On October 27th, 1964 Ronald Reagan gave the speech that would eventually lead him to the presidency. I have always felt that Ronald Reagan was the greatest president this country has ever had. Why? Because, Reagan saw this country as the greatest nation on earth and would not accept any assertions to the contrary. He saw the American people as being this country’s greatest resource and, he was always optimistic about our future no matter what crisis or problem was at hand.  Reagan knew that for our nation to be prosperous, we must stop the growth of government.  Today, our political landscape sorely needs the kind of optimism that Reagan expressed every day. This speech describes my political philosophy exactly. It makes a lot of references to the Vietnam conflict but, these references are just as pertinent today about the threats that we face as they were in 1964. More importantly, Reagan describes the threat of government intrusion into our lives. If you voted for Obama, you need to listen to this speech in its entirety.

I ran across this article today.  Finally, we are hearing some truth about climate change.  This whole man made global warming “crisis” has always been about a global conspiracy for socialism using the climate and guilt as the vehicles.  

Here is the article.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”  (Declaration Of Independence)

This year’s presidential election was more important to me than any one held before it.  I have been voting since after the election of 1988.  My 18th birthday that year fell on the day after election day so, I could not vote.  Since then, I have taken my right and duty to vote very seriously.  It’s shameful in a country such as ours that symbolizes freedom that so many people do not vote and that so many people know so little about the history of this country and how things work.  I have always had a strong interest in politics and history.  To me, those things go together.  I first read the Declaration Of Independence when I was in elementary school.  I didn’t fully understand all of it since it was way above my reading level at the time but, those words “life, liberty and, the pursuit of happiness” stayed with me.  When the U.S. Constitution was in the process of being written in 1787, the theme and spirit of the Declaration Of Independence became the basis of the Constitution.  The Constitution was written to ensure limited government and, to protect the freedoms of the people and, guarantee individual liberty.  This year’s presidential election has reminded me of just how important preserving the Constitution and returning to its principles really are. Read the rest of this entry »

With the defeat of Proposition 8 in California, the issue of same sex marriage is yet again front and center.  While many who watched the outcome of Proposition 8 have called it “democracy in action”, I see this as tragedy for freedom and equal rights.  I have said many times that the presence of democracy does not guarantee freedom and equality for all.  James Madison, our nation’s fourth president and one of the writers of the Constitution argued that “common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole…and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party….”  From this basic argument, the founders wrote the Constitution to create a constitutional republic instead of a direct democracy.  The framers of the Constitution knew that in a direct democracy, there would be no guarantee of rights.  Only the rule of law can protect the rights of the people.  Without the law, this nation would devolve into anarchy and tyranny.

No matter how you feel about same sex marriage, the basic right for same sex couples to marry is protected by the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution even if the U.S. Congress and most of the states fail to recognize that fact.  When we legislate “morality” or create laws based upon religious beliefs of the majority, we impose tyranny upon the minority.  With the enactment of the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment, this is exactly what the framers of the Constitution wished to avoid.  The Bill of Rights is a collection of mostly individual liberties.  The first eight amendments specifically apply to the individual.  The 9th Amendment applies more to the people as a whole while the 10th Amendment applies to the states.  It’s clear that the framers wanted to ensure that individual rights would be protected against the whims and changing opinions of the majority.  They also wanted to ensure that the states would maintain the ability to create laws that fit the needs of the people who reside in each state without the interference of an overbearing central government.

While we know that the founders never debated the issue of same sex marriage, they understood that just because something is morally objectionable to one group of people, it should not always follow that that thing should be prohibited for all of the people.  One case in point is the issue of flag burning.  During a political demonstration outside the Republican National Convention in 1984, Gregory Johnson set fire to a U.S. flag.  Johnson was arrested and changed with violating a Texas law that prohibits vandalizing the U.S. Flag or, other “respected objects”.  Johnson was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison and received a $2000 fine.  When Johnson’s case reached the Supreme Court, the court decided in favor of Johnson.  The Court held that just because the act of burning the flag was believed  to be objectionable or offensive, Texas cannot make the act illegal.  Johnson’s act was an expression of free speech.  While it may offend the majority of the people, his right to express his views without fear of persecution or prosecution should not be denied.  (On a personal note, I think that what Johnson did was wrong and I would have been in jail right beside him for kicking his ass!)

Many people in this country are offended by what they see as the “gay lifestyle” without really being aware of just what that lifestyle is.  It isn’t much different from the lifestyle that heterosexuals lead. Gays work, go to school, enjoy a night out, take vacations, go to church, etc just like other people in this country. Like heterosexuals, they also engage in other personal and intimate activities that are best kept private.  Why is there such a huge interest in the private behavior of citizens of this country?  We’re always concerned about searches without warrants, wiretapping, identity theft, etc. but, there just doesn’t seem to be much concern over the privacy of sexual and intimate behavior between consenting adults.  In the end, does someone’s sexual orientation really mean that they are a lesser human?  Does this mean that they are not entitled to equal protection of the law?  Everyone reading this blog post knows someone who is gay (whether you’re aware of it or not).  You probably work with several gay people.  Some of them are in your family, in class with you, at your church, working behind the counter at Gap, etc.  Remember that guy who was wearing those fabulous Prada shoes and a stunning Armani shirt who helped you with your flat tire last week?  Without hesitation, he stepped out of his Jetta and whipped out his iPhone and called roadside assistance.  A gay man went out of his way for you and, you were totally unaware that he was gay (unless his carefully chosen and, fashionable accessories gave it away).  Do you really want to deny him his freedom based upon your objection to his lifestyle? Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re Apple fan like me, you probably like to have all sorts of cool Apple logo stuff in your home and office.  I have several posters, 3 ‘Think different’ portraits, lots of stickers, an Apple mouse pad, an Apple branded coffee mug, a ‘Steve Jobs For President’ tshirt and, an ‘I’m a Mac’ tshirt.  I even have a vintage Mac Classic displayed proudly in my apartment.  It still boots up and works too!

A few months ago, I visited themissingbite.com.  It’s an online store that sells all kinds of Apple logo merchandise.  I didn’t have any Apple logo pens so, I placed an order for one.  When it arrived, I loved it.  I made sure to use it often when I met with new customers.  I’m an Apple consultant and a former Apple employee so, it’s only fitting that I would have an Apple logo pen to take notes with when I meet a new customer.  The pen began to fail within a month.  It became very difficult to get the the pen to retract after I had used it.  Even when I opened the pen and carefully put every piece back into place hoping that maybe something got out of position, the pen just didn’t work properly.  Finally, I just gave up.  It was plastic so, things like this can happen sometimes.  In August, I ordered another pen from The Missing Bite.  This one was advertised as “stainless steel”.  It looked very nice on the website and it wasn’t a retractable ball point pen like the first one.  It instead had a metal cap.  It looked a lot more professional too.  Like the first pen, I loved the “stainless steel” one too.  However, it wasn’t made of “stainless steel” as the website stated.  It was really aluminum — cheap aluminum at that.  The pen started coming apart after less than a month.  Every time I would take the cap off, an inner piece would start popping up out of the outer casing.  I would push it back down only to literally watch as it slowly creeped back up out of the outer casing.  That was really strange.  I figured out that the inner piece was sitting right on top of the spring that kept the ink cartridge steady — pretty lousy worksmanship for a “stainless steel” pen.  

Earlier this week, I emailed the customer service department at The Missing Bite.  I explained that I had two defective pens that I purchased from them and that both had failed within a month.  I also mentioned that the “stainless steel” pen was made of aluminum and that I felt that this was false advertising.  I asked for a refund.  Their response was that I was outside of their return policy and that they don’t make those pens anyway.  Apple makes them according to The Missing Bite.  Actually, Apple doesn’t make pens.  I should know.  I used to work for Apple!  I wrote back and told them that is irrelevant and that they should stand behind the products that they sell.  Their response again tried to place blame on Apple instead of themselves for selling shoddy merchandise and misrepresenting them as quality products.  After I decided to turn up the heat by emailing their webhosting company and talking to a couple of Apple PR people, they relented and gave me my money back — again with another excuse that they didn’t make those pens.  The point is that it doesn’t matter who made them.  Did NewEgg.com tell me that when I told them that a hard drive that I bought from them almost a year ago had failed?  No.  They didn’t.  What they did was offer me a new one at a substantial discount.  They felt bad that I had such a lousy experience with Samsung warranty support and they wanted to make things right.  I never asked NewEgg to do anything for me.  I just called to find out if they knew how to contact someone higher up the ladder at Samsung.  Instead, they offered me $50 off a new hard drive which I gladly accepted. Since then, I have repaid their kindness by buying even more of their products.

If The Missing Bite had offered to replace the pens, I would have been satisfied.  If they had given me my money back right away with no runaround, I would have been satisfied.  Instead, they came up with lame ass excuses and then finally gave me a refund.  In return, they asked that I not shop on their website again.  I told them that I would NEVER shop on their website again and that I would do everything I can to make them lose business.  Well, this is the first step.  Hopefully, a lot of people searching for Apple logo merchandise will see this post and avoid The Missing Bite like the plague.  I made sure to tag this post with the EXACT SAME search tags that they used for their own website.