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WHAT DOES $3,000,000,000,000 BUY?

"WHAT DOES $3,000,000,000,000 BUY?" was penned by Goose.  Goose is hung like a dimmer switch, loves music, transvestites and Cuban food, but not necessarily in that order...




This post is not necessarily targeted for those of you out there who pee standing up, but in case you were wondering what you could buy for $3 trillion bucks, check out this site.

    http://3trillion.org/

Please watch the video first, then go shopping!  You can see what fellow shoppers have recently purchased under the "recent activity" section.

Very entertaining.

Quote of the day

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -- Anais Nin

Foreclosures aren't bad, they're indifferent

"Foreclosures aren't bad, they're indifferent" is penned by Stan Mattley...a friend of the cause.

Hi all, 

 

Meet the Harper family. The Harpers bought a house and did not know they needed to pay to have their septic tank flushed-so it broke and their home was uninhabitable with human waste covering their floors.




http://realitytv.about.com/od/extrememakeoverhome/ss/HarperMakeover.htm

Hundreds of nice folks in Georgia donated a week of their life and made hundreds of thousands in donations to:

1. tear down their old home

2. Build them a mansion

3. Develop a home maintenance fund (all utilities, 25 years of taxes, and emergency funds so any repairs should be covered)

4. Pay off their old mortgage

5. Provide college scholarships for all of their children. -pretty nice huh? All they have to do is get a job and pay for food and clothing- kind of like a college student or teenager does.

 

Fast forward one year....

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laland/2008/07/extreme-home-fo.html

 

Family is so grateful, it:

1. Uses the collateral in the house to get $450,000 in cash

2. Believes they can remain unemployed while paying off the loan

3. Use so much of the cash that they cannot even afford to make mortgage payments after six months into the loan (must have been one heck of a fun six months!).

4. Promptly default on their loan and are homeless once more- unless of course our government would like to bail them out by taking money away from you and your family in the form of ridiculous taxes.

 

Our Government should realize that some people should default, some people shouldn't own homes, some people just aren't able to prosper even under the most ridiculously easy environments to succeed.



You cannot govern to the lowest common denominator if you want the best for your citizens.



Democrats believe we have evolved from apes.



Under that premise, the 'father of evolution theory', Charles Darwin, proposed the basic law of evolution is natural selection or 'survival of the fittest'. Taking that into consideration, why do Democrats (and bullied Republicans) constantly propose policy to subsidize survival of the unfit (HR 3221 http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-3221)



Shouldn't the sensible people be rewarded?



Why are people that make their home payments every month burdened with higher taxes to provide for those who should be 'thinned from the herd'???



A good dose of foreclosures could be a valuable lesson of fiscal responsibility much needed in our society.



A society that spends $68.2 billion in cable TV, $18.8 billion in video games, $17.1 billion at the box office, $6.6 billion in mobile cell phone games, $4 billion in ring tones, $3 billion in rock concerts, $2 billion on NBA salaries, $2 billion on digital music downloads, $1 billion  on MLB salaries, and $1 billion on on-line game subscriptions (these numbers are 2 years old and have likely grown-I got them from a daveharrold.net article).



If people aren't in debt from this garbage, they can make their housing payments. If people don't NEED to buy this garbage they wouldn't take out home equity lines to pay for them.



During a recent trip to BestBuy my brother-in-law pointed out a number of people hauling blue-ray players, Xboxes, flat-screen TVs and every piece of worthless $200 piece of plastic garbage you could think of and putting it in the trunk of cars that were falling apart and packed full of kids. It was obvious that a $50 video game to play on a $400 system was probably not the best investment for these families-yet there they were-right in front of me...the people that will vote for socialized health care because a $25 copay for the doctor is far too much.



We better watch what type of behavior we incent because the smart people will soon realize the good money is in not being responsible.

Widgets for Facebook, MySpace, your Blog, etc.

I have had a handful of people ask me where to find widgets.

Instead of replying to each of you I figured I would do a post.

This site is probably the best site I have found.  It is easy to navigate and even allows you to create your very own gallery of widgets to put you in a position to be a resource for your customers, friends, readers, etc.

They have over 88,000 widgets in their gallery.  If you were to go through the entire gallery I would kindly ask that you would kill yourself when you are finished...loser!

http://www.widgetbox.com/

Want/Need to take your site mobile?

There might be a better mobile platform out there, but if there is I do not know what it is.

Ubik basically takes four steps to get your site mobile: 

1) Pick your template

2) Create site

3) Edit content

4) Publish site

Check it out:  http://ubik.com/

Own a small business? Need a loan or line of credit? Check this out

iBank.com gives you access to a network of over 300 lenders offering small business loans, credit lines, equipment leasing and commercial mortgages from $5,000 to $50 million.

The costs to borrow via iBank are ~30% lower than applying for the same type of loan at a conventional bank plus you will get your approval and your loan faster.

Hope this is helpful:

http://www.ibank.com/

Another Reason to Vote Yes on Issue 5 to Reform Payday Lending

"Another Reason to Vote Yes on Issue 5 to Reform Payday Lending" is penned by Bill Faith.  Bill Faith has worked on public policy issues around Capitol Square for the past 20 years, currently as the Director of the Coalition on Homelessness and Housing in Ohio (COHHIO).  Faith is also the Treasurer of the Vote Yes on Issue 5 Committee.




"Let me be clear. Payday lenders are not providing our Marines with a service. They are parasites, bottom feeders and scumbags.”  --Quote from Major General Mike Lehnert, Commander of Marine Corp Bases (West)




Our nation’s top military officials have acknowledged that payday lending is a serious threat to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line for our nation. After years of complaints from base commanders and military credit counselors from around the country, the Defense Department asked Congress to cap payday loan interest rates, stating in an official report:




"Predatory lending undermines military readiness, harms the morale of troops and their families, and adds to the cost of fielding an all volunteer fighting force.”




As a result, Congress adopted a federal interest rate cap and other protections on payday loans to military families to ensure the nation’s well-being.




Ohio's elected leaders are doing the same. 




Earlier this year, Republican Speaker Jon Husted, Republican Senate President Bill Harris and Democratic Governor Ted Strickland fought and won legislation that lowered payday lenders’ interest rates from 391% APR to 28 percent with the bi-partisan support of the Ohio House and Ohio Senate.




"We see everyday... [soldiers and sailors] who have come in and fallen into the Venus Flytrap of the payday lending problem, and it has literally destroyed their lives." 
--Admiral Charles Abbot, President, Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society




Through shameful and deceptive ads, the payday lenders are attempting to overturn the new payday loan reforms.  They are trying to convince us that our troops are wrong, that the Ohio leaders of both parties are wrong and that the hundreds of organizations that have endorsed payday loan reforms wrong.




For too long, hardworking families of Ohio and our state’s economy have been jeopardized by reckless lending practices and 391% annual interest rates which have trapped thousands of Ohio families in a vicious cycle of debt every year. 




The Defense Department and Congress said Yes, Governor Strickland, Speaker Jon Husted, Senate President Bill Harris and the Republican and Democrat Ohio House and Senate said Yes, ALL of Ohio’s major newspapers and organizations like AARP, the Ohio Catholic Conference, the Ohio Methodists Bishops, the Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio Manufacturer’s Association and the Ohio AFL-CIO all say Yes on Issue 5 to lower payday loan's 391 percent interest rates and to extend the military's loan protections to all Ohioans.

Yes on Issue 5:

391% APR was too high for our military families and it's too high for all of our families!
For more information go to:

http://www.yesonissue5.com/

The Ridiculous is the Sublime: The funk of 40,000 years

(‘The Ridiculous is the Sublime’ is penned by Art McGregor. McGregor founded the German Village Media Family of Networks on Sept. 21, 2006. He now writes for "Blog on the Run." You can read him here every Thursday. E-mail him at artmcgregor@hotmail.com.)

Halloween meets the threshold to become one of The Holidays That Matter and thusly becomes the fifth of that group. Until about college I had no idea why they called it a “fifth” of alcohol other than this kid J.J. down the hall always wanted a fifth of whiskey when Kirk’s older brother made his beer run. J.J. did not return to college after freshman year. We once shared a Long Island Iced Tea at that bar next to The Newport that’s now Chipotle.

 

Not knowing what a “fifth” counted as, I still listened to The Luniz’s “I’ve Got Five on It” (and its many remixes and/or variations) in my buddy Andy’s dad’s Buick while Andy and I drove around on Friday nights with the windows down in late December 1995. A few weeks later Andy ran a red light that caused me to break my collar bone.

 

My cousin Kevin broke his collar bone (for the first time) years earlier while racing down a hill in my grandma’s front yard. Like an actual race. People do not fucking race enough. I’d love to just be able to call a friend and say, “let’s have a race.” Could be like fight club.

 

Kevin’s race on that fateful afternoon came against this kid up the street named Brad (of course he was named Brad). Brad was a really bad kid but I always kind of liked him because he was a badass and I was eight. My grandma always used to say she saw him years later at the grocery store “buying a lot of plastic bags” as her way of stating that he probably sold marijuana. (He did.)

 

“Lots of cookies, today, Mrs. Collins,” a high school Brad would tell my grandma.

 

When you think of all the scary places you’ve been in your life (Club 185 on a Monday night in the summer, between Fifth (rim shot!) and Chittenden on North Fourth Street and church) I always think about my grandma’s bedroom. I actually once peed my pants there.

 

My uncles were about eight through 18 years my senior. When I was about six, I was deathly afraid of Halloween. I couldn’t even drive past Hills or Ames or K-Mart because they’d have Halloween masks up in the store front. I also didn’t have a driver’s license, so yeah. You know.  I skipped school on Halloween in the first grade. My uncles rightly busted my balls because I was a pussy.

 

Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” (song not album) kind of was really popular when I was six. We always had cable so I watched a lot of MTV. But not more than The Weather channel. True story. I watched about four hours of The Weather Channel per day in the summer of 1985.

 

I’d always change the channel immediately when the “Thriller” video came on. This is when I watched MTV. The Weather Channel didn’t show music videos. As a gullible fuck, I’d always run into any room that had a television showing “sports highlights.”

 

My sister saw a distant cousin earlier this fall and the cousin asked about me. He hadn’t seen me in about 22 years. He said, “Does he still like the Browns? I remember him crying after they lost a game.” All true.

 

My uncles got me to cry when they would watch TV in my grandma’s room and say, “Hey Art, there’s football highlights on!” Instead, it was the “Thriller” video and they’d lock the door behind me and make me watch the video. That’s when the pants peeing ensued.

 

Serves them right.

 

You can’t mention Halloween without discussing “Thriller.” I mean, if I was writing this post about December I’d surely mention Guns N’ Roses “November Rain.”

 

(orchestral interlude)

 

My second best “Thriller” story is when my dad was driving my sister and me to McDonald’s for dinner. Must have been a good kid that day. My sister was about two and talking non-sense in the backseat. “Triller, triller, triller.”

 

“What the hell is she saying back there, Arty?” my dad asked.

 

“Thriller, Dad. Thriller. She wants to hear ‘Thriller.’ ”

 

Halloween is the fifth holiday that matters because it’s one of the five that actually get people fired up. The others are Fourth of July, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. All the others can join Eazy-E and Tim Dog in eating a big fat diiiiiick. Luke also can eat a fat dick. /Dr. Dre’d

 

I love Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day the most because girls dress up, look slutty and get shit-faced. Those three characteristics have helped me out a ton in recent years. This year I’m dressing as a vampire. As Interpol say, “I am the scavenger between the sheets of union.”

 

Not really. I’m just a guy sitting at his desk at work eating Nerds.

 

I know we’re all sick of this campaign business and what not but this needs to be said. I stand firmly on the fact that there are five holidays that matter. Some say six. “You got to say New Year’s Eve” is the slogan you see on so many bumper stickers. At least in Grandview,Ohio: Bumper Sticker Capital of the World. Some argue three holidays matter while still more say four. (“Still more say four.” Say that five times fast.) Christmas is the one that gets the most scrutiny because a lot of people get sad on Christmas and … I don’t know. This isn’t an advice column. And as campus girl Morgan says in her video (http://www.campusgirlsusa.com/video09.php?gid=26&vid=Int-26) no one should ever “be sad.”

 

High five on that.

Statistic of the day

$2.4 billion will have been spent on presidential campaigns in the two-year election cycle that began January 2007, and another $2.9 billion will have been spent on 435 House and 35 Senate contests.

This $5.3 billion is a billion less than Americans will spend this year on potato chips.

Source:  George F. Will and The Center for Responsive Politics

Quote of the day

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time

~ T. S. Eliot ~

The GOP Ant and the Grasshopper

"The GOP Ant and the Grasshopper" was penned by Goose.  Goose is hung like a dimmer switch, loves music, transvestites and Cuban food, but not necessarily in that order...

The GOP Ant and the Grasshopper

 

 

THE SELFISH VERSION:

The ant is walking on the sidewalk and gets crushed. That’s what happens to ants. 
For this story, we’re going to focus on human beings, since that’s what grown-ups 
talk about. Republicans like to write fables with grasshoppers and bunnies as 
the main protagonists because it appeals to their simple-minded base. I digress…

George is born into a wealthy family and goes to college without paying a dime. 
 He graduates with a C-average and lands a great job because of his father’s 
connections. He benefits from the shared services of his municipality but bitches 
up a storm about having to pay for them. He works “really hard” for his money 
and has earned everything he’s ever received in life, so why should he have 
to pay for something that homeless people will benefit from?! He believes 
everyone should take care of themselves and things will work out for all of us.

George likes to blame other people or organizations for his problems, since 
accountability isn’t part of his vocabulary. George hates the “liberal media” 
because they talk about issues that he disagrees with. George only watches 
Fox News and refuses to consider alternative viewpoints. 

George uses the term liberal as though it has four letters.  He derides “them” as 
being Communist, thus invoking fear. Fear is the greatest of motivators and 
George knows it.

George is a dick.

THE VERSION NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT:

 

Bill was born into a poor, working class family that couldn’t afford to put him 
through school so he worked two jobs to put himself through the local 
community college and now works a thankless task for a large company 
with limited upward mobility. He earns a nominal wage and between his 
student loans and basic cost of living (rent, utilities, gas, etc.) doesn’t have 
enough to invest for his future. Bill gets married and has two kids. One of his 
kids has a medical condition that will require years of expensive treatment. 
Bill’s insurance premiums and co-pays exceed his income and he has to 
declare bankruptcy. Even worse, he has to take his child to a free clinic and 
hope…let’s think about that word very carefully in this context...for the 
best treatment available. 

 

MORAL OF THE STORY: Hope to god (if there is one) that you’re born into a 
wealthy family because the American Dream is a pain in the ass to achieve 
on your own. At best, your hard work may pay off for your kids (or your grandkids), 
but you can pretty much count on a shitty life.

Vote. Just vote. And don’t hesitate to call or write your Congressperson, 
State Senator or State Representative. They’re the ones you have the most 
access to and arguably have more impact on the outcome of your life 
than the President.

The Ant and the Grasshopper

"The Ant and the Grasshopper" has been submitted by Stan Mattley. Stan is a Cleveland boy who has made good and is living the high life in NYC (i.e. made good = does not have to move back to Cleveland ever again).

The Ant and the Grasshopper

THE CLASSIC VERSION:

 

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his 
House and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays the 
summer away. Come winter, the ant is warm and well fed. The grasshopper 
has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Be responsible for yourself!

 

DEMOCRAT VERSION:

 

The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long, building his 
House and laying up supplies for the winter.

The grasshopper thinks he's a fool and laughs and dances and plays 
the summer away. Come winter, the shivering grasshopper calls a press 
conference and demands to know why the ant should be allowed to be warm 
and well fed while others are cold and starving.

 

CBS, CNN, NBC, and ABC show up to provide pictures of the shivering 
grasshopper next to a video of the ant in his comfortable home with 
a table filled with food.

 

America is stunned by the sharp contrast.  How can this be, that in a country

of such wealth, this poor grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

 
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper,and everybody 
cries when they sing "It's Not Easy Being Green." 

 

Jesse Jackson stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house 
where the news stations film the group singing "We shall overcome." 
Jesse then has the group kneel down to pray to God for the grasshopper's sake.

 

John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, Tom Daschle, Dick Gephart, Hillary Clinton and 
Howard Dean stage an interview with Peter Jennings claiming that the ant 
has gotten rich off the back of the grasshopper, and call for an immediate 
tax hike on the ant to make him pay his "fair share."

 

Finally, the EEOC drafts the "Economic Equity and Anti-Grasshopper Act," 
retroactive to the beginning of the summer. The ant is fined for failing 
to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to 
pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the government.

 

Hillary Clinton gets her old law firm to represent the grasshopper in a 
defamation suit against the ant, and the case is tried before a panel 
of Federal judges that Bill Clinton appointed from a list of single-parent 
welfare recipients.

 

The ant loses the case.

 

As the story ends, as we see the grasshopper finishing up the last bits 
of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which just happens 
to be the ant's old house, crumbles around him because he doesn't maintain it.

 

The ant has disappeared in the snow.

 

Later, the grasshopper is found dead in a drug-related incident and the 
house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang of spiders who terrorize 
the once peaceful neighborhood.

 

MORAL OF THE STORY: 

 

Vote Republican.

 

Wow...seriously...just wow...

It is 8:06pm EST.

I am six minutes into the Barackomania...Barackapalooza...Barackopolis...Barackofages...

I cannot wait to find out what this prolonged commercial costs.

If you know, please write me and tell me.

Just think about it.

Prime time TV.

F-ing 8pm EST.

Three TV Networks in Columbus, Ohio (Is he on more or fewer networks in other media markets???).

In how many media markets???

Where is this playing on the internet???

Six days from Election Day.

I don't feel like I am a "doe in the woods" when it comes to this political thing.

Sure, I haven't seen everything, but I have seen and heard some shit that would make your head spin, but I never in my life thought I would see what I am seeing right now.

Love him or hate him you have got to admit that the political fundraising & grassroots machine he has put together is nothing short of amazing.

The sheer amount of money Obama has is both breathtaking and unsettling.

This last week is basically going to be Obama with a flame-thrower in one hand, a grenade launcher in the other and McCain is going to be shooting rubber bands while Palin will be throwing very expensive Manolo Blahniks (yes...you guessed correctly...my girlfriend knows A LOT about shoes...hey...it rubs off after awhile).

8:18pm and almost on cue a person came to my door for Obama.  Sunset here in Columbus, OH was at 6:33pm.  I am 38 years old and except for a few instances (shout out to the guy who sued his own school district, CW's sparring partner and the judge with terrible hair & make-up) I have voted most elections (not all...yes, I am a sinner) over the last 20 years nearly GOP straight down the ballot...

And while this commercial was on this guy came to my loyal GOP voter's door.

8:24pm EST and I cannot believe this thing is still on.

The popular vote for this guy is going to be out of this world.

On the popular vote, Barack is going to beat McCain like Ike beat Tina.

I am hoping McCain can still pull out Ohio and Florida to make this thing respectable.

8:28pm EST and this thing finally ended with Obama broadcasting live from Florida where he will be rooting for the Rays (he still needs Florida) to win Game Five over the Phillies (he feels confident he will win Pennsylvania).

28 minutes long.  Unbelievable on so many levels.

For the good of the country, I hope this guy is as good of a President as he is a campaigner.

For the good of the Republican Party, I hope this guy is a way better campaigner than he is a President or eight years of Barackomania is going to truly make the GOP the Grand Old Party and send it back to the Stone Age.

83 days and it begins...

Embrace it!

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

Elizabeth Kubler Ross writes about the five stages of grieving:

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression & Acceptance...

Republicans on a local, state & federal basis better get through their ...

Denial (Obama is going to win, the GOP will lose 9 seats in the US Senate and the GOP will lose 35 seats in the US House)

Anger (Anger makes about as much sense to me as dry humping...get over it...anger is not a productive use of your time...Ingersoll was right when he said "Anger blows out the lamp of the mind")

Bargaining (Who in the heck are you going to bargain with?  Pray to God, but don't bargain with Her.  There really is no bargaining to be done.  Just skip this step).

Depression (Now THIS is the one I can 100% understand being everyone's hang-up of the five stages.  I don't get anyone being in Denial at this point, Anger is useless in this situation, Bargaining makes no sense...but Depression...that is going to be the hard one to get over.

You could be depressed that Mitt "Grabbed defeat from the Jaws of Victory" Romney took the advice of loyal people over the advice of smart people and cemented his place in GOP primary history.  Hopefully his candidacy will serve as a case study for future Presidential candidates (hell...I am not too PC of a guy to say that there are lessons to be learned by nearly ALL candidates) that loyalty does not equal knowledge.  Hire smart people and then listen to them.  Don't hire smart people and then do what Romney did.  He hired smart people, but when push came to shove he listened to people loyal to him over the smart people he had hired).  He spent more $ than Howard Dean to just become a talking head on the 24 hour news stations.

Romney/Ridge or Romney/Crist vs Obama/Biden would have been a GOP victory...even with the financial crisis. 

You could be depressed that nationally the GOP was focused on having a better 72 hour program in 2008 than they did in 2004, but with early voting a smarter program would have been a 72 (or at least 42) day program.  Ohio did a way better job than most states on this front, but there is still room for improvement even here.  Hopefully with Kevin DeWine coming in as Chair in 2009 the GOP will be even more prepared post-Bennett.  Unfortunately, most of the swing states were nowhere near as prepared as Ohio and Florida.

You could be depressed that McCain was the best candidate the GOP could come up with in 2008, but that is not John McCain's fault (Palin is his fault...that he is the candidate is the fault of the Grand Ole Party).  It is the fault of what is now the Republican Party nationally.  The number of absolutes on so many topic positions the GOP demands from its candidates reads like the Tax Code.  The virtual gauntlet a GOP candidate has to make it through today to be the candidate puts him/her in a nearly impossible position to be victorious in a general election.

From my perspective, the biggest thing to be depressed about is the internet game plan executed on each side.  The only thing I will say on this issue is that Henry Ford's quote is very fitting:

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse."

The internet is here to stay.  It is only going to get more important.  Embrace this fact or get used to losing.  Period.  It really is that simple.

Once all of this Depression passes I hope Acceptance comes soon...preferably all five stages happen by Inauguration Day on 1/20/09.

I know the "Gauntlet of Values" (like the Tax Code) will only get longer/worse so not much can be done there.  I do hope and pray that I am not seeing the world through "rose-colored glasses" and the other situations can be remedied in time for the mid-term elections on 11/2/10.  All the other problems are solvable.  We know the problems.  Hopefully solutions can be agreed upon soon, the right people can be put into place to implement the solutions and the GOP will be ready to take advantage of the greatest opportunity since 1994.

Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock....

Statistic of the day and a mild rant

9/11/01 is undoubtedly a very sad day in our history.

Over seven years have passed since that dreadful day.

Frankly, the only positive thing that happened that entire day was Jeter climbing up the firepole at the old Engine House #5 Restaurant on his birthday...a task which was also completed by his sixty-something year old dad and...well...as far as his older brother was concerned...let's just say that he had to sit at the little kid's table that Thanksgiving.

But, I digress (sorry...that is a theme today)...

Over seven years have passed yet nearly two-thirds of young adults in the USA between the ages of 18 to 24 cannot find Iraq on a map.

Unreal.

Think that is bad?  Wanna give them the benefit of the doubt because Iraq is over 6,000 miles away?

68% of the same group of 18 to 24 year olds could not point out the state of Louisiana on a map either.

If only that was the extent of things.

This knowledge gap goes beyond locating places on a map.

It extends to relationships among the US and other countries, global economics, current & prospective global armed conflict, international trade and a minimum of an intermediate level of knowledge in a second language.

74% believe English is the primary language spoken by most of the people around the world.  It is not.

How are our kids going to prosper in a shrinking and flattening world?

I get goose bumps (and not in a good way) when I think about how geographically and globally illiterate our children (and many of us as adults) are.

Our parents didn't have to have these worries because the USA was the center of the universe by any measure when we were growing up.

That is no longer the case.  The "Rise of the Rest" is happening.  It is reality.  Deal with it.

The current school curriculum is just not cutting it.

Things have to change.

China, India, Russia, Brazil, Japan...and the list goes on...are gaining on us by nearly any measure and in many cases surpassing us.

For those of you who are not 18 to 24 years of age, but also believed the primary language spoken by most of the residents of our world I have this tidbit of info for you:

The answer was, is and will continue to be Mandarin Chinese.

Many economic experts have pegged 2050 as the year that China will become the world's dominant economic superpower.

I am no economic expert (Exhibit A:  My stock portfolio), but Angus Maddison is.

Angus Maddison is a Brit who is kind of the Albert Einstein of economics in the international community and is an expert on China.

He does not agree with the experts who predict China will overtake us in 2050...he has the number pegged at more like 2015.

Might be time to take your kid out of French and put them in Mandarin, huh?

Quote of the day

"Most men would rather die than think.  Many do." -- Bertrand Russell

To: Arshot motorsports complex supporters...Vegas, Milwaukee & Chicago are ahead of us...can we be next?

As many of you know, I am nearly 100% for anything that will make Columbus cooler, attract & retain young people to Cbus and make our city a better place to live and visit.

Hopefully the Arshot folks can get their race complex approved at the Cooper Stadium location.

If they can't, I hope they (or someone else) will still pursue bringing a track of this nature within driving distance of downtown Columbus.

My post today is intended to bring to your attention one of the potential uses for this track once it is built.

--------------------------------------------------------

Vegas was first and they have one 22 miles NE of the city

Milwaukee was next and they have one 70 miles N of the city

Chicago now has one 45 miles SW of the city

www.lrsformulausa.com is the website for LRS Formula One. 

This school lets amateurs drive Formula One race cars (slightly modified) that go 0 to 100 mph in 4.7 seconds.

Yes, their modified F-1 engines only top out at 12,500 RPMs vs the racing circuit's 19,000 RPMs, but I'm sure even in your cool Saab, Volvo, BMW, etc you have never gotten anywhere near 12,500 RPMs thus far in this lifetime.

Now the cost of this experience is something out of most of our price range, but it is something to aspire to for most of us.

Aw, hell, time to make the ladies angry...

The training school and four-lap program costs $3,395 and additional laps cost $600.  So, for argument sake, let's say you go with the five laps for $4,000.

I know that any reasonable woman (truly reasonable...not like the women Jack Nicholson is talking about in "As Good As It Gets"...you know: 

Secretary: How do you write women so well?

Melvin Udall: I think of a man, and I take away reason and accountability.

--------------------------------------------

...I digress...where was I?...oh, yeah...Any reasonable woman would say that spending $4,000 to get trained to race and then subsequently race a Formula One race car that goes from 0 to 100 mph in 4.7 seconds and tops out at 12,500 RPMs a ridiculous waste of money.

That said, if you asked 100 men who were allowed to tell the truth without repercussions (is there such a thing, ladies?...letting your man 100% speak his mind on an issue like this without repercussions???  Nope.  I didn't think so.  It is kind of like unicorns, repealing collective bargaining in Ohio, Barack keeping his promises...sorry...couldn't help myself) if they thought spending $4,000 on five laps in the F-1 racing car was $4,000 well spent or would that $4,000 be better spent on these:

Tiffany Swing Triple drop earrings:

I am sure 99 out of 100 men would say the F-1 laps are a better use of $4,000.

Again, I digress.

Sorry...going off on tangents today.

Other than the myriad uses for a new race complex in Central Ohio, this is just one possible use.

Hopefully the Arshot crew could also get with Greg Nelson (largest Lamborghini dealer in the US...right here in Marysville) and buy a handful of late model, pre-owned, low mileage Lamborghinis and sell 10 or 15 laps (after training) with one of them for $1,000.

At $1,000 even Joe the Plumber's wife could afford that for his 50th Birthday present (if Joe had a wife and if he were close to 50 years old...come on...work with me here).

This one goes for less than $150,000:

http://www.lamborghiniohio.com/used_vehicle_details.htm?vehicleId=07351c484046381e01445748c51d6787

Last thought and then I'll stop:  With the appropriate signed waivers, I am sure you could set it up (I am no insurance guru, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) so someone could race 5 or 10 laps on the racetrack with their own vehicle if it met certain minimum specifications (i.e. high performance vehicle and not something from "Sanford & Sons" front yard).

If you play nice with the owner of The Sports Car Club http://www.mysportscarclub.com/ I am sure you could work something out with his membership as well.

I wish you all the best on building a motorsports complex in Central Ohio.

Following is a fan group I set up on Facebook called:

Fans of Arshot's proposed motorsports complex in Columbus

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=30115358983&ref=ts

Please join the group if you support this endeavor:

                   

   

If your snooze button is winning the war in the morning

Check this service out.

It will make a wake-up call to your landline or mobile phone whenever you want/need one:

http://wakerupper.com/

Quote of the day

"Give a man a fish, and the man will eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish, and he will eat for a lifetime." --Confucius

For sports fans with the iPhone

I know you have thousands of application options to choose from, but this one is addictive as caffeine for anyone who loves sports:

http://sportstap.mobi/

They refresh their data every minute...pretty cool!

Enjoy!  And you're welcome!