Tag / News

by Greg

Obama’s Czars

Radio/TV talk show host, Glenn Beck, posted a list of the (currently) 32 czars that have been collected from “media reports from reputable sources that have identified the official in question as a czar.” It’s a fascinating list that I hope to read in more detail later today.

The reason I am posting it is that I am still so confused by two things. First, why is Obama hiring these people to lead various departments and task forces and such… don’t we elect people to do that? How can he use taxpayer money (some of these czars’ salaries are listed in the page linked above) to pay these people that only report to him, not to the American people? Where are the checks and balances?

Second… why would anyone want to use the word “CZAR“??? Only has negative connotations in my head! (Even crazier… read the “American” portion of that wikipedia link… these are not our first “czars”.)

So, check out the list and, well, pass it along. We are still “we the people”.

by Greg

Space Exploration in the News?

Saw this interesting article today. I used to talk about cool things we were learning from and doing in space… until I got too busy! 🙂 Have been cutting back on the schedule though, and hoping to have more time to read and pass along things I read, AND even write some of my own stuff??? Can it be??

Hopefully.

If you are into space exploration, July was an interesting month (as the article explains) and there should be more to come in the near future. Check out the link if you have time.

by Greg

GregsApples.com … is back? (Sort of.)

Gregs Apple (and more!) Store
Hey folks! Just wanted to give you a quick heads up. I was reminded today that I used to be an Authorized Apple Business Agent, for which Apple paid me a commission on any sales I generated for them. That was neat. Then I was an Apple Business Store Affiliate, similar deal, just not working directly for Apple. THEN, I actually worked for Apple as a trainer at the local Apple Retail Store… which was awesome! But… I didn’t have enough time to give them. Too bad.

So now… I decided to use my Amazon Associates account to make a new little “GregsApples” store (though I have let that domain expire…)

If you are into that sort of thing (Apple, iPod, iPhone, Mac, etc) and you’d like to support GregsHead.net and the Campbell family (well, at least, a little…) I’d invite you to check it out! It’s pretty cool actually. Like my own little mini-Amazon … and only Apple stuff!

Click the banner above to visit, or it will be in the sidebar even after this particular post gets pushed off the front page of my blog … or, here’s the direct link:

http://astore.amazon.com/bwdapple-20

Check it out and let me know what you think. If you have any Apple/Mac questions, I’m pretty good at answering those, too 🙂

by Greg

WWDC Kicks Off: No Jobs, But Plenty of Fun

As expected, Steve Jobs did not make an appearance at the latest Apple keynote. However, many product updates did take center stage!

No time to detail it, but here are some highlights:

  • New iPhone: 3G(s) (“s” stands for “speed”, says Apple)
  • Same prices, but current iPhone (3G, 8GB model) will sell for $99!
  • Tons of cool new iPhone apps for the app store, involving the new features of iPhone OS 3.0 (several with GPS locating/mapping stuff)
  • Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) was covered, will be released in Sep. $129 as usual, but will be $29 for current Leopard users! Crazy.
  • Other interesting tidbits: Will take up 6GB less space on your computer, uses 64-bit processing much better, everything is just faster.
  • Speaking of faster, new MacBook lineup announced: Featuring, new 13″ MacBook Pro, 500GB 7200rpm hard drives, unibody design allowing for 1,000 battery charges (normally about 300). Processors up to 3.06GHz. 8GB RAM. Oh, and starting at $1699.

There’s more, and in previous years, I would elaborate a bit more, but for now, check out Macworld’s coverage. They do a good job. 🙂

And, go visit your local Apple store.

by Greg

Glenn Beck is a Lying Sack of Dog Mess

I saw this video online yesterday (it’s actually kind of long) and just thought it was… weird. The events that precipitated this investigative report were quite weird as well. Talk show guy Glenn Beck was accused of being a “lying sack of dog mess” by Whoopi Goldberg on her TV show, The View. And, the crazy part, it’s all about a meaningless event.

And yet, still quite fascinating. Enjoy.

by Greg

Sad Things

There are a few things in life that seem to really get to me emotionally any time I hear of them. Divorce is one, especially involving people we know. It just breaks my heart, every time. Then any injustice involving kids… that’s another. (Don’t think that’s at all unique to me, think that’s built into nearly every human being, especially we who are parents.)

The other one though is suicide. I heard this story on the top-of-the-hour radio news, and just immediately felt sad. I’m really not sure what it is, but my heart instantly breaks for the person who felt that was the only remaining course of action. I’m not sure how you get there, but as I said, it just makes me overflow with compassion for them.

I’m not sure why these three things affect me so much, but they do. Perhaps I could be a helpful, listening ear to people facing such tragedies? Perhaps.

Whoever you are reading this right now, I hope they are far away from you.

by Greg

$100,000,000.00

$100M sure sounds like a lot of money. And as you can see in the title, it sure is a lot of zeros. However, this blog post by radio talkshow guy Glenn Beck, points out how ridiculously small it is both in comparison to the already large budget as well as the outlandish amount of “money” being spent in all of these “stimulus” packages. Interesting look at the numbers. How do these crazy politicians think we won’t realize this, and just go along with them saying, “Wow! They cut $100M from the budget!!”

by Greg

US Government Now Running the Auto Industry? Ludicrous!

Folks, you know that I don’t often comment politically here, but this is just so completely insane that I would like to go on record here, officially, at GregsHead.net and say that we are so far from what the founders of this country intended our government to be that within a very short time (perhaps only a couple years?) our country will no longer exist as it has for over 200 years.

It’s certainly been a gradual decline over the past decades (decline into government controlling, rather than representing the people) but it’s been kicked into high gear by the election of the “rock star” president (and initially, the party wars that landed a majority of his party in the congress to help push through his very centralized, big-government policies) who is implementing plans to put us another trillion ($1,000,000,000,000) in debt. Ugh.

But I seriously can’t even believe this. (The article)

The US government is making top-level business decisions for General Motors, a private business?????? WHAT?? Why is a “task force” assembled by our federal government dictating what a private business should do?? Why? Because the dummies at the private business decided it would be a good idea to become indebted to the federal government. Makes me even more proud of Ford for standing up and saying, “No thanks.” (Commented on that here previously.)

Wow. Just… wow.

I’m inclined to be concerned for our kids, grandkids, and beyond, but recently I have been reminded of these words from the Message translation of Matthew 6:34:

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

Definitely words to keep close to the front of your mind these days.

[LINK] Obama outlines plan for GM/Chrysler (Wall Street Journal)

by Greg

What Does a Trillion Dollars Look Like?

Got an e-mail from my Dad today, one of them there e-mail forwards. (He enjoys those…) I try to read most of them (sorry, Dad, can’t read them all…) and several I comment back to him on, but only a very few do I share. (Almost none do I forward. If I share, I share via the web. A more passive “share”.) 🙂

This particular one, a website visually presenting what a TRILLION dollars looks like is both impressive and staggering, while really easy to comprehend visually.

These days, the word trillion is thrown around like the word million perhaps. We know it’s a big number, but ignore the true immensity of it.

And just think, before this so-called “stimulus” plan that is near a trillion dollars itself, aren’t we already in debt as a country near the sum of ten trillion dollars? Yikes.

So, check it out, if you have the stomach for that sort of thing.