Archive for March, 2009
President Obama plans to accelerate the development of electrical “smart grid”
Posted by: | CommentsPresident Obama has allocated $4.5 billion in the economic stimulus package to modernize the nation’s electricity system and put smart-grid technology on the fast track. They say are selling you on the idea that it will be for you to decide when you want to purchase your power. During the more expensive peak consumption periods or you can buy your power during cheaper low usage periods. Wow! I have a choice, right? Well what about our elderly and our poor who don’t have enough money to purchase power during peak hours? Maybe this will be yet another reason for him to add more money into the welfare system. Government causes the problem and they will fix it by making sure they can come in to hand out money and save these unfortunate individuals. Things like this always start out by being sold to you as being something that will benefit you, don’t they? After a short break-in period we get hit with a big dose of reality that usually just costs EVERYONE more money!
You may believe that the smart grid isn’t such a bad idea, until you live some place where when an official sitting in their air conditioned office decides too much power is being consumed and idles everything in a particular zone back. Let’s say you live in an area that reaches one 100
Smart Grid Energy Plan
degrees Fahrenheit regularly. Air conditioners are running at their maximum capabilities in attempts to keep your home or work environment cool. The energy consumption is coming to a point that is too high (this level will most likely be decided by our favorite Government officials) and the order gets sent out to a smart grid operational center to cut back on power consumption. You and I might be able to handle this cut back ourselves, but the sweet little elderly lady next door has some kind of medical condition and needs to stay cool. Even if the operator cared enough to keep from cutting back on the power going to her air conditioner, he would not have this ability.
Of course, there are many more issues to be addressed with this new technology. With all the food related problems as of late, this would be my next major concern that needs to be addressed. Who will make sure my food in refrigerator and freezer doesn’t spoil while some bureaucrat has decided to cut back on energy consumption through the use of this smart grid. Everyone wants to use children when they want to get their agenda’s pushed onto others. This is an absolutely perfect time to be thinking of our children and the food they could be taking from a refrigerator that has had it’s power cut back for several hours. One day of this may not
Smart Grids will affect communities like yours!
be an issue, but when the heat waves roll in, they usually stick around for several days or even weeks. This on top of itself should add concerns to environmentalists, as it will cause more waste to go into our landfills. So many times there is no thorough analysis of these topics before some politician comes along looking to take care of the wants of some special interest group that helped them get into office.
Now, if those aren’t big enough concerns consider this. Just how safe is your power grid when there is always some hacker out there just waiting to break the code and decide to play around with the power grid or worse yet, destroy it. Sure they are telling you this system will have the best electronic security available. Here’s something to think about. Someone somewhere had to design this security system. If someone designed it, somebody else can and will figure it out. Just to add to this, most likely it will have been designed and/or written in a foreign location where life is cheap and a few hundred bucks can buy just about anything. If my ramblings aren’t enough to convince you that this is a bad idea. Then let’s hear it from an expert who knows a little about this. “With smart grid, anybody with an eBay account and $80 can go and buy a smart meter, reverse-engineer it and figure out how to attack the grid,” said Josh Pennell, president and CEO of IOActive, a technology research firm in Seattle, who testified before the Department of Homeland Security last week.
These are my ramblings on the smart grid. Add your comments to let me know your thoughts.
American Tea Party Anthem by Lloyd Marcus
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Those of you attending Tea Party events around the country will enjoy this great video and song! I personally enjoyed listening to lyrics and the rhythm.
The video is titled:
American Tea Party Anthem (with words) by Lloyd Marcus
What are your Needs? Your Government has the Answer!
Posted by: | CommentsEverywhere you turn someone has needs and your Government leaders are just itching to dive in and help you no matter what the cost. Whether it might be your Mayor, Governor, Congressman, Senator, or our President, your representatives are climbing all over one another trying to provide you with all the wants and needs that you might have.
Did I just say, “wants and needs”? That’s right! For whatever reason we have been trained in today’s society to replace the word want with the word need. I’ve decided to add Wikipedia’s definition of wants, below, to better define this word.
Wikipedia’s definition of want: In economics, a want is something that is desired. It is said that people have unlimited wants, but limited resources. Thus, people cannot have everything they want and must look for the best alternatives which they can afford.
Wants are often distinguished from needs. A need is something that is necessary for survival (such as food and shelter), whereas a want is simply something that a person would like to have.[1] Some economists have rejected this distinction and maintain that all of these are simply wants, with varying levels of importance. By this viewpoint, wants and needs can be understood as examples of the overall concept of demand.
The problems caused by replacing the word want with the word need is that it creates false sense of urgency. When you have a population of 306 Million people, as the United States does, and each of these individuals has their own needs, it causes a desire by our leaders to make new laws and policies to fulfill these. In most cases these needs are pooled together in the form of special interest groups who, with enough funding, can influence the voting of our Government representatives through lobbying efforts.
My point for writing this article is to let you know that no matter whether you are a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, etc., etc., you have to learn to decipher between your wants and needs. We cannot get away from the current issues being caused by our politicians wanting to make ridiculous laws to bow to the many special interest groups currently influencing our law makers. Your wants do NOT override those of the person next to you or the person on the other side of the United States. Until we adults learn that our special wants are no greater than that of the other 306 million people’s, we will never be able to reduce the size of our Government and all the entities of the Government that have been set up to cater to your every little want. No matter how little or big YOU may think it may be.
When you become too reliant on the Government to take care of everything you want you may have, it creates a situation like the one found in
I have wants, Government please help me!
New Orleans, LA during the Katrina hurricane. As terrible an event as it was, it was compounded by the fact that the people of New Orleans relied on their leaders to take care of them, as they had been promised. The evacuation plans had all been put into place and promises made that they would be taken care of when the time came. Unfortunately, when the time came for the plans to be put into action, their local and state Governments failed them. The ultimate cause of this was that the people relied on the promises of their leaders to take care of them. Let’s get back to relying on ourselves and not trying to make our leaders desire to be your babysitters. It is not their job! This is a perfect example of what happens when you mistakenly replace your wants with your needs.
Please teach your children the difference between these two words. And, when you hear others using the term, “I NEED”, please teach them the difference between the wants and needs. Our Government was never designed to take care of all these little issues. It was developed to protect this great nation of ours from outside influences. Some of the special interest groups have now been funded by these outside influences and has caused our political leaders to lose track of what America is all about. It is up to ‘We The People’ to take care of our friends, family, and neighbors who are in need of things for whatever reason. We can not reduce the size of our Government until each and every one of us understands that we no longer have needs.
The majority of us only have WANTS that we can take care of by ourselves or with the aid of our family and friends! It’s time that ALL of us understand and accept this!
Ramos and Compean Exclusive on the Glenn Beck Show
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Badge of US Border Patrol
Border Patrol Agents Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos surprised Glenn Beck with a call into his daily radio talk show yesterday, March 20, 2009. Shortly after having his ankle bracelet removed, Ramos called Glenn to give him the news he had been waiting for, he was free from his house arrest. The two had been given a Presidential pardon by George Bush after a huge drive by the public for the President to do so.
Ignacio Ramos
A quote from Ignacio Ramos taken from the Glenn Beck Blog reads, “Well, I wasn’t sure I heard it at first because I mean, I have the radio on I had the radio on every day and I wasn’t sure exactly what I heard. So I had to wait until it was repeated on the radio and once they repeated it and I actually heard our names that we actually received the commutation, I just broke down. And I broke down and cried and I got down on my knees and I prayed and I thanked God.”
Jose Compean
A quote from Jose Compean taken from the Glenn Beck Blog reads, “A lot of the stuff that has been said in the judge’s chambers, a lot has been not been released. A lot of the stuff that went on in there is just — I mean, it’s absolutely disgusting really the stuff that we heard that we were told that the jury was not allowed to hear. I mean, it’s just –”
For those of you who do not know this story, it all began when the two Border Patrol agents, Ramos and Compean were pursuing an alleged illegal immigrant who they thought was a drug smuggler. After a fight with the individual broke out and he began to flea the scene, he was allegedly shot by one of the agents. Many believe this to be false, due to the heavy amounts of evidence that has been made public. One of which was the ballistics test showing that the bullet fragments would not have come from either of their guns. Unfortunately for these two this evidence was not allowed to be presented in the courts. Many feel that this suspect was shot at a later time with the intention of using this incident for politcal reasons. According to reports the suspect had apparently turned while fleeing the scene and appeared to have a weapon in his hand. As would be the case with any law enforcement officer, who has received proper training, the agent felt that his life was in danger and chose to fire his weapon. Many more details are available by doing a Google search for Ramos and Compean.
Update: Not only did the two call into the Glenn Beck radio talk show, but they also were interviewed on his broadcast on the Fox News Channel last night. In the interviews we heard that the two are still having to be extremely careful of what they say to the press as they currently have a case pending in the Supreme Court to have all charges removed from their records.
Personal Note from Author: I would like to wish these two great officers all the very best and hope that they are successful with their case. You are great Americans who have paid a huge price for doing your duties.
The 912 Project Round Table Discussions
Posted by: | CommentsI have decided to put together an open The 912 Project Round Table Discussion that will allow you to participate with your ideas and our discussions on today’s issues and other issues affecting us with the current and past activities of our Government no matter what your party affiliation.
I believe it to be important for us to get involved in a variety on every platform possible to get the word out and to educate those who are not fortunate enough to have the experience or the full knowledge of what exactly is happening with America and the world today. I am open to any ideas and suggestions you might have to help improve this Round Table Discussion on The 912 Project that has caused a grass roots explosion amongst every day Americans.
The Boston Tea Party events will be held all around America.
Join the discussions tonight, March 18th, 2009, at 9 PM EST on TalkShoe at: http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/43547 for another round on The 912 Project Round Table Discussions.
Sources for information on Tea Party Events:
http://newamericanteaparty.com/
http://www.tcunation.com/profiles/blogs/updated-tea-party-locations
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=69633776880&ref=nf
Beck’s Book List Added
Posted by: | CommentsMany of us continue to keep checking to see if The 912 Project website is back up and running with no results at the present time, 12:15 PM CST.
I have taken this opportunity to add an updated Beck’s Book List to the right column for a great selection of books for your reading and educational enjoyment. I’ve added books like, Applied Economics, The Real George Washington, and Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell. All of which are great reads!
Remember to let your family and friends, who may not have had the opportunity to watch Glenn Beck’s special last night, know about the replaying of the ‘We Surround Them’ special that will be on Saturday 14, at 9 PM ET.
Wouldn’t it just be amazing if both showings were record setting shows with their ratings? That might just help to get some attention and get the movement rolling even more.
In the mean time, I have seen some twitter updates about an article titled, “I May Run for President of Texas” written by Chuck Norris on WorldNetDaily. Enjoy the read, I did.
