Terrible Political Debate Revolves Around 911 Victims

There is no other way to describe what is going on in Washington DC today other than despicable. Politicians from both the GOP and Democratic Party’s are using the deaths of thousands of people on 911 to further their political goals. In the first year after 911, most political leaders treated the death of these innocent and brave people with the reverence it deserved. However, in recent years that has started to change and one day after the fifth anniversary of 911, the major US political party’s should be ashamed of themselves because they are walking all over the memories of thousands of death Americans just to further their own political agenda.

President Bush started this trend a few days ago when he traveled the country giving speeches in support of the War in Iraq and once again tying that war into his worldwide war on terrorism. Most of the country does not believe anymore that Iraq had anything to do with the 911 terrorist attacks and even the President and Vice-President in recent days have admitted to as much. However, the slick twisting of words in recent days still make it sound like Iraq was somehow involved in the planning of 911, which is totally untrue. President Bush may have started the rhetoric with his speeches last week, but the Democrats are no better than he is when it comes to using the memories and even sometimes pictures of the 911 destruction to further their political ambitions.

Frankly, I am fed up with both major political party’s here in the US because they don’t seem to care how they win elections and both of them will twist the truth about what is really going on in the world to confuse the voters into thinking they state for one thing when in reality they don’t vote that way at all. I have grown accustomed to these type of political campaigns in the US over the years, but after living through the events of 911 once again on television the past few days, the timing of these political speeches is in the worst possible taste and neither side looks good from a purely moral and decent point of view.

Once again I will say that the major problem in Washington DC right now is that radicals from the right and left are in charge of the two major US political party’s and the majority of voters are in the middle. It is so difficult to watch cable news these days because each network finds the most extreme pundit from each side and then they just let them yell at each other for five or ten minutes. All any of these pundits are really doing is reading off of the “talking points” script which is put out by their party each day. Unfortunately, no one is telling the real truth about the issues in Washington anymore and while I believe it will be a good thing if Democrats capture at least one Chamber of Congress, their activities the past day prove they certainly are not anymore worthy of the trust of the American people than their GOP opponents.

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Are All Kids Cheating In School These Days?

Since the start of public education there has always been those who would rather cheat in school than do the work necessary to earn good grades. When I was in high school back in the mid-70’s there were plenty of ways to cheat on tests and from what I have learned first hand, new ways are being developed all the time to help kids who would rather earn a degree the old fashion way, through cheating. In my school days there were two popular ways of cheating and mostly these two methods are still being used in schools around the country today.

First, there were the little slips of paper students would stick on their body, which we all referred to as “cheat notes”. The other more popular way of cheating, in my day, was for students to pay smart kids to do their homework and help them cheat their way to the top. Looking at how the classroom has changed since I was in school thirty years ago, the only real difference in cheating is how high tech it has become in this new modern Internet world. These day’s students use text messaging, chat rooms and other electronic devices to enable them to get an edge when taking tests or doing their homework.

The Internet is a wonderful tool to use in the learning and studying process, but just like all things there is an up and down side to its use. While vast stores of information can be found on the Internet, those more inclined to cheat will use its ease of use to find new ways to cheat successfully. From my own personal point of view, pocket pagers and cell phone text messaging services could be use in the classroom, right under the nose of a teacher. This means that these new electronic devices are the modern day form of the “cheat notes” which were used by kids in my generation. While teachers and administrators will always try and stop cheating from happening in the classroom, there is no way to end it as long as there is a desire by some to take short cuts when it comes to their own education.

I believe there is more pressure put on children today to succeed not only in high school, but to continue on to a good college by their parents. This need for a good quality education is imprinted on anyone who is listening by the schools themselves and by almost every politician who speaks to the public. The truth is that some people are not college material for one reason or another and in a large society there is nothing wrong with that. I remember hearing a story once, years ago that talked about a guy who woke up one morning and discovered that everyone in the world had become a millionaire the night before. This guy was so excited he wanted to go tell everyone, but he couldn’t find a taxi or a bus and even his telephone had stopped working. When he asked someone what was wrong they told him, hey man haven’t you heard? Everyone has quit their job today because they all became millionaires last night.

Just because a kid receives a quality education doesn’t mean that they will be guaranteed a long and financially success life. I have always believed a degree in higher education is only a tool, which allows a person to get in the door. Once they are employed, they better have learned something in school or that new employer will let them go and find someone else who really knows what they are doing. This brings me back to cheating in school and how short cuts really are a bad thing because those types of activities will lead to problems down the road when a student can not fulfill the requirements of a future employer. I believe that anything good must be earned and many times the longer it takes to earn something special, the more satisfaction the person who did the hard work will receive in return.

Money Trumps Morals - CEO Patricia Dunn HP Disaster

I have been watching with amazement the past few days as the Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard, Patricia Dunn, has been twisting in the wind while the rest of the board of directors have been trying to decide what to do with her. This story has taken on new life the past 24 hours when a US Attorney has decided to look into this case of a company spying on itself to see if any federal laws have been broken. The real story behind the story is this: All members of the Hewlett Packard Board of Directors are rich folks compared to most Americans and what we are all witnessing here is a story of rich people fighting and/or trying to get even with each other without going to jail.

In the real world most regular folks live in this is nothing more than a money versus morals decision that all people must face at one point during their lives. In my opinion, Patricia Dunn, the Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard somehow lost touch with reality when she discovered that someone on the Hewlett Packard board was leaking private inside information to the press. Rather than taking the time to ask each board member, on the record, if they were the source of the leak, she instead decided to hire a private investigation company to snoop on all board members to get the information she needed. While this might seem like a good idea to some, in reality when a person or corporate official hires an outside firm to basically dig up dirt, that is exactly what that firm is going to do and some of these outside firms will go beyond the law to earn their fee.

I believe the biggest problem most folks face when they have too much money is that they look for an easy or sneaky way out of a problem. The problem now facing Patricia Dunn is that she is accused of spying on people who are just as rich or even richer than she is and when she decided to do something this stupid against people who have achieved a certain level of success, they don’t appreciate being spied upon by their own Chairman of the Board. For the life of me I can not understand why she has not already decided to fall on the sword, show some humility and try to walk away from this whole situation with at least some type of self-respect. The very fact she has not done that means that either Ms. Dunn does not have the ability to admit her own mistakes or she has been sitting in a room with lawyers for too long.

The truth is that everyone makes mistakes whether they have ten dollars in the bank or ten million. The real test of character is when a person does something that is wrong and that person will either continue down a road of denial or they will admit their mistake, accept their punishment and live to play the business game another day. For too many people they will never admit to mistakes in judgment and eventually they will be knocked down and years later be asking themselves, how in the heck something this terrible happened to them?

Another Manic Monday - First Work Day Always Hard

Back in the 1980’s there was a song I heard on the radio all the time that sang about Manic Monday’s, but at that time I was a young buck in my late 20’s and back then Monday didn’t seem that much different than any other day of the week. Fast forward a couple of decades and I now know what that song was really all about because without any doubt Monday is the hardest day of the week for me as I approach the age of 50. I love to work and I honestly think I will be doing some type of work until the day I die. Sitting around and watching television for endless hours per day isn’t my idea of a good time and without some kind of purpose in life, I would most likely just stay in bed all day and fade away.

About three years ago I first noticed that I was having some pain in my lower back which kept me from standing for long periods of time without sitting down to take a rest. For years I had run my own business and spent endless hours sitting behind a desk doing paperwork and working on a personal computer. A few years ago my business went belly up, so I had to rethink my life so I decided rather than being a middle aged guy who sat behind a desk all day, I would look for work which required at least some type of standing and physical exertion. I found such a job and for the first month of my employment I thought I was going to die of lower back pain. In fact my wife and mother told me I should quit and find something which wasn’t so hard on my lower back.

After a few months my lower back pain started going away and I started noticing that I was getting out of the house more on my days off and enjoying life more. What I think happened to me is that my body fell into that, “use it or lose it” mode. Those years of sitting behind a desk without using the muscles in my lower back caused them to slowly melt away because of lack of use. However, the human body is a wonderful mechanism and when pushed, it will spring back to life, even if it has pretty much remained dormant for almost a decade. When I think back on my decision to find a job, which required me to stand for hours at a time, I believe that decision will prove to be one, which might just extend my life. Why? Because I am the type of person who hates to take walks or workout at a gym several times per week. However, if exertion at work is required I will do that exertion and that in and of itself is a good form of exercise.

Back to the Manic Monday topic. Even though I love working at my new job, I must admit that Monday’s are the hardest day of the week for me. I don’t know if that is because I don’t get enough rest on the weekend or because my body starts to go back into relaxed mode because of the two extra days of rest. I just know that Monday’s are not my favorite day of the week and while I know they are not going away, I just wish I could convince my mind that somehow Monday was really Friday and if I could somehow accomplish that, Monday’s might at least be bearable.