Simple America

Well today I did the deed. Completed my civic duty as all citizens should do. I went to the early voting precint in Sugar Land and cast my ballot.

Early voting here was easy peasie. Took five minutes and it would not have taken that long if my voter registration card’s barcode had not been scratched. So they had to look me up manually. Still much quicker than the days of sorting through the books loaded with voter’s information printed on green bar paper.

The electronic ballot boxes took a second for to me to get used to. I kept wanting to use my fingers as if the device worked as a touch screen. Instead spinning a dial moved the cursor from one selection to the next. Then it was spin, click, spin, click, repeat until all races have received a vote. They had a pair of review pages at the end so you could check your choices. Once satisfied with the ballot’s accuracy, you accepted your choices and the ballot was cast.

I voted for John McCain despite the fact that I have never liked his maverick attitude toward conservative issues. He is far more conservative than the Marxist Obama shall ever be. What is it in the Soviet Union that the Democrats like? Did that system not fail? Chinese communism also crumbled until they opened up to capitalism. Why kick ourselves in the nuts? Go figure.

And after the vote it will probably be a time to cry. None of the candidates are worthy of the presidency. The standards have fallen pretty low. Both have favored socialistic policies and one I fear even steps over the Marxist line. Why do we want to follow a system that fails whereever it has been applied?

Capitalism works when you prosecute the crooks and throw them in jail. All of these Wall Street swindlers should be behind bars instead of cashing government checks and executing golden parachutes. The Secretary of the Treasury sat on the financial crisis for a year before demanding action. His timing coincided with Congress’ need to leave so they could campaign to keep their political seats. How many people can sit on that kind of information and be rewarded with the trust to dole out billions of dollars? The Secretary of Treasury should be in the unemployment line and maybe even a jail cell. He certainly is not independent of Wall Street.

It is because of things like this that Americans need to vote. Every American needs to go out and vote for the best candidate at all levels. We are going to lose at the Presidential level no matter who wins, but still you need to send the least worst candidate.

What am I looking at? One thing I am not going to do is get on the experience band wagon. Some folks just rattle off that experience is so very important. To me experience just shows folks how to take short cuts and possibly cheat. I find motivation to be a much more important measure.

What makes the candidate do the things he will do? And as I wrote earlier I fear one candidate is heavily influenced by Marxism and that motivation scares me to no end. Where is the motivation for a small business owner to work hard if he shall be forced to share his hard earned wealth with someone that stays home all day flipping channels on the boob tube?

I want to believe that any candidate I vote for loves my country and therefore does his best to keep it safe for all. This means my military shall be prepared in times of peace and war. My local police and sheriff are allowed to maintain the peace, while respecting the citizentry. How can a candidate love American when he surrounds himself with people that demean America and in some cases have violently attacked America? How can a candidate decide to remove military programs without discussing what is needed to protect America in a world threatened by terrorists? Because of one candidate’s association if he was in the military he would not be able elgible for even secret level clearance. But yet we could vote him the chance to control the nuclear football.
But really my purpose here is not to tell anyone how to vote. But ask all Americans to please vote. Think about it. Do not make an emotional vote you might regret later. Make the vote that keeps American and your community strong and prepared for whatever the future offers us. No matter how down you might feel about the political system. The only way to improve our politics is with intelligent voting. Then let the politicians know that you are watching them. From the dog catcher to the president. Don’t let them forget we are the boss.

This if supposed to be government for the people.

Not government to the people.

Well I went off and took the plunge. I listened to Pink Cotton and got a domain for selling the bargain software I had listed on my eBay store. How could I not listen? This is Pink Cotton, Jack! That means cute and smart all in one tiny person.

But economically it made more sense too. With the eBay’s ever charging fee structure and now they want to decrease and even eliminate shipping charges I could not remain there. That model might work for big established sellers, but I think it makes it difficult for the new stores. Now I am using Yahoo Merchant Starter and the fee structure is cheaper. I don’t have to pay a listing fee like on eBay. The monthly charge is less and so is the fee for each sale I complete.

My only problem it appears is the marketing side. So I am going to use this blog to market Jerry Trader a bit. And I am trying a few other tools out there too. I may do some PPP again to create marketing funds too. Maybe I will try the other side of PPP and advertise too.

Most of my products are bargain softwares. Last weekend I added a lot of kiddie software. This included children’s computer games and education software products. There are some pretty cool things there. I may get this one biology package for my son to help him with 9th grade biology.

I hope in the next couple of weeks to add movies to my catalog. After that I want to list the comics I have to sell as well. Actually, considering to sell new comics if I can find the right distributor.

Things I won’t be selling are action figures, costumes, or roleplaying items. I do not want to compete with 12 To Midnight’s Midnight Cellar. I am involved in that store too and I want it to be successful as well. Marketing is the low point for it as well.

The best news now is that I figured out how to sell internationally. So there are few limitations. The new store can reach most of the world including my good friends in Southeast Asia, Europe, and down under. The shipping might kill ya, but the game will be a bargain.  So what you waitin’ for?

Just came home from the Houston Symphony and my toes are still a tappin’. What a great performance by the Pops and their headliner, Wayne Brady. They opened up the first half of the show with just the orchestra performing. They played a lot of tunes made famous by Dean Martin, Bobby Darrin, and Frank Sinatra. I really enjoyed their Rendition of Mack the Knife. It was just cool baby.

Then Wayne Brady joined the orchestra after the intermission. He sang the tunes of Sammy Davis Jr. and Sam Cooke. He also founds way to use his improvisational skills through out the night. Mister Brady is one funny dude. But he is an excellent singer too. When he sang Mr. Bojangles I could have cried when the dog died. He just captivated me and the rest of the audience too.

I never realized how much I loved Sam Cooke tunes and I have to thank Wayne Brady for that. So many beautiful songs. By the time they were playing Twisting the Night Away. I was just getting warmed up. This had followed Another Saturday Night, Chain Gang, Cupid, and a couple of other goodies. But that was the end of the show. Aw man. Did not have an encore either, but Mr. Brady came at and thanked the crowd once more. Really is a nice guy and a great entertainer. Check him out if you ever get the chance. Houstonians can catch him tomorrow and Sunday.

Just a quick update about life stuff. Everything is back to normal for my family. My son’s school had him come in for football practice Tuesday and Wednesday after my last post. The school opened for classes on that Thursday, though my son complained it was a bit hot as the a/c was coming online. I was glad to see the lazy bum back in class.

Those first few days of driving into Houston were a challenge. On the first day the HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane was closed and I had the boy late for practice. I drove to the gym nearby and it was slow driving as about every other street signal did not work. In the area around Rice University there are a lot of old homes and therefore huge trees. So many trees and limbs had been blown down that in places the two lane road was narrowed to one because of the rubbish. Thank goodness someone came along to pile it up neatly though.

Today it is much easier to get around. I did not encounter any malfuntioning sigmals. There are very few homes without power anymore. The biggest reminder of the storm now is the plywood covering the windows that were smashed on the area’s skyscrapers. Looks like eyepatches in some respect. My hats off to all that worked so hard to get the city back together.

Sorry I have been so slow to post. Been really busy with different projects. I closed my eBay store and opened up a new store on the web. Will tell more with my next post. Still have a lot going with 12 to Midnight and I am working hard for my CPA firm too. Will try and make some blog visits soon. Hugs to you all.