ShowMeBlog

David Beckham H&M Underwear Commercial

  I am not a sports fan.  I am not a fan of David Beckham.  I also do not want to see anyone with a tattoo.  Well a small one someplace is OK but none on the face.  I also do not want to see someone with them showing all over their arms etc.  That is just me.  I know a lot of you will not agree with me.  It is your body deface it if you want.  I just do not want to look at it. 

 

  It looks like CNN’s Roland Martin is in trouble with gay and gay groups.  He was watching the Super Bowl and tweeting about everything and commented on the Beckham video and how gay guys were commenting about the “steamy” Super Bowl commercial. 

  If corporations would not use people with a lot of tattoos that would help put an end to me and others having to see shit like this on TV.
  Just let the word go out that if you got a lot of tattoos or even one on your face you will not be working in TV, movies or even on the radio. 
  I know it is not going to happen.  I have lived to long.

 

The American Dream : American Airlines Bankruptcy

  The Star-Telegram has an interesting story on the American Airlines Bankruptcy. 

 

“When AMR Corp. announced its plan Wednesday to terminate all four of its employee pension plans, it joined a long line of U.S. employers that have abandoned what was long seen as a birthright of American workers.

In 1980, 84 percent of Americans working for large or midsize private employers were eligible for a traditional pension, known as a defined benefit plan because it promises to pay a specific benefit based on earnings and years of service. By 2010, that was down to 30 percent, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, a not-for-profit research organization in Washington, D.C…”

 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/01/3705574/amr-wants-to-terminate-all-four.html#storylink=cpy

 

  Back when I was young…  A long long time ago… I worked as a welder for a corporation (Hess Trucks).  We made trucks that carried beer, soft drinks and stuff like that.  It was sometime in the 60s I think.  It was a union job of course.  We were UAW members.  The pay was good.  I enjoyed the work.  I did take off my hard hat one time when I was welding under a truck and the workers on top were pounding with sledgehammers and a c-clamp came loose and came down and hit me in the head.  Yes, that is how I became a Democrat.  Hit in the head by a hammer.
  I was in my early 20s then.  The company hired in about five guys and they looked old to me. Very old men.  They all came to work at the same time and all had worked at another company before.  The company they had worked at went out of business.  All of these old guys had been a year or two from retirement age and they all had worked for the company most if not all of their lives.  They lost their company pensions.  They ended up with zero for all those years of work.  They would, of course, get Social Security.

  I remember thinking at the time that it was not right that a person could work for a company and then have them just cancel the pension and say get lost. 
  It looks like after all these years this sort of thing is still happening.
  Thank God for Social Security.
  But we need government regulation in this area and in a lot of areas.  That is one of the reasons for government.

Kiva loans

  I just made two Kiva loans this month.  One was to the Nueva Esperanza Group (Paraguay) and the other was a woman in the Ukraine. 
  I recommend Kiva – www.kiva.org 

 

“Kiva Microfunds (commonly known by its domain name, Kiva.org) is an organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to microfinance institutions in developing countries around the world and in the United States, which in turn lend the money to small businesses and students.^[2] It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization^[3] headquartered in San Francisco, supported by loans and donations from its users and through partnerships with businesses and other institutions.^[4] Kiva itself does not charge any interest; the loans made by Kiva members are passed interest-free to the independent field partner servicing each loan. These interest rates are disclosed and are discussed in the relevant section on the Kiva website and in this article below…”

Living high on the hog

  I got my SSA-1099 and I got last year from Social Security $13,866.00 for the year.  I am part of the 99% for sure.
  It is hard for someone like me to believe that Republicans want to cut Social Security so that people that make over a million a year can pay less tax.  But the Republicans do.
 
  The thousand dollars a month I get pays the rent on this apartment and pays for food and a few other things.  OK OK I have Internet service and cable TV.  I am not wealthy.  I do not drink or smoke. I think I should be allowed to have cable.

  The Koch Brothers and the Republicans for some reason think it would be better for me and the United States if I was homeless.  They seem to think that some church would feed me.  I am not sure where I would sleep.  But I guess they would say I could get access to the Internet at a library.
  I just do not understand how that would be better for the United States.  How is it going to better for the United States to have your mother and father and your grandfather and grandmother living and dying on the streets of the cities of United States?

  Now as I have said many times here …. Social Security is not welfare. 
But Republicans call it welfare.  It is called often “middle-class welfare” by Republicans. 

  
  Also another thing…. I never collected unemployment in my life but it needs to be said… Again here … Unemployment payments are not welfare.   It is insurance.  When you work your employer pays a small amount of money into an unemployment fund for you.  It is insurance.
  Just as I paid into Social Security all my life I also worked and paid into unemployment insurance.  I never collected from that fund.  
  Republicans act like they know all about business and money matters but they seem pretty dumb on these issues.

  The way the Republicans think is that if you have a house or a car and you have insurance on them.  You pay each month the insurance payment.  Then if your house burns down or you have a car accident according to the way they think the money you would get from the insurance company is welfare.

  I have a statement from Social Security that shows how much I paid into Social Security each year for all the years that I worked.  
  Do not be stupid … Do not let the Republicans lie to you.

Google AdSense update

  Google AdSense did their update of accounts on the 7th of the month. 

  This last month I was having one hell of a month.  I was surprised and shocked.  I watched the earnings each day and for December I had estimated earnings of $157.57 for the month. With what was due for the past few months I was expecting to get about $240.00 this month.

  Then today when they updated my page I saw this message:

 

“A payment will not be issued this month. Your unpaid earnings prior to January 1, 2012 was calculated to be $96.27. Payments are issued within 30 days after the end of the month in which your unpaid earnings reach $100.00.”

 

  So I was thinking that they just failed to notice that $157.57 and that they would catch it at some point today and the earnings would correct.

  It did not happen.  So I went to their help files and did some digging and found the following:

“Estimated earnings, which are used in your reports, typically reflect close estimates of your recent account activity. These estimates are intended to give you a rough idea of your recent account activity as soon as possible, but do not necessarily reflect the amount you will be paid.

Finalized earnings, shown on your Payments pages, are accurate earnings amounts that include all revenue you will be paid for valid clicks. Once our records are processed and verified at the end of each month, finalized earnings are posted to your Payments page.

If you’re seeing a significant difference between your reporting estimates and your finalized earnings, it’s possible that your account has been receiving a high percentage of invalid clicks and/or impressions. If you believe this is the case, please visit our Help Center topic regarding invalid clicks for more information.”

 

So what they are saying is that the “estimated” amount of $157.57 was not correct due to invalid clicks and that the correct amount was $13.49 for the month.  That amount would be about what I have been getting for the last few months. 
So I suspect that there have been “invalid clicks.”
  I think I just did a blog post on ShowMeBlog or Howard’s Notebook about the people that were being kicked off of Google AdSense.  I seem to remember posting about it.  There are hundreds if not thousands of them.  Many of them post YouTube videos about it.
  So if I am getting invalid clicks I am surprised the I have not received a warning or that I have not been kicked out of the Google AdSense program.  Maybe I can expect an email one of these days.

  So Google AdSense is not working for me.  I was thinking that at last it was working for me.  I got about six blogs and I put advs on them and I did stuff like putting a big banner across the top and a small one at the very top right column.  I attempted to find tune everything and I was thinking at last I have found the correct way to make a few dollars but I was wrong.  All the work I did and I made zero improvement.

Are we being told the truth by CNN?

  I reported on this blog about Parija Kavilanz a CNN writer.  The writer seems to be doing stories on the CNN web site about how poor doctors are and how hard doctors have it and I do not believe it.
  The writer did a story on CNN “I’m a Medicare doctor, Here’s what I make.”  Then there was a story by the same writer “Doctor-starved: American’s heartland in crisis.”

  Now the new story from the CNN writer is:  “Doctors going broke.” 

  I think someone needs to take a look at this writer.  Is the writer telling the truth?  Is the writer getting paid by someone other than CNN to write certain stories?

Try Kiva for free

We've got good news for you. You might not know it, but you've brought at least one new lender to Kiva this year- and that has helped us reach even more borrowers around the world. Thank you!
Now your friends and family can try Kiva for free!

Kiva and Ladies' Home Journal have partnered to make a small number of free trials available for new lenders. Since you’re so good at sharing Kiva, we're giving you a chance to tell your friends first.

All you need to do is share the link below with your friends, family, colleagues, classmates, or anyone else you can think of. Just post it on Facebook or Twitter, send it in an email, paint it on your house... you get the picture. If they're quick, they'll be able to make a loan for free. The link is:

http://kiva.org/ladieshomejournal

The free trials will get snatched up quickly, so don’t wait. Nothing says “Happy New Year” like a few new Kiva lenders!

Thanks for a great 2011, and here’s to an even bigger and better 2012 for all of our borrowers.

© 2005 - 2011 Kiva. All rights reserved. Kiva is a U.S. 501(c)3 nonprofit organization.

This e-mail was sent by Kiva Microfunds, located at 875 Howard Street, Suite 340, San Francisco, CA 94103 (USA).

Be a good friend to your prostate

  When you are an old man with a bladder and a prostate you can look forward to waking up every few hours to take a leak.  I am not sure if there is anything a young man can do to take care of their prostate. 
  I guess we need to come up with some benefit to waking up every few hours during the night. What I have to watch out for is eating and drinking something when I wake up.

  So I wake up and I check my email.  I get fewer emails at night. 
   I check CNN and check some blogs. 
  
   I live near a CVS and a Walgreens I wish they were open 24 hours. 
   At night there is not much open.  There a couple of convenience stores open 24 hours.  Both of them are about six blocks from here.  I never go to them. 

   Most of my life I worked the midnight shift.  On my days off I would stay up and keep the same hours and clean house.  For about a year I went to a casino and would gamble every night.  That was fun to have an entire casino to myself.  No waiting for a machine.  No lines.  That entire year I kept track of how much I won and how much I lost.   I had a lot of winning nights but at the end of the year when I did that math, of course, the house won and I lost.

   What is something you can do at night that you can not do during the day?
   I guess I could take up astronomy.  If I lived around a wild life area I could take up photography of nocturnal creatures. 

   Keep in mind that I do not own a car.  So I am limited in what I can do and were I can go.
 
   I should study and upgrade my ham license.  I should get a general class license.  Then I could get on the shortwave ham bands and talk around the world.  
   There are some very good and cheap shortwave receivers now days.  Radio Shack even sells a couple.  I could buy one of those and listen to some shortwave radio stations late at night.  That reminds me about cable TV.  I pay a lot of money for cable TV channels.  I am happy with all the channels but why in the world do so many of the channels run infomercials all night long?  A lot of people are up all night.  There are a lot of people that work the third shift (midnight or graveyard shift) and it sort of seems like a slap in the face to them.  (Sometimes when you work the midnight shift you need a slap in the face to stay awake.)

   If you are a young man take care of your prostate and then you can sleep all night like a normal human.  Not sure how you take care of a prostate however.

Grandson walked into Air Jordan frenzy

  My grandson is 22 years old.  He has never been in trouble with the police.  He is working.  He works at a mall. 
  My grandson is biracial (half black). 
  When he got home from work he told me what happened today about 0530 hours.  He was walking towards the mall to go to work and a police officer took his arm and pulled him hard back away from the mall.  The officer demanded to know where he was going.  My grandson told him he was going to work.  The officer demanded to see his employee ID card and Russell did not have it with him.  The officer then asked him how he was going to get into the mall and he told the officer and the officer then let him go into the mall and go to work.
  From listening to the RadioReference archives of Fort Worth police calls for that time it appears that there was a very large group of blacks that were inside the mall running around.
  From reading CNN it appears it was happening all over the United States.
  A new version of the Michael Jordan athletic shoes sent fans to malls across the United States to get the shoes!
 
  
  I am not saying the police did anything wrong.  I am not even saying it was racial profiling. They were dealing with a group of blacks.  So it makes sense they would be checking blacks.
  But I love my grandson and I hate to see something like that happen to him.
  I am also glad that nothing bad happened. 
 
  I am not sure if the feelings that I am having are normal.  Some other grandfather might be mad or upset or in a rage.
  But I have been a police officer.  I have was a security officer from 1971 to 2000 in Kansas City.  During that time I worked part-time security at a shopping mall.
  After 2000 I worked security in Orlando (FL), Dallas (TX) and Miami (FL).  For one year, in Miami, I worked full time doing mall security.   So I can see both sides of events like this.

  My grandson was not upset or mad about anything.  He did not come home angry.  He just wanted to tell me about it. 

  I am thinking how stupid of people to go nuts about shoes.  Then I think hell I have seen women going nuts over sales and wedding dresses.  People get crazy over thing they want.

  When things like this happen both sides need to calm down and use good sense.  Things can get out of hand.

“(CNN) -- Stephen Glass, the whiz-kid magazine writer exposed 13 years ago as a serial fabricator, is telling what may be his most compelling story yet -- his own. He swears he's not making it up, and he's asking California's highest court to believe him and give him a chance.

Glass, who graduated in 2000 from Georgetown's law school, works as a paralegal for a firm in Beverly Hills, California. But he really wants to be a lawyer, and he insists he's remorseful, reformed and committed to telling the truth. Others aren't so sure, which is why a bar application that usually would be a no-brainer is taking five years and counting.

There is no question that Glass is brilliant, and he easily passed the bar exams in New York and California. But his budding legal career has become snagged on the jagged rocks of good character and moral fitness…”

 

  Why are they keeping this guy from becoming a lawyer?  He will make a perfect lawyer. 

Lawyers have to learn to not have good character and moral fitness in law school and this guy has already proven he is not of good character.  Hell he is already ready and hell he can move right on and run for Congress.  He is ready now.
 

Read about Stephen Glass (ex-reporter) on Wikipedia

“Stephen Glass, J.D. (born 1972) is an American former journalist, who came to prominence when it was uncovered that he had fabricated several magazine articles in 1998. Over a three-year period as a young rising star at The New Republic (TNR), from 1995 to 1998, Glass fabricated quotations, sources, and even entire events in articles he wrote for that magazine and others. Most of Glass' articles were of the entertaining and humorous type, some of them based entirely on fictional events. His career at TNR was dramatized in the film Shattered Glass, where Glass was portrayed by Hayden Christensen. Glass fictionalized his own story in The Fabulist, a 2003 novel whose protagonist is named "Stephen Aaron Glass".^[1] Glass holds a J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center, and since 2004, he has worked as a paralegal at the Beverly Hills law firm of Carpenter, Zuckerman & Rowley.^[2][3]…”

  ^{I wonder what sort of law he wants to do.}