Monday, April 30, 2012

iPad2 vs Retina Display on New iPad

For some people, there's no reason to spend the money to get a new 3rd-gen iPad. The iPad2 is a great machine, it works great and has a lovely interface. And for some people, they wouldn't really notice the difference in the screen.


I am not one of those people. The Retina Display on the new iPad is gorgeous. And since there's more pixels in its 9.7 in. display than in my "high-def" TV in the living room, everything, from photos to text to icons in the App Store, are super crisp. The screen is brighter, and it may just be a figment of my imagination, but seems to look better at more extreme angles than the iPad2.


Below are just a couple comparison shots of the iPad2 versus the new iPad that I took this evening. While you can easily tell in the pictures, the difference is most striking when you're actually using both. With the new iPad, everything is amazingly crisp, and as something of a typography geek, I love how text displays on the new iPad. Now that I have a direct comparison, I'm glad I waited for the new iPad. Check out the photos and let me know if you agree.


Left: iPad2, Right: iPad 3rd Gen

Top: iPad 2
Notice the haloing in the gradient on the iPad2, whereas it's perfectly smooth on the 3rd generation.


Perhaps a little harder to tell in this picture, but Flipboard is stunning on the 3rd Generation iPad (right) compared to the 2nd Gen (on the left).




Review: Audio-Technica ATH-CK6A High-Fidelity Binaural In-Ear Headphones


Audio-Technica ATH-CK6A High-Fidelity Earbuds


Specifications
Driver Diameter: 10.7mm
Frequency Response: 15 - 28,000 Hz
Maximum Input Power: 200mW
Sensitivity: 100 dB/wM at 1kHz
Impedance: 16 ohms
Weight: 0.12 oz without cable
Cable: 4 ft, Y-type
Connector: 3.5mm mini stereo, gold-plated, iPhone compatible
Accessories Included: interchangeable earpieces (S, M, L); Interchangeable loop supports (3 types); pouch



I’m not exactly an audiophile but I do consider myself perhaps more aware of headphone quality than the average person using the default earbuds that came with their iPod. 

There are three main things that I consider when looking for a pair of headphones: nice design; good comfort and fit; and of course high-fidelity sounds, which means they’ll have clear and accurate sound with any kind of audio from talk to classical music to action movies, and at a wide range of volumes.

Currently, my favorite set of headphones Phillips over the ear earbud style which have really good frequency response and they're nice and comfortable I can wear them all day, which is really important for me as I listen to music for the better part of every workday. So I figured these Audio-Technica headphones had a lot to live up to, and I was particularly excited about this review because judging by the specs on the web page, these were high-quality earbuds.

The ATH-CK6As come with three sets of loop supports and three different sizes of earpieces so you can get just the fit you want. A drawstring bag is also included to keep the ‘phones in. One thing that drew me to these was the advertised wide frequency range of 15-28,000 Hz and the rare-earth speaker drivers, rare for any set of headphones, much less small earbuds like these. Basically it means that since the average human hearing range is around 20-20,000 Hz, these headphones will let you hear everything recorded that you’re physically capable of hearing. In simple language, this means you’ll be able to really hear both the deep notes as well as the mid and high ranges without distortion.

The headphones themselves are very lightweight. The ear loop pieces that were already installed were just right for me, but I switched the ear covers to the smaller sizes to make it fit right for me, so I appreciate having the options available to me.

Once I had the attachments to my liking, the earphones fit nice and tight inside my ears, which makes for good clarity of sound as well as blocking outside noise.

For this review I tested three different genres of music in order to exploit the full potential of these headphones.

First up was Josh Groban’s Si Volvieras a Mi. The vocals in the mid-range were nice and clear, and the instruments were full and rich. I felt like I was really getting the whole experience of the music. Also, important for earbuds is that it doesn't sound like any music is leaking out, and with the right fit, the Audio-Technica’s seemed to direct everything right down my ear canal, which made the music sound great.

For rock music, it's hard to beat Breathe Into Me by RED. The guitars came through nice and full, vocals were clear, and the bass was spot on. Tweaking the equalizer settings on the audio device (I used an iPad for this review), I was able to experience let the advertised high fidelity of the ATH-CK6As shine through.

Moving on to hip-hop to see how good the low bass response was, I chose Get It In by PRo. I love a song with good bass, and, having installed subwoofers in all the vehicles I've had, I know what full deep bass sounds like and how it can really enable you to feel the music rather than simply hearing it. Therefore, I only consider a set of ‘phones "good" if it can sound like I have small subs in my ears. Once again, these phones came through in spades, with the super-low frequency response capability a treat for my ears. Moreover, the Audio-Technica earbuds stayed firmly planted in my ears, something that my Philips ‘phones only do as long as I don’t move or yawn or swallow. I’m looking forward to using these new earbuds for my next trip to the gym.

And speaking of having a good sound seal, I found that these do a good job of blocking outside noise as my wife just came up and asked me why I haven't been listening to her for the past few minutes. I couldn't even hear her!

With each music selection, all frequencies came through clearly, and even turned up to the point that it almost hurt my ears (something you need to be careful about with earbuds), I couldn't detect any distortion on either end of the range, which made me smile since it's nice to be surprised with a such high-fidelity sound in such a small package. I was dubious at first that these small light earpieces would have drivers that could handle the music I like to listen to, but the Audio-Technica ATH-CK6A headphones are winners in my book, especially considering the mid-range price.

In fact, my only real complaint is the alphanumeric naming system of these headphones, which will make it hard to remember when you want to tell your friends how awesome your new headphones are!

To wrap up, if you're looking for a high-quality pair of earbuds that don’t break the bank, these are a great choice. Sure, you can buy earbuds for $10, or use the ones that came with your mp3 player, but if you appreciate great sound at a decent price, these are for you. You could also spend at least three as much for other brands of headphones, but you’d be hard pressed to justify the price when these sound so good.



Check them out today on BuyDig.com.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

The Fakeness is Overwhelming

I can't take the tastelessness anymore. Every time I'm out driving I see all these vehicles, some nice, some absolute junkers, that are apparently driven by absolutely taste-impaired individuals. I've seen this phenomenon on econoboxes, ricers, junkers, Camaros, minivans, trucks, you name it.


Perhaps you've seen it too....




OOOO!!! Fake stick-on body vents! Your G6 is SO COOL! 

That was bad enough, but then as I neared home, I saw an even more blatant lack of style. It was a PT Cruiser that had at least 12 of these fakey-vents all over the car, including the C-pillar (!), along with some super-awesome chrome flame stickers. I mean, COME ON PEOPLE! What are you thinking? Are you even thinking?

Do you honestly think that fake vents make your car look awesome? Who told you to do that to your car? Did aliens suck out your brain and replace it with silly-putty?
For all of you that have fallen prey to this atrocious faux-pas (emphasis on faux), let me clear this up. This is where these things belong:

That's right. On a BUICK! Not on your Pontiac G6, not on your PT Cruiser, not on your Explorer, Camaro, or nineteen-colors-of-primer-and-rust 92 Civic. In fact, if the vent didn't come from the factory, it shouldn't be on your car!

They are fine if they're functional, meaning that they actually contribute to moving air in some fashion. So if you have legitimate vents on your ride, more power to you. I do admit to thinking these things were interesting the first time I saw it, but then everyone started putting them on everything. (Remember that fad some years ago where everyone was putting those stupid lights in their windshield washer nozzles? Same principle here.) These are not an instant pass to coolness. If you think your car needs these vent sticker thingies to look cool, you're wrong. Either your car can stand on it's own and doesn't need them, or it's too trashy/plain/ugly for something stupid like this to help. Simply because it's chrome and you can afford it does not mean that it should go on your vehicle!

Finally, what drives me even more nuts is that it seems like the majority of those who think fake vent stickers make their car cooler, or faster, or whatever, are also the same people who have no concept of a straight line. How many of these have you seen where it looks like the person stuck them in the dead of night while being drunk to smithereens?

Please, for the continued sanity of those of us who have at least an inkling of design sense and an appreciation for aesthetics, stop with the stickers already!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Ludicrous Liberals

I absolutely cannot believe this man. He's now quoting Ronald Reagan in an effort to raise all our taxes, tell us that millionaires don't pay taxes, and convince people that Reagan was actual a socialist instead of one of the most conservative presidents we've had. Not only this, but he also said taxes are lower today than in Reagan's day. Maybe tax REVENUES, because people are already paying too high of taxes to bail out other companies and hence aren't spending, so the government's not getting as much.

For some reason, he believes his grand government can spend our money better than we can, more productively than we can, and to better effect than we can. For an even crazier reason, people applaud when he says it, people who get their complete political view from the Washington Post and the Times. Thank you so much, Mr. Obama, yes, I can know see your socialist dream, and it's beautiful. If only there wasn't that stupid nagging fact that IT'S BEEN TRIED BEFORE AND IT DIDN'T WORK THEN EITHER AND IT'S NOT WORKING NOW!

Read this great article from Heritage.org to see just how different these two guys are, Obama's buddy-buddy talk notwithstanding.

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Kawasaki Mean Streak Upgrades Round 1

This is the first of many hopeful rounds of upgrades to my 04 Mean Streak 1600. This is my first big bike, and it just keeps growing on me, especially after doing some things myself on it.

So, on to the goods. In this round, upgrades include:
  • Rectifier relocated to the front (via Constrictor's 62 cent mod) and bag fitted in its place
  • Rear fender brace covers moved closer to fender
  • Removed reflectors and moved helmet locks up on the front frame brace
  • Handmade license plate and turn signal brackets
  • Anodized aluminum license plate bolts (Made in USA by ebay seller mlochridge)
  • Blacked-out air cleaner covers and turn signals (using Dupli-Color's Shadow kit)
  • Blacked-out turn signal lenses (using Nite-Shades)
  • Added 5% tint to windshield
  • Kuryakyn Shift Lever cover (thanks to my wife)
  • Kuryakyn Bar End Weights
  • Kuryakyn Scythe II Mirrors
License Plate and Turn Signal Brackets
I made these (with the help of my dad and his tools!) out of 16 gauge sheet steel from Lowe's. Hadn't ever done anything like this, so it was a learning experience. I had to scrap the first set I made since I was trying to make them nice and curvy using only a jigsaw (definitely not recommended!) If you have a bandsaw, this would be much faster and easier. So as you can see, I ended up going with straight cuts and then filing to smooth out, which worked fine. They're pretty ugly up close, but I didn't care since the point was to paint them black and have them hardly show at all. The only thing about the turn signal relocation was redoing the wiring of course, because I had to untape the entire harness and add wire extensions for the turn signals since the way it's set up at the factory wouldn't allow the lights to go very far. It saves a few inches of wire, which is why they do that, but I had several feet of small-gauge wire around that I just soldered in to extend the reach.

Painting stuff

This was interesting. After seeing the video on the Shadow paint kit on Dupli-color's site, I really wanted to use that, so I did, and I think it turned out pretty well on the turn signals and air cleaner covers, but it's definitely not the black chrome look I was hoping for. It's probably mostly the result of me being a novice painter with a rattle can, but I had a hard time getting it between either making it look like overspray and not covering, and spraying too much and it running. In shooting between these two, I ended up doing 3 coats and it came out much more black than black chrome. However, the turn signals do have a nice high gloss.

In contrast, the Nite-Shades was super easy and fast, just needed one coat, then let it dry for a good long time, and then shine it up with some Mother's carnauba wax. When the lights are off, it looks completely blacked-out, but with just one coat, the lights are still perfectly visible through the amber lens when on.

Kuryakyn Scythe II Mirrors

It took a while to decide to go with these mirrors, and I initially wanted the original Scythe I mirrors, but ended up going with these because I think they look just a bit cleaner while still having a bit of a wicked edge, which is what I'm going for. I just got them installed and absolutely love them.

License Plate Bolts

Just wanted to say a quick word about these. They're great quality and nice and light in black (you can also get them in chrome). The only thing is that the bolts are thicker than normal license plate bolts (in the US, anyway), so I had to drill out my license plate and my newly-painted brackets a bit so they'd fit, which peeved me a bit, but wasn't too hard. Just something to keep in mind.

Tinting the Windshield
I did this myself based on the write-up here from vee-strom.com. It looks fine from a distance, like over 10 feet, but being my first tint job, it's pretty terrible up close. I'll blame it on the compound curves on the Memphis Shades windshield. I wasn't sure how to make nice even final cuts, and despite using the applicator spray, it just wouldn't stick in some places. In the end, it looks like the edges were hacked with a dull knife rather than the razor blade I used, and there's still many bubbles and I probably scratched the tint. I may try again, or I might see if it can be tinted at a real shop, or I'll just get a new screen someday. I don't often ride with it, because it completely changes the look of the Mean Streak, and not in a good way in my opinion.

Okay, enough talk, here's some more pics. The first is a before shot.










Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Please Pray for Los Alamos!

Just 11 years after the devastating Cerro Grande fire that evacuated the town and burned hundreds of homes, the people of my hometown of Los Alamos were once again evacuated yesterday as the Las Conchas fire, which has no burned over 50,000 acres, creeps closer to the town.




Please pray that God sends rain, or that the winds shift and that Los Alamos and its residents are spared the heartache of another rebuild so soon. Pray for the firefighters who are in harms way doing all they can. Please pray.












Saturday, April 2, 2011

Another Wrench in the Spokes

As I was reading through all the blogs I track the other day, I came across a cool article about this guy who made a fly-powered self-sustaining clock. It has a flypaper conveyor belt that traps flies and scrapes them off into a biocell filled with bacteria to break down the flies, releasing electrons, which are in turn used to power the clock and the motor that turns the conveyor belt.

The video explained that, understandably, the inspiration for this invention came from the carnivorous plants in nature that use bugs as fuel. And it got me to thinking that these plants are an excellent argument against Evolution. I mean, how would something like that come about by numerous small successive changes? I can't see any way. A Wikipedia article I read tries to explain the Evolution, but it skirts what I think is a major issue. This is basically a brain dump, and not a scientific article, but the logic is spot-on, so bear with me.

These plants grow in nitrogen-poor soil, and hence need supplements (bugs) in order to survive. Whereas plants like the Venus flytrap, pitcher plant, and sundew plant go about it in different ways, they all turn bugs into food. So how could something that's not a sentient being evolve from being a "simple" photosynthetic plant to a carnivorous one? If we assume that eons ago some stray seed fell into some nutrient-poor soil and started growing, what is most likely to happen? The plant eventually dies of course without all it needs to grow and thrive. It's a plant, it can't say, "Oh, this isn't a great spot to be in, I think I'll evolve something to help me survive!" But what really strikes me is that a fly (or beetle, or ant) is a completely different thing from a plant. How could the plant "decide" to go after bugs?

The only thing that is remotely plausible (as much as inter-species can be thought of as plausible instead of a joke) is that perhaps a plant in that situation would evolve to become parasitic, spreading out roots and taking nutrients from other plants. But this isn't what we have today. We have plants that get part of their energy from a completely different source, something completely outside "plantdom" if you will.

To expand on this line of thinking, I suppose a lazy thinker could be persuaded that a squirrel or muskrat could evolve into a beaver by virtue of living near the water, and that the squirrels with larger, flatter tails survived better in the water. I don't buy it, but for the sake of argument, let's say that's what happened. But what we don't have is a squirrel evolving to use a rock to carve out a little squirrel canoe from a stick, because the rock and the stick are just objects to the squirrel that he wouldn't think to use for purposes other than he does. Similarly, if we assume these plants had some kind of "knowledge" about bugs, it makes no sense that the plant would evolve anything to repurpose those bugs for its own use .

So coming back around to how this could possibly happen, let's break it down. Let's say we have a dandelion seed; it lands in a bad neighborhood that doesn't have the support it needs to grow. It dies. Ooo, not passing on anything there. Another seed lands in the same neighborhood later, a caterpillar crawls up a leaf, is taken by a bird, who clips the leaf, and some of the sticky leaf-blood seeps out. No biggie, but the plant later dies for lack of nutrition. Another seed, same story, gets clipped and everything. This time an ant walks by and gets stuck. Yay! We have a carnivorous plant, see? The ant? He dies. On the plant. Another one for Evolution! Hold on, don't sell the farm just yet. There's no mechanism for the plant to digest or metabolize the bug. The plant eventually dies in the nutrient-poor neighborhood. Sigh... Another seed, another bird, another slice, another ant... See how these things have to pile up multiple times? It's not like you just hit the jackpot once, you have to do it a million times. This is what mathematicians call practically impossible. The probability is so low that's it's not worth considering. Without the right plant in the right place, with the right attractive properties and the right processes and functions to metabolize and use bug juice, all you have is dead plants, not plants that keep getting stronger!

Rather than dandelion seeds landing where they can't survive and ending up evolving into a fascinating carnivorous plant, is it not much more likely that you just don't have dandelions in that area, and perhaps only plants that were designed to live there?

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Speak up and Be Heard November 2!

There's going to be a lot of people this coming November 2nd that will just choose to shut up, to be lazy and selfish and sit at home rather than exercising their taken-for-granted right to vote for the leaders of our country.

Other people in other countries would kill for this right, because they realize the power. Don't be lazy this year. This is likely THE most important election our generation has faced, including presidential elections. We have one shot to enact a much-needed change in this country.


DON'T LET OTHERS DO THIS FOR YOU! SPEAK UP!


How do you think people liked living under Stalin, or Hitler, or Mao? Those leaders promised everything our current leaders promise: fairness, equality, feel-good-communism tied up in a pretty package of "post-racism" and "spreading the wealth." We are on a slippery slope to oblivion if these runaway liberals are not checked. They've already shown their predisposition to trample the constitutional checks and balances and ignore the voice of the people.

Take a stand and make that voice LOUD! Vote on November 2nd!

Below are some helpful links for voting. I found all this by Googling "vote November 2," and there's lots of good stuff out there so you can know:

Who's on my ballot?
Where can I go to vote?
What about voting early/absentee?
Who is the best candidate to accomplish my priorities?
Who has a limited view of government?
Who does the NRA endorse?

You will have no excuse for NOT voting except to admit you're a lazy indecisive pig, so get out there and VOTE!!!

Who's Running?
http://www.nrapvf.org/
http://www.unctv.org/election/candidates/Wake/index.html#us_house
http://votesmart.org/voteeasy/#

Good information on voting

Trigger the Vote!

Tell your friends and family to vote too! Bribe them, guilt them, do whatever it takes, but help get people out there!

Lastly, I'll leave you with a humorous pointed message from Chuck Norris:

Friday, September 17, 2010

Sir Ken Robinson on Creativity and Education

This guy blows my mind. He is absolutely brilliant in these two, 4-years-apart seminars at TED on how we grow out of creativity, and how we can and should recapture that for ourselves and the next generation.



Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Colosseum from Glyphs

Cameron Moll is a very accomplished designer, speaker, and writer. I was watching a recent presentation he gave for LessConf3010 where he highlighted several of his views and theories when it comes to great, as opposed to merely good, design.

The entire presentation is wonderful to watch, not least of which is for the slideshow itself, which is a truly great slideshow (just take note of how many bullets you see in the whole thing: none), but one thing captured my attention that is the main point of this post.

A while back Cameron decided to challenge himself to create a poster of the Colosseum in Rome using glyphs. He brought this up as an example of his drive to do hard things, and that, in setting out to do something you think you can't do, you thereby learn how to do it and expand your capabilities and gain practice with stretching yourself.

Cameron's self-made video on the process can be found at ColosseoType.com. It's an incredible inspiration to me, and a reminder that the fear of messing up or doing well is never a good reason for not trying. Fear breeds complacency, and complacency kills creativity.

I hope this inspires you to go out and accomplish something you think you can't do.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Friends and Fiends

I recently picked up a new book that has proven so far to be an eye-opening read for me. The book is "Conservative Victory" by Sean Hannity. It recently came out, it's a quick read, and I would highly recommend it if, like me, you don't spend a ton of time watching TV or listening to the radio.

I just finished Chapter 2, which, to put it mildly, was shocking in the extreme. In this chapter, a brief summary is given of Obama's close acquaintances and confidants, giving a chilling glimpse into just what kind of man we elected.

Now, of course the liberals start crying at this point that it's unfair "guilt by association" and that in many cases Obama had "no idea" about these people's radical leanings. However, this isn't a court of law, we're not trying to put Obama in jail, but it is an undeniable fact that a person can be known by the company he keeps. No one purposely surrounds themselves and looks for advice from people with whom they adamantly disagree, so we can safely infer (there's no other logical conclusion, really) that Obama shares most of the views of these people who have taken very powerful positions in this brave new world of "change" that Obama is so keen to push on the unwilling citizenry of this great country.

So, who are these people and what are they like? Let's see...


David Axelrod
Axelrod is one of Obama's closest advisers, Hannity calls him "the man who feeds his teleprompter...the significance of his role cannot be overstated." He, like Obama, was brought up by radical leftists in Chicago, chief of whom was Don Rose, a man who, among other things, was sympathetic to hard core riot by the Students for a Democratic Society in Chicago in 1968.

Mark Lloyd
Lloyd was appointed Obama's "diversity czar," who has been described by NewsBusters.org as "virulently anti-capitalist...and exuberantly pro-regulation." To that effect, he composed a report called "The Structural Imbalance of Political Talk Radio," offering solutions to quiet those he disagrees with. According to Lloyd, the constitutional right to free speech is "all too often an exaggeration" and it's purpose is warped to "block rules that would promote democratic governance." My response to that is "DUH!" In fact, I could go for a bit more blocking of rules that would try to impose further democratic governance in this already highly bureaucratic, "the government knows what's best for you" federal government of ours. As always, we must be wary of people who are so eager to twist the Constitution of our forefathers.
In describing Hugo Chavez' "progress" in Venezuela, Lloyd says it is "really an incredible revolution-a democratic revolution. To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela." Lloyd goes on to make the point that if Chavez' victims would just shut up and quit complaining, and if the media was wholeheartedly on his side (all opponents quieted), then things could really start to happen. Hannity closes the Lloyd introduction best when he says, "These are the kind of positive steps our new diversity czar applauds in Chavez's so-called 'democratic revolution.'"

Then we have Cass Sunstein, who has strong opinions on the First Amendment, as well as animal "rights." Regarding our right to free speech, the New York Post reported that Sunstein believes it is the duty of the courts to impose a chilling effect on speech that would hurt someone's feelings, and that it should be more heavily regulated by government (New York Post, July 11, 2009).
As to animal "rights," Sunstein believes animals have the same rights as humans and that people should be able to open lawsuits on behalf of animals. However touching his concern for the downtrodden animal is, he has no such concern for the unborn human, being a staunch supporter of abortion "rights" as well.

Ron Bloom
On the economics side of things, we have Ron Bloom, Obama's "manufacturing czar," who is of the opinion that creating jobs is primarily the duty of the federal government, not the many brilliant and entrepreneurial types this country's free market economy allows to flourish. No, to Bloom, the "free market is nonsense...we kind of agree with Mao that political power comes largely from the barrel of a gun." Did you see that? What kind of president appoints a man to Bloom's position who believes that you should be governed at gunpoint? I'll tell you what kind: a socialist, simple as that. Hurray for change!

Hannity keeps the hits rolling by continuing to describe these people in great positions of power, unaccountable to the system of checks and balances, who know have a huge say in the policies and opinions our president espouses, people who are openly socialist, communist, God-haters, and America-haters. They have rejected any kind of moral compass, along, usually, with sound economics and quite often sound logic. I want to talk about just one more person that Hannity brings up in his book, just because it so utterly appalled me.

Kevin Jennings is Obama's "safe schools czar," but his views on what is appropriate for education are shockingly, openly, and unashamedly awful that I want to quote this section so as not to miss any of the good stuff:
(from "Conservative Victory" ch. 2)

As Jennings has written in his memoirs, as a young gay man he violently and blasphemously rejected his Christian upbringing. "Before, I was the one who was failing God; now I decided He was the one who had failed me. . . . I decided I had done nothing wrong: He had, by promising to 'set you free' and never delivering on His promise. What had He done for me, other than make me feel shame and guilt? Squat. Screw you , buddy -- I don't need you around anymore, I decided." He retained hatred toward religious leaders into adulthood: At a meeting with fellow activists in 2000, he condemned the "religious right" as "hard-core bigots" who should "drop dead," and declared that he really wanted to tell them, "F--- you!"

That coming from a chief adviser to this nation's leader? And are we to believe that Obama has no clue about these kind of views of his followers? Are we to think that, despite their beliefs, Obama is a true Christian, a patriot, a capitalist, a saviour?
Along with his kind speeches, Jennings is also active in "educating" the elementary-aged youth of America. He wrote a forward to the book Queering Elementary Education, the chapters of which include "Locating a Place for Gay and Lesbian Themes in Elementary Reading, Writing, and Talking." Now, I'm not suggesting we keep our kids sheltered until they're 18 and then presume we can tell them something they don't know about sexuality at that point, but I hardly think this book would do a good job of explaining a healthy view of sexuality.

Jennings is also associated with the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), who publish a recommended reading list for different grade levels. GatewayPundit.com published a story including the research that Scott Baker, co-founder of Breitbart.tv did into the GLSEN reading list for Grades 7-12. They found that:
We were unprepared for what we encountered. Book after book after book contained stories and anecdotes that weren’t merely X-rated and pornographic, but which featured explicit descriptions of sex acts between pre-schoolers; stories that seemed to promote and recommend child-adult sexual relationships; stories of public masturbation, anal sex in restrooms, affairs between students and teachers, five-year-olds playing sex games, semen flying through the air. One memoir even praised becoming a prostitute as a way to increase one’s self-esteem. Above all, the books seemed to have less to do with promoting tolerance than with an unabashed attempt to indoctrinate students into a hyper-sexualized worldview.
(emphasis mine)

So, to wrap up this admittedly long post, let's think. Is Obama an advocate for the change we need in this country? Is he fighting for "the American people"? I hardly thing so. His entire upbringing, his mentors (including his mother and Jeremiah Wright), and now, his close friends and advisers, all point to no other conclusion that our president is a liberal socialist radical with an agenda. This is a dangerous man. Obama isn't stupid by any means. He knows what he and his friends want and he's going to push to get it, even if that means saying one thing and doing the opposite. These people have no problem with that, they see no issue with lying, because they have a country to run. Their heroes are Mao, Lenin, Marx, and Bill Ayers.

Will America let itself continue to be occupied by this alien invasion?

Saturday, February 27, 2010

A Bold New Plan

So I have a radical new idea for saving this country, not just economically, not just from the terrorists, but encompassing all of that.
No one will like this idea, yet it strikes me as the best idea for fixing this stinking mass of bureaucracy that is American politics. Are you ready for it??

Get Rid Of The Parties

That's it. Dump the party system. It's no longer applicable. This idea came to me while watching the President's most recent State of the Union address. In this speech, and in any other major one, there's the usual entreaties for "bipartisan action" and "reaching across the aisle." Well what if there were no party to part on? What if there was no aisle to reach across? What if it was just people with ideas about how to fix things, how to get and stay on track, instead of two parties forever bickering and name-calling? Actions instead of factions? Hey, now there's an idea...

Let me say right now by way of rebuttal that I can't see this ever happen; neither party has the guts to do it. Everyone would throw their own high-sounding arguments into the mix and probably call me a Nazi. Neither the Republicans nor the Democrats would ever give up their positions, their status, their power, for the good of the country. Everyone wants to talk about the "greater good" for which things must be sacrificed, but when it comes down to it, it's mostly "I'm sticking with my party because I'm sure as heck not going to be seen on yours."

Meanwhile, while the politicians squabble and fight here, we've got thousands of courageous men and women all over the world sacrificing their lives to defend the freedom that these people are trying to destroy.

I imagine instead a country where the people voted into office are there because they were deemed to be the best man or woman for the job, not because their party had the biggest constituency or because their campaign had the most money. Dream with me! What if the people in office truly were the ones the American people had seen as the most qualified?

Granted, this means people would actually have to start giving a hoot instead of just voting a party ticket. The burden of responsibility would be on you to know the credentials, the worldview, of each candidate; no longer would you be able to vote your party because hey, better than voting for the other party's guy, right? People wouldn't get to be lazy with this system. You would actually have to reflect on what you value and vote for the person that best upholds those values.

I honestly cannot imagine how drastically this country could be changed for the good of all were people voted for simply for their ability to get the job done. Can I say that again? Their ability to Get The Job Done. The working populace is familiar with this idea. You interview for a job, and you promote yourself as the one who can do the job the best. If the company agrees, you're hired; if not, someone more qualified than you got the job. Of course, there are obvious exceptions.

Like I said, though I strongly believe in this idea, I don't believe it will ever happen, because neither party would let it. They'll continue their grasping, fighting, and tearing down of the other party at the expense of this country we call America and its citizens.

Want true bipartisanship? Don't expect to see it while there are two parties, especially from those advocating it; they really just want the other side to change and agree with them. Look instead for the people who advocate a team. A team can have vastly different people on it, but it's often that diversity, while working for a common goal, that generates the best ideas and solutions.

Anyone for a game of team Fix America?