The entire family went walking today. Rather, my wife and I went walking while our two kids rode their bicycles. My oldest continues to get better although turns cause him consternation. My youngest, though, suffers from 'short leg' syndrome and can't quite reach the pedals. But, then again, he's only 3 (almost) and has plenty of growing to do. Although, he did just finish a huge spurt where he's outgrown his long pants.

In other, more sober, news...

I read today that 148,000 names of fallen American soldiers were read in California starting last Friday and finishing today. That's a very sobering thought that so many (and many, many more) have died to keep us safe. I can only say thanks to everyone who's served and gave the ultimate sacrifice.

I guess I’m feeling cynical today after reading a Wall Street Journal article on how computer hackers (presumably from China) have hacked into and stolen sensitive material (but not classified) on the $300 billion F-35 project. Why cynical? Well, I can’t really think of a better reason to allow Pentagon and Congress members to cancel an over-funded, under-delivered, by-all-means crappy project without losing face nor firing anyone in charge than to stage a break-in of a military project. They’ll probably fire a few low-level IT people, implement a draconian, half-ass security protocol and call it a day.

Yes, I ‘m suggesting that it’s not beneath our ‘trusted’ officials to do such things rather than to take responsibility for bilking the American taxpayers for money under the guise of national security, squandering $300 billion, and really compromising security since more realistic, much needed programs went unfunded.

On another note, I’m betting the SDI ‘Star Wars’ project gets ‘hacked’ soon too so that we’ll be able to cancel that technically infeasible waste of money without losing face. Okay, maybe I'll actually be happy with that.

From an email:

Life Lessons From Out of the Mouths of Babes

I recently asked my friends' little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Her parents, both liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President, what's the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people." Her proud parents fairly beamed!

"Wow, what a worthy goal," I told her, "but you don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and rake my yard, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party." Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

I learned something! I always thought the following was true:

Fiscal Fallacies: First, if money is not going to be printed, it has to come from somewhere. If the government borrows a dollar from you, that is a dollar that you do not spend, or that you do not lend to a company to spend on new investment. Every dollar of increased government spending must correspond to one less dollar of private spending. Jobs created by stimulus spending are offset by jobs lost from the decline in private spending. We can build roads instead of factories, but fiscal stimulus can’t help us to build more of both. This is just accounting, and does not need a complex argument about “crowding out???...

But after reading this, I learned that it's false. I guess it's never too late to learn something new. Heh.

This video, "The Crisis of Credit Visualized," is the best explanation of the credit crisis you'll hear. It's a nice animated video about 10 minutes long.

Obama was voted president of the US last night. Although I voted for McCain (but I don't like Palin), I want to come out and say that I don't think Obama will break the US except in one area. Here's why:

Short Term
- Most of the world is more liberal than America. Even our Democratic party is to the right of Europe, Canada, and all of Central America. Relations-wise, an Obama presidency will hopefully allow for more cooperation with our allies. This is important as we're quite strained militarily. And, frankly, the US having 51% of all combined military spending in the world is untenable.
- The bad news is that Obama will probably release the US to paying for abortions again. We already have 1.3 million abortions a year. It'll only increase now.

Long Term
- The US economy is in dire straights. We're spending more than we should. We've repeatedly enacted foolish tax cuts. We've outsourced our manufacturing base. We're becoming more protectionist in our trade. Obama will inherit all of this. His large more socialist spending policies will be constrained by an inability to pay for them. I'm hoping that the Blue Dog Democrats will reign in spending. Or, if we go into a deep recession, I hope, at least, that they'll force Obama to spending more wisely such as in infrastructure building projects and not stupid tax rebates.
- I'm very proud that tons of people showed up to vote. I'm encouraged by this. I also think that, long term, they will stay active in politics and slowly shift to being more conservative. This will bode well for America.

Now that the kids are older, my wife and I decided that we should give them the 4th of July Parade Experience. We actually had to search for a town that still had one. The town just south of us did, so we headed there this morning.

I enjoyed it. I took 147 pictures on my new camera. Ha! I'll upload a few select ones to our family gallery soon.

I really liked the fact that the kids got into it. My oldest immediately made friends with a few of the kids next to us. My youngest was a bit restless, but he really enjoyed the "truckkkkks." You really have emphasize that 'k' to get the right feel for how he says it.

It was a bit hot, but we all enjoyed it. I was proud of how many folks showed and were wearing flags. Yeah!

I recently listened to a Diane Rehm show in which she interviewed Kevin Phillips about his book, "Bad Money.".

This is a must listen! With over 30 years of financial reporting and with experience as a former White House Strategist, he describes how the Amerian economy is in deep trouble - Depression era trouble.

His frank analysis of the current American political system and their inability to address this dire issue is also refreshing...and scary.

Seriously, go listen.

Assuming that John McCain and Barack Obama are the presumptive nominees for their parties, I would hope that each would run a clean campaign on issues. I like both candidates. I think both are filled with hope and a positive message. I would love to see a campaign on substantive issues. If this were true, I think that a fiscally conservative candidate would easily win over a more socialist candidate.

That said, I don't think we'll see any of this. I think that as we draw closer to November, we'll see more 'swift boating' on both sides. I also think that, probably, the GOP will have more negative ads than the Democrats, judging by past elections.

And, as long as I?m in a predicative mood, let me gander into my Crystal Attack Ball and give you a few negative ?concerns? that will be played up about Obama. First, the fact that he doesn?t wear a flag pin will be spun as making him unpatriotic. Secondly, the real estate deal where the paid less than market price for the land next to his house will come up more than once. Thirdly, more rumors about him secretly being a Muslim will surface (despite his 30 years as a Christian). And, lastly, his associations with some folks that are anti-Semitic will be played up as him hating Jews.

I do hope I?m wrong, but I think these ?concerns? by 507 groups will come up and probably more nasty ones. Enjoy the election season!

Some of you might have heard of Alabama's Democratic governor being unfairly prosecuted of bribery. Well, it now seems that there was a 'technical glitch' in Alabama when 60 minutes tried to air the story.

I can't believe that such things actually happen in the USA, but since we're in our downhill slide as a nation, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. My workmate says that this is God's judgement being passed on the US. I fear he's correct.

I have hopes on our next President stopping the slide, but part of me thinks that most Americans won't even care enough to vote.