Middle America's Worldview

Seems we continue to hear everyday more terrorist attacks partaking by those who follow Islam.



Woman Honor thyself, in this article has shown the full speech by Geert Wilders. Mr. Wilders informs everyone the extreme issue of Europe being Islamocised and taken over geographically/politically by those following Islam. It is worth the reading.

Andrew Bostom also has the full speech.

The great concern when I read this, is the fact, it may be already too late. You can hear their urgency in the message. So why isn't the media on this? It would seem the bloggers and internet writers are the last of free speech.

Speaking of the net and freedom of speech. The Religion of Peace has a very interesting/scary link on Jihad 2.0.

Front page Mag has an article showing the rise of Islamic websites recruiting, indoctrinating, and providing answers to would be terrorist.

Some things the article points out these sites are providing are videos of killing American troops, answers regarding Jihad, Islam's answer for Pedophilia (they are for it).

The servers providing many of these websites have been moved to U.S. due to our Federal Judges protecting said sites under the freedom of speech. Sigh.

Note this idea of Islam taking over geographically/politically is not new. I posted an article back in 2006 regarding Canada being hijacked by Islam.

I'm against the $85,000,000,000.00 bailout of AIG. Instead, I'm in
favor of
giving $85,000,000,000 to America in a We Deserve It Dividend.

To make the math simple, let's assume there are 200,000,000 bonafide
U.S.
Citizens 18+. Our population is about 301,000,000 +/- counting every
man,
woman and child, so 200,000,000 might be a fair stab at adults 18 and
up.

Divide 200 million adults 18+ into $85 billon - that equals
$425,000.00.
My plan is to give $425,000 to every person 18+ as a We Deserve It
Dividend.

Of course, it would NOT be tax free, so let's assume a tax rate of 30%.
Every individual 18+ has to pay $127,500.00 in taxes. That sends
$25,500,000,000 right back to Uncle Sam but it means that every adult
18+
has $297,500.00 in their pocket - a husband and wife has $595,000.00.

What would you do with $297,500.00 to $595,000.00 in your family?

Pay off your mortgage - housing crisis solved.
Repay college loans - what a great boost to new gradsd Put away money
for
college - it'll be there Save in a bank - create money to loan to
entrepreneurs.
Buy a new car - create jobs
Invest in the market - capital drives growth Pay for your parent's
medical
insurance - health care improves Enable Deadbeat Dads to come clean - or
else

Remember this is for every adult U S Citizen 18+ including the folks who
lost their jobs at Lehman Brothers and every other company that is
cutting
back. And of course, for those serving in our Armed Forces.

If we're going to re-distribute wealth let's really do it...instead of
trickling out a puny $1000.00 ( "vote buy" ) economic incentive that is
being proposed by one of our candidates for President.

If we're going to do an $85 billion bailout, let's bail out every adult
U S
Citizen 18+!

As for AIG - liquidate it. Sell off its parts. Let American General go
back to being American General. Sell off the real estate. Let the
private
sector bargain hunters cut it up and clean it up.

Here's my rationale. We deserve it and AIG doesn't. Sure it's a crazy
idea
that can never work but can you imagine the Coast-To-Coast Block Party!

How do you spell Economic Boom?

I trust my fellow adult Americans to know how to use the $85 Billion We
Deserve It Dividend more than do the geniuses at AIG or in Washington
DC.
And remember, The Birk plan only really costs $59.5 Billion because
$25.5
Billion is returned instantly in taxes to Uncle Sam.

Ahhh...I feel so much better getting that off my chest.

Kindest personal regards,

T. J. Birkenmeier

Never freaking ends. I am in a somewhat bum mood this morning. Seems the weekends just fly away and we are staring at yet another week of work.eat,sleep, and running.

Sigh.

The endless cycle.

On a high note, I was able to attend the "Worldview Weekend" over the weekend. It was held locally Saturday night. There were 3 keynote speakers and each were awesome! I went in with a $50 dollar limit and purchased the $49.95 box special. Hundred dollars more and you could have every book, dvd, offered. But, I didnt really want to push that much anyway. The seminar was free to attend and it looked to have a full house that showed up. I didn't hear the head count, but the speakers mentioned more than once they were surprised how many showed.

The 3.5 hours went rather quickly. The archeologist showed rare video of findings at the real Mt. Sinai. Artifacts showing a mennorrah dating 5-6 hundred years before Christ, minimum. It looks to be the earliest known writings of the Jewish people. Very cool.

To check out Worldview Weekend, check out the site.

We had another special board meeting last night. We all hope this is the last one till our next regular board meeting.

This last weekend went too fast. I had to be up early Sunday morning for work. They were upgrading their servers again. This time effecting 4 facilities. After about 2 hours, they retracted and called it off due to complications.

So with the work Sunday, School Board Monday night, my work/eat/little sleep run continues.

I have at least 3 conference calls scheduled today, already.

I found this very interesting article regarding, what it takes to be a Hacker.

How to be a Hacker is a good read and defines a true hacker, very well.

Too often one's own ideas of a subject is simply incorrect. The real issue is if those individuals attempt to define their own incorrect ideas on others.

I survived the first day of 6 for Co-op. I was able to take 1/2 days for the 6 Thursdays in order to provide 2 hrs of computers.

The first hour I provided a powerpoint session on the history of computers, then ended the hour with shortcuts, speaking of the net as we went.

The second hour we touched on the history of the GML, HTML, XML and provided a brief look at HTML and its contents. And yes, another powerpoint presentation to move through the topics.

My boss ladies allowed me to leave after our 1 p.m est team call. But of course unlike our past cancelled calls, or 15 minute ones, this one dragged the full hour. I expected to be out of there by 1:30 est, but I swear, one of them purposely spoke this time to delay me. This same one had said 4 words (maybe) in the last 5 meetings, if we had them.

OH well, after leaving the house without the wireless router and turning around to get it, we made it to the church.

Being there a bit late and with myself and wife only putting together 10+ rooms, starting my class a bit late, one word on Co-op - EXHAUSTING.

Speaking 2 hours was a bit tougher than I expected. My class consists of twelve in the first hour and 14 for the second. I immediately conveyed to them, I wanted the class to be driven by them and their interest in what we covered. I did not want to provide presentations, rather an interactive setting. The class was to be given to them. "I am here for you and your interest." Only about 2 provided me some feedback in what they wanted to see out of these 6 weeks. So we will go with it.

This is an opportunity on both sides. Seems Co-op really doesn't offer much for the older kids, and this being my first time in this type of environment, something really oool can come out of it.

It did provide me a greater appreciation for both teachers and my wife directing this thing.

Although exhausting, it was very satisfying to see little light bulbs go off while explaining things. (smile)

This week and last has been exhausting.

Last week, I had on-call all week, 2 school board meetings, church, time with my Dad for his birthday, registration for a fall co-op, my wife being sick, and whatever else thrown my way. Sigh.

This week hasn't slowed down. Another school board meeting, first time at a cubscout meeting, church, work, and little sleep. The first day of Fall Co-op is tomorrow and I continue to worry of my first presentations. Sigh.

Off to church again.

Everyone takes some idea or statement and runs with it. However, Stop the ACLU seem to find a word for word copy Obama used at a rally.

Oh man, where can I watch this?

Very interesting.

Check out Jeff Emanuel's Comparison with Palin and Obama article. Yes, again a comparison is done on Vice-President candidate to President Candidate. However, this is too rich.

I learned of the article on Stop the ACLU's Call Obama (Uh-bama) a WAAAAH!bulance! article.


LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

I commented about one of my birthday gifts, 3 months of free Netflix in a prior post.

Now the 3 months is coming to an end, we are brought to a decision, should we keep Netflix?

We probably will. I normally do not rent that many movies. I have spells, where I will grab two or three movies within the month, if time allows me on a weekend. That is also dependent upon anything decent is out.

So if I don't rent that many movies to begin with, why is Netflix so cool?

1) The ability to view movies online, anytime. Netflix refers this as "Instant viewiing". I would like to see more options of the tv series for online viewing. I have been able to view many shows, I normally would not have seen. Namely, MI5, Sleeper Cell, documentaries such as Super High Me, ect. What's really nice is the ability to view without waiting. I must say, this particular function of Netflix has spoiled me. The normal turnaround of movies is 2 days. However, one you begin using 'Instant View', those 2-3 days seem longer. This has also provided a means to introduce me to great viewings, I wouldnt have otherwise known or been interested in spending money to "try". Normally at a video store, you put out the money to "try" a title, only to be disappointed with it. Whereas, on instant viewing you try out titles and if it sucks, you only wasted some time on it.

2) Search functions for movies. No more calling up the local video store or trolling through the store for a movie. Netflix boasts to have over 100K titles. That sounds good, but realistically for each individual, they are not going to want to watch them all. So each individual would need to view his/her interest within Netflix's database. I find the search easy for Netflix.





You can simply look for any title, via the search function or Netflix actually has a cool "More like this". This tab shows similar titles of interest upon the one your currently viewing. It's a great means to see a title you may not had known, but falls in the same genre of your interest.

3) One monthly balance. When I was running to the video store, the cost was dependent upon how many titles I chose. Whereas Netflix, you know how much your monthly cost of video renting will be. It remains the same, dependent upon your choice of programs. This may seem silly, but in the long run and on budgets, it worthy to be noted.

4)The rating system. Regarding the personal rating system, I am sure it has more implication on the movies Netflix offers than I am aware of. What's nice is the option 'not interested'. This immediately flags certain genres that you do not want to clutter your screen upon browsing for interested subject material.



Netflix continues to try to get you to "rate more movies". I suppose this is to help streamline those possible titles that interest you. It's a great idea. However, what I would like to see is 'family rating' and 'individual rating'. Each household would have different likes/dislikes and it would be interesting to allow up to 4 (for example) household members to rate. This would allow each individual within the home the means to narrow down and possibly open up additional options of viewing.

What I don't like about Netflix
Although the rating system is comprised for a means to mold your interest, it at times seems restrictive. I wonder if I rated some thing differently, would more diverse titles be shown to me? Yet after 1000 ratings, I really don't want to go back and 'play' with them to see.


As I mentioned earlier, I would like to see a multiple rating option per family member.


I would like to see their database opened up to allow programmers to create their own search engines. This may already exist somewhere, but it would be interesting to see an open API, or protocol to allow personal search engines to be created.


I really can't think of anything else. I might write another article as I learn more of Netflix. I would say, it's definitely worth checking out.

They have a deal of 4.99 per month offer, currently. Check out the top of the blog to hit the Netflix button.

I wanted to share something today. In this past year, we have struggled with our insurance company to pay the co-pay on speech therapy. Last year, we had to fight up to December to get them to pay the full year co-pay. They did, eventually.

This year, we were pro-active in setting each thing they requested before the year started. However, again, we have been fighting throughout the year, with no end in sight.

Note, we have been paying cash for each visit since January. Needless to say, its added up.

Now, my wife and son are on their second trip to Austin for doctor visits. Again, paying out of hand, then have to submit the bill to the insurance. Last month’s submittals haven’t been processed by the insurance yet.

My wife called this morning, conveying the initial test was more expensive than last months, and they want additional test, we hadn’t foreseen.

OK, you get the picture and backdrop. What to do?

In comes the blessing. I had seen last week online our insurance finally paid back to the speech therapist a month (not the full year yet). So I knew it was heading their way. This uphill battle looked to be over. I received a call today first from my wife then from the speech therapist secretary. Not only did the insurance pay the co-pay, but more than expected. We have some money coming back to us. ( Since we were paying up front for all those visits).

So not only does the speech issue looks to be resolving, but with the money returning to us, we can pay for the extra test!

I am here to say God does provide blessings, even in this day and age.

My wife and son headed out early this Labor Day to Austin. A followup of doctor visits. God willing they will be back by Thursday night safe and secure.

My daughter stayed with me this time, so we have some quality time together.

We ran all day on Labor Day. We hit about 8 stores, played putt putt golf, and watched Star Wars Clone wars. I wont say who won the putt putt, but I did get two coupons for my birdies (wink).

All in all, I had a blast, enjoying not only the fun times but also my quite time in the car with discussions. I continue to grow amazed at the concept my young daughter has on certain events.

Regarding the movie, my favorite character has to be the new Padawan.
Not only is the character cute, but plays well with the young Skywalker.