Guild Wars 2 guild meeting picture

I'm the little guy on left with the yellow suit and black ears. Click to enlarge

Obama's poet is Cuban American

I've never been one for poetry but I was driving along and heard the Inauguration Poem over the radio and I thought it was really good. This Robert Blanco guy is another story of how you can be anything in this country if you work hard and make it yours.
The most powerful quality of our country is that each day is full of a million possibilities: We are a country of fierce individualism, which invites me to shape my life as I see fit. As I reflect on this, I see how the American story is in many ways my story -- a country still trying to negotiate its own identity, caught between the paradise of its founding ideals and the realities of its history, trying to figure it out, trying to "become" even today -- the word "hope" as fresh on our tongues as it ever was.
 

Change takes time?

I just read the acceptance speech given by the first woman nominated to lead the department of labor in Saudi Arabia. Her main point was to reassure the public that she believes change must take time -as in multiple generations of time. My take is that what change really requires the older generation to die off before better policy can be put in place because ultimately good or bad people will not give up their own point of view, which is the product of the environment they themselves grew up in. Adjust that environment, kill off all the older people and wala! - Change will happen. That is how war works..war ends up killing all the people who were seriously committed one way or another and the people who are left are much more open to compromise because they just want the fighting to end.

Wouldn't it be better if the older generation just listened and compromised in the first place?

NY Gun ban a political stunt; causes more harm

New York's new SAFE act, touted as the toughest gun bill in the nation, is simply a horrible bill.

 Assault weapons possessed before the effective date must be registered within a year and re certified every five years.

What sort of idiot thinks a gun registry is going to prevent crazy people from gaining access to guns? The SAFE acts leaves the same major loophole as the Clinton assault weapons ban did in that it "grandfathers" the millions on guns already out there, including those not purchase in weapon store inventories. Further it requires therapists to report on their patients to the government, which bring up huge privacy issues and will ultimately reduce the number of people who go to a therapist for help. I think a lot of people hoped that some good in the form of real change would come out of the Newtown massacre. If this bill is what we have to look forward to then those kids died in vain.

Florida Gov "returns" adopted dog!?

Apparently our wonder governor Rick Scott adopted a dog solely for the purposes of PR during the last election and is now claiming that dog was returned to the pound. Where there is no question the dog would be put down. So evil he even looks like Lex Luthor.

No Budget, No Pay act in the works

I hadnt heard about the No budget, No Pay act from anywhere until day so I'm posting it here in case yuo guys are in the same boat. I guess its not getting a lot of press?

While obviously congressman and woman are already rich and self sufficient enough to go without, I think its a symbolic step in the right direction. Hopefully it gets momentum. I'd like to see the same result oriented action be applied to other public jobs as well. We already have "bonus" rewards for people who finish a head of schedule - lets have some consequences for the opposite.

MOTW: Distance and Time

Defense dept. completes robot mule project

Your tax dollars at work.

History of American Banking via cartoon