Its days are numbered I’m afraid.  In computer terms its 3.5 years has been a long and fulfilling life.  At this point I almost feel bad asking it to continue working for a little longer until it can be replaced.

Ok yeah I can’t keep that up.  The real question is what should I get to replace it?  I’m being pulled in two opposite directions.  On one hand I’m tempted to get one of the really tiny laptops and a monitor etc. for my desk at the office.  On the other I’m looking at a monster HP that could replace my TV for some things.  I really want a blu-ray player and its cheaper to buy the laptop than a 1080p capable TV and player.  I just am not sure about lugging around an 11 lb. laptop.

Just the other day I called Obama’s budget unserious.  I guess Senator Gregg agrees with me.  That is not some great achievement on my part.  Any rational person would have but what is surprising is just how closely the Senator’s criticism of the budget resembled mine in tone.  He called the deficit cutting claims “spurious” and said that the tax claims were “Alice in Wonderland” fantasy.

What makes Gregg’s criticism so cutting is that he was formerly the Obama nomination for Commerce Secretary.  Obama made it a special point to praise Gregg’s fiscal discipline and credited it as the leading factor in his nomination.  Gregg later withdrew his nomination because of deep seated policy disagreements.  I wonder if he had gotten a peek at this budget before then?

This certainly gives me hope.  Cap and Trade looks like it is getting pulled from the budget along with a host of other items that are especially offensive.  I don’t expect to like it in its final form but at least I have hope that we may survive this yet.  At least there is someone left on Capitol Hill not ready to jump on board with the President’s war on prosperity.

Fox News has an interesting story out today.  I’m really curious what the reaction to it will be.

Minutes later, as news of the terrorist attacks reached the hotel conference room where the Democrats were having breakfast with the reporters, Carville announced: "Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!"

The press followed Carville's orders, never reporting his or Greenberg's desire for Bush to fail. The omission was understandable at first, as reporters were consumed with chronicling the new war on terror. But months and even years later, the mainstream media chose to never resurrect those controversial sentiments, voiced by the Democratic Party's top strategists, that Bush should fail.

At least one member of the media is attempting to maintain perspective in the Age of Obama.

Washington Post is reporting Obama’s plans to raise taxes in the coming years.  The pipe dreams expressed here are amazing and not surprisingly the WaPo doesn’t even begin to question the figures.

Even before Congress approved the stimulus package earlier this month, this year's deficit was projected by Congressional budget analysts to approach $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of the overall economy, the highest since World War II. With the stimulus and other expenses, some analysts say the annual gap between federal spending and income could approach $2 trillion when the fiscal year ends in September.

Obama proposes to dramatically reduce those numbers by the end of his first term, cutting the deficit he inherited in half, said administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the budget has yet to be released. His budget plan would keep the deficit hovering near $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011, but shows it dropping to $533 billion in 2013 -- still high in dollar terms, but a more manageable 3 percent of the overall economy.

To get there, Obama proposes to cut spending and raise taxes. The savings would come primarily from "winding down the war" in Iraq, a senior administration official said. The budget assumes that the nation will continue to spend money on "overseas military contingency operations" throughout Obama's presidency, the official said, but that number is significantly lower than the nearly $190 billion the nation budgeted for Iraq and Afghanistan last year.

In Oklahoma City a man was pulled over and had his anti-Obama sign taken away, NewsOk has reported.

The officer misinterpreted the sign as threatening, said Capt. Steve McCool, of the Oklahoma City Police Department, and took the sign, which read "Abort Obama, not the unborn."

That is really what all of these bailouts, fear, and fear-mongering is all about.  The vain attempt to establish financial security.

First and foremost there is no such thing as financial security.  It is a pipe dream and searching for it will cause you to give up the very mechanisms that create financial success.  You give up risk, lose profit potential, and become a slave to whomever is supposedly providing this security.  It will cause you to become subservient to others and in the end cost you everything.  The person who would trade freedom and independence to the government in exchange for some financial guarantee is not American.  History shows us that a governmental system that attempts to provide this security will fail.  There is no changing human nature.  Selfishness and greed are universal.  They dictate that such a society will decay and fall.

Things have been happening rapid fire since the election.  So much so that by the time I formulate a nice post that tackles an issue from a different perspective we’ve already moved on to the next carnival of stupid.  That or we have things like the “stimulus” that was so huge and such a boondoggle that it’s been signed for over 24 hours now and we still are finding out new and horrible things about it.  So I’m just going to skip the current events stuff and comment on the cultural problems I see coming.

It has been far too long since my last post but I’ve been really busy and battling a sinus infection that just won’t go away.  The topic at hand is one that has made  me laugh for the last few weeks.  First we had the office over haul, then the jet purchase, and now BoA sponsoring a Super Bowl party.  I’m sorry but the outrage over these controversies is just hilarious.  Why is anyone surprised that these companies are doing stupid stuff?

They did not just wake up one day and *POOF* all of their money had vanished.  There was no calamitous event, no money fairy came in and stole it all, and there were certainly plenty of people warning about the problem.  No, they had a history of making stupid choices that led to this.  Sure some people have used the defense that the Government forced them to make shady loans but I didn’t hear any of them complaining about it at the time.  In fact most were lobbying for more.

Yet this is the attitude our politicians have!  These “wizards of wall street” through no fault of their own just misplaced about a trillion dollars.  Well if that is not what they were thinking that is certainly the attitude that was taken when TARP was crafted.  We had to “unfreeze” the credit market!  Billions and billions of dollars were shoveled into these failing institutions under the premise that they should continue the very same business practices that got them there in the first place.  Everyone has in fact taken crazy pills.  I am sure of it.

Spending Christmas in Orlando with Mom has been a blast.  Even though I forgot to use an oven mitt when grabbing a 400 degree cast iron skillet…  As you can see the injuries were worth the effort.  This was one huge and tasty steak.

It actually started out as a roast and at the last minute we decided to cut it into steak house style steaks and serve it up.  I can barely walk.

If you are reading this I hope your holidays were filled with as much joy and good food as mine.  We’ve got some uncertain and interesting times ahead in 2009.  My New Years resolution is to make the most of it no matter what.  Life is great no matter what the stock market or news tells us.

I spent the long weekend in Orlando visiting my mother and old friends.  The 26th also happened to be my birthday so we had a nice bit of celebrating.  The 28th we went out to Ruth’s Chris steak house and had an amazing meal.  Mom of course cooked Thanksgiving dinner and did an awesome job as always.

One thing that happened that put a damper on the whole deal was the attack in Mumbai.  I know one person that lives in India and thankfully they were no where near Mumbai but it still is heart wrenching to hear about.  The thought that armed gunmen would be able to storm through the streets then take over hotels and facilities like they did is just horrible.  Reading now how they tortured the Israelis makes my stomach turn.  I’ve spent a lot of time praying for those people these past few days.  Evil is alive and well in this world.  We cannot be afraid to confront it.