Hurricane Ernesto update - to hit Southwest Florida by Wed 2pm

NOAA just updated the hurricane forecast. Hurricane Ernesto has shifted its track dramatically over the past few hours and is more than likely to hit Southwest Florida by 4pm Wednesday. The strength expected is roughly cat 1-2; however, as we've seen in the past, at the very last moments hurricanes tend to gain more ground near cat 3-cat 4.

Worries
One of the biggest worries I have is the Sanibel bridge being constructed and the old Sanibel bridge. The U.S. DOT already declared the old Sanibel causeway to be dangerous and the unfinished bridge is not in the best condition to withstand this type of force. Even if the hurricane simply brushes SW Florida, it could be a devastating hit on the bridges.

Gov Bush declares state of emergency
Unlike New Orleans' mayor or the Lousiana governor, Floridia officials know when to declare a state of emergency (ahead of the disaster, not an hour before it). The state of emergency instantly turns on the National Guard, equipment, and emergency operations (currently at level 2).

What You Can Do
- Have a week's worth of food rations.
- Have a hurricane plan: if your house/apt is damaged, where do you go? Make sure all of your friends and family know your "flight plan" -- where you are, what you are going to do if certain situations happen.
- Protect your belongings, especially insurance documents.
- Keep watching the news and make sure you are updated.
- Flashlights and batteries, have these handy.
- Make sure your medicines are set.
- Have a "to go" back pack, a few pair of clothes ready to go if you are not evacuating.
- Pray.

Hurricane Ernesto born, heading towards Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Ernesto was upgraded to hurricane strength earlier today and it is gaining power. It is expected to be a category 2 hurricane as it nears Cuba and could end up possibly hitting category 3 to 4 as it nears the Gulf Coast region.

It is too early to tell which specific state it is going to hit, but for sure it's going to be a combination of these states: Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and/or Mississippi.

Please note to all Southwest Florida readers: the storm is within the 3-day cone of Cape Coral and Fort Myers/Lehigh Acres area. Early preparation is never a bad idea.

Delta flight crashes in Lexington, KY -- 50 feared dead (Comair Flight 5191)

This is what the small passenger jet looked like.

The plane was carrying 47 passengers and three crew members when it crashed shortly after takeoff in Lexington, Kentucky early Sunday morning.

Flight 5191 was leaving the Blue Grass Airport headed for Atlanta when it went down in the woods just over a kilometre from the airport.

CNN is reporting that the plane is a Comair jet, a regional airline operated by Delta Air Lines, and that the aircraft itself is a Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet -- a plane that is manufactured in Canada. These planes have been in service since 1991 and considered relatively new compared to other planes being flown by airliners.

Weather in the area is overcast with light winds, though there were some thunderstorms south of Lexington early Sunday morning. However, there is no word yet if weather conditions played a role in the crash.

Please pray for those that are involved in the crash, especially the love ones that have to go through this ordeal.

Malaysian consumer group wants to boycott American goods

The Muslim Consumer Association of Malaysia said it will call on Malaysians to stop buying products from American companies like Starbucks, Coca Cola and Colgate-Palmolive. There's only one problem with this boycott. Unlike other countries with smaller global influence, American goods are everywhere and literally are apart of life throughout the world. I'm not talking about just Coca Cola, but things like the nutbolts that secure the engines of your cars to the ingredients and patented formulas in Malaysia's deodorants.

If truly a boycott for American goods could be 100% enforced, it would leave Malaysia to be a very smelly nation, with little or no electronic equipment such as radios and television. And if we take American inventions out of the equation (like lights), they would be a very dark, smelly nation.

French bows down to UN and US pressure, sends more troops to Lebanon

Amidst a growing number of critics across Europe and the United States, French President Jacques René Chirac issued a televised statement issuing a revision of his previous order that 200 peacekeepers were enough to stabilize the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

UN Security Resolution 1701 was co-authored by the French, yet they only wanted to contribute 200 troops out of the 15,000 that was required. Many diplomats, including top UN officials, said they were disappointed. Many assumed the French were "chicken", "cowards", and "hollow".

Thankfully, Chirac saved face and changed his mind. It's a win for Israel and Lebanese citizens, who can finally sleep at night without the annoying whistles of rockets or the sonic shock of F16 bombers.

Iraq helped out against Iran supplying Hezbollah

Most liberals would probably cringe at hearing this. Iraq actually plays a role in the war against terrorism (or Muslim extremists).

According to USAToday, Iraq stopped Iran from transporting missiles to Hezbollah. Most people probably don't know, but Iraq is right in the middle of Syria and Iran. Here's a quick map:


If Iraq was not a U.S. ally, Iran and even Saddam Hussein would have been willing to supply missiles to Hezbollah just to bomb Israel. Because Iraq is under U.S. influence, Iran cannot easily do this. Iran had to divert their missile cargo plane to Turkey, but Turkey insisted on inspections. Iran turned back.

Thank you Iraq for your help.
Thanks Turkey for your help.

Democrats -- wake up. Make a national security policy involving Iraq, versus negative statements about how Iraqis aren't part of the war on terror.

Site of the Week: Broadband speed test

Here's a site I tried out today:

Comcast, BellSouth/AT&T DSL, Embarq, TimeWarner, and other companies often brag about their broadband speeds in TV commercials. In fact, some will state they can guarantee certain speeds.

If you want to truly know how fast your broadband connection is, access SpeakEasy's Flash-based speed test program:

http://www.speakeasy.net/speedtest/

I had to do this today when I tested my broadband service. What I liked about it the most is that it gives you different geographical regions of the country to test your speed, and the fact that it has no pop up ads.

Geographical tests gives you a better idea of why you seem to have a slower connection when you connect to other web sites and you get fast connections on others.

Hackers irritated by Apple Macintosh commercials...hacks Macs remotely in 60 seconds

Over the past few months, Apple has televised several commercials how Macintosh is a much better platform than PC computers. One of the many arguments that Apple fans have is that Macs are unhackable. As we found out at the recent Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas, you can hack a Mac in 60 seconds or less. And the sad part is -- you can do it remotely/wirelessly!

One of the hackers that successfully exploited Macintosh, David Maynor, stated the following on an interview:

"We're not picking specifically on Macs here, but if you watch those 'Get a Mac' commercials enough, it eventually makes you want to stab one of those users in the eye with a lit cigarette or something," Maynor said.

Straight to the Facts
Let's be truthful folks -- the reason why there's less people trying to hack Macs is because they only compose 3-4% of the total market share. In other words, 96% of the computer world is using PCs; hence, it's logical for the majority of the exploits, viruses, and hacks to be geared towards PCs. If the situation was reversed and Macintosh was the leading operating system, it would have the brunt of the hacker attacks.

The supposed "security" that's provided by using a Mac isn't because of its code. It is "security through obscurity". No operating system is unhackable.

It seems that Apple's continued marketing gimmick that they are invincible is causing a backlash...

Some interesting links:
Washington Post article - hacking a mac in 60 seconds
MacOS LeapA Virus
Video: Mac Parody

eBay monopoly complaint filed, in violation of Sherman Antitrust Act

Recently I discovered a news article by Ina Steiner. It stated that eBay is banning the use of Google Checkout in preference over their own payment system, PayPal. This is clearly a classic example of anticompetitive practices. Immediately after reading this article, I have filed a legal complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. eBay's Safe Payments Policy clearly states that Google Checkout is not allowed to be used:

"Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, Payko.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com"

While everyone enjoys eBay as a marketplace, I want to make sure such marketplaces do not have anti-competitive practices. One claim eBay has against Google Checkout is that it doesn't have a history of reputable transactions -- this is circular reasoning, if you don't allow Google Checkout to be tried out, how will it have a history?

If you're interested in filling a complaint against eBay due to this anticompetitive practice, you can do the following:

1. Access the Federal Trade Commission site
2. Provide your contact info
3. Provide eBay's contact info:

eBay
2145 Hamilton Avenue
Suite 350
San Jose, CA 95125
Phone: (408) 376-7400

4. If you don't know what to say, just state facts. Here's what I submitted:

eBay is in violation of the Sherman Act. eBay has restricted the use of Google Checkout, a payment service online because they do not want it to compete with PayPal, eBay's payment service.

In their Safe Payments Policy, dated 7/23/06, they state:
"Payment Services not permitted on eBay: AlertPay.com, anypay.com, AuctionChex.com, BillPay.ie, ecount.com, cardserviceinternational.com, CCAvenue, ecount, e-gold, eHotPay.com, ePassporte.com, EuroGiro, FastCash.com, Google Checkout, gcash, GearPay, Goldmoney.com, graphcard.com, greenzap.com, ikobo.com, Liberty Dollars, Moneygram.com, neteller.com, Netpay.com, paychest.com, payingfast.com, Payko.com, paypay, Postepay, Qchex.com, rupay.com, sendmoneyorder.com, stamps, Stormpay, wmtransfer.com, xcoin.com"

This can be found on:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/accepted-payments-policy.html

The Sherman Act provides: "Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several States, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal" (see 15 U.S.C. § 1). Clearly, because eBay wants to have market position with their payment service (PayPal), they have restricted Google Checkout and other payment services to hinder competition. This is in serious violation of the Sherman Act.

Thank you Hamas and Hezbollah (satire)

If I was living in Palestine or south Lebanon, this is what I would say to Hamas and Hezbollah:

Thank you Hezbollah for promising us peace from the Zionist, and instead delivering death and destruction to our home. Thank you Hamas for fighting political corruption so that you could bring fear, terror, and starvation to our families. Thank you Hezbollah and Hamas for saying great things, only to do the wrong things. Thank you Hezbollah and Hamas for protecting our children, by killing them when they are young.

Thank you Hezbollah and Hamas for enraging the West by bombing and kidnapping, now they can really hear our message that we are a persecuted people and that they should empathize with our conditions.

Thank you Hezbollah and Hamas for ruining the chance of peace. Now we can forever continue to blame the Jews for all the pain and suffering we experience by your actions.

Thank you Hezbollah and Hamas for everything you've done...for killing us, for starving us, for making the world hate us, for advancing the cause of God and Islam, to deliver a message that Islam is a jihad religion, to kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill and kill... Mohammad would have been very happy!

Thank you Hezbollah, thank you Hamas.......

NOT!

This girl died thanks to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas.
Good job guys, you really are advancing your people...in death!

Hezbollah thought it could fool the world

What's going on in Lebanon?

Hezbollah, an Islamic extremist group that functions independently in Lebanon, killed 8 Israeli soldiers and kidnapped 2 on a daring raid in Israel territory. It was a followup to a similar operation sent out by another headline grabbing terrorist organization - Hamas. Not to be outdone, they finished off the raid by launching rockets to hit Israeli territories.

The tactic's purpose was the following:
1. To bring attention away from Hamas and to bring the news back to Hezbollah.
2. To get a "good" image that Hezbollah too can attack Israel -- and better than Hamas.
3. Thinking a reprisal was coming from Israel, they hope to attract other Arab nations to the conflict when Israel would attack.
4. To reduce the influence of the pro-Western government of Lebanon.

Did they meet those goals?

While Hezbollah has shown that they are able to attract the media, they definitely didn't get a good image for attacking Israel. Throughout world, Hezbollah has been condemned not only by European nations and America, but also by Arab nations!

Ha! Who would have expected that? The truth is, Hezbollah broke the status quo and Arab nations are reluctant to support unrest in the region, especially if it was started with Iran's backing. Sunnis and Shiite Muslims do not mix well and the fact that primarily Shiite Hezbollah is flexing its muscle is causing some Sunni governments to worry. What if it this could happen in their country?

How come the Lebanese govt can't stop this?

The Lebanese government is not able to combat militant forces that is backed by Iran and Syria. Although they have political and social control, their interior forces remain to be questionable. They are not at war with Israel, in fact they are pleading for assistance from the international community to help them combat militants that do not follow the law.

How come the UN can't stop this?

Much like the U.S. Congress, the United Nations isn't exactly thinking as one. The difference is, instead of a two party system like in the U.S. Congress, the United Nations has a few hundred special interests and parties. Each nation to his own so to speak. The most powerful part of the organization, the Security Council, is often reluctant to strike resolutions or impose sanctions much less commit troops to the region.

Given enough pressures from both Europe and the Arab nations, there may be some action coming from the United Nations. At the moment, all there is that we see is a defiant terrorist organization living in a democratic country that just wants peace.

eBay Raises Fees for Store Inventory Listings By 150%-500%

eBay, the number one online marketplace in the world, is now charging additional fees for its Store Inventory listings. Store Inventory listings accounts for roughly 83% of all listings on eBay USA. The fees seem to be a move to "discourage" Store Inventory listings and encourage more Auction type listings. eBay makes more money through Auction Type listings than Store Inventory listings.

According to Bill Cobb's email that he sent me (President of eBay North America), the following changes will be applied starting Aug 22nd:

• These Store Inventory format insertion fees take effect Aug. 22, 2006:

Starting Price	New Insertion Fee	Current Fee
$0.01 -- 24.99	5¢	2¢
$25.00 and higher	10¢	2¢

• Some Store Inventory format final value fees also will also increase, effective Aug. 22, 2006:

Selling Price	New Final Value Fee	Current Fee
$0.01 -- 25.00	10%	8%
$25.01 -- 100.00	7%	5%
$100.01 -- 1,000.00	5% (no change)	5%
$1,000.01 and higher	3% (no change)	3%

Sellers Enraged

While this change really doesn't affect buyers that much, sellers are a rampage. This unpopular decision has already started a string of protests on online community boards.

Sellers like kcskorner posted the following: "I will probably sell off a good deal of what I have and close my store. What's the sense? They take away the search function and now raise the fees? I hope they shoot themselves in the GD foot. -Cheryl"

Another seller (jfcarr-lkcarr) stated: "My plan is to close my eBay store on August 21. It just won't be profitable enough to even offset fees after that. I may occasionally list auctions if I run across any high profit/high price item but that's it."

Another seller (dollymaker.com) stated: "Bascially, eBay has just DESTROYED our business. Auctions NEVER worked for me, only eBay Stores."

Another seller (haplo127x) had this reaction: " I just marked Aug 21nd as D-day on my calendar. That's D for departure. "

A profound statement by seller unique-insights: "Because of this, I will be officially closing my store at the end of this month. Sorry eBay, 150%-500% fee increase doesn't work for me on the justification that you just need better quarterly earnings to have a better stock rating. I'm a store owner and a share holder -- though my .02 cents listings aren't helping you, my monthly store fees more than makes up for it. You're already making profits, why does the hand that feed you need to be continued to be punished? "

Conclusion

This latest move by eBay is understandable -- they need to continue to please Wall Street in order to show that they are growing. That pressure comes directly from the shareholders (like me) and Wall Street analysts.

The underlying question that will be answered in the next few months, will this move save eBay's quarterly woes and bring in more earnings or will this be a nail in the coffin?

Rotten bananas attract mosquitoes

I had one of those "scientific observation" moments early this morning.

At 3:00 am in the morning, I went to get a late night snack. To my surprise, I find a whole bunch of mosquitoes gathered together near my banana bread. Great! Someone probably left the door open or something earlier today.

I hate mosquitoes and I don't like them biting me or my pregnant wife. So I killed about 20 of them and after my hands turned redder than a tomato, I quit. But I observed something else after I was done chasing mosquitoes in the middle of the morning. I saw another group of them (roughly 15 or more) sitting on rotten bananas. This was roughly about 5 feet away from the banana bread.

So rotten bananas had mosquitoes on them and banana bread had mosquitoes on them. Out of all the spots in the house, why do these two items attract mosquitoes? I scared them away from both areas again and when I came back a few minutes later, they came back to the same two places.

My conclusion? Something in bananas attract mosquitoes. Is it the potassium perhaps? Who knows. But there's a lot of folk lore out there about bananas attracting mosquitoes, I think this is one of the few instances that this was actually observed.

Kim Jong II of North Korea is like a child with a broken toy

As the United States was enjoying its birthday by launching fireworks and mortars in the air, Kim Jong apparently wanted to join in with the celebration by launching his long range Taepodong-2 missile. Unfortunately for Mr. Kim Jong II, his fireworks fizzled out within 42 seconds of flight -- showing the world that if he ever tried to deliver a nuclear payload to the United States, it would probably blow up in his face. It seems like my fireworks yesterday had more success than Kim Jong II's advanced missile technology. Yesterday, I launched 376 mortars, and hundreds of small rockets in celebration for July 4th. Everything worked according to plan. It was fun.

Just a word to Congress and our President -- if we want to declare war on North Korea, let's not spend any money or even send any troops. Let's have them try to tinker with missile technology and let them blow themselves up like yesterday. On another side note, I feel really sorry for the military officer that's going to be executed for that failed launch. Kim Jong II cries like a baby when something doesn't work. He's like a child with a broken toy.

Terri Schiavo-like vegetative man wakes up after 20 years

I have said it before and I will say it again, life is precious and should not be discarded just because our senses state there is nothing there. It is so very sad that Terry Schiavo had to die. If her husband, who was cheating, simply had faith, he would have seen new research that put old dogmas to rest about comatose patients.

If I'm ever in a coma, I will fight to live. No matter the situation, do not remove the darn feeding tube! Here's the news:

"LOS ANGELES -- Terry Wallis awoke from a coma-like state 19 years after tumbling over a guardrail in a pickup truck and falling 25 feet into a dry riverbed. Now doctors armed with some of the latest brain-imaging technology think they may know part of the reason why.

Wallis showed few outward signs of consciousness, but his brain was methodically rebuilding the white-matter infrastructure necessary for him to interact with the outside world, researchers reported yesterday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation."

Read more about it in: Boston News

psycheclone - an annoying web bot advisory

Over the past few days, a web bot is running all over the web trying to gather emails for spam harvesting. It uses links for new servers to hit and it is continuing to gather emails at astounding rate. On my web site alone, it's had 880 hits. Maybe it couldn't find things the first time? Who knows. Here's some IP address info on this bot:

208.66.195.2
208.66.195.8
208.66.195.7
208.66.195.5
208.66.195.3
208.66.195.9
208.66.195.10
208.66.195.11
208.66.195.4

How to block this from your site using .htaccess:

<Limit GET POST>
order allow,deny
allow from all
deny from 208.66.195.0/28
</Limit>

Research on ARIN reveals that this web bot is owned by a company called Digital Infinity Ltd located in Moscow, Russia. The mailing address is listed as: Ostrovityanova str, 14, 200, Moscow, Russia.

If you would like to kindly tell them to stop harrassing the Internet, you can call them at these "supposed" numbers: Phone +495.9806635, Fax +495.9806635. The name of the owner is "Elena Balkina" and has been connected to spam before with linalinks.com. Please note the current owner of linalinks.com is no longer this person or her company. Elena's company has been used to send spam for online pharmacies and who knows what else.

Remembring Brad Keckler

Exactly one year ago, my friend Brad Keckler died from a heart attack at the age of 30. It was "stressed induced". He was a good friend and a good mentor to me while working for him at CallTech/Teleperformance. He will always be remembered as someone who could always sell anything. A common joke we had at Fort Myers was, he could sell ice to Eskimos.

Exactly a week before he died, I drove him to his house in Ohio. This was after everyone hit each other with Star Wars light saber swords at Trevor's backyard (long story). While driving to his house, I asked him about marriage because I was getting married in a week and a half. Simply stated, he said marriage was one of the best things that happened in his life. He dearly loved his wife (Mandy), his daughter (Jenna), and his future unborn baby. We also talked about God as we passed by his church.

Sadly, I could not come to his funeral seeing as I was getting married 10,000 miles away; however, I think I prefer remembering as who he was, a person that always smiled, always joked, and always worked hard to sell. See you in heaven old friend, I still owe you a foosball match.

Sears Tower was a target in terror threat

As you may have heard, six people were arrested in Miami today as well as one person from Atlanta. The group wanted to attack federal offices in Miami and also the Sears Tower in Chicago. Lacking resources, they attempted to contact al Queda for help, but in actuality, they were contacting undercover agents of the U.S. government.

The group is said to be home-grown, coming mostly from a radical Islam group composed mainly of African-Americans. This comes shortly after a similar sting operation in Canada; where a home-grown terrorist group attempted to attack government buildings in Toronto.

I'm a happy tax payer today! I'm very proud of the FBI and I hope they will continue to be fruitful in their human intelligence gathering and undercover operations.

Civil effects: Paranoia against Muslims
I previously posted about the dangers of home-grown terrorism and the paranoia effects it has on society. I want to continue to reiterate that the Islam religion is roughly 1 billion in the world; hence, 7 people should not be a reflection of that religion as a whole. Most Muslims are moderate and do not follow the Koran 100% -- thankfully they ignore the verses that says kill the infidels and concentrate more on the aspect of love and mutual respect.

So before we go crazy on discriminating groups of people based on their religion or nationality, we must remember our lessons of the past. Let us not take people's civil liberties as we did in the past with Japanese-Americans.

Just in! President Bush creates largest marine sanctuary in the world

As a boater and as a fisherman, you come to respect marine ecosystems that help the fish population. Without proper care of reefs and fish habitats, fishermen around the world wouldn't be able to catch fish. This is why I'm so happy with President Bush's decision to declare the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a national monument.

Previous presidents have tried their best to protect this marine sanctuary; however, until now, they were blocked by lobbyists and special interest groups when they tried to declare the area as a sanctuary. Bush initially wanted to do the same thing; however, it would take at least one year to review. Knowing that it was too much red tape, he invoked a special 100-year old executive power that was given to the presidency in the National Antiquities Act. The president was able to declare the area as a national monument! Good move.

Pro's: This move has some awesome benefits:

1. Immediate relief of multiple Pacific marine habitats not found anywhere else.
   
2. This will increase the population of fish in the immediate area by protecting it from commercial fishing.
   
3. Within the next few years, fish populations will increase outside of the area and will actually help commercial fisheries.
   
4. Wildlife such as endangered seals, sharks, dolphins, lobsters, and the surrounding reef systems will flourish.
   
5. This has some global effects as well as migrant birds use this area as a stopping point and nesting area.
   
6. Also, the more marine plants exist and flourish, it will better our atmosphere.
7. If you've ever wanted to monitor bird flu, this area needs to be successfully protected and monitored.
   

Con's:

1. Commercial fishing to stop within five years, this will hurt a small group of companies and families on a short-term basis. On a long-term basis, they will be able to reap the benefits of a lively fish habitat.
   

If you have ever seen Jean-Michel Cousteau's film on PBS, you'll find the underwater wonders of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. You will be amazed at the wildlife underneath an area that seems to be just a link of barren islands.

Why Hate Your Own Country?

A colleague of mine just got off a discussion group from the Big Arts community center in Sanibel, FL. Lawyers, doctors, and professors attended the session. He commented how people kept complaining about the country. The discussions varied and jumped from topic to topic. They talked about education, the economy, the Iraq war, health care, and gas prices. I'm dumbfounded why some citizens born here hate this country so much.

Are we too spoiled?
I don't think those who complain about this country have lived any significant length of time in another country. Whether it's Europe, Asia, or other continents -- if they actually lived there as an average worker, they would know the difference quickly.

Most people that are naturalized (those that are foreign born and became US citizens) are happy with this country. They may disagree with policies and what not, but in general, they love this country for giving them a chance to live a better life. While in Asia, people seek their best to pay bills and are living on $200/month USD or less, we have people here that complain because their Social Security checks are only a few thousand a month.

Last year during the hurricane season, some people I knew were complaining about not getting ice from the government on time. While in Italy and other European countries that my family stopped by last year, they don't even serve ice in restaurants! Plus, they charge money if you use the rest rooms!

Come on now. Why are we so spoiled? We complain about gas prices but we drive big SUVs, trucks, luxury sport cars, etc. Don't complain about gas prices if your car burns 25 miles per gallon! Why do we have high gas prices? Because you keep burning the supply away. Duh.

Why do we complain about health care? We eat over 3 teaspoons of salt everyday and wonder why we have high blood pressure. We don't exercise as a nation and wonder why we have diabetes. We smoke tobacco and wonder why we get lung cancer. We get drunk every weekend and ask why we are getting complications as we grow old over some of our organs. Overzealous wine drinkers tout the benefits for the heart, but kill their liver. Great trade, try natural wine in the Bible (unfermented grapejuice - no alcohol) and benefit the heart and the liver!

Why do we complain about the economy? When we have the lowest unemployment compared to any of our neighbors and have one of the highest wages in this hemisphere. Why do we complain about unemployment when we have thousands of people just loitering the streets, taking unemployment / welfare checks?

I read a gripe complaint by an online eBay seller stating he was sad that his child would lose tuition grants from the government because he made too much money. He was looking to see if he could legally "fake" his income to show that it was lower. Hey buddy -- those tuition grants aren't free -- they come from me and every other person that works and pays taxes.

Why do we complain about people immigrating here when so many of the natural born citizens hate their own country? Care to trade places with someone in France when they are suffering 30% unemployment for their young adults? Wake up America. Be patriotic about the country you live in.

Be thankful about what you have. We are not in a perfect country, but we are better off than most. If you don't like the situation you're in now, do something about it: improve.

Zarqawi died the same way he killed

Jordan-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tried to scare the Iraqi people with roadside bombs and beheadings, yet he himself ended dying from the same methods he instilled on others. God said once: "If you live by the sword, you will die by the sword". He killed with bombs and he died by bombs. And he didn't die quickly, because he was hiding under the basement, he was mortally wounded but was left to experience pain for quite some time before his body finally gave out.

The announcement of his death came around the same time the prime minister of Iraq received approval for key Cabinet posts. It seems the dream of a free Iraq is close to becoming a reality. Iraqi police and the Iraqi military were dancing in the streets, and the Iraqi people were cheering -- even Sunnis. The U.S. military celebrated with a cautious tone, stating they are happy but they know there are more rough days ahead. Beneath the silent facade of caution, the military knew this was a big hit -- a big hit against Iraqi insurgency, and a great morale boost for the allied troops.

Though everyone knows the terrorist attacks will continue, there is hope abroad and in Iraq that this is the beginning of the end of organized terrorist cells. I can't shake the feeling that this has turned the tide of the hearts of the Iraqi armed forces and the Iraqi people. Terror cells will no longer be able to deify a single person as the untouchable jihadist, and the Iraqi people will no longer fear them. After all, it was an Iraqi citizen that led to al-Zarqawi's death. This action sends a clear message to terrorists that intends on killing civilians: residents will strike back by telling the government where you are hiding.

A short biography of al-Zarqawi
Zarqawi is not his real name, but his surname. Zarqawi means he is a man from "Zarqa". He was born in Zarqa, Jordan almost 40 years ago. He was a high school drop out and was considered a petty criminal. Most people that knew him stated he was hot-tempered, but reserved. He wasn't able to read well and had others read for him or translate for him. Hearing propaganda from clerics and the CIA, al-Zarqawi joined a group of disillusioned men in Afghanistan to fight against the Soviet Union. Receiving some weapons training and guerilla tactics from Afghan training camps (which allegedly were also backed by the CIA), he learned quickly how to fight the communists that invaded Afghanistan. After campaigns against the Soviet Union, he returned to Jordan with renewed confidence and a new vision: through aggression and war, you can win against large countries through a holy jihad and instill an Islamic nation.

He started trying to recruit for his vision until he was jailed by Jordanian authorities. For seven years he was in prison, he became a prison "gang leader" and had a following of disciples that believed in his vision. At times, he gave overexaggerations of his campaigns against the Soviet Union to energize his group. After his release, he knew he was in danger as he was a marked man in the kingdom. He quickly left the country and traveled throughout the Middle East and parts of Europe. In the end, he found his "base" in Iraq after he was kicked out of Iran. He didn't stay in Pakistan and Afghanistan because he wanted to have an independent operation from Osama Bin Laden's influence.

Though he pledged himself as a loyal member of Al Queda, he wanted to make a name for himself. And so he did...Zarqawi the bomber....got bombed.

Lesson in History: Don't Give Up Freedom Because of Fear

Democrat President FDR ordered all Japanese-Americans to be imprisoned. Without charges, without warrants, they were placed in concentration camps like the one here. Ignoring freedom because of fear!

Canada's recent arrest of 17 citizens and residents allegedly wanting to bomb Canadian buildings has shocked some folks in the intelligence community. This group of alleged Muslim extremists doesn't seem to have a direct connection with any known international terrorist organization. Despite the success of this anti-terrorist operation, there are undoubtedly questions in Washington being asked. Should we fear our own citizens becoming terrorists? If so, how can we prevent that from happening?

The Truth Test of Democracy: Should We Give Up Freedoms In Times of Peril?

In a country where freedom of religion, freedom of privacy, and freedom of speech exists, you will always have the possibility that someone will exchange and believe in the wrong idea. This is the risk of democracy. Thank God that people who want to kill and terrorize are only a minority in our society. Though terrorists account only about 0.00004% of the population in the USA, they are shown about 60% of the time on the news (rough estimates from last night's news broadcasts)!

What this unbalance creates is an environment of fear. Congress has recently passed anti-terror laws and the NSA has admitted to having domestic eavesdropping programs. These laws and programs would have never passed before 9/11. But because 0.00012% of our population died in a single attack, 99.99988% of our population are now subject to new laws and new programs that pushes the limit of restricting our freedoms. The attacks on 9/11 were unfair, uncalled for, and the people involved in them should be brought to justice. However, the anger we have and the fear that we have should not drive us to give up our freedom.

Don't Let Fear Overcome Freedom

As a democratic nation, we have been tested in times of great peril in the past. Some of which we succeeded in protecting our freedoms despite the danger, and some we have failed.

For instance, in the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the mass expulsion and incarceration of Japanese Americans by signing Executive Order 9066 on February 19th, 1942. U.S.-born citizens were arrested with no charges, and no warrants. Expelled from their jobs, and removed from their communities, they were locked up in camps and treated as if they were criminals just because of their ancestry. On the first set of incarcerations, there were 92,785 Californians arrested because they had Japanese parents or grandparents.

The nation, because of fear, stood silent as the Constitution was ignored, basic human rights violated, and international laws broken. Our founding fathers would have turned over in their graves.

Another example of "fear" that made the nation ignore civil liberties was between 1954-1968 during the civil rights movement. Thousands of black Americans were beaten, killed, and detained by white gangs and law enforcement officers a like. Most of the South feared that black Americans would change the cultural and racial landscape of the USA. Once again, "fear" made us ignore basic constitutional rights of equality. Even church organizations like the Southern Baptists supported segregation against black Americans. In fact, local Southern Baptist church leaders at the time were the leaders of a secret white terrorist organization called the KKK or the Ku Klax Klan. Their mission was to disrupt blacks from exercising their rights to vote and their right to be integrated in schools.

Conclusion

The flavor of "fear" has changed over the years. In the past, it was Japanese, Germans, Russians, black Americans, and now Arab/Muslim communities. What's next? American citizens born from illegal aliens? Our freedoms should always be protected no matter the climate of fear. We as a country are stronger than this. We should not ignore the freedoms and rights of religious liberty, privacy, and speech.

Let's teach ourselves and our children to never ever give up freedom just because of fear.

More Job Growth in Southwest Florida

More job growth is coming in Southwest Florida!

The U.S. Postal Service wants to hire a hundred new carriers in Southwest Florida. Postal officials told FOX NEWS the area's tremendous population growth is putting a strain on the carriers who already do the job, especially in Cape Coral, where the USPS needs to hire at least 100 people to deliver the mail.

You have to pass a background check and have a clean driving record. Carriers told FOX NEWS the benefits are solid and the starting pay is pretty good, around $13/hr! If you're interested, call 239-277-3317. You'll probably get an answering machine if you call, but if you leave your name, number and address, they'll send you the packet.

Reduce health care costs: stop smoking or chewing tobacco

A recent World Bank report in 1999 published that by 2030, the single and most effective killer of adults is tobacco. Right now, 1 out of every 10 deaths are caused by tobacco. That's right -- for every person that dies around the world, 1 out of 10 is caused by someone smoking tobacco or chewing it. By 2030, with the current trends, it will be causing 1 out of 6 adult deaths.

We don't need a truth commercial to tell us that tobacco kills. Every smoker I've ever met knows the facts about tobacco's dangers to their health and to other people (second hand smoke). But what many don't know, is many healthy people around the country that doesn't smoke are paying for this unhealthy habit.

Tobacco Users Raise Health Care Costs
According to the CDC, about $89 billion a year is spent on public and private health care for tobacco related illnesses alone. And this number is expected to rise as more than 500 million smokers around the world are expected to die from tobacco within a few decades. Health care companies raise premiums based on how healthy their subscribers are and unfortunately, the more smokers are in a policy, the higher the cost for everyone -- including those that do not smoke.

That's a lot of money for a vice that isn't necessary!

Conclusion
I'm not trying to attack smokers out there, but I am saying that there are certain, undeniable truths in the world, one of which is smoking raises health care costs. The control of health care costs still belong to the individual in a democratic, capitalistic country.

The cost of health in this country is a direct reflection of our society's physical well being: whether we smoke, whether we exercise, whether we are drug dependent, whether we eat a healthy diet, whether we sue doctors for every minor infraction, and so forth.

Blair and Bush talk about Iraq and mistakes

Blair and Bush held a press conference tonight and answered questions about Iraq. Reporters asked about troop deployments, progress, mistakes, etc. It was essentially the same old questions and the same answers, except one: I was impressed with President Bush, he mentioned that one of his biggest mistakes was talking too "tough" and it made him look arrogant to other parts of the world. That was a surprising, humble reply.

My thoughts on the attack
The execution of the war and the technological victory against Saddam's forces was incredible. That was one of the fastest (and one of the most expensive) wars in earth's history.

We know WMDs weren't found; however, for me removing Saddam was the reason I supported the decision of our government. Why? Saddam was a dictator that conducted genocide against his own countrymen and conducted hostilities against other countries like Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and tried to kill a former U.S. president. To say that he was dangerous was an understatement. His continued interference against UN inspectors and blatant ignorance of international law was a shameful disgrace -- thankfully a handful of countries stood up to topple him.

My thoughts on the restoration
Prime Minister Blair called for a balance perspective on Iraq. Not everything is perfect, and not everything is wrong. If the restoration project was simplified to a scale of a 100 percent, we would probably be sitting around 60% of goal. The major part of the last 40% is Iraq's ability to enforce the rule of law. If they are able to keep the peace, civilian infrastructures can be built.

Whether you agree or disagree with the decision to go to war, we all agree that we should finish the job and go home as soon as possible. As an American, what can you do to help in this goal?

The Gospel of Judas - Trash Before, Trash Now

Over the past few months, there's been a lot of news regarding the Gospel of Judas. There was a lot of speculation that it could change Christianity's point of view on Judas and of God. But in actuality, the Gospel of Judas is nothing more than a gnostic's integration of Jewish mysticism and Christianity. It's a heretical book and will always be a heretical book.

The history of this book
Contrary to what the U.S. media suggests, the Gospel of Judas has been known to exist for a very long time. It was not "found" -- it's been rejected and thrown away. There's a difference between a lost book and a rejected book. It seems like those that "found" this book was hoping people would forget about the book's history -- since it reduces its significance and market value.

The truth is, it was written after all of the gospels of the Bible has been written and nearly 160 years pass the time of Jesus. Judas was already dead by the time this book was written. It was rejected by the Christian church as heretical and will continued to be rejected.

Early church leader rejected this book
A Christian theologian and church elder by the name of Irenaeus (130-202 AD) wrote about the Gospel of Judas: "They declare that Judas the traitor was thoroughly acquainted with these things, and that he alone, knowing the truth as no others did, accomplished the mystery of the betrayal; by him all things, both earthly and heavenly, were thus thrown into confusion. They produce a fictitious history of this kind, which they style the Gospel of Judas."

Irenaeus clearly recognized the heretical problems of this supposed new gospel. He was a student of Polycarp, who was a student of the apostle John. He knew the Gospel of Judas did not meet the standard Christian faith.

Specific problems
There are some very specific problems with this book:

1. This book does not recognize Jesus as one with God. He is considered a "lesser" being. This does not match the faith of the apostles and the foundational belief of the Trinity.

"“The twelve rulers spoke with the twelve angels: ‘Let each of you [52] […] and let them […] generation [—one line lost—] angels’: The first is [S]eth, who is called Christ."

2. Gnostic beliefs usually pursue mysticism or "special knowledge" (gnosis) as the central goal of life. In the Gospel of Judas, the Cainites wrote that Judas alone received the "special knowledge" from Christ. This conflicts with the rest of the gospels that clearly show the Good News as transparent, open, and inviting to the world. Additionally, contrary to this book's ideas, there are no different spiritual realms.

Jesus said, “[Come], that I may teach you about [secrets] no person [has] ever seen. For there exists a great and boundless realm, whose extent no generation of angels has seen, [in which] there is [a] great invisible [Spirit],

3. The book conflicts with Old Testament's account on Creation. God created the world by Himself and not with angels.

“Then Saklas said to his angels, ‘Let us create a human being after the likeness and after
the image.’

4. The book talks about new realms, and rulers of spiritual levels. It also talks about twelve angels ruling over chaos and the underworld. All of which contradicts with Biblical accounts.

“The multitude of those immortals is called the cosmos— that is, perdition—by the
Father and the seventy-two luminaries who are with the Self-Generated and his seventytwo
aeons. In him the first human appeared with his incorruptible powers. And the aeon
that appeared with his generation, the aeon in whom are the cloud of knowledge and the
angel, is called [51] El. […] aeon […] after that […] said, ‘Let twelve angels come into
being [to] rule over chaos and the [underworld].’ And look, from the cloud there
appeared an [angel] whose face flashed with fire and whose appearance was defiled with
blood. His name was Nebro, which means ‘rebel’; others call him Yaldabaoth. Another
angel, Saklas, also came from the cloud. So Nebro created six angels—as well as
Saklas—to be assistants, and these produced twelve angels in the heavens, with each one
receiving a portion in the heavens.

Truth revealed

The Gospel of Judas...it was trash before and still belongs to the trash today.

One of the Largest Malls in the World Opens in Manila, Philippines

This is the third largest shopping mall in the world, beating out West Edmonton Mall, the largest North American mall built in 1981. Here is the rest:

1. South China Mall, China (7.1 mil square feet)
2. Golden Resources Shopping Mall, China (6.0 mil square feet)
3. SM Mall of Asia, Manila, Philippines (4.3 mil square feet)
4. West Edmonton Mall, Canada (3.8 mil square feet)



All Headline News

Manila, Philippines (AHN) - Philippines' biggest mall opened on Saturday with Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo present.

Arroyo joined Mall developer Henry Sy in a ribbon cutting ceremony at the Mall of Asia. The mall sits on 148 acres of land looking over Manila Bay.

The 4.3 million square foot mall features an Olympic sized ice skating rink and the Philippines' first IMAX movie house.

Dell Inc. even has 145,000-sq.ft for a call center at the mall. It is Dell's second contact center in the country.

Hans Sy, son of Henry Sy, said, "We are a nation of mall-lovers with millions flocking to our air-conditioned malls daily and more so on weekends."

Bush's immigration speech: a balanced approach

Bush's 16 minute speech about immigration tonight was clear:

Supplement border security with National Guard troops until DHS can hire more border security agents.

Create process for illegal immigrants to register themselves, pay current and back taxes, and move themselves from the dark shadows of illegal immigration.

This is a good start to comprehensive immigration reform. You are protecting the borders and registering the illegal immigrants.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the mothers out there...Happy Mother's Day! Day in and day out, mothers provide for their family. They work, they cook, and they make sure that their children gets the best. Without their care and guidance, who knows where we would be.


Exodus 20:12
"Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, so that your days may be long..."

Ephesians 6:2
"Honor your father and mother," which is the first commandment with a promise...


The Bible promises a long life if you honor your father and mother. Honor is of high respect as if you were to honor an award to someone. It also means to give credit for someone's tasks or profession. The word is also used to glorify or to recognize, and the very last to signify the dignity of that person's position in your life.

How can a person have a longer life if they honor their parents?
We know a lot about early child development and the human psyche. We know that if you have a good relationship with your parents, you have a better emotional and mental life. A good physical, emotional, and mental upbringing is better than a bad one. Common sense right?

As an adult, we should continue to honor our parents even if we disagree with them. We should continue to recognize what they've done for us. We can never truly repay them for bringing us up into this world. As birth or adopted parents, they gave us life. That's the gift that is hard to ever repay.

Importance of this law in the Ten Commandments
As we know, the Ten Commandments is active in the New and Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-18). Whenever Jesus quoted a law from the Ten Commandments, He calibrated the Jews. He taught them to not only follow the letter of the law, but the spirit of it. Here's some examples of Jesus calibrating the Jews...

Matthew 12:10: You can't heal or help people on the Sabbath -- the Jews made that up. Jesus corrected them.

Matthew 5:21-22: Not only shouldn't you murder someone, you shouldn't even be wrongfully angry at them or call them names!

Mark 2:27: Man wasn't made for the Sabbath but vice versa. The Sabbath was made for mankind (that's a universal statement in Greek, meaning the whole world not just Jews alone).

So what did Jesus say in terms of honoring your father and mother? He corrected the teachers of the law and told them not to be hypocrites. "Jesus in the gospels of Matthew and Mark reminds the religious Jews that lip service isn’t all that is required in the honoring of parents. But making sure also that they are loved and financially and physically cared for in their old age." (Source: www.ywamconnect.com)

Prosper.com: The New Trend in Lending, Customer Service Getting Better

Lending Revolution: The Individual Investor

I was reading a news article about Prosper, the newest auction-style marketplace...but you're not buying shoes or books, you're lending or borrowing money!

If you have extra cash, you can lend it to people. Prosper will show you their credit rating, their debt to income ratio, the reasons they need the money, and what return you are going to get back. If the borrower doesn't pay, they'll incur penalties and if they default, they will get a flag in their credit report and a collection agency starts calling. You can calculate your risk by understanding the default rates based on the person's credit rating. You'll take more risk from someone that has bad credit, but the interests are usually higher -- meaning greater reward.

How can this web site make me money? Consider this layman's example. A bank gives you 4-5% interest on your savings account, while they take that money and lend it to other people at 10-14%. They profit the difference.

You now have the ability to lend to people and cut out the bank. You will be the one earning the 10-14% interest. I took a quick glance at one Prosper auction: a homeowner needs $15,000 to fix up a house and re-sell it. He has AA credit and he is offering 10% interest. 136 people funded his $15,000 request and they'll be getting interest on their money for the next 3 years -- more than a normal savings account would get. The fact that the consumer has AA credit reduces your risk as well.

Lending Revolution: The Borrower

If you're on the opposite end of the spectrum, Prosper makes it easy too! You don't have to go to the bank and fill out dozens of forms. With Prosper, you sign-up, and get verified through a credit report and you're done. A profile will be built based on your credit report results. Lenders will start bidding on your request. The better your credit is, the better.

If you have bad credit, you'll probably want to raise the interest rates higher to attract more lenders. Additionally, Prosper submits payment history to the credit agencies; hence, getting a loan (no matter what size) from Prosper actually helps in rebuilding your credit!

Prosper.com: Bad Customer Service

There is one missing thing about Prosper.com. In a brick and mortar lending institution, if I need something done quickly, I can go to their office; however, with Prosper.com, you can't do this.

Their call center operators in the Philippines (they number around 12 agents), do not have authority to manually verify your credit report. If there is a problem verifying your identity, U.S. operators need to verify you. However, you cannot reach a U.S. operator directly -- a phone rep needs to send a message to Prosper's California headquarters for a callback. I got somewhat irritated when I didn't get a callback for almost 72 hours.

I talked to Karen Appleton, Vice President of Development for Prosper to see if she could help to improve the manual verification process. She said that they are "...working diligently with our customer service team to prevent situations like yours from occurring." Within 24 hours, Karen and her team started changing the process to make it more user friendly. As of May 12th, 2006 -- the manual verification process has been changed to where the customer can manually fax the needed documentation without having to wait for a callback.

Awesome! I give Prosper.com an A+ for process improvement and they have one new lender on their boat (me)!

Prosper's Karen Appleton

Business Tip: Labor Intensive Businesses Should Adjust With Market Conditions

If you're the CEO of a labor intensive, skilled business such as a services firm, one of the biggest challenges you have is recruitment. In Southwest Florida, where we lead the state with a 2.2% unemployment rate, it is an incredible challenge for a labor intensive business.

Many employees are "job shopping" for greener pastures. Over the course of this blog entry, I'm going to comment on some mistakes that I've seen labor intensive companies make and how you as a business owner can avoid it.

Understand Market Conditions
Market conditions change for a variety of reasons. The more growth a region has, the harder it is for you to recruit. Supply and demand. The more jobs available, the less inventory of applicants. As the number of jobs grow, the wages have to increase in order to compete.

If you are finding that your business is now competing at the same level of pay as unskilled workers like fast food chains, you know you have a problem. The problem won't disappear and if the future forecasts state that growth isn't slowing anytime soon -- start changing.

Don't get me wrong, you can still hire people even if your wages are below the industry average in the area. But you are not attracting the best and brightest, but rather the unskilled or those that may require significant coaching and training.

Increased Wages and Margins Sacrifice
The major reason that companies do not increase wages is due to profit margins. Your customer may not be willing to pay anything extra to address your labor cost. So profits stay the same but the cost of wages go up. This is actually normal as your business industry is maturing: more choices for the customer, and less profits for you. Come on now, we learned that in business school. :-)

The truth is, you need to seriously look at your options:

Increase the wage and sacrifice parts of your margins

Continue to be underperforming in terms of wage levels and have a slow death through a labor crunch, or have an unqualified workforce handling skilled jobs

Look for other income streams

Close shop, look for other regions that are more competitive -- you'll probably face this same issue when the market conditions change in that area

Conclusion
Some profit is better than no profit -- don't get too greedy. If you don't invest in your workforce in a competitive and growing region...consider yourself dead. About seven years ago I gave the same advice to a services company. Listen to market conditions, adjust your labor. Sadly, it fell on deaf ears, and they closed down in a few months. Labor issues affect morale, and if you are not addressing it head on, you are a sinking ship. Don't panic, don't play politics, don't push other people, just fix the obvious problem: listen to the market.

Fishing Report: Estero Bay 05/07/2006

After fishing some artificial reefs in the Gulf of Mexico and trying out the Caloosa River, we found little to no fish entertaining our bait. As we came closer to the marina, I didn't want to give up yet... I started casting near the docks and from 3pm-7pm, we couldn't keep up with the fish!

Over 30+ mangrove snappers with the average size of 12 inches or more, crevalle jacks (great fighters), and scamp groupers. We also had some rare Atlantic spadefish giving us a fight on the line.

For sure, this was the best day of fishing for all of us this year. We caught so much fish, it was incredible!

Movie Review: Mission Impossible III...and Keri Russell?

Director Abram's vision of Mission Impossible III was done well! Lots of action, good twists, character development, and a solid cast. Furthermore, the movie didn't carry an R-rating and most Christians movie watchers would appreciate this: it had limited profanity and sensual scenes were limited.

Good vs. Evil
I'll try not to spit out any plot spoilers here. The consequences of Ethan's actions in this movie carry a heavier price compared to the previous installments of MI. In the past, there was a bad guy wanting to do bad things. As shown in the previews, Ethan now has a personal reason to make sure the mission is successful: his new wife is in danger! And the line between good and evil start blurring gray.

Keri Russell's debut
I haven't seen Keri Russell in any major production for almost four years. It was a good surprise to see her in this movie. Gone is the old petite, innocent girl image from her old TV series, Felicity. In this movie, she's a secret agent sent on a mission. And if you're a martial artist, you'll appreciate this -- she was praticing a form of Filipino martial arts (escrima) in one of the movie's flashbacks.

Russell was one of my favorite TV stars and I'm glad to see her comeback to the screen.

Tom Cruise's performance
Cruise can jump the couch on this one -- his acting on this film was like his previous projects: superb. Paramount is correct in assuming that Cruise is a bankable actor. His films will always go past $45 million on a box office weekend even if he jokes around that he is going to eat his baby's placenta. By the way Tom, congrats on the baby.

California Trip

Just got back from California! Destinations: Long Beach, Seal Beach, Glendale, Loma Linda, and Los Angeles. Overall my trip was good -- really no major problems except my group was delayed on the first leg of the trip (we had to stay overnight in Minnesota because we missed a connecting flight).

Los Angeles International Airport or LAX seems to be a lot better than what I experienced in the past. Good landing, quick luggage checkout, and it was easy for me to find the shuttle bus for the rental cars. Once I hopped onto the rental cars and referenced maps, I was able to find my way to my destinations. I'm happy to say that it was easy to navigate California's highways, despite the fact they don't have mile markers like Florida does. I saw a few traffic mishaps where four lane highways were a dead stop due to an accident -- thankfully I was on the other side.





What I like about California
The weather in California is comfortable. There are some stunning views to be seen through the Pacific Coast Highway, especially near the U.S. navy depots. The boating activity there reminded me of Southwest Florida. The business activity in the area is also great -- commerce is California's biggest strengths along with a higher wage average.

What I don't like about California
As we were driving through some upscale neighborhoods, we were surprised to find $800,000 homes that were not very attractive. In fact, our friends that live in the area said a lot of the homes are 2-3 bedrooms and are 10+ years old. Some of the homes didn't even have driveways. But hey, to each his own right?

Loma Linda University
We also drove to Loma Linda University. It's about an hour and a half drive east from Los Angeles. The university is one of the most famous universities in the world in relation to health sciences. It's associated with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church and is a leading provider of doctorate and professional degrees in the nation.

To think the entire organization was started with a single vision from one lady by the name of Ellen G. White. She didn't even have a high school education! But through her guidance, she started not only the church but the organizations and health system that formed Loma Linda to what it is today.

It was encouraging to see that a Christian organization like Loma Linda has been blessed with so much, and is recognized for its achievements in science. Many scientists believe Christianity and science do not mix -- but in Loma Linda, they make it happen. And according to the National Geographic, the people that live by the health principles provided in the Bible live longer than most people in the world. In fact, Loma Linda's population has a good number of people that live over 90+ years old (and they're still active!).

Nothing Like Home
I have to say though, despite having an oceanfront hotel room in Long Beach, I still prefer my bed. Once I got home, I instantly fell asleep. Florida might not have the population or economic clout like California, but it has relatively affordable housing, boating, and it is home sweet home.

Immigrants: Legal & Illegal Show Their Strength

Over 1 million people throughout the United States have gathered on Monday to march against recent immigration reform bills proposed in Congress. Some like Bill O'Reilly (FoxNews) and Lou Doubbs (CNN) have commented that these immigrants who have marched together are not helping their cause. I respectfully disagree.

By coming out and marching, they effectively sent a message that they are people too. They've put a face to the United States' labor force.

Are illegals paying taxes?
One of the biggest complaints that uninformed individuals have against illegals is that they assume they do not pay taxes.

This is untrue. While many use fake social security numbers and they pay taxes through their employers, there are others who pay taxes through legal tax IDs provided by the IRS. Since 1996, the IRS has opened the way for illegal immigrants to pay taxes. Unlike most people, most hard working illegal immigrants are actually thankful of the opportunities in the United States and are willing to pay taxes.

Are illegals taking our jobs?
The overall answer is no. The country doesn't have enough willing citizens to work certain markets.

For those that understand the principles of macroeconomics -- you understand that cheap, effecient labor will result in a net gain for the economy. Let's face the truth: agriculture, housing, and construction industries of America are laid on the backs of illegal immigrants. The cheap labor that illegal immigrants provide bring the costs down. Can you imagine if house builders can no longer hire illegal immigrants? Can you imagine fruits and vegetables jumping up as fast as gas prices?

Are illegals becoming a burden on our social programs like education?
If an illegal family is hard working and is paying their taxes, they are NOT a burden to our society. If an illegal family is not paying their taxes, absolutely, they are a burden to our social programs.

Do you support illegal immigration?
The term illegal immigration is largely based on what Congress labels as legal. In fact, most people don't understand how HARD it is for someone to be a legal immigrant if they are coming from a developing country.

Congress does not make it easy and technically, the bills they have passed have been discriminate against poor people. Only rich countries can come into the country freely. Take a look at Canada -- they can come in with a driver's license to the United States while Mexico, you'd have to sacrifice life and limb before you can get a visa.

We should not be discriminate because a country is poor. America in its infancy accepted everyone with open arms and we became stronger because of it. The immigration process should be the same for ALL countries (except those that we are at war with or have sanctions on). My point is: if a person is hard working, makes a contribution to society by not committing any crimes, and pays their taxes -- they are making the country better. They should be allowed to work, and stay in this country. That's how this country was built.

April Real Estate Market Beats Forecasts, Surprises Analysts

When the entire financial market thinks that real estate is slowing down, the real estate industry always seems to beat forecasts. Sales of existing homes rose 0.3% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.92 million units. According to the National Association of Realtors, the March increase followed a bigger 5.1% jump in February. The two months are the first advances after 5 consecutive months of decline.

What it means for the seller
Price your house according to market trends and you'll be able to sell.

What it means for the buyer
Don't expect for prices to come down any time soon. Buy now as the appreciation continues to climb. The median price of a new home rose to $218,000 last month -- that's a gain of 7.4% from a year ago. This is despite the slowdown in a lot of markets. Slow sales doesn't necessarily mean a drop in home appreciation.

What it means for the agent
Treat your customers with respect, buyer or seller, small or big properties.

Fishing Report: Gulf of Mexico 04/16/06, Sanibel Causeway 04/17/06

Easter Sunday was a great day for fishing!

My church has services on the Sabbath (Saturday); hence, we were one of the few people that were boating. The Gulf of Mexico was clear of the usual boat traffic and the water was crystal clear. We set the course to an artificial reef and caught American shad all day long! It seemed like every cast was a fish. They were biting so hard, I was finding myself opening the fish bucket over and over again. I caught three fish with the same live shrimp. We kept roughly about 30 fish (10 per person limit). I returned more than I could count... A duck in the middle of nowhere saw me throwing some fish back and took one of them.

After heading home, two of the group went to fish the Sanibel causeways/canals and caught some snook, and ladyfish. Three of the group hit the river and landed some sheepshead. Sadly, I couldn't join them on their late night fishing adventure as I had some work to do at home.

If you want to eat the best tasting fish -- seek out the American shad. You can catch them with shrimp. Their meat is so soft and sweet! The scientific name for this fish is sapidissima, which means very delicious or most savory.

You need a Sabbath rest

Every day we put our bodies to the test. If you're like most workers, you work 5 days a week and average at least 40 hours a week. Or if you're a student, you go to school and average roughly about the same amount of time in the classroom. Put social, financial, and family matters into the mix -- your putting your body through a physical, emotional and mental overload on a weekly basis. And the bad part is, you may not know it because you're used to it.

Your body needs rest from the daily activities and the daily stresses of life. Every week, I take one day off from everything --- from working, from schooling, and yes, even from fishing. This one day of rest, I concentrate on spirituality and on family. This one day of rest is referred to as my "Sabbath".

The history of the Sabbath
Have you ever asked why we have seven days in a week? If you don't know why we have seven days in a week, don't worry, most people don't know either. In fact, most historians disagree how it really started. What they do agree on is that one of the most earliest texts regarding a seven day period can be found in a Hebrew book called Genesis. In that book, it describes the world being created by God in six days and in the seventh-day, God rested and made it holy.

God showing us an example
Why did God make the seventh-day holy? Why did He have to rest? The answers to these questions are simple. He wanted to show us an example that we need a healthy, weekly rest from our daily work and our normal pleasures. In fact, on the seventh-day (Saturday), He proclaims in other books like Exodus (ch 20), that the seventh-day is to be kept holy and that you should remove yourself from your worldly worries. In the book of Isaiah, chapter 58, He asks you to remove yourself even from your normal pleasures (ie: golfing, fishing).

Did you know the Sabbath is in the Ten Commandments?
Most scholars agree that the majority of the laws created by our forefathers are based on the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments' influence is global -- millions of rules and regulations try to instill the spirit of the Ten Commandments so society can be civilized.

You may not know this, but the fourth commandment is to keep the Sabbath holy, six days you will labor and on the seventh-day, you will rest. So is breaking the Sabbath considered a sin? Yes.

Sabbath made for mankind
In the book of Mark 2:27, it states that the the Sabbath was made for mankind (the Greek states mankind; hence, not for Jews alone). And man was not made for the Sabbath. In other words, God created the Sabbath as a gift to mankind -- an allowance of rest. It is not to limit you, but to enhance your life. It shouldn't be considered a hindrance. The ability to rest for one day, to get rid of thoughts of work, financial issues, and schooling is a blessing.

People that observe the Sabbath is marked as God's people
In the Old Testament book of Exodus, God declared that the Sabbath was the sign between Him and His people. That sign or mark still continues on today. In the New Testament, in Hebrews 4:9, it states, "There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God"; hence, it applies to Christians of present time. In fact, the word described as Sabbath-rest in this New Testament verse is sabatismos (Greek for seventh-day rest).

Why do Christians rest on Sunday instead of Saturday (Sabbath)?
Most Christians go to church on Sunday because they base that tradition from the Catholic Church. In the early years of the Catholic Church, they chose Sunday as the false Sabbath to get away from Judaism. Pastors now will say it is due to a celebration of Jesus' resurrection, even though the Bible doesn't say to celebrate the first day. Some will say we will never know because the calendars were changed, even though that's a false assumption as seven day weeks remained constant and only the dates changed.

Most Christian pastors that have historical knowledge understand that the true Sabbath is Saturday. In over 60+ languages, Saturday is considered the Sabbath. For instance, in Spanish, Saturday translates to Sabado (Sabbath). The truth is, Sunday keeping is so in-depth in the layers of Protestantism, most congregations would have to admit they were in the wrong all this time.

My pastor told me the Sabbath is no longer needed due to Calvary
Aside from love, why did Jesus have to die for the world? Because He could not get around the Law. Either He had to condemn everyone to eternal destruction or He had to make a sacrifice. The Law still exist now. Christ dying on Calvary was to fulfill the law's requirements -- either man had to die eternally or God had to sacrifice Himself. In the New Testament verse of Matt 5:17, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."

Respectfully tell your pastor to read John 14:15 -- "If ye love me, keep my commandments." You may want to also introduce him to Isaiah 66:22-24 when it talks about worshiping God in heaven from one Sabbath to the next: "...from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the LORD.

If the Sabbath was only limited in the Old Testament, why is it in the New Testament? Why is it in the future heaven? If "every day can be holy", how come God specifically outlines this day to be kept pure from normal work?

Conclusion
Rest on the seventh day from your typical work and keep your mind away from your worldly distractions, and from your own pleasure. If you are still young and you have a lot of energy to give, I suggest you do what Jesus did -- volunteer to do good things on the Sabbath such as helping with charities or find a place to celebrate nature and enjoy God's creation.

I celebrate my Sabbath using the same method God setup in Genesis (sunset to sunset), which starts on Friday evening and ends Saturday evening.

I can honestly tell you, as I have grown older, I've found the benefits of the Sabbath to be priceless. Not only does it reduce my stress level, it enhances your personal relationship with God and with your family.

Did you know? Sabbath keepers are also considered by modern scientists to be one of the longest living groups in the planet. You should check out National Geographic's study on why Sabbath keepers seem to live longer than the rest of the general population.

News: Why socialistic France is rioting

You may have seen the latest riots going on the news about France. Across the country, unions and other rioters are protesting against new market reforms that's being pushed by the government. If you are flipping the channel and not learning anything, STOP!

There are valuable lessons to be learned from this situation: a lesson of capitalism vs. communism/socialism.

What law is the French government trying to pass?
French labor laws protect employee interests significantly through union and trade agreements. Even if you're a smoking pothead and you don't do any work, your employer still can't fire you. The government is trying to change this because businesses are not hiring or are outright leaving the country.

Businesses want to have the ability to terminate non-performing employees without being hindered by union or trade agreements. Specifically, the new law will let businesses have better control of hiring and terminating if they are tenured less than 2 years.

Why are the people rioting?
The Communist-backed labor unions are upset and have launched violent riots against the French government. Their point of view: the government should take care of workers regardless of their performance.

Why should we care?
So we identify what socialism is and not seek after it. We should not let the government control how people should be hired or fired. French socialistic policies have given them 23% unemployment among their young adults and an overall of 9.6% unemployment across the nation.

The United States, despite its debt, is the most economically powerful country in the world. This is largely due to its people's attitude about freedom. People want freedom to leave their companies if they want to and vice versa, companies want to terminate workers if they want to. Our economic success shouldn't be credited to Clinton or Bush, but through our comprehensive and collective set of employment laws designed and modified throughout the years.

The United States has found the right balance of employer and employee responsibilities. Our unemployment rate of less than 4.8% in the nation is a testament to this. We let market forces (supply and demand) work through the economy. Anyone can setup a business in the United States. But in France, new businesses tread carefully -- if at all.

But welfare just sounds so good!
Essentially, that is what the French has. If you don't want to work, don't worry, you're covered -- your employer still has to pay you. We need to avoid this idea that the government or the employer should be taking care of us. The people that you should be depending on is God, your family, and yourself.

Anything else is a communistic dream of equality, and in this sinful world, it won't happen. In fact, it'll just be abused.

Conclusion
Socialism is bad.
Communism is bad.
Labor unions that support either of the above are bad.

Evidence:
France: 9.6% unemployment (23% unemployment of young adults)
USA: 4.8% unemployment (4.2% unemployment of young adults)

Reference:
http://www.bls.gov
http://www.boston.com/

Business Tip: Measuring Customer Satisfaction

If you ever worked in a customer service oriented business, you know the importance of measuring customer satisfaction (CSAT). By in large, most industries want happy customers to get repeat business and better word of mouth marketing. What's a company with no repeat business and bad word of mouth marketing? A bankrupt one. Whether your company is a clothing store, or a computer store -- you want to know what the customer thinks of you.

Proper steps of measuring customer satisfaction (CSAT):
1. Find your customer population.
2. Get a random sample.
3. Survey the random sample.

Find Your Customer Population
Let's take for example that you own an Internet service provider with 1 million customers. You want to measure whether your customers are happy with the service. To find the correct population, you need to remove yourself and other non-paying accounts (ie: employees).

Get A Random Sample
A random sample is a subset of the population that is non-bias and represent all possibilities. Let's take for example the ISP company that has 1 million customers. We need to get a sample size from it without choosing from a "bias" approach.

A common "bias" mistake that ISP companies use to measure CSAT is to survey only the customers that contact the help desk or customer service desk. This approach is flawed. The majority of the people that contact the help desk or customer service desk has problems and they are already not satisfied in one way, shape or form.

Survey the Random Sample
Surveying requires proper wording, and proper timing. Your wording and scoring should be easily understood and should be non-biased against or for the company.

One of the worst CSAT scales I've ever seen came from a former client where they measured CSAT surveys from 1 to 10. This subjective measurement does nothing for you. Many people consider "5" as adequate and "6" as good. A preferable approach is: "Bad, Fair, Neutral, Good, or Very Good".

Timing also is important. For instance, if you're doing phone surveys -- you really don't want to survey your customers when they are at work and they are not answering their home phone. Neither would you want to survey people when they are eating dinner or sleeping. For mailings, you would probably want to survey customers right after the peak seasons, where you want to measure your "true" customer base.

Conclusion
Surveys can be a great and positive tool for your company, especially if it is done right. Consult with a statistician or a math professor if you think you need to start surveying customers. A math wiz can tell you about other survey factors such as margin of errors and confidence levels. If you fail to consult a credible third party before you survey, you may fall into what I call the "survey trap" -- where you make decisions on flawed data.

On a personal experience, I've seen clients in the survey trap and I think to this day, they are still in it. They are constantly terminating contracts, employees, and other problems for the sake of percentages and numbers that show up on their computers. There are legal consequences for these issues as well -- terminating employees for bad survey data can cost millions in unemployment hearings, wrongful termination suits, and co-employment lawsuits [co-employment is when a company has some control in a contractor's business/employees].

Iran Shows Off Its Weapons

For the past couple of days, Iran has stepped up its propaganda. Fearing that they may be invaded in the near future, they started demonstrating their new weapons. They claim their weapons technology can hit vehicles and buildings, and is undetectable by radar.

I went ahead and tried to verify Iran's claims on whether they had this capability. I went and added all the descriptions they gave on TV and Google'd it. This is what came up:



The United States trembles in fear.