A Liberated Mind

Faithful Readers,

Thank you for your patience over the last week as I have been extremely busy with work and have failed to post any new entries over the past 7 days…I hope this short series on Effective Government will make up for my lack of communication and the fact that I cannot tell you anything about the covert op in Libya I have been on for the past few days…

That being said, recently I got to spend some time with a local restaurateur who has a great story about the role city planning commissions and city councils play in business development and the power they wield over local business owners…And though this situation happened about a year ago, it is still a great example of a local government seemingly overstepping its bounds and not reining itself in to limit its authority…

The story goes like this: As an Italian transplant from New York, Danny Falcone came to Oklahoma 15 years ago and a few short years later followed his dream of opening his first New York style pizza restaurant in north Oklahoma City…

In the years following the success of his initial restaurant, Mr. Falcone has expanded into the Bricktown area and Midwest City without incident and to much new business…Each of his restaurants are very successful and all look alike with awnings around the buildings that borrow their colors from the Italian flag – an obvious reference to his proud heritage… 

And then there is restaurant Mr. Falcone runs in Edmond - a wealthy suburb just north of Oklahoma City…

The long of the short of it is that according to city of Edmond’s website (starting on page 8) in his original plans for his Edmond restaurant, Mr. Falcone had originally wanted to use burgundy awnings around his business but later changed his mind and instead wanted to go with the awnings that used the Italian flag colors much like his other establishments did…

However, in order to change the awnings, he had to go in front of the Edmond Planning Commission (which, again, according to the city of Edmond’s website is a five member board that is appointed by the mayor and the city council) to get their approval…

That is where Mr. Falcone ran into trouble…

In opposition to this request, “Attorney Lydia Lee with the Edmond Neighborhood Association spoke in opposition to this request indicating that the shopping center had been designed as a group of buildings with the Edmond Depot. They had placed sculptures around the landscaping and water features in the project and that the addition of the canopy would significantly change the architectural character previously approved. The burgundy metal canopy that was approved for the building to house multiple tenants and approval of the proposed change will allow others in this building to change, which will completely affect the architectural character and setting of this area.”

Um, what?

The crux of the argument against the Italian-flag inspired awning is that it would change the architectural character of the building because of the use of multiple colors…And keep in mind, this is nothing more than a strip mall…A nice strip mall, but a strip mall nonetheless…

Subsequently, Mr. Falcone argued that “the canopy represented the Italian flag and his cultural heritage and was being designed to comply with Edmond’s requirements. He indicated it was critical to have the canopy for the investment he was making and the commercial branding associated with the Falcone’s restaurant.”

So what happens?  Well, it seems that only three of the five members of the Edmond Planning Commission were present, and his request for a change in awning was denied by a vote of 2-1…

Now you might be thinking, “Okay, Seth, what’s the big deal?  He wanted to change the awning, he put in the request, he argued his side, and he lost…What is your point?”

The point is that while it is quite understandable for cities to have their own requirements for buildings and general uniformity of architecture, it is a whole other deal when you as a municipal body begin dictating how a businessman runs his business even though he has done everything in his power to follow the rules that municipality had laid forth….

If you read the entire section of the minutes from this meeting, you will see that Mr. Falcone has literally gone to every length (including renting the empty space next to his restaurant) in order to follow the city code and ordinances laid out…

Yet that is still not enough for this board and for the leader of the Edmond Neighborhood Association who seemed more worried about the building than the businessman who was making his livelihood in that building…It is just colors on an awning, folks!

But the story doesn’t end there…

According to Mr. Falcone, he then had the opportunity to appeal to the Edmond City Council (which he says he did though no record can be found online), and his appeal was again denied…

So what would have changed in this situation if the planning commission employed 3 folks on there who believed in a limited role of government in municipalities? 

No one can know for sure, but it could be that because having a limited government means having less government involvement in community issues such as business development, then Mr. Falcone would have been able to put his new awning up, he would have spread the word about how gracious and helpful the city planning commission was, and he could have been worried about more important things – namely further expansion of his restaruant business…

Instead he had to appeal the request denial, figure out how to show of the colors of the Italian flag, and do his best to comply even more to the city planning commission’s ruling against him…

And in conclusion, it frankly a shame to me that Mr. Falcone was not helped by the city planning commission in Edmond, but rather his business was harmed by them…That is very discouraging indeed…

It just shows you how a more limited local government could have been a help to him rather than a hindrance… 

S

So for the next few days I am going to be busy with some pretty serious work stuff and will not be able to post anything here on “A Liberated Mind”…But not to worry – I will return first thing Monday…

I know, I know…You all will be waiting in sweet anticipation…

So here was my thought process on how I should handle being gone for the next several days without losing most of my estimated 7 readers that aren’t the dude in Saudi, my wife, my sister, and a buddy of mine who for some reason thinks my blog is really good (you know who you are, G)… 

So basically, I had three options on this deal:

1. Have a guest blogger come in for a couple of days to tide you all over until Monday when I get back…

This is a good idea in theory, but this becomes a massive problem when the guest blogger ends up writing some really impressive posts that are much more more entertaining and informative than any of the crap I come up with…

Then what I could see happening is that he/she would drive the readership up until I take back the reins come Monday…Once I started posting again, however, everybody then bails when they see just how truly not good my posts are…

Well, everybody that is except the dude in Saudi, my sister, my wife, and my buddy…I do hope they would stick around…

2. Just mysteriously disappear for 3 or 4 days and then pop back up on Monday with some grand story about being involved in some covert operation in Libya…

And as cool as that story would be (and yeah, it would rock), there are multiple problems with this course of action…You know, like the fact I don’t “work for the government”, the fact that the closest I will ever get to Libya will probably be Cancun (and if you don’t understand how massively far away those places are, I suggest you get a globe out and go to town), and when I think about it, the last thing I need is to have my readers think I am this really bad dude when, in fact, I cry every time I watch “The Notebook”…

Yeah, in all honestly, I’m kind of a wuss…And I don’t want to lie just to make you think otherwise…

3. Come up with a funny and entertaining little explanation for my absence and hope to God that it is funny and entertaining enough that nobody bails on me after not posting for a few days…

Because trust me, if I could post I would…But yeah, just won’t be an option…

Plus, there is a lot of fun stuff to discuss right now…With the biggest and most entertaining being the governor of Illinois (the state of my birth mind you) all calling Obama a really bad name (you know, rhymes with “brother trucker”) and then basically pretending he’s some country auctioneer with Obama’s old Senate seat…

Good plan, Mr. Governor, except the FBI is recording everything you say on the phone…Whoops, your bad…

Man, that is some really good stuff…

But, alas, I will return in a mighty way on Monday…I just hope you all can function properly without me until then…I know it will be tough, but do your best…

S 

When I get to work everyday, the first thing I usually do when I start opening up internet windows is look at the news headlines of several different websites: Drudge, a couple of local newspapers, and Yahoo are just a few examples…

Well, I open up Yahoo this morning, and to my surprise, this story was tapped as the lead: Obama’s Smoking Issue…

Now normally I am not one to look at a story and just realize right then and there that I have found the topic I want to throw out there for my faithful readers…Nope, that is not how it generally works…

Usually I ponder several incredibly philosophical and moral issues from several different angles for a long period of time and then use my staggeringly brilliant mind to figure out which of these topics would be the most intellectually stimulating and fitting for the current circumstances for which we find ourselves…

Um, what the heck did I just write?!?!  Yeah, that’s how I choose my topics to write about…Promise…

No, normally I am rack my worn out and beat down brain for a couple of hours just to come up with something that people will not just look at and shake their heads about because of its stupidity…Thankfully to this point people have been merciful enough to not ask me to stop writing this crap altogether…Thus I keep churning it out everyday…

But when I read the article about Obama’s smoking habit and the “pressure to set an example by giving up his reported two-decade-old habit” he’s under, it made me pause for a second to ponder this so-called issue…

First, like most folks I know, I abhor smoking…Seriously, it is disgusting, dangerous, and altogether pretty nasty…It is a habit that takes hold and never lets go without some serious freaking will power…Basically, it is very not good for your health and the health of those around you…

So, yeah, I get that…

But secondly, since when are our presidents supposed to be our examples?  Especially on an issue like smoking that could be contrived as somewhat of a moral issue just as much as it is a health issue?

I mean, was Bill Clinton an example to me as a husband?  Was W an example to me as a fiscally responsible guy?  Seriously, he consistently out kicked his coverages when it came to spending, and if I did that with my family, I wouldn’t have a house or a marriage anymore…

But more than just them, is any politician an example for me in any aspect of my life?  Seriously?

Not so much…

Because if I think about for about 5 seconds, I can come up with about 2,975 occupations were I would look to for examples of how I should live my life and how I should make my choices before thinking about freaking politicians…If I am completely honest about it, smoking is simply not going to be something I do or don’t do because of his or any other poltician’s example…Period…

And thirdly, doesn’t he have the right to smoke if he wants to? 

Because in my mind, if you want to smoke, do it, man…Smoke like a freaking chimney for all I care…It is not illegal, you have the freedom to make your own decisions regarding your health, and you are the President of the United States for Pete’s sake…

But, Seth, what about all those millions of kids and college students and voters who almost worship Obama?  He should quit because of them… 

Well, again, he is just a man and he is as imperfect as the rest of us…We all have bad habits, and we all pretty much suck in some sort of way…If people think Obama’s smoking is his only issue and thus his example to us all has lost a bit of its luster, then those folks probably need to reevaluate what kind of pedestal they are sticking the man on…

The fact is that we all have issues and problems and hurts and bad habits, and he is no different…Obama should not even enter the picture regarding whether or not someone smokes…

Basically it comes down to this for me:  Would I want my wife or child to smoke?  Or even my co-workers and friends?  Well, no…No freaking way in fact…

But that still does not mean they don’t have the right or freedom to if they want, correct?

And yeah, if they did, would I use every bit of my humor, my love for them, my honesty with them, and the depth of my relationship with them to try and get them to stop?  Absolutely…

But if Obama quit smoking, would I then tell them to stop because Obama did?  No chance…

Truth be told, I would rather Obama did not smoke (just like I would wish that for any smoker), but it doesn’t change the way I feel about him one way or another…

It may be a slight concern of mine that he does smoke, but more than that, Iran with a nuke is a much bigger issue for me at this point rather than if he needs to calm his nerves with a cancer stick every couple of minutes…

Because at the end of the day, he’s just a man, folks…He’s just an imperfect man with at least one very bad habit…And frankly, it’s good to know that he and I are alike in the fact that neither one of us are perfect, and though they are not the same, that we each have a bad habit we need to work to overcome…

S

Well, folks, this week is the last football game for my beloved Sooners for about a month until their bowl game rolls around, and it is the Big 12 Championship…Thus, it is a biggie…

The build up to the game has been sort of quiet with all of the national sports guys talking OU down and Texas up, but you know what?  OU is there and Texas is not…So just hush it up…

Missouri is there, too, and that makes this game a re-match of last year’s game…Except this year the game is outdoors in Kansas City (um, cold anybody?) instead of inside in San Antonio (mmm…warm)…

And to be honest with you, I am not just real fired up about this game because I don’t think it will be much of one…Of course I say that and lo and behold something bad will happen like 8 feet of snow and then all bets are off…

But if the Sooners win, they go to the national championship game, and again, they have been disrespected all week, so I say that they win and win big…

And Chase Daniel (Quarterback of Missouri) whines about it after the game…a lot…Good times had by all…

Look for lots of cold, lots of Sam Bradford touchdown passes (and him wrapping up his Heisman), and lots of OU playing iffy defense…It will be interesting at first, but then OU pulls away in the second half…

Oh, how great it is to be a Sooner fan…OU 49 – Missouri 28…

BONUS SELECTION:

The SEC championship game is tomorrow also, and it is big because the winner will play OU in the national championship game if OU wins…

Here you go, and in a bit of an upset:  Alabama 24 – Florida 23…

Enjoy the football on the last Saturday of games before the bowls start up later on in the month…

S 

It is Friday, and before I get to an OU prediction for the Big 12 Championship, I need to get some questions off my mind…

I don’t necessarily have the answers to these questions, but that is okay – questions don’t always need answers…

Unless you want to provide them in the comment section below…(hint, hint)…

The first question is something that is really bugging me lately: 

What’s the deal with people lining up in the cold at 4:30 in the morning the day after Thanksgiving to buy stuff they really don’t need to survive and can’t really afford the other 364 days of of the year?

And how did this whole “Black Friday” thing start anyway?  Maybe somebody could give me a history lesson…

Lastly on this topic, how many folks have to literally get injured or killed before stores take a look at this policy and figure out it is not a good deal?  5? 10? 25?  How many?

Moving on (sort of), and I am being serious here, is it possible in this country to discuss the true meaning of Christmas and not offend someone?

Thus, I am all about not having a state-run church, but to what length do we go to in that separation?

And why I am being so freaking deep today?

How about this one then: Is there ever an appropriate time for a man to wear a tank top?  Ever?

Have you ever watched a college or pro basketball game from a court-side seat?  If not, like Ferris said, “It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.”

Is there anything funnier than watching a two year old try to say “Christmas Tree”?  Not for my money…

And who’s with me is saying that we should figure out some way to do “spring and summer decorations” for our homes?  After all, we already have fall and Christmas decorations, right?  

Speaking of fall, how exactly does wind ”cut right through you”?

And why does this only seem to happen when it is cold?

Moving on to pop culture, what is the best 80’s movie that is still watchable (read: not too cheesy) to watch right now?  Well, the whole “not too cheesy part” cuts out like 95% of the movies made in the 80’s so you have your work cut out for you on that question…

Sorry if I am clueless, but who are Heidi and Spencer?

How massively shocked were my wife and I that Barbara Walters picked Barack Obama as the most fascinating person of the year?  Seriously?  Who saw that one coming?

Can anybody name the 5 Grammy nominations for album of the year that were just announced earlier this week without internet cheating it?  Okay, can anybody name just one of them?

Why does Mariah Carey still have a career?  Really?

And on the random front, soda, pop, or Coke?  If you understand the question, you will probably have an answer…

If cell phones cause cancer, what does it mean for me if I carry around two of them and an iPod all day?  Uh oh…

And lastly, and most importantly, Michael Phelps was named Sportsman of the Year this week by Sports Illustrated, and sort of reliving all of those Olympic moments made me wonder if anybody else was constantly uncomfortable with how low that dude wore his pants while he was swimming? 

Seriously, anybody else freaked out about that like I was?

Weekends are good, enjoy yours…

S

So tonight I emptied out the old attic at la casa de Brown and got down ALL of our Christmas decorations…The deal is that if I get them out of the attic and then put them back, my wife will do all the decorating for us…Which is probably a pretty good idea anyway, right?

I figured that getting all nearly dozen of the boxes down seemed like a pretty simple task, but like most things in my life, it turned out to be a real adventure…

Thus I decided to keep a running diary of the evening’s festivities on the Crackberry…Here is what transpired:

6:57 - Just got done with take out Sonic for dinner – the burger and 7 fries I got were not nearly as good as the sodas we had with them…Which is a pity since we only had Sonic for dinner because my wife had class and didn’t want to cook…Okay, let’s see what’s on TV…

6:59 – Wife just came in the room and asked me, “When are your going to get the Christmas decorations out of the attic?”

7:00 – My response of ”Um, what?” led to this exchange: “Seth, I told you this morning on the phone that I wanted to get the Christmas stuff out of the attic tonight…”

“Oh yeah, I forgot”…

“Well, when are you going to get them down?”

7:01 – This is about the time my brain realized this was not really a question at all, but more of a strongly worded suggestion…Not a command, mind you; merely a strongly worded suggestion…

Thus, this is what I responded with, “Uh, now?  Except it’s going to be really cold in the attic…”

Then, “Oh, that’s okay…Thanks for doing that”…

“Sure thing, honey…” 

Yeah, laugh it up, folks…

7:04 – With tennis shoes, shorts, and a long sleeve T as my protection, I make my way out to my garage…

7:05 – Dangit, have to open the garage door to move the car back so I can get into the attic…So cold…

7:07 – With the car moved and the ladder down, I make my way up…

7:08 – Oh, well at least all of the 9 boxes full of Christmas stuff aren’t all strung out all over the freaking attic…Dangit!

7:09 – Start clearing out space so that I can Navy Seal it and belly crawl to the very friggin’ back of the attic to where a couple of the friggin’ Christmas boxes are…

This is when I notice that our attic is much smaller than an average prison cell…Can you develop claustrophobia as a 30 year old?  Hmm…

7:11 – And here we go…HOLY CRAP, MOTHER OF PEARL, KELLY CLARKSON! 

Yeah, probably would have been a good idea to take the keys out of the front pocket of my shorts before I started belly crawling to the back of the attic…

And probably would have been a better idea to have worn pants instead of shorts…I am such an idiot…

7:13 - Always a good idea to open the boxes a bit to peak in and see if this is actually Christmas stuff…

Wait, what is this?  Hey, that’s my letter jacket from high school…If I could stand up, or heck, even sit up, I would try that bad boy on…Alas, I am on my belly…Guess I’ll have to save myself the embarrassment and horrible flood of memories until later… 

7:14 – I suddenly feel like the Asian gymnast in “Ocean’s 11″ when he is stuffed in the box that gets him into the vault at the casino…I wonder if I get stuck if my wife or child will be able to hear my cries for help?  I wonder if George Clooney and Matt Damon would come and help me like they did the Asian gymnast?  I’m guessing not…

7:16 - Four boxes down on the floor of the garage, seven to go…Seriously…Time to once again do the Bataan Death March up the stairs of the attic…

7:19 – Just accidentally bumped into one of my daughter’s old toys that still had the batteries in it…This particular toy had a clown on it that laughs real evil-like, and I am now trying to slow my breathing back down to normal human levels…

7:22 – Just two more boxes…You can do this!  What the heck?  Am I struggling this much with a few boxes of tree ornaments?  Yes, yes I am…

(more…)

Okay, guys and girls, I meant to post today, and yeah, never happened…All I can ask is that you check back at around noon tomorrow so that you too can ponder some questions I have right now about the world…

Have a good night and a pleasant tomorrow…

S

You ask anyone where they were when they first heard about the events in New York City on September 11th, 2001, and my bet is that every single person you ask can tell you details about that day without even thinking about it…

Me?  I was driving to my new job at a church in Altus, OK, and was listening to the Morning Animals on the radio…The Morning Animals are the guys on the morning show of the 24 hours sports network in Oklahoma City, and they were coming in bright and clear that morning when one of them passed along that the news was showing coverage of a fire in the World Trade Center in NYC…

They didn’t know much more than that, and I didn’t think too much of it until I got to my office and started checking out the news on the internet…Unfortunately, though, our office did not have any way to pick up a single TV station, and thus I was in the dark until I went home for lunch…

By then we knew what had gone on…

The point is, I remember that day well, and I will never forget where I was and what I was doing no matter how many years pass…

But what about when the transit system was attacked in London or when there were attacks on the trains in Madrid?  Where were you when you found out about those?  Where was I for that matter?

I personally have no idea…

And sure, those terrorist attacks were in countries a lot of us have never been to and the victims were people that probably none of us even knew, but still…

It makes me question if we are still in danger in America seven plus years after 9/11, or are we simply in a perpetual cycle of denial since no attacks have occured in the United States in those seven plus years?

Let’s look around for a second at our world to find out just how dangerous it is…

Well first off, here in the U.S. our main concern is with the economy and rightly so…National security was talked about very little in the recent presidential race because as we speak lots of people are losing lots of money in the stock market, businesses are closing and people are losing jobs, and Washington is spending money faster on bailouts than they can print it…

So yeah, that is our main concern even with what was going on in NYC over the Thanksgiving holiday…

Okay, but what about in India?  Well, there they are on the brink of war with Pakistan due to the recent suicide missions by terrorists in Mumbai…

And off the coast of Africa, pirates are firing on U.S. cruise ships…This after they have hijacked numerous ships and tankers in the last few weeks with seemingly no one to stop them…

And Russian ships are going through naval exercises with Venezuela’s (hence Hugo Chavez’s) navy – which is a big deal whether we know it or not…In fact, we should be very concerned with this alliance, and I am quite sure in some nondescript office building in metroplitan Washington D.C. a group of analysts are studying this for the CIA…

But what about the housewife in Lincoln, Nebraska, who has just gotten home from picking up the kids from school?  Do you even think she cares?

The point is the world is not a very safe place right now, and I wonder if we are even aware of it…

Adding to the lack of attention being paid to internatinal affairs, we are also in the midst of an administration change in Washington…Out with the guy who has kept us safe since 9/11 (though heaven forbid anyone gives him any credit for that) and in with a guy whose Attorney General pick keeps changing his mind about Guantanomo Bay and its role in the fight against global terrorism…

And I understand that President-Elect Obama’s team wants to get out of Iraq within 16 months and refocus on Afghanistan, but at what cost? 

We simply do not know…

What we should know, and what we must realize, is that there is a dangerous world out there that could creep its way back onto our shores at a moment’s notice…We must not forget the lessons we learned from 9/11 and we must pay attention to what can be learned by what is happening in other parts of the world…

It would be an absolute travesty to ever deny that those same things could ever happen again here in the United States…

S

Your turkey has finally been eaten up, the relatives have all travelled back home, the Christmas decorations are either on display or the plans have been made for you to get them out of the attic (and really, do you need to be reminded again to get them down?), and you are back at work!  Yes! 

And really, don’t you love the first day back after an extended holiday weekend?

So if you will allow me, let me take stock of my weekend, and then we will move on to bigger and better things…

Thursday – drove to Sayre, OK, to have Thanksgiving with my side of the family…

Now if you know your Oklahoma geography (and really, who doesn’t?), you know that Sayre is about as far west on Interstate 40 as you can get in Oklahoma without getting into the panhandle of Texas…Basically, it is a looooong way out there…

Anyway, our two year old did well on the 2+ hour trip out there, we had a terrific and fun time with the family, and I didn’t eat too much that I felt sick afterwards…All in all a great Thanksgivng…

Friday – My wife and her parents took our daughter shopping all day, and I got some stuff done around the house…Pretty simple day…And thanks for letting us off work, Ned…

Saturday – Tried watching a few of the football games in preparation for the OU game on Saturday night and just couldn’t get into them…

Bedlam finally came on, though, and had about 6 heart attacks as the second half unfolded…Big win for the Sooners, though…And thanks for putting Mack Brown on the telecast, ESPN…That was awesome…Yep, loved it…Which leads me to…

Sunday - Channeling my inner “The Story of Us”, the highlight of Sunday was watching the BCS ratings with my wife and child (I know, I lead such an exciting life) and seeing the Sooners jumping the hated horns and thus earning a spot in the Big 12 title game…

But the lowlight was watching all the ESPN shows last night that did nothing but trash my beloved Sooners because of this very thing…

(And here is a quick anecdote – the guy hosting the college football show last night on ESPN actually asked one of the other ESPN commentators this question “What does this situation teach the Texas players about the fairness of the world?”  Seriously?  You asked that question?  What!?!?  I’ll tell you what it says to them – it says you should have beaten Texas Tech and not given up a last second touchdown!)…

But as I wrote elsewhere, come on, national media, just keep telling us all how unfair it is that OU jumped over Texas in the BCS standings, and keep drilling home the point that OU doesn’t deserve a shot at the Big 12 title because Texas beat them head to head…And then magically forget that Tech beat Texas head to head and that we beat Tech by 44…Oh, and then we went on the road and beat the #12 ranked team by 20 (who Texas only beat at home by 4) and that we laid 60 on yet another team…Keep talking, guys, keep talking…

The thing is, historically Stoops has done well when he can convince his boys that they are being disrespected and they should play with a chip on their shoulders because of it…

Now all he has to do is show them all the stuff that everybody on ESPN said about them last night and that chip could be huge come Saturday night…

Anyway, because I know that there are a few people out there who could care less, I will finish by saying to look for a prediction on Friday for one of the bigger games of the Stoops era…

Moving on with non-sports related stuff, here is what I figure will be on tap this week at ”A Liberated Mind”:

I do want to tackle some of the political stuff going on right now – this would include looking at Barack’s cabinet selections and how wildly different and fresh and new they are…It is almost as if he is simply re-picking every one of Clinton’s aides and appointees…Seriously, that is almost too much change to Washington for one guy to handle…

And I do want to comment at some point on what is happening with the US Senate in the light of the Coleman victory in Minnesota (Yes?  No?  Maybe so?), the Chambliss knock down drag out runoff in Georgia, and Liebermann’s wildcard status…And yeah, I kind of dig that guy even though he has been in there for way too long…

Oh, and I would like to talk a little bit about the economy now that we have come through Black Friday and we are at Red Monday…Red?  Maybe pink?  How about gray?  Although it is pretty sunny here today so how about Yellow Monday?  I am at work, though…Let’s try Blue Monday? 

Okay, I am done…

And speaking of Black Friday, I have never partaken in the whole “go somewhere at 4:00 a.m. just to stand outside in the cold until they open the doors at 5:00 a.m. just to rush in and hope you don’t get trampled to death in order to get a off brand flat panel TV for $299″ deal, and after last week’s multiple incidents, I don’t know that I ever will…I’m just saying… 

I would also like to discuss what the recent terrorism attacks in India mean to our security here, and how we should react to that tragic news…I am not saying we will react the way we should, but we do have some definite choices to make now as a country…

And here is a good idea on the terrorism front – why don’t you go ahead and shut Gitmo down, Barack…Then bring those 250 or so guys here, let them get nice and comfy in our prison system, help them all you can to recruit angry and embittered convicts serving alongside of them, and then watch how that original 250 or so grows to thousands…Wow, great plan…

Anyway, I hope your week has started off well, and that you stay tuned for what we have in store this week…It will hopefully be worth your time…

But I am definitely not making any promises…

S