Education, infrastructure (tech and transportation), healthcare, sustainable energy, safe food and water, R&D. This is where we need to be spending domestically and not pouring so much into the military industrial complex. I'm all for defense, but we need to not be so liberal with our military spending, it has gotten out of control.
There are over 300 million people living here, in this country, and we need to refocus on the "homies" and the "homeland" moreso than simply Homeland Defense. I support our military and the people risking their lives to defend our nation - what they do is both admirable and noble - but it's just like with personal growth...you have to work on yourself before you can truly help others, and we are overextended throughout the world. (And NO, I have not forgotten 9/11 whatsoever).
We also need government to regulate corporations - ESPECIALLY finance and the healthcare industries - to the extent that they don't take advantage of their fellow citizens. The changes that have been made in credit card policy and lending, i.e., mortgages, in the past 2 years have been a boon to countless people who are or would be underwater financially b/c of predatory lending. Hell, I had a 30% interest rate b/c I was late on a credit card payment when I was 25 years old. Thankfully I finally wised up and got an installment loan with my credit union and I'm now paying it off at a much lower rate instead of pissing away interest payments for the next 20 years.
We live in a global economy and a tiny world. Anyone read Michael Friedman at all? "The World is Flat." Check it out. Gas prices are out of control, but demand is also way higher than it ever has been and, unfortunately, oil prices are set based on futures, meaning predictions about how supply and demand will look in the future, not how they presently exist. We desperately need to commit to R&D for clean, sustainable energy.
Sure we have the means and, I believe, a moral imperative, to help our friends and fellow global citizens around the world, especially those who are victims of natural disasters and oppresive regimes, but we need to take care of our own first and foremost.
Finally, back to the original point of my friend's post...Obama is an American. He's not the best negotiator when it comes to drawing a line in the sand and saying "this is how it is" the way Bush was. He came into Washington and tried to play nice with bullies. That's what we're taught to do in school and at home, but unfortunately that's not always the best strategy. Or at least not the most effective.
Our president is, however, patriotic, he does love America and he is trying to make this country be the best global citizen it can be and he wants to take care of his people at home, which in my mind, is the most important role our government should play.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Masters 2011: What a Final Round!
For any golfer and golf fan, this was something to see and one of the best Masters finishes ever, probably the most exciting I've seen. There was a stretch for what may have been 30 mins to an hour when the tv coverage went from one great/hugely important shot to another to another and another. I only feel for Rory, though, who I was pulling for to win. It was reminiscent of his 2nd round at the B.O. last year, shooting in the 80s the day after setting a course record at St Andrew's in the opening round, only the final day of a major, particularly the Masters, was such a bigger stage. Rory's body language, the untucked shirt...it was tough to see. Many of his holes on the back 9 reminded me of how I and most golfers I play with regularly react after a bad shot on a hole, only to follow up w/another bad shot and then another. But he was stilll all smiles at the end and he will be a champ. He is a good 5-6 years ahead of most of his peers. As for Scott, Jason Day, Van Pelt, Choi, Cabrera and Woods, they provided plenty of excitement and wonderful golf.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
UNC Tar Heels Gut out Epic Win over Miami Hurricanes in ACC Tournament Thriller
This game was over, or so everyone watching thought.
Down by 19 points with less than 10 minutes to go, UNC seemed headed for a surefire defeat as the Miami Hurricanes looked poised for a second consecutive unlikely ACC Tournament win, following their stunning, last minute, 10-point comeback versus UVA just 24 hours earlier.
However, this time the tables would turn as Miami was forced to succumb to an epic comeback set for a spot in the annals of ACC Tournament lore.
The Tar Heels had a recent surge in the second half of the conference season coinciding with the abrupt departure of former starting point guard Larry Drew, which culminated in a regular season finale victory over archrival Duke and earned the Tar Heels the top overall seed in the ACC tourney.
However, UNC started this game flat and sloppy.
The Tar Heels turned the ball over 16 times in the first half. At one point in the game, head coach Roy Williams sat his entire starting lineup and scolded them on the bench while the "Blue Steel" team, a group primarily comprised of walk-ons and seldom used players, held on for their dear lives in a game that was quickly spiraling out of control for the Tar Heels.
The affable Roy Williams scolded his team during an early first half collapse versus the Hurricanes but was able to help his team find its way to a 61-59 comeback win in the second round of the ACC Tournament
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Miami led 31-22 at the break in what must have been UNC's lowest first half total of the season.
The game did not get any closer in the early parts of the second half and Miami's lead grew to 53-34 with just under ten minutes to go before North Carolina's improbable comeback run began.
Freshman star Harrison Barnes played solidly throughout the game, scoring a team-high 18 points on 7-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds. But suddenly, his running mates Kendall Marshall, John Henson and Tyler Zeller began to play as effectively as they often have during UNC's 14-2 ACC regular season.
Three-pointers started to fall, loose balls and rebounds found their way into Carolina's hands and UNC finally found a way to stop a Hurricanes offense that had heretofore scored three-point baskets and bunny lay-ins at seemingly every opportune moment.
Credit Williams' tough love approach and the resiliency of this young Tar Heels team for fighting hard to get back into this game in which the outcome appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
With just under a minute to go, Carolina cut the lead to one before a Miami free throw on the ensuing possession put the Hurricanes up by two.
A Zeller jump hook in the lane on UNC's next trip down the floor tied the contest at 59 points per side.
North Carolina then forced a Miami turnover on its next possession and with 18 seconds left in regulation, UNC had the ball in its hands.
Miami had fouls to give and was able to force UNC to inbound the ball with five seconds to go.
The Tar Heels' other freshman sensation, starting point guard Kendall Marshall, received the inbound pass, maneuvered around the Miami defense as Zeller pinned his defender on his back, received a perfect entry pass from Marshall in the low-post and laid the ball in for the game winner as the buzzer sounded to take the final lead at 61-59.
In the storied histories of the UNC men's basketball program and the ACC men's basketball tournament, this game will go down as one of the best Carolina comebacks and will be long remembered among the great early round games in ACC tourney history.
And tomorrow, the Tar Heels get to suit up once again.
Down by 19 points with less than 10 minutes to go, UNC seemed headed for a surefire defeat as the Miami Hurricanes looked poised for a second consecutive unlikely ACC Tournament win, following their stunning, last minute, 10-point comeback versus UVA just 24 hours earlier.
However, this time the tables would turn as Miami was forced to succumb to an epic comeback set for a spot in the annals of ACC Tournament lore.
The Tar Heels had a recent surge in the second half of the conference season coinciding with the abrupt departure of former starting point guard Larry Drew, which culminated in a regular season finale victory over archrival Duke and earned the Tar Heels the top overall seed in the ACC tourney.
However, UNC started this game flat and sloppy.
The Tar Heels turned the ball over 16 times in the first half. At one point in the game, head coach Roy Williams sat his entire starting lineup and scolded them on the bench while the "Blue Steel" team, a group primarily comprised of walk-ons and seldom used players, held on for their dear lives in a game that was quickly spiraling out of control for the Tar Heels.
The affable Roy Williams scolded his team during an early first half collapse versus the Hurricanes but was able to help his team find its way to a 61-59 comeback win in the second round of the ACC Tournament
Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
Miami led 31-22 at the break in what must have been UNC's lowest first half total of the season.
The game did not get any closer in the early parts of the second half and Miami's lead grew to 53-34 with just under ten minutes to go before North Carolina's improbable comeback run began.
Freshman star Harrison Barnes played solidly throughout the game, scoring a team-high 18 points on 7-13 shooting to go along with five rebounds. But suddenly, his running mates Kendall Marshall, John Henson and Tyler Zeller began to play as effectively as they often have during UNC's 14-2 ACC regular season.
Three-pointers started to fall, loose balls and rebounds found their way into Carolina's hands and UNC finally found a way to stop a Hurricanes offense that had heretofore scored three-point baskets and bunny lay-ins at seemingly every opportune moment.
Credit Williams' tough love approach and the resiliency of this young Tar Heels team for fighting hard to get back into this game in which the outcome appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
With just under a minute to go, Carolina cut the lead to one before a Miami free throw on the ensuing possession put the Hurricanes up by two.
A Zeller jump hook in the lane on UNC's next trip down the floor tied the contest at 59 points per side.
North Carolina then forced a Miami turnover on its next possession and with 18 seconds left in regulation, UNC had the ball in its hands.
Miami had fouls to give and was able to force UNC to inbound the ball with five seconds to go.
The Tar Heels' other freshman sensation, starting point guard Kendall Marshall, received the inbound pass, maneuvered around the Miami defense as Zeller pinned his defender on his back, received a perfect entry pass from Marshall in the low-post and laid the ball in for the game winner as the buzzer sounded to take the final lead at 61-59.
In the storied histories of the UNC men's basketball program and the ACC men's basketball tournament, this game will go down as one of the best Carolina comebacks and will be long remembered among the great early round games in ACC tourney history.
And tomorrow, the Tar Heels get to suit up once again.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Lighted Christmas Balls In Greensboro, North Carolina
Very cool story of how something that starts as a seamingly small idea can snowball into something that makes a difference in peoples' lives.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Michelle OBama spoke out against childhood obesity. Sarah Palin had issues with that.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/11/24/martin.michelle.obama.palin/index.html?hpt=T2
What's offensive about encouraging people to eat more healthily? Didn't Swartzeneger promote the same as Bush's Health Czar?
I'll admit I eat too much fast food as a matter of convenience and it's an aim of mine to curb that. It's gonna be tougher for some people of lower ecomomic means, but at the same time, plenty of well to do's eat fast food all the time.
It's b/c it's there on every corner. And we can't legislate against a McD's at every highway exit any more than we can against a liquor/convenience store on every urban corner.
But we can encourage nutritional responsibilty and there's an open opportunity for healthy "fast food" companies to fill the void that's missing.
In the end, it's up to us what we put in our bodies - and to an extent what parents put in their childrens' bodies - and we are living in an age of convenience that wasn't around 30 plus years ago, and overall, that was probably a healthier time.
No government can legislate a healthy lifestyle, but it's kind of like the seatbelt law. You don't want your insurance to go up but when people get in accidents and are severly injured or killed b/c they weren't wearing a seat belt or didn't have an airbag in their vehicle, it costs the insurance companies more and the buck is passed down to us.
It's the same when it comes to having a healthier society. Guidelines for a healthy lifestyle should never be admonished since they benefit the individual, the family, our communities and our nation.
Our government has its hands in more issues now than in 1783 bc times have changed and while our quality of life is much better than it was 227 years ago in terms of comfort and convenience, many of those sources of comfort and convenience have created new risks that were neither present nor foreseeable to our Founding Fathers.
Open your eyes people. The times, they are a changin', they've been a changin' forever and they will continue to change. And we have to be both proactive and reactive in all areas of life.
We only get one chance here on earth, but the way live, the decisions we make and the standards we set impact the lives of generations to come. And if we care about ourselves, our families, our communities and our nation...well, we should do something about it to affect positive change.
What's offensive about encouraging people to eat more healthily? Didn't Swartzeneger promote the same as Bush's Health Czar?
I'll admit I eat too much fast food as a matter of convenience and it's an aim of mine to curb that. It's gonna be tougher for some people of lower ecomomic means, but at the same time, plenty of well to do's eat fast food all the time.
It's b/c it's there on every corner. And we can't legislate against a McD's at every highway exit any more than we can against a liquor/convenience store on every urban corner.
But we can encourage nutritional responsibilty and there's an open opportunity for healthy "fast food" companies to fill the void that's missing.
In the end, it's up to us what we put in our bodies - and to an extent what parents put in their childrens' bodies - and we are living in an age of convenience that wasn't around 30 plus years ago, and overall, that was probably a healthier time.
No government can legislate a healthy lifestyle, but it's kind of like the seatbelt law. You don't want your insurance to go up but when people get in accidents and are severly injured or killed b/c they weren't wearing a seat belt or didn't have an airbag in their vehicle, it costs the insurance companies more and the buck is passed down to us.
It's the same when it comes to having a healthier society. Guidelines for a healthy lifestyle should never be admonished since they benefit the individual, the family, our communities and our nation.
Our government has its hands in more issues now than in 1783 bc times have changed and while our quality of life is much better than it was 227 years ago in terms of comfort and convenience, many of those sources of comfort and convenience have created new risks that were neither present nor foreseeable to our Founding Fathers.
Open your eyes people. The times, they are a changin', they've been a changin' forever and they will continue to change. And we have to be both proactive and reactive in all areas of life.
We only get one chance here on earth, but the way live, the decisions we make and the standards we set impact the lives of generations to come. And if we care about ourselves, our families, our communities and our nation...well, we should do something about it to affect positive change.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
The DIP Party
I'm creating a new political party. The Domestic Infrastructure Party, aka, the DIP.
We focus on intelligent spending, making things at home and improving our lot at home. Transportation and Safety - building and fixing new and existing roads, bridges, rails and buildings -, Education - committing to the best public schools in the world and sustainably subsidizing private school tuition in challenged areas - Economic Development (and anti-monopolistic/polypolistic regulation on big business) and Healthcare.
We are committed to technology and making things at home, bringing jobs back to America, exporting more than importing and ensuring all citizens have affordable health care that doesn't drive up insurance premiums for the general public yet ensures healthcare for all and protects those w/pre-existing conditions and debilitating illness and injury.
We aim to increase GDP and decrease national debt before we become victims to China and other nations that hold much of our debt. We are cautiously proactive rather than reactive and we seek to lead w/positivity and confidence in light of and despite current economic and political circumstances.
We are pro-America, on the cutting edge of international business, socially progressive, and increaslingly isolationist, though looking abroad and studying/implementing international programs and policies that will benefit our lot and invest in a golden future at home.
We are not the Tea Party, nor do we wish to increase taxes for the general public, rather lower them where and when possible and redirect current spending away from international policing and other wasteful spending.
We support a progressive tax system that drastically reduces federal income tax for the majority of workers, allowing nearly all Americans to retain up to 90% of their earnings, though requiring a higher percentage from those earning more than half a million per year, even more from those earning over 5 million per year, and slightly more from those earning more than 25 million annually, capped at 30% taxation, though giving a 5% tax break for all those earning over 500K who donate at least 3% of their income to a legitimate non-profit organization of their choosing.
Finally, we'd rather not incarcerate 5 times more people per capita than competing nations and we'd rather not spend more on miltary/defense than the next highest 26 countries combined, 25 of which are our allies.
We want to spend smartly, we want to re-emerge as a global leader in the 21st century and we want to have a good time. We want to be skinny, and we want to DIP.
Please repost if you support the above stated DIP values and goals.
We focus on intelligent spending, making things at home and improving our lot at home. Transportation and Safety - building and fixing new and existing roads, bridges, rails and buildings -, Education - committing to the best public schools in the world and sustainably subsidizing private school tuition in challenged areas - Economic Development (and anti-monopolistic/polypolistic regulation on big business) and Healthcare.
We are committed to technology and making things at home, bringing jobs back to America, exporting more than importing and ensuring all citizens have affordable health care that doesn't drive up insurance premiums for the general public yet ensures healthcare for all and protects those w/pre-existing conditions and debilitating illness and injury.
We aim to increase GDP and decrease national debt before we become victims to China and other nations that hold much of our debt. We are cautiously proactive rather than reactive and we seek to lead w/positivity and confidence in light of and despite current economic and political circumstances.
We are pro-America, on the cutting edge of international business, socially progressive, and increaslingly isolationist, though looking abroad and studying/implementing international programs and policies that will benefit our lot and invest in a golden future at home.
We are not the Tea Party, nor do we wish to increase taxes for the general public, rather lower them where and when possible and redirect current spending away from international policing and other wasteful spending.
We support a progressive tax system that drastically reduces federal income tax for the majority of workers, allowing nearly all Americans to retain up to 90% of their earnings, though requiring a higher percentage from those earning more than half a million per year, even more from those earning over 5 million per year, and slightly more from those earning more than 25 million annually, capped at 30% taxation, though giving a 5% tax break for all those earning over 500K who donate at least 3% of their income to a legitimate non-profit organization of their choosing.
Finally, we'd rather not incarcerate 5 times more people per capita than competing nations and we'd rather not spend more on miltary/defense than the next highest 26 countries combined, 25 of which are our allies.
We want to spend smartly, we want to re-emerge as a global leader in the 21st century and we want to have a good time. We want to be skinny, and we want to DIP.
Please repost if you support the above stated DIP values and goals.
High speed rail continued
High speed trains def mean 200+ mph. That it takes 7 hrs to travel b/t charlotte to richmond on rail is a joke. I understand there's not the density of travel is the SE as the more densely populated NE, but folks in urban areas in the southeast are no less sophisticated than our neighbors to the north. Atlanta has a highly sophisticated metro rail system, but we are discussing intercity ridership here. The NE certainly has more everyday biz riders than the SE due to population density and the proximity of major cities. However, as one or 2 anons said, we are looking to move fwd, not backward, and investing in our transportation system and catching up w/our international rivals is a huge investment in our future with tremendous future ROI.
Someone mentioned Obamacare is 20% of our annual spending, but that person is badly misinformed. Just like folks who say the bailout was wasteful spending by our government even though it's slated to turn a profit for the govt and reduce our national debt. That same person mentioned wasteful spending on unneccessary wars - a point w/which I wholly agree - and looking to our future I believe we are in for a long long bumpy ride if we don't begin to invest again at home.
Infrastructure, education, corporate regulation to protect citizens, and ensurance of healthcare rights for all are our most important priorities at home.
I would like to either see the GOP move back twd the center right and away from the ultra conservative, or we should just move to a multiparty system w/representation from everyone from the TP/Libertarian to the Green Party, to extreme lefists, as well. Americans comprise one of the largest citizen populations in the world, and there are certainly more than 2 political views. There's no longer any such thing as black and white, though many are disillusioned enough to believe there is.
Someone mentioned Obamacare is 20% of our annual spending, but that person is badly misinformed. Just like folks who say the bailout was wasteful spending by our government even though it's slated to turn a profit for the govt and reduce our national debt. That same person mentioned wasteful spending on unneccessary wars - a point w/which I wholly agree - and looking to our future I believe we are in for a long long bumpy ride if we don't begin to invest again at home.
Infrastructure, education, corporate regulation to protect citizens, and ensurance of healthcare rights for all are our most important priorities at home.
I would like to either see the GOP move back twd the center right and away from the ultra conservative, or we should just move to a multiparty system w/representation from everyone from the TP/Libertarian to the Green Party, to extreme lefists, as well. Americans comprise one of the largest citizen populations in the world, and there are certainly more than 2 political views. There's no longer any such thing as black and white, though many are disillusioned enough to believe there is.
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