USING CELL PHONE TO TALK OR TEXT WHILE DRIVING

There should be few of us who have not heard of the amazing death statistics, let alone accidents that only hurt, not kill, when people persist on driving with a cell phone at their ear in conversation.  Worse, of course, is the texting which makes the odds of an accident go up by 33%. Those most up on the stats might even be lawyers.  At least you can check out one of their sites for stats here.

Now technology is being asked to fight technology.  Using your car's GPS it can tell if the speed exceeds 10 miles an hour (which is most likely will if you are driving) and it locks your phone.  David Pogue, well known for those interested in computers and other technology, wrote an article explaining this new phenomenon...or rather, achievement in engineering.  To read his article, click here.  (It might be mentioned that Pogue braved the task and wrote the only really understandable manual for VISTA, the MS operating system that lasted about as long as it took to scan the table of contents in Pogue's heavy manual .  Nevertheless, technology fought technology with VISTA by quickly (relatively) putting together WIN 7, which most say is a decided improvement.  His article on locking cell phones, written for the NY Times can be read here.

LIKE AN IMPENDING VISIT FROM YOUR MOTHER-IN-LAW

Most of us would like to see bargain priced CDs and DVDs but not at the price of the proceeds going to bootleggers, counterfeiters and pirates.  Apparently these items are pretty much out in the open in Chinese shops, but like most people who are forewarned of an inspection, there are hustled out of public view at that point.

This is hardly a new phenomenon but has escalated to such government approved theft costing the designers, inventors, and programmers billions of dollars  The seemingly, only recourse to the US individuals being hurt by the drain of financial reward for all their work, is that court suits are being brought against them at long last..

For more details on this subject, click here.

WHEN WILL WE ALL LEARN THAT BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING US?

1984 has long been over but we have been slow to achieve all the paranoia of the book by George Orwell who predicted (in fiction, of course) what has surprisingly very much come to pass.  Today, those of us who cared enough to watch, were treated to a sideshow among a Senate Committee and seven representatives from the upper echelon of Goldman Sachs.

Mike Taibbi, writing in The Guardian describes how this came to pass. "The SEC's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs is a chance to prevent greed without limits."  Clearly, those testifying were reflecting their suspicion that it was like the Christians fighting the lions in the area with a bloodthirsty, hostile crowd as spectators.  Unfortunately, the defendants could not see and hear the greater part of their TV audience.

Senators Claire McCaskill, Carl Levin and Senator Kaufman had the most direct shots.  However,  like the middle-school age children the media people are at heart, the focus was on the one dirty word used in an email by Fabrice Tourre to his girlfriends in which he admitted to the 'shi**y deal' they were selling.  The top boss described him as immature and having used bad judgment..  That is like saying the Atlantic Ocean is a salty birdbath.

Meanwhile, though many Republicans seemed to agree during the hearings that this was grave wrongdoing, by the time it came to a vote on continuing debate on what to do about Wall St., amazingly only to those with any common sense, the Republicans en masse voted against doing that.  It certainly gives me a greater sense that they are there to try to hold onto their rich friends, generous contributors, and their Washington jobs and care as little about the people they are supposed to represent ans the employees of Goldman Sachs demonstrated in their sales to unsuspecting investors.

We can only hope that people will see the light of reality, that religious people will get the message God is giving them; that good will vanquish evil in the financial markets.  Dare we hope?

HATE AND REVENGE WILL CAUSE REPUBLICAN POLITICIANS TO FORGET THEIR CONSTITUENTS

There may be lots of money from Wall St. for politicians to get for their campaigns.  The question that confronts them is whether that will be enough to put them in office since there are more votes among the middle and poor class that among Wall St. executives and lobbyists.  Something (the number of votes) got Obama elected.  However, what the electorate wants does not seem to move the Republicans in Washington.  Their greed knows no bounds.

Today the Republicans blocked the debate on finance rules reform.  What is the statement behind blocking a debate?  Let's not talk about it?  This is not a vote to approve, as I understand it, but a vote to debate it before a final vote.  How threatening can that be?  I guess to Republicans the threat is that they will not be keeping their word to be obstructive to the process of the Democrats and, thereby, to the democratic process, so that more of our citizens may suffer to assuage their urge for revenge for Obama's win and make their disdain of the fate of their fellow citizens in favor of their greed and dedication to getting themselves more campaign financing to reassure their re-election.  How self-serving can people be and what does it take for reasonable people to see through that, regardless of that with which America's domestic enemies are subjected over the media.

It stumps me as to how only all Republicans can see through the same lens and none of them can deviate an iota away from what their Masters demand.  That Republicans can retain respect for one another further adds to their inadequate judgment and unacceptable characters for the job to which they were voted into office.

HOW EASILY WE CAN BE MISLEAD

For years I heard, "A pint's a pound the world around."  A pint is 16 ounces of VOLUME, not weight.  To someone who thinks as concretely as I do, that confused me for years but can no longer forget to differentiate volume from weight.  Just ask Dr. Math 

Another useless phrase, often given as an inducement to patience , "Good things come to those who wait."  It doesn't seem to work in real life but it has made a good ad for Guiness stout and Heinz Ketchup..

"Familiarity breeds contempt." certainly should steer someone away from marriage.  Prov. People do not respect someone they know well enough to know his or her faults. Given all the divorces today, maybe it is a truism in marriage!!

Proverbs are short and pithy sayings that express some traditionally held truth. They are usually metaphorical and often, for the sake of memorability, alliterative

"A change is as good as a rest.".  That doesn't work for Republicans and those with autism, neither group is able to tolerate change, apparently.  "A soft answer turneth away wrath"  works for the deaf only. In all the years I have treated couples, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" usually allowed one partner to find a new one.

"Doubt is the beginning not the end of wisdom"  This one will always ring true for me.  I take nothing for granted and began doubting religious zealots at age 5. Thus, "Faith will move mountains" stirs nothing in me but doubt.  I neither wish to move nor climb mountains...I just like proof of that which so many people declare as fact and truth.  "First things first"  This one at last makes sense to my concrete mind..  This one speaks to why I have never wanted to be in the first line of battle.  I prefer to wait until everyone else is too tired to continue the battle...at least that is true of most survivors.

"Seeing is believing" may have been true before the internet and modern software like PhotoShop.

"There are none so blind as those, that will not see"  Unfortunately this has too much relevance today.  We are inundated with con men and women in politics and too many other important places selling a different brand of snake oil.  Until people begin to realize there is not an exotic berry that is a cure-all for everything that ails man, that one-size-doesn't-fit-all, survival is, indeed, for the fittest...life will remain precarious.

LOS ANGELES CAN NO LONGER AFFORD JUSTICE?

California's budget problems have reached a new raised bar of problems. Not only do we have people out of jobs, malnourished kids, citizens who can't afford health care, but we also have all of this happening in a state where many make obscene amounts of money.  The latest insult to Los Angeles citizens is that there is not enough money to pay for the needs of courts.  Hundreds of court workers will join the ranks of the unemployed in the fall as it appears at this time.  For details, click here

There is so much that has been lost to our nation and its middle class through the greed and poor governing choices made in the last administration.  It is shocking that Teapartners and others fail to make the connection and would like to blame it on President Obama  He inherited the mess.  Does anyone really think a McCain/Palin administration would have done better?  If they do, they are not the intelligent people Bachman claims them to be, but, rather, the gullible ones that Fox News believes them to be..

The Center on Budget and Priority Policies issued a very interesting prediction in February of this year. Updated on 4/19/10, the report indicates that 45 governors have already planned cuts that will hurt our most vulnerable citizens.  To read more, click here.