Blacks and Whites Continue to Differ Sharply on Obama

Over at the Gallup website (Drudge has it also on his Twitter feed) there is a new study that shows a split decision on Obama's approval rating split along racial lines.

The story states "President Obama's job approval rating averaged 88% among blacks and 38% among whites in July, a 50-percentage-point difference that has been consistent in recent months but is much larger than in the initial months of the Obama presidency. Obama's job approval ratings among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in July are all at their lowest levels to date, although the overwhelming majority of blacks still approve."

So with all the race talk in the air, let's throw this out there. How many people believe that the 38% approval rating for the President among whites is due to racism? I wonder what the NAACP would say? Well if you answer is yes - it is probably due to racism I would ask then what do you think about the approval rating of 88% among blacks? Why does Obama enjoy such a high approval rating from this segment of the population? Dare I say due to race? Wouldn't that be racist?

We are constantly told that the Tea Party movement is racist because it is against Obama and those that oppose healthcare are racists. Shirley Sherrod stated "You know, I haven't seen such a mean-spirited people as I've seen lately over this issue of health care. Some of the racism we thought was buried. Didn't it surface?" So how about all the people that support health care - are they racists as well? Certainly all the folks that were against Hillarycare during the Clinton years were not racist?

Bottom line - If the thesis is that Obama is protested partly because of his race, Obama is supported by some people solely because of his race. Yeah - they are racists.

Link to Gallup story - Blacks and Whites Continue to Differ Sharply on Obama

Not at Ground Zero

For the record - I agree with this editorial. The decision to allow a mosque at the site of Ground Zero is disgusting. Let us see if the Muslim community rises up and supports the efforts to stop this.

Not at Ground Zero - The Editors - National Review Online

Police: 2 men tried to sell wood blocks as laptops - Yahoo! News

This is an awesome story - can I be one of the first to say "only in Mississippi"? The story should have also mentioned that these fancy laptops could be used for kindling when the Bush tax cuts expire and everyone's tax burden goes up...

Just a thought. Link to story from Yahoo News below.

Police: 2 men tried to sell wood blocks as laptops - Yahoo! News

From Brietbart - America Loves Stallone and Stallone Loves America

Over at the Big Hollywood site run by Brietbart they have a snippet of an interview that Stallone is giving at Aint It Cool News - a fanboy site for all things cinema.

It is great to here Sly's take on the action heroes of today (did anyone see Adrian Brody in Predators - come on!!) and what the 80's and early 90's action heroes epitomized about America.

Stallone's money quote is "...I believe that everything is a cycle. And once again America will have its cinematic heroes reflect the incredible honor it is to be defending the most extraordinary country the planet has ever known. Just give it time, everything is a cycle."

I hope Sly is right he we will move away from Adrian Brody and others who demonstrate more of a "feminized" version of the arch typical hero and get back to the awesomeness of Stallone, Willis, Arnold and others who did it right.

I for one am looking forward to the Expendables.

Tks to Big Hollywood for noting this great part of Stallone's interview.

Should you freeze coffee

I love coffee and am a fan of having the freshest coffee I can get. I have invested over the course of some years in a number of one cup brewers (current fav is the Keurig) and even have a french press. One misconception I have been under is that it is good to freeze coffee. Not so fast!!

This site makes a convincing case that it is not a good thing to put the coffee in the freezer. Quoting Coffeeam.com:

Some people store their coffee in the freezer thinking it is going to keep the coffee fresh. Here are a couple of reasons why storing coffee in your freezer is a bad idea:
Coffee is porous. This is a good thing for fans of flavored coffee as the beans absorb the coffee flavoring syrups and oils that are used to make flavored coffee. However, if given the chance, coffee can also absorb other things like the flavor of seafood or the moisture that your freezer produces. This moisture will in turn deteriorate the coffee and even make it taste like, well... like a freezer.
When coffee is roasted, the beans release their oils and essences to give the coffee its distinct flavor. You'll notice these oils are more prominent on dark-roasted coffee and espresso. When you break down these oils by freezing, you are removing the flavor.
Think about it...if coffee tasted better and fresher from the freezer, then you would buy it in the frozen food section, your local coffee shop might look more like an ice cream parlor, and our power bills would be through the roof trying to maintain a meat-locker the size of a warehouse.

So there you go. Coffee should not be stored in the freezer. A one time use of the freezer to store unground coffee beans is "ok" but for regular use, definitely not a good practice.

Hey I didn't know that.

Update - NAACP Racism

I had blogged recently about the condemnation of the Tea Party movement by the NAACP and I said (in part) that "Hopefully the NAACP is working within its own ranks to repudiate those racist elements in its own organization while it calls on other groups to do the same."

Well - here we go. FoxNews and others have a video of an earlier NAACP Freedom Fund banquet (March 2010) where an official in the Agriculture Department entertained the banquet attendees "...with a story about how she withheld help to a white farmer facing bankruptcy".

How rich!! How diverse!! How truly sanctimonious can you get? By the way if you watch the video (up at Big Government) you hear the audience laugh when she describes her racist behavior and attitude. Are you kidding me?

FOXNews.com - Video Shows USDA Official Saying She Didn't Give 'Full Force' of Help to White Farmer

Great quote from Alexis de Tocqueville

Great quote from Alexis de Tocqueville who once observed, "Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude."

I love that...

Great Article by Ben Stein

I was over at the American Spectator Website and saw this superb article by Ben Stein that I had to post here. Stein presents a view of the current president's actions that is (in his words)"worrisome", especially his demand that BP set up a $30 billion fund to compensate the victims of the current oil leak that is wrecking havoc in the Gulf of Mexico and associated coastlines.

To quote from the article:

"But the action of the President in demanding this immense transfer of the stockholders' wealth without any legislation or court decision is extremely worrisome.

We live in a Constitutional Republic. The President's job under the Constitution is to enforce the laws made by the elected Congress. His job is not to create new laws and enforce them all by himself. His job is as magistrate under the Constitution, not as Caudillo. He is not the law. He is supposed to enforce what Congress decides.

The BP behavior is reminiscent of how, immediately after assuming office, Mr. Obama, with no Congressional authority or administrative allowance, simply made a phone call to fire the head of GM. When I called the White House press office to ask under what law or regulation Mr. Obama was acting, I was told he did not need a law. If the government put a lot of money into GM, it could call the shots at GM, I was told. But under what authority, I asked. "None needed," was the final answer."

In case you are wondering, "Caudillo" is a Spanish word for a political-military leader/dictator.

I have heard too many times folks in my day to day life call for the Government to do something "just because" (BP should pay up since they caused it) but we must remember that Government is not the solution and should not be viewed as some omniscient provider of good or social and economic justice. Too many of my fellow citizens now look to the Government to right the wrongs in their lives while the Government has no authority to do so...unless it is authority that they give up which is in essence giving up their freedom.

Kudos to Ben for a great article. Link below.

The American Spectator : Our Caudillo President

How to fix Tweetdeck & Adobe AIR links…

Argh - another issue that I have had with various twitter clients has (I think) been solved. I use Twhirl to keep up to date on Twitter feeds but was having an issue with the default browser selection. I am a fan of Firefox but wanted to keep Chrome as the default (easier to gmail links or post to blogger) and although i had Chrome as my default browser, clicking on links in Twhirl would launch Firefox.

Tks to Fred von Graf and his blog I now have a solution. Anyone that is finding similar issues with any of the Adobe Air applications (Seesmic, Tweetdeck, etc.) should try this solution. I had to implement the more advanced solution (edit the windows registry) but it does work.

Thanks Fred!!

How to fix Tweetdeck & Adobe AIR links…

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

I may have already posted this but one great feature that I like is the ability to send a webpage right to my blog and have been looking at using this in Firefox 4.0 Beta 1. So found this in the help section of blogger and wanted to post it here for posterity's sake.

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

Michelle Obama Visits NAACP on Eve of Tea Party Condemnation - ABC News

ABC News has a story that is entitled "Michelle Obama Rouses NAACP Before Vote Condemning 'Racist' Elements of Tea Party" story is here - Michelle Obama Visits NAACP on Eve of Tea Party Condemnation - ABC News

I find this to be funny since the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is an organization founding on civil rights for one race...colored people (I am just reading the definition). Racism is defined as "racial prejudice or discrimination" by the Merriam Webster online dictionary (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism). Isn't that a little hypocritical?

Let me be clear - I don't begrudge the NAACP at all as they can practice and support the people they choose. But I would think that the criticism (not that i mean to imply the criticism of the tea party is valid) would mean more if it came from the National Association for the Advancement of All People (or the NAAAP).

The NAACP should also be on the look out for any member of the NAACP that is a member of the Nation of Islam or the New Black Panther Party. The Southern Poverty Law Center who sponsors Hatewatch, a website that states that it is "keeping an eye on the radical right" has classified both the Nation of Islam and and the New Black Panther Party as hate groups (under the banner of Black Separatist) stating (about the Nation of Islam) that "If a white group espoused similar beliefs with the colors reversed, few would have trouble describing it as racist and anti-Semitic. Although the racism of a group like the Nation may be relatively easy to understand, if we seek to expose white hate groups, we cannot be in the business of explaining away the black ones."

Hopefully the NAACP is working within its own ranks to repudiate those racist elements in its own organization while it calls on other groups to do the same.

How to Safeguard Your Social Security Number

Catching up on a lot of to dos but here is a great article that I wanted to cross post since it covers something that really irritates me. I can't tell you how many times I am asked for complete private info for no apparent reason (why does Radio Shack need your address when you buy batteries? H/t to Seinfeld for that one). One of the most offensive questions involves my ssn. It seems at regular intervals I am asked for this data and my first question is "why do you need that?". Well the folks at GetRichSlowly have posted an article that addresses some questions you should ask when/if you are asked for this personal data.

How to Safeguard Your Social Security Number

Tks to Lifehacker for the tip.

Seven Myths About Grilling a Steak [Grilling]

Great post from LifeHacker - things I didn't know about cooking a steak.

Seven Myths About Grilling a Steak [Grilling]: "

Cooking instructor and author of Planet Barbecue Steven Raichlen knows a thing or two about grilling a steak, and today he's debunking a few grilling myths that'll help make your weekend barbecue that much better. More »







Barbecue - Cooking - Home - Outdoors - Barbecue grill

"

Illegal immigrants able to register cars in Massachusetts

What? Story from MyFoxBoston - Illegal immigrants able to register cars in Massachusetts

What is the problem with this law exactly? I also like the video where a sign is held up that says "STOP ANTI-IMMIGRANT AMENDMENTS". There are no anti immigrant amendments. But there are anti-illegal immigration laws that states (like Arizona) are trying to enforce.

Principal bans four-letter word — ‘meep!’ - Weird news- msnbc.com

From MSNBC - we have another assault on Freedom of Speech. In this case - a principal of a school in Danvers, Ma has banned the word "meep" at school, threatening kids with suspension if this offensive term is uttered.

Here's to you Danvers!!



Principal bans four-letter word — ‘meep!’ - Weird news- msnbc.com

Whale poop fights climate change: study - Yahoo! News

2nd (and final) in a series of things I didn't know - this time about Whale Poop - tks to Yahoo News for the story.

Whale poop fights climate change: study - Yahoo! News

Obese Women More Likely To Have Unsafe Sex

Chalk this up to things I didn't know - tks to FoxNews Boston - Obese Women More Likely To Have Unsafe Sex

Upcoming lifetweaks

So I got a comment that someone wanted to know what the upcoming lifetweaks were so here is what I have so far.

June 7 - I am not going to yell in anger at all. Stress free baby.
June 8 - I am going profanity free all day. Not even an a$$ will be spoken.
June 9 - I am going for a run and not think about work or anything else for that matter.

Stay tuned for June 10 and beyond.

June 4, 5 and 6 Lifetweaks

June 4 lifetweak was to stay off the computer and watch whatever my wife wanted to watch (which turned out to be the movie "The invention of lying" which had it's moments but basically so-so.

June 5 lifetweak was a repeat of an earlier one - fix something that is broken. The item in general was our office printer which now works like a charm (I think).

June 6 lifetweak was an easy one - take the kids to a movie and basically don't get stressed out about getting there on time and not worrying about the noise from other people. We went to see Marmaduke and it was basically what I had expected but it could have been funnier. The kids gave it a medium thumb (at least not thumbs down) and the day was pretty fun and stress less.

June 3 Lifetweak

So keeping with the month of life tweaking I decided that today was going to be alcohol day. It was pretty easy since i am not a big drinker and will not be as tough as no caffeine day to be sure.

June 2 - Lifetweak

I follow a Getting Things Done Methodology (Google GTD or visit http://www.gtdtimes.com/) and for today's lifetweak, I am delving into the "to read" folder and cleaning up some of the stuff that I haven't gotten to in awhile (there was an article in there from 2008 for example). Spent 30 minutes reviewing the folder and catching up on some of the older items. Lifetweaked!!!

June 2010 is Lifetweaks month

So happy June – I have decided for no other reason than I want to, that June is the month to tweak daily life. What do I mean by that? Basically I am going to spend June, changing small things each day to try and get some better balance to life and institute some positive change. As Ghandi said "become the change you seek".

So in that vein, I am going to note the various little hacks I am making to my daily routine and conduct to either improve me as a person or improve my relations.

01 June Lifetweak – fix something. I took this one on and decided to diagnose and fix the Wi FI issues I was having with my IPAD. I wrote about it previously here. So did some research and learned how to change my router settings (learned the difference between WEP and WPA) and set up a different encryption and behold the IPAD seems to keep the Wi Fi signal better and doesn't appear to drop it randomly. Score!!

Lifehacker Pack 2010: Our List of Essential Windows Downloads

I love the site Lifehacker and was reading it and saw that they have put out their list of essential windows downloads (link is below). I agree with some of the list (still debating Chrome vs Firefox - I use both) and am still on XP and this list is focused on Win 7. I did try and use thunderbird but had an issue setting it up (possibly VPN issue?) but anyway, it is a good list to review and potentially use.

Check the list out -Lifehacker Pack 2010: Our List of Essential Windows Downloads

Issues with the Ipad

So I am a proud owner of a new Ipad and have been having issues with the wi-fi connectivity and after spending too much time researching it it looks like I had to change my router security settings and the channel that is used for broadcast. So I have done that and will give it a day or two to see if there is any change. To be honest, I am ready to return the Ipad given the issues that I have seen so far. My beloved Ipod touch that was recently broken never had these issues. I will upload some links that am using to trouble shoot issue in this post tomorrow.

The end of tv

So I am trying out the blogger app on my iPad and thought I would write about the end of tv as I know it. Yes I am talking about the series finales of Lost and 24 respectively. Both ended this week and honestly I will miss both but for very different reasons. 24 made me feel sorry for the hero (Jack Bauer) since almost nothing went right for him but also glad that there were people like him willing to do violent acts to protect America. I also admired his unfailing moral compass which apparently almost every other person lacked (including the most recent Madam President) and quite frankly he was a bad a$$.

I already wrote about Lost earlier and had some time to think about it some more and digest what the series meant and what it was shooting for. I guess it comes down to what was really "Lost" - was it the people on an island or was it about the people and their lives (or souls)? In the end was the series about them all earning redemption and moving on en masse to a better place? A lot of unanswered questions abound but I never thought we would get them all addressed. In the end though we cared about the losties and the journey that they were on and how it eventually ended.

To be honest I will miss these shows as they were in so many ways must see TV and stimulated so much conversation and fellowship that their absence will be felt by all who waited patiently for the familiar 24 and Lost opening themes. Interesting that they both had heroes names Jack. I had tried Heroes and Flash Forward but both failed to capture me like the folks at CTU and the survivors of flight 815. There is definitely a hole right now in my week that I can fill with something else, but I doubt it will be as interesting or as captivating.

Lost Finale (initial thoughts)

Thinking about the Lost Series Finale - not sure I get it yet and if the discussion happening on Facebook is any inclination, I am not alone. I do think that many of us felt that the island was "purgatory" or something between heaven and hell but I get that it isn't if people can escape from it? Or was the sideways world purgatory where everyone had to be together to move forward to heaven?

I dunno - and I will be thinking about this more. BTW - loved the small bit between Hugo and Ben at the end. Ben wasn't ready to move on - did he need to make more amends?

Loved it - have to watch it again I think but thought it was a fine show with great imagery and iconography. But I need to ponder on it a bit more.

I will leave you with John Miller (posting over at National Review) with some quick thoughts.

Lost - John J. Miller - The Corner on National Review Online

FOXNews.com - Bisexual men claim discrimination in Gay World Series

I am playing catch up on my to do list and saw this on Fox News a while back. Basically the story notes that "Three bisexual men filed a lawsuit in Seattle, Washington against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) claiming they were discriminated against for not being gay enough to participate in the organization's Gay Softball World Series...". The original source of the story appears to the the Seattle Times.

Not being gay enough? I will deal with that in a minute but since when is there a Gay Softball World Series? How is participation determined and how is it verified? And why is it ok to have a world series for softball for gays - I am sure straights don't have their own world series (can you imagine a don't ask, don't tell rule for "straight softball"? I am sure that would go over well). I just can't get enough of groups that preach inclusion offer up their own exclusionary rules.

Now - not being gay enough. Someone please tell me how this is determined. And again, how it is verified? Do you need to produce supporting documentation to justify a participant's gayness? Maybe there is a form to fill out and you must include references.

This is patently absurd and as groups continue to have their own activities focused on lifestyle choice, sexual orientations, whatever, we will continue to become more polarized as a country and more silly in our culture. What ever happened to keeping bedroom activities out of the limelight?

Resolution: We need a bi-sexual world series as well. And then we will need a metro-sexual world series also. Let's not forget the transsexual crowd, we need to ensure they have a world series as well. Is it homophobic if I mention to be fair we should have a straight world series as well? That is of course preposterous. So is any of the others I mentioned.

Hey - that is my opinion. Story from Fox News below.

FOXNews.com - Bisexual men claim discrimination in Gay World Series

2 Simple Ingredients That Will Boost your Morning Energy - by Dumb Little Man

2 Simple Ingredients That Will Boost your Morning Energy - by Dumb Little Man

Just reading twitter feeds from Lifehacker and followed an article to the website http://www.dumblittleman.com/ - looks like it is a good read and wanted to share - as I am a big proponent of push ups in the morning (I like the plan at http://hundredpushups.com/) this got my attention.

Rock on!!!

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options - Graphic - NYTimes.com

Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options - Graphic - NYTimes.com: "Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options"

Great article on the NY Times on Facebook privacy options. Thanks to Lifehacker for the heads up.

TwInbox - Use Twitter directly from Outlook.

TwInbox - Use Twitter directly from Outlook.

I just found this utility and it is really great. I have tried all the fancy twitter clients (or at least most of them) and since most of my work/GTD system and general tasks occur in outlook is was a no brainer to adopt this into my mail client and use twitter feeds more effectively.

Seems to be no real issue with performance (as of now) and quite frankly I love the convergence of many sources of information found in one place. I am even keeping up better with the news. Otherwise how else could I learn that Bill Clinton has offered himself as a lottery prize to pay off Hillary's campaign debts.

Ha!!!

Parent Advice - Sneaky Ways Advertisers Target Kids - Common Sense Media

Checking out a great website (http://www.commonsensemedia.org) and saw this small article that I thought worth mentioning. Under "Sneaky Ways Advertisers Target Kids I saw this note about how Twitter is being used -

Parent Advice - Sneaky Ways Advertisers Target Kids - Common Sense Media: "1. Kim Kardashian. Tweets from reality TV stars, musicians, and other celebs can earn them $10,000. That's right, the rich and famous are cashing in on their Twitter fans by tweeting about how much they love a certain product. And unlike sponsored Twitter ads, these celeb tweets are not labeled 'Ad.'"

Just something to be aware of -

FOXNews.com - California Principal Apologizes for Forbidding U.S. Flag Shirts on Mexican Holiday

FOXNews.com - California Principal Apologizes for Forbidding U.S. Flag Shirts on Mexican Holiday: "'School leaders have to make judgment calls on when to take preventative measures to pre-empt a possible incident or conflict,' Smith said. 'In this situation, it appears that a decision was made too quickly.'"

So here is my question - the decision was made too quickly to forbid US Flag shirts on Cinco De Mayo. at this school in California? What does how hastily the decision was made have to do with anything? My feeling is that if the school had waited another 60 minutes, they still would have made the same decision.

This is shameful. Remember what country this is? Why the hell would Cinco De Mayo celebrators be offended?

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter

So I was poking around some social media stuff and came upon TwitterFeed. Does this post to Twitter? Let's see.

twitterfeed.com : feed your blog to twitter

Can't Delete podcasts off Touch - iLounge Forums

I can't tell you how frustrated I was when I couldn't get old podcasts off my Ipod Touch when they didn't show up in Itunes. Well the folks at iLounge came to my rescue.

User dazzerart notes:

"I had the same problem. But you CAN delete the podcasts from your ipod touch without using your pc

Go to your podcast list on your ipod touch. Dont swipe the screen now... it wont work

Click an individual podcast - it will now have the date and time of podcast in the description
dont click it - that would just play the podcast - instead just slide your finger from left to right and a red delete button will appear.

Click that and the podcast is no more!"

Thank you!!!

Link to posting below.

Can't Delete podcasts off Touch - iLounge Forums

Can I back post?

Trying to see if I have the option to post retroactively...

Blogging from MS Word

I found this great link here that helps me blog right from Word via a shortcut on my desktop. I love the flexibility that MS Word offers and of course I like that it has a nice spell check and capitalizes all my "I's".

Nice.

Four-day school week?

Reading the local Fox station's rss and see that there is a growing call for a 4-day school week to address budget gaps. In my opinion, this is actually the very wrong thing to cut to address budget woes. As it stands (according to this story in the Boston Examiner "Eight graders from the United States rank below students in many Asian countries when it comes to Science and Math, according to The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study."

Do we really want to make budget decisions that could dramatically impact the future of US children? Aren't there other things to cut (I can probably find some "diversity initiatives" to remove)? This is a bad decision.

Ok - some of you are saying, the school days will be longer. But what is the impact to sporting programs that are played after school? Here locally, there is a 1/2 day every week that the entire school is dismissed early. If the teachers are paid for a full day's work, why not (at a minimum) use that day for a full day of instruction?

Here is the link to the story - Four-day school week?

Iraqi leader willing to ask some U.S. troops to stay - CNN.com

Ok - I called this a way before the election.

We (the US) are there for the long haul and the American People, Congress and President should realize that.

Iraqi leader willing to ask some U.S. troops to stay - CNN.com

Falmouth boy, 7, faces assault and battery charge | Greggorey Ball-Roemer |

I am divided on this - Assault and Battery for a 7 yr old?

Falmouth boy, 7, faces assault and battery charge | Greggorey Ball-Roemer |

City’s police sharpen their watch on crime - The Boston Globe

Interesting take on Boston's new crime fighting initiative. Would like to hear a follow up story and the crimes that were prevented..

City’s police sharpen their watch on crime - The Boston Globe: "As part of a new crime-fighting initiative unveiled yesterday, Boston police now have the ability to witness shootings, robberies, and even homicides on many city streets from computer screens at headquarters and then distribute crucial information about the suspects and the crimes to officers heading to the scene.

FOXNews.com - Demon vs. Phantom Ray: The World’s Deadliest Drones

Been awhile since I had chimed in but been busy. Trying to get back into it and will start with a good story on UASs and their use in military operations (tks to Fox News).

FOXNews.com - Demon vs. Phantom Ray: The World’s Deadliest Drones: "The U.S. is investing billions of dollars in drones, the unmanned aircraft that are key to the modern military."

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help

Not sure if I had found this before but this is a great feature to have on your browser.

What is BlogThis! ? - Blogger Help