Farmers to Plant Most Amount of Corn Since ’44

 

Business

Farmers to Plant Most Amount of Corn Since '44

By ANDREW MARTIN

Published: March 31, 2007

Growers intend to plant more than 90 million acres in an effort to meet demands for ethanol, food and feed

 

 We are concerned with our dependence on foreign oil, foreign money, foreign products, foreign service (yep have you called a call center lately?)  This is a cause and effect to the increasing oil prices and the increased cost of transportation.   I think it is incredibly important that we will move in the direction of alternate fuels and home grown fuels.  Click the link and tell me what you think about it.

 

-Jose 

 

 

 

Hard work and the gods

"The sweat of hard work is not to be displayed. It is much more graceful to appear favored by the gods. "

  Maxine Hong Kingston, The Woman Warrior, 1976

The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts

And good 'ole TJ already knew it.

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.

Thomas Jefferson
3rd president of US (1743 - 1826)

Chinese Cash Moves Could Roil Markets

So the Chinese are doing what we did back in the days of the "Gold Standard"  they trade at a surplus and save approximately $20 Million USD a month into their foreign currency coffers, but with the weakening dollar and low interest rates the Chinese feel it is time to diversify in order to get better returns.  Granted they are starting with a $200 Billion portfolio rather than the full $1 Trillion but still that is a lot of money moving hands and when most of it is already invested in the United States, what will that do to our markets.  I guess only time will tell. 

So it goes,

-Jose

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Economy

Chinese Cash Moves Could Roil Markets

by Anthony Kuhn 

Morning Edition, March 28, 2007 · China holds $1 trillion in foreign currency, which it plans to re-invest for better returns. It will move cautiously, but any rearrangement of such huge sums has the potential to disrupt global financial markets.

You can see the actual NPR story with a working link Here --> http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9177075

 

 

Public Service Announcement, Florida IDPA

The First Annual IDPA Florida Low Light Challenge


This message is to announce that due to the number of entries received, the cut-off date for entries for the Florida Low Light Challenge has been moved up to Sunday, April 15st , or when the first 80 entries have been received. If you are planning to shoot this match, the first all reduced light sanctioned match in IDPA history, please submit your entry without delay.

The match website is: www.flalowlight.com

Lance Biddle
Frank Akey
Match Co-Directors

ps. Changes have been made to the website to make it easier to find the linked pages! If you have had trouble finding the links to the match info, and entry forms pages… the light brown targets on the left side of the home page are the links. The link information is now plainly shown.

Quote of the day: In reference to their positions on Gun Laws, a Liberal and a Conservative are separated by only one thing, a mugging.

Well maybe not really, but then again truth is truth.  You may agree with the 2nd amendment you may not.  But, on the day you need that right, if it has been stripped away from you; be it by your own action or simply a FAILURE TO ACT, you will miss it, need it, want it and BE SORRY!  

 

Just a thought

-Jose

So what do you do when you find out a friend of yours, just got deployed to IRAQ?

So I found out this weekend that a buddy of mine is being sent to IRAQ now, I understand that he is a Marine.  He has trained for this and as a 2nd Lieutenant is excited to lead some of his men.  But then what about the rest of us land side, which are safe thanks to people like this.  They could have chosen the corporate route and been working for a fortune 500 company, they obviously have the leadership skills.  Then you have the conscious choice to defend OUR country, OUR freedom, and ironically create the feeling of safety but they're going into this unsafe, and non-free country.  So now I sit here safe and sound and ask myself, now what what do I do, what do WE do.  So I am open for suggestions... any ideas?

 

 

-Jose

You ever wonder if anybody is listening?

Oh well I guess that is the question I had today as I clicked on that handy little "next Blog" button at the top of the screen. Looked like most of the blogs had never had a comment. I went ahead and left a comment on one just so that person would no at least someone saw it. I wonder if anyone has ever seen this page. I know that I got pretty bored of that next blog button pretty soon when I got 3 pages in a row in a language I could not read. But so it goes I will write down a couple thoughts and think that at least someone has looked at it, otherwise, I guess it may make for some entertaining reading for myself some day in the future.

So if you read this click the leave comment and say Hi. If you are a blogger leave me a link to your Blog I will swing by and take a look.

So it goes,
Jose

Current Books I am reading.

I usually do not have too much time to read just for pleasure but have recently been able to find a bit of extra time and I am currently working on two great books simoultaneously. Here goes a little bit about them.

The first is Freakonomics which is a knock you on your behind, completely different view of the world around us. Written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner this book takes the ordinary, mundane and sometimes comical and makes you see relationships which you ordinarily would never have caught. Click on the link to Amazon and take a look at the summary you really will be surprised, a book written by economists is a page turner. Seems unlikely but then again "Why do crack dealers still live with there mothers?" Well the book dives into that and other off the wall questions. Like what does the KKK and a real estate agent have in common?

The second book I am working on is more along the lines of self help, personal growth and is entitled The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. This book creates a connection between a corporate executive and a professional athlete. The authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz spent years helping professional athletes work on their sprint/rest routines and then figured out that these same routines could truly help the Corporate Athlete. This book is written in the form of small vignettes which allows one to sit down read a couple of pages and continue on with whatever you were up to. Each small story of a different individual allows one to create parallels with one's own faults and try to adopt some of these changes. I have found that using the spring rest mentality, if at the very least, is a great way to brain wash myself to focus on the task at hand by promising myself a rest doing something I enjoy whenever I reach a certain predetermined goal. Give it a try it came highly recommended to me by a Senior Executive I truly respect and I too highly recommend it.

My comment to Michael Bane's Blog

If you have ever been done wrong by a big bank or some other large institution be sure to read Michael's Post here and my reply below, ENJOY!

oh Mike!
If I can only say I have been there. I am an auditor by profession I deal with getting information from people each and every day, both the nice and the not so nice.. To the point that I have a mini tagline that helps get through the day to day: "I am an auditor I do not have feelings” well rewind fast forward no difference, I am 2 days late on a payment with my chase cc, not to mail the payment but it clears 2 days late, a balance I was holding at a reduced percentage gets moved into prime I get charged late fees and interest and all sorts of fees. After many calls to Chase I loose my cool, me loose it, cursing and all, I pay out the nose and close the account (and not that easily either had to pay things had to clear than had to pay the little bit left, then refunded an overpayment…) So I was utterly convinced that I will never bank with Chase again. Fast forward to a month ago, I open up an Amazon cc for the convenience of purchasing on the site and it turns out to be a Chase, I was going to give them another chance, but for you and all the others out there like me I will cancel it tonight when I get home. Sorry for the rant, just wanted to let you know that some of us have gone through it and I will at least do something on my end close my account!

-Jose

Some of my Favorites!

So I figured it would be best to start off by sharing a little bit about myself in the form of links sites I often frequent. A little bit of clicking and you will have an idea of the circle I enjoy within the world wide web. Please leave a comment no matter how short just so that I know someone has been here.

Favorite BLOG: http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/index.html He has an interesting blog up right now discussing the horrors that Chase Bank can do. I have personally been there so I can totally emphasize. Not to mention that Bane is really in the know when it comes to the going ons in the world of the shooting sports, and rumor has it he is pretty good friends with the host of two Outdoor channel shows, Shooting Gallery http://www.shootinggallery.tv/ and Cowboys http://www.cowboystv.com/.

Favorite Talk Show: Tom Gresham's Gun Talk http://www.guntalk.com/site.php Ok I know I may be very comfortable with firearms and very proud of the fact that the USA has stood behind our founding fathers ideas and have not gone the route of the UK and Cuba. But Tom does a great job of having an all inclusive show, love them or hate them Tom will give you equal time and equal opportunity to share your views. Plus he is a bif proponent of taking friends out to the range and introducing new shooters to the fun that are the shooting sports. Yep it is not only hunting anymore. HE PODCASTS TOO!

Favorite Gun Sport: IDPA (International Defensive Pistol Association) http://www.idpa.com/
One of the younger shooting sports (founded in 1996) IDPA manages to keep it fun, keep round counts low, and focus on defensive scenarios rather than just making a game out of it. It is great for the very competitive and the weekend warrior alike. I personally enjoy being able to spend the day with friend, talking and relaxing in a sliglt competitive scenario where we all truly just don't want to be DFL (Dead Freakin Last) or DQ (Disqualified) other than that it would be a sucessful day out.

Favorite Musician: Paul Demond an absolutely amazing saxophonist who was instrumental in the creation of the cool jazz era in jazz history which so easily could have been overshadowed by the Beepop era developing alongside it (think Charlie Parker). His biography really is a page turner as Doug Ramsey provides a great insight into the life of a genious. Paul also wrote one of the most famous jazz pieces of all time Take Five and has one of the most beautiful renditions of My Funny Valentine I have ever heard which is on his Desmond Blue album. He also recorded some wonderful pieces with Gerry Muligan one of these is Two of a Mind. But his true all time partner was Dave Brubeck THE Maestro of the cool jazz piano in my very humble opinion. I would highly recomend their work together on Buried Treasures: Recorded Live in Mexico City which is a not so often mentioned work with some amazing moments of greatness. Although their work as the Dave Brubeck Quartet in general is really how they are known.