Here is a link to NORAD Santa where you can track where Santa is going and where he has been on Christmas Eve leading into Christmas Day. It is an interesting little website that I have been following yearly since 1998 I believe.
There is another Santa tracker that Google is offering this year but when I visit the site, it is blank. Also, there is not set, tiny URL for it. Do a Google search for “Google Santa Tracker” and you are sure to find it.
Peace be to all!
Many people eat what they want, when they want, prepared how they want and have little to no regard as to what it will do to their bodies or the exaples they are setting for their children and other people in their company. People would eat a deep fried Oreo everyday for breakfast and gain hundreds of pounds by doing so if only they could get them at the grocery store with little more than a microwave in the way of cooking.
Now, the F.D.A. which is concerned very little with health and even less with the environment has approved the raising of fast-growing salmon that can be raised and then harvested for human consumption. I am not a salmon expert or on the committee of the F.D.A. but since I am not, I guess I am ignorant to the complete lack of salmon on this planet.
People should not be consuming as much meat as they are these days and until you pick up a book or watch the news on a regular basis or attend a health class, you will not see the overwhelming negative effects of large scale meat consumption.
The F.D.A., as they are not really notorious for getting a lot of media attention, the hurried up and passed approval for the hormone induced fish species with the hope that one member of the committee getting, if anything, their initials in their local hometown paper.
I personally despise the F.D.A. and in the circles I am involved in, I am only mentioning them in conversation when I am ridiculing their involvement with the U.S. diet. There is almost never a good thing to say about this groups of individuals.
Many people who are involved in the science field, or the meteorology field or even in politics know that the world wide situation regarding global warming is damning to say the least.
Now, scientists are reporting that in West Antarctica that the average temperatures have risen 4.4 degrees since 1958. As reported from as early as 2005 is that if West Antartica were to melt off, involving both sea based ice and land based ice, would raise the worldwide ocean levels by twenty feet.
This of course would result in tens of millions being killed or displaced. A very frightening concept to try to wrap your head around. I have written on this blog before about some of the benefits the United States could cherish if the problem of global warming was tackled head on by the political system but since the politics always get in the way and the people in Washington D.C. are more concerned with which fat cat dinner they can get for free or how to fatten their wallets with lobbyist cash, the worldwide temperature increase gets put on the back burner.
At this point in the United States political system, the concept of global warming and the possible solutions to curb our old habits is as obtuse and passive as if we were living in the 1950’s. There just isn’t a demand for it. One thing is for sure though, no matter what administration, no matter what party, not matter what year the shit finally does hit the fan, the leaders in this country will have to somehow justify the pussyfooting around the issue that they have gotten so good at over the past several decades.
Tomorrow is Christmas and though many people jumped out of their eggnog induced hangover and triptophan induced slumber the day after Thanksgiving for all the doorbuster deals on Black Friday, many people wait until the last minute to throw together a holiday list and swing by the local Wal-Mart to get some uninspired gifts for their loved ones.
A handful of retailers in the United States keep their doors open for the holidays and call on all their seasonal help to work long hours. I tend to feel sorry for those people, like my friend Tyler who got a seasonal job at Wal-Mart and will be working throughout the Christmas season. They may have a little extra cash to pay the bills and make ends meet if only to fight tooth and nail with other employees to keep the job at their seasonal workplace.
The loss, and it is a big one, is that they are losing quality time with their family and friends and for many people in U.S. culture, it is the only time of the year where they forget the past and get everyone together to at least pretend to be happy for the holidays.
These days, the deals aren’t as attractive as they were a month ago and the supply is even smaller but retailers are seeing a surge in last-minute shoppers.
Of course there are the people that may or may not get a couple hours inside a warm cafeteria to have a couple helpings of rolls and hot soup only to head back out into the streets on a cold sidewalk and despair over what they once had. Memories, or the hope of their luck changing may be the only thing they have this season. Not iPads, not 3D tv, just them and their wits. I hope people keep these folks in their minds as they are opening their gifts Tuesday morning.
If you are a government official or anyone who has a public profile in the world of politics, both in American and abroad, you have heard of Anonymous. Anonymous who is heralded by the mainstream media as a one-man-show and “super hacker” has exposed tax records, work histories and political influence in every party and creed.
Of course, it is foolish to think this “Banksy” character is just one guy at a computer with endless sums of money. I personally believe it to be a person within the government that has access to such records and information. Of course if Anonymous is a government official then “good job”. A government official with a hatred of the government. Someone who wants to watch the world burn. I couldn’t say I fault them.
I myself have no affiliations with Anonymous and I am sure they will never figure out who it is but I wouldn’t mind being on the receiving end of some exclusive info.
IN reading the regular news cycles that are being circulated around the internet, I see many, many things regarding the fiscal cliff. It is something that the American people should care about. Or, at least the 98% of Americans who are operating under a $400k per year salary.
I am not too concerned with peoples taxes going up because, like the Clinton era philosophy, freedom costs money. What I would be more concerned with is what is the best possible way to raise the taxes on the wealthy and finally give some of that money back to the government.
I know what you’re thinking, “this hipster liberal wants to give even more money to the government that doesn’t know how to spend tax payer dollars in the first place”. Trust me, nothing could be further from the truth.
In all actuality, we need to stop the lopsidedness of the wealth in this country. Is it really all that necessary that one of the Walton offspring who own countless shares in Wal-Mart stock have $8.2 billion instead of $8.1 billion?
I, myself am in the very low end of the income bracket in this country. I am not concerned with linking my bank account to those who did well in the private sector in this country and getting an automatic deposit once their stock prices reach a threshold. I am not Robin Hood. I do not wish to rob from the rich and give to the poor.
The thing is, the government in this country is looking at the fiscal cliff in the wrong way. We need not be concerned with raising OR lowering anyones taxes if we took a different approach to how business is done in this country. You see, if there are no jobs for Americans to pay income taxes with, the debate is null.
One solution would be the 400 pound gorilla in the room which would be to look at things like global warming and building a unified national, lower-48, power grid. Until we look for a new solution to our old problems, we will run in circles for eternity. The industrial revolution changed the world in many aspects as did the internet craze of the 1990’s. I know social media is a big business right now and all of the software and hardware experts in Silicon Valley will always try to create new algorythms in search and develop strategies in which is the best way to monetize mobile ads.
These things are not important in the big picture. Like mentioned before, it is making a very small, select group of Americans wealthier than they already are and have no significant impact on the economy.
A unified power grid would be the solution to the problem of jobs, energy dependency, crushing debt, global warming and an overall economy that seems to be jaded after seeing how quickly a 401k can be lost when banks gamble on cheap credit and faulty mortgages.
If anyone wants to see a new route in America, by all means, do not sit on your hands and wait for the next ballot box to be opened at your local library. Call your congresspeople, write letters, shoot e-mails or put the representative to task by asking damning questions on Twitter or Facebook so the people who follow such representatives can see for themselves the questions they are not responding to.
These days, there are a lot of political issues being thrown around as many people have woken up to the fact that the world is not going to end. Of course these issues concerned many people before but now that all of the “zombie apocalypse” media is out of the news, people are focusing on finer issues.
The biggest of all of course is the horrific tragedies that occurred in Newtown where a madman gunned down innocents for…I suppose to reason whatsoever. After that and the fact that little was done after the Batman massacre, many people are up in arms (pardon the pun) about gun laws in this country.
I myself side with the democratic party on almost all issues and this issue is no different. One extreme solution that is being talked about on social networks and in the mainstream media is armed guards at schools. I am not sure where the politicians stand on this issue but I think it is the negative solution. You cannot necessarily fight fire with fire.
I am not a child psychologist but I think that seeing an assault rifle in a man’s hands just to take their phonics class at 1st grade, may be the wrong message to send.
Now that Barack Obama has earned a second term in office, he can do many things without worry of ever having to win an election ever again. As a democrat, I agree that we, the citizens of this country, should have more intense and scrutinizing screenings of individuals who wish to purchase firearms.
I myself have not shot a firearm since my time in the United States Army in 2004. I respect people who own guns and use them for hunting game or household protection. However, those with mental illnesses and violent criminal records should be prevented from buying guns at trade shows or flea markets. Currently, the majority of those outlets do not have a universal screening process.
Since the Newtown massacre, several incidents of death by guns have occurred in this country. I am sure multiple more occurred without notice from the media say in the ghetto or lower income parts of the country because it was criminal on criminal.
Right now, the most pressing issue that is occurring in Washington D.C. is heading towards a “fiscal cliff”. I truly hope we can save lives instead of worrying about what is in the bank.
