All you seem to hear about now is RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION.

I don't think people understand the definition of that word. A recession can only occur when the GDP is NEGATIVE for SIX consecutive months. Minimum. The GDP has not been NEGATIVE at all. Zero months.

How exactly are we in a recession? Umm, we're not. We may not be booming, but the GDP is still positive.

The power went out no fewer than 6 times this morning at our house. I'm not sure exactly why either. Sure, it's windy, but what does that have to do with anything? It's not like we lost power for a long time, it's just on and off. Just long enough to reset the clocks and the TiVo's. That is, just long enough to be annoying.

Thankfully we realized it and were able to get up on time.

For the second time, Hillary Clinton has defied her national committees rules to not campaign in a state. The reason for the rules? The states disobeyed party rules and moved the date of a primary. That means that those states forfeited their delegates at the national convention.

Well, that didn't stop Hillary from campaigning there anyway. She is so desperate to win, that she's willing to do whatever it takes -- including breaking the rules. She was the only major candidate listed on the Michigan primary, and she still didn't win convincingly. She is the only one to campaign in Florida. She's desperate. She can feel the power slipping through her fingers and she'll do anything to grasp at it for one more day.

At least this time the media has caught on to her ploy and rightfully states that it's a meaningless "victory" because she gets no delegates out of it and is thus no closer to being the nominee. I hope that it's exactly the opposite in fact, and that she gets punished for not following her party's rules. I think we all know that they're too spineless to do that though.

A paper in New Hampshire rips her a new one over it too. A direct quote follows: "Courting votes in Iowa and New Hampshire, last August Sen. Hillary Clinton signed a pledge not to "campaign or participate" in the Michigan or Florida Democratic primaries. She participated in both primaries and is campaigning in Florida. Which proves, again, that Hillary Clinton is a liar."

Harsh words. Also, true and completely fair. She lied. She broke her pledge. I think we should all be used to that by now though...

Lindsay and I went to a class tonight called "The Marriage Course." It's all about showing how you can both evaluate your own and your spouses abilities in areas like communication. The intention is to show you what your needs are and what your spouses needs are. It's basically like pre-marital counseling, but after the fact.

We weren't very enthralled with our own pre-marital counseling... we felt like we didn't get anything out of it, because we had already talked about everything that was discussed before we even went. I suppose that's a good sign, but still, we wanted something a little more in depth. Maybe something that would challenge us.

After all, we're committed that we only get married once. Through thick and thin we've got to make it work. If we can build that strong foundation now, we'll be far better off down the road.

It's becoming more and more obvious to people that the only way that the United States can get out of this poor fiscal situation is for the government and the people to follow one simple rule. That rule is: if you don't have the money then don't spend it.

Can't pay for social security? Then how the freak are you going to pay for "universal" health care? We have no money! The government is not responsible for our well-being. We don't need big brother to be our nanny.

Hey consumers, y can't afford to drive that new car? Then stop buying HD TVs with your credit cards!

It's so simple that it's ridiculous. The government has bankrupted this country and now we're reaping the problems of that. The dollar is in the tank, and as a result have driven energy prices through the roof. That rolls down and drives the prices of everything else up, hence inflation. The more debt we roll up, the less the dollar is worth.

What's the solution? STOP SPENDING SO MUCH FREAKING MONEY!

Cut governmental spending in half. Right across the board. Spending is our biggest problem, not revenue. Raising taxes doesn't work. All that does is allow the government to spend more money. Outlaw attaching spending bill riders to other bills. Use the line item veto for goodness sake. Use that thing to crush pork barrel spending. While you're at it, install term limits. Get rid of lobbying groups. Put spending caps on how much a candidate can spend in order to get elected. Give people the ability to manage their own retirement, and if they screw it up, too bad! I don't want to pay into social security. I'm never going to see a dime from it, but I pay 6% of my salary into it. Give me that 6% and let me manage it myself.

We don't have much time to fix this problem, and guess what? Giving tax payers $800 each is not the answer. All that does is increase debt. The $800 we get today will cost us $20,000 by the time we pay it back with interest.

We need a constitutional amendment that requires a balanced budget every year. We HAVE to pay down the debt. We can't even worry about future generations, because this problem is effecting ALL generations. Right now.

Every day there is more and more talk of this problem.

Dealing with a declining dollar
Juicing the economy will come at a cost

Could it just possibly be that I'm not alone in my opinion of the Clintons and their willingness to say anything to get elected?

This article in the Baltimore Sun talks about the very same thing... except this time it's Obama making that claim.

Obama was again charging that Clinton and her husband have been duplicitous in campaign trail attacks on his record, suggesting that the Clintons have shown a willingness to “fudge the truth” and will “say anything to get a political or tactical advantage.”

Maybe the tide will finally turn and the people will wake up. Or maybe not. It really depends, unfortunately, on how the media spins this. Anymore, voting for president isn't about the people, it's about who spends the most and who the media wants to win.

Israel has been hit in recent years by thousands and thousands of rockets, mortar shells, and missiles. And that could be just a preview of the onslaught Iran may one day unleash. So Israeli military leaders have begun early planning for a new, robotic defense system, armed with enough artificial intelligence that it "could take over completely" from flesh-and-blood operators. "It will be designed for... autonomous operations,' Brig. Gen. Daniel Milo, commander of Israel's air defense forces, tells Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome.

How can anyone possibly think that this is a good idea? Didn't I just read about South African massacre after a robotic machine gun screwed up and killed everyone? What happens when this automated missile defense system screws up and thinks those passenger planes are missiles?

Come on people! This is not good... watch War Games or Terminator or something. You're building stuff that will one day turn around and blast you because you can't turn it off.

It's a bad time -- a really bad time -- to be invested in the stock market. Especially so when you're acting logically and the rest of the world is way off the deep end.

Beat analyst estimates on earnings? I think that's a good sign. The market on the other hand thinks that's such a horrible sign that they've taken off $12 per share already, and the market has been open for 1 minute.

It's a freaking blood bath out there and there's unfortunately no end in sight. When will people start using their brains and stop panicking? Apparently never.

I saw Cloverfield yesterday. If you don't want spoilers then stop reading. Quickly.

It's part horror movie, part monster movie, and has the feel of a documentary.

Here's the brief summary: the monster destroys everything and everyone dies.

Here's the less brief summary: the monster destroys big stuff (Brooklyn Bridge, Woolworth Building, etc), while also dropping little monsters that cause people to explode in a most gruesome manner mere hours after being bitten by said little monsters.

It was good, but not really the kind of movie I'd like to see again. It did manage to pull off the feeling of urgency and fear that I imagine one would really be feeling when lots of crap was going down. There was some well timed comic relief thrown in. Also, there were brief respites in the frantic camera work that allowed your eyes to refocus. I'd recommend sitting in the back of the theater so as to combat the motion sickness you'd surely feel while watching this.

Did anyone survive at the end? Maybe. Probably not. I don't really know. Did the monster survive? Probably, though at the very end of the movie (after the credits) it appears that it definitely did.

I had no trouble following the movie and how it was shot "over" previous footage, but apparently there are a lot of idiots out there on the internet that couldn't grasp the whole concept.

Kids don't like clowns. It's a scientifically proven fact. Also, I don't like clowns. They're creepy looking. Apparently I'm not alone. The study shows that kids, teens, and adults generally dislike clowns.

I have conducted my own study on the matter and have come to the conclusion that, in fact, no one likes clowns, so... if you're a clown, I'm sorry, but no one likes you.

Taken from the far left leaning Slate, this article appropriately takes Clinton to task for all of her "many" years of experience.

Clinton's claim to superior experience isn't merely dishonest. It's also potentially dangerous should she become the nominee. If Clinton continues to build her campaign on the dubious foundation of government experience, it shouldn't be very difficult for her GOP opponent to pull that edifice down. That's especially true if a certain white-haired senator now serving his 25th year in Congress (four in the House and 21 in the Senate) wins the nomination. McCain could easily make Hillary look like an absolute fraud who is no more truthful about her depth of government experience than she is about why her mother named her "Hillary." Dennis Kucinich has more government experience than Clinton. If Clinton doesn't find a new theme soon, she won't just be cutting Obama's throat. She'll also be cutting her own.

I find it interesting, and also completely disturbing, that the American media and public eat up whatever she says. She could say "I'm the first woman to step foot on the moon" and tomorrow you'll watch the news to see the leading story being "Hillary RODHAM Clinton steps foot on moon! Without a space suit! Amazing!"

She says she has vast experience. Well, whoopty freaking do. Anyone can say that. She doesn't actually have any vast amount of experience though. She just says she does, and the little sheeple fall right in line.

Wake up people! That is, wake up the 7 people who regularly read this site and aren't even the target of needing this information!

We just finished painting the dining room. For the second time in two days. The first time the color didn't look too good, so we did it again. It's my job to tape and look for any missed spots and it's Lindsay's job to do the actual painting. We knocked it out in a little under 3 hours.

It's that time again boys and girls... time to bitch about a Clinton.

I'm tired of the media calling her Hillary Rodham Clinton. Her name is HILLARY CLINTON. It's not Hillary Rodham Clinton. That's a media generated name that was made so that Clinton could play up her feminist roots and play to her base. That's all it is. The media created that name during the Monica Lewinsky situation so that Hillary could appear to be a strong independent woman. That's it.

Little did the media realize that when she opens her mouth she appears to be exactly what she is... a panderer.

This just in! The media sucks!

Are you freaking kidding me? Jacob's Field is now going to be called Progressive Field? Give me a break.

Why not just name it "Screw You Fans, I Have No money And Sold Out To Progressive, So Kiss My Ass Stadium."

That way when I ask you if you're going to the Indians game, I can say "Are you going to Kiss My Ass tonight?

Suck it, Progressive!

You too Indians. Your stadium had one of the best names in sports and you just screwed it all up completely.

A pair of twins in England who were separated at birth got married without knowing they were brother and sister. They were adopted by separate families, and neither was told that they had a twin sibling. Uh... ewww!

You can read the whole ordeal via BBC News UK.

Those two people are going to be scarred for the rest of their lives. They didn't know they were siblings until AFTER they got married. Obviously, they fell in love with each other... now, they're brother and sister. How exactly are they supposed to deal with that? They can't just press a button and fall out of love.

On a trip to Great Britain while he was President of the United States, Bill Clinton had a meeting with Queen Elizabeth. During that meeting he asked her, "How does one manage to run a country so smoothly?"

"That's easy," the Queen replied, "You surround yourself with intelligent ministers and advisors."

"But how can I tell whether they are intelligent or not?", asked Bill.
You ask them a riddle," she replied, and with that she pressed a button and said, "Would you please send Tony Blair in." When Blair arrived, the Queen said, "I have a riddle for you to answer for me.

Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was this child?"

Blair replied, "That's easy. The child was me."

"Very good," said the Queen. "You may go now."

Sizing up his wife's chances in her presidential bid, and thinking back on that meeting, Bill Clinton spoke to Hillary. He said to her, "I have a riddle for you, and the answer is very important. Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was that child ?"

Hillary replied, "Yes, it is clearly very important that we determine the answer. Can I deliberate on this for awhile?"

"Yes," said Bill, "I'll give you four hours to come up with the answer."

So Hillary called a meeting of her campaign team, from top to bottom, and asked them the riddle. But after much discussion and many suggestions, none of them had a satisfactory answer. She was quite upset, not knowing what she would tell her husband, the former President. As Hillary was leaving her meeting she ran into her most formidable challenger to her presidential nomination, Barack Obama.

So she said, "Mr. Obama, can you answer this riddle for me? Your parents had a child and it was not your sister and it was not your brother. Who was the child?"

"That's seems pretty easy," said Obama, "I think the child would be me."

"Oh thank you," said Hillary. "You may just have ensured my nomination for the democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States !" So Hillary went back to Bill and said, "I think I know the answer to your riddle.

The child was Barack Obama.!"

"No, you Dummy !" shouted Bill. "The child was Tony Blair"

The Clintons rather annoy me. First, Hillary "cries" and looks vulnerable, pleading to anyone that will listen that she only wants what's best for the country. Then, she wins in Hew Hampshire. Next thing you know, Bill is "crying" that his "beloved" wife has won.

How inspirational.

We had another earthquake here about 90 minutes ago. No word yet on the size of it. That's the second quake in 3 months here at the homestead though. It sounded like a transformer blowing up or a propane tank explosion or something.

Can't say that I liked it.

Alright media! You've fed me just enough crap and now I'm ready to puke. In an article talking about how people see right through Hillary Clinton and want nothing to do with her, the media spins it as this : "If anything, she is too entrenched, too competent a leader."

Yes. Exactly right, media! Hillary Clinton is just too awesome and that's why people aren't voting for her.

Makes perfect sense.

Or... it could be that she's actually full of horrible ideas and is willing to pander to any and every group in order to get power.

I'll go with the fact that she's just too awesome to vote for though.

Stupid Ohio State! Not only did I already dislike you, but now, because of your shoddy performance, I have to listen to ESPN mouthpieces talk about how bad the Big Ten is. Give me a break.

Take the SEC out of their domes and permanent 70 degree weather and throw them in a few thunderstorms and blizzards and lets see how they do. Oh? Not able to pass as well? Interesting. What's that? You can't run a 4.2 40 in the slop otherwise known as Northwestern's field? Never would've guessed.

Anyway, our poor, slow, and terribly sucky conference must now wait for another year for a chance to beat itself up while the 1-2 good teams in the Big 12 are put up there with the elite and the SEC is heralded as God's own conference, full of his mighty warriors.

Bleh. That's right. I said Bleh.

Take that Jean-Francois!

Nothing happening really. Just keeping busy. Yesterday was a relatively nice departure. I was able to sit around and do nothing for about 3 hours.

Lindsay bought me Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii and we've been playing that for a couple of hours over the past few days. It's pretty fun. Nintendo games may not have hookers, drugs, or guns in them, but they manage to pull off being fun to play, and isn't that the point of a game?

Tonight's the game between LSU and Ohio State. I can't say that I'm very excited about it either. We're going to go out and watch the first half, otherwise I'd watch maybe 5 minutes of it. It's like the NFL in that regard. If my favorite team isn't in it, I'm not likely to watch it.

I watched a grand total of 3 minutes of the playoffs this weekend and I can't say that I missed it.

So the holidays are over, but the busy life continues. Lots of pending travel is coming up. In fact, I've already submitted vacation requests for almost all of my time for the remainder of the year.

Potentially going to Maryland in January.
Going to Nags Head in February.
Staying home in March? That's unpossible!
Orlando is up next in April.
For my birthday in May, we may go to South Carolina.
Middle of June we'll be in West Virginia.
End of June and beginning of July, we'll be in Hawaii.
August through October have nothing planned yet, but that doesn't mean anything as we'll surely go somewhere.
In November we'll definitely be in South Carolina.
December calls for a Christmas trip to Maryland.