The Burning Questions

I rarely spend much time checking out videos on the web unless I think I will learn something valuable from them.  Every now and then I will break down and spend the ridiculous amount of time load a YouTube vid for the sake of a laugh.  Today, I had to see what these people in South Carolina had up their sleeves.

As I loaded the video, I waited impatiently for what I thought would be a dud.  I managed to get up and get myself a drink, then sat and waited some more.  Finally, I was able to start it.  I nearly fell out of my chair laughing after the meat and potatoes of the hilarity began.  So without further ado…Redneck Crane Water Skiing Video–enjoy!

The top ten for 2009 includes scandal and triumph, new ideas and never-ending trouble, vampires, werewolves, and  natural disasters.  This past year has had a lot to offer, but I’m sure most us can agree that 2010 could be better.  Without further ado…The Top Ten 2009!

I’ll Give Tiger Woods the tenth spot.  Probably more gossip worthy than news worthy, but his last few months have brought shock, awe, disgust, and disbelief to millions of people who are now asking themselves-If Tiger Woods isn’t a “good guy,” then who the hell is?!  You can’t be that rich and famous without doing something wrong, can you?  Good luck to the family.  Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys.

Now to switch things up.  The number 9 for 2009 belongs to the Ohio State Buckeyes.  A great team led by a great coach!  They will play in Pasadena on New Years at the Rose Bowl.  Jim Tressel has been blessed with a team of talent and determination, let’s hope next year is perfection!

Number Eight goes out to NASA for their outstanding accomplishments and discoveries.  This organization has been through the wringer over the years, yet still manages to give us more and more insight to other places in our multiverse.  I can’t wait to see their discoveries in the future!

Oprah Winfrey brings in the seventh spot.  Probably more than a billion people gasped as she announced her retirement of her world famous talk show.  She brings goodness into the world and helps many to find their place in the world.

Who could top Oprah?  Edward and Jacob.  The Twilight series brought us the movie New Moon.  This is number 6.  Many love it.  Many hate it.  Millions and Millions have spent hundreds of millions of their hard earned money on it.  This author has given change to the world of vampires and werewolves.  Made some serious change of her own in the process.  Congrats!

Now for number 5.  Health Care Reform has been the spearhead of political events this year.  It looks like Our Insurance setup is getting an overhaul whether people like it or not.  The members of the House and the Senate have been battling over the concept feverishly.  This battle isn’t over yet!  Round 2: 2010.

Now for number 4!  Is it getting hot in here?  Oh no, that’s Global Warming in the house.  Icebergs Floating away from Antarctica, glaciers melting at alarming rates, Ocean levels rising to the point where island nations are squirming as their land is being swallowed up by the sea.  Conferences for the subject of Global Warming were held under water to demonstrate the point of the oceans rising.  Good Luck in 2010, Mother Earth.

Everyday at war has to be strained.  Our country has lost many men to war abroad.  For whatever the reason, for wherever the war, number three is for those who fight for our country and have fought.  Those who have lived and died in causes the world over for that one greater cause-freedom.

Now we are getting closer to the top of the list.  Here comes number 2!  Barack Obama becomes the first President with mixed heritage.  He also accepts only the second Noble Peace Prize awarded to a U.S. President.  Great Job, Mr. Obama!

Drum roll, please!  And the number one spot for Top Ten: 2009 goes out to the United States of America.  Our great nation has taken a real beating over the past few years.  We have seen war, natural disaster, corruption, and historic job loss due to a worldwide economic down turn yet our great nation stands tall and fights for what is right still today.  And still today, we are free.  Our free nation stands today and is still number one!

I write this post with hope of all hopes that those of you who are down have some hope behind the frown.  Remember every day is new.  Everyday of your life should should be about you.  Never lose sight of all those that love you and you love, but love yourself.

Any day can bring sorrow and pain, but every day is a chance to be happy and to bring the light into the world that shines upon others.  It make sound hokey to some of you out there, but even those of you who smirk or scoff can likely understand what I am talking about, making it hard to disagree.

Obligations and chaos can bring misery and distress at anytime, but kindness can brighten up even the darkest of days.  This holiday season won’t you shine some light upon those around you.  I know I’m certainly gonna try.

A holiday season of hope I wish upon those who need it.

     Facebook.com is quickly becoming one of the most popular ways on the internet to reach people.  Originally starting out as a website for college students, Facebook has taken the internet by storm in the past year or two.  Google the subject and you will see the millions and millions of keyword hits associated with Facebook.com.

Along with connecting with people from the past and present, Facebook has become one of the most profitable ways to advertise products and content on the internet.  It seems Twitter has reached its capacity for spammers and microbloggers alike and Facebook will be taking the role of the newest way to spam the internet with useless garbage such as affiliate marketing, news programs, and other worthless content.  There is certainly money to be made with the right approach to the use of facebook as a platform for marketing and advertisement.  With a good product and a lot of “friends”one could potentially make millions just from setting up at this one free website.  Even the television companies have gotten in on the game.  As I stated above you can even befriend your favorite news programs on the site now.  This is all about ratings and money, of course.

Why in the world would one go to such a site to check up on the news in the first place?  That is what your homepage is for, oh, and television, and radio, and so on.  Facebook was designed for people to interact with each other, not for logging in to see what is going on with world and local news shows, right?  Besides news shows, one can find the latest fad for internet marketing being spammed as “friendships.”

How long will it take for this site to become old hat?  I am guessing once it reaches the point where hackers and spammers find it so attractive that they overrun the site as they have begun to do with Twitter and MySpace.  I guess we will see in a year or two when the “new car smell” wears off and people are looking for something different.  Facebook is certainly going to stick around for a while, but soon it will be overcrowded and irritating like Black Friday at the mall and people will be looking for the exits.  I wonder which site will become the next big thing…

  The H1N1 influenza virus, otherwise known as Swine Flu, has become quite the phenomenon this year.  There has been much hoopla over the possibility that this version of the influenza virus could become the next pandemic influenza virus.  Sure, many people have become ill with H1N1 and people have even died from it, but is it really any more of a threat than our typical seasonal flu?

The Center For Disease Control estimates that more than 36,000 people die in the United States each year(on average) from Seasonal Influenza.  The current number of deaths due to H1N1 this year in the U.S. is 593 as of September 3.  This is less than one percent of the number of estimated deaths due to our conventional influenza symptoms.    The link to this information is http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/updates/us/.

Any number of deaths due to any kind of virus isn’t something that I am fond of, but I wonder if there is a gigantic hype going on in order to sell a vaccine that hasn’t been properly tested and is being rushed into circulation.  How long has the vaccine been tested?  Has it truly passed the guidelines for a vaccine or is it being rammed down our throats and injected into our blood prematurely?  Just some concerns…If you have additional information or comments, this is not something to be shy about!

  How many times a day do you hear about someone getting shot?  Probably at least once if you watch the news on television.  It is quite alarming to hear that this person got shot or that person shot this person for whatever reason.  It is a fact of life, though.  People get shot every day.  EVERY DAY.

The thing that gets me is when somebody shoots their self.  Not like a suicide…just a dumb or freak accident.  It is hard to fathom that someone could disrespect such a thing as a loaded gun enough to unload it upon them self.  I mean…what about this ?  How does that happen?  I don’t know for sure what that guy was thinking.  There was even little children in the room!

Now, this next one could happen to anyone.  Glad this has never happened to me!  Anyone ever had any thing like that happen?  I hope not.

What about this …Is it really that funny?  I would want to learn gun safety or etiquette from this group.

This is just a small portion of the ridiculous video footage of people who shoot guns that obviously need a refresher course in safety with weapons.  It is not recommended that anyone follow by these examples.  However, I believe that everyone is entitled to own a weapon and without the terrible restrictions that our government is attempting to place upon one of our most important freedoms.

There is legislation soon to be acted upon namely HR1388 and HR 45 that will limit our rights as citizens of the U.S. to bear arms.  There is too much information to simply scan through to understand it all, but I do believe that this legislation is detrimental to our way of living and our freedom.  You may want to check into this and send a message to all representatives that you can contact to voice your opinion.

  Sometimes when I am sitting around listening to all that is going on around me, I have these random questions pop into my head based upon the collage of information that I take in.  In this case, I am not quite sure what triggered the question at hand, but I would like to know what you think!  Which is more important:  Your Family or Your Soul?

I know the answer should be obvious, but there are many different belief systems in this world and I for one want to know the priority of family versus soul/spirit of each.  Of course I can not perform this investigation properly without seeing what the viewers here have to say, so please comment.

  Our economy appears to be at the bottoms, or close to it.  The nation’s confidence in Barrack Obama is shaken.  Our industries have taken a huge hit as well as our nation’s image in the world’s eye.  Rattles and clangs have appeared in America’s ideologies. Not since the 1970’s has our great country seen such a shock as our current situation.  It seems as if the light at the end of the tunnel has been shot out and removed.

The real deal is that things are not as bad as they could be.  What will it take for American’s to realize that drastic changes have to be made around here.  For our childrens’ America to be the glorious nation that we have claimed to be for so long, we need to prove once again to the world that we are supreme in our essence, the key to the future of the world, and the strongest/smartest nation on earth.  I watch everyday as people whine and cry, “Don’t spend up all the money!,  Don’t take money from me!, Don’t let them do that, it will cost me too much.”  Don’t, don’t, don’t!  This nation was founded by people who gave up everything for the dream.  How many of them said, “Don’t do that!”?

I think we have this huge problem with change.  Such a huge problem that it has become more an issue than many of the problems we deal with nowadays.  Noone wants to give up anything for their “beloved” country.  They want to keep everything the way it is unless they are of the minority-the unemployed, those with no healthcare coverage, those impoverished by lack of education and lack of resources with which to fix said problems.  So keep on keeping all that you have.  While you have it.  When you no longer have a job, or a car, or a family doctor, or a roof over your head, and noone cares, maybe you will understand what it is to give up something for the greater good.  Until then good luck for your bad Karma;)

Keep buying cheap foreign-made things, keep hoarding anything we can, keep on bitchin’ about anything rather than taking action, keep making more rules to protect the feeble-minded, keep doing things the way we have always done them.  Keep doing things this way and we will no longer be able to say we are Americans who are Free.

What will it take to again make America the nation that all others aspire to become?  Remember the fact that your neighbor may not be as well off as you.  Just because your pockets are lined, doesn’t mean that the person living next to you even has money with which to eat.  Quit being so greedy.  Oh, and calling the President a socialist because he wants your neighbor to have the things that you have is not the way to go about affecting change.  I am not saying that the things he is doing are all right, but he has a mountain of trash to dig through in order to find any solutions at all.  I can not believe that we are so set in the old ways of processions that new, life altering, society changing, social bar bending ideas can be so quickly dismissed.  Personally, I feel the “cash for clunkers” deal is raw.  That money should ahve to be spent on American made products and only American made products.  Why give other countries the opportunity to profit from us while we are in a down economy?  However, there is a method to the madness and pure math is the root of the deal.  Fixing the math in the equation of the moment may help to clear out paths for solutions to other problems we face.  The only thing it will take to truly fix our current economic rut is to buy American, be American, love your fellow Americans! But, hey, what the hell do I know anyway?

In light of all of the crazy changes going on in the world today, the question “Will robots take over the world?” is a quite valid one.  In fact, at the rate mankind is going to destroy all that is wonderful about the world, robots should take over.  However, what’s real in the world of robots is this .

Do we REALLY want that to happen?  I say hell no!  It is bad enough that many of our children are taught by the television and video games.  What the heck are people thinking…having Robots teach kids! This can only lead to job loss and dehumanization.  If someone were to tell me that my son were going to be taught by a robot…Oooh…I’d have to let them in on a little secret-No robot is going to teach my kid how to do anything, except maybe how to destroy robots that are trying to take over human jobs and tell humans how to think!

Okay enough of all that.  Now I would like you to see this .  Is it really important that we all have a personal robot assistant in the future?  I don’t think I would ever enjoy the “Jetson’s” lifestyle even if I were able to afford it.

Next thing would be this.  You need to read the article below the huge-breasted robot chick with no hair!  Sega is about to release the first plastic girl that can pucker up for the creepy ol’ perverts!  I was sickened by the whole thing, although you may get a girl to have some sort of sex encounter with jealousy from only one of the two “women”?  Not my kind of thing, but to each their own, I guess.

So there are many ways that robots are preparing to take over humans’ positions in society.  That just means more rich people will get to keep their money and more poor people will have less due to the lack of medial positions open to humans.  Robots don’t sue for worker’s comp, they can’t bitch about company policy if they aren’t programmed to, and if they give you too much trouble, you can melt them down-if they don’t get you first!

Here’s a list of robot-type stuff just for fun..(Click on them)

N.A.I.R.

EATR

ASIMO

 I am sure there are lots of us who simply hate our car, but try not to do what this teen did.

A New York teen is facing arson and reckless endangerment charges after he set fire to his BMW. Long Island police have quoted the boy as saying his motive was “he hated the car”. Now typically I would say “Who cares”, its his property,  however surveillance vidoe showed the vehicle was parked directly next his aprtment building at the time he set fire to it, like less than five feet.

The sad thing is, half the country is offering “Cash for Clunkers” the thing would have likely brought him in two or three thousand in trade somewhere! Now thats burning hatred here on The Burning Questions.

Credit card companies are some of the most powerful lobbyists in our nation.  They have used their financial power to destroy the hard-working individual.  They offer these great introductory rates to consumers to lure them into a contract which makes a loan shark look like a good option upon close investigation.  Read the fine print.  Hell, the fine print is so laden with jargon that no one can understand it anyway.  The problem is that people generally do not understand what the rules really are.  They have no idea that they can lose that wonderful rate if they fail to pay some other completely unrelated bill on time.  If one has a card that is close to the limit, and some other card company reports that the individual made some sort of payment mistake, then the one close to the limit can jack up the rate sending the account over the limit, accruing massive fees.  Once the account is over the limit, they can adjust the rate to the maximum allowed by law.  All other companies can then follow suit!  This makes it nearly impossible to ever pay the accounts back down to a respectable level (if there is such a thing) and the account will never return to the original deal’s interest rate.

That is a pretty powerful position.  The original interest rate on an account may be 10 percent, but the limit is something over 30 percent!  For a person with a 5000 dollar balance, this is a huge increase in the monthly payment.  The individual may have been paying somewhere between fifty  and one hundred dollars a month, but is then side-swiped by a two-hundred or three-hundred dollar minimum per month.  This simple detail sends many into a financial downward spiral that they can not recover from.

Now legislators are giving billions to corporations in order to keep them (hopefully) from going under and are taking that money from the individuals who are looking at bankruptcy themselves.  This has to stop.  The companies are reaping the rewards of faceless immunity of the law and something has to be done about it. What happens when the corporations that sent these individuals into bankruptcy, give out the big bonuses and file themselves?  I think they should suffer as we do.  They should be held responsible for their actions.  Yes, the government has thrown money at the problem to stall the situation, Now they need to begin holding these individuals responsible rather than let them hide behind the title of the corporate entities they create to avoid such responsibility.  Credit card companies are at the top of this list with others such as insurance, banking(which are often the keystones of the credit card companies), and industrial corporations.

Well, first of all let me apologize for the lack of updated material here as of late.  I am always in the wind with whatever I do.  I simply do with whatever I am given at the given moment.  I am currently trying to track down a strange mechanical problem that has plagued our most recently purchased vehicle.  I am sore that I have not been able to narrow down the problem to certainty as of yet.  Here are eight tips for those of you who know little about the car that you own.

1:  If something changes about the way your vehicle runs all of a sudden…There could be something going wrong even if it seems only a minor difference.  There could also be gremlins living in your breather box.  Who knows?

2:  Check your fluids regularly.  That means every week.  Every fill up.  Something more than waiting for the check engine light to finally come on…OKAY?

3:  If a fluid is low, it could mean something is wrong.  Now, if you have ran your vehicle three thousand miles past the oil change deadline and you are a couple of quarts low on oil, well… GO GET IT CHANGED!

4:  If your car changes color on its own…Sorry ’bout your luck…you have probably just been punked!

5:  Have you checked your muffler bearings?  Just thought I ‘d ask.

6:  If your car makes a terrible squeal when you push on the brakes…Well, you probably need new brake pads…or tires!  You should probably buy quality in either or both of these categories.  They are technically the two most important parts of going and stopping on your four wheels.

7:  That grinding noise that you hear… the one that goes away when you turn up the radio… probably IS something to look into!

8:  When you look under your car or where you generally park your vehicle, is there are large dark spot of nasty yuck pooling up?  That would lead me to believe something is leaking out of my vehicle.  Might even get out of the car and look for a wet spot somewhere on the undercarriage.  Might even think about getting that leak taken care of.  But that’s just me…you do what you want.