Buyer Beware – Avoid Doing Business With…

Aloha Tropicals of California(http://www.alohatropicals.com/). I placed my order (Invoice # 5476157_14459) on June 1, 2008 with an original shipping date of 2-3 weeks. On August 9,2008, I placed a phone call/email (alohatropicals@gmail.com) to the company requesting a status report on my still undelivered order. The answer received was that the product(horticultural in nature), was not ready to be shipped due to "rooting" difficulties. Long story short, it is now November 28,2008 and I have yet to receive my order. I have placed numerous calls (760-631-2880) requesting a refund of my purchase price with no corresponding return phone call or follow-up. Bottom Line – Caveat Emptor, this merchant’s customer service department is poor at best.

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Strategic Planning for Patriot Games Media

WordPress MU or non-MU?

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John Bolton Makes Patriot Games Radio Debut

PaPatriot Games Radio host Stephanie M. Davis Interviewed Ambassador John Bolton

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US Senate Dining Room Goes Private – At Last!!

Better late than never, I suppose. The “world’s greatest deliberative body” has taken a radical step towards the efficient use of taxpayer dollars. In reading this article, one wonders why it took decades upon decades to make such a basic and common sense change. Kudos to Senator Dianne Feinstein for speaking up on behalf of US taxpayers. Undoubtedly there are other warrens of taxpayer waste to be uncovered!

Book Review: Word Press Complete by Hasin Hayder

Background disclosure: Generally, I am very comfortable with technology. However, I still found myself overwhelmed by WordPress’ complexities while simultaneously envious of its versatility. Determined to find a resource that would me teach what I needed to know, I performed an Internet search which ultimately led me to the the folks at PacktPublishing.  They graciously offered to send me a review copy of WordPress Complete by Hasin Hayder if I agreed to post a review of the book on my website. I happily chose to comply and here it is, as promised. It should be noted that the book(www.packtpub.com)  went to press PRIOR to the release of version 2.5. Nonetheless WordPress Completeis chock full of practical tips, coding techniques, and illustrated examples that will show its readers how to get the most out of virtually any version of WordPress be they a novice or an advanced user. Chapters 1-2 describe the different types of blogs, blog terms, blog engines, and how to install, upgrade and/or troubleshoot an installation. I relied on this latter section extensively when I upgraded my self-hosted site from 2.3.3 to 2.5 and ultimately 2.5.1. Everything worked flawlessly, just by following the book’s instructions.

If you are looking to put the best face (theme) on your blog, then Chapter 3, entitled Choosing and Installing Themes, is for you. It contains page after page of theme categories and listings. In fact, there were so many intriguing listings, I found it hard to settle on just one. Recognizing that themes are not one-size-fits-all in nature, this chapter also contains useful theme modification tips.

For those readers looking for additional challenges, proceed to Chapter 5 for guidance on using WordPress to build full-featured websites, otherwise known as content management systems. (Another reason I found to love and admire WordPress: its versatility). Using this chapter, I am building my own website that that will also integrate my existing WordPress blog seamlessly.

Chapters 7 (Developing Themes) and 9 (Developing Plug-ins and Widgets) are filled with actual CSS and HTML coding samples and techniques. These chapters opened my eyes to the development world while also enabling me to troubleshoot some widget flaws within my own blog.

Chapter 6, entitled “Feeds and Podcasting“, was and is one of my personal favorites: I produce and host an Internet Radio  program and am always looking for useful information on RSS formats, feed syndication and Podcasting insights.

Leaving no stone unturned, Hayder devotes the tenth and final chapter of the book to topics near and dear to the hearts of WordPress administrators, including: upgrading, installing, uninstalling and troubleshooting WordPress, migrating WordPress from another server, and backing up and restoring WordPress application and database files. Again, the sequence of actions are laid out in a step-by-step manner, which I was able to follow with complete success.

The bottom line: I was confused when I began reading the book and much better informed after I finished it. I am now able to confidently fix and tweak my own blogs and may even set out to do some freelance WordPress consulting as a result. Good job and many, many thanks to both Hasin Hayder and Packt Publishing

Federal Reserve Skating on Thin Ice??? – Part 2

Here’s the "stag" portion of the stagflation conundrum: dormant economic activity+inflation. Too soon to panic (panic is never useful) but not too soon to reconsider future policy directives.
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Curt Schilling – This is a GOOD sign, Right?????

This is a picture of Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling pulling his own luggage carrier with his PITCHING arm. This is a good thing right? I mean, if the right wing was truly shabby, he wouldn’t be doing this, right???? Perhaps the treatments are working and Old Faithful will find himself in the starting rotation around the All Star Break???? Perhaps I am reading too much into this.
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Federal Reserve Skating on Thin Ice?

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s easy money policy may do harm than good. In the long run, we are all dead, according to John Maynard Keynes. Keynes’ foresight was such that he apparently forsaw what happens (CHAOS!!!) when the Fed decides to reduce interest rates in the face of increasing inflation. When policy makers lose sight of their mandates and capabilities and react in the moment to events, "…in the long run, we are all dead.") In a rather vainglorious effort to "revive" one segment of the U.S. economy (housing), society and the economy at large are placed at risk of inflation and general economic chaos! The first rule of The Bottom Line’s policymaking bureau: First do no harm. The Fed should follow suit by doing what it does best: controlling money supply and short-term interest rates.
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Obama & The Cult of Personality

Sooner or later, the “Obama is God” tour will come to an end, and people will actually begin to question what it is he actually stands for. In statistics, there is a phenomenon called “reversion to the mean” in which a variable or set of variables will coalesce around a pre-established average. Simply put, it’s impossible for an entity to travel straight up or down in perpetuity. Obama, the variable in this case, is pushing this maxim to its limit. His trajectory has been near vertical since campaign liftoff. More and more people (Not Hillary Clinton people – they are clueless at the moment) are starting to look behind the mask to see what’s actually there. And what you will find behind the mask is: A GLIB SOCIALIST. During his tenure as a U.S. Senator has established himself as America’s MOST liberal Senator. Not a good thing if you believe in the principles on which America was founded: personal responsibility and individual initiative. It remains to be seen if this revelation will transpire BEFORE or AFTER the Obama’s move into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Occur, it will however, and when it does, the resultant fall from grace and consequent evisceration of Senator Change and Hope will not be pretty.
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A Romney Campaign Post-Mortem

In light of Mitt Romney’s decision to suspend his campaign, I have been giving thought to some of the factors that served to undermine him. Certainly John McCain enjoyed much greater name recognition among voters. Mike Huckabee’s base of evangelicals served to drain away conservative support to a degree. Romney hurt his own cause by “evolving” from moderate to conservative views on key issues. Two overlooked but no less important hindrances: envy and bigotry. Mitt Romney is a handsome man with an attractive wife, five theoretically perfect children with their own “perfect” lives, and hundreds of millions of dollars. These facts apparently drove his fellow candidates mad with envy and led them to conspire with each other to drive Romney from the race. If true this fact should make none of them proud. Last but not least, Romney’s Mormon faith was definitely s tumbling block. According to respected pollsters Peter Hart and Bill McInturff as quoted in part in The Wall Street Journal, “The Romney Campaign ran into “a religious bias head wind,”"
So, ironically, as this election season moves ahead and Americans ponder electing either a white woman or a black man as their next president, the white guy lost because he was too rich and too Mormon.
And so it goes….
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Message to McCain – Your Actions Speak Louder…

Senator McCain, there is nothing you can DO today to prove to conservative thinkers that you are in fact a conservative. Undoubtedly, your CPAC speech today will contain a multitude of platitudes. But platitudes are no substitute for deeds: You are asking us to BELIEVE that a President McCain would respect the First Amendment, support pro-growth economic policies, secure the nation’s borders, and permit robust terrorist interrogation. The problem is that we need to vote for you in order to find out if you will keep your word. Once elected however, there is nothing to prevent you from reverting to your capricious form. You are askind me to trade an act of certitude today (my vote) for a leap of faith (conservative principles enacted) tomorrow. You may or may not receive my vote. But it would be dangerous for you to assume that disdain for Hillary Clinton translates to an automatic vote for John McCain. It would be fatally dangerous to assume that disdain for Barack Obama translates into an automatic vote for John McCain. Barack Obama is anything but a conservative, but unlike Hillary, Obama is likeable and will be difficult for you to defeat. In parting, Senator McCain, please remember that your past actions speak louder than your present words.
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Romney Reported to Suspend Presidential Campaign

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is reportedly planning to suspend his campaign for President. The operative phrase here is suspend as opposed to end, although other reports suggest the campaign has in fact been terminated. The word suspend lends itself to the possibility of future reinstatement.
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Nice work if you can get it: Political Elite

How does this sound for a job description:
1) 30 years of age or more
2) US citizen for 9 years or more
3) Resident of 1 of the 50 United States of America
4) Salary:$162,500
5) Excellent benefits(health,dental,vision,retirement,cafeteria,gym)
By now, you have probably guessed the job described above is that of a United States Senator.Left out of this description:paid staff, free postage, highly flexible schedule. In fact, the schedule is SO flexible, it permits Senators to look for new lines of work while on company time and to be paid while looking, ALL AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE. Such is the life of our nation’s political elites. It is a life virtually unknown to the majority of this nation’s citizens. It is also a divide between the elites and the citizens they aspire/purport to represent. Call me naive and/or crazy, but politicians should be forced to resign from one office before campaigning for another.
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The Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy – 2008 style

Membership in the “vast right-wing conspiracy” has changed considerably since Hillary R. Clinton first gave the phrase life nearly a decade ago. Kenneth Starr, Newt Gingrich and Richard Mellon-Scaife are out while Edward M. Kennedy (D,MA), John F. Kerry (D,MA), James Clyburn (D,S.C.), Rahm Emmanuel (D,IL), and Donna Brazile (among others) are apparently in. According to Jonathan Alter’s January 28,2008 Newsweek column [http://www.newsweek.com/id/96385], Kennedy, Emmanuel, and Clyburn have told former president William J. Clinton to stand down in his merciless attacks of Senator Barack Obama (D,IL) and candidate for president of the United States. According to the article, Kennedy blamed Clinton for injecting race into the campaign. Of course, this criticism has fallen on deaf ears since the Clintons shamelessly practice Malcolm X style “Win by any means necessary” politics. Nonetheless, the Clinton’s slash and burn approach is “useful” in this regard: it proves that they are a fundamentally dishonest couple, devoid of integrity, who sow the seeds of deception and  division wherever they go.

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend

Let the record show that I am a political conservative. I firmly believe that the secret to America’s continued prosperity is personal responsibility. Particularly so in a country founded upon the notion of SELF-GOVERNMENT and Individual Rights. However, rights without corresponding responsibilities equal chaos. And chaos, in the form of indiscriminate government subsidies of personal irresponsibility is precisely what LIBERALS heap upon America. Here in Massachusetts of all places, indiscriminate government spending is facing opposition from a most unlikely source: Sal DiMasi, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. Speaker DiMasi is doing the Lord’s work by opposing Governor Deval Patrick’s foolhardy spending plans (http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/01/24/governor_files_282b_budget_plan/?page=full). By all accounts, DiMasi and Patrick are ideological allies, both men being committed liberal Democrats. However, it is DiMasi who is making the argument for fiscal restraint and dismissing Patrick’s call for higher taxes on business (amidst signs of a fiscal slowdown mind you) and increased government spending. Who’d a thunk it? I have no illusions that Sal DiMasi is an advocate of limited government. However, to this point, he is saying all the right things and backing them up with action. It is perfectly acceptable to me to do the right thing even if for the wrong reason. I stand ready to have my hopes dashed at any moment, but for now, The Enemy (Sal DiMasi) of My Enemy (Deval Patrick) is My Friend.