The end of the year, the end of this blog.

This blog is being put to bed, all posts will now be at Average Businessman - A WordPress blog.

As the stock market falls and the oil prices go up I wish you a happy new year.

Homeless Vets

Who are homeless veterans?


The U. S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) says the nation's homeless veterans are mostly males (4 % are females). The vast majority are single, most come from poor, disadvantaged communities, 45% suffer from mental illness, and half have substance abuse problems. America’s homeless veterans have served in World War II, Korean War, Cold War, Vietnam War, Grenada, Panama, Lebanon, Operation Enduring Freedom (Afghanistan), Operation Iraqi Freedom, or the military’s anti-drug cultivation efforts in South America. Forty-seven percent of homeless veterans served during the Vietnam Era. More than 67% served our country for at least three years and 33% were stationed in a war zone.


Happy Veterans Day

My Request

I'm late and I nominated her.

Vote For Wonderland or Not Here

daily thru the 8th.

In Perspective

These are the questions I want answered.
From Huff Post.



The vote for the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment put her in perspective.

Will it Blend

Rained out Golf and Trick or Treat

This was to be the last home golf weekend.
Not to be. It's been raining for days. Even if it stops tomorrow the courses locally are going to be shot for the weekend.

Golf business may lose millions

Some of Atlanta's largest golf courses are asking the state to exempt them from tough outdoor watering restrictions they say could cost them millions of dollars and diminish or drive away the region's top golf tourname

This is one damn fine golf shot.



We do the trick or treat thing with our son at a neighborhoood gathering Satruday evening and again next week in our neighborhood.

Happy trick and treat. I'm gonna catch - up on all the books written by the presidential candidates.

Another gift for Halloween




Check out Cooper's Poe Post at Wonderland or Not.

Work is Hell

It's been awhile. Like I mentioned, my business is growing and I've been looking for office space. I sign a lease next week on a small suite of offices. This leaves me with no time to write in this thing, but money must be made, food put on the table and golf outings attended.

All eyes are on Iowa with polls giving conflicting data. Hilary is cackling her way into the hearts of some, while Obama's wife predicts he must win Iowa.

Check out Cooper's take on pinking up for Breast Cancer awareness month.

Shayna has officially quit the blogging scene and Pia is moving.

I want no more quitting out there. Hear me?

Enjoy the week.

Dr. Randy Pausch’s farewell lecture. Have a good weekend.

My wife is not an email-er. She doesn't send me cute little notes all day; she's a busy attorney. If she needs me she calls, but otherwise we do our jobs with no communication during the day.
Today she sent me this. As rare as the occasion I watched it.

She sent be the version from ABC GMA -
Dying Professor's Lecture of a Lifetime

There are various installation currently on You Tube.

I like this because there was no talk about religion or being saved, except for a death bed conversion to MAC's. He talks about life lessons, life.

Take a look at this when you have time.

The Good and the Bad

Senate deals legal blow to Guantanamo prisoners

The US Senate Wednesday narrowly rejected an attempt to allow 'war on terror' prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to challenge their detention in federal courts.

Senators voted 56-43 in favor of the bill, but the final tally was short of the 60 votes needed under Senate rules for it to move forward.

The bill would have restored the ancient writ of habeas corpus to inmates, giving them recourse to the US civil justice system.

Players fighting for jobs at Fall Series

The golf season is complete, but it's not. A four-week grind through the FedEx Cup playoffs is over, but a seven-week grind is about to begin. The PGA Tour awarded its biggest prizes of the year on Sunday at the Tour Championship, but it still has plenty more to dole out.

Beautiful Weekend

This had been a most beautiful day, cool and sunny with a little bit of warmth from the sun. Golf in the morning, playing with my son in the afternoon.

I'm doing the raking the leaves thing, letting him jump onto them like I did when young. I know the leaves are full of allergens, but it's a lot of fun, and so far so good.

Someone published OJ's book. Greed has no boundaries.

You have a great weekend.

Keeping it Real

Does Tiger have FedEx, and POY, wrapped up?

I don’t know but the greens are in pretty bad shape.

Now the PGA Tour postseason “dance” has another irregularity — faulty flooring. Drought conditions
have left the greens at East Lake Golf Club looking like the sands of Iwo Jima. The say the grass is always greener on the other side, but that’s not the case if you’re traveling I-20 East out of Atlanta.

I was watching a Nationals game the other night, they were playing the Marlins and it was surprising to
see how few fans there were in Florida. I think it was somewhere around ten thousand.

Obama Offers Most Extensive Plan Yet for Winding Down War

Someone needs to run with this.

Iraq on the mind.

Posting to keep this alive.

I gave up a golf day to get my lawn in shape. Autumn approaches making this a much needed task.

Listening to a CNN discussion on Iraq. If the whole conversation has not gone around in circles for an a hour I'm a toad.

Depressing.

Frank Rich in the Times - As the Iraqis Stand Down, We’ll Stand Up

IT will be all 9/11 all the time this week, as the White House yet again synchronizes its drumbeating for the Iraq war with the anniversary of an attack that had nothing to do with Iraq. Ignore that fog and focus instead on another date whose anniversary passed yesterday without notice: Sept. 8, 2002. What happened on that Sunday five years ago is the Rosetta Stone for the administration's latest scam.

Read it if you have access.

Just a song before I go

Tiger Woods wins the PGA Championship and has golf bloggers talking.

Golf blogging has made the headlines.

Tiger is Focusing on Fitness, to Build Walking-Only Golf Course

Tiger is concerned with the health and fitness level of his comtemporaries.

He has some valid points. One of the biggest factors in Tiger's game, talent aside, is his fitness.

W'ere leaving this weekend for a week of relaxtion. I'll have some computer access and will try to check in.

Enjoy.

A Question Unanswered

Monday meanderings.

Cooper and Pia both wrote a little about this in their blogs a of couple days ago.

Will the GOP you tube Debate Be Postponed?

Ron Paul the only willing candidate.

It's scheduled for the 17th of September but looks unlikely to go off at that time, according to recent reports.

Doesn't matter a lick to me I'm not voting Republican. Not even for money. ;)

Freaky sad situation on Ocean City Maryland where

The bodies of four small infants were found at the home of a woman who denied having been pregnant, even after she was taken to a hospital and doctors discovered a placenta and part of an umbilical cord, police said.

Police found the most newly delivered child, a baby boy, in the vanity below a bathroom sink at Christy Freeman's home, according to charging documents. A further search found the corpses of two other babies in a trunk in her bedroom and another in a small recreational vehicle parked in her driveway.

RIP Bill Walsh: Former 49er head coach Bill Walsh dies

Gonzales and Golf

This summer is whipping by and I've often been too busy to make it to the writing section of my blog. I'm still reading don't worry. It is far more relaxing to read than to write. In my opinion.

I have to make mention of the total embarrassment of the Gonzales situation. The man is nothing more than a cartoon and is helping to make out government look look like the ultimate silly cartoon it is.

The Economist declared Hilary the winner of the debate. Cooper declared Obama the winner.

Having seen the clips I can't say. Hilary looked ready for the questions. Obama's answer to the particular question everyone is harping on, although apparently naive, has to be considered as more the general direction he wants to go in, a direction which some might prefer.

Drug testing policy on the way for PGA

Joe Ogilvie was on the range at the Angus Glen Golf Club yesterday as one player after another came up to congratulate him on his first PGA Tour win, at the U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee last week. Ogilvie enjoyed the backslapping and was soon addressing another timely matter: whether tour professionals use performance-enhancing drugs.

Gary Player ignited the most recent discussion last week during the Open Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland, when he said, unequivocally, that one player told him he's using drugs. Player suspects that at least 10 players are.

"I might be way out," Player said. "It's definitely not going to be lower. It might be a hell of a lot more."

Ogilvie, a player representative on the tour's policy board, has been party to discussions as the organization tries to develop a testing program. He was surprised by Player's provocative declarations.

"If he knows someone who is a tour member and who is taking something, he should name the player," Ogilvie said. "He might be mixing up Viagra with a performance-enhancing drug. If that's the case, more than 10 players are taking it."

Drug testing policy on the way for PGA

Finally

Finally figured out how to get in here. I am posting exclusively at wordpress now.

Hot Tuesday

I know nothing about Utah but the bill introduced to give voting rights to the District of Columbia is long past due. I hope this does not end up tangled in the judicial system.

Woods and Jordon paired up at the Wachovia Championship in Charlotte.

There is a lot of discussion in the blogs I read about blogging burn-out, or need for new direction. I don't have that problem because I never had a direction and don't post enough to burn out.

I hope all the blogs I read routinely keep on blogging or I might have to give it up.

I am noticing a decrease in the quality of blogs in general. New blogs keep popping up every day. It seems the only reason they show up is to ask for links or to make money.

Someone needs to make these bloggers aware that first they have to have a good blog, something worth reading, second if you just started a blog please do not make lists of what people who blog should or should not do.

Find a few good reads or become a good read but do not email me and ask for links because I am not interested and if you are asking me for a link you are pretty desperate.

The usual weekend post.

A warning for anyone doing the add thing.
Some Google Ads Found to Spawn Spyware

I've been in marketing for years now. I never use the internet for anything but recently had to have a couple of web sites designed for two of my clients. I met up with some local designers for that task this past week.

As it turned out one of the designers was the cousin of a guy I went to school with. I went to school across the country from here so it is a small world.

Congratulations to Shayna for having her second son. Carter.

Congratulations to Cooper for graduating soon.

I'm catching up on my congratulations in case golf takes me away.

"Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens were rumored to want Brady Quinn, but the Browns probably did them a favor. Instead, they bolstered their offensive line (Ben Grubbs in the first, Marshall Yanda two rounds later), and landed one of the draft's best return men in Yamon Figurs." - via NCAA Fanhouse.
Figurs is from Kansas State, an excellent choice.

Weekend report

You guessed it, I played golf all weekend, after mowing and seeding and taking care of weeds on my lawn.

I want to know who had the big idea of buying a house on large acerage?

I love my lawn but I dislike working on it. My son enjoys digging holes all over it and that is the part I enjoy. Watching his face and he uses a fork to design an underground home for the ramdom stones he had been assigned to pick up.

The Nationals look pretty bad this year so far. Itried to be a fan of couldn't get my loyalties switched over from the Orioles.There is hope there. I'mplanning on taking my son to his first baseball game sometime within the next week or two. This will be fun.

This "He's staying,'' says Dana Perino, the White House deputy press secretary." Is disheartening.

The B man speaks.

I've had a busy few day so I missed recognizing the day Jackie Robinson "broke the color barrier".

One of the best things I've read on it.

Here's to you, Mr Robinson

Albert Gonzales - "MANIPULATIVE or clueless?" A question posed in the first sentence of this Econimist fot com. article.

How about, clueless that we know he is manipulative or that we know of their manipulations.

Get rid of them all. Is there no protectio for the people of this country?

Complaining

We've had a rash of people coming to our door this week asking for money.

Don't get me wrong, I donate to the volunteer fire department and various other agencies. I have even donated to door to door solicitors in the past. I always do the kids who are selling things for the local high school or elementary school. I am always a sucker for Girl Scout Cookies and the like but over the least two weeks I have had three different fire departments here and just this morning someone from a small business association.

The small business people wanted me to fill out a survey, which I gladly complied with all the time thinking it would hasten their departure. What they really wanted was nine hundred dollars for a membership.

My wife no longer answers the door when strangers pull up.

"Jacob can you get the door please, it's someone wanting money again.

Just a complaint.

Post Easter Tirade

I hope everyone who celebrates it had a happy Easter, and I hope Passover is going well in the case of those who go in that direction.

The Masters was on Easter so we ate and watched golf. It's not warm enough here to think of playing. It was warm enough a couple of weeks ago but winter has kept a small finger on us.

A relatively unheralded player won the Masters and it was good to see a different face.

Zach Johnson, 2007 Masters champion, talks about beating Tiger Woods
You can read it if you are interested. They ask these guys the stupidest questions.

Don Imus called members of the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy headed ho's" and now he is feeling the heat.

We need less of people like him in this world and on our airwaves. I didn't know people ever paid attention to him but there are millions of like minded people for him to pander and promote his racist, sexist stereotypes and hate-speak to.

If his employer had any gumption they would have kicked his sorry ass out immediately.

I have to go eat the rest of my son's Easter candy now.

Golf Day

Bush chides Dems on pork in Iraq bill

Bush Chiding the Dems for Pork? That is pretty funny. Bush chiding anyone for anything at this point is just funny in general.

Weiss' semifinal picks

The two G's have it.

Golf day. Later Folks.

Tuesday

Reading the last paragraph of this post SF Chronicle in Trouble?

I gave it some thought.

I would be disapointed if my local news journal went out of business. I read it to catch up on local events and politics and sports. It keeps me in touch with what is happening on my back yard.

I could read it online but I prefer to sit around with a cup of coffee in the morning and read. I also read both the WSJ and WAPO each day and I don't want to replace the paper version with the digitalized version anytime soon.

$2,500 to clean his chandalier is a little excessive.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday,...Saturday

That song is stuck in my mind.


Golf: Woods Regains His Powers to Take the Lead on Brutal Course
Regains his powers?? It's not like he really lost anything.
Next "The Master's".

Hoya's pulled it out by the skin of their teeth, good to see.
You can catch a brief video here if you are willing to wait a few seconds.

Leonardo Dicaprio And Kate Winslet Together Again

Am I the only human alive who has not seen Titanic?

Back Up your Birth Control

My only contribution to the blogesphere today is to direct you to

Cooper - and Pia's posts about Plan B.

Today is the day to spread the word about Plan B.

Monday Madness in March.

I'm still angry at this kind of thing.
Congress Investigates Walter Reed's 'VIP' Ward
If it turns out to be the case, and I have little doubt that it won't, everyone should be angry.

I have to mention that FIJI'S Vijay Singh has tied the record for the most US PGA Tour victories by a non-American player.

March Madness is not going exactly as I planned but that's for another time.

The weekend weather was not conducive to any kind of outside fun. In other words.............I got a lot of work done. It's looking good for the end of this week so I will work my ass off at beginning.

The joys of self employment.

Tuesday, I Got To Post Something.

Top ranked teams - of course.

I get sucked into betting on this every year.I need a few days to get my predictions in order here.


Top medic out in Walter Reed scandal

This is something, considering the poor treatment, or at least less than stellar treatment, of veterans is not something new. I have personally known several veterans and their families. I think it has been well known for a long time that these men and women have not gotten the best after care for years now. When anyone I know hears the word "Veterans Hospital" they always cringe.

So now you are telling me this is a big surprise? I await further scapegoats on this.

It's a golf afternoon. I'll see you around.

Catching - up

I haven't been on line that much the last few days, my business is booming and that does have drawbacks when it comes to online time.

This is a crying shame, making us a sham. It calls bullshit on the government and not just the current one. This has not just all of a sudden happened.

I find out from Cooper that MJ is back at The Barr Exam. This is good news.

Cooper has an interesting post up and I only feel more stupid whenever I read about things of which I know too little about. Sunni, Shia damn, I had to go read up on it after reading her post. I am not brave enough to outright disagree with anyone online. I am a coward. Or maybe I am just old and don't have the energy.

Pia has the start of a story which we all wish had continued.

March Madness - soon.

Golf and Snow

I was stunned yesterday when Tiger was ousted from
match play thereby ending his streak, Ogilvy is looking good to take it all right now.

From Tiger's Streak Ends in Stunning Fashion

“Only after Woods struck his putt did he notice the ball mark he neglected to repair, which he said caused the ball to bump slightly off line to the right and slide by the cup. One hole later, O'Hern made a 12-foot par putt that sent Woods home without a trophy on the PGA Tour for the first in more than seven months.”

Ouch.

The ice pellets we were supposed to have did not materialize, instead we have a couple inches of snow and it looks like it had no plans of stopping any time soon. What a end of Febrary surprise. Another two hours will be wasted getting this stuff off of the drive in the morning.

Not my gamer

All eyes on the match in Arizona as Tiger tries for number eight.

In other news, there is other news besides golf - "Colangelo-Bryan, a lawyer representing several of the detainees, said: "The court of appeal has said it is perfectly legal to lock men up for ever without even a hint of due process."

My wifes parents came in to town this weekend.

Tell me what a three year old need a gaming system for again?
It goes without saying we had to tell them it was inapproriate and we wanted them to bring it back. We are thinking age ten or so maybe a gaming system will be approriate but not for now.

I like to call it unaware instead of stupid.

Happy Weekend

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

It looks like no golf for me this weekend but things look good for next week being a big melt.

We enjoyed the discounted chocolates from the day after Valentine's. The truth is we didn't get around during the day due to the weather.

The House has officially resolved against the troop surge, so where does it go from here?

Very tired, with a busy social weekend coming up.

I wish you all well this weekend.

Bill Maher resumes tonight.

Happy Valentine's Day

I’m going to say it.

Happy Valentine’ s Day.

We have a lot of ice and snow, everything is canceled, my wife is working at home as am I. I just spent two hours de-icing the drive.

So far we have not lost electricity and I have to take advantage of that fact because chances are it will happen.

Blogger bite my butt.

Over the next two weeks I will stop posting at this site altogether and go completely to the wordpress site I began some months ago, the link is on the sidebar.

I case you can't see the sidebar because you are either blind or not so smart here is the link o the newer Average Businessman.

I stayed here because I had some kind of page rank but it is not worth it to me because blogger is notoriously unworthy and often non functional and I like the wordpress dot com platform a lot so I am moving there permanently.


The Anna Nicole Smith story is tragic and I want to leave it alone and wish they all would.

We had a conference with my sons preschool teacher yesterday. Since when do you need conferences for preschool anyway?

The teacher said, and I quote more or less, " your son is quite bright; he is either going to be a leader of his peers or he is going to need to be handled with great care because he will be out of control."

All this because the kids in the school follow him around and do what he does but he sometimes gets "crazy" and does things to make them "laugh and carry on".

He is not quite four years old, I am not sure what they expect but I thought it was pretty ridiculous. I almost started to laugh, my wife did start to laugh, but she covered it well.

For the women for the world.
Harvard to Name First Female President in History of University

First Harvard then the country???


Shayna came back to let us know she was ok. A relief that was.

I link to A Few Minor Details to help cooper spread the word.

The Bizarre and the Stupid.

Astronaut in bizarre kidnap plot in Florida court
jealousy is a horrible thing but you can't make this stuff up.

I don't understand how these tapes got out but Arnold seems smarter on these tapes than I gave him credit for. ;)

Turner broadcasting is going to be paying the city of Boston for their "error in judgement".

Lets get serious here.

One of the comments from the above highlighted post by Gina Serpe ("Turner Pays for Boston "Bombing") at E-online says it for me.

"I have to agree with Poorgarby on this one. This is a sad sad day for America. The ignorant people who called these in as bombs should be fined! Why not first fine television shows such as 24 for giving ideas to people who might want to become a terrorist? Not saying anything against 24...it is a great show. Wake up America...Fear is how people control you...As a President Roosevelt said "The only thing to fear is fear itself."

No more debate

For those who are not caught up the debate on Global Warming is Over.

Hear that OVER.

I'm glad that only took twenty years.


I'm taking the Colts Sunday.

Seven Points.

True Dat thoughts at Darfur and Unforgettable Hell on Earth -Travesty, Politics, comments and Darfur is still Dying.

The ground-hog assured us we won't have to suffer much longer. I hope he is right, it's only eh third weekend I have been unable to play gold all winter and I don't like it one bit.


I wish Shayna would come back to let us know how she it.

Early Spring

Blogger wasn't working for me yesterday so that post is only at the wordpress blog

I encourage all five people who have me linked to change their links to the wordpress blog.

Groundhog Punxsutawney Phil Predicts an Early Spring in U.S.

I bet that was difficult given this.

Looks like we'll be having an early spring from now on and it's a damn shame.

I should be happy about this because it will help with my golf game, but looking at my son and thinking of what his generation and the generation after him will have to pay for past mistakes makes me sad.

Monday

Tiger wins, again.
Said best by Trent Warner on the PGA web page.
"that the most important Lesson Learned from the Buick Invitational is that steady is often better than spectacular"

Slow and steady wins the race.

Why do people with no chance of winning enter "The Race"?

SOTU fails.

The SOTU address didn't go over very well; it doesn't take a variety of pundits, online or elsewhere, to point out the scary grimaces on Condi Rice's face during the whole thing. It was painful to watch, I was grimacing too. I didn't realize it until my wife asked me what was wrong with my face. She has asked me that before just not in this context.

How dare he give such an address to the American people, as if we don't know better.

This link, thanks to Daily Kos, to a reporter who knows better.
Reality Check: Bush's State Of The Union Speech

Do you think they are laughing in the rest of the free world?

My Monday morning sidewalk full of ice.

Manning rallies Colts into Super Bowl

It hurts so good.

Cooper is blogging for choice.

Once they take away one choice it is only a matter of time before they all go.

Nothing more invigorating than getting up shortly after dawn to clear a driveway full of ice.

Have a good day.

Disappointing but not unexpected.

The unseasonable weathered we suffered from is gone at last.We have a slight chance of frozen precipitation this evening.

According to the Washington Post, "Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation".

Was there ever a chance in hell this was going to pass? Of course not. Republicans want to play it as if they didn't pass it because they wanted tougher legislation.Some people might even believe that fairytale.


Disappointing but not unexpected.

Coming out of the Amercian Idol closet.

Tonight is the premiere of American Idol.

I didn't want to ever have to admit this but my wife, a damn fine lawyer mind you, is addicted to this show. True she makes fun of it and knows it for what it is, but it doesn't stop her from making fast calls to home on evenings when she is not going to be home in time to view it.

So all I have to say is, here we go again.

The worst part about it is giving FOX the business, my wife feels bad about that.


There are dark little secrets in every family and I wanted to share mine with you today.
I feel better now that this is off my chest.

Awards

I nominated cooper's Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth. It's at the Koufax awards and it's a rather confusing place, but don't let that stop you.

I like blog awards more than most people, because they are fun. I have enjoyed cooper since that first comment I read of hers at Political Notio. I find some of things she writes at other blogs a week after she has written them in her wonderland blog. I wish she would promote her blogs more.

I'm waiting to move my blog totally over to wordpress for now, but read whichever one you like.

One more trip to Miami this week and then things settle down for me.

Statement

Finally got this straightened out.

Please relink to me at the wordpress site - Average Business Man, I think blogspot's day in the sun is over.

Football and roast beef today.

messed up

This blog has messed up recently. I don't have time to fool around with it I'm leaving in a couple of hours for four days of meetings, so excuse the mess.

Singh Wins Season Opener

Tiger didn't play but Singh won the season opener.

I've played three rounds of golf in the last several days. It is almost the middle of January so I am not complaining one bit.

Very busy week, I'll be in Miami for a day and then Austin.

Golf in the winter.

Blogger beta, or as I call it most of the time booger beta, is dead; it's now a whole new blogger. I haven't noticed a difference. I 'm still keeping my wordpress blog going, trying to get it established. As established as I'm ever going to be.

I congratulate Nancy Pelosi. Cooper has fireworks.

Don't miss Pia's three word Wednesday which is often on Friday.

Shayna finds out the gender of her baby today.

Yes, there is golf in the winter.

The weather here is like spring. I am playing tommorrow, it's supposed to hit seventy degrees.

I rasie my glass.

"The Democratic Party formally takes control of the US Congress today and will mark its return to power on Capitol Hill by introducing measures designed to curb the gifts and pet projects beloved of America's politicians."


Democrats promise ethics in Congress takeover

Not a moment too soon.

Nancy Pelosi will be sworn in today too.

"First, let's pause to recognize the historic significance of the first woman and first Californian to assume a position that will put her second in succession to the presidency of the United States."


I raise my glass.

Happy New Year

I made a few resolutions last year and the year before and surprisingly I kept most of them.

Last year at this time I was in the process of thinking about starting my own business, the time-line, within two years; it happened much quicker than that.

The resolution to play more golf panned out but this coming year, due to running my own business, the resolution has to change somewhat, so it is now “I will play as much golf as I possibly can while continuing to work my ass off to rope in clients and increase my income potential”.

I made a resolution to spend more time with my son which I did; this year he will learn to golf or at least be introduced to a plastic golf club. He’s already managed to break a couple of things while trying to handle one of my old golf clubs which brings me to another resolution. I will watch my son more carefully when he is in my sole charge.

That’s about it.

Go USC