The USA team obviously lacks the offense that the Canadians and some of the other teams have.  In goal though, the USA team is really tough.  We got some absolutely outstanding goal tending from Miller.  He is making Buffalo proud. 

Team USA was outshot something like 45-22.  Still Miller refused to let the superior Canadian offense take command.

This leaves team USA in a nice position going into the medal rounds.  I am looking forward to some more outstanding American hockey.  Let’s get a few more pucks flying at the other teams’ net though.

I just hope Miller isn’t worn out when the Olympics are over.  Buffalo is in a good position to make a run deep in the playoffs this year.

Yep.  There is nothing quite like the seat of the couch action you get when watching an event like this.  It is like watching a giant shuffleboard tournament.  (I bet a lot of people don’t know what shuffleboard is either)  The girl gets on one knee and slides a giant rock down a slippery lane trying to strategically position it for points.  All the while she is yelling things like “Yep,  yep, yes, yes, yes, yep, hold, hooooooold, yep, yes, yes”  Meanwhile two other girls are alternate between furiously sweeping miniscule debris away in front of the rock as it heads toward its target.  Sometimes they sweep like madmen and other times they just fake like they are going to do it.

What a concept is sports.  Who invented this thing anyway?

My wife was watching it with me.  The United States was competing against the Janpanese.  When the Japanese girl went to launch her rock I wondered if she would start yelling “Hai, hai, hai, hai” instead of yes.

The other thing I found very strange was the names of the women on the Japanese team.  They had Americanized first names like Amy and Moe.  Seems like some Europeans have been doing some breeding in that part of Japan.

I felt inspired to throw my own two cents in about the Olympics when I read about Paul Buckley’s post about the Olympics.

I kind of like the extra coverage of Lindsey Vonn.  I guess I am just a pig with raging hormones who likes to see hot looking women on television.

I agree about the rain though.  How disappointing is it to have a rainy winter Olympics?  The rain has already influenced a number of outcomes.  It is a shame that weather plays a factor in some of these competitions like the biathlon.

The unemployment rate is lower because people have given up looking for work, not because they have been put back to work.  Yet, the Whitehouse tried to spin this like it was somehow positive for the country.

CNBC Article

Romer was encouraged by the down tick in unemployment.  Really?  You are encouraged that people have given up looking for work?  Ahh.. I see.  The Obama plan of economic recovery involves waiting for people to become hopeless in their search for a job so that they choose an alternative approach like retirement.  Great idea guys!  Woo hoo!  What a concept.

What a bunch of idiots. 

This Romer lady is ridiculously incompetent and totally reinforces the accusation that this cabinet is an incompetent one.  When was the last time that the President’s cabinet was populated with this level of total incompetence?  She needs to get the boot along with most of the other cabinet members.

His reasoning was that no person should go broke because they want a higher education.  Is this guy for real?  I have rarely heard anything more ridiculous in my entire life.  Talk about socialism.

The reason some people aren’t attending college is not because of the costs.  They are not attending college because they don’t realize that it is critical to their future success.  They don’t realize how much easier life will be if they could only put for the effort to get an education.  If a person wants to go to a certain college that they can’t afford, it does not prevent them from going to college at all.  It merely prevents them from going to that college.  Ultimately, they decide to go to a less expensive one even if that means a community college. 

Face it.  These kids who choose not do go to college at all just don’t want to learn.  They don’t want to go to college.  If they did want to go, they could certainly afford it.  Any kid can afford to go to a school like ECC or GCC or MCC.  There is absolutely no reason they can’t.  These colleges will accept anyone with a GED.  All you have to do is graduate high school and you are in.

The problem is that these kids who skip college are not interested in learning.  They don’t have a thirst for the knowledge and skills that these higher learning institutions offer.  If they did want to go badly, there is nothing stopping them, including costs.

I am so sick of this argument about college costs.  Stop subsidizing the expensive schools.  Let the market decide how much a student is willing to pay for their higher education.  The whole idea of subsidizing college tuitions is counterproductive to maintaining a low cost of education.  This is basic economics people.  If the government quits paying for people’s college educations, the colleges are forced to find ways to deliver that education for less money.  This is how it is supposed to work.

The goal should not be to give people enough money to go to college.  The goal should be to let the market force colleges to make themselves affordable to students.  When the economy is booming tuitions could go up.  When the economy is suffering tuitions would go down.

Part of the reason our educations cost so much is because schools get funding from places other than the enrolled students.  This creates the perfect environment for a wasteful bloated bureaucracy.  Let the markets determine school tuitions.

If the government agrees to pick up the tab for educations at the end of 10 or 20 years, you are going to see an absolutely massive increase in tuition costs.  Pumping more money into colleges does not guarantee a better education.  We have proof of this in the public school system that has had funding increases since the beginning of time.  It is counterproductive.

Prestigious universities and community colleges alike are capable of delivering an absolutely outstanding education if and only if the students are there because they actually want to learn about what is being taught.  If they aren’t self motivated to learn what is being taught, then they come out of there with a substandard education.   

If you want to reduce the cost of education, stop sending kids there who don’t want to be there.  Stop handing colleges free money.  The more you give them, the more they will cry that they need even more.

The populist attitude around this country is that every kid should receive a free higher education and the government should see to it that they get one.  How about focusing on getting them to graduate high school first you fricken morons?  A college education is easily and readily attainable to any kid who wants it right now.

It could be a reflection of the level of education a person achieves as well.  Obviously as a person’s education level increases, their communication skills also tend to increase along with it.  The two items are somewhat correlated even though they are different.

The thing that brought this to my attention was the fact that you see search engine results improving based on quality.  For Google at least, it is becoming apparent that they are actually figuring out ways of using filters to determine some level of quality about any given website.  Although they obviously aren’t 100% accurate, they are certainly much better than they used to be.

This is a trend that is bound to continue.  Not only will you see it continue online, but you will also see it happen in many other areas in life.  The salesman with the best communication skills will sell more product than his counterparts.  The politician with the best communication skills will quickly rise to power as is evident with president Obama.  The business man with the best communication skills will climb the corporate ladder much faster than others.

Doesn’t this just make perfect sense?

Shouldn’t we then encourage our children as much as possible to better their communication skills on every level?  Shouldn’t we discourage them from writing to each other using abbreviations for words instead of writing complete sentences with proper grammar?   Shouldn’t we try to make ourselves good examples for the children around us to learn these habits?  Shouldn’t we demand that our schools deny diplomas to students who cannot write in complete sentences using reasonable grammar?

Parents and educators alike are accepting sub-par performance from children and young adults when it comes to communication skills.  Students, regardless of age, should be expected to speak English and write English very well.  Neglecting this basic and fundamental prerequisite to a better life is truly a disservice to that child.  We should not let them down.

Can you imagine how stupid that coach is going to look if the Jets pull out a win?  He will be the bonehead of the year.  In my opinion he already is.  There is no way he should have thrown away the opportunity to go undefeated the whole way.  This team could have rewritten NFL history.  They could have set the ultimate record.

So, as much as I want Indianapolis to win this game, I won’t be completely disappointed if they lose.  At least then the Colts’ coach will be exposed for making the bonehead call of the year.  With the way the Jets’ defense is playing, anything is possible.  This is yet another reason why a team should try to win every single game and not take anything for granted.

This time it is over healthcare.  The healthcare system reform being pushed by the Democrats calls for new taxes to fund the system.   The average American worker is going to pay these taxes with one exception.  If you belong to one of Obama’s favorite labor unions, you won’t have to pay it until 2018. 

Once again, political corruption runs rampant.  How could you call this anything but corruption?  It is absurd to suggest that one group of citizens be made exempt from these taxes because of union affiliation.  If this were truly about negotiated wages and benefits, then it would have to apply to every single worker in America regardless of union affiliation or not. 

Every single non-union American also works for a negotiated wage and benefit package.  It is called free market capitalism.  It is not a legalized form of organized crime that unions represent.  It is illegal to extort money from people if you do it in the traditional method.  But, apparently it is legal if you do it under the guise of a labor union.

Politicians will be politicians.  How could any decent person want to become part of this loathsome bunch of hypocrites?  These guys are power mongers hell bent on taking as much power away from us average citizens as they possibly can.  As far as I am concerned, we should fire all the sons of bitches.  I think we do a better job of governing ourselves on a local level than we do on a federal one.  Fire them all and return power back where it belongs.  It belongs in our hands, not theirs.

This Obama administration is over the top with this one.  Policies like this that are obviously cut along political lines will most certainly cause unrest among the people.  I am sick of it and I am sick of all the people who think that policies like this one are somehow good for this country.  They are not.  Open your eyes.  This man is not leading this country in the right direction.  He is dividing it more than ever.  This president is causing very deep wounds in the social fabric of this nation that will take a generation to heal from.  Vote him and his entire team of “we know what is good for you” politicians out of office.

These people who elected Obama were so worried about what other countries thought about the United States.  While they were so worried that someone in Europe might not like us anymore, they elected a man who is making us hate one another.   Let history paint Barack Obama as it should; the most divisive presidential failure in our lifetime.

I love learning about World War II on there.  It reminds me of all of the cool war stories I heard from veterans that frequent the VFW post that my dad used to hang out at.  Dad is a Korean War vet.  I have uncles who fought in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  So, I can relate to the stuff they talk about on these shows.  I have heard stories about Iwo Jima, sinking Jap submarines, the invasion of Okinawa, dancing with Betty Grable at a USO event and getting drunk all over the world.  This one Vietnam vet told me about how intense it was to be a door gunner flying over a hundred miles an hour skimming the tree tops in Vietnam in a Huey.  Cool shit huh?

The other day I was watching this debate about whether or not the Jewish people were actually militaristic when they fled Egypt.  The theory is that maybe they weren’t actual slaves but instead were kind of employed by the Egyptians to help them build their massive stone projects.  It is hard to tell how much validity there is behind that theory, but it is interesting to think about. Then they went on to speculate about how the Jewish people actually escaped the Egyptian Army.  They made more sense of it than the legend in the Bible does.

I also really like watching the show about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency.  There are so many fascinating things about that era.  Back then, you could actually walk up to the White House, knock on the door and ask to see the president.  How weird is that?  Can you imagine what would happen to presidents in this era if that was still the policy?  Pretty much every one of them since Dwight Eisenhower would probably have been whacked.  Now you can’t even send a letter to the president that will actually be read by him.  My, how times have changed.

What are your favorite shows?

I have come to the conclusion that it is primarily the person’s genetics.  How else could you possibly explain a baby dying from cancer at age 3 when they have done nothing wrong and only been fed healthy foods?  Pick any of these childhood diseases.  How can you explain them other than faulty genetics? 

How else can you explain the guy who lives into his 90’s and still smokes?  How else can you explain the physically fit jogger who dies of a heart attack at age 50?  What about the fat slob who is still alive in his eighties that has been 80lbs overweight for as long as you’ve known him.

I am willing to admit that certain lifestyle habits would certainly trump good genetics.  Take for instance the habitual narcotics user.  He is destined for a short life because of the things that some drug users do like share needles or become homeless or commit crimes to pay for their drugs.  Consider the homosexual man who decides to engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners.  His lifestyle choice is almost certain to land him some kind of STD in a relatively short period of time.

But, as far as the more minor things that people do to affect their lives like smoke cigarettes, drinking alcohol and not exercising, it appears that genetics will overpower those types of vices to some degree.  Thank God for small favors.

I rationalized this way of thinking as being the reason why I need to not worry so much about poor lifestyle decisions that I have engaged in over the years.  Instead I should just worry about living healthier now.  Hopefully genetics will forgive me to some extent for the various ways I have punished my organs over the years.

Are you worried about your health?  Think about how I rationalized this concept.  Maybe you can find some solace in it as well.

Instead of focusing on putting people back to work, this administration along with the state governments keeps paying people not to work by extending their unemployment benefits.  In my opinion, if you are going to extend anyone’s unemployment benefits in this time period, you had better make sure they are doing something productive. 

These people could be doing government work while unemployed in the private sector.  I mean hell, if the government is going to keep sending them unemployment checks, shouldn’t taxpayers get something in return?  What are we getting in return right now?  I’ll tell you.

We are getting larger and larger deficits.  These deficits cost us taxpayers a crapload of money to pay back.  Remember, we pay these deficits back with interest, not just the principle.  The government is doing exactly what it has told its citizens not to do.  It is overspending.  Think about it.  The entire housing crisis was caused because people were borrowing too much money.  What the hell do you think the government is doing right now?

This debt is going to be a slowly tightening noose around the neck of the American economy for decades.  Yes decades.  Every year we are going to have to pay the interest on that debt until we pay the debt down.  When has the United States ever paid its debt down?  First you need a growing economy so you can tax it.  For every tax dollar you take out of the economy to pay foreign countries the debt we owe them, it is one less dollar that could have been spent domestically.  Doesn’t anyone get this?

After all of the money that has been spent to stop the deceleration of our economy, we still aren’t fundamentally any closer to paying off any of that debt.  In fact, taxpayers so far have gotten a zero return on investment.  If Obama had used this money to put people back to work as he originally promised, then at least our economic output could have been higher.  More people would be working and consumer confidence would be much higher.

What happened to the 4 million new jobs he promised us?  How many has he helped create so far?