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Sent into my local paper...doubt they will publish.

While taking a break after graduating from and college before I returned to school, I personally stopped writing a fantasy novel because I became very concerned about the state of our nation. Like all Americans, I am concerned about job security and what the future may hold for my family and friends. However, the former is a constant concern—something we all worry about whether the market is up or down. But now, I am concerned about the tone of the recent presidential firsts the have been occurring with an alarming rate.

While I applaud Obama for trying to become a modern president, appearing on David Lettermen and attempting to have his voice heard on a daily basis so Americans feel that they are involved in the process of their government. But, why do I feel so unsatisfied? Why do I feel like I have become a vicarious participant within the United States of America?—I equate this vicarious feeling to watching reality television. A sour taste enters my mouth as I realize I feel this way about my government.  

Seeing our president appearing on television so often, makes me question the manner of man that we have in office. Do we have a celebrity president legislating? Yes, that is right—I said legislating. No, I am not confused. But I have gotten ahead of myself, yes, we must take one step back.

Since when has a president been able to fire a CEO?  The CEO of General Motors was fired by none other than Barrack Obama. While I understand that the government lent to this company a large sum of money in an effort to prevent the lost of many jobs that many Americans across the nation have come to depend upon. I am not just referring to the union workers; any business large or small begins a tangled web of cash flow to a myriad of other businesses. I am not business savvy enough to debate whether this was the best use of stimulus money or not—I am no economics major. My bank account suffers from less scrupulous passions I have found in life. But, what does concern me is the executed power President Obama wields, seemingly from a throne. And, he has made speeches, focusing the anger of the American people at CEOs. May I remind you that they are private citizens! While I know that these men and women are no angles and live in a completely different reality than the rest of us Americans, I implore you to think upon history realize the horrors that men have committed when they from an office of power focused the anger of the public toward a certain race, group, class, orientation or even gender of people. When you gain this perspective, the hairs on the back of your neck will crawl and a small lump may form in the back of your throat.   

While I realize that our markets and our businesses need regulation to prevent them acting as sovereign nations within the border of our nation, the president being able to control who is—or who is not a CEO of a company sets an alarming precedent. The charter of corporation gives power to those who hold a vested interest in the success of the company. If the CEO of General Motors were failing at his job, those who hold a vested interest in the success of the company will fire him. These are the rules of our land founded in decades of contract law. The stability of these rules has lead to the wealth our nation has been able to accumulate. If you examine why other countries struggle to amass wealth, I believe you find one of the main problems is stability. People invest in stability.

However, President Obama has now given himself the power, if he so chooses, to remove a CEO.  Why should I invest?—that does not seem very stable. In fact, I think that this is one of the main thoughts of investors on Wall Street. The man telling you that he is saving jobs—whatever that means—may actually be the reason why corporations are fearful to invest in the future. Perhaps this is the reason that the banks do not want to lead money. When ever businesses become fearful of the economic conditions, they begin to shrink the amount they invest in the future, allowing them to amass a pile of cash to react to swift changing conditions. This money sitting in coffers, waiting for dooms day does nothing to create or save jobs.

I remember hearing a story as a child:

There were three sons and the father gave money equally among them. Their father left for three years. The first son squandered the money, investing frivolously. The second son took the money and hid it away, waiting for the day for his father to return because he feared loosing what his father had given him. The third son wisely invested the money, and in three years, he had doubled the money his father had given to him. When the father returned home, he spoke to all three of his sons. The Father was very proud of his third son, who had invested his money wisely. Then the first son told his father how he had poorly invested his money. The Father was disappointed but was still proud of his son. When the second son returned the exact amount to his father that he had given him, his face became grief stricken. The Father told his second son that he wish he had failed as the first son. The second son had done - Nothing. Our businesses are trapped in a state of milking their cash cows and hiding the money in glass jars, because the rules keep changing.  

I can only wonder how China is beginning to feel as we increasingly become unstable. Remember they are, currently footing our bill. I cannot believe they are not beginning to question our actions as a nation. In the end, actions are what matter. Not appealing camera smiles. But really, why should I invest?—the rules may change tomorrow. Living for the here and now, even in people’s personal lives has never lead to promising prospects. Maybe- just- maybe there is something in those musty old books that our founders wrote that lead to the wealth of this nation. Why are we allowing these rapid changes? Have the rules of this land not served our nation well? The regulations did not fail us. The people regulating did.

Speaking of regulating, why do we have Tim Geithner regulating our treasury when he failed to pay his taxes? Remember Obama appointed him, and part of his position encompasses charge over the IRS. Does he not believe the money is well spent? When you pay taxes, you are investing in the future of your nation. If the average citizen fails to pay their taxes or evades taxes, they are thrown in jail—isn’t that how the FBI nailed the mob bosses. So where is the end to the corruption; where is that “CHANGE” that we were promised?

This new executive power is possibly more frightening than the Patriot Act. I want you to realize that Obama legislated by changing contract law. Bankruptcy is covered in contract law, and there are regulations set for how a corporation’s assets should be partitioned during failure. The allocation of these assets according to contract law increases stability and prevents CORRUPTION. Your liberties are protected by contracts. Your house, the car you drive, the phone you talk on, the software you download on your computer are all regulated by contracts. These agreements protect you. Our founding fathers recognized the value of contracts because they  previous had had their liberties being violated. The constitution and the bill of rights—don’t kid yourselves—those are contracts too.            

So a 6 year old girl wins a fishing tournament by (with the help of her dad) reeling in a 138.8 lb halibut. Though she is glad she one, she is still sad. Apparantly she was after a mermaid and not a halibut. Better luck next time Tegan, get those damn mermaids out of the water.

Original article: http://www.adn.com/outdoors/fishing/story/832191.html

Pulled this off of WoR quoting Ghostcrawler:

The WoW Design Team

Quote from: Ghostcrawler (Source)

There are different types of designers. Some work on quests, encounters, world events or zones. My team works on classes, items, tradeskills, UI, PvP, combat and pretty much most of the crunchy bits of WoW. It's a great team of very talented players and they don't get the recognition they deserve. This is partially because some of them wish to remain anonymous. (Shameless plug: we are hiring an item designer. Check the hiring portion of the site for more details.)

Within our team, nobody owns a particular class. We all work on them together and nobody make a change (at least a serious change) without getting consensus from everyone else. We draw on our own experiences, community feedback, internal testing, data collected from the live game, and correspondence with friends, guildies and other players whose opinions we've grown to respect.

We also interact a lot with the other designers, because they all play the game too and many have a great deal of raiding or PvP experience. They come to our meetings or just drop by with an idea or a piece of feedback. That goes for the rest of the WoW team, and in fact all of Blizzard. We are extremely collaborative and not particularly hierarchical.

Our designers tend to be fairly technical as the industry goes, and some of us know a little programming, but typically we aren't writing actual code though we do write scripts and make data queries if you understand the distinction.

The programmers are a separate but equal department. They do write code and they are extremely talented, sometimes intimidatingly so. We ask them for new features or code changes that would improve the game and they tell us what is feasible, what is risky, and suggest alternative ways to get what we want. They are all gamers too so it's really a back and forth process as we work on an idea together until we come up with something we are happy with.

The process is similar for interacting with artists, or really any other component of the team. The big secret of WoW's success is that Blizzard just manages to hire very, very good people who "get it."

 

This is a very a insightful look into the team at Blizzard.  Think you've got what it takes to hang at Blizzard? Go check out that item designer position :)

Animals and Babies go!

• New level 1 Humanoid gold farmer
• Kenric right after dinner:  Right after dinner, he was kinda hungry :)
• Baby Kenric!:  Baby Kenric at nearly 11 months!
• Junior the Turd: Turd Burglar.
• When it's time to sleep in, kids always seem to have other plans
• Facepalm 11
• My puppy!
• NOO, DONT DO THAT !!!: fail
• Ryan5
• flue warning.jpg
• Ryan4
• Ryan3
• Ryan2
• Ryan1
• Mackenzies look of evil plotting
• Baby11
• Baby10
• Baby9
• Baby8
• Baby7
• Baby6
• Baby5
• Baby4
• Baby3
• Baby2
• Baby1
• Kayleigh Danielle right after birth
• pedran's Emily 2
• pedran's Emily 1
• Rahns daughter: This is my lil girl
• Garreth look what happened: too many kitties on Firefox!!!: Apparently September was a Busy month everywhere...
• Moar Puppy!
• Kimba: How can you not love an 8 week old golden retriever pup? (My cousins)
• The black fur ball all grown up: Here is a pic of my cat that is actually recent, he is a bit older but I liked him better as a kitten.
• for all you raid leaders: saw this today on icanhazcheeseburger and decided I had to recap it for you guys
• My other ball of fur: Here is my other trouble maker.
• One of my cats: Here is one of my cats taking a nap on my desk while I work. More to come soon
• True Cougar Baby!
• Colin at 7 weeks
• WSUWilliam
• Doggy.: :)
• New Image.JPG
• Poopy!: :3
• Internet Argument
• Colin up close
• Colin in Swing
• Colin on changing table
• Colin crying in baby swing
• Colin's First Gang Signs!
• Colin in bassinet (up close)Colin Awake (at Hospital)
• Sleeping Colin (at Hospital)
• Time to Die
• Colin
• Minutes after being born
• Akiko
• I lol'd
• My boy in his bouncer: Just thought I'd post a pic for a baby update.  The little man is lovin his bouncer, and is 2 1/2 months old now :).
• William: Zifter's Son
• my lolcat: My lolcat, Spooky.
• yawn
• el oh el
• my fav
• kitties
• WHARBARGL: Murlocs lol
• OH NOES!
• another one of my daughter =): happy times in the pool =D
• Baby boy Kenric!
• another baby pic
• My three year old cousin and her puppy
• Jesus cat: Jesus cat
• I eated ur pastaz now i sleeps
• In ur strainer eatin ur pastaz
• BFF: f
• Ataraxia: Atar IRL playing wow.
• what happens when i go afk...
• =P
• WoW Pup
• I see what you did THRRRR
• post
• Cooper
• Poor Cat
• lolcats ftw
• face stab
• Puppies!: These are my brother's puppies. He breed is English Bulldog.
• poot
• cat fail
• Me Father was....

For every boob, there is a moob.