Marathon Prep

Next Saturday is the St. George Marathon.  I am registered so I am planning on running.  It will be an interesting exercise.  I am now 52 years old and a few pounds the the heavy side.  So how to run a marathon and survive to tell about it.  Well years  ago in Boy Scouts they talked about the scout walk which consisted of running for 50 steps and walking for 50 steps.  I am going to do a version of this.
Run for 4 minutes walk for 1 minute.  When I hit a hill I will go 50/50 and who knows what after 13 miles.
I hope to finish in 5 hours and be somewhat refreshed.

The marathon is interesting in that all participants try to help each other along in the process.  It will be fun to make friends and share the experience with 7500 other people.  The organization is great with school buses wisking us all away 26 miles from the finish and all of us running in.

I have done 9 St. George Marathons however I have not run one since 2001.

The dark cool morning will turn into a finish at noon and 80 degree's.

Nothing like a good challenge.  I have been running every day but sunday for about a year now and
have run a few 13 mile runs.  It will be fun to be part of the moving masses heading for St. George.

What's in a Name?

Have you ever thought of what goes into a name?  It should be a very important decision when we decide a name for our children, our company or any other named item.

In business it is sometimes called branding.  Some businesses will rename their company and re-brand it so that they can be more successful.  Many entertainers will change their names or have stage names.

For instance, actor John Wayne was born Marion Robert Morrison.  John Wayne does sound more rugged as needed for a western star.

Companies protect their names with copyrights and trademarks.  Apple computer for instance with the little apple icon is a very well developed brand.

This takes me to what I want to talk about today.  Barack Hussein Obama.  As of late Barack is telling everyone that he is a Christian.  The first red flag is, if you need to tell everyone then you need to work on your brand.  It seems that 25% of Americans believe that he is a Muslim.  How could that be,  he told the media that he is a Christian.  It seems that we just do not believe him.

I thought well lets think about it for a minute.  He was born to a Muslim father.  In the muslim world the son takes up the religion of his father.  He spent ages of about 6 to 10 being taught in a muslim school in Indonesia.  His school records state that he is a Muslim.  Finally,  in the Muslim religion if you leave the faith the punishment is death.  Well since Barack is still alive it seems that the Muslims still believe that he is a Muslim.   He did attend the Reverand Wrights Church for 20 years and his church claims to be christian.   So go figure.  Barack, a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Well lets look at his name.  You know Barack Hussein Obama was not always named Barack.  He used to be named Barry Soetoro.  It seems that the name Barry did not suit the young Soetoro boy so he changed it to the Muslim name of Barack Hussein Obama.  This is not too unusual.  Remember rebranding.  However there are a few famous atheletes who changed their name from American type of names to Muslim names when they converted to Islam.

Let me name two.  First is Cassius Clay,  Cassius was a great boxer and Olympian.  He boxed his way to the top ultimately as heavyweight champion of the world.  Along the way he converted to Islam and thus changed his name to Mohammad Ali.

The second is Lewis Alcindor, Lew grew up in New York City and gained the notice of a west coast coach named John Wooden.  Along the way Lewis converted to Islam and changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabbar.  He went on to help UCLA win mulitple NCAA Championships.  He also had a long carreer in the NBA with the Milwaukie Bucks and the Los Angeles Lakers.

So it would seem that when you convert to Islam you change your name.  With Barack Obama
it seems to me that he converted to or was always a member of Islam.   Of course as part of the Muslim religion you can tell an untruth to infidels (if it serves the purposes of Islam)  it is considered morally correct.

In the final analysis,  Americans have the obligation to be suspect of their President when they as an educated public see these inconsisitancies.  Will the real Barack Obama please stand up.

The Summer of Discontent

We live in a troubled time.  We read about a black man who feels he has been delt with poorly or that his co-workers are racist so he acts as Judge and Jury and kills 8 people at work.

We see a Judge rule against the collective wisdom of the people and completely redefine family relationships into the future disregarding 2000 years of family law.

We have a government that is spending $165 billion more per month than it takes in from tax receipts which in many ways are the highest taxes in the world.  That is $165,000 million.  That is the same as writing a check to 165,000 people per month in the amount of $1,000,000.  The problem is that 300 million americans will have to pay back the loan.

We have senator's flying across the country on their own government paid for 767 jumbo jets because they could not fly coach.

The government of the people, by the people, and for the people is now the government for the
ruling class.

I sure hope the people will rise up and make meaningful changes this fall.  May the South rise again.

The good news,  Barack Obama is making Jimmy Carter look like the better President.
Now that is hard to do.

Another Bailout Program

The rumors swirling around Washington DC is that the current administration, in order to win votes this fall, will rollout a program where if you owe more debt on your home than it is worth that you can get government money to make up the difference.

As everyone knows, if the government borrows money we all are on the hook for it.
So, if you have been wise and saved money, lived within your means, and purchased what you can afford and are not in financial difficulty.  You will now share the burden of those who spent more than they earned,  borrowed too much, and ultimately got in trouble.

We should not burden those who have done the right thing.  In the old days if you walked away from your burden of debt you went to debtors prison.

We should be rewarding the responsible people with tax cuts or credit and do nothing for those in trouble.
We have the bankrupcy process for those who made unwise financial decisions.
It was not the evil banks who made everyone borrow beyond what they could pay.
When you borrow money with no intention of paying it back it should be a crime.
If you steal money from someone it is called theft.  If you borrow from someone with
no intention of paying them back.  It is theft still the same.

Our system is based on law and order.  When we encourage dishonesty and lawlessness then
we are well on the road to anarchy.  The welfare state mentality hoist upon the nation as a whole
is not a strategy for success.  It is a recepe for failure.  We only have to look as far as
our inner cities to see the result of generations of government handouts.

The best any of us can do is pay our bills and live with integrity.  Live within our means
and heaven forbid maybe we cannot buy that big screen TV the moment we would like.

The Show Me State Leads again

For all of us that have been following the twists and turns of Obamacare the State of Missouri did us a big favor yesterday.  They voted on proposition C which states essentially that the federal government does not have the right to force the citizens of Missouri to buy something, in this case insurance, if they do not want to.  The act of doing nothing is not part of the commerce clause.

The federal government again has overstepped its bounds.  70% of the voters voted for the proposition.  Now of course the current administration will feel it needs to file suit against the citizens of Missouri to enforce Obamacare in Missouri.

Just like the Arizona immigration law the current administration will feel it needs to enforce its demands on an unwilling public.  

We have not had this kind of states rights vs federal power grab since the Civil War.

It is high time for the leadership in all of these United States to pass legislation pushing back the federal governments encroachment.  Whether it is on immigration or healthcare.  The right to make and enforce these decision resides with

"we the people".  

Thank you Missouri for standing up for our rights.  Perhaps the "Show me state" can be the "Show me the way state."

 

The Gulf Oil Spill.

The BP oil spill is now becoming a distant memory.  For 90 days the country watched as  the media wrung their hands over the terrible disaster that was the spill.

Do we have any perspective on this or do we just get jostled by the winds of the story.

Fortunately we have some perspective and history to look upon.  In 1979 114,000,000 barrels of oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico from a leak caused by a Mexican oil company.   The oil spill spread far and wide and ultimately washed up on the Gulf beaches including Texas and Louisiana.  Experts at the time saw nothing but disaster and expected the beaches and environment to be toxic for years.  As they researched they found that within two years the gulf had healed itself and that there was little or no sign that the spill had ever happened.  It seems the Gulf of Mexico leaks oil naturally.  With this leaking has brought to the gulf oil eating bacteria.  With the bacteria breaking down the oil  the oil disappears.

We are already seeing that with the current spill.  Those tasked with the cleanup cannot find oil to cleanup.

So what do we learn from all of this?  Over reacting has consequences as great or greater than not reacting.  In the end we will see that our over reacting was probably worse for the Gulf region than the oil spill itself.  Except of course for those who can capitalize on the 20 billion dollars being paid out
by BP.  That will be equivalent to $100,000 being paid out to 200,000 people.  That is a lot of cleanup especially if it turns out like the previous oil spill in 1979.   I sure hope some of that money gets in the right hands.

Next time I hope cooler heads prevail.  Somehow I don't think so.