Are You Pure Gold

Have you ever thought about 99.9% pure Gold? How did we come to the conclusion that this was pure? Why not 99.8%? When you refine something, you are putting it through a test of fire. You expose it to high heat that breaks apart the most rigid of bonds and allows for separation. Great care and patience is necessary to get out every impurity.

Those of you familiar with the atomic chart or the table of elements, remember that each element is unique and has curtain properties that distinguish it from the others. Each atom has its own weight and size. Some parlor tricks can be played with neutrons and electrons but the protons determine the identity of the element in question.

Each element has a boiling point and a melting point that can be used to both identify it and separate it from those around it. Refining uses the melting point to locate and separate that which you seek from all others. You start by bringing the mixture up to the point just below the melting point of your target. If we use gold as are target then we would bring the temperature up to 1945 degrees F. At this temperature most of the lower melting point atoms will separate and pour off the remaining solids. You would then bring the temperature up slowly approaching the melting point of gold (1947.56) but not touching it attempting to get every impurity that can be removed. Once you are satisfied that nothing else will melt away, you then attempt to melt off the gold and separate it from the higher melting point solids left behind. These steps are often processed many times and the refiners fire purifies and separates until purity is reached. There may still be a stray atom or two in the mix but it is now 99.9% pure.

For something to be truly pure, it would have to be 100%. The smallest drop or, in the case of gold, the smallest atom could lead to impurity. True purity leads to the ultimate value no matter what the substance.

The human experience is much like the refining process. The challanges of your life removed impurities and establish character. The human purities are honesty, loyalty, honor, love and forgiveness. From childhood to adulthood each of these are refined and purified. Each relationship we enter is valued on these things. We choose who to spend time with and who to do business with based on these things.

When we enter a relationship with someone, purity is assumed from the beginning with hesitation. We are all skeptics so we ask for confirmation right away. We will ask for referals or testimonials to attempt to establish and verify the level of purity in charactor of each person. We rate these on a purity scale based on how well we know them. If a close friend who has been tried and refined through years of friendship gives someone high praise, their purity is rated far higher. When someone you don't know lends praise the margin of purity moves very little.

For each of us the question of purity is tested everyday with every interaction.
Are we Honest?
Are we Loyal?
Are we Honorable?
Is our Love unfailing?
Do we Forgive and forget small transgressions of our human frailness?

Due to our vast ability to reason and remember, our purity can be lost with a failing in any of these areas. The greater the failing the lessor the purity. Once purity has broken down the relationship has lost value. One fleeting moment, can take years to repair or refine back to purity. Some acts can never be restored. There will always be that small reminder in the background.

The Titanic sank because the steel wasn't properly refined. The impurities made it brittle, even though the ship was a marvel to behold in every way. When it bumped the iceburg, the steel cracked and shattered taking the ship to the bottom of the Atlantic. Its impurities cost many a life for those who trusted her.

How will you come through your refining? What level of purity would be given you in your many relationships? Family, Friends, Work, Customers, are all relying on your purity and weighing your value.

Are you 99.9% fine?

Hillary Blames America

I got a little bent when I first saw this article. Hillary Clinton our Secretary of State has declared the US to be at fault for Mexico's problems. Then I thought about it.

"We the People" have been asking our government for decades to close the boarder and stop the drug traffic. We have filed complaint after complaint, begged, pressed, yet they do nothing. Now it is suddenly our fault.

It is the fault of the federal government of the United States and its liberal tendencies. It is a direct violation of the constitution to which they have sworn to uphold. The leader class of America has been running the country for so long they think they are in charge. They think that we don't matter any more.

Has anyone stepped up and challenged queen Hillary?

Now is the time to fire off those letters that tells them how bad a job they are doing and remind them who is in charge. It is time to toss all incumbents and start over. This is our country and it is time to remind them of that.

Okay, I am still a little bent.

Go read the article:
Clinton: U.S. Fueling Mexican Drug Wars

The Road To Hell

I loved this quote from Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek to the European Parliament on Wednesday. He has clearly stated what most of us are thinking here in America.

Obama's Stimulus plans and Spending Proposals are Killing Us as a Nation.

The heads of Europe are perhaps doing what "We the People" can't. Our socialist leaders want to be more like Europe and are going with full gusto to get there. Now they have been slapped down by the very ideals they worship.

EU president calls Obama's plans to spend his way out of recession 'the road to hell'

But Topolanek took aim at Washington's deficit spending.

"All of these steps, these combinations and permanency is the road to hell," Topolanek said. "We need to read the history books and the lessons of history and the biggest success of the (EU) is the refusal to go this way."

"Americans will need liquidity to finance all their measures and they will balance this with the sale of their bonds but this will undermine the liquidity of the global financial market," Topolanek said.


I know some of you are going to point out that Topolanek is pretty much out as a leader and there are several EU nations trying to back peddle from this remark but the big three; France, Britain and Germany, haven't mentioned the remarks. Does that mean they are in agreement? Germany has clearly spoken on stimulus spending and the word is "NO".

The world runs on the US Dollar and deficit spending reduces the value of the dollar and destabilizes most of the world markets. I wish to applaud Topolanek for having the guts to stand up and say what needed said.

Taking the Death Tax Too Far

Oregon has a bill circling the legislature that has a number of people really upset. The bill is designed to tax widows and orphans at their neediest hour. That's right a loved one dies who may even be the bread winner of the family and you are left with all the final decisions, casket, burial and paying taxes on the insurance and annuities that were left to support you.

This is a heartless proposal by the democrats to attempt to shore up a budget that has gross overspending in many categories. Instead of cutting wasteful spending the Oregon House is looking to steal more money from the citizens of the state.

House Bill 2854 adds life insurance payouts and savings within policies and annuities to the list of what qualifies as taxable income in Oregon these benefits would be taxed at Oregon's highest rate. Value accrual within a policy that is tax-deferred until withdrawal will now be subject to tax collection each year. No state has ever introduced the repeal of these exemptions. More than 2 million Oregonians from every walk of life hold life insurance policies. All would be taxed.

At a time when you need it the most, when your survival may depend on it, count on the Oregon Legislature to take it away from you. You and Your family aren't really important to them. The state has needs you know.

How Low Can You Go As A Democrat?

Murtha Dishonors Our Troops

John Murtha has done everything he could to routinely and deliberately undermined the United States military, slandered servicemen serving in combat, and caused irreparable damage to our international reputation. This man is a disgrace at every level.

Knowing all that to be true, the Navy has awarded its Distinguished Public Service Award to him. He is being awarded for his service to the Navy and Marines, while he has done everything possible to break these fine men and women. He is the Chairman of Subcommittee on Defense of the House Appropriations Committee and has a hand in getting funds for our military but to lift him up when he has done so much to tear them down is more then I can bare.

Join me in signing the petition to have this award withdrawn. Go Read and sign the petition.

Murtha should be up for charges of Treason not being Awarded for anything.

Info: Guess what Murtha has been given by the Navy!

Another Car Takes To The Air

I keep reporting on flying cars and the future of personal travel. Another contender has joined the fray.

Since man first found himself trapped in traffic jams, we have dreamed of finding a way to leave the gridlock behind.

Well dream no longer, for the world's 'first flying car' has made its debut flight, soaring over the skies of the U.S.A. before touching down and - at the touch of a button - folds its wings away and hits the highway.

The Terrafugia Transition can cruise at 115mph before driving 'at highway speeds' on the roads - and it can be safely stored in the garage.

Read the Rest Here

I believe we have seen several challenges to the first flying car claim, but the fact that we are almost there is still exciting. Your childhood dreams are starting to unfold before your eyes.

Pat Boone For President

I found Pat Boone's ideas to be a burst of fresh air. Go read the article found here.

As you read through it you see the simple and sound ways of restoring America and putting her back into top performance. The dream misses a few issues in regards to business taxes and creating jobs in the marketplace but all the cues are there for these policies to come into play.

You see it really isn't that hard to stop the downward spiral and restore America. The problem in political will and expediency. You see no one really wants to fix it or no one wants to make the tough choices. Our political system is all about greed and personal power. As long as there is a lot of confusion and obstacles there is room for corruption and money changers. Our founders pointed to the fact that our government in for a moral and just people and that any others would ultimately be its failure.

Can you honesty look at our government, any level, and say it is moral or just? We have liars, cheats, scoundrels, prostitutes, and thieves at almost every position. We need to be examining the content of their character as pointed out by Mr. King not so long ago. If you run with the wolves you are a wolf no matter how well you fit your sheep's clothing.

If We Have To Follow Europe....

Could we follow Germany? They are the only ones getting it right when it comes to the economy.

Germany resists US call for stimulus spending hike

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck resisted on Monday a US call on governments worldwide to pump more taxpayer money into their faltering economies.

"We're not planning on any additional measures," Steinbrueck told journalists as he arrived for a meeting with his eurozone counterparts. "We should concentrate on measures that have already been decided."

Germany has planned this year a package worth 50 billion euros (63 billion dollars) to revive Europe's biggest economy on top of 31 billion euros that it already began releasing last year.

Lawrence Summers, a top economics advisor to US President Barack Obama, urged governments worldwide to plough more public money into their economies to revive wilting global demand.

The United States is banking on a 787-billion-dollar (623-billion-euro) stimulus plan to drag the world's biggest economy out of its deepest recession in decades.

Meanwhile, the 27-nation European Union have committed to economic stimulus measures in 2009 and 2010 worth only 400 billion euros, equivalent to 3.3 percent of the bloc's gross domestic product.

It gives me hope that someone on the planet has studied economics and understands what is going on, too bad we don't have anyone like this in charge of America right now.

Why Can't They Find Them?

We are constantly being told that having 20 million illegals in this country is to large a task to remove them and we need to accept them. Congress would like nothing more then to offer them amnesty and then pat themselves on the back for solving the problem. That's right, do nothing solutions from our fearless leaders.

If they want to enact some policy to solve the problem try this: Any employer who cannot provide a valid federal ID or SS number for a claimed worker cannot deduct the wages paid. This will move this expense to the income side of the ledger and force them to pay higher taxes. It will either reduce employment of illegals or increase tax rolls of the government. You would think they would go ga ga over an idea like that.

How about sending ICE to all the day labor pick up sites. You can't go to a home improvement store without getting swarmed. Pick them up haul them to a fenced construction lot and arrest them. Simple easy to manage programs that would cut down on illegals in the USA.

Remember the big rallies where thousands turned out in cities near you to protest our desire to have illegals removed? Where were the buses?

I have NO problem with legal immigration. If we need more workers here then up the quota. I do have a problem with illegal immigration. I never said it more clearly then when I wrote Where Do You Live? in 2006. It has been copied and rewritten so many times, I can't count them.

We better get a handle on it soon. The natives are getting restless.
Home Depot at standoff with laborers who swarm customers in bid for work
It won't be long before violence starts breaking out. We can't wait much longer for our government to do their job.

Another Tantrum

I know you have seen this. You are at some public place, usually a store and some child goes ballistic because they can't have what they want. Some start hitting and punching others flail on the ground like fish out of water. My personal favorate is the one who holds their breath, calm, peaceful and welcoming over the others.

Well the spoiled brat, I mean elected president of North Korea is at it again. He wants what he wants regardles of previous deals he has agreed to.

N. Korea warns intercepting 'satellite' will prompt counterstrike+

PYONGYANG/BEIJING, March 9 (AP) - (Kyodo)—North Korea warned Monday that any move to intercept what it calls a satellite launch and what other countries suspect may be a missile test-firing would result in a counterstrike against the countries trying to stop it.

"We will retaliate (over) any act of intercepting our satellite for peaceful purposes with prompt counterstrikes by the most powerful military means," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted a spokesman of the General Staff of the Korean People's Army as saying.

If countries such as the United States, Japan or South Korea try to intercept the launch, the North Korean military will carry out "a just retaliatory strike operation not only against all the interceptor means involved but against the strongholds" of the countries, it said.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," it added.

North Korea earlier announced it is preparing to put a communications satellite into space, but outside observers suspect it may in fact be a test-firing of a long-range ballistic missile.

The United States, Japan and South Korea have said that even if Pyongyang calls the launch a missile test, it would violate existing U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The same North Korean statement said the country's military will cut off communications with its South Korean counterparts during the U.S.- South Korean exercises for the duration of the exercises beginning Monday.

A separate, more rare statement by the KPA's Supreme Command was quoted by the KCNA as saying that its soldiers are under orders to be "fully combat-ready" during U.S.-South Korean military exercises beginning Monday.

The North's armed forces have been ordered to "deal merciless retaliatory blows" should there be any intrusion "into the sky and land and seas of the DPRK even an inch."

Found here

All the ruckus and chaos, soon we will see the flailing on the ground and the pounding of fists. It's all about ME me ME me.

Couldn't he just hold his breath?

Obama the Illusionist, Watch Carefully........

We have all heard it. He keeps repeating it. Yet the gullible are buying it hook line and sinker without so much as a peak at the possibilities.

The 2% Illusion
Take everything they earn, and it still won't be enough.


President Obama has laid out the most ambitious and expensive domestic agenda since LBJ, and now all he has to do is figure out how to pay for it. On Tuesday, he left the impression that we need merely end "tax breaks for the wealthiest 2% of Americans," and he promised that households earning less than $250,000 won't see their taxes increased by "one single dime."

This is going to be some trick. Even the most basic inspection of the IRS income tax statistics shows that raising taxes on the salaries, dividends and capital gains of those making more than $250,000 can't possibly raise enough revenue to fund Mr. Obama's new spending ambitions.

Consider the IRS data for 2006, the most recent year that such tax data are available and a good year for the economy and "the wealthiest 2%." Roughly 3.8 million filers had adjusted gross incomes above $200,000 in 2006. (That's about 7% of all returns; the data aren't broken down at the $250,000 point.) These people paid about $522 billion in income taxes, or roughly 62% of all federal individual income receipts. The richest 1% -- about 1.65 million filers making above $388,806 -- paid some $408 billion, or 39.9% of all income tax revenues, while earning about 22% of all reported U.S. income.

Note that federal income taxes are already "progressive" with a 35% top marginal rate, and that Mr. Obama is (so far) proposing to raise it only to 39.6%, plus another two percentage points in hidden deduction phase-outs. He'd also raise capital gains and dividend rates, but those both yield far less revenue than the income tax. These combined increases won't come close to raising the hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue that Mr. Obama is going to need.

But let's not stop at a 42% top rate; as a thought experiment, let's go all the way. A tax policy that confiscated 100% of the taxable income of everyone in America earning over $500,000 in 2006 would only have given Congress an extra $1.3 trillion in revenue. That's less than half the 2006 federal budget of $2.7 trillion and looks tiny compared to the more than $4 trillion Congress will spend in fiscal 2010. Even taking every taxable "dime" of everyone earning more than $75,000 in 2006 would have barely yielded enough to cover that $4 trillion.

Go read the rest of the 2% illusion

Saving Your Business from the Recession

There is panic in the air. Owners, managers and CEOs are all looking for a way to save the business. It is like you are on an airplane diving toward the ground and you need to know how to level out and stay flying.

The standard answer is cut costs, but is that your only option? Cutting costs may be needed but there may be other options that could do more good then harm in the long haul. The quick answers are layoffs and hour cut backs but these choices often do more harm then good to your company and your viability over the long haul.

You have a heavy investment in each employee in your company . They each have been carefully trained and positioned tp maximize your success. They know all the ins and outs of what you do and how you do it. Your success up to this point has come from these very people doing what you do successfully everyday to satisfy your customers and keep you in business. There is no simple choice in picking who you can afford to lose. If you could afford to lose them why were they there to begin with?

Cutting back hours generally cuts back on opportunity to meet the needs of your customers and on the resulting sales. If you are not there when they have a need they might go else where. Your competition is waiting for them and has probably already contacted them should they need anything. Have you been reaching out?
Also the reduction in hours usually drives away your best employees who can easily find a job with your competition, leaving you far shorter then what you expected.

If these are not the answer, than how do you weather the storm of recession and come out a viable company on the other side?

First, let me suggest being open and honest with your employees. They are just as aware of the financial events going on around them as you. Get them involved in finding solutions and reducing costs. Be open to all suggestions big or small. Remember in order to eat an elephant you are going to have to take one bite at a time.
Look at leases both property and equipment, sit down with the lease holders and see if you could adjust the cost by 25-30% for the next six months. Ask to have these adjustments added on to your last six months of your lease. They would still reap the entire value of there contract and you would gain a shot of capital to get you through the long haul.
Look at inventory and your practice of maintaining said inventory. Perhaps you could cut inventory by 25-30% since your expected sales will probably decline by that amount anyway. Why tie up capital and space with unnecessary inventory.
Look at utility bills. Do you have a light that is on all the time, say the bathroom or the break room? Install a thirty minute timer, that subtly reminds your employees to get back to work, while it saves you energy and money.
Perhaps there is a piece of equipment or a company vehicle that doesn't get used anymore. Find a new home for that unnecessary item and real in some cash to weather the storm. Someone might be looking for that very item to help them cut costs and weather their storm.

I got you started...........Get out there and have a discussion with your employees and see what other great ideas they might have. You never know, perhaps there are some who are willing to reduce their hours without you even asking.

additional reading:
Street Smarts: Surviving the Recession

Steele Needs To Step Asside

Steele does not know how to capitalize on the opportunities given him.
When he was confronted by Rush being called the head of the Rep. Party, he should have said:
I would be thinking that too given the fact that the media really does give anyone on my side of the aisle a chance to speak out and bring our perspective to the table. I am glad at least one conservative voice has made its way into the conversation so that we can be heard. I want to applaud Rush for his efforts and hopefully he will join me in returning the Republican party to the place of greatness it once held.

Now if he would have said that, the republican party would have taken a huge step forward. Instead, his selfishness and pride jumped up and knocked conservatives back another couple of years.
It is time he steps down and comes back when he has grown up a little. We don't need a glass jawed leader heading the party.

Look at how often he has gaffed and torn away anything he might build. We don't need another rock star candidate competing with Obama. We need a clear difference that our conservative values demonstrate.

I have chosen to be an independent because the parties have left me. Far to often they have made decisions that go farther and farther from my conservative beliefs. The two parties have strayed so far that they now almost look like each other. They were not twins at birth. They have chosen the paths of destruction and now fight on how much destruction they can do to this country. The winning party ultimately determines the losses of the American way of life.

We need to turn these parties around and get them back to raising America up. We need leaders who will push for higher ground and build America up with every decision. Michael Steele is not the leader to do this. It is not to late to try again. Focus on the goal.

Articles of interest:
RNC member calls on Steele to quit
Alonso Wants Steele Apology

Something Positive About Obama

Everyone is getting a little tired of all the negative stuff being said and written about Obama. People I know have asked if I have anything good to say about the man? No one can be that horrible that there isn't at least one good thing that can be said about them. I had to ponder that question for quite a while................

After careful consideration, I have decided they are right. There is at least one thing that I can point to that is good about Obama. He isn't a total failure. No matter how many mistakes and total screw ups he makes, I can offer up one thing that he has done better then any president I can recall. So I would like to take a moment to recognize his accomplishment and heap praise on him for this triumph.

Obama has done more to fill the coffers of the US Treasury by identifying and collecting from tax dodgers and cheats than any other president. He has an uncanny knack for identifying and choosing those who owe back taxes and getting them to admit and pay those taxes. (It could simply be that there isn't anyone on the democrats side of the ailse who isn't a tax cheat. So it is like shooting fish in a barrel.)

This talent needs to be capitalized on to save the American people. Obama could put this talent into full time use and pay off the massive spending programs by pointing out all the scoundrals and cheats so the IRS can collect those funds. Better yet, why doesn't he simply hand over his complete contact list as a source file for the IRS to use as a tool of collection.

America can be back in the black in no time if we put Obama's talents to full use.

You Know It Is Bad When .....

CNBC is starting to turn on the president.



Will Obama ever listen to the people?

The Response from the White House.




Is that empty enough for you? I really had a boost in confidence. How about You?

Hey Gibbs, I Got Your Answer

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs jumped on an opportunity to discuss Limbaugh Monday, saying at the press briefing that reporters should ask Republicans if they side with the talk show host.

"Do they want to see the President's economic agenda fail?" asked Gibbs of the Republicans, citing the talker's comments earlier this year and over the weekend at CPAC about the Obama agenda.

Yes, Mr. Gibbs I want Obama to fail. I want the United States of America to Succeed.

Everything Obama is intending to do or change in America will tear her down and destroy her. I refuse to accept that. I refuse to encourage or accept his ideas and actions. Rush put it very well, when he said this:

Now, let me speak about President Obama for just a second. President Obama is one of the most gifted politicians, one of the most gifted men that I have ever witnessed. He has extraordinary talents. He has communication skills that hardly anyone can surpass. No, seriously. No, no, I'm being very serious about this. It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite. And it's a shame. [Applause] President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of America. Anybody ever ask -- I'm in awe of our country and I ask this question a lot as I've gotten older. We're less than 300 years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than 300 years -- by the way, we're no different than any other human beings around the world. Our DNA is no different. We're not better just because we're born in America. There's nothing that sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United States of America become the world's lone super power, the world's economic engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an advanced lifestyle that humanity has ever known? How did this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the United States want to destroy it? It saddens me.

We need to raise America up. We need to be encouragers. Our government needs to get out of the way of those who are builders and idea makers. It needs to get out of the way of those who strive to achieve. We need to educate our youth. I mean really educate not indoctrinate.
The bigger the government the more it blocks success and hinders achievement. Obama's goals are bigger government and greater debt.

Yes, I want Obama and his policies of destruction to fail!

Transcript of Rush speaking at CPAC.

More of Rush speaking clearly.

I really want you to believe this because it's the truth. I'm not saying it just because I believe it. This is a core. I want the best country we can have. We want the most prosperous people. We want to be growing. We want to lead the world. We want everybody to come here legally. We want this country to be so damn great and we just cringe to watch it -- basically capitalism be assaulted and our culture be reoriented to where the people that make it work are the enemy. That's not the United States of America.

Good-bye Paul

Paul Harvey died yesterday in Arizona at the age of 90. He will be missed. Our prayers go out to his family.
No matter how busy life was, many would stop and ponder the news with Paul Harvey. His unique style and tonal quality would hold your interest.
Now we finally know "The Rest Of The Story". Thanks Paul.