Houston, Texas was named the fattest city in a story released on Reuters (story below). Methinks, given Heather's information on the 6 minute breakdown rule (see iamheather's article "Houston Towed"), that the city council is merely trying to improve that image by creating an underground sport of "the 6 minute tire and gas change". Maybe they're not so bad after all.   And the Fattest City Is... Fri Jan 7, 9:56 AM ET   Oddly Enough - Reuters ...

Many of my recent articles have focused on fiscal responsibility from the federal government. My outlook comes from lessons hard learned. Here it is, in a nutshell. When I started in factory work in Oshkosh in 1994, I was an inexperienced laborer, my previous jobs being confined to seasonal work and low paying restaurant jobs (with the exception of a year in printing). As I had only myself to care for, the fiscal irresponsibility that had been the hallmark of my life had not hurt me in the le...

Interesting bit of news today (story below). Seems India's lower caste citizens are being forced out of refugee camps by the higher caste occupants. This means that, sadly, the aid being given is NOT meeting the needs of the hardest hit. Perhaps those who took issue with my position need to rethink their criticism, as it seems that there are some in India who do, indeed, seem to consider this a bit of a windfall. India's untouchables forced out of relief camps Fri Jan 7, 8:52 AM E...

Andrea Yates, the Texas mom convicted of drowning her children, had her conviction overturned by an appeals court based on misinformation from a prosecution witness (story below). This gives some hope, in my opinion and those of many mental health advocates, for Yates to receive a conviction and sentence that will provide her with the mental help she needs for some very serious psychological problems she has. Texas Mom's Murder Convictions Overturned 2 hours, 29 minutes ago ...

The national election of 2000 brought it to the forefront of our minds. And, if you are living in the state of Washington, you're even more compelled that our nation's electoral system needs a MASSIVE overhaul. Two recounts in Washington gave the governor's seat to the Republican candidate, the third went to the Democratic candidate. All were by extremely narrow margins, all were highly contested. Now, the state GOP is demanding a new election because of the concern that provisional ballot...

In response to the flap over social security and privatization, I am inclined to ask if a retirement is something we should take for granted, or if it is something that belongs only to those who scrimp and save to provide their own retirement. In answering this question, I think we first need to consider the Social Security system's setup. Begun under FDR, the system works in such a way that those who are recipients of the system receive their benefits based on the earnings of the current wor...

Several NBA players have made a commitment of $1,000 a shot out of a specific game for Asia's tsunami victims. While it's not a huge portion of their salaries, it still goes a long way to show the kind of privately funded relief efforts that we should be proud of. In these days of overpaid overindulged athletes, I think the act needs to be commended: Seven players to donate $1,000 per point; Wizards sell wristbands January 4, 2005 Tracy McGrady , Kobe Bryant , Jermain...

I am not a fan of George W. Bush's policies in most areas. I can't say I dislike the man, I've never met him. Frankly, he seems like he'd be a halfway decent partner for quail shooting or cards, or some such activity. But I WILL defer to what I have been taught since I was old enough to have an opinion on such things, and that is that a certain respect for the office is my DUTY as a citizen of this country. While the 2000 election may have been questionable, it doesn't change the fact t...

I must first properly credit whoman for the title of this article. Sad thing is, he was serious. THIS, in a nutshell, is one of the most pervasive problems that faces this country. As applies to deficit spending, there are far too many who have no compunction when it comes to adding another billion here or there. But how can we hope to erase this deficit with this mindset in place? Another billion is $3 per man, woman and child in the United States. Most Americans, sadly, are of the opinio...

To those who don't wish to read on about the continuing controversy, I'll give a fair warning that this is a further answer. But I feel that some rather disparaging and inappropriate comments have been made regarding my character, and will respond as I feel appropriate. In the original article entitled "Get Foreign Nations off of Welfare", I made a snide comment that India and other countries had won the lottery. I do not apologize for the comment, and although I probably could have phrased i...

"Eat your liver, there are children starving in China". That logic didn't work on my 8 year old mind 26 years ago, and it doesn't work on me now. As I grew older, the logic was applied to "family planning"; that somehow, the choice of a family in rural Oklahoma to not have any children would diminish the overpopulation problem in parts of the globe where it actually EXISTS. Now, we're told how it's supposed to help. Apparently, we are supposed to work as hard as we can, and earn as high sa...

When I was a child, we used to spend a lot of time around small stock ponds in the Oklahoma countryside. We had tons of admiration for our older siblings who could skip a rock clear across the pond and fetch it from the other side for reuse. We couldn't do this, though. No matter how hard we tried, gravity overtook our efforts to cause the rock to successfully hydroplane across the pond's surface, much less, several times in succession. A single skip was regarded as pretty near akin to changi...

I'm going to apologize for rambling ahead of time, but a number of different thoughts have come out of the article on foreign aid to India, and it's kind of hard to remain topical and cover all of them in a single blog. So, forgive me a little repetition here, my integrity was challenged by a couple of our less tactful readers, and I feel compelled to defend it. The contemporary argument of the American liberal is to hold that conservatives are lacking in compassion because they want to cut a...

My needs are simple. I don't know what moron invented the idea that one's life should HAVE to be a quest for a continually grander existence rather than a peaceful, simple life, but they sure have helped further a lot of miserable lives. I look out over my "domain", and look towards the setting Texas sun and I see all that I could ever want or need, right where I am at. A wonderful family. A community that KNOWS the meaning of the word "community", a house that holds strong against the bi...

Apparently, a few courses in reading comprehension are appropriate for some individuals on this blog site. In a recent article, I wrote a very strongly worded essay about the foreign aid position in India, and was heavily chastised for it. Anyone who has read my articles and comments consistently over the months I have spent on joeuser should be readily able to see the intent of my words and the context in which they were written. I am NOT without compassion for those who have been hit by thi...