Every citizen has one vote, but…

According to the U.S. Constitution, our government is one that is of, by, and for the people (I may have mixed up the order, but it says the same thing). Sadly, even though each citizen has the same direct voting power, many have much stronger indirect power.
I am a normal citizen. I am not rich, and my only chances of inducing political action are by casting one ballot, by speaking with friends to try to convince them to think like me, and by using various cheap mediums like blogs to send my message out. However, I rarely use politics to try to make an economic profit (pat me on the back), and I certainly don’t try to use politics to make a direct economic profit (give me a cookie).
Currently, I am in business school. If I should be so lucky as to work my way up the ladder of a Fortune 100 company to become an executive, or even the CEO, then I will have the power to use politics to make a direct individual profit. In most companies, the regular employees don’t earn bonuses if the company performs very well, but the guys at the top certainly do. Also, it is the executives who make company-wide decisions regarding politics.
Therefore, if I were on top, I could use various methods including hiring lobbyists and contributing thousands during campaigns to try to directly improve the performance of the company that I am running, as well as to directly improve my wife’s wrinkles, puffy eyes, and saggy breasts.
Is it bad to use political influence to benefit the company of which I am in charge? After all, I do have a fiduciary responsibility to shareholders and employees. However, what if the legislation that would benefit my company would hurt many other Americans? Then again, what if my employees would lose their jobs if I didn’t act?
The previous questions are just a sample of those which could be asked. Truly, an ethical dilemma exists. In my opinion, if we are only considering the context of this blog, one thing could be done immediately without messing with the present ethical issues. If the CEO did not profit directly from an increase in profit in his or her company, then he or she at least couldn’t exploit the political system for direct personal gain. This doesn’t eliminate the problem, because they could still exploit the system for indirect personal gain (it would probably be delayed by a couple of years).
There are so many different angles to this problem, and I cannot begin to explain them all or to give general guidance on the proper course of action. However, I hope that you find some things interesting and enjoy commenting!

Does McCain have a BIG secret?

As you may have noticed, the media loves Obama. It really doesn’t matter what channel you watch or what website you read; Obama is the media’s choice. At the same time, 9 out of 10 people I talk to also agree that Obama is the best choice. While I disagree that either Obama or McCain should be elected, this post isn’t about that.

Let’s think, for a second, about John McCain’s history. In short, he’s a veteran, he’s been a Senator for awhile and in order to be in his position he must think very highly of himself. Just the other day McCain admitted in an interview that he would be OK with losing the election. He said he would return back to Arizona to be with his family and would not feel sorry for himself. He asked those watching the interview to not feel sorry for him either. It sounded like a cry for help. A cry for your pity vote. I don’t, however, think it will be quite enough. But remember, McCain is not a quitter. He’s not planning on losing.

If you have been paying attention to the news lately, you have noticed a lot of chatter about Israel and Iran. There are those who think Israel could strike Iran at any time. That would mean we would be striking Iran too. We all know McCain wants to bomb Iran and has for some time so what could this lead to?

Bush was re-elected because he “brought us through 9/11 and it’s aftermath” and McCain would, in the opinion of most, be the better of our two choices for a time of war.

In short, if the American people seriously feared war with Iran was imminent, McCain would dominate in the polls.

It’s for this reason we should be very, very concerned about what takes place over the next few weeks.

The only question is: Who do our leaders want in power?

American Apathy

Did you drink your Kool-Aid today?

It sounds like we can finally sleep sound at night knowing that WTC7 was not brought down by a controlled demolition as many have concluded. The National Institute of Technology and Security has released their report detailing what really brought down the building 7 hours after WTC1 & 2 collapsed on 9/11.

According to a federal agency report released Thursday, a “new phenomenon” known as thermal expansion was directly responsible for the mysterious collapse of World Trade Center 7 on Sept. 11, 2001.

Many do not even know about WTC7 unless they are familiar with the 9/11 Truth Movement. The collapse of WTC7 is by far the most amazing evidence backing the notion that elements within our government orchestrated the attacks on 9/11. The reason that NIST gives is clearly meant for the average American because anyone smarter than that is able to see right through it.

The Institute asserts that due to the lack of water supply, an “extraordinary event” occurred, and for the first time ever, steel expanding due to heat from the flames caused columns to separate from structural concrete. Column 79 was the first to fail, according to the report, which brought about a quick succession of failures in adjoining columns.

So as some are now able to rest knowing that the collapse of WTC7 is no longer a mystery because the government finally addressed the subject, for many more, their fear has just now been justified.

Source: The Raw Story

Bumper Sticker Nightmare

Today I saw a very disturbing bumper sticker. It was rather large and held lots of catchy phrases. Some that stuck with me were “Watch as I help destroy the economy“, “War on Terror is not a war at all, but a lifestyle“, “Give up freedom in exchange for a false sense of security“, “Iraqi Freedom is just around the corner“, “Radical Islamic Extremism, Radical Islamic Extremism, Radical Islamic Extremism“…

Actually, it wasn’t a large sticker at all but said all that and so much more in just one word: McCain.

Stock Watch: British Telecommunications (BT)

From time to time I run across a company that I think may go somewhere. I think Ribbit is one of those companies and they have just been acquired by BT.

What is Ribbit? If you do not know the answer to that, you need to read up before you will understand the importance of this acquisition.

I am not making any huge predictions but I do feel it would be very wise for everyone to keep an eye on BT.

Today Google Mobile replaced my Phone

Today I swapped the Phone app in my iPhone’s dock for the Google Mobile app. Let me briefly explain why you should too.

If you’re anything like me, you are rarely calling a number that doesn’t already exist in your address book. For this reason, you could replace the Phone app with the Address book icon. The fact is, the first time you do actually need to dial a number you’ll regret the slight adjustment and eventually you will switch the icons back.

Enter Google Mobile app stage right. Not only can you use this app to view/call your contacts and search for businesses based on location but you can also call any number you’d like. As you will see from the photos below, you simply type the number and click the link that the Google results page generates.

Do you feel safe yet?

As I have been traveling much more lately for work I have seen more “security” than I have ever wanted to. Not only are we treated as terrorists from the second we enter the airport but all along the way as well. We are all treated as second class citizens and crammed like sardines into a jet where we sit unable to communicate with the outside world for hours.

Innocent until proven guilty should be posted on the front doors of every airport. Who would have thought that some day, in America, we would need to remove our shoes, belts, wallets, laptops just to travel. Subjected to random searches with our privacy of no concern. We are forced to allow the creepy guy behind the tv screen to view the contents of our luggage and if asked, we are forced to turn on our laptop to prove it’s real (as if that proves anything).

It’s clear that airports are no longer looking for terrorists because it’s much easier to simply assume everyone is.

Well, I’m back…

I don’t promise to stay though. I would love to say that something truly inspiring has motivated me to begin blogging again but that’s simply not the case. Instead, WordPress for the iPhone is the sole reason. It will give me something to do instead of refreshing Twitter.

My GSX isn’t currently running right. It has fuel issues but I can’t figure it out. Not much of a surprise though. Since when have I claimed to be a mechanic?

Work is slow. Hopefully the auto industry picks up soon because without it, we’re dead in the water. Thanks to the government tag teamed with the Fed, every industry seems to be failing lately.

My friend sent me this conversation he came across somewhere. I will leave you with it:

Rabidplaybunny87: Okay, so my neighbors officially hate me
GarbageStan23: why?
Rabidplaybunny87: Well, me, david and andrew were having a bonfire in the backyard, and we were making s’mores and all… and suddenly we here sirens, and see a firetruck turn into the street in front of us.
Rabidplaybunny87: So we all went running to see what was up, and our neigbor’s house was on fire!
GarbageStan23: oh shit!
Rabidplaybunny87: Yeah, and when we got there, the wife was crying into her husbands arms, and we were just kinda standing there, and then she saw us, and then like for 10 seconds, gave us the dirtiest look ever
Rabidplaybunny87: Turns out, we were still holding our sticks with marshmallows on it, watching the fire….
Rabidplaybunny87: talk about bad timing…