The Revolution in IA

Ron Paul beat Rudy Giuliani in the Iowa caucuses.  With 10% of the vote, Ron Paul was merely 4% away from 3rd place.  This great showing proves that Ron's message of freedom is a popular one.  Time will tell on how he does in New Hampshire. 

Some people commented that it is disappointing that Ron Paul finished in 5th place.  I think that with the narrow margins separating him from McCain and Thompson, this was a victory, especially considering that he beat the former front-runner (Giuliani).

Moving on to the bigger picture, it is shocking that Obama beat Hillary by 9%.  While Obama has never made this campaign about race, it says something when a mixed raced person can win in a state that is very white and conservative.

And Mitt Romney.  Talk about a disappointment. 

Fantasy Football 2007

Fantasy football 2007 is now over.  I had one main team that I followed throughout the season, most likely because I had money on it.

Though my roster varied throughout the season, here were the highlights:

QB's: Kitna, Warner, E. Manning, Schaub

RB's: Gore, Jones-Drew, Kolby Smith, Ryan Grant.

WR's: TO, Calvin Johnson, Chambers, Chris Henry

TE: Whitten

Overall my team did well, but was too inconsistent, so I lost some close games.  I ended up in 5th place, one spot out of the playoffs.  I beat both teams in the consolation round, and ended up in 5th place.

Total investment:

Buy-in: -$100

2 high scores for the week: $28 * 2 = +$56

Runner up: +$20

Total: -$24

So it cost me $24 to play football this year, plus the $10 I spent on stattracker (which I don't count because it works in all my leagues).  Overall it was a lot of fun and I will play again next year.

Bottom line: Play fantasy football, it's fun.

Nexuiz

I've been playing an interesting game lately.  Apparently it has been around for a long time (2-3 years) but I had never heard of it: Nexuiz.  It is a Quake-like game that is pure deathmatches played online vs. either some bots or other players.  It works for Windows, Mac and Linux.  It is definitely worth checking out; it is quite addictive and also easy to learn.

I think the strangest part of this game is that it is 100% free opensource software.  What this means is that you do not have to pay a penny for it and it is developed by people volunteering their time.

You can download it here: http://www.alientrap.org/nexuiz/index.php?module=downloads

Ron Paul Videos

These are all worth watching:

It's Official: Ron Paul is a contender

Last Sunday, Ron Paul raised over $6M in 24 hours, this is more than any candidate in history in that time frame. 

So what happens next?  People left and right are scared to death about a candidate who has a great amount of support from many different peoples.  So they attack him by showing that he accepted a $500 donation from a white supremacist.  Big fucking deal.  I gave Ron Paul $10 on Sunday, and could have easily given more than $500.  Should they have to do a background check on me before I can donate?  

Ron Paul makes a good point: he will not return the money, because then this guy would have another $500 to spend berating blacks, Jews, or whoever it is that he thinks is inferior.  Ron Paul, on the other hand, can use the money for good.  I agree with Ron and see no problem with him keeping the money.

So, problem over right?  Of course not, this is politics!  

Now another white supremacist (one that is not even much recognized by his fellow whackos) decides to make a statement that Ron Paul goes to dinner all the time at some Thai restaurant in Arlington to meet with white supremacists.  Has Ron been to the restaurant?  Probably.  Did he meet with these guys?  Maybe.  

Who cares?  Anyone that knows Ron Paul know that his policies have nothing to do with the supremacy of any race.  His campaign unites people of all backgrounds, racial and otherwise. 

And here's another point.  

HE DID NOT MEET WITH A WHITE SUPREMACIST GROUP.

He addressed the Robert A. Taft Club, which is a very conservative organization but hardly a racist group.  If you read deep down in these articles, they say that members of this group have "connections" to Neo-Nazis, without backing it up with any facts.

It's time to end these smear campaigns and support the only true American Patriot running for president: RON PAUL.

Back on a Mac

I received a new Mac a few days ago for my birthday (which is today, the 18th for anyone who forgot).

Its a Macbook laptop. Very nice. Hopefully I will never own a Windows box again. Everything about the Mac OS X is great, I'll post some more details later, but in summary the interface, applications, utilities, etc. are much more intuitive. Also, zero viruses exist for OS X. The hardware itself is great, it even has a built in camera.

The only problem was the Mac I first got had a battery issue. I took it to the Mac store at Tyson's and they replaced the entire laptop (since it was only a few days old). The new one works fine.  It's nice to be free of the chains of Microsoft.  I can still do just about anything that I could on my old Windows box and probably a lot easier.  I even bypassed the whole Word, Excel, etc with NeoOffice, a free office suite that serves my needs.

I owned a Mac for about 3 years in college, and sadly, I sold it when it got old and bought a Dell instead.  The Dell lasted, but as with all Windows machines it gets really, really slow overtime and all sorts of bizarre error messages start popping up.  

There are lots of cool features built in, like screen capture (see above), a great calendar, email client, automater, and of course the i's (tunes, photo, etc.).

The Gettysburg Address

Abraham Lincoln was not our best president. In terms of job performance he did a very poor job. Keep in mind that the president's job is to uphold the constitution. In this regard, Lincoln did a very similar job to George W. Bush. He was faced with a new era, a situation outside of his control, and he was willing to throw away decades of individual freedom to do what he thought would save his country, even if it meant destroying half of the United States.

That being said, the Gettysburg Address was a great speech, one that I had to memorize in school, and there are a few lines that always manage to move me:

"The brave men, living and dead, who struggled, here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but can never forget what they did here."

"...this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

Kerr is a Traitor

Today, Donald Kerr, a deputy directory of National Intelligence (an oxymoron) said that Americans need to give up anonymity to the government and businesses, and lower their expectations of privacy, the very thing that allowed American colonists to criticize the British government.

While Kerr is merely a peon, he and others who think like him are traitors to our Constitution, which defines treason as "levying war" against the USA. Taking away our right to privacy, a fundamental right, is not to be condoned.

"The true patriot challenges the state when the state embarks on enhancing its power at the expense of the individual."
--Ron Paul

Ron Paul's Success In His Own Words

"Some of the opposition claims that I am not a "real Republican," whereas I am the only one in the race. And our campaign is registering new Republican voters by the boatload. None of my opponents is doing anything approaching that.

Of course, they pooh-pooh our success. "He's just registering Democrats and Independents and people who have never voted before." Well, yes. It's called growth. We are laying the groundwork for the primaries."

 

-Ron Paul, October 18th message to supporters

The Road To Hell

The road looks innocent enough. Encourage biofueld usage by giving money to companies, save children, free a Middle Eastern nation, things like that. All of these activities (plus millions more) cost the United States billions upon trillions of dollars, so much so that we are in debt to countries like China (what's in YOUR wallet?).

Not only is this country in debt, but the debt is getting higher. The only way to pay the interest on the debt is to raise taxes higher and higher. When's the last time the government admitted that one of its organizations (like the DEA) was a complete and utter failure, and offered to shut it down and refund some tax money with the proceeds from selling all of the assets. Try never.

We are going down the road to hell. Taxes increase, and increase. Right now a middle-income person gets robbed of over 35% of his or her income between federal income tax and FICA. This number will likely only get higher and higher. When will it stop? What if in 100 years America started taxing 95% of your money but you got free government food, a free government car, free government clothing, and all of this came with whether we worked or not.

What would we be then? Something we've tried to defeat many times, only to see it swallow us whole. So next time you hear a politician talk about giving children free healthcare, or giving idiots who took teaser mortgages a bailout, or winning the "war" on terror, just think about the road to hell

A bat outta hell

Alex Roy has repeatedly attempted a record that almost no one would ever consider. NYC to LA in less than 32 hours, which would break a record set over 20 years ago. Avoiding cops, traffic, and using the latest technology to get as many miles under the BMW M5 as quickly as possible is just part of the world of outlaw racing.

I read about Alex in Esquire last week, he has a new book coming out, The Driver, which I plan on purchasing as soon as I can. His pursuit for speed across America was inspired by movies such as Vanishing Point and the real life Cannonball Run of the 70s.

Alex doesn't only race in the US, he also races in the Gumball 3000, a rally that takes place all over the world for the last half dozen years or so. Unlike his dash across the USA, this race (or rally) features many other exotic cars.

For those of you who are interested in hearing more about this modern day daredevil, and quite possibly the purest racer in the US, here are some more links:


Wired article, very detailed and well written, is HERE
youtube copy of the video that inspired Alex, is HERE

Another reason to own a gun

For those of you who still doubt the wisdom of owning a gun, here's another reason.  This story illustrates why the 2nd Amendment was formed: to protect yourself from those in power.

 

 

Hope For America

I haven't posted in a long time and don't have too much to talk about right now. 

 

However I want to tell my readers about a movement that is very important to the survival of our country, it is called Liberty.  And the candidate who most embodies that movement is Ron Paul. 

 

Please help Ron out and donate to his campaign.  www.ronpaul2008.com