No Brooms?

I snapped this picture in the Sam's Warehouse in Waldorf, MD earlier this week.

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John Crawford

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Big Brother Can See Your Prescription Records: Make Them Private! - The Petition Site

When you order your prescriptions, Big Brother is watching you. When you pick up medications for cancer, asthma, sexually transmitted diseases -- any prescription, in any pharmacy -- you are being watched.

Big Brother Can See Your Prescription Records: Make Them Private! - The Petition Site

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John Crawford

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The Sick Care Economy (comic)

Cartoon creator Mike Adams
NaturalNews.com

This is a candid, and no-doubt, controversial article. It looks at the state of America's health, the main stream medical systems practices, and how's it shortening our lives. It's worth reading.


The Sick Care Economy (comic): "Truth Publishing retains all ownership, rights and copyrights."

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John Crawford

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Health Care Reform: How You Will Fare?

This actually came to me in a newsletter I get regularly from vitacost.com. If you're like me, you've heard so much about the health care debate, the hype, the Rush Limbaugh view, etc. Honestly, I couldn't tell you the first thing about the new health reform legislation. There's been so much back and forth, I don't know what is truth and what is not. This article, if based on facts, sheds some light on what to expect.

Health Care Reform: How You Will Fare?

Girl Allegedly Locked Up for Months, Barely Fed - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

As a home-school parent, these kind of people are why the lawmakers make homeschooling difficult. Part of why we home-school is that we are not willing to transfer the responsibility for the success or failure or our children to the public school system. But, as you can see, not all parents are qualified to home-school their children. In fact these people may not even qualify as parents.

Now I will tell you that my son was quite the difficult pupil. It was like pulling teeth to get any work out of him. Somehow we got through it, and he's grown up now. And as I read the article I'm kicking myself for not coming up with the idea myself years ago!! NOT, just kidding! I think the whole thing was cruel and constitutes child abuse. I think a jury will see that as well.

Girl Allegedly Locked Up for Months, Barely Fed - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

This is too funny, and it looks real. Enjoy.


Obama's Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

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John Crawford

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Colts and Saints Will be Eliminated First Week

I'm walking out on a very flimsy limb, but I think the Colts and the Saints will lose in the first week of the Division playoffs. After both teams went full force and perfect for most of the season, it would appear their balloons have been deflated. The Saints, while losing the last 3 games of the regular season, were fighting till the end. The Colts, however, look like they need CPR. And for good reason. The coach practically threw the last two games to the Jets and Bills, for what, to give the players a rest? To the masses, this might be plausible, but to a professional athlete, a true team player, a "W" is all that matters.

I think there are a few Indianapolis Colts players that their hearts are not in it as it was the first 14 games of the season. As for the Saints, they're just running out of gas. At a minimum both teams are down on one knee after ending the season on a down note.


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John Crawford

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The Redskins, Cold Weather, Star Trek, and Depression

When I was growing up, I was very active in sports. Very rarely were my brother and I not out playing something appropriate to the season. We played football in the snow and ice, and I can distinctly remember a few times when my hands were so numb for the cold I thought they would fall off. On the first warm day in the winter we were throwing the baseball around. We would play pickup games until it got to dark to see. We always had the basketball hoop over the garage door, and we cold play at the local school and church that had outside lights. And when we needed some variety we played badminton, tennis, wiffle ball, and soccer, to name a few.

Of course I followed professional sports, and was a big Baltimore Colts fan back in the day, and remain a long standing Orioles fan. For whatever reasons which I cannot explain, the Washington Redskins were never on the radar for me although they were no less local that the Colts.

As I grew older and moved away from home, I lost my sense of following sports soon after I got married. Priorities change, I think most can identify with that. In the last few years, I have felt the sports interests stir again. But it's more of seeing the Redskins lose. The Orioles haven't had a winning season since 1997, but I'm holding out for them to break out of the Cleveland Indians spell in the movie "Major League".

Back to the Redskins. It's both fun and annoying to listen to the whiners and complainers at work on Monday morning, and sometimes the whole week. And lets not forget this area of Maryland/DC/Virginia, being a migratory region for military and government workers and families, has as many football fans that root for someone other than the Redskins.

So the Redskins are having a dismal season. So badly the sports commentators are getting in on the jabs. "Embarrassing" I believe was one comment:

Washington Post
USA Today
Fox Sports

I am not able to find the reference, but I believe one sportscaster referred to the Redskins performance as "embarrassing for television". There's an easy solution for that, stop televising their games. Maybe the local stations will use that air time for some entertainment I might enjoy, three of episodes of Star Trek or Stargate should cover a 3 hour clock allocated for a game.

As an off-shoot, it's good the Redskins are playing in San Diego today. The weather here in the DC area is frigid, temperatures were in the single digits last night with 20-30 mph winds. It's not going to be much better today with low 30's and wind. With the Chargers record at 12-3, it's unlikely the Redskins will end the season on a winning note.

The cold weather and short days depresses me. No, I'm not depressed about the Redskins, in fact it's the one a few things I'm able to chuckle about. Two weeks ago we got a blizzard, something close to 18 inches of snow. That was bad enough. Then it warmed up, rained, and all melted on Christmas day.

By the way, why does it seem the more channels we are offered, the worse content we get. What do I mean? What ever happened to good, fun, all-day marathons on holidays? I mean, what I wouldn't do for a good, old-fashioned Star Trek marathon even on a holiday. We get James Bond, horror movies, Twilight Zone, and the same movies I don't want to watch again. The weekend wasn't all bad, there was a Buffy marathon on yesterday on LOGO, but I don't usually watch that channel and I don't care for their PG/R rated commercials they show even during the day. On the plus side, there are the routine NCIS marathons on USA.

OK, Go SKINS!


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John Crawford

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Emotional Affairs???

I read this article on MSN, and wanted to comment.

Emotional Affairs 101

I think this lady is full of hot air. For a Psychiatrist, she did not give allot of facts or medically grounded advice. The article is completely opinionated. The writer assumes that all relationships can be perfect and harmonious. She is delusional. She believes emotional affairs are friendships that involve more than being friends, but no sex. I have news for this lady, that all depends on your definition of sex. For instance, Bill Clinton's definition of sex, we all know what that is.

It all boils down to what a marriage can handle, and what rules both partners are willing to agree on. The writer is very assuming that the slightest transgression, by her definition, is grounds for divorce and oh such an ugly betrayal of trust. It all depends where you draw the line between right and wrong.

Lighten up missy. If relationships are that fragile, then why are these people married to start with? The fact is, some people need these "emotional affairs" to keep it all together, or else they might REALLY cheat. These emotional affairs give them something they can't and won't ever get at home. No psycho-babble of marital counseling is going to get it there.

I can speak from experience, which is something the writer did not. Having gone down that road and dealt with the consequences, I can proudly say that my wife and I will celebrate 25 years of marriage next month. Was it easy? No, How many times did it almost come apart at the seams? More times than I can remember. But it has survived because neither of us is naive enough to think nothing could ever happen. Love, forgiveness, and sense of humor go a long way to keeping a marriage, or any relationship together.



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John Crawford

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New Tires Made from Orange Peel Oil Instead of Petroleum

naturalnews.com — (NaturalNews) Yokohama Tire, the North American subsidiary of Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd., has introduced a new tire that replaces much of its petroleum with oil derived from orange peels instead. The tire, known by the moniker Super E-spec, is made from vulcanized rubber just like other tires. While most vulcanized rubber tires use...Read article


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John Crawford

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America's Health Care Ailments

Over the last few years I've grown to hate watching the news, pretty much since 9/11/2001. If it was just the run of the mill local news with the good and bad stuff, that's palatable. But even the local news is filled with the political, and the bizarre. I find news channels and local news to be ultra depressing. Where I work it's pretty much in my face all day long, and I can't turn the channel.

So I'm just a little bit tired of hearing about the economy, bad weather, the bizarre things people do, and most recently, health care reform. This has been going on since the 1992 Presidential campaign, albeit, it took a hiatus during the Bush Administration.

It's not just the news, it's a lively debate at the office too. I also caught a few minutes of a radio talk show this morning, the 4 women being interviewed about health care had very opposing views. Oh did I mention that I loathe TV talk shows, especially the shock-jocks like Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.

So the latest super-buzz about health care is just the tip of a very large ice-berg. People want to something simple that's not going to empty their wallet. But I don't think that's possible in our society.

Problem #1. Health care is a business. The goal of every business is to make money, and more of it every day. They don't like taking loses and do not willfully allow themselves to get into libelous circumstances. If a person has an illness or injury, they are a liability, and the cost detracts from the bottom line.

Problem #2. Doctors no longer practice medicine with passion. The lawyers and the HMO's take most of the fun out of it. The landmines they have to traverse to stay in practice, let's just say this is not a time honored professional anymore. We have a similar issue in professional sports, no more love of the game.

Problem #3. While Webster has incorporated insurance to conform to modern society, insurance is really a bet that something won't happen. But if it does, there's compensation. This is STUPIDITY at it's best. Everyone, young and old needs medical attention at somepoint. So we lose that bet when we go for regular checkups and immunizations. So first we need to change our train of thought from "insurance" to "health care coverage".

Problem #4. If I'm paying for coverage, why do the provider have the right to tell me what they will cover? Think about that. Ever play the board game of Monopoly? The purpose of buying insurance was to be COVERED in case of you lost the bet. Covered, period. Not 50% covered; COVERED completely. I pay my premiums. The "insurance company" puts that in their escrow accounts, invest it, and I get health care for whatever I need. When health care became a business, that concept was quietly buried. Maybe they should give me the interest they are making on my premium money.

Then there's pre-existing conditions. I guess you're just a lost cause and the HMO's would rather you just die anyhow, then you are not their problem and they have your money in their bank account. Ahhh but hopefully you have LIFE insurance. Oh but it won't save your life, it only pays a surviving beneficiary. But don't commit suicide, or die not wearing a seatbelt, or die doing something risky. The LIFE insurance company may not pay either.

I hear people say they don't want to pay for everyone else's health care. I have news for them, we already do. Having spent my entire adult life in the military, socialized medicine is here to stay and has been around for a long time. It does work, if left alone by the HMO's who try to choke money out of it. The fact is, when you are young and healthy, it's easy to be complacent. But wait until you have to give birth, or contract a debilitating illness or get hurt really bad, and it changes your life (and your outlook).

One item in the debate is fining people who do not have coverage? Whose backward ass idea is that? If I can't afford to buy the coverage, slap me with a fine so I have something else I can't pay? Do these freaking morons understand that families are poor or dead broke as it is? We're in a major recession, many people would call it a depression. Just because it is barely noticeable in the immediate DC area, the person(s) making this suggestion need to spend some time in some the hard hit areas of the south, where whole towns have practically vanished, all small businesses have closed up, local governments have no money to "insure domestic Tranquility" and provide for the common defense. Only the upper middle class can see light at the end of the tunnel. The media needs to stop telling people the worst is over, cause it's not, not when you're poor and destitute. When you have nothing to eat, your electricity is cut off, your vehicle is repossessed, or your home is taken from you, the worst is not over, not by a long shot. That light at the end of the tunnel is an incoming train.

One final thought. Congress and the executive branch needs to pull their head out of the ass. They need to think like the poor people they were ELECTED to represent. Stop listening to the lobbyists. Get out to the nations hard hit areas and speak to real people that need health care.



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John Crawford

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Stewie is Gay?! Playboy Revelation and Limbaugh, Rove

Stewie is Gay?! Playboy Revelation and Limbaugh, Rove "Family Guy"

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Please Don't Send Hillary

Americans are rejoicing in the news of the American reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling being freed from a North Korean prison. It was certainly good news, and even the most optimistic among us could not have seen it coming. As I watched the story unfold yesterday with my co-workers, we were brainstorming as to why the North Korean government would let them go after such a stink they made about making them pay for their crimes, however far fetched we knew the charges were.

What we came up with was pretty simple. Bill probably told them very politely that since he was a former President of the United States, and if they did anything to him, that the U.S. probably had enough firepower aimed at North Korean to make it uninhabitable for centuries. But more than that he put the fear of God into them. He probably told them that "if you do not cooperate with me, the U.S. will send Hillary here to negotiate. And fellows, having been married to her for many years, I strongly recommend you let these Americans go while you have a chance to get a word in."

Then we were discussing if Bill Clinton got paid to go there. Then it was revealed that two female escorts interns went with him on the trip. That was payment enough. What else can we say about that, close but no cigar?


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John Crawford

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Cash For Clunkers?

This Cash For Clunkers program, whose bright friggin' idea was this anyhow? They want me to give up my vehicle, my truck, for $4500. I have to go into how much debt to get a new vehicle, $20,000-$30,000? What would possess me to do that? Both of my vehicles are paid off. Yes my truck gets 13 miles per gallon. But it's paid for - NO PAYMENTS.

Ok, they can have my truck. My old Dodge four wheel drive truck. I hardly use the four wheel drive. The AC doesn't work. The paint is fading in spots. Yes they can have my truck, when they pry my cold dead fingers off it!


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John Crawford

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Disney monorail crash leaves one dead

Disney monorail crash leaves one dead

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A redneck farewell to Sarah Palin

This article is a picture with no text. But I think you'll get the jist of the story.

Goodbye Sarah Palin


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John Crawford

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Smart Fortwo Car: I Don't See The Smart

I see these cars now and again, that is, if you can call them cars. I had a go-kart when I was 12, these Smart Cars are not much bigger. So I thought maybe I'd do some research and see what they are and what they're made of.

I was surprised at the price, $11,000-$20,000, really expecting something approaching $30k. Right now you can finance them for $99/month for the first 3 years. It has a standard (only one offered) 1.0 Liter engine that makes 70HP. It has a list of standard and optional features including anti-lock brakes, AC, power windows, power steering, heated seats, and something they call ESP (electronic stability program). But you won't be hauling too much with this car It has a maximum permissible weight of 2315lbs. The base model has a curb weight of 1808lbs. That leaves 507lbs for everything else, including passengers. The web site specs do not specify if that includes the 8.7 gallons of gas (gasoline is 8lbs per gallon = 69.6lbs). It's also unclear if the 1.3gallon reserved is in addition to that, it would make sense to add up to 10.

In any case you're not going very far on a tank of gas. The EPA estimates are 33 mpg for city, and 41 mpg on the highway. That's 287-356 miles on a tank of gas. Ok, so I thought maybe this car was a hybrid. It's not, at least not in the U.S. Here's an excerpt from their web site FAQ:

"The smart fortwo is designed to achieve 33 city/41 highway mpg according to 2009 EPA standards, which involves measuring mpg while taking into account real-life driving conditions such as start/stop city traffic, air-conditioning, heating etc. According to information obtained on fueleconomy.gov, the smart fortwo is the most fuel-efficient non-hybrid gasoline-powered vehicle in the USA today."

So, you have this Smart Car, you gas it up and get in. This car would be perfect for a single person (or married with no kids), that lives in an apartment that has limited parking available. I think I just described half of the European population, which is maybe why this vehicle is so popular there. In any case, if two adults are in the vehicle, they will be shoulder-to-shoulder, and they will be over their weight limit if they make a stop over at the grocery store.

I don't see what's so smart about it? Is it the built-in MP3 player? The rear-engine design? Can someone tell me what's so SMART about this car? Did I mention it comes with just a 2 year or 24,000 miles warranty. It is customizable, that means you'll pay extra for it. One high note, is their free road side assistance, as quoted from there brochure:
"smart 1 service provides free, speedy and straightforward breakdown assistance around the clock in the first 2 years."

There are many other SMARTER vehicles widely available that don't look like a claustrophobic death trap. The Ford focus, for example, is in the same price range (starts at $16,000), and gets 24-35 mpg. It has a tried and true list of safety features and options, and it's made by the only American car company the U.S. Government has not had to bail-out.

The Ford focus is just one of many. Honda, Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen, Saturn, and Mercury, to same some of them, produce vehicles that are worthy of being "smart". MSN Autos has good information on this. While I think the Smart Car looks cool, and might be cutting edge, it's also allot of smoke and mirrors. It's an OK solution for the single guy or gal.

Sources:
1. http://www.smartusa.com
2. http://www.mlive.com/auto/index.ssf/2009/07/would_you_buy_a_355_mpg_smart.html
3. Picture courtesy of http://jeffnewcum.com/info/personal-life/the-smart-car-passion-cabriolet-pure-joy/


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John Crawford

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Judge allows DNA evidence in Accokeek (MD) street racing trial

A Prince George's County judge has ruled that state prosecutors will be allowed to use DNA tests and a defendant's statements to police as evidence in the manslaughter trials of two men accused of causing the deaths of eight people in an Accokeek, MD street racing crash the morning of Feb. 16, 2008.

Read the full story at Judge allows DNA evidence in Accokeek street racing trial


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Loud Sex Leads to Assault Charge for Four Teens, Police Say - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

All I can say is Go Mom!!

Loud Sex Leads to Assault Charge for Four Teens, Police Say - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News - FOXNews.com

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John Crawford

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FBI: Saddam Feared Iran More Than U.S.

No one can say this is a great revelation. But after all these years, we still haven't found unconventional weapons in Iraq. Question is, can we trust the source?

Read the article at FBI: Saddam Feared Iran More Than U.S.

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John Crawford

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