Craig's Corner

10 years and counting......

2011-10-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

10 years ago we invaded Afghanistan. We are still there witha supposed end in sight in 2014. What was the cost? We spent trillions on thetwo wars and Homeland Security. Thousands of lives were lost. We through thecountries we invaded into civil wars. We have angered the Middle East more justby occupying these areas. At what point are we going to say maybe we went atthis wrong?

We are safer now than before, but for how long? Once weleave it looks like Iran is just waiting to go into Afghan again. We have notwon over the hearts and minds of these countries. We brought death anddestruction to these people. I will not argue the fact that we got rid of somevery bad people that were trying to harm us. But the way we did it is leavingscars on the bystanders in these places.

No matter how much money we spend over there to rebuild,their beliefs won’t change towards us. We need to cut our losses now. We shouldhave taken a scalpel, not a machete. We are the strongest, best trained andfunded military in the world, but we don’t learn from our mistakes. We wentinto Vietnam to change them. That didn’t work. It is not working with theextreme Muslim community. In fact, it has deepened their resolve.

One of the biggest reasons of our nation’s debt is because ofthe wars. We conducted 2 years in ten years, plus are trying to liberate Libya.We don't need to cut domestic spending anymore. We need to end these wars. Weneed to bring our troops home. Defend our country in our country.

Our military budget is even bigger than everyone elsecombined! That is insane. We need a strong military, I agree. But that is justtoo bloated! We need to stop being the world’s police and just concentrate onus, on our well-being, our economy, our jobs! Why do we have to be everywhere,all the time? We can’t afford it.

Safe Harbor

2011-09-06T11:59:00.000-07:00

According to this article in the Express-Times, Easton, and its community, is going to really struggle to try and keep this shelter running. CACLV will no longer run the shelter or provide assistance. As was evident last year at our church, the homeless population is growing. We have mental health programs being cut which in turn serves less people or stretches the services so much that they become ineffective. That is why so many people are chronically homeless.

In the not to distant past, severely disabled mental health patients, like the psychotics, were cared for in log-term facilities like State Hospitals. Now they are assimilated into community programs that are not capable of handling them. The times that these people get into a really bad mental state, we can get them some temporary assistance via a mental health commitment, but that usually only lasts 48 hours. More and more get kicked out of the programs that aren't capable of handling them. Thus they become homeless.

I agree, to a certain extent, with Alan Jennings as stated in the article, about the steps that is needed to keep Safe Harbor Viable, “The good people of Easton, in order to make a difference in the lives of people who need help, need to make sure there’s substantive programs that allows people to solve their problem, not give them a place to postpone dealing with them,” Jennings said.

But we need to work on the causes just as much as the effects of homelessness. People are homeless, remain homeless, and will not abide by programs because of the lack of oversight on the mental health issues they are dealing with. I am not saying that the people that work in this field are incompetent, just incapable of handling all of the issues that they are dealt. A systematic approach to continual care is just not possible in this environment. If I was schizophrenic, I would probably be homeless.

We, as a society, need to address this issue. We need to take care of our sick, including the ones with mental health issues. We also need to support more programs that help the homeless. Now, like the deficit cutting plans, is the wrong time to pull back. These problems will get worse before they get better.

Contemplate this scenario. If I had severe mental health issues and became homeless, the way the system is set up, I would probably be seen in the Emergency Room of a hospital on a regular basis. I would probably also become dependent on alcohol or other drugs that aren't of the prescription variety. It would cost thousands upon thousand of dollars per year just to maintain me in the homeless environment. Statistics estimate that, in about a 10 year time frame, to maintain my status quo on the streets, with addressing my addictions, mental health issues, and other ailments related to untreated health concerns from being homeless, it could cost the public about $1 million in medical bills.

Wouldn't we be able to at least half or quarter that cost by treating the illness instead of treating just the symptoms and bandaging me up & sending me back out on the streets? Don't believe me? Read this article from Malcolm Gladwell that provides a Reno Nevada case study.

In the short-term, we all need to look at supporting Safe Harbor. They are a stop-gap for the homeless issues in the region, not just Easton. Not a church going folk at one of the churches mentioned in the article? You can still contribute to support this mission. Work with your church to support this agency. Or contact the shelter directly @ (610) 258-5540 to help.

Right time for a Third Party Candidate!?!

2011-09-05T20:17:00.000-07:00

It wasn't too long ago that we thought a big change was going to occur. In 2008, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We wanted a President that was not as narrow-minded, seemingly inept, and conservative as GW Bush, right? Then we voted in Barack Obama. We wanted the change he wanted to bring. The thing about change though is that for us to accept change, it must be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

When Democrats took charge, they pushed their partisan agenda. They pushed healthcare through. They pushed a consumer protection agency through. They really upset the apple cart. That truly made us angry. So the pendulum swung back to the other side. Now we are stuck with dysfunction. The Tea Partiers think that if they can't get their agenda through, nothing will get through. Then Obama caved. He gave in to appease the Tea Party. Now we can't go back.

So now we have 2012 to look forward to. We have a limp Democratic President that can't lead his party, let alone the nation's politics. On the GOP side, we have candidates that must align themselves with the Tea Party movement or risk being branded against them. So we can either vote for a Democrat that can't seem to make a stand. He wants to please all and ends up pleasing no one. Or you have the Cut Government, Cut taxes platform. Neither seems appetizing at the moment.

So is now a ripe time to pick a Third Party Candidate? Can't a President be right in the middle? Right along the Moderate line? We used to think that traditional Presidents could do it. They actually used to. Clinton, fiscally, had more conservative stances than the GOP at the time. GW provided that partisan was the way to go and has been since then.

Now is the time for someone to stand up and say hey we can balance the budget through tax cuts and raise taxes. We can develop governmental policies that protect our people and environment while not putting too much restriction on business. We need someone to say we have or will have far more seniors that will be using Medicare and Social Security. These pots are going to shrink no matter what, so we need to make changes.

I truly hate the politics of politics. No one will say what needs to be said, just what they need to say to get elected. I hope that someone like a Ross Perot would run. I'd actually vote for someone like him this time around. Before you comment though, I am not interested in these fringe third party candidates, like the Green Party. I want a candidate that cuts the b.s. and tells the truth. Unfortunately that will not happen.

Right time for a Third Party Candidate!?!

2011-09-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

It wasn't too long ago that we thought a big change was going to occur. In 2008, we breathed a collective sigh of relief. We wanted a President that was not as narrow-minded, seemingly inept, and conservative as GW Bush, right? Then we voted in Barack Obama. We wanted the change he wanted to bring. The thing about change though is that for us to accept change, it must be evolutionary, not revolutionary.

When Democrats took charge, they pushed their partisan agenda. They pushed healthcare through. They pushed a consumer protection agency through. They really upset the apple cart. That truly made us angry. So the pendulum swung back to the other side. Now we are stuck with dysfunction. The Tea Partiers think that if they can't get their agenda through, nothing will get through. Then Obama caved. He gave in to appease the Tea Party. Now we can't go back.

So now we have 2012 to look forward to. We have a limp Democratic President that can't lead his party, let alone the nation's politics. On the GOP side, we have candidates that must align themselves with the Tea Party movement or risk being branded against them. So we are can either vote for a Democrat that can't seem to make a stand. He wants to please all and ends up pleasing no one. Or you have the Cut Government, Cut taxes platform. Neither seems appetizing at the moment.

So is now a ripe time to pick a Third Party Candidate? Can't a President be right in the middle? Right along the Moderate line? We used to think that traditional Presidents could do it. They actually used to. Clinton, fiscally, had more conservative stances than the GOP at the time. GW provided that partisan was the way to go and has been since then.

Now is the time for someone to stand up and say hey we can balance the budget through tax cuts and raise taxes. We can develop governmental policies that protect our people and environment while not putting too much restriction on business. We need someone to say we have or will have far more seniors that will be using Medicare and Social Security. These pots are going to shrink no matter what, so we need to make changes.

I truly hate the politics of politics. No one will say what needs to be said, just what they need to say to get elected. I hope that someone like a Ross Perot would run. I'd actually vote for someone like him this time around. Before you comment though, I am not interested in these fringe third party candidates, like the Green Party. I want a candidate that cuts the b.s. and tells the truth. Unfortunately that will not happen.

Bi-county health bureau's demise?

2011-08-22T16:20:00.000-07:00

What's is going to happen next month at Northampton County Council? They are planning to vote on an issue that I think is flying under the radar. You probably know already that all three cities in the Lehigh Valley have health inspectors that serve those cities. They inspect all food establishments in those cities along with training the restaurant staff on food safety. They also provide public health clinics like the immunization clinics or health fairs. They also work on catastrophic planning like if we would get a large foodborne disease outbreak or worse yet biological outbreak.

Outside of these cities, we have nothing. In many instances, it is up to the state to inspect food establishments. I've worked in these areas and we were lucky if we saw a state inspector once a year, if that. By creating this bureau, we can get oversight and coverage for everyone. Please tell the council to vote yes.

Check here for the Morning Call's article about health inspections:
Mcall.com's article on health inspections.

Check here for the Morning Call's article on the Bi-county health vote:
Bi-county health bureau's demise?

Armageddon coming?!

2011-07-26T19:44:00.000-07:00

So we are in the final hour. Supposedly, if a Debt Ceiling deal is not done by this time next week, the US will default on our loans. It is just amazing to me how we got here. Both sides are to blame for this, but neither side wants to take responsibility. GW Bush inherited a relative balance budget from Clinton. Then 9/11 occurred. Bush and the GOP decided to start writing blank checks for the wars and Homeland Security. Now almost ten years later and trillions of dollars spent on these programs, we wonder why we are in debt!

Yes Democrats are to blame for this as well. They signed off on all the same programs. But I think it is unfair to blame the Democrats for these problems. Make this clear, debt cutting is job cutting. The more we restrict now, the worse our recovery will take.

We should not be here doing this now. We should be creating a system that invests in the country. Create new jobs, get people to work. Then more taxes will come in to pay for these programs. Everyone in Washington playing chicken with America should be voted out. If you can't come together to get the job done, we will vote someone who can.

The balloon is going to pop on our "Debt Ceiling"

2011-07-04T21:44:00.000-07:00

Like it our not, Republicans have contributed just as much if not more to our deficit problem than Democrats. Once 9/11 happened Defense spending and Homeland Security spending have skyrocketed to unchecked/unquestioned proportions. How can we be involved with 2 wars for ten years plus add another 1/2 war in Libya? No wonder why we are in debt.

Let's break down how our Federal Budget is divided up. For every dollar collected, we pay 21 cents to Medicaid, Medicare, and Chip. Defense budget is about 20 cents and another 20 cents goes to Social Security. About 14 cents goes towards safety net programs. These are programs that help low-income families like SSI, Food Stamps, housing assistance, etc. Six cents goes towards debt interest. The remaining 1/5 of the budget has multiple programs receiving a few cents.

The Health programs need to be re-assessed and revamped. Too much fraud/not enough accountability are really causing these programs to spiral out of control. You may or may not like what is called Obamacare, but if it works the why it is supposed to, health care costs should stabilize and double digit increases should slow considerably.

Defense is a big issue for me. We spend 6 times what the second largest military spends (China)! Why? Why do we have to solve the worlds problems. Or worse yet keep creating new ones because of our policies? In 2010 we spent over $700 billion on Defense. For the Iraq and Afghanistan wars we have spent over a trillion dollars. Does the means justify the ends?

Like the medical care, we spend a lot on Social Security. Remember that when it was created in the New Deal, it was a sham. Not many people ever made it to retirement age. They knew that when the created it. It was designed to fill the budget coffers. But the crazy thing happened. Medical care became better and we started living longer. Now it is a shame how we are handling this white elephant. We need to save it now and roll back age requirements along with other reforms, but that is a hot potato no one wants to touch.

These three large expenditures are the problems that need to be addressed now to help with our debt instead of cutting programs to the poor. It is much easier to hurt the marginalized. They are poor and don't have a big voice. But these are the programs that need to be saved by the voices that are heard. They need to work on these issues.

The only way politics works is when the both sides compromise. Meet in the middle and agree. That is what must be done now. You should not care about 2012; care about 2011 now! Tell you representatives what needs to be done before our balloon pops on this debt ceiling.

Why should I Twitter?

2011-07-03T21:04:00.000-07:00

To many, Twitter seems like another unnecessary technology. Why should you want to have a Twitter account? You don't want to learn about Ashton Kutcher's dinner or what Paris Hilton is doing tonight. It is much more than an extension of a texting service or microblog site. Here are my top five reasons why you should take up Twitter:

1) Shopping- If you like to search for quick and easy shopping deals, all large retailers tweet deals frequently. Twitter only deals especially by travel companies like JetBlue tweet deals daily and are snatched up quickly. Could you use a $59 fair to Vegas? Of course you do!

2) News- Again news sources tweet news frequently throughout the day. The quick 140 character tweets provide a lot of information. But if you want to read more news sites tweet with a link to the full story. You no longer have to go to their websites for an update; it is sent to you.

3) Trending topics- The top tweeting trends of the moment show an your main page. If someone or something is making news, you can see what others are saying about them. No need to pick up that National Enquirer again!

4) Sports- If you are a casual fan, fantasy sports player, or avid fan, twitter is for you. Most teams update throughout games in real-time. Want to see the score or what inning/quarter the game is in, just check twitter.

5) Funny- If you need a laugh, follow your favorite comedian, actor, or anyone else of interest to you.

Twitter is really fun for anyone that wants to be entertained or want to keep up to date on any topic. You don't have to tweet unless you want to. It is really fun to watch others tweet.

If you do log in to Twitter, here is a couple of quick things you need to know. If you want to tweet about another user, just write @and their username and that will include them in your tweet. For example my user name is cupde1. So if you wanted to include me in a tweet you would add @cupde1 to your tweet. The other thing you need to know is what a hashtag is. If you see a tweet with for an # and a word after it, that is a hashtag. This is liking putting a tab on your tweet. For example if you put #upallnight, you can write a tweet and get others to write on your same subject by adding that hashtag. This is how trends are started. Many companies use this in marketing to get people to gravitate to their tweets. By the way, just like the the internet, porn is plentiful so be careful if you see #nsfw. That tag means "not safe for work".

Explore Twitter, you just might like it.

Almost half of US households do not pay Federal Taxes!!

2011-04-18T18:01:00.000-07:00

The GOP party says that we are overspending! I think it is under taxing! Or a little of both!? 45% of US households do not have to pay taxes! Tax loop holes are causing this issue. Statistically speaking, this percentage is the highest it has been since the 1950's. I agree that we have gone on a spending spree and need to slow it down, but more people should be sharing the burden of paying taxes. Now is the time for a flat rate tax. Everyone pays the same percentage. No deductions. It is what it is.

That will never happen because the rich control the law makers. Accountants would be out of business. We'd cut down on the size of the IRS. If everyone shares the burden, it may end up you get just as much tax burden as you have now. More people paying taxes, the less your taxes will be.

Why should the few shoulder the burden for all?

Listen to this NPR segment to learn more:
NPR- 45% of households don't pay taxes!

You have to fight for your right to party!

2011-04-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

That is an old Beastie Boys song mantra, but it is so true for those of us in Pennsylvania. We have to fight for our education rights. Governor Corbett’s budget currently chops $1.47 billion out of his proposed budget for next year. That’s right almost a billion and a half. Of that figure, over $813 million dollars is being axed from your local school districts in PA!

Education is a fundamental right, not a privilege. Without good education, we slip farther and farther down the list in competitive nations. Check these statistics from AFP:

The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.

………

The United States has also fallen behind in the percentage of 15-year-olds who are enrolled in school, ranking third from bottom of the OECD countries, above only Mexico and Turkey.

Only eight OECD countries have a lower high school graduation rate than the United States, and in college education, the United States slipped from second to 13th between 1995 and 2008 -- not because US college graduation rates declined, but because they rose so much faster in other OECD countries.

……….

The less educated we are as a society, the less relevant our global business acumen and competiveness will be. Stereotypes are correct for a reason. Asians and Europeans are eclipsing us in education and are making us less relevant. When was the last time you heard of a new industry building something new and innovative in the United States vs. other countries?

Corbett’s budget agenda will cause our state to further drop. One thing is for certain, our dropout rates will increase and crime will rise. That is a fact when education funding is cut. Then what will happen? We will have to support more people on our welfare system and lock more people up in jail. Being the previous Attorney General he knows all this so instead of cutting welfare and correction programs, they are increased over $858 million and $1,149 million, respectively for the coming budget.

Something is wrong here. We should be reversing this spending. We should be, especially in tough economic times, increase education. The better educated we are, the more competitive we become. Don’t stand by and let this happen. Call and write your Governor and State Representatives. Tell them “No” to Corbett’s budget.

That way when your kids are at Penn State or Lehigh University partying, you know your tax dollars are well spent! Not that you will be able to afford to send them there either! The Higher Education funding has been cut dramatically as well. This past year state funding was at $1.49 billion and this year’s proposal is cut down to 835 million. That is a dramatic cut as well.

Rise up and let your voices be heard. Education is in dire jeopardy. The silence by the public is deafening!

Reference:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5juGFSx9LiPaur6eO1KJAypB2ImVQ?docId=CNG.5337504e8f65acf16c57d5cac3cfe339.1c1

Japan- What now?

2011-03-12T20:05:00.000-08:00

After any disaster, if it is hundreds of miles or thousands of miles way, the feeling of helplessness always sinks in. I look at the news and other media outlets and it hurts me to see the devastation of life and property. Mother nature can really be a big equalizer. No matter what humans can create or build, mother nature can always show us that she is stronger than us.

If you look at the Google Earth pictures of before and after, thousands of lives had to be effected. Entire towns are wiped out. Where building once stood, earth and water are the only remnants in a lot of scenarios. Right now, official totals of lives lost stands at just under 2000. That number is going to jump tremendously. Towns are missing.

I guess with this feeling of helplessness, we can only try to do what ever we can. We should pray for the living and the dead. But we should also help. Look at different agencies that helps and donate to them. International Red Cross, Church World Services, Doctors without Borders, Episcopal Relief and Development, and Americares are all worthwhile agencies. There are others, these are just a few that I know of.

Here are the links if you want to donate directly to a cause:

You can text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 in support of the Japan earthquakes and pacific tsunami.
Church World Services- Donation page
Doctors without Borders
Episcopal Relief and Development
Americares

Budgets, Budgets, Budgets

2011-03-08T12:52:00.000-08:00

Budgets is all we hear now when it comes to politics. Not only do we hear it about our Federal Budget, but we also hear it on state and municipal fronts as well. One thing is certain on every single budget is that no one has the right answer. Because of the severe economic crisis our country is starting to poke its head out of, everyone is being decimated.

If we look at the Federal budget issues, one thing is clear. A long fight is ahead. Republicans have always wanted less government and may get their way. Many discretionary spending of programs like Public Broadcasting is going to be eliminated. The thing is that when the Republicans chop of a program. People lose jobs. Our number one priority should be to generate a positive environment for job growth. Not cut jobs anywhere, right now. If you want to cut programs, what until the economy picks up and can absorb those jobs.

The Federal Government is also hurting the state and local governments as well. If you freeze spending or cut spending to this governments, again jobs get lost. State Governments are now forced to cut their work forces when they are need the most. State Governments can not borrow like the Federal Government can. So states are forced to cut jobs and programs. The ones that are cut the most are the ones that hurt the most people, the marginalized poor. It is true that states governments are also funded through their taxes so it is either raise taxes or cut, so they cut. Same goes with the local governments.

Now it seems like Education is being chopped up too. We lag many countries, but yet we cut. This short sightedness will create balanced budgets, but again allows us to slip down the ladder of competitiveness. If we can't compete, we were continue to rely on other nations to provide us with the products and goods.

Don't stand by and sit on the sidelines while our country's budget is ripped apart. Invest in our future, foster innovation, create jobs, then cut the deficit. Now is not the time to pull back. It is time to invest in our country. How did we get out of the Great Depression? By investing in our future. We built roads. Re-invest in our infrastructure. Get more people on the payroll, then the deficit will actually start to decline on its own. Remember the more people work, the more taxes that are collected. It is an easy concept that no one gets. Write your politicians to right this course!

Deficit, schmeficit- We have other things to worry about like jobs!

2011-03-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Most Americans say that our Federal deficits are too large. I disagree. It is true that we are borrowing large amounts of money, but the politicians have it wrong. Just like in the Great Depression, our Great Recession needs economic stimulus. We need investments in our infrastructure. We need to “invest” in programs that will build our economy. If we get more people back to work, we get more taxes. Then we can start worrying about cutting the deficit.

We are still able to borrow money at a small interest rate. This shows that we are still fiscally responsible. Look at Japan. After their economy collapsed in the 90’s, they have borrowed heavily to rebuild and reconstruct their economy. They still are borrowing. Many economists believe that we need to be concerned when our debt to GDP ratio hits 90%. We are still in the 60-70% range. If you look at Japan, they are borrowing money are driving their deficits higher. Their debt to GDP ratio is 200% and is still borrowing money at a rate 1.4%!!

Our main concern right now should not be the deficit, but should be on the economy. We need to create more jobs. That means spend more money. If we have to borrow, so be it. Once our economy and employment rates get better, then we can address the deficit. If we lower the unemployment rates, then we get more taxes. Then those taxes can help pay down the deficit.

Inversely, if we are so gung ho on reducing the deficit, what will that do. We cut the Federal budget. That means cutting jobs. Plain and simple. That is all that means. If we get the $100 billion worth of cuts, just wait and see how that hits the unemployment rates and our economic growth. Write to Senate, Congress, and the President and say no to the deficit cuts. Sure we need to keep the deficit in check and address it, but not now, not while we haven’t recovered yet.

By the way, check this piece out to learn more:

NPR- Morning Edition interview with Economist Dean Baker

No help for the poor

2011-02-28T16:09:00.000-08:00

Once again, the poor have been hit hard by this economy. AdultBasic will no longer be available for thousands of Pennsylvanians starting tomorrow. Another casualty of this economy. In a bad economy, the poor always suffer the most. That should not be true.

PA Low-Income Health Plan at end

Homelessness revisited

2011-02-21T09:08:00.000-08:00

As you may be aware, through previous posts, I have been involved at my church for the past three years in helping my church with housing the homeless during the winter months. Prior to this winter, I stated to my church that I needed to take a step back this year from helping. The previous two years I was more involved in organizing volunteers and volunteering my own time there.

Despite me wanting to spend less time at church on this mission, I have spent a lot more time outside of my own church in working on this mission. I am now working more closely with the other churches through Chairing a committee comprised of these churches.

One thing is abundantly clear to me this year that I didn't get previously. That is that we have two clearly distinct groups of homeless. The first group is comprised of people that may be down on their luck, may have a drug or alcohol addiction or other similar circumstances. This group just may need a nudge to get them going into a program to help them help themselves.

The other group is the hardest group to help. This group are people that do not fit into society. They have extreme mental health issues. They do not see the world as we do. Due to these illnesses, and mental health issues are illnesses, assimilation into regular society is just not an option. It is not that these people are not willing, they just are not capable of fitting into a program to help them.

For the first group, many services are available. They can get into a shelter, go through a couple of programs, and then be able to function in what is deemed as normal society. They can fit back into mainstream society. However this second group can never do that. That is why these people have no place to go.

Local, State, and Federal governments can get behind homeless programs that can measure results. They can say we place "x" amount of people into "x" amount of programs or we were able to find housing for "x" amount of people. But you can not measure success for his second group.

The only way you can help this group is to provide them with shelter and social work that can help meet their needs. This is truly what my and 10 other churches in Bethlehem are doing. But you only do this during the cold weather. Nowhere in the Lehigh Valley has a place for these people to stay year round. I was told by a prominent non-profit leader that our mission was just "enabling". We weren't fixing the problem.

That statement made me take offense to it. But after further deliberation, he is partially right. We are "Enablers" to the extent of us not trying to solve this problem. So our coalition of churches have decided to start advocating for a solution. On March 17th, we are going to be starting a series of meetings with stakeholders in Bethlehem. We want to discuss how we can help this disenfranchised group of homeless. Hopefully we can start to help these people beyond the winter time.

Politics as usual

2010-12-01T12:36:00.000-08:00

Once again, we see that bi-partisanship is not going to work. Not now, not a month from now when the power shift changes. We are the only ones that are being held hostage!

Think about! First of all, tax-cuts. The GOP wants to keep the Bush Era Tax cuts in place. The Democrats want to keep it in place, but for mostly just the middle classes. The GOP went on a tirade to keep spending in check. By keeping these tax cuts permanent, we add to the deficit. What happened to their fiscal responsibility?

They are so set on keeping this agenda item in the forefront that the Senate is being held hostage until this bill is passed. I guess they are just more concerned to keep the rich rich and the marginalized marginalized. Don’t believe me? They are foregoing the unemployment extension bill. They do not care if 2 million lose some type of income between now and the end of the year while they are out of work.

Unemployment compensation has really been a saving grace in this economy. This money actually keeps people paying their bills and keeps the economy limping along until jobs are created. Without this bill, the economy will get worse. For those that do not have jobs may lead to them losing their homes because they have no means to sustain themselves. This helped us for the past two years so we did not slip deeper into a recession. It would be a lot worse without it.

Too much legislation was left for the Lame-Duck sessions, that is true. We can have the Democrats to blame for not pushing these items before the elections. But we also have the GOP to blame for dragging their feet. Tough times are ahead. Tough choices are going to be made. It will be interesting to see if they ever meet in the middle.

Each side needs a deal broker. A Democrat and a Republican that can reach across both aisles to get things done for the greater good of the country, not for their party. Say what you will, but a time like this needs another Senator like Ted Kennedy.

New corporate responsibility

2010-11-18T18:37:00.000-08:00

I believe by now everyone is aware of the Pepsi Refresh Campaign. Pepsi decided that instead of spending millions of dollars on advertising, they are re-directing the money to worthy causes. On face value, when it first came out, I thought awesome. Money will now be poured into much needed community and social projects.

I thought non-profits were going to benefit tremendously from this endeavour. I was right, but fewer get the money than I thought. Why? Because it is about competition. Whoever the public votes on will win that month's money. Again, face value, great. If you have a great cause, you will get funded. But if you look deeper, it is a flawed system.

As a non-profit Director and someone that works in the government, fairness rarely beats out popularity. The same holds true here. Your cause may benefit the most people or provide a great impact to the community, but if it is not flashy and sexy, you will not get the votes.

Pepsi is not the only company that does this. Right now, Walmart is running a similar campaign for Hunger Programs. Again it is a voting program. The only glaring detail that really drove this point out to me was through the statistics. Our food bank, Second Harvest of the Lehigh Valley and Northeast Pennsylvania, is in the running for this money. Walmart developed a program that calculated needs by the region. The national "Food Hardship Rate" is 9.2%. Our area is rated at 16.7%. We should get it based upon need, not a popularity vote. We are currently 12th and only the top 6 get funding.

So if some place like Philly or NYC, due to the sheer population numbers, gets more people signed up/ voting, the money will go to them. This is not fair to small markets. Is it time to rethink these programs?

I believe Pepsi and Walmart are doing these programs for the wrong reasons. Their social responsibility by funding these programs is great, but by making it competitive, it provides more marketing and exposure than just granting grants through normal means. It is all about their tooting their own horns versus actually helping the ones that need it the most.

I am grateful for what they do, but maybe it is time to re-think these programs. They are hurting the ones that need it the most.

Good Cop, bad Cop

2010-11-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

The good cop, John Boehner, the heir-apparent for the GOP-led House, is taking a hard line approach with the President and the Democratic Party. Though, he has opened the door to compromise. Clearly, it is perceived that everything the Democrats have done, needs to be undone. This Speaker of the House is looking to do so. With a newly invigorated GOP, the perception is only half true. Surely, one of the reasons the GOP won big was because of the healthcare and the stimulus package.

But the population is divided almost right down the middle about the healthcare bill. Half of us want it eliminated while the other half wants to keep or tweak it. The Stimulus Bill did contribute to the debt and is being disputed as to its effectiveness. I still believe that we would probably still in a downturn and have unemployment between 12-15 percent right now without it.

The other reasons why the GOP came into power this cycle and that is the economy and discontent. Historically, whenever a Party is in the majority during an economic downturn gets booted, no matter who you are. But the biggest reason, I see that they came into power was to show discontent to the Democrats. They were in power and didn't play well with others. They didn't work together with the GOP. This created a big disconnect. If the GOP and Democrats don't work to solve this, we will have another correction next cycle.

Boehner, clearly in charge, is rallying his party, but is still known for compromising. However, he was the one that was instrumental in creating the "No" Party that opposed everything the Democrats did. Now it is his turn to make it work.

One monkey wrench in the system though. Many in GOP, especially the Tea Party Candidates want a repeal of everything Democratic. Compromise isn't in the cards and the bad cop, Mitch McConnell from the Senate, is leading that charge. Clearly, he has stated that he wants Obama as a one term President. This may play well within his own party, but this will come back to hurt him.

The GOP has to no longer be the "No" Party and needs to be the "Yes, we did" party. But the only way that will work is if everyone plays together. With Boehner playing the relative Good Cop vs. McConnell's Bad Cop, compromise must work or they are bound for the same fate this past election cycle.

2010-11-04T09:46:00.001-07:00

Blogger

Octoberfest- 200 Years and Counting

2010-10-12T12:58:00.000-07:00

200 hundred years ago today Oktoberfest was created. It was actually a wedding celebration held on behalf of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig to Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. They wanted the commoners to help celebrate this auspicious occasion. What a way to celebrate a wedding anniversary! Don't you wish your wedding anniversary would be celebrated every year by millions of people like this festival has.

Over the years, it has truly lost its meaning. I am sure that if you poll people celebrating this event they would have no idea of its origins, at least the people from the US. It may be different in Germany. Any way it is just an excuse for all of us to celebrate the first food product to ever have a consumer protection law (1516). Beer: the only beverage you rent instead of buy.

What is your favorite beer? An Ale or Lager? Is it a Porter, Stout, Lambic, Wheat, Pale Ale, Brown or Dark Ale? Which is your favorite?

When it comes to beer, I am truly a novice. I occasionally drink it, but I am not an aficionado. I just thought that it is an occasion that should be celebrated. It is not every year that you can celebrate a 200 year anniversary. Open that bottle, can or tap that keg today on behalf of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese. Happy Anniversary you two!!

LGBT- One step forward, two steps back

2010-10-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

Just when you think the world and this country is evolving, incidents happen that make us rethink this. Tyler Clementi has become a poster child for all that is wrong with us. I truly believed that his room mate never thought that his actions would have ever pushed Tyler Clementi to his breaking point to commit suicide, but it did.

We will never know Clementi's pain. I am sure that he had issues way before this incident occurred. The LGBT community is another persecuted group that has had to persevere through hatred and misunderstanding by hostile and narrow-minded beliefs of others. Being a teenager is already tough, let alone being a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered teen.

This suicide proves that malicious actions by the few can have catastrophic effects. It can ruin lives. It can tear apart families. No one should have to be discriminated against. It is time to get beyond hating people or hurting people because they are different.

This incident needs to serve as a collective pause for all of us out there that may seemingly make an off-color remark, giving quick jabs of sarcasm, or taking any salacious actions against others. Many times it is our default, knee-jerk reactions to situations that cause the most harm. It is a time for us to reflect on this acts that we may perform and re-think the effects that these actions have on others. We all are guilty of this. We just need to internally re-assess ourselves and try to change.

Hopefully if we pause and contemplate our actions and the actions of others, we can change this world through tolerance and acceptance. Please reflect.

Can we get fired up again to vote this year?

2010-09-29T11:17:00.000-07:00

With the mid-term elections approaching, will you go out to vote? It has been two years since we changed course and gave the Democrats power in both Congress Chambers and the Presidency. It appears that overall dissatisfaction with these three legislative bodies has peaked as we enter this election season. This was quite apparent throughout the country in the Primaries.

As a person with more Liberal views than Conservative, I tend to vote Democrat. However, I am never opposed to crossing party lines when I feel the Republican candidate is better. Over the past two years, I have discontent more so for the process and partisanship each party’s stances have taken than for each party’s ideals.

Democrats have been in power for two years, but because of progressive action with the stimulus plan and the medical bill, they became skittish. More worried about pointing fingers at the Republicans and the past Administration, Democrats pushed through fewer legislation goals than promised. At the same time, Republicans have taken an obstructionist stance. Every roadblock that they could muster, they threw at the Democrats.

Unfortunately, time is a luxury that incumbents do not have. The Great Depression and its affect in subsequent years, took a long time to recover. If anyone has taken and actually listened at an Economics class, a big economy is like a big train. It takes a long time and momentum to get it started and going fast. Once it is going good, it is easier to speed it up or apply the brakes. When it is going slow, it is harder to speed it up. When it is going fast and all of a sudden brakes fast, it can derail, just like our economy.

The economy needed a little coal to stoke the train’s fire. That was the stimulus bill. I still believe that if this bill was not pushed through, we could have seen unemployment at 15-20%. Sure, it spent a lot of money, but you need stimulus to get people to spend. Unfortunately, unemployment is still hovering between 9-10%. The train is going slow and needs momentum until this change. This will be and I stress will be a long process. I think we will be lucky to see it down to 8% in 2 years. It does not matter who is in power then that will not change.

What we really need right now are the two parties to come together and meet a common ground. We need a leader from both parties to take these reigns and build bridges between both parties. What happened to bipartisanship? Compromise is really how politics is supposed to be done. None of that is occurring and it is a shame for America. The elections will not change this. I think Americans are aware of this and that may be reflected in this coming election.

Blockbuster- Another Icon falls

2010-09-23T19:12:00.000-07:00

Is anyone really surprised that Blockbuster declared bankruptcy? For years they rode high. They were the number one outlet to go to when you needed a video. Unfortunate, a bunch of Mom and Pop stores went under because of this competitor.

I remember walking into these stores on a weekly basis. It was interesting to see people doing the Blockbuster Shuffle. Trying to face the New Release shelves with your head tilted, side-stepping to the right. Sometimes you wanted to be different and through a cog in the works and started on the left!

To be honest, I am surprised they are still around. I don't know anyone using them any more. Netflix, Redbox, and Gamefly already offer a cheaper alternative. Price was always the issue with them. How many times were we hit with late fees. Many times more than the initial rental cost.
,
Once Netflix and Redbox came along, Blockbuster should have changed course. When they finally came around, their home delivery program pales into the conglomerate that Netflix has now. Redbox, the same thing. Blockbuster Kiosks are around, like the Redbox. But they can no longer get the precious supermarket real estate the Redbox scarfed up. The only place I see them are convenience stores.

The way we view media is changing now and the just are not competitive. When Netflix started streaming, I knew it was the beginning of the end. That end is near. If they are able to pull out of bankruptcy, where do they go? What can they do to turn things around? Unfortunately, I believe it is too little too late now for them.

I feel bad for the employees of these stores and hope the best for them. Hopefully it won't be a prolonged death. Let's hope that it will be a quick death.

Are you ready for some Eagles football?

2010-09-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Once again, a Philadelphia sports team has solidified my reasons for not cheering for them. A week and a half ago, Michael Vick jumped in for the injured Kevin Kolb. Kolb struggled for the first half of the game he played and got hurt. Then Vick re-energized the team and almost came from behind to win that game.

At that time, Coach Reid stated that Kolb was the starter. I questioned that response because if someone plays well, why bench him? I know that they think Kolb is the future. But, Vick was clearly in control of the game; Kolb was not.

Then Sunday came and Vick started because Kolb was still injured. Vick played a great game. Then on Monday, Reid restated his case the Kolb was the quarterback. Then a day later, Reid comes out and said Vick is the starter.

Reid, once again, has jerked the rug from another player. He did it with McNabb and now with Kolb. I am all for the move with Vick. I am not for the way the Eagles and Reid handle these decisions. These management decisions are debilitating to the morale. It does not work in any other business. A leader needs to make a decision and stick to it. If that decision is wrong, change the course, but do it at the right time. Be decisive.

The Eagles shipped the wrong person out of town. It should have been Reid instead of McNabb. I just hope that this season McNabb will bury the Eagles when they play. BTW, Here we go Steelers, Here we go!! At least they are winning without a healthy or suspended quarterback!

Hospitality House- Sounds fun, right?

2010-09-15T12:15:00.000-07:00

Well a (Hospital) Hospitality House is actually a place were families can go to as an alternative to staying in a hotel while a family member is in the hospital. I think most people are familiar with the Ronald McDonald Houses. These are places that families stay while their child is in extended care at a children's hospital. Children's hospitals are usually centrally located in a big city or regional area. If a family does not live by the hospital, these Houses play a vital role. The Ronald McDonald House are limited to families with children in a hospital.

How these Houses work is that a family can stay in these places for little to no cost. I think the average contribution asked per night is $25. Not only do the families get a place to sleep, but they also get a place to eat. Home cooked meals are provided. They also provide space to watch television or do other activities.

But there are others.

Several non-profit houses like Ronald McDonald Houses also exists. Because Ronald McDonald Houses are only geared for families with sick children, there is also a need for Houses the can provide comfort to families that have adults that are sick. Hundreds of these unnoticed, overlooked, but critically needed Houses exist throughout this country.

In the Lehigh Valley, a mom and pop non-profit organization exists called Jenn's House. Jenn's House is run by Pat and Richard Dillman. They are the parent's of Jenn Dillman. She died in a bus accident almost 20 years ago. When Jenn was in the hospital, her parents stayed at a Ronald McDonald House. After Jenn passed away, the Dillmans realized that the Lehigh Valley had no such Hospitality House available. Since then, they have worked hard to create Jenn's House. They started with a small row home behind Lehigh Valley Hospital's Fairground Campus. Then they moved to a larger location on Cedar Crest, down the road from the Lehigh Valley Hospital's Main Campus.

Now they are in the process of opening their new, second facility in Fountain Hill, by St. Luke's Hospital. If you have the time to volunteer or would like to donate to this worthy asset to the Lehigh Valley, please do so by calling Richard at 610-965-1777.

Latest story by Morning Call about Jenn's House

Ode to a Daycare

2010-09-09T20:03:00.000-07:00

For the second time in less than a year a significant event has occurred in this household as a direct result of the economy. Last fall, my wife lost her job because of budget cuts. She was out of work for several months, but fortunately for us, she found a new job. Now as the school season has begun, our daughter attending First Grade and our youngest just started Pre-K classes at his daycare, we are again hit by the economy.

The same week our youngest officially started Pre-K, the school gives us a two-week notice that they will be closing. Their reason is the economy. To be honest, I am not surprised, but my wife is. Time and time again, I walk through the daycare and so fewer and fewer children. When we started at this school, things were very different.

This school had two locations. We had both of our kids at the one location. When we started, I got the impression that they were almost to their capacity at both sites. Then, after about a year, we were told that that site was going to shutdown and everyone was going to be transferred to the other location. During this contraction, I noticed that they had to let a couple of people go. At the new site, it started to seem stable, but after several months, several other staff was let go.

This daycare facility, through the changes, appeared to be adjusting. Unfortunately, I believe that the economy contributed to the number one reason that they were losing kids. Some other parents I talked to also felt that some staff may have contributed to some parents taking their kids elsewhere as well. Either way it is a shame that a business like this had to meet its demise.

Now we are stuck trying to secure a daycare in the next couple of weeks, while the staff has to struggle with the inevitability that they will not have jobs. I know the owner has struggled over the past couple of years to keep it going and I feel sorry for her and her staff. To the owner and staff of Daycare in the Park, good luck. You have been a big part in shaping my children's lives. Forever me and my family will be grateful for everything you have taught them.

Random acts of gayness

2010-09-07T18:24:00.000-07:00

As a hetro male, I have never questioned my sexuality. I am attracted to one gender. I love the female form. It is intoxicating. I am also comfortable hanging out with my gay/lesbian friends at a “Gay” bar. I am comfortable in my sexuality to not be uncomfortable at one of these hang outs.

But sometimes I have to second guess myself, not on my sexuality, but I believe on perception. Now I know that when I walk into a “Gay” bar everyone knows that I am not gay. I am not a big macho guy, but we “hetros” can be detected a mile away. What I am really talking about here is the random acts of gayness that come over me.

Every straight man knows what I am talking about. It is that moment that you are immersed in something when all of a sudden you think to yourself is this gay? I had one such moments this weekend. I was scrolling through the radio stations when I found myself listening to and rocking out to George Michael’s “Freedom”. When the “Freedom” video came out it, it was laced with scantily clad Super Models through the whole video. It was awesome. But then after he came out, I think we all re-evaluated our masculinity. In retrospect, why didn’t we realize this when he was in Wham?

I was cruising down an open road and blasting this song. As I approached an intersection, I lowered the volume so I would not be caught listening. At that moment, at that intersection, I had a random act of gayness. Have you ever felt this phenomenon? It could happen to you when you least expect it. For me, it happens mostly with music. Because I grew up in the 70’s and 80’s, gayness was scattered throughout the music. Think Elton John, The Village People, Culture Club and Wham. Again in retrospect, duh!

For others it could be getting caught up with your girl watching “Sex and the City”. Others may feel it when they use their wife’s razor or shaving cream. Whenever I think about this subject, it always comes back to the “do you know why I know your gay” routine in 40yr old Virgin, “I know why your gay because I saw you make a spinach dip and put it in a bread bowl.”

I think for me I just need to come to grips with this and embrace my “random acts of gayness”. It is nothing to be ashamed of. I am going to try to be unabashed when these random acts overtake me. I think I hear them calling me, “They want you, they want you, they want you as a new recruit.” Straight guys, if you knew the name of the song these lyrics came from, you just had an act.

Guys, can you be masculine enough to tell me your favorite random act of gayness? Are you man enough? J

BTW, that song is “In the Navy” by The Village People.

Iraq War- An end to what?

2010-09-01T12:01:00.000-07:00

As our President spoke last night, one thing kept popping back into my head is why did we create this mess to begin with? I remember GW telling everyone who would listen that Saddam was an evil person and his regime is harboring terrorists and stock piling Weapons of Mass Destruction. I like the rest of the country was still caught up in the fear mongering that lingered after 9/11. I remember defending this action to a colleague of mine. I remember trying to convince him.

Then a couple years later, I learned that he was right. We essentially shifted the power of a ruthless dictator and gave it to different warring factions, thus creating a Civil War. Nothing ever is civil about war. We have tried to help this country get up on its feet and become self-sufficient. But nearly a decade later, their country’s leadership is non-existent. They are still fighting through a power struggle.

When I revisited this topic with my colleague a couple of years ago, we agreed that we have probably made things worse in this region. Creating a civil war that no one is going to win has really made matters worse for the stability of this region. As we are leaving, Iranians are trying to fill that power void. We’ve essentially

handed them a defeated country; something they could not pull of decades ago.

Do not get me wrong, our country’s service men and women did not die in vain. We destroyed a tyrannical regime, but did we really need to attack? Think about this, if Saddam Hussein was still in power, would Iran be as rogue? Hussein would have never allowed Iran to flourish their nuclear program because he knew that they would be the main target.

We haven’t learned anything from the Vietnam conflict. We cannot change minds and win hearts by force. It didn't work in Vietnam, it didn’t work in Iraq, and it isn’t working in Afghanistan. We really need to combat this war on terror through other means instead of large scale attacks. Attack their bank accounts, do humanitarian efforts like we are doing in Pakistan (after this most recent flooding), work on propaganda through social media, or in certain circumstances, perform surgical strikes. It is a different world where large scale wars do not make a difference to the people we are fighting. It just provides more fire to their fuel against us.

Let me know how you feel about this post by posting a comment below or emailing me at cupde1@gmail.com

Restoring Honor- Nice disguise

2010-08-28T20:10:00.000-07:00

Today is the anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech in Washington DC at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This was a pivotal speech in the civil rights history in the US. MLK had a dream that everyone in the US would treat everyone equally. 47 years after that speech was made, at the same location of this history, another speech took place. It was not about equality, but it was about “Restoring Honor”. Glenn Beck, a conservative radio and television personality created this rally. Beck’s mission was to restore our faith in our country and our god. On face value, this is a very noble cause.

To look forward, we must first look back. Our founding fathers fled Europe to fight oppression. They created this country because they wanted freedom: Freedom to practice religion, freedom to self-govern, and the freedom for all. This is the basis of our constitution. Any governmental discussion of the present always looks to this past, this document. I agree that, we the people, have a great document, but it is inherently flawed when it comes to today’s interpretation.

Let us look at the people that created this document. They were White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men. They wanted religious freedom, as long as it was their Christian God. They wanted everyone to be free, except those slaves they had, their wives, oh and anyone else who wasn’t a white male. Everyone that had power and created this country was these types of men.

As the constitution has journeyed through our court systems’ processes, each generation has added their interpretation and precedent to our constitutional meaning. Please don’t get interpret these statements as someone being cynical or against the constitution, I just think it needs to be looked at the whole context, not just our current interpretation as the be all, end all.

Now let’s go back to Glenn’s speech. Everything that was said was meaningful and heartfelt. However, what wasn’t said meant a lot more. Glenn has denied it, but make no mistake, he knew the meaning of this date. He knew by choosing this day, he would receive the publicity that he did. If it was another day, would tens of thousands of people have attended it and would have every media outlet picked this story up?

Beck furthermore denied that this rally was not political in nature. If it wasn’t, why was the tea party so entrenched in this rally? Beck wants us to go back and pray. He wants us to not just pray but to leave our doors open so that our kids can see us pray. I think by this rally today, all tea partiers saw Glenn Beck praying.

This event was a vast sea of white. Very few people of color were present. Just like our early constitution writers, white America dominated this landscape. Beck appears to want us to get back to a bygone time. I just wonder how far back this conservative wants us to go. I am a White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant male, but I do not get this movement. A WASP, like me, is a dying majority. I get that. I think the rest WASPs do not. Statistically speaking, according to predictions, we are going to be a minority.

America is now a place where people can practice every religion. They can pray to any God. If we cannot understand that, we will be doomed. Wars have been started for less. I just think that it is a dangerous time that Beck and like conservatives are taking us into under the guise of religion. We just need to be careful with groupthink. I will paraphrase what Tommie Lee Jones said in a movie, a person is smart, and groups are dangerous and irrational. Please all conservatives get your news from other sources besides FOX News. They are far from Fair and Balanced.

Death- Get Busy Living Or Get Busy Dying!

2010-08-25T19:57:00.000-07:00

Today I ponder death. My wife was clearly upset today because a co-worker’s son’s viewing was today. He was an adult and had a terminal illness. His death was expected. The family was as prepared as they could ever be, I suppose. My wife started working at this new location after the New Year. I distinctively remember her telling me, shortly after she started there, about this co-worker and her son. It seems like the Mom was trying everything to celebrate her child’s life by taking off and spending time with him while he was still alive.

After my wife came back from the viewing, she was visibly upset. Any parent believes that you are not meant to bury your children. This death affected my wife more than I could imagine. As I see her in her pain, I ponder my own confliction. Death is so final. Since the day you were born, you started your path to die. It could be 2 days or 36500 days (that’s 100 years, if you’re doing the math) until your death, but we all still will die.

I have never been a person obsessed with death. But as I approach my 40’s, there are times when I think of it more often. The only reason I do is because of the lives I helped create, my children. I hope to live long enough for my children to give me grandchildren. But sometimes it is in the back of my mind that what if I die tomorrow. What if I don’t wake up? Who will take care of my children how I want to take care of them? To date, these thoughts are passing thoughts and do not linger. These are the thoughts we all think about but never want to make the decision because we do not feel we will ever truly die, right?

But still I ponder death. Now as my wife is visibly shaken, I hope that the two of us just try to embrace what we have for as long as we have it. We could both be around for 60 years or not. We just have to enjoy what we have and try and look at life through our children’s eyes while they still have their innocence. Let’s all live each day as it is our last by enjoying what we have and ignore (or try to ignore) everything else!

Mosque- To be or not to be that is the question

2010-08-19T19:13:00.000-07:00

I cannot understand why the proposed Mosque by the World Trade Center site is causing so much controversy. The WTC site is very holy ground for this country. I agree with that. Muslim terrorists brought these NYC monuments crashing down. America, especially New York, has a deep distrust for all Muslims. However, this feeling of distrust is misplaced.

Extremists Muslims have used their religion as their guiding principal. These are the people that we need to be concerned about, not pedestrian practicing Muslims. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in this country are the people we live next to and work with. They are Americans, just like the Christians, the Jewish, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and any other religion in the United States. Do you know that Islamic (Muslim) Religion is the second largest practicing religion in the world? Practicing Muslims equate to 1.5 billion people. Christians come in first at 2.1 billion. This is a lot of people to lump into one category.

Muslims, that worked side-by-side with everyone in the Trade Centers, died there as well. They were innocent victims like the rest of the fallen. Other religions have places just as close to the WTC site as this proposed Mosque is. I get it that it is a holy ground, but this fight is unwarranted. One of the founding principles of this nation was religious freedom, right? Why can we not allow these people to practice their religion?

I actually feel ashamed for the way the politicians have used this as their platform issues. In this circumstance,the GOP is using the same scare tactics that GW used to attack Iraq. Poor Dick Cheney, if he wasn’t so sick I am sure he’d be chomping at the bits to discuss this situation. Some Democrats are now jumping on the bandwagon now as well. I personally think they are jumping on this bandwagon so they can save face and get re-elected. My opinion here is that they feel this way: “If the public feels that this Mosque is bad, maybe I shouldn’t go against the grain this election season”. CYA!!

The largest religion, Christians, have a lot of extremists that scare me far more than Muslims. The Christians that breed hate in this country like the ones that protest against military funerals, bread hate towards gays, or other supposed “Christians” that take one line in the Bible and create a religious basis on that one ideal is scary.

If we do not start embracing religious freedom, especially with the Muslim community what can we expect? We are providing fodder for Muslims to be turned off by us. How much easier could it be to turn on this country and agree with these extremist views? The WTC site and NYC is not the only area in this country that is opposed to a Mosque. Time and time again, ever since 9/11, Americans have fought both legally and illegally with new Mosques being built. Spend a little time researching these issues before you jump on this bandwagon. NPR recently did a story on this very subject and is very enlightening.

Please I implore you to look at the real issues here. Don’t jump on the bandwagon in lumping all Muslims together. Yes, the people that attacked us were Muslim, but the majority of the Muslim world do not feel the same way as these extreme religious zealots do. Remember Hitler came to power in Germany because he portrayed Jews in very similar light.

Politics- It's a game changing time!

2010-08-09T14:13:00.000-07:00

Remember when Arsenio Hall and MTV were political game changers? Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s with cable television, politics molded and warped our minds. As a child, I remember sitting by the television wondering and praying that President Reagan would be ok. I also remember as a child how Presidents too often would pre-empt my favorite prime time shows with some propaganda that only my parents were interested in. Then as a got older and out of high school, Bill Clinton and George H Bush started battling out for President.

This was my first election that I had interest in and could vote in. I remember seeing then-Governor Clinton playing saxophone on the hottest late night show of that time, Arsenio Hall. I can also remember that town hall meeting style forum MTV created when Clinton agreed to participate. Sure we had the boxers or briefs question or the “I did not inhale” answer, but it also was a candid look at the personality of this politician. We felt a connection with him. Bush seemed out of touch. That’s why Clinton won.

Since then, almost twenty years have passed and boy have this game changed. Our 24/7 always on society is bad for politics. Some may say that this society demands the transparency, but I think that too much information is a bad thing. The politics of politics is very smarmy, seedy part of society that we only saw a small glimpse into only a few years ago. Now, depending upon what side you favor, you can get a slant on anything.

Politicians actions, more so than ever, are carefully plotted. For every action, they know that they will create a reaction. This is why certain party lines are held and seemingly no action is taken. I, like many of Americans, do not like to be lumped into Conservative/Liberal categories. My views and beliefs lay somewhere in between these very strict interpretive categories. I will admit it that my beliefs are more liberal than conservative, but I am not drawn towards either of these political parties.

I agree and understand why people are gravitating to the Tea Party Movement, but to me it just seems like an off-shoot of an even more Conservative Republican party. When Democrats want change they change it in dramatic fashion. Because they are in control now, a lot has changed. Republicans, instead of creating alternate, more compelling legislation, they are wagging their fingers at the Democrats saying you shouldn’t do that.

I agree that some Democratic changes have not been for the good, but some has. I have voted for both Democrats and Republicans. I look at the particular politician and the impact that that person brings to the table. Right now, Democrats seem scared and are playing a “Prevent Defense”. I am not happy were the Democrats are right now. Obstructionist Republicans are not winning me over either. The “wait until November” approach is already leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

If it wasn’t for these technological marvels that we have now, we would not be forced to be immersed in this political onslaught of information. I think these politicians would be acting differently if they were not under the microscope. Maybe, just maybe then the two political parties could come together and work nice together. That’s a pipedream. But at least get some bi-partisanship together.

Back to the Clinton/ Bush matchup. Remember we had a third party candidate back then. Ross Perot that little guy with the big ears shouting about. He helped Clinton by eating up the conservative support that was going to go to Bush in the election. Back then, we thought a third party was going to take shape, but never did. It seems to me that Perot only used this platform for his own self-interests instead of making a viable third party.

Now is the time for a true third-party to take shape. As I stated Tea Parties are seemingly being assimilated into the Republican Party and doesn’t seem to me to be a viable party. Other Independent parties are designed for specific purposes and wouldn’t be viable for all of today’s concerns. Now we need another party that tows the lines with the rest of America. We need a party that is in the middle. The two political party extremes are too extreme. I currently find no political party representing me, just their own self-interests.

However, I do not know if any changes could take place now. Because of blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and other digital means, the scrutiny that a politician is now confronted with, a true game changing personality that could lead this charge may never want to come forward. If political game changers like FDR or JFK were in today’s politics, they would have been lamb-basted and would never be elected. That leaves us with what we have. I hope that I am wrong.

I would love to see a game changer, but unfortunately the current "always on" media mentality will keep truly innovative, risk-taking political minds from becoming mainstream!

Web 2.0- How do you like me now?!

2010-07-16T12:26:00.000-07:00

Several years ago I heard the term “web 2.0” being talked about. The premise of “2.0” was that the internet would be interactive. The traditional internet/web experience is that you went to a site, pulled off the information you wanted and that was about it. In “2.0” you could interact with the site or the program. I didn’t quite fathom what they meant.

Media, up to that point, flowed one way. The sender transmitted the information to the receiver, end of story. Then I heard about blogs, then MySpace, and now Facebook. With these new forums, the sender-receiver relationships changed. We could now react to this information. Everyone has a voice. The first interaction I probably had was to comment on an online news story. Then I was turned onto MySpace. I was able to express myself through posts, pictures, wallpapers, etc. This was a good way for me and my friends to share pictures, make pithy comments or poke fun of something. Then it became irrelevant. We all jump shipped, en masse, to Facebook.

Once on Facebook, I was able to connect with everyone I grew up with, worked with, or had an interest in. Like many, it has really changed me. From not knowing what a childhood friend was doing for the past 20 years to now knowing what they ate for dinner is a really interesting lifestyle change. We are now connected and immersed in this technology. For those of us with a “Smartphone” where we have 24/7 access to the internet and these 2.0 services, it starts to turn into a borderline obsession.

A few weeks back, I recall an NPR program that stated that our attention spans are reverting back to how we were when humans were just hunter-gatherers. Their premise is with the information overload that we are currently being bombarded with, we are losing the ability to concentrate. They said we are re-wiring our brains. Like the hunter-gatherers that had their heads on a swivel, looking out for everything, we are losing the ability to concentrate for long periods.

Their example was in our ability to read a book. Many of us now cannot concentrate long enough to sit down for hours and read a book. Because our reading of quick, short internet tidbits, posts, and stories, we lose interest. What are your thoughts? Have you tried to read a book recently, but didn’t have the patience? If you already have started to tune out in reading this, it may be true for you.

For me, I personally feel that I am more obsessive in gathering information. Like the hunter-gathers, I am constantly check my phone or the internet for updates. How much information do I really need to know? I know I am not alone because I see many of the same people around me doing the same.

The other thing about “Web 2.0” that has become a strange anomaly is how easily people share information about themselves. A short status update can say a lot about a person. We are quick to jump on a politician or other public figure that flubs a statement, but are our accounts online any different?

I will leave you with this caution that many people forget. If you state it on the internet, it could be permanently out there. That midnight, merlot-induced rant could come back to bite you in the ass. Be careful what you say because when you least expect it, it could back to haunt you. Many times I say to myself, what would a potential employer or my mom think about my posts? Other times I throw caution to the wind, but at what cost to me?

Rock: Is it on life support?

2010-07-08T16:01:00.000-07:00

What happened to this generation’s rock heroes? Where are the guitar gods of this generation? The 50’s and early 60’s had the likes of Elvis, the Beatles, and Johnny Cash. The late 60’s and early 70’s had Clapton, Page, and Townsend. The late 70’s and early 80’s had Eddie Van Halen and Pink Floyd. I think the debauchery came to a peak in the decadent 80’s with the metal bands. Sure we had the bands like Metallica that drove the guitar rock into a much heavier and darker place, but it was dominated by Glam Metal.

Then resurgence in the 90’s of qualitative substantive rock took hold again which everyone attributes to Nirvana. As this musical genre and decade came to a close, campy rock began. Throughout the beginning of the 21^st Century until now we have homogenized rock. We have no innovative guitar prodigy tearing up the airwaves. Nor do we have any current rock star singer making headlines. Axel Rose, Steven Tyler, and Scott Weiland are making news recently, but they have been around for decades.

Growing up in the 70’s and 80’s, it always seemed to me that the rock mantra “sex, drugs, and rock and roll” was a recurring theme for both the fans and the artists. Since rocks inception it was all about the anti-establishment. But now I wonder if all of that fire and angst has been extinguished and quashed.

In the 50’s, rock’s birth was a result of mashing up country and western with rhythm & blues, gospel, and throw in a little jazz for good measure. It started out as a way for White America to rebel against the homogenized establishment. White musicians injected staid country music with these other predominately Black culture influenced musical genres. White teens flocked to this music like a moth to a flame. These teens not only embraced this music for its entertainment value, but also because their parents detested it. Elvis’s gyrating hips really shook up the world.

Into the 60’s and through the 70’s, rock grew and grew. Guitarists were innovative. New and creative sounds and riffs was transforming music into a lifestyle. Long haired, shirt-less musicians changed the way we listened to music forever. We had Jim Morrison getting arrested for profanity-laced tirades. We had “Inna Gada Da Vida”. We had “The Wall”. Rock rocked. Controversy ruled.

In the 80’s, a fundamental shift in rock started to take hold. Style over substance took over. The formation of these glam metal rock bands initiated from LA’s Sunset Strip where this culture was prevalent. No longer was music being created because of angst in the artists, but more for the groupies. “Sex, drugs and rock & roll” was prevalent, but now music was written so they could become famous not infamous.

In the 90’s, the Grunge era started to morph rock back to its roots. Anguish and struggles in these bands’ music once again struck a chord with the teens. But by the end of this decade, commercialism set in to this era. Instead of expressing angst, Grunge turned campy through the eyes of the likes of Blink 182, Beck, and Marcy Playground.

Since then we have not had any ground breaking music. We do have some interesting bands, but no game changers. The good guitar rockin’ music coming out now is from previous era. Rock is no longer the chart topping music genre; it has been Rhythm & Blues and Rap. Just like rock did with country and swing in the 50’s, rap has taken away the same demographics from rock. It is more controversial. It is more compelling and entertaining to the youth.

Like it or not, rock has past its prime. Like the Baby Boomer Generation that was raised on rock, it will soon be entering the twilight of its years. I am not saying that it will be going away anytime soon, but rock will never be what it once was. We will never have another game changing rock band like the Beatles, The Who, or Bruce Springsteen again and that saddens me. In my heart I say long live rock and roll, but unfortunately my head says otherwise.

Independence- To serve or not to serve

2010-07-02T12:22:00.001-07:00

As we start to embark on a celebration of our country’s independence this weekend. It is also a chance to take stock in what makes this country great. This weekend we are more than just Democrats and Republicans. We are Patriots. Despite the way we feel about politics, the economy, the environment, and cultural differences in our country, we are united in our love for our beloved country.

To me, thoughts of fireworks, watermelon, NASCAR’s Firecracker 400, picnics, and soldiers are what I see in my mind when I think about the approaching holiday. I am sure many of you may have similar visualizations in your mind. One particular aspect always seems to haunt me though. As a teenager, I always wanted to be a professional pilot. However, due to my color-blinded eyes, I was never able to fulfill that dream. Before I realized this deficiency would prevent me from becoming a pilot, I met with the US Navy. I thought maybe I could get free pilot training. Boy was I wrong.

Because of my color-blindness and maybe my other aptitudes at the time, I was offered few opportunities that interested me. It certainly was not flying an airplane! One job they offered me was to be a parachute folder! That sounded like fun! So I never went into the Armed Forces. Part of me regrets not serving. Soon after I graduated, the first Gulf War took place. I knew people I graduated with in high school that was over there. I have tremendous respect for those that have served. I am humbled by their commitment to put their lives on the line for this country.

Now as I am approaching my 40’s, I still feel an urge to serve my country. For the past couple of years, I have decided to serve in another fashion and that is to volunteer. Through my church, I have become involved in volunteer opportunities that help my fellow man. I have tried to help organize and create an emergency food pantry. Since we opened this pantry up, we have averaged about 80 families a month. I have felt very humbled by helping to feed people that may not have been fed without us. The other mission that I have helped with is an emergency winter shelter program which I have documented before in this blog.

Remember this Independence Day what makes this country great. It isn’t the fireworks or the 20-car wreck pile-up at the Daytona Race, but it is the people. Previous generations were truly raised by a village. Neighborhoods were your extended family. If you needed help putting a fence up, they would come to help you. How many of us do not know the names of your neighbors? Somewhere we lost that camaraderie, but by volunteering you can help to reconnect with your fellow man.

Stop looking inward; stop complaining about the problems with the world, and take steps to fix it. Volunteer for a cause that is near and dear to you. To me, I feel that my volunteerism keeps me grounded. We all can get lost in wanting to get that newest big screen television or iPhone, but helping others that are less fortunate keeps everything in perspective. Take time to volunteer. Don’t do it because you are required, do it because you want to. You just might enjoy it. For me, I feel that I get more out of it than I put in.

Oil, Oil everywhere, not a drop for fish to drink!

2010-06-02T11:20:00.000-07:00

It has been roughly a month and a half since the BP oil well exploded and sunk into the Gulf of Mexico. Since then, it has shown us the ineptness of the oil industry and our Federal Government. The oil industry rakes in billions upon billions of dollars every year. It was not so long ago that we were hearing about record profits by these companies. Usually multi-billion dollar companies invest money back into the company in research and development to develop new and innovative products, but not this industry.

The attempts to cap this well have all been relatively low-tech solutions. No one was prepared for this complicated problem. Now, it appears that we will have to see if the dome procedure can slow the leak. It will not even stop the problem. Apparently the only way that the well will stop spewing oil is to cut it off through relief wells. The relief wells will not be completed until sometime in August, at least two months from now. In the meantime the Gulf and eventually the Atlantic Ocean will need to contend with this man-made environmental disaster.

Why didn’t this industry prepare for this inevitability? Profits and arrogance is the answer. When ExxonMobil was recording record profits, they were criticized for not reinvesting into the industry. Instead they just kept the profits. Investors that held this stock didn’t complain. The culture, to constantly make a profit above everything else, had rung true during this time.

Everyone was making money, especially politicians. The Bush and Cheney families made a lot of money by owning a big chunk of the oil pie. However, most politicians, Republican and Democrat also had their hands out. This coziness with the industry bred arrogance. Oil companies were allowed to operate with very lax oversight. In fact, the same government workers providing oversight easily moved from government jobs to new positions within these oil companies. Sounds like good work if you could get it, right?

Traditionally, “Big Oil” and Republicans were synonymous. Republicans were always pushing for more domestic drilling. Why? For their piece of the pie! In recent years, Democrats were just as cozy. Now because of this, we have a gushing oil well bubbling thousands of gallons of oil into an already fragile marine ecosystem with no end in sight.

It is time to force these companies to create better technology to solve this problem before it occurs again and again. They have been using the same technology they have used for decades to try and cap this well, but it doesn’t work. We should not allow these companies to operate offshore without better safety preventers in place.

I hope we learn from this disaster. We need to invest in cleaner technology. We can create a handheld phone that you can watch the internet, text, facebook, etc. on, but we cannot create a new energy solution? Invest in new technology now! If we did that, we could also take the power out of the Middle East. Let’s do something about this! Call or write your politicians and tell them it is time for a change!

Is it time for US to take a different stance against Israel?

2010-06-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

First of all I want to predicate this blog post by stating that I am neither Jewish nor Arab. Nor do I confess to know every detail about all of the Jewish-Arab conflicts. As far back as I can remember when I was a child, to me Palestine and their people, the Palestinians, were portrayed to me as terrorists. Our media portrayed the faction PLO as an extremist group that solely attacked the State of Israel. Yasser Arafat always was the face of the PLO. My impression of him equated him to the likes of Idi Amin or Omar Kadafi. He led a terrorist agency and should be a hunted man.

Then in the 1990’s, I remember this same person sitting down for peace talks with President Clinton and Israel. He actually won a Nobel Peace Prize as a result of these talks. At this time I thought that Palestine was ready for change with Israel, but that lasting peace would only come as a result of the Palestinians, not as a result of Israel. I thought whenever peace was broken, Palestinians were the cause and Israel was taking action as a result of this.I know that Hamas has since taken over as the Palestinian's leading party. They have a more extreme point-of-view about these settlements and they have not stood quietly with their objections of these peace accords.

Now my stance on this issue has changed. What we are really talking about in these issues is the land. Palestine and its people appeared to me to be the indigenous people from this area. Throughout the late 1800’s and 1900’s, Jewish settlers slowly started to overtake this region. These areas have a deep religious history and appear to be at the root of the conflict. Palestine just wants a place to call their own, but Israel wants to time and time again to redefine agreed upon boundaries.

I am not naïve to think that Palestine and its people are innocent, but I can honestly say that I can sympathize with them when it comes to the attacks on Israel. Israel barricades Palestine settlements from Israel. Since Israel surrounds most of Gaza and the West Bank, most everything must travel through Israel before it gets to Palestine. So even though they are supposed to be autonomous, they must still rely heavily upon Israel. I think that is the most contentious part of this peace process. Israel backs Palestine in a corner and then gets upset when Palestine gets upset and takes action. Sure rocket-propelled grenades or rockets are extreme, but I can see their justification for using them. I am not condoning violence, I am just saying here that I can see why the violence (at least recently) continues.

As an American, I wonder if our country should be backing Israel. Over this past weekend, Israel attacked a flotilla that was supposed to be providing aid to Gaza. Instead of taking less lethal means to stop a boat, the Israeli Army opened fire and killed 9 people. I hate to say or even type this, but maybe, at least in this instance, I can truly see why Iran would want to protect itself and expand into a nuclear program. No one can confirm if Israel has nuclear weapons, so I would not doubt if we have already given the weapons to them.

Even though I believe that Iran’s President has major mental health issues, I feel slight sympathy for Iran. If Israel has nuclear weapons, who would they use it on? I am not in favor of anyone, even us, having nuclear weapons, but I can see why Iran has taken this stance and is not in favor of the UN inspecting their weapons if Israel, India, and Pakistan are not subjected to this same scrutiny.

To me I see Palestine as a caged animal. If you poke a stick into the cage, it’s going to try and attack you whenever it has the opportunity. Palestine is backed into a corner and cannot get out. Israel knows this and is taking advantage of this ever chance it gets.

Because Israel is refusing to change course, should we, the US? If we stop supporting Israel, the Middle East dynamics would change significantly. Most Middle East countries that are against us are because of the resolve that we have shown for Israel. By formally withdrawing support from Israel, would Al Qaeda still be planning our destruction? Maybe, maybe not. I know that this is an oversimplification of this problem, but maybe we need to re-think our alliances.

I know that the US has a large population of Jews in it and that is a large reason that we stand behind them, but should we stop wagging our finger at Israel and start taking a harder stance against this country? I think we should. I am not writing this to anger anyone that is Jewish, but Israel is acting like a rogue nation. Is what they have done over the past couple of years any different than what Iran, Iraq, or any of the supposed “Axis of Evils” has done? Your thoughts?

Pennsylvania Liquor (should be in) Control Board!

2010-05-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Pennsylvania has one of the weirdest state liquor laws. Growing up I always heard the grumbling that we should not have the state running these stores. For many years, I agreed. Why did our state government run these stores instead of privatizing them?! Open it up to the free market; privatize it! That was always the sentiment and I felt the same way. However, my views have changed.

I think the biggest complaint because it was state-run was the hours that they were open. At least through my adult life though, they have changed. Many of these stores are now open later and some are even open on Sundays. Sure all holidays they are closed, but if you anticipate your needs you can work around it. The people running out to get alcohol on holidays are the ones that are already ripped and have run out. Seriously, they shouldn’t be on the road anyway, right?

The other complaint was that you cannot purchase beer or wine in a grocery store. That too is changing. Several stores are now offering 6 packs to go in their stores. I can go to Wegmans and pick up a wide variety of beers there. I am cool with that. I am not a wine drinker so I do not really care if they offer them in stores. However, I think they are experimenting with that as well. I believe the PLCB is working on putting vending machines in stores. These machines will automatically check your ID and match it to your face, and then it will dispense it. Pretty cool!

Most state stores have a larger variety of products than other liquor stores in other states. That was evident the last time I went to South Carolina. I had to go to a couple of stores until I found the bottle I wanted. The Premium stores offer even more hard to find items as well.

The one thing that I like about the state is that it does have good buying power. I went to the store this holiday weekend and Jack Daniels was discounted $6. You wouldn’t get sales like that in a private market especially on a holiday weekend. These state stores are designed to sell in quantity. Smaller private stores would be geared more towards selling for higher profits.

I have changed my opinion in privatizing our state stores. Let the state keep them and run them. By the way, keep in mind that whatever profit is generated goes back to the state. We would lose that income as well. Sure we may have a short term gaining in licensing and sales to the private market, but in the long run I think we would lose out.

Arlen Specter- The biggest fight of his career and no one in Pennsylvania cares.

2010-05-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

Arlen Specter made a last ditch effort in 2009 to save his political career. After holding office as a Republican Senator for decades, Specter’s waffling Senate days look to be numbered. After he voted for Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, the Republicans in Pennsylvania were feed up with Specter’s history. Throughout his career, Specter was not afraid to vote against party lines and this was no exception. Republicans made this stimulus plan their party’s largest opposition stand. Their mantra was, “If you were not with us, you were against us.” Well, Specter was not with them and felt a backlash.

Specter felt that backlash throughout the rest of 2009. With a re-election campaign starting, this was the last thing that Specter wanted to deal with. Early polling showed a double digit lead by his Republican challenger, Pat Toomey. Specter felt that as a Republican that has gone against the grain for too long, his re-election efforts were in serious jeopardy. So in late 2009, he switched from the Republican Party to the Democratic Party.

Many in Pennsylvania feel that Specter just jumped ship solely to save his political career. When Specter switched parties he stated that he did not like the direction the Republican Party was headed. However, to Pennsylvanians, we see that it was only about self-preservation and not party line stands. As the polls have opened, it appears that this race will be too close to call. Joe Sestak, Specter’s Democratic election opponent, was trailing Specter by double digits merely a month ago, but now is going neck and neck in this primary race.

This is a very interesting battle than many Democratic Pennsylvanians do not seem to care about. Light election turnout is predicted and that may not fare well for Specter. The few passionate Democrats in Pennsylvania, that will vote, appear to be on Sestak’s side and will trudge out into the rain to seat their candidate. What it will really come done to is the perception of Specter and if he is a good example of the Democrats. Unfortunately for Specter, the reality is that he is not representative of the Democratic party and probably will not be re-elected.

Now on a rainy dreary May Election Day in Pennsylvania, his fate will be sealed. If the weather is symbolic of Specter’s night, it will not be bright and cheery at Specter’s election headquarters. As many incumbents have felt over the past year, Specter’s reigns over Washington politics will be coming to an end.

If, by chance that Specter wins tonight, he must still face Pat Toomey in the November Election. That battle will be even tougher. Democrats of late have held many of the top elected spots in the state. Because of the economic and various political issues in the state, Democrats are going to feel this backlash and the Republicans have a good chance of taking over a mostly Democrat-run government. That will not bode well for Sestak or Specter in November.

Why I Left the Roman Catholic Religion to Become an Episcopalian

2010-05-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

This is the first in a series of articles focusing on my religious beliefs. I was born into and raised Roman Catholic. My mother and father became pregnant with my brother. They were not married but, because of social norms and pressures of that time, were rushed into marriage. I am not saying that my parents were forced into a marriage they did not want, but society dictated that they make amends and were pushed towards marriage. My Mom was raised Roman Catholic and my Dad was Episcopalian.

As part of the Catholic tradition, Mom was required to raise her children Catholic. My brother and I both went through all of the Roman Catholic rituals and traditions. We were both Baptized as infants. We attended Catechism which is the structured indoctrination of the Catholic rites. We also went through the Holy Communion and Confirmation Ceremonies. The Catholic traditions were really ingrained into our lives. This really allowed me to understand religion, at least through the Catholics' eyes.

As a teen I started to question my beliefs. I did not feel a connection with God and felt when I went to church I did it because it was required of me. I felt a disconnect. In retrospect, I think my disconnect was with the Catholic Church, but not with God. But since I had that disconnect with the church, my relationship with God suffered.

Throughout my teens, twenties, and early thirties I was a disengaged Catholic. I felt that I could say I was Catholic, but I rarely practiced unless it was a holiday or went to a wedding . Even then when I went, I did not feel like I was part of that community. But a major event in my life transformed me, my daughter was born.

I felt, probably from that Catholic guilt, that I needed to re-connect with God. My wife felt the same way. Because of my disconnect with the Catholic Church, compounded with my personal beliefs that conflicted with the church, we looked at connecting with another Christian religion. I did not have to look to far. We went to my Dad's church and immediately felt a connection. I have been a member of St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Allentown, PA ever since.

Many ex-Catholics, like me, seem to move to the Episcopal Church. Services are very similar especially when it comes to the liturgy. So the Episcopal Church had a sense of familiarity. What really sets the Episcopal Church apart though is its leadership. It is a Bi-Cameral leadership, very similar to our government. The church has a Priest that leads the church, but it also has elected lay leadership called the Vestry.

This same Bi-Cameral leadership goes all the way to the top. Any changes to the church, including election of a Presiding Bishop, is voted on by a House of Bishops and a House of Deputies (lay and clergy). Nothing changes without these two Houses agreeing. It is just like the Senate and Congress. So instead of a Pope that dictates edicts to the masses, the masses in the Episcopal Church are the voices of that church.

My voice is heard here in the Episcopal Church. We all do not agree with each other, but the majority rules. Why I feel such a good connection with this church is not the leadership of it though. It is the church's (Episcopal Church as a whole) ability to welcome everyone, no matter what their beliefs are. Some may believe that a marriage is only between a man and a wife, while others may believe it can be between any two loving individuals. Republicans, Democrats, liberals and conservatives all are Episcopalian. That is why I love this church community.

Recently, over the last decade, our church has been moving more liberal. We are allowing, and rightly so, gay lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) clergy become a larger part of our community. I believe it is not a choice in someone's life to be gay or a lesbian. It is who they are. My church is starting to reflect that. I look at it this way, if you are GLBT and want to marry someone else that is GLBT, you should be allowed. They should be allowed to suffer like the rest of us married folks. :-)

Change is a comin'

2010-05-11T12:36:00.001-07:00

Have you ever been a part of an organization that is resistant to change? As I am nearing my big 4-0 and get set in my ways, I have noticed that everyone is resistant to change. Human nature makes us comfortable with familiarity. As my priest states, “It is our default position.” However, I think that too many times we embrace this stance and it produces complacency. We do not change because it is easier to stay with the status quo.

Everyone does this. The challenge though is for an organization to be able to recognize that it is time for a change. At a recent yearly church fundraiser, I looked around at the things that my church was doing and discovered that it may be a time for change. I kept hearing, “Well this is because we always did it this way.” Or “We did it last year like this.” But what I saw really was not reaping benefits like it might have. We stick with the things that have worked in the past, but when times change, we do not.

For change to take place, it is not just a matter of proposing the change and making it happen. But you also need to be able to get a buy-in from the same people that are resistant to change. In management terms, this is called Change Management. Change Management is the ability to introduce change and minimize the impact of that change on your people. In many circumstances, change needs to be evolutionary so slowly the transformation will occur.

If the people that have to adjust to the change are not willing to let it happen, two things will happen. Either that person will resent the change and do everything they can to sabotage it. Or they will disassociate themselves from the change, either by focusing on something else in the organization or leaving that organization. In the latter scenario, if you are associated in a business environment this could mean a person is going to quit. If it is in a volunteer or religious organization, you may never hear from that person again.

Change Management needs to be used effectively by every type of organization. For businesses to succeed it is imperative. In volunteer or religious organizations, it really is about helping to maintain your very existence. As I help with next year’s fundraiser event, I need to offer my suggestions and chip away at these suggestions of the next 12 months so when the program changes, resistance will be minimized.

Baseball- The Great American Pastime?

2010-04-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

As the weather gets warmer and spring turns into summer, our interests start turning towards baseball again. As a kid growing up in the 1970’s and 1980’s, names like Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Carl Yaztremski, and Mike Schmidt showed me how likeable and relatable baseball can be with the everyday man. But as the excess of the 80’s seeped into baseball, so did the dynamics of the game and the players playing that game. In my teen’s, big cash-laden player contracts started to emerge.

But we demand it!

Always the argument revolved around the old business rule of supply/demand. Supposedly the good players were rewarded with good financial contracts. To keep the good players, teams had to constantly sweeten the pot, if not they would go to a team that would pay. I believed this for a long time. I thought that if the team has the money, it is their cost of doing business. However, I feel that this theory is flawed.

MLB’s disconnect

Baseball, from its humble beginnings, was a blue collar sport. Anyone and everyone could go and did go to see a baseball game. When free agency was adopted in 1969, it forever started to unravel this blue collar sport. It is true that players were not paid and treated very well throughout the years. As a result, the players gained the upper hand and have not looked back since. Throughout the 70’s and early 80’s salaries exponentially increased. Because of this, now “Joe Sixpack” cannot relate to these players. There was always a connection between fans and players. They were approachable. You do not get that feeling now.

As salaries have increased the relationship with the fans have decreased. Try and get A-Rod to sign a ball, if you can even get close enough to talk to him. Compounded this with the steroids controversy and baseball has become more and more irrelevant in the United States. MLB has become an elitist sport. The more money the team makes, the more ridiculous the salaries get. Recently an MLB Team signed a veteran to a $125 million 5 year contract. Is a baseball player worth $25 million a year?

Not for me anymore

I cannot afford to take my family to a MLB game. Marketing, ticket prices, and food sales all help to pay for that $25 million. I do not have hundreds of dollars to take my family to a game. Even if I did, I would not go. However, one silver lining to MLB is the Minor League Teams. For $50 or so I can take my family to a Minor League game.

Despite these exorbitant costs at MLB ballparks, people are still going. At a certain point I wonder though if this will last. How much higher can ticket prices go? How much are we willing to pay for a 12oz beer? $10?! I know that I am not the only one who feels that way.

It is no longer the Great American Pastime. It is no longer a worker man’s game. Think about this, in 1985, a poll was taken and 24% of the people polled stated football was their favorite sport and 23% stated it was baseball. By comparison, in 2008, only 16% polled favored baseball and 31% favored football. That shows me that many people are feeling the way I do. MLB needs to re-connect with the fans to stay relevant. Take some tips from your Minor League Teams and offer promotions

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T18:58:00.000-07:00

What a week for hippies! First was 4/20 aka 420. This was the day that celebrated everything marijuana. Now on 4/22, we have Earth Day. In 1970, Earth Day began. Now throughout the world this day is synonymous with celebrating the “Green” Earth. Environmentally speaking, we have come a long way since 1970. We have worked hard to better our environment. But today makes me ponder where we still need help.

Everywhere I look I see…

One thing bothers me though and that is Petroleum Oil. Without oil, we probably would have not advanced technologically. We would not be driving internal combustion engines. We would not have many of the plastic products that make our life easier. As I sit at my computer, I sit on a plastic coated chair with a foam plastic cushion. This keyboard is infused with plastic on the keys and covers all of the mechanisms in it. The mouse, computer, computer speakers, monitor, pen, telephone, and re-usable travel mug at my desk all are made up with plastic. Plastic is in or on everything we touch.

But what impact does all this have on the environment? We probably would not need or have Earth Day if it was not for our dependency of oil. The oil and plastics that are made from the oil are causing many of the major environmental problems that we have to deal with. It is well documented about the internal combustion impact to the environment so I will forego that discussion. But since plastics are everywhere, they are constantly being discarded. The problem with that is plastics do not biodegrade; it photo degrades. Plastics just degrade into smaller and smaller pieces. Our vast oceans are actually being overrun with microscopic plastic.

Yes we always talk about limiting greenhouse gas emission. We require our car manufacturers to build more efficient cars. But what about plastics? Sure most of us recycle. We throw that water bottle in the recycling container and do our part to help the earth. But what about the stuff that we cannot or do not recycle?

I am doing my part by recycling, but…..

For example, if you look at the medical field, it is laden with one-time plastic use. Everything that is sterilized is sealed into a plastic wrapping. If you need an intravenous medication, the bag is plastic along with the tube going to your arm. Because of contaminants, the majority of these plastics cannot be recycled. Extensive plastic use is not limited to the medical field, but this just shows how entrenched plastic is everywhere.

Plastics are wrecking havoc throughout our world. Unfortunately, I do not see any current alternatives to replace plastics anytime soon. We are working on building an alternative fuel vehicle; we should also be investing in plastic alternatives. I am sure some scientists are working on this solution somewhere, but it is not being publicized. Maybe we should be bringing this to the forefront as well. Someday, I am sure in my lifetime, oil will no longer be a viable product so shouldn’t we be looking into alternatives for all its uses?

Yes, today is Earth Day….

This is the day to look at Mother Earth and take inventory of our impact on it. I am not a Tree-hugging Hippy (However that free love stuff sounded fun!) but I think we can learn some lessons about us this day. Like Tree-huggers before us, let's go with this mantra for the day and beyond: "Think globally and act locally". If it has an impact on our environment, let us think twice before we do anymore damage to it. Hippies enjoy your week because unfortunately next week these issues will be out of sight, out of mind to most of us!

Higher (debt) Learning

2010-04-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

When a higher learning facility promotes that their education is affordable, it’s all relative. What is affordable? The average cost of attending a four year college in the US is around $9000 per year. That is $36,000. By comparison, a British citizen would pay about $4600 a year or just over $18,000 a year. That’s half the cost.

Re-thinking my education

In my early 30’s, I felt trapped. I only had an Associate’s degree from a community college. I felt that meant nothing. It was tough to find alternative employment to what I already had. So I decided that I would go back to school. I enrolled in an Undergraduate Business Administration degree program. I worked hard and finished my degree. By the way, I graduated with a Summa Cum Laude (High Honors) designation. I was proud how I excelled my second time around. As I finished completion of this degree, I realized that by having an Undergrad degree did not set me apart from anyone else. This degree was equivalent to having a high school diploma 30 years ago. Everyone competing for a professional job had at least this type of degree plus experience in that field. I wanted to run a non-profit.

To better my chances, I felt that I needed to go after Master’s level degree. I enrolled into an MBA, 17-month program. It was the toughest, most time consuming project I ever took up in my life. Also, the same month I started this program, my youngest child, Owen was born. Talk about having no life! But again I graduated with a degree, which would have been equivalent to a Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude Honor designation if the institution that I graduated from designated that in their Master’s program.

I am proud of my educational achievements. However, I have nothing to show for it. I am working at the organization I started with prior to earning my undergraduate degree. I earned small modest raises, but nothing equivalent to match my degrees. In fact, I am deeper in the hole. The debt that I accumulated from these degrees do not come close to the added income I generated from these degrees. This statement is a hard pill for me to swallow. If I didn’t go back to college, I would be better off financially.

Downturn in economy (silverlining?)

Of course, when I was graduating with my Master’s degree in early 2007, the economic downturn was starting. Hiring was already slowing. Housing was starting to show signs of problems. It was not a good time to have a company invest into someone like me. I realize that now. If I knew then what I know now, I would have not taken these classes and earned these degrees.

However, I am cautiously optimistic that I am about to turn a corner. I recently created, with others, a non-profit. It is a non-paid Director position, but what I am learning in running this agency can help me become more marketable. I have also taken up writing. This blog is a way for me to express myself and to see if I can

spurn some interest in the commodity of me.

Question your reasons!

One piece of advice to potential college students that I have is to research. Of course you will research the school that you want to go to and research your course of study. It may be in demand, but is it worth the degree. As a business major, one key business tool that I learned is ROI (Return On Investment). Please research your return on investment. Will it be worth the money you spend? Will it provide added value to your professional worth? Most of the time the answer will probably be yes. You can no longer afford to earn a degree because you like the profession. You need to be able to determine if you will be better off with or without it.

Would I have done things differently?

If I would base this question on the here and now, yes. I would not have taken these courses. It was a great achievement to do what I have done and I am proud of that. But the money I am in debt now cannot justify the end result. However, I am still semi-optimistic that things will change for me.

Back to the original point.

Our country has a great higher education system in place and it is expanding, especially in this economy. To stay in stride with everyone else, you are now required to go to college. This is a big expense that previous generations never had to deal with. Ponder this, will we be paying on student loans when we retire. Those of us that have completed our education in our later 30’s-early 40’s could have 20-30 year student loans to pay. If you are 45 and start paying on a 30 year loan that will take you to 75 years of age! I think we would be luck to retire if we are still paying. Maybe like other countries, this system will be adjusted.

That is just some food for thought!

By the way, is anyone in need of a Director for a Non-Profit? J

St Andrew's and Amazon.com

2010-04-15T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here is a shameless plug for amazon.com. If you like to shop at amazon.com, if you click on the link to the right, you can help my church. Every sale done through this portal, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church will receive a percentage of the sales. Instead of just a large corporation receiving your money, help a local church. Our church is more than a church. We provide a shelter for Bethlehem's homeless during the winter months. We have a quality Nursery School. Plus we house an emergency food pantry that provides food to about 60 families a month. To help support these missions, please shop through this portal. It doesn't cost you anything more. You can even use whatever discounts you receive. It is a win-win. You get the products you need and we get a small contribution to help with our programs.

Facebook Social Networking Games

2010-04-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

What is a Social Networking Game?

Over the past year, for some reason unbeknownst to me, I was an avid Mafia Wars player. If no one is familiar with Mafia Wars or similar games like Farmville, these games are simple games developed to pull you into an almost sub-culture of gaming. It starts innocuous enough. They provide you with a limited amount of energy to utilize on tasks. As you accomplish tasks, you earn points to expand your energy and build your cache (in Mafia Wars its weapons, protection, vehicles, properties, etc. ). The more you play it, the more you acquire, the larger your energy builds. It is an addictive cycle that draws people in.

An additional component that is imperative to the game is the social networking part of the game. For Mafia Wars, you grow your Mafia. Tasks and game objectives are accomplished by recruiting your Facebook friends in becoming your Mafia. The more friends that you recruit, the more tasks that your friends can help you to annihilate. If anyone on Facebook that has spent 5 minutes on it, you have probably been asked to join a Mafia, start your Farm, been given a virtual hug, or even been given a virtual Dunkin Donuts’ donut (I’d prefer the real ones).

This Social Networking aspect of the games is both the reason that these games are popular and the reason why so many “Facebook”ers are sick of these games. Over the past year, Mafia Wars (and I’d venture to guess Farmville, et al) has evolved. When I started playing this game a year ago, the emphasis was to grow your Mafia. So like many I sent all my Facebook friends a request to join my Mafia. Then when I wasn’t able to reach my limit of 500 people in my Mafia, I searched online forums. These fan forums basically created an area where you could post your information and recruit for people, unknown to you, to join your Mafia. This meant that they had to be your Facebook friend as well.

Privacy is in the eye of the beholder, right?

My belief is that this is one of the reasons that Facebook is constantly changing their privacy settings. Hundreds of thousands of strangers were strangling Facebook’s internal email system through these requests. Plus these same people were littering Newsfeeds and requests boxes with these solicitations. For every Facebook update or change, these game developers seemed to have a fix. At this point, I am sick of “the games” that these game developers are thrusting at you so that you can play these games.

Let me buy myself a Mafia!

Another nefarious aspect of these games are the add-ons. When you accomplish so many tasks (how many, I have no idea), in Mafia Wars, you are given Godfather points. I believe this is a similar approach on the other games as well. You accumulate these points and when you get a certain amount, you can upgrade your character or world in some fashion. Those that do not want to wait to grow your character through natural game progression can also purchase these points. The last time I heard, about one quarter to one half players on these games have purchased these incentives on these free gaming platforms. I feel that this practice is very similar to using cheat codes in other games except your game status is only limited by the dollars that you spend on this game.

Additionally, Zynga, the maker of most of these games, contracted with hundreds of companies to offer Godfather points. The catch was that the player had to sign-up for a service through these companies. Many were considered predatory in nature. Zynga felt a backlash and eliminated many companies from this practice. However, it is still one of their business models being used. This preys on our anything-to-get –ahead culture.

Feeling withdrawal symptoms!

As of now, I have stopped playing this and other games on Facebook. They are too intrusive. I do not want to flood my friends anymore with these requests. You can’t play a game on Facebook without being asked to recruit friends or post your information on your profile I’ve quit cold-turkey and, as of right now, I feel liberated. . Until these rules change, I will feed my gaming addiction somewhere else. Now I have to go, Spider Solitare is calling my name.

IPAD

2010-04-05T18:19:00.000-07:00

Will it be a success, failure, or something in between?

This past weekend Apple launched their much heralded and hyped IPAD. Is this Apple’s version of a Tablet PC? Not really. With the advent of the IPHONE, touch screen technology is on practically every Smartphone. As a result of this technology, Tablet PCs are supposed to be the next products to adapt this technology. They are called Tablets because they are supposed to be roughly the same size as a paper tablet/notebook. Tablet PCs have been used for about a decade, but the new technology is primed to spawn a new wave of tablets by making them capable of actually being the size of a tablet.. Just like the Netbooks that are taking the globe by storm, Tablet PCs are supposed to be the next “big thing”. Instead of carrying a bulky laptop, you are supposed to be able to carry these Tablets around into your business meeting. You can take notes, edit documents, send emails, etcetera, and do everything else that you can do on a computer, but through this tablet, all based-upon the touch screen. As with most of mainstream computer adaption, the tablet need to do something that has not been done before. You heard of the term, “killer app”. PCs became popular because Lotus 123 revolutionized accounting. Subsequent computer advances all were pushed forward because of innovative software applications.

Advanced gamers using PCs and laptops is what is driving the technology today. Back to Netbooks, they are cheap, easy to use, and provide the basic internet experience. Masses love them because they are easy to use, even Grammy is getting into the market now! As for the IPAD, I am not so sure what Apple is offering is enough to build a new market segment. If we look at the pros and cons, I’ll let you decide.

First we will start with a few of the pros:
Apple’s simplistic style will when people over. It is easy to use. Just touch a button and it will do that job.

Multi-functional- You can surf the net, use it as a digital photo album, send email, and play games, just to name a few features. The best use that I see is that it is going to revolutionize the e-reader segment. Look out Amazon!

Apps Store- Apple has an extensive array of applications to download and will grow exponentially.

Now these are the most important cons that I see:

Price- This is the biggest con that I see for the success of this product. $499-$829 without a wireless data plan. Then you need to pay a monthly subscription fee. Plus you will need to pay for the additional applications. Sure a lot of applications are free, but spending at least $1000 on this limited device is not for me.

Limited use- Apple has a proven Operating System in its IPHONE. They have just enhanced this OS and put it on the IPAD. This means that basic office productivity software will not be integrated into this device. So much for using it at the office. By the way, it doesn’t have a built-in camera either.

Size- If it is not an office productivity device, it is primarily going to be used for recreation. It is too big to lug to your coffee shop to play a game or surf the net. Sure people lug laptops, but this is different. You have to hold this device to use it. Kind of awkward. Plus, wouldn’t you just use your Smartphone any way? Would you take this on a plane to watch a movie? I’m not so sure. Again you have to hold it. Yes you can get a base to prop it on, but would you lug that along as well? Again, maybe not.

You can see where my opinion is slanted. This is not a device that I see being able to be a game changer. I see this as a device you can move around your home. It is a jack of all trades, but a master of none. I don’t think that it will be a huge success. It will sell a large number of products because it is Apple, but if the second generation doesn’t include a lower price and is more useful, it will fade away like the Betamax. As with any new technology, I will take a wait and see approach.

Homelessness- Problem vs. Concern

2010-03-24T04:37:00.000-07:00

As the weather is getting warmer, my thoughts keeping going back to the homeless that we have been sheltering, every Friday night at our church, since Christmas. Our conclusion of this mission will end at the end of this month and it fills me with mixed feelings. My heart goes out to these people. Most of them have underlying issues that will prevent them from assimilating or wanting to assimilate with what we consider “normal” society. Human nature and our Christianity make us believe that this is a problem that needs to be fixed, right?

I am not so sure. Sure we have guests that are at our church because they got kicked out of someone’s house or because they lost their housing because they did not pay their bills. For those people, social service programs are created to assist them. But for a certain percentage of this population, it is not a problem to be fixed. By sane mind or not, these few are homeless by choice. Many just want to be left alone. They want to go to a soup kitchen for a meal, find a safe place to sleep or just spend some time at the library. They do not want to go into a program that will force them to comply with rules. They are out there in spite or because they do not want to follow these rules.

This is what me and many of my church peers struggle with. We cannot create a solution to our perceived problem when the problem does not exist. For example, last summer, the church coalition that started this program last winter decided to create planning committees to tackle this winter season. One particular subject was brought up time and time again and that was showers. Many thought we needed to provide places every day to our guest so that they could take a shower. A local non-profit already provided this service, albeit on a limited basis. However it still existed. But through others eyes, this was a perceived problem. When in fact, it was more about those volunteers having issues about the guests from the previous year.

I am not saying that we do not need to steer some of these guests towards certain programs if they need it. But let the guests decide this. We, as church folk, should just open our doors, feed our guests, provide a safe and secure place to rest their heads, and provide them our fellowship.

Looking into next year, we need to plan less and just do it. This year vs. last year we over thought our whole program and we made this mission into a system. Let us bring it back to a mission. As our guests leave us again this year, I have a growing concern for their health and safety. At the same time though I have come to grips with the fact that I cannot fix the reason why some of them are out there. They are homeless for a reason and there is some help out they if they need it.

It is not our mission to solve anything, but it is our mission to provide a loving community. I hope we have done that. In the end I just hope that the little bit of hospitality that my church has provided to them every Friday will help them to feel loved and in the end that is all we can ask for.

The Next “New Deal”?

2010-03-22T08:45:00.000-07:00

The Morning After

Last night, landmark healthcare legislation was passed that will forever change the healthcare landscape. To me, this is not a polarizing issue as it is too many Americans. However, I have mixed feelings about what our government has now made into law. I work in the public housing field and through my church we have spent the last two winters housing the homeless. I see how lives are affected by healthcare.

Why am I conflicted?

At my job, I’ve seen people get public housing because they have lost their jobs as a result of their health. These people probably lost their jobs because these same companies that have let them go did not provide healthcare. If they don’t have healthcare, they do not go to the doctor unless they are really ill, than it is too late. At our temporary homeless shelter, I know someone made a choice to either pay to keep his home or pay for chemotherapy to keep him alive. He choice was to stay alive and take the medicine.

On the other hand, by working in this field, I also see abuse of the system. Too many doctors allow patients to go after “mental health disability”. If you are depressed and/or have bipolar disease, work to overcome it. Take the medicine, see a counselor. This is abused and stricter guidelines need to be in place. Or how about the mother that is on public assistance and Medicaid that takes her children to the emergency room whenever they have a fever or cold. If I would do that, I am penalized financially. So should they.

Current legislation needs to be tweaked as well to work on the issues. Give everyone a vested interest in using the current health care system efficiently and effectively. Checks and balances need to be established. Are they in the new legislation? Who knows!

My Vested interest

Since I started working at the housing authority, healthcare was always a hot topic. We started out with a Traditional Blue Cross plan. Then we started to see double digit renewals yearly. Over recent years, we changed plans, providers, and tried to implement other cost saving measures, but still the increases come. Shouldn’t these increases be close to inflation rates? 24%, 32%, or even 12% is exorbitant, but yet these were all rates that we saw over the past decade. Why? Sure our agency is dominated by 50+ aged population, but is that justification?

Me and my children’s future

If we continued to stay the course, how many more companies would have chosen to cut health care as a benefit? If the trend continued where I work, how much more would I have to dip into my personal income to just stay status quo? By passing this legislation, things are going to change. My opinion and it is just that, my opinion is that healthcare for everyone will bring costs down eventually, right?

By insuring everyone, preventative care is now an option for the currently uninsured. That strep infection will not turn to pneumonia. That untreated blood pressure may not necessarily turn into a heart attack. That inner city hospital will now get paid for that emergency room visit.

My wife worked for an inner city hospital and all the clientele that went to this hospital was either uninsured or on public assistance. As a result, the hospital continues to operate in the red. When someone cannot pay for a service, someone else is force to absorb that cost. That is probably another reason why my company’s renewal rates are driven higher as well. By the way, my wife was let go from this hospital as a cost cutting measure. Not a good sign for them and higher premiums for all of us.

Something had to be done for our future, by “our” I mean the USA. Healthcare is unaffordable and should not be a privilege for fewer and fewer people. That is reality and is where we were headed. We have the best healthcare in the world, right? But it isn’t accessible for everyone. If other countries can provide it and provide it well, so can we.

But we are not Canada, France, or …..

Listen, you are right, we are not anyone of these countries that provide healthcare to their citizens. Some of these countries may or may not have inferior healthcare. It doesn’t matter. This is the USA. Stop using this as an argument. Our systems are different. Period. You are comparing apples to oranges in this argument.

Next your argument is calling it socialized medicine. Again, when you can substantiate this argument with solid scenarios instead of using catchphrases to scare the public, I am open to listen to your discussion.

I cannot stand these ideological stances that both parties are taking.

Democrats are just as guilty as Republicans by digging their heals into the ground and not budging. It took a year to do this and neither party worked together. Republicans just stood by and wagged your fingers and said no. Democrats pushed this legislation and thumbed their noses at the Republican party and said, “Ha, Ha, we can do it without you.” Bipartisanship is dead. It has been dead since 2001 when the Republican party took over the Whitehouse.

Neither party is doing this country justice. Mark my word, the next big election will swing Republican. Then back to Democrat. Why? Because whoever is the majority in political office will not work with their minority peers. The pendulum will keep swinging. Until the two parties reach across the aisles, nothing will change. Americans voted in change because we felt that Democrats and Republicans would work together. Boy, we were wrong and we will continue to be wrong.

A New Deal

When FDR took office, the country was in the Great Depression. The New Deal was a series of legislation that was designed to work on the three “R’s”: relief, recovery, and reform. It was to provide relief to the unemployed, it was to provide recovery by creating jobs, and it was supposed to provide financial reform. Wow. This sounds familiar. How does the old saying goes, “If you don’t learn from history, you are doomed to repeat it.” You can draw your own conclusions.

It is unfortunate that our country has to reconcile the blunders and greed of Wall Street. I am not an obstructionist; I believe in the free market system. But greed has bankrupted this country. It is a bitter pill to swallow America, but these tough legislative decisions have to be done. The actions of few will have deep long-term repercussions for decades.

Either party:

If you have a solution, fix it. Don’t complain about it. Work to solve it. These are tough times and tough decisions will have to be made. Not everyone will be happy. Do the right thing for this country, not the right thing for you or your party! As one venerable modern day philosopher put it, “Git-r-done.”!

Army of Androids

2010-03-16T04:20:00.000-07:00

No, I am not talking about some sci-fi movie, but an army of Androids are growing! But I am talking about the much-hyped handheld operating system. Several years ago, Google foresaw this as a market that they needed to venture into. At the time, iPhone mania was taking the world by storm. However, everyone wondered why in the world the largest internet search engine business would want to dip their toes in this pool. One word: dominate.

Just like it took over the search engine world, Google has shown that they can upset the apple carts and make competitors keep looking over their shoulders at Google. Google beat Yahoo and Microsoft at the search engine. They thumbed their nose again at Microsoft when the built a free Microsoft Office compatible competitor. Everything that Google does to make our life easier also makes Google's life easier as well. How? Everything revolves around their search engine and "cloud".

Information is King and Google has a ton of it. Every search you have done with Google, every document you work on in Document, and even this blog is kept on their "Cloud". This "Cloud" allows their engine's metrics to learn more and customize more based upon your inputs. Is "Big Brother" watching us? Yes, and it is at Google. But I digress, this is a topic for another blog.

Back to Android. A year ago a couple of Android phones where on the market and showed few signs of life. A year later, practically every handset maker has a foray in this system. Why? Just like when Microsoft beat Apple in the personal computer market. Google now is posed to take down Apple again.

How is this possible? Apple has a superior product, right? Apple's iPhone is sleek and nearly flawless. Why are people venturing elsewhere? Well just like Microsoft did when it beat Apple, Google is allowing open development. This means that anyone can create a program to run on their phone.

Apple loves to control everything. They have stunted their growth in the computer business because of this. Apple has always consistently built a better product, but in mass we went with the PC because we could do whatever we wanted on a PC. The same holds true to the Android OS.

The same reasons we stuck with our ever crashing, security deficient, slow processing PC is because we can customize our computers. Now I can do the same thing with my Droid. The Android OS is flawed, but we do not care. We never will as long as we can show individuality. Show you individuality Android Army and listen to "Big Brother".

Hetro eyes GLBT Pride Festival

2009-08-17T11:32:00.000-07:00

Less pageantry, more substance:
Yesterday, I attended my first PRIDE festival in Allentown, PA and enjoyed every minute of it. As you can see from this title, I am a heterosexual, but embraces everyone's personal liberties. I, like much of my generation, believes that you are born straight or gay. It is not a choice. Unfortunately, much of our society does not believe this. These beliefs are fueled primarily by archaic religious edicts. I am not sure when this was interpreted in the bible, but I believe organized religion thrust this belief at us to keep us breeding. Be a good Catholic, have babies and create more Catholics. This is what grows religion. Fear of damnation and condemnation is what kept people in check.

Things have changed, haven't they?: Once again science and religion have clashed to create each faction to take sides. Fundamentalists believe that being gay is a choice. Those of us that have learned to think and interpret for ourselves have a more enlightened belief or opinion than the Fundamentalists. That is one of the reasons that I am no longer Catholic and is now an Episcopalian. That was why I was at my first Pride festival.

A little background about my church, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church, Allentown, PA: Our parish is comprised of an aging population. Several years ago to rejuvenate our church we brought in a part-time priest that happened to be gay. He is the best thing to happen to this church recently. He is charismatic and engaging. He has brought a much needed energy to a church on life support. Every year, Fr. Scott has led the diocese to participate at this festival.

This ain't no gay bar: My preconceived notions were shattered at this festival. I have gay friends and I have gone to a "gay" bar before. These bars provide a safe haven for the GLBT group to cut loose in a controlled, inviting environment. To a straight man, seeing a couple of men bumping and grinding against each other can be a little unnerving. Seeing a couple of women bumping and grinding though is another story (or another blog)! :-) My ignorance and maybe arrogance lead me to believe that I may see more of the same at this festival.

That is not what I saw. What I saw was a safe haven for people to be themselves. Too much in our society requires each of us to homogenize ourselves into a social norm. You must fit into to belong, That is what our society dictates and how we assimilate into this culture. I felt pride myself because for once I could see people openly hold their love one's hand.

Sure I saw the occasional 6'6 cross dresser with heals on. A sight that is impressive which had me wondering how that person was able to stay upright on these heels with such a large frame! But I also saw love and caring throughout. A tight knit community that took pride in being who they are and shared it with everyone that was there. I loved it.

Just by being there, I was accepted. I feel I am a better person for going there.