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Call me strange, but the iPad is the first device from Apple in a long time that I haven’t lusted after. The iPhone was revolutionary; the iPod was as well. But the iPad looks too much like a mish-mash of phone and computer, with too much of one (the phone) and not enough of the other (the computer).

This is weird for me, because usually I buy right into the hype that goes along with a new Apple device — I gladly drink the Kool-Aid, if you will. But the iPad Kool-Aid tastes a little too acidic, and like a four year-old’s disappointment when he doesn’t get what he wants, I feel like throwing a tantrum.

I know what would have sent me over the moon with the iPad: Mac OS X. I would have been doing fucking somersaults if it ran Mac OS X. But since it is just an overgrown version of the iPhone, I’m very disappointed.

My netbook still beats it on webcam, desktop application and Flash support. Is Flash really that important? Unfortunately yes, as it is the de facto standard for video on the web. A lot of multimedia sites (like movie websites) rely heavily on Flash. And despite Apple’s desires to the contrary, not everyone is going to be off VHS immediately just because Apple released a DVD player. Yes, the DVD player is much sexier, but it will be ten years before everyone (i.e. webmasters that paid ridiculous amounts of money for Flash-based websites) is using HTML5 and not Flash. So Flash is a fact of life that the iPad is in denial of. Apple and Adobe can do all the name calling of each other that they want; Mac OS X would have solved all these problems.

If the iPad miraculously supports Flash in Safari sometime soon, then I will reconsider. If it gets a webcam I’ll reconsider. If it ran Mac OS X I would jump on it like a dog in heat. If someone hacked it that would be great. But as long as it runs the iPhone OS, I’ll just wait for something else.

Hell, even the HP Slate is looking better than the iPad right now. And that’s a Microsoft product!

Liberal thinkers put way too much faith in the word of law. All law does is allow the government to act if you don’t do something the law requires. So yes, it may be against the law to not have health insurance, but the penalties for breaking this law are just monetary fines. We’re basically fining people who don’t have the money to pay for health care in the first place. Those who can’t pay either insurance premiums or penalties will remain uninsured, and we the taxpayer still get to foot the bill.

The only difference now is that taxpayers get to pay for insurance that 30 million people won’t or can’t pay for. In the meantime, private insurers pass on the extra costs of insuring people (imposed by the restrictions of the new law) to their customers — raising premiums — which causes people to drop their insurance as it becomes more expensive.

The economy sucks, and the government wants to make you insure yourself against health calamities. But of course! If you die, you can’t pay taxes! We need those taxpayers to shore up our tenuous hold on a AAA credit rating! Then again, there is always the death tax…but the government gets more money out of you if you stay alive.

I personally was a victim of the current crappy economy. Let me tell you, when I was unemployed, the LAST thing I was worrying about was health care. Why? I didn’t have a job! I’m sure the 30 million able-bodied people without a job right now aren’t worried about their health; they are worried about their next paycheck. I was one of those people who could neither pay for premiums nor pay penalties for not having insurance. The new law would have just tried to squeeze blood out of a turnip with me. And I am not an ER-freeloader.

Wouldn’t I just take advantage of the government version of health insurance? Sure! When I got a job, would I get better coverage? Probably, but if you are paying twice for the same thing, fiscally responsible people want to eliminate extra, non-necessary expenses. Like the pesky private insurers who charge you after you pay the government for it’s version of health insurance. Why pay again for something you are already paying for?

Will this get everyone sucking on the government tit? Eventually, but not immediately. After all, a few generations had to go by before Republicans called Social Security something that was not to be touched. Social Security is an entitlement program! Imagine that! Republicans fighting for an entitlement program! Never would have happened fifty years ago…now everyone thinks it’s a right.

Liberals know this is how you get away with socialism, and now that they have health care locked up, all they have to do is wait. Because repealing a law is much harder than passing it in the first place. And conservatives will have their hands full getting rid of this one.

…does not constitute an emergency on mine. Truer words have not been spoken regarding work this past week. On Thursday, I get the word that I will be working this weekend. News to me! Because people have to meet quotas next week, I have a deluge of work in my “inbox” that “will be done by next week, right?” Well, this time it will, but not in the future (at least not on weekends). This the first and last time someone smiles at me and makes me work on my day off and Saturday as well.

Not really a big deal? True, but who I work for never has emergencies. They only panic when they believe they have emergencies. And then the only people who can get them what they want have to work overtime to get it for them in time to meet deadlines.

Well, I’ve taken care of this situation. And I have new tools to make sure I don’t have to work on the weekends again. I’m sure they won’t be happy, but they will get what they want. Just not as fast as they want. Again, a lack of planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on mine. True, true. More true for them now than they realize.

Okay, here we go.  Obama is now our President.  Now it’s time for he and his administration to take the country in the direction they want it to go: the left.  Now it’s time for Obama to buck heads with his own party about pork barrel spending, neverminding the now marginal Republicans.  Now it’s time for the real Obama to stand up.

Please prove me wrong.

Continue reading “Please prove me wrong”

Anyone who knows me knows that I love movies.  There is rarely a movie I see that I can’t find some entertainment out of.  So when I report that a movie is tedious, predictable, and seriously lacking in any ability to entertain, it is truly a sad moment.

Continue reading “THE UNBORN is tedious”

I wanted to repost a little snippet of a newsletter that I receive on taxes, so that everyone can see what an Obama administration REALLY means (i.e. the effect it has on your wallet):

Here are just a few of the things you’ll want to stay on top of:

·        Barack Obama has called for greater financial sector oversight via creation of a financial market oversight commission to oversee liquidity, capital and disclosure requirements.

·        He wants to streamline regulatory agencies to prevent overlap.

·        He is looking for a greater role of SEC in preventing market manipulation.

NOTE:  Bottomline, more government. The SEC is a huge powerhouse and sometimes just doesn’t make a lot of sense in their regulations.  More power here could make it much tougher for entrepreneurial start-ups to raise capital.  There’s an opportunity here.

·        A ninety-day moratorium on home foreclosures and modification of bankruptcy laws.

NOTE:  The mucking about Congress has done in the foreclosure process has created even more abandoned homes sitting around.  Banks are not moving ahead with short sales because they don’t know what the next program is going to look like.  Meanwhile, homeowners have just given up and moved on.  There’s an opportunity here.

That’s just a few of the things that have been discussed.  There is also the increase in capital gains tax, increased tax on dividends, no caps on Social Security tax (meaning a whole lot more payroll tax), loss of 401(k) deductibility, and increase to 39.6% for the federal income tax rate.  Plus, don’t forget in 2010 we lose all the current estate tax laws and revert to a much more expensive program.

The talk is that this will only affect the rich.  The problem is that “rich” keeps getting defined downward.  Right now, if you’re making over $150,000 per year you are about to get thrown under the bus for huge tax increases.  (Congratulations!  You’re now rich!)

All of this is prediction. We don’t know what will happen and when it will happen.  For you, the question is, “Are you prepared?”

I recently talked with someone whose opinions I respect the other day, and he said something that disturbs me. He said you need to vote for candidate X because a vote for anyone else but candidate Y is really a vote for candidate Y (names withheld to protect the innocent). He meant to say that voting for candidate A, B, C, or Z will really support candidate Y because they won’t be votes for candidate X. (Sounds complicated without the names, but if you read it carefully, you can see what I mean.) I maybe naive, but a vote for candidate A, B, C, or Z is precisely that…a vote for candidate A, B, C or Z. It’s not wasted; no vote is ever wasted.  And it is not a proxy vote for candidate Y.

Continue reading “It’s not just between Candidate X and Y…”

Please people! Let’s get some REAL change going! Don’t vote Republican or Democrat this election…vote for some other party! There’s Green, Independent, Libertarian and Constitutional parties with qualified candidates out there! Just imagine if one of these candidates made it to the White House…the whole world wouldn’t know what to do with itself!

You won’t be wasting your vote…and when the next President starts screwing things up (as you know they will) you can say, “Hey, I voted Green” or “I voted Libertarian.” I know it’s a long shot, but the only way we will see true change in this country is if every eligible voter participates and kicks out the same old parties from the White House.

First stop White House, next stop Congress!

I’m tired of the word “Change.”  Both the Democratic and Republican candidates for President both claim to have the secret potion for “Change.”  Yet nothing will change come November, nor when the next President is sworn into office.  Why?  Because a vote for a Republican or a Democrat is not change; it’s more of the same thing.

Continue reading “There is no such thing as change in a U.S. Election”

Finally!  A hispanic columnist who gets the Democratic party and what they stand for!  Or maybe ALL the things they stand for, because they are full of contradictions these days.  Just what exactly does Obama-Biden stand for?  Can anyone pin it down?

CNN Article by Ruben Navarrette Jr.