Friday, March 31, 2006

Mitt Romney for President

I've been follow Mitt since he ran againts Ted Kennedy in Mass. Where Ted squeaked out a win. Since then he's ran the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake, and has been serving as the Gov. Of Mass.

I like him. He is a guy who could win nationally. However, the difficulty would be in winning the republican primary. I've read both conservative, and liberal writers who feel he's the Republican party's best canindate, however they also believe he doesn't stand a chance in the south with the conservative Christians, primarily because he's Mormon. Interesting isn't it.

Of note is that he comes from a politically active family. He's Dad ran AMC, was Gov. Of Mich, and served as HUD secretary. http://www.amxfiles.com/amc/romney.html

Anyhow here is a blog I've been following about him.
http://blog.electromneyin2008.com/

Traffic light cameras are all about money.

That's what I thought when I saw newly placed traffic light cameras in Stockton. Just the sight of them makes my blood boil. My first thought was money. The city put them up because they create income, and they get to justify the placement of them because they increase safety.

I found out I was all wrong on the subject! A month later I received my Popular Mechanics magazine, and it had an article that spoke on this very topic. The article made clear a few points:
  1. The cameras are about creating income for the city.
  2. They do not decrease the amount of accidents occurring, they increase the amount!
  3. They do not decrease the amount of injuries occurring, they increase the amount!
  4. There are methods that work to decrease the amount of accidents, injuries, and red light violations happening in intersections, however they do not create revenue for the city.

See the attached link:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/specials/features/2420766.html?page=1&c=y

Monday, March 27, 2006

In the Beginning....

A buddy of mine, Jeffrey, introduced me to the idea of keeping a blog. I looked at his, and he does a great job. I thought of about a thousand good reasons to keep one. However, when I got to this point of writing it, I felt like I was writing my first English paper in high school all over again. Where to begin?
I'm hoping this will become something that I enjoy, and get a lot out of as I move deeper into this new process.

Family Home Evening
Lesson tonight was on the importance of reading, and the benefits of doing it. Everyone is pretty good readers in the family. Most are reading on a daily basis, or being read to in the case of Georgia. We took a trip to the library, and everyone seemed to check out about 20 books each( with the exception of me). I have no idea how Suzi keeps track of all their books. Suzi brought me home 3 books last time. One on the dangers of eating red meat, who wants to eat any other color I say. One on heart disease, and I don't think I picked up the 3 rd book because I didn't like where she was going with the first two. I'm reading 7 habits, and a book of statements made my Heber J. Grant on bunch of topics. Plus two books Paul and Karin gave Suzi and I for Christmas. I've got plenty to read. Anyhow, after the library we headed to honey treat (frozen yogurt place here in Lodi).

Political Compass website
http://www.politicalcompass.org/

My results after the quiz:
My political compass
Economic Left/Right: 1.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.41

Go take the quiz. Takes about 5 minutes.