December 2009 Archives

As I sat down to watch President Obama's speech last night I wanted to try and be as objective as possible about what he was going to say. Although my personal preference would be to begin the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan, or at least to not escalate our 8-year old and counting involvement there, I knew that neither one of those was going to be the case. The three major areas I wanted...

The Salvation Army and the Outreach Program Inc., a charity that distributes toys for the Houston Fire Department, are now checking the immigration status of children receiving toys this year.  Both the Salvation Army and the HFD have a long history of charitable action.  I would ring the Christmas bell for the Salvation Army during my college years.  I also try to give to the boot for the Fire Department as well.  These organizations for...

Those of you that are music fans will easily recall the "Summer of Love" in 1967 when bands like the Beatles produced landmark albums like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heartclubs Band and the whole scene in San Francisco was something to behold. Psychedelia replaced the bubble gum pop of just a few years before and everything had to have a deeper meaning. So called hippies even believed they could have an effect on politics and society....

As we await President Obama's speech from West Point tonight on sending a reported 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan (sigh) there is so much conflicting information, so many contradictory statements, and frankly, so much bullshit coming out of those who are supposedly in the know, that it's difficult to know what to believe or expect. I'll start with this:"The new deployments, along with 22,000 troops he authorized early this year, would bring the total U.S....

Today's political world is based on "he who pays gets to play".  Corporations have learned that spending money on Washington gets results.  Recent lobbying efforts by the healthcare industry has helped push thru watered down healthcare reform measures that will guarantee an increased customer base without any real protection from price gouging by the insurance companies.  Sure the insurance companies have fought tooth and nail over reform, but they know if reform does pass they...