Selfish Government

Candidates are now declaring their intentions to run for president in 2012. Millions and most likely billions of dollars are spent on elections every four years. It has made me think about the amount of money spent on elections in this country and what that money could be spent on.

I think we have to ask ourselves what makes more sense? We have found out this year that governments can be toppled by Twitter and Facebook. These social media websites are free to use, so why do candidates for the office of president of the most powerful nation in the world not grasp this technology and spend their campaign funds on something that will definately make our country a better place to live?

Many of these politicians who have announced their candidacy have fought against President Obama's healthcare plan and our budget and taxes. Everyone knows that our healthcare system needs reform. Everyone knows that the government has the potential to employ people that will shape the future of our country. We need good, quality teachers to teach our children so they can grow up to be leaders of the world. Budget cuts affect our ability to hire these qualified teachers, forcing our children into overcrowded classrooms that make it difficult to learn.

Our politicians need to stop being selfish. Our politicians need to embrace the technology that is changing the world. For as much as we consider our country the most wealthy, powerful nation in the world, we are still selfish and slow to change. We believe that nobody can tell us what to do. We do things the way they should be done. We cannot look at something that is successful in a third world country and make use of it here. We are better than that. I am tired of this type of thinking and call on our leaders to truly embrace change. I am asking them to stop spending money selfishly and start thinking about the greater good.

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Out of Control!

We, in the United States, often look at the messes in other countries and laugh at them. We believe that the struggles they have are because they are not as civilized as us. We believe that the things that happen there could never happen here. We are jaded. We are arrogant!

Politics in this country has gotten out of control. Obama was elected president based on a campaign of change. The people bought into this change agenda, even though we knew that it is virtually impossible to change politics in this country.

Obama and the Left pushed through health care reform, which I think is a good thing. I have said before that I don't believe health care reform was marketed correctly. It is really insurance company reform. The Right was angry and they got everyone all riled up about reform. The Tea Party started whipping everyone into a frenzy by making them believe that this was going to be bad for them. It was going to turn us into a socialist country. Even people on government health care, Medicare, were furious that we were implementing government health care. A lot of hate was being directed at the Left from the conservative Right.

The Tea Party gained some control back in the elections last year. The first agenda from the Right was to reverse health care reform. That is the last thing we need in this economy. It will cost us hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse what is already being changed. That money could be better used to create jobs for the massive number of unemployed workers this economy has created. Or, it could be used to pay down the deficit that has been increased in order to help spur the economy along. Instead the Right is forcing this reversal of health care reform as a direct attack on Obama and his supporters.

Sarah Palin created a frenzy in March of last year when she released her target map of congressional districts with cross hairs on them. The map pointed out districts that her and John McCain had won in 2008 whose Congressmen voted for health care reform. She created hate among her followers for anyone who disagreed with her and the Right. I believe that her and some other politicians from the Right have gotten out of control. They are not trying to solve any problems, they are just trying to force their agenda down the public's throat. And I think that there carelessness contributed to the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. She was one of the Congressmen in the cross hairs and Jared Loughner, the shooter, took her words literally.

I don't blame them for the actual shooting as it appears that Loughner was mentally ill. What I do blame them for is dividing this country and creating anger and hate. They are just fanning the flames of unhappiness instead of trying to overcome the issues we are all facing and improving our situation. They are creating a bad culture in the United States and that can be blamed on poor leadership on their part.

You can look at countries as larger versions of companies and we all know how important culture is to the success of a company. Without a great, or even good, culture, a company will not thrive. It can limp along and be somewhat successful, but it will never be a great company. The same goes for countries. The culture of the United States needs a severe tune-up. We need to stop the hate and fighting amongst our politicians and focus on trying to make positive changes. I don't know if Obama's health care reform is the answer for the problems in the system, but at least he is trying to change it for the better.

We need our politicians to be leaders and focus on being positive and inspiring us to do great things. They need to help us embrace change and realize that it is necessary if this country is going to survive. We need to stop all of the hate and fighting and move forward so we can make this country great again.

Read this good article.

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Grand Challenges of the 21st Century

The White House is asking the citizens of the United States of America to help identify goals for the twenty-first century. Some of the goals that have been mentioned in the past include early detection of dozens of diseases from a saliva sample, solar cells as cheap as paint, and educational software that is as compelling as the best video game and effective as a personal tutor. I really like the idea that the White House is asking the citizens for feedback and not just having politicians make the decision for us.

One of our biggest challenges in the twenty-first century is global climate change. There are many things that are affecting this change. Our reliance on fossil fuels is a big contributing factor to climate change and I think the one area where we can make the biggest difference. We need to make our number one goal changing our global reliance on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources. This will not be an easy task, but I believe it is a goal we can accomplish.

Many aspects of our daily lives rely on fossil fuels. We heat our homes with fossil fuels. Much of our electricity is produced by fossil fuels. Our cars run on fossil fuels. Plastic is made from fossil fuels. Almost everything around us relies on fossil fuels. While this is a big challenge facing our global community, I believe that change is happening. Their are companies that are innovating new technology that is lessening our reliance on fossil fuels.

The greatest challenge we Americans face in the twenty-first century is education. I would like to see American youths lead the world in math and science scores. We have been losing ground every year and at this point we have fallen too far behind to be satisfied with our current education system. We need to have education reform. We need to make education our number one priority.

The students of today are the inventors and leaders of tomorrow and we are letting these students down by not making education our priority. We need to set education funding and not rob from it when tax revenue falls. We cannot say that it is a real priority if we cut our education budget every chance we get. It is easy to make cuts across the board, but we don't need leaders who can make the easy decisions. We need leaders who are willing to sacrifice in order to ensure that the long-term good of the nation is being met. We need leaders who believe that education is the key to our country's future.

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The Truth About The Tea Party

I knew that there was something wrong with The Tea Party movement. It has struck me as being wrong from the first day I heard about it. Now my suspicions have been confirmed. This movement is not just about politics or health care plans. It is about something much bigger and much uglier. It is about racism.

I came across a study with some really surprising information earlier this week. The study from the University of Washington found that "those who are racially resentful, who believe the U.S. government has done too much to support blacks, are 36 percent more likely to support the tea party than those who are not." This is a big deal.

The Tea Party has been playing on people's fears from its inception. It is using fear as a tool to convert supporters. It has bashed Obama's health care plan as being bad for the country. Now, it appears that they just don't want to provide health care or other resources for people who are not white.

Supporters of The Tea Party have painted themselves as patriots looking out for the well being of the citizens of this country. They are the new revolutionaries. This study would suggest that maybe they aren't revolutionaries at all but just a more mild version of the Klan. They are haters who are trying to spread their beliefs to the rest of the country.

I knew I didn't like what they stand for, and now I know why. They are a bunch of racist hate mongers who are pretending to be something they are not. I am horrified that they have received so much main stream support. Here is a quote from an assistant professor of political science at the University of Washington who was involved in the study. "It’s clear from the data that people who want limited government don’t want certain services for certain kinds of people. Those services include health care," says Christopher Parker. All I can say is wow!

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Why is Everyone So Angry?

I guess "everyone" is an overstatement on my part, but it sure seems like there are a lot of angry people in the United States these days. The conservatives are angry that Obama's health care plan has been signed into law. Fourteen states are so angry that they have sued the government over the law. Conservatives like Rush Limbaugh are so angry about the health care plan that they have resorted to comparing Obama to Hitler. I don't see the comparison.

Obama and his liberal friends have tried to do something to help all of us, not just the wealthy people that the conservatives bow down to. Hitler just tried to help the elite that he identified at the expense of everyone else. Hitler killed people. Obama is trying to help people. How are they similar in any way?

Many people are also angry that they have to complete their census forms. They think that there is too much government involvement in their lives. They want to be free from government control. The only problem is that if you don't complete the census forms, you local government will lose out on federal funding for things such as infrastructure and education spending. This means that the pot holes in your local roads may not get fixed or that the school your children attend may be overcrowded. There are many implications that I don't even know about. Just complete the census and stop being selfish!

Joe Biden was caught on tape at the signing of the health care plan. He whispered to Obama, "This is a big f***ing deal!" This has made some people angry. They cannot believe that the vice president said this. Come on! Do you expect me to believe that none of the other politicians use swear words. Maybe the conservatives want us to believe that they are good God-fearing church goes who never use that type of language, but I don't believe it one bit. I guarantee that at least ninety percent of the politicians use colorful language at least once a week. After all, they are very powerful men who are used to having their way and saying whatever they want when they think they are behind closed doors.

Give it a rest. Learn to control your emotions and use your energy for something positive. There are enough problems in this world that we do not need to worry about the vice president dropping a F-bomb while whispering to the president. Besides, it was a big f***ing deal! I can't fault a guy for showing some emotion.

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Why US is Getting Fatter

Since everyone is focusing on health care with the passing of Obama's reform, I found an interesting article on the use of High-fructose Corn Syrup. I have known for some time that it is not healthy. I have even suspected that it is really, really bad for you to consume. Now I have proof.

Princeton University researchers have released a report that focuses on research that was performed on rats. Some rats were given access to high-fructose corn syrup and some were given access to regular table sugar. With equal caloric intake of the two sweeteners, the rats who consumed the high-fructose corn syrup gained more weight. Long-term consumption even led to the rats gaining more weight around their midsection and increased levels of triglycerides.

One quote from the report really stood out in my mind. "Animals with access to high-fructose corn syrup gained 48 percent more weight than those eating a normal diet. In humans, this would be equivalent to a 200-pound man gaining 96 pounds" Wow! That is eye-opening.

So where did high-fructose corn syrup come from? HFCS, as it is known, was introduced to processed foods and soft drinks in the US from about 1975 to 1985. Prior to that time, the US Government was looking for something that corn could be used for. Corn was, and still is a subsidized crop in the United States so it made sense to try to find something else that it could be used for. Sugar prices began to rise in the late nineteen-seventies and the fairly new HFCS became a cheap alternative to food and beverage manufacturers.

High-fructose corn syrup is now consumed in greater quantities than regular table sugar. In 2005, Americans consumed a per-person average of almost 63 pounds of sugar per year. It is an ingredient in most of the products sold in US grocery stores today.

A few years ago, I tried to eliminate it from my diet. I grew disheartened upon examining products at the grocery store. It would be very expensive and a total diet change to completely eliminate it. It would be very beneficial to American society if we could completely eliminate it from the packaged food and beverages available to us. I think that they only way to achieve this is for the government to step in and drop the subsidy for corn. This is controversial because most of the sugar we consume comes from outside of the United States.

Most sugar cane is grown in countries located around the equator. These growing regions tend to have weather fluctuations that affect the crops availability. They also tend to experience political change that affects the infrastructure that makes it available for export to countries like the US.

On one hand, I am glad that my assumptions have been proven correct, but on the other hand I am disappointed that nothing has yet been done to try to fix this major problem. As we get more and more overweight, our health problems increase putting a strain on our health care system. Eliminating HFCS from our diets would be one way to help reduce the cost of the health care plan that Obama just signed into law.

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Health Care Reform?

Obama signed the healthcare reform bill into law today. Before it even happened, the state attorney general from Virginia threatened to sue if it was signed into law. After Obama signed the bill, thirteen other states sued the U.S. departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor. The lawsuits focus on the "individual mandate" that requires most people to have insurance or pay a penalty.

I just don't understand this thinking. Why is it a bad thing to have every citizen in a country with health insurance. This takes the burden off of tax payers. As our system is currently designed, tax payers support the people who do not have health insurance that go to the emergency room when they have a cold. That is a burden in my opintion. When you look at the big picture, I believe that while health care reform is a radical concept for us to accept it will save us all money in the long run.

I have an open mind when it comes to Obama's health care bill. I can see that it can really accomplish some great things. I can also see that it could fail miserably and cost us all a lot of money. Every radical plan has both of those potential outcomes and that really depend on how they are managed. If the right person, or group, is in charge of the reform it will be the best thing that has ever happened to this country.

While I am on the reform topic, I would be remiss if I did not bring up law enforcement. Criminals currently get better health care while in prison than the correctional officers who keep them in line get. They have newer facilities and get guaranteed medication every day without fail. Nobody outside of prison is guaranteed to be able to afford their medications every time they need them. My family members have been prescribed medications before that our insurance plan did not cover and we did without them. Prisoners never have to make this sacrifice. In addition, they are transported to hospitals by helicopter or ambulance whenever the on-call doctor can not come in to the prison to treat them. All of this is at the taxpayers expense.

If we are willing to spend this much on healthcare for people who have broken the law, why are we not willing as a society to provide basic health care insurance to law abiding, productive citizens? I just don't understand how we think as a society. If we can afford to do it, why not? We pay some of the lowest taxes in the world and are still able to have a government that functions well most of the time and is able to provide necessary services to our people. Let's keep doing that!

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Obamacare and the Tea Party

I was watching the morning news this morning as I was getting ready for work. There was a segment about Obama's health care reform plan. I missed part of it, but I think it was talking about people who report medical fraud. It showed a very excited Obama talking about the real opportunity of his health care plan passing. It also showed health care plan supporters protesting somewhere.

The next shots were the Tea Party and the person they were showing called the health care plan Obamacare. Wow, that is very witty. This group seems to be all about fear, hate and clever word play. I have not heard any valid arguments from them as to why the health care plan is a bad thing. They are not original at all.

They chose their name to appear to be patriotic, referring to the Boston Tea Party. That protest happened because the colonies were being taxed heavily and were not represented in the British government. To protest this, they sneaked onto the British ships in Boston Harbor and dumped the tea overboard. They were patriots and were protesting something that was affecting everyone in the colonies in a negative way. The British were taxing the colonies in order to support the government.

This new Tea Party group stole their name from these original patriots and are using the name to try to give their cause some credibility. Groups love to latch onto names and words that give their silly cause credibility. Whenever I hear about groups doing this, I instantly become skeptical of their cause. If there was a reason to be concerned, the group would not need to resort to these tactics.

I don't know why people are against health care reform anyway. Health care costs go up considerably every single year, even when the economy is struggling. The insurance companies increase their plan costs or co-pays and don't increase the service or the items they cover in the plan. That seems to be something similar to taxation without representation if you ask me. That is what the Tea Party should really be concerned with.

Anyone who has spent any time at all going to doctor's offices or hospitals knows that our system is broken. People go to the emergency room all the time for colds and other basic sicknesses because they do not have health insurance. This forces all of us to wait for long periods of time in the emergency room to get care when we have real emergencies. It costs all of us money because the government is left to pay the bill for these uninsured people. This is actually costing us more than reform ever would.

The other problem is the doctors know what the insurance plans will and won't pay for. So they will just run test after test or prescribe medicine in efforts to "try" to solve the issue you are visiting them for. They don't really try to diagnose the problem and come up with a treatment. Instead they just try things until they find something that works. For instance, my Dad was having seizures. His doctor just kept experimenting with medications until he found something that worked. The problem was that my Dad had to go to the hospital several times because the medications were causing him to have really bad seizures. So this medical practice cost the insurance company more money than it should have if the doctor would have just done his job the first time.

Doctors also refuse to communicate with each other. So if your primary doctor refers you to a specialist, many times the specialist will have duplicate tests run on you. This happens either because the doctors are not communicating or because the specialist knows that the insurance will pay for the test to be run again, so they just do it. They are taking advantage of the insurance system for their own personal gain.

Don't get me wrong, I think the good doctors earn their money. I don't believe they are over payed at all. Medical school is a big investment and they deserve to make a lot of money. That is not the problem here at all. The real problem is that the insurance system is broken in a way that does us, the patients, a disservice. We deserve more and that is why I support health care reform.

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The Road to Recovery

Here is a chart that the Obama administration recently released. The chart basically backs up Obama's point that he inherited the economic mess and that he has taken steps to correct the problem.

Here is a link to the image and a description on the Obama website. Obviously, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has worked to a certain extent. It was not the only factor in the recovery, just as Bush was not the only factor in the initial mess.

I still don't believe that the Obama administration has done enough. Banks are not making the loans that the administration had hoped for. Jobs have been created, but they are mostly construction and other blue collar jobs. Education spending is still being cut in California and I don't see that trend reversing before the end of the next school year.

Inflation is inevitable in 2010. What this means to the general public is that if people still have trouble finding jobs, then the economy will be worse off. That could be a major disaster!

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Inefficiency

My wife and I were driving by our local community college the other day and saw a monstrosity of building going up right next to the road. This was the back side of the campus near the track. I have watched the progress of this building for months now and have been interested, but have never really thought about just how large of a building it was.

It has some yellow underlayment on it now and the color really makes it stand out and gives you a sense of the size of the building. It is huge! It will be used for some sort of sports activities. I don't quite remember the exact use. At this point it is an eyesore.

From the moment they broke ground on the building I questioned its need. The college is cutting classes and enrollment, but it is building this new facility for sports. How does that make sense?

The argument I always get is that it is a grant or there is a specific budget for buildings of this type. Those arguments just make me mad. Why do you cut back on education, but still fund sports? How does that make any sense at all. You are in the process of eliminating classes and students, but you are building a large, new facility for sports. This is just ludicrous.

Here is my argument to the asinine budget argument. Suppose you have a personal budget that includes $200 for food and $200 for clothing and $100 for entertainment. Your income remains the same, but you add twins to your family. Do you keep your budget the same? Or what if your family stays the same, but your income drops by 10%. Do you keep your budget the same? Of course not. Rational human beings change things on the fly as necessary. Why can't the government do the same thing?

It is just very frustrating to see education spending is getting cut while we are still spending money on buildings like this one. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still resurfacing roads. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still fighting two wars. Education spending is getting cut, but we are still bailing out banks and car manufacturers. I think we need to get our priorities straight in this country and start taking care of our people. We can't abandon our children and our future to rescue people and companies who make foolish decisions that affect all of our lives.

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Education Reform?

Earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that the state needed to change policies that spend more money on prisons than on the state’s education systems. On Thursday he signed a major school-reform package. The plan calls for California's lowest-performing schools to be targeted for a sweeping overhaul and it enables the state to try to get piece of $4.35 billion in federal Race to the Top funds.

I agree that our school system needs to be reformed and I do not know enough about this plan yet to make a decision on it. our schools need more funding. I truly believe that funding is necessary for education improvement. We can't be so quick to cut school funding the minute we get into a difficult budget situation. I believe that we should establish a set budget per student and that amount should never be decreased.

California's education spending per student is about 14% less than the national average. As a matter of fact, California ranks 44th out of the 5o states and Washington DC. On K-12 achievement, California ranks 39th and again falls below the national average. I think we can see that there is a positive correlation between education spending and student achievement. The two top performing states, Massachusettes and Maryland spend at least 10% more than the national average per student on education.

We have a long way to go in California to get our school system back where it belongs. I have a real problem with the state taking over schools that are not meeting the state mandated performance levels. The reason I am against the state taking over schools is that they automatically reduce the curriculum, eliminating science and history education to focus on language and mathematics. In my opinion, this is just a band aid that will help the schools get back to the mandated level over time. If you focus more time on language and math, it naturally follows that your scores in those subjects will eventually improve. The problem is that these students will be behind in science and history when they enter middle school.

The plan also enables parents to hold their schools accountable, demand change and may even allow them to move their child to another school. I do have a problem with this part of the plan. The schools that perform the best in an area do so because the parents are more involved in their children's lives. They are more involved in their children's education. Allowing a parent to move their child to another school can have sweeping ramifications.

First. The higher performing schools could experience increased class sizes and maybe even over crowding. This would lead to less individual attention from the teacher which would lead to lower performance.

Secondly. Some of the children who move to these schools might not have the level or parent involvement in their lives that the other students do. This may make them fall behind which would then drop test scores for that school.

Thirdly. If all of the children whose parents have even a little bit of involvement in their lives leave the lower performing schools then what will their student populations looks like? The students who are left there would have virtually no parent involvement in their education. This would lead to a lower performing school. This would create an even larger gap between the high performing and low performing schools.

It is proven that children who receive more individual attention from their teachers and parents perform better in school. They have better test scores and are more well rounded students.

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I (heart) Politics

Joe Wilson yells "you lie" to Obama. Apologizes under pressure from Republican party. Obama accepts apology. House votes to admonish Wilson for his outburst. Blah, blah, blah...

After the Democrats spoke about civility and decorum, Wilson said, "it is clear to the American people that there are far more important issues facing this nation than what we're addressing right now." I agree that there are currently more important issues facing the nation. I also agree that Wilson's behavior was embarrassing to this country. So where do we draw the line?

The Democrats set the Republicans up with the perfect opportunity to point out that they are wasting time. The only problem is that both parties waste a lot of precious time. It is just a matter of who is better at pointing out the wasted time. Every year their are resolutions presented for honoring college and pro teams from representatives states. There are many other time wasting items that are slipped into bills and prolong votes. I don't even know all of the time wasting that happens, but I do know that it does happen.

I think it is time for the two parties to start working together so that they can accomplish something that will help this country. It seems that since Obama took office, the Republican party has refused to "play nice in the sand box." I, for one, am sick and tired of this. How much longer do the American people need to put up with ridiculous politicians from both parties?

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Obama's Back to School Speech

I read the transcript of the speech that Obama gave to our school children. It took me a while to get to it, but I must say that there is no mention of politics in it. It is strictly a speech about what our children must due to become successful and help our country be successful. You can read the transcript of the speech here.

Before the speech the Republicans and right wing media used fear again as a tactic to get parents to keep their children out of school and accuse Obama of trying to indoctrinate their children with his socialist message using taxpayer money. That is such load of b.s. For one thing, I don't believe that Obama is a socialist and I think they use that term loosely to instill fear in people. For another thing, they were way off base with the message they believed that he was going to be giving our children.

Fear tactics are usually only a last resort when you are debating a subject. Fear is the tool that you use when you have nothing else, including facts to back up your arguement. It seems like the Republican Party and their right wing media hacks are trying to bring the United States down to the level of a thrid world or war-torn country. They want to encite violence against the politicians across the aisle. They want to have their constituents riot in town hall meetings. They want all of this so that they can blame Obama for bringing our country to this point and then hopefully sweep in and save the day in the next election. That is bodacus!

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Obama's Speech to Our Children

Many GOP leaders and the right wing media said they were appalled that taxpayer dollars were being spent to spread Obama’s "socialist ideology." Glenn Beck even urged parents to keep their kids home from school yesterday.

A waste of taxpayer dollars. Keep the kids home from school. What kind of wacko talk is this. Obama is not the first President to make a speech to our school children. Both Republicans and Democrats have done this in the past. And don't these "intelligent" people know that when you keep your kids home, the school loses tax money for that day. So by keeping your kids home from school you are hurting education funding for your school. That is not very smart now, is it?

I am planning to at least read Obama's speech today and may even try to catch a video of it, so I will be able to write intelligently about it in another post. Stay tuned.

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Solar and Wind Power

As a complement to my post from yesterday, I want to talk about solar and wind power today. Both technologies have come a long way. They are both reliable and with government subsidies are becoming more affordable every day. Traditional electric power is getting more expensive every year, so the time seems good to make the switch.

Like with hybrid vehicles, solar and wind power demand must be increased by government requirements. Every existing government building should be required to have solar panels or wind turbines providing the majority of the power. This would increase the demand for the technology which would bring the prices down. Every new government building that is constructed should meet LEED Gold certification standards by using passive solar technology and active solar and/or wind technology.

The government needs to take a leadership role in establishing alternative power sources. Their development and use of these sources would help to advance the technology and bring prices down to encourage consumers to use them. Every new home subdivision that is built should meet a certain LEED certification level or at the very least should get a certain amount of their power from alternative technologies.

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Hybrid Vehicles

I am about to enter the market for a new car after driving my Honda Accord for 14 years. It has required very little maintenance so I have been very happy with the car. It is just time to buy a new car.

I am only considering one car at this point, a Toyota Prius. I drove one last year and was pleasantly surprised by the power and spacious interior. On my last trip to San Francisco, we caught a ride in a Prius taxi and it handled the hills very well. I also love the fact that the new Prius has the option of a solar panel on the roof to power the A/C when the car is off. That is a great feature when you live in the valley. My mind is made up.

Before making my decision I did a pretty thourough search. I know that I want to purchase a hybrid car because I believe that is the right thing to do both financially and for the environment. The only problem is that there are not enough hybrid models on the market to choose from. The Honda Insight entered the market this year, but it is smaller than the Prius. If you are looking for a hybrid SUV you have even fewer choices. You either have to buy a small one or buy a very expensive larger model. There is nothing in between.

At this point, why aren't all cars hybrid? The technology has existed for long enough that Toyota is able to build very reliable hybrid cars and SUVs. Obviously Honda has also been able to build an attractive model as well. So, why aren't all of the other car makers jumping on the bandwagon? It sure seems like the right thing to do. We are running out of oil, the price of gas continues to rise and we are witnessing global climate change.

It is my opinion that all government vehicles should be hybrid models. If every government agency, including police departments, were required to buy hybrids the auto makers would be forced to build them or lose valuable market share.

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What to Write About?

I am finding that it is very difficult to find a subject to write about every single day. The easy thing to do is just write a reaction piece to what is happening that day in politics. That would be easy, except for the fact that all of the politicians including Obama are now on vacation. So what am I left to write about?

It has been a difficult summer for me. I have found it hard to get motivated to do much of anything. I like to blame the heat, but is there something else to be blamed? I seem to just be floating through life at the moment, which can be very scary once you realize that fact. How can I change this attitude?

I have stopped reading my latest book choice and have thought about it many times. It seems that I am looking for a reason not to read it to the point that I have thought I should start reading a different book. Maybe I just need to force myself to get back to reading.

The girls are back in school and The Queen is back at work so there is an adjustment period for me. I have to remember to look at the lunch calendar and make Cheeseball lunch if she doesn't like the school lunch. I need to remember to leave lunch money for Chachi. I have to pick Cheeseball up from ASA when I get off work and help her with her homework. I need to remember what days Chachi has volleyball games and wear a blue shirt that day. I have to remember what days Cheeseball has soccer practice and what time her game is on Saturday. I have to juggle all of these things while trying to keep up with my own interests as well. This is a big change from my carefree summer.

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Republicans Oppose Health Care Reform but Support Petcare Tax Deduction

I can understand why Republicans may oppose Obama's Health Care Plan. They are conservative and fear government involvement in their daily lives. They don't want the government to ruin their current medical care system, because the government does ruin a lot of what they touch.

I am scratching my head over a bill that was introduced to the U.S. House by Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich. The bill is a tax deduction for "Qualified pet expenses." Now this is something that I can get behind, especially since I don't own a pet. Why use government funds for human health care when we can just use if for our pets. The goal of the bill is to "Make it more affordable for people to provide the care their pets need and to make it less likely that pet owners who are suffering during the recession will abandon their pets." Noble goals, but is this really necessary? Why don't we just fund the cost to spay or neuter our pets?

You can read an article about the bill here. Why are Republican politicians bad? This is one of my favorite quotes from the article, "How about this idea? If you can't afford the real cost of pet ownership, don't get one."

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Seven Falsehoods About Health Care

Please go back and read the links in my post a few days ago about the "Seven Falsehoods About Health Care." I really think they will open your eyes.

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No Government-Run Insurance

It looks like Obama is ready to drop the public option from his health care plan. Maybe I can get behind his plan now. I have to do more research to make sure.

The insurance co-op plan seems to be a good alternative to a public option. Boy, I just seemed to lose interest as I started writing this post.

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