A friend of mine sent me this joke. It probably would only appeal to those with a consumer electronic background, but I thought I'd post it.

Politically Correct TV Standards

SECAM

Used by France and the former Soviet union.

No tint control. No color control.

Full socialism. The state knows exactly what color you should see and how strong that color should be.

PAL

Used by Germany & UK, Australia etc.

No tint control. A color control.

Partial socialism. The state knows exactly what color you should see but you get a choice as to how strong it can be.

NTSC

Used in USA and Canada, Japan etc.

A tint control, A color control.

Uncontroled socialism. The state lets you chose what color you see and how strong it can be. They then tax you regardless.

Even if you are not a football fan, you have probably heard of Tim Tebow. He's the former University of Florida quarterback who is one of the most open Christians in sports. He used to paint John 3:16 under his eyes with the eyeblack players use as part of their pre-game prep. John 3:16 is one of the most famous verses in the Bible, stating that "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son so that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

The NFL (also known as the No Fun League) banned this practice. The results from this weekend, when Tim Tebow led the Denver Broncos into an upset victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, reminded me of another verse. Luke 19:40 tells how Jesus responded to pharisees complaining that people were praising Jesus. "And he answered and said, I tell you that, if these shall hold their peace, the stones will cry out." On Sunday, Tim Tebow was not allowed to write John 3:16 on his face. But he passed for 316 yards. To ensure that it was difficult for anyone to write this off as pure coincidence, he also passed for an average of 31.6 yards per game. Now I am sure Teblow had no idea of these numbers until after the game was over. However, what are the odds of anyone doing both, let alone in the same game? God truly has an awesome sense of humor and can control the outcome of even the most trivial of events when He desires.

I am not a typical TV viewer. I care about college football and probably watch too many games during the collegiate football season. Other than that, I rarely watch TV as I prefer to spend my free time on other activities. However, Lady Quixote watches a more typical amount of TV and has convinced me to watch two television shows with her: ABC’s Castle and USA Network’s White Collar.

While obviously unrealistic, both shows are somewhat witty, beautifully shot, and provided a bit of mindless escapism each week. However, after last week’s 2-part Castle episode, I will not watch another episode of Castle. The plot was that terrorists were going to detonate a dirty nuclear bomb in NY and the main characters had to stop them. So far, so good.

However, ABC is so politically correct they reversed the expected heroes and villains. In addition to the recurring characters, the most admirable character was a Muslim weapons designer who came to the United States because he did not want to build nuclear weapons. The evil culprits were three former US Special Forces soldiers who thought America was getting too soft on the war on terror and were willing to kill thousands of New Yorkers to motivate Americans to fight again.

Give me a break. This was an insult to each and every man and woman who put on a military uniform to defend the citizens of the United States. The writers were not happy to just besmirch one soldier, who presumably might have mental problems after years of combat. Instead, they created a conspiracy of three Special Forces soldiers, none of whom remembered their oath to defend Americans nor turned in the person who suggested this heinous act. These ABC writers, of whom I doubt any ever volunteered to defend our nation, have portrayed our best and brightest as being willing to employ weapons of mass destruction on American civilians. I despise these writers and will not knowingly support them by watching more of their work. There are plenty of other things I can do with my time than watch these writers insult the bravest members of society because they are too politically correct to show realistic threats.

Some European friends of mine asked about our tax experience. I thought other international readers might be interested, so here is my impression. Approximately half of all American adults pay the federal income tax. All American adults need to file annual statements with the Internal Revenue Service, even those who did not pay income tax (often, these people will receive a “refund” which is really another version of welfare in the cases of those who are refunded money for taxes they did not pay). Everyone who works also has federal payroll taxes (almost the same thing, but no additional annual filing needed unless you are self-employed, the money just goes to Washington). Most states also have a state income tax. Some cities have a city income tax - I've only lived in one once and still blame my realtor for not warning me - this has been on my list of questions to ask every time I've considered a move since. Most states also have a state sales tax (With the possible exception of Alaska, I believe all states have at least a sales tax or an income tax, many have both. In Alaska, many years the state pays its residents a stipend as the state makes a lot of money from the sale of oil). In states with a sales tax, the local counties and cities may add on additional local sales taxes. Then there are the property taxes. Every state has them, but the taxes on real estate are done at the county and city levels and are their primary source of funding. These can vary greatly. In most places I've lived, I've paid between $2,000 and $3,000 a year in these taxes. I once considered a job in Briarcliff, New York and discovered their property taxes were $24,000 to $30,000 a year, about the same as my mortgage payments would have been. The realtor said they liked things that way as it kept the "riff raff" out. These are the people, almost all white, who vote Democrat and think all Republicans are racists... Needless to say, I turned down that opportunity. In addition to the real estate property taxes, most states tax your vehicles. In addition to a fee for the privilege of them tracking and registering your car, most states also tax you annually based on how much your car is worth. Some states then want to tax you on other bits of property (such as computers) you own, but that's much harder to enforce so most states don't bother. The federal government also taxes our consumption of services such as phone service, internet service, cell phone service, and cable/satellite TV service. Sometimes the state and local governments add on to this. There are a few other taxes too, but these are the main ones that most Americans pay. No wonder more and more people are supporting abolishing most of these taxes (all the federal ones and some of the state taxes) and replacing them with the fair tax.

I read an interesting article on terrorists. Remember the inept terrorists from Back to the Future? In real life, many terrorists fall into that stereotype.

Nowhere is the gap between sinister stereotype and ridiculous reality more apparent than in Afghanistan, where it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t improved at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempted attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests. According to several sources at the United Nations, as many as six would-be suicide bombers died last July after one such embrace in Paktika.

If more people in Hollywood would present terrorists as the bumbling perverts many of them actually are, it would certainly make the job of recruiting more terrorists a bit more difficult.

Remember when politicians were arguing over ObamaCare? The Democrats promised taxpayer monies would not be used for abortions. However, the Democrats refused to include language in the bill precluding this. Now the Obama administration has approved a plan to give the State of Pennsylvania 160 million dollars for their implementation of ObamaCare. This implementation will use taxpayer money to pay for insurance plans that cover all forms of legal abortion.

Yet another broken promise by the Obama administration. I suspect the only reason they made this promise was to provide coverage for the Democrats who voted for this bill despite supposedly representing pro-life constituents. This broken promise certainly was not a surprise to anyone paying attention. The only surprise to me is that Obama felt comfortable breaking his word before this November's elections. He must really believe the majority of voters are dumb and ignorant. I think he will learn otherwise this November.

A friend emailed me this. I probably appreciated it even more since our family car was recently rear-ended by a Mexican who then drove off despite his airbags having employed. However, in this day of cell phones, it is difficult to get away with a hit and run. Besides myself, several other witnesses all called 911 with the license plate. The police quickly found him. Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt and he actually had insurance.

Jose and Carlos are both beggars. They beg in different areas of town. Carlos begs for the same amount of time as Jose, but only collects about eight or nine dollars a day Every day, Jose brings home a suitcase full of ten dollar bills. He drives a Mercedes, lives in a mortgage-free house, and has lots of cash to spend. "Hey, amigo," Carlos says to Jose, "I work just as long and hard as you do, so how come you bring home a suitcase full of ten dollar bills every day?" Jose says, "Look at your sign, what does it say?" Carlos' sign reads: "I have no work, a wife and six kids to support." "What's wrong with that?" Carlos asks him. "No wonder you only get eight or nine dollars a day!"Carlos says, "Alright, so what does your sign say?" Jose's sign reads: "I only need ten dollars to get back to Mexico..."

I don't know if I'll ever build another house. However, if I do, I will give serious thought to a mini-split system like the Fujitsu system. I despise air ducts; they take up valuable room in your house, collect dust, and waste energy. Fujitsu has an innovative alternative that opens up many possibilities for house design.

A friend of mine sent me this link and I thought my readers would appreciate it.

Last summer, I experienced one of the scariest novels I have ever read. It truly scared me and the author was not who you might expect. Instead of Steven King, Dean Koontz, or the horror writer of your choice, this book was written by William Forstchen. The book is entitled One Second After and it realistically portrays what would happen if America suffered from an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) attack.

After almost I year, this book still bothers me. Not because I expect the threat is especially likely, but because it would be the smart way for an enemy to attack us. One single warhead detonated outside the atmosphere over the US could destroy virtually the entire computer and electric infrastructure in North America. One single bomb. Even if the bomb was not followed by any enemy attacks whatsoever, it would have doomed the majority of us to very unpleasant deaths as food, water, and medicine could no longer be harvested or delivered until we rebuilt our infrastructure. Any vehicles that depended upon computer chips (pretty much anything with a fuel injector or everything built in the last 20 to 30 years) would no longer work. Power plants would not work. Jets would fall out of the sky like rain as they ceased to function, but those who died immediately would probably be the fortunate ones as everyone else would be instantly plunged into a preindustrial lifestyle.

Forstchen wrote his book as a warning so technology could be designed to protect our infrastructure from such an attack (for example, new surge protectors would be need to operate a million times faster than they currently do - the EMP pulse travels much faster than standard threats such a lightning strikes). Apparently, I'm not the only one who was influenced by the book. While they did not credit the book, the liberal Huffington Post has an interesting summary of EMP pulses, including a video from National Geographic.

Warner Brothers has apparently bought the rights to make a movie from the book. I hope they do. This should be required reading (or viewing) for all politicians and other decision makers.

A reader sent me a link to a recent abortion article. It is well worth reading for those of us who care about the unborn.

I really enjoyed Bill Sammon's book, Strategery, which was written by the senior White House correspondent for the Washington Examiner. The book is mostly written from a pro-Bush perspective, but provides some interesting insights in addition to any commentary on our former president.

I especially enjoyed Sammon's discussion of the unethical behavior of other media, such as when CBS deliberately presented falsified information on the air in an attempt to get Kerry elected (remember Rather's "fake, but accurate" claim?). This is where Sammon's book really shines, the author's insider knowledge as a member of the media really comes into play - anyone who wants specific examples of how the media abuses the public trust should read this book.

I also found the discussion on one of Bush's larger mistakes, the nomination of Harriet Miers, particularly timely as Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan is very comparable - except that Kagan makes Miers look like Supreme Court material... Of course, we should probably expect a president with no former executive experience to nominate a candidate with no judicial experience. Click here for more information on Kagan.

I have wanted to attend the E3Expo for decades – ever since I learned there was an annual convention to display the latest and greatest gaming technology. I have attended many other shows such as CES and CEDIA, but never could justify E3 in my various other careers. However, this year I decided to go on my own dime.

Someday I still hope to design and publish my own space strategy game. In the meanwhile, I've been playing Sins of a Solar Empire - a realtime strategy (RTS) game that is a lot of fun with great graphics for the space battles.

So far, I've just played the game itself which I downloaded for $19.99. If you want to try it, a link is below:

The programmers have come out with two expansions for the game that I'm going to purchase shortly. You can buy the pair for $19.95.

You can also buy all three at once, but I wouldn't suggest that. First try the original game. Then if you like it, buy the expansion packs later. My twelve-year-old son really enjoys the game too and has reached the point he can give me a good game.

I like the game so much, I made the programming company (Stardock) my first affiliate for this website. You can use their services to buy a host of games and download them directly to your PC. The best part is that they remember what you bought, so if your hard drive crashes (or if you just replace your PC), you can then download all the games you already bought at no additional cost.

A friend of mine asked me who I blamed for the oil disaster? BP? The federal government?

The legal issues are interesting, but morally I blame the radical environmentalists (who have much more political power than the oil industry, even under the Bush administrations). The safest place to drill oil is on land. The second safest is in shallow water. The most dangerous place to drill oil is in deep water. Where do we drill? In deep water.

Why? Because stupid foolish environmentalists placed so much pressure on politicians that we have outlawed vast areas with massive oil (such as huge chunks of Alaska) that could be very safely obtained (animal populations have actually increased after the Alaska pipeline was built, animals apparently liked the warmth of the pipeline). We no longer drill for new oil in shallow water (the second safest place to drill) because of environmental laws.

So out of necessity, oil companies are forced to drill in the most dangerous way possible - in deep water. Then we blame them when an accident occurs and they struggle to fix the problem. Every single environmentalist who opposes drilling on land and in shallow water is to blame for the current problem.

The current problem will be eventually resolved, but will cause many short-term hardships in the area to both people and wildlife. Next time some you are debating some wacko environmentalists (one who argues with feelings and ignores facts), blame him or her for this disaster and tell them it was their policies that caused the problem.