Tax-free Internet shopping going away?

Americans gather at the base of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., to protest the income tax and federal government overreaching. Rep. Ron Paul spoke at the rally earlier in the day.

Always good to see the Tyranny Response Team on hand.

I am all for paying my taxes, don't get me wrong. I think our tax dollars do some great things, and some not so great things, and God has called us to follow the rules. So pay'em. :-) I found this news interesting from the Taxing the Internet standpoint.

But..."Read my lips...," you know the rest.

Will Google Ever Stop?

Take a look at Google's next project, Virgle. Watch the video below.

Wow, amazing!

April Fools. Don't trust the Internet.

I am not sure if this is true, because I don't trust anything I read on the Internet on April 1, but if it is...cool.

Hot Teen Trend: Hanging with Mom and Dad.

We Love Coffee.

Coffee Economy.

Coffee plant. Coffea aribica.

Coffee beans. Roasted.

Coffee Beans No No.

Do you drink it? Probably.

Why do we drink it? Caffeine. Here's what caffeine looks like.

Caffeine is a bitter white crystalline xanthine alkaloid that acts as a psychoactive stimulant drug and...(click here to read more about this drug)

Mmmm...I can't wait 'til my next cup.

Deep breath...4 weeks without LOST.

There, I said it. Saying "4 weeks without LOST" was as hard as The Fonz trying to say "I'm Sorruuu, Sorraaa, Sorry." It's an ETERNITY! Sure, I know it's just not "new" episodes but it might as well be off the air.

I suspect I may watch the reruns...and probably eat more than I should...and probably start biting my nails...and probably twirl my hair (if i had any)...and probably start drinking alone...and probably NOT be productive at all...for 4 weeks.

Pain, anguish, heartache, pizza are the only words that come to mind...

What are you going to do to cope? Maybe I'll do what you do.

Got 5 Billion Dollars?

What can you buy with 5 billion dollars? Here's a few things...

2,512,562,814 – 2 Liter bottles of Diet Pepsi @ $1.99ea from local convenient store.

1,388,888,888 – Gallons of gas @ $3.60ea in Portland, Oregon.

25,125,628 - iPod Nano’s @ $199ea from Best Buy.

58,823 - Kidneys @ $85,000ea on the black-market in India.

16,072 - Lamborghini Mercielagos @ $311,100 from Lamborghini.

18 - 777 Passenger Airliners @ $279,000,000ea from Boeing.

5 – Gallons of gas in 2009 @ $1 billion/per gallon in Portland, Oregon.

1 – Satellite Radio station @ $5 billion dollars from XM radio.

Do you Hulu?

It's obvious that the internet has changed since it's full consumerization in the 1990's. In my opinion the major change that has allowed super growth of the internet is the speed at which consumers are able to download content. Can you imagine trying to download YouTube videos on a 56K dialup connection? I mean people are still doing it but to really grasp everything the Internet offers, and enjoy it, you need a high speed Internet connection. I now live on a 3000K connection and I could never go back to a slower connection...spoiled for sure. All this high speed shtuff has laid the foundation for websites like Hulu.com. Downloadable video content blew up with YouTube, and now Hulu.com is trying to do the same with premium video content. It's just plain cool, and FREE.

What is Hulu.com? Hulu offers U.S. consumers a vast selection of premium video content, on demand, free and ad-supported: full episodes of TV shows, both current and classic, full-length movies, thousands of clips, and much more.


Now I can watch that Tom Brokaw Report I missed and my favorite Make Me A Supermodel episode...you know the one, anytime I want, for free. And it doesn't stop with TV, I can watch movies for free too.

Here's more nuts and bolts of Hulu.com, it's the "web's most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and more to deliver premium programming across all genres and formats, television shows, feature films, and clips." (That's straight from Hulu's site)

Check it out.

Oh...one thing I found that I don't like about Hulu. No LOST...yeah, that's a problem, but I can get those from ABC.com.

You can take our wives...

What’s your favorite movie speech or monologue of all time? Which one gives you chills everytime you hear it or see it. For me it’s this:

Braveheart Freedom Speech by William Wallace.

"I am William Wallace. And I see a whole army of my countrymen here in defiance of tyranny! You have come to fight as free men. And free man you are! What will you do without freedom? Will you fight?"

"Two thousand against ten?" - the veteran shouted. "No! We will run - and live!"

"Yes!" Wallace shouted back. "Fight and you may die. Run and you will live at least awhile. And dying in your bed many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives but they will never take our freedom!"



The running joke with my buddies is taking the last line of this famous speech and changing it to “…they may take our wives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

In all seriousness, this speech reminds me of one that Jesus would give us. He sees his army getting scared, doubting, and then he busts out his loving freedom speech to remind us that if we fight this battle we will be free because we are free in Him, always. And we will fight.

I have heard a form of the question so many times that starts “And dying in your bed many years from now...”, and when I hear that I know what my answer is, no matter how that question ends; I don’t even have to think about it.

I know what I want my legacy to be. Do you?

Shhh...play number 7.

Are your kids Hannah Montana fans? If they’re like my kids they must be. As we drive down the road we have to put in the HM CD and I hear the constant requests to play “number 1”, “number 7”, “number 9”, etc. Naturally, or unnaturally, over time I start to develop MY favorite HM songs. When they’re blurting our requests I’m thinking “Say this number or that number”, and as soon as I hear the one I want, I go to that one. Funny? Crazy? Weird? All the above. Nobody is more perplexed by this than me. Dude, I am old, and I am a dude. I listen to Kutless, Skillet, and occasionally some Metallica to keep it real. Hannah Montana?

My wife laughs and jokes about this. We were at Blockbuster Video a few months back, we split up looking for our favorite movie genres so we could regroup and try to convince each other of which movies to get. At the regroup my wife shows me three different movies and then pulls out this comment, “OH…and I picked this out for you.” I was like cool, the wife is thinkin’ about MY tastes. Then she hands me the Hannah Montana movie case. VERY FUNNY! We gut laughed for a bit before I said, “Let’s get it.” J/K! We did not get it.


I am not the only “dad” to do this. I know this first hand. My friend Eric, with 4 kids, and I work together and were on a lunch/errand trip around town recently. With the radio on we cruise around talking and ranting like most guys do. We pull up to a stop light, stop, and we both catch ourselves humming a HM song on the radio. I said, “You too huh?” He was like “Yeah”, forlorn and depressed. “It’s OK dude, it’s OK” I said with love and sincere compassion. We chuckled for a sec and then cleared our throats, stuck our chests out, and quickly changed the subject. The light turned green, we burned the tires like guys do, got to cruising speed as fast as possible, and put the whole conversation behind us.

I say oh well, what can you do? I love my kids and I want them to hear kid music. It just happens to be kinda catchy. FYI…I have NO Hannah Montana songs on my iPhone playlists…seriously…just Miley Cyrus. J

Today is my B-day.

I am 36.

Here are 4 famous people with my birthday, March 19. Obviously not the same year. Can you tell me who they are?

The last one may be obscure, unless you are "radio" Dave. (hint hint)

John is cool.

For those of you who haven't seen the TLC show John and Kate plus 8, it's time. If you have kids, one or two or any "normal" number of kids, this show will make you feel like your life is a vacation. a literal cake walk. Even with three kids, I can honestly say that, when things are looking grim and I am asking myself why I had 3, I watch this show and thank the good Lord above I don't have 8.

I really can't relate to John and Kate, with my 3 kids, while they have 8, but I really do relate to John. Guy to guy, shoulder to shoulder, eye to eye, we totally connect, we're buds. I wish my wife could see me on camera rolling my eyes like he rolls his at Kate. If you are a dad, and a husband, watch this show and you will see what I mean. John is cool. I will also say that he appears to have the most patience I have ever seen in a dad.

TLC will you come and do a show in our house so my wife can watch herself on camera and see how silly she is? I have seriously seen that same look, on Kate's face below, on my wife's face! Very funny. Keep up the good work John and Kate.

Guilty Pleasure.

Once in a while I get on a kick of needing a kick. This drink is my guilty pleasure and I often find myself nodding off to sleep well after 1am after I have downed one of these earlier in the day. They definitely give you a kick.

These drinks get a bad rap and it's not hard to see why. Even though, as you can see by the label, this particular drink carries a variety of vitamins, it's not really that healthy for you. This drink is also not regulated by the FDA. There is no requirement to show us how much caffeine is actually in one of these drinks. The 16oz. Sugar Free Rockstar that I drink, on occasion, is said to have as much caffeine as 1 to 2 cups of coffee. OK, that's cool, but caffeine is said to also be potentially disguised in other ingredients like Taurine. Anyway you put it, energy drinks are loaded up to give you a buzz and young America is downing them one after the other.

Be careful though, if you need a buzz, be sure to drink these as responsibly as you would alcohol. I read a recent article of a young man that was drinking 8 16 ounce Rockstars a night just to get through his night shift at work. He was rushed to the hospital with basically an overdose. Yah, I said EIGHT, that's a Freegan gallon!

Speaking of alcohol, these drinks are often used as mixers with hard alcohol like Vodka, Rum, and Tequila. The thought being that because these energy drinks have so much caffeine in them it would reduce the effects of the alcohol. Well, the only thing it's been shown to reduce is your awareness of how much you have really drank. In other words, folks were less likely to realize they were drunk making them a larger threat to do such things as drink and drive. Scary.

Side Note: One Tequila, Two Tequila, Three Tequila, Floor! Five Tequila, Six Tequila, Seven Tequila, Morgue!

So what's the morale of this story. I have no idea.

How about this? Moderation.

What the Freegan?

Do you know what a Freegan is? Check out this photo. These are Freegans.

Freegans are people who employ alternative strategies for living based on limited participation in the conventional economy and minimal consumption of resources. Freegans embrace community, generosity, social concern, freedom, cooperation, and sharing in opposition to a society based on materialism, moral apathy, competition, conformity, and greed.

Freegans dig through dumpsters for food, at least that's what they are most known for. Now I think the things Freegans embrace are some very positive things, as listed above, and I agree that materialism is out of control in our country and our world, but I just don't think I can eat food out of a dumpster.

One thing that was mentioned on a recent OPRAH, yes I watched an OPRAH, as a reason why Freegans feel so passionate about their philosophies is that as American's we account for 5% of the world's population and consume approximately 30% of the world's consumable resources.

The following video is a great example of the good that can come from harvesting trashed food and how seemingly normal folks are embracing this idea.



So now you know what a Freegan is. The movement, I guess it's a movement, is known as Freeganism. Are you Freegan kiddin' me? :-)