Monday, January 16, 2012

America, Are We Too Big For Our Britches?



What in the world has happened to the mindset of the American people over the last thirty years? Our founding fathers fought and won the Revolutionary War to escape the tyranny of England, yet we are quick to impose our "values" upon other nations when we feel that their culture, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses do not line up with ours! THIS IS WRONG!! We are the United States of America, one nation UNDER God, not above Him.
We have been hyper-conditioned by our 24 hour a day news media outlets to believe that our government tell us everything, and that it is in the best interest for everyone for our political leaders to stand in the place of God Almighty as the police, judge, and jury of other countries. God's word tells us that He and He alone will judge the nations of the world, but we keep getting in His way. America needs to back off and let God deal with the nations before He starts dealing with us!
Politicians are always quick to use the Civil Rights propaganda in order to justify our occupation of other countries while putting American men and women in harms way. EXCUSE ME?! Why is it our business? Seems to me that it wasn't too many years ago that our own country was going through it's own civil rights movement, and I don't recall any other countries eager to put their nose in our affairs. The point here is that even though our civil rights problem began with slavery, it ended from within our own borders because good people eventually rose up from the violence and inhumane treatment of the American-Africans and defeated the oppression of their people. It usually happens this way when things are allowed to run their natural course though it may take a couple of hundred years as it did for the US. The eventual outcome of our own Civil Rights Act is that the very people who were once enslaved in this country are now prominent business leaders, religious leaders, political figures, and even occupy the White House in Washington D.C. That is a testament to the overwhelming power of allowing the good that exists in human nature combined with the prayers of people of faith to work properly over a period of time. God's time, not ours!
     When we stand in the way of letting nature take its course, and in the way of God doing a work in people's lives, whether they believe in Him or not, we slow down and extend an already difficult process.
I am not saying that we should never intervene in international issues. I am not naive. There are issues that come up from time to time like the holocaust and ethnic cleansing that need to be dealt with, but they need to be dealt with swiftly and with definiteness of purpose to reduce the likelihood of American casualties. Not some clumsy, over-cautious, tap dance of a war that goes on for ten years and cost more American lives than any of us are able to justify, not to mention the exorbitant amounts of taxpayer money that is spent to satisfy these political egos!
     We have an obligation to lead by example, not force. We have an obligation to defend other countries on OUR terms, but only when asked to do so by the country or people in question.
     The day that our leaders decided to assassinate Bin Laden and Anwar al-Awlaki, we left ourselves wide open to accusations from the east, and gave their governments free reign to manipulate the American press agencies in ways that will surely divide the US even more than what our current administration has done. A prime example of this is the recent death of the nuclear scientist in Iran. The Iranians are accusing the CIA of killing this man. How can we deny what they are saying? We are now known to the world as assassins because that is what we have recently portrayed.
     I am not saying that Bin Laden nor al-Awlaki didn't get what they had coming to them. They most certainly did! However, a military tribunal was in order, followed by a public execution. It is decisions like those made that cause national security problems and keep our troops in harms way.
     I personally blame political correctness as being the chief problem undermining our foreign policy today. It is political correctness that has weakened this country's ability to fight a war with intentions to actually win! Until Americans can stomach the brutality of fighting a war with intentions to win, and understand that you can only win a war declared on a people, not an idolatry, then and only then should we be willing to place our troops on the ground anywhere but in the United States!
    There is only one candidate that shares my perspective. His name is Ron Paul! God Bless America!!
    

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Glad To Be Back On The Road!

Good morning friends and neighbors, I hope all is well with you. We are now nearly to the end of the second week of 2012. How are your resolutions going so far? Most of mine for 2011 are long term, so I still have time to mess them up.
One of my resolutions was to work smarter and not harder, which meant getting off of my dedicated run. 3.5 months of making a 45 mile run 3 times a day was getting old. So I'm back to running the southern states, hauling just one or two loads a day over a much longer distance. It's less wear and tear on my body, but more on my truck. The truck can be replaced!
This week the freight is still moving a little slow, but I still managed to get a few good loads, although somewhat local. So far this week I've had two loads from Zwolle, La to Natchitoches, La. From there I picked up a load in Woodworth, La to Elberta, Al. Then I got a load in Fulton, Al to Lena, La. Yesterday I picked up one in Chopin, La to Newton, Ms and reloaded right in the same spot going straight back to Chopin.
Well, that's what's happening in my world today. As i stated in the blog title I'll be giving occasional stock suggestions to my trading friends, so here is my first suggestion. This morning I'm long on CHK. Do your own research before buying.
In the Forex I'm short AUD/CAD on the highs.

Have a great day folks!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Used Peanut Oil As Deck Watersealer


Okay, the holidays are over and if you deep fried turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, or both then you may have a lot of peanut oil that you need to dispose of. The reason that I say peanut oil is because that is what most people use for deep frying turkeys in outdoor fryers, and that is what I happen to use as well. If you use canola or vegetable oil you may have different results. I'm not actually sure what my results will be yet:)
I fried a couple of turkeys around the holidays this past season, and I had about 3.5 gallons of used peanut oil that I just didn't want to throw away, but after frying a turkey the oil is pretty much used up. Call me a cheapskate, but I just have a problem throwing something away that I've paid money for, so I strained it and I have had it sitting in a bucket ever since Christmas day trying to figure out a way that I could put it to use.
Well, today I decided that I was going to put that used peanut oil to use. This may sound crazy, and I may regret doing this, but I used it to waterseal my deck. It is a project that I have been needing to get done for sometime now, and today it was accomplished... I think:)
Typical watersealer is 100% mineral oil. This is why a deck that has waterseal on it will cause liquids such as water to bead-up on the surface. My concern is that peanut oil is a more organic oil than mineral oil, which means that it may have a tendancy to breakdown more rapidly leaving the deck unprotected from the elements. It is commonly reccomended to waterseal your deck at least every other year with typical watersealing products, but using the used peanut oil every year after the holidays may be just right considering the organic nature of the peanut oil.
I used a paint roller to apply the oil to my deck because the oil was too thick to be applied with a garden sprayer. After rolling the oil on the deck it took the remainder of the day absorb into the wood. Once absorbed, I poured water onto the wood to test the beading affect, and the results were good. The water beaded-up nicely.
One word of caution though, your deck will have the faint smell of a frying turkey, but I expect that will only last for a few days (I hope). Also, your deck will be darker than you may expect because of the darker color of the used peanut oil compared to the clear color of most watersealing products.
Understand this, I am posting this on the same day that I completed this project, and the long term results of this project are not in yet. Therefore if you attempt this before I post the long term results and your project turns into a disaster, don't come crying to me. If this is something that you consider doing, wait a few days, weeks, or months then send me an email asking me for my results before you move forward with this. Let me be your guinea pig.
Keep in mind that if my results are bad, I will post them here.

God bless!

This Blog Is Changing

Hello friends! It has been awhile since I've posted anything here, and for that I do apologize.
I will be posting here once again, but instead of the usual trucking content I will be posting on more of a variety of subjects. As the description says, 'anything goes'. Politics, religion, how to, stock trades, trips, recipes, tips, opinions, suggestions, projects, heck I'll even Baptize your babies;-)And I will try my best to keep it interesting if not provacative!
So please check back often or just hit the subscribe or rss buttons. LET ME ENTERTAIN, ENRICH AND ENLIGHTEN YOU!

God bless!

Torah Portion Vayetze with Prophets and Gospels Tree of Life Version

VAYETZE TORAH  : GENESIS 28:10-32:2 PROPHETS  : HOSEA 12:12-14:10 GOSPEL  : JOHN 1:41-51 Get your very own printed copy of The Scriptures...