Mumbai Tragedy

Tanya photo


Mumbai, India Tragedy

It is such a sad thing that some young men are trained and conditioned to believe that murdering as many innocent people as possible in a short time will make them heroic and advance some cause.

Tomasito, 2008


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Bloggah!

The Blogger Song

Oh, the candidate's a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh, the candidate's a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger too.
He'll meet you and treat you and ask you for your vote,
But look out, boys, he's a-bloggin’ for your vote.

We're all a-bloggin’,
Bloggin’, bloggin’, bloggin’,
Oh, we're all a-bloggin’ out the way through the world.

Oh, the preacher, he's a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh, the preacher, he's a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger, too.
He'll preach the gospel and tell you of your crimes,
But look out, boys, he's bloggin’ for your dimes.

Oh, the merchant, he's a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh, the merchant, he's a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger, too.
He'll sell you goods at double the price,
But when you go to pay him you'll have to pay him twice.

Oh, the sheriff, he's a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh, the sheriff, he's a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger, too.
He'll act like a friend and a mighty fine man,
But look out, boys, he'll put you in the can.

Oh, the general, he's a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh the general, he's a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger, too.
He'll march you up and he'll march you down,
But look out, boys, he'll put you under ground.

Oh, the lover is a blogger, yes, a well-known blogger,
Oh, the lover is a blogger, yes, and I'm a blogger, too.
He'll hug you and kiss you and call you his bride,
But look out, girls, he's telling you a lie.

Carmaker Management Salaries

The Midas Touch?

Carmaker Manager's Shameful Salaries

I have been more or less shocked by the attitude of the top management of several of the big American automobile manufactures who have recently come to Washington DC to demand a huge bail-out of their failing businesses.

Their bargaining leverage has been the assurance that if the taxpayers of this country do not come up with a pile of money to save them—they will make sure that their companies will crash—the disemployed workers will be on the streets and the millions of people in America and around the world who depend on the auto trade will also lose their livelihood.

These managers do not see this as the simple case of blackmail that it is.

I can remember a time not so long ago when the leadership of a company did all they could to keep the business profitable—to hold on to their best employees with bonuses, medical and retirement plans, and to keep their own salaries in line with the profits of the business.

Well this old-fashioned model has certainly gone out the window.

I read recently that the top leadership of the big auto makers was making a salary of thirteen million dollars a year.

For shame!

Most of us wage slaves could easily live several lifetimes on that much money.

How much ice cream can you eat anyway?

If the US car manufacturers cannot compete they should get out of the business —no amount of government subsidies will help—that will only prolong the agony!

As for those “managers” who get the millions of dollars a year for wages...

Well, what do YOU think they deserve?

Tomasito, 2008

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Happy Thanksgiving

!Happy Thanksgiving!

May your day be peaceful and joyful!

Tomasito, 2008

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Is Islam The Answer?

Mosque of the Prophet, Medina, Saudi Arabia

Is Islam “The Answer”?

Q: What do Islamic terrorists want?

A: Islamic terrorists want all the people in the world to convert to the religion of Islam.

Q: If everyone was Moslem, would the world be a better place in which to live?

A: From the Moslem point of view, of course, it would.

Western women, especially, might not be particularly comfortable living in a Moslem world, since they have become accustomed to being treated equally with males before the law and have far more independence and educational opportunities than are allowed women in the highly paternalistic life style of the Moslem world.

Moslem philosophy allows no independent thought at all since everything necessary for life and thought has been stated once and for all time by the prophet. Everyone MUST believe the same things in exactly the same way which may eventually cause serious psychological, artistic, cultural and scientific limitations, though, of course, if everyone WAS a Moslem there would be no contrasting system so these limitations would either not be apparent or could not exactly exist..

Q: What does Islam offer?

A Islam offers a carefully controlled, disciplined and systematic way of life and, hopefully, paradise after death.

Moslem fundamentalists are famous for ruthless, self righteous and intolerant behavior such as suicide attacks which appeal to those personalities who find satisfaction and purpose in the belief that they are “right” and that others are “wrong”. Islam offers to these types a role to play in which they can believe themselves to be noble fighters in a godly cause even if they are actually engaged in the most inhuman and perverse crimes and the slaughter of innocents.

Those Moslems who die by suicide in the struggle against non-Moslems, (unbelievers), or who perish fighting for the cause of Islam are assured of attaining instant paradise after death. The Moslem notion of paradise, which features sexual bliss for men, seems to appeal especially to young males who are denied any normal outlet for their sexual urges by the strictly disciplined anti-sexual mores of the faith.

Q: Is the Christian Way superior to the Moslem Way?

A: There is, at present, no nation to my knowledge which espouses Christianity as a sole national religion. There is a small autonomous region called “Holy Mountain” in Greece which might be considered a Christian country, but it has very little political power. I believe that Lutheranism is the state religion in Germany but other religions are permitted to function.

Tomasito, 2008

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Gas Prices "Explained"

High to Low Gas Prices "Explained".

There was an "economist" on the Public Radio news this morning that "explained" that since the USA has passed new more restrictive laws regarding the grade of crude oil which could be used for Diesel oil in the USA, the USA had had to buy a large amount of the "sweet crude" for its reserve supply.

This caused a lack of oil and gasoline in the system, so the price of what was left went up (supply and demand).

When this large amount of sweet crude had been collected for the national reserve, the price went back down and THAT is what caused the almost 5 dollar per gallon cost of gasoline--which has now suddenly gone back down to less than two dollars per gallon.

Weak!

I wonder WHY no one in the government said a word about this while it was happening!?

I personally think that this so-called explanation is a sweet crude cover-up for some other very slippery monkey business in high places.

Tomasito, 2008


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School Rant

School Rant, Summer 2008

I was out walking yesterday morning at about seven-thirty--it gets so hot so early here in Redding, CA, that if you don't walk early you don't walk at all because the temperature is soon over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit--anyway I was out fairly early and school has started again or I probably wouldn't have noticed anything--BUT...

We live near a high school.

Now I know high schools. I have worked at them a lot over the years as a teacher--and I attended one many years ago and I know that they don't change very much. You might say they resist change as much as any bedrock bureaucracy you can think of and I think you'd be about right.

Anyway--the street corner where I walk across without hardly pausing when school is out was a flood of automobiles--a river of steel, glass, plastic, rubber and everything else that cars are--barely pausing at the "stop" sign for a pathetic pedestrian--me--to hastily cross.

"WHAT A WASTE!" I thought.

"MAN! What a waste!"

I suddenly thought of all the other high schools across this broad land with all their highly automobilized young patrons all forming a vast stampeding herd of lemming-like consumers on their way to and from school--wasting resources just as fast as they can--and I felt more than slightly sick.

Especially because I know VERY, VERY well that almost ALL of these young people have absolutely NO interest in attending ANY school on ANY day and that what they will learn at their high school is probably not worth knowing anyway!

It is ALL a colossal WASTE!

Now here is a suggestion that NONE of you will like and that will NEVER become reality:

Only conduct high school classes one or two days a week--and only allow young people who prove by their attitude and their scholarship that they will profit from attending classes to be students at these public schools.

See what I mean!

You don't like the idea do you??!

I thought not!

It is NOT what you remember from your high school days--and it is NOT what your parents or grandparents remember from their high school school-days!

But, don't you know--things HAVE changed!

As a global warming expert said yesterday as he described the drowning of polar bears trying to reach northern ice bergs--"We have reached the tipping point!"

In other words: Things will NOT return to normal!

Tomasito, 2008


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Gas Prices

On their way up--Roseville, CA 2004

Gas Prices

Why?

Why more or less slowly and jerkily up to four plus dollars a gallon and now-- after a week or two of rapidly falling prices-- under two dollars per gallon?

And not just one brand of gasoline—but ALL of them.

Is this not price fixing at its most blatant?

Are not the old anti-monopoly laws still on the books?

WHO has their fingers on the gasoline hose to open or shut it at their whim???

Is it the Saudis? I think not.

Is it the futures traders? Maybe so—at least partly.

Is it the US government? THEY don't seem to be able to control ANYTHING.

Is it Bush! Obama? Hilary? They don't seem to have a clue.

Who is this price roulette good for? Who does it benefit?

Man, I really don't know and don't seem to be able, with the resources available, to find out.

Do YOU know why?

Tomasito, 2008

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Hospital Worker Fired

Tomasito, 2008

Redding Hospital Worker Fired!

One of the big hospitals in Redding CA , where I currently live, has fallen on very hard times in these days of hard times.

But they have been taken over by another “hospital saving group” from out of town that goes around saving sick hospitals—and makes them profitable (just temporarily--for the new management only) if not well, again

I read in the local newspaper that this new administration will close the unprofitable parts of the hospital—but will resuscitate the highly profitable Emergency Services.

The Hospital Savers Group (headed by doctors, of course) fired most of the sick hospital's existing employees and many of them were quite surprised.

One surprised staffer was a nurse who had worked in the Emergency department for eighteen years. She was one of the first to get the ax.

Now nurses, like other old-fashioned workers, used to get periodic pay raises—to keep the best trained, etc., staffers on the job. The employer—the hospital in this case—showed it's employees that it cherished their long service by rewarding their dedication with MONEY!

But, of course, if there is a NEW EMPLOYER—like our Out of Town Hospital Saving Group—it doesn't owe those high paid long-time staffers the time of day. It is AX time for THEM!! And put the money in the pocket of the NEW administrators until the hospital finally REALLY dies and who cares about THAT anyway—they don't live here!

I think this is a little part of the reason that Mr Greenspan—the longtime money man of the U.S. government--said he had a wrong notion about what business is all about when the economy crashed because “there was no adult supervision”.

American business used to be about people working together to earn a living—and now it about administrators working to make themselves as rich as possible as fast as possible and then get away with the loot—and let the workers find other work—if they can.

I worked for Montgomery Ward when it crashed and I was working for Mervyns when it was bought by Hostile Takeover Inc. which has driven it into the ground.

Looks to me like it is a good time for Greed in High Places and a bad time to be a worker.

Tomasito, 2008

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AdSense: How They Do It.

Folks, it's just too good to pass, so naturally I could not resist and had to post it here for you. Do you know how they claim that they make millions in AdSense? Watch this video and the mystery will be clear to you. After you watch this you will never fall for this get-rich-quick scheme again.



After you watched this video click a link in his bio box to see part 2 (the secret exposed). Ahh, what's the heck, I'll post it for you right here:

Watch how they really do it.

It's freaking, isn't it?

By the way, the code did not work when I typed it. But I have no doubt that it can be done.

Have a wonderful time!

Masked Guru

A while ago I found a great new site run by a person who calles himself Masked Guru.

I was amazed. If you signed up for his letter he will send you honest and unbiased reviews of all the famous get-rich-quick scams, I mean products, that are so abundant on internet nowadays. The reviews include Rich jerk, Day Job Killer and some others. And let me tell you: he thrashes them all! He writes with a sense of humour and actually gives away the content of the ebooks. He promotes some generic services like autoresponding and hosting. There is nothing similar on internet.

His last letter really shifted my perspective, what they called shift of paradigm on the whole idea of internet marketing. In his latest message he also gave away a book: it is just beyond belief. You just get to check it out. Don't worry, it won't cost you anything.

Man, man, people like that actually exists. He is in another league, in fact, he is in league by himself.

Check it out. You won't regret it. By the way I am not associated with him in any way. It's just so totally freaking different, I promise you have not read anything like that before. (Oops, I make it sound like a hype, but since I am not selling you anything it's all right). It is something compatible with Rich Dad, another book that shifts your paradigm about finances.

I wonder if he's the guy behind this stuff (check it out, it's fantastic. How to really get rich quickly:

Buy My Stupid Ebook

Scam!

Ok, I just got a refund from one of the so-called gurus who try to sell you a get-rich-quick scheme, in this case it was get rich quick with AdSense.

What he advises is basically to create blogs and plaster AdSense all over them, then submit them to some social bookmarking sites. Sit back and watch money rolling in. Yeah, right!

He is a smooth salesman and the stuff he writes makes sense... at the first glance. When you actually try to implement the strategies, you realize that it is all a crock-o-baloney. All these schemes are scams, period! I requested a refund: he was very rude though he refunded promptly. Whatever happened to the customer service? Try to accuse him of lying and you'll get yourselves in hot waters. It's just not worth it.

Beware of that facade of honesty they put on. Many get sucked in and he is very much admired on a certain forum.

What a jerk! (No, he is not Rich Jerk, just a jerk (without capital J.)

Note: the only reason they refund is that Paypal takes measures to ensure customer satisfaction. They hate to issue refunds and they accuse you wrongly that you have not read their crappy ebook.

California Wildfires

2006 Wildfire from downtown Simi Valley, California.
Thomas Wold photo

I have lived in California on and off for many years.

I am very familiar with the Santa Ana winds--the tinder-dry conditions of the forests and hills in the Fall--and the wildfires that sweep over the land every year.

The smoke in the entire huge Central Valley all summer of 2008 has made breathing bad and visibility terrible--and the record setting heat waves have made most of us living here sometimes wish we lived somewhere else--but we have personally been spared the devastation now occurring in the Santa Barbara hills and east of Los Angeles.

As the California population grows and the land near towns becomes hillside villages--pretty, yes--but dangerously tempting for wildfire--we expect more will lose their homes and belongings.

If the swarming human populations do not limit their growth there will be more and more natural disasters--this is obvious--and it takes no blogger to sound the alarm.

Tomasito

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Hilary as Secretary of State

Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State?

Now THAT is a VERY interesting idea!

If President-elect Obama can deal with THAT kind of intense pressure he certainly does deserve his high office!

I like the idea.

Hilary is one strong, tough and scary lady and Mr. Obama seems determined to use the best and most ferocious talent available.

Good for him--and good for her, if she is willing to play second fiddle--but with still a lot of power.

Personally I admire her persistence and charisma but have never liked Hilary Clinton's views on National Health--since the medical profession is currently one of the greediest and most impenetrably powerful organizations in the USA--an organization which is not likely to take any cut in either their power or their privilege OR their HIGH FLYING very expensive life style. If Doctors fees are paid by the taxes--Oh my! The taxes are really going to skyrocket!

As it is some thoughtful people can stay away from doctors and stay healthy too.

But, come on Mrs. Clinton--you can and should do it!

Tomasito, 2008


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First dog? First Cat!

Maggie on the Balcony

First Cat

We see that President-elect Obama has the duty of chosing a "First Dog"--and he may chose the Inca's favorite breed--The Peruvian Hairless.

That would be a very good choice and a fine political move.

Peru is pretty weird politically--I have spent enough time in that country to make that statement--but the Peruvian Hairless is a cute and interesting breed and any further good will ties with any South American countries is a Good Idea.

But NEXT we would like to see President-elect Obama select a First Cat.

OUR cat is a very good choice for us because we live in an apartment with a balcony and our next-door neighbor is a nice woman who has lived in these apartments for 18 years and she has a cat.

Her cat likes to come over to visit us almost every day--we call her (the cat) "Maggie" though that is NOT what her owner calls her--so for us she is one thing and for her proper owner, another.

A VERY GOOD THING is that she (her owner) feeds Maggie--we don't. We DO keep a dish of fresh water for her but never a scrap of food--Maggie knows this and never even begs from us.

So, Maggie is our part-time cat--and that is a good way for independent cats to be--and Maggie is quite independent.

I recommend to President-elect Obama that he get a part-time cat too since this builds good relations with neighbors and doesn't cost a thing.

Tomasito, 2008

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Peace Cartoons 3

Tomasito, 2008


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Peace Cartoons 2

It's Getting Cold

It's Getting Cold in this place where I live right now. The summer was blazing hot and the winter is going to be cold and I can't afford heating or air-conditioner.

The river here is so cold because of the dam. The fish can hardly survive. They wracked the ecological balance. And the fish has no choice but to come back upstream from the ocean.

Stay warm this winter.

Sherm Stick

I just could not resist. Number 1 hot trens yesterday was "sherm stick". After quick research I found out what it was: a cigarette or joint (marijuana?) dipped into embalming fluid commonly known as formaldehyde. They are sold at $10 a cig in LA. The effects are reported like being drugged on acid and meth at the same time and it lasts for hours.

People! That was the hot trend! What does it tell you about the society we live in?

I am glad to see it disapppeared today.

About Blogs and Bloggers

The internet is chock full of trends: latest trends, hot trends, fashion trends and what not. There are other trends: trends of the day. Here is what I found.

Lots of users register cool name blogs and then do nothing about them. That gets really annoying. For example I wanted to register getrichquick with Blogger and it turned out that this name and similar names were taken but are either not used at all or just have one stupid post.

Thomas wanted to register blogadog and guess what? Yep, taken over and not used.

So my question: why register a blog if you have no intention to write it?

Hmm, I guess the question is rhetorical. But if anyone knows the answer (besides the obvious: they meant to write but never got to do it - I am not buying it) please let me know.

Peace Cartoons

(to be continued)

Hi, Alice.

Peace is always an interesting and important topic--I don't know how "hot" a trend it is but I do know that if we "human beans" don't get it on and get it right pretty soon--we'll be as defunct as the dodo!

I thought I would do a little something for peace and so I drew some cartoons which tell a simple story. I will start publishing them today on your good new blogsite!

So they won't get boring I will post four every day for a while--and remember--I don't blog on Sunday or Monday! (Even us die-hard bloggers have to get some rest!)

Tomasito, 2008

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New Flash Game: Escape the Chem Lab

Finally something interesting in the hot topics and new: Escape the Chem Lab. It turned out to be a new flash game for which people are searching a walkthrough. I like games so I had to check it out. It's escape-the-room type of game as its name implies and it is as dumb as most of them get. Absolutely no reason, items are hard to pick up and most of them can't be grabbed until you have some other items. 5 minutes was enough for me, the game is plain stupid.

Still, it's a surprise to see a very mediocre flash game made it to hot topic.

Take care.

P.S. A good escape-the-room game that I enjoyed was a Japanese game called Escape the White Room. Definitely better than this junk.

Tomasito Joins Blog

Valley of the Moon, California

Hello, Alice!

Thanks for the opportunity to contribute to your blog and to join you on this blogsite!

I think it is a very good idea and we'll really make this site MOVE!

Tomasito

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Joe the Plumber

Ok, I just browsed hot trends and one of them was a site called "Joe the Plumber" (it is not worthy to click on so I won't even bother with the link). It is some ordinary guy, not a beauty, promotes his book on American dream and we-the-people theme. And you know what? The book is not even written, he want you to pre-order it. He also has big plans in mind like building forum (not functioning) and blog (does not exist at the moment of writing).

Why this thing even made it to hot trends is beyond my comprehension. There is virtually zero content there.

There is another site called Joe the Plumber (one word as a sitename) and this one is abour a real plumber in Amarillo, Texas. Not to be confused with Tierra Amarilla in New Mexico.

Till tomorrow.

Welcome to my Blog!

Hello! I decided to start this blog for my personal rants and comments of the day. Besides it is the day when I am celebrating Barack Obama's victory as the 44th president of the United States. He is also the first president I ever voted for!

I hope we shall see some changes now! It won't be easy for sure but his victory makes me feel much better.

And on a side note at least this time we did not have all this monkey business like we had when they counted votes for Bush and Gore.

Talk soon.