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As some of you have gathered, I don't think the trade deficit is all that important and not a top priority to be fixed. If you disagree with me and think that we should try to reverse the trade deficit, please post how you would go about decreasing our trade deficit.
What is the Democratic platform for this coming election?
I was disappointed that no one answered my last list of questions, so I'll post them again:
1. Why are you called homophobic if you like the person but don't like the lifestyle they live?
2. Why is so horrible to protect an innocent life that has no say for himself?
3. Why is it a crime to be successful and gain wealth?
4. Why do people think that we are a democracy when we are, in fact, a republic?
5. Why do you get criticized for wanting to protect yourself from those who wish to harm you?
6. Is love for one's country bad?
7. Why do people consider capitalism bad?
8. If you're a Republican, why do people label you a racist, sexist, environment destroying facist (or Nazi, even though Nazis are socialists)?
Which brings me to another question:
Why do people think Nazis (National Socialist German Workers Party) are facists when they are socialists?
For those who don't know, Don Knotts died this weekend. Mayberry will never be the same.
Goodbye old friend.
For GNOME 2.14 comes along!
As most of you know I am a supporter of President Bush and think he's doing a good job, but this deal about selling our ports to a company that is partly owned by a country that has known to finance terrorists and where 2 or 3 of the 9/11 hijackers hale is just ridiculious if not insane.
Why are we getting into this deal? Yes, Great Britain does operate some of our ports, but they are not a country that has helped finance terror and the things listed above. It really disturbs me that we are allowing this. I hope our Congress will do the right thing and block this deal in the interest of our national security.
Who's for this? Jimmy Carter is. If he's for anything that Bush is doing, you know it's a bad deal.
When we hear the phrase "trade deficit" we all start to go into panic mode, but is a trade deficit necessarily bad? We were talking about this in my business class and I just read it in my macroeconomics book and it got me to thinking.
I'll use the example I heard in class:
Let's say you have $50,000 and you wanted to buy a new car. You see that the German built Mercedes SLK350 is your dream car. So you go over to the Germans and say "Hey, I want to buy that car." You have $50,000 and they operate on Euros. So you go over to a bank in Germany and say "I need Euros to buy that car." For simplicity, let's say that the exchange rate is 1:1. So you get 50,000EUR. The bank has the $50,000. You go back to the dealer and purchase the car for 50,000EUR. You're happy because you have the car and the dealer is happy because he has the 50,000EUR. What about the banker? Let's say that he wants to invest in a corporation. He can't invest in a German company because he has US Dollars and not Euros. So the banker decides to invest in an American company. So, you're happy, the dealer is happy, the banker is happy because he can use his dollars, and the American corporation is happy because it has an additional $50,000 investment. The $50,000 comes back to the shores of America.
So I ask you again, is a trade deficit necessarily bad?
Will Intel's new Viiv technology really be able to take the home entertainment market by storm? I don't think that media PCs fare well in the market because they are just that: PCs. If you look at your DVD player it has one function, to play DVDs. Your stereo has one purpose, to play CDs and tune into radio stations. Your TiVo has the purpose of scheduling TV programs. Granted, a TiVo is just a small computer, but it's operating system is dedicated to just recording programs (yes you can hack it, but I'm trying to be simplistic).
My point? Viiv (pronounced Vive, like Five but with the "F" replaced with a "V") hopes to be an all-in-one home entertainment system. This is a wonderous prospect to have all of your electronics in one tiny little box, but it's a pretty tall order to fill. Viiv will be using Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. What's the problem with this? It's not a stand alone media center operating system. It's just Windows XP with a multimedia application on top of it.
What's the problem with this? Have you seen how bloated Windows can be? You can't leave it on for a long time and expect it to work everytime without a few hiccups, burps, and farts along the way. Another issue is the boot time. It takes about 30 seconds upto about 90 seconds before you can actually log into Windows. Depending on how much stuff needs to load into the service tray, it could be about another 2 or 3 minutes before you are ready to go. So, that's about 4:30? When you turn on your DVD player it takes a couple of seconds to start, few seconds to load the DVD, and you're ready to go. I've never had a TiVo, but I'm sure it doesn't take 4.5 minutes to start up.
Could there be a solution? Of course there is! Microsoft just needs to build, from scratch, a media center operating system that does not need the different services that are built into Windows. A media center operating system should only deal with music, video, and pictures. That's it. Since it will probably be connected to the Internet, Microsoft should make security a top priority. Even though you shouldn't have any personal information on there, it will be connected to a network it can act as a gateway to other computers.
At any rate, I think Intel is being bold in trying to make a media center platform. When it's all been said and done, I think that the Intel Viiv will not be a big success and will just become another multimedia PC flop.
It's really sad when liberals take pot shots at the president at a funeral service that was supposed to honor a great woman.
Joseph Lowery and Jimmy Carter have no honor.
...when you piss Alec Baldwin off and get his knickers in a twist.
Other stuff:
a.) Muslims who are rioting over the satirical cartoons of Mohammed need to build a bridge and get over it. IT'S A JOKE! Personally, I think it's humorous...big deal if it's "politically incorrect"...I don't care.
b.) I was right about Air America. It was a big flop because very few listen to liberal talk radio. This shows that the free market works. Now, what worries me is that will people try to censor conservative talk radio because there is no "balance" on the air waves.