A Two-Year-Old's Left Nostril Can Hold (at least) 5 Pieces of Corn

This evening while eating dinner our 4 year old decides he is going to stuff some corn up his nose, which his little brother thinks is a great idea.  He promptly starts stuffing them up his own nose, which daddy then needs to suck out with one of those mucus suckers.  Now you would think that after a couple rounds of this our 2 year old would get the idea that getting them out is not as fun as putting up there, but you would be wrong.

After being distracted for a few minutes I come back to the dinner table and discover him stuffing more up his nose.  Well, I squeeze his nose and three of them come squirting out.  Just to make sure I got everything I take a look up there and see one is definitely still up there.  So, I take the sucker thingy and after a couple of minutes I am able to extract a rather large piece of corn.

Now you would think that was it.  Again, you would be wrong.  There was still one up there.  So another couple minutes of sucking and finally I am able to liberate a poor piece of corn that I am sure never thought it would end up in the nasal cavity of a 2 year old.

Ah, but the story does not end there.  About 20 minutes later I am required to extract a piece of corn from both, yes both, nostrils.

Seriously, how much discomfort does a child have to go through before they realize something is not a good idea?

It's Suddenly the 80's Again!

If anyone remembers the NFL in the 80's they will remember long periods of the same few teams going to the Super Bowl while other teams pretty much stayed at the bottom scrambling for scraps the other teams let fall off the table.

Well, it looks like those times are back.  The salary caps that have been imposed on the NFL since the early 90's are gone.  This should usher in a new dynastic era where teams like the Dallas Cowboys, who have plenty of money to throw around, will be able to buy any player they want to ensure they make it to the Super Bowl year after year.  Meanwhile teams like the Detroit Lions, and the Cincinnatti Bengals will struggle with the meager earnings these teams make from year to year, because of their poor performance from year to year, it will be harder and harder for them to build a competitive team.

Sure, many people throughout the NFL may say that there will not be an immediate effect, but when you consider owners like Jerry Jones and Al Davis who will not sneeze at the possibility of shelling out the big bucks if they can bring some major players to their teams, you have the possibility of some new dynasties developing.

With the same token you will have owners like Mike Brown who, historically, has not had that great a track record putting together winning teams.  Even with profit sharing and the salary caps.

Hopefully, the owners will not start signing players with astronomical contracts while at the same time raising ticket prices to pay for them.  This will alienate the fans and ultimately drive attendance down, even at the big venues like the new Dallas Cowboy stadium.

Part of the excitement of watching football from year to year is seeing different teams make a run for the big prize.  Sure we all want "our team" to go every year, but that would be boring.  The league would no longer be competitive, and thus no longer entertaining.  We would end up just tuning in at half time during the Super Bowl to see who the big act is.

Case in point is the New Orleans Saints.  This year is the first time since they became a franchise that they made it to, and won, the Super Bowl.  Who is to say that would have happened without a salary cap?  Sure there were plenty of other factors involved, but one of those is the fact that every team had a limit they had to work with.

Many people in the league don't think that another salary cap will happen any time soon.  This would involve the players union and the owners negotiating a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement).  However, with the salary cap being gone, so is the "floor", which means teams can pretty much pay as little as the feel they need to in order to keep players on the roster instead of cutting them lose.  This may prompt "underpaid" players to push for a new CBA.

We shall see.  Needless to say, this upcoming season will be interesting to say the least.

There is such a thing as "Violent Garage Sales"

Apparently if you hold a garage sale in the San Antonio, Texas area you can be fined.  And if you choose to thumb your nose at the "silly ticket" you can be included in one of their "Warrant Roundups."

Basically, if you hold a garage sale, get ticketed for some illegal act associated with it, and do not pay for the violation, you can be arrested.  Now it is obvious that should expect to face an arrest if you don't take care of a citation within the time-period required.

What is interesting though, is that you can receive a citation for holding a garage sale in the San Antonio area.  Now I do know that there are some municipalities that limit when and where you are able to hold a garage/rummage/yard sale, but I have never witnessed a "violent garage sale."  I can only assume that these are reminiscent of certain holiday shopping days where over-zealous shoppers trample each other to get the last, whatever, before the store closes, or before another shopper can grab it.

I tried Googling "violent garage sale" and didn't come up with much, other that a reference to someone being stabbed with a pitchfork.  Really though, if you are taking a militant approach to these types of sales, you should seriously rethink your hobby and/or priorities.  Most of that stuff is just not worth it.

Writing on Your Hand Can Cause Someone's Head to Implode.

Apparently if you are a public figure and you write some notes on your hand you can cause some people to go into almost epileptic fits.  At a recent Tea Party event Sarah Palin gave a speech from topics as specific as the currently Health Care Reform bill being considered by Congress, to President Obama's overall performance since moving into the White House.  While she was speaking, and later in an interview, it was discovered that she had written some notes on her hand.

Quite frankly this speaks volumes if something so trivial as writing notes on your hand can send the liberal bottom feeders of this country into a frenzy.  The Democratic Party has been losing ground ever since Obama entered the White House and announced as his number one priority the overhaul on Health Care.

This fall's mid-term elections are shaping up to be quite interesting.

"Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts." - Proverbs 21:2

Freedom of Speech Only Pertains to English

According to a school in Charlotte, North Carolina, freedom of speech is reserved for only English speaking students and faculty.  Who knew!?  And this on the anniversary of the original release of one of the most "progressive" films of all time.  Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, doesn't it?

People Hate it When Those in Public Office Actually Do Their Jobs

For those that have been living under a rock the past few years you may not have heard of Joe Arpaio.  He is the Sheriff of Maricopa County in Arizona and runs the famous (or is it infamous?) Tent City Prison, where inmates are required to wear pink underwear, socks and flip-flops, as well as black and white striped uniforms.  He was first elected into this position back in 1993 and has gained popularity, both good and bad, ever since because of his unconventional methods used in his prison, and other areas of law enforcement.

Along with the special clothes the inmates are required to wear, they are not allowed cigarettes, skin magazines, salt and pepper, movies, coffee, and some other items that some may consider to be luxuries.  Which is why he banned them from this prison.  He also makes the inmates work in chain-gangs.  Basically, he makes this prison as undesirable as possible without crossing the line of being in-humane.  Though some people would disagree with that assessment as would be evidenced by the many lawsuits that have been filed against him in recent years.

Apparently some people in this country believe that those that are required to live any period of time in prison should be able to do so in some relative comfort.  Some prisons not only have tvs in their common areas, but also have weight rooms.

Quite frankly the people of this country should just allow Sheriff Arpaio to do his job, which he does quite well.  His brand of discipline is what this country needs in order to prevent people from committing crimes that would land them in prison.  One could argue that he puts the fear of God in his community.

And yet, recently it has been reported that someone has posted a map to his home on the internet (of course I am not going to link to it here).  So not only will be people be able to ridicule him at his place of work, but now they can do it at his home.  They are able to harass him for doing the very job he was elected to do because people disagree with how he goes about it.

Really, would you want someone to come to your home to give you grief about how you do your job?  There is a time and place, people.  A man's home is not it.  There are places and forums to voice your opinion (hey looky here). 

Honestly, I hope he stays in office for as long as he can continue to be a benefit to his profession, and whomever is elected after him takes up his banner and runs with it.

"Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil." - Proverbs 4:26-27

After a Big Speach No-one Works in Washington.

"President Barack Obama took his retooled agenda on the road on Thursday, hoping to convince Americans he is serious about focusing on jobs and the economy as he seeks to dig out of his deepest political rut since taking office."

The quote above was taken from this article that was posted by Reuters recently.  Apparently after giving a speech, that lasted over an hour, that basically said nothing our President's next step is to tour our great nation promoting his new agenda.

Quite frankly, if this new agenda is that important why is he trying to get buy-in from the voting public before he starts on it.  If it is that important then he should get back in his office and start working on it.  Actions speak louder than words, and so far his actions have not produced much that would be considered positive.  So if he wants to sway the American people back to his side then he needs to get moving on coming up with viable solutions to the problems plaguing this country.  That is if he really has the power to change anything.

Arguably we have seen stimulus package after stimulus package get passed through the government that never really ended up helping the economy in any significant way.  We have also seen that companies that did not take a "bail-out" did better than ones that did.

What we have seen from the bailed-out organizations is major bonuses given to their executives.  Even though it may have been in their compensation agreement, they should have declined these bonuses on the basis that if the company does not do well then the executives at that company should not be rewarded for it.  That is what bonuses are after all, a reward for a job well done, not a "perk" for having stuck around for another year.  If the company does not turn a profit no one, not even the executives, should be getting any kind of bonus.

We have also seen his party create a Health-Care Reform bill that has effectively polarized this country, with more and more people liking it less and less the more they hear about it.  Though, even if you put aside the contents of this bill, the approach the Democratic majority of Congress is taking to get this bill passed is setting this country up for some of the biggest upsets when it comes to this fall's mid-term elections.

Really, if the President wants to increase his approval rating he should stop talking about making things better and start doing it.  Though, if history has taught us anything we should know, as a country, that we do not need to rely on the "leadership" of our country to make inroads to fix the economy and other issues we are facing.  We are able to take the onus on ourselves to do it without having the government setup some new "Czar" in order to get things moving in the right direction.

 "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.  For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold." Proverbs 3:13-14

This Mid-Term Senate Race may be Pretty Entertaining

It is currently early in the Mid-Term US Senate and Representative races, but things are already looking pretty interesting.

We are close on the heels of the recent win of the Senate seat in Massachusetts by Republican Scott Brown, that was held by the late Ted Kennedy, and we are already starting to see a glimmer of a shift in power in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Now the Republicans in the Senate have the power to delay a vote on the current Health-care Reform Bill with a filibuster. And even if the Democrats can get past that they may still not have the majority they need to ultimately pass the bill. The outcome of this bill could have some serious ramifications on this fall's elections. If it somehow passes it will, more than likely, spell the doom of many democratic Senators and Representatives political careers. However, if it does not pass the results of the elections may be a bit more unclear.

In California we already have three Republican candidates running against the Democrat Incumbent, Barbara Boxer, who some have described as a "failed senator." Her main challengers in no particular order are:

• Carly Fiorina
• Tom Campbell
• Chuck DeVore

Carly Fiorina was the CEO of the large computer hardware company Hewlett-Packard, where she worked her way up from being a secretary in the shipping department.














Tom Campbell, a career politician, is the only one of the three that has held more than one major political office, the most recent of which was a US House of Representative seat he held until 2000 when he ran against, and lost to, Diane Feinstein for a US Senate seat.







Chuck DeVore, who currently holds a State Assemblyman seat, served in the Armed Forces, specifically in the Army Reserve, and achieved the rank of Lt Colonel before retiring.







My only advise here is to thoroughly check the platforms these candidates are running from and choose wisely. Recently I heard an observation regarding how the power shifts in our government are becoming more and more extreme. It is rather obvious with what is going on with the Health-care Reform bill that the Democrats have spent all of their "political capital" and are now scrambling to push this through. If this does pass this country will be poised for one of the biggest pendulum swings in our history.

I just hope this country will be able to survive it.

"And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand." - Mark 3:25

We Have a Circus for a Governing Body

A series of events that could only happen in our nations capitol, or possibly in some sort of satirical comedy based on our nations capitol, we have learned that we basically have a circus for a governing body.

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of our great nation made a controversial ruling that removed all limits on what private corporations can contribute to the campaign of their chosen candidate. Previously there was a cap on how much the private sector could funnel into a campaign, which conceivably reduces the likely-hood of a candidate from being "bought." Now there will be no limit to what special interest groups can do to "persuade" their candidate to make a decision, or draft a piece of legislature in their favor.

However, today we see a story coming out of the private sector, as reported by Newsmax, describing how CEO's of major corporations are fed up with how much Congress keeps asking for money.

So what we are basically seeing here is, corporations that are in the very economy that Congress is trying to prop up with the stimulus packages they keep pushing through are being asked for campaign contributions to help those same lawmakers stay in office.

I think it goes without saying that we are seeing the biggest political shift this country has seen since either the Civil War, or the Great Depression. The upcoming mid-term elections will produce some of the most heatedly contested Senate seat elections in recent memory, which may result in a huge shift in power come November.

Not only will we see incumbents losing their offices due to the voters showing how fed up with how the combined Legislative Branch has tried to ram Obamacare down our throats, we will also see corporations who, at one time, would have heavily backed these "public servants", will suddenly be backing their opponents.

We are living in interesting times, indeed.

Even Brett Favre gets self-conscious.

So I am watching the Vikings-Giants game. The Vikings have the game pretty well in hand and they decide to take Favre out for the remainder.

Now he is standing on the side-lines just looking around since it is between plays. One of the NFLs cameras is trained on him. As Brett is looking around he gaze finally seems to rest on the very camera that is trained on him. Now I know it is probably on the other side of the stadium, but I found it rather comical that after "staring into the camera" he then says, "What?" As if the guy behind the camera is expecting him to do something.

Too funny.