It has been said, and I forget who said it, “There are only three things any man can truly call his own. His word, his heart, and his balls.”

When we are young we give our word and break it without thought of the repercussion. Wise men learn from this and grow out of that stage. Then we become men when someone else breaks our heart, and wise men learn from this, and to guard their heart better. Finally we spend the rest of our lives trying to find a career that won’t make us break our balls to survive.

Time was once that an honest man could work for an honest days pay and go home feeling honorable and hold his head high. That time has gone the way of the Dodo. Today you are expected to do things for pay that doesn’t cover half your bills and barely keeps your lights on and scraps of food on the table and by the time you get off work you’re so worn out holding your head up is damn near impossible.

America is still a relatively young nation, but it has always stood for freedom and strength until now. Corruptions in both the cooperate and government of our day have taken away freedom and left us toiling in a life our fore fathers fought to get us away from. Historic heroes like Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and George Washington would weep seeing what we now deal with considering how far we as a whole have come.

Their system was set up for an age of frontiersmen and folks who communicated via messenger and horseback. Today we are supposed to be one of the most technologically advanced societies on the planet, yet still we have not updated our electoral process or opened our population up to the standards of living that we as a nation have earned.

I believe folks deserve the right to expect certain health care and educational resources for their families and themselves at a reasonable cost from their jobs. I believe that the government is responsible to set regulations in place to protect that right. I believe that those regulations need to be enforced and big corporations do need to be held to a higher standard. I think services and products that can be provided here in America, should be given top priority over foreign services. Companies that use cheap labor and ship their products in from overseas, should be forced to pay a much higher tax for them. This money would be returned to the American economy in subsidy/grant programs to help support our workers and product, and to help them keep their prices competitive with the foreign markets.

Governments and corporations all work the same, they believe in the trickle down theory. Ask the youngest brother in a family of eight whats left on the platter when it finally gets to his end of a table. Ask the teachers and the secretaries how they feel about what “trickles down”. The trickle down theory is nothing new, we all know what rolls downhill. Those of us at the near bottom of that hill have been watching as our neighbors drown in it and today’s “American nobles” stand lofty and shout, “let them eat cake!” But there are no trenchers for the poor now, there is no scraps for the less fortunate.

Boston harbor has a much different smell today than it did on Thursday December 16^th 1773. From 1789 to 1799 french nobles learned a hard lesson in fear and respect from their people that was long overdue. A similar lesson was taught to an English king from 1775 to 1783 right here on our shores. Am I saying we should do it again? No I am saying our folks in power need to to remember from historical evidence what happens when you oppress and treat your population poorly. I’m saying those folks who have been granted places of power in order to “SERVE THE GREATER GOOD OF AMERICANS” had better start doing a better job of it before things do progress that far.

I am a veteran of two wars, Panama and Saudi Arabia/Kuwait. I joined the army, I took the oath and fought when I was told to. I carried a weapon with my brothers in arms and helped to take two countries back from tyrants. I did this without being told why, and without feeling like there was enough information or reason to do so. Both these wars were not fought for our freedoms, so much as they were about money and power. Is the world a better place without Noriega or Saddam in power? No doubt in my mind about it. But the real question to me is, why were we the ones picked to do this? Neither of these men were much of a threat to us. Hell both these conflicts were handled quickly compared to the prior revolutions I spoke about. Ten years France was at war with itself, American fought the English for eight.

It took three days to take Noriega out of power. From January 16^th to April 6^th 1991 was the time Dessert Storm took. 100 days. These are drops in the bucket compared to Vietnam, Korea, and others. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

In contrast, why have we not totally invaded the dessert’s were the Taliban are and swept through them with a fine tooth comb. Why are we letting terrorists who have killed thousands of Americans continue to breathe? Our military might is already over there in the Gulf area. September 11^th has as of yet not been addressed with the proper amount of force and response needed.

So lets recap and conclude. The power and elected officials in play are not doing enough to help those of us hurting from the economic crunch of our times. We get empty promises and pretty speeches, but no results. They tell us we will not tolerate attacks on American citizens, but then nothing happens to the ones who did. We are further sent in to fight wars to protect power and money in the pockets of the folks who already have it and those of us who did the fighting and lost our blood, sweat and friends are not told why, or even properly compensated for it. Top that off with a raise in cost of living to pay for said wars and no raise in pay for those of us just trying to survive one day at time.

Votes don’t belong to people who stand behind a microphone and bitch about what the other guy is or is not doing. Votes should not go to the one who keeps saying they need more information, or they are waiting for such and such. Votes belong to the guy who is out there trying to make it better. And if you work for a company that isn’t making life better for you. You are not getting paid, you are not receiving benefits, they are putting your hard work out there and making a profit and you are getting the smelly end of the stick for it… look for other work, get out of there. Stop making money for them unless you are making enough for yourself and your families needs too. Corporate America stands tall on our labor and they make millions, sometimes billions from it. Do they deserve the lion’s share? Sure, but we deserve a fair shake too.

I started this with a quote and I didn’t know who said it, I’ll end the same way, “Action speaks louder than words.” If you are in power, shut up and do something about the American suffering.

Hey guys,

Some of you know others will be finding out with this post, I now work for Direct TV as an installer.  I am still in the training program right now.  The pay is pretty good and the work is hard, (keeping/getting me in shape I hope).  I will have a company vehicle and some tools issued to me and of course they provide me with the boxes and dishes and equipment for the customer calls.  I will have to pay for a few uniform shirts and a couple of tools I will need to do the work.  They will pay to get me the licence test for the national satellite installer licence (so long as I pass it in one of two tries, after that I will have to come out of pocket $200.00 to take it again).  I get paid for referral sales and installs (so if you know of anyone looking to get Direct TV after Monday when I get my Tech number, send them my way please).  I also get paid extra for doing certain jobs at the customers home.  Digging a trench or doing a pole install if the house does not have line of sight to the south sky, doing a wall drop, extra boxes installed and set up, etc etc…

One of the perks I am told is that after working there 60 days I get FREE basic Direct TV… Here’s my dilemma and where I am looking for input from you my friends and family.  I currently have Comcast Cable handling both my Internet and my TV with HBO and the digital package.  I really like having only one bill to deal with for the cable & Internet, I did hear from work that there is a package coming that will include high speed Internet with your Direct TV, but right now they don’t have anything that compares to the speed of cable Internet.  We don’t have a phone at all in our house preferring our cell’s.  To install satellite you HAVE to have a home phone line.  So I could keep Comcast for the Internet get a phone line and dump my cable bill only paying the fee for HBO…

is it worth all this effort though?  With all the rain we get here in Houston and the problem of  “Searching for signal” from satellite, is it worth it?  I can’t remember the last time cable went out, if we have power we have TV.  And when its raining outside, what else is there to do but watch TV?  You don’t want to go anywhere.  I can’t ride my Harley…

What is your opinion on the pros and con’s of cable vs satellite TV?

Comment’s appreciated, no membership required.

A guy goes into a supermarket and while walking down one aisle, a beautiful blond at the end of the aisle waves at him and says, “Hello”.

 He’s rather taken back, because he can’t place where he knows her. So he says “do you know me?”

To which she replies, “I think you’re the father of one of my children.”

Now he thinks back to the only time he has ever been unfaithful and says, “My God, are you the stripper from my bachelor party that I laid on the pool table with all my buddies watching, while your friend whipped me?”

“afraid not” she said, ” I’m your son’s English teacher.”

For as long as anyone can remember, there has been one form or another of chaos. War in the middle east, riots in L. A., the fall of Rome, the Inquisition, murder assault and mayhem. These are the simple truths that people everywhere have learned to accept. Life is about overcoming anarchism, and without it we would not have anything to watch on the news, our television shows would all be dull boring repeats of each other with no real action, and in general we as a society would begin to stagnate.

It takes the worst of times to bring out the best in people. In the face of adversity we as a hole become more inventive, we begin to think with more creativity and theory becomes fact.

The idea that one man may have to fly to get where he was trying to get, was along time ago the kind of voiced opinion that would get you thrown into a mental hospital. Now we take it for granted that if you are in say Barbados, and you want to be in London, you can jump on a plain and fly there.

The belief that it can’t be done has been replaced with the knowledge that it has already been done. All of life has been done before. The chaos that is humanity never stops trying to do the impossible. One day we will colonize the moon, later we may even take trips to Venus like we do to Florida now. Think about where we came from and what we have accomplished. Now consider if man did not face the chaos and adversity that is the nature of life, would we have ever invented the wheel? Would we ever have found a use for fire? Would we not still be simple apes living in caves?

We as a race strive on pressure, chaos is that pressure, remove it and we are nothing

Time was once that a story was a story because it held merit to its listeners.  That time has past in my view.  Now stars are made of people who do not deserve the lime light simply because the media has lost sight of what is important.  That’s why we have people like Paris Hilton splashed all over our newspapers, magazines, and TV.

 The media was out of stock on truly important things to tell us and they decided to shine their all important spot light in another direction.  Unfortunately for us Paris Hilton is the equivalent of a highway car accident, everyone has to slow down and stare at the scene created.  She is not worth the time or effort it takes to do so, but still there are hundreds of thousands of people slowing down the traffic to stare at the spectacle created by yellow journalism.  They say its a story and we eat it up like its the most important thing on earth.

You know its scary that we as a public have allowed this to happen.  We had the control of our government, but now they control us, we had control of our media, but now they control us, its a mob mentality tactic and our society has fallen for it hook line and sinker.  We didn’t just let them lead us, we put the bulls nose ring in our own nose and handed them the chain to pull us around on.

 Lets not forget that if we wanted to rear up and smack the crap out of them, we as the public are the bull, they are nothing more than the soft pink flesh humans we allow the privilege of leadership.  The bulls power in this case is to turn off that channel, its to not buy that magazine, its to turn our attention away from the media spectacle and get on with our lives.

The important thing in life is life.  Getting side tracked by the whiny little pantie-less rich brat with no redeeming qualities shows a lack of intelligent thought, it shows we are the lemmings headed towards the cliff. Get out of line, why dash our lives on the raging waters and rock at the bottom of the cliff when we could be out there enjoying that next sunset. Or being with our family…

We as a whole need to GET A LIFE!!!

What makes a good or a bad day?  Is it the way others treat us?  Is it the weather?  Maybe luck and chance take a down turn for us.  Maybe we got up on the wrong side of the bed and spent our whole day grumpy and morose. 

I think that last statement is telling of us all.  We make our own days good or bad.  I know, I know, the house is a wreck, the kids are bitchin’ moaning and complaining, the bills a piling up and you just can’t get a second to yourself to take a deep breath or two.  Well who’s stopping you from stepping away from it all?  Whats so all important that you can’t wave everyone off for a few moments of peace and quiet outside?  Put your hands up and step back for a minute, walk away from everyone, let them know you need a second to yourself and close the door on your way out.

Now while your out here lost in your thoughts and going over everything in your head that’s chased you off to be alone… quit it.  Stop thinking about all the mess behind you.  Breath in, breath out, think about that cloud floating past.  Think about the grass and how many colors of green you can see.  Think about that funny joke you heard at work the other day and how you were laughing with your friends.  Remember what George Carlin said, “The following statement is true.  The preceding statement was false.”  Contemplate that for a minute.  Now breath in and breath out again and return to your life, but think of it from the clouds perspective.  Whats all the problems matter?  They’ll get sorted out one way or another and sooner or later there will be a new issue to deal with.

The trick is to be there working on it, but in your mind you are out laying in the grass.

 I get really grumpy some times.  I know I do.  I think at times its a defence measure to get left alone for a few minutes.  What I forget is at any time I can just tell everyone this easy phrase, “Excuse me a moment.  I need a second to organise my thoughts, but I will be right back.”

Ladies have a problem, they want to call all their friends over to discuss it.  They want to talk about it and hash it out, come up with eight different ways to deal with it and then hash those out too.  Me?  I’m a guy.  I want to be left alone to think about it.  When I come up with my way of handling it, I’ll let you know.  Then if you have a suggestion that may help or pertain, let me know.  But I still get to make up my mind and do what I feel is the best.  I may make mistakes, but hell, I’m human.  We all make mistakes, get over it.  I need to know I am the one who made the final decision, right or wrong, its my life and I get to make my own mistakes and own them.  On the other hand I also get to take credit for things I get right too.

 Don’t stop living your life, just stop stressing about it.  Letting people get on your last nerve helps no one, not you, not them, and not me.  Life is about discovering problems, inventing ways to handle them, and accomplishing goals.  Chaos happens, those who dwell on it or are stressed about it get nothing.  Those who acknowledge it, figure out a way to deal with it, and then move on to the next issue… they succeed.

A Priest and a Rabbi were sitting next to each other in an airport.  After a few minutes of silence the Priest looks over and says, “Rabbi, is it still a requirement of your faith that you not eat pork?”the Rabbi responded, “Yes, that is still one of our laws.”The Priest then asked, “Well have you ever tasted pork before?”

Yo dudes, check out me on my new ride… well actually its the same ’06 Dyna Wideglide that I had before the accident, its just all custom out.  I sank a bit more cash into it.  I did it for me.  I think its cool.

I wanted my bike to look different from others so I decided not to go with the traditional tribal or flames or some graphic design there of.  I went with the idea of blood running from the front off the back of the bike in steams.  I told the  artist to kinda run with that idea however he saw fit.  I find that usually if you have a good artist and you give him a basic idea or theme to go with but leave him to his own devices after that you typically get better work out of them.  I was not disappointed.  The company is called Debonair FX located right here in Houston TX and here’s the bike they worked on for me:

I also had a custom seat made and the front lower forks are powder coated.  The seat was made by another local company named Thunderhead who do great leather and foam work.  It also had gel inserts and a more comfortable passenger seat.

All in all I really love the bike.   Being up and riding again really makes me thankful for what I have.  I think we all at times grow a bit numb with repetition in life.  That is to say, you drive the same route to work day in and day out, you begin to predict what you will do and see before it happens based on your experience in rinding that route so often before.  That’s what I did anyway and that’s what I think cost me. 

Take the extra five minutes getting home, watch your surroundings like it was the first time you came through there.  You may notice some things that have changed but you didn’t see before.  You may save yourself a possible accident.

Hey, Some of you may know I love poker. Others know I have three cats. Still others may know I have never been to Las Vegas in my life. Well help me fix all these problems with the following contest. Click on the picture to go vote for my caption.  Get me away from the cats, out to Vegas where I can play Poker!!!

More on the online Poker Cats Contest

A blonde goes into a coffee shop and notices there’s a “peel and win” sticker on her coffee cup.So she peels it off and starts screaming, “I’ve won a motorhome!  I’ve won a motorhome!”The waitress says, “That’s impossible. The biggest prize is a free Lunch.?”