I have no idea why people choose to spend their entire life in Illinois.  My beef with Illinois starts with the weather… the weather is crummy and there is very little to do that does not involve large quantities of alcohol.  Traffic is abominable with roads that often are so broken up you risk damage to your vehicle simply traveling over them… but to go beyond the boredom and winter depression, I think Illinois is one of the poorest managed and most corrupt States in the Union.  I see, hear and feel it everywhere… I see it in grid-lock in Springfield on almost every issue facing this State.  I see Senate leaders play games with rules to get their very own son in position to replace them i.e. Emil Jones… I see a County president who was incompacitated and unable to govern, yet he is allowed to manipulate the rules to allow his son to replace him i.e. Todd Stroger… I see corruption even when I travel the numerous tollways as our inept governor’s name is plastered across the banner above toll booths, i.e. Rod Blagojevich… and when I have the displeasure of going to the DMV I see larger than life pictures of Jesse White… both of these politicians are using taxpayer money to create name recognition only perpetuating their re-election… I feel it in the pockebook when I pay tolls for roads that have been paid for… years ago, yet still collect tolls, and I hear it every day when I listen to the news about the growing debt the State is racking up without any serious ideas how to payoff this debt in our lifetimes. 

I have lived all over this country… from Texas to Washington DC to Nebraska to even Indiana, and I have to say Illinois is the only State I can truly say I would choose never to live again.  I am excitedly planning for the day when I can leave this inhospitable, unfriendly, soon to be grossly overtaxed State called Illinois.  To me it has few truly interesting features… except for the City of Chicago.  Which I will say Chicago is indeed a world class city… it is surprising clean, and for a major city has many places to enjoy the outdoors.  Daly has done a nice job despite his speaking skills that are a notch below George W.’s.  

But Illinois is a boring, corrupt and an anti-business place to live, and so I really wonder why people live here if they had a choice.  From talking with people the primary reason is that the literally don’t know any better.  They have lived here all their lives and can’t imagine anyplace else.  But I for one, would not put Illinois on my list of places to live.  It meets not one criteria that I think the average person would list as a great State to live.  And I think if people knew better, Blowjobovich would be governing only himself. 

I have renamed the State:  Illinoying… as I find living here quite annoying.

Microsoft has been a shining star in the world of operating systems.  They have given the world the ability to do things that 30 years ago were only dreamed of… and while some complain about their dominance, I think they make a good product.

But lately, their almost daily release of patches has begun to cause serious problems with all of our machines.  And if they continue patching the patches, their operating system and the software that runs on that operating system are going to lock-up, and become one giant nightmare for those of us who prefer not to waste time fucking around with tweaking software.

Wake up Microsoft, stop all patches until they are perfected including releasing new operating systems that are not ready for “prime time”.

Over the years I have seen a continual erosion of a basic American value and that is truthfulness.  I hate to sound cynical, but it seems lying has become fashionable… no one tells the truth anymore.  It doesn’t matter how insignificant, people seem to lie or embellish.  I for one am tired of having to read between the lines all the time to establish whether people are being truthful.  It is so much easier to just be honest and tell the truth.

I suppose people in the United States have become so accustomed to politicians, law enforcement, religious leaders, judges, appointed officials and even our Presidents routinely lying to all of us, that we have become jaded.

And to see what I am talking about, you need look no further than the election of 2008 to see lying in full bloom.  Each candidate bends and morphs the truth to fit their needs and it is just awful. 

Obama continues to say things that are not only lies, but he morphs words to mean things that if true would be mutually exclusive.  For example he continues to lie to the American public saying he is going to give 95% all households a tax cut.  That my friends is a lie and is impossible.  Unless you pay taxes you can’t get a tax cut… and the statistics are that 40% of all households don’t even pay Federal income tax, but he just keeps lying.  And whats worse is that no one calls him on it… have we no honest or truth seeking reporters left in this country?

And McCain mistates what Obama supposedly says on a number of topics.  Why does he misquote and distort? 

All I can say is I feel like I am part of an ever shrinking group of American’s who honestly tries to tell the truth at all times.  I find the truth is just easier and people respect the truth even if they don’t like what you have to say. 

So why don’t we all pledge as our New Year’s resolution to tell the truth… and as a complementary resolution pledge to call “bullshit” when you hear people lie to you or others.

The Electoral College is comprised of 638 elected representatives who individually vote their choice for President of the United States.  It is these representatives who actually determine the who will become President.  Each State is apportioned a certain number based on population.  The original intent for the Electoral College was to act as a “sanity check” on the popular votes cast by the largely uneducated citizenry in the early days of the founding of this Country.  In other words, these elected representatives were not bound to cast their vote based solely on the outcome of the popular vote.  An elected representative had the obligation to evaluate the candidates, using their judgment, their understanding of policy issues and their wisdom to assess if it was for the good of the Country to accept the outcome of the popular vote of the citizens of their State.  If after reviewing the candidates, the elected represenative determined that outcome of the election of President was not in the best interest of the Country, they could ignore the results of the popular vote and choose their own candidate.  This provision prevented the election of a President that truly was unqualified.  To date, the electoral college representatives have almost always voted in lock-step with the popular vote.

However, in my opinion we are fast approaching a day where those representatives elected to the Electoral College should seriously consider whether they should vote the will of the people.  The citizenry of the United States have become so diverse, so apathetic, and so uninformed, that for the first time in my nearly 50 years, I would strongly encourage those elected officials to ignore the popular vote.  Our citizens are simply not capable of being informed voters, and instead they cast their vote based on propaganda in the news or worse yet they vote straight party line.

An alternative to the electoral college that I could strongly support is having voters take a test demonstrating a proficiency in the issues facing this country.  This may sound extreme, but we are on the precipice of electing a President who could not even get security clearance to be in any high level appointed position in Government, and yet the popular vote supports electing this largely inexperienced well-spoken charismatic constitutional lawyer.  All we need is another attorney parsing words as simple as the word “is”.  It’s time for closer scrutiny of the candidates by people who know WHY they are voting!!!

Nearly every day I see the commercial for “The Scooter Store” where the spokesperson all but guarantees that if you need a scooter because you are disabled in some fashion, The Scooter Store can get it for you for FREE!!!

Nothing is free, but if people think it is free then they are inclined to want the item.  For example, if I were to pull a truck into almost any parking lot in America with a sign that read: “Free cheese for the needy”, I would be overwhelmed with people wanting a handout.  Americans have been conditioned to want “free things” no matter what that may be… and in my example I would no doubt have people who didnt even like cheese lining up to get their “free” cheese because after all we are entitled! 

So contrasting that to my example portrayed by “The Scooter Store”, the Scooter Store is conditioning people to believe they can get a scooter for free.  No doubt there are going to be countless people now who see this commercial and call the Scooter Store asking for a free scooter.  After all, it is free.  And just like my example of “free cheese” there are going to be people who don’t need a scooter requesting a free scooter.  I just watch these Scooter Store commercials in utter amazement as the spokesperson tells peole the government will pay for their scooter… dont worry about a thing. 

Ladies and Gentlemen NOTHING IS FREE especially if it is provided by the Federal Government.  Overtaxed citizens are the actual recipients of the bill for all those people who want free scooters.  So I say: “Hey Scooter Store stop telling people they can get free scooters, because they can’t”.  Millions of taxpayers are chipping in to pay for all the free scooters, and all of us hard working Americans are tired of the entitlement mentality that rob us of our money to pay for so-called “free” stuff.  Enough is enough!!!

I can remember the day when cable was truly a novelty.  Further, in those days cable was commercial free after all you were paying to watch TV.  Nowadays we not only pay for cable we get bombarded with stupid inane intellectually insulting commercials.  In any given hour we are exposed to at least 15 minutes of commercial advertising.  And if you watch cable TV late at night the networks will turn up the volume of commercial advertising presumably to “wake you up”.  And to add insult to injury, we now have 4000 stations with maybe 2 stations having any intellectually redeeming value.  I find this whole cable TV experience to be a total rip-off. 

Have you also noticed that cable and satellite are competing on quality and the number channels.  Each continue to add worthless demeaning stations that serve nothing more than a placeholder for purposes of claiming more channels than the competitor. 

And now that these oligopolies have us under their collective thumbs, they continue to raise the rates while reducing the features.  All said, I long for the good old days where TV was free and we had only a handful of options.  At least back then we had quality programming that didn’t require us to squirm in our seats as we hear about “erectile dysfunction, enlarged prostate, constipation, incontinance, hemorrhoids, bladder control issues, bankruptcy protection, IRS protection, asbestos, disability insurance, car insurance and my favorite commercials about how Merril Lynch is “bullish on America”.  Thanks Merril Lynch for spending all that money to tell me you are bullish… sounds like you should have paid more attention to managing your money than annoying me!