Happy New Years

Here to Happy New Year to everyone.
May 2009 bring joy and happiness to all.

Nice Job TVA

Will we ever know the real damage of the coal ash dam burst in Tennessee? If the TVA, the Clean Coal groups and the EPA has its way we won't. The EPA has not mandated how coal ash should be disposed of if the power plant in not on an actual mining site. This is despite the fact that coal ash is the nations largest industrial waste product. One would think that with all the amount of metals and chemicals left over in coal ash that we would at the very least require this to be in some type of spill proof encasement. Because the energy industry has enough power and money they have lobbied the government and stalled any progress on stricter regulations. This has to stop. This is not the first of these to burst and will not be the last. There are massive impoundments in West Virginia that have had problems for years. Some of these hold up to 9 billion gallons of waste. Time to clean this crap up and dispel the "clean coal" myth.

Maybe this dam burst is a good thing.

Things are quiet

Seems that for me things are quiet for the most part these days. Outside of work the only thing I have been really doing is taking roadtrips on the weekends and taking tons of photos. With gas being cheap again i can get out there and build up some work for Flickr and for the my website www.fadingamerica.com. The website was a gift from a friend and fellow photojunkie and Flickr member, Tom Sabo aka http://www.flickr.com/photos/damgaard/. Check out his photostream and you will be pleased with what you see.

I hope the website will be the beginning of some good things in some type of career in photography. It is something that is well suited to my temperament and personality.

Coming Soon

Check it out........

http://site.fadingamerica.com/

Events

On Christmas Eve I cashed that $50.00 dollar check I wrote about a few days ago. I fifty brand new one dollar bills and then went to downtown Tampa and gave 5 homeless people $10.00 each. Three of then very very happy and grateful while two seemed somewhat indifferent.
Anyhow I was happy to bring them some joy.

Christmas was good, however not being with family this year made it seem like any other day for the most part. This was only the 3rd time in the 19 years I have lived in Florida that I have not been with family. Seems weird.

Over in the middle east things are getting heated again. The moronic leaders of Hamas having been launching rockets into Israel on a daily basis for a long time and there had been no retaliation. This week Israel said stop or we will attack and it will be brutal. Well Israel stuck to it word and has been bombing the Gaza strip. How do the Palestian leaders fail to understand the history of Jewish people? How do they fail to realize that continued attacks on Israel will ultimately mean the end of any chance they have of getting a homeland. I agree with a lot of the Palestian demands however Israel has every right to exist and they are not going anyplace.
Israel has the military power to make you "go away" and you would be much better off if you worked with them if you want your own country. I'm just sayin........

Mariah Carey--All I Want for Christmas is You

Greg Lake-- I Believe in Father Christmas

Robert Earl Keen--Merry Christmas from the Family

Bob Seger: Little Drummer Boy

Do They Know its Christmas

A check

Last year I made a bet for $50.00 with a guy from work that he would not be able to lose the weight he wanted. I had actually forgotten about the bet. Well last week he was in the office and he gave me a check for $50.00. I told him I did not want the check but he insisted. Although I need the money I am going to cash and get 50 $1.oo bills and go and give it to some homeless people Christmas Eve. It may not be much but for those living on the street it can do some good things.

The Cardinal

So I took yesterday off so I could have a three day weekend. I went on a little drive to take some pictures and I stopped in at Rainbow Springs State Park. While I was walking around near the spring I heard this guy. Seeing Cardinals is rare for me. I hardly ever see them in the Tampa area. These are my favorite bird so I was very happy. Being a Cardinal he would not stay still and was just far enough away to always have some underbrush be in the way of getting a perfect shot.

Not sure why I like them so much but when I was a kid my grandmother Sevigny always had birds and there always cardinals around. She also made these little Christmas ornaments of Cardinals that we had on our tree for years. So I think that linkage provides some of the answer.

Anyhow it was good to see him yesterday and made the day as far as photography goes.

Get Over It

So the latest storm for Barack is his choice of Rick Warren to the invocation at his nomination.
Well I do not think it is really such a big deal. Remember that he wants people from all points of view represented in America and that includes people who will not fully represent all the views off all the people who voted for him. For this generation Rick Warren is the closest thing to Billy Graham and that is why Barack picked him. This decision will be seen as a good thing by the Christian right and by the African American community. While Barack easily won California the African American community were the ones who were the deciding factor in getting Prop 8 defeated. Please be patient.

Rude people suck

So tonight on my way home from work I stopped at CVS to pick up some cough medicine, for a cold that will not go away, and while waiting to get checked out some bitchy lady starts bitching to the cashier because she had to wait too long. She was just rude to this girl. Listen lady, the girl is a 16 or 17 year high school student doing her best to earn some money. If you have a complaint you need to direct it at the manager. There is no need to be rude to a high school student trying to earn an income because first of all the problem is not created by them and secondly they really do not give a shit when somebody like you talks rudely to them and is demeaning to them. So while you were standing there huffing and puffing everyone else thought you made an asshole of yourself. So do us all a favor and go play in traffic for a bit.

Its Monday`

Well I had a nice three day weekend and will have another one this coming weekend. Nice to short work weeks. At least I still have a work week, for now.

Took a bunch of pictures this weekend. Since gas is low for now I need to take advantage of it. So I will do more driving this coming weekend and get a bunch more.

Got my small Christmas shopping done. Going to be a lean Christmas this year. I should do things like my Mom and buy things throughout the year and put them away till Christmas. Instead of spending crazy at the end of the year it is much easier to use your disposable income throughout the year on gifts. She justs picks up a gift here and there.

Off to work...................

Auto Bailout

Its nice to see the Republican party is still out of touch with the majority of Americans. The southern Republican senators lead the way to kill the bailout of the auto industry with help from some Democrats. Was this an attempt to bust the union, keep the automakers based in the south happy or were they voting based on their constituents? It boggles the mind that the states that primarily went for McCain in the election are now the states that are leading the way in voting down the auto bailout. Some leaders just do not get it. A majority of Americans, by a small number, are in favor for the bailout so you would think are esteemed leaders would listen to what we have to say.

It is rather simple to me. If the Chrysler and GM file for bankruptcy there will be massive layoffs amongst these two companies and all of the industries that support them. Somewhere around 4 or 5 percent of all jobs are auto related. Big number my friends and if we start to see Detroit go under we will see unemployment zoom to 10% and we will be in a depression.

Bankruptcy will cause dealers to fail and will also put many retired auto workers in dire straits as they will not be getting anymore money from these companies and they will dumped onto the public dole.

While the bailout may not be the best answer it is better than bankruptcy because it will allow Detroit to have a more orderly reconstruction of their business.

Of course the banks that have received all billions of dollars could step up to the plate and offer to help the Big Three by offering lines of credit.

My Blurb Book

Check it out today.

http://www.blurb.com/my/book/detail/482360

Ouch

So today I went to the doctor for results from my blood test and my cholesterol is at 233. i guess I better get myself on a diet or at least start eating a healthier diet. My doctor wants me back in six weeks to see if I have made any progress. I'll start tomorrow.

For Sale

One Senate seat: No experience required. Must be willing to pay large sums of cash or trade for a job with a large salary. Must be willing to be recorded on tape by the F.B.I. for future use in trials and lawsuits. Stupidity is a major plus.

Wow, guess some things never change. How did this guy think he could get away with this? Amazing. What else did this do to get to where he is today? I suspect it was nothing good.

Car Czar

Really do we need another Czar. Not one of them has done a damm thing to make me feel any better. A bullshit job for somebody who can blow a lot of hot air and make people who do not pay real attention happy.

Give GM the money, give Ford the line of credit in case they need the money and fuck Chrysler.
Let Ceruberus, the private company, bail themselves out or sell the damm company. We need the auto industry to survive or the economy is totally doomed.

Time to watch out for your fellow citizens. They may need your help and will not ask for it. Just be there for them when the time comes.

Good Morning

Well it was a great weekend. Spent most of it sleeping trying to fight off a cold. Nothing better than that. Hopefully I have been able to hold it off.

Have to go Christmas shopping this week. Going to be a low cost holiday this year. Maybe I will do photobooks for everyone.

My week in review

So this week I was away at a trade show and international Swat team competition. this is a pretty interesting show. One thing was very evident this year. The economy sucks. There were far less teams competing and far less foot traffic at the trade show. All the vendors were commenting on this and expect things too be tough for some time. The only dealers that are seeing good to excellent sales are dealers selling high powered rifles like the AR. A lot of people expect some kind of crazy shit to go down in the near future.

Well it looks like the auto industry is going to get a bailout, finally. They need it because they actually make something we use and need as a country. They are much more important to the United States than AIG and the others who have received our tax dollars.
Here is Jon Stewart's take on this. It really is the truth in the whole thing.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=212877&title=autoerotic-explanation

Although the case was a bullshit case it looks like OJ is getting his payback for committing murder. Now maybe all this can finally go away.

I saw gas tonight for $1.59 a gallon. How low can we go? I hope it goes lower so I can take more roadtrips. :)

With gas getting low when will we see food prices start to drop. It does not seem like that is happening. I bet they stay high. Will the grocery stores will just take the profits and leave prices high.

That's it for now. I actually watched very little news this past week and am much happier for it.

Off again

So I go home from Thanksgiving late on Saturday and now I am off again for the next four days.

I am headed to Orlando for work. We are going to the http://www.swatroundup.org/ . We set up as vendors here and do tons of business. These are very long and busy days. I hope this the last one I have attend. Hopefully I will have a different job next year.

So anyway I will be back to regular blogging late Thursday or Friday. Hope you all have a great week.