We Can't Make It Any Worse
Congratulations to Melanie for her efforts in the major tournament. She may have fallen by the wayside, but she is a winner in every respect. She beat Ladies that were several years ahead of her in experience and skill levels.
My heartfelt congrats to her, her parents, family and friends
Walter Cronkite has died at the age of 92.
Walter was deemed the most trusted man in America for a very long time. He covered presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan and covered the early years of our space program. His coverage of space was done with both serious reporting and boyish glee at our landing on the moon. His tearful announcement that JFK had been killed shocked the world yet everyone who saw his announcement remembers it even today 46 years later
His coverage of political conventions was exemplary and ground breaking for those would would follow him. In covering political partys he was completely neutral and unbiased in his reporting which is practically unheard of today
Cronkite literally changed Americas view of the Vietnam war by going there and announcing the war was a quagmire. president Johnson then said if I have lost Cronkite then I have lost middle America
There is so much one can say about Mr Cronkite, and so many who will say it. So I will just give my thanks to him for the memories of growing up during the period of time that he was more powerful than presidents and was the voice of American households.
He was a great man
On this day 20 years ago Tiananmen Square was the scene for this:
With protests for democratic reforms entering their seventh week, the Chinese government authorizes it's soldiers and tanks to reclaim Beijing's Tiananmen Square at all costs. By nightfall on June 4, Chinese troops had forcibly cleared the square, killing hundreds and arresting thousands of demonstrators and suspected dissidents.
Today, China censors their own People's right to know about this. They censor Facebook and search engines. They try to hide every facet of their mistakes.
But why? And why do we continue to trade with a country whose relationships with its own people has not improved in 20 years? The Chinese economy has grown greatly in that period of time and it would make one wonder how long it will be before they once again are forced to face their people who want reform.
And what will their actions be when that happens. How long can you hold that many people down by just giving them a little more each time they want something? When will China understand that a free people give more than an enslaved people? Slavery comes in many forms and in many degrees. In another 20 years if the government stays the same, what will the size of the government be if they are required to constantly monitor and manage the thoughts of their people?
When will China release its hold on its people and understand that their greatest asset doesn't need to be micromanaged. Where is the creativity if knowledge is stifled because the government is afraid that people will get out of hand? And we are partly to blame as we send them our work which is the same as giving them the nod and a wink towards their human relations disasters.
If it wasn't for the fact that China practically owns us through our national debt and through our trade relations I would say that the United States should censor them for their humans rights records. But it's purely obvious that no matter who is in office they will support China 100% because it is in our financial interest to do so. To me this is the same as a congressman who was forced to support the NRA just to get reelected.
Farrah Fawcett is lying near death in a hospital in Los Angeles
the actress has anal cancer and has outlived her prognosis by almost a year and a half. She has sought treatments in Germany that have extended her symptoms but unfortunately now she is losing the battle. Gone is the hair that made her famous and she is now just a shell of her former self .
I myself have lost a brother to cancer so I feel empathy towards her plight. It is a wonder that cancer has not been beaten by this point in time but it has proven to be beyond our medical ability at this time. Today there is no one in the United States who doesn't have a relative who has cancer or doesn't know of someone who has cancer.
Cancer is a slow scourge that has ravaged mankind throughout our history. One would think with the billions that is poured into the subject that it could be beaten by better ways than Radioactivity
UPDATE: Farrah died on June 25th, 2009. I thank her for her efforts to show the public what this strangling death is like. Goodbye Farrah
Lately I have been trying to learn a different form of PHP called PEAR. Primarily for its ability to make excellent forms and tables.
The first problem I ran into was how to address the PHP directory that is in the root of the website. The first link below addresses that question and the answer I received.
Every day that I work on this I run into the little boy in front of the ocean syndrome. I realize more and more that while I can do some things there is a great deal that I do not understand or know. It was easy learning all of the HTML commands and it should be just as easy learning the PHP commands. But for some reason it isn't. Have a good case in point was addressing the PHP folder that is within the root of the website. I had never had to address backwards that way and yet when I asked on the forum how to do this the answer was as usual right in front of my eyes. Had I spent more time learning the PHP commands I may have known what to do. It's all in how much time you spend and how you apply yourself.
I find myself constantly in ruts were I do the same things over and over to produce the same results and never stepping out of bounds. Another example of that is that I have just learned how to use the explode command and how to create my tag cloud. Once I did so everything became relatively easy. In a way it's like life, when you step outside your comfort zone you will find that the things that you are afraid of now come naturally.
A few Links. There are many more links on php Here
The bill would remove "all penalties under California law forthe cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, and use of marijuana, natural THC and paraphernalia by persons over the age of 21"; would "prohibit local and state law enforcement officials from enforcing federal marijuana laws"; and would create a $50 state fee for each ounce of marijuana sold, beyond whatever pot will cost once it becomes legal, the newspaper reported.
"Marijuana arrests actually increased 18 percent in California in 2007 while all other arrests for controlled substances fell," Steve Gutwillig, California's director of Drug Policy Alliance, said during the press conference. "This costs the state a billion dollars a year and taxpayers are footing the bill. Meanwhile, black marketers are laughing all the way to the bank."
Its about time. The cost to prosecute smokers is far below the value gained from the prosecution. Pot would revive the states economy. if you are going to let people smoke cigarettes and drink there is no excuse for banning pot