Iran's presidential elections - hope slashed by corruption

After reading about Iran's presidential debates and the huge voter turn out, I was hoping to see a clean election between former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

If he won legitimately, Ahmadinejad would have continued on his second term with a greater and stronger mandate to continue his anti-West and anti-Israel policies. Yet with all indications that he actually lost to Mousavi, and that the Interior Ministry more than likely swapped the results -- he is left being the president of a nation that hates him.

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's support of the alleged rigged results places him in a very precarious situation. Most will fall in line and heed his instructions to accept the results, partly in fear of the Revolutionary Guard and the paramilitary. But this type of obedience is temporary as we have seen in the original revolution.

If there is no more respect and love, there is no real power. When respect is traded in for fear and loyalty is traded in for slavery, the nation is ripe for a revolution.

Travel Review: Punta Bulata Beach Resort, Negros Island, Philippines

RATING: *** 1/2 (3.5 out of 5 stars, above average)
Phone: +63344335160 (To dial from U.S., 011-63-34-433-5160)
Web site: Punta Bulata
Price: $40-$65/night USD (April 2009)

Review

Pro

The View. Punta Bulata is an above average beach resort located on the western coast of Negros Island. Facing west, it offers a breathtaking view of the calm Sulu waters. You can also see nearby islands and an interesting rock formation on the right side of the resort. I rented a kayak ($1.50 USD/hour) and observed some of the wildlife nearby. I was amazed to find a wild fruit dove, with a distinct blend of greens and red feathers. Its body type is similar to that of a pigeon or dove but the color patterns are definitely different than anything I have seen. Perhaps the near extinct Negros Fruit Dove (Ptilinopus arcanus)? Who knows.

Adventure. The drive to the resort is an adventure in itself. Negros Island's foothills, mountains, and S-curbed roads make it a fun drive. At one point I parked besides a cliff and was able to witness a decent sunset (see picture above). And as you go through the final stretch of unpaved roads, you suddenly find a modern resort in the middle of nowhere.

Solitude. The municipality of Cauayan, where Punta Bulata is located, is essentially a small village. It isn't a party town and is a bit more peaceful compared to some other beach resorts in the country that mainly attract the bar hopping and night club culture. The resort's rooms have no television sets, not even for a news junkie like me wanting to see the midnight news. Here time is slown down a bit.

Con

Room service. The hotel rooms badly need an internal phone system. You have to go to the nearest hotel desk to order food and drinks, which makes it less than ideal if you are already in your pajamas. 1 star off.

Cleanliness. Overall the hotel and my room was clean, but the wooden architecture does invite certain types of pests that needs to be regularly checked and cleaned. I saw some wood damaging insects from time to time. You can often see the after effects of this if you see the insects' "saw dust" on your bed. Half a star off.

Location/Directions
Located in Negros Island, Philippines, Punta Bulata Island resort is one of those in the middle of nowhere resorts. To get here, you have to fly to Manila, Philippines (MNL) then to Bacolod, Philippines (BCD), a city located on Negros Island. Taking a taxi or rental car from the airport to this resort and vice versa will cost you $250 USD total for the round trip. Using public transportation like a Ceres bus will cost you less than $20 USD round trip. The time to travel will take roughly 2.5 hours by private car/taxi, and 3-4 hours by bus, depending on how many passengers they pickup along the way!

Accomodations/Activities

Swimming pool, kids area and adult

White sand beach

Kayaking, swimming, snorkeling

There are air conditioned hotel rooms and cottages available.

Please note there is no television or Internet connection on any of these rooms.

Room service available generally up to 11:00 PM.

Restaurant/picnic areas/guarded parking areas

To note: If you must absolutely have Internet (like me), I have been able to utilize a popular pre-paid Internet service by Smart called SmartBro. It is USB device that connects your laptop to GPRS/3G cell towers. Expect dial-up speeds though they advertise otherwise. Its $45 USD for the device and about $0.50 USD/hour.

My e-mail to President Obama: Stop Somali pirates

I'm a firm believer of individual citizens still being able to contact their elected officials, including the President. While there's an infinite number of concerns out there such as this current economic crisis to the different issues in foreign affairs, one of the most annoying issues that I consider to be simple to resolve yet its still not fixed are the Somali pirates.

So here goes my email...

Dear President Obama --

I would like to see action against Somali criminals once and for all aside from watching sea lanes. We are not attacking the root cause of the problem and to respond saying that we are doing everything possible would be an insult to everyone's intelligence.

Please destroy land-based bases of Somali criminals so they don't have the capability to attack Americans again in the high seas. You cut the snake's head and it will no longer be a viable threat.

While this option is already available for some time with a United Nations resolution authorizing such actions, I suggest the administration actually start doing something about it and letting the American people know you took care of it.

What's the worst that could happen? The virtually non-existent Somali government filing a protest?

Thanks, -Don

Obama's Assault Rifle / Weapons Ban Is A Worthless Facade

Recently, the Obama administration announced they were going to attempt to reinstate the Federal Assaults Weapons Ban (AWB) that was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton on September 13, 1994. The ban called for the prohibition of "look likes" of real military weapons for 10 years -- President Bush let the ban lapse since he apparently knew this was one of the most worthless laws ever created. Keep reading and find out why.

What's the difference between a semi-automatic .223 hunting rifle and a .223 civilian "assault rifle"?

For the most part -- cosmetics.

An AR-15 "assault rifle" will look like an M-16 military rifle, but it is a single fire, semi-automatic rifle and in most cases, less accurate than a semi-automatic .223 hunting rifle. This is why every single person that owns a civilian "assault rifle" knows how stupid this proposed ban is. It is merely political grandstanding. Obama is perhaps attempting to "please" his own liberal base, which for the most part are not educated enough to differentiate that the ban being tossed around and being debated on is to ban paint color, molding, and magazine type.

The fact is -- fully automatic weapons and machine guns in the United States are already banned!

Please share the knowledge to your friends so they can no longer be ignorant.

Tell your friends. Educate them so before they open their mouth about the "assault rifle ban" they do not look like an idiot in front of a gun owner. There is no major differences between a hunting rifle and civilian assault rifles. Only cosmetics. Fully automatic rifles are already banned for civilians. Let's tell our senators and representatives to stop wasting our tax dollars with all the useless speeches, ink, paper, and congressional salary on cosmetic "assault rifles" debates. Please work on real problems like you know...the recession?

The real debate.

The folks pushing for the ban that are not ignorant should just come out instead of hiding in the closet. Bring the real reason why you want to have the ban. Just say the question: Should civilians be allowed to own guns? Should only the government and criminals have them? That is the true debate. Government will always have guns to keep peace and respond to criminal disturbances within 5-10 minutes in most U.S. cities. Criminals will always have guns because they don't respect the law and criminals can make a gun with a simple machine shop.

If gun violence is what we are trying to stomp out -- address the root cause: the fallen nature of man. He is sinful and without the Holy Spirit, he has the capability to murder. Address the root cause and you will never have violence issues in society. And even if the knowledge of how to create a gun is gone from man, you can always kill with cars, knives, swords, rocks, bats, kung fu, hands, feet, cyanide, fire, etc. Are we going to ban those too?

And if someone smart is reading this wants to dabble with statistics and deaths related to guns...we should criminalize fried foods and junk foods (heart attacks), cars, tobacco and alcohol first before we even get to banning guns. :-)

Spread the knowledge, let's stomp out ignorance. Share this link: http://www.donsausa.com/2009/02/obamas-assault-rifle-weapons-ban-is.html.

Time - a precious gift

Today, I had my Sabbath service at the Seventh-Day Adventist church in Pasay City, Metro Manila with my wife and my baby Kaycee. It was a bit hot inside so I left as soon as the sermon was over, but the message stuck to me today. I don't even really remember the title and for the most part, the pillars of the church covered the PowerPoint presentation. But the core message, which was based on Psalms 90, stuck to me...enough to write about it.

Summary
God gave us this precious life, this precious gift called time. Most of us will average to live around 75 years, that's roughly about 27,375 days. So if you are 20 years old, you have roughly 20,000 days to live. If you are 30 years old, you have 16,425 days to live. If you are 40 years old, that's about 12,775 days to live. If you are 50 years old, you only have 9,125 days to live.

The message of the sermon was pretty clear, count your days and be responsible for it -- because your time is short on this earth. While I cling to the promise of eternal life through Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross, I realized today to pause and appreciate the precious time that have been given on this earth. As I travel through the passage of time, and as my kids (baby Kaycee and the future baby Don) some day grow up -- I hope they learn this lesson at an early age: Count the days of your life, so you can always know how precious it is.

Free Barnes and Noble Coupon

To all the folks that love to read paperbacks, here's a free coupon below with Barnes and Noble. You can buy two paperbacks and get one paperback free. Enjoy.

Charity Spotlight: ADRA - The little charity that could...

Charity Spotlight - Quick Review

Congratulations to ADRA for making Razoo's Top 100 most effective charities around the world! Though it isn't the largest charity in the world, it makes a tremendous impact across the globe and its financial transparency is better than most charities in the United States.

As a firm supporter of fighting world hunger, I invite anyone that has a few extra dollars to donate to ADRA. They have a gift catalog that can help you decide what you want your gift to do...you could even buy a pregnant goat so a family could eat in the Philippines plus start a business.