It's been an interesting few weeks of noteworthy events. It started with the Republican, Scott Brown, winning the Senate seat that had been almost the personal property of Teddy and the Kennedys. Follow that up with the terrible magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti on January 12, the currently ongoing domination of the US in the Winter Olympics in Vancouver (current count 36), and now the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile. What does it all mean? I'm sure there are people who will try to put some significance to this, such as the end of the world, or something like that. The fact is, it means nothing much, except a blip on the timeline of the history of the world. For example, there have been over 180 earthquakes of magnitude 2.5 and above just in February of this year (2010)  five of which have been over magnitude 6.0, including one of 6.9 magnitude on the China-Russia-North Korea border just 10 days ago. Perhaps it's the 24 hour cable news channels who always are looking for something to sensationalize. Or it could be that we've had a relatively long period of nothing really notable leading up to this point since the 2008 election of Barack Obama. To me, this all just is life. Kingdoms come, and kingdoms go. Civilizations have come and gone. Natural disasters have happened time and again. And the world is still here. Only God knows when the end will be. And that's OK. Not only is that OK, it's the only way we should want it. Can you imagine if we knew that next week a 9.5 earthquake would hit Southern California? What panic, chaos, pilfering and human suffering that would ensue? I think it would probably be even worse than when/if it happens with no warning. We just need to live our lives prepared. Be ready for the worst, and live like it will be the best. That's the way the Lord intended it to be.

Have you ever seen a trillion dollars? OK - let's say this little zero "0" is $1. I am now going to put a trillion dollars on this page. Here we go . . .

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000 . . . Just Kidding . . .

Really though. I just saw today where they say the deficit will be $9 trillion in 10 years! Let's do the math. There are roughly 6.75 billion people on the face of the earth. We have roughly 375 million of them here in good ole US of A. That's roughly 1/2 of one percent of the world population. There are currently about 116 million households with a mean income (that means half above and half below) of $50,000. So, with 116 million households earring income, the bill for each household for the deficit will be about $77,800. Great, where do you want me to send the check? I don't know about you, but that's more than I paid for my house (I live way out in the country), more than the value of all the vehicles I've ever owned, combined, and way more than over half of the households in the country earn in a year. How may years of income taxes does it take for you to pay (that's money you don't get back in any given year) that much? I've never come close to that amount with everything I've ever paid! And where is this money coming from? Let's see, the Chineese and Saudi's own most of the real estate in the nation already, so we can't mortgage that. Hummm, since we can't sell the buildings, how about the National Parks and Forests! Sure, sell the good old US of A herself! Why not? It's not worth much if you can't afford to live on her, right?

If anything is true, it's that Americans are resilient. Look how fast we bounced back after Perl Harbor and 911. Like the Toby Keith song, "this big dog will fight if you rattle it's cage". The will of the people in the heartland is much greater than the collective idiot of the Republicans and Democrats and few Independents in Washington, D.C. Like Hank Jr. sings, "a country boy will survive!" This nation can survive. We all need to wake up and stand up for what is right. The silent majority has found it easier to be silent for way too long. Now, we've gotten what we've not asked for, and not spoken out against. The recent "Tea Parties" in some of our cities is very symbolic of what I am talking about. They may seem futile and a bit silly at first, but I hope they are the start of a collective awakening of this nation, to what is right, and just and necessary. And that we will all remember that freedom comes with both responsibility and a price. The price has been paid - the lives of thousands of our bravest. We must honor the price they paid by holding up our end - the responsibility end. It's time to wake up Americans! Let's take back our nation, our economy and the way of life our fathers and brothers and sisters have given their lives for! Let's make this nation great once again! It's not too late. It may be painful and it may get a lot scarier before it's through. But it's not too late and we can do this! Be strong, and do the right thing!

Last evening in Costa Rica, a 24 year old extreme motorbike jumper (ala X-Games) named Jeremy Lusk was killed in a crash. I have to be the first to admit that I have watched these types of events in awe of the stunts they pull off. However, I have also been repeating to my family that somebody will be killed doing this (or the freestyle snowboarding, or freestyle skateboarding, or freestyle bmx biking). The stunts they pull off have been getting increasingly bigger and bigger. You knew it was just a matter of time before the limit was reached. Now, I also have to admit that I love racing. And the number of race car drivers killed over the years far exceeds the number of X-Gamers. So where is the justification? What is the point I'm trying to make? Everything we do has risk. I tell my kids that every time they climb behind the wheel of a car to drive to school or a friends house, there is a risk that they will not make it home alive. It's a risk we are willing to take. But there is a difference. The difference is that in driving, or even racing, the point is not to keep pressing the envelope or raising the bar like it is in the extreme sports. Take NASCAR. They actually keep slowing the cars down. The point is not to keep setting speed records, it's to be the best driver with then best equipment where the speed playing field is mostly relegated. When my kids drive, they are (supposed to be) bound by speed limits and driving restrictions - all in the name of safety. But these extreme sports know no bounds. The whole point is to keep pushing to the next height, the next rotation, the next flip. The point is to keep doing more. That's the difference. No safety precautions have been taken in these. It's all young, exuberant talent that gets excited when the brush with disaster has been survived. A couple of years ago, the young skateboarder Jake Brown came within a gnats eyelash of meeting the same fate as Jeremy Lusk in the 2007 X-Games freestyle jumps. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLJe9ISn7XE) Yet, the next year, they were pushing the limits again, and they will surely push further this coming summer. I have told my family that I refuse to watch any more X-Games or extreme sports. I am not going to continue to patronize our country's obsession with pushing the limits just for the thrill. I do not believe that this feeding frenzy of excitement that our young people embrace today is healthy. We are no longer shocked by the site of somebody meeting their maker. YouTube, Most Shocking, Hollywood and the video game industry have taken the "shock" factor away. This is not good, and I believe we will reap more and more "benefits" from it. I believe it goes deeper than even that. I believe that the respect for life is gone. So what if somebody dies? That seems to be more and more the attitude of this land - at a younger and younger age. What do our kids have to look forward to if they have lost their innocence by age 7 or 8? No wonder they turn to more extreme, more daring, more drugs, more of everything . . . .

Today is historic, there is no doubt about that. The first non-"European-white-male" in the history of our nation was sworn in as it's 44th president. To me, what is even more telling of our time, is some of the things that took place in and around the swearing in ceremony. For example, as still at the time, President Bush arrived at the Dias, a crowd of totally classless, ignorant, disrespectful people were chanting like they were at a football game, singing, "Nah nah nah nah, hey hey, good-bye,". I believe I could safely bet a month's salary that 95% of these participants could not tell you the names of their Senator or Representative. Is this the caliber of people who elected our new president? I wonder if this is representative of the level of social conscience that determined our exiting president should have an approval rating of under 25%? If so, This scares me, and should scare you. I truly wish Obama the best. We need something to rally around. We need this country to come together and feel good about itself. We need the rest of the world to feel good about us, the U.S. But if Obama was elected on the merits of idiots like those at the following link [http://www.wjno.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=244038&article=4878923] then we don't have much to feel good about starting off this administration. I hope these types of behavior are the bottom of the barrel, and things climb steadily upward from this day forth.

The reports today (Black Friday, 2008) from a Long Island, NY Walmart, that a 34 year old part-time temporary worker was trampled to death as "holiday shoppers" stormed the store for "bargains" is just unbelievable. Watching the interviews of witnesses who say shoppers just marched over the body on the floor of the store in pursuit of discounts on TV's and other electronics, just makes me sick. What is wrong with people? I cannot, for the life of me, get into the minds of these people. How could any TV be worth that. Even as others tried to come to the aid of the pummeled employee, they, too, were injured and trampled. People are just sick. This is just another example of how far the moral fiber and the collective conscience of this once great nation has decayed. Human life has been relegated to the value of a fly on the windshield. I just wonder how many of the people who stomped the body of the worker, as he lie in their path, will feel even a twinge of remorse when and if they ever hear of what they were a part of? Probably not. They'll be too busy heading to the next store for more bargains.