iphone application at this time is a bit scaled back. The App does not allow you to access newspapers and magazines at this time. The App is not as full featured as Stanza and does not perform near as well. The App does not allow you to purchase from within the app, you must go to the Kindle store then the application syncs your store purchases.
Even with these bad points there are some exciting moves with Amazon allowing the Iphone to access the Kindle store content. The Iphone is a solid reader, Stanza makes this point. Amazon obviously wants a part of the Iphone market so newspapers and magazines should not be far behind. Another factor is that print media desperately needs options for delivering their subscription content. The Kindle is a solid device for delivering this media but its cost makes it prohibitive for most.
The end of the Kindle may be near who knows, we can only predict what makes sense. And common sense says that the world is looking for a single device solution to their daily needs. No matter what happens I think the Kindle store should be the beginning of something special now that Amazon has allowed outside hardware to access the content.

American people vs Dr. Kamrava

Do you recognize the name Dr. Michael Kamrava? If you are a hard working, common sence, pull yourself up by the boot straps kind of person the mention of this man's name should make you angry. See Dr. Kamrava is a fertility doctor. What is wrong with that you might ask. Well the good Doctor has 9 very famous patients. Thats right Nadya Suleman and her octuplets. Much anger has came from this situation and most of the anger has been directed toward Suleman and rightfully so. However skating through this with little to no scrutiny has been Dr. Kamrava. My opinion of the doctor is that he has acted irresponsibly . So lets hold him responsible for some of this stupidity. How about a law suit, since you and I will support this family for the next 20 years or so lets sue the Doctor for the trouble he has dumped in the lap of the American taxpayer.
American people vs Dr. Kamrava sounds like a good idea to me.

Bush’s biggest mistake!

Our former president did many things wrong and many things right however one mistake may define his presidency. The terrorists held within the confines of Guantanamo Bay were only an issue to the human right activists that confused the issue of criminals vs. enemies of the state. Now that President Obama has stubbornly decided to stick to his campaign promise of closing Guantanamo Bay Americans are wondering what we are going to do with these terrorist. Some rumors have detainees headed to Colorado, California, and Kansas. Forget the destination because one thing is clear. Americans with the exception of Pennsylvania congressman John Murtha do not want foreign terrorists in their neighborhoods. President Bush was wise to keep these detainees at a distance from America's shores, and he did so for a reason. We all know that there is a possibility, if not probability of terrorist cells still living within our borders. What happens if these terror cells become active with the purpose of breaking out the prisoners once held safely beyond our shores in a Guantanamo Bay Prison? Congressman Murtha believes holding these terrorist will be a boon to the Pennsylvania economy. Maybe the congressman is right, but would you want your family members to live or work near this facility? We as a nation, but especially Congressman Murtha and President Obama need to remember 9/11 and the damage that these terrorist are directly responsible for.

Now for President Bush's biggest mistake, the Guantanamo prisons should never been held as long as they have been held! Had President Bush gathered available information from these prisoners then scheduled their trials followed by swift execution. These prisoners and the Guantanamo issue would be out of sight out of mind.

Good times – Bad times

2008 closed with many wondering if 2009 would bring the great depression of our time. While the economy is terrible for most of us, could it be that these bad times may really become the good times of our lives.

Could bad economic news force us home to spend quality times with our families?

Could the bad economy give us a greater appreciation for the things we have?

Could the bad economy force corporations to examine their business model more closely and possibly improve it?

I am not trying to be overly opportunistic it is not in my nature to think positively. However I am pointing out that throughout history we have learned lessons from the times we live through. I am not panicked over our present day, although I am concerned. It is difficult to except change of any kind especially for me. However I am comforted by remembering stories of World War 2 and the Great Depression that were repeated by my elders as I was growing up. As a young person those stories annoyed, and bored me. Now as an adult I understand they were more than stories, they were lessons that I am glad I listened to.