Christmas Time

It's almost Christmas. The tree is up. There are wrapped packages. The children are home from school. My family and I are living in a free society that has peace and security at home. Thank God for all of our blessings and for our health. God bless all of those people helping to make this happen, including the members of our military, many of whom are not in their homes and with their family at Christmas, and including all those emergency responders that help keep us safe and healthy. All of you have our strong appreciation for all that you do. I hope for your safety, your success in your work, and your safe return to your homes and families. Merry Christmas.

US in Iraq Too Long?

I hear we've been in Iraq for almost four years now. People point out that that's longer than our participation in WWII. Interesting.

During WWII the US pretty much destroyed the significant German cities, destroyed its military, and got rid of all of its political structures. It took just over three years to accomplish this. The war ended in 1945.

The last time I looked, we're still have a vast number of soldiers and bases in Germany and Japan. That means we've been there about 60 years.

How about Korea? I guess we're still there, too.

How about Bosnia/Kosovo? Yup...still there.

It took us 3 months to win in Iraq instead of 3 years and we didn't have to drop any nukes on them. Now, just like Germany and Japan, we're engaged in the rebuilding phase and we have some 50-ish years to go.

Dear Mr. Blair

"The danger is if they decide to pull up the drawbridge and disengage. We need them involved," Blair said, spelling out his political vision in a pamphlet published by The Foreign Policy Center think-tank. "The strain of, frankly, anti-American feeling in parts of European politics is madness when set against the long-term interests of the world we believe in," he said.

Why is the rest of the world and half of this country, otherwise, so unable to see the need for and value of American leadership during this new cold war?

Citizenship Amendment

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment has been misused for too long now. All of the freed slaves from the Civil War era have been enfranchised. Now is the time to put an end to the automatic citizenship entitlement based on someone happening to be within our borders when their mother pops her cork. So, I propose a new amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America:

I. The rights and privileges provided for through this Constitution shall be reserved to its citizens, and to those non-citizens legally within its territories and conducting themselves in accordance with its laws and the laws of the appropriate local governments.

II. Citizenship flows to the natural born children of any citizen of these United States and may never be revoked. Others may make application for and retain citizenship in accordance with the laws and regulations enacted by the Congress.

III. Section I of the 14th Amendment to this Constitution is hereby replaced with "All citizens of the United States shall be citizens of the State wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any citizen of the United States of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any citizen of the United States within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Happy Birthday Stella

Stella Katherine Teeters, daughter of Sarah Jean Logsdon and Jaymes Harvey Teeters. Born at 5:30 p.m on 14 April, 2006. She's the catch of the day, weighing 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and measuring 20 1/2 in long. Welcome to the family Stella!

General, please sit down and shut up!

Retired general's calling for the resignation of political leaders? Is this a good thing? While on the one hand any person in our functioning democracy has the right to express political opinion, we have a fundamental principle that our legally elected leaders are in charge of the military and that the military is required to execute the legal orders of their civilian commanders. So while these retired generals have a right to express their opinions, and the media will happily play their statements to entertain viewers, I have far less sympathy for their opinion than I have for the opinion of the political opposition to the elected leaders. I can see and understand the agenda of the political opposition. I have no idea what the agendas of these retired generals are. Perhaps they are simply high minded and want to right a perceived wrong. Perhaps they are positioning for a future political appointment. Perhaps they are malcontents who didn't get their way in the military. But all in all, it just seems wrong for them to have sat on their hands while on active duty to protect their retirement, and then take advantage of their recently retired status to address an issue they failed to take on while on active duty.

The word is "Illegals"

Illegal aliens. I wonder why those that don't want immigration controls object to this term?

Let's see.... Illegal: <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=illegal> "Prohibited by law. " Clearly a bad thing.

Alien: <http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=alien> "Owing political allegiance to another country or government; foreign: alien residents"

I married an alien, and she became a citizen. I don't have anything in particular against aliens.

Illegal aliens are, by definition, breaking the law. We are a country of law, a country where the rule of law is paramount. It seems some groups in our country were recently upset thinking that the NSA wiretapping circumvented the "rule of law" principle. Maybe it did, and maybe it didn't. I don't have all the facts yet. And don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of the "rule of law" thing. It's served us well.

And why do we want a bunch of people in our country that owe their allegiance to another country? Perhaps all of those Mexican flags flying in my country this past weekend at the pro-Illegal Alien rallies are really showing us that it's not about immigration, but it's about cultural migration and we're just too blind to see it, and to timid to stop it.

Why is it that people from non-Mexican countries (like Guatemala) can come into Southern Mexico, walk all the way to the US, and come into the US, be we can't kick them back across the border into Mexico where they came from? If Mexico doesn't want them, perhaps Mexico should stop them on both of their borders and not just play us for fools?

Patrick Henry's Birthday!

Happy Birthday nephew! See his web site at <http://www.patrickhenryhughes.com/>

More on the MovieBeam Launch

I've been quite busy lately with MovieBeam. When you put a product into the consumer market place, there's a lot to do and a lot of feedback comes back. We visited a local Best Buy store on 2 March, 2006, the day after it was installed there, and saw our product in the store. That's me standing beside our demonstration kiosk in the store.

What a great feeling to see these years of work culminate in the release. People are reporting hearing MovieBeam radio adds in their markets. Sales are taking off.

If you want to see more pictures about MovieBeam, you can visit <http://web.mac.com/armando_santana/iWeb/Site/MovieBeam.html>. I don't know how long this person will leave the photos on-line.

Happy Valentine's Day

To my wife, my son, and my daughter. You are my life. You are my joy. I'll always love you all.

Welcome MovieBeam!

Today is the day. After two years of work, The next generation MovieBeam(TM) service is on the market. It's been a great experience, and there's still a huge bow-wave of work that the MovieBeam team will have to push through. (Use the MovieBeam link in the right-hand column if you want to jump to the web site and see the box, read about the service, and buy one.)

To all those at MovieBeam that I've worked with over the years and are no longer there (especially Mark B., Bruce F.) it was great working with you and I wish you were still here for the launch. For those still at MovieBeam and working your tails off to have made this launch happen (too numerous to begin naming) I salute you for your un-tiring efforts and professionalism. It's a great team at MovieBeam, and it's an honor to work with you all!
Here's to a continuing, productive, and challenging future together!

Arab Fury?

I see from the news that the Arabs are furious about the film of the British soldiers kicking the shit out of some kids that were throwing rocks at them. Was it called for? Heck if I know, I wasn't there. But I learned a long time ago that when you throw rocks at someone, there's a risk they are going to catch you, and when they do they are not going to be turning the other cheek.

Where is the Arab fury about the terrorists in Iraq trying to kill anyone they can, be they Suni, Shiite, or something else? Where is the Arab fury about kids throwing rocks at soldiers? Where was the Arab fury over Saddam's paying $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers? Where is the Arab fury over Iran's chase for nuclear technology?

I'm tired of hearing about Arab fury. Let's hear something about Arab leadership in human rights.

Politics at CSK Funeral?

Is it appropriate to bring a political fight to a funeral? If someone came to the funeral of a family member of yours and started making political speaches rather than honoring the family member, would you not want them to stop (or not have started in the first place)? Come on Jimmy, try and get some class!

Welcome to my blog...

Happy Feb 7th. I just created this little blog. I wonder what I might do with it?