The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly ()

DISCLAIMER: this blog is mine & mine alone. Thou shalt not blame family nor friends nor employer for what you may read here.

The Good: steak on the grill, Stella Artois beer, and late summer Florida weather. What a great way to spend the afternoon!

The Bad: I read an article in the St. Pete Times predicting that by early '09, our nation will be saddled with a $10 trillion debt. Yes, a 10,000 billion dollar debt. We have the $500 billion loan bailout of the financial SNAFU (a conservative estimate), $600 billion for the Pentagon's budget, $650 billion appropriation for the Iraq war, a $407 billion budget deficit when the budget year ends this month.

The Ugly: what the are people thinking when they go out in public? During my errands about town today I saw some of the most heinous attire ever: really fat dudes in stained wife-beaters, bra-less women in garish sun dresses, and the various array of t-shirt w/rebel flags, and the like. I'm not even gonna get into the mullets I spotted. Bloody hell, what happened to common sense?!

I was gonna go off on a political rant, but have lost my most valuable references. Had some great eye-opening factoids about McCain & Palin, but alas, won't go there w/out the sources to cite. I was thinking about the whole concept of blogging, and that is one of my great weaknesses (among many) - not citing sources. A good friend of mine posts a blog entry daily. He addresses interesting topics, he writes well, and he cites he sources or resources when appropriate. He includes links to websites, Wikis, articles of supporting facts, etc. whenever he can. IMO that give his posts more credibility, and makes them something more than a random spate of opinion or stream of conscience, which is where most of my blog posts lie. So I guess that should be a goal of mine - to better document my facts & cite resources. I guess I'll try to improve in that area going forward.

Anyway, that's it for now. I'm tired. And life's been good enough to me lately that I don't have so much pent-up vitriol to dispose of. I'm not quite buzzed enough to go off on some wild tangent, and as it's a beautiful night here in the Tampa Bay area, I think it's best spent out on the porch w/the dogs enjoying the breeze. Take care, think critically, think for yourselves, and remember "if you can't be a good example, you'll have to serve as a horrible warning".