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I was so eager that I paid off a 4.4% $150k 15y mortgage in a few years. now some people are analyzing and suggesting that i should have run it out.
thoughts?
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If you could make any three changes in America what would they be? I assume most will want to change laws or government, but anything is fair game. You're king for a day, what are your three changes and why would they improve America?
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Do you own a firearm?
A key misunderstanding between gun-control advocates & the rest of us: Americans are OK with guns. We don't like violence or guns in the hands of mad men & criminals, but we are OK with guns.
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So what I'm hearing on the ground, and probably news reports I haven't seen because I've been busy...
Saudi Arabia is buying oil from ISIS, Qatar is buying oil from Al Nusra, Turkey is supporting a separate Kurdistan...in the former Iraq area...The US spy services had no idea whats his face was giving a speech in the new Islamic state...and I'm somewhat surprised.
My own belief is that the US could resolve most of this at a table with the principals...al-Malicki, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and whoever else may be required. Simply put, a good enough threat stops the killing mostly, and lays out a future. I dunno what exactly, because the people there need to have their own answer. But I seriously doubt many there would seriously tell the US to piss off if they felt there was a serious line. Now I know that's unlikely, but what's your opinion on what is going on. This entire fiasco makes little sense to me.
I can see it if I thought the Israeli's were trying to make the best of a situation they couldn't control, but I hesitate to believe that Israel has that much control given the current admin's general reaction to Israel.
Whatcha got that I'm missing, because I just don't see whose hand is controlling.
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Earth's Magnetic Field Is Weakening 10 Times Faster Now Earth's magnetic field, which protects the planet from huge blasts of deadly solar radiation, has been weakening over the past six months, according to data collected by a European Space Agency (ESA) satellite array called Swarm. The biggest weak spots in the magnetic field — which extends 370,000 miles (600,000 kilometers) above the planet's surface — have sprung up over the Western Hemisphere, while the field has strengthened over areas like the southern Indian Ocean, according to the magnetometers onboard the Swarm satellites — three separate satellites floating in tandem. The scientists who conducted the study are still unsure why the magnetic field is weakening, but one likely reason is that Earth's magnetic poles are getting ready to flip, said Rune Floberghagen, the ESA's Swarm mission manager. In fact, the data suggest magnetic north is moving toward Siberia. "Such a flip is not instantaneous, but would take many hundred if not a few thousand years," Floberghagen told Live Science. "They have happened many times in the past." More : http://news.msn.com/science-technology/earths-magnetic-field-is-weakening-10-times-faster-nowGreat. A hair off either way and we all fly off into space. |
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Woman fired for saying 'blessed day'? A bank teller claims she was fired from U.S. Bank for telling a customer to "have a blessed day." http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2014/07/06/pkg-bank-teller-fired-for-saying-have-a-blessed-day.wxix.htmlBank clerk warned several times to keep her religious views to herself and to stop bringing religion up to customers. Finally she's fired and now she is suing the bank. This could be an important case in terms of religious rights and the rights of employers. Take a look at the short video and tell us what you think will happen. |
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Some think Lyndon Johnson was not one of our best presidents.
But Johnson did pass the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that was and is a really big deal.
Today I saw one effect of outlawing dscrimination in education. In 1964 there were 365,000 African American bachelor's degrees awarded. In 2014 5.1 million were awarded.
Imagine how many lives are changed by that!
One more thought; if you think there is no role for government, try to imagine this outcome without government's involvement.
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The Unanimous Declaration of the
Thirteen United States of America
In Congress, July 4, 1776
When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. The Declaration of Independence is a timeless and constantly relevant reminder of the great experiment in human liberty begun by ancestors long gone but never forgotten. Oppression by a powerful government had finally become more than the people of the American colonies could bear. That government was thrown off in favor of a nation that would progress from its troubled beginnings to become the greatest power on Earth, not because of any evil intent as was the case with so many great powers of history but, because of its inherent decency. It has been said that America is great because it is good. I truly believe that. And I believe that goodness comes from the individual people who work every day to make America a unique and generous and creative force in the world. I worry that, as we celebrate our independence today, many of our fellow Americans are trying to move us toward a state of ever increasing dependence and away from reliance on the institutions that have made us strong - faith, family, common ideals of personal liberty and responsibility. Freedom is sometimes messy but the results are worth it. As you go about enjoying the anniversary of our independence please pause for a moment and ponder the things that have made our nation the wonderful place it is and reflect on what we can do to continue this grand experiment in freedom. There are very few Americans seeking to abandon this land. Countless millions around the world seek to come and share this great nation and her bountiful blessings as they make their own contribution. We must be doing something right. |
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The story is a bit old, but I haven't been following it very closely: Mother Jones has discovered that Hobby Lobby which is seeking exemption from certain aspects of the Affordable Care Act on religious grounds surrounding contraception benefit requirements (a case it has won), actually invests (through their retirement fund) in companies that produces emergency contraceptives and abortion related products. According to Mother Jones: Documents filed with the Department of Labor and dated December 2012 (see above)—three months after the company’s owners filed their lawsuit—show that the Hobby Lobby 401(k) employee retirement plan held more than $73 million in mutual funds with investments in companies that produce emergency contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices, and drugs commonly used in abortions. Hobby Lobby makes large matching contributions to this company-sponsored 401(k). These companies make up 3/4ths of Hobby Lobby's 401k assets. Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickunga...ous-objection/ |
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Make sure your daughters have a great dad....every girl deserves to have one. This video is adorable, hilarious, and precious. I'm not one to watch vids very often, but this one is a classic. This guy could be my hub's clone from the outside to the inside...same exact sense of humor in this same kind of scenario. In fact, my daughter sent it to me with the caption "This is us 20 years ago!" Watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkLozgvYvLs |
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What is wrong with people that won't take responsibility for their animals?
I know we have many animal lovers in here; even when we can't stand one another for a thousand other reasons, we can at least come together on that; our pets deserve to be protected, and that includes training, leashing and confining, vaccinating, microchipping them or otherwise being sure they're tagged if lost....the whole thing. It's how we love them, if we truly do.
This is yet another pit bull attack story. I don't know if it's a breed 'trait' or not, and I guess that could be part of the story and any discussion, but the relevant fact is, he was loose in a front yard as my daughter walked her tiny teacup chihuahua past on his leash. The pit simply charged at her little guy, came out of nowhere, grabbed him up by the neck and started spinning with him. A nightmare. Long story short, my daughter was also bitten and injured (trip to the ER) trying to get "Stewie" out of his mouth, but Stewie's now partially paralyzed with vertebrae fracture and spinal crush injuries. She has no vet insurance, and the costs for extensive neurodiagnostics and surgery are prohibitive. It's looking like the little guy will have to be put down.
I don't know where I'm going with this. I'm just furious and venting.
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Everyone holds either one of 2 ideas about death - nothing happens, or you go to an afterlife. But the the idea that makes the most sense to me, is that you are reborn instantly and re-live the same life an infinite number of times. If the universe is infinite, so is everything else in it. The big bang eventually collapses again, and the chain of patterns repeat. We've been here forever, and always will be.
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Once they figure out how to fingerprint your consciousness with all your memories onto a hard-drive, they just transfer it to a robot body when you die. Human intelligence has a limit, the smartest scientists in the world can barely understand quantum mechanics. In order for human intelligence to improve, you have to upgrade the hardware (brain). First they use supercomputers to figure things out, then they will start putting computers in our brains (cyborgs), the final step is completely becoming a computer. But what do the robots evolve into after that?
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An alleged ringleader of the September 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, who is now in U.S. custody, reportedly told other Libyans during the attack that he was responding to an anti-Islam video that had been published on YouTube, demolishing a prominent right-wing media attack. Conservatives in the media have fixated on Obama administration statements shortly after the attacks suggesting that the video had been a motive for the attackers. Conservatives have alleged that these statements were part of a deliberate effort to deceive the American people about the cause of the terror attacks in order to bolster President Obama's re-election campaign. Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured Sunday by U.S. military and law enforcement in response to an indictment for murder in connection with his role as a suspected ringleader of the Benghazi attacks. Abu Khattala told Libyans the night of the attack "that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video," according to The New York Times. From the Times: What he did in the period just before the attack has remained unclear. But Mr. Abu Khattala told other Libyans in private conversations during the night of the attack that he was moved to attack the diplomatic mission to take revenge for an insult to Islam in an American-made online video. An earlier demonstration venting anger over the video outside the American Embassy in Cairo had culminated in a breach of its walls, and it dominated Arab news coverage. Mr. Abu Khattala told both fellow Islamist fighters and others that the attack in Benghazi was retaliation for the same insulting video, according to people who heard him. In an interview days after the attack, he pointedly declined to say whether he believed an offense such as the anti-Islamic video might indeed warrant the destruction of the diplomatic mission or the killing of the ambassador. "From a religious point of view, it is hard to say whether it is good or bad," he said. The Times article is consistent with media reports from the scene of the attack that suggested the anti-Islam video had been a motive for at least some of the attackers. That video triggered anti-American protests across the Muslim world. http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/06/17/captured-alleged-benghazi-ringleader-was-report/199771http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-captured-benghazi-suspect-in-secret-raid/2014/06/17/7ef8746e-f5cf-11e3-a3a5-42be35962a52_story.html?hpid=z1 |
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I would really like to know the best way to strengthen a country's currency.
Increase in it's import or export?
Please share some good ideas.
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http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/02/17/gop-commemorates-five-years-of-failed-stimulus/The GOP, the right, and most of the other Obama haters keep claiming that after 5 1/2 years, Obama is the one responsible for our less than great economy. They claim that any excuses do not matter, because the 5 1/2 years has been more than enough to fix everything with the right plans. I can only point out that if a long time as president is the only factor we need to consider in evaluating a president's performance, then Obama cannot yet be considered our worst president on the economy. Bush II had 8 years to give us a great economy. How were things after his 8 years? Let's see how it compares after Obama's 8 years. To be clear, I believe a president cannot be judged solely by how things are going after X number of years. You need to consider the entire hand he was dealt. At a minimum, one must recognize that economies do have cycles, some with bigger swings than others.
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It seems to me that in today's global consumer driven society, concepts like truth, justice and equality have been successfully suppressed by concepts such as trending, fashionable, new and improved. Have multi-national corporations truly diminished our capacity to think? Are people truly more concerned with the latest trends? Is this more predominant in America or does corporate consumer culture prevail in other countries as well?
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