When asked about that, the president responded, “We had to move so fast, we were in such emergency mode, that it was very difficult for us to spend time a lot doing victory laps and advertising exactly what we were doing because we had to move onto the next thing, …I take some responsibility for that,” said the president.

Obama, you douche, you are the leader of the nation, you get to take ALL responsibility for that.  First rule of leadership, “Everything is YOUR fault.” (source)  Do you honestly think the CEO of BP had anything directly to do with the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico?  No, of course not.  But is he responsible?  YES!

And here we are at the usual problem I have with a lot of the government programs, especially those pandered by the Democrats (but let’s face it, you Republicans are not innocent of this either):  Personal responsibility for your actions and the actions of your subordinates should be a foreign concept.  In a country where school teachers are trying to be parents, even dictate what medications the children should be on, is it really shocking the liberal president tries to dodge some blame?  Don’t worry about  doubling the national debt either, Mr. President, that is someone else’s fault too.

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Yes, that is right, I will never get back all that I put into SS.  Nevermind the fact I should be paid interest on my contributions.  Why was privatizing such a bad idea?

Anyways, I received one of these letters, and it had a section in it entitled “Will Social Security still be around when I retire?“.  Look to the right, there is a scan of this image.

I love how it says “Yes.” at the very begining and then goes on to try and quantify that answer with the basic assumtion you, the reader, didnt pass 2nd grade math.

So, according to this, the money will be gone in 2037.  I hate to point out the fact I dont reach age rull retirement age (67) until 2044.  Not inspiring a lot of trust with already failing in the numbers department.

Then it goes on to say that if nothing is done, in 2037, they should be able to pay about 76% of the benefits to which I am entitiled.  WHAT?!

So just to clarify, Social Security will run out of money ~7 years before I am at full retirement age, AND will only be able to pay 76% of the benefits scheduled, which already are only about 80% of what I paid in, with no interest.

How was the answer “Yes.” to the question “Will Social Security still be around when I retire?“?  You just said we will run out of money years before I am elegible to retire, and even then I wont recieve all that I should.

What have we learned?  First and foremost, like healthcare, the goverment has great ideas, really, they are good ideas, they just have no fricking clue on how to execute it.  None!

Secondly, the correct answer to the question “Will Social Security still be around when I retire?“, is “No.  Not really.”

If you want, contact your folks in Congress, let them know this is a bunch of crap, and now is the time to start fixing it, not 2037, or 2044, or whenever it is you will retire, or (God forbid), need disability.  And if you think you don’t need to save for retirement, go take a 2×4, hit yourself in the head, and start drawing disability now.  Learning to live on that income is the ONLY way you will not need your own retirement setup.

On our recent vacation I saw one that said “God is Pro-Life”, and man did that annoy me.  Is God Pro-Life?  If you are answering unequivocally “yes”, how the heck do you know?  Did you ask him?  Did he blog it?  Did you get the memo?  Last I looked we, humans, were given free choice by God, so the facts would tend to lead to the conclusion he is Pro-Choice.

For those of you that don’t know, I am Pro-Choice.  I don’t see it as my place to tell others what to do in their relationship, with their bodies, or with their lives.  That is a decision everyone should make on their own, and the consequences, one way or another, are between you and God.  No one else.  That same outlook also makes me for Gay Marriage, since again, who am I to condemn someone’s way of life.  If they are happy and not making me or mine unhappy, I don’t care who or what they do.

I am also pretty damn sure the Bible said do not judge people, love everyone, and treat everyone (and by extension their beliefs) with respect and generosity.

So to those of you running around all pissed at me now for saying God is actually Pro-Choice…why do you care?  Are you, personally, going to adopt each possible abortion?  If not, you don’t have a pony in the race and should sit down.

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For those of you that do not know, my wife is Christian Science, and I of course love her.  I am really ok with CS, but this one thing just irks me.

At the beginning of each CS service, they set up what CS is, which is a good thing since it is a less traditional take on the Protestant movement.  Part of that little spiel is they explain that there is no pastor, just the Bible and their “textbook”: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. That book was written back in the late 19th century by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of CS.  They then explain that the reason for not having a pastor is “un-divorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses and divinely authorized”.  Um…so you don’t want a pastor, because you don’t want your message contaminated by humans, and yet you read from a book that a human wrote that is admittedly not the Bible?  WTF?  Really?  Do you even bother to listen to yourself?

Just to reiterate, pastors are bad because they speak what they think with the Bible as a guide, fettering the message if you will, so instead we read only from two books, one of which a mortal non-divine woman wrote about 120 years ago.  If you have never read the CS book, you should.  It is basically her responses to the scriptures.  For example…

Bible
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. – Matthew 5:5

CS Textbook
Whatever text the “Mother Church” in Boston decides will be the response.  A few weeks ago it something to do with authority which didn’t make any sense to me, since it just didn’t seem relevant.

So yes, they do “fetter” the Bible, and God’s word, which I am honestly OK with since I go to church.  Let’s just not start off every single sermon message thing with a hypocritical statement.  There is enough of that to go around in organized religion as it is.

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Let’s go through a checklist of what it takes to make a Twilight movie:

Acting?  Nope.
Plot?  Nope.
Anything surprising at all?  Nope.
Wasting lots of time with montages as if that makes a movie?  Check.
Lots of staring into the distance?  Check.
Vocalizing the obvious?  Check.
Taking a 2×4 to your head to make sure you have a low enough IQ to enjoy Twilight?  Check.

The moral to the story is, if you drool on yourself, you will enjoy the movie.  Otherwise….have some dignity and watch Battlefield Earth instead.

The only way I may watch another one would be if it was like this:

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And in case you were wondering, she is not hot in the least.

Full Story: http://www.examiner.com/…private-parts

My mother’s health and home life isnt all that stable, so out of the 6 or so weeks Illi could have attended, she has made all 6, but 4 of them we had to drive her, an hour each way, instead of the actual plan of meeting and geting some time to ourselves, even more important now that Anara is here.  A total bust there.

We then started looking around at the local churches.  Gateway Church in Southlake, for all its size, doesn’t have a preschool or MDO program.  (hint hint).  Then we checked out Harvest Baptist Church in Watagua which at first glance seemed like a good idea.  However, upon further investigation, they want to place Illianna in the 1-2 year old because she was born on 9/11 instead of 9/1 or before.  10 days!  It didnt matter to them that Illianna is the size of a 6 year old, they evidently want to hold back her development because of the beaucracy.  When questioned about it, the receptionist said they just did what the schools did.  Dont make me laugh!  First and foremost, the schools make a lot of exceptions.  Secondly, Harvest has their own school, which wouldnt be needed or have students if the schools were so damn perfect.  The receponsist did say the supervisor would evaluate the situation after a month or so.  Not good enough.  A month and all the costs paid later, what if she was stuck because there wasnt room or the supervisor didnt feel she should be moved? I refuse to go through the hassle.  I asked to speak to the supervisor, and was told she wasnt aviable, only to meet her about 4 minutes later when she came out and introduced herself as the Executive Director.  I told her the problem, and she said, “Yes, that is the rule.”

Oddly enough, just because you are a church doesnt mean I am not a customer.  Exceptions in the system as large as Keller ISD are made all the time, so surely there is some wiggle room over 10 days before you place a kid that is bigger than any of your 4 year olds into the same class with kids that are only 15 months.  But alas, no.  So we are going to look for another program, hopefully one that is a bit less set on their rules and regulations.

Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it. ~ Henry David Thoreau.

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While I am extremely pro-Linux, and getting more so as I deal with Vista and the stupidity that is Microsoft’s latest OS (I can’t wait for Windows 7, anything is an improvement). Enough about Vista, be looking for that in a few days, as I have to deal with it, and pretend I have the intelligence of a basic moss covered rock in order to use it. I digress…

I didn’t end up getting a Mac for a couple of reasons. First is the price, it is more expensive for less machine, which doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I do understand it as they are pretty sexy. But I will admit as I type here on this backlit keyboard, this Dell is pretty sexy as well.

I have had some terrible support experiences with Apples over the last few years. You have to drag your computer to an Apple store, after you make an appointment, then you have to wait to get it back, which could be weeks. I don’t have the time for that crappy service. If I could tolerate that level of incompetence, then I wouldn’t have much of a case for the purchase of a computer in the first place.

Instead, Dell gives me next business day on site, with even accidental damage covered. Apple doesn’t even begin to offer that kind of service, regardless of their completely misleading commercials.

Then there is the issue of having to run Windows in a virtual machine for a lot of the software, and having to re-purchase the Adobe suite which is like $1800, instead of being able to use the fair-use clause and use the same copy for both my desktop and laptop.

So, what would the point of paying more for way crappy service, having to double up on software, new learning curve, and then running the other OS in a virtual machine. So, here I sit, hating Vista, but loving the machine, especially for the price. Thanks Dell, and oh, Apple, take note, either improve your warranty service, or just don’t bother going after the larger business market outside of the creative arenas.