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Note: this is my blog about daily-life "stuff." I'll have to comment on politics and, yes, occasionally religion. There's the "stuff" that comes from living in Hall County, Georgia, and our company is located in Jefferson County, Alabama--does "biggest government bankruptcy in history" ring a bell? No telling where else we might go, but remember that anything you find on this blog page is just my humble opinion or my thoughts on a subject...nothing more. If you like them, consider sending us a little contribution to help keep the bills paid. If you don't like them, well, you can feel free to say anything you want to about me...call me any name you want to. Just remember, that while you're entitled to your opinion, so am I. (If you're a far-left liberal, you go right ahead and curse me, and say whatever you want to about me--that just lets me know you have no intelligent, rational argument to put up against what I've said...there's a reason they call it "Right.")
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A Quote From History
(3/26/2012)
"This year will go down in history. For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future." -- Adolf Hitler, 1935

Page Contents
(3/10/2013) A Forty-year Tradition Comes To An End
(4/19/2013) A Lesson For The Left-Wing Media Pundits
(2/26/2013) A Word About "Entitlements"
(2/16/2013) An Open Letter To My US Senators and Congressman
(3/10/2013) Congratulations On A Great Finish
(3/10/2013) Georgia GOP Shows They've Been Lying As They Sell Out the People
(2/26/2013) Is The GOP About To Sell Out Again?
(3/4/2013) Questions to Ponder
(4/22/2013) Remember They May Vote
(10/9/2012) So I Went With ComponentOne -- A Case Study
(2/26/2013) So You Think You Know The GOP?
(4/16/2013) The Desktop Is NOT Dead! Long Live The Desktop!
(3/10/2013) Three True Stories You Won't See On TV
(3/12/2013) What Would You Call It?
(3/5/2013) What Does It Take To Make Us Depose Our Would-be King?
(2/26/2013) You Might Think The US Patent Office Had A Brain?

Remember They May Vote
(4/22/2013)   This short video tells us a lot:
youtu.be/2diNojgJF9c
And just think: these same people just might be voters. Wonder who they voted for?
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A Lesson For The Left-Wing Media Pundits
(4/19/2013)   First, let's say that like all American citizens, we are saddened by the cowardly bombings in Boston. Those who were hurt and all those who have been so profoundly touched by the bombing in Boston are in our thoughts and prayers.
But next, there's something that needs saying. Many of the left-wing-nut lamestream media types were very quick to announce that the bombings were "probably," or even "clearly" the work of "right-wing" extremists--domestic terrorists. This came despite the use of pressure-cooker bombs, a favorite among al-Qaeda and other prominent Islamic terrorist groups. You know the types we've seen called extremists of late...Tea Party people, the NRA, those who believe the Constitution should be our first law of the land, and yes, even Christians. Heck, according to these far-left socialist hacks, anyone and everyone who doesn't agree with their agenda is a "terrorist." Even Nancy Pelosi has pretty much said so.
So, I thought perhaps a quick lesson for the left is in order. First, when you look at a map and see that the Middle East and places with funny names like Chechnya or Kazakhstan are off to the right of the United States, that DOES NOT mean they are "right-wing." It's called "east." Honest. In fact, given your obvious deficiency here, it's rather humorous to consider that they're to the left of what used to be the United Soviet Socialist Republic--you remember that don't you? (It was just another failed experiment in the socialism/communism you crave so badly.) Second and finally, if you can stop bowing and kissing up long enough, you might note who these two were that caused this latest attack on Americans. You might also note with some chagrin that it wasn't Tea Party, NRA, patriots, or Christians who:

Shot and killed Bobby Kennedy in 1968

Kidnapped and massacred athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games

Hijacked and eventually blew up a Pan Am 747 in 1972

Attacked a Pan Am 707 in Rome using grenades to kill some 33 people in 1973

Invaded and took over the American embassy in Iran in 1979

Kidnapped a group of Americans in 1980 in Lebanon

Shot Pope John Paul II in 1981

Blew up the US Embassy and the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983

Hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985, shooting and killing a 70-year-old American passenger who was confined to a wheelchair (then throwing him overboard

Bombed Pan Am flight 103 in 1988

Bombed the World Trade Center in NYC in 1993

Bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998

Brought down 4 US airliners, destroyed the World Trade Centers, and damaged the Pentagon all while killing thousands of Americans on 9/11/01 thus giving us a war in Afghanistan that is still going on today

Beheaded reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002

And, to skip forward for the sake of brevity, attacked the US Consulate in Benghazi killing a number of Americans while your favorite president's administration did absolutely nothing to prevent it. Our ambassador was tortured and killed and his body dragged through the streets.

OK, that's the course for today. Now, here's a test to see if you've learned anything...see if you can figure out who did all the evil, cowardly things (and a lot more) that are listed above. Hint...there's a definite pattern to it all.
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The Desktop Is NOT Dead! Long Live The Desktop!
(4/16/2013)   Remember, this is just my personal opinion(s).
Today, we see a major news article on Fox News about the problems Microsoft is having with their latest OS. You can see it at this link:
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/04/16/windows-its-over-tech-site-declares/?intcmp=features
For those of us in the industry this is just another of the many such articles we've seen. The theme we've seen proclaimed for months is that "Microsoft^Ž Has Committed Suicide by Metro!" A theme all of these things have in common is that, "The Desktop Is Dead!" (And in this article, "Desktop" includes the "laptop.")
First, I agree with the latest set of articles. The fruity-profits-hungry (Guess which fruit they're so jealous of--hint, see the tech-company stock prices.) executives who decided that the new "start screen" would be wonderful and should replace everything else so that all devices can be exactly alike is a group of absolute idiots. They should be demoted. If they were in the military, they'd be relocated to the DEW line somewhere so far north and so cold that we'd never hear from them again. With existing technology, there's simply no way that one interface can be used for all devices. Moreover, the devices' internals vary far too much to use a single OS effectively. Moreover, the Metro interface ideal is not at all suited for the average office worker. (Numbers count--for each CEO or top sales person a corporation has traveling around the country, there are a hundred or perhaps a thousand people diligently working on their desktops where Metro just doesn't and cannot cut the mustard.) Hence, Metro is like Socialism and Communism--it sounds great but it just cannot work in practice. Hence, it fails.
Over the last several months, I've told a number of people to wait--within a year there will be another version of the new OS. I'm not sure what it will be called--8.1? 9.0? Perhaps. But it will be necessary to realize that the Metro ideal is a flop and to make it more usable/saleable. June won't be too soon. April would have been better for the company's stockholders--like me.
But, let's be clear and honest about the desktop. Three things are killing U.S. desktop sales right now. Yes, the first is the Metro interface. People who heard that a new Windows^Ž OS was coming put off purchasing a new computer to get it. Then they saw Metro and they balked. "What do I do with that?" they asked. No one who knew and was honest and true could tell them they needed to rush out and get the new OS because it was vastly superior to version 7. At this point, the first problem plays straight as an arrow into the second problem: an overall confusion and doubt about our economy. Sure, the government is telling us that things are improving every day--they're getting SO wonderful. They're so wonderful that businesses large and small are holding on to their capital--they're sitting on trillions of dollars waiting to see what effect ObamaCare has on them. They're sitting on that cash and holding onto it until they see what new taxes and regulations this administration puts on them. They're not spending money and they're not hiring people because of what our government is doing. Uncertainty breeds fear. Uncertainty reigns. Talk to small business owners in your town and listen to what they say. It won't matter where you live or whether the area as a whole voted Dem or GOP in our last election--the story will be the same among the vast majority of business owners--they're not spending unless they must. And they're not hiring unless they must replace a key person(s). (True unemployment is hovering somewhere between 12% and 15%. Don't like hearing that? Think I'm crazy? Just look up U-6 unemployment figures and you'll have a quick hint that I'm not quite so crazy as you'd like.) And because of the government and the Federal Reserve's policies, there's real uncertainty about what inflation is going to look like by next year--another reason to hold what you have. So...businesses aren't buying computers. Consumers don't want the new OS that's being foisted on them so they're not buying replacement computers. And those who are unemployed...need we say more about buying computers if you have zero income?
And what's the third thing? Metro is designed for a cell phone and tablet. It works best with touch-screens and Microsoft has stressed using touch in their dealings with developers. But...while we were building our first two apps to run on the new Metro-ideal OS, we could not find one single laptop computer on the market that came equipped with a touch screen. Not one. A desktop that uses a touch-screen interface? Good luck and get your credit cards ready. Again, the Metro ideal is a flop and perhaps those executives should have been stationed at the South Pole.
So what will keep the desktop alive? It won't be social media--sure the tablet is great for that, for surfing the web, for checking email on the go, etc. But when you get into the office and you must enter lots of data, write reports for the bosses, write computer programs, work with spreadsheets, etc., or when you have to write a 20-page report in college or fail your class, for anything that requires real work, well, it's a different thing. We have several tablets since we've written Windows Store AppsŠ and they occasionally get used when someone is leaving the office on a day trip, but mostly they gather dust because they're just not as good as the desktop (including laptops) for what we call "the real work."
The desktop is NOT dead. It is in a paused situation where we need to see our government turn back to democracy and capitalism, back to supporting rather than choking businesses large and small. And it is paused partially because people just don't like the Metro interface and they're just not accepting it--not buying it. But the desktop is alive and well in every business and serious school in the nation. And so it shall remain until something better comes along. Long live the desktop!
Oh, and let me throw out one bit of good news for Microsoft. As soon as we get the next OS, the company WILL survive. You guys just have to realize that the sales channel and the enterprise are where you excel. Keep the other stuff separate and be happy you have so much capital pouring in from those two directions to develop in the third direction. Now if we can just get the government's anti-business direction to change...
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What Would You Call It?
(3/12/2013)   Let's put on our "suppose" hats. Suppose someone started a meetup group and called it "Whiteanomics" or "CaucasianEconomics." Then suppose they put a picture up showing a white guy in a suit smoking a cigar and used a headline of "Why should black guys have all the fun?" Finally, let's suppose the description for this group included the words, "We are a progressive group of conscience entrepreneurs focused on economic empowerment of the Arian diaspora." Finally, suppose the group had almost 800 members.
What would you call that group? Racist? Biggots? I would quickly agree with you. But let's change a couple of words and see what you call it then. Just check out this Atlanta, Georgia, group. http://www.meetup.com/entrepreneur-2051/?gj=ej1c&a=wg2.1_recgrp
After you look at it, explain to me, if these are not racist biggots, what the difference is. Never mind...nothing you could say would change my mind.
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Congratulations On A Great Finish
(3/10/2013)   Saturday we went over to T-town to see the University of Alabama basketball game against the University of Georgia. Alabama jumped out front early and held a comfortable margin until near the end of the game. Then a pattern Bama fans have seen repeated several times this season began to play out. Georgia began showing that they had figured out what Alabama was doing--they all but stopped the Bama offense and scored almost at will so that with about 3 seconds to go, the score was suddenly all tied up.
Things happen fast in basketball and I can't say with absolute certainty that there were 0.2 seconds on the clock when the ball next went through the net: it may have been 0.3 seconds. One thing I can say--it was a long 3-point throw and it hit nothing but net to win the game. Once more those poor old whipped dogs had to go back home and wait for another year to get a chance at Alabama. It was a great win and once more we say, "Congratulations."
Roll Tide! Roll!
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Georgia GOP Shows They've Been Lying As They Sell Out the People
(3/10/2013)   So, you're a citizen of Georgia and you thought you could trust your elected GOP leaders who almost all claimed to be "pro-gun" when they were running for election? Well, last week all but one of your trusted GOP folks in Atlanta aligned themselves behind Governor Deal and his cronies. They all marched to the Obama gun-grabbers' music. All but one--count 'em: one--voted a new law into being. Under this new law, if any police officer anywhere reports that you threatened someone, you're going into a special data base. For the next five years after you are reported as being dangerous, you won't be able to get one of the state's "carry" permits. Let's be clear about this. There's no recourse. There's no judge, no jury, no habeas corpus, no legal proceeding of any kind. Maybe the police officer didn't like the color of your shirt or the haircut you were in. Maybe he/she is just having a bad day and wanted to sock it to somebody. They report you and it's a done Deal (pun intended.)
If there were some recourse left open to the citizen, it would be different, but there is none.
Now when you consider that almost all these wonderful "leaders" ran as pro-gun people who swore to the last to uphold the US Constitution and the Second Amendment; and when you consider they are there to represent "we the people" you may just feel as if by voting for HB 512 they lied to you--that makes them liars by definition--and that they sold you out. That feeling seems well founded.
What was their sale price? That's not clear yet, but watch for some extra money or some extra "good Deal" to come from Obama's Washington in the next few weeks. Then you'll know for sure what the price of betrayal Deals amounted to.
Meanwhile, let's all thank Representative Charles Gregory of Kennesaw for not only introducing an amendment that would have done away with this provision, but for being the only GOP "leader" we had who stood up and voted against Obama's desires.
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A Forty-year Tradition Comes To An End
(3/10/2013)   For 40 years the University of Alabama alumni association in Knoxville, Tennessee, met in a room in the University of Tennessee's visitor center--but no more. Ostensibly, a potential student's folks heard a poorly timed "Roll Tide" come from the meeting room and that was the end of the meeting space.
Most Alabama fans know the truth...rocky top just isn't flat enough ground for them to learn how to play football.
Roll TIDE! Roll!
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What Does It Take To Make Us Depose Our Would-be King?
(3/5/2013)   Under the US Constitution, our President--yes, that's President, not King!--is supposed to enforce the laws of the United States of America whether he likes them or not. Passing and changing the laws is the job not of the Executive, but of the Congress. Once Congress has done its job and the sitting President has signed off on them (or the Congress has overridden his veto), the Executive has the job of enforcing and, yes, defending those laws.
Yet here we are with a President who openly says he will not enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). In fact, his administration's Solicitor General has filed briefs against DOMA. If the Constitution does not allow the President to decide which US laws are acceptable, since when does his Solicitor General get permission to do it?
So, just how much does it take before we try to dethrone the would-be king? Surely the Congress has someone with enough guts to challenge our campaigner-in-chief and stand up for DOMA. If not, how far will we let him go before someone stands up to him?
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Three True Stories You Won't See On TV
(3/10/2013)   First, Mr. Sloan is correct when he says the liberal media won't be telling you about this, but you should know that Hobby Lobby may be closing and you should know why it is closing. Mr. Sloan's letter is freely available to explain what your government is up to. So, please, check out the full story using this link:
http://www.sfaw.org/newswire/2013/03/01/hobby-lobby-may-close/
Second:
How's your knowledge of the Hebrew Bible? You surely remember how many times we are admonished to follow God's word, deviating neither to the left nor to the right. But do you remember the names of the only two cities God specifically destroyed and why He destroyed them? Here's a hint, God said the things they did were damned in His sight. Remember that--it's still in the Hebrew Bible (A.K.A. Old Testament)...look it up.
keeping those two cities and God's admonitions to follow his word deviating neither left nor right (hmmmmm...interesting word "deviating"), you should know about this latest story concerning a business you probably thought you knew all about. Click on this link and see where your money is going.
http://www.afa.net/Detail.aspx?id=2147533038
Third:
You may have noticed how hard the liberals are working to disarm the American citizen in spite of our Second Amendment rights. Please, check out this article and take a minute to watch the video--if you think it can't happen in America, this should open your eyes.
http://savingourfuture.com/2013/03/see-police-confiscate-guns-from-americans/

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Questions to Ponder
(3/4/2013)   Social Security, Medicare, sequester, fiscal cliff, and more...all of it revolving around a $16 trillion deficit that we cannot pay, a weakened dollar, still-high unemployment, and more.
So here's a question: what would the US Government do with an extra $450 million. Of course, if you say, "That's a mere drop in the bucket." The next question is this, $450 million is about what the "tax the rich" initiative our campaigner-in-chief is out spending millions to promote. So...isn't that "a mere drop in the bucket?" Isn't one just as much to be desired as the other? After all, they're equal in value. So what's the difference? The difference is that one of the two could be savings--and just the beginning of savings at that. The other taxes those who might just go out and start businesses that would produce jobs and still more taxes.
Here's another question: is it intelligent or is it stupid to give some of the most potent weapons systems we have to a government that is sworn to destroy one of our major allies? How about if that same government is constantly doing things to tell us we're not their friends and they want to see us destroyed, too? Smart or stupid? Oh, and suppose there's no other government that poses any real threat to the one we're talking about? So why do we want to give them such powerful weapons when we could easily end up facing them ourselves.
What am I talking about? Well, just check out the fighter jets and the money we're sending to "President" Morsi of Egypt. Then you might want to check out the history of his comments about Israel and, for that matter, his actions toward the USA. Yep, somewhere around $450 million plus those fighter jets. Now, our newest Secretary of State, fresh from being a war hero in the Nam (so he said) has declared these gifts to be necessary and proper.
So here's one last question: how many of our senior citizens on Medicare could receive better medical treatment if we weren't sending all this money to Egypt? How many US citizens could be helped with that much money?
Ponder those questions and try to convince yourself that sending all this "foreign aid" and "military aid" dollars to those who proclaim themselves as enemies of democracy, as our antagonists, as anti-American, isn't stupid. You can't convince me.
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You Might Think The US Patent Office Had A Brain?
(2/26/2013)   I think you'd be wrong. So here's a bit of news for us all. An Italian maker of jeans owns a patent on the name "Jesus." Since 2007 they've held ownership of this name as a registered trademark here in the United States. So far, it seems these folks have limited their imposition of trademark rights to people who would use the name "Jesus" on competing products and they SAY they don't care if a church prints tees with the name of our Lord and Savior on them. One thing they all know is that they have to ease into such radical new approaches to be successful in doing away with Christianity. But whenever they want to, these people can enforce that trademark to stop anyone from putting "Jesus" on any piece of clothing or clothing-related accessories. Then they can easily attack other uses of the name. Ask any lawyer who knows anything about trademark law.
Of course, the liberals would have conniptions if something like this offended another group. Just say the Italian company held a trademark on the name "Allah" or "Mohammed." What if they held a trademark on "MLK?" How about if they trademarked "Rabbi?" "Yahweh?" "Moses?" With any of these there would be an outcry so loud it would rock the country. The liberal media would be absolutely livid, proclaiming the unfairness, the horror, the injustice, etc., ad nauseum. But hey, this is an affront to Christians so it's OK.
At least, that's what they would have you accept.
And, as liberals do whenever they know they have no logical, reasonable sane way to argue against anyone or anything, they'll use their foul gutter language and launch all kind of personal attacks at folks like me who have the chutzpah to say that this trademark is an affront to Christians and it should be revoked. Well, for those liberals' benefit let me say right now that like Paul, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am ashamed of my once-great nation that it allows anyone to offend so many of its citizens by awarding anyone, let alone a foreign company, a trademark on the name of Jesus. And I intend to bring this up with my Senators and with my House Representatives to see if we can't get it revoked.
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So You Think You Know The GOP?
(2/26/2013)   Some 75 GOP leaders have signed a legal brief proclaiming homosexual marriage is a Constitutional right. You know, like free speech, owning and bearing a gun, etc. Was one of your state leaders in this group? You may find the site offensive, but you'll find a list of these GOP members here.
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A Word About "Entitlements"
(2/26/2013)   Have you noticed the way some of our politicians want to blame the "entitlement" programs for all our financial problems. Both the Democrats and their cronies, and the GOP leaders want to cut entitlements.
Let's talk about the history behind this. It was a Democrat-controlled Congress that voted to take the money out of the Social Security fund and spend it on useless pork projects. Why? So they could be assured of reelection. Many of us have been forced, quite literally, to pay into these "entitlement" programs for years. We had no choice and we had no choice on how the money was invested and/or spent. Bottom line: Congressmen spent it left and right.
Now they're quick to point out that the average American who goes on Social Security will spend more than he/she put into it. They ignore that it should have been earning interest all this time and the money SHOULD be there. And they ignore the fact that many Americans will die before getting any money out of it or too soon to get very much out of it. Ever hear them talk about that? Of course not. They'll be too happy to say, "The money's not there!"
And there's another problem the Congressmen don't talk about--illegals are getting money from the systems, both Medicare and Social Security, that they never paid into or, if they did, they didn't pay into for long. Don't believe it? Go to the local Social Security offices and look around. And this is not to mention that under Obama's "redistribution of wealth" planning, more are getting help for "disabilities" than ever before. I've seen some of them and I've known some of them--betcha they can outwork you any day of the week when they want to. But why bother?
So our Congressional leaders don't want to talk about why the money's not there for Social Security and Medicare. And the Democrats, especially, don't want to talk about cutting ANY spending. Or do they?
They are talking about cutting back on what the seniors who are dependent upon these "entitlement" programs have to live on. Read on.
The Social Security program has an annual cost-of-living adjustment built into it. They don't consider enough of the goods and services we all have to have to live--silly things like food, utilities, housing, gasoline, etc.--to make it an accurate accounting. Still, with no alternatives available, one supposes it's better than nothing when unchecked thieves let you keep anything. Now they've spent our money and they want to change the way they calculate the cost-of-living so they don't have to pay out as much. They call their new idea a "chained" calculation. How does it differ from the old way of doing it? Well, they realize that if those seniors who are wholly dependent upon Social Security cannot possibly buy steak or afford to eat out, they still have to eat something--even if it's really lousy. And since it won't be steak, it's cheaper. As it stands, it won't be hamburger either--think cheaper than that. So it will be cheaper still. The same is true for housing and all the rest. There's the chain. Their quality of life has been cut so far below where it should be that we should, they say, cut the cost-of-living to account for the chain of degradation these seniors have already experienced in their quality of living. How's that for not cutting "entitlement" programs.
Don't take my word for it...do a bit of research and you'll see what's going on. By the way, "entitlement" was coined because you're entitled to get back the money you SHOULD have when you retire. For the sake of the millions of our relatives who are dependent upon Medicare and Social Security, let's try to keep the Congress from forgetting why the word "entitlement" was coined.
And for you younger folks...good luck on ever getting back what you're entitled to.
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Is The GOP About To Sell Out Again?
(2/26/2013)   ONE: The Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), said yesterday that he's interested in writing legislation this year "improving background checks for gun buyers" and cracking down on illegal firearms sales. If that sounds to you like a thinly veiled attempt to fool us into believing the GOP isn't about to sell out to the OLiar gun grabbers, that's because it does sound exactly like that's what's going on.
On the positive side, the honorable Representative--I hope he is honorable--did actually mention that many of the problems we've seen are because the government refuses to work on the problem of preventing the mentally ill from obtaining guns. Also on the positive side, the man said he does not believe the existing laws are being enforced AND that he opposes OLiar's designs on "assault weapons" and "large-capacity magazines"--if it holds 11 rounds that makes it a "large-capacity clip" in his mind. And watch out--the Democrats want to ban "semi-automatic" weapons which, technically is any weapon that fires when the trigger is pulled...think about that one for a minute. What's left?
Until yesterday, Rep. Goodlatte had a policy of awaiting the Senate's version of a gun control bill before proceeding. Now he's made a sea change and exactly where that is taking us deserves close attention because we have recent, previous reasons to suspect a sell-out--this time of our Second Amendment rights.
TWO: John McCain and "other" US Senators are scheduled to meet with Obama on Tuesday to discuss amnesty, er...immigration policies. Exactly who will attend the meeting is not yet known, but you can bet we're about to be sold out if McCain has his way. He has favored giving those who illegally entered and lived in our country amnesty for years. Obama will stand and do what he does best. He'll brag about how great our border security is and how he is responsible for the vast improvements there. (Talk to someone who lives along our Southern border and you'll hear the truth which is not close to the government's take on things.)
In every poll, the American public wants to see our borders secured BEFORE we have an immigration policy. This begs the question: don't these clowns work for the American public?
THREE: The President is back from his latest round of golf. Joe probably flew in to play with him (at taxpayer expense, of course). The big-dollar-media finally found something they didn't like about Obama--none of them were invited to even be on the course with him. I think I'll cry.
Congress is back from their "district" meetings, too. So, next week we'll finally see what they do about the sequestration problems. Let's be clear. With our debt standing at $16.5 TRILLION all the sequestration does at its best is cut our growing debt by $85 Billion. It doesn't even touch the existing debt. OBama, who says the amount we owe China and others is not a problem at all, is still playing politics by blaming all our financial problems on the top 5%, economically, of our people. And how stupid are we as a nation? Around half of our people actually think that taking more tax from the top 5% would save us from financial ruin. And while they're peddling this lie and trying to make the GOP look bad, the Democrats steadfastly resist ANY real spending cuts.
So, backed into a political corner where they're afraid they're going to look bad, we'll be very lucky if the GOP doesn't back down and sell us out again--they'll let that top 5% pay another 5% in taxes and we'll get a promise of "future spending cuts"--just like always. If they stand fast and allow sequestration to occur, watch Obama blame all our troubles on them until they give in and surrender to the Democrats with "savings" so minimal it won't matter at all...that's to let them save face.
So there you have three possible sellouts the GOP can spring for. Then they'll wonder why the conservative electorate doesn't bother to go out and vote for them...again.
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An Open Letter To My US Senators and Congressman
(2/16/2013)

"Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Have you been back here in your home state lately? Have you spoken with voters here lately? Have you dared broach the question of new gun laws? Well, as one of your constituents, I want to tell you that I expect you to protect the Second Amendment AND our Second Amendment rights.
Total registration by whatever name, including "Universal Background Checks" is nothing but a thinly veiled attempt to register all firearms and we all know that next comes "mandatory buybacks with no exemptions." We all also know that means "confiscation." Despite what you and your Washington buddies may think, we're not so stupid that you can put this over on us.
If you want to actually cut back on gun violence, put some of OBankruptUs's deficit spending into mental health treatments for the small percentage of our population that really is dangerous and then leave the rest of us alone.
By the way, have YOU ever wondered why the liberal media isn't up there proclaiming that all these nut cases who went out shooting innocents were NRA members? Think about that for just a minute. If they could say that and back it up, you know they would.
Have you ever wondered why the states and cities with the worst, most intrusive gun laws have the highest crime rates while those with the least intrusive gun laws have the lowest crime rates? Have you ever noticed that the same thing is true for the developed nation states around the world? Could there be a pattern here? You betcha!
Have a great day and remember this...we're watching you back here. If you don't vote AND WORK against this Obummer gun grab effort, rest assured I and many like me will work against you when it comes time for you to stand for reelection. We won't let anyone forget what you did--and did not--do.
Why don't YOU take a few minutes and tell those who represent you in the Congress of these United States how you feel about the Obama gun grab efforts? Heck, if you don't want to write one of your own, use "copy" and "paste" and use my letter--just sign it and include your address so they know you're able to backup that you'll work against their reelection. Or, you can, of course, sit back, have a drink, and watch the boob tube until they do to America what Stalin did in Russia, what Mao did in China, what Castro did in Cuba, and what Hitler did in pre-WWII Germany. (Most recently they did it in Australia where the crime rate has skyrocketed.) The choice is yours. But, here's a final thought: remember the words of those who lived during Hitler's rise to dictatorship, "We're an advanced civilization. Nothing like that can ever possibly happen here." Can it?
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So I Went With ComponentOne -- A Case Study
(10/9/2012)   For the last four months we've been working hard to produce our first ^ŽWindows 8 applications. It's an entirely new paradigm if you're a developer, and there's a pretty steep learning curve involved if you're doing more than adding just a few bits to the Visual Studio^Ž template. We'll discuss more on this transitional effort in the coming days, but for now, let's leave it at that.
We reached a point where we knew we needed to add some eye candy--the program did its main functions quickly, accurately, and with a minimum of user effort, but it lacked the visual appeal to make it appear desirable to potential customers, especially in a consumer market place. At that point, we began looking around. Sure we could build our own "component" to do the job. We've always done that before. This time, however, I encountered some folks at CodeStock in Knoxville. They're nice, sharp guys and we talked about a number of things, including the possibility of utilizing someone else's controls/components. They spoke highly of two different vendors, so we decided, based upon this, to dig deeper into the possibilities.
Our primary concerns was time. First, we wanted to get our software done as soon as possible so we can have it available for purchase before the Christmas rush. Second, we wanted to be sure to take the most economically beneficial method of achieving our goals. Sure, we could develop it, but how long would it be before the cost exceeded the cost of using a third-party vendor's software. The question boiled down to this: can we use a third-party vendor's "stuff" cheaper and with as much accuracy as we could develop our own. If the question was a slight, "Yes," we might still roll our own. But, if the question was a resounding "No" we wanted to try the third-party route.
I spoke with representatives from both of the recommended vendors both at CodeStock in Knoxville and again at DevLink in Chatanooga as well as folks from a couple of others. We obtained typical licensing prices from these two vendors. The results were promising. One of the two vendors gave us right-to-use licenses right now because their ^ŽWindows 8 setup was still in beta and they wanted feedback. The other, made no such offer up front, but their prices still made it economically attractive, especially considering our time element, and since ^ŽWindows 8 was still in beta at the time, the same kind of deal was offered.
By the time of DevLink we had already decided on and had begun working with the free components as our first choice to try--hey, wouldn't you? At first, it seemed great! The graphing control we wanted to use set up and in about a day we had an initial trial up and working. The control looked good--not great, but good enough. Its accuracy was fine. We were looking at what appeared to be a great success. Then we noticed a little problem. We needed to have a graph that would change if we changed the input data. Since the chart's examples used an observable collection, we fully expected it to do just that. The theory was that it would "observe" the incoming collection of data and when it changed, so would the graph. The truth was a disappointment--the graph didn't change. Even if we "wired" it to a fixed array and tried to redraw the graph after changing the data it was static and unchanging. Remembering it was in beta, we decided to give it a chance, but to begin looking at ComponentOne's stuff at the same time. At that point, we sent emails asking for the first vendor's help. We can't blame them for the fact that we had a problem in our email server and it dumped their responses into a black spam hole from which they have never and will never emerge. Faced with what appeared to be no response, I phoned their representative and asked for help. He informed me that he was on his way to Bulgaria, the company had a lot going on, etc., etc. Some two days later, we finally got an email from their support folks. Basically, it asked, "What's going on?" (Let's hope they make it dynamic when it comes out of beta.)
Meantime, faced with an unsuccessful trial using the first third-party vendor's stuff, we immediately turned to our second third-party vendor, ComponentOne, and spun up a trial using their stuff. In less than a day, start to finish, we had an initial trial up and working well. Needless to say, we were far more skeptical this time--we were not nearly as ready to embrace it as a success--so we tested it a lot more. Then, we tested it some more. We added features as we learned about them, and it just got better. After hours of testing our code and the ComponentOne control, we were satisfied...this was more like it. The control is a bit easier to use than that of the competetor proved to be--see the code lines below--and if you feed it a different set of data and let it re-graph, it is dynamic. The graph changes with it as you'd expect.

Just so you'll know, the screen we generate looks something like this and the ComponentOne graphing component is, well, it's obvious where it is:

The code specifically used for the ComponentOne chart looks similar to this:
ComponentOne-specific Xaml
          xmlns:C1Chart="using:C1.Xaml.Chart"

ComponentOne-specific C#
using C1.Xaml.Chart;
           c1Chart1.Data.Children.Clear();
           //Create a single-series for our two layers--principle and interest. Also label the two while at it
           DataSeries ds1 = new DataSeries();
           ds1.Label = "Principle";
           DataSeries ds2 = new DataSeries();
           ds2.Label = "Interest";
           //init values for setup
           Int64[] PriceP = { 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0 };
           Int64[] PriceI = { 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0 };
           String[] sColumnNames = { " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " ", " " };
           c1Chart1.View.AxisY.Min = 0;
           c1Chart1.View.AxisY.Max = nOne;
           c1Chart1.View.AxisY.MajorUnit = Convert.ToInt64(nOne * .1);
For each value we're going to graph, we're in a do loop and we set values as:
           PriceP[nJ] = nYPrinciple;
           PriceI[nJ] = nYInterest;
Then:
           //set price data
           ds1.ValuesSource = PriceP;
           ds2.ValuesSource = PriceI;
           //add series to the chart
           c1Chart1.Data.Children.Add(ds1);
           c1Chart1.Data.Children.Add(ds2);
           //add item names
           c1Chart1.Data.ItemNames = sColumnNames;
           //set chart type
           c1Chart1.ChartType = ChartType.ColumnStacked;
           //financial formatting
           c1Chart1.View.AxisX.AnnoFormat = "c";
           //axis annotation rotation
           c1Chart1.View.AxisX.AnnoAngle = 60;
           //adjust the chart's color scheme appearance
           c1Chart1.Palette = Palette.Metro;
           c1Chart1.Theme = ChartTheme.MediaPlayer;
Oh, and did I mention that we had a question or two as we went through all this. Having never seen ComponentOne's stuff before and with time as a major element of concern, it seemed prudent to contact their support folks and ask them our questions rather than just trying to figure it all out by ourselves. In well under 24 hours, I had a response. We had already found most of our answers online by then, but they hung loosely with us until we were happy that we had met our needs and were happy with it all...just what they should all do.
As you may have guessed by the title, I went with ComponentOne over the competition. The name of our app is "Burn The Mortgage!" It's from ITSBITS^Ž and you'll soon be able to download it to your sizzling-fast new ^ŽWindows 8 tablet and figure out how to save lots of money on your house payments.
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