I couldn’t stop laughing!

NOTE: This is NOT SAFE FOR WORK!!!

http://www.hogbiker.com/2010/07/02/a-shitty-thing-happened-wme-godaddy/561

There’s isn’t a way to describe how I felt about this. If any of my people did this, they would be looking for another career opportunity!

I don’t know if you have been receiving this gem or not, but I certainly have & frankly I’m tired of the nonsense it speaks to:

One Light Bulb at a Time

A physics teacher in high school, once told the students that while one grasshopper on the railroad tracks wouldn’t slow a train very much, a billion of them would. With that thought in mind, read the following, obviously written by a good American.

Good idea…One light bulb at a time…

Check this out. I can verify this because I was in Lowes the other day for some reason and just for the heck of it I was looking at the hose attachments. They were all made in China . The next day I was in Ace Hardware and just for the heck of it I checked the hose attachments there. They were made in USA. Start looking.

In our current economic situation, every little thing we buy or do affects someone else – even their job. So, after reading this email, I think this lady is on the right track. Let’s get behind her!

My grandson likes Hershey’s candy. I noticed, though, that it is marked made in Mexico now. I do not buy it any more.

My favorite toothpaste Colgate is made in Mexico. Now I have switched to Crest. You have to read the labels on everything.

This past weekend I was at Kroger. I needed 60 W light bulbs and Bounce dryer sheets. I was in the light bulb aisle, and right next to the GE brand I normally buy was an off-brand labeled, “Everyday Value.” I picked up both types of bulbs and compared the stats – they were the same except for the price. The GE bulbs were more money than the Everyday Value brand but the thing that surprised me the most was the fact that GE was made in MEXICO and the Everyday Value brand was made in – get ready for this – the USA in a company in Cleveland, Ohio.

So throw out the myth that you cannot find products you use every day that are made right here.

So on to another aisle – Bounce Dryer Sheets. Yep, you guessed it, bounce cost more money and is made in Canada. The Everyday Value brand was less money and MADE IN THE USA! I did laundry yesterday and the dryer sheets performed just like the Bounce Free I have been using for years and at almost half the price!

My challenge to you is to start reading the labels when you shop for everyday things and see what you can find that is made in the USA – the job you save may be your own or your neighbors!

If you accept the challenge, pass this on to others in your address book so we can all start buying American, one light bulb at a time! Stop buying from overseas companies!

We should have awakened a decade ago.

Let’s get with the program help our fellow Americans keep their jobs and create more jobs here in the U.S.A.

Firstly….

Many of the products listed in the note are made it the USA! Hershey’s candy are named after Hershey, PA which is still making the chocolate now (I looked at one at the store & it shows made in the USA).

I also went & looked at GE & Sylvania (just to mark differences) light bulbs. Both brands listed three locations for manufacturing on the boxes: US, Canada & Mexico! Since we don’t have Kroger I can’t verify the “Everyday Value” statements.

Also here is the Colgate roster:

From what the specific boxed items are it is probably easier (though not always cheaper) to manufacture these items outside the US we have very stringent laws on it use/distribution (http://fluoridealert.org/mandatory.html).

So much of this sings of the infamous urban legends that float & bloat the internet (e.g. why were they at Lowes for “some reason”? The only time I would be at a Lowes is to BUY HARDWARE). I also like how the Kroger “Everyday Value” is the best thing to buy (maybe they’re trying to recover from the urban legend where Kroger bans gay music).

I appreciate the “warm & fuzzy” that this creates, but it masks AGAIN the real problem & it’s culprits.

Now this would have been great if it started in the 40s, but to do this now would create more problems than it solves. In todays global economy (sorry sports fans, but we’ve been a global economy since WWII) we are simply unable to produce our own goods…so much so that we rely on those other countries for our most basic goods! To build new or restart manufacturing plants for even the simplest items (please remember to include the governmental, eco bullshit requirements/studies/hearings to just get the ability to see if manufacturing someplace in America is doable) is pretty much cost prohibitive in the United States.

The United States is no longer a manufacturing economy, it is a services economy. Fifteen years ago, the assets of the six largest banks in this country totaled 17 percent of GDP … The assets of the six largest banks in the United States today total 63 percent of GDP!!! GDP by the way is our Gross Domestic Product – the goods & services we produce as a nation!

Plus, what if all the people in Mexico, Canada, China, France, England, Germany, Spain, Russia, India, etc. decided to no longer buy American products? As little as we have, it would cripple our economy…again.

The simple answer is the problem is the “too large to fail corporations.” The American people need to steer all this angst at them. Contrary to popular belief they have not gone away, but gotten larger: http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/snapshot_20090909/ and none of the regulations we’ve adopted have slowed them down (it’s actually sped them up in some instances).

If you receive this e-mail PLEASE DELETE RATHER THAN FORWARD!!!!

As Socrates so well said it: “It is better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”

OK…I’m jumping off my soapbox now.

So last Saturday was the day before mother’s day, & we wanted to do something on it for the show. Amazingly, my mother was happy to call in from Orlando & be part of the show.

Everyone that heard it loved my mom!

She was so natural, & now everyone will know where I got it from.

Love you Mom….

I wanted to wish all the mothers out there a very happy mother’s day.

The prominent relationship that is always with us is the one we share with our mother. They are our guiding force and are normally responsible for making us who we are. Mothers also shape our lives and personalities and while there is a major holiday celebrating mothers, we all have our own individual way of saying thank you these amazing people in our lives.

As a single parent & former “house husband” I know I appreciate everything that a mother goes through. So today we celebrate and honor all mothers and express gratitude for the hardships they bear in bringing up a child.

So today, I again thank my Mom, who I love very much and always will. Without her guidance & nurturing, I have no earthly idea what kind of person I’d be or where I would have ended up. She has shown me that strength, perseverance, & a good heart will carry you through life with dignity. That generosity & giving of yourself, even when you really don’t have it to give, will be returned to you in spades.

There’s a line I just love from the movie ‘The Crow‘; “Mother is the name for God on the lips and hearts of all children” & for many of us…it’s true!

So, Happy Mother’s Day & remember to honor you mother…who without her you’d be someone else (pun intended)!

So last week, Uncle Steve Stripling of the Big Alaska Show had a problem with his desktop. As he’s doing a backup to transfer to his new PC, the system dies!

In a panic he calls us at the office & brings it in.

In the NINE YEARS he’s owned it, he’s pretty much done nothing to it except run it 24/7. Needless to say, the dust in the system was extraordinary & it took us roughly 45 minutes with a air hose at 140 PSI to get it cleaned out enough to remove the drive to see if we could get the data off.

Well the drive itself was fine, all things considered (the power supply was so caked with dust that there was no airflow & it died) & we were able to recover all of Steve’s data.

So as a thank you, he did this commercial for us…which we all couldn’t stop laughing over.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

The server that is….

Last night I began migrating my domains/data to a new server for increased performance and reliability.

So everyone knows…my main server (www.karlspace.com) handles pretty much all of my websites, as well as friends. So the following sites may be affected, & if so I apologize for any inconveniences:

www.karlspace.com (of course)

• www.leray.us
• www.alaskaphotograph.com
• www.hogbiker.com
• www.jettalady.com
• www.karlleray.com
• www.childcare4u.us
• www.spunkmonkey.net

If all goes according to plan, this is the only thing anyone should notice.

I would be wrong to take credit for this, so I will simply thank my buddy Keith for sending this to me. Dude…you ROCK!

Things that I found helpful by living this long.

The purpose of fighting is to win…

The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either… The final weapon is the brain. All else is supplemental.

1. Don’t pick a fight with an old man.  If he is too old to fight, he’ll just kill you.
2. If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck.
3. I carry a gun because a cop is too heavy.
4. When seconds count, the cops are just minutes away.
5. A reporter did a human-interest piece on the Texas Rangers.  The reporter recognized the Colt Model 1911 the Ranger was carrying and asked him ‘Why do you carry a 45?’  The Ranger responded, ‘Because they don’t make a 46.’
6. The old sheriff was attending an awards dinner when a lady commented on his wearing his sidearm.  ‘Sheriff, I see you have your pistol. Are you expecting trouble?’ ‘No Ma’am.  If I were expecting trouble, I would have brought my shotgun.’
7. Beware the man who only carries one gun.  HE PROBABLY KNOWS HOW TO USE IT!!!

But wait, there’s more!

I was once asked by a lady visiting if I had a gun in the house.  I said I did.  She said ‘Well I certainly hope it isn’t loaded!’  To which I said, of course it is loaded, it can’t work without bullets!’ She then asked, ‘Are you that afraid of someone evil coming into your house?’ My reply was, “No not at all.  I am not afraid of the house catching fire either, but I have fire extinguishers around, and they are all loaded too”.

In case you missed the event. If you’d like to learn more about Ignite Anchorage, visit http://igniteanchorage.com/.