IPods Vs. Reading

A thought has come to mind recently on how much our technology has deprived us of simple pleasures. One of these I enjoy the most is Reading. I have come to opinion that maybe, just maybe, Apple was wrong in inventing the Ipod. Loading a novel into one of these should become a sin and a criminal offense and the person doing so should be hung from the highest yardarm. Some of our youth think of it as burden to pick up a book and suddenly have to actually spend time reading it!.

The lack of reading has been a concerned of mind for as long as I have lived. Growing up I had a hard time learning it, until my parents has me tutored by a teacher willing enough to spend time teaching me to do so. Mr. Jenkins taught me the joys of reading and I spend the rest of my life learning some of the most useless facts imaginable. But I love it!

Today we are pressing our children to read more and to develop their skills in that area. John Adams one of Our founding fathers enjoyed reading to the extended that he honestly thought himself vain because he spent more time reading poetry than reading the Bible.

Our young people seem to be losing their capability to read and that is one area of study we need to encourage them more to read. But we as parents need to do so more urgently before they are suck into modern technology and have the author read it to us. I not against the Ipod , I just against having it read something to you when you have the capblities to read it youself.

We have become lazy, less studious, about the need to learn new words and understanding what we read. We have become to condition to have someone else express to us what his or her opinions are than to footnote and annotate what we are reading and perhaps come to a totally opposite opinion!

There is no time to contemplate and in most cases we are condition by listening and not reading. It is time to put down the Ipod and pick up the book and go to our quiet corner of the room and read. There, we will discover the joys of Mark Twain and the political insight of Thomas Sowell. Nothing is more powerful than the written word! Well maybe the ipod?

Time For Some Campaignin!!!

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Don't you just love this! Saves me from doing a column this week!

DRILL AND DRILL NOW! Part 2

The time has come today for the Democratic Congress to put up or shut up concerning more exploration for oil, President Bush on Monday lifted an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president. This ban should have never been opposed on the American people and the cause of the problems out country is currently experiencing. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well, which seems to be something they, the Democrat Party refuses to do.

The American people are demanding that the two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by the first President Bush in 1990 come to an end. President Bush is trying to ease market tensions and boost supply, called last month for Congress to lift its prohibition before he did so himself today and yet this do nothing democratic Congress will sit on it hands and do nothing. The President said, "The only thing standing between the American people and these vast oil resources is action from the U.S. Congress Now the ball is squarely in Congress' court

Bush criticized Congress for failing to lift its own ban on offshore drilling.
"For years, my administration has been calling on Congress to expand domestic oil production," Bush said. "Unfortunately, Democrats on Capitol Hill have rejected virtually every proposal. And now Americans are paying at the pump."

This is a "a very important signal” said Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee, and said his Democratic rival, Sen. Barrack Obama, should drop his opposition to offshore drilling. The goal of the Democratic Congress supposly to protect beaches and coastal states' tourism economies, however these economy's would be even more damage it people were unable to visit them without gas to pump into their cars.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her infinite wisdom stated; "Once again, the oilman in the White House is echoing the demands of Big Oil,” and then she compalins that the same oil companies that are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastal areas.

Yet again they refuse to understand are they refuse to tell the American people that they reason for non drill in those acres is either the oil is not found oil the environmental groups of bottle up drill thought legal action.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. stated

“This proposal is something you'd expect from an oil company CEO, not the president of the United States," said chairwoman of the Senate Environment Committee. "The president is taking special-interest government to a new level and threatening our thriving coastal economy."

Yet she fails to speak about the special interest she is speaking for. The environmental groups that have placed our economy into the situation it is now in. Of course the environmental groups, too, complained that:” President Bush has once again ignored the wise precedent set by his father and taken reckless action that has neither hope of reducing gas prices nor concern for long-term consequences," said Gene Karpinski, president of The League of Conservation Voters.

My guess is that Mr. Karpinski refuses to realized the reckless actions and the damage his groups are doing to the economy of this country. If we do not start to drill today we will face not only higher fuel prices but also possible global recession. This is an extremely dangerous time. We are watching the Democrat Party cut it’s on neck if they continue this no growth policy.

Our Hero: Tony Snow!

This morning a good friend of mine died of colon cancer. Yes, he is Tony Snow and yes he wasn’t exactly my friend. I met Tony when he substituted for Rush Limbaugh and I found in some ways that I like him somewhat better than Rush
But watching and listening to Tony Snow made you feel that he was your very close friend. From his stories about re-building his home, which seems to have taken years to do, and was always one of the first questions listeners wanted to know about. When we learn of his struggles with Cancer we all wanted to know the daily details and how our brother was doing.
Tony’s life was gear more towards his family than any political concerns. His quiet, yet humble personality reflected on what we all could learn from. In many ways he was an example of what was right with America and he taught us that all was not lost and everything is going to be OK!

I remember his dignity as he wept one Sunday morning on Fox News following September 11th. I saw in eyes how angry he was over the loss of the three thousand people and yet it wasn’t the type of anger many people would expect.
It was a quiet reserved, and yet humble dignified love to the many people that were lost that very day. Tony was and always will be my example of what being a compassionate man is all about
But we always knew that Tony was ok when fighting cancer because of that infectious smile and love in his heart toward his wife and children and dare I say us! His laughter and smile said it all and we knew he was all right. We know now he is all right as he will be sitting down with Tim Russett, another compassionate man. Both men are now in heavenly Father's arms and both men are without pain.

We will miss Tony, and we will pray for his family. We will miss our friend and may he have peace; As we do so, may we remember his smile and loving nature and his humor. He is our Hero! He is our loving Brother!