Draggar’s Universe

The Sun Sentinel reported a story about a very nice home in an upscale community, and the adjacent lot, are “tax free” due to the religious exemption. For Joe Average, this property would cost about $64,000 in taxes a year.

If this property was a church I wouldn’t mind as much (even though Jesus said something along the lines of “pay Caesar the money owed to him” referring to taxes). But it is not. The Sun Sentinel describes the property being used as:

“Church representatives say they use the property to house missionaries working in Haiti and as a home for the church founder”

That’s right; the founders personal home is tax free due to the religious exemption.

Here is the kicker. We have some friends in our Pagan / Wiccan groups who tried to claim religious exemption but were denied by the county since “Paganism and Wicca are not recognized religions”. In other words, only Christian, Jewish, and Muslim places of worship are “recognized”.

I guess someone packed us up and made us leave the USA without our knowledge (is Florida still part of the US?). I thought we had the “freedom of religion”? Hmm..

Oh, wait, we have this little document called “The United States Constitution” and the very first Amendment is:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Being the first Amendment (well, Amendment I for all of you law people) means it was the fist thing that came to the writers’ minds. It was the most important part of this document. If not, it would have been further down the list.

So, the Broward county officials feel that they can override the most significant part of the founding document of this nation by creating laws that benefit one religion over another.

Watch out America, our “Freedom of Religion” is under attack also.

Seriously, I do not think global warming is going to be a serious issue. Sure, there will be issues with a serious climate change like this but it would open up many more opportunities. Imagine the Midwest able to farm all year round and even parts of Canada and Russia can farm all year? It would open up more shipping routes in the Arctic ocean allowing much faster shipping from Europe to the far-east (which would hurt Panama’s economy with fewer ships going though the Panama canal).

Sure, hurricanes would be more intense but due to increased wind shear, there would be fewer hurricanes. Arctic and Antarctic ice would melt and raise seal levels so we’d have to leave some coastal areas (most of the people who live on the coast can afford it anyway).

Our real threat, which I’ll admit may not be a threat for a few to several hundred years, is the end of our current warming cycle. No, I don’t mean our 150 year trend of warm weather (after the last “mini” (really a micro) ice age). We had a similar warming period about 2,000 years ago when the Roman Empire was in its height. There was a lot of good farming. Warmth allows us to grow more food, raise more cattle, and opens up trade routs that formerly would be inaccessible.

I mean the earth, over the past 10,000 years (the time we, humans, have thrived) has been though a very long warming period. We had a sample of the real threat about 150-400 years ago. We had a mini-ice age (the worst was around the 1850s). Most of Europe has to think of new agricultural processes etc.. Luckily, the “New World” was discovered and foods that were available in Central America (potatoes, yucca etc..) were able to thrive in the cooler environment but the cooler age was devastating to Europe, which thrived during the previous warming period.

Our real threat is the next ice age, even if it is as minor as the one that ended roughly 150 years ago. Imagine the polar ice caps reaching South Carolina, Texas, and central California. Imagine Europe much like Siberia.

And we need to keep an eye on this, no one knows when it would happen and back in the 1850s when the ice age ended things went pretty close to normal after the worst of it which means the Earth has the ability to switch the environment as needed.

One thing we need to look at is the “belt” in the Atlantic Ocean that brings warm waters to north-western Europe. People think of New England and New Brunswick, Canada as cold places but think of northern France and southern UK as warm, but in reality, the European counterparts are actually further north than the North American locations. Why? That conveyor belt.

It has been theorized that global warming can slow, even halt, this warm current which would create a much colder environment to north-western Europe. Big deal, right?

A colder environment will create more ice and the Arctic Ocean could start to freeze again. This will slow the motion of the water in the Arctic Ocean. Moving water doesn’t freeze. If you don’t believe me, try to freeze a pot of water while you stir it. It will not freeze. So, this ice will not only reflect more sunlight but it will also slow the movement of water in the Arctic Ocean, thus allowing more of the water to freeze. Once the Bering Straight is frozen over, then the movement / circulation will stop, creating a very large icebox. As the ocean freezes, the ice will creep down over northern Asia, Europe, and North America. All of a sudden, all of these great farmlands are now unfarmable. The US’s Midwest will become a permafrost (like modern day Siberia). With more ice in the Arctic (and Antarctic) there will be less rain so places that could become farmlands (the Middle East, northern Africa, and northern South America) may be deserts.

I’m not saying this will happen overnight but it is something we will have to face generations ahead of us. Global warming will be an inconvenience for us compared to what the next ice age may do.

Yes Comcast, YOU SUCK. You are the worst ISP I’ve ever had (except for AOL). I just spent ANOTHER 30 minutes with no service.

I’ve had your “service” (and I’m using the term loosely right now) for about three months and in that three months I’ve had more down time than I did with six years with DSL, and this includes after two major hurricanes and three regular hurricanes. Every few days the service goes out. When I call, it’s usually back on by the time I get to speak to a human and if it isn’t it is always some “routine maintenance” (who does that when everyone is trying to use the service?), “the node is down”, or that my modem is bad (and they never seem to have an answer when I ask them how does the modem affect the TV?). I love that last one. My modem works and they are never willing to pay me back a restocking fee if I still have problems after I buy a new modem (like hell I’m going to keep it).

It’s funny, though. If I am a day late on my payment they turn off my service very quickly. Like they have someone watching all of the bills come in and if they don’t see mine, they flip the switch. Kill my service! Then, bill me extra for making a payment over the phone or “late fees”. But you feel you can just turn off my service whenever you want.

Your technician never even showed up my first few appointments. Not even a call and when I called, I was told “oh, we tried to call you” (complete bull, no calls came in) and then I get the “well, we can’t get him back out for a week (funny how my first call I could have him at my house (well, the appointment anyway) within 48 hours. Sure, the first thing he says it is my modem (go back to the first paragraph). But, he tightened a few things and it helped for maybe a week.

Comcast – you suck and if we weren’t screwed over by AT&T we would leave your service and go back to DSL. It must be nice to have a monopoly on this kind of service, you can charge whatever you want and treat your customers like crap and there is almost no place we can go.

First a US court ruled that Google must release the viewing habits of everyone who has ever visited YouTube (Story here). Now, this month’s Discover magazine has an article appropriately titled “Google’s Eyes are Watching You” with a secondary title “No Place To Hide”. It’s quite scary actually. Google has become a modern day juggernaut of information many of which we (the population) thinks is safely tucked away somewhere or not even kept. Just imagine what a company like Google could learn about you just from your searching habits (who doesn’t use Google now?).

Guess what, anonymity went out the door the second you logged onto your PC and went onto the internet. Google is watching. Google is in your PC, in your home, and in your mind. You think I’m lying or paranoid, don’t you. Just imagine, how much do you search every day? Do you have that little Google toolbar that is packaged in with just about every game you buy on the internet now? It’s all keeping records of you, what you watch, and now, thanks to Google Earth and Google’s acquired company, Keyhole (yes, the same company that headed up spy technology for the CIA though the 80s) can now even watch you.

Go ahead, go to maps.google.com I just typed in my address and I saw my car. I know it is recent because we had some landscape changes after hurricane Wilma that is there. You can even see the debris piles and tarps on our roofs, so I guess this shot is from between fall of 2005 and summer of 2006. You can look up anything, your house, your ex’s house, military bases; I just saw the Kremlin, the Pyramids, and Tower Bridge all within a few minutes of each other.

It’s not scary to see these images now, most are not too recent (between 1-3 years old) but what about as this technology advances? Hell, I just now went onto Google Streets and I just saw myself walking my dog and my parents cooking (this picture I know is recent since they only got rid of a fence a month ago and it is not in the picture). Luckily, my sister’s street isn’t part of Google Streets yet.

Google is everywhere and is in everything. While I agree this technology can be helpful it can also be very dangerous and has a large amount to be abused. Imagine this in the hands of stalkers? Terrorists? Just enter “Earle Ammunition Depot” and you can actually see the trains that are parked in this “highly secret” (not anymore) base. You can see the planes at Offutt AFB, even.

I’m sure it is just a matter of time (I think less than a year) that Google imagery and records will be “credible evidence” on a regular bases in our courtrooms.

Google is the Borg. Google is Skynet. Google is everywhere, resistance is futile.

News story here.

So, Barak has asked donators to pay off Hillary’s debts that she amassed during her political campaign (including $22M that she got total including $12M she donated (now it’s considered “loaned” to herself (I wonder which one would be paid off first). I guess along with our own debts they want us to pay off their debts, too.

Hmm, I wonder if this would work for me? I have a website here and many others, reoccurring costs of about $2,500 a year. Would anyone like to donate to help me pay off those debts? Feel free to send funds via PayPal to my name (draggar) at gmail (dot) com. (any donations sent to me will not be paid back, BTW) Let’s see what happens. I doubt I’ll get anything but feel free to send a note with the payment and I’ll send a thank you out though the blog.

It seems that all of the “donations” that were given to Hillary are not “loans”. I guess everyone is pissed that she didn’t win (my hat is off to the US’s voting public who flipped the bird to everyone by voting for Barak). I guess we really see how these “donators” are now, they’ll donate as long as things are going their way but now they want their money back. I guess even these corporations don’t understand the point behind a donation (and I wonder how many of these donations have been used as a tax write off already?).

BTW - I’m also willing to bet that the average Joe who sent money to Hillary (people who work hard for their money) will be the very last people in line for the money (and probabaly some very high interest rates, I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary paid herself back $15 million+).

Again, politicians seem to not care about us or the image they portray to us.

Again, remember, send your “donations” to help me pay off my debts vis PayPal to draggar (at) gmail (dot) com. (Again, donations will be kept by me and will not be paid back, but at least I will use them to help pay off my debts).

Edit: 6-28-2008
It looks like Barak is putting his money where his mouth is, quite literally: News story. Although $2,300 from him and his wife (4,600 total) is a drop in the bucket and I’m willing to bet is more of a “unite the Democrats move” than actually him being a nice guy. Hey Barak, since you’re giving away money, how about sending some to my PayPal account mentioned above?

I don’t know about other people out there but this looks like a clear-cut attempt to buy votes.

CNN News story

So now Barak is jumping on the band wagon, pump more money into the economy and we’ll be fine. Sure. He cited jump in unemployment and rising gas & oil prices as the main reasons to do this.

OK, I haven’t seen a single penny from the last increase in available money (the stimulus checks were NOT part of that). But what I have seen is the value of my own money go down which causes the price of anything that has to do with any kind of importing go up. Food, gas, electricity, just about everything. Since our dollar is weaker now, it costs more to get the same amount of produce in a foreign country (even if the price of those products remained the same in the other country). So they throw this money into the economy but very few of us see it (I’m willing to bet the people who see it are the ones who don’t need it, the rich just keep on getting richer and us in the middle and lower classes get stuck with the high price tags).

Now Barak wants to do this again! Sure and I guarantee you that if another $500B (that’s $50,000,000,000) is thrown at us the value of our dollar will drop to historically low value and the price of oil WILL shoot over $200 a barrel and we’ll wish gas was only $4 a gallon. What’s the worst part is that we’re throwing so much money out of the country (outsourcing just about everything now) that there is less and less of it for us (you know, the people who pay to have the money printed?) to have in our own wallets making it more difficult for us to afford basics such as food, rent or mortgage, electricity, gas, etc.

I now see that Barak is no better than the rest of the politicians that are out there. Pat their friends on the back, fill their wallets and f*ck the working class in America, the people who actually voted him into the position he’s in now.

OK, government, do you really want to help the economy? How about this:

* Tax breaks for businesses that keep workers in the US

* Tax breaks for citizens

* (Politicians) Stop all the bull$h!t dilly-dallying in Iraq and bring the troops home

* Force the car manufacturers and fuel companies to put out more alternative fuel cars and filling stations, we know they own all of the patents but they’re just sitting on their hands while keeping us addicted to foreign oil. For me, the nearest “alternative fuel” station is over 4 hours away.

* Invest more into renewal energy & make it more cost effective

OK people, let me give you a simple lesson in economics.

We’ve heard a nasty word recently (well, IMO it is not that nasty, it is only nasty when it works against us). INFLATION.

We’ve heard a lot of pointers on why the dollar is so “weak” right now (the Canadian dollar is worth more than the US Dollar now, don’t even get me started on the Euro, this has killed the potential for some good investments for me).

We’ve heard this is because of the high price of oil, the interest rates, the high price of gas, etc. etc. etc. All of which is complete bullshit.

Inflation is caused by the value of a country’s currency which is the ratio of (Country’s GNP / Available Currency (including credit). So, anyone who knows ratios and fractions can see that the more currency (and credit) available the lower value our money is. Now, what happened just before the dollar crashed?

Don’t believe me? Webster’s:
(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/inflation )
A persistent increase in the level of consumer prices or a persistent decline in the purchasing power of money, caused by an increase in available currency and credit beyond the proportion of available goods and services.

Oh yeah, the government signed bills allowing BILLIONS of dollars to be pumped into banks allowing people to borrow more money. Smooth move people. Now our dollar is worth very little to other nations.

Now, we’re blaming OPEC on the high price of gas and oil which is also, ready? BULLSHIT!! Since our dollar is weaker, it costs more to get a barrel of oil from other countries. OK, so our dollar has gone to record lows in value causing the price of oil to skyrocket (which also directly affects the price we pay at the gasoline pump).

Our government is blaming inflation on the price of oil and OPEC when that is the exact opposite of the truth. Our own government pushed the value of our dollar so far down that anything that has anything to do with something that is imported will cost us more, including gas and oil!

WAKE UP AMERICA!!!!

I’ve had no love for Hillary for a very long time and I have never been shy about it.

I don’t know which is worse, the lies and narcissism that Hillary has displayed during this election or the people who have been duped into believing in here. OK, I can understand that a lot of people in the US didn’t see the NY senate race between Hillary and Giuliani. I lived in New Jersey at the time so it was all over our news. People even asked Hillary how come she was running for New York instead of Arkansas (where she’s from). Her response was “I’ve always been a Yankees girl”. Really now? Did you even know that the Yankees were in the World Series that year or were you too busy kissing up to everyone to even go to a single game? Giuliani made the time to go to several games and I think he even threw out the first pitch during one of the games. Someone of her magnitude could have easily gotten into one of the games.

A few months ago, while behind in the race, Hillary made a (desperate) offer to Obama. Let him concede and she would accept him as her vice president candidate. Um, what? You don’t make offers like that when you are in second place. Luckily Obama ignored the request and continued to win election after election and is now 4 votes shy of the nomination (over 200 delegate lead over Hillary). Then, she tells him he should quit to unite the Democrats. Now, she’s saying that she would accept an offer to be the vice president candidate.

Obama, I really hope you do not consider this. Most Democrats are very passionate and strongly divided. You would lose votes to McCain if you took her as your vice presidential candidate. If Hillary is in the office we can rest assured that the next 4 years she’ll end up being the president by hogging the spotlight.

If you ask me who Obama’s VP candidate should be, I have no idea. Someone with similar views to Obama (Cheney must have had an uncomfortable time w/ Bush’s “same sex marriage ban” issues with his daughter) and someone who doesn’t mind being in the background (not John Edwards either).

(This is not an endorsement; I’m going to consider this election, like many others in the past, the lesser of all of the evils).

It should come as no surprise to most people that today the media and large corporations are running America. Hopefully this isn’t a surprise.

It shouldn’t be a big surprise to see that it is also these corporations and the same media who choose who is our next president. Through advertising and opinionated news reporting, it is easy to skew our impressions of the candidates to favor one over the other.

It has been quite clear since the beginning that these two entities wanted McCain and Clinton to be on the November ticket. Clinton, definitely a player, most likely would have been voted in. I’ll admit, as much as I don’t like her, Hillary is a player. She is charismatic and knows what to say to who and when. The media does the same. Perfect example, the media today was all over Hillary’s “huge” win in Kentucky. She picked up 22 delegates over Obama’s 11 but the media is very quiet about Obama’s win in Oregon (Obama picked up 29 delegates as opposed to Hillary’s 19, making both states only a one delegate gain for Hillary). They are also very quiet about the mass migration of the super delegates over to Obama’s side. Nope, they’re making it sound like Hillary was a huge winner yesterday (even though she lost ground to Obama).

It seems that the American public has flipped the bird to the corporations and media trying to run this country. America has stood up and voted for Obama. Even with the media’s call for “Operation Chaos” to try to get Hillary to win the nod failed.

Obama played a good game. He took the “T Mobile” strategy. In the beginning when all of the mud slinging was going on he didn’t participate, even when the mud was being slung at him (much like as much as the other providers trach T Mobile in their commercials, T Mobile doesn’t stoop to that level). Barak stood back and still stated his intentions and didn’t even try to defend himself. That takes some cohones.

Good job, Barak. You didn’t play the game everyone wanted you to allowing others to chew you out. Instead you acted mature and kept your cool. Even now, as your are ever inching towards the victory, the media is still trying to paint Hillary as the winner.

I’ve launched a new site for all of you who listen to Big 105.9FM (and The Gater’s) morning show, The Paul and Young Ron Show.

You Can’t Win.Net

It is a site I’m putting up for their game show, You Can’t Win. I will try to listen every day and update the site each day (there are some days I’ve missed because of work).

I have a list of all of the answers for questions one though three and all of the “wrong” answers plus little hints that were deliberately (and inadvertently) by the cast, staff, and callers.

Right now, I have a feeling I know what the answer to question #4 is just by listening every day and maintaining the list.

The morning show is based out of Big 105.9FM out of Miramar, FL but is also simulcast in West Palm Beach though The Gater, 98.7 FM so their reach is from Key Largo to Stuart, Florida (rumored to be as far south as Islamorada and as far north as Yeehaw Junction). Tune each weekday morning around 7:30 (usually between 7:20 and 8:00AM) and remember, you can win!