DouglasChick's Blog

Blogging is short for web logging. Blogging is a forum where people post personal thoughts, web links, and opinion…but mostly opinion…a lot of opinion. If you are reading this, you are reading my blog. Once a blog is posted, it is up to its readers to qualify it as truth, lie, or opinion. There is generally a healthy exchanged of idea’s, sometimes followed by a somewhat heated debate of ideology, and in many cases it becomes personal.

Blog Stalkers, or blog bullies are bloggers that attack every post, fill the blog with page after page of almost incoherent ranting, (mostly angry rants regarding liberals or Bush/Cheney being Satan) and frightening away others from posting their opinions because they don’t want to be attacked, or worse…

Fox has 31 blogs in 31 cities. I have visited and read the posts of all 31. And in every city there is always one or two “Blog Stalkers” that control the mood of these websites, beat down its readers, and bully their opinions until their victims do not want to post anymore. Most blog stalkers or blog bullies use pictures of the flag, an eagle or a gun as their icon. I spoke with one Fox reporter who told me that they have ejected many blog stalkers, but only to see them return under yet another anyonomous name.

What has been your experiences with Blog Stalkers?

 With all of our dollars being sent away to other countries in our “Global Economy”, how do we purchase merchandise and keep the money here at home? Buy American! But buying American isn’t as easy as we might think, particularly when no one really knows which foreign entity, or emirates owns which corporation?

One way is to buy used. If you like a Japanese or German car, but do what your money to be sent back to Japan or Germany, you can buy a used car and keep the money in an local American economy. I just saw a 2 year old 56K Infiniti for 25 thousand dollars. 24 months old and it already lost more than half of its value. Buying a new car might help a foreign economy, but it is killing ours.

What about a good old fashion neighborhood garage sales? Ebay, Craigslist, and your local newspaper’s want ads is also a good way to keep your money locally.

Sending our hard earned money away to another country means never seeing it again.

Buying locally or purchasing used items locally means keeping your money local and giving you a better chance at getting it back one day.

Douglas Chick 

 At the gas pumps in this morning, I stare at the swiftly spinning dials, and the cycle of anger begins. Oil Robber Barons strike at the pumps again. I check out at the grocery store, Oil Robber Barons impact the food I eat. I come home and watch the nightly news, Oil Robber Barons, Oil Robber Barons, something about Hilary and Obama, Oil Robber Barons.

It is true that we are a capitalistic society, and our country enjoys the luxury of a free market, but when our economy is driven by Oil Robber Barons, where is the line between a free market society and out of control greed?

The countries that regulate thier oil sales, have a stronger dollar then the U.S. (They are financially stronger than the United States.) Why, because they know their economy is based off the cost of fuel. Do we need the same regulations to protect our country, or do we allow Oil Robber Barons to drive down America until we are a weak, over inflated, hollow country, dependant on the generosity of other nations? 

After much thought, 1500 years, and waiting for a response from God, the Vatican has updated its Seven Deadly Sins.  

The original offences and their punishments

Pride: Broken on the wheel
Envy: Put in freezing water
Gluttony: Forced to eat rats, toads, and snakes
Lust: Smothered in fire and brimstone
Anger: Dismembered alive
Greed: Put in cauldrons of boiling oil
Sloth: Thrown in snake pits

  New Seven Deadly Sins

1.``Bioethical' violations such as birth control
2. ``Morally dubious'' experiments such as stem cell research
3. Drug abuse
4. Polluting the environment
5. Contributing to widening divide between rich and poor
6. Excessive wealth
7. Creating poverty

Is this revision directed at President George W. Bush?
And do priest have there own list of Seven Deadly Sins, because I did not see “Child Molestation as a sin?

If we continue to vote for politicians that support the “Global Economy” as the business model of America, you and I will have no jobs! Being a liberals or conservative will mean nothing if the communist have all the jobs. The government leaders that bed with lobbyist are not looking after the interest of the American people; their greed has consumed them to such a scale that America is in danger of economic collapse. Economic terrorism is when you allow American jobs to be outsourced to countries.  Economic terrorism is when American tax dollars bail out foreign investors from the sub-prime crime. Economic terrorism is when the government gives you $600 hoping you spend it on Chinese made products. Economic terrorism is when gas prices are so high that it pushes a country in to a depression. And economic terrorism is when the government is too weak to stop it!

Voting for the same old politicians that caused this countries problems, will not fix them.

Four more years with the wrong president will only barcode the American Flag.  

Are you far to the right, or far to the left? After listening to your favorite radio talk show host, are you convinced that the world in doomed? Does your religious organization speak more about your participation in politicians than God? Do you or your friends often speak of how the radical media controls the world? Do these questions anger you?

If you answered yes, you might be an extremist… :-)

I read that the school system in Pakistan is collapsing and this is of great concern. Why, because uneducated people are easily converted into terrorist? Can this also be true in other countries? Can a lack of formal education, verses religious education, move people towards extremist violent acts? In the book The History of Violence, if there were such a book, I think it might read, “…most organized acts of violent are committed by the followers of organized religious.”  

I wonder, how many people I know in my daily life that feel the same passion to commit violence for their beliefs, as the terrorist do?

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

In the mist of what seems like so many political sex scandals, I find it more than curious that The New York Times is being attack for running the John McCain sex / lobbyist scandal? Killing the messenger is a staple political response to getting caught with your “hands” in the cookie jar. If true, is this a case of being in a lobbyist’s pocket and pants? I wonder if the most successful lobbyist put out? After all, you don’t give up military secrets to frigid spies?  My questions are:

If a politician lies, should they be banded from holding any type of office, like convicted felons are to vote?

If a news organization prints false allegations that ruin people’s lives, should they be held financially accountable? 

The largest healthcare benefactors are employee’s of the government. The same government leaders that say that National Healthcare is socialism enjoy the privileged benefits of free healthcare for not only themselves, but for their families as well. The same people that say the government can not manage healthcare efficiently run the government. No one knows themselves better then they do. So why should we vote for the same people that say they can not efficiently run a national program? 

Government leaders are now saying that healthcare should be taken out of the company and purchased by the individual user. Does this also include government employees? The United States is the largest employer in America. They have the largest healthcare plan, and it is paid for by the tax payers. (I do not mean the military. Soldiers that fight in wars should undoubtedly receive free healthcare for the rest of their lives.) They say that a large portion of Americans have healthcare, but they do not exclude the national healthcare package for government. They say we can not afford national healthcare for the people, but we can afford it for them. 

Oligarchy (Greek Oligarkhía) is a form of government where political power effectively rests with a small elite segment of society (whether distinguished by wealth, family or military powers). The word oligarchy is from the Greek words for "few"  and "rule". Compare with autocracy (rule by one person) and democracy (power in the people).

If my tax dollars, (and I pay a lot) If my tax dollars can not pay for mine and my families healthcare, why would I want to pay for yours.  

Global Economy: American Killer -- It is the U.S. consumers that have all the power. It is the people that dictate products, not the sellers. If we do not like a certain product, then we simply do not purchase it. If a toy is made by slave child labor, we boycott and demand change. The seller has no choice but to oblige, if they refuse, we refuse to buy. We do not purchase products that harm our families, then why do we purchase goods that hurt our family’s quality of life?

If you purchase goods and services made in another country and remove that money from your local community, it directly affects you. If you only purchase items made locally, you help your local economy, and money stays in your neighborhood, city, state, and country. However, if you purchase products made in other countries, you only benefit their neighborhood, city, state and country.

With my purchase money I want to help the people of my area first, then the people of my state, after then the people of my country. Only after my local, state and national economy has been satisfied first, then I might consider purchasing a product that helps strengthen another country. With every product I buy that is made in another country, or service I use, I hurt the people and economy of my country.  We can survival terrorist attacks; it is what we are doing to the dollar that will destroy us. We can blame the government for allowing jobs to be sent overseas, but We the People are the consumers, and only we can make the United States a financial power again.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com 

Conspicuous Consumption Economics

Conspicuous consumption is the force that drives the U.S. economy. If the consumers are not consuming, then the economy is not moving. But it takes more then just spending to spur growth. If consumer goods are not manufactured locally, the proceeds from the sales are not retained locally. If the jobs that create these consumer goods are sent to another country, then it is that country’s economy that benefits from our conspicuous consumption. All we benefit from are a bunch of consumer goods that ultimately end up populating our land fills.

Now let's look at China's booming economy. Because so many jobs and manufacturing have been sent to China, this means that their economy is flooded with U.S. payroll dollars. Now the Chinese people have money for consumer goods. U.S. businesses may have larger bottom line profits because of overseas outsourcing and sending factors to China in the short term, but in the long term, it will be the Chinese people and their businesses that will cut them out of the middle.

A real stimulus plan for the U.S. should have long term benefits, not short term goals that borrow American money from China, and then loan it to Americans, that have to be paid back to China. For real long term growth, (This means economic growth after the elections) Factors and jobs have to come back to America. But before that can happen, healthcare has to be fixed. Healthcare costs are too much for a company to make a profit.

Douglas Chick
DouglasChick@gmail.com

http://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/

You can sign up on the site for FREE Amber Alerts sent to your mobile phone as a text message when one is issued. When you sign up, you specify which zip code(s) you would like to receive alerts for. The site explains that you do not have to enter in multiple zip codes for the same city because most Amber Alerts are issued state-wide. The website does not charge any sort of fee for this, and neither does your wireless carrier. (Except maybe standard text message rates, not sure about that. The website has some sort of partnership with most of the carriers in the US). I will most likely sign up in the near future, and I would encourage everyone else to do the same ASAP.

The U.S. budget deficit is financed by borrowing. More and more of that money comes from China, now the United States' second-largest lender, after Japan. China's investment in U.S. government debt has more than tripled in the past five years, from $71 billion in 2000 to $242 billion in 2005.

 My question is; what are they using for collateral, the future labor of its citizens?

Terms for your Re-election: Dear Senator, Congressman, Governor, Presidential Candidate and others that want to be elected or re-elected. After reviewing your offer of $600 for my continued support I must say that you waited too long and offer too little. Although $600 seems like a lot if you’ve never had $600 before, and it might hold my interest through to the primaries, I’m going to need a lot more to get me to the November elections. How much more will be determined based from your 4 year review: 

Fuel Costs: As you know fuel costs have increased significantly, what use to be $20 a week for me has doubled? This means I’m going to I will need an additional $1040 of my money back to purchase gasoline for my car. 

Electricity: My electric bill has also increased by an average $80 a month. That would be $960 for the year.  

Insurance: My home owners insurance has also doubled so I’m going to need another $800.

Clothing, electronics, and other merchandise: Since the manufacturing of consumer goods are made in China now, and the savings have never been passed on to me, and moreover, the taxes that would normally be collected on these goods where not, and they were collected on my middle-class labored wages. I am going to need some of that back as well. 

The dollar has been devalued by 20%; this means that I lose twenty cents on the dollar, so I’m also going to require a 20% reduction on my federal taxes to off set the extra expense I incur because of it. 

Finally there is a little matter regarding my health care. It has been brought to my attention that the President, all the Senators, Congressmen, Governors, aids, and all government workers, and their families have national healthcare but I do not. So my tax dollars are paying for your healthcare and not mine? You have until November 1st to explain why this is? 

These are my terms. You have less than 11 months…GO!  

Best regards,

Douglas Chick ( I )

DouglasChick@gmail.com

If your laptop battery's life has gotten shorter over time, there is a way to recalibrate it. This method involves first turning off your screensaver and other power management settings that might put your laptop in sleep mode. Fully charge your laptop, then unplug it and allow it to drain the battery naturally until  your laptop shuts down.

Once the battery is fully drained, you can charge it back up again and restore your screensaver and power management settings.

...if this doesn't work, it may be time for a new battery.

Douglas Chick
www.TheNetworkAdministrator.com

I’m not an economist but I think this "Stimulus Plan" is best explained like this: