Another weekly update of stuff you don’t want to MISC.  Well you liberals might want to MISC my economy comments.  I guess they could be called economents.

Iron Man

I, like many of the bloggers I read, saw Iron Man and loved it.  I classify the movie under “Movies that did not suck at all”.  I really enjoyed it.  It is PG-13, and it’s rated such, in my opinion, due to the violence.  Still, a great flick. 

Jaden’s favorite parts were the flying.  Bravo, Jaden.  Bravo.

Quick comment on economy

I wish the media would give the full story when they report stuff.  Why do I have to go looking to find out some of these things about the economy?

What I learned recently was that a “recession” is defined as two (2) quarters of negative growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product).  I thought, based on what the media tells us, that we’re in a recession.  But when you look at 4th quarter of last year, GDP grew by 2/10ths of a percent.  In 1st quarter of this year, GDP grew by 6/10ths of a percent.  I know it’s not a lot, but it is growth, and it’s increasing.  And the stimulus checks aren’t even here yet!

In fact, maybe the media should have been saying as the headline:

GDP growth rose 300 percent quarter to quarter

It’s true, right? Oh wait, the media doesn’t like telling truths that helps people feel good.  They’d rather scare people, I think.

The only reason the media gets away with distorting the truth is because people let them.  I implore the masses (you know, the dozen or so people who will read these words) - PLEASE question the headlines you read.  The media has one main goal: sell papers. I believe the media has ulterior goals of pushing agendas, but the first goal is still enough for all of us to question the headlines.  When they report “41 children from polygamist compound found to have had broken bones”, find out what that is compared to normal kids.  If they reported all the facts, they’d disclose that 9% is lower or the same as typical farm population kids.  Oh, and they don’t disclose that they got the 41 number from any child that had or has ever had any kind of broken bone.  But of course your head gets filled with images of 41 kids with broken arms and legs *right at this moment*, not in any time of their 18 years of age.

I guess I should get my warning out there.  If the democrats come in and raise my taxes, I feel like I’ll give up.  I’ll stop working so hard.  I’ll show them what it means to disincent those of us who actually work for a living and try to succeed.  I work harder and smarter each year so I can make more money, not so my “excess” (their term) can go to someone who doesn’t give a flip.

TequilaCon 2008

I, unlike many of the bloggers I read, did not attend TequilaCon 2008 in Philadelphia.  I’m not sure if I’d be suited to attend such a drink-fest, so maybe I can plan to attend in the future as official photographer or something.  The twitter updates were hilarious. 

Yeah, this is probably something better for me to watch than participate in

Best of LOLcats

Was it inappropriate for Jaden? I watched it again with my wife and thought about whether or not I underplayed the violence too much.

And I don’t drink, but you can participate in TequilaCon just by hanging out with your friends and talking to them. That’s it.

Avitables last blog post..A man and his penis

Thanks for the link. Iron Man was a really good movie and one that I’m glad I saw opening weekend. And of course, nice to see the hint after the credits of things to come.

As for TC, I missed out. But as Dave2 mentioned, there’s a lot of people there that don’t drink. I think Avitable is one of them (if I remember reading one of the blog updates correctly). I am planning on attending next year. Hoping it will be somewhere close enough to either fly to or drive to, depending how much under $7 a gallon fuel is.

And for me, raising taxes is a lot better than the billions being wasted outside our country. Plus, the tax increases will most likely be on those making well beyond six-figures. I’m not close to that yet, so I doubt the middle class would get hit with any increase that would financially entrap us. Personally, even though the media says we are in a recession, I think we are.. or are so close to one, it’s inevitable. There’s lots of solutions that can be done. I’m just hoping that whoever becomes President, can allow congress to pass some measures and bills that will help the economy.

martymankinss last blog post..Scooter Sunday #3

See… i should have just waited for Avitable to post. Straight from the man’s mouth.

martymankinss last blog post..Scooter Sunday #3

ahmoo, fortunately Jaden knows what’s too much. He reaches over and puts my hand over his eyes And, he actually did it a lot more often that I thought he would. He’s sensitive and doesn’t like seeing people getting hurt, so naturally the shooting and semi-torture parts weren’t good. I’m glad he’s sensitive. (no spoiler here) the part where he does the little revenge piece out in the desert town is a feel-good part, in a way.

In other news, I see my decision to add CommentLuv plugin, which automatically displays a commenter’s last post is subject to breaking my own “PG rating” rules of the comments

Wait, I take that back. The word “penis” is not offensive in itself. Like gun control, it’s the person that shoots someone else, not the gun. So it comes down to how the word “penis” is used. I shall take this moment to give Avitable the benefit of the doubt.

martymankins, yup, thanx to Dave2 I stayed past the credits (which was a great test to Jaden’s patience - imagine a 6-yr old sitting through them).

I think the Fair Tax would be a great way to increase our tax base. Why tax the “rich” more when we don’t even tax the illegal immigrants (what, 12 million now? 20 million?), drug dealers or tax evaders?

And don’t forget - our Congress makes laws that don’t apply to them. They get 100% taxpayer-funded accountants to do their tax returns. And what IRS agent is going to risk their job by auditing a member of Congress? They get 100% taxpayer-funded cars to drive (Lexus, Cadillacs, etc). Their monthly gas bill is paid for by taxpayers. Unlike our founding fathers, the people in charge of our government don’t live real lives in addition to running the country.

You implore people to question the headlines they read, but does this not apply to you? When you Twitter-bashed Obama immediately after you heard a “headline” about him on the radio, and I proved its inaccuracy, all I get is “well, I guess the ball is in my court to prove it” - but then you disappeared. Or is FOX beyond questioning, even when they’re wrong?

As for the media and their reporting on the recession… what would you have them do? Every sane economist is telling us that the GDP is not an accurate CURRENT barometer of economic health. It can be months… years even… before deciding factors work their way into the data calculating the GDP. We’ve had four straight months of payroll job losses. This should be serious cause for alarm and a massive red flag as to where the economy is headed, and yet the current administration says nothing is wrong because the GDP has shown minimal growth (maybe they hope to deny problems until the election?… that’s what I would do!). But do you honestly believe that to be the case? From a technical definition, you are right… we are not in a recession. But when top economists are telling us that this definition is faulty and antiquated… that the economy is much more complicated than that… and from an economic viewpoint we ARE in the beginnings of a recession… should the media ignore them and pretend everything is fine? Or should the media do what it’s supposed to do, and report the news?

Distorting and exaggerating the truth to sell newspapers is nothing new. That’s the way they do it. But to paint the entire media as liberal propaganda is laughable (when Clinton was in office, the media was joyous at reporting all the scandal details to sell their papers). If you took your own advice and actually looked at information that DOESN’T come from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, or FOX News, you’d see that actual data reviewed by non-partisan analysts show “the liberal media” is a myth. Heck, if you took even a cursory look at the most powerful media companies having BY FAR the most influence over the news provided to Americans, they’re owned by conservatives!

So yes, question the headlines you’re fed on a daily basis. I agree 1000% But that goes for everybody.
Dave2s last blog post..Prideful

I can’t wait to see Iron Man. A few people I know have seen it now and said it was good & told me to stick around after the credits (which I normally do anyway).

I’m kinda with you on T-con. I don’t really drink all that much (the odd daiquiri here or there) and don’t much enjoy hanging out with people who over-do it (a few drinks is fine, but when it turns into a drink-fest it’s time for me to leave). I know some people think “you can still come, not drink & just hang out” but I did that enough when I was younger to know it’s not really for me.

My fave LOLcat this week was the “LeStat?” one!

These are some of my favorite cat photos. Just love how you can read so much emotion from their furry little faces.
And I agree, it’s said that sensationalism is what sells papers and newsprograms, but that isn’t anything new. Let’s just hope people are aware of that and filter the information with intelligent thought.

Dave2, yeah, I totally forgot to follow up on the Obama campaign contribution thingy. This article somewhat described what I was talking about, describing how the Center for Responsive Politics reported that Obama raised $1.3m or 9% from PACs for his Senate campaign, and that it opened his eyes to lobbyist actions and decided his presidential campaign would be free of the lobbyist ties. I applaud that.

But the biggest thing I was talking about was the Oath of Presidential Transparency (note the capital letters), not his “oath” (small “o”, and in quotes) to not take lobbyist money for the presidential campaign. I haven’t seen anything that says he’s going back on the “oath” for rejecting lobby money - in fact, he’s run one of the biggest grass-roots funding exercises since Ron Paul (and I should point out that we’re one of the Obama donors).

But the “headline” or news story I heard on my local talk radio morning show (590klbj.com, not Rush or some national show) was that Obama was getting pressure to go back on the Oath for Presidential Transparency, and that he was thinking about it.

Here’s a copy of Obama’s signed oath, pledging in writing that within 30 days of becoming President, he will execute an order ensuring implementation of the FFAT Act, which essentially opens up the governments spending records to everyone, kind of like a google search for spending. I applauded this so hard my hands were raw. It was the first thing that got me to look at Obama as someone I could support, even though I was so opposed to 80% of everything he stood for politically.

Then I “heard on the radio” that he was re-thinking this Oath and might have to go back on it. That is the piece I cannot find. In my search I found this article which pointed me to http://www.usaspending.gov, launched late last year and already gives access to some of the info, which surprises me.

I started on my economic indicator response but because I started getting pretty pictures and stuff, I’m making it it’s own blog post.

sourpuss, be careful of high expectations. It is awesome, but I find it better to go in expecting crap. And re: lestat, we’ve been wanting to watch that movie again recently. I listened to the Audio Book many years ago and loved it.

Raganator, i has an emoeshun. let me shows you it.