Thursday, March 11, 2004
my next jacket is from these guys
While wandering the web I ran across these guys. Their jackets rock. Very customizable. Custom made to your measurements. Good reviews from Climbing magazine and Backpacking Magazine. You have to check these out:
http://www.beyondfleece.com/
http://www.beyondfleece.com/
Tuesday, March 09, 2004
My start in politics
Today I have started my political career. I am now the new Permanant Precinct 111 Republican Chairman. This is the result of the fact that there are no minumums necessary for Precinct caucuses. 3 people showed up for our caucus. My wife and I were two of them. The third person left before we caucused. He was visibly frustrated at the lack of organization (we were given no paperwork for instance). My wife and I voted for me as Permanant Precinct Chairman at the designated caucus place at the designated caucus time. We unanimously elected ourselves as representatives to the district meeting. We also unanimously agreed that the man who left early should be a precinct representative subject to verifying his identification as having voted in the primary. Unfortunatly we did not get his full name. His first name is Gene.
We were supposed to decide on what our Precinct would like to propose be in the party platform.
Our platform consists of the following:
We oppose electronic voting without paper verification. Electronic voting is widely regarded by IT professionals and this caucus as being insecure and unverifiable in case of tampering. The machines in our caucus were left unattended and unsealed for a large period of time next to a large cart where they may have been easily removed and/or tampered with. It is our position that these individual machines should be destroyed to prevent their use in future elections given the possibility of their having been tampered with.
We suport the checking of government recognized picture identification when voting. This was not done during this primary election and we believe the possibility exists that voting took place under false identification.
We support increased benefits, especially health insurance, for public school teachers.
We support the development of renewable energy such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric. We specifically support tax credits for individuals and companies who purchace renewable energy equipment and reduced taxes for domestic manufacturers of such equipment. Renewable energy will help secure our national independence. It will grow our economy. Additionally, renewable energy will help lower health risks from environmental pollution.
We support the opening of limited areas within the Artic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas recovery.
We support building a natural gas pipeline to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
We support protecting the lives of unborn children.
We support implementation of government funded studies to determine the comparative effectiveness of medications in treating illness so that doctors and patients can make informed decisions about both medically effective and cost effective medical treatment. We further support legislation to use these studies in a manner modeled on the OregonRX program.
We support legislation to reduce the amount of money drug companies spend marketing drugs to consumers. We believe this advertising is of little benefit to consumers, but is responsible for a large portion of the cost of medication. To this end we support banning drug related advertising on television and radio. We also support limiting advertising to a percentage of R&D expenses.
We support the phase out of traditional defined benefit pension plans in favor of portable defined benefit pension plans and employer matched defined contribution plans.
We support increasing the exemption from the estate tax and we support the reduction in the percentage of the estate tax on the portion of the estate exceeding the exemption.
We were supposed to decide on what our Precinct would like to propose be in the party platform.
Our platform consists of the following:
We oppose electronic voting without paper verification. Electronic voting is widely regarded by IT professionals and this caucus as being insecure and unverifiable in case of tampering. The machines in our caucus were left unattended and unsealed for a large period of time next to a large cart where they may have been easily removed and/or tampered with. It is our position that these individual machines should be destroyed to prevent their use in future elections given the possibility of their having been tampered with.
We suport the checking of government recognized picture identification when voting. This was not done during this primary election and we believe the possibility exists that voting took place under false identification.
We support increased benefits, especially health insurance, for public school teachers.
We support the development of renewable energy such as wind, solar, and hydroelectric. We specifically support tax credits for individuals and companies who purchace renewable energy equipment and reduced taxes for domestic manufacturers of such equipment. Renewable energy will help secure our national independence. It will grow our economy. Additionally, renewable energy will help lower health risks from environmental pollution.
We support the opening of limited areas within the Artic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas recovery.
We support building a natural gas pipeline to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
We support protecting the lives of unborn children.
We support implementation of government funded studies to determine the comparative effectiveness of medications in treating illness so that doctors and patients can make informed decisions about both medically effective and cost effective medical treatment. We further support legislation to use these studies in a manner modeled on the OregonRX program.
We support legislation to reduce the amount of money drug companies spend marketing drugs to consumers. We believe this advertising is of little benefit to consumers, but is responsible for a large portion of the cost of medication. To this end we support banning drug related advertising on television and radio. We also support limiting advertising to a percentage of R&D expenses.
We support the phase out of traditional defined benefit pension plans in favor of portable defined benefit pension plans and employer matched defined contribution plans.
We support increasing the exemption from the estate tax and we support the reduction in the percentage of the estate tax on the portion of the estate exceeding the exemption.
Monday, March 08, 2004
digging through bookmarks
Digging through bookmarks I ran across this:
http://www.blueheronkayaks.com/kayak/index.html
This guy is talented. His kayak's are just awesome.
http://www.blueheronkayaks.com/kayak/index.html
This guy is talented. His kayak's are just awesome.
And from the things you already knew dept
A study has shown that exercise is cheaper and more effective at preventing heart attacks than stents.
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=517789
http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=517789
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
more on china
http://www.iht.com/articles/508560.html
A very nice article saying what I've been saying about China.
A very nice article saying what I've been saying about China.
