Remember back when--??

No this is not a invite to go back and rehash fond memories of your first ice cream cone or day at the beach.----no, ---asking, do you remember back when we had the public debate about free TV versus Pay TV? Look who I am asking?----there are so few of us left. Forget I asked.
Back a number of years ago, the cable companies wanted a bigger slice of the pie and fought to have laws passed that allowed them an ever bigger slice of the TV Pie. Back then , not unlike now, those who could not get a broadcast TV signal due to mtns, being in the way of the TV Towers, or perhaps in a remote area where the signal just flat was to weak to deliver a picture, could at a price (a monthly fee) get cable and get the same tv programming as the rest of the world.---and life was good. The Cable companies wanted more---how about people in big cities where the signal was blocked by tall buildings----then it was how about those that just didn't want to attach a ugly attennae on the roof, shouldn't they be allowed to pay for cable if they wanted??---SO-O-O, the Free VS PAY TV wars broke out-----Long story short---Free TV lost.
The people in the know looking ahead saw that what was needed was a source of new material to feed the jaws of Television broadcasting. "Free TV, quickly signed up all the current actors, comedians, clowns and musicians---and we entered what is called the golden age of TV.
In the Golden age we had great shows ---drama, a whole library of great movies, and an army of young writers and technicians---and we had shows like "The Twilight Zone", "The US Steel hour", "The Ed Sullivan hour"---"I Love Lucy". How great was it?---it was so great that the TV Guide Magazine was the biggest seller, even outdoing "Reader's Digest"!!---but that was then.
Today?? Today TV Guide Magazine is not even in the top ten magazines---the big annual TV award show for best programs the Emmemys---sponsored by ??---yeah you guessed it, one of the Cable companies---if ya want good TV---you gotta pay for it---anyday now I expect the "Donks" (aka the Liberals) to start picketing for we need "free TV"---to late everybody climbed on board the cable wagon---(whose pulling the wagon----oh, ooh yeah, the monthly subscribers)

"HELP ME!! HELP ME!!"

Off to the right of this page you see in the upper right corner the latest buzz widget, listing a few of the latest news nugget/links---here's what I need help with----the "Buzz" widget is fun and informative, but maybe its just waaay to cute, know what I mean? So-o-o---who gives it a thumbs up, and who gives it a thumbs down?---I need YOU my readers to tell me---like hello, this page is for YOU--(lol)---(more or less). Today is Thursday, and I know most of ya fall asleep blogging wise on weekends, what with having real lives and all---so will let this question hang til ---lets say Tues 8/26-----and you readers rule------.

300

WOW, here it is people----POST No. 300------enjoy.

Here in California where we are overly in love with anything that smacks of a healthier life style, I read an interesting article in my Local newspaper, "The Daily News". The topic was titled, "Boxed vino can reduce wine's footprint". I am not a snob by any means---well maybe I am but I will deny it in public.---but hello, nobody that's anybody drinks Wine sold in boxes. At least that has been my understanding since back in College where I first developed my sense of sophistication. (Why is the LP sitting over there laughing himself sick at me??)
The article went on to explain that the vast bulk of American wine production is here on the West coast, whereas the bulk of the wind drinkers are East of the Mississippi. To meet the demand a lot of wine bottles are trucked to the east coast. The carbon-dioxide emissions created trucking the wine across country is calculated to be 5.2 POUNDS per 750 milliliter bottle. (That's a lot of soot people). Whereas if the Wine was packaged in boxes, (the newspaper story mentions 3 liter boxes in the study, that's an equivalent of (4 ) 750ml bottles) the carbon-dioxide emissions) would be about 2.6 pounds .
In summary if 97 percent of all the wine made to be consumed within a year, were shipped in those 3 liter boxes, it would eliminate about 2 MILLION TONS of greenhouse gas emissions per year, or the equivalent of retiring 400,000 cars from the road.
I guess its a fact that the United States has now surpassed Italy in our total consumption of wine, and is closing in on France. (Talking total volume, not per person consumption, we are waaaay behind on that statistic). I neglected to mention that the article did make reference to the fact that Italy's Agriculture Ministry has recently announced that some wines that receive the government's quality assurance label may now be shipped in boxes.
It would seem that this trend to go to boxes is ultimately going to be the "green" thing to do, but I kinda have to ask myself----we already have with the problem of what to do with the zillions of plastic bags----has anyone thought about the tons of empty wine boxes we will have??

"Do Ya Feel Lucky Punk?"

Like any other civilized metropolis---we have our murders, our drive bye shootings, the raided drug deals gone bad, film at eleven stuff, and of course the ever popular slow chase scenarios--you know the ones they interrupt the dumb reality shows with and we get to watch some poor snook drive for hours this way and that with the helicopters overhead keeping track, and the local police taking turns following as they move from one community to another---anyway, here is something to ponder that is WAAY real.
Our fair (but hopelessly financially broke city) has instituted a new fine----this one should strike fear in your wallet, sure did mine anyway---The famous "California rolling stop for right turns)------will now cost you $381.00 if caught by a cop or the ever prolificating intersection camera's.
Seems our City leaders, desperate to raise more revenues to pay for those costly salaries of our City Council members, have decided the invention of intersection cameras and resulting photos, shows that the city can earn waaaaay more bucks nailing slow rolling stop turns than they could of those that blantantly run redlights.
Like hello, what stupid pedistrian is gonna step off the curb and not look to his left first?

Esther Williams

Here's some interesting history a lot of you may not be aware of. In 1940, before she became a famous Hollywood Movie Star, Esther Williams, was a champion women's swimmer, winning both National titles in Freestyle as well as the Breast stroke. She would have been on the Women's Olympic Swim Team for the USA-----but as we all know the 1940 Olympic games were cancelled due to WW II.
She did however get to serve her country joining the ranks of keeping our GI'S moral up, her picture hung in many a GI's locker----and she was one of the many major movie stars of the forties and fifties.
I thought maybe with the 2008 Olympics in progress, and the women's team doing as well as they are----that you all might enjoy this little piece of History.

What The Government Owes Us

There is a lot of misinformation and confused understanding about government spending and borrowing. In a nutshell American is going bankrupt, slowly and surely as things continue as they are.
The single biggest Item of expenditure by the government is The dept of Health and Human Services, who overseas the many poorly thought out and administered social restructuring programs that the liberal congresses have enacted under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. ----A total of 680BILLION in 2007. You should know Presidents have Lil power to effect any change in the overall spending authorized by the National Congress. Its our congress that determines if we spend more than we take in. You can scream and rant and rave about the president all ya want, in fact the congress would prefer to stay out of view.
To give yourself a better grasp of the real national spending patterns our congressional delegates in Washington have voted for us over the last 50 years, check out this web site.

http://www.federalbudget.com/

and remember a good Liberal has yet to find a problem he couldn't throw money at----your money that is-----and ya gotta ask youself, whose gonna pull the wagon when we all pile on to ride? (Think about it???)

Ego Boost

I  of course am following Wayne Johns series on how to make full use of the blogger.com template lessons.  Today in Lesson 8, he discusses and explains the settings tab of our dashboards.  However also in his discourse in the current lesson he makes reference to googling ones blog title, which I of course did and oh wow was I blown away with the total number of references to my blog that came up.  You all might want to check out your own blogs this way.  (1) go to http://www.google.com/,  (2) type or past in the Url of your blog, and click search.  When the results screen comes up, go down to the bottom and click on getting the "complete" list---SHAZAM!! (You can drop in your friends Urls and see their results as well)---gives a person a better feel for the impact of their blog on the bloggosphere.

We Had an Earthquake and I didn't even get a t-shirt

Just before noon today Southern California experienced a good size earthquake. The center of it was In the Chino Hills, and I guess about 8 miles underground. It was measured at 5.4 on the Richter scale, and lasted a 50-60 seconds. It was like riding a roller coaster, once past my initial panic, shut down the computer---incorrectly, but I wanted to get off line before we saw a power surge, and also I wanted to move away from the living room floor to ceiling windows next to my computer station----but then it was over, and ran in to check on the LP in the den, he was already watching some TV station and getting information, like where how big etc, etc, etc..
I did notice it was big enough to slosh water out of the pool (pretty sure pools are not noted for their white cap waves). Other than shaken nerves no damage here. Better yet friends and relatives that live much closer to the epicenter all reported they were okay, ---"shook up good" was one phrase given. For the last several hours all one gets on TV has been reports about this or that city agency being on the ball and dealing with the incident. No lives lost, no schools damaged etc-----one scientist ranting that THIS quake was not the BIG one everyone predicts we are do to have in the next 10 years, that one they estimate will run close to 9 on the Richter scale, which is a magnitude of about 500 times stronger------frankly I survived the 1994 Northridge quake (epicenter about 8 miles from here) measured at 6.9----I woke up kissing my butt good bye that morning-----(shudder). (I didn't get the T-shirt darn it). I don't want to feel what a 9.0 might be like.

Complain If You Must---don't keep that bottled up inside

This week, for some reason some things are really starting to fry my butt----so am gonna off-load here---want to warn you more sensitive happy happy people, best ya skip this post and keep your head in the sand------.
So whats bugging the old dude ya wanna know?---I am totally bummed out over the kids bitching about how miserable they have things, tired of their loud ignorant cater-walling, the sky is falling rhetoric-----.
Maybe its because its an election year, maybe it because we only have a half dozen major media companies and gawd forbid any of em dare to disagree with the others, so the whole group moves in lock step (maybe you recall the WaMu adds about the group of fat old bankers being penned up ----well that's our media today. All run by 40 year olds , getting advice from 30 years old who are still living at home.
I had to actually laugh today listening to a radio announcer reporting the news actually emotionally, his mind boggled, report that housing prices here in So. California had dropped 24 percent from a year a go.---"the sky is falling, the sky is falling", screamed chicken little" The same announcer a moment later added, "New housing starts are at a 17 1/2 year low, and new mortgage rates where 6. 7%----"the sky is falling , the sky is falling---". I purchased my first house in 1975, (in Colorado Springs, Colo.---a beautiful city on the front range of the Rockies), The price (1975) was $138,500" and I obtained a VA mortgage of 7 1/2% fixed. My mtg payment was 279.00/mo-------At the time, I was earning a gross paycheck of $245/Week. I had to drive up to Denver, (75 miles) to argue with the VA to convince them I could afford the mtg payment, and show them how I budgeted my money---I was 38years old at the time)---anyway I got the loan. The laid in concrete rule by loan agencies at the time was your mortage payment could not exceed 1/4 your monthly income. Seems we are getting back to basics in this last year----thats a good thing.
So here we are 33 years later, the mtg rate is wow, under 7%----housing prices have fallen 24 percent from last year----(I remember the year before that it being reported that they were INCREASING 20-25% Year to year---was the sky falling then??). Kids today just don't get it, all their lives, life has been given to them on a platter, they have been patted on the heads, told how great they are (and passed upward grade by grade--don't want to give the kid a trauma---and the parents,--"heres some money go away and play, don't bother us"----but now some have moved out from under their parents umbrella---and a few drops of rain , and total panic----if it wasn't so sad to see how ignorant they are , it would be funny.
Well its an election year, and the media (gotta sell them papers and keep them advertising rates up) have all decided to swing left and push the theme of "Change"----lets bash the ins, promote the new faces----damn the torpedo's full speed ahead----. The finance people, the ones that control the money ain't stupid----and they see the trends, and they act accordingly, one step ahead of the media herd------we NOW have the Liberals taking over congress again, after some absence----watch your congress spend money on new large welfare programs for education, medicare, social security, do not expect a tax cut, lets cancel the money for the war, and spend it on new welfare---hows THAT for Change??----watch too, the cost of living index, ---under the last liberal government it hit double digits---(most kids and people in power today hadn't either been born or were still wearing pull ups).
Okay,that's enough of MY ranting---been there before, and here we are again---life WILL go on----and I have to SALUTE our forefathers who established our government, set up the checks and balances-----who knew the people would be so fickle, and swing left and right ---like who knew??

I Think I Got It!!!

What we have here is a pic of one of the many food items I have been known to consume with a modicum of satisfaction. Yes of course its not as good as MY homemade stew, but in a pinch, it will do. I am using this pic and the others that follow to educate myself on how to post pictures, write text and achieve what I like to refer to as "The Newspaper Column" effect. My problem heretofore is my ignorance of how to use the NEW Blogger plateform editing tools to achieve this goal of mine. I do believe however I have finally figured out how to achieve this look consistently----course time will tell.

As you can now see I have posted an additional pic here in this posting to make things appear a bit more exciting viewing-wise. This is continuing with the theme of this piece, yet another favorite food item for this old dude . More importantly is the placement of the pic is to allow me to continue to type and achieve the "Newspaper Column Look". This new little trick that I have learned in the last couple hours is surprisingly easy one once has played with the steps necessary a few times. I think however what is really really neat is, I am able to achieve this look WITHOUT GOING IN AND ALTERING MY HTML CODINGS, that I am doing this working strictly with the new blogger plateform editing tools which appear at least to this old dude to work just fine.---once ya learn how to use em anyway. I am really quite pleased with myself for figuring this out, and I am sure when I practice using these new found tricks that I will become more creative in their applications. What you see now of course is this old dudes little victory celebration-----and you all can hear the Frank Sinatra song playing in the background " I Did It, MY WAAAAAY".

(AND THE CROWD GOES WILD CHEERING AND YELLING ---MORE, MORE, WE WANT MORE!!!

Do You Know What THE USA Sources are for Electricity Generation?

With the talking heads all throwing their arms about and screaming the sky is falling , the sky is falling (the media just loves tossing negative stories around---good news doesn't sell), about the price of oil, here's a question for ya. Do YOU know where the country gets all its electricity ??(which by the way the USA uses 33 percent of the entire worlds generated Energy).
-----I have to admit I didn't know, and so much for thinking I am plugged in---(sigh). Here is the actual breakdown of where are Electricity generating comes from:

SOURCE PERCENT

Coal 48.6
Natural Gas 21.4
Nuclear 19.4
Hydro (rivers and waterfalls) 5.8
Non0Hydro (Solar, bio-mass, Wind, Geo-thermal hot springs etc) 3.2
Oil 1.6


Now, you got to admit our power companies have planned ahead, they KNOW the world is running out of oil----but did you all know that the USA is the "Saudi Arabia" of coal deposits?? We got Coal coming out our ears folks, so as the oil and natural gas supplies get lower and lower, we got coal to back us up----but wait their IS one small problem----and its the "NIMBY'S", you know those that are screaming we are running out of energy---and then the next thing out of their mouths is---""and I don't want no refineries in MY backyard either, and no coal gasification plants, and city incinerators, --no to wind farms next door----etc, etc, etc. So when your lights grow dim in brown outs, and go out all together in blackouts---thank them Nimby's., or just get real comfortable paying the OPEC whatever they demand for oil---refined into gasoline as NIMBY's have pretty much closed all our national refineries already.

California Ain't Cheap

It was recently announced in our local newspapers that the Los Angeles city in a UNANIMOUS vote of 12 - 0, approved the fiscal budget for the coming year of $7.01 BILLION dollars. To put that figure into perspective---That's more than the entire annual Gross National Income of the entire country of Zimbabwe!!-----and keep in mind that is the Los Angeles CITY budget, and not the Los Angles county-----so when you all come to visit us out here----bring lots of money, and help keep Los Angeles green . (seems all the visits from politicians this year has us running a deficit out here---)----to meet the new budget, seems us home owners get to see the price of trash pick up (once a week) go from $28/mo. to $36/mo.---along with a whole slew of other increases of fees, permits and I don't want to even begin to discuss the cost of Water----which is about to be rationed , in that we are in the midst of a real draught out here.