Cities and States all over the United States are struggling to balance budgets. Camden (NJ), layed off 167 (almost half) of it's police force and a third of it's firefighters to address a $26 million dollar budget deficit.  Other cities and many states are laying off thousands of workers and cutting services. Residents don't like the cuts, but an ( Read more... )

My partner (mike5816 ) and I got into a heated "discussion" regarding WalMart. He thinks WalMart is the devil incarnate and demands that I not spend any of our joint money at WalMart. While I will respect his wishes, it occurred to me that I see WalMart as an amazing example of capitalism and extreme efficiency.

I'm not saying WalMart is a perfect company ( Read more... )

Tonight, Michael and I were having what I thought was a very spirited and back-and-forth conversation regarding the City's decision to turn  Railroad Street into a one-way. As we got deeper into the conversation, it seemed to me that he had begun to lecture to me. It was no longer a two-way conversation.  I thought to myself, "When did this ( Read more... )

Deception and tricks are nothing new coming from the Republicans. However, it's perfectly clear, at least to me, that we've all been duped, again, by John McCain and the Republicans. Alaskans have been fooled as well. After reading all 263 pages of the publicly released, Sarah/Todd Palin abuse-of-power report, and taking into account all that we ( Read more... )

 I believe the Democrats should continue talking about what is most important in the minds and wallets of Americans: economy, war, health care, and education. Republicans aren't good at those issues. While Obama's camp is beginning to speak out and address the Republican hypocrisy, there's room for improvement. For example, take Sara Palin's ( Read more... )

I read a story on ABC News’ website regarding McCain's pick for VP. It concerns her education history. It seems that, before graduating from college in 1987, the person McCain chose switched colleges more frequently than Cher changes costumes during a concert. Well, maybe not that frequently. Apparently, she switched colleges at least six times in ( Read more... )

It's day 2 of my return to the low carb way of eating. It's a struggle, but so far, so good. 

Democracy for America (DFA) and MoveOn are now condemning the superdelegate system and demanding the DNC not "overturn the will of the people."  Of course, MoveOn has endorsed Obama (not sure about DFA). At the beginning of his campaign, Obama was fine with the superdelegate system, not to mention the DNC's disciplining of Florida and Michigan. ( Read more... )

One of Madonna's friends recently claimed that the Queen of Pop spends about $10,000 a month on $5-per-bottle, Kabbalah-blessed water. Apparently, this is one of her fitness secrets. It's the only water she will drink and she drinks a lot of it. By my calculations, she must drink about 60 bottles of water a day! Water would be lethal in such ( Read more... )

On January 8, 2008, more than 30 people spotted an unidentified flying object (UFO) hovering over Erath county in Texas. A shipping company owner and pilot described the object over Stephenville as "a mile long and half a mile wide" with flickering lights. Twenty miles south, a county constable spotted the same object and said the lights were like ( Read more... )