oh.. and another thing... THIS is why people get annoyed when Obama and "Progressives" go on about "spreading the wealth" and making sure no one goes without. This person wins the lottery and thinks she should still get assistance from taxpayers?

 Asked if she had the right to the public assistance money, Clayton answered, "I kind of do. I have no income, and I have bills to pay. I have two houses."

WHAT?!?!?!?

Sooooo...STUPID!!!!.... if you aint got no job,why not use that 500,000 large, build a 150,000 house to green specs, put solar panels on that house and be off the grid completely... what? 300,000 is you do it right? drop 50 on one (or two) cars.... 50 to furnish house completely and get land.... leaving you a 100 grand to sip off of until you can figure out someway to get a steady income of some sorts....

Instead, we are in a culture now and being led by someone who fosters this idea that you will simply be given everything you need. Look.. I have sympathy for those less fortunate or those who have lost jobs, whatever and are trying to make do until they can get their situation righted. I have little to NO sympathy for those who dont even try...who are standing around with their hands out... when I get my bonus every year for the time, effort, knowledge and hard work I have put into making myself earn that bonus, approximately HALF of it is taken in taxes and given to others who havent earned it. And to see this person WIN THE FRAKKIN LOTTERY and still be expecting taxpayers to pay her is why I have NO SYMPATHY at the end of the day....

i am about as tied in to social media, internet, etc as anyone but.. I dont get how we have people who act as if their life comes to an end if they dont have a working phone with them for a day. Yeah... i know... somebody is thinkin that Jerome ALWAYS has his cell/smartphone/mini computer with him and is never truly disconnected from the "grid". But i seriously think that it would not bother me if I had to go without it for a few days. But i saw someone today virtually go postal becasue they would have to go without a phone for... ONE DAY. And this person seemed to be older than me and would certainly remember going out of the house to the store... WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... went to school WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... went to work WITHOUT A CELL PHONE.... went to church WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... went to the movies WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... went to the game WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... went and played videogames at the local Fast Fare WITHOUT A CELL PHONE... oh well, i know. I have turned around and went back home to get my cell that I forgot. But I am fairly confident I could do without it. Now... I would still like to be able to access the web occasionally. But anyways... maybe its because i dont really get ANY phone calls and rarely get text... anyway... this lady was crying because she would not be able to have a phone until Thursday (or so she thought as you can ALWAYS get a phone for 20.00 virtually ANYWHERE) and how would she be able to do her farm or something another....

THIS is why we can't get anybody normal to run for office in this country. This sorta extremist way of thinking is why you have Whackos on the Left and Whackos on the Right dictating who gets to run for office and then policy of people in office. Seriously, who thinks that you are going to find people who can adhere to those qualifications? Because even if you do, you KNOW what is going to happen... the media is going to dig up some random person  you had a couple of beers with 25 years ago who you vaguely remember kissing goodnight yet suddenly is you being the father of her love child... or the picture of you smoking pot at some frat party... or WHATEVER. They will find something on you, be it real or manufactured. Of course, the State GOP party is saying that they dont support this. But I cant help but think that the type of people we need to run for National office will never run in this environment. Hell, why even run for city council if you have loonies screaming foul at every vote that doesnt meet their extremely narrow and unrealistic view points? But I will say this... This is why Bill Clinton would win in a landslide if he could run today. Yeah, he was/is a typical politician but something about him makes you think that he is a somewhat "normal" guy. He's got flaws. He's not perfect. And he aint saying that he is.... but anywho. That aint happening.

and while I think Limbaugh was stupid to have called that lady a s**t, and he should (and has) apologized... and I certainly agree with him at times and dont agree with him at times.... why is it that Liberal commentators and/or donors like Bill Maher arent held to the same standard. Why does he get to call Palin a c**t and a t**t and all get get is chuckles. he gave a MILLION dollars to Obama. Yet I bet you aint going to hear a peep from the same people screaming about Limbaugh condemning Maher, are you?

Strange (to me) that daylight savin' time is coming THIS SUNDAY!!! I am not really a fan of it despite it giving more "daylight". For some reason I havent been able to come to terms with, I find the change unnatural and weird. But I will adjust as we have converted to a country where we spend more time in this altered time than we do outside of it. I feel a lot of my resistance is that when the sun goes down has little to no bearing on my life. Nothing stops with me just because it is dark.. or nothing continues just because it is light. And it is no longer an issue with my kids in regards to getting them to bed at 7:30pm and it still being light outside... One of my first memories is the confusion I had when I was forced to go to bed and it was still bright outside... I didnt understand what was going on....

anyways....

i paid 4 dollars for a gallon of gas today. I only put in 20.00 and at highway drivin I figure to get 300miles...or maybe 225 miles at back/forth to work drivin. As chronicled here before my car gets good gas mileage. But... if this goes to 5 dollars a gallon wont this have a far negative effect on everything? It really ticks me off that out leadership thinks that we should let it get to 8 or 9 dollars a gallon. Its easy to be all "green" andstuff when you havent paid for your own gas in years and will probably NEVER have to pay for gas for the rest of your life... Not everyone lives in the city.

God Blessed Whitney Houston with something close to perfect as far as a voice for singing. A lot of people are going to mention how much she was a figure in their lives growing up... long before the crappy rap and garbage that passes for "artists" today. No doubt, the end of her life is sad... some of it brought on upon herself. Bobby Brown can rot in hell... but... we make our own beds, and no doubt Whitney was warned... many times... not to head down that road... any ways....

... Unless it is a marching band playing it straight up, i almost always remember back to 1991 when Whitney Houston presented this performance of our National Anthem. And people have been chasing this standard every since then. And no one has come close. It has become the gold standard, and I often wonder why any artists would even try now. If I was a super mega start and they came to me and asked me to sing the National Anthem, I would ask them to get a local marching band... or play this over the loud speaker cause I cant do it justice to the level you are looking for.... Mariah?... hasnt come close .Aguilera? ..um..No. Beyonce?... nice try. Clarkson?... keep tryin'. Taylor Swift?... I dont think so. And think about it...how many times have we heard these singers compared to.... Whitney Houston?

I honestly get chills when I listen to her sing this. It is great in that she sang it and stayed close to true to the original, adding slight (for her) embellishments that didnt go too far "out there". Seriously... close your eyes and just... listen. ListenI honestly think that when we see people jack up the National Anthem, it is in a hopeless attempt to outdo this standard... anywho..tis sad a great voice is now silenced forever.

I think it took 3 washings to get I-Man's Uniform clean after yesterdays soccer match. I am still wondering why the team chose "All White" as their home uniform. Its not like ebery family has an industrial size, sports team type washing facility to clean uniforms like a college or pro team would...

The Super Bowl was somewhat entertaining. The halftime show brought back memories. But why our supposed "artists" of today feel that they must flip you the bird or say profanity is beyond me.... M.I.A. is officially crossed of the list and added to the Kanye West file....

The spring/summer itenarary is starting to fill up... Wynton Marsalis Concert... A trip to New York/New Jersey/Washington... A couple of soccer tourneys... Darlington Nascar race and All Star Race in Charlotte...Trip to waterpark in Concord with Grandma and Uncle Jerry... are all penciled in pretty solid for now.... the first half o da year is shaping up pretty solid for now....

So I got a chance to catch up on Phineas and Ferb as well as An Idiot Abroad this morning. The debate is is still on whether Karl Pilkington is really being this way or is acting a part. Either way it is extremely amusing. And I find it amazing that no matter where he goes, be it the middle of no where China or no where Pacific Ocean they find people who seem to speak better English than I do in these villages....

Now,I say to you today my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' - Martin Luther King, Jr.

wow .. glad to see commerce and good will toward all men is still booming on the Square in my hometown.  I seense a boom coming to Laurens soon....

oh.... and another thing... why is their all the hate and vitriol toward Tebow? I know a lot of people are rooting for him but I ponder why there is such a "He'll never be a successful NFL QB" crap on sportstalk all the time. AFTER 14 starts????? Not even a full season starting and it seems that every game is a referendum on if he will be a successful QB five years from now... weird.

kinda proud to send a shout out to my wife who was chosen as

Mrs. Jessica Jackson is the 2011-2012 Teacher of the Year!

for her school and now gets nominated for District Teacher of the year... good stuff....

so we are getting pounded by ads on radio and tv now. sigh... and we now are getting more and more of the media telling us who is ahead... and who is surging... and who the"people" are rooting for... basically, again we are getting the media telling us who we should vote for. and the media reporting with their slant the campaigns... what is funny to me is that the politicians raise millions and then spend millions.... and where does the money go? to the media. all thismoney that gets raisedis then given to the media for commercials. Start to wonder if the media has an interest in keeping the campaigns and races "interesting" for as long as possible for their own coffers... why else do they have to basically start running a year and a half before the elections? Who benefits here? The TV and radio stations....

So the media will continue to push their narrative, be it liberal or conservative... and they will make their money. Ever notice that whoever the media champions, be it Obama or Romney, never seems to have negative stuff really directed at them? And if anyone starts to challenge them (see Cain, Paul, Clinton) it is only a matter of time before the closets fly open and some random story comes out? it seems that whoever will bebefit the media financially is pushed on us. everyone else has some dark story come up or is a nut case.

And when the election is over in November, they will immediately start pushing the next elections...

as i watched the end of the Law and Order i switched over to the ACC game that was on SportsSouth and started remembering when the ACC games where all on RayCom Jefferson on NBC here... and that during January and February every year Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturday afternoons had ACC basketball on and that the TV shows would be either delayed or they would actually show them on the weekend.I remember that I used to know every team (there where only 7 then) and almost their entire rosters. I knew all the players and where they were from and their numbers... now i look at these teams and i have NO clue who are on the teams except for UNC and well.. barely Clemson.

Think of a number. Double it. Add six. Half it. Take away the number you started with. Your answer is three.

And this is so screwed up I dont know how to begin commenting on it. It is so wrong at virtually every turn. And then once you read this.. read the comments. That is worse.

well.. it wasnt exactly a 65 yard field goal in triple overtime... but I will now up the ante and say that if the Broncos win in Foxboro on Sunday, something strange is going on... there is conjecture with some guys at work that Tebow might be... just hang with me a second and hear me out... the Anti-Christ. Only he doesnt even know it. It is almost B movie like (or Disney Channel-like) how things just seem to magically go his way. people on the other team get hurt, a ball bounces a strange way, some guy does some inexplicable thing on the field, a timely penalty... all sorts of stuff... then 3:16 starts popping up EVERYWHERE... the scriptures talk of this type of guy coming and to "beware...." I dont know. He definitely seems to have something shining upon him. Is it Good? or is it Evil covertly operating as the second coming?. I could soooo see this guy 15 years from now leading a ministry of hundreds of millions... then deciding to run for President, getting elected and all of a sudden flames start poofing up and his eyes turn all red and horns sprout of his head. Take a close look at him. Couldnt you see it happening?

Then all of a sudden spaceships come flying down and you see that God and the Angels and all this stuff is from aliens and a huge battle breaks out between the GOoD aliens and the bad aliens (Satan)... OK.. maybe a little too much Ancient Aliens on History Channel HD... but... look at him closely next time the camera zooms in on him. Cant you see him suddenly bursting into flames with a maniacal laugh? and then having all these people droning and following him no matter what? Sorta like Obama a couple of years ago when people just went with this guy despite the warning signs and NO BACKGROUND. Remember when people had were treating him like a Rock Star? .. did you know you can get a real Denver Broncos Jersey that has the #15 and the name of Jesus on the back? they showed people wearing them at the Broncos game the other day.... just food for thought....

Clemson football...

Seriously?

I dont like this supposed cool bowl system that exist now. I remember when New Years day would be Rose parade @11am, then Cotton Bowl, then Rose Bowl, then Sugar and Orange... all the same day. Then the Fiesta came along and added in. None of this "I have NO IDEA when these bowl games are being played" crap with games AFTER New Years @ 1 o'clock in the afternoon.... Seriously? Most people are back to work... I woke up yesterday and spent 5 minutes looking around for the Rose Bowl Parade. only to remember that the NFL was playing. The NFL used to play on Saturday when New Years fell on Sunday... oh well...

and virtually every team I have an interest in the NFL did not make the playoffs... they all either sucked or crashed and burned on the last day.. Which means they all have better draft picks and easier schedules (against each other, hmmm maybe this isnt that good for me?) next year... I mean, perhaps I will go with the Steelers but knowing how this season has gone, God will make sure the Broncos kick a 65 yard field goal to beat them in triple overtime....

i like Ikea. Really do.. they got some good stuff there. Ryles new loft bed comes from there. There is a computer shelf thingy that attaches to it that you can get. Looks like two long pieces of metal with some strategically placed hangers to place under the loft. Costs 99 dollars. A tad bit over-priced for the amount of product but I can understand the price point. Of course Charlotte and Atlanta dont have it in stock (do they have ANYTHING in stock?) and it seems I will have to ponder shipping it to us... until... well, I look at the cost to ship it. TWO HUNDRED AND FORTY NINE DOLLARS!!!!!!.... 249.00 to ship? Um...no. Aint happening. I dont care if I win the lottery on Wednesday.. that aint happening....